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.
Your Official Guide To 1970s CB Slang
THE INTERNET has created its own slang, saturated with efficient abbreviations and a constantly evolving jargon that only insiders know. As novel as this seems, just a few decades ago there was another trendy lingo sprung from a new technology: CB Slang.
Citizen’s Band radio had been around since the 1950s, but you had to be licensed and had to use a registered call sign. However, once the CB became widely used on the interstates throughout the US, all rules were thrown out the window. Truckers started making up their own handles and things got interesting.
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Posted: 27th, May 2014 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, Technology | Comment (1)
In 1985 The Press Association Presented The Future of Journalism
IN 1985, the Press Association presented the future of journalism.
The pencil and paper remain the most reliable tools in a journalist’s possession.
Posted: 26th, May 2014 | In: Flashback, Technology | Comment (1)
Mods, Rockers, Teds, Irish, Skinheads, Pikeys, Blacks And Jews: The People Banned From Anywhere Decent People Gather
FIFTY years ago, mods and rockers enjoyed the bank holiday weekend by fighting pitched battles at the seaside.
The skirmishes led to public vilification, and sociologists coined the phrase ‘moral panic’ to sum up the hysteria surrounding these modern delinquent ‘folk devils’.
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Posted: 25th, May 2014 | In: Fashion, Flashback, Key Posts, Reviews | Comment
Toni Christina Jenkins V Devin Barnes: Waitress Sued For Abusing Customer Who Called Her A Nigger
LET’S play Spot The Victim. This story is bade din the USA, so things will get complicated.
In September 2013, Toni Christina Jenkins was working tables a Tennessee’s Red Lobster.
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QPR Fans Outside Loftus Road With Their Tickets For The Match Against Chelsea In 1970
QPR V Chelsea on February 15 1970:
A group of youths outside Loftus Road, the Queens Park Rangers football ground in London, with their tickets for the match against Chelsea.
The Hunt For The Cheeki Rafiki: The Daily Mirror’s Desperate Hunt For A Scoop
THE Mirror leads with news that the Cheeki Rafiki has been found. It even suggests that it found it. Not too long ago the world was scouring satellite images for signs of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Now we’re looking for a boat.
The Mirror tells readers: “The lifeboats are gone”:
The hull of lost yacht Cheeki Rafiki was found last night – but there was no sign of the four missing sailors.
A US Navy diver swam out to wreckage in the middle of the Atlantic and identified the name on the back of the boat.
But two life rafts were gone – supporting hopes of the sailors’ families that the men had managed to scramble into them before the yacht sank.
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Montenegrin Patriarch: Conchita Wurst Caused the Balkan Floods
SO says one of the more conservative churchmen of the Balkans, that Conchita Wurst, the bearded bloke in a dress who won the Eurovision song contest, caused the Balkan Floods that have forced 150,000 people from their homes. Quite remarkable what God gets pissed off about really, isn’t it?
In more detail the claim is being made by the Montenegrin Patriarch, that the floods are not a coincidence. Oooh, no, it is a warning from God that people should not join the dark side. Although quite what’s so dark about a bearded drag queen isn’t explained in any detail:
Conchita Wurst is responsible for flooding that left over 50 people dead earlier this month, church leaders in the Balkans have claimed.
The Austrian drag artist, whose real name is Thomas Neuwirth, seized international attention after winning Eurovision 2014 with his hit Rise Like a Phoenix.
However, several church leaders have now claimed the recent devastating flooding across the Balkans, which was the worst in a century and left over 50 people dead, was “divine punishment” for Conchita’s victory.
“This [flood] is not a coincidence, but a warning,” Patriarch Amfilohije of Montenegro said, according to e.novine.com. “God sent the rains as a reminder that people should not join the wild side.”
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Posted: 23rd, May 2014 | In: Money, Reviews | Comment (1)
War On Free Speech: Danish TV Journalists Defeats The Extremists With A Whistle
HOW do you deal with intolerance? How do you face down someone who won’t listen and doesn’t want anyone else to either? How do you deal with censorship and enemies of free speech? With the reverse whistle:
Posted: 23rd, May 2014 | In: Politicians, Reviews | Comment
Funny Not Found: TV Guide Adverts For Terrible Comedies
IF you ever start to get depressed by the current TV offerings, take a look at the comedies airing in the States in decades past. Here are 15 adverts from TV Guide which will have you counting your blessings.
I’ll admit, sometimes I’m not in the mood for quality storylines and character development. There are days where I’ll pass on Mad Men and Game of Thrones in favor of something mindless. But even in those dark hours, I will never – I repeat, NEVER – opt for Gary Coleman with a Mr. T haircut. This is where my proverbial line in the sand is drawn.
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Posted: 23rd, May 2014 | In: Flashback, TV & Radio | Comment (1)
All Broken Up Inside: The Five Most Shocking Character Deaths in Cult-TV History
WILLIAM Shakespeare once wrote that “the valiant taste of death but once,” while cowards die “many times” before their actual demise.
