3,000-year-old Michael Jackson statue?

This Egyptian bust has become a popular attraction at Chicago’s Field Museum because it’s a spitting image of Michael Jackson, complete with a tweaked nose. It was carved between 1550-1050 BCE and depicts a woman. “Statue’s a Dead Ringer for Jacko” (NBC Chicago)

 

Fucking Foul Lanuage :P

Why the #$%! Do We Swear? … For Pain Relief

Dropping the F-bomb or other expletives may not only be an expression of agony, but also a means to alleviate it

Bad language could be good for you, a new study shows. For the first time, psychologists have found that swearing may serve an important function in relieving pain.

The study, published today in the journal NeuroReport, measured how long college students could keep their hands immersed in cold water. During the chilly exercise, they could repeat an expletive of their choice or chant a neutral word. When swearing, the 67 student volunteers reported less pain and on average endured about 40 seconds longer.

Although cursing is notoriously decried in the public debate, researchers are now beginning to question the idea that the phenomenon is all bad. “Swearing is such a common response to pain that there has to be an underlying reason why we do it,” says psychologist Richard Stephens of Keele University in England, who led the study. And indeed, the findings point to one possible benefit: “I would advise people, if they hurt themselves, to swear,” he adds.

How swearing achieves its physical effects is unclear, but the researchers speculate that brain circuitry linked to emotion is involved. Earlier studies have shown that unlike normal language, which relies on the outer few millimeters in the left hemisphere of the brain, expletives hinge on evolutionarily ancient structures buried deep inside the right half.

One such structure is the amygdala, an almond-shaped group of neurons that can trigger a fight-or-flight response in which our heart rate climbs and we become less sensitive to pain. Indeed, the students’ heart rates rose when they swore, a fact the researchers say suggests that the amygdala was activated.

That explanation is backed by other experts in the field. Psychologist Steven Pinker of Harvard University, whose book The Stuff of Thought (Viking Adult, 2007) includes a detailed analysis of swearing, compared the situation with what happens in the brain of a cat that somebody accidentally sits on. “I suspect that swearing taps into a defensive reflex in which an animal that is suddenly injured or confined erupts in a furious struggle, accompanied by an angry vocalization, to startle and intimidate an attacker,” he says.

But cursing is more than just aggression, explains Timothy Jay, a psychologist at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts who has studied our use of profanities for the past 35 years. “It allows us to vent or express anger, joy, surprise, happiness,” he remarks. “It’s like the horn on your car, you can do a lot of things with that, it’s built into you.”

In extreme cases, the hotline to the brain’s emotional system can make swearing harmful, as when road rage escalates into physical violence. But when the hammer slips, some well-chosen swearwords might help dull the pain.

There is a catch, though: The more we swear, the less emotionally potent the words become, Stephens cautions. And without emotion, all that is left of a swearword is the word itself, unlikely to soothe anyone’s pain.

 

Family see Jesus image in Marmite

It may not be immediately obvious to everyone, but one family are convinced they can see the face of Jesus on the lid of a jar of Marmite.

Claire Allen, 36, said she was the first to notice the image on the underside of the lid as she was putting the yeast spread on her son’s toast.

Her husband Gareth, 37, said he could not believe his eyes when he saw it.

Mr Allen, of Ystrad, Rhondda, said: “The kids are still eating it, but we kept the lid.”

He explained: “Claire saw it first and called her dad to come and take a photo of it.

“When I first looked at it I wasn’t sure, but when I moved it away from me it started coming out. I thought yeah, she’s right – that’s the image of Jesus.

Mrs Allen said her 14-year-old son Jamie had also remarked on the likeness.

She told the South Wales Echo: “Straight away Jamie said ‘that looks like God’, and my other boys (Robbie, four, and Tomas, 11) even said they could see a face.

“People might think I’m nuts, but I like to think it’s Jesus looking out for us.

“We’ve had a tough couple of months; my mum’s been really ill and it’s comforting to think that if he is there, he’s watching over us.”

 

The horses who wear dresses

Does my bum look big in this? The hills are alive...with the sight of colourfully dressed horses.

It is the traditional outfit worn by thousands of women in Bavaria and recognisable throughout the world – but now horses are getting in on the act.

Dirndl dresses have become a must-have outfit for horses who want to look good in the field.

Bavarian designer Hildegard Bergbauer, who usually creates dirndl dresses for women, has branched out and makes the outfits for not only horses but also cats and dogs.

She said she was inspired to create the outfits by watching stage shows as a youngster. ‘The animals appeared on stage with little handbags and hats,’ she added.

