On Sunday, paramedics took seven football fans to the hospital after lightning struck a parking lot outside of Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

According to the NY Daily News, the strike was called in to emergency services at 4:10 p.m., shortly after the Tampa Buccaneers played against the Green Bay Packers and as fans were still leaving the stadium.

#BREAKING: Tampa Fire Rescue responding to a possible 5-7 people struck by lightning at Raymond James Stadium. pic.twitter.com/OLB7S4cA0O

— ABC Action News (@abcactionnews) December 21, 2014

A Tampa Fire Department spokesperson told the Associated Press that none of those injured appeared to have been directly struck by lightning, but the bolt did "kick up rocks and gravel and knock a few people down."

[Image via AP Images]

Everyone who's ever gone through a yellow light, like a normal person, only for it to turn red just as you exit the intersection and then you see a giant flash pop up so you instinctively slam on the brakes in the desperate hope that you won't get a ticket, knows that this system just doesn't work. And now there's proof.

Chicago's become infamous for being home to the nation's largest network of the cursed cameras, with 350 in total doing the devil's work throughout the city's intersections. Mayor Rahm Emanuel's been a big booster of them as well, with studies posted to the city's website touting the program, according to the Chicago Sun-Times:

Data posted to the city's website indicate that crashes at red-light camera intersections decreased 33 percent between 2005 and 2012, with a 22 percent drop in crashes that resulted in serious injury. The city's data also indicate rear-end crashes decreased 7 percent at those intersections during that period.

But an independent study by the Chicago Tribune (subscription required) found that not only were the city's numbers about red light safety grossly exaggerated, it turns out that in many situations, red light cameras actually increased by 22% the number of serious injuries at intersections.

And what's worse, as Ars Technica notes, there was no proof that the cameras actually increased safety at all.

But there was plenty of proof that they generated money for the city, to the tune of $500,000,000 since 2002.

(Oh, and definitely, definitely, definitely, pay no attention to the fact that another study found that 13,000 drivers were charged with violating a red light at an intersection when they'd done nothing wrong at all.)

To really tie the whole thing together, just to put it all nice and pretty with a bow on it, we should remember that Redflex, the company that installed the cameras, won the bid for the program by ponying up about $600,000 in bribes.

Red light cameras are a dangerous scam, a symbol of everything wrong in the world, and they must be stopped.

Photo credit: Shutterstock

Axe body spray's new White Label line is targeting a more mature and refined class of virgins. "White Label products aim to help make men seem famous with such unusual fragrance notes as praline, star fruit, moss, fig and ginger."

The developer of Glorious Leader!, a retro video game starring North Korean despot Kim Jong-un as a heavily armed, unicorn-riding superhero, is stoically moving forward with his game in spite of the explosion of unpaid publicity it's gained from the Sony Pictures hack.

Although Sony's Seth Rogen/James Franco flick The Interview has absorbed the brunt of the free media attention generated by hackers who apparently want the film scuttled (no one wanted to see it before Sony and major theater chains said they couldn't, but now it couldn't be hotter), Glorious Leader! was hit with some of the collateral impact.

And now, with the eyes of a world that had never heard of their game upon them, developer Jeff Miller of Moneyhorse Games has announced he'll bravely finish Glorious Leader!, even though he hasn't been threatened by hackers or the North Korean government, and even though the residual Interview buzz means someone might actually buy it.

He's even adding a level a game set on the Sony backlot, though that only risks generating additional attention and funding for the game.

"We want the game to be a topical as possible," Miller told the AP, adding that he isn't afraid of backlash from the DPRK because the game makes Kim Jong-un "look totally awesome."

At great personal risk to himself, he's also put Glorious Leader! on Kickstarter, aiming to raise $55,000.

Never back down, America. Never surrender in the face of sudden good fortune.

[h/t Daily Dot, Photo: Moneyhorse Games]

Legendary rock singer Joe Cocker has died from complications of lung cancer. He was 70.

Perhaps best known for his cover of the Beatles' "With a Little Help from My Friends," Cocker's career spanned more than 40 years. He won both an Academy Award and a Grammy, and in 2007 was awarded an OBE at Buckingham Palace. His last album, Fire it Up, was released in 2012.

"Hugely talented, a true star, but a kind and humble man who loved to perform." Cocker's agent Barrie Marshall told the BBC after confirming the singer's death. "Anyone who ever saw him live will never forget him.

[Image via AP]

Actor James Woods took to Twitter Sunday evening to vent about the killing of two New York City police officers by Ismaaiyl Brinsley. He apparently blames the Rev. Al Shaprton, tweeting,"This disgusting pig is DIRECTLY responsible for the murder of two good policemen. No discussion," before eventually deleting the tweet.

And while Woods thought better of the tweet embedded above, he continued to tweet about Sharpton, calling him a "race pimp" and using the hashtag, #PigSharpton.

