Whence Come Angels?

Angels are found in many religions around the world. Their purpose varies from one tradition to another, but these transcendental beings usually act as messenger from God. Whether you believe in them or not, these contemporary images of angels (as seen mostly through the Christian tradition) provoke a variety of emotions. Give some thought for the loneliness of angels! When we see them, are we simply looking in a mirror to our own hopes and dreams or is there even more to it? And whence come angels?

Children who were Ruined by Fame

Fame truly favors the brave. That is regardless of the fact that these brave may be children or adults. However, when the fame comes too soon, to some people, it can lead to total destruction as well as shutdown. 

That was the story for these child stars whose fame came a bit soon in their life and ultimately lead to their ruin.


Child Stars Ruined By Fame

Lindsay Lohan

Lindsay started her career at the tender of 3. During this time, she was a fashion model. After a few years, she rose to the ranks and stared in Disney’s’ film Parent Trap.

It was the point that the dollars started rolling in just like someone who hit a jackpot at sports betting sites, read more at oddshunter.ca. However, a few years after she hand landed her first major acting roles, she was hospitalized for dehydration.

In 2007, she lost two movie contracts and was arrested on a DUI charge. She even tried rehab a couple of times, but all to no avail.


Britney Spears

At sixteen Britney had landed her first record label. With vocals like hers, she quickly managed to rise to the top of the music industry. Her songs were so popular some of them ended up as theme songs to best online casino payouts slots.

However, she soon started to spiral out of control as he was admitted to rehab countless times. During that period she even shaved her head in a desperate plea to get attention.

She did, however, manage to recover in the long run. As we said earlier, her fame came a little bit soon.



Macaulay Culkin

Everyone knew the Home Alone star as he captured the hearts of many fans after the movie was released in 1990.

As a young child, his father managed his fortunes. News broke out that his father mismanaged his funds. This, in turn, led to a nasty court battle. As if this wasn’t enough, at adolescence Macaulay was arrested for being in possession of pot.

The 38-year-old is seen today playing for the band” Pizza Underground”. However, he is a good example of children acquiring fame a bit soon in their lives.


Image Credits
Culkin
Lohan
Spears

Add a comment

■

replies

Men in Blues – The Blues Brothers meet the Men in Black

Agent J of the MIB is in prison. He swindled Aliens while on the job. Today he is released for a new mission. However, the Aliens are waiting for him!

This is another fantastic mashup from the incredibly talented Fabrice Mathieu.  Will Agent J succeed?  Well, you will have to watch this remarkable mashup to discover that.  Have fun!

Add a comment

■

replies

Canned

If you are a regular reader of Kuriositas then you know that we like two things (among others) – street art and animation.  Imagine our delight then when we came across Canned which combines both beautifully.  A young artist gets more than he bargained for when he creates his own latterday Venus – as do the police!

Made by students Ivan Joy, Nathaniel Hatton and Tanya Zaman at Ringling College, this is great fun – and has an ending that will make you go “aaah”.

Add a comment

■

replies

Bog Bodies

Bog bodies have been found throughout Europe, the cadavers of people preserved in peat bogs some of which are thousands of years old.  Ritual sacrifice has long been suspected as a reason for a number of these deaths and this fantastic animation by Plazma for Mummies Alive (a six part documentary series) imagines the fate of just one bog man.  It is chilling but fascinating dramatic reconstruction of how a man may have died many centuries ago.

Add a comment

■

replies

Sunday Short Movie – Ups & Downs

In any relationship between brothers there is, at times, friction.  Yet when one feels that he is being neglected while all the attention is lavished on the other, things can sometimes get a little more difficult.  Ups & Downs, directed by Stuart Fryer and produced by Charlotte Woodhead, tells the story of Josh (Otto Baxter) and Harry (Bobby Lockwood) and shows that at the end of the day, blood is more often than not thicker than water.

Add a comment

■

replies

The Mortsafe: Or How to Protect Your Loved Ones from the Bodysnatchers

Medical students in the United Kingdom of the nineteenth century faced a quandary. They had been accustomed to using the corpses of executed criminals to study anatomy.

The use of the corpses of the convicted to discover the secrets of human anatomy dates back to the 4th century BC, when Herophilos and Erasistratus  of Alexandria were given permission to perform live vivisections.  The times, however, had changed and criminals were now only dissected after execution.  Yet there was a problem..

More lenient punishment for wrongdoings had meant that only around 50 people a year were now being executed. However, the annual demand for bodies to dissect by the growing medical profession surpassed ten times that number. A thriving and historically infamous bodysnatching trade arose. However, those mourning the loss of a loved one soon developed a weapon against this: the mortsafe.

Image Credit Martyn Gorman

The first mortsafe was made around 1816.  They came in a number of different designs but the one thing that they had in common was their weight, which would make exhumation of the recently deceased impossible.

The mortsafe was ingenious: a complex of iron rods and plates descending in to the ground and rising above it.

