Jessie

*cheers* There will be a Season 3! - Jessie

"Starbucks is encouraging its baristas to write the words "Race Together" on cups to get customers talking about racial issue. The idea started internally when about 2,000 Starbuckians attended a forum to talk about Ferguson, Mo., but surely no one foresaw the shit storm that would erupt when it went public. This isn't the coffee company's first time at the social cause rodeo. It's taken on guns and gay rights gamely, with applause from its largely liberal audience. But somehow, the clumsy nature of reducing a serious, impossibly complex national conversation to a hashtag on a coffee cup has united Twitter users of all races in roundly denouncing the attempt." - Jessie

" Entrepreneur points out that the campaign puts an unfair burden on the baristas. And let's be frank, they maybe aren't being given the resources and information to hold an informed, nuanced discussion of the topic when a customer walks in and asks their feels on the subject of cultural appropriation, and by the way, do they find it awkward that ordering a black coffee or a flat white espresso will now have an extra layer of uncomfortable meaning? More than a few people are suggesting Starbucks needs to first have a serious conversation with itself about race—more diversity in leadership, a serious look at where they are and aren't putting their stores (interestingly, there are no Starbucks actually in the town of Ferguson), and of course, fair trade for all their coffee growers." - Jessie

" Starbucks, for its part, claimed that broaching the topic is worth a little discomfort. But that was right before vp of communications Corey duBrowa deleted his Twitter account because attacks were distracting from a "respectful conversation." The important thing is that Starbucks has finally united Americans in a conversation about how much they don't want to have a conversation about race—at least, not before they have their coffee" - Jessie

"3. My hatred for the thrice-damned Merovingians is equalled only by my hatred for paintings that demonstrate an accurate use of perspective, and the market economy." - Jessie

"5. I oppose both the spread of guilds and the Dutch." - Jessie

"6. I am prepared already to join either the noblesse d’épée or the noblesse de robe, as I already own both a pretty fair fencing épée and a wizard’s robe that I got off the Internet." - Jessie

Via The Mary Sue: "We’ve been anticipating Dreamworks’ Home (starring Rihanna and Jim Parsons) for a while now. It looks adorable but it also stars a female protagonist of color and if you don’t understand how important that is, just look at this picture. MAI HART!" - Jessie

<3 - Jessie

"It wasn't one sweet day for this Mariah Carey fan. Police responding to a Florida burglary found a 35-year-old man drinking a beer and dancing inside a million-dollar beachfront home that he claimed to co-own with the pop star. Jason Lowell James, of Manatee, Fla., told responding officers Sunday he and Carey shared the property, but cops weren't buying it. James was arrested and charged with burglary of an unoccupied building by Holmes Beach police, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported. Neighbors called police after reporting a strange car in the driveway and loud music playing inside the home, according to the Bradenton Herald." - Jessie

Ribbit. - Big Joe Silenced

"goddammit i thought Kate said she was coming to this" - Jessie

Gawd, I love these. How do I subscribe to these?? - Zulema ❧ spicy cocoa tart

I think they're all under The Toast's Artwork tag: http://the-toast.net/categor... - Jessie

"A hospital emergency room in Broward had an emergency of its own over the weekend: A car sailed through the front entrance and came to rest near a nursing station. No one was injured in the crash, which busted down the glass doors of the ER at Broward Health Imperial Point, 6401 N. Federal Hwy. in Fort Lauderdale. The driver intentionally drove the car into the lobby Saturday night and has been taken into custody, according to Fort Lauderdale Deputy Fire Chief Timothy Heiser." - Jessie

FLORIDA. - Jessie

o_O - John (bird whisperer)

"Police aren’t expecting any masterpieces in the car crash diagrams drawn by people filing accident reports. But officers in Sutton say a driver in one crash could’ve done a lot better than this. “This is the back of a crash form that someone involved in an accident in town turned in to us….Seriously,” police wrote on Facebook. “We’re not saying you need to be Pablo Picasso with your drawings, but a little more effort would have gone a long way.” The state crash report asks drivers to “draw a diagram of the roadway or streets where the crash occurred, indicating the vehicles involved and direction of travel.” The result looked more like “sausages with wheels,” one comment on the Facebook post stated." - Jessie

