Seeing Double!

 

Chris Hemsworth

Stunt doubles surely come in handy when it comes to performing risky scenes, but their work often goes unrecognized. Seeing some of Hollywood's biggest stars and their daredevil impersonators will make you do a double take. Thor's stunt double resembles Hemsworth so much, we can't figure out who is who. It's hard for an average guy to achieve the godly physique of Chris, but for Bobby Holland Hanton, it's supposedly a piece of cake. Or should I say sandwich?

Chris Hemsworth

Emilia Clarke

Mother of dragons, breaker of chains, and Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea had a double for a six-week stint when Game Of Thrones was filmed in Spain. The girl to your left is a model named Rosie Mac. Rumor has it, she didn't even audition for the part. She said, "That same day I posted a selfie on Twitter, and I was wearing long, blonde hair. A while later I was asked by one of the agencies I'm signed with to send in my body measurements, but they didn’t tell me what for.” It turned out they wanted her to replace Daenerys.



Jennifer Lopez

While filming the hit NBC show, Shades of Blue, Jennifer Lopez got to spend some quality time with a lady who looks a lot like her, Vanessa Vander Pluym. Vanessa has played as a stunt double for over ten years and has appeared in several popular shows like Charmed and True Blood. The girls previously worked together on Lopez's 2015 thriller, The Boy Next Door, and because of their great relationship, they intend to continue on this path.



Johnny Depp

Pirate of the Carribean or not, it seems Johnny Depp isn't as savage as we thought. We discovered recently that the award-winning actor isn't a fan of doing his own stunts, claiming that he "prefers they pull in for the close-up and leave that jumping about to the professionals.” This might be because of an injury Johnny faced while filming Stranger Tides, which left him wabbling for weeks. Speaking of injuries, one of Depp's most precious stunt doubles also endured a hit on the Pirates of the Carribean set, which reportedly scared the director and crew.




Brad Pitt

Although millions would pay to get even a glimpse of sexy Pitt, Brad's stunt double, Phil Ball, didn't feel the same. In fact, he claimed to be bored on the job. Phil described his experience being the body double for the movie World War Z as "strange and boring." Speaking of strange, we noticed that Phil is oddly attached to his arm hair because he tweeted while filming, “Just when I thought my day job couldn’t get any more bizarre, I’m made to shave my hands."


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Two vocal powerhouses, in the duet we wish had happened in real life…

 


A few years ago, a Freddie Mercury impersonator created an extraordinary duet between two of music history’s greatest tenors.

Singer-songwriter Marc Martel recorded an imagined duet between the Queen vocalist and opera star Luciano Pavarotti, taking on both roles himself in one single take, using two cameras.

Covering the classic ‘Nessun dorma’ from Puccini’s opera Turandot, Martel channels both the singing titans in one amazing video, and even tailors his facial hair accordingly.


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Ecllipse the bus riding dog!


This is Eclipse. She is well known in Seattle. Every day she leaves home alone and takes the bus downtown to the dog park where she gets a few hours of exercise and makes friends, and then she takes the bus home again. She even has her own bus pass attached to her collar.



It started when her owner, Jeff Young, was taking too long when the bus came, so she impatiently ran ahead and got on the bus herself. The bus driver recognized her and dropped her off at the dog park, and later Jeff picked her up. After a few more rides on her own, Jeff started letting her ride by herself, and she always comes home a few hours later.

All the bus riders know her and she makes them smile, and many of the regular passengers are happy to see her every day and often sit next to her. Even the police have given their approval, as long as the bus drivers are okay with the arrangement. "She makes everyone happy."

The Mud Maiden

The Mud Maid is a living sculpture by Sue Hill at The Lost Gardens of Heligan, Cornwall, UK.

Depending on the season, the mud maid’s ‘hair’ and ‘clothes’ change when the seasonal plants and moss grow over the sculpture


 

Did you know In-N-Out Burgers come with biblical verses?

 In-N-Out’s biblical wrapping

In-N-Out Burger As The Company Is Valued At Near $2 Billion
Bloomberg / Getty Images
In-N-Out Burger food containers include Bible verses — since at least 1987, the soda cups, milkshake cups, burger wrappers, and french fry holders all have Bible verses inscribed on the packaging.

Found on Reddit

The $64,000 question they thought a woman couldn’t answer…

 Joyce Diane was a “pop psychologist,” TV personality, advice columnist and writer with a PhD from Columbia who became famous for being the first woman to win a 1955 TV game show called The $64,000 Question.

