Quentin Tarantino shows his masterful touch on The Graham Norton Show directs James McAvoy and Alan Davies in a scene from MacBeth. It’s big, bold and clever, and not an easy one to do on the fly. And without guns.
These Dogs Were About To Be Slaughtered, And This Is Where The Rescue Story Begins
Humane Society International has rescued 26 dogs and puppies from a dog meat farm in South Korea, its fourth such rescue operation this year. The dogs were successfully transported to the Washington Animal Rescue League in Washington, DC. Their staff will evaluate and divide the dogs among them and four Emergency Placement Partner shelters, including the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria, Animal Welfare League of Arlington, Fairfax County Animal Shelter and Washington Humane Society to find the dogs homes. The Emergency Placement Partners Program is a program of The Humane Society of the United States, HSI’s U.S. affiliate.
Kelly O’Meara, HSI’s director of companion animals and engagement, said: “We closed this farm as it was just starting, and rescued these dogs and puppies from cold, barren cages with no hope of a future. Like the hundreds of other dogs we’ve rescued from South Korean dog meat farms this year, we know adoptive families will welcome these dogs into their homes and make them the companion animals they deserve to be.”
HSI worked with the farm owner to remove the dogs from miserable conditions and close its doors for good. As part of the plan, he signed an agreement with HSI to shut down the property. HSI will follow the farmer’s progress to ensure compliance. HSI will demolish the cages in the following days now that all the dogs have been removed.
HSI is working to reduce the dog meat trade in Asia, including in South Korea where dogs are farmed for the trade — and where the 2018 Winter Olympics will be held. HSI will work with other dog farmers who agree to get out of the cruel dog meat trade permanently and transition into more humane trades.
Grammy Award Infographic: The Nominations By the Numbers
Billboard has compiled a selection of striking statistics in advance of the big show, which takes place Feb. 15 in Los Angeles. For more cool infographics, check out their year-end issue of Billboard.
Anne Frank’s diary enters in public domain, 70 years after her death
Anne Frank’s famous Diary of a Young Girl entered the public domain today, making it free to download, read, and distribute, 70 years after her death. Copyright on the diary, written while the young Frank was hiding in an attic with her family from soldiers during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam, was scheduled to run out on January 1st, 2016. Within a few hours of the clock striking midnight on the new year, the full text was available to read — in its original Dutch — online.
The publication comes as a copyright dispute still swirls around the diary. By European law, written works enter the public domain 70 years after their author dies. Anne Frank died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945, but Anne Frank Fonds — the charitable foundation set up in her memory — argues that her father Otto made such significant changes to the manuscript that he had “earned his own copyright.” Otto Frank — who outlived Anne and died in 1980 — reportedly combined two versions of his daughter’s diaries, cutting and pasting certain sections to make a single, readable record. “The book he created earns his own copyright,” Yves Kugelmann, one of Anne Frank Fonds’ trustees, said. “For the purposes of copyright, he is to be viewed as an ‘author’ of that version.”
Some, such as French parliament member Isabelle Attard, have criticized this position, arguing that it lessens the impact of the diary. A spokesperson for Attard — who put a copy of the book up today on her own site — said that adding another author to the diary “is weakening the weight it has had for decades, as a testimony to the horrors of this war.” But Kugelmann specifies that although Otto’s work should reset the copyright clock, “this does not imply that he ‘co-wrote’ anything.”
Via The Verge
When Baseball Players Did Television Ads
Here’s Boston Red Soxer Fred Lynn for Botany 500:
https://youtu.be/WI5ADBl-x4U
And Johnny Bench, catcher for the Cincinnati Reds from 1967 to 1983 and a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame:
https://youtu.be/jPgDVO4HtEM
My favourite, though, was when Kansas City Royals’ star George Brett told us to drink more 7UP:
https://youtu.be/XZJ7yYFIN0M
Paul McCartney Infographic For His “Out There” World Tour
Paul McCartney’s ‘Out There’ tour has continued to travel the world, lasting from May 4th, 2013 to October 22nd, 2015 so his team decided to take a closer look at what goes into making it all happen. McCartney played in Belo Horizonte, Goiânia and Fortaleza, all in Brazil (his first time playing in all three cities) and in Japan for the first time since the Driving World Tour back in 2002.
(Click the image to view the full-sized infographic)
Taylor Swift Had Top Grossing Tour In 2015, Smashing Rolling Stones Record
Taylor Swift is the Top Grossing Artist for 2015 with more than $250 million in ticket sales playing to 2.3 million fans. While that is not a global record, the fact that nearly $200 million of that total came from North America dates means she smashed the previous mark of $162 million set by the Rolling Stones in 2005.
Although The Rolling Stones placed 10th on the chart, the band had the highest average ticket – $174.50. Second is Paul McCartney’s $155.76 followed by Madonna ($127.55), Fleetwood Mac ($125.61), Elton John ($124.49) and U2 ($118.35). Luke Bryan’s $55.48 average ticket price was the lowest on the chart.
