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Upset About HS Basketball Coach's 'Attitude' Toward Their Son, Parents Dig Up Ancient Dirt to Get Him Fired

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Upset About HS Basketball Coach's 'Attitude' Toward Their Son, Parents Dig Up Ancient Dirt to Get Him Fired

A high school basketball coach from Connecticut was forced out earlier this month after an R-rated film he appeared ten years ago was emailed to the administration by disgruntled parents who felt their son wasn't being treated well enough by the coach.

Mike Hvizdo, known among Weston High School students at Coach Viz, had been hired as head coach two years ago after spending two years as assistant coach at nearby Wilton High.

Sources told The Hour that an email sent to administrators at Weston by parents of a player revealed that Hvizdo once starred in a short film entitled "Forbidden Fruit."

Directed by Steve Moramarco (former assistant to Jack Black), the 9-minute black and white film reportedly contains some vulgarity and an adult theme but no nudity.

The Norwalk newspaper's sources say the parents were "upset with the way their son was being treated as a WHS basketball player," and also had concerns about a lack of playing time.

The paper itself calls the parents' dirt digging "nothing more than a blatant attack with the sole goal of getting the coach removed."

According to The Weston Forum, Hvizdo was called into a meeting with high-ranking school and district officials three weeks ago and asked to resign.

The CT Post reports that Hvizdo was ultimately fired by Superintendent Colleen Palmer for refusing to resign.

On Monday night, over 100 people crashed a Board of Eduation meeting to express support for Hvizdo and urge board members to give him his job back.

"This is the worst case of (Hvizdo) being bullied," actor Joe Pantoliano, a Wilton resident, told the board. "This is such a wonderful opportunity for this community to teach that we make mistakes. Re-instate Mike."

Hvizdo himself has said little since his controversial dismissal, but did acknowledge that it came as a shock to himself and those around him.

"People are outraged. People know the truth," he said. "The support has been phenomenal, not just from Weston. Anyone who's gotten a whiff of this story has reached out to me."

Though the administration insisted its decision was final, Hvizdo said he wanted his job back and still held out hope that he would coach again in the future.

[H/T: Barstool Sports, screengrab via News12]


'Factivist' Bono 'Sings Facts,' Says Poverty Rate Should Be Zero by 2030

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'Factivist' Bono 'Sings Facts,' Says Poverty Rate Should Be Zero by 2030"I thought, forget the rock opera, forget the bombast, the only thing I would be singing today is the facts," Bono proclaimed at his TED talk yesterday, "For I have truly embraced my inner nerd. So, exit the rock star. Enter the evidence activist. The 'factivist.'"

It was like he was announcing a whole new superhero identity! Painfully hip glasses required, no cape.

When TED organizer Chris Anderson asked Bono to speak at TED, he asked the U2 lead singer to give an overview of anti-poverty efforts in the last decade. But Bono wanted to look ahead by two decades. He thinks that in less than twenty years, aided by technology and social media, poverty could be zero.

Bono presented some factivist facts showing the success of anti-poverty campaigns to date. He noted that global mortality rates for children under five have fallen so that 7,256 fewer children die per day. His pointed out that the number of people living in what Bono calls "soul crushing poverty" (less than $1.25 per day) has fallen from 43% in 1990 to 21% in 2010. (Bono did clarify part way through his talk that he was referring to extreme poverty, not all poverty.) If this rate continues, the poverty rate reaches zero by 2013.

"For numbers crunchers like us [Ed. note: LOL], that's the erogenous zone," said the singer, "It's fair to say I'm sexually aroused by the collating of data." His enthusiasm has struck a cord with at least one TED-talk goer, Bill Gates, who tweeted: "Bono asks us all to become "factivists" at TED. I'm in!"

Bono has done the TED grandiloquence thing before. In 2005, he was one of the first to claim a TED prize, which awarded $100,000 to the winners. This investment helped to fund in One.org project to engage people with anti-poverty activism.

[LA Times, image via Getty]

Joan Rivers Explains the Hatred of Anne Hathaway Better Than Anyone

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"Why do people hate Anne Hathaway?" asked Yahoo! Shine. "Why do women hate Anne Hathaway (but Love Jennifer Lawrence)?" posed the Cut. "Why is everyone hating on Anne Hathaway at 2013 Oscars? (TWEETS, GIF)," wondered the Huffington Post. "Is it a gender double-standard - or is it her face?" quizzed Salon.

Joan Rivers answered pop culture's current great mystery on the Late Show with David Letterman last night. She did so mostly wordlessly because there is no real logic to it, considering Hathaway's talent (noted by Joan) and possible loveliness (dubiously considered by Joan).

This animosity also is barely a thing — it may feel like a thing, but as long as Anne Hathaway is getting roles and making movies that make money, we can assume that more people like her than not. Or at least, she can take solace in that when her feelings get hurt. And also she can take solace in her money and her Oscar. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Haters make you greater. You haven't made it until people want your head on a stick. Though the world of Twitter may suggest Anne Hathaway is losing, Anne Hathaway is most certainly winning.

The comment was part of Joan's Oscars recap, which also included several fat jokes directed at Adele (one of them suggesting that "Rolling in the Deep" should be renamed "Rolling in the Deep Fried Chicken"). Unlike when Seth MacFarlane made an indirect crack at Adele's weight during the Oscars or the source material for that joke (Rex Reed's brutalization of Melissa McCarthy), there has been no real outcry over this. Joan Rivers gets away with it because she always does this and she would always do this even with an outcry. And also because she's funny. And also because of that hazy logic thing. Joan Rivers, nyahhhh!

