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.
Good God It’s Joel Osteen And Ministries
JOEL Osteen has a message for thus Sunday. Joel’s co-host, Victoria Osteen, is very possible paid by the number of times she says “God”:
It’s easy to go through life looking in the rear-view mirror—focused on what didn’t work out, who hurt us, the mistakes we’ve made, or those we have lost. In this uplifting message, Joel wants to give you the tools to move forward in confidence into your bright future God has in store. He will show you biblical principles on how to let go and quit reliving the past so that we can receive the new things God wants to do in our lives and move forward into His blessings and goodness. Remember, as long as you keep replaying your past, you will stay the same. But if you are ready to walk in the new blessings God has for you, it’s time to move forward. And, it all begins with moving forward in your thoughts.
He’s not a work of parody. Honest:
Man Who Headbutted Bracknell Bus Charged With Assault
WHEN is bus shelter not a bus shelter? When it is the victim of an alleged “assault”.
A man has been arrested on suspicion of assault after an incident at Bracknell bus station. Courtney Buses said some services were delayed after a man allegedly headbutted a bus and a bus shelter at 1.20pm on Thursday. A Thames Valley Police spokeswoman said officers were called at 1.22pm and a man was arrested on suspicion of assault.
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Posted: 10th, November 2013 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment
Milton Keynes Residents Told Pavement Is Not A Pavement
THIS lamppost in Kelly Gardens, Oxley Park, Milton Keynes, is a lamppost. But the footpath on which it sits is not a pavement. It is a “service margin”.
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Posted: 10th, November 2013 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment (1)
Where’s Wallaby: Caring Animal Experts Kill The Highgate Bouncer
THE Wallaby spotted hopping around Highgate Cemetery is dead.
The experts caught the marsupial – some say he’s the reincarnation of Karl Marx, TV prankster Jeremy Beadle or murdered KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko.
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Posted: 10th, November 2013 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comment
Roka-Kinne Third-Dimensional Television Debuts In 1953
Third-Dimensional Television 1953:
This is third-dimensional television, as transmitted in a test by the North West German radio television studio in Berlin on Nov. 9, 1953. Two images are transmitted, as in all true 3-D processes. They are blended into one picture through the use of special polarized glasses, lying in front of the television set. At left is a mask with which to cover the screen for a more clear-cut, called Roka-Kinne, was developed by Robert Karst of Berlin (27 Gneisenau St.) He says standard transmitters and receivers are used.
It never did catch on.
Posted: 9th, November 2013 | In: Flashback, Technology | Comment
Harold Jellicoe Percival: A Moment Of Your Time
READ this and contemplate. An RAF Bomber Command veteran needs your help…
TV 21 Was The Go-Ahead Comic Of The 1960s
DID you read TV 21, the British children’s comic from the 1960s and early 1970s? It was “A brand new comic of the future for the children of today”. TV Century 21 was a look to the go-ahead future.
Episode 1 launched with no little hype.
In 1960, City Magazines first published TV Century 21. The title would later be called just TV21.
Every week the taglines at the end of each strip would be written in code, and the Identicode was used to decipher them.
* With City’s close association with Gerry Anderson’s Century 21 productions TV21 was far more than just a comic that featured tv characters. The editor himself (Alan Fennell) was a scriptwriter onFireball XL5 and Stingray, and Lady Penelope debuted in her own strip in issue one several months before the first episode of Thunderbirdsever appeared on tv. The comic also had access to exclusive photographs of the models and characters, which were ideal for the newspaper-style covers of TV21. All in all, TV21 was very much a part of the Gerry Anderson universe, and the exciting thing was that the comic presented all those tv shows as part of a shared universe.
* The much heralded arrival of ‘Thunderbirds’ in TV 21 came after the first immensely successful year of the comic. In issue 52, Lady Penelope visits Tracy Island to see the home of International Rescue, and agrees to be their British agent. On the following week, Lady Penelope was given her own comic in a spin off from TV 21 aimed at girl television fans. The emphasis here was a little different, with the first class Lady Penelope strips being accompanied by features on pop stars and fashion. This comic is also very popular with collectors, with many photographs from the television series.
It wasn’t all Anderson TV shows. Whatever did happen to this crew?
And Ed “Stewpot” Stewart:
Posted: 9th, November 2013 | In: Flashback, The Consumer | Comment
Science Is Used To Intimidate Climate And Health Policy Makers
WHAT is free speech? It’s the right to speak your mind and for others to call your views into open debate. Mark Steyn looks at how debate over climate science is being blocked. He quotes former Austrian PM John Howard’s talk in London:
An overriding feature of the debate is the constant attempt to intimidate policy makers, in some cases successfully, with the mantras of “follow the science” and “the science is truly settled”. The purpose is to create the impression that there is really no room for argument; this is not really a public policy issue; it is one on which the experts have spoken, and we would all be quite daft to do other than follow the prescriptions, it is asserted, which flow automatically from the scientific findings.
