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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.
The Rana Plaza building collapse: photos of Bangladesh’s ‘blood garments’ factory disaster
WHEN the Rana Plaza building collapsed in Savar, near Dhakar, Bangladesh, many died. The garment factory was littered with more than 300 dead bodies. It is grim. The blame game has begun. The building housed garment factories making clothes for brands like Primark and Mango. Are they now ‘blood garments’? The rescue operation is also underway. Rescuers have bravely dug holes in the horror. Outside it is 90 degrees. Inside it is hellish. At least 80 people have been found alive.
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Posted: 26th, April 2013 | In: Reviews, The Consumer | Comments (2)
Bangladeshi Building falls down: Primark to blame
YOU’LL have seen the story all over the papers. That appalling disaster in Bangladesh where a building fell down killing hundreds.
As a result of which we’ve got the usual suspects crawling out of the woodwork insisting that the UK fashion chains are to blame for what happened. Primark, for example, should be running building inspectors over the factories and offices of all their suppliers.
All of which is really very slightly odd. The Bangladeshi Government itself is indicating that 90% of the buildings in the capital don’t in fact meet even local building codes. Someone in the UK is supposed to do better than this? Bring them up to scratch?
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The fur-lined tea cup and saucer made by Meret Oppenheim
FLASHBACK to December 9 1936. This fur-lined tea cup and saucer made by Meret Oppenheim was one of 694 items shown at the Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition of Fantastic Art, Dada and Surrealism in New York, Dec. 9, 1936. The show is concerned with irrational artistic manifestations from the fifteenth century to the present.
The tea bags werr made of ocelot.
Posted: 26th, April 2013 | In: Flashback, The Consumer | Comment
FSA orders supermarket chain to remove packet of monkey nuts because label does not say they contain nuts
NO. You cannot buy monkey nuts from branches of Boots in Lancashire. The store chain has withdrawn its 350g bags of monkey nuts because the label fails to state that the monkey nuts contain (you’re ahead of us) nuts.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has ordered 300 packets of 350g Whole Hearted Roasted Monkey Nuts to be removed from sight.
Booths technical manager Waheed Hassan tells media:
“It is our responsibility as retailers to accurately record allergy advice. In this instance, we felt a responsibility to recall the product and issue a notice to our customers who might suffer from a specific peanut allergy.”
The company adds:
“If you have an allergy to peanuts, please do not consume this product and return it to your local store for a full refund. No other products are affected by this issue and we sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused.”
World ends.
Posted: 26th, April 2013 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment (1)
Virgin charge man £10 for being dead
VIRGIN MEDIA have had to tug at their sweater and say sorry after they sent a bill to a dead man. Initially, Virgin were unhappy that the man had missed his broadband bill date, and promptly sent him a late payment bill… however… they also included the word ‘deceased’ on it, which suggests they knew he’d already joined the invisible choir.
The bill was uploaded to Facebook by the man’s son-in-law Jim Boyden and reads: “D.D Denied-Payer deceased“. Virgin added a “late payment charge” of £10 for being dead.
“We obviously apologise for the bill and have spoken to Mr Boyden to bring this account to a close more sensitively,” a spokesperson told BBC News.
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Posted: 26th, April 2013 | In: Reviews, The Consumer | Comment
Daily Mail perverts Occupy London rape case to damn all protestors
MALCOLM Blackman, 45, is accused of raping a woman in her 40s at the Occupy London Stock Exchange champ outside St Paul’s Cathedral. The alleged victim – who gets to remain anonymous – was allegedly attacked in her tent on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral. She further alleges that Blackman tied her hands behind her back with cable ties and on another occasion assaulted her in her sleep.
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So. Why did an Iranian nutter knife a rabbi in Paris?
THE Associated Press reports a man of Iranian origin escaped from a psychiatric institution and knifed a rabbi and his 18-year-old son (both wearing yamulkas). His was stopped by a witnessed who chased him through a Paris synagogue.
The AP say “an official investigation was underway to determine a possible motive”.
It’s walking like a duck…
The Simon Wiesenthal Center, which monitors anti-Semitic incidents worldwide, said in a statement that the assailant screamed “Allah-u-Akbar” — or “God is great” — during the attack.
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RIP Sunil Tripathi: missing student wrongly blamed for Boston Marathon bombs found dead
RIP Sunil Tripathi. The man who did not bomb the Boston Marathon has been found dead:
A missing Brown University student wrongly rumored to be involved in the Boston Marathon bombings was confirmed dead Thursday, after his body was pulled from the Providence River earlier this week.
