firehose

Courtney shared this story from Super Opinionated.

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Pu-Li-Ru-La by Taito

(arcade - 1991)

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Esther Jones, known by her stage name, “Baby Esther,” was a singer and entertainer of the late 1920s. She performed regularly at The Cotton Club in Harlem. Helen Kane saw her act in 1928 and appropriated Jones’ ‘baby’ singing style for a recording of “I Wanna Be Loved By You.” Jones’ style went on to become the inspiration for the voice of Betty Boop.(What I Looked up)

Today in Black people invented everything you hold near and dear…

There are a few old Betty Boop cartoons on YouTube where she’s actually animated as Black. I’m both incredibly proud & disgusted to finally have names of all of the Black women who shaped so much of American culture after all of these years of being ignored.

PETA Reportedly Steals and Kills a Family Dog:

zooophagous:

animalwelfarists:

PETA reportedly stole a family’s pet chihuahua from their porch, and killed it.

You heard that right. Yes, we’re talking about that PETA: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The theft was caught on video, and has been reported by WAVY.com, local media in Accomack County, Virginia.

County Sheriff Todd Godwin insists that he charged the two PETA workers with larceny. The prosecutor has apparently refused to pursue the case, however, citing insufficient evidence of “criminal intent.”

Let’s try to comprehend this: we have a home surveillance video clearly demonstrating that a van marked “PETA” pulled up to the house of Wilbur Cerate, and that someone took the family’s chihuahua, Maya. PETA has reportedly admitted that Maya was killed: they arrived later with a basket of fruit as compensation, says Maya’s owner. (For some bizarre reason, PETA thinks that a nice basket of food makes killing pets okay.)

Hence, we have what we are told is pretty strong evidence that a crime was committed. An admission of guilt has been alleged. What part of the notion “criminal intent” am I missing here?

We also seem to have powerful evidence that the girl who owned Maya is inconsolable. The New York Daily News reports:

The Mexican immigrant said the tiny dog had been the only thing that cheered his daughter, who was having difficulty adjusting to her new country.

PETA has refused to comment. Local reporter Anita Blanton has tried valiantly to elicit a statement from PETA headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia, and has thus far had no luck.

It’s hard to believe, but People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has a long history of this kind of abuse. You’ll find it documented in ugly detail here: "Shocking Photos: PETA’s Secret Slaughter of Kittens, Puppies." Even more difficult to believe is that they tend to get away with it.

In 2005, PETA employees killed numerous healthy dogs and cats in the back of their van, and deposited the bodies in a dumpster behind a mall. They were charged with"21 felony counts each of animal cruelty," but were convicted only of "littering."

The littering conviction was later overturned. PETA has very good lawyers. “Essentially, the littering charges against Adria Hinkle and Andrew Cook were overturned because the prosecution failed to prove that a dumpster is not the proper place for trash.” (“Trash” here being dead pets.)

Since then PETA has been careful to dispose of bodies legally, using a professional crematorium. (They have killed over 29,000 animals.) But they are not being careful enough, it seems, when it comes to rounding up neighborhood animals. PETA are keen on eradicating strays — in particular, they urge the mass killing of feral cats — but they do not have permission to grab a family’s pet dog from their home. Clearly they did not expect that the Cerate house would have a surveillance camera. 
 

WHAT YOU CAN DO

PETA would prefer that people not keep animals for their amusement. If you personally find this unacceptable, however — the alleged theft and destruction of a family dog — then please let the local prosecutor know how you feel. Yes, PETA has a huge budget, and powerful lawyers, but public outrage can be effective.

The Commonwealth Attorney's name is Gary Agar. His office number is 757-787-2877; the office email is commatt@verizon.net.

You can also make your displeasure known to The Sam Simon Foundation. Sam Simon, co-creator of The Simpsons, has long done wonderful work for animals, and his foundation works towards — among other things — saving strays from so-called “euthanasia.”

