A weekly roundup of talking points, sans effort
Thought for the week
“In the last 10 years nine horses have died of injuries sustained in the race. This is the most over any decade since it officially started in 1839.” Dene Stansall, Animal Aid’s horse racing expert, discussing the cruelty involved in tomorrow’s Grand National at Aintree.
Weekly high
Although the temperature hasn’t changed much, April landed on Monday, bringing with it the most amusing morning of the year. On April Fools’ Day everyone loves a good prank, like this viral chart topper from YouTube announcing the site’s imminent closure. Lucky nobody believed it.
Weekly low
Florida baseball team the Tampa Bay Rays fell foul of media rule number one- look before you leap (or hold up a sign for someone) this week. The mascot, appropriately a furry Manta Ray, was handed this placard for a photo opportunity, which suggests the death of Steve Irwin, crocodile hunter, in 2006, may not have been an accident at all. Pointless, and terribly distasteful, out question is ‘what was the point?’
Things that might happen in the next week…
The funeral of revered American film critic Roger Ebert, arguably the most respected cinema journalist of his time, is expected to take place after he lost his battle with cancer aged 70, 25 jobs will be saved at the Independent following tense negotiations with the NUJ, and the News International owned Sun On Sunday will increase its cover price from 50p to 60p on April 6th.
Just in case you missed it…
Last night Facebook unveiled Home, a new application available for Android phones set to afford users a more enhanced level of integration between the social network and mobile operating system. Rumours of a Zuckerberg phone proved to be untrue, although a new handset designed by HTC will be the first to sport the software pre-installed. Read more on the story here.
If there is a success story, blunder, or news event you’d like to see included email helloATsmokinggun.co.uk or tweet using #blaggersblog. Happy Friday!
