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Devastating Video Shows Teens' Final Moments on South Korean Ferry

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On Thursday, the father of a 17-year-old victim released video, captured on his son's cell phone, showing the last moments of several teenagers aboard the Sewol, the South Korean ferry that sank last month.

Initially, the teenagers found the situation humorous. "Are we becoming Titanic?" asks one student, according to a translation provided by the New York Times. Another says, "This is fun!" One teen mocks another for putting on a life jacket.

Later, as the boat continues to tilt, a sense of panic sinks in. "This looks like the end," a boy says, as another interrupts to say goodbye to his parents: "Mom, Dad, I love you."

The boy who filmed the video, 17-year-old Park Su-hyeon, died in the accident. Rescue workers discovered his phone and returned it to his father, Park Jong-dae. Park released it to the media on Thursday, saying he wanted to show the boat's condition as it sank.

As of Wednesday night, the death toll from the disaster stood at 213, with 89 still missing. The majority of the passengers were high school students taking a class trip .


Why did an influential Christian leader just quietly leave the 20,000-member megachurch he founded i

White Oklahoma Lawmaker Explores His Thoughts on the "N-Word"

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White Oklahoma Lawmaker Explores His Thoughts on the "N-Word"

That short glug of water in the bolo unhappily shaking President Obama's hand is Oklahoma Rep. Paul Wesselhöft, who's lately made his bones calling for Attorney General Eric Holder's impeachment and warning all listeners about the terrors of the National Black Panther Party.

When he's not busy complaining about the black president and the black attorney general and the black "terrorists" trying to steal your vote, the Republican Wesselhöft runs Socrates on Facebook, a discussion group dedicated to "clashing ideas, openness, and a learning experience," which mostly means a lot of links to Fox News favorite Andrew Napolitano, Benghazi roundups, and explanations of how "THOSE OH SO TOLERANT CALIFORNIA LEFTIST/LIBERALS ATTACK AGAIN."

But as the Okie blog The Lost Ogle pointed out this morning, tone on Socrates has turned ugly in the past half-day, since Wesselhöft sarcastically jabbed the jackbooted Black Panthers of cultural P.C. who might be miffed at him for occasionally using the "N-word" in "historical context."

White Oklahoma Lawmaker Explores His Thoughts on the "N-Word"

Hmm, not exactly prudent, but maybe he can explain. For one, you see, this all seemed to arise when another woman in the group took umbrage at a fellow user's deployment of the term, and Wesselhöft, solomonic statesman that he is, ruled that everything was just fine:

White Oklahoma Lawmaker Explores His Thoughts on the "N-Word"

Yeah Chelsea, quit taking offense. It was just an evidently not-black dude talking about how some black guys talk about themselves.

Anyway, Wesselhöft's fear here is, how are we ever gonna be able to talk about the past around here without using the word?

White Oklahoma Lawmaker Explores His Thoughts on the "N-Word"

This is key, even though Wesselhöft, again, is a state legislator and not a screenwriter, director, or actor. He should be able to talk about movies that use the "N-word," or friends that use the "N-word" to discuss how black men see other black men, and also what about Huck Finn, dammit?

White Oklahoma Lawmaker Explores His Thoughts on the "N-Word"

Because don't you see that's what the racially sensitive fascist leftist thought-controllers want? To burn all your black man-loving books! But you're missing the big idea here, which is Paul Wesselhöft isn't the racist here; you are, for listening to rap music:

White Oklahoma Lawmaker Explores His Thoughts on the "N-Word"

Hopefully Wesselhöft can get off this tack soon and back to his old shtick from last month: accusing Eric Holder of working with the Black Panthers and also black Muslims. Here's a cool video. Fun starts at 32:48.

I want to talk about Black Panther voter intimidation at the polls! Especially in 2008 in Philadelphia, we had Black Panthers, we all saw them on television, they had black suits on, they were wielding clubs, immediately in front of the polls where you go to vote.

