>>42230

I am surprised to discover that I accidentally own several books on that list.

And have seen a musical adaptation of one of them. And a Disney cartoon of another.

>>42231

The musical of Spinoza's Tractatus Theologico-Politicus is banging.

>>42230

The presence on that list of Mills's Principles of Political Economy is fascinating and deeply revealing.

>An “obsessed” Eastwood man who stalked a Babestation model and spent £30,000 on her OnlyFans account believed he was in a real relationship with her. Nottingham Crown Court heard how, over a two-year period, married Mark Inkster bombarded Alice Goodwin with more than 11,000 messages in which he professed his undying love for her.

>He also found her address and sent flowers, birthday, Christmas and Valentine's cards to the 38-year-old victim, who is the ex-wife of former Notts County footballer and reality TV star Jermaine Pennant. In one message, the deluded 43-year-old, who believed he was in an actual relationship with the 38-year-old victim, said: “I could just imagine your face if (I) turned up at your doorstep.”

https://www.nottinghampost.com/news/nottingham-news/married-man-spent-30k-babestation-10041324

You know, I'm kind of surprised there aren't more cases of obsessive stalkers and OnlyFans models.

>>42234

I'm sure my perspective is considered problematic. But I would be interested in if he was lead on at all and how much money he had sent before she decided his attention was a problem.

The burden for me for what is an exploitative parasocial relationship of what isn't just deserts/reasonable expectations for the 'stalker' at that point is quite high.

I'll put it another way. Do you think she has any guilt about taking his money/would prefer to return it out of principle?

>>42232
Shame that Disney's Myth of the 20th Century will forever be in the Vault.

>>42235
OF seems to require striking a very fine balance. You need to engage with your simps to get them to spend more. But if you engage too much with one particular simp, he might start thinking he's special to you and get obsessed.

Really you have to be conservative with your exploitation of whales.

>>42237
Don't most of them employ someone else to do the chatting for them?

>>42238
The rich ones will, but remember: most of them aren't making millions.

>>42235

It's just the thing where women will happily let you buy them a drink and then just walk off, on a larger scale. They feel no guilt or shame in it and on principle, in technicality, they shouldn't; because after all, you offered them the drink. They were under no obligation to stick around for a chat- Except that's not how it works and never has been, and if we're actually honest with ourselves, everyone knows that when somebody buys you a drink what they really mean is can we have a chat. It's like a social etiquette equivalent of a tax loophole, on paper you're doing nothing wrong but the mens rea is absolutely there.

This isn't a specific male female thing, because I am sure if you try you can find examples the other way around, that I am just blind to because of my male perspective, but it is a symptom of just how alienated and transactional our society is becoming.

In extreme cases like this though, I can see it more like how the gambling industry has fought tooth and nail to avoid regulation, and now they have to put up those perfunctory "gamble aware" links and all that shite. In a lot of cases I think they are very clearly exploiting the same kind of weakness in people. They can play innocent and say they are not actively trying to exploit people, but they are often knowingly taking the money of somebody who clearly has a problem. Kind of like when a bar has to stop serving you because you clearly already had too much, that kind of thing.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/27/people-dead-after-tourist-submarine-sinks-off-egypt-coast-red-sea-reports

>Six Russian tourists have died and 39 people have been rescued after a submarine sank near the resort of Hurghada, the latest in a series of fatal accidents involving tourists on Egypt’s Red Sea coast.
>The incident, involving a 44-seater recreational vessel operated by Sindbad Submarines, occurred in waters less than a mile offshore from Hurghada’s Marriott hotel resort.
>There have been several deadly accidents in the area in recent years, raising questions over safety standards. In November, a dive boat capsized off the coast of Marsa Alam, south of Hurghada, leaving four dead and seven missing. In June 2024, two dozen French tourists were safely evacuated before their boat sank in a similar incident. In 2023, three British tourists died after a fire broke out on their yacht, engulfing it in flames.

I wouldn't blame any of the victims for what happened to them. However, "Egyptian tourist submarine" is easily as intimidating and violent a phrase as any grindcore band name ever thought of.

