Arts & Media

We find ourselves in an era of technological splendour and moral confusion, a time when we can summon miracles with a swipe yet remain puzzlingly blind to the mounting catastrophes at our door. It’s 2025, and the brightest minds on Earth—those once poised to cure pandemics or pioneer clean energy—are now fixated on perfecting gambling apps, AI-generated pornography, and a new wave of virtual girlfriends designed to flatter, console, and distract. As glaciers recede and storms grow fiercer, these digital creations thrive in server farms powered by fossil fuels, data centres humming day and night as the real world smoulders in the background. Yet the greatest showpiece of our current obsession might just be the Stargate Project, a colossal, half-trillion-pound initiative ...

With the current lockdown due to Covid 19, life has changed for many people. One aspect that people are trying to keep going is their religious observances – something to seek solace and reassurance at a difficult time in the UK and the rest of the World. Most faiths have made an attempt to make some of their services available online, here are just a few we have found. Even if you are not religious these online services give a fascinating window into the religious worlds of many of our neighbours, fostering more tolerance and understanding. Why not give them a go while you are locked down! Christian – Church of England https://www.churchofengland.org/more/media-centre/church-online Christian – Methodist https://manchesterumc.org/live-streaming/ Christian Catholic  https://www.thecatholicuniverse.com/live-streams-catholic-masses-online-in-the-uk-and-ireland-list-50726 Muslim – Islam https://www.youtube.com/user/theeastlondonmosque Jewish – Judaism http://www.wls.org.uk/       

This 23 February 2018 satiric animation by Mark Fiore from the USA says about itself: Buster the Little Nuke While we’ve all been watching dueling memos, unhinged tweets and stock market dips, the Trump administration is quietly brining us closer to nuclear war. But that’s okay, chances are it’d start out as just a small nuclear war. You can read more from Petrel 41 at the blog Dear Kitty featured image Warheads

  Sorted! Two ‘grid cockneys’ pictured last night practising for The Monaco Grand Prix   Following their decision to scrap the traditional ‘grid girls’ this season, F1 bosses have announced, that in the 2018 season, cars will line up on the starting grid alongside men who were born within the sound of the bells of St Mary Le Bow church in the City of London. These ‘grid cockneys’ will still hold umbrellas to shade drivers as they sit in the cockpit, but instead of the traditional skimpy clothing that made their predecessors such a colourful and popular spectacle at races throughout the season, the men will wear West Ham football shirts, colourful neckerchiefs, Levi Sta-Prest trousers and trilby hats. Formula 1 CEO, Chase Carey, welcomed ...

Buzz Off! “Bee” happy about the neonicotinoid ban. It’s better for the bees. And anything is better than that joke I just made. FT Et Tu, Julius?       I know it is very presumptuous to assume that 63 people will read the comic, let alone have one reader that will get the actual correct answer. I also assume a certain political cartoonist will claim that he and he alone invented contests included within comics, but as they say in Torphichen “prove it in a court of law.” FT   A Day In The Life   This could be any politician if you think about it. Any resemblence to persons alive or deceased is strictly coincidental. I got the title from one of my favorite Beatles ...

Demagogues, there are so many overflowing with racial resentment you can pluck them out of the air – or any BBC chat show – pull the pin in their back and hear them cackle pre-recorded racist tosh. If you broke them in half you’ll find neo-fascist in hard sugary letters all the way through them. There is Nigel Farage, running around Europe glad-handing far-right extremist parties while denouncing European unity – most nations would have confiscated his passport by now; Theresa May telling Scotland to keep its nose out of the United Kingdom’s business as if Scotland has no part to play in the United Kingdom; Boris Johnson, his mouth full of crotch-rubbed cricket balls, telling Europe to keep its nose out of ...

What’s happening with the business hacks at the BBC? They seem to have come over all right-wing tabloidy. A bizarre report by the BBC today claims the UK economy will be given a ‘£135bn annual boost’ by a hard Brexit. In its article, the BBC extensively quotes infamous Thatcherite economist Patrick Minford, who is the lead author of a report urging the hardest of hard Brexits from pro-Brexit campaign group Economists for Free Trade. So far so UKIP. Although it’s a bit weird to see a rogue economist normally quoted in the pages of the Express or the Sun being so prominently and uncritically quoted by the BBC in its business section. But bizarrely, the BBC report also apes those gutter rags by completely censoring failing to mention ...

The World Turns on its Head   BREXIT HERO Viscount St Davids leaves court to thunderous applause and wild cheering from his supporters (The so-called Gina “Miller” inset). Dear Bob, I think it’s an absolute bloody disgrace that Mrs May’s most-trusted advisor and the behind-the-scenes leader of Britain’s negotiating team in Brussels should be dragged through the courts for simply saying it “like it is”. Let me explain…Rhodri Colwyn Philipps, the 4th Viscount St Davids (above), is standing trial charged with three counts of making malicious communications on Twitter for the messages he sent after Chief ReMoaner Gina “Miller” (who he rightly calls “a bloody troublesome jumped up first generation immigrant”) won a BREXIT legal challenge against the Government last November. This woman ...

So Jackie…what are you up too? Reporting Scotland reported on the exam results last night, Jackie started off by saying that there was a record number of Scottish children being able to obtain a place at university because of their exam results and that this included an increase in the number of children from deprived areas but critics say this is despite SNP policy…. Link to short Video Wait – hang on! Let’s rewind a bit… So this year’s exam results mean that a RECORD number of children got good enough results to get into university, and part of that number shows an increase in children from poorer areas also managed to get accepted into university but this is despite SNP policies? My brain hurts just ...

I saw this article in the Guardian Online and thought, at last they are getting the message, they are catching on. The gist of the article is mainly the Grenfell disaster in London and the response to the media but there is some mention of Scotland and experiences during the referendum, from the press point of view. However the article just drips in sarcasm in that for me it scoffs at the new media and tries to blame the new media for the mainstream media’s failures, in my opinion anyway . From the outset Andrew Harrison sets up the usual that we have come to expect. He tells us that The Canary and Evolve Politics are conspiracy news outlets, way to go, he ...