Binaryjesus

Before we knew him as Frodo Baggins in Peter Jackson's blockbuster Lord of the Rings film trilogy, Elijah Wood was a child actor. In a recent interview with Britain's Sunday Times, Wood spoke out on sexual abuse of young actors in Hollywood, and says “a lot of vipers” roam the upper echelons of the entertainment biz, preying on naïvete and eagerness for fame.

“Clearly something major was going on in Hollywood. It was all organized. There are a lot of vipers in this industry, people who only have their own interests in mind,” he told the Times.

“There is darkness in the underbelly. What bums me about these situations is that the victims can’t speak as loudly as the people in power. That’s the tragedy of attempting to reveal what is happening to innocent people: they can be squashed, but their lives have been irreparably damaged.”

“If you’re innocent, you have very little knowledge of the world and you want to succeed,” he added. “People with parasitic interests will see you as their prey. What upsets me about these situations is that the victims can’t speak as loudly as the people in power.”

Wood is now 35. As a child, he performed with fellow child star alongside Macaulay Culkin in “The Good Son,” and had a part in the “Flipper” remake. He said his mother, Debra, protected him from predators back then, and he “never went to parties where that kind of thing was going on.”

Here's a non-paywalled report that quotes extensively from the Times: Elijah Wood Calls Out Hollywood's Pedophile Problem [the daily beast]

https://youtu.be/TLspHA8m6Ac

The paywalled Sunday Times interview was booked to promote his latest film The Trust, which tells the tale of corrupt cops who plan to steal drug money.

What kind of crazy fiction is that? Cops stealing drug money, how crazy, that would never happen in real life, and definitely not in a story that went viral just today about a police detective who stole a heroin addict's drug money after the young man died.

In 1985, a premature baby was born in Maryland who needed surgery to tie off a dangerous blood vessel near his heart. The newborn, Jeffrey, died weeks after the procedure. His family learned afterwards that none of the procedures had been performed with analgesics; the only drug administered was a muscle relaxant.

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Between helicopter parenting, kids staying indoors instead of going outside to play and schools instituting stricter policies regarding recess, the young folks can't have any fun these days.

So when Julie Walsh Holcombe found out her sons got in trouble at school because they were climbing a tree and playing like normal kids she sent a strongly worded memo and a permission slip to the teacher and guard involved.

Julie's kids look too old to be getting hassled about climbing trees, but now they have official permission to have fun!

-Via FAILBlog

Janeen recently attended her daughter's college graduation ceremonies (congratulations, Janeen's daughter!) and took many pictures. Another graduate at the school showed off her decorated mortarboard. She majored in respiratory therapy, not English. Still, you'd think that the one word a respiratory therapist would be expected to spell properly would be "breathe." 

Thanks, Janeen!

Hot off the wheels of the BMW 2002 Hommage today , the automaker’s Motorrad brand (its cooler half) is also remembering something else that was great from the last century with the 1930's-styled R 5 Hommage.

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HughPickens.com writes: Sophie Kleeman, writes at Gizmodo that according to a study at the University of Michigan people who are more sensitive to written typos and grammatical errors are indeed the kinds of 'Type A assholes' everyone already suspects them to be. Researchers gathered 83 people and had them read emails that either contained typos ("mkae" or "abuot"), grammar errors (to/too, it's/its or your/you're), or no spelling mistakes at all. Participants were asked at the end of the experiment whether or not they'd spotted any grammatical errors or typos in the emails, and, if so, how much it had bothered them. The researchers then asked the participants to complete a Big Five personality assessment -- which rates where they are on a scale of openness, agreeableness, extraversion/introversion, neuroticism, and conscientiousness -- as well as answer questions about their age, background, and attitude towards language. People who tested as being more conscientious but less open were more sensitive to typos, while those with less agreeable personalities got more upset by grammatical errors. "Less agreeable participants showed more sensitivity to 'grammos' than participants high in agreeability," the researchers said, "perhaps because less agreeable people are less tolerant of deviations from convention."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

(Image: We Believers)

People throw away 6-pack rings. Then they get tangled around the bodies of turtles, fish, birds, and other animals. They can maim or strangle those helpless creatures.

