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.
FLASHBACK in photos: July 11, 1938 – The Women’s Billiard Championship
FLASHBACK in photos: July 11, 1938 – The Women’s Billiard Championship at Burroughs & Watts Hall in Soho Square, London. Picture shows Mrs V McDougall of London, the champion, making a masse shot watched by her opponent, Mrs G Holman, also of London:
Posted: 29th, June 2012 | In: Flashback, Sports | 0 Comments
Ten things you never knew about London – courtesy of @LondonProj
Over the last few weeks the team has been beavering away putting the final touches on an ebook called The London Project. It is a compilation of some great new writing about London from a load of high profile bloggers – some of whom write for this here website.
It is a few books if you have an iPad (get it here) and if you have a Kindle it costs a couple of British pounds – get it here. For the iPad version, as well as words, you get video, galleries and the odd Google Map. What are you waiting for…
There’s a list of features in the book at the bottom of the page, but here’s ten things we learned about London through reading the book.
1 There’s some odd buildings in the Thames Estuary that look like something out of HG Wells’ War Of The Worlds. They are The Red Sands Forts and they were used to shoot planes down during the war and apart from an odd stint as a pirate radio station they have been deserted since. There’s a campaign to turn them into a museum here.
2 Mama Cass and Keith Moon both died in the same flat. Contrary to popular myth Cass died from heart disease and didn’t choke on the ham sandwich which was found by her bed.
3 The 1917 Silvertown Explosion is London’s noisiest explosion ever. Nearly 100 people disappeared into thin air when 50 tonnes of TNT went up in smoke. It blew windows out at The Savoy and can be heard as far away as Suffolk.
4 In May 1974 Brixton’s wonderful art deco Academy was almost demolished and turned into a petrol station.
5 Chislehurst Caves in south London became London’s biggest air raid shelter during WW2 with 15,000 inhabitants, a church and a hospital.
6 Castelnau, Ratcliff and Shacklewell are three London villages whose names have almost disappeared from every day use. Finsbury is another village that doesn’t get mentioned too much these days. It used to be a much larger space encompassing much of Islington and extending as far as the Park named after it in N4.
7 Harringay’s retail park once housed the Harringay Arena, which was a key venue during the 1948 Olympics. Oddly it was designed by Australian firm Dorman and Co in 1936 who 75 years later would also build the new Wembley Stadium.
8 All Hallows on Sea – on the south side of the Thames in Kent – was set to become the Blackpool of the south with Europe’s biggest amusement park, until the depression and WW2 intervened.
9 The Queen Elizabeth II bridge, aka the southward side of the Dartford Crossing, is the capital’s Sagrada Familia (that odd cathedral in Barcelona) in that just like Gaudi, its architect, Helmut Homberg, died before it was completed.
10 The famous image of St Paul’s cathedral during one of the worst nights of The Blitz, was taken by Daily Mail photographer Herbert Mason from the roof of the paper’s offices in Carmelite Street.
Posted: 29th, June 2012 | In: Reviews | 0 Comments
Kyron Horman: Libel tourism and Terri Horman’s trial by opinion
KYRON Horman: Anorak’s look at the case of the missing Portland, Oregon, child:
On the site GoFundMe, Kelly Davidson has created page called “Justice for Kyron Horman”.
Justice? What about searching for him and trying to find out what happened to the child? The latest appeal runs:
June 4, 2010 is the day that Kyron disappeared and our nightmare started. It has been two years and we still don’t know where Kyron is. Our hearts were broken that day the unthinkable happened, a day there is no moving on from. Each day we live with the unknown, while silently praying today is the day he comes home to us. Our nightmare will not end until Kyron is home.
For the past two years, people have come together in support of Kyron and our family and we ask for your continued support. As we are standing together we ask you to stand with us. Fight for the little boy who has touched so many hearts. Help us bring Kyron home.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 29th, June 2012 | In: Reviews | 0 Comments
The London Cable Car is open for tourists visting South London the long, slow and expensive way
THE London Cable Car is go! Transport for London’s gondola lift cable cars are taking people across the River Thames, making the half-mile crossing between Greenwich and the Royal Docks that little starrier. From the 34 cabins you can see the Olympic Park, Canary Wharf, South London, the Thames Barrier, Brixton and my granny’s house. A one-way ticket on the ‘Emirates Air Line’ costs £3.20. Each pod holds up to 10 passengers.