Mr. Simon is currently fighting cancer, and has announced that he is leaving a substantial portion of his 100-million-dollar fortune to PETA. It seems clear that this is a truly decent man, who hasn’t the faintest idea what kind of organization he has decided to leave his money to. The situation is not unusual: most celebrities are kept in the dark regarding PETA’s nature.

Mr. Simon is very ill, and it’s perhaps best to tweet your outrage to his foundation (whose work PETA is busy undermining): @ssfoundation1

And please let PETA themselves know what you think: @PETA

The citizens unlucky enough to share their neighborhood with PETA headquartershave long been concerned that the group will target their pets. Not many of these people have the means to pursue a civil suit against PETA, but this is why we have criminal laws: it is absurd that a family’s dogs and cats cannot be protected from the depredations of this organization.

PETA is garbage

hodad

Imma shift-m this #soundstudies share until I get the chance to catch this movie in IMAX glory in LA.

Original Source

"My real story is this: I am the citizen daughter of immigrant parents who were deported when I was 14. My older brother was also deported."

Minnesota Vikings star running back Adrian Peterson declined to appear Friday at a scheduled disciplinary hearing with the NFL despite agreeing to the meeting earlier last week, a league official told ESPN.

Nellie Bly rules. She was a female journalist in a time when it was hard enough being a woman (it still is). Despite constant concern trolling from men, she went around the world in 72 days. And she wrote about it.

The film, based on her memoir of her marriage to Stephen Hawking, diverges so much from its source it seems dishonest.

Newly surfaced surveillance videos and dispatch calls from the day a Ferguson, Mo., police officer shot an unarmed 18-year-old contradict the police officer's version of events, attorneys representing Michael Brown's family said today.

It's a shame that there is no provision in the Constitution of the United States that would permit Pope Francis to serve as the chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. That’s too bad, because the Pope believes that science, rational thought, and data all play powerful and positive roles in human life. The senators seem as if they do not.

Some companies are moving away from the 1099 economy, recognizing that relying on temporary contract workers is bad for businesses, employees, and clients alike.

scoregasm:

leela-summers:

For any non-Aussies out there, Karl Stefanovic is a pretty beloved TV presenter on the morning show “Today”. He’s created many hilarious TV moments like eating the world’s hottest pie, losing his shit over grumpy cat, the conversation about the long stabby thing - and there was also that time where he told a bad pun Dalai Llama joke TO the Dalai Llama. 

Well today he revealed that (as a comment on sexism in the media) he has been wearing the same suit on air every day for a year with nobody noticing. He started doing it deliberately after seeing the backlash that his female co-hosts would constantly get over their appearances. 

"No one has noticed; no one gives a shit. But women, they wear the wrong colour and they get pulled up. They say the wrong thing and there’s thousands of tweets written about them. Women are judged much more harshly and keenly for what they do, what they say and what they wear… I’ve worn the same suit on air for a year - except for a couple of times because of circumstance - to make a point. I’m judged on my interviews, my appalling sense of humour - on how I do my job, basically. Whereas women are quite often judged on what they’re wearing or how their hair is." -Karl Stefanovic

Karl is a treasure.

From literacy tests to voter ID laws, the right to vote remains threatened. Watch as Harvard students attempt to pass the 1964 Louisiana literacy test as part of a project that raises awareness about barriers to voting.

Yelp will tell you it’s an unbiased review aggregator and a partner to small businesses, offering a host of tools that boost sales. But there’s an uglier side to the restaurant review site, one characterized by misinformation and ruled by an inscrutable algorithm.

