That Media Hut: Mar 2, 2012

Friday, March 2, 2012

Global TV Told To Apologize For Airing "Bugs Bunny" Scene In Family Guy

BROADCAST WARNING! The video clip above contains violence that is explicit and really quite indefensible. It may also contain sex, bad language, dubious fashion choices, mockery, a smugly smart-assed attitude that may be offensive to rabbits and rabbit lovers, an inexplicably idiotic hunter, firearms that may not be legal in your jurisdiction if you failed to vote Conservative in the last federal election, and plodding music that may offend those who are tired of every cartoon in the world.

A scene from the guilty episode of Family Guy. Bugs Bunny has no idea what's coming next. Nor did one Canadian viewer, who since has never been the same.

Last July Global aired an episode of Family Guy, the outrageous and hugely popular cartoon, in which Fudd finally got a bullet into Bugs Bunny, after unsuccessfully tracking the rascally rabbit for decades now. “Bugs screamed and gripped his chest as blood poured out of him,” the council’s decision explained. “He died in a prolonged and dramatic manner, after which Fudd twisted Bugs’ neck and dragged Bugs’ lifeless body by the ears through a pool of blood.”

Anyhow, the council has ruled that Global didn’t sufficiently warn viewers that such violence was ahead, though how any viewer could be watching Family Guy and not know that it would be offensive — frequently and gleefully — remains a mystery.

The council has ordered Global to apologize, even though the ruling acknowledges that nothing on the broadcast contravened any codes, and that Global did, before the episode, warn viewers about sex and strong language and that the show was rated “14+.”Alas, Global neglected to use the standard warning, “This program contains a long and graphic scene of a cartoon rabbit being shot to death by a cartoon hunter with a speech impediment.”

[Vancouver Sun]

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

Did you have your green eggs and ham this morning?

Fans across the country are celebrating the 108th birthday of famed children’s author Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss. C

elebratory activities for Dr. Seuss, who died in 1991 at the age of 87, are planned in his birthplacr of Springfield, Mass., as well as his longtime home of La Jolla, Calif. But the opening of The Lorax, his latest film to be adapted to the big screen, is said to be the national ode to the man to wrote such famed books as The Cat in the Hat and How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

March 2 also marks Read Across America Day, marked by Lorax stars Zac Efron, Danny DeVito, Taylor Swift, and Betty White.

[Washignton Post]

Teenager Told to Clean Bedroom Finds Winning Lottery Ticket

Maybe this will persuade you to do as you’re told and clean your damn room.

19-year-old Ryan Kitching says his mom had been on his case for weeks about his messy bedroom. When he finally got around to cleaning it up, he stumbled on a lottery ticket that ended up being worth £52,981 (~$84,000).

“My mum had been nagging me for weeks to tidy my room so I started cleaning up and found a pile of old tickets,” said Ryan. “I was about to bin them but at the last minute I got this strange feeling that I should get them checked.”

Good thing too, because one of them was worth nearly five times Ryan’s Tesco salary.

“Next time she nags me to tidy my room I won’t need telling twice,” he said.

And it only took half a hundred grand.

[Telegraph]

Flying Car to be Unveiled at New York Auto Show

A flying car will be unveiled to the public at a New York auto show next month, bringing us all one step closer to, well, probably a lot more mid-air collisions between drivers too busy texting or rocking out to Bon Jovi.

Terrafugia's Transition Roadable Aircraft will be on display at the New York Auto Show between April 6 and 15, the first time that we will be able to see the much dreamt-about vehicle. The Transition is a street-legal car that has foldable wings. When the wings are down, the car becomes a single-propeller airplane capable of carrying the plane as far as 425 nautical miles, or about 787 kilometres.

Terrafugia says they've already taken 100 orders for the plane, which will cost the actually-quite-reasonable sum of $279,000. The first TRAs will be shipped by the end of the year.

[ABC]

Man Sues Google Over Street View Urination Photo

Google Street View, long established as a source for photos of unaware naked people, is being sued by a man in France because one of its camera-mounted cars snapped a photo of him pissing into a courtyard on his property and, as any of us surely would, uploaded it to the internet.

Although Google blurred his face, the man claims he became the “laughing stock” of his small town and brought the suit for infringement of privacy to a court in Angiers. He wants his photo taken off and 10,000 euros (around $13,000). A Google lawyer has dismissed the suit as “implausible”.

It sounds like a crazy lawsuit, but even if this Frenchman wins, I don’t think Google will be pissing itself over the loss. I just hope that this doesn’t set a dangerous anti-ridiculous-Street-View-image precedent, though.

[AFP, TDG]

Quality Of Sleep Improves With Age

The older you grow, the better you sleep.

Despite sleeping less as you age, a new study out of the Center for Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology at the University of Pennslyvania found that sleep quality gets better with age.

Rresearchers found middle-aged people were most likely to suffer through a restless night.

However, the study concluded that by the time you are in your fifties, the odds of getting a good night's sleep were increased.

[AFP]

Hockey Analyst Don Cherry Joins Twitter

Week after week, Don Cherry sets Twitter abuzz with bewilderment, amusement and everything in between during his Coach’s Corner segments on Hockey Night in Canada. Now he – or perhaps some brave intern posing as him – will be able to interact with fans and the hockey world at large on the popular social media platform.

Cherry and Kathy Broderick, “Grapes’s good friend and producer on Hockey Night in Canada” will apparently be responsible for the @CoachsCornerCBC account.

The 78-year-old star of Coach's Corner announced this Twitter account during an interview with fellow CBC personality George Stroumboulopoulos on Thursday.

The account has over 4,000 followers so far.

[Globe & Mail]

"Tree Lobsters" Rediscovered After 80 Years

Lord Howe Island Stick Insect hatching from Zoos Victoria on Vimeo.

Presumed extinct for over 80 years, the Lord Howe Island Stick Insect — or “tree lobster” as its also known because it’s freakin’ huge — was rediscovered in 2001 on neighbouring Ball’s Pyramid.

Fast forward to last year, when Melbourne Zoo keeper Rohan Cleave captured the insect’s hatching process on film for the first time.

It’s both revolting and amazing at the same time. It’s revolzing!

I’ll show myself out.

[Huffington Post]

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