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.
Cocksucker Blues – Groupies sex and shooting up heroin: The Rolling Stones epic and banned documentary
IN 1972, long before The Rolling Stones were pop’s Establishment act headlining Glastonbury and making Prince Harry and smug BBC DJs dance in their yurts, they were rebellion personified. It was the year Robert Frank created the documentary Cocksucker Blues. When they saw the film shot on tour, some of them hated it enough to block its release.
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Trayvon Martin: ‘killed by white supremacy’ and raped by the white liberal elite
THE Trayvon Martin case has made many question the meaning of justice. How can an unarmed man be shot dead and no laws broken? The unarmed black man was shot dead because the armed vigilante wrongly thought he was up to no good in Florida, a state that allows paranoid self-declared neighborhood watch captains to “stand your ground”.
Only the two men – shooter George Zimmerman and victim Trayvon Martin – know for certain what happened. One of them is dead.
What this is about public opinion. And race.
The FBI found no evidence that Zimmerman, a Democrat, was racist. But the story has been all about race.
Andrew Sullivan, who is gay, notes:
I’m not going to second-guess the jurors, except to say the obvious: if that were a jury of Trayvon’s peers, then I’m a heterosexual.
Were they a jury of Zimmerman’s peers?
In The Nation, Aura Bogado goes further:
White Supremacy Acquits George Zimmerman
A jury has found George Zimmerman not guilty of all charges in connection to death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. But while the verdict came as a surprise to some people, it makes perfect sense to others. This verdict is a crystal-clear illustration of the way white supremacy operates in America.
What evidence of that?
She says five of the jurors were white. The other was “of colour”.
George Zimmerman is Hispanic, or “white hispanic”, as the media billed him:
Zimmerman’s apparent ideology—one that is suspicious of black men in his neighborhood, the “assholes who always get away—” is one that adheres to white supremacy.
It was replicated in the courtroom by his defense, whose team tore away at Rachel Jeantel, questioning the young woman as if she was taking a Jim Crow–era literacy test. A defense that, during closing, cited slave-owning rapist Thomas Jefferson, played an animation for the jury based on erroneous assumptions, made racially coded accusations about Trayvon Martin emerging “out of the darkness,” and had the audacity to compare the case of the killing of an unarmed black teenager to siblings arguing over which one stole a cookie.
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Posted: 15th, July 2013 | In: Reviews | Comments (3)
Asiana Airlines sues Captain Sum Ting Wong with a ‘smile as beautiful as a wing with stripes’
ASIANA Airlines will sue the TV station that reported on the accident that saw three passengers killed (two have been named as Ye Mengyuan, 16, and Wang Linjia, 17) and scores more injured when one of it jets crashed into the tarmac at San Francisco airport.
Reports suggest that the 777 descended too fast, causing the tail of the airliner to strike a sea wall.
The pilot was Lee Kang Kuk.
Yoon Young Doo, Asiana’s CEO, said the crash was not down to mechanical failure.
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No hookahs: Syrian rebels create world’s first jihadi no-smoking zone
SMOKERS. You’re not wanted in Syria:
A Syrian rebel group is banning smokers from its new training camp.
Abu Sakkar, the rebel filmed cutting the organs from a Syrian soldier, is a non smoker. He’s most likely tea-total:
The Al-Ansar Battalion says on its Facebook page the camp is open to all those wishing to participate in “jihad in Homs”, where opposition forces are engaged in fierce battles with troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad for control of the city. However, it lays out a number of conditions for new recruits including the ban on lighting up. “Smokers should abstain from smoking during the camp and completely quit smoking by the end of the training,” it says.
If you want to quit smoking, become a jihadi.
Posted: 15th, July 2013 | In: Reviews | Comments (7)
Top 10 weird visa applications
APPLYING for visas is a pain, but imagine actually having to process them and the weird reasons people give! Thankfully, someone has compiled the top ten strangest visa applications.
One fella from South Africa, for example, wanted to move to Europe so he could chase vampires in Romania. Another cheery soul from Mexico got their visa rejected because he wanted to use his embalming skills to prepare dead bodies in Spain.
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Posted: 15th, July 2013 | In: Reviews, The Consumer | Comment (1)
Racist Goldman Sachs worker knocked out by arrested black man he abused
ON the one side of the public ring in New York city’s West Village, stood mouthing off in a gilded corner with the diamond studs and shorts made from golden eagle perinea, is a suited and booted Goldman Sachs master of the universe. On the other side is a black couple eating burritos.
The GM-modified human stumbles into the dining couple’s table. The dining man is Douglas Reddish, 25. He makes to ‘steady‘ the drunken fool. So it says in the New York Post.
