WebProNews

Author: Lacy Langley

  • Young Newton Hero Inspires Foundation

    A six-year-old boy who was a victim in the Newton School shooting on December 14th of last year, was one of the many heros that have come to light recently.

    Jesse Lewis is the pint sized hero that saved many of his classmates at the cost of his own life.

    According to AP, Jesse had just seen his teacher shot and urged the others to run for their lives while the gunman, Adam Lanza, put a new clip into his semi-automatic rifle.

    “When I heard he used his last few seconds on earth to try to save his friends, I was not surprised,” she said. “I am so incredibly proud of him.” Scarlett Lewis said several people emerged as heroes that day, but her understanding is that some of the survivors ran because of what her son did to help them.

    “He yelled, ‘Run!’ Adam (Lanza) reloaded and shot him in the head,” said Scarlett Lewis, Jesse’s mom, who learned details of the events inside the classroom from investigators who gathered accounts from children who survived. 11 students survived from his class which was lead by teacher Victoria Soto, most of which managed to run past Lanza as he was reloading. Ms. Soto was killed.

    Scarlett Lewis has used her son’s memory to move past the unthinkable and turn a negative into a positive. She has since dedicated herself to the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Foundation, which promotes ways for communities to “choose love over anger, gratitude over entitlement, and forgiveness and compassion over bitterness.” The foundation was inspired by a message that Jesse had left on their kitchen chalkboard with the words “nurturing,” ”healing” and love.”

    Lanza shot his way into the school on Dec. 14 and killed 20 first-grade children and six women in one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history. He also killed his mother earlier in the day and committed suicide as police arrived at the school building. The report investigators are working on is due out soon, but there is still no known motive for the heinous actions of Adam Lanza

    Image via Jesse Lewis Choose Love Foundation

  • Legionnaires’ Outbreak Linked to Death in Alabama

    A death has now been linked to the Legionnaires’ disease outbreak that was reported in northwest Alabama earlier this month, according to AP. The outbreak was determined to have originated at a Florence, Alabama nursing home, Glenwood Healthcare.

    Legionnaires’ disease is a bacterial infection that can cause deadly pneumonia. During infection, the bacterium invades macrophages and lung epithelial cells and replicates intracellularly. It does not spread from person to person. Instead, people get it from inhaling contaminated mist or vapor. Tainted shower water, air conditioning systems or whirlpool spas are among the ways bacteria get in the air.

    Sources where temperatures allow the bacteria to thrive include hot-water tanks, cooling towers and evaporative condensers of large air-conditioning systems, such as those commonly found in hotels and large office buildings, as well as…nursing homes. This is what causes the disease to spread so widely and quickly among visitors and residents.

    13 cases of Legionnaires’ disease, so far, have been documented just this month. Ten were residents of the nursing home, and three were visitors. One visitor, an woman in her 80s, died on Thursday in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. A man from Milwaukee County died Aug. 16 at St. Luke’s possibly died of Legionnaires’ Disease.

    These cases come on the heels of a reported outbreak in a Brisbane Australia’s Wesley hospital. According to the Courier-Mail, Austrailian Health Minister Lawrence Springborg on Thursday released a report into the legionnaires’ outbreak at Brisbane’s Wesley Hospital which led to the death of a patient and sparked a statewide legionella testing regime.

    The Australian outbreak also sparked in in-depth investigation, in which the hospital was cleared of negligence earlier this week, to the relief of hospital administrators.

    Image via wikipedia

  • Yeti/Snowman Mystery Could Be Closer to Clarity

    Tales of giant Yeti, or Abominable Snowmen have been around for decades, and so-called “Bigfootologists” have enjoyed studying and chasing the elusive beasts. Now, according to CNN, research that has been done by a leading UK geneticist may have shed some light on the truth about the Yeti, or Abominable Snowman, after hair samples from two mystery animals proved to be a genetic match to an ancient polar bear.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70Dauy3fEoQ

    Brian Sykes put out a worldwide call last year for people to submit hair or other tissue from “cryptids,” or previously unknown species. From these donations, he collected about 30 samples. Those who gladly submitted samples to the project last year were asked to give a description of the material and details of where and when it was found. They were also encouraged to give their own opinion of its species type and the reasons for that view.

    Sykes’ research focused on two samples, both from the Himalayas but found about 800 miles apart. Testing found a 100% absolute match with a polar bear jawbone from Svalbard, the northernmost part of Norway, that dates back between 40,000 and 120,000 years.

    These surprising results cast new light on the legend, but will it satisfy worldwide “Bigfootologists”? “There’s more work to be done on interpreting the results. I don’t think it means there are ancient polar bears wandering around the Himalayas,” Sykes said. “But we can speculate on what the possible explanation might be. It could mean there is a subspecies of brown bear in the High Himalayas descended from the bear that was the ancestor of the polar bear. Or it could mean there has been more recent hybridization between the brown bear and the descendant of the ancient polar bear.”

