Jaden Newman is 9 years old and stands 4 feet, 7 inches tall. She's in the fourth grade, but she's already one of the best players on the high school basketball varsity team at Downey Christian School in Orlando. She's so good that the women's basketball team of the University of Miami is already in negotiations with Jaden and her parents. She's received an official recruitment packet and visited campus as part of the process.
Thomas the Tank Engine is now real! He's not traveling down the rail lines on the island of Sodor. Instead, Thomas operates in Shizuoka Prefecture in Japan. The Oigawa Line built this locomotive, much to the delight of fans of Wilbert Awdry's Railway Series of books and cartoons.
James Wood of Minneapolis, Minnesota noticed that someone had broken into his house while he was away. He called the police. While waiting for them, he noticed that someone--presumably the thief--had logged into Facebook on his computer.
Wood updated the suspect's status and asked anyone reading to provide information about him. Commenters promptly contributed information about the owner the account, who later contacted Wood and asked him for some personal items that he had accidentally left in Wood's home while burglarizing it.
Wood agreed and called the police when the suspect showed up. Police arrested the man and charged him with second degree burglary.
Walt Disney Confessions is a tumblr blog that, before it was closed, invited readers to anonymously share stories about how they had been positively influenced by Disney movies and characters. Krutika Mallikarjuna of BuzzFeed gleaned 27 especially inspiring examples, such as what this person had to say about her encounter with Elsa from Frozen. You can read them all here.
The very Scottish gentleman you see pictured above is ready to cut into the largest haggis ever made. The Scottish meat company Hall's produced it for the Royal Highland Show, an agricultural fair held last week.
Sky News reports that the haggis contains 1,537 pounds of pork and pork offal, as well as 734 pounds of oatmeal, 51 pounds of onions, and 86 pounds of seasonings. When cooked, it measured about 8 feet long, 3 feet tall, and 3 feet wide. It was served to people who attended the show. By my calculations, that's enough haggis for over 20 people.
When you play the game of pugs, you win or you die. Thanks to Blinkbox, here are the pugs of Westeros perfectly costumed as your favorite characters, such as Joffrey Baratheon, Tyrion Lannister, Jon Snow, and Daenerys Targaryen.
There are no direwolves, which is a significant oversight. But on the upside: no one dies and there are no nude scenes.
If you want a cup of coffee or a slice of cake at The Vault, you'll have to serve yourself. You'll also have to act as your own cashier because the owner may not be there. So just slip the cash you owe into the honor box or swipe your credit card through the reader. That's because this cafe in Valley City, North Dakota doesn't have any regular employees.
David and Kimberly Brekke renovated an old bank and turned into a cafe. When they opened The Vault in October, they decided to operate on the honor system. They trust their customers to act honestly.
And it works! David Brekke says that at the end of the typical day, he's not missing any money. On the contrary--there's usually 15% more money than expected in the till. His generous and honest customers actually pay more than necessary.
The Vault sounds like a fun place to go. There are books to read, pianos to play, movie nights, musical performances, and art shows.
League of Legends is a hugely popular multiplayer online combat game. Many people do not just play, but play so well that they win tournaments for that game. League of Legends has become so intensely competitive that Robert Morris University-Illinois, a college in Chicago, thinks that it can be called a sport. That's why that college is designating its League of Legends team a varsity sport and is offering team members athletic scholarships. Inside Higher Ed reports:
Starting in September, League of Legends players will join hockey goalies, quarterbacks and point guards as varsity athletes at the Chicago campus. The university is a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.
The university plans to offer between 45 and 50 athletic scholarships to incoming gamers, said Kurt Melcher, the university’s associate athletic director. The scholarships will pay for 50 percent of tuition and 50 percent of room and board for members of the League of Legends team.
The gamers will be treated like other varsity athletes, Melcher said. They’ll have uniforms, regular practice sessions and postgame meals. Students who need it will also receive tutoring support from RMU’s athletic department.
The League of Legends team will compete in the Collegiate Star League, an eSports league that includes teams from institutions like Harvard, MIT, and the University of California at Berkeley, the athletics official said.
This is the Tower of Hercules near La Coruña, Spain--the northwestern tip of the Iberian peninsula. It may be the only ancient lighthouse still in use. It's possible that a Phoenician work preceded it, but we can be sure that a Roman structure lies at the core of this tower. The Romans built it sometime during the reign of Emperor Trajan (r. 98-117 A.D.), who was himself from an area that forms modern Spain. The Romans referred to it in classical writings as Farum Brigantium.
During the Eighteenth Century, the architect Eustaquio Giannini conducted a renovation of the site, building a 161-foot tower over the original 112-foot Roman one.
Liberty, equality, and brotherhood--these words formed a common republican slogan during the French Revolution. If the revolutionaries had included Beyoncé, would there have been fewer decapitations?
Yes, you're looking at a computer screen. But I'll bet that if you take a good slurp, you'l be able to detect a bit of chocolate from Danielle's Rolo cheesecake bars. They're made with Rolo candies, which are gobs of caramel encased in chocolate.
Danielle made them by first putting down a layer of graham cracker crumbs, then adding a mixture of cream cheese and mini Rolos. She topped it with chocolate and Rolo halves. Yummy! I'd try to make it, but I'm afraid that I'd eat the ingredients before finishing the recipe.
France is doing pretty well, so I don't know what Captain Picard is facepalming about. Perhaps instead the graphic designer responsible for the logo was expressing personal frustration at his own team.
I have the look for you this summer. Crocs? Uggs? No. The future is Barbie head shoes. Jeffrey Campbell designed these gorgeous wedges that will definitely make people look at you twice. Surely there could be no better way to express your sense of style than by walking on severed doll heads.
(Photo: Joseph C. Dowell/Kern County Fire Department)
On Friday, this pit bull puppy was playing with his 7 brothers and sisters. He is, perhaps, not the brightest dog in his litter. He somehow got his head stuck in a car wheel. The worried owner drove him to the local fire department and asked firefighters to free him.
The firefighters used vegetable oil from their kitchen to lubricate the dog. After about 10 minutes of careful movement, they were able to free him.
Dr. David Glowacki is a chemistry professor at the University of Bristol (UK). He's an expert on “computational simulation of classical and quantum reaction dynamics” and the “non-equilibrium statistical mechanics & energy transfer,” among other topics. So this kind of behavior should not be unexpected.
He attended a performance of Handel's "Messiah." Departing from the norms of classical orchestral etiquette, Tom Morris, the director, invited members of the audience to "clap and woof" as they felt inspired by the music. Dr. Glowaki, alas, went a bit too far with this freedom. The Independent reports:
But Dr Glowacki, a Royal Society Research Fellow, was so overcome during the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ he began lurching from side to side with his hands raised and whooping before attempting to crowd-surf, witnesses claimed.
Irritated by the distraction, audience members proceeded to physically eject the Bristol University academic from the area, in what Mr Morris claims is the first such incident at a classical concert since the 18th century.
Some ticket holders are now urging Mr Morris to set clearer guidelines for acceptable behaviour but the director is unwilling to re-impose the strict rules of etiquette which he has sought to cast off.
