Random News Stories

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I have a really basic idea on police reform, which is to have them dress in big bright polka-dots and paint their cars to look like birthday cakes.

The main idea behind it is that it will immediately weed out people with authoritarian personalities, which is, IMO, currently the majority of people seeking to enter the police force.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-25888992

Met Police probed scores of clown incidents

Police probed 117 incidents in London involving the word "clown"

Why bring on the clowns?
Police in London tackled scores of incidents involving clowns last year, it has emerged.

A Freedom of Information request revealed the Metropolitan Police responded to 117 incidents featuring the word "clown".

They included assaults, frauds, thefts and robberies involving people dressed as clowns.

London blogger Richard Osley, who put in the FOI request, said some of the incidents were "no laughing matter".

One incident involved a robbery victim who was wearing a black and white Pierrot suit while in another a robbery was committed by someone wearing a clown mask.

In one burglary case the suspect's hair was described as like "Krusty the Clown" from the TV comedy The Simpsons.

And in a "malicious communication", someone was told that "henchmen in clown masks" would be on their way

Five of the incidents involved victims dressed as clowns while in about 40 instances the victim was called "clown as an insult", details from the Met reveal.

Mr Osley said he put in the FOI request after seeing a spate of news stories over Christmas involving clowns.

He said on his blog: "This one isn't for anybody with a clown phobia... Don't look now, but the news is this: London is not totally immune to Britain's clown crime wave."

There were also reports of jewellery and property with clown motif being stolen.

[Junkenstein]

The "Holy shit, that's excessive" files:
http://www.wbay.com/story/25931266/2014/07/02/police-discover-staggering-amount-of-child-pornography

Another person is behind bars as the Brown County Sheriff's Office continues to crack down on distributors of child pornography.

Ryan Scheelk of De Pere is the sixth person to be busted since March for possessing child pornography, according to investigators.  He was taken into custody after an undercover investigation by police. They say they recovered a "staggering" amount of material.  Police said they have 90 terra-bytes of hard drive space to sort through, which can hold about 27 million photos.

There's a note in the article about 20 other suspects. I can only hope that with a collection of this size that's expanded substantially. Time until European connections are made? I'd give it a week.

[Junkenstein]

Today in "What's the Daily Heil Done wrong now":
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-28225467

US actor George Clooney has accused the Daily Mail of "irresponsibility" after it claimed his fiancee's mother opposes their marriage on religious grounds.

The British tabloid, he said, had been "negligent" in "exploit[ing] religious differences where none exist".

Earlier this week, the Mail claimed Amal Alamuddin's mother, Baria, wished her daughter to be married within the relatively small Druze sect.

The Mail has been asked to comment and has yet to respond.

In a piece published by USA Today, Clooney said he was "used to the Daily Mail making up stories" and accepted "freedom of speech can be an inconvenience to [his] private life".

The Daily Mail's report, published online on Monday and then in print on Tuesday in an amended form, said "close family friends" had told them that Baria Alamuddin had been "telling half of Beirut" that her daughter "could do better".

"There are 500,000 Druze," one of their unnamed sources was quoted as saying. "Are none of them good enough for her?"

"Amal's mother is not Druze," responded Clooney. "She has not been to Beirut since Amal and I have been dating, and she is in no way against the marriage.

"But this lie involves larger issues. The irresponsibility, in this day and age, to exploit religious differences where none exist, is at the very least negligent and more appropriately dangerous."

This is begging for a lawsuit and I'd love little more. It really is nice to see how little the Leveson enquiry has changed the UK press. The only real consequence I can see to date is a moderately expensive re-branding exercise for the news of the world. 

[Salty]

http://m.independent.ie/world-news/africa/police-officer-shoots-aggressive-tortoise-dead-30419096.html

Sometimes Teh Fear gets you.