The New Dancing with the Stars Cast: A Nana Weighs In

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The New Dancing with the Stars Cast: A Nana Weighs InOn Tuesday, Dancing with the Stars announced the troupe of celebrities who would cha-cha into our living rooms and, perhaps, our hearts over the course of its sixteenth season. Despite the best efforts of Gawker.com and Dina Lohan, Dina Lohan was not on the list.

My grandmother, Pat, is 83 years old. She was a teacher in a one-room school house and her favorite brand of vodka is "anything but Stoli." She is the only person I know who watches Dancing with the Stars. Yesterday, I called her up, read her the list of contestants, and transcribed her predictions for how they would fare throughout the season.

What emerged from our phonecall is a complex Dancing with the Stars forecast, constructed from strategy, history, and a very skewed knowledge of celebrity (she has lots of thoughts on Rob Kardashian — 2nd place, season 1 — but still calls Beyoncé "that Bianca").

Place your bets now:

Wynonna Judd

The New Dancing with the Stars Cast: A Nana Weighs InClaim to fame: Country music star; rose to prominence in the '80s alongside her mother, Naomi, as one half of music duo The Judds
Age: 48
Nana weighs in: "Wynonna Judd?! Mmmm! Oh my God! She's gonna have to lose some weight. I haven't seen her for a while but she doesn't look like a dancer. She looks like a...well she doesn't look like a dancer. I think she'll get through for a while. I love her voice. I think there's a country element that will keep her on for a while but unless she has a lot of ability that I don't know about...I can't believe she said yes."
Where will she place? 7th out of 11.

Zendaya Coleman

The New Dancing with the Stars Cast: A Nana Weighs InClaim to fame: Stars in the Disney Channel original series Shake It Up, in which she portrays a background dancer on an American Bandstand-type program set in Chicago
Age: 16
Nana weighs in: "Just looking at the Disney stars that have made it—Justin and Britney and all the other ones—they are very talented and very well trained. But they've gotten better as they've gotten older and their talent has developed. She'll probably do well but not win."
Where will she place? "Not knowing a damn thing about any of them..." 3rd out of 11.

D.L. Hughley

The New Dancing with the Stars Cast: A Nana Weighs InClaim to fame: Stand-up comedian; star of his own show The Hughleys which aired for four seasons; featured in Spike Lee's film "The Original Kings of Comedy"
Age: 49
Nana weighs in: "I don't know who she is."
Where will he place? 10th out of 11.

Andy Dick

The New Dancing with the Stars Cast: A Nana Weighs InClaim to fame: Comedian; actor; public trainwreck
Age: 47
Nana weighs in: "I am eating a salad and watching on HLN the trial of Jodi Arias, the girl that killed her Mormon boyfriend. It goes way back—it was 2008. It's terribly graphic but it's winter and I have nothing else to do, so it's interesting. I have no idea who [Andy Dick] is."
Where will he place? 11th out of 11.

Aly Raisman

The New Dancing with the Stars Cast: A Nana Weighs InClaim to fame: Brought home two gold medals in gymnastics at the 2012 Olympics; having nervous parents
Age: 18
Nana weighs in: "The gymnasts always do well because they're flexible. They know how to put one foot in front of the other. What was the name of the girl who won a couple seasons ago? She was pretty, very little—oh, well, they're all little—Shawn [A/N: Johnson]. She was very good. I would put it on this one to win, of the names you've given me thus far. Of course, now she'll probably come out and trip over her feet. "
Where will she place? 1st out of 11.

Victor Ortiz

The New Dancing with the Stars Cast: A Nana Weighs InClaim to fame:Welterweight Boxing Champion
Age: 26
Nana weighs in: "My dad would have known him; he listened to boxing every Friday night on the radio ‘cause ya didn't have TV. Boxers can move; they have to be quick on their feet. He might surprise ya. Even the big athletes blow your mind. He's a contender to win, at least."
Where will he place? 2nd out of 11.

Lisa Vanderpump

The New Dancing with the Stars Cast: A Nana Weighs InClaim to fame: Well-loved British cast member of Bravo's Real Housewives of Beverly Hills
Age: Allegedly 53 though when I gave her age to Nana I guessed "about 60."
Nana weighs in: "I'd think just because of the popularity of her show that she'd last for the beginning, but I can't believe someone in their 60s would last that long."
Where will he place? 8th out of 11.

Kellie Pickler

The New Dancing with the Stars Cast: A Nana Weighs InClaim to fame: Came in sixth on the fifth season of American Idol; wore a trash-tastic dress to prom
Age: 26
Nana weighs in:"She's from American Idol? There was another Kelly that won [A/N: Clarkson] but I don't know that name. She's about your age? If she'd taken dance with [your childhood ballet teacher], she'd know how to put one foot in front of the other. I think she'd be better than a lot of them. I wish I knew these people, Caity."
Where will he place? 4th out of 11.

Dorothy Hamill

The New Dancing with the Stars Cast: A Nana Weighs InClaim to fame: Brought home a gold medal in figure skating at the 1976 Olympics
Age: 56
Nana weighs in: "Dorothy Hamill?! Oh my God. How old is she? [A/N: 56] I think there's an age where you do things well and there's an age where you're kinda behind it. I don't think that she'll be a winner but, again, I think she'll get a lot of support and I think because of votes she'll stick around for a while. Some people will get support whether they're good or not just because of name recognition. Toward the end is when it really comes down to who's the best dancer."
Where will she place? 6th out of 11.

Ingo Rademacher

The New Dancing with the Stars Cast: A Nana Weighs InClaim to fame: Portrays "the charismatic Jasper 'Jax' Jacks" on ABC's General Hospital
Age: 41
Nana weighs in: "These are the soapies? I don't watch the soaps. I don't think he'll do very well. I think he'd be on Broadway or something rather than General Hospital if he had a lot of talent." Where will he place? 9th out of 11.