    “‘Bigfootologists’ and other enthusiasts seem to think that they’ve been rejected by science,” Sykes is quoted as saying. “Now I think that’s a complete distortion of what science is about. Science doesn’t accept or reject anything. All it does is examine the evidence, and that is what I’m doing.”

    Image via youtube

  • Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones Trailer Release

    “Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones” has officially been hyped. The trailer, released today, is terrifying.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J39iyK_aqDE

    The movie comes out in January, but already has the makings of a first-rate thriller, just like its predecessors. It is marketed as a Latino spin-off of the successful “Paranormal Activity” franchise.

    The premise is this: Some teenager no-goodnicks (Andrew Jacobs, Jorge Diaz, Carlos Pratts and Gloria Sandova) led by 20-something Jessie, break into the home of a recently deceased woman and record what they find. The home is unsettling in it’s ambiance with voodoo trinkets and dreamcatchers all over the place.

    In the apartment is a box of video tapes marked “Katie and Kristi” ( a nod to characters from the other “Paranormal” films), some photographs of Jesse and a whole lot of blood. The house is obviously home to some unrestful dead, who decide to follow the kids home and disturb their lives as well as the lives of all those around them.

    Of course this one will continue in true “Paranormal Activity” fashion that we’ve grown to know and love, with shaky “found footage” format. Eeek. Makes it seem so real, doesn’t it?

    This one isn’t “Paranormal Activity 5”, but that is actually a film that is also on its way. That one is slated to hit theaters in the United States after “Marked Ones”, on October 25, 2014, just in time for Halloween…

    Makes you want to go out and buy a house, doesn’t it? YIkes!

    Image via youtube

  • Maroon 5 Discovered Amazing Photographer Rosie Hardy

    When Rosie Hardy, just a sweet girl of 15 at the time, was in search for the perfect MySpace picture for her own page, she never could have imagined that search would lead to where it has today. She is, in fact, the girl on the cover of Maroon 5‘s album “Hands All Over”.

    Hands All Over

    “Photography was really just a hobby for me,” Rosie Hardy said. “Never really in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be discovered by Maroon 5 and it would launch an entire new life for me. I still can’t believe it has happened!”

    “It was all a very cliché experience,” Rosie admits, in an interview for Flickr. “I was a fifteen year-old girl, and I really wanted a pretty My Space picture to make the guy I had a crush on fancy me. So I did with a little point-and-shoot camera. But what started off as taking pictures of myself turned into me going outside, getting adventurous and really loving it. I posted them on Flickr and started getting great feedback.”

    What happened then was every artist’s dream come true, and she wasn’t even looking for it! In 2010, Maroon 5 was ready to release their newest album “Hands All Over”, but they had a problem. The band did not have a picture for their album cover, so their management team hit the Internet, desperately searching and using the words “Hands All Over”. Immediately came across Rosie’s Flickr page.

    Rosie Hardy
    “They really liked the concept,” Rosie explains of one of her photos. “So they contacted me and asked if I could redo it, but in a more sexy way for the band. At first, I didn’t believe them, and I thought it was an Internet troll. You know, trolling at his best. I figured they were just trying to trip me up, so he could publish my response on Reddit for the entire world to see!”

    “But when I got contacted again, I realized this was legit,” Rosie says. “So I started to follow through and see what I could do.”

    Rosie got nude, jumped on her parents’ bed, and took several self-portraits. She posed with hands in her hair, hands in the sky, hands everywhere. She edited it all together and sent it back to the Maroon 5 team. Their response was one she never expected.

    “They took a look at it and said, ‘Right, we’re happy with this. No other model needed. It’s going to be you on the cover’,” Rosie says. “I couldn’t believe it. I pretty much fell off my chair when I realized that it was actually happening!”

    After the album release, her photo appeared on buses, billboards, and in store windows. It opened up her career from there to many high profile clients and to do the things she has always dreamt of. The extremely talented 19-year-old says she hopes to be the next Annie Leibovitz, but, “As long as I’m taking pictures, I will be happy.”

    Image via Flickr

  • Lara Flynn Boyle: Too Plastic for Hollywood Now?

    Lara Flynn Boyle made a rare public appearance in Beverly Hills on Sunday, April 14th, to the shock and awe of celebriphiles everywhere. At 43, the blue-eyed brunette star, clad in sunglasses, scarf, hoodie and and white pants, looked every bit the casual Sunday stroller. However, in the photos, that were released just this week, the Twin Peaks and The Practice actress was almost unrecognizable, with a puffy face and lips that resembled Anglelina Jolie‘s after a bar fight. What happened to her?

