Saturday, December 31, 2011

This Is My Story - Ben Breedlove




After cheating death three times, Ben Breedlove, 18, finally lost his life on Christmas night after suffering from a heart attack.

But not before he recorded videos of his life and near-death experiences and how at peace he felt when he believed he was leaving the world.

The Austin teenager had a life-threatening heart condition he fought every day as he was growing up.

He had a near death experience when he was four, fourteen and then less than a month ago.

In the video, he shares these experiences, including the bright light that brought him peace the first time around and the time he was wearing a suit and standing in a white room with his favourite rapper Kid Cudi.

Of this experience, he wrote: 'I then looked in the mirror, I was proud of myself of my entire life, everything I have done. It was the BEST feeling.'

The rapper posted this message on his blog after hearing of Ben's death: 'I am so sad about Ben Breedlove. I watched the video he left for the world to see, and him seeing me in detail, in his vision really warmed my heart.

'I broke down... To Ben’s family, you raised a real hero, he’s definitely mine. You have my love.'

Talking about the white light he saw in the hospital when he was four he wrote: 'I couldn't take my eyes off it, and I couldn't help but smile. I had no worries at all, like nothing else in the world mattered.

Ben had a popular YouTube channel OurAdvice4You in which he dealt out relationship advice to his peers.

It was in his last YouTube video, uploaded on December 18, that he made the heartbreaking video, using a series of flash cards to talk about growing up with the heart problem.

He revealed he regrets not being like everyone else: 'I was never allowed to play sports that my friends did. It kinda sucks that I missed out on that part of my life.'



Thursday, December 29, 2011

Sigh, we all grow old

Do you recognise these old geezers?








These were my heroes! Here they are in their glory days, in the same order







Saturday, December 24, 2011

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Aki Ra - Badass disables 10,000 land mines for free



As a child soldier in Cambodia's notorious Khmer Rouge army Aki Ra laid many landmines. He now clears these deadly bombs with a stick and a pocketknife, more than 10,000 to date. It is very dangerous. No one pays him to do it. Aki is the real deal.

FFUUUUUU

Comic Book Proposal

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Pass It On

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Internet Meme: "I Used To Be An Adventurer Like You..."



Images



“Arrow In The Knee” on Youtube

The quickly spreading phrase is most prevalent on YouTube, where it receives highest rated comment often, and is parodied constantly.[9] Just a small selection of the videos across YouTube covering this line are available below. A far more extensive list of videos on this topic can be found by simply searching.[9]


Saturday, December 17, 2011

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

5 words Babies Use

Where's Wall-E

Friday, December 9, 2011

Vice Guide To Athen Riots

Upon arriving in Athens we find a city whose streets are disappearing under uncollected waste. There's a sense of desperation overcoming the citizens. In the run up to a 48-hour national strike we meet teenage anarchists who are desperate for police blood, communists praying for revolution, and civil servants struggling to understand what has happened to their country.
The first day of the 48-hour hunger strike. A crowd of hundreds of thousands makes its way to parliament to protest the proposed austerity measures. We hear about the tactics used by the anarchists and police before seeing it for ourselves. Tear gas, flash grenades, and rocks fly as the city unites in angry disenchantment and attempts to storm parliament.
The Greek parliament meets to vote on proposed austerity measures while outside their society polarizes itself. All pretenses of togetherness vanish as the lines between authority figures and protesters are blurred, leading to street battles and, ultimately, one man's death.

Vice Guide To Belfast

VICE headed over to Belfast, in the lead up to this year's Twelfth parade, and tensions were running higher than any period in recent memory: It was only a few months since a 25-year-old Catholic police officer was murdered by dissident republicans (to dissuade others from joining the force) and just weeks after altercations between nationalists and unionists in east Belfast ended in riots and multiple shootings, including a cameraman. What better time to explore Belfast and marinate in the divisive hate?
On the eve of the parade, we further explore the divide between the Protestant and Catholics in the Belfast community. We discovered that both sides share a commonality: the involvement from the youth.
It's the day of the July 12th parade, and everyone's celebrating
After the march, we head over to the Catholic area of Ardoyne, and and see tensions are running high. The police are here, in full riot gear. With angry citizens and a massive police presence, we wonder how this will end...

Senna driving F1 turbo race car in 1985 - 1400HP

Of all the lonely people, the loneliest

Source

Joyce Carol Vincent 's body lay unnoticed in her English apartment for three years.

Joyce Carol Vincent's body lay unnoticed in her English apartment for three years


In 2006, someone finally decided to check up on a London woman named Joyce Vincent who was badly behind in her rent.

