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In photos – creative dog grooming competition goes nuts
IN Hershey, Pennsylvania, dog groomers have been showcasing their creations. Cats will laugh:
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Posted: 23rd, June 2013 | In: Key Posts, Reviews, The Consumer | Comment (1)
Edward Snowden escapes Hong Kong drone strike to spy on Ecuador’s enlightened neighbours
EDWARD Snowden the National Security Agency whistleblower, is heading to… Ecuador. That’s where Julian Assange wants to go, should the WikiLeaks head man ever escape his asylum lounge in London’s Ecaudorean embassy. One day, we should know pretty much everything about Ecuador.
That’s if Snowden makes it. He’s been charged with espionage and theft by the US Government. Snowden told us that the NSA can and does incidentally log domestic communications while targeting foreigners. In short, the NSA spies on Americans. And such is the power of the USA, that Britons get spied on, too.
WikiLeaks, which is supporting Mr Snowden, says in a statement:
“Mr Snowden requested that WikiLeaks use its legal expertise and experience to secure his safety. Once Mr Snowden arrives at his final destination his request will be formally processed.”
But isn’t Snowden just a US traitor? He’s not on the side of freedom. He’s just on the other side. He fled to Hong Kong, not exactly a bastion of free expression. He was out to win friends in Beijing:
In an interview with the South China Morning Post newspaper, Snowden claims the U.S. has long been attacking a Hong Kong university that routes all Internet traffic in and out of the semi-autonomous Chinese region. Snowden said the National Security Agency’s 61,000 hacking targets around the world include hundreds in Hong Kong and mainland China, the paper reported late Wednesday. The Post, Hong Kong’s main English-language newspaper, said Snowden had presented documents to support those claims, but it did not describe the documents and said it could not verify them.
The New Yorker noted that the Chinese were warming to the grass:
Offering details about America’s cyber strategy on China may not help him much in American public opinion, but it already has in China. After initially attracting muted attention during a Chinese holiday earlier this week, by Thursday, his case was major news, and Snowden was a popular man here. Mo Shucao flagged me to an online survey that found that seventy-eight per cent of respondents regarded Snowden as a freedom fighter who protects civil liberties. As for how the Chinese government should handle the case, eighty-one per cent supported giving Snowden asylum either to protect him or extract more of the intelligence he is able to leak. Only three per cent supported surrendering him to the United States.
So. Why didn’t Snowden head to China? Adam Minter has an idea:
What’s becoming clear is that it’s in China’s best interest that Snowden leave Hong Kong — and soon. No doubt, on Monday there was no small amount of gloating in Beijing at the thought of a former U.S. intelligence analyst contemplating asylum on Chinese territory. But that satisfaction likely gave way to a wary recognition that Snowden is an advocate for digital privacy and against the surveillance state. Whatever benefit he might serve as an intelligence asset, or as a source of national prestige, is outweighed by the prospect of the world’s most famous whistle-blower living out his days in Hong Kong with nothing better to do than turn his attention to the surveillance state across the border.
In Ecuador, Snowden can spy on Peru and Colombia.
China is an easy target for criticism. But at least the US Even can change:
Seeking to drag the shadowy world of U.S. national security law into the light, a bipartisan group of senators has proposed a bill that would declassify significant legal opinions reached by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court… The bill is based on Merkley’s past proposal to declassify important FISA court opinions. He is joined by a small bipartisan group of senators that includes Democratic Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Ron Wyden of Oregon, Jon Tester of Montana, Mark Begich of Alaska, and Al Franken of Minnesota. Republicans joining the effort include Senator Mike Lee of Utah and Dean Heller of Nevada.
And Snowden could have been killed in Hong Kong. Crank up the Drone Strike:
“Hong Kong is an island; it’s a port city surrounded by deep water. In 2008 the Navy demonstrated something called Submarine Over-The-Horizon Organic Capability—launching and controlling a lethal Switchblade drone from a submerged sub. The Switchblade is a one-use drone, powered by a quiet electric motor, that weighs about six pounds and flies up to 50 mph for 15 minutes. Switchblade carries a high-explosive warhead that can blow up everything within a 1-, 5-, or 7-meter range around the drone; it can take out an individual, or a truck. A high-resolution video camera in the nose allows a human operator to verify the target before detonating the drone. This is a far less destructive than the 20-pound warhead on the Hellfire missiles fired by Reaper drones, which can cause considerable collateral damage.”
