- ★ Nightly porno TV shows for inmates prompt action by county leaders
- The corrections officer said he was afraid that Liberty County Jail managers were failing to respond quickly enough to the nightly pornography shows and he was afraid it could lead to added violence between inmates. “That’s got to be in their mind. They’re watching this constantly and you have no way of releasing your frustrations,” said the jailer. “They can take full advantage of anybody.” Liberty County Sheriff’s Office Captain Rex Evans said the inmates were able to “somehow manipulate the system and were actually watching, at their own leisure, pornographic material.” One recent inmate told Local 2 Investigates there would be “a lot of fights” because of the nightly porn viewing. He said some guards didn’t care and allowed it to be watched. Another recent inmate, who also said he viewed the pornographic movies behind bars, said inmates would gather around and watch it for hours each night. He said it “made the showers hell” as inmates would act out from viewing the porn
- ★ Meth Addict Accidentally Burns Down World’s Fifth-Oldest Tree
- Because Florida is running out of unique ways to embarrass itself, a 26-year old meth enthusiast set fire to and destroyed the world’s fifth oldest tree last month. While she was in it. Smoking meth. Sarah Barnes had climbed the tree to smoke, because where better to get high than in the branches of a 118-foot, 3,500 year old cypress ? The fire in question came when she wanted to get a better view of her surroundings, and presumably also her drugs. “The Senator,” as the tree was known, was burned to the ground. The good news is that Barnes seemed sufficiently chastened by the whole thing, reportedly telling friends that “I can’t believe I burned down a tree older than Jesus.” Neither can he, Sarah. Neither can he. So what have we learned? First of all, please be careful with lighters. In the wrong hands, they can be deceptively destructive little gadgets. And then yes, right, meth. Don’t do that.
- ★ Man shows up for job interview naked, high on meth
- A man showed up for a job interview near Sacramento naked and high on methamphetamine, and now cellphone footage of his fight with police has gone viral. Jose Ayala didn’t make the best first impression at a Del Paso Heights-area welding shop when he showed up last week frazzled and unclothed, says shop owner Chris Johnson, who added he won’t soon forget the job applicant.
- ★ Airline steward, his swinger wife and her lover ‘used Craigslist to find a dog for sex’
- A husband, his wife and her lover have been charged with conspiracy to commit bestiality after using Craigslist to find a dog for the wife to have sex with. Shane Walker and his wife Sarah Dae, who describe themselves as swingers in an open marriage, were arrested after an undercover sting operation. The couple, and her lover Robert Aucker, were held after they drove out to a pre-arranged location to engage in the unnatural sex. The two men were to watch while Sarah Dae had sex with the dog. The trio had been hoping to meet the owner of a Golden Shepherd having spent three weeks corresponding with her over the use of the dog. But when they arrived at the location in Phoenix, Arizona,they were arrested by detectives. The owner of the dog had tipped off police about the trio’s plans and an undercover officer took her place during the meeting. Before their arrest the three offered the ‘dog owner’ the opportunity to take part.
- ★ Former College Student Sues School Because Her Roommate Was Having Too Much Sex
- Lindsay Blankmeyer is seeking up to $150,000 in damages and fees claiming that Stonehill College in Massachusetts did not assist her in dealing with her overly sexual roommate, The AP reports. Blankmeyer, who according to the criminal complaint suffers from depression and attention deficit disorder, first approached Stonehill officials with a complaint about her roommate, Laura, violating the school’s rules by having sex with her boyfriend without her permission. The actual intercourse and cyber sex had by Laura in Blankmeyer’s presence exacerbated her depression to the point of her becoming suicidal, alleges the complaint. Thanks Jasmine
- ★ NASA loses laptop with command code for ISS
- Four dozen high-tech computing devices disappeared from the offices of NASA over a two-year span, including one laptop that contained the code needed to command the International Space Station. No big deal, guys!
