Microplastic Oceans (not a band)

Quite rightly, environmentalists have their knickers in a twist about melting glaciers. The poles are undoubtedly the poster-boys for climate change.
But did you know there is a giant floating toxic landfill (mostly comprised of non-biodegradeable plastics) which is bobbing about in the North Pacific? It's the size of Texas but because it's far off land no-one seems to care. Hopefully this vid will change that ...

Barbie saves lives

Undercover reporters chasing hot scoops often end getting themselves in a whole lot of bother. I'm forever reading about fearless war junky reporter types getting kidnapped whilst on the road out of I'Bad for a cup of mint tea with a Taleban top brasser. Most of the time the fixer isn't actually the fixer and rather than a page one Terror splash these guys get nine months locked up in a cave getting awfully gaunt. With only beheading to look forward to.
Luckily, Mattel - makers of Barbie - have come to the rescue. They've invented Barbie Video Girl Doll which has the potential to revolutionise how undercover journalism works.
The new Barbie has a built-in video which shoots from a camera carefully concealed in her necklace. Sneaky. Not only is Barbie Vid Gal gorgeous (aren't all Barbies?) but the new doll is "an all-in-one shooting and screening experience." Go babe!
The ramifications for undercover journo ops are strikingly obvious: Why send some battle-hardened, bearded, khaki-clad CNN hard-ass into the Northern Territories when you can simply pop an innocent-looking 8-year-old girl on a plane armed only with her sticker album and, crucially, Barbie Video Girl Doll. Imagine the scoops she'll file. Bad luck Donal Mc and co - you're out of work.

Duck teaches boy to walk

Humans always bleat on about how they are able to teach animals this and that. Like how to plough. Or jump incredibly high fences with a mincer in jodhpurs saddled to your back.
Because humans control the media we rarely hear about it when animals teach humans fancy new tricks.
That's why you should sit up and pay attention when I tell you a duck with a gammy leg called Ming Ming has tought a four-year-old disabled boy how to walk. Check for yourself here. Credit where credits due to Reuters for not burying the facts.

Gaddafi: fashion icon

Politicians tend to dress downright drab. Dark grey 'non-offensive' suits are de rigueur at top-level summits. Angela Merkel takes it to another level with her horrible long suit jackets.

Thankfully, not all politicians play it so safe. They're not all cut from the same cloth. Take Fidel Castro in his sixties pomp - thick-rimmed glasses twinned with no-nonsense, belted fatigues. True revolutionary chic. Some of Mandela's more 'wacky' shirts are alright too.

However, when it comes to stepping out in style only one political animal matters: Colonel Qaddafi. Whether he's sporting the banana republic strong man look or going for something a little more flamboyant, he always looks top dinar.

Source: Vanity Fair via Dearlove

Photo credits (top to bottom): Waleed el Mehelemy/Reuters/Corbis.
UPI/Landov

Greenfield/Sipa

Swansea Love Story

Swansea. I've never been there but I've always had something of a soft spot for the tough-as-old-boots South Wales city.
Firstly, Rhodri, my old housemate in Brizzle, was a bonafide boyo from the valleys. Secondly, the Swansea City jacks and I share a common enemy: Cardiff City FC. I'll never fully get over the scumbag bluebirds beating QPR in that play-off final.
So, I was immediately intrigued to check out Vice's "Swansea Love Story," about the lives and loves of heroin addicts eeking out a pitiful existence in Swansea. The film, which is is co-directed and produced by Leo (son of Mike) Leigh and Vice UK's head honcho Andy Capper, has already garnered great notices - The Guardian has called it "the must-see British film of the year".
The first episode has just been posted on VBS.TV with 5 more to follow. It aint an easy watch but it is strangely moving. Be warned that its a hellishly tough watch if you aren't a massive fan of smackheads fumbling around with dirty needles behind wheelie-bins.

Sensual toilet experience

Worried about the possibility that the recession might double dip? Concerned that the implosion of Greece's economy might hit you in the pocket book?
Time to exude an air of confidence that everything will be alright. But how?
Here's how: pop down to your local Waitrose, official supermarche to the genuine aristocracy and upper middle classes, and snap up their fantastic new times-are-tough-but-only-if-you're-poor offering - bog roll injected with a lux lashings of cashmere. Show economic meltdown the finger by snaffling up a few rolls for just £2.29. Little Archie and Jemima (your adorable kids) will love the feel of it on their boxfresh botties (sp).

