Tim Worstall

Like any traditional quiz show, “Le jeu de la mort” (The Game of Death) has a lively audience, a glamorous hostess, and a list of trivia questions for contestants.
However, unlike typical game shows, punishment for wrong answers is a 460-volt electric shock.
To chants of [...]

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French people having an affair.
Rumours that French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy are both having affairs are gaining momentum in France.
Well I never. That is surprising, isn’t it?

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There are many things I like about the story. But the best parts, for my money, are that she was getting her ex-husband to drive from the passenger seat. While she sat in the driver’s seat (why?), shaving her tingly bits. To be “ready” for her boyfriend. With [...]

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Meanwhile taxi drivers stayed off the job for a second day, protesting changes that would oblige them to issue receipts, keep account books and pay tax according to their income.
Almost as good as the bus drivers’ strike here in Portugal a few years back. Changes in the drink driving laws would have meant [...]

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And Brazil number two.
Hybrid vigour anyone?

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A LEG of lamb, aerosol cans and kitchen implements — are just some of the bizarre objects one veteran medic has pulled out of his patients’ BUMS.
Welsh and dim that is?
Cue Daffyd jokes of course but really, that’s not the way to do it, is it?

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The purpose of my (newspaper- financed) visit was an investigation of the genetic research centre where, a blood sample having been tested, the secrets of my DNA would be revealed.
“You have,” the director told me, “the cancer gene, the thrombosis gene and the Alzheimer gene.”
Looking for a silver lining, I added: “And [...]

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A cyberprankster broke into the Web site of Iran’s hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, yesterday and created a page that offered a prayer for his death.
“Dear God, in 2009 you took my favorite singer — Michael Jackson, my favorite actress — Farrah Fawcett, my favorite actor — Patrick Swayze, my favorite voice — Neda,” it read.
“Please, [...]

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Boy, do they live it up over there.
On Google Trends, the rankings of what people are searching for, you’ve got:
Is Dunkin’ Donuts open on Christmas.
I’ve done some pretty strange things on the day down the years but never thought of a donut shop as quite capturing the spirit.

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On a proposal to stop Italians having a decent lunch:
Carlo Podda, of the Italian General Confederation of Labour, said: “What next? Should we abolish the boring ritual of sleep?”

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The Welsh that is:
a 1970s Argentine pop star called René Griffiths, who would arrive on stage on a horse and sing in Welsh.

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Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez yesterday ordered the country’s military to prepare for a possible armed conflict with Colombia, saying soldiers should be ready if the United States attempts to provoke a war between the South American neighbours.
Mr Chavez said Venezuela could end up going to war with Colombia as tensions between [...]

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The de facto authorities have the support of many middle class and conservative Hondurans as well as the supreme court, congress and military.
I do rather love this insistence that all the lefties have of calling the Honduran government the “de facto” government.
If you’ve got both the Congress and the Supreme Court on your side then [...]

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Russian regional elections ‘rigged by Kremlin’, opposition claims

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One Murphy R asks this question:
Might it be small really is beautiful?
It’s in relation to this:
Mr Jonsson has already become embroiled in controversy after it emerged that KPMG Iceland had been responsible for investigating events leading up to the collapse of Glitnir, despite the fact that his son was chief executive of the bank’s largest shareholder. KPMG [...]

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….jibes about the Portuguese (“few vices except lice and sodomy”)
Can’t say I’ve noticed either myself…..

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The grandson of Joseph Stalin has launched a libel suit against one of Russia’s leading liberal newspapers, accusing it of lying in an article which stated the wartime leader had killed Soviet citizens.
Sad thing is, with the current system in Russia he might even win the case.

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Yes, community there is indeed.
It means scraping a living from the animals you keep and the patches of vegetables you’ve always grown. It means cabbage soup or beans and potatoes smothered in olive oil, plus chorizo made from every last bit of the pig you slaughtered yourself, washed down with the light red wine made [...]

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I still remember Stoke’s very own Indira Gandhi Family Planning Clinic.

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