But they want him alive…
Posters from British wrestling’s glorious heyday
ONCE upon a time, 4pm on Saturday afternoond meant wrestling on the telly.
You could back the corporate patriot Big Daddy (formerly The Blonde Adonis, Mr. Universe and The Battling Guardsman), the walking famryard Giant Haystacks, Les “Laughing Boy” Kellett, Jackie (“Mr. T.V.”) Pallo, the mysterious Kendo Nagasaki or the villainous – boo! – Mick McManus. You’d tune in to ITV’s World of Sport to see the Greco-Roman tradition enlivened by men in cotton knickers being slapped about the body and head by umbrella and handbag-wielding grannies.
McManus died this year, and we can still heat him crying out in agony – was it real? – “Not the ears, not the ears!” How he hated his ears rubbed.
Was it fixed? Did Big Daddy really put down the gargantuan Haystacks? All real, said McManus:
“It’s ridiculous to say the bouts were fixed. You should have seen the injuries. Sometimes it was impossible to get out of bed the next day because you were battered so badly.”
In 1988, wrestling was taken off the telly. All we’re left with is memories and these wonderful posters:
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Posted: 23rd, June 2013 | In: Flashback, Sports, TV & Radio | Comment
Edward Snowden told the truth – James Clapper’s the liar
AT least Edward Snowden told the truth:
Reacting to the news that NSA leaker Edward Snowden has reportedly fled Hong Kong for Moscow, Kentucky senator and 2016 presidential hopeful Rand Paul on Sunday urged Americans to suspend judgment on Snowden, calling him a truthteller who came forward to correct the lies of the Obama administration’s lies for the American people.
“I do think that when history looks at this, they are going to contrast the behavior James Clapper, our national intelligence director, with Edward Snowden,” Paul told CNN’s Candy Crowley. “Mr. Clapper lied in Congress, in defiance of the law, in the name of security. Mr. Snowden told the truth in the name of privacy. So I think there will be a judgment, because both of them broke of the law.”
Clapper was asked by Oregon senator Ron Wyden in a March congressional hearing whether the government was collecting “any type of data at all on millions of Americans.” He responded, “No, sir.”
Spotter: The Corner
Edward Snowden shuns Brazil and Turkey fo life in Mother Russia
SO. Which country is NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden heading to? Turkey? Brazil? Nope:
United States intelligence fugitive Edward Snowden has left Hong Kong on a flight bound for Moscow, reports say.
The South China Morning Post, quoting what it says are credible sources, said he was due to arrive in Moscow on Sunday evening.
It said Moscow would not be his final destination.
It’s like the Cold War never ended…
Posted: 23rd, June 2013 | In: Reviews | Comments (2)
Jeremy Forrest: What his victim wrote to the sleazy teacher’s parents
JEREMY Forrest, the teacher jailed for abducting and having sex with a 15-year-old pupil continues to make news.
The Sun leads with: “I want to wed jailed teacher.”
Dad: I’ll walk her down the aisle
THE girl abducted by teacher Jeremy Forrest has vowed to marry him when he is freed. Her dad said she would wait for Forrest, below, to be released from his 5½-year jail sentence. He added: “I’d be proud to walk her down the aisle.”
The girl is now 16, so legally able to marry.
Says the girl’s dad:
“My daughter had a very unsettled family life when she was growing up. It would be a dream for her to settle down and marry the man she loves. She would want to do it all properly.”
That would be Forrest, who married the woman he loved and then cheated on her with one of his underage pupils? Surely he will give his second wife the security she craves. The dad adds:
“I’d be proud to walk my daughter down the aisle with the man she loves. I honestly believe he loves my daughter and she’s besotted with him. She has made it clear she wants a future with him. Hopefully with good behaviour he may be freed on parole after a few years. If they have a future together that’s fine by me and they would have my blessing. I should hate him for what he’s done but I don’t — in fact, I’d like to meet him. I’d like to visit him in prison, shake his hand and say, ‘Thanks for looking after my daughter’. I would be nice to him.”
Why does the dad tell this to the papers? Is he trying to get in with his daughter, now estranged from her mother? We can only guess. But it’s the chance for reader reaction that makes this story entertaining. We all love to talk about bad parenting.
