If you’re a Verizon internet customer and you’ve been getting increasingly frustrated with Netflix buffering, a fix may be at hand, with a new deal with the on-demand video service that it says should prevent the glitches and pauses that even high-speed FiOS customers have been complaining of. Still, even as the collaborative fixes go into play, Verizon can’t help … Continue reading
The Texas governor’s concern for the well-being of babies has a curious exception. Meet Jessica De Samito
A Pennsylvania teacher has been charged with felony institutional sexual assault following allegations that she had sex with two 18-year-old students at her home.
Tiffany Leiseth, 26, worked as a substitute English teacher in the New Brighton School District, northwest of Pittsburgh. The victims in the case were both taught by Leiseth, although the alleged sex acts occurred after classes had ended for the year.
Police launched an investigation in late May after they received tips that the teacher had sent nude photos to each of the young men.
“[Investigators] followed up on that rumor and they found those students, and they found the nude photographs, and they identified the teacher,” Moon Township Police Chief Leo McCarthy.
In interviews with police, each victim described how he had been invited to Leiseth’s house, was offered beer, and then engaged in sexual activity with the teacher. The first student came over on the last day of school, in the hours following the end of classes. The student said he visited Leiseth’s home the next day, according to police.
She reportedly told the students not to tell anyone, according to WPXI.
Leiseth lost her job in the wake of the allegations, but her attorney argued that since classes were over when the alleged acts occurred, she wasn’t their teacher anymore.
“I’m not going to get in a war at this point with the alleged victims’ families,” Michael DeRiso, Leiseth’s attorney, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “The reality is you had three consenting adults once school let out.”
McCarthy disagrees.
“Regardless of your age, whether you’re an adult or not, if you’re a high school student, a teacher cannot have sexual relations with you,” McCarthy told WPXI.
However, because the young men were 18 years old, police could not charge Leiseth with a crime for sending them nude photos, CBS Pittsburgh reports.
Leiseth’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 22.
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Ali is a 12 year old boy from Yaabad, Palestine, who is fighting leukemia. Every week, his mother Samehara takes him to the hospital for testing. Because the kind of medical treatment Ali needs isn’t available in Palestine, he must go to an Israeli hospital — and that poses problems.
Palestinian patients with serious conditions, like Ali, can obtain special permission to receive treatment in Israel. They are not, however, allowed to drive their own vehicle past the checkpoints. A taxi, which would cost at least $150 U.S. dollars, isn’t a viable option.
To help Palestians like Ali, an Israeli man named Yuval Roth began Road to Recovery. His organization uses volunteer drivers to transport Palestinian patients to Israeli hospitals.
Yuval’s reason for helping is simple. “If we won’t help them, they won’t get to the hospital.”
In the above video from “Operation Change,” a new series on OWN, Yuval explains that his brother’s tragic death in the Israeli-Palestine conflict propelled him to start his organization. “My disaster, the death of my brother, caused me to understand that we don’t have time. If we really want a real change, we have to every day do something to end the occupation, to make the change,” he says.
To date, Road to Recovery has assisted over 400 Palestinian families. The organization’s volunteer drivers have traveled over 125,000 miles transporting patients and have made more than 2,000 hospital trips.
“Yuval is an amazing person who cares a lot about humanity,” Ali’s mother Samehara says. “I respect him a lot and he does not care about where we come from. We never discuss politics or our differences and he treats Ali like his own son.”
“Operation Change” airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET on OWN.
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The author of the dark, brilliant novel The Kept shares what’s hidden inside the heart — and mind — of a guy who’s finally fallen for that one amazing woman.
By James Scott
The feeling: A case of the chills and fever.
This sounds like a plot point from a Louisa May Alcott book, but I swear it’s true: When my future wife and I had our first long conversation, it was an extremely cold night in Boston. I was already sick, but didn’t want to cut off the conversation. The result: pneumonia that lasted me right through the holidays. It was worth it.
The feeling: A release from family values (for a little while).
My father is an accountant and we were raised to value each dollar. If we were to buy something, he demanded we do the proper research and consider what it would mean for our budget. When I met my wife, however, I suddenly felt the urge to buy any and everything that I thought she might like: way-too-expensive leather boots, vintage soul records, dumb souvenir mugs. Recently I was in New York and walked by a street vendor selling antique earrings. I already had more than too many gifts for our anniversary (which isn’t for another month) but they just looked so much like her. Remembering my roots, however, I offered a little less than the sticker price.
The feeling: An urge to spill big secrets.
My wife’s mother might not be the best secret keeper in the world, and yet I really needed to tell her I was proposing to her daughter (having told her father two weeks prior). So, I waited until the last second, pretended to my wife I was going running and called her mom on my cell phone. She started to cry. Sob, really. And then she said, “Let me pull my car over.” Next time, I will know to check if she is operating heavy machinery before passing along highly classified good news. That night, I asked my wife to marry me — before her mother told her first.
The feeling: A slip into open negativity.
Being positive is, by nature, a good thing. But I knew I was truly in love when I felt relaxed enough to be dark, anxious and a little whiney. Not long ago, I called her to complain, first about how much work I had to do, and then about how I needed to go to the emergency room for what appeared to be a spider bite that had gotten out of control in a matter of hours. Her response, after showing the appropriate level of concern when one may be dying (worst case) or in the process of turning into a superhero (best case): “Can you take a picture? I’d like to see it.” It’s like that pillow your grandmother crocheted for you: Love means looking at alarming spider bites.
