The Hilariously Bad Disguises of the German Secret Police

From: http://gawker.com/

Check out these great cold war-era photos of some totally normal East German citizens, who are definitely not members of the secret police! How innocuous they are, these completely non-suspicious-looking gentlemen, who could not possibly be Stasi officers in disguise, especially not the fellow in sunglasses and the enormous fur coat with the upturned collar. Nope, just some regular guys.

Psych! I know you were totally fooled, but these are photographs of Stasi officers participating in a course called "art of disguising." In fact—I know this will come as a shock—the first two photographs are of the same guy. Don't act too surprised!

The photos, discovered by Berlin-based artist Simon Menner in the Stasi archives, are from an internal course called "art of disguising" (and what an art it is!); Menner has an exhibition in Berlin at the Morgen Contemporary called "Pictures from the Secret Stasi Archives," featuring these photos and others. (Also included: "snapshots of private homes taken by Stasi agents before they conducted secret searches," used to restore an apartment to its pre-search condition.)

[Spiegel.de]

The Women Of The Lingerie Basketball League Know All About Penetration

by Brett Smiley

from http://clutch.mtv.com/

File this under under both great news and awesome trends: a lingerie basketball league called the LBL has sprung up, presumably because of the success of the LFL, the Lingerie Football League (aherrrrrm, which airs on MTV2). At this rate there will be lingerie hockey, baseball and soccer leagues by 2014, to which we say: nods approvingly.

The LBL appears to be governed by traditional basketball rules, the only difference being that they women wear lingerie, not shorts and jerseys. Bet you didn't see that coming. Keeping with the lingerie/babe theme, the four current teams, all based out of Los Angeles, are named the Glam, Beauties, Divas and Starlets. The young league is now two weeks into its inaugural season. You may be thinking, "hey, the WNBA has floundered and they have some pretty good players," but that ignores a simple truth--that men like women's boobies much, much more than women's basketball.

We hope by now you're ready for the league's tagline. Here goes: "Where beauty meets the hardwood." Yep, they went there. Now take a gander at more of the LBL's lovely ladies.

Photos: PacificCoastNews

This Is What the Moon Looks Like From Space

From: http://www.nasa.gov/

On Sunday, July 31, 2011, when Expedition 28 astronaut Ron Garan aboard the International Space Station looked out his window, this is what he saw: the moon. And, he saw it 16 times. Said Garan, "We had simultaneous sunsets and moonsets." For Garan and the rest of the station crew, this extraordinary event is a daily occurrence. Since the station orbits the Earth every 90 minutes, each day the crew experiences this about 16 times a day.

Image Credit: NASA

First Look at the Badass New Superman

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By Jesus Diaz

From: http://gizmodo.com/

It's official: After Christopher Reeve, Henry Cavill is my favorite Superman. Heck, he may become my favorite Superman of all time! He looks absolutely badass in the the first public shot of the new movie Man of Steel.

Please Hollywood, don't screw this one.

Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures have provided the first look at the new "Man of Steel," revealing star Henry Cavill as Superman in the film from director Zack Snyder.

The film also stars three-time Oscar® nominee Amy Adams ("The Fighter") as Daily Planet journalist Lois Lane, and Oscar® nominee Laurence Fishburne ("What's Love Got to Do with It") as her editor-in-chief, Perry White. Starring as Clark Kent's adoptive parents, Martha and Jonathan Kent, are Oscar® nominee Diane Lane ("Unfaithful") and Academy Award® winner Kevin Costner ("Dances with Wolves").

Squaring off against the superhero are two other surviving Kryptonians, the villainous General Zod, played by Oscar® nominee Michael Shannon ("Revolutionary Road"), and Faora, Zod's evil partner, played by Antje Traue.

Full size

Also from Superman's native Krypton are
Lara Lor-Van, Superman's mother, played by Julia Ormond, and Superman's father, Jor-El, portrayed by Academy Award® winner Russell Crowe ("Gladiator").

Rounding out the cast are Harry Lennix as U.S. military man General Swanwick, as well as Christopher Meloni as Colonel Hardy.

"Man of Steel" is being produced by Charles Roven, Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan and Deborah Snyder. The screenplay was written by David S. Goyer, from a story by Goyer and Nolan, based upon Superman characters created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster and published by DC Comics. Thomas Tull and Lloyd Phillips are serving as executive producers.

Drug may reverse Down syndrome symptoms

Doctor conducts first human study on drug that may boost memory and remove barriers to learning for people with Down syndrome.

Photo: annikaleigh/Flickr.com

Dr. Alberto Costa has a personal stake in his Down syndrome research: his daughter, Tyche. Costa's life and work changed direction after she was born 16 years ago and Costa — a physician and neuroscientist — decided to dedicate his career to the study of Down syndrome.

