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The "And in other news..." thread

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AndyPJG

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29 Jun 2012
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Woman 'over the moon' to retain Flatpack World Championship title
BBC News - Manchester
A woman has retained her title as Flatpack World Champion and broken her personal best assembly time in the process.
Hayley McAuley, from Wigan, said she was "over the moon" to successfully defend her title at the Flatpack World Championships at ExCel London, building a bedside table in eight minutes 20 seconds.
It took the warehouse worker - who also has her own flatpack support business - nine minutes and 33 seconds to claim the championship at last year's inaugural event.
"Another one to the collection!" she said as she collected her golden hex key medal at the event, which is part of Grand Designs Live.
'Just like Lego'
The competition saw two groups of flatpack experts face off across two rounds. The first round involved assembling a bookcase, with the fastest two from each heat making it to the final.
The last four then went head-to-head, building a two-drawer bedside table in front of a live audience while onstage property expert and Grand Designs contributor Kunle Barker provided running commentary.
"In your childhood you build Lego - it's just the same thing but on a bigger scale," said fellow contestant Mark, explaining the appeal.
"If you get bogged down and you're getting frustrated, the best thing to do is walk away. Just take 10 minutes."
All the furniture assembled during the competition will be donated to the British Heart Foundation.
 

MotCO

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Daren't show this to the wife - she'll want to know why it takes me a day to put a flatpack together!
 

High Dyke

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BBC News - Council pays £470k for own Clean Air Zone breaches
Birmingham City Council has paid more than £470,000 to itself in daily charges and fines because its own vehicles break the rules of its Clean Air Zone (CAZ) policy.

Even though there has been a year-long bin strike in the city, most of its vehicles facing daily charges were from the waste department.
 

styles

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Another "You can't park here" story.
Tesla driver uses emergency access to drive onto Cornish beach, and gets stuck https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/tesla-driver-london-beach-cornwall-padstow-barnes-b1283834.html
The people parking on beaches confuse me so much for two reasons. The first is that when I've owned a 4WD even I would try and avoid driving on beaches. The other is why would you take such a massive risk with such a pricey brief? Do people get to adulthood without knowing that tides come in or that it's actually quite hard to move a car on sand from a standing start? I don't get it. Cornwall gets this issue a lot.

I often wonder if the insurers even pay out when there's damage. They may rely on a clause in the policy documents which says not to drive like a child.
 

Acey

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Why was it necessary to point out that he was a Londoner ? is this another example of the general dislike of Southerners ( Londoners in particular ) would his place of resident have been been mentioned if he was from say,Swindon ?
 

Gloster

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Why was it necessary to point out that he was a Londoner ? is this another example of the general dislike of Southerners ( Londoners in particular ) would his place of resident have been been mentioned if he was from say,Swindon ?

The Standard is a London paper, so it is news about ’someone from your area’. That justifies shoehorning a trivial item that occurred miles away into the paper.
 

Acey

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The Standard is a London paper, so it is news about ’someone from your area’. That justifies shoehorning a trivial item that occurred miles away into the paper.
Sorry,have to disagree,the incident was reported in quite a few other news outlets,all made a point of saying he was from London ( maybe he was born in another part of the country anyway ) I get fed up with the generalisation that all southerners are rich ,soft ,litter dropping morons ,a whole load of us are hard-working folk who are NOT well off second- home owner Tesla driving morons !
 

Gloster

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Sorry,have to disagree,the incident was reported in quite a few other news outlets,all made a point of saying he was from London ( maybe he was born in another part of the country anyway ) I get fed up with the generalisation that all southerners are rich ,soft ,litter dropping morons ,a whole load of us are hard-working folk who are NOT well off second- home owner Tesla driving morons !

Whichever paper or agency first covered it and distributed the item to the rest of the media puts in London in the hope that London news outlets will pick it up. Once it is in the original release every other outlet that uses it will include it so as to pad out a pretty thin item to the maximum.
 

Merle Haggard

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Sorry,have to disagree,the incident was reported in quite a few other news outlets,all made a point of saying he was from London ( maybe he was born in another part of the country anyway ) I get fed up with the generalisation that all southerners are rich ,soft ,litter dropping morons ,a whole load of us are hard-working folk who are NOT well off second- home owner Tesla driving morons !

Interestingly to me, the BBC report about the learner bus driver reversing into the Seine included recording the ages of all the witnesses reported. I wonder why they consider it relevant.
 

GusB

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Why was it necessary to point out that he was a Londoner ? is this another example of the general dislike of Southerners ( Londoners in particular ) would his place of resident have been been mentioned if he was from say,Swindon ?
I can't see people in Cornwall complaining too much about Southerners...

Honestly, I think you're overthinking this one. If the driver had been from anywhere else I'm fairly sure their place of residence would still have been reported.
 

edwin_m

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Probably just highlighting that he wasn’t local, implying locals would have known better. Than to drive a Tesla.
 

