January 2009
Lauren Luke: the makeup amateur turned YouTube... →
“It is entirely possible,” says the YouTube spokesman Ollie Rickman, “that she is the most viewed makeup artist in the world. It’s pretty incredible that someone could achieve that from their own bedroom.”
Apostrophes abolished by council | Telegraph →
‘Apostrophes in street signs have been banned by a council because its staff spend too much time dealing with complaints about grammar.’
"Did you know ... children deemed predeliquent are... →
‘Close surveillance of families will, it is claimed, allow early identification and intervention to nip problems in the bud. But as all research shows, human development is complex, and children from similar backgrounds can have radically varied outcomes. While we can predict that a greater than average number of children from a certain group will become delinquent, we cannot identify the...
"Companies are increasingly turning to the Human... →
‘Hedge funds for example, which are “legal persons” in the sense that as incorporated companies they have a legal personality, are apparently amongst the growing number of corporate victims of human rights violations. Last week two hedge funds – RAB Special Situations and SRM Global Master Fund – claimed that the nationalisation of Northern Rock amounted to a violation of their...
Cello scrotum revealed as medical hoax | Telegraph →
Karaoke rage | Slate Magazine →
‘In August 2007, a Seattle man was assaulted onstage during a karaoke rendition of Coldplay’s “Yellow,” while last December, a San Diego man encored his karaoke set by walking toward the crowd and attacking an audience member. And in Asia, there’s been a string of karaoke-bar stabbings and shootings, including a horrific incident in Bangkok in which eight amateur...
Absent parents may lose passports | BBC News →
‘Absent parents who do not pay child support could have their passports and driving licences seized without having to be taken to court.’
Disagree with a flight attendant? You're a... →
RAF 'ordered to shoot down UFOs' | Telegraph →
‘The RAF has tried to shoot down suspected UFOs as part of a Government directive, it has been claimed.’
(“suspected UFO”? Is that when they suspect that it’s unidentified but they’re not sure?)
Goat detained over armed robbery | Reuters →
’ “The group of vigilante men came to report that while they were on patrol they saw some hoodlums attempting to rob a car. They pursued them. However one of them escaped while the other turned into a goat,” Kwara state police spokesman Tunde Mohammed told Reuters by telephone.’
It’s not as silly as it sounds. The other day I turned into a supermarket.
(Sorry.)
Counter Terrorism Act 2008 - "attempting to elicit... →
Spyblog isn’t shy of being one-sided on this issue, but I have heard this discussed elsewhere.
‘The War on Photographers , and Military Historians and Biographers etc. intensifies, by making it a serious terrorist crime to “attempt to elicit” information e.g. name, address, photograph etc.,about a current or former member of the Police, Armed Forces or Intelligence...
"Did you know … live music events could pose a... →
‘In a recently introduced piece of bureaucracy, the Metropolitan police have started requiring live event producers across London to fill in the innocuous sounding “Form 696”.
Here’s the catch: it requires four pages of information from event organisers 14 days before it takes place. If you need to make last-minute changes – tough luck, the event can’t go ahead. The...
Datebase State: "Direct threat not a theory" |... →
‘The Ministry of Justice has launched an extraordinary coup. It is about to convert the Data Protection Act into its exact opposite, a means for any government department to obtain and use any information however it likes.
Hidden in the new Coroners and Justice Bill is one clause (cl.152) amending the Data Protection Act. It would allow ministers to make ‘Information Sharing...
Nurses told to walk in pairs 'to protect them from... →
Not entirely sure who is kidding who here:
“There were two of them, but they don’t seem to hunt in gangs. We’ve had no other reports of squirrels - probably in hooded jackets - attacking staff.”
Experts say Obama should retake the oath | SFGate →
‘A do-over “would take him 30 seconds, he can do it in private, it’s not a big deal, and he ought to do it just to be safe,” said Boston University constitutional scholar and Supreme Court watcher Jack Beermann. “It’s an open question whether he’s president until he takes the proper oath.” ‘
(Via The Morning News.)
Police arrest stripper 22 times for impersonating... →
Cold War in paradise | BBC News →
’ “We saw a bright, brilliant light,” he recalls. “It was as if someone had switched a firebar on in your head. It grew brighter and you could see the bones in your hands, like pink X-rays, in front of your closed eyes.”
Seconds later, they were ordered to stand and turn towards the blast.’
Indian artist has brush with his fakes | Reuters →
‘Acclaimed Indian artist SH Raza inaugurated a show of his paintings in New Delhi at the weekend — only to find most of the exhibits were fakes, the Mail Today paper said.’
British kill entire elephant herd | Times Online →
‘The British hunters, who used specialist rifles to kill the elephants, said shooting was the most humane method of killing, although sometimes more than one shot was necessary to dispatch an animal.
Elephant welfare campaigners were horrified. Will Travers of the Born Free Foundation said: “These days it takes something pretty extraordinary to shock and distress as far as Zimbabwe is...
“It’s funny. We went to war never...
"The nuclear options" | Comment is free →
‘Nothing debauches the concept of money quite as much as watching it being thrown around like confetti by your bank manager. Anyone who claims to have kept up with the blizzard of blank cheques written on our behalf is missing the point: no one knows how much it will cost to prop up the British banking industry because no one knows whether it is worth anything at all. Yesterday’s...
