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High Dyke

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Local Man Arrested After Blaring “Benny Hill” Song Near People Slipping On Ice.
A local Sioux Falls man was arrested earlier Thursday after police found him berating people with loud music and laughter after they slipped and fell on icy spots in a local Walmart parking lot.

When police arrived at the scene, it looked as though the man had just finished up playing the song for a child who had recently slipped and fallen.

“We arrived on the scene to something very disturbing. After my partner and I slipped and fell on the ice, we heard that ‘Benny Hill’ song. You know, the dunn dun dunnndunn funny song that plays when people are in funny chases? Anyway, we got up and arrested the man after a small chase around the squad car with that song still playing,” said one Sioux Falls Police Department representative we spoke with.
Source: Here

I appreciate it was unfortunate for those people that slipped over in the inclement weather, but the evil person in me wishes I could've been there to witness the police chase. That just tops it off.
 

edwin_m

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Source: Here

I appreciate it was unfortunate for those people that slipped over in the inclement weather, but the evil person in me wishes I could've been there to witness the police chase. That just tops it off.
Even more apposite if it had been one of the local Sioux tribe, Falling over.
 

najaB

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Not really news as such, but also not appropriate for the International Transport forum either. Interesting in any case.

 

Cowley

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Not really news as such, but also not appropriate for the International Transport forum either. Interesting in any case.

That’s a very interesting story.
 

brad465

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Not sure this story quite merits its own thread despite being a rail one (I can't see it being covered elsewhere so apologies if I've missed it), but here's a story of trying to get a cat off a Pendolino at Euston:


A cat narrowly avoided disaster after being spotted on the roof of a train as it prepared to depart.

The tabby was seen on an Avanti West Coast train at London Euston, about half an hour before it was due to leave for Manchester at 21:00 GMT on Tuesday.

Passengers were transferred to a replacement train as station staff coaxed the cat from the Pendolino, which travels at speeds up to 125mph.

It took two and a half hours for the cat to move from its perilous perch.

The stand-off came to an end after a bin was pulled up beside the carriage, giving the moggy its own special disembarkation platform.
 

PG

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Not sure this story quite merits its own thread despite being a rail one (I can't see it being covered elsewhere so apologies if I've missed it), but here's a story of trying to get a cat off a Pendolino at Euston:

You've got to love that they're focused on the speed of the train rather than the 25kV AC wires just above the roof! The OHLE only gets a mention at the tail-end (sorry :lol:) of the story:
In addition to the danger of falling off a speeding train, they are powered by 25,000-volt overhead lines.
 

yorksrob

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Not sure this story quite merits its own thread despite being a rail one (I can't see it being covered elsewhere so apologies if I've missed it), but here's a story of trying to get a cat off a Pendolino at Euston:


I wonder if they tried food to coax the cat down. My moggy (long departed from this world) would have been off of that roof at 125 mph if he'd been offered some prawns.
 

Calthrop

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Not taking any negative view on own part, of our national great love of animals; but one would reckon that the reaction to this news item in most of the rest of the world, would be: "only in Britain..."
 

swt_passenger

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Not sure this story quite merits its own thread despite being a rail one (I can't see it being covered elsewhere so apologies if I've missed it), but here's a story of trying to get a cat off a Pendolino at Euston:

It was actually raised in “general discussion”, but with a fairly non-specific title:
 

scotrail158713

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Wasn't sure if this belonged here or the football thread but "Dundee United" appears to be an insult in Nigeria :)
In 2010, the BBC aired a documentary called Welcome to Lagos that explored life in one of the fastest growing cities in the world. It was a three-part mini-series, surveying the changing hopes and aspirations of the city’s poorest residents, and taking viewers from houses constructed with scrap on the beach, to the people living in Olusosun rubbish dump. Shown on BBC2, the production company behind it went on to win a Bafta.
But, most importantly, episode two of the series included a look at Makoko – a community built on stilts, on top of Lagos Lagoon – where a resident called Chubbey explained that survival in the city required a certain degree of street smarts.
“Anybody who came to Lagos and he didn’t learn sense, he cannot get sense ever,” he said. “Because here if you are a fool, they will learn you how to get sense. If you are a ‘Dundee United’, when they start to pour **** on you, you will get sense.”
After that the scene cut away and the documentary continued. But for any Scottish football fan watching, the producers had missed an important story: Dundee United is used to mean “idiot” in Nigeria.
It is an upsetting thing to think about, for a United fan. This is a country of over 200 million people and they have apparently been using Dundee United as a byword for a fool for years. Why would they do this?
It doesn’t make a lot of sense, but it’s true. As Yewande, a Nigerian-Scot based in Glasgow, explains: “When I was little, living in Nigeria, it was quite common. People would say ‘you’re just a Dundee United’, or ‘don’t be a Dundee United’, and it basically means an idiot or a loser.”

