The man famous for photographing some of the world’s biggest stars has officially been banned from working with the world’s most iconic magazines.

The news comes via a leaked e-mail obtained by The Telegraph which was circulated within the Condé Nast International media group on Monday, the publishing company which looks after titles like Vogue, GQ, Vanity Fair and Wired.

“Any shoots that have been commission[ed] or any shoots that have been completed but not yet published, should be killed and substituted with other material”

The e-mail explicitly instructed all of its titles to stop working with Richardson effective immediately with no explanation as to the reason why.

“Any shoots that have been commission[ed] or any shoots that have been completed but not yet published, should be killed and substituted with other material,” wrote James Woolhouse, Condé Nast’s executive vice president and chief operating officer.

“Please could you confirm that this policy will be actioned in your market effective immediately. Thank you for your support in this matter.”

Richardson himself is no struggling freelancer. He first made waves alongside a fresh-faced Kate Upton in a viral dance video before gracing his sexually explicit style of photography onto celebrities like Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Blake Lively, Lindsay Lohan and Miley Cyrus – the latter of whom he directed the music video Wrecking Ball for.

During his rise to the top the 52-year-old has been dogged by claims of sexual exploitation of models, an accusation which he has continually denied till today. In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault revelations though it would appear that Richardson himself has become a target irrespective of any fresh claims.

In a recent statement on the matter released to the Huffington Post website before the Condé Nast announcement, Richardson addressed the “rumours” over his conduct and said:

The post Terry Richardson Banned From Working With The World's Most Iconic Magazines appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

Back in August this year Aston Martin teased the world with what would be the British marque’s first ever attempt at a shooting brake model.

Well that elusive model finally broke cover overnight with Aston Martin officially unveiling the Zagato Vanquish Shooting Brake to the world. The verdict? It’s a fine piece of kit that your family is banned from ever enjoying – because it’s a two-seater only.

Still, the unique lines of a shooting brake paired with Italian design firm Zagato’s signature appointments should make for one hell of a sought-after car. Lest you forget, only 99 examples of this sweeping firecracker of a car will be produced with pretty much all of them spoken for.

Under the bonnet the Zagato Vanquish Shooting Brake receives a 5.9-litre V12 capable of delivering 430kW to the rear wheels via an eight-speed automated manual transmission. Carbon fibre body panels also helps the car move from 0 -100km/h in 3.5 seconds.

Your kids might hate you and the better half for leaving them at home to fend for themselves…but just look at that sweeping glass roof.

The post Aston Martin Unveil The Vanquish Zagato Shooting Brake (& It's Not Family Friendly) appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

Though Tokyo has been leveled by rampaging monsters from Godzilla to Mothra in more than 20 movies, the reality of life in the Japanese capital is a completely different story.

The Economist Intelligence Unit released its 2017 Safe Cities Index, ranking 60 cities across 49 indicators spanning digital, infrastructural, health, and personal security concerns. Tokyo came out on top for the second report in a row, triumphantly taking the title of safest city in the world with a score of 89.80 out of 100.

In the two years since the inaugural Safe Cities Index was published, the world’s urban population is estimated to have grown by more than 150 million people, raising the total number of people living in cities to above 4 billion. Yet the top three cities remain unchanged from 2015, with Singapore and Osaka in second and third separated by mere tenths of a point, and a visible divide in overall safety between the fast urbanising developing world and the stagnant developed world.

Asian and European cities remain at the top of the index. Four of the top 10 are East Asian cities (Tokyo, Singapore, Osaka and Hong Kong), while three (Amsterdam, Stockholm and Zurich) are European. Asia, the Middle East, and Africa dominate the bottom of the index, with Dhaka, Yangon, and Karachi occupying the three lowest spots.

The World Economic Forum’s latest Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report, meanwhile, found that Finland is the safest country on Earth, and the 2016 Global Peace Index crowned Iceland the planet’s least dangerous nation.

The post These Are The World's Safest Cities In 2017 appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

Porsche have been on a successful run of late releasing winner after winner (their GT2 RS literally won Nurburgring) and today is no different. Say hello to the 2018 Porsche Carrera 911 T.