Jacoby Jones

The New Dancing with the Stars Cast: A Nana Weighs InClaim to fame: Wide receiver for 2013 Beyoncé Bowl champions the Baltimore Ravens
Age: 28
Nana weighs in: "They always surprise you, the football players. I don't know what it is. I think he might be a good dancer because he knows where to put his feet. Emmitt Smith was marvelous — I think he was football. I think this guy will have a lot of support because of the Baltimore Ravens."
Where will he place? 5th out of 11.


Nana's final predictions

With the caveat: "This is like making me pick the Oscar for ‘Best Picture' and I haven't seen any of the movies."

1st Aly Raisman
2nd Victor Ortiz
3rd Zendaya Coleman
4th Kellie Pickler
5th Jacoby Jones
6th Dorothy Hamill

7th Wynonna Judd
8th Lisa Vanderpump
9th Ingo Rademacher
10th D.L. Hughley
11th Andy Dick



Closing remarks

"I love you, hon. Bye-bye."


[All photos via Getty/image by Jim Cooke.]

Anti-Drink and Drive Message on Police Vehicles Inadvertently Encourages the Opposite

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Anti-Drink and Drive Message on Police Vehicles Inadvertently Encourages the Opposite

Authorities in Tasmania didn't see anything wrong with emblazoning an anti-drink-drive message across the side of their breath-testing vans.

That is, until someone bothered to open the door.

That's when "real mates don't let mates drink drive" suddenly became "real mates drink drive."

The police department instructed officers to remove the Mad magazine fold-in outtake from all vans by the end of week.

A department spokesman told Australia's ABC News it was up to the Road Safety Advisory Council to cover any expenses incurred since it was they were responsible for the flawed campaign.

[H/T: Arbroath, image via ABC News]

Student Alerts Principal After Catching Teacher on Camera Stealing from Backpacks; Principal Tells Student to Delete the Video

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Student Alerts Principal After Catching Teacher on Camera Stealing from Backpacks; Principal Tells Student to Delete the Video

A California high school student who hid in a locker to catch a thief who's been stealing stuff from her classmates' backpacks during Phys Ed was shocked to discover the perp was none other than her own teacher.

"After all the kids left she stayed in there and went through people's backpacks," Justine Betti said of the veteran educator who has been at Linden High School for 30 years. "I saw her take money and then I told people and nobody believed me."

Justine went back in the locker again, this time with two cell phones pointed at the scene of the crime.

"I didn't want to believe that she would do something like that because she was so nice, but then she did it," the teenager told News 10.

With proof in hand, Justine and a few fellow students went to alert the principal. "He said that he'll investigate it and he told us to delete the video but I had already sent it to my dad," she said.

Despite what appears to be an attempted cover-up — one that appears to have been entirely glossed over by the media thus far — the teacher was eventually placed on administrative leave, possibly after the video came to the attention of local authorities.

Both the school district and the San Joaquin County Sheriff's are said to be investigating the crime.

Students described the teacher as "great," and even Justine said she had a hard time turning her in. "She was so nice," she said. "Like I saw it and I would never believe it."

[screengrab via KXTV]

Fifth Grader Who Faces Expulsion for Bringing Marijuana to School Says He Stole It from His Dad to Help Him Quit

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Fifth Grader Who Faces Expulsion for Bringing Marijuana to School Says He Stole It from His Dad to Help Him Quit

A fifth grader from Suffolk, Virginia, could be expelled from school after he brought in some marijuana last week to prevent his father from using it.

Local police say the Driver Elementary student showed the pot to his teacher and explained that he stole it from his dad's truck to help him kick the habit.

The kid's mother was called to the school and heard the explanation as well.

Suffolk Public Schools official Bethanne Bradshaw told WAVY that the school's zero tolerance policy required that the student be recommended for expulsion.

The student has been suspended pending his expulsion hearing, which has been set for next Friday. Extenuating circumstances will be considered, according to a school spokesperson.

"Policy is policy, but I do think they need to check into the situation more," former teacher Jonathan Lewis told NewsChannel 3. "I mean who knows what the child's homelife is like and what kind of exposure they're getting besides drugs."

[screengrab via NewsChannel 3]

Does This Photo of Kim Jong Un's Brother Wearing a Dennis Rodman Jersey In The 90s Herald a New Era of World Peace? (UPDATE)

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Does This Photo of Kim Jong Un's Brother Wearing a Dennis Rodman Jersey In The 90s Herald a New Era of World Peace? (UPDATE)The world scratched its head yesterday when it learned that former Chicago Bulls star Dennis Rodman is in North Korea, spreading a message of world peace via extreme facial piercings and basketball just days after North Korea's latest nuclear test. (And also filming an HBO documentary with the Harlem Globetrotters and VICE.) But the choice of Rodman actually seems inspired if you consider this photo of a young Kim Jong Un Kim Jong-Chul, Kim Jong Un's younger brother, glowering at the camera in Rodman's number 91 Bulls jersey from his days at a Swiss boarding school. The Kim clan are noted basketball fanatics, and all apparently a fondness for the Rodman-era Bulls, reportedly.

Rodman's agent claims he'll have an audience with Kim Jong Un himself. Maybe seeing Rodman in the flesh will inspire in Kim such a powerful nostalgia those innocent days in the 90s, when he may have been just one of millions of snot-nosed teens in Rodman jerseys around the world, that he'll start weeping and quit being Supreme Leader to join Rodman on a worldwide series of one-on-one exhibition games.

