Top News Stories –
Android peeing on Apple logo spotted on Google Maps –
Rivalry between Google and Apple has always been fierce, but now Google Maps appears to have been emblazoned with the image of the Android mascot urinating on an Apple logo. The image, discovered by a Hacker News user, appears on a patch of land just south of the city of Rawalpindi in Pakistan, at coordinates 33°30’52.5″N 73°03’33.2″E. The origin of the image is unclear. Some have suggested it could be Google’s idea of an Easter Egg (hidden joke), while others claim it was added by a user. The image is most likely a result of a user abusing Map Maker, the tool that allows users to contribute to Google Maps. One Hacker News user claims to have tracked down the culprit – a user called nitricboy. [Daily Telegraph]
Native American actors walk off Adam Sandler film set over ‘insults’ –
Nearly a dozen Native American actors have walked off the set of a Hollywood film starring Adam Sandler complaining that the script was offensive to their culture. The actors had been hired to take part in filming of The Ridiculous Six, a satirical Western based on The Magnificent Seven. They said the script, which was co-written by Sandler, included offensive names for female Native American characters such as “No Bra”. [Daily Telegraph]
Adam Sandler
Drop Dead Sexy –
During this year’s Spring Festival holidays, a man surnamed Zhang watched a strip show somewhere he didn’t expect, at a funeral in his hometown in Cheng’an county, Hebei Province. “Two strippers wearing revealing clothes danced on a stage at a public square in our village at night on February 15. They first danced passionately and then took off their clothes piece by piece. Behind them, an electronic screen was displaying a picture of the deceased with elegiac couplets on either side.”Behind the stripper, an electronic screen hung from a backdrop showed a picture of the deceased. Text at the bottom of the screen read, “we offer profound condolences for the death of Mr Chang.” Zhang said that the show cost 3,000 yuan ($480) as it was held during the Spring Festival holidays, saying that the shows are cheaper at other times of the year. During the performance, the host also announced to the public that the show was sponsored by Chang’s daughter, “as a way to show off his large family,” said Zhang. [Global Times]
‘Embryologic twin’ tumour discovered in student’s brain –
Doctors in California have removed a tumour they have described as an “embryologic twin” deep inside the brain of a young woman. Yamini Karanam, 26, a PhD student in Indiana, had been experiencing difficulties with drowsiness, reading and concentration. The discovery was made when doctors performed a newly-developed form of surgery to remove the tumour. The growth, known as a teratoma, had bone and hair. Ms Karanam, a student at Indiana University, jokingly described the tumour to KNBC, a California TV station, as her “evil twin sister who’s been torturing me for the past 26 years”. [BBC]
Video of the Day –
Five Stages of Watching A Marvel Movie – HISHE Features: OnlyLeigh
List of the day –
30 Funniest Opening Lines in Books 11-20 (From Shortlist.com)
Title | Author | Opening Line | |
11 | Machine Man | Max Barry | “As a boy, I wanted to be a train.” |
12 | Seven Up | Janet Evanovich | “For the better part of my childhood, my professional aspirations were simple–I wanted to be an intergalactic princess.” |
13 | The Fifth Elephany | Terry Pratchett | “They say the world is flat and supported on the back of four elephants who themselves stand on the back of a giant turtle.” |
14 | Still Life With A Woodpecker | Tim Robbins | “If this typewriter can’t do it, then f*** it, it can’t be done.” |
15 | Into Your Tent I’ll Creep | Peter De Vries | “It wasn’t until I had become engaged to Miss Piano that I began avoiding her.” |
16 | Sacred Games | Vikram Chandra | “A white Pomeranian named Fluffy flew out of the a fifth-floor window in Panna, which was a grand-new building with the painter’s scaffolding still around it. Fluffy screamed.” |
17 | I Capture The Castle | Dodie Smith | “I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.” |
18 | A River Runs Through It | Norman Maclean | “In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing.” |
19 | An Abundance Of Katherines | John Green | “The morning after noted child prodigy Colin Singleton graduated from high school and got dumped for the 19th time by a girl named Katherine, he took a bath. Colin had always preferred baths.” |
20 | Waiting | Ha Jin | “Every summer Lin Kong returned to Goose Village to divorce his wife, Shuyu.” |
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Other News Stories –
- Armed conflicts and attacks
- Italian police mount an operation against an al-Qaeda inspired cell in Sardinia claimed to be in operation since 2005. (NBC News)
- Three members of a United Nations peacekeeping mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been abducted. (AFP)
- Yemeni Civil War (2015)
- Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
- Iraqi Army Brigadier-General Hassan Abbas Toufan and three other officers are killed in an ambush in Anbar province. (AP via New York Times)
- Boko Haram insurgency
- Boko Haram recapture the border town of Marte from the Nigerian Army. (AFP via France24
- Arts and culture
- Armenia commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman Empire. (BBC)
- Former American Olympic Games champion Bruce Jenner comes out as a transgender person. (CNN)
- Business and economy
- In the United States, the NASDAQ and S&P 500 end at record highs spurred by strong results by tech giants Google, Amazon and Microsoft.(Reuters)
- Disasters and accidents
- A 6.4 magnitude earthquake occurs near the town of Kaikoura on the South Island of New Zealand. (New Zealand Herald)
- Chilean authorities urge further evacuations near the Calbuco volcano after mudflows of volcanic debris are located in a nearby river after this week’s eruption. (AP)
- Law and crime
- The Statue of Liberty in New York is evacuated after a bomb threat. (AP via News24) (CNN)
- Science and technology
- A study by the University of Utah show that the magma reserves of the Yellowstone supervolcano are much greater than previously thought.(CNN)
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