Researchers say discovery of stains from summertime flows down cliffs
and crater walls increases chance of finding life on red planet
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Nasa reveals images of water on Mars
Liquid water runs down canyons and crater walls over the summer months on Mars, according to researchers who say the discovery raises the chances of being home to some form of life.
The trickles leave long, dark stains on the Martian terrain that can
reach hundreds of metres downhill in the warmer months, before they dry
up in the autumn as surface temperatures drop.
Images taken from the Mars orbit show cliffs, and the steep walls of
valleys and craters, streaked with summertime flows that in the most
active spots combine to form intricate fan-like patterns.
Scientists are unsure where the water comes from, but it may rise up
from underground ice or salty aquifers, or condense out of the thin
Martian atmosphere.
“There is liquid water today on the surface of Mars,” Michael Meyer,
the lead scientist on Nasa’s Mars exploration programme, told the
Guardian. “Because of this, we suspect that it is at least possible to
have a habitable environment today.”
The water flows could point Nasa
and other space agencies towards the most promising sites to find life
on Mars, and to landing spots for future human missions where water can
be collected from a natural supply.
“Mars is not the dry, arid planet that we thought of in the past,” said Nasa’s Jim Green. “Liquid water has been found on Mars.”
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Nasa announce that there are watery flows on the surface of Mars during the red planet’s summer months.
Some of the earliest missions to Mars revealed a planet with a watery
past. Pictures beamed back to Earth in the 1970s showed a surface
crossed by dried-up rivers and plains once submerged beneath vast
ancient lakes. Earlier this year, Nasa unveiled evidence of an ocean that might have covered half of the planet’s northern hemisphere in the distant past.
But occasionally, Mars probes have found hints that the planet might
still be wet. Nearly a decade ago, Nasa’s Mars Global Surveyor took
pictures of what appeared to be water bursting through a gully wall
and flowing around boulders and other rocky debris. In 2011, the
high-resolution camera on Nasa’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured
what looked like little streams flowing down crater walls
from late spring to early autumn. Not wanting to assume too much,
mission scientists named the flows “recurring slope lineae” or RSL.
Researchers have now turned to another instrument on board the Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter to analyse the chemistry of the mysterious RSL
flows. Lujendra Ojha,
of Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, and his colleagues used a
spectrometer on the MRO to look at infrared light reflected off steep
rocky walls when the dark streaks had just begun to appear, and when
they had grown to full length at the end of the Martian summer.
Writing in the journal Nature Geosciences,
the team describes how it found infra-red signatures for hydrated salts
when the dark flows were present, but none before they had grown. The
hydrated salts – a mix of chlorates and perchlorates – are a smoking gun
for the presence of water at all four sites inspected: the Hale,
Palikir and Horowitz craters, and a large canyon called Coprates Chasma.
“These may be the best places to search for extant life near the
surface of Mars,” said Alfred McEwen, a planetary geologist at the
University of Arizona and senior author on the study. “While it would be
very important to find evidence of ancient life, it would be difficult
to understand the biology. Current life would be much more informative.”
The flows only appear when the surface of Mars rises above -23C. The
water can run in such frigid conditions because the salts lower the
freezing point of water, keeping it liquid far below 0C.
“The mystery has been, what is permitting this flow? Presumably
water, but until now, there has been no spectral signature,” Meyer said.
“From this, we conclude that the RSL are generated by water interacting
with perchlorates, forming a brine that flows downhill.” John Bridges,
a professor of planetary science at the University of Leicester, said
the study was fascinating, but might throw up some fresh concerns for
space agencies. The flows could be used to find water sources on Mars,
making them prime spots to hunt for life, and to land future human
missions. But agencies were required to do their utmost to avoid
contaminating other planets with microbes from Earth, making wet areas
the most difficult to visit. “This will give them lots to think about,”
he said.
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For
now, researchers are focused on learning where the water comes from.
Porous rocks under the Martian surface might hold frozen water that
melts in the summer months and seeps up to the surface.
Another possibility is that highly concentrated saline aquifers are
dotted around beneath the surface, not as pools of water, but as
saturated volumes of gritty rock. These could cause flows in some areas,
but cannot easily explain water seeping down from the top of crater
walls.
