The ancient art of inane captions

Under one shot from a really cool set of nature photography pictures - BBC:

Scientists analysing the photographs found that areas of continuous forest had a higher diversity of species and a greater variety of animal sizes. These pristine forests were home to more large mammals, such as these mountain gorillas recorded in Uganda.

Somebody send the above mentioned scientists a Nobel prize, please, I am all out at the moment...

Military what?

From 7/29 Fox News on-line edition:

Hmm... the only military Chaplin I know of is that one:

Could it be?

The eternal dilemma of Gideon Levy

Gideon Levy in his latest missive A society is judged by the way it treats its prisoners left his readers with a delicious ambiguity to resolve. The last paragraph of the article reads:

To many Israelis, that is not enough. They want more suffering and vengeance. The sight of the makloubeh the Palestinian prisoners cooked for themselves in their narrow cells infuriates them more than our appearance in the mirror. A society is judged by the way it treats its prisoners. And yet, if I believed that this collective punishment could bring relief to Gilad, maybe I would have joined them.

Who is it precisely Mr Levy wants to join? If it's Israelis, he seems to be late. If it's the prisoners, how could it be arranged quickly?

Does India Need a Yuri Gagarin Monument?

Nothing against Yuri Gagarin here, but check out this:

According to Russian cosmonaut Viktor Savinykh, the city of Mumbai, India should have a monument erected in the name of the late Yuri Gagarin in order to “further boost the Indo-Soviet relationship.”

Was it the reporter or the Russian cosmonaut, but somebody needs a heads-up there: that empire is dead. Much deader than Yuri Gagarin, so live with it, folks.

Yeah, and that monument: it couldn't hurt. Go for it.

Netanyahu as "amour-plated bullshitter" and other bloopers

I wasn't on the outlook for bloopers today. It is simply that this Jerusalem Post headline jumped at me from the screen:

Of course, they meant "armour-plated", and it says so in the article itself:

Britain believed that then Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was an "armour-plated bullshitter", former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair's communications chief Alistair Campbell was quoted as writing in 1998, The Guardian reported Thursday.

Interestingly, both the typo and the original image fit the subject...

Of course, to verify the story and the quote I went to look for the original article in The Guardian. Yep. The stories match, and more:

Ehud Barak, the former Israeli prime minister who recently left the Labour party to strengthen his coalition with Netanyahu, also believes the Israeli prime minister is a bullshitter.

Sure, it takes one to know one. Not that Tony Blair couldn't make up a classy trinity of bulshitters, of course.

Another fine prize waited for me further down the text of the same Guardian's article:

Blood-soaked death throat? Royal Mail has started a new and hitherto unheard of service, it looks like.

Well, all in a day's work...

Solar cars, toasters, bloopers...

From this article on a successful test of a solar powered car:

I wish I had a toaster that produces energy as a bonus (I guess). I would have taken it out for a ride every morning, while consuming immoderate quantities of toasted bread.

As it is, I gave our toaster away, not to be seduced by all these freshly toasted... mmm... no, I have to stop talking about it...