So the European Championhips in Football are over. France won through in the end, establishing a new record as being the only team to hold both the European and World cups at the same time. Personally I think that they were lucky... but that's another story. We have been unable to elicit a full report of the Wedding of the Year yet, but hope to do so soon. The problems which this reporter has encountered over the last few days actually accessing h2g2 lead her to believe that TPTB are far too busy to write their report just yet... or else they need to finish the reel of film in their camera! Another article put on hold for this week is the Survey results. I have been unable to contact Greebo T Cat, but am sure that this will be rectified shortly. The race for Prez of h2g2 is hotting up. We feature the statements of four hopefuls this week. There have been several sad deaths this week.
British Bands Oasis and The Pet Shop Boys both pulled out of the Roskilde Festival in Denmark after eight fans were trampled to death and three others injured during a performance by the US band Pearl Jam. The bands would not perform: Out of respect for those who died and their families. They feared a repeat of the tragedy as security had not changed. Victims included a Dutchman, 23, a German, 26, and a 22 year old Dane. Walter Mattheau has died aged 79. The actor was best known for playing grumpy but loveable slobs. He rose to stardom playing loutish sports writer Oscar Madison in 'The Odd Couple' and made more than 45 films. Among the best known were 'The Front Page', 'The Bad News Bears', 'The Sunshine Boys' and 'The Taking of Pelham 123'. He won an Oscar in 1966 for his part in 'The Fortune Cookie'. He died of a heart attack in Los Angeles Another sad death reported was that of Joey Dunlop, whom we featured in an article only a few weeks ago. Demon Drawer has written an obituary on this great motor-cycling competitor, and you may also find tributes at the Obituary Pages which we have now established as a permanent link from the POST. Interesting StoriesFour Spanish Basque activists have climbed the Eiffel Tower in Paris to highlight the plight of Basque prisoners held in French jails. The four nimble demonstrators climbed up two of the Tower's pillars and unravelled a banner calling for the 'Freedom of The Basque Country'. They also threw leaflets asking that the prisoners be returned to Spain's Basque region. Two of the four took part in a similar protest on The Arc de Triomphe in May. A giant squid which washed up on a beach in the Antarctic could give an insight into the aquatic food chain. Biologist Amanda Lynnes found the creature close to the British Antarctic Survey's Signy research station. The 63lb, 7'-long squid, thought to be the largest of its kind, is important in the food chain in the Antarctic. Miss Lynnes cut out the squid's hard beak so that it could be analysed to provide facts about the food chain.
ScienceJapanese car manufacturers Honda have been showing off their human-shaped robot which walks on two legs. The prototype, called the P3 went on a demonstration walk before a crowd of spectators at the company's headquarters in Tokyo. The robot is about 5'7" tall and weighs about 20 stones. It has the ability to judge ground conditions in human environments and can perform simple tasks with two hands. The Scottish firm which cloned Dolly the Sheep has inserted the DNA of a woman into thousands of New Zealand sheep. Critics have condemned the act, done without the unnamed Danish donor's knowledge as 'morally objectionable'. PPL Therapeutics hope to extract a protein from the genetically modified sheep milk to use in disease research.
I would be proud if it was my DNA being used.
said Alan Coleman of PPL, denying any allegations of deceit.
SpaceA plan to send NASA's Galileo spacecraft crashing into Jupiter has been supported by scientists. The move would avoid any chance of contaminating potentially life-harbouring moons of the planet. It was backed by The Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration in the US. Galileo has been orbiting the solar system's largest planet since 1995, but is running low on fuel.
Quotes of the WeekCoffee is the hardest stuff I touch nowadays
Charlie Watts, drummer with the Rolling Stones Exercise is something I don't want to do anymore. Unfortunately, my mirror doesn't lie
Former Wimbledon Champion Boris Becker It is our imperfections that make the human race so interesting.
Lady (Helena) Kennedy, know as the 'red baroness'
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