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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.
Daily Express Weather Watch: Predicting A Glorious Summer Apocalypse
NOT for the Daily Express a Daily Mail-themed slow, painful death by cancer. It can’t be bothered to wait:
Be afraid:
Mars, Earth, and the Sun will all align tonight, a rare ‘opposition of the planets’ that only happens once every 778 days.
But what makes this so remarkable is that it comes precisely a week before everyone on earth will see the first of FOUR dark red ‘blood moons’, an extraordinary event some Christians believe represents the End of Days and the second coming of Christ.
The King James Bible predicts: “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD comes,” [Joel 2:31].
But it not be so bad. As the trusty Express has predicted:
In other news: Sun scream gives you cancer…
A Vital History of Captain America at the Movies and on TV
WITH Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) shattering box office records this weekend, it is an opportune time to recall that this iconic Marvel superhero — and symbol of non-ironic Americana — has not always been treated very well by Hollywood.
In particular, the 1970s and 1980s proved a difficult span for the patriotic Cap, who had made a career in his Marvel comic-book of smashing Nazis and communists.
But first, the 1944 Republic serial, Captain America, created a new character and origin for the superhero.
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Posted: 9th, April 2014 | In: Film, Flashback, Key Posts, TV & Radio | Comments (2)
The Rolling Stones 1969: Listen To Mary Clayton’s Awesome Isolated Vocal From Gimme Shelter
THE isolated track of Merry Clayton’s vocal from The Rolling Stones’ 1969 hit Gimme Shelter is something else:
Posted: 8th, April 2014 | In: Flashback, Music | Comments (4)
Faces of The Day: Malaysians Host Candlelight Vigil For Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370
FACES of the day:
Malaysians gather during a candlelight vigil for passengers onboard the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Monday, April 7, 2014.
The missing jet has vanished from the front pages and news cycle.
1903: Girlie Mag Vanity Fair Profiles ‘The Bifurcated Girls: Gay Girls In Trousers’
IN 1903, The Commonwealth Publishing Company of New York City’s magazine Vanity Fair (no, another one; this one ran from February 1902 to April 1904) produced the article on The Bifurcated Girls: Gay Girls In Trousers.
Dian Hansen notes inHistory of Men’s Magazines:
While France had a well-established men’s magazine industry by 1900, America was just showing its ankles in 1903. A magazine called Vanity Fair (unrelated to the current incarnation) was the raciest thing around, and rooming house loozies the hotties of the time. In this New York, tabloid girls who drank like men might strip down to their petticoats and fall into bed together, exposing their corset cover and stockings to peeping male boarders. The famously loose morals of stage actresses made them popular subjects for these shenanigans, but the biggest thrill of all was bifurcation. “What?” one may well ask. Bifurcation, meaning “split in two”, referred to the contours of a woman’s legs revealed by her donning men’s trousers. Bifurcation was a regular and very popular feature in Vanity Fair, it’s popularity leading to Vanity Fair’s Bifurcated Girls.
Posted: 8th, April 2014 | In: Fashion, Flashback, Key Posts | Comment
Maria Miller LOL: ‘I can only hope that over time the focus will once again by on Basingstoke’
‘The Dallas of Hampshire’
MARIA Miller has written an open letter to the people of Basingstoke, Hampshire:
“The last 16 months have been difficult. As you know, I have been working hard for Basingstoke and also doing my job as a Cabinet minister. During this time, I have been subject to an intense Parliamentary inquiry looking at extensive personal details of my family life, as a result of allegations made by a Labour MP.
“That committee has now published its report and I have accepted their findings in full. I have unreservedly apologised for the way I handled and apporached [sic] the inquiry.
“And I am pleased that the committee has fully dismissed all of the allegations made against me. Separately, I have already apologised and repaid an over-claim of my expenses, having myself drawn the committee’s attention to the matter immediately I was aware of it.
“I have always sought to do the best job that I can in representing the people of Basingstoke in Westminster. I am devastated that this has happened, and that I have let you down.
“I can only hope that over time the focus will once again by on Basingstoke.”
