Souped-down

End of the road for noisy boy racers? Car makers are axing their beloved hot hatches to go electric

The days of noisy boy racers flying past in souped-up cars with offensively loud exhaust pipes look numbered.

That's because their beloved 'hot hatches' are accelerating towards demise as car makers cull them from their ranges as part of their transitions to electric vehicles.


Oh I don't know, I've seen plenty of lunatic driving in electric cars, the noise may come later.

Fake exhausts which emit a loud electric crackling noise from hidden speakers perhaps, or a siren-like whine under full acceleration. There are always possibilities.

Two Headlines

Crisis in Cornwall as locals have 'never seen it so empty

Cornwall locals have said the county has "never been so empty" despite tourism chiefs predicting a bumper year for visitors. Jon Hyatt, who chairs Visit Cornwall, blamed the cost-of-living crisis and bad weather at peak times on a drop in visitor numbers last year.


‘Bloody tourists’ don’t ‘get’ Cornwall, says tourism boss in charge of attracting visitors

Heading to Cornwall on holiday? Respect the locals, the region’s tourism boss has urged in an expletive-heavy tirade.

But according to Malcolm Bell - the outgoing chief executive of Visit Cornwall - some of these holidaymakers are “f***ing emmets”.

‘Emmet’ is an old English word for ant, and is a negative Cornish slang word for tourists.

I'm Fake

Lots of similar material around, but this is impressive as a demonstration of where we are in the world of AI fakes.

Mosh Pit

Police are warning festival attendees to leave smart watches at home for unexpected reason

Police have warned smart watch users heading to festivals this summer to check their devices, after an uptick in the number of accidental emergency calls...

That's because Apple Watches have a safety feature that can detect when a user is in a 'car crash' and automatically alerts the police - however, it's also apparently been going off while music lovers are getting thrown around in a mosh pit.


Having led a sheltered and somewhat innocent life, I had to look up 'mosh pit' in order to make sense of this story.

A zero click search tells me -

A mosh pit is an area in front of a stage at a rock concert where high-energy, volatile dancing takes place. Participants push or slam into each other, often to aggressive styles of live music such as punk rock and heavy metal.

Fine, it now makes sense in a technical sense, but doesn't make sense in an enjoying the music sense, so I'm heading back to that sheltered and somewhat innocent life. Assuming I can find it again.

Cover it up

Keir Starmer urged not to 'cover it up' as bombshell new migrant crime figures released

Keir Starmer must choose between publishing migrant crime data or instigating "yet another shameful cover up", Robert Jenrick has declared.

The Shadow Justice Secretary warned Afghans and Eritreans are 20 times more likely to be convicted of sex offences, while Albanians are 153 times more likely to be convicted of drug offences...

Research by the Centre for Migration Control revealed there were 104,000 foreign national convictions between 2021 and 2023.


We could ask an interesting question here - does Starmer have the power to hide the crime figures in a digital age?

Organisations such as Centre for Migration Control seem to acquire enough data to highlight the severity of the issue and apart from that, anyone paying attention has known for years that there are significant correlations in crime statistics, including national correlations.

As we already know, Starmer's instinctive approach appears to be censorship, but at the moment this mainly works on those strange souls willing to be censored. Everyone else knows well enough what is going on.

Scary toys on the way

Barbie-maker Mattel teams up with OpenAI, eyes first AI-powered product this year

Mattel has teamed up with OpenAI to develop toys and games with artificial intelligence, and expects to launch its first AI-powered product later this year, the Barbie-maker said on Thursday.

The company, which also makes Hot Wheels and Uno cards, plans to "bring the magic of AI to age-appropriate play experiences with an emphasis on innovation, privacy, and safety," it said...

"With OpenAI, Mattel has access to an advanced set of AI capabilities alongside new tools to enable productivity, creativity, and company-wide transformation at scale," said OpenAI operating chief Brad Lightcap.


Sounds scary if Mattel comes up with a Barbie doll which is smarter than Keir Starmer's Cabinet. Not a high bar that one, but still scary.

Apparently Brad Lightcap isn't one of their products.

Measly Morphing

Glastonbury warning over 'highly infectious disease' as festival-goers urged to take action

Glastonbury festival-goers have been urged to get vaccinated against a "highly infectious" disease amid ongoing outbreaks across Europe.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has warned that measles is "circulating across the country", with high numbers in the South West.

The UKHSA confirmed last week that 109 cases of the Victorian-era disease were recorded in April and 86 in May. Unvaccinated children aged 10 years and under have been the worst hit.


Britain morphing into ‘National Health State’, says think tank

Britain is turning into a “National Health State”, a think tank has said after the Chancellor gave the NHS a major funding boost in her spending review.

The health service was the big winner of Wednesday’s spending review, receiving an extra £29 billion per year for day-to-day spending and more cash for capital investment.