    She has never discussed it, but her changing looks have fired up speculation for several years that she has had some plastic surgery done, according to Us Weekly. Obviously. The actress used to be one of the hottest acts in Hollywood. She dated celebrities like Jack Nicholson, David Spade, Matthew Perry, and Harrison Ford.

    The one-time Las Vegas actress most recently starred as a cannibalistic witch in the horror-comedy Hansel & Gretel Get Baked, which was released back in February. Also, back in 2010, it was was reported that Boyle had been working on a pilot for her own reality series, although it never materialized. What reality?

    In her heyday, Flynn Boyle came under fire for being the poster child of the late 90’s too thin craze. She was bashed several times for looking like a starving shadow of herself and being a bad role model to the children. No one EVER thinks about the children! (Gasp)

    Fortunately, she seems to have escaped that and put on a few pounds, but now, poor Lara has joined the ranks of plastic surgery cautionary tales. She is in good company, with the likes of Meg Ryan, Melanie Griffith, and Jennifer Grey. Why does anyone in Hollywood get plastic surgery anymore? Will her new “look” put her on the “No” list in Hollywood?

    Image via youtube

  • Fallen Soldier’s Dog Rescued From Fire

    Fallen Soldier’s Dog Rescued From Fire

    Army Spc. Justin Collins rescued a puppy in Iraq, just before he was killed in 2007. That puppy came home and was one of Justin’s family’s only comforts in their grieving. Justin’s father Skip said, “She has been a major part of our healing process, bringing us to the point we are at now, after losing our son.”

    The dog, named “Hero” almost lost her life on Tuesday, when the family’s New Hampshire home caught fire, according to Yahoo. Hero was not breathing when she was finally found.

    Newport, N.H. Fire Chief Wayne Conroy said, “When I saw the condition she was in, my heart just sank…. I just thought, ‘Oh my God, the dog’s not going to live.’” But, Hero was determined not to give up so quickly. She came to thanks to the oxygen mask and treatments used in a frantic, harrowing ambulance ride to the hospital.

    Skip owes a debt of gratitude to first responders. In a moment caught on tape, he says to Chief Conroy,”These guys revived my dog. It don’t get no better than that. Thank you.” The responders also saved Justin’s medals and the flag that was draped over his casket, which are irreplaceable treasures to his family.

    The family also can’t help but believe that it was Justin, who was only 20 when he died, who helped “Hero” survive. “There are just too many signs… to not know that he’s there, and he’s looking out for us,” says Skip. “And looking out for his dog.”

    Just a day later, “Hero” is back to her old self and will continue to be an indispensable comfort to the family members that will forever miss their son, Justin.

    Image via Yahoo

  • Historic Bull’s Head Tavern Possibly Unearthed in NY

    The infamous Bull’s Head saloon, where then General George Washington is rumored to have raised a celebratory pint or two after the British withdrew from the city at the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783, may have been found in New York City.

    Preservationist Adam Woodward explored a building at 50 Bowery, which has housed a number of businesses over the years, from the Atlantic Garden beer garden to a chain drug store, and is currently scheduled for demolition to make room for a new hotel. What he found was amazing and possibly a change in fate for the old building.

    “At one point there was a distinct change in the building material, from cinder block to a brick-and-stone foundation wall,” he told the New York Times after his recent visit into the cellar of the building at 50 Bowery. “I followed that wall and found myself at the front of the building, under the sidewalk at the Bowery, and looked up and saw what looked to me like 18th-century hand-hewn and hand-planed joists and beams with extremely wide floorboards right above them. I was thinking, I am standing in the cellar of the Bull’s Head.”

    “I can’t think of another lot in Manhattan that has a more important history,” Mr. Woodward said, “and the fact that it might be intact, a couple of feet under the building, is an incredible opportunity to get on archaeological record.”

    The Bull’s Head opened around 1750 on the fringe of what was a young city below the Bowery. Washington and his troops reportedly marched down the Bowery and stopped there in 1783 before making “their official entrance into the city proper,” said Kerri Culhane, a historian who wrote the application that won the Bowery a place on the National Register of Historic Places.

    The neighborhood “was a butchers’ district in the 18th century and the 19th century,” Ms. Culhane said. “People drove livestock down from the hinterland and the slaughterhouse was behind the Bowery. That’s where the trading took place.”

    What an amazing discovery for American History! Woodward and other preservationists don’t want that new hotel to happen, obviously, and are hoping that the city steps in to further investigate the site, which could be one of the oldest remaining historical locations in New York City.

    image via wikipedia commons

  • Keenan Thompson’s co-star, Pharaoh Suggests Darmirra

    Kenan Thompson has said that he has had enough of cross-dressing to play black female characters. Over the years, the hilarious staple of Saturday Night Live has portrayed Rhianna, Jennifer Hudson, Oprah, and Maya Angelou, among others. Now he is refusing to play another woman.