Writing recently in Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, Dr Richard S. Lindzen, Emeritus Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said of those with political agendas who found it useful to employ science, “This immediately involves a distortion of science at a very basic level: namely science becomes a source of authority rather than a mode of inquiry. The real utility of science stems from the latter; the political utility stems from the former.”
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Obamacare V Humana: Libertarians Were Right
HOW’S Obamacare working out for you?
Posted: 9th, November 2013 | In: Money, Politicians, Reviews | Comment
Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary In Quotes
RYANAIR chief executive Michael O’Leary is man known for opening his mouth and letting absolutely anything fall out of it. He’s in the papers today saying that burkas should be banned in the UK and claimed the country is “leaning over far too much for some of these minority religions”.
He said: “I think we should ban burkas here in the UK. If you go to Saudi Arabia and they say the ladies have to veil up, you respect the local culture. If you want to come and live in Western society, I don’t think you should be allowed to walk around with some inalienable right to cover yourself up with only your eyes looking out.”
He also said he doesn’t buy into climate change, adding: “Temperatures have been moving up and down for 200 years yet every time you have a couple of warm summers they go — “Oooh, global warming’. There’s a degree of arrogance in thinking that any man-made phenomenon is going to change nature. Trying to reverse it by taxing air travel is absurd. We should encourage more driving and flying around because that kind of economic activity is what generates great wealth.”
Let us peer into his other views on the world.
On refunds: “You’re not getting a refund so f*ck off. We don’t want to hear your sob stories. What part of ‘no refund’ don’t you understand?”
On fat people: “Nobody wants to sit beside a really fat bastard on board. We have been frankly astonished at the number of customers who don’t only want to tax fat people but torture them.”
On people who forget to print their boarding pass: “We think [they] should pay 60 euros for being so stupid.”
On customer service: “People say the customer is always right, but you know what – they’re not. Sometimes they are wrong and they need to be told so.”
On Guardian readers: “The chattering bloody classes, or what I call the liberal Guardian readers, they’re all buying SUVs to drive around London. I smile at these loons who drive their SUVs down to Sainsbury’s and buy kiwi fruit from New Zealand. They’re flown in from New Zealand for Christ sakes. They’re the equivalent of environmental nuclear bombs!”
On green campaigners: “We want to annoy the fuckers whenever we can. The best thing you can do with environmentalists is shoot them. These headbangers want to make air travel the preserve of the rich. They are luddites marching us back to the 18th century. If preserving the environment means stopping poor people flying so the rich can fly, then screw it.”
On his popularity: “I don’t give a shit if no-one likes me. I am not a cloud bunny, I am not an aerosexual. I don’t like aeroplanes. I never wanted to be a pilot like those other platoons of goons who populate the airline industry.”
On a bomb scare in Scotland: “The police force were outstanding in their field. But all they did was stand in their field. They kept passengers on board while they played with a suspect package for two and three quarter hours. Extraordinary.”
Discussing his plans for a transatlantic Ryanair: “In economy no frills; in business class it’ll all be free – including the blowjobs”
On his wedding day, asked if the bride would be late: “Yes, she’s flying Aer Lingus”
On Michael O’Leary: “I’m probably just an obnoxious little bollocks. Who cares?”
On the future: “Making the world a better place… by taking a vow of silence”
Banning Child Labour Means The Kids Get Paid Less
IF we repealed the laws that ban child labour here in the UK then what do we think would happen to the number of children forced into going to work? Correct, pretty much nothing: almost no one wants to send their children to work and alomst no one wants to employ children.
However, we do also think that child labour is a pretty bad thing and we also argue that other places, other poorer places, should ban child labour as well. And things might not work out the same way elsewhere. For it can happen that if you ban child labour then the amount of child labour goes up, not down:
In this paper, we examine the consequences of India’s landmark legislation against child labor, the Child Labor (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986. Using data from employment surveys conducted before and after the ban, and using age restrictions that determined who the ban applied to, we show that child wages decrease and child labor increases after the ban. These results are consistent with a theoretical model building on the seminal work of Basu and Van (1998) and Basu (2005), where families use child labor to reach subsistence constraints and where child wages decrease in response to bans, leading poor families to utilize more child labor.
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Everyday Sexism: The 1972 Golden Hands Complete Book of Dressmaking
EVERYDAY Sexism: Anorak harks back to the 1972 book The Golden Hands Complete Book of Dressmaking.
What is ‘Golden Hands’ in the pink neckerchief thinking? That if he pretends to be “a good dresser” or a “poof”, as the 1970s language had it, the woman won’t mind his appraising her chest? Maybe. Don’t knock it, dudes. Wind the clock on a few decades and raging heterosexual shagger Gok Wan is undressing women on telly and telling them how to look good naked.
