Santa Cam at the North Pole.

Earlier today, NORAD picked up radar emissions from Rudolph's nose, and we received the following video report.



More reports coming into us here at Viewpoint and we'll continue to update.

If Bozo The Clown and The Malk Maid are more sensible than you, You're In Trouble!!!

And THAT is exactly what has happened to Fox & Friends' Gretchen Carlson, and "The Mannity" himself, Sean Hannity, or perhaps that should be "The Vannity", on recent Fox News Channel programming. So noticeable was it, that it caught Keith Olbermann's attention and made last Friday's Worst Person In The World.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Special mention as always to the one, the only, the O'Riginal Fox News nutball, Bill O'Reilly, for saving the "War On Christmas!" Only so he can inflict it again on us all next year. Yawn!

Viewpoint Update: TSX technical glitch

BNN is now reporting that the TSX will not trade today due to the computer crash that happened earlier today.

The good thing is, with the Dow and US markets having only slightly moved at this point, Dow down about 36 points, there is little in the way of catch up to do. However, I do expect to see some extra trading tomorrow, or whenever the TSX next opens.

TSX in Toronto closed after computer crash.

BNN in Canada is one of the few online places that is reporting the Toronto Stock Exchange has halted trading after a computer crash. I'm looking out for more information on this, but a lot of other sources are not reporting this story. Fox Business Network seems to be the only one so far, with neither CNBC or Bloomberg seemingly acknowledging the story.

There's currently no information on when the TSX will resume trading, or indeed if it will resume today. The market closes for the day at 4pm EST, same as the NYSE, AMEX and NASDAQ. I will keep monitoring this story, but I'm surprised this is not regarded as much of a story in the global business media. The exchange trades around half a billion shares a day, so although it is not a large exchange, it does some serious trading. And all too often, it doesn't get much coverage as it's New York neighbours do.

This is the third time this year that the TSX has halted due to technical issues, and it is a situation I will continue to keep a close eye on.

Sometimes, Less IS more!

In this London Comment from CBS News Up To The Minute, BBC Radio 5 Live's Drive presenter and former ITN reporter Peter Allen tells us all how we could make do, with a little bit less.



Now that's probably the most useful thing I've seen on the internet today!

Nigella winds up PETA. Kudos to her.

Several sources are reporting this story about Nigella Lawson's comments on BBC1's The One Show on Tuesday. The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Mail, The Daily Express, Metro, The Daily Star and The Sun, are all amongst the many sites reporting this story.

PETA are widely quoted but PETA and their celebrity endorsers have been shown to be hypocrites before, and no doubt will be again. But it seems their outrage has yet to reach their own website.

On doing a search of their site for Nigella Lawson, it came up with no results at all.
Not only that, but even their front page has nothing relating to this "growing controversy".
This faux outrage of a common-all-garden pressure group is sounding more tired than Rip Van Winkle! So-called Animal Rights supporters have shown their true colours before, by kidnapping people, who are merely just a different breed of animal, and even graverobbing! And these actions only undermine the message and do nothing to help against real animal cruelty. So instead of taking out their outrage on celebrities, perhaps they should be dedicating their time, to supporting the RSPCA in the UK or the ASPCA in the US, who take action against people who REALLY committ cruelty to animals, and help bring real offenders to justice.

I won't hold my breath waiting for them to actually do something useful.

Mumbai Attacks: More media coverage

The story is nearing the 24 hour mark, and whilst the morning papers this morning were in general somewhat lacking the real scale of the story, the big exceptions being The London Times, The Guardian and The Independent, the news channels and the internet have been all over this story.

Whilst the news channels are returning to some kind of normality, the story does still dominate. Only channels like NDTV 24x7 and CNN IBN, which are both based in India, have stayed exclusively with the story. CNN International and Al Jazeera are staying heavily with the story as are BBC News Channel and Sky News.

RTE News has majored on the story, just like other network bulletins. RTE News Six-One, the BBC News at Six and the ITV Evening News were amongst the many network bulletins where they majored on the story.

Mumbai attacks: More media coverage

Unsurprisingly, the continuing developments in Mumbai dominate the news, though most channels currently are covering other stories as well. Even GMTV seems to have taken on a more sombre tone this morning with the story getting more coverage than most international stories do. There is a ticker running this morning with continual information about this one story. I don't see much GMTV normally, but I don't remember GMTV running a ticker normally. I could be wrong.

Not surprisingly NDTV 24x7 and most of India's other major news channels are running the story as continual breaking news. CNNIBN is one that does too, and is currently supplying pictures to sister network CNN International, who continue to cover it as breaking news. Star News seems to be one of the few that has switched away from it.

Al Jazeera is majoring on it, with a lot of breaking news coverage but they do attempt to cover over stories as well. Most channels seem to be on normal schedules with the story dominating the news. Fox News Channel is running normal programmes, but with Fox News Alerts replacing ad breaks in some cases. DW-TV is on normal programmes, but the story dominates.

ITN's online channel also leads with the story but continues on it's roughly normal schedule. Press TV from Iran also leads with the story, but also continues to cover other stories. CNBC is also providing some coverage too, using the resources of CNBC TV 18, their Indian partner.

I'll have more on the media coverage of this story, later on.

Mumbai Attacks: Media Coverage

Whilst the media has been all over this story, there is no real surprise that NDTV 24x7, CNNIBN, Star News, Zee News and Headlines Today, the major news channels in India, are the primary sources for all the world's news channels.

Fox News, Al Jazeera, BBC News Channel, BBC World News, CNN International and France 24 are all over this story, as are MSNBC and CNN US, . In Australia, ABC News Breakfast on ABC2 has been covering the story heavily. Sky News, rather surprisingly, haven't switched to breaking news, despite their Indian sister station Star News being right in the center of the action. They decided to stick with 15 minutes format. After 10pm, they switched to a breaking news format.

BBC News Channel switched at 10pm to the usual BBC News at Ten simulcast with BBC1. After the simulcast, they switched back to breaking news. BBC News Channel and BBC World News are due to simulcast together at 1am UK time, so, dependent on what happens in this story, the simulcast may be a breaking news format rather than the usual bulletin format.

News Roundup: Wednesday 26th November 2008

Plymouth Sound: A lesbian soldier has been given almost £190,000 compensation after being harassed by a male sergeant.

Plymouth Sound: A male escort accusing Boy George of false imprisonment asked to be handcuffed during an erotic photo shoot, a court has heard.

Digital Spy: Trisha Goddard has said that she has won her battle with breast cancer.

Comment: This is good news. Good news so rarely gets covered these days, that it's actually nice to be able to report some. Cancer, in any form, is not a nice thing to have, I've lost family, friends and colleagues to cancer, so I'm pleased that for now, Trisha has beaten hers.

Deutsche Welle: German federal police arrested two men Tuesday, Nov. 25, for operating a radical Islamist website and they are likely to face charges of supporting terrorism, prosecutors said.

Yahoo! 7 News: A Japanese man upset by the death of his pet turned himself in after fatally stabbing a bureaucrat and his wife, Japanese police and media said on Sunday.