Published: 9:48AM GMT 11 Mar 2010

Jan Vormann, 26, has taken his project from its humble beginnings at an art fair in Rome and brightened up thousands of people’s days with his brightly coloured plastic version of Polyfilla.

From the old quarter of Tel Aviv in Israel to the grand Bryant Park of New York, Mr Vormann has acted either independently or with the city’s permission to leave a tiny part of his childhood behind.

Estimating to have used upwards of 1,000 of the tiny Danish building blocks, Mr Vormann enlists the help of passers-by intrigued by his careful placing of the Lego bricks.

“I like to think of my work as a Repair Manifesto,” stated the Berlin-based installation artist.

“My work draws attention to the smallest parts of our cities that are falling apart because of the brightness of the Lego.

“It draws people’s attention through the coloured blocks and makes them aware that this wall or statue or construction is not complete anymore, for whatever reason.

“In the case of my latest project in New York which I finished in early March, I simply wanted to help the Mayor Bloomberg brighten up the great city.”

Beginning his work at an arts festival just outside Rome in 2007, Mr Vormann is most proud of his international travel that has taken him to Ecuador and to Serbia.

Mr Vormann said: “My favourite work was done in Berlin.

“I filled in the holes still left by guns and shrapnel from the Second World War.

“That drew peoples attention to the Lego and hopefully they would ask themselves why the Lego was there.”

source : www.telegraph.co.uk

A British couple have infuriated neighbours after painting their house bright pink.

Mr Rogers and Mrs Hall, both 50 – who live in the picturesque village of Acton Beauchamp, Herefordshire – have become embroiled in a planning dispute with neighbours after painting their 400-year-old Grade II-Listed cottage a garish colour.

Council planners have ordered the cottage is painted white again because it’s a listed building but the couple have lodged an appeal with the Government’s Planning Inspectorate to have it delisted.

Neighbour Brian Taylor said: “It’s an absolute disgrace and makes the whole village look tacky. It’s a garish blot on the village.”

Mrs Hall claimed neighbours were simply “jealous”.

She said: “This paint colour was not chosen willy-nilly or on a whim. The people protesting are probably just jealous because we have had a massive extension put onto our cottage which has made the house bigger.”

source : www.wayodd.com

A South African teenager has reportedly given birth to a baby even though she has no genitals.

The teenager – who was stabbed in the stomach by an ex-boyfriend after he caught her having oral sex with a man at a bar – has allegedly given birth after the knifing granted sperm to move from her stomach to her internal reproductive organs, creating a baby.

Despite having no vagina, she went on to have a caesarean, giving birth to a boy resembling her attacker.

The story, which is currently circulating the internet, first surfaced on the world wide web 22 years ago.

Dr Allan Pacey, a lecturer at the University of Sheffield said: “I imagine it is incredibly rare. Timing is everything and it would have had to happen very quickly after the man ejaculated. The fact the son resembled the dad excludes an even more miraculous conception.”

source : www.wayodd.com

AN angry bride-to-be trashed a wedding store in Oakland County, Michigan, after a staff member refused to make alterations to her dress.

The Sun reports the women entered the boutique to buy a dress, but ended up arguing with employees.

Store owner Hekmat Putruss stated when he told the bad-mouthing bridezilla to leave, she flipped out.

"She started threatening me, saying ‘you do not know who I am, I’ll call my husband to kill you, to teach everyone here a lesson,’" he said.

Three men later turned up at the store accompanied by the bride-to-be and a large brawl erupted, in an incident caught on CCTV.

The video footage showed one of the men shoving Mr Putruss into a display case and tackling him to the ground.

Another man spat on Mr Putruss’s wife and slapped her face, as mannequins in the store were picked up and used as weapons.

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Police finally arrived at the store and arrested the three men, who were later charged with assault.

Mr Putruss stated he and his family sustained injuries from the attack and that the estimated damage bill would come to around $20,000.

"They just attacked without notice," he said.

"This is a clothing store, a women’s clothing store. We do not anticipate things like this to happen."

Read more on this story at The Sun online

source : www.news.com.au

The unidentified 33-year-old was pulled over in a traffic stop in Wichita, Kansas last Thursday, and was found to be bleeding from the head. He told officers he had attempted to purchase several hundred dollars worth of crack cocaine using money from the popular capitalism-simulation game.

Police spokesman Gordon Bassham said: ‘The man from whom he had purchased the drugs was upset and invited him over to his house and upon arrival struck him in the head several times with a handgun and other people jumped into the fray.’

The man’s injuries were not serious, and he has now stopped cooperating with the police’s investigation. Authorities are still searching for his assailants.

source : rss.feedsportal.com

Crowds watched in awe as the last of the 218,792 cards was yesterday placed on a model of The Venetian hotel in Macau south-east Asia.

He had earlier finished the Plaza and Sands hotel to break his own Guinness World Record for stacking freestanding cards.

‘This has been the most ambitious project I have undertaken to date,’ Mr Berg said.

‘It’s like a real construction project because you have to engineer every single adjacency and every support that’s supporting everything above.’

Mr Berg was inspired to take up the hobby by his grandfather and was eager to pass on his stacking skills to youngsters while his project was under construction at The Venetian which sits at the heart of the Cotai Strip.

No tape or glue can be used in card stacking and to prove that Mr Berg has complied with the rules he will publicly knock down his 10.5m-long (35ft) construction in ten days time.

The cards used in the record attempt, if laid end to end, would stretch more than 17km (10 miles) and weigh more than 227kg (500lb). No wonder he stepped away very carefully.