What they found was a skeleton on the couch. She had been dead for nearly three years, the TV still on and the Christmas presents she had wrapped for friends lying on the floor along with a landslide of mail piled up inside the front door of her apartment.

Vincent, 38, lived alone in Wood Green, a declining but packed area of London, a city of eight million people. Her corpse was so desiccated that the coroner couldn’t figure out a cause of death, couldn’t even identify her from dental records until the police tracked down a photograph of her that showed her smiling.

It could happen to any of us. Apparently she just sat down and died as the TV, turned to BBC1, flickered and chattered away for cycles of leafy springs, hot summers, endless rain and every news event you and I lived through in those years. Her window was open in her busy apartment block above a street-level shopping mall, but the smell from nearby garbage bins disguised the stench of her rotting body.

Vincent had been estranged from her father and four sisters — her much-loved mother had died when she was 11 — but by all accounts, she was a vivacious, accomplished woman, said to resemble a pre-decline Whitney Houston. She had a pile of friends and a terrific job at Ernst & Young until, without apparent reason, she quit in 2001.

Not that there were many accounts. It took a determined filmmaker named Carol Morley many years to hunt down any truths about Vincent’s depressing — even horrifying — death and make a documentary called Dreams of a Life, now playing at the London Film Festival. Morley posted ads in newspapers and on the doors of the black cabs that shoot around the city, but even then it was tough to track down people who’d admit their shame at having let Vincent slip from sight.

The story is paralyzingly sad, all the more because Vincent was the model of what women especially set out to be: smart, kind, ambitious and attractive, and yet these qualities failed her. Perhaps they actually doomed her and contributed to the howling loneliness of her death. Morley talked to her local MP, Lynne Featherstone, one of the few who tried to investigate how and why she died. “I gather she was very beautiful, which for reasons totally spurious makes it more poignant because we always think beautiful people have everything go their way,” Morleywrote recently in The Observer.

The boyfriend of her youth, who kept in touch with her until 2002, bitterly regrets his inattention, but told Morley that Vincent always seemed confident and in control. “The trouble with Joyce was that she was very fanciable,” he said. “Wherever she went and whatever she did, there were people trying to get her into bed. It was a burden that she was so beautiful and she was very clever, a lot more intelligent than she let on. I think she had several lives.”

She seemed to have linked up with a brutal boyfriend. It was a battered women’s shelter that placed her in the subsidized rental where she died, and she may have felt ashamed of her perceived failure.

But why didn’t the friends whose names were on the wrapped gifts ever track down their mysteriously vanished friend?

The scariest thing about Vincent’s death is of course that with a few wrong turns, any of us could die this way. A lost job, divorce, a time of lying low and the remorseless nature of living in one of the huge cities that dot the planet and, bang, you vanish.

This is the kind of truth that keeps serial killers like Robert Pickton going, but there’s no indication that Vincent was murdered, no knife nicks on her bones at any rate. It’s just the nature of the city. It’s why Liz Lemon of the TV comedy 30 Rock teaches herself the singleton’s Heimlich manoeuvre, throwing herself onto the back of a chair to regurgitate a piece of steak.

Urban non-myths like Vincent’s death tableau are why people gird themselves to date even the sad prospects they have met online, their faces frozen into panicked smiles. It’s partly why people marry unsuitably or have children they don’t really want, why rural people resent urban types who seem to have prospered by definition, why so many of the seven billion on earth flock to the city—they fear solitude but think it surmountable.

Urban loneliness is asphyxiating, as Jonathan Raban wrote in his poignant 1974 sociology classic, Soft City. “Just as the city is the place where you can choose your society, so it is also the place where you can ‘drop’ discarded friends, old lovers, the duller members of your family.” And where you yourself can be dropped, as happened to Vincent.

The city is hard, not soft, Raban wrote, meaning that you can make no impression on it. “Lonely people often feel sick with guilt that they are suffering in the middle of such apparent abundance; what is wrong with them that they should be singled out to watch TV while millions are on the street below their windows.”

No one questioned Vincent’s non-stop TV. No one smelled her from the littered pavement. This was the price she and hundreds of millions like her pay for chasing the urban dream and finding it “vain, wanting and destructive,” as Raban described it.

I often look at the condo towers seeding like a forest all over Toronto and its suburbs and wonder about the stark lives being lived. People put out hopeful little café tables and chairs on their balconies, but I have yet to see a brunch party a few hundred metres from the Gardiner or Hwy 407. Who is huddled inside staring out at a city of sociable plenty and yearning for recognition?

