Disney’s The Lion King is a total rip-off of “Kimba the White Lion”, a Japanese cartoon. The plot also closely follows Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”.

“Kimba the White Lion” was a Japanese manga (comic book) from the 1950s that became a cartoon show (anime) in the 1960s. In addition to having a similarly-named protagonist (“Kimba” as opposed to “Simba”) the “Kimba” cartoon and “The Lion King” feature extremely similar characters: a wise monkey character, hyenas as comic-relief villains, a dead father who appears to his son in the clouds, and an older relative (an aunt in “Kimba” and an uncle in “Lion King”) who serves as the main antagonist.

Early screenshots from preproduction work on “The Lion King” show that Simba was intended to be albino, just like Kimba. The cartoons were so similar that when Matthew Broderick was hired to be the voice of Simba he had assumed he was playing Kimba in a theatrical interpretation of “Kimba the White Lion”.

Ironically, Osamu Tezuka, the creator of “Kimba” and the popular series “Astroboy”, drew from Walt Disney’s early work as an inspiration for his own artistic style, and he even received permission from Walt Disney to make a manga adaption of Disney’s Bambi.

The Lion King also shares some plot details with Hamlet. Both Simba and Hamlet are on a quest to avenge their fathers and take back their kingdoms. Both had their uncle kill their father and assume power. Both were visited by the ghosts of their fathers to inspire them to take revenge. Thankfully, the similarities don’t extend to the end of the story, otherwise The Lion King would (spoiler alert!) end with Simba, Nala, Simba’s mom and Tom & Pumba all dying. (source: OMG Facts)

As you can see from the accompanying photograph, the cunning blobfish (Psychrolutes marcidus) is the most terrifying fish in the world.

And if you’re not afraid of it yet, you should be, because there’s always something lurking out there that can get you.

Its hideously deformed body is quite boneless, a gelatinous orb hovering in the deep, covered in slime and mucus. But there’s something even worse.

Its face.

Most fish don’t really have faces. You’ve heard people refer to "fish eyes" or "fish lips," or they say, "Oh, shut up, you old fish face."

But the blobfish actually has a face. Not a fish face, but a human face, complete with lips and a big, bulbous nose.

A blobfish looks like some fat, drunken judge and may be highly intelligent. And therefore quite dangerous.

It frowns. It leers. Sometimes, it even drools.

"That’s gross!" said an editor around here who didn’t believe me. But once she saw the photos, she began gnawing the knuckles on her right hand in sheer, abject terror.

American journalism has a formula for stories designed to whip up panic about highly adaptive species. For "balance," you insert a quote or two from some learned biologist who tells readers not to worry.

Some marine biologist might reassure readers that the blobfish lives far away, in the deep waters off the coast of Tasmania — some 9,600 miles away — and therefore could never find its way into the Chicago River or the ship canal.

Yeah, right.  (source: LA times)

Daniel Radcliffe sprung a visit on Japan’s biggest Harry Potter fan, who screeched uncontrollably and touched his face during their meeting, while on a recent visit to promote his box-office smash.

In an unusual display of unity, leaders of five Chasidic groups today issued a joint statement in support of proposed state
legislation to allow same-sects marriages.

The groups represented were Belz, Pupa, Saatmar, Bobov, and Lubavitch.
"Of course we want same-sects marriages," said Rabbi Wurzma Shtreimel,  head of the Belz movement. "A Belzer should marry only a Belzer. That makes perfect sense." The other rabbis agreed.

"If a Saatmar weds a Bobover, woe to their offspring," proclaimed  Rabbi Praymita Gartel of Saatmar. "What would their children
be-Saatovers??  That’s totally unheard of."

The rabbis shared concerns about the dilution of their individual groups through intersect marriages. "The Tanya warns us," said Rabbi Mendy Pantz of Lubavitch. "If a Lubavitcher marries outside his sect, his children lose half their heritage. His son is not Lubavitch, just  Vitch. And his grandson becomes a son of a Vitch."

At a separate news conference, Chasidic women expressed similar concerns. "It’s less confusing when our kind marry their own kind,"
said Rebbetzin Donna Kittel, founder of a Pupa women’s group, The Mamas and the Pupas.

To prevent intersect marriages, Belz rebbetzin Gitta Kapotah announced the formation of a new community matchmaking service, Wedding Belz.
"We must protect our Belz," she said. "They’re our family jewels."