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Posted: 8th, April 2014 | In: Politicians, Reviews | Comment
Spurs Balls: Tim Sherwood Says Champions League Isn’t A Priority Except When It Is
SPURS balls: Compare and contrast the words of Tottenham manager Tim Sherwood:
“The final league position has to meet the expectations of the club otherwise it’s ‘Goodbye Charlie’. The club need to finish in fourth place. Anything other than that is going to be a disappointment. Realistically we should be in and amongst it.
“There was never any pressure to get Champions League football. Just go out and do your best.”
It’s all about consistency.
When Venture Capital Fails Spectacularly: The Bessemer Venture Partners Story
WE’VE all heard about the titans of the silicon Valley venture capital industry. One day they put 30 cents into the stock of some company enabling people to show cat photos to each other and then three weeks later they’re running off with $10 billion from the IPO.
All most, most, annoying.
However, there’s one company out there that has been doing this venture capital stuff for over a century now. And they’ve made some quite glorious suck ups. No, not in what Bessemer Venture Partners did invest in, rather in what they didn’t. And they’re self-confident enough to tell us what they did fail to invest in too.
On investing in e-Bay:
“Stamps? Coins? Comic books? You’ve GOT to be kidding,” thought David Cowan. “No-brainer pass.”
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Posted: 8th, April 2014 | In: Key Posts, Money, Reviews | Comment
Irish Bomber Blows Himself Up: Forgot About Putting His Clock Forward
THE Telegraph has the headline that we can all take a minute to appreciate:
Irish bomber blew himself up after device went off too soon ‘because he forgot to put his watch forward’
Our hero had placed a bomb beneath a Volvo SUV. Kaboom!
The suspected bomber was seen fleeing the area in Dublin with “blood dripping down his face” .
A police source told the Mirror:
“This certainly was a high-grade explosive used in this bomb. It wasn’t garbage stuff. It would appear the bomber got his timings wrong. It could be a case where he didn’t put his watch forward on Sunday and the timer went off too soon. If anyone had been in the car or walking near it at the time then they would have been killed.”
Supt Dave Taylor ads, lest the most simple fact escape us, as it seems to have escaped the cretinous villain:
“It is quite obvious that the car was the object of this attack.”
The owner of the vehicle, a local businessman, has offered no comment.
Posted: 8th, April 2014 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment
Michael Lewis Says High Frequency Trading Rips Off Investors. Michael Lewis Is Clearly Wrong
THERE’S been a bit of a furore over in the US about the new Michael Lewis book. He’s saying that all this high speed trading (that’s the stuff done by computers in nanoseconds) is just a rip off of the average investor. The sad thing is that he’s got it entirely wrong.
What HFT does do is add more liquidity to the markets. That is, there’s just more people buying and selling as a result of their activity. Because their activity is buying and selling, so obviously there’s more of it going on.
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1971: The Glastonbury Fayre Where Only The New Pyramid Stage Was Plastic
FLASHBACK to Glastonbury 20–24 June 1971.
Before Glastonbury became a corporate BBC-sponsored event – and how Aunty Beeb kills the cool with her patronage – it was free and fun.
Wikipedia:
The Glastonbury Fayre of 1971 was instigated by Andrew Kerr after being found and introduced to Michael Eavis by David Trippas and organised with help from Arabella Churchill, Thomas Crimble,Bill Harkin, Gilberto Gil, Mark Irons, and Jytte Klamer. The 1971 festival featured the first incarnation of the “Pyramid Stage”. Conceived by Bill Harkin the stage was a one-tenth replica of the Great Pyramid of Giza built from scaffolding and metal sheeting and positioned over a blind spring which was found by dowsing.
Performers included David Bowie, Traffic, Fairport Convention, Quintessence, Hawkwind, Skin Alley, The Worthy Farm Windfuckers and Melanie. It was paid for by its supporters and advocates of its ideal, and embraced a mediaeval tradition of music, dance, poetry, theatre, lights and spontaneous entertainment. The 1971 festival was filmed by Nicolas Roeg and David Puttnam and was released as a film called simply Glastonbury Fayre.
