It's too late for this asshole to win the Merc's Worst Person contest, but he'd have been a shoe-in.
Dennis C. Thompson, 28, of Union (yes, that's an Oregon town. It's near La Grande in the Northeastern corner) was cited by Alaska State Troopers after he reportedly plowed his Ford pickup through several feeding bald eagles near the town of Dutch Harbor, Alaska, killing two of the majestic raptors and injuring two others. What the fuck, dude?
Around 9:30 pm on June 9 Alaska Wildlife Troopers issued Thompson a ticket for "using a motorized vehicle to harass and/or molest game," according to AST dispatch records. Coincidentally, a quick search of the Oregon Judicial Information Network shows that Thompson in 2014 was charged with careless driving and failure to drive within his lane. The charges were later dismissed.
The Alaska Dispatch Newsreports that a jogger reported seeing the incident and called police. The injured birds were not recovered.
Thompson is scheduled to appear in Unalaska court on June 30.
Few people know adversity like Gleason, who was diagnosed in 2011 with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease. Gleason's public battle with ALS serves as inspiration to many around the world, and Gleason himself has also been very active in raising funds and awareness via his Gleason Initiative Foundation and Team Gleason organization.
The award is named after Halas, a charter member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1953. Gleason is the 46th Halas Award winner, and the third member of the Saints franchise alongside Tom Dempsey and Drew Brees.
Gleason has done a lot for people who suffer from ALS and other similar diseases, including getting the Steve Gleason Act of 2015 in front of the U.S. Senate, where it passed and now needs to be passed by the House of Representatives. The act would make speech-generating devices available to patients through Medicare and Medicaid.
Gleason joined the Saints in 2000 and played until he retired from football in March 2008, though he missed the entire 2007 season with a knee injury. He was a solid special teams player and had four blocked punts over the course of his career. He was also a captain of the special teams units.
There's more information about Gleason, his struggle and the great things he's done at the PFWA's website.
In a surprise announcement right before Microsoft’s presentation at E3, Telltale Games announced their new addition to their The Walking Dead adventure game series: The Walking Dead: Michonne. It’s a “mini-series” that doesn’t directly intertwine the original game’s storyline that takes place between issues #126 and #139.
Comic readers may recall that’s when Michonne left the survivors for a short while to go off on her own. Her reasons for leaving still remain a mystery. At least, until we get our hands on this game. The downside to this announcement it’s the cause of Telltale’s third title in The Walking Dead game trilogy release to 2016. Alas, Clementine. You’ll just have to wait.
So this is mildly interesting: Rupert Wyatt directed the Mark Wahlberg-starring remake of The Gambler. Traditionally, “gambling” refers to casino games like poker or blackjack. Games like poker or blackjack are played with playing cards. Gambit, the Cajun X-Man, often uses playing cards as a weapon in conjunction with his mutant power, which allows him to charge objects with energy that turns them into explosive projectiles. Now, Rupert Wyatt is directing the Gambit movie, tying all of this together. Isn’t that mildly interesting? He also directed Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, but it would probably take a lot more steps to connect that to Gambit.
As we’ve previously reported, Gambit will star Channing Tatum as a guy who had his pick of the superhero world and he still chose to play Gambit, suggesting that his N’awlins accent is unexpectedly good and he’s been desperate ...
Thanks to funding from the LEGO Foundation, the University of Cambridge is seeking a professor to head up its new Research Centre on Play in Education, Development and Learning.
This whole “transracial” epidemic gets the guys thinking just how deep the rabbit hole can go. Doesn’t hurt that they might have old CIA issued costume make-up either.
Also, with a Soul Man reference we have proven that we’re actually 80 years old.
Frosty P writes: BMI claims Amici III in Linden, New York didn't have a license when it played four tunes in its eatery one night last year, including the beloved "Bennie and the Jets" and "Brown Sugar," winning $24,000 earlier this year, and over $8,200 in attorney's fees. Giovanni Lavorato, who has been in business for 25 years, says the disc DJ brought into the eatery paid a fee to play tunes. "It's ridiculous for me to pay somebody also," he said. "This is not a nightclub. This is not a disco joint . . . How many times do they want to get paid for the stupid music?"