"I'm putting wings on pigs today" - Cop assassin Ismaaiyl Brinsley. Is Race Pimp Sharpton eating caviar this morning? pic.twitter.com/Szg7QfP7Cx

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) December 21, 2014

Paul/Sharpton pic just creepy on all levels, and I liked the fatter, greasier #PigSharpton better... pic.twitter.com/0Up02ecplI

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) December 22, 2014

Woods had been inactive on his Twitter account since September, when he claimed he was signing off the platform for good:

You either recognize the Obama catastrophe or you don't. Hopefully my time on Twitter helped some of you finally see the light. Goodbye, All

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) September 19, 2014

He remerged over weekend to tweet and retweet about the killing of Wenjin Liu and Rafael Ramos in Brooklyn this past Saturday, and his timeline of the past 24 hours is a smattering of pro-cop, anti-Sharpton, anti-de Blasio rhetoric and photos.

New Hashtag: #TurnYourBack EVERY time DeBlasio speaks, EVERY Police Officer in sight should turn his/her back. Especially at Cops' funerals

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) December 21, 2014

#BlueLivesMatter #TurnYourBack on #RaceHucksters

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) December 21, 2014

Imagine if the entire #NYPD came down with the #BlueFlu until #DeBlasio was forced to resign. #TurnYourBack #DeBlasioResign

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) December 21, 2014

Never felt more certain that the Second Amendment is a necessity to protect the Bill of Rights from tyranny.

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) December 21, 2014

pic.twitter.com/i59TAEuwIt

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) December 22, 2014

[H/T Daily Mail // Image via AP]

Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner released this statement today regarding Sabrina Rubin Erdely's now-discredited story about an alleged gang rape at UVa: "We have asked the Columbia Journalism School to conduct an independent review of the editorial process that led to the publication of this story."

Six months after his death, Casey Kasem has finally been buried in Norway.

Following a truly odd and tragic saga, featuring meat throwing; an investigation into possible elder abuse committed by Kasem's wife, Jean; Jean stealing Kasem's body; Jean hiding Kasem's body; restraining orders in an attempt to prevent Jean from hiding Kasem's body; etc., TMZ reports Kasem was buried in Norway on Tuesday:

We've learned the famed DJ was buried last Tuesday at the Vestre Gravlund, one of the largest cemeteries in Norway. We're told there was a small ceremony ... we don't know if Jean was there but we're told his kids were not. Casey's children didn't know he was even buried until Monday.

TMZ notes that this will make it impossible for L.A. authorities to determine whether Kasem's bed sores contributed to his death in the ongoing elder abuse investigation filed by Kasem's children against Jean.

[image via Getty]

Today, District Attorney John Chisholm said former Milwaukee police officer Christopher Manney would not be charged in the shooting of Dontre Hamilton. On April 30, Manney shot Hamilton, who was unarmed, 14 times during an incident at Red Arrow Park in downtown Milwaukee.

In a report released to the public, Chisholm wrote, "[B]ased on all the evidence and analysis presented in this report, I come to the conclusion that Officer Manney's use of force in this incident was justified self-defense and that defense cannot be reasonably overcome to establish a basis to charge Officer Manney with a crime."

But despite Chisholm's belief that self-defense was "justified," the motivation for Hamilton's killing is much less clear.

On April 30, two officers were dispatched to Red Arrow Park where Hamilton was sleeping. The initial complaint, which was called in by an employee at a nearby Starbucks, was handled without any physical confrontation. Ten minutes later—around 1:52 p.m.—the same officers are again dispatched to check on Hamilton, and handle the call without dispute. The two officers decided Hamilton had done nothing wrong or illegal.

Manney later responded to a desk call—not knowing two officers had already spoken to Hamilton—and arrived at the park, where he found Hamilton sleeping. According to the report, an altercation ensued as Manney attempted to perform a routine pat-down. Then, according to MPD Internal Affairs, "Manney tried to use his baton to subdue Hamilton, but Hamilton got control of it and swung it at Manney, hitting him on the side of the neck. Manney then shot Hamilton repeatedly."

In the days and weeks after the fatal shooting, the department was quick to note Hamilton's history of mental illness; but his family claimed otherwise, saying he received treatment and was never physically violent with those around him.

What is clear, however, is the long history of police violence against black residents in Milwaukee. As Gawker previously pointed out:

The harsh, unpleasant truth about minorities and high crime rates is that Wisconsin incarcerates a higher percentage of its black men than any other state—and it's not close. A study last year found that 13 percent of working-age black men in the state are in prison or jail, nearly twice the national average.

In Milwaukee? More than half of all black men in their 30s and 40s are or have been locked up, many for non-violent drug offenses.

