Farhad Neda rescued his disabled mother from the 23rd floor of the Grenfell Tower; they are the only survivors from the penultimate level of the building
Whilst others headed upwards tragically wrongly thinking a helicopter would rescue them, 23rd floor resident of the Grenfell Tower 24-year old Farhad Neda realised the best course of action was to get his disabled mother out.
Ignoring the advice of his neighbours, Neda – a mechanical engineering graduate and former hotel receptionist originally from Kabul, Afghanistan – hoisted his mother above his shoulders and completed a 240-foot descent to safety. He had to negotiate bodies in the stairwell and on reaching safety, both he and his mother lapsed into comas.
Neda – whose father sadly died after jumping from the burning inferno – told Channel 4 News last night that it was a “miracle” that he and his mother were the only people to survive from the level of the 24-floor building where they lived. He is a genuine hero and should be saluted as such.
Convicted former pharmaceuticals executive Martin Shkreli offers a bounty for Hillary Clinton’s hair and threatens to smash up a £1.5 million work by the Wu-Tang Clan
After 324 bids, the Wu-Tang Clan’s Once Upon A Time In Shaolin album – which Shkreli purchased, he claims, “as a gift to the Wu-Tang Clan for their tremendous musical output. Instead I received scorn from at least one of their (least-intelligent) members, and the world at large failed to see my purpose of putting a serious value behind music” – has already reached a price of just over £759,000 ($1 million, €832,000 or درهم3.7 million).
Accompanying the eBay listing, Shkreli brashly adds:
“At any time I may cancel this sale and I may even break this album in frustration. I will donate half of the sale proceeds to medical research. I am not selling to raise cash–my companies and I have record amounts of cash on hand. I hope someone with a bigger heart for music can be found for this one-of-a-kind piece and makes it available for the world to hear.”
Both the Wu-Tang Clan and Hillary Clinton stunts may backfire. Last Thursday, prosecutors told a court in New York: “[Shkreli is engaged in a] pattern of threats and harassment” and sought for his bail to be revoked. In response, Benjamin Brafman for Shkreli, commented:
“We take the matter seriously and intend to address the issue responsibly… However inappropriate some of Mr Shkreli’s postings may have been, we do not believe that he intended harm and do not believe that he poses a danger to the community.”
Other assets in the multi-millionaire’s possession are said to include a Picasso and an original ‘Enigma’ machine from the Second World War. We jolly well hope he doesn’t threaten to smash them up too.
Facebook group mocks racist online abuser Viscount St Davids as he returns to the clink
On Friday, the dimwitted ‘half biscuit’ 4th Viscount St Davids – also known as amongst other things Rhodri Philipps and Baron Strange of Knockin – was returned to jail after attempting and then dropping an appeal against a sentence for malicious communications.
Thrice bankrupt Philipps, whose sentence of 12 weeks could have been extended if his appeal had failed, was rightly slapped with increased costs by Deborah Taylor, the recorder of Westminster sitting at Southwark Crown Court, and later mocked on Facebook by the group ‘Pants to Brexit’. We share their image here and suggest it summary of what decent people everywhere think of the views of this reprehensible bigoted scumbag criminal.
Long Island mansion with links to ‘The Great Gatsby’ and ‘The Big Short’ for sale for £13.1 million (or 152% more than it sold for in 2011)
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896 – 1940) set his ‘Roaring Twenties’ classic The Great Gatsby in the fictional locations of East Egg and West Egg on Long Island and now one of the homes that inspired him is available for sale.
Owned by Cornwall Capital founder James Mai – a man whose firm ironically made over 80 times its capital by buying credit default swaps on CDOs prior to the 2008 financial crisis – and his wife Chiara since 2011, 235 Middle Neck Road at Sands Point on Long Island’s Gold Coast was built in 1926 and home to the Rumsey-Harriman railroad dynasty from 1929.
Fitzgerald is said to have spent time at the residence learning about “the lifestyle of the moneyed aristocracy of Old Westport, Long Island, and their involvement in the movement of eugenics” from the Rumseys and ironically, James Mai, is also representative of a clash between ‘old’ and ‘new’ money. In 2008, he and his partner are said to have been the ones “screaming about [the coming crash] as loud as they could, but everyone turned a deaf ear.” The character Jamie Shipley, played by Finn Wittrock in the 2015 film The Big Short, is loosely based upon him.
Current owners Chiara and James Mai are said to have spent vast sums on the renovation of the estate
Featuring 11,955 square foot of renovated accommodation that includes formal and informal entertaining spaces, 13 bedrooms and 8 bathrooms. There is also a 6-car garage with a 3-bedroom caretaker’s cottage, a 4-bedroom beachside cottage and a boat house.
