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Ched Evans: not guilty of hotel rape

The verdict is in and Ched Evans, 27, is innocent. The former Sheffield United striker did not rape a woman at Premier Inn in Rhuddlan, Denbighshire, on 30 May 2011.

In 2012, Evans was found guilty of rape at Caernarfon Crown Court. In April 2015 that conviction was erased.

A statement is read aloud:

“In the early hours of 30 May 2011, an incident occurred in north Wales that was to change my life and the lives of others forever. That incident did not involve the commission of a criminal offence and today I am overwhelmed with relief that the jury agreed. I would like to thank my legal team… for their tireless efforts upon my behalf.

“Thanks go, too, to my friends and family; most notably my fiancee, Natasha, who chose, perhaps incredibly, to support me in my darkest hour. Whilst my innocence has now been established, I wish to make it clear that I wholeheartedly apologise to anyone who might have been affected by the events of the night in question.”

And the other party – the woman? Do not name her. She has lifelong anonymity. Supt Jo Williams from North Wales Police warns: “People need to be aware that they could find themselves being arrested and prosecuted. This was done previously, people were prosecuted and heavily fined.”

Now read:

Ched Evans: A Tale Of Love, PR And A Victim Who Wants To Forget

The Persecution of Ched Evans: slum player in Hillsborough ‘fury’

 

Posted: 14th, October 2016 | In: Reviews | Comment


Wonder Woman is your new UN women’s champion

Wonder Woman has been awarded the role of honorary UN ambassador, promoting women’s empowerment and preventing domestic violence through, smiling and bullet-repelling bracelets.

Wonder Woman promises to nail, punch in the throat and re-educate 2D women-haters the world over.

 

wonder woman UN

 

 

Says one real woman: “KAPOW!”

Posted: 14th, October 2016 | In: Celebrities, Reviews | Comment


Quick thinking hotel manger saves dog with lead caught in a moving lift

Here of the day is Ben Duke, who saved a dog’s life when its leads got trapped in an elevator. “I happened to walk out at the right time and save the dogs life,” says Ben, general manager at The Roadway Inn in Greenville, South Carolina.

“The doors closed, and I guess he didn’t realise that his dog had wandered off,” Ben adds. “I just grabbed the lead, and struggled with it, then I guess adrenaline set in or something, and I snapped the leash right above my hand. The dog was scared, and fought me pretty hard. In fact, he scratched me pretty good on my face. I don’t blame him. It was pretty scary.

“The owner  was crying and was so grateful. He just came up and hugged me. It was pretty crazy. I was just reacting and doing what I was supposed to do in that situation. People are calling me a hero, but I can’t imagine the other outcome. I just did what you are supposed to do in this situation.”

 

 

Boo Boo the dog is fine.

Posted: 13th, October 2016 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment


St Dunstan’s school, Glastonbury, sends parents typo C-bvomb

The message to parents with children at St Dunstan’s school, Glastonbury, Somerset, is clear: state your ‘cunt’ of birth:

 

school cunty

 

The school says the word ‘cunty’ is a typo and not a comment on nationality. The letters ‘O’ and ‘R’ were not included in error.

 

Posted: 13th, October 2016 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment


For Sale at Clinton fundraiser: the Donald Trump paddle ball gag

Donald Trump paddle ball gag

 

Presidential Tat Watch spots this “Donald Trump Paddle Ball” on sale at the Gagosian’s Benefit for Clinton, Art For Hillary.

Designed by New York sculptor Elliott Arkin, the wooden paddle features a likeness of Donald Trump’s face. The mouth is open. The idea is that you smack the red rubber ball into Trump’s pie hole.

Arkin’s work references Koons’s Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer paddle ball game from 2000.  “I often use existing contemporary works to satirize. Since Koons has made that print of the Mona Lisa for this event, I thought his Rudolph paddle ball was a natural fit for Trump,” he says.

Konn’s Mona Lisa repo costs Clinton fans – get this – $50,000.

To even things up, Arkin has also made a Hillary Clinton Flash Drive an 8 megabyte flash drive in the shape of a miniature Clinton. You pop off Clinton’s noggin – decapitate it, if you will – and reveal the device.

Whether the data storage device contains any data, like emails, say, or has been accidentally wiped clean by forces unknown is unsaid.

Spotter: ArtInfo

Posted: 12th, October 2016 | In: Politicians, Reviews, The Consumer | Comment


Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton sing I’ve Had The Time of My Life

Donald and Hillary will now sing I’ve Had The Time of My Life:

 

The video was produced by Dutch broadcaster Lucky TV.

When I saw them I kept thinking of Dolly Parton (Trump) and Kenny Rogers (Clinton).

Make it happen, internet.