The dad adds:
“He never hurt or harmed my daughter and he didn’t take her away against her will. Yes, they had a physical relationship but she was sensible and mature enough to agree to that.”
The law says otherwise. Forrest has bene handed a five-year sentence for his crimes.
“They formed a friendship, which turned into a loving relationship, at a time both were suffering from family issues and insecurities. Some family members believe it is a good thing he was jailed, and they will be kept apart, but others feel it was too harsh. She went off on her own free will with him. She has to take some of the blame. Yes, he was foolish — but he’s a bloke in love and wasn’t thinking straight….
“He obviously wasn’t happily married and I do feel sorry for his wife. But if he had waited till my daughter was old enough and had left school, there wouldn’t have been all this trouble.”
A family source then adds:
“…everyone is just hoping things will die down and they are all looking forward to spending some normal family time.”
Wanting it to die down is why, erm, her dad has been talking to the Press.
The Sun says the girl write to Forrest’s mum and dad:
“Dear Julie and Jim, I’m fully aware that I should not be getting in contact with you, but I couldn’t stop myself — there are a few things I want to say and clarify. I think you should know that my feelings toward Jeremy have been made very clear to my mum, and as much as she tries, she cannot change this. There’s been a bit of controversy online, with me being portrayed in the wrong light, and I hope you know what’s true and not true.
“I was not in control of what other people were saying. I have had to take it and watch my reputation being tarnished. I’m writing to apologise for any upset I have caused.
“On a more serious note I want to say thank you for showing your support and genuine concern in what you did for both of us in the TV appeal. It was heart-breaking to see you so upset. I understand that you were both extremely worried, but I’m sure you know also that I was not in any danger, which I have stressed countless amounts of times to various people.
“If anything I actually felt a lot safer with Jeremy in France than I have felt in my own home, school or any other familiar environments. I can’t emphasise enough how everything I feel towards Jeremy is — more than anything — serious … he is wonderful.
“I understand that when Jeremy comes home there will be things to sort out and the main concern will be making sure that Jeremy is able to cope and adjust to living in the outside world again. Obviously I now and will continue in the future to stand by him. I do believe that some things are worth fighting for. For now, though, I’m going to concentrate on working hard to get the future both me and Jeremy want and I’m preparing for college.
“Jeremy will be pleased to know I have been accepted on an A-level maths course — maybe he would find it comical as maths was my worst subject at school. Thank you for taking the time to read this — I hope it was not too intrusive.
“I don’t expect a reply.
“Take care x x ”
The Daily Mail says on its front page that this is all “disturbing“. It says:
‘Paedophile’ Jeremy Forrest’s sister reveals his disturbing plans to wed pupil he snatched when he leaves prison
Why is paedophile in invested commas?
Having heard from the girl’s father, we now hear from Forrest’s sister Carrie Hanspaul, 33:
“He’s never seemed his age,’ she said. ‘I’ve never seen him as a grown-up, even though he’s been a teacher and he took his job really seriously – but he wasn’t very good with money. He’s still very into music and all that, and it made me think he hadn’t fully grown up yet, as if he felt he was still in his early 20s rather than 30. But the girl comes across as being very mature in the way she expresses herself. She’s an intelligent mature girl.”
We are no invited to consider their mental ages. If a man has sex with a grown woman with a mental age of 10 is he paedophile? If the middle-age man says he feels like a teenager – and means it – is he innocent when having sex with an underage girl?
“Take the age gap on its own – away from her being under-age – if she was 30 and he was aged 45, there are a lot of relationships like that. I don’t see it as predatory or grooming. It’s not going to be a normal relationship as he’s in prison and she isn’t, so they’re not going to be going out or anything. Throughout this we’ve really tried to support him and not to judge him.”
The same age gap would be 20 and 5.
Referring to allegations yesterday that Forrest ‘groomed’ another schoolgirl when she was just 13 at his previous school in Kent, Mrs Hanspaul said: “In situations like this it’s inevitable that people come out of the woodwork, but what can Jeremy do to defend himself? She could have gone to the police, but she’s gone to the papers.”
