For open minds
The artist of Chinese artist Guodong Zhao is incredible. Based in Beijing, this talented illustrator takes photographs and paints on a layer of fantasy.
In Pure Spirit
Sad or surreal? It’s as these long Asian dragons should be majestic, proud and perhaps even a little menacing. By showing them, sometimes, ruined and wrecked against the sharp contrast of reality Zhao easily transforms them into being of sadness and despair.
Joseph Oliveria wrote the cryptid stories and published them through Afterlight Comics the indie publisher he founded only in 2017. A Kickstarter raised over £3,500 to bring the comic to life.
Good question. You can expect to see brief sightings off the Mothman, Chupacabra, The Legend of Momo and The Pukwudgie.
There’s no messing around with this comic. Joseph Oliveria’s stories pack a punch, and it comes straight at you. Don’t expect much in the way of plot twists or deviations. Cryptids isn’t a comic book collection designed to drag your expectation around. This is a comic book collection written to be a homage to the legends and myths that have made these cryptids familiar.
And while there’s no messing around and there are plenty of straight up by the book plays you would be wrong to take the Folktales of the Cryptids for granted. The delivery is top notch, paced perfectly and concluded with a marksman like perfection.
I’m especially fond of the illustrations and colouring in the last tale – Romance is Dead – where Brendan Purchase drew and Roman Stevens coloured. There are some surreal touches.
There are some common strands in the four horror stories. We’re better off leaving the Cryptids alone. They’re probably better off if we leave them alone too. It also seems to be the case that whether you’re a good person or a bad person that bad things can still happen to you. It’s a cruel world out there. However, if you can keep your wits about you then, perhaps, you’ll have a chance.
While the four stories are each blessed with their own cryptid it is the human characters that give them life and interest. This might because the characters used in the adventures are familiar, don’t need an introduction and so we’re easily at ease with them.
The comic book is available in stores in the UK. You can also buy it directly from Afterlight Comics.com.
Neither Afterlight Comics nor Joseph Oliveria has announced plans for a follow up. However, right now there’s a Kickstarter for a new series called Wendigo Wood. This Kickstarter is asking for less money and, at the current rate of pledges, will raise more. That’s probably a good endorsement of the quality of the previous work.
In Pure Spirit
Are there any cryptid or horror comic book series that you will recommend?
In Pure Spirit’s copy of Folktales of the Cryptids was provided for review.
Which is scarier? Living in a Jurassic world filled with hungry dinosaurs or getting your head into the world of finance? That should be a no-brainer. You shouldn’t fear sorting out your money in the way anyone would worry about a hungry T-rex.
While I contribute to a private pension (can we be confident in their being a public one in twenty or thirty years?) I’m still only just getting sorted out with better savings and investment plans than a mere bank account. If I had had more confidence at a younger age then I would have earned more on interest.
That’s why I like this game from Scottish Friendly. First off, this helps humanise a finance brand (yeah; by making it about dinosaurs – there’s irony) and makes the company more approachable. Secondly, the focus on Junior ISAs. This is a product that parents take out on behalf of their kids, contribute to and then the child takes control when they’re old enough. In other words, it seems to be like a pretty dramatic demonstration of how useful saving money can be to a young person just when they should start thinking about saving their own money.
The game doesn’t need a download and works on my phone. All you need to do is tap on a cooling egg to bring the heat lamp over it and warm it up. The longer you can keep all the eggs warm the better level of ‘Dinosaur Keeper’ you are.
I think it’s a pretty clear message too. To protect what you have now you have to think about the future too.
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Which dinosaur keeper level did you manage to achieve? Let us know in the comments below.
As a freak storm battled the Chinese city of Qingdao social media began to buzz with the term ‘Seafood Rain’. Why?
It was raining octopuses, starfish and molluscs.
The bizarre storm featured winds as fast as 78mph and rain heavy enough to shatter windows. The weather in the Yellow Sea created waterspouts.
This octopus storm isn’t the first time that extreme climate conditions have resulted in sea creatures being sucked out of the sea and blown over land in a storm. Just last year a similar thing happened in the village of Jaffna in Sri Lanka, according to The Mirror who carried the story.
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Do you think we’ll start to see even stranger weather as the climate change takes effect?
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Image credit: AsiaWire.
When there’s a good movie to look forward to big brands, start thinking creatively about their messaging. Step forward E.ON who worked with PhD Physicists Toby Nonnemacher, Clarence Wret, Wilf Shorrock and the Post-Doctorate Physicist Phill Litchfield at the High Energy Physics Department at Imperial College London to think about dinosaurs and technology.
The team worked out that a dinosaur kingdom island done up as Jurrasic World would have an energy bill in the region of £48million. That’s about 30,000 UK homes.
Scott Somerville at E.ON helped explain why the bill would be so high.
