As keepers at the Netherlands’ Burgers’ Zoo were moving the White Rhino herd into the stables at the end of the day on 23 July, they got a big surprise — Kwanzaa, a female Rhino, had delivered a male calf — via ZooBorns
Chisel & Mouse have introduced the Brutalist Trellick Tower and Centre Point to their range of architectural models. Each model is priced at £140 — via Retro To Go
Veteran actor Brian Blessed has said he turned down an opportunity to take the lead role in the BBC’s Doctor Who because he was too busy.
The 77-year-old, famed for his booming delivery, said he was offered the role in the early years of his acting career, although he now says he would not hesitate in playing the Doctor.
Blessed went on to take a guest role in the programme in 1986 in a story called Mindwarp, playing the character of King Yrcanos, at a time when Colin Baker had been cast in the lead.
In an interview for Radio Times, he explained that he was approached to star in the show in the mid-1960s, suggesting he was asked to step in as a replacement for William Hartnell who launched the show, and was eventually succeeded by Patrick Troughton in 1966.
Blessed said: After I was in Z Cars, the head of BBC serials took me aside and said,
We’re thinking of having a young Doctor Who and we’d like to cast you
. But it clashed with other things.
Asked what his reaction would be now, he said: I’d jump at it
— via redwolf.newsvine.com
This statue of a fossilised Tyrannosaurus Rex stands on the Google Campus. His name is Stan. The Googleplex is also infested with a flock of plastic flamingos, which have ganged up on the dinosaur to pick the bones clean. Stan seems to not mind at all — via Neatorama
Olive the Crochet Octopus Puzzle is the latest in my Amigurumi Amish Puzzle Animal series (Amamani for short). She is based on my free Crochet Amish Puzzle Ball Pattern, and as such comes apart into 3 segments that have to be assembled or built
to form an octopus — via Look At What I Made
Plush is a somewhat friendly octopus hand made from bubblegum pink and mint green polymer clay. Each leg is jointed to the body with metal eye rings and jump rings. The hardware is reinforced with glue making it sturdy for versatile positioning — via Etsy
Quick, what does the word Vespa
bring to mind? If you say cute lil’ scooter
, you probably haven’t seen this image above of the Vespa 150 TAP (for Troupes Aéro Portées), a Vespa scooter modified for use with the French paratroopers in 1956. It’s probably safe to say that this is the deadliest Vespa in the world. The military scooter is powered by a single-cylinder 146 cc two-stroke engine. It sports a M20 75 mm recoilless rifle, US-made light anti-armour cannon, and storage for some ammos. The scooter would be parachute-dropped from airplanes, accompanied by a two-man team who’d scoot along in absolutely menacing style — via Neatorama
Photo: C Galliani/Wikimedia
This is Mr Sneaky Evildoer. He lives near the Bogachevsky-Kronotsky estuary, in the best place there can be for the happy fox life. Abundance of fish, swans, ducks around makes the life easy. All the foxes of the Kronotsky Nature Reserve would love to live here… But Mr Evildoer does not allow them. He is a dominant male, the strongest and the smartest of local foxes, so he imposes his will on others. Sometimes he tries to dictate his wishes to people — via 500px
40 years after man made his first impressions on the dusty lunar surface, we release the Giant Leap rug through our Stories by Permafrost collection. We would like to think of it as a tiny tribute to an enormous achievement — via Permafrost
— via Deathbulge
The penchant of Victorian courts for throwing suppression orders around like confetti came unstuck overnight with WikiLeaks publishing an injunction by the Victorian Supreme Court. Victorian courts have a history of being willing to issue gag orders.
The revelation is reminiscent of the running battle between sites like WikiLeaks, social media, British MPs and UK courts up until 2011. Superinjunctions developed as a legal manoeuvre exploiting the British Human Right Act 1998, which established a right to privacy binding on government bodies, and were frequently used by celebrities anxious to prevent the feral UK tabloids from revealing private information. However, large companies began using them as well, as a superinjunction prevented even the reporting of the existence of an injunction. WikiLeaks was one of the organisations to out the multinational company Trafigura, which had used a superinjunction to prevent mainstream revelations of its dumping of toxic waste in Africa. London law firm Carter-Ruck became notorious for its use of superinjunctions, but badly overplayed its hand on Trafigura when it tried to use them to ban reporting of parliamentary questions about Trafigura, leading to a social media backlash — via redwolf.newsvine.com
The kittens got a special treat recently: live crickets!
At the Zoo, our black-footed cats are fed a commercial mix of raw meat formulated specially for exotic cats. They also receive enrichment in the form of small rodents and insects like mealworms and crickets, all of which is managed by our nutritionist to ensure all of their dietary needs are met.