GM yells, according to police:
“This nigger wants to fight me! You niggers are why I lost my job.”
Reddish then delivers a coup de grace to GM’s chin. The banker falls down. His head hits the concrete. There is much blood.
A waiter tells us:
“He was out cold. I thought he was dead.”
Reddish is not carried high on the shoulders of the populace. He legs it. He leaves his girlfriend behind. The Goldman Sachs employee is taken to hospital, where he remains in a serious condition.
Mr Reddish has been arrested for assault.
Your sympathies may be mixed. The NY Post call the banker a “cad“. That makes him sound admirable, no, a Terry Thomas-style charmer?
Howie Felterbush reacts to new of the Trayvon Martin v George Zimmerman trial
GEORGE Zimmerman did not murder Trayvon Martin. The verdict has been delivered.
Howie Felterbush is on the scene to deliver an opinion in a vox pop brought to in conjunction with KTVU…
George Zimmerman: a paranoid victim of the illiberal bigots who made Trayvon Martin a ‘martyr’
GEORGE Zimmerman did not murder Trayvon Martin in Florida. The white vigilante did not murder the unarmed black youth.
A six-member, all-woman jury took 15 hours to deliver a not guilty verdict at the Seminole County Criminal Justice Center in Sanford Florida.
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1973: Jimmy Savile hid in a Womble suit on Top of The Pops to leer at young girls
OPERATION Yewtree calls The Wombles.
Mike Batt wrote their music. He went on the record:
In 1974 The Wombles were the biggest selling act in the U.K. It all came about by my being hired to do the music for this little TV series, five minutes long, that the BBC did. These funny little puppet things being stop-animated into rather twee adventures picking up litter on Wimbledon Common. Instead of getting the £200 fee for it, I asked if I could have the character rights to the music. That was worth nothing, because there was no band or anything, so they gave me that instead.
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Posted: 13th, July 2013 | In: Flashback, Music, TV & Radio | Comments (5)
Alabama education system sets easier test for blacks
SEGREGATION is against the law in Alabama. But another form of racism has taken hold. The WSJ reports:
“Beginning this fall, Alabama public schools will be under a new state-created academic accountability system that sets different goals for students in math and reading based on their race, economic status, ability to speak English and disabilities.” Alabama’s Plan 2020 “sets a different standard for students in each of several subgroups — American Indian, Asian/Pacific islander, black, English language learners, Hispanic, multirace, poverty, special education and white.”
The American Interest notes:
In other words, minority students will need to meet lower expectations, while white students (and Asians) will be expected to reach higher proficiency levels.
Elois Zeanah, President of the Alabama Federation of Republican Women, asks:
“Doesn’t this imply that some students are not as smart as others depending on their genetic and economic backgrounds?”
Yes. It seems to.
For instance, while 95 percent of third-graders, regardless of subgroup, need to pass math in 2013 under No Child Left Behind, the Alabama plan expects 91.5 percent of white students and 79 percent of black students to pass math tests in 2013.
The Tuscaloosa news adds:
The state’s new Plan 2020 will replace No Child Left Behind, the much-maligned, Bush-era accountability program. ..
Under No Child Left Behind, 95 percent of all third-graders had to pass math by 2013 for a school to meet education standards. All third-graders, black, white, poor, special needs or otherwise, had to meet the same goal.
But under Plan 2020, the percentage of third-graders required to pass math in 2013 is different for each subgroup.
The percentages needed for third-graders to pass math in their subgroups for 2013 are:
– 93.6 percent of Asian/Pacific Islander students.
– 91.5 percent of white students.
– 90.3 percent of American Indian students.
– 89.4 percent of multiracial students.
– 85.5 percent of Hispanic students.
– 82.6 percent of students in poverty.
– 79.6 percent of English language-learner students.
– 79 percent of black students.
– 61.7 percent of special needs students.
You are no longer an individual. You are part of a race. (As you can see, there are no Jews, Arab Muslims or billionaires in Alabama).
What say the experts?
Shanthia Washington, education administrator for the Alabama Department of Education, said the reason they set lower goals for some student subgroups is because they weren’t performing as well as others based on 2012’s standardized test data.
She said one of the goals of Plan 2020 is to start students off at the level they’re performing on and set annual goals to get them to improve from there.
“We’re not just grabbing the numbers out of the air …,” Washington said. “This is real-life, true data. These are your goals every year. The goal is to reduce the students who aren’t proficient over the period of the next six years.
“The purpose in (setting higher annual percentage increases for the lower performing subgroups) is to try to give ambitious but obtainable goals for each subgroup,” she said. “With the old system, they all had to adhere to the same goal, but some might have only had 20 percent proficiency.”
