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We don’t just report off-beat news, breaking news and digest the best and worst of the news media analysis and commentary. We give an original take on what happened and why. We add lols, satire, news photos and original content.

Open drug use at Groucho club: no queue for toilets

Hey, celebs, you need a new, more exclusive drug:

Drugs furore at the Groucho Club over ‘bankers’ cocaine binges’: Veteran members pen letter to management over ‘open drug use taking place on the premises’.

So says The Mail, which fails to add that now is a great time for Groucho patrons to nip to the loo – no queue!

Posted: 27th, May 2016 | In: Reviews | Comment


Butcher promises: ‘Eating bacon reduces your chance of being a suicide bomber by 100%’

Eating  bacon reduces your chance of being a suicide bomber by 100%

 

To New South Wales, Australia, where butcher Jeff Rapley from Naroomais talking about the sign in his shop window that promises, “Eating two strips of Rapley’s award-winning bacon for breakfast reduces your chance of being a suicide bomber by 100%.”

He fails to “or your money back!” but Jeff does add that he meant no offence and “no particular religion was mentioned“. “I’m definitely not a racist and didn’t mean for it to cause offence,” says Jeff.

The Vegan Militia has yet to respond.

 

Posted: 25th, May 2016 | In: Reviews, The Consumer | Comment


A free Kim Kardashain sex tape for every Guardian reader

kim kardashian harmanWhen Harriet Harman, the Labour former deputy leader, told us Kim Kardashian’s naked breasts and pouting buttocks possessed “a kind of bravery and pioneering spirit” and that Page 3 Girls with their naked breasts and pouting buttocks were just “fodder”, we realised how right she was. So today we’re offering all Guardian readers a free Kim Kardashian Pioneer Kit. Each kit contains:

  • A leaked sex tape
  • A litre of baby oil (organic)
  • A famous father
  • A famous step-mother who used to be a famous step-father
  • A copy of The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
  • $25m

What they’re saying:

“Kim’s a pioneer, like Amelia Earhart, albeit with a better airplane and killer luggage” – Helen of Anjou

“You go, girl” – Emmeline Pankhurst

“Phwaor!” – Sun reader

 

Posted: 25th, May 2016 | In: Politicians, Reviews | Comment


Harriet Harman: naked Kim Kardashian is pioneering but topless Page 3 Girls are fodder

kardashana page 3

 

See if you can fathom what it is Harriet Harman, the Labour former deputy leader, is saying. Appearing on ITV morning telly to talk about women’s issues, Harman turned to nudity, celebrity, Page 3, onanism, feminism and narcissism. Yeah, she was talking about naked-to-deadline, sex-tape stunna Kim Kardashian:

“I am an expert on the Kardashians, I have to confess.  I think, if you step back, the overall message that comes out of the Kardashian women is that they are kind of going to make their own decisions, make their own way in the world, they’re not going to be told by anybody what to do.

“They are going to try things differently. If they make mistakes, well, they’ll get up back and try and do it differently. There’s a kind of bravery and pioneering spirit in them.”

Kim’s porn and naked pictures are” brave and pioneering”. Kim’s like Amelia Earhart, albeit with a better airplane.

Now Harriet talked about the Sun and Daily Star’s Page 3 girls, who are mostly not rich:

“I think it’s an issue of control actually, because I get the sense from the Kardashians that they are in control of their own agenda. The thing about Page 3 girls in the Sun is it was male editors producing young girls for the male readers as fodder.”

No male readers ogle Kim Kardashian? No women read the Sun? No Page 3 Girl wanted to pose topless? Male editors get young girls as “fodder” but young Kardashians on TV stations  and Twitter – any men on the board of MTV, Instagram or Twitter? – are empowered and possessed of the pioneering spirit?

What hideous elitist balls.

PS – Rupert Murdoch, why not get Kim Kardashian on Page 3? Admittedly, you’ll have to tell it’s just topless, but if she tones it down a notch, Harman will be even more confused.

