February 3, 2010

Top News Stories –

Mel Gibson swears at television reporter –
Mel Gibson swore at a television reporter who questioned him about his controversial past, referring to him as an ——–. The actor and director snapped while being interviewed on Chicago-based station WGN about his alcohol addiction and anti-Semitic rant towards a police officers four years ago. Gibson, 54, aimed his comment at entertainment reporter Dean Richards, thinking that his microphone had been switched off. [Daily Telegraph]
Mel-GibsonMel Gibson

James Cracknell and Ben Fogle to cross Australia on foot –
James Cracknell and Ben Fogle are to embark on their latest risky adventure, retracing a Victorian expedition to cross Australia which ended in death. After rowing the Atlantic and walking to the South Pole, this time they are planning on walking 4,000 miles across the heart of Australia in the height of summer. They will be following in the footsteps of Irishman Robert Burke and Englishman William Wills, who set out in August 1860 to cross from Melbourne in the south to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north. The pair made the 2,000 mile south-north leg across what was called the “ghastly blank” without too much trouble, heading an entourage that comprised 19 men, 23 horses, 26 camels and 12 tons of equipment, which included four enema kits and 12 dandruff brushes. But on the way back they perished as their support team deserted them. [Daily Telegraph]
Ben-Fogle-James-CracknellBen Fogle and James Cracknell just before the start of the Atlantic Rowing Race 2005

Video of the Day –

MK12 // Swiss International Air: LX Forty English from MK12 on Vimeo.

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December 4, 2014

Top News Stories –

The Obama’s light up –
President Barack Obama, wife Michelle and their daughters, Malia and Sasha switch on the lights of the Christmas Tree at the National Christmas Tree lighting ceremony at the Ellipse near the White House in Washington DC.
2014_National_Christmas_Tree2014 National Christmas Tree

Psy’ched out –
Psy’s Gangnam Style video has been watched so many times that the YouTube’s counter is being upgraded from 32-bit to 64-bit. The old 32-bit system only counted up to 2,147,483,647 views with Gangnam Style hitting 8,000 more than that. The mew 64-bit system will count up to 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 views (around 9 quadrillion). (See Video of the Day and List of the Day below)
FMFA_2013_(8565145586)

Apple accused of wiping competitors tunes –
A US district court has heard lawyers accuse Apple of “deleting” songs from rival services from some iPods in 2007-09. Users with non-iTunes music received a message telling them to restore devices to their factory settings when they tried to sync them. Apple said that the move was a legitimate security measure. The case has been going on for more than a decade and could result in Apple paying out $1bn in damages.

Nobel Prize medal sells for $4.75m –
The Nobel Prize medal of American geneticist James Watson sold for $4.75 million at auction in New York today. It is the first time a Nobel Prize of a living laureate has been sold and almost doubled the estimate price. The Nobel Prize was awarded to Dr Watson in 1962 for his discovery of DNA’s double helix structure in 1953.
James_D_WatsonDr James D Watson

Video of the Day –

Gangnam Style – Psy

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December 5, 2014

Top News Stories –

Five Diana dresses sell for half a million dollars –
Five dresses designed for and worn by Britain’s late Princess Diana have been auctioned off by Julien’s Auctions in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles for a total of nearly half a million dollars. British dressmaker Catherine Walker had made three of the gowns and all fetched within or just above their estimated price of between $60,000 and $80,000. The other two dresses were made by Caroline Charles and Zandra Rhodes.
Diana,_Princess_of_WalesDiana, Princess of Wales

Two-headed cat lives to be 15 years-old –
A cat that was born with two faces has died at the age of 15 in North Grafton, Massachusetts. Called Frank and Louie – ‘Frankenlouie’ the birth defect is known as a Janus cat, named for a Roman god with two faces and expected to die very young due to congenital defects. While blind in his center eye, both his outer eyes worked fine, and while he had two noses and mouths, Frankenlouie had only one brain.

Orion capsule successful first mission –
The US space agency’s new Orion crew capsule has completed its maiden, unmanned voyage with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off Mexico. Orion is designed to take humans to destinations such as the Moon and Mars. The flight was intended to test its critical technologies and took four and a half hours.
Orion_ExplorationOrion capsule

Video of the Day –

AFTERGLOW – Lightsuit Segment from Sweetgrass Productions on Vimeo.

