Jack Pierce (make-up artist) (From Wikipedia)

As the head of Universal’s make-up department, Pierce is credited with designing and creating the iconic make-ups for films like Frankenstein (1931), The Mummy (1932), The Wolf Man (1941), and their various sequels associated with the characters. Utilizing his “out of the kit” techniques, Pierce’s make-ups were often very grueling and took a considerable amount of time to apply. Pierce was always reluctant to use latex appliances, favoring his technique of building facial features out of cotton and collodion (a strong smelling liquid plastic), or nose putty. Pierce eventually started using latex appliances, most notably a rubber nose for Lon Chaney, Jr. in The Wolf Man (1941) (the edges of the appliance are clearly visible through most of the film), and a rubber head piece for Boris Karloff in The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Son of Frankenstein (1939). Pierce was not especially liked around Universal, which partly lead to his demise at the studio. His most notorious relationship being with Lon Chaney, Jr., the two despised each other. Both worked on four Wolf Man films and three Mummy films at Universal. Chaney claimed that Pierce compounded difficulties in the long uncomfortable process with the adding on of sticky appliances. Lon’s Wolf Man make-up consisted of yak hair being glued to his face, and having it singed with a hot iron. Chaney furthermore claimed, Pierce would purposely burn him with the hot iron. Chaney also had an allergic reaction to the make-up Pierce used on him in Ghost of Frankenstein. Later, Chaney suffered with Pierce’s laboriously wrapped bandages for three Mummy films. In Jack’s defense,the use of the fused elements of make-up was a needful 8 hour task for the desired effect that Pierce was looking for.

Unfortunately for Pierce, throughout the 1940s, make up artists were dropping their “out of the kit” techniques in favor of molded foam latex appliances that were cheaper, quicker, and more comfortable for the actors. Pierce always known as a stubborn man, continually resisted this way. The old regime at Universal was gone by the late 40s and new studio heads were looking for quicker, more cost-effective make-ups. Pierce was eventually let go from Universal in 1948 after over a decade of creating make-ups. It had become difficult for him to adapt to more modern and less costly methods. Jack was a man of tradition to his own executed designs. In the 1950s, things took a turn for the worse as television broadcasting came onto the scene. The Hollywood studios saw television as competition. Universal started the process of cutting their costs by selling needless studio assets, and trashing the unnecessary things they thought at the time were questionable.

10.

This woman must be very brave. For starters, I’m not entirely sure that that hat doesn’t have a heartbeat. Much like the Alien in Independence Day, this hat might secretly be alive, waiting for the perfect moment to laserbeam his mindthoughts over to our President Bill Pullman. But let’s say this isn’t an otherworldy creature, and, in fact, is just a hat as she’d like you to believe. Wouldn’t you think other birds in the neighborhood would lose their sh*t at the sight of this woman? Imagine spending a nice day in the park, only to see some bird wearing a hat made out of people. You’d probably be pretty upset. Luckily, this woman seems to have a back-up plan in place in case of any unwanted deadly attacks, as her purse seems to have come equipped with an ejector seat. Good thinking, lady with no eyes.

9.

Nothing says “British Class” like a woman wearing a miniature toilet, or “loo”, on her head. Though I imagine once she removed her hand, her head would quickly fall to the floor like so many rotted teeth. If only a tiny man were taking a “wee poo” on that hat, my personal circle of life would be complete.

After the jump, 8 Hats you do NOT want to miss…

8.

NOTE TO LITTLE PEOPLE: If you’ve ever wanted to roll around in the famous American Gladiators Sphere for a bit, contact the woman above. She’ll be wearing said sphere on her head. Thank you, Minimanagement.

7.

Much like Homer Simpson’s “Nacho Hat”, this head covering is simply delicious. UPDATE: Wait, is that little cake made out of PORK, as that sash indicates? In which case, let me backtrack: That cake is not delicious… it is SCRUMPTIOUS.

6.

Remember in National Lampoon’s European Vacation, when all of their luggage got stolen and they had to buy entirely new wardrobes? I’m still not entirely convinced the above snapshot is not a still from that montage.

5.

Guess who took a quick dip in the cemetary pool last night? Daffy Duck, seen above.

4.

How can you tell when a loved one is being abducted by aliens? When they are wearing this hat. Her smile just screams “Take. Me. To. Your. Inbreeder.”

3.

Guess who smelled like baby vomit all night?

2.

This hat isn’t so much “silly” as it is “terri-f**king-fying”. It looks like she’s being chased by the Ringwraiths from Lord of the Rings. And this poor woman… look how happy she is!!! She has no idea the four whoresmen of the apocalypse are hot on her tail! Look how happy she is to see you… she’s all “Hi Bahsil! What? Behind me you say? Ghosts? Oh Bahsil, you ol’ –” THUD. El morte.

1.

JAKARTA, Indonesia — A funky, psychedelic fish that bounces on the ocean floor like a rubber ball has been classified as a new species, a scientific journal reported.

The frogfish – which has a swirl of tan and peach zebra stripes that extend from its aqua eyes to its tail – was first discovered by scuba diving instructors off Ambon island in eastern Indonesia.