Posted: 24th, May 2016 | In: Celebrities, Politicians, Reviews | Comment


Daily Mail scare stories: antibiotics and depression

depression antibiotics

 

It’s Health Tuesday in the Mail. Scare Story highlights are:

Page 47: “Just one court of antibiotics may raise risk of depression.” The thinking is if you take antibiotics, you cause in imbalance in bugs in your guts which upsets your brain cells’ ability to communicate.

You might have read the same tory in 2015, when it appeared on a website as, “Antibiotic exposure associated with increased risk for depression, anxiety.”

But what of one courts of antibiotics making you depressed?

Exposure to antibiotics was not associated with a change in risk for psychosis. A single course of antifungals was associated with a mild increase in risk for depression and anxiety, however, there was no increased risk with repeated exposures.

In The Gut Microbiome and the Brain, Leo Galland has more:

No, antibiotics do not directly cause panic attacks.

They can, however, exacerbate symptoms in those who already have anxiety disorders.

There has been a wealth of research in the recent years connecting gut bacteria to mental processes. This connection is aptly named the “gut-brain axis.” Antibiotics are prescribed to get rid of bacterial infections. Unfortunately, most antibiotics don’t just kill the bad bacteria, they kill the healthy bacteria living in your gut. This healthy bacteria has a lot of different functions, one being to line the gut and basically reinforce its “walls.” They can also influence neurotransmitters.

When you destroy these bacteria, it makes sense that you may notice a bodily change. This could be intestinal distress or mood changes. In scientific studies “germ-free” mice, or those without gut bacteria, are more reactive to stress than non-germ-free (normal) mice. It’s important to remember this is a mouse study, not a human study. It can give some important clues, but might not be the whole picture.

In short, antibiotics will not induce a panic attack, but may increase reactivity, making it more likely that a person prone to panic attacks will feel anxious. This can possibly turn into a panic attack, but with an established treatment regimen, it can be avoided.

You can read the the research first-hand here.

 

Posted: 24th, May 2016 | In: Reviews, Tabloids | Comment


Muirfield women ban: it’s only sexist for girls

Why anyone plays golf is beyond me. A friend interested in joining a club was put off by what he called a strong whiff of anti-semitism around the place. He never complained. He didn’t want  to hang out with bigots. So he gave up on golf and built a snooker room at home. But some people – not all racists, I’ll give you that –  do want to play golf and chat in an actual golf club. And some of them want to play in a club just for men. The Guardian’s Laura Bates writes:

Muirfield golf club has lost the right to host the prestigious Open championship after taking the stunningly regressive step of voting against reversing its ban on female members.

If it’s what the members want – and we mean members in every sense of the word – what’s the issue?

In fairness, Muirfield members seem to have some very real concerns – a letter circulated by those campaigning against the change revealed the terrifying prospect that “lady members” may pose a threat to such noble traditions as “our foursomes play, our match system … our lunch arrangements”. Quelle horreur.

Do the French play golf?

The news has prompted intense debate about male-only spaces and whether or not they should still be allowed, with one major argument cropping up again and again in most of the discussions I have heard. “Why shouldn’t men be allowed their own space, when women have women-only gym and swimming sessions? Isn’t that sexist?”

Maybe.

The answer is that these two things are not the same. In fact, they couldn’t be more different.

One sports club wants just women; one sports club wants just men. How is that different?

Posted: 24th, May 2016 | In: Reviews, Sports | Comment


Debating the value of Birmingham University’s black studies course

black studies birmingham

 

Kehinde Andrews, Associate Professor in Sociology at Birmingham City University, wants to talk about studying black subjectsBirmingham City University has opened a black studies university course. The black experience in Britain is worthy of study, of course it is. But doesn’t this course limit black students, make what should be a full education with all the navigating between opinion, debate and textual evidence into a ‘safe space’ where minds are narrowed? It’s more divisive than it is empowering, offering segregation over equality. He writes in the Guardian:

While in the UK the student body has also become undoubtedly more diverse, the staff and therefore academic interests have remained overwhelmingly exclusive and white. Black British-born staff make up only 1% of full-time staff, representing just 85 out of the UK’s 18,510 university professors and face barriers to promotion once employed. The unfortunate reality is that black studies has not emerged sooner because there has not been a critical mass of staff who could teach the subject.