With huge 10,000 volt electric fences and an aviary designed to house pterodactyls to name just two of the Dinosaur Kingdom’s unusual features, we suspected the energy needed to power the whole park would be big – possibly equivalent to powering a whole region within the UK.
“But what our figures show is that it’s actually a massive amount! It’s about the same as powering 30,142 average UK households a year – roughly equivalent to powering half the homes in Harrogate – but by adopting modern solutions, the power requirement and costs could be even less.
“For example, by generating electricity using technology like a biomass fuelled Combined Heat and Power station, park owners could turn dinosaur droppings into electricity. Add on other solutions like solar and battery storage then the park could ultimately benefit from a cheaper, sustainable and more reliable source of electricity instead having to deal with a ‘raptor rampage’ every time the generators that power the electric fences goes down.”
There’s some proper research in this piece. For example, running a dinosaur suitable aviaries was based on the amount of energy to keep the Eden Project in Devon going. That’s about 9,500 MkWh per year or £5,006,500. Ouch! If you want to see more of E.ON’s maths and investigation then pop over to their dinosaur kingdom post and have a gander.
If you’re thinking about changing energy supplier, there are some handy tools out there you might consider using. Energylinx has some, including a free Meter Point Administration Number Checker so you can examine your MPAN as well as a Gas Meter Point Reference Number (MPRN) tool. Lastly, on EnergyLinks is this comparison tool on suppliers.
Readers of In Pure Spirit will now we care about green issues. While we’re thinking about extinct species and energy we’d have to take a look at fossil fuels.
James Anderson, the joint manager of Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust, investors who take a long-term view on companies that might change sees a future in alternative energy generation.
…what seems to us to fall into the category of the well-nigh inevitable is that the age of fossil fuels is drawing to an end
In Pure Spirit
Which would you rather have? An island full of dinosaurs – many species brought back from extinction – or free energy for 30,000 homes for a year?
This bust is the design of Victoria Curtin Rivera of Chibinendo Art. The studio offers limited edition statues, busts and fine pieces of art. Rivera takes commissions but her shop has some designs for pin-ups, merch inspired by films, literature and music as well her own designs.
I think both the shrunekn head and this scary clown might do well over Halloween! After all, who wouldn’t want a shrunken head on the mantelpiece?
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What’s the spookiest design in your collection?
Did you know that nearly one in every five people feel anxious often or even all of the time? The awful feelings are especially common in women who are about twice as likely than men to suffer. Many people suffer in silence because the symptoms are easily obscured by the stress of modern living.
Do you think any of those apply to you? The feeling of spinning thoughts is especially familiar to me.
I’ve suffered from tension headaches before; a double whammy. They’re not nice and therefore all the more reason to try and deal with anxiety.
Whereas feeling stress is natural it is possible to find that your brain has become over stimulated due to the excessive release of neurotransmitters (like dopamine and adrenaline), which leads to hyperactive nerves, and therefore the feelings of anxiety.
The people behind the informational video are the company who make the traditional herbal remedy Kalms which you can pick up from Boots and other chemists.
Kalms, no doubt, is stepping up their education piece as they’ve just released a new herbal relief product called Kalms Lavender, an one-a-day capsule, designed to tackle the symptoms of mild anxiety. You may already recognise lavender as something often recommended when it comes to creating a sensation of calm.
Does it work? There are over 15 clinic trials that show daily capsules can have a positive effect. Kasper and others showed how Silexan can work in two weeks.
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Do you or anyone you know suffer from anxiety? Does lavender work for you? What tips would you share in the comments below?
The management of this Subway found reason to put up a rather strange sign. It makes you wonder what might have happened here that made printing such a sign necessary in the first place.
Do you agree with the owners? Are they entitled to ban paying customers from using Ouija boards in the building? Or do you think the sign will backfire and if anyone wanted to stir up trouble for them that they will anyway?
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What’s the strangest sign you’ve ever seen posted in public?
Via Reddit uploads.
1. They’re cute
This almost goes without saying but who doesn’t love puppies? They’re absolutely adorable and the best part is, when you sponsor a guide dog puppy you’ll get regular ‘pupdates’ on their progress, including pictures, videos and text, all the way from young 6 month old pups to fully mature guide dogs. You get to track their progress and watch them grow up from adorable young animal to working guide dog, enjoying all the best parts and never having to worry about cleaning up any messes!
2. They perform an important function
Though guide dog puppies are undeniably cute, they do also perform a very vital function. They can help disabled people, such as those who are blind, to live a much more independent life than they would be able to without them. Guide dogs can help otherwise very vulnerable individuals to feel safe doing normal, everyday things that would otherwise be taken for granted. Things like crossing the road and going to the shops can feel like daunting tasks when you are blind, but a guide dog can offer both a level of safety and confidence, enabling those to live a far more independent life than they would otherwise be able.