The Saltwater Brewery of Delray Beach, Florida was founded by and for surfers, fishermen, and other people who love the sea. They wanted to make sure that their 6-packs of beer help rather than hurt marine life. So they worked with the ad agency We Believers to develop a 6-pack ring that is edible.

The 3d printed 6-pack rings are made of byproducts of the brewing process, including wheat and barley, that are biodegradable and edible by marine life. And if no one nibbles at it, it simply dissolves, freeing any creature trapped inside. Discover magazine reports:

The company 3-D printed a test batch of 500 holders in April, according to AdvertisingAge, and it plans to scale up production to meet its current output of 400,000 cans of beer a month. While the edible holders are more expensive to make, Saltwater Brewery wants set an example for other beer producers and encourage them to adopt the idea. They say if their edible holders become commonplace, they could potentially be as cheap as the regular plastic rings.

-via Telegraph

CBS news legend and 60 Minutes star Morley Safer died today at age 84, only a week after he retired from the show, reports USA Today. Safer filed more than 900 reports in his 46 years as 60 Minutes’ longest-running correspondent, one of which was this delightful visit to the Lamborghini factory in Italy.

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Stella Parks of Serious Eats blows readers' minds twice in the first two paragraphs of her article.

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Buzzfeed collected a bunch of drug toy ads from the early 70s.

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Our pals at the excellent art magazine Hi-Fructose partnered with MOCA, which curated what appears to be an incredible pop surrealism retrospective opening next week at the Virginia Museum of contemporary Art. Last week, one of the commissioners on the Virginia Beach Arts and Humanities Commission saw a painting by renowned artist Mark Ryden and flipped out. From WAVY:

“Look at this, she’s got a saw in her hand cutting off a piece of ham with the words on the ham ‘Corpus Christi.’ That is Latin for body of Christ, and the hand is dropping down and eaten by rats.” Loyola says. He also pointed out that the girl is wearing a first communion dress with a crucifix around her neck, and a figure of Jesus on a bottle of wine. Also there’s a rabbit pouring a teapot with blood is coming out.

“This is very anti-Christian and anti-Catholic. I was shocked to see this,” he says...

“She is holding the severed head, and blood is spraying up and showering her in blood. Is this what we are subsidizing at MOCA?” Loyola asks...

(MOCA executive director Debi Gray responded,) “Art is intended to be controversial. Too some degree it’s intended to spark dialog, and I am delighted it has fulfilled our mission."

Loyola countered, “I’m responding to her false claim. Obviously she feels she can do what she wants with taxpayer money. Not on my watch.”

Loyola is concerned that Ryden, in his work, pokes fun of religion.

“I am really not poking fun at religion. I am just looking at it in different ways,” Ryden said. “Someone ought to poke fun at those Christians, though.”

"Surreal art exhibit at MOCA sparks controversy" (WAVY)

The exhibition, "Turn the Page: The First Ten Years of Hi-Fructose," opens May 22 and runs the rest of the 2016.

What happens when you take elements from The Big Lebowski and add them to the final scene of The Force Awakens? Magic.

Thanks to John Boggs for the find!

The term "tendril perversion" was coined in 1998 by mathematicians Goriely and Tabor to describe the long-observed phenomenon of coiled cables, vines and other helixes that have one kinked loop that goes the other way. (more…)

Back in December, I posted about all the legal violations taking place at Delta Middle School in Colorado.

Here’s the situation: Students in a social studies class were taken to the library to do some work. When they arrived, their teacher told them there were bibles on a table in the main doorway, and they could pick one up as they left.

According to the District’s own policy on distributing non-curricular material, here’s what went wrong.