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Glastonbury Is Dead But ‘The Best Is Yet To Come’
FOR people who don’t like hippies, festival-goers, indie music, ridiculous gig flags, wankers in bucket hats, posh girls in bindhis, heritage rock bands and wacky BBC presenters, the blanket coverage of the Glastonbury Festival is worse than a million Royal Weddings.
The bad news for Glastohaters is that the event has just had its license renewed for another decade.
And Glastonbury gaffer Emily Eavis – she took it over from her dad, Michael – has promised that ‘the best is yet to come’.
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The Real Life Barbie Manages To Get Her Racism The Wrong Way Around
OK, so there’s being good looking and stupid, not an unknown combination, and then there’s being freakish looking and being a blind bloody idiot. Which is what seems to have happened to this real life Barbie Doll of ours:
‘Human Barbie’ Valeria Lukyanova has claimed that interracial couples are making the human race uglier and sparking a rise in plastic surgery.
The cosmetically-enhanced model, 28, who is from the Ukraine, told GQ magazine: ‘Ethnicities are mixing now, so there’s degeneration, and it didn’t used to be like that.
‘Remember how many beautiful women there were in the 1950s and 1960s, without any surgery? And now, thanks to degeneration, we have this. A Russian marries an Armenian, they have a kid, a cute girl, but she has her dad’s nose. She goes and files it down a little, and it’s all good.’
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Posted: 8th, April 2014 | In: Celebrities, Reviews | Comment
Eegah! 10 Amazingly Bad Movie Titles
WHAT’S the worst movie title of all time? Freddy Got Fingered (2001) and Stop! Or my Mom will Shoot (1992) are often cited as contenders. One that nearly earned a victory for worst is Denzel Washington’s The Great Debaters (2007) – an immensely serious film which very nearly is The Master Debaters. Close but no cigar. The unpronounceable film The Rural Juror could have walked away with an easy victory. Alas, it’s a fictitious film from the TV show 30 Rock. Disqualified.
Perhaps, it’s best to look back a few decades. It may not be possible to scientifically lay out the all-time worst, but we can certainly make like Freddy and Finger a few candidates.
10. Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things (1973)
Sometimes a title is just trying to be get our attention by its ridiculousness [i.e. I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle (1990). For low budget films without a lot of financial resources for promotion, the best way to lure audiences is via a sensational title. So, I understand the rationale, and am sure it served its purpose; however, the title is still horrible. Functional, but horrible.
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Posted: 8th, April 2014 | In: Film, Flashback, Key Posts | Comment (1)
Peaches Geldof: An Untimely Death Was Her Tabloid Destiny
WHEN police announced that Peaches Geldof had died the newspapers rushed to shout “first”. Her death at 25 is a shocks. To her husband and two young children it is a tragedy. To the media it’s a result.
The celebrity death is heralded by people on social media shouting “FIRSTS!” and the “ker-ching” of big media’s cash register. Who can be first to dash out a few hundred words of speculation veering between the mawkish an the insulting about the dead person they never knew?
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Posted: 8th, April 2014 | In: Celebrities, Key Posts, Reviews | Comment
Peaches Geldof: Death Inspires Metro To Produce The Most Horrendous Front Page Of All Time
PEACHES Geldof has died. The vivacious, fun, entertaining and smart daughter of the late Paul Yates and Bob Geldof has died aged 25. She leaves behind a husband and two young sons.
So. How does the Metro newspaper report on the death of a young woman and her bereft family?
What mind thought that was a good front page?
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Posted: 7th, April 2014 | In: Celebrities, Reviews | Comments (2)
Circa 1780: Francis Gerber’s Vampiryc Research Case
CIRCA 1780: Francis Gerber Vampiryc Research Case:
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Posted: 7th, April 2014 | In: Flashback, Strange But True | Comment
Surgeon Stuart Meloy Finds It Tough Raising Money For The Orgasm Button
Liz Paul, from Shipley in West Yorkshire, displays her trademarked invention known as Vielle, which is, it is claimed, the first clitoral stimulator that is clinically proven to improve the chances of orgasm, at an awards ceremony at The Cafe Royal in central London. * The reception is held to celebrate the success and breadth of female inventors across the country. Date: 25/04/2003
STUART Meloy is the surgeon at Piedmont Anesthesia and Pain Consultants in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, who when experimenting with pain relief discovered the orgasm pill. He recalled the Eureka moment:
“I was placing the electrodes and suddenly the woman started exclaiming emphatically. I asked her what was up and she said, `You’re going to have to teach my husband to do that.'”