"The Bolshoi Ballet is coming to a movie theater near you. Well, in all likelihood: the 2015-16 season of “Bolshoi Ballet in Cinema,” presented by Pathé Live and BY Experience, will show seven full-length ballets — three prerecorded (so the casts are known) and four shown live or on the day of performance — in some 450 spots across the United States and Canada. Some of the Bolshoi’s signature pieces are on offer: Yuri Grigorovich’s “Spartacus” (March 13, with Mikhail Lobukhin, Svetlana Zakharova and Vladislav Lantratov) and Alexei Fadeyechev’s production of “Don Quixote” (April 10). But there are also pieces newly acquired by, or created for, the Bolshoi, like John Neumeier’s “The Lady of the Camellias” (Dec. 6) and Jean-Christophe Maillot’s recent “The Taming of the Shrew” (Jan. 24). Also on offer are Giselle (Oct. 11), Balanchine’s “Jewels” (on Nov. 15, with Olga Smirnova and Semyon Chudin in the “Diamonds” section) and Grigorovich’s “The Nutcracker” (Denis Rodkin and Anna Nikulina on Dec. 20). And let us hope that the multilingual company spokeswoman, Katya Novikova, will remain the skillful host of the backstage chats and presentation. Tickets go on sale on June 19." - Jessie

"Michaela DePrince was appearing here in the third act of Balanchine’s “Jewels” with the Dutch National Ballet on a recent evening. There were about a dozen ballerinas in bejeweled white tutus arrayed across the stage, and there she was all the way stage right in the front line. This 20-year-old American ballerina, who joined the Dutch National Ballet’s main company in August, is in some respects the equivalent of a chorus girl in a Broadway musical. But night after night, people show up just to see her dance. Ms. DePrince, who was an orphan in war-torn Sierra Leone and became a professional ballerina against staggering odds, has become a celebrity here since the publication late last year of her best-selling young-adult memoir, published in the United States as “Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina” and internationally as “Hope in a Ballet Shoe.” For the past several months, “there’s been a barrage of requests for personal appearances, interviews and talk shows,” said the company’s artistic director, Ted Brandsen, who instituted a media moratorium for a while, to let her focus on dancing. She has also been asked to be a model for fashion brands, a spokeswoman for international charitable organizations including War Child and the International Red Cross, and even a cultural ambassador for the Sierra Leone embassy in the Netherlands — all of which she has turned down." - Jessie

"No one has been as surprised by her sudden celebrity as Ms. DePrince. “When I first started to do all this, I was like, ‘Why are you interested?’ ” she said in the cafeteria of the ballet and opera house, where she was preparing for five hours of rehearsals before a performance of “Jewels” that night. “But then I started to get it. I’d get messages from young girls and moms, and people in Africa, and so on.” This is a very different kind of life than anyone might have imagined for Ms. DePrince, born Mabinty Bangura in 1995, during an 11-year civil war that killed 50,000 people. Her father was the victim of a rebel-led massacre of workers in the diamond mines, killed when she was 3. She and her mother moved into the home of an uncle, who gave them so little food that her mother died of starvation. That same uncle then deposited the child in an orphanage. Mabinty, too, was twice cursed by her complexion: Her chocolate-brown skin has white patches around her neck and chest caused by vitiligo, a skin disease. In the orphanage she was nicknamed “devil’s child” and told that she was “too ugly” to be adopted. But one day, the West African trade winds blew a magazine through the orphanage gates. On its cover was a ballerina in a pink tutu, her leg bent in an elegant passé. Four-year old Mabinty was immediately captivated, and vowed that she would one day become just like that girl. At the time, she didn’t even know what ballet was." - Jessie