A third possibility, and one favoured by McEwen, is that salts on the
Martian surface absorb water from the atmosphere until they have enough
to run downhill. The process, known as deliquescence, is seen in the
Atacama desert, where the resulting damp patches are the only known
place for microbes to live.
“It’s a fascinating piece of work,” Bridges said. “Our view of Mars
is changing, and we’ll be discussing this for a long time to come.”
The original 1979 The Amityville Horror,
starring James Brolin and Margot Kidder, is the classic haunted house
horror flick, which was given a not-so-classic remake in 2005. The movie
is actually based on a 1976 book titled The Amityville Horror: A True Story,
which claimed to tell the true story of George and Kathy Lutz’s 28 days
in an allegedly haunted house. According to them, their large dream
home on the coast of Long Island turned on them not too long after
moving day, when demonic forces began terrorizing their family.
Now,
it’s true that, a little over a year before the Lutzes moved into the
house on 112 Ocean Avenue, Ronald DeFeo Jr. shot and killed his entire
family – six people total – inside the house. The Lutzes purchased the
house furnished with the DeFeo’s furniture, and actually did have a
priest come and bless the house prior to moving into it.
But
that’s where the story gets a little murky. Some evidence suggests the
Lutzes began shopping around for a publishing deal while still in the
house and attempted to get publicity for the haunting once a book was
imminent. Notably, paranormal investigators Lorraine and Ed Warren, who
were also the investigators behind several other “true story” haunting
films, claimed the house was plagued by malevolent spirits. Many have
suggested the whole thing was a scam, and interestingly, no one who has
lived at 112 Ocean Avenue since the Lutzes has reported any strange
happenings.
A new film in the franchise, Amityville: The Awakening, will hit theaters next year.
The Haunting in Connecticut
Another haunted house flick, The Haunting in Connecticut
is about another family who failed to check into the history of their
house prior to moving: the Campbells relocate to a home that previously
served as a funeral parlor, where the owner’s son served as a demonic
messenger and provided a gateway for spiritual entities. The story is
supposedly based on the experience of the Snedeker family, who also
worked with paranormal investigators Lorraine and Ed Warren. Horror
novelist Ray Garton was hired to document the tale his 1992 book, In a Dark Place: The Story of a True Haunting, which became the basis for the movie.
But in subsequent interviews, Garton has claimed that he made up some of the details.
While the Snedekers and the Warrens have maintained that the house was
truly haunted, there’s obviously no proof that anything supernatural
occurred during the family’s two year stay in the house. No other family
who has lived in the house has come forward with any ghost stories.
The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)
The Exorcism of Emily Rose follows
a lawyer who takes on the case of a priest who is charged with homicide
after he performs an exorcism on Emily Rose (Jennifer Carpenter) and
she dies. The story mostly takes place in a courtroom, with Emily Rose’s
possession being told through courtroom testimony and flashbacks. But
the possession and the subsequent trial is actually a fictionalized
version of the possession of a German woman named Anneliese Michel.
During
the 1970s, she was believed to have been possessed by six or more
demons. Michel began experiencing shaking and the inability to control
her body at the age of 16 By the age of 21, her parents were seeking
pastors to perform an exorcism. Two years later, the church finally
granted permission for the exorcism and at the age of 23, Michel died
from malnutrition and dehydration. Prosecutors charged Michel’s parents
and the two priests who performed the exorcism with negligent homicide.
The case has actually inspired two other movies as well, the German drama Requim and Anneliese: The Exorcist Tapes.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
One of the first great slasher films, 1974’s Texas Chain Saw Massacre follows
a group of teens who end up on a farm belonging to a family of
cannibals. Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) torments the teens, occasionally
with a chainsaw, as he tries to off them, one-by-one. The popular
franchise has spawned four sequels, a remake, and a prequel. The latest
in the franchise, Leatherface,
will be released next year, and it will follow the teen years of
Jackson Sawyer – the boy who one day becomes the skin-wearing serial
killer we all know and, uh… love?
When it came out in 1974, it was
marketed as a “true story,” despite the fact that Leatherface didn’t
actually exist and commit a series of murders in Texas. But while it
might not be based on a true story, it was inspired by the real-life
serial killer Ed Gein, who created a “woman suit” out of skins of
exhumed female corpses and murdered at least two women. He similarly
served as the inspiration for Norman Bates in Psycho and Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs.