But why? And how did it happen? Dundee United, unfortunately, did not respond to requests for comment on the question. The club’s silence represented an early blow to an investigation that already appeared as complicated as it was pointless. Yet a glance at the internet shows theories do exist. One, popular on online chatrooms, is that the phrase stems from the 1989 Fifa under-16 world championships.

The tournament was actually a very successful one for the Scotland under-16s team, which made it to the final before losing to Saudi Arabia on penalties. Records show Nigeria were also present, with the team knocked out by the Saudis in the quarters.

Significantly, that match was played at Dens Park. In fact the ground was home to four of Nigeria’s games, and the team also trained there. So could this be the answer? Is it possible that a contingent of mischievous Dundee fans could have played a part in the origins of the phrase? Could they have taken it upon themselves to inform a group of 15-year-old Nigerian youth players that “Dundee United” was local slang for an idiot?

Experience of Dundee fans would certainly suggest it is plausible. Yet use of the phrase seems to go back further than the late 1980s, with a TV ad for an anti-malarial drug, shown in Nigeria years before, including use of the term. That means that by the time the 1989 world championship was taking place, the Nigerian youth team players would have been well aware that a Dundee United was a foolish thing to be.

In fact, while the full phrase is “Dundee United”, it seems time and repeated use has seen it worn down to just “Dundee” on occasion. In other contexts, a “Dundee” can be used to refer to one idiot, while ‘Dundee United’ has become the plural, for a collection of idiots. That means that, even if the Dens Park theory is right, it would seem to have backfired.

Fatima, a Nigerian-Scot based in Aberdeen, explains: “A ‘Dundee’ is quite a common phrase in the north [of Nigeria]. I heard it a few times from relatives. If a wee kid was misbehaving or something, or someone does something really stupid, you’d say “Dundee”, sometimes followed by the word “mumu” which really just means the same thing. But because of the way it is pronounced I hadn’t thought of Dundee, the city in Scotland. I knew the phrase but never made that connection at all.”

Derin, a Nigerian-Scot from Glasgow, adds: “There are different options for how you might use it. When I was a child you would hear it a lot more, because it’s a bit less offensive than saying ‘stupid’ or ‘idiot’, or something in one of the languages, because they always sound slightly harsher, so that was used instead. You’d hear it sometimes as Dundee United, or sometimes just Dundee. If someone called you a Dundee you could go ‘Dundee United’ back at them, to prove you know the full thing, as a way of getting one-up on them.”

It was an unfortunate blow for the team languishing in the Championship, but an important development in the investigation: whatever the reason, Dundee also means an idiot in Nigeria. Unfortunately, Dundee FC were apparently unaware of this. In fact, although initially happy to confirm that the phrase “Dundee United” means an idiot in Nigeria, after being informed their own team had also been dragged into the whole sorry affair, the club were unable to help further. Dundee United still did not respond to requests for comment.

But if the phrase doesn’t come from the late 1980s, where does it come from? A second theory, popular among some Nigerians, is that it stems from a few years earlier, when United reached the semi-finals of the 1983-84 European Cup. Their tie, against Roma, is seared into the memories of United fans.

Jim McLean’s team won the first leg 2-0, only to lose 3-0 away, with subsequent reports suggesting Roma had attempted to bribe the referee the night before the game. And so, according to this version of events, use of ‘Dundee United’ stuck after large numbers of Nigerians backed United at the bookies, only to lose big as Roma headed off to meet Liverpool in the final.

