Reviews Category
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.
Manchester Professor Films Real Fairies In Lancashire
UNIVERSITY lecturer John Hyatt claims to have photographed fairies flitting about Rossendale Valley, Lancashire. Mr Hyatt, who works at Manchester Metropolitan University, has showcased his discovery and said: “A lot of people who have seen them say they have brought a little bit of magic into their lives and there’s not enough of that around.”
Is magic a doily cut into wings shapes and suspended on dental floss Is that what fairies are, offcuts from Blue Peter?
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Posted: 7th, April 2014 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment
5 Highly Troubling Vintage Adverts
HERE is some free advice for up-and-coming marketing execs: Adverts should not make consumers feel nauseous or deeply uncomfortable. Nor should they cause consumers to experience waking nightmares or abdominal pain. You wouldn’t think this sort of instruction would be necessary, but here are five examples which demonstrate that it is. Please take notes.
1. SEXUALLY AROUSED STUFFED TOYS PROMOTE BEAR HOSIERY
“What a treat to stocking those legs. Wish I were a man,” says the first bear. I’m not sure how I feel about stuffed animals ogling over a woman’s legs. Call me old fashioned, but I prefer Teddy Bears without a sexual appetite.
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Posted: 7th, April 2014 | In: Fashion, Flashback, Key Posts | Comment
1492: Wound Man Was The Luckiest Man Alive In The Middle Ages
THE Wound Man is a compendium of all the injuries that a body in the Middle Ages might sustain.
The Wellcome Library advises:
Captions beside the stoic figure describe the injuries and sometimes give prognoses: often precise distinctions are drawn between types of injuries, such as whether an arrow has embedded itself in a muscle or shot right through. (The latter is better – the arrowhead can be cut away and the shaft withdrawn smoothly, whilst the embedded arrow will tear the muscle with its barbs when pulled out.)
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Posted: 7th, April 2014 | In: Flashback, Technology | Comment
Yashika Bageerathi Needs To Murder Someone If She Wants To Remain In The Free And Fair UK
LAST week we learnt that Yashika Bageerathi, 19, is contrary to the public good. Yashika had hatched a plot to take A-level exams this summer. The authorities picked up chatter that Bageerathi was expected to “do well”. It would be a “glorious day” if she “passed”.
Cunning Bageerathi arrived into UK by legal means. As police checked vans for human cargo and the coastguard kept a look out for overburdened li-los from France, Yashika and her family arrived in the UK on a plane. They were in possession of correct documentation. She then proceeded to commit not a single crime and work hard, slyly remaining “below the radar”.
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Posted: 7th, April 2014 | In: Reviews | Comments (2)
Man Gets Rich When Hyena Eats His Dick
CHAMANGENI Zulu is now surely on his way to riches. Currently in residence at Zambia’s Chipata General Hospital in Zambia, near the Malawi border, Mr Zulu followed doctor’s orders: he went into the bush and allowed / encouraged a hyena to eat his penis. Mr Zulu tells the Times of Zambia:
“I met some business persons who told me the best way to become rich was to sacrifice parts of my body. I was instructed to be naked and a hyena came to me and started eating my toes and eventually my manhood was eaten. Even if I have lost some important parts of my body, I still want to get rich.”
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Posted: 7th, April 2014 | In: Money, Reviews, Strange But True | Comment
The 1940 Reader: A Potato That Wasn’t A Christian
IN 1940, the pamphlet A potato that wasn’t a Christian hit the streets.
Now read on:
Mummy. Who makes potatoes..?
Spotter: Baby Jesus on a Cross, Christian Nightmares
Posted: 6th, April 2014 | In: Books, Flashback, Strange But True | Comments (2)
The ‘Pacific Coast Nimrod’ Seth Kinman And His Snapping Grizzly Bear Chairs Fit For Presidents
IN 1865, Seth Kinman (1815-1888), the California Hunter and Trapper, gave US President Andrew Johnson a GRIZZLY-BAR CHAIR.
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Posted: 6th, April 2014 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, Politicians | Comments (2)
Vintage Sexism: The A.C. Gilbert ‘Lab Technician Set For Girls’ (1958)
IN 1958 New Haven-based toymaker A.C. Gilbert Company turned youngsters onto science with a new kit. The LAB TECHNICIAN SET was a “CAREER BUILDING SCIENCE” kit.
And it was got Girls.
