> Martial arts movies aren't usually known for their gripping stories, but a rare few of them can break the mold of the genre with genuinely fantastic narratives alongside gripping action. For the most part, martial arts movies are given a lot of leeway when it comes to their stories, with gripping hand-to-hand fight scenes being the primary draw for audiences of the genre. That being said, some of the best fight scenes in martial arts movie history come from films with brilliant narratives that compliment the action. > > Martial arts movies with earnestly great stories come in multiple varieties. Often, the period setting of martial arts films allows for some fascinating political and cultural drama sprouting from the relevant movements or historical events of the time they take place in. In other cases, lovingly choreographed action is used as an emotional vessel for two characters to hash out their relationship, mirroring the intimacy of other areas in life with the intimacy of combat.

1. House of Flying Daggers
2. Everything Everywhere All At Once
3. Drunken Master II
4. The Prodigal Son
5. Come Drink With Me
6. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
7. Dragon Inn
8. Ip Man
9. Five Deadly Venoms
10. Last Hurrah For Chivalry2

> A 32-year-old man was killed after accepting a dare by his friends to sit on a box of lit fireworks in Bengaluru, India. > >An Indian publication, The Hindu, reported that the man died after he accepting a challenge to sit on a container which had a box full of firecrackers in it to win an auto rickshaw that was placed as a bet. > > The publication said the horrific incident was captured on a neighbour’s CCTV camera on Friday. > >It is believed that one of his friends offered the deceased his new auto rickshaw if he sat on the box full of lit fireworks. > >Speaking to the publication, Deputy Commissioner of Police Lokesh Bharamappa Jagalsar, said the deceased and his friends were drunk when the incident happened.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/19675702

> > About 1,000 London buildings including the Houses of Parliament and the National Gallery could soon be warmed by low-carbon heat sourced from the River Thames, London Underground and sewer networks. > > > >Plans to develop the UK’s biggest heat network to supply decarbonised heat to buildings across Westminster were set out on Wednesday by the government as part of its pledge to back seven heat network zones with more than £5m of public funding. > > > > The plan will involve a network of pipes constructed to carry excess heat captured underground to power hot water and central heating systems in the area. > > > >The £1bn scheme will be developed by a joint venture – between heating specialists Hemiko and Vital Energi – known as the South Westminster Area Network partnership, designed to save the area about 75,000 tonnes of CO2 each year, the equivalent to planting 1.2m trees.

> About 1,000 London buildings including the Houses of Parliament and the National Gallery could soon be warmed by low-carbon heat sourced from the River Thames, London Underground and sewer networks. > >Plans to develop the UK’s biggest heat network to supply decarbonised heat to buildings across Westminster were set out on Wednesday by the government as part of its pledge to back seven heat network zones with more than £5m of public funding. > > The plan will involve a network of pipes constructed to carry excess heat captured underground to power hot water and central heating systems in the area. > >The £1bn scheme will be developed by a joint venture – between heating specialists Hemiko and Vital Energi – known as the South Westminster Area Network partnership, designed to save the area about 75,000 tonnes of CO2 each year, the equivalent to planting 1.2m trees.

> Australian scientists have solved a mystery which has gripped Sydney: what were the sticky dark blobs which washed up on some of the city's famed beaches last month? > >Initially believed to be tar balls, they were in fact a "disgusting" combination of human faeces, cooking oil, chemicals and illicit drugs, researchers say. > > ... > > Last month authorities in New South Wales (NSW) said they suspected the objects were a mixture of fatty acids, fuel oil and chemicals found in cleaning and cosmetic products. > >But further testing found the material is unlikely to have originated solely from an oil spill or waste from a ship, as some had thought. > >Each ball was slightly different but had a firm surface - hardened partially by accumulating sand and minerals like calcium - and a soft core. > >Inside was everything from cooking oil and soap scum molecules, to blood pressure medication, pesticides, hair, methamphetamine and veterinary drugs. > >"They smell absolutely disgusting, they smell worse than anything you've ever smelt," lead investigator Associate Professor Jon Beves, from the University of NSW, told 9News. > >Professor William Alexander Donald said they resembled fat, oil, and grease blobs - often called fatbergs - which are commonly formed in sewerage systems. > >Detecting this along with recreational drugs and and industrial chemicals had "pointed us to sewage and other sources of urban effluent", he explained

