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Career Spotlight: What I Do as an Aerospace Engineer

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Career Spotlight: What I Do as an Aerospace Engineer

From the birth of aviation to the space age and beyond, the aerospace industry has transformed transportation, commerce, and communication. Countless engineers have worked hard to literally give flight to the technologies that drive the modern world. But what does the job really entail? What is the average day for an aerospace engineer? We spoke with a veteran of the industry to learn what their work is really like.

Career Spotlight: What I Do as an Aerospace Engineer

Elizabeth Bierman is a senior project engineer at Honeywell Aerospace where she specializes in avionics and is the president of the Society of Women Engineers. She works a wide variety of bright minds to create the technologies that guide aircraft to their destinations, is a mother of two, and also speaks on behalf of the Society of Women Engineers to promote diversity in the workplace. We asked Elizabeth how she ended up on her current career path, what her day typically entails, and more.

Career Spotlight is a new interview series on Lifehacker that focuses on regular people and the jobs you might not hear much about—from doctors to plumbers to aerospace engineers and everything in between. If you'd like to share your career, email us at submissions+career@lifehacker.com.

How did you go about getting your job? What kind of education and experience did you need?

I got an astronaut lunch box in the 4th grade (this was fall 1985), and a few months later the Challenger space shuttle tragedy occurred. Instead of being discouraged, it sparked my interest to learn about those astronauts. I found out that three of them were aerospace engineers so I decided that is what I wanted to be too. I ended up going to Iowa State University and majoring in Aerospace Engineering! My first year was difficult. Engineering classes were a lot harder than high school and what I expected. I joined the Society of Women Engineers and this gave me a community of support to get through the challenges. Once I got into my core Aerospace Engineering classes things got better, or I just enjoyed the classes more. After my sophomore year of college, I got a co-op position with Rockwell Collins and this really solidified my love for aerospace and engineering. It was fascinating to start working on airplanes.

Did you need any licenses or certifications?

I do not have any licenses as an engineer. I am a certified Program Management Professional (PMP).

What sorts of things do you do beyond what the average person might expect? What do you actually spend the majority of your time doing?

I actually spend the majority of my time thinking of ways to do things better. Whether it's a navigation system going on an airplane or how to make a project come in on budget and on time, I work to continuously improve how we work. As a customer support engineer, I have been able to travel to the job site (airport hangars) and help our customers install the navigation system into the aircraft. I also have traveled around the world to work with our airline customers to talk with them about how they can use our products better.

What misconceptions do people often have about your job?

That I sit behind a computer all day and don't talk to people. That engineers are introverts and just want to be left alone. Young girls and boys are told in school that you have to be smart at math and science to be an engineer. I disagree. If you like math, science and engineering and are willing to work hard then you can get through it.

What are your average work hours?

I have a ton of flexibility (I have two young daughters at home). I usually work from home on Monday and Friday and then go into the office from 7:30-3:30 on the other days. I do check email every night after the girls are in bed. Some weeks are 40 hours and others may be a little more. That is where the flexibility is nice. Sometimes I am on a call with India at 8PM at night or with Europe at 6AM, but then I am able to take some downtime in the middle of the day.

What personal tips and shortcuts have made your job easier?

Be available when you can. It's easy for me to answer an email at 8PM at night so I can focus on the harder items first thing the next morning.

What do you do differently from your coworkers or peers in the same profession? What do they do instead?

Great question, I am focused on avionics—the instruments in the cockpit that help the planes navigate and manage the flight. What sets me apart from my peers is that I'm always looking for new technology we can leverage and communications trends we can take part in, such as lowering the cost and weight of the navigation system used on the new Boeing 787, while added additional functionality of faster align time (using GPS). Other aerospace engineers might work on engines or space systems. But all of us are working to solve problems.

What's the worst part of the job and how do you deal with it?

Engineers always have great ideas to make things better, but if a customer isn't willing to pay for it or see the value, then we can't do it.

Do you have any advice for people who need to enlist your services?

Be clear about the problem you need solved.

What's an average starting salary in your line of work?

Average starting salaries are around $60k per year.

How do you move up in your field?

I have two Masters degrees that have allowed me to build my skill set to move into higher levels of engineering and program management—and my employers helped pay for these degrees. I have also stayed involved with the Society of Women Engineers since college and this organization has provided me with professional development throughout my career with skills such as conflict resolution, financial management, leading without authority, and more. I have gained these skills with leadership positions with SWE and then used them in my professional job. I am currently serving as SWE President.

What advice would you give to those aspiring to join your profession?

If you are passionate about something and want to make a difference, I promise there is a way to do that with engineering. Engineers solve problems, period. They think of new ideas and bring them to fruition. For those aspiring to be engineers, build a community of support. I have made amazing friends through SWE that are my network and support through the ups and downs of my personal and professional life. I am successful because of this network.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.


Image by Oliver Tindall (Shutterstock).

Lady Gaga Claims She Was Raped By a Record Producer As a Teen

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Lady Gaga Claims She Was Raped By a Record Producer As a Teen

In an interview on the Howard Stern Show today, Lady Gaga claims to have been raped by a record producer when she was 19.

Stern posed the question to Gaga after she explained the inspiration behind her song "Swine" and her vomit-filled performance of the song at this year's SXSW:

I wrote a song called 'Swine.' The song is about rape. The song is about demoralization. The song is about rage and fury and passion, and I had a lot of pain that I wanted to release. I said to myself, 'I want to sing this song while I'm ripping hard on a drum kit, and then I want to get on a mechanical bull'—which is probably one of the most demoralizing things that you can put a female on in her underwear—'and I want this chick to throw up on me in front of the world so that I can tell them, you know what? You could never, ever degrade as much as I could degrade myself, and look how beautiful it is when I do.'

http://gawker.com/heres-lady-gag...

She then admits to Stern that she was raped by a producer as a teen, telling the radio host, "I went through some horrific things that I'm able to laugh [at] now, because I've gone through a lot of mental and physical therapy and emotional therapy to heal over the years. My music's been wonderful for me. But, you know, I was a shell of my former self at one point. I was not myself. To be fair, I was about 19. I went to Catholic school and then all this crazy stuff happened, and I was going, 'Oh, is this just the way adults are?'...I was very naïve."

Gaga told Stern that she's resisted talking about her alleged assault for years because she didn't "want to be defined by it."

"I'll be damned if somebody's gonna say that every creatively intelligent thing that I ever did is all boiled down to one dickhead who did that to me," Gaga said. "I'm going to take responsibility for all my pain looking beautiful. All the things that I've made out of my strife, I did that."

Audio of Gaga detailing her alleged rape to Stern embedded below (other clips from her interview can be heard here):


[H/T Popdust // Image via Getty]

The Best-Worst Wedding Brawls, Ranked

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The Best-Worst Wedding Brawls, Ranked

Over the weekend, news broke of a wedding reception that headed south, way south, all the way down to a big, ugly brawl. But who doesn't love hearing about a seriously messy wedding, especially when it involves a very drunk bride?

Just after midnight this past Friday, in the midst of her wedding reception, a bride started to feel "unwell" (probable translation: blackout vomiting) and an ambulance was called in. Upon their arrival at the scene, paramedics called for backup because the crowd was "drunk and rowdy," and as soon as the cops showed up, punches were thrown. It took six police units — that's not six individual officers, we're talking six separate teams of cops — to get the melee under control. The groom and best man were arrested for disorderly conduct and the bride went to the hospital for alcohol poisoning. Well done, everyone.

Oh, did I mention this all went down in Australia? Yes, a bunch of drunk people on the other side of the globe got in a fight. Sky is blue, water is wet, etc. But because this happened at a wedding, the story has gone international. Perhaps that's because it's a miracle that violence doesn't break out at more weddings: you've got an open bar, there's probably at least one person in the room who you don't like or you're just a mouthy drunk, and the celebratory adrenaline racing through your veins can take a nasty turn at the drop of a boutonniere. It's a recipe for disaster.