The Girl Next Door (2007)
Based on Jack Ketchum’s 1989 novel of the same name, The Girl Next Door follows
two young girls who must move into their aunt’s house after the death
of their parents. Unfortunately, the aunt (Blanche Baker) is a sadistic
psychopath and the neighborhood boys seem content to allow both girls to
be tortured and sexually abused. It’s a movie so disturbing that you
can’t get it out of your head, much less believe it could actually be
real.
But it’s actually the fictionalized version of the torture
and death of an Indiana teen named Sylvia Likens in 1965. Her and her
sister had been left in the care of family friend Gertrude Baniszewski,
who soon began taking out her financial troubles on Likens. Her children
and several other neighborhood children would beat Likens, tie her up,
force feed her, and sexually abuse her. After being tied up in the
basement, she died at the age of sixteen from shock, malnutrition, and a
brain hemorrhage.
Compliance (2012)
Complianceis
the story of a fast-food worker subjected to sexual humiliation and
psychological abuse at the hands of a prank-caller, who pretends to be
a police officer and calls Sandra (Ann Dowd), the restaurant manager, to
complain that Becky (Dreama Walker), an employee, stole from a
customer. The film may be more thriller than horror movie, but once
Sandra begins taking orders from the stranger, which begins with a
humiliating strip search and gets worse from there. The resulting tale, a
warning against blindly following authority, is downright
chilling. What the film lacks in gore and sudden frights, it makes up
for in emotional trauma and horror at how far some people will go to
avoid conflict.
While watching it, it’s impossible to think anyone
could possibly be so naive, yet the movie is actually inspired by a
real incident that occurred at a McDonald’s in 2004. A prank-caller
began calling various rural locations in over 30 states, pretending to
be an officer and asking managers to conduct strip searches on female
employees. During one such call, the manager of a New Hampshire
McDonald’s detained 18-year-old Louise Ogborn for over three hours.
During that time, she was stripped naked, forced to dance, and ordered
to perform various crude acts by the prank-caller, all of which was
caught on surveillance cameras.
The Strangers (2008)
A movie about what happens when your romantic trip goes awry, The Strangers
follows a young couple who are terrorized by three masked strangers
while staying at a remote getaway. The unknown assailants destroy all
means of escape and outside communication before the violent invasion,
trapping the couple in the house. It’s a simple premise that could
happen to anyone, so it makes sense that the trailer proclaimed it was
inspired by true events.
However, the production notes
for the film discredit the claim slightly by clarifying that the seeds
of the story were sparked during Bryan Bertino’s youth: “That part of
the story came to me from a childhood memory. As a kid, I lived in a
house on a street in the middle of nowhere. One night, while our parents
were out, somebody knocked on the front door and my little sister
answered it. At the door were some people asking for somebody that
didn’t live there. We later found out that these people were knocking on
doors in the area and, if no one was home, breaking into the houses. In
The Strangers, the fact that someone is at home does not deter
the people who’ve knocked on the front door; it’s the reverse.” So,
despite the “inspired by true events” claim, it’s almost entirely a work
of fiction
Eaten Alive (1977)
From Tobe Hooper (the same guy behind Texas Chain Saw Massacre), Eaten Alive
also takes place in Texas, where a hotel owner kills off anyone who
stands in his way and then feeds them to a crocodile he keeps as a pet. A
curious little slasher flick, it stars Neville Brand as the crazed
hotel owner, who seems to get crazier and crazier as the movie
progresses. It’s Hooper’s sophomore effort, following Chainsaw Massacre, and while it’s less well-known, the creepy hotel set and effects benefited from a larger budget.
And like Chainsaw Massacre, the film is actually loosely based on a real life serial killer – a Texas man named Joe Ball.
Ball owned a bar in a very small Texas town with an alligator pit in
the back. He definitely charged customers a fee to view the alligators
eating live cats and dogs, but he also possibly used the alligators
to dispose the bodies of 20 women he murdered. When
authorities approached Ball about the women who had disappeared, he shot
himself with a handgun. There’s no concrete evidence Ball fed his
victims to an alligator, but a handyman who worked for Ball led officers
to two bodies he claimed he help Ball dispose of.
