Bells rang and geeks chortled across the world on Wednesday morning as NOAA pulled the plug on the old American weather model, known as the GFS (Global Forecast Systems), and replaced it with an updated model we've creatively called the "GFS Upgrade." Behold! Slightly better forecasts.

The upgraded GFS became operational on Wednesday morning at 12z, or 7:00 AM EST, meaning that forecasters at the National Weather Service officially began using the upgrade in their forecasting process. The upgraded model features a multitude of algorithmic improvements, an extended short-range forecast, and the most notable change, a higher resolution. You can read a full list of changes at NCEP's website.

The most noticeable change for regular users is the bump in resolution. The old GFS model ran at a horizontal resolution of 27 kilometers (16 miles), meaning that there were 27 kilometers of horizontal distance between each of the model's forecast grid points. For a global model, a 27-kilometer resolution worked well enough for a while. The model's new resolution is more than doubled at just 13 kilometers (8 miles). That doesn't sound like much, but it's a huge improvement. It allows the model to generate forecast maps that more accurately display how variables like wind, temperatures, and precipitation interact with smaller features like mountain ranges and bodies of water.

Here's an example of old versus new using the coastal storm that made a mess of travel the day before Thanksgiving last year.

First, the old model:

And the new model, from the same run and valid for the same time:

The first thing you'll notice is that the forecasts are slightly different—a result of the improved algorithms—and the resolution is improved. The 32°F and 35°F lines aren't smoothed over in the new model like they are in the old, isobars are less smoothed out, and the areas of precipitation are all more refined, all thanks in large part to the improved resolution.

While many weather geeks keep saying that the GFS model now has a similar resolution as the NAM, it's like comparing apples to oranges. The NAM, or the North American Model, is a mesoscale model with a horizontal resolution of 12 kilometers (about 7 miles) that's designed to handle smaller systems across the United States and parts of Canada and Mexico. The GFS is designed to handle large-scale systems like nor'easters, hurricanes, the polar vortex, or the jet stream across the entire world. The 12-km NAM and its much higher resolution counterpart, the 4-km NAM, on the other hand, are great tools to use when you want to forecast convection (thunderstorms).

The upgrade is a great tool that's already had some real-world impact in its improved accuracy. Ian Livingston, a forecaster for the Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang, noted on Twitter a few days ago that the upgraded model "ended up not too bad" when it came to the fast-moving clipper systems that dumped snow on the Washington D.C. area. Not exactly a glowing endorsement (models rarely deserve them), but it's a good sign for the GFS upgrade's future that it picked up on two nebulous light snowfall events in a tricky part of the country.

While the GFS model is still inferior to the ECMWF (European) model in many respects, NOAA is actively working on more computing power to help improve our modelling capabilities. Using money appropriated to the agency in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, NOAA plans to upgrade its supercomputing capacity "nearly tenfold" by this October. Faster supercomputers allows for more calculations and better results from our weather models.

The future is now, and it's a little more accurate.

[Images via Tropical Tidbits and WeatherBELL]

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The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to decide whether the Constitution allows individual states to ban gay marriage. The decision comes three months after the court refused to hear appeals from seven states where statewide bans on same-sex marriage had been invalidated.

From the New York Times:

Largely as a consequence of the Supreme Court's failure to act in October, the number of states allowing same-sex marriage has since grown to 36, and more than 70 percent of Americans live in places where gay couples can marry.

The pace of change on same-sex marriage, in both popular opinion and in the courts, has no parallel in the nation's history.

Based on the court's failure to act in October and its last three major gay rights rulings, most observers expect the court to establish a nationwide constitutional right to same-sex marriage.

The court will hear arguments for four cases—from Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee— in April and will announce its decision in late June.

[Image via AP]

What follows is not actually by Hilary Duff, except in the sense that I am pouring my heart out and what is appearing on the page is the savage essence of Hilary Duff.

Hiya, I'm Hilary Duff, erstwhile star of the hit Disney channel series Lizzie McGuire, and guess what: I love it. I recently told Elle about all the reasons I love it, which include: I just moved to Brooklyn, I'm 5'2", I'm really fit, killing it in the gym, and doing crazy things. And I have a large son!