The Sun reported:
Chloe Queen said he would “routinely cuddle” her and make her to stay after class for extra lessons. She described how she was also sent Christmas and birthday cards by him – signed ‘Love, Mr Forrest’ with three kisses – and was invited to his band’s gigs. Chloe, now 17, is one of a string of girls Forrest, 30, allegedly tried to groom before he ran away to France with a 15-year-old pupil last September…
Chloe, who now works in central London, said: “He would compliment me all the time and say things like ‘You’re a very pretty girl’. “He was an in-your-face kind of guy. When I was sitting down and writing stuff in class, he would lean over me, in my personal space. He didn’t do that with the other people. When I stayed behind after school for extra lessons, he would laugh and joke around. He’d tell me things about the personal lives of other members of staff and tell me about his wife.”
He sounds like a lovely chap and great husband material. If only he could make the rest of the world understand.
Photo: Julie Forrest (left), mother of Jeremy Forrest and his sister Carrie Hanspaul (right) arrive at Lewes Crown Court in East Sussex for the sentencing of the former teacher for child abduction after he “groomed” a 15-year-old girl before taking her to France.
Weed Man and Beer Man fight in Times Square Smack Down- who wins?
WHEN BEER Man met WEED Man what happened?
To Times Square, New York, for the bout of the year. It’s the NYC Beggars Belief Smack Down (although Smack Man is away).
Wayne ‘I need Beer’ Semancik was holding his sign (I need money for beer) when he encountered Joshua ‘I need Weed’ Long (holding his sign begging for money for marijuana).
Wayne says Joshua spat in his face. He tells media:
“When you spit in my face, darling, I’m going to hit you. I don’t care who you are, how big you are, I’m going to hit you. “So the man, he pulled out a pen because I was hitting him, and he started stabbing me in the face, and I have five stab wounds in my face right now.”
Wayne was treated for lacerations. Joshua remains under discussion.
Meanwhile, the man begging for money to buy a pen (‘Pen Man’) says Joshua’s a lucky so-and so, while Peace Man hopes Beer Man and Weed Man can reconcile their differences in a summit with Cake Man, Hooker Man and Crisps Man.
Madeleine McCann: CPS head to Portgal as The Met close in
MADELEINE McCann: Anorak’s look at the missing child in the news:
Daily Express (front page): “FREHS HOPE AS BRITISH LEGAL TEAM HEAD TO PORTUGAL OVER FRESH EVIDENCE”
Alison Saunders, chief crown prosecutor for London, discussed crucial developments in the case uncovered by Scotland Yard. It is the first time such a senior figure from the Crown Prosecution Service has travelled to Portugal in connection with Madeleine’s disappearance and her presence, along with her deputy, fuelled speculation that a new inquiry is about to be launched.
It certainly does. As a reader writes:
I hope they finally find out what happened.
A CPS spokeswoman is quoted:
“Prosecutors from CPS London and investigators from the Metropolitan Police Service visited their Portuguese counterparts on April 17-18 to discuss possible next steps in relation to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. We continue to work with the police on this case.”
The McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell adds:
“They remain grateful, however, to the UK authorities for the work being done to establish what happened to Madeleine and to bring those responsible for her abduction to justice.”
Evening Standard: “Fresh hope in Madeleine McCann investigation as CPS lawyers travel to Portugal”
Government lawyers have travelled to Portugal to meet police and prosecution officials to discuss new leads in the Madeleine McCann inquiry. The trip is the first time that lawyers from the Crown Prosecution Service have visited Portugal in connection with Scotland Yard’s £5 million review of the case.
Home Secretary Theresa May is now expected to announce a full-scale Yard investigation into the disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine in May 2007…
Last month the Standard revealed that detectives had identified a list of potential suspects. Detective Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell, who supervised the review, said there were a “good number” of people who should be questioned as well as “further forensic opportunities”.
The list is thought to number around 20, including Britons. The potential suspects are thought to include a handful of known child-sex offenders who are believed to have been in the Algarve when Madeleine disappeared.
This all sounds like progress.
The Met said:
“Our investigative review into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann continues to make encouraging progress. Detectives remain in regular contact with Kate and Gerry McCann and are working closely with the Portuguese police in an attempt to make further progress.”
Madeleine was then three-years-old when she vanished from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on May 3 2007, as her parents Kate and Gerry dined at a nearby tapas restaurant with friends.
Such are the facts.
PS – Ben Needham – any British police looking for him?
Posted: 23rd, June 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comments (2)
Idaho patriots want to shoot Muslims with their new pig-coated bullets
IDAHO creatives upset at the Islamic cultural center opening near Ground Zero, New York City, have sought revenge by inventing pork-laced bullets to shoot Muslims with.