Wolf Creek (2005)
Wolf Creek
is an Australian horror film about the dangers of hitchhiking and a
dream vacation gone terribly, terribly wrong. When three friends get
stranded in remote Australia on their way to a hiking trip, a bushman
offers them assistance. But the hikers’ thankfulness is short lived when
they wake up bound, gagged, and drugged. It’s an incredibly gruesome
film and was criticized at its release for it’s depiction of violence
against women. But it’s success in theaters earned it a sequel in 2012.
Upon release, Wolf Creek
was marketed as “based on true events,” leading many to assume the
story was entirely factual. However, it was actually based on a
combination of murders from around Australia. The 2001 abduction of
Peter Falconio and attack against his girlfriend by Bradley John Murdoch
are said to influence the film, which was scheduled to be released
during Murdoch’s trial. The court in the Northern Territory actually
enjoined the film’s release to prevent it from influencing the jury. But
John Jarratt, who plays the crazed bushman, usedIvan Milat, known as “the backpack killer,” as inspiration for the role.
The Entity (1981)
Another supernatural horror movie, The Entity
follows Carla Moran as she is attacked by an invisible assailant. The
film opens with her being violently raped, and the sexual and physical
abuse continues for much of the film. Convinced by friends and family
that she is losing her mind, she seeks help from parapsychologists, who
discover there are supernatural forces at work.
The movie is based
on the book of the same name by Frank De Felitta, which was inspired by
the real story of Doris Bither who lived in California. She approached
some parapsychologists after what she believed herself to be the victim
of a “spectral rape.” At the time, there wasn’t any evidence, but she
did occasionally develop bruises around her body and inner thighs. Of
course, there’s no way to prove one way or the other whether Bither
actually had a malevolent entity following her around. Some of her story
was corroborated by family and friends, including her eldest son, who
said he was also thrown back by an invisible force after attempting to
assist his mother.
Let’s face it — there’s a reason why Shakespeare is regarded as one of
the greatest playwrights and poets in history. His ability to praise the
heart and its emotional power has driven the romance entertainment
industry for generations, and rightly so. If he taught us one thing,
beyond his countless poems and plays highlighting love in all its forms,
it was that there is certainly more than one way to say “I love you.” "I love you" in 10 different languages.
1
Arabic
Ana uhibbuka (Ana Oo-hey-book-ah)[to a man]
Ana uhibbuki (Ana Oo-hey-book-ee)[to a woman]
Note: This is the standard Arabic way to say "I love you." Different dialects and contexts decipher how this phrase is altered.
2
Chinese (Cantonese)
Ngo Ngoi Ney (Gno Gnoi Neh)
Note: Pronounce Ngo like "Gno-" in "Gnocchi." Pronounce Ney like "Na" in "Nation."
3
Chinese (Mandarin)
Wo-Ai-Ni (Woe I Knee)
4
French
Je t'aime (Juh-tem)
Note: Pronounce Je like "g" in "mirage."
5
German
Ich liebe dich (Ish leeba dish)
6
Italian
Ti amo (Tee ah-mo)
Note: Italian, Portuguese and Spanish all stem from
the common denominator of Latin. Just the word, "love," is amore
(Ah-Mor-A) in Italian, while Portuguese and Spanish are both amor
(Ah-Mor). It's important to remember so they are not interchanged.
7
Japanese
Aishiteru (I-Shi-Teh-Doo)
Note: Pronounce "Teh" like "Tay" in "Taylor."
8
Portuguese
Amo-te (Ah-mo Teh)
9
Russian
Ya tebya lyublyu (Yeah Teh-byah Loo-bloo)
Note: Pronounce blyu like "blue."
10
Spanish
Te amo (Teh Ah-mo)
Note: Another way to say "I love you" in a less
traditional way is to say, Te Quiero (Teh-KeyA-dO), which translates to
"I want you," although it is not necessarily sexual. It is more
affirmative.
A simple black dot on a person's hand might hint towards something much bigger. The Telegraph reports that a social media campaign is underway to make the dot a silent, but powerful, signal about domestic abuse.
