Best Tabloid Headline Ever?
I have to congratulate Gavon Laessig at Buzzfeed for bringing this to the world’s attention. Really quite extraordinary what the headline writers at the British tabloids are capable of!
Get ready to feel guilty after you stop laughing. Percy Foster was a 3-foot-6-inch dwarf who starred in the UK porno “Hi-Ho Hi-Ho, It’s Up Your Arse We Go.”
He bore an uncanny resemblance to celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay. Welsh agriculture officials discovered Foster’s body in an underground chamber, leading to this grisly headline from British tabloid The Sunday Sport.
Quite possibly a new low in print journalism…
Stop Atos From Censoring the Web!
Call for solidarity from the UK! Poverty pimps and well known corporate slime Atos Origin have taken their harassment of disabled people one step further by using flaky legal threats to censor and close down websites in the UK which have been critical of them. At least three websites have now been hit by legal threats attempting to censor online criticism of the company.
The Carer Watch forum, which is an online meeting place for hundreds of disabled people and carers has been taken offline by the hosting company after legal threats made by Atos Origin regarding unspecified comments made on the forum. Atos Origin’s involvement in the condemn Government’s notorious health and disability testing has made them a target of fury amongst many disabled people, which has led to a fierce campaigning against them both on and offline. Atos are fighting back with the CarerWatch forum being only the latest website hit…
The Future Of Capitalism
Noreena Hertz’s ideas for the future of capitalism set off against British conservative journalist Danny Finkelstein:
Ancient Greeks Help Explain The Rioting Of Modern Britons
Dr. Mark A. Wolfgram writes a fascinating letter to the Financial Times:
Sir, The August 17 commentaries by Richard Florida (“The inchoate rage beneath our global cities”) and John Kay (“Why the rioters should be reading Rousseau”), as well as the excellent Financial Times series on “The Squeezed Middle”, are all making important observations about a similar social, economic and political factor — inequality. Inequality is a fact of human societies built on hierarchies. We come to accommodate ourselves to different levels of inequality, as long as we feel that our society, overall, is at some level just.
In a recent academic work, “A Cultural Theory of International Relations”, Richard Ned Lebow goes back to ancient Greek thought on human motivations and argues that we need to reintegrate their notion of spirit into our understanding of human behaviour. The Greeks argued that humans are motivated by both appetite (the pursuit of material…
Britain Is Only ‘Four Meals Away From Anarchy’
[Site notice: Re-posting this now (originally posted 7/19/2011) due to a timely observation (of an older post) from Disinfo.com commenter SuddenlySpam.] A blast from the past for all you newshounds. Enjoy via the Times:
Modern civilisation may not be quite as safe as we thought. Britain’s security services have been privately warning their staff that western societies are just 48 hours from anarchy. MI5’s maxim is that society is “four meals away from anarchy”. In other words, the security agency believes that Britain could be quickly reduced to large-scale disorder, including looting and rioting in the event of a catastrophe that stops the supply of food.
The maxim will provoke debate over whether MI5 is over-egging the threat, partly to justify its rapidly growing budget. It also opens a wider question as to whether civilised societies could so quickly revert to primitive behaviour. MI5 — whose motto is “regnum defende”, defend the…
The Twitter Stripper Photo From UK Riots
This photo has been making waves since it was uploaded to Twitter, supposedly depicting a man stripping off his clothes under the threat of violence from the man at right during the recent civil disturbances in Britain (this scene reportedly from Birmingham).
Is it what it seems or is it intentionally misleading in a clumsy attempt to spark race-related violence?
London’s Burning
Click through to this breaking story from the Daily Mail for some scenes reminiscent of the ’70s and ’80s that inspired the Clash to write their classic London’s Burning:
Police came under attack from petrol bombs hurled by rioting mobs in North London last night as hundreds took to the streets following the shooting of a man by Scotland Yard marksmen.
Patrol cars, a shop and a double-decker bus were set ablaze and there were reports of looting amid scenes reminiscent of the violent unrest in the same area 26 years ago when PC Keith Blakelock was hacked to death.
Last night the Tottenham area erupted once again as more than 100 officers and specialist riot police faced crowds of more than 500 people protesting about the death of Mark Duggan, who lived on the estate and was described last week by police sources as a ‘gangster’.
