Amusing News Articles

[PonderThis]

So apparently birthday cake is Serious Business.

Under no circumstances should that man ever be allowed to play Portal.

[Binkatron5000]

That costume-waving-dad was SO AWESOME!!!

So apparently birthday cake is Serious Business.

Under no circumstances should that man ever be allowed to play Portal.

Ahahaha yes

[MysticalDescent]

Council unprepared for Zombies

[Skimba]

Zombie invasion is no laughing matter. A hungrnomnomnom matter, yes, but NO LAUGHING.

[badplantmommy]

They laugh now, but they won't be laughing when it happens, will they?

[MysticalDescent]

I like that it's on the BBC, making it seem like it's serious business.

[PonderThis]

Your future robot overlords will be cute. This is sure to affect how I draw robots in the future.

[sum yun gai]

the bbc changed the title of the article, but it used to say "Rebecca Brooks held in UK hacking probe". ah, if only the other meaning were true....

[James]

To deviate from the amusingness angle for a moment, that whole story is so crazy. I mean, it's something that actually evoked a genuine human reaction in me, and dramatic developments have happened pretty much out of nowhere on several occasions, and generally they've been in what I consider to be a pretty positive direction. It's blowing my cynical mind: something bad apparently getting better at something faster than glacial pace. I'm kind of waiting for the catch. I'm guessing it's going to be that all the other tabloids still have the same disgusting attitude as before.

[chrismachine]

Which bbc article here, the only one I found above was the zombie one, so either I missed a link to the one syg referred to if it's different (I assume it is) or James has emotional ties to zombies.

Edit: ok, I googled the article title Syg gave and read the one in question, but it didn't really summarize the facts very well and I didn't find a decent antecedent article. Any help? I got the bit about a dead girl's cell being tampered with and things having happened in january, but not much else. Was she trying to jack incoming calls or something for media exploitation?

[MysticalDescent]

To deviate from the amusingness angle for a moment, that whole story is so crazy. I mean, it's something that actually evoked a genuine human reaction in me, and dramatic developments have happened pretty much out of nowhere on several occasions, and generally they've been in what I consider to be a pretty positive direction. It's blowing my cynical mind: something bad apparently getting better at something faster than glacial pace. I'm kind of waiting for the catch. I'm guessing it's going to be that all the other tabloids still have the same disgusting attitude as before.

Or that Brooks (who Private Eye have painted as an unpleasant and underhand person over the years, if that's anything to go by) gets treated as a scape goat and takes the full brunt of the backlash, with nobody else suffering any real penalty. There's also that the Chief of the Metropolitan Police has been implicated and has therefore resigned, but in doing so has ensured that he gets to keep his pension, at a time when public sector workers are being told that they're selfish for not wanting to lose their pension.

Also, I think I read somewhere that the News of the World weren't actually the worst newspaper for phone hacking etc, so it's fairly amusing to look through all the front pages of the newspapers and guessing which ones are among the offenders. The Express, for example, ran with their typical nonsense middle class panic story, rather than anything to do with the hacking.

[sum yun gai]

Any help?

the bbc has a FAQ for the quick details. it's actually quite the scandal, and i'm surprised at how far it reaches into such high ranking people as the two top cops at scotland yard, and possibly david cameron's former communications director (who was editor of the paper in question during the hacking but may or may not still be brought up on charges). it's also quite possible that rupert murdoch's name will forever be tainted by this, which is always a good thing imho.

[chrismachine]

Wow, that is indeed fairly involving...

[James]

And then a former News of the World whistle-blower turned up dead. It's important to emphasise that it wasn't deemed suspicious (as confirmed by the post-mortem), but it amazes me that this story is still generating drama like some sort of news volcano. I reckon this would make a great film. The main risk would be everyone coming across as terrifying evil psychopaths, rather than the much more banal amoral psychopaths that they actually are. Case in point: Paul McMullen. The guy's an amazing bastard.

EDIT: In searching for that clip, I found another which I hadn't encountered before, in which McMullen talks about how his work contributed to a woman's suicide. While he's obviously and understandably remorseful for the part he played in this tragedy, he still doesn't seem to be joining the dots: he says "in some cases criminal acts perpetrated by journalists aren't always justified". No poopcakes. Apparently this is some amazing revelation: that journalists aren't a chosen people above the earthly domain of petty human law; that their actions do have consequences and that these consequences must be answered for. It's an example of a kind of hyper-insular thinking some people in particular groups develop, where their profession or field of expertise or interest is the only thing in the world that matters, and that all ethical and moral questions can be answered in terms of that thing; where they can't see out of their self-absorbed world-view to another world-view where their actions are disgusting and insane. In the past I've mainly run up against it in people arguing morality from economics, but this is just as ridiculous. I mean, I get that freedom of the press is incredibly important, but that's freedom of the press to protect us from conspiracy and corruption, not indulge the industrial-scale voyeurism that they themselves have been fostering. Sure, people are naturally nosy, but if the tabloids didn't exist, I don't think anyone would be up in arms about not knowing details of the phone messages of the dead and bereaved. To pretend that it's about anything more noble than money is outrageously disingenuous.

AMUSING NEWS ARTICLES.

[PonderThis]

D'AWWWWWW.

[MysticalDescent]

D'AWWWWWW.

Swap all four legs for chunky tyres and fit some sort of jet on the back and you have an unstoppable rollerskating megatortoise.

[badplantmommy]

Awww, the (partially) bionic tortoise!

[MysticalDescent]

Oh look, it's the Nazca Lines of New Zealand.

[Skimba]

hahahaha...I saw that pic on the cheezeburger network somewhere. I clicked on your link because your description was funny. I also clicked on the satellite link and found all 6.

[PonderThis]

While I wouldn't call it funny, I did find this item about how this little noodle place in Beijing has become famous just because (US VP) Biden stopped by and had their noodles to be amusing.

[jvcc]

Naturally.

[Judas Maccabeus]

Meh. That sort of thing happens all the time.

[PonderThis]

Meh. That sort of thing happens all the time.

So that's why you always go out on Saturday night dressed in that Snicker's Bar suit!

[Zombie Protestor]

EU bans claim that water can prevent dehydration

The European Union has told bottled water manufacturers in Europe that they cannot advertise on their product that it prevents dehydration because there is "no evidence to prove" this claim. Manufacturers in the UK will be the first to have to comply.

[ntw3001]

Why did they include a poll?

I don't know how they came to this conclusion. Unless the theory is that bottled water doesn't prevent dehydration by itself, and must be correctly applied to obtain the benefit.

Wait, were the bottled water people actually using this claim to advertise in the first place? Is there some sweeping trend amongst advertisers to indicate that food items are intended to be eaten?