All I want for Christmas is to skip church!

The most reliable annual “war on Christmas” fodder in all the land has arrived: A billboard, released by an atheist group, prodding at the religious foundation of the Christmas season with a reminder that atheists exist.

This year’s billboard, as it has in the past, comes from American Atheists. And this year’s billboard, as it has in the past, will fail to live up to the worst fears of its critics.

Don’t worry, Christmas is still coming. Billboards don’t cancel Christmas.

The billboard will appear in Memphis, Nashville, Milwaukee, St. Louis, and Fort Smith, Ark., right in the middle of a handful of red states. The campaign, according to an American Atheists news release, is “aimed at in-the-closet atheists who are pressured to observe religious traditions during the holidays” and who might want to attend the group’s Memphis conference next year. Running from Dec. 1 through Dec. 24, the campaign will also give the group a lot of press coverage (like this article) in the lead-up to Christmas.

“Dear Santa,” the billboard reads. “All I want for Christmas is to skip church! I’m too old for fairy tales.”

Last year, the same group purchased a billboard in Times Square. A state senator took the bait and asked for the billboard to come down. The group responded by announcing it would put up a similar billboard in the senator’s home district, on Staten Island. 

In 2012, American Atheists had another billboard in Times Square, this one reading: “Keep the Merry! Dump the Myth!” Similar billboards from the group go back at least four years, to 2010.

Effective or not, the campaigns are certainly good at attracting attention to an affiliation that does not fare particularly well in public opinion polls.

According to a Pew poll on belief, many of the states targeted by the campaign have a smaller-than-average percentage of people who responded that they do not believe in God. In Tennessee, for instance, just 2 percent of respondents said they do not believe in God; 12 percent of respondents stated that they were religiously unaffiliated (the national averages are 5 percent and 16 percent, respectively).

But American Atheists said it is bringing the campaign to the South not because of the quantity of atheists there, but because “discrimination and mistrust of atheists is especially pronounced” in the region.

Although atheists (along with the religiously affiliated) debate the extent of backlash and discrimination atheists face across the country, that history is written into state law: Tennessee, along with seven other states, has a law on the books banning atheists from holding public office, though those laws are unenforceable thanks to a mid-20th century Supreme Court decision. In Mississippi, where the atheist group failed to secure placement for an ad in Jackson, two unenforceable laws prevent atheists from holding office and from testifying in court.

Overall, American attitudes towards atheists are not positive. In a poll earlier this year, a majority of Americans said that a belief in God is necessary for individual morality. And a temperature-based rating system from Pew measuring how people in the United States feel about different faith groups found that Americans, by a wide margin, have the “coldest” feelings for atheists and Muslims, of all religious groups.

Will this billboard change those numbers? Probably not. But every Christmas now comes with a war on Christmas. 

Revenge Porn Suit Filed Against Facebook

A Houston woman who says she's the victim of "revenge porn" is suing Facebook and a former friend for $123 million.

Meryam Ali says Adeel Shah Khan set up a fake Facebook page in her name that contained doctored photographs that put her face on "false, phony, naked body shots,” The Wrap reports.

Ali says she found out about the profile in December and asked Facebook to take it down, but the social network failed to act.

It wasn't until months later, when the Houston Police Department subpoenaed Facebook in an effort to identify the creator of the fake account, that the phony page was finally removed, according to The Wrap.

"It's a pretty serious situation," Ali's attorney David Altenbern told Texas Lawyer magazine. "She is obviously very mad about what happened, very upset."

The $123 million figure comes from 10 cents in damages for each of the 1.23 billion members of the social network, The Wrap reported.

In addition, the lawsuit intends to get "Facebook, it's officers, directors, management, employees and subscribers (with media attention) to stand up, take notice and pay attention to the serious privacy violations concerns involved in revenge porn situations," the website reported.

Neither Facebook nor Khan responded to a request for comment from Texas Lawyer.

Big Lots Recalls Ottoman

Recall Summary

Name of product:

Wilson and Fisher brand Cayman Resin Wicker Ottoman

Hazard:

The center of the ottoman can collapse during normal use, posing a fall hazard to consumers.

