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.
Chilli From TLC Is Peta’s Dumb Animal Of The Month
PETA’S Dumb Animal of the Month is Chilli from TLC. She wants you to say ‘No!’ to the circus. Clowns must not be tolerated! Seals will have to pack up their horns and go freelance busking in the shopping precinct. Elephants will have to seek work as bicycle couriers. The animals must go!
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WWII British Rations Clothing Card (1942)
WWII Europe British Isles Rations Clothing:
This is a list of men’s and women’s wearing apparel subject to rationing under Great BritainÂ’ clothes rationing program shown in London on Jan. 29, 1942. The numbers at the right indicate the number of coupons required when the corresponding article is purchased. For example, 16 coupons are needed to buy a man’s raincoat or overcoat.
Sugar rationing in World War 2 – photos
Flashback to 1944: The Allied soldier’s 24-hour rations pack
Posted: 26th, November 2013 | In: Flashback, The Consumer | Comment
Brits Are Most Adventurous Lovers, Says Sex Survey
THINK of some sexy people. The Swedes – they’re notoriously comfortable with their bodies, if soft pornography taught us anything. The Germans too. Seen how small their Speedos get? Or maybe some South American country is the sexiest? They’re all passionate and live in a perpetual state of shouting and arousal.
Well, thanks to a sex survey, we now know that the most adventurous when it comes to sex, the British have it. Presumably thanks to years of suppressing our feeling and dire weather, we’ve realised that every day can be a carnival in the sack.
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Universities UK Says Segregation Of British Students Is Allowed
DO you want to speak in higher education? Universities UK, an organisation seeking to create “an autonomous university sector in the United Kingdom that, through excellence in teaching, research, and knowledge exploitation, raises aspirations, has an international reputation for innovation, and contributes to the wider economy and society. Our mission is to be the definitive voice for universities in the UK. We provide high quality leadership and support to our members, to promote a successful and diverse higher education sector.”
Universities UK has produced a guide for “external speakers in higher education institutions“.
Free speech is fundamental to the role of universities. As a matter of law, universities in England and Wales have a statutory duty to secure freedom of speech, reflecting their mission as places where new ideas can be advanced and where open and free debate can and must take place. However…
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Man Swaps His Testicle For A Nissan 370
HOW much do your balls mean to you? Or indeed, do you sleep with a ball-having partner and have grown rather fond of them? Well, thank the stars you’re not seeing the car lover who is selling one of his testicles for £22,000 so he can buy a Nissan 370.
That’s right. A Nissan.
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Posted: 26th, November 2013 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment (1)
London Slaves: Giggles And Oh-Shits About The Culty Three
THERE’S been a certain amount of giggling about those three slaves that were liberated in London. It turns out that they were not in fact slaves, not anything like it, they were however the remnants of one of London’s more insane Maoist communes. The leader of that commune being on Comrade Bala who was, if the stories are correct, the inspiration for Wolfie Smith in the TV comedy, Citizen Smith. This has all been going on a long time.
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London Slaves: Let’s Defame Aravindan Balakrishnan And Beat Him With Sticks
LONDON Slaves: A look at the slaves story in the news. No-one has been convicted, let alone tried for any crimes. But, still, the news media is feasting off the story of three women found living in a Brixton flat.
The Mirror leads with news of a death:
Ben Rossington yells:
Death fall at ‘slave’ house: Police probe woman’s plunge from window of cult suspects’ home
Slave house is now in inverted commas. Former Maoist activists Aravindan Balakrishnan and his wife Chanda have been arrested and released on police bail.
She plunged from the second floor of a terraced house being rented by Maoist cult leaders Aravindan Balakrishnan and his wife Chanda
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London Slaves: Statement To Comrade Bala By The Central Committee of the Communist Party of England (Marxist-Leninist) – August 1st, 1974
I’M sure you were as shocked as I was at that story of three women being held as slaves in London for 30 years. But the story is now moving from tragedy into proper giggle worthy territory. The suspected slave master has now been named as Aravindan Balakrishnan. Who was also known as Comrade Bala.
Yup, this is about a small Maoist commune that managed to stagger along from the 70s all the way to today. And not only did social services know all about it they were even providing them with the housing they were using.
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Posted: 25th, November 2013 | In: Key Posts, Money, Reviews | Comments (2)
London Slaves Hysteria: Aravindan Balakrishnan And Comrade Chanda Did Not Keep Slaves
LONDON Slaves: A look at the three women found living as “slaves” in London. The married couple suspected of holding three women as slaves for more than 30 years are former Maoist activists Aravindan Balakrishnan and his wife Chanda, reports the BBC.
According to Marxist archives they were leading figures at the Mao Zedong Memorial Centre based in Acre Lane, Brixton, south London, in the 1970s.
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Posted: 25th, November 2013 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comments (5)
The Real Reason For Bitcoin’s Surge In Price
I’VE long been a bit mystified by Bitcoin. You know this electronic currency that the geeks have been playing with for the past couple of years? As a little experiment yes, I can see it, but as a replacement for other currencies I tend to think that it won’t happen. But still, if people want to play with it, speculate on it, why the hell not?