"The
Black Dot Campaign is to enable victims who cannot ask for help
verbally to ask for help with a simple black dot and people recognize
this and help," the campaign's Facebook page reads.
"This is a campaign to help the most vulnerable victims of domestic
violence." The idea is that if a victim puts a dot on their hand, loved
ones and survivor groups will recognize the cry for help and provide the
assistance he or she so desperately needs. Some people have also posted
their photos in solidarity, or as survivors who have already escaped
abuse.
The
campaign started earlier this month, and has already reached more than
five million people on social media. Some people have reportedly
criticized the campaign for spreading the word without educating support
organizations first, and for potentially putting victims in danger if
their abusers see the dot. But the founder of the group, who has
remained anonymous, has said the campaign has already helped many
people, and abuse victims often know what their abuser's triggers are
and whether the dot could be dangerous for them.
"It
can be very difficult and dangerous for victims of domestic abuse to
speak out about what is happening to them, due to fear of what the
perpetrator will do, and fear of not being believed," Polly Neate from
Women's Aid told The Huffington Post.
"The Black Dot could help some victims to communicate their abuse and
it is useful to have a range of options because women's circumstances
vary greatly."
After pancreatic cancer tragically took the life of Saige Seibold's
father on May 13th, 2015, she and her widowed mother, Sandy, decided to
remember him in a beautiful way on Father's Day. The
pair released a "#1 Dad" balloon with an attached letter at the site of
his grave—and what happened afterwards will bring tears to your eyes.
The
letter asked, "If you receive this [balloon], please make [Seibold's]
day by sending a response telling her who and where you are from. Thank
you in advance!"
"We thought the idea of the balloon, sending the balloon to heaven to her dad, was a good idea," Sandy told the NBC.
After
a tricky ascent—the balloon ribbons initially got caught in a power
line—a gust of wind blew the balloon and the note skywards. Seibold and
her mother then left the cemetery to run some errands and return home,
which was 25 miles away in Cement, OK.
But when the mother and
daughter arrived to their house, Seibold discovered an unbelievable gift
waiting for them. Tangled in the fence running along a pasture where
she often worked with her father was the very same balloon and note she and her mother had just sent off. The message in her father's honor had flown straight home, the very same day.
Seibold explained, "I think we started crying because it was just like a message from him...It has given us a lot of peace."
When Jaxon Strong was born with half of his brain and skull
missing, his doctors predicted that he'd have just days to live. But one
year later, this little guy has truly defied the odds.
Jaxon's mom, Brittany
Buell, was told when she was pregnant that "Jax's" brain had been
severely malformed and warned her that he was unlikely to survive the
pregnancy. Though physicians gave Brittany, and her husband Brandon,
30, the option to terminate, they didn't give up hope.
"I
was devastated. It was heart-breaking because something I always wanted
my whole life was happening, but then I was told there was a
possibility it might be a stillborn," Brittany told the Daily Mail.
But last August 27, Jax was born weighing four pounds.
"It
was very emotional. I remember holding him on day two and listening to
the doctors say my son would probably never walk, never talk, never know
when he's hungry, or never hear or see. They really did not expect him
to make it," Brandon said.
"We did everything we could to give him a fighting chance and all he's done since being born is fight right back," he added.
Jax, who has since been diagnosed with Microhydranencephaly, just celebrated his first birthday.
"It
is always in the back of my mind. I'm very aware that today maybe his
last day. I'm aware tomorrow he may not be here," Brittany shared. But
she says she feels blessed by the support she's been given.
Jaxon now has over 90,000 likes on Facebook as
well as a GoFundMe page, set up by Brandon's colleagues, which has
raised over $50,000 so Brittany can afford to stay home and take care of
Jaxon.
"He thrives with his mom, that
one-to-one stimulation that no other therapy can give. If we can keep
Brittany at home, giving him that 24/7 care is truly priceless and
that's what his account allows us to do," Brandon explained.
"It's
all been so overwhelming in a positive way because we can't go anywhere
without someone stopping us, and saying, 'hey, what's your story?' or
they would have seen his picture and say, 'hey, look it's Jax Strong!' –
his nickname! It's truly incredible the amount of people he has had an
impact on," Brittany said.
