Irish Women on 'Ginger' Jokes

And then most of the news-stories seem too obvious, too old, too boring, too depressing, too Trump-centric even in the case of one country's politics, for anything other than a link-dump. Wait, women-only train-carriages ?  Is Corbyn advocating Sharia ?! Scandal ! Scandal !  Scandal !

Always cartoons, and Bell's latest is a beaut., if only for what he did to Harman, but I just ran Bell, and I have to have some kind of standards.  And for some of the other dailies...

But I do feel I should post something more than a half-century-old song, so*...

I do feel like the specific sport of Ginger-baiting is more a phenomenon of the British Isles than elsewhere, but no doubt some degree of discrimination is present in any country where redheads are a minority (ie, er...well, practically everywhere).  I'll never understand it.


* If only out of laziness in continuing to avoid a couple of other subjects on which I meant to write.

The Awesomest Thing Ever

This new picture of the International Space Station against the Moon is the awesomest thing ever, right ?

Wait, that's actually from 2010.  Oh, right, here we go...

No, sorry, that's from 2014.  How about...

Nope, 2011.  How about...

Nope, 2009.  Maybe...

2014 again.  Surely, the next one...

Yer fuckin with us now arsehole...  Okay, okay...for realsies:

Seriously, not to be an asshole about it.  Just that I see this kinda shit in the news* all the time, think, hang on a minute, are you sure no-one has never shot that before, and...

The picture is awesomely cool...even if it's not the first.


* Not sure if that was one of the sites I was thinking of, because a certain mobile browser lost all my tabs...again.

Clickbait

Indeed.

Doesn't help that just about every major news-site, up to, and even including the BBC, seem to be adopting the format of all content replaced by a series of squares or rectangles wherein an image is overlaid or captioned with a line or two of text, in a manner that just so happens to be almost indistinguishable from their 'promoted' content, be it from Taboola, Outbrain, their own in-house system, or the devil himself.

Our brave new online world has much to recommend it at times.  But more often than not, it just sucks.



And then the effect bleeds into the offline world as well, what with all those full-page ads. in magazines that just so happen to look like news-stories, till you start to smell bullshit, look down, and notice: 'Sponsored Content' in microscopic font.

Never mind the effect on commercial television, which seems to think that having a bunch of himbos & bimbos standing around a laptop watching cat-videos constitutes 'news'. 

Fuckin' Internet...

So We're Publishing Placeholders Now ?

This is an actual 'story' published by actual 'Fox News'.  Just look at the headline, and then read the content -- no wait, you can't.  Because there isn't any.  Jeb set to announce his run, Hillary said something over the weekend, then some random shit going on in the world.  And that's it.  Pure meaningless content-less click-bait:

Hillary Clinton versus Jeb Bush

By Clint HendersonPublished June 15, 2015 FoxNews.com

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks to supporters during a rally, Sunday, June 14, 2015, in Des Moines, Iowa. Seeking an army of volunteers, Clinton is trying to build an organizational edge in Iowa as some of her lesser-known Democratic rivals clamor for attention in the state that tripped up her first presidential campaign. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Jeb Bush set to announce he’s running for President today.

1500EDT -- Fmr FL Gov Jeb Bush announces his decision to run for President. Miami-Dade College - Kendall Campus, Miami, FL. LIVE

Hillary Clinton held her largest rally of her campaign for the Democratic nomination so far on Saturday on Roosevelt Island. Clinton making income inequality a huge part of her campaign. Clinton saying, “These Republicans trip over themselves by promising lower taxes for the wealthy and fewer rules for the biggest corporations without any regard on how that will make income inequality worse.”  She also said “I’m not running for some Americans, but for all Americans.”

Hillary also weighed in for the first time later that day on the big trade deal that failed in the House on Friday. She says Democrats’ concerns should be addressed, but didn’t say she’s support a final deal. Today she’s holding events in New Hampshire. Ed Henry reporting.