Hamilton's case—which so far has resulted in the firing of Manney—is the first to fall under Governor Scott Walker's new police custody bill, which requires investigation by an outside agency when individuals die in the custody of law enforcement. But, as the Journal Sentinel uncovered, "[a]t least half of the Department of Justice agents and a top supervisor" investigating Hamilton's death are former Milwaukee police officers, and the question of whether the probe was completely unprejudiced is shaky at best.

The decision not to charge Manney now joins the growing list of police officers who were also believed to be justified in the deaths of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, John Crawford, and others this year.

"I'm tired of coming down here and marching," said longtime Milwaukee resident Marty Horning, who assembled at the park to protest just an hour after the DA's decision. "In one case after another, it appears there is impunity. It's always justified."

[Image via FOX 6]

"Lawlessness will rule," warns former New York police commissioner and convicted felon Bernard Kerik in an essay on Time magazine's website.

Like we always do at this time, I've put together a montage of outlandish moments from garbagey TV this year.

This reel is over 10 minutes long, but whatever, "Too Many Cooks" was over 11 minutes and no one complained about that. (Fuck, I forgot to include "Too Many Cooks" in this reel.)

Anyway, enjoy. But even if you don't, I already did. These posts are among my favorite things I do on this site every year. A full list of sources in order follows:

Allison Williams Makes a Real Cock of Herself on Live TV

Watch Naomi Campbell Lose Her Shit, Threaten Murder While "Mentoring"

Highlights From the Insane Miss America Pageant

Is This the Worst Local Commercial of All Time?

Justin Timberlake: "I Am America"

R&B Divas: LA

Shailene Woodley's Clay-Eating Secrets Revealed

Here Is an Able-Bodied Man Who Identifies as a Man With a Disability

Little Women: LA

Watch a Juggalo Wedding Ceremony

This Woman Uses Her Hair as Floss in the Name of Thrift

Man Terrorizes Wife With Unruly Beard: A Modern American Tragedy

"Beard Weave" Is the Dumbest Thing Ever Done on ANTM, To a Human Face

Woman Bitten on Breast By Snake Says Snake Lived, Incident Was "Cute"

Botched

Human Ken Doll Views Plastic Surgery as a "Creative Outlet"

This Documentary About Men Who Dress Up Like Rubber Dolls Is Amazing

Botched

True Life: I Want Respect for My Sect (also the Juggalos episode)

Is This the Best American Horror Story Woody Woodpecker Laugh Ever?

Here Is How a Human Barbie Hypnotizes Herself To Be Brainless

Here's Jacqueline Bisset's Insane Golden Globes Acceptance Speech

Oh God Mike Tyson What Are You Doing?

Who Is Adele Dazeem and Why Did Travolta Introduce Her at the Oscars?

Love & Hip Hop Atlanta

Embarrassing True Life Will Make You Never Want To Do Molly Again

Here's Mary Matalin's Bizarre Appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher

This Woman Had "Precious," "Gentle" Sex With a Dolphin and Liked It

My Strange Criminal Addiction

Woman With Size LLL Breasts Does Horrifying "Jack-o'-Lantern" Trick

This Is What It's Like to Have a Clown-Sex Fetish

Is This the Scariest American Horror Story Scene Ever?

Shirtless Man Holding Dog Asks Out Reporter During Live Wildfire Report

America's Ugliest Accents Finally Get the Comedy Sketch They Deserve

Steve Harvey Describes How Men Territorially Piss on Women Like Dogs

Here's a Guy Who Drinks Young People's Piss So That He Can Stay Young

"Happy" Makes Pharrell Cry

The Miss America Pageant

Horny Old Ladies Describe Sex With Younger Man

Amy Schumer's Interview With a 106-Year-Old Woman Is Perfect

Judge Judy Finally Hears Case Involving Grindr

Judge Judy Learns About E-Cigarettes

Judge Judy Has No Time for Your EDM or "Raves"

Watch Parents Watching Their Kids Acting Like Fools at an EDM Festival

Judge Judy

Love & Hip Hop Atlanta

Here's Lindsay Lohan Chewing Out Multiple People on Her Reality Show

Here's Barbra Streisand Holding Human Hearts

Here's an Awkward Street Interview About Writer Jim Holt's Sexuality

Could Somebody Get Aretha Franklin a Working Earpiece?