For anyone interested in a space-themed update to a classic office globe, ThinkGeek is offering a solar-powered Mars spinning globe. The tiny desk planet has a 4.5 inch diameter, considerably smaller than the actual planet Mars, which has a diameter of 6,792 km.
jfruh writes: Ali Shukri Amin, a 17-year-old from Virginia, has pleaded guilty to charges that he aided ISIS by giving the group advice about using bitcoin. An odd and potentially troubling aspect of the charges is that this all took place in public — he Tweeted out links to an article on his blog about how bitcoin and Darknet could help jihadi groups, making it difficult to say whether he was publishing information protected under free speech or was directly advising the terrorist organization. Free speech qua speech isn't the only relevant charge, though: Amin "also admitted facilitating the travel of another teenager, 18-year-old Reza Niknejad, to Syria to join IS. Amin faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison if convicted."
I think people will dig autonomous cars more if they can sit at a steering wheel and gas and brake that do nothing but make sound effects
Thanks Felix for sending in your project!
Stewart is a tactile interface designed for a fully autonomous car. Self-driving cars offer obvious benefits such as faster travel and enhanced safety. However, they also eliminate a sense of freedom, expression, and control while driving.
Stewart’s objective is to accommodate a healthy relation between man and machine, to be achieved by an intuitive and expressive form of interaction. Stewart provides you with constant updates about the car’s behaviour and its intentions. If you don’t agree on the car’s next course of action, you can manipulate Stewart to change this. Stewart will learn from you as you can learn from Stewart, hopefully resulting in a mutually trustful relation.
Interaction through Stewart will bring about a haptic discussion about what the car’s next move will be. Who will win this discussion? Who knows best?
MONK #1: do birds have meetings MONK #2: absolutely they have a Meeting Hat and everything MONK #1: what do they have meetings about MONK #2: mostly who gets to wear the meeting hat
MONK #1: do human women sleep in beds or– MONK #2: no that’s dogs you’re thinking of MONK #1: right right
MONK #1: what part of the knight do fish go on MONK #2: the head MONK #1: thanks MONK #2: oh absolutely no problem at all MONK #1: both lying flatwise across the head, or…? MONK #2: no one on each side like ears MONK #1: ok great
MONK #1: so when a dog and a bird make out MONK #2: right MONK #1: it’s usually the bird that’s on top right? MONK #2: yeah usually MONK #1: great
MONK #1: hey is it owls or people that live in caves and build fires? MONK #2: owls
MONK #1: hey roughly what size are sparrows MONK #2: mm it kind of depends MONK #1: like AS big as a tree or not quite as big as a tree? MONK #2: oh pretty much the same size as a tree
MONK #1: can cows sail boats? MONK #2: hahaha no common misconception they have to put wheels on the boat and roll it over land
MONK #1: what do birds eat MONK #2: other birds mostly MONK #1: like different kinds of birds, or something else MONK #2: no birds only eat exactly the same kind of birds that they are
MONK #1: what kind of bird tucks people into bed at night usually I mean MONK #2: any bird any kind of walking bird MONK #1: and when it tucks you in, people usually look… MONK #2: incredibly worried it’s incredibly worrying when the bedbird tucks you in
MONK #1: ugh sorry to bother you again MONK #2: no no its fine this is what i’m here for what is it MONK #1: what part of a goat is a snail again like the front end or the back end MONK #2: what part do you feel like should be the snail part MONK #1: the back part? MONK #2: you shouldnt doubt yourself you know more about goats than you give yourself credit for
MONK #1: what usually rides horses like people or– MONK #2: fire
Tbh this is the funniest post on this dumb website
Meet alcohol, the drug making people run around nude and collapse in the streets.
What if the media covered alcohol like it does other drugs? This was a question that came up in my coverage of flakka, a synthetic drug that made headlines after law enforcement blamed it for people running in the streets naked in delusional paranoia. What follows is a satirical attempt at capturing that same type of alarmist reporting, but for a substance that really causes widespread and severe problems.
NEW ORLEANS — An ongoing drug epidemic has swept the US, killing hundreds and sickening thousands more on a daily basis.
The widespread use of a substance called "alcohol" — also known as "booze" — has been linked to erratic and even dangerous behavior, ranging from college students running naked down public streets to brutal attacks and robberies.
Federal officials suggest excessive use of this drug has already been linked to 88,000 deaths each year across the country, including traffic accidents caused by drug-induced impairment, liver damage caused by excessive consumption, and violent behavior. Experts warn that it can also lead to nausea, vomiting, severe headaches, cognitive deficits among children and teens, and even fetal defects in pregnant women.
Excessive consumption of alcohol "is a leading cause of preventable deaths in the US," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention principal deputy director Ileana Arias said in a statement. "We need to implement effective programs and policies to prevent binge drinking and the many health and social harms that are related to it, including deaths from alcohol poisoning."