Ah, look at all the lonely people. Shuddering at Vincent’s awful end, I suspect we could all end up like Eleanor Rigby. We must die alone by definition, but who will help us if no one notices.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Stop and Hear the Music



‎"In Washington DC , at a Metro Station, on a cold January morning in 2007, a man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, approximately 2000 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

After about four minutes, a middle-aged man noticed that there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds, and then he hurried on to meet his schedule.

About four minutes later, the violinist received his first dollar. A woman threw money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

At six minutes, a young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

At ten minutes, a three-year old boy stopped, but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head the whole time. This action was repeated by several other children, but every parent - without exception - forced their children to move on quickly.

At forty-five minutes: The musician played continuously. Only six people stopped and listened for a short while. About twenty gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

After one hour: He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed and no one applauded. There was no recognition at all. No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before, Joshua Bell sold-out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100 each to sit and listen to him play the same music.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell, playing incognito in the D.C. Metro Station, was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people’s priorities.

This experiment raised several questions: In a common-place environment, at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? If so, do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context? One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made… How many other things are we missing as we rush through life?"

Monday, December 5, 2011

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Pics That Make Me Think "Holy Shit"

Star Trek vs Star Wars



Leonard Nimoy getting in on it!!!

Leonard Nimoy
Carrie Fisher says her hair buns in Star Wars are better than Spock ears. I don't agree. Her hair can't hear. LLAP




Saturday, November 26, 2011

Alpine Coaster in Imst, Austria


At 3.5 km, the world's longest coaster

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

6 Thoughts That Change The World And The Way We Look At It

History of English in 10 Minutes

The Iran Job



Source

THE IRAN JOB follows American basketball player Kevin Sheppard as he accepts a job to play in one of the world’s most feared countries: Iran. With tensions running high between Iran and the West, Kevin tries to separate sports from politics, only to find that politics is impossible to escape in Iran. Along the way he forms an unlikely alliance with three outspoken Iranian women. Thanks to these women, his apartment turns into an oasis of free speech, where they discuss everything from politics to religion to gender roles. Kevin’s season in Iran culminates in something much bigger than basketball: the uprising and subsequent suppression of Iran’s reformist Green Movement – a powerful prelude to the currently unfolding Arab Spring.

HOW THE IRAN JOB STARTED:

In the fall of 2008 – shortly after Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for the destruction of Israel – we had a Skype call with Kevin Sheppard, a flashy point-guard from the U.S. Virgin Islands. Kevin was about to start a basketball contract in the Iranian Super League. A minute into the conversation he had us rolling on the floor laughing in spite of the prospect of playing in a country that's supposedly full of illegal nukes and Islamic terrorists. We decided to start filming, even without a budget. (Fellow filmmakers: please don’t do this to yourselves, especially when you’re married with a small child and another on the way...) Till (husband/director) filmed Kevin in Iran over several visits, until on his last trip - in the run-up to Iran’s 2009 election - he was informed that he had been placed on a "black list" (for reasons still not clear to us), and was put in detention in a kind of "hotel-prison" inside the glitzy new Tehran airport. Sara (wife/producer) was at home, 5-months pregnant with kid number 2, while Till was in Tehran hand-shredding some not-so-cool-documents-when-you’re-stuck-in-Iran and flushing them down the toilet. He was sent back to New York on the next plane -- a stroke of luck in retrospect given the number of filmmakers and journalists recently arrested in Iran.

WHAT WE'RE DOING:

We need to raise at least $50,000 by the end of the year to prepare the film for a 2012 release.

WHY NOW:

With the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq winding down, and the world's attention laser-focusing on Iran again this is a critical time to take a fresh look at Iranians. It may even be crucial in avoiding the next war in a Muslim country.

Besides … the NBA is locked out, so you might as well watch exciting basketball in Iran!

PARTNERS & SUPPORTERS:

Abigail Disney - executive producer of Academy Award shortlisted Pray The Devil Back To Hell and Academy Award nominated Sun Come Up, and creator of the PBS series Women, War and Peace – is our executive producer. Berlin’s The Post Republic (Waltz With Bashier) is our German co-producer. Christiane Amanpour graciously co-hosted a fundraiser. Gloria Steinem noted the film’s unexpected nexus of male sports and women’s rights – for while THE IRAN JOB is about men's basketball, above all it gives voice to three very brave Iranian women. We’ve also won the support of Karim Sadjapour, associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

And we're thrilled THE IRAN JOB features some of the most cutting-edge Iranian rap and hip-hop, including such artists as Shahin Najafi, Jadugaran, ZedBazi, and A2.

WHAT'S THE BEST WAY TO SUPPORT THE IRAN JOB:

Make a pledge today via Kickstarter. Any contribution, no matter how small or large, will make a difference. And all contributions will be rewarded! Please check out the donation tiers to your right to find the level and gift that’s right for you!