Elaine Stritch Said "Fuck" on the Today Show

Total Ariana Live

News Anchor Mistakes Samuel L. Jackson for Laurence Fishburne

Reporter Calls News Anchor Fat, Quickly Realizes Her Mic Is Still On

Game of Crowns

90 Day Fiancé

Meet the Lady Who's Addicted to Smelling and Chewing Dirty Diapers

Love & Hip Hop Atlanta

Watch Nicki Minaj Throw Major Shade at Iggy Azalea

Wicked Birth Mother Kate Gosselin Won't Let Her Children Win at Games

Gosselin Kid Strikes Back at Her Mom With a Silent, Riveting Interview

Lifetime's Flowers in the Attic Sequel Is Hilariously Awful

Watch Jimmy Kimmel Repeatedly Humiliate Rob Ford To His Beet-Red Face

At the End of the Day, Here Is a Love & Hip Hop Atlanta Supercut

Watch Oprah Winfrey Hand Lindsay Lohan Her Ass

Lindsay

Woman Dresses 4-Year-Old Daughter as Hooters Waitress for Beauty

American Horror Story: Coven

A pilot tracking an Eastern grey kangaroo and her joey through Hunter Valley, Australia got a little too close, and perhaps underestimated the roo's speed and vertical leap. Although the pilot tried to back the drone up, it was too late: His shit got wrecked.

The drone pilot obviously managed to save the footage, but the camera itself was broken, the Daily Mail reports.

Based on what we can glean from priceless cultural ambassador Iggy Azalea, this is a traditional Australian way of dealing with the paparazzi.

[h/t YouTube]

Dov Charney, creepy and gross founder of American Apparel, was ousted from the company (again) last week and, well, things aren't going to great for him. Today he revealed to Bloomberg that he only has $100,000 left in the bank and is crashing on a friend's couch in New York.

Now, the most logical response to this news is, "One hundred thousand dollars is still a lot of money, and, in fact, it is more money than I currently have. I have no sympathy for Dov Charney." Let me address both of these points.

$100,000 is a lot of money, but if you were making an $800,000 annual salary—as Charney was as CEO of American Apparel—it would probably start to seem like not very much money. $800,000 over 12 months breaks down to about $66,000 per month, before taxes, so Dov Charney currently has something like 1.5 months salary in the bank, despite being the CEO of American Apparel for over a decade. I am no financial planner, but that seems bad.

All of that is before you consider that American Apparel is, according to Reuters, worth something north of $225 million. Dov Charney should probably have more than $100,000. So, why does Dov Charney not have millions? Because, by his own admission, he got fucked by a hedge fund.

Via Business Insider:

Charney says he was betrayed by Standard General, a hedge fund that gave him a loan in July so he could boost his ownership of American Apparel.

Standard General controls his shares as collateral and put several members on American Apparel's board.

"I gave them my entire life's work, and they agreed to put me back in," Charney told Regan. "Instead, they used this investigation to fire me."

Getting swindled by a hedge fund puts Dov Charney in a class with plenty of other Americans, but it makes him seem no less stupid, as someone who was supposed to run a company, and, theoretically, be smart enough not to unknowingly transfer vast amounts of wealth to a damn hedge fund.

As for the second point: should you have sympathy for Dov Charney? No. No you should not.

[image via Getty]

Patrick Lynch is the 51-year-old president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, the largest and most influential union of the New York City Police Department. You might recognize his name: Over the weekend, Lynch blamed Bill de Blasio for the Saturday deaths of two Brooklyn cops who were murdered by a lone gunman from Georgia. “That blood on the hands,” he said at a press conference, “starts on the steps of City Hall, in the office of the mayor.”

To understand why he would say something so wrong and inflammatory, you need to delve into Lynch’s long, checkered history of issuing similarly insane statements. His public declarations over the past 15 years are essentially pro-police agitprop: Cops can do no wrong, while victims of their state-sanctioned violence always had it coming. They are also a deep well of masculine anxiety, hurt feelings, and barely disguised racism.

Here are some of Lynch’s greatest hits. Please consult them whenever he opens his mouth in the future.

June 2000: Lynch argued that Bruce Springsteen’s song about four NYPD officers shooting and killing an unarmed 23-year-old name Amadou Diallo was interfering with those (acquitted) officers’ “healing”:

Singer Bruce Springsteen has begun performing in concert a song called “American Skin”—the title seems to suggest that the shooting of Amadou Diallo was a case of racial profiling—which keeps repeating the phrase, “Forty-one-shots.” I consider it an outrage that he would be trying to fatten his wallet by reopening the wounds of this tragic case at a time when police officers and community members are in a healing period, and I have let his representatives and the press know how I feel about this song.

February 2004: Lynch called for the resignation of then-commissioner Ray Kelly after Kelly said that there “appears to be no justification” for the shooting an unarmed teenager named Timothy Stansbury:

Commissioner Kelly gave a message to the 23,000 New York City police officers that said basically this: Take all the risks of doing your job, go up on all those roofs, patrol all those subway platforms, walk the streets day and night, take the risks to yourself, take the risks to your family, but then when the worst happens, when there’s a tragedy, that you will not have the backing of the New York police commissioner.

March 2008: Lynch claimed an art installation called “The Blue Wall of Violence” that addressed police brutality was “promoting hate”:

“You can fill the museum with people of all races and ethnicities who are alive today because of the work of New York City police officers,” Lynch said in a statement. “Taxpayer dollars certainly should not fund any art that promotes hate, and that’s certainly what this does.”