The fares are:
Cash single fare:
Adult boarding pass £4.30
Child boarding pass £2.20
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 28th, June 2012 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | 0 Comments
Unwitting racism – a photo gallery of everyday bigotry
WAS that cartoon of Mario Balotelli racist? What about that New Yorker cover of Obama? The Vogue cover of LeBron James? Can you be unintentionally racist? As the Macpherson report into Stephen Lawrence’s murder told us, racism “can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantage minority ethnic people”. You can be an unwitting racist. You can be racist without being a racist. Makes you think. Also: “…any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or by any other person.” You’re all racist:
Posted: 28th, June 2012 | In: Reviews | 0 Comments
Daily Express illustrates ignorance of World War 2 with wrong photo
NEWSPAPER history lesson of the week was found in the Daily Express, wherein the headline bemoaned:
-
“Most students are ignorant about our war heroes”
The story tells us:
British children are astonishingly ignorant of our nation’s role in the Second World War, a survey has revealed.
Maybe they nippers have been studying text books supplied by the Daily Express. The picture used to illustrate the “astonishing” ignorance claims to be of Spitfires. Not so. Those planes are Hurricanes.
Lord Ashcroft, who donated £1million towards the Bomber Command Memorial, said: “It is sobering to find that so many children simply do not know important facts about crucial events in Britain’s recent history. We must all take responsibility for ensuring that what we know is passed to the next generation.”
Not to worry. Any more of this and cuts to its editorial staff and The Express will be dead by then…
Posted: 28th, June 2012 | In: Reviews | 0 Comments
Was Rudy Eugene driven to cannibalism by marijuana?
RUDY Euguene, the so-called Miami cannibal, was only on marijuana when he attacked Ronald Poppo, eating much of the older man’s face.
The coroner’s report informs us, via the Miami Herald:
“The department has ruled out the most common drugs found in ‘bath salts,’ a press release from the ME’s office said. The toxicology testing “has identified the active components of marijuana,” the release said. “The laboratory has tested for but not detected any other street drugs, alcohol or prescription drugs, or any adulterants found in street drugs. This includes cocaine, LSD, amphetamines (Extasy, Meth and others), phencyclidine (PCP or Angel Dust), heroin, oxycodone, Xanax, synthetic marijuana (Spice), and many other similar compounds.”
The ME’s office said it sought the help of an outside forensic toxicology lab, “which has confirmed the absence of ‘bath salts,’ synthetic marijuana and LSD.” The ME’s office said that “within the limits of current technology by both laboratories,” marijuana was the only drug found in Eugene’s system.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 27th, June 2012 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | 6 Comments
Daily Mail coos over toddler’s ‘slender’ legs and highlights deadly dangers of objectifying thin women
WHEN Rosie Whitaker, 15, took her own life, the Daily Mail sprung into action:
Her family believe Monday night’s tragedy came from reading and writing on websites where girls idealise slim celebrities such as Kate Moss, while describing how they cut themselves and contemplate taking their own lives. – Daily Mail June 13, 2012
The Mail yells: “Ban sick websites that drove out girl to despair.”
Idolising the thin is so wrong. Those sick websites that support the myth that thin equals happy and desirable must be banned.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 27th, June 2012 | In: Reviews | 0 Comments
Police blame ’30th frame effect’ for running red light
SO. Why did you drive through the red light at the pedestrian crossing? That questiosn to you, officers of the Russian city of St. Petersburg.
The answer: they didn’t. The poliec cite the “30th frame effect”. What you see in this video never happened. Got that?
The “30th frame effect” produces an “incorrect colour rendering due to the gadget’s insufficiently powerful data processor”. So say police in written reply to a complaint.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 27th, June 2012 | In: Reviews | 0 Comments
Germany outlaws child circumcision – Muslims and Jews should be afraid
FIRST they came for the halal and kosher meat.
Then they came for the clothes.
Now a court in Cologne, Germany, has decreed that circumcision constitutes bodily harm and is thus outside the a legal guardian’s authority.
