When will people realise that what they post on the Internet is visible to all, and most likely will be found by people who you really do not want to see it?

The latest example of someone making an Internet post they wish they hadn’t came when twenty year old Hadley Jons, from Detroit, posted a comment on her Facebook profile about she believed the defendant in the trial that she was a jury member of was guilty – before the trial had actually finished.

Naturally, as any good defence lawyer does these days, every member of the jury was researched online. Defence lawyer Saleema Sheikh was delighted when her son Jaxon, who works with her at her office, discovered the comment made by one of the jury members about her client.

The indiscretion was pointed out to the judge, Diane Druzinski, who promptly removed the juror and warned her that she could be charged with (more…)

Moggy bothering Royal Bank of Scotland employee Mary Bale hit the headlines this week.

If you’re unaware of who she is, she’s the mumsy 45-year-old who was caught on CCTV disposing of a neighbour’s cat in a wheelie bin.

In the hilarious yet disturbing footage, she is seen petting fuzzy bundle of fur Lola, lulling her into a false sense of security, before grasping her by the scruff of the neck and popping her into the bin like a balled up chip wrapper.

The cat was rescued 15 hours later by her owners, and they posted the video on Facebook in a bid to find out who had mistreated their precious pet. Bale was soon identified and, after defending her actions by proclaiming “it was only a cat”, saw the error of her ways and apologised profusely.

We’ll never really know her motives. Her elderly father is known to be ill in hospital, so she may have acted on an impulse to have some element of control in her life. She may have mistaken the furbag for Sesame Street’s Oscar the Grouch, and thought she was putting him back in a bin where he belonged, or she may simply not like cats. What was interesting was the reaction to the footage; pretty soon, a Facebook group called ‘Death to Mary Bale’ had been created and was attracting lots of followers. Calling for the summary execution of Mrs Bale, its members suggested that she be (more…)

If you were to ask a physicist what the most abundant material was in the universe, he or she would put down their pipe (because female physicists also smoke pipes, fact), pick absentmindedly at the Sellotape holding their glasses together and proclaim ‘Hydrogen’. They would then talk at great length how the element is the answer to our impending energy woes, and the key to unlocking interplanetary travel, and thereafter, the stars.

Pish, posh and old wet fish.

If you were to ask me the same question, I would convincingly argue that the most plentiful substance was stupidity. It’s everywhere you look. There was a time when only buffoonery on a national or international scale would be deemed worthy of a headline. However, as the Internet has become more pervasive, so has our awareness of the dunderheads that walk amongst us. Facebook can sometimes be the perfect showcase for such people. For example, take the recent case of a teenage mother in Florida, who thought that it would be a jolly wheeze to post pictures of her 11 month old son playing with a (more…)