Friday 30 March 2018

Climate Change Confirmed - politicians, scientists, church agree

This morning, in a rare, coordinated media blitz, leaders from every corner of the globe sensationally announced they were now ready to announce something totally sensational.  

No 10 wears Stella McCartney house slippers


Britain's woefully Sub-Prime Minister appeared predictably for the cameras in signature leopard print house slippers to give a statement outside No 10.  


Meanwhile Mr Putin, looking relaxed after an effortless election victory, sported open-neck, smart-casual hunting fatigues for a short announcement in front of the Gasprom Flame of Eternal Reward.  

Sig Berlusconi appeared in a chiffon nightie with love-bites on his neck and fresh welts on his thighs on the front doorstep of one of his regular 'nieces'.  


Sig Berlusconi - a stock photo showing some indiscretion behind the podium

Together they confirmed what scientists, climatologists and even the bears in the woods have been reporting for years; the world is experiencing global climate change, the likes of which has not been seen since the days when you could walk from England to France.

Parts of the globe which have been deep frozen for decades are warming for the first time; news agencies are reporting unusual signs of life.  This includes the first attempts in recent memory to reciprocate communication by the KimJongUns. These highly reclusive inhabitants of the northern Korean peninsular normally hibernate for countless years on end, huddled for warmth around their uranium enrichment facilities hidden deep in the dark caves under the mountains.   


South Korea hosts the new, slimmer face of North Korea;
Kim YoJong, Director of NK's Propoganda & Agitation Dept 
and more importantly, the youngest sister of NK leader Kim JongUn 


A delegation of South Korean negotiators immediately flew from Seoul to Washington to report the previously unlikely thawing of relations with North Korea. They brought with them an 'unconventional message' from Kim JongUn addressed to 'US President Dennis Rodman'.  

Whitehouse medics had to treat several South Korean negotiators for dislocated shoulders after they apparently patted themselves on the back a little too hard following the success of their epiphanous decision to 'initiate dialogue' with North Korea; a concept previously dismissed as 'dangerous' by more conservative South Korean governments.  This dialogue was just the latest warming event in a chain reaction beginning with South Korea postponing its winter military drills with the US. This led to the North's cessation of test missiles launched into the Pacific. In turn North Korea accepted an invitation to participate in South Korea's Winter Olympics; notably the 'Icy Hard Stare' and 'Synchronised Scowling' events, at which they won gold, silver and bronze.


Vice Pres. Mike Pence and wife Karen make a solid synchronised effort at the classic 'Over my dead body' scowl.
Ultimately a more engaging 'Come on, impress me' scowl by NK's Kim YoJong (rear, left) won over the judges in the Synchronised Scowling Event (Humourless Diplomat Class)

Just weeks later North Korea's Fat Controller urgently brushed the dust off 'Thomas', his father's favourite tank engine, setting the wheels in motion for his first trip abroad since taking power in 2011.  


Rasberry ripple and lemon sorbet : firm favourites with Kim JongUn since childhood 

Where better to go than China for an even faster warming of relations between Super-Supreme Leader Kim and Emperor Xi as the two leaders celebrated Mr Xi's recently elevated status.

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2139342/chinese-president-xi-jinping-north-korean-leader-kim

While the far east reveled in totally unprecedented warming, the west has conversely been plunged into the sharpest cooling of relations in modern memory. Rhetoric was already frosty, even by European standards, after Britain formally declared 'Brexit' - an intention to take all their toys from the playground and to go home to play with themselves.  


After months of deteriorating speculation about a speculative deterioration of relations, most observers thought things could not get any worse than Britain's David Davies. 

Then a secret nerve agent was used on unwitting victims in sleepy Salisbury.  This became the unlikely catalyst for a sudden show of strength and unity as Europe stopped bickering for a few moments and were joined by the US for The Great Russian Freeze-out.  

Russian attachés were sent packing from all countries in time for Easter.  Russia immediately warned of retaliation; the expulsion of an equal number of foreign officials from Russia. Inevitably one lone squatter tweeted jubilantly from the Whitehouse; 
"Russia can't expel any of MY attachés because I didn't appoint any yet ! Losers !" 
Putin on the charm, with Emperor Xi

Tzar Putin was later heard joking with friends; 

"Comrades: he wails with the petulant insecurity of an unloved child - the free world finally has the leader it deserves. 

"But, to business; Beijing, next week, Emperor Xi invites me for a detailed inspection of his troops to celebrate our respective election victories. There will be many female comrades wearing automatic weapons and uniforms pressed with so much starch their skirts will crack like gunfire when they sit down. He will showcase China's latest range of assault tanks which are now available in a stunning range of day-glo colours with air conditioning and martini shakers fitted as standard. Sadly, none of you are invited. Laters comrades. Don't call me, I'll call you."

Meanwhile leaders of less-developed nations seem much less confident about managing the unpredictable swings predicted in the global climate. President Nana Akufo Addo of Ghana gave an example;
Flooding: not funny

"Last year we had 3 months of torrential rain; more rain than normally falls in 3 years. River levels rose 10m above normal height, sweeping away roads and bridges completely. Water burst the river banks in many areas, flooding into our homes. Crocodiles swam freely onto the balcony of my mother's 4th floor apartment ! My goodness, it was definitely not funny ! 