Outside, on a plot of some 5.3 acres, there is a 391-foot private beach, a tennis court and in spite of its seeming isolation, the property is situated just 29 miles from Downtown Manhattan and 25 minutes by boat.
235 Middle Neck Road is listed by Nava Mitnick of Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International. In December 2016, of it, she commented: “Obviously, it’s so imposing – you drive down and see the sweeping views. But when we entered the house, I described it as a ‘glorified cottage’, because it’s so homey.”
Matthew Steeples suggests the director of public prosecutions is right to seek “uplifted” sentences for online abusers but argues she does not go far enough
I have been targeted by online trolls for years. As a writer, I accept I am ‘fair game’ for criticism but when that tips over into the kind of vicious abuse I get from unhinged keyboard warriors, it moves into a realm that is unacceptable.
On a personal level, my recent involvement in the case of the Viscount St Davids – a convicted online hate criminal and all round dimwit returning to court this week to again face the repercussions of offering a reward on Facebook to anyone prepared to run over the anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller – not only resulted in negative articles by such oddities as the one-time male escort and Big Brother 11 contestant Benjamin Duncan on the blog of the anti-gay, pro-repatriation of immigrant Traditional Britain website, but also in threatening messages online and a physical attack upon my person. Such abuse has not only taken up considerable amounts of my time and distressed me, it has also caused considerable nuisance to friends and business acquaintances. Now, to her credit, the director of public prosecutions, Alison Saunders, has finally also come to the conclusion that “online abusers must be dealt with harshly” and thankfully it looks as if the laws relating to such will be toughened up.
In an article, published in this morning’s The Guardian, Saunders argues “the criminal justice system are ready to listen” with regard to calls for stronger sentences for online abusers. She references “new guidance” and a need for “stiffer ‘uplifted’ sentences” but what she ignores is that the Communications Act 2003, under which the likes of the aforementioned errant peer was prosecuted, does not have any understanding of Facebook (which came into existence one year after the creation of that law in 2004) and Twitter (launched 2006).
Saunders’ acceptance that “an increasing proportion of hate crime is now perpetrated” online is a definite start and her acceptance that they should be treated “just as seriously as those experienced face to face” is certainly positive. Hitting “report abuse” on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, however, gets no one anywhere. It is in fact our government that must go further and introduce stronger regulation that actually holds social media providers themselves to account for the content they allow to be published on their sites.
Orange County mega-estate sold last for £14 million on an original asking price of £67 million offered for sale again for £43 million after death of owner
The largest residential estate on the Newport Coast of California is back on the market. One Pelican Hill Road North in Newport Beach – alternatively known as ‘Villa Del Lago’ or ‘Villa of the Lake’ – is a property with an extraordinary past and though listed on construction for £67 million in 2009, eventually sold at a fire auction in 2012 for just £14 million. Its subsequent owner, a Japanese industrialist and publisher, death has now resulted in it being placed for sale again and this time £43 million is sought.
Situated on a plot of 12.47 acres and comprising 17,706 square foot of ‘Italianate-style’ accommodation, One Pelican Hill Road North was last marketed as having 8 bedrooms and 17 bathrooms. On a new, dedicated marketing page for it, it is now being promoted as having, amongst other things, 2 screening rooms, a china/silver room, an “indoor lap pool with fibre optic twinkling star ceiling”, a 14-car garage and a “wine cave”. Outside, there is a “cascading private lake”, stabling, a riding ring, a putting green, an “organic edible garden” and potential for a vineyard.
Jeffrey Janger and Linda Janger of Pace Properties have the listing currently but given another agent, Michael Gosselin of Surterre Properties, previously commented: “Newport Coast has yet to see any homes sell for more than $20 million (£15.5 million)”, it’ll be likely there’ll be a few price cuts yet.
One Pelican Hill Road North – The Extraordinary Numbers
2003 – Land purchased for $3.2 million by Monarch Estates. Subsequent construction loans total $27.3 million.
February 2009 – Completed house placed for sale for sale for $87 million by a realtor named John McMonigle, the managing member of a partnership developing the project.
May 2010 – Price reduced to $57 million.
January 2011 – Three offers received, all were below $37 million and not accepted.
April 2012 – Offered at a court-sanctioned auction with “no opening bid sought”. Sold for $18.5 million to Toshiaki Ogasawara, an industrialist and publisher of the Japan Times.
January 2017 – Placed on the market after Ogasawara’s death in December 2016 for $55 million.
