Sunday, September 23, 2012

Sensationalism sends Green Day front man to rehab

Strange message just popped up on Facebook saying Billie Joe Armstrong, front man of Green Day, is off to rehab for substance abuse. Had a quick look around to see what happened and it seemed he had a bit of a rock 'n roll moment during a performance on Friday. And that's all it is...

He swore a bit after being told by organisers he had one minute left. That seems rather annoying to me too... Especially if you're one of the biggest bands in the world. Oh, and they smashed their guitars in protest. That's all it is.

The media, of course, is blowing this out of proportions as can be expected. They're all calling it a "meltdown". Yeah, I expect this from TMZ, but more mainstream media are all following. Is it so hard to state the facts without sensationalising every-little-thing? It's all rubbish and you know it! Don't think I'm correct? Judge for yourself in the clip of the incident after the break.

And, you know, of course, what the result of all of this is, right? They've had to cancel a bunch of promotion gigs, so that fans can no longer enjoy their favourite band. Unbelievable!


Sunday, September 16, 2012

Toyota Racing: Simply the Best!

On just the team's third outing at this weekend's 6 Hours of Sao Paulo at the picturesque Interlagos circuit in Brazil, Toyota Racing picked up not only the first podium, but also the first time the team stood on the top step of the podium!

Friday, September 7, 2012

Star Trek Google Doodle

Google put up an awesome Doodle today to celebrate the 46th anniversary of Star Trek: The Original Series. There are several things to click on to either make a sound - all original sound effects (awesome) - or go to a different "level". Click around and have some fun!


Thursday, September 6, 2012

Power of silence at Pikes Peak

Toyota Motorsport GmbH just released this awesome new on-board video of their TMG EV P002 electric racer powering up the hill at Pikes Peak. The car also broke the EV record at the Pikes Peak Intertational Hill Climb just a few weeks ago with this spectacular run. Enjoy!

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Optical madness

Looks like a GIF right? The picture is moving around and just won't stop. Guess what? This is just your mind going mental with this confusing optical illusion.

Source: via Krypton on Pinterest

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

RIP Michael Clarke Duncan

Opened up Twitter just now and saw a not-so-nice trend "RIP Michael Clarke Duncan." Checked around BBC and CNN, found nothing, so thought it must be one of those stupid pranks. Alas, no. The Washington Post, TIME Magazine and HuffPo all confirmed, Michael Clarke Duncan died age 54 today.

Monday, September 3, 2012

Happy Pre-Birthday Doraemon!

100 years from today, Doraemon will be born in the 22nd Century. Yup, it's an odd one, but the countdown to the birth of the world's greatest cat has commenced before he travels back in time to help Nobi Nobita. So, Happy Pre-Birthday to the inspiration of generations and one of Asia's greatest heroes (as named by TIME Magazine)!

Something wrong with the Beeb

Those of us who watched the BBC's coverage of the London 2012 Olympics would have been bombarded with plenty of pro-Team GB commentary, rather against the Beeb's own "balance" guidelines. It was OK for most cases because the commentators are people. But today I saw this really odd "Breaking News" red banner on the homepage proclaiming:

"Four miners shot and injured by South African police at a gold mine - details soon"
Original banner, click to enlarge

I clicked through and what does the article say?

"Security guards have wounded four striking gold miners with rubber bullets near the South African city of Johannesburg, police say."

Yes, it's not the police as proclaimed by the sensationalist banner on the homepage. It turns out it's security guards. What's the difference though? People were shot... as you might say.

Well, the police fall under the title "authorities" which gives the event an increased gravity, following the mad Lonmin massacre just weeks before. Security guards, on the other hand, are very likely private companies quite far apart from the "authorities" title.

So now News of the World is gone, is the Beeb turning towards a more sensationalist and blatantly untruthful reporting? What happened to the company's own guidelines of balance, hey?

Image source: BBC.co.uk