Running your own sperm bank in the basement is illegal, it turns out
Two men are in Southwark court today after being prosecuted under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990. Nigel Woodforth and Ricky Gage ran an illegal sperm bank from Woodforth’s basement, servicing nearly 800 women.
Melissa Bhalla-Pentley told the Indy that she “paid the men an £80 joining fee and a further £300, the cost of using the service for each menstrual cycle. She then had to pay a courier company £150 for each delivery of sperm, £50 of which would be given to the sperm donor. A box, wrapped in grey polythene and containing a pot of sperm and a 10ml syringe, was delivered to her home late one night.”
The service claimed a 37% success rate.
Two face jail over illegal sperm company [Independent]
12 Oct 2010
New support video: it gets worse!
Not everybody is happy about our agony uncle Dan Savage’s It Gets Better Project. Sure, thousands of people have made videos to tell gay teenagers that life gets better once you leave that parochial hell-hole that you currently live in – but what of those people who are making life hell? Who is concerned about how they feel? One man has the courage to speak out:
12 Oct 2010
Snipe Top 5: Indoor sports to play in London this winter
Let’s face it, summer’s gone, and it’s not coming back. But that doesn’t mean you have to sit on the sofa watching X-Factor repeats and eating chocolate every night. Have some self respect. Here’s five things you can do indoors to keep fit and firing for the next five months.
12 Oct 2010
London agenda for Tuesday 12 October
London agenda for Tuesday 12 October
1. Go surreal at Is Tribal, Maria & The Mirrors, Filthy Boy at the Macbeth [London Gigs]
2. Be seeing Things at the Wellcome [Le Cool]
3. Lose our way with Chicago four piece Maps & Atlases’ [Le Cool]
4. See Cameron’s vision of the UK in 1932’s Metropolis featuring the London Contemporary Orchestra [Run Riot]
5. Examine the Dalston Peace Mural [Tired of London]
6. Mess with the eyes at Mirrored City [Spoonfed]
12 Oct 2010
Rökkurró
There’s a definite and recognised Icelandic ‘sound’, characterised overtly pretty, etherial melodies, played quietly, and popularised by bands like Múm and Sigur Rós. But there’s also a lot of space yet to be explored within this kind of ambient, heartfelt melancholia. Rökkurró are a scarily young and scarily talented young band who do exactly that, exhibiting spirit, subtlety and versatility across the course of their amazing debut “Í Annan Heim”. They hit London for a couple of shows this October; 21st at The Lexington and 23rd at the Windmill. Don’t miss it.
12 Oct 2010
The End Times: East London's Ninja Turtle Sex Museum
The End Times: East London’s Ninja Turtle Sex Museum
- Ninja Turtle Sex Museum on Vyner Street [Amelia’s Magazine]
- Unpublished Stieg Larsson Book Is Confirmed [NY Times]
11 Oct 2010
Another pirate station goes legit - RINSE FM no longer scrambling on rooftops
Grime station Rinse FM has gone legit and been awarded a license by Ofcom. You can know listen to the station over the air at 100.4 FM without fear of breaking a law, which, of course, you would not do.
11 Oct 2010
M&S launches penis and bum enhancing pants
From the Telegraph: “The £15 ‘bum lift’ underpants promise to raise the posterior by a fifth thanks to seam-free tailoring, while the £10 ‘frontal enhancement’ pants claim to result in a 38 per cent ‘visual enhancement in size’ as a result of an ‘integral shelf’.”
Marks & Spencer launch body-enhancing underwear for men [The Telegraph]
11 Oct 2010
Video of English Defence League hooligans harassing restaurant patrons
English Defence League cretins skirmished with police and anti-EDL protesters in Leicester, ending in 17 arrests, violence, and an officer with a broken leg
At one point, the EDLs took time out from their ranting to enter a restaurant and terrifying patrons.
11 Oct 2010
Women
The announcement of Women‘s next London show (7th December, XOYO, be there etc) came a day into the most persistent earworm I’ve had for weeks.
Though some of their new record ‘Public Strain’ is hidden, obscured, impenetrable on first listen, this grabs the attention immediately. Four minutes of building blocks on a Grizzly Bear tip get bulldozed, all built-up tension released like a first kiss detonating Semtex in your vital organs. Press play and punch a wall with me.
11 Oct 2010
Snipe Highlights
Some popular articles from past years
- The five spookiest abandoned London hospitals
- Margaret Thatcher statue rejected by public
- Nice Interactive timeline lets you follow Londoners' historic fight against racism
- Peter Bayley has worked for 50 years as a cinema projectionist in East Finchley
- An interview with Desiree Akhavan
- Hope and despair in Woolwich town centre
- Nice map of London's fruit trees shows you where to pick free food
- Could red kites be London's next big nature success story?
- Punk brewery just as sexist and homophobic as the industry they rail against
- Summer Camp: Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days
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