Update: This article originally identified the kid in the picture as Kim Jong Un. It's actually Kim Jong Un's younger brother, Kim Jong-Chul. The photo was reported in 2009 to be Kim Jong Un but later reporters pointed out the error.


No, Marilyn Musgrave Has Not Changed Her Mind About Gay Marriage

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No, Marilyn Musgrave Has Not Changed Her Mind About Gay Marriage While over 100 prominent Republicans—including several Bush Romney advisors, two current U.S. representatives, and Meg Whitman—have signed an amicus brief backing the constitutionality of gay marriage, Marilyn Musgrave has not changed her mind. And she wants you to know that.

Earlier today, The New York Times reported that the former Colorado congresswoman had signed the brief supporting gay marriage. Shocking, because Musgrave had signed constitutional amendments banning gay marriage in 2003, 2004, and 2006. It was her chief position, and a woman who never officially conceded her defeat in 2008 to Democrat Betsy Markey, does not give up.

Understandably, Musgrave was as surprised as anyone to read this news. Actually, the woman was downright befuddled. She spoke to FOX31 in Denver:

I'm very befuddled by this story. There's absolutely no truth to that. I'm reading it thinking, ‘what in the world?' I wasn't even aware of it. I have not changed my position. I'm trying to imagine where anyone would get that information and I can't figure it out.

But, as it turns out, Musgrave had never signed the amicus at all. Her district director signed it, for herself meaning she is still just as opposed to same-sex marriage as ever. Roger that.

[New York Magazine, image via Getty]

Yosemite Junior Ranger Pens Adorable-As-All-Get-Out Letter to Park Officials Apologizing for Accidentally Bringing Home Two Sticks

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Yosemite Junior Ranger Pens Adorable-As-All-Get-Out Letter to Park Officials Apologizing for Accidentally Bringing Home Two Sticks

Little Evie recently returned home from a trip to Yosemite National Park and, much to her horror, she soon discovered that she had accidentally removed two sticks from their natural habitat.

Yosemite Junior Ranger Pens Adorable-As-All-Get-Out Letter to Park Officials Apologizing for Accidentally Bringing Home Two Sticks

Without a moment to spare, the Junior Ranger quickly stuffed the sticks in an envelope and wrote a heartfelt letter of apology to the park for her inadvertent violation of park rules.

Dear Park Rangers, I am a Yosemite Junior Ranger. I went to Yosemite recently and accidentally brought home two sticks. I know I'm not supposed to take things from the park, so I am sending them back. Please put them in nature.

Thank you, Evie.

The park ranger who received the letter says he sent Evie and extra Junior Ranger badge, along with a note commending her on her dedication to the preservation of nature.

For the record, it was the ranger who taped the sticks to the letter, not Evie. "They'll end up in nature," he says. "I promise!"

[image via Reddit]

Why Wal-Mart Should Be Pushing for Socialism

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Why Wal-Mart Should Be Pushing for SocialismWal-Mart is widely despised by left wingers for reasons both philosophical and aesthetic. The company, in turn—though sometimes pushing for "green" improvements and other traditionally liberal notions that will help the Wal-Mart bottom line—is a heavy Republican donor and notorious union-buster, and generally behaves in the corporatist, center-right way that one would expect of one of America's largest corporations.

This is not about whether or not we agree with Wal-Mart's political persuasion. It is about the fact that it doesn't make sense. If there is any company out there that should throw its financial and political clout behind socialism, it is Wal-Mart.

Why is Wal-Mart so big in the first place? What is the business model that pulled in $447 billion in annual revenue? It is populism—corporate populism. Wal-Mart's customers are everyone. And, in America, that means that Wal-Mart's customers are distinctly not wealthy. Wal-Mart got so big by driving prices down as far as they could possibly go, and becoming a one-stop shop for poorer Americans to save money on everything. Wal-Mart is not about the best quality, or the best selection; it is about selling cheap things to people for whom every dollar is precious.

This month, Wal-Mart executives fretted in an internal memo about slow sales, thanks to higher payroll taxes on their financially strapped customers, and a weak economy in general. In the WSJ today, Rich Karlgaard argues that the "political left" should not applaud Wal-Mart's hard times, because what they really signal are hard times for the retailer's customers—the middle and lower classes of America.

He's right. But the implications of this are not simply that liberals should cheer Wal-Mart on. The real implications are that Wal-Mart should be doing everything it can to stabilize and enrich the socioeconomic position of its customer base. The vast inequality that plagues America is not Wal-Mart's friend. The fact that the wealth gains of recent decades have flowed overwhelmingly to the very rich means that that money is not in the pockets of Wal-Mart shoppers. If Wal-Mart, the world's largest private employer, wants to put together a rational political platform for the long-term good of itself and its customers, that platform should resemble socialism much more than it would resemble anything coming out of the Republican party. Consider:

