Author Archives: rickw

Oculus Rift: Gamers looking forward to Virtual World with no Facebook in it

oculus

“I’m not wearing any makeup!”

Computer gaming enthusiasts have spoken of their excitement that the new Virtual Reality headset ‘Oculus Rift’ could bring an enhanced virtual world where life is better than reality, largely because it could be a world where Facebook never existed.

“Just imagine it,” purred Call of Duty champion Darren Wheatley. “A world of infinite scope, where physical boundaries mean nothing and the impossible is everyday. And there are no sodding Candy Crush invites.”

Virtual Reality has been the elusive holy grail of human/machine interface design since the very first computers, when scientists were only dimly aware that there would one day be an endless dirge of witless memes and boring ex-colleagues to escape from.

“I’ve tried it, and it’s a life-changer,” insisted Elder Scrolls expert Mark Rogers. “It’s a cliche, but you’re really there. And you know what’s not there? Effing Facebook.”

One factor which may however be a slight cloud on the horizon is the fact that the company behind Oculus Rift has actually just been bought by Facebook, which introduces the slight possibility that everything will quickly get bollocksed up beyond belief.

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg was characteristically upbeat about the purchase, dismissing concerns that his giant slimy octopus of a company is certain to drag all hopes and dreams into its slathering maw. Speaking to journalists this morning, he insisted:

“It’s going to be special. We have the finance to back this, and we really can make it work. A whole new world of online interaction will open up, this could be the start of a new universe of interpersonal engagement.”

“And in this new universe, there won’t be any fucking Facebook, how awesome is that? Sorry?”

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New rules ‘may mean old people will blow pensions on heating and food’

fuel

Orgy of light and warmth

Charities are reporting growing concern that new pension rules will lead to old people recklessly squandering their retirement income on luxuries such as heating and food.

After 2015, people reaching retirement age will be able to use pension pots however they want, rather than having to buy a guaranteed annual income, and the fear is that many will rush out to buy tinned food, which they will then cook using fuel in an adequately-heated apartment. Continue reading

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Filed under Economy, Food, Health

Anti-smoking lobby mourns death of ‘God Hates Fags’ parson

CoffinCancer

Should have given up long ago…

The anti-smoking lobby is today mourning the death of one of its most tireless and misunderstood campaigners, Westboro Baptist Church Founder Fred Phelps, who for decades picketed military funerals with large signs warning of the dangers of cigarettes.

Brought up originally in London’s East End before moving to Kansas, Phelps’ slogan ‘God Hates Fags’ was tragically never really  appreciated by the American public.

Waving large colourful signs, Phelps would attend funerals desperately trying to explain that servicemen would stand a far better chance of survival in modern war zones if they could only give up cigarettes and improve fitness levels.

“It’s a tragedy that he never seemed to get his message across,” lamented Aaron Bryce, chairman of the ‘We Hate Benders’ society, founded to protest against the popular brand of chewing tobacco invented by Michael Bender.

“The idea that he was some kind of anti-gay bigot is just a terrible misunderstanding,” explained Bryce. “You couldn’t meet a friendlier man. We were members of the same chicken-breeding club, and many’s the night we’d stay up rubbing our cocks together into the small hours. Then he’d usually give me one.”

Filmmaker Louis Theroux, who documented Phelps’ demonstrations, admitted he had been completely wrong about the pastor. “I’m a pretty good judge of character,” he confessed, “But when I saw all the posters and stuff, I just leapt to the conclusion that the man was a rabid homophobe, devoid of the slightest trace of love or compassion, cruelly taunting the families of dead soldiers.”

“I should have realised no-one could be that much of an arsehole.”

Phelps was buried in a simple coffin befitting his modest life, the wood bare of decoration other than a massive slogan ‘HATING GAYS GIVES YOU CANCER’, with a headstone bearing an enormous photograph of a gnarled and blackened heart.

His own.

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Filed under breaking news, Health, Religion

New £1 coin is 50 metre wide concrete egg to combat counterfeiting

Excited crowds gather as the first concrete egg coin nears completion

Excited crowds gather as the first concrete egg coin nears completion

A new £1 coin, designed to be the “most secure in the world”, is set to be introduced in 2017.