Remember: no-on on TV is gay. It’s all an act. After all, if lesbians were popular, you’d see a lot more of them on the magic box.
Posted: 8th, November 2013 | In: Fashion, Flashback | Comment
Frederik Rosén: International Humanitarian Law Says Drones Are Good
DRONES. What sue are they? Frederik Rosén argues that it’s our duty to use them:
If a state possesses drone technology, and if the deployment of this technology may potentially reduce unnecessary harm from armed attacks, the state is obliged to employ the technology. This is not at all different from the obligation to pick up the binoculars before firing the shells. The obligation to use drones for precaution is logically not limited to drone attacks. It applies across all weapon systems. Even in the near future, ground attacks may no longer be lawful without engaging available drone technology for the purpose of precaution. … It is as if drone technology lifts the “fog of war” from critical aspects of the use of armed force. We therefore need to think through the application of the laws of war in armed conflicts characterized by total visibility. Because drone technology is not only a game changer, it also triggers obligations.
Spotter: Andrew Sullivan
Save Your Child From A House Fire In Missouri And Get A Tasin’ And A Jailin’
IN case you’re wondering: apparently it is illegal in Missouri to save a toddler from a burning house, and cops will taser you, cuff you and haul you off to jail if you try.
Ryan Miller discovered this early on Halloween morning, when an electrical fire started in the house he shared with his wife and three-year-old stepson. Officers shot Miller with a stun gun as he tried re-entering the burning house to save the little boy. (There’s some dispute over exactly how often Miller got Tased; police say two times while Miller’s mother says three, twice after Miller was already in handcuffs and once after he was already in the police car.)
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Posted: 8th, November 2013 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comment (1)
Sham Wedding: Couple’s First Dance Was To ‘The First Time I Saw Your Face’
THE UK border police don’t always get it right. They raised Massimo Ciabattini and Miao Guo’s wedding at London’s Camden Town Hall.
The Italian groom, his Chinese bride and two bridesmaids were seized and questioned in an impromptu game of Mr And Mrs. Camden Council had spotted the wedding and called him the Home Office to investigate.
Guy Taylor, of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, tells the Standard:
“This is a life event where people’s expectations, money and energy is being poured into this one day and the Home Office don’t seem to care about ruining it by not making better background checks. Why didn’t they interview them beforehand?”
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Kapow: Wind Turbines Cause 600,000 Bats To Explode With Joy
WIND Turbines are the eco-responsible power to preserve life:
The Times reports:
More than 600,000 bats were killed in the United States last year by wind turbines, according to a new estimate. The figure, based on a statistical analysis of rates of dead bats found close to 21 turbines, suggests that wind energy could be harmful to certain migratory species.The bat counts were averaged to give a death toll per mega watt generated. Extrapolating this to the total power generated in the US, gave an estimate of 600,000 deaths.
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Silk Road Rises From The Grave So Let’s Buy All The Drugs!
WHEN the FBI closed down dodgy website, Silk Road, they probably thought their work was done. However, this is the internet and people have a habit of not going away.
Five weeks after the drug vendors bit the dust, Silk Road 2.0 came online (“we have risen again”) and the site’s mastermind has adopted the Dread Pirate Roberts namesake used by (alleged) Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht.
A tweet said: “#SILKROAD IS BACK UP. DEJA VU ANYONE? #WERISEAGAIN
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Posted: 7th, November 2013 | In: Reviews, The Consumer | Comment (1)
French Mutant Hero Killer Rats Invade House Of Commons
DATELINE: Wednesday November 6, 2013…. French Killer Rats Invade the UK.
Nation gripped by panic.
Russia offers to send over mutant killer cats “to help”.
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Ban The Burka Advert Appears On British Bus
A BAND The Burka Ad has appeared on a British bus. It;s true. Look.
The message says:
“We’re proud to see our Ban The Burka on a bus at last we thank First team for agreeing to waive the fee”
Seems legit:
Colour Pictures Of The Addams Family TV Show Set
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Posted: 6th, November 2013 | In: Flashback, TV & Radio | Comment
A Firework Hits Buckingham Palace (Gif) As Her Majesty Gets A Yangban Mask For A South Korea Banquet (Photos)
WRITES Brendan O’Neill of last Guy Fawkes’ Night night’s protest outside Buckingham Palace:
As the general public burnt effigies of the Catholic reactionary Guy Fawkes, radicals were dressing up as him and screeching at parliament. Further proof that ordinary people are more progressive than what now passes for the left.
A firework was tossed at the Palace:
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Posted: 6th, November 2013 | In: Reviews, Royal Family | Comment