Contacted by Mr. Richard Feder of Ft. Lee, N.J., Rebbetzin Emily Littella of Bobov asked: "Vat’s all dis I hear about same-sox  marriage?"

The Postal Service created a stamp with a picture of President Obama on it.
However, the stamp was not sticking to the envelopes.
This enraged the President, who demanded a full investigation.
After a month of testing and $1.73 million in congressional spending, a special Presidential commission presented the following findings:
* #1 The stamp is in perfect order.
* #2 There is nothing wrong with the adhesive.
* #3 People are spitting on the wrong side.

The NY Post reports: It’s a scofflaw’s dream – new GPS software that alerts New York City drivers to red-light cameras, speed traps and DWI checkpoints so they can steer clear of cops and traffic tickets.

“The system gives you enough time to correct any dopey thing you’re about to do,” said Brooklyn subway conductor John Carlson, 49, who bought the software, and said it “absolutely” has helped him avoid tickets.

“I’m from the school where green means go, red means stop, and yellow means go very, very fast,” Carlson said. “So this system not only saves me from tickets, but it has helped me be a better, more alert driver. I don’t do that anymore.”

The software database of law-enforcement locations can be downloaded to a variety of vehicle GPS systems for $10 a month, $40 a year or $100 for life. The database is compiled by drivers, who upload locations as they find them.

The Big Apple database includes all 300 red-light cameras and dozens of police traps.

Small icons – such as a martini glass for a DWI checkpoint on some systems – appear on the screen map to alert drivers, while an alarm sounds and a warning message flashes.

The Post test-drove the system in Queens last week, and it identified at least six cameras and three speed traps from 1,000 feet away.

Some of the DWI and speed traps are not active all the time, and only a third of the 300 cameras are active at any given moment, but the company founder Joe Scott said: “If there’s a regular spot cops set up traps, then drivers should know that.”

Queens sanitation worker Michael Garcia, 42, bought it, and said it has helped him avoid tickets near the RFK/Triborough Bridge.

“The cops wait as cars come off the bridge from Manhattan into Astoria,” he said. “There’s a spot they can hide. I knew to slow down, and sure enough, there they were.”

Carlson said the system “levels the playing field,” and he was happy to add the locations of the city’s 300 red-light cameras into the database after obtaining the top-secret list from a city insider.

“Sometimes you can’t help but go through a yellow,” he said. “Then you get a $50 ticket. It’s really not fair that there’s no warning. It seems like a revenue generator. This gives the driver more power, and encourages them to follow the law, which should be the point.”

But officials worry that the warning system could provoke drivers to break the law.

“I would equate this system with radar detectors, which are illegal in some places,” said Councilman Peter Vallone Jr., chair of the Public Safety Committee. “I think the city should definitely take a close look at this.”

A passenger landed a twin-engine plane in Florida after the pilot died in flight with a total of six people on board.

Federal Aviation Administration officials say the pilot died after takeoff from an airport in Naples on Sunday. It was on autopilot and climbing toward 10,000 feet when the pilot died.

The passenger who took over is licensed for single-engine planes but isn’t certified to fly the larger King Air craft.

An air traffic controller helped the passenger down by calling a friend in Connecticut who knows the King Air plane and relaying instructions. The plane landed safely at Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers.

The plane had been headed to Jackson, Miss. The names of the pilot and passengers have not been released.

Okay, look, we know that unchecked addiction to the Internet and social networking sites is going to have a negative impact on your mental abilities and attention span, but warnings from neuroscientist Susan Greenfield make Facebook out to be an epidemic worse than the Bubonic Plague and Rickrolling combined.

Most of the news isn’t new; scientists believe that the Internet is changing how our brains develop as we get older, affecting everything from how we associate information to how we socialize. Greenfield and others, however, are beginning to argue that social networking sites, video games and other electronic media are doing more harm than good. According to an interview with the Daily Mail, Greenfield believes that such input may be "infantilising" the brain, creating a generation of "children who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights, who have a small attention span and who live for the moment."

Greenfield takes her sensationalistic and alarmist views a step further, postulating a link between rising occurrences of disorders like autism and the prevalence of social networking sites.Sure, there are trade-offs. But while, over time, our face-to-face social skills may suffer, studies show that our abilities to filter large amounts of information and perform complex reasoning are improved by using the Internet and tools such as Google.

