The news thread

[Aaron Robinson]

Aww. Even though I knew it was coming, it's still awful to hear. RIP.

[Dread]

RIP Dennis Hopper.

Knew that one was coming but damn. Still sad.

[Guest TFG1Mike]

I'm recording a Death report/my own reaction for a podcast about these latest stories... would everyone be ok with me quoting your reactions? .. All I did was read what y'all wrote as far as reactions I didn't use names.

Also... Thundercats Writer Confirmed Dead wow... just wow.

[Koete]

Hurt Locker producer sues 5,000 BitTorerent users

Hurt Locker producer Voltage Pictures has filed a widely-anticipated lawsuit against illegal file sharers.

The suit, filed in the Columbia District Court, accuses 5,000 BitTorrent users of copyright violation. It's one of the biggest ever lawsuits against individuals.

Even Voltage doesn't know the names of the defendants, who have been identified only by their IP addresses. It plans to subpoena ISPs this week to get the users' names.

Once it's identified these people, they'll be sent letters inviting them to cough up $1,500 to settle - and warning them that it'll be ten times as much if they don't pay up and the case goes all the way to court.

Hurt Locker was leaked on the internet via BitTorrent about six months before its official US release. Although it was a critical success, winning six Academy Awards, it proved a disappointment in terms of box office takings. The fim grossed less than $17 million - and Voltage sees a connection.

"A Defendant's distribution of even one unlawful copy of a motion picture can result in the nearly instantaneous worldwide distribution of that single copy to a limitless number of people," reads the suit.

"The Plaintiff now seeks redress for this rampant infringement of their exclusive rights."

Source

[JackFetch]

There is no connection between leaked movies and sales. Hurt Locker was never going to be big at the box office. Most people had never heard of it before the Oscars. If they thought it was going to make money, why did it open with Transformers 2 and Ice Age? If anything, they should have released it two weeks before they did, but it never would have been a hit.

[Koete]

Sword-Wielding Porn Actor Kills 1, Hurts 2

LOS ANGELES — A porn actor facing eviction from a production studio killed one colleague and injured two others with a movie prop weapon during a late-night showdown in Los Angeles, police said Wednesday.

Steven Hill, who had been living at Ultima DVD Inc.'s distribution and production center for several months, attacked his colleagues Tuesday night after being told he must pack and leave by Wednesday, Los Angeles police Detective Joel Price said.

Hill fled the studio in his SUV after the attack and was being sought by police.

Hill is accused of attacking a co-worker with a machete-type prop weapon used in porn production at the building in the Van Nuys area, Price said. Two others who heard the man's screams ran to help and were also attacked before Hill fled the scene, Price said.

One of the two people who tried to help suffered a large wound to his torso and died in surgery at a hospital, Price said. The other victims were expected to survive, he said.

The victims, whose names were not released, were not established porn stars, Price said.

Source

[Guest TFG1Mike]

Only 1 Golden Girl left... Blanche joins Sophia and Dorothy.... so sad :-(

[Nicolette Opal]

EVERYONE EXCEPT TOMMY LEE IS DYING! WHAT IS GOING ON?!

[Dread]

Porn Studio Machete Massacre.

Tell me that won't sell...

[JackFetch]

EVERYONE EXCEPT TOMMY LEE IS DYING! WHAT IS GOING ON?!

That was a completely random celebrity name to bring up.

[dc20willsave]

EVERYONE EXCEPT TOMMY LEE IS DYING! WHAT IS GOING ON?!

That was a completely random celebrity name to bring up.

To be fair, Tommy Lee is stupid enough where I'm surprised he isn't dead.

[ShaunKL]

Tommy Lee cannot die until MiB3 comes out, biological fact.

Man Accused Of Killing Kitten For Unplugging Game Console

[JackFetch]

Tommy Lee cannot die until MiB3 comes out, biological fact.

Man Accused Of Killing Kitten For Unplugging Game Console

Your thinking of Tommy Lee Jones, the great actor. Tommy Lee is the drummer with the big penis that gave hepatitis to Pam Anderson.

[KnightWing]

No, I'm pretty sure he meant that there's a curse on the MiB franchise where Tommy Lee can't die until they make a third movie.

The witch who cast the hex got the names mixed up.

[Venneh]

Altered mural fuels racial debate in Prescott

154 comments by Dennis Wagner - Jun. 4, 2010 12:00 AM

The Arizona Republic

A group of artists has been asked to lighten the faces of children depicted in a giant public mural at a Prescott school.

The project's leader says he was ordered to lighten the skin tone after complaints about the children's ethnicity. But the school's principal says the request was only to fix shading and had nothing to do with political pressure.

The "Go on Green" mural, which covers two walls outside Miller Valley Elementary School, was designed to advertise a campaign for environmentally friendly transportation. It features portraits of four children, with a Hispanic boy as the dominant figure.