Guinness created a new record for the largest house of freestanding playing cards to recognise a replica of Cinderella’s castle that Bryan Berg made for Walt Disney World in 2004

Mr Berg first broke the world record for the tallest house of cards in 1992 at the age of 17, with a 4.67m (14ft 6in) tower

His most recent tallest record was a 7.62m (25ft ) tower built at the African-American Museum at Fair Park in Dallas, Texas, in 2007

source : rss.feedsportal.com

Sophia Heesch appeared on a German show and identified various Star Wars Lego figures while wearing a blindfold. How did she do this? By sticking them in her mouth and rolling her tongue around them, of course.

Sophia claimed she could recognise 80 characters using only her mouth. She was challenged on Wetten, Dass..? (Wanna Bet?) to identify four out of five, which she duly did – only being stumped by a snowtrooper. She named Han Solo, Princess Leia, an ASP Droid and Yoda to win her ‘bet’.

The video of her completing the task is becoming a YouTube hit, even though most commenters seem baffled by her ‘gift’. ‘What kind of sick show is this?’ asked one, while another wrote: ‘And people complain about how stupid some of America’s game shows are.’

However, one simply commented: ‘Awesome’. Please, children, do not try this at home…

source : rss.feedsportal.com

“The old name needed a makeover, as we enter the second decade of the new millennium. Thank you to all those involved whom made this happen.”

“I cannee think of a better way te state happy birthday to Ron Hubbard than this name change. Well done to everyone involved.”

“It seems like a great idea to me.”

“I am writing a song to commemorate this wonderful news.”

“If this is not a too gay 1960’s thing to say: Color me happy!”

“I have been urging them for years to do this and now they have. Patient meditation really does work wonders.”

“Wonderful, wonderful news. I have not cried like that since the night Obama was elected president.”

“I will be humming my own three minutes silence tomorrow morning to celebrate this new beginning.”

“Does a daisy make a sound when it grows in the woods when there is nobody there to hear it grow? I think you know what I mean.”

source : www.thevoiceofreason.com

By Heidi Blake
Published: 9:59AM GMT 10 Mar 2010

Dr Alan Murphy was ordered by planning officers at Swale Borough Council to “sink the court deeper” and plant hedging to “muffle” the sound of grunts in the grounds of his £750,000 home in the village of Throwley, near Faversham in Kent.

Neighbours had complained to planning chiefs that the tennis court would “upset their summer garden parties” and cause a noise nuisance in the little village of just 130 homes, which is located in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

One resident feared flying tennis balls could land in her Pimms glass if she ventured out onto her lawn during evening drinks. Detatched cottages in the leafy Kent village have sold for as much as £1 million.

Dr Murphy and his wife Lucy have lived at the cottage on Bethel Row – a secluded lane of just eight cottages – for 10 years.

Their plans include the conversion of a barn as well as the brand new sunken tennis court in their grounds.

One of their neighbours, who did not want to be named, said: “I’ve lived here 13 years. I’m just a stone’s throw away from the proposed tennis court.

“Playing tennis will cause a nuisance factor especially if I have to hear the balls bouncing when I’m sitting in my garden during the summer.”

Another, who also asked to remain anonymous, said: “Tennis players always seem to be grunting or screaming whenever they hit the ball – can you imagine having to put up with that all summer?

“It would drive you mad and you would not want to use your garden and the balls would constantly end up in your Pimm’s.”

A resident of Throwley stated the tennis court had caused “quite a spat” in the village. “Some people are just not happy about it at all as they think it will disrupt their garden parties and generally cause a disturbance what with balls bouncing all over the place and players making a lot of noise,” she said.

Dr Murphy’s proposal to the council reads: “Listed building consent for converting old barn into annexe. New tennis court and ancillary works.”

Councillors considered the complaints but gave approval last week for the tennis court to be built on the condition that steps are made to “soundproof” it.

Dr Murphy, who has concurred to take the necessary steps to grant the court to be built, has also been banned from installing floodlights so matches can’t be played at night.

source : www.telegraph.co.uk

Published: 9:46AM GMT 10 Mar 2010

Glenn Martin, 50, has released details of the deal with an unnamed international aircraft company for the world’s first commercial jetpack.

More than 500 Martin Jetpacks will be manufactured each year but there is already a waiting list of one year as commuters scramble to get their hands on one.

The machine costs just £42,000 but is expected to revolutionise the military and be taken up by emergency services worldwide.

It is driven by two 200 horsepower propellers and can travel at 60mph for up to 30 miles on a full tank of fuel.

And users should have no problem scaling over traffic black spots, with the jetpacks reaching heights of 7,800ft in test flights.

Unbelievably, buyers will not even need a pilots license because aviation laws say the jetpacks are not heavy enough to require one. Each jetpack, when empty of fuel, weighs 18st (113kgs).

However, it will give environmentalists a headache. The five foot by five foot five inch device burns 10 gallons of fuel per hour five times as much as the average car.

Glenn Martin, from Martin Aircraft Company, in Christchurch, New Zealand, said: “When I was a kid I dreamed of flying around in a jetpack, just like most five-year-old children do.

“I put that to one side as I was growing up, as you do. Then in 1981, when I was 21 and at university, a conversation came up about why we are not flying around in jetpacks.

“So I used the university system to look at it and discovered the old Bell Rocket Belt that we have all seen used in movies and at the opening of the Olympic games.

“But it only flew for 26 seconds and not only that, you had to weigh less than 70kgs (11st). I weigh almost 100kgs (16st) so that was never going to work for me.

“So in my spare time at university I researched it and to cut a long story short, came up with mathematical formulas and a design of a machine that could fly for about half an hour and lift a decent sized person.”

Now 29 years later, he has come up with an simple to fly jetpack that can lift 120 kgs (19st).

Mr Martin said: “The most common question we’ve had is When can I have a go? And now someone with reasonable co-ordination can come in and within 40 minutes of training, be up in the air and stable.”

source : www.telegraph.co.uk