Spread the word by telling your friends, family and social networks about our film and this Kickstarter campaign. Please send the URL of this page with a heartfelt endorsement to everyone you know! "Like" and Share the link on Facebook, Twitter, by email or blog. Encourage people to follow us. We can be found online here: Facebook, Twitter, www.theiranjob.com

If you have other ideas how to help please contact us!

HOW KICKSTARTER WORKS:

Kickstarter is a funding platform for creative projects, driven by an all-or-nothing modus. If we don’t raise our goal of $50,000, we lose everything, and no money changes hands. If we do reach our goal, the film will come out in 2012. Our campaign will last for 50 days. 50 days go by very fast. If you can, please pledge now – it will help build crucial momentum.

During our campaign and beyond we will keep you updated on the progress of the film, and we welcome any feedback and comments. Thank you very much for helping us complete this journey!

With much love and gratitude,

Sara Nodjoumi & Till Schauder

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Bruce Wayne's physical

Source

Patient: Wayne, Bruce

DOB: 2/16/1971

Occupation: Industrialist

Insurance: Self-pay

Emergency Contact: Dick Grayson, XXX-269-9637

Interval History: Patient was seen for his last annual physical approximately one year ago. Since that time he has had numerous visits for acute illnesses or injuries, generally accompanied either by his companion Mr. Grayson or Alfred, a senior member of his household staff. These recent maladies appear to be in keeping with the pattern that has emerged over the past several years, in which significant medical problems are associated with odd or incongruous explanations. Most recently, patient was seen for numerous areas of lower extremity cutaneous blistering, erythema and thickening, consistent with moderate to severe frostbite. Patient had reportedly gotten lost while camping in the mountains, but could not account for how he had sustained these injuries in mid-August.

Past Medical History: As stated, patient has a somewhat lengthy and complicated medical history, best summarized by system –

Orthopedic: By far the greatest contributor to patient’s ongoing morbidity are his multiple and seemingly ceaseless musculoskeletal injuries. The most significant of these was sustained several years ago, when he was rushed to GCGH with several fractures of his lumbar vertebrae, reportedly after falling while rappelling. Skeletal series obtained at that time revealed numerous (>20) areas of orthopedic injury in various states of healing, which could not be fully explained by recent fall, including areas of all extremities and many ribs; confirmatory bone scan similarly showed many areas of increased uptake. Patient’s robust stature is not consistent with osteogenesis imperfecta, and skin biopsy was negative for abnormal collagen and P3H1 or CRTAP genetic defects. Malignancy was suspected, but eventually ruled out following oncology consultation. Patient explained most of these (and most subsequent) injuries as being the result of membership in a private and apparently quite intense mixed martial arts club. Patient has denied being the victim of domestic abuse by Mr. Grayson following indirect and direct questioning on numerous occasions.

Neurologic: Patient has been evaluated numerous times over the past several years with complaints of headache, blurry vision, memory deficits, nausea and emotional lability. As with above injuries, most of these symptoms occur following some blow to the head during MMA sparring or competition, and were diagnosed as consistent with concussion. (Patient reports that the club frowns upon protective headgear, a stand with which he seemingly complies despite numerous exhortations to do otherwise.) Following the third such episode, patient was referred to neurology due to significant concern about second-impact syndrome. While no gray matter changes in the cingulate gyrus or white matter hyperintensities were noted on magnetic resonance imaging, given history and known risk factors neurology has recommended MRI to be repeated every two years, and they are arranging for diffusion tensor imaging in the near future.

Allergic: Earlier this year, patient was again rushed to GCGH for what appeared to be severe anaphylaxis, with marked angioedema of the face and hands, and widespread urticaria. After administration of high-dose IV Solu-Medrol, patient’s angioedema resolved sufficiently for him to report “tripping into a bunch of weeds” while hiking, and he eventually left the emergency department against medical advice. On outpatient follow-up, patient was referred for urgent allergy testing given the severity of his reaction. Skin-prick testing was negative for all food allergies, but was markedly and instantly positive in reaction to all plant allergens, such that a dose of IM Decadron was administered by allergist in the office. Despite was appears to be an extraordinary hypersensitivity to phytochemicals, patient has had no further symptoms following the one episode.

Psychiatric: During most visits, patient displays a somewhat somber and flat affect. Numerous inquiries into his mood yield answers that it is “just fine,” followed by requests to change the topic of questioning. While dysthymia or frank depression is suspected (particularly considering patient’s voluntary participation in flagrantly harmful recreational activities), patient seems to have avoided any major depressive episodes. More worrisome was an episode about a year and a half ago, during which patient appeared to have a psychotic break. On arrival at GCGH, patient was found to be suffering from vivid, terrifying hallucinations, rendering him essentially incoherent and requiring high doses of both benzodiazepines and haloperidol to abate. After regaining consciousness several hours later, patient stated that the “stress of [his] job” had gotten to him. He vehemently refused evaluation by Arkham consulting psychiatrist, and eventually left the ED AMA.

