Stupid People Doing Stupid Things Thread - Part 3

[Marvolo]

I thought the woman had mental health issues. If she did then its very possible she didnt even realize what she was doing.

Yall have got to understand our choices and inhibitions are tied into the brain and its chemistry. If your brain is "broken" youre not going to think and behave like normal healthy people. Morality and self control go out the window when your brain is broken and on the fritz.

My schizophrenic aunt has done some crazy **** and had no memory of doing it afterwards. When she has one of her bad episodes its hard telling what she could do. But most of the time shes perfectly agreeable and nice.

And stuff like manic depression can cause all sorts of dangerous behavior if its severe enough.

Siezures can also cause people to do things without remembering it. A couple years back a man had a siezure and rammed my moms car in a parking lot. He didnt remember doing it. One minute he was driving the next he was waking up in a hospital being told he drove through a parking lot, tore down a light pole, and tboned my mom's car. If anyone had been in that parking lot in his path theyd be dead. But he wasnt a monster or a bad person. His medicine just didnt do what it was supposed to do and an accident happened.

This case with this woman is going to take a lot of going through and investigation to see where what when and how things went wrong and to rule out negligence. It may have just been nothing more than a perfect storm of terrible misfortune. So the media and twitter holding court on twitter and in the press and condemning this woman for something that may have been beyond her power to stop isnt accomplishing a thing.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

As a person who suffers from schizophrenia, I can say even when I didn't have meds and was going through a mental breakdown I never wanted to hurt anyone. I was afraid people wanted to hurt me but it never manifested in my lashing out at anyone. I know others who suffer from mental illness and they would never hurt a fly. The people who are not on meds that hurt people are a very small percentage of the population that deals with mental illness

 

[Flint Marko]

Recently someone I know rammed into the back of a woman's car at a red light and, upon her getting out to check the damage, continually trucked her into her own car and then ran over the body a few more times for good measure. The police came upon the scene after he was apprehended by the onlooking citizens; he claimed to have had a seizure, with no memory of the incident.
I should mention that this guy has an extensive history of drug abuse. I'm not entirely sure I'm fit to make a judgement call either way, but knowing what I know about him, he just seems a little bent. This guy also made a point to specifically run her over continually, which implies that he had control of the vehicle, so I'm not sure how comparable it is to this lady.

 

[Teelie]

I thought the woman had mental health issues. If she did then its very possible she didnt even realize what she was doing.

Yall have got to understand our choices and inhibitions are tied into the brain and its chemistry. If your brain is "broken" youre not going to think and behave like normal healthy people. Morality and self control go out the window when your brain is broken and on the fritz.

My schizophrenic aunt has done some crazy **** and had no memory of doing it afterwards. When she has one of her bad episodes its hard telling what she could do. But most of the time shes perfectly agreeable and nice.

And stuff like manic depression can cause all sorts of dangerous behavior if its severe enough.

Siezures can also cause people to do things without remembering it. A couple years back a man had a siezure and rammed my moms car in a parking lot. He didnt remember doing it. One minute he was driving the next he was waking up in a hospital being told he drove through a parking lot, tore down a light pole, and tboned my mom's car. If anyone had been in that parking lot in his path theyd be dead. But he wasnt a monster or a bad person. His medicine just didnt do what it was supposed to do and an accident happened.

This case with this woman is going to take a lot of going through and investigation to see where what when and how things went wrong and to rule out negligence. It may have just been nothing more than a perfect storm of terrible misfortune. So the media and twitter holding court on twitter and in the press and condemning this woman for something that may have been beyond her power to stop isnt accomplishing a thing.

I was more referring to the father and his failed attempts to excuse his daughter of any wrong doing, of the failure to see the signs of danger, of failure to accept especially when you have a family member they need to be more closely monitored if they are a danger to themselves or others.

Mental illness is not a blanket excuse to dismiss such careless behavior on either the part of the person or their family. Precautions could have and should have been made to minimalize as much as possible any dangers they might present. Mental illness in and of itself is not the problem, it is when the symptoms are severe enough things like this happen that someone should stop pretending everything is okay and ignore the potential problems.

 

[Marvolo]

There is only so much that can be done. Beyond that its a matter of hoping for the best and learning to live with whatever the mental illness is. Depending on the mental condition, psychotic episodes dont announce they are coming 24 hours in advance. Its impossoble to predict and prevent every single episode. If it came on while she was driving there is precisely zero that could have been done to prevent what happened.