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February 28, 2015

Top News Stories –

Blade Runner 2 to be made –
Harrison Ford will reprise his role as the ambiguous bounty hunter Rick Deckard in a sequel to 1982’s Blade Runner. Variety reports that the Oscar-nominated director Denis Villeneuve is close to signing on as director, replacing Ridley Scott, who will produce. Hampton Fancher, who co-wrote the original screenplay, has written the sequel with The Green Lantern writer Michael Green. [Daily Telegraph]
Harrison-Ford Harrison Ford

Round hens egg sells for £480 –
A “perfectly spherical” chicken egg has sold for an “unbelievable” £480 on the internet auction site eBay. Kim Broughton found one of her hens – now renamed Ping Pong – had laid the round egg in her garden in Latchingdon, Essex, on 17 February – Pancake Day. She decided to auction the egg in aid of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust after a friend’s son died from the disease. Ms Broughton, 44, said she imagined the buyer was interested in preserving, rather than eating, the unusual egg. [BBC] The round egg

copyright-Kim-Broughton

Video of the Day –

Downton Funk (Uptown Funk/Downton Abbey mashup)


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May 11, 2015

Top News Stories –

Picasso’s Women of Algiers smashes auction record –
Picasso’s Women of Algiers has become the most expensive painting to sell at auction, going for $179.3m (£115m) at Christie’s in New York. Eleven minutes of prolonged bidding from telephone buyers preceded the final sale – for much more than its pre-sale estimate of $140m. The evening sale also featured Alberto Giacometti’s life-size sculpture Pointing Man, which set a record as the most expensive sculpture, at $141.3m. The buyers chose to remain anonymous. The Picasso oil painting is a vibrant, cubist depiction of nude courtesans, and is part of a 15-work series the Spanish artist created in 1954-55 designated with the letters A to O. [BBC] See Video of the Day
Les_femmes_d’Alger,_Picasso,_version_OPicasso’s Women of Algiers

Ukip rejects Nigel Farage’s resignation as party leader –
Nigel Farage is to stay on as leader of the UK Independence Party after the party’s ruling board rejected his resignation. Mr Farage quit as Ukip leader last Friday, delivering on a pledge to resign if he failed to be elected as leader of South Thanet. The news risks making Ukip into a laughing stock because Mr Farage had raised the stakes about his future by insisting he would resign. Mr Farage’s decision to stay on also raises questions over whether Douglas Carswell, Ukip’s only MP, will quit the party to become an independent MP after he suggested Mr Farage should not lead Ukip again. Mr Carswell later repeatedly refused to endorse Mr Farage’s return to the Ukip leadership after speaking at an event in central London. [Daily Telegraph]
Nigel-Farage Nigel Farage

James Corden can’t believe the Late Late Show is still on the air –
James Corden’s appearance at the Bafta TV awards was just a flying visit. In fact, his time on home soil (19 hours) was less than the time he spent in the sky travelling to and from Los Angeles for it (23 hours). “I’ve genuinely had some of the best nights of my life at this event,” he told us on the red carpet. Since he took over the Late Late Show in March, America’s latest chat show host has been grabbing headlines with his big name guests and viral videos. But he admitted to Newsbeat that it’s “mostly mystifying” as to why the show is still on the air. “No-one could have predicted the show would be received in such a manner. It’s beyond all of our wildest dreams.” [BBC]
James-CordenJames-Corden

David Cameron unveils ‘blue collar’ Cabinet –
David Cameron has unveiled his “blue collar Cabinet” as he promoted the son of a milkman, the daughter of a garage-owner and the Tory Party’s “champion of the people” to senior Government roles. In a bid to put making the Conservatives “the real party for working people” at the centre of the next five years of Government, Mr Cameron promoted Robert Halfon, Sajid Javid, Greg Clark and Priti Patel to senior ministerial roles. It means that 43 per cent of Cabinet ministers were educated in comprehensive schools – a rise from 21 per cent in Mr Cameron’s first Coalition Cabinet in 2010. [Daily Telegraph] See List of the Day for the complete Conservative cabinet.

Video of the Day –

The bidding for the most expensive painting in the world –

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October 22, 2015

Top News Stories –

Wentworth golf club asks for six-figure membership fee –
One of the UK’s most exclusive golf clubs is to start charging £125,000 to new joiners. Wentworth, which was bought by the Beijing-based Reignwood Group in September 2014, has told existing members they must stump up £100,000. Annual fees on top of that are to rise from £8,000 to £16,000. James Wyatt said he and other members faced having to pay “an enormous amount”. The Surrey golf club said membership pricing “is a private club matter”. [BBC]

Working Enigma machine fetches world record price at New York auction –
An extremely rare and fully operational Nazi Enigma machine from Second World War has sold for $365,000 in New York, setting a new record at auction, Bonhams said on Thursday. The M4 machine, which was built between 1943 and 1945, is one of around 150 to have survived from an estimated 1,500 that were built as Nazi Germany fought to fend off the Allies. A spokeswoman for Bonhams said the $365,000 (£237,000) sale price set a new world record for an Enigma machine sold at auction. The purchaser at Wednesday’s sale was identified only as a private collector. [Daily Telegraph]