South Fork Industries, aka South Pork Industries, of Dalton Gardens, Idaho, says its Jihawg Ammo acts as a “defensive deterrent to those who violently act in the name of Islam.”
Beneath the headline “PEACE THROUGH PORK!”, the company writes:
In the fall of 2010, patriots from Idaho County, Idaho sat around a campfire enjoying an adult beverage. The discussion turned to concern and disgust that a mosque was being built at ground zero. Everyone in attendance agreed that freedom of religion is paramount for all peoples of Earth but this showed poor taste and had a sense of “rubbing our noses” into 9/11 tragedy. The discussion turned toward possible solutions to stop such a great insult.
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Posted: 22nd, June 2013 | In: Reviews, The Consumer | Comment
The Guardian aims to be all things to all idiots
THE Guardian loses lots of money. It opened a coffee shop to much mocking laughter. It lost a small fortune on an open day. It has an interesting attitude to tax. So. Can the paper that celebrated the death of the profitable News of the World survive? Grey Cardigan writes on The Spin Alley:
“I really don’t like the Guardian, or the sinister organisation that runs it. Not content with wrecking the entire publishing industry by giving away all their content for free – easy to do when you’re protected from dirty words like profit – they’re now just taking the piss by playing with Lego, opening a coffee shop and running courses for people who want to be food bloggers. Of course, that’s just what the world needs – more fucking food bloggers. Though if you’re daft enough to give the Guardian £400 just to learn how to take pictures of your dinner, you probably sincerely believe that the world is waiting with bated breath for your clichéd culinary crap-spittle.”
Do any of you buy the Guardian? Why do you?
Posted: 22nd, June 2013 | In: Reviews, The Consumer | Comment (1)
Mother devastated after son in wheelchair left to the side in class photo delighted by retaken picture – photos
ANNE Belanger was upset by her son’s school class photo. The picture showed her seven-year-old son Miles with his Grade 2 classmates at Herbert Spencer Elementary in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada. But he was apart from them, ostracised from the group in his wheelchair. She wanted the picture retaken. She said:
“I couldn’t comprehend how the photographer could look through the lens and think that this was good composition . . . this just boggled the mind,” she said. In the photo, the class is arranged in three rows, with the teacher standing on the left… This was not a malicious act, I don’t think it was done on purpose. I just don’t think there was any rational thinking behind it.”
You can see Miles beaming and trying to lean into the picture.
Miles Apart:
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Other Parents say best baby hair contest winner wore wig
THE Most Epic Head of Baby Hair photo contest run by Mommy Shorts has run into a row. Those other parents allege the winner is wearing a wig.
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In photos: The Summers Solstice at Stone Henge 2013
TODAY more than 20,000 people celebrated the summer solstice at Stonehenge ahead of the £27 million transformation of the site. In the 19th century, visitors were given a small hammer to knock off a piece off the stones. Now you’re lucky if you touch them at all. People are being removed from the Henge. The new car park will be over a mile away. Drivers will take a road tain to the ancient site. The stretch of the A344 which runs beside the monument will be shut and grassed over. There’ll be a shop and a cafe. Seeing the Henge will cost.
I remember visiting as a boy and sitting on the rocks for free, and again as a teenage on my way to the Treworgey Tree Fayre 1989 (Gaye Bikers On Acid made my ears ring for a week).
This year, a few lucky ones – druids, pagans, tourists, New Agers – got within carving distance of the Stones. A police officer told media that “Solstice 2013” had been a success. Yep, it’s been branded. Solstice 2013. STick it on a fridge magnet and cash in.
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Islam Is… The most informative video about Islam ever made
TURKISH creationists pose the question “What is Islam”. They then set about answering it with “Islam is…” It turns out that Islam is… a series of questionable fashion choices, a man with a plucked heavage and whipped hair rarely seen beyond the windows of a 1976 barbers shop, a Xanthus with a massive cleavage called ‘VESACE’, a man weaing a suit so shiny the label;says “oven ready”, the double animal print woman who might by computer generated, and backdrops that suggest the talkers are either hiding in bushes, posing for estate agency catalogues or massive and talking from near space… ….