"This account comes from her memoir, which she wrote with her mother, Elaine DePrince, who adopted Mabinty soon after the trade winds blew through the gate. In 2012, she was one of several ballet dancers featured in Bess Kargman’s documentary “First Position,” about contestants in the Youth America Grand Prix, a ballet competition that landed Ms. DePrince a scholarship to American Ballet Theater School. She told her own story in a TEDx Amsterdam talk in November that has been viewed about 25,000 times. Consequently, she has become a celebrity in the Netherlands, where she has been profiled in newspaper articles and appeared on television talk shows, and has become an inspiration to girls worldwide. Michaela DePrince is also impressing her audiences onstage. Within weeks of joining the main company here last year, she had an opportunity to perform a soloist role in “Swan Lake.” By a fluke, all five of the dancers in line ahead of her to dance a pas de trois were sick or injured. Her performance “made it immediately clear to everyone that this girl was doing what she should be doing,” Mr. Brandsen said. “She has an amazing jump and great technical faculties, but mostly she had a radiance onstage.” Mr. Brandsen hired Ms. DePrince to the junior company a year and a half ago after an open audition, and she quickly moved up the ranks. She is confirmed for two soloist roles in a program of four contemporary ballets, “Back to Bach,” in May, and she is cast for a soloist role in “Cool Britannia,” featuring work by three British choreographers, in June. “I’ve always wanted to prove people wrong, and that’s what drives me,” Ms. DePrince said. “I’ve been like that since Sierra Leone, when everyone said, ‘Nobody is ever going to want you; no one is ever going to adopt you.’ I’ve just kept trying to prove them wrong.” Ms. DePrince says she has landed at the right place with the Dutch National Ballet, where 30 nationalities are represented onstage and she is the only dancer of African origin. “Companies in Europe are going out of their way to do amazing contemporary pieces, and people take chances,” she said. Now she has to balance her celebrity with a rigorous schedule of rehearsals and performances. Her mother receives about 40 interview requests for her every day, Ms. DePrince said, and the ballet’s media office gets many more. “What is hardest to monitor is that nobody feels that she gets the breaks she gets because she’s a well-known figure,” Mr. Brandsen said. “You have to make clear to people that she gets the roles because of her talent and not because of her story.” Ms. DePrince said that she rarely spoke about her childhood with anyone other than family members, and that she was surprised there was so much interest. “I don’t like doing it,” she said, “but it’s my way of reaching out to people; it’s my way of inspiring people.” She added: “I just started to realize that talking about it can be therapeutic.” For now, Ms. DePrince is focused on dancing, but she said she would like to open a school for the arts in Sierra Leone after her dance career ends, “when I’m 40.” Before that, she wants to become a principal dancer in the Dutch National Ballet, an ambition that Mr. Brandsen believes she is capable of achieving. “She has the potential to really go further and do more soloists and principal roles, but she’s not there yet,” he said. “It’s about making sure she takes those opportunities.”" - Jessie

"A restroom at a Wal-Mart in eastern Indiana has been closed indefinitely after an employee discovered a working meth lab inside. State police say a Wal-Mart employee alerted police after seeing a man he described as suspicious enter the restroom about 11:30 p.m. Thursday with a backpack and leave without it. The Star Press reports (http://bit.ly/18o9m0E ) that members of a state police meth suppression team removed the dangerous chemicals. Delaware County Health Department inspectors closed the restroom and a nearby women's restroom until they could be "decontaminated" by a professional cleaning company." - Jessie

"When Georgia police caught three boys loading a stolen goat into the bed of a pickup truck, one of the thieves said that he was planning to ask his girlfriend, “Will you goat with me to the prom?” Jacob Michels, 17, is obviously a boy with a sense of humor but police didn’t find the joke funny. Michels and his two buddies, Brendan Lawler, 17, and Walker Boston, 17, are being charged with “theft of livestock,” according to WSB-TV." - Jessie

No sense of humor at all. That's awesome. - Todd Hoff

The theft isn't funny, but I like his idea overall. Seems like he could have borrowed a goat. I'm not sure there's a single HS in this state without a 4-H program. Someone they knew must have had access to a goat! - Soup in a TARDIS