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Posted: 7th, April 2014 | In: Reviews, Technology | Comment
Peaches Geldof Has Died. Now That Is Tragic
PEACHES Geldof has died aged 25. Peaches Geldof, the daughter of Bob Geldof and Paula Yates, has died at the age of 25.
That is tragic.
She was vivacious, funny and a good journalist.
Peaches Geldof
Speaking to Elle Magazine in 2013, Peaches said:
“I remember the day my mother died, and it’s still hard to talk about it. I just blocked it out. I went to school the next day because my father’s mentality was ‘keep calm and carry on. So we all went to school and tried to act as if nothing had happened. But it had happened. I didn’t grieve. I didn’t cry at her funeral. I couldn’t express anything because I was just numb to it all. I didn’t start grieving for my mother properly until I was maybe 16.”
She was married to musician Thomas Cohen, with whom she had two sons, Astala, one, and Phaedra, who will turn one on 24 April.
Tragic.
Posted: 7th, April 2014 | In: Celebrities, Reviews | Comment
How Many People Do You Need To Colonize The Next Star System – 150 or 40,000?
THIS is an interesting little calculation that’s been made about how many people you would need on your spaceship if you were to set off and try to colonise the next star system over. Well, OK, it’s interesting to me as someone who imbibed so much SF and Fantasy stuff when in my long ago youth at least. And the answer is a very much larger number of people than you might think.
Here’s what the problem is:
Entire generations of people would be born, live, and die before the ship reached its destination. This brings up the question of how many people you need to send on a hypothetical interstellar mission to sustain sufficient genetic diversity. And a new study sets the bar much higher than Moore’s 150 people.
According to Portland State University anthropologist Cameron Smith, any such starship would have to carry a minimum of 10,000 people to secure the success of the endeavor. And a starting population of 40,000 would be even better, in case a large percentage of the population died during during the journey.
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Posted: 7th, April 2014 | In: Money, Reviews, Technology | Comments (2)
Manchester United Balls: Wayne Rooney Makes The Sun’s Dream Team Even When He Doesn’t Play
HOW good is Wayne Rooney? He’s so good that when the dire Sun on Sunday came to picking their team of the week, they picked the Manchester United star to play up front with someone called “Rodellaga”, a possible relation to Fulham’s Hugo Rodallega.
It’s also odd because Rooney didn’t play in United’s 4-0 win over Newcastle. still, good to see tweeting support for the actual team getting the recognition it deserves.
The Sun is dying on its feet.
Birmingham Schools’ Trojan Wars: Intolerant Liberals Fight Bigoted Muslims And Christians For Children’s Minds
ANDREW Moffat has resigned his job as assistant head teacher at Chilwell Croft Academy, in Newtown, Birmingham. You may know him as the author of the guide Challenging Homophobia in Primary Schools. That’s CHIPS. (Does the acronym come before the policy?)
The Times says CHIPS begins with the advice that five-year-olds need to be taught that gay men and lesbians exist. (But do they care?) But Mr Moffat’s books and his sensible appeal for tolerance and understanding are mostly aimed at older children.
Mr Moffat says he resigned from his post after parents complained that he was telling children it was acceptable to be gay. He told the children he was gay during an assembly. He explains why he did it:
“I did come out at school in an assembly after a group of 11-year-olds held up a poster they made, with the heading ‘Gay is good’. It seemed like the right time to let the children know that they knew a gay person. Following my coming out, some parents from different communities complained to the school, but I maintain that my decision was the right one at that time. Some Christian and some Muslim parents have told me they don’t want their children learning that it’s OK to be gay.”
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Posted: 7th, April 2014 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)