Can you imagine that happening on Oklahoma? We would never allow that to happen in Oklahoma. And we all saw it on television. And this attorney general did nothing about prosecuting the Black Panthers. And I think I have a theory why. Why didn't this attorney general prosecute the Black Panther thugs? Well, I have a theory…

Eric Holder was shaped by the '70s, and I believe he was especially shaped — frankly psychologically developmentally arrested in the 70s, and that happened at Columbia University… he was a member of a black organization back then, called the Student Afro-American Society. And that group issued a statement supporting the Black Panthers who at that time were charged with plotting to blow up the police station and a number of other buildings in the New York area…

Eric Holder was involved with that! And two years later… Holder was demanding that Columbia name that building after Malcolm X… in honor of a black Muslim leader.

That's some solid historical context, there.

Well done, Oklahoma! This should at least take everybody's minds off the botched execution for a minute or two.

[H/t The Lost Ogle]

An Air National Guard A-10 attack aircraft inadvertently dropped a 25-pound (dummy) training bomb ar

"Are female breadwinners a recipe for disaster?"

Kristin Chenoweth Cast as Maleficent in New Disney Channel Movie

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Kristin Chenoweth Cast as Maleficent in New Disney Channel Movie

Amid all the hype for its new live-action Maleficent movie, starring Angelina Jolie, Disney is sneaking another version of the villain into its stable. Yes, apparently Jolie and the petite, excitable Kristen Chenoweth share some mysterious quality that makes them both perfect for the role.

Chenoweth has been cast as the green-skinned Very Evil Fairy in Descendants, a Disney Channel original movie about the offspring of classic villains. The movie sounds like it will be the company's latest attempt to rehabilitate its villains and make them sympathetic, after Maleficent and Oz the Great and Powerful (which itself echoes Chenowith's hit musical Wicked). Here's how Disney's press release explained Descendants, which comes out next year:

In a present day idyllic kingdom, the benevolent teenaged son of the King and Queen (Beast and Belle from Disney's iconic "Beauty and the Beast") is poised to take the throne. His first proclamation: offer a chance at redemption to the trouble-making offspring of Cruella De Vil, Maleficent, the Evil Queen and Jafar... These villainous descendants (Carlos, Mal, Evvie and Jay, respectively) are allowed into the kingdom to attend prep school alongside the offspring of iconic Disney heroes including Fairy Godmother, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel and Mulan. However, the evil teens face a dilemma. Should they follow in their nefarious parents' footsteps and help all the villains regain power or embrace their innate goodness and save the kingdom?

The Mean Girls-meets-Once Upon a Time plot actually sounds like this could make for an entertaining TV movie if done with the proper amount of silliness. And surprising though Chenoweth is for the role of Maleficent—wouldn't the soprano be better served playing Tinkerbell?—her experience in musical theatre will certainly help her bring the camp Descendants looks like it needs.

Chenoweth won't be able to hold a candle to Jolie's weirdly enhanced cheekbones. But if Disney is going to go an ruin all its villains anyway, it might as well do it in as many formats as it can sell.

[Image via AP]

Sterling Yells at George Costanza for Associating with Black People

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Sterling Yells at George Costanza for Associating with Black People

The convenient thing about Seinfeld never showing us George Steinbrenner's face, from the point of view of video editors in 2014, is that he could really be any rich, old, white man who owns a sports team. Like, say, L.A. Clippers owner (for now) Donald Sterling.

Adult Swim dubbed Sterling's recent rant to his mistress about posing with black people on Instagram into a vintage Costanza-Steinbrenner scene, and it's basically like a Seinfeld2000 dream come to life.

Gold, Jerry. Gold!

[H/T Uproxx]

The Department of Education now has open Title IX sexual-violence and harassment investigations at 5


Hot Startup: Seamless for Rich People

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Hot Startup: Seamless for Rich People

It's always been fun to be a decadent asshole, but it's never been so easy. It's also apparently good business to help scale haute tech self-indulgence, as evidenced by a buzzy new food startup that's literally called Caviar.

The premise and design of Caviar are nearly identical to Seamless, the mega-popular internet food shovel: you get hungry, you click around the menus of different local restaurants, and food shows up at your door without having to touch cash or think about tipping. Where Caviar (no, really, it's called Caviar) differs from competitors is its stable of restaurants. Seamless is full of greasy neighborhood pizza places and pedestrian, affordable staples like kung pao, while Caviar delivers food from fancy places that don't otherwise deliver food, ever. In the mood for a $30 cured meat plate? A $60 cake? A lobster roll? Actual caviar? Are you a Howard Hughes figure, too bedridden and insane to just go out and eat at a nice restaurant, if that's what you're in the mood for?