Audiences of cult TV classics might also be said to die many times too, especially if they watch and re-watch beloved characters die in their favorite genre programming.
Over the years, a number of beloved series characters have been unceremoniously offed by series writers, only to leave grieving audiences in shock at their passing.
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Posted: 22nd, May 2014 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, TV & Radio | Comments (5)
This Terribly Stupid Strike Against McDonald’s
THERE’S a very stupid piece of labour activism going on over in the US. It’s a series of strikes and demonstrations against McDonald’s over the pay that the people working in the stores receive. The reason it’s such a silly set of demos and strikes is simply that McDonald’s doesn’t actually employ the workers. So why shout at the people who can’t change the situation?
More than 100 demonstrators seeking better pay for McDonald’s workers were arrested as protesters swarmed the fast-food chain’s corporate campus near Chicago demanding a minimum wage of $15 (£8.88) an hour and the right to unionise.
The protest against McDonald’s Corp, the world’s biggest restaurant operator by revenue, came a day before a shareholder vote on executive pay, including that of Chief Executive Don Thompson, who earned total compensation of $9.5 million (£5.62 million) in 2013.
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No Weapons Restaurant Robbed At Gunpoint
JOINING the gun law debate, we turn to events in Durham, NC, where armed villains have robbed Pit Authentic Barbecue. That;s the store displaying the “No Weapons” sign in its window.ncgunblog.com reports:
The three pictograms [on the custom restaurant sign] are labeled “NC State Capitol,” “NC Legislative Building,” and “The Pit.” Above the pictograms it says, “No Weapons” and below, “No Concealed Firearms.”
This isn’t just a simple case of some unthinking restauranteur slapping up an anti-gun sign. This is a political statement. He’s very clearly saying “The Legislature bans guns in their workplace, why are they allowing them in mine.”
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In America Rising Court Fees Mean The Poor Always Go To Prison
IN America, if you’re poor and you commit a crime, you go to prison. You need to pay your court fees. If you can’t pay your court fees, the State will lock you up. To maintain law and order, they will feed you, cloth you and house you. It’s a genius plan:
In Augusta, Ga., a judge sentenced Tom Barrett to 12 months after he stole a can of beer worth less than $2.
In Ionia, Mich., 19-year-old Kyle Dewitt caught a fish out of season; then a judge sentenced him to three days in jail.
In Grand Rapids, Mich., Stephen Papa, a homeless Iraq War veteran, spent 22 days in jail, not for what he calls his “embarrassing behavior” after he got drunk with friends and climbed into an abandoned building, but because he had only $25 the day he went to court.
The common thread in these cases, and scores more like them, is the jail time wasn’t punishment for the crime, but for the failure to pay the increasing fines and fees associated with the criminal justice system.
A yearlong NPR investigation found that the costs of the criminal justice system in the United States are paid increasingly by the defendants and offenders. It’s a practice that causes the poor to face harsher treatment than others who commit identical crimes and can afford to pay. Some judges and politicians fear the trend has gone too far.
A state-by-state survey conducted by NPR found that defendants are charged for many government services that were once free, including those that are constitutionally required….
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Prince Charles Know His History: Vladimir Putin Is Doing A Hitler
WHAT are we to make of the news that Prince Charles likened Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler? Charles didn’t make his views known in a public address. He was, as the BBC put it, “privately conversing” in Nova Scotia, Canada, where one day he hopes to be head of State. Charles told a woman whose relations were murdered in the Holocaust: “And now Putin is doing just about the same as Hitler.”
A senior Russian diplomatic source tells the Telegraph:
“We are seeking clarification [from the FCO] at a working level. It’s not clear if it is an official position. The response from Clarence House is it was a private talk. We hope there is nothing behind it. But it is unclear to us: what does it mean? He is the future king, after all… It is very serious. Every family in our country lost someone in that war.”
Over 20millions Russian died in World War 2.
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Posted: 22nd, May 2014 | In: Politicians, Reviews, Royal Family | Comment
The Five Most Underrated Episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation
IFStar Trek: The Next Generation (1987 – 1994) did not have the words “Star” and “Trek” in the series title — or the good fortune to air on TV the year after the box office hit, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) — it may never have survived a few awkward, early seasons and come to achieve the reputation for greatness it currently enjoys with fans and reviewers.
The conventional wisdom — which happens to be correct in this case — is that Star Trek: The Next Generation did not really hit its stride until its third season.
The early seasons of the series re-purposed plots from the classic sixties series (“The Naked Now,”) played musical chairs with the Enterprise’s CMO, failed to introduce the series’ new villain, the Ferengi, in a way that made the race of “Yankee traders” seem menacing, and traded in preachy didacticism about the perils of nationalism (“Encounter at Farpoint,”) eating meat (“Lonely Among Us,”) and recreational drug use (“Symbiosis.”)