‘It was a sight that I’ll never forget and an experience that has shaped me. The idea has gone down really well. People think it’s a lot of fun.’

The costume leapt into popular Western culture in The Sound Of Music, about the von Trapp family, starring a dirndl-attired Julie Andrews (inset) as nanny Maria.

So, if you’re looking to match outfits with your pet next time you’re at the boozy Munich Oktoberfest, you’re in luck. Dunno how lucky your pet will feel though…

 

Whoa Nelly…

Whoa! Horses get hair extensions

Mane event: Photographer chronicled horses getting fancy hairdos

Each horse spent about four hours in hair and makeup for their all-day photo shoots. Here is Misty before and after.

The commercial photographer and a pal were just horsing around one day, playing one of those “What if?” games when the idea hit them: “Hey, wouldn’t it be great, wouldn’t it be really funny to do some shots of horses with big hairstyles, sort of ‘pony pin-up?’ ”

Thus, photographer Julian Wolkenstein told TODAY’s Meredith Vieira Monday, was born the idea that gave birth to a series of images that have become something of an Internet sensation. The images show three horses — one chestnut, one white and one jet black — vamping for Wolkenstein’s camera and showing off their gorgeous ’dos.

The pictures were taken three years ago in England, but since Wolkenstein did them strictly for fun, it took time for them to hit the Web and longer still for people to discover them. The 36-year-old photographer divides his time between London and Australia and spoke to Vieira from Sydney. An award-winning commercial photographer, Wolkenstein earns his living doing shoots for such prominent clients as Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Volkswagen, Sony, Nokia, Vodafone, British Airways, Citibank, Renault and BBC. But the horse shoot was something he did just to remind himself of the unbridled joy he takes in photography.

What he didn’t figure on was how much work would be involved in pulling it off. What started as a lark turned into a process that consumed six weeks in the dead of an English winter.

The mane event

“Not so many people have taken photos of horses with big hair, so we really had no idea what we were going to get into,” Wolkenstein told Vieira. “On most shoots, you would go out and you would be able to do a couple of shots a day. Hair and makeup on a person might take two or three hours, but with horses, we just assumed, well, maybe a little bit more. Obviously, we were completely wrong.”

One reason for that is horses have bigger heads than people and all that mane to deal with. It turned out that the photographer’s makeup and hair expert, Berlin-based Acacio da Silva, needed more than four hours to do the intricate weaves necessary to get the effect they were looking for. And then, a horse might toss its head playfully, undoing what had taken so many hours to arrange.

“We did a couple of test days that we were hoping would actually be final shots. One of them was a complete disaster and another was a partial disaster. We realized we needed a full day to do it, because each horse would take about four hours of hairstyling,” Wolkenstein explained

Julian Wolkenstein Florence: Before and after.

By then, they were too far along to rein in their enthusiasm for the project. After the test horses turned out to be spooked by the strobe lights used in the shoot, they had to find horses that had worked in front of cameras before and wouldn’t be bothered by the lights. Then they had to get the horses to stand in a very specific spot so the lighting would be perfect.

“It was very intense for everyone,” Wolkenstein said. “The time of year we shot it was very cold. It was almost the middle of winter. There was ice on the ground.”

Horses loved it
He did confirm that no horses were harmed in the shooting. In fact, the horses rather enjoyed the process, he said.

“The horses loved it, are you kidding?” Wolkenstein told Vieira. “They had a great time. They loved the grooming and being fawned over — the flashlights probably not as much. They had to stand in a very specific spot so that the lighting would be right, so it was a long process getting that right.”

Julian Wolkenstein Harmony gets her mane braided.

After Wolkenstein posted the shots online, he had a number of requests from commercial clients who wanted to use the images in advertising campaigns, but he turned them down. The whole reason he did it was to remind himself that he became a photographer because he loved creating his own images.

“To not have this on the back of a client where other people are making decisions, where it’s a labor of love and everyone put so much time and effort into it — everyone walks away happy.”  He said. “Everyone worked very hard under pretty trying conditions, but everyone came out of it very happy. I made it as much as possible an enjoyable process for the people who were involved.”

The horses, too.

 

oh COME ON!?!?!?

Seriously?! A PINK F*cking ELEPHANT?!

A pink baby elephant has been caught on camera in Botswana.

A wildlife cameraman took pictures of the calf when he spotted it among a herd of about 80 elephants in the Okavango Delta.

Experts believe it is probably an albino, which is an extremely rare phenomenon in African elephants.

They are unsure of its chances of long-term survival – the blazing African sunlight may cause blindness and skin problems for the calf.

Mike Holding, who spotted the baby while filming for a BBC wildlife programme, said: “We only saw it for a couple of minutes as the herd crossed the river.

