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.
Scores of people missing in Cape Cod
NEWS just in: Karen Jeffrey (pictured left) “no longer works for the Cape Cod Times“:
In an audit of her work, Times editors have been unable to find 69 people in 34 stories since 1998, when we began archiving stories electronically.
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Smoking marijuana only affects your IQ if you care about your stupid IQ
DOES smoking marijuana make you stupid?
A study claiming that pot use in youth has long-term cognitive effects is being challenged. The originalstudy, published last year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), found that smoking marijuana as a teenager may be associated with IQ declines by middle age. The new study, published in the same journal on Monday (January 14), said that IQ declines were likely a product of socioeconomic status, Nature reported.
“Although it would be too strong to say that the results have been discredited, the methodology is flawed and the causal inference drawn from the results premature,” Ole Røgeberg, the sole author of the new study and an economist at The Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research in Oslo, wrote in the paper.
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12 obscure David Bowie gems today’s artists would kill for
SO. David Bowie’s somewhat nondescript new single hit number one, and the newspapers are hailing his new album as a masterpiece, as they have done with every album he has produced since his last commercially successful ‘LP’ (as then was) 33 years ago.
Those themselves under the age of 33 might be forgiven for wondering what all the fuss is about, but the fact is that Bowie remains the sole pop artist worthy of standing alongside the giants of the 1960s. Between 1969 and 1977 he produced a series of albums to rank, in their range and quality, with those of Bob Dylan, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Who and the rest. Some would go further and argue that his mid-sixties, late seventies and early eighties work deserves equal billing too.
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Posted: 17th, January 2013 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, Music | Comments (3)
Folsom Prison in photos: Cash, Leary and a brutal life
FOLSOM State Prison, California, opened for business in 1880:
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The gun debate becomes all about Obama’s prohibition and his co-opted kids
BARACK Obama wants to reduce gun violence in the US. (We’ve yet to hear from a US politician who wants to increase it.) He said:
“Reducing gun violence is a complicated challenge. If there’s even one thing we can do to reduce this violence, if there’s even one life that can be saved, we have an obligation to try.”
A dissenting voice tweets:
“Obama speaks today on the anniversary of Prohibition going into effect. I bet Prohibition saved at least one child’s life.”
The NY Times sees the children:
Surrounded by children who wrote him letters seeking curbs on guns, Mr. Obama committed himself to a high-profile and politically volatile campaign behind proposals assembled by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. that will test the administration’s strength heading into the next four years. The first big push of Mr. Obama’s second term, then, will come on an issue that was not even on his to-do list on Election Day when voters renewed his lease on the presidency.
What changed to push guns to the fore of Obama’s plans? The Sandy Hook massacre, say supporters. The deficit and economy, says the opposition:
“I will put everything I’ve got into this,” Mr. Obama said, “and so will Joe.”
The emotionally charged ceremony, attended by family members of those killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., reflected a decision by the White House to seize on public outrage to challenge the political power of the National Rifle Association and other forces that have successfully fought new gun laws for decades.
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Posted: 17th, January 2013 | In: Reviews | Comments (4)
Abergavenny dog owners worried by nail-laced sausages in street
WHO stuck nail into cooked sausages and left them on Llwynu Lane, Abergavenny, Monmouthshire. Local news says the sausages are intended to hurt dogs. But the sausages look more like dog turds. Watch where you step…
1971: Yuk Magazine
FLASHBACK to 1969 and 1971, whern Yuk magazine was knocking them bandy. (Can anyone translate the front pages.)
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Teacher who is afraid of children, to sue
CHILDREN are terrifying things, with their snotty little faces, gurgling traps and little accusatory fists. It is little wonder we treat them with such contempt.
One person who is really frightened of children is an ex-teacher who is suing her former school district, saying that was discriminated against for her fear of children. You heard.
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Egalitarian NRA reaches out to pless well-off members who want to live like Obama
GUN control in the US is hot topic. The NRA look like loons. But this ad makes a good point. It’s much like what we spotted with Rupert Murdoch’s anti-gun stance:
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Posted: 16th, January 2013 | In: Reviews | Comments (3)
On guns and suicide
DO guns make suicide easier?