We at BCU are able to offer a high-quality black studies degree because our department has six full-time black academic members of staff who work in the discipline.

Only black teachers can teach black subjects? Is work by non-black scholars like Harvard’s Roland Fryer into the causes of economic disparities between blacks and whites invalidated? What of non-black academic Eugene Genovese’s studies on slavery and the role of religion in black American history? Is black history only for blacks? As she asks, is the course about black justice, politics and rights or a bona fide filed of study?

We have started to build a network of scholars, a research community and to publish work on black studies in Britain. Sadly the majority of academic departments in the UK have no black members of staff at all, let alone enough to even hold a conversation about starting a black studies degree.

Movements such as Why is My Curriculum White? and Rhodes Must Fall show that students are tired of some of the unrepresentative and outdated knowledge and experiences being reproduced in British universities.

John Ellis is uncertain:

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, large populations of poor immigrants arrived in the U.S.–Irish, Italians, and Jews from Russia and Poland. Their extreme poverty placed them at the bottom of the social ladder, and they were often treated with contempt. Yet just a few generations later they were assimilated, and their rapid upward social mobility had produced mayors, senators, judges, and even Presidents from among their ranks. None of this could have happened without first-rate public education.

To be sure, they worked hard to get ahead, but they were not obstructed by something that afflicts the have-nots of today: as they walked through the school gates they were not met by people intent on luring them into Irish or Italian Studies programs whose purpose was to keep them in a state of permanent resentment over past wrongs at the hands of either Europeans or establishment America. Instead, they could give their full attention to learning. They took courses that informed them about their new land’s folkways and history, which gave them both the ability and the confidence needed to grasp the opportunities it offered them.

When we compare this story with what is happening to minority students today, we see a tragedy.

Dr Andrews says that’s not so:

“Birmingham is the perfect place to launch Black Studies, being one of Europe’s most diverse cities, with a strong history of community activism and engagement. For too long UK universities have overlooked the experiences and perspectives of those in the African diaspora. The contributions of Black scholars, activists and communities have not been recognised, creating a limited curriculum.

“Student movements have recently demonstrated this across the country, complaining of a ‘narrow knowledge’ in universities, including the ‘Why is my curriculum white?’ campaign “The new degree offers students a critical understanding of British and global society, international study abroad opportunities and experiences working to improve conditions in communities.”

Isn’t University education meant to be expansive? Is this a course in a bubble? Would you sign up?

Posted: 23rd, May 2016 | In: Reviews | Comment


UKIP wins working class voters Labour elitists ignore

The Guardian states the obvious:

Labour’s Future, Why Labour Lost in 2015 and How it Can Win Again, to be published this week, says the party is losing socially conservative voters to Ukip in droves, while appealing most to metropolitan liberals who tend to be better off and to have been to university.

Thankfully, Islington’s knowing and elitist dinner party chatters aren’t in the majority…

Posted: 23rd, May 2016 | In: Broadsheets, Politicians, Reviews | Comment


Madeleine McCann: Sharon Osbourne trolls the McCanns

Madeleine Mccann Sharon OsbourneMadeleine McCann: a look at the missing child in the news.

The Sunday Mirror leads with the child it calls “Maddie”. The headline thunders: “Sharon’s Shocking Rants Over Missing Maddie.”

Foul-mouthed, pixie-voiced reality TV show Sharon Osbourne, for it is she, has said something. With no other news to report on (what – no killer wasps in your picnic basket and Great white sharks in Devon? – ed), Sharon’s words are front-page news.

Outspoken star Sharon Osbourne has been blasted by the parents of missing Madeleine McCann after she branded them “insane” for leaving their daughter alone.

Outspoken woman speaks out! That’s a shock? This is Sharon who is married to drug-addled rock star and bat-head-biter Ozzy. If anyone knows insane… Which makes us wonder: is Sharon trolling the McCanns?

Former X Factor judge Sharon made the hurtful claims on her US chat show The Talk as she criticised parents for leaving children without supervision.

How cutting-edge is The Talk in talking about a news item from 2007 that has trundled on in the media, turning the missing child into the benchmark of all missing children. The ‘Missing Maddie” story is a fallback news item. Just press f9 on the keyboard and watch as the journalisamobile churn out some non-news.

