BBC Sports Personality 2013 shortlist

Ten contenders have been shortlisted for next month's 60th BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.

Athletes Mo Farah, Christine Ohuruogu and Hannah Cockroft are included along with tennis star Andy Murray and cyclist Chris Froome.

Golfer Justin Rose, sailor Sir Ben Ainslie, jockey AP McCoy, cricketer Ian Bell and rugby union player Leigh Halfpenny also make the list. 

In addition to the main prize, there will also be seven other awards:

• Team of the Year
• Coach of the Year
• Overseas Sports Personality of the Year
• Young Sports Personality of the Year
• Sports Personality of the Year Diamond Award
• Helen Rollason Award
• Sports Unsung Hero

A victory for the little guys (man bites dog)

Photographers have won a landmark legal victory after a US federal jury awarded $1.2m to Haitian freelance photojournalist Daniel Morel. The US case is the first to define who owns photographs posted on Twitter.  A New York jury decisively backed Daniel Morel in a copyright case against photo agency Getty and news agency AFP, after the latter claimed a right to use Morel's photographs of the 2010 Haiti disaster.

The size of the compensation is impressive (it represents several decades of work for the average freelancer), but much more significant is the fact that the legal system has slapped down Getty/AFP for their grabbing practices. If the case had been one of the big boys against someone who had used their content without paying then they would have clamped down hard from the minute they found out (they even tried to sue the photographer for "commercial disparagement").
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This is a victory for the little guy, showing to the world that online content, despite the best endeavours of  corporations to strip metadata, is still copyright to the original owner.

I would expect Getty/AFP to appeal as otherwise the ruling makes a defence of a similar nature more difficult in the future.  Which is a shame as it will deprive Daniel Morel of much of his compensation (just how much of it will be swallowed up in legal fees) when they should be man enough to hold their hands up and admit their mistakes.

A very good reason to get out the party hats and raise a glass to Daniel Morel!

Innovative learning spaces from around the world – in pictures

Woo hoo!  The Guardian are running a feature on innovative learning spaces around the world and have chosen my picture of the new library at High Storrs to illustrate this:

While I await further fame and fortune, the full story can be found at: The Guardian

Hewlett Packard - kiss of death?

As the headline sponsor for a team often thought as one of the 'BIG SIX' in recent years, Hewlett Packard must have thought they were on to a good thing to have their logo splashed across the chests of a premiership football team.

Based on the performance at the Etihad Stadium yesterday, perhaps Hewlett Packard should be looking for more of an 'in-form' team.  Accrington Stanley anybody?  (Or is it that the mighty Spurs need someone with a lucky touch.....?)

Rebecca Adlington breaks the code of silence....

Shock!  Horror!

4-times Olympic medallist Rebecca Adlington admits on TV what everyone has thought for years - swimmers pee in the pool!

In other news - Pope admits he is a Catholic!  And in a special episode tonight we report on bears in the woods!

In the jungle with Rebecca Adlington???

Rebecca Adlington is rumoured to be heading to Australia to be in the jungle with Ant & Dec.  Bet she'll be good at the swimming events!

Bonfire Night in Wakefield

Each year, Wakefield Council hosts a free bonfire and fireworks event in Thorne's Park, attracting 10-12,000 people.

I had planned the event to try to capture the fireworks as best as I could (ISO 100, 4 second exposure, F9, tripod, remote release etc etc) but was hit by the driving rain that sloshed into the lens that was tilited up into the sky.  It really was lashing it down at times and most of the photos are 'artistic smudges' of blurry streaks.  It cleared for long enough to get a few bursts over the Wakefield skyline, nice enough to process and post.

Angel Of The North

An iconic statue by Anthony Gormley, towering over the A1 as it heads through Gateshead towards Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

It is a steel sculpture of an angel, 20 metres (66 ft) tall, with wings measuring 54 metres (177 ft) across. The wings are angled forward about 3.5 degrees.

Because of the weight of the statue (around 200 tonnes) and it's shape, it has been designed to withstand winds of 100mph by being anchored to concrete that reaches 21 metres (70 ft) below it into the hillside.

Having driven past it many times over the years, we finally found time to pull up in the car park last week and spend some time enjoying it close-up.

It really is an impressive monument and fun in that you can climb all over it's feet.  The sun clawed it's way through the October cloud enough to brighten the day and give some contrast to the photographs.