[Junkenstein]

Pretty much everyone who works in the public sector in the UK is on strike:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28240683

Those expected to take part in the action include:

Firefighters who are involved in a row over pensions and retirement age
The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) - which represents civil servants, passport office workers and other public sector staff - in a dispute over pay, cuts to jobs, pensions and the privatisation of services
Unison which represents, among others, workers in local government, healthcare, colleges and schools, and the GMB representing, among others, workers who serve school meals, clean streets, empty bins, carers and school support workers, in a row over this year's pay offer
Unite members - including local government staff, council workers and teaching staff - who also dismissed the "insulting" pay offer
The National Union of Teachers (NUT), which says teachers are "under attack" from the government on pay, pensions, workload pressure and conditions
Members of the Northern Ireland Public Service Alliance, who work in a range of areas including housing, youth justice and libraries, striking over pay
RMT members working for Transport for Londonare striking over pay and pensions
For Unite, Unison and the GMB the strike action covers workers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland but not Scotland, while the PCS covers all four nations. The FBU and NUT are England and Wales only.

I doubt there will be any immediate result or change, particularly as it doesn't appear to be planned to run that long. If the above were willing to do it for a straight week, they might stand a chance. That said, Austerity is the new normal now so expect cross party condemnation and Clegg to make an announcement shortly about how people who strike are naughty.

ETA - How could I forget this? Those opposed to the strikes (MP's and such) are claiming they have no legitimate basis to strike as only a few people were involved in the decision. I'm hearing 27% a lot.

27% is substantially more support than any MP gets elected with in many places. They're saying this shit with a straight face when voter turnout to elect MP's here is rarely above 30% and the winner decided on FPTP (first past the post) which is one of the most incredibly stupid and corruptible election methods. It almost always assures that the winner doesn't have the support of the majority of constituents by the very nature of it. 

Remember when all three parties shat all over AV and Clegg dropped PR like a stone for a sniff of power? Me neither. Silly Junkie, expecting UK politicians to actually have a positive effect on UK politics.

Holy shit, I mean, AV was deemed by the lot of them as "too complicated" because you basically had select the candidates in an order you prefer. First choice, second choice, third choice. Obviously too much fucking choice as expecting people to be able to count to THREE is just placing too high an expectation on the populace.

[Junkenstein]

Late to this one:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-28121198

Protesters have forced buses carrying migrant children and families to be prevented from reaching a processing centre in southern California.

People shouting slogans and waving US flags blocked three buses carrying undocumented Central American families to a border patrol station in Murrieta.

The migrants were flown to San Diego from Texas, where facilities report overcrowding after a surge in arrivals.

The Murrieta mayor had urged residents to complain about the transfer.

The US government is also planning to fly migrants to Texas cities and another site in California, while some have already been taken to Arizona.(That's what you want. Travel thousands of miles in deadly conditions and you end up in fucking Tucson.)

Many of them are fleeing violence and extortion from gangs in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.

Apparently the numbers of children involved are increasing. Some of the quotes from the protesters are stunning. The Tired and poor masses  can fuck right off it seems. Countries full and OBAMA.

Obviously, it's not worth discussing the various results of US foreign policy on Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. There's no history of fuckery and wrongdoing there at all.

There's also apparently a budget increase in the works with $300 million earmarked to "tackle root causes in these countries". I'm reading this as "$300 million for the CIA to fuck about with" as that seems to be the historical norm.

[Junkenstein]

Hey, Remember how everywhere is utterly fucked for cash so public assets had to be sold? Like the Royal Mail in the UK?
Guess what?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-28250963

Taxpayers may have lost out on about £1bn from the undervaluing of Royal Mail, a committee of MPs has said.

The government feared failure and acted on bad advice over the Royal Mail stock market flotation, reports the Business, Innovation and Skills select committee.

The Department for Business said the MPs' report contained "factual errors and misunderstandings".

Royal Mail shares were priced at 330p, but jumped as high as 618p per share, and now stand at around 473p.

Good to know the incompetence in UK government is pretty universal. It'd depress me to think there was one competent person knocking around down there as that would just be a living hell for them.

[Junkenstein]

Delicious:
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jul/10/robin-thicke-paula-54-copies-australia

Robin Thicke's miserable week seems to be going from bad to worse. Following news that his latest album Paula sold a dismal 530 copies during its first week on sale in the UK, it now emerges that he's fared even less well in Australia. According to News.com.au, Paula has shifted fewer than 54 copies during its debut week on sale.

