1. Danell Leyva’s Towel
2. During the 2012 Summer Olympics, it was hard not to notice how attached gymnast Danell Leyva was to his security blanket. . . err I mean towel. In between performances on different apparatuses, Leyva would retreat underneath a gigantic blue towel covered in stars. This famous towel now has a voice of its own on Twitter exchanging witty banter with another hilarious Twitter feed, Tim Daggett’s Mouth.
3. Bronx Zoo’s Cobra
   Last year, a cobra escaped from its enclosure at the Bronx zoo, making national headlines. This inspired someone out there to personify this famous reptile on a Twitter account. The cobra was captured shortly after escaping, but its still managing to send out new tweets to over 204,000 devoted followers.
4. The Essex Lion
   So apparently there is a lion on the loose in England. Surprise, surprise! Someone got the bright idea to embody him in a Twitter feed. This legendary big cat types in all caps and amassed over 36,000 followers in only three days!
5. Family Guy’s Stewie Griffin 
   If you can’t get enough of this sassy baby’s mouth, and his megalomaniac-like plans to take over the world, follow him on Twitter and get your fill of snippy commentary from baby Stewie. With over 17,000 followers, people seem to have a bizarre affinity for this angry infant.
6. Darth Vader
   You don’t have to completely commit to the dark side to get close to Darth Vader from Star Wars. Vader seems to have the most interactive Twitterfeed out of all the novelty ones featured on this list. People seem to be inclined to confess their own evildoing to Vader. But not all of Darth Vader’s  417,000 followers so desperately seek the dark lord’s approval. Some people offer up token wisdom and sound advice like “@darthvader Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to chicken.” Who knows, maybe one of his devoted followers will melt his heart and change his evil ways.
7. Sockington The Cat
   This is a house cat. With over a MILLION and a half followers on Twitter. Sockington’s Twitter is maintained by Jason Scott and written from the perspective of his cat. An average post looks something like this, “HOW CAN THIS NIGHT GET BETTER found some fluff danced for no reason in hallway wrestled a pillow WAIT COULD IT BE yes a lost kibble MUNCH”.  The Huffington Post reported that Jason Scott himself said that “Everybody wants this social media bubble. They want something where we’re all chattering so much that we all get rich,” says Scott. “And this cat makes everybody look like fools because he’s got hundreds of thousands of followers.” Maybe Scott’s reasons for making his cat a superstar are more cynical than they appear.
8. San Francisco’s Fog
   This is perhaps my personal favorite of all novelty Twitter accounts. The tone and voice of the San Francisco Fog’s tweets are exactly what you would expect from the personality of fog. Reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe and his Gothic literary genre, this whimsical fog is poetic and thought provoking in its commentary. This is one of the best personifications of an element I’ve ever seen. With tweets like, “Blue moon, now I’m no longer alone, you are a guest in my sky, you are the one I dethrone.” This fog can hang about my house any day.
9. The Universe
   This Twitter account puts a comical spin on the notion of omniscient narration. All seeing, and all knowing, this entity fills its Twitter feed with puns on expansion and The Big Bang Theory. The voice and tone this author has decided to attribute to the universe is cold, harsh, and unsympathetic. With tweets like “THE UNIVERSE IS A VACUUM OF SPACE, WITH TIDBITS OF HATE” unless you have a pretty dry sense of humor, you may want to stay clear of this rather abrasive and unforgiving Twitter feed.
10. Tupac’s Hologram
    The biography of section of this Twitter account reads, “I rap and I’m a hologram.” That pretty much sums up this Twitter character. In April of 2012, rapper Tupac Shakur was “resurrected” at Coachella music festival in California during a headlining set by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. Some thought the idea of taking Tupac’s hologram on tour and making huge profit from it, was a tad indelicate. He was assassinated, after all. Show some respect, people! But I still love this novelty Twitter feed.
11. Voldemort
    That’s right folks, “He Who Must Not Be Named” found his way onto Twitter to spread his darkness to us muggles. Over 2 million people follow the Dark Lord’s tweets, while he of course, follows nobody. His tweets gripe about celebrity pop culture while weaving in references to Harry Potter culture. He is also quick to capitalize on our misfortune and offer up positions on the “death eater” squad as a condolence. Very creative, consistent tone.

 

Kristen Bright is a blogger from San Diego California, currently writing for Instant Checkmate. To follow Kristen and Instant Checkmate’s social media efforts, please follow on Twitter.

Everyone’s view on horror films is different and the director and producers are performing for a certain niche and were never aiming for everyone’s approval. So, if you do like to give yourself a bit of a fright, these are some of the best horrors of all time.

Whether it’s a modern thriller or one of the classic black and white horrors they all have a place when it comes to fear.

To start with there is ‘Friday the 13th’ at number 25. This film has over a thirty year history with sequel after sequel. After the original where Pamela Voorhees is the killer, the story evolves putting her son Jason into murderous control as the perpetual hockey mask wearing slayer. He’s the guy that walks everywhere but always catches up with you.