Photo credit: Waitrose

From downtown

This loooooong-ranger makes Beckham's chip from the half way line look positively pedestrian. All the more amazing as the scorer looks slightly anorexic.

Laying it on a plate

Guti is an over-rated show pony but you gotsta to give it up for this awesome backheeler assist. It has Reuben drooling

Beer from coal

In the fifties, there were only three things. People, beer and coal. The coal was used to used to provide steam to make beer. The people who had, in the first place, taken the coal to the brewery then drunk the beer.

via A Continuous Lean blog

Black ice in B'more

The weather is usually read by stick-thin wannabe actresses who smile profusely and play it safe. Not in Baltimore ...

Happy Valentine's love Christopher Wallace

Valentine's Day cards are usually ghastly saccharine offerings; puke-pink, oversized, and featuring giant (and terrifying) teddies hugging each other waaaaaaaaaay too hard. They remind me of children's hospitals.
Along with absolute bs events like great-aunt's day etc they swell the coffers of Clinton Cards but bring little 'real happiness (c)'.
But they are not all, for want of a better word, gash. Check out L.A. based design firm Kuro's rap-inspired cards. There's even a Biggie one ...
Source: Cool Hunting

Breezy old war

In the good old days, war used to be a fun, cheap way for young men to hang out together and travel the world. That's why as soon as big wars broke out, 15 year olds magic'd up moustaches with ash from the fire so as to get on the first boat. Absolutely no-one wanted to miss out on rip-roaring stag parties like WW1.
Or perhaps I'm viewing history through rose-tinted fighter pilot goggles?
To be fair, there were the odd slightly hairy moments at the bigger battles like the Somme. Sometimes, Ted, Wally, Jock and the lads did have to pop 'over the top,' and wade their mazy way through barbed wire whilst being distracted by a tsunami of ratatat gunfire.
But let's not get carried away - it wasn't actually that dangerous. That's because at least ninety-nine times out of ninety eight (fact), Hun bullets lodged in either the a) metal cigarette case or b) Holy Bible in our boy's breast pocket. Ha! That's a good one to tell the grandkids.
The biggest problem with old-fashioned warring was that it could get a little boring in the trenches when your feet begun to rot and the army of navel-gazing war poets started to bleet on about mustard gas. Give a rest will you Wilfred, we trying to enjoy our Spam.

I'll mull modern warfare later this week. Here's a teaser ... it's much scarier now autonomous killer robots have got involved.

Trends from the ocean floor

Anyone who has seen Werner Herzog's hynoptic eco doc "Encounters at the End of the World" will know that the ocean's deepest, inky depths are a trippy place which make even James Cameron's Pandora look positively tame.
On the ocean floor, no self-respecting yeti crab leaves home without a feather boa. And no transparent sea cucumber (pictured) would be seen dead without lashings of pink lippy announcing their vagina and/or mouth.
It's like Studio 54 all over again down there in the pitch black ocean trenches. Click here to see a few more of the hippest scenesters and what garms they're rocking at the moment.

Photo credit: Larry Madin/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Big Bruvva Redux: Notting Hill

So, Channel 4 seemed to have settled on a replacement for the long running Big Brother show: Notting Hill.'

The new format is 'an open real-time programme' which basically means a live soap so far as I can make out. Fearless camera crews will trail 10 young Hillbilly hipsters as they potter about the leafy manor spunking all daddy's hard-earned cashish.

I'll not be watching as I think I might get more than a little bored of watching Trustafarians quaff ethnically-sourced macchiatos outside Coffee Plant, have five-hour brunches at Julies and mooch (worst word ever?) up and down Ledbury Road AKA Pashmina alley.

But I'm sure Hillite David Cameron is making frenzied calls to make 100% sure his 100% organic eco loft gets a little screentime on the show.

Photo credit: Photo Agency

I was still feeling rough so I smoked again later on Friday.

Massive scuzzbucket Wolfman, the 41-year-old pied-piper of the Hackney smack scene and Pete Doherty's hero, leads an impossibly bleak and destructive life. He's the sort of guy you really don't want your daughter dating. Besides his raging crack and smack addictions, he lives in a basement with 26 cats and has terrible taste in cinema.

Photod credit: London Media