The feeling: A willingness to bear firearms.
When I met my wife, I’d never been to the South, where she’d been born and lived her first 22 years. My family’s New England holidays are always pretty quiet affairs; the loudest thing is a disagreement between the announcers in the football game. Thanksgiving with my in-laws in Alabama, however, was full of the tocking of outdoor pingpong, the growl of three-wheelers, the blast of shotguns and the corresponding shattering of clay pigeons. I adored it all (and her even more)—and was even told I “looked like a real shooter” despite missing the target 99 percent of the time.
The feeling: An openness to love all around.
Something about being in love made me more available to it. I went from rarely saying “I love you,” to being one of those people who says it to his family, his dog, his friends, his plumber, his plants and sometimes, his shoes.
James Scott is the author of the novel The Kept.
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“Tonight Show” viewers got to relive a classic “Saturday Night Live” moment on Thursday night when Dana Carvey busted out “Choppin’ Broccoli” — with a full orchestra.
The Derek Stevens comeback song about a lady who went downtown to buy some broccoli is just as funny today as it was during Carvey’s very first appearance on “SNL” back in 1986.
Watch the video above to see just how much more dramatic Carvey’s nonsensical rockstar sounds when you add a few violins.
Earlier this week the Senate voted 82-12 to open debate on the Bipartisan Sportsmen’s Bill, a measure introduced by Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan that “aims to preserve federal lands for hunting, fishing and shooting” and had over 20 Republican co-sponsors. It also would “amend the Toxic Substances Control Act, preventing the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating ammunition and fishing equipment that may contain lead.” Sounds… lovely. What it really is, though, is a vehicle for an endangered red-state Democrat such as Kay Hagan to bring something home to brag about.
Since October, at least 52,193 unaccompanied children have been apprehended at the U.S.’s border with Mexico. For months, churches, humanitarian organizations, and individuals have sought to offer clothing, food, and space for rest for the road-weary migrants, some of which have traveled on for more than a month.
Fleeing sexual assault, organized crime, and deteriorating economic conditions in their home countries, children and adults are risking life and safety to live in the United States. For people familiar with the Gospel according to Matthew, this crisis is nothing new.
Just after the Magi visit the toddler Jesus, Joseph, Jesus’ stepfather, has a dream. “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt,” the divine voices says, “and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” Being the compassionate, devout man he was, Joseph springs up, gathers Jesus and Mary by night, and escapes to Egypt. Like the people crossing through Mexico to come the United States, the Holy Family were seeking the space, refuge, and right to flourish, borders be damned. The same God who led Joseph and Mary from Nazareth to Bethlehem is the same God who led Joseph, Mary, and Jesus from Nazareth to Egypt, legal documents or not.
Joseph and Mary — like the parents and families of children fleeing Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador — wanted a loving, violence-free atmosphere in which to raise their Son. Who am I, any government, or political party to deny them of that right? Worshipers of Jesus the Refugee are accompanying the displaced Holy Family from Nazareth every time they href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/17/us/migrants-flow-in-south-texas-as-do-rumors.html” target=”_hplink”>welcome and house the displaced peoples of Central America.
In Western Christianity’s frantic effort to promote an omnipotent, omniscient God, we have lost the vulnerable, fragile Christ on his way to Egypt. Instead of finding solidarity with him and his parents in their politically-induced migration, we end up siding with Herod, the ruler who caused their displacement in the first place.
Wherever you end up on the spectrum of arguments from universal deportation to amnesty, I want you to consider this: Jesus is hidden in every person who begins that long trek away from the economic, political, and social unrest of their homes. He is in every pregnant mother who defies the odds of physical and emotional dehydration, every child ready to delight in a better future, and every tireless patrol officer, case manager, and volunteer who greet them with open arms and hearts. Do not deny these people the life they have been afforded by God in Christ. If anything, receive their suffering as yours, knowing that Jesus is the lifter of burdens and bearer of yokes.
Who said you need to be on drugs to hallucinate?
Thanks to The Illusion Lab, a YouTube channel that puts together mind-bending optical illusions, you can induce hallucinations on your own — just by watching a video.
In one of the lab’s most recent videos, viewers are asked watch the optical illusion in fullscreen and say the letters that pop up in the middle of the screen. At the same time, lines and patterns swirl around the letters in what seems to be a random ebb and flow.
By the end of the two-minute video, the viewer should be primed to start seeing some hallucinogenic effects once they look away from the screen. The result is called motion aftereffect.
Fast Company’s Co.Design’s John Brownlee explains:
When we look at rapidly moving objects for long periods of time, the neurons in our brains adapt to the stimulus by increasing their sensitivity to objects moving in the opposite direction. For example, if you stare at a waterfall for a few minutes, then look at a rock, the rock will appear to swim upwards for a short period of time.
So by staring at the sequence of the letters surrounded by moving patterns in the video, then immediately focusing on a stationary object, the viewer’s brain is tricked into seeing motion where there is none. Trippy, right? The run-of-the-mill optical illusions don’t