Madame Tussauds wax museum in London has launched a new highly detailed Star Wars exhibit that features figures from all six current films. A making-of video shows the meticulous work that went into creating the exhibit, and a video of the exhibit’s VIP launch party shows the excitement of fans.
photos via Madame Tussauds
It might sound like something from Dracula, but old brains have been made sprightly again thanks to young blood.
Giving ageing mice blood from much younger animals rejuvenated connections between brain cells and improved memory, experiments have shown.
The treatment is so effective that 18-month-old animals did as well in memory tests as those of only four months. Mice usually live to between 18 months and two years.
If the treatment is shown to be safe and as successful in humans, it could be used to stave off the ravages of old age.
Those in middle-age could be given regular jabs of blood donated by 20-somethings, a conference heard. Diseases such as Alzheimer's could also be held at bay.
Researcher Saul Villeda told the Society for Neuroscience's annual conference in New Orleans: 'Do I think that giving young blood could have an effect on a human? I'm thinking more and more that it might.
'It's not a drug that will have deleterious effects. It's just blood. We do it all the time for blood transfusions.'
Scientists from Stanford University in the US 'sewed together' two mice of different ages.
They created connections between their veins and arteries that allowed young blood to flow into the older animal's body, and vice versa. The younger animals' brains appeared to age. But in the older animals, young blood boosted the number of connections between brain cells. The connections, which are thought to be vital to memory, were also stronger.
The older mice also did just as well as the younger ones in memory tests. The treatment is now being tested on mice with an Alzheimer's-like disease. Experts said that if the research continues to bear fruit, it could lead to treatment that brings even greater benefits than penicillin.
Other work suggests an infusion of young blood could be good for the muscles, liver and immune system. However, the work is at an early stage and it will be some time before it is tested on humans.
It may be possible to identify the compounds in blood that are rejuvenating the brain and turn them into a pill.
Professor Andrew Randall, a brain disease expert from Exeter and Bristol Universities, said: 'Although this may suggest that Dracula author Bram Stoker had ideas way ahead of his time, temporarily plumbing teenagers' blood supplies into those of their great-grandparents does not seem a particularly feasible future therapy for cognitive decline in ageing.
'Instead this fascinating work suggests there may be significant benefit in working out what the “good stuff” is in the high octane young blood, so that we can provide just those key components to the elderly.'
Professor Chris Mason, an expert in regenerative medicine from University College London, added: 'The important questions are; what is in the blood of the younger mice that impacts the ageing process, and is it applicable to humans?
'Even if the finding leads only to a drug that prevents, rather than reverses the normal effects of ageing on the brain, the impact upon future generation will be substantial – potentially outweighing other wonder drugs such as penicillin.'
Dr Villeda said: 'Our findings open the possibility of utilising young blood towards future therapeutic interventions aimed at reversing cognitive impairments in the elderly.
'It now becomes a promising prospect to test whether this extends beyond normal ageing towards reversing cellular and cognitive decline in those suffering from age-related neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's diseas
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Russian artist Dimitri Tsykalov created a wonderful series of skull sculptures out of fruits and vegetables between 2005 and 2008. He has much more food-themed sculpture work on his site.
Apparently there’s such a thing as a parody web series being too good. The hit series “Adult Wednesday Addams” created by Melissa Hunter has disappeared from YouTube after the original creators of “The Addams Family” flagged it.
The web series shot to fame recently when an episode about Wednesday Addams getting her revenge on catcallers went viral and earned her international press coverage — enough to catch the attention of the Tee & Charles Addams Foundation, who hold the copyright for the work of American cartoonist Charles Addams.
The decision may be connected to an upcoming reboot of “The Addams Family” as an animated film from MGM, announced last Halloween.
Melissa addressed the show’s disappearance on Facebook. “Thank you for the outpouring of support and concern about the disappearance of Adult Wednesday Addams from the internet. As many of you have seen, the Tee & Charles Addams Foundation flagged the show and, for now, it is off of YouTube. I am working actively on coming to a resolution and will not let Wednesday be caged in internet purgatory. I appreciate your patience and support while I sort this issue out!”
Judging by the flood of dismayed comments, “Adult Wednesday Addams” fans are not going to accept this decision easily.
I don't understand why this isn't covered as parody?
nope if it's parody. The problem is that this isn't a parody of the universe or character, but a direct, logical progression in the form of a fan made
but a direct, logical progression in the form of a fan made sequel. It's why Scary Movie can copy all the movies they did, so this is the issue "Wednesday Addams" is (c) by MGM
This the response I received:
Dear Michael Goodwin,
Thank you for your comments concerning the suspension of Melissa Hunter's The Adult Wednesday Addams©. Unfortunately for all involved, it is not as simple as you are thinking it might be: The Establishment versus the artist - on the contrary.
We have a contract with MGM to produce a full-length animated feature film of The Addams Family® to look exactly as Charles Addams originally painted them. That contract prohibits anyone from portraying those characters in any media during the life of the contract.