“Jon Stewart makes a lot of good points, or at least points worth thinking about. In the end, though, he comes up well short of proposing meaningful reforms. In that failure, too, he’s capturing the anti-gun zeitgeist….
That 30,000 number stood out to me because it seemed very high. According to the FBI, in 2011, there was a total of 8,583 firearm homicides in the U.S. That may well be 8,583 gun murders too many, but it’s nowhere near 30,000 (the total number of murders by all methods came to 12,664). The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) uses a different method and found about 11,000 gun-related murders in 2011 and the total number of homicides to be around 16,000 (see table 2). So How did Stewart get to 30,000? By adding the number of gun-related suicides to the number of homicides.
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Stacie Halas banned from teaching: you can’t escape your past online
STACIE Halas, 32, will not be teaching class in California. The middle school teacher with the porn actress past (photos NSFW) has been deemed “unfit” for purpose. In April, 2012, Halas was removed from her post as a science teacher at Haydock Intermediate School in Oxnard after students and teachers “discovered” her porno past.
She had not worked in porn whilst a teacher in the district.
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Posted: 16th, January 2013 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comments (5)
Helicopter crashes in Wandsworth Road, London: photos and news
A HELICOPTER has crashed in central London. Why? How?
Two people are dead. One of them is the pilot. Another person is critically ill.
The Mail gives the pilot a showbiz bio:
RotorMotion pilot Pete Barnes, 50, worked on films such as Die Another Day, Tomb Raider II and Saving Private Ryan
Rolling news quote of the day:
BBC News 24 anchor stating: “This is the last thing a helicopter pilot would want to happen.”
The weather
The helicopter hit the crane on the St George Wharf development in Vauxhall in thick fog shortly after 8am.
The machine
The aircraft was a AgustaWestland AW109, a lightweight, twin-engine helicopter with eight seats.
The expert
Chris Yates, an independent aviation expert, told Sky News:
“Helicopters are not supposed to come within 500 feet of any structure such as a high-rise building, so we don’t know what caused the pilot to get quite so close. We don’t know the circumstances he was operating in at the time – whether there was a problem with the helicopter itself, whether he misread his instructions or received false instructions from air traffic control.”
Guido Fawkes wonders if the lights atop Vauxhall tower was on. Tweets from last year suggesting that sometimes it was not.
The witnesses
Mark Louis Sidney told Sky News:
“I heard a loud bang, I looked up and saw bits of propeller and parts of the aircraft falling off it and then plummeting down. Then a plume of smoke went up. I called the emergency services. It happened in a matter of a seconds before it was on the ground. I thought ’Wait a minute, has this thing been shot out of the sky or what?’. I could see the top of the crane was shaking on the top of the building. It was very foggy so the helicopter probably couldn’t see it.”
Chris Matthison tells the BBC:
“There was some damage to the crane. It’s possible the crane is lying across Nine Elms road. The top of the nearest building is steeped in mist and difficult to see.”
Michael Krumstets tells the Guardian:
“The helicopter nearly killed me and my flatmate. We were right next to it, just feet away from where it exploded. We we were walking to work and saw the helicopter clip the top of the crane – there was a loud crack – and it came spinning out of control towards us. I just can’t believe what I saw, it was awful. When you see a helicopter hurtling out of the sky towards you, spinning, your legs turn to jelly, you have a sense of shock. My flatmate fell over, I had to run back to grab him. It missed us by just a few feet, it was just so lucky.”
Mike Moody (Times):
“We woke up to the sound of an explosion and then screems. (I) looked out of the window and saw a woman screaming, saw the smoke and we ran for it basically. I’m still in my pyjamas with my jeans over the top. The smoke was very very close to our flat; it was literally the building next door and so we went outside and we saw there was till what sounded like explosions – I assume it was the cars. There was a land rover, a black land rover that was on fire at about 5 to 10 metres from my door, just on the corner of Miles Street and Wandsworth road which were people trying to put out but other people were saying we’ve got to move because that will explode. Some of the construction workers from where the crane was told us just basically said everyone move now this is really, really dangerous. Go. We left. ”
“There was someone in the range rover that was on fire but he got out. It was only a small fire on the bonnet at the time. He was taken out of the car by the consturction workers, they pulled him out. It looked like Baghdad. Lots of people screaming, crying. No-one really sure what was going on. I rang my mum at 5 minutes past 8 and we left at 6 minutes past 8 because that’s when I rang her back to say we’d been told to move.“
Terrorism?
