Here's the skinny
There are 43 posts tagged: in the news
- Well I'll be blowed!
- 1 October 2024
Not unlike wiki-whacking, it's funny what you learn you never knew when you simply follow links to related news stories. Especially when the relatedness is tenuous at best.
(more…)- Too much sport and politics
- 12 July 2024
This week's BBC News quiz seemed to mainly cover sport and politics; two subjects not at all dear to my heart. So I'm going to forgive myself for only getting one question right, the final one regarding Cypress Hill's concert with the London Symphony Orchestra, as it happens.
(more…)- Black man pedalling
- 7 July 2024
And reading that led me to this, although it was posted almost a week ago.
(more…)- Record [insert] by [insert]
- 13 May 2024
Like a lot of the shit I post here, this is a trivial observation. But it had me puzzled at first.
(more…)- Mark my words
- 19 April 2024
On two of the three questions I guessed wrong in this week's BBC News quiz…
(more…)- From hero to joker
- 12 April 2024
This week's BBC News quiz started with a hero, and ended with an antihero.
(more…)- Scalloped
- 18 February 2024
Yet another black woman making history for being the first black woman to do something. This time, it's Adejoké Bakare, a self-taught Nigerian chef whose London restaurant has been awarded a Michelin star.
(more…)- Saint argentina
- 11 February 2024
A first not involving space travel, but only because it didn't exist in 18th-Century Argentina. The Argentine president met the pope at the canonisation of their country's first female saint.
(more…)- Tits for tats
- 30 January 2024
Nine News (9News), an Australian news service, has been strongly criticised for editing a photo of a female member of Victoria's state parliament wearing a sundress, to enhance her breasts and show a little more skin. As if her heavily tattooed arms weren't feast enough for the eyes already.
(more…)- Don't bother they're here
- 12 January 2024
This week's BBC News quiz ends, as is so often the case, with a celebrity death. This time, it's that of Glynis Johns, and the category descriptions all refer to her stage hit, Send in the Clowns.
(more…)- Madge on the march
- 20 October 2023
Madonna opened her greatest hits Celebration Tour in London on Saturday, and with it this week's BBC News quiz. Performing four decades of songs, from her first album released in 1983 through to 2019.
(more…)- Big and dense
- 6 October 2023
A week of news that I barely paid attention to ends with a BBC News quiz result that speaks both to me and of me in equal measure: Supermassive Black Hole.
(more…)- Slow news day
- 25 September 2023
On 18th April 1930, BBC radio's newsreader simply announced
(more…)There is no news
, followed by fifteen minutes of music to fill the segment. And that little item appeared as one of the most read today on BBC News online:The day there was 'no news' (not today)
. Except the(not today)
doesn't refer to today's today, but the today of 18th April 2017.- Pink broadcasting
- 22 September 2023
Channel 4 News lead anchor Krishnan Guru-Murthy is concerned that the British government is using platforms such as GB News, rather than engaging with public service broadcasters.
(more…)- Stargazing
- 22 September 2023
This week's BBC quiz of the week ended with a question on astronomy, hence the scores' categories.
(more…)- Photo op
- 25 August 2023
Orange Don and fellow travellers have handed themselves over to Fulton County Sheriff's office to have their mugshots taken. Some of the photos, however, have been criticised by experts in the field of taking snappy snaps, for their lack of professionalism.
(more…)- No sex please, we're rabbits
- 28 July 2023
Celebrity deaths seem to be quite the thing for closing the BBC's quiz of the week. This week's ended with the passing of Tony Bennett. But that's not what made it remarkable, at least for me, because I knew about Bennett's death already, albeit not that his stage name had been given to him by Bob Hope.
(more…)- History in the making
- 15 July 2023
The link teases a historical moment in women's tennis. And not because either of the finalists is a biological man; the PaTRiARchY's saving that momentous occasion for another year.
(more…)- With great power…
- 16 June 2023
The death of Marvel Comics artist John Romita Sr, who worked on Spider-Man during his career at the comics publisher, was marked by three quotes from the webslinger's adventures. I'm not really a Spider-Man fan, and none of them were familiar to me. The only quote that springs to my mind would've been perfect for the top spot:
(more…)with great power comes great responsibility.
- Talking heads
- 14 June 2023
The UK's communications industry watchdog, Ofcom, is to canvas public opinion on politicians hosting current affairs programmes.
(more…)- All the news that's fit to ignore
- 14 June 2023
According to research by Oxford University's Reuters Institute, strong interest in the news has declined globally over the last six years. The report's authors suggest that this is because readers
(more…)selectively avoid important stories
, to reduce their exposure to depressing news and protect their mental health.- The first [insert] in space
- 22 May 2023
As significant firsts retreat further into history, journalists struggle to identify new firsts that will make their otherwise ho-hum reports stand out to the casual reader. So, it must've come as some relief to David Gritten when Rayyanah Barnawi became the first Arab woman in space.
(more…)- Another hole for pigeons
- 22 May 2023
We live in an ever-changing and challenging world, one in which deep fakes; manipulated photos and video; and AI-
(more…)weaponised
disinformation become indistinguishable from reality. Nefarious entities abuse information technologies, wilfully manipulating the news and social media in furtherance of their own agendas.- Twinkle toes
- 28 April 2023
Len Goodman, head judge of Strictly Come Dancing and Dancing with the Stars, died this week, and the BBC News quiz of the week honoured him with its final question. The categories' descriptions are three of his witticisms (apparently, I never watched the bloody shows myself).