Christina Booth from Olympia, WA, is being held on $3 million dollar
bail with three counts of attempted murder after stabbing her three
young children.
According to the Daily Mail, Christina says her
husband, Special Forces soldier Thomas Booth, doesn't help with the
children and gets irritated when they make noise. When their
six-month-old twins and two-year-old daughter started crying Sunday
night, the mother slit their throats in an attempt to silence them.
KIRO 7
"My
babies won't calm down," Christina said in her 911 call to police after
stabbing them. Later, her husband came on the phone and explained that
the babies were bleeding and needed an ambulance.
During her
interview with authorities, detectives wrote: "Christina said she knew
if she killed all of
the kids, the house would be quiet for Thomas." The
mother is on medication for postpartum depression. The couple had inconsistent statements in their interviews, but it's
expected that Thomas will not have any charges brought against him.
All the children are now in protective custody, and in stable condition at a local hospital.
Madeline Stuart, an 18-year-old Australian model with Down syndrome, first went viral earlier this year after her stunning photos were posted on Facebook.
Since then, Stuart and her mom Rosanne have been fielding international
modeling requests. Most recently, Stuart signed to walk in New York
Fashion Week with MODA in association with the Christopher Reeve
Foundation. She has also been working with handbag company EverMaya and
will be the face of a new line of handbags (all named after her!)
launching Friday. Rosanne spoke to Cosmopolitan.com about how her
daughter's modeling is changing people's perceptions about intellectual
disabilities and what Madeline's impact on the world will be. Congratulations on New York Fashion Week! What a big deal.
Yes! There's a lot of big deals happening at the moment, it's ridiculous! What was your first reaction to hearing the NYFW news?
When we were asked to do New York Fashion Week, it didn't surprise me. I
don't think anything really surprises me anymore. She's been asked to
do a lot of stuff and I was hoping to she'd get asked to do NYFW but I
assumed it would happen. I hope that doesn't sound too pretentious.
No, that's so exciting. It is very exciting and it's going to take her from one level to the next. I know [American Horror Story
actress who also has Down syndrome] Jamie Brewer did it in February,
but she is a movie star, she's not a model. With Madeline, this is her
career, so I think it's going to be a great platform for her. When Madeline first went viral, she called Brewer an inspiration. Have they since met?
We did meet Jamie in L.A. How was that?
It was great. She's a lovely young lady. She's very high-functioning, a
lot higher functioning than Maddy. She's just beautiful. I don't think
I've ever met someone with Down syndrome who isn't beautiful. They just
have the most amazing personalities. She was so excited to meet
Maddy; she'd been following her on Twitter for months. One of the first people to follow Madeline on Twitter was that supermodel Karlie Kloss. Isn't that amazing? Maddy's social media accounts have grown exponentially since they were created in May. How do you explain that kind of growth?
There hadn't been anyone who chased this dream, whereas Madeline really
chased it. She wanted this and she worked hard for it. I've done
everything I can on the business end to get her to this stage. Now it's
just her working her charm.
Hair by Yvette Rey, makeup by Mandy Phan and Jessica Chu.
Do you also think the world was ready for someone like Madeline to be in the spotlight?
The world was ready. The world wants to be inclusive, it just hasn't had
anyone on such a platform that they were able to do it easily. I
remember when I was a child at school, people were homophobic and things
like that, and now it's cool to be gay! Imagine in 10 years what
society will be like for people with disabilities. It's not going to be
how it is now, it's going to be the norm. It's probably going to be cool
to hang out with someone who has an intellectual disability because you
know that they care more about emotions than they do about the
materialistic world. Everyone's going to want that friend to teach them
what true love is.
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Where do you most see enthusiasm for Maddy's work?
You can see it with Instagram. It's mainly young people and I see people
putting on Madeline's Instagram "Madeline #HairGoals," "Madeline
#RelationshipGoals," "Madeline #FigureGoals," "Madeline, oh my god,
you're prettier than I am, fashion sense on cue or something like that."
