flickering pictures

Unless you haven’t turned on a television lately, you know that ten days ago the Israeli army launched a full-scale attack on Hamas forces in Gaza, with the stated aim of halting the barrage of homemade rockets that have been launched into Israeli towns since 2000. As I write this, the fight has left more [...]

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Cracked.com features eight of the most pathetic exercises in futility in Guinness history. Featured record attempts include a mass fire-walking event, a fellow who attempted to break the sound barrier by free-falling from 34 kilometres up, and something called “smurfing.” Story via Mental Floss. Image via the Science Creative Quarterly at the University of British [...]

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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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The BBC reports: On Thursday, [Zimbabwe president Robert] Mugabe said a deadly cholera outbreak had been stopped, as aid workers warned it was worsening. He said Western powers were plotting to use cholera as an excuse to invade and overthrow him. The World Health Organization says the outbreak has not been contained and the death [...]

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I just read the news, and I gotta say, it made me a little bit sad. Polaroid has announced that it will no longer manufacture the gee-whiz insta-photo film that made it a household name. Though it’s leaving the photography business, Polaroid will continue to make portable DVD players that you’ve never heard of, as [...]

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CNN reports: In 1993, Romeo Dallaire was full of hope for the future of Rwanda. The Canadian lieutenant general and son of a soldier was about to take up the biggest command of his career — leading United Nations peacekeepers in the central African nation. A year later he left Rwanda a broken man, having [...]

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With the world’s oceans expected to rise dramatically this century, the new president of the tiny island republic of Maldives is getting proactive about climate change. The Guardian reports: The U.N. forecasts that the seas are likely to rise by up to 59cm [nearly two feet] by 2100, due to global warming. Most parts of [...]

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Two teenaged girls were brutally killed in the Indian village of Kaluvas during the Hindu festival of Diwali, apparently because they had visited boys to wish them a happy holiday. The girls’ fathers were reportedly part of the mob that killed them. The Times of India reports: Rajender Shivran, who claims he couldn’t sleep under [...]

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It’s been an exciting few days in Iran. First, a government stunt meant to encourage healthy eating habits ended rather badly. The Daily Mail reports: The meat had been cooked, the sandwich almost assembled and assorted Guinness Book of Records dignitaries were patiently waiting by to give it their official stamp of approval. But cooks [...]

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Now there’s something you don’t read every day. Ben Weider, the only person ever to be president of both the International Federation of Bodybuilders and the International Napoleonic Society, died yesterday in Montreal. For his contributions to fitness, philanthropy and the study of history, Weider was made an Officer of the Order of Canada, a [...]

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