There’s Wes Craven’s ‘Scream’ another movie that you horror fans seemingly can’t get enough of with the addition of Scream two, three and four. All four have been great with the ghost masked killer/s keeping you in suspense all the way through, these films never fail to make you scream.

Next there is a true oldie to add to the pile in the form of the 1931’s ‘Dracula’, maybe not the scariest film of all time but it is pretty much the original horror movie.

‘The Haunting’ (the 1963 original – the 1999 adaptation is pretty rubbish) if you want a horror film full of ghosts and ghouls rather than serial killing psychos this is the one for you.

‘Let the Right One In’ is another vampire thriller involving a 12 year old boy and a 12 year old girl – or does it? The 12 year old innocent that is Eli is in fact hundreds of years old (she’s a vampire). The relationship between the two is strange and unclear so you’ll have to watch and travel the twists and turns of the film to an all be it odd ending.

Maybe a film to watch with the lights on is ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’, whether you choose to watch the 1984 original or even the newer 2010 version you’ll struggle to sleep after both. Freddy Krueger pursued and terrified people in their dreams; if they are unable to stay awake they’re shown the death card.

‘The Ring’ a film that needs no description; if you dare watch the film you’re half way there.

Maybe one of the bloodiest horrors would be ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’, with furniture made from human skin to a slaughter house inside the house again for people. Leaving you on the edge of your seat you will be hiding behind a cushion for the duration of this film.

Then to the best horror of all time ‘The Exorcist’ although it was made in 1973 and nowadays doesn’t have the best graphics going, it is still just as disturbing as the day it was released. A young girl possessed by a demon, does anything more need to be said? If you dare to watch this unsettling movie, be prepared for the worst night sleep of your life.

This article was written for www.oneproductions.com – a corporate video production company – by Emma Sayers.

Two armies stand, weapons ready. The generals, Alexander the Great and Hannibal, make the war cry. The armies rush forth, weapons clashing against shields, men falling to the ground bloodied and broken. When the dust has settled, only one army can still stand. The question is, which one?

One Will Stand, One Will Fall

Hannibal and Alexander the Great were two of the greatest generals to ever pick up weapons. Furthermore, these men had great generals beneath them and well-trained armies that were more than capable warriors of their specific times.

The outcome, of course, relies on many variables. While both men were excellent warriors in their own rights, Hannibal was more of a warrior whereas Alexander was more of a born politician. Both were tactical geniuses, but the edge would go to Hannibal on a toe to toe battle.

FIGHT!

Alexander’s greatest weapon during his conquests was the use of the phalanx formation. This formation involved the front line of soldiers being armed with 12-foot long spears which would form a nearly impenetrable wall for anyone attacking from the front of the line. While attacking soldiers were dealing with the intimidating front line of the phalanx, the soldiers behind the spear wall were virtually invisible and could rain death down upon their enemies with their ranged weapons almost at surprise.

The weakness of the phalanx formation is that it tends to leave the rear of the formation unprotected. Hannibal, being the greater of the two tacticians, would likely pick up on this fact quite quickly. It would be most likely that he would send a small force to the front of the line to distract the soldiers while a second force circled around to take out the phalanx either front the sides or from behind.

This speaks nothing of Hannibal’s predilection to use war-trained elephants during his campaigns. The phalanx would be much less effective against these monstrous beasts, but the rear or sides of the formations would be even more vulnerable, lacking even the meager protection the phalanx would provide the front lines.

That is not to say that Alexander the Great was a slouch in the tactics department. Alexander, however, tended to be more honorable and disciplined than Hannibal, who had a vicious brutality in his combat style that had the Romans in absolute fear of him during his heyday (plus you cannot deny his logistics were better.

Does Alexander Stand Any Chance?

If Alexander was able to learn of Hannibal’s tactics, or foresee them, it would not be a difficult job to modify his own tactics to provide protection to the sides and rear of his formations. This would significantly reduce the effectiveness of Hannibal’s tactic, but would require Alexander to be able to guess that Hannibal would pull that trick. How might Alexander know this? Supposing the two generals existed at the same time, perhaps some mercenaries that had faced Hannibal at some point and lived to tell about it would join up with Alexander and clue him in to the brutality of Hannibal’s tactics.

Also, Hannibal had war elephants.

Article written by Jet Russell. Jet finds ancient greek mythology to be very interesting, as well as acutaly ancient history. These are two people that Jet has studied and is amazed by.

Unfortunately, as much as life is about enjoying yourself it’s also full of tasks that aren’t quite so much fun! Right from when we are young we find ourselves doing things that we just don’t want to do; whether you’re a child that doesn’t want to eat their vegetables, a teenager that doesn’t want to revise for their exams or a worker that really doesn’t want to get up and face the rush hour commute in order to be at their desk at 9am.