And if she had never had an episode like this before then its unlikely they could have prepared for something like this.


Is there even evidence of the parents and family acting like everything was ok and her mental illness wasnt serious?

 

[XtremelyBaneful]

someone is making a 9/11 simulation for oculus rift.

[08:46] is a narrative driven experience designed for virtual reality, which makes you embody an office worker in the North Tower of the World Trade Center during the 9/11 events.

http://www.08h46.com/

 

[Teelie]

I don't know if I would necessarily call it stupid but it definitely falls under poor taste and definitely offensive to some. At least they aren't being deliberately trollish and having you play one of the terrorists.

 

[XtremelyBaneful]

I don't know if I would necessarily call it stupid but it definitely falls under poor taste and definitely offensive to some. At least they aren't being deliberately trollish and having you play one of the terrorists.

I don't know where else I would've posted this news.

 

[Teelie]

It is fine here. I can see why people would think it is stupid. It kind of is.

 

[Teelie]

“I’m dying from boredom”—juror’s Facebook musings lead to $1,000 fine
"God help me. The other jurors don't trust the police."

This is one of those really stupid things that shouldn't happen but obviously some people are too self-absorbed to pay attention to anything going on around them.

I've been selected for jury duty before and they absolutely make it clear this kind of thing is not acceptable yet she claims to have been naive.

Judging by her assumption that whatever a police officer claims must be true maybe she really is that naive.

In any case she is now learning that just because you're bored it does not mean you have a right to post on Facebook and ignore the trial you are supposed to be sitting on.

"I continued my personal life as if I was not there to judge a trial," is how Kimberly Ellis explained herself to the New York Daily News. "It was my first time as a juror, and I was naive."

Ellis was sitting on a robbery trial in Queens last year and posted Facebook updates with details about the trial, despite the judge's orders not to. "Everything about this process is inefficient," she wrote on September 17. "I'm trying to remain positive and centered, but, truthfully, I'm dying from boredom."

Once deliberations began, she kept posting, writing: "God help me. The other jurors don't trust the police and want to outright dismiss the confessions as well as the majority of the rest of the evidence. Tomorrow is going to be a very difficult day."

One of Ellis' Facebook friends, a former prosecutor, reported her postings. She was confronted by Queens Supreme Court Justice Ira Margulis about the posts on September 30.

"I suppose I forget it's so public and it's Facebook and it's something that I use a lot," she said, according to a transcript acquired by the Daily News. "And I’m pretty quiet in my day-to-day dealings with people, so it’s just a way for me to, you know, express myself... I wasn't thinking clearly. I apologize."

The apology didn't help. Once Ellis was taken off the jury, there were 11 left and no alternates, and the case was declared a mistrial.

Margulis held Ellis in contempt of court, saying her actions cost taxpayers thousands of dollars. "And it's not that she was not aware," he added. He advised her to retain an attorney.

"I feel terrible," Ellis told the Daily News. "I never meant to hurt anyone. I wasted a lot of people's time and money, and I deeply regret what I did."

She also said she's afraid of losing her job at JPMorgan Chase, where she has worked for 19 years, due to the jury incident. "My ex-husband is disabled and I raise my two children," she said. "I'm afraid this will impact them. I'm very scared."

Ars Technica

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

What an idiot

 

[Marvolo]

They make it very clear that you can not discuss the details of the case with anyone besides the other jurors and the judge.

 

[Teelie]

FCC fines Cox for falling for Lizard Squad scam, exposing customer data
"Hi, I'm from IT" call yielded access to customer records, lulz; Cox fined $596k.

This is how many "hacks" take place, someone is convinced to give up the information rather than someone finding a hole or bug in the code.

A bonus too, Cox Cable did not tell anyone who was exposed that they were in fact exposed at all.

What's the cost of giving up customers' information because of weak information security practices? For Cox Communications, the answer is a half-million dollar fine and having the Federal Communications Commission watching its every information security move for the next seven years. The FCC's Enforcement Bureau and cable and broadband Internet provider Cox Communications have reached a settlement over an August 2014 data breach involving a member of the Lizard Squad hacking group. The FCC announced the settlement on Thursday.