Social History: Patient denies smoking, drinking or taking any illegal controlled substances. He resides with Mr. Grayson, reportedly without romantic involvement. Diet consists largely of meals prepared by private household cooking staff. He reports serially monogamous sexual relationships with female partners. When asked, he states that he “usually has proper equipment,” which is interpreted to mean that condoms are used for contraception and STI prevention.

Family History: Both parents deceased (homicide). Generally assumed to be non-contributory

Physical exam:

Temp 98.7, HR 60, RR 12, BP 113/68

General – well-nourished, well-appearing adult male in NAD; alert, oriented, cooperative

Skin – confluent, symmetrical, faintly erythematous rash extending from anterior hairline onto malar region (“from the hazmat mask they make me wear when I visit the lab”); four linear, well-healed lacerations on left pectoral (“fencing accident”). Numerous ecchymotic areas in various stages of healing

HEENT – small area of firm edema on the left occiput, c/w contusion. PERRLA, EOMI. TMs grossly intact bilat. Nares patent. Oropharynx normal. Good dentition, with evidence of repaired trauma

Chest – CTAB

CV – RRR without murmur. Radial, femoral pulses +2/4

Abd – soft, NTND, no HSM, + BS x 4.

Ext – well-defined (borderline hypertrophic) musculature. Limited active ROM in shoulders, elbows, wrists, knees, ankles, consistent with healing contusion/sprain or overuse injuries in numerous joints. Normal tone, strength UE/LE bilat.

Neuro – CN 2-12 grossly intact. ? faint resting tremor. FTN intact, no dysdiadokinesia. DTR +2/4 at patella, Achilles. Gait normal. Refuses MMS exam (“I have an aversion to riddles.”)

Psych – well-groomed, pleasant and conversational. A & O x3. Affect somewhat flat (baseline, as stated above)

Assessment/Plan — 40-year-old male with complicated past medical history as noted. Generally normal exam, excepting the following:

Rash — Patient advised that mask seems to be causing an irritant rash, and advised him to have lab personnel fit him with another, less occlusive size.

Resting tremor — Given risk factors stated above, there is some concern about early Parkinsonism. Will contact patient’s neurologist to have next follow-up appointment moved up.

Joint stiffness — As with previous visits, patient was advised to consider recreational activities that carry less risk of ongoing physical injury, or at very least allow himself to heal fully from previous trauma before returning to participation. Given the apparently quite aggressive tendencies of patient’s MMA club, advised him that almost any other activity he might choose is likely to confer less risk of ongoing morbidity (or even mortality). Patient responded to this advice with his usual polite indifference.

Looking more globally, there is some concern that there is an underlying illness that accounts for some of patient’s extensive symptomatology. Discussed with patient that there may be some obscure syndrome that includes brittle bones, but also propensity for severe hypersensitivity, psychiatric symptoms and skin damage. Advised him that many journals publish reports of puzzling cases, which may allow other physicians to comment helpfully about treatments or diagnoses that might be pertinent. Patient politely but emphatically refuses consent for such publication at this time.

Advised patient to limit stress, continue with (hopefully more benign form of) physical activity, continue with healthy diet. Flu shot administered. Planned follow-up in one year, sooner as needed.

(Note to clerical staff — please exclude the following note if there are future record requests. An alternate explanation, more plausible than the histories associated with many of patient’s injuries, is a series of industrial mishaps. As head of Wayne Enterprises, patient presumably takes a very active role in the company’s various subsidiary R&D departments. These subsidiaries include biotech, chemical and numerous other firms that traffic in hazardous materials. One might infer that some of patient’s more extreme medical problems stem from exposure to these hazards while taking a hands-on approach to running his company. There are a few understandable reasons that patient might wish to keep the true nature of his injuries private, despite assurances of medical confidentiality given that leaks of this information might undermine confidence in his company’s governance or alternatively might jeopardize secret government contracts. While it is somewhat regrettable that patient does not feel comfortable revealing the true nature of these injuries and exposures, it is nevertheless understandable.)

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Paleo Diet -- Doug McGuff MD Provides Concrete Medical Support





Doug McGuff, MD became interested in exercise at the age of 15 when he first read Arthur Jones' Nautilus Training Bulletin No. 2. His interest in exercise and biology led him into a career in medicine. In 1989, he graduated from the University of Texas Medical School at San Antonio and went on to train in Emergency Medicine at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences at Little Rock where he served as Chief Resident. From there, Dr. McGuff served as Faculty in the Wright State University Emergency Medicine Residency and was a staff Emergency Physician at Wright-Patterson AFB Hospital.

