Weird News of the World Thread

[Teelie]

Cinemax Producers Sue Actress Who Refused to Do Nude Scenes



http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/producers-sue-actress-refusing-film-694617

It's her body and she shouldn't do anything that makes her un-comfortable but there is no way your doing a late night skinemax show and not know what the deal is

That sounds like a really stupid case. Cinemax isn't nicknamed Skinemax for no reason and apparently she knew full-well what was going to be required for the role so she should have either rejected it or accepted it and done the contractual obligations... even though it sounds like they went as far as they could for accomdation.

And the dentist? He's just nuts.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

The Obscure Loophole That Explains Why Thieves Prefer Old, Junky Cars

Who wants to steal crappy old cars better suited for the junkyard than the road? Car thieves with a fine understanding of New York law, of course. While car thefts have gone way down in New York, thefts of junky old cars has gone up—all because a quirk in the state's laws makes it easier to turn junk into profit.

Sure, newer cars with better security features are harder to steal, but they're also harder to sell on the black market. On the other hand, you don't even need a title to junk old cars in New York. Because of an old law originally passed to deal with abandoned vehicles, cars eight years or older and worth less than $1250 require only two easily obtained DMV forms to be junked. And thieves are catching on, as the police told the New York Times.

"Say I have an old Dodge Caravan; I can scrap that without a title just by presenting a form and a valid ID," said Deputy Inspector Joseph Kenny, the commanding officer of the Police Department's auto crimes division. "It's gotten to the point where it's almost common knowledge. Perps find out the easy ways to make money."
Big, heavy cars with lots of metal are the prime targets. 5000-pound Ford Econoline delivery vans, for example, can net $600 to $700 in scrap. 51 of such vans have already been reported stolen this year, compared to only 19 this time last year. This a perfect example of a law having unintended consequences—and a reminder that even your decrepit old car should be locked up.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/09/n...e-ride-the-better.html?hpw&rref=nyregion&_r=0

Kind of amazing how in touch with the law the criminals are. It was meant to do one thing and they twist it around to benefit them. What's that old Bill gates quote? Find a lazy person to get the job done the quickest or something like that

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Bad News: E-Cigs Alter Cells a Lot Like Tobacco Does

A new cancer study brings more bad news to the e-cigarette industry. Scientists exposed human bronchial cells to e-cig vapor and found that it altered the cells in a way not dissimilar to tobacco. In other words, that delicious, seemingly risk-free nicotine vapor might not be so benign, after all.

Don't worry too much, though, vaping enthusiasts. Science is complicated, and it will take some time before we know exactly how these cells are being altered. To get a little more technical about it, the cells exposed to e-cig vapor "showed a similar pattern of gene expression" to those exposed to tobacco smoke, explains Nature.

The cells were altered, in other words, but it's still unclear if those alterations mean that e-cig vapor causes cancer. But the prognosis doesn't look good. "[E-cigarettes] may be safer [than tobacco]," says lung cancer researcher Avrum Spira who led the study, "but our preliminary studies suggest that they may not be benign."

What makes this study especially unnerving for e-cig smokers (vapers?) is the fact that it comes on the heels of several other studies with damning results. It was just a couple of weeks ago that we learned how the nicotine juice used in e-cigs is poisoning children. And that was just a couple weeks after we learned that e-cig use in teens showed a correlation with tobacco smoking. That read as evidence that instead of deterring people from smoking cigarettes, e-cigs were actually encouraging them to do it. Not just any people, either. Teenagers!

Of course, the smoke blows both ways. There is some evidence that e-cigarettes are an effective smoking cessation tool, though that remains a controversial claim. It's undeniable, however, that vaping instead of smoking means that you avoid inhaling all of that toxic smog that's produced when you light up a cigarette. In other words, while smoking e-cigarettes may harm you a little bit, it almost certainly harms you less than real cigarettes.

Nevertheless, the list of bad news for the e-cig industry goes on, and studies like this week are bound to impact how the Federal Drug Administration decides to regulate the Wild West that is the e-cig industry, a decision that's due out any day now. Of course, the government's been at war with the e-cig industry for some time. Another negative study is just more ammunition for that rule-making arsenal, making it more likely that vaping will be banned altogether or at least as heavily restricted as tobacco.