Nevertheless, we bite our tongues and unclench our fists because we owe the bride and groom a bit of decorum, whether we like it or not. Any frequent attendee has witnessed at least one affair where someone's pissed off about something and just barely holding it together. That's why when shit hits the reception hall fan, people are can't wait to hear the story. (To wit, The Huffington Post has an entire page full of wedding brawl news, which was quite helpful for this project.)

For this in-depth compilation of wedding brawls, rankings are determined by a highly subjective formula involving originality, absurdity, quality of available details, probable motivations, and anything else that made me laugh or cringe. This is by no means a definitive list and if anyone's got some other recent news stories, please do share in the comments.

11. February 15, 2014: Mmm, Pie

From jolly ol' England comes the tale of a wedding fight that was quickly brought under control with a few arrests. What makes this one special is the reason behind the brawl:

10. June 9, 2012: One Hundred Angry Men

This Glendale, California brawl was started for reasons unknown, but ended with handcuffs:

The man, Karpis Termendzyan, was arrested Saturday after police responded to a fight that broke out among more than 100 people at a wedding celebration. Police received calls from numerous witnesses at 11:52 p.m. about the brawl at Dream Palace banquet hall in the 500 block of East Broadway in Glendale. Termendzyan, 36, of Van Nuys, was arrested on suspicion of vandalism and battery after he allegedly spit on one officer and attempted to elbow two others, and later kicked in a rear window of a patrol car, said police Sgt. Tom Lorenz. […]

Witnesses also reported seeing several people wielding knives at the party, according to police reports.

9. March 2011: Kicky Bride

Angela Davito's wedding should've been a nice backyard affair. It wasn't.

The bash, held in a Gilbert, Ariz., backyard, deteriorated in a Saturday night fight that had neighbors calling the cops to report people were "killing each other."

When police arrived, the brawl was so out of control they starting using pepper spray on the guests - but the fighting continued.

Just when things slowed down, the 28-year-old bride charged one of the revelers. When police intervened, Davito reportedly kicked one officer and was arrested for assault and obstructing governmental operations.

8. September 13, 2014: 'There Was Blood Everywhere'

At a country club, naturally:

Police say more than 100 people at the wedding in Orchard Park, New York brawled after the reception. The fight was so bad that cops from seven departments were needed to break it up.

"I'm telling you, there was blood everywhere," a unidentified witness told the Buffalo News. "There was holes punched in the walls. Words couldn't describe it. Just when you thought it was over, another fight started."

"I think the alcohol was a big cause of what went on here," a relative of the groom told WKBW.

You think? No arrests were made, but several guests were bruised and one went to the hospital for stitches due to a head injury. In addition to human damages, cops cited "holes in walls, blood, broken crystal bowls and glasses and damage to property in the main banquet area, hallways and basement."

7. October 20, 2012: Broken Glass, Broken Dreams

Another one out of Australia:

A man was stabbed in the neck with a broken bottle after a violent brawl broke out outside a wedding, with reports the bride and groom were also involved.

Police were called to Lily's restaurant bar and function centre, at Seven Hills, western Sydney, at around 11:20pm Saturday night after reports of a dispute in the street.

A fight broke out between four people, believed to be guests at a wedding and five men who were walking through the car park.

It's believed the fight was sparked by an uninvited guest and both the bride and groom had got involved.

It's a shame the bride and groom had to step in, but if you want something done right, you do it yourself.

6. October 6, 2013: White Russian

A fight broke out at a wedding in Zelenograd, Russia. Here's a great translation (thanks, Google) of the original Russian coverage:

Start slaughter put two drunken quarrel guests. As told Life News, restaurant workers, men that is not shared, but soon subsided and men quarrel reconciled, and after a while one of the brawlers took out a knife and attacked the enemy from behind, coolly throwing punches in the neck and abdomen.

And got the man hurried to separate bullies: stabbed him in the leg. With stab wounds and penetrate the affected guests were taken to hospital, one of the men is currently in intensive care.

You get the idea. But in case you don't, there's always a graphic video. Should you choose to watch, please do note the impressive IDGAF expression on the face of the woman with the cigarette.

5. May 31, 2014: Honeymoon Suite

I'm not entirely sure this counts as a wedding brawl as it occurred after the reception, but it's got just enough racism to merit inclusion in this list.

The bride and groom are said to have got into a row with concierge staff as they attempted to check into their wedding suite and security guards were called. A fight then broke out between the guards and the couple.

During the scuffle, the groom, dressed in his wedding suit, allegedly attacked one the security guards cutting his face in the process. The bride is claimed to have shouted racist abuse at the guards, who were Asian.

4. July 2013: The Chicken Dance

Poultry is not to be taken lightly, not when it's coming from a buffet. From the Daily Mail:

Krystel Coleman, 29, was left with a broken nose and two black eyes after Curt Hughes, 53, allegedly punched her at her sister Karyssa's wedding. The fight erupted when the best man pushed into the buffet queue to get food for his son, which is said to have upset uncle-of-the-bride Hughes. The 53 year old lorry driver is said to have then hit best man, and brother-of-the-groom, Danny Smethurst, 30, and the bride's father Kevin Coleman, 52.

Ten police vehicles had to be sent to Caldecott Hall hotel in Fritton near Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, as angry wedding guests fought in the car park outside the reception. Even the bride's mother Liza Coleman, 47, was knocked to the ground during the scuffle last Friday.

Bride Karyssa Smethurst, 28, of Gorleston, Norfolk, who is eight months pregnant, then had to drive her sister Krystel to hospital after an ambulance failed to turn up.

The groom, Ben Smethurst, 26, said the brawl started at the buffet table after his brother reached over to get a piece of chicken for his 11-year-old son.

Having a buffet at a wedding can be a smart logistical and/or budget-minded move, but let this incident serve as a warning for guests: when you're in that line, watch your back.

3. September 1, 2014: The Groping Groom

This is where things got tough; the story here is pretty bad and while violence is never justified, it's not entirely absurd in this scenario. A wedding reception in Pittsburgh erupted in violence after the groom, one Mark Williams, groped a pregnant bartender and tried to force booze down her throat. According to CBS Pittsburgh:

Police say she called her boyfriend, Tyler Smith, 20, so he could come pick her up.

At that time, Smith allegedly confronted Williams about his actions and a physical altercation began.

Police say Williams' brother, David Williams, 35, eventually got involved and became aggressive with police.

A fourth man, Brian Taylor, 31, punched his hand through the front passenger window of a car nearby. He was taken to UPMC Mercy Hospital for treatment.

Sources tell KDKA that Brian Taylor is a member of the Stowe Rocks School Board. A police report says when Taylor was taken into custody, he yelled that he was HIV positive, as he tried to resist arrest.

Mark Williams, David Williams and Taylor were arrested and taken to the Allegheny County Jail.

David Williams is a Pennsylvania State Police trooper. He was off-duty at the time of the incident, but police said they're conducting an internal investigation.

2. October 7, 2012: Caught on Tape

This one ranks high because of the video, which you should see for yourself.

The color commentary — "Did they just deck the bride" — is what really makes it shine.

There's a lesson here: Hotels and reception halls really shouldn't book two weddings on the same night.

Police say members of one wedding party were fighting as another wedding party arrived to the hotel. Police say someone was hit and the fighting between the two groups ensued. Many of the guests were intoxicated, according to police.

People were wasted, obviously, but I do love how the police feel the need to state the obvious. The epilogue to this story is particularly unfortunate: after leaving the scene of the fight, the bride's uncle suffered a heart attack and died.

