Amazing Funny pics

A Star Wars Chess Set From A Galaxy Far Far Away

You get chess sets, and then you get Star Wars Droid Chess Sets, like the silver and gold set as designed by Rex Abergas, a 4th year Industrial Design Student at the University of Technology of Sydney.

Being a Chess lover (although in no way a Chess Master…) and having a slight fascination with Star Wars – this is one set I absolutely have to get my hands on. I’ve played on all manner of different sets, and I’d love to give this one a go to.

Instead of the usual Black and White sides, this particular set consists of a Gold and Silver Side. Rex incorporates extraordinary detail, from the Pawns right through the Rooks and Bishops to King and Queen.

To start with the Pawns, they are Pit Droids and they look rather intimidating standing all proud and tall like that. Always eager to be on the front line.

The Destroyer droids, Droidekas, are a fine choice for Knights, in my humble opinion. Sneaky, and always aimed on completely annihilating their enemies, they fit in well with the characteristics of a Knight. Undoubtedly my favorite piece, in this set and in ordinary chess sets.

Everybody’s favourite robot, R2D2 makes his appearance as a Rook. Short and sturdy and straight to the point, just like a Rook’s mobility.

I’m sure the Trade Federation smiled approvingly on the Bishops being portrayed as Super Battle Droids! Fearless droids with limited independence, or limited movement in chess terms, but forceful nonetheless.

I had to spare a laugh when I saw the Queen as C3PO. Look, it is a shiny Sheldon from Big Bang theory! Remember the episode where they played “Guess” and Leonard remarked that Sheldon resembles C3PO. Don’t get him wrong, he is flattered; he just does not see it.

Hailing all the way from deep within the Confederacy, we have General Grievous in the position of King to rule them all. He might be a fine example of a not backing down to anyone. But Kenobi killed him after all. Kenobi would’ve made a great king…

It must be hard choosing which characters to use for a chess set, with such a big variety to choose from. Sadly, we don’t see Han Solo, Darth Vader, or even Boba here. With any luck, Rex will create 6 different sets…

The 10 Most Brilliant Atheists of All Time

Atheism is generating quite a lot of attention these days. Prominent atheists are getting the word out about their views in increasing numbers and generating lots of public debate on the proper place of religion in governments and societies in the modern world. And now more than ever, atheists have been able to network together and join forces because of the Internet.Today about 2.3 percent of the world's population identifies themselves as atheist, and nearly 12 percent more (a number that is quickly growing) describe themselves as nontheist - non-believers in any deity. The ranks of scientists boast probably the largest concentration of atheists, and many of those have been recognized as among the most brilliant of human beings for their work. But there are atheists in all walks of life and throughout history as well.Here's a look at 50 of the most prominent atheists of all time who also happen to be recognized as some of the most brilliant members of our species.

As a note of clarification: we've ordered this list chronologically and we use the term "brilliant" to mean "brilliant at their craft" - not just pure brainiacs;-)

1. Democritus

Democritus was an ancient Greek philosopher, the most prolific and influential of the pre-Socratics and whose atomic theory is regarded as the intellectual culmination of early Greek thought. For this atomic theory, which echoes eerily the theoretical formulations of modern physicists, he is sometimes called the "father of modern science." He was well known to Aristotle, and a thorn in the side to Plato - who advised that all of Democritus' works be burned.

A cheerful and popular man with the citizenry for his uncanny ability to predict events, his was known among his fans as the "Laughing Philosopher," a title that may well have referred more to his scoffing rejection of assigning to gods the mechanistic operations of nature itself. His cosmology and atomic theory held that the world was spheroid, that there were many worlds and many suns, and that all things manifest in nature were comprised of atoms bound together. There are varying accounts of his age at death, ranging from a ripe 90 all the way to 109 years.

2. Diagoras of Melos

The first and most ancient of recognized atheists must include a 5th century b.c.e. poet and sophist from Melos known as Diagoras the Atheist. Not content to simply speak against the popular pantheon of Greek gods, he also criticized the Eleusinian Mysteries. He became a disciple of Democritus after that notable philosopher paid a hefty ransom to free Diagoras from captivity following the subjugation of Melos in 416 b.c.e.

Prosecuted by the Athenian democratic party for impiety in 415 b.c.e., he was forced to flee the city and died in Corinth. None of Diagoras' own writings survive, but in the 1st century b.c.e. Cicero wrote that one of Diagoras' friends tried to convince him that the gods did exist by citing the many people saved from storms by their pleas to their favorite gods, to which Diagoras was purported to reply, "there are nowhere any pictures of those who have been shipwrecked and drowned at sea."

