Meet Mr Jimmy Niggles, an Aussie with a craft of a grizzly bear. Portrait photographer Mr Elbank, along with the rest of his portraits, shot Jimmy and his beard Barry
bringing out every blemish and freckle with a unique use of lighting. Not only was I impressed with the photography, but I know every girl wants that big grizzly bear to cuddle up to during these winter months. The story behind his beard is that back in 2009, a dear mate of Jimmy’s found a mole on his neck that turned out to be melanoma. A few months later he tragically passed away. Since then, Jimmy’s and his mates started Beard Season and he has been growing his beard ever since. Check out Jimmy’s site This is Beard — via Trendland
Running into battle armed with a broadsword, bow, and quiver of arrows was perfectly acceptable if you were fighting in the Hundred Years’ War or fending off some orcs on Middle Earth. But when it comes to World War II, such medieval weaponry looks like child’s play next to the technology of the time. A sword isn’t the most likely of defences against rifles and tanks. However, for John Malcolm Thorpe Fleming Churchill, nicknamed Mad Jack
, there was nothing he’d rather arm himself with than a trusty sword and bow.
Born into an old Oxfordshire family, he graduated from the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst in 1926. Before his World War II fame, Mad Jack worked as an editor of a Nairobi newspaper, a model, and a movie extra, appearing in The Thief of Bagdad due to his expertise with a bow. That same talent with archery took him to Oslo, Norway where he shot for Britain during the world championships in 1939.
By this time, of course, Europe was fast approaching World War II. Mad Jack had left the army after ten years of service, but happily returned to it because of the country having gotten into a jam in my absence
.
By May 1940, Mad Jack was the second in command of an infantry company. He always marched into battle with a bow and arrows and his trusty basket-hilted claymore by his side. Despite these weapons being wildly outdated, Churchill defended them, saying, In my opinion… any officer who goes into action without his sword is improperly dressed
— via redwolf.newsvine.com
Foreign secretary William Hague gave an award to former Telegraph editor Charles Moore, for writing a hagiography of Margaret Thatcher, who used his acceptance speech to build a precarious connection between my comments about the sponsors, my foolish answerphone scandal at the BBC and the Sachs family’s flight, 70 years earlier, from Nazi-occupied Europe. It was a confusing tapestry that Moore spun but he seemed to be saying that a) the calls were as bad as the Holocaust and b) the Sachs family may not’ve sought refuge in Britain had they known what awaited them. Even for a man whose former job was editing the Telegraph this is an extraordinary way to manipulate information.
Noel, who is not one to sit quietly on his feelings, literally booed while Charles Moore was talking, and others joined in. Booing! When do you hear booing in this day and age other than pantomimes and parliament? Hague and Johnson are equally at home in either (Widow Twanky and Buttons, obviously) so were not unduly ruffled, but I thought it was nuts. The room by now had a distinct feel of us and them
and if there is a line drawn in the sand I don’t ever want to find myself on the same side as Hague and Johnson. Up went Noel to garner his gong and he did not disappoint: Always nice to be invited to the Tory party conference,
he began, Good to see the foreign secretary present when there’s shit kicking off in Syria.
Noel once expressed his disgust at seeing a politician at Glastonbury. What are you doing here? This ain’t for you,
he’d said. He explained to me: You used to know where you were with politicians in the 70s and 80s cos they all looked like nutters: Thatcher, Heseltine, Cyril Smith. Now they look normal, they’re more dangerous.
Then, with dreadful foreboding: They move among us.
I agree with Noel. What are politicians doing at Glastonbury and the GQ awards? I feel guilty going, and I’m a comedian. Why are public officials, paid by us, turning up at events for fashion magazines? Well, the reason I was there was because I have a tour on and I was advised it would be good publicity. What are the politicians selling? How are they managing our perception of them with their attendance of these sequin-encrusted corporate balls?
We witness that there is a relationship between government, media and industry that is evident even at this most spurious and superficial level. These three institutions support one another. We know that however cool a media outlet may purport to be, their primary loyalty is to their corporate backers. We know also that you cannot criticise the corporate backers openly without censorship and subsequent manipulation of this information — via redwolf.newsvine.com
A Hawaiian woman with a 35-letter surname has persuaded the US state’s authorities to change their official ID card format, because her king-sized name will not fit.
Janice Keihanaikukauakahihuliheekahaunaele, whose traditional Hawaiian name comes from her late husband, said she would never consider using a shortened version, and so used local media to press officials to take action.
I love the Polynesian culture I married into, I love my Hawaiian name. It is an honour and has been quite a journey to carry the names I carry,
Ms Keihanaikukauakahihuliheekahaunaele, whose maiden name was Worth, said.
For years she has carried two forms of identification: her driving licence, which only has room for 34 characters, and her official Hawaii state ID card, which in the past had room for all 35 letters.
