This might be the winning Powerball ticket.

There have been some high lottery jackpots in the past, but we are reaching rarified air.  It’s been awhile since someone won the Powerball, and the number keeps getting higher and higher.  There’s a new record Powerball jackpot of $600 million waiting to be won, so make sure you pick up your tickets before tonight’s drawing.  The previous Powerball high was $587.5 million in November 2012.

“If this hasn’t caught your attention, I’m not sure what would,” says Mary Neubauer of the Iowa Lottery, who runs the Powerball.   ”Our billboards aren’t designed to display a billion.  We’re not sure how we will display that amount, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

The reason Ms. Neubauer dropped a mention of a billion dollars is that if the Powerball jackpot is not won, the prize money will continue to rise.  Given the amount of people expected to play the numbers this week, that could boost the jackpot to a staggering 10 figures.  No one has hit the powerball jackpot in two months, hence the epic prize money for the person who hits the lucky five numbers and Powerball.  The odds of winning are 1 in 175 million.

Tags: powerball, lottery, jackpots, powerball jackpots, powerball jackpot reaches 600 million, 600 million powerball, record powerball jackpot, record powerball, record lottery jackpots, powerball jackpot may reach 1 billion dollars, iowa lottery, Mary Neubauer

I struggle to believe that someone who got famous for killing someone could be a murderer.

He rose to fame for his good deeds, but it’s a bad deed he’s found renewed notoriety for.  Caleb Lawrence McGillvary, AKA Kai the Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker, rose to fame as a result of his heroic actions when he stopped a woman from being attacked by killing the attacker with a hatchet to the brain pan.  Now, it is believed that Kai is a murderer.  Kai the Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker has been arrested for murder.  As it turns out, you may need more than just a towel to hitchhike, Arthur Dent.

The body of Joseph Galfry Jr., a 73-year-old lawyer from Clark, New Jersey, was found murdered in his home with a blunt object.  The body was wearing only underwear and a tee-shirt and was found in a blood-soaked bed.  Apparently the two had met in Times Square and went to Clark’s home.  After the incident on Saturday, some fans of Kai’s gave him a ride to Pennsylvania, where he was arrested at the bus station in Philadelphia.  A posting on Kai’s Facebook page asks, ”what would you do” [after waking up and] “realizing that someone had drugged [and] raped … you?”

Tags: kai, kai the hatchet wielding hitchhiker, kai the hitchhiker, Caleb Lawrence McGillvary, philadelphia, pennsylvania, kai the hatchet wielding hitchhiker arrested for murder, kai the hitchhiker arrested for murder,  Joseph Galfy Jr., clark, internet celebrities, unusual criminals, murder, internet celebrity murder, new jersey

Censored Bea Arthur, for your protection and my sanity

Bea Arthur had an impressive life and career, and it’s no wonder that an artist would like to compose an image of her at her best.  Artist John Currin depicted Bea Arthur in oil paint on canvas, and the piece became noteworthy for one reason:  it depicts a topless Bea Arthur.  Well, Christie’s Auction House  had their Post War and Contemporary Art Sale on Wednesday, and Currin’s painting “Bea Arthur Naked” was the star of the show.  An oil painting of a topless Bea Arthur sold for $1.9 million dollars (warning: uncensored painting at link).

Bea Arthur was pretty impressive, both in regard to her height and in terms of what she was able to accomplish.  She had a great one-woman show a few years ago before her death, she was part of one of the better ensemble comedies in network TV history in “The Golden Girls,” and she was a decorated military veteran and one of the first female Marines to enlist.  Apparently she also had a decent rack, at least according to the imagination of John Currin, who based his picture on clothed images of Bea Arthur.

Tags: christie’s auction house, christie’s, bea arthur, naked bea arthur, bea arthur naked, topless painting of bea arthur, unusual images, unusual art, topless bea arthur painting sells for 1.9 million dollars, art auction, auctions, unusual paintings, john currin, post war and contemporary art sale, topless bea arthur

This is what a mile-wide tornado looks like.

There are a lot of scary things about tornadoes.  They’re just a big, scary force of nature that cannot be reasoned with, cannot be controlled, and can rarely be predicted.  Once a tornado is on the ground, you don’t really know where it’s going to hit or how hard it is going to hit.  A series of massive tornadoes tore through Granbury, Texas, destroying 100 homes and killing 6 people last night.  Granbury, the hardest hit area in Hood County, has been practically wiped off the map.  Sadly, most of the homes in the community were built by Habitat for Humanity.

“We did use our Code Red Emergency Phone Notification System to alert the citizens of the county in the affected areas and in the areas that were going to be affected,” said Hood County sheriff Roger Deeds, who added that the system saved lives.

Homes are completely destroyed, so authorities believe that there may be a much higher death toll than initially announced and there are expected to be trapped survivors found in the rubble.  There are 48 injured people at Lake Granbury Medical Center, and 100 people at a Red Cross shelter.  The tornado string was accompanied by softball-sized hail, which is just incredible to think about.  Here’s hoping the damage doesn’t get much worse and the death toll doesn’t rise as a result of this storm.

Tags: tornadoes, hood county, texas, north texas, granbury, roger deeds, hood county sheriff’s department, tornado, natural disasters, line of tornados, mile-wide tornado, over 100 homes destroyed by tornadoes, line of tornadoes in texas, disasters, habitat for humanity

A parking meter in need of feeding.

It’s one of the worst feelings you can have.  You go into a store, do your business, and come out of the store to find a ticket on your windshield.  It’s enough to drive some people to commit vandalism, and no one is safe from meter maids, not even Batman.  Well, a group of six people in Keene, New Hampshire, has declared war against parking fines, and now the city of Keene has declared war on them.  The city of Keene is suing a group of people who have been feeding parking meters.

The notes read,  ”Your meter expired; however, we saved you from the king’s tariffs,” and encourage recipients to “pay it forward” to someone else.

Of course, it’s not as simple as people going around and feeding the meters.  Keene accuses Robin Hood and his Merry Men (as the group is known) of doing more than good deeds, saying they have ”intentionally taunted, interfered with, harassed and intimidated” the city’s three parking enforcement officers.  For their part, Robin Hood and company say the city is suing them simply because the city is losing money thanks to their good deeds.

Tags: Keene, New Hampshire, Robin Hood and his Merry Men, Robin Hood, Merry Men, parking meters, vigilantes feeding parking meters, Keene sues Robin Hood, Keene sues parking meter feeders, feeding parking meters, good deeds, unusual lawsuits, law and order, parking enforcement officers, cops

When it comes to drunk driving, there’s a constant battle to prevent DUI deaths.  Cops are always looking for drunks, hanging out by bars waiting for people to stagger to their cars and setting up checkpoints to otherwise annoy sober drivers.  Now, the law may be getting changed to make it easier to give a person a DUI.  The legal limit for blood alcohol level may be getting reduced.  Under the proposed limits, even one drink before driving may put a person at risk for a DUI, depending on their weight and the strength of the drink.