"Nykerion Nealon has been arrested for killing Ahmed Al-Jumaili, the Iraqi immigrant shot as he, his wife and his brother took pictures in the snow on March 5. Nealon, 17, told police he took to the streets near Al-Jumaili's apartment in far northeast Dallas after someone shot into his girlfriend's apartment on Audelia Road. He gathered some friends and an assault rifle and went out to search for the shooter, police said. Upon seeing Al-Jumaili and his family, Nealon shot at them multiple times, continuing to shoot as they ran back into their apartment. Dallas police Major Jeff Cotner said Al-Jumaili was not the person Nealon initially set out to look for. "We don't believe that [Nealon] knew Al-Jumaili, and we don't believe he knew Mr. Al-Jumaili's ethnicity," Cotner said." - Jessie

"For parents of autistic children, even mundane family outings can turn perilous. Some children with the condition have special dietary requirements; others might panic when surrounded by bright lights or booming noises. With Kirby, Wurts found himself regularly searching for fenced-in playgrounds or barbers who understood autistic children. To make finding such venues easier, Wurts has launched a Kickstarter to raise money for Autism Village, an app that will allow people to find, rate, and review places based on their level of "autism-friendliness." "Just like with Yelp and Trip Advisor, it will tell you places near you or within a radius, or you can search by category," Wurts told me. "If you’re in an Applebee's that has a waitress who really gets it, you can enter that into the app and say 'ask for Kim, she was great with my kid.'"" - Jessie

"As Hauteville House proves, Victor Hugo’s mind was a place of infinite symbolism and upended convention. For example, where would you think to put your plates? The cupboard? Too dull and traditional for Victor Hugo! He rethought his storage solutions by affixing plates to the ceiling: But a lot of things ended up on the ceiling. Like carpets. Victor Hugo won’t be limited by the traditional notion of “ceiling.”" - Jessie

"I, too, spent a lot of time gazing upward in horrified amazement, thinking to myself, “Why was Victor Hugo staring upward so often? Was it really just all symbolism?” and arriving at very unpleasant mental images. (True fact: during his funeral, most of the brothels in Paris closed down, because all the prostitutes were in mourning for their best client.)" - Jessie

"What I love most about this room (aside from the fact that you are uncomfortably aware that you are standing in hell), is that Hugo put a carpet over his floor wallpaper. You know, so it wouldn’t get scuffed. That Victor Hugo, always thinking up solutions to problems you never even knew existed." - Jessie

"This looks like something Lord Byron would have chosen to die on." - Jessie

"Golfers at a course in Florida on Wednesday were careful to putt around a large alligator, days after the beast was photographed lounging on the edge of the green in an image that went viral on Facebook. A women's tournament went on as planned at the Myakka Pines Golf Club in Englewood, on Florida's west coast, as the gator, estimated at 12 to 13 feet (3.6 to 4 meters) long, reposed in full view of about 100 participants, said Mickie Zada, the club's general manager. "If we stopped playing because of alligators, we'd never have golfers," Zada said." - Jessie

It does look 'shopped. And I don't know what age has to do with anything. There are 80 yos who use software. There's a few 70+ yo artists in Asia who solely use Photoshop or Paint. - Anika

"A 35-year-old Canadian woman died from injuries suffered when a surfacing gray whale crashed onto a tourist boat, Mexican authorities said Wednesday. The Baja California Sur state prosecutor's office said the collision with the whale about a mile from the beach resort of Cabo San Lucas tossed the victim into the water. Firefighter commander Juan Carvajal Figueroa said the woman was in a boat with other tourists returning to port around noon when the whale jumped from the water and landed on the boat." - Jessie

http://www.standunited.org/petitio... ply sign to save - || بهاره ||

"China wants Taiwan to participate in commemorations later this year to mark the end of World War Two, and also plans events commemorating the end of Japanese rule over the island, a Chinese government spokeswoman said on Wednesday. Chinese President Xi Jinping will oversee a military parade, reception and evening gala for the war anniversary, which is likely to be marked in September, and will invite leaders from major participants in the war, the foreign ministry has said though it has not said who. After World War Two, Chinese communists and nationalists resumed a civil war that ended when nationalist forces withdrew to Taiwan in 1949. Though ruled separately, China claims Taiwan as its own, and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under its rule." - Jessie

