Monday's Friday Morning Music Video

From 1977's Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols.

Civil servant compensated £10,000, claims portrait of queen he has to walk by offended his human rights.

(Not the real portrait).

The Independent: Civil servant ‘offended’ by portrait of Queen is paid £10,000 in compensation.

[C]ivil servant] Lee Hegarty complained under human rights legislation he should not have to work in an office that featured paintings of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.

After his complaint, the portraits were removed and replaced with photographs of the royals meeting people in Northern Ireland during official visits.

But Lord Maginnis said he was most outraged that the senior official’s dispute was settled in secret with the then-Northern Ireland Secretary, Theresa Villiers, who approved a £10,000 compensation payment for “hurt feelings and distress”.

World News

The International News: Pakistan conducts another successful ballistic missile.

Pakistan today conducted another successful launch of short range surface to surface ballistic missile “Nasr” as part of Army Strategic Forces Command training exercise which included quad salvo on 24 January and single shots on 28 & 31 January 2019[.]

Watch the video at the link.
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BBC: Record fentanyl drug bust at U.S. Mexico border.

Agents on Saturday found 254 lbs (114kg) of fentanyl, as well as 395 lbs of methamphetamine in a lorry at an official US-Mexico border crossing.

A "false floor" was found in the produce truck, said Michael Humphries[.]
[.]
...the cargo of fentanyl had an approximate black market value of $3.5m (£2.6m) and is considered so deadly that even a few salt-sized grains of it could kill a person.

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SMH: Maker of "Happy Birthday"-playing candles fined. Some catch fire, some explode.

Consumer Affairs Victoria took Mr Xu, 59, from Clayton, to court for selling the permanently banned "combustible" candles whose batteries are also at risk of exploding in its smouldering ruins and a range of other products after warnings they did not meet Australian safety standards.

Watch the video at the link. Not to miss!
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EURO News: OPEC cuts back production, price increases.

The 14-member Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries pumped 30.98 million barrels per day (bpd) in January, a Reuters survey showed, down 890,000 bpd from December and the largest month-on-month drop since January 2017.

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Newsy: Toxic Smog in Bangkok.

Hit the link, watch the video. Breath in, breath out.
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The Star: Snakes seeking refuge in toilets due to Australia's heatwave.

Last week, [Luke Huntley, a snake catcher in Queensland]  removed a seven-foot python that had slithered into an open door and climbed into the shower not only to escape the heat but also to find water. Days earlier, he pulled a small tree snake that had coiled in another homeowner’s toilet bowl.

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From snakes in toilets to, sort of, the Royal Family. What a perfect segue.

The Irish Times: Stockpiles of Magnums in case of no-deal Brexit. (Magnums the vanilla chocolate ice cream bars, not the condoms). 

Unilever is stockpiling ice creams in Britain and deodorants in continental Europe to guard against potential supply disruptions in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

The Anglo-Dutch consumer giant, which is the world’s largest ice cream seller, makes British favourites like Magnum bars in Italy and Germany, and is building up a few weeks of extra inventory in Britain in case of any border delays.

Likewise, several of its European deodorants, including Axe, Dove and Rexona, are made in Britain.

Why is Prince Phil still driving?

Maybe...maybe...there are 97-year olds who are more adept and alert at driving than people half that age. Maybe. Then again, maybe not.

It's difficult for me to understand why Prince Phil continues driving. Vanity Fair:

As if being in a car accident that left him seriously shaken wasn’t enough, the Duke of Edinburgh is now at the center of a public relations storm, and Buckingham Palace courtiers can’t seem to keep a lid on it. The 97-year-old royal hit a small Kia sedan with his Land Rover while leaving the Sandringham estate last Thursday. The incident has provided tabloid fodder for days, and continued to do so Monday when one of the passengers involved made an appearance on national television on Monday. She criticized the treatment she has received by the police and what she called disappointing behavior on the part of the royal family.