“Our goal is to get to zero deaths because each alcohol-impaired death is preventable,” said National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chairman Deborah Hersman.  ”Alcohol-impaired deaths are not accidents, they are crimes.  They can and should be prevented.  The tools exist.  What is needed is the will.”

The current legal limits for DUI is 0.08, but the NTSB has proposed changing that to 0.05.  That’s one of 20 proposed changes designed to cut down on drinking and driving accidents, but it’s the one that would be the most difficult to get states to implement.  After all, they already lowered the legal limit for DUIs down from 1.0, and that took a long time to get states to go along with.  It remains to be seen if they’ll have any good luck getting the limit lowered again.

Tags: ntsb, national transportation safety board, dui, driving under the influence, blood alcohol level, bac, national transportation safety board wants to lower legal limit for drunk driving, legal limit for drunk driving to be lowered, drunk driving laws, drunk driving limit to change to 0.05, bac to lower from 0.08 to 0.05, one drink drunk, Deborah Hersman

Chris Hadfield is awesome.

When it comes to what you can and can’t do, the International Space Station doesn’t have a lot of amusements.  After all, it’s a pretty small area in which to work.  However, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield has been spending his downtime doing something creative.  Basically, he’s become a video blog and Twitter star thanks to his amazing onboard experiments, answering questions and entertaining thousands of people here on earth during his time on the ISS.  Now, he’s gone a step farther and created a piece of history.  Chris Hadfield has produced the first music video ever shot in space for David Bowie’s hit “Space Oddity” and the video has gone viral.  Here it is, if you haven’t seen it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

There’s no need to fear a Major Tom-style space disaster for Commander Hadfield; he and his two ISS crewmates (American Tom Marshburn and Russian Roman Romanenko) landed in Kazakhstan after returning to earth in a Russian Soyuz-TMA capsule.  Meanwhile, David Bowie and his army of Martian spiders are held at bay for another day.

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Angelina Jolie carries the breast cancer gene.

Angelina Jolie is famous for a lot of reasons, but the most notable one are her physical features.  She is a beautiful woman, especially in her younger days before she got too thin, and her lips are only one part of her appeal.  Another part of her appeal is now permanently gone.  Angelina Jolie has had her breasts removed and rebuilt by surgeons.  As it turns out, blood tests revealed that she carries a mutation of the BRCA1 gene that substantially increases her breast cancer risk, so she decided to do something about that before it became a problem.  Any kind of surgery is bad, but a double mastectomy is a whole lot better than chemotheraphy.

“My doctors estimated that I had an 87 percent risk of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer, although the risk is different in the case of each woman,” Jolie wrote. “Once I knew that this was my reality, I decided to be proactive and to minimize the risk as much I could.  I made a decision to have a preventive double mastectomy.”  Jolie added, ”For any woman reading this, I hope it helps you to know you have options.  I want to encourage every woman, especially if you have a family history of breast or ovarian cancer, to seek out the information and medical experts who can help you through this aspect of your life, and to make your own informed choices.”

Jolie’s mother, movie producer Marcheline Bertrand, died of ovarian cancer at age 56 in 2007; Jolie is 37 years old.  She underwent the double masectomy and reconstructive surgeries at the Pink Lotus Breast Center in Los Angeles over a period of three months.  Jolie says she went through the procedure to spare her own children the pain of worrying about their mother’s cancer status.

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The government is trying to stop the 3D printed gun.

When Cody Wilson, the 25-year-old crypto-anarchist and University of Texas law student behind Defense Distributed, helped create the world’s first 3D-printed plastic handgun (called The Liberator), one of his more audacious ideas was to release the blueprints online to allow anyone with a computer and a 3D printer to make their own gun.  Turns out, the government hates this idea more than I could have expected–and I always figured they’d stop it somehow.  The State Department has forced Defense Distributed to remove its 3D printed gun plans from the Internet.

“Files are being removed from public access at the request of the U.S. Department of Defense Trade Controls,” reads a statement on Defense Distributed’s website Thursday.  ”Until further notice, the United States government claims control of the information.”

The Department of Defense Trade Controls is an agency under the purview of the State Department.  The agency argued that posting the files online violated the Arms Export Control Act.  Due to the location of Defense Distributed’s web servers (New Zealand), putting the plans up through servers operating in a foreign country is essentially an illegal export.  Never mind the fact that information on any server can be seen throughout the world if it’s published to the public.

Time to go back to getting guns the old-fashioned way, I suppose.

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“Yum, criminal meat!”

Bryan Zuniga thought he was going to make a clean getaway.  Police pulled the 20-year-old Zuniga over in Pinellas Park in St. Petersburg, Florida, for failing to stay in his line.  However, after stopping his car, Zuniga made a break for it.  The budding crook jumped a fence and took off for the hills, but he probably would have been better off getting arrested, because Pinellas Park is a popular place for alligators to congregate.  Bryan Zuniga got attacked by an alligator while running from the police; he was later arrested at the hospital by police.

Alligators aren’t law enforcement officers, and they’re not friends to criminals.  Alligators are alligators, and if you intrude on their domain, you may well suffer the consequences for your temerity.  In the case of young Mr. Zuniga, he was bitten repeatedly on the face, arm, and armpit, and suffered multiple puncture wounds as a result of his alligator encounter.  Police booked him on a multitude of charges ranging from traffic violations, driving without a license, and running from the police.

It’s a good thing incompetence isn’t a crime, because Bryan Zuniga almost gave himself the death penalty with the power of alligator.

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Amazon may make 3D glasses a thing of the past.

Not content to rest on the success of the Kindle family of tablets and ereaders, Amazon has continued to look for ways to expand their offerings to the public.  Once a company gets a taste of being a device creator, they’re rarely satisfied with continuing to resell the stuff made by others.  Hence, Amazon is looking to add to its portfolio in an interesting way.  Amazon is believed to be working on a smartphone with a 3D screen.  The company is also working on another smartphone, as well as an audio-streaming device.

Here’s the interesting thing about Amazon’s 3D smartphone.  Rather than needing bulky glasses, the smartphone will use retina tracking technology to create 3D images that do not need special glasses; instead, the image will appear to project from the phone like a hologram, which might be the coolest thing ever.  With an increasing amount of print media and movies being both 3D and viewed on smartphone screens, this is a great idea.

I’m not sure if I would want to jump into the smartphone world myself–the Kindle Fire has been a success, but the smartphone world is much more crowded–but to make the screens and then sell them to smartphone companies or make my own line of 3D computer and television screens?  That’s a pretty good profit center with a lot less risk.

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Lifts, separates, provides economic and cup-size boost?