- ★ Incompetent People Too Ignorant to Know It
- A growing body of psychology research shows that incompetence deprives people of the ability to recognize their own incompetence. To put it bluntly, dumb people are too dumb to know it. Similarly, unfunny people don’t have a good enough sense of humor to tell. This disconnect may be responsible for many of society’s problems. With more than a decade’s worth of research, David Dunning, a psychologist at Cornell University, has demonstrated that humans find it “intrinsically difficult to get a sense of what we don’t know.” Whether an individual lacks competence in logical reasoning, emotional intelligence, humor or even chess abilities, the person still tends to rate his or her skills in that area as being above average.
- ★ Indiana House Approves Bill That Allows Homeowners To Kill Police Officers
- Republicans in Indiana are taking self-defense too far. In a move supported by the National Rifle Association, the Indiana House passed Senate Bill 1, which allows homeowners to shoot and kill police officers they believe are unlawfully on their property or in their homes. The bill could also extend to federal law enforcement officials.
- ★ People Aren’t Smart Enough for Democracy to Flourish, Scientists Say
- The democratic process relies on the assumption that citizens (the majority of them, at least) can recognize the best political candidate, or best policy idea, when they see it. But a growing body of research has revealed an unfortunate aspect of the human psyche that would seem to disprove this notion, and imply instead that democratic elections produce mediocre leadership and policies. The research, led by David Dunning, a psychologist at Cornell University, shows that incompetent people are inherently unable to judge the competence of other people, or the quality of those people’s ideas. For example, if people lack expertise on tax reform, it is very difficult for them to identify the candidates who are actual experts. They simply lack the mental tools needed to make meaningful judgments.
- ★ ACTA in UK: 10 years in jail for ‘illegal downloads’
- UK web surfers have caught a grim glimpse of the future with Internet users being threatened with 10 years in jail for “illegal downloading” after a prominent music file-sharing site was shut down shortly after Britain signed the notorious ACTA bill. It is the first time such a move has been made against Internet users in the UK. The British government introduced regulations in 2009 enabling Internet providers to track users who downloaded illegal content from the web and disable their connection if warning letters had no effect. But signing the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) has brought the conflict to a whole new level. In Europe, people are taking to the streets in protest at the contradictory Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, with some countries refusing to sign it.
- ★ The Simpsons Porn Videos
- NSFW – Thanks Billy
- ★ Dominique Tarlé – Recording Exile
- Dominique Tarlé is an acclaimed French photographer best known for his association with The Rolling Stones. The Stones escaped the UK’s punitive tax regime in 1971 and decamped to the South of France at Villa Nellcôte, where Keith had set up house with Anita Pallenberg and their son Marlon. It became the location where Exile On Main Street was recorded, with the help of a mobile recording truck connected to a basement studio. Tarle recounted to the New York Times that, “A carnival of characters paraded through: Terry Southern, Gram Parsons, John Lennon, even a tribal band from Bengal… dope dealers from Marseille; petty thieves, who stole most of the drugs and half the furniture; and hangers-on, all of them there to witness what was happening.”
- ★ Infant’s death at Maimonides Hospital linked to circumcision
- The unidentified infant died Sept. 28, 2011, at Maimonides Hospital, according to a spokeswoman for the city Medical Examiner, who confirmed the death after a News inquiry. The cause of death was listed as “disseminated herpes simplex virus Type 1, complicating ritual circumcision with oral suction.” City officials declined to comment Friday. It’s unclear who performed the circumcision. In 2004, city health officials revealed that a baby boy died after a circumcision carried out by a Rockland County rabbi who specializes in the centuries-old, ultra-Orthodox ritual known as metzizah b’ peh. Under the practice, the rabbi or mohel removes blood from the wound with his mouth — a practice city health officials have criticized, saying it carried “inherent risks” for babies.