You're covered. A credulous Wall Street Journal almost makes this sound like a sensible business with potential for widespread use:

Caviar helps high-end restaurants sell and deliver anything on their menu to customers who can't come in for a meal. This means restaurateurs and chefs don't have to become Web marketers or managers of small logistics teams, Mr. Wang said.

Once Caviar strikes a partnership with a dining establishment, which involves rigorous market research and taste-testing, the 45-employee startup sends professional photographers to capture all of the restaurant's available dishes and uploads the original pictures and descriptions to their website.

Finally, a solution to the age old problem expensive restaurants in Manhattan have faced for decades: who will eat all this food we keep cooking? Why didn't we install a door in our restaurant, or buy any tables?

It seems a bit silly to me, but plenty of investors are onboard: Caviar just raised $13 million dollars in venture capital, and counts Cameron Winklevoss as an early booster. If ostensibly smart people with capital are willing to give this thing a go, maybe I'm just missing something?

Hot Startup: Seamless for Rich People

I decided to give the Indulgence Economy a shot, and ordered a single caviar blini to my desk last night—the perfect Silicon Alley snack. The single, tiny blob of eggs on a cracker cost $5. There was no order, and no delivery fee. I closed my eyes and fondly remembered Kozmo.com. The weather was lousy, so traffic was snarled, but I was able to track my delivery guy Chris as he made the roughly sixty block trip south at an agonizing pace.

Hot Startup: Seamless for Rich People

Agonizing for him, not me, since I was the one sitting at a computer waiting for caviar on a cracker to arrive out of the ether. Also agonizing for Chris because I had no option to tip him extra for this horrible job. Also possibly agonizing for Caviar's owners and backers once they realize I paid about six bucks for a food item and two hours of someone's labor. Or not, since implausible niche startups that operate at an obvious loss are super chic these days.

Hot Startup: Seamless for Rich People

Chris finally arrived, drenched, looking miserable. I ate the soggy blini, which came in an incredibly small plastic container, and it was gross. I felt gross. The entire thing tasted and felt and looked and was gross. Maybe I should have gotten the $60 internet cake.

Yesterday, Senate Republicans blocked a vote to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.

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Yesterday, Senate Republicans blocked a vote to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. Today, Seattle officials announced they would raise the city's minimum wage to $15 in increments over the next few years. Happy May Day.

Cars are submerged in the Schuylkill River's flood waters along Main St. on Thursday in Philadelphia

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Cars are submerged in the Schuylkill River's flood waters along Main St. on Thursday in Philadelphia. During a nine-hour period that ended early Thursday, Chester County got 6.6 inches of rain, Delaware and Montgomery counties got 5.5 inches or more and Philadelphia almost 5 inches. Image via Matt Rourke)/AP.

Breathtaking Satellite Images Show Tornado Scars Left on the Earth

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Breathtaking Satellite Images Show Tornado Scars Left on the Earth

Looking at pictures of tornado damage from the ground is one thing, but looking at the path of devastation from space quickly puts it into perspective. Strong, long-track tornadoes often leave long scars on the earth's surface that are easily visible from space.

The tornado outbreak across portions of the southern United States earlier this week produced at least two EF-4 tornadoes and four EF-3s. The highest ranking on the Enhanced Fujita Scale — which estimates the wind speed in a tornado based on the damage it produces — is an EF-5, which is assigned when a tornado estimated to have winds in excess of 200 MPH.

Here's the clearly visible path of the Louisville, Mississippi tornado last Monday, which was rated an EF-4 by survey crews. The tornado was so strong that it threw a door more than 30 miles before it fell on the campus of Mississippi State University in Starkville.

Breathtaking Satellite Images Show Tornado Scars Left on the Earth

The 30+ mile path of the EF-4 tornado that tore through central Arkansas and devastated the towns of Mayflower and Vilonia is also visible from space.