"Our brave but ill-equipped emergency services were completely overwhelmed of course. When the water level finally dropped, we saw proof - incontrovertible proof - of God's unique sense of humour.  Can you imagine how difficult it was to get a 5 ton hippo out of the topmost branches of a mahogany tree ?  It is not easily done I tell you ! The animal was very, very distressed and not even a little bit grateful. It was not worth the effort.  If it happens again, we will simply shoot the bugger up there in the branches and then chop down the tree.  We will send the villagers home with a heaven-sent BBQ of firewood and hippo-steaks.  You can take my word for it."

Back stateside an exceptionally strong storm named 'Daniels', the likes of which has never been seen before, continues to be fueled by huge amounts of hot air spewed by a disingenuous, mystery Whitehouse resident named 'David Dennison'.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/03/07/the-7-most-interesting-parts-of-stormy-danielss-lawsuit-against-trump/?utm_term=.77574631ea4c

60 minutes ?  Daniels didn't even need 6
Rather than ignoring the storm so it quietly blows itself out, lawyers for Mr Dennison continue to deny DD was ever in the eye of the storm or indeed that DD even tried to make the storm go away. This despite DD's well documented, regular bragging about his prolific success at chasing and riding out many other storms in the past. 
Claims of proof that Dennison
shared a bed with Daniels

Denials only served to whip storm Daniels into a greater frenzy, boosting public interest, speculation and intense media coverage. 

After '60 Minutes' aired an extended weather forecast to examine the storm in detail, most observers thought the storm would change course to distance itself from further controversy. However this now seems unlikely given this week's relentless new bursts of hot air from lawyers of Mr Dennison.

Last but not least, a Vatican spokesman also confirmed that climate change is a sin against the Creation, against the Natural World and as such is no less than a sin against God himself.


Pope Francis sporting the Vatican's own design; 
an Earth Wind Water and Fire Elemental Energy Collector neck ruffle, 
proudly not based on works by either Copernicus or Galileo.

"Let me be clear," a spokesman explained, "The church is very much aware of our duty to preserve the Earth as the greatest of God's gifts to man. We are proud of our great strides in reducing carbon emissions, starting in the middle ages, no less. We were the first to stop burning witches as early as the mid 1600's while other churches irresponsibly continued for at least another century. Ours is an enlightened, loving, all inclusive church and as such we rapidly embraced the transition to drowning, hanging and beheading as environmentally friendly - and let's not forget merciful - solutions for exorcising Satan from the possessed, demonic women and children living in our communities. By the way, perhaps you are interested in our exciting training program to prepare squads of new exorcists for global assignment ? You get to keep your frequent flier miles."

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/03/30/exorcism-training-course-put-vatican-demand-rises/


“This is 2018 folks, it is no longer the Middle Ages.
Self-taught exorcists no longer cut the mustard; we're hiring apprentices”



  








































Saturday 24 March 2018

Just When You Thought it's All Over ...

Let's face it; some men are naturally gorgeous. They are mouth-watering, perhaps even scrumptious; whether they have just been pulled out of a wrecked car (Connery), pulled through a hedge backwards (Depp) or just simply pulled with Elizabeth Debicki (Hiddleston). 


A moment of rare prescience which we all failed to appreciate in 1964;
Goldfinger apologises to Bond for the caddying shortcomings of his henchman Oddjob -
"Golf is not yet the national game of Korea, eh ?"



Johnny Depp, timeless as Edward Scissorhands in 1990 




2017's The Night Manager: 
Debicki and Hiddleston: "Phwoor" and "Phwoorer" 

Then at the other end of the spectrum are the guys with "the perfect face for radio". Or as a friend put it rather less charitably; "You've all the looks of a tennis ball that's been chewed by yer mutt for the best part of 30 years". Always looking for the silver lining, I interpreted this as his warmest wish that my four-pawed buddy would achieve such privileged longevity.


It has to be said there are very few of us 'tennis balls' in Korea and most of us are indeed foreigners. South Korean men and women are for the most part strikingly good looking, with each generation successively increasing the average height of the population. During the course of a normal business day in Seoul it is not unusual to meet Korean men and women-in-heels who approach 6ft in height, sporting thick, dark hair, flawless skin and very well-toned, slender, athletic physiques. Young South Koreans at least have broken out of the mould of the short, stooped, Asian shopkeeper.

