marți, 20 septembrie 2011

Damn Cool Pics

Damn Cool Pics


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