Archive for September, 2011

Turkish Mortuary Alarm to Detect Life Among the Dead

A local council in central Turkey has decided to err on the side of caution and has enhanced its mortuary with fridges which can detect movement in case anyone comes back to life. A cemetery official, Akif Kayadurmus, said: “If the patient, proclaimed dead by doctors, awakens from a state of unconsciousness, then we consider [...]

September 30, 2011   Posted in: News  No Comments

Missing Moon Rock Gathered Dust

An archivist going through some of Bill Clinton’s old papers has found a rare missing moon rock which was brought back from the Apollo 17 mission in the 1970s. The ‘Goodwill Moon Rock’ is worth millions but has been gathering dust in a forgotten box of papers marked ‘Arkansas Flag Plaque’. Now its fate is [...]

September 29, 2011   Posted in: News  No Comments

Bullfighting in Barcelona Ends with Catalonia Ban

Catalonian bull fighting fans have been to their last local event following a ban on the tradition which now comes into force in north-east Spain. This follows a petition which drew 180,000 signatures from people keen to see bullfighting put to an end. The showdown attracted a crowd of 20,000 who filled the Monumental arena [...]

September 28, 2011   Posted in: News  No Comments

Book recommendation: ‘For Esmé – with Love and Squalor’ by J. D. Salinger

For Esmé With Love and Squalor includes two of Salinger’s most famous and critically acclaimed stories, and helped to establish him as one of the contemporary literary greats. The title story recounts a Sergeant’s meeting with a young girl before being sent into combat. When it was first published in The New Yorker in 1950 [...]

September 28, 2011   Posted in: Books  No Comments

Skypecast No.6 with writer and philosopher Andy Martin

This video is the sixth in what is a series of Skypecasts on this blog. Andy Martin is a writer, philosopher and Cambridge academic. His books include Stealing the Wave: The Epic Struggle Between Ken Bradshaw and Mark Foo, Beware Invisible Cows: My Search for the Soul of the Universe and the forthcoming The Boxer and The Goalkeeper: [...]

September 27, 2011   Posted in: News  No Comments

Unreliable Witness Risks

Last week Troy Davis, who was convicted of killing an off-duty police officer in 1991, was executed in Jackson, Georgia. This followed an international campaign to throw out the conviction on the grounds that witnesses had wrongly identified him as the murderer of Mark MacPhail. The execution was backed by the US Supreme Court. Almost [...]

September 27, 2011   Posted in: News  No Comments

Nigerian Killer Call Fears

No other country in Africa has as many mobile phone owners as Nigeria.  And now the country is awash with viral text messages which have warned that a number of people have died after answering calls with the ID of 09141. Spokesperson for the Nigerian Communications Commission  Reuben Muoka said: “Technically, it is not possible [...]

September 26, 2011   Posted in: News  No Comments

Monday morning with Alex Williams’ cartoons, 26th September 2011

This cartoon is by Alex Williams who draws the Queen’s Counsel cartoons for The Times and in numerous books including Lawyers Uncovered. He also does the cartoons for BabyBarista and has had two more excellent books published recently: 101 Ways to Leave the Law and 101 Uses for a Useless Banker. He offers almost all of [...]

September 26, 2011   Posted in: Cartoons  No Comments

Weekend video: ‘Adams addresses Supreme Court’

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September 24, 2011   Posted in: Video  No Comments

X Marks The Spot But Only For Some

In Australia intersex people who are neither exclusively male nor female may now indicate this with an X instead of male or female on their passports. Transgendered people – who perceive that their own sex does not match their biology – will not be offered the same option. They will, however, be able to choose [...]

September 23, 2011   Posted in: News  No Comments