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.
Crime is dead: 5 tonnes of Nutella stolen
IN a break from Margaret Thatcher’s death news, this just in: Crime isn’t what it used to be. Remember when people tried to steal trains filled with money? Remember diamond thieves? Remember organised crime in good tailoring? Counterfeiting, glamorous drug barons and ties to the entertainment business?
That’s all gone.
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Don’t Rush Me: The 1975 Sex Education comic strip
FLASHBACK to 1975: Sex Education Leaflet issued by the Community Relations Council. This is an extract from the comic-strip magazine style publication called ‘Don’t Rush Me!‘ launched with the aim of cutting down the number of illegitimate babies born to teenagers. (Crayons not included.)
Thatcher’s death isn’t the only huge news story of the day
WHILE everyone is talking about the death of Margaret Thatcher, there has been another HUGE news story today, lead by Brightons’s The Argus, who always have their finger on the pulse.
While one political giant is pushing up daisies, another giant has been chasing around people even more unpopular than Maggie herself – the devious traffic warden!
Posted: 8th, April 2013 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)
Mick Philpott: the Sun calls it ‘state-subsidised manslaughter of children’
MICK Philpott continues to occupy minds at the Sun. Today we read in that paper that the man who killed six of his children in a fire will be cleaning his prison wing for £14 a day. Unless he doesn’t.
The problem with Philpott is that the story is over but the Sun wants it to linger. Why? Well, Philpott is being made to stand for something. No, not how a violent, woman-stabbing thug killed so many innocents. No. Michael Philpott is meant to be a emblem of the Welfare State’s failing. Following the Daily Mail’s jump the shark moment, the Sun delivered its verdict:
Today the Sun reveals what the jury couldn’t be told: Philpott had tried to murder an earlier girlfriend. We hope he never sees freedom. Likewise, let’s hope this is the last time the State unwittingly subsidises the manslaughter of children.”
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Can psychedelic psilocybin make magic mushrooms a cure for severe depression?
NEWS on Magic Mushrooms. Can they be used to cure depression? The key component is something called psilocybin. The theory is that it can stop patients dwelling on their perceived inadequacies. Psilocybin turns off the brain’s anterior cingulate cortex, an area that appears to control emotion. It is a psychedelic drug.
Says Professor David Nutt (more nominative determinism at work), neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London:
“People with depression have overactive default mode networks and so ruminate on themselves, on their inadequacies, on their badness, that they are worthless, that they have failed – to an extent that is sometimes delusional. Again psilo-cybin appears to block that activity and stops this obsessive rumination.”
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Posted: 8th, April 2013 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comments (9)
United Airline v Deborah Renwick: Making black women conform or else in 1969
IN 1969, air hostess Deborah Renwick was sacked for refusing to “shorten her hair”. But her hair wasn’t long. Renwick said her her hair was shorter than many white flight steward’s’ hair. Renwick believed that it wasn’t the length that mattered to her employers, it was the natural curl. After legal wrangling, United paid her $5,000, “endors[ed] the Afro hairstyle” and offered her her job back. She declined.
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Posted: 8th, April 2013 | In: Flashback, The Consumer | Comment
Paris Brown: Did Kent ”police’ give her the job on account of her ‘racist’ and ‘homophobic’ tweets?
PARIS Brown is Kent’s 17-year-old youth police commissioner. Last Wednesday, the Sheerness teen became the county’s teenage crime tsar. For £15,000 a year, Paris Brown would keep yoof and police in touch with each other.
She’s been on Twitter. You might have read some of her (alleged) thoughts:
“I want to fucking cut everyone around me.”