1. August 5, 2000: The Brawl to End All Brawls

We've focused on relatively recent brawls, but this final incident is so worth inclusion that we'll make an exception. Let us rummage through our satin clutches, reaching deep into the past to August 5, 2000, where two weddings resulted in a deadly brawl in the Chicago suburb of Countryside, Illinois. This one requires a bit more explanation than the rest as it might actually be the most high profile brawl of this century.

On that night, the William Tell Holiday Inn was hosting two wedding receptions. According to the Chicago Tribune, one celebration was for the sheriff's deputy; the other for an employee of the state attorney's office. Things took a turn for the worse in the hotel lobby, where witnesses claim that 10-15 guests from Wedding A were lined up against a wall, verbally harassing guests from Wedding B, challenging men to fights and catcalling women. Naturally this led to all hell breaking loose and by the end of it, a man named Michael Chambers — who was the brother of Cook County's comptroller at the time — was dead.

The details of the fight read like something out of a John Woo movie that never should've been made. This play-by-play from court documents is lengthy but conveys the depth of violence:

According to some witnesses, the situation was "unbelievable." Things in the lobby were smashed, furniture was turned over, and people were crying. One of the wedding guests, Mr. Lange, saw five to eight men on the top of the back of another wedding guest, Mr. Rademacher, who was lying on the ground on his hands and knees. After Mr. Lange realized that Mr. Rademacher was being choked and could not breathe, he attempted to intervene. In response, Mr. Lange was kicked in the face, his glasses split his nose open, and he was tossed toward a windowsill, which cut his head. At that time Mr. Rademacher stood up after being released from the choke hold, and was immediately hit from behind by codefendant Brogan, who slammed him against a wall and held him for approximately 15 seconds. After Mr. Rademacher's wife slapped codefendant and yelled at him […]

While this was occurring, Michael Chambers returned through the hotel lobby after he had bought some hamburgers at a nearby White Castle. As he was entering the hotel, the men who were lined up against the wall were still harassing some women. According to testimony, Mr. Chambers attempted to get the women away from the men, telling everyone to "go home." At that point, codefendant Brogan told the victim to "back off motherf——-," and he and the defendant pushed and punched the victim in the face. After the defendant hit Mr. Chambers, Mr. Chambers attempted to flee into the lobby, but he was grabbed by the men in the hallway, who pulled him into the vestibule by his neck, got on top of him, and kicked and beat him.

At that point, security guards who witnessed codefendant Brogan pushing Mr. Chambers attempted to get people off of Mr. Chambers, who was now at the bottom of a pile. While they were able to get him to stand, codefendant Brogan still had him in a headlock, and both tumbled into the vestibule area. Immediately thereafter, Countryside police arrived, and codefendant [Timothy] Brogan again identified himself as a Cook County sheriff. After displaying his badge, he informed the other police officers that the victim should be arrested because he was "fighting with everybody." After codefendant Brogan released Mr. Chambers, the defendant, who was also in the vestibule area, jumped into Brogan's position on top of Mr. Chambers and placed him in a headlock. At that point, defendant was in the vestibule, on top of the victim, choking the victim by his neck as he lay face-down on the ground. Officer Battaglia from the Countryside police said the choker, whom he could not identify, had his arm wrapped around the victim's neck and had him in a choke-hold known as the "carotid artery choke," a dangerous and deadly hold if applied improperly, according to Officer Battaglia.

Accepting what codefendant Brogan had told them, the Countryside police then attempted to handcuff the victim and, while doing so, told the choker to release the choke hold. Codefendant Brogan remained in the vestibule during that time. While the defendant still had Mr. Chambers in a choke hold, the Countryside police told Mr. Chambers that he was under arrest and attempted to handcuff him while he resisted. During this time, Officer Battaglia told the choker to release his hold, but the choker did not comply. Officer Battaglia told the choker once again to release the victim, and then felt the victim fall limp onto his own right arm. The choker stated at that point, "he's out cold." According to Officer Battaglia, Mr. Chambers still appeared to be breathing at the point they had successfully handcuffed him Tim Fahey, defendant's friend, then pulled the defendant off of Mr. Chambers as he lay on the ground in the vestibule; injured, unconscious and totally immobile. The security officers who were also present helping the Countryside police secure the scene saw the victim in this condition and became concerned because no one was attending to him. The police officers then pulled Mr. Chambers up, and he appeared to be unconscious. Mr. Chambers expired sometime later.

Given that the deadly incident involved law enforcement officers and so many individuals with Illinois state and county connections, the investigation was a total mess and the media really ran with it. This was a big story and it took over a year to file charges. The choker, Ronald Schickel Jr., was charged with murder but sentenced in 2003; he got 4½ years for involuntary manslaughter but was released for good behavior after 16 months. Brogan, the sheriff's officer who kept saying everything was under control, was convicted of official misconduct for covering up Schickel's actions and sentenced to 3½ years.

How do a bride and groom celebrate their wedding anniversary after a night like that?

Illustration by Tara Jacoby.

Supportive Mom Issues Correction to Trans Teen Son's Birth Announcement

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Supportive Mom Issues Correction to Trans Teen Son's Birth Announcement

When Yolanda Bogert's teenage son came out to her as transgender last week, she decided to show her love and support by correcting the official record.

When Kai was born, as Elizabeth Anne, his parents ran an announcement celebrating the arrival of their daughter. 19 years later, a second announcement in Australia's Courier-Mail now amends that to "our wonderful son."

"In 1995 we announced the arrival of our sprogget Elizabeth Anne as a daughter. He informs us that we were mistaken. Oops! Our bad. We would like to present our wonderful son – Kai Bogert. Loving you is the easiest thing in the world. Tidy your room."

"I needed to show my son I support him 100 percent and wanted to let the world know that," Yolanda told the Courier-Mail.

More importantly, Kai is fine with the big public announcement.

"I am so happy with what she has done. This last week has changed everything for me," he told the paper. "I am still me but I am more me than I was a few days ago and feel free."

Kai hasn't made any decisions about hormones, surgery, or tidying his room yet.

"These are early days but so far I have never been happier," he said.

[h/t HuffPo]

Katie Motorboated Some Guy's Dick on Vanderpump Rules

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Katie Motorboated Some Guy's Dick on Vanderpump Rules

Vanderpump Rules is such a fuck fest that it's hard to tell who's cheating on who anymore, but last night, we learned something important: pleasant wallflower Katie motorboated some guy's dick at a club, and that dick was not her boyfriend Tom's.

If, given this information, you're assuming that exiled cheater Kristen screamed with glee for the entirety of the episode, you're right. Here she is happily informing Katie that "motorboating his dick is not a photo shoot." (Katie claims she did not motorboat a dick, but she did agree to a photo shoot with the owner of said dick.)

The good news for Katie is that Tom doesn't seem to believe she cheated. He even bought her a puppy named Gordo. (After the Lizzie McGuire character? This remains a mystery.)

Elsewhere, Stassi helps Lisa Vanderpump with a photo shoot—a real one—and orders a blinking Scheana around at Sur. Jax recovers from his nose job. Kristen smokes at least five (5) cigarettes.

Next week—because hey, what else is going on—the gang will fully investigate Katie's dick motorboating incident. Kristen claims to have iPhone evidence! Pray for Gordo.

Zillow Accused of Subjecting Female Employees to "Sexual Torture"

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Zillow Accused of Subjecting Female Employees to "Sexual Torture"

Zillow has built up a $4.5 billion valuation by amassing an immense real estate database. But a lawsuit filed in a California court accuses the company of cultivating an "adult frat house" culture in which female employees are constantly solicited for sex by co-workers, ranked on their breast size, and fired if they refuse to play along.