In the past decade and a half, Costa's research has focused on normalizing the brain cells in the hippocampus, the portion of the brain responsible for memory and spatial navigation. In 2006, Costa published a study that found that a drug — the antidepressant Prozac — could normalize the cells in this area of the brain. But it was still unclear whether or not these normalized cells would automatically translate to better memory and improve cognitive deficits. The next year, Costa worked with Down syndrome mice and found that the Alzheimer’s drug memantine could improve their memory. Costa's study showed that a single injection of memantine produced benefits within minutes, enabling Down-equivalent mice to learn as well as standard mice.

Costa's theory is that memantine works not by increasing or changing brain cells, but by normalizing how they work. People with Down syndrome have three copies of all or most of the genes on Chromosome 21 instead of just two, so receptors in this area of the brain tend to be hyperactive — overreacting to stimuli and making it difficult for the brain to focus and learn. Memantine, according to Costa's hypothesis, quiets the noise, allowing the brain cells to react normally. Costa's journey was the focus of a feature story in this Sunday's New York Times Magazine.

Now Costa is working on the first randomized clinical trial to use the drug in humans. For Costa's trail, he is testing memory and spatial learning in 40 young adults with Down syndrome who have received memantine pills daily for 16 weeks. Costa will present preliminary results of this research at a scientific meeting in Illinois this fall. If successful, memantine could provide a new future for Costa's daughter Tyche and the 400,000 other people living with Down syndrome in the U.S.

Greatest Wrestling Takedown Ever

This should almost be illegal.

Creepy Places You Can Visit Right Now: Salesian Seminary

by Diana Cook
from http://www.thesmokingjacket.com/

Is your idea of a perfect vacation destination less of a tropical paradise and more like a gigantic, long abandoned building that’s possibly haunted by the spirits of people who suffered immense pain and suffering? If so, you’ll definitely want to check out the abandoned Salesian Seminary in Goshen, NY.

Located sixty miles north of New York City, the property is heavily wooded and filled with structures in varying states of disrepair. It’s the Detroit of abandoned seminaries, basically.

First developed in the early 1800s and owned by a series of wealthy aristocratic families, the original grounds included a mansion, private mausoleum and cemetery. In 1925, the Salesian Fathers purchased the property and opened it as a Catholic resident school for boys. The former mansion served as the administration building. Several other structures were added over the years including the Our Lady of Lourdes grotto (Those can be fun!), a priests’ cemetery and the large brick building where students lived and attended class. They also dug a man-made pond to use for swimming instruction.

Come on in, the water is putrid and gross!

The entire area is said to be haunted by a young boy who died while attending summer camp at the school in the 1960s. His spirit reportedly walks the grounds and has been spotted peering from the broken windows and along the rooftop of the decaying dormitory.

The circumstances surrounding his death remain a mystery. Depending on whom you spoke with at the time, on the night of August 9th, 1964, nine-year-old Paul Ramos either fell or was thrown off the roof to his death. His body was found the next day behind the main campus building.

The case was reopened in 2003. The modern inquest deemed that the distance of the body from the building was inconsistent with a fall. While the new findings point to foul play rather than an accident, the case remains unsolved.

In addition to its spooky pedigree, the school also has a bit of celebrity cache. Comedian George Carlin briefly attended school there in the early 1950s. As a seventh grader, Carlin was sent to the upstate junior seminary after he was caught stealing money from the visiting team’s locker room during a basketball game. Carlin told Playboy about it in a 1982 interview.

“So I was sent to The Brothers,” Carlin said. “That’s what they called this parochial school up in Goshen, N.Y. I was supposed to get closer supervision there and more ‘masculine influence,’ whatever that means. But I was thrown out for telling a couple of really lame kids on the playground that I had heroin.”

Thanks to declining enrollment, the school was shut down in 1985. For years the buildings and grounds sat neglected and unoccupied. In 2006, it was turned into a town park. The buckling walls and partially caved roof of the old mansion made it a public safety hazard and it was torn down. Complaints of unexplained noises and mysterious sightings from the construction workers on the demolition crew have added to the notoriety.

Today, the foundation of the mansion, the man-made pond turned swamp and various monuments to the dead, remain in place. The dilapidated main building is still standing. All of the windows not boarded up have been broken. On a breezy day, remnants of curtains move eerily through the open spaces between the jagged glass.

If you’re in the New York area and interested in experiencing the place first hand, the grounds are open to the public until dusk. Of course, you probably wouldn’t want to be there after dark anyway. Check out more pictures of the Salesian Seminary below.

