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MTA Inspector General A secret ‘man cave’ complete with a flat-screen TV, sofa bed and fridge has been discovered below the train tracks at New York’s Grand Central Terminal.  The discovery was made by the Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA), when an internal watchdog found the lounge behind a plasterboard wall in an unused locksmith shop located below Track 114 in the station’s lower level. Investigators paid a surprise visit to the hidden room last year, though a report on the findings has only been released today, September 24. MTA Inspector General The agency’s inspector general stated that at least three MTA employees transformed the room, which station management admitted they didn’t even know existed. Metro-North’s security manager did not have a working key for the room, and the supervisor of the locksmith shop – who is not a licensed locksmith themselves – could not access the room because only actual locksmiths had access. The three employees, identified as a wi...

Warner Bros. It’s been 13 years since Leonard, Sheldon, Raj and Howard first entered our lives, meaning The Big Bang Theory is officially a teenager! Fitting, since the characters so often behaved as such.  Sure, they might have been experts in their fields, winning awards and taking part in scientific efforts across Earth and beyond, but they also shied away from women – or used horrendous chat up lines to try and win them over – spent hours playing video games, and fought over comic books, movie props and action figures. After kicking off in September 2007, the show went on to become the longest-running multicamera comedy in TV history, finally wrapping up last year after 12 seasons. View this post on Instagram We loved The #BigBangTheory finale so much @cbstv is airing it again! Don’t miss the encore Monday 8/7c! A post shared by The Big Bang Theory (@bigbangtheory) on May 17, 2019 at 3:11pm PDT Over the years we saw the char...

Fox Television Get ready for a whole host of new animated antics, because Family Guy and Bob’s Burgers have each been renewed for two more seasons.  Sometimes you need a bit of cartoon satire to help distract from normal life, and Fox is here to deliver. The renewal means the Emmy ward-winning Bob’s Burgers will now run through to its thirteenth season, while Family Guy will reach the milestone of its twentieth season. The two long-running shows are staples of Fox’s Sunday animation block, and Michael Thorn, president of entertainment for Fox Entertainment, described them as ‘key pillars’ to the network’s success. Fox Television Per Deadline , he commented: By taking the genre to new heights and driving pop culture in meaningful ways, they’ve laid the foundation for making Animation Domination one of the most powerful program blocks in all of television. Both of these two-season renewals affirm once again our commitment to animation and empower us to continue in our bui...

PA Scientists have expressed the need to take action after increasing damage to an ice shelf known as the ‘doomsday glacier’ was found to have weakened its integrity.  Researchers used satellite imagery to map damage to the Thwaites glacier in western Antarctica, monitoring the impacts on its strength and tracking how sections would crack and fragment from the glacier’s edge. The glacier is roughly the same size as Britain, and has the potential to increase sea levels by 1.6 feet (0.5 metres) if it melts. See footage of the ice shelf damage below: New research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences focused on the rapid development of damaged areas on the ice shelves of Thwaites and Pine Island – another glacier in Antarctica. The damaged areas consist of open fractures and crevasses where moving ice meets rock. These features are often the first indicators of catastrophic weakening for ice shelves, and the research suggests that it could in...

New Line Cinema/Universal Pictures Okay, so we might only be two days into autumn, but the nights are getting longer and the air is getting chillier, so we might as well have some Christmas movies to go with it! Starting today, September 24, you’ll be able to fill your home with the sight of snow, the sound of Jingle Bells and all things red and green thanks to Sony Movies Christmas, a TV channel that will air festive films 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The channel will be live until January, meaning you can keep the festive feeling going strong and make sure to end 2020 with some much-needed joy. Our gift to you has arrived. Sony Movies Christmas has #ChristmasWrappedUp Tune in from TODAY. pic.twitter.com/hnazISKe80 — Sony Movies (@sonymovieuk) September 24, 2020 The line-up includes Christmas classics and new releases, as well as some ‘indulgent treats to get you in the holiday mood from September to January’. A release from the channel says: Santa and his elve...

PA Images The death of a critically ill patient in Germany following a cyber attack could be the first known case of a life being lost as a result of hacking.  The female patient was due to have lifesaving treatment at Düsseldorf University Hospital on September 11, but a ransomware attack the day before had scrambled data and made computer systems inoperable. As a result of the hack, doctors could not admit the patient and had to transfer her to another hospital 30km (19 miles) away. The journey prevented the woman from getting the lifesaving treatment she so desperately needed, and she passed away in a hospital in Wuppertal. Wikimedia Commons Prosecutors in Cologne have officially launched a negligent homicide case saying the hackers could be blamed. Detectives are collaborating with cyber-security experts to determine whether there is a link between the hack and the patient’s death. Ciaran Martin, former chief executive of the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre, said that...

vissarion.name Russian authorities have arrested a cult leader who claims he’s Jesus reincarnated following accusations he was using followers’ money and psychological violence to inflict harm.  Sergei Torop, known to his followers as Vissarion Christ the Teacher, is a leader at a compound for the Church of the Last Testament in a southern district of Siberia’s Krasnoyarsk region. Russia’s Investigative Committee said today that the cult leader and two of his deputies, including former rock musician Vadim Redkin, were detained after authorities stormed the commune with vans and helicopters. See footage of the raid below: Torop used to work as a traffic officer but came to prominence as Vissarion after the fall of the Soviet Union, when he established his community – which has been likened to a cult. He now spends his time claiming to be Jesus and ‘teaching’ his followers, which he says are in the thousands. He has written a 10-volume ‘sequel to the Bible’ and lives in a comf...