This doesn’t mean that there isn’t some cause for concern, just that perhaps we shouldn’t be overstating the dangers. After all, Facebook is not part of some plot by Dr. Doom to take over the world. (source: Daily Mail)

Please read terms and conditions, then click on this link

That’s right. You read the caption correctly, completely free. Something you don’t get every day.

3 Reasons why is it free:
1) Why not?
2) The economy is in the dumps, and not everybody can afford to shell out $15 for a new cd.
3) So that when you share the downloads with your friends, it won’t be “Genaiva” (stealing) Hence the word “Free”

So, really? There’s no catch?
C’mon, there’s always a catch. But this time, you don’t need to shell out $15 to buy the cd. You do, however, need to decide to follow one of the directives from the list below.
1) Take 15 minutes out of your day (must be at least 15) to learn Torah with a friend or a family member. 
2) The day is short, the week is even shorter, but what’s 15 minutes of your time donated to the Rebbe’s request? Spend an extra 15 minutes doing mivtzaim (mitzvos/commandments).
3) Ok, I said no money, I know, but with all the money you just saved downloading this CD, you can now donate 15 bucks to the tzedokah (charity) of your choice.

Wishing all a very happy year with all of the Rebbe’s blessings.
Moshiach Now,
Moshe Benasher
FreeNiggun@gmail.com

A man in NYC is on a mission to draw every person in New York and posting it on his web site.

on his web site he states.
I am trying to draw every person in New York. I will be drawing people everyday and posting as frequently as I can. It is possible that I will draw you without you knowing it. I draw in Subway stations and museums and restaurants and on street corners. I try not to be in the way when I am drawing or be too noticeable. Whenever I have a new batch of drawings I will post them on this blog.

A 23-year-old student downed 46 of the potato pancakes in eight minutes to win a contest at a Long Island deli.
Pete Czerwinski says he’d never eaten a latke before consuming about seven pounds of them today at Zan’s in Lake Grove.
The Toronto bodybuilder says he’s just “a power eater” whose brain never signals that he’s full, according to the Long Island daily Newsday.
Association of Independent Competitive Eaters Chairman Arnie Chapman says Czerwinski demolished the contest’s previous record of 31 latkes, set in 2006.
Brooklyn college student Will Millender took second place Sunday with 29 latkes.
The pancakes are a traditional treat for Hanukkah, the eight-day Jewish Festival of Lights. It started Sunday evening. (source: vosizneias.com)

They came to shop and ended up killing.

The crowds outside the Nassau county Walmart started forming early this year. By 9 PM on Thanksgiving Day people began a night long vigil, waiting for opening at 5 am. There were excellent Black Friday deals to be had – a plasma HDTV for $800, a vacuum cleaner for $28, a 10.2 megapixel camera for $69 – and everyone wanted a piece of pie.
As the hours ticked by, the crowd grew rowdy and impatient, and by 3:30 am the Nassau County police were called in. An officer on a bullhorn pleaded for order. His pleas went unheeded.
As opening time approached, the tension heightened. By 4:55, the crowd of more than 2,000 lost all control. Fists and shoulders battered the sliding glass double doors. Workers inside tried to support the doors and hold back the crowds, but they were no match for the rabble. The doors got shattered, and the hysterical mob surged into the store, trampling Jdimytai Damour to death.
Jdimytai Damour, a 34 year-old Queens, NY resident, was employed as a temporary worker at Wal-Mart. Earlier that evening, he had a thanksgiving dinner at his half-sister’s house before heading to work. He spent the night stocking shelves and performing maintenance work. He was standing by the entrance just before opening time, ready to open the doors and serve the customers. But they killed him before he could do so.
The murder didn’t faze the crowds. Other employees tried to rush to Mr. Damour’s rescue, but they were also battered.
“When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling, ‘I’ve been on line since yesterday morning,’” Kimberly Cribbs told the Associated Press. “They kept shopping.”
The police and Wal-Mart security officials finally managed to clear the store. Damour was taken to the Franklin Hospital Medical Center in Valley Stream where he was officially pronounced dead. Other employees, including a 28-year-old expectant woman, were treated at the hospital for minor injuries. And at 1pm the store reopened to a steady steam of shoppers. There were deals to be had. (source: aish.com)

UN marks international day of solidarity with Palestinians with various anti-Israel events