    He told TV Guide, when asked what “SNL” will do now when confronted with potential black female characters or celebrity spoofs, “I don’t know. We just haven’t done them. That’s what I’m saying. Maybe [Jay Pharaoh] will do it or something, but even he doesn’t really want to do it.” Thompson blames a lack of quality black female comedians. “It’s just a tough part of the business. Like in auditions, they just never find ones that are ready.”

    Talented co-star Jay Pharaoh has mentioned his pick for SNL’s hopeful black female, Darmirra Brunson , who is currently on Tyler Perry ‘s “Love They Neighbor”.

    “Why do I think she should be on the show? Because she’s black first of all, and she’s really talented. She’s amazing,” Pharoah continued. “She needs to be on SNL. I said it. And I believe they need to follow up with it like they said they were going to do last year.”

    He’s pretty serious about this girl! So just who is Darmirra Brunson? She is an amazing celebrity impressionist, that’s who. In 2013, she joined the cast of the new sitcom Tyler Perry’s “Love Thy Neighbor”, but that’s not the extent of it. She has own her show on Youtube, called The Darmirra Brunson Show where she performs numerous spot-on impressions of her celebrities such as Beyoncé Knowles, Wendy Williams, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna and Mariah Carey.

    SNL would be smart to hire Darmirra, I think. but not because of the racial implications the show and it’s main man, Lorne Micheals, are facing. She is obviously an amazing talent. I mean come on! Hilarious.

    Image via wikipedia

  • Fran Drescher: Just Who IS This Shiva Ayyaduria?

    Fran Drescher, adorable owner of the world’s most annoying voice, is falling in wuv! Her beau is none other than Shiva Ayyadurai, the widely credited inventor of the original email. Huh! Didn’t see that match coming, but she seems to be really into him.

    Awww…

    So just who is this guy that has Fran Drescher all Twitter-pated? Shiva Ayyadurai was born December 2, 1963 in Bombay, India. At the age of seven, he left with his family to live in the United States, and at 14, he attended a special summer program at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences of New York University (NYU) to study computer programming, and later went on to graduate from Livingston High School in Livingston, New Jersey.

    Shiva Ayyadurai is currently teaching Systems Visualization at MIT, but his claim to nerd fame is as the inventor of email. Apparently, when he was in High School in 1978, he developed a full scale inter-office mail system and called it…dun dat duh dah!…EMAIL.

    But it didn’t end there! In 2012, he launched Systems Health, an educational system for medical doctors which integrates concepts from systems of holistic medicine such as Siddha, Ayurveda, and Traditional Chinese medicine with systems science and systems biology, according to Wikipedia.

    Shiva Ayyadurai is also the founder of the email service company EchoMail, Inc, among many other things. EchoMail’s core technology originated from Ayyadurai’s invention for classifying inbound email for the U.S. White House, which was seeking a reliable encryption and classification system for President Clinton’s email.

    This EchoMail system was implemented for large companies to make the reading and response of customer service emails faster as well as to support targeted email advertising for companies such as Allstate, Nike, Unilever, and JCPenney.

    Image via Twitter

  • Oreos Addictive? Not So Fast, Say Researchers

    Are Oreos as addictive as cocaine? That seems to be on many headlines lately, after a Connecticut College press release on a student research project broke the hearts of North America, but is it true? I’m not reserving my spot in rehab just yet, and here’s why. The research on that project is not absolutely certain, according to LiveScience.com.

    The experiment ran as follows:

    Student researchers put rats in a maze with two sides. On one side, the rats were rewarded for traversing the maze with delicious, sugary Oreos. On the other side, they got bland and boring rice cakes. The students then measured how long the rats spent on either side of the maze. I think we can all guess how that turned out. Oreos beat rice cakes everytime.

    The students then conducted the same experiment, except this time the reward at the end of one side of the maze was a shot of morphine or cocaine. On the other side, it was a shot of saline. The time that the rats spent on the side with cocaine in the second experiment was equivalent to the time spent on the Oreo side in the first experiment. However, that information doesn’t warrant calling Oreos addictive.

    “The study performed cannot determine whether Oreos are as addictive as cocaine,” said Edythe London, a researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles, who uses brain imaging to study the neural basis of drug cravings. “That question is best addressed in a comparison of how hard a rat will work for Oreos versus cocaine — how many times a rat will press a lever to get one or the other.”

