Bus Stops - October 24

Chicago Megabus Driver Arrested for DUI (NBC) 

(The driver of a bus taking passengers from Chicago to Iowa City and Des Moines was arrested on drunken driving charges Friday night. The Iowa State Patrol pulled over the Megabus around 10 p.m. Friday on Interstate 80 near Iowa City. The driver, 52-year-old Carl Smiley, of Chicago, was being held Saturday in the Johnson County jail on suspicion of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated.)

Bus line franchise in jeopardy over gender segregation (JTA) 

(New York City's Department of Transportation has threatened to revoke its contract with a bus company that makes women sit in the back. The department sent a letter to the Private Transportation Corp., which operates the public B110 bus route under a nearly 40-year-old franchise arrangement with the city, reminding the company that requiring women to ride in the back of the bus "would constitute a direct violation of your franchise agreement and may lead to termination of that agreement." The letter said the company could not get an exemption based on religious grounds.)

NJTransit Bus Driver Stabbed in Newark (Westward Patch) 

(The driver of an NJTransit bus was stabbed by a 26-year-old passenger Saturday night on Hawthorne Avenue in Newark, according to authorities. Newark Det. Eugenio Gonzalez, a police spokesman, said Maurice Young, of Newark, brandished a knife around 8:30 p.m. as the bus stopped to let passengers exit. He allegedly then stabbed the driver several times.)

Man arrested after slow-speed bus chase (ODT) 

(Hokitika police boarded a moving driverless 10-tonne bus, and presented a Taser at the occupant after he allegedly crashed into two police cars. Hokitika police tried to wave down the bus, after it was spotted on State Highway 6 without any lights on, at 9pm on Friday.)

Corgi Dressed as M23 Bus Wins NY Halloween Dog Parade (Transportation Nation) 

(From WNYC: A corgi dressed as an M23 bus and his owner, Ben — dressed as a bus stop — won Best in Show at the Tompkins Square Park Halloween Day Parade on Saturday.)

'Paranormal Activity 3' scores best October opening ever with $54 mil (Entertainment Weekly) 

(Well, that worked. Produced for only $5 million, Paramount’s Paranormal Activity 3 surpassed everyone’s expectations and opened to a staggering $54 million, according to studio estimates. That’s the biggest October debut ever, beating the $50.4 million opening of last year’s equally scary Jackass 3-D. Paramount is also claiming that PA3 clinched the best horror opening ever, topping Paranormal Activity 2‘s $40.7 million.)

Church Of Scientology Investigated 'South Park' Creators Matt Stone, Trey Parker: Report (Huffington Post) 

(For Matt Stone and Trey Parker, nothing is holy or immune to satire. And since the launch of their groundbreaking animated TV series "South Park," they've skewered a multitude of world religions, pointing out hypocrisies, inanities or just playing with ridiculous stereotypes. One of their most famous religious satires, 2005's Scientology-targeting "Trapped In The Closet" episode, allegedly struck such a nerve with the church's leaders that the group responded by targeting Stone, Parker and their friends in a long-term covert investigation.)

Real-life superhero movement growing, but not getting warm reception from police (Washington Post) 

(When Seattle-based masked crusader Phoenix Jones was arrested last week for pepper spraying a group of people he claims were fighting, he piqued the curiosity of thousands across the nation. A real-life superhero? Stopping crime in the dark of night? Suit, boots, mask and all? It turns out Jones isn’t the only ordinary guy whose nighttime is filled with crime-fighting, caped adventures.)

Dentist to buy back Halloween candy (Mansfield News Journal) 

(A Mansfield dentist is offering cash and prizes in exchange for sweets. This Halloween, trick-or-treaters can bring their excess candy to the office of Craig Callen in Mansfield and receive $1 per pound (5-pound limit per child) and free toothbrushes. There also will be a drawing for two free children's bikes.)

MO man tracks down classic car stolen in 1995 (Herald Extra) 

(A Missouri man and his classic car have been reunited 16 years after the vehicle was stolen. Edward Neeley of Jefferson City, Mo., picked up his red 1969 Chevy Camaro in Salt Lake City on Tuesday after tracking it down in Utah last month. The Deseret News of Salt Lake City reports Neeley contacted Utah authorities after he saw the Camaro listed for sale online.)

Man accused of throwing mom out of wedding (CBS) 

(A western Nevada man faces charges after authorities say he carried his mother out of a church when she arrived to stop his wedding. The Record-Courier reports Justin Lew Harris of Gardnerville carried his 56-year-old mother out of the church Monday as she loudly objected to the ceremony.)