Or, as some would argue, it's just another reason to smoke weed instead. At least the green doesn't cause cancer—or, rather, cannabis advocates say it doesn't. And you can vape it to your heart's content.

http://www.nature.com/news/e-cigarettes-affect-cells-1.15015

I knew those things were too good to be true. I went back to regular cigs after not being happy with my vape experience. Things kept breaking and leaking and all kinds of headaches. I actually just picked up 2 weeks worth of patches today and I have a pack and half left then I plan on quiting hopefully for good this time

 

[KevanG]

Canadian Dentist Plans to Raise Cloned John Lennon as His Son

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...atle-pulled-wisdom-tooth-raise-child-son.html

I think I have officially found the weirdest of the weird for this thread

Whu? I don't know what to think of that. We need new laws about this stuff. Like if the kid grows up could he be able to get money off of the estate because he technically IS Lennon?

 

[Superwoman Prime]

Canadian Dentist Plans to Raise Cloned John Lennon as His Son

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...atle-pulled-wisdom-tooth-raise-child-son.html

I think I have officially found the weirdest of the weird for this thread

 

[BestGirl]

Whu? I don't know what to think of that. We need new laws about this stuff. Like if the kid grows up could he be able to get money off of the estate because he technically IS Lennon?

The law will probably just treat the clone like some posthumous identical twin of Lennon's.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

NBC Wants Your Sitcom Ideas and Will Maybe Give You Credit

NBC, the former king of comedy who will now do something (anything) for a hit, needs your help to create its next huge hit/spectacular failure! The network is crowdsourcing its next few projects with a new Comedy Playground initiative, which means that you could totally be a part of the next 30 Rock. Or, more likely, the next Sean Saves the World.

In a buzzword-heavy press release distributed Wednesday, NBC touted the program as "a grassroots initiative designed to invest in new cutting-edge comedy through a groundbreaking national campaign." Well, it's pretty exciting. But not quite "cutting-edge" exciting. The Comedy Playground, for all intents and purposes, is a website with nary a jungle gym in sight. And the "grassroots initiative" isn't so much a comedy scouting program as a contest.

Interested parties are invited to submit a (verbal, on-camera) pitch for a new show, five to ten minutes of sample material, and a resume. If enough if the network's people like an idea, it will become one of ten semifinalists in the contest. The semifinalists will receive funding to film a half-hour pilot, which will then be viewed by a panel of people you've heard of, like Amy Poehler, Jason Bateman, Mindy Kaling, and, yeah, Sean Hayes. Two winners will get full broadcast orders for their shows. NBC will then submit the loser pile to the internet masses, who will vote on one more pilot to be turned into a digital series for NBC.

They really do sound like they have good intentions. Although people who are already represented by agents or working in the business are welcome, the FAQ makes clear that those people have to follow the same rules as everyone else. In fact, the site claims, "We assume that most entrants will not have representation." While contest winners may have to relocate to Los Angeles, the Comedy Playground is open to people all over the country. The goals here are noble: inject the industry with some new blood, invite people whose backgrounds may not be in showbiz to give it a shot, and find unexpected new material.

It's that last bit that might actually be a concern. According to the contest's "ideas and misappropriation waiver," entrants must agree to the following:

By entering the Contest and submitting a Submission, Contestants agree to and acknowledge the following: You understand that although you may believe your Submission to be unique and novel, there may be preexisting ideas, concepts, or proposals that are similar to your Submission. You recognize that other persons, including NBC's own employees, may have submitted to NBC or others, or made public, or may in the future originate and submit or make public, similar or identical ideas, concepts, or proposals that NBC may have the right to use, and you understand that you will not be entitled to any compensation because of NBC's use of such similar or identical ideas, concepts, or proposals in any manner. You understand and agree that NBC's use of material containing features or elements similar or identical to those contained in your Submission will not obligate NBC to negotiate with you or entitle you to any compensation if NBC determines that it has an independent legal right to use that other material for any reason (for example, because the features or elements are not new or novel, were not originated by you, or were or may hereafter be independently created and submitted by other persons, including NBC employees).
If you don't think about it too hard, this makes some sense: not every idea is going to be a special and unique snowflake, and the company is covering its ass in case someone comes up with the same totally unoriginal idea that NBC already rushed into production a month earlier. But take a closer look: similar or identical. May in the future originate. The wording, while certainly able to get NBC out of any stupid lawsuits, could also get it out of some much more valid ones. It wouldn't be hard to claim that an NBC employee came up with the same exact pitch for a cool new show as a contest entrant.