BBC journalist: “Did you think it was a terrorist attack…?”
Eye-witness: “No.”
Sarah-Beth Casey told Sky News:
“You’re always worried about things like 9/11 and things like that. I have three small children with me in the flat. It’s one of your fears that something like this can happen. When I heard the explosion – it was like a little earthquake … a gas explosion. I looked up to see debris falling off the tower.”
Ray Watts (Times):
“It looked like 9/11 with bits falling everywhere. There was about 20 of us outside the building and we all started running. Some went into the security hut but it was just a wooden shack so they soon got out. I just legged it across the road and when I looked back I saw the crane boon land on my truck. There was stuff coming down everywhere.”
The Government announcement
From: Government Whips Admin Unit (HOC)
Sent: 16 January 2013 08:47
Subject: Travel disruptionFollowing a helicopter crash in Vauxhall this morning colleagues should be aware there will be serious travel disruption in the area.
You may need to leave earlier in time for the deferred division.
Robert Goodwill
Government Pairing Whip
The Routes
Witnesses said the helicopter – which left Gatwick Airport, Sussex, at 7:36am and was heading to Elstree, Hertfordshire, to collect an executive – was using the route of the River Thames and hit a crane at the top of the tower near Vauxhall Bridge in Vauxhall, central London, at 8am.
Pilots flying helicopters over London are subject to air traffic control clearance. If they are flying over central London they must have twin-engined aircraft. Those flying one-engined aircraft must follow the route of the River Thames when operating in the capital.
HELICOPTER ROUTES IN THE LONDON CTR AND LONDON/CITY CTR
The photos
A section of the Crane lays in Nine Elms Lane, after crashing to the ground close to St George’s Wharf tower building, where a Helicopter crashed into this morning, in Vauxhall south London.
General View of Rotormotion at Redhill Aerodrome in Surrey from where the helicopter piloted by Pete Barnes set of before crashing to the ground close to St George’s Wharf tower in Vauxhall, South London after the pilot attempted to divert due to bad weather.
Undated handout photo of the AgustaWestland 109 (AW109) Power
Posted: 16th, January 2013 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comment
Globalised Guardian heads Down Under
THE Guardian, buoyed by its censorship and cowardice – and massive financial loses – is opening a digital paper in Australia:
British daily newspaper The Guardian has announced its intention to launch a digital edition in Australia.
Due to start up this year, the operation aims to capitalise on an existing substantial Australian readership, launch editor Katharine Viner said …
The operation will launch with the help of “founding investor” and chair of not-for-profit news and features website The Global Mail, Graeme Wood.
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Woman drove stolen train into apartment block
“THE woman started driving the train from the Neglinge train station, which is two stops from Saltsjöbaden, and usually a three-minute ride. The train usually goes at about 10 kilometres an hour in this area, but we estimate that she was going at about 70 kilometres per hour.”
“We still don’t know why she was in the driver’s seat or whether the incident was an accident. There’s a police investigation underway and we’re waiting for them for clarification.”
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Gun debate madness: Piers Morgan’s dead children take on Ben Shapiro’s Holocaust victims
PIERS Morgan is trying to turn the gun debate in the US into his own circus. He wanted to put his head inside Ben Shapiro’s mouth. This is Shapiro who wrote the book: Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences Americans:
While President Obama and the left like to pretend that they oppose bullying with all their hearts and souls, the truth is far darker: the left is the greatest purveyor of bullying in modern American history. Bullying has morphed into the left’s go-to tactic, as they attempt to quash their opponents through fear, threat of force, violence, and rhetorical intimidation on every major issue facing America today.
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Posted: 15th, January 2013 | In: Reviews | Comments (3)
Boys suspended for shooting each other with fingers
THE gun debate gets dumb in Maryland. Two six-year-old school boys have been suspended from school for one day for playing cops and robbers. They pretended their fingers were guns.
Is there a war on boys?
On the Florida Everglades python hunt (photos)
THEY’RE python huntin’ in Florida’s Everglades. The hunters are after immigrant snakes.