The Japanese economy could use a boost at the country tries to lift and separate itself from an economic slump.  Prime minister Shinzo Abe has announced a new series of reforms and stimulus efforts to decrease inflation to 2 percent and increase economic growth, and he’s getting a little help.  Bra-maker Triumph International has announced a special “Abenomics” bra called the “Branomics.”  The bra features a rising trendline, an arrow motif, and padding to increase volume up to 2 percent.

“We hope that, as the Japanese economy grows, we can also help bust sizes to get bigger,” said Triumph spokeswoman Keiko Masuda.

Triumph is famous for its publicity stunts, which are big news in Japan.  The 127-year-old company routinely has publicity stunt bras in Japan, with everything from solar power to “husband hunting” and even a rice bra with growing plants inside.  There’s no real economic benefit to the Japanese people, since the Abenomics bra will not be sold and is just a publicity stunt.  However, it’ll probably be a nice distraction.

Tags: Triumph International, Triumph, Shinzo Abe, Branomics, Branomics bra, Abenomics bra, Abenomics, unusual underwear, unusual bras, three arrow economic revival plan, three arrow bra, publicity stunts, publicity underwear, keiko masuda, unusual clothing, unusual bras

Caffeine in all the things has the FDA concerned.

Last month, Wrigley rolled out a brand new product called Alert, a caffeinated chewing gum with the equivalent of half a cup of coffee in every stick.  Sounds pretty good, right?  Well, enjoy it while you can, because Wrigley is pulling Alert caffeine gum off the market.  The move comes after discussions with the Food and Drug Administration, who are concerned about the proliferation of caffeinated products hitting the market.

“After discussions with the FDA, we have a greater appreciation for its concern about the proliferation of caffeine in the nation’s food supply,” said Wrigley president CaseyKeller in a statement to The Associated Press.  ”There is a need for changes in the regulatory framework to better guide the consumers and the industry about the appropriate level and use of caffeinated products.”

Interestingly, the only time the FDA explicitly approved caffeine for the market was when they gave the go-ahead to caffeinated sodas in the 1950′s.  All the other foods with caffeine, from Four Loko to caffeine doughnuts, have just kind of dribbled out into the market and the FDA is concerned about the increase in caffeine products and how that may affect children’s health (not that children could easily get Four Loko).  There are also concerns that caffeinated candy and gum could be appealing to children.

Tags: wrigley, caffeine, caffeine gum, alert, wrigley alert, wrigley alert caffeine gum, caffeine in food, fda, food and drug administration, wrigley pulls caffeinated gum off the market, casey keller, caffeine in food, caffeinated food, caffeine and health, health news, unusual health news, unusual food news, unusual snacks, chewing gum

Ray Harryhausen, stop motion animator, is dead at 92.

When he was 13 years old, Ray Harryhausen and his childhood friend Ray Bradbury went to see the film King Kong at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood.  From that one experience, a preteen mind was blown and a career was launched.  Ray Harryhausen was enthralled with the giant ape and began making his own films at his childhood home in Los Angeles.  Sixteen years later, in 1949, Harryhausen got a job as the lead animator for Willis O’Brien, the man who gave King Kong life, on the film Mighty Joe Young.  That kicked off a legendary career as a stop motion animator bringing to life a variety of monsters and legendary creatures.  Ray Harryhausen has passed away at age 92 in London, England.  Take a look at his beautiful creatures below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

“The modern digital effects are very effective, but I don’t think they’re the be-all and by-all.  You shouldn’t eliminate everything just because CGI (computer-generated imagery) came.  It’s a wonderful tool, and I think you should treat it as a tool.  It can enlarge everything we do with puppet animation — with hand puppets, with string puppets — and stop-motion.  But it’s not right to kill off everything just because CGI came into the picture,” said Harryhausen at the Chicago International Film Festival in 1999.

The thing Harryhausen did in his movies, from the Sinbad series to Jason and the Argonauts and his 1981 masterwork Clash of the Titans, was to craft wonderful models and then pain-stakingly bring them to life using a technique called Dynamotion.  From George Lucas to Nick Park and Henry Selick, stop motion animation lives on, and they are all directly inspired by Ray Harryhausen.

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Lt. Col. Jeff Krusinski, sexual harassment prevention officer arrested for sexual harassment.

Sexual harassment is entirely too common, but it seems to be most prevalent in the United States military.  Even with volumes of laws on the books to prevent and discourage sexual harassment, you still hear about it happening.  It can destroy careers and turn workplaces hostile, and that’s if the victim is lucky.  You would think the man in charge of the United States Air Force’s sexual assault prevention and response program would be able to restrain himself, but that’s not the case.  Anti-sexual harassment officer Lieutenant Colonel Jeff Krusinski has been arrested for sexual assault.

The assault occurred at a bar in Arlington, Virginia.  Apparently, a drunk Krusinski got gropey with a female patron and repeatedly refused to take no for an answer.  After grabbing the woman in the parking lot, multiple times no less, police were called and the military man found himself in irons.  Krusinski has been charged with sexual battery and is being held on $5000 bond; he’s also been removed from his post pending the results of an investigation.

US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel “expressed outrage and disgust over the troubling allegations and emphasized that this matter will be dealt with swiftly and decisively,” says Pentagon spokesman George Little.  ”The American people, including our service members, should expect a culture of absolutely no tolerance for this deplorable behavior,” adding, “ongoing efforts to combat this vile crime.”

Tags: usaf, united states air force, sexual assault, usaf sexual assault prevention and response program, sexual assault prevention officer arrested for sexual assault, jeff krusinski, arlington, virginia, united states military, george little, pentagon, chuck hagel, sexual battery, unusual arrests, law and order, sexual harassment prevention officer arrested

Gina DeJesus and Amanda Berry have been recovered after nearly a decade.

When someone goes missing, if they’re not found within a few days, they tend to stay missing.  You hear some occasional happy endings, typically when the person kidnaps themselves, but if someone is kidnapped by another person?  They rarely have a happy ending.  However, that was not the case for a trio of missing women from the Cleveland, Ohio, area.  Three missing women have been recovered after being missing for nearly a decade.

Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight were found in a home in Cleveland owned by three brothers; Berry had been missing since 2003, DeJesus had been missing since 2004, and Knight missing since 2002.  Berry was in the company of a small child, four or five years old.  Amazingly, the women had been only a door or two away from freedom the entire time, with neighbors seeing one of the accused kidnappers, Ariel Castro, every day.

“I heard screaming… And I see this girl going nuts trying to get outside,” said Charles Ramsey, a neighbor who helped free the women.  ”I go on the porch and she said, ‘Help me get out.  I’ve been here a long time.’  I figure it was domestic violence dispute.  She comes out with a little girl and says, ‘Call 911, my name is Amanda Berry’… When she told me, it didn’t register.”