The ‘T’ in the name stands for Touring, an insignia that first appeared back in 1967 on a 911 model designed to be a purebred driving machine which stripped away unnecessary weight in favour of the essentials.

In 2018 that means the 911 receives a 3.0-litre turbocharged flat-six mustering out 272kW and 450Nm of torque whilst being fed through an option of a short throw seven-speed manual or a seven speed PDK dual clutch transmission. The manual 0 – 100km/h sprint will can be put away in 4.5 seconds whilst the PDK can do it in 4.2 seconds. Top speed? 290km/h.

It’s the inside that counts though and the new 911 T takes true inspiration from the name by offering an interior devoid of rear seats, a radio (this can be installed upon request), and proper door handles in favour of lighter fabric straps.

Even the rear side windows are made from lighter glass whilst sound deadening has been minimalised to ensure drivers can hear the full song of the mechanics from inside the cabin. All of this effort doesn’t go to waste with the 911 T shedding 20kg in total to bring the car down to 1,425kg.

On local soil the car will retail from AU$238,400 when it lands early next year.

The post Porsche Unveil The New 911 Carrera T Built For Raw Driving appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

When it comes to mental strength versus physical strength, researchers now believe that the human brain trumps all.

The new findings which come from the University of Cambridge suggests that more energy is diverted to the brain than the body muscles whenever the two are put under direct competition. This essentially reinforces the ‘selfish brain’ theory of human evolution.

The question is, why does the body do this?

“At the evolutionary level, our brains have arguably cost us decreased investment in muscle as well as a shrunken digestive system.”

Metabolically speaking the human brain is “expensive” and requires a lot of energy to operate at optimal levels. What researchers found was that when put under mental and physical strain at the same time, “preferential allocation of glucose to the brain” was evident.

The scientists believe that this process is an evolved human trait which prioritises the act of quick thinking over fast moving – the very trait which could have attributed to the survival of the human species till this day.

To come to this conclusion, the Cambridge researchers who specialise in PAVE (Phenotypic Adaptability, Variation and Evolution) tested 62 male students from the school’s elite rowing team. The subjects who were aged around 21-years were asked to perform two separate tasks: A three minute word recall test (for memory) and a three minute physical test on the rowing machine.

The participants were then asked to perform both tasks at once with the final scores being compared to the previous results. As expected, the results found that rowing and remembering at the same time had a negative effect on physical and mental strength.

What they did notice however was that the difference in recall (mental strength) was a lot less than the change in power output (physical strength). In numbers the brain’s processing power fell by 9.7% whilst the muscle power fell by an average of 12.6%.

Conclusively, physical strength was down by about 29.8% when compared to its cognitive brethren.

“A well-fuelled brain may have offered us better survival odds than well-fuelled muscles when facing an environmental challenge,” said Dr Danny Longman, the study’s lead author from the PAVE team in Cambridge’s Department of Archaeology.

“The development of an enlarged and elaborated brain is considered a defining characteristic of human evolution, but one that has come as a result of trade-offs.”

“At the evolutionary level, our brains have arguably cost us decreased investment in muscle as well as a shrunken digestive system.”

“Developmentally, human babies have more stored fat than other mammals, acting as an energy buffer that feeds our high cerebral requirements.”

“On an acute level, we have now demonstrated that when humans simultaneously experience extremes of physical and mental exertion, our internal trade-off preserves cognitive function as the body’s priority.”

“Trade-offs between organs and tissues allow many organisms to endure conditions of energy deficit through internal prioritising. However, this comes at a cost,” said Longman.

So the next time you get into an argument over brains or muscles, you’ll know which one to side with.

Just be prepared to use your noggin and run like the wind if things go pear shaped.

The post Researchers Have Determined The Winner Between Brains & Brawn appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

Sleep. It’s the necessity of every living human being out there but not getting enough of it (or even too much of it) could spell trouble for your sperm.

According to science experts, getting between seven and seven and a half hours sleep each night is the perfect catalyst for healthy sperm. There’s a downside though – go over nine hours of sleep a day and the sperm’s health rating drops significantly by 41 percent. At the other end of the spectrum is sleep deprivation. Give yourself six and a half hours or less and your sperm will be 30 percent less healthy.