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Posted: 21st, May 2014 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, TV & Radio | Comments (10)
Situations Pretty Vacant: The FBI Is Hiring Pot Smokers
THIS is rather fun. The FBI, over in the US, is one of the most staid and white bread organisations in the world. They’re cops, of a sort, yes, but the internal culture at the place is still pretty much 50’s America. Flag, Mom and apple pie. And one of the parts of that is that pot smoking is absolutely verboeten.
Yeah, we all know, half the damn country smokes it at some time or another and no one comes to any great harm. But then again the FBI is one of the organisations that has to try and track down the drug dealers so perhaps the policy isn’t entirely stupid. The law is, but given the existence of the law the FBI might not be. But even here they’ve had to relax a little bit: you can apply for a job at the FBI if you have ever smoked pot (something they wouldn’t allow if you had ever robbed a bank) but not if you’ve smoked it in the past three years.
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Abu Hamza’s Family Deserve All The British Benefits They Can Get
THE Daily Mail is on one of its head explodey little warpaths shouting about how the family of Abu Hookand (aka Abu Hamza) live off state benefits. But if they are in fact British then why the hell shouldn’t they get the same benefits, rights to them, as any other British people?
There was growing anger last night that Abu Hamza’s family are continuing to be bankrolled by the British public.
As the hate preacher was convicted of 11 terror offences in the U.S., it emerged his wife and children are still being housed at an extortionate cost in one of the most upmarket areas of the country.
It is thought the family have cost taxpayers more than £3million in benefits and social housing, as well as legal fees for Hamza and his sons.
Hamza’s second wife Najat Mostafa, 55, with whom he has seven children, lives in a £1.25 million five-bedroom council house in Shepherd’s Bush, West London – an area popular with bankers and City lawyers.
Last night, neighbours said they were ‘sickened’ the family were continuing to benefit from state handouts.
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Posted: 21st, May 2014 | In: Money, Reviews | Comments (7)
Stripper Wants ‘Booty And Boobs Back’ From Man Who Says She Stole His Laptop And Harry Potter DVDs
ARE YOU READY TOP MEET THE WORLD’S SADDEST MAN and his hard-nosed former lover, who just happens to be a stripper named…Moaner?
Robert Wallace, 32, says he broke up with exotic dancer Nomi Mims on May 3, and then waited a week for her to give him back the things he lent her—$2,000, a laptop, and the aforementioned DVDs—before taking legal action.
Those were Harry Potter DVDs.
Mims says she “really likes him as a friend,” and the items and cash were gifts, not loans.
“I don’t believe in loans because I don’t want to pay anybody back,” she told FOX 26.
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Posted: 21st, May 2014 | In: Money, Reviews, Strange But True | Comment
Epic High School Science Prank Lands Paris Gray In The Sulfur Hydrogen Iodine Thulium
JESSICA Lee made this chemistry joke in her final school yearbook. Jessica thought her photo needed a quote. So. She quoted Christopher George Latore Wallace, aka The Notorious B.I.G.:
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Posted: 21st, May 2014 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)
Wheat Watch: This Is About Irrigation Not The Crop Being Grown
AN interesting little report trying to insist that people who grow rice are more social, more cooperative, than people who grow wheat. Unfortunately, while the phenomenon they describe might well be true they’ve not quite ascribed it to the correct cause. It’s not the crop being grown that makes the difference but the method of growing the crop:
Scientists have long wondered why the U.S. and Europe are so culturally different to China and other countries in Eastern Asia.
Now one study claims the answer lies in an unexpected area: the different farming methods used by people living in the East and West.
While Westerners are known for their individualism and analytical thinking, eastern culture tends to be interdependent and holistic, the study claims.
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Turkish Press Loyal To Erdogan Blames Jews For Soma Mine Disaster
IF you want to see what anti-semitism looks like, head to the Middle East, where books shops and newsagents are full of racism. And take a look at the front page of Turkey’s Yeni Akit newspaper, where the shocking news is that the Soma mine owner’s son-in-law is a Jew. The story is that the Jewish-controlled media has distorted the disaster.
Somas is Turkey’s worst-ever mine disaster. Over 300 people have lost their lives. Police and Government goons have met demonstrations with rubber bullets, tear gas, water cannon and well-heeled boot. The BBC says lawyers linked to Turkey’s opposition movement have been arrested.
The pro-government press continues to support Mr Erdogan [Turkey’s PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan].
Aksam prints on its front page a small photo of the prime minister formally shaking hands with a miner’s relative in the crowd. It is hard to see her face. But it may be that the startling photo of an Erdogan aide (in a smart suit) appearing to kick a protester in Soma comes to symbolise what has happened here. To the prime minister’s opponents, the photo encapsulates their long-held complaints – about a privileged administration that treats dissent as treason.
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