Gary Glitter's Sex Quiz

The Sun goes with "Glitter's 10-hour Sex Quiz", which sounds like one of the worst TV shows Channel Five has ever made.

Gary Glitter was arrested this weekend by police investigating the Jimmy Savile scandal. The rumours are that Gary Glitter and Jimmy Savile were working together in their own sex ring. We should've guessed. Gary even told us about his "gang".

I'm in my thirties, so all of these stories are ruining my childhood memories. It's nothing in comparison to what the people affected by this went through, but when I look back I feel that my wholesome memories were fake. Next we'll find out that Danger Mouse was a nonce. We were never told the story behind why he had to wear an eye patch. Vigilantes?

Button Moon always seemed a bit dodgy. Mr Spoon was good at getting out of town pretty sharpish.

Bananaman's basic take-home message was, "Eat this and you'll stop being a boy and start being a real man."

I don't remember much about Pigeon Street but it was before the days when you could go to a website to see if any wrong 'uns were living there.

And worst of all, ITV's Knightmare. That was the show where a strange man with a beard put a helmet on a child, so the child couldn't see what was going on, and that child then had to follow any instruction he was given.

And Noggin the Nog? Oh, please.

So, all of my childhood memories are now sullied. Well, some shows are still OK. I remember watching The Krankies, and as long as the old bloke never shagged Wee Jimmy I'll be OK.

>Read the source story

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Criminal Monkey Captured

Good news from Florida. A wild monkey that had attacked a 60-year-old woman has finally been caught after being on the run for 2 years.

It doesn't say much for the local police that a lesser primate managed to keep one step ahead of them for so long. And it says even less for any humans who attacked a 60-year-old and got caught sooner.

The monkey had recently jumped on an old lady and bit her in the neck. I know these monkeys are clever but I'm amazed it knew Halloween was coming up and that neck biting was part of a good costume.

It was caught when it fell for a trap. Some bananas were left as bait and when it went to take them it was shot by a tranquilliser dart. I bet it feels pretty stupid now. Bananas? Such a cliché.

Although, I have a theory that he didn't fall for the bait in the way they'd planned. The 2.5m-long cage, containing bananas as bait, was left near the house of Mrs Fowler, the OAP he went for. I don't think he was attracted by the bananas, he was attracted by the old lady.

He's short, hairy, less evolved and has a thing for old women. Congratulations America, you have a Wayne Rooney too.

>Read the source story

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Victory Over Cold Callers

The Daily Mail says, "Victory Over Cold Callers". This is the story that a cold-call firm has been forced to pay compensation to a businessman after he took it to court for wasting his time.

I like this news, because I hate getting those sales calls. But at the same time I realise it means nothing to me, because my time isn't worth that much. I write knob gags for a living. If I could prove those calls waste my time, pro-rata, I'd get about 27p back.

Richard Herman vowed to hit back after he was targeted by firms promising compensation for mis-sold Payment Protection Insurance (PPI). That's where you get a phone call saying, "You could be entitled to compensation after you were mis-sold PPI."

And after this court ruling we'll probably get calls saying, "You could be entitled to compensation after you were mis-called about PPI."

He invoiced one of the firms for £10 for every minute he wasted answering their telephone calls. He also recorded the calls, meaning that when the unscrupulous company denied ever having rung him, he was armed with incontrovertible proof to the contrary.

I'm so glad someone is fighting back. I get a lot of spam calls, so much so I leave my land-line phone unplugged. But when I plug it back in when I need it, it always rings within a few minutes. Recent cold calls I have had (these aren't made up, and are as word-for-word as I can remember) include...

THEM: Hello Sir. Am I calling on behalf of Microsoft. Do you have a computer in the house?
ME: Yes.
THEM: Well, there is a problem that we have discovered with a virus, and you may be at risk...
ME: Oh, well I don't...
THEM: If you have a minute we can do a test on your computer to see if you are infected...
ME: No, I don't...
THEM: We can check and...
ME: Are you going to listen to what I have to say!?
THEM: Yes sir.
ME: I have Linux computers.
THEM: (pause) Oh. (hangs up)

And then there was...