1000EDT -- Hillary Clinton participates in a forum with Granite Staters on early childhood education. Rochester, NH. POOL LIVE via LiveU

1115EDT approx -- Hillary Clinton hosts a launch party. Carter Hill Orchard, Concord, NH. LIVE

A woman accused of helping two escaped murderers will be in court today. She’s charged with supplying the men with tools to help them escape from the upstate New York jail. They’ve now been on the run for 10 days. Molly Line and Peter Doocy reporting.

Garrett Tenney reporting on the growing outbreak of Bird Flu devastating the Midwest.
Severe weather expected today across much of the country including thunderstorms, flash floods and more.

There were two horrific shark attacks in North Carolina. Two attacks on teenage swimmers within 90 minutes of each other on Oak Island. Both teens losing limbs. We’ll talk to a shark expert.

The U.S. military conducted airstrikes in Libya and may have killed an Al Qaeda leader who was behind an attack on a gas plant in Algeria that left 35 dead. Four members of a Libyan terror group linked to the Benghazi attacks may also have been killed.

The New York Times reporting the United States is sending major military equipment into several Eastern European countries considered under threat from an increasingly aggressive Russia. A Russia military leader today says it’s the most serious military escalation since the Cold War. The U.S. will sent heavy equipment to Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, Romania and Bulgaria.. and maybe Hungary.

Greece stocks continue to plunge.. down another 6% today on fears no deal on a bailout is imminent, and Greece could default. Amy Kellogg reporting. 

That's the whole thing minus the 'Sponsored Stories' & 'More from Fox News' crap.  Every time I think the news-media can't fall any further, they keep proving me wrong.  Even the Beeb's main news-page is turned to wall-to-wall clickbait-y garbage these days.  And they don't even need advertising.  They literally get to tax an entire population of sixty-four million or so on the basis of owning a television-set, and then pretty much use the money as they see fit.

Just what are we supposed to do with this garbage ?  You said Hillary Clinton versus Jeb Bush...So, are you going to compare their platforms, compare their respective campaigns, look at strengths and weaknesses, consider their history, including potential political baggage ?  You could even go with the obvious question of whether Americans want to create new presidential dynasties in the Bushes & the Clintons.  But, no.  Nothing.

I just clicked refresh...again...because there has to be more than this.  There Just Has To Be.

I'd almost settle for a meaningless cartoon.  In fact, to the Googlez, and...

There.  Cartoonist Blzeeez or whatever his name is just provided more insight into the election than fucking Fox News.  See it's all hip and relevant and shit because there's this teevee-show called Game of.....


Update:

Going on a week now, since Jeb!'s announcement, and still...nothing...Just vacuous meaningless shite.  Delete this garbage already, Fox !

Clickbait

I do love me some original clickbait...

These are the 10 most creative first names in Britain

Do tell !  Do tell !

The Daily Mail Doing What It Does Best

Evidently no-one's off limits to the DM.  Not that I wouldn't have guessed that, but it's still rather sad.

Super glam SamCam, the bikini babe - but how DID she get beach body ready? As PM courts European leaders she 'chillaxes' in Ibiza

She has spent the past few months travelling the country, sharing her husband’s punishing Election schedule.So there’s one question everyone is asking: just how did Samantha Cameron find the time to get this beach-ready?The 44-year-old showed off her slim, toned figure as she spent a few days unwinding on the Spanish party island of Ibiza. 

Is that what they're asking ?  I'd have gone for how is this appropriate or how is this newsworthy ?  I'm guessing that what the woman who happens to be married to the British Prime Minister was doing was not showing off her figure so much as just spending some time at the beach with her children.  And perhaps hoping for the modicum of privacy any family would wish to have.

But carry on with the breathless speculation about her fashion-choices and obsession over her fitness-regime, adorned with not one paparazzo-shot but four, along with a bonus pic. from 2011 so you can talk about her post-pregnancy figure.  Not at all creepy.  Sigh.

The photos are sure to make husband David a little wistful – far from being able ‘chillax’ himself, the Prime Minister is on a whistlestop tour of Europe in his efforts to reform the EU.