3. Epicurus

Born in 341 b.c.e. in Athens, Epicurus established the school of philosophy known as Epicureanism, and was a follower of Democritus even though his own philosophy denied the influence of strong determinism and often denounced other philosophies as confused. He was an important figure in the early development of the scientific methodology, insisting that nothing which cannot be tested through direct observation and defended through logical deduction should be believed.

For Epicurus the purpose of philosophy was to attain peace of mind and a happy life, freedom from fear and absence of pain. He considered pleasure and pain the measures of that which is good or evil. He insisted that there were no gods to reward or punish humans after death, that the universe is infinite and eternal, and that all things are ultimately material in nature. Epicurus himself was never able to escape a life of pain or a painful death, as he suffered greatly from kidney stones and died at the age of 72 of complications from that ailment.

4. Theodorus the Atheist

[no image available]

Theodorus the Atheist from Cyrene lived around 300 b.c.e. He was banished from Cyrene in his early years, and moved to Athens to become a follower of the younger Aristippus. He also managed to get himself banished from Athens which caused him to go into the service of Ptolemy in Alexandria. It was in this service that he was sent as an ambassador to Lysimachus, who became offended by Theodorus' free speech as a lack of respect and decorum.

Theodorus taught that the aim of human life was to obtain joy and avoid grief, and that joy comes through prudence while grief arises from folly. Prudence and justice represented good, their opposites evil. Laertius complained that Theodorus "did away with all opinions respecting the Gods," but he may have just rejected the notions of deity popular in his time.

5. Andrew Carnegie

Andrew Carnegie [1835-1919] was a noted American industrialist, businessman and philanthropist. A Scottish-born immigrant, he established the Carnegie Steel Company in Pittsburgh and later merged it with the Federal Steel Company to become U.S. Steel. He is regarded as the second richest man in history, then he gave most of his steel and railroad fortune away to establish libraries, schools and universities all over America. He limited himself to an income of $50,000 per year, everything else went into good works.

He wrote many books on the subjects of wealth and its responsibilities, on social issues and on political philosophy. He self-identified as a positivist, and kept away from organized religion due to his distaste of sectarianism. Carnegie preferred naturalism and science, saying in his autobiography that, "not only had I got rid of the theology and the supernatural, but I had found the truth of evolution."

6. Ivan Pavlov

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov [1849-1936] was a Russian physiologist, psychologist and physician. He won the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1904 for research on the digestive system. It was his investigation of the saliva of dogs that first led him to notice that the animals salivated more when they expected food, a phenomenon he termed "psychic secretion." He was particularly interested in studying conditioned behaviors as an experimental model of the induction of neuroses. His approach became known as "behaviorism," and after his death his work was extended by William Sargant and others in an attempt to develop a systematic method for brainwashing and implantation of false memories.

Pavlov died in Leningrad, his laboratory in St. Petersburg was carefully preserved by the Soviet government as a museum. He had one of his students attend him on his deathbed to record the circumstances of his dying, as if it were just another psychological experiment.

7. Sigmund Freud

Born Sigismund Schlomo Freud [1856-1939], Freud was an Austrian psychiatrist founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology. Using his theories of the unconscious mind and defense mechanisms of repression, his psychoanalysis sought to cure sufferers of psychopathology through a dialogue between the patient and his psychoanalyst. He had an elaborate system for interpretation of dreams as indicators of unconscious desires, and did early neurological research on cerebral palsy.

Despite his ideas falling out of favor or being modified in later years, his methodology and theoretics continue to exert influence in the humanities and some social sciences. Freud's family escaped after Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938 and moved to London. He suffered more than 30 operations for oral cancer in his late life, and convinced his physician friend Max Schur to assist his suicide in 1939. His philosophical writings established his strong advocacy for an atheistic world view, and he was eulogized as "the atheist's touchstone" for the 20th century.

8. Clarence Darrow

Clarence Seward Darrow [1857-1938] was an American lawyer, a leading member of the ACLU and a notable defense attorney. Starting out as a corporate lawyer for a railroad company, he soon jumped the ideological tracks and represented the leader of the American Railway Union in the Pullman Strike of 1894.

His most famous case was the defense of Tennessee teacher John Scopes in the "Monkey Trial" against the state law that barred the teaching of evolution. The prosecution side was argued by William Jennings Bryan, the the trial served as the story for the play and later film, Inherit the Wind. During the trial Darrow self-identified as an agnostic by saying, "I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure - that is all that agnosticism means." Yet he wrote essays with titles like "Absurdities of the Bible" and "The Myth of the Soul," suggesting that his agnosticism was strong enough to be considered atheism.

9. Richard Strauss

Richard Georg Strauss [1864-1949] was a brilliant German composer who began writing music at the age of six and continued almost until his death. He was noted for his "tone poems" and operas such as Salome and Elektra, which made use of dissonance and generated much public outcry. During the Nazi period he was appointed president of the German State Music Bureau and composed the theme song for the infamous 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. He produced the opera Friedenstag in 1938, a thinly veiled criticism of the Third Reich. He is said to have stretched his influence very thin in his efforts to protect his son and Jewish daughter-in-law and their children from the Nazis.