Take them away:

Posted: 11th, October 2016 | In: Key Posts, Politicians, Reviews | Comment


Hillary Clinton and Heather Samuelson give WikiLeaks emails a delicious stink

We’re still all waiting for the anything in Hillary Clinton’s hacked emails – released by WikiLeaks  – to besmirch her reputation for being economical with the actualité (surely ‘a titan of truth’ – ed) . Of course, thousands of Clinton’s emails handled by a private server she maintained while in the top tiers of government were acciedntally destroyed. But something is seeping out. ZeroHedge says the State Department and the Clinton Campaign might be tighter than Vladimir Putin’s forehead:

Now, courtesy of the latest leak by Wikileaks, which earlier today released another 2,000 emails by Clinton campaign chairman, John Podesta, we may have stumbled on evidence of collusion between the State Department and the Clinton Campaign itself. In an email from close Hillary’s confidant Heather Samuelson, also known as “the Clinton insider who screened Hillary’s emails”, we learn the intimate details leaked by Samuelson regarding a FOIA request submitted previously by Judicial Watch regarding Bill Clinton speeches, which shows that virtually entire process was being “translated” over to Hillary’s campaign.

Who is Heather Samuelson? Politico noted on September 2015:

Hillary Clinton chose a former campaign staffer who followed her to the State Department to make the initial determination about which of her emails should be preserved as federal records, according to closed-door testimony by Clinton’s former chief of staff Cheryl Mills, a GOP source told POLITICO.

Why not preserve all of them?

Heather Samuelson, a lawyer and 2008 Clinton campaign staffer, worked under Mills and Clinton’s attorney David Kendall to sift through her ex-boss’ messages. She helped separate those that were purely personal, which were not turned over to the State Department, from those that were work-related.

The Daily Caller adds:

Most importantly, as we reported previously, Samuelson received DOJ immunity in exchange for turning over the laptop she used during the review of Clinton’s emails in 2014.

Here’s a question for Britons who want to abolish the monarchy: Trump or Clinton? And after them you most likely get their kids.

Posted: 10th, October 2016 | In: Politicians, Reviews | Comment


William Tapley is Donald Trump’s ‘unofficial’ music maestro

William Tapley Trump song Jesus

He’s back! The str of ‘thirdeaglebooks’ is a Donald Trump supporters. He’s written a song for Don. As the blurb says, this is the “unofficial” campaign song for the 2016 Trump-Pence Republican Presidential ticket. The official song will find this impossible to beat.

Take it away…. William Tapley (co Prophet of The End of Times)

 

More here and here.

Posted: 10th, October 2016 | In: Key Posts, Politicians, Reviews | Comment


Trump v Who? The electorate lose again as Hillary vanishes

How did the second debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton go? Trump is a nutzoid candidate. Clinton is a really poor one. American decides which of these two sub-par candidates gets to be President.

The Press are obsessed with Trump. If we looks at today’s headlines, Trump features before Clinton every time. Most often, Clinton is not mentioned.

 

Trump v Clinton

Islands in the stream…

 

The Times: “Unrepentant Trump comes out swinging”. The paper brands it an”unremittingly ugly presidential debate”. the paper concludes: “Neither candidate landed a killer blow. The biggest loser, it seemed, was the electorate who must choose between them.”

Too right. The leader of the free world will either be a cock-unsure reality TV creation or someone who seems to have an elastic relationship with the truth. “Mrs Clinton stumbled when she compared her honesty to that of Abraham Lincoln, drawing sniggers from the audience,” says the paper.

The Sun: “‘YOU’LL GO TO JAIL IF I’M PRESIDENT’ – Donald Trump threatens Hillary Clinton with PRISON over email scandal after brushing off attack over tape of his lewd comments on women”

In a stunningly brazen move just hours before debate Trump met publicly with several women who have accused Bill Clinton of unwanted sexual advances and even rape

 

Trump Clinton grope

 

The Guardian: “Donald Trump uses second debate to threaten Hillary Clinton with jail”

It all seems to be about stopping Trump rather than agreeing with Clinton or analysing policies and records. One Guardian writer opines: “That banging sound you heard were the last nails being hammered into the coffin of the Trump campaign.”

The Guardian’s live blog of the televised event tells readers: “Don’t miss this roundup of reaction from Guardian opinion writers. Great first lines here:

That banging sound you heard were the last nails being hammered into the coffin of the Trump campaign.

And

If there was a theme for Trump this evening, it would be aggressive desperation.

And

Trump succeeded, and he succeeded before the first question was even asked.

And, simply:

Donald Trump lost tonight’s debate.

Trump, Trump, Trump and Trump. Was Clinton there?

Trump Clinton grope

 

The Mirror says Hillary Clinton won the debate, mainly because Trump was damaged.

Tim Stanley in the Telegraph:

So the evening began with Clinton in control. She made her pitch to be a healer; she ran off a checklist of people Trump has insulted (it’s amusingly long – only the left handed and the Welsh are missing). But when the debate moved on she didn’t seem to keep up. Her answers on medical reform and foreign policy were good, but there was too much smiling and listening to Donald rant with weary patience. All the while that she spoke, he prowled around the room like a caged tiger – which meant that even when Hillary was talking, one’s eyes were on him. And when the moderators took it upon themselves to start fact-checking his statements – and Trump feigned outrage – the debate turned into “An Evening with Donald Trump.”

