The Amnesiac Among Us. American Michael Boatwright is the most curious man I've read about all summer, and his recent return to Sweden, where he once lived -STILL with no memory- looking for answers about who he really is, or even why he suddenly started speaking fluent Swedish, but (supposedly) can't speak English any longer, is the riddle of the year; Talar ni engelska? Nej!

CNN YouTube Channel video: CNN correspondent Paula Newton reports on the American Navy veteran, apparently suffering from amnesia, who has flown to Sweden looking for answers about his past. Uploaded August 22, 2013. http://youtu.be/YqphppDQaaM
Article at: http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/21/health/amnesia-swedish

The Amnesiac Among Us: American Michael Boatwright is the most curious man I've read about all summer. His recent return to Sweden from the U.S. -STILL with no memory- looking for answers about who he really is, or even why he suddenly started speaking fluent Swedish, but can't speak English any longer, is the mystery of the year

As you might imagine, Boatwright has been the subject of intense fascination and curiosity this summer in the hyper-competitive Swedish press, with literally everyone having a pet theory of their own about what "really happened" to him that would explain his loss of memory.
Or, his purported inability to speak English.
Talar ni engelska? Nej! 

Some people, with nothing to base it on, have spun theories about him possibly having accidentally killed someone and wanting to repress the memory and or go to a country that doesn't expedite if the suspect can get capital punishment, or even the usual -when in doubt-
blame the CIA theories, except how could someone like this possibly be in a position to help the CIA or anyone, since despite his having been in both Japan and China, he did not have jobs where he'd run into the kinds of people operatives deal with.
Plus, his life seems to have become quite unmanageable, a bad sign of spycraft..

Much of that thinking about criminal motivations has to do I think with both the need to make something that's likely very simple, much more complex, and the long-lasting effect in Sweden of so many American police procedurals on Swedish TV, where American-made programming dominates at all hours of the day.
('Smallville' came on at 6 a.m. on my trip in January. Or was it 5 a.m.?)


Aftonbladet TV video: ”Svensken” försökte ta sitt liv – i Kina. ("The Swede" attempted suicide - in China). 
By Magnus Sundholm, July 29, 2013
http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article17206906.ab

The British press really loves the story, too, in part, because of the mystery angle, just dangling there like low-hanging fruit.
Like the Swedish media, they want to figure it out and either explain it or expose him, whichever the truth points to via tangible evidence

See also: Transient Global Amnesia: What Total Memory Loss Is Like
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/28/transient-global-amnesia-what-total-memory-loss-is-like.html
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The Daily Mail
Who am I?! American who woke up one day and could only speak Swedish goes to Europe in an attempt to regain his memories
Michael Boatwright woke up in a Palm Springs Motel 6 in February with no memory of his past life
The former English teacher woke able to only speak Swedish
His doctors said that his amnesia could have been caused by 'massive emotional trauma'
A worldwide search for friends and relatives was launched by his doctors
He has returned to Sweden to meet an old girlfriend who he hopes will be able to kick-start his forgotten life
By James Nye
PUBLISHED: 19:06 EST, 21 August 2013 
UPDATED: 02:50 EST, 22 August 2013

The U.S. Navy veteran discovered unconscious in a Californian motel in February, who awoke with total amnesia and only able to speak Swedish, has flown to Sweden in a bid to rebuild his life.

Michael Boatwright, 61, was reunited in Gothenburg on Tuesday with Ewa Espling, an old flame who he has not seen in almost 30 years and hopes spending time with her might trigger an avalanche of lost memories.

Read the rest of the article at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2399474/American-woke-speak-Swedish-goes-Europe-regain-memory.html

As you can see, over a dozen hits at some of the most-popular media sites in Sweden:
http://sok.aftonbladet.se/?q=Michael+Boatwright

http://www.svt.se/search/?q=Michael+Boatwright

http://www.tv4.se/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=Michael+Boatwright

Melanie Phillips fillets out-of-touch female reporters in the Beltway, like Gloria Borger, who WON'T let facts get in the way of their asinine predictions about Newt Gingrich & women voters. She shoots and she scores!

In her Daily Mail blog post of Sunday titled, Well, what a surprise (not), Melanie Phillips quite properly fillets out-of-touch female reporters in the Beltway who WOULDN'T and WON'T let self-evident facts get in the way of their asinine predictions about Newt Gingrich & women voters, per the Marianne Gingrich contretemps of last week.


Predictably, longtime Washington Week in Review panelist Gloria Borger of CNN was among the most egregious of these disconnected talking heads for her asinine "women won't vote for Newt" comments of Thursday immediately following the debate in Charleston on CNN and then on Friday night on PBS.


Phillips , author of one of my favorite books of the past 20 years, 2006's Londonistan: How Britain is Creating a Terror State Within, wrote, in part:

All those who said the onslaught upon Gingrich by his ex-wife Marianne would leave him dead in the water, particularly among women, have been shown to be spectacularly out of touch. Gingrich actually won more women’s votes than his opponents.

