firehose

Courtney shared this story from Super Opinionated.

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Courtney shared this story from Super Opinionated.

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Courtney shared this story from Super Opinionated.

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When Hauer performed the scene, the film crew applauded and some even cried. This was due to the power of the dying speech combined with coming to the end of an exhausting shoot.

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That American football has a devoted fanbase in Europe is no big secret. The demand is so high that the National Football League (NFL) is planning to start a franchise in London. The league already hosts some games overseas, with a November match up between the Dallas Cowboys and the Jacksonville Jaguars sold out at Wembley Stadium.

But the Europeans are no mere couch fans, they have been playing the thoroughly American sport for years, with teams sprinkled all across the continent obsessed with a very different kind of football.

The European Federation of American Football holds a club tournament called “Eurobowl,” and a European Championship, with Germany winning this year’s games in a showdown with Austria. The Federation has 24 member-states, from Austria to Ukraine.

A website called American Football in Europe lists the teams playing on the continent, from Europe’s Big Six to local teams. The names listed are amazing, with some taking cue from regional geography—the Venezia Islanders—some from the local economy—the Antwerp Diamonds—and many inspired by US teams and European history.

Here are some highlights:

Alliteration abounds

A bit of cop-out marketing strategy, many teams go for the alliteration: Lviv Lions (Ukraine), Leipzig Lions (Germany), Hamburg Huskies (Germany), Graz Giants (Austria), Brussels Bulls (Belgium), Berlin Bears (Germany), Cologne Crocodiles and Münster Mammuts (both Germany).

Most popular

Sixteen teams chose to have the regal-sounding “Lions” in their name, including the Granada Lions (Spain) and the Gliwice Lions (Poland). Fifteen went for the mighty “Warriors” with the Avignon Warriors (France) and the Bologna Warriors (Italy).

America remains the inspiration

We have the Ostrava Steelers (Czech Republic), Zaglebie Steelers (Poland), Dortmund Giants (Germany), Geneva Seahawks (Switzerland), Coventry Jets (United Kingdom), Zagreb Patriots (Croatia), the Budapest Cowboys (Hungary) and the, well, Angers Yankees (France).

But so does European history

A number of team names, especially those in France, are a nod to European monarchy and aristocracy, from the Dresden Monarchs (Germany), The Princes de Montbeilard (France), Nice Dauphins (France) to the Vienna Knights (Austria) and the Paris Mousquetaires (France).

There are a lot of teams named after Crusaders and Invaders, both of which Europe has seen plenty of in its day, but some of the historical references are more clever. The Waterloo Warriors (Belgium) clearly have some sense of humor, with Waterloo being a rhetorical stand-in for epic failure, a reference to Napoleon’s great lost battle near the city. The Hastings Conquerors hopefully never lose.

And some names are just odd

In the Czech Republic you can go see the Brno Pitbulls, in Belgium the Fighting Turtles of Corbais, in Denmark the Amager Demons, the Copenhagen Towers and the Odense Swans.

Because who doesn’t want to see some swans play football?

The photograph above, contrary to appearances, does not show US president Barack Obama being beamed into another dimension by a gang of alien robots. Rather, its shows him being intricately scanned by a bank of high-speed cameras and LED lights in preparation for the first-ever 3D presidential portrait.

The “mobile light stage” used 50 custom LEDs and 14 cameras to compile an intricately detailed topography of the president’s head and upper torso, which was then used to 3D print a very, very accurate presidential bust for the Smithsonian museum.

In the uncropped version of the photo above, released by the White House this week, the portrait of former president Abraham Lincoln peers down upon Obama while he undergoes his one second-long scanning procedure. Lincoln had to sit for a considerably longer period of time while sculptors crafted the two life masks—the 19th century equivalent of a 3D portrait—that were made during his lifetime.

According to Leonard Volk, who created a Lincoln mask in 1860, it took about an hour for the plaster mold to set, and it did not release easily: “It hurt a little, as a few hairs of the tender temples pulled out with the plaster and made his eyes water.” Lincoln reportedly found the process “anything but agreeable.”