Joyce Brothers NYWTS.jpg

T

o escape what Brothers called the “slum-like conditions” of her New York City walkup, she was driven to enter as a contestant on the game show The $64,000 Question. To become a contestant, Brothers had to write a letter describing herself and her hobbies, why she would make a great contestant, and what she would do if she were to carry forth with the winnings. Eventually, the letter landed her an interview with Mert Koplin, the show’s producer. While in her letter she discussed her qualifications in the field of psychology and home economics, she was not allowed to use her expert knowledge for the show, as The $64,000 Question did not allow participants to be quizzed on topics of their expertise or profession. As such, Brothers had to come up with a new topic area for her to be quizzed on for the show.

Koplin thought he could draw in the most viewership by juxtaposing Brothers’ perceived frailty as a woman with the idea that she knew a great deal about a more masculine field. He is credited with saying Brothers should be given a topic on “something that [she] shouldn’t know about… [something like] if it were football or if it were horse racing or boxing….” She chose boxing, and studied rigorously for the weeks leading up to the show. Despite the show’s producers’ efforts to stump her at the $16,000 mark by asking questions involving referees rather than the boxers themselves, she exceeded expectations and won the top prize.

She is often credited as the first to normalise psychological concepts to the American mainstream.

Found on Reddit



The woman who sold time

 

Elizabeth Ruth Naomi Belville (1854 –1943), also known as the Greenwich Time Lady, was a businesswoman from London. She, her mother Maria Elizabeth, and her father John Henry, sold people the time.

Found on Wikipedia.

The Pioneering Sculptor from Kentucky that studied with Rodin



Enid Yandell was one of a group of women sculptors known as the White Rabbits, who were organized by sculptor Lorado Taft to complete the numerous statues and other architectural embellishments for the Horticultural Building at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. In 1894, Yandell went to Paris, where she studied with Frederick William MacMonnies and other instructors at the Académie Vitti in Montparnasse. Yandell also worked with Auguste Rodin. She returned to Paris frequently, maintaining a studio there and exhibiting at the Paris Salon.

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Dragon of Bethesda



 A large oak branch had fallen from a tree in Tregarth, near Bethesda. When I say branch it doesn’t sound that big, but this was a branch around 30 inches in diameter!

The location was perfect, in view of the A5, so plenty of people would see it, and a challenging landscape to create it in!

The branch was resting on a pile of rocks, and the branches of the stem rested on the ground and curled up in the air which made it a great shape and position to form the dragon with its front feet resting on the rock, and hind legs on the ground!



The distance the thick part of the stem reached out over the rocky precipice gave the dragon a great lean forward with its wings folded behind (once I made the wings that is!).

I had two choices of the type of dragon with this project. One type was a dragon with four legs and separate wings – Welsh dragon style, the other being more bat-like with the fore-legs being the wings themselves – Game of Thrones style.

I decided to go for four legs and two separate wings, as it was closer to the Welsh dragon!



I slogged it out from the Monday morning to the Saturday afternoon, and finished up exhausted, covered in sawdust, and very happy with the result!

As you can see from the pictures, this monster log was a daunting sight, but my cohort of STIHL chainsaws made short work of it.


The most surprising result of this project was the overwhelming response on social media. In less than 24 hours of posting, the album on Facebook had over 2000 shares and as many likes! The dragon quickly became a great attraction causing people to travel from a great distance to see it, and even a troupe of firebreathers came to do a photoshoot!

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THE GIANT HAND OF VYRNWY

The tallest tree in Wales got damaged by a storm and was supposed to be cut down, instead chainsaw artist Simon O'Rourke found a better solution to symbolize the tree’s last attempt to reach the sky.



This 50ft sculpture may look like your typical tree at ground level, but as you follow the tree upward, you will notice the bark slowly start to melt away, revealing the enormous, detailed work of art. “I wanted to show the hand stretching and straining; fighting to reach its full height,” Simon O’Rourke explains, “That’s why I highlighted veins and creases, and why there is visible tension and power in the hand. It reflects a battle against not only the elements but also the damage humans have done.” For 124 years, this Douglas Fir stretched forever toward the sky, and now, through through O’Rourke’s artistic vision, the sculpture will continue to reach upward so for many, many years to come. Matter of fact, it just celebrated its 11th birthday in 2022.