Fuck that guy.  But maybe leave his family alone ?

No en mi patio trasero

Well, it would be...

...irresponsible...

...not to speculate.

So many layers of stupid here, I'm not going to even bother.  Not.  Gonna.  Happen.  But it did give me an excuse to play with a blast simulator, so thanks Express !

Posted without Comment

Belle and Sebastian: Legal Man

Apropos of nothing, seems it is just going on a month now since the BBC News site's redesign.  And...still ugly, still way too much whitespace, and still even more click-bait than previously (and the previous amount was shameful for a national broadcaster funded by the licence-fee).  Fuck it, I'd rather read the tabloids at this point.

Update: Hadn't even noticed that was Gareth Thomas in this video.  That's a unexpected cameo.

Nuclear Freakin' Planes

Wow, that's one hell of a headline, huh ?  Nuclear-powered planes !   No possible problems with that idea.  I wonder why no-one else in the entire newsmedia is reporting on this amazing story.

Imagine flying from London to Sydney without having to stop over to change planes or refuel.

This is the dream of scientists looking to shape the next generation of air travel as they test a system of huge, nuclear-propelled aircraft constantly circling the globe.

Passengers would be delivered to the behemoths via smaller planes, along with their luggage. People could even change flights in mid-air.

Engineers are also working on “flying petrol stations” that could enable non-stop flights from Britain to the other side of the world.

Instead of touching down in ­Singapore or Dubai on the way to Australia, huge “air tankers” would be strategically positioned along long-haul routes to allow planes to refuel in mid-air, cutting the time it takes to travel the world.

Sounds cool, right ?  Full story over at the Mirror is complete with a kick-ass gallery and awesome video.  But seemingly no other supporting documentation, and no external links.    Last line of the 'article' may give an idea as to why:

But the team admitted: “Neither air-worthiness nor acceptance of the idea by the general public is within sight.”

Which idea would that be, I wonder.  So, let's go look up the Recreate Project, and see what they have to say...

Project

SUMMARY

The research done in this project is about the introduction and airworthiness of cruiser-feeder concepts of operations for civil aircraft. Cruiser-feeder concepts of operations are investigated as a promising pioneering idea enabling energy efficient air transport of the future. The soundness of cruiser-feeder concepts of operations for civil aircraft has been under investigation in the RECREATE project for 36 months. A concept with fuel transfer from feeder to cruiser, and a concept with payload transfer between feeder aircraft and a nuclear propelled cruiser have been studied extensively. For the latter nuclear cruiser concept, it is concluded that neither airworthiness nor acceptance of the idea by the general public is within sight. However, for the concept with fuel transfer from feeder to cruiser (civil air-to-air refuelling operations), the results of our collaborative research indicate a fuel burn reduction potential on isolated aircraft level between 11% and 23 % for a typical 6000 nautical miles flight with a payload of 250 passengers. It is remarked that the lower bond of this reduction potential is usually considered as large in the aerospace industry.

So actually, the Mirror didn't give these plucky researchers enough credit.  They haven't actually ruled out...mid-flight refuelling of civilian airliners.  Just...the nuclear freakin' planes.  Oh and the whole ridiculous mid-air transfer of passengers thing.

And hey, looks like they gave some free advertising to Big Finish.  That's nice.

TBogg Goes There

Dude's got a reputation to maintain.  Edgy...

I get that we are supposed to have opinions on everything– or else why have Twitter — but sometimes a joke is a just joke, or, as Stephen King once said: “Sometimes a cigar is just a smoke and a story’s just a story.”

Noah’s jokes aren’t the Holocaust — and I’m sure by now someone is upset that I used ‘shoah” in the headline because that is how the Internet rolls — and endless discussions by well-meaning people who argue that humor and comedy exist as tools for the greater social welfare … well, they’re doing it wrong.

TBogg is based on the west coast of the US (San Diego) BTW, in case you were thinking this was some April Fools Prank.