Image: WKYC

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KFC has embarked on a new campaign to sell its chicken to America by eliminating the necessity to actually pay attention while you eat.  Some call it a marketing stunt while others call it a food revolution, but KFC is calling it an important step in the evolution of the company, and you can try it for free.  KFC will have free Original Recipe boneless chicken today between 2-4 PM for the first 100 customers to request a free piece of chicken by saying, “I ate the bones” (or just asking for a piece).  KFC is calling it the Greatest Day in Chicken History.

I’m not sure why this is such a big deal, to be honest.  I mean, it’s KFC Original Recipe without the bones.  I’m not sure why they haven’t already been doing this!  I know they’ve had various boneless options on the menu in the past, and I guess those all had different spice recipes than the beloved recipe invented by Col. Harlan Sanders.  Good luck getting into your local KFC today between 2 and 4, free piece of boneless chicken or not.

If you miss out on the free chicken offer, do not despair.  There’s still plenty of boneless chicken to go around as KFC is offering a variety of mixed boneless and regular chicken buckets, value meals, and other options for those with a craving for the Colonel.

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A working gun made via 3D printer.

If you think 3D processing technology is only used to make your head hurt in video games and movies, then I suggest you think again.  So-called 3D printers using plastic blocks are creating a whole new world of manufacturing possibilities, and a company called Defense Distributed has managed to break new ground in 3D manufacturing.  It took the company a year of development, but Defense Distributed has successfully built and fired a working gun made by a 3D printer.  The weapon is made of ABS plastic, with the only metal parts being the firing pin and the ammunition.

“There is a demand of guns – there just is.  There are states all over the world that say you can’t own firearms – and that’s not true anymore.  I’m seeing a world where technology says you can pretty much be able to have whatever you want.  It’s not up to the political players any more,” says Cody Wilson, a 25-year-old University of Texas law student and the creator of Defense Distributed.  ”I recognize the tool might be used to harm other people – that’s what the tool is – it’s a gun.  But I don’t think that’s a reason to not do it – or a reason not to put it out there.”

According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, there is no law against building your own firearm and Defense Distributed has received proper certification as a manufacturer and seller of weapons.  Provided they do not make any outlawed automatic weapons, Defense Distributed has every right to print guns on their 3D printer; the company also plans to distribute the blueprint to their gun online.

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People get tattoos for a lot of different reasons, but the primary reason is probably passion.  People get tattoos to remember lost love ones, celebrate their passion, or show off their pride in their culture.  Workers at a New York City brokerage must be pretty passionate about their jobs, because there’s a lot of company ink happening.  At Rapid Realty NYC, workers are encouraged to get company logo tattoos.

Rapid Realty NYC CEO Anthony Lolli describes his workers as “passionate about the brand.”  I’d imagine they’re also passionate about the extra 15 percent in commission they get for sporting a company logo tattoo.  The company, which has franchises throughout New York, started the policy a year and a half ago when an employee got a tattoo to show off company loyalty and the trend has been growing ever since.

You have to admit, it’s a pretty good way to build a viral marketing campaign, and it’s a lot harder to lose than a sticker or a lapel pin.

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The X-51A Waverider attached to its B-52 carrier.

When it comes to air travel, there’s always a ceiling of some sort.  First, it was breaking the sound barrier, which was accomplished in 1947 by Chuck Yeager, the world’s most famous pilot.  After that lingered the so-called hypersonic speed barrier, Mach 5.  The United States Air Force has been actively trying to break Mach 5 for years, and it seems like they have accomplished something spectacular.  The Air Force’s X-51A Waverider has successfully broken Mach 5.1, a new speed record.  Fire up the White Stripes and have a celebration!

“I believe all we have learned from the X-51A Waverider will serve as the bedrock for future hypersonics research and ultimately the practical application of hypersonic flight,”  crowed a thrilled Charlie Brink, X-51A program manager for the Air Force Research Laboratory Aerospace Systems Directorate.  ”This success is the result of a lot of hard work by an incredible team.  The contributions of Boeing, Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne, the 412th Test Wing at Edwards AFB, NASA Dryden and DARPA were all vital.”

The scramjet-powered vehicle hit a top speed of Mach 5.1 during its 6-minute flight on May 1.  That’s a feat on more than one hand.  It’s the longest air-breathing hypersonic flight ever AND the longest flight made by the X-51A in its four test flights.  The USAF has spent an impressive 9 years working on hypersonic flight at a cost of $300 million dollars.  The plane traveled a total of 230 nautical miles.

Tags: X-51A Waverider, X-51A,  X-51A Waverider breaks 3000 miles per hour, hypersonic jets, airplanes, united states air force, usaf, air force, hypersonic jet breaks 3000 miles an hour, 3000 mph,  X-51A Waverider breaks 3000 mph, charlie brink, air force research laboratory aerospace systems directorate, scramjet, DARPA, NASA Dryden, 412th Test Wing, Boeing, Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne

Taco Bell’s new dollar menu.

Taco Bell is known for a lot of things.  Specifically, acceptable Mexican food at cheap prices done with a creative twist.  From Taco Bell’s faux street tacos to the legitimate hit that is the Doritos Locos Taco, The Bell is riding a winning streak right now, but the menu can always get more creative, the food cheaper, the volume turned up even higher.  To that extent, Taco Bell is getting a new value menu.  Gone is the Why Pay More Menu and replacing it will be the $1 Cravings Menu.

“Our $1 Cravings Menu just went into test in two markets, and pending final results, will launch nationally in the near future,” said Taco Bell spokesman.  ”At Taco Bell, our value menu is our entire menu.  So when consumers are looking for what they get for what they pay – whether it be Fresh Mex with our Cantina Bell Menu, signature beverages or snacks with our Happier Hour Menu, or a dollar menu with our $1 Cravings Menu – Taco Bell can’t be beat.”

The new menu will have an impressive 12 menu items, some of which are brand new stuff like the beefy cheesy burrito, spicy beef mini quesadilla, spicy potato soft taco, shredded chicken mini quesadilla and beef crunchito.  I’m not sure what a beef crunchito is, but hopefully there won’t be any beef controversies coming from the new menu.

Tags: fast food, value menu, taco bell, taco bell menu, dollar menu, taco bell dollar menu, dollar cravings menu, taco bell one dollar cravings menu, taco bell cravings menu, unusual menu items, new taco bell menu, why pay more menu, taco bell to end why pay more menu, taco bell to add dollar menu, mexican food, Rob Poetsch, taco bell to launch 12-item value menu

Joanne Chesimard AKA Assata Shakur, America’s most-wanted female terrorist.