Posted: 6th, April 2014 | In: Flashback, Technology, The Consumer | Comment (1)
Boys’ Fiction: Ripping Yarns From The Victorian and Edwardian Heyday of Public School Fiction
AT last, a welcome repeat of Michael Palin and Terry Jones’s Ripping Yarns – post-Python parodies of all things public school and derring-do.
The series is reflected upon, and its inspiration investigated, in this highly enjoyable BBC documentary…
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Posted: 6th, April 2014 | In: Books, Flashback, Key Posts | Comment
Mug Shot: Man Wearing Appropriate T-Shirt Arrested For Drunk Driving
MUG Shot of the day features 21-year-old Ross McMakin, of Philomath, Oregon, arrested last Sunday on multiple charges including driving under the influence of intoxicants.
Funny Mugshot T-Shirts: A Gallery
Posted: 6th, April 2014 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment
1978: Spiderman’s Celebrity Party (Can You Name All The Guests?)
FLASHBACK to 1978: Spiderman’s Celebrity Party
January 1978 cover of Marvel’s Pizzazz magazine. The magazine only lasted 16 issues.
Can you name them all?
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Posted: 5th, April 2014 | In: Books, Celebrities, Flashback | Comment
Courtney Love Reads Kurt Cobain’s Handwritten Suicide Note (1994)
KURT Cobain left a long hand-written suicide note. It included the words of Neil Young from the song “My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue): “Better to burn out / than to fade away,” Neil Young is 68 years old. Cobain was just 27 when he ended his life 20 years ago this weekend.
Neil Young referenced Cobain’s death in his autobiography, Waging Heavy Peace.
“I, coincidentally, had been trying to reach him. I wanted to talk to him. Tell him only to play when he felt like it.”
On 8 April 1994, the heroin-addicted, shy Nirvana front man was found dead in his Seattle home – three day after he’d died.
He left behind a wife Courtney Love and his one-year-old daughter, Frances Bean.
Many worshipped Cobain, leader of the death cult. Even in death, his celebrity was all.
But not for everyone. In my house, my mother said one thing: “He took the coward’s way out.” I can’t but feel that’s more like the kind of thing he needed in his life. Forget the adulation and the fans who want a piece of you. Get someone you love to tell you to refocus, mature and see the bigger picture.
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Posted: 5th, April 2014 | In: Celebrities, Flashback, Music | Comment
1933: Everton’s Bill ‘Dixie’ Dean Holds Up The FA Cup As The Team Emerge Onto Lime Street, Liverpool
FLASHBACK to May 1 1933:
Everton’s Bill ‘Dixie’ Dean holds up the FA Cup as the team emerge onto Lime Street, Liverpool.
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Posted: 5th, April 2014 | In: Flashback, Sports | Comments (2)
1984: Everton Fans Invade The Arsenal Pitch As Southampton Are Beaten In The FA Cup
FLASHBACK to 14/04/1984:
Police officers battle with rival soccer fans at the end of the FA Cup semi final between Everton and Southampton at Highbury, London. At least 80 people were said to be arrested.
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Posted: 5th, April 2014 | In: Flashback, Sports | Comment (1)
Free Speech Watch: Maria Miller, Leveson And State Bullying To Keep The Facts Secret
MARIA Miller is the Tory MP and Culture Secretary. She is involved in discussions over the future of press regulation. She wants more of it. She is just one of the cross-party elite (and you can include artists in this illiberal group) who like free speech but want to insert a “but” after it. She wants limits on freedom.
Mrs Miller’s in trouble over her expense.
Kathryn Hudson, the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner looked at Miller’s expenses. She did the sums and found that Mrs Miller’s claims for mortgage interest payments exceeded her allowance by £44,000. Mrs Hudson made her report. Mrs Miller issued a 75-word apology. Miller agreed to repay £5,800 in over-claimed allowances and apologised for her “attitude” to the official inquiry.
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Posted: 5th, April 2014 | In: Politicians, Reviews | Comment
The State V Gareth Davies: The Police Persecution of A Journalist Is Part Of A War Against Free Speech
GARETH Davies is chief reporter of the Croydon Advertiser. Police have served him with an harassment order, a “Prevention of Harassment Letter”. His offence? He put allegations to a convicted fraudster.
Free speech is under attack.
As Brendan O’Neil writes:
Britain’s leading liberal writers and arts people can, sans shame, put their names to a letter calling for state regulation of the press, the very scourge their cultural forebears risked their heads fighting against.
So. What of Gareth Davies, the latest victim of the war on free speech?
It states that fraudster Neelam Desai claims Davies contacted her via Twitter and email on more than two occasions “seeking to interview her for a story for a local newspaper.