Annoyingly, a lot of these tasks you can’t avoid, admittedly though there are also some that you can. Just for fun we’ve asked around and come up with five of the worst – the ones that involuntarily cause you let out a groan of dread…

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Getting up on a Monday morning
British weather is great at delivering temperatures and winds conducive to curling up nice and snug in bed and having a good old snooze. This is absolute bliss on Saturdays and Sundays, it’s also a living hell on a Monday morning. That moment when you hear the most unwelcome sound, the “brrrring” of the alarm and hit the snooze button that only seems to give you an extra five seconds of slumber before it rudely awakens you again! The contrary to this all too familiar scenario of course is that occasionally, very occasionally you have those times when you get up for work and…realise it’s a Saturday. If only there were more of them!

Cleaning (especially ironing)
Why is cleaning never fun?! Unless you’re lucky enough to reside permanently in a scene from Mary Poppins taking out the bins, dusting, washing up and in particular ironing are all met with a heavy sigh unless your names are Kim and Aggie and you present a show called “How Clean is Your House?” on channel four. This is one that you most definitely can hand over to someone else to do though and give yourself some extra time, hopefully to relax but if not then to complete something else on that long and never ending to do list.

London underground during summer
This is not pleasant. Lots of sweaty people deep underground, crammed together on a train with no air conditioning. Even worse is this situation during rush hour. One good solution for this is to put on some pumps and walk to your destination or, if you are taking the underground to run an errand and can afford it, assigning someone to do this for you. If you’re getting to a place where you need to be present though and don’t want to pay the extra cost of a taxi or risk the bus and London traffic, you may be stuck with this one – just do your utmost to make your appointment or meeting outside of rush hour!

Facing the music
After one of those nights out (we’ve all been there) where you’ve managed to offend the ex-girlfriend or boyfriend, throw up in your lifts car and lose your flat mates house keys, making amends to all those offended or angry the next day with a head that feels like a whole construction site is at work on it is not fun. We all have to do it though…and just pray there is no video or photographic evidence to prolongue the pain and shame us any longer than is absolutely necessary.

Meeting the parents
There was a reason “Meet the Parents” starring Ben Stiller was made, they had to get the inspiration from somewhere! It’s never easy and is always a bit nerve racking causing even the most unruly of partners to be on their best behaviour for the day. This hated task is our last and completes our list!

We hope you agree with and enjoyed reading our list! There are those tasks you can’t avoid and have to undertake yourself – for the rest there’s Execruns.com.

Throughout the course of history there have been many treasures that have been lost and then found again. There have also been many treasures that have just been written off as being complete myths such as El Dorado.

One treasure that has still not been found is the Amber Room, which is also known as the Amber Chamber. The story behind the Amber Room is extremely interesting and people are still continuing to try and find it to this day.

So Tell Me What Is The Amber Room?

The Amber Room is considered to be one of Russia’s greatest art treasures. It is a set of wall panels that were made from the purest amber, gold leaf and lots of mirrors. Some people actually dubbed it as the “eighth wonder of the world” due to its outstanding beauty. When all the candles were lit in the room it was said to glow a fiery gold colour.

The Amber Room began being constructed in 1701 and was completed in 1709. It was formed by a collaboration between a German baroque sculptor called Andreas Schlüter and a craftsman by the name of Gottfried Wolfram. In the year 1716 Friedrich Wilhelm the then King of Prussia gave the Amber Room to Tsar Peter the Great who was the leader of the Russian empire. He gave Tsar Peter the Great the Amber Room as a gift to seal an alliance against Sweden. A few years later the Amber Room was expanded by craftsmen from both German and Russia. The finished panels were made from 5,440Kg of pure Amber and was a staggering 17 metres in length. The estimated value of the room is around £150 million, but many have said that does not reflect its true value as it is actually a priceless piece.

Cool, But Where Is The Mystery?

The mystery of the Amber Room comes when the Nazis invaded Russia in 1941.

During their invasion they are said to have come across the Amber Room and to have ordered it to be dismantled. It was then packed into 27 different crates and taken to Königsberg Castle in East Prussia and put on display to the public.

The mystery gets bigger as in 1944 due to an intense air raid that destroyed the castle, the Amber Room was reported to be destroyed. Many art historians are pretty confident that the Amber Room was in the castle during this time, but they are not convinced that it was destroyed.

And The Mystery Gets Better…

 

In 1997 one of the mosaic pieces from the Amber Room turned up in Germany. It was in possession of the son of a Nazi officer that had helped take the crates containing the Amber Room to Königsberg castle. This re-opened talks about the whereabouts of the Amber Room.

Then in January of 2010 a treasure hunter called Serge Trifonov reported that he had found a Nazi bunker that was supposedly used during the air raid on Königsberg castle. There are no reports saying that he found anything as of yet.

So the mystery still goes on.

But if you are really interested in seeing what the Amber Room looked like then you can see a reconstruction of the room in the Catherine Palace near Saint Petersburg.

This is a guest post by Daniel Roberts. Occasional guest blogger on online shopping and full time blogger on investing in precious metals.  Daniel currently represents Regal Assets the best source on the web to buy and sell silver coins online.