It’s making children cry.
‘It’s making children cry’: Police tell man to tone down annual charity Halloween display in honour of his grandmother
A Halloween fan who put up a gruesome display of ‘disembowelled corpses’ outside his home has been asked by police to tone it down.
James Creighton, 25, was told that his scene was making children cry with its macabre reconstruction of a scene from The Texas Chainshaw Massacre.
He has put the display up outside his house in Stevenage to raise funds for charity every year since his grandmother died in 2009.
But one parent complained to Hertfordshire Constabulary, concerned that the collection of ‘bloody corpses and gory skeletons’ was scaring young children.
But Mr Creighton said: ‘I can’t believe it to be honest. I can’t see what I’ve done wrong.’
Water Tunnel No. 3 Done
After Decades, a Water Tunnel Can Now Serve All of Manhattan
Pool photo by Mary Altaffer
Of all New York City’s sprawling mega-projects, the water tunnel snaking beneath the grid — connecting the Bronx to Upper Manhattan, Upper Manhattan to Central Park, Central Park to Queens, and, eventually, Queens to the western edge of Brooklyn — is perhaps the hardest to love.
There will be no new subway to board when the work is done, no elevator to ride to the top of a skyscraper. Even the name is shrouded in anonymity: Water Tunnel No. 3, the last in a trilogy that few New Yorkers would pay to see.
In one of the most significant milestones for the city’s water supply in nearly a century, the tunnel — authorized in 1954, begun in 1970 and considered the largest capital construction project ever undertaken in the five boroughs — will for the first time be equipped to provide water for all of Manhattan. Since 1917, the borough has relied on Tunnel No. 1, which was never inspected or significantly repaired after its opening.
Royal Train Gone
Is the royal train grinding to a halt?
Despite decades in service, the royal train has yet to reach the end of the line – at least according to those who built it
By Joe Shute
In recent days, the Queen’s treasurer has done much to recast himself in the role of Jenny Agutter in The Railway Children, waving down the royal train with a pair of red bloomers to stop it in its tracks.
For, according to Sir Alan Reid, the Keeper of the Privy Purse, the train that has been a permanent fixture of regal life since the reign of Queen Victoria may soon be forced to come to a halt. In an admission to a committee of MPs on Monday, he warned the current rolling stock only has five to 10 years of service left. The prospect of replacing it, he said, would be a major decision, adding that “the figures are quite staggering
20-years On and Grateful
Author James Frey Celebrates 20 Years Clean and Sober
JAMES FREY, PHOTO (C) TERRY RICHARDSON
Hamptons resident, writer and publisher James Frey celebrates 20 years sober today. The 44-year-old author of controversial bestseller A Million Little Pieces, My Friend Leonard, Bright Shiny Morning and, his latest, The Final Testament of the Holy Bible has been both lauded and vilified in the literary world, but he continues to attract a legion of enthusiastic readers and fans.
Frey addressed his friends and supporters on Facebook this morning about this milestone anniversary:
“20 years ago today I went to the Hazelden Foundation for treatment of alcoholism and cocaine addiction. Haven’t had a drink or used a drug since. Thank you to Hazelden, to my family and to my friends for all of the love and support. And to the many many readers and supporters I know on here or have never met, there have been dark times in these years, and you have helped more than you know, more than you know. I’m a lucky mother______. Thank you thank you thank you.”
Banksy for 60
Dash-Cam
A Flood of Gonzo Weirdness
Sarah Flood in Salem Mass: All Kinds of Gonzo Weirdness
Adriano Shaplin‘s gonzo epic Sarah Flood in Salem Mass blends Our Town and The Crucible with verve, slang, and hallucinogenic beaver stew. (Yes, the Wooster Group did it first—minus the beavers—but that was 30 years ago.) The 18-character play at the Flea Theater opens in a riot of questionable godliness, incipient witchcraft, dynastic alliances, and contested wills. There are too many people, too many trees, too many narratives, and a lot of stage haze. Then it gets properly weird.
