A fix, potentially

There's some rumblings going on in anonymous Twitterverse.  There's the suggestion being virally passed that Britain's Got Talent's Ronan Parke (known as the good little camp gay kid in our house) has been lined up by Simon Cowell's SYCO company.  There's an entire ream of allegations [here] and seemingly being spread by a user by the account @ukLegion.  In it, it is suggested:

• The whole contest is a sham
  The entries we get to see promoted to the later stages are always pre-screened and the general public simply make up the numbers of oddities the show and other Simon Cowell vehicles like it, are famous for.
• The winner is picked before any auditions
  Britain's Got Talent is a show case for potential performers already on Simon Cowell's books.
• Ronan Parke is already the winner
  Allegedly, the school boy has already had a track recorded for him ready for release after he wins.
• Ronan Parke has been intensively trained, manicured and airbrushed
  His performance was managed (including 'fake tears' on receipt of the judge's comments) and he also has been styled to be camp, and after attracting complaints of 'sexualising' the young lad, the gay-ness has been toned back.

the good little camp gay kid

There's many ways to look at all this: it could be driven by those related with a rival of Ronan's, it could be used as a ploy to attack the whole show by a competing record company or perhaps it is an employee who saw the camping up of Ronan as the final straw?  These are but a few explanations, and I'm sure you'll have your own theory.  I'm going to be deciding on my continued, albeit already abstained from voting, viewing.

However, it has thrown up an interesting situation, once again.  The internet has become a living, breathing rumour spreading machine, especially in the dawn of the social networks.  The freedom we have with information and speech on it is flying in the face of privacy once again.  I'm no big fan of Simon Cowell, and I tend to have sympathies with the view that everything he does is a fix - he's a very smug, clever guy: he has no time to leave anything to chance.  That said, he should be given his chance to prove these allegations wrong.

In the world before the internet twittering, the world would have spread this by leaflet campaigns, attempting to bring the Globo-Corp to account over a perceived injustice.  The Globo-Corp lawyers would be able to obtain a flyer, prove their innocence or pay a lawyer to make the problem go away.  This has been replaced by the current trends to prevent discussion of a subject completely.  I'm uncomfortable with this, too.

Freedom to speak through twitter, facebook or blogger, is something that I should be able to do.  The problem here is the media: they rely too much on people generating stories for them.  It's too expensive to hire good journalists, so the journalists just print rumour, supposition and accusation.  This isn't investigative, it isn't reporting.  It's gossip spreading.  A whistle-blower, exposing some shady business practice is something we all should hear about, but there should be method to prove they known what they're talking about: a judge in these cases should certify that the claim has some basic grounding in reality.  This would allow the whole thing to be played out to the public, safe in the knowledge that this claim has a basis for discussion.  This would have a two-fold effect to businesses, both forcing better business practice and keeping workers happy.

Until then, the internet will be fair game for any gossip to spread unopposed.

Muffin base recipe

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 250ml milk
• 125ml vegetable oil
• 200g sugar
• 400g plain flour sieved
• 4tsp baking powder
• 1tsp salt
• flavour to taste

Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 6 and prepare about 12 muffin cases (normally I use the giant cases) in trays, and grease the tray around each of the muffin receptacles: it'll help if you create monster muffins that decide to form an ad-hoc MuffinNetwork™.

It is important to keep the wet and dry separate to the last minute. Mix the dry ingredients well in a bowl.  In a jug (1 litre) preferably, or another bowl, mix the wet ingredients well.  Add flavours to the relevant container: bananas are tricky and can go in either, but I tend to blend some banana in a little of the milk/oil and add it to the wet, while using some chopped banana in the dry for texture.

Make a bowl in the dry ingredients and add a bit of the wet to the dry, folding in and ensure to keep the wet ingredients in their container mixed throughout; the oil will tend to separate.  Adding more wet, some at a time, the mixture should form a smooth batter, which is easy to work - I find that folding air into the mixture adds lightness.  Eventually it is pour-able, or very nearly, depending on your flavourings.

Share out the mixture evenly in the muffin cases, I tend to leave at least 1cm from the top of the cases.  Put the trays in the oven for about 15 minutes and then check them regularly.  They should have risen, and forming dome-tops that may split.  When deciding if they're ready, pick a volunteer at random and run him through with something like a knife or a long toothpick: if it comes out 'clean' they're ready.

As soon as possible, get the muffins out of the trays and onto airers.  Eat when cool.

Tips

• Change the level of wet ingredients, or lower the oven temp and increase the time if they come out heavier than you'd like.
• You can use self-raising flour, but if you do it's difficult to 'play' trying to get them to rise to your liking.
• Play with levels of things: increasing the oil amount will make them gooier, like those Starbucks ones.
• When using chocolate chunks, you might like to add these when the batter is in the muffin cases: for one it'll ensure they don't all end up in a few cases.
• I tend to always add a little nutmeg and cinnamon to mixtures to give it a nice warm flavour.
• Try dusting the mixture in the cases with cinnamon, as well as mixing in.

  

Does anyone actually like this tripe? I mean, really? I mean really, really like it?

A response to a response of a Facebook update, regarding the Royal Wedding:  I tweeted, "Does anyone actually like this tripe? I mean, really? I mean really, really like it?", and I received the response via Facebook "Sometime Barry, just once in a while it's good to just smile and be happy."  Here is my response.


When we're reminded our country's fucked financially on a daily basis by the government (whether you happen to buy into that twaddle or not), it's strange we're "enjoying" this massive waste of money. 

If we wanted to be happy, we should celebrate something more relevant, like using the money to help those in need - I don't know, the thousands of young people out of work, or perhaps improve public transport to enable people to get rid of cars or build a new hospital wing.

Instead, we get it shoved down our throats that a few people who were born into a family are incredibly rich and incredibly pampered, subsidised by everyone else who are meant to mindlessly accept this as normal. I don't accept this.

I'm absolutely overjoyed that they're "happy", that they "love each other" (quotes because I only see what they want me to see and what the media report), but wouldn't mind it if they now decide that the hundreds of years of Monarchy is a little long in the tooth and disappear. We're a modern country and shouldn't be enslaved by a family who we didn't vote in, we don't have a say in changing and don't seem to do much for us.

They do bring in tourists, granted, but plenty of people visit France and its former Royal houses - and they have been a Republic for a long time.