Breathtaking Satellite Images Show Tornado Scars Left on the Earth

The worst tornado to strike the United States since the 1930s struck Joplin, Missouri on May 22, 2011, killing over 100 people and nearly wiping out the entire southern half of the town with winds in excess of 200 MPH. Its path was relatively short, but the path it cut through the southwestern Missouri town was apparent on satellite imagery.

Breathtaking Satellite Images Show Tornado Scars Left on the Earth

The April 27, 2011 tornado outbreak across the Deep South is still seared into the memories of most southerners, especially those who live in Alabama. The outbreak was the most prolific in recorded history, producing 358 tornadoes in the four days it took the weather system to move across the country.

Here are some of the tornado tracks over Alabama that were easily spotted by satellites a few days after that terrible April afternoon.

Breathtaking Satellite Images Show Tornado Scars Left on the Earth

It usually takes a year or two of plant growth and building construction to "remove" the tornado tracks from the landscape, but they're still visible in more populated areas.

In this aerial photograph taken in October 2013 used in Google Earth, you can still see the tornado track left by the EF-5 tornado that swept through Moore, Oklahoma five months earlier in May 2013.

Breathtaking Satellite Images Show Tornado Scars Left on the Earth

The track left behind by the Joplin tornado is barely distinguishable two-and-a-half years later when this aerial photograph was taken in January 2014. All of the damage has been cleared and removed, leaving open lots, dead grass, and new roofs in what remains of the tornado's track.

Breathtaking Satellite Images Show Tornado Scars Left on the Earth

[Images via AP / MODIS x4 / Google Earth x2]

Sinn Fein Leader Gerry Adams Arrested for Murder of Jean McConville

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Sinn Fein Leader Gerry Adams Arrested for Murder of Jean McConville

On Wednesday, police in Belfast arrested Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams for questioning in the 1972 kidnapping and murder of Jean McConville, an Irish widow believed by the Irish Republican Army to be a spy for the British Army.

Adams has denied having any involvement in McConville's abduction or death.

"I believe that the killing of Jean McConville and the secret burial of her body was wrong and a grievous injustice to her and her family," he said in a statement. "Well publicised, malicious allegations have been made against me. I reject these. While I have never disassociated myself from the IRA and I never will, I am innocent of any part in the abduction, killing or burial of Mrs McConville."

McConville, a widowed mother of 10, was abducted in front of her children from her home in 1972.

"They came about tea time and they dragged her out of the bathroom and dragged her out," McConville's daughter, Helen McKendry, told CNN in 2012. "...All I ever wanted was to know the reason why they killed my mother."

In 2003, a man walking along a beach in County Louth found McConville's partially-buried remains. An autopsy revealed she'd been killed by a gunshot wound to the back of the head.

The IRA accused her of being an informant, claims later refuted during an investigation by the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman.

Another IRA leader, Ivor Bell, was charged with aiding and abetting McConville's murder last month.

Both arrests were spurred by the release of tapes of former paramilitary fighters made by Boston College as part of the Belfast Project. Participants believed their interviews would remain secret until after their deaths, but a series of court rulings in the U.S. allowed some recordings to be handed over to Irish authorities.

McConville was one of the "Disappeared," a group of 16 people that, in 1999, the IRA admitted to killing and secretly burying. Seven of the 16 bodies still haven't been found.

[Image via AP]

Inside Amazon's Bizarre Corporate Culture

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Inside Amazon's Bizarre Corporate Culture

Yesterday, we brought you one Amazon warehouse worker's account of what it's like working for the blue collar side of the operation. Today, we bring you an account of what it's like working on the corporate side. (Hint: "weird.")

We got this email (which we've lightly copy edited for easier reading) from a person who worked in Amazon's corporate offices in Seattle from 2007-2009. It's an interesting look at a rather bizarre and driven corporate culture, with high pressure, high turnover, and a strong devotion to The Cult of Jeff Bezos. Take it for what it's worth.

Just a very weird experience as a whole. You feel like you won the lottery just getting a call back about your resume.Tthat's by design. Amazon is great at branding and they have branded themselves the place to work in high tech. Makes sense. Probably why they heavily recruit ivy league campuses now. Smart people, first job - you'd be crazy not to think that's a great opportunity. So you get an interview, what next? A six hour ordeal including panel interviews and people coming and going. You'll find out later when asked to participate in one of these that they are designed to agitate the interviewee, lets see what you got!