Child Porn Laws Used Against Kids Who Photograph... →
I’ve posted on this subject before, but this is new:
‘Rasch points out that people who take or share nude self-portraits when they’re minors could be prosecuted as adults and face harsher penalties if they’re still in possession of the images when they reach the age of 18.’
Is he really saying that in the US its illegal to have a picture of yourself as a child,...
Govt uses Obscenity Law to stuff up cartoon sex... →
‘We may have laughed when an Australian was convicted and fined for making indecent pictures of the Simpsons, but the same could soon be happening here.’
Grandfather becomes grandmother after Britain's... →
‘I had been married for over 40 years, but once my children had grown up and moved out I felt that it was finally my time to start the life I always wanted.” ‘
Why we can never recover from first love | The... →
‘Brynin found that the euphoria of first love can damage future relationships. “Remarkably, it seems that the secret to long-term happiness in a relationship is to skip a first relationship,” said Brynin. “In an ideal world, you would wake up already in your second relationship.” ‘
(Er, how?)
Spain's barefoot nuns put faith in YouTube to find... →
‘For the 11 remaining “Barefoot Carmelite” nuns at the San Jose convent in Ecija, near the southern Spanish city of Seville, the future looked grim.
No young novices had joined the convent for three years and, as is happening in convents all over Spain, their numbers were dwindling so fast as the elder ones died that it looked as though it may have to close after almost 400...
MP brands dyslexia a 'fiction' | BBC News →
‘“The education establishment, rather than admit that their eclectic and incomplete methods for instruction are at fault, have invented a brain disorder called dyslexia,” said the MP.’
‘“Mr Stringer assumes that literacy will solve the issue of dyslexia, however although many dyslexics have acquired the skills of reading, there is no doubt that they still...
New runway will demolish village | BBC News →
‘Sipson sits on land destined for the runway and its 700 homes and school will effectively be wiped from the map.’
Hetul makes history after upsetting Kazakh GM |... →
‘Nine-year old Hetul Shah made history in the first round of the 7th Parsvnath International Open chess tournament defeating Grandmaster Nurlan Ibrayev of Kazakhstan, in New Delhi on Sunday.’
(Via The New Shelton Wet/Dry.)
Government email plans are threat to press... →
‘“The database itself will have a chilling effect. If you’re a journalist you’re going to have to go through some extraordinary measures if you believe the police are going to be interested in who you’re talking to,” explains Banisar.
“For example, in other countries, journalists have to leave cell phones at home when they go to meet sources, they have...
Barack Obama's Guantánamo challenge: a boy... →
‘Barack Obama has seven days after he enters the White House before the looming war crimes trial of a former child soldier will force the new president to demonstrate his resolve to swiftly shut the Guantánamo Bay detention camp.’
‘The Canadian was 15 when he was held in Afghanistan six years ago. Footage of Khadr weeping under interrogation and calling for his mother caused a...
Bush administration: 'We tortured Qahtani' | The... →
‘US lawyers battling against torture and other abuses at Guantánamo Bay are braced for George Bush issuing last-minute pardons to protect those in his administration most closely implicated.
The lawyers’ warning came after a senior member of the Bush administration, Susan Crawford, admitted for the first time that torture had been carried out. Until now, the Bush administration, in...
Student offered live tiger in exchange for her... →
‘Natalie Dylan, 22, claims her offer of a one-night stand has persuaded 10,000 men to bid up to £2.5million ($3.7m) to have sex with her.’
Police seek new rights for searching rail... →
‘Passengers who buy a London train or tube ticket would automatically be giving their consent to be searched, under proposals now under consideration.’
Thousands apply to co-own land that would block... →
‘In one of the southern England’s greatest modern property rushes, more than 5,000 people signed up today to become joint owners of an acre of farmland on the line of the proposed third runway at Heathrow airport.’
Robbery trial collapses after judge finds victim... →
‘Judge Tabor said: “Denise Dawson was a particularly impressive witness because she showed courage, clarity of thought and was undoubtedly honest.
”The jury may lend more weight to her evidence than her facts allow. You cannot be sure she got it right … had this been the Archbishop of Canterbury’s son, would I have allowed (the trial) to go on? The answer is no.” ‘
Daily Mail...
The Nuclear Vault: The Nulcear Emergency Search... →
‘The U.S. government’s secret nuclear bomb squad evaluated more than 100 nuclear extortion threats and incidents between 1974 and 1996 but only a dozen required actual deployments (the others were hoaxes)…’
(Via thedaytheytriedtokillme.)
Rent-a-friend in Japan | BBC News →
‘Lola is a Persian cat who works at the Ja La La Cafe in Tokyo’s bustling Akihabara district. It is one of a growing number of Cat Cafes in the city which provide visitors with short but intimate encounters with professional pets.’
Forget Google rationing: Only lighting farts can... →
‘Yes - every three days of your life your guts are needlessly burdening the Earth with greenhouse gas destruction equivalent to doing a Google search, according to Wissner-Gross’ own figures.
It’s hard to say just how many Google searches the average person does, but many of us surely manage to keep the number down to where our farting is on a par - in terms of eco-damage -...
Hacking the home | open Democracy →
‘Since 4th January we’ve known it: the UK police will soon be able to hack into people’s personal computers without a search warrant, in line with “EU initiatives against cybercrime”.’