After that,they contacted Ted Pietsch from the University of Washington who submitted DNA work on the fish to the journal Copeia this month.

he fish – which the University of Washington professor has named ‘psychedelica’ – is a frogfish of the genus, Histiophryne. The fish’s stripes were probably intended to mimic coral.

Each time the fish strike the seabed, for instance, they push off with their fins and expel water from tiny gill openings to jet themselves forward. Coupled with an off-centered tail, it causes them to bounce around in a bizarre, chaotic manner.

It has fins on both sides of its body that have evolved to be leg-like. But it has several behavioral traits not previously known to other frogfish, Professor Pietsch said.

Mark Erdman, a senior adviser to the Conservation International’s marine program, said it was an exciting discover

‘I think people thought frogfishes were relatively well known and to get a new one like this is really quiet spectacular. It’s a stunning animal,’ he said.

‘It also speaks to the tremendous diversity in this region and to fact that there are still a lot of unknowns here – in Indonesia and in the Coral Triangle in general.’

The fish, which has a gelatinous fist-sized body covered with thick folds of skin that protect it from sharp-edged corals, also has a flat face with eyes directed forward, like humans, and a huge, yawning mouth.

Ouch. In one of the oldest known medical interventions, a hole is drilled in the skull of a patient who is suffering from defects such as seizures or migraine headaches. The idea was to relieve pressure in the head which was believed to be causing the ailment. Today, trepanation is used on a very limited basis as a mechanism to access the brain for necessary surgery. Some people practice recreational or spiritual trepanation, presumably because they need modern medicine like they need a hole in the head.

2. Female hysteria

Women in the Victorian age were said to be suffering from female hysteria when they were moody or a little more “difficult” than usual. Fortunately for them, the treatment was something called pelvic massage. We can’t laugh too hard at this one, though. Many years later, it directly caused vibrating devices to be widely available for, um, home treatment.

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3. Expanding Earth

As bizarre theories go, this one doesn’t sound that far-fetched. Expanding Earth is the idea that the planet was once a lot smaller and completely covered in one continent. If you mentally shrink the globe and try to fit the continents together like a puzzle, you could almost start to believe this theory – after all, the galaxy is said to be expanding, right? However, the Expanding Earth theory has been discredited by nearly all of Earth’s scientists.

4. Phrenology

Would you believe me if I told you that I could tell you how likely you are to commit a crime in the future without talking to you? What if I could do it just by rubbing my grubby hands all over your noggin? Phrenology was on the cutting edge of Victorian-era medical science. Practitioners claimed to be able to determine your personality, propensity for crime, and intelligence from the size and shape of your skull. Although it’s been discredited by modern medicine, there is a small but dedicated community of people who still believe that phrenology is a useful science. Yes, seriously.

5. The Island of California

The woman, known only as Anat, had bought a new mattress for her mother as a surprise and thrown out the old one. It wasn’t until the following morning when her mother awoke screaming that she realised something was wrong. The elderly woman had been squirreling her savings away inside the mattress for years, and now it was heading for the garbage heap in Hiriya.

By the time the woman reached the site, the mattress had been moved on with up to 3,000 tons rubbish to a larger site. Speaking to Army Radio, the manager of the tip claimed that his staff are helping them in their search, and claimed that ‘Anat’ appeared “totally desperate.” Not surprising, given that the site receives over 2,500 tons of new rubbish every day.

The money is thought to have represented the entirety of the elderly woman’s life savings, but she has asked not to be identified and has refused to give further details that might aid the search. It is thought that she fears treasure hunters will reach the mattress before she does. Ask why she had chosen to stash her cash in a mattress rather than in a bank, she referred vaguely to a bad experience she had suffered in the past, but refused to go into detail.

At the time of writing, the Israeli police have stated that no report of the incident has been filed, but a picture of the woman searching a landfill has appeared in Yediot Ahronot, a daily newspaper published in Tel Aviv.

Exclusive

Closing out the longest-running court case in Wikiland history, the site’s Arbitration Committee voted 10 to 0 (with one abstention) in favor of the move, which takes effect immediately.
The eighth most popular site on the web, Wikipedia bills itself as “the free encyclopedia anyone can edit.” Administrators frequently ban individual Wikifiddlers for their individual Wikisins.
The Church of Scientology has not responded to our request for comment.

Officially, Wikipedia frowns on those who edit “in order to promote their own interests.” The site sees itself as an encyclopedia with a “neutral point of view” – whatever that is. “Use of the encyclopedia to advance personal agendas – such as advocacy or propaganda and philosophical, ideological or religious dispute – or to publish or promote original research is prohibited,” say the Wikipowersthatbe.

Admins may ban a Wikifiddler who betrays an extreme conflict of interest, and since fiddlers often hide their identity behind open proxies, such IPs may be banned as a preventative measure. After today’s ruling from the Arbitration Committee – known in Orwellian fashion as the ArbCom – Scientology IPs are “to be blocked as if they were open proxies” (though individual editors can request an exemption).