Researchers say that healthy sperm in men is characterised by the nominal amount of normal DNA and protein in semen samples.

“This is new information, after our previous finding that sleep duration has an inversed association with semen volume and total sperm count,” said the co-author of the study, Dr Jia Cao, said.

“This is new information, after our previous finding that sleep duration has an inversed association with semen volume and total sperm count. In the previous study, we found that these two semen parameters were highest when sleep is seven to seven and a half hours per day.”

“Either longer or shorter sleep was associated with the decrease of the two semen parameters.”

These startling findings are the result of a comprehensive study amongst 2,020 semen samples from 796 men between 2013 and 2015. The researchers here wanted to find out whether daily sleep patterns had any effect on the structural integrity of sperm DNA in the hopes of assisting couples trying to conceive.

If sleep sounds like too much of a hassle then perhaps try these special underpants designed to protect your balls from smartphone radiation.

The post How To Increase Your Sperm's Health By Doing Absolutely Nothing appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

Next time you’re having a beer – perhaps enjoying one of those lovely moments after work when the old prefrontal cortex is turned down to a gentle simmer, and it’s just you and your thoughts sitting at the bar in your local watering hole or on your deck – ruminate on this; what is your beer telling the world about you?

You see, lads, it’s a cruel and judgemental world out there. Cynical. A place where total strangers who see you drinking a fruit beer aren’t going to appreciate your unorthodox taste and love of “mixing it up”, they’re just going to think you’re a giant a-hole.

Far be it from us to be the sorts to proliferate alcohol consumer stereotypes. However, rumours – such as anything American with the word light or bud in is complete swill, drunk only by NASCAR fans and those whose tastebuds have been obliterated by excessive beer pong – are rife.

Here then, gents, is what your beery companion might be saying to others about you.

I.P.A

Let’s start with a fan favourite. It’s all about the hops with this type of beer. Hops, hops and more bloody hops. Harsh and unpleasant people may think unfairly that you’re just jumping on the Hop Express and trying to ride it to Popularity Station. We get it, mate, you love ‘em, but hop talk is like when your friends with kids tell you all about their children’s sleep patterns. We get that it’s a big part of your life at the moment, but we really can’t empathise…or care. And, fellas, chicks really don’t give a shit about hops. Hops are like Die Hard to them; most just don’t get it.

Lager

Australia is blessed with some fabulous weather, and there’s nothing better on a hot day than sinking that first ice-cold bevvy to mid-label. That being said then, a lager is very much the drink of choice for sporting events – whether you’re playing a bit of BYC or off to watch the rugby with the lads – thanks to many being little better than carbonated water that gets you drunk. For a long day session lager is the logical choice, being pretty light and not overly strong in the booze department. In the pub though, a man nursing a can of Fosters or Stella suddenly becomes a lad who might just have the same amount of culture as a pot of the finest supermarket brand natural Greek yoghurt. A lad who is partial to the teeth-opening technique when it comes to beer bottles – and not necessarily using his own teeth.

Stout

You come across as a no-nonsense, salt of the earth sort of geezer – or at least as someone who is trying to look like a salt of the earth kind of geezer. Beneath this veneer of wholesome manliness though, could beat the heart of a modern health-conscious bloke, a man who knows that a pint of Guinness is good for the blood and tissues and keeps the heart ticking along. And, as global a brand as Guinness is, there’s bound to be some hammered lager-drinking pleb who thinks you shouldn’t be drinking it because you’re not Irish.

Light Beer

Great if you’re not paying for it. Doubly great if you’re not paying for it at an office party where it’s fulfilling the useful role of keeping you from being the guy singing Bad Medicine by Bon Jovi on a table with your shirt off – especially when you’re singing “Your love is like burnt venison.” If you’re a designated driver and your sipping on one of these things however, just stick to water. You’ll retain more respect that way.

Obscure Craft Beer Of Any Kind

You’re the first and only person listening to a certain band. The friend that takes an inordinate amount of pleasure in being the only guy in the group who has watched the latest indie films. When it comes to beer you’re way off the reservation. It hasn’t been aged in a two hundred year-old sherry barrel? Isn’t hoppier than a rabbit on amphetamines? Doesn’t come with a scannable Shazam label that uploads a soundtrack you can listen to whilst you imbibe? Forget it.   

