In the great Australian tradition that is the bogan, what better way to celebrate real Aussie pride in a town than to create a Big Bogan statue for it? Because that’s exactly what the town of Nyngan in the middle of NSW, Australia, is planning on doing. The Bogan Shire Council, approved the idea several months back, believing that it’ll bring tourists into Nyngan and the general area. And the Big Bogan statue could be unveiled as soon as late September this year. Now, if some are wondering about the appropriateness of celebrating the bogan, or thinking that maybe having a Big Bogan statue in the middle of town may have a negative impact on the perception of the Nyngan community, these concerns have already been voiced. But the Big Bogan statue is moving ahead like a V8 Holden ute filled with beer and a Southern Cross paintjob on dole ...

Dogs. Love them or loathe them, somewhere people are likely to be walking them. Leashed or unleashed, is less of the point here. Because no matter how well trained, at some point dogs are going to want to go to the toilet. Maybe the dog is well trained and simply got caught short. Maybe it’s none of the above. The number one variety doesn’t seem to matter too much to people. Whether it’s for labelling or something else. When you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go. Even in dog-terms. And it should drain away easily enough if outside. While Tarō Gomi assured us in his book that Everyone Poops (or by another title Everyone Eats and …), the author didn’t specifically mention that dogs poop. So that may explain some of the confusion and taboo, but dogs do poop. The question of where dogs poo, can be of importance ...

Perhaps because it’s easier to destroy than create, there’s an attempt to destroy Minas Tirith before it can even be realised. Unrealisable. Inconceivable, as well. Whether made from the slimes of the earth or being from corrupted Elves, a group of purported Orcs are making their own crowdfunding attempt to: Destroy Minas Tirith. The Orcs want to raise via crowdfunding, £1 million to destroy Minas Tirith, the capital city of Gondor. Compared to the £1.85 billion Tolkien fans want to crowdfund the building of the White City, it’s a strange fate that they should suffer so much fear and doubt over so small a thing. Such a little amount. Now it may be that the forces of Mordor seeking to destroy Minas Tirith are not Orcs alone. Or even the Uruk-hai. They may have a cave troll. Or worse, an internet troll. They could also be Olog-hai, and able to ...

The advanced robotics company Boston Dynamics aims change the idea of what robots can do. Outside of science fiction, getting robots to move in a naturalistic manner has proven extremely challenging. But that challenge is being risen to. Traditionally, Boston Dynamics has stuck to robots of the four-legged (quadrupedal) variety, but it has also been working away on the two-legged (bipedal) variety as well. Called Atlas, the agile anthropomorphic robot is very much a humanoid. Two arms, two legs, and a head. In the past, Atlas has been confined to indoors testing environments. The ability to provide a controlled environment is crucial in the early testing phases. Now though, whilst Atlas may not be quite ready to shoulder the weight of the world, the robot has been unleashed to take its first steps walking about in the outside world. Unleashed may not be a wholly accurate description. Because Atlas is ...

Despite the claims being made that an asteroid will hit Earth somewhere near Puerto Rico in mid-to-late September 2015, the most probable answer is it’s not going to happen. As NASA’s Paul Chodas says: “There is no scientific basis – not one shred of evidence – that an asteroid or any other celestial object will impact Earth on those dates.” Further adding: “If there were any object large enough to do that type of destruction in September, we would have seen something of it by now.” The claims surfacing on the internet suggest that the asteroid will cause mass destruction along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States, Mexico, and Central and South America. But the claims are false and utterly wrong. Rumours which have taken on a life of their own. NASA’s Near Earth Object Program does not expect any asteroids (or comets or meteors) to hit ...

Hamas claims to have caught a Mossad spy dolphin as reported by the Israel Defense Forces Radio. Although the Israel Army Radio station reported it, the source (or sources) remains similarly secretive, much like a spy dolphin. The dolphin was purportedly captured off the coast of Gaza several weeks ago, and was dispatched by Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency to gather video surveillance on the militant Hamas al-Qassam Brigades. It was reportedly caught after they grew suspicious of the dolphin’s movements. The dolphin was apparently equipped with a spy camera. However, others such as the Al-Quds newspaper, have reported that the dolphin was also equipped with a device able to fire arrows. The Times of Israel have noted that the Iranian Fars news agency have also reported that the dolphin was a robot, and that the Iranian news claimed: “The spy dolphin was also equipped with small arrows and bullets to ...

A team of Tolkien fans are taking it upon themselves, with the help of some crowdfunding, to build the fictional city of Minas Tirith from The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Called Realise Minas Tirith, the crowdfunding campaign is seeking a trivial (compared to the wealth of Smaug) £1.85 billion to create “a beautiful, inspirational and fully-functioning replica of Peter Jackson’s depiction of Minas Tirith,” as was seen in the director’s LOTR films. Two locations for building the real-life Minas Tirith, both in southern England, are currently being considered. If made, the recreated capital city of Gondor, Minas Tirith, would feature both residential and commercial properties, to span across the five tiers of the city. Those contributing to the crowdfunding campaign could buy such properties; and if the funding goal is not reached all pledges will be cancelled, with pennies and gold coins to be returned in full. Sounding the ...

He was the sixth man to walk on the moon as part of the Apollo 14 mission, but with Edgar Mitchell claiming that aliens prevented nuclear war between the USA and Russia during the Cold War, some are wondering whether it’s time to decommission what may be a celestial object with a decaying orbit. Former NASA astronaut, Edgar Mitchell, now 84 years old, said extraterrestrials visited Earth during the Cold War and disabled missiles. Speaking to The Mirror, Edgar Mitchell recounted: “White Sands was a testing ground for atomic weapons – and that’s what the extraterrestrials were interested in. “They wanted to know about our military capabilities. “My own experience talking to people has made it clear the ETs had been attempting to keep us from going to war and help create peace on Earth.” There is, however, no public record of any encounters of the Third Kind (close or ...

Nintendo fan. Zelda fan. LEGO fan. Combining the three, which some might suggest creates some form of Golden Power, could also lead to 19-year-old Joseph Zawada. Who built the Hyrule Castle from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess entirely out of LEGO. Brick. By brick. By brick. Some two and a half years in the making, no doubt it required the combination of power, wisdom and courage to build the Hyrule Castle from LEGO. Displaying his Hyrule Castle at the recent BrickFair in Virginia, USA, Joseph Zawada talks about his creation in the Beyond the Brick interview below (Midna provided no useful instructions): Hopefully Ganondorf doesn’t revive and destroy Joseph’s LEGO Hyrule Castle in the process. And since it was based on the Twilight Princess version – Zawada’s favourite game in the Zelda franchise – playing an ocarina probably won’t reassemble the LEGO bricks like the chopped up signs in ...

If Ned Flanders and heavy metal seems to go together like nuts and gum, then the good news is they’re together at last. In these times of metal musical fusion (and confusion when it comes the Metallica and Lou Reed collaboration Lulu) with post-prog-djent-epic-core-metal-ness, one band is forging ahead with the new Nedal style. Combining the goodness and likeness of Ned Flanders, with metal. Times five, it’s like a Flanders family reunion. A googly, doogly. The Nedal band is called Okilly Dokilly, and is known to neighbourly wave from across the fence in its Phoenix, Arizona, USA home. Okilly Dokilly is a quintet, with the band members known as Head Ned, Bled Ned, Red Ned, Thread Ned, and Stead Ned. Giving them a fifth Beatle. While they don’t do barbershop, they do still be sharp by keeping their moustaches (or cookie dusters) well-groomed. Along with wearing green sweaters, grey trousers, ...