Rudely-named south-east London coffee shop ordered to remove its sign –
A crudely-named coffee shop in south-east London has been ordered by its landlord to remove the “offensive” sign bearing its name. Fuckoffee tweeted a picture of a letter it received from the landlord’s lawyers:
Fuckoffee tweet
The letter read: “We are instructed that you have either erected or allowed your sub-tenant to erect an offensive sign on the exterior of the buliding… without the permission or authority from our client to do so and this constitutes a trespass.” According to the letter, the Bermondsey Street coffeeshop could face legal proceedings or the forfeiture of its lease if it does not remove the sign. It will also have to cover the costs of the legal steps taken so far. [Daily Telegraph]

Video of the Day –

One Direction – Perfect

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November 12, 2015

Top News Stories –

Tycoon buys $48m blue diamond at auction for daughter –
A 12.03-carat blue diamond has been auctioned in Geneva for a record $48.4m (£31.7m) to a Hong Kong tycoon. Joseph Lau confirmed he bought the ring-mounted, cushion-shaped stone for his seven-year-old daughter, renaming it “Blue Moon of Josephine” after her. Auction house Sotheby’s said the sale had set “a new world auction record for any diamond of any colour”. It is not the first time Lau, a property billionaire, has bought precious stones for his daughter. The businessman – who was convicted of bribery and money laundering in 2014 – is also confirmed as the buyer of a 16.08-carat pink diamond, which Christie’s sold for $28.5m on Tuesday. It has been renamed “Sweet Josephine”, a spokeswoman for Mr Lau told BBC News. [BBC]

FBI accused of paying US university for dark net attack –
Anonymity network Tor, notorious for illegal activity, has claimed that researchers at US Carnegie Mellon university were paid by the FBI to launch an attack on them. Tor claimed that the FBI was “outsourcing police work” and paid the university “at least $1m (£675,000)”. Tor is a so-called dark net – a hidden part of the internet that cannot be reached via traditional search engines. It gained notoriety in late 2014 when a big operation carried out by the FBI took down dozens of Tor sites, including the Silk Road 2, which was one of the world’s largest online drug-selling sites. It was this attack that the Tor Project is claiming was undertaken by researchers at Carnegie Mellon, which is based in Pittsburgh. [BBC]

British Museum opens to whole world after 262 years as it invites Street View indoors –
It was founded in 1753 on the founding principles of the Enlightenment: showing off its extensive collections, free, to the whole world. It has taken a not-inconsiderable 262 years, but the British Museum has finally realised that aim after becoming the first major UK institution to open up its entire galleries and collection to Google Street View. From today, fans of the British Museum will be able to avoid the crowds to snoop through more than 4,500 objects online, peering inside glass cabinets to inspect their finest artefacts. It will be the largest indoor Street View project in the world, allowing virtual entrance into the entire London institution as well as specially-curated digital collections. [Daily Telegraph]

Video of the Day –

HyperZooming through Hallstatt from geoff tompkinson on Vimeo.

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February 5, 2016

Top News Stories –

X Games biker and BMX star Dave Mirra dies –
Police in the US say X Games biker Dave Mirra has died aged 41. Officers in North Carolina say his body was found early on Thursday with an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound. Dave Mirra was a former BMX champion and one of the most decorated athletes in X Games history. He won a medal every year from 1995 to 2008, picking up 14 golds. His one-time record of 24 career medals was only broken in 2013 by Bob Burnquist. Only Shaun White has won more X Games gold medals than him. [BBC Newsbeat] See Top Twitter Trends (UK)
Dave_Mirra_2010Dave Mirra in 2010

New York crane collapse kills at least one person –
A large construction crane has collapsed in lower Manhattan in New York City, killing one person and injuring at least two others. The Fire Department of New York confirmed the fatality and is on the scene responding to the accident. The collapse happened along West Broadway early on Friday morning in the Tribeca neighbourhood. The downed crane, which filled the street, fell onto numerous parked cars. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the victim was sitting in a parked car at the time of the accident, and that it was caused by high winds. Workers were in the process of lowering the crane due to the high winds when it collapsed. No workers were injured. [BBC] See Video of the Day

1957 Ferrari 335 S Spider Scaglietti breaks auction sale for racing car at $32 million –
A 1957 Ferrari driven by the great British motor racers of the 1950s broke the record for the world’s most expensive racing car sold at auction after fetching just over €32 million (£24.7 million) on Friday. Despite the stratospheric price at the Artcurial auction in Paris, the buyer cannot use the vehicle on the roads as it was designed purely for racing. Only four Ferrari 335 S Spider Scagliettis were ever produced, and this one had been in the hands of a private French collector for more than 40 years – hence the feverish excitement at the Rétromobile classic car show in Paris, where the auction took place. The 335S is purely a racing car, unlike the 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO, which was a dual purpose vehicle also homologated for road use.[Daily Telegraph] See List of the Day

Video of the Day –

Crane collapse in New York – original footage by Glenn Zito

Copyright Glenn Zito.