Not surprising. - Anne Bouey

I'm really hoping there will be a viable alternative to FF, because otherwise I'm not online many other places. - Jessie

"The government has invited descendants of foreigners who helped the Republic of China (ROC) win the Second Sino-Japanese War to attend a series of commemorative events marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday. Among those invited are Thomas Rabe, a German professor whose grandfather, John Rabe, saved the lives of more than 200,000 Chinese during the Nanjing Massacre; Nell Calloway, granddaughter of Lieutenant General Claire Chennault — who organized a volunteer unit of the US Air Force known as the Flying Tigers; former members of the Flying Tigers; and volunteers from the former Soviet Union who participated in the war against Japan, Ma said. “Having them present at the commemorative events will demonstrate the nation’s commitment to peace and improve public understanding of the cruelty of war,” Ma said as he reaffirmed his administration’s dedication to maintaining peace in the region." - Jessie

"State police say a man has thrown a "Jesus" vanity license plate at his older brother during a fight in Pennsylvania, cutting him badly enough to require treatment by paramedics. Forty-five-year-old James Wiles, of Springhill Township, is charged with simple assault and harassment over the argument with his 47-year-old brother on Feb. 24. Police say Wiles' brother was cut by the plate's sharp edge." - Jessie

What would Jesus throw? - Stephen Mack

Jesus would throw a wine bottle based on all the booze references in the bible. - Steve C, Team Marina

Yeah but it would be a water bottle until Jesus picked it up. - Jessie

"Police were called to a luxury hotel in Stockholm last week when a “stressed out” badger refused to let staff and guests enter or exit. The testy mustelid showed up at the Radisson Blu about 5 a.m. on Friday, the AFP reports. After around 40 minutes of nobody being able to get in or out of the place, employees called police. The badger ultimately left the premises of its own accord, according to a Stockholm police report. The police report noted that the badger seemed “crazy” or “stressed out,” according to AFP’s translation. Albin Birch, Stockholm police spokesman, told Swedish newspaper DN that the badger was likely irritable because he had just been woken up from hibernation, according to a translation by the Telegraph." - Jessie

I am going to miss your "Strange News of The Day" posts. - MoTO Boychick Devil

Awww, thanks MoTO! - Jessie

"A 32-year-old woman told police in Florida she got naked and sat outside a Dunkin' Donuts as a dare. The Palm Beach Post reports Shakara Monik Martin was arrested Sunday in Greenacres near West Palm Beach. According to a police report, Martin told authorities the dare was part of a pledge to a dance troop, which wasn't identified." - Jessie

You know, as you do. - Jennifer Dittrich

Oh, Florida. - Marie

"Here are some photographs of Victorian women of color that date from 1860 to 1901. Unfortunately, a lot of these photographs have no names attached to the women posed in the photographs. I’d love to know the stories behind each photo. What each woman’s life was like. Sadly, we’ll probably never know. According to the website Downtown LA Life: Photos of Women of Color from this era are hard to come by, especially “family” photographs. ~ A couple of these photos were taken when there was still slavery in the United States." - Jessie

"The March 4 Facebook post from Ex Cops blastin McDonald's for not allocating a budget to pay artists invited to play its planned Music showcase at South By Southwest proved to be a lightning rod for media chatter about the latest pain point in the ever-growing trade-offs between artists and brands. But after several days of working closely with the executive team at South By Southwest and speaking directly with the invited artists themselves, McDonald's today tells Billboard in a statement it has changed its approach. "SXSW started as a conference and festival for the music industry, related press and up-and-coming musicians bringing the community together to showcase their talents," the company says, through a spokesperson. "We are excited to expand our support of music at our SXSW activation where the lineup features a great assortment of more than 20 bands, honoring the spirit of the festival. To further support these artists, all bands performing at our showcase will be compensated."" - Jessie