During a traffic stop in 1973, Black Liberation Army member Joanne Chesimard shot and killed New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster during a traffic stop on the New Jersey Turnpike.  She shot him twice with her personal weapon, then when that gun hammed she executed Trooper Foerster with his own service revolver.  She was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison in 1977.  Two years after her conviction, she escaped prison.  For her history of violence and her years spent on the run, Joanne Chesimard AKA Assata Shakur has become the first woman to top the FBI most wanted terrorist list.  Chesimard fled to Cuba in 1984 after hiding out in a series of safe hosues in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

According to New Jersey State Police Col. Rick Fuentes, the self-styled Assata Shakur “flaunts her freedom,” adding, ”To this day from her safe haven in Cuba Chesimard has been given a pulpit to preach and profess, stirring supporters and groups to mobilize against the United States by any means necessary.”

Of course, Shakur has maintained her innocence, including doing an interview with BET in 2001 where she described her all-white jury as a lynching rather than a trial.  The now-65-year-old woman and godmother of the late rapper Tupac Shakur has commanded a high price for years, and now authorities in New Jersey have increased her reward to a staggering $2 million dollars, which out to bring the bounty hunters out of the woodwork if it hasn’t already.

Tags: fbi, federal bureau of investigation, fbi most wanted list, most wanted list, most wanted terrorist list, first woman on the most wanted terrorist list, Joanne Chesimard, Werner Foerster, black liberation army,  Assata Shakur, new jersey turnpike, unusual criminals, murderers, rick fuentes, new jersey state police

Brenda Heist, missing since 2002, emerges from hiding.

In February 2002, Brenda Heist’s life was on the rocks.  She was in the process of getting divorced from her husband Lee Heist, applying for housing assistance, and struggling to make ends meet as a bookkeeper at a car dealership near her home in Lititz, Pennsylvania.  That’s when she decided to leave everything behind and disappear for awhile.  After dropping her kids off at school, Brenda Heist disappeared for 11 years.  Well, the missing Heist has emerged, alive and well, in Key Largo, Florida; she stayed off the grid by being homeless for several years and working odd jobs.

“She was very upset, she was sitting in a park crying, thinking about how she would raise her children, feeling sorry for herself,” said Detective Sgt. John Schofield, who stuck with the missing persons case for the entire 11 years Heist was missing.  When Heist got an offer from two men and a woman to hitchhike with them to Florida, ”At a whim, she decided at that very moment, she would go along with them.”

Heist revealed all the details of her lost 11 years in a long interview with Schofield, who said, “She was very emotional; she hung her head; she’s ashamed.  She was crying when I met with her.  She knows what she did was completely wrong, but all that while, she’d never made one effort to call or contact her family at all.”

Heist turned herself into the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, believing she was wanted by the police in another county.  As it turns out, she was not wanted, because it is not illegal to leave your family behind and disappear.  However, it’s pretty rare for someone who goes missing to come back alive; miracles like Brenda’s return happen less than 5 percent of the time.

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“Mac Daddy” Chris Kelly has passed away.

It’s always strange when someone from your childhood dies.  It’s even stranger when someone fairly close to your own age is the person who is dead.  I was never a big hip-hop fan, but I think anyone in their early 30′s remembers Kriss Kross fondly, if only for their amazing Sprite commercial and distinctive style of wearing their clothes backwards.  Well a piece of 90′s nostalgia has passed on.  Chris Kelly AKA Mac Daddy from Kriss Kross, has passed away at age 34.  He was found unresponsive in his Atlanta, Georgia home, and was pronounced dead at a Fulton County hospital.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Amazingly, Chris Kelly and Kriss Kross partner Chris “Daddy Mac” Smith only recently performed together after time away from the music industry.  The two performed for the 20th anniversary of So So Def Records, the label of southern rap mogul Jermaine Dupri.  Dupri is the man who discovered Kriss Kross in an Atlanta-area mall and made them teenage superstars.

Tags: chris kelly, mac daddy, kriss kross, atlanta, georgia, fulton county, so so def, so so def records, jermaine dupri, billy johnson jr., yahoo music, music, rap, backwards clothing, one of kriss kross dead, chris kelly dead at 34, mac daddy dead at 34, chris ‘mac daddy’ kelly, rappers, chris smith, daddy mac, chris ‘daddy mac’ smith

The Medal of Labor and Medal of Socialist Labor, side by side.

Once upon a time, it was the highest honor that a citizen of the Soviet Union could receive.  It went to weapons designers, famous cosmonauts, and the best of the best that the people of Russia.  However, since the fall of the USSR, the medal has been out of commission.  Thankfully, or perhaps not thankfully, Vladimir Putin is something of a Soviet Union history buff, and he’s tapping into the nostalgia for Stalin by reintroducing a great Soviet-era honor.  Vladimir Putin has awarded the Hero of Labor medal for the first time since 1991.

Fittingly, the medals went to some very important people and also some blue collar slobs.  Brain surgeon Alexander Konovalov and Valery Gergiev, director of the Marinsky Theatre and conductor of the London Philharmonic, and three blue collar workers–Putin’s biggest support group–were all given the medals.  However, the medals have been redesigned.  Rather than the hammer and sickle of the USSR, it sports the double-headed eagle of the Russian Federation.  Aside from that, the medal is the same, though Putin denies any Stalinism overtones.

Said Putin:  ”Stalinism is connected to the cult of personality, massive legal abuses, repressions and camps.  There are no such things in Russia, and I hope they will never happen again.”

Tags: vladimir putin, ussr, soviet union, russia, hero of labor, hero of labor medal, first hero of labor medal issued since the fall of the soviet union, russian president vladimir putin, Alexander Konovalov, Marinsky Theatre, Valery Gergiev, hero of socialist labor, josef stalin

Gold is now legal tender in Arizona.

For generations, the use of precious metals as money was a given.  Gold and silver coins were the coin of the realm for thousands of years, and if Arizona lawmakers have their way, the use of gold and silver may return to prominence as the cash money of choice for big spenders throughout the desert southwest.  Arizona has passed a law making gold and silver legal tender, putting it alongside paper money as proper currency.  The bill passed the State Senate by a vote of 18-10; it was previously passed by the House of Representatives.  The bill moves on to the office of Republican Governor Jan Brewer.

“This is the first step in getting it into the statute so we can build on it,” said Republican State Senator Chester Crandell, one of the bill’s sponsors, who called it a “work in progress”.

Gold as currency, a longtime favorite position of groups like the Tea Party, American Principles Project, the Gold Standard Institute, and other fiscally conservative institutions.  Only one state currently allows businesses to accept gold and silver as legal tender.  Utah passed similar legislation in 2011.  Here’s hoping that the increasing move towards gold and silver will mean the spread of cash-for-gold machines.

Tags: Arizona, legal tender, gold, silver, gold standard, gold and silver, gold and silver to become legal tender, arizona passes law to make gold and silver legal tender, money, arizona gold and silver money, chester crandell, arizona state senate, unusual laws, unusual monetary policy, phoenix, jan brewer, Tea Party,  American Principles Project, the Gold Standard Institute

Jason Collins is the first active gay NBA player.