Accused vomiting, intoxicated coffee drinker busted at PSL Starbucks (TC Palm) 

(Lots of people sit at tables at Starbucks and drink coffee. Fewer folks do so while wearing no shirt, barfing and "appearing intoxicated." Something along the lines of the latter is what Port St. Lucie police were dispatched to about 6:30 p.m. Oct. 14, a recently released arrest affidavit states.)

Firefighter revives dog, mouth to snout (MSNBC) 

(When his fellow firefighters carried an unconscious Labrador retriever out of a burning house on Tuesday, Jamie Giese had no medical equipment to revive him. So he went with something he had only seen on TV. The Wasau, Wis., firefighter leaned in for a close encounter of the canine kind, providing mouth-to-snout respiration to help the struggling yellow Labrador breathe, after it had inhaled a substantial amount of smoke. Kim Carlson watched as her dog was saved by Giese’s unorthodox heroics.)

Unrelenting sex drive may signal deadly rabies (MSNBC) 

(A 28-year-old woman in India came to her doctor with an unusual complaint: a sudden and persistent increase in her sex drive. She felt constantly aroused, often with no stimulation at all. Unable to find an explanation, the woman's physician and gynecologist referred her to the department of emergency medicine at the Sri Gokulam Hospital and Research Institute in Salem, Tamil Nadu. Four days later, she was dead.)

Accused vomiting, intoxicated coffee drinker busted at PSL Starbucks (TC Palm) 

(Lots of people sit at tables at Starbucks and drink coffee. Fewer folks do so while wearing no shirt, barfing and "appearing intoxicated." Something along the lines of the latter is what Port St. Lucie police were dispatched to about 6:30 p.m. Oct. 14, a recently released arrest affidavit states.)

2-year-old Houston girl uses cell phone to save mother's life (KHOU) 

(A 2-year-old Houston girl is being credited with saving her mother’s life after using a cell phone to call for help when she collapsed. On Thursday, Larissa Taylor fell next to her 8-month-old daughter’s bed and was lying in a way that stopped her from breathing.)

First grader brings gun to school after ex-NYPD mom forgets she put it in daughter's backpack (NY Daily News) 

(Lots of people sit at tables at Starbucks and drink coffee. Fewer folks do so while wearing no shirt, barfing and "appearing intoxicated." Something along the lines of the latter is what Port St. Lucie police were dispatched to about 6:30 p.m. Oct. 14, a recently released arrest affidavit states.A retired NYPD detective nearly caused a tragedy on Tuesday when she put a loaded pistol in her daughter's backpack - and the girl inadvertently brought it to school. Marian Brioso, 46, of Staten Island, put her .25-caliber Taurus handgun in her 6-year-old daughter's book bag, planning to remove it later, police sources said. But Brioso, who's married to NYPD Capt. Paulino Brioso, forgot to remove the gun and her daughter unwittingly brought it to her first-grade class at the Transfiguration School in Chinatown.)

Kevin Smith gets voluble on being voluminous (Globe and Mail) 

(Kevin Smith can spin a tale for hours, and does. If you thought characters talked a lot in his movies – Clerks, Mallrats, Dogma – rest assured they are reticent by comparison. He shows his talent again in Too Fat for Forty, a stand-up special that was filmed on his 40th birthday (Aug. 2, 2010) for broadcast on the website epixhd.com. The uncut feature on this week’s DVD lasts more than three hours, with another 50 minutes from the evening packed onto a second disc.)

'Red State,' 'Too Fat for 40,' 'Smodimations' DVD reviews (NJ.com) 

(When Kevin Smith — the Red Bank native behind talky raunch comedies from "Clerks" (promising) to "Cop Out" (dismal) — announced he would make a horror film, to many of us, the conclusion seemed forgone: It would be torture porn with funny, raunchy dialogue.)

Movie Review: Red State (Long Island Press) 

(Moving on from the dumb and (increasingly) dumber crap on which he made his name, Kevin Smith regrettably expands his horizons with Red State, failing his own remedial course in history for dummies. Which has the odd effect of a narrative assault on an odious bunch extremist evangelists that is so extreme itself, that Smith’s rant may actually elicit cult sympathy for its overblown counter-demonization.)

Exclusive Interview: Kevin Smith (IGN) 

(From movies and TV to comic books and radio, entertainer Kevin Smith has quickly become the connoisseur of all things media in the last several years. If it's available for download, Smith is sure to be found. Whether he's releasing a feature film like Red State on VOD or catching your earholes with a brand new SModcast online, there's no question that this Jack of all trades keeps up to snuff on the goings on in home entertainment.)

