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"Crust King's" Shocking Claim: Obama Gorges on Lard

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"Crust King's" Shocking Claim: Obama Gorges on Lard

Earlier this week, U.S. president Barack Obama defiled this nation's highest dessert office by asking whether White House pastry chef Bill Yosses "puts crack" in his delicious pie crusts. Now, Yosses is speaking out on his struggle for the very first time.

Obama's shocking "shout out" to an illegal drug had the US media aflame. Sample real lede of a story in a major US newspaper: "It's not every day you hear a president joke about crack cocaine — in White House pies, no less." We second this, times one thousand. Today, in a shocking follow-up American journalism television program INSIDE EDITION reveals EXCLUSIVELY to GAWKER.COM via press release what retiring White House pastry chef BILL YOSSES has to say about his president's shocking claims.

Yosses whipped up the President's favorite nectarine pie for INSIDE EDITION, starting with the famous crust that got him the nickname, "Crust King."

"Crust King"... lol

There's more.

YOSSES: "There's one other thing that I suppose we can call secret. And that is, I put a little bit of lard in the pie dough."

If "Deep Throat"-style White House insider "The Crust Punk" is to be believed, the Muslim president of the United States is literally incapable of stopping himself from drinking pure pig fat like a horse drinks water. Is this the sort of "role model" you want for your child?

[Photo: AP]


Anthony Cumia Has a Long History of Public Awfulness

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Anthony Cumia Has a Long History of Public Awfulness

Anthony Cumia, part of the shock jock duo of SiriusXM's The Opie and Anthony Show, exploded into a hours-long, racist rant on his Twitter feed last night after he was allegedly attacked by a woman and a group of men in Times Square. Cumia, along with his co-host Gregg "Opie" Hughes, have a long, sordid history in talk radio for their debauched antics, which have resulted in multiple FCC fines, suspensions, and outright firings over the years. But Cumia's history of racism appears to be just as long and shocking as the stunts he participates in on his radio show. And it's mostly gone hidden in plain sight. http://gawker.com/siriusxm-host-...

The duo have had a number of public-facing debacles (they're even their own category on TV Tropes). In 1998, they were fired from their Worcester, Mass. radio station after an April Fools Day prank in which they reported that the city's mayor at the time, Thomas M. Menino, died in a car accident. (Their stunt got them hired at another station in New York.)

But most people are probably familiar with when the two were suspended from XM (before its merger with Sirius) in 2007 for 30 days after their "Homeless Charlie" segment, in which a homeless man the two dubbed Charlie expressed his desire to rape then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (and then First Lady Laura Bush). From the show, as lovingly preserved by OAPedia:

Charlie: I tell you what. What's that George Bush bitch.. um Rice? Condoleezza Rice?

Anthony: Condoleezza Rice, yea.

Charlie: I'd love to fuck that bitch. She needs a fukin' man. I'll fuck that bitch...

Anthony: I just imagine the horror in Condoleezza Rice's face

Opie: (Laughing) As she realizes what's going on.

Anthony: As you were just holding her down and fucking her.

Charlie: Punch her all in the fucking face. Shut up bitch!

Anthony: That's exactly what I meant.

(Laughter)

Their suspension—a month after Don Imus' comments about the Rutgers University's women's basketball team—was met with outrage from fans, who cancelled their XM subscription en masse, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Their show has been fined twice by the FCC. The first was after two complaints made about sexual content involving underge girls. From the official FCC document:

The show hosts asked a seventeen-year-old girl to remove her panties and rub the telephone on her pubic hair. The show hosts called the game, "Teen Guess What's In My Pants?" The show hosts gave detailed instructions regarding how to rub the telephone across the girl's pubic area. After each direction from the host, the station broadcast the sound of the telephone rubbing across the girl's pubic area.

The second complaint includes excerpts from a song allegedly broadcast on the January 8, 2001 "Opie and Anthony Show." The excerpts were lyrics sung by a man who is "horny for little girls," liked girls between the ages of two and three, liked the girls' "round butts" and "liked to ram them."

The second was in 2002 after their annual "Sex for Sam" stunt, in which they select couples to have sex in public places around New York City. For "Sex for Sam 3," a couple called in saying they were having sex in a vestibule at St. Patrick's Cathedral during mass. The Catholic League, furious, demanded that Opie and Anthony be fired, and their station at the time, WNEW, obliged, cancelling their show (but paid them through the end of their contract). Two years later, they landed a new show on XM.

Following our post yesterday, a number of videos and audio clips demonstrating Cumia's racism have been sent our way. One, from 1994 and during the OJ Simpson trial, is a "parody" music video of Otis Redding's "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay" made by Cumia's band Rotgut. In the video Cumia, in blackface, sings about OJ Simpson getting the electric chair. The chorus: "They gonna 'lectric shock OJ / cook my behind like a chicken croquette."

This was the song that originally brought Hughes and Cumia together, with Hughes bringing Cumia on full-time after he aired his song on his Long Island radio show in 1994 and was ostensibly Cumia's first public display of his racist ideals.

The Opie and Anthony show airs weekdays on SiriusXM from 6:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. EST and started airing on the satellite radio service in 2004. And in the intervening decade, from what former listeners and tipsters have told us, Cumia's (and Hughes and frequent collaborator Jim Norton) racism has run deep. And while it's long been a part of his on-air repertoire, it's become especially pronounced as of late, leaving even longtime fans cold. The highlights of what we've been told:

• He's apparently fond of saying "mulatto mongrel" on his show, as one tipster writes, a quote he got from the 1988 film Mississippi Burning.

• And as we've learned Cumia's Twitter account is indeed, "a rabbit hole of racism," as another tipster writes. His "negro" lawn ornaments:

• Another tipster sent along this 42-minute clip from a June 2013 show where Cumia explains to Jim Norton how he wasn't brought up with racist attitudes:

"Were you brought up in a very racist household?"

"No, actually I goof about it and stuff but it wasn't. My mother used to say when I'd ask her, 'Hey, can you get me that?' and she'd say, 'What do I look, three shades darker than you?' you know, things like that. Innocent, fun things. You know the Brazil nuts? They were called nigger toes at grandma's house. Things like that. You know, if I fucking got $10 in my birthday card and I wanted to go to the store to buy something, my mother would say that I'm acting like I'm nigger rich."

• One tipster sent in a clip from when he, a black man, called into the Jim Norton Show (his call starts at the 12:30 mark) to question why Opie and Anthony was devoting more and more time to Cumia's racist viewpoints. "I'm telling you you lost a fan because of the way you've been on the show," caller Darren Williams tells Cumia. "Eh, a black fan," Cumia responds.