She goes on to conclude that in the battle of Newt vs. Mitt, 

The gladiator in question may be flawed and far from ideal in a number of respects, but if he’s the only one who can fell his opponents rather than be felled by them, he wins.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://phillipsblog.dailymail.co.uk/2012/01/well-what-a-surprise-not.html

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C-SPAN video: Melanie Phillips - Londonistan. Heritage Foundation. May 10, 2006. http://youtu.be/DvgypX2-f4k
To watch a higher-quality video of this, see: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/192456-1

http://phillipsblog.dailymail.co.uk/


http://www.melaniephillips.com/


http://twitter.com/MelanieLatest

Miley Cyrus' parody of Justin Bieber on Saturday Night Live was spot-on -wink, chin, finger point. "Oh, you know, uh, I brought my swagger coach."

NBC-TV's Saturday Night Live, March. 6, 2011 -Skit: Miley Cyrus as Justin Bieber, Vanessa Bayer as Miley and Jason Sudeikis as Billy Ray Cyrus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHA5he4PKfI

Having seen it for myself, I must admit that Miley Cyrus' parody of Justin Bieber on Saturday Night Live was spot-on -wink, chin, finger point.
"Oh, you know, uh, I brought my swagger coach..."

The Daily Mail is all over the story of Miley's performances, with still photos:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1363484/Miley-Cyrus-Saturday-Night-Live-pokes-fun-Lindsay-Lohan-Justin-Bieber.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Before this came on Saturday night, I watched the first forty minutes of Charlie Sheen's UStream show, which had over 113,000 viewers while I was on.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/charlie-sheen-ustream-show-attracts-164741



NBC-TV's Saturday Night Live, March. 6, 2011 -Opening show skit with Bill Hader as Charlie Sheen, host of "Duh! Winning! with Charlie Sheen," with Miley Cyrus as Lindsay Lohan.

Daily Mail succeeds in solving riddle as old as time: "Ikea design stores 'as mazes' to stop shoppers leaving so you end up buying more..."

Ikea - Bättre skilsmässa åt alla -Better divorce for everyone.
(FYI: That's not their nanny, that's their mother.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isjrGmFapS4


In a move that surely will get the notice of the Nobel Prize Committee in Stockholm, The Daily Mail has succeeded where so many others have previously failed, and solved a riddle as old as time: "Ikea design stores 'as mazes' to stop shoppers leaving so you end up buying more, professor says."
Thanks Professor Alan Penn, or is it "Sherlock"?


Daily Mail Online
Why shoppers find it so hard to escape from Ikea: Flatpack furniture stores are 'designed just like a maze'
By James Tozer
Last updated at 8:14 AM on 24th January 2011

If you've ever found yourself hopelessly lost in an Ikea store, you were probably not alone.

The home furnishing chain’s mazy layouts are a psychological weapon to part shoppers from their cash, an expert in store design claims.

The theory is that while following a zig-zag trail between displays of minimalist Swedish furniture, a disorientated Ikea customer feels ­compelled to pick up a few extra impulse purchases.

Read the rest of this interesting pop culture article, complete with a map dissecting the psychological layout of a typical Ikea retail store at:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1349831/Ikea-design-stores-mazes-stop-shoppers-leaving-end-buying-more.html#ixzz1Byrc3awm

Now if only those of us living in this part of South Florida could get a Business School professor to engage in a case study of why the Burger King in Hallandale Beach near the Walmart and the Intercoastal bridge persists in only having one cash register on the customer counter.

Or why on Sundays and Wednesdays, when McDonald's 59 cent hamburger and 69 cent cheeseburger promotion is in effect, the location on U.S.-1 north of Hallandale Beach Blvd. persists in only having one person work at the counter with numerous people in line, but utilizes 2-3 people to take care of one car in the drive-thru window, like they're a VIP.

There's a real consumer riddle there worth solving, which on very bad days, seems straight out of the HB City Hall management handbook.

And it's just the sort of low-hanging fruit of an investigation that the Miami Herald and South Florida Sun-Sentinel can still handle now that they've gotten rid of so many reporters who actually know the area.

Perhaps they can actually help for a change and get some big brains noodling over that counter-intuitive management behavior, which only causes customers to get upset.

Those two fast-food places are easily the worst run retail operation in this small city, though to be fair, the Burger King near Hollywood City Hall is tied with them for WORST if we're going by region and not simply by city, since it's easily THE SLOWEST fast-food place in Southeast Broward County.
By a sun dial!

