BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, China’s media control - "‘In the run-ups to the 2008 Beijing Olympics China felt like it was constantly becoming more open. Constantly becoming better in so many ways. Foreign companies were setting up offices here. Google wasn't blocked. Parts of the Chinese press were being allowed to do real reporting, uncovering corruption, exposing pollution and even questioning government waste. Back then, there were around 500 registered international journalists based in Beijing with another 200 in other cities. However, in the years following the games, the reform process slowed right down. When Xi Jinping came to power he deliberately drove this car off the road and crashed it. China's leader would probably say this isn't true and that he simply drove onto another path, but if we take press freedom as an example you can see how tolerance of views not endorsed by those in charge has shrunk considerably. With only a very few exceptions, local media now do little more than deliver Communist Party propaganda. For the Foreign Press there's constant harassment, which also extends to would-be interviewees. On just about any topic, they can be instructed not to speak to us. Officials routinely use the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse for why we must leave an area or why we can't speak to certain people. A recent reporting trip to dieshachao in the Southeastern province of Jiangsu is a good case in point. There we were set up to do an interview in a small factory which makes bedding. In the background, workers were bent over their sewing machines hard at it trying to make up for an entire season of lost production thanks to covid-19 measures. The owners were happy to be interviewed about the financial pressures they'd been under. While they'd managed to stay afloat they knew of plenty of other businesses in dieshichao which hadn't made it through the crisis. But, before we could start the on-camera interview a man walked in. He was clearly filming us on his phone while pretending not to. He then went up to the owners and had a word with them. The interview was off. One of the owners came over to me tilting his head sideways briefly with an expression that means, you know what they're up to here. Then he said in Chinese I'm really sorry we just can't do it. And he was right, they couldn't. Technically, people here might be entitled to be interviewed by law. It's even stipulated in the official regulations governing the behavior of foreign correspondence. But who in their right mind would defy the party in this way? Every correspondent working in China will have stories like this. We joke about it. The efforts to try to stop us reporting is so common, there's even a strange level of acceptance or at least understanding that it will happen. In another recent example we traveled to Xi'an to interview people who'd paid for new apartments before they'd been built. The owners had already waited for years and eventually decided to just move into the building which was a shell of a structure and camp there, without water, without electricity, even without windows. Again, they wanted to be interviewed. Again, they were stopped. The police arrived with a man who seemed to be one of the in-debt developers. They asked for our interview permits, issued by the government in Xi'an. We didn't have them because nobody ever gets such permits. We're not legally required to have anything like this, and even if we applied they wouldn't be issued without the process being part of a reporting exercise completely controlled by the government. This blocking tactic is also now routinely being used against reporters. Somebody high up in the party has spread the idea through various channels that this can be a catch-all excuse to get rid of journalists. In the case of the unfinished apartment squatters, we'd already collected enough material for a story before being told to leave, and the attention our piece drew to this case was enough to pressure the company responsible to resume work to finish the project. Yet all of this journalism blocking is not necessarily being directly planned and executed from the top in Beijing. It's more a case of risk-averse local governments deciding to shut us down because they're worried that their necks could be on the line if embarrassing news gets out regarding their patch and the central government comes looking for an explanation. It's a means of protecting their own careers in the party. So now it doesn't seem to matter what the subject is. If the international press corps is in town, they're to be followed, they're to be questioned and they’re to be stopped. It may make China look really bad internationally, but it would be a bold official who didn't treat foreign correspondence in this way'"
BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, Brazil votes on the Amazon's future - "'Sweden is now one of the OECD countries with the fastest growing inequality in the world, according to Oxfam. The folk high schools are losing funding. Schools, healthcare facilities, the railway, the post office and the pharmacists have all been privatized. Some commentators say that while urban middle class Swedes are focused on issues like feminism or climate change, the rural and working-class compatriots are battling petrol prices, the cost of living and the lack of health care. The Sweden Democrats are thought to have addressed these challenges more directly and people now link that to the Sweden Democrats’ success in Sweden's rural north, which is the old Social Democratic Heartland. We need to update our view of our own country of Sweden. We are no longer the egalitarian country of yore and we have to stop pretending that we are. We can only understand where we are going if we first understand where we are’"
BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent, Rescue hopes fade in Turkey and Syria - "He proudly talks about the city's tourism campaign and the risque slogan cooked up by some advertising students. Vilnius, you're told on billboards and online, is the G-Spot of Europe. Nobody knows where it is, but when you find it, it's amazing"
BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent, Niger: After the Coup - "The 70-year-old Republican senator from Maine Susan Collins quipped she might turn up on the senate floor in her bikini. It was in fact already possible for senators to vote in their gym kit, just so long as they didn't actually fully venture onto the senate floor itself. This involved a ridiculous palava that meant them standing inside the Senate cloak room just off the Senate floor itself and extending one foot into the chamber so they could claim to be present. They had to keep their body clad in gym kit out of sight behind the door so as not to attract the wrath of the sergeant at arms, who enforces the dress code."
BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent, An Emergency Summit in Riyadh - " Today around half of Taiwanese women under 50 are unmarried. Increasingly, women who do want to marry, eventually, have decided to freeze their eggs, hoping to use them when they meet Mr Right. And I say Mr Right as only women in heterosexual marriages in Taiwan are permitted to use the eggs that they have frozen. A high-profile Taiwanese TV anchor Wu Yu Shu has endorsed egg freezing, calling it regret medicine. So an insurance policy for younger women who aren't yet in a position to have a child but want to keep their options open as they age... Mr Gou has suggested that couples who have a baby should get a free dog or cat from the government, a policy he believes will help the concerning birth rate. He says that adding and multiplying love is his goal"
Bins in Amsterdam now have space for empty bottles and cans - "When walking around Amsterdam over the past couple of weeks, you might have noticed the bottle rack-like contraption that has been added to the side of some bins in the city centre. If you’re confused, don’t worry; the municipality has added so-called donation rings to bins in order to provide space for people to leave empty bottles and cans to which 15-cent deposits apply. As of this year, a 15-cent deposit (statiegeld) has been applied, not just to large and small plastic bottles and some glass bottles, but also to cans bought at shops or supermarkets in the Netherlands. Many don’t want to bother carrying an empty bottle or can around just to reclaim their 15 cents so, in order to prevent bins in the city from becoming filled with bottles and cans than are included in the deposit scheme, the municipality has made an interesting addition to some of Amsterdam’s bins... “Especially around major events, it is becoming increasingly common for waste bins to be broken open to collect returnable bottles and cans,” AT5 explains. “The so-called donation rings are there to prevent trash cans from being broken up by people who collect deposit bottles or cans to earn some extra money.”"
The law of unintended consequences strikes again. Of course people's time is free, because virtue signallers don't care
Atlantic bluefin tuna: the forgotten superpredator - "While not truly endothermic, all true tuna are able to raise and maintain their body temperature, and it is the bluefin that takes this feature to its zenith. This predator is capable of keeping its body temperature between 77–91°F (25-33°C) in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic, which is its main hunting grounds. Even the Arctic Circle isn’t beyond the reach of the bluefin. In fact, the bluefin is hot-blooded to the point that if it is forced to exert itself for hours at a time, such as being hooked on the end of a fishing line, it can cook itself to death (a dreaded phenomenon called “burn” by fishermen, which makes the fish worthless)."
Meme - "BABY MAKING FACES *shocked baby*
BABYMAKING FACES *woman in ecstasy*"
Meme - Rishi Sunak: "I'm proud to be English. Happy St George's Day!"
Andy Gamisou: "You're not an Englishman, just like a mouse born in a stable is not a horse"
As usual, a ton of Americans don't know the difference between race and nationality, and then go on to mock others for being ignorant. Ironic. There's a ton more in the comments
Meme Frodo: "GANDALF, WHERE'S BILBO?"
Gandalf: "HE'S GONE TO LIVE WITH THE ELVES!"
Frodo: "UM...WHAT?"
Gandalf: "HE'S LEFT YOU BAG END...ALONG WITH ALL HIS POSSESSIONS."
Frodo: "DID..DID YOU MURDER BILBO??"
Meme - Will Stancil: "oh you read a 4chan post about book on statistics and learned about medians and modes. how cute! I have an actual postgraduate degree though"
Will Stancil: "I have a master's degree in reconstruction-era black history"
ワイルドワン 社長！ on X - "3日目も勢いよく動いてますw‼️ #APIEXPO #上海 #WildOne"
"Japanese oral sex toys built from JAV porn star, which is moving."
Mirror 1, Mirror 2
Meme - "Warning: DUE TO PRICE INCREASE OF AMMO Trespassers Will Be Sexually Assultted Until I CUM"
Meme - *Battle of the Morannon* "Never thought I'd die fighting side by side with an Orc"
"What about side by side with a friend?"
"Fall back in line maggot!"
Meme - "Hard boiled eggs are disgusting. I almost died eating one. The crunchy-soft mix is absolutely disgusting. It's like eating a ravioli covered with chips."
"Youre supposed to remove the shell Imao"
Meme - ""You're depressed because you stay in your room all day, everyday, instead of travelling the world."
