Oh, such fond memories... WHAT THE FUCK?!
ELK GROVE, Calif.—A Northern California elementary school teacher who set out to capture class memories on DVD, ended up adding six seconds of her having sex on the couch. Labels: crime drama, school news, sex
Officials at the Elk Grove Unified School District asked families of the teacher's 24 students to get rid of the DVD after the unintended clip was found spliced in a scene where children were sharing stories in class.
"Just destroy them," said spokeswoman Torrey Johnson.
Johnson said the teacher, whose name isn't being released, sent the DVD home with her students from Isabelle Jackson Elementary on the last day of class Friday. She learned of the mistake after a parent called her over the weekend. She then called all the parents to ask them to destroy the DVD.
The school district, located just south of Sacramento, sent a letter home to parents asking them to return the DVDs. Since then, they have asked parents to simply destroy them.
Johnson said the district is investigating whether any criminal activity was involved.
Sgt. Tim Curran, a spokesman for the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department, said the DVD incident "may not be prosecutable" because authorities would have to show the teacher intended to distribute the material.
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BEEEEEEEEES!
SAN DIEGO — Talk about adding a late-inning buzz to a ballgame. Labels: animal news, sports news
Thursday's game between the Houston Astros and San Diego Padres was delayed for 52 minutes in the top of the ninth inning Thursday when a swarm of bees took over part of left field at Petco Park.
A beekeeper was called the downtown ballpark and sprayed a chair and a ballgirl's jacket that had attracted the bees.
"The umpires made the right call to stop the game," Padres president Tom Garfinkel said. "There's a couple thousand bees there. If they decide to swarm on a person, whether that's a person, an employer or a fan, we could have a real situation."
The game was halted at 3:09 p.m. The beekeeper arrived at 3:56 p.m. and the game resumed five minutes later.
After Joe Thatcher's first pitch to Miguel Tejada with two outs in the ninth, Padres left fielder Kyle Blanks began walking in toward the infield. Second base umpire Mike Reilly walked toward left field to see what was going on.
Within minutes, the rest of the players left the field.
The swarm first appeared along the warning track. Later, fans were cleared out of several sections down the left-field line.
Houston led 6-1 at the time.
Garfinkel said head groundskeeper Luke Yoder had the beekeeper on his speed dial.
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The King is Dead, Long Live the King!
LOS ANGELES (Billboard) – As expected, Michael Jackson is once again the King of the Pop charts. Labels: music news
Based on preliminary sales numbers from Nielsen SoundScan, the top nine positions on Billboard's Top Pop Catalog Albums chart will house Jackson-related titles when the tally is released in the early morning on Wednesday. Nielsen SoundScan's sales tracking week ended at the close of business Sunday (June 28) night.
Jackson himself -- who died June 25 of cardiac arrest at age 50 -- has a record eight out of the top 10, and a Jackson 5 compilation also finds its way into the upper tier.
"Number Ones" will fittingly lead the pack at No. 1 with sales of 108,000 (an increase of 2,340 percent) while "The Essential Michael Jackson" and "Thriller" are in the second and third slots with 102,000 and 101,000, respectively. Last week "Number Ones" was the only Jackson title on the chart, at No. 20 with 4,000 copies; both "Essential" and "Thriller" re-enter the tally this week.
Additionally, his classic 1979 studio set "Off the Wall" re-enters at No. 4 with 33,000 while his 1987 album "Bad" returns at No. 6 with 17,000. At No. 5, the Jackson 5's "The Ultimate Collection" debuts with 18,000. Jackson's fourth studio album for Epic Records, 1991's "Dangerous," re-enters at No. 7 with 14,000, and his 2001 compilation, "Greatest Hits: HIStory -- Volume 1," returns to the list at No. 8 with 12,000. Finally, Jackson's 2004 box set, "The Ultimate Collection," charts its first week on the Pop Catalog chart, arriving at No. 9 with 11,000.
The lone non-Jackson-related set in the top 10 is a reissue of the "Woodstock" movie soundtrack, which bows at No. 10 with 8,000.