  • Wages—increasing the wages of the poorest workers is like funneling money directly into Wal-Mart's coffers, since poorer people are much more likely to actually spend their monetary gains on day to day items, rather than simply banking or investing them. The company showed admirable self-awareness on this issue in 2005, when its CEO advocated raising the minimum wage. It's being more tentative about the current minimum wage hike proposal, but it shouldn't be. As retailer of choice for low-wage America, Wal-Mart should constantly be pushing to raise wages at the bottom of the pay scale. (Even if this means raising the wages of its own employees, Wal-Mart can take heart in the fact that they are so poor that they'll spend much of that money at Wal-Mart.)
  • Health care—Wal-Mart has been widely criticized for costing taxpayers millions of dollars in public subsidies, which must be paid to cover the basic needs of low-paid Wal-Mart employees. Do not expect any company with Wal-Mart's business model to offer its employees universal health care coverage any time soon. The simple logic of a national "single payer" healthcare system are obvious; especially for a huge corporation like Wal-Mart, which could cross the issue of employee health care off its list of concerns in one fell swoop. Wal-Mart has more U.S. employees than any other company. It's not going to keep them healthy itself. It should be lobbying hard for the government to do so.
  • The tax system—Simply put, the more progressive our system of taxation is, the better it is for Wal-Mart; the more regressive the system is, the more money it takes out of the pockets of Wal-Mart customers, and out of the corporate bottom line. The current horrible month the company's having is attributable largely to the recent increase in the payroll tax, the most regressive tax there is. In our political system, we can redistribute wealth via taxation however we want. Since the Reagan era, our policies have been concentrating wealth in the hands of the already wealthy. With the right amount of political will, we can just as easily move some of that wealth back down the ladder, into the hands of those who actually need it most—and who will actually spend it, at Wal-Mart. Policies that reduce wealth and income inequality serve ultimately to bring more money into Wal-Mart. The company should be America's foremost advocate of progressive taxation.
High unemployment among the middle and lower class? It disproportionately hurts Wal-Mart. Skyrocketing food prices? It disproportionately hurts Wal-Mart. Government support for the lower classes—reducing economic inequality, providing health care, subsidizing food and other basic needs—all disproportionately help Wal-Mart. In the long run, a stable working class with real buying power is the very best thing that Wal-Mart could ever hope for.

It's called socialism, Wal-Mart. Embrace it. Help the poor. Help the majority. Help your customers. Help yourself.

[Image by Devin Rochford.]

Here Is a Taylor Swift Song Remixed with a Goat Yelling Like a Human

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Two weeks ago, we had yet to understand how two minutes of goats yelling like humans would inextricably shake the foundations of our very being. And now we have an absolutely perfect 25-second remix of Taylor Swift's "I Knew You Were Trouble," interjected with those very same goats. (There's another remix floating around too, but this remix is far better.)

Here's a transcription:

I knew you were trouble when you walked in
So shame on me now
Flew me to places I'd never been
Now I'm lying on the cold hard ground
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-RRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Ooh
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-RRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Trouble
Trouble
Trouble

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-RRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Uh
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-RRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Uh
Trouble

Pure poetry.

How America's Racial Wealth Gap Perpetuates Itself

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How America's Racial Wealth Gap Perpetuates ItselfA 2009 survey showed that the median white family in American had twenty times more wealth than the median black family. How can this be, so many years after the civil rights movement? The answer, according to a new study: black people have been systematically screwed by home ownership.

Well, and a lot of other things, of course. But this fascinating and comprehensive study on the racial wealth gap by Brandeis University's Institute on Assets and Social Policy finds that home ownership is the single largest factor in driving racial wealth inequality.

The study followed 1,700 families for 25 years, starting in 1984. During that time, "the total wealth gap between white and African-American families nearly triples, increasing from $85,000 in 1984 to $236,500 in 2009." (This is insane.) The contributing factors to this wealth gap were as follows:

Among households with positive wealth growth during the 25-year study period, as shown in Figure 2, the number of years of homeownership accounts for 27 percent of the difference in relative wealth growth between white and African-American families, the largest portion of the growing wealth gap. The second largest share of the increase, accounting for 20 percent, is average family income. Highly educated households correlate strongly with larger wealth portfolios, but similar college degrees produce more wealth for whites, contributing 5 percent of the proportional increase in the racial wealth gap. Inheritance and financial support from family combine for another 5 percent of the increasing gap. How much wealth a family started out with in 1984 also predicts a portion (3 percent) of family wealth 25 years later.

How America's Racial Wealth Gap Perpetuates ItselfBlack people tend to buy houses later in life; therefore, their houses do not increase in value as much. They also tend to live in black neighborhoods, where real estate values are lower, since white people don't want to buy there. Black people also inherit far less money, and they are not able to build wealth through marriage as easily as white people. This much, by itself, adds up to a self-perpetuating system in which whites steadily increase their own wealth, while black families mostly cannot.

Add in poorer education, and fewer employment opportunities, and institutional racism, and you have a very, very steep hole for black families collectively to climb out of. And it will take a very, very massive public investment to change it.

[The full study. Photo: AP]

The NRA Wants to Keep Gun Records Secret From Everyone Except the NRA

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The NRA Wants to Keep Gun Records Secret From Everyone Except the NRALegislators and gun rights advocates get really angry whenever nosy reporters try to use public records laws to find out who's packing heat. When the Westchester Journal News published an online map of local residents with handgun licenses last year, the paper was excoriated by the NRA and its allies; it eventually took the map down. When Gawker published a similar list—without addresses—of New York City handgun permit-holders last month, we were attacked by Fox News and received multiple death threats. And when the editor of the North Carolina Cherokee Scout dared to request—not publish, but merely request—similar data from his local sheriff, he was forced to apologize and resign; he plans to leave the state entirely.

All of which makes it more surprising that, according to a Gawker search of public records, gun-rights groups—including the National Rifle Association—have been accessing the same state gun-permit data for years to help their fundraising and recruitment efforts.

States across the nation have been rushing to change their gun laws to make gun permit information private, moves that have been furiously stoked by the NRA, which argues that the media has "no business possessing personal information" about gun owners. New York made gun information private earlier this year. Last week, Maine's governor signed an "emergency bill" shielding the identity of gun licensees after the Bangor Daily News—which was in the middle of a two-year investigation of domestic violence and drug abuse—backed down from a public records request for gun permit data. (Republican legislators had called an "emergency press conference" to shame the newspaper into submission.)