To combat concerns about the current pound coin’s vulnerability to counterfeiting, The Royal Mint has decided on a controversial new design – the coin will now be a fifty-metre wide concrete egg, which experts say will be almost impossible to copy, even if you wanted to.

The new coin will be made in grey and will incorporate state-of-the-art authentication technology and roughly £800 worth of concrete, at a stroke making counterfeiting non-viable.

In a nod to tradition, the coin’s unusual shape is said to be based on Queen Victoria’s threepenny bits, which were famously large enough to need a pair of courtiers to carry them around.

Such radical changes to symbolic items always cause complaints, and concerns have been raised by consumer groups about the ridiculously massive size of the coins. A government source countered this, saying: “We realise this will cause some inconvenience to shoppers, but expect the public to broadly support the move. The fitness benefits alone will be enormous.”

“This could also solve the housing crisis as you could use the coin egg as a sturdy thing around which to construct a rudimentary shelter.”

However, well-meaning liberals should realise that the housing problem is no simple matter, after eight Big Issue sellers were crushed to death during trials of the new coin in Romford.

A competition will be held to decide the image on one side of the coin, with Eric Pickles already the front-runner, providing they can fit him in.

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Filed under Economy, News, Sex

Ofsted inspectors found to be roving pack of baboons

baboons

Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw in combative mood yesterday

Following reports that many Ofsted inspectors do not have the skills or teaching experience needed to judge schools, is has emerged that what was assumed to be a body of humans is in fact largely made up of a roving pack of baboons, missing from London Zoo for several years.

The problem seems to have started as Ofsted became increasingly reliant on private firms to provide inspectors, with the obvious lack of quality controls that brings.

Motivated purely by profits, the outsourcing companies seem to have employed the cheapest inspectors possible, with the baboons undercutting even the foreign or dead candidates.

Many schools did not notice any difference at first, so low were their expectations of the inspectors, and suspicions only came to light after a recent think tank report mentioned that the majority of inspectors “Lacked teaching experience, and seemed to be covered in fur matted with faeces”. Continue reading

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Filed under Around Harold, Education, Nature

Labour ‘sorry’ after revelation Gary Glitter led the party for most of 70s

glitter-thatcher

Gary Glitter in his heyday enjoying a joke with political rival Margaret Thatcher

The Labour party has apologised for “getting it wrong” after revelations that the party was led for much of the 1970s by notorious paedophile Gary Glitter.

A spokesman admitted Labour was “naive” over its links with Glitter, but insisted that paedophilia was now almost totally eradicated from the party, and had only ever been a “minority interest”.

After losing the 1970 general election, Labour famously decided to widen its appeal by seeking new members from the entertainment industry, and figures such as Glitter quickly rose to positions of importance. The present-day party’s insistence that child molestation was not widespread is perhaps questionable, given the presence in the shadow cabinet of Jimmy Savile, Stuart Hall,  and the “Child Catcher” out of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Continue reading

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Filed under Politics, Showbusiness

Scientology couple win right to marry while shovelling all their money into giant hungry furnace

scientology-couple-2

For richer or poorer. OK, poorer.

A couple have won a Supreme Court challenge allowing them to marry in a Church of Scientology chapel in London while simultaneously shovelling thousands of their hard-earned pounds into the heartless maw of a ravenous furnace.

Louisa Naive launched legal action after officials refused to register a Church of Scientology chapel in central London as a place for marriage for her and fiancé Thicko Oneborneveryminute on the legal grounds that Scientology was “a load of slimy bollocks only interested in ripping the money out of foolish people’s wallets until like vampire’s prey they expire drained of every last drop of wealth”.
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Filed under Intergalactic News

‘Was Tony Blair doing Rebekah Brooks as well?’ everyone asks

Cock and Awe

The opening skirmish of Operation “Cock and Awe”…

Following yesterday’s courtroom revelation that Tony Blair advised Rebekah Brooks on how to tackle her phone hacking problem, the nation is breathlessly asking itself today whether that is the only tackle he helped her with.