On Powerline we read that Trump won: “Some of the rats might want to consider returning to the ship. Donald Trump came through pretty well tonight, mainly because the focus was on the issues. As long as issues are being discussed, Trump wins.”

Stephen Green: “It’s clear that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump loathe each other. Instead of a 90 minute town hall format, there’s no doubt that both candidates would eagerly agree to a debate held in a Roman Colosseum, to the death…And, yes, we would be entertained.”

 

Bill Clinton debate

 

Meanwhile over in Russia you can hear the laughing….

Posted: 10th, October 2016 | In: Reviews | Comment


Teenager has nine-inch tail removed (photos)

teenager tail removed human tail

 

“It became a problem when the tail grew outside the body,” said the 14-year-old boy’s mother, who doesn’t want to be named.

“He would just lift the [8-inch] tail every time he needed to change his clothes. I could see that it was very annoying and painful for him, so I took him to a hospital.” Doctors say the teenager might have developed the tail in the womb as a result of a spinal deformity, but that it appeared outside only after he grew up.

“When the size of the tail grew… [it] began to press on the boy’s back,” says surgeon, Dr Pramod Giri. “It was cosmetically and psychologically disturbing for him.”

 

 

Do you dress to the left or to the right, sir?

Posted: 9th, October 2016 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment


Bill Clinton to Gennifer Flowers – ‘Hillary Clinton has eaten more pussy than I have’ and other Trump defences

How do we tell the story of reality TV star Donald Trump telling gibbering TV host Billy Bush “Grab her by the pussy“? The British news has made Trump’s “crass” comment (Express) the lead news story. Bigger than mass murder in Syria, desperate migrants and bellicose Russia is Trump’s “sex boast” (The Observer).

 

s trump

donald trump crass sex

 

The Mirror looks at more pressing issues.

 

mirror aleppo

 

Trump is a story. The reality TV creation is news because he’s said something pathetic and is cheap to produce.

But should one comment scupper Trump’s White House bid?

Nick Kristoff opines in the NYTimes: “In fairness to Trump, other senior men in politics and business — John Kennedy and Bill Clinton come to mind — also sometimes showed a sense of entitlement toward young women.”

The digging for dirt begins.

 

Hillary Clinton pussy

 

Said Gennifer Flowers: “I just know what Bill told me and that was that he was aware that Hillary was bisexual and he didn’t care. He should know. ‘He said Hillary had eaten more p***y than he had.’”

 

gennifer flowers pussy trump

 

 

In the Washington Post, we  read:

Trump, facing a GOP exodus from his campaign and apparently desperate to change the subject, just retweeted two tweets from an account featuring the name of Juanita Broaddrick, the woman who publicly alleged in 1999 that Clinton had sexually assaulted her two decades prior. In both tweets, the Broaddrick account reiterates her accusation that Clinton raped her and accuses Hillary Clinton of enabling him.

 

gennifer flowers

 

Jonah Goldberg stuck it to Hillary:

Then, the country was presented with proof, incremental and suggestive at first, overwhelming and indisputable by the end of the decade, that Bill Clinton was an irrepressible and irresponsible sexual predator, at least by the moral and evidentiary standards established by feminist activists and the press corps that loves them. And, rather than face the consequences of applying their own principles consistently, they prostrated themselves to the Oval Office. Gloria Steinem raced to the pages of the New York Times to advance the “one free grope” rule. Susan Estrich, Susan Faludi, and countless other professional feminists defenestrated their principles in a desperate attempt to defend Clinton.

And can we blame the woman seen in the film when Trump went full frat house?

 

trump victim

 

To the Mail it is not Trump’s ugly comment that could cost him the White House – it is elegant TV soap actress Arianne Zucker, a woman who diplomatically dealt with TV host Billy Bragg’s pathetic comments as to which of he or Trump she’d sleep with.

Sean Collins:

The obsession with Trump, the close monitoring of his every utterance, has reached the point that his political and media foes have – ironically – become important generators of support for him. Every time they tell Trump ‘you can’t say that’, he says it. Every time they demand an apology from Trump, he doubles down on it. Just by defying the strictures of political correctness, and not caving when challenged, Trump can look authoritative and daring.

We keep reading that Republicans have deserted Trump. Will his supporters care? No. Trump has turned the election into a referendum on the political establishment. Clinton should be miles ahead in the polls. Why isn’t she? Seen as untrustworthy by many, her policies should be more than ‘I’m not Trump’. Remember Bernie Sanders, who said failing to vote Hillary will lead to “more drought, more floods, more acidification of the oceans, more rising sea levels.”

The Republican nominee Donald Trump spoke for 75 minutes and for most of his speech, he outlined a laundry list of every conceivable fear he could conjure. Radical Islam, immigration (legal, illegal, Mexican, Muslim, whatevs), stagnant wages, rising violence in the streets, and really terrible trade deals were among the litany.

The US Presidential campaign has a long way to run.

And like so much in Trump and Clinton’s lives, it is a race to the bottom.

Posted: 9th, October 2016 | In: Key Posts, Politicians, Reviews | Comment


Other parents: dad arrested for throwing away hairy 19-year-old son’s Lego

To Florida, where Nicholas Melice, Sr., 46, is rowing with his son, Nicholas Jr., 19.