In a clear attack on Kate and Gerry McCann, Sharon said: “I will tell you a very quick story. There was a husband and wife on holiday in Portugal. They left their baby in the room sleeping, sleeping while they went to dinner in the restaurant. While they were in the resort their baby was taken. And it is like, ‘Oh but we can see everything that is going on’ and it is, like, insane.”

Quick story, yes. One with no ending and  – get his – Sharon can’t even get the facts right. The McCanns left three children in their apartment. Madeleine McCann was not a baby – she was aged 4. Then she vanished. Them’s the facts. it. It’s a single-thread story.

Sharon’s comments are facile, desperate and appear calculated to attract headlines (job done).

Of course, this is the story of Madeleine McCann and the Mirror is every bit as desperate. It too presses f9, slaps the non-news on its front page and then asks “Kate and Gerry” for a few words, which they duly don’t give.

A family friend said: “It’s very ­disappointing when someone with such a high profile makes this sort of ­ignorant, ill-informed comment. She should think about the effect it could have on Madeleine’s brother and sister, as well as the wider family.”

Chances are the children wouldn’t have heard Sharon’s words on her dire US telly show. So, good of the Mirror to broadcast them in the UK and tell them what they missed. Cheers. Not that anyone under 16 buys the Mirror.

 

Posted: 22nd, May 2016 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews, Tabloids | Comment


Is Oxfam’s tax planning just tax avoidance?

When Oxfam began to bemoan ‘tax avoidance’, it was inevitable some would cast their eyes on the charity’s tax affairs. Oxfam is hot on everyone paying there ‘fair share’, having published such articles as:

EU Anti-Tax Avoidance package will fail to end the era of tax havens, warns Oxfam – Despite EU intentions to crack down on tax avoidance, the European Commission’s Anti-Tax Avoidance Package does not do what it says on the tin, warns Oxfam, and developing countries will feel the EU’s failure most.

Large-scale tax avoidance by Starbucks & Fiat: European Union must now act on tax dodging

Oxfam applauds the European Parliament’s hard fought victory for transparency in the extractives sector

Oxfam reaction to EU leaders’ timid ambition to clamp down on tax dodging

You get the idea.

As does the Institute of Economic Affairs’ Richard Teacher, who writes:

While it is commonly assumed that charities are exempt from tax, that is not actually the case. Although they are exempt from tax on certain types of income (from donations, rent or investments), the profits they make on business or “trading” operations are taxable, except in specific circumstances. By setting out the very limited circumstances in which trading profits are exempt (see section 524 of the Income Taxes Act 2007), Parliament made it very clear that it intends charities’ other business income to be taxable.
The reaction of Oxfam, and most of the other charities, has been to run their business operations through a separate company. That company would be taxable on its profits, but it donates all its profits to its parent charity through the “Gift Aid” scheme, which exempts them from tax.

This fits the standard definition of tax avoidance – an artificial structure (separating out some of the charity’s activities into a separate legal entity) that gives it a tax advantage.
Of course I do not think there is anything wrong with Oxfam doing this; like all good tax avoidance it is perfectly legal and it is an ingenious way to escape a tax liability. But should Oxfam really be criticising other businesses for avoiding taxes when it does just that with its own?

That question might well be rhetorical.

 

Posted: 20th, May 2016 | In: Money, Reviews | Comment


J.K. Rowling: Donald Trump’s ‘offensive and bigoted’ comments make us all free

J.K. Rowling was speaking at the PEN America Literary Gala & Free Expression Awards:

Intolerance of alternative viewpoints is spreading to places that make me, a moderate and a liberal, most uncomfortable. Only last year, we saw an online petition to ban Donald Trump from entry to the U.K. It garnered half a million signatures.

Just a moment.

I find almost everything that Mr. Trump says objectionable. I consider him offensive and bigoted. But he has my full support to come to my country and be offensive and bigoted there. His freedom to speak protects my freedom to call him a bigot. His freedom guarantees mine. Unless we take that absolute position without caveats or apologies, we have set foot upon a road with only one destination. If my offended feelings can justify a travel ban on Donald Trump, I have no moral ground on which to argue that those offended by feminism or the fight for transgender rights or universal suffrage should not oppress campaigners for those causes. If you seek the removal of freedoms from an opponent simply on them grounds that they have offended you have crossed the line to stand alongside tyrants who imprison, torture and kill on exactly the same justification.