    The question of whether foods can be addictive remains unanswered. The desire to binge on scrumptious sugary or fatty foods reportedly shares some similarities in the brain as the need for drugs. Rats fed junk food and then given a normal, healthy diet show brain changes similar to those seen in drug addicts trying to kick a habit, according to a 2012 study, for example.

    Scary. But, researchers suggest that other factors like government subsidies that make junk food cheap are just as much to blame as any perceived food addiction. More research will be needed to be conclusive on the subject.

    “We are biologically wired to respond to certain tastes, textures and colors, but that doesn’t mean it’s an addiction,” Gabriel Harris, an assistant professor of food science at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. I’m going to take that and run with it.

    image via wikipedia

  • Ivanka Trump Shares Pic of Son, Explains Name

    The newest Trump heir, the son born to Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, made his social media debut yesterday. Joseph Frederick Kushner was introduced to the world just one day after his birth on Monday.

    According to People, the little prince of the Trump family has an interesting and adorable name that was taken from both sides of his new family. The name Joseph came from the Kushner side. “Jared’s grandfather, Joseph, was a rock. His indomitable spirit, his sense of family, and his work ethic are the values we hope to hand down to our son,” Trump writes.

    About his middle name, Frederick, “My grandfather, Frederick, was a builder not just of tens of thousands of homes throughout this city, but of a tight-knit family that honors to this day the traditions he established. Both men set the standards that have been passed down through the generations and which we hope to impart upon Joseph and Arabella.”

    She adds, “We are honored to name our son after these two distinguished men. We feel so blessed with the newest member of the family!”

    Little Joseph isn’t the only Trump to be named after past patriarch, Frederick. Apparently, it’s quickly becoming family tradition. Donald Trump, Jr. named his fourth kid Spencer Frederick Trump.

    The baby’s announcement was answered with a collective sigh of relief for Trump-watchers everywhere. Ivanka and Kushner, Publisher of the New York Observer, found out what the baby was, but didn’t tell anyone beyond immediate family.

    “I’m superstitious,” she said. “I don’t like to tell people, but I don’t have the discipline to keep it a surprise. There are so many variables in motherhood that, those I can control, I like to.”

    That is certainly understandable. We moms can relate to that!

    Image via Tumblr

  • Ann Coulter: “Hucksters” and “Shysters” Harm Party

    There’s no question that, when it comes to governing our nation, there have been rampant mistakes made on both sides of the “aisle”. These have become especially apparent in the last few weeks with the Congress debacle. But the Republican party seems to be having a particularly hard time of it, as of late. Who can say why? Oh, right. Ann Coulter can.

    The controversial columnist did an interview with Fox’s Sean Hannity, in which she was promoting her new book, Never Trust a Liberal Over Three — Especially a Republican , and giving her two cents on the state of the party.

    “The problem is we have hucksters, shysters, people ripping off the Republican Party for their own self-aggrandizement, for their own egos, to make money,” she said. “I would put Todd Akin, Newt Gingrich, Liz Cheney, Mark Sanford all in the same boat, and the consultants who persuaded Linda McMahon and John Raese to run.”

    Wow. Liz Cheney? Really?

    “I love Liz Cheney,” Coulter said, “But why should we be having a rancorous primary against a good Republican senator other than for Liz Cheney’s ego?”

    When Hannity challenged her comment by saying that Cheney was simply “more conservative,” Coulter disagreed.“No, she isn’t. But that’s the point. There are a lot problems, we are not concentrating on winning, we are allowing shysters to take advantage of the Republican Party.”

    Well, she’s not famous for mincing words. Coulter specifically said some GOP consultants are not looking out for the future of the party.“We’ve lost a lot of Senate elections,” she said. “This is not a party that seems overly concerned with winning elections.”

    Hannity defends those attacked, explaining that they are only doing what their constituents wanted them to do, and that is to take down Obamacare.

    So, what is the real deal with the Republican party these days? Will they be able to pull it together and unite their followers into one solid party? And will they be able to do that in time? I guess we shall see…

    Image via youtube

  • Caroline Wozniacki Prompts Lesson in Oversharing

    Caroline Wozniacki, Danish tennis star and girlfriend (for now) of Irish golfer, Rory McIIroy, tweeted an embarrassing shot back in September of her sleeping sweetheart that rocked the social media world and taught us all a lesson on the risks of oversharing.

    This bit of bad judgement on her part has led to rumors of a split, although Wozniacki denies it whole-heartedly. She told Danish magazine Ekstra Bladet on Monday, “I’m so tired of the rumors. They occur every time Rory and I are apart a few days or do not write on Twitter. There is nothing in it, and from now on I just think that I will keep my private life private. It is so annoying that the media and the so-called sources constantly spread the rumors. They write just what they want.”