Kevin Smith trio a DVD lover's treat (The Sudbury Star) 

(It's a Kevin Smith three-fer this week, which will delight his cadre of loyal fans. Unfortunately, this news likely won't even cross the radar of anyone who's not into the portly American's unique style of humour and filmmaking. And given his performance of late cinematically speaking, it's hard not to argue.)

Red State Review (FSR) 

(By now everyone knows that after his upcoming two-part hockey flick Hit Somebody, Kevin Smith is done making movies. If Red State is any indication, the time’s right for his exit. Smith’s Westboro Baptist Church-inspired horror-thriller has been making headlines since his ill-fated fake auction following January’s Sundance premiere. He’s taken it on the road, showing it to packed houses across North America. It played a week at the New Beverly Cinema in L.A. The filmmaker’s tweeted about it incessantly. Now, it’s on DVD)

DVD review: ‘Red State' (News OK) 

(“Silent Bob” makes some pretty loud and uncharacteristically frightening noise in his first outing as a writer and director of thrillers, and it's pretty safe to assume that “Red State” won't be Kevin Smith's last venture into the genre.)

Red State Movie Review: The Rebirth (Poptimal) 

(Holy. Crap. I didn’t have a clue as to what I was walking into with this movie, except for the few basic facts that it was a horror/thriller film written by the well-known cult film director Kevin Smith. Now, I can admit that I’m already one of Mr. Smith’s biggest movie-watching fans which is why I was more than happy to review this film in particular. I also realize that, as a result, it was crucial for me to take on Red State with an unbiased and open mind to give a decent review rather than producing a page full of ass-kissing paragraphs and long-winded praise. I promise you, I did my damnedest.)

British ferry captain crashed into fishing boat and killed skipper ‘because crew were chatting about Halle Berry as Catwoman’ (Daily Mail) 

(A British ferry crashed into a French fishing boat killing its skipper because the crew were discussing how 'sexy' Halle Berry looked in the movie Catwoman. The French fishing vessel was sliced in two by the force of the collision in thick fog between St Helier in Jersey and St Malo, France, on March 28 this year.)

George Clooney: 'Matt Damon would use Batman & Robin against me' (Digital Spy) 

(Clooney, whose latest directorial offering The Ides of March is screening at the BFI London Film Festival, brought up his turn in the critically-panned 1997 blockbuster when discussing how Hollywood is a less cutthroat industry than politics. "Most actors are pretty kind to one another because you're so lucky if you get to the position where you get to be in a film, you're very privileged and you understand that it's not just your brilliance that got you there," he said. "There's a certain generosity with most actors that I don't see in politics.")

Batman soars in 'Arkham City' game (USA Today) 

(Clooney, whose latest directorial offering The Ides of March is screening at the BFI London Film Festival, brought up his turn in the critically-panned 1997 blockbuster when discussing how Hollywood is a less cutthroat industry than politics. "Most actors are pretty kind to one another because you're so lucky if you get to the position where you get to be in a film, you're very privileged and you understand that it's not just your brilliance that got you there," he said. "There's a certain generosity with most actors that I don't see in politics.")

Internet pornography destroying men's ability to perform with real women, finds study (Daily Mail) 

(Internet pornography is creating a generation of young men who are hopeless in the bedroom, according to research. Exposure to lurid images and films in the new media is de-sensitising so many young people that they are increasingly unable to become excited by ordinary sexual encounters, a report said.)

Biggest Ever Study Shows No Link Between Mobile Phone Use and Tumors (Science Daily) 

(There is no link between long-term use of mobile phones and tumours of the brain or central nervous system, finds new research published online in the British Medical Journal. In what is described as the largest study on the subject to date, Danish researchers found no evidence that the risk of brain tumours was raised among 358,403 mobile phone subscribers over an 18-year period.)

Teen brains' growing pains (Science News) 

(The roller-coaster teenage years can take IQs along for the ride. A person’s IQ can nosedive and climb sky-high during adolescence, while corresponding brain regions wax and wane in bulk, researchers report online October 19 in Nature. The results suggest that the IQ number given to a child is not immutable, as many researchers believe, says neuroscientist Richard Haier of the University of California, Irvine. “This is an extremely interesting paper.”)