When it comes to gay athletes, the door has been slow to open.  Gay people are everywhere and in every industry, even the US military, but a gay, active professional athlete?  Not exactly a trail that’s been blazed.  Until now, that is.  Jason Collins, a 12-year NBA veteran, is the first professional basketball player to come out as gay.

“I’m a 34-year-old NBA center.  I’m black.  And I’m gay.  I didn’t set out to be the first openly gay athlete playing in a major American team sport.  But since I am, I’m happy to start the conversation.  I wish I wasn’t the kid in the classroom raising his hand and saying, “I’m different.”  If I had my way, someone else would have already done this.  Nobody has, which is why I’m raising my hand.”

There have been other gay athletes, but unlike Robbie Rogers, Collins has no plans on retiring.  Indeed, he’s looking for a little work.  Collins, all 7 feet tall and 250 pounds of him, is currently seeking a teem for his 13th NBA season.  I have no doubt he’ll find it, despite his relatively advanced age for a professional basketball player.  His twin brother, Jarron Collins, retired from the NBA in 2011.

Tags: jason collins, nba, national basketball association, professional basketball, gay professional athlete, gay nba player, jason collins comes out as gay, jason collins gay, sports illustrated, homosexual basketball player, gay athlete, sports, jarron collins

Wreckage from a plane used in the 9/11 attacks.

It’s amazing to consider that the events of September 11 happened 11 years ago.  The world has changed a lot since then.  The toll 9/11 took on the people of New York, from a dying generation of rescue dogs to the sick and injured human first responders, has been massive and lingering.  However, as construction continues on the replacement Freedom Tower, there are still a lot of signs of 9/11 lingering, but none more impressive than this.  Part of one of the Boeing 767 planes used in the 9/11 attacks was recovered in Manhattan.

The part is impressive when you consider just how large it is and how long it went undiscovered while wedged in an 18-inch gap between buildings.  The part, composed of cables and levers and all kinds of bits, is 17 inches wide and 4 feet long.  It is part of the landing gear from the plane.  The area around 51 Park Place, the site of a controversial mosque and Islamic center, has been a hotbed of discovering 9/11 wreckage, but this is an impressive discovery nonetheless.

“It’s a manifestation of a horrific terrorist act a block and a half away from where we stand,” said New York Police Department Commissioner Raymond Kelly.  ”So, sure, it brings back terrible memories to anyone who was here or who was involved in that event.”

Tags: new york city, new york, manhattan, 9/11, september 11, part of 9/11 plane found in new york, 9/11 landing gear found 11 years later, boeing, boeing 767, new york police department, raymond kelly, 51 park place, september 11 terrorist attack, wreckage from 9/11 found, unusual discoveries

Eric Fisher, human giant and #1 NFL draft pick

They say that football games are won not by the quarterback or the running back or the wide receivers, but in the trenches.  If you can control the line of scrimmage with your offensive line or defensive line, then you can control the football game.  That axiom has found renewed traction in the NFL if the results of the first round of tonight’s NFL draft are to be believed.  The first seven picks of 2013 were offensive and defensive linemen, with the draft headed up by number one pick Eric Fisher, a 6’7 306-pound offensive tackle from Central Michigan University, who was selected by Andy Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs.  They’ll need Fisher to protect new starting quarterback Alex Smith.  Here are the full first round results.

It was a night of odd trends, to be sure.  The first seven picks were linemen, and the first two picks were offensive tackles.  That’s the first time since 1970 two tackles went 1-2.  Fisher is only the third offensive tackle to go at the top of the draft (1970 and 2008).  Meanwhile, the first quarterback wasn’t taken until the Buffalo Bills grabbed Florida State’s EJ Manuel at 16 (the lowest since 2000).  Amazingly, no running backs were taken in the first round of the NFL Draft (a first since 1963) as compared to a staggering 18 linemen in 32 picks.

But no matter what may happen in the draft itself, at least Roger Goodell got booed.  That’s really all that matters.

Tags: nfl, nfl draft, 2013 nfl draft, national football league,  national football league draft, andy reid, kansas city chiefs, offensive tackle, eric fisher, eric fisher taken number one in nfl draft, mac, mid-american conference, central michigan, offensive tackle, first mac player taken with the first pick, no running backs taken in the first round of the nfl drafts, nfl draft milestones, ej manuel, third offensive tackle taken number one since 1970, first draft since 1970 to have offensive linemen go in the first two picks, first seven picks of 2013 nfl draft are linemen, football

A burning fuel barge on the Mobile River after an explosion.

It’s easy to take things for granted when you work with inflammable materials all day long.  So many work places feature chemicals that could potentially be a fire hazard, and that’s not even considering the massive amounts of gas cans, old paint, oil, and other fire-worthy chemicals around the home.  Even the experts aren’t immune to accidents.  A group of fuel barges caught fire and exploded overnight in Mobile, Alabama.  There were seven total explosions in the barges, which were docked on the Mobile River.

“It literally sounded like bombs going off around.  The sky just lit up in orange and red.  We could smell something in the air, we didn’t know if it was gas or smoke,” said Alan Waugh, who lives at the Fort Conde Inn on the shore across from where the barge blew up.

Here’s what the explosion looked like:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The fuel barges are owned by Kirby Inland Marine and were at Mobile’s Oil Recovery Company to clean the excess fuel out of their tanks.  They were previously carrying a substance called natural gasoline.  Three people, reported to be Oil Recovery employees, were injured in the explosion, but thankfully no fatalities have been reported.  These explosions could have been a lot worse.  Fire officials have decided it is safest to let the barges burn themselves out.

Tags: mobile, alabama, mobile river, barge explosion, fuel barge explodes, 3 hurt as fuel barge explodes, fuel barge explosion, viral videos, video, fuel barge video, fuel barge explodes in mobile, unusual accidents, explosions, Alan Waugh, kirby inland marine, oil recovery company, barge explosions

With a new version of the Xbox, code-named Durango, in development, it was only a matter of time before Microsoft went public with the news and expected specs for its offering for the next generation of video games.  PlayStation 4 has been announced, and Nintendo’s WiiU is already on the market, so MS couldn’t afford to live off of XBox Live fees alone.  Microsoft will be announcing its next iteration of Xbox on May 21.  The announcement was received by video game website Polygon.

Well, what do we know about the next video game console from Microsoft?  Well, Xbox honcho Major Nelson has described it as “the beginning of a new generation of games, TV and entertainment,” so take that for what it’s worth.  Other than that, we’ve got basically nothing.  Will it be backwards-compatible?  Will it play used games?  Will it require an always-on Internet connection?  Will it play Blu-rays?  Will it support streaming games?