    I don’t know. That’s pretty embarrassing. If you read the comments following the post, you’ll see that there are many “embarrassed for him” type statements. This kind of oversharing that we see quite a bit of, makes me wonder just how much it too much? Especially if you are in a tender, fledgling relationship?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6em8DvByq8o

    Yahoo Shine asked this question of Julie Spira, online dating expert and author of “The Rules of Netiquette”, and she had this to say, “It’s wrong to post a picture of someone without permission. Not everyone is on the same digital page,” she added that Wozniacki should have shown the snap to McIlroy and asked if he minded her tweeting it to the world, “Everything now is in-the-moment—capture the moment, post and share it. She might have thought it was an innocent thing, but I wouldn’t be happy either. She should take it down.”

    It’s so true. You know you have that one (or twenty) friend that shares WAY too much about their time with their significant other. Julia says, “You should ask things like, ‘How do you feel about posting photos of us as a couple?’ Also, don’t do a kiss-and-tell unless you get permission from your significant other. Not everyone shares the same amount, and not everyone uses social media in the same way.”

    Can you imagine if everyone followed this rule? Facebook might crash, but…you wouldn’t have to surf through fifty shots of your friends husbands sleeping with their babies (seriously, only one of those will get the point across that their husbands are great dads), or countless shots of people’s dogs (since they can’t give permission), or sleeping boyfriends. That would be so awesome.

    As for a budding couple, social media rules and decisions are best tackled together, Spira says. “Like relationship status. Should you have one? Should you change it? It’s not a unilateral decision. It’s a decision best made together.”

    Image via Twitter

  • Mary J. Blige & Cricket for Breast Cancer Awareness

    Mary J. Blige is joining up with Cricket Wireless to help raise awareness of breast cancer in African-american and Latina circles, according to Yahoo finance. They will donate $10,000 to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure in San Diego County, through Verve Records. The money will go to needy women for education about breast cancer, as well as screening costs.

    “Cricket and Muve Music are proud to support Breast Cancer Awareness Month,” said Randy Newman, pacific regional general manager for Cricket. “We’re excited to help raise awareness, along with Mary J. Blige, about understanding and mitigating the risks of breast cancer.”

    Cricket will feature Mary J. Blige on its Muve Music service, which is calling on fans to download her music as part of a special music and social media campaign beginning today through November 3. Blige is hoping to reach all women, regardless of race or social status, through an invitation for followers over the next three weeks to join the breast cancer awareness and prevention conversation by offering informative links and breast cancer education trivia on Facebook and Twitter using hashtag #Muve4theCure.

    Blige said of her work, “Music is powerful and healing in so many ways, and having the right information at the right time is also important. Across the country, African-American and Hispanic women are not getting the care and treatment they need often because they are uninformed. An alarming number of these women are dying, and we can help to improve their chances of survival. I am working with Susan G. Komen and Cricket during October to help inform women about powerful early detection measures, such as getting a mammogram. Please join me in supporting this worthy cause, and let’s find a cure.”

    Image via youtube

  • Donald Trump Could Take Andrew Cuomo’s NY Spot

    New York Governor Andrew Cuomo better watch his back. The Donald may be ready to point the finger of doom and tell the governor, “You’re Fired.”. Trump has some pretty serious backers already in a campaign that he just found out about, himself.

    This article in the New York Post was the first that Donald had heard of it, but some GOP big bosses, including state GOP Chairman Ed Cox, are ready for Trump to step up and take the reigns in New York.

    The article says,

    “So far, Trump, who only recently learned of the effort, which is backed by state GOP Chairman Ed Cox and other party leaders, hasn’t said a flat ‘no.’
    Asked for comment by The Post, Trump left open the possibility of entering the race and blasted Cuomo, and even Cuomo’s dad, ex-Gov. Mario Cuomo, for their records in office.”

    What does the Donald think about all this new found attention? Speaking on “Fox and Friends” on Monday, Trump said, “Well, I think my initial reaction is I haven’t even thought about it. It’s a first. It would be very interesting. I mean, New York has some very serious problems. We have taxes that are through the roof; we have energy sitting in our ground that we are not getting. We have a lot of problems, but it’s not something that is of great interest to me.”

    What does Trump think about sitting Governor Andrew Cuomo?

    “I like him,” Trump said, according to USA Today. “He’s got probably the dumbest attorney general in the United States. He’s driving business out of New York state like crazy. I think Cuomo’s a nice guy, but the problem is people are leaving New York. The taxes are way too high.”

    Better watch your back, Cuomo. The Donald is on the loose. Wait. I thought he was going to run for President?

    Image via youtube

  • Amy Poehler Signs On to Co-Host Golden Globes 2014

    Actresses Amy Poehler and Tina Fey have signed on to host the Golden Globes again this year, according to Reuters, and everyone said, “Hooray!”.