3. They need your help
Guide dogs are very expensive to train, not least of which because they fulfil such a vital role and they are depended on so much. They are still dogs that are curious about the world and are naturally very easily distracted by everything from dropped food to small animals running around. Guide dogs need to be trained well to learn to ignore such distractions and not endanger their handler. As you may imagine, this is expensive to do and funding is low, so your gift donations really can help make a difference.
4. They’re a companion
Being blind can be a very isolating experience and it can be very lonely. A guide dog is not just a support animal, but it is also a companion and handlers can become as attached to their guide dog as any other pet. Having this companion be with you and help you through every day can help make even the darkest days seem a little brighter, and this can be important in keeping spirits up. This alone can be why some people choose to use a guide dog over simply using a cane; they are so much more than a simple seeing eye aid.
5. They’re a conversation starter
Being blind can be a very obvious disability to others and people will go out of their way to make a clear path for them. While this has the best of intentions, it often results in blind people being almost avoided in public and it can be very hard for blind people to meet new people and socialise because of this. A guide dog functions as a great conversation starter. As people stop to compliment the guide dog, it is a great opportunity for the handler to do anything from ask for directions to strike up a full conversation over a cup of coffee!
Tempted? Sponsor a Guide Dog puppy for your dad today!
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What would you add to this list? Not sure. Plenty of time to sponsor a puppy while you mull it over.
When spring finally arrives, and the weather starts to warm up – the bright yellow daffodils bring us lots of visual sunshine, the rays of the sun are warming and not just defrosting the ice, the animals begin to nest and flourish. This is where most of us are excited to get outside and enjoy the new season.
It’s so satisfying to go back into the garden, perhaps tend to the plants, sit on comfortable garden furniture and enjoy a cup of coffee on a nice day. The kids are usually excited to get outside and play too. The garden is our own, little space to recharge our batteries and get some fresh air, all of course, within easy distance of the house. To make this garden to house enjoyment even easier, a lot of people choose to integrate both their indoor and outdoor space.
Many people opt to integrate their outdoor and indoor space, so that there is easy flow and accessibility between the two. There are many different reasons to do this, including:
If you choose to connect your indoor and outdoor space, it will enable you to have a living room that appears much bigger, and an indoor space that brings in all the peacefulness and greenery of the garden.
When you decide to bring the outdoors in and connect your living space to your garden, it is important to ensure that you take steps to integrate the two areas together. If you don’t, the look can be disconnected, the maintenance may be higher, and you may not get the practical benefits or the ‘feel’ you were looking for. If you’re considering merging your living room and outdoor space, these useful tips will help you get started:
Ideally, you can have at least one colour or pattern theme that runs from the living room into the garden. Perhaps you have a lot of duck egg blue in the living room, and you could opt for duck egg blue patio furnishings, or garden planters. Just one colour or theme that runs all the way through, and the two spaces will be connected.
This is most important when it comes to enjoying the area during the evening, so that you can make the most of the entire space. One lovely thing to do, is add soft lighting all the way down your garden, onto your decking and into your living room. The cheapest and easiest way to do this is with LED lighting like fairy lights, or LED lanterns. With fairy lights you can wrap them around anything and they tend to look pretty. No need for electricians or wiring changes, just make sure you use weatherproof ones in the parts of the garden exposed to the elements.
This isn’t an option for everyone, but it can be a very practical option for some. Floor tiling that goes all the way from the living room and onto the patio really does bring the space together, and adds a practical element in terms of bringing in dirt and mud from outside. You can also do this with wood.
If the living room leads straight onto decking or a patio, make sure the levels are the same height.
Floor to ceiling doors are a must when it comes to integrating your indoor and outdoor space. External bi-fold doors are perfect for adding light to your living room, and making it easy to open your living room up to your outdoor space.
Even though you can see the outside from the living room, a good thing to do is to ensure there is actual greenery both sides of the doors. Perhaps use a planter with grasses on your decking, and then have a similar indoor plant on the inside as well. This unifies the two spaces and actually brings the outside in.
To make use of your outdoor space in all weathers, why not add some covering over the top of the patio or decking. This ensures you can easily sit outside with your partner, with a cup of hot chocolate and a blanket if it is snowing, or perhaps take shelter under a quick summer shower, without having to drag everything indoors. A patio heater is also a great idea to prolong your outdoor entertaining through the seasons.
Hopefully, these tips have given you lots of inspiration for how to integrate your indoor and outdoor space. Remember to take your time, do lots of research, and most importantly – keep it personal and unique to you, this is a special space for your family to spend time in and enjoy, it should be personalised to your needs and tastes.
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What tips do you have for bringing outside inside? Let us know in the comments below.
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