Officials confirmed through dental records that it was 22-year-old Sunil Tripathi, who was last seen on March 16.
Grim news. His family have been through it…
In photos: The Ernest Henry Shackleton story
SIR Ernest Henry Shackleton was an Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer. He led the the Endurance expedition of 1914-16.
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Posted: 25th, April 2013 | In: Flashback | Comment (1)
It’s World Penguin Day – ten facts about the smartly dressed bird
IT’S World Penguin Day – not to be confused with Penguin Awareness Day (January 20). To celebrate penguins, here are 10 facts about them:
1. Penguins make ideal family pets. Now if f you win a goldfish at the fair, you don’t have to go to the expense of buying a tank, a plastic bridge and food. You can just feed it to your pet penguin.
2. Belgian penguins are terrific practical jokers:
3. Penguins are a nutritious part of a calorie controlled diet
4. Penguins are one of the four meat not found in a supermarket readymeal. The others are otter, golden eagle and cocker spaniel.
5. The four most feared penguins in history are: Pingu, Chilly Willy, Feathers McGraw and Batman’s nemesis The Penguin.
6. In The Blues Brothers, the part of The Penguin was played by a nun.
7. Penguin Island (1908; French: L’Île des Pingouins) is a satirical fictional history by Nobel Prize winning French author Anatole France.
Penguin Island is written in the style of a sprawling 18th- and 19th-century history book, concerned with grand metanarratives, mythologizing heroes, hagiography and romantic nationalism. It is about a fictitious island, inhabited by great auks, that existed off the northern coast of Europe. The history begins when a wayward Christian missionary monk lands on the island and perceives the upright, unafraid auks as a sort of pre-Christian society of noble pagans. Mostly blind and somewhat deaf, having mistaken the animals for humans, he baptizes them. This causes a problem for The Lord, who normally only allows humans to be baptized. After consulting with saints and theologians in Heaven, He resolves the dilemma by converting the baptized birds to humans with only a few physical traces of their ornithological origin, and giving them each a soul.
8. The Fairy Penguin has been persecuted to the point of extinction in Iran.
9. Ninety percent on Penguins living on the Falkland Islands would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in any referendum.
Photo: Britain’s Princess Elizabeth, later Queen Elizabeth II, third from right, and her sister Princess Margaret Rose, second from right, visit the penguins in London Zoo, June 30, 1938.
19. Penguins love this joke.
A man drives to a gas station and has his tank filled up. While doing thisthe clerk spots two penguins sitting on the back seat of the car. He asks the driver, “What’s up with the penguins in the back seat?” The man in the car says, “I found them. I asked myself what to do with them but, I haven’t a clue.” The clerk ponders a bit then says, “You should take them to the zoo.” “Yeah, that’s a good idea,” says the man in the car and drives away. The next day the man with the car is back at the same gas station. The clerk sees the penguins are still in the back seat of the car. “Hey, they’re still here! I thought you were going to take them to the zoo!” “Oh, I did,” says the driver, “and we had a great time. Today I’m taking them to the beach.”
source: http://www.jokes4us.com/animaljokes/penguinjokes.html
Accusations of cheating and violence add dash of football glamour to Irish chess
ACCUSATIONS of cheating and violence at the Cork Congress Chess Open. It must be stamped on lest all chess players follow this example.
Romanian-born Gabriel Mirza, 47, claims his 16-year-old opponent was cheating.
“It is a very serious incident. I was stopped to win the tournament. But the main problem is about cheating. I showed to the chess world the truth, and all appreciated this. I am waiting to see the reaction from the Irish Chess Union and from all… After each move he went to the toilet, at least 20 times … I found him in the toilet with an android checking the moves with a chess engine. I tried to get over the cubical wall to grab the tablet from his hands, and firstly I was thinking to jump over inside that cubical. But I wanted a witness, so I ran straight to the controller, Mr Gerry Graham and called him to follow me immediately. The organisers (Mr Michael Bradley) and other adult approached there at the Gents [and] followed me inside where I forced the cubical door and I pulled this guy out from the toilet. I just grabbed him and then I was stopped by the people behind me.”
Mr Mirza was duly expelled from the tournament.
Graham emailed Mirza:
“I would state that you certainly took an action that will bring the game of chess into disrepute. Because of the seriousness of your infraction, I chose expulsion from the event.”
The Irish Chess Union release a statement.