Right now all we have are speculations and confusion, but hopefully by the time May 21 rolls around, we’ll get some answers and they won’t reflect the industry’s desire to force online connectivity and crushed the used video game market.

Tags: xbox, xbox 720, next generation of xbox, xbox announcement may 21, new xbox announcement may 21, polygon, microsoft, microsoft xbox, microsoft durango, durango, next-generation xbox, new xbox announcement, may 21, video game systems, video games, major nelson

Barry Sanders, NFL great and Madden 25 coverboy.

The cover to the Madden series of video games is both a great honor and a horrible curse.  It’s an honor because you become the face of both the NFL and the world’s most popular football video game series (it’s also the only NFL game in town).  It’s a curse because of the so-called Madden Curse that seems to herald an injury or a sudden decline in skills for its cover athletes.  However, it seems that EA Sports has figured out a way to break the curse:  have a retired Hall of Fame player be on the cover.  Detroit Lions legend Barry Sanders will be the Madden 25 cover athlete.

Barry Sanders bested dozens of NFL greats, from all-timers like Joe Montana and Jerry Rice to modern players like Adrian Peterson, who Sanders dethroned in the final round.  The voting was held via ESPN, and the announcement for the Madden cover was made on ESPN Sportsnation.  Sanders was a 10-time Pro Bowl player in 10 seasons, won the NFL MVP in 1997, had a 2000-yard season (also in 1997), is the NFL’s third all-time leading rusher with 15269 yards and 109 touchdowns, was an AP All-American at Oklahoma State University, and even won a Heisman Trophy for his troubles in three seasons of college ball.

This is a great pick by the fans, because Barry Sanders is to Madden NFL as Bo Jackson is to Tecmo Bowl.  He was a force of nature on that game and definitely one of the best running backs to ever tote the rock in the NFL, be it the real NFL (where he rivaled Jim Brown in terms of his abilities and his early retirement) to the virtual NFL (where he was borderline unstoppable due to his speed and difficulty to tackle).  He is also one of my favorite players ever to watch, and one of the big reasons why I got into the NFL as a youngster.  Hopefully Madden and company will throw Barry back into the football mix and show people what the man could do.

Tags: video games, football, nfl, barry sanders, john madden, madden 25, madden curse, madden cover curse, barry sanders gets the madden 25 cover, fan polls, espn sportsnation, espn, sportsnation, fans pick barry sanders for madden 25 cover, madden 25 cover athlete, athletes, national football league, hall of famer barry sanders to be on the cover of madden 25, madden 25 cover barry sanders, sports video games, ea sports, detroit lions, detroit, osu, oklahoma state university

Whataburger’s ketchup and mustard are coming to your kitchen.

Texans will have a new item to add to their shopping lists in the coming weeks.  Texas fast food icon Whataburger is partnering with H-E-B to launch a new series of condiments.  For the first time ever, you can get a little of the Whataburger experience at home, as Whataburger will be entering the condiments game with bottled ketchup and mustard.  Whataburger will bottle and sell its spicy and fancy types of ketchup in 20-ounce bottles while dishing out its mustard in 16-ounce bottles.  Joining the Whataburger line-up at a later date will be potato chips modeled after the Whataburger fries.

“H-E-B aisles are about to include more Texas favorites,” said Whataburger CEO Preston Atkinson in a statement.  ”Our condiments have become nearly as popular as our famous burgers, and with so much customer demand to get their hands on our special ketchup and mustard in larger quantities, it was only logical to bottle them up and make them available first through such a well-respected retailer like H-E-B.”

H-E-B and Whataburger are both headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, which makes it a natural fit.  Two Texas institutions joining together to do something to better the both of them.  I can only imagine that eventually the Whataburger foodstuffs will be available outside of Texas, either through Internet sales or through other grocery chains picking up the condiments.  Much like Chicagoans and their hot dogs, Texans and their Whataburger love are everywhere.

Tags: HEB, H-E-B, Whataburger, ketchup, mustard, ketchup and mustard, condiments, Whataburger launches ketchup and mustard brands, H-E-B and Whataburger launch ketchup and mustard brands, burger toppings, Preston Atkinson, Whataburger fries, whataburger potato chips, food, fast food, san antonio, texas, fancy ketchup, spicy ketchup, mustard, potato chips

The news shook the country for a brief moment when the Associated Press announced that the White House had been bombed and the President has been injured in the attack.  Fortunately for everyone, that wasn’t the case.  Turns out the AP Twitter feed had been hacked.  Within minutes, the account was shut down by Twitter, but the damage had been done.  As the news of Barack Obama’s fake injury spread throughout the world, with the hacked Tweet getting retweeted thousands of time in a few short minutes, the damage reverberated across the nation.  The Dow Jones, crude oil, and numerous other measures sank while gold futures and oil prices immediately rose.

Said the mysterious AP editors, “The @AP twitter account has been hacked.  The tweet about an attack at the White House is false.  We will advise more as soon as possible.”

As news came out that the account was hacked, things seemed to settle down.  The markets resumed their rise, prices went back to normal, and the account got locked down until the AP could get it under control.  Still, it shows one of the weaknesses of Twitter as a news source.  We get the bulk of our news from Twitter, thanks to news feeds.

Tags: ap, associated press, ap twitter feed hacked, associated press twitter feed hacked, news, twitter news, twitter feed hacked, associated press hacked, barack obama, fake white house bombing, dow, social flow, dow jones industrial average, AP twitter feed causes stocks to drop

Jim Toth and Reese Witherspoon found themselves jailed.

Reese Witherspoon is a very talented actress, but just because someone’s good at pretending to be other stuff, that doesn’t mean they know how to comport themselves in public.  By and large, she seems to be on her best behavior; however, on Friday night in Atlanta, Georgia, Reese Witherspoon got a little out of line.  When police pulled her husband Jim Toth over for suspicion of DUI, Reese wouldn’t stop interfering with the field sobriety tests; after trying to play her celebrity card, Reese Witherspoon was arrested on disorderly conduct charges.

Reese reportedly asked the officer, “Do you know who I am?”  When the officer admitted he didn’t, Reese replied, “Well, you’re about to find out!”  That seems like about the time I’d throw the cuffs on her, too.  Apparently, she refused to stay in the car and that’s when the Georgia State Trooper who had pulled them over put her in the back of the car with her husband.  Hence, Ms. Witherspoon was cited on disorderly conduct charges.

“I clearly had one drink too many and I am deeply embarrassed about the things I said,” Witherspoon said.  ”It was definitely a scary situation and I was frightened for my husband, but that is no excuse.  I was disrespectful to the officer who was just doing his job.  I have nothing but respect for the police and I’m very sorry for my behavior.”