The lawsuit, first reported by The Recorder, describes working at Zillow as "sexual torture." Emphasis added:

Plaintiff Rachel Kremer began her employment enthusiastically with Defendant Zillow, Inc. ("Zillow") on June 25, 2012 as an Inside Sales Consultant. Ms. Kremer quickly learned that Zillow had a pervasive culture of degrading women. Ms. Kremer's male supervisors ranked her according to her breast size, sent pictures of their penis to her, and demanded sexual gratification and obedience by Ms. Kremer to continue her employment. Ms. Kremer's experience was not limited to one supervisor, but instead, was pervasive throughout Zillow's leadership. Privately, Zillow executives bragged that the office culture led to more sexual encounters than Match.com and referred to the internal office directory as "Zinder," named after the dating application Tinder. Sadly, for Ms. Kremer, by not participating in this culture, she felt she would be outcast, and terminated. Eventually, after experiencing the most heinous acts of sexual harassment imaginable, Ms. Kremer was terminated. Zillow attempted to cover up their conduct by having Ms. Kremer sign a confidentiality agreement and release. Ms. Kremer brings this action based on the sexual torture she endured, and for the other women who have been silenced at Zillow, and remain exposed to horrific and unthinkable acts.

The suit reveals multiple text message and emails sent to Kremer by co-workers and managers. Many of those texts include explicit sexual advances, including one sent by Cody Fagnant, a Zillow sales manager:

Zillow Accused of Subjecting Female Employees to "Sexual Torture"

The plaintiff's supervisor, Gabe Schmidt, is also named in the suit for sending harassing texts. One message identified in the suit shows Schmidt lacing an invitation to an after-work function with sexual solicitation:

Zillow Accused of Subjecting Female Employees to "Sexual Torture"

Kremer's lawyers say that she reported the sexual harassment, but the company took no action. In one case, she reported a coworker for watching explicit videos at work to Schmidt. Her boss advised her to report the incident. Then he casually wondered if the coworker jerked off to her Salesforce profile picture:

Zillow Accused of Subjecting Female Employees to "Sexual Torture"

Zillow Accused of Subjecting Female Employees to "Sexual Torture"

In another instance, a co-worker texted the victim an unsolicited photo of his erect penis:

Zillow Accused of Subjecting Female Employees to "Sexual Torture"

The suit also alleges supervisors created nicknames for female employees based on their breast size:

Zillow Accused of Subjecting Female Employees to "Sexual Torture"

The suit goes on to describe Zillow's Souther California office as an "adult frat house" where "sexual harassment and misconduct are normalized, condoned, and promoted by male managers."

Ultimately, Kremer was fired after repeatedly rejecting sexual advances from multiple male managers. The company told her she was terminated "due to her failure to meet her sales goals for the two preceding months." However, she was given no advance warning about her performance, and the suit claims her performance was "nearly identical" to another employee hired around the same time. Kremer believes her opposition to her harassment was the real reason she was cut.

In a statement emailed to The Recorder, Zillow's COO stated the company was investigating the claims made in the lawsuit, but denied any company-wide culture problems.

To contact the author of this post, please email kevin@valleywag.com.

Hot in December? You're Probably Not Reading These Maps Correctly

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Hot in December? You're Probably Not Reading These Maps Correctly

One of the biggest (and most welcome) weather stories today is that a warm-up is slated to descend over the United States during the next two weeks. The maps we use to show the possibility of above-average temperatures are being misread by much of the public, and that's a problem.

The above map shows the latest temperature anomaly forecast from NOAA's Climate Prediction Center for the period between December 9 and December 15. These medium range maps serve as a guide to tell you the odds that temperatures will be above average or below average. Odds that are 33% or greater either way show that forecasters expect temperatures to deviate from normal.

The latest medium range forecast from the CPC shows a huge chunk of the country from the West Coast straight across to the Great Lakes sitting at a 70% chance of above-average temperatures. When many people on social media see these maps making the rounds, they get excited because it's going to get so warm, because look at all that red!

That's not always the case.

These maps just show the odds that temperatures will be above or below average, not what the temperatures will actually be on any particular day during the forecast period. Higher percentages (darker reds for above, darker blues for below) indicate higher probabilities that temperatures will deviate from normal. Even if temperatures are a few degrees above average, their forecasts verify, but that's still not warm for this time of the year. Today's average high in Chicago is around 40°F, for instance, and in Denver and Kansas City it's 45°F.

For the past month or two, the eastern two-thirds of the United States has seen one cold snap after the other thanks to a steep ridge of high pressure over western North America, allowing big dips in the jet stream over the east. These dips in the jet facilitate cold air flowing south from the Arctic. What's expected to happen over the next couple of weeks is that the jet stream will "even out," so to speak, and we'll enter a period of relatively zonal flow, or upper-level winds flowing from west to east with less extreme wobbles to the north and south. The absence of that intense ridge over the west will keep cold air from coming far enough south to make people below the Canadian interior miserable, walking freezy pops. At least for a little while, anyway.

The models have consistently shown a storm system swinging through the Midwest and into the East Coast around Wednesday the 10th, which will bring cold air with it, but after that the weather should start to calm down and warm up. How warm are we talking? It's too early to tell, but a good number of cities (especially in the Midwest and Plains) could be looking at temperatures double-digits above normal. With average highs ranging from the 30s in the north to the 40s in the mid-section of the country by the middle of the month, temperatures possibly reaching the 50s (or even 60s) aren't classically "warm," but it beats worrying about nose icicles.

You can access the latest these forecasts (and more) from the Climate Prediction Center's website. (For mapping geeks, here are their shapefiles.) The agency has a new website coming out soon that should make it easier for both the general public and weather geeks to access their products—the redesign is available in beta mode right now. Remember that the CPC is only telling you the odds of anomalous temperatures or precipitation occurring over the extended range (more than a week out). If you want hard temperature or precipitation forecasts, stick with the CPC's sister agency, the National Weather Service.

[Image: author]


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Kourtney Kardashian's Pregnant Nude Pics May Slightly Dent the Internet

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Kourtney Kardashian's Pregnant Nude Pics May Slightly Dent the Internet

If Kim Kardashian's extremely shiny nude body in Paper threatened to break the internet, her sister Kourtney's barely-clothed pregnant photoshoot for Dujour will at least leave a small chip in the internet's paint. Maybe a surface scratch, but that'll probably buff out.

But, unlike Kim, Kourtney didn't set out to lay waste to the World Wide Web like a small, pulchritudinous Godzilla. The eldest of the Kardashian trio told Dujour she's not really worried what you think about seeing her naked.

"It's my body: I'm not trying to impress anybody or be something that I'm not," she said, "But in general, I don't really care that much about what people think. It doesn't rule my world. I did this because I wanted to and it made me happy."

Kourtney Kardashian's Pregnant Nude Pics May Slightly Dent the Internet

Kourtney added that she probably wouldn't have considered posing nude had she not been pregnant. She did a private shoot back when she was making feet for the sockes of noble Lord Disick's firstborne sonne, and liked one of the photos so much that she had it framed so Bruce Jenner could repeatedly ask her to remove it from his sight. This is exactly like that, except in a magazine.

And now, on the internet, which still stubbornly refuses to break despite repeated impacts with naked Kardashians.

[Photo: Brian Bowen Smith/Dujour]


"Hedge funds are shutting at a rate not seen since the financial crisis, as many managers post disap

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"Hedge funds are shutting at a rate not seen since the financial crisis, as many managers post disappointing returns and an elite group of firms dominate money raising," Bloomberg reports. "Hedge funds, on average, have returned just 2 percent in 2014."

​Tuesday Night TV Reminds You To Take It With a Grain of Salt

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Tonight there's a surprising amount of television, actually. There's TV movies about dinosaurs, a lot of new shows about interesting murders, some terrible-sounding episodes of your favorite sitcoms, the almost-last Sons of Anarchy, and some interesting couples whose lives are unlike your own and perhaps could broaden your horizons... if you let them.

AT 8/7c.