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/19673493

> > An enigmatic stone and turf structure on Bodmin Moor that was previously thought to be a medieval animal pen has been found to be 4,000 years older – and unique in Europe. > > > >The rectangular monument was built not in the early medieval period to corral livestock, as recorded by Historic England, but rather in the middle Neolithic, between 5,000 and 5,500 years ago, archaeologists have discovered. > > > >Nothing like it is known in Britain or farther afield, according to experts, meaning that the original purpose of the monument known as King Arthur’s Hall is a mystery. > > > > “There isn’t another one of these anywhere,” said the lead archaeologist, James Gossip. “There is nothing built at that time or subsequently in prehistory that is a rectangular earth and stone bank with a setting of stone orthostats around the interior. There is no other parallel.” > > > >The so-called “hall”, which sits on the western side of Bodmin Moor near Helstone in Cornwall, consists of a banked enclosure measuring 49 metres by 21 metres, lined on the inside with 56 standing stones up to 1.8 metres tall.

> An enigmatic stone and turf structure on Bodmin Moor that was previously thought to be a medieval animal pen has been found to be 4,000 years older – and unique in Europe. > >The rectangular monument was built not in the early medieval period to corral livestock, as recorded by Historic England, but rather in the middle Neolithic, between 5,000 and 5,500 years ago, archaeologists have discovered. > >Nothing like it is known in Britain or farther afield, according to experts, meaning that the original purpose of the monument known as King Arthur’s Hall is a mystery. > > “There isn’t another one of these anywhere,” said the lead archaeologist, James Gossip. “There is nothing built at that time or subsequently in prehistory that is a rectangular earth and stone bank with a setting of stone orthostats around the interior. There is no other parallel.” > >The so-called “hall”, which sits on the western side of Bodmin Moor near Helstone in Cornwall, consists of a banked enclosure measuring 49 metres by 21 metres, lined on the inside with 56 standing stones up to 1.8 metres tall.

> One of the wilder Joaquin Phoenix stories to have emerged recently involved his threatening to leave Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon” unless Paul Thomas Anderson was brought in to do rewrites. > >In an interview with Total Film, Scott added that Phoenix getting cold feet on the film happened just 10 days before production was set to begin on “Napoleon” Scott had also told Empire that he literally rewrote the entire “Napoleon” script based on Phoenix’s relentless notes. > >We weren’t really sure if Scott actually agreed to Phoenix’s demands in hiring PTA to help out with rewrites, but Scott seems to have confirmed just that to the New York Times): > >>Tommy was doing “Licorice Pizza,” advising me how to do “Napoleon.” It turned into a lot of fun, actually. Three of us in this room screaming with laughter. > >So, there you have it, at some point during “Napoleon” pre-production, PTA, Scott and Phoenix were working together on the script and having a grand-ol time with it.

> Billy Burke, best known for his appearance in the “Twilight” series of movies, is set to play the lead in upcoming horror thriller “Outbreak.” > >The zombie genre film, directed by Jeff Wolfe who co-wrote the screenplay with Lance Ochsner, has now been acquired by Premiere Entertainment Group (PEG), a Los Angeles-based production, financing, and sales company, which picked up international rights. > >“Outbreak” follows a state park ranger (Burke) in search of his missing teenage son who is confronted with zombie-like people carrying an infectious disease following a virus outbreak. Alyshia Ochse, Taylor Handley, Raoul Max Trujillo, Jessica Frances Dukes, Dani Oliveros, and Kylr Coffman round out the key cast.

> Blazing fast combat. Pronounced tension between tradition and modernity. Sound effects so intense that several foley artists probably died of exhaustion. A fight to inherit a famous martial arts academy, galvanized by a mutual obsession over the late master’s unbeatable secret technique. “100 Yards” is nothing if not a classic martial arts movie, and yet this bruising story about turn-of-the-century Tianjin — co-directed by Xu Haofeng, who previously scripted Wong Kar Wai’s “The Grandmaster” — has been shot and staged with such radical elegance that it seems less like a throwback than it does the pursuit of a new form. It’s a form this film is only able to achieve at the cost of its soul, as Xu and his brother Xu Junfeng struggle to sustain any of what makes their initial premise so compelling, but the moments when “100 Yards” lands its blows are exhilarating in a way that makes the movie feel miles removed from most of its competition.