Emma Fairweather, a passenger in the car, said she feels the royal should have reached out to her personally after the accident, which involved another woman and a nine-month old-baby. Fairweather suffered a broken wrist while the rest of those involved escaped the crash uninjured. According to a witness, Philip said at the scene that he was “dazzled” by bright sunlight when he pulled out onto the busy road and smashed into the Kia. Philip’s Land Rover flipped across the motorway, and the sedan was badly damaged when it crashed into the shoulder.
[.]
Land Rover scored some good publicity when they delivered a new vehicle to the Palace the next day. But outrage ensued when the Daily Mail published photographs of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh—back in the driving seat less than 48 hours after the crash—on the road apparently without their seatbelts. There have been calls for the 97-year-old Duke to give up his drivers license, prompting a debate about whether a man of his age should still legally be allowed to drive.

ET Online: Prince Philip driving two days after car crash.  

Sky News: In 2016, Obama says Phil's driving "very smooth riding." 

The duke drove former US president Barack Obama and his wife Michelle during their state visit in 2016.

Mr Obama said later: "I can report that it was very smooth riding. 

 Image: Sky News

Okay-dokey, let's look at the above pic. To me, just sayin', appears Michelle has the usual backseat-driver look on her face and is saying something similar.

The Queen? She's ready to make an escape in a moment's notice if needed.

Barry? You know he's thinking, "Is this old fuck going to kill us all?"

And Prince Phil? He's everyone's Uncle that "ate-waaaaay-too-much Thanksgiving dinner" and is about to fall asleep, mid-sentence, in a comfy chair. Just before telling you where he has all his money hidden. And when you jar him out of his momentary slumber he won't remember what he was going to tell you anyway, so you let him drift off.

From the same Sky News link:

The incident is bound to raise questions about whether Prince Philip, who retired from public engagements in 2017 and had a hip replacement in May last year, is still able to drive safely.

Yeah...we've had our share of (now departed) family members who've had hip replacement, at ages younger than 97. Mid-70's and early 80's. Recovery was slow but successful. I remember Docs advising "don't drive for at least 3 months." So, for someone at 97, driving six or seven months after hip surgery? That seems risky to me; a risk to himself and others - both of which he, unfortunately, succeeded.

Your thoughts? OH - AND WITHOUT LOOKING BACK AT THE IMAGE...DO THE OBAMAS AND THE ROYALS APPEAR TO BE WEARING THEIR SEAT-BELTS, AS REQUIRED BY...LAW? No peeking back now!

One more thing: Land Rover...Okay, nice of them to give the Royals a new one, but how about doing the same for Emma Fairweather and others injured? Where is KIA? Unless I missed it, they didn't pony up a new vehicle for the victims either. How can a business MISS a chance for a great PR opportunity like that? I'm available for PR consulting. Seriously. The first thing I would have done is advised both KIA and Land Rover to give Ms. Fairweather a free, new vehicle. Both companies would have benefited by being part in every, single local, national and international television and radio news cast across the world -  and the internet - for a minimum of a solid 24-hour news cycle. The free, positive feedback from social media they would have received? Its value = Incalculable. How could they miss? WTF? (And I am for hire. Freelance/Indie Contract basis. We'll talk.)

It's Sunday. Drive carefully and Be Nice to others. Because I know where you live.

UPDATE, The NYT: Phil says he's, "deeply sorry" about car crash.

The Duke of Edinburgh sent an apology letter to Emma Fairweather, who sustained a broken wrist when his Land Rover hit the Kia minivan in which she was traveling near the royal estate of Sandringham on Jan. 17.

In the note, written on Sandringham stationery and dated Jan. 21, the duke said he was “deeply sorry” and wished Ms. Fairweather a “speedy recovery.” He also acknowledged that the accident had left him “somewhat shaken,” a rare admission from a member of the royal family.

And then...Phil was off in his new Land Rover, to run over more commoners. Nah, just kidding.