Ideological Clashes

I am a sucker for these types of weird electoral battles and name coincidence stories ....

Hitler Versus Lenin - A Battle Of Wills

So when I read that an unusual mayoral race was under way, it reminded me of other odd reports that I have posted on before.

Fairy Skeletons

Tessa Farmer is an English artist and sculptress based in London. 

Amazing Creations ....

She often recycles natural materials such as dead insect carcasses, plant roots and other found materials to create her works, which are sometimes described as depicting Boschian scenes of conflicts, between animals and insects, and tiny winged skeletal humanoids.

Eternity, No Thanks

When your a kid or young adult, the idea of living for ever is rather attractive, possibly because the idea of dying seems so unlikely an event to you.

Eternal Youth - Long A Dream - 'The Fountain of Youth' (1546) Lucas Cranach the Elder

However as you mature, the idea is seen to have a few (well, more than a few), drawbacks.

Just Shooting The Breeze

The United States has had 146 mass shootings (four or more people dead), between 1966 and 2017 .... So is it because American society is unusually violent? Perhaps its citizens lack proper mental care under a failed mental health care system that the poor can't access?

Just 90 Mass Shootings From 1966
 to 2012 - But 56 Since Then.

In fact, only one theory is supported by the evidence ....

Another Set Of Botch Jobs

What is it about elderly Catholic priests and their congregations?

St George Was In Need Of Some TLC ....

Perhaps its just lack of funds, but it seems as though they all fancy themselves as art restorers.

Super Trouper

Cinema chain Vue quizzed cinema goers in the UK, to find which was the most popular film Superhero .....

Judge Dredd - 2000 AD Comic

Now surprisingly it was not any character from The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, nor Tarzan or even V. I might even have expected that Judge Dredd who was created for 2000 AD the British comic, be selected, even though Mega City is set in North America.

Tainted Love

Recently I mentioned that robot sex was already on the horizon. Well in Italy, the world second robot doll brothel was opened, and then very shortly closed.

Robot Sex Brothels Have Now Opened ....

It was only allowed to open in the first place after giving assurances that the highest standards of deep cleaning would be used on the dolls ....

Legal Mishmash

Now I don't know about you, but I got the impression from recent court cases in the UK, that employers could ban certain religious symbolism .... well, actually mainly Christian crosses.

Crosses Banned In 2012

..... Others such as the Muslim headscarf, beards or shaved heads etc, couldn't be banned. This had something to do with the others having human and religious rights, and, well, apparently Christians didn't. So Sikhs with their turbans, or Jews with their Kippah (the little hat they wear on their heads), are also OK, but what about those Jewish hair locks (called Payot's), the ultra orthodox Jews wears?

When Squirrels Attack

In one of those stories that you have to read twice to be sure you understood it correctly ....

When Squirrels Attack ..... They Could Be Hungry ......

..... reports from Germany in August 2018, said that the German police in the south-western city of Karlsruhehad, had to go to the rescue of a man who had called in to report that he was being chased by a baby squirrel.

The World Before Colour

The other day a girl at work said that she 'doesn't watch TV or Movies that are not in colour'. And that remark reminded me about an incident from a few (well many, now that I think on it) years ago.

Citizen Kane .... Once Unanimously
'The Greatest' Movie Ever Made?

I had been discussing what the Greatest Movie Ever Made was, and had named a few candidates ..... Citizen Kane had been amongst them.

WOW

In the seemingly futile hunt for alien intelligences somewhere in our vicinity (aka the SETI programme), perhaps the most famous moment was the brief burst of radio signal activity received on the 15th of August 1977, by Ohio State University's Big Ear radio telescope in the United States.

WOW Indeed .... If You Know What Your Looking At!

The astronomer Jerry R. Ehman discovered the signal anomaly when he was reviewing the data a few days later, and was so surprised when he saw the computer print outs, that he circled the reading on the paper and then scribbled the comment 'Wow!' next to it. This then became the short hand name for the event.

The Information Curtain

Once you go down the road of censorship, you open yourself up to the paradoxical and the ridiculous.

Censorship Isn't Just The News .....

The UK for example has the quango that deals with complaints about advertising content, known as the Advertising Standards Authority, it generally deals with misleading content in adverts across al media streams. They are not that intrusive but in my opinion do over react to the smallest number of complaints, when compared to the millions who weren't offended. Generally complaints are that a product advert is offensive or misleading, or both.

Criminal Capers

Murderous Groups

The arrests for murder rates amongst the different ethnic minorities in the USA, based on 2013 figures, has been compiled as this chart.   

Number of Arrests (Per 100,000 People) for Murder with Hispanic Africans grouped with Africans

Not exactly a new statistic, but very stark reminder that there are different perceptions to this crime amongst differing ethnic groups. Some have a markedly more casual approach to murder.....

The Manchester 'Canal Pusher'

The Story – Known as “The Pusher” …. A serial killer has been stalking the canals of Manchester, pushing people into the canals. He has killed dozens of people, and the police are not any closer to catching him, or are suppressing the truth about his existence.

Manchester Has Many Canals ......

There are about 10 miles of canals running through central Manchester, dating back to the city's industrial heyday in the 18th and 19th Centuries, and there could easily have been the basis of another public transport system in the city had a little bit of imagination or foresight been shown in the 1950’s. But instead, the story claims that the canals are underused crime hot-spots, where a killer can stalk with impunity.

No Denying The Obvious

Richard Wagner said that "the Jew" was "incapable of artistic expression", while Jeremy Corbyn said that a group of British Zionists had "no sense of English irony" despite a lifetime living in the country.

Richard Wagner Had Anti-Semitic Views

One was Hitler's favourite composer .... the other is the leader of the UK Labour Party. There is a terrible whiff of the same smell from those two comments.

Telling It As It Is

The Rev. Jasper Williams Jr. has really set the cat amongst the pigeons when he spoke at the funeral of soul singer Aretha Franklin.

Aretha Franklin - Died: 16 August 2018

Franklin had herself brought up four children by four different men, none by either of her two husbands ....