Lying to oneself may lead to depression (UPI) 

(Those who boost self-esteem by telling themselves they've done a great job even when they haven't may end up feeling dejected, U.S. and Asian researchers say. Lead author Young-Hoon Kim of the University of Pennsylvania said the study involved three U.S. groups totaling 295, college undergraduates with a mean age of 19, and one Hong Kong group of 2,780 students from four high schools.)

Crash dummies: Sexist car safety features injure women (Herald Sun) 

(WOMEN are more likely to sustain injuries in a car accident because safety features are designed more with men in mind, a study said yesterday. Combing through a decade of data about US motor vehicle accidents, three researchers found the odds of serious injury for female drivers wearing seat belts were 47 percent higher than those of men in a comparable mishap.)

Google, Facebook go retro in push to update 1986 privacy law (CNET) 

(For a few hours on Capitol Hill yesterday evening, it was October 1986 again, complete with legwarmers, an Apple IIc, pop rocks, Duran Duran, and cell phones the size of a cat. The companies sponsoring this night of nostalgia include Google and Facebook, which are hoping to visibly highlight how out-of-date a law enacted 25 years ago today has become in an age of cloud computing, gigabit networks, and terabyte storage.)

Apple's iPod Turns 10 (PC World) 

(Apple’s iPod, which transformed the way music is sold and distributed and revolutionized the consumer electronics industry, turned 10 on Sunday. Known largely for its computers until then, Apple introduced the first iPod on October 23, 2001, moving the company into a new era in which it would develop ever sleeker handheld devices, including the iPhone and the iPad.)

Occupy Chicago: 130 Arrested in Protests (Time) 

(Anti-Wall Street demonstrators of the Occupy Chicago movement stood their ground in a downtown park in noisy but peaceful defiance of police orders to clear out, prompting 130 arrests early Sunday, authorities said. Occupy Chicago spokesman Joshua Kaunert vowed after the arrests that protests would continue in the Midwest city. "We're not going anywhere. There are still plenty of us," Kaunert told The Associated Press after the arrests, which took police more than an hour to complete.)

Woman Wrongly Imprisoned for 53 Days, Thanks to Name Mix-Up (Time) 

(File this under Despicable Things Police Have Done: An Atlanta woman was mistakenly imprisoned for 53 days due to police mixing her up with another woman with the same first name. Teresa Culpepper thought that police who turned up at her house last August were responding to her call earlier that day reporting her truck being stolen. Instead, they arrested her for aggravated assault—a crime that was committed by another woman named Teresa, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.)

400 Trillion Miles Away, a Comet Storm Waters a World (Time) 

(One of the great mysteries of planetary science is how Earth got so wet. By the time our planet formed about 4.5 billion years ago, the sun's heat had driven most of the solar system's complement of water out toward the edges. Most of it is still there, frozen solid in, among other things, the rings of Saturn, Jupiter's moon Europa, the bodies of Neptune and Uranus and billions upon billions of comets.)

Powerful earthquake strikes Turkey, killing at least 65 (CNN) 

(At least 65 people were killed Sunday when the most powerful earthquake in more than a decade struck eastern Turkey, Health Minister Recep Akdag said. "We have a death toll between 65 and 70 and we hope this doesn't go up," he told reporters.)

Two arrests in hit-and-run death of Chinese toddler (USA Today) 

(Police in China have arrested two drivers in connection with the death of a toddler who was hit and left for dead on a busy street earlier this month in southern China, The Daily Mirror in the United Kingdom as well as Chinese-language media are reporting.)

Supermarkets pressured to snub Ben & Jerry's Schweddy Balls (LA Times) 

(Ben & Jerry's Schweddy Balls ice cream, inspired by the 1998 "Saturday Night Live" skit featuring Alec Baldwin as baker Pete Schweddy, isn't striking a chord with some conservative groups such as One Million Moms. Dubbed Schweddy Balls after the skit in which Baldwin tells a couple of NPR radio hosts, "Nobody can resist my Schweddy balls," the ice cream hit stores last month.)

Harold Camping Oct. 21 Rapture: Family Radio to Shut Down After Another Wrong Doomsday Prediction? (Christian Post) 

(Family Radio Stations, Inc., the radio network founded and managed by Bible teacher Harold Camping, has been broadcasting a message Saturday, one day after the world failed to end as the 90-year-old evangelist had predicted, encouraging remaining supporters to keep making donations to the network. Camping, who had also made the same predictions for 1994 and May 21, 2011, told supporters and the public after May doomsday failed to happen that he had simply missed what God had been revealing in Scripture, and that Oct. 21, 2011, would be the true and final day of God's judgment on the world. However, that prophecy also failed to materialize.)