Entering the Comedy Playground could be your shot at comedy-writer stardom–or it could just set you up to be the next penniless "inspiration" behind a hit sitcom. The competition opens May 1. May the odds be ever in your favor.

http://www.nbccomedyplayground.com/#/home

This sounds like a good way to steal somebody's good idea and pay them nothing. No way would I do this if I thought I had anything even remotely valuable

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Sriracha Factory Declared A Public Nuisance In California

Irwindale, California, home of the sriracha factory, has declared the factory where that particular bit of hot sauce-alchemy happens to be a public nuisance. No, not to other, lesser condiments (hi there, ketchup), but to the air.

After a series of complaints from residents in the area (and one country court case,) the South Coast Air Quality Management District — the agency responsible for monitoring air pollution and smog in the area around Los Angeles — was called in to take a read on the situation. After getting the results, the Irwindale City Council voted unanimously last night to declare the factory a public nuisance.

But, take heart, hot sauce-aficionados! All is not yet lost. The air quality inspectors say that they think a new carbon filtration system should be enough to clear the air. And Huy Fong Foods, the company that makes sriracha, has until June 1st before the public nuisance order kicks into effect.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-sriracha-hearing-20140409,0,1664872.story#axzz2yUNIYx4F

I love that stuff but if it's doing that to people that live by it than they def need to make some changes

 

[Teelie]

I thought this was already declared a month or two ago? I guess now it's officially official.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Woman Robbed on Street While Doing Interview About Street Robbery

[YT]ahqSawmYVJs[/YT]

It's not exactly a secret that street crime is an issue in Brazil (enjoy the World Cup!). For instance, take this video, in which a woman's necklace is ripped off her body while she gives an interview to a Rio news program about the epidemic of people being robbed on the street.

The reporter, bless him, chases after the young boy, who is eventually apprehended by police. The woman seems to have an okay sense of humor about it, and appears to have retained at least a part of her necklace.

Sometimes life imitates the art that is local television news.

https://www.osac.gov/pages/ContentReportDetails.aspx?cid=13966

They are all about that thug life out in Brazil

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Bronx Teacher Says She Was Fired For Refusing a Threesome With Boss

Here's one way to lose your job and be banned from doing that job elsewhere in your city: turn down a threesome with your boss and her boyfriend. That is the story of Carisa Gaylardo, as she tells it in a lawsuit she filed in Manhattan Supreme Court this week.

In her filing, Gaylardo—who was a "probationary" gym teacher at Riverdale/Kingsbridge Academy in the Bronx—alleges that she was let go from her position after turning down an offer to have a threesome with her supervisor Sofia Memos, pictured above, and Memos' boyfriend. Further, she notes that she has been put on a list of people barred from teaching at schools in New York City because the reason given for her termination was that she had inappropriate contact with a student.

Gaylardo says that the latter claim is false, and was concocted be Memos only after Gaylardo spurned her sexual advances. Normally a case like this might be he-said, she-said, but Gaylardo writes in her suit that Memos made advances to her via text message. Come to think of it, propositioning a subordinate for a threesome on a device that leaves a paper trail is an even easier way to lose your job.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york...reesome-boss-boyfriend-suit-article-1.1752090

It amazes me how people will forget things like text can later be used against you

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Tosh.0 Production Assistant Accidentally Killed by L.A. Sheriff Deputy

Monday night, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department accidentally shot and killed a production assistant for Tosh.0 after mistaking the 30-year-old for a stabbing suspect.

According to the Los Angeles Times, John Winkler went to a neighbor's apartment Monday night to try to help three people who were being held captive at knife point. Responding police shot Winkler when he ran from the apartment with one of the victims. From the Sheriff Department's statement:

As deputies continued attempts to contact the people in the apartment, the apartment door suddenly opened and a male victim came rushing out. He was covered in blood and bleeding profusely from the neck. Simultaneously, Victim Winkler ran out of the door, lunging at the back of the fleeing victim. Both ran directly at the deputies. Winkler was similar to the description of the suspect and was wearing a black shirt. Believing Winkler was the assailant and the assault was ongoing and he would attack the entry team; three deputies fired their duty weapons at him.
Winkler was shot once and died later that night at a local hospital.

One of Winkler's friends spoke to the Los Angeles Times after the shooting. "It's just a really sad story," Devin Richardson said, adding that Winkler had just moved to L.A. six months ago from Washington state to pursue a career as a producer. "He basically went to help some neighbors and ends up getting shot."

The suspect, 27-year-old, Alexander McDonald, was eventually arrested and charged with one count of murder, two counts of attempted murder, and one count of torture.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/...lywood-20140410,0,1972682.story#axzz2yWWhALqG

Man he goes to help some folks and dies because of it. That sucks

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

U.S. Army Compares New Hacker School To "The Birth Of The Air Force"

Over the next three years, the U.S. Army will be filling its brand new cyber warfare institute at West Point with the best and brightest hackers it can find. Not just hackers, however: the institute will bring together psychologists, lawyers, mathematicians—anyone who can help the country win the inevitable cyber war and save America.