CHART FIRSTS
Collectively, Jackson's solo albums sold 415,000 this past week. That's extraordinary, given that his titles sold a combined 10,000 in the week ended June 21. Of the 415,000, 58 percent were digital downloads.
The 415,000 albums sold last week represent nearly 40 percent more than sales of Jackson's catalog during the entire year up through June 21 (297,000).
On the Top Digital Albums chart, Jackson has a record six out of the top 10 slots, including the top four. "The Essential Michael Jackson" leads the Top Digital Albums list with 80,000 downloads sold, while "Thriller" is No. 2 with 57,000.
With the Black Eyed Peas' "The E.N.D." moving back to the No. 1 slot on the Billboard 200 chart with 88,000, this week marks the first time that a catalog album has sold more than the No. 1 current set on the Billboard 200 albums chart. (All three of Jackson's top sellers on the Pop Catalog chart outsell "The E.N.D.")
It's a feat that Jackson himself almost achieved when he reissued "Thriller" in February 2008. The set relaunched with 166,000, re-entering at No. 1 on the Top Pop Catalog chart. That week, Jack Johnson's "Sleep Through the Static" led the Billboard 200 chart with 180,000 while Amy Winehouse's "Back to Black" was at No. 2 with 115,000.
Catalog albums are ineligible to appear on the Billboard 200 albums chart, but they can chart on the all-encompassing Top Comprehensive Albums list. On the latter chart, Jackson's "Number Ones," "Essential" and "Thriller" are at Nos. 1-3, followed by the Black Eyed Peas' "The E.N.D." at No. 4.
NEW DIGITAL RECORD
Jackson places a record 25 songs on the 75-position Hot Digital Songs chart (21 solo hits and four with his siblings), smashing the mark of 14 charting titles established by David Cook in June 2008. Jackson's Halloween radio staple, "Thriller," moves 167,000, which is good for second place on the chart behind the 203,000 shifted by the Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling."
"Thriller" was also Jackson's best digital seller in the week before his death, with 5,000 downloads, which translates to a 3,551 percent jump. Jackson's total volume of downloads this week -- including his tracks with the Jackson 5 and the Jacksons -- account for 2.6 million downloads, a remarkable number considering that last week's cumulative sum was 48,000. Moreover, Jackson becomes the first act to sell more than 1 million song downloads in a week.
Besides "Thriller," Jackson places five other songs in the top 10 including "Man in the Mirror" (No. 3, 165,000), "Billie Jean" (No. 4, 158,000), "The Way You Make Me Feel" (No. 6, 136,000), "Beat It" (No. 7, 134,000) and "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" (No. 8, 125,000).
Not surprisingly, each of the Jackson tracks in the top 10 of Hot Digital Songs was among the top 10 most-played Jackson selections on radio after his passing. According to research provided by Nielsen BDS of monitored airplay from more than 1,600 terrestrial and satellite radio stations and cable music channels, "Billie Jean" was the Jackson track with the most spins for the week ended June 28, with 4,540 -- 97 percent of which occurred after news of his death became public. The track posted only 318 plays in the previous week.
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ANTS!!!
A single mega-colony of ants has colonised much of the world, scientists have discovered. Labels: animal news
Argentine ants living in vast numbers across Europe, the US and Japan belong to the same interrelated colony, and will refuse to fight one another.
The colony may be the largest of its type ever known for any insect species, and could rival humans in the scale of its world domination.
What's more, people are unwittingly helping the mega-colony stick together.
Argentine ants (Linepithema humile) were once native to South America. But people have unintentionally introduced the ants to all continents except Antarctica.
These introduced Argentine ants are renowned for forming large colonies, and for becoming a significant pest, attacking native animals and crops.
In Europe, one vast colony of Argentine ants is thought to stretch for 6,000km (3,700 miles) along the Mediterranean coast, while another in the US, known as the 'Californian large', extends over 900km (560 miles) along the coast of California. A third huge colony exists on the west coast of Japan.