Remedy:

View Details

Refund

Consumer Contact:

Big Lots toll-free at (866) 244-5687 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, or online at www.biglots.com and click on “Recalls” at the bottom for more information.

Recall Details

Units

About 14,000

Description

The Wilson and Fisher brand ottomans are dark brown resin wicker with cream colored cushions. They are part of a six-piece Cayman Resin Wicker seating set consisting of two ottomans, two chairs, a sofa and a table.  The recalled sets will have item number DA13-015-6S-2CO and SKU 810140754, which can be found in the instructions that accompany the sets.

Incidents/Injuries

Big Lots has received 19 reports of consumers falling through the centers of ottomans.  Six reported minor injuries such as back strain, scratches, bruises or contusions.

Remedy

Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled ottomans and return them to any Big Lots store for a $50 refund each.  Customers will be allowed to keep the remaining pieces in the sets.

Sold exclusively at

Big Lots stores nationwide from February 2014 through March 2014 for about $320 per set.

Importer

Big Lots, of Columbus, Ohio

Manufactured in

China.

All information on this recall obtained from CPSC.Gov

R.I.P. Casey Kasem Dies at 82

LOS ANGELES — 

Casey Kasem, the smooth-voiced radio broadcaster who became the king of the top 40 countdown, has died at age 82.

Danny Deraney, publicist for Kasem's daughter, Kerri, says Kasem died Sunday morning, June 15, 2014.

Kasem's "American Top 40" began on July 4, 1970, in Los Angeles. The No. 1 song on his list then was "Mama Told Me Not to Come," by Three Dog Night.  

The show continued in varying forms, and for varying syndicators,  until his retirement in 2009. In his sign-off, he would tell viewers: "And don't forget: keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars."

Arrested For Having Sex With What????

 An Ohio man who admitted last year to having sex with a pool raft has been arrested again for the same alleged behavior.

Police charged Edwin Tobergta, 35, of Hamilton, Ohio with felony public indecency after a passerby observed him nude having simulated sex with a pink life raft by the side of the road, Fox 19 reports. This is the fourth time Tobergta has been arrested for this kind of offense.

In 2011, Tobergta was caught with his pants down in an alley with his neighbor's pink, inflatable raft.

He went to jail, but was arrested again in 2013 for having sex with the EXACT SAME RAFT, which had inexplicably not been thrown out. The 2013 offense occurred at Tobergta's own home, but he was charged with, and pleaded guilty to, public indecency because it happened within the view of children during the day.

It is unclear if Tobergta's most recent alleged offense took place with the same pool raft.

In 2002, Tobergta was arrested for publicly pleasuring himself with an inflatable pumpkin. That object wasn't a pool toy, though, because come on, a man needs a little variety.

In his newest mugshot, Tobergta is wearing a T-shirt that reads, "I'm out of my mind. Please leave a message."

Two people dead after a woman dropped her cell phone into a toilet.

Two people suffocated and several others were reportedly injured after a woman dropped her cell phone into a cesspool in Xinxiang City, Henan province, China.

According to the South China Morning Post, the woman's husband climbed down into the open-pit toilet to collect the phone, worth about $300. He was reportedly overcome by the stench, lost consciousness and fell in. The man's mother reportedly jumped in after her son, but she also fainted.

Neighbors were called for help after the owner of the phone tried to save her husband and mother-in-law. She also lost consciousness. Several other people were injured in an attempt to help the victims.

“The smell was too strong. I lost consciousness before I could see anything,” a neighbor told Dahe Daily, according to a SCMP translation.

Neighbors found a rope and used it to haul the people out. In total, six people ended up being pulled from the cesspool, which was reportedly filled knee-deep with waste.

The husband and his mother both had pulses when they were rescued, but died after it took medical responders more than an hour to arrive on the scene.

"Two lives have gone in five minutes and my cousin's wife is still in coma, leaving a partially-paralyzed old man and a one-year-old son at home." the husband's uncle said, according to Shanghaist. "What are we supposed to do?"

Say What????

 

1. 

Source: imgur

2. 

Source: winter_storm

3. 

Source: beheadingboredom

4. 

Source: thestuccobungalow

5. 

Source: beingamyk

6. 

Source: imgur

7.

