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.
Albrecht Dürer and 20th and 21st Century studies on the proportions of the human body
HAS the human body changed. In Albrecht Dürer’s study of the human body, the figure seems natural. Compare and contrat with Erin’s updated version below:
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Fish tank thief caught when he returned to buy pet fish
CRIMINAL of the day is Nigel Darren Ball, 52, of Peacock, Wakefield.
At Wakefield Magistrates’ Court, Balls is quoted:
“I went to buy some goldfish but had to fill out a form with my details on it. That’s what got me.”
Earlier in the day, Ball has stolen a fish tank from the Pets at Home on Westgate Retail Park, Wakefield, Yorkshire.
Prosecutor Rory Byrne explains:
“As brazen as anything he lifted the fish tank off the shelf, as big as it is, and simply walked out of the store. Some sight it must have been, he walks from the retail park holding an umbrella and a fish tank, and walks as far as the Peacock Estate. No one saw it at the time.”
Ball then returned to the store to buy a fish. When the shop assistant asked Ball what kind of tank he had, the villain pointed to one near the shelf he stole from. He was asked the fill out a pet ownership form, including his name and address. The worker noticed that a tank was missing, and checked the CCTV.
Ball admitted theft.
Modern mysteries: who decapitated Nessie the Arlington dragon?
WHO killed the Allen Saxe Park dragon? The city of Arlington, Texas, wants to know who cut off the dragon’s head?
The dragon is called Nessie. And now that the head has gone, there is something newsworthy about Nessie’s head. We are invited to look at what isn’t there.
Loch Ness, home to the orignal Nessie, is famous because of what we can’t see. The monster that makes the place noteworthy is the one thing that’s missing from it. As soon as the monster is revealed, the interest in Loch Ness will peak and then rapidly subside. So it will be with the Arlington Nessie. The park should leave the object headless or else replace that missing head with different heads, say, of local celebrities.
In the meanwhile, round up the usual suspects.
In 1969 Pippi Longstocking (aka Pippi Långstrump) celebrated the word ‘spunk’ (video)
IN 1969, Pippi Longstocking (aka Pippi Långstrump) was a TV star. Living in her father’s cottage Villa Villekulla, Pippi was free to run and play with her monkey and horse. In this clip, Pippi hangs out with her neighbours Tommy and Annika. The action has been subtitled in English. We see Pippi discover a new flower sent from Japan. She wonders what it should be called. She settles on “spunk”. The caption writer does relent with a single “spoonk”. But soon Pippi is yelling “spunk” at the top of her lungs.
Posted: 18th, June 2013 | In: Flashback, TV & Radio | Comment
Magician turns dollar bills into hundreds for the homeless
SNEER all you want, but now and then, it is great to put a little sunshine in that grey brain of yours. Mocking celebrities, laughing at misfortune and all that is great fun for those of us who enjoy gallows humour, but sometimes, we need to get gooey and break out a huge, wet grin.
The person who will be responsible for that today is a nice magician who used his powers to help out some destitute folks in need of a pick-me-up.
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Judge doesn’t like lawyers in short skirts
LAWYERS, as we know, are all shark-eyed monsters. Another thing we all know is that judges are worse. The law is filled with dreadful humans, all jockeying for position constantly and tearing holes in people who have no idea how to deal with their steely nerve brain blitzing mindgames.
And so, to America, where a judge has issued a strict dress code to female lawyers in Tennessee who are no longer allowed to wear ‘inappropriate outfits’.
Or, as you know them, skirts.
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Posted: 18th, June 2013 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)
Miss USA: Miss Utah, Marissa Powell, contemplates gender inequality (video)
TO the MISS USA contests, where Miss Utah, Marissa Powell, is contemplating gender inequality. Competitors of beauty pageants are given a rough time, frequently. Not wanting to buck the trend, we’re going to point and laugh at a young woman trying to talk and think at the same time while being stared at by loads of people who want her to fail.
Marissa Powell was competing in Las Vegas when she was asked by host Nene Leakes:
“A recent report shows that in 40% of American families with children, women are the primary earners yet they continue to earn less than men. What does it say about society?”
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Posted: 18th, June 2013 | In: Reviews, TV & Radio | Comment
Experts says 50-1 all humans are dead by 2100
THE expert foresees: Defence Force chief Admiral Chris Barrie says of Australia’s Climate Commission report:
“There’s a one in two chance that by 2100 there’ll be no human beings left on this planet. The planet will exist, but it’s just that my granddaughter won’t be part of it. And I think that’s a pretty alarming statistic, probability, one in two chance if we don’t correct our behaviours.”
Not even the lizard people?