- ★ The Lorax helps market Mazda SUVs to elementary school children nationwide
- The Lorax — that squat orange creature Dr. Seuss created to speak for the trees — is now hawking SUVs at elementary schools across the land. The sales pitch is part of the National Education Association’s “Read Across America tour — Driven by Mazda,” which arrived at Alexandria’s James K. Polk Elementary School on Tuesday. It was a hybrid event: a celebration of reading, a fundraiser for public-school libraries, and an opportunity to market Mazdas to the pint-size set. While they don’t buy many cars themselves, they have direct access to parents who do. “I track school advertising for a living,” said Josh Golin, associate director of the Boston-based Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. “This is among the most outrageous examples of any school advertisement program I’ve ever heard of.”
- ★ Zimbabwe: HIV-positive maid laces child’s porridge with menstrual blood
- A 17-year-maid from Zimbabwe was caught lacing the porridge of her employers’ four-year-old child with her own menstrual blood. According to NewsDay, Pelagia Mureya, who is HIV-positive, “carried out the disgusting act several times until luck ran out.” The ruse was discovered when her employer “noticed a drop of blood when her child was eating porridge, and investigated.”
- ★ Government Increasingly Eyeing Dissent on Social Media
- A subpoena by the New York City District Attorney’s office to Twitter should raise alarm bells for anyone who uses social media during demonstrations. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the DA subpoenaed the social media site for “any and all user information, including email address, as well as any and all tweets posted for the period of 9/15/2011-12/31/2011” from user Malcolm Harris (h/t Common Dreams). Harris (@destructuremal), managing editor for the New Inquiry online magazine, was arrested with 700 other demonstrators on the Brooklyn Bridge on October 1, 2011. The arrested were charged with disorderly conduct, which carries a punishment of a $250 fine or up to 15 days in jail.
- ★ New speech-jamming gun hints at dystopian Big Brother future
- Japanese researchers have created a hand-held gun (pictured above) that can jam the words of speakers who are more than 30 meters (100ft) away. The gun has two purposes, according to the researchers: At its most basic, this gun could be used in libraries and other quiet spaces to stop people from speaking — but its second application is a lot more chilling. The researchers were looking for a way to stop “louder, stronger” voices from saying more than their fair share in conversation. The paper reads: “We have to establish and obey rules for proper turn-taking when speaking. However, some people tend to lengthen their turns or deliberately interrupt other people when it is their turn in order to establish their presence rather than achieve more fruitful discussions. Furthermore, some people tend to jeer at speakers to invalidate their speech.” In other words, this speech-jamming gun was built to enforce “proper” conversations.
- ★ Seattle Cop Caught On Tape Telling Man He Will Be Framed For Robbery
- Seattle’s KOMO 4 News reports on their city’s police department’s issue with tens of thousands of cop car dashcam videos “vanishing”. In the latest incident for which cruiser footage of critical moments was mysteriously lost, two innocent young men (both African American) were beaten and arrested at gunpoint for no legitimate reason. After they are taken to jail, an officer tells one that he will “make stuff up” and send them to prison for robbery. But no worries, the police department investigated itself and found no wrongdoing by officers. A department spokesman comments that concerned citizens have to “trust the system, trust the process”.
- ★ What about that pesky “natural” on food labels?
- FoodNavigator.com has issued a collection of its recent articles on “natural” and processing. At issue is the meaning of “natural,” which many people perceive as equivalent to organic or healthy. As I’ve said before, it isn’t. Natural has no regulatory meaning. The FDA merely says (note obfuscating double negatives): From a food science perspective, it is difficult to define a food product that is ‘natural’ because the food has probably been processed and is no longer the product of the earth. That said, FDA has not developed a definition for use of the term natural or its derivatives. However, the agency has not objected to the use of the term if the food does not contain added color, artificial flavors, or synthetic substances.