I moved to Brooklyn so I could film my new TV series Younger (for TV Land!), which is edgy, like Brooklyn. Haha. As I explained to Elle:

...It's edgy. I would definitely say the show gets a lot edgier as it goes on.

And also:

[TV Land has another] show coming out called Teachers that looks hilarious. It's about a group of degenerate teachers who should not be teaching our youth, and it's really edgy. Our show is really edgy, too.

Like, for example:

There's an episode coming up in which we're going to all do Molly. It's like, "What? On TV Land?" I also did this episode last week where my character decides to go green. She doesn't want to use tampons anymore so she uses this thing called a Diva Cup, but, on our show, it's called a Goddess Cup.

Cup in the vagina? What? Off-brand cup? On TV Land? Anyway, Brooklyn. You may be saying "Hilary Duff? Brooklyn? What?" I used to say that too.

I'd actually never been to Brooklyn before I started apartment hunting.

Now I'm like, I love it. But also:

With all the [Brooklyn] moms I'm like, "Wait a minute, Are you 20 or 50?" I can't tell.

Literally cannot tell. I love meeting people, though, and I don't judge, and I don't make educated guesses.

Hilary Duff: just another cool mom, living in Brooklyn http://t.co/nBWU33KtmY pic.twitter.com/gz72vsKjjc

— Racked NY (@rackedny) January 15, 2015

Speaking of moms of ages unknown, I've noticed that a lot of women in New York are skinny, but I don't let myself get down about it. I'm really fit, killing it, doing crazy things, and busy.

I just tell myself, "I'm 5'2", I'm really fit, killing it in the gym, and doing crazy things." I love to work out, but I'm just not that concerned with being the skinniest person. ... I always feel like I'm in the five to ten pound struggle, but my life is so busy. I'm just not that concerned, really. I'm normal and I'm perfectly happy being that way.

You know?

Sometimes I'm like:

Man, my clothes are fitting so good.

:)

And sometimes I'm like, people are so rude.

Someone on Twitter the other day was like, "OMG, I just saw Hilary Duff. She's adorable, but I forgot she's a midget!" I'm like, "That is not nice and not politically correct at all."

:(

But mostly, I love it. I love my job:

It's fun!

The TV Land network:

This year they decided to come like gangsters; their show line-up looks amazing.

My co-star Sutton Foster:

Sutton's just brilliant and, honestly, she does look so young.

My apartment:

I live in a really cute neighborhood...

My large two-year-old son:

I have a large son! He's huge!

And his appearance relative to my own:

I'm 5'2" and I've got a kid that looks almost four years old? I'll take it!

I'll take it!

[Image via www.splashnews.com]

Newsfeed Neil deGrasse Tyson Explains the Meaning of Life to a 6 ¾-Year-Old | TKTK CNN's Jim Clancy Resigns After Twitter Rant About Israeli Propaganda | Defamer NBC Exec: Rape Accusers Not a Problem Until They Reach "Critical Mass" http://gawker.com/how-to-read-ga...

Today in New York magazine, female journalist Marin Cogan asks: "why can't Hollywood get female journalists right?"

Yes. Incredible that the film industry, known for its attention to detail re: how professions work, hasn't produced more realistic depictions of female journalists, but instead keeps conjuring up attractive, cunning fembots who aim to sexually seduce their sources and coworkers in the name of plot.

But its portrayal of women in journalism is not where Hollywood makes the most grievous error. Where the movie industry goes monstrously wrong is in its depiction of male journalists. The archetypal movie male journo is always hot, sexy, smart, principled, hot, well-coiffed, good on first draft, rich, mysterious in a good way, confident, handsome, hot, good at sex, and handsome. Let me tell you firsthand: this is not what journalism is like. The journalism industry is 88 percent male virgins.

It really makes you think, though. If Hollywood is getting female journalists wrong, who else are they getting wrong? Post-apocalyptic astronaut cowboys are probably feeling somewhat chafed at the moment. Likewise cyber assassins. Martin Luther King, Jr. Damn. I eagerly await their thinkpieces. Can Hollywood get anything right?

Anthony Bourdain, my one true love, will be opening a mega market in New York City this year. Bourdain, an engraved copper thumb ring encircling my heart, has named the market Bourdain Market. Bourdain Market, the place where I have directed a U-Haul to drop off all my furniture and personal effects, cannot open soon enough.