But the problem came after Keihanaikukauakahihuliheekahaunaele’s state ID was renewed in May — and came back the same as her driver’s licence, with the last letter missing, and with no first name — via redwolf.newsvine.com
The Improbable Research Nobel Prize Award ceremony was held at Harvard Thursday night to award this year’s scientific projects that make people laugh, then make them think
, as the organisers, the Annals of Improbable Research, put it.
The awards, held every year since 1991, are meant to raise the question: How do you decide what’s important and what’s not, and what’s real and what’s not — in science and everywhere else?,
write the organisers. And, each year, the awards do just that, lofting projects unlikely to win a real Nobel Prize into the scientific limelight in a zany show that asks the question, why is this science so uproarious? — via redwolf.newsvine.com
— via Youtube
There are no Z-rays. Raymond Massey stars in this 1950s warning about the dangers of quacks — via Youtube
Reuters investigative reporter Megan Twohey spent 18 months examining how American parents use the Internet to find new families for children they regret adopting. Reporters identified eight online bulletin boards where participants advertised unwanted children, often international adoptees, as part of an informal practice that’s called private re-homing
. Reuters data journalist Ryan McNeill worked with Twohey and reporter Robin Respaut to analyse 5,029 posts from one of the bulletin boards, a Yahoo group called Adopting-from-Disruption.
Separately, Reuters examined almost two dozen cases from across the United States in which adopted children were privately re-homed. Twohey reviewed thousands of pages of records, many of them confidential, from law enforcement and child welfare agencies. In scores of interviews, reporters talked with parents who gave away or took in children, the facilitators who helped them, organisations that participated in re-homing, and experts concerned about the risks posed to the children and the legality of the custody transfers. Twohey also interviewed children themselves. They talked about being brought to America, discarded by their adoptive parents and moved from home to home — via redwolf.newsvine.com
At least they were observant drug dealers, authorities say.
A group of pushers from Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, texted their hours to customers and warned that they closed for Shabbat, according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday.
The indictment accuses the five men of conspiracy for sending texts to customers announcing drugs for purchase, such as DOB
for the brand name of heroin sold.
And the messages repeatedly warned customers against arriving after sundown on a Friday or before sundown on Saturday, the indictment alleges.
We are closing 7.30 on the dot and we will reopen Saturday 8.15 so if u need anything you have 45 mins to get what you want,
an 12 April message to over 50 recipients read.
The men are accused of peddling heroin, oxycodone, cocaine and other drugs from their Bedford Ave. drug warehouse — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Recent events surrounding Syria have prompted me to speak directly to the American people and their political leaders. It is important to do so at a time of insufficient communication between our societies.
Relations between us have passed through different stages. We stood against each other during the cold war. But we were also allies once, and defeated the Nazis together. The universal international organization — the United Nations — was then established to prevent such devastation from ever happening again.
The United Nations’ founders understood that decisions affecting war and peace should happen only by consensus, and with America’s consent the veto by Security Council permanent members was enshrined in the United Nations Charter. The profound wisdom of this has underpinned the stability of international relations for decades.
No one wants the United Nations to suffer the fate of the League of Nations, which collapsed because it lacked real leverage. This is possible if influential countries bypass the United Nations and take military action without Security Council authorisation — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Morning Sky, originally uploaded by Red Wolf
If you hadn’t guessed it from the title, this video brings you through the creative process of my crafting automata, specifically the three Cutie Mark Crusaders sold at the Cutie Mark Convention charity auction in Cincinnati. I was actually invited to do a live panel at first but I’m terribly shy to a fault so I cooked this up instead — via Youtube
It’s the last pool party of the season. Our baby raccoons have all grown up and are ready to be released — via Youtube
Australia’s electronic spy agency reportedly has access to a top secret program that has successfully cracked the encryption used by hundreds of millions of people to protect the privacy of their emails, phone calls and online business transactions.
Documents disclosed by US intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden reveal the program run by the US National Security Agency, codenamed Bullrun, has been used to secretly descramble high-level internet security systems globally.
They show the NSA and British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) have successfully cracked the encryption used in personal communications such as email and telephone calls as well as global commerce and banking systems.
An undated briefing sheet
on the program, provided to British analysts when they are cleared for access to Bullrun, was published on Friday in The New York Times and The Guardian newspapers.
It states that the Australian Signals Directorate — until recently called the Defence Signals Directorate (DSD) – was expected to be granted access — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Lookit him, looking all moody with his right hand of doom and his crazy samurai hair. Maybe he’s being moody because he’s missing a friend… — via The Geeky Hooker
Caracal Kitten, originally uploaded by Anthony Ponzo
etall: Kindly consider voting for me — via Wil Wheaton
Music video from the Norwegian talk show I kveld med Ylvis — via Youtube
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