In Virginia, state lawmakers passed a bill to seal its gun permit records from public inspection. North Carolina may soon follow suit. A freshman lawmaker in Tennessee is pushing a similar bill in his statehouse.

But while the NRA has lately become one of the harshest critics of fourth estate access gun permit data—it has said "personal information regarding [permit] holders serves no public interest and only exposes law-abiding citizens to potential criminal acts" and places them at "risk to criminals who may target their home to steal firearms"—the group holds itself to a very different standard.

When Tennessee first tried to make gun records private in 2009, the effort died "amid fears that political groups and gun advocates would no longer be able to access addresses of handgun carry permit holders to add to their mailing list soliciting contributions," according to the Associated Press.

Indeed, in a survey of public records requests filed in 7 of the states that make (or formerly made) gun records public (we're still waiting on answers from 9 more), Gawker found multiple examples of the NRA and other conservative, "pro-gun" partisans seeking the lists for their own political and fundraising gain.

In 2009, for example, a North Carolina firm called Preferred Communications emailed the Virginia State Police to find out how much it could pay to buy a list of the state's gun permit holders. It was requesting the information on behalf of the NRA:

From: Michele Wood [xxxx@prefcom.net]
Sent: Mon 7/6/2009 11:15 AM
To: Tate, Donna K.
Subject: Concealed Weapons Permits 2008-2009 – VA

My name is Michelle Wood and I work for a company called Preferred Communications. I am inquiring on behalf of the National Rifle Association about your Concealed Weapons Permits. Do you allow these names on these Permits to be purchased?

Can you please let me know if you offer 2008 and/or 2009 names?
Can you please let me know the cost?
Can you please let me know the address to send the check to and also whom to make it payable to?
Can the names be sent via mail on a CD and is there an additional fee for the CD?

Another person who asked Virginia for gun records—though just for statistical data, rather than the actual names—was Robert Pew, a senior researcher for the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action. Pro-gun groups like the Virginia Gun Owners Coalition, the Virginia Citizens Defense League, and the Virginia Conservative Action PAC put in requests for the full names and addresses of permit holders. So did Rep. J. Randy Forbes, a Republican congressman from Virginia who received in "A" rating from the NRA. The individual snooping into gun owners' private lives on behalf of the Virginia Conservative Action PAC was Dave Dziok, who served as spokesman for Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.).

In Tennessee, where the state's Department of Safety and Homeland Security maintains a database of gun permit owners, requesters have included the Tennessee Senate Group Republican Caucus and Self Defense Solutions, an NRA-certified firearm "training academy."

Similar requests from gun rights groups or conservative activists and political operatives turned up in Maine, Kentucky, and Louisiana. (In all the states we got data for, the requesters also included news outlets, lawyers, academics, voter targeting firms, marketing companies, and opposition researchers.)

One popular requester, who sought gun permit owners' names in at least four states, was a firm called Catalist, LLC-a private, D.C.-based firm that licenses its voter database to "Democratic and progressive" organizations. Barack Obama used it in 2008.

Few of the requesters we identified agreed to speak on-the-record, name their clients, or explain why they were so interested in obtaining the names and addresses of licensed gun owners. Most also declined to explain how the information—when they successfully obtained it from the government—was ultimately used.

Neither Andrew Arulanandam, the NRA's public affairs director, nor Stephanie Samford—the NRA spokeswoman who told the AP reporters have "no business" seeking gun owners' information—replied to our emails asking why the NRA had sought to obtain gun permit owners' names.

Privacy and gun advocates have commonly said that releasing gun owners' information invades their privacy, could endanger their safety and makes them easy targets for harassment by law enforcement and criminals (which seems like a strange argument coming from the people who—dubiously—say owning a gun makes you safer from criminals, but whatever).

On the flipside, transparency advocates have argued that keeping records open actually protects gun ownership rights, by giving the public a way to check if police and sheriffs are issuing gun permits fairly.

Aaron Mackey, an attorney with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said the group estimates almost a dozen states that have introduced or passed some legislation to restrict access since the Journal News published its gun permit data.

He says the backlash is "confusing" two separate issues.

"The first is the right to access information," Mackey said. "The second is editorial propriety—whether it's proper to publish information in the way the Journal News did and whether that's responsible. Perhaps we should have a conversation about whether it's responsible, but that's a different question."

While you ponder that, here's a list of everyone who has requested private information about gun permit-holders in six states since 2003:

Arkansas
Steve Jones, Arkansas Carry (gun advocacy nonprofit)
Chad Day, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (journalist)
Andrew DeMillo, Associated Press (journalist)
Joseph Quinn Sanders, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (journalist)
Aaron Nobel, Heavy, Inc. (journalist)
Joe Hudak, Maumelle, AR

Virginia
Federation of American Scientists
Nick Kramer, Catalist LLC (political targeting firm)
Court Ventures (data brokerage firm; subsidiary of Experian)
Michele Wood, Preferred Communications (direct marketing firm; on behalf of NRA)
Paul K. Martin, Atlantic List Company (direct marketing firm)
Larry Zilliox, Investigative Research Specialists (private investigations and opposition research)
Rep. J. Randy Forbes (R-Va.)
Dave Dziok, Virginia Conservative Action PAC (political action committee)
Tim Johnson, (legislative assistant for Republican Del. Scott Lingamfelter, who won a "Civil Rights Defense" award from the NRA)
Michael Rentiers, Republican Party of Virginia
Aaron Larrimore, Democratic Party of Virginia
Mike McHugh, Virginia Gun Owners Coalition
Jim Snyder, Virginia Citizens Defense League
Jim Kadison, Virginia Citizens Defense League
George Pettit, Virginia Citizens Defense League