Olumide, who lives in Glasgow, says: “The players were basically just looking, as the other team took the ball off them. They behaved exactly like fools and it didn’t go down well with the gamblers. The Nigerian gamblers then lost their money, and so, out of frustration, anyone who under-performs, or behaves sluggish, or isn’t up to a task at the level expected was, and is still, referred to as ‘Dundee United’ by Nigerians.”

And on the face of it, like the Dens Park theory, this seems reasonable. The game was a high profile one, held in an explosive atmosphere, and clearly the turnaround would have come as a shock. But could it really have seen thousands of Nigerians place bets on United, then lose their hard earned savings? And would that have been enough for the team’s name to become shorthand for idiocy, across an entire nation, for the next 40 years? The game did little to improve impressions of the club among Nigerians, and it may well have helped cement the phrase. But again, the story seems to go even further back.

The answer lies in a two-week period, between the end of May and the start of June, 1972, and a disastrous club tour of West Africa. The trip really did go very badly indeed. United were matched against small, local teams, and they were woeful. Records from the tour reveal a middling start, with a 2-2 draw with Stationery Stores on 27 May 1972 followed by a 1-0 win against Benin Vipers on the 31st. That, however, was to mark the high point of the visit – United lost 2-0 to Enugu Rangers on 3 June, in a match played in front of 35,000 people, before drawing 1-1 with Mighty Jets on 7 June, and then ending the whole sorry affair with a 4-1 hammering at the hands of Stationery Stores.

These were amateur teams, and local fans had expected much, much more from a representative of Scotland’s top flight. United looked like fools. There are, of course, mitigating circumstances. The tour was a hectic one, coming at the end of a long season, with United’s players apparently thrown by travel arrangements and ill-equipped to playing five games over 16 days, in Nigeria in June.

Looking back at the context surrounding the trip, it is questionable how much anyone from the United camp really wanted to be there in the first place. Jim McLean had only been manager for five months and, despite rumours he actually played in some of the friendlies – he was 34 at the time and had only recently retired – it seems likely he was pretty unhappy about the idea of taking the team over to western Africa.

The plans had been drawn up while Jerry Kerr was still coach, and by the time McLean took over it was too late to pull out. So while it’s probably fair to say McLean was at least quietly unhappy about the prospect of flying his team halfway across the world at the end of a hard season, he had yet to achieve the sort of control he would later exert over the club and was left with no choice but to get on the plane.

An article published in the Nigerian Daily Express as United returned to Scotland probably sums up the general feeling towards the club. It is headlined: “Don’t Come Back”.

“Football followers in this country were very happy in the sense it would give them another opportunity to witness a first class Scottish team,” it says. “But alas, what we saw was in fact a direct opposite of what we expected. The argument adduced by some people was that the visitors had been overworked or tired out, but this does not seem to hold water and they are not the first English [sic] team to tour Nigeria under the same weather conditions. We must agree that they are just not good. They had nothing to offer Nigeria as far as football technique and artistry are concerned, it is as simple as that.”

Meanwhile, poor performances were combined with increasing tension in the Nigerian press over United’s attitude. Things reached a head with a Sunday Post article – reproduced in full in Nigerian newspapers – in which United forward Kenny Cameron complained of stomach bugs in the squad, as well as post office strikes and traffic jams. “Their traffic problem is far worse than that of the High Street in Dundee,” he complained.

Relations deteriorated even further when Cameron claimed the team had been met at the airport by “vultures and hyenas”, before suggesting that their struggles were down to the humidity, as well as logistical disruption caused by the Nigerian Football Association. That was a step too far for Nigerian fans and media. Lethargic performances were one thing, but the United centre-forward claiming large carnivores were wandering around the airport was quite another. The response was furious.

A complaint to the New Nigeria newspaper – questioning not just Cameron’s claim but the editorial judgement behind reporting it – summed up the mood across the rest of the media: “As a Nigerian, and a very patriotic one for that matter, I cannot forgive Mr Cameron for saying vultures and hyenas made up their reception committee at the Kano airport. But then Mr Cameron was only being true to type. It is a fact that European reporters who visit Africa only file back what their kinsfolk want to read: bizarre and irrelevant happenings.”