Source: vitamin-ha

8. 

Source: hamovhotov

9. 

Source: ihmsdiscovery

10. 

Source: keepbusy

Could Your Phone Camera Be Used to Spy on You?

In his recent television interview with NBC's Brian Williams, former NSA analyst Edward Snowden outlined the kind of spying techniques government agencies are capable of.

One segment was particularly troubling. In it, Snowden described how a hacker could potentially hijack the camera in Williams' pre-paid smartphone and use it to capture photos, video, and audio without his knowledge.

But is something like that really possible? Can someone really activate your camera without your consent? Several recent revelations seem to suggest that the answer is yes.

Using the exploit DROPOUTJEEP, the NSA could allegedly gain remote access to iPhone cameras way back in 2008. [Credit: Flickr user "reticulating" (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)]

Back in December, German news magazine Der Speigel published alleged NSA documents that it claimed were sent by Snowden. Buried in those documents, which date back to 2008, was mention of a method for gaining complete access to iPhones, dubbed DROPOUTJEEP. (It's important to note, however, that it's impossible to know whether the same methods apply to current iPhone models.)

Apple responded to the allegations in a statement to AllThingsD, claiming that it has "never worked with the NSA to develop a backdoor in any of  its products, including the iPhone."

According to the alleged NSA documents:

"DROPOUTJEEP is a software implant for the Apple iPhone that utilizes modular mission applications to provide specific SIGINT functionality. This functionality includes the ability to remotely push/pull files from the device, SMS retrieval, contact list retrieval, voicemail, geolocation, hot mic, camera capture, cell tower location, etc. [...] All communications with the implant will be covert and encrypted."

According to the documents, the initial release of DROPOUTJEEP was to be installed via "close access methods," which All Things D interpreted as direct physical access to the device in question. The slide, now more than six years old, said that future versions of this hack would focus on developing the ability to install the exploit remotely.

But if you don't have an iPhone, you're fine... right? No, not quite.

The same documents also claim that the NSA has (or, more likely, had) a special working group dedicated to accessing Blackberry devices, though there's no specific mention of means for activating the camera on a Blackberry. Of course, since 2008 Blackberry has fallen and Android has risen to control more than 80% of the smartphone market. It seems safe to assume that hacks like these are also being developed for Google's OS.

Indeed, just a few days ago Szymon Sidor, whose LinkedIn page states that he's a former engineering intern with the Google Analytics team, demonstrated in a video how it's possible to activate the camera on an Android device remotely. The only visible evidence that the camera application is running is a single pixel that's almost impossible to detect, even if you know it's there.

Though this new video isn't proof that the NSA has access to Android phones, it's strong evidence that they could. With that said, it's important to remember that this type of hacking must be done on a targeted basis. It's extremely unlikely that such an exploit is running on your phone now.

Either way, it's clear that, at least at one point, government agencies had the ability to remotely view the world through private individuals' smartphone cameras.

Can lightning injure people taking baths or showers?

Can lightning injure people taking baths or showers during thunderstorms?

Although this devastating force of nature (which kills an average of 58 people a year) usually claims its victims from those who are caught outside during thunderstorms, lightning has injured (and even killed) those who were indoors. People talking on landline telephones have been hit, as have those who were standing in front of windows. Yet the electrical discharge mayhem doesn't end there.  People doing the dishes, taking baths, and showers have also been harmed by bolts from the sky. 

Lightning strikes into the ground near homes have

sent devastating jolts up pipes and into sinks and bathtubs. Metal pipes used in household plumbing provide effective conduits for the massive electrical charges released by even a single bolt. 

Such injuries are relatively uncommon because one has to be doing dishes, bathing, or showering at the precise moment when a bolt hits. However, people have been injured in this fashion.

Falicity Wishkeno

• In May 2008, 15-year-old Falicity Wishkeno of Topeka, Kansas, was hit by lightning while taking a shower. Said Wishkeno, "Right when I got in the shower, I heard the thunder hit. I saw this big, white light. I jumped out of the bathtub and collapsed. I had trouble breathing, and I couldn't feel my legs at all. I felt all this pain in my legs and my whole body."