Above the ground they were weighted either with stone or iron.

Juhyo: The Snow Monsters of Japan

There are monsters, high in the Japanese mountains of the country’s northeastern region of Tohoku.  A few miles outside of Yamagata city the mountains rise and as the seasons turn and autumn becomes a memory, the monsters appear.  Winter isn’t coming here; it’s well and truly arrived.


Their shapes are not uniform. The imagination can truly take flight when considering what might lie beneath the snow. Is that a dragon? Is that a troll? Is that Sulley and Mike from Monsters Inc over there?

The Dragon’s Skull: The Macabre Appearance of Snapdragon Seed Pods

The Antirrhinum (right), commonly known as the snapdragon has been a popular garden plant for many years.  Also known as the dragon flower, its common name derives from the resemblance of the flower to a dragon’s head.

When laterally squeezed the dragon will open and close it mouth: ask any grandparent whose flowers have been decimated by over keen but clumsy grandchildren.  Yet once the flower has died, leaving behind the seed pod, something a little more macabre appears.  The dragon – just a visual metaphor after all – appears to have a skull.

The Mysterious Moeraki Boulders

If you go down to Koekohe beach in New Zealand you can be sure of a big surprise. In front of you, scattered like enormous marbles from some long abandoned game between giants, are hundreds of giant spherical rocks. Or are they the egg shells of sea-born dragons? The Moeraki boulders present us with a mystery – what are they and how on earth did they get here?
Image Credit Flickr User Geofftheref
Some are isolated but may occur in clusters. That they are here is the result of three things – erosion, concretion and time. First the waves, inexorable and patient, have pounded the local bedrock for countless millennia. The mudstone on the beach – rock which was originally mud and clay – is slowly but surely eroded. Underneath are the boulders that the mudstone – in its original wet form, helped to form. However, the boulders were not there to begin with – that came later.

The Schmidt Sting Pain Index: How Much Could You Take?

Image Credit Flickr User Danny Perez Photography

You may well have been stung by a honey bee (above) in the past and your memories of it are quite likely not too fond.  However, have you ever wondered how that sting compared to others? The Ark in Space has quite a list on offer – of the creepy crawlies which make up the Schmidt Sting Pain Index.

It’s named after a guy who took time out to experience hundreds of stings for himself so he could describe the pain for himself – and for us fingers crossed.  So, which insect has the nastiest sting? Go find out for yourself!

Add a comment

■

replies

Silent

Silent is an animated short film created by Academy Award winning Moonbot Studios. It celebrates how storytellers, inventors, and technology work together to create cinema magic.

The story follows two street performers (one of whom seems to be Mr Lessmore! Gasp!) who dream of bringing their "Picture and Sound Show" to life.

Add a comment

■

replies

Cross Stitch Just Got Cool

Cross stitch is one of the oldest forms of embroidery in the world. So, it’s little surprise that its reputation is of something rather fusty that your grandmother might enjoy.  However, cross stitch has a new fan base and, led by types of Ambra. A 30 year old Italian crafter, stitcher, pattern-designer and nerd she has helped rehabilitate the ancient art and it is now - officially - cool again.  If that seems a little tongue in cheek then perhaps it is – one look at Ambra’s amazing designs, however, and you know that there is much truth in what we say.  She has created hundreds of patterns all of which can be seen and downloaded on her website, cloudsfactory.net.

Ambra is a qualified restorer and has worked in many museums.  Yet just as she opened her own restoration lab, the recession hit and the money for renovating old objects ran dry.  Not to be deterred, Ambra has turned her attention to two of her other loves, design and embroidery.  Marrying her interests in TV, movies and cartoons with her skill as a cross stitch pattern maker, she has created these very very cool designs.

The Long Game

As the world moves faster, so do our expectations.  We live in a youth centered society but this video essay in two parts by delve, looks at how, perhaps, things should really be.  In order to be a genius, do we need to achieve it while we are still youthful? Taking perhaps the genius of geniuses, Leonardo Da Vinci as an example, this may give any of you reading this who feel it is to late to achieve something more than just a glimmer of hope.

Add a comment

■

replies

The Pyramids of Egypt

A dig outside of Cairo in 1920 and a single archaeologist, whose only company is a somewhat mystified camel, makes the discovery of a lifetime.  The secret of the ancients are about to be unlocked…

This very amusing animated short was created by the team of Nicolas Mrikhi, Corentin Charron, Olivier Lafay and Lise Corriol.  It was produced as a partnership between their university, Supinfocom Arles and the Museum of Marseille.

Add a comment

■

replies

The Maijishan Grottoes - Artistic Treasure of China’s Past

China has four major Buddhist cave complexes - by far the most visited being the Longmen caves. Less well known are the Maijishan Grottoes. Situated in Gansu Province in the northwest of China, this astonishing example of cave architecture hewn from rock consists of over 7,000 Buddhist sculptures not to mention almost 1000 square meters of murals.

Image Credit Flickr User Mke1963