The National Park Service, Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission and the South Florida Water Management District want pythons eradicated from the Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve.
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Victory for right to wear religious symbols at work but religious conscience defeated
BRITISH Airways check-in worker Nadia Eweida (top right) has won the right to wear a cross at work. The landmark ruling was made by the European Court of Human Rights Today (full judgmentHERE). Basically, the Court found that her rights had been violated under Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which enshrines the right to be able to manifest religion, writes Cranmer.
The court said this was because “a healthy democratic society needs to tolerate and sustain pluralism and diversity; but also because of the value to an individual who has made religion a central tenet of his or her life to be able to communicate that belief to others”.
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Posted: 15th, January 2013 | In: Reviews | Comments (4)
How the ‘Brazilian’ waxing J Sisters wiped out pubic lice
BAD news for pubic lice. You’re dying out. Bloomberg news says the remaining lice can blame bikini waxing.
More than 80 percent of college students in the U.S. remove all or some of their pubic hair – part of a trend that’s increasing in western countries. In Australia, Sydney’s main sexual health clinic hasn’t seen a woman with pubic lice since 2008 and male cases have fallen 80 percent from about 100 a decade ago…
“Pubic grooming has led to a severe depletion of crab louse populations,” said Ian F. Burgess, a medical entomologist with Insect Research & Development Ltd. in Cambridge, England. “Add to that other aspects of body hair depilation, and you can see an environmental disaster in the making for this species.”
Posted: 15th, January 2013 | In: Reviews, The Consumer | Comment
A right to die: ‘happy’ Belgian twins euthanised
“They were very happy. It was a relief to see the end of their suffering. They had a cup of coffee in the hall, it went well and a rich conversation… At the last there was a little wave of their hands and then they were gone.”
Posted: 15th, January 2013 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)
Echidna news: ‘The little bastard crapped in my hat’
QUOTE of the day comes from Munro Hardy, 25, a gold miner in Australia’s Northern Territory. He spotted an echidna on the road, and rescued it from certain death by picking it up and sticking it his car:
“The little bastard crapped in my hat.”
April Jones: Mark Bridger is ‘stony-faced’ and ‘close to tears’
APRIL Jones is on the cover of the Mirror and the Sun. Both red-tops lead with a picture of the man accused of killing the child. Both front-page headlines focus on Mark Bridger and a phrase:
The Sun: “I Probably Killed April”
The Mirror: “He Probably Killed April”
The Sun’s headline looks like a confession. But Bridger has plead not guilty to abduction and murder.
The suspect’s QC Brendan Kelly revealed for the first time that part of Bridger’s defence was “conceding he probably killed” her. Mr Kelly told North Wales’ Mold Crown Court: “The defence as advanced by Mark Bridger involves him conceding he probably killed the child.”
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Posted: 15th, January 2013 | In: Reviews | Comments (2)
Observer editor John Mulholland displays typical male cowardice in the Julie Burchill transsexual Twitstorm
A MEDIA row. The media love them. It began when Suzanne Moore wrote for the New Statesman beneath the headline “Seeing red: the power of female anger”. Her article included the throwaway line:
“We are angry with ourselves for not being happier, not being loved properly and not having the ideal body shape – that of a Brazilian transsexual.”
It turned out that Brazilian transsexuals are often abused.
On the last Transgender Day of Remembrance, out of the 265 reported cases of murdered trans people between 15th November 2011 and 14th November 2012, 126 of them were from Brazil.
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Posted: 14th, January 2013 | In: Reviews | Comments (8)
April Jones: Is Mark Bridger an abattoir worker or a lifeguard?
MARK Bridger was “probably responsible” for the death of five year old April Jones. But he says he didn’t kidnap her. He says he didn’t murder her.
Judge Mr Justice Griffith-Williams said that it can be reported in the press that “you have indicated that the defendant’s case is that he was probably responsible for the death of April”.
On Channel Five News that becomes: “admits he probably killed her“.
No. That’s not what the judge said. Five has taken the one statement of interest from today’s events and twisted it.
In Mold Crown Court, Bridger has plead not guilty to child abduction, murder and perverting the course of justice. His trial begins on February 25.
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Posted: 14th, January 2013 | In: Reviews | Comments (9)