  • The Toy Story franchise continues to dominate the nostalgia market on ABC,
  • The Bad Girls "Twerk It Out" in their special Club they have on Oxygen,
  • CMT offers the first (albeit the most important) of 37 awards ceremonies this holiday season honoring all the many varied themes and emotions of country music in 2014,
  • Masterchef: Junior does pop-up restaurateuring while The Voice eliminates a Voicer,
  • And The Flashand his little friend The Arrow have a great big fight with a person named Roy G. Bivolo, and that's as far as I care to go with this line of inquiry. Tomorrow night, they will continue to fight among themselves, and fight also this villain and his many ... rainbows?

AT 9/8c.

  • New Girl and CeCe get into it, while Winston investigates Nick's new love interest; and then on Mindy, Peter needs a place to live and Jeremy and Morgan babysit. Guest-starring Jon Barinholtz as "Pube," Leonard Jackson as "Pubeless," and Scott MacArthur as "Bush." Ugh, Peter episode.
  • A&E's ever-fascinating Storage Wars is set to drive you fucking bonkers with the thrilling double episodes "All Along the Swatchtower" and "Best Of: The Appraisals."
  • If that's too rich for your blood you can always get your second hour of MasterChef goods for the week on Cooking Channel's Canadian spin-off, submit to the drudgery of Lifetime's True Tori or another Reno 911-themed episode of Supernatural.
  • There's DeGrassi on Teen Nick and SHIELD on ABC, or the premiere of The Little Couple, which is a pretty great show, on TLC.
  • Marry Me guests Nat Faxon as "Cousin Scooby," who must choose between Annie's gay dads' gay wedding, versus her own wedding as it is traditionally defined, because even if there's something more to it, this is still ultimately the kind of sitcom where your gay dads would counterprogram your wedding even though you are a labile incompetent with nothing to live for.
  • Then on About a Boy, Fiona's overcome with thirst for Chris Diamantopoulos which duh, given that he is easily one of the sexiest humans in recorded history.
  • As ever, Bravo's Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, which is just warming up.
  • Also, new show on ID called Murder Book, which I told you I would find out what these are, so... this is what this is:

Contained within dusty storage drawers and dented metal cabinets of police stations everywhere, is a library of binders comprising detailed information about gruesome crimes. They may look like ordinary notebooks and folders, but each of them holds the plea of their victim waiting for the day that someone will finally catch their killer. This is their MURDER BOOK!

AT 10/9c.

  • The Chicago Firepersons are perplexed when a rando takes credit for their heroics, and a British aristocrat who might be a phony is for real dead on Forever,
  • While in the penultimate Sons of Anarchy, Jax must "make the ultimate decision." Which is vague, even for this show, which you know means tons of people are going to die.
  • My theory: This will be the episode where they finally figure out who is the Dad of Anarchy, and it's the last person you would ever expect!
  • Shipping Wars on A&E got my interest with what I thought was a Ghost Inside My Child episode title ("Power Rangers & Vampire Dangers") but is still pretty impressive, even if it is about shipping. Then another episode, also about shipping.
  • TLC's Risking It All, now in its third week, is about families that go camping because they blame electricity and gadgets for their shitty dynamics, selfishness and poor communication. The worst kind of people. Listen, if you can do it in the woods, you can do it at Dave & Busters. You can do it while skydiving. If the phone is the only way you'd notice they were ignoring you, they were already doing that, so stop blaming technology for the fact that you're not getting enough attention, and try being more interesting than your kid's phone, because it's not really about you.
  • Far, far better is Lifetime's nun-initiate doc Sisterhood, whose second episode is called "We're All Broken," which is true of everybody, but maybe especially certain nuns.
  • If you're not into Chopped ("Meatball Madness!"), or Chrisley Knows Best ("Marriage Redux") and a new Benched, there's always
  • The Tosh finale on Comedy Central, followed by a sneak peek at the third (and sadly final) season of Kroll Show, which is due mid-January.
  • Another ID show I investigated and discovered is called A Crime to Remember, in which the crimes took place back in quote "the bad old days of the '50s and '60s... Set against the backdrop of Studebakers, fedoras, and three-martini lunches, these stories of truly mad men and women reveal complicated relationships where thwarted dreams and repressed passions led to terrible crimes."
  • We already talked about Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce, which premieres now, but have I mentioned Living in Secret, a four-part LMN series about people who have had it with living double lives! They'd like to just go down to the regular number!

AT 11/10c.

Your options are Prison Wives Club on Lifetime ("Coming Clean"), or you can Watch What Happens: Live: with Gabrielle Union and Kyle Richards. Normally I would make a "Clovers in the Atmosphere" reference, but in this case the shivers you're getting are probably because of fuckin' Kyle Richards being around with her witchy awful ass, and not Clovers. (Thursday it's Amy Sedaris and Deepak Chopra, but don't you worry about that! I'll remind you. Trust me on that one, friend.)

The Heart, She Holler continues on Adult Swim at 12:30/11:30c., and I just this second got an email that Adam Devine is coming to town so I gotta get on that, so bye.

Morning After is a home for television discussion and appreciation, brought to you by Gawker and criminally inspired by diapers, toes and pee. What are you watching this weekend? What are we missing out on? Recommendations and discussions down below.

NYPD's New Body Cameras May Help Catch Crooked Cops in the Act

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NYPD's New Body Cameras May Help Catch Crooked Cops in the Act

In the wake of Michael Brown's death and a subsequent call for funding from President Obama, body cameras for cops have moved close to the center of the national conversation around police reform. According to a speech today from Bill de Blasio, they'll be coming to New York as soon as this week.

Of course, the NYPD isn't exactly taking the step voluntarily—a federal judge ordered it after a civil rights lawsuit last year. That didn't stop de Blasio and Bratton from touting the program. From Capital New York:

"One of the things the president is rightfully focused on is body cameras, and later this week we'll be rolling out a pilot program related to body cameras here in this city," de Blasio told reporters this morning, referencing his meeting in Washington, D.C., on Monday with President Obama and other elected and law-enforcement officials and clergy to discuss policing.

"But one thing we can say for sure, body cameras are one of the ways to create a real sense of transparency and accountability. They're one of the ways that we can bring police and community closer together," said de Blasio, who spoke at the Ingersoll Houses in Brooklyn, a public housing complex that has seen an 18-percent reduction in crime since last year.

Hooray! Body cameras are a decent enough first step, but as Mario Aguilar pointed out on our sister site Gizmodo recently, they're far from a perfect solution to brutality:

The problem arises in instances when police encounters aren't so idyllic. It turns out that when it actually comes time to review the evidence recorded, things get more complicated.

First of all, the evidence recorded by body cameras stands on shaky legal ground. As City Lab reported earlier this year, the San Diego police routinely deny public requests for body cam video, and the police claim that the footage isn't admissible in court. So much for transparency and evidence.

Body cameras will only do the job they're intended to do if Commissioner Bill Bratton decides to let New Yorkers see the footage. And if we know anything about the NYPD, it's that they're no big fans of transparency.

[Image via AP]

American Mom Stabbed to Death in Abu Dhabi Mall Restroom

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American Mom Stabbed to Death in Abu Dhabi Mall Restroom

According to reports, an American mother of twins was stabbed to death Monday after getting into an argument with another woman in an Abu Dhabi shopping mall bathroom.

Local police say witnesses saw the woman and her killer arguing in a public restroom at the Boutik Mall on Reem Island—a popular expat destination a few miles off the coast of Abu Dhabi island. The 37-year-old victim, identified only as ARB, was reportedly a divorced school teacher.

One restaurant employee told the UAE website the National that she overheard the fight:

I heard one of them threatening the other saying 'Sit down or I'll kill you'."

The restaurant employee said she then heard banging sounds from the stall.

"I heard one of them try to call out for help. By this time there were three of us outside the toilet and one of us ran to get security. When the female security guard arrived they told us to leave the bathroom. I was so scared and frightened for her," she said.

