firehose

Washington Post

Schools increase security after shooting at Houston-area party that left 2 teens ... Washington Post HOUSTON — Security is being boosted and grief counselors provided by a suburban Houston school district following a shooting at a house party that left two teenagers dead. Katy school district spokesman Steve Stanford said Monday that one of the teens ... Authorities ID teen killed at Cypress house partyHouston Chronicle Two Students Killed in Houston Party ShootingWall Street Journal 2 killed, 16 wounded at Houston-area house party6abc.com all 216 news articles »

Downton Abbey star Dan Stevens has been cast as Lancelot in Fox‘s Night At The Museum 3.

"Are you Jewish? You seem Jewish," is not and never has been a pick-up line.

Fighting to save a mysterious injured sea otter in her grandfather’s old fishing cove, she is thwarted by the stern local lawman, Vince Chernoff. A glimpse into the past gives her a vision of aphantom sailing ship that threatens the village of her ancestors. Can she convince her adversary to help her warn a people who have been dead over two hundred and fifty years? Only through his help can she find her past and a new future.

theatlantic:

Russia Is Now Targeting the Relatives of Suspected Terrorists

MOSCOW—Critics say a new law designed to quell the insurgency in Russia’s restive North Caucasus region revives the Stalin-era principles of collective guilt and collective justice. 

President Vladimir Putin signed the legislation on November 3, requiring “close relatives and acquaintances” of those who commit acts of “terrorism” to pay damages—both material and moral—resulting from those acts. It also empowers authorities to seize property from friends and relatives of suspected militants and provides for prison sentences of up to 10 years for those convicted of receiving training “aimed at carrying out terrorist activity.”

"This is absolutely not normal. It’s a return to the 1930s, when Stalin advocated collective responsibility for crimes which were carried out," Mairbek Vatchagayev, a North Caucasus analyst for the Jamestown Foundation and head of the Paris-based Center for Caucasus Research, says. "Once again, we’ve ended up there when Putin regards himself a supporter of Stalin and the Stalin period."

Read more. [Image: Kazbek Basayev/Reuters]

An anonymous reader writes "Mobile payment startup Square has decided to discontinue its monthly pricing option on February 1, 2014. The company says it does not plan to reinstate monthly pricing at any point. If you are currently enrolled in monthly pricing, Square will give you "a grace period" through the end of January 2014, after which the per-swipe rate will apply to transactions. On January 2, monthly pricing subscribers will be billed their last monthly fee, which will cover the rest of the month."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Republic

Palin compares federal debt to slavery at Iowa dinner DesMoinesRegister.com In Iowa, Sarah Palin compared the federal debt she says shackles Americans to slavery. The government, like a slick marketer, seductively offers “free” services, said Palin, a conservative provocateur and former vice presidential candidate who makes ... SENATOR MIKE LEE LAYS OUT THE ROAD FORWARD FOR THE TEA PARTY ...Liberty News On Line all 38 news articles »

This is shocking, but some LSU-related people are even weirder than Les Miles. Evidence came for us after the Tigers scored their second touchdown against Alabama to make Alabama's lead just three points:

Go LSU T-Rexgers.

Sometime before the Xbox One's Nov. 22 launch, Weingarten's console will go back online in good standing. Microsoft will also pull its copyright claim on Weingarten's YouTube video of the console's unboxing, which—along with a slew of Tweets—appeared to get him in so much trouble overnight. And then Weingarten will attend the Xbox One's gala launch event, as a guest of the company. "Microsoft recognized that it was Target's error and not mine," Weingarten told me today. "They said a few days before launch I'll be unbanned. I can't go into too much detail but, basically [Major Nelson] says everything will be resolved. They're inviting me to the Xbox One launch event."

Pope Francis kissed and blessed the man, whose face was covered in boils, after his general address at the Vatican on Wednesday.

canadian-space-agency:

From NASA Astronaut Karen Nyberg: “Storms over the Mediterranean. And a nadir docking port left empty after our Soyuz move earlier today. November 1.”