 

Lego parents

 

 

Mr. Melice Sr. (above) wants to throw away Mr. Melice Jr.’s Lego.

It gets heated. Police are called.

Both Mr. Melice and Mr. Melice Jr. advised they wished to pursue criminal charges,” reported an officer who added that he was unable to determine the scrape’s “primary aggressor”.

The Melices were arrested.

We can all debate the merits of a 19-year-old being so attached to their Lego – and the young master’s haircut, which seems to be modelled on one of his toys.

 

Lego dad

“Lego!” No, you Lego!

 

It’s ok. That hair most likely pulls off and can be replaced easily.

Posted: 8th, October 2016 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment


‘Grab them by the pussy’: WikiLeaks, Hillary Clinton’s potential cover up and Trump’s Tic Tacs for sex

WikiLeaks has released bits of speeches Hillary Clinton gave in the years before her 2016 presidential campaign. It was a lucrative tour. Private audiences paid her “at least $26.1 million in speaking fees”.

We get to see the speeches because versions of them appeared in emails now hacked, such as an account operated by Campaign Chairman John Podesta.

We love a cover up. But if we don’t find any juice, then so what? Aren’t private emails part of everyday conversations – some things we say are good and others less so. Do emails give us the full context?

Meanwhile Clinton’s rival Donald Trumps is in the mire over his attitudes to women, what the BBC calls “obscene remarks on women”.

In the video, posted by the Washington Post, Mr Trump is heard bragging to TV host Billy Bush about trying to have sex with a married woman as well as kissing and groping others.

A clip was part of unaired footage for an Access Hollywood segment ahead of Mr Trump’s appearance on the soap opera Days of Our Lives.

Said Trump:

“I moved on her and I failed. I’ll admit it. She was married. And I moved on her very heavily. I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn’t get there. And she was married. Then all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the big phoney tits and everything. She’s totally changed her look.”

He then says when he sees a pretty woman he hones in.

Bush notes actress Arianne Zucker, who’s waiting for Trump outside the bus. “Your girl’s hot as s***, in the purple,” Bush said.

“Whoa!” Trump replied. “Whoa!”

“I’ve gotta use some Tic-Tacs, just in case I start kissing her,” Trump continued. “You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything.”

“Whatever you want,” said another voice believed to be Bush.

“Grab them by the pussy,” Trump replied. “You can do anything.”

All unedifying stuff. But what do we have but Clinton talking to the paying fans and what Trump calls “locker-room banter”?

 

donald trump jill harth

 

Listen in. Language is NSFW. Trump is revolting. Bush is sleaze personified.

 

 

Trump has now apologised. Well, sort of. He said: “This was locker room banter, a private conversation that took place many years ago. Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf course – not even close. I apologize if anyone was offended.”

His apology is not for his comments rather for your taking offence at them. It’s a remarkably dishonest approach to saying ‘sorry’.

Expert to hear lots now on Bill Clinton’s attitude to women and Jill Harth, the woman who sued Trump over an alleged sexual assault. The Guardian dished the dirt:

She first met Trump in December 1992 at his offices in Trump Tower, where she and her then romantic partner, George Houraney, were making a business presentation. The couple wanted to recruit Trump to back their American Dream festival, in which Harth oversaw a pin-up competition known as American Dream Calendar Girls. Harth described that meeting as “the highlight of our career”.

But in other ways, it was something of a lowlight: Trump took an interest in Harth immediately and began subjecting her to a steady string of unwanted sexual advances, detailed by Harth in her complaint.

She claims that in January 1993, Harth and Houraney were visiting Trump’s Florida mansion. She alleges:

“He pushed me up against the wall, and had his hands all over me and tried to get up my dress again, and I had to physically say: ‘What are you doing? Stop it.’ It was a shocking thing to have him do this because he knew I was with George, he knew they were in the next room. And how could he be doing this when I’m there for business?…

“Trump did everything in his power to get me to leave him. He constantly called me and said: ‘I love you, baby, I’m going to be the best lover you ever had. What are you doing with that loser, you need to be with me, you need to step it up to the big leagues.’

“He was constantly working on me during that time and that took a toll on me. But I moved on. I’m a forgiving type person, OK? I’m a Christian, I moved on.”

He denies the allegations.

America waits to elect one or the other of what must be the least appealing choice since Michael Barrymore asked “Top, Middle or Bottom?”

Posted: 8th, October 2016 | In: Key Posts, Politicians, Reviews | Comment (1)


Mother gets ‘keepsake’ vibrator stuck up her anus

Emma Phillips, Wallasey, Wirral, is the trainee teacher who got a large dildo stuck in her anus (?). This is no secret. Emma has not been exposed or outed in some way. She wants to tell us all about her “embarrassing” accident because it is a “taboo” we need to be warned about.

She’s told her story to Mercury Press, who have sold it to the Daily Mirror. How you prove the story of the vanishing viby is a moot point. Emma just wants to tell us about it. And we are all ears.