    The comedic duo, and famous besties breathed life back into this years show after three years of Ricky Gervais who’s performance and humor were met with mixed reviews.

    There is another benefit to this deal, because Fey and Poehler – who have had their own NBC comedy series, “30 Rock” and “Parks and Recreation,” respectively – boosted viewership a whopping 28 percent in the 18-to-49 age demographic most coveted by advertisers who place their bets on that time slot.

    “Tina and Amy are two of the most talented comedic writer/performers in our business and they were a major reason the Golden Globes was the most entertaining awards show of last season,” Paul Telegdy, the president of alternative and late night programming at NBC Entertainment, said in a statement.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQdpW_hZfik

    Poehler and Fey are a comedic powerhouse who bring a relaxed and comfortable feel to the big night. Sure, the ladies take a few jabs at Hollywood in general, but none that are over-the-top or raunchy. Hollywood doesn’t squirm when they’re in charge, unlike their predecessor, Gervais, or the cringe-worthy antics of Seth MacFarlane on the Academy Awards in February. They are taking a cue from the Golden Globes and wisely replacing MacFarlane with the loveable Ellen Degeneres this year, after learning their lesson.

    Like the Washington Post’s Hank Steuver so brilliantly puts it, “Tina Fey and Amy Poehler should be allowed to do whatever they want: star in funny TV shows (despite meh ratings), make movies, write books, act as spokeswomen for the modern-day feminist movement. Heck, they could even run for office. They are, right now, America’s best gal pals, the two women we’d rather watch awards shows with (in sweat pants) than watch them endure the indignity of having to host the Golden Globes. . . .”

    So true. Who wouldn’t want to spend a Saturday night in front of the T.V. in sweatpants with Tina and Amy?

    Image via youtube

  • Hobbit Hole Living: Dan Price Shuns Societal Norms

    Simple living seems to be a sort of trend these days, but no one takes it more literally than Dan Price. Dan was once a photojournalist with a wife and two kids, a stressful job, a ridiculous mortgage, and a “normal” life, as society sees it.

    “I told myself, ‘buck up and pay the bills,’” said Price, ” ‘This is just the way life is’ “. Well, turns out, Dan in real life didn’t like the social norm.

    Now, for the last 20 years, in fact, Dan lives in a self-described Hobbit hole in the middle of a horse pasture in Oregon that he built himself, mostly from things he found here and there around the farm.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IziIkgg5rRo

    The land he lives on costs him $100 per month, and that is pretty much his major expense. The farm is near Joseph, Oregon where he picks up odd jobs to support himself, in addition to the zine he puts out called Moonlight Chronicles, which is all about the wilderness. When the harsh winter sets in, Dan closes up shop and heads to Hawaii to spend the cold months surfing. This is sounding less crazy by the minute, right?

    The inspiration for his unorthodox and completely genius lifestyle came from Harlan Hubbard’s book “Payne Hollow,” in which the author describes moving to a meager cottage in Ohio. Soon after reading the book, his marriage dissolved, so he took it upon himself to simplify. He told NBC News, “I don’t believe in houses or mortgages. Who in their right mind would spend their lifetime paying for a building they never get to spend time in because they are always working?”

    The best thing about this lifestyle? The freedom of being self-sufficient. Dan provides for himself without taking handouts. He proudly turns his nose up at foodstamps and other government programs. “I like being able to do what I want to do,” says Dan. I like this guy.

    Image via youtube

  • Rielle Hunter, John Edwards’ Mistress, Apologizes

    Rielle Hunter, former mistress to Democratic hopeful John Edwards, and his campaign videographer, has issued a public a apology in the Huffington Post for her behavior during her affair with the shamed politician. Their shenanigans destroyed his career, as well as his family and marriage to his late wife, Elizabeth. Hunter had a daughter with Edwards, Frances, in 2008.

    John Edwards denied the affair for over a year, even after tabloids photographed him visiting Hunter and their baby. He was later tried on allegations of misusing funds from his campaign to hide his affair and their baby, but was aquitted when the trial ended in a split jury.

    Rielle admitted to “behaving badly” in the essay, stating, “That may seem obvious to you but it’s taken me a long time to admit that, even to myself,” she added, “For years I was so viciously attacked by the media and the world that I felt like a victim. I now realize that the attacks are actually beside the point. The point is: I behaved badly.”

    Hunter went on to say that she didn’t realize the incredible scope of the damage her actions could inflict, and was especially regretful of the pain her actions caused Elizabeth, John’s wife who died from breast cancer in 2010. The couple never divorced, but were separated after she found out about the baby, and for the remainder of her life.

