A Soviet spacesuit and a camera used to film a moon landing are up for sale in an auction of space memorabilia.
Cosmonaut Gennadi Strekalov wore the suit, which is expected to sell for around $80,000 (£49,000), during a mission to the Mir space station in 1990.
Also on sale at the auction at Bonhams in New York on May 5 is a camera that belonged to Apollo 14 pilot Edgar Mitchell, valued at around $80,000 (£49,000), and a tissue dispenser from the same flight estimated to fetch $8,000 (£4,900). (PA)
Outfit importance
Sports coaches who wear suits on match days and tracksuits on training days are more likely to get the best out of their teams, according to new research.
Sports scientists at the University of Portsmouth studied the effect a coach’s appearance had on the players’ impressions of their competence.
Richard Thelwell said: “A coach in a suit suggests strategic prowess, which is obviously ideal for a match. However, when wearing sporting attire, they were perceived to be more technically competent than those in a suit.” (PA)
Lowry’s bar return
Artist L.S. Lowry has returned to one of his favourite social haunts in time for the 35th anniversary of his death.
Popular Manchester city centre pub Sam’s Chop House commissioned a life-size bronze statue of Mr Lowry to prop up the end of the bar in honour of the former regular.
The statue, weighing 300 kilos, has pride of place where Mr Lowry stood as a customer. (PA)
‘Satanic’ rock music
Uzbekistan’s state TV yesterday issued an unequivocal denunciation of rock and rap as a Western liberal excess, saying the music is epitomised by sadism, drug addiction and immorality.
In a TV documentary Uzbekistan’s Youth TV raised alarm over “pernicious influence of Western rock and rap music approaching as dark clouds over the heads of Uzbek youth”.
The documentary, made in the style of a Soviet propaganda film, said “rock music originated from African hunting rituals” and “rap was originated by inmates in prisons, that’s why rap singers wear wide and long trousers”.
“This satanic music was created by evil forces to bring youth in Western countries to total moral degradation,” according to the documentary. (AFP)
Whales beached
A pod of 107 pilot whales has died after beaching themselves in New Zealand.
Hikers found the whales stranded on a remote beach at Stewart Island, off the country’s southern tip.
With the tide receding, there was no way of keeping the animals alive so they were killed to prevent further suffering. (PA)
Art of gaming
The Smithsonian American Art Museum is asking the public to help select video games that will be included in its first exhibit to explore the art and visual effects of gaming.
The Art of Video Games is scheduled to open in March next year with a focus on the evolution of games as an artistic medium over the past 40 years.
The public can vote online to choose 80 games from a pool of 240 choices in various categories. (PA)
Shooting taunt
A man’s tongue-in-cheek death wish turned tragically real.
The Florida man in the middle of a heated argument dared his girlfriend to “go ahead and shoot me” – and she did.
Robert Lee Gilbert, 57, was shot in the face and died after taunting his girlfriend to pull the trigger on her antique gun as they argued.
She faces manslaughter charges. (PA)
‘Sex film’ probe
A married teacher and his classroom assistant are facing the sack over an alleged sex film found on a school computer in London.
The school is understood to be investigating whether the couple in the erotic film are head of Information and Communications Technology Tim Edwards and Angela Thornhill.
The middle-aged pair have been suspended from their jobs at Addington High School in Croydon, south London, while the probe is carried out.
The film in question was said to show a man sitting on a chair in what appears to be an office, grinning at the camera while a woman performs a sex act on him.
The woman is later seen lifting up her top.
The x-rated video was discovered by another member of staff at the school and bosses there are looking at whether it was filmed on the premises. (PA)