While ants are usually highly territorial, those living within each super-colony are tolerant of one another, even if they live tens or hundreds of kilometres apart. Each super-colony, however, was thought to be quite distinct.
But it now appears that billions of Argentine ants around the world all actually belong to one single global mega-colony.
Researchers in Japan and Spain led by Eiriki Sunamura of the University of Tokyo found that Argentine ants living in Europe, Japan and California shared a strikingly similar chemical profile of hydrocarbons on their cuticles.
But further experiments revealed the true extent of the insects' global ambition.
The team selected wild ants from the main European super-colony, from another smaller one called the Catalonian super-colony which lives on the Iberian coast, the Californian super-colony and from the super-colony in west Japan, as well as another in Kobe, Japan.
They then matched up the ants in a series of one-on-one tests to see how aggressive individuals from different colonies would be to one another.
Ants from the smaller super-colonies were always aggressive to one another. So ants from the west coast of Japan fought their rivals from Kobe, while ants from the European super-colony didn't get on with those from the Iberian colony.
One big family
But whenever ants from the main European and Californian super-colonies and those from the largest colony in Japan came into contact, they acted as if they were old friends.
These ants rubbed antennae with one another and never became aggressive or tried to avoid one another.
In short, they acted as if they all belonged to the same colony, despite living on different continents separated by vast oceans.
The most plausible explanation is that ants from these three super-colonies are indeed family, and are all genetically related, say the researchers. When they come into contact, they recognise each other by the chemical composition of their cuticles.
"The enormous extent of this population is paralleled only by human society," the researchers write in the journal Insect Sociaux, in which they report their findings.
However, the irony is that it is us who likely created the ant mega-colony by initially transporting the insects around the world, and by continually introducing ants from the three continents to each other, ensuring the mega-colony continues to mingle.
"Humans created this great non-aggressive ant population," the researchers write.
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In Soviet Russia, women rape YOU!!!
A young Russian woman, a devoted collector of horror films and spiders, is on trial for sedating and raping ten men. Labels: crime drama, raep, Russia, women
The police were shocked that 32-year-old Valeria K., a quiet good-looking woman from the city of Tambov, was the mysterious rapist who abused ten local men after poisoning them with clonidine, Life.ru reports.
Valeria, who has already been nicknamed the Black Widow for her love of spiders, would get acquainted with men and invite them to her place.
She gave them drinks with clonidine, which almost immediately sent them to sleep for almost 24 hours.
After that, she undressed her victims and raped them, tightening a rope on their male organs to keep them erect.
Waking up in hospital with clonidine poisoning and penis trauma, all the victims could remember was a friendly brunette who gave them drinks.
Finally, local police identified the offender and arrested her.
At present, the police know about ten of Valeria’s victims, although one of them refused to file a complaint against her.
“It was great,” the unnamed man said.
“I like hot women. I only wish she hadn't use the clonidine on me.”
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And that's not all...
Infomercial pitchman Billy Mays died at his Tampa, Florida, home Sunday morning. Labels: obituary
The 50-year-old known for his shouting OxiClean ads was pronounced dead at 7:45 a.m. The Hillsborough County medical examiner will perform an autopsy, Tampa police Lt. Brian Dugan said.
Mays was on the US Airways flight from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Tampa on Saturday that had a hard landing at Tampa International Airport when the plane's front tire blew out. There were no reported injuries on Flight 1241, US Airways told CNN.
According to a local Tampa TV station, Mays said: "All of a sudden as we hit you know it was just the hardest hit, all the things from the ceiling started dropping. It hit me on the head, but I got a hard head."
Airline spokesman Jim Olson told CNN Sunday there were no reported passenger injuries from flight 1241. The airline vowed to "cooperate fully" with authorities in the investigation.
"We were very sad to learn of Billy Mays' passing and our thoughts and prayers go out to his family," Olson said. Tampa officials say the Medical Examiner's Office expects to complete an autopsy by Monday afternoon. In a statement, Deborah Mays said that although "Billy lived a public life," the family does not plan immediate public statements about his death.