Then the fun starts. There is not so much as the word "train" or any training period what so ever. There's barely a job description and that will fluctuate. This also is by design. Sink or swim they say. (You do get an employee orientation and nifty Amazon backpack they charge you for when you leave the company). There was a young woman hired to be a control buyer on our team (Amazon retail is broken down by sections on the website. I worked for toys) and her and her entire family relocated from san fran, on the company's dime. Nice right? Well she started on Monday and by Friday she was pretty upset. She explained that the position was nothing like the description and she felt she was deceived a bit on the responsibilities. Needless to say when I showed up Monday her door-desk was empty. Hopefully they paid to get them back to san fran.

The first six months there is pretty exciting. You're trying to swim, meeting new people, going out to lunches with vendors (because Amazon is totally ok with receiving gifts of all types from outside interests. Money, food, sports tickets, you name it. And don't get me started on the booze. My god those people put away some booze, ON THE CLOCK, IN THE OFFICE. It's acceptable!). One might feel like a new career has just started; but that's about when the shit starts getting real. The work/life balance is crap. I once was asked why I turned my blackberry off on some random Saturday afternoon. The fact I was in a movie theater with my family was not ok. Your blackberry stays on at all times. Responsibilities grow fast. Now you're in deep. Apparently Jeff said something about 'if you aren't working at least 60 hours a week you aren't working' or something to that affect. The managers love it and say that crap all the time.

Better not complain though! This is about the time they start reminding you that there's a thousand people out there that would love your job. They will tell you this on the regular. So yeah, I'll take conference calls at 1am because our outsourced employees in India can't work overtime/take off-hour calls. They seem to care more about stressing them out. So anyways the fun is now over. You're a good year in and have noticed teams/employees coming and going like the wind. Well apparently so has everybody else because the software engineers there designed a little tool called the "old fart tool" - basically you put in your employee number and the tool tells you how much of the company was hired after you. By 18 months in 36% of the company was hired after me (with very little increase in actual numbers. I worked from 07-09. growth was slow and there was a hiring freeze during a lot of that time depending on department). The turn over was something I had never seen before. And I've worked a few collection agencies and call centers, real crap jobs with extreme turnover. Amazon's turnover was much worse.

So post one year. Most employees start looking for a new job elsewhere or new position within the company, again by design. During orientation it's encouraged that you not spend more than 2 years in the same team. seemed like an odd statement at the time but I believe its to save your ass. The company is really good about having its staff explain to management why they should still be there. You literally must re-interview for your position, while in that position, constantly. It comes up at least every three months. And you keep getting those reminders that people outside want your job! Pretty stressful work environment. Most people aren't really that happy. Employee morale is for those new employees still thrilled to death to be there. Whenever I see one (oh I work exactly next door to Amazon Web Services. We share a dog run with them. I speak to them daily) and they tell me how great Amazon is I say, tell me that again in two years ;)

So now I'm at the old 18 month mark on the toys team and thinking I should get the hell out of that team ASAP. Unfortunately there was a hiring freeze during that time and transfers were hard to come by. A few months go by and it's February 2009. New managers on the toys team. So I'm working under this new manager and he has until the end of month to get my review done. I remember like it was yesterday! 2/09, the 28th was on a Saturday. Friday at 4:45 he calls me into his office and it goes something like this (I am not kidding and have this well documented as well as witnesses to everything)

him: [name], we decided we don't want you here anymore

me: Huh? Um, ok?

him: Yeah it's just not working out (remember I've known this guy for one month)

me: Ok well I can find another team and do a lateral move

him: No that isn't going to work either.

*very long pause*

me: Ok. well my last review was great so I'm not sure why the big difference?

him: That's just the way it is, so what are you going to do?

me: What do you mean? Are you firing me?

him: Nope. But I need you to come in Monday and let me know what your plan is.

Huh? Was he asking me to quit? (yes he was actually)

So Monday. Same shit. "What are you going to do" - by then I'm getting a little pissed. I'm a grown ass man not a recently graduated college student. Spit it out.