What she said.

Posted: 18th, May 2016 | In: Celebrities, Politicians, Reviews | Comment


Boris Johnson, Marina Wheeler’s ‘drunken clinch’ and sex for Brexit

boris johnson marina sex

 

Boris Johnson’s wife Marina Wheeler is the victim of a “sex smear”, says the Sun. The attack on Marina is “designed to derail his battle for Britain to leave the EU”.

You might well roll your eyes. So what if Marina Wheeler has been playing away. What business is it of ours? Her husband is no paragon of virtue.

 

Boris Johnson sex

 

The Mail had more on Petronella Wyatt and her affair with Bozza the boffa:

Her four-year affair with Boris Johnson, which ended with her having a termination, led to Johnson being sacked from the Shadow Cabinet after famously rejecting reports of the affair as an ‘inverted pyramid of piffle’.

Is the Sun’s issue with the fact that a woman is now accused of straying outside her marriage? Is it different for girls? The paper adds:

False claims have been swirling around Westminster and online that Marina Wheeler was the high-profile QC caught in a drunken clinch with a fellow lawyer at Waterloo station last summer. And it’s members of the Remain camp that have helped fuel the lie, a Tory minister says. Sources claim the slur was spread around a champagne reception for Lord Ashcroft in early March. But a pal of Boris, 51, said she was “categorically” not involved and branded the slurs “pure poison”.

Adding:

The Sun knows the real identity of the QC at the centre of the affair, but cannot reveal it for legal reasons.

Maybe that Sun story should run: “BORIS Johnson’s wife is the subject of a vicious sex smear campaign designed to derail the battle for Britain to STAY IN the EU.”

Those inners are real scum, aren’t they?

Posted: 18th, May 2016 | In: Politicians, Reviews, Tabloids | Comment


Woman has no idea how baby opossum ended up in her toilet

opossum toilet

 

How did the baby opossum get into a San Diego, California, woman’s toilet? She says she has no idea how the creature got there. San Diego County Animal Services don’t believe the opossum crawled through the plumbing.

Which makes your wonder if it was something she ate? Or if that luxury toilet paper is a little too bulky to flush…

Posted: 18th, May 2016 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment (1)


Woman’s Obituary: ‘I died rather than vote for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump’

Marry Anne Noland’s obituary was published in Virginia’s The Richmond Times. She’d rather die than vote for Clinton or Trump:

 

obituary clinton trump

 

NOLAND, Mary Anne Alfriend. Faced with the prospect of voting for either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, Mary Anne Noland of Richmond chose, instead, to pass into the eternal love of God on Sunday, May 15, 2016, at the age of 68.

 

obituary clinton trump obituary

 

Spotter

Posted: 18th, May 2016 | In: Politicians, Reviews | Comment


Rangers kill rescued Yellowstone bison saved by fifth graders

Heard the one about the baby bison looking for love in Yellowstone National Park?

Karen Richardson of Victor, Idaho, was one of several parents chaperoning a group of fifth-graders on a field trip to Yellowstone this week.

Richardson says on Monday, as students were being taught at Lamar Buffalo Ranch, a father and son pulled up at the ranger station with a bison calf in their SUV.

“They were demanding to speak with a ranger,” Richardson tells EastIdahoNews.com. “They were seriously worried that the calf was freezing and dying.”

Rob Heusevelet, a father of a student, told the men to remove the bison from their car and warned they could be in trouble for having the animal.

“They didn’t care,” Heusevelet says. “They sincerely thought they were doing a service and helping that calf by trying to save it from the cold.”

 

bison yellowstone

Yellowstone rangers tells us what then happened

Last week in Yellowstone National Park, visitors were cited for placing a newborn bison calf in their vehicle and transporting it to a park facility because of their misplaced concern for the animal’s welfare.

