How the tank’s invention was secretly plotted in an English hotel

"The panic started, everyone from 1st and 3rd Companies jumped out of the trench and ran the fastest race of his life, pursued by the merciless tank machine-gun fire which cut down many men as if it were a rabbit-shoot." So remembered German soldier Wilhelm Speck, of the 84th Reserve Regiment. 

 Some ran. Some stood and fought. But no-one forgot their first meeting with a tank. 

A weapon without precedent, which went on to dominate the battlefields of the 20th Century.

 And it was designed by two men, in little more than two months, working out of a small hotel room in Lincoln.

 

Cult of Office Supplies

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Bill Hicks: The most outspoken and necessary stand-up of modern times

Dominic Cavendish pays tribute to a comedian who made rare sense of the world we live in.

 

Waiting for Godot

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Can you hear me now?

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Stray Dogs and Stateless Babies

On National Geographic Traveler Magazine’s Best of the World list this year, Sarajevo joined such select destinations as Liechtenstein, Puglia and Rocky Mountain National Park.
 But had the innocent tourist recently visited “the Balkan urban phoenix,” as the list labeled the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, he would most certainly have run into packs of stray dogs roaming the city. In 2009, animal rights activists succeeded in passing a law that outlawed killing stray dogs, and mandated that every municipality build a shelter, which, of course, no municipality could afford.
As a result, Sarajevo became home to more than 13,000 dogs; packs attacked children; cats and squirrels disappeared. No government functionary took responsibility for the situation; nobody resigned; nobody was fired. continue

 

I Won't Eat, You Can't Make Me! (And They Couldn't)

So, Giant Isopod No. 1 arrived in Japan, settled in, and at first everything was fine. It ate normally, did all the things one would hope a giant isopod would do (stay still, then scuttle, wave its front legs, stop, stay still) until one day, on January 2, 2009, something happened. It was mealtime, and after nibbling lightly on some horse mackerel, No. 1 stopped eating and walked away from its food. It wouldn't finish. No. 1's caretaker, Takeya Moritaki, couldn't figure out what was wrong. He tried pushing the food closer. No. 1 didn't care. He tried different foods. No. 1 wasn't interested. It would either push the food away, or walk away. He tried sticking No. 1's face into the food. Nothing. He even tried changing the temperature to make No. 1 hungrier, or more comfortable. Still nothing. Months went by. Then years. No.1 didn't eat anything for all of 2010, then for all of 2011, then for all of 2012. By this time, word got out that a big crab was on some kind of hunger strike at Toba Aquarium, and people began showing up for its feedings, or rather, not-feedings, to see if it would finally break fast.
 It didn't.

 

Tymoshenko: ‘Heroes will never die’

Ukraine's parliament has voted to push President Viktor Yanukovych out of office hours after he fled the capital and denounced events in the country as "a coup d'etat" in a television interview. The legislature also voted to release Yanukovych's jailed arch-rival, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Reuters reports that the 53-year-old ex-premier, who had been held in a hospital under prison guard since 2011 for abuse of office over a gas deal with Russia — a charge widely viewed by her supporters as politically motivated — was freed shortly after the vote.Speaking after her release, Tymoshenko said the ouster of Yanukovych amounted to the fall of a dictator. "Our homeland will from today on be able to see the sun and sky as a dictatorship has ended," she told reporters. "Each drop of blood was not spilled in vain," she said referring to the deaths of some 77 protesters in violence in recent days. Tyomoshenko, who later addressed a crowd in Kiev, called the opposition supporters gathered to greet her, called them "heroes." "You are the best thing in Ukraine!" she said.

 

Need a soft pillow?

Look no further than your pal. They will do nicely.

 

The Day

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Beyond Sochi

Photos Of Russia By Russians

 

Islamic authority has a clear, urgent message for Muslims: Don't go to Mars.

The General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowment (GAIAE) has issued a fatwa prohibiting participation or promotion of one-way trips to the red planet, the Khaleej Times reported Wednesday. “Such a one-way journey poses a real risk to life, and that can never be justified in Islam,” the committee said. “There is a possibility that an individual who travels to planet Mars may not be able to remain alive there, and is more vulnerable to death.”The committee cited verses of the Koran exalting the protection of life and forbidding suicide and murder.Whoever opts for this “hazardous trip”, the committee said, is likely to die for no “righteous reason”, and thus will be liable to a “punishment similar to that of suicide in the Hereafter,” the Khaleej Times wrote. continue

 

Bill Hicks on religious cults - exclusive video

In this previously unseen footage from the Hicks family archive, filmed at the Comedy Corner in Florida in October 1993, Bill Hicks riffs on 'people who snap and think they are Jesus'.

 

Do the cha-cha

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The last online quiz you need to take

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Loser Keeps Bieber

Sure, a chance to play in Sunday's gold medal game is at stake when the men's hockey teams from the U.S. and Canada face off Friday in Sochi. But while Olympics glory is up for grabs, a shipping company in Skokie, Ill., has pushed the stakes even higher: "Loser Keeps Bieber" reads the electronic billboard hanging on the headquarters of Command Transportation.

 

King Penguin Chicks

Photography by Amanda Stadther

 

Rosewood mafia

The illicit trade of a rare tree has resurfaced in Madagascar, a country reeling from corrupt military rule. Rosewood, prized for its ruby red colour, is being smuggled out of the island at a rate that, some say, could put its survival under threat.

 

Library

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How a priceless bronze god was found in the sea, then disappeared

A statue thought to be an ancient bronze of Apollo, Greek God of poetry and love, has dropped off the radar after being found in the sea off Gaza last summer and surfacing briefly on eBay. It is 2,500 years old and priceless. Jawdat Abu Ghurab used to be a builder but in 2007 Israel restricted the delivery of building materials to the Gaza strip, so he became a fisherman like his father. He only has a small boat so never goes out far, and catches only small fish. One day last August, though, the 29-year-old from Deir al-Balah ended up with a very different haul. 

Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson

Animals in Sweaters

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Dr. Seuss's Private Hat Collection

Dr. Seuss's personal hat collection is on tour for the first time in history. 

An exhibit called Hats Off to Dr. Seuss!, which debuted at the New York Public Library in January last year, will stop in six states over the next seven months. The exhibit features 26 unique and historic hats from Dr. Seuss's collection, along with his original artwork inspired by the collection. The author, whose full name was Theodor Seuss Geisel, started building his collection of hats from around the world in the 1930s. He kept at it for some 60 years. continue

 

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According to Norse Mythology, The World Will End on Saturday

So why not enjoy yourself? Tell your boss to shove it and take an early weekend. Eat, drink and be merry, because the end is nigh. At least, that's what some modern adherents of the Norse religion claim.