Although police later recovered the murder weapon, which they described only as a "sharp object," identifying the assailant may be difficult—she was reportedly wearing a full abaya, niqab and gloves.

In the UAE, convicted murderers are generally punished with death—generally by firing squad—although family members of the deceased are sometimes permitted to pardon the offenders.

DJ Earworm's United State of Pop Is a Better Mashup Than 2014 Deserves

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For the past six Decembers, DJ Earworm has dropped The United State of Pop, his annual mashup of 25 of the year's biggest pop songs. The much-anticipated seventh edition arrived today, but without much of a bang.

Earworm said it without really saying it: 2014's big hits kind of sucked.

"The thing that has been most notable in the past two or three years is the decline of EDM," he told Billboard, "The 'United State of Pop' became this dance track from '09 to '12, and then starting last year, there just wasn't enough in that genre to fully support it, so I went down-tempo."

It's probably not fair to compare every one of these to 2009 or 2010, when we were still enjoying peak levels of Lady Gaga. There's only so much poor Earworm could have done with this year's raw material: "All About That Bass," Maroon 5, three Iggy Azalea tracks, and that terrible Canadian reggae song you already forgot about. (Indeed, every generation gets the Counting Crows it deserves.)

Hey, at least we had "Shake It Off."

Maybe there's something to the theory that upbeat dance music thrives when the economy is at its shittiest, and with the Great Recession came some great pop tunes. Or maybe everything exciting in music this year happened in hip hop, under the narrow radar of Billboard's Top 10. Just a couple of wild guesses.

[h/t Billboard]

Wannabe Nuns Tattled on for Twerking on The Sisterhood

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Okay, so it's week two of Lifetime's fascinating reality series The Sisterhood (which follows five young women taking six weeks to decide if nun life is for them) and someone has already used the phrase "under the bus."

Up until now the show has held on to a documentary-level gravitas, but the seeds of reality TV bickering were sown when Claire, above, was accused by Francesca of throwing Francesca under the bus by calling her a "drama queen," which... you know, prove her wrong by chilling out, Francesca. Still it was a moment of intense dramatic irony for the audience, because we'd just seen Claire actually betray one of the group that morning, when she ran straight to the nuns and tattled on Eseni for twerking!

These poor girls had thrown the kind of party you are doomed to have when you're five eccentric strangers cooped up in a nunnery: A whispery PJs dorm room party where everyone piles onto the bed, splits up a chocolate bar, and someone rations out a bottle of wine so everybody gets a sip. The saddest, basically.

Eseni, who looks like a Disney Princess and seems distressingly nice and normal, exhibited the "new dance move" she'd learned, twerking, to a room of her fellow novitiates/discerners/nunnery test-drivers. It was a giddy, innocent, "just us girls" moment right out of a grade school sleepover, but apparently it was highly offensive to Claire's sensibilities, who commenced killing the room's hard-won buzz.

Cut to that morning, with Claire trying to come across as caring and loving while being a total little snitch with her "Eseni doesn't even realize how beautiful she is (when she desecrates her beautiful body by using it as she pleases)" double talk. Thank God the nun shut Claire all the way down. The nun was like "UM WHAT THE FUCK DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH EITHER OF US AND OUR PERSONAL FUCKING INWARD JOURNIES TO SPIRITUAL FUCKING ENLIGHTENMENT?!" and I approve that message.

Ya burnt, Claire!!! Looks like twerking is way below "being a sanctimonious tattletale" on the list of sins you need to be watching out for.

Also Christie had a really bad dream about a cat.

Hang in there kittens! Only four more weeks of not strangling each other to go.

[Videos via Lifetime]

Morning After is a new home for television discussion online, brought to you by Gawker. Follow @GawkerMA and read more about it here.

Guy Forced to Recreate Sia's "Chandelier" Video for Fantasy Football Bet

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Chuck Jose isn't the first person to perform his own version of the dance from Sia's "Chandelier" music video—Lena Dunham, Jimmy Kimmel, et al did it to death a long time ago—but he might be the first to do it as punishment for being a fantasy football loser.

Jose apparently lost a bet with his buddy, Allen Mark, and fulfilled the conditions by recreating the video shot-for-shot.

Such punishment! Such humiliation! You can really tell he's not into this at all, and definitely not having fun trying to get the moves and timing right. You think he's enjoying the costume? Psh, get out of here.

He definitely would not have made this video just for kicks regardless of the outcome of the bet. No sir.

"I can never retweet that video enough," tweeted Mark, who's relishing his victory almost as much as Jose relished his defeat.

[h/t Gossip Cop]


"Stupid" Former NYPD "Cop of the Year" Arrested for Trafficking Cocaine

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"Stupid" Former NYPD "Cop of the Year" Arrested for Trafficking Cocaine

NYPD officer Philip Leroy, awarded "Cop of the Year" for the 114th Precinct in 2012, was arrested in Florida Monday night for allegedly trafficking cocaine.

According to Sunrise City, Fla., police, the Queens cop drove from New York with two friends to buy 10 kilograms of blow, and was carrying his off-duty weapon at the time of his arrest. An anonymous police source told the New York Post Leroy was "pretty stupid"and may have been arrested in an orchestrated sting:

"Sunrise PD does this thing called forfeiture, which are like reverse drug-deal stings, where cops pose as dealers selling very cheap cocaine. They're known for these kind of big busts," a police source said.

"You got to be pretty stupid to do this deal in Sunrise."

The cop was charged with felony weapons possession, cocaine trafficking, and conspiracy to traffic cocaine, and is being held on $250,000 bail. Richard Quintanilla and Brian Espinal, his alleged partners in the deal, were arrested as well.

Then-commissioner Ray Kelly sang Leroy's praises when he was selected for Cop of the Year in 2012:

Two years ago, LeRoy was picked from more than 100 officers in his precinct to win its "Cop of the Year" award, according to a report at the time.

"As a member of the anti-crime unit, P.O. Leroy has made more than two dozen arrests so far this year for things like robbery and gun possession," said then-Police Commissioner Ray Kelly in praising the cop.

According to a photo posted on Facebook, Philip Leroy has ridiculously well-defined abs.

[Image via Facebook]

10 Nearly Perfect Movies, And What They Teach Us About Storytelling

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10 Nearly Perfect Movies, And What They Teach Us About Storytelling

Maybe there's no such thing as a perfect movie. It's usually enough of a miracle that a movie gets made. But every once in a while, a movie manages to tell a great story without a brush stroke noticeably out of place. Here are 10 nearly perfect movies, and what they teach us about storytelling.

One constraint for this list is that I wanted to include movies that I'd seen recently enough that I could actually write about them. I also didn't want it to be the same list as our other "best" lists that we've done in the past. Scroll down for a list of candidates that we also considered including.

10 Nearly Perfect Movies, And What They Teach Us About Storytelling

1) Robot And Frank

An ex-burglar suffers from dementia, so his concerned kids bring him a robot caretaker... and he winds up convincing the robot to get into some trouble. A lot of this movie's effectiveness comes from Frank Langella's sarcastic, sly performance, and from the beautiful visuals of nature with a shiny white robot in it. But this film also shows how to do a "character study" without ever becoming heavy-handed: The relationship between Langella's Frank and Susan Sarandon's Jennifer appears to be one thing, but when we find out late in the film that it's something very different, it changes our understanding of Frank's character completely. This movie does "twists" entirely in the service of the main character. Finally, Robot and Frank remains powerfully committed to its theme of memory and selfhood, and how technology interacts with them, finding new ways to investigate that theme instead of just restating it.