>>42242
>You're as much use as a chocolate teapot
>You're as useful as a helicopter ejector seat
>You're as trustworthy as an Egyptian tourist submarine

>>42243
There are helis with ejector seats, they trigger small explosives to detach the rotor blades first.

>>42243
There are helis with ejector seats, they trigger small explosives to detach the rotor blades first.

Does anywhere still do April Fool’s Day stories? I have seen a lot fewer of them in recent years, and I think it’s because the current climate means that we see fake news all year round and joke stories aren’t funny any more. But there must be a few around.

Turns out it’s not just me noticing the paucity of prankishness compared to previous years: https://bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn8rxm0nrz9o

iirc the comedy April 1st news story was on it's way out by the end of the previous decade. I'm rather glad of that, as they were almost never even remotely funny. Plus an alarming number of people online are either wilfully devious liars seeking to manipulate others, or deeply creduluous morons who will begin openly talking of violent sedition after a couple of 9:16 "sissifys". The former will happily use a cropped headline about something that never happened to trick the latter, and no media organisation wants to see words written in their signature typeface used as an excuse to send digital death threats, or actual pipe bombs, to politicians.

>A British tourist who disappeared after a stag do in the Spanish resort of Benidorm has been found.

>Jason Taylor, 36, had been partying with friends in Alicante, and was last seen at Alicante-Elche Airport on Saturday morning. He was due to fly back to Birmingham at 10.30am, but never boarded the easyJet flight.

https://The Metro is owned by the Daily Mail./2025/04/01/british-man-stag-missing-benidorm-failing-catch-flight-home-22828612/

There's no way of saying this without being mean, but that is not a 36-year-old man

>>42249

Jason Alexander was 30 when Seinfeld first aired.

Which reminds me of this https://seinfelt.acrobat.com/

>>42250
Yeah but everyone knows teenagers in the 70s looked like they were already in their late 40s.

>>42249
I look a bit like that, and I'm roughly that age. I shan't be doxxing myself, thank you very much, but I saved this picture because of how scarily like me it looks, and I was probably only 32-33 when I did that.

>>42249
Using modern computer technology the wizzes at .gs can do an age reversal simulation to what a standard 36 year old should look like.

>A 12-year-old boy has invented a new card game which has become a hit across the world.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3r8l1wqlj3o

I don't know if I'm being cynical, but when I see a story like this I see a public school kid whose parents have made this happen.

>>42255
U fuckin wot?

>>42256
I was mistaken.

>>42254
No I'm sure he did all those graphics and arranged the manufacturing and distribution himself. You're just jealous.

>>42258

And maybe if his parents had tried harder in life, then he wouldn't have to be jealous in the first place.

>>42259

Deeply lazy trolling effort.

Police raid barbers and vape shops suspected of being fronts for crime gangs

I for one am shocked. Here's me thinking that Turkish barbers and vape shops were upstanding businesses serving their local community, but apparently some of them might be money-laundering fronts staffed by illegal immigrants.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3677xzk56no

>>42312
There was this article earlier in the week about a small town in Wales (population c. 6,000) where there has been an application to open a new barbershop.

>13 barber shops are now open in this small part of a Welsh town, and people aren't happy

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/barber-shops-flood-small-welsh-31377787

I'm sure it's all legit.

>>42312
>>42313
It was only last month that I'd posted here about trying to avoid dodgy barbershops. Is the government reading our posts for policy ideas?

>>42314
It was only 2 months ago that someone was banned here for saying this sort of thing is going on. They probably said it in a distasteful manner but, well, you know.

>Everyone's jumping on the AI doll trend - but what are the concerns?

>When scrolling through social media, you may have recently seen friends and family appearing in miniature. It's part of a new trend where people use generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT and Copilot to re-package themselves - literally - as pocket-sized dolls and action figures. It has taken off online, with brands and influencers dabbling in creating their mini-me. But some are urging people to steer clear of the seemingly innocent trend, saying fear of missing out shouldn't override concerns about AI's energy and data use.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yg690e9eno

Utter fluff article.