On the ground in America's alcohol epidemic capital
Sean Gardner/Getty Images
Here in New Orleans, the horror of the drug was particularly prominent in the city's French Quarter, where hundreds of young adults could be seen roiling from the effects of the drug. Some collapsed on the ground, dazed from alcohol's effects. Others could be seen vomiting in public — a common result of drinking alcohol. Many could be seen limping and clumsily walking down the street, showcasing the type of impairment that public health officials warn can lead to accidents, especially when someone is behind the wheel of a car.
What's worse, public use of this drug has become widely accepted in some circles. In New Orleans, several men and women in their 20s and 30s shouted that they're going to get "wasted" — a slang term for coming under the effects of alcohol. Some have even turned drinking alcohol into a game that involves ping pong balls and cups. One popular holiday, St. Patrick's Day, appears to celebrate the dangerous drug.
In other places, there have been similar reports of individuals engaging in bizarre, inexplicable behavior while under the effects of alcohol. Some reports found intoxicated college students exposing themselves to others or running the streets naked while shouting hysterically, particularly during spring time. Others report people urinating in public streets after a few alcoholic beverages. And at least one man who consumed alcohol tried to ride a crocodile and was seriously injured when the animal fought back.
Sean Gardner/Getty Images
"It actually starts to rewire the brain chemistry," one law enforcement official said. "They have no control over their thoughts. They can't control their actions. It's just a dangerous, dangerous drug."
Across the US, public health officials have linked alcohol to much graver effects, including domestic abuse, sexual assault on college campuses, 40 percent of violent crimes in the US, and more than 4.6 million emergency room visits in 2010.
According to federal data, alcohol is already the second deadliest drug in the country — topped only by another legal substance called "tobacco," which has a smoked form that causes an astonishing 480,000 deaths each year by some estimates and 540,000 by others.
No other drug comes close to the staggering fatalities of these two. Heroin, which has consumed widespread media attention in the past few years, was linked to fewer than 9,000 deaths in 2013, and marijuana — another drug that federal lawmakers, including President Obama, have warned is dangerous — reportedly caused zero overdose deaths in the past few thousand years.
Public health experts demand action
Despite the heightened public health crisis, federal and state officials seem reluctant to do anything about the drug, which remains legal for adults 21 and older to possess and even sell in most of the US. Policymakers say that banning alcohol is out of the question, citing its importance to the economy and American culture.
Drug policy experts have suggested levying higher taxes on the drug or bringing its sales under state control, pointing to numerousstudies that have shown these measures would reduce use. But lawmakers at the state and federal levels seem reluctant to take up even these milder measures, likely under the influence and lobbying of drug producers and dealers profiting from hundreds of billions in sales of alcohol each year.
Perhaps as a result, alcohol producers have felt free to advertise their product during major televised events such as the Super Bowl, which is viewed by millions of children each year. The marketing ploys tend to portray alcohol as cool and fun, seldom mentioning the risks and thousands of deaths linked to the drug.
As policymakers stand idly by, alcohol consumption has reached epidemic proportions. A recent Gallup survey found nearly two-thirds of Americans admitted to using alcohol — even as another survey by Gallup found more than one in three Americans blame alcohol for family problems.
For many public health officials, the startling numbers pose the question: What will it take to wake up the public and officials to this widening epidemic?
via THANKGODYOUREHERE: 'is this the future of fashion'
Your phone is about to get a lot more Fallout; Bethesda Softworks held its own E3 press event last night, wherein they revealed a lot about upcoming title Fallout 4, and launched a new Fallout dedicated mobile game called Fallout Shelter. True fans of the series will probably be most excited by in-game support in Fallout 4 for a real-world Pip-Boy, powered by your very own smartphone. A version… Read More
Grenada. Underwater sculpture honoring Africans thrown overboard from the slave ships during the Middle Passage of the African Holocaust.
This is located in the Caribbean Sea off the coast of Grenada under water. Pass it along so more people will know about this wonderful work of art in honor of those who perished so tragically. Artist, Jason DeCaires Taylor
So many emotions… .I don’t think many people can (or even want to) understand the gravity of what this sculpture represents.
We take for granted that Renaissance artists drew their masterpieces freehand in a few strokes of genius. But the truth is they had tricks — including tracing.
Called "cartoons" by art historians (from the Italian word for a large sheet of paper) these sketches allowed them to create test versions that they could later imprint directly onto an artwork. We still have some Renaissance masters' first drafts today.
