SoylentNews

Semen-contaminated flutes might have been given to children, California school officials warn (archive)

Several school districts in Southern California warned parents this weekend that flutes and recorders given to children through a nonprofit music program may have been contaminated with bodily fluids. At least one district specified that those fluids could have been semen.

Local, state and federal agencies were investigating a male music teacher who visited schools in Southern California through a program called Flutes Across the World, according to updates from the Saugus Union School District, which serves the Santa Clarita area.

“The performer distributes a flutelike musical instrument made of PVC pipe or bamboo to students during a music lesson, and the allegation is that he contaminated some of these instruments with semen,” Saugus Union Superintendent Joan Lucid said in an email to parents on Saturday. “These allegations are deeply concerning, and I realize they raise many questions.”

The California Department of Justice and the U.S. Postal Service were among the agencies investigating the program, the district said. Lucid said children were never alone with the music specialist, who was not a district employee.

School officials allege flutes used in children’s music program may have been contaminated with semen

Flutes "stained with a man's bodily fluids" issued to California schoolchildren

Flutes Across the World: Japan Edition.

'Evie' now lives in fear in Jakarta slum - Obama's nanny

For Some Chinese Uighurs, Modeling Is A Path To Success

Previously:

China Bans Islam-Related Names in Xinjiang
Massive DNA Collection Campaign in Xinjiang, China

Chuwi Announces The LapBook Air: For Preorder Now

Don't sue!

Trump Says He Groped Melania in Public, Ivanka Looks Down on Him, in Newly Released Recordings

Donald Trump - The Howard Stern Interviews 1993-2015

Browsed through my email this morning. I can't really remember when or why, but apparently, I've registered with something called academia.edu. Gave them a fake email, fake name, fake species - the works. Academia - you expect them to have some academics, right? Check this out:

Academia.edu

Dear Some Guy,

1,615 people recently read one of the papers that mentions the name "Some Guy".

A total of 819 papers on Academia mention your name.

________________________

Seriously - that is the exact text of the email. Some Guy, the "name" that I use on sites when I'm checking them out. And, apparently 819 academic papers have mentioned my personna, and 1,615 people have read at least one of those papers.

Clicking the link, I arrive at a page that states:

Mentions
818
818 papers mention the name "Some Guy" or "S. Guy"
1,615 people recently read one of them
The Mentions feature helps you find your name mentioned in papers, books, drafts, theses, and syllabi that Google Scholar can't find.

_____________________________

And, these fuckwits take themselves seriously? They hope to pass themselves off as some sub-species of academics?

Should I laugh, or should I cry?

I might be nice if I could remember why in hell I even visited their site to start with. Maybe I was researching something like 'The resurgence of troglodytes in academia'??

Prodigal K-pop composer enlists in South Korea’s Marine Corps

Move was kept quiet, with only Lee Chan-hyuk’s parents, agency and a few of his close friends in the know

K-pop duo band Akdong Musician’s composer and singer Lee Chan-hyuk, often regarded as a musical prodigy has enlisted in the country’s Marine Corps.

The star, 21, who plays with his younger sister Su-hyun, voluntarily entered a training centre in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province. He kept his enlistment quiet from the public as his Christian pastor parents, a few close friends and staff from his agency YG Entertainment saw him enter the military world for two years.

Lee enlisted early compared to other K-pop celebrities, who usually postpone mandatory military service until their late 20s or 30s. He said he enlisted to train with others around his age “to build diverse experiences and improve my musical skills,” according to media reports.

KB Home Cuts CEO's Bonus 25% After Rant Against Kathy Griffin

KB Home’s board will cut Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Mezger’s annual bonus by 25 percent as punishment for his profanity-laced tirade against comedian Kathy Griffin and warned he’ll be dismissed if he does anything like that again.

Mezger’s bonus for the fiscal year ending Nov. 30 will be reduced by $375,000, based on performance targets, because of “recent behavior in his personal dealings with a neighbor,” the board said in a regulatory filing Thursday, calling his conduct “unacceptable.”

KB Home cuts CEO’s bonus as punishment for his profanity-laced rant at neighbor Kathy Griffin

In audio released by the Huffington Post, Mezger called comedian Kathy Griffin a "f---ing c---," "a b----," an "a--hole" and a "f---ing bald dyke." Security cameras caught Mezger's tirade, the culmination of a series of disputes between the neighbors in a gated community in Los Angeles' upscale Bel Air neighborhood.

[...] Through a spokesman, Mezger suggested Wednesday that Griffin's history of unjustly nitpicking about noise was partly to blame for his apoplectic rant.

"Though Mr. Mezger does not believe there is any excuse for the language he used, the incident that led to his losing his temper was the result of the culmination of a series of unneighborly actions taken by Ms. Griffin and her boyfriend," said Mezger's spokesman.

Those "actions" consist of up to 10 noise complaints that Griffin and her boyfriend, Randy Bick, have made against Mezger, leading to multiple visits by police, the spokesman said. In one of those cases in which the police showed up, the spokesman said, Mezger's niece, who "has stage 4 cancer" was renewing her marital vows with her husband at the Mezger home.

[Full Disclosure: I have not seen the IT miniseries or read the book. I tried to avoid spoilers in this review.]

It had been almost a decade since my last trip to ‘the movies’ or whatever it’s called when you watch a film at a cinema. Yet over the last couple of weeks, I found myself at a movie theatre twice. This was not my choice, I watch very little TV or film. I was pressured to go by my significant other.