Throughout his career Dr. McGuff maintained his interest in high intensity exercise. Doug realized a lifelong dream when he opened Ultimate Exercise in November, 1997. Over the past 13 years Dr. McGuff and his instructors have continued to explore the limits of exercise through their personal training clients at Ultimate Exercise.

In addition to his work at Ultimate Exercise, Dr. McGuff is a partner with Blue Ridge Emergency Physicians, P.A. Dr. McGuff Lives in Seneca, South Carolina with his wife of 25-years, and their Children Eric and Madeline.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Unwanted Celebrity

Source





Angie Varona, 17, had her Photobucket account hacked when she was 14, causing her world to turn upside down.

The image-hosting website held several inappropriate pictures, each one starring Varona in bikinis and lingerie wear. She never appeared naked.

“I had been notified by a close friend who had seen me in a porn site ad,” Varona said. “I spent the whole summer trying to take down all the pictures, but it was virtually impossible to track down who hacked me. I felt like crap knowing my life was going down the drain.”

After her schoolmates at John A. Ferguson Senior High found out, massive rumors spread like wildfire.

“I remember walking down the hallway, hearing people talk and watching people stare at me,” she said. “There were rumors that I was becoming a porn star.”

In reality, school was the least of her worries.

“I began getting real stalkers,” Varona said. “People from other states found out my address and took pictures of my house. They threatened to rape me.”

Three years later and now homeschooled, Varona is still coping.

“They’re not even getting my pictures from Photobucket anymore,” she said. “They’re getting them through my Facebooks. I can’t even have my real name. I’ve had like six Facebooks now.”

Her initial action of taking pictures for her boyfriend evolved into something she couldn’t imagine. Although her parents were supportive, they were disappointed at her for taking such sexual pictures and having them in the incapable hands of the Internet.

This popular trend of posting nude or sexual pictures has been practiced since cellphone cameras came on the scene.

“It’s everywhere, even where you least expect it – like on your teen’s computer, cellphone and game device,” Parry Aftab, a pioneering Internet law lawyer, said on her website.

“Forty-four percent of boys in coed high schools we polled reported seeing at least one image of a fellow female classmate in the nude,” said Aftab, who practices law in New Jersey. “Most saw images of more than just one girl. And many saw multiple images of each girl. Your daughter may be among them.”

A survey conducted by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy reveals that nearly one in five young people have sent nude pictures electronically or online.

“They’re posting these pictures trying to look older, cooler,” Aftab said. “They’re posing in their bras before they’re old enough to wear them. Now, when they’re passing the pictures from kid to kid afterwards, the kids that are passing them are being charged with child pornography.”

Because federal law doesn’t make any distinction about who creates the child porn, teens who take nude photos of themselves and child pornographers who abuse and exploit children can receive the same punishment.

That means that a child could spend up to five years in federal prison for simply possessing their own naked picture. Sending it out to others, however, can get a 15-year term.

Bryan Roussell, a detective in the Special Victims Unit of the Hollywood Police Department, has received many calls from parents who also don’t realize the consequences.

“[Parents] don’t understand that their daughter or their son is the one who started the crime by taking the picture of themselves and posting them on the Internet,” Roussell said.

“If a kid has a bunch of stored nude images [of minors] on his computer, he’ll be arrested for that and he’ll have to go through the judicial system like anybody else, whether he’s an adult or a child.”

Also, in many states, like Florida, if a person is convicted of a crime against children, it automatically registers him/her with the sex offender registry, a lifelong curse.

What really perturbs authorities and parents is why adolescents take these pictures. Therapist Ana M. Moreno, a licensed mental health counselor in Miami, believes self-esteem plays a role in these behaviors.

“The cases I have worked with that have engaged in this behavior are looking for outside validation. These teen girls feel that their sexuality makes them ‘popular’ and attracts attention,” Moreno said. “They may not feel good about their decision to share sexual pictures; however, if positive validation is received, they tend to feel content and sometimes elated with the feedback.”

Child pornography prosecutions skyrocketed in 2004, the same year as the creation of Facebook, creating a 650 percent increase from 1994.

“Those pictures are going to get out and you know how it is in school. Everyone will call these kids names. Now she becomes a ‘slut’ and she’s going to have to deal with that social issue,” Roussell said.

The trend is affecting people at all levels. Even celebrities like Miley Cyrus and Vanessa Hudges have been caught in the act of “sexting” and sending nude photos to people in confidence.