Deadly Shooting in House That Appears In Movie I Am Number Four
Hirst Births Giant Bronze Baby In Qatar
Damien Hirst’s Anatomical Sculptures Have Their Debut
By CAROL VOGEL
DOHA, Qatar — For weeks, 14 giant balloons had been mysteriously parked in front of the Sidra Medical and Research Center, a hulking steel, glass and white ceramic building devoted to women’s and children’s health that is to open on the outskirts of this city in 2015.
At 7 on Monday evening, to the amplified sound of a beating heart, members of Qatar’s royal family, government officials and local artists watched as each balloon, bathed in purple light, opened like a giant flower to reveal an unusually provocative public artwork. Called “The Miraculous Journey,” it consists of 14 monumental bronze sculptures, by the British artist Damien Hirst, chronicling the gestation of a fetus inside a uterus, from conception to birth, ending with a statue of a 46-foot-tall anatomically correct baby boy.
Even for a Persian Gulf country that is aggressively buying its way into modernity, this installation takes official acceptance of Western art to a new level. Local women still adhere to centuries-old Islamic traditions, wearing the abaya, a long cloak, and niqab, or face covering; images of women are routinely censored in books and magazines. Even the representation of the human form is unusual.
To commission such an audacious work of art is considered a particularly bold move for Sheikha al Mayassa Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, 30, chairwoman of the Qatar Museums Authority and a sister to the new emir of this oil- and gas-rich state. The sculptures are reported to have cost $20 million.
“To have something like this is less daring than having a lot of nudity,” said the sheikha, interviewed on Monday morning in her office at the Museum of Islamic Art, a modern, sun-filled space with sweeping views of the gulf. “There is a verse in the Koran about the miracle of birth,” she said. “It is not against our culture or our religion.”
Hecklers Suck Balls
Fiona Apple Heckled Over Health, Walks Off Again
Just over a month ago, Fiona Apple made headlines following an incident at a Fashion Week event in Tokyo in which she reportedly walked off stage when the crowd refused to, in her alleged words, “shut the fuck up.”
As reported, quite delicately, by both Stereogum and The Oregonian, Apple and her current touring partner Blake Mills played a wonderful tour-opening show last night (October 3) at Portland, Oregon’s Newmark Theatre, but the concert ended in ignominy on all all sides when a heckler attacked the headliner’s physical appearance. Apple’s battle with the press and public over her body image has been an epic one, and unnecessary (plus inherently misogynist) as it should have nothing to do with her contributions as an artist.
Over an hour into the set, a fan in the first balcony shouted, “Fiona! Get healthy! We want to see you in 10 years!” Stereogum explains what happened next: “Apple, understandably, looked aghast, then hurt, then furious. She unleashed a torrent of vitriol at the unseen member of the peanut gallery. “I am healthy! Who the fuck do you think you are? I want you to get the fuck out of here. I want the house lights on so I watch you leave!” The venue obliged and the offending fan left, but not without escalating.
As she left, the heckler had a parting shot: “I saw you 20 years ago and you were beautiful!” As Apple reportedly became more emotional, The Oregonion reports that an unkind man also shouted, “You’re a has-been!” She then apparently said she was done, but muscled through “Waltz (Better Than Fine)” while sobbing. With only one song left scheduled for the set (“I Know”), she “in tears, apologized and walked off, calling it ‘a historically stupid night.'”
It Ain’t A da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci painting lost for centuries found in Swiss bank vault
By Nick Squires, Rome
It was lost for so long that it had assumed mythical status for art historians. Some doubted whether it even existed.
But a 500-year-old mystery was apparently solved today after a painting attributed to Leonardo da Vinci was discovered in a Swiss bank vault.
The painting, which depicts Isabella d’Este, a Renaissance noblewoman, was found in a private collection of 400 works kept in a Swiss bank by an Italian family who asked not to be identified.
It appears to be a completed, painted version of a pencil sketch drawn by Leonardo da Vinci in Mantua in the Lombardy region of northern Italy in 1499.
The sketch, the apparent inspiration for the newly found work, hangs in the Louvre Museum in Paris.
For centuries it had been debated whether Leonardo had actually had the time or inclination to develop the sketch into a painted portrait.
After seeing the drawing he produced, the marquesa wrote to the artist, imploring him to produce a full-blown painting.