The United Nations is currently marking the international day of solidarity with the Palestinian people, on the occasion of the 61st anniversary of the UN’s decision to approve the partition plan.
For two days, the UN will hold blatantly anti-Israel events, including movies comparing Israel to the Nazis, and exhibits on the Israeli occupation and Palestinian suffering.
The climax will come in the form of a marathon of discussions, which got underway Monday and will culminate with six anti-Israel resolutions. These include ones calling for the Golan’s return to Syria and for the division of Jerusalem.
Israel normally ignores the annual solidarity day, yet this time officials decided to issue a harsh condemnation in light of the large volume of events and the fact that they are talking place while Israel and the Palestinians are engaged in negotiations.
In a speech to be delivered Tuesday evening by Ambassador Gabriella Shalev, she is expected to condemn the UN’s one-sided attitude.
In the speech, Shalev will be pointing out that the UN does not have a day of solidarity with the rights of Israelis.
Last week, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told Prime Minister Ehud Olmert he was deeply concerned about the humanitarian situation in Gaza and urged Israel to allow UN aid workers into the territory.
“The secretary-general today telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to express his deep concern over the consequences of the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza,” the UN press office said in a statement.
The prime minister made it clear to the UN chief that Hamas was responsible for the violations of the truce deal. (source: ynet)

The high price of gasoline has some U.S. drivers looking to the future.
A recently introduced service called MyGallons.com allows drivers to fill up their tanks sometime in the future but at current prices, using a debit-like card which banks gallons rather than dollars.
“The price of gasoline was changing all the time. It seemed unpredictable,” Steven Verona, founder and owner of the Miami-based company, said on Monday.
“It seemed there had to be a way to fix the price,” he said.
Working on the assumption that the price of gasoline will continue to rise, Verona started about two and a half years ago to put together the company which gives the driver some measure of control of what he pays for gasoline.
Since a soft launch in January, about 2,000 people representing a cross-section of regions across the U.S. have signed up with MyGallons.com to be able to help them find ways to cope with the rapidly rising price of gasoline, Verona said.

A few weeks ago, the average retail price for U.S. gasoline hit a new record of $4.10 a gallon, rising 1.6 cents over the last 2 months and up $1.14 from a year ago, the U.S. government said.
And while the high price of gasoline has cut demand by about a percent from last year, the record high price of crude oil over $140 a barrel seems to ensure that prices will stay high.
Verona said that new customers generally begin by purchasing 25 to 50 gallons of gasoline.
“Once they are comfortable with how MyGallons work, they are buying 100 to 200 gallons at a time,” Verona said.
Using regular unleaded gasoline as the benchmark, drivers pre-buy gasoline based on their zip code. MyGallons.com determines what that price is based using established providers of oil prices.
Drivers using premium gasoline or premium pay an additional price over benchmark regular gasoline for the higher-priced fuel.
At the pump, the driver swipes his MyGallons card like a debit card. MyGallons.com said that the card is accepted at over 95 percent of U.S. gas stations.
“We don’t sell futures. It’s prepurchased gas,” said Verona, who said MyGallons.com uses a sophisticated hedging strategy to protect and meet obligations to members.
The risk to the consumer is if price of gasoline in the future becomes cheaper rather than more expensive. But if members are dissatisfied, they can drop out of the program and receive a lesser of the current price or what they paid as a refund.
“There is that risk that the price could fall significantly,” said Verona.
“But I think that most people would agree that risk is pretty minimal. Overtime, it is going to go up even if there is no change in the supply/demand relationship because inflation alone would push the price up.” 

(source: vosizneias.com)

The mayor of a city in Turkey called Batman is suing Warner Bros. and producer Christopher Nolan, claiming they used the city’s name without permission.
Mayor Huseyin Kalkan explains, “There is only one Batman in the world.  The American producers used the name of our city without informing us.”
Kalkan blames the psychological impact of the movies on a number of unsolved murders, a high female suicide rate and says residents encounter problems when trying to register businesses in other countries.
Batman first debuted in a DC comic book in 1939, followed by a popular tv series in the 60’s and a string of hit movies including this year’s ‘The Dark Knight’, which has become the second biggest film of all time.
A rep for Warner Bros. told Variety,  “We are only aware of this claim via press reports and have not seen any actual legal action.” (source: thecelebritytruth.com)