Sci-fi surrealist HR Giger, creator of Alien visions, dies in fall

HR Giger, whose “biomechanical” artwork lent Ridley Scott’s film Alien much of its terror, has died aged 74.

A spokesperson from his gallery in Switzerland confirmed the news. According to the Swiss press, he died from injuries sustained in a fall on stairs.

Born in 1940 in Chur, Switzerland, Giger studied architecture and industrial design in Zurich, before beginning a successful career in art and interior design from the mid-1960s onwards. Beginning with ink and oil paintings, he graduated to using an airbrush, which helped articulate his vivid, often disturbing style, characterised by dark sexuality and cyberpunk energy.

Also: Alien designer HR Giger: ‘I am afraid of my visions’

#aliens #rip

Ann Coulter’s Hashtag Hijacking Of BringBackOurGirls Backfires Big Time

Conservative pundit Ann Coulter on Sunday night joined the band of conservatives mocking the #BringBackOurGirls social media campaign, which began as a way to call attention to the 300 Nigerian girls kidnapped by Boko Haram.

Coulter posted a photo to Twitter with her own iteration of the hashtag, in an apparent attempt to ridicule some of the high profile people, including First Lady Michelle Obama, who took part in the original campaign.

She got more than 1,000 retweets, including by Red State’s Erick Erickson. Conservative radio host Thomas Purcell also tweeted a photo of himself holding up Coulter’s hashtag.

However, her attempt backfired with a slew of people tweeting images of Coulter holding the same sign but photoshopped with messages that turned the tables on her. Gawker curated many of them, including some of the crudest.

#socialmedia #anncoulter

I totally didn’t want to get out of bed this Wednesday.

#wednesday

Setting my socks out the night before makes my life so much easier.

#fashion

#starwars

You may have received some weird emails. That was the latest code drop that featured some bugs. :-D

#webdev #tcr

‘Vegetative’ Man Has His Say

Scott Routley hasn’t spoken or even followed family members with his eyes since his car accident 12 years ago. But he managed to indicate to doctors this spring that he was not in pain.

And he did it by imagining his playing tennis as researchers watched for certain areas of his brain scan to light up during an fMRI, something he and neuroscientist Adrian Owen worked out as a signal for “no” over a series of sessions. The breakthrough technique proved Routley isn’t in a vegetative state, as doctors thought. He’s aware of the world around him.

“Some people can look like they’re vegetative but still have awareness inside their head. I think it’s a very important finding,” said Bryan Young, the neurologist at University Hospital in London, Ontario, who has treated Routley for the past decade.

“It really made the point to me that we need to go beyond the clinical evaluation to be conclusive about whether a patient is really in a vegetative state or not.”

Young met Routley, 39, after he came out of his coma 10 years ago. The car-crash victim had severe damage to both brain hemispheres, and woke up in what doctors thought to be a vegetative state, which the Mayo Clinic defines as resulting from severe brain damage and renders a person “unaware of his or her surroundings.”

#medical

There’s nothing more worse than a snotty hippie.

#insights

#photos #easter

Rapper Andre Johnson severs penis, jumps off building, survives

Police have reported that Andre Johnson, a rapper reportedly associated with the Wu-Tang Clan family, severed his penis and then jumped off a building in North Hollywood early Wednesday morning. Despite being severely injured, Johnson survived the fall from the second level of the building.

Authorities were able to rush Johnson and his recovered penis to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he is currently being treated, according to Los Angeles Police Sgt. William Mann.

Despite early reports made by CNN stating that Jonson is a member of Northstar, a Long Beach, Calif.-based hip-hop group that was part of the Wu-Tang family, according to the Wu-Tang Clan’s own website, the hip-hop group is now claiming that Johnson has no affiliation with them.

There’s no going back once you cut off your own penis.

#meanwhile