Optical madness

Looks like a GIF right? The picture is moving around and just won't stop. Guess what? This is just your mind going mental with this confusing optical illusion.

Source: via Krypton on Pinterest

RIP Michael Clarke Duncan

Opened up Twitter just now and saw a not-so-nice trend "RIP Michael Clarke Duncan." Checked around BBC and CNN, found nothing, so thought it must be one of those stupid pranks. Alas, no. The Washington Post, TIME Magazine and HuffPo all confirmed, Michael Clarke Duncan died age 54 today.

Happy Pre-Birthday Doraemon!

100 years from today, Doraemon will be born in the 22nd Century. Yup, it's an odd one, but the countdown to the birth of the world's greatest cat has commenced before he travels back in time to help Nobi Nobita. So, Happy Pre-Birthday to the inspiration of generations and one of Asia's greatest heroes (as named by TIME Magazine)!

Something wrong with the Beeb

Those of us who watched the BBC's coverage of the London 2012 Olympics would have been bombarded with plenty of pro-Team GB commentary, rather against the Beeb's own "balance" guidelines. It was OK for most cases because the commentators are people. But today I saw this really odd "Breaking News" red banner on the homepage proclaiming:

"Four miners shot and injured by South African police at a gold mine - details soon"

Original banner, click to enlarge

I clicked through and what does the article say?

"Security guards have wounded four striking gold miners with rubber bullets near the South African city of Johannesburg, police say."

Yes, it's not the police as proclaimed by the sensationalist banner on the homepage. It turns out it's security guards. What's the difference though? People were shot... as you might say.

Well, the police fall under the title "authorities" which gives the event an increased gravity, following the mad Lonmin massacre just weeks before. Security guards, on the other hand, are very likely private companies quite far apart from the "authorities" title.

So now News of the World is gone, is the Beeb turning towards a more sensationalist and blatantly untruthful reporting? What happened to the company's own guidelines of balance, hey?

Image source: BBC.co.uk