He doesn't. He calls me into his office everyday for at least 30 minutes asking me what I'm going to do until I finally say "I'm not quitting. if that's what this is about you need to figure out what you're going to do"

Now I'm left out of team meetings. Work is being taken away from me. The vendors I've worked with almost two year are being told not to email me anymore. Ok well I guess now is the time to do what HR reps say is great, and the rest of us know is the nail in the coffin of your job: talk to HR about the situation.

So I did. She and my manger decided to put me on a "PIP"= performance improvement plan. This is amazon's ace in the hole for termination. Which, Washington is a right to work state so not sure why they have this, maybe to save face? I don't know. Anyways this thing was ridiculous (still have it) the stuff he put on there I'd never done before, was never a part of my responsibilities and would have been physically impossible to comply with. I busted my ass for the 90 days that PIP was in place, packed up all my belongings and took them home and waited. Got called into the office and HR rep and manager say: you didn't make your PIP. We are letting you go. (big shocker!) I said "I'm being fired"? He said, "no Amazon doesn't fire people they let them go." Again what the hell difference does that make? Anyways I was told they would give me stock and a small severance package if I signed an agreement not so sue them for wrongful termination...

You aren't worth anything to that company once you strap on that backpack. Every new employee is better than you and every future employee will do a better job. I blame the success of that company and how few employees they have. Jeff has a special team of manager called the S-team. Those guys are all multi-millionaires from stock alone. Every average Joe manager at Amazon would crush you like a grape to even get noticed by Jeff. They live, breathe and sleep only to get on that team. And it's only a few levels ahead of them! They can almost reach it...

[If you're an Amazon employee who'd like to share your story, email Hamilton@Gawker.com. Photo: AP]

It's settled, then: The founding fathers were not, in fact, "actively involved" in cockfighting.


Here Is What You Need to Know About the Kidnapped Girls of Nigeria

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Here Is What You Need to Know About the Kidnapped Girls of Nigeria

Sixteen days ago, an estimated 234 girls between 16 and 18 years old were taken from a school in northeastern Nigeria by a group of Islamic militants called Boko Haram. That's what we know for sure.

But what we don't know about this story, which has only begun to capture American public attention in the last few days (and that mostly through social media), could fill a book. Reports vary on just about everything, right down to the precise headcount.

Do we have a firm headcount on how many girls are missing?

Not exactly. Education officials at first said that there were about 129 students missing from that boarding school in Chibok, but by the time concerned parents and officials got involved, the headcount had climbed to the present 234. But even that number, it seems, does not count the forty or students who have already escaped their captors.

I heard that they were kidnapped while they were writing an exam.

People did say that, but in fact the girls were taken from the school overnight. They were there to take a physics exam that had earlier been cancelled owing to growing security concerns in Borno state. The Boko Haram militants apparently arrived en masse with trucks and motorcycles, and took the girls away in the dark after they set fire to the school.

Were those security concerns in Borno state linked to Boko Haram too?

Yes. Borno state, and northeastern Nigeria more generally, has been in a bad way for quite awhile. Boko Haram was founded there and it has been very active, and very violent, since 2009. The name translates, literally, as "Western education is sinful." And it has often attacked schools. While girls are the target this time, just weeks before the girls' abduction Boko Haram killed 59 boys at another school.

Last year, in an effort to stem the violence, the Nigerian government declared a state of emergency in Borno state so they could bring in the military. It imposed a curfew and cut off phones and the internet. But somehow this has only had the effect of making the place more isolated. Alexis Okeowo put it thusly at the New Yorker:

The military has restored phone lines in Borno. But the sole airline that flew to Maiduguri cancelled the route at the end of last year. The road to Chibok is so hazardous that Borno's governor visited the town with a heavy military escort. Much of the northeast is now physically isolated. What is happening there that we cannot see?

What do we know about what happened to the girls once they were kidnapped?

The girls are believed to have been taken into Sambisa forest. The forest, reportedly quite thick and swampy and containing a sizable wildlife population ranging from monkeys to elephants, is a Boko Haram stronghold. Escapees report that once there the girls were asked to cook for the insurgents. Bystanders in the general area say that the girls have now been split up and subjected to mass wedding ceremonies. Some say they have been taken out of Nigeria. Some also say the girls are now "sex slaves," though that worry has been around from the time the girls disappeared, of course. The oft-reported rumor is they're being auctioned off for the equivalent of $12 USD. No one has yet verified these reports with any degree of certainty.