The hacker, who goes by the nom de guerre "EvilJordie," used one of the oldest social engineering tricks in the book to gain access to Cox's internal data: he convinced a Cox customer service representative and a Cox contractor over the phone that he was a system administrator in Cox's IT department and sent them a "phishing" link to a malicious website that mimicked a corporate intranet site, where they entered their login credentials.

Once in possession of the usernames and passwords, EvilJordie gained access to Cox cable customer data—including "names, addresses, email addresses, secret questions/answers, PIN, and in some cases partial Social Security and driver's license numbers," an FCC spokesperson said. The hacker also gained access to confidential proprietary network information (CPNI) from Cox's VoIP phone service.

EvilJordie then posted the partial data of eight Cox customers online (through a now-suspended Twitter account) and passed other data to fellow Lizard Squad members. The passwords of 28 customers' accounts were changed as well to prove to Cox that access had been gained.

In all, 61 Cox customers had their data exposed, based on the audit logs for the accounts that the Lizard Squad hackers had access to, according to the FCC's consent decree (PDF). At least one customer and possibly more had their Cox VoIP phone data exposed. Cox never directly informed customers of the breach or reported the breach to the FCC.

The disclosure of that data is a violation of the Communications Act, as amended by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which requires network operators to protect customer information. "Congress and the Commission have made clear that cable operators such as Cox must 'take such actions as are necessary to prevent unauthorized access to such information by a person other than the subscriber or cable operator,'" Travis LeBlanc, the chief of the FCC's Enforcement Bureau, wrote in an order filed November 5. "Furthermore, telecommunications carriers such as Cox must take 'every reasonable precaution' to protect their customers’ data. In addition, the law requires carriers to promptly disclose CPNI breaches via our reporting portal within seven business days after reasonable determination of a breach to facilitate the investigations of the FBI and the United States Secret Service."

In addition to paying a $596,000 fine, Cox will have to notify customers whose data was exposed, provide credit monitoring for a year, and "adopt a comprehensive compliance plan" to prevent future breaches, according to the FCC statement. Cox will be required to conduct annual security audits and penetration testing of its systems, as well as establish internal threat monitoring and new breach notification procedures. The Enforcement Bureau will directly monitor Cox's efforts for the next seven years.

Ars Technica

 

[Teelie]

Pinellas Deputy drunk at anti-drunk driving event showed up ready to party, skipped training

He was also there to pick up a reward for arresting 100 DUI offenders.

PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – Records just obtained by 8 On Your Side reveal a Pinellas County deputy who was disciplined last month for drunken misbehavior at a Mothers Against Drunk Driving conference in Fort Lauderdale showed up at that July statewide training event prepared to party.

“The plot thickens,” said former MADD director and anti-DUI attorney Tom Carey after hearing new details. “It seems to be a lot worse than originally presented.”

Michael Szeliga packed a bottle of Jameson Irish whiskey, as part of his luggage, in his sheriff’s patrol car before driving to the Hyatt Regency Pier 66 Hotel in Fort Lauderdale with two other deputies. They were there for two days of DUI law enforcement training.

Szeliga was also supposed to receive a MADD award for making more than 100 DUI arrests. But alcohol got in the way.

According to a 274-page Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office internal affairs investigation, Szeliga ran into trouble when one witness said he arrived staggeringly drunk at the Friday night banquet. That’s where Szeliga was supposed to receive his MADD award in front of about 200 other invited guests.

Gulfport Police Chief Robert Vincent encountered Szeliga outside of the banquet and suggested it wasn’t appropriate for Szeliga to attend the affair due to his intoxication. That lead to “disrespectful” comments Szeliga directed toward Vincent, which prompted Vincent to seek out one of Szeliga’s supervisors and tell him Szeliga was “wasted.”

Szeliga’s supervisor, according to investigative records, smelled alcohol on Szeliga’s breath and ordered him to return to his room and forego the banquet, along with his award.

It turns out, according to the records we’ve just obtained, that Szeliga’s alcohol-infused shenanigans started much earlier in the day.

Szeliga signed in and attended a morning session of the DUI enforcement training but left with two other deputies following the first break. He decided the training was no longer “relevant” to him since he was transferring out of the DUI unit into a detective position. MADD required attendance at all training that weekend in exchange for picking up all the expenses of the conference.

Szeliga told investigators he returned to his hotel room, poured himself a few Coke and whiskey cocktails and headed down to the pool area with the other two deputies who skipped the training. Szeliga said one of the other deputies had also brought a bottle of Crown Royal for the weekend.