The brown paper bags you see in this video contained crickets — until the kittens discovered them. This is the first time they had ever encountered live crickets, so they were a bit uncertain at first, but it wasn’t long before their predatory instincts kicked in — via Youtube
Limited edition bronze of 20 — Year released: 2011 — Bronze octopus coffee table dimensions: 16 1/2″ H x 36″ round glass — via Kirk McGuire
Federico Babina is back with his latest illustration! This time, he explores 23 works of architecture through the lens of one interesting or intense detail that speaks to the character of the work as a whole. Seeing these illustrations as movie posters, which use visual imagery to suggest, insinuate, and convey the essence
of the film, each illustration reflects the work and the architect’s aesthetic overall — via ArchDaily
Meet Point Defiance Zoo’s 9-week-old Canada Lynx kitten. Jasper is part of the Species Survival Plan for Canada Lynx, which are listed as endangered in Washington state. He now weighs about 1.8kg and is being hand-reared by Point Defiance Zoo staff. Jasper will make periodic appearances around the zoo this summer as he grows into his role as an ambassador for his species — via ZooBorns
The longer one lurks in the Internet underground, the more difficult it becomes to ignore the harsh reality that for nearly every legitimate online business there is a cybercrime-oriented anti-business. Case in point: Today’s post looks at a popular service that helps crooked online marketers exhaust the Google AdWords budgets of their competitors.
AdWords is Google’s paid advertising product, displaying ads on the top or the right side of your screen in search results. Advertisers bid on specific keywords, and those who bid the highest will have their ads show up first when Internet users search for those terms. In turn, advertisers pay Google a small amount each time a user clicks on one of their ads.
One of the more well-known forms of online ad fraud (aka click fraud
) involves Google AdSense publishers that automate the clicking of ads appearing on their own Web sites in order to inflate ad revenue. But fraudsters also engage in an opposite scam involving AdWords, in which advertisers try to attack competitors by raising their costs or exhausting their ad budgets early in the day.
Enter GoodGoogle
, the nickname chosen by one of the more established AdWords fraudsters operating on the Russian-language crime forums. Using a combination of custom software and hands-on customer service, GoodGoogle promises clients the ability to block the appearance of competitors’ ads.
Are you tired of the competition in Google AdWords that take your first position and quality traffic?
reads GoodGoogle’s pitch. I will help you get rid once and for all competitors in Google Adwords.
The service, which appears to have been in the offering since at least January 2012, provides customers both a la carte and subscription rates. The prices range from $100 to block between three to ten ad units for 24 hours to $80 for 15 to 30 ad units. For a flat fee of $1,000, small businesses can use GoodGoogle’s software and service to sideline a handful of competitors’s ads indefinitely. Fees are paid up-front and in virtual currencies (WebMoney, eg), and the seller offers support and a warranty for his work for the first three weeks — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Chilling Effects is the largest public repository of DMCA notices on the planet, providing a unique insight into the Internet’s copyright battles. However, each month people try to de-index pages of the site but Google has Chilling Effects’ back and routinely rejects copyright claims — via redwolf.newsvine.com
A 15-year-old Japanese schoolgirl has been arrested on suspicion of murdering a classmate and dismembering her body, local media have reported.
The suspect, whose name was not released as she is a minor, has admitted to strangling the victim and severing her head and left hand, according to the Kyodo news agency.
She allegedly delivered blows to the head of 15-year-old Aiwa Matsuo with a metal instrument before strangling her in the city of Sasebo, in Nagasaki Prefecture, southwest Japan.
The victim’s body was found on a bed in the suspect’s apartment early on Sunday and investigators discovered tools nearby, reports said.
The suspect, who lived away from her parents though in the same city, told police she acted alone in the grisly killing, Kyodo added.
Matsuo had reportedly gone out to meet friends on Saturday afternoon, but her parents notified the police when she failed to return home at night.
The two girls graduated from the same junior high school — via redwolf.newsvine.com
A leaked discussion paper from both Attorney-General George Brandis and Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has floated the possibility of websites being blocked, and measures to compel ISPs to take steps to prevent their customers infringing on copyright online.
Five months after first flagging a crackdown was on its way, Brandis appears to be pushing ahead with plans to crack down on Australians using programs such as BitTorrent to obtain copyright-infringing content such as TV shows, music, and films.
The discussion paper, leaked to Crikey, had been expected to be released this month, following Brandis meeting with representatives in the US and UK governments on their respective copyright infringement deterrence schemes.
It outlines a number of potential legislative measures the government can implement to deter what the paper said is a long standing issue
with Australians having high illegal download rates
.
The government states in the document that it believes even if an ISP doesn’t have a direct power to prevent its users from infringing on copyright, there are reasonable steps
it can take to deter infringement.
In a move to undo the 2012 High Court judgment that iiNet did not authorise its users’ copyright infringement, the paper proposes amending the Copyright Act to extend authorisation of copyright infringement and the power to prevent
infringement would just be one factor the courts would consider in determining whether an ISP was liable for infringement — via redwolf.newsvine.com
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