Beautiful Polish film posters for banned American films
BEFORE the Wall came down and the EU came knocking, Polish film posters for American film were handmade. Nowadays, Poles are seduced to Americans films with the usual cocktail of edited quotes from critics and airbrushed photography. But when US publicity material was banned, film posters for Yankee movies were created by artists interpreting the film.
There is no proof that they were more effective in getting punters in to watch the film. But the billboards would have been more beautiful:
Gremlins
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Posted: 18th, June 2013 | In: Film, Flashback, Key Posts | Comment
After Leveson and hacking the Sun supports Prism and the Big Brother State
WHAT did the Sun have to say about Prism, the pact between technology companies and the US and UK Governments to store data on all internet users?
“They’re not remotely interested in the millions of ordinary citizens leading law-abiding lives.”
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Daughter decapitated father who raped her – daughter-in-laws chopped off his hands
SEX crime revenge news round-up:
Two women in Bihar, India, severed their father-in-law’s hands. They say he repeatedly tried to molest them. Deputy Superintendent of Police Krishna Kumar Singh told media:
“The hands of Radheyshyam Singh, a resident of Bhanas village under Dinara block in Rohtas district, were chopped off by his daughters-in-law after he attempted to molest them.They overpowered him and chopped off both his hands with a sharp weapon (cleaver).”
Police are investigating.
In Papua New Guinea an 18-year-old decapitated her father. He’d raped her. She chopped his head off with a bush knife.
Local church leader, Pastor Lucas Kumi, says the villagers are protesting the girl form any attempts to arrest her. They say the dead father was evil:
‘The people and leaders in our area went and saw the headless body of the father after the girl reported the incident to them and explained why she had killed her father. The father went to his daughter’s room in the night and raped her repeatedly. The father wanted to rape his daughter again in the morning and that was when the young girl picked up the bush knife and chopped her father’s head off. We’ve all agreed that she is free to stay in the community because the father deserved to die. The daughter did what she did because of the trauma and the evil actions of her father, so that is why we have all agreed that she remains in the community.”
And:
“The community have also agreed not to conduct any formal burial service for the father.”
How’s that for justice?
Nigella Lawson in alleged fight with husband Charles Saatchi – Sunday People conveys full horror with a pun
TV cook Nigella Lawson is alleged to have been manhandled in public by her husband Charles Saatchi. The Sunday Mirror tells its readers of an alleged incident outside Scott’s in London’s Mayfair:
Nigella Lawson attacked by husband: See shocking pictures of Charles Saatchi repeatedly squeezing TV chef’s throat
Adding:
Her eyes are transfixed as she struggles to prise away the powerful hand squeezing around her throat.
Dramatic and ugly stuff. But we don’t know the whys and wherefores. All we have is the Mirror’s interpretation of a photograph.
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Madeleine McCann: The Met takes over
MADELEINE McCANN: Anorak’s at-a-glance look at the missing child ion the news:
Sunday Express (front page): “Police hint at New Maddie Breakthrough”
Number of breakthroughs to date: zero. What’s this new one? The paper says detectives have “signalled they are on the brink” of a breakthrough. in the “six year mystery”.
Really? What was said and done?
Daily Mirror: “Madeleine McCann search taken over by Scotland Yard”
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Posted: 15th, June 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comments (3)
The Wizard of Oz goes punk at the small anti-G8 protest in Belfast (Photos)
IN Belfast, anti-G8 protestors have been demonstrating against fracking, bombing, arresting imprisoning and capitalism. How many were on the march?
Press Association: “Hundreds of protesters, advocating a variety of causes, braved torrential rain as they walked through streets.”
Independent: 1.500
What was it like:
Staff in the nearby Post Office danced to the beat of stilt walking drummers alongside an open-sided van carrying trade unionists dressed as characters from the Wizard of Oz.
The protest was organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.
ICTU chair Pamela Dooley told the crowd: “Today is a defining moment in our history.”
History can be a cruel judge.
ITV:
Police say there were around 1,500 protesters. I would say there few more, but not the 5,000 that had been expected.
Police outnumber protesters during peaceful anti-G8 protests in Belfast
Can it get any beter?
A separate concert for the IF anti-food poverty campaign, spearheaded by charities working in the developing world, will be held in the city’s Botanic Gardens this afternoon with acts including indie rockers Two Door Cinema Club.
The concert has been sold out, with around 8,000 people due to attend, organisers said.
At once point union flag protestors met the anti G8 protesters.
One loyalist protesting about a Belfast city council decision to only fly the Union flag on certain days disrupted the march before being surrounded by police and led away. At Belfast city hall, around 100 loyalist protesters are cordoned off by the police and kept away from the G8 protesters.