This is the next generation! These are young girls who are never going
to grow up being discriminatory! When Maddy was born, I can remember
walking around the street with people abusing me saying she should be in
an institution, and that was 18 years ago! How has the modeling affected your relationship? It's
not about the modeling for me. It's about my daughter being happy. This
is about showing the world how easy it is to talk to someone with an
intellectual disability, how easy it is to walk up to someone and make
them realize they're the same! Like she said to me a minute ago, "Mum,
hug," and I jumped into bed and gave her a hug. I put down my work and
gave her a hug because that's what she wanted in that moment and that's
what I cherish. You don't always get those moments.
Why
dump your significant other in real life when you can take out a
digital billboard ad to call them out on their morning commute? At
least, that's what one woman from Sheffield, U.K., did.
The woman, who according to AdWeek is
known as Lisa, wrote the billboard message to inform her husband that
she knows he cheated. Not only that, though, but she also said, "When
you get home I won't be there." The message called her husband Paul out by his first name, and she even ended it with, "Enjoy your drive to work!"
A Greek design company have created the answer to every London office worker’s prayers - a desk that has a bed inside it.
To the naked eye, the ingenious piece of furniture looks
like your average nine-to-fiver’s desk, but pull down side panels and it
reveals a cosy sleeping spot.
The end of the box folds out so you can lay comfortably with
your head propped up - and the top of the desk still remains intact so
others can continue working whilst you’re catching some shut eye below
deck.
Ever felt like a short nap was all you needed to make your workday bearable? Studio NLThe nap desk was created by design studio, Studio NL, who
told archilovers: "The main concept was to comment on the fact that many
times our lives are “shrinking” in order to fit into the confined space
of our office.
The bed is disguised within an unassuming office desk
"this desk could be used for a siesta or for a few hours of
sleep at night on those days when someone struggles to meet deadlines."
Sadly the desk is just a prototype, but let's hope it comes to liberate Londoners who regularly work around the clock soon.
Hannah Combs, 15, was hanging out with her friends before the start
of school on September 14th, when a boy in her class snuck up behind her
and poured super glue on her head, soaking her hair and scalp.
"It instantly started burning," Hannah told the Killeen Daily Herald. "It felt like my head was on fire. It was horrible."
Hannah,
a freshman at Harker Heights High School in Killeen, Texas, immediately
went to the nurse's office . The assistant principal questioned her
about the incident, but Hannah could barely speak through the pain.
Meanwhile, the boy who attacked her was not spoken to by school
officials or taken into custody until Hannah's father Christian Grimmer,
a retired soldier, threatened to call 911.
Later
that day, a doctor diagnosed Hannah with first-degree burns on her
scalp. The hair on the right side of her head was matted and ruined, so
she decided to shave it off.
"I realized I lost my favorite thing about me. I
loved my hair," she said. "My hair was the only thing I liked about
myself, honestly. I lost it for no reason."
The next day, she
returned to school even though she was still in pain. During first
period, she became anxious when she realized she'd have to encounter
the bully who had poured the glue on her head during the second period
class they shared, so she left school for the day. She later learned
that he was given an in-school suspension for what he did, but she's run
into him on campus since the incident, since they have mutual friends.
Hannah's
parents have made multiple requests to Killeen Independent School
District Superintendent John Craft for the boy to be transferred to
another school within the district, but have not heard back directly
from him.
"You would think the superintendent's priority would be
school safety, but it is not any of his concern because he will not
return any calls," Christian said.
However, the school
district issued a statement explaining that they are committed to the
safety of their students and have responded to the incident in
accordance to state law, board policy, and code of conduct.
Although
the school district's response to Hannah's traumatic experience have
been underwhelming, the Internet has embraced her with open arms. Her
mother Jessica wrote a Facebook post detailing the incident that changed
her daughter's expectations for freshman year "dramatically." It struck
a chord with basically everyone who has a heart, and soared to 12,000
likes and 90,000 shares in under a week. She also created a Facebook
page titled "Justice for Hannah" to rally support.
Supportive
comments have poured in from across the globe. Hannah's situation even
caught the attention of a local hairstylist at The Salon in Harker
Heights, who offered to cut and style her hair into a beautiful
asymmetrical look for free.
No one should have to go through what
Hannah did, but regardless of how long or short her hair is, she's a
gorgeous girl with a loving family, the support of the Internet, and —
most importantly, the strength to stand up for herself.
The couple had inconsistent statements in their interviews, but it's
expected that Thomas will not have any charges brought against him.