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Posted: 21st, June 2013 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comments (2)
John Steinbeck on the male beard versus the female beard
JOHN Steinbeck on the beard:
I cultivate this beard not for the usual given reasons of skin trouble or pain of shaving, nor for the secret purpose of covering a weak chin, but as pure unblushing decoration, much as a peacock finds pleasure in his tail. And finally, in our time a beard is the one thing that a woman cannot do better than a man, or if she can her success is assured only in a circus,” – John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley.
Photo: This 1965 file photo shows author John Steinbeck winner of the 1962 Nobel Prize for literature.
David Dinsmore made Sun editor because of his hair – it follows a pattern
CONGRATULATIONS to David Dinsmore on being named new editor of the Sun, the country’s most popular tabloid. He replaces Dominic Mohan, moved upstairs at News Corp. But how did Dinsmore get the job? We’ve noticed a pattern. The Sun editors in order are as follows:
No Hair
Business Secretary Lord Mandelson (left) holds a cheque for the Journalists’ Charity with David Dinsmore at a charity lunch at Simpson’s in the Strand in London.
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Jeremy Forrest gets five years jail for abducting a 15-year-old – Stuart Hall got 15 months for attacking a nine year old
JEREMY Forrest is tarting a five and a half year prison sentence for child abduction and sexual activity with a 15-year-old child. In court, he admitted five counts of sex with a child.
Judge Michael Lawson QC told Forrest:
“Your behaviour in this period has been motivated by self-interest and has hurt and damaged many people — her family, your family, staff and pupils at the school and respect for teachers everywhere. It has damaged you too but that was something you were prepared to risk. You now have to pay that price… It was your duty as a teacher to stop her infatuation not to fuel it. Your research into what might happen to you if you were caught is proof of the deliberate nature of your behaviour.”
He “groomed” the 15-year-old girl pupil and took her to France last year.
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French woman, 52, disguised herself as her 19-year-old daughter to sit English exam
CAROLINE D., 52, dressed as her 19-year-old daughter and sat the teenager’s English Baccalauréat LV1 exam.
Caroline D. dressed in Converse baseball boots, low cut jeans and heavy makeup before entering the exam hall at Bossuet-Notre-Dame school in Paris in place of her 19-year-old daughter, Laetitia.
And she would have pulled it off had it not been for a pesky examiner who knew the daughter’s face.
Two hours into the test, four plain-clothes police officers arrived. The woman was removed and arrested.
Caroline D. reportedly admitted impersonating her daughter to try to improve her English results.
Her grade was not given , but the daughter was allegedly heard saying, “F***ing hell, I never even asked to be born you stupid woman. I hate you. You’re pathetic.”
New Yorker sues for slipping on “foreign white substance” at gym
MARC Moskowitz says he slipped on a “foreign white substance” on the floor at the Bally Total Fitness gym on E. 55th St., New York City.
Mr Moskowitz blames the gays. In his lawsuit filed at the Manhattan Supreme Court, Mr Moskowitz, 66, says the place is known for “cruising and lewd behaviour”, that homosexual action is “commonplace at the steam room, sauna and locker rooms. As a result of the aforementioned activities, there was bodily fluids and other evidence of sexual activity wherever it occurred throughout the gym.”
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Teacher Jeremy Forrest found guilty of abducting underage pupil – she apologises to him
JEREMY Forrest, 30, is guilty of abducting a 15-year-old female pupil he was having sex with. In took an eight-day trial at Lewes Crown Court to convict the married teacher who went on the lam to France with his besotted pupil, now aged 16.
As he was sent down, the girl who met Forrest at Bishop Bell C of E School in Eastbourne, East Sussex, told him: “I’m sorry.”
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Posted: 20th, June 2013 | In: Reviews | Comments (2)
Racism in the 1930s: Darkie toothpaste
IN 1933, Taiwan toothpaste makers the Hawley & Hazel Chemical Company created Darkie toothpaste. It was to become Darlie.
What the adverts didn’t reveal was that before experimenting with Darkie, the man on the box was whiter than a Klu Klux Klansman’s bikini line.
Spotter: Collectors Weekly
Posted: 20th, June 2013 | In: Flashback, The Consumer | Comment
New York City’s smallest museum
NEW York City’s smallest museum is not the collection of crap in your jacket pocket. The world’s smallest museum is Museum, a small space between Franklin St & White St in New York City. What you see is “absurdity or the beauty in the everyday”.