Both movies I was obligated to see shared a similar theme of children being tormented by supernatural forces. While not having the emotional impact of seeing animals in peril for me, it’s a pretty good basis for some level of emotional investment. Far more sympathetic as characters than the older ‘kids’ who get massacred in Friday the 13th type movies.

The first movie was Annabelle: Creation, a prequel to a poorly received spin-off I never saw. With that description in mind, expectations were pretty low, although the positive reviews gave some hope.

In the end, I was pleasantly surprised. It was not a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, but there were more positives than negatives.

The ‘horror’ elements were not strong, but the genre is not something i’m a fan of anyway. Obligatory tropes of ‘i want your soul’ and the vomiting into a victim’s mouth didn’t make much impact. A strong cast, solid direction and complementary sound design kept the well paced film engaging, despite the uninspiring plot.

If I were to give it a subjective rating, 6/10 would be fair.

Now we arrive at the reason i’m writing this ramble. The second movie I was compelled to see, IT: Chapter One. Although the subtitle is not featured in any of the marketing for it.

It is an iconic piece of popular culture, originally a novel by Stephen King, the titular character is especially memorable, a supernatural entity manifesting itself as the clown known as Pennywise. This is primarily the result of an earlier adaptation where the character was played by Tim Curry, apparently instilling a fear of clowns in at least one generation. Perhaps because I was not exposed to this portrayal, I am apathetic to clowns.

The new adaptation starts off quite well, although the fake-out scares in the opening moments were unnecessary.

The introduction of Pennywise was well executed, the shift from awkward but comedic to creepy and sinister with just a facial expression was an expected but effective shift in tone.

Immediately after this, it falls apart on a technical level. As Pennywise claims his first victim in the film, unnecessary and poorly done computer animation broke any immersion.

The film jumps forward and we are introduced to the rest of the cast, while the performances are for the most part serviceable to good, there are many characters and they get very little development or backstory. More than one of the boy’s personality is essentially ‘annoying’ and with how little individual screen time or development each is offered, there’s not much to care about.

From here, the film just gets weaker. There are a lot of jump scares, but they are startling at best and not scary in any way. This is made worse by the continual tonal shifts, there are more moments to laugh than there are moments of fear or horror. It’s very crude humour too, which from my limited understanding is fitting in regard to the source material. If used sparingly it would be much better, but too often the sexual humour from a teenager really pulls you out of any sense of tension that had been present. This is compounded by how the film moves from scene to scene with no particular aim or sense of progression.

Almost every time IT/Pennywise makes an appearance, there was computer animation to be found and it was never well done. The character is definitely sinister and I have no complaints about the actual performance. Less computer animation, more context and dialogue would have been cheaper and more effective in creating an atmosphere.

There are some standout moments in the movie. The bloody bathroom scene with Beverly was the most tense and visually engaging, the subsequent montage was definitely not. Nicholas Hamilton’s portrayal of Henry Bowers was excellent, despite the terrible lines he had to read. The few times the film focused on him were the most powerful and emotionally charged.

Some of the notable low points… The rock throwing fight, where there is no impact and it inexplicably goes into slow motion for a few seconds. The scene where the main characters lay around in their underwear after swimming served no purpose, aside from showing the teenage boys find the teenage girl attractive (which was already established at the start of the scene). The love triangle that just faded in and out, left me feeling like scenes were cut. The aforementioned montage after the bathroom scene totally forgot about the stakes that were setup for it.

The film is over two hours long, an hour into it I was checking the time and having whispered discussions with my companions. There was a few other people in the screening, there were no audible reactions from the audience at any joke or scare.

While there are some good moments, ultimately the movie does not deserve the praise it has received. An aimless story, the omnipresent but somehow impotent antagonist, and substandard special effects. The acting was the strongest point, but with a weak script, little character development and uninspired direction, it wasn’t entertaining.

My issues with IT/Pennywise as a character and the overall plot may be an issue with the source material, but the issues with the script, direction and special effects are very much the fault of the film makers.

I can see why some people have enjoyed watching this, to a point... I cannot understand why it’s currently sitting at 85% on RottenTomatoes and 8.0 on IMDB. This movie floats, like a number 2.

(Really though, 4/10)

Wakened from its latest hibernation, New Horizons may visit additional Kuiper Belt Objects

Fuel saved during the MU69 encounter could be used to send New Horizons to a third KBO, a move that would require yet another mission extension. In 2016, NASA approved an extended mission for the MU69 flyby through the year 2021.

On Sept. 6, Stern told members of NASA’s Outer Planets Assessment Group that mission scientists are already searching for an additional KBO target.

“We have a fighting chance of having a second [Kuiper Belt Object] flyby,” Stern said.

Approval of another mission extension will also provide more opportunities for New Horizons to continue its distant observations of KBOs, dwarf planets, and centaurs. Stern said that he intends to request a second extension once the MU69 flyby is completed and the data collected from it returned to Earth.

Even that might not be the mission’s end. Stern foresees additional extensions beyond the one that would take it to a second KBO.

“There’s fuel and power on board the spacecraft to operate it for another 20 years,” Stern said. “That’s not going to be a concern even for a third or fourth extended mission.”

The probe will be put into another hibernation period on Dec. 22, 2017, during which it will remain until June 4, 2018, when it will be woken up in preparation for the MU69 encounter, which will officially begin in August 2018.

(486958) 2014 MU₆₉

Size comparison to Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko (exact size and appearance of 2014 MU₆₉ are still unknown, but it is suspected to be a binary object or contact binary, like Comet 67P)