Statto

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At home or at the pub

A meteor exploded off the coast of Massachusetts, causing a loud boom on 30 May. Nasa said the energy released when the meteor broke up was equivalent to about 300 tons of TNT.

Most meteors burn up harmlessly in the atmosphere, but larger objects can occasionally survive long enough to create the brilliant fireballs and booming shock waves that grab people's attention.

CBS News, the BBC's US partner, reported that NASA said in a statement: "The meteor appears to have fragmented at an altitude of 40 miles over northeastern Massachusetts and southeastern New Hampshire".

According to Nasa, the meteor fell into the waters of Cape Cod Bay. There were no reported injuries.


 

341o2

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Another "You can't park there" story. A Lake District farmer, fed up with illegal parking on his land, took revenge with a muck spreader


The content shows multiple cars covered in muck, parked near Rydal Water, in the Lake District, Cumbria.


At the beginning of the video, a sign can be seen which encourages the public not to park in the field, alongside another sign which warns of sheep in the field.


The camera then pans to the shocked owners of the vehicles, expecting the damage to their mucky cars.
Shouldn't that be inspecting? https://www.farmersguide.co.uk/rura...-slurry-after-owners-leave-them-on-his-field/
 

Peter Mugridge

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I am not sure that "no more movement" is the best advertising slogan for a toilet seat...?! :lol:

Photo below of pack showing said slogan.

1781874923422.png
 

Peter Mugridge

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Well, at the point at which the seat is down (as in the picture) you would hope movement had ceased or not commenced!
Well, true...

The slogan probably refers to the seat being designed not to come loose. Only had to buy it because my daughter managed to snap off one of the vertical supports from the one we had before... not what I needed to happen when the house is on the market and viewers are looking round!!! :rolleyes:
 

brad465

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Next up in the nominations for "most ironic story of the year":


An event due to be held in central London about how the world can adapt to extreme heat has been cancelled due to soaring temperatures.
Wednesday's meeting - titled Extreme Heat: Improving governance and strengthening action around the world - was to have been held at the London School of Economics' Shaw Library as part of London Climate Action Week.
Organisers said the university's building did not have any cooling mechanisms in place "like most buildings in London".
A Met Office red warning for extreme heat in London and other parts of England is in place until 23:59 BST on Thursday, with temperatures forecast to hit up to 37C.
A spokesperson for the organisers, the Zurich Climate Resilience Alliance, said they could not risk the wellbeing of attendees.
"The magnitude of future impacts from extreme heat will largely depend on global mitigation efforts, local heat governance, and response plans," the spokesperson said.
"Cities like London have unique potential to adapt to changing heat risks through effective risk management at multiple levels, connecting policies and incentives, and strengthening community adaptation capacity."
 

High Dyke

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Why was it necessary to point out that he was a Londoner ? is this another example of the general dislike of Southerners ( Londoners in particular ) would his place of resident have been been mentioned if he was from say,Swindon ?
I agree with your initial point, but TBH, would you admit to living in Swindon? ;)

I have driven on the permitted areas of the beach in the Southport area, but in reality, it just shows the mentality of some people in situations like that, where they always seem to know best.
 

Purple Train

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Can anyone think of a weirder political headline than this? Trump's reaction will be interesting to say the least...

Trump has crush on me, says Khan as feud restarts​

The Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan has said that Donald Trump "appears to have a crush" on him after the US President described him as "grossly incompetent".

Trump had also told reporters at the White House on Wednesday that Khan was a "bad person" and a "horrible representative" for the UK.

During the launch of his Heat Ready London plan at Islington Fire Station in north-east London, Khan said: "I'm not sure why I'm living rent-free inside President Trump's head. I'm not quite clear why this man appears to have a crush on me."

He added: "You know, all I would say is it could be because I'm the mayor of a progressive, multicultural, liberal, successful city."
:lol: :lol: :lol:
 

brad465

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Peter Mugridge

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Regarding this big celebrity wedding thing going on in New York this weekend:

Is it me or does this Travis bloke look like Inspector Clouseau...? It's the hat and moustache isn't it?




For those without the imagery: Picture is off a BBC news report of two celebrities getting married in New York this weekend; the man is wearing a hat which looks in shape, albeit not in colour, like the one frequently worn by Peter sellers in the Pink Panther film series, which is unfortunate because he is also sporting a very Clouseau-ish moustache.


1783074600822.png
 

D6130

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Regarding this big celebrity wedding thing going on in New York this weekend:

Is it me or does this Travis bloke look like Inspector Clouseau...? It's the hat and moustache isn't it?




For those without the imagery: Picture is off a BBC news report of two celebrities getting married in New York this weekend; the man is wearing a hat which looks in shape, albeit not in colour, like the one frequently worn by Peter sellers in the Pink Panther film series, which is unfortunate because he is also sporting a very Clouseau-ish moustache.


View attachment 207106
I have to admit that I was totally unaware of this event until reading this post. You've made my weekend! ;) :lol:
 

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