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Posted: 7th, April 2013 | In: Reviews | Comments (5)
Jeralean Talley at 113: oldest living American recalls only time she ever drove a car
JERALEAN Tallley was born May 23, 1899. She is the oldest living American. Born in Montrose, Ga., she moved to moved Michigan in 1935. She has one child, 75 year old Thelma Holloway. In this video, the 113-year-old woman recalls the only time she ever drove a car:
In photos: devotees inflict pain in honour of the Goddess Mutthumariamman in Bandel
FACES of the day: Hindu devotees figure in a religious procession dedicated to Goddess Mutthumariamman in Bandel, about 55 kilometers (34 miles) from Kolkata, India, Friday, April 5, 2013. During the procession, ritualistic acts of inflicting pain on oneself are performed as an act of penance with the belief that it will prevent diseases and for the well-being of the families of devotees. An apple a day might keep the doctor away, but a string of lemons hooked to your chest is better…
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A Hindu woman devotee, cheeks pierced with a metal rod, participates in a religious procession dedicated to Goddess Mutthumariamman in Bandel, about 55 kilometers (34 miles) from Kolkata, India, Friday, April 5, 2013. The ritualistic acts of inflicting pain on oneself are performed as an act of penance with the belief that it will prevent diseases and for the well-being of the families of devotees. (AP Photo/Bikas Das)
When football kits clash changes are inevitable: a history of soccer disasters
FLASHBACK looks at football kit changes. When both teams are wearing the ame kit,
Are you Crystal Palace in disguise?
There’s only one conceivable reason why any of the 21,281 spectators at Selhurst Park are likely to remember Saturday’s match between Crystal Palace and Barnsley: both team played in Palace kits. The Eagles played in their usual red-and-blue and the Tykes donned Palace’s yellow away shirt. Whether they took advantage of the 30 percent reduction in the club shop is not known. In the event both teams played like Palace and failed to score.
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Posted: 7th, April 2013 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, Sports | Comments (2)
Hifazat-e-Islam v the bloggers: a fight for the soul of Bangladesh (photos)
TO Dhaka, Bangladesh, for the Blasphemy Rally. The intolerant jihadis of Hifazat-e-Islam are demanding that the authorities enact an anti-blasphemy law punishing people who insult Islam. They want the alleged blasphemers executed. They also want a ban on “all foreign culture, including free mixing of men and women”. Well, not all foreign culture, just the foreign culture they don’t like. The imported Saudi Arabian stuff is fine.
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Posted: 6th, April 2013 | In: Reviews | Comments (3)
Shameless Mick Philpott teams up with Shameless Dave (Cameron) and Shameless Ed (Balls) to blame the system
MICK and Mairead Philpott’s killing of six children has been hijacked by vested interest groups.
George Osborne was asked if he thought State handouts sent to unemployed father-of-17 Mick Philpott might have contributed to his lifestyle. The Daily Mail had stated as much, leading with news that the Philpotts were the “vile product of Welfare UK“. Osborne replied that the crimes were horrendous and inexcusable. Adding:
“It’s right we ask questions as a Government, a society and as taxpayers why we are subsidising lifestyles like these. It does need to be handled.”
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Man attempts hot shave by heating up can on stove – what could go wrong?
IN search of the perfect shave, the gentleman’s bathroom cabinet has become an arsenal of weapons-grade blades. Two blades, three blades, four blades and more are smeared in ointments to turn your shave into a Cupid-fingered massage. One man in Largo, Florida, wanted to up the ante. He wanted to hot shave. So. He placed the can of shaving cream on the stove, turned up the heat and waited. Soon his shaving gels would be hot enough to smear over his beard.
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Posted: 6th, April 2013 | In: Reviews, The Consumer | Comment (1)
North Korea vows nuclear war: panicky West sends for Photoshop
NORTH Korean state television has an announcement:
“We will cope with the US nuclear threat with a merciless nuclear attack. And we will face this infiltration with a justified all-out-war. This is our military and our people’s unchangeable stance. The US and those followers should clearly know that everything is different in the era of respected Kim Jong-un.”
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Traffic warden sacked for taking photos of his victims
NO-ONE likes traffic wardens. All they do is creep around and cost you money. They’ve got hearses clamped and probably smell like rotten fish.
