While Boris Johnson generally attracted a lot of derision and criticism for wearing police gear to promote a new drug policing strategy, this scathing tweet from Line of Duty creator, Jed Mercurio especially stood out.
To quote from a news report:
Army bomb squad technicians were sent to a hospital after a man arrived in casualty with a WWII anti-tank shell lodged into his rectum.
Medics called for specialist support after the man presented in the Accident and Emergency unit of Gloucestershire Royal Hospital in Gloucester when he could not remove the 57mm shell.
The military collector claimed he armour-piercing munition was from his private arsenal. He told medics the 80-year-old explosive device became lodged after he tripped and fell awkwardly.
Recent winners of the annual Diagram Prize have included ‘Goblinproofing One’s Chicken Coop’, ‘How to Poo on a Date’ and ‘A Dog Pissing at the Edge of a Path: Animal Metaphors in Eastern Indonesian Society’. The most referenced winner has probably been 2003’s ‘The Big Book of Lesbian Horse Stories’. Apparently, two out of every five winners have been titles for higher education studies.
The administrator of the award had this to say about the winning title and its author:
Congratulations to Is Superman Circumcised? and its author Roy Schwartz for the heroic effort put into winning the 43rd Diagram Prize. Mr Schwartz seems smarter than Lex Luthor (and presumably less evil) as I can’t recall any author being so pleased to make the Diagram shortlist. He has been busier than Meryl Streep’s publicist during Oscar season in pushing Is Superman Circumcised? out to his fans.
All of our shortlistees would have been worthy winners but with all due respect to them, I am glad of the margin of victory, for if it was a close-run thing I would have feared a slip of the tongue if I had to talk about Is Superman Circumcised? winning by the skin of its, er, teeth.
From Sweden: a campaign to highlight “gender stereotyping in AI” asserts what a male voice assistant could come across as. Lazy, creepy, easily offended… the list goes on.
An absurdly hilarious campaign for Google’s Scam Spotter that risks distracting viewers from its core message.
An ad campaign for a drinks mixer brand that takes a sharp (and witty) dig at people “who don’t mix well”.
Link to a behind-the-scenes video (sort of)
Lest you wonder, that’s from research done on “monogamous albatrosses”- a subject that evidently some scientists consider worth studying. According to their findings, “the probability of divorce was directly affected by the environment, increasing in years with warm sea surface temperature anomalies.”
From Germany: a set of ads that make the case for supplemental dental insurance. What I found intriguing is that according to the creative team, the target audience is females in the age group of 25-40 and, hence, the ads are all centered on women who might need insurance. What’s more, at least one of the potential accidents portrayed in the ads is self-inflicted.
From an AP report:
A man in Germany has discovered the hard way that it’s best to get a driving license first before trying to use it.
Police in Bergheim, near Cologne, said Tuesday that the 37-year-old drove himself to his driving test, parking an Opel Zafira outside the test center in front of an astonished examiner.
They said he told police officers who were called to the scene on Monday that he had only driven because he wanted to make sure to get to the driving test on time.
His test was immediately called off. The man now faces an investigation for driving without a license. Police also opened an investigation of the car’s owner.
To quote British MP Nick Fletcher:
Everywhere, not at least within the cultural sphere, there seems to be a call from a tiny, yet very vocal minority, that every male character or good role model must have a female replacement.
One only needs to look at the discussions surrounding who will play the next James Bond. And it’s not just James Bond.
In recent years, we have seen Doctor Who, Ghostbusters, Luke Skywalker, the Equaliser, all replaced by women, and men are left with the Krays and Tommy Shelby.
Is there any wonder we are seeing so many young men committing crime?
From a news report out of Yorkshire:
A court has imposed a restraining order to protect a retired racehorse from the unwanted attentions of a grandmother who refused to stop feeding him carrots.
In a ruling rarely - if ever - passed by a British court, the horse was afforded legal protection from over-feeding after prosecutors made the application to magistrates on his behalf.
Margaret Porter, 67, thought Nelson the chestnut gelding was “sad looking” and came to the view that he was under-fed so began giving him carrots despite being explicitly asked not to by his owner.
A new spot for premium potato brand, Albert Bartlett, features professional acrobats, an operatic score, and a glamorous visualisation of the potato picking line.
From South Africa: the latest campaign from fast food chain Chicken Licken offers sound advice, packaged in hilarious ‘what if’ scenarios.
Spot 1: Lottery
Spot 2: Loan shark
Spot 3: Neck Tattoo
That’s from a speech to the Confederation of British Industry, that left many people bewildered. I’ll let these excerpts from a report in The Guardian sum up the highlights:
The prime minister’s sprawling address to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) was accused of lacking seriousness and professionalism. Johnson lost his place during the speech and spent 20 seconds repeating “forgive me” as he shuffled the printed pages on his podium.
One of Johnson’s lengthier tangents was about his recent trip to Hampshire’s Peppa Pig World – an amusement park dedicated to a children’s cartoon character, which he opined on in an apparent dig at civil servants and the BBC.
Johnson also imitated the sound of an accelerating car with grunts that the official Downing Street release transcribed as “arum arum aaaaaaaaag”. He also compared himself to Moses over his plan to help business invest in tackling climate change.
From Turkey: Boji, the stray dog from Istanbul who, a few weeks ago, caught the attention of the global media for his fondness for travelling by public transport, is in the news once again- this time, for being framed for pooping on a tram. As explained in this report:
According to footage shared by Istanbul Municipality spokesperson Murat Ongun on Nov. 20, Boji the dog was framed by a man who placed the poop on public transportation on Nov. 19 after carrying it in his pocket. The man's identity currently remains unknown.
The municipality also revealed that Boji was in a shelter on Nov. 19, the day of the incident.
The footage was shared by the spokesperson in response to claims that Boji pooped on a tramway, which were circulated by social media accounts that were overwhelmingly seen to be supporting the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
“The Istanbul Municipality's dog Boji pooped on a tramway,” said Sağdan Haber, a pro-AKP Twitter account that often shares posts against the municipality due to it being run by the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP).
The incident is the latest in the row between the CHP-led Istanbul Municipality and the AKP. Framing a dog, however, is a new low.
A promotional video for a London-based animation and illustration studio that not only showcases their brilliance, but lives up to their name- Kong Studio.