Via Pollstar
Star Trek, Shirley Temple, Sarah Vaughan Honored On Official United States Postage Stamps In 2016
he Postal Service is providing a preview of its 2016 stamp program that is sure to attract the interest of fans of Sarah Vaughan, Star Trek, NASA’s New Horizons mission, Trucks, Shirley Temple, flowers, soda fountain fans and the holidays — just to name a small handful.
“Our stamps articulate the American experience through miniature works of art,” said Acting Stamp Services Director Mary-Anne Penner. “Our diverse stamp topics for 2016 are sure to appeal to everyone, and with the New Year just around the corner, now is a perfect time to get started in stamp collecting. It’s an educational hobby the entire family can enjoy.”
Music Icon: Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Vaughan was one of America’s greatest singers, successful in both jazz and pop, with a talent for improvisation and skillful phrasing and a voice that ranged over several octaves.
The stamp art is an oil painting of Vaughan in performance based on a 1955 photograph by Hugh Bell. A few lines of selvage text explain her importance as a Music Icon. The cover side of the pane features a larger version of the stamp art, a list of some of Vaughan’s popular songs, and the Music Icons logo. Bart Forbes was the artist and Ethel Kessler was the art director. The 11 a.m. First-Day-of-Issue dedication ceremony will take place March 29 in Newark, NJ, at the Sarah Vaughan Concert Hall.
Legends of Hollywood: Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple becomes the 20th inductee into the Postal Service’s Legends of Hollywood series. As a child she was the most honored film star in the world. As an adult, Shirley Temple Black had a distinguished career in diplomacy, serving as delegate to the United Nations, U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia and U.S. Chief of Protocol. She received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1998 and a lifetime achievement award from the Screen Actors Guild in 2006.
The stamp art for this Forever stamp features a painting by Tim O’Brien based on a 1935 still image from Curly Top, one of her iconic rolls in movies. The selvage, or area outside of the stamps, features a publicity photo from the 1933 short film “Managed Money.” Ethel Kessler of Bethesda, MD, was the art director for the stamp.
Views of Our Planets
With this pane of 16 Forever stamps, the Postal Service showcases some of the more visually compelling full-disk images of the planets obtained during this era. Eight new colorful Forever stamps, each shown twice, feature Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Some show the planets’ “true color” — what we might see if traveling through space. Others use colors to represent and visualize certain features of a planet based in imaging data. Still others use the near-infrared spectrum to show things that cannot be seen by the human eye invisible light.
The verso text, or text on the back of the stamp pane, explains what these images reveal and identifies the spacecrafts and powerful telescopes that helped obtain them. Antonio Alcalá of Alexandria, VA, was the art director and designer of the stamps. The stamps will be dedicated between May 28 and June 4 at the World Stamp Show – NYC 2016 at the Jacob Javits Center.
Pluto—Explored!
In 2006, NASA placed a 29-cent 1991 Pluto: Not Yet Explored stamp in the New Horizons spacecraft. In 2015 the spacecraft carried the stamp on its history-making mission to Pluto and beyond.
“The New Horizons project is proud to have such an important honor from the U.S. Postal Service,” said Alan Stern, New Horizons lead scientist from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, CO. “Since the early 1990s the old, ‘Pluto Not Yet Explored’ stamp served as a rallying cry for many who wanted to mount this historic mission of space exploration. Now that NASA’s New Horizons has accomplished that goal, it’s a wonderful feeling to see these new stamps join others commemorating first explorations of the planets.”
The souvenir sheet of four stamps contains two new stamps appearing twice. The first stamp shows an artists’ rendering of the New Horizons spacecraft and the second shows the spacecraft’s image of Pluto taken near its closest approach.
The view — which is color enhanced to highlight surface texture and composition — is a composite of four images from New Horizons Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), combined with color data from the imaging instrument Ralph that clearly reveals the now-famous heart-shaped feature. Antonio Alcalá was the art director. The stamps will be dedicated between May 28 and June 4 at the World Stamp Show – NYC 2016 at the Jacob Javits Center.
Star Trek
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the television premiere, the new Star Trek Forever stamps showcase four digital illustrations inspired by classic elements of the television program:
- the Starship Enterprise inside the outline of a Starfleet insignia against a gold background;
- the silhouette of a crewman in a transporter against a red background;
- the silhouette of the Enterprise from above against a green background; and,
- the Enterprise inside the outline of the Vulcan salute (Spock’s iconic hand gesture) against a blue background
The words “SPACE… THE FINAL FRONTIER,” from Captain Kirk’s famous voice-over appear beneath the stamps against a background of stars. The stamps were designed by Heads of State under the art direction of Antonio Alcalá.
How To Make A Relationship Last 25 Years And Longer
In life, we often forget that the simple, little things in relationships truly matter the most. Life already includes enough stress and complications, so your relationship with your partner should provide you with comfort and peace. Of course, you will inevitably encounter some problems in relationships, but you can make it through anything by keeping the following small details in mind.
Using our advice about relationships, these rules can help you to stay focused on what truly matters in a relationship – unconditional love, compassion, understanding, support, gratitude, and commitment. Thanks to the Power Of Positivity for these tips and rules of life.
