You’re in a strange place, the locals seem friendly-ish. They seem to be using words that you recognise but they’re using them, differently.
What do they mean? What are they trying to communicate? Is it all a code? If only you had some way to translate the language.
Well, now you can find you own way, with confidence, through the strange land of the Right Wing Comments. Along with your passport and your conjunctivitis injection, don’t forget your Right-Wing Phrasebook.
£499.99 from any capitalist bookshop.
I happened across a blog called Pixeloo.
He (I presume) does proper pictures (with paints an’ everything) and Photoshop stuff, but what he seems to mainly do is to render cartoon characters as though they are real people, but keeping the cartoon proportions.
This one’s Homer (obviously) but he has also done Jessica Rabbit and Mario, amongst others.
Go to his (or her) site and click on the pictures to enlarge, they’re pretty bloody good.
[[image:realhomer.jpg:Real Homer:center:0]]
I don’t normally announce changes to my blogroll but I thought these two deserve it.
First up, D-Notice.
Apologies, old chap, I thought I’d added you a while back. But you’re there now.
Secondly, The Sun – Tabloid Lies. A new group blog chronicling Murdochs’ big seller, The Sun, and all the bullshit and blagging that goes with it.
Oh, see you the other side of the weekend.
Jeremy Clarkson:
I do not know many people from the world of television. I have not been to Jonathan Ross’s house. He’s never been to mine. But those that I do meet, with the exception of Piers Morgan, are mostly very ordinary people with very ordinary lives. They do not shout: “Do you know who I am?” at every train guard and maître d’. They do not quaff champagne or gorge on peach and peacock. And mostly they earn much less than you think.
And yet every single one of them is fair game for those members of the press that, deprived of funds to chase down proper stories, see them as the cheap option. I urge you all to think about that next time you’re thumbing through Heat magazine and you come across a picture of some actress with stretch marks. Just imagine how that picture makes her feel. And how it makes her children feel.
BBC:
Scientists in South Korea say they have successfully completed the world’s first commercial cloning of a pet dog.
Bernann McKinney, from the US state of California, stumped up $50,000 (£25,000) for five identical copies of Booger, her beloved pit bull terrier.
The puppy clones were unveiled at a press conference in the South Korean capital, Seoul, on Tuesday.
People get attached to pets, especially cats and dogs. That’s the whole point of having a pet. Some people take it too far, but that’s just my opinion. Sometimes the pet/owner relationship gets a little deeper (not in any pervy sense, just emotionally) when the pet does some heroic deed for the owner, as Booger did when he saved Bernann from a savaging by another dog.
But to say that a clone of any animal will be identical is pure bullshit.
I am no scientist so, as usual am ready to be corrected, but although the animal will have to same DNA, it will have a resemblance to the original, but will not be the same.
[Bernann] said: “Booger had a kindness in his heart and I believe that kindness is something that can be, I don’t want to use the word reproduced, but the best way Dr Lee explained it is we can give him his body, you are going to give him the love and environment to recreate the original Booger’s personality.”
You see, it’s not just about the genes, it’s about the environment too. Food, exercise, climate, experiences will all have an effect on the likes and dislikes, growth rate, attitudes and everything else that will shape the personality of those dogs. And ultimatley people who are cloned, if it goes that far.
Even if all things are equal, genes can still make differences. That’s what cancers and tumours are.
As heart warming as this story is, this woman has either been mis-sold or not had her expectations properly tempered. A personality is unique, whether it is an animal or a person, and that, cannot be recreated.
BBC:
A government-funded documentary about police community support officers is to be probed by media watchdog Ofcom, the Sunday Telegraph has reported.
ITV1 show Beat: Life on the Street may have breached broadcasting codes by not making it clear it received £800,000 in Home Office funding, the paper said.
Ofcom rules say show sponsors must be clearly identified and not allowed to influence the content of programmes.
A Home Office spokesman said he was confident Ofcom rules were followed.
Two series of Beat: Life on the Street have been broadcast on ITV1, while a third has reportedly been commissioned.
Another programme called Border Force, about the work of the UK Border Agency, is due to be shown on Sky One later this month.
Yeah, fuck off B-BBC.
Via
The Canberra Times:
Previously undisclosed Treasury documents have shed new light on the beginnings of Mr Murdoch’s transition from an Australian newspaper proprietor to an international media player.
Secret Treasury files recently released by the National Archives show how Mr Murdoch faced strong opposition from the Treasury and then treasurer, Billy McMahon, when he applied to shift capital out of Australia to finance his 1968 bid for the Fleet Street weekly the News of the World.
Mr McMahon refused to allow Mr Murdoch’s bid to proceed, but intervention by Prime Minister John Gorton, a Murdoch ally, ensured the go-ahead was given.