Kentish salad company Southern Salads tosses 260 jobs to the wolves after going into administration because of Brexit
Illustrations of the likely negative impact of Britain’s decision to leave the UK are coming from far and wide and though Nigel Farage may be crowing over an alleged £60 million film deal – though unsurprisingly no particular studio has actually announced such ‘news’ as ‘truth’ – companies are relocating staff abroad and even closing altogether. Even hardline Brexiteers are being heard to remark: “There’s going to be a heavy price to pay for the complacency… Britain is f***ed” and asking: “What the hell have we done?”
Aside from Bloomberg revealing “London could lose 10,000 banking jobs and 20,000 roles in financial services” to such cities as Dublin, Frankfurt and Paris in an article last month, a more localised illustration of the impact of Theresa May’s appallingly bad handling of this issue was provided yesterday in the form of news that a Tonbridge, Kent based firm, Southern Salads, had gone into administration due to “unprecedented pressure on cash flow in the immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote.”
Southern Salads, a 30-year old, family run firm which employed 260 people and whose motto was “share the passion”, ceased trading Wednesday and of why it failed, joint administrator Ian Vickers of FRP Advisory told KentLive:
“The sudden decline in sterling was not foreseen by the company, leaving the business grappling with an immediate fall of between 10% and 20% in its purchasing power for overseas-grown salads required for the winter and early spring UK market, which in turn put a severe strain on cash-flow.”
“With insufficient protection from its currency hedging arrangements, pressure increased on cash-flow as the business traded through to this spring.”
“The company was unsuccessful in negotiating any significant changes to its pricing terms with its suppliers in mainland Europe, while also being unable to pass on its cost increases to supermarkets and its other customers.”
“The company relies on European suppliers for fresh vegetables and fruit from the Netherlands and Poland in the north to France, Italy and Spain in the south.”
It’d be fascinating to know what Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson and Theresa May thinks about that.
After ‘Vanity Fair’ use ‘woebegone’ in the context of ‘Donald Trump’, Matthew Steeples examines that word’s origins
On Wednesday morning, in their daily ‘The Hive’ email to subscribers, Vanity Fair referenced Donald Trump as an ‘ole woebegone’.
Not having heard ‘woebegone’ used in many a year and now realising how appropriate it is to the Neo-Nazi forgiving 45th POTUS, I here share with readers some information on this archaic adjective’s origins.
‘Woebegone’, according to Merriam Webster, originates from the 14th century and whilst the ‘woe’ within it does simply mean ‘woe’, the ‘begon’ is a past participle meaning ‘beset’.
Donald Trump most definitely has gotten our world into a deplorable state and he is most certainly wretched. ‘Woebegone’ is thus the perfect description of this bigoted blaggard.
Listen to a podcast explaining more about the word by clicking here.
Follow Matthew Steeples on Twitter at @M_Steeples.
Stoer Lighthouse on Stoer Head in Sutherland, Scotland was built in 1870 and whilst the lighthouse itself is just 45-foot tall it sits at a height of 177-foot above sea level. It flashes four white ever fifteen seconds and because of the height of the cliffs on which it sits can be seen 24 miles out at sea. Automated since 1978, it is reportedly visited by 10,000 people each year in spite of its remoteness.
Whilst the lighthouse itself is operated and maintained by the Northern Lighthouse Board, the property offered consists of 1,506 square foot of renovated accommodation that includes a ground floor 2-bedroom flat, a first floor 2-bedroom flat and a bothy. Car parking is provided within a walled area and all three units are currently operated as holiday lets.
Bell Ingram have the listing and seek £371,500 ($478,000, €407,000 or درهم1.8 million) for the whole. They remark: “This is a rare opportunity… [The sale of] Stoer Lighthouse offers the potential purchaser the opportunity to continue the holiday letting business or to convert into a larger home in a stunning and unique location.”
Stoer Lighthouse on Stoer Head in Sutherland, Scotland was built in 1870 and whilst the lighthouse itself is just 45-foot tall it sits at a height of 177-foot above sea level. It flashes four white ever fifteen seconds and because of the height of the cliffs on which it sits can be seen 24 miles out at sea. Automated since 1978, it is reportedly visited by 10,000 people each year in spite of its remoteness.
Whilst the lighthouse itself is operated and maintained by the Northern Lighthouse Board, the property offered consists of 1,506 square foot of renovated accommodation that includes a ground floor 2-bedroom flat, a first floor 2-bedroom flat and a bothy. Car parking is provided within a walled area and all three units are currently operated as holiday lets.
Bell Ingram have the listing and seek £371,500 ($478,000, €407,000 or درهم1.8 million) for the whole. They remark: “This is a rare opportunity… [The sale of] Stoer Lighthouse offers the potential purchaser the opportunity to continue the holiday letting business or to convert into a larger home in a stunning and unique location.”
