Now this would make for a great movie (certainly better than “The Interview”). Here’s the plot. A reportedly awful movie is produced by Sony with little expected success. Then the company is hacked with threats not to release the movie. All fingers are pointed at North Korea, including statements from the White House and the FBI. There are widespread reports of the U.S. shutting down the North Korean Internet in retaliation. However, the real culprits are actually laid-off Sony staff. In the meantime, the suppressed movie racks in millions as viewers (including my kids last night) rush to see the forbidden movie. Now that’s a movie plot. It is not clear however if it should be fiction or non-fiction. Media is reporting that experts believe that North Korea was in fact innocent of the hacking and that the culprits were former employees of that other hermit kingdom, Sony.
Category: Bizarre
I just saw the new Hobbit movie with the kids in Chicago (which I liked) and was immediately intrigued by this story: a YouTube video on how to make your own ultimate nerdy “Sting.” Rather than detecting Orcs, this Sting detects unsecured WiFi. For the Hobbit nerd, it promises an elevation to nerdom that few single, middle-aged Hobbit wannabes still living with their parents in the basement could hope to achieve. I cannot say that the new sword will make you an Elf “chick-magnet” at the next Hobbit convention but it will get those other Hobbits pulling pens out of their pocket protectors to write down your every Bilboesque instruction.
Continue reading “Nerdvana: Video Shows You How To Make Your Own “Sting” To Glow When There Is An Unsecured WiFi Signal Near”
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan remains one of the most controversial leaders in Turkey’s history. A devout Muslim, Erdogan has steadily dismantled the secular traditions of country — a rare alternative to the Sharia systems or Islamic republics common in Muslim nations. As in those other countries, the insertion of Islamic rules have been accompanied with crackdowns on civil liberties, press freedom, women’s rights, and religious minorities. Recently, that included heavy fines for a television program for showing the immorality of a man dancing with a Western woman. Erdogan also attempted to rewrite history (with human rights) by recently declaring that Muslims discovered America . As criticism has mounted, he has inflamed his religious followers over a vast media conspiracy against his righteous policies. Now, Erdogan has attacked the use of birth control as a form of “treason” and said that women must commit themselves to having three or more children in the interests of the nation: “One or two is not enough.”
Continue reading “Erdogan: People Using Birth Control Are “Traitors””
When I was in Chicago this week for Christmas, Brian Barker, 41, was all over the news. The Edwardsville police officer is accused of being a serial burglar, including break ins while on duty. He seems wanting as a police officer but as a crook he is even worse. They found stolen items in his home and there is a security tape reportedly of him burglarizing one of the locations. The end came fittingly at the Reality Salon and Spa for Barker.
Continue reading “Reality Check: Illinois Police Officer Arrested As Allegedly Serial Burglar”
If you gave a Barbie to a child in France, you might want to check the box. The French feminist group FièrEs secretly inserted pamphlets into hundreds of barbie toys and plastic guns reading “this toy is sexist. They stressed that “We have caused no damage or ripped any plastic. We simply slipped the message in boxes, or in books.” Of course, there is the injury to families who do not want to expose their children to the rantings of an extreme group that wants to use their children to make some point of social protest.
Cameron Shenk, 26, presents what can only be described as a tough defense case. A woman was in a bathroom stall in Terminal C of the Logan Airport in Boston when Shenk reportedly fell through the ceiling naked. It went from bad to worse from that point on.
We have previously seen how people attempt to cash in on political and social expressions under the increasingly absurd copyright and trademark laws in this country. Now joining this ignoble group is Catherine Crump, 57, of Waukegan, Illinois, who has applied for the trademark on “I Can’t Breathe.” In doing so, Crump not only is attempting to cash in on the words of the deceased Eric Garner, but a nationwide protest movement. So, while tens of thousands have been trying to find ways to protest what they view as police brutality, Crump has been trying to find a way to make money out of the tragedy and the movement.
Continue reading “Illinois Woman Files For Trademark Protection On Phrase “I Can’t Breathe””
Meet Bela, a healthy German shepherd in Indiana. He would seem ideal for an adoption except for one thing. His recently deceased owner, Connie Lay, specified in her will that Bela, her beloved companion, should be euthanized upon her death and his ashes buried with her. Despite an outcry, she may succeed in reaching from the grave to end Bela’s life. In fairness to Lay, her love for the dog seems to have motivated her unusual demand and she allowed for one escape clause for Bela.
Middle school teacher and varsity cheer coach Heather Cagle was fired Wednesday night in a rather bizarre controversy. Cagle was fired after she admitted that she drove 11 yearbook students to Walmart for a snack, including two put into a locked trunk of her Honda Accord.
Brian Chellis, 23, has some serious naughty issues to address back at the home office. When police responded to a DUI call at 3 am, they found a gray Toyota van next to the loading dock of a Target store with its engine running, lights on, and music blaring. Inside, they found Chellis was dressed as an elf on a shelf and allegedly loaded smelling of a bit too much of the old holiday nog. Chellis was asleep at the wheel.
Continue reading “Bad Elf: New Jersey Man Arrested For DUI While Dressed As Elf On A Shelf”
Turkey was long viewed as a symbol of secularism in the Islamic world — an alternative to the rigid Islamic governments imposing medieval Sharia laws to their populations. Then came the election of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has steadily broken down secular tradition and introduced more and more Islamic influences in government. (You may recall Erdogan recently declaring that Muslims discovered America and that there was proof of a Mosque in Cuba when Columbus arrived) The fines imposed this week by the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK) have reaffirmed those concerns. RTUK officials imposed as fine of 410,000 Turkish lira ($177,000, 145,000 euros) against The game show, “I Don’t Know, My Spouse Knows.” The episode in question showed wives pictures of their husbands dancing with foreign women. That was deemed “contrary to public morality and the Turkish family structure.”
Meet Genard Trey Dupree, 27, and Tarus Bernard Scott, 30. These two men are accused of not just stealing almost $400 worth of items from a Wal-Mart in Lake Wales, Florida but using a fake heart attack to distract customers. I am not sure what is more depressing, these two thieves preying on decent people who want to help a stricken man or the fact that very few people actually stopped in the video below. The men stole a motorized Barbie Power Wheels, a Barbie vacation house, and a LeapFrog tablet
Police are looking for these two women who used the stolen credit cards of another woman to rack up more than $8,500 in gift cards in eight minutes in Rockville, Maryland. The women casually went into a Target store and allegedly spent thousands before strolling out of the store. However, this time the police say that they have very good pictures of the culprits.
Mark Oberholtzer, owner of Mark-1 Plumbing in Texas City, has suddenly found his business advertised internationally. However, it is not quite the exposure that he was hoping for. A recent picture of the Islamic extremist brigade Ansar al-Deen Front in Syria shows their fighters firing an anti-aircraft gun mounted on a truck proudly displaying his name and logo. Can anyone say “misappropriation of name or likeness”? My expectations is that a tort lawsuit is not troubling these extremists as a priority concern.
There is an interesting study out on obesity in America. The study of American Journal of Preventive Medicine appears to confirm one stereotype: police officers and donuts. Almost half of police (as well as firefighters and security guards) were found to be obese. The second most obese? Clergy (as well as social workers and counsellors) at 35.6 percent. If appears that, even you cannot avoid crime or sin, you may at least be able to out run the immediate consequences.
Continue reading “Weighty Professions: Police and Priests Top Study Of Most Obese Professions”