The policy says material cannot “be distributed in any classroom of any building then being occupied by a regularly-scheduled class.” Well, this was going on inside of the library where a class was taking place.

The policy says materials can only be given out “one-half hour before school and/or during regularly scheduled lunch periods and/or 15 minutes after the close of school.” This took place during the school day and not during a lunch period.

The teacher supposedly said to kids, “There’s bibles and they are free if you want one.” You can debate whether or not that’s a form of coercion. You can also debate whether a book that says Jews and Muslims and atheists are going to hell constitutes literature that “attacks” non-Christian groups.

Finally, the policy says “Students may not be used as the agents for distribution of such materials without the written consent of the student’s parent.” However, as soon as the students began leaving the library, they began pressuring their classmates to take one, effectively making them “agents of distribution.”

When one student didn’t — she’s the one who told her mother about this, which is why we know about it at all — look what happened:

The student who did not take a bible was confronted by her classmates about why she didn’t take one, and the classmates started pressuring her to feel ashamed for not conforming to Christian beliefs.

Basically, the District did everything wrong in the way they conducted this Bible distribution.

Anne Landman, who first posted about this problem on her website, pointed out that District officials refused to admit any wrongdoing:

Principal [Jennifer] Lohrberg denied that any violations had occurred. She even assured the concerned parent all was done in accordance with school board policy and the bible giveaway had been approved by the District’s lawyers.

After being brushed off by Principal Lohrberg, the parent called the Delta County School District Assistant Superintendent, who similarly insisted the bible distribution was in accordance with District policy and the school was doing nothing wrong by making the bibles available. The superintendent suggested the concerned parent take the matter up with the School Board.

The concerned parent eventually took the matter up with the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

FFRF sent multiple requests asking the District to end the distributions… to no avail. The District says this did nothing wrong and the Bible giveaways will continue.

So you know what comes next.

Everyone say hello to The Satanic Temple coloring books:

The FFRF is requesting that the Satanic coloring book, along with nearly a dozen additional pro-atheism pamphlets, be given away to students in a similar way:

“The School District is not required to maintain this open forum and is free to close it rather than allow FFRF to distribute materials,” FFRF Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel wrote in a March 3 letter to the district. “We do not think schools should be a battleground for religious ideas. But when schools allow the Gideons to prey on children, their message of eternal damnation for any who don’t believe in their God must be countered.”

Remember: Orange County (Florida) schools tried to block atheists from giving away literature like this… and failed. It cost taxpayers approximately $90,000 in legal fees.

As long as Delta County officials say yes to the Bible, they legally have to say yes to the Satanic coloring book and “It’s Okay to Not Believe in God!”

FFRF adds that they’d rather see the open forum closed that having their literature handed out. (The group also notes there have been reports of incidents of bullying against non-religious students at the school.)

This is also just the latest in a long line of legal violations by the District:

Other incidents of religious proselytizing reported at Delta Middle School over the last year alone have included school staff mandating all middle school students attend a Christian religious play, students in the DMS drama club being forced to attend a Christian-themed musical performance while on a field trip to Denver last spring, and use of free doughnuts to coerce students to attend morning prayers led by a DMS teacher.

It’ll be nice to see all that interrupted with a visit from Satan.

(Image via Shutterstock. Large portions of this article were posted earlier)

Are you lonely and in need of someone to talk to? Like a real live person? Why not give Sweden a call? The county has its phone number so you can call and talk about whatever you want for a few months.

It’s part of a new initiative from the Swedish Tourist Association to help the rest of the world learn about their country. Sure you can just Google it but what better [...]

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(Photo: Sandy Huffaker/Wall Street Journal)

Third-grader Andrew Calabrese of San Diego, California has Type 1 diabetes. Everywhere he goes, he carries with him a robotic pancreas to regulate his blood sugar.