ME: Hello.
THEM: Hello, my name is John. I am calling you today from London.
ME: No you're not. (Hangs up)

The reason I hung up was this, do you know how to tell if someone is actually calling from London? They don't start by saying they're calling from London. This is not the bloody Eurovision.

And my favourite cold call went like this.

ME: Hello.
THEM: Hello, is that Neil?
ME: No, you've got the wrong number.
THEM: No, I have the right number, I have the wrong name.
ME: Well, I'm fairly sure of my own number, but I'm bloody certain of my own name!

>Read the source story

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Virginity For Sale

A Brazilian student has reportedly sold her virginity for almost half a million pounds in an online auction.

Wow. And to think, I just gave mine away. Along with the cash that middle-aged woman wanted, for cigarettes.

It's 20-year-old Catarina Migliorini, who was one of two virgins to take part in the auction for an Australian documentary. A Japanese man bid £487,000 to be the first to take her to bed.

Seedy, dirty, exploitative? Maybe. But times are hard and at nearly half a mil for a virginity, I can't be the only one thinking this is how we get out of the economic troubles. If we sold all the virgins in the UK for half a million pounds we could make about £6million.

Catarina said she would use the money to study medicine in Argentina. Well, save some for the therapy you'll need. In fact, you might need to save most of it for that.

She said in an interview, "For me, it's not prostitution." You're quite right. Why would paying for sex be prostitution?

She added, "When someone does something once in his or her life, this is not considered a profession. If you take a picture and it comes out good, you are not a photographer because of it."

Although, tell that to Chesney Hawkes. One good song and he's still called a singer.

Is this a sexist issues, showing than men treat women as nothing more than a commodity? Well, no, because the other virgin who sold their cherry was a man. Alex Stepanov from Russia sold his virginity for £1,800.

Hang on. £485,000 for her but £1,800 for him. Someone should tell him about the recent high court ruling that says man and women should get paid the same amount for the same grade of work.

Although, that depends on if the act of losing your virginity is the same grade work for a man and a women. Well, the nervousness, the pain, the crying after... the shame, the ruined reputation, the dress you have to throw away... but I don't know what it's like for the women.

>Read the source story

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Podcast 37 - Lance Armstrong, George Osborne, Porn Addiction and Jobs

It's the SomeNews Podcast, episode 37. It's a different look at some news.

In this podcast:

Lance Armstrong (starts 01:16)
George Osborne's Ticket (starts 06:03)
Porn Addiction (starts 08:36)
Worst Bits of Your Job (starts 09:50)
Megan Stammers (starts 12:13)



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Women's Perfect Day

A study has looked at what would make up a woman's ideal day, for some reason. The perfect day breaks down like this.

8 hours of uninterrupted sleep (That means no snoring, right? That's already a fail.)

106 minutes of 'intimate relations' (A whole 106 minutes!? Surely that's 100 minutes of begging and 6 minutes of actually doing it.)

98 minutes of spending time on the computer (Ah, so that's how you get in the mood for the 8 minutes of intimate relations.)

82 minutes socialising (That means Twitter, right?)

78 minutes relaxing (That means Twitter on the phone while lying down, right?)

68 minutes exercising (Well, 8 minutes of that is already covered in the 'intimate relations' part, if you're doing it right.)

57 minutes talking on the phone (Just the one phone call then, right ladies?)

56 minutes of shopping (Although if you have to buy something in the Post Office, 54 of that will be spent in the queue.)

36 minutes working (You only want to do 36 minutes of work in a whole working day? In that case, get a job in the Post Office.)

>Read the source story

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The Funeral Strippers' End

Five people have been detained in China for running striptease send-offs at funerals.

Although it means you can say, "Oh, it's what he would've wanted" and really mean it.

Apparently having a stripper at a funeral used to be more common. Maybe I mean "more popular". It's always going come across as common. It was used as a way to boost the number of mourners, as large crowds are seen as a mark of honour.

As a mourner, why would you want to be known as someone who only turns up to pay your respects if you think there's a chance of seeing some boob? And would it really be that sexy? If it's an open casket, that'll kill the mood.