But shortly afterwards he embarked on one of his largest works, The Battle of Anghiari on the walls of Florence’s town hall, and then, in 1503, started working on the Mona Lisa.
Art historians had long believed he simply ran out of time — or lost interest — in completing the commission for Isabella d’Este.
Now it appears that he did in fact manage to finish the project — perhaps when he encountered the aristocrat, one of the most influential female figures of her day, in Rome in 1514.
Father of Big Brother Gone
Albert D. Wheelon, Architect of Aerial Spying, Dies at 84
Albert D. Wheelon, a physicist whose early work on satellites for the C.I.A. in the 1960s helped lay the groundwork for a vast American arsenal of aerial spying machines, died on Friday in Santa Barbara, Calif. He was 84.
The cause was cancer, his sister, Marcia Wheelon, said.
Dr. Wheelon was 34 when he was given control of all the C.I.A.’s scientific work in 1963 as head of the new Directorate of Science and Technology. His assignment was to revolutionize spying by developing aerial surveillance systems, which the government considered a national imperative after the Soviet Union launched the satellite Sputnik into space in 1957.
He worked on developing and deploying spy planes like the U-2, the Lockheed A-12 and the SR71 Blackbird, and several generations of Corona reconnaissance satellites, which dropped film canisters that were then snapped up in midflight by aircraft.
Just as important, he shepherded research and development of new kinds of satellites that made digital pictures of objects on the ground as small as five inches across and then transmitted the images to earth for analysis almost instantly.
Tom Clancy Gone
from Business Insider via Yahoo!
Tom Clancy Dead: Celebrated Thriller Author Dies at Age 66
By Aly Weisman | Business Insider
Robert Mora/Getty
American author Tom Clancy died Tuesday night in a Baltimore hospital at age 66, Publishers Weekly first reported via Twitter.
“He was a thrill to work with,” Ivan Held, the president of Putnam, told The New York Times.
A cause of death has not yet been revealed.
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Tom Clancy studied literature at the Loyola College in Baltimore and was originally an insurance salesman before becoming famous for writing technically detailed espionage and military science books.
He is responsible for best-selling books such as “The Hunt for Red October,” “Patriot Games,” “Clear and Present Danger,” and “The Sum of All Fears” — all of which were adapted into major Hollywood films.
Seventeen of his novels were No. 1 New York Times best-sellers, including his most recent, “Threat Vector,” which was released in December 2012.
In 1996, Clancy co-founded the video game developer Red Storm Entertainment and has had his name on several of Red Storm’s most successful games.
Dr. Wiki
Editing Wikipedia Pages for Med School Credit
By NOAM COHEN
Medical students at the University of California, San Francisco, will be able to get course credit for editing Wikipedia articles about diseases, part of an effort to improve the quality of medical articles in the online encyclopedia and help distribute the articles globally via cellphones. While professors often incorporate Wikipedia work into classes, hoping that student research can live on online, the university and others say this is the first time a medical school will give credit for such work.
“We as a profession have our corpus of knowledge, and we owe it as a profession to educate the lay public,” said Dr. Amin Azzam, a health sciences associate clinical professor at the U.C.S.F. School of Medicine who will teach the monthlong elective course in December.
Wikipedia editing will force students to think clearly and avoid jargon, he said. “We do a great job in helping them talk to doctors, but we don’t do as good a job in helping them speak to the public,” he added.
Dorothy Must Die
HarperCollins announces Oz-inspired series ‘Dorothy Must Die’ — EXCLUSIVE
By Stephan Lee
More than a century after L. Frank Baum’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the Emerald City continues to shine brightly in pop culture. Debut novelist Danielle Paige signed a three-book and three-digital novella deal with HarperCollins. The series will start with Dorothy Must Die, described as “The Wizard of Oz meets Kill Bill“, in April 2014. In this re-imagining, a twister rips through Kansas and transports Amy Gumm — most likely inspired by Judy Garland’s birth name Frances Gumm — into Oz, which has been transformed under Dorothy’s tyrannical misrule. In a complete twist from the original, Amy must steal the Scarecrow’s brain, remove the Tin Woodman’s heart, and take the Lion’s courage. And ultimately — destroy Dorothy.
