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.
What was up with that “racist cake”?
IS Sweden’s international image as a country dedicated to tolerance and egalitarianism a mirage? Is the Scandinavian nation, in reality, a deeply bigoted place where dark-skinned people are routinely discriminated against, and where racism is seen as a bit of a laugh? Following the fiasco known as ‘cakegate’ – involving a ‘blackface’, a cake shaped as an African tribeswoman and a philistine cultural minister – some would have you believe so.
In case you haven’t already seen the shocking images from Stockholm’s Museum of Modern Art where the notorious ‘racist cake’ incident happened, here’s a re-cap: The museum was celebrating World Art Day and the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Swedish Artists’ National Organisation. A bunch of artists had been asked to create cakes for the event and the minister of culture, Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth, was invited to open the proceedings by cutting one of them. It was designed by a Swede of African descent who said he wanted to draw attention to the practice of female genital mutilation.
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Posted: 26th, April 2012 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comments (3)
Why Claire Squires did it – London Marathon athlete was running for herself
THE self-serving tabloid drive to own Claire Squires, the woman who died during the London Marathon, can now be put to bed. Claire Squires’ sister Maxine Holmes says the runner was not making a “sacrifice” (Daily Mirror), looking to create a “legacy of love” (Daily Mail) nor to “make it a million” and make us proud (The Sun). Was she “inspirational“, as this site says?
Claire Squire was… Well, no need to guess and speculate and read her mind. Let’s hear from her sister, someone who actually knew her:
“She was running it for herself as she had won a place to compete in the ballot. Then she decided at the last moment, just 10 days before it, to get sponsorship and urged people to help. That is typical Claire, she wanted to do something to help others.”
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Flashback to April 25 – Photos from this day in history
FLASHBACK to April 25th – Photos from this day in history:
Gregory Peck and Joan Collins take time out from the cameras for a much needed rest, during the shooting of their new picture, The Bravados, at Morelia, Mexico April 25, 1958. (AP Photo)
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Gareth Williams murder: what we have been allowed to know so far (photos)
WAS Gareth Williams murdered? The 31-year-old MI6 spook from Anglesey, North Wales found dead at his Pimlico flat, his body locked inside a bag in his bath. That was August 2010. Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire says “two minor components of another contributor’s DNA” were found on the zip toggle and padlock.
Gareth William died either from oxygen depletion or hypercapnia (too much carbon dioxide in the blood).
Gareth Williams was found dead inside an 140-litre capacity North Face sports bag. The bad had been locked with a Yale padlock. The locks’s keys were inside the bag – beneath Mr Williams’s body.
PC Gallagher found Mr Williams’s body. He detected a “particular smell” when he lifted the bag. There was news of his body being in a mystery liquid.
The inquest into his death is underway at Westminster Coroner’s Court. So far we have learnt:
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Posted: 25th, April 2012 | In: Reviews | Comments (5)
Flashback to 1969: put on weight the fun way
TIRED of being Skinny? Want to drink on pounds of weight fast – the fun way? Well, you can. Or you could. It was 19689 and Bachelor magazine has an offer for its readers… Click the image and watch it grow!
In photos – The 33rd annual Drake Relays Beautiful Bulldog Contest
FACE of the Day: Lilli, owned by Wendi French, of West Des Moines, Iowa, looks on during the 33rd annual Drake Relays Beautiful Bulldog Contest Monday, April 23, 2012, in Des Moines, Iowa. The pageant kicks off the Drake Relays festivities at Drake University where a bulldog is the mascot.
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Lilli, owned by Wendi French, of West Des Moines, Iowa, looks on during the 33rd annual Drake Relays Beautiful Bulldog Contest Monday, April 23, 2012, in Des Moines, Iowa. The pageant kicks off the Drake Relays festivities at Drake University where a bulldog is the mascot. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Queer times in Palestine and Israel – Pinkwashing among the bigots
TO New York, where the righteous are picking their prejudices. At a meeting called “Creating Solidarities: A Conversation with Members of the First U.S. LGBTQ Delegate to Palestine”, the enlightened are talking about their trip to the Palestinian territories.
Jasbir Puar, a professor of women’s and gender studies at Rutgers, was on the trip. She tells the panel that “the occupation of Palestine is one of the most contentious issues in queer organizing today”.