Lynch added that the 1st Amendment depends on the existence of police officers:

Police guarantee the right of free expression to everyone, even to people who obviously do not appreciate the risk and sacrifice we make for them.

July 2010: Lynch defended a cop who was videotaped shoving a bicyclist off his bike by calling the victim an “anarchist”:

The anarchists were looking for a confrontation with police and found it in an rookie officer trying to do his job the best way he knew how. The conditional discharge doesn’t mitigate the fact that New York City has one less police officer today who could have served the city well.

October 2011: Lynch defended the widespread but illegal practice of ticket-fixing as institutionally sanctioned within the N.Y.P.D. (and therefore above the law):

When asked about ticket fixing, Lynch stated, “Ticket fixing was conduct accepted at all ranks for decades.”

June 2012: Lynch pilloried the New York Civil Liberties Union for “insulting” NYPD officers by creating a smartphone app that lets users record stop-and-frisk encounters and notify other users of nearby police activity:

Our main objection is that, as usual, the NYCLU’s idea is born of the assumption that the good men and women who wear the uniform of the NYPD and risk their lives to keep New Yorkers safe are doing something wrong. Frankly, that’s insulting to the very police officers who provide the freedom from fear and crime enjoyed by all New Yorkers, including members of the NYCLU.

February 2013: Lynch argued that the police department’s “disciplinary practices” were “beating down morale” with “overly harsh penalties”:

One of the most serious concerns this union has is that the department’s disciplinary practices have become way too harsh and it is beating down morale. Minor rules infractions or problems should be handled on the local level by an immediate supervisor not treated like a federal case and sent to the trial room. There are many ways a local boss can resolve problems without resorting to formal charges and overly harsh penalties.

September 2013: Lynch insisted that establishing a federal monitor to investigate the police department’s “stop-and-frisk” policy could “directly impact our members’ safety”:

“Police officers, detectives, lieutenants and captains are the boots on the ground in the fight against crime and terrorism," said Patrick Lynch, president of the patrolmen’s union, the largest in the country. “The establishment of a federal monitor may directly impact our members’ safety, day-to-day responsibilities, and collective bargaining and other rights. So we believe that we should have standing to participate in arguing the appeal in order to protect those rights.”

November 2013: Lynch accused the police department’s internal affairs unit of wearing “white socks” and fabricating evidence to indict fellow cops for fixing tickets:

Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association boss Pat Lynch showed up outside court with about 200 cops and union officials and slammed Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson and Internal Affairs. Johnson and prosecutors, he said, “were tripping on each other and didn’t even know their own case…we do not believe this was a proper investigation.” Internal Affairs, Lynch declared, is a “white socks entity” that “is constantly on a witch hunt.”

“They’re unprofessional, they never prove a case. They don’t go after real corruption, they go out where the police officers are, wearing white socks, and then they fabricate from there. They’re not real professionals. When the truth comes out these wrongfully accused police officers will be vindicated.”

December 2014: Lynch blamed Eric Garner for his own death at the hands of a N.Y.P.D. officer:

“We feel badly that there was a loss of life,” said Patrick Lynch, president of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association. “But unfortunately Mr. Garner made a choice that day to resist arrest.”

He also argued that critics were deliberately ignoring the moral character of the officer who placed Garner in a chokehold:

“He is the model of what we want a police officer to be,” P.B.A. president Pat Lynch said of Pantaleo. “What’s also been lost is the character of police officer Daniel Pantaleo. What’s not being told is what kind of man and what kind of person and what kind of professional he is. He is a resident of this great city. He lives on Staten Island. He lives in those neighborhoods. He’s college educated, here in this city. He’s a mature, mature police officer who’s motivated by serving the community.”

“He literally, literally, is an Eagle Scout,” said Lynch, adding that the maneuver Pantaleo used on Garner was a “textbook” takedown.

Remember any other Lynch doozies? Post them below or send an email to trotter@gawker.com

Photo credit: Associated Press // H/T Ken Silverstein

Just in time for Christmas, a developing storm will create headaches for anyone planning to travel east of the Mississippi River later this week. The storm will drop heavy snow on the Great Lakes and bring thunderstorms, heavy rain, and gust winds to almost the entire East Coast. Merry Christmas!

The bulk of the storm occurring on Christmas Eve is reminiscent of what happened the day before Thanksgiving, when a storm dropped heavy snow on the megalopolis and snarled air traffic on the busiest travel day of the year. Thankfully for travelers, the storm will form further inland this year, providing heavy snow to parts of the Great Lakes (mostly Michigan and Ontario) and heavy rain for almost everyone to the storm's east.

Let's take a look at the storm's impacts, beginning with the most hated and loved four-letter-word in the country.