Designs for these machines exist, but the Food and Drug Administraton won't approve them for manufacture. So Andrew's father, Jason Calabrese, built it himself. The Wall Street Journal reports:

Jason Calabrese, a software engineer, followed instructions that had been shared online to hack an old insulin pump so it could automatically dose the hormone in response to his son’s blood-sugar levels. Mr. Calabrese got the approval of Andrew’s doctor for his son to take the home-built device to school. […]

Initially, Mr. Calabrese worried about the safety of the do-it-yourself project. He built it over two months, and spent weeks testing. At first, he only tried it out on his son on weekends and at night. Once it performed well enough, he said it felt irresponsible not to use it on his 9-year-old son.

“Diabetes is dangerous anyway. Insulin is dangerous. I think what we are doing is actually improving that and lowering the risk,” Mr. Calabrese, 41, said.

Andrew's artificial pancreas is one of about 50 in the United States that individuals have built themselves.

-via Marginal Revolution

Russian artists seem to be coming out of the woodwork online lately, but the difference between the Russian art boom and others is most of the stuff they're posting online is really good.

Whether digital, traditional or experimental, the new wave of Russian artists love to pay homage to their sources of inspiration while pushing their chosen medium forward.

If you're a fan of classic pin-up art, retro advertising or old school Rockwell style realism you'll adore the cool and colorful artwork that springs from the mind of Valery Barykin.

Valery's wonderful illustrations are a bit naughty at times but never too risqué, manage to contain modern devices and such without losing their classic appeal, and the colors and contours are always easy on the eyes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byUVR04CMBU&feature=youtu.be

Incredible footage of the TSA line at Chicago Midway airport yesterday, which snakes out the airport atrium and into the surrounding transit hallways -- it's hundreds of yards long.

It follows news of massive layoffs at the TSA, though apparently most of the planned firings haven't happened yet, so it's only going to get worse.

The only bright spot is that the airlines themselves appear to be at the end of their tether: the lines are depriving them of passengers who must be rebooked. And, thanks to the Brussels attacks, everyone knows that the compressed packs of humans created by airport security theater are a prime target in their own right.

Good to know no dangerous breast milk got on those half-empty flights, though.

I have a hard time caring about supercars unless they’re being used for super-hoonage, so YouTubers bragging about sweet new rides they’ll only use to hard park in Monaco have always rubbed me the wrong way. Fortunately, YouTube star PewDiePie’s new ride blows all of those basic supercar videos away.

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The United Nations Security Council recently passed a resolution reminding members that intentional attacks on medical facilities are war crimes.

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Alert administrators at a Houston, Texas, public school called police when a 13-year-old student tried to use a $2 bill to buy chicken nuggets from the cafeteria. An officer went to the school office where the girl was being held, scaring the hell out of her and calling her grandmother with dire warnings about federal counterfeiting crimes being committed.

Bill in hand, the officer went to the store that gave the $2 bill to the girl's grandmother and questioned them, then went to a bank with the bill, where he was told that $2 bills are legal tender. The officer never apologized to the girl, who missed her lunch that day.

That's right: the 13-year-old didn't even receive an apology from the authority figures, even though she was ultimately denied lunch that day, according to her grandmother. Grandma also had this to say: "It was very outrageous for them to do it. There was no need for police involvement. They're charging kids like they're adults now."

 

Rick Friday has been the editorial cartoonist for Farm News for 21 years, with a weekly slot in every Friday's paper. (more…)

In 2014, Allie Brosh's outstanding, hilarious, and gut-wrenching webcomic Hyperbole and a Half made the jump to print with an incredible book (review); now Simon and Schuster have announced a followup, Solutions and Other Problems, to be published next October -- I just pre-ordered my copy! (via Wil Wheaton) (more…)

The TSA gambled on millions of wealthy Americans opting out of its pornoscanner-and-shoe-removal process and signing up for its Precheck policy, which allows travellers to pay for the "privilege" of walking through a metal-detector with their shoes on, while their laptops stay in their bags. (more…)