For more information about Salesian Seminary, visit http://www.hauntedhudsonvalley.net/spirits-of-salesian/

Previous 10 Creepiest Abandoned Morgues on Earth

 

Photo: Romany WG 

 

 

Click here for the entire Gallery: http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/news-morgues-attempt-2

9 Largest Fish Ever Caught

From: http://www.totalprosports.com/

Every sport fisherman dreams of catching “the big one,” a world-record lunker that will get his or her name forever etched in the annals of fishing history. Of course, most of us understand we’ll never realize this dream, and would instead be perfectly content to set a new personal best every couple of years. But there are people who have lived the dream—people who have landed monster fish certified by the International Game Fish Association as world records. So, to inspire anglers everywhere and keep dreams alive, here are 9 of the largest fish ever caught (by species).

9. Blue Catfish

This world record blue catfish (Ictalurus furcatus) was landed by 47-year-old Missouri resident Greg Bernal at 1:30 A.M. on July 21, 2010. He caught the beast with rod and reel in the Missouri River. At 57 inches long, 45 inches in girth, and a whopping 130 pounds, the fish beats five-year-old previous world record—also caught in Missouri—by a solid 6 pounds.
Source
8. Giant Trevally

Keiki Hamasaki of Kagoshima, Japan caught this 160 lb. 7 oz. giant grevally (Caranx ignoblis) not far from his hometown on May 22, 2006. Casting a lure from the shore on a 130-pound test line, it took him 35 minutes to hall the fish in. It beat the previous record, set by Russel Mori, by 25 pounds.
Source
7. Giant Tigerfish

The giant tigerfish (Hydrocynus goliath), found in rivers throughout central Africa, is famous (and almost certainly named) for its giant teeth. These teeth can take a chunk out of just about anything, including human limbs, so fishing for these things can be quite hazardous to one’s health. The world record giant tigerfish, caught on rod and real and pictured here, was landed on July 9, 1988 by Raymond Houtmans. It weighed a whopping 97 pounds.
Source
6. Alligator Gar

The absolutely terrifying Alligator Gar (Atractosteus spatula) is typically found in the Southeastern portion of the United States, but they have been seen as far north as Illinois and as far south as Veracruz, Mexico. Historically despised because they feed on prized game fish like largemouth bass—and because they are scary as hell—recently there has been a surge in “Gar hunting.” The one pictured here, for example, may be the world record for Alligator Gar killed by bow and arrow. It was shot in Texas by John Paul Morris, the son of Bass Pro Shops CEO Johnny Morris. The beast measured 8’3” and weighed 230 pounds!
Source
5. Largemouth Bass

In North America, the largemouth bass (Micropterus salmonides) record is considered the “holy grail” of freshwater fishing records. This is primarily due to two factors. First, largemouth bass are among the most sought-after game fish, and bass fishing is a billion dollar industry. Second, the world record for largemouth bass is one of the oldest and most revered in the world, having stood for an incredible 77 years. And while this hallowed record has not yet fallen, it has been tied. Manabu Kurita of Aichi, Japan caught a 22 lb. 4 oz. bass on July 2, 2009 in Lake Biwa near Kyoto, tying the record set by George Perry of Jacksonville, Georgia on June 2, 1932. There was much debate and quite a bit of controversy surrounding this record-setting catch, given the sanctity of the record involved, but the International Game Fish Association went to great lengths to verify the record—even subjecting Mr. Kurita to a polygraph test, which he passed. So, the record is officially tied.
Source
4. Mekong Giant “Grizzly Bear” Catfish

On May 1, 2005 Fishermen in northern Thailand netted what scientists believe is the largest freshwater fish ever recorded, let alone caught. At 9 feet long and 646 pounds, the Mekong giant catfish (Pangasianodon gigas) was the size of an adult grizzly bear. Since this species of fish is considered critically endangered, the fishermen tried their best to keep the brute alive, but were unsuccessful. It was later eaten by local villagers.
Source
3. Swordfish

The swordfish (Xiphias gladius) world record was set all the way back on May 7, 1953 off the coast of Iquique, Chile, by Lou Marron. The fish Marron landed after a grueling 2-hour fight was 179.25 inches long and weighed 1,182 pounds. It was one of the heaviest fish ever caught on rod and reel. Today, the restored mount of the fish is on display at the International Game Fish Association Fishing Hall of Fame & Museum in Miami, FL.
Source
2. Atlantic Blue Marlin

The record for Atlantic Blue Marlin (Makaira nigricans) has the distinction of being set on a Leap Day. On Feburary 29, 1992, after an 80 minute battle, Paulo Amorim landed a whopper off the coast of Vitória, Brazil that weighed in at 1,402 pounds. This beat the old record by an impressive 120 pounds.
Source
1. Atlantic Bluefin Tuna

Ken Fraser caught the world’s biggest Atlantic Bluefin Tuna (Thunnus thynnus) in Aulds Cove, Nova Scotia back on October 26, 1979. He landed the 1,496 pound fish in an impressive 45 minutes, and has been basking in the glory ever since. These days, Ken Fraser has a slick website which he uses to peddle the book he wrote about his catch, Possessed. (Perhaps the book would be more appropriately titled Obsessed?)
Source