And so, to Steven Jarvis, a traffic warden who tried to liven up his evil job by taking photos of motorists for ‘a book’ he was ‘working’ on. While that may not seem so bad, there’s the small matter of Jarvis telling drivers that he would help get their fines scrapped if they posed for a photo with their ticket.
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Posted: 5th, April 2013 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)
National Treasures: those all-time Grand National highlights
National Treasures
AS the Grand National comes round again, bigger than ever and once again dogged by controversy, we look back on some historic highlights of this unique sporting event.
1928: Tipperary Tim
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How to say goodbye when you’re dying
RIP Robert Ebert. He knew the end was coming. The film critic wrote in September 2011:
I know it is coming, and I do not fear it, because I believe there is nothing on the other side of death to fear. I hope to be spared as much pain as possible on the approach path. I was perfectly content before I was born, and I think of death as the same state. I am grateful for the gifts of intelligence, love, wonder and laughter. You can’t say it wasn’t interesting. My lifetime’s memories are what I have brought home from the trip. I will require them for eternity no more than that little souvenir of the Eiffel Tower I brought home from Paris.
How do you approach the end? Iain Banks, the writer, is unwell. He took to his blog:
I am officially Very Poorly.
After a couple of surgical procedures, I am gradually recovering from jaundice caused by a blocked bile duct, but that – it turns out – is the least of my problems.
I first thought something might be wrong when I developed a sore back in late January, but put this down to the fact I’d started writing at the beginning of the month and so was crouched over a keyboard all day. When it hadn’t gone away by mid-February, I went to my GP, who spotted that I had jaundice. Blood tests, an ultrasound scan and then a CT scan revealed the full extent of the grisly truth by the start of March.
I have cancer. It started in my gall bladder, has infected both lobes of my liver and probably also my pancreas and some lymph nodes, plus one tumour is massed around a group of major blood vessels in the same volume, effectively ruling out any chance of surgery to remove the tumours either in the short or long term.
The bottom line, now, I’m afraid, is that as a late stage gall bladder cancer patient, I’m expected to live for ‘several months’ and it’s extremely unlikely I’ll live beyond a year. So it looks like my latest novel, The Quarry, will be my last.
As a result, I’ve withdrawn from all planned public engagements and I’ve asked my partner Adele if she will do me the honour of becoming my widow (sorry – but we find ghoulish humour helps). By the time this goes out we’ll be married and on a short honeymoon. We intend to spend however much quality time I have left seeing friends and relations and visiting places that have meant a lot to us. Meanwhile my heroic publishers are doing all they can to bring the publication date of my new novel forward by as much as four months, to give me a better chance of being around when it hits the shelves.
There is a possibility that it might be worth undergoing a course of chemotherapy to extend the amount of time available. However that is still something we’re balancing the pros and cons of, and anyway it is out of the question until my jaundice has further and significantly, reduced.
Lastly, I’d like to add that from my GP onwards, the professionalism of the medics involved – and the speed with which the resources of the NHS in Scotland have been deployed – has been exemplary, and the standard of care deeply impressive. We’re all just sorry the outcome hasn’t been more cheerful.A website is being set up where friends, family and fans can leave messages for me and check on my progress. It should be up and running during this week and a link to it will be here on my official website as soon as it’s ready.
Iain Banks
– ENDS –
How do you face the end?
Posted: 5th, April 2013 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comment (1)
After watching this video of Omar Von Muller and Jumpy, you’ll hate your own dog
PEOPLE who have pets are amusing people, mainly because they think that their cats and dogs have empathy for their owners. Pets have two thought processes: ‘I want to shit’ and ‘I want to eat’. Seeing as you facilitate both of these things, it is little wonder they learn the tricks to make them happen.
However, that isn’t to say pets are useless. Some of them are AMAZING. Not yours though. Your pets are rubbish.