“It has been insinuated that one chess player was caught cheating and the reaction of the opposing player discovering this was inappropriate. In the 100 years of our existence we have never had such allegation; a record we can be very proud of. We have a code of conduct that all our players adhere to; it is there to allow our members to play chess in a sporting environment.”
Adding in a second statement:
“In an era when stories of misdemeanours in sporting events have almost become commonplace there is sadness at the thought that the gentle game of chess can indeed be tainted. It is an issue that must be dealt with through the executive of the Irish Chess Union and the rules of the organisation. Nonetheless the ancient and beautiful game of chess will transcend these difficulties.”
Mr Mirza yesterday denied he had overreacted, explaining: “I had to prove he was cheating. I was afraid he would throw the tablet into the toilet.”
Such are the facts.
Photo: When chess was dangerous: Bobby Fischer of the U.S., right, and Tigran Petrosian of the U.S.S.R., continue the sixth game of their semi-final series for the world chess title, Oct. 17, 1971, in Buenos Aires. Fischer won that game.
What’s your worst experience of a night club bouncer?
AHMED Popal, a bouncer in Melbourne, has escaped prison after being found guilty of beating people up at the door. In the video below you can see Popal punching and slapping a woman who had come to help her boyfriend whom Popal had set about.
Popal had a prior conviction for assault but was still granted a licence to work the doors. In court, Popal was handed a seven month suspended sentence and $10,000 fine.
So. What’s the worst thing a bouncer has done to you?
Photo: A man being thrown-out of the Walkers Court Striptease Club off Brewer Street. Date: 15/03/1966
Posted: 25th, April 2013 | In: Reviews, The Consumer | Comment
Police confiscate massive refer at UC Santa Cruz 420 weed fest
TO Porter Meadows, for the UC Santa Cruz 420 weed fest and the chance to see the 2.5lb spliffffffffff. That is no Camberwell Carrot, my friends, that is a Dalston Daikon.
Dean Baquet’s bitchy comment about NYT executive editor Jill Abramson
HOW’S this for a quote more loaded that George Bush at a frat house party. Says New York Times managing editor, Dean Baquet, about his relationship with NYT executive editor Jill Abramson.
“I think there’s a really easy caricature that some people have bought into, of the bitchy woman character and the guy who is sort of calmer. That, I think, is a little bit of an unfair caricature.”
Ooooh. GEt her! It’s a little bit unfair…
Concerns over carbon emissions drove the Tsarnaev brothers to murder
SO. What made the Tsarnaev brothers murder and maim in Boston? Islam? One of these myriad reasons. How about the environment and concerns over emissions? The New York Times’s Thomas Friedman knows:
Until we fully understand what turned two brothers who allegedly perpetrated the Boston Marathon bombings into murderers, it is hard to make any policy recommendation other than this: We need to redouble our efforts to make America stronger and healthier so it remains a vibrant counterexample to whatever bigoted ideology may have gripped these young men. With all our warts, we have built a unique society — a country where a black man, whose middle name is Hussein, whose grandfather was a Muslim, can run for president and first defeat a woman in his own party and then four years later a Mormon from the opposition, and no one thinks twice about it. With so many societies around the world being torn apart, especially in the Middle East, it is vital that America survives and flourishes as a beacon of pluralism.
Rebuilding our strength has to start with healing our economy …
And the best place to start is with a carbon tax. *
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Tamerlan Tsarnaev is a dumb f*ck who taught us the peace of Islam by blowing people’s legs off
SO. Why did Tamerlan Tsarnaev detonated a bomb at the Boston Marathon. His former brother-in-law suggest his motivation:
He was angry that the world pictures Islam as a violent religion.
You mighty call the Tsarnaev brother a pair of dumb f**ks. Or Islamophobes.
He’s coughed:
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev admitted to playing a role in the marathon bombings, which killed three people and wounded more than 260, and told federal agents that he and his brother were motivated by extremist Islamic beliefs, when he was interviewed Sunday at the hospital, law enforcement officials said.
It turns out that Al Qaeda did Inspire them:
When Dzhokhar Tsarnaev spoke to investigators on Sunday, officials said, he indicated that he and his brother had learned to make the pressure-cooker bombs that they used at the marathon from Inspire, the online Al Qaeda magazine.
And the Boston Herald reports that you, the American taxpayer, funded the brothers:
Marathon bombings mastermind Tamerlan Tsarnaev was living on taxpayer-funded state welfare benefits even as he was delving deep into the world of radical anti-American Islamism…State officials confirmed last night that Tsarnaev, slain in a raging gun battle with police last Friday, was receiving benefits along with his wife, Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, and their 3-year-old daughter.
