Posted on Wednesday, 14th July 2010 by Interloper
As of the 1st of July, Finland became the first country to make broadband internet a legal right, guaranteeing all Finnish citizens access to a minimum 1Mbps broadband connection.
The Finnish government first passed the legislation late last year. The move places internet access alongside healthcare and educational services as fundamental rights that all citizens should be able to benefit from.
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Posted on Tuesday, 13th July 2010 by Interloper
In Hindu mythology the monkey-god Hanuman travels with Rama on his quest to save his wife Sita from the clutches of the demon Ravana in the epic Ramayana.
In today’s fast-paced world Hanuman is providing heroic boons to some of his devotees in a decidedly more “modern” fashion: by granting them Visas that allow them to seek their destiny abroad. Alleged “hordes” of people are descending on a temple in Delhi each day in order to ask Hanuman to solve their visa difficulties.
Worshippers are not charged for visiting the “Visa Hanuman” temple and one astrologer who works there is quick to reveal that the temple’s new-found notoriety is not entirely positive, as she told interviewers: “People think it is us who help getting visa which is not true. It is just a temple where they can pray and ask for God’s help.”
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Posted on Monday, 12th July 2010 by Interloper
Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, is responsible for helping to protect Earth from rogue comets that could otherwise spell destruction for our fragile blue globe.
Long-period comets that enter our solar system from deep space are deflected away from our planet by Jupiter’s immensely powerful gravitational field. One estimate claims that such comets would impact Earth as many as 1,000 times more often were it not for Jupiter’s protection.
It’s a double-edged sword, however, as Jupiter’s gravity also nudges rocks out of the asteroid belt (that Jupiter itself was responsible for creating) and towards the sun; sending chunks of space rock hurtling towards Earth.
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Posted on Thursday, 8th July 2010 by Interloper
A London hospital once hired out one of its wards to a porn studio so that a “big budget” adult film could be shot there, according to conservative MP, Penny Mordaunt.
Hospital officials have confirmed that prior to 2002, a fully-equipped hospital ward was rented out to a film company with the resulting film generating “substantial income” for the hospital.
The story was raised in a debate about improving transperancy in government accounting.
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Posted on Wednesday, 7th July 2010 by Interloper
Cheryl Cole, X Factor judge, solo artist, hot tamale and member of the pop group Girls Aloud, is believed to have contracted malaria during a recent holiday to Tanzania.
Cole is said to have collapsed during a photo shoot earlier this week, before being rushed to hospital to receive treatment.
Despite the existence of a vaccine, malaria is still prevalent in many tropical locations, where it can be fatal to those living in poverty or with pre-existing medical conditions. The illness is spread by mosquito bites and each year there are between 350 and 500 million cases of malaria reported worldwide.
Inexpensive items such as mosquito nets and insecticides are instrumental in slowing the spread of malaria.
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Posted on Tuesday, 6th July 2010 by Interloper
Authorities in Pennsylvania were recently alerted to the fact that an old woman was living with the exhumed remains of both her husband and twin sister.
The 91-year-old widow had the bodies of her loved ones dug up shortly after each of them were buried and placed the embalmed corpses on couches. Her sister was afforded a place in a spare room, while her husband was kept in a detached garage.
Nobody knows who dug the bodies up for the old woman, but she is said to have spoken to the corpses and even to have regularly sprayed her sister’s favourite perfume onto her embalmed body.
This whole thing just gets creepier the longer you think about it.
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Posted on Monday, 5th July 2010 by Interloper
A missing letter by a famous philosopher, a mathematics professor who doubles as a document thief and a journey across the seas to a new colony… such a story could have all the trappings of a Hollywood blockbuster. But just such a tale came to light recently when a lost letter by philosopher René Descartes, coiner of the cogito (quite an epitaph), was discovered “gathering dust” at an American university.
The letter was dated May 27th, 1641 (incidentally, also the year that witchcraft was pronounced a capital crime by the English) and was written to a priest who was overseeing the publication of Descartes book “Meditations on First Philosophy”, sub-titled: “In which the existence of God and the immortality of the soul are demonstrated”.
Some time after it was written, the notorious Count Guglielmo Libri Carucci dalla Sommaja, who—if guilty of no other crimes—had a name too long to be sensible, got his greedy mitts on the letter (along with around 70 others by Descartes) and stole away with it to London, England (where he assumedly didn’t peform witchcraft, as it was now illegal).
Before he fled to England, Count Guglielmo Libri Carucci dalla Sommaja stole thousands of books, manuscripts and other documents (at least some of which must have had at least something to do with witchcraft) from French and Italian libraries.
The Count sold many stolen items, including works by Galileo and Copernicus. After his death in 1868 some of the stolen works were recovered, while many others remained missing.
Among the missing documents was the letter discovered this year by a philosophy scholar. The letter was found in the library of Haverford University, near Philadelphia, and has since been returned to France.
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Posted on Wednesday, 30th June 2010 by Interloper
The colour in the box to the left is the average colour of the universe, according to astronomers who performed a colour survey of over 200,000 galaxies as part of a study into the formation of stars.
Findings originally indicated that the average colour of the universe was an off-green colour (dubbed “Cosmic Turquoise”) but this finding was corrected one year later, in 2002, when astronomers Karl Glazebrook and Ivan Baldry revealed that the average colour of all things is, in fact… beige.
The colour was named “Cosmic Latte” after a number of suggestions were received by the astronomers. Could our entire universe be sitting in some otherworldly coffee mug?
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Posted on Tuesday, 29th June 2010 by Interloper
Indiana Jones and Devo whip it good.
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Posted on Thursday, 24th June 2010 by Interloper
Robert Pattinson, star of the Twilight Saga (not to mention the inappropriate dreams of teenage girls everywhere), has been linked to the most famous historical vampire of all time, Vlad Tepes, believed to have inspired Bram Stoker’s iconic vampire novel Dracula.
Vlad Tepes (or Vlad III) was the Prince of Wallachia from 1456 to 1461 and earnt a bloodthirsty reputation for submitting his enemies to unusually cruel methods of execution. Most notable of these was impaling his victims them on spears, which earnt him the title of Vlad the Impaler.
Pattinson is allegedly related to Vlad Tepes through his connection to the British royal family: Princes William and Harry, who are distant cousins of Pattinson, are also distantly related to the Impaler.
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