10 Nearly Perfect Movies, And What They Teach Us About Storytelling

2) Bedazzled

No, not the remake with Brendan Fraser. The 1967 original, with comedians Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. Cook plays the Devil, who offers the suicidal short order cook George Moon (Moore) seven wishes in return for his soul. Not surprisingly, the wishes all go wrong, but a lot of the focus is on the Devil sharing his view of the cosmos and why he got tired of dancing around worshipping God for all eternity. Cook and Moore's comic timing is impeccable, if slow by 21st century standards, and the film is a masterclass in the use of irony. George Moon's wishes are all about chasing happiness but also gratifying his ego, and the ironic twists that subvert them gently reveal the flaws in George's character and just why he can't be happy. Plus this film opens up the relationship between George and Lucifer, until you finally feel sympathy for the Devil.

10 Nearly Perfect Movies, And What They Teach Us About Storytelling

3) Brazil

We recently quoted director Rian Johnson and a bunch of others talking about why Brazil is such a fantastic movie. But in addition to the incredible visuals and incredibly bitter, weird humor, Brazil is a masterpiece of grotesque worldbuilding, in which the dystopian city, under attack by terrorists and under the thumb of a weird bureaucracy, feels like a real place for all its insane weirdness. We feel for Sam Lowry's plight even more because of all the strange touches that anchor this dystopian world in reality. And the other thing that Brazil pulls off is that it blends fantasy with a fantastical reality and keeps the two distinct — Sam's dream sequences and hallucinations are recognizable as unreal, even in the context of the surreal world he lives in. This is a great lesson for storytellers — if you can make a bizarre world feel like a living, breathing place, then you can layer another world of even stranger fantasy on top of that.

10 Nearly Perfect Movies, And What They Teach Us About Storytelling

4) Ghostbusters

We tend to remember this film as just all-out chaos with the ghosts and the traps and the gatekeeper and so on and so forth. But the great thing about Ghostbusters is how grounded in reality a lot of it is, and how much it's shot in a realistic style, with natural lighting and cinematography from Laszlo Kovacs, who worked on Easy Rider. (There's a great in-depth look at every aspect of Ghostbusters here, in a site fittingly called Overthinking Ghostbusters.) A huge part of why Ghostbusters is able to pull off its unique horror-comedy spin, and why its story of underdogs who go into business capturing spectres works so well, is because it keeps one foot relentlessly in the real world. Also, like a lot of great 80s movies, Ghostbusters takes the time to introduce its characters and their plight before throwing them into the deep end.

10 Nearly Perfect Movies, And What They Teach Us About Storytelling

5) Iron Man

We've praised this movie before as a cyborg narrative about a man who gets a miniature reactor implanted in his chest to save him from a potentially heart-stopping injury. But I don't think we've talked about how tight this film is — despite being largely improv, this movie builds its story piece by piece, without any wasted pieces. Tony Stark's progression from weapons-selling jerk to penitent badass is great, and the chemistry between Robert Downey Jr. and costars Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeff Bridges keeps the movie anchored in character. Scenes where Bridges brings over some pizzas or Downey Jr. and Paltrow squabble feel natural and help to sell the idea that these people have longstanding relationships that are shifting. The final confrontation between Iron Man and Ironmonger may not be as over-the-top as other action movie climaxes, but it does bring all of the movie's themes and character development to a perfect conclusion.

10 Nearly Perfect Movies, And What They Teach Us About Storytelling

6) Being John Malkovich

There are a ton of Charlie Kaufman films that could have gone on this list, including Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Adaptation. And yes, the oft-overlooked Synecdoche New York. The master of meta, reality-breaking stories is also a great storyteller, with a great focus on people whose egos and identities are warped by the magical-realist elements in the story. And Being John Malkovich sticks in your mind not just because of the weird notion of a door into a famous actor's head that lets you observe and maybe control him — but also, because of the intensely personal story it tells about Craig (John Cusack) and his temptation to use Malkovich for his own ends. The ending is a gutpunch, but also feels like the perfect culmination of all Craig's mistakes, which in turn are grounded in character.

10 Nearly Perfect Movies, And What They Teach Us About Storytelling

7) The Terminator

We were talking about this film last night at the io9 meetup, and the ways that it uses the conventions of the slasher movie, the noir thriller and the techno-thriller to tell its own, weirdly unique story. And it's a romance! There's so much greatness in The Terminator, from the killer robot's comic timing to the beautiful camera work in the action scenes. But part of what makes this movie so perfect, and such a great object lesson for storytellers, is the way it uses genre as a toolkit, with which to build Sarah Connor's character arc. The low-budget simplicity of The Terminator works in its favor as a story of survival, but so does the clever way it uses your genre expectations to set up the reveal of the metal skeleton from the future.

10 Nearly Perfect Movies, And What They Teach Us About Storytelling

8) Upstream Color

As much as I love Primer, I think Shane Carruth's follow-up movie has stuck with me a lot more — and like some of the other movies on this list, an obvious strength of Upstream Color is the way it combines a thorny relationship story with a bizarre science-fictional narrative. But that's not my main takeaway from Upstream Color — rather, it's the fact that this movie explains almost nothing, and yet the story is completely clear. If you let go of the expectation that a movie is going to unspool its secrets via exposition, this film tells you everything you need to know about what's going on. Carruth explains his entire plot through imagery and juxtapositions, and it's the ultimate example of showing instead of telling. What's incredible is the amount of clarity Carruth achieves without a single scene of somebody explaining something. And then the movie pulls off an ending that's ambiguous in the right way, not because you don't know what just happened, but because you're left imagining what could happen next.

10 Nearly Perfect Movies, And What They Teach Us About Storytelling

9) Princess Mononoke

Like some of the other filmmakers on this list, Hayao Miyazaki has a unique gift for storytelling and a lot of his films could have been on here — but Princess Mononoke is really something special. This film is incredibly beautiful and moving, and features a protagonist that we sympathize with from the moment he accidentally kills a boar god-turned-demon and is cursed. But the greatest lesson from Princess Mononoke has to do with exploring topical themes in a way that engages the emotions and includes complexity, rather than mindless simplicity. This film is a parable about heedless industrialism and development and the destruction of nature, but Miyazaki takes great care to show how Lady Eboshi's development is admirable in a lot of ways, and how both Eboshi and Mononoke exist in self-contained worlds that need to understand each other or face mutual destruction. Most of all, Princess Mononoke is a film of mind-blowing power, that will make you cry even as it also makes you think.

10 Nearly Perfect Movies, And What They Teach Us About Storytelling

10) 28 Days Later

And finally, the movie that started the "fast zombies" craze (I know they're not really zombies) is also a masterpiece of post-apocalyptic storytelling. Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland build a sense of paranoia and desolation from the movie's beginning, where monkeys infected with the rage virus are released and immediately start unraveling the world. The use of quiet and empty spaces adds to the feeling of menace and awfulness — but it's Christopher Eccleston's turn as a military officer who's willing to use rape as a tactic of preserving order that unveils the true horror at the heart of this plague apocalypse. A lot of post-apocalyptic films play with the idea that people are monsters, but this one makes it totally visceral.

Our candidates for this list included Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1970s), The Lost Boys, Rosemary's Baby, Little Shop of Horrors, American Werewolf in London, Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth, The Thing and Return of the Living Dead. Thanks to Cheryl, Ever, Jason, Annalee and everybody else who helped with this!

Note: If you're looking for a straight-up list of the most essential science fiction movies, that's here. Or here's a list of the greatest movies of the 2000s. See also this and this.

Killer Cop Who Choked Eric Garner Walks Free

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Killer Cop Who Choked Eric Garner Walks Free

Daniel Pantaleo, the Staten Island NYPD officer who killed Eric Garner with a chokehold in July, will not face charges for the killing, a grand jury reportedly decided today. Garner, who was asthmatic, pled with police about his inability to breathe several times during the struggle that led to his death.

The NYPD's own patrol guide explicitly prohibits chokeholds, and the death was ruled a homicide by the New York City medical examiner in August. Pantaleo was the target of two previous civil suits before Garner's death.

