229 replies to this topic

[Steve Sensible]

File this under "never thought I'd see the day"; a court case against the Daily Mail I'm actually hoping they win.

TV psychic Sally Morgan is demanding damages of £150,000 from Associated Newspapers over a Daily Mail story accusing her of scamming a vulnerable audience.

The article, published on 22 September, was headlined: “What a load of crystal balls!”

It alleged Morgan pretended to have psychic powers when she was in fact simply repeating instructions from members of her team via a microphone and hidden earpiece, according to a writ lodge at the High Court.

Morgan, who was Princess Diana’s former psychic, claims the story caused substantial damage to her reputation, as well as hurt, distress and embarrassment.

I'd quite like the magistrate to ask her to provide evidence that she really is a psychic.

[David Meadows]

"How many years' imprisonment am I thinking of?"

[garjones]

I'd quite like the magistrate to ask her to provide evidence that she really is a psychic.

British libel laws work the opposite way though and The Mail will have to prove she rigged the mics. If she uses cold reading like most stage psychics they'll probably lose.

Which would be a terrible shame.

[Sanjay]

Wow, this is the second time in my life that I've been in agreement with the Daily Mail - I'd be interesting in seeing how she'll 'Derren Brown' her way to a substantial amount of money.

Anyway a shiny brand new thread for my fave regular pub topic of Odd News.

[Martin Smith]

If I was cross-examining psychic Sally on the stand I'd get her to try and talk to my dead relatives and non-committally give her enough rope to hang herself with.

[Ogul]

If I was cross-examining psychic Sally on the stand I'd get her to try and talk to my dead relatives and non-committally give her enough rope to hang herself with.

I don't know, they tend to be pretty good at this. If it were me on the stand and this is what I did for a living, I'd make sure to have memorized all sorts of stuff about you and your relatives, and I'd have pretty good skills at being able to tell what your real reaction to things was, even if you tried to hide it. This is their bread and butter. It's possible to trick them, but it could also easily backfire.

[David Meadows]

I tricked a clairvoyant once. I didn't mean to, but when he opened with a couple of blatantly wrong guesses I just started agreeing with agreeing with what he said, to see how he would run with it. It was interesting to watch first hand how he worked. He was pretty clever... but not as clever as me

[garjones]

The Daily Mail has overtaken the New York Times to become the world's most visited newspaper website, according to online tracking service Comscore. The biggest increase in readers has been in the US - so how did this very British institution do it?
There is something compellingly simple about MailOnline. No fancy site navigation, picture carousels or slideshows - just a front page with stories and pictures. Thousands of them.
The New York Times claims it is still the world's most popular newspaper website, because the Mail figures include visits to sister sites.
But let that not detract from the British newspaper's achievement in going from nowhere to 45.3 million unique visitors a month in just five years. What is its secret?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16746785

Read on for the secrets but as much as I despise the paper that website is a masterpiece, even if you don't want to it irges you to click another story.

[garjones]

Sainsbury's is renaming its tiger bread after a letter a three-year-old girl wrote to the company, saying the bread looked more like a giraffe, went viral.
In May 2011, Lily Robinson wrote to the supermarket, suggesting that the bread should be called giraffe bread.
She received a letter back saying that renaming it was "a brilliant idea".
Her mother posted the letters on her blog and after it again became a topic of conversation on social media sites last week, the bread has been renamed.
Lily's letter said: "Why is tiger bread called tiger bread? It should be called giraffe bread. Love from Lily Robinson age 3 and 1/2".
Chris King from the Sainsbury's customer services team wrote back: "I think renaming tiger bread giraffe bread is a brilliant idea - it looks much more like the blotches on a giraffe than the stripes on a tiger, doesn't it?"
But he went on to explain how it had got its name: "It is called tiger bread because the first baker who made it a looong time ago thought it looked stripey like a tiger. Maybe they were a bit silly."
He included a £3 gift card, and signed the letter "Chris King (age 27 & 1/3)".

"In response to overwhelming customer feedback that our tiger bread has more resemblance to a giraffe, from today we will be changing our tiger bread to giraffe bread and seeing how that goes," the supermarket said.
Tiger bread is typically a bloomer loaf with a pattern baked into the top. Rice paste is brushed on to the surface before baking, forming the pattern as it dries and cracks while it bakes.
Sainsbury's said that Chris King had now left the company and had returned to university to study to be a primary school teacher.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16812545

1) Lily is right, it does look more like a giraffe.
2) Chris King is a Millarworld poster I believe.

[Sanjay]

Yes, he is - I remember him mentioning this.

And yeah, Lily is right.

[garjones]

It's a brilliant letter from Chris too, I think he'll make an excellent teacher.

[Ulf Imwiehe]

German pensioner eats 64-year-old US lard:

A German pensioner who received a tin of American lard 64 years ago in an aid package has only just tasted it, after discovering that it is still edible.

"I just didn't want to throw it away," said Hans Feldmeier, 87.

Food safety experts in Rostock, his home town on Germany's Baltic coast, said the pig fat was still safe to eat.

Mr Feldmeier was a student in 1948 when the US was running a huge aid programme to rebuild war-ravaged Germany. He kept the tin of lard for emergencies.

A retired pharmacist, he decided to get the lard tested because of the debate about expiry dates and food safety.

A food expert, Frerk Feldhusen, said the lard was rather gritty and tasteless and hard to dissolve, though quite edible. Mr Feldmeier provided some black bread to go with it.

The red, white and blue tin of Swift's Bland Lard bore no expiry date.

Mr Feldhusen said the test result might make some consumers think twice before discarding food immediately after the expiry date.

[Steve Sensible]

"Apocalyptic" explosion at Russian power station.

[Arjan Dirkse]

German pensioner eats 64-year-old US lard:

This reminds me of Christian U and his canned cheeseburger.

[Christian U]

That will also still be good to eat in fifty years, I have no doubt!

[Ulf Imwiehe]

CCTV police officer 'chased himself' after being mistaken for burglar:

An undercover police officer "chased himself round the streets" for 20 minutes after a CCTV operator mistook him for suspect.

The junior officer, who has not been named, was monitoring an area hit by a series of burglaries in an unnamed market town in the country’s south.

As the probationary officer from Sussex Police searched for suspects, the camera operator radioed that he had seen someone “acting suspiciously” in the area.

But he failed to realise that it was actually the plain-clothed officer he was watching on the screen, according to details leaked to an industry magazine.

The operator directed the officer, who was on foot patrol, as he followed the "suspect" on camera last month, telling his colleague on the ground that he was "hot on his heels".

The officer spent around 20 minutes giving chase before a sergeant came into the CCTV control room, recognised the “suspect” and laughed hysterically at the mistake.

[Christian U]

Yes. Yes, I expect that is something one would laugh at rather hysterically.

[Martin Smith]

That will also still be good to eat in fifty years, I have no doubt!

Well not now that you've eaten it.

[JP Stafford]

And he would've gotten away with it, too, if it hadn't been for, well, the slightly far fetched story: http://www.huffingto..._n_1262481.html

[Adam Wednesdays]

Yes. Yes, I expect that is something one would laugh at rather hysterically.

Especially if the video is sped up and given a soundtrack of "Yackitty Sax."