Photo Credit: Karen Nyberg

masteradept:

thelouringlady:

gothambeat:

Poison Ivy Redesign by ~Egghead-RJThompson

Wow, I can get behind this. And it’s refreshing to see an interpretation of Ivy without the leotard or bikini for once.

Love this so much!

batchix:

neon-casket:

bobbycaputo:

Michael Galinsky’s Retro Photos of 1980s Shopping Malls Are, Like, Totally Rad

In the winter of 1989, photographer Michael Galinsky drove across the country recording the seismic change in America’s malls: their transformation from the shiny retail palaces of the ’80s into something weirder. Then 20 years old, Galinsky began with the Smith Haven Mall in Long Island, and drove west: through Michigan, Illinois, South Dakota, Washington State. His photographs—collected in the book Malls Across America, published this month by Steidl—document a nation that had yet to turn against the mall, and saw its culture play out in the atriums of indoor retail palaces.

This mall looks identical to the mall I went to growing up. Some of my earliest memories are at the food court during Christmas

omg. the tape world sign triggered in me a memory of the stale cigarette and carpet cleaner that St. Clair always smelled like.

Dear God. Smith Haven. Too many memories… (chuckle)

The death toll from one of the strongest storms on record that ravaged the central Philippine city of Tacloban could reach 10,000 people, officials said after the extent of massive devastation became apparent and horrified residents spoke of storm surges as high as trees. Regional police chief Elmer Soria said he was briefed by Leyte provincial Gov. Dominic Petilla late Saturday and told there were about 10,000 deaths in the province, mostly by drowning and from collapsed buildings. The governor's figure was based on reports from village officials in areas where Typhoon Haiyan slammed Friday. Tacloban city administrator Tecson Lim said that the death toll in the city alone “could go up to 10,000.” Tacloban is the Leyte provincial capital of 200,000 people and the biggest city on Leyte Island.

One of America’s foremost problems is that old racist white men are still a very powerful and entrenched force, and as they get older, they are only getting madder and more racist.

hodad

@kxmas #everythingisterrible

It may be hard to believe that this could happen to yet another New Mexican. KOB's 4 On Your Side team found a woman who claims she was violated by federal agents and doctors.

Laura Schaur Ives, Legal Director for the New Mexico Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, is representing the woman.

Schaur Ives said the woman doesn't wish to be identified because she considers herself to be a victim of sexual assault. Schaur Ives said the woman crossed the border at a Port of Entry from Juarez, Mexico into El Paso.

A dog alerted to the woman, and Schaur Ives said federal agents stripped searched her at the facility, asked her to undress, to spread her genitalia and to cough. Female agents also allegedly pressed their fingers into her vagina looking for drugs.

The woman claims they didn't discover anything during the on-site strip search, so they took her to University Medical Center of El Paso. 

"First, medical staff observed her making a bowl movement and no drugs were found at that point," Schaur Ives said. "They then took an X-ray, but it did not reveal any contraband. They then did a cavity search and they probed her vagina and her anus, they described in the medical records as bi-manual--two handed. Finally, they did a cat scan. Again, they found nothing."

The ACLU claims the federal agents never secured a search warrant before probing or touching the woman.

"And her medical records indicate that she refused consent," Shaur Ives said. 

Doug Mosier, spokesman for Customs and Border Patrol, issued the following statement:

"CBP cannot verify information relative to these ACLU allegations since we have not seen a copy of the report, nor have we been provided necessary details in order to investigate. CBP stresses honor and integrity in every aspect of our mission, and the overwhelming majority of CBP employees and officers perform their duties with honor and distinction, working tirelessly every day to keep our country safe. We do not tolerate corruption or abuse within our ranks, and we fully cooperate with any criminal or administrative investigations of alleged misconduct by any of our personnel, on or off-duty."

Original Source

blackturtleneckcat:

it’s not rude to interrupt someone to point out a dog

rydek:

R.I.P. MSN, the only messenger that allowed me to send a giant unavoidable popup of a pig shaking his ass to funky techno music to my conversational partner if they were ignoring me

squarizona:

my brother found this old menu board at a thrift store and hung it up in his apartment looking like this