How so? Well, we can’t be certain. What we do know is that during their stay, the group were told to hide their homosexuality. But lest you think that is odd, Puar explains, “it doesn’t take away from the fact that there is an occupation. We can’t judge a country by its attitudes towards homosexuals.”
This is Puar who tells Guardian readers that the EDL is an “extremist rightwing” hate group that propagates anti-Muslim racism. Anti-Semitism is rife in the Middle East. “One day kill all Jews,” comes a chant from the “moderate” Muslim Brotherhood. The Arab press features Nazi-inspired cartoons of the evil Jew (more here).
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The National Pea Pushing Derby, with comedian Joe Baker (video)
IT’S 1969, and the swinging cats are in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, for the Naional Pea-Pushing Derby, presented by comedian Joe Baker. It’s all for a “very worthy cause”…
The cynical manipulation of Claire Squires death
CLAIRE Squires died at the London Marathon. She was running to achieve a personal goal and to raise money for The Samaritans, a group her mother has helped for 24 years. Money is pouring in to Claire Squires’ Just Giving page on the internet, and the tabloids want a slice of the action.
Following yesterday’s Daily Mail report which gave readers an insight into what Squires was thinking and her motives for running – andno, it never spoke with her – the Sun leads with ” Tragic Claire: Make it £1m.”
Claire Squires name and story seems to be raising money pretty well without the Sun’s patronage. Undoubtedly media reports on her death have triggered people to pledge cash. At the time of writing £592,559.08 has been raised from 52,103 donations.
But the Sun is here to co-brand Claire Squires, just as it did with Madeleine McCanns (albeit in the guise of its dead alter ego The News of the World) and Jo Yeates, slapping up reward and wanted posters for each woman with its company logo high and handsome over their heads.
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Posted: 25th, April 2012 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comments (4)
Sky News names Ched Evans’ rape victim as Natasha Massey gets vocal
THE story of Ched Evans rape continues to make waves. The woman raped by the the Sheffield United footballer has had her name broadcast on twitter and Sky News.
When discussing the matter of the woman being named on Twitter, Sky News showed the allegedly offending tweets without redacting the victim’s name. The Mail says Twitter users Jonathan Cox and Joshua Laughton published the woman’s name.
A Sky News spokesperson says:
“In our coverage last night we very briefly revealed the victim’s name despite heavy redaction, and if watching in real-time viewers would not have noticed. We would, however, like to apologise to the victim and her family for any distress caused.”
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Posted: 24th, April 2012 | In: Reviews | Comments (12)
Leyton rapists, prostitute mutilators and Ched Evans fans – what’s wrong with men?
MEN. What’s the problem with men?
To Zimbabwe, where digitaljournal.com says a woman working as a prostitue was murdered with an electric cord and her eyes plucked out with a coat hanger.
I spoke to my colleague Kholi Buthelezi, who is the National Coordinator of the Sisonke Sex Workers Movement. She said there is a traditional belief that the image of the killer is imprinted on the eyes of a murder victim, hence the murderer stabbed her eyes to prevent himself from being identified
DNA reports that a husband tossed acid into his wife’s face because he suspected she was cheating on him.
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Google honours Swedish zipper man
DID you know a Swede came up with the idea of keeping trousers closed with the help of a pliable fastening device that uses interlocking metal teeth? Yes, the modern zipper was invented by Gideon Sundbäck, a Swedish-born electrical engineer who migrated to the US in 1905 at the age of 25.
Today would have been Sundbäck’s 124th birthday, an occasion that Google is marking with a special “Google doodle”. On its homepage the letters of the search engine’s name have been designed to look like they’re stitched and a zip divides the screen. “Pulling” on the zip with your mouse reveals a page with search results for Sundbäck’s name.
Sundbäck did not actually come up with the idea of a trouser fastener. It had been circulating for two decades, with several inventors experimenting with different designs in the late 1800s. Sundbäck, however, developed and improved on these designs, finally seeking a patent for his smaller and lighter model just days after his 33rd birthday. He called it a “separable fastener”.
It was the B.F. Goodrich Company that renamed the device “zipper”, when they decided to use Gideon’s fastener on a new type of rubber boots. The zipper was also widely used on tobacco pouches but the fashion industry was reluctant to adopt it.
In his book about the history of the zipper, Robert Friedel noted that the zip industry eventually invented a concept called “gaposis”, a supposed condition resulting from ill-fitting clothing that leave body parts exposed to the elements and to strangers’ eyes. The zipper was promoted as the solution.