In the Wall Street Journal, Bourdain discussed his new venture. It sounds like a nightmare wrapped in the plastic packaging from a carton of bootleg Taiwanese cigarettes. But maybe it'll be fun, fun like a boatride down the bayou with a cold bottle of beer in one hand and a bowl of gumbo in your lap. It could be confusing to navigate, though . . . confusing like a very tall man who eats a lot of messy foods while wearing white shirts . . . perplexing to behold.

Via the WSJ:

Named Bourdain Market, it will be based on the popular open-market hawker centers in Singapore, which carry a wide variety of inexpensive food in a communal dining hall. "Jason was pretty much the first person I thought of," says Bourdain. "It will be fast and accessible foods, with hundreds of options. You can have roast goose; I can have beefrendang." With that, a bowl of spicy lamb noodles emerges. Bourdain rubs his hands together. "Oh, this is going to be good."

The story in the Journal is about Jason Wang of Xi'an Famous Foods in Queens, and how Bourdain's angelic, longfingered touch brought Wang's business out of local obscurity. Bourdain has been "quietly courting" Wang to bring Xi'an Famous Foods into the mix at Bourdain Market. And as Bourdain says, "You can have roast goose" (me) and "I can have beefrendang" (him). Sounds like he's also quietly courting me, the writer of this story.

According to Eater, Bourdain Market will have 40 to 50 stalls, which means 40 to 50 options for where Bourdain could be hiding on any given day of the week. The location is still under wraps, but that doesn't mean I'll stop looking.

[Image via AP]

Mexican officials announced yesterday the detention of Felipe Rodríguez Salgado, who they allege is the leader of the criminal group that killed 43 students and burned their bodies three months ago, the New York Times reports.

According to the Times, prosecutors say José Luis Abarca, the mayor of Iguala, ordered the city's municipal police to arrest the students and hand them over to the Guerreros Unidos, an organized-crime group of which Salgado is allegedly the de-facto leader. The previous leader, Sidronio Casarrubias Salgado, was arrested in October along with dozens of police officers who were believed to be collaborating with the "United Warriors," a splinter group from the Beltran Levya Cartel.

On Tuesday, the mayor was charged with kidnapping in connection with the students' disappearance and his wife was charged with involvement in organized crime, the Times reports. The couple, who were already facing charges relating to other murders, kidnappings, and organized crime, were captured by federal police in Mexico City in November, Reuters reports.

Almost 100 people have been detained in the investigation so far, officials said, mostly police officers from Iguala and nearby Cocula, site of the trash dump where the students' bodies were found.

Protests and demonstrations have roiled across Mexico for the past several months in reaction to the disappearance and the alleged corruption surrounding it. The governor of Guerrero state, where the students went missing, resigned in October. Across Guerrero, The Guardian reports, armed protestors are occupying town halls and calling for popular government. "It's time for the people to take power," one man said. "The government has not been able to fulfill its role – and the people are waking up."

[Photo credit: AP Images]

According to NBC, authorities have shut down a mall in Melbourne, Florida after a gunman opened fire inside, injuring at least two people. Police say the shooter is "contained" and they currently have control of the situation.

At around 9:30 a.m., calls began coming in about a shooting in the food court of the Melbourne Square Mall. Witnesses say between three and six shots were fired, including one the gunman fired at himself.

Melbourne Police are now "clearing the mall store by store."

UPDATE: Authorities say one person is dead and two others are injured, WFTV reports. It's not immediately clear whether the dead person is the shooter or a victim.

UPDATE 2: According to WFTV, two people are now dead and a third is injured but in stable condition. WESH reports that the gunman was one of the people that died.

UPDATE 3: Police have named the suspected shooter as Jose Garcia Rodriguez, 57, and say the victims were a man and woman. Both men are dead but the woman—who is believed to be Rodriguez's wife—is reportedly in good condition.

[Image via Twitter/@no_geoff]

The Yemeni president's chief of staff, Ahmed Awadh bin Mubarak, has been kidnapped by gunmen in the capital Sana'a amidst discussions over the country's new constitution, The Guardian reports.