Joe Waldren, Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms
Gordon Hickey, Richmond Times-Dispatch (journalist)
Kyung Lah, CNN (journalist)
Style Weekly (alt weekly magazine)
Nicole Hendrix (criminal justice professor at Radford University)
Richard R. Harris
Louis Gifford
Thomas Miller
Clyde E. Clements, Lynchburg, VA
Ian B. Littlejohn, Dumfries, VA
TJ Parmele, Alexandria, VA
John M. Snyder, Alexandira, VA
Eric Payne, Richmond, VA
David Brgigman, Keezletown, VA
Cory Hutcheson, Lansing, MI
Judith Brown, Pittsburgh, PA

Tennessee
Shawn Harmon, E-Merges.com (data brokerage firm)
Jenny Farmer, Cyragon (political targeting firm)
Data Marketing Network (marketing firm)
Stephen Lindsey, Thomas Lindsey Group (political consulting firm)
Jordan Young, Tennessee Senate Group Republican Caucus
Don Charest, Self Defense Solutions (NRA-certified firearm training academy)
Walter Muskop, Tennessean (journalist)
Grant Smith, Commercial Appeal (journalist)
Judy Walton, Chattanooga Times Free Press (journalist)
Phil Williams, WTVF-TV (journalist)
Kim Barker, ProPublica (journalist)
Aaron Nobel, Heavy Inc. (journalist)
Beverly Knight
Lance Williams

Maine
Nick Kramer, Catalist LLC (political targeting firm)
Shawn Harmon, E-Merges.com (data brokerage firm)
Anne Horrigan, E-Merges.com (data brokerage firm)
Susan Young, Bangor Daily News (journalist)
Mark Anderson, Downeast Energy (utility company)
Celebration Connect

Kentucky
Nick Kramer, Catalist LLC (political targeting firm)

Louisiana
Nick Kramer, Catalist LLC (political targeting firm)
Shawn Harmon, E-Merges.com (data brokerage firm)
Andrew Biemer (Republican operative)
Bombet and Associates (private investigators)
Henninger Media Services (media post-production company)
David Armstrong (social sciences professor at McNeese State University)
Joseph Kutch (attorney)
Perry Stephens, WAFB (journalist)
The Baton-Rouge Advocate (newspaper)
William King
Ray Lucas
Travis Kelm
Derek Leroy McSmith
Terry Vallery
Thomas Gilmore

Michigan
Linda Friedland, Cummings, McClorey, Davis & Acho, PLC (attorney)

Sergio Hernandez, a former Gawker intern, is a reporter based in New York City. He can be reached at sergio@cerealcommas.com.

[Image by Jim Cooke]

Finally, Fashion's Night Out Is Over

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Finally, Fashion's Night Out Is Over After a very expensive four-year run, Fashion's Night Out is over (in the U.S.). Tastefully launched during the peak of the 2009 recession, FNO was initiated to encourage spending by setting up a DJ booth in a Victoria's Secret, giving you a glass of bad champagne, and steering you towards some designer-y clothes. By last year, FNO had spread to over 500 cities in the U.S. and 30 internationally.

The event's sponsors—Vogue (Anna Wintour specifically), the Council of Fashion Designers of America, and NYC & Co.—have canceled FNO in the U.S. for 2013. They note this will allow designs to focus their budgets on specific projects, rather than shelling out a pretty penny to host the event.

It was likely that FNO never brought back that much cash to the designers. According to Steven Kolb, chief executive officer of the CFDA:

"I don't think the success of it was measured only by numbers or money, but was really about engagement.…Everyone feels we had a great four years."

Event-goers (your cousin who just started at NYU, everyone in New Jersey), considered the evening more like a "big party" or a fashion magazine's idea of a very pricy street festival. As Women's Wear Daily mentions, it was also a chance to gawp at celebrities, "from Victoria Beckham to the Blue Man Group."

Never fear, FNO has not stalled its expansion. Fashion Night Out will launch in Thailand and Ukraine this year, in case you're heading there for Vacations, by Juicy Couture.

[Women's Wear Daily, image via Getty]


This Makeshift Cannon Was Used to Fire Marijuana Packets Across the Mexicali Border

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This Makeshift Cannon Was Used to Fire Marijuana Packets Across the Mexicali Border

A crude but powerful homemade cannon consisting of a plastic pipe, a metal tank, and an old car engine, was confiscated by authorities in the Mexican border city of Mexicali last week.

Police told Televisa they believe the device was used to launch packets of marijuana over the border fence into California.

The so-called "marijuana cannon" was capable of hurling pot-packed cylinders weighing as much as 30 pounds, according to the police report.

Over two dozen cans of marijuana were discovered by Customs and Border Protection agents near the Colorado River in Yuma, Arizona, in December of last year.

Officials said a similar pneumatic-powered apparatus was used to fire the cans from about 500 feet away.

[H/T: LAist, photo via AP]

Rachel McAdams and Michael Sheen Split; In Other News, They Were Once Dating

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Rachel McAdams and Michael Sheen Split; In Other News, They Were Once Dating Well it started romantically: Rachel McAdams and Michael Sheen not only met in the city of love, but they met on the set of a movie about love taking place in the city of love. Sigh, l'amour.

But then these things end and Midnight in Paris co-stars McAdams and Sheen are nothing more than single pretty famous people.

No news about the reason for the split, but the pair have discussed the challenges of a long-distance relationship. McAdams lives in her native Toronto, while Sheen splits his time between his native Wales and Los Angeles. Sheen also has spoken out about some hurtful backlash from haters about how he got to date such a pretty lady, causing him to quit Twitter.