List of the Day –

Cars sold at auction for over $10 million (source Wikipedia]

Date MY Car s/n Auctioneer Locale Original price Adjusted
August 14, 2014 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO 3851GT Bonhams Carmel, California, United States US$38,115,000 $38,098,927
February 5, 2016 1957 Ferrari 335S 674 Artcurial Paris, France US$35,711,359 $35,711,359
July 12, 2013 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196 196 010 00006/54 Bonhams Goodwood, West Sussex, United Kingdom US$29,600,000 $30,069,371
December 10, 2015 1956 Ferrari 290 MM 626 RM Sotheby’s New York City, New York, United States US$28,050,000 $28,050,000
August 17, 2013 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4*S NART Spider 10709 RM Auctions Monterey, California, United States US$27,500,000 $27,936,071
August 16, 2014 1964 Ferrari 275 GTB/C Speciale 6701 RM Auctions Monterrey, California, United States US$26,400,000 $26,388,867
February 6, 2015 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider 2935GT Artcurial Paris, France US$18,500,000 $18,500,000
June 27, 2014 1954 Ferrari 375-Plus Spider Competizione 384 Bonhams Goodwood, West Sussex, United Kingdom US$18,400,177 $18,392,418
August 13, 2015 1964 Ferrari 250 LM 6105 RM Auctions Monterey, California, United States US$17,600,000 $17,600,000
August 17, 2015 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider 3095GT Gooding & Company Pebble Beach, California, United States US$16,830,000 $16,830,000
August 17, 2015 1962 Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta Speciale 3269GT Gooding & Company Pebble Beach, California, United States US$16,500,000 $16,500,000
August 21, 2011 1957 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa 0666TR Gooding & Company Pebble Beach, California, United States US$16,390,000 $17,241,019
August 16, 2014 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider 2903 GT Gooding & Company Pebble Beach, California, United States US$15,180,000 $15,173,599
November 21, 2013 1964 Ferrari 250 LM 6107 RM Auctions New York City, New York, United States US$14,300,000 $14,526,757
December 10, 2015 1962 Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato DB4GT/0186/R RM Auctions New York City, New York, United States US$14,300,000 $14,300,000
August 13, 2015 1998 McLaren F1 ‘LM-Specification’ SA9AB5AC4W1048073 RM Auctions Monterey, California, United States US$13,750,000 $13,750,000
August 13, 2015 1956 Ferrari 250 GT LWB Berlinetta ‘Tour de France’ 0557GT RM Auctions Monterey, California, United States US$13,200,000 $13,200,000
August 14, 2015 1953 Jaguar C-Type Works Lightweight XKC 052 RM Auctions Monterey, California, United States US$13,200,000 $13,200,000
May 25, 2013 1953 Ferrari 340/375 MM Berlinetta ‘Competizione’ 0320AM RM Auctions Tivoli, Lazio, Italy US$12,812,800 $13,015,974
May 17, 2009 1957 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa 0714TR RM Auctions Maranello, Emilia-Romagna, Italy US$12,402,500 $13,679,879
August 19, 2012 1936 Mercedes-Benz 540K Special Roadster 130949 Gooding & Company Pebble Beach, California, United States US$11,770,000 $12,131,681
August 15, 2014 1964 Ferrari 250 LM 6045 RM Auctions Monterrey, California, United States US$11,550,000 $11,545,129
October 14, 2015 1960 Ferrari 250 GT SWB 1995GT H&H Classics Duxford, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom US$11,440,968 $11,440,968
August 19, 2012 1960 Ferrari 250 GT California LWB Competizione Spyder 1639 GT Gooding & Company Pebble Beach, California, United States US$11,275,000 $11,621,471
August 17, 2012 1968 Ford GT40 P/1074 RM Auctions Monterey, California, United States US$11,000,000 $11,338,020
May 18, 2008 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider 2377GT RM Auctions Maranello, Emilia-Romagna, Italy US$10,894,900 $11,974,287
Sotheby’s
August 21, 2011 1931 Duesenberg Model J Long-Wheelbase Coupe 2478 Gooding & Company Pebble Beach, California, United States US$10,340,000 $10,876,885
August 17, 2015 1982 Porsche 956 956-003 Gooding & Company Pebble Beach, California, United States US$10,120,000 $10,120,000
August 16, 2014 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 10621 RM Auctions Monterrey, California, United States US$10,175,000 $10,170,709

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