The Renaissance, a daily newspaper from Enugu, in the south-east of the country, went one step further. It was so incensed by Dundee United’s failings that it called for a public inquiry. It reported: “Dundee United came – a first division Scottish team! They played football – second rate. And Nigerians were treated to second rate amateurism. This is the level to which we are plunging this country. Can someone save us these pains? We need an inquiry, why did the Dundee come? For now, Dundee fare-well. For Ever, Good-bye.”

The demand for a public inquiry may seem a strong reaction to a win, two draws and two defeats – and it is worth keeping in mind that these were exhibition matches – but aside from showing where the Dundee-Dundee United confusion came from, the piece is pretty representative of the rest of the press. From there, it seems, a seed had been planted. Aided by media coverage, the name stuck, and from early June 1972 onwards, a Dundee United was a fool in Nigeria.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/apr/14/a-love-letter-to-five-a-side-football
Yet, as time passes, and with United no longer hitting the heights of their success in the 1980s, it seems the phrase has become so disconnected from its origins that many Nigerians will call each other Dundee Uniteds, or Dundees, without knowing either football club exists.

Many of those approached for comment were somewhat surprised that someone in Scotland would name a football club as the byword for an idiot, while other interviewees offered a quiet embarrassment on Dundee United’s behalf. The existence of Dundee University too must be somewhat confusing for those who only know the word from the Nigerian use.

Amara is a Nigerian-Scot who works in Dundee, but says that he has never felt the need to mention use of the phrase to colleagues. “Some of my colleagues ask me about Nigeria, and one is actually a Dundee United fan, but I’ve never told them,” he laughs. “I didn’t think there was any need.”

“I was actually in Nigeria just before the Covid outbreak and someone in the pub was calling someone a “Dundee United”, because they were yapping [teasing] their friend, and I said: ‘Do you know there is a football club in Scotland called Dundee United, and they said ‘No? Really?’ They thought it was a really strange thing to call a football team. I explained about the city and that it was a football team and they thought it was pretty funny…”

And so it seems use of the phrase continues. But what about Chubbey, the man who introduced Scotland to the label back in 2010? As it happens, he left Lagos years ago. His full name is Morrence “Chubbey” Ojulowo, and he now lives in Ondo state, where he enjoys a quieter life, in a village a few hours’ drive from the capital.

He says he is happy and in good health, though he was slightly bemused to learn of his role in the story. He is 75 years old now, with 17 grandchildren, and while he goes back to visit Lagos pretty regularly, he was apparently completely unaware of his role in introducing the Nigerian use of “Dundee United” to Scottish football fans. Approached for comment, he just laughed.
 

A Challenge

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brad465

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Rhea birds on the loose in Hertfordshire:


Up to 20 rhea birds that have been running around a housing estate will be sent to an animal reserve when captured, police said.

The "unusual sight" has been spotted at Maple Cross, close to the M25, Hertfordshire Police said.

The force was working with Three Rivers District Council and highways teams to "come up with a plan".

Police said they had tried to identify owners, but concluded the flightless birds were effectively wild.
The birds have been compared to Road Runner, from the Looney Tunes carton, on social media.
 

brad465

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Quite the school trip here:


An IT teacher who threatened pupils and took some to a strip club while he was drunk during a school trip has been banned from teaching for three years.

Richard Glenn's behaviour was so "unacceptable" he was sent home early during Longridge Towers School's trip to Costa Rica in July 2019, the Teaching Regulation Agency heard.

Mr Glenn, 55, admitted gross misconduct and was dismissed in August 2019.

The Northumberland private school costs up to £4,850 a term for day pupils.

A misconduct panel heard Mr Glenn, who taught computer science and had been head of sixth form since 2007, was one of the leaders of the group of 16 to 18-year-olds that went to Costa Rica on 5 July 2019.