Szeliga and the other deputies were on duty when they decided to skip the training and head to the pool. Some deputies went swimming. Szeliga told investigators he played the “cornhole” bean bag game with a fellow deputy while consuming his Jameson cocktails. The game ended when Szeliga saw other deputies leaving the training class at the end of the day. That’s when Szeliga told investigators he headed back to his room.

As evening approached, Szeliga and his Pinellas deputy roommate were dressing for the awards banquet when a fire alarm sounded in their wing of the hotel. That’s when, according to the records, a Pasco County sergeant who runs the DUI squad in that county reported seeing Szeliga in the hotel hallway wearing “nothing but boxer shorts.” The sergeant said, “He was pretty drunk when I saw him,” according to Szeliga’s supervisor.

The Pasco sergeant told investigators Szeliga’s eyes were glassy and his speech was slurred. Szeliga and his deputy roommate later told investigators he was not standing in the hallway in his boxer shorts and insisted he only stuck his head out of the door due to the fire alarm. Szeliga also denied being as drunk as some of the witnesses claimed and insisted he only consumed two or three drinks that he poured for himself from the Jameson bottle in his room.

Szeliga did attend a full day of training on Saturday before driving back to Pinellas County to face the music with his commanders.

Last month, Szeliga received one day of paid suspension for violating the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office “Standard of Conduct” because of his drunken behavior while on duty and his disrespectful remarks directed at the Gulfport chief. He also had to write a letter of apology to Vincent.

Szeliga now works as a detective in the sheriff’s crimes against children unit. He declined to comment when news of his MADD escapade first broke last month and couldn’t be reached Wednesday regarding the new details.

Back in October, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri credited Szeliga with being a good deputy but also expressed his disapproval of the MADD affair. “It was wrong, and again, one of the most ridiculous things I’ve heard of,” Gualtieri said. “When I first heard about it, that was (what) my reaction was. ‘Come on, you’ve got to be kidding me. Really?’”

WFLA

 

[Teelie]

Congressman: To stop ISIS, let’s shut down websites and social media

Too stupid to comprehend. As many people will point out, does he mean Facebook? Instagram? Twitter? Does he have a computer connected to the internet? Has he used it in the past decade?

US Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) has a plan to stop terrorists: shut down websites, including social media networks.

Barton today asked Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler if the commission can shut down websites used by ISIS and other terrorist groups. Barton didn't name any specific sites but said that "we need to do something" because of the terrorist attack in Paris.

"ISIS and the terrorist networks can't beat us militarily, but they are really trying to use the Internet and all of the social media to try to intimidate and beat us psychologically," Barton said. Addressing Wheeler during an FCC oversight hearing held by the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, Barton continued:

Isn't there something we can do under existing law to shut those Internet sites down, and I know they pop up like weeds, but once they do pop up, shut them down and then turn those Internet addresses over to the appropriate law enforcement agencies to try to track them down? I would think that even in an open society, when there is a clear threat, they’ve declared war against us, our way of life, they've threatened to attack this very city our capital is in, that we could do something about the Internet and social media side of the equation.

Wheeler answered, "I'm not sure that our authority extends to picking and choosing among websites, but I do think there are specific things that we can do," with Barton interrupting to ask, "Do we need on a bipartisan basis to give additional authority to shut sites down?"

Wheeler noted that Congress could update its definition of a "lawful intercept" under the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, in which an ISP intercepts a suspect's Internet traffic and sends a copy to a law enforcement agency performing surveillance. Barton asked Wheeler if the commission will work with lawmakers if Congress decides to update the laws, to which Wheeler answered, "A capital yes, sir."

The Washington Post also reported on the exchange between Barton and Wheeler earlier today. You can watch Barton's comments in this video, starting around 1:14:10.

The FCC's net neutrality rules prevent Internet service providers from blocking transmission of lawful content, but without overriding ISPs' obligations to meet "the needs of emergency communications and law enforcement, public safety, and national security authorities."

The hearing moved on to other topics before officials got into any specifics, such as which websites should be shut down or what impact a shutdown would have on non-terrorist users of the Internet and social media sites. Barton is certain that something on the Internet needs to be shut down, however.

