Damn Cool Pics

---

• How Circus Elephants are Trained
• The Evolution of SEO [infographic]
• David Blaine: How I Held My Breath for 17 Min
• Miss Angola Leila Lopes is Miss Universe 2011

How Circus Elephants are Trained Posted: 20 Sep 2011 11:11 AM PDT It starts when they take a baby elephant, and tie a rope around its hind leg, and attach it to a stake in the ground. The baby fights and fights, trying to pull the rope free, but it does not have the strength to do so. It continues to try, sometimes for days, expending all its energy, until one day, it stops trying – It has finally learnt that it is unable to pull free. The pictures show them being dragged to the ground by ropes, chained side by side, pinned down by a hook in the back of the neck and checked by cattleprods. Peta - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals - say the elephants are also separated from their mothers by force. The photographs are being used to spearhead a campaign to tighten up laws on the use of wild beasts in circuses. The Government here is considering legislation to impose stricter conditions on their care, training and performance, particularly where young are concerned. The pictures were taken in the U.S. by handler Sammy Haddock, who worked for the Ringling Bros' Barnum and Bailey Circus until 2005. They were taken more than seven years ago - but Peta says such methods are widespread, and 'effectively amount to the torture of defenceless animals'. Haddock died last month and asked Peta to use his pictures to ease his conscience about the kind of treatment he administered during eight years at the Ringling centre in Florida. Peta director Poorva Joshipura said: 'All the evidence suggests that the methods described by Sam Haddock are standard operating procedures.' Ringling's dismisses Peta's claims as 'from the last century' and denies cruelty. It says it separates calves from adults only when they are old enough to demonstrate natural independence.

The Evolution of SEO [infographic] Posted: 20 Sep 2011 11:02 AM PDT Since the early caveman days of web directories and search, webmasters have been figuring out how to outrank competitors while the search engines continually refined and fiddled with ranking criteria. It's the 'chicken or the egg' scenario: Did SEOs make search more sophisticated? Or did the search engines just make SEOs smarter? Take a look below at where both began (factoid: 1997 was the first documented use of the term "search engine optimization"). The factors that help win the page 1 crown have certainly changed over the years in the ongoing battle to improve quality and relevance in organic search. Click on Image to Enlarge. Source: searchenginejournal

David Blaine: How I Held My Breath for 17 Min Posted: 19 Sep 2011 08:59 PM PDT In this highly personal talk from TEDMED, magician and stuntman David Blaine describes what it took to hold his breath underwater for 17 minutes a world record (only two minutes shorter than this entire talk!) and what his often death-defying work means to him. Warning: do NOT try this at home.