There was concern that the disturbances were fanned…
The Rupert Murdoch Pie Video
The most exciting moment during the Murdochs’ parliamentary testimony in the never-ending British phone hacking saga was undoubtedly the foam pie attempt on Rupert, foiled only by the kung fu strike on would-be pieman Jonathan May-Bowles by Murdoch’s wife, Wendi. Respect to the tiger mother!
‘News of the World’ Phone-Hacking Whistleblower Found Dead
Not thought to be suspicious but is unexplained. Hell of a dark omen with Rupert Murdoch due to appear before Parliament tomorrow. Amelia Hill, James Robinson, Caroline Davies report in the Guardian:
Sean Hoare, the former News of the World showbiz reporter who was the first named journalist to allege Andy Coulson was aware of phone hacking by his staff, has been found dead, the Guardian has learned.
Hoare, who worked on the Sun and the News of the World with Coulson before being dismissed for drink and drugs problems, is said to have been found dead at his Watford home.
Hertfordshire police would not confirm his identity, but the force said in a statement: “At 10.40am today [Monday 18 July] police were called to Langley Road, Watford, following the concerns for the welfare of a man who lives at an address on the street. Upon police and ambulance arrival at a property, the body of…
This Vehicle Registration Plate Surveillance System Is a Warning to Us All
No CCTV has teamed up with Privacy International and Big Brother Watch to challenge the legality of the Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) [also known as ALPR in North America] camera network in the UK. A complaint has been sent to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) against a so-called ANPR “Ring of Steel” that is being constructed around the town of Royston in Hertfordshire — but for Royston read any town in the UK.
Background
The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) has constructed a network of cameras across the country without any public or parliamentary debate. These cameras record the number plate of each and every vehicle that passes, sometimes taking a photograph of the car and its occupants. The number plate is then compared to a “hotlist” of vehicles of interest, and whether or not the plate is on that list (ie a “hit”), all information gathered is stored for between two and…
42% of Britons Will Get Cancer, Statistics Show
There’s something wrong with our civilization when you have a better (worse?) than 40% chance of getting cancer in your lifetime. Denis Campbell writes in Guardian:
It was one of the starkest statistics about the nation’s health — that one in three of us would get cancer. Sadly, the figures have just got worse. Cancer experts now believe 42% of Britons will get the disease.
Macmillan Cancer Support has revised the figure after its researchers analysed official data covering diagnosis of cancer, death from the disease and overall mortality. Of the 585,000 people who died in the UK in 2008, 246,000 of them — 42% — had been diagnosed with cancer at some point.
The one in three figure has been used by cancer experts, campaigners and ministers for a decade. It is based on the fact that research into every death in the UK in 1999 showed that 220,000 people — some 35% of the 630,000 total deaths — had previously been found to have the disease.
Back to the Future: UK CCTV Debate Stuck in Time Loop
Imagine if you had a time machine and you could travel back to the UK in the 1990s. Back then there was a banking crisis [1], a Conservative government and CCTV cameras were being put up all over the UK. So what’s changed over the last 20 years?
With regards to political debate and public awareness of the issues surrounding surveillance cameras it seems very little. Come with us now on a journey of discovery as we leap backwards and forwards in time to present the Then and the Now of CCTV in the UK.
A Code of Practice for CCTV: NOW
One of the “new” ideas touted by the government in 2011 is a Code of Practice for surveillance cameras. On 27th June a Written Answer from the Home Office was published in response to a question about the government’s policy on CCTV [2]:
Julie Hilling: To ask the Secretary of State for…
BO Turns on the Charm: U.S. President Leaves Ireland Early for An Audience with British Monarch
Guess Crown counts for more than kin with some people. From Anissa Hadaddi at the International Business Times:
A dense cloud of ash from an Icelandic volcano was being blown toward Scotland yesterday. While airlines started to cancel their flights, U.S. President Barack Obama was forced to cut short his visit to Ireland as fears of disruptions similar to those engendered by the Icelandic Eyjafjallajökull eruption in April 2010 mounted.
The Freedom Committee, CCTV / ANPR and the Manufacture of Consent
Minister demonstrates high trouser look to Coaker.
The UK is generally acknowledged to be the world leader in camera surveillance. People from around the world often ask how this has come about. Currently making its way through the UK parliament is a piece of legislation called The Protection of Freedoms Bill – sounds good until you read it, not least when it comes to its take on CCTV. The Committee tasked to oversee and scrutinise the Bill demonstrates how an uninformed public can be hoodwinked into accepting the ever expanding surveillance state around them.