It sounds a bit bombastic to talk about cybersecurity that way, but the Army is not messing around. Col. Greg Conti, the chairman of the new Army Cyber Institute, compares the new cyber warriors to the pilots that once made up the Army Air Corps. "I think we're building a unique team that's never been done before," Conti told the Army Times. "It's a very exciting time," he added. "It feels a bit like we're at the birth of the Air Force, like we're that kind of historic era."

Historic, indeed. President Obama's taken the threat of cyber warfare very seriously, not only naming potential targets but actually ordering devastating attacks. The Army Cyber Institute, which will be headquartered at the West Point Military Academy, will recruit about 25 people a year to help the country prepare to defend the nation against these threats and mount the attacks that will give the U.S. an advantage. The Army Times likens it to a sort of "cyber Ranger School" that "will be defining how cyber warfare is waged."

Thinking about soldiers in fatigues staring at screens sure gives new meaning to that whole "Army of One" slogan, doesn't it?

http://www.armytimes.com/article/20...er-warfare-research-institute-open-West-Point

Man I wish I had the option to go to military hacker school when I joined the military back in the day. Sounds awesome

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Single Vending Machine Replaces Last Shop in English Town

So clever, so depressing: the English town of Clifton, having dwindled in economic strength over the years, has responded to the loss of its last place to shop with a giant vending machine. The so-called Speedy Shop—really, an over-sized, building-shaped machine standing alone in a dreary parking lot—is meant to help bring some economic life back to the town.

As the BBC reports, "Milk, bread, toilet roll and even eggs are being sold from a large vending machine in a Derbyshire village after its only store closed 13 years ago."

The idea for this "electric shop"—dreamt up by local businessman Peter Fox—is simultaneously brilliant and extremely dispiriting.

On one hand, it simply brings the recent trend for sticking more or less anything in a vending machine, from panties to crack pipes, to its logical conclusion, but with an almost utopian economic narrative attached to it. Indeed, Fox himself has pitched it as "a service to the community," one that will keep local money truly local, and even attract curious tourists who will now visit Clifton specifically for the purpose of buying something out of a large outdoor machine.

But there is an obvious alternative interpretation available here, which is that any sufficiently lifeless town can simply replace its previously beloved institutions with interactive machines.

Imagine a kind of small-business-themed remake of Westworld, in which a group of life-long friends living in a small English village gradually realize they're the only ones still in town. Everyone else left long ago and the only other activity in the otherwise silent streets are the driverless cars that come tootling through to restock the vending machines that have popped up on every corner. Selling postage stamps, cans of baked beans, even new socks and toiletries, these electric boxes quietly hum and glow, casting moody, Edward Hopper-like shadows on the rain-stained brick walls and sidewalks. Where are all these machines coming from? They wonder. Who made them? Is this happening in every other village nearby? After all, no one outside the village ever calls anymore...

Canes in hand, too infirm to drive, they stroll along in the artificial glow of these well-stocked mechanical cabinets as the sun sets over the sea, perhaps feeling like the last people on earth, just old friends curious how it got this way, unsure of what's next, peering out their bedroom windows at night at the depopulated streets that shine through to the morning hours with strange machines. But they are intent on unraveling the mystery.

http://popupcity.net/vending-machines-for-shrinking-communities/

And people thought Detroit was on hard times

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Police Discover Multi-Million Dollar Shoplifting Ring in Detroit

Detroit police looking for a meth lab instead stumbled upon a well-run, multi-million dollar shoplifting ring housed in a large warehouse near 8 Mile.

The investigation began when police noticed a group of women stealing over-the-counter medication from local pharmacies and thought they might be producing meth.

But it turned out the three women were part of a sophisticated shoplifting ring. The women would steal items from stores like CVS, Walgreens and Victoria's Secret, pocketing high-value items into specially altered garments and bring them to a large warehouse where two men would pay them $2,500 for their haul.

Local police say they found millions of dollars worth of merchandise in the warehouse.

Ferndale Police Chief Tim Collins, whose department is part of the narcotics team, said he was stunned when he saw what was in the warehouse.

"It was clean and tidy and well-run," he said.