And no giggling as “Emma offers a thumbs up from her hospital bed”. Let’s hope she washes it first and removed any false fingernails.

 

women with dildo stuck in vagina

 

One day her child will get to read about the tale of “Mum-of-one Emma Phillips”, her partner Lee Miller, 29, and the the 7 inch sex toy that “disappeared”.

Highlights are:

When she leaned forward she could feel it vibrating inside her bottom wedged behind her hip.

Lee tried to extract the toy with a fork handle and BBQ prongs before calling for an ambulance.

In Wrexham hospital Emma underwent the “minute-and-a-half surgery which involved placing a camera down her throat and the surgeon pressing on her stomach before manually extracting i”.

And “Doctors offered her the toy as a keepsake but she decline”.

Next week: I got a BBQ stuck inside my vagina.

 

Posted: 7th, October 2016 | In: Key Posts, Reviews, Strange But True, The Consumer | Comment


Listen to Michel Foucault’s free lectures at UC Berkeley, 1980-1983

Open Culture has a great post on French philosopher Michel Foucault (1926-1984), who lectured in English at UC Berkeley, delivering several lectures in English. And we can listen to everything this heavyweight in the filed of humanities said.

 

Michel Foulcart lectures Berkely

 

It might do you some good. After all, as he put it, power is knowledge. And power is omnipresent.

This from Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (Surveiller et Punir: Naissance de la Prison): “It is not the activity of the subject of knowledge that produces a corpus of knowledge, useful or resistant to power, but power-knowledge, the processes and struggles that traverse it and of which it is made up, that determines the forms and possible domains of knowledge.”

.

 

Via Open Culture

Posted: 6th, October 2016 | In: Reviews | Comment


Madeleine McCann: Majorca mums, Goncalo Amaral’s next blockbuster and ‘the worst thing imaginable’

Madeleine McCann: a look at reporting on the missing child.

The Sun: “FRESH MADDIE SCANDAL.”

What old or, to use the Sun’s terminology, stale Maddie scandal? The only thing we know is that a child vanished and the news media launched into a voracious feeding frenzy. There are no suspects. In fact, police have yet to prove what crime, if any, befell her.

The Sun continues: “Ex-cop who accused McCann’s of faking Maddie’s abduction plans second book slamming Brit cops.”

The former policeman in Goncalo Amaral. His theories are just theories. His writing a second book is not a scandal; it’s pretty much what best-selling authors so when their first book has been a hit. They write a sequel. The writer will be pleased the Sun is advertising his tome:

Goncalo Amaral has almost finished his second book, but although it is expected to centre around the 2008 disappearance of Maddie in Algarave, Portugal, it is unclear what details the author will release.

Details? Who needs details? We do get a few facts about his past work:

The 56-year-old author previously wrote The Truth Of The Lie in 2008, which accused her parents Kate and Gerry McCann of faking Maddie’s abduction. But the couple have previously been left reeling after having their £395,000 libel victory revoked by Lisbon appeal judges who overturned a ban on his book in April.

To add insult to injury, Amaral also is planning to sue the couple for compensation after winning his appeal.

We learn that writing about a missing child pays handsomely:

Amaral is understood to have earned £316,000 from his book before it was banned.

And?

According to a source, the ex-police chief has been getting help from friends and well-wishers to survive as all of his property is “tied up” legally during the civil action with the McCanns.

All unpleasant stuff.

As for the facts, well that is a single thread. Nothing has changed. Nonetheless the Sun sees fit to hold one end and repeat:

Maddie went missing on May 3 2007 from her bed in a holiday apartment in the Praia da Luz resort…

With no news of Madeleine McCann, the Mail focuses on no news of missing Ben Needham. The paper’s headline runs:

The worst thing imaginable’: Kate McCann says her ‘heart goes out’ to Ben Needham’s mother as Kerry prepares for the worst while police in Kos dig SECOND site

The worst thing imaginable, we learn, is to have police dig for your missing child’s remains. The Press lap up the drama. Note that this is different from the tabloids’ “every parent’s worst nightmare”, which is for your child to vanish.

The Mail reports this as news because “a close friend of the former GP told MailOnline: ‘This brings back dreadful memories for Kate. She went through a similar horrendous experience a few years back when the authorities were digging for Madeleine. Not knowing if they are going to unearth the remains of your child as you wait helplessly is the worst thing imaginable. It is galling.
Kate’s says her heart goes out to Kerry Needham at such a traumatic time. She is very sympathetic and wants to offer her strength and solidarity. They have met up in the past as fellow mums of high profile missing children and share a seemingly never ending pain and anguish.”

Ben Needham and Madeleine McCann are two distinct stories and cases. They are both names tabloid readers are familiar with. Why? Well, there are rare cases. But are high profile missing children always very young, white and blond. Are we that shallow? Andrew Godsen, 14, went missing in 2007. Charlene Downes was 14 when she vanished. Aamina Khan was 6 when she went missing in 2011. She vanished with her mother Humma Dar after her father was given custody.

