Shorty Awards – vote now.
I’ve had about 50 emails saying “Vote Derren for a Shorty Award”. Well DB’s won a few twitter awards last year and there seems to be so many – so feel free to do so in the “Celebrity” category if you want – but we think it would be far funnier to vote him in to the “Food” section.
Definitely up for a vote in the “Humor” section should be Mr Serafinowicz who has been making us all laugh (@serafinowicz) and Charlie Brooker (@charltonbrooker) for Journalism. Also feel free to vote @lordcoopy for “Customer Service” category and @phillisdorris for “Weird”. – Enigma Crew
Anglican Vicar Uses Police To Intimidate Blogger
The following is an excerpt from the guest post of the Seismic Shock blog.
At 10am on Sunday 29th November 2009, I received a visit from two policemen regarding my activities in running the Seismic Shock blog. (Does exposing a vicar’s associations with extremists make me a criminal?, I wondered initially). A sergeant from the Horsforth Police related to me that he had received complaints via Surrey Police from Rev Sizer and from Dr Anthony McRoy – a lecturer at the Wales Evangelical School of Theology – who both objected to being associated with terrorists and Holocaust deniers.
(Context: Sizer has associated with some very nasty terrorists and Holocaust deniers; McRoy has delivered a paper at a Khomeinist theological conference in Iran comparing Hezbollah’s struggle against Israel via suicide bombing with the Christian’s struggle against sin via the atoning death of Jesus, and describes the world’s most prominent Holocaust denier as an “intelligent, humble, charismatic, and charming” man who “gives quick, extensive and intelligent answers to any question, mixed with genial humour”).
Full story over at Hurryupharry.org
Via Seismic shock Blog (that seems to be running rather slow for us at the moment)
Via @bengoldacre
‘Piracy Isn’t Killing Music’ Radiohead’s Guitarist Says
Last year, Radiohead expressed their growing discomfort with record labels that abuse copyrights for their own benefit, while harassing their fans. In a recent interview, Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien said that he doesn’t believe piracy is killing the music industry, but that the industry will kill itself if it doesn’t adapt to the digital age.
In an attempt to take a stand against the labels, several well known artists including Radiohead formed the Featured Artists Coalition last year, a lobby group that aims to end the extortion-like practices of record labels and allow artists to gain more control over their own work.
Radiohead and others are unhappy with the fact that the labels, represented by lobby groups such as the RIAA and IFPI, are pushing for anti-piracy legislation without consulting the artists they claim to represent. Radiohead, who used BitTorrent to leakone of their songs, went as far as being willing to show up as a witness against the RIAA in court.
In a new MIDEM interview, Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien stands up for file-sharers once again, stating that piracy is not killing the music industry in his view.
Live Beetle Jewellery
“It was an unlikely fashion accessory but the arrival of a jewel-encrusted beetle at a US border post certainly bugged customs officers.
A woman crossing from Mexico at Brownsville, Texas, declared the live insect decorated with blue and gold as she drove up to enter the state but she did not have the right paperwork.
Pest control measures meant officers promptly confiscated the item worn as a brooch on the traveller’s sweater and sent it for further inspection. The beetle was attached to the woman’s clothing by a gold chain and safety pin.
The story of how the six-legged fashion victim was intercepted came in a press release and video from US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), part of the security machine responsible for protecting the country from terrorists and a body more used to trumpeting the seizure of cocaine, marijuana, hidden cash or fugitives from justice.
“CBP officers seized the decorative clothing accessory and sent the live beetle to the Plant Inspection Station at Los Indios International Bridge for further identification. Because the traveller declared the insect no monetary civil penalty was issued,” the official account declared.”
Read more at The Guardian (Thanks Tammy)
Experts Stunned By Swan ‘Divorce’
“Experts have told of their surprise after witnessing a rare “divorce” between a pair of swans at a Gloucestershire wildfowl sanctuary.
The Bewick’s swans have returned to winter at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust centre at Slimbridge – but both have brought new partners.
It is only the second time in more than 40 years that a “separation” has been recorded at the centre. ”
Read more at the BBC
Scientologists Claim To Heal Quake Victims Using Touch
“Amid the mass of aid agencies piling in to help Haiti quake victims is a batch of Church of Scientology “volunteer ministers”, claiming to use the power of touch to reconnect nervous systems.
Clad in yellow T-shirts emblazoned with the logo of the controversial US-based group, smiling volunteers fan out among the injured lying under makeshift shelters in the courtyard of Port-au-Prince’s General Hospital.
A wealthy private donor provided his airplane to fly in 80 volunteers from Los Angeles, along with 50 Haitian-American-doctors, in a gesture worth 400,000 dollars, said a Parisian volunteer who gave her name as Sylvie.”
Read more at Yahoo News
How Art Affects The Brain
“At an exhibit opening this weekend at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, visitors will be asked to wear 3-D glasses and walk around with clipboards and pencils while looking at images of sculptures.
“Beauty and the Brain: A Neural Approach to Aesthetics,” enlists the public as participants in a Johns Hopkins University study that looks at why the human brain is attracted to artwork.
Museum-goers will look at 3-D printouts of altered versions of sculptures by abstract artist Jean Arp. One of his works, “The Woman of Delos” (1959), will also be on display at the Walters. While looking at computer-altered versions of the sculptures—some skinnier, others more rotund—participants will be asked which they are most attracted to, and which they like the least.”
Read more at Wall Street Journal (thanks, Tammy)
“Midlife Crisis” Debunked
“Elliot Jacques coined the term “mid-life crisis” 40 years ago, when the average lifespan was 70 and “mid-life” came at age 35. Individuals could expect their quality of life to decline from that point forward, Jacques argued, so some extreme reactions to encroaching mortality were to be expected, such as having extra-marital affairs and buying a Corvette.
Not any more, says Prof. Carlo Strenger of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Psychology. In an article co-authored with the Israeli researcher Arie Ruttenberg for the Harvard Business Review last year, and another in the journal Psychoanalytic Psychology, Prof. Strenger posits that the mid-life years are the best time of life to flourish and grow.
Citing research based on empirical evidence and studies from the field, Prof. Strenger says that adult lives really do have second acts.”
Read more at Science Daily
The Self-Help Psychologist Is In – Richard Wiseman Interview
“Many of us who try to live an examined life find something lacking, though usually nothing so serious that it requires professional help. This has given rise to an entire genre of books aimed at indulging our urge to open up our own psyches and tinker with the wiring. But the genre’s lack of scientific rigor drives University of Hertfordshire psychologist Richard Wiseman to distraction.
‘If you apply [the standards of self-help publishing] to the drug store,’ Wiseman says, ‘you go in and say ‘Oh, I’ve got a headache, and ah well, none of this stuff is tested, but what the hell, I’ll just try the green one and see if that works,’ people would think that’s utterly absurd and unacceptable.’ ”
Read the interview at NY Times
Photographs by ‘Snowflake Bentley’ Go On Sale In New York
“Vintage photographs of snowflakes taken by the first person ever to capture them with a camera went on sale yesterday at an antiques fair in New York.
The pictures are just a fraction of a lifetime’s work comprising thousands of spectacular images taken by the self-taught photographer and Vermont farmer Wilson A Bentley at the end of the 19th century.
Ten of Bentley’s snowflake images are up for sale at $4,800 (£3,000) each at the American Antiques Show. They appear alongside other work by the photographer of winter landscapes.”
Read more at The Guardian (thanks, Tammy)
In Pictures: the first ever photographs of snowflakes
