Martin World News: What's wrong with the headline edition

Well, I knew what direction I wanted to take when I sauntered over to BBC News and saw...

Problem?  Uh, well, the BBC is BRITISH news, and the last I knew, they don't get a choice in the decision.  If they did, I'm sure some wag would include THEIR Prime Minister in the contest and call it, "Boris vs Boring vs Boorish"...


Meanwhile at the Moscow times...

The Giant Saber-Toothed Grasshopper and Other Endangered Species

 

This is actually not about the wonderful new species coming from Chernobyl, but actually from a new comedy movie that also 'included' a flying bear, a North American nitpicking cottontail, "and a whole brood of African Disposable butterflies"...

 

 

This one from Xinhua made me scratch my head a bit...

  Xi to attend Martyrs' Day event,  present flower baskets to deceased heroes

 

 I think he might be presenting them at the heroes' graves...  

Next, the Japan Times had me a little color-confused...

Saudi Arabia sends blue ammonia green fuel to Japan in world first

Translating this a bit better would give you, "In a world first time event, Saudi Arabia sent Japan 40 tones of 'blue' ammonia, a green fuel." So, what is blue ammonia?  Well, as near as I can figure it is an ammonia type that has enough hydrogen (18%) to be used as a fuel.  Why blue?  Because it's cleaner than most fuels- the Saudis claim to capture all the carbons released by the process- but because it's made from 'dirty fuel' (the breaking down of hydrocarbons in the oil process), it's not quite "green" ammonia- but they hope it will be a stepping stone in inventing it.  And what will Japan do with 40 tons of the stuff? Use it for fuel at thermal power stations.

Finally, let's pop over to Deutsche Welle, where we find an atrocious pun...

Some germane facts about the German language

 

I don't know how 'germane' their facts were, but they did explain how you can make some truly monstrous words in German just by sticking a set of words together with grammatical super-glue, as with these examples:

 

 

1. Rinderkennzeichnungsfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz — with a whopping 79 letters, this term translates as “task transfer law concerning the supervision of the labeling of beef as meat on sale tags."
2. Grundstücksverkehrsgenehmigungszuständigkeitsübertragungsverordnung — weighing in at 67 letters, this hulk of a word denotes the "task transfer decree governing the applicable jurisdiction concerned with granting permits for vehicular traffic on non-public property."
3. Straßenentwässerungsinvestitionskostenschuldendienstumlage — coming in third at 58 letters, we are looking at the "reallocation of the debt management of costs associated with public investments in road drainage." 



There! Questionably funny bits without politics (for the most part)!