Mubarak is secretary-general of the body responsible for the government transition following former president Ali Abdullah Saleh's resignation in 2012. "Ali Abdullah Saleh is a rare figure in the Arab world, or anywhere else: an autocrat overthrown by popular revolt who nonetheless remains in his country, unmolested," the New York Times wrote last January.

Mubarak is thought to have been taken by fighters from the Houthi movement, which The Guardian reports is "widely believed" to be backed by Saleh. Officials said Mubarak was stopped at a checkpoint and taken to an unknown location; the Houthi militia seized control of Sana'a in September.

In October, President Abd-Raboo Mansour Hadi named Mubarak prime minister, but he declined the position after his nomination prompted opposition from the Houthis. Mubarak, The Guardian reports, is from the south of Yemen and a representative of that region's independence movement.

[Image via YouTube]

When a friend introduced me to the work of a theoretical physicist named Dr. Chanda Hsu Prescod-Weinstein, I had no idea what a "theoretical physicist" was. Whatever the work of theoretical physicists, I didn't imagine that there was one in our country who would say to a group of grad students at MIT, "Do not be afraid to be black, whatever that means to you. Do not be afraid to be black scientists. Do not be afraid to be black and simultaneously successful, whatever field you choose. For each individual, that may require creating something new and spectacular. Do not capitulate to the fear that you are not up to this glorious task."

These are the words and work of Dr. Chanda Hsu Prescod-Weinstein. Both were beyond my imagination. After reading thousands of glowing, fearless words by her on everything from quantum theories of gravity to the importance of cultivating symmetrical relationships between Black folks and Native Americans, I begged her to be a part of our Times Six series.

Two of the questions focus on memory, love, misogyny, and blackness. Two of the questions place us at 12 years old, the same age Tamir Rice was when we was gunned down by police in Cleveland Ohio; and the same age Davia Garth was, who was killed by her stepfather in the same city. One of the questions asks us imagine two incredibly needed national policy proposals. The final question ponders how black lives can actually matter in 2015.

Laymon: Tell me about the first time you remember your love for black folks being threatened?

Prescod-Weinstein: This is a tough question. I can't remember a time when my love for black folks wasn't being threatened. There were a lot of little moments at school, on TV, everywhere. But I can say this: I was 15 when I was forced to reconcile with the fact that white kids my age were going to be part of the problem. First I got thrown out of a New Years party because they didn't want any niggers there. They were these unattractive boring white guys who were not cool at all. But because I stopped (unknowingly) passing for "a Mexican" I was considered beneath them? That was how I learned to be afraid of white guys my age and spent six months wondering if they were all secretly thinking "nigger nigger nigger." I worked to get over it though, because it's not okay to judge people based on the color of their skin, you know?

Then that spring we read Maya Angelou's poetry in 11th grade honors English. My high school was about 50 percent black, but that class had about four blacks out of 30 kids, all four of us sitting in one corner of the room. A white girl announced that she felt like Maya Angelou wasn't trying hard to enough to use rhetorical devices to talk about racism. I wasn't then and am not now deep into Maya Angelou, but I knew then as I know now that this white classmate of mine had just crapped on a part of the Black American Bible.

That was when I started to understand why my mom had been teaching me all these years to hold on tight.

When you were twelve years old, can you describe for me what a perfect day would look like?

On Saturday nights, one of the radio stations in Los Angeles would have a Disco Saturday Night. I have always loved to dance, and I loved letting it all out to disco at my best friend Sharifah's house.

If twelve year old you, could describe the most exciting thing you did last night, what would she say?

I totally understood something about the math of particles. It is so cool!

Can you describe your first memory of misogyny and anti-blackness colliding?

I was raised primarily by a single black mom who also happens to be a kick-ass activist, which means sexism and racism, and how they especially affected women of color, were always a discussion topic. My mom was heavily involved in pushing the police to find the Grim Sleeper, the serial killer murdering poor and working class black women in South Central L.A., so I was conscious of this as a reality from the earliest that I can remember.

But I remember the first time I really became conscious of it. For a little bit in college I ran with some black dudes who were all about "revolution." I eventually came to understand that their version of "revolution" involved black women recognizing that their primary struggle was to fight for justice for black men, and that they felt, as Harvard students, they were supposed to lead the revolution. It was super messed up, but it kind of cracks me up thinking about it because ain't nobody was going to be following that ish.