Today is actually one of the days that the council is flying the union flag, in honour of the Queen’s birthday.
Amnesty International’s Patrick Corttigan called for the Russians to free the members of Pussy Riot, telling the crowd: “Belfast is a punk city and here’s a punk message to you – free Pussy Riot.”
It was not a defining moment in history for punks.
[Not a valid template]‘Going to Santorini’: Carine Patry Hoskins and David Sherborne in Leveson earn ‘n’ tell
CARINE Patry Hoskins earned £218,606 for her work on the Leveson Inquiry into media standards. He worked on the Inquiry between July 2011 and November 2012.
Hoskins, a married mother of two interviewed witnesses. She reviewed their statements and conducted legal research. She was fact checking.
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G8 protestors erect this huge mural at Free Derry Corner
ALL change in Northern Ireland. The Free Derry Corner today now sports an anti-G8 mural.
BEfore wothe world’s Troubels:
Spotter: Brian Whelan
School suspends seven-year-old boy for biting pastry into a gun
ARE schools failing boys? Joshua Welch was suspended from Park Elementary School in Baltimore, Maryland, for fashioning his snack into a pistol. His rustication lasted for two days. Joshua explained his art:
“It was already a rectangle. I just kept on biting it and biting it and tore off the top of it and kind of looked like a gun.”
Adding for clarity’s sake:
“But it wasn’t.”
Sure. If you could make real guns from pastry, the French would never have been undone so easily by the Germans.
It is alleged that Joshua brandished the pastry and declared “Bang! Bang!” The Choux-ter was, blessedly, not loaded with raisins.
“One of our students used food to make inappropriate gestures.”
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Man sells wife’s wedding £15,000 for £6
HUSBANDS, as we know, are all stupid. TV adverts constantly tell us so. And so, to a tale of a man who sold his wife’s wedding ring for $10 (£6) when it was worth $23,000 (£15,000).
The ring was placed in a plain watch box by Racquel Cloutier before she went off to hospital to have her fifth baby. Get that? She was going through labour for the fifth time and the stupid husband thought he’d help her out. Not by being present at the birth, but rather, pissing around with boxes.
Racquel wanted to keep her diamond ring safe from her 2-year-old twin boys while she was having another one, so her husband Eric decided to take part in the community garage sale so that the kids would be kept busy.
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Posted: 14th, June 2013 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)
Mobility scooterist tosses cyclist into River Orwell – whose side are you on?
MODERN etiquette: Whose side are you on in this story of mobility scooter rider v cyclist?
At around 3pm in Ranelagh Road, Ipswich, the elderly female scooter driver collided with a younger male cyclist.
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Posted: 14th, June 2013 | In: Reviews | Comments (5)
Saudi Arabia human rights jokers hunt for people who duct taped a child to the wall
WHO duct taped a child to a wall in Saudi Arabia? The hunt is on.
Surprisingly, Saudi Arabia has a Human Human Rights Commission, and it’s leading the search. Maatouq Al-Sharif works there. He says, “what happened to the child is violation of his right, and this is a criminal offence.” Sharif says the tapers need to be dealt with so that others may be “deterred”.
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Posted: 14th, June 2013 | In: Reviews | Comments (2)
Rupert Murdoch and Wendi Deng are to divorce – a cartoon
RUPERT Murdoch and Wendi Deng are to divorce:
In this photo proof that Liberace’s young lover Scott Thorson had a love affair with Michael Jackson?
THE Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra tells the story of the pianist and his lover Scott Thorson (pictured above in a Boston eatery back in 1981). Predictably, Thorson has been promoting the hell out of himself. The highlight of his memory banks is his tale of a six-year long romance with Michael Jackson.
“Liberace introduced me and Michael in the late 1970s. It was right around the time Thriller was coming out and Michael and I became lovers. Our relationship went on for six or seven years. Michael was very generous too. He treated me well. Liberace and I had both undergone plastic surgery around the same time Michael underwent a nose job because he didn’t think he was handsome. We all healed together at the Liberace compound in Palm Springs.”
It’s a wonderful tableau. But can it be true.
PopBitch has produced proof that Thorson and Jackson met and hung out together. In this 1981 photo, Scott Thorson is sitting next to Michael Jackson, being driven around Beaulieu Motor Museum with Liberace by Lord Montagu of Beaulieu.
Liberace did love a big car. Her he is posing with a a one-of-a-kind 1956 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud I on Feb. 21, 1985. The car was originally designed for Elizabeth Taylor, Jackson’s close pal. Isn’t Hollywood wonderfully incestuous…
Posted: 13th, June 2013 | In: Celebrities, Flashback | Comments (14)
