Teh interesting (non-PHL-related) news stub thread

[Twin-Skies]

I don't have a news link (And to lazy to find one) but I saw in the news that Christian Bale got arrested for beating up his mom.

Why, Batman, why?!?

He wasn't charged with anything though. Either he's a really violent man or someone wants to put him in a bad light. I'm quite sure he isn't doing this for any more publicity.

http://www.google.com.ph/search?client=f...+sa+Google

The dialogue that probably provoked the attack:

Bale: So, what did you think of TDK, 'ma?
Bale's Mom: Ehhh, Batman & Robin was better. Clooney looked hot.
Bale:...

[Twin-Skies]

Yet another reason our Gov't should be putting more money into Education (or at least executing the corrupt officials within. Preferably en masse)

[Sforza]

'Last Lecture' Professor, Randy Pausch, Dies

If you haven't watched it yet:

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[NiX]

Damn, what an awesome prof. I intended on just watching 10 minutes of it but that 10 minutes turned into the full hour and 16 minutes. That birthday near the end was just epic.

Colored pictures in an academic journal?! Hahah awesome guy indeed. I wish I'd have as much passion for work as him one day.

May he rest in peace.

[Grim]

'Last Lecture' Professor, Randy Pausch, Dies

Rest in peace prof. You represented the best of us.

Guy wanted to work for Disney when he was young, so he did it when he grew up, alongside all of his other childhood dreams. I wish I can say the same at the end of my life.

[AppleHead]

Since you asked, here's a sampling of the random stuff I've read over the past few days. If a few of you have the same interests because you're as awesome as me, I can post something like this again.

1. A report: Household insects and their control 5mb size. (Washington State University)

2. Fourteen Passive-Aggressive appetizers: For entertaining guests you hate but just had to invite. (The New Yorker)

3. For the guys: So you think you can dance? LA Laker Girls Tryouts. Sports bras and bouncing tits all around. (LA Times)

4. How to get refunded on pre-packaged Vista. (Gizmodo)
Applenote: Because it sucks.

5. Uncomfortable answers to questions on the Economy (The New York Times)

6. People See in Obama What They Want to See (Gary Younge)

7. Rock Drummers are top athletes (BBC)

8. Reflections on the Ephemeral World, Part Two: Food

Underground Goes Mainstream (Both from Design Observer)

Edit: RIP Randy Pausch. You were a good man.

[maitreya]

Since you asked, here's a sampling of the random stuff I've read over the past few days. If a few of you have the same interests because you're as awesome as me, I can post something like this again.

...

2. Fourteen Passive-Aggressive appetizers: For entertaining guests you hate but just had to invite. (The New Yorker)

...

5. Uncomfortable answers to questions on the Economy (The New York Times)

...

Do post something like these. So am I anywhere close to being as awesome as you?

[Sforza]

Hey Apple, you might like this for the design element.
Anti Bush Graffiti in 25 countries and 6 continents.

[Twin-Skies]

Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage, Sean Hannity on accused shooter's reading list

Police found right-wing political books, brass knuckles, empty shotgun shell boxes and a handgun in the Powell home of a man who said he attacked a church in order to kill liberals "who are ruining the country," court records show.

Knoxville police Sunday evening searched the Levy Drive home of Jim David Adkisson after he allegedly entered the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church and killed two people and wounded six others during the presentation of a children's musical.

Knoxville Police Department Officer Steve Still requested the search warrant after interviewing Adkisson. who was subdued by several church members after firing three rounds from a 12-gauge shotgun into the congregation.

Adkisson targeted the church, Still wrote in the document obtained by WBIR-TV, Channel 10, "because of its liberal teachings and his belief that all liberals should be killed because they were ruining the country, and that he felt that the Democrats had tied his country's hands in the war on terror and they had ruined every institution in America with the aid of media outlets."

Adkisson told Still that "he could not get to the leaders of the liberal movement that he would then target those that had voted them in to office."

Adkisson told officers he left the house unlocked for them because "he expected to be killed during the assault."

Inside the house, officers found "Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder" by radio talk show host Michael Savage, "Let Freedom Ring" by talk show host Sean Hannity, and "The O'Reilly Factor," by television talk show host Bill O'Reilly.

The shotgun-wielding suspect in Sunday's mass shooting at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church was motivated by a hatred of "the liberal movement," and he planned to shoot until police shot him, Knoxville Police Chief Sterling P. Owen IV said this morning.

Funny...I remember O'Reilly specifically saying that it was the "damn liberals" who were the terrorists. And yet it's one of his most ardent followers that ended up pulling the trigger.

Bah. Fanyboys - they ruin everything wherever they go.

A Unitarian Universalist Church...I was actually thinking of moving to this religion a while back given they followed a very similar flow of thought to mine. Moderate, and very open-minded.

[Twin-Skies]

You know you've had too much Pokemon...

...when you start naming major scientific discoveries after the critters

OSAKA--A team of researchers at Osaka Bioscience Institute in Suita, Osaka Prefecture, has identified a protein that is necessary to efficiently transmit visual information to the brain.

The researchers believe that the protein plays a role in determining the efficiency of kinetic vision. They therefore named the protein pikachurin after Pikachu, a popular anime character in the Pokemon media franchise known for its lightning-fast moves.

