The deadlift may or may not be the ultimate test of strength, but when Eddie Hall became the first man ever to deadlift 500 kilograms (1,102.31 pounds) officially in competition over the weekend, few had any reason to doubt his strength. That he broke his own deadlift world record again only solidified that fact. Burst blood vessels and nosebleeds were the price paid for victory and all part of Hall’s half ton deadlift. Eddie Hall, also known as “The Beast” is currently considered England’s strongest man. A title he was held since 2011. The 28-year-old Englishman is also currently ranked the fourth strongest man in the world. Speaking to the Yorkshire Post about his record-breaking 500kg deadlift, Hall offered up the following: “That nearly killed me. The pressure on my body was surreal. I passed out after. I had nose bleeds. It’s not healthy doing something like that. “But I’ve ...

Professional matador, 29-year-old Victor Barrio, was killed in a bullfight in Teruel, in Spain. The event was filmed on live television, as part of the festival Feria del Ángel. The bull, known as Maños and weighing some 529 kilograms, flipped Barrio over with its horns, before goring him further as it drove him into the ground. Festival participants came to the matador’s aid, though Victor Barrio’s injuries were severe and he later died in hospital with doctors unable to save him. A warning that the following video contains graphic images. Bullfighting in Spain is considered part of the Spanish heritage and culture; there are also those who are strongly opposed to bullfighting. Barrio’s death is said to be the first death of a matador in a bullfight in Spain this century, and the first human death in the bullring death since 1987. The deaths of the bulls, however, are virtually ...

Pokémon Go is being praised for many things. Apart from the game itself, it’s also encouraging people to go outside and walk around, actively searching for Pokémon in the augmented reality (AR) experience of Pokémon GO. Indoors and outdoors, video games and physical activity, are all somehow coming together nicely. The official release of Pokémon Go has also been thanked for the near 9 percent jump in Nintendo’s (TYO: 7974) share price on Friday, 8 July 2016. If only cause and effect were so easily established in the real world where it’s not like the simple but random matter of evolving an Eevee, but that’s beside the point. At hand is a fourth choice. A fourth way. A fourth starting Pokémon. And that starting Pokémon is none other than Pikachu himself. (Assuming Pikachu is a male. The issue of an individual Pokémon versus collective Pokémon gets a bit muddled, and ...

Tim, one of the oldest and largest bull elephants in the Amboseli National Park in Kenya, Africa, made good on the scientifically validated statement that an elephant never forgets. The male elephant had been wounded by a spear, and sought out human help. Tim had already been speared once before, in the rump, back in the 2014. He needed human help then, and vets aided his recovery. Wounds on the 47-year-old elephant in 2016 included a piece of metal sticking through Tim’s ear and a bleeding injury on his forehead. With the aid of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and the Amboseli Trust for Elephants (ATE) amongst others, Tim was tracked, and upon daylight was tranquilised for vets to tend to his wounds. The Big Life Foundation was also involved in helping to heal Tim, stating that: “To all our relief, the spear wasn’t poisoned, and had gone through the ...

The third movie in the rebooted Star Trek franchise has had another reveal. Star Trek Beyond has the character Hikaru Sulu in a same-sex relationship, and the couple have a daughter together. This makes Sulu the first openly LGBT (or LGBTQIA) character in the series. It was done as a nod, or an homage, to George Takei, who played Sulu in the original Star Trek television series which debuted on NBC in September 1966 in the USA. George Takei come out publicly as openly gay in 2005, and was aware that the character Sulu would be depicted as gay in Star Trek Beyond in 2016. From there, it gets a little more complicated. Actor John Cho, who plays Sulu in the rebooted movies, has indicated the direction of the character in the new film is not a major plot point. Speaking to the Herald Sun, Cho said: “I liked the ...

Use a slang or colloquial term enough, maybe it’ll go mainstream. Then if that happens, it could become a proper word, so to speak, officially recognised by dictionaries. At which point, those who originally used it will probably stop using it, even as the rest of the population hitches a ride on the bandwagon. Thumbing through it like the secret thesaurus of a cunning linguist. This has now happened for the phrase-cum-word “budgie smugglers” which has been in use in Australia since roughly the 1990s, being officially recognised and included in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) as a sub-entry in the new words list June 2016. With budgie smugglers now officially in the dictionary, as opposed to the dictionary being in the budgie smugglers (usually sneakily so around aquatic spelling bees), it doesn’t take much to define that it could be somewhat disturbing. Whether it has something to do with ...

It’s more than a figurative nod to Hillary Clinton and her nodding ways. Collectibles toymaker Royal Bobbles have taken the literal approach and created a Hillary Clinton bobblehead doll. Both the politician and doll will probably take it on the chin. Then nod back and forth in almost hypnotic agreement. The nodding action which inspired the Hillary Clinton bobblehead doll, has been videoed numerous times. On the campaign trail in America, seemingly its occurrence is more regular than clockwork, Old Faithful, or a patriotic US pensioner on a steady diet of prunes. Whether Hillary is over-coached and overplaying a body language indicator of interest, genuinely agrees with what is being said, or is in the process of microsleeps, her head nods back and forth all the same regardless. It’s the prefect inspiration for a bobblehead doll, and imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness. ...

Bryan Cranston is the voice of Zordon in the upcoming Power Rangers (2017) movie. And with sufficient motion capture and CGI, he’ll also be the face of Zordon, floating on the screen in the command centre and giving orders to the Power Rangers. It may seem strange that actor Bryan Cranston, who’s most widely known for his critically acclaimed performance as Walter White on Breaking Bad, is now apparently doing an adults’ nostalgia movie for children. As though after the incredible success of Breaking Bad it was only going to be downhill, so he may as well play the role of Zordon for laughs and a few dollars in the bank. However, what may not be known, is that the nostalgia factor runs a little deeper for Cranston. Before making it bigger, Cranston was a voice actor for some rather forgettable villains on the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers television ...

“Holy kill count Batman!” It turns out Ben Affleck’s stint as Batman (aka “Batfleck”) in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) killed the most people of any movie Batman yet. Even though the deaths may have been more the by-products of indirect collateral damage, the movie made for one dark depiction of the superheroes Superman and Batman. In the movie, understandably excluding the bad dream sequence, the death toll from Batman tallied up at 21. Beating out Batman’s previous movie maximum kill count of 17 in the Tim Burton film Batman (1989) when Michael Keaton wore the cowl. Thanks to the work of Mr Sunday Movies, proof of the carnage caused by Batman in the BvS movie has been spliced together as a kill count supercut (because a montage sounded too campy). Of course the BvS movie was largely based on Frank Miller’s miniseries The Dark Knight Returns. Where ...

Clothing company UNIQLO and Nintendo have partnered together for the UTGP17 global t-shirt design competition. Unsurprisingly, the theme of the t-shirt must be Nintendo. For inspirational purposes, potential content ideas are conveniently shown in the format of a video: Entry to the competition closes 31 August 2016, based on the time in Japan. Full details of the competition can be read at UNIQLO’s Q&A and Regulation webpages. The prize-winning t-shirts are expected to start retailing in spring 2017. The Grand Prize is $10,000, plus an invitation to the awards ceremony complete with Shigeru Miyamoto attending, and the winner will also receive the still-codenamed NX – Nintendo’s newest video game console. What the NX exactly is, at this stage it’s all rumours and speculation. The cat’s still in the bag, but once let out it could be more exciting than a house full of cats. Even for non-cat ladies. And those ...