flickering pictures

Germany’s world-renowned Max Planck Institutes, whose science and technology researchers are among the world’s finest, accidentally printed an ad for a Chinese brothel on the cover of its latest journal.
The Independent reports:

There were red faces on the editorial board of one of Germany’s top scientific institutions, the Max Planck Institute, after it ran the text […]

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Yesterday’s Boston Globe featured an unbelievable collection of photos of the ongoing anarchy in Athens. Nearly any one of these shots, if you took them, would be the best photo you’d ever take.
The riots were sparked by the police shooting of Alexis Grigoropoulos, a 15-year-old boy who was allegedly with other youths who threw […]

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Equal parts gimmicky and awesome, the Black Cab Sessions feature musicians from Lykke Li and the Cold War Kids to the Raveonettes and Martha Wainwright, all playing in the back seats of London’s iconic black cabs. The videos on the official site can sometimes be more than a little choppy, but the Youtube versions […]

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With their country’s economy reeling, Britons in search of inexpensive pastimes are apparently shopping less and shagging more.
The BBC reports:

A YouGov survey of 2,000 adults found sex was the most popular free activity, ahead of window shopping and gossiping.
The Scots were most amorous with 43% choosing sex over other pastimes, compared with 35% in South […]

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The remains of German billionaire Friedrich Karl Flick have apparently been stolen for ransom, on the same day that the skeleton of famed astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus was identified.
The thieves who made off with Flick’s body in Austria somehow managed to get through the solid granite slabs that surrounded his remains before carting off a solid-zinc […]

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According to the U.K., that there is a map of the world’s newest terrorist state.
As stock markets continue to dry-heave at the toilet of the world economy — and as financial-sector CEOs continue to dry-hump the American taxpayer — we’re discovering that British municipalities, police forces and other investors had a lot of money in […]

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The houses are in a prime location — right in the heart of Salemi in picturesque Sicily. The only catch is that they’re sort of, you know, in ruins. A little.
From the BBC:

The idea is the brainchild of mayor Vittorio Sgarbi, convinced it is the only way to revitalise its crumbling historic heart.
Most […]

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From an overly sensationalist in article in Forbes magazine:

The first economic blow of the new Cold War between the West and Russia has been struck–although instead of aiming for the energy markets, Russia has decided to target the humble hen.

From September 1, Russia will reportedly ban poultry imports from 19 American producers, with the fate […]

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Though it’s not exactly independent, the tiny Republic of Kalmykia is a self-governing member state of the Russian Federation. Located just west of the Caspian Sea and not far from Ukraine, it’s a bit of an oddity in über-secular Russia for the prominence that Kalmykian leaders give to spirituality — all the more so […]

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You likely know that just before the Beijing Olympics, Russia invaded the neighbouring Republic of Georgia. The move earned widespread international condemnation, and the resulting war of words with the West has been making headlines for weeks.

You may not know that last July the International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded the 2014 Winter […]

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