Paper Monitor
10:34 UK time, Tuesday, 7 December 2010
A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.
There's a name for people who do that. You know, people who dress up in animal costumes and then go around pretending to be that creature. Paper Monitor had thought it was , after reading a Magazine story on the subject. But in this case it's a scientist, according to today's papers.
They all carry pictures of researchers in China who don panda costumes when they deal with young cubs born in captivity. It's so they don't get used to humans before they are released into the wild. And, reading between the lines, it makes the working day a bit more of a laugh.
The Guardian is so excited by the mix of cute animals and serious science story, it covers its entire centre pages with the . The quips about life not being "black and white" and "panda-ring" to the cubs come thick and fast. Who would have thought being a scientist could be so wacky?
But something even weirder comes courtesy of Wikileaks - the gift that just keeps on giving. Each day it delivers yet another so-odd-you-couldn't-have-made-it-up detail. Today's offering allows the papers to link two of the unlikeliest of people - Wayne Rooney and the Burmese junta leader, Gen Than Shwe.
According to a leaked official cable from the US embassy in Burma, the military chief - a Manchester United fan - was urged by his grandson to consider a £634m bid to takeover of the club. Apparently, US diplomats believed the regime was using football to distract its population from ongoing political and economical problems.
It provides the Daily Mirror with the opportunity to print a picture of Wayne alongside one of Gen Shwe. Not something anyone in its newsroom would have ever thought they would find themselves doing before yesterday. But it's the Daily Telegraph that sums up this latest leak perfectly:
It is ridiculous, comical, scary and tragic in equal measure
So what will tomorrow bring? Trying to guess is Paper Monitor's favourite new game. Will we discover Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe wanted to book Barbara Windsor for his very own panto? You never know.
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