Mays was a spokesman for Orange Glo and detergent OxiClean and appeared in commercials for other products.
He is featured on the reality TV show ''Pitchmen'' on the Discovery Channel, which follows pitch people in their jobs.
"It is with incredible sadness that we have to report that Billy Mays died in his sleep last night," said a statement from the Discovery Channel. "Everyone that knows him was aware of his larger-than-life personality, generosity and warmth. Billy was a pioneer in his field and helped many people fulfill their dreams. He will be greatly missed as a loyal and compassionate friend. Our deepest sympathies go out to his family at this time of incredible loss."
UPDATE: In a preliminary statement on Monday after an initial autopsy, Hillsborough County medical examiner Vernard Adams said his examination found that Mays had "hypertensive heart disease," which refers to heart disease caused by high blood pressure, but "there was no evidence of any head trauma."
Adams said this heart ailment "was certainly capable of causing the sudden death." He said Mays had died in his sleep.
"It's not unusual for persons with heart disease to die this young," Adams said, adding that a formal report on the cause of death would be issued only after the results of toxicology tests were considered.
Toxicology tests can show the presence of drugs in the body.
Tampa police said no foul play was suspected.
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Placebo!!!
BATTLE FOR THE SUN - ANIMATION from PlaceboWorld on Vimeo. Labels: music news
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Overshadowed? Sure. Overjoyed, Absolutely.
Lost for a bit behind all the sad news of yesterday including the deaths of a Charlie's Angel and The King of Pop, I do have something else to mention on a personal note: I got a boyfriend now.
Plans opened up allowing me to spend the evening with KT on Wednesday. After trekking up through the city during rush hour once more, we visited North Point Mall. Hey, 40 minutes in a Bath/Body Works is not bad at all once placated with Japanese food. *grin*
Seriously though, I really enjoy every minute I spend with this fascinating and beautiful person.
We later watched You Are Not Alone, obviously one of my favorite movies, and KT talked a bit how he read and enjoyed "Later, Skater." He thought it was quite good, especially the influences and toward the end.
Even later, after getting another opportunity to get some real life yaoi engaged, I did ask him if he'd be my boyfriend and he said yes. I couldn't be happier about it. He's absolutely worth his busy schedule with the teaching and the reflexology and the singing. Did I mention the singing before? I'm telling you, he's kind of a big deal.
And he likes me!
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RIP: The King of Pop
Labels: music news, obituary
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'Gay exorcism'
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — The video shows the 16-year-old boy lying on the floor, his body convulsing, as elders of a small Connecticut church cast a “homosexual demon” from his body. Labels: gay news, later skater, religious news, you tube
“Rip it from his throat!” a woman yells. “Come on, you homosexual demon! You homosexual spirit, we call you out right now! Loose your grip, Lucifer!”
The 20-minute video posted on YouTube by Manifested Glory Ministries is being called abuse by gay and youth advocates, who are demanding an investigation. But a church official this week denied that the teenager was injured or that the church is prejudiced.
“We believe a man should be with a woman and a woman should be with a man,” the Rev. Patricia McKinney told The Associated Press. “We have nothing against homosexuals. I just don’t agree with their lifestyle.”
The church posted the video on YouTube but has since removed it; it is still available on some Web sites that copied it. The church declined to make the video available for distribution by The Associated Press.
It shows church members standing the youth on his feet by holding him under his arms, and people shouting as organ music plays.
“Come out of his belly,” someone commands. “It’s in the belly — push.”
Later, the teenager is back on the floor, breathing heavily. Then he’s coughing and apparently vomiting into a bag.
“Get another bag,” a participant says. “Make sure you have your gloves.”
As the youth lay back on the ground, limp, church members put a white sheet over him.
It’s nearly impossible to say how often similar exercises occur in churches nationwide. But Kamora Herrington, who runs a mentoring program at True Colors and has worked with the youth, said she believes it’s fairly common.
“This happens all the time,” she said. “This is not isolated.”