• Indeed, a number of listeners of his show have written to say how they've stopped listening to the show because of the intensity of the racist content. One tipster writes:

Been an O&A fan for 5 years, but recently Anthony has been unlistenable. What used to be somewhat "intelligent" race discussions have now devolved into uncomfortable white pride rants.

His sexism is also at an all-time high. I tune out more than I tune in these days. Too much negativity that early in the morning.

And according to the same tipster, Cumia's racist comments started becoming more pronounced on the show following the coverage of George Zimmerman (whom Cumia sympathizes with) and Trayvon Martin:

Probably since Patrice died and the George Zimmerman situation happened. From there, there were hours or days that I turned off the show due to his racism or anti-liberal, anti-women rants. After that, I just lost interest unless they had their comedian friends on. But even those guys have been scarce lately.

The Patrice mentioned by the tipster is the late comedian Patrice O'Neal, who was a frequent guest host on Opie and Anthony. O'Neal helped them pull a stunt in which he and Cumia, dressed as a Nazi, try to hail cabs in New York City to see which, "niggers or Nazis," get more taxis to stop.

• Another tipster writes about how Cumia regularly mentions on-air how he frequents Nigger Mania, which is a website and series of forums that are "dedicated to spreading the truth and presenting facts about niggers."

Cumia is a loose cannon and makes a show that I've come to love over the years almost unbearable to listen to these days. He goes on race-fuled tirades all the time. He makes claims of frequenting a website called "niggermania."

Forum posters are delighted that Cumia name-drops their site on-air. One post, from user Masterrace88 dated March 14, 2012, offers additional corroborating evidence:

The O & A show is pretty good and definitely far from anything "pc." Anthony loves this site. I've heard many podcasts where he mentions this site either directly or indirectly. One that I listened to recently he was talking about this site without giving the name out. His listeners and Opie know exactly what site he was referring to. He regularly refers to this site when talking about nigger crime, recent nigger news, or other nigger BS that goes on with media. He also hates Obama with a passion. From the last I heard he doesn't care if people call him a racist or not. Anthony is pretty smart guy and knows his opinions come from fact and reality just like everything on this forum. I'm sure he didn't really care at all when his fat nigger co-host dropped dead from a KFC overdose not too long ago.

• But the clip that has been sent to us the most is this 47 minute-long Opie and Anthony discussion of eugenics from last year. From around the 15:15 mark:

I do genuinely believe that there is a set parameter for different people. I think you're starting off at a certain base. Whether you can transcend that or not is very individualistic. But on the whole I do believe there are certain peoples that are, um, more advanced than others from the beginning, at the get-go.

I've requested comment from SiriusXM and will update with their statement should they respond.

[Image via Getty]

Here's a Detailed Breakdown of Why You Don't Like Michael Bay

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People don't really like director Michael Bay, but the most common explanation of why just boils down to "explosions." That doesn't mean they're wrong— it just means we need to go deeper. Here, Tony Zhou of Every Frame a Painting breaks down the most important visual clichés that Bay has borrowed, defined, or overused ad nauseam to create his trademark "Bayhem."

"There are filmmakers we love and then there's Michael Bay," Zhou writes, "Even if you dislike him (as I do), Bay has something valuable to teach us about visual perception."

The next time you need to explain why Michael Bay sucks, you'll have a lot more ammunition in your pocket: Explosions and lampposts!

And, although it's not a visual element, let's not forget about the gratuitous gay jokes.

[H/T Devour]

NSA's First Director: "I Was the Only Red Pencil."

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NSA's First Director: "I Was the Only Red Pencil."

Two internal NSA oral histories — one formerly classified Top Secret, another merely "For Official Use Only" — surfaced yesterday on secrets-spilling site Cryptome. And, so far, they are a delightful trove of spooktacular managerial affectations and clandestine bureaucratic in-fighting.

In particular, an interview with the agency's first director, Ralph Julian Canine, conducted at Fort Meade in the mid-1960s, offers a unique vista onto the institutional culture of the early NSA: the view of the man tasked with rough-hewing a large, expensive mass of living beings and materiale into a coherent new arm of the U.S. government.

How'd he do that?

Stephen L. David, Deputy Commandant, National Cryptologic School: One of the most outstanding stories about you is the way you made sure that everybody knew who was boss. And do you remember when you had a decision ... made a decision that all gray furniture would be with gray furniture, and brown furniture with the brown furniture? This seemed like a lot of wasted time.

Canine: It wasn't at all! I wanted the people to ... 1 knew that the way you got people to do things was to know the fellow that was giving the order. And I knew that if I made them move all their files, that they'd be all mad at me and they'd know who issued the order.

David: They were mad at you?

Canine: They were mad at me. ((Laughter heard.)) They all complained.

This is some solid leadership advice: be capricious and demanding early!

And: Pay attention to the subtle impact of color.

David: There's another story about you that either your staff or you made a decision that you were the only one to use a red pencil.

Canine: That's right. That wasn't the first time I'd made that decision. I made that decision in practically every outfit I'd been in, was that I was the only red pencil. I wanted them to ... when they saw a red pencil writing, or a marking, that the boss put that on there and that that was urgent.

David: We have at one time during the first few months of your command, you used the word "unreconstructed rebels". And this was part of that whole furniture/red pencil era.

Canine: We had a lot of them in NSA.

David: How did you go about converting "unreconstructed rebels" to your way?

Canine: Well, some I never converted. ((Chuckling heard.)) They had a pretty hard time. ((More laughter heard.)) I got rid of some of them. Those that I could, I got rid of, as Sullivan can tell you. ((Audio abruptly stops at this point [...]))

I hope you are taking notes. These are the insights one needs to corral flakey "creative" math geniuses, and other beautiful minds, efficiently into the service of Empire. Reconstruct the ones you can, accept the unreconstructed rebels you can't, and ask your Higher Power for the wisdom to know the difference.

There's something new for everyone in these transcripts (listed below by their level of secrecy, interview subject, and approximate recording date) — well, sure, excepting maybe James Bamford, author of four mammoth tomes comprising the whole breadth of the NSA's history. Nothing new here for you, James. Sorry:

  • Declassified // Lt. Gen. Ralph J. Canine (retired), and six others // 1965 or 1966
  • Declassified // Lt. Gen. Ralph J. Canine (retired) // Late 1960s
  • Declassified // Lt. Gen. Ralph J. Canine (retired) // Mid-to-late 1960s
  • Unclassified // Capt. George McGinnis, navy cryptologic officer // Feb. 2005

Incidentally, Cryptome is running a Kickstarter to keep doing its idiosyncratic, "mom and pop" document-dumping thing. SO: Don't let Big Box secrets-sharing sites tied to ebay billionaires or embassy couch surfers crowd out local, independent secrets-spillers! Be nice, please! Keep cool, but care.

[cropped official military portrait of Ralph Canine via the National Security Agency via Wikipedia]

Bomb Maker to Judge: “I Know This All Looks Really Bad”

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Bomb Maker to Judge: “I Know This All Looks Really Bad”

An Idaho dad who stashed so much pipe bomb making material in the crawlspace under his kids' bedroom that it took police two days to remove it all will be spending the next 13-25 years in prison.

Joshua Finch, 33, says that he believed that an electromagnetic pulse was going to knock out all the electronics in the nation, and that he needed the roughly 100 pounds of explosives, pipe-bomb making materials and the assault rifle that police found under his home to protect his family from the chaos that was sure to follow.

"I know all this looks really bad, but I wasn't trying to hurt anyone," Finch told District Court Judge Thomas Neville during his sentencing hearing on Monday. He had pleaded guilty in May to aggravated assault, possession of destructive devices or bombs, two counts of injury to a child and unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon.

Finch's girlfriend notified authorities after he began mysteriously spending his nights locked in a shed while also trying to purchase guns and body armor on Craigslist. It took the Boise Police Bomb Squad two days to clear out the explosives from under the home.

Finch's defense attorney said that Finch's beliefs in the breakdown of society came from his parents, and that alcohol and student loan bills played a role in the case.

<Image via BoiseWeekly.com>

TMZ's Famous in Twelve Canceled in Five

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TMZ's Famous in Twelve Canceled in Five

The Wrap reports that TMZ's social media experiment Famous in 12—a reality show which proposed that a regular family, the Artiagas, could be made famous after filming and televising their lives for 12 weeks—has been canceled by the CW after five weeks. That settles that, then!

The Artiagas were chosen as the focus of the show based on a video submission—one of 10,000 received. Here's the Wrap on how the show met its end:

The show's executive producer and TMZ founder Harvey Levin told family members on Tuesday's episode that not enough people were watching to keep the show going.

The series' fifth episode and now season finale earned a low 0.2 rating/ 1 share in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic and attracted only 520,000 total viewers.

I hope we all learned a valuable lesson about making reality television bets that we could not ever reasonably keep.

[image via CW]

Postal Worker Straight Up Just Flings Packages Into a Ravine

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Receiving packages is usually very fun, but being a postal worker probably sucks sometimes. So launching some random boxes into a ravine like this USPS employee in Alabama seems more or less understandable, if not outright patriotic.

Here is the story, per AL.com:

The video was filmed on Monday, according to the person who posted it to YouTube (who asked that his name not be used). The poster, who said a co-worker's boyfriend actually filmed the incident, said the incident occurred on 17th Avenue South on Birmingham's Southside – a very hilly area overlooking Birmingham's skyline.

The postal worker, who has not been named, has reportedly resigned. He probably still feels pretty good, though.

Restaurant Reservation Scalping Site Is Everything Wrong with SF

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Restaurant Reservation Scalping Site Is Everything Wrong with SF

There are two things startups shouldn't fuck with in San Francisco. One is parking, and the other is restaurants. San Francisco is, after all, a city of foodies. Techies write bots to score competitive reservations. Foodies stand two hours in the rain waiting for day-old New York bagels. Now a startup is drawing fire for trying to capitalize off that love.

ReservationHop bills itself as a service that "[makes] reservations at the hottest restaurants in advance so you don't have to." The service scrapes advance reservation systems to fill up its inventory and sells them back to users for "as little as $5." In other words, they're scalping dinner reservations.

The startup operates in such an unofficial gray area, they even inform customers "After payment, we'll give you the name to use when you arrive at the restaurant."

Restaurant Reservation Scalping Site Is Everything Wrong with SF

Of course, the service is effectively capturing money away from restaurants—one of the most famously risky businesses out there. And the situation is made worse by the fact they are making empty reservations to sell, creating situations in which Reservation Hop's unsold "inventory" could result in empty tables.

As one chef, Hapa Ramen's Richie Nakano put it, "This is disgusting and hurtful to restaurants that already operate on razor thin margins."

Nakano further elaborates in an email:

An app like that, while not breaking any rules or laws per se, has the potential to be hurtful to small businesses that rely on having a reservation book full of diners that actually show up. What happens to the reservations that no one winds up buying? This is a perfect example of tech trying to "disrupt" something without thinking of the consequences. I hate this idea. It's awful and selfish and if it was my restaurant I would check that site everyday to see if my place were listed there so I could delete those reservations.

Richie isn't alone. The initial feedback on Twitter is not good:

Naturally, the only person who seems interested in this is Reservation Hop's friend at TechCrunch.

[h/t Mat Honan]


TV Shows That Really Make You Feel Like an American

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TV Shows That Really Make You Feel Like an American

Some of us celebrate the Fourth of July with fireworks and some of us celebrate it with flags and some of us—hi there!—celebrate it by watching TV. This list is for you. And these shows are those shows that riff/expand on Core American Values of scrappy, underdog, little-c conservative exceptionalism; as in, every one of the characters here would probably make a better congressperson than your congressperson.

Each of the below is streamable at one or more of Hulu/Netflix/Amazon/etc. In the interest of interest, we have eschewed the obvious in favor of the real and even the controversial. So much realness! So little Band of Brothers.

Blue Mountain State (Netflix)

TV Shows That Really Make You Feel Like an American

The American higher education system is, within reason, totally fucked. But then it produces shows like this, about dudes like this, who are every contradiction about the curving horizon of modernity, privilege, and masculinity. Alan Ritchson was designed in a Ford factory many years ago just for this millennium. He has been waiting for us since the founding. Watch how his teeth gleam.

Season 4 of 24 (Amazon Prime)

TV Shows That Really Make You Feel Like an American

The fourth of Jack Bauer's unterminal days involves, actually, a lot. That is: Gregory Itzin, Shohreh Aghdashloo, and Logan Marshall-Green; foiled executions, successful sudden deaths, and a lot to do about the pitifulness of peace. Season 4 is without question 24's best season and it is b a n a n a s, an abjection of the many subterrulean nightmares that would (have!) come to dominate mainstream political discourse. The country has never looked worse. I mean that as a compliment.

John Adams (HBOGo)

TV Shows That Really Make You Feel Like an American

There is only one way to watch HBO's John Adams: in just two or three days with your father. The miniseries is better than you remember, every part of it is, and the feeling you're left with is nothing less than unadulterated. A kind of civic euphoria. This, we have always argued, is how history is to be remembered: not whitewashed, nothing so simple, but burnished—so that every human-sized fact of life feels impossible without us.

King of the Hill (Amazon, iTunes)

The harder I try to drill down into the profound greatness of Fox's animated sitcom, the farther away I get from any profundity. Let's just say: King of the Hill was the beginning of the end of the hold the culture wars had on our national psyche. And also! It took the time, alone on TV, to pay attention to the specific spectacle of Boggle.

Friday Night Lights (Netflix)

TV Shows That Really Make You Feel Like an American

The people who always try and sell you on Friday Night Lights with the caveat that, "Hey, it's not really about football"—those people are liars. FNL is deeply, intrinsically about football; and ever more deeply and intrinsically about the ways in which the particular rules we play by help shape the people we become; and the disservices we do to one another in ignoring our own capacities for change. It is a riot of semiotics. This is what we imagine ourselves to be like: From many disparities between religion, gender, class, race, and age, we come to see a whole.

Roswell (Netflix)

TV Shows That Really Make You Feel Like an American

Teenagerdom is an explicit construct; and the narratives that literalize this metaphorically (your Buffys and your Vampire Diarieses) are fecund. Roswell is not the genre's best face. Instead it is a wildly ardorous Southwestern series about reincarnated monarchical aliens that one time made me cry. You would not expect me to say that the series speaks in strange, valuable registers about the immigrant experience because that would be insane, but it does. It has an interrogative sense of place-as-personhood (who/how/where are we) and then, like a harpsichord, bangs on itself until a melody comes out.

Terriers (Netflix)

TV Shows That Really Make You Feel Like an American

Terriers, about two private investigators on the beaches of California, ran for one season on one cable network and it is all anyone can talk about, ever, as though the series' successes in the areas of sleuthing, wryness, and reinvention were new, week to week, and the fact that they should not be was no impediment to the impossibility that they were. This is the America we have built. For the record, Donal Logue is Irish and Canadian, not American. But he does strive, which is all that we can ask.

[Images and video via NBC, Spike, Youtube, HBO, UPN, and FX]

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Oops: Weather Service Issues Tornado Warning 18 Minutes After Tornado

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Oops: Weather Service Issues Tornado Warning 18 Minutes After Tornado

While the National Weather Service is often on top of their game when it comes to severe weather, sometimes they miss the mark and make a major error. In this case, they failed to issue a tornado warning on a confirmed tornado until 18 minutes after it first showed up on radar.

Tornadoes often form in the outer bands of tropical cyclones, but they are usually small, weak, and fast. Some of the tornadoes happen so quickly that they form in between radar sweeps, making them completely undetectable until we hear reports of damage. In southeastern North Carolina this afternoon, this was definitely not the case.

Almost every weather nerd with an internet connection is watching the weather radar right now as Hurricane Arthur churns closer to land, and all attention was on a tornado warning north of Wilmington. There were two areas of rotation that prompted the warning, but they weren't particularly strong. At 4:03PM, a small but strong area of rotation well south of the tornado warning caused more concern.

Since the radar is on SAILS mode — giving us low-level sweeps every two or three minutes — I kept an eye on each update to see if the National Weather Service in Wilmington, North Carolina would issue a tornado warning.

Next radar sweep, nothing.

The next one, still nothing, and the rotation was even stronger:

Oops: Weather Service Issues Tornado Warning 18 Minutes After Tornado

By 4:11PM Eastern, the tornado had developed very strong rotation and there was even some debris showing up on radar.

Oops: Weather Service Issues Tornado Warning 18 Minutes After Tornado

Even after this feature showed up on radar, it took a full ten minutes for the National Weather Service to issue a tornado warning for a law enforcement-confirmed tornado, long after the tornado had lifted and the damage was done.

Oops: Weather Service Issues Tornado Warning 18 Minutes After Tornado

The rotation first showed up at 4:03 PM and the warning wasn't issued until 4:21 PM — that's a full 18 minutes that a confirmed tornado (!) was present on radar imagery, and there was no warning.

This is unacceptable.

The NWS office in Wilmington is understandably swamped with work due to Hurricane Arthur and its effects, but this was not a surprise tornado. It was there and it was obvious and there is no reason or excuse good enough to justify not issuing a tornado warning on this storm.

A tornado watch is in effect for eastern North Carolina. When a tornado watch is in effect, it means that conditions are favorable for the formation of tornadoes. Sometimes tornadoes occur without warning, but they are often too small or happen too quickly to be detected by Doppler radar. That was not the case today. The lack of a tornado warning for Currie, North Carolina was pure human error, and it is an error that cannot and should not ever happen again.

[Images via GOES and Gibson Ridge]

Japanese Politician Becomes Crying Mess at Press Conference

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Ryutaro Nonomura, an assemblyman for Hyogo Prefecture, burst into tears after a reporter questioned his use of public funds to pay for frequent trips to an area hot spring. He told reporters, in between breaths as he continued to weep hysterically, "I'm putting my life on the line!"

His incomprehensible speech from the conference, from the Washington Post:

"[Crying] . . . I finally became an assembly member . . . [crying] . . . with the sole purpose of changing society," he bawled during the three-hour Kobe press conference, according to the Japan Times. "[Crying] . . . This Japan . . . [crying] . . . I want to change this society… [crying] . . . I have staked my life . . . [crying] . . . Don't you understand?"

As the Associated Press reports, Nonomura's visits to the hot springs aren't technically illegal, though it has been questioned whether he over-expensed his trips:

Such visits were not illegal and had been reported to the assembly office, but totaled 3 million yen ($30,000).

Calls are rising for Nonomura to give an explanation.

Hyogo legislators get 500,000 yen ($5,000) a month for expenses, including travel, but the spending is supposed to be for official travel, research and other costs related to activities of elected office.

Nonomura, who does not belong to a major political party, was found to have gone to other day trips, racking up expenses, including visits to Tokyo and southwestern city of Fukuoka.

Of his 195 day trips, ones to the "onsen" hot-springs resort town of Kinosaki, which lies outside his precinct, were the most frequent.

Beyond finding Nonomura's crying fit strange (and breaking from Japanese tradition of restraint), many are calling for the politician to step down from his role.

"Many people are starting to demand that he resign," Hideaki Asada, of the Hyogo Prefectural assembly office, told the Associated Press. "He is usually not that emotional."

Astronomers in Ukraine Named a Star "Putin is a Dickhead"

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Astronomers in Ukraine Named a Star "Putin is a Dickhead"

As tensions rise in Ukraine in their battle against pro-Russian separatists, a group of Ukrainian astronomers have come up with a way to deliver a cosmic burn: by naming a star "Putin-Huilo!" after Russian President Vladimir Putin. "Huilo" (or as it is sometime seen, "khuilo") is a useful Ukrainian word that roughly translates to "fucker," "asshole," or "dickhead" in English.

According to The Wire, the star was adopted through the Pale Blue Dot Project, which allows anyone to adopt a star (and name it) for $10. "Khuilo" has taken on a life of its own as a meme/insult of choice to use in reference to Vladimir Putin:

In June of this year, an Urban Dictionary entry formally defined khuilo: "Khuilo is the president of Russia Vladimir Putin." So, now a word which originally was slang for penis is synonymous with "terrible dictator." Ukrainian rock bands started using it in their music, and even politicians picked it up. Ukrainian parliament member Oleh Lyashko was caught singing it, as was the minister of foreign affairs Andrii Deshchytsia.

[H/T The Wire // Image via]

Colorado Attorney General Sues to Stop Same-Sex Marriage Licenses

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Colorado Attorney General Sues to Stop Same-Sex Marriage Licenses

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers is suing Boulder County Clerk Hillary Hall, who has been issuing same-sex marriage licenses while same-sex marriage is still technically banned in the state. Hall has argued that the ruling by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals last month that struck down Utah's ban on gay marriage keeps her in the clear, because the court's jurisdiction covers Colorado and five other surrounding states.

"While we would prefer not to sue a government official, Ms. Hall's actions are creating a legal limbo for both the state and the couples whose relationships she wants to champion," Suthers said in a statement. "That limbo could have tangible and unintended consequences." Further from Reuters:

In Thursday's motion for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction against Hall, Suthers asked a judge to rule on whether a county clerk has the authority to issue licenses if the practice deviates from current law.

In a companion complaint, Suthers asked a judge to rule that the licenses issued by Hall are invalid, that she stop issuing them, and that the appellate court's stay be binding in Colorado.

Hall has issued more than 100 same-sex marriage licenses since the 10th Circuit's ruling, which ruled against Utah's constitutional ban on gay marriage. The court also stayed its ruling until a higher court, likely the Supreme Court, could make a final determination.

[Image via AP]

Dad Gets Brain Injury From Headbanging to Motörhead

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Dad Gets Brain Injury From Headbanging to Motörhead

It is possible to rock too hard. Doctors at Hannover Medical School in Germany treated a 50-year-old man earlier this year complaining of constant headaches that were only getting worse. He had no history of head injuries or drug problems, but told doctors that he had been headbanging at a Motörhead concert with his son the month before. After scanning his head, doctors found a brain bleed.

According to their case study published today in medical journal the Lancet, doctors then drilled a hole in the man's head to drain the blood, after which his headaches stopped. It was all the headbanging.

"We are not against headbanging," Dr. Ariyan Pirayesh Islamian, one of the man's doctors, told the Associated Press. "The risk of injury is very, very low. But I think if (our patient) had (gone) to a classical concert, this would not have happened." More from the Daily Beast:

Doctors wrote in the study, that "headbanging, with its brisk forward and backward acceleration and deceleration forces, led to rupturing of bridging veins causing haemorrhage…" and declared that the case "serves as evidence in support of Motörhead's reputation as one of the most hardcore rock'n'roll acts on earth, if nothing else because of their contagious speed drive and the hazardous potential for headbanging fans to suffer brain injury."

None of this should discourage you, headbanger, from continuing to do so. "Rock 'n' roll will never die," Islamian said. "Heavy metal fans should rock on."

[Image via MTV]

More than 1,000 people from more than 120 countries take the oath of citizenship in Atlanta's Turner

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More than 1,000 people from more than 120 countries take the oath of citizenship in Atlanta's Turner Field. The Atlanta Braves hosted the naturalization ceremony ahead of American Independence Day. Image by David Goldman via AP.


Independence Day

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Independence Day

After nearly a year spent inside, Bryan Lindsay has now come home, back to his mother's place in Delmont, Pa. It's the house he grew up in. As of today—Independence Day—Bryan has been free from incarceration for just shy of two weeks. He's still attending group counseling on a regular basis, but he's no longer in the halfway house that comes after prison and mandated rehab. The only obstacle in the way of his freedom is himself now.

"I'm fortunate," he hold me when we spoke last week. "Not a lot of people have a supportive family, but I do. They'll do whatever they can to help me. So my biggest fear is myself."

In a recent Facebook status update, Bryan wrote, "I guess in [prison] you have some hope—some dreams of the outside—and then you're out and you realize why you did the things to put you in there. Can't really escape reality…"

Independence Day

On Friday, June 3, 2005, eight years before he would be incarcerated on charges related to his heroin addiction, Bryan graduated from Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville, Pa.

Unpredictable weather made it difficult to determine the ceremony's location, and though the class had practiced outdoors, on the football field, when the morning of graduation hinted at rain, the proceedings moved indoors, into the gymnasium. As it turned out, it didn't rain, and families gathered in gymnasium humidity on the laminate yellow bleachers, to listen to the valedictorian.

I graduated alongside Bryan. We were born five months apart and grew up near each other; Bryan in Delmont, and me in Murrysville. A suburb of Pittsburgh, about a 40-minute drive from the city, Murrysville is the "gateway to Westmoreland County," according to the sign that greets drivers as they leave Allegheny County. (Seven heroin related deaths were reported in Westmoreland County last year, 27 in Allegheny.) Drive from Pittsburgh into Murrysville along Route 22, and you move down a gently curving hill until you hit a traffic light that brings the four-lane highway to a stop beside the McDonald's at the corner of Route 22 and Vincent Hall Road. This McDonald's made news headlines in January of this year because if you asked for a toy, you could buy heroin through the drive-thru. A McDonald's in East Liberty, a neighborhood in Pittsburgh, was the site of a similar bust later that same month.

Continue down Route 22 for about two miles and you'll pass four of the buildings that make up Franklin Regional: Heritage Elementary, Newlonsburg Elementary, the middle school, and the high school—where 20 students and a security guard were stabbed in April. In the shopping center that runs parallel to the school complex and 22, there's an Eat'n Park, a chain of diners synonymous with Western Pa., where everyone used to go after middle school dances. Unlike other Eat'n Park locations closer to Pittsburgh, it is not open late, which fits Murrysville's temperament: The town feels old, conservative, and white, like a Dennis the Menace cartoon where you're always in danger of stepping on someone's lawn.

Of the three main towns that feed into Franklin, Murrysville is the more affluent; Delmont and Export less so. If you turn off 22 and get onto Old William Penn, you'll pass through downtown Export. The houses have less privacy, are built closer together. Places like Jigger's, a bar with incredible wings, and the Export Moose, a bowling alley, are the kind of blue-collar businesses that make it seem like Western Pa. never emerged from the '70s; you can smoke in these establishments, and many patrons do. They are not particularly friendly to non-regulars there. Contrast them to the Panera Bread and Five Guys in Murrysville and you have easy shorthand for the divide between Murrysville and Export/Delmont. Delmont is the most rural of the three towns, though it's also home to a large shopping center and movie theater. There are practically no sidewalks in any of these towns. No street lights. You can get heroin pretty easily, though.

Independence Day

"Seek and you shall find," Bryan told me over the phone, four days after being released from the halfway house, the second phase of his step-down from jail after a mandated period in rehab. He first began using after coming home from junior college in 2006. He played football during high school and went to Buffalo, N.Y., to keep playing but it didn't work out. "I wouldn't say that I have mental health problems, but something happened up there," he says. "Perhaps it was just too much much freedom for me or something like that. I was in a real bad space." Bryan speaks with a Western Pennsylvania accent, a yinzer accent, and turns the word that into aht. Real becomes rull. The accent either warps or degrades vowels, elongates them to the point of exaggeration or grinds them down. Downtown becomes Dahntahn, said slow; color becomes a quicker, almost swallowed culler.

"I moved home and then I don't know," Bryan continues. "I got real self-destructive, and I sought out the worst people I possibly could. Before I knew it I was using heroin. I don't know. I know a lot of people got started on pain pills and shit. But I don't know, man."

"You remember John Doe?" (He uses the name of a former Franklin Regional student; the name has been changed.) "That's who it was," he says. "I started hanging out with the Doe boys and within a couple weeks it was a wrap for me."

When it's working, heroin picks the user up and sets you back down. After the euphoria, you typically experience a drowsiness that fades in and out, like highway driving. You nod off, then come back, only to nod off again. It is extremely difficult to overcome your dependency, and usually requires the aid of another opioid, like methadone. You step down from the drug.

As an addict, Bryan's been picking up and pulling away from the drug for years. After coming back from Buffalo, he worked a number of jobs but nothing for very long. He struggled with his dependency and would get in trouble with the police as a result. His first case was a DUI in 2010. Around this time, his relationship with the woman who would become his fiancee got serious. In early 2011, she became pregnant with their son. Inspired by this momentous development, Bryan got clean and stayed clean for nearly a year. A Facebook status from September 16, 2011 reads: "Instead of waking up at 3 a.m. and shooting up, I now wake up at 3 a.m. and make pie. Gonna be a daddy soon...had to grow up. My son will be in this world within a month!"

But it didn't last. And when he began using again, the old problems came back.

"I had to do things to feed the habit and get money," he says. "My incarceration, it's all little stupid stuff. Retail theft. I worked at Dakota Watch Company at the Westmoreland Mall, and I was required to make deposits and I never made the deposits." He laughs and it sounds just like exasperation, two exposed palms and a shrug. "They never made their way to the bank. That's one of my cases."

Bryan was also charged and pled guilty to endangering the welfare of children. When the police would toss his apartment looking for him after he stopped seeing his probation officer, they'd throw the child's toys around.

"The police in Westmoreland County have done illegal search and seizure," he says. "When the sheriffs were looking for me, they'd routinely break into my apartment and they're not allowed to do that unless they have visual proof that I'm there. I would find all my son's toys thrown around, his playpen turned over—things that there was no point for them to trash."

Eventually they caught up with him. "There was a warrant issued for me because my PO knew I was getting high and I'd stopped reporting to him. I was driving down to the methadone clinic and I passed a Westmoreland County sheriff. They knew my car and jammed me up. I didn't run, just took that one on the chin. " He was 26 at the time.

The charges brought against him, exacerbated for violating the terms of his parole, amounted to 10 months of jail time in Westmoreland County Prison, in Greensburg, Pa. (He describes this as sitting down: "Then I had to sit down for about 10 months.") When I ask about the location of the prison, Bryan relays it to me via its proximity to a King's, another local diner chain similar to Eat'n Park.

Withdrawal set in his first night. It hits you in the gut, makes you nauseous, and can bring on vomiting and diarrhea. You can experience pain in your bones, too. The guards, of which there were two for the approximately 90 men in his block, would've got him Tylenol or Imodium had he said anything. But it's best to not speak up. "They'll put you in isolation," he says, "and you'll be on suicide, so you'll be stripped down to just a pair of shorts. No sheet, no blankets. Most people don't say anything. I didn't."

Bryan's acute withdrawal lasted 10 days. But he says he didn't sleep for a month: "My body would shut down for 10 minutes at a time, but I didn't get a full night's sleep for probably two months. When you're incarcerated, sleep is your friend. It's the most important thing. You're not there."

Reading offered the other means to not be there. "There wasn't counseling available but luckily I am able to read and you could have books sent in. A lot of guys read those True Blood books. That's real escapist literature. I read Kurt Vonnegut, John Steinbeck. Vonnegut is cynical and I maybe wanted something to back up the way that I was thinking."

In Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five, Billy Pilgrim becomes unstuck in time, moving as if through liquid from one period to the next, adrift. For Bryan, nothing but stuck, there was only lost time. His fiancée could visit but she was not allowed to bring their child. Each visit was through the a glass window—no contact was allowed. "They offer a class that if you take it you're able to have visits with your children," he says, "but there are so many guys in there I wasn't able to get into the class."

As for his relationship with his fiancée, he says, "Both of us try to pretend that nothing's changed but I lost an entire year. Not being able to touch someone." He pauses for a long time. "I'm having a hard time coming up with the words to describe it."

Still, he is emphatic about the fairness of his sentencing. Twice during our conversation he describes it that way, fair. "I was given numerous opportunities and I blew it. I didn't want to stay clean."

He conceives of his addiction as inherited. His father, an alcoholic whom Bryan hasn't seen in nearly a decade, bequeathed to him a kind of trap that lay open and waiting in his son's future. "I'm genetically predisposed and once the opportunity [to use] presented itself, my fate was sealed. I can't blame anyone else."

Independence Day

Inside, another one of the books he read, the one he admits he read most often, was Desperate Journeys. Written by Edward E. Leslie, the book is a collection of non-fiction accounts of survivors of shipwrecks, maroonings, and plane crashes. "I read it as a way to not give up so much hope. When I looked at how drastic the situations these people were in, I realized that the time I'd spend incarcerated wasn't that much and that I knew when I was getting out, whereas these people had no idea if rescue was ever coming."

But if life outside is just as much of a maroon, what do you escape to? A normal life? That's the word Bryan uses when he sketches his future plans. "I need to do the things that normal people do," he says and his voice becomes more certain. "I need to get somewhere where I can start supporting my family. I do have a son and a fiancee. I want to become self-sufficient. At this point, I'd work at a fast food place."

It's like a bad joke. A fast food job; a fast food drive-thru pushing heroin. As a person born in this place, it seems like I should either laugh or get angry, given that I've already taken the third option and left town. It's a young person's fallacy to think that what you're seeing in your own age is the worst it's ever been. I remind myself of that. But in the last few years there have been two teachers who plead guilty to inappropriate conduct with students, a 21-person mass stabbing, multiple heroin busts, and when I talk to Bryan he lists classmates he knows who are struggling with addiction just like him.

At what point do you actually concede that this is, in fact, a remarkable sort of terrible, that this pain beneath the surface of a supposedly well-to-do and successful community is noteworthy? Having made the concession, what do you do? Bryan talks about harm prevention, and help for addicts—rehabilitation, not mere punishment—but he doesn't have a concrete plan for reform of the system he's exiting, nor should he. He's experienced the punishment but what of rehabilitation? That's something that can only be confirmed with each day. You are sober one day at a time, as the 12-step literature says. The 12-step programs offer stories about the power of prayer. Bryan initially thought it was "bullshit," but has changed his mind: "Hitting your knees in the morning and hitting your knees at night, it really does something mentally. It's helped me."

He tells himself a kind of story each morning and night, about all the things he wants for himself and how, first and foremost, he wants it for the people he doesn't like. I imagine it becomes like a text you memorize, the way you might memorize an account of a pilot stranded alone on an island after a crash. Eventually, the pilot's report gets back to the mainland, where it is repeated many times. That tale winds up in a book read in a prison. It means something to someone, becomes a truth to cling to. It's told.

"I believe in reporting," Bryan says, "I do." It's the last thing he tells me before saying goodbye and take care.

Ross Scarano is a deputy editor at Complex. He was born in Pittsburgh.

[Illustration by Tara Jacoby]

SiriusXM Fired Anthony Cumia Last Night

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SiriusXM Fired Anthony Cumia Last Night

Anthony Cumia, one half of SiriusXM's The Opie and Anthony Show, has been fired from his position after a series of racist and violent tweets he sent this week after being allegedly attacked by a woman in Times Square early Tuesday morning. http://gawker.com/siriusxm-host-...

From SiriusXM Senior Vice President of Communications Patrick Reilly:

SiriusXM has terminated its relationship with Anthony Cumia of the Opie & Anthony channel. The decision was made, and Cumia informed, late Thursday, July 3 after careful consideration of his racially-charged and hate-filled remarks on social media. Those remarks and postings are abhorrent to SiriusXM, and his behavior is wholly inconsistent with what SiriusXM represents.

Cumia's tweets this week were hardly his first public demonstration of racist ideals—the shock jock has been expressing his hateful sentiments for decades now. It's unclear if Gregg "Opie" Hughes (and frequent collaborator Jim Norton) will continue the show without Cumia. http://gawker.com/anthony-cumia-...

[Image via Getty]

For-Profit Corinthians Colleges to Sell 85 Schools, Close 12 Others

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For-Profit Corinthians Colleges to Sell 85 Schools, Close 12 Others

For-profit Corinthians Colleges Inc. will sell off 85 of its campuses and close 12 others in a new deal with the U.S. Department of Education following an investigation of allegations that the company was altering grades and attendance records and falsifying job placement data that was used in marketing material aimed at potential students. Per the deal, most students will be fully reimbursed.

Corinthians operates about 100-odd campuses in 26 states (and Ontario, Canada)—largely in California, Florida, and Texas— and includes Everest College, Heald College, and WyoTech schools. More than 70,000 students are enrolled in the company's colleges.

The company had been dogged by investigations from federal and state agencies looking into its use of the $1.4 billion in federal financial student aid it was receiving annually. Last month, the Department of Education put a freeze on its federal aid money. Their new deal with the department includes funds to help transition and reimburse students. From the San Jose Mercury-News:

Corinthian's luck ran out in June when the education department put a 21-day freeze on its federal student aid money, saying "the company failed to address concerns about its practices.''

Days later, the department agreed to release $16 million in exchange for a deal ensuring a shutdown that would minimize students' disruption. The original deadline was Tuesday night.

The education department agreed to release another $35 million in federal student aid to the company to be used exclusively to help students complete their programs if they choose to do so after being fully informed of their options.

"This agreement allows our students to continue their education and helps minimize the personal and financial issues that affect our 12,000 employees and their families," Jack Massimino, Corinthians' chairman and chief officer, said in a statement. "It also provides a blueprint for allowing most of our campuses to continue serving their students and communities under new ownership."

Corinthians' closing is another strike against for-profit colleges, long criticized for being overpriced and leading to poor job prospects. Should the students enrolled at a Corinthians school choose to attend to another college, their credits from a for-profit school likely won't transfer.

[Image via AP]

How Other Countries Celebrate the Fourth of July

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How Other Countries Celebrate the Fourth of July

It may come as a surprise, as we pummel hot dogs to the dome on this hallowed day, that other countries also celebrate the Fourth of July—but on different days of the year. Quelle surprise.

If you're finding that this year's celebrations are indeed satisfactory—beer? beach? belligerent nationalism beyond your wildest dreams?—but you'd like to replicate them in other months of the year, we've compiled a handy look at celebrating Independence Day outside of July 4th. After randomly selecting twelve countries that celebrate freedom once a year, here is one day every month that you can request off to honor independence as a basic human right. Your boss will understand.

Haiti, January 1

Who from? France
When? 1804
National anthem? "La Dessalinienne"
What to eat? soup joumou; legend has it that soup joumou was "once a delicacy reserved for white masters but forbidden to the slaves who cooked it."
Bonus trivia: Haiti was the first black nation to gain its independence in a slave revolt, as well as the first nation in the Caribbean to do so.