In terms of human safety, this was a dangerous activity because adult animals are very protective of their young and will act aggressively to defend them. In addition, interference by people can cause mothers to reject their offspring.

In this case, park rangers tried repeatedly to reunite the newborn bison calf with the herd. These efforts failed. The bison calf was later euthanized because it was abandoned and causing a dangerous situation by continually approaching people and cars along the roadway.

Phew! Good job the experts were there…

Posted: 17th, May 2016 | In: Key Posts, Reviews, Strange But True | Comments (2)


Topless top policewoman suspended over ‘who has best breasts’ row

police woman manchester tits

 

When you see the police and those pointed helmets does you mind wonder to breasts? A Greater Manchester Police officer has been suspended after an alleged row with another wooden top over whose bosoms were the most attractive.

Assistant Chief Constable Rebekah Sutcliffe and Superintendent Sarah Jackson allegedly debated the issue at a bar in Manchester’s Hilton Hotel. They were attending the three-day Senior Women in Policing Conference when ACC Sutcliffe, 46, a thrice married mother-of-three, allegedly exposed her breasts. Sutcliffe has been suspended for her alleged ‘inappropriate behaviour’. Superintendent Jackson is not facing any sanctions.

File under: cop a feel.

Posted: 17th, May 2016 | In: Reviews | Comment


First penis transplant let’s patients go larger

Thomas Manning, 64, who lost his penis to cancer has received a penis transplant. If you could get one, would you go larger?

Relatives of the donor involved in the first successful penis transplant in the U.S. say they are opting to remain anonymous. Alexandra Glazier, CEO of the New England Organ Bank, says the family of the donor – who had died – is praying for recipient Thomas Manning’s continued recover. Glazier says the family indicates that Manning’s well-being is helping them cope as they mourn the loss of their loved one.

If you get a new penis, do you go for one larger than the one you had before, or is it just another organ, so you need a familiar fit?

 

Posted: 17th, May 2016 | In: Reviews | Comment


Estate by Robert Clayton: buy the book, see the show, love the pictures

Robert Clauton esate

 

Robert Clayton’s Estate is now on display in a major solo exhibition at Four Corners, 121 Roman Road, London E2.

The exhibition also sees the launch of his new short film about the work featuring Jonathan Meades. Large scale prints and a film are on show for free until May 29th.

Find out more here.

You can see a selection of Robert’s wonderful photographs on flashbak.

And then you can buy the book. Do so. It’s really terrific. Buy it here.

 

estate robert clayton

Posted: 16th, May 2016 | In: Books, Reviews, The Consumer | Comment


Boris Johnson hails the EU as a ‘spectacular success’

In Boris Johnson’s 2014 book on Winston Churchill, the Brexit campaign leader talks of the “spectacular success” of Churchill’s idea of ‘EC, now EU in delivering “peace & prosperity”.

 

Boris Johnson Churchill EU success

 

Whoopsie! As Churchill would have said.

Johnson’s a tad slippery, no?

Posted: 16th, May 2016 | In: Politicians, Reviews | Comment


SatNav directions send woman into a deep harbour (photos)

harbour driver sat nav 2

 

Do you trust machines? Would you buy a driverless car? To Tobermory, Ontario, Canada, where a 23-year-old woman who followed her car’s SatNav instructions ended up in a harbour.

Ontario Provincial Police say the driver “took a wrong turn into Little Tub Harbour… weather conditions and the driver being new to the area, a fully submerged vehicle was the result,” police said. The woman escaped by sliding from the car’s window and swimming 30 metres to the shore in 4°C water.

 

harbour driver sat nav 4 harbour driver sat nav 3 harbour driver sat nav 1 harbour driver sat nav harbour driver sat nav 5

 

 

Posted: 16th, May 2016 | In: Key Posts, Reviews, Strange But True, Technology | Comment


Dog walker finds ear in Warwickshire park: David Lynch is innocent

warwickshire ear severed police

 

To a park in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, where a dog walker has found an ear lying on the grass. He calls Warwickshire Police. They explain:

“Police were called to reports of a human ear being found in parkland near Frensham Drive, Nuneaton. The call was made with good intentions but thankfully the ear turned out to be a prosthetic and this incident is now closed.”