“Growing up, I read all of L. Frank Baum’s Oz books too many times to count,” said author Danielle Paige in a press release. “Getting to revisit Oz and explore the darkness alongside the Technicolor is a thrill.”
The Longest Password Ever
courtesy of M. Husain
No More 33-channel Equalizer Buzz-toys Boo-hoo
The death of the home stereo system
By Todd Leopold, CNN
For many years, it was a rite of fall.
You moved into your dorm room or new apartment. You started unpacking the car. And the first thing you set up in your new place was the stereo system: receiver, turntable or CD player, tape deck and speakers.
The wires could get tangled, and sometimes you had to make shelving out of a stack of milk crates. But only when the music was playing on those handpicked CDs, mix tapes or (geezer alert!) vinyl records did you move in the rest of your stuff.
Daniel Rubio wouldn’t know.
To the 23-year-old, new dorm rooms and new apartments have meant computers, iTunes, Pandora and miniature speakers.
“All I had to bring was my laptop. That’s pretty much what everyone had,” says Rubio, who attended Emory University in Atlanta and now works for a local marketing and communications firm. “It was actually pretty good sound. It would get the job done.”
“Get the job done”? That sounds like the white flag for an era that used to be measured in woofers and tweeters, watts per channel and the size of your record collection.
Indeed, the days of the old-fashioned component stereo system are pretty much over, says Alan Penchansky, an audiophile and former columnist for the music trade publication Billboard.
“What’s happened in the marketplace, the midmarket for audio has completely been obliterated,” he says. “You have this high-end market that’s getting smaller all the time, and then you’ve got the convenience market, which has taken over — the MP3s, the Bluetooth devices, playing on laptops.”
He wishes more people knew what they were missing. At its best, he says, audio reproduction has “a religious aspect.”
“There’s a primacy to audio,” he says. “It’s a form of magic.”
INVISIBLE MAN Spotted Again in Asheboro, NC
‘Invisible Man’ back in county schools
By Kathi Keys
ASHEBORO — “Invisible Man” will once again be on the shelves of Randolph County Schools’ high school libraries.
The Randolph County Board of Education decided, by a 6-1 vote, at a special meeting Wednesday evening to reinstate Ralph Ellison’s book, “Invisible Man,” to the county school library shelves. Casting the dissenting vote was board member Gary Mason.
On Sept. 16, the board, by a 5-2 vote, originally decided to ban the book after receiving a parent’s complaint about the book, the decision bringing international attention to Randolph County over the past week. The book was one of three selections to choose from on Randleman High School juniors’ summer reading list; both school-level and district committees recommended the book stay on library shelves.
Before Wednesday’s 6-1 vote, board members who originally voted to ban the book spoke to the approximately 50 people who attended the meeting about their reasoning and other considerations since the first vote. Many of those present were media representatives.
Mason said he reread the book since the last meeting and deliberated about the ban for several days. He talked about dedicating “his entire life to the safety and protection of other people” and his obligations to parents, students and the citizens who had elected him to represent them.
He said he remained concerned about the “strong language” in the book. “I still feel it is not appropriate for children or young teens to read,” Mason said, adding that he realized that others would disagree with him for opposing the book.
Goat Tape
$10,000 Worth of Goats Stolen from Hawaii Farm
(AP) HONOLULU
More than 20 goats were stolen from a Hawaii farm, and the owner says the thieves used duct tape to keep the animals from making noise.
KHON-TV reports (http://bit.ly/1aijpQI) the 23 purebred goats were taken from a farm in Kahuku, on Oahu’s North Shore, sometime between Thursday night and Friday morning.
Keal Pontin says the thieves left behind other goats at his family’s farm with ropes around their necks and duct tape over their muzzles. Pontin says the experience likely was traumatic for the friendly animals.
‘…the soulless gaze they can prompt in children can be downright terrifying.’
Disney’s ‘Little Mermaid Second Screen Live’ adds iPad twist
Family and Film: Will parents buy a break from moviegoing tradition to let kids play games along with second-screen showings?