R.E. Wall, director of Prescott's Downtown Mural Project, said he and other artists were subjected to slurs from motorists as they worked on the painting at one of the town's most prominent intersections.

"We consistently, for two months, had people shouting racial slander from their cars," Wall said. "We had children painting with us, and here come these yells of (epithet for Blacks) and (epithet for Hispanics)."

Wall said school Principal Jeff Lane pressed him to make the children's faces appear happier and brighter.

"It is being lightened because of the controversy," Wall said, adding that "they want it to look like the children are coming into light."

Lane said that he received only three complaints about the mural and that his request for a touch-up had nothing to do with political pressure. "We asked them to fix the shading on the children's faces," he said. "We were looking at it from an artistic view. Nothing at all to do with race."

City Councilman Steve Blair spearheaded a public campaign on his talk show at Prescott radio station KYCA-AM (1490) to remove the mural.

In a broadcast last month, according to the Daily Courier in Prescott, Blair mistakenly complained that the most prominent child in the painting is African-American, saying: "To depict the biggest picture on the building as a Black person, I would have to ask the question: Why?"

Blair could not be reached for comment Thursday. In audio archives of his radio show, Blair discusses the mural. He insists the controversy isn't about racism but says the mural is intended to create racial controversy where none existed before.

"Personally, I think it's pathetic," he says. "You have changed the ambience of that building to excite some kind of diversity power struggle that doesn't exist in Prescott, Arizona. And I'm ashamed of that."

Faces in the mural were drawn from photographs of children enrolled at Miller Valley, a K-5 school with 380 students and the highest ethnic mix of any school in Prescott. Wall said thousands of town residents volunteered or donated to the project, the fourth in a series of community murals painted by a group of artists known as the "Mural Mice."

The public art, funded by a $5,000 state grant through the Prescott Alternative Transportation Center, was selected by school students and faculty.

"The parents and children love it," Lane said.

Source

Ladies and gentlemen:

WHAT THE FLYING FUCK, ARIZONA.

[JackFetch]

If you look at the mural, you can't really tell what ethnicity the kid is. He kind of looks like me as a kid. That Councilman who thought the kid was black is just a racist.

[Guest]

In Quest for Simpler Words, Protesters Picket Spelling Bee

WASHINGTON (June 4) - The nation's capital always draws its share of protesters, picketing for causes ranging from health care reform to immigration policy.

But spelling bee protesters? They're out here, too.

Four peaceful protesters, some dressed in full-length black and yellow bee costumes, represented the American Literacy Council and the London-based Spelling Society and stood outside the Grand Hyatt on Thursday, where the Scripps National Spelling Bee is being held. Their message was short: Simplify the way we spell words.

Roberta Mahoney, 81, a former Fairfax County, Va. elementary school principal, said the current language obstructs 40 percent of the population from learning how to read, write and spell.

"Our alphabet has 425-plus ways of putting words together in illogical ways," Mahoney said.

The protesting cohort distributed pins to willing passers-by with their logo, "Enuf is enuf. Enough is too much."

According to literature distributed by the group, it makes more sense for "fruit" to be spelled as "froot," ''slow" should be "slo," and "heifer" - a word spelled correctly during the first oral round of the bee Thursday by Texas competitor Ramesh Ghanta - should be "hefer."

Meanwhile, inside the hotel's Independence Ballroom, 273 spellers celebrated the complexity of the language in all its glory, correctly spelling words like zaibatsu, vibrissae and biauriculate.

While the protesters could make headway with cell phone texters who routinely swap "u'' for "you" and "gr8" for "great," their message may be a harder sell for the Scripps crowd.

Mahoney had trouble gaining traction with at least one bee attendee. New Mexico resident Matthew Evans, 15, a former speller whose sister is participating in the bee this year, reasoned with her that if English spellings were changed, spelling bees would cease to exist.

"If a dictionary lists 'enough' as 'enuf,' the spelling bee goes by the dictionary, therefore all the spelling words are easier to spell, so the spelling bee is gone," Evans said.

"Well," Mahoney replied, "they could pick their own dictionary."

[Venneh]

Okay. That's it. I'm now going and drinking until reality quits.

[KnightWing]

OH MY GOD PEOPLE ARE STUPID.

Translation:

O MY GOD PEEPUL AR STOOPID.

[JackFetch]

After a public outcry, they are not going to whiten the faces on that mural after all. Also, the racist councilman was fired from his radio job.

[Venneh]

Amen.

[dc20willsave]

Solid Rock Church Jesus monument struck by lightning

By Tiffany Y. Latta, Staff Writer Updated 7:16 AM Tuesday, June 15, 2010

MONROE — Charred remnants remained this morning, June 15, of the large Jesus statue iconic to Interstate 75 that was destroyed following an apparent lightning strike during a thunderstorm late Monday night.