Trailer

IMDb

> What would you rather have: $125,000 worth of crypto or crusty French bread? It appears that one ransomware group is a bigger fan of the latter, having demanded that payment for the 40GB of compressed data it stole be paid in baguettes. > >Hellcat, a newly formed ransomware group, claims it is behind the cybersecurity incident being investigated by Schneider Electric. The French multinational energy management company has confirmed a developer platform was breached. > > ... > > Hellcat is asking for $125,000 to delete the data. It said that if Schneider publicly admits to the breach, it would cut the ransom demand in half to $62,500. > > However, rather than demanding the money in crypto, as is the norm, Hellcat is asking for it to be paid in baguettes. > >With the average price of a standard baguette in France at €1.07, or approximately $1.09, Schneider would need to hand over at least 58,715 of these long French loaves.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/19623184

> > A tribunal judge remarked that use of the f-word was "particularly common in the North" while explaining why a firm had been unfair to sack a worker for swearing. > > > >Delivery driver Rob Ogden was fired from his job at wholesaler Booker Ltd in Oldham after swearing at a colleague. > > > >But judge Jetinder Shergill said swearing was so widespread that Mr Ogden, who had worked there for seven years, had been made an unfair example of. > > > >He said that while such language should not be used in the workplace it is a "common everyday experience, particularly in the North".

> A tribunal judge remarked that use of the f-word was "particularly common in the North" while explaining why a firm had been unfair to sack a worker for swearing. > >Delivery driver Rob Ogden was fired from his job at wholesaler Booker Ltd in Oldham after swearing at a colleague. > >But judge Jetinder Shergill said swearing was so widespread that Mr Ogden, who had worked there for seven years, had been made an unfair example of. > >He said that while such language should not be used in the workplace it is a "common everyday experience, particularly in the North".

> Scotland Yard is hunting a prankster in their ranks who filled an iron with urine in the locker room of one of London’s biggest police stations. > >The culprit filled an iron, used for officers’ uniforms while on-duty, with urine at the locker room in Charing Cross police station in central London. > > Now the force is probing two offences of criminal damage after the grim discovery last weekend, The Sun reported. > >The Met is investigating one count of criminal damage over the iron prank, which would have left officers’ uniforms stained with body waste, and another over damage to an unknown piece of police equipment. > > ... > > The incident at the station, which has Europe’s largest custody centre, has caused a stir among rank-and-file officers. > >One retired Met detective chief inspector, Mick Neville, dubbed the mystery culprit the “Slasher of the Yard”. > >He told the paper: “This has no doubt caused quite a stink. A joke’s one thing – but this is taking the ‘you-know-what.’

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/19603586

> > Neil Berriman, originally from Petersfield, Hampshire is at the centre of a brand-new BBC documentary, as he works to uncover the mystery behind his real family. > > > >The Brit thought nothing of the news that he was being adopted when he was aged 10, despite his adopted mother giving him a brown envelope that contained 'the answers to some questions'. > > > > Shortly after she passed away due to cancer, when he was 40, Berriman opened it up and discovered a document about his adoption and a newspaper article from 1994, revealing that his mother was Sandra Rivett, who died at the hands of Lord Lucan on 7 November 1974. > > > > After finding out this news in 2007, Berriman had become distraught and broke down as he had found out that his real mother had been brutally murdered. > > > >He then became obsessed with tracking Lord Lucan down. > > > > ... > > > > An inquest in June 1975 determined that Lord Lucan murdered Sandra, but he has never been found and therefore had never been brought to justice. > > > >However, in an upcoming documentary set to air on BBC Two on Wednesday (6 October), Berriman is convinced that he has found Lucan, who would be 90 years old today, despite being declared dead 25 years after the crime, in 1999. > > > > ... > > > > In the documentary series simply titled Lucan, the Brit states: "I believe that man in Australia is Lord Lucan and he murdered my mother." > > > > The three-part series sees Berriman tracking down a pensioner that he thinks is the man responsible for his mother's death, who currently lives under a different name in a Brisbane suburb. > > > >"Even now, at nearly 90 years old he’s an arrogant, powerful, horrible old man who’s ripped off people over Australia, upset a lot of people, and he’s full of lies and deceit," Berriman claimed. > > > > ... > > > > Berriman even came face-to-face with the man that he believes is Lord Lucan, who is called Chris by his carer though, he is known by a Buddhist name. > > > >Australian police believe it is not him, he claims it is not him, though another buddhist the pair met claimed than an aristocratic Englishman told him he murdered two women named Sandra and Veronica, the latter being the name of Lucan's wife. > > See also: > > * The History Podcast, The Lucan Obsession - BBC Radio 4