So why not change the tests? If some students do worse in some tests than others, introduce new tests that give students a new angle in education? Focus on engineering, say, or art?
Washington adds:
“In that way, we feel like we can raise the performance. The ultimate goal of Plan 2020 is to ensure that each child is college- and career-ready.”
What career does the poor black child have, then, who took the easier test? Or does he go to college for, you know, more of the same strain of education that failed him already..?
Lowering the bar reduces their life expectations. It is an admittance of failure.
Photo: Pickets representing civil rights groups parade outside Wilson Auditorium in Cincinnati, Ohio, Feb. 11, 1964 where Gov. George C. Wallace of Alabama spoke to a University of Cincinnati audience. Wallace, a leading spokesman for segregation and states rights, denounced the newly-passed civil rights bill as a federal power grab. His visit to Cincinnati coincided with a one-day boycott to protest alleged de fact segregation in public schools. There were no incidents at the speech. (AP Photo/Gene Smith)
Pew Poll results: America says journalists contribute ‘nothing to society’
WHO do you hate most? The Pew poll is bad reading for journalists. It’s the women:
Compared with the ratings four years ago, journalists have dropped the most in public esteem. The share of the public saying that journalists contribute a lot to society is down 10 percentage points, from 38% in 2009 to 28% in 2013. The drop is particularly pronounced among women (down 17 points). About as many U.S. adults now say journalists contribute “not very much” or “nothing at all” to society (27%) as say they contribute a lot (28%)….
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Posted: 12th, July 2013 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)
In photos: Greenpeace take on The Shard
YESTERDAY, six female Greenpeace activists climbed all 72 floors of The Shard in central London, in protest at drilling in the Arctic. They chose The Shard because you can see the building from Shell’s head office, and it resembles a shard of ice.
And when they got to the top they…
A) Stuck a flag in it and claimed the building for Tibet
B) Signalled for help to the watching police helcopter
C) Marvelled at human ingenuity in building something so impressive on clay and sand
D) Unfurled a blue banner which was almost impossible to read
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Madeleine McCann: Daily Express juxtaposes Our Maddie next to a family holiday competition
MADELEINE McCann is on the cover of the Daily Express. There is news. Maybe. The front-page headline announces:
“MADELEINE: POLICE HUNT GIVES McCANNS FRESH HOPE”
As ever there is no news. This is media management. The media continues to feature the missing child. Her parents continue their policy of keeping their daughter’s name in the public eye.
* By the way, who at the Express thought it a good idea to position the child who went missing on a family summer holiday overseas alongside a chance to win a family holiday overseas? Not good.
Anyhow, this latest news follows the Express‘ story on July 8th:
Yard face a network of evil: Maddie police ‘seeking people smuggling ring’
A FORMER top Scotland Yard detective last night suggested the new investigation into the Madeleine McCann mystery is focused on a network of suspects involved in people-trafficking.
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Posted: 12th, July 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comment (1)
The 22 most unusual names in American political history
THE 22 most unusual, suggestive and bizarre names in American political history:
Spotter: The Strangest Names In American Political History
Posted: 11th, July 2013 | In: Flashback, Politicians | Comment (1)
Photos of the 2013 Belfast Battle of the Boyne Bonfire season
THE summer is here. The heat is high. Time, then, to build a gigantic bonfire at New Mossley on the outskirts of Belfast. At midnight tonight hundreds of fires will be set alight as loyalists celebrate the 12th July, remembering the defeat of the Catholic King James, by the Protestant William of Orange in 1690.
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Global warming tuns pet lizards into man eaters
IS there anything global warming can’t do?
A study of giant lizard fossils that sat untouched for many years in a drawer at UC Berkeley suggests that global warming could transform today’s pet-sized lizards into creatures as as big as Komodo dragons.
If you have a pet Komodo Dragon, warn it that relatives of the chameleon it’s eating will one day seek revenge (and eat you)…
Fugitive caught after tweeting ‘catch me if you can’ (cough PRISM)
IMAGINE being a cocky criminal and going on the running, taunting authorities via Twitter yelling: “Catch me if you can!” Only one thing was ever going to happen wasn’t it?
You’re absolutely correct – Wanda Podgurski skipped her trial and mocked authorities in the States and ended up getting caught.
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Royal hoax DJ Mel Grieg blames her employers for nurse’s death – but that’s ridiculous
JACINTHA Saldanha blamed the DJS who tricked her for her suicide in December 2012. The 46-year-old mother of two took a hoax call while working at King Edward VII’s Hospital, London, where Kate Middleton had been undergoing treatment for acute morning sickness. In her suicide note, she blamed Michael Christian and Mel Greig for her state of mind.
