A Hair Raising High Five

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Comb Bike RackWhether it’s pictures, videos, news or just plain interesting stuff we cram it all into our daily five links, so why not tell us what you think on our Facebook and twitter pages? If there’s something interesting we’ve missed why not put forward your own links and we’ll include them the next day? 

FANCY A BACKCOMB? (Aimee)

Imagine the backcombing potential of this beast.  But, it’s not for your heed,  it’s a temporary solution to bicycle parking!  It sits outside the Knowhow Shop LA and was created for the city of Roanoke by Joshua Howell and Kagan Taylor of Popup Design as a piece of public art.  It comes in at a weight of over 400 pounds and was handcrafted out of Mangaris using full mortise and tenon construction.

http://thefoxisblack.com/2011/06/24/giant-comb-bike-rack-from-knowhow-shop-la/

GO FORTH AND MULTIPLY – THE BELIEVERS ARE! (Scott)

A boffin at Cambridge University has used complex mathematical modelling which demonstrates that a “religiosity gene” is likely to become globally dominant in the future. Believers of most faiths tend to have significantly more children than secular couples. This means a gene which predisposes people to follow the religion of their forbears is spreading fast – of “hitchhiking” on that greater fertility. The gene also means those carrying it are more likely to be both obedient and conservative. Seems we are destined for a  world full of unswerving and unquestioning zealots. If you are a non-believer yourself and you’d like to avoid this future, then ironically you will have to take some advice from the Bible – go forth and multiply.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-01-religiosity-gene-dominate-society.html

DO YOU HATE MS JONES? THE GUARDIAN DOES… (Adrian)

It’s been a good few weeks for The Guardian newspaper thanks to its ongoing crusade to kick the Murdoch Empire over the News of the World scandal. For a publication that’s often been accused of lacking a killer bite (or, in fact, any bite at all), the left wing broadsheet has been surprisingly vocal and savage in its coverage of the phone hacking furore – and is delighting in News International’s downfall. But it seems like now they’ve got a taste for blood, The Guardian is desperate to keep the hunt going. As a result, the paper has now turned its attention to the Mail on Sunday and its controversial columnist Liz Jones – and the results are very pleasing to see. The Mail is apparently sending Jones out to cover the ongoing famine in Somalia because, you know, a former anorexic, body-obsessed fashionista and hate-mongering columnist is totally the right choice of correspondent for such a delicate job rather than, say, an actual journalist. Guardian HQ clearly thinks the same and has now savaged the paper in its daily opinion and column pages. Top work.  

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/01/liz-jones-somalia-famine

IT’S A DOGS LIFE (Laura)

Photographer Carli Davidson has put together this unique series of images, which show mans best friend looking far from their best. Playing around with her new equipment, Carli captured her furry models mid shake making for some pretty hilarious and in some cases cute pictures of the dogs gurning, drooling and spittling. And if you’re wondering how she got the dogs to shake their heads so perfectly apparently she whispered something rude into their ears.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2021434/Shake-spittle-drool-Gurning-dogs-captured-freeze-frame-hilarious-results.html

DOES SOCIAL MEDIA MAKE US STUPID? (Scott)

There are many worthy and scientifically sound studies looking at the effects of the internet and social media on brain function, memory performance etc. However you don’t have to look to far to see the many and varied ways in which these digital technologies help some users to appear incredibly dumb. One of my favourites is Lamebook, which hunts down and highlights the worst (or best) cases of idiocy, dopiness, stupidity and fecklessness to appear on the world’s biggest social network. Here are couple of examples – one a verbose love letter from a jilted boyfriend, the other a woman accusing the worng man of fathering her child. Somehow this pair of Einsteins forgot their comments were public. D’oh”!

http://www.lamebook.com/romantic-rapta/