By Nicole Sperling
For many parents of young children, the battle over limiting little ones’ time with iPads and other mobile devices is difficult and seemingly unending. They can serve as fantastic baby sitters in a pinch, but the soulless gaze they can prompt in children can be downright terrifying.
A number of scientific studies have raised red flags; this summer Public Health England, for instance, warned that children who spend more time watching screens tend to have higher levels of emotional distress, anxiety and depression.
So it came as a bit of a surprise to see that Disney was putting “The Little Mermaid” back in cinemas and encouraging kids to download a new related app onto their iPads and bring them to the theater. As the movie runs they can play games, compete with fellow audience members and sing along with the Disney classic.
Launched Friday in 16 theaters in Southern California, New York, Texas, Tennessee, Georgia, Kansas and New Jersey, the “Little Mermaid Second Screen Live” screenings are essentially a “Rocky Horror Picture Show” for the digital generation.
Disney sees “Second Screen Live” as a novel way to get young moviegoers to want to go to theaters more often.
“This is a special event. We are inviting people to break the rules,” said Disney’s head of theatrical distribution Dave Hollis. “It’s a departure from the traditional moviegoing experience. We wanted to inject a different kind of life into it.”
I had to wonder: Is the singing, brooding Ariel really not enough anymore — now the kids have to “interact” with their fellow moviegoers? For many parents (including me), sitting in a dark room with my children and not interacting is what makes moviegoing such a blissful family activity.
READING RAINBOW Returns Yea!!
‘Reading Rainbow’ Returns as App
By Margaret Bristol and Natalie Zutter
For 26 years, the beloved television show “Reading Rainbow” aired on PBS, each episode offering new adventures and series book recommendations. The show was critically acclaimed (26 Emmys!) and host LeVar Burton–not to mention an addictive theme song–became an integral part of its success.
Now, Burton (with his multimedia company RRKidz) has relaunched the “Reading Rainbow” brand for a whole new generation of young readers–readers used to consuming media on computers, tablets and mobile devices. The “Reading Rainbow” app is now available in the iTunes store, and with it comes a world of learning and books.
In a recent interview, Burton explained that after “Reading Rainbow” was cancelled in 2009, he wanted to continue to inspire kids in their love of reading. “‘Reading Rainbow’ the television show was really about using the prevailing technology of the day to reach kids and turn them on to books and literature and the adventures of reading,” he said. “If you want to reach kids today, you need to be on a mobile device.”
22 Orange Peanut Hut Hut
The Limits of Reason
Russian shot in quarrel over Kant’s philosophy
MOSCOW (AP) — An argument in southern Russia over philosopher Immanuel Kant, the author of “Critique of Pure Reason,” devolved into pure mayhem when one debater shot the other.
A police spokeswoman in Rostov-on Don, Viktoria Safarova, said two men in their 20s were discussing Kant as they stood in line to buy beer at a small store on Sunday. The discussion deteriorated into a fistfight and one participant pulled out a small nonlethal pistol and fired repeatedly.
Butt Pudding
McEveryboot
I want McEverything! Man orders every sandwich on McDonald’s menu to create $140 super-sub
By Lee Moran
He wanted McEverything!
A food fan ordered every single sandwich on the McDonald’s menu to create his very own $140 gut-busting super-sub.
He rolled into the chain’s eatery in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, 30 minutes before the end of breakfast service so he could order all 43 different sandwiches available.
He admitted that many will question why he spent $140.33 on the food – plus an extra dollar for the Diet Coke.
But he said: “The way I see it though is that with all the leftovers I have I’ve got all my breakfasts, lunches and dinners covered for the next week or so!”
Prince Jazzbo Gone
Reggae Toaster Prince Jazzbo Dies, Aged 62
By Ian Harrison
IN 1976 PRINCE JAZZBO would be immortalized on The Upsetters’ Lee Perry-produced classic Super Ape. He voiced the humid, dubbed up stream of consciousness track Croaking Lizard over the rhythm of Max Romeo’s Iron Shirt – referring to tribal war and the all-important natty dread skank, it remains an essential transmission from what many would hold to be the glory years of reggae and dub.