Robin McHaelin, executive director of True Colors, an advocacy group for gay youths, said her organization is aware of five cases in recent years in which youths in her program were threatened with exorcism.
In one case, she said, a child called to report that his caregiver had called a priest who was throwing holy water on his bedroom door.
“I think it’s horrifying,” McHaelin said of the video by Manifested Glory. “What saddens me is the people that are doing this think they are doing something in the kid’s best interests, when in fact they’re murdering his spirit.”
McHaelin said she planned to report the situation to the Connecticut Department of Children and Families. An agency spokesman said the agency does not comment on complaints or investigations.
“They have this kid in a full nelson,” she said. “That just seems abusive to me.”
McKinney said the youth was 18. The boy confirmed he is 16 but otherwise declined to comment, citing the advice of his pastor.
McHaelin said the boy told her staff that the church performed the ritual three times at his request. She said the boy has been engaging in risky behavior that she blames on the church’s treatment.
McKinney said the youth went to the church last year and collapsed on the floor during a service.
“He was out of control in the church,” she said. “This young man came to us. We didn’t go to him.”
McKinney denied the ritual was an exorcism, describing it instead as a casting out of spirits. She said the church took care of the youth, providing him clothes.
“He was dressing like a woman and everything. And he didn’t want to be like that,” McKinney said.
The teen had been in reform school for stealing but was eager to get out and go to the church to have what he thought were his demons driven out, Herrington said.
Exodus International, a Christian group that believes gays can become straight through prayer and counseling, does not advocate the church’s approach, said Jeff Buchanan, director of church equipping.
The Rev. Roland Stringfellow, a minister in Oakland, Calif., said he was subject to demon casting in the 1990s when he was at a Baptist church and was struggling with his sexuality. He said he was put in front of the church as members shouted “demon of homosexuality come out of him.”
“It caused nothing but shame and embarrassment,” Stringfellow said.
McKinney also has a weekly radio program. She talked on Wednesday’s program about being “persecuted” in recent days but did not mention the video specifically.
“It’s been a hard time for me, but I’m looking good and I’m standing strong because when you have a mandate like mine you’re not going to say what you want without the adversary coming after you,” she said. “If you are a true prophet you’re not going to be popular with the people.”
Link to a news story that features some of the video. Obviously, I don't want to promote the video in any way whatsoever.
(Ed note: Disturbing... Totally fucking disturbing. But then again, doesn't this just make you realize how realistic "Later, Skater" really is?)
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Fire and Ice
Over the last few days the a/c has been out here at my house making for one pretty hot and sweaty PIXIE. I noticed it throughout the day on Sunday as the temperature kept rising and rising in spite of the air conditioner continuing to run.
This made the evening rather impossible to sleep through as I tried to sweat it out in my extremely hot room. I felt so ill by morning, I called into work.
Not wanting to miss any more, I took refuge at my grandmother's house last night. In the process, I got to see my cousin who has really rebounded well I think in the last several months. He has a girlfriend that looks quite a bit like Erin from the E-Insurance commercials. He was practicing his guitar which is stellar since he's good at it. I heard he quit smoking too. Didn't see him doing any while I was there, so that's possibly true. (I just got through my 90th day yesterday, myself.)
Thankfully, the air has been fixed and I'm enjoying it being really nice and frigid in the house at the moment.
Things have been going very well in spite of this annoyance actually. While I really need to keep on the money situation to make sure I'm staying ahead of the game, I can't really complain there. Work is frustrating at times, especially since they keep rolling out new crap and stuff. We're even having one of those old school meetings on Sunday morning at 8:30am. I think that's earlier than even God gets up.
But all through this, I have KT to be texting and calling back and forth periodically. While I was really hoping I'd get to see him this week, it doesn't look very good. Today is out, tomorrow is probably out, and Thursday is only a maybe before he goes to Green Bay, Wisconsin for another weekend out of town.
I'm not stressing about it though. I know it's hard to believe that, but I think going without for so long has prepared me quite well. I have patience and understanding where I probably didn't have as much before.
Then again, it's easy to wait when the reward seems so very rewarding.
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