Abbie Jackson

• In November 2007, a bolt struck a teenager who was washing her hair at her home in Blandford, England. 

Said Abbie Jackson of the event, "It hit my wrist and basically lit up my arm. The shower-head flew out of my hand."

• In October 2006, a woman in Croatia was struck by lightning while brushing her teeth just as lightning struck a pipe outside the her home. Said Natasha Timarovic of her experience, "I had just put my mouth under the tap to rinse away the toothpaste when the lightning must have struck the building. I don't remember much after that, but I was later told that the lightning had traveled down the water pipe and struck me on the mouth, passing through my body. It was incredibly painful, I felt it pass through my torso and then I don't remember much at all."


• In June 2001, Josephine Martine of Deal, England, was blown out of her bath tub by a lightning bolt. The mother of three, who had been soaking in her bath tub during a thunderstorm, was catapulted naked through the air by the force of the bolt, landing on the other side of her bathroom. Said Martine, "I felt a huge kick in my hand and knew straight away it was electricity. In a split second I saw the water rippling. The kick of the electric shock was so powerful I was sort of thrown out of the bath. It was scary, but it happened very quickly."


• In August 1988, as Eleanor Loux of Exeter, Rhode Island, brushed her teeth at her bathroom sink, she saw a bolt of lightning leap from her toilet. The resulting ball of fire then bounced off walls and the ceiling in her bathroom until it dissipated. Surprisingly, Loux was not injured. Her bathroom, however, was another story.  The ceiling was cracked and the bathtub had charred rings in it. A utility pole outside her home had been hit by lightning, which sent the resulting charge through neighborhood power lines and metal water pipes.

As to how to remain safe indoors during a thunderstorm:

• Stay away from windows, because lightning bolts can enter the home through cracks around the sides of windows.


• Don't take baths or showers, brush your teeth, do dishes, or in any other way put yourself in contact with your plumbing.


• Stay off landlines. Use a cell phone instead. Landline phones are the number one cause for injuries from lightning inside the home.


• Do not lie on concrete floors and do not lean against concrete walls.


• Don't touch electrical equipment or cords. That includes not touching the refrigerator or stove.


• Keep windows and doors closed during electrical storms.

Lifelike Wake

An 80-year-old Puerto Rican woman has been memorialized at her wake sitting in her favorite rocking chair and wearing her old wedding gown.

At a San Juan funeral home, the body of Georgina Chervony Lloren was propped up in her red-cushioned rocking chair Monday and wearing the gown from her second marriage 32 years ago. She was surrounded by plants and flowers.

Her daughter, Miriam Chervony, said her mother specified that this was how she imagined her wake. She died Sunday.

The wake was held at Marin Funeral Home, which is well-known for putting on unusual, thematic wakes. At one wake, a slain boxer was memorialized standing in a makeshift boxing ring. At another, the deceased was propped up on his motorcycle.

10 of the BEST Ugly Cries in 2013

1.  Kim Richards, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills

Bravo

Former child star Kim Richards’ struggle to get and stay sober has been a big part of the most recent seasons of Bravo’s Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. When newer cast member and frequent pot stirrer Brandi Glanville suggested in the Season 3 reunion that Kyle Richards didn’t want her sister to succeed when it came to getting sober, the tears started to flow. Not only did Kyle break down over the accusation, but Kim tried to choke back what were once her signature waterworks on the show as she explained, “I don’t want to hear that anybody would want to see me fail, especially my sister.”

2.  Renee Graziano, Mob Wives

VH1

When her son came to visit her while she was in treatment in Florida, Mob Wivesstar Renee came to the realization that her self-medicating caused him a lot of pain. “To know that you hurt your child and the one person that loves you unconditionally makes me feel like a complete loser,” Renee said in a heartbreaking moment of the VH1 reality series. The cry may not be the prettiest, but Renee’s handling of his confession and his forgiveness are truly beautiful.

3. Eric Northman, True Blood

HBO

Besides the actual physical grossness of Nora’s death (see the crumpled, bloody, hep V-infected body above) in Season 6, Eric’s breakdown wasn’t pretty to watch, especially for such a pretty man who’s usually incredibly in control of his emotions. Eric only let himself lose it for a second after Nora’s death, but his tears quickly turned to anger and more ugliness as he decided to go on a killing spree.

