Sideswipe: August 12: Do you want to be seen or not, bro?

Via 50 Nerds of Grey

Sizzling marriage proposal

A man named Albert Ndreu decided to fill his apartment with candles and balloons. His plan was to pick up his girlfriend Valerija Madevic, surprise her with the romantic set-up in their studio flat, and then propose to her. But when he went out to pick up his girlfriend to bring her home for the surprise, the flat caught fire. Fire crews rushed to the scene in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, at about 8.30pm on Monday. The flat was gutted by flames and smoke damage. Despite the setback, Ndreu got down on one knee in the charred room and asked Madevic to marry him – and she said yes. Ndreu said: "Valerija always says the most important thing is the small gestures every day – but I wanted to do something special for the proposal. It didn't go exactly as I thought it would but she said yes, so I think the day took an unexpected turn but ended up exactly how I wanted it to."

Film scene lookalikes

The brilliant

@nzfilmparallels

Twitter account matches our political pictures with famous films. First, a visit to the New Plymouth Farmers' Market and that scene out of Pulp Fiction (1994)… and second, Shane Jones in Invercargill and John Belushi in the Blues Brothers (1980). (Idea: @billbennettnz)

Did you know…

1. People who reflexively sneeze if a bright light is shone in their eyes experience autosomal dominant compulsive helio-ophthalmic outbursts syndrome, or ACHOO syndrome for short.
2. Antarctic islands include Disappointment Island, Fabulous Island, Inexpressible Island, Shag Island, Circumcision Island and Deception Island.
3. The act of touching glasses when saying cheers comes from medieval suspicions of poisoning each other, so you'd slam mugs together to spill each others' drinks into your own to show you weren't trying to kill the person you are drinking with.