The Indy notes:

While her disappearance is no doubt a huge tragedy, we have to wonder why it is Madeleine McCann, a pretty white girl, who has captured the sympathy of the public, and not girls with names like Aamina Khan, Elizabeth Ogungbayibi, or Folawiyo Oladejo.

Which ones sell the most papers? Which ones get the tourists flocking?

Leicester Mercury: “Madeleine McCann tour takes customers on sightseeing trip around town where she disappeared”

Is it full of journalists?

Holidaymakers are being offered Madeleine McCann tours of the holiday complex where she disappeared. Tourists taking up the trips – which Madeleine’s parents are said to find distressing – are invited to speculate on what happened to the then-three-year-old in May 1997.

It’s a magical mystery your that recaptures the ghoulish wonder of working in newsroom before all the libel cases kicked in.

The tours take visitors to the Praia da Luz apartment where the Rothley family were staying and the tapas restaurant where her parents Gerry and Kate were dining when she vanished.

Are drinks and snacks included?

The Edinburgh Evening News tells ghouls not to book early. There might be more. Helen Martin writes:

ANOTHER unnamed British tourist in Spain has been given a suspended sentence for leaving her child alone to go out on the razzle. Staff in a Majorca hotel, alerted by other guests, found the seven-year-old boy abandoned and crying in his room. Police searched for the mother in vain and arrested her when she returned – at breakfast time. After all the publicity that surrounded the tragic disappearance of Madeleine McCann in the Algarve when her parents hadn’t even left the complex, how could any mum do such a thing?

The law dealt with her.

Worse, if they can do so in a foreign country, how often does it happen at home? Such women are a national disgrace. Removing their kids might be going too far, but taking away their passports seems like a good idea.

Breaking up families “might be going too far” if you leave a child at home when you pop out? Might? It is.

Madeleine McCann is missing. There are no suspects. But there is lots of ‘news’.

 

Posted: 6th, October 2016 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comment


Transfer balls: Chelsea double their offer for Juventus and Manchester City’s Leonardo Bonucci

Transfer balls:  The BBC says Chelsea’s owners Roman Abramovich has sanctioned a move for  Juventus defender Leonardo Bonucci, 29.  The Blues will offer the Italians £60m.

The Telegraph says this would be a world-record fee for a defender, beating the current record £50m PSG paid for Chelsea defender David Luiz – they bought him back for £30m.

Bonuccio is, says the paper, Chelsea manager Antonio Conte’s “dream signing”.

Bonucci has been full of praise of Conte, who managed him at Juventus and Italy. “Conte will be a big success in England, Chelsea are already a very good team and he will have them challenging both in England and in Europe,” said Bonucci, who might care to look again.

But the British Press know not all that much about Bonucci.

 

Bonucci

 

In June, the Metro said the player had agreed to join Chelsea.

The Sun said a “three-year deal for defender Bonucci, worth around £130,000 a week, has been accepted by the player and his agents.” The headline tol readers: “ANTONIO CONTE is plotting an amazing £57million double swoop for Italy stars Antonio Candreva and Leonardo Bonucci.”

Three months ago Bonucci cost £25m.

He’s now apparently worth £60m.

And in July he singed for Manchester City. The Sport Bible told us that:

 

manchester city bonucci

 

Such are the facts.

Posted: 6th, October 2016 | In: Back pages, Chelsea, Manchester City, Reviews, Sports | Comment


Leonardo DiCaprio thinks freedom of speech is overrated

Leonardo DiCaprio thinks democracy and free though – and thereby free speech – are overrated. Speaking at the White House ahead of a screening of his new grandiose documentary, Before the Flood, DiCaprio opined:

“If you don’t believe in climate change, you don’t believe in facts, and science, and empirical truths.  And, in my humble opinion, [you] should not be allowed to hold public office.”

Believe or else. Orthodoxy rules!

Are there any more views DiCaprio disagrees with that should bar you from holding public office, even if the people have voted for you?

When did liberals become so censorious?

Posted: 5th, October 2016 | In: Celebrities, Politicians, Reviews | Comment


Pentagon paid UK firm £500m for cheap looking Al-Qaeda propaganda films

Al Qaeda have been a bit quiet of late. We used to see lots of their gurning loons on the TV news. Now nothing. Might this be down to the rise of Islamic State and the apparent fact that a lot of the stuff we watched was made in the Pentagon?

Sputnik News looks at a report by the grandiose Bureau of Investigative Journalism which says the Pentagon “paid at least $540 million to a UK public relations firm to produce fake Al-Qaeda videos as part of a clandestine propaganda campaign”.

The company that won this lucrative contract is Bell Pottinger, which “gave high-ranking military officials information on people who watched the fraudulent segments, which were made to look like insurgent videos and Arabic news programs”.

Got that? 12th Century Wolf, or whatever the big Qaeda film co. is called, made movies as honey traps for would-be enemies of the State. Pop one these films in a player and your details are sent to the National Security Council, the Pentagon and the CIA. (Anyone familiar with those old adverts for TV detector vans will think that’s getting off lightly.)