Thanks now im depressed in Paris"
Radio Station in Montclair Plays Same Boyz II Men Song on Loop Daily | New Jersey Monthly - "If you happen to be on Valley Road between Bellevue and Lorraine Avenues in Montclair anytime soon, be sure your car radio is tuned to 91.9 FM. As if by magic, the same song will mysteriously start playing, as it has every day for 13 years. The song is “I’ll Make Love to You,” by the band Boyz II Men. This romantic interlude is the brainchild of music maven and tech-savvy guru George Louvis, a longtime resident of Montclair."
Meme - Stephen R. C. Hicks @SRCHicks: "Norway in the late 1800s: Women doing laundry through a hole in the ice. Painting by Jahn Ekenæs, 1891. Before capitalism and technology destroyed the beautiful simplicity of indigenous life. 😎"
Selfie saved innocent man from 99-year prison sentence - "Christopher Precopia's ordeal began after his former girlfriend claimed she had her home broken into and was severely attacked... On the night that his former girlfriend was allegedly attacked Precopia was in fact, with his mother, Erin, at a hotel in Northwest Austin, Texas... His mother remembered posting a group selfie at the same time of the alleged attack that was geolocated and time-stamped. The photo evidently shows accused Precopia in the corner on the left foreground along with another couple in the background. Erin added: "Thankfully, I do log on Facebook all the time, and I check in when I go places." Thousands of dollars and countless meetings with their lawyer later, the Precopia family took their blatant evidence to the Bell County prosecutor. Nine months following his arrest, charges were dropped 'in the interest of justice' and Precopia was released. A number of additional sworn affidavits from friends and family with Precopia at the time aided his defense and proved him innocent as well as the group selfie... The family paid over $340,000 in legal fees and Precopia remained unable to apply to the US Army as a result of the charges."
Meme - "I bet sucking your own dick feels more like sucking a dick than getting your dick sucked."
Meme - Ariele @weatherdai: ""the European mind can't comp-" this is why we charge you $900 for ozempic"
"Giant $15 milkshake for sale at baseball games for the Chicago Whitesox"
Meme - "REAL QUESTION. IF YOUR MOM'S PHONE NUMBER TURNED INTO MONEY, HOW MUCH MONEY WOULD YOU HAVE?"
Meme - "I'd support this business just for the sign"
"ONLY 1 PERSON ALLOWED IN THE STALL AT A TIME!!! I MEAN REALLY GiRLs!! IF THE BEST YOUR GUY CAN DO YOU IN IS AN ARCADE TOILET THEN COME SPEAK TO ONE OF US, WE GOT PLENTY OF LONELY FRIENDS THAT HAVE THEIR OWN APARTMENTS!"
Meme - "Some guy on YouTube: "You can easily build your own furniture for less than 50 bucks."
His garage: *elaborate workshop*"
Meme - "Slicing my strawberry shortcake ice cream bar like it's wagyu beef"
Meme - "Joan of Arc. It's what she would have wanted.. *statue* *fire extinguisher*"
Meme - no more mr wife guy @TheSocietyDude: "Everyone focuses on the slave elves and banker goblins, but an underrated racism in the Harry Potter series is the guy who keeps blowing stuff up. He's an Irishman called Seamus Finnigan"
Earth Bath Dirty Dog Shampoo 33:1 | Ryan's Pet Supplies - "Remember to eliminate all escape routes well in advance (a tip: once your pet is slippery wet, he or she is suddenly smarter and faster than you are)."
Meme - "Toyota Tech Tree
TOYOTA Technical Tree
TOYOTA Truck
Tachanka
Autocannon
Full Armor
Anti-Tank Tree
105mm Howitzer
Scavenged Tank Cannon
Anti-Tank Missile
Rocket Tree
Rocket Pod
Rocket Cannon
Anti-Air Tree
Anti-Air Machinegun
Anti-Air Autocannon
Anti-Air Missile
Premium
Greed Set
Motherfucker"
Meme - "My dad officially became a doctor today!!!"
"imma go show my dad and tell him what other peoples parents are doing"
We Have Nowhere Else to Go | Menachem Lehrfield | The Blogs - "Rabbi Menachem Lehrfield lives in Denver, Colorado with his wife, Sarah, and their five energetic children"
Erica Marshall: Newlywed killed in freak explosion caused by horse in pressure chamber - "It is feared the animal inside a hyperbaric chamber began kicking its steel clad hooves to get out and created a spark that caused a major explosion."
Meme - "POV: you just punched a hole through the flirt goth girls chest, revealing wires, metal plating, and CIA wiretaps
comments: OfficialCIA: Stop breaking our shit
FBI_Anonymous: Keep breaking his shit. It's funny."
Meme - "Me playing Call of Duty wondering why there's no sound:
My grandfather with his new bluetooth hearing aid: *Vietnam war flashbacks*"
Meme - Man: "I want to have enough money to last the rest of my life!"
Genie: "Granted! You have one week to live"
Meme - "I wanna get pounded by a republican.