For example, take Raphael's classic fresco "The School of Athens." Use the slider below to alternate between the cartoon and the final iconic painting:
It's easy to assume these drawings were just studies for the final painting, but a new video by the Getty Museum makes the process clear enough for the layperson to understand. Artists actually used sketches to trace a drawing onto the painting itself. As the video describes, we know that this happened because infrared imagery has revealed them underneath works of art, along with old examples that have survived to the present. The process works similar to the carbon copies we use today.
An artist began with a drawing on paper. They then placed a sheet of paper covered with black chalk between it and the canvas and used a stylus to trace the drawing. The pressure transferred the black chalk onto the canvas.
Cartoons weren't just common — they were even reused in different paintings. The same way Disney animators reused cel animation, Renaissance painters reused their cartoons. As the Getty Museum points out in the video, it's possible to spot the same drapery outline in several different paintings here:
These sketchesallowed for a basic structure that an artist or assistant could use — either as a straight copy or for an improvisation based on the original drawing.
Tracing was just one of the tools great artists used to create some of the world's classic paintings. They almost certainly used special reflective devices and curved mirrors to make more accurate drawings, as well.
To see more detail about the tracing process, check out the Getty Museum's full video:
Smart spoke candidly Wednesday about how the lessons of her conservative Mormon upbringing left her feeling “dirty and filthy” and of no value to society after she was raped at the hands of her captors as a 14-year-old.
“I’ll never forget how I felt lying there on the ground,” Smart said at a human trafficking and sexual violence conference at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore last week. “I felt like my soul had been crushed. I felt like I wasn’t even human anymore. How could anybody love me, or want me or care about me? I felt like life had no more meaning to it, and that was only the beginning of my nine months of captivity.”
Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped from her Salt Lake City home in June 2002 by a drifter named Brian David Mitchell, who held the teenage girl hostage for nine months with the help of his wife, Wanda Barzee. Mitchell claimed that Smart was his “second wife” and raped her repeatedly until she was found by police in March 2003.
Citing her own experience, Smart, now an advocate for missing and exploited children, described why so many kidnappees, especially those who have been sexually abused, don’t attempt to escape their captors:
“I think it goes even beyond fear, for so many children, especially in sex trafficking. It’s feelings of self-worth. It’s feeling like, ‘Who would ever want me now? I’m worthless.’
That is what it was for me the first time I was raped. I was raised in a very religious household, one that taught that sex was something special that only happened between a husband and a wife who loved each other. And that’s how I’d been raised, that’s what I’d always been determined to follow: that when I got married, then and only then would I engage in sex.
After that first rape, I felt crushed. Who could want me now? I felt so dirty and so filthy. I understand so easily all too well why someone wouldn’t run because of that alone.”
Smart said she was raised to believe that her virginity was “the most special thing” and described how her childhood self viewed her rape as something that “devalued” her. “Can you imagine turning around and going back into a society where you’re no longer of value?” she asked the audience. “Where you’re no longer as good as everybody else?”
Years of abstinence-only sex education fueled her sense of unworthiness after she was raped, Smart said as she recalled a teacher who compared sex to chewing gum. “I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m that chewed up piece of gum, nobody re-chews a piece of gum, you throw it away.’ And that’s how easily it is to feel like you no longer have worth, you no longer have value,” she said. “Why would it even be worth screaming out? Why would it even make a difference if you are rescued? Your life still has no value.”
“That’s terrible,” Smart said as she remembered her teacher’s words. “Nobody should ever say that.”
The best thing we can do to prevent children from becoming a victim to sexual abuse, trafficking or kidnapping, Smart explained, is to teach them from an early age that they are worthy of love regardless of what happens to them. “You have value,” she said. “You will always have value and nothing can change that.”
“Poet Voice,” is the pejorative, informal name given to this soft, airy reading style that many poets use for reasons that are unclear. The voice flattens the musicality and tonal drama inherent within the language of the poem and it also sounds overly stuffy and learned. In this way, Poet Voice does a disservice to the poem, the poet and poetry. It must be stopped.
Super Opinionated.
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Your phone is about to get a lot more Fallout; Bethesda Softworks held its own E3 press event last night, wherein they revealed a lot about upcoming title Fallout 4, and launched a new Fallout dedicated mobile game called Fallout Shelter. True fans of the series will probably be most excited by in-game support in Fallout 4 for a real-world Pip-Boy, powered by your very own smartphone. A version… 
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