Crofton Black & Abigail Fielding-Smith of The Bureau of Investigative Journalism tell the Daily Beast:

In the first media interview any Bell Pottinger employee has given about the work for the U.S. military in Iraq, video editor Martin Wells told the Bureau his time in Camp Victory was “shocking, eye-opening, life-changing.”

The firm’s output was signed off by former General David Petraeus—then commander of the coalition forces in Iraq—and on occasion by the White House, he said…

There were three types of media operations commonly used in Iraq at the time, said a military contractor familiar with Bell Pottinger’s work there. “White is attributed, it says who produced it on the label,” the contractor said. “Grey is unattributed, and black is falsely attributed. These types of black ops, used for tracking who is watching a certain thing, were a pretty standard part of the industry toolkit.”

And the films?

Bell Pottinger would send teams out to film low-definition video of al Qaeda bombings and then edit it like a piece of news footage. It would be voiced in Arabic and distributed to TV stations across the region, according to Wells.

That’s £500m to make sub-standard YouTuber videos.

Ker-ching!

 

Posted: 4th, October 2016 | In: Reviews | Comment


Ben Needham: demolishing a home with care

The hunt for Ben Needham continues. A round up of media reporting on the missing child. The renewed search is in its ninth day.

BBC: “Farmhouse extension demolished”

Police has demolished part of a farm house on the Greek island of Kos. The extension was built after the 21-month-old from Sheffield went missing in 1991. The Beeb’s report contains this eyebrow raiser: “South Yorkshire Police said the owners had agreed to officers ‘dismantling the lower part of the building’.”

You can knock down the ground floor but keep all the floors above it intact. Easy!

This is what it looks like in the Times:

 

ben needham kos

 

The hunch is that Ben Needham was accidentally killed and, well, you can guess the rest. Unless you read the Sheffield Star, wherein we read: “LATEST: Farmhouse demolition starts in search for remains of Ben Needham.”

ITN invites armchair detectives to wonder: “Could farmhouse extension hold key to Ben’s whereabouts?”

Det Insp Jon Cousins, of South Yorkshire Police, tells media:

“Early this afternoon I will be dismantling the lower part of the farmhouse including the ground around it… just making sure that I haven’t missed any opportunity to get the answers that we require. The [Greek] family are clearly upset about what we’re doing. They have very kindly agreed to allow us to do that and I am extremely grateful. Clearly it’s going to be a very distressing time for them. This is where many generations, including the current generation, were born and grew up and we’ve got to deal with it as sensitively as possible.”

So you’re knocking down part of their home.

But needs must.

Thoughts are with Ben family. His sister Leigh-Anna is quoted in the Sun:  “We just feel numb and very empty and the moment. We’re a family that’s lived in hope for 25 years that one day he will walk back through that door and now we’re facing the possible reality that he was there all along.”

Let’s hope this story gets an end.

Posted: 4th, October 2016 | In: Reviews | Comment


Kim Kardashian: milking the social media socialite for stolen jewels

Five robbers stole millions of pounds worth of jewellery and two cell phones from social media socialite Kim Kardashian in Paris. They held a gun to her head, says Sky news.

The tabloids lap it up.

The Mail wonders what really happened. “What IS the truth behind the heist?” it asks. Well, we don’t know because the culprits have yet to be caught. But the Mail’s headline is suggestive of some kind of plot on the victim’s side. We don’t know the facts but let’s hold our noses and take a hard look at the victim. That seems fair.

 

kardashian heist

 

The Mail then invites Alison Boshoff to write:

As ratings for Keeping Up With The Kardashians keep falling, is it any wonder Kim’s gunpoint ordeal is seen by some as a huge PR stunt.

Having appraised her stolen jewels and found them wanting, Boshoff says:

Good taste aside, the mother-of-two, who was robbed at gunpoint by five masked men who tied her up in the bathroom of a luxury Paris apartment in the early hours of Monday while they stole £7.8 million of jewellery, may now be reflecting that it could have been a tad unwise to show off her wealth so ostentatiously.

As the Queen pulls on her crown and answers the door to the ‘CID’, Boshoff sees fit to repeat a few of the voices who have wondered aloud about where Kim’s security at 2am (her bodyguard Pascal Duvie as in nightclub with her siblings) and why the TV cameras were not filming the crime. Where was the woman who holds her skin in place as Kim sleeps? Why was Kim selfie implant not woking?

Boshoff then delivers a long review of Kim’s career as a reality TV star.

What the point of her article is other than to cast shade on the victim of an armed robbery, we can’t be certain. Maybe it just exists to fill space. We can add Boshoff’s to-deadline article to the – get this – 36 other Daily Mail articles on the robbery. So much for those falling rating. Kim is click-tastic in the Mail!

As for the crime, well, the Sun sums up well:

 

Kardashian

 

The last word on the robbery is with Sarah Ditum, who tells Indy readers: “Kim Kardashian did not deserve to be robbed just because she learned the truth about being female and famous.”

Oh. Are you sure the telly star didn’t deserve to be attacked, fear she would be raped and robbed? Her last show was a bit dull. Says Ditum:

Who can blame her for recognising a primary truth of being female and famous – that either you profit from your exposure, or someone else does – and trying to control it? Judging from the reactions to this robbery, a lot of people do.