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Thieves rob secret location in Ireland – police appeal for no witnesses
IRELAND news, as told by UTV:
Thieves targeted a building used by the gardaí armed division, the Emergency Response Unit (ERU), somewhere in the Republic of Ireland.
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Posted: 4th, April 2013 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)
‘Evil’ Mick and Mairead Philpott turn three-child families into State pariahs
MICK Philpott did not kill six of his children unaided. As guilty as the father are his wife Mairead Philpott and Paul Mosley, a family friend. But the tabloids only focus on him. Most often, there’d be thousands of words written about the woman. The Press have a special hatred for women who kill children. But Mairead Philpott seems to have dodged the tabloids’ gaze. Paul Mosley is almost invisible.
Why does the Mirror say only Mick Philpott is “Pure Evil“? The Express says both Philpotts are “evil“. But the Star calls him a “Devil Dad“, but not Maired Philpott a Devil Mum. Why not? Why isn’t Paul Mosley evil?
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Posted: 4th, April 2013 | In: Reviews | Comments (2)
1977: when Droids made cosmic Star Wars music
IN 1977, the world was going batty for Star Wars. Over in France, Yves Hayat, Jean-Paul Bataille and Richard Lornac formed Droids. In ’77, two of the trio (whish we can’t say) dressed as robots and shook the room with the song (Do You Have) The Force, with R2D2-styled bleeps and burrs.
Cosmic:
Flashback to 1944: The Allied soldier’s 24-hour rations pack
FLASHBACK to 21/05/1944.
When the big allied drive for the liberation of Europe takes place our fighting men will carry with them apart from their arms and equipment a small water-proofed card box. This will contain rations for 24 hours and comprises the following. 1 packet of salt, 10 shortbread biscuits, 1 packet of meat compressed, 2 meat cubs, 3 bars of chocolate two of which are vitamines, 2 packets of chewing-gum, 2 packets of oatmeal, 1 packet of team and dried milk, 4 cubes of sugar and 24 fruit sweets. A Tommy cooker and solid fuel packed in a tin is also provided for cooking purposes. The soldier’s twenty four-hours ration pack, May 21, 1944.
Posted: 3rd, April 2013 | In: Flashback | Comments (2)
In epic photos: One World Trade Center rises from Ground Zero New York
NEW YORK City’s One World Trade Center is up. It occupies part of the Ground Zero site when the Twin Towers once stood. When completed, the tower will be the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere – 1776ft high. Visitors will be able to stand on the observation deck – floors 100 to 102 – and look out at the great city. After 11 years that wonderful view is back. We’ll never forget 9/11. But – you know what – up yours Al Qaeda. In your face. We win:
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1972: School’s out in London for Steve ‘Ginger’ Finch and the Schools’ Action Union strike
Photo: A boy is held around the neck by a helmetless policeman during scuffles outside County Hall, Lambeth, where schoolchildren were demonstrating in support of the demands put forward by the Schools Action Union, which had called a one day strike of London pupils. 17/05/1972.
ON the 4th May 1972 about 200 boys aged between 11 and 16, put down their pencils and rulers at Quinton Kynaston School in the Finchley Road near St John’s Wood in North London, in a protest over unpleasant school dinners, caning, and the conformity of school uniforms. They swarmed over the school wall and not knowing really what to do next, decided to all go home, writes Rob Baker.
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Posted: 3rd, April 2013 | In: Flashback, Key Posts | Comment
Daily Mail jumps the shark: says Welfare State made Mick Philpott kill six of his children
MICK Philpott killed six of his children in their home. Why did he do it? Maybe for similar reasons that he stabbed a girlfriend when he was 21. He was sent to prison for that crime. But just as you think Mick Philpott might be a narcissist, a lunatic, a woman beater, a child killer and a maniac, the Daily Mail says the Welfare State made him do it. It wasn’t him. It was the system that created him. Philpott may use this defence when he appeals, as he surely will.
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