“State officials confirmed last night that Tsarnaev, slain in a raging gun battle with police last Friday, was receiving benefits along with his wife, Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, and their 3-year-old daughter. The state’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services said those benefits ended in 2012 when the couple stopped meeting income eligibility limits. Russell Tsarnaev’s attorney has claimed Katherine — who had converted to Islam — was working up to 80 hours a week as a home health aide while Tsarnaev stayed at home.
“In addition, both of Tsarnaev’s parents received benefits, and accused brother bombers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan were recipients through their parents when they were younger, according to the state.
What about the local Muslims:
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the brothers accused of bombing the Boston Marathon, angrily disrupted a January talk at a Cambridge [Massachusetts] mosque when a speaker compared the Prophet Mohammed and the peace activist Martin Luther King Jr., the second time in recent months that Tsarnaev’s radical theology collided with mainstream Muslim faith at a public religious talk…
In disrupting the talk in January at the Islamic Society of Boston mosque in Cambridge, Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s shouted at a speaker: “You are a Kafir” – a nonbeliever, according to Yusufi Vali, a spokesman for the mosque. Tsarnaev went on to say the speaker was contaminating people’s minds, and accused him of being a hypocrite.
The congregation disagreed, according to Vali, and “shouted him out of the mosque” on Prospect Street.
So. He wasn’t radicalised at this mosque, then…
Photo: Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, mother of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the two men accused of setting off bombs near the Boston Marathon finish line on April 15, 2013 in Boston, walks near her home in Makhachkala, Dagestan, southern Russia, Tuesday, April 23, 2013. The Tsarnaev brothers are accused of setting off the two bombs at the Boston Marathon on April 15 that killed three people and wounded more than 260. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed in a gun battle with police. His 19-year-old brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was later captured alive, but badly wounded.
Posted: 24th, April 2013 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)
Expelled Indonesian schoolgirls face jail for dancing to Maroon 5
TO Tolitoli, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, where five girls are condemned for dancing to a Maroon 5 song. All five have been expelled from school. They are banned from taking exams. They could end up in juvenile detention for “tainting religion”.
We don’t know who posted the video online, just that it was being shared around their girl’s home town when a teacher at their school saw it and grassed them to he thought police.
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Posted: 24th, April 2013 | In: Reviews | Comments (2)
Women stumbles upon a tiger in the toilet
OTHERS might have panicked. Others might have picked the cat up by its tail and skinned it. But when Jenna Krehbiel walking into the toilets after the evening show at the Isis Shrine Circus on Saturday at the Salina Bicentennial Centennial Center in Kansas and saw a tiger, she just turend and walked back out again, as one might when encountering Noel Edmonds signing autographs.
She tells her local paper:
“I went in to use the bathroom, and a lady came in to get her daughter out and said there was a tiger loose. I didn’t know it was in the bathroom, and I walked in the (open) door, which closed right after I had walked in. I saw the tiger; it was at most two feet in front of me, and I turned around calmly and walked back toward the door. Someone opened the door and said get out… You don’t expect to go in a bathroom door, have it shut behind you and see a tiger walking toward you.”
Apparently the tiger was not so well trained that it was using the ladies toilets. (If it were, it had forgotten its book and handbag.) Rather, it had escaped and was on the prowl.
So. Why didn’t Krehbiel scream? Was it fear that caught her voice? Nothing of it. She says she was cool because she’s trained as a social worker:
“I’m always on alert, and it was easy to walk out; that’s how I am trained.”
She’s trained to walk away? She adds:
“My daughter wanted to know if it had washed its hands. That was her only concern. I think that shows the thoughts of children and that they wouldn’t have known there was danger.”
Of course this is America and we wonder what would have occurred had the tiger been an anxious male holding a gun?
Posted: 24th, April 2013 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment
When Hunter S Thompson interviewed Keith Richards
HUNTER S. Thompson met Keith Richards for an interview. The trick with all interviews is to make them interesting. Wayne Ewing filmed the meeting. He writes:
“What’s Keith’s room number,” asked Hunter.
“Suite 1017,” I said “But we have to go to Jane’s (his manager) room first and she will take us to Keith. He won’t open the door for anyone. Jane has to get us in. That’s the plan”
“Fuck your plans,” said the Beast who had just replaced the Nervous Fan of Keith Richards that had been with me in the car. “We’re going to Keith’s room.”