> Neil Berriman, originally from Petersfield, Hampshire is at the centre of a brand-new BBC documentary, as he works to uncover the mystery behind his real family. > >The Brit thought nothing of the news that he was being adopted when he was aged 10, despite his adopted mother giving him a brown envelope that contained 'the answers to some questions'. > > Shortly after she passed away due to cancer, when he was 40, Berriman opened it up and discovered a document about his adoption and a newspaper article from 1994, revealing that his mother was Sandra Rivett, who died at the hands of Lord Lucan on 7 November 1974. > > After finding out this news in 2007, Berriman had become distraught and broke down as he had found out that his real mother had been brutally murdered. > >He then became obsessed with tracking Lord Lucan down. > > ... > > An inquest in June 1975 determined that Lord Lucan murdered Sandra, but he has never been found and therefore had never been brought to justice. > >However, in an upcoming documentary set to air on BBC Two on Wednesday (6 October), Berriman is convinced that he has found Lucan, who would be 90 years old today, despite being declared dead 25 years after the crime, in 1999. > > ... > > In the documentary series simply titled Lucan, the Brit states: "I believe that man in Australia is Lord Lucan and he murdered my mother." > > The three-part series sees Berriman tracking down a pensioner that he thinks is the man responsible for his mother's death, who currently lives under a different name in a Brisbane suburb. > >"Even now, at nearly 90 years old he’s an arrogant, powerful, horrible old man who’s ripped off people over Australia, upset a lot of people, and he’s full of lies and deceit," Berriman claimed. > > ... > > Berriman even came face-to-face with the man that he believes is Lord Lucan, who is called Chris by his carer though, he is known by a Buddhist name. > >Australian police believe it is not him, he claims it is not him, though another buddhist the pair met claimed than an aristocratic Englishman told him he murdered two women named Sandra and Veronica, the latter being the name of Lucan's wife.

See also:

• The History Podcast, The Lucan Obsession - BBC Radio 4

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/21539736

> cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/20975220

> The health secretary has ordered a review of NHS guidance on testing for prostate cancer following “powerful” calls from Sir Chris Hoy, who said easrlier screenings could save “potentially millions of lives”. > >The six-time Olympic cycling champion revealed last month that his cancer is terminal after he first made public in February that he was undergoing treatment, including chemotherapy. > > He is urging men with a family history of the disease to consider seeing their GP, and for more men to be aware of the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test to check for the disease. > >Both Sir Chris’s grandfather and father had prostate cancer, which can run in families. > >“If you’ve got family history of it, like I have, if you’re over the age of 45, go and ask your doctor,” Sir Chris told BBC Breakfast

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/19593742

> > Nearly 620 miles (1,000km) of new power lines need to be built to meet the government's clean energy plans, official energy planners have concluded. > > > >In a report, the body in charge of linking new projects to the grid said Labour's target to decarbonise electricity by 2030 was "achievable" but a "huge challenge". > > > >It will warn that infrastructure for the electricity network will need to be built much faster than it has been over the last decade to meet the pledge. > > > >Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said ministers were committed to "significant reforms" of the planning system to speed up new connections.

> Nearly 620 miles (1,000km) of new power lines need to be built to meet the government's clean energy plans, official energy planners have concluded. > >In a report, the body in charge of linking new projects to the grid said Labour's target to decarbonise electricity by 2030 was "achievable" but a "huge challenge". > >It will warn that infrastructure for the electricity network will need to be built much faster than it has been over the last decade to meet the pledge. > >Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said ministers were committed to "significant reforms" of the planning system to speed up new connections.