Snow

If you're dreaming of a white Christmas and you live in western Michigan, you're in luck, my friend. The most likely area to see snow from this system is along the shores of Lakes Michigan and Superior. The location of the low pressure system will drag large amounts of warm, moist air north from the Gulf of Mexico, so the storm will be a rainmaker for almost everyone except for that narrow corridor near Lake Michigan.

The exact location of the heaviest snow is a little uncertain right now, as the exact track of the cyclone will determine where the heavier bands of snow set up. Runs of both the European and GFS models this morning show that a coating of snow will fall from the northern half of Illinois and across the lake into western Michigan and the U.P. The parallel GFS is painting the heaviest snow across eastern Wisconsin right now, as it takes the low farther to the west than the other two models.

Exact totals vary, but a few inches of snow are a good bet, especially in western Michigan. This part of the country sees this kind of snow on any given day in January, so it's nothing residents will freak out about. The snow and wind will make driving hazardous in any case, and depending on conditions, some flights into and out of Chicago and other regional airports could be delayed or cancelled.

Rain

Thanks to the placement of the low, winds across the East Coast will shift around to the north and pump warm, moist air straight up from the Gulf and Caribbean. This not-entirely-unwelcome influx of warmth will help to produce heavy rain and thunderstorms across much of the East Coast on Wednesday and into the night on Thursday.

As we typically see when a strong storm develops like this, a hefty cold front will accompany the storm to the south, while a warm front forms to its east. The strongest storms and heaviest rainfall will occur along and ahead of these two fronts—the cold front will trigger severe thunderstorms across the southeast, while the warm front will serve as a focus for heavy rainfall in New England.

The three areas that will experience the heaviest rainfall are along the track of the low near the Great Lakes, along the warm front in New England, and along the cold front's thunderstorms in the southeast near the Gulf. The thunderstorms in the south will produce the most rainfall, with five-day totals (including today's convection in Florida) clocking in near five inches in some spots.

Thunderstorms

As the low begins to develop in the Ohio River valley during the day tomorrow, the influx of unstable air from the south will prime the atmosphere for the development of strong thunderstorms along the Gulf Coast from Houston across to northern Florida. The Storm Prediction Center has already issued a slight risk for severe weather from Louisiana to Florida in anticipation of some of the storms becoming severe, with the main threats being damaging winds and even a few tornadoes.

The above model image is from this morning's run of the 4km NAM showing simulated radar reflectivity for noon on Tuesday. Damaging winds are most likely in line segments, while tornadoes are most likely in discrete (individual) storms that are able to tap into winds that enable rotation.

The second round of storms will come through after dark on Tuesday as the cold front gets its act together (above) and begins moving into the area. The line of convection will stretch from the Gulf north through the Tennessee Valley, eventually moving east into the Carolinas during the day on Wednesday.

Don't be surprised if a few of these storms wind up severe-warned—strong winds could mix down to the surface in some of these storms, producing the threat for wind damage in some spots.

Wind

Wind gusts of 30 to 40 MPH are possible behind both the cold and warm fronts, as well as near the center of the low pressure system. Again, the strongest winds will likely occur in any thunderstorms that develop.

The above image shows wind gusts (in knots) for 1:00 PM on Wednesday, as predicted by local NWS offices.

Airport Delays

The greatest chance for delays and cancellations will be at Detroit Metro (DTW), as low clouds and a heavy, wind-driven rain will cause airlines and controllers to cancel and delay flights to keep up with traffic in poor weather conditions. Issues are also possible at O'Hare (ORD) and Midway (MDW) in Chicago, especially on Wednesday night if the snow threat comes to fruition.

Along the East Coast, airport delays and cancellations should be relatively low, but the best chance for delays on the coast are at the New York City airports, where rainy conditions and gusty winds will likely cause some issues for airlines that serve the area. Issues are also possible at smaller regional airports from the Gulf through eastern Canada where flights are dependent on connecting through a hub affected by bad weather.

The models have shown a surprising amount of agreement and confidence in this scenario playing out, so only little details are up for grabs right now. If you plan on flying somewhere on Wednesday or Thursday, make sure you're prepared for delays or cancellations. If you're driving, give yourself extra time and watch out for the people around you who can handle rain or snow on the road.

[Images, in order: AP, WeatherBELL, WPC , WeatherBELL x2, NWS]

You can follow the author on Twitter or send him an email.

An Oklahoma middle school teacher was fired last week for doing something you might do with your punkass cousins but probably shouldn't do if you're certified to teach minors: she put eleven kids in her Honda Accord and locked two of them in the trunk on a mission to find snacks. Snacks are important but they aren't that important, man.

Heather Cagle had been teaching at a middle school in Catoosa, Oklahoma for ten years when she decided to take her yearbook group to Walmart a quarter of a mile away. Not only was she not allowed to take students off campus without permission from their parents, but it was additionally ill-advised to stuff several twelve-year-olds into a car, trunk included. Even if it's just for some Goldfish crackers.