"It’s a clear and present danger," Barton said. "They have declared war against us and they're using the Internet in an extremely offensive, inappropriate way against us, and we ought to be able to make it, at a minimum much more difficult and hopefully, absolutely shut it down."

One other member of Congress agreed with Barton. Rep. Michael Doyle (D-Pa.) said, "I wholeheartedly agree with what you've said, too, and hopefully we can work on that."

During the Internet shutdown talk, Wheeler temporarily shifted the topic of conversation to network security, noting that there have been 17 "mysterious" fiber cuts in the San Francisco Bay Area in the past few months, and fiber cuts elsewhere in the US. "This experience has called out the importance of network security," Wheeler said.

The FCC's Network Outage Reporting System is relying on ancient technology and "barely holding together with baling wire and glue," Wheeler said.

"We need to have some kind of a big data capability of determining what's happening to our network out there, because it's not just people getting on the network, it's people doing things to the network," he said. "We've been asking for appropriations to upgrade that."

Ars Technica

 

[KevanG]

Aww, look at the ignorant old guy yelling about those internets and websites being a problem and those darn social medias transmogrifying their heads so they go Commie on us. It's adorable.

 

[Teelie]

Gamergate Supporters Are Responsible for the Terrorist Photoshopping of Journalist Veerender Jubbal

What? Gamergate supporters saying/doing something stupid and attempting to ruin a person's life who disagreed with them? This is definitely news.

Following the terrorist attacks in Paris on Friday night, the majority of the world recoiled in horror. But individuals active within Gamergate – either a movement dedicated to harassing women and what the group calls Social Justice Warriors (SJWs) in the games industry and/or campaigning for better transparency and ethical standards within the media, depending on who you ask – had a different reaction. They used this tragedy to present a Gamergate critic, Canadian journalist Veerender Jubbal, as one of the Paris terrorists.

In the aftermath of the attacks, the Photoshop-altered image of Mr Jubbal, shown above, was tweeted by user @Bl4ptrep with the caption: "One of the Paris suicide bombers' photo's [sic] been released. He posted the photo on twitter shortly before the attack."

Mr Jubbal is a fierce critic of Gamergate, regularly using Twitter to express his opinions, who became a target for the group's more aggressive members after starting the hashtag #stopgamergate2014. He's also an advocate for equal rights and a Sikh – which has led to the suggestion by some Gamergater supporters that Mr Jubbal is a terrorist, their reasoning based on a deliberately moronic conflation of Sikhism and Islam. This kind of "joke" hints at the deep-seated racism that can be seen in tweets from explicitly pro-Gamergate accounts towards Mr Jubbal (content warning: examples here and here).

The original image, a bathroom selfie photographed using an iPad, was posted on August 4th 2015 by Mr Jubbal. The image was tweeted by blacktric seven days later and, following a conversation that can be seen above, a version altered by user @turd_wartsniff (hereafter TW) appeared on August 12th. TW's doctored image changes the iPad to a Koran, adds a suicide vest to Mr Jubbal's waist, and other minor alterations were later made. The original, the repost/discussion and blacktric's tweet following the Paris attacks are shown above.

The fake image, thus disseminated, was picked up by media outlets worldwide in the wake of the Paris attacks, including Sky Italy and Spain's La Razón newspaper. The latter published Mr Jubbal's face on its front page, calling him "one of the terrorists". Though La Razón has retracted its allegation, the damage is done: in just a few hours Mr Jubbal went from being an unknown to the face of the Paris attacks.

But to those familiar with Gamergate's worst actions, the photo doctoring will come as no surprise. Select members of this group exemplify many of the problems the authorities face in dealing with online harassment. Gamergate as a whole is decentralised, largely composed of anonymous individuals but capable of bringing an enormous amount of manpower to bear on those it declares "enemies". Members of the group have denied any connection between Gamergate and the Photoshopped picture of Mr Jubbal, but we can prove the link.

TW's original Photoshop image was discussed with blacktric on August 11th, but first appeared on August 13th.

TW posted this image three more times before November 13th, and his authorship was helpfully confirmed by blacktric when things began to kick off.