While it’s only open 16 hours a week, during the day on Saturdays and Sundays, the museum’s contents are viewable 24/7, lit and sealed by glass doors.
Passers-by are encouraged to call a toll-free number to learn about the 15 collections, comprising 200 objects, inside, including a series of Disney-themed bulletproof backpacks; U.S. paper money and coins so mutilated the Fed has deemed them unfit for currency, gathered by artist and writer Harley Spiller, a.k.a. Inspector Collector; a selection of objects from a fake Mars excavation; and personal items fabricated by prisoners, such as dice made out of bread, collected by multimedia artist Baron Von Fancy. Museum also offers several unique ways to experience the world: You can compare industrial designer Tucker Viemeister’s collection of toothpaste tubes from all over the map, or potato chip bags from various countries (collected by an eighth-grade class), as well as a globetrotting fake vomit collection. And that’s just the beginning.
Collectors Weekly talked with one of the museum’s curators:
In the current season, there’s a collection of toothpaste tubes from around the world. There’s a collection of mutilated U.S. currencies, money that’s counterfeit or real money that’s been scrawled on. There’s a collection from Alvin Goldstein, who was the founder and editor of Screw magazine, who shared with us personal belongings that have stayed with him throughout the narrative of his life. There’s a collection of Disney-themed children’s bulletproof backpacks. They’re things that touch upon something that’s happening in society, things that comment on where we’re at and how we’re thinking and what we’re doing
The picture above is of toothpaste tubes:
In addition to the odd or anachronistic thingamajigs that form this micromuseum’s “permanent collection,” a series of arty New Yorkers have lent their own weird stuff. The industrial designer Tucker Viemeister shares his amusing collection of toothpaste tubes from around the world, while the artist Leah Singer reveals the strange things she found on copy machines in New York City in the 1980s or thereabouts, including one pamphlet titled “The Chronic Masturbator’s To-Do List.”
View the museum’s brochure.
Posted: 20th, June 2013 | In: Reviews, The Consumer | Comment
Gareth Bale stays at Spurs as Real Madrid president arrives on London shopping trip
THE Daily Bale: Anorak’s looks at the Tottenham Hotspur star in the news. Today’s transfer balls:
Marca: “Villas-Boas: ‘Bale isn’t leaving Spurs'”
Fact! Or:
Tottenham is playing hardball. The club responded calmly but firmly to Real Madrid’s interest in Gareth Bale, stating that there is nothing to talk about and that the Welshman is staying in London. The English club’s manager, André Villas-Boas has no doubts about his young player’s future. “Bale isn’t leaving Spurs”, the Portuguese said.
Says Villas-Boas:
“The chairman has pledged that Bale isn’t leaving the club.”
Unless AVB goes, which he isn’t:
The other reason for Tottenham’s refusal to sell Bale is in Paris. The Tottenham chairman stopped a possible Villas-Boas move to PSG, guaranteeing the manager that he will have a stronger team next season built around Gareth Bale.
So. Bales stays. And it gets better for Spurs fans:
Metro: “Spurs promise Andre Villas-Boas £50m in transfer funds after he snubbed PSG”
Spurs will part-finance any moves by selling off fringe first-team players, with 10 names having already been told they can go. But the rest will come from Levy’s pocket, with the club keen to reward their young manager for his loyalty to the cause.
Or not.
As Levy said in 2011:
“I wish to make it absolutely clear, as I have said previously, that none of our key players will be sold this summer. We are building a team for the future to consistently play at the highest level and retaining quality players is crucial to that.
“In respect of Luka Modric, we are not prepared to sell, at any price, to Chelsea Football Club or any other club…
“For the avoidance of any doubt, let me reiterate that we shall not enter into any negotiations whatsoever, with any club, regarding Luka. We now consider this matter closed.”
One year later, Modric left for Real Madrid.
In 2007, Levy said of Manchester United’s interest in Dimitar Berbatov:
“Once again for the record, we are not a selling club, rather we are building for the future. When we have players on long contracts we have no need to entertain offers.”
In 2008, Berbatov joined Manchester United.
IBN: “Real Madrid aim to unveil Gareth Bale, Isco in July”
Real Madrid could make an official offer of £65m for Bale
Bales was worth £85 million yesterday. What did he do wrong?
Does the Daily Mirror know?