Strauss was dubious of all religion, except perhaps the religion of reason. "I shall never be converted, and I shall remain true to my old religion of the classics until my life's end," he declared shortly before his death.

10. Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Arthur William Russell [1872-1970], 3rd Earl of Russell, was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, pacifist and social activist. Russell led the revolt against idealism in the early 20th century and is considered along with Wittgenstein and Frege a founder of analytic philosophy, which considers formal logic and science as the principal tools of philosophy. Russell was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1950.

Russell was not fond of organized religion, but expressed some difficulty in defining himself as an agnostic or an atheist. In his 1949 speech, "Am I an Atheist or an Agnostic?" Russell admitted that he could not prove the non-existence of God any more than he could prove the non-existence of the Homeric gods. But in his autobiography he stated, "At the age of eighteen, ...I read Mill's Autobiography, where I found a sentence to the effect that his father taught him the question "Who made me?" cannot be answered, since it immediately suggests the further question "Who made God?" This led me to abandon the "First Cause" argument, and to become an atheist."

Coolest Female Superhero Costumes Based on Comic Book Characters

In recent years, though, the prevalence of the super-hero in Hollywood has led to more and more costumes being produced that tie into our favorite comics and cartoons, and that means costumes like Sexy Wolverine are now available to purchase.

And belive it or not, they only get more ridiculous from there. That's why today, we picked out 15 of the coolest super-hero female costumes to see how they stack up against the originals that inspired them!

Like a lot of people, I'd always assumed that X-23, the clone of Wolverine, was created to give guys who were confused about their feelings for Wolverine a slightly more acceptable-to-them target to pin their affections on, but the costume department has straight up cut out the middleman on this one. And while I do think those gloves are pretty boss, I'm very disappointed that they didn't include my favorite part of Wolverine's look, the mask that looks exactly like his hair.

But Sexy Bumblebee?! You're going to pick two and only two Transformers, and you use the second slot for Bumblebee? Don't get me wrong, I actually kinda like this one - I can't quite put my finger on why, but it's pretty cute, even though it should totally come with gigantic Volkswagen-hood slippers to tromp around in all night - but aren't there other characters that would make way more sense? At the very least, you'd think we'd be getting Sexy Megatron. 

Ah, that's better. I think this one's actually pretty great, and is about as close to accurate as you're likely to get from a store-bought costume. But in the interest of full disclosure, I feel I should point out that Street Fighter II came out right when I was hitting puberty, and I've totally had a thing for comically over-sized spiked bracelets ever since. I make no apologies.

I'm not gonna lie, folks, I love the sexy Cobra Soldier costume. For one thing, and I know this is going to sound crazy, it's got an amazing touch of accuracy, it even includes the straps that hold the dagger on the left leg! 

For another, in the G.I. Joe episode "The Viper Is Coming", in which 22 minutes are devoted to setting up a groaner of a joke that was old even for the target audience of impressionable toy-buying youngsters, the team discovers a massive cobra vacation center in which a dance troupe called the Cobra Cuties performs nightly. Sadly, the Cobra Cuties are never brought up again, but if they had been, I like to think that's exactly how they'd look. 

And yes, I just validated the existence of a truly insane Sexy Cobra Soldier costume with my in-depth knowledge of cartoons. That's just how I roll.

Wow, Corey Feldman's looking good these days!

Yes, I know: This has nothing to do with comics. But a sexy version of Elmo is the kind of thing that when you see it, you have to tell someone else, or it'll just sit there in your brain slowly driving you insane as you try to figure out why it exists. 

Even so, if you take away the hat, which totally makes it look like this girl defeated Elmo in ritual combat and is wearing his skin as a trophy, this would make a pretty good costume for Sexy My Grandparent's Couch.

 

Yeah, that's about right. OK, you could call this one out for going with a skirt rather than the pants, but considering Emma Frost's original costume was a corset, panties, thigh-high boots and a cape, that's not really out of character for her. I'm more concerned about the hair going on there. Has Emma joined a 60s girl group? Actually, that would be awesome.

I'm not trying to brag here, folks, but I've seen Ghostbusters a pretty good amount of times, and I can assure you that I have no memory of this costume appearing in the film. Admittedly, there's a good chance I would've blocked it out had Dan Aykroyd actually squeezed into a push-up top and a pair of booty shorts and ... oh God, now I'm imagining that. MOVE ON!!!