Those at the scene this morning as the fog lifted around I-75 also described smoke damage to the Lawrence Bishop Music Theater located east of the statue.

No firefighters were on scene this morning as the smell of smoke surrounded the area of the statue’s charred frame and the pond in front of it appeared murky, witnesses said.

Earlier this morning and late Monday night, motorists were stopped along the highway and along Union Road in Monroe to watch the 62-foot King of Kings statue burn. The fire was reported at 11:15 p.m. Monday, June 14. Within minutes, all that was left was the steel frame of the statue at Solid Rock Church, 904 N. Union Road.

Church member Cassie Browning, 27, of Dayton, said she was driving north on I-75 on her way back from Tennessee when she and her family saw smoke and noticed the statue missing. “It meant so much to so many people,” Browning said. “The statue can be destroyed and gone, but Jesus can’t be.”

When crews arrived, Monroe Fire Chief Mark Neu said the statue was fully engulfed and the fire had spread to the attic area of the church’s adjacent amphitheater. There were no injuries, said Neu, who spoke just before 2:30 a.m. to media at the scene. It was a “hot fire,” he said, which made it more difficult to battle, but it was extinguished within about an hour.

In the late evening and early morning hours, social media sites such as Facebook fueled interest and onlookers: the curious, the incredulous and still others who just wanted to poke a little fun at the situation.

“God struck God, I like the irony. Jesus struck Jesus,” said Dawn Smith, 25, of Hamilton, who was among those standing outside the vehicles along Union Road. “I had to see it. What else are you going to do on a Monday night?”

Since its completion in 2004, the statue, which appeared to come out of a pond in front of the nondenominational megachurch, was known by multiple nicknames, including “Touchdown Jesus” because the arms and hands were raised upward. It also was known as “Big Butter Jesus” after comedian Heywood Banks referred to it as such and created a song about the statue, which he performed on radio’s popular “The Bob and Tom Show.”

The statue was constructed of wood and styrofoam over a steel framework that was anchored in concrete and covered with a fiberglass mat and resin exterior, according to the church. It was slated to undergo renovations this summer.

Also gathered along Union Road were Franklin twins and storm chasers Levi and Seth Walsh, who said they were out in the thunderstorm when they heard about the fire through a Facebook update.

“It sent goosebumps through my whole body because I am a believer,” said Levi Walsh, 29. “Of all the things that could have been struck, I just think that that would be protected. ... It’s something that’s not supposed to happen, Jesus burning,” he said. “I had to see it with my own eyes.”

“I can’t believe Jesus was struck,” said his brother, who noted the giant Hustler Hollywood sign for the adult store across the street was untouched. “It’s the last thing I expected to happen.”

Whether jostled by the incident, or ready to call out zingers, all agreed the statue is what makes that stretch of I-75 in front of the church special.

“It’s a landmark, so it’s going to make the drive different,” said Josh Bartram, 18, of Middletown.

Because the fire was sparked by lightning, Neu said there will be no further investigation.

Also lost in the fire was audio equipment stored in the attic that Neu said was to be used for a Fourth of July event at the church. No damage estimate will be available until 10 a.m. today, said Neu, who added that church leaders indicated to him they planned to replace and rebuild all that was lost in the fire.

Crews responded from Monroe, Middletown, Liberty Twp., Deerfield Twp. and Trenton, according to dispatchers.

Staff Writer Lauren Pack contributed to this report.

Source.

[JackFetch]

An associate of former NBA player Manute Bol says Bol has died at a Virginia hospital, where he was being treated for severe kidney trouble and a painful skin condition.

Sudan Sunrise executive director Tom Prichard says in an e-mail that the 7-foot-6 Bol died Saturday morning at the University of Virginia Hospital in Charlottesville.

The 47-year-old Bol played 10 seasons in the NBA and later worked closely with Sudan Sunrise, a humanitarian group based in Lenexa, Kan., that promotes reconciliation in Sudan. Bol played professionally with Washington, Golden State, Philadelphia and Miami.

Story continues below ↓advertisement | your ad here

Bol was hospitalized in mid-May during a stopover in Washington after returning to the United States from Sudan. Prichard says Sudan “and the world have lost a hero.”

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/37801064/ns/sports-nba/from/ET

For those that don't know, he was in Sudan working for peace in that country and got sick. By the time he got out of the country, it was too late to save him. He wanted nothing more than to help his home country find peace.

[Venneh]

Cornell University pediatric urologist engaging in some pretty awful stuff. May not be SFW.

So. To sum up.

Not Safe For Work

Cornell. Pediatric urologist. Female genital mutilation involving young girls. Simulating six year olds' private bits with vibrators. On an annual basis.

I can has the RAGE.

[Koete]

Judge rules in favor of Youtube in Viacom vs. Youtube.