I'll try to do a better job that Gerry Adams of not speaking ill of the dead -- ( ... attempting. )

I think we have new rival to the "Special K" ads in the category of "jaw-droppingly gendered". Victoria Pendleton, a UK Olympic track cyclist is doing a series of promos for Hovis, the central conceit of which is that wholemeal bread as a healthy breakfast. So far, so good!

However, whether on the general principle of "no-one lost money by making an ( Read more... )

OK, she didn't quite say "that's sexist -- because I'm a woman, and I don't like it", but she did get her successful nomination for the Labour leadership candidate off to a bit of dodgy start, for me, in a Channel 4 News interview. Asked about buying a private education for her kids, she said "That's why a lot of women don't come forward in ( Read more... )

I didn't even realize there was a vacancy, but apparently UKIP have elected a new leader, in the form of Lord Pearson. ( More on this, and worse besides )

I've seen several reports on this story about the Vatican's "helpful" intervention in the Anglicans' little local difficulties over the ordination of gay people and women, but none of them seemed to be taking Darth Pope's protestations that this is a move towards church unity in the least seriously.  Indeed, it looks like a bad faith (as it were) ( Read more... )

Watched a report on the BBC News channel last night about "bride kidnapping" and the like in Chechnya, which was pretty unrelentingly grim and horrific (branching out as it apparently often does into rape and murder).  Perhaps the lowlight, however, was a brief interview with Ramzan Kadyrov, the Putin-backed ex-rebel president, which was startling ( Read more... )

The other day I watched a TNG re-(re^837)-run of "The Outcast", AKA "Riker Does Gethen" (one guest star at a time).( Some thoughts. )

(Or even moreso, I suppose one could say.)  See for example the BBC's take. That's as in "adult males" -- this route still relies on Y chromosomes, and is essentially "fast-tracking" embryonic sperm development by a decade or so.  Speaking hypothetically, since using it reproductively is presently illegal in the UK (and presumably most other places ( Read more... )

In case anyone victimised by a couple of gaming session digressions is at the precise point of confusion and curiosity as to want to know the following details (or on the off-chance it's of interest to anyone else, without benefit/detriment of any such context)...

The Chandleresque story I mentioned with the 'aliens employing the Bush doctrine on a ( Read more... )