TW is also responsible for a series of images, Photoshopped and otherwise, attacking Gamergate opponents. Among this individual's favourite targets are Arthur Chu, Anita Sarkeesian and Zoë Quinn – all of whom have spoken out against Gamergate harassment. The account also posted images containing the Gamergate logo, a purple and green "GG" badge, and the Gamergate cartoon character Vivian James. Examples of tweets attacking Anita Sarkeesian and indie developer Brianna Wu are below:

Gamergate members have insisted that blacktric has no association with the group, but that is contradicted by his posting on the GG subreddit KIA*, jolly back-and-forths with Gamergate's "based lawyer" Mike Cernovich, and his history of commenting on stories about the group. Astonishingly, amongst the evidence offered by Gamergate that blacktric has no association with them is a tweet where he refers to GG as "us".

(*This comment was deleted by KIA moderators after this article was published. It is archived here.)

Before deletion, blacktric's twitter account also featured the post, "GamerGate is the greatest thing that's ever happened to both gaming and journalism." It is not hard to find further evidence of his affiliations – just Google "Gamergate" and "blacktric" together. With assistance from an anonymous source, we've identified the individual behind this account as a 24-year-old man from Turkey, and this information has been passed both to Mr Jubbal and the relevant authorities.

It is incontrovertible that both the individual behind this image's creation and the individual who disseminated it with the Paris attacks in mind are intimately linked to Gamergate. Immediately after the fake image of Mr Jubbal achieved wide circulation, blacktric deleted his Twitter account, and TW's account has disappeared too. It's natural that the majority of Gamergate supporters want to disassociate themselves from blacktric and TW, as their actions contradict claims that the group is committed, exclusively, to promoting clear disclosure of professional and personal relationships between members and outlets of the gaming media, but it's impossible to deny that the links are there.

The full consequences of the fake image are yet to be seen, but we can include among them wasting French police time in the aftermath of the most serious terrorist attack in the country's history. Mr Jubbal will for the rest of his life be in danger of mistaken identity, and faces the possibility of misguided revenge attacks. And of course ISIS, that most social media-savvy of groups, must be delighted that Gamergate is sowing confusion around who its members are.

Though it is unlikely the image will fool more media outlets, the fact is that it did fool some for several hours in the aftermath of the attacks, and there may be further long-term consequences. The reaction from other Gamergate supporters over the next few days has been unalloyed glee, exemplified by outspoken Breitbart journalist Milo Yiannopoulos, who emailed Mr Jubbal and posted the text online.

Make your own call on the motivations behind those questions or, better yet, consider them in the context of the Breitbart article's headline and tone: "Media fooled by deplorable, irresponsible, absolutely not funny trolling of Gamergate critic." Posters on KIA reacted with depressing eye-for-an-eye reductivism: "When you've been calling other people terrorists for over a year, can you really complain when someone calls you a terrorist?"

Further to this, Gamergate supporters reposted the image on Twitter, while others added to the confusion by faking tweets from Mr Jubbal, such as this:

Whatever the outcome may be, this situation serves as an object lesson in the tactics of select participants in groups such as Gamergate – in this case outright denial and hurried deletion of proof, followed by the counter-claim that Gamergate is actually helping Mr Jubbal by flagging the image as fake, after the damage had been done.

For all its ethical crusading, Gamergate is labelled a hate group for very clear reasons, with members previously pulled up for posts full of misogyny, racism, anti-Semitism and transphobia. It has savagely attacked its targets, with Mr Jubbal just the latest victim, and justifies this by saying their victims bring it on themselves. "This is poetic justice, he contributed to his own misery," reads a typical post from KIA user gtt443.

But perhaps linking an innocent man with one of the most despicable terror attacks on European soil, within hours of it happening, will be what brings Gamergate to an end. Mr Jubbal is currently safe and well at home in Canada, and intends to sue those responsible. He has released a statement on the Photoshopping incident (read it in full here), which includes the following words:

"The dark horror of violence in Paris and Beirut last week is mourned by 25 million Sikhs and over 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide. I ask that the media outlets that ran my image immediately retract my photo and apologise, but also take the time to learn and educate their readers about the Sikh faith, the fifth-largest religion in the world.

"When we paint entire faiths and communities with the same brushstroke, we further give terrorists exactly what they want. We're strongest in the face of terror and bigotry when we stand together. This false image is an opportunity for all of us to hopefully grow together in our shared understanding for one another."

Vice

 

[Napoleon]

That's extremely unfortunate and I feel sorry for the man, but it was probably just some trolls who co-opted the hashtag. I've talked to people who support the movement and they are by and large reasonable folks, and they are not happy with this. It's just the trolls that make them look bad

 

[Slushy]

Spoiler

A woman duct taped her dog's mouth for 60 seconds to get it to stop barking and it worked. She posted the picture though, which went viral, and now she's been arrested for animal cruelty.