Cagle was let go after surveillance cameras caught the whole thing on video. Via New York Daily News:

"This was a terrible mistake," Cagle cried as she spoke to the school board, KJRH reported. "I didn't want to hurt anyone. I just wanted to do something nice."

It took five minutes for the students, members of the school's yearbook, to cram into the teacher's Honda Accord, a road trip fail caught on school surveillance video. Two 12-year-old girls made the journey locked in the car's trunk while seven more created a human pyramid in the back seat, the school said.

Kids need snacks but kids don't need to build a human pyramid in order to acquire those snacks.

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

Following a string of solid to extremely solid episodes, the final chapter of Homeland’s fourth season presented a strange mix of previously-unexplored domestic conflicts (such as Carrie’s mother showing up after skipping town 15 years prior), the awkward resurrection of Peter Quinn (who is finally Carrie’s new love interest), and very little of the action-heavy espionage that saved the season’s latter half.

Even the penultimate episode—in which a seemingly omniscient Carrie artfully dismantles Quinn’s bomb plot against Haissam Haqqani, then nearly shoots the same target in the head—supplied no hint that the season would be ending not in Islamabad, or the inner corridors of Langley, but a quiet neighborhood in Washington, D.C., where we see Carrie taking her daughter, Frannie, to the nearby park.

A few questions remain unanswered, however:

• Why did Quinn leave for Syria, and what is he doing there?
• Where is Saul Berenson going to end up?
• What’s next for Carrie?
• What will happen to the C.I.A. intelligence assets in Pakistan?

You might have other inquiries as well. Let’s talk it out below.

He used to be so cool and unpredictable. He would breeze into a complicated situation and make it simple through the razor-sharp power of his intellect. But lately, he's gotten dull and predictable, performing the same party trick over and over. The "smartest man in the room" is overexposed lately, and he needs a vacation.

The "smartest man in the room" is a kind of wish-fulfillment for reasonably smart people, because he's not just clever but incredibly glib. As popularized by people like Doctor Who/Sherlock writer Steven Moffat and the creators of American shows like House and Scorpion, the "smartest guy in the room" thinks quicker than everybody else but also talks rings around them, too. He's kind of an unholy blend of super-genius and con artist.

Thanks to the popularity of Sherlock, House and a slew of other "poorly socialized, supergenius nerd" shows, the "smartest man in the room" has become part of the wallpaper. His contempt for less intelligent people, mixed with adorable social awkwardness, and his magic ability to have the right answer at every turn, have become rote.

I was thinking about this because Doctor Who is returning in a few days. And even though Peter Capaldi has breathed new life into a show that was sputtering, I'm still pretty tired of the Doctor being a dick. The Time Lord's dickishness goes back to the 1960s, and Tom Baker's Doctor could be a megadick sometimes, but with the new series it's gone from being an occasional leitmotif to the show's main theme. (And there's a reason why everybody loves Patrick Troughton, whose Doctor often was the opposite of this trope — the Second Doctor pretended to be an idiot and slyly ran rings around people.)

And meanwhile, the new Alan Turing movie The Imitation Game takes Turing's real-life social awkwardness and turns it into something more arrogant, as portrayed by Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch. As our own Jason Shankel writes in his comparison of Imitation Game and the older Turing biopic Breaking the Code (starring Derek Jacobi), "where Cumberbatch's Turing is an arrogant and detached cipher, disparaging the ability of others to understand his work and otherwise running afoul of office, national and personal politics, Jacobi's Turing is an accessible and enthusiastic advocate for his ideas."

To some extent, the Smartest Guy in the Room is an extension of the larger nerd stereotype that's currently devouring pop culture — as viewers of countless TV shows and movies will know, nerds are brilliant at fixing anything but unable to handle even the simplest interaction or emotional nuance. Plus the insufferable self-satisfaction and contempt for dumber people (read: everyone else.) But the "Smartest Guy" adds the crucial ingredient of Always Being Right, along with brilliantly quippy dialogue, into the mix.

From Tony Stark to the army of Sherlocks, we're obsessed with the overly articulate jerkwad — he's a type that goes back to the original Sherlock Holmes, if not way further, but now he's everywhere. And he's become a nerd stereotype, who dovetails with vague and inaccurate ideas about geeks being on the autism spectrum.

Image by Jankolas/Deviant Art

Obviously some of this comes from the fact that most consumers of pop culture feel at the mercy of their increasingly incomprehensible technology and in danger of being hacked at any minute by not!North Korea. Our economy is dominated by tech firms and Wall Street computers, and we don't know how to fix the wifi, yadda yadda.