What are Nigerians themselves doing about this?

Nigerians are marching in the streets about this. The general thrust of their complaint is that they believe the Nigerian government is not doing enough. The military is involved in the search for the girls, but it has, to say the least, bungled things already. For example: On the second day the girls were missing the military announced it had rescued all but eight of the girls, a statement it was forced to retract. As the Times curtly put it, "The military has become notorious for exaggerating its successes against Boko Haram."

I feel frustrated by the lack of reporting about this story in the American press.

Very reasonable! The problem is too complex to get into here in any detail, but for your venting pleasure here is a non-exclusive list of its causes: the remoteness of the region in question, the fact that foreign bureaus of American media outlets have been largely decimated by the collapse of media economics, that these young women are not white and that many Americans therefore find it easy to ignore them, and the larger truth that serious news stories are always going to play second fiddle to the Kardashian-industrial complex in America, I am afraid.

Is there some productive way I can channel my horror and anger about this story?

It's hard to say. Nigerians are using the hashtags #bringbackourgirls or #bringbackourdaughters on Twitter to attract attention to the story. There is also a whitehouse.gov petition asking the Obama administration to "work with the UN and the Nigerian government to bring home the girls kidnapped by Boko Haram." Participating in these online schemes strikes me as noble in the sense of successfully signaling concern.

But those girls, this situation: they will need much, much more than concern and online blather to save them.

[Photo of protesters via AP]

Glen Coco Didn't Get Paid for Mean Girls, Unless You Count Candy Canes

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10 years after the release of Mean Girls, "You go, Glen Coco!" endures as one of the movie's best catchphrases. But the man, the myth, the legend, the guy with four candy-cane-grams, Glen Coco, wasn't actually hired or paid to be in the film. Actor David Reale told Dazed how he ended up there anyway.

Reale had originally auditioned for another part in the film, but didn't get cast. Because the Toronto set was right across the street from his apartment, he walked over the next day anyway to watch the filming and maybe get some free food.

Director Mark Waters, recognized Reale from the audition and thinking he had been chosen as an extra, threw him into the film anyway, saying, "Hey, I'm going to put you right in the front on this next scene and you'll have a name and everything."

And what a name it was.

Reale says he didn't sign a release and was never officially cast, so he didn't get paid for the role—which had no lines—but he did get that free lunch. And it was delicious.

Reale is still an actor, with a number of voice roles, some episodes of Suits, and a couple of upcoming movies to his credit. But he understands the significance of Glen Coco, and he's not even mad about it:

Tina Fey wrote the line, Daniel Franzese spoke the line... I just sat in a chair and tried not to stare at Lindsay Lohan. But I guess it was the first time somebody pointed to me on the street and shouted "YOU GO GLEN COCO!" that I knew I was involved in something with a beauty and power that surpassed the mere proliferation of four candy canes to an accidental movie extra.

[H/T HuffPo]

Brian Williams Wanted to Rap "Rollout," and He Got His Wish

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Newsman and loyal Gawker customer Brian Williams recently appeared on The Tonight Show to thank Jimmy Fallon for upping his credibility in the rap game with a series of remixes of Williams performing hip-hop classics like "Gin and Juice" and "Rapper's Delight." But Williams lamented that he doesn't get to pick his own songs.

"What about some pre-hearing-loss Foxy Brown? What about ... any Luda would be great. I'll do 'Rollout,'" he said, giving Fallon a couple of freebie Ludacris lines to make it easier.

But Fallon and his genius video editor, John MacDonald, have been beaten to the punch.

PorterHouse Media fulfilled Bri Willy's special request and dropped this video of "Rollout (My Business)" last night. It's not as polished as MacDonald's work, and Williams really teed up "Who's your weed man?" for them, but the important thing is that this video exists.

Now it's your move with the Foxy Brown, Fallon.