According to evidence turned up by admins in this long-running Wikiland court case, multiple editors have been “openly editing [Scientology-related articles] from Church of Scientology equipment and apparently coordinating their activities.” Leaning on the famed WikiScanner, countless news stories have discussed the editing of Scientology articles from Scientology IPs, and some site admins are concerned this is “damaging Wikipedia’s reputation for neutrality.”

One admin tells The Reg that policing edits from Scientology machines has been particularly difficult because myriad editors sit behind a small number of IPs and, for some reason, the address of each editor is constantly changing. This prevents admins from determining whether a single editor is using multiple Wikipedia accounts to game the system. In Wikiland, such sockpuppeting is not allowed.

The Wikicourt considered banning edits from Scientology IPs only on Scientology-related articles. But this would require admins to “checkuser” editors – i.e. determine their IP – every time an edit is made. And even then they may not know who’s who.

“Our alternatives are to block them entirely, or checkuser every ‘pro-Scientology’ editor on this topic. I find the latter unacceptable,” wrote one ArbComer. “It is quite broad, but it seems that they’re funneling a lot of editing traffic through a few IPs, which make socks impossible to track.”

And it may be a moot point. Most the editors in question edit nothing but Scientology-related articles. In Wikiparlance, they’re “single purpose accounts.”

Some have argued that those editing from Scientology IPs may be doing so without instruction from the Church hierarchy. But a former member of Scientology’s Office of Special Affairs – a department officially responsible “for directing and coordinating all legal matters affecting the Church” – says the Office has organized massive efforts to remove Scientology-related materials and criticism from the web.

“The guys I worked with posted every day all day,” Tory Christman tells The Reg. “It was like a machine. I worked with someone who used five separate computers, five separate anonymous identities…to refute any facts from the internet about the Church of Scientology.”

Christman left the Church in 2000, before Wikipedia was created.

This is the fourth Scientology-related Wikicourtcase in as many years, and in addition to an outright ban on Scientology IPs, the court has barred a host of anti-Scientology editors from editing topics related to the Church.

Many Wikifiddlers have vehemently criticized this sweeping crackdown. Historically, the site’s cult-like inner circle has aspired to some sort of Web 2.0 utopia in which everyone has an unfettered voice. An organization editing Wikipedia articles where it has a conflict of interest is hardly unusual, and in the past such behavior typically went unpunished.

But clearly, Wikipedia is changing. In recent months, the site’s ruling body seems far more interested in quashing at least the most obvious examples of propaganda pushing.

Scientology’s banishment from Wikipedia comes just days after the opening of a (real world) trial that could see the dissolution of the organization’s French chapter

For years the hidden underground closes of Mary King’s Close, in the Old Town area of Edinburgh, Scotland, have been shrouded in myths and mysteries. Tales of ghosts and murders, and myths of plague victims being walled up and left to die abounded.

The Real Mary King’s Close consists of a number of closes which were originally narrow streets with houses on either side, stretching up to seven storeys high. In 1753, the Burgh Council decided to develop a new building on this site, the Royal Exchange (now the City Chambers). The houses at the top of the closes were knocked down and part of the lower sections were kept and used as the foundations for the Royal Exchange. The remnants of the closes were left beneath the building, dark and ancient dwellings steeped in mystery.

Following research into new documentary and archaeological evidence uncovered by Continuum, for the first time the real lives of some of the people who lived here have been traced and their stories can now be told. At The Real Mary King’s Close you will see an historically accurate interpretation of life in Edinburgh from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries.

Chernobyl, Pripyat, Ukraine

Prypiat (Ukrainian: ?????’???, Pryp”jat’; Russian: ????????, Pripjat’), or Pripyat, is an abandoned city in the zone of alienation in northern Ukraine, Kiev Oblast, near the border with Belarus. The city was founded in 1970 to house the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant workers, and was abandoned in 1986 following the Chernobyl disaster. Its population had been around 50,000 prior to the accident.

It is difficult to accurately quantify the number of deaths caused by the events at Chernobyl

The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear reactor accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union. It is considered to be the worst nuclear power plant disaster in history and the only level 7 instance on the International Nuclear Event Scale. It resulted in a severe release of radioactivity into the environment following a massive power excursion which destroyed the reactor.

Paris Catacombs, Paris, France

Underground stone quarries that hold the 200-year-old skeletons of several million people.

The Catacombs of Paris or Catacombes de Paris are a famous underground ossuary in Paris, France. Its entrance is located near the Denfert-Rochereau station of the Paris Métro. Organized in a renovated section of the city’s vast network of subterranean tunnels and caverns towards the end of the 18th century, it became a tourist attraction on a small scale from the early 19th century and has been open to the public on a regular basis from 1867. The official name for the catacombs is l’Ossuaire Municipal.

Bones and skulls are stacked on either side of a narrow corridor like merchandise at a warehouse—a lot of merchandise. The air is close and cool, with just a hint of decomposition, and there’s rude graffiti dating from the French Revolution, mainly about the king and the feeble nobility.