A prosthetic human ear? Anyone out there with wonky glasses?

It reminds me of David Lynch’s 1986 film, Blue Velvet. Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle Maclachlan) finds a severed / prosthetic ear in a field.  Lynch explained:

“I don’t know why it had to be an ear. Except it needed to be an opening of a part of the body, a hole into something else… The ear sits on the head and goes right into the mind so it felt perfect”.

Unless it’s a cloth ear?

 

 

Nothing to see here. Move along…

Posted: 16th, May 2016 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment


Naked Cuban arrested trying to flee US

naked Cuban MiamiTo Miami International Airport, Florida, where a naked Ricardo Nogales, 47, is being arrested on a breach of security charge after he jumped the perimeter fence and entered the restricted airfield area.

Miami-Dade Police says Nogales is a Cuban national. He’s also unemployed. He said he jumped the fence because he wanted to go back to Cuba.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump…about that fence…

 

Posted: 16th, May 2016 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment


Heads will roll after Manchester United fake bomb fiasco

manchester united fake bomb

 

Manchester United v Bournemouth was called off yesterday. A suspect package was discovered at Old Trafford. The Telegraph tells the sorry tale:

A farcical security blunder led to Manchester United’s final Premier League game of the season being cancelled on Sunday, after a private security firm forgot to remove a fake bomb taped to the back of a toilet door as part of a training exercise at Old Trafford.

The colossal error had sparked fears of another potential terrorist attack and resulted in the match against Bournemouth being called off as tens of thousands of fans were evacuated from one of the world’s most famous sports grounds.

Heads will roll. No, not at ISIS. It wasn’t a bomb. At the security company that didn’t find all its ‘bombs’, then forgot to collect and count them. But really it’s just pretty funny.

PS:  What’s odd is the Guardian’s front page, which leads with a picture of a sobbing child and a morose adult. Manchester United fans, which they surely are, should be delighted. That was the most urgency seen at Old Trafford this season:

 

bomb manchester united

 

 

Posted: 16th, May 2016 | In: Back pages, Broadsheets, manchester united, Reviews, Sports | Comment


Abortion 28, 24 or 20 weeks: who gets to choose?

abortion law bannedAbortion is a serious issue. Pope usually have a view on it. The Mail reports:

Britain’s biggest maternity union has joined forces with abortion providers and radical feminists in an ‘extreme’ campaign to abolish the legal limits on abortion. The Royal College of Midwives, which represents nearly 30,000 midwives and health workers, is calling for women to be allowed to terminate an unborn child at any stage of pregnancy – and face no criminal sanctions.

Abolishing abortion law would do away with the current time limit of 24 weeks of pregnancy, after which a woman can only have a termination for medical reasons.

The legal limits are a shifting sand, changing from 28 weeks to 24 weeks under the terms of The Human Embryology and Human Fertilisation Act 1990. The 28 weeks limit was set under the Abortion Act 1967. Before that abortions were illegal.

It’s not an exact science.

The sensible move it to trust women to decide on their pregnancies, for both moral, social and health issues, and permit doctors to perform safe abortions without fear of criminality. That abortion is a matter of State law is lamentable.

Posted: 15th, May 2016 | In: Reviews | Comment


Student debt rises as students invest in their own education

On Yahoo! news (via Press release) of student loans and student debt:

Eight in 10 U.S. adults with student loans (81 percent) say they made financial or personal sacrifices because of the amount of their loans. Half (50 percent) say they delayed contributions to retirement accounts, a 22 percent jump from 2013, when 41 percent delayed saving for retirement. An increasing number of Americans are working a second job as a result of their monthly loan payments, with 46 percent in the current survey saying they’re moonlighting, a 48 percent increase from the 31 percent who did so in 2013. These are among the latest findings of a new telephone survey of 1,005 U.S. adults conducted in March by Harris Poll on behalf of the American Institute of CPAs.

As Tim Worstall, often of this site, puts it: “Presumably it would be better if everyone had to struggle with their tax bills to pay for the university educations of other people?”

 

Posted: 13th, May 2016 | In: Money, Reviews | Comment