Nancy Willard, executive director of the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use, said the trend is not limited by gender.

“It’s not just teen girls,” she said, “but it’s also teen boys who are sending these images. When the images start to go viral, however, far more often, girls’ images go viral. It’s developmental, stupid behavior where nobody intended to harm anybody.

“One of the categories that ‘sexting’ falls under,” Willard said, “is when young people are trying to find a partner, trying to find someone to tell them things like ‘I love you, babe.’ Then the images end up getting posted to the Internet and they go viral.”

According to a survey Willard conducted, when minors were asked what they’d do if they were asked to send a nude picture, 94 percent of the group said “No way, never, goodbye.”

“The problem is that the hot, amazing junior boy is asking for nudes from the cute, little freshman girl, and all the while saying ‘everyone does it all the time, it’s a normal thing, I’d never send it to anyone, it’ll just be between you and me.’

Schools should begin surveying young people to show that freshman that, no, not everyone is sending nude pictures,” Willard said.

Everyone has a different mindset on where this trend will take society if it continues without fix.

“Learning about sexuality could start happening at a younger age,” Brandon Mercado, 16, said. “It could become popular and even become widely accepted.”

Many believe that since it’s a teen behavior problem, the duty of fixing it relies on the parents.

“Parents are encouraged to set rules and consequences,” Moreno, the therapist, said. “Every moment can be a teachable moment.”

Drivelapse USA - 5 Minute Roadtrip Timelapse Around America

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Internet Meme: Jian Sword Dancing



Everything about this video is awesome,
Weird brother,
Fat dog,
Old ass granny with shades and a beer,
Last but not least synchronized sword dancing.

More awesomeness

Friday, November 4, 2011

You are blind for 40 minutes EVERYDAY.


It's not that your eyes aren't working. Your mind is actually blocking images all the time, and refusing to process them. Whenever your eyes move, your brain doesn't process what would normally be very dizzying blurry images coming from the retina. To fill in the gaps of time, your brain creates an illusion for a fraction of a second to keep us from noticing. This is called "Saccadic masking" and it keeps us from experiencing motion blur. Your brain replaces the blurry images with static images of your next object of focus. Whatever you look at after moving your eyes appears to stay still for a long period of time, because it is actually the same image stretched for a longer period of time to cover up the blur. This is called the "stopped-clock illusion", when the first second on a clock after you turn to look at it appears to take longer than all the other seconds.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Europe According To Europeans

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According to the Swiss:
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According to the Vatican:
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According to the British:
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According to the French:
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According to the Germans:
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According to the Greeks:
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According to the Italians:
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According to the Poles:
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According to the Russians:
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According to the Turks:
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According to the Americans:
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According to Silvio Berlussconi
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Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Vulture rams paraglider mid-air

Brother Sharp: Beggar Hailed Most Handsome, Fashionable

Source

Brother Sharp, hailed by Chinese netizens as the most handsome beggar

From QQ:

Fashionable beggar becomes famous online, encounters human flesh search

“Those sad eyes/that sad expression, the sad mustache, the miraculous godly hair, and that messy hair, all of it has deeply captivated me.” …Recently, a very hot/popular beggar post has become famous on the internet, the post narrating what netizens have hailed as “The Ultimate Gorgeous #1 Passerby Handsome Guy” beggar. Owing to his unconventional, nondescript appearance as well as his original “mashup”, netizens have begun following him, even “human flesh searching” him.

Brother Sharp, a beggar in Ningbo that has become famous on the Chinese language internet for his fashionable trendy look

Tianya calls him “犀利哥”, xīlì gē, “Brother Sharp” or “Sharp Brother”.

It can also translate to “Brother Penetrating” or “Penetrating Brother” … but…

Sunday, October 30, 2011

The only living master of a dying martial art

Source

Nidar Singh Nihang with weapons

A former factory worker from the British Midlands may be the last living master of the centuries-old Sikh battlefield art of shastar vidya. The father of four is now engaged in a full-time search for a successor.

The basis of shastar vidya, the "science of weapons" is a five-step movement: advance on the opponent, hit his flank, deflect incoming blows, take a commanding position and strike.

It was developed by Sikhs in the 17th Century as the young religion came under attack from hostile Muslim and Hindu neighbours, and has been known to a dwindling band since the British forced Sikhs to give up arms in the 19th Century.

Nidar Singh, a 44-year-old former food packer from Wolverhampton, is now thought to be the only remaining master. He has many students, but shastar vidya takes years to learn and a commitment in time and energy that doesn't suit modern lifestyles.

"I've travelled all over India and I have spoken to many elders, this is basically a last-ditch attempt to flush someone out because if I die with it, it is all gone."