Local officials have now ordered a halt to "obscene performances" and say funeral plans have to be submitted in advance. Well hang on, if someone can submit funeral plans in advance they are probably a cold-blooded murderer.

But I agree with the stricter policy. I don't think a funeral is the place to have a stripper. I wouldn't be seen dead at such an event. And for once that phrase means something, as that's one of the available spaces.

>Read the source story

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The Purple Way To Pull

Men are most likely to pull a woman if they are wearing a purple, according to a new study.

New study? Was it done this summer? The women probably think purple means you're an Olympics volunteer.

They asked 2,000 women what colour shirt would make them consider dating a man. That's a survey? It sounds more like desperate conversation when the chemistry just isn't there. It should be followed by chitchat about A roads.

36% of women would go for a purple shirt wearer, but only 6% would go for a man in a pink shirt. Information like this is useless at best. But at worst, someone actually tries to use it. It means most guys will be turning up to singles nights wearing purple. It'll be like the singles events are sponsored by Cadbury's. And I assume the women who go there already know about chocolate.

A third of women said they had demanded their partner change what they wore due to "embarrassment". Remember, this is a recent survey, so the effect of snoods might have skewed the stats.

And finally, 10% of women said they had destroyed clothes because they hated them. Now this is good information. If those men at the singles events can make the women hate their tops and bras...

>Read the source story

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Are Your Hands This Dirty?

Well this is horrible news. One in four people's hands are contaminated with poo. I think that means the hands of one person out of every four people, and not one hand from two people's worth of hands. Or that would mean some people are only washing one hand after going to the loo and that seems like more hassle than it's worth.

This is why I'm starting my campaign to change shaking hands to the left hands. Most people are righties and most people wipe with their dominant hand. Why would you use your less dominant hands, you need accuracy down there?

The same study says one in nine people have as much faecal organisms on their hands as you would find on a dirty toilet set. And the received wisdom is that this is caused by people not washing their hands, but even if you don't wash, why do you have that much poo on your hands? Didn't you learn to wipe? If your fingers go through you didn't use enough.

Also worrying is the statistic that one in ten banks cards have faecal bacteria on them. I can understand how your hand gets near your bum, but bank cards? That's not where you're meant to swipe them.

This survey was released to promote Global Handwashing Day. I'm all for it. I did a chemistry degree and dealing with harsh chemicals that react to moisture teaches you to wash your hands BEFORE and after you've been to the loo.

>Read the source story

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Chakravyuh Red Carpet Premiere [Red Carpet Interview]

I was lucky enough to go to the red carpet premiere of the new film Chakravyuh, on as part of the London film festival.

Described as a Bollywood political thriller, it's directed by Prakash Jha and stars Arjun Rampal, Abhay Deol, Esha Gupta, Manoj Bajpai, Kabir Bedi and Anjali Patil. It is a social commentary on the issues of Naxalites. Out on the 24th of October, 2012.


You can hear the red carpet interviews in full below.



Or downloads the mp3 here

Prakash Jha (00:09)
Arjun Rampal (02:05)
Abhay Deol (03:15)

See also: The Pusher Premiere Interviews


You can hear about this film and the premiere on the Sunny and Shay Show on BBC London this Saturday (13th Oct) after 8pm. Listen on FM 94.9, or online.

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The Price Of Gas Goes Up... Again

The Evening Standard tells us "British Gas Set To Hike Power Prices". If you see Sid, tell him he's a dick.

Everyone is upset that British gas is increasing the cost of gas and electricity by around 8% when only recently did it announce £1.5 billion profit in 6 months.

I say everyone. I'm not. It shouldn't come as a surprise. British Gas is a private company and if a company can do something to maximise its profits for its shareholders, it should.

Let me explain it this way.

INTERIOR. BOARD ROOM. MEN IN SUITS SIT ROUND A LARGE TABLE
MAN1: So, we made £1.5 billion in the last six months. What should we do next?
MAN2: Oh, I don't know, maybe not worry about earning anything else for a while. Just chill.

Said no one, in no board room, never.

You can't blame the company. All you can do is blame whoever thought it was a good idea to turn British Gas into a private company. Why would you let someone be in charge of making profit from something we all need, heat?