If you could concretely propose any two new national policies, what would they be?

Mychal Denzel Smith trumped everyone by saying reparations—and recognizing the need for them broadly along many axes of oppression—so that sucks for everyone answering these questions after him. We got scooped!

Next up: I'm a theoretical physicist, so I want mathematical and textual literacy. I want oral literacy. I want them for free, regardless of a person's age or status. I want free community college, free trade school, free public universities. I want private universities, including the one I work at and the one I attended, to lose their 501(c)3 status so that rich people don't get tax deductions for donating to them when they should be paying taxes that will fund public education.

I also want everyone's languages to be recognized as national languages. All First Nations languages, all our dialects, all our Englishes, all our Kreyols, Spanish, all the languages people brought to these shores. But first I want to check with my First Nations folks to see what they have to say about that plan. But I want to find a way to fight linguistic oppression which is just another avenue for cultural oppression and genocide.

How can black lives really matter in these United States of America?

We need to join with Native communities and reconsider borders, reconsider theft, reconsider history, and reconsider how we will respond to borders, theft and history. I believe that we will only be truly building a community that will recognize that black lives matter when we build a community that is ready to reconcile with what happened, and on whose land it happend. And that process will not be legitimate unless it includes the destruction of white supremacist heterocispatriarchy. It's going to be a real struggle because a whole lot of white people don't want to give that up and some people of color have been rewarded for participating. But the ancestors survived the Middle Passage, and I think that was literally hell on earth. So this, I think we can do it.

Chanda Hsu Prescod-Weinstein is a black, Jewish queer ciswoman and a theoretical physicist.

Previously for Times Six: Why True Justice Won't Come Without Sacrifice

[Photo via AP]

If you'd like to be considered for the Times Six series, please send your thoughtful responses to our questions; email kiese@gawker.com.

To some, a pentagram might just be the thing behind that naked guy in the Rush logo, but looking at this school bus's brake lights, one concerned parent in Tennessee saw something far more sinister: a Satanic conspiracy against our precious children.

"Anyone who fears a God, if not God and Jesus Christ, should be outraged," Robyn Wilkins told Memphis' WMC-TV for a story about the lights they actually in real-life called "School Buses: The Devil's Ride?"

Taking a cue from middle school essayists everywhere, the NBC affiliate helpfully explains "Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a Pentagram as a star with five points often used as a magic or religious symbol."

So far school officials have refused to answer WMC's questions about the fiendish five-pointed stars, but Wilkins isn't ready to give up her crusade. "If you can't put a cross on there, you cannot put a pentagram on it," she told the station. "Would we allow a swastika, for instance, to be on the back of the bus?"

[Image via WMC-TV/h/t Daily Mail]

Convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, whose penis is allegedly shaped like an egg, does not like having sex with black women, the New York Post reports.

Virginia Roberts, the woman who recently joined suit against Epstein in Florida and claims she was paid to have sex with Prince Andrew, told her lawyers that Epstein would have sex with as many seven girls, some as young as 12, each day.http://gawker.com/report-underag...

A transcript of Roberts's conversation with her lawyers was filed in court on Friday. When asked what Epstein's preferences were, she said, "Young, pretty, you know, a fun personality. They couldn't be black." She added, "If they were any other descent other than white, they had to be exotically beautiful."

Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Martin, who were once allegedly dating, have, since they allegedly stopped dating, been seen together, repeatedly, eating food. On Thursday, for example, they ate food in Los Angeles. They were also, the New York Post reports, "laughing and giggling."

"They were totally into each other," the Post's source said. "The romance is on for sure." I mean, great, I guess, but how do we really know? Just having dinner together doesn't really mean anything in and of itself. Unless...

When the waiter came around with the dessert offerings, Lawrence "encouraged Chris to order one." The two split the mille-feuille, a puff pastry dessert.

Laughing? Giggling? Mille-feuille, a puff pastry dessert? Oh, it's on. For sure.

[Photo credit: Getty Images]

Was this officer's Taylor Swift lip sync truly spontaneous, as the video's introduction suggests? Can its seated star really said to be dancing, as numerous media outlets have claimed?