“This was a really exciting moment for everyone in camp. We knew it was a rare sighting – no-one could believe their eyes.”

Documented evidence

Albino elephants are not usually white, but instead they have more of a reddish-brown or pink hue.

While albinism is thought to be fairly common in Asian elephants, it is much less common in the larger African species. –> Are you KIDDING ME? Does that mean pink elephants are running all over the place in Asia??? WTF??

… the condition might make it difficult for the calf to survive into adulthood.

“What happens to these young albino calves remains a mystery,” said Dr Chase… However, he told BBC News that there might be a ray of hope for the pink calf as it already seemed to be learning to adapt to its condition.

“Already the two-to-three-month-old calf seems to be walking in the shade of its mother.

“This behaviour suggests it is aware of its susceptibility to the harsh African sun, and adapted a unique behaviour to improve its chances of survival.”

He added: “I have learned that elephants are highly adaptable, intelligent and masters of survival.”

 

Baseball Cards Coming to Life?!

Baseball cards + Webcams = Sports Figure Avitars in your HAND?!?!

Yet another example of how we live in the future … or in Harry Potter’s magical land of witchcraft and wizardry. Either way I’m in a perpetual state of “WTF?”! – D.Blawg

Webcam Brings 3-D to Topps Sports Cards

Since the 1950s, Topps has sold baseball trading cards filled with photos and stats, bringing the game to life. Now the company is bringing its cards to life.

Beginning Monday, collectors who hold a special Topps 3D Live baseball card in front of a webcam will see a three-dimensional avatar of the player on the computer screen. Rotate the card, and the figure rotates in full perspective. It’s called “augmented reality,” a combination of a real image with a virtual one…

…Topps needs to augment reality because baseball cards are struggling in the Internet age. Today’s collectors, most of whom are still boys, can just as easily and less expensively find the sports facts they want online….

…Michael Eisner, the former chief of Walt Disney, (aka: the Devil) … and in 2007 his Tornante Company and Madison Dearborn Partners bought Topps for $385 million. They hatched big plans to make trading cards relevant again.

Total Immersion, a French company, brought Topps the augmented reality technology. It has already been used in a theme park and for some auto design work. Using the technology, card collectors see a three-dimensional version of a player and can play elementary pitching, batting and catching games using the computer keyboard….

…Mr. Eisner says he does not see Topps as a trading card business. “I see it as a cultural, iconic institution not that different from Disney; it conjures up an emotional response that has a feel good, Proustian kind of uplift,” he said.

Mr. Eisner has also created Back on Topps, a 17-episode Internet comedy that spoofs his acquisition of the company. He is developing a movie based on another of the company’s products, Bazooka Joe bubble gum. He also wants to create sports films…

 

Pink Dolphins: Super Common

The Pearl River Delta, between Hong Kong and Macau, is home to around a thousand Indo-pacific Humpback dolphins, Sousa chinensis. For some unknown reason, populations of this species along the Chinese coast are bright pink.

http://www.hkdolphinwatch.com/

This post comes at D.Blawg from a Lesotho Spy

 

Federal Jaguar Eradication Program

First Jaguar Caught in U.S. Put to Sleep

D.Blawg Says: Now that’s just MESSED UP!

March 3, 2009—The first wild jaguar to be caught in the U.S. was recaptured just a few weeks later on Monday and put to sleep the same day, wildlife officials said…

…The jaguar, named Macho B, was caught accidentally on February 18 during a research study on black bears and cougars….

… Jaguars, once common throughout the southern United States, were mostly killed off by the early 1900s.

Special Thanks to Bri-Bri for this post

 

AH! Pink Dolphin!?!?

D.Blawg Says: This is like a “when pigs have wings” type of thing! I mean, people joke about pink elephants all the time… but this is LEGIT!

The world’s only pink Bottlenose dolphin was discovered in an inland lake in Louisiana…

Charter boat captain Erik Rue, 42, photographed the animal, which is actually an albino, when he began studying it after the mammal first surfaced in Lake Calcasieu, an inland saltwater estuary, north of the Gulf of Mexico in southwestern USA.

Capt Rue originally saw the dolphin, which also has reddish eyes, swimming with a pod of four other dolphins, with one appearing to be its mother which never left its side….

“…It was absolutely stunningly pink…”

… “As time has passed the young mammal has grown and sometimes ventures away from its mother to feed and play but always remains in the vicinity of the pod.

“Surprisingly, it does not appear to be drastically affected by the environment or sunlight as might be expected considering its condition, although it tends to remain below the surface a little more than the others in the pod.” …