Cat herding at the Ikea store in Wembley, England
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCB7RqGS684




Ikea -Home
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEe05lCgYrY


http://www.ikea.com/
Fascinating facts and figures for 2010:
http://www.ikea.com/ms/sv_SE/about_ikea/pdf/Welcome_inside_2010_final.pdf

2011 Ikea catalog, USA: http://onlinecatalog.ikea-usa.com/2011/ikea_catalog/US/

2011 Ikea catalog, Sweden: http://onlinecatalogue.ikea.com/2011/ikea_catalogue/SE/

Ikea USA YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/ikea?blend=1&ob=4

BBC News' Siobhan Courtney on 'planned attack' resulting in Pornographic videos flooding YouTube

I came across this disturbing story on the BBC's website this afternoon after watching the Manchester United-Fulham match at Craven Cottage that resulted in a thrilling 2-2 tie.

I'd gone to the BBC's website to see if there was anything new on the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland, and there was, though nothing I can embed here yet as I'd hoped.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11050737

As of 2 p.m. today, there is not a single American media reference to this story on Google News, even though the BBC reported this on Thursday, and yes, I know that Google owns YouTube.

Seriously, are there really that many newspaper editors and TV producers on vacation right now that this story could slip through without being ever being mentioned in this country?

Of late, the American news media has needed no prompting to do a story on YouTube regarding whatever the latest sensation is, the stupider the better so it seems, but this story that parents ought to know about is being smothered.

I never really thought of myself as old-fashioned, per se, but my sense of things is that now as in the past, nobody wants a watchdog that doesn't bark.

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BBC-TV

Pornographic videos flood YouTube

By Siobhan Courtney Interactive reporter, BBC News

Page last updated at 17:09 GMT, Thursday, 21 May 2009 18:09 UK

The BBC's Interactive reporter Siobhan Courtney talks about the investigation into the 'video attack'.

Video-sharing website YouTube has removed hundreds of pornographic videos which were uploaded in what is believed to be a planned attack.

The material was uploaded under names of famous teenage celebrities such as Hannah Montana and Jonas Brothers.

Many started with footage of children's videos before groups of adults performing graphic sex acts appeared on screen.

YouTube owner Google said it was aware and addressing the problem.

Read the rest of the story and see news video here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8061979.stm?ls

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The Daily Mail

YouTube deletes hundreds of porn clips disguised as Hannah Montana and Jonas Brothers videos http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1305218/YouTube-deletes-hundreds-pornographic-clips-disguised-Hannah-Montana-Jonas-Brothers-videos.html

The unlearned lesson of Isadora Duncan, redux -Cambridgeshire teen Suzanne Cornwell killed in tragic accident

I never knew the precise details on how ballet legend Isadora Duncan died until I was living in Arlington County, and saw a book on her in one of my roommate Sandra's bedroom book shelf, one of dozens of books on ballet and ballet-related personalities, like Darci Kistler, "Mr. B." and many others. http://www.nycballet.com/index.html

That Duncan died a tragic and senseless death 14 years after her two children died as a direct result of an equally tragic and senseless accident, also involving a car, is very chilling.

The awful lesson taught by Suzanne Cornwell's senseless death below is one I've been somewhat
hyper-vigilant about since first reading that book on Isadora Duncan and absorbing the lesson.

I've been a real stickler about extra-long scarves, purses and long jackets with girlfriends and female friends and family members for years, because it only takes one moment of inattention to lead to tragedy.

Not unlike the valuable lesson of bike helmets that I learned while living in Evanston, IL in the
mid-1980's, and regularly seeing someone slightly-older than me over at the Evanston Public Library, usually by himself at a table near the periodicals.
I eventually asked enough people about him and learned the tragic story about how his happy suburban life was turned upside down as a result of a moment's carelessness, when he chose not to wear a bike helmet on a neighborhood sidewalk.
Just "one of those things."

His health and physical abilties changed drastically for the worse forever, his family and marriage gradually disintegrated and his hip, upscale lifestyle soon became a thing of the past, replaced by hours spent reading magazines and newspapers in the public library as his day's highlight. :-(

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The Daily Mail
Teenage girl killed after her scarf got tangled up in speeding go-kart during after-hours track session
By Daily Mail Reporter
December 14, 2009

A teenage girl died after her scarf got caught in a go-kart and strangled her.

Suzanne Cornwell, 18, was one of a group of people invited to a racing track for a private after-hours session.

A member of staff, who would normally have locked up by 9pm, let Suzanne, from Hardwick, near Cambridge, and her friends in and allowed them to start racing.

But Suzanne's scarf came loose, before getting caught in the engine, and cutting off her airways

Read the rest of the sad story at:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1235661/Teenage-girl-killed-scarf-gets-tangled-kart.html

See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isadora_Duncan

See Daily Mail update of February 8, 2012;

Girl, 18, was 'strangled to death by own scarf in freak go-karting accident'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2098353/Suzanne-Cornwell-inquest-Teenager-strangled-death-scarf-freak-karting-accident.html