[H/T What's Trending]

How the Flaming Lips Lost a Drummer Over Native American Appropriation

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How the Flaming Lips Lost a Drummer Over Native American Appropriation

If you've been to a music festival in the last few years, you've probably noticed young, white people parading around in traditional Native American headdresses. It is a gross bit of cultural appropriation. Because the drummer for the Flaming Lips thought so, he was kicked out of the band after 12 years, in a controversy that involves the daughter of Oklahoma governor Mary Fallin.

On March 6, Christina Fallin—Mary's daughter and the lead singer of the band Pink Pony—proudly posted a photo to Instagram that showed her wearing a headdress, seemingly unaware that it might anger scores of people in her mother's state, which is still 9 percent American Indian. In response to social media blowback against that picture, Fallin, who is 27, released a statement along with her band, asking Oklahoma's native community to "forgive us if we innocently adorn ourselves in your beautiful things."

How the Flaming Lips Lost a Drummer Over Native American Appropriation

On March 22, the Flaming Lips played a show without Kliph Scurlock, who had drummed with the psych-rockers since 2002. On April 2, a commenter on the indie rock blog Brooklyn Vegan wrote that legendary frontman Wayne Coyne had fired Scurlock from the band, and that Fallin's headdress stunt was to blame:

Kliph wasn't fired for calling Wayne out on his midlife crisis b.s. (although if anyone in that band had the nuts to bring it up to Wayne, it would be Kliph!) He was fired for taking a stand against Wayne's new buddy - the daughter of OK's tea-bagging, homophobe governor Mary Fallin - when she donned a Native headdress for a racist publicity stunt. When Kliph called her out on social media for being a shithead to the Oklahoma Native community who complained about her headdress publicity stunt, she tattled on him to Wayne. Wayne actually told Kliph he was fired for insulting Fallin publicly.

Five days after that post, the Flaming Lips officially announced that Scurlock had separated from the band. No reason was given for the departure, and perhaps because bands splinter all the time, the issue wasn't probed by the music press. According to a source who spoke with Gawker, Scurlock had left comments on Fallin's Instagram that expressed his displeasure with her photo.

Coyne, on the other hand, was supportive. In late March, he posted a since-deleted photo to Instagram showing three of his friends and a (sad-looking) dog wearing a headdress. The caption was "did our best @christinafallin pose."

On April 26, Pink Pony performed at the Norman Music Festival in Oklahoma. The crowd included not just festival attendees and those curious to see a band led by the governor's daughter, but also members of the activist group Eradicating Offensive Native Mascotry, who had organized a protest of the set because of Fallin's recent history. At the festival, protestors held signs that said "NOT A FASHION ACCESSORY" and "CULTURE IS NOT COSTUME."

Rather than shaming Fallin, the protests apparently egged her on. According to witnesses, Fallin, who was wearing a shawl with the word "SHEEP" stitched on the back, "performed a fake war dance while her boyfriend Steven Battles ridiculed the protestors and flipped them off from the stage."

Watching the performance was Coyne, who had the same reaction as his friend Fallin. Sources told to BuzzFeed that Coyne was seen "pointing and laughing at the protestors."

After Fallin's performance, the Oklahoma gossip blog Red Dirt Report reported that it, too, had multiple sources that said Scurlock had been fired for calling Fallin out. A few days after that, we received a screenshot of a Facebook message Scurlock sent to an acquaintance in which he stated that he had indeed been sacked from the band for that reason.

Untethered from the Lips, Scurlock retweeted messages supporting the Fallin protestors after her performance. In an April 28 tweet to a supporter, Scurlock, addressing the state's Native American community, alluded to his dismissal from his band of a dozen years: "I will always stand by your side. And the greater the ignorance, the louder my mouth will get, rock bands be damned."

When asked for comment, a representative for the Flaming Lips said, "Apart from acknowledging that Kliph has parted ways w/ THE LIPS, I have no further info on this." Scurlock did not respond to an inquiry.

Crazy Video Shows Tornado Hitting an Office Building in Italy

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An office worker took this insane video of a tornado that reportedly hit an office building in Nonatola, Italy yesterday afternoon. The guy foolishly stands by a window while the twister tears up nearby buildings, before running for safety just as windows break and debris start crashing through the office.

Tornadoes are common in Europe and elsewhere in the world, but they don't occur anywhere near the frequency we see in the United States.

[Video via YouReporter.it]

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