The excuse that's normally made for privatisation is that it improves efficiency. And it does. It makes a provider of a basic need more efficient at charging us the highest amount for something the market will allow.

Some say increased competition after privatisation will keep the costs down. Tell that to the gas companies, the electricity companies, the water companies, the train companies... you get the picture.

In other newspapers there has been talk about investing in fracking in the UK so the cost of gas can be driven down. That would be a great idea, if the price that we pay ever went down when the raw gas price drops. All that will happen is British Gas, and other such companies, will force the price of gas up, which will make us willing to accept fracking rocking parts of the north to bits, and when the cost of gas goes down we'll still be paying the same for it on our bills, but the gas companies will taken even bigger profits.

Basically, we're screwed, but I never like leaving an article on a down beat, so to make us feel better I'll mention the woman in France who was sent a phone bill for €11,721,000,000,000,000.

A phone bill that's nearly 6,000 times the country's annual economic output. Wow. I know women can talk, but...

Clearly that's just a joke and it was a mistake on the part of the billing department. But it's the closest thing to something that could make us feel better about being charged even more for basic heating just as we head into winter.

>Read the source story

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Get Better Sleep [Sleep Expert Interview]

A new study says that we're not getting enough sleep. I am. I fall to sleep all the time. But that's because I read new studies about things like this.

It's worrying, because we need sleep. Without it we get grumpy and moan all the time and we bored people and we show them endless photos. You know, like when you meet up with an old friend who has just had a baby.

The same research also looked specifically at what people kept on their bedside tables - 40% of us go to bed with a glass of water, a third go to bed with their phone next to their head and 16% keep lubricant to hand.

Wow. What were they planning on doing with that phone!?

We also learn from the research that the older we get the more likely we are to sleep naked. It didn't say if that was a choice or just forgetfulness.

Anyway, we'd all like to get better sleep, so I thought I'd speak to an exert on this. I was lucky enough to get to interview sleep expert Sammy Margo. If you want to hear it, use the player below...



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QVC Presenter Faints Live On TV

Shop till you drop. I thought I knew what that phrase meant but here's a new take on it.

A QVC presenter in America fainted live on air. While trying to sell an Android tablet for children, QVC brought in a mother and technology expert to help explain why it would be such a good purchase. What could possibly go wrong? Here's the video.


Here it is on YouTube
Not that I have watched this over and over again, but I have analysed the action down to the second. I invite you to watch it again with my helpful guide below.

Firstly, it doesn't start to get good till about 1:07 in. The first part was so dull I nearly passed out too.

1:08 The male presenter, Dan Wheeler, points out that Cassie Slane is a busy mommy of three. That's it, get the excuse in early.

1:15 Her "hmm mmm" says so much.

1:25 First slur of a word.

1:28 She puts the electronic device down. How's that for safety first?

1:29 Second slur. He's thinking she's one of those "drinking mommies of three".

1:31 Ah, lean on the desk, that'll save ya.

1:33 Slapping the right boob is the international sign language for "help" you know.

Here's my favourite bit...

1:36 Dan caringly says, "Are you OK?"

1:37 He moves out of her way as she falls. Oh, what a gent. His words are nice but if he thinks you're going to get make up on his new suit, you're on your own luv.

1:40 He just goes right on selling. She's just headbutted an Android tablet display but he's got commission to earn.

1:45 The sound of Dan moving Cassie off his table?

2:22 Dan says: "We'll get Cassie's mic working again." Like that was the problem. I've had mics fail on me before and it's never made me slap my moob and do a face plant.

2:32 Sound of Cassie being dragged out of the shot?

2:39 He's back.

3:11 Who let the drunk back in?

3:20 Cassie: "This is a kid browser." Not like that, Savile!

3:37 First signs she's not done yet.

3:44 Cassie says your kids are "safe" with this tablet computer. Really? Because there's a chance it just overloaded your neural network.

3:56 I'm not sure what she says but I think it's heading towards, "I love you, you know, *hic* cos you're my besh pal."

3:59 Dan swaps hands so he can be ready for the next dive.

4:10 You made a good point there Cassie. I'm sold. Where do I buy one?

>Read the source story

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