The Last Living Link to the Age of Camelot

With the passing of Senator Edward Kennedy, the Lion of the Senate, people are reflecting on the end of Camelot. The Kennedy brothers will soon be side by side in Arlington… One link, however, is still with us. The story from The New York Daily News…

David Saltonstall
DAILY NEWS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT

Saturday, August 29th 2009, 4:00 AM

Gunther/Pool

Caroline Kennedy speaks at a memorial for U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, Massachusetts.

The last time many people heard Caroline Kennedy, she was a tentative, tongue-tied U.S. Senate hopeful from New York.

But Friday night – as Kennedy remembered her late uncle at a presidential library in Boston that bears her slain father’s name – she was an eloquent, loving niece, and perhaps the last living link to the age of Camelot.

Poised despite her grief, Caroline recalled the many times her uncle offered her words of support – and similar encouragement to his other 27 other nieces and nephews. She recalled on the night he died looking out at the ocean he loved so much.

“I looked up and there was this one star hanging low in the sky that was just bigger than all the rest and brighter than all the rest,” she said. “I know it was Jupiter but it was acting a lot like Teddy.”

Through tears and laughter, poetry and prose, the family patriarch was remembered as the last son of a storied clan, a loving father and uncle, a sometimes rakish storyteller, and a legislator without peer.

Paul Kirk Jr., a one-time aide, said Kennedy “bore more hurt and heartache than most humans are ever asked to endure,” yet still brought “more hope and optimism and joy to more people than we will ever know.”

In the crowd were dozens of Kennedy relatives, a family that now has lost its guiding beacon. Last night the torch was held aloft by his nephew, former Rep. Joseph Kennedy (D-Mass.) and his beloved niece, Caroline, both of whom spoke for the family as Kennedy’s widow, Victoria, watched from the front row.

Joe Kennedy brought the room to tears by thanking Ted’s own children – Patrick, Kara and Teddy Jr. – for sharing their father with cousins who too often were left fatherless.

“The truth is that for so many of us, we just needed someone to hang onto,” said Joe. “And Teddy was always there to hang onto.”

In a testament to Kennedy’s reputation for reaching across the aisle, speakers at Friday night’s gathering included Republican Sens. Orrin Hatch and John McCain, the GOP‘s 2008 presidential nominee.

But the only title that seemed to matter Friday night was friend.

Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) recalled how Kennedy called him after his surgery for prostate cancer earlier this month.

“Well,” Kennedy roared, “between going through prostate cancer surgery, or doing town hall meetings [on health care], you made a great choice.”

dsaltonstall@nydailynews.com

Life Imitating Art—On the Football Grounds

If you’ve seen the film Green Street Hooligans you’ll know there is no lost love between the two English Football Clubs of Millwall and West Ham United. In fact, the film focuses on the lives of the followers of those clubs, known as firms. The young men in these firms are not exactly known for walking away from a fight and turning the other cheek. British football fans mean business, and when the two rival clubs met at Upton Park  Tuesday, it was bedlam…

Here’s a report from the Telegraph.co.uk…

On a disgraceful evening for West Ham and Millwall football clubs, involving a stabbing outside Upton Park and several pitch invasions inside the ground, the spectre of hooliganism again returned to blight this most primal of London football rivalries.

It was remarkable that the match – which, for the record, West Ham won – could even conclude at all, so disfigured was it by disorder.

Hundreds of supporters had been involved in violence close to Upton Park underground station before and during the match, but in the second half the unrest spread alarmingly on to the playing surface as West Ham fans broke the police cordons.

Police claimed that the skirmishes outside had been triggered by those without tickets to the second-round Carling Cup match.

The stabbing took place in Priory Road, next to the station, where a large group of Millwall fans broke a police cordon in an ambush of West Ham supporters, and proceeded to throw bottles and bricks.

The stab victim, a 44 year-old man, was in a stable condition in hospital last night.

Such sorry scenes were denounced by the Football Association. It said in a statement: “We absolutely condemn all of the disorder that has occurred at Upton Park, both inside and outside of the ground.

“We will be working with all parties, including the police and clubs, to establish the facts surrounding the events. We expect all culprits to be banned from football for life. They have no place in our game.”

In addition, West Ham striker Carlton Cole claimed he had been racially abused by Millwall fans during the match.