I've got to say, this is actually a pretty dead-on costume for Green Lantern Arisia that, if anything, is actually more modest than its comic-book counterpart, since it lacks the plunging neckline of the original. I wish there was something to make a joke about it, but there isn't. This is a totally accurate costume for anyone who wants to dress up as an underage alien who wanted to get it on with Hal Jordan, and thus used her power ring to give herself a more womanly figure and a sexier outfit, but was later retconned into actually being like 240 years old so that people would stop thinking Hal was such a creep, even though she was still the equivalent of around thirteen at the time. Nothing weird or sketchy about that.

Oh now come on. This alleged Hello Kitty is essentially the Sexy Lady version of the crappy costumes you used to get from the grocery store back when I was growing up, right down to the fact that it's got Hello Kitty's face right where it would be on a plastic smock back in the day. And get real, lady, your bow's on the wrong side.

Once again, this one's billed as being an "Ironette", but since it doesn't look anything at all like Tony Stark's squadron of personal cheerleaders, I'm making a judgment call and saying this is totally meant to be a lady version of Iron Man. And aside from, you know, the fact that's "for women" automatically equals "pleated skirt", that's actually pretty cool.

Yes, I'm aware that they're based on the movie and not the cartoon. Sexy Optimus Prime, in which a robot that can turn into a truck is screenprinted onto a flimsy top in such a way that the windshield (and if you look closely, wipers) are right over the breasts. And that's more or less where any attempt at accuracy both starts and ends. Plus, this thing might as well come with a warning that some dude with the scent of spiked punch on his breath is definitely going to offer you his Rodimus.

You'd think if they were going to make a ladies version of a Robin costume, they would've based it on one actually worn by a female Robin, as seen during Stephanie Brown's extremely brief tenure as Batman's sidekick. Instead, the color scheme and the design of the utility belt give me the idea that it's based more on Robin's look in the Teen Titans cartoon. So if you're looking for a slightly off-model Sexy Robin costume that can double as a slightly off-model Krissy Lynn costume, here you go! 

It's a shame, too, because turning the red tunic into a minidress and accessorizing it with green leggings while keeping the same basic deisgn and black/yellow cape that Tim Drake wore is a really nice way of making it distinctly feminine without being "girly". What? You think I spent all these years reading Batman comics and never thought about the fashion?

You know how I know that the costume people didn't actually know what Spider-Girl looked like? Because this is the costume they came up with to represent her. I will admit, though, using May Parker's bigger spider-emblem to make the straps for the top is actually pretty clever. It just happens to be a clever idea on a costume so ridiculous that even the drawing of Spider-Girl up there is shrugging in disbelief.

This costume's actually billed as being "Sexy Black Costume Spider-Girl", but I'm pretty sure whatever branch of Marvel it was that licensed this thing only had the vaguest idea that they did in fact own a character called "Spider-Girl" so I'm calling it as Venom. After all, that gives you an iron-clad defense against allegations of inaccuracy, as the Venom symbiote can look ilke anything! And if I had to wear it, I'd certainly change it to ... well, not a mini-dress. Don't get me wrong, I like the little spider at the hip, I just don't have the legs for it :)

Interesting Facts and Fictions about Wine Corks

Here are some very interesting Facts and Fiction concerning cork, screw caps and plastic closures.It can clear misconception about corks.

The Facts

1) The trees are not cut down, they are harvested, by hand, every 9 years.

2) A cork tree that is harvested of its bark will, over its lifetime, absorb 10 tons more CO2 than one not harvested.

3) There is no cork shortage; in fact, there is enough cork to close all the bottles of wine produced for the next 100 years.

4) Wine taint from TCA is less than 1%, not the ridiculous numbers of 6-10%.

5) Cork forests support one our planet's highest levels of forest biodiversity and keep 6.6 million acres of the Mediterranean basin from becoming a desert.

6) Wineries are choosing screw caps and plastic closure for financial reasons, not wine quality.

7) Screw caps and plastic closures are not sustainably sourced or biodegradable.

The Fiction

1) Screw caps are recycled in the US.No, they are not. They are too small to be picked up in the sorting facilities and end up in landfills.

2) Screw caps are more environmentally friendly than cork.Mining for bauxite remains one of the most environmentally devastating practices on our planet. The aluminum industry uses 1% of all the electricity generated in the world.

3) Wine cannot be “tainted” if closed with a screw cap.About 2% of all screw cap wines are affected by some sort of “taint”.

4) There are no health issues when using a screw cap.Recent studies have shown higher than normal levels of endocrine disruptors in wines closed with screw caps because of the plastic seal inside the cap.

5) Plastic closures are recyclable.Yes, but less than 1% of them ever are. They end up in landfills, being incinerated or floating around in our oceans.

6) Plastic is safe for use with wine.Wine is a solvent due to its alcohol content. When plastic and solvents come in contact, there is leaching (much the same as with the screw cap).

7) Plastic is safe for our environment.Plastic never goes away, it may break down into small particles, but it is here forever.