In the 1930s, a sales campaign for children’s clothing featuring zippers claimed that the device could help children become more self-reliant as it made it easy for them to dress themselves. Later, in the “Battle of the Fly”, designers raving about the superiority of zippers over button flies helped make Sundbäck’s invention fashionable.
This was all to the Swede’s benefit. He was worth $13million when he died in Pennsylvania in 1954.
View Sundbäck’s original patent for the “Separable Fastener” here.
And here’s a video of Freddy Rumsen (Joel Murray) in Mad Men playing Mozart with his zipper.
Face of the day – James Murdoch tongues the Leveson Inquiry
FACE of the Day: James Murdoch arrives at the Levenson media inquiry to give evidence at the High Court in London. He shows us his tongue. He doesn’t need it. He’s related to the boss.
Posted: 24th, April 2012 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)
Claire Squires death at the London Marathon becomes a spectator sport
NO little shock at Claire Squires’ death at the London Marathon. The 30-year-old from North Kilworth, Leicestershire died on Birdcage Walk, not far from the finishing line. Her death is the tenth since the London Marathon began in 1981.
It is not yet know why she died.
Claire Squires is on the front pages of the Daily Express, Daily Mail, Guardian, Daily Telegraph and The Times.
Claire Squires was running for The Samaritans. Her mother Cilla has been involved with The Samaritans for 24 years.
So. Mrs Squires was a volunteer for the Samaritans well before her son died – Claire Squires’ older brother Grant took heroin and anti-depressants before he died aged 25 in 2001; a fact repeated in all newspapers. Yet, the Mail make the link and says Ms Squires’ run was a “legacy of love”.
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Posted: 24th, April 2012 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comment (1)
Emily Longley: the death of a blonde
WAS Emily Longley murdered?
At Winchester Crown Court, Elliot Turner is accused of killing his girlfriend in Bournemouth on May 7 2011. It’s further alleged that his parents, Leigh and Anita, lied to the police to protect him.
It’s front-page news in the Daily Mirror. Why? Anyone got an idea as to why this story is on the front page of a national paper?
Emily Longley, a Kiwi living with her grandparents in Bournemouth, was good looking and blonde. Longley studied at Brockenhurst College, Hants, worked at Topshop in Bournemouth and wanted to be a model. And did we mention that she was blonde?
As the Daily Express says:
PARENTS ‘TRIED TO HIDE SON’S MURDER OF MODEL’
This is a tabloid story about an alleged murder victim’s looks. The BBC employs tabloid tactics to get readers:
Emily Longley trial: Aspiring model, 17, ‘was strangled’
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When the manacled swimmer Jules Gautier swam the Boat Race
FLASHBACK photo of the day: It’s January 1 1909 and Jules Gautier, is the manacled swimmer.
Mr Gautier swam the University boat race course from Putney to Mortlake with hands and feet manacled and towing a boat licensed to carry eight persons. He won £100 by completing the course in 1 hour 30 minutes, 12 seconds.
The Daily Mail’s bird brained ‘elf and safety hysterics with the Carshalton Ponds firemen
WHEN the Daily Mail highlighted the madness of 25 “foremen” racing to save a bird in Carshalton Ponds, South London, we clacked our marmalade-coated tongues and knew if was ‘efl and safety gone mad.
The Daily Mail’s Eleanor Harding and Mark Duell (two tabloid writers for one bird in a pond?! – ed) thundered:
It looked like a major emergency – 25 firemen standing at the water’s edge assessing the life-threatening situation before them.Stranded 200ft out and struggling for survival was the victim they had come to rescue…a seagull.
And if that scenario were not ludicrous enough, there was worse to come.The firemen were then barred from going into the 3ft-deep water because it was judged to be a health and safety risk.
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Posted: 23rd, April 2012 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comments (6)
The Walmart of Weed does battle with regressive marijuana laws in Washington and Amsterdam
HOW did you celebrate 420 – the date when Americans stage a cannabis smoke out. Most stoners are, of course, inside watching daytime telly. Organising the stoned is akin to herding cats.
America’s attitude to weed is strange. On April 2, 2012, U.S. marshals raid Oaksterdam University in Oakland, Calif, which teaches people how to grow marijuana.
Back in March, we went to see WeGrow founder Dhar Mann pose inside the WeGrow store in northeast Washington DC – the “Walmart of Weed”.