"Guy dresses as girl for party and makes out with 175 straight guys"

How those guys reacted after finding out:

[YT]tFL1UXuHJ-A[/YT]

 

[Silvermoon]

Saw this on our local news last night, I don't think stupid even begins to to describe the kid that did this - doing it period was beyond stupid... but so soon after the mass shooting in California???:

Police: Student fabricates gun threat that prompts lockdown

PLEASANT GROVE — A false report of a man with a gun inside Pleasant Grove High School resulted in a massive response of more than 200 officers who went classroom to classroom with their guns drawn.

In cellphone videos shot inside the school Thursday, students could be seen huddling under desks as officers in full tactical gear with weapons drawn swept each room inside the high school while searching for a gunman.

Emotional parents waited outside with each other near dozens of parked police vehicles from agencies throughout Utah and Salt Lake counties that were sprawled along the streets close to the school.

In scenes similar to a mass shooting Wednesday in San Bernardino, California, groups of students were instructed to raise their hands high above their heads as officers escorted them outside the main building and into an adjacent gym. After a 2 1/2 hour lockdown, the teens were finally allowed to leave the school about 4:15 p.m. Many met loved ones with tearful embraces amid a backdrop of armored vehicles and SWAT officers.

But on this day and at this school, unlike at so many others where mass shootings become national news, police say it was a 15-year-old student's fabricated report that triggered an urgent search for a gunman and a lockdown in each classroom. In the end, investigators said all students were safe and accounted for.

The lockdown began just before 2 p.m. when a student, whose identity was not released, told an administrator that he saw someone with a handgun inside the school, said Pleasant Grove Police Capt. Mike Roberts. The student described the person as a man in his 20s with blonde hair, wearing blue jeans and a black trench coat.

The teen later admitted that the story was false, Roberts said. While the boy was inside the school when he made the report, he was apparently not in class where he was supposed to have been.

"There's speculation that he wasn't in class and that was kind of his excuse to not be in class," the captain said. "But that's just speculation at this point."

The student was arrested and booked into a juvenile detention center for investigation of making a false police report and making a terroristic threat.

Student videos

In one of the videos shot by students, multiple officers can be seen entering a classroom with their rifles drawn while one shouts, "Police department, hands, hands!" Another one of the officers shouts, "Police department, raise your hands!"

Another person says, "Watch out, watch out, watch out!" It isn't clear from the video whether that person is also an officer.

In another video, multiple officers — at least one of them with his gun drawn — appear to be searching a classroom while students are sitting underneath their desks. One of the officers can be heard saying, "Stay in your room, OK?"

Another student-submitted clip shows at least four officers entering a classroom, again yelling for those in the room to put up their hands. As they left, the officers tell the students to keep the lights off and the classroom door locked.

"Hey guys, stay put 'til we come back for you, OK?" an officer said.

One student said it was a scary experience when SWAT officers entered his classroom.

"The police, they opened up the door and told us to put all our hands up and they were pointing their guns at us," said Michael Posey. "I was frightened. I've never had a gun pointed at me before."

Officers told students to leave their bags before they were escorted to a gym, where they were eventually told they were free to go, Posey said.

He initially thought the lockdown was in response to one student skipping class who was being uncooperative with school officials. At some point, that student was taken from class and questioned by a school resource officer, according to Posey.

A bomb squad was sent to the school as a precaution, but there was never an indication of a bomb or a bomb threat, according to Roberts.

About the same time, a caller reported to police that there were suspicious persons in the nearby Cherry Hills subdivision of Pleasant Grove. Roberts didn't know the status of that police call but said it's common for residents to be on high alert for suspicious activity during incidents like the one at the school.

False police reports like the one made Thursday put others in harm's way, the captain said.

"It puts the public in danger. … Parents are coming to pick up their students, people don't recognize them in their neighborhood and they call them in as suspicious, so it causes a lot of problem and a lot of grief I guess we didn't really need," he said. "But as far as tactically how it went down it went down very well and we're very happy with how it went down."

Roberts said the police response was proportionate to the nature of the perceived threat at the school. Per protocol, police vehicles used their lights and sirens on their way to the scene.