Just in the last couple of days there’s been a surge in the price. And everyone’s been a bit puzzled by it but now there’s an explanation that does at least make sense. It may or may not be true, but it does actually make sense. That explanation is here:
Perhaps We Shouldn’t Have Expanded The Universities?
THERE’S a fairly basic economic concept which states that if you increase the supply of something then the price of that thing is going to go down. Other things being equal, of course. There are exceptions but they’re exceedingly rare (wheat noodles in North China and rice in South China being the only two proven examples of Giffen Goods known).
So, when we decide to move from 10-15% of the age group going to university to 50% of it doing so what do we think is going to happen to the price of graduates? Quite:
Almost half of all recent university leavers are now working in non-graduate jobs, as those with media studies degrees fare the worst, a new report shows.
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Clacton Christmas Tree Is ‘Not Man Enough’
TO Clacton, where the Christmas tree donated by the Federation of Small Businesses is attracting dark looks:
@LaurenceCawley here’s my picture of the tree think calling it a twig was spot on pic.twitter.com/uvCGQ5vjqZ — Sammy Jo Machin (@CODxGIRL) November 23, 2013
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To-Do Lists: Why Johnny Cash, Benjamin Franklin And The Rest of Us Make Them
JOHNNY Cash made a list of “Things To Do Today”.
Do to-do lists work?
Benjamin Franklin made a list. He tried too hard, say John Tierney and psychologist Roy F. Baumeister in Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength. (Via.)
Franklin tried a divide-and-conquer approach. He drew up a list of virtues and wrote a brief goal for each one, like this one for Order: ‘Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.’
…
When, as a young journeyman printer, he tried to practice Order by drawing up a rigid daily work schedule, he kept getting interrupted by unexpected demands from his clients — and Industry required him to ignore the schedule and meet with them. If he practiced Frugality (‘Waste nothing’) by always mending his own clothes and preparing all his own meals, there’d be less time available for Industry at his job — or for side projects like flying a kite in a thunderstorm or editing the Declaration of Independence. If he promised to spend an evening with his friends but then fell behind his schedule for work, he’d have to make a choice that would violate his virtue of Resolution: ‘Perform without fail what you resolve.’
Franklin wrote his list in 1726, at the age of 20. It’s more of a set of rules than a list. (Source: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin; Image: Benjamin Franklin, via.)
TEMPERANCE. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
SILENCE. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
ORDER. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
RESOLUTION. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
FRUGALITY. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.
INDUSTRY. Lose no time; be always employ’d in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
SINCERITY. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
JUSTICE. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
MODERATION. Avoid extreams; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
CLEANLINESS. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.
TRANQUILLITY. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
CHASTITY. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dulness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.
HUMILITY. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.
Woody Guthrie made lists:
“Wake Up And Fight”
Jonathan Swift made this list in 1699:
Not to marry a young Woman.
Not to keep young Company unless they reely desire it.
Not to be peevish or morose, or suspicious.
Not to scorn present Ways, or Wits, or Fashions, or Men, or War, &c.
Not to be fond of Children, or let them come near me hardly.
Not to tell the same story over and over to the same People.
Not to be covetous.
Not to neglect decency, or cleenlyness, for fear of falling into Nastyness.
Not to be over severe with young People, but give Allowances for their youthfull follyes and weaknesses.
Not to be influenced by, or give ear to knavish tatling servants, or others.
Not to be too free of advise, nor trouble any but those that desire it.
To desire some good Friends to inform me wch of these Resolutions I break, or neglect, and wherein; and reform accordingly.
Not to talk much, nor of my self.
Not to boast of my former beauty, or strength, or favor with Ladyes, &c.
Not to hearken to Flatteryes, nor conceive I can be beloved by a young woman, et eos qui hereditatem captant, odisse ac vitare.
Not to be positive or opiniative.
Not to sett up for observing all these Rules; for fear I should observe none.
Ever hear of the Zeigarnik Effect? Wikipedia tells us:
The Zeigarnik Effect is the tendency to experience intrusive thoughts about an objective that was once pursued and left incomplete (Baumeister & Bushman, 2008, pg. 122). The automatic system signals the conscious mind, which may be focused on new goals, that a previous activity was left incomplete. It seems to be human nature to finish what we start and, if it is not finished, we experience dissonance.
A study done by Greist-Bousquet and Schiffman (1992) provided evidence for the Zeigarnik Effect. In this paper, the authors stated that there is a tendency or “need” to complete a task once it has been initiated and the lack of closure that stems from an unfinished task promotes some continued task related cognitive effort. The cognitive effort that comes with these intrusive thoughts of the unfinished task is terminated only once the person returns to complete the task.