The Financial Times Deutschland reports on a Muslim doctor, who, at the request of the boy’s parents, circumcised a four-year-old. The procedure did not go well. The boy needed hospital treatment.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 26th, June 2012 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | 8 Comments
Vicky Beckham delighted with Spice Girls Musical – photos
THE Spice Girls musical is here! Soon!! Off we trotted to the press call at London’s St Pancras Renaissance Hotel for the launch of Viva Forever. We spotted a smiling: Jennifer Saunders, Judy Craymer, Melanie Brown (Mel B), Melanie Chisholm (Mel C), Geri Halliwell and Emma Bunton. And Victoria Beckham, who looked delighted:
Posted: 26th, June 2012 | In: Reviews | 0 Comments
Julian Assange writes his IQ.org sequel at the Ecuadoran embassy?
JULIAN Assange remains in the Ecuadoran embassy in London. The Telegraph‘s William Langley notes:
You have to hope he knows what he is doing. Ecuador exports five million tons of bananas a year, and gave the world the Panama hat, but a darkness dwells at its moist and spicy heart in the form of tinpot president Rafael Correa. Irony doesn’t quite capture the mordant weirdness of Assange seeking sanctuary in a country where the suppression of information is a flagship government policy.
Will the Wikileaks founder ever get out?
“We are an organization that does not promote leaking.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Daily Mail uses death video to sell Eiffel Tower suicide story
HOW does the Daily Mail illustrate the news that a young Israeli man has climbed to the top of the Eiffel Tower and chucked himself off? He had no parachute. He died. Why with an old Pathe newsreel of a man named Franz Reichelt falling to his death from the Paris landmark.
See, suicide wannabes, your death will live on for decades.
The Daily Mail will make suicide entertaning…
Posted: 26th, June 2012 | In: Reviews | 0 Comments
Holland play Italy at the 1990 Subbuteo World Cup (video)
ALTERNATIVE Olympic Sports harks back to 1990, when Holland took on Italy at the 1990 Subbuteo World Cup:
Cadinal Dolan wants priests to give until it hurts – God, how it hurts those kids
In June, 2012, Monsignor William Lynn, chief of priest operating in the Philadelphia Archdiocese, was found guilty of endangering the welfare of a child by covering up child sex abuse in the US Catholic Church. Forget the kids. He wanted to protect the Church.
Philadelphia District Attorney Seth William told media:
“This is a monumental victory for the named and un-named victims. This was about evil men who did evil things to children.”
His brief, Jeff Lindy, added:
“He’s really upset. He’s upset, he’s crushed. He didn’t want anything other than to help kids, he’s crushed about this.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 25th, June 2012 | In: Reviews | 0 Comments
Marijuana pipe of the day – the Chewbacca smocca
MARIJUANA pipe of the day is the Chewbacca smocca, as made by Creep. Al that wonderful smoking paraphernalia that make the habit so seductive in the 20th Century still exists. You just need to break the law to experience it…
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 25th, June 2012 | In: Reviews | 0 Comments
Who really killed 2-year-old Hadeel Ahmed Al-Haddad in Gaza?
A CHILD has died on the Gaza Strip. She was just two-years-old. How did Achhad Hadeel Ahmed Al-Haddad, aka Hadil al-Haddad, die?
The PalTimes – a “Palestinian news site working to address and follow up on all political issues and daily committed to accuracy” – reports:
Zionist war planes bombed a house just west of Al Farouk Mosque near al-Zaytoun neighborhood, which led to the death of Achhad Hadeel Ahmed Al-Haddad, 2, and wounding her brother, 3, was slightly wounded.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 25th, June 2012 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | 0 Comments
David Starkey and Laurie Penny debate what it is to be disgrace to the Left and Right
WHEN historian David Starkey, pursuivant courtier and educator in Queenie Elizabethans, met writer Laurie Pennie at the Sunday Times Festival of Education at Wellington college in Berkshire, something happened. The elite had a row.
Penny called Starkey a “racist”, a “troll” and a “bigot”. (We’ve been here before.)
Starkey opined that the nine Asian paedophiles in Rochdale who raped and sexually primed white girls exhibited behaviour “entrenched in the foothills of the Punjab or wherever it is”. The men needed to be “inculcated in the British ways of doing things”.
Ah, those Victoria values that says raped children should be seen and not heard. The most prolific Rochdale rapist is Shabir Ahmed, 59, (pictured) who was convicted of 30 more rapes in a separate trial. Judge Mushtaq Khokhar adjourned sentencing until August 2 for reports.