Though the success enjoyed by peers including Big Youth and U Roy would elude him, he would sustain a four-decades career as MC, producer and label owner. Born Linval Roy Carter in Clarendon 1951, Prince Jazzbo was first heard at Studio One in 1972, his first hit being the spontaneous, madcap Crab Walking, using Horace Andy’s Skylarking rhythm.
He’d also work with producers Bunny Lee and Glen Brown before hooking up with Perry, recording the admired, Vatican-bashing Natty Passing Thru’ LP (also known as Ital Corner) in 1976. From 1977 he ran the Ujama label – whose label famously carried a picture of jockeys riding a donkey and whose discography would come to feature something of a who’s-who of Jamaican vocalists, including Frankie Paul, Horace Andy, U-Roy and I-Roy, plus many more.
Amusingly, Jazzbo had dueled with the latter on vinyl in 1975 (this musical feud involved Jazzbo answering I-Roy’s demolishing Straight To Jazzbo’s Head with Straight To I-Roy’s Head – subsequent vinyl blows included Jazzbo Have Fe Run and Gal Boy I Roy, all, the story goes, with the encouragement of producer Bunny Lee). The two men would later make peace, recording the duet Live Together in 1990.
Apple Creepy Crow
Coulrophobia: The fear of clowns
Creepy Northampton clown terrifying residents by standing around on street corners staring at passers-by
A creepy and anonymous clown has been terrifying residents of Northampton by standing around on street corners and staring at passers-by.
The clown, who bears a striking resemblance to Pennywise from the 1990 film It, adapted from the Stephen King novel of the same name, first appeared on Friday 13th and was spotted again over the weekend.
According to the Northampton Herald and Post the clown has appeared in several locations in the Abington and Kingsley areas of the town. On each sighting, he or she has worn the same white face makeup, red wig, all-in-one suit and oversized bowtie.
He is also sometimes seen carrying a clown teddy.
The newspaper also reports that the clown knocked on someone’s door and offered to paint their window sills despite having no painting equipment. She reported the men to police for their suspicious behaviour stating they looked like clowns. The article stated: “A number of sightings of people dressed as clowns have also been reported across Northampton in recent weeks”.
The newspaper reported: “He doesn’t juggle. He doesn’t twist balloons into animal shapes. He just stares.”
Creepy Carlos The Booty-Grabber Accosts Queens Co-eds
Perv sneaks into off-campus St. John’s dorm in Queens, gropes female student: cops
By Kerry Burke , Jennifer H. Cunningham AND Thomas Tracy
A pervet sneaked into an off-campus dorm at St. John’s University in Queens and groped a female student on Friday, cop sources said.
The suspect, described as a heavyset Latino man who is not a St. John’s student, entered the dorm on Henley Road in Jamaica Hills at about 7:30 p.m. and grabbed the victim’s rear end, according to sources.
A student who lives at the St. John’s dorm said the pervert had been seen before — and been given a nickname. “There’s a guy around here always grabbing girls’ butts,” the female student said. “We call him ‘Carlos the Booty-Grabber.’”
Ameri-Man Booker
Shock as Man Booker prize plans to consider works by American writers
British authors say award will lose its distinctiveness and new talent will be ‘crowded out’
The British literary world has been stunned by news that the Man Booker prize is set to allow American writers to enter from next year, with authors questioning whether it would lose its “character” and even prevent the emergence of domestic talent.
The Man Booker, which currently allows entries from British, Irish and Commonwealth authors, is the most prestigious prize in British literature; past winners include Salman Rushdie, Iris Murdoch and JM Coetzee.
It emerged on Sunday that novels by US authors would be allowed from next year for the first time. Jim Crace, who is on this year’s shortlist for his novel Harvest, said: “In principle, I should believe in all prizes being open to everyone. But I think prizes need to have their own characters, and sometimes those characters are defined by their limitations.”
A Booker spokeswoman declined to comment on Sunday but said some changes to the prize were to be announced as early as this week.
Mr Crace said: “If you open the Booker prize to all people writing in the English language it would be a fantastic overview of English language literature but it would lose a focus. I’m very fond of the sense of the Commonwealth. There’s something in there that you would lose if you open it up to American authors.”
Broadcaster Melvyn Bragg added that he believes the prize may lose its “distinctiveness”.