Real Madrid’s president Florentino Perez has jetted to London as the Spanish giants continue their pursuit of Spurs’ Gareth Bale.
Although Perez insists the trip is purely to do with his own personal business interests, he is trying to set up talks with Tottenham.
Real are determined to land the Welsh flier and are ready to pay Spurs up to £80million for him.
Such are the facts…
Posted: 20th, June 2013 | In: Reviews | Comments (5)
The most unforgettable corridors in sci-fi – in photos
CORRIDORS. Not just any old creepy, long, silent, anxiety-inducing, lonely, crippling, haunted corridors, but eerie, antiseptic, soulless, menacing, echoey, brooding, lugubrious corridors in sci-fi films. Corridors that when you scream no-one can hear you.
Corridors are the places in film that let the dialogue pause and the tensions build. You’d run along though them. If your legs let you.
These are the best corridors in sci-fi:
Code-46 – Michael-Winterbottom (2003)
The Black-Hole – Gary Nelson (1979)
Ikarie XB-1 (1963, Jindřich Polák)
Star Wars
Ridley Scott’s Alien
George Lucas’s THX-1138
Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965, Gordon Flemyng)
Stereo (1969, David Cronenberg)
Saturn 3 (1980, Stanley Donen)
Outland (1981, Peter Hyams)
Equilibrium (2002, Kurt Wimmer)
Alphaville: Une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution (1965, Jean-Luc Godard)
Titan A.E. (2000, Don Bluth and Gary Goldman)
Forbidden Planet (1956, Fred M. Wilcox)
2010 (1984, Peter Hyams)
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977, George Lucas)
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977, George Lucas)
Solyaris (1972, Andrei Tarkovsky)
Event Horizon (1997, Paul W. S. Anderson)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, Stanley Kubrick)
Westworld (1973, Michael Crichton)
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991, Nicholas Meyer)
Robocop (1987, Paul Verhoeven)
Upside Down (2012, Juan Diego Solanas)
Species (1995, Roger Donaldson)
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956, Fred F. Sears)
Spotters: Borg, SciFiCorridorArchive, Lauren Mullineaux
Posted: 19th, June 2013 | In: Film, Flashback, Key Posts | Comments (2)
Woolwich murder: MI6 spoke with Michael Adebolajo’s brother Jeremiah 11 times
WITH his brother Michael Adebolajo accued of murdering Lee Rigby in Woolwich, the suspect’s younger brother Jeremiah, 26, claims MI6 spoke with him 11 times.
How do you know it’s MI6? We’re not told.
The younger Adebolajo tells the Times that when he working in Saudi Arabia, MI6 sought him out. He says that in 2012 MI5 spoke to him when he arrived at Heathrow Airport.
The MI6 men showed Jeremiah a few pictures:
“One picture of a guy, I didn’t know who he was, another picture was vaguely familiar at the time but I couldn’t remember who he was, and they also showed me a picture of my brother-in-law, married to my younger sister.”
That man was James Thompson.
What about the spooks?
“They were always looking for my knowledge and dealings with the two main individuals they had shown me. They asked me biographical stuff, what kind of mosques did I go to, do I pray, that sort of thing. Like they were trying to build a profile of me… They were never openly aggressive, but they were always implicitly threatening. There was never the understanding that if I wanted, I could stand up and say, that’s enough. There was always the understanding that I have to cooperate or I would lose my job and I don’t know what else.”
Back in May, ITV reported:
Michael Adebolajo’s brother-in-law James Thompson spoke to ITV News about repeated attempts by MI5 to recruit Adebolajo as an informant, and repeated contact they had with other family members seeking information about him.
Mr Thompson claims that MI5 contacted him Michael and Michale’s other brother:
Me and my other brother-in-law were obviously pestered and then there was obviously Michael who was pestered more than us. The interesting thing is that they would ask us about him rather than ourselves so we could see they had a keen interest in him even though we couldn’t put the pieces together because he was just a family man, he had kids and he worked, he didn’t do anything that we considered extreme.
Such are the facts…
Photo: Court artist sketch by Elizabeth Cook of Michael Adebolajo in the dock as he appears at Westminster Magistrates Court, where he is accused of murdering soldier Drummer Lee Rigby and of the attempted murder of two police officers and possession of a firearm, a 9.4mm KNIL model 91 revolver, with intent to cause others to believe that violence would be used.