Blair is believed by many to have been steadily working his way through the sexual conquest of the entire female staff of News Corporation, from the highest Chief Executive’s wife down to the lowliest News of the World editor. Wendi Deng, the former wife of Rupert Murdoch, allegedly developed a passionate obsession with him, and fiery redhead Brooks may just have been the latest woman to need urgent help with her briefs. Continue reading

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ABBA admit outrageous outfits were secretly worn ‘to scare off wild birds’

abba

Not a woodpecker in sight

Following speculation that their elaborately glamorous outfits were designed as a tax dodge, seventies band ABBA have now admitted that their real purpose was in fact to scare off crows and other wild birds.

ABBA’s stage clothes were famously extravagant, featuring sequinned jumpsuits, gravity-defying heels and in one case a fully-functioning windmill.
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Filed under Farming, Showbusiness

GM potatoes ‘can now fight and kill small mammals’

gm-potatoes

“Perfectly harmless”

British scientists have developed genetically modified potatoes that have sufficient intelligence and teeth to fight off small mammals.

For years farmers have been blighted by having their potatoes eaten by mice and rats, and have had to invest heavily in traps and poison. Now, after a three year trial run by Harold village scientist Bjorn ‘Three Fingers’ Bjornsson, a strain of potato has been engineered which is practically invulnerable to field animals and hungry tramps.

Following an EU investigation into the potential for terrifying biotechnology to protect crops, scientists at the John Horse Memorial Laboratory began a trial of savage nightmare potatoes in 2010. An early setback ensued when all the trial potatoes escaped one cloudy moonless night, leading to friction with locals and the mysterious disappearance of every cat in the village. Continue reading

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Filed under Around Harold, Farming, science

Emergency evacuations begin in New York as Cliff Richard/Morrissey gig announced

severe-morrissey

End of days…

New York emergency services have warned that the city faces the ‘greatest human disaster in living memory’ after singer Morrissey announced plans to play a gig supported by aged crooner Cliff Richard.

“We’ve faced financial catastrophe and extreme climate,” warned New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton. “But I don’t think this city has ever faced a looming depression of the magnitude of a Cliff/Morrissey event.”

Panicking locals are asking why this once-in-a-lifetime disaster had to happen in their city, but experts are unable to agree on a cause, beyond terrible bad luck, and Northern whimsy.
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Baby seat on the roof! Drivers already finding loopholes in smoking ban

carSmoking

Experts are warning that the new ban on smoking in cars with children may become impossible to enforce, so numerous are the loopholes in the legislation.

The law was expected to completely eliminate children’s exposure to cigarette smoke, but trials have already shown that smokers will go to great lengths to continue enjoying their habit.

Over ten percent of smoking motorists stopped in the Harold area were found to have fixed their child seats precariously to the roof or bonnet of the car, with their offspring getting perhaps more fresh air than strictly necessary.

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Delight as Barclays plans to slash bonuses and hire 12,000 people

barclayspig

New Barclays logo also very popular

In a shock announcement which has delighted the nation, Barclays has confirmed that it plans to create between 10,000 and 12,000 jobs this year, and has decreased its bonus pool by 10%.

Campaigners praised Barclays for showing how a massive company can make a huge difference to the lives of ordinary workers, without doing any harm to efficiency or profitability.

“I suppose this may not be what people expected”, Chief Executive Antony Jenkins told the Evening Harold, “But we just realised that all this stuff about having to pay ever huger bonuses to ‘attract talent’ is actually pure bollocks. It turns out that there are quite a few bright people who would be more than happy to earn 100 grand a year without ten times that as a bonus – who’d have thought it?”
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Giraffe dead, now Danish children ‘forced to maim otters with hammers’

giraffekill

Sweet dreams, kiddies!!!

In its latest public relations triumph, Denmark is to give all its schoolchildren the opportunity to maim and slaughter healthy rare animals in the nation’s zoos.

Following the popular move to kill Marius the giraffe yesterday and cut him up in front of an audience of retching kids, Copenhagen Zoo’s science director and blood-crazed psychopath Bengt Holst now insists the orgy of slaughter must continue.