@tamejimpala/Tiktok/@onlyjayus/Tiktok An online trend has seen young people get matching tattoos to mark themselves as members of Gen Z – but the symbol is actually one that was used by the Nazis.  The tattoo has largely been promoted on TikTok, where users have shared pictures of their ink and their ideas for how they want their planned tattoos to look. Though different people have made different adaptations, each tattoo is based on the letter Z with a line through the middle. Without prior knowledge of symbol, it might seem like an appropriate way to represent Gen Z, but the sign actually has a lot of history and negative connotations surrounding it. Hear some of the background to the symbol below: @onlyjayus ATTENTION FELLOW GEN Z ##fyp ##genz ##genztattoo ##tattoo ##attention ##psa ##onlyjayus ♬ Lobby Music (Original Soundtrack) – Kahoot! For a start, the Z with a line through it was used as the divisional insignia for the fourth SS Polizei Panzergrenadier Divis...

Airbus European planemaker Airbus SE has unveiled designs for a hydrogen-powered aircraft as part of its mission to have a zero-carbon passenger plane in the air by 2035.  The company is studying three different designs as it faces pressure from French and German governments, its biggest shareholders, to develop a cleaner craft. Over the next five years, Airbus will test its three designs and evaluate how best to move forward. Airbus One approach includes a Turbofan jet that could seat up to 200 passengers, similar to Airbus’s existing A321neo narrow-body. This design would be able to fly more than 2,000 nautical miles with a modified gas-turbine engine that runs on hydrogen. Liquid hydrogen would be stored and distributed through tanks located behind the rear pressure bulkhead, while hydrogen fuel cells would simultaneously create electric power that compliments the gas turbine. Another design is for a smaller propeller plane intended to seat about 100 passengers and travel...

catsuka/Twitter In what is probably a great leap for technology but a horrifying development for humanity, a 60-foot Japanese robot can now move around on its own.  After seeing everything 2020 has thrown at us already, we probably shouldn’t have tempted fate and created a giant being that could potentially kill dozens of people with one footstep – but here we are. Construction of the robot began in January, and after making a wobbly attempt at its first steps earlier this month, it can now move unaided. Check out footage of the giant machine, sped up at four times speed, below: Life-sized Gundam in Yokohama is now in testing mode. pic.twitter.com/51HVoraPb7 — Catsuka (@catsuka) September 21, 2020 The creation has been built in Yokohama, just south of Tokyo, and was inspired by the popular Gundam robot that was introduced in 1979 in Yoshiyuki Tomino’s and Sunrise’s anime series Mobile Suit Gundam. It weighs a whopping 25 tonnes, with each of its 6.5-foot long hands w...

PA Images Around 90 pilot whales have died and dozens more are suffering as a mass stranding took place on the west coast Tasmania.  A total of 270 whales were found washed up on shore across Macquarie Heads, a remote tip of the island with limited vessel and road access, on Monday, September 21. Whale beachings are common in the region, but one of this size has not been seen in more than a decade and it’s unclear what drew the sea creatures to the shore. Tasmania Police Rescuers from the Tasmanian Marine Conservation Program have launched a mission to try and save as many whales as possible from the three groups that washed ashore. About 200 had washed up on a sandbar near a boat ramp, while 30 others were found several hundred metres away and another 30 were found further inland along Ocean Beach. Many of the whales are said to be in ‘relatively inaccessible’ locations, making their rescue all the more challenging. The Tasmanian Marine Conservation Program released a state...

Lego I don’t think there a Mandalorian fan out there who didn’t fall in love with Baby Yoda, aka The Child, and now you can build your version own version of him with a 1,073-piece Lego set.  Sure, you could just buy a soft toy replica of the wide-eyed, big-eared, little character, but you have to admit it would be all the more satisfying to see him come to life through your handiwork. The completed structure stands at 7.8 inches tall, with Lego advising that the set is intended for people aged 10 and above – though I imagine most builders will be well above the recommended age for this particular toy. Lego Despite being made of hard brick, you can give Baby Yoda some personality by posing his head and adjusting his ears and mouth, plus he comes complete with his favourite gearshift knob toy to hold. The set is available to pre-order now from Lego’s website for £69.99 ($79.99) and will be released on October 30 to coincide with season two of The Mandalorian , meaning you ca...

New Line Cinema There’s probably a large majority of the Earth’s population who would kill to see Will Ferrell back in his role as Buddy the Elf, but tensions between the actor and director Jon Favreau mean it will probably never happen.  Seventeen years after its release, Elf remains one of the best-loved Christmas films of all time. Buddy’s excitement about Santa and his love for Christmas in general never fails to get people in the holiday spirit, so it’s understandable that fans have demanded to see more of Buddy in the years since the film’s release. The 2003 comedy was directed by Jon Favreau, who is also known for producing films such as Iron Man for the Marvel Cinematic Universe and starring as Monica’s mixed martial arts obsessed boyfriend Pete in Friends . New Line Cinema Though Elf is undoubtedly a masterpiece, it seems things weren’t always as jolly behind the camera as they were on screen. During a recent interview with 92.3 Sports Radio, per MovieWeb , actor J...