But there's also the fact that this stereotype — like all stereotypes — is comforting. It's comforting to people who see themselves as "smart guys," because these dudes are basically perfect except for a few brilliant flaws. But it's also comforting to everyone else, because it confirms our basic sense that people who are smarter than us are messed-up individuals, who can't communicate with other people and who are missing some basic element of humanity. We get to fantasize about being the ubersmart jerk, while also comforting ourselves with the notion that we wouldn't really want to be that smart.

Plus there's the "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" thing — the "smartest guy" thing confirms all our silliest gender stereotypes, in a way that's like a snuggly dryer-fresh blanket to people who feel threatened by shifting gender roles. In the world of these stories, the smartest person is always a man, and if he meets a smart woman she will wind up acknowledging his superiority. Women have greater emotional intelligence, and — as the hilarious Scorpion is keen to remind us every week — can translate from "genius" into "regular person." But men are the intellectual giants, at the cost of a total lack of empathy and communication skills.

Thing is, the supergenius detective or fix-it-all guy doesn't need to be a blowhard. The series Foyle's War does this very well: The soft-spoken detective who constantly winces has a moment in every episode where he just breaks everything the fuck down and gets to be the smartest guy in the room, without being a constant show-off.

And the real problem is, "Smartest Guy in the Room" has become a genre, with its own tropes — and the story has to be distorted so that everybody else can be dumb enough to let the Smartest Guy be really smart. At its worst, this leads to storytelling that's more focused on clever reveals (for the Smartest Guy to uncover) than real character. Even at its best, it turns into a character study of a character we've studied too many times lately. It's just as much an artificial construct as the horror movie where the Slut dies first and the Final Girl survives.

And finally, what about teamwork? The best problem-solving comes from smart people working in a team, not from a brilliant dude and his sidekicks. Science relies on lots of trial and error, not on intutition and flashes of brilliance, and it's nice to see that reflected occasionally in our pop culture. I'd like to see smart people bouncing ideas off each other, instead of just one smart person dominating the conversation. Just every once in a while, it would be a nice change.

Additional reporting by Cheryl Eddy.

On the real estate front, there's good news, and bad news. The bad news is you can't afford Manhattan. The good news is that Brooklyn is—oh. Hm. Well, the good news is that Queens is—oh. Shit. Uhhh....

Non-millionaires don't even think of buying housing in Manhattan any more. But the insane real estate market in Brooklyn snuck up on everyone a little bit. Just a decade or so ago, just moderately affluent people could still afford apartments in much of Brooklyn, and now, you blink, and there's a report talking about "The Manhattanization of Brooklyn" and throwing around the sort of jargon that somehow does not match the "coolest fucking place on earth" Brooklyn image, somehow...

As investors begin chasing yield, the outer markets are perceived as having a more attractive risk-return profile than in the last cycle. The building stock and demographics have changed in a sustained manner and are expected to remain. At the same time, value increases in Brooklyn have been strong and locally outperforming Manhattan. For example, in Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and Bushwick combined, the average price per SF in 1H14 was up 26% over 2013, compared to 12% in Manhattan. Additionally, average cap rates in the outer markets are 180 bps higher than Manhattan. As such, Brooklyn and other outer markets are attractive targets for yield seeking investors.

You know what I love about Brooklyn? The yield seeking investors. Yeah, Brooklyn is fucked. And Queens? Long Island City is currently being filled with luxury condominiums. It's only a matter of time before Queens is fucked. Open your eyes, home-seeking New Yorkers. It's too rich here. It's not going to happen. You want real estate? It's time to cast your eye to a new city. A brighter city. A city for everyone....

Over the years, Miami has been referred to as the city's sixth borough, and it would appear that in the exclusive world of luxury real estate, this has never been truer. A wave of New York City developers has washed onto the Florida shoreline in recent months, bringing with them New York buyers, and increasingly, New York City-type pricing.

Fuck.

[Photo of prime Brooklyn real estate: Flickr]

Just days after Barack Obama vowed to hit North Korea with a "proportional response" to their (alleged) involvement in hacking Sony Pictures Entertainment, the DPRK's fragile connection to the internet has "collapsed" and gone "completely dark," the New York Times reports.

Internet researchers told the Times the continuous nature of the outage suggested a denial of service attack, although there's no conclusive evidence. And if the attack came from the U.S., the American government isn't going to claim credit. The U.S. had reportedly ruled out a "demonstration strike" on North Korea's infrastructure, including the country's nuclear program and its connection to the Internet.

The blackout won't affect most North Korean citizens, who don't have access to the internet to begin with, the Times reports:

The biggest impact would be felt by the country's elite, state-run media channels and its propagandists, as well as its cadre of cyberwarriors.

North Korea's internet connection runs through its tenuous patron country, China, which started its own investigation today into the U.S. claim that the DPRK was responsible for the Sony hack, Bloomberg reported. The U.S. asked last week China to step in with a "blocking action" that would shut off Kim Jong-un's (again, alleged) ability to conduct cyberattacks.

[h/t The Verge, Photo: Imgur]