The finding was revealed in the July 20 issue of the the U.S. science magazine Nature Neuroscience's Web version.

The newly discovered protein is expected to be helpful in the treatment of retinitis pigmentosa, they said.

The researchers, headed by Takahisa Furukawa, discovered the pikachurin protein by analyzing mice genes that function in the formation of retinal visual cells that sense light.

The protein localizes to the synaptic cleft in the photoreceptor ribbon synapse, which transmits signals from visual cells to the brain, they said.

Mice whose pikachurin genes have been destroyed showed an improper apposition of the synaptic cleft. Consequently, it took about three more times for them to transmit the signals to the brain. In addition, such mice showed slower eyeball responses tracking moving objects than normal mice, leading the researchers to believe that the pikachurin protein is connected with kinetic vision.

[clonezero]

seriously ... neurologist would probably have a field day on this one ... at least it makes it somewhat easier to remember.

[Twin-Skies]

University researchers firebombed, animal rights activists blamed

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. -- Firebombs were intentionally set on a porch and in a car belonging to two UC Santa Cruz researchers in separate incidents early Saturday in what police have classified as acts of domestic terrorism.

Police are calling one of the bombings an attempted homicide.

In one incident, a faculty member's home was intentionally firebombed at about 5:40 a.m., according to police. The residence belongs to a well-known UCSC molecular biologist who works with mice. He was one of 13 researchers listed in threatening animal rights pamphlets found Tuesday in a downtown coffee shop.

In the second incident at about the same time, a Volvo station wagon parked in a faculty member's driveway on campus also was firebombed, police said.

The family was home at the time of the firebombing and the victims, including two young children, escaped on a fire ladder from a second-story window, according to police. One family member sustained injuries during the escape and had to be hospitalized briefly, police said. That bombing is being considered an attempted homicide because the family was home, police said.

The Volvo that burned also belonged to a UCSC researcher, but not a researcher listed in the pamphlet who also lives on the street, according to Santa Cruz police Capt. Steve Clark.

Clark declined to say if the researcher who owns the burned car works with animals or if the wrong car was bombed. UCSC spokesman Jim Burns also declined to comment. That person's name has not been released by either police or UCSC.

Santa Cruz Police investigators, the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and UCSC police are conducting a joint investigation, collecting evidence and interviewing witnesses. The case has been turned over to the FBI.

Saturday afternoon, police officers and firefighters were helping restore electricity and inspect the Village Circle home.

"The firemen are here. We're trying to get the electricity restored.

This is really horrible," said Sofie Salama on Saturday, who answered the phone at researcher David Feldheim's home and said she lived there.

She refused to describe what police said was a harrowing pre-sunrise scramble down a fire escape ladder with two young children.

Suddenly, Homeland Security going Shock and Awe all over the perp's asses doesn't sound too bad...

[Sforza]

Thai teen murders cab driver after playing GTA IV.

"He confessed that he committed the crime because he had copied it from the game he played," Bangkok police Captain Veerarit Pipatanasak told AFP.

The teenager was charged with robbery and possession of a weapon, and could face the death penalty or life imprisonment if convicted, Veerarit said.

[Grim]

Thai teen murders cab driver after playing GTA IV.

>_<

I want to say something but I don't know how to put it.

---

Actor Morgan Freeman is injured in car accident

JACKSON, Miss. - Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman was injured in a car accident late Sunday night and is in a hospital in Memphis, Tenn.

Regional Medical Center spokeswoman Kathy Stringer said Freeman, 71, is in serious condition. The hospital is about 90 miles north of the accident scene in rural Tallahatchie County in the Mississippi Delta.

Mississippi Highway Patrol spokesman Sgt. Ben Williams confirmed Freeman was in a wreck shortly before midnight Sunday, but said he was still gathering information and had few details Monday.

Clay McFerrin, editor of Sun Sentinel in Charleston, said he arrived at the accident scene on Mississippi Highway 32 soon after it happened about 4 miles west of Charleston, not far from where Freeman owns a home with his wife.

McFerrin said it appeared that Freeman's car was airborne went it left the highway and landed in a ditch.

"They had to use the jaws of life to extract him from the vehicle," McFerrin said. "He was lucid, conscious. He was talking, joking with some of the rescue workers at one point."

McFerrin said bystanders converged on the scene trying to get a glimpse of the actor.

When one person tried to snap a photo with a cell phone camera, Freeman joked, "no freebies, no freebies," McFerrin said.

The hospital where Freeman is being treated is commonly known as The Med, and is an acute-care teaching facility that serves patients within 150 miles of Memphis.

UPDATE: He seems to be OK.

http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/brea...-car-crash

[Twin-Skies]

Thai teen murders cab driver after playing GTA IV.

"He confessed that he committed the crime because he had copied it from the game he played," Bangkok police Captain Veerarit Pipatanasak told AFP.

The teenager was charged with robbery and possession of a weapon, and could face the death penalty or life imprisonment if convicted, Veerarit said.

Given Thailand's track record, I'd take the initial police reports witha grain of salt.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_...censorship

Not enough information is being provided for. For one, what was the boy like BEFORE he committed the crime? It's too easy to blame a game - what about his past experiences that may have culminated in this?