“Yes, there were alternative zoos across Europe keen to take this healthy animal,” conceded Holst, “But what they do not understand is that I MUST KILL KILL KILL, RIP DEAD GUTS AND SPLINTER BONES IN MY TEETH. That’s the very valid point that they’re missing.” Continue reading

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EXCLUSIVE: Guardian leaks Michael Gove’s new job title

sinister

Can you spot Gove’s new role?

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Child health experts urge ban on filling cars with deadly cobras

carcobra

Health risk or nanny state?

Following the proposed ban on smoking in cars, more than 700 doctors and health experts have put their names to a letter urging MPs for a ban on parents filling their cars with deadly cobras when children are present.

The issue is due to be voted on in Parliament on Monday, and the doctors say the move is desperately needed “to protect children from harm, specifically from being bitten by deadly cobras.”

Filling cars with live poisonous snakes when children are in the rear seats is so much a part of British life that few people have ever questioned it, but a growing awareness of snake poisoning and decline in cobra ownership have seen the anti-snakes in cars movement growing. Continue reading

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Oscar nominations dominated by people’s bloody Facebook movies

faceoscar

We can’t get enough of them!

A shock late rush of Oscar nominations has been announced, consisting entirely of a large selection of those fascinating “My Facebook movie” movies.

These videos are automatically generated by Facebook from a fairly random choice out of all the photos and words you’ve ever posted on the site.

As you’d expect from Facebook, the quality of the resulting movies is so outstanding that the Oscar judges have been obliged to cancel the nominations for all the ‘traditional’ movies this year, replacing them with the artistically superior Facebook ones.

Upcoming Oscar host Ellen DeGeneres spoke today of her joy that ‘American Hustle’, ‘Gravity’ and ‘Captain Phillips’ are being replaced by Melanie Delaney’s uncompromising ‘My Facebook Movie’, Kevin Ronsson’s enchanting ‘My Facebook Movie’, and experimental art-house/Dogme epic ‘My Facebook Movie’ from Simon Kettle (aged 14). Continue reading

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Filed under Around Harold, Entertainment, Technology

Tragedy narrowly averted as huge sinkhole opens up under Michael Gove

sinkholeGove

Narrow escape for all of us

Locals were celebrating a ‘lucky escape’ this morning as a sinkhole measuring 50 meters deep opened up without warning in High Wycombe, completely swallowing up Michael Gove.

Locals woke up in the village of Walter’s Ash to find the enormous hole had appeared over night. It was not realised that Gove had been visiting the village until one householder noticed his ego just visible over the edge of the huge pit.

“It’s a miracle no damage was done,” said a Buckinghamshire Fire Services spokesman. “I’ve got kids at a local state school, and I can’t stress enough what a lucky escape they’ve had.” Continue reading

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Filed under Education, Politics, Weather

Great Barrier Reef ‘to become enormous sewage farm’

reef

Oh look, a floater!

The Australian government has defended its controversial decision to approve the construction of an enormous sewage treatment plant on top of the entire Barrier Reef. Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s Liberal Party government have not made the environment their top priority, but few expected them to cover the world’s largest coral reef system in human excrement so soon after coming to power.

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority chairman, Dr Russell Reichelt, said he recognised the amount of debate and community concern the project had generated, but wanted to assure the public that “only the finest human faeces will be chosen to be dumped on the reef, along with specially-selected soiled nappies and sanitary products.” Continue reading

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Australia day to be celebrated by dropping ‘welcome those across the seas’ bit from national anthem

first_fleet

Where’s your bloody visa?

The Australian government has announced that this year’s Australia Day will be commemorated by finally dropping the lines in the second verse of the national anthem which go:  “For those who’ve come across the seas, We’ve boundless plains to share”.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced the change at a press conference this morning, expressing his “deep concern” that the words ever got put there in the first place:

“I thought I ought to know a bit about the old anthem, being Prime Minister, and after reading through it a few times it just sort of leapt out – what the hell is this bullshit about people coming across the seas?”
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