Due to this blog being spammed, Web Watcher has moved and assumed a new name in another blogosphere. Hopefully see you there!

Today's the day when Rupert Murdoch tries to start making big bucks out of his newspapers online.

It will now cost money to view The Times and the Sunday Times on the internet, £1 for a day's access or £2 for a week-long subscription. As an introductory offer, anybody who registers will get access to both websites for 30 days for £1.

The world's ugliest dog has died just weeks before attempting to retain her dubious title. She was 17.

Miss Ellie, a Chinese Crested Hairless canine from the United States (where else?), won Animal Planet's World's Ugliest Dog competition (pedigree division) in 2009 thanks to her pimples and prominent tongue.

She appeared on TV advertisements, Fox News and on cable show Dogs 101, as well becoming a tourist attraction in the Smoky Mountains.

But she was not just an unpretty face...she raised awareness and money for an animal shelter in her home county.

Read more here about Miss Ellie and the animal rescue centre

It's probably an unusual thing to make somebody else's blog the subject of an entry in your own weblog, but me thinks this is one that merits a mention.

Adventures of a Taxi Driver: Stories from the rank is a true-to-life account of the work of a cabbie while he goes about his daily - and nightly - business in a UK city.

It's thoughtful, and sometimes humorous, and provides a very accurate insight into the life and times of a taxi driver in the 21st century.

Drunks, football fans, fare-dodgers, celebrities and potholes are all subjects which have been covered in the few years that this blog has been going.

Entries are generally well-written and are complemented by large and high-quality photographs which are taken by the author during the course of his work.

A lot of blogs are overly-opinionated, very bland and essentially useless - but Adventures of a Taxi Driver: Stories from the rank does exactly what it says on the tin in an honest and engaging way.

 

If you have a good quality mobile phone, eg a Nokia N95, N96 or N97, and a decent data connection, then  you should be able to stream live content onto the web and share it with the world (if you are that way inclined).

You simply sign up to a website called qik.com, download a mobile application from there onto your phone and then use that bit of software on the phone to stream through Qik.

It's a great way to share every-day life experiences with your friends and family - as they happen. And you can sign into Qik using just your Facebook and/or Twitter log-in. There's also an easy way to send your video to YouTube from the phone.

When you sign up, you are given your own page where all the videos you take are stored - the footage can also be seen by people visiting the Qik website. You are given code which means you can host the video on your own website, too.

You may even end up record a major breaking news event live if you have your mobile handy - and become an international broadcaster overnight!

Wednesday, November 18 is a very important day for the city of Preston.

It is when a decision is likely on whether to move the National Football Museum, which currently sits proudly next to Preston North's Deepdale Stadium, to the Urbis exhibition centre in Manchester.

Financial stability is meant to be the main reason behind the possible switch of venues, but it smacks more of a major city trying to increase its number of attractions at the expense of a smaller place struggling to keep the few gems it has.

Webwatcher is not from Preston and in fact lives far closer to Manchester, but in this case the heart far outrules the head and I genuinely believe that the museum is doing very well in Preston - one of the founder members of the Football League - so leave it there!



Football legends like Sir Tom Finney - Mr Preston himself - and Sir Bobby Charlton - a Manchester United stalwart - are keen to see the museum stay where it is.

Register your support for Preston's bid to keep the museum by signing the Lancashire Evening Post's online petition.

And you can find out more about this great attraction here where you can take a virtual tour and watch a slideshow of photos.

Football coming home? After Wednesday, it may be leaving home...

 

It's eight years since the world - and in particular the United States - was rocked by one of the biggest attrocities in history.

On September 11, 2001, a series of co-ordinated suicide attacks by Al-Qaeda ended with the death of nearly 3,000 people.

Nineteen terroists hijacked four passenger planes. Two were intentionally crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone on board and hundreds working in the buildings which both collapsed within two hours, destroying nearby buildings and damaging others.

The hijackers crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington DC. The fourth plane crashed into a field in rural Pennsylvania after some of its passengers and flight crew attempted to retake control of the plane, which the hijackers had redirected toward Washington DC. There were no survivors from any of the flights.

A total of 2,993 people, including the hijackers, died in the attacks. The overwhelming majority of casualties were civilians from more than 90 countries. The United States responded to the attacks by launching a 'War on Terror', invading Afghanistan to depose the Taliban, who have been closely linked to Al-Qaeda terrorists.

The National September 11 Memorial & Museum is a not-for-profit organisation, responsible for overseeing the design, raising the necessary funds, and operating the memorial & museum which is being built at the World Trade Center site.

It has a very interesting website which explains all about the site where the Twin Towers once stood.

There are real-time images of the construction of the memorial and museum, and there are news and pictures of a 9/11 comemorative car (above) which is racing in the NASCAR Nationwide Series race on September 11, 2009 in Richmond, Virginia.

The site also contains a collection of examples of citizen journalism of the tragedy and the museum is appealing for more 9/11 stories. It has photographs, video and audio recollections by professional photographers, fleeing Trade Center workers and witnesses who recorded what they saw with mobile phones and digital cameras. Each photo is placed alongside Google "Street View" photos of various locations. Users can click on locations, themes or time of day to view the footage or images. The graphic images of hijacked jets crashing into the towers are among the accounts which will become an exhibit in the 9/11 museum when it opens in three years' time.

It's worth a look, particularly at this topical time.

Social networking websites like Facebook are meant to connect people, encourage communication, link up groups, foster friendships, renew old acquaintances, blah, blah, blah.

However, it appears one worker decided she would like to tell all her friends about her boss - whom she obviously didn't like.

But you could say her plan backfired somewhat...