The panel said pupils were "relying on him for guidance" in Costa Rica
He was supposed to be there until 28 July, but after six days was sent home by the expedition's leader "due to his behaviour".
His actions included:
  • Drinking with pupils
  • Allowing one or more pupils to drink alcohol despite being under the legal age of 18
  • Threatening to "kick the head in" of one pupil and "kill" another
  • Telling one pupil: "I'm not in trouble - you'll be in trouble"
  • After being aggressive to one pupil, he kissed the boy's forehead and told him "you're all right"
  • Taking one or more pupils to a strip club
  • Acting aggressively towards the woman leading the trip when she tried to help him back to his tent
  • Exposing himself to the woman in a shared hotel room, although it was agreed this was not "malicious or sexually motivated"
The panel said his behaviour "placed one or more pupils in his care at risk".
It added there was "no malice or sexual intent" in taking the students to the lapdancing club, but Mr Glenn admitted it was "inappropriate and unprofessional" for him to fail to control the situation.
He added he could not remember what happened "due to his state of intoxication" but he "did not not dispute the recollection of those present", the report said.
 

brad465

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The BTP in Greater Manchester pulled off a belter on Twitter in response to comedian Jason Manford trying to get his daughter to travel for free despite being over 5:


Daughter,6 resolutely refusing to say she’s 5 so I don’t have to pay for a train ticket is making me laugh so hard! She got angry at me for even suggesting it. She ended the conversation with ‘I’ve worked hard to get here!’ To where? 6?! proper belly laughs here!

1623023176669.png
 
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In bringing my Broadcasting enthusiasm here: 12 years and a month, after the United States shut down high powered Analogue TV Stations, the final number of Low Powered services died with no fuss last Tuesday (July 13th) and ended over 75 years, of continuous Analogue broadcasting across the pond.

A significant event in the history of technology happened yesterday, and it passed so quietly that we almost missed it. The last few remaining NTSC transmitters in the USA finally came off air, marking the end of over seven decades of continuous 525-line American analogue TV broadcasts.
 

nlogax

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In bringing my Broadcasting enthusiasm here: 12 years and a month, after the United States shut down high powered Analogue TV Stations, the final number of Low Powered services died with no fuss last Tuesday (July 13th) and ended over 75 years, of continuous Analogue broadcasting across the pond.

Farewell, Never Twice the Same Color. It was unpleasant and slightly ugly dealing with you and your 480 visible lines for so many years.
 

341o2

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Wholesaler orders 10,000 "Free Britney" T shirts which arrive with the name being spelt as in the region in Northern France. Also note that within the article, apparently only 1,000 shirts were ordered.

https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/n...ars-shirts-gain-huge-reaction/?action=success

IT was supposed to be a show of solidarity with the pop star Britney Spears – but a spelling error turned it into a message about Northern France.


A Poole wholesaler ordered 1,000 T-shirts supporting the #freeBritney movement.
 

PTR 444

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Pizza for Italy, Dracula for Romania and Chernobyl for Ukraine.
These were the pictures and captions used by a South Korean broadcaster to depict nations at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympic Games.
MBC has since apologised for offending viewers, after complaints the visuals were "offensive" and "ridiculous".
The channel said it wanted to make it easier for viewers to understand the entering countries quickly but said it was an "inexcusable mistake".

Can’t help but wonder what image they might have used for us…

Fish and chips?
Red phone boxes?
Queen Elizabeth II?
 

pdeaves

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Can’t help but wonder what image they might have used for us…

Fish and chips?
Red phone boxes?
Queen Elizabeth II?
If memories from school French lessons are correct (probably not!), the French call us 'rosbif' or something similar, derived from 'roast beef'. If that's how at least part of the rest of the world know us, maybe that's what the Koreans would have used, too.
 

341o2

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If memories from school French lessons are correct (probably not!), the French call us 'rosbif' or something similar, derived from 'roast beef'. If that's how at least part of the rest of the world know us, maybe that's what the Koreans would have used, too.
Indeed, it is a jibe at us Brits, which is the colour we are supposed to go when exposed to reasonably strong Continental sun. Not brown, but pinkish red as in rare cooked steak
 
Last edited:

yorksrob

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Indeed, it is a jibe at us Brits, which is the colour we are supposed to go when exposed to reasonably strong Continental sun. Not brown, but pinkish red as in rare cooked steak

Which is ironic, because the way to cook roast beef in Blighty is until it's brown, rather than pinky red !
 

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