links for 2010-09-08


  • Described as a 'train enthusiast's paradise', this semi-detached house has gone on the market for £105,000 – complete with its very own 1,000ft railway in the back garden.

    The extensive miniature display features passengers waiting on the platform and a handmade model village.

    The centre piece of the track is a huge Koi carp pool with bridges and waterfalls, where workmen can be seen maintaining the tracks.

    (tags: model)
  • If you were invited to address Benedict XVI during his UK visit, what would you say to him? Richard Dawkins, Philip Pullman, Claire Rayner, Ben Goldacre and many more take part in our Pope quiz. Illustrations by Ralph Steadman
    (tags: pope religion)
  • These eye-opening images bring the devastation of the Blitz into the modern world.

    As a nation reflects on the 70th anniversary of one of the most brutal examples of 'total war' these montages blend vintage black and white shots of the carnage of 1940 with colour images of the same locations today.

    One image shows a huge crater next to the Bank of England in London – perfectly merged with the same location as it looks today to bring home the dangers and privations that affected every Londoner – and indeed the inhabitants of most of Britain's major towns and cities.

    (tags: WW2)
  • Scientists say they've carried out the first rigorous analysis of dance moves that make men attractive to women.

    The researchers say that movements associated with good dancing may be indicative of good health and reproductive potential.

    "When you go out to clubs people have an intuitive understanding of what makes a good and bad dancer," said co-author Dr Nick Neave, an evolutionary psychologist at Northumbria University, UK.

    "What we've done for the very first time is put those things together with a biometric analysis so we can actually calculate very precisely the kinds of movements people focus on and associate them with women's ratings of male dancers."