(more…)- Low self esteem
- 21 April 2023
This week's BBC News quiz finished off with a question on the BBC Proms:
(more…)Pop star Self Esteem was included in the line-up for this year's BBC Proms. But which children's TV show also has two slots in the eight-week classical music festival?
- Mr whippy
- 31 March 2023
This week's BBC News quiz of the week ended with a question on the UK following the Dutch lead in banning nitrous oxide, or
(more…)laughing gas
, for recreational use.- PornArt
- 25 March 2023
Following a sixth-grade art lesson at Tallahassee Classical School, FL, a parent complained that the students had been exposed to pornography when shown Michelangelo's statue of David. As a result, the school's principal was forced to
(more…)resign or be fired
.- More breaking news
- 6 October 2022
Another breaking story from BBC News, which follows the mass killing of children and adults by an ex-police officer in a Thai daycare centre. There is no indication that this page will be updated, as opposed to a new one being created and linked. We shall see.
(more…)- Immorality code
- 17 September 2022
Mahsa Amini was arrested by Iran's morality police for not wearing a hijab, in contravention of the country's strict rules on head coverings. She was beaten while inside a police van. Because it's immoral for a woman to not cover her head, but it's okey-dokey for the police to kick the crap out of her. That's not immoral; is that it? (rolleyes)
(more…)- Harsh, but fair
- 2 September 2022
The BBC's quiz of the week is an opportunity for you to discover how little of the week's news you paid attention to. Seven multiple-choice questions shouldn't be too hard, though, should it?
(more…)- Breaking news: a little more transparency?
- 12 August 2022
Another breaking news story on the BBC, this time concerning an attack on the author Sir Salman Rushdie, in New York. This time, however, the footnote advises not only that this is a breaking story to be updated, but also that refreshing the page will bring the most recent version. With neither clarification as to what's been updated or corrected, nor any edit timestamp as to when it occurred. Naturally. (rolleyes)
(more…)- The world's most trusted social media
- 21 July 2022
In a discovery that should surprise absolutely nobody, the UK's teenagers rely on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube for news, rather than traditional media outlets. This startling revelation comes in a report from the UK's communications regulator, Ofcom.
(more…)- Developing story: to be stealth updated
- 8 July 2022
I have previously noted that
(more…)the world's most trusted international news broadcaster
™ is not adverse tostealth editing
its articles after they've been published online. An ethical news outlet would make changes clear to the reader, or find another way to update its articles in light of new information. At the very least they would include alast updated
timestamp. But the BBC eschews that transparency nonsense.- The unknown incel
- 14 June 2022
An incel who murdered ten people in Toronto in 2018, by driving a van into pedestrians, has been sentenced to life in prison, with no possibility of parole for 25 years. He was found guilty of the crimes last year.
(more…)- Political dishonesty
- 17 May 2022
It appears, quelle surprise!, that the Russian population receives a different narrative on the war in Ukraine to the rest of us. But one military analyst, retired colonel Mikhail Khodarenok, gave a frank and forthright assessment of the situation on Russian state TV:
(more…)we are in total political isolation and the whole world is against us, even if we don't want to admit it.
- No Newzz is good news
- 24 March 2022
BuzzFeed News—or should that be Newzz?—is being shuttered, at the urging of shareholders. The news landscape will never be the same again. Hopefully.
(more…)- Pyles
- 17 March 2022
So, you're
(more…)the world's most trusted international news broadcaster
™, and you have a ground-breaking story on the rejuvenation of the UK's electricity distribution network. At least in terms of the design of that part keeping the cables off the ground.- Is this really 'news'?
- 9 July 2021
The BBC claims to be
(more…)the world's most trusted international news broadcaster
. I take this to mean that it broadcasts news of international importance. If so, how on earth does this non-story make the home page?- Bada Bing, bada boom
- 5 June 2021
(more…)Tank Man
was an iconic symbol of the 1989 student protests in Tiananmen Square. A lone, unidentified man stood in front of a column of Chinese T59 tanks belonging to the PLA, only moving as the lead tank tried to manoeuvre around him, to once again block its path. China has censored all reference to this protest within the country. TheL
in PLA is as ironic as Tank Man is iconic.- Blue, not blue
- 2 October 2020
Five African grey parrots at Lincolnshire Wildlife Park have been removed from public view for swearing at visitors. They swear to trigger a response, even among themselves, and that encourages them to swear even more. So, not unlike teenagers and Frankie Boyle then. (pipe)
(more…)- Yes, I know, I'm reading it already
- 23 March 2017
The BBC news site has a handy-dandy little feature to make you aware of breaking news. Except that it doesn't appear to recognise when you are already aware…like actually reading the breaking article, for example! (rolleyes)
(more…)- Obama re-elected. Twice.
- 7 November 2012
According to the BBC, Obama has been re-elected, and in addition he's been re-elected as US president. I'm not sure what the first election was for, but I'm sure he's very happy nonetheless.
(more…)- Tits oot fer the lads! Or 'hubris, thy name art Royal scandal'
- 18 September 2012
After some
(more…)innocent holiday snaps
taken of a picturesque French chateau were shown to include views of Kate's knockers, they were offered for sale to the British press; the photographs of ma'am's mamms that is, not the royal jugs themselves.