“She has stated that she does not wish to be contacted or written about by Mr Davies as she feels harassed by these actions. Mr Davies has failed to accept this, but continued to write and and make unsolicited contacts which result in Ms Desai feeling intimidated and persecuted.”
The letter states in bold type: “HARASSMENT IS A CRIMINAL OFFENCE.”
It then states that harassment can take many forms, including “abusive communication” or “repeated attempts to talk to or approach a person who is opposed to this”.
Davies has been conducting an in-depth investigation into Desai which has resulted in five page-leads over the last month.
She is alleged to have met men on an Asian marriage website and then tricked them out of large sums of money using fake identities. One alleged victim claims to have been conned out of £35,000.
Desai, 33, of Beulah Grove, Selhurst, has separately pleaded guilty to a string of frauds involving an international travel business she ran under a false name and is set to be sentenced at Croydon Crown Court on 25 April.
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1914: ‘How It Feels To Be Forcibly Fed’ Like A Suffragette By Djuna Barnes
ON September 6 1914, the prolific writer, artist and journalist Djuna Barnes wrote How It Feels To Be Forcibly Fed for The World Magazine. Barnes was a reporter working on a series of “stunt stories”.
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2004: The ‘Bin Laden Determined To Strike In US’ Memo
FLASHBACK to April 10 2004: The ‘Bin Laden Determined To Strike In US’ Memo:
Posted: 4th, April 2014 | In: Flashback, Politicians | Comment
Watch Jon Ham Strike Out On 1990s Love Show The Big Date
JON Ham aged well. In the mid 1990s, Ham appeared on the TV dating show The Big Date, hosted by Mark Walberg.The man who would knock them bandy as Mad Men’s Don Draper strikes out.
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Posted: 4th, April 2014 | In: Celebrities, Flashback, TV & Radio | Comment
Mad Men Rejoice: Plain Packaging For Cigarettes Will Increase Branding
AS you’ll know there’s a move to get to the plain packaging of cigarettes. This is the rather strange idea that if we can’t associate red with Marlboro and white with Silk Cut then we’ll smoke fewer cigarettes overall. Quite why is never really explained but we are assured that it will be true.
There’s something of a problem with the idea though. Which is that abolishing branding for legal cigarettes will probably lead to more branding by illegal ones. The reason is that a brand is an identification: it tells people something about the quality, and consistency of whatever the brand is associated with.
So prevalent have some lines of Cheap Whites become in parts of the UK where the majority of cigarette sales are now non-dutied through boot sales and under-counter trades that they are establishing brand loyalties; people like cigarette characteristics they are used to, in terms of taste, strength, throat-feel, acridity and so on, and when they find an illegal brand that mimics, say, Superkings will stick with it.
Which offers the intriguing possibility that with the government’s moves to introduce plain packaging for the legitimate TMA members already feeling the pinch, it’s unlikely the Cheap Whites will follow step; if anything, they will surely tend to improve their pack image.
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Posted: 4th, April 2014 | In: Money, Reviews, The Consumer | Comment
Argentina’s FAP Party Pays Tribute To Falklands Anniversary With Nicked Picture From Band of Brothers Poster
TO Argentina, where the political party FAP (I kid you not) pays tribute on Falklands anniversary by, erm borrowing a picture from Band of Brothers:
Spotter: @eaamalyon
Tom Daley Is Gay, Not Bisexual, Okay?
IMAGINE this: everyone in the world announces that they’re bisexual. Seems trite, but if everyone was bi, then it would stop the need for people to ‘come out’ and indeed, newspapers wouldn’t need to write stories about people ‘switching sides’ or indeed, as we’re seeing with Tom Daley, clarifying exactly which set of genitals he’s most interested in.
The 19-year-old told the world that he was bi on YouTube in December, saying: “Of course I still fancy girls, but right now, I’m dating a guy and I couldn’t be happier.”
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Posted: 4th, April 2014 | In: Celebrities, Reviews, Sports | Comment
Darren ‘Sumbarine’ Gough and ex-TOWIE ‘Star’ Amy Childs Are In A ‘Plutonic’ Relationship
HOT, steamy celebrity gossip is the lifeblood of the tabloid press, and never more so than in the Daily Mail’s report of the fallout following the revelation of an alleged affair between ex-cricketer Darren ‘Sumbarine’ Gough and ex-TOWIE ‘star’ Amy Childs.
Both parties deny that any funny business occurred, and insist that they are just friends.
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Posted: 4th, April 2014 | In: Celebrities, Reviews | Comment