Allegedly, the deceased was a depressive who had tried to end her life before.
So. What happened next? Well, her family were forced to get over a terrible loss.
In June, one of the pranksters, DJ Christian, was given the “top jock” award at the Southern Cross Austereo network, which still employs him. He was thrilled, stating:
“From the start I felt like I had something to prove to myself. That regardless of all that’s happened in the past few months I’m still at the top of my game. So it felt good to see my name at the top of the final leader board.”
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Posted: 10th, July 2013 | In: Reviews, TV & Radio | Comment
Fact v fear: nine scare stories that make mugs of the British
A SURVEY by Ipsos MORI for the Royal Statistical Society and King’s College London looks at scare stories and the facts behind them.
These are the popular misperceptions:
Teenage pregnancy
Fear: 15% of girls under 16 get pregnant each year
Fact: 0.6% % do.
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All hail the Wife Carrying Championships!
IN Finland, they’ve clearly got the same bizarre approach to boredom that us Brits have. While we nearly kill ourselves chasing cheese down a hill or trying to throw boots over viaducts, the people of Sonkajärvi partake in the annual Wife Carrying Championships, which we just happen to have the highlights of.
Last weekend, hundreds of people entered the with each competitor tackling a track that is 253.5 metres in length, with their wives strewn across their shoulders, her legs wrapped around the neck for support.
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Posted: 9th, July 2013 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment
PokerStars to Celebrate 100 Billionth Hand With $5 Million Giveaway
A total of $5 million is set to be given away across a variety of promotions to celebrate the historic 100 billionth hand to be dealt by online card site, PokerStars.
Founded in 2001, PokerStars is the world’s largest online poker hub, having attracted 50 million registered users so far in its 12-year history.
Over the next month, the site is preparing to give away a huge range of prizes to players who participate in ring game, tournament and Sit & Go events.
When the 100 Billion Mega Milestone is reached, players will be awarded a share of $1million, with each player at the lucky table winning $10,000 each, whilst the overall champion will receive $100,000 when the big hand strikes.
“100 billion hands represents the play of millions of people who love the game – whether they play occasionally, never miss a Sunday Million tournament or are professionals. 100 billion is an incredible number of hands, the result of many years of support and dedication from our players, to whom we constantly strive to deliver a better experience for each and every day,” commented Alex Payne, Chief Marketing Officer of PokerStars.
In February this year, the 95th billionth hand struck at a $0.08/$0.16 No-Limit Hold’em table and lucky player “RichB17” won a total of $23,920. With excitement expected to be even greater this time round, PokerStars is anticipating a significant rise in traffic as hopefuls attempt to become a part of online poker history.
PokerStars.com deals approximately 5 billion hands every three months, so the big moment is estimated to take place around June 14th. Players looking to take part can visit the website.
Aside from the $1 million dollar hand, Pokerstars.com will also be hosting a special Golden Sit & Go event (June 17th-23rd) and a Zoom 100 tournament (June 23rd).
There are approximately 100 billion stars in the entire Milky Way, and in just over a decade PokerStars has fittingly managed to deal a hand for each one.
In association with Pokerstars
Posted: 9th, July 2013 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)
The Internet and the old-guard media disagree on the cult of Edward Snowden
THANK Zod for the Internet, especially Twitter, because without them you’d be hard-pressed to know anybody here in America is rooting for poor Edward Snowden these days.
There’s a disturbing divide in the national opinion—you can find exceptions in either case, but for the most part it looks like the Twitterati overwhelmingly supports Snowden while the mainstream media can’t stand him. At least not mainstream editorial boards; the Washington Post’s went so far as to call for Snowden to surrender and quit leaking information (some of which the Post’s own news team had already published).
To be fair, though, the Post did later run an op-ed piece by alumnus Daniel Ellsberg, exposer of the Pentagon Papers, in which Ellsberg argued that “NSA leaker Snowden made the right call” when he fled the country.
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Posted: 9th, July 2013 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comments (5)
Flight attendant accused of smuggling live rats in her knickers
THE allegation is that American Airlines stewardess Louann Giambattista, 55, smuggled rats inside her underwear. Three of her colleagues say Giambattista hid the rodents in her tights and knickers.
She says that’s “absurd” and “false”. But one of her accusers says he saw a bulge in her crotch that “he thought was a live pet”.
Papers at the Brooklyn federal court also claim that on a flight from St. Martin to Miami, a flight attendant “believed [Giambattista] fed her pet rats”.
Giambattista’s lawyer says it’s all “preposterous“:
“Everybody has pets – she has her pets at home, not at work. She’s not a nut. They’re making her out to be a nut.”
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Posted: 9th, July 2013 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment
