This is Carly Aquilino, a comedian and cast member on MTV's Girl Code, doing a spot on the Brilliant Idiots podcast, hosted by Charlamagne Tha God (who tells great stories) and Andrew Schulz. Aquilino's story is about the time she hung out with an NBA player who farted very loudly and then put his penis on her while she pretended to sleep. I guess there really isn't much more to say.

There are innumerable ways to screw up your first day of work, but some of them have a little more panache than others. A new teacher in Wagoner, Okla. was arrested on her first day after showing up at the school both drunk and without pants.

School officials called Wagoner police around 9 a.m. on Monday morning to report that Lorie Ann Hill, 49, seemed out of sorts and also was missing the lower half of her clothing. Police arrived to find her in an empty classroom, and determined, presumably without too much trouble, that she was under the influence of alcohol.

"She was found in a room kind of disoriented," Police Chief Bob Haley told the Tulsa World. "By the time we got there she was in a room and wearing shorts."

Hill admitted to police she'd been drinking, and a search of her car turned up an empty cup that reportedly smelled of vodka. Haley said, though, that there wasn't enough evidence to prove she drove to the school drunk, and no "credible witnesses" at her home, whatever that might mean. She was spared a DUI charge, and booked into Wagoner City Jail only on suspicion of public intoxication.

Classes don't start until Thursday. Neither Hill nor her pants are likely to attend.

[Mugshot courtesy of Wagoner Police Department via KFOR]

Extremist group Boko Haram has reportedly seized yet another major Nigerian town, killing at least 100 civilians in the process. Nigeria's Daily Post reports that Gwoza, one of the most populated areas in the northeastern Borno State, was seized by the group at dawn, who came in using armored tanks and Toyota Hilux pickup trucks. Local news agency Sahara Reporters says that the attack began at dawn, and the town was under Boko Haram control by late morning. Nigerian soldiers were reportedly outmatched by what SR calls, worryingly, Boko Haram's "increasingly sophisticated weaponry."

Men, women and children were targeted indiscriminately in the attack; the group also set shops and other buildings on fire and threw explosives at the local police. It's just the latest in the group's horrendous greatest-hits tour: the 200 Nigerian schoolgirls they kidnapped in April remain missing, and at the end of July they kidnapped the wife of the vice prime minister of Cameroon.

The Nigerian military isn't conducting itself so well either, using the fight against Boko Haram to engage in some extrajudicial killing of its own. Amnesty International said yesterday they have "gruesome" footage implicating the army in war crimes against civilians. The human rights organization says it obtained video and testimony from multiple sources, including "horrific images of detainees having their throats slit one by one and dumped in mass graves by men who appear to be members of the Nigerian military," as well as the Civilian Joint Task Force, which Amnesty International calls a "state-sponsored militia."

Salil Shetty, Amnesty International's Secretary General called the killings "further proof of the appalling crimes being committed with abandon by all sides in the conflict."

And what of the missing schoolgirls? They're still unaccounted for, although a U.S. surveillance aircraft reportedly spotted what looked like "large groups of girls" in a remote northeastern part of the country.

One surveillance flight spotted roughly 70 girls in early July, while another flight saw 40 or so near the end of the month. Boko Haram has deployed several female suicide bombers in recent weeks, but Nigerian government officials have said they don't believe the schoolgirls are being used as human bombs.

[Photo of a Nigerian armored car patrolling in Maiduguri by Sunday Alamba of the Associated Press]

Imagine being so dedicated to your passion and your country that you volunteered to do the same thing twice a day, every day for more than 84 years. This 101-year-old man from New York is a contender for the world's greatest work ethic.

Meet Richard Hendrickson, a Bridgehampton, New York centenarian who's voluntarily taken weather reports for the National Weather Service twice a day, every day since 1930. He has sent the NWS more than 150,000 observations in his lifetime, according to the New York Times.

During his more than century of life, Hendrickson has lived through some of the worst weather events in recorded history, including the "Long Island Express" hurricane of 1938. He recalled to the New York Times what he saw the day that the storm tore through his hometown:

"It was a different world by sunset," he said. The farm was devastated and his weather instruments were "blown flat," he said, but none were broken. "I set them back up again and put longer stakes in the ground, the legs on the shelter," he said, "and went and milked the cows."

Hendrickson is part of the National Weather Service's Cooperative Observer Program, an initiative created back in 1890 to aid the agency in gathering weather information from across the country to fill the gaps between official reporting stations. A fact sheet on the CoOp's website states that there are more than 10,000 stations recording weather data nationwide.

Volunteer weather observers are crucial in aiding the collection of weather data. In addition to the Weather Service's CoOp program, a joint government/university venture called CoCoRaHS — Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network — collects precipitation data from thousands of observers across all 50 states, Canada, and Puerto Rico.

[Image via AP]

Homophobic, censorious advocacy group and righteous bunch of trolls One Million Moms is back with another important cause. The group, which is run by the anti-gay American Family Association, concerns itself primarily with waging "media campaigns" against evils like the Geico pig, whose commercials they claimed promoted bestiality, and protesting virtually every show on TV for being somehow blasphemous, lustful or something else fun. This week they're feeling salty about Black Jesus, Adult Swim's new show from the Boondocks creator about, you guessed it, a black Jesus who lives in Compton and doesn't mind a little weed now and again.

One rather suspects it's the "black" part that One Million Moms really objects to, but they insist it's the foul language and the show's "making a mockery of our Lord." (They also seem upset that Black Jesus lives in Compton Gardens, a subdivision in Compton, and which is depicted as chock-full of, in their words, "violence, gunfire and other inappropriate gestures which completely misrepresent Jesus.")

One Million Moms wants the show, which is set to premiere tomorrow, to never see the light of day. Failing that, which they will, they're vowing to urge advertisers to boycott the show. Adult Swim has already issued a statement saying the show is not intended "to offend any race or people of faith."

[Screenshot via Adult Swim]

Like an escalating war between the two most passive-aggressive roommates on Earth, Russia has responded to sweeping U.S. and European Union sanctions by refusing to allow our fruits and vegetables to tarnish its section of the fridge.

The U.S. and the European Union instituted a series of economic sanctions against Russia earlier this summer for continuing to arm and support pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine. It's been clear for a while that President Vladimir Putin has been plotting some sort of retaliation; today, Russia's food safety agency announced it would ban all American food imports and all fruits and vegetables from Europe.

Russia buys a lot of Europe's food exports, especially Polish pork and Dutch fruits and vegetables. Poland's fruits and vegetables were banned first, with Russia's food safety authority claiming they had "unacceptable levels of pesticide residues and nitrates." Twitter users in Poland have been posting photos of themselves eating apples as a protest against the new policy:

Poland has a new, healthy way to give Putin the finger #JedzJabłka http://t.co/BwMFBN85tq pic.twitter.com/MBUU4p2mOP

— Michael Silverberg (@mbd_s) July 31, 2014

As for the U.S., our fine, star-spangled frozen chickens have been singled out for special shunning. Those are definitely full of pesticides and nitrates. We've got standards around here.

[Image via Shutterstock]

An all-female, all-Hasid rock band from Crown Heights is living the dream most women can only yearn for: they've managed to banish all the dicks from the dance-floor for their upcoming gig at Arlene's Grocery on the Lower East Side.

As Hasidic women, Bulletproof Stockings have some intense, not-to-be-fucked-with modesty rules they live by: no visible elbows or knees, no uncovered hair after marriage, and no mixed-gender socializing. Men also specifically aren't supposed to hear women sing, which pretty much nixes the idea of them having a large following in the Hasidic world. (You'll notice that in many of their promotional videos, like this one, you'll hear them talk, but not sing. Talking is allowed. Generally.)

The band is on the verge of getting some attention out here in secular-land, but they still can't play for a mixed-junk crowd. So Arlene's has agreed to ask all the men-folk to stay outside during their set tomorrow night. Two of the band members, Dalia Shusterman and Perl Wolfe, actually canvassed the streets to find women who said they'd pack out the venue. (And before you ask, no, they haven't made any specific request as to what transgendered audience members are supposed to do.)

"Turning away half the audience isn't something that's ever been done," Shusterman, 40, told the New York Post. "They had to really think about it." The set's also being filmed for a new reality show on the Oxygen Network called Living Different.

Granted, piano-backed alt-rock isn't everybody's idea of a rousing Thursday night out, but if you've ever been subject to a wayward boner in the back during a crowded show, it's kind of a no-brainer.

Here's a video where you can actually hear the band:

[Video by AOL, screenshot via Bulletproof Stockings]

Political candidate George Davis strolled through Times Square Wednesday in the nude while Batman's nemesis Penguin snapped a photo. Davis is running for the Board of Supervisors in San Francisco. He's campaigning for the right to be nude in public. Image by Julie Jacobson via AP.

Why doesn't Kristen Stewart smile? Hmm. Is it because the weight of fame is too heavy on her lips? Is it because she doesn't want to make everyone jealous of her celebrity lifestyle? Is it 'cause her face is just a li'l old grump face? Let Kristen tell you herself.

In a recent Elle cover story, Stewart spoke about the impossibility of pleasing everyone all the time—specifically when it comes to smiling. She then revealed her no-smile secret:

"Now I feel like if I smiled for a paparazzi photo—not that I ever would—that's exactly what people would be desecrating me for. They'd be like, 'now you're going to give it up, now you're a sellout.' like, okay. What do you want? What would you like?"

Hmm. That's why she doesn't smile now—so people don't accuse her of selling out to Big Smiling and desecrate (sure) her—but why didn't she smile before? Huh. Good question! My guesses:

• Hurty face
• Smile broke
• Heavy brain
• Scaredy teeth
• Bing bong
• Lip crackle
• Cloud brain
• Anger wish
• Shrug thought
• Owwie cheeks

Feel free to leave your own guesses in the comments!

[image via Getty]

It's well past midsummer and we're heading into the fall TV season, which means shows'll be ending, starting and returning at a greater and greater speed over the coming weeks. Here's a rundown of today's premieres as we ramp up toward fall—and you can come back tomorrow for a full list of the coming week's offerings.

7 Deadly Sins (Showtime, 11/10c.)

Morgan Spurlock's docu-miniseries premieres with a lurid look at gluttony, featuring a 700 lb performer and Texas's famous Heart Attack Grill. Spurlock, of course, knows a thing or two about gluttony from Super Size Me, when he ate a McDonald's employee on camera to prove some point or another. Then again, that was nothing compared to Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden?, when he found the sonofabitch huddled in an Afghan rabbit hutch and let him go with a head start and a KIND bar. America will never forgive you, Morgan.

Black Jesus (Adult Swim, 11/10c.)

Also premiering at 11/10c. is Black Jesus, a new Adult Swim comedy from Boondocks-creator Aaron McGruder. Jesus: he's back, and moreover, he's black! Unsurprisingly, the show's already kicked up some controversy, but come on: the myth of Jesus explicitly states that anyone worthy will be granted his powers, not to mention that the worthy have included a frog and a mutant space horse. If you're uncomfortable with a black man wielding Christ's mighty hammer, maybe it's time for some soul-searching.

Quick Draw (Hulu, midnight)

Hulu premiered the second season of Quick Draw this morning: A pretty little Western spoof that a website made to mock the grand tradition of Western television in form as much as content. See, used to be families would gather at an hour preordained by one of three benevolent networks to hold each other close and watch their favorite Western shows, like Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Kung Fu, Col. Mulroney's House o' Scalps, Horse-Man the Horseboy, Dirtnap Ridge, and Deadwood: Origins. Now things are worse, thanks to data.

Garfunkel and Oates (IFC, 11/10c.)

And finally Garfunkel and Oates is Riki Lindhome and Kate Micucci, a musical comedy duo/comedy musical duo who're not only talented enough to land a television show but famous enough to already have thriving Wikifeet pages, to boot ("Boot"! Like feet!). They are similar, yet different.

Similarities: Both gals; both blessed with wit; they refer to themselves by the same pronoun (I/me); beloved of Apollo; peppy, possibly swift; they sleep in matching sheets on the same bunk bed; white.
Differences: One is tall while the other is small; one's guitar got shrunk(?); one always tells the truth, the other always lies (but which?!); one is more different than the other.

[Image of cheerful friends just having some fun via Shutterstock]

Morning After is a new home for television discussion online, brought to you by Gawker. What are you watching tonight? What are we missing out on? Recommendations and discussions down below.

"Do you think you need to see where you're shooting if someone's on top of you, trying to kill or rape you, while their hands are slowly squeezing your neck and they're yelling 'I'm gonna kill you'? I didn't think so." This is the NRA commentator's argument for arming the blind that the NRA just removed from its website.

"Every law-abiding, blind individual should be able to have whatever guns they want," says NRA video personality and local neckless man Dom Raso. (Raso, you may recall, also recently took the media to task for its absurd policy of referring to killings with guns as "shootings.")

Strangely, the National Rifle Association took Dom's video down today, leaving a big fat 404 in its place. But the internet never forgets. Now, what was so embarrassing about this two-minute lesson that not even the NRA could abide by it?

China Daily reports that Metta World Peace, the basketball player formerly known as Ron Artest, has changed his name again after moving to China to play for the Sichuan Blue Whales—this time, he'll be known as "Panda Friend." World Peace denied the story was accurate:

Guys my chinese name is not "Panda Friend" , its "The Pandas Friend".

— mettaworldpeace.com (@MettaWorldPeace) August 7, 2014

Well, okay.

China Daily says The Pandas Friend was formerly known in China as "Ci Shiping," which is just a literal translation of "Metta World Peace."

The Pandas Friend is a viral sensation in his new home, with nearly a million followers on Sina Weibo, China's massively popular answer to Twitter. The Blue Whales, who went 14-20 last year in their first CBA season, are paying him $1.43 million for one year, making him the most expensive foreign player in the league.

Mr. Friend referred to his new moniker as his "Chinese name" on Twitter, but he wasn't clear on whether it would be a legal name change or just a nickname. (With anyone else, you wouldn't have to ask, but the guy did change his name to "Metta World Peace.")

No word yet on the most important part of all of this: how The Pandas Friend's name change could affect Key & Peele's excellent recurring segment, "Metta World News."

[H/T USA Today FTW]

Health officials in Colorado are warning people to stay away from sick or dead rabbits over fears of "rabbit fever," a potentially life-threatening disease. In even more troubling news, there's apparently a need for official reminders not to play with sick or dead rabbits.

According to CBS Colorado, there haven't yet been any confirmed human cases but officials in Jefferson County say that a rabbit in the southern part of the county has tested positive for the disease.

Tularemia, or rabbit fever–which contrary to its name can also be found in beavers and rodents, is a bacterial infection that can be spread through contact with sick or dead animals or through a bite from an infected flea or tick.

According to the CDC, symptoms from the Francisella tularensis bacteria include a high fever, swollen lymph nodes, and a sore where the bacteria entered the body, but it can also cause a sore throat, abdominal pain, vomiting or diarrhea if the bacteria is ingested through eating or drinking contaminated food or water.

It can be treated with antibiotics if caught early, but it can be deadly if left untreated. The disease strikes about 140 Americans a year.

Of course, this is not the first time rabbits have caused terror across the West...

Image via Jason M. Vaughn

On September 1, 55-year-old Peter Hancock will take over as chief executive officer at American International Group, Inc. A Bloomberg profile of Hancock published today wants you to know: This is not your daddy's AIG CEO.

In 2010, when Hancock made his radical arrival at the company, "one of the newcomer's first challenges was the blank walls of his office," Zachary Tracer writes at Bloomberg. So what did he do? He busted out a can of Krylon.

The insurer's stockpile of paintings tended toward dogs and ducks. Hancock's tastes lean abstract. Spurred on by the national disgust for the bailed-out insurer, the ex-J.P. Morgan & Co. executive picked up some spray paint, spread newspapers around the dining room of his home, and set to work.

"People think we're lame..." he thought to himself, surely. "But actually? We rule."

He sprayed a giant, white "AIG Sucks" on a six-foot by four-foot blue background. Over the first two letters of Sucks, Hancock painted a red "Ro," spelling out "Rocks" and revealing on canvas the aspirations that would occupy the next years of his life.

A truly gnarly origin story. Hancock also goes kite surfing with his 22-year-old son, we learn, and introduced a new metric at the company called RAP. Hip hop don't stop!

It's all like a scene out of a Disney Channel original movie: roller-bladin' cool kid takes over giant, stuffy corporation and remakes it in his own rebellious image. First order of business: make the dog the new head of strategic planning and eatin' your own doo-doo! Get out of here, Spike. We're having a meeting.

[Image via Bloomberg]

The tech boom is bringing some undeniable benefits to San Francisco: The city's unemployment rate has dropped to just 4.4 percent, employment jumped to an all-time high, and the region has some of the fastest-growing wages in the country. But now one economist is predicting that the high salaries techies command could spur inflation.

Total employee compensation (wages, salary, and benefits) in the Bay Area has increased 4.6 percent in the past 12 months, the Oakland Tribune reports. This compares to just 2 percent nationwide. But as salaries increase, the cost of goods could go up with them.

The upswing in Bay Area labor costs is strong enough to start triggering inflation, warned Scott Anderson, chief economist with San Francisco-based Bank of the West.

San Franciscans have already seen some of the inflationary effects. Office rents have soared 81 percent in four years, and housing costs have been aggressively climbing across the Bay Area. Now inflationary pressures could spread to beyond the city's housing and offices:

"You start to worry about a feedback loop between higher wages and rising prices in general," Anderson said. Already rising wages have pushed up prices for Bay Area homes, economists say.

"One reason why home prices are going through the roof is because of these strong wages," Thornberg said. "If you are one of the tech employees, home prices are not too expensive. But for everyone else, housing is too expensive."

Yelp's CEO Jeremy Stoppelman recently expressed concern over how expensive San Francisco has become. In an interview with the Associated Press, Stoppelman disclosed that "the vast majority" of his employees earn between "$40,000 [and] $100,000" per year, and that rising costs in the Bay Area "hurts people" working for Yelp.

It's even worse for people outside tech. Despite overall rising wages in the Bay Area, the city's low-wage employees have actually seen incomes decrease. A recent report by San Francisco's Human Services Agency indicates that the city's level of income inequality has grown to be "about on par with Rwanda."

Photo: Arlen Abraham, h/t SFist

One of the biggest sticking points when it comes to weather forecasts is the public's confusion over the terms "hurricane," "typhoon," and "cyclone." Since they're three different names, people think they're three different kinds of storm. Here's a quick explainer on what's in a name.

Aside from slightly different wind speeds, there is no difference between a hurricane, a typhoon, and a cyclone. They are all different names for the same kind of intense low pressure system.

Most people are familiar with two different types of weather systems:

• Low pressure systems, also called "cyclones," spin counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere
• High pressure systems, also called "anticyclones," spin clockwise in the northern hemisphere.

All low pressure systems are cyclones. There are two different kinds of cyclones that affect the United States most often: tropical cyclones and extratropical cyclones.

Tropical Cyclones

A tropical cyclone is a warm-core system that has a warm, humid, tropical airmass throughout the entire storm. Tropical cyclones derive their energy from the intense thunderstorm activity that forms around the eye of the storm. This explainer from Hurricane Bertha's early days gives a little more information on how a tropical cyclone ultimately becomes a tropical cyclone.

Tropical cyclones most often take on the appearance of a tight, spiraling mass of clouds...or a big white bagel.

Extratropical Cyclones

An extratropical cyclone, on the other hand, features a process called "temperature advection." Think of cold and warm fronts — extratropical cyclones typically transport warm air from the south and cold air down from the northwest. Extratropical cyclones also gather their energy from the jet stream in a process called "divergence." Air has a tendency to rise rapidly near different parts of the jet stream, and these regions favor the formation and strengthening of extratropical cyclones.

Ideal extratropical cyclones famously look like giant white apostrophes hovering over land. The one pictured above was the "Chiclone" of October 2010, which wound up being one of the most intense extratropical cyclones ever recorded in the United States (its pressure dropped to near 955 millibars).

Now that we've established that all low pressure systems are cyclones, we can look at what different regions of the world call ones that are tropical in nature.

The embarrassingly-bad map above shows the very rough cutoff points for different names. Around North America, we call tropical cyclones "hurricanes." In the western Pacific near Asia, they call tropical cyclones "typhoons." In most of the southern hemisphere and the Indian Ocean, they simply call tropical cyclones a "tropical cyclone."

Keep in mind that a hurricane/typhoon/cyclone generally has winds stronger than 74 MPH. Anything lower than that and it's a buffet of different names. In North America, we call a tropical cyclone with winds less than 39 MPH a "tropical depression." Once the tropical cyclone strengthens and has winds between 39 and 73 MPH, we call it a "tropical storm."

The threshold for naming a system a depression/storm/etc. differs from region to region, but again: same storm, different names.

The dividing line for whether a tropical cyclone is called a hurricane, typhoon, or simply a cyclone is based on latitude and longitude. A perfect example is Hurricane Genevieve. The other day, Hurricane Genevieve crossed the International Date Line (180°W) from American forecasting territory into Japanese forecasting territory. Once it crossed that line, it went from Hurricane Genevieve to Super Typhoon Genevieve simply because it crossed from one region into the other. Same storm, different name.

There are seven official forecasting agencies around the world responsible for issuing forecasts on tropical systems, and each can declare individual storms a hurricane/cyclone/typhoon.

1. Americans are most familiar with the National Hurricane Center based out of Miami, which is responsible for hurricanes that form in the northern Atlantic and eastern Pacific east of 140°W longitude.
2. If a storm forms in the eastern Pacific and crosses 140°W into the central Pacific, it becomes the responsibility of the Central Pacific Hurricane Center in Honolulu. This agency is responsible for all tropical systems in the northern hemisphere that form between 140°W and the International Date Line (180°W).
3. If a storm like Genevieve forms in the CPHC's area of responsibility and moves west over the International Date Line, it becomes the responsibility of Japanese Meteorological Agency, which is responsible for all tropical systems that form in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. They call tropical cyclones "typhoons."
4. Around Australia, storms that form are simply called "tropical cyclones" and they're the responsibility of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.
5. In the northern Indian Ocean, tropical cyclones that form are the responsibility of the India Meteorological Department.
6. If a tropical cyclone forms in the southwestern Indian Ocean — around Madagascar, for instance — Météo-France is responsible for issuing forecasts.
7. Lastly, cyclones that form in the southern Pacific Ocean are under the responsibility of New Zealand's MetService.

In the southern Atlantic Ocean south of the equator, the responsibility for issuing forecasts on tropical cyclones is theoretically no man's land since tropical cyclones are exceedingly rare in the region. In practice, though, the one time a category 2 tropical cyclone hit Brazil in March 2004, Brazilian authorities took forecasting responsibility and named the storm Catarina.

To keep a long story short (ha ha ha!), there is basically no difference between a hurricane, a typhoon, and a tropical cyclone. It's the difference between a tractor trailer and a lorry. The spelling of "harbor" and "harbour." Pronouncing tomato "tomato" or pronouncing tomato "tomato."

Hurricane, typhoon, cyclone. They're all the same type of storm, just called different names.

[Images: NOAA / GOES / NASA / author]

"O, Tom! Such a gas has Davy discovered... O, Tom! I have had some; it made me laugh and tingle in every toe and finger-tip. Davy has actually invented a new pleasure for which language has no name. O, Tom! I am going for more this evening; it makes one strong and so happy, so gloriously happy! O, excellent air-bag!"

Yesterday, a picture popped up on Reddit showing a row of Coca-Cola bottles bearing the names of the women (in order) from Lou Bega's 1999 hit "Mambo No. 5." Being longtime fans of the listicle pioneer, Buzzfeed breathlessly wrote up the story, followed soon after by Huffington Post, Metro and Elite Daily.

Unfortunately for Buzzfeed's faith-based fact-checking system, Twitter user @Bro_Pair and former Gawker-er Alex Pareene pointed out today that the photo is both fake and bad.

@Bro_Pair pic.twitter.com/KupVeyIOpN

— alex pareene (@pareene) August 7, 2014

Using Coca-Cola's online Find Your Name in Stores tool, it's easy to prove the company's U.S. "Share a Coke" campaign doesn't include the names "Rita," "Tina," "Sandra" or "Jessica."* That means the above photo isn't just a crude photoshop job, but an actual impossibility.

Web journalists truly desperate to make the corporate crossover a reality are advised to sing Coke®-approved names over "Mambo No. 5," although "a little bit of George in my life" admittedly doesn't have the same ring to it.

*UPDATE: The original photo appears to have been taken at Coles, an Australian supermarket chain. When that country ran their "Share a Coke" campaign in 2011, "Monica," "Erica," "Rita," "Tina," "Sandra," "Mary" and "Jessica" were not among the 200 featured names.

[ Photo via Reddit | h/t @Bro_Pair]

Antiviral is a new blog devoted to debunking fake news, online hoaxes and viral garbage. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter and send your tips to hudson.hongo@gawker.com.

Just moments ago, the New York Times reported that U.S. forces have begun bombing runs in the north of Iraq to give breathing space to threatened Yazidi refugees fleeing Islamic militants:

Breaking News: American Forces Said to Bomb ISIS Targets in Iraq http://t.co/AZJZzSX1TY

— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 7, 2014

The Pentagon's press secretary is denying that report, however:

Press reports that US has conducted airstrikes in Iraq completely false. No such action taken.

— Rear Adm. John Kirby (@PentagonPresSec) August 7, 2014

And CBS is reporting that northern airstrikes are possible soon to protect U.S. troops who have been working in the area.

More @CBSDavidMartin: Pentagon preparing for possible air strikes against ISIS around Erbil, Iraq where 150 US advisers may be in jeopardy.

— Charlie Kaye (@CharlieKayeCBS) August 7, 2014

More as it develops.

[Photo credit: AP]

The Daily Mail reports that a British man was arrested for pretending to be a ghost in a cemetery by making "wooooooh" noises and flapping his arms at mourners. The offender, Anthony Stallard, 24, was fined about $125 for the stunt.

Prosecutor Tim Concannon said it was clear that Stallard was pretending to be a ghost—he "was throwing himself backwards, waving his arms about and going 'woooooooh.'" This was after he allegedly kicked a football at some gravestones. (That part of the case got thrown out.)

Stallard feels bad, according to his lawyer: "He has accepted that his behavior, if it had been outside of a cemetery, would not have been inappropriate. But inside a cemetery, while people are grieving for their loved ones, it might be."

[Image via Shutterstock]