On Tuesday 26th April the Protection of Freedoms Bill continued its passage through the House of Commons when a committee of MPs discussed the surveillance cameras portion of the Bill [1]. Back in March No CCTV created a list of dodgy phrases to look out for at the 2nd Reading of the Bill, which could be used to…
Off With Their Heads!
Our ancestors once cowered before royalty they believed were divinity made corporeal. These days, the notion of the monarchy is so outdated that supporters are reduced to citing tourist revenue in defense of a barbaric relic.
Other rationales — the divine right of kings, a repository of tradition, moral paragons, manifestation of the state, a (barely) living national symbol — have long been eroded by the tides of the history. So the last excuse for hereditary rule is that of the bean counters’ ledger: the cost-benefit analysis.
Kate and William’s royal nuptials will reportedly generate more than $1 billion in economic activity, supposedly a boon for commoners who each proffer but a few pence for the $60 million annual subsidy to the fusty Queen and her adulterous horse-faced brood. (Never mind that this sum excludes the costs of security, policing and vast estates and manors off-limits to the Exchequer; though at least a few…
Jerry Seinfeld on Royal Wedding: ‘Let’s Pretend These Are Special People’ (Video)
Here could have said whatever he felt like, so I’m glad he called it like it is:
The Ethics Of Unleashing Killer Robots
The UK Ministry of Defense experiences a moment of self-reflection that one can’t imagine happening at, say, the Pentagon. Richard Norton-Taylor and Rob Evans report for the Guardian:
The growing use of unmanned aircraft in combat situations raises huge moral and legal issues, and threatens to make war more likely as armed robots take over from human beings, according to an internal study by the Ministry of Defence.
The report warns of the dangers of an “incremental and involuntary journey towards a Terminator-like reality”, referring to James Cameron’s 1984 movie, in which humans are hunted by robotic killing machines. It says the pace of technological development is accelerating at such a rate that Britain must quickly establish a policy on what will constitute “acceptable machine behaviour”.
“It is essential that before unmanned systems become ubiquitous (if it is not already too late) … we ensure that, by removing some of the horror, or…
Stephen Fry Pledges to Go To Prison Over ‘Twitter Joke’ Trial
Via BBC News:
Comedian Stephen Fry has said he is “prepared to go to prison” over the “Twitter joke” trial.
Fry was at a benefit gig for a man who is appealing against his conviction for sending a menacing communication. Paul Chambers had tweeted: “Crap! Robin Hood Airport is closed. You’ve got a week… otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!”
Fry argued that Chambers’ tweet was an example of Britain’s tradition of self-deprecating humour and banter.
Chambers’ case has become a cause celebre on Twitter, with hundreds of people reposting his original comments in protest at the conviction.
“This [verdict] must not be allowed to stand in law,” Fry said, adding that he would continue to repeat Chambers’ message and face prison “if that’s what it takes”.
Anarchist Groups Planning Major Disruptions To Royal Wedding
He says they are putting together a “shock and awe” campaign. “It will involve a lot of fireworks, it will involve a lot of people dressed in black, it will involve a lot of very, very loud music to try and hack all the mainstream media broadcasts of that day.” CNN reports:
London, England (CNN) — “God Save the Queen … the fascist regime,” sang The Sex Pistols to mark Queen Elizabeth’s Silver Jubilee in 1977. Now, Britain’s anarchists are targeting the royals again.
According to one leading anarchist protester, plans are being drawn up for a demonstration using “shock and awe” tactics to disrupt Prince William’s marriage to Kate Middleton on April 29.
Charlie Veitch, a former City banker who was made redundant during the financial crisis, heads a group of colorful protesters called the “Love Police Academy.” He says that anarchists will put on a “disruption spectacular.”
“As an anarchist, philosophical and political…
What’s Your Hobby? Knitted Breasts Created By 91-Year-Old
Via Newslite:
You might expect your granny to knit you a woolly jumper, but one pensioner has been defying expectations by using her needles to craft amazing knitted breasts.
Coral Charles-Dunne, 91, from Birmingham, has knitted dozens of the unusual educational tools as part of a project to inform expectant and new mums about breastfeeding.
She says spends about two hours creating each of the woolly boobs and makes them in a range of sizes, knitting for up to six hours per day.
The knitted breasts are then used by expectant moms to learn techniques for breast feeding … their partners probably use them to create an unusual game of football.