>>42316
Yeah, but look at that woman in your image. Phwoar.

>>42317
I was surprised at how much it was able to pick up on. The subheading was something Gemini came up with before I realised it still can't handle generating written word - are we bad at Sunday roasts and the LLM can pick up on it?

>>42318

They say that AI art is soulless, but it has perfectly captured the mournful expression that characterises British life in 2025 - quiet resignation to a life of passive-aggressive emails from Gemma in HR, being on first name terms with the bloke at Dominos, and not being able to fit into a 90s hatchback.

I'm not fat and I am bald, but I'm wearing that exact outfit. I have never cooked a Sunday roast.

>>42319
https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/one-pan_chicken_68593

Change things here and there as you see fit, but this is easier than tying your shoes and tastes pretty good. However, your greatest sin is not supporting local takeaways.

>>42320
I have some thirty years of shoe-tying experience but still feel wholly unqualified to follow that recipe from step two onwards.

>>42321
Men like you are why I'm this board's number one misandrist.

>>42321
Mate the entire recipe is just saying "Slather everything with oil, make sure the veggies are too, throw some salt and pepper on it and lemon if you prefer (no thanks) and then chuck it all in the oven for X minutes. "

Did none of your parents ever teach you to cook? What was your mum doing when you were a teenager?

I'm making sunday dinner tomorrow. Can't wait. I'm making lamb and orzo with cumberland sausage toad in the hole, stuffing, mash and roasted veggies.

>>42348
Putting me into local authority care.

https://www.brusselstimes.com/belgium/1595046/belgians-accused-of-stealing-wind-from-the-dutch

>A Dutch weather forecaster has accused Belgium of inadvertently stealing wind from its neighbours’ wind turbines in the North Sea.

>Wind farms in Belgium are reportedly taking up to 3% of wind energy from Dutch installations, according to Remco Verzijlbergh, CEO of Dutch weather forecasting service Whiffle.

The rest of the article is paywalled and I don't care about reading it anyway, so that's all you're getting from me.

>Pop Idol star Rik Waller unrecognisable with brand-new career 24 years later

https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/pop-idol-star-rik-waller-35302007

He looks exactly the same.

>>42482

I don't recognise him.

>>42483
RIK WALLER, THE BIG LAD OFF POP IDOL.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfRcEtTaY9s

>>42482
>exam invigilator

Isn't that something teachers do over the school holidays to earn beer money?

I was going to take the piss further and compare it to being a lollipop man but it turns out they earn £6,979.57 a year for 2 hours work during the school weekdays. I'm tempted to see if I can swing it with work now.

>‘Pantherman’ striking fear as he leaps from behind gravestones in Merseyside

>A person dressed in a catsuit has been terrorising locals after being spotted stalking people along secluded paths and reportedly leaping out from behind gravestones. The mysterious figure, dressed in a skin-tight black cat suit and mask, was captured on camera meowing and writhing on the ground near Wallasey Beach, Merseyside.

>Footage shows the person wriggling under a fence near a Harvester pub in the Wirral before prancing along a path. Another video shows people in a car screaming as the figure approaches close by. Residents claim he resembles a ‘banshee,’ ‘urban jaguar’ and even a ‘gimp’ and locals like Abbie Gilbert have said the community are trying to hunt ‘him or it’ down.
https://The Metro is owned by the Daily Mail./2025/07/04/mystery-person-big-cat-gimp-costume-terrifies-locals-merseyside-23576862/

I see furrylad has been keeping himself busy.

>>42632
>Harmless weirdo bringing a bit of myth and legend to his town, hunted down and beaten by the local community.
On the face of it, life could be more intriguing with these people around.

>A well-meaning city woman has been scolded by the council over unauthorised sausage rolls she sold at a neighbourhood yard sale.

https://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/news/25352296.woman-slapped-food-hygiene-letter-yard-sale-sausage-rolls/

:(===3
That's meant to be sick from a mouth.