Nidar Singh NihangMr Singh is searching India and Pakistan for a young successor

He would be overjoyed to discover an existing master somewhere in India, or to find a talented young student determined to dedicate his life to the art.

Until he was 17 years old, he knew little of his Sikh heritage. His family were not religious - he wore his hair short and dressed like any British teenager. He was a keen wrestler, but knew nothing of martial arts.

He spent his childhood between Punjab and Wolverhampton and it was on one of these trips to see an aunt in India that he met Baba Mohinder Singh, the old man who was to become his master.

Already in his early 80s, Baba Mohinder Singh had abandoned life as a hermit in a final effort to find someone to pass on his knowledge to.

"When he saw my physique he looked at me, even though I was clean-shaven and he asked me: 'Do you want to learn how to fight'," recalls Nidar Singh. "I couldn't say no."

On his first day of training, the frail old man handed him a stick and instructed Mr Singh to hit him. When he tried, the master threw him around like a rag doll.

"He was a frail old man chucking me about and I couldn't touch him," he says. "That definitely impressed me."

Open-minded

Mr Singh spent the next 11 years on his aunt's farm, milking the buffalos in the morning and spending every day training with his master.

In 1995 he returned to Britain to get married and took work packing food in a factory. He began to teach shastar vidya and immersed himself in research on early Sikh military history.

Soon he had enough interest from students to go into teaching full-time. He now travels around the UK to teach classes and to Canada and Germany where eager students have asked him to share his knowledge.

History of shastar vidya

Sikh weapon
  • When Sikh leader Guru Arjan Dev was murdered by the Mughal emperor in 1606, his son Guru Hargobind set out to militarise the Sikh people
  • Men were instructed to carry arms - including the kara (iron bracelet) and kirpan (small blade) still worn by orthodox Sikhs today
  • Hair was worn long and wrapped around the head to protect the skull
  • Hargobind also set up schools to train an elite warrior caste called the Akali Nihang, the immortal crocodiles, which developed secret fighting techniques
  • They also adopted a unique belief system with the martial art as a main tenet of their faith

"The people who are here are open-minded," he says. "I have Muslims and Christians here as well as Sikhs."

But even his most advanced pupils have only recently reached the stage where they can fight him with weapons without getting hurt.

Shastar vidya often gets confused with Gatka, a stick-fighting technique that was developed during British occupation of Punjab and was widely practised among Sikh soldiers in the British army.

Though it is a highly skilled art it was developed for exhibition rather than mortal combat. It is much easier to practise in public.

By working to revive a culture and practice that left the mainstream more than 200 years ago, Mr Singh has come up against a lot of resistance from within the Sikh community.

He says he received 84 death threats in his first two years as a teacher, from other Sikh groups who disagree with the ideology of shastar vidya and the beliefs of the small Nihang sect, which he identifies with.

"It is not just martial technique, there is a lot of oral tradition and linguistic skills that has to be there as well," he explains.

Nihangs still maintain some tenets of the Hindu faith, they have three scriptures rather than one and these extra books contain influences from Hinduism.

Many Nihangs also eat meat and drink alcohol which fundamentalist Sikhs disagree with. Traditionally they also drank bhang, an infusion of cannabis, to get closer to God.

"Sikhism has gone through several stage of evolution," says Christopher Shackle , a former professor of South Asian studies at Soas, University of London. "When the Nihangs were formed at the end of the 17th Century they were a very powerful group but they became rather marginalised."

Akali Nihang soldierAn Akali Nihang soldier in 1865

When the Sikhs established their own kingdom under Maharaja Ranjit Singh, he realised he needed a modern army to keep the British out, and he hired ex-Napoleonic officers to train up his soldiers, sidelining the Nihangs.

The Nihangs were further isolated when the British Raj defeated the Sikh state in 1849 and forced Sikhs to give up arms.

"The British introduced a shoot-to-kill policy," says weapons collector and historian Davinder Tool, adding that accounts of British army officers show some troops fired on any man with a blue turban and a firearm.

"There is a sense that the Nihang's got left behind by time," says Mr Shackle.

Mr Singh spends a lot of time travelling to India and Pakistan researching the art, searching for descendents of the Akali Nihang and adding to his vast collection of weapons.

So far he has only met four people who could claim to be masters, now all dead. The last of these, Ram Singh, whom he met in 1998, died four years later.

"Nidar Singh is like someone who has walked straight out of the 18th Century," says Parmjit Singh, who has worked on several books on Nihang culture with the master.

"He is like a window into the past."

He is also still hoping to be a door to the future, opening up the path for new practitioners of the art to follow.

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