Add that to the hundreds of articles on Kim Kardashian published today.

 

Posted: 4th, October 2016 | In: Celebrities, Reviews, Tabloids | Comment


Denzel Washington admits to strangling Aretha Franklin in New York

Denzel Washington has attempted to strangle Aretha Franklin. Washington, 20, admitted to strangling his mother, 52-year-old Aretha Franklin, in Manhattan, New York.

“I am informed by Aretha Franklin,” says the complaint filed by police, “that she observed the defendant place his hands around her neck and apply pressure, thereby causing redness, bruising and substantial pain to her neck.”

Washington has admitted an harassment charge. He’s been sentenced to a conditional discharge and an anger management programme. Washington was also ordered to stay away from Franklin’s home.

PS – “Why should I change? He’s the one who sucks,” says a character named Michael Bolton in the 1999 film Office Space.

Posted: 3rd, October 2016 | In: Reviews | Comment


The 4,000 per cent cup of coffee hike that holds no water

As newspaper investigations go, the Mail’s look at the piece of coffee 30,000 feet in the air aboard a plane is weaker than a happy hour cocktail in Riyadh. In “Revealed: How low-cost airlines inflate the price of in-flight coffee by up to 4,000 per cent”, Qin Xie repurposes as bit of PR from Kayak.co.uk, which “looked at the prices for coffee on five low-cost airlines departing from the UK – Ryanair, easyJet, Thomas Cook, Flybe and Jet2 – and compared them with the cost of making the same beverage at home.”

 

Ryanair coffee

Budget airline unveils new low-cost seats

 

Unless you live aboard a passenger jet, the relative costs don’t hold water. But undeterred by the obvious, the Mail ploughs on:

For example, the cost of a cup of Lavazza coffee on Ryanair is the equivalent of £2.55 when converted from euros. But if you purchased the same coffee at supermarkets, available in 100g tins for £3, each serving comes in at just six pence.

This means a mark-up of 4,150 per cent was applied to the coffee.

What does a cup of coffee cost in high-street coffee shops, like Nero or Costa, or in a local greasy spoon cafe? Qin Xie doesn’t mention that.

But look out for the Mail campaign for the right for passengers to take aboard their own kettles, coffee granules and mugs.

PS –  And look out for other ‘revelations’ on other things that cost more when not bought in bulk and consumed in the home, like, well everything.

 

Posted: 1st, October 2016 | In: Money, Reviews, The Consumer | Comment


Woman comes out of coma when medic accinbally touches her toe

When its the right time to switch off the machines keeping a patient alive? On July 20, Sam Hemming, 22, a Bangor University graduate and keen sportswoman, was a passenger in her boyfriend’s car when it crashed on the M6. The car flipped over. Sam Hemming banged her head hard on the window.

 

sam hemming

 

At hospital, after six hours of operations doctors placed the badly injured woman in a coma. They told her parents Emma had no chance of recovery. For 19 days she showed no sign of brain activity. They were all set to tun off the life-support machines when Emma’s toe moved when a staff member inadvertently brushed it with an ice-cold wipe.

“The computer showed some brain activity,” Ms Hemming’s mother, Carol, tells the Times. “It was amazing. She would have had the heat and cold test before they switched the machine off but they brushed it across her toe earlier than expected and it saved her.”

Eight weeks later Emma returned to her parents’ Hereford home. She has learnt to talk and walk.

“Doctors are totally in shock,” Mrs Hemming adds. “You see the specialist surgeons, paramedics and police and they look at Sammy and their mouths fall open. Why her condition is different is that part of the brain has developed her speech and movement. That is why all the neurosurgeons were getting so excited as it is very rarely seen. She is a walking miracle.”

Says Emma: “My talking is fine and I just want to get better now. Before the accident I wanted to be a solicitor and that ambition hasn’t changed. I still want a career in the law.”

Medicine is amazing. (The legal profession, less so.)

Posted: 30th, September 2016 | In: Reviews | Comment


Man smelling of marijuana banned from bus

Marijuana stinks. The scent is a  bit like boiled cabbage, only sweeter and more sickly. Marijuana smells like your mum’s air-freshener and Washington DC.

Matthew Little smells of weed. Not everyone likes his perfume. His local bus operator has now banned Matthew from riding their vehicles in Bremerton in Kitsap County, Washington, for six months. His ban includes his standing at bus stops.

 

man smells of marijuana

 

Kitsap Transit says its passengers can be banned from smelling of: cat urine, human faeces and sweat.

“From time to time, I smell like I just smoked some marijuana probably because I just did,” says Little.

Kitsat Transports says Little smelled so bad “the driver began to choke and had to cover her nose”. Little “chose to ignore repeated warnings that violating our rules of conduct would result in his exclusion.”

When asked what he thinks he smells like, Little responded: “Ganga or Karl Lagerfeld.”

Note: Karl Lagerfeld smells of leatherette with base notes of talc and warm mug.

Posted: 30th, September 2016 | In: Reviews | Comment