The stolen items were sorted and stacked on shelves. The warehouse even included a second level where merchandise was sold and a lift-truck that was used to move things around.
Police estimate the group stole around $9,000 to $15,000 worth of goods a day, reselling the items on websites like eBay and Amazon. According to a police spokesperson, the group purchased the warehouse nine months ago for $200,000 in cash.

http://www.freep.com/article/20140409/NEWS03/304090129/

It's funny how many huge criminal operations get brought down by the most mundane things. The cops had no clue this was going down

 

[Teelie]

Let's be fair. It's Detroit. Most cops didn't care.

 

[KevanG]

"And within the day of the police finding the hoard all evidence went missing. After checking Ebay and Amazon as much as 99% of the evidence turned up once again."

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Politician Dresses as Spider-Man, Climbs Building, Asks for Votes

Thirty-two year-old Gaurav Sharma is running for Parliament in India. Previously a martial arts instructor for the Mumbai Police, Sharma is now climbing up the sides of buildings in a Spider-Man costume, asking for votes. P

Below, you can watch him campaign. Video courtesy of AP:

[YT]8HR93Z-TGDk[/YT]

Well that's one way to get out the vote I guess

 

[KevanG]

He'll get votes from the comic geeks anyway.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Wizard juggler tricks people's minds with a ring of illusions

French juggler Lindzee Poi is a wizard who basically turns a set of juggling rings into a mind warping finger dance. Poi is so fluid that your mind really thinks the rings are moving on their own. I love it when my brain can't process what's in front of it.

[YT]XmFmYLAveWM[/YT]

That there my friends is talent

 

[KevanG]

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

The Government Will Take Your Money For Your Dead Parent's Debts

Here is something that may come as a surprise: the U.S. government can—and will!—confiscate your tax refund or Social Security money because of overpayments that it made to your parents decades ago.

The Washington Post today investigates this confiscatory and little-publicized practice, which no branch of the government is very eager to take credit for. They tell the story of Maryland resident Mary Grice, 58, who saw her tax refunds confiscated by the government this year. Why? Because "Social Security claims it overpaid someone in the Grice family — it's not sure who — in 1977." We are not even talking about, say, old loans that your parents took out. We are talking about the government itself mistakenly overpaying benefits to your parents decades ago, and now, all these years later, coming to you and taking that money out of your pocket, because, you know, your mom probably used it to buy you baby food.

The Federal Trade Commission, on its Web site, advises Americans that "family members typically are not obligated to pay the debts of a deceased relative from their own assets." But Social Security officials say that if children indirectly received assistance from public dollars paid to a parent, the children's money can be taken, no matter how long ago any overpayment occurred.
There used to be a ten year statute of limitations on collections like these, but that was done away with three years ago, and now the tax man is free to go into your pockets for, hell, an extra bushel of corn that your Great x 10 grandpa Jebediah got after the Revolutionary war. You will not want to miss this classic government explanation for this process: "Congressional staffers say the request probably came from the bureaucracy."

Seems likely, yes.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...f4d-11e3-bcec-b71ee10e9bc3_story.html?hpid=z1

Why does this not surprise me?

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Did You Know UPS Trucks Only Make Right Turns?

Turns out left turns are not only riskier, they also waste gas. So UPS – optimization-obsessed logistics company that it is – got rid of them.

Via Priceonomics:

UPS engineers found that left-hand turns were a major drag on efficiency. Turning against traffic resulted in long waits in left-hand turn lanes that wasted time and fuel, and it also led to a disproportionate number of accidents. By mapping out routes that involved "a series of right-hand loops," UPS improved profits and safety while touting their catchy, environmentally friendly policy. As of 2012, the right turn rule combined with other improvements — for the wow factor, UPS doesn't separate them out — saved around 10 million gallons of gas and reduced emissions by the equivalent of taking 5,300 cars of the road for a year.

Describing the policy in a speech, the CEO of UPS told his audience, "I can see a few of you smiling out there, and I know what you may be thinking. But it really works."
Of course, you can't get rid of left turns entirely. There are occasions when a left turn is fast, safe, or just plain necessary enough to warrant making – which, according to one driver, amounts to about once every ten turns.

http://priceonomics.com/why-ups-trucks-dont-turn-left

Sounds goofy but I guess it works

 

[Mike_D202]

Screening of "Noah" canceled due to theater flooding:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/07/noah-movie-theater-flood_n_5105970.html

 

[KevanG]

'You want a flood? I'll give you a flood!'

The Government Will Take Your Money For Your Dead Parent's Debts



http://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...f4d-11e3-bcec-b71ee10e9bc3_story.html?hpid=z1

Why does this not surprise me?

I'm not surprised. I'm just surprised that they haven't been doing it all along.