h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Yeah, but it was worth it for the responses it elicited with the #foxnewsfacts hashtag.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/foxnewsfacts-twitter-users-react-with-aplomb-to-news-that-birmingham-is-a-nogo-zone-for-nonmuslims-9971829.html

I started seeing those before I was aware of the story, and I thought at first it was just the usual (and always deserved) Fox News bashing. Once I found out the catalyst for it there was still a part of me that figured it must be yet another spoof story because no-one who is, supposedly, an 'expert' could come out with something as crass and as stupid as asserting that one of Britain's major cities is walled off to anyone but muslims, but then it turned out someone really had said that, in all seriousness, on TV

Let's not forget that there are many people apart from Steven Emerson who bear the blame for spreading such tosh, and they should all be ridiculed and rebuked equally forcefully - the Fox News presenter, the editor of the programme, the senior managers, the Dirty Digger himself. Although none of them will, and Fox News will continue to be its despicable self.

Yes, the expression on the face of that host was sublime.

You can tell she knows this is utter B.S. She knows it! But she knows she can't/won't call him on it because it fits the Fox narrative.

It is a picture, isn't it. I honestly can't tell though if she's furrowing those brows in concern for the Islamisation of Britain, or for her own credibility as a news presenter, and a human being.

I should correct that to furrowed brow (singular), shouldn't I. We furrow our brow (forehead), not our eyebrows. That would be a neat trick

Perhaps I meant beetled eyebrows... if I actually knew what beetled eyebrows are...

I'm listening to this "terrorism expert" try to worm his way out of accusations of Islamophobia.

On NPR's BBC World Service.

Dammit, I usually listen to that when I'm at home but I missed it today

If you catch a rebroadcast of it, it was at the very end of the hour.

So it's not beetled eyebrows either http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/60100.html

Is the interview that was on the World Service? http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-30783682

Despite my contempt for what Steven Emerson said, his lack of diligence and his apparent inability to master plain common sense (how can an entire city of one million people in a developed, modern democracy become a no-go area for *any* group of people and a haven (ghetto?) for another ), I still can't abide Eddie Mair's interviewing technique, even though Emerson got a pretty easy ride compared to some Eddie Mair interviews I've heard.

Nah. That's not the same interviewer.

You might be able to download the full program here.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/newshour

Eddie Mair was nicer too him than the Newshour guy.

Oh, and we were completely wrong about that Fox News host. She was not shocked or incredulous about what that "terrorism expert" was saying about Birmingham and London. She is calling for a full on progrom of all Muslim extremists.

http://youtu.be/UssJlhxBRLs

Why am I not surprised by that?

"We could find nothing that indicated Birmingham is a so-called no-go zone."
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-birmingham-30870062

Now, I may well be putting my own interpretation on this, but it's hard not to read that sentence without thinking that Fox News actually looked, and if they looked that surely means they gave some credence to the claim rather than dismissing it as what it is - ludicrous. "We could find..." suggests an active search for evidence. Either that, or a poorly-written statement.

And on a related note, Emma Thompson declares Belsize Park a no-go area for working people, who are apparently out to destroy the fabric of her society http://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/environment/actress_emma_thompson_joins_belsize_park_tesco_backlash_1_3920875

I'm with her on the idea that local businesses can suffer - and often have to close down - whenever a retail giant moves into an area. There's a track record of that happening in the UK with the big supermarkets and here with Wal Mart, but the moment she started rubbishing the staff she not only lost my support, but took me far into the opposite end of the spectrum.

"...the local feeling is destroyed by staff who neither know or care to know the inhabitants". That's 20 employees, according to Tesco. According to Emma Thompson they're a force from hell. What on earth does she think they're going to do? Go on rampages every night when they get off work? Open bottles of olive oil on the shelves and pee in them? Stick razor blades in the apples? Spray graffiti on every possible surface? Terrorise the local kids? Mug old ladies? And does she extend that view to every other poorly-paid working class person? Are they all a bad smell beneath the hooter? Are they all hoodlums who should be kept away from decent folk like her, and the area where she and her fragrant friends and acquaintances live?

What a scumbag. It's going to be very hard for me to watch Tutti Frutti again with the same degree of pleasure knowing what she thinks of the likes of me.

You're mistaken. She's not a Scumbag. Miss Money-Sterling attended Footlights College, Cambridge. The posh kids always win.

Young Ones - bambi: http://youtu.be/ysG96dUtGh4

What the bloody hell were you expecting, David?
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-32531175
Anonymous messaging Secret app 'worth $100m' shut down

And why, BBC, is the (supposed) worth of the company important enough to put in the headline?

I'm starting to think I should rename this conversation 'Trump, I can't help what you may personally be in orbit around' http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-33583898 He really is out there where the birds turn round, isn't he.