Meanwhile the scarce data which exists suggests that poverty and famine have combined to such a degree that North Koreans have already fallen behind their South Korean cousins by at least 3" in only 65 years since the end of the Korean war. Exactly how much varies according to sources; anything from 3" according to Seoul's Sungkyunkwan University

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-17774210

Or 6" according to Christopher Hitchens

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2010/02/kim-jong-il-s-regime-is-even-weirder-and-more-despicable-than-you-thought.html

Back to John McCain's 3"

https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/29/short-north-koreans-and-americans/


Whichever is correct, the pursuit of movie-star looks and extended youth are powerfully fueling the economy and the media. In 2018 the Korean beauty market was estimated to be worth US$13bn, a little less than the opening cost of 2 new nuclear reactors at Hinkley Point in Somerset. Sadly there are no prizes for guessing which of these will rapidly outpace the other, much to the chagrin of the British electricity consumer.

http://www.mintel.com/press-centre/beauty-and-personal-care/a-bright-future-south-korea-ranks-among-the-top-10-beauty-markets-globally

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/04/11/health/korean-makeup-beauty-health-benefits/index.html


Of course beauty products are no longer aimed exclusively at the female consumer. Anything a woman can do, a man can do better, vanity not excluded. Korean men are now increasingly the target of new product launches; for example 'Boy de Chanel' which selected South Korea for its initial worldwide release.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tiffanyleigh/2018/08/27/chanel-debuts-boy-de-chanel-male-makeup-collection/#6c9a4cfee3c5


In this simple move Chanel confers to the Korean men's cosmetic market the same importance as the movie industry would if it held the worldwide premier of the next Bond movie in Seoul. And not surprisingly the soundbites are just as corny as any quip by Roger Moore's 007;


"For Chanel, 

beauty is not a matter of gender; 
it is a matter of style. 
This new range allows men in their beauty routines to 
have the tools necessary to feel better about themselves. 
Moreover, men should be free to use makeup products 
to correct their appearance, 
without calling into question their masculinity." 


So all praise to Chanel for delivering unto us the tools we need to hide the zit under our chin to give us the confidence to travel under the glaring, unforgiving lighting of public transport.

With military service being compulsory in South Korea it is reassuring to know the cosmetics industry can still support with products such as; 
'Dandy Guy 4-Colour Camo Cream'

which is not only 'non-sensitive' but also 'without harsh chemicals'.
"Men have every right to protect their skin" - while they are presumably protecting their country.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/korean-men-makeup-cosmetics-mainstream-1.4552761


It is important to note that the current reinvention of Korean masculinity is driven largely by female preference rather than male re-positioning and is not in any way linked to an expression of sexuality. K-Pop, TV and film have become launchpads for a softer, androgynous Korean male image which departs from previous rugged stereotypes.

https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/fashion-luxury/article/2103854/cutting-edge-beauty-male-plastic-surgery-south-korea


Yesterday's boyfriend material: ByungHun Lee as the ultimate assassin ChoBai Han.Rugged machismo with the necessary firepower to (almost) dispatch
Bruce Willis and John Malkovich in 2013's Red 2: "The Best Never Rest"

World famous BTS; with the necessary eyebrows to make your knees tremble.
Guys that nice girls dream of bringing home to meet the parents.Helping to launch a UNICEF youth campaign at the United Nations on 24 Sept;
“No matter who you are, where you’re from, your skin colour, your gender identity,
just speak yourself,”

The elephant in the room is always that come the zombie apocalypse, a devastating meteor strike or having to recreate the Normandy landings for every post-Brexit shopping sortie to France, who do you want to watch your back ? Someone who can lock and load a GAU17A machine gun, someone who can jump start an amphibious military landing craft or someone who needs 3 technicians to conceal his concealer ?

Hair today, gone tomorrow
It has been known for more than a decade that metabolised products from recreational drugs can be monitored in London's Thames during the week to back-calculate the number of doses of cocaine and ecstasy used in the capital during the previous weekend.

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/06/european-eels-on-cocaine-polluted-rivers-science-environment-animals/

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1502321/River-of-cocaine.html

A similar exercise in Korea would instead show an alarming spike in black hair dye products flushed into the waterways on the last weekend of every month. As each month progresses one can clearly see small, distinguished flecks of grey, silver and white quickly sprouting in all the usual places on one's colleagues; the side burns, around the hair parting, the top of the neck, etc. These are natural signs of experience, wisdom and maturity. However suddenly, on the first Monday of the month, all will vanish completely as colleagues report for work looking 20 years younger than they looked the previous Friday. In some cases they look barely a day older than their own kids in the college graduation photos proudly displayed on their desks. Apart from the appearance of eternal youth, this is partly a response to the rapid increase of 'twilight divorces' and consequently 'second careers'.

In the 12 years to 2013 divorce rates fell by 25% in Korea but  among those married for more than 20 years rates soared 31%, now accounting for one quarter of all divorces. The trigger is typically when the husband reaches retirement age or is retired early. This is when wives have the sudden epiphany that their husband's long working hours were in fact the best feature of their marriage and that to be together all day every day will be insufferable. With recent changes in the law and favourable judgements setting legal precedents wives are now promptly filing for divorce and taking half of everything with them.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-southkorea-divorce/its-never-too-late-twilight-divorce-in-south-korea-at-record-idUSKCN0T12KV20151112

http://koreabizwire.com/twilight-divorces-and-national-pension-splits-both-on-the-rise/114140

In such a climate it now becomes imperative for each husband to preserve his dashing good looks to minimise the risk of being retired early and indeed, should the worst occur, to trade on his experience to start a 'second career' as a senior consultant in a smaller company, just when you think it's all over. 


http://m.koreatimes.co.kr/pages/article.asp?newsIdx=252860



Anything but the quiet life.