Tierney and Baumeister address that anew:
[It] turns out that the Zeigarnik effect is not, as was assumed for decades, a reminder that continues unabated until the task gets done. The persistence of distracting thoughts is not an indication that the unconscious is working to finish the task. Nor is it the unconscious nagging the conscious mind to finish the task right away. Instead, the unconscious is asking the conscious mind to make a plan. The unconscious mind apparently can’t do this on its own, so it nags the conscious mind to make a plan with specifics like time, place, and opportunity. Once the plan is formed, the unconscious can stop nagging the conscious mind with reminders.”
Spotter: Explore
Posted: 24th, November 2013 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, Music, Politicians | Comment
Delia Derbyshire: The Woman Who Gave Voice To The Ghost In The Machine
FLASHBACK to Delia Derbyshire (5 May 1937 – 3 July 2001).
Delia Derbyshire is the mathematics and music scholar most famous for creating the whirling intro to Dr Who. She was working at the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop in 1963 when she was given Ron Grainer’s score.
* She used concrete sources and sine- and square-wave oscillators, tuning the results, filtering and treating, cutting so that the joins were seamless, combining sound on individual tape recorders, re-recording the results, and repeating the process, over and over again.
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Posted: 24th, November 2013 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, Music, TV & Radio | Comment
London Slaves: Love Letters From Pretty Smiling Zombies Trapped In A Marxist Cult
BRIXTON Slaves: More news on the three women said to have been kept as “slaves” in a South London flat.
The Mirror and Star focus on love.
We hear from Marius Feneck. He says a ‘slave’ woman known as Rose said she loved him.
A neighbour of three women held as “slaves” for 30 years claims one of them became infatuated with him – sending him racy love letters, pictures and poems.
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Posted: 24th, November 2013 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)
Slaves Of Brixton: The Three Women Weren’t Slaves But Lived In A Free Collective
MORE news on the three women kept as “slaves” in a flat on Peckford Place, Stockwell, south London.
Before we go on, can we look at what it is to be a slave? A slave is surely a human reduced to the role of a transactional good who when sold becomes the legal property of another person. Were these three women slaves in that sense? If they were, who sold them and under whose law were they owned?
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JFK Death: The Moving Letter To Parkland Memorial Hospital Staff
WHEN JFK died, the Dallas County Hospital sent out a letter to all staff. It had been a momentous time:
The day Kennedy was shot in photos
Posted: 23rd, November 2013 | In: Flashback, Politicians | Comment
Real Fruity Sex V Online Filth – A Video Study
CAN you spot the difference between real sex and David Cameron’s virtual nookie? Mark Wilson reviews this video:
[I]t’s not just silliness for silliness’s sake; this clip is well-designed sex education. By coupling innocuous foods with taboo topics, the presentation drops our inherent prudishness and becomes an analogy that anyone is comfortable relating to. And maybe more important, it’s refreshingly funny. Imagine if they showed this intentionally hilarious video in schools (to encourage real laughter) rather than unintentionally hilarious dry alternatives (that just encourage nervous laughter).
What did you learn?
Sir Nicholas Winton: How One Man Saved So Many Lives
SIR Nicholas Winton is the London-born man who organised the rescue and passage to Britain of about 669 mostly Jewish Czechoslovakian children destined for the Nazi death camps before World War II in an operation known as the Czech Kindertransport.
* “The problem was getting the people who would accept the children, and of course this was at a time when the evacuation of children from the south [of England] was taking place anyway…” he says.
“It’s marvellous that so many people did come forward. The unfortunate thing was that no other country would come along and help. I tried America but they didn’t take any. It would have made a vast difference if they had.”
Sir Nicholas Winton, 101, who had organized the rescue of 669 mainly Jewish children by train from Prague in 1939 holds flowers during the premiere of a new movie based on his life story called “Nicky’s Family” in Prague, Czech Republic, Thursday, Jan. 20, 2011.
Just before Christmas 1938 Winton was about to travel to Switzerland for a skiing holiday, when he decided instead to travel to Prague, Czechoslovakia, to help a friend who was involved in Jewish refugee work, and had called him asking for his help. There he single-handedly established an organisation to aid children from Jewish families at risk from the Nazis. He set up an office at a dining room table in his hotel in Wenceslas Square.[9] In November 1938, shortly after Kristallnacht, the House of Commons had approved a measure that would permit the entry of refugees younger than 17 years old into Britain, if they had a place to stay and a warranty of £50 was deposited for a ticket for their eventual return to their country of origin.
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Posted: 23rd, November 2013 | In: Flashback | Comments (2)
Sad Cambridge Fish In Toilet Row
LOCAL News headline of the week: The Cambridge News:
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Posted: 23rd, November 2013 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment
Grandstanding For Haiyan: The Beckhams Sell Their Clothes
THE Beckham – that’s David and Victoria – have given lots of their old clothes to be sold off to help the victims of Typhoon Haiyan that hit the Philippines with huge loss of life.
Good for them. So what if it’s grandstanding. So long as it helps the victims, all to the good.
Some people have put the kit up for resale on eBay. And good for them, too. Actually wearing a Beckham cast-off is a bit creepy.
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Posted: 22nd, November 2013 | In: Celebrities, Fashion, Reviews | Comment