The Metropolitan Police had restricted the number of Millwall fans to 2,300 but far more had gathered for this game. Stewards were powerless to prevent the tension from boiling over when, in the 77th minute, a large object was thrown by a West Ham section of the crowd towards the Millwall contingent.

West Ham fans attempted to surge across the seats separating the two bands of supporters and one fan even made it on to the pitch.

West Ham’s equaliser in the 87th minute, scored by Junior Stanislas to cancel out Neil Harris’s opener, exacerbated the trouble, with around 100 home fans defying the stewards to invade the playing surface.

Their goading of the away end did not stop there, with further invasions ensuing after Stanislas’s penalty made it 2-1 in the second half of extra-time, and the late goal from Zavon Hines which wrapped up West Ham’s victory.

A shaken Gianfranco Zola, West Ham’s manager, has had to deal with a dreadful week at the club, which has also included the stabbing of centre-back Calum Davenport and a family tragedy for midfielder Jack Collison, who lost his father in a motorcycle accident days before bravely playing here.

Among the game’s most distinguished purists, Zola said: “I’m not pleased. I’m a sport man – I love the game, and I try all the time to make it exciting.

“This had nothing to do with football. It was beyond my powers. In all the time I have spent at Chelsea and West Ham I have never seen anything like it.”

Millwall fans had to be penned in for 20 minutes after the match as the chaos dispersed.

Rubbish, shards of glass and beer cans were scattered across Green Street, and bricks could be seen in rubbish bins.

As the crowd streamed out of the ground, most of the roads around the stadium were closed while 200 riot police, reinforced by at least 20 mounted officers, patrolled close to the tube station.

It was the final act on this night of hate and hostility, but it was by no means the final word.

The Nuts Have Taken Over the Asylum

The Caped Crusader is back. Not at the theaters, but on your own TV. After playing the demo copy, I am convinced that what’s being said about the upcoming release is true… Batman: Arkham Asylum could very well be—The Game.

Here’s a review from cnet news…

Despite year-over-year sales declines putting a recession-fueled wet blanket over the entire industry, video games are still a big business, and a hit-driven one at that. Hence, much of the attention falls on a handful of commercial superstars each year, from Halo 3 to The Beatles: Rock Band, leaving plenty of worthy games languishing in obscurity.

That’s why it’s pleasing to see critics and gamers alike praise Warner’s Batman: Arkham Asylum, a new action/adventure game about the famed caped crusader. Earlier this year, during the annual E3 video game industry trade show, we said:

Perhaps because it started life as a lower-profile project, this game was able to develop without a movie release deadline to hit or a hard holiday season shipping date. What we’ve ended up with is one of the best games we’ve played this year, with appeal that goes far beyond comic book fans.

Now that we’ve played the final retail version of the game, releasing on August 25, our initial impressions have been confirmed, and we’re willing to say this may be the best overall gaming experience of 2009. CNET’s sister site Metacritic.com says the early reviews average out to a score of 91 out of 100, which the site labels as “universal acclaim.”

With decent (for a video game) scripting and voice acting, and a grim, detailed setting on Gotham’s spooky Arkham Island, we concur with several reviewers who have compared the game to 2007’s BioShock, another critically hailed title that mixed talky character development with brutal action in a vaguely dystopian setting. The plot is a typically McGuffin-filled story about the Joker taking over the secure mental hospital that houses both him and a rogues gallery of other super-villains – naturally requiring Batman to set things right.

The real secret to Arkham Asylum’s appeal is something too many games ignore — variety. Instead of setting up a basic gameplay mechanic and repeating it until your thumbs fall off, this game jumps from hand-to-hand combat to stealth to detective work (using some kind of highly advanced Bat-goggles that can track DNA and fingerprints, as well as see through walls). The net result is that you never spend too long doing one thing, which helps fend off boredom.

To be fair, the game’s deceivingly open environments mask that it is a largely linear experience, funneling Batman from one challenge to the next through the use of conveniently locked doors and new Bat-gadgets that are doled out as the game progresses. Also, some of the dialog can be hokey, and if like us, you lack a deep knowledge of Bat-lore, many of the references and cameos will go over your head. Still, it’s a tribute to the game’s strengths that you don’t need to much beyond a passing familiarity Batman’s movie or TV incarnations or appreciate this game’s excellent pacing and production values.

Time to Hang it Up?