ErnieKey writes with a Reuters story that says Google's Glass, not yet out for general purchase, has been wearing on the patience of both developers and would-be customers: "After an initial burst of enthusiasm, signs that consumers are giving up on Glass have been building.' Is it true that Google Goggles are simply not attractive to wear? Or perhaps it's the invasion of privacy that is deterring people from wearing them. Regardless, Google needs to change something quickly before they lose all their potential customers. From the article: Of 16 Glass app makers contacted, nine said that they had stopped work on their projects or abandoned them, mostly because of the lack of customers or limitations of the device. Three more have switched to developing for business, leaving behind consumer projects. Plenty of larger developers remain with Glass. The nearly 100 apps on the official website include Facebook and OpenTable, although one major player recently defected: Twitter. "If there was 200 million Google Glasses sold, it would be a different perspective. There's no market at this point," said Tom Frencel, the chief executive of Little Guy Games, which put development of a Glass game on hold this year and is looking at other platforms, including the Facebook-owned virtual-reality goggles Oculus Rift. Several key Google employees instrumental to developing Glass have left the company in the last six months, including lead developer Babak Parviz, electrical engineering chief Adrian Wong, and Ossama Alami, director of developer relations.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Derp.

Jon Dadi Bodvarsson is a striker, so he's a natural goalscorer. And even when he is near his own goal, he will put the ball on frame.

That is unfortunate for Iceland because that means he shot the ball at his own goal, off his goalkeeper's foot and into the net for an own goal. Oh, and it put the Czech Republic up 2-1 so it may be the match-winner.

At least it's hilarious! For us.

Don't throw flares.

The European Championship qualifying match between Italy and Croatia has been suspended, due to the actions of visiting Croatia supporters. They're throwing flares on the pitch, lighting fireworks and have been scuffling with police.

Flares were thrown early in the match and the referee stopped play, let stadium crew clear the flares of the pitch and was able to restart the match after a couple of minutes. He attempted to do the same thing in the second half, but when fireworks and disputes with police were thrown in, he didn't have any choice but to suspend the game.

Eventually, the authorities and stadium staff were able to get things sorted out in the stands and restart the match, but the match was stopped for around 15 minutes and players had to go into the tunnel briefly. The match was tied up at 1-1 at the time of the suspension, and Croatia will be in decent shape to qualify with a draw, so the traveling fans certainly didn't have a sporting reason to do this.

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My 7 year old son was shot down by his 1st grade teacher

The american public education system in a nutshell tho

My third grade teacher actually had a conversation with my mom that I was reading to well and told her to stop having me read at home

My first grade teacher said that it was problematic that I was reading ahead of the rest of the kids in my grade and asked my parents to stop letting me read Harry Potter.

My fourth grade teacher thought it was wrong for my dad to be teaching me complex math because it fascinated me.

My elementary school music teacher hated the way my piano teacher taught me, and how I was more advanced than many of her students, and so told me, in front of my peers and my mother, that I was not good enough to participate in the state solo festival. She would not give me the form. We had to procure it from the district instead. She also hated how I excelled at reading and playing music for the recorder, and so she refused to give me my “belts” (colored beads to signify our level) and humiliated me in front of the class repeatedly.

My eighth grade algebra teacher used to fail me on take home tests because I didn’t solve problems exactly the way she showed us in class; I used methods that we had learned for other types of problems that also applied to these. She took points off my tests because I didn’t bring a calculator even though I got 100% without it, because I was able to do it by hand. I had to call my father, who is an engineer, down to the school to shout her down and give me back my A in the class.

My 10th grade Spanish teacher yelled at me in front of the class numerous times because she didn’t like the way I took notes; she thought that since I didn’t write every word off the slide, I wasn’t getting it all down. I had to explain to her that people who have taken advanced courses, like AP or IB classes, know that in a fast-paced learning environment you need to take quick shorthand notes that contain the necessary information rather than wasting time writing every word. She almost gave me detention.

My 11th grade English teacher gave me a poor mark on my first short essay because she believed that I was looking up unnecessarily complex words in a thesaurus to try and get better marks. The phrases in question: “laced with expletives” and “bombarded”. She wouldn’t hear any defense from me.