Regardless of her talent or the breadth of her audience or the entertainment it gave you, the online series is a violation of that contract, something for which both Ms Hunter and this Foundation could have been sued heavily. You can thank Melissa Hunter for not having understood the need to contact us so as to obtain a license to protect her show. Now it is too late and she will have to wait to resume her career as the Adult Wednesday Addams© until a year after the film has been released.
Hopefully, she realizes that she already has an audience and merely needs to change the title of her show and her appearance.
With best regards, Tee and charles addams foundation P.O. Box 424 • SAGAPONACK, NEW YORK 11962 (T) 631-537-4554 www.addamsfoundation.org www.charlesaddams.com
photo via Business Insider Australia
Chinese middle-school art teacher Xing Yile and some of his friends spent two months building an amazing 11-foot-tall version of the “Hulkbuster“, Tony Stark’s giant Iron Man suit of armor seen in Avengers: Age of Ultron, in an underground parking lot in Zhengzhou, China. According to Business Insider Australia, “the ‘Hulkbuster’ replica is made of over 100 fiberglass-reinforced plastic components”.
photo via Mashable
photo via Mashable
A gargoyle on a historic 13th Century abbey has caused a social media sensation with its resemblance to the monster from the Alien films.
A photograph of the gargoyle at Paisley Abbey, which looks like one from the 1980s movie, has gone viral on Facebook and Twitter.
The Reverend Alan Birss said most of the gargoyles were replaced during a refurbishment in the early 1990s.
He thinks that one of the stonemasons must have been having a bit of fun.
Mr Birss, minister at the abbey, said that 12 medieval gargoyles which had been on the abbey for hundreds of years had to be taken down in 1991 because they had "crumbled and were in a very bad state".
The purpose of the grotesque figures was to take rain water away from the roof in the days before down pipes.
Just one of the original gargoyles was left outside the abbey to show how they would have looked, although there are medieval grotesques inside the building.
Mr Birss said a stonemason from an Edinburgh firm was contracted to create the new gargoyles.
"I think it was a stonemason having a bit of fun," he said.
"Perhaps the film was fairly new when they were carving this and if he was thinking of an alien perhaps the alien from the film was his idea of an alien.
"I'm sure he wasn't deliberately copying the alien in the film. It was just a concept of an alien."
Mr Birss said an internet search showed that someone had pointed out the similarity as far back as 1997.
"But it obviously did not pick up and take off then like it has now," he said.
Church officer Matthew McIntosh said: "It is a beautiful building. Paisley gets a bad press but the abbey is the jewel in the crown.
"People will be surprised and delighted by everything they see outside and inside."
Scientist Missing for over 30 years Found Living Inside Secret LSD Drug Lab Hidden in Basement.
A Couple from Cottage Grove, Minnesota discovered a man living inside a secret laboratory inside their basement. On Friday, May
A Couple from Cottage Grove, Minnesota discovered a man living inside a secret laboratory inside their basement. On Friday, May 15th 2015 officers with the Warrington County Sheriffs Office went to the Morgan family’s home after receiving a call reporting a possible
A Couple from Cottage Grove, Minnesota discovered a man living inside a secret laboratory inside their basement. On Friday, May 15th 2015 officers with the Warrington County Sheriffs Office went to the Morgan family’s home after receiving a call reporting a possible break in. When the officers pulled up they saw the Morgan Family standing by the road.
“They ran up to us and said they heard a man shouting inside their basement and that’s when they called it in to 911” Said Captain Bruce Normans with the Warrington County Sheriff’s Office.
Officers say that they could hear the man yelling in the basement the moment they entered the Morgan’s home. But when they moved cautiously into the basement they saw nothing. However they could hear banging sounds coming from behind the northern wall of the Morgan family’s basement, specifically echoing from behind a large storage cabinet.
“It was a very odd situation. We assumed the possibility that a vagrant may have been trapped behind the cabinet and needed help” Officer Jim Catelli told Channel 6 news.
When the Officers moved the large metal cabinet they uncovered an entry way to a large hidden room in the basement. The room was full of various science equipment along with a terrified, elderly man. The 83 year old man was identified as Dr. Winston Corrigan, a chemistry professor from the University of Minnesota who went missing in the fall of 1984 and was a previous resident of the home.
“He had clearly been living down there for a long time and had suffered severe psychological trauma.. probably from not socializing with anyone for a while…or from ingesting a lot of the drugs… I don’t know if he had been living down there since the 80’s but I wouldn’t doubt it” Said EMT personnel Landon Choler.
Dr. Winston is currently being held at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis for observation. He will eventually be sent to the state psychiatric ward in Prairie Hills Clinic where he will undergo a psychiatric evaluation to determine the extent of any psychological damage and possibly reintroduced to modern society.
“I just can’t believe it….it’s just so odd. The family that used to live there moved because they said the house was haunted so I guess that makes sense now.” Said a neighbor who had lived next door for 33 years.
The Police recovered over $500,000 worth of lab equipment stolen from the University, along with 3 hand guns, an assault rifle, 50 years’ worth of military grade rations and twelve 55 gallon barrels (including three almost empty barrels) of what DEA labs have identified as pure liquid Lysergic acid diethylamide, a powerful hallucinogenic drug more commonly known as the street name LSD or Acid.
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