McAdams next project is About Time, which ostensibly involves a time-traveling love interest. Michael Sheen will appear next in the Tina Fey-Paul Rudd vehicle Admission. We're sure they're both going to do well and continue to meet handsome significant others while making movies about meeting handsome significant others.

Dog Shoots Owner in the Leg; Police Rule the Shooting 'Accidental'

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Dog Shoots Owner in the Leg; Police Rule the Shooting 'Accidental'

Police in Florida say they have no plans to arrest a dog who shot his owner in the leg, having determined that the shooting was accidental.

35-year-old Gregory Dale Lanier of Frostproof was driving his pickup truck along State Road 17 North, when his dog kicked a 9mm pistol that was on the floor, causing it to discharge.

Lanier, who said he thought the gun wasn't loaded, was struck in the leg. He told police he "heard boom, saw smoke and felt a burning in his leg."

Sebring Police Cmdr. Steve Carr said Lanier was not seriously injured.

Carr also noted that he had never come across a case like this before, but somehow neglected to work in something about every dog having their day.

[image via Shutterstock]

Are There Atoms of Abraham Lincoln in My Body Right Now?

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Are There Atoms of Abraham Lincoln in My Body Right Now?The time has come for "Hey, Science," our relentlessly scientific weekly feature in which we have your most provocative and/ or dumb scientific questions answered by real live scientists (or related experts). No question is too smart for us to tackle, quite unfortunately. This week, scientists ponder the question: Are there atoms of Abe Lincoln in my body right now??

THE QUESTION: Body image-obsessed reader Aaron asks, "Are there any atoms in my body that used to belong to Abe Lincoln? What about Hitler?" In other words, do particles of matter on earth get mixed so well by natural processes that when we die, our particles are evenly distributed over the whole world, a little bit everywhere? Are we made of everyone?

Greg Fiete, professor of physics, University of Texas:

Probably stuff (dead skin, breathed air) that ends up in air is well-mixed over the Earth, but stuff under the ground less so (at least on a 100 year time-scale).

Leo Kadanoff, professor of physics and math, University of Chicago:

It depends. If you get cremated and the ashes get spread around, pretty soon you are everywhere. If you are in a stout coffin in a solid mausoleum you won't start to get around 'til the coffin and mausoleum begin to leak. [Ed.: Well... yes.]

Leonard Brand, professor of biology and paleontology, Loma Linda University:

I suspect that many atoms get distributed around quite thoroughly. But the real answer to the question is that it is a matter of probability. It is possible that our bodies have atoms from many different animals and persons from Adam to Mother Teresa, but what is the probability of it? How many atoms are in our earth compared with how many atoms are in a person? How many persons have lived during earth history? With figures like that a statistician could calculate the probability that I have some atoms that were a part of Queen Victoria.

The American Chemical Society posted our question to their internal message board, and it drew this reply from the chemist Bryan Balazs: "I remember doing an exercise in undergraduate P-Chem in the early 1980s in which we were asked to calculate the chances that a breath that we took would contain a molecule (oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, it didn't matter) of "Caesar's last breath". The answer turned out to be about 50%, so for every few breaths you take, you have a reasonable chance of breathing in a part of "Caesar's last breath". We were asked to ignore effects of material transport, atmospheric convection, chemical reactions, etc., which would be a big part of the answer to the original question posed."

Another scientist referred us to this piece from Marquette Magazine (which seems to contradict the above answer somewhat, but which also seems more statistically well grounded) in which biology professor Martin St. Maurice speculated that these things are possible, but unlikely: "What are the chances that an atom of oxygen you just breathed was once a small part of Julius Caesar? We can estimate approximately 67,500,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms of oxygen on earth and 6,350,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms of carbon (that's a lot of zeros). A quick calculation, loaded with assumptions, reveals that even if we sample completely different atoms of oxygen with every breath of life, we sample at most 0.0000000001 percent of all the oxygen atoms on earth over an 80-year lifespan." (He says the chances of sharing a carbon atom are better, but still "extremely slim.")

THE VERDICT: Are there any atoms of Abraham Lincoln in your body right now? Possibly, but the probability seems low (lower if the person was buried, or died recently). Are there any atoms that once belonged to some real interesting people and probably also some dinosaurs in your body right now? You bet!

Previously
Can Huge Man-Made Lakes Fix Our Rising Sea Levels?
Can Animals Be Mentally Ill?
Can Blood Transfusions Cure HIV?
When Can We Go Live on the Moon?
Can You Eat Your Own Poop?

[Do you have a question for "Hey, Science?" Email me. Image by Jim Cooke.]

Connecticut Man Caught Red-Handed After Bungled Bank Robbery Flashes Photographer a Priceless Smile

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Connecticut Man Caught Red-Handed After Bungled Bank Robbery Flashes Photographer a Priceless Smile

It took police in New London, Connecticut, all of six minutes to apprehend 35-year-old Jerry Thompson after he allegedly robbed a Citizens Bank located one block away from police headquarters.

Connecticut Man Caught Red-Handed After Bungled Bank Robbery Flashes Photographer a Priceless Smile

A witness to the crime told police he saw Thompson run out of the bank when a red dye pack that was hidden within the stolen loot suddenly exploded, scattering dye-stained bills all over the street.

Officers found Thompson a few minutes later inside a nearby train station and arrested him without incident.

The Hartford resident was taken to a local hospital to be treated for minor injuries sustained during the dye pack eruption.

Most of the money that was ejected from Thompson's pocket was later recovered.

[photos via Tim Martin/The Day]

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