"In Completely Ridiculous news, a dude dressed like a pirate (complete with a real parrot on his shoulder!) tried to get onto the Australian set of Pirates of the Caribbean 5: Dead Men Tell No Tales (the original title, of course, being Pirates of the Caribbean 5: Do We Really Need Another One?). Police were called when he pulled a knife on a security guard, then fled, thankfully, without harming the guard. Queensland police are currently on the hunt for this wanna-be Jack Sparrow." - Jessie

"A 50-year-old woman suffered a minor stroke recently after a failed attempt to lower her high blood pressure using banana peels. According to Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital cardiologist Chiu Chiung-zuan (邱俊仁), the patient, surnamed Lin (林), was diagnosed with high blood pressure six months ago, but her fear of long-term dependency on medications prompted her to search for folk remedies on the Internet. “Lin read that consuming banana peels can help to lower blood pressure and began eating them half a year ago. However, due to a lack of proper medication, recent temperature changes caused her blood pressure to fluctuate dramatically and eventually led to a minor stroke,” Chiu said. Chiu said he has noticed a gradual increase in the number of people who seek professional medical assistance only after folk remedies prove ineffective." - Jessie

:( - Anne Bouey

"This one is called "Hardest Job in the World" (that's not the twist), and it included a fake ad that ran Monday in the Times newspaper. Styled as a job ad, it said candidates must be willing to work 119 hours a week, be willing to learn on the job, ne tenacious with impeccable time management skills, be on call 24/7, have unlimited patience and be calm under pressure. The difference is, while American Greetings listed Mom's salary as $0, the Interflora ad said the salary is £172,000 a year, or about $260,000 a year. At least, that's what moms should earn—if they were paid 40 hours a week (plus 79 hours a week of overtime) in jobs like teachers, chauffeur, psychologist, housekeeper, head chef and personal assistant. Moms, try the calculator here, and see how much you should really be earning." - Jessie

Do you get to multiply per kid? :) - Anne Bouey

Of course, it's just "moms". What about the male parents who handle these things more often than their female counterparts? - COMPLICATED MR. NOODLE

"A 26-year-old Oregon woman named Carrie Russell—arrested in Japan after her mother sent her prescription Adderall—has been released after 18 days in custody. United States officials including Oregon senator Ron Wyden and Japan ambassador Caroline Kennedy had campaigned for Russell's release; the American was waiting to start a job teaching English when she was detained after receiving pills that her mother had packed, unwisely, in an unmarked container. Writes The Oregonian: "Amphetamines have a sinister reputation in Japan, where the lucrative black-market trade is controlled by the Yakuza, the country's main organized-crime syndicate." Russell, who has been reuinted with her family and will return to Oregon, said the detention facility where she was held was "clean" and "not anything terrifying" and that she would be happy to travel to Japan in the future." - Jessie

I wonder if her teaching group didn't tell her, or she didn't understand, but I remember one of my friends having to get documentation for two of her medications before heading over there in the early 2000's. The paperwork from her employer had a bunch of warnings about that. - Jennifer Dittrich

They may not have if she contracted directly with the school instead of through an agency. In Beijing, an expat friend of mine at Tsinghua said the university never told her to ship packages to her office instead of her apartment, which most people did when they didn't have a mailbox or house number. The package of Adderall her mom sent is probably still floating around Beijing somewhere. - Jessie

"If you crashed your expensive Lamborghini with no license plates and then abandoned it on a Texas highway this weekend, good news! The cops found it and they just have a couple questions, no big deal! Cops discovered the $200,000 vehicle, which I guess I would take, you know, if no one's going to claim it, on the side of the Dallas North Tollway early Sunday morning. There were no plates on the vehicle, but an "exotic rental company" called Exotic Skittles claims it's one of theirs. The mysterious driver reportedly smashed the car into a wall before abandoning it." - Jessie

So THATS where I left it. Huh. - Joe

I was going to claim, but the yellow one's not mine. - bentley