Miss Angola Leila Lopes is Miss Universe 2011 Posted: 19 Sep 2011 04:36 PM PDT Miss Angola Leila Lopes was crowned Miss Universe 2011 in a star-studded ceremony in Brazil's Sao Paolo. The 25-year-old Lopes is Angola's first winner. She beat out 88 other competitors to win the title during the 60th anniversary of the world's biggest beauty pageant. She replaces last year's winner, Ximena Navarrete of Mexico. The first runner-up was 23-year-old Olesia Stefanko of Ukraine and the second runner-up was Priscila Machado of Brazil. The third was Miss Philippines and the fourth Miss China. Miss Angola 2011, Leila Lopes Miss Albania 2011, Xhesika Berberi Miss Argentina 2011, Natalia Rodriguez Miss Aruba 2011, Gillain Berry Miss Australia 2011, Scherri-Lee Biggs Miss Bahamas 2011, Anastagia Pierre Miss Belgium 2011, Justine De Jonckheere Miss Bolivia 2011, Olivia Pinheiro Miss Botswana 2011, Larona Motlatsi Kgabo Miss Brazil 2011, Priscila Machado Miss British Virgin Islands 2011, Sheroma Hodgea Miss Canada 2011, Chelsae Durocher Miss Cayman Islands 2011, Cristin Alexander Miss Chile 2011, Vanessa Ceruti Miss China 2011, ZiLin Luo Miss Colombia 2011, Catalina Robayo Miss Costa Rica 2011, Johanna Solano Miss Croatia 2011, Natalija Prica Miss Curacao 2011, Eva Van Putten Miss Cyprus 2011, Andriani Karantoni Miss Czech Republic 2011, Jitka Novackova Miss Denmark 2011, Sandra Amer Miss Dominican Republic 2011, Dalia Caritina Fernandez Miss Ecuador 2011, Claudia Schiess Miss Egypt 2011, Sara El Khoul Miss El Salvador 2011, Mayra Aldana Miss Estonia 2011, Madli Vilsar Miss Finland 2011, Pia Pakarinen Miss France 2011, Laury Thilleman Miss Georgia 2011, Eka Gurtskaia Miss Germany 2011, Valeria Bystritskaia Miss Ghana 2011, Yayra Nego Miss Great Britain 2011, Chloe-Beth Morgan Miss Greece 2011, Iliana Papageorgiou Miss Guam 2011, Shayna Jo Afaisen Miss Guatemala 2011, Alejandra Barillas Solis Miss Guyana 2011, Kara Lord Miss Haiti 2011, Anedie Azael Miss Honduras 2011, Keilyn Gomez Miss Hungary 2011, Betta Lipcsei Miss India 2011, Vasuki Sunkavalli Miss Indonesia 2011, Nadine Alexandra Miss Ireland 2011, Aoife Hannon Miss Israel 2011, Kim Edri Miss Italy 2011, Elisa Torrini Miss Jamaica 2011, Shakira Martin Miss Japan 2011, Maria Kamiyama Miss Kazakhstan 2011, Valeriya Aleinikova Miss Korea 2011, Sora Chong Miss Kosovo 2011, Aferdita Dreshaj Miss Lebanon 2011, Yara El Khoury-Mikhael Miss Malaysia 2011, Deborah Henry Miss Mauritius 2011, Laetitia Darche Miss Mexico 2011, Karin Ontiveros Miss Montenegro 2011, Nikolina Loncar Miss Netherlands 2011, Kelly Weekers Miss New Zealand 2011, Priyani Puketapu Miss Nicaragua 2011, Adriana Dom Miss Nigeria 2011, Sophie Gemal Miss Panama 2011, Sheldry Saez Miss Paraguay 2011, Alba Riquelme Miss Peru 2011, Natalie Vertiz Miss Philippines 2011, Shamcey Supsup Miss Poland 2011, Rozalia Mancewicz Miss Portugal 2011, Laura Goncalves Miss Puerto Rico 2011, Viviana Ortiz Miss Romania 2011, Larisa Popa Miss Russia 2011, Natalia Gantimurova Miss Serbia 2011, Anja Saranovic Miss Singapore 2011, Valerie Lim Shu Xian Miss Slovak Republic 2011, Dagmar Kolesarova Miss Slovenia 2011, Ema Jagodic Miss South Africa 2011, Bokang Montjane Miss Spain 2011, Paula Guillo Miss Sri Lanka 2011, Stephanie Siriwardhana Miss St. Lucia 2011, Joy-Ann Biscette Miss Sweden 2011, Ronnia Fornstedt Miss Switzerland 2011, Kerstin Cook Miss Tanzania 2011, Nelly Kamwelu Miss Thailand 2011, Chanyasorn Sakorchan Miss Trinidad & Tobago 2011, Gabrielle Walcott Miss Turkey 2011, Melisa Asli Pamuk Miss Turks & Caicos 2011, Easher Parker Miss U.S. Virgin Islands 2011, Alexandrya Evans Miss Ukraine 2011, Olesia Stefanko Miss Uruguay 2011, Fernanda Semino Miss USA 2011, Alyssa Campanella Miss Venezuela 2011, Vanessa Goncalves Miss Vietnam 2011, Hoang My Vu

You are subscribed to email updates from Damn Cool Pictures To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610