You wonder how many more victims are out there – or at home, sat in the quiet?
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 25th, June 2012 | In: Reviews | 0 Comments
Facebook was born in 1976 – photo
FACEBOOK was born in 1976. Here’s that photo. (Click to enlarge.)
Posted: 24th, June 2012 | In: Flashback, Technology | 0 Comments
Heartless RSPCA officers name impaled cat Spikey
MORE casual animal cruelty now as we spot a cat found by an RSPCA officers in an overgrown garden in Wolverhampton. The officers notice that the cat has become impaled on a shard of fencing.
The rescuers save the cat, who is on the mend.
Posted: 24th, June 2012 | In: Reviews | 0 Comments
The Amarnath Yatra pilgrimage in photos
FACES of the day: Hindu holy men attend the Amarnath Yatra, an annual pilgrimage to the Amarnath cave shrine, in Jammu, India. The Amarnath shrine is home to a big icicle revered by Hindus as an incarnation of Lord Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction and regeneration. This is the the south Kashmir Himalayas. If the militants and separatists don’t get the pilgrims, the cold and arduous nature of the pilgrimage might. In 2011, 107 pilgrims lost their lives this year, most from heart failure. In 2001, 12 people were murdered by a militant armed with two grenades, who shot indiscriminately near the cave. This is tough trip in a troubled region. Everyone needs to chill out. Pass the smokes:
13862431
A Hindu holy man smokes outside the registration counter for the annual Amarnath Yatra pilgrimage in Jammu, India, Thursday, June 21, 2012. Amarnath houses an ice stalagmite worshipped by Hindus as an incarnation of Lord Shiva, the god of destruction and creation and the pilgrimage is scheduled to begin from June 25. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)
Posted: 24th, June 2012 | In: Reviews | 0 Comments
In photos: Floods in Croston, Derwent and Yorkshire
SUMMER’S here! There’s been widespread flooding in the Lancashire towns of Croston and Darwen, and around Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire. The rain has been torrential downpours. More than a month’s worth of rain fell in 24 hours. Phew! Flaminh June is here:
13875320
Pat Paulsen plays The Beatles Hey Jude
PAT Paulsen and the Pat Paulsen Players will not perform their cover version of The Beatles Hey Jude. You may recall the star of Pat Paulsen’s Half a Comedy Hour, whose satire was lightning up the airwaves.
In 1968, The Mothers Brothers put Paulsen forward to be president of the USA as a member of the Straight Talking American Government Party (S.T.A.G. Party). Said Paulsen, who would run seven times, of his bid for the presidency: “Why not? I can’t dance.”
He died in 1997.
Take them away without mercy, Pat Paulsen:
Spotter: DM
Posted: 23rd, June 2012 | In: Flashback, Music, TV & Radio | 0 Comments
Will a mother lose her baby because she’s in the EDL?
TONI McLeod, a mother of three young children, is due to give birth very soon. McLeod, of Durham, is eight months pregnant. She’s worried. There is a chance that as soon as she give birth, Durham County Council’s social workers will take her child away from her. In May 2012, a court ruled that her three other children should be permanently removed from her care.
Want to guess why? Well, up until 2010, Tony McLeod was a member of the English Defence League (EDL).
Mrs McLeod might not be a sympathetic character, but she could be any of us.
Patrick Hayes cites a report by a Durham social worker that trills:
“Toni needs to break away from the inappropriate friendships she has through the EDL… in order that she can model and display appropriate positive relationships to the baby as he/she develops.“
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 22nd, June 2012 | In: Reviews | 5 Comments
Karen Huff Klein gets abused on a New York school bus by young fat busters
EGGED on by the State-sanctioned war on the fat, the kids on board the Greece School District bus in Greece, N.Y, set about abusing (surely, encouraging her to lose weight – ed) Karen Huff Klein, a 68-year-old bus monitor.
The most popular terms of abuse if “fat ass”. A playground wit tells her “you don’t have a family because they all killed themselves because they don’t want to be near you.” Her son killed himself ten years earlier. The nippers knew this. They advise her that she will “die of diabetes.”
It’s all pretty much the usual expert-inspired stuff, in which the fat are told to objectify themselves and their roly-poly kids, who are responsible for draining the health system of funds and killing the planet. Kids, he, they really do just pick up adult prejudices.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 22nd, June 2012 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | 3 Comments