    “I hurt Elizabeth and her kids. I hurt her family. I hurt John’s family. I hurt people that knew Elizabeth. I hurt people who didn’t know Elizabeth but loved her from afar. I hurt people who gave their hard earned dollars to a campaign — a cause they believed in,” she wrote. “I hurt people who are married and believe in marriage. Many of these people have let me know that I hurt them. Unfortunately, I was not thinking about anyone but myself. I was selfish. I fell in love with John Edwards and wanted to be with him and that desire trumped everything else. “

    In the piece, Hunter blames her actions partly on growing up with infidelity as a regular part of life, saying that she was a “product of infidelity”. Not that it’s an excuse. You either repeat history or learn from it, right?

    “I believe history often repeats itself if you do not take responsibility and change it. Infidelity is wrong. It hurts people. It hurt me and then I in turn also hurt people,” Hunter wrote. “It is a chain of pain. One I do not wish to pass on to my own daughter. I am sincerely sorry for my bad behavior, and for hurting anyone. If I hurt you, I am sorry. It was not my intention, I was thoughtless and selfish, and I am sorry.”

    Her essay comes on the heels of re-release of her memoir about this whole crazy mess called, “In Hindsight, What Really Happened: The Revised Edition: John Edwards, Our Daughter and Me”. The world now awaits John Edwards’ apology…

    Image via youtube

  • Kim Kardashian Reveals How She Shed Baby Weight

    Kim Kardashian is looking GOOD these days, and it’s not just the super cute baby she’s sporting. She has garnered a ton of attention for her new blonde hair, her almost always fantastic wardrobe, and her relationship with her baby’s daddy, Kanye West. However, it’s her dramatic post-pregnancy weight loss that has many people asking “just how did she do it?”.

    Well, now the truth is out! Kim is an ardent follower of the Adkins Diet.

    You remember, your mom probably did it for a while before all the allegations surfaced of heart disease and other ailments from all that meat. There seems to be a new generation of followers to Dr. Robert Adkins’ high protein, low carbohydrate diet. The diet plan eliminates carbs but encourages dieters to not concern themselves with counting calories.

    Kim isn’t the only celebrity linked to the controversial diet. Sharon Osbourne has said that she, Ozzy, and their son, Jack have all experienced weight loss success on the diet. It’s also been used successfully by stars Jennifer Aniston, Demi Moore and Catherine Zeta-Jones over the years.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THH95GcaBes

    What about all that stuff we used hear about heart disease risk, clogged arteries, and too much red meat gumming up the works? Well, E! asked Jonny Bowden, author of The Great Cholesterol Myth, what the deal really is with this diet.

    “What distinguishes the Atkins diet is the absence of a lot of carbohydrates, so that leaves out a lot of choices. You can make bad choice and good choices, but there’s nothing dangerous about the Atkins diet. There really isn’t a downside to it. Low-carb eating is the healthiest way to go and I completely support that, but you have to really change your relationship with food,” he adds. “I haven’t in 20 years of practice seen any real negative effects on someone that follows a low-carb diet regularly using good foods and a smart approach.”

    Well, perhaps those of us out there seeking to lose those extra 10 pounds before Christmas (when we will proceed to pack it right back on) should look into this a little further…

    Image via youtube

  • Veterans Memorial in D.C. Won’t Hamper Honor Flight

    The Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. has seen its share of press over the past couple of weeks, as it has been closed, locked, and guarded, then protested, dismantled, and ignored. However, according to ABC, an Honor Flight from San Diego has assurance that the veterans on board will not be disappointed.

    The daughter of San Diego veteran, Moses Martin, 92, told 10News the Honor Flight Network has been assured by the U.S. Parks Service that the veterans will have access to the memorial, even though many Washington, D.C. landmarks are closed to visitors due to the government shutdown. Martin was an aviation machinist for the Navy during the final years of World War II.

    “I knew every part on those engines,” he told 10News about his job. Although Martin said he never saw any action himself, he did lose friends in the war. “I would like to pay them a little respect.” he said, and mentioned that he would like to find their names on the memorial.

    The San Diego Honor Flight comes just days after Sunday’s Million Veteran March to protest the government shutdown took place. On the groups website, it states,

    “We do not care what political leanings you may be; be it liberal, conservative, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent or whatever. The actions of the U.S. government this week with regard to barricading and shutting down the World War II Memorial to veterans, that may or may not be on their last trip to Washington DC, is a despicable act of cowardice.”

    FOX19.com-Cincinnati News, Weather

    Sunday’s protest, in which both Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin attended and spoke, took place after World War II veterans moved barriers at a rally on Saturday, and the organization Truckers Ride for the Constitution drove around the Capitol Beltway at slow speeds all weekend. Both groups also were protesting the government shutdown.

    Image via youtube