How Other Countries Celebrate the Fourth of July

Sri Lanka, February 4

Who from? The United Kingdom
When? 1948
National anthem? "Sri Lanka Matha"
What to eat? hoppers, a crepe-like treat that are light and rounded like bowls intended to hold all kinds of toppings, from the sweet to the savory.
Bonus trivia: Only ten years after independence was established, Sinhalese became the sole official language of Sri Lanka, causing some of the early rumblings of conflict between the Tamils and Sinhalese. Via Encyclopedia Britannica:

"The language policy alienated the Tamils, who, under the Federal Party, carried on a bitter opposition. Educational policies angered the small but influential Christian community. Reforms of Buddhist and other cultural practices offended different factions within the Sinhalese community."

Greece, March 25

Who from? The Ottoman Empire
When? 1832
National anthem? "Hymn to Liberty"
What to eat? lamb kleftiko, a seasoned meat dish that is cooked in fig leaves over low heat for several hours; kleftiko means "of or belonging to the Klephts," who were a group of "Greek brigands who were never subjugated by the Turks. They roamed the high-country and mountainsides of Greece and Cyprus while the Turkish occupiers settled in the plains, towns, and cities."
Bonus trivia: The Philikí Etaireía was a secret revolutionary group where each member swore to "irreconcilable hatred against the tyrants of my country."

How Other Countries Celebrate the Fourth of July

Senegal, April 4

Who from? France
When? 1960
National anthem? "Pincez tous vos koras, frappez les balafons"
What to eat? thiéboudienne, a traditional rice and fish meal, which is considered Senegal's national dish, is often stewed in tomato sauce and can be served with any available vegetables.
Bonus trivia: The first president of the newly founded Senegalese republic, Léopold Sédar Senghor, was the author of the country's national anthem, as well as a respected poet.

Guyana, May 26

Who from? The United Kingdom
When? 1966
National anthem? "Dear Land of Guyana, of Rivers and Plains"
What to eat? mauby, a drink brewed with orange peel, sugar, water, and cinnamon, as well the bark of the mauby tree, is supposed to be a natural Viagra.
Bonus trivia: The flag of Guyana was actually designed by an American, a vexillologist named Whitney Smith.

How Other Countries Celebrate the Fourth of July

Philippines, June 12

Who from? Spain
When? 1898
National anthem? "Lupang Hinirang"
What to eat? halo-halo, a mixed-fruit-and-ice-cream dessert, is not traditionally eaten on Independence Day but it looks like fireworks, so it is worth eating to celebrate independence.
Bonus trivia: The Philippines' declaration of independence was stolen in the early 90s from the National Library where it had been held, along with other precious artifacts, which were then sold and auctioned off to collectors. It has since been returned.

Maldives, July 26

Who from? The United Kingdom
When? 1965
National anthem? "Gaumii Salaam"
What to eat? Go for fish, coconut, and starches; mas huni and huni roshi is a dish of dried coconut and unleavened coconut bread that is eaten across the island.
Bonus trivia: Take out your phone and show this video to your friends, please.

India, August 15

Who from? The United Kingdom
When? 1947
National anthem? "Jana Gana Mana"
What to eat? There is no unified national cuisine of India, since it is a country so large and varied in climate and agriculture, but Independence Day can be celebrated with tricolor burfi, a sweet treat made from sweetened condensed milk and saffron.
Bonus trivia: Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children is a novel that documents the history of India's independence through the birth of a very special group of children. There is a month left until Indian Independence Day, so you have time to read it.

How Other Countries Celebrate the Fourth of July

Armenia, September 21

Who from? The Soviet Union
When? 1991
National anthem? "Mer Hayrenik"
What to eat?
Much like Americans, Armenians are big on barbecue.
Bonus trivia:
Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan is actually in the United States today (as in July 4 today) to meet with the US ambassador to Armenia. In a gesture of international goodwill, Sargsyan wished Barack Obama a happy independence day, stating, "We deeply cherish our friendship with the United States and are pleased that through the joint efforts we have elevated our bilateral partnership to a qualitatively new level." And to you, Serzh!

Turkmenistan, October 27

Who from? The Soviet Union
When? 1991
National anthem? "Garaşsyz, Bitarap Türkmenistanyň Döwlet Gimni"
What to eat? Plov, a Turkmen version of pilaf, is a lightly-spiced rice dish that consists of cardamom, cumin, meats, and vegetables, and is eaten at a number of holidays, including Independence Day.
Bonus trivia: On Saparmurad Niyazov, Turkmenistan's dictator after the country gained its independence:

In the early years of independence, a corrupt regime led by the dictatorial rule of Saparmurad Niyazov failed to improve the quality of life for the population, despite the interest of foreign investors in Turkmenistan's natural gas resources. During the course of Niyazov's rule, his primary interest proved to be propagating an elaborate personality cult. In addition to declaring himself president for life, Niyazov pursued a number of extravagant projects to this end. Atop a monument called the Neutrality Arch, a gold statue in his likeness—one of the many such statues and portraits scattered throughout the country—was designed to rotate to continuously face the Sun. He called for a "Golden Age Lake" to be constructed in the desert at a cost of more than $6 billion, and his semiautobiographical Rukhnama ("The Book of the Soul") was established as required reading in all of Turkmenistan's schools, even forming a part of driver's exams. He renamed days of the week, months of the year, a crater on the Moon, a breed of horse, a canal, a city, and a wide range of ideas and places after himself and members of his family.

Barbados, November 30

Who from? The United Kingdom
When? 1966
National anthem? "In Plenty and In Time of Need"
What to eat?
Cou-cou and flying fish, a dish made from corn meal, fish, okra; though it can be made with any kind of fish, flying fish is native to Barbados and is used the most (they really do fly).
Bonus trivia:
During the month of November, as Barbados celebrates its independence, an arts competition called NIFCA runs alongside the festivities, where Bajans compete for gold medals as well as presidential awards.

Finland, December 6

Who from? Russian Republic
When? 1917
National anthem: "Maamme"
What to eat? Karjalanpiirakoiti, mini Karelian pastries stuffed with rice porridge or potato mash
Bonus trivia: Only this year, a close former adviser of Vladimir Putin revealed to a Swedish newspaper that the president of Russia believed they should regain Finland in an act to "protect what belongs to him and his predecessors." Finland has since increased surveillance along its borders to protect itself.

How Other Countries Celebrate the Fourth of July

Here is an informal tally of the top five countries that were the biggest colonizers, based on a list of international independence days:

  • United Kingdom - 54 countries
  • France - 25 countries
  • Spain - 18 countries
  • Soviet Union - 11 countries
  • Portugal - 7 countries

Good luck out there today, everyone. Let us know how you're celebrating.

[Images via AP/Wikipedia/Puttis World]

​Idaho Potato Market Collapsing; Quick, Everybody Eat More Fries!

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