We don't know.

What we do know is that the internet's demand for gyrating cop videos is now a proven fact, this clip having racked up half a million views since it was uploaded yesterday. Which means we can expect dozens of imitations, parodies and remixes of "Dover Police DashCam Confessional (Shake it Off)," perhaps as early as tomorrow!

God help us all.

UPDATE: That was quick. Dover Police admitted to TMZ this afternoon that "the whole thing was produced."

Saïd Kouachi, one of the two gunmen who attacked the offices of French newspaper Charlie Hebdo earlier this month, was buried last night in an unmarked grave in the city of Reims, where he had lived, The New York Times reports. The burial took place over the protests of the mayor and others.

Earlier this week Arnaud Robinet, the mayor, had said that he would "categorically" refuse Kouachi's body for fear that his grave would attract jihadists. "I don't want a grave in Reims to become a place of prayer and contemplation for some fanatics," he said.

The burial took place on Friday night regardless. "He was buried last night, in the most discreet, anonymous way possible," Robinet told French TV, according to the BBC. "I am angry," Robinet told the Times. "But the state ordered me to accept, and I did."

In a long feature on Saïd and his brother Chérif's radicalization, the Times reported that Saïd Kouachi had lived in Reims with his wife for the past two years. Kouachi's wife Soumya has thus far been cleared of wrongdoing; in fact, it seems she had no idea that what her husband was going to do:

"She now knows that there is a part of him that slipped away from her," said Mr. Flasaquier, the wife's lawyer. "She doesn't think that couples tell each other everything. She thinks they all have a little secret garden. But this isn't a secret garden. It's a secret planet."

Chérif Kouachi will be buried, at his wife Izzana Hamyd's request, in a Muslim plot in Gennevilliers, a suburb of Paris. The Times reports that plans for the body of Amedy Coulibaly, the third gunman, remain unclear.

[Photo credit: Getty Images]

Police in Athens have detained several people in connection with a thwarted plan to kill Belgian police officers, Reuters reports. According to a CBS News source, a man suspected of leading the group is among those being held.

Belgian authorities announced they had uncovered the plan to "to kill several policemen in the street and at police commissariats" this week after a series of anti-terror raids that ended with two suspects dead and 13 in custody.

However, several suspects remained free, including the man believed to be the terror cell's ringleader. From the BBC:

Earlier on Saturday, Belgian media said authorities were seeking Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a 27-year-old Brussels resident of Moroccan origin suspected of being the ringleader of the jihadi cell, and in hiding in Greece.

One of those arrested in the raids in Athens included one who "matches the description" of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the Associated Press quoted a Greek police source as saying, but there has been no confirmation of the detainees' identities.

On Friday, prosecutors charged five of those arrested in Belgium with "participating in the activities of a terrorist group."

[Image via AP Images]

The white man who shot Sentinel, Oklahoma's black police chief three times in the chest and once in the arm on Thursday morning was released after questioning, The Oklahoman reports.

Investigating authorities did not disclose the name of the man they'd taken into custody, but the mayor of Sentinel, Sam Dlugonski, and a neighbor who lives across the street from the house where the shooting took place identified him as one Dallas Horton.

"Facts surrounding the case lead agents to believe the man was unaware it was officers who made entry," the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation wrote in a news release.

The shooting came about after a 911 call was made around 4 a.m. on Thursday, The Oklahoman reports. The caller told dispatchers there was a bomb at the Sentinel Community Action Center, which houses the city's Head Start program.

Oklahoma Highway Patrol's bomb squad checked for an explosive device and found nothing; Sentinel police chief Louis Ross and deputies from the Washita County sheriff's office visited the address from which the 911 call was thought to have been made—Dallas Horton's address.

Officers broke down the front door and cleared one bedroom, Dlugonski said. Ross walked into a second bedroom where he was shot four times. "He would be dead if it wasn't for the bullet-proof vest," Dlugonski said.

In the early hours of Thursday morning, from 2:13 a.m. to 4:40 a.m.—around the same time as the 911 call—Horton posted eight status updates on Facebook. One expressed anxiety about the spread of Sharia law in America. Another compared America to Nazi Germany. A third expressed disappointment that the White House sent officials to Michael Brown's funeral—referred to as "this thug"—and none to Paris.