4. Dana Brody, Homeland

http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2013/12/best-tv-gifs-2013/dana-crying-homeland

Showtime via Complex

Carrie Mathison may be regarded as TV’s most famous ugly crier, but she got some competition on her own show in Dana. In the fifth episode of Season 3, Dana found out that her boyfriend Leo lied to her about his brother dying. Then the above happened. No matter how you felt about Dana (or Morgan Saylor), there’s no denying her commitment to this scene. It’s all in the chin. Claire Danes taught her well.

5.  Daryl, The Walking Dead

AMC

Daryl went to save his brother Merle in this Season 3 episode of the AMC zombie drama, only to find out it was too late and he’d already become a walker. “The worst thing that could possibly happen between these two complicated, interesting brothers is that,” The Walking Dead executive producer Gale Anne Hurd said in an AMC interview. And there was nothing left for Daryl to do, but make this face … and kill the flesh-eating shadow of his brother. “His entire heart just breaks right there,” Norman Reedus, who plays Daryl, added in the AMC video. To prepare for the scene, the actor told Entertainment Weekly that he listened to a Willie Nelson song that reminded him of his late father. “I just wanted to break. I just wanted to collapse on the inside,” he told EW. “I just wanted to be crushed in a way you see my heart break.”

6. Teresa Guidice, The Real Housewives of New Jersey

Bravo

Things were never pretty between Teresa Giudice and her brother, Joe Gorga, but their tension reared its ugly head during Season 5 of The Real Housewives of New Jersey during a retreat intended to mend their broken relationship. After a physical fight between the Joes (Teresa’s brother and husband), Dr. V (of Bravo’s LA Shrinks, of course) arrived and sat Teresa and her brother down for a talk. When Teresa said, “We both have families and we want to be together,” her voice started to crack, realizing they’re preventing their children from having the closeness they once shared. Then, they hugged and had a good Gorga ugly cry. But to be fair, it was actually a beautiful moment.

7. Snooki, Dancing With the Stars

ABC

Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi managed to show a softer side of herself throughout her impressive run on Dancing With the Stars Season 17. So when she was voted off in Week 7 of the competition — losing out to fan favorite Bill Engvall, who consistently had the lowest judges’ scores — she kind of lost it. Sadly, she was also wearing some heinous makeup, having just performed her zombie-inspired group freestyle. Poor Snooki.

8.  Ashlee White, Princesses: Long Island

Bravo

Bravo

Bravo

Bravo

Bravo

Bravo

An afternoon wine tasting at Sparkling Pointe turned quite bitter when Ashlee brought up the fact that Joey called her funny looking. The conversation escalated to the point of Ashlee saying Joey’s mom was “right about [her]” (a low blow since that’s a complicated relationship), and then she fled to a different area of the vineyard to call her parents. “They were so mean to me,” she sobbed to her mom (later explaining in a confessional that it she felt “like three bulldogs were attacking this Chihuahua. Like this little teacup Yorkie,” with Ashlee being the Chihuahua/Yorkie, of course). Those black mascara tears simply put Lauren Conrad’s (and everyone else’s on this list) to shame.

9. Juliette Barnes, Nashville

ABC

Juliette Barnes may be the hottest (and bitchiest) young thing in country music on ABC’s Nashville, but behind the scenes, she was going through a world of hurt, much of which could be traced back to formative years with a pill-popping mother, Jolene. In the penultimate episode of Season 1, Juliette found Jolene and ex-boyfriend Dante, who’d been threatening to blackmail Juliette with a sex tape, both dead after a murder-suicide. You could feel the pain in her ugly cry as she realized her mom was gone for good.

10. Willy Winger Jr., Community

NBC

In a late Season 4 episode of Community, Jeff finally met his estranged father William and half brother Willy Jr. for a Thanksgiving reunion. Willy was immediately jealous of him, claiming that Jeff was the “Schwarzenegger” to his “DeVito,” and became increasingly angry over how close his dad and half brother were getting. When Britta (Gillian Jacobs) told him to take his aggression out on the dinner rolls, the above happened. And it only got uglier when he threw one of said rolls at his father.