Man With Tom Brady Helmet Tattooed On His Head Is Jailed On Felony Narcotics Charge

This sounds like a pretty lame charge - $15 worth of synthetic marijuana is the felony, plus misdemeanor trespassing, per The Smoking Gun. The helmet is the best part:

As noted in the “Scars, Marks, Tatoos or other distinguishing features” section of the report, Thompson has “Tattoo Head-Patriots Football Helmet.”

Thompson had a series of tattoos inked on his head to make it appear that he is wearing a New England Patriots football helmet. Along with team logos on each side of his head, Thompson got Brady’s number 12 and the word “Patriots” inked on the back of his head. He added the name of the helmet maker (“Riddell”) on his forehead, as well as an American flag and an NFL logo.

Thompson even included the small green dot indicating that a helmet is equipped with an electronic device allowing its wearer to receive plays from the sideline.

He also had a likeness of the Super Bowl trophy tattooed on the top of his head. Additionally, his noggin features inked replicas of the signatures of players Rob Gronkowski, Wes Welker, and Randy Moss. Somehow, Thompson forgot to add Aaron Hernandez’s John Hancock to his cranium.

Heh: See if you can tell which is which: transvestite prostitute, trashy fashion model, street hooker or FLOTUS?

UK History Channel's Great Martian War 1913-17 fuses WWI footage and sci fi to create fake documentary

Per the History Channel:

On its 100th anniversary, The Great Martian War tells the story of the catastrophic events and unimaginable horrors of 1913-17, when Humankind was pitted against a savage Alien invasion.

With powerful and detailed First World War parallels, The Great Martian War fuses sci-fi fantasy with specialist factual history to explore the real-world tragedies and unique horror of World War One.

Combining period archive with state-of-the-art special effects and featuring moving interviews with aging veterans, the show takes in the entire sweep of the conflict: from the devastation of Western Europe where a rag-tag alliance digs in against monstrous Alien war-machines unaware that deep flaws exist in their Generals’ central strategy, to the political battle for the Whitehouse where President Wilson struggles to maintain US Neutrality; from the skies of central London where allied bi-planes do spectacular battle with a towering Alien Tripod, to the War’s catastrophic final act in which the Allies, standing on the brink of total defeat, must decide if launching an untested and potentially devastating secret weapon is worth risking the lives of millions of men in the field and a global pandemic.

Here's an IMDB summary:

Documentary-drama recounting the Martian War of 1913 - 1917. Europe was on tenterhooks in the 2nd decade of the 20th century, everyone was expecting a Great War between the major European powers. But then, in 1913, something crashed into the forests of SW Germany. Troops were sent to investigate but were wiped out. Martian fighting machines began making their way across Western Europe and the countries of Europe combined forces to resist them. 

With aspects taken from The War of the Worlds (movie version here) by H.G. Wells and from WWI itself, this dramatisation presents a documentary style look at events as they unfolded and the effect they had of our world today. Lots of references to real events including the mass attacks and defeats as men were thrown against machines on the Western front, the Christmas truce and the Angel of Mons, America's isolationism and late entry into the conflict, the worldwide "Spanish" flu epidemic that killed more people than the war, and many other things.

It's not perfectly clear, but this seems to be based on a now out-of-print book from a few years ago called The Martian War: A Thrilling Eyewitness Account of the Recent Invasion As Reported by Mr. H.G. Wells.

Lots more at History Channel, via Kuriositas.

Friday links

Video: If Shakespearean Insults Were Used Today. They fit surprisingly well into your daily office routine.

The Mystery of Extraordinarily Accurate Medieval Maps.

October 10th, 732 - The Battle OF Tours (and how it shaped history).

Amazing Flowers That Look Like Other Things.

One Human Year Does Not Equal Seven Dog Years.

Not a SyFy movie: Fanged cannibal spiders with 'bee-sting' bite invade British street.

ICYMI, Tuesday's links are here, and include a baby owl attacking the Go-Pro in its nest, how to dye your armpit hair blue, gorgeous before-and-after summer-to-autumn photos, the history of tattoos, and the families who have owned most of England for the last 1,000 years.

Video: If Shakespearean Insults Were Used Today

Shakespearean Insults are always fun, and you can get them on band-aids and coffee mugs, in do-it yourself insult kits, and more. This use of them in an office context is pretty well done:

Here's a day-by-day Shakespearean Insults 2015 Calendar.

This Shakespearean Insult Generator has been around since early internet days. This generate-your-own version is newer and has a heck of a lot of possibilities - choose one item from each of the four drop-down columns.

Related stuff:

Terminator the Second: Shakespeare meets Terminator 2.

What if William Shakespeare had written Star Wars?

The Merchant of Avon: What Shakespeare Teaches Us About Economics.

Mental Floss has 15 Fantastic and Filthy Shakespearean Insults.

"Verily," I say, "'tis what it's all about": The Hokey Pokey - Shakespeare's version.