- ★ Ayahuasca: What Jennifer Aniston May Not Know About the ‘Spirit Vine’
- Cut to February 2012, and the mega-celebrity, Jennifer Aniston, best known for playing perky girl-next-door Rachel in “Friends,” is tipping a bowl of ayahuasca to her lips in Universal’s newest romantic comedy “Wanderlust.” In just a few years, the once secret “shamans brew” of the Amazon has snaked its way into the popular consciousness, including the entertainment industry with cameos in the TV shows “Weeds” and “Nip/Tuck” and now the movie “Wanderlust.” But the question remains: Can Hollywood portray this ancient medicinal, psychonautic elixir with the maturity and complexity necessary to address its multifaceted experiences?
- ★ Enochs High teacher resigns after leaving wife, kids for student, 18
- A 41-year-old Enochs High School teacher in Modesto has resigned and moved in with an 18-year-old student. The reaction has been largely shock, disapproval and betrayal. The teen’s mother has waged a very public campaign on Facebook since last week, when her daughter moved out of the family’s home and into a Modesto apartment with the man. He has left his wife and children, one of whom is a junior at Enochs. Modesto police are investigating whether there was inappropriate contact before the girl turned 18 in the fall. And school district and teachers union officials worry that an ethical and moral line has been crossed, even if the student is legally an adult.
- ★ The Mammoth Eye Of Mars
- Everyone has heard of Percival Lowell’s theories of Martian canals, but have you heard the theory of Mars’ vast thinking vegetable and its mammoth eye? The above is an artist’s rendition of the eye of Mars. It’s not a metaphorical depiction. What you see is exactly what the theory claimed: (from the caption) “A vast eye, upon a tenuous, flexible, transparent neck raises itself high above the surface of Mars and can watch the growth of its vegetable body upon any part of the surface.” Its “vegetable body” is a Mars-hugging super-organism of intelligent vegetable life that creeps along the cracks left in the drying Martian surface (Lowell’s erstwhile “canals”).
- ★ Ex-Senators Say Saudi Arabia May Be Linked to 9/11
- According to Sen. Graham, open questions include possible financial support of al Qaeda by Saudi charities, and the role of a Saudi resident of California who was in contact with both the hijackers and Saudi officials. “There was a direct line,” wrote Graham, “between at least some of the terrorists who carried out the September 11th attacks and the government of Saudi Arabia, and [a] Saudi government agent living in the United States, Omar al Bayoumi, provided direct assistance to September 11th hijackers Nawaf al Hazmi and Khalid al Mihdhar.” “Finally someone who knows some of the truth about 9/11 is standing up and saying ‘wait a minute, we didn’t give those guys the all clear’ as Saudi Arabia has been saying for several years,” said Sharon Premoli of Vermont, who was in the World Trade Center when it was struck. “Exonerated, I don’t think so!”
- ★ Lessons from Fukushima
- It has been almost 12 months since the Fukushima nuclear disaster began. Although the Great East Japan earthquake and the following tsunami triggered it, the key causes of the nuclear accident lie in the institutional failures of political influence and industry-led regulation. It was a failure of human institutions to acknowledge real reactor risks, a failure to establish and enforce appropriate nuclear safety standards and a failure to ultimately protect the public and the environment.
- ★ Child Advocates Slam Greenwashing of Seuss’ Beloved ‘Lorax’
- Generations of children have been moved by its powerful tale of how rampant greed and consumerism destroyed the forest of Truffula Trees and the Brown Bar-ba-loots, Swomee-Swans, and Humming-Fish that depended on them. But now, according to the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC), the book’s powerful message is in danger of being crushed by a real-life landslide of corporate greed after Dr. Seuss Enterprises, Random House, and Universal Pictures produced the film and sold licenses for the various product agreements. In a statement accouncing their new campaign to ‘Save the Lorax!’ the CCFC writes: For more than forty years, Dr. Seuss’s classic book, The Lorax, has been a clarion call for reducing consumption and promoting conservation. But this Friday, Universal Pictures’ The Lorax arrives in theaters with dozens of corporate partners promoting everything from SUVs to Pottery Barn to Pancakes.
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Conjured by o~ SeMeN SPeRmS ~o on March 5, 2012