I consider myself pretty far left politically speaking and am relatively active in those sorts of circles. That being saaaaaid, I recently saw a guy at a counter protest on the other side who was so hot it made me blush. Big burly guy with blonde hair and some scruff, built like a linebacker, square jaw, thick neck, generally big bruiser type. Didn't interact with him much directly but ever since I have been thinking more and more about how hot it would be to hook up with someone from the other side and just let him totally dominate me. Not like bdsm or anything per se, but just have him pin me down and humiliate me while he makes me have body shaking orgasms. Don't get me wrong I'm not a closet republican or anything. I think it's just the taboo nature for me of letting a conservative guy win in the bedroom and seeing the satisfaction in his eyes as he pulls out and cums all over my face as punishment. Anyone have any true stories like this or who could direct me to some good related porn?"
Meme - "8 litres of 'tap' water to produce 1 litre of MILK
158 litres of 'tap' water to produce 1 litre of ALMOND MILK"
There is no best answer when it comes to environmentalism/animal welfare
Meme - Centro Universitario México A.C.: "CUM" *students*
Meme - "Obvious plant. Warning: friendship is fragile a tank is forever
The greatest gift in life is friendship A GODDAMN TANK!
GOES ANYWHERE! SHOOTS MISSILES! RUNS OVER STUFF!
A friendship cannot do those things a tank is much better"
Meme - "God ur shoulders look good, would look better with my legs on them tho"
"In high school, I brought you a pink rose and asked you to homecoming. You turned me down and and then said to your friends in Spanish "as if I'd ever go out with a nigga" and yall laughed, guess you never knew I grew up around Mexicans and knew what that meant, but now what 3 baby daddies later you're in my dims. I don't normally stoop to low levels like this. But from the bottom of my nuts GET FUCKED"
Meme - "The Greek Diet
Hellenic World
Breakfast *tobacco, water, coffee*
Lunch *Gyros wrap*
Dinner *meat plate*"
This Epic Hadouken figurine is exactly what you think it is - "This, boys and girls, is a 15-inch (37.5cm) handmade resin and teak wood figurine of KFC‘s Colonel Sanders designed by Indonesian artist Hanh and available through Indonesia-based art toy shop Heart Lab. But look carefully, this is no ordinary statuette of the fast food chicken restaurant chain’s famous ambassador: this Colonel Sanders is decked in Ryu from Street Fighter’s white gi outfit and is unleashing a chicken Hadouken (Hadou-chic-ken?)."
Meme - Tun Fazel @FAZHAJAZ: "Where did Malaysia's Chinese populations come from? The map was prepared in the 1950s by an American geographer with a professional and personal interest. It's a simple illustration."
"Hokkien Cantonese Hakka (Kheh) Teochew Kwangsai Hokchiu Hokchia Henghua Hylam (Hainanese)"
Meme - "The Doctor and The Master implies a third, less prestigious renegade timelord named The Bachelor"
"An immortal who regenerates into new bodies but maintains the same core identity and continuity of memories even if there are marked changes in personality, you say? Weirdly fixated on England, you say? The Bachelor, you say? May I propose a theory:
*James Bond*
#i love this specifically because its so stupid"
Meme - @wyntermitchell: "Omg look at how they classified Ella (our cat) upon intake for her spay "Overweight fatty in heat""
Meme - "theatre worker watching me buy a empty Dune popcorn bucket and a Madame web ticket"
Meme - "Hand washing only"
"Notice. For dishes only. No hand washing"
Apocalypse? IRS says you still need to pay taxes - explainer - "The IRS has an apocalypse plan, and they will make sure everyone – assuming they are a US citizen who doesn't make use of the normal ways of legally avoiding paying taxes – pays in the end... Called the Continuity/Cooperations Plan, this was first published in 1980s but has been continuously updated. This enormous document describes a plan for how, in case of an apocalyptic scenario, the IRS can resume tax collection in just 12 hours... As documented in Garret M Graff's book Raven Rock: The Story of the US Government's Secret Plan to Save Itself – While the Rest of Us Die, the Federal Reserve has around $2 billion stored away at a bunker in Mount Pony, Virginia. This is supposed to last 18 months to keep the economy going, as after 18 months they should have mints printing hard currency again. Supposedly much of this $2 billion is in the form of $2 bills."
Nuclear War? The IRS Will Be Back To Collect Taxes In One Month - "In 1989, the IRS updated its employee manual with information on how the agency will deal with a nuclear war. According to the manual, the IRS will resume tax collection within 30 days of a nuclear attack. Tax collection efforts will be focused on areas that produce the most taxes. The manual also states that the staff is to focus on collecting current taxes because the widespread destruction could make it nearly impossible to recover previously owed taxes."