Thicke's attempt to musically woo his ex-wife Paula Patton failed to place in Australia's national Aria 500 Chart. The album at number 500, a Blondie compilation, sold only 54 copies last week, meaning Thicke must have sold even fewer.

In comparison, at the same time last year, his previous album Blurred Lines rocketed to the No 1 spot on the Australian chart.

Earlier this week, Paula made headlines for all the wrong reasons when it sold just 530 copies in the UK, less than 2% of his previous album's first week of sales. Paula also performed underwhelmingly in the US, selling only 24,000 copies to enter ninth position, a huge flop compared with Blurred Lines' 117,000 US sales in its first week.

Thicke continues to have a rough week, after a spectacular PR fail on Twitter. Attempting to promote his seventh album with the hashtag #AskThicke, punters used the opportunity to accuse him of misogyny and promoting date rape in his lyrics.

I'm not entirely sure how this has occurred. I was under the impression record labels still buy a shit-ton of pop-band's latest crap to at least ensure a top-X spot. I can only hope this is some kind of sign of progress.

[Cain]

Hey, Remember how everywhere is utterly fucked for cash so public assets had to be sold? Like the Royal Mail in the UK?
Guess what?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-28250963

Taxpayers may have lost out on about £1bn from the undervaluing of Royal Mail, a committee of MPs has said.

The government feared failure and acted on bad advice over the Royal Mail stock market flotation, reports the Business, Innovation and Skills select committee.

The Department for Business said the MPs' report contained "factual errors and misunderstandings".

Royal Mail shares were priced at 330p, but jumped as high as 618p per share, and now stand at around 473p.

Good to know the incompetence in UK government is pretty universal. It'd depress me to think there was one competent person knocking around down there as that would just be a living hell for them.

Who says it was incompetence?

Sounds to me like someone got a great deal.  Someone who probably is well connected and attends plenty of political fundraisers.  We used to do the same thing via the IMF in the Third World, until they cottoned onto the scheme.

[Junkenstein]

Ah. Yes. That was rather silly of me. I blame the early hour and general incompetence I was witnessing here.

Collusion and corruption are of course going to feature heavily. It's the UK. Selling a public asset.

[Junkenstein]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/georgia-showdown-guns-everywhere

"Essentially, it involved one customer with a gun on his hip when a second customer entered with a gun on his hip," Childress said.

According to the Daily Times, the first man, Ronald Williams, approached the second man in the store and demanded to see his identification and firearms license. Williams also pulled his gun from his holster, without pointing it at the second man. The second man responded by saying that he was not obligated to show any permits or identification -- then he paid for his purchase, left the store, and called the police.

I'm expecting duels and many quality stories over the next couple of months. How can you not? One day in and already some fucking clown is trying to have a duel.

[Junkenstein]

No comment required files:
http://www.thestate.com/2014/07/11/3559084/police-dollar-general-underwear.html

ROCK HILL — An ice cream truck was the getaway vehicle for a Rock Hill woman accused of stealing two pairs of underwear from the Dollar General store on Cherry Road.

Police say the 34-year-old shoplifting suspect put the undergarments in her purse Thursday afternoon and then walked out of the store without paying, according to a Rock Hill police report.

She then fled in a white ice cream truck.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

No comment required files:
http://www.thestate.com/2014/07/11/3559084/police-dollar-general-underwear.html

ROCK HILL — An ice cream truck was the getaway vehicle for a Rock Hill woman accused of stealing two pairs of underwear from the Dollar General store on Cherry Road.

Police say the 34-year-old shoplifting suspect put the undergarments in her purse Thursday afternoon and then walked out of the store without paying, according to a Rock Hill police report.

She then fled in a white ice cream truck.

I feel like if she really needs a couple pairs of dollar-store underwear, she should have them.

[Junkenstein]

Hardly news, Hague no longer "foreign secretary".

He never did strike me as a particularly competent arms dealer, which is what the role mainly involves.