Is it time to hang up the phones once and for all? We carry them around like an electronic security blanket. They are carried everywhere and, for the most part, can be helpful to stay in touch with our friends and loved ones— to say nothing about our jobs. But when is enough enough? Train operators are now forbidden from using their phones while on duty following the crash of a commuter train in the Golden State that killed 25 people. Now, it seems, the air traffic controller involved in last week’s collision between a plane and helicopter was—you guessed it—talking on a cell. The story from Metro Source…

Two air traffic controllers on duty during last Saturday’s mid-air collision over the Hudson River in New York have been suspended by the FAA. The agency says the controller in charge of the plane that hit a helicopter was on the phone when the collision occurred. The FAA is also suspending his boss, who was not in the building at the time of the collision. But the FAA stresses in its investigation that there’s quote, “no reason to believe at this time that these actions contributed to the accident.”

The 40 Million Pound Getaway

It only happens in Hollywood, right? Wrong. Try London. Smooth as silk, the two high end boosters calmly strolled into a London jewelry store and got away clean—at least for the moment… Here’s the lowdown from the Guardian…

Two smartly dressed armed robbers stole jewellery worth almost £40m from a Mayfair jewellers in what is believed to be the biggest gem heist in British history, it emerged today.

Posing as clients, the besuited criminals made their way past a security guard at Graff jewellers in London‘s West End last Thursday. Once inside the prestigious New Bond Street shop they pulled out handguns, threatened staff and grabbed luxury rings, bracelets, necklaces and watches.

CCTV footage released today by Scotland Yard shows the duo leaving the jewellers. They fired two warning shots into the ground before escaping in a series of vehicles across Soho.

The extent of the heist was kept secret for nearly a week but police have revealed that the items stolen were worth £40m, dwarfing Britain’s previous biggest diamond jewellery robbery, in 2003, when items worth £23m were stolen, also from Graff’s.

Police also released images of some of the 43 items of stolen jewellery, including a pair of white round diamond double-hoop earrings, a yellow diamond flower necklace, a platinum white Marquise diamond ring and a men’s chronograph 45mm watch.

The robbers’ escape almost came to an abrupt end when their blue BMW crashed into a taxi in a nearby street. They abandoned the car, switching to a silver Mercedes, before changing cars again, climbing into a black vehicle, possibly a Ford Galaxy or VW Sharan.

The men – both well dressed, aged in their 30s and with London accents – are thought to have passed the stolen jewellery to a waiting motorcyclist, who made a quick getaway. At least two other men were acting as getaway drivers in three cars, police believe.

Detective Chief Inspector Pam Mace, of the Metropolitan police flying squad, said: “This was a well planned robbery with a number of vehicles used to help the robbers escape. These men are extremely dangerous and fired at least two shots in busy London streets as they made their getaway.

“Someone knows who these men are. They would undoubtedly have spoken about it beforehand or boasted about it afterwards. I would urge anyone who recognises them, knows the whereabouts of the jewellery or has any other information to contact us.”

The first suspect was described as white, about 30, with a slim build, dark hair with a well-combed side parting, light stubble on his face and between 5ft 10 and 6ft tall. He was wearing a grey suit, white shirt and tie.

The second was described as black, also in his 30s, 6ft tall, more well built than the first suspect, and with very short afro hair. He was also wearing a grey suit, white shirt and tie.

The suspects’ details have been circulated to all ports and airports but police believe they are likely to have organised an escape route and may already have left the country.

A Rapid Departure

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the keyboard… The acting chief over cyber security is leaving—just months after coming on board. Her reasons for leaving are ambiguous, as we read in this report from the Beeb…

Melissa Hathaway told the paper she was leaving for “personal reasons” and would return to the private sector.

The former strategist was appointed as acting national cyber-adviser in February and was expected to be offered the post of full time.

President Barack Obama has said that cyber-security is a high priority for his administration.

In May, the President announced plans for securing American computer networks against cyber attacks.

In recent years, US government and military bodies have reported attempts to infiltrate systems by hackers.

He announced the creation of a cyber-security office in the White House, and said he would personally appoint a “cyber-tsar”.

Ms Hathaway was widely regarded as the person to fill that post after taking on the role as acting senior director for cyberspace for the National Security and Homeland Security Councils in February.

In April she completed a review of cyber-security for the Obama administration.

At the time, Ms Hathaway said the job ahead was “a marathon, not a sprint.”

Her successor has not yet been named by the White House.