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If you have any good pictures or videos that deserve posting, then do let me know. You can comment below, email simon@sjhoward.co.uk, send mobile text, videos, or pictures to 60300 (start your message with the word ‘simon’), or call 0845 638 1916 and let me know where to look. To see more videos, click here.

For those of you who were too lazy to stay up for Bush’s State of the Union, here’s what you didn’t miss, as constructed from last year’s edition.
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Introducing Mary Poppins… As you’ve never seen her before!

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And also introducing the brand new sjhoward.co.uk video player – much bigger than the YouTube and Google Video versions I’ve previously embedded, and with a full-screen option built in. Enjoy!

Video courtesy of Eleni and Moviemker.

 Update: Most of the archived videos on the site have now been updated to the new format, and the ‘Videos‘ category page has a new look, as well as a link in the top bar.  How very technologically advanced!

For those who missed Sunday’s show, here’s how it ended:

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Now, Laura, if you’re reading this, and you’re looking to support a penniless student blogger, I’ve got just the thing.

Update 23/01/07 – I’ve now altered this post to run on the new flash player, and so need to directly credit its creator, jamesb1919. The original broadcaster was, of course, Channel 4.

Today, I would like to wish all of my readers a Merry Christmas. I hope it’s happy, peaceful, and brings you everything you could ever ask for. Even little green men…

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You won’t see the this on the Ten O’Clock news. But perhaps – just perhaps – it hints at the real story of what’s going on in Iraq, and the kinds of things that will always happen when ordinary young men are placed in extraordinary positions, with the power of life or death, in foreign countries. Or perhaps it’s fake.

A unique form of ‘American justice’:

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Is it any wonder the Iraqi people want us to leave?

I don’t know if Stephen Ladyman reads this blog – I suspect not – but you do, Dr Ladyman, here’s the Danish solution you’re missing on the path to road safety:

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Anyone sniggering at Dr Ladyman’s name should be ashamed. 😆

France 24 (That’s “France vingt-quatre”, not “France Twenty-Four” as you might imagine). It’s an English-speaking channel “with a French perspective on the news”. It’s being launched here next month. Yes, because there’s a great demand for a French perspective on things. All those times people have said to me, “Eeee, I wish the 10 O’Clock News was a bit more French!”, or “Y’know, wouldn’t it be great if they renamed Sky News as Nouvelles de ciel?”

I just don’t get it. I don’t understand who its target audience is supposed to be, I don’t understand how it’s going to make money, and I don’t understand why anyone would be particularly interested in a French perspective on the news. I do understand why the American news channels get (albeit relatively few) viewers – after all, it’s the news from the perspective of the world’s biggest super-power. I understand Al Jazeera English – after all, the future of the unstable Middle East determines our future, and they have very different things to say. But news from a French perspective? I just don’t get it.

Here’s a trailer, as found via Iain Dale, who frankly seems as confused as the rest of us:

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The Guardian’s free give-away wallcharts were a phenomenal success for the dead-tree Guardian, but didn’t involve Guardian Unlimited to any real extent.

But now, for the first time, the wallcharts have made their online debut…

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And so, six months after it happened to everybody else, the West Wing has come to an end for me. A seven-year era over.

I was fifteen when I started watching the West Wing, and preparing for my GCSEs. The West Wing, always watched on DVD rather than TV, has been a constant source of entertainment through those exams, AS-Levels, A-Levels, and three-and-a-bit years of medical school. That seems a heck of a long time to have been entertained by a single series.

The West Wing was a series with everything: The drama of the assassination attempt and Ellie’s kidnap, the sadness of the deaths of Mrs Landingham and, of course, Leo, the joy of election victories and moral victories, the comedy of – well, too many moments to mention, the romance between Josh and Donna, CJ and Danny, the marital tension between Mr and Mrs Bartlet, not to mention the politics… It just had everything. It may not have been on top form for all of it’s life – the programme struggled somewhat following the departure of Aaron Sorkin – but it was always a good watch. And the final series was, in my opinion, fantastic.

I know there are those who say that the final series was overly dramatic and sentimental, but I liked it. Maybe I’m overly dramatic and sentimental. I said back in January that I wanted the West Wing to die with dignity, and I think it did.

But what am I going to watch for the next seven years? What show can possibly combine the fantastic production values, unparalleled writing, and unmissable drama of The West Wing?

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