Tags: reese witherspoon, jim toth, disorderly conduct, reese witherspoon arrested, reese witherspoon disorderly conduct, disorderly conduct charge for reese witherspoon, dui, jim toth dui, police, atlanta, georgia, state police, celebrities, hollywood, celebrities arrested, celebrity arrest

Police arresting Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

With his brother Tamerlan dead, it was only a matter of time before police captured the second suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing, 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.  However, he got in a second day of terrorizing Boston as police and federal agents combed the shut-down city.  Over a million people, told to stay home.  Transportation closed down, roads empty, armed law enforcement on every corner.  Thankfully, it’s all over.  Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the second Boston Marathon bomber was captured alive after a stand-off with police.  Seriously injured, the surviving Tsarnaev brother was taken to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center for treatment; the same hospital held at least 10 of the people injured in Tsarnaev’s terrorist plot.

It’s amazing how the suspect was captured.  A man in Watertown, David Henneberry, stepped outside after the shelter in place order was lifted to stretch his legs.  When he noticed the tarp on his boat flapping and investigated further, things were suspicious enough to get Henneberry to call the cops.  What he saw would make me suspicious, too; amazingly, somehow Tsarnaev managed to be just outside the police search corridor in Watertown.

“The tarp on his winterized boat had sort of been flapping in the wind,” said Henneberry’s stepson, Robert Duffy.  ”He got closer and realized that one of the retention straps had literally been cut — not chafed, not broken or unhooked.  He basically stuck his head under the tarp (and) noticed a pool of blood.”

And just like that, one of the weirdest manhunts in history is over.   All over a flapping tarp.

Tags: boston, watertown,  Massachusetts, boston marathon, boston marathon bombing, terrorism, law and order, boston marathon bomber caught, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, police capture Dzhokhar Tsarnaev hiding in a boat, unusual hiding places, bombing suspect caught hiding in a boat on land,  Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center,  David Henneberry, Robert Duffy, bombing suspect caught by homeowner, boston bomber caught by homeowner, flapping tarp

One dead police officer.  A carjacking.  A high-speed chase involving guns and explosives.  One suspect dead and one still on the loose.  Terrorists with military experience.  Overnight, the Boston Marathon bombing went from a terrorist plot to something out of an 80′s action movie as the two Boston Marathon bombing suspects embarked on a renewed campaign of terror through the streets of Boston last night.  Here’s what Watertown residents heard last night.

Click here to view the embedded video.

After robbing a gas station, the two men shot a police officer from the nearby Massachusetts Institute of Technology, carjacked a Mercedes SUV, and then led police on a high-speed chase in which suspects threw bombs and the pursuing police officers.  After the chase ended, the black-hat suspect (Marathon Suspect 1) was shot by police and later died.  The second suspects, the white-hat suspect known as Marathon Suspect 2 who is pictured above, has eluded police custody.

Now, a massive 20-block area of Boston in the Watertown area has been locked down, and five other communities are encouraged to be on their guard as a result of last night’s incident.  Residents are told to stay in their homes, mass transit in the area has been shut down, no one is being allowed in or out of the locked-down area, and police are telling residents not to answer their door for anyone not a uniformed police officer.

Image:  Boston.com

Tags: boston,  Massachusetts, boston marathon, marathon bombing, boston marathon bombing, one boston marathon suspect has been killed, police shoot-out, law and order, boston marathon suspect 1 is dead, boston marathon suspect 2 is on the loose, mit, massachusetts institute of technology, watertown, shelter in place, boston locked down, mass transit shut down in boston, watertown closed down by police, watertown, viral videos

A fire last night went out of control at the West Fertilizer Plant in West, Texas.  As the fire burned near explosive material, firefighters were helpless to stop the resulting explosion that quite literally rocked the state of Texas.  The explosion was so powerful it measured as a 2.1 on the Richter scale, destroyed dozens of homes, and have forced hundreds of people to be evacuated thanks to clouds of poisonous ammonia.  At least 179 people have been injured and anywhere between 5 and 15 people are believed to be dead.  Even now, West, Texas burns.

“At this point, we don’t know a number that have been killed,” said Sgt. William Patrick Swanton of the Waco Police Department.  ”I will confirm there have been fatalities.”

When it comes to things to worry about, fertilizer explosions are about as risky as natural gas explosions can be and are perhaps more dangerous to people than even a volcanic eruption due to the clouds of poison.  Untold numbers of people have been horribly injured and could be trapped in the homes around the fertilizer plant, and if the winds shift, those clouds of poisonous ammonia could reach the nearby town of Waco.

So yeah, this has been a bad week for disasters and explosions.

Tags: west, texas, fertilizer plant explosion, fertilizer plant explodes, west texas fertilizer plant explodes, fertilizer plant explodes and forces town evacuation, evacuation in west texas, town evacuated after fertilizer plant explosion, west fertilizer plant, waco, waco police department, William Patrick Swanton

The Fox Network is no stranger to courting controversy.  Indeed, one of their star show is Family Guy, a show about a baby trying to murder its mother and conquer the world that features an alcoholic dog, a moron, a shrew, terrible kids, and a whole town full of weirdos, misanthropes, and other repugnant sorts that routinely dabbles in offensive comedy that can pretty often offend and amuse in the same cutaway gag.  Fox has pulled a Family Guy episode after an online hoax strung together two different scenes to mock the Boston Marathon terror attack.

Click here to view the embedded video.

“The edited Family Guy clip currently circulating is abhorrent,” tweeted show creator Seth MacFarlane.  ”The event was a crime and a tragedy, and my thoughts are with the victims.”

The episode is a March 17 episode called “Turban Cowboy” which features a terrorism plot concerning a van full of explosives as well as a cutaway gag where Peter wins the Boston Marathon by jumping in his car and running over people on his way to victory.  Someone online merged the two clips in such a way to make it look like the episode predicted the Boston Marathon bombing.

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Voice of the NFL Pat Summerall is dead at 82.

You name a sport, Pat Summerall could do play-by-play for it.  The Masters?  Check.  The US Open tennis tournament?  Check.  The NBA?  He was the man for the first season of the NBA on CBS and the 1974 NBA Championships.  However, Summerall’s first major job, and his best-known work, was with football.  For 40 years, from 1962 until 2002, Pat Summerall was the voice of NFL football, and that voice has been silenced.  Long-time broadcaster Pat Summerall has died at age 82.

“I was so lucky I got to work with Pat,” said Summerall’s long-time broadcasting partner on both television and in video games, John Madden.  ”He was so easy to work with.  He knew how to use words.  For a guy like myself who rambles on and on and doesn’t always make sense, he was sent from heaven.”

Summerall, born George Allen Summerall, acquired the nickname Pat in a pretty amusing fashion.  An end and placekicker with the NFL’s Detroit Lions, Chicago Cardinals, and New York Giants from 1952 until 1961.  When Summerall nailed a kick for an extra point, the box score would read PAT (point-after-touchdown) Summerall, and Pat Summerall was born.

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