Garner, a father of six, was was accused of illegally selling loose cigarettes. NY1, the New York Daily News, and CNN reported the Staten Island grand jury's decision today.

The decision—which comes nine days after a grand jury failed to indict Ferguson, Mo., cop Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown—will almost certainly inspire protests. NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton told reporters this week the department will address demonstrations using the same strategies it used during Occupy Wall Street.

Panataleo released a statement through New York's police union:

"I became a police officer to help people and to protect those who can't protect themselves. It is never my intention to harm anyone and I feel very bad about the death of Mr. Garner. My family and I include him and his family in our prayers and I hope that they will accept my personal condolences for their loss."

According to a statement from Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan, New York law prohibits his office from disclosing records of the grand jury's proceedings as the St. Louis County District Attorney did after the Darren Wilson decision. However, Donovan wrote, he has applied for authorization to publish the information, citing a provision that allows for its release if there is "a compelling and particularized need for access."

Mayor Bill de Blasio's office released a long statement encouraging nonviolent protests and pledging that the city "stands ready to cooperate" with a federal investigation:

"This is a deeply emotional day – for the Garner Family, and all New Yorkers. His death was a terrible tragedy that no family should have to endure. This is a subject that is never far from my family's minds – or our hearts. And Eric Garner's death put a spotlight on police-community relations and civil rights – some of most critical issues our nation faces today.

"Today's outcome is one that many in our city did not want. Yet New York City owns a proud and powerful tradition of expressing ourselves through non-violent protest. We trust that those unhappy with today's grand jury decision will make their views known in the same peaceful, constructive way. We all agree that demonstrations and free speech are valuable contributions to debate, and that violence and disorder are not only wrong – but hurt the critically important goals we are trying to achieve together.

"These goals – of bringing police and community closer together and changing the culture of law enforcement — are why we have introduced so many reforms this year. It starts at the top with Commissioner Bratton – a strong, proven change agent. We have dramatically reduced the overuse and abuse of stop-and-frisk. We have initiated a comprehensive plan to retrain the entire NYPD to reduce the use of excessive force and to work with the community. We have changed our marijuana policy to reduce low-level arrests, and we have launched a new pilot program for body cameras for officers to improve transparency and accountability.

"These are the long term reforms we are making to ensure we don't endure tragedies like this one again in the future. But we also know that this chapter is not yet complete. The grand jury is but one part of the process. There will still be an NYPD internal investigation. And we know the US Attorney is continuing her investigation. Should the federal government choose to act, we stand ready to cooperate.

"Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – one of our nation's most profound thinkers on these issues – taught us something very simple: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." The problem of police-community relations and civil rights is not just an issue for people of color – or young people – or people who get stopped by police. This is a fundamental issue for every American who cares about justice.

"All of us must work together to make this right – to work for justice – and to build the kind of city – and nation – we need to be."

A major investor's group has proposed that hedge funds generate "gains above market benchmarks befor

Sony Hack Reveals 25-Page List of Reasons It Sucks To Work at Sony

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Sony Hack Reveals 25-Page List of Reasons It Sucks To Work at Sony

A gargantuan new hack of Sony Pictures Entertainment is revealing an almost unfathomable amount of sensitive insider information, from countless social security numbers to embarrassing salary data. And we just came across this: a giant list of workplace complaints.

The full trove will take a long time to sift through, but for now, here's this: a plain, unencrypted text file innocuously titled "Sony_2012_Comments." Inside is what looks like a raw dump of negative employee feedback. None of it is tied to any particular employee, so it's impossible to determine where one man's griping begins and another's ends, but it makes it clear there's plenty of unhappiness at the struggling studio, even if it hadn't been hacked to hell and back. Above all: people who work at Sony are fucking tired of bad Adam Sandler movies.

Below are some highlights of a very, very long file (all emphasis added):

Need to improve the creative staff in Motion Pictures. Seems like we just reboot old product instead of coming up with new ideas like the Hunger Games. We need new fresh ideas that can drive franchise product. Go out and hire the best.

Be more focussed and ruthless in directing our resources to businesses that will sustain the long term health of SPE - networks, broadcast TV shows, new movie franchises, digital distibution By the same token, stop or reduce support for areas that have no more value (Sandler movies, DVD)

There is a general "blah-ness" to the films we produce. Althought we manage to produce an innovative film once in awhile, Social Network, Moneyball, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, we continue to be saddled with the mundane, formulaic Adam Sandler films. Let's raise the bar a little on the films we produce, and inspire employees that they are working on the next Social Network. That said, there's a strange dichotomy of encouraging us to be fiscally responsible, but then upper management allows certain talent and filmmakers to bleed us dry with their outlandish requests for private jets, wardrobe and grooming stylists - and are surprised when they are asked to work more than 5 hours to promote their film.

In TV and Theatrical, I hope management looks closely at the money spent on development and term deals to ensure efficiency. There are a lot of term deal personnel as well as creative personnel, yet we only release a dozen or so Columbia Pictures a year, for example. And will we still be paying for Adam Sandler? Why?

It is commenable that SPE understands/supports the importance of risk-taking, particularly in how the we pick films to greenlight. However, the studio needs to change deal structure that has been in place with Happy Madison, as this arrangement has disproportionately benefitted Adam Sandler and his team, relative to SPE.

Perhaps it's a generational thing, but I've been disappointed with the content of some of the films we've been producing lately. I don't think people who know me would consider me a prude, but the boorish, least common demomonator slate strikes me as a waste of resource and reputation. "I think the mirror should be tilted slightly upward when it`s reflecting life — toward the cheerful, the tender, the compassionate, the brave, the funny, the encouraging, all those things — and not tilted down to the gutter part of the time, into the troubled vistas of conflict." Greer Garson 1990 I think that quote could be adapted to apply to the base elements of some of the films we produce.

In order to be the top studio, Sony needs to not release dark movies (i.e. Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) around the holiday season. No one wants to see a film like Girl (which is a great film by the way) around the holiday season.

Are you aware that Men In Black 3 may gross $600M at the box office, and yet will lose money for SPE? Shouldn't we question that strategy? Why are some studios making Hunger Games, Harry Potter, Twilight - and we are considering movies like Moneyball, Steve Jobs story, Captain Phillips Story, Evel Knievel story, etc. Are you aware that SPE only has 1 franchise - Spiderman. Yet, it took 5 years to generate a sequel? Spidey 3 was released in summer 2007, #4 in 2012. Don't harry potters come out over 2-3 years? Are you aware that SPE has only 1 franchise - Spidey? Yet we waited 5 years after Spidey 3 (2007) to release #4? Have you read the SEC annual report? Disney will make $300M on Spidey merchandise this year alone. We won't!

We do not seem to be doing new or original ideas anymore unless they come from term deal players. Remakes, sequels, and movies which are better off being E True Hollywood stories, should be left by the side of the road. Our development execs should focus on new fresh material, and not be permitted to simply remake another money.

Moving a major work force to foreign countries is taking job opportunities away from lots of employees at Sony Pictures Imageworks. Families are separated, people are forced to leave the country, and workers don't have any hopes in their future with the company any more. It is sad to see that the company doesn't care about us at all.

Stop making the same, safe, soul-less movies and TV shows. Enough with the re-makes and reboots. Breaking Bad and Community are just about the most artful and innovative gems we currently have

This comment about the strength of SPE's IT department stands out:

@I work in IT and while I feel we have a very strong CIO (stringest in 9 years that I have been here at SPE) that is doing a good job. The next level of management below the CIO needs some work. They don't even seem to get along.

As mentioned, there are tens of thousands of files to check out, including private memos, executive expense reports, details of sexual harassment, unreleased scripts (including a "Beverly Hills Cop" TV remake and new Vince Gilligan series), movie launch talking points, and much, much more. Stay tuned.

To contact the author of this post, write to biddle@gawker.com

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