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Posted: 23rd, April 2012 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)
Flashback to April 23 – Photos from this day in history
APRIL 23 – what happened then:
Edward M. Kennedy Jr., talks with reporters in the company of, from left, Nathan Rucker, age 11, John Sabolich and Thomas Guth during press conference Tuesday, April 23, 1985 at the office of a company that makes these artificial limbs. Kennedy and Rucker were in San Diego to be fitted with a new type of prosthetic device, designed by Sobolich in consultation with Guth. (AP Photo/Grey Vojtko)
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Ched Evans and Connor Brown give Sheffield United a problem
RAPIST Ched Evans played football for Sheffield United. Connor Brown still does. He plays in the reserves. Evans was sentenced to five years prison at Caernarfon crown court last Friday. He raped a woman who was “too drunk to consent” to sex.
Brown, 19, thought it was a good idea to go on twitter and call the rape victim a “money-grabbing little tramp”. Others thought it a good idea to name the rape victim.
Brown also labelled the judgement “a load of ****ing ***t”. He opined: “I’m with you geez.”
He added:
“If ur a slag ur a slag don’t try get money from being a slag… Stupid girls… I feel sick.”
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Japanese teen reunited with football lost in tsunami
GOOD news. Firstly, Japanese teenager Misaki Murakami has got his ball back. The football was swept out to sea on March 2011 when a tsunami hit the town of Rikuzen-takata. It’s turned up on Alaska’s Middleton Island, 70 miles from the US mainland. American David Baxter found it on the beach.
US man David Baxter on a beach in Middleton Island. He gave it to his Japanese-born wife to look at, and she translated the message – Mr Murakami had been given the ball as a memento by his old school mates; his name and the name of his school were on his ball. Says the 16-year-old:
“I’m very grateful as I’ve so far found nothing that I’d owned.”
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Why do the Arab leaders hate women?
THE Arab Spring? Not for women. Mona Altahawy is required reading:
But let’s put aside what the United States does or doesn’t do to women. Name me an Arab country, and I’ll recite a litany of abuses fueled by a toxic mix of culture and religion that few seem willing or able to disentangle lest they blaspheme or offend. When more than 90 percent of ever-married women in Egypt — including my mother and all but one of her six sisters — have had their genitals cut in the name of modesty, then surely we must all blaspheme. When Egyptian women are subjected to humiliating “virginity tests” merely for speaking out, it’s no time for silence. When an article in the Egyptian criminal code says that if a woman has been beaten by her husband “with good intentions” no punitive damages can be obtained, then to hell with political correctness. And what, pray tell, are “good intentions”
The story is headlined: “Why do they hate women?” It might be more down to fear…
Posted: 23rd, April 2012 | In: Reviews | Comments (3)
Addison Lee outs Green Party candidate with cyclists lament
THE boss of Addison Lee minicabs, one John Griffin, writes in the company’s Add Lib magazine:
“These cyclist are throwing themselves onto some of the most congested spaces in the world. They leap onto vehicle which offers no protection except a plastic padded hat.”
He says the greens and bike uses are:
“…up in arms about what they see as the murder of cyclists on London roads”.
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Posted: 23rd, April 2012 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comments (12)
Forbes writer wants climate chance deniers relocated beneath the waves
OVER on Forbes.com, Steve Zwick says people who question climate change science are like jailed drugs addicts who will one day see the error of their ways. He says the “denial machine” is very well funded. Although, so is Al Gore. The money on each side of the debate is more even than he admits.
He then makes a threat:
What’s also there is a very public record of who has been lying to the public and who hasn’t – and it’s time to start using this information to make the liars and shirkers pay. Let’s take a page from those Tennessee firemen we heard about a few times last year – the ones who stood idly by as houses burned to the ground because their owners had refused to pay a measly $75 fee.
We can apply this same logic to climate change.
We know who the active denialists are – not the people who buy the lies, mind you, but the people who create the lies. Let’s start keeping track of them now, and when the famines come, let’s make them pay. Let’s let their houses burn until the innocent are rescued. Let’s swap their safe land for submerged islands. Let’s force them to bear the cost of rising food prices.
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The First Nylon Fair at The Albert Hall in 1956 – video
FLASHBACK Fashion : it’s The First Nylon Fair at The Albert Hall in 1956. British Pathe’s man on the scene tells it like it is:
“Two rows of sedately dressed ladies are watching the show”.
Oh, for the halcyon days when “bloomers and “housecoats” were go-ahead fashions…
