Bits and Bobs

Happy weekend! I hope you enjoyed your respective Halloween celebrations. This time between Halloween and Christmas is my favourite time of the year - primarily because it's now seasonally appropriate to watch this film over and over.

- Last Sunday I went to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition at the Natural History Museum. It was awesome and you should definitely go! But first, check out these beautiful glacier photographs.

- Here's a really, really interesting article about racism in films and how celluloid film technology has contributed to keeping black skin off our screens.

- This bbc article explains why we're afraid of near-human faces.

- Check out this slideshow of incredible film costumes designed by Hollywood legend Edith Head.

- This is a fascinating article analysing the epic advertising campaign devised for the latest Hunger Games film. I've never really thought much about the creativity and planning that goes into marketing a huge franchise film.

- Apparently the Russians gave assorted world leaders gift bags containing surveillance equipment. The Atlantic has chosen a particularly hilarious picture of Putin to accompany their article.

- There is nothing more obnoxious than someone who incessantly posts selfies online (even the word 'selfy' is kind of obnoxious). This article defends the selfy as just another form of self-portrait.

- Anyone who knows me knows that I love both Musicals and Disney with a ferocity that is, at times, bordering on the obsessive. So here's an incredible version of Chicago's Cell Block Tango featuring assorted Disney villains.

Bits and Bobs

I'm sorry this 'Bits and Bobs' post is a few days late but I only just got back to London after a long weekend in Vienna with assorted family. Epic Vienna posts will be forthcoming...

- Ever wondered what it's like to be in a gang?

- It is commonly assumed that good street lighting lowers crime rates in urban areas. Curious about this assumption, psychologists designed several experiments to study whether darkness really does affect our behaviour.

- A good explanation of why the NSA surveillance scandal matters.

- Check out this article from the BBC looking at the gay community inadvertently created by Mussolini.

- Why are so many wedding dresses strapless when they flatter virtually no one?

- This isn't an interesting article I've read this week; this is one of my favourite blogs. Illustrator James Gulliver Hancock is attempting to draw every building in New York - go check it out!