The Smithsonian has thus far refused to release the schematics that would allow anyone with a 3D printer to create their own perfect replica of Obama’s head. Perhaps that’s for the best—especially if those alien robots ever show up.

When Champagne started popping up in rap videos, sparkling wine purveyor Chandon saw an opportunity to get in with millennials.

In case you needed to feel the awesomeness of the universe this first weekend of 2015, here is a supercut of every time Carl Sagan said an “-illion” in Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. This video was technically cut together in 2011, but existence is still epic in its hugeness, so let’s all soak that in for a sec.

(via Sploid/Gizmodo)

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When you get swept along in the shininess of the App Store it’s easy to forget that you no longer know who your customers are. You don’t have any of their details, you can't even respond to them when they leave a review on the App Store. The fact of the matter is they are really Apple's customers, not yours.

The CBS reality series has landed in hot water after showing Texas chain Bikinis Sports Bar & Grill CEO Doug Guller who exploits his female employees' sexuality for the popularity of his "breastaurant." In the episode which aired Sunday, December 28, Guller offered a 23-year-old waitress a breast augmentation in addition to promoting her. The girl had earlier revealed her desire to have breast augmentation surgery. The said employee admitted that she had been fired four to five times before for showing up to work late as she didn't like her bosses. Meanwhile, another female employee was terminated at the end of the show after refusing to wear her uniform, a bikini top, on television. When asked why she wasn't wearing a bikini, she said she didn't feel comfortable wearing it on television.

And may be mass murder, according to a heavily footnoted editorial in the British Medical Journal.

kane52630:

"Why are you dressed up like Batman?" - Max Shreck

Batman Returns

everybody forgets the time Walken was in a Batman movie

An adorable toddler named Sierra tries to teach her dog how to hula hoop. After resting a hula hoop around the dog, Sierra demonstrates her technique and encourages the dog to give it a try.

via Rumble

”i paint myself because i am so often alone”

benicetoafriend:

cctvnews:

CIA admits they’re behind UFO sightings

Anyone remember how UFO mad the world was in the 1950’s and 1960’s? Well the CIA has admitted that it was mostly their doing.

Sorry true believers. Two days ago, the CIA Tweeted a report linking many of the reported UFO sightings in the 1950’s and 1960’s to one of their own secret aircrafts.

At least half of all UFO reporting by nervous citizens in the 50’s and 60’s can actually be attributed to their U-2 spy planes that were being tested during those decades.

"Reports of unusual activity in the skies in the ’50s? It was us," they tweeted.

While the CIA kept a data log of all reports that matched their aircrafts, they were unable to give explanations due to the secrecy of the operation.

According to the agency, the report was released this year and is the number 1 most read document released from their database in 2014.

It could also explain why the USA has always seemed a little more UFO crazy than other countries.

good ol cia

Michelle Rodriguez | instagram.com/mrodofficial

2014 Selfies

Frans Francken II, Detail of Allegory of Man’s Choice between Virtue and Vice, 1633 

4everkouhai:

happy new year! may we all survive from the incoming angel attacks

Some potentially new Star Wars: The Force Awakens concept art has dropped, and it appears to reveal an updated version of the Empire's preferred vehicle for space combat. Take a grain of salt, be prepared for a potential spoiler, and then check it out below!

Read more...

darksilenceinsuburbia:

Tatsuro Kiuchi

Gon the Sherpa dog on Mount Koyasan

Book cover and interior illustrations for Gon the Sherpa dog of Mt. Koyasan, a novel based on a true story by Tomoyuki Seki.
Client: Heart Publishing
関朝之さんの『高野山の案内犬ゴン』装画と挿絵／ハート出版

The death of a Houston man killed by a stray bullet while watching New Year's Eve fireworks with his wife in front of his house has been ruled a homicide, a medical examiner's office said on Friday.