Of course, not everyone thinks like this and not every gentleman drinker is going to be jumping to these unfair conclusions at the sight of your beer, but it’s food for thought. Judge others as you yourself would want to be judged, and the next bloke you see picking up a Corona on a cold night in the middle of July in Broken Hill? Cut him some slack, that wedge of lime in his bottleneck might be as close to the beach as he’ll ever get.

The post What Your Choice In Beer Really Says About You appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

“The best part of the holiday was sleeping in a broken-down car in the Jordanian desert!” said no one ever.

Well, almost no one.

An enterprising man in the village of Al Jaya has turned a battered VW Beetle into what he claims is the world’s smallest hotel, and against all odds, guests are going gaga for the unusual experience.

Al Malaheem, who goes by the name Abu Ali, told CNN that he was inspired to resurrect the jalopy in order to share his beloved birthplace with visitors.

“This village is my homeland, I was born here, I grew up here, I lived here,” he explained. “I wanted to start a project that improves its situation and places it on the tourism map, because it truly overlooks some of the most beautiful scenery in the region.”

Al Jaya is largely deserted by residents, many of whom have left in search of a more modern lifestyle, but travellers in the region have happily checked into Abu Ali’s four-wheeled hotel since it opened in 2011.

The VW Beetle hotel is a family’s labour of love. Abu Ali opened the roadster’s rusted doors to guests after retiring, taking out a loan to set up a hotel “lobby” inside a nearby cave. His daughter furnished the repurposed Bug with handmade sheets and pillows embroidered with traditional patterns and embellished with colourful beads. Abu Ali boasts that an overnight stay is so comfortable, it’s equivalent to a night in a five-star hotel.

Guests – just two at a time – have more to look forward to than cushy compact digs. The hotel serves coffee, tea, and traditional Jordanian snacks in the cave lobby. There’s also a small kiosk-style shop selling souvenirs, and anyone passing through is invited to enjoy a Jordanian breakfast or lunch at the hotel, prepared and served in the traditional Bedouin way by Abu Ali’s wife and daughters.

A night in the VW with full board costs 40 Jordanian Dinars (around AU$72 or US$56), and if you ask previous customers, it’s worth every penny. Business cards and smiling photographs decorate the lobby, along with effusive “thank you” notes and Abu Ali’s most prized possession: a guestbook overflowing with praise, signatures, and promises to return.

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Forget what you know about warm beer. The Brits have officially reclaimed the title for having the world’s best beer in 2017.

The winning pint comes from British beer brand Hofmeister Helles which took out Best Lager at this year’s esteemed Beer Awards that is backed by the International Wine & Spirits Competition (the equivalent to the Oscars for the drinking world). Hofmeister Helles received a coveted five star rating amongst the judges – the first lager to ever do so in the competition’s short history.

Judges picked the winner via a series of blind tasting tests and eventually gave the beer the title for its balance of complex notes.

“It is a gentle, highly complex beer, which showcases lager brewing at its best and the importance of good quality raw materials,” explained Tim Hampson, judge and chairman of the Beer Writers Guild.

“It’s light, bright and very drinkable. Very well balanced. It is hard to cut corners when brewing a beer of this style.”

Most outside of the U.K wouldn’t know this, but there’s quite a unique backstory behind the beer name itself. Hofmeister Helles was unceremoniously pulled from the shelves just 13 years ago due to dwindling sales. Experts credited this slump to the beer’s low alcohol content at the time (5%) which made it difficult to compete with other higher strength lagers.

Since then though the name has received an entire revamp by returning to its roots as an authentic Helles lager crafted by a family-owned brewery on the outskirts of The Ebersberger Forest in southern Germany. When compared to the first generation beer, the new Hofmeister Helles features lower carbonation and a lighter golden colour. The old beer was also produced in a Scottish brewery but has since shifted production to Germany.

Even the team has changed hands with operations now falling under The Hofmeister Brewing Company as lead by co-founders Richard Longhurst and Spencer Chambers alongside a former marketing chief at Coca Cola, Zoe Howorth.

The post This British Beer Has Just Been Crowned The Best In The World appeared first on DMARGE Australia.