"It's a very large response and … it's a typical response for something like this. With law enforcement, we all work together in different communities (and) obviously on something as (massive) as this, our city couldn't handle it one on one and we had an absolutely great response from officers," Roberts said. "There was a long list of people that came and it systematically worked together to get the school locked down and searched very fast, so it worked very well."

Worried parents

Gregory Haycock said he was relieved when his daughter called him from inside the school to tell him she was safe. She was, however, distressed.

"She was really upset mostly because they weren't updating them about what was going on," he said. She also told him she was upset because some students didn't seem to be taking the situation as seriously as they should.

Haycock said it was "a big comfort" to him to see the large law enforcement response.

"I was really impressed with first responders and how quickly everything was taken care of," he said.

Richard Matheson, the father of twins at the school, said one of them sent him a text message saying police officers were searching classrooms.

"My first fear was what was going through my twins' minds," Matheson said. "You know, they've heard the news (about the mass shooting in San Bernardino) from yesterday, and then to look into the hallway and see (a) police force with assault rifles … I could tell from the tone of the texts when they were reporting (about) the police with those big guns, they were pretty nervous."

Matheson made his way to the school as soon he heard from his kids.

"I (decided) to get as close as I can so when they're out I can go get them myself," he said.

Julie Borst waited to hear from her son while she gathered with other worried parents near the school before learning that the report of a gunman was false.

"I'm standing here with a bunch of moms. We all have the same face. We're nervous," Borst said. "We're just trying to be calm. … I just wanted to be right next to where my boy is and as soon he's out, hug him and take him home."

Holly Smith, who waited near the school for word on her son and daughter, said she was "very, very happy" with the police response at the school.

"I just can't wait … to take my kids in my arms and hold them tight," she said. "Things change really quick. Life happens in a hurry and I think this moment stopped and froze all of us to (think), 'OK what's really important?'"

Student Tianna Thompson could see her aunt outside the school waiting to pick her up while she waited inside her classroom. She said also has a new lease on life.

"I feel like I should appreciate my life more and say I love you to my family more and just be grateful that not every day I'm in this situation," she said.

Contributing: Mark Giauque, Nicole Vowell, Andrew Adams

 

[Teelie]

Not the first time someone has made an incredibly stupid and dangerous claim because they were late/skipping class or work and needed a good excuse why.

Rather than find a lie that doesn't get your school or place of work raided by the police and/or bomb squad I wish these people would think just a little bit harder on something believable but not outrageous.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Pinellas Deputy drunk at anti-drunk driving event showed up ready to party, skipped training

He was also there to pick up a reward for arresting 100 DUI offenders.

WFLA

God bless Pinellas county. That's where I live! I remember this in my Bookface feed when it broke. As hilarious as it is sad

 

[KevanG]

Man dies after winning lottery and gold-plating his balls

Many people like to flash their cash in different ways – for instance, gold and diamond mouth grills. But to celebrate his recent jackpot win, Justin decided to take it to another level.

Justin Reiter from Alberta, Canada, died of medical complications after attempting to gold plate his own genitals to celebrate an astonishing $598,556 jackpot win.

According to friends, the 27-year-old was enamored with the 2002 movie comedy Goldmember—an Austin Powers parody of the Bond movie Goldfinger in which Powers is hunting a criminal mastermind who colors his victims’ man parts in gold.

Justin started by painting his genitals with a lead-based paint, but quickly decided that a simple coloring wasn’t enough: he needed to take it to the next level, he needed the real gold. To complete the makeshift operation, Reiter used a professional automotive gold plater that he borrowed from a garage. Unfortunately in the twelve hours following the procedure, Justing encountered a series of health issues that ultimately led to his death.

Autopsy reports shows that the actual cause of death was lead-based paint poisoning.

So he didn't actually die from gold-plating but to die from lead-based paint on your balls?

 

[Teelie]

I see no links citing an official source on that site or references to anyone who might be able to verify the story. And I'm going to call it fake. World News Daily

Los Angeles | An L.A. gang member, Nazario Conchuza Gonzalez, who is part of the infamous Ms-13 gang, also called Mara Salvatrucha, has died of medical complications after attempting to gold plate his own genitals to celebrate his 17th anniversary.

Plus Snopes. Fortunately no humans are this stupid (yet).

 

[KevanG]

Stop ruining my fun.