My 11th grade history teacher failed me on an essay about the 1950s because I misread the prompt. Except the prompt wasn’t words; it was a political cartoon. One of the figures was clearly president Eisenhower, but the other I couldn’t place. My teacher would not tell us who it was. I labelled him as the governor of Little Rock Arkansas during the integration period, and wrote an essay about that subject. My teacher said that no, it was Joseph McCarthy, and that there was a small picture of the man in our textbook and therefore I should have recognized him instantly. Half the class, apparently, did not.

The American school system is not here to educate us or to encourage us to learn; it’s here to keep us in line and silent. It’s here to keep us from deviating and being our own people and forming our own ideas. Don’t let it win.

"The American school system is not here to educate us or to encourage us to learn; it’s here to keep us in line and silent. It’s here to keep us from deviating and being our own people and forming our own ideas. Don’t let it win." 

Fun story time. I loved to read. So much so, I was reading chapter books in kindergarden. I broke the record for reading points in elementary school. They actually had to start making up prizes for me. No one in the history of the school had ever read so many books in a year. Basically, my class liked me because I won those suckers pizza parties in my spare time.

In second grade, I had a teacher named Ms. Mobley who believed all children should be average. She flat out told my father that all children should make C’s, and should never strive for more than that.

Not only was she insane, she also would routinely spell things wrong for us to copy for our spelling tests. Later, when we spelled those words wrong on the test, she would mark us off. Yes, our own teacher was sabotaging us.

I should have been tested for gifted classes, but I was not. Why? Ms. Mobley didn’t believe in “gifted” children.

This teacher had tenure and could not be fired.

Never forget.

"The American school system is not here to educate us or to encourage us to learn; it’s here to keep us in line and silent. It’s here to keep us from deviating and being our own people and forming our own ideas. Don’t let it win." 

George Orwell couldn’t invent this shit

it’s twisted stuff

this is important.

I could add my own story to this, but really, one is enough. Our system is fucked to the core.

Jose Canseco story time!

Jose Canseco accidentally shot his left middle finger off in late October. Like, with a gun. It's since been reattached, but it sounds like the finger-to-hand reunion isn't going so hot.

Dam I was playing in a poker tournament last night and something crazy happened to my finger that I shot off and they put back on.

— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) November 14, 2014

I knew something crazy was going to happen with this dam finger cause it felt like it was falling off.

— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) November 14, 2014

Ok well I might as well tell you .I was playing in a poker tournament last night and my finger fell off .someone took a video of it.

— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) November 14, 2014

My finger should have been amputated from the beginning. It was very loose with no bone to connect it.it was also smelling really bad.

— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) November 14, 2014

Canseco went on to say his agent has video of the finger falling off, but somewhere around the point he said "smelling really bad" I decided I don't want to see it.

Anyway, I hope Canseco had a successful poker night despite the accident. I was hoping for a "lost a finger, won the hand" tweet, but nothing yet.

Tyketto writes The US Department of Justice has been using fake communications towers installed in airplanes to acquire cellular phone data for tracking down criminals, reports The Wall Street Journal. Using fix-wing Cessnas outfitted with DRT boxes produced by Boeing, the devices mimic cellular towers, fooling cellphones into reporting "unique registration information" to track down "individuals under investigation." The program, used by the U.S. Marshals Service, has been in use since 2007 and deployed around at least five major metropolitan areas, with a flying range that can cover most of the US population. As cellphones are designed to connect to the strongest cell tower signal available, the devices identify themselves as the strongest signal, allowing for the gathering of information on thousands of phones during a single flight. Not even having encryption on one's phone, like found in Apple's iPhone 6, prevents this interception. While the Justice Department would not confirm or deny the existence of such a program, Verizon denies any involvement in this program, and DRT (a subsidiary of Boeing), AT&T, and Sprint have all declined to comment.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

bedlamsbard:

The difference between learning a modern language and an ancient language is that in first year French you learn “Where is the bathroom?” and “How do I get to the train station?” and in first year Attic Greek or Latin you learn “I have judged you worthy of death” and “The tyrant had everyone in the city killed.”