Next Xmas #1?

Benjamin Zephaniah, the British poet whose work often addressed political injustice, has died aged 65.

Zephaniah died in the early hours of Wednesday morning after being diagnosed with a brain tumour eight weeks ago, a post on his Instagram page stated.

“Benjamin’s wife was by his side throughout and was with him when he passed,” the post read. “We shared him with the world and we know many will be shocked and saddened by this news. Benjamin was a true pioneer and innovator, he gave the world so much. Through an amazing career including a huge body of poems, literature, music, television and radio, Benjamin leaves us with a joyful and fantastic legacy”.

More to come

Researchers ventured into Baiyan Cave to survey local wildlife in 2020, according to a study published Dec. 1 in the journal ZooKeys.

Just inside from the cave's "large opening," researchers found four small spiders "under large rocks," the study said. Scientists took a closer look at the arachnids and realized they'd discovered a new species: Floronia huishuiensis, or the Huishui dwarf spider.

Huishui dwarf spiders are considered "small," reaching less than 0.1 inches in length, the study said. They have eight eyes, eight brownish-yellow legs and a marbled black and white body, photos show.

Male Huishui dwarf spiders have unique genitalia, known as pedipalps, the study said. Pedipalps are the shorter front appendages that function both as sensory organs and reproductive organs.

Close-up photos show the pedipalps of male Huishui dwarf spiders. Overall, the pedipalps look like boxing gloves, with researchers describing one distinct part as being "hook-shaped."

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/9200956

PARIS: Urbanites seeking peace and quiet in the bucolic French countryside will have more difficulty in taking farmers to court over crowing roosters, mooing cows and stinking pigs in the future after parliament passed a new law, reported German news agency (dpa).

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/5314469

Standing at 62ft (19 metres) tall, the spruce grew in Nordmarka, just outside of Oslo, before being chopped down, transported 1,000 miles and unveiled in central London on Monday in a scrawny condition.

People on social media were quick to mock the tree, which appeared to have been missing half of its volume before workers were seen hammering in extra branches, performing a “Christmas Miracle” transplant.

“They are taking the p**s that ain’t a Christmas tree. Well it is but it’s not what we expect. Send it back,” one person said to initial pictures of the tree.

Another person tweeted: “Each year it feels like this is a visual representation of the state of the nation. This year is ‘meh, could be better, could be worse.’”

...

According to the MailOnline, this year’s tree may be the last dispatched from Norway with the tradition and transportation seen to be outdated and environmentally unfriendly.

Standing at 62ft (19 metres) tall, the spruce grew in Nordmarka, just outside of Oslo, before being chopped down, transported 1,000 miles and unveiled in central London on Monday in a scrawny condition.

People on social media were quick to mock the tree, which appeared to have been missing half of its volume before workers were seen hammering in extra branches, performing a “Christmas Miracle” transplant.

“They are taking the p**s that ain’t a Christmas tree. Well it is but it’s not what we expect. Send it back,” one person said to initial pictures of the tree.

Another person tweeted: “Each year it feels like this is a visual representation of the state of the nation. This year is ‘meh, could be better, could be worse.’”

...

According to the MailOnline, this year’s tree may be the last dispatched from Norway with the tradition and transportation seen to be outdated and environmentally unfriendly.

What would National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation look like if Clark and his family had to fight a bunch of killer elves? You can get a very, very close approximation in the new movie There’s Something in the Barn. It stars Martin Starr (Freaks and Geeks, Silicon Valley) as a happy-go-lucky father who moves his family to Norway only to find that an actual elf lives in their barn. The elf is cool with the family being there... until they start breaking his rules. Then all hell breaks loose.

Trailer

IMDb

And, as it seems we haven't yet mentioned the previously most recent Nic Cage Comedy +.genre film....

In this modern monster tale of Dracula's loyal servant, Renfield, the tortured aide to history's most narcissistic boss is forced to procure his master's prey and do his every bidding, no matter how debased. But now, after centuries of servitude, Renfield is ready to see if there's a life outside the shadow of The Prince of Darkness. If only he can figure out how to end his codependency.

IMDb

More Cage antics:

Dave Lizewski is an unnoticed high school student and comic book fan with a few friends and who lives alone with his father. His life is not very difficult and his personal trials not that overwhelming; however, one day he makes the simple decision to become a super-hero, even though he has no powers or training.

IMDb

More Nic Cage Comedy + genre outings:

A quiet drifter is tricked into a janitorial job at the now condemned Willy's Wonderland. The mundane tasks suddenly become an all-out fight for survival against wave after wave of demonic animatronics. Fists fly, kicks land, titans clash -- and only one side will make it out alive.

Trailer

IMDb

In this delirious dark comedy, Nicolas Cage and director Kristoffer Borgli (Sick of Myself) take us down a rabbit hole, with the eccentric, unclassifiable star ideally paired to a filmmaker with a wonderfully mordant imagination. Cage plays Paul, a nondescript professor who, for no reason, starts popping up in other people's dreams – first his family's, then his students' and strangers' all over the world.

...

Paul basks in the viral fame that comes from being a benign, passive presence in the background of everyone's dreams until he starts turning up in violent nightmares, leaving people as terrified of him in life as if he really were Freddy Krueger. That is revealed in the film's trailer, but Borgli also drops a huge clue when the film opens with ominous, horror-movie sound effects and images flashing on screen of an apparently ordinary scene by the family's pool that turns out to be anything but. He deftly signals that something in this film's world is abnormal.

Trailer

IMDb

An artisan cheese hailed as one of the smelliest in the world, and aptly named the “Minger”, will hit supermarket shelves for the first time this Christmas.

The “decadently pungent” Minger will soon make its way onto dinner tables in Scotland after its maker signed an exclusive deal with Asda.

...

Two other of the firm’s cheeses - Fat Cow and Blue Murder - will also be available to buy in Asda as part of the deal.

Minger is a “pungent cheese” and runny when ripe, with Fat Cow made for dishes that would normally call for Swiss cheese. Blue Murder, meanwhile, is mould-ripened and meaty in flavour.