Dallas Horton deactivated his Facebook page this morning.

According to The Oklahoman, authorities removed several guns from Horton's home on Thursday. The mayor described Horton as Dlugonski a "gun enthusiast" and "survivalist." A Facebook post from Wednesday on Horton's page states, "I'd rather have a gun in my hand than a cop on the phone."

Update, 11:20 a.m. – The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation determined that the 911 call did not come from Horton's house. "Everything is still under investigation," spokeswoman Jessica Brown said.

[Image via Facebook | h/t Raw Story]

For most of the 100 or so people involved in Saturday's massive highway accident in Eastern Oregon, the 26-car pileup was surely a harrowing ordeal, but one man found a cute new place amidst all the chaos, wedged safely between two big rigs.

After his four-door pickup was rendered a zero-door pancake by two semi-trucks, Kaleb Whitby didn't have much choice but to wait for help, which finally came (as it so often does these days) with a request for pics.

From Road & Track:

Truck driver Sergi Karplyuk's semi was halted by the two trucks that pinned Whitby. Karplyuk got out to survey the scene and discovered Whitby's mangled vehicle jammed in between. The trucker confirmed that Whitby, astonishingly, was unharmed. He asked if he could snap a picture of Whitby, capturing the terrifying image you see above. Then he helped Whitby escape the wreck, and they went to work helping others caught in the pileup.

Crazy photo sent into us by a viewer. Man pinned between two semi trucks in I-84 wreckage http://t.co/yXBIXSFWht pic.twitter.com/h2ZArIVQze

— KTVB.COM (@KTVB) January 18, 2015

Sadly, it hasn't all been good news for Whitby.

"I've got two Band-Aids on my right ring finger," he told The Oregonian. "And a little bit of ice on my left eye."

[Image via KVTB]

President Obama will call on the Republican-controlled Congress to raise taxes on the wealthiest taxpayers and the largest financial firms in Tuesday's State of the Union Address, The New York Times reports.

The president's plan would raise $320 billion over the next decade, the Times reports. The revenue would cover his recently-announced initiative to offer two years of tuition-free community college to all students "willing to work for it." The White House said this would cost $60 billion over 10 years.

The plan to raise taxes would eliminate what advisers called the "trust-fund loophole," a provision protecting hundreds of billions of dollars in inherited assets from taxation every year, the Times reported. Also, banks with assets greater than $50 billion would be subject to a new fee.

According to the Times, all of these changes would finance tax breaks for middle-income earners, "including a $500 credit for families in which both spouses work; increased child care and education credits, and incentives to save for retirement."

The plan would also raise the top capital-gains tax rate for couples with annual incomes greater than a half-million dollars to 28 percent from 23.8 percent. Incidentally, the Associated Press reports, this is the same level as under President Ronald Reagan.

[Photo credit: AP Images]

Did you know there are "actually Muslim religious police" in London and some English cities are "totally Muslim" "no-go-zones" where "where non-Muslims just simply don't go in"? Neither did England until last Sunday, when resident Fox News "terrorism expert" Steve Emerson dropped these ignorance bombs on live television.

Unfortunately for Emerson, basically all of his fun Islam factz were dead wrong, British Prime Minister David Cameron going so far as to say "this guy is clearly a complete idiot" on Monday.

The pundit has since apologized for his stupid, stupid claims, but yesterday the network finally followed suit, issuing two apologizes for Emerson's comments and two more for additional errors they made about European Muslims (one as recently as hours beforehand).

"Over the course of this last week we have made some regrettable errors on air regarding the Muslim population in Europe—particularly with regard to England and France," said anchor Julie Banderas in the day's most extensive apology, continuing:

This applies especially to discussions of so-called "no-go zones," areas where non-Muslims allegedly aren't allowed in, and police supposedly won't go.

To be clear, there is no formal designation of these zones in either country, and no credible information to support the assertion there are specific areas in these countries that exclude individuals based solely on their religion.

In America, however, there seems to be at least one place where members of a certain religion aren't treated very fairly.

[Image via Fox News//h/t Mediaite]