“We’ve got to go to Jane’s first,” I insisted..
“Fuck You. We’re going straight to Keith’s,” growled the Beast.
The pigs began to squeal as the elevator opened on the tenth floor. A few squeamish guests opened their doors to investigate the horrible noise, and closed them very quickly when Hunter brandished the sparking cattle prod. At the large double doors of Suite 1017 Hunter turned up the pigs’ volume and hit the cattle prod’s siren, screaming “Keith, Keith Come out,” and damned if he didn’t.
Keith seemed overjoyed to meet his hero, and Hunter was beside, under and over himself with glee as well…
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Posted: 23rd, April 2013 | In: Celebrities, Flashback | Comment
Burglar phones police while robbing house
MOST criminals didn’t listen in school, which is precisely why they end up robbing houses rather than learning how to evade tax. Such is the way of the world.
One crook showed particular stupidity after he phoned the police whilst he was in the middle of breaking into a house.
Marius Ionescu hid under a bed while burgling a house in Romania. He contacted emergency services after hearing a strange noise, assuming it was the sound of another burglar.
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Posted: 23rd, April 2013 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment
Donald Trump says wind farms will bring down planes over Scotland
DONALD Trump is no fan of wind farms. Wind and Donald’s do not mix well (see video above).
Trump wants to build a golf course on Scotland’s midge-invested lands. He thinks that wind farms parked off the coast will spoil the golfing experience. They will be worse eyesores than braying middle-aged men in canary yellow trousers hitting balls. Scotland is caught in the crosshairs.
Trump has taken out an advert in the Scottish press. The ad links Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond’s backing for wind power to the Scottish Government’s decision to free Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the only man victim of the Lockerbie bombing in which 270 people were killed.
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Posted: 23rd, April 2013 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)
Gary Neville on Funny Foreigner Luis Suarez: Biting and spitting are so very un-British
CAN is be argued that Liverpool’s Luis Saurez gets a worse press than a British born player would for the same or similar indiscretions? Yes, if you compare the treatment his dives have earned him compared to Gareth Bale’s slips. And yes, if you compare his cheating to Team GB’s Olympic efforts in the cycling. And yes, if you look at what happend when Jermain Defoe allegedly bit an opponent (who just happend to be an Argentinian).
So. To Gary Neville, the former Manchester United and England defender who now works a pundit on Sky Sports. Neville can be erudite and insightful. He can also attribute Suarez’s antics to his being a funny foreigner.
PS – Here’s a story about former Manchester United player, the Scot Paddy Crerand. In 1967, Manchester United’s Crerand was in a “spitting incident” with Stoke’s Tony Allen. It led to a change in the laws of the game which made spitting a sending off offence.
Photo: Manchester United’s Gary Neville celebrates after Michael Owen scored their winning goal, in front of the Manchester City fans during the Barclays Premier League match at Old Trafford, Manchester. Sunday, September 20, 2009.
Posted: 22nd, April 2013 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)
Al Schiefley and Les Skuse give a lovely lady the ‘SWEET’ and ‘SOUR’ boob tattoo
IN this photograph, Al Schiefley and Les Skuse apply ink to a willing dish.
Les Skuse lived all his life in Bristol, England. He visited the US and leaned from such bigwigs of the tattoo world as Paul Rodgers, Huck Spaulding and Schiefley. He explained what tattooing was like in the 1950s:
“English tattooists were using a single needle. This caused a lot of bleeding and pain. This finished design looked very thin and scratchy when compared with the strong, well-shaded designs done in the United States.”
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Posted: 22nd, April 2013 | In: Flashback, The Consumer | Comment
Stephen Lawrence 20 years on: how the elite used one man’s death to erode our freedom and justice
ON 22 April 1993, Stephen Lawrence was murdered in a racist attack while waiting for a bus in Eltham, south-east London. The killing resulted in Sir William Macpherson’s report, in which he stated that the police were “institutionally racist“. He said that you could be an “unwitting” racist – a racist without having a racist thought or engaging in racist actions.
Jack Straw, then Home Secretary, set up the Macpherson inquiry. The aim: “We must make equality a reality.” He sees it as a success, saying:
“The pervasive, open racism of the fifties and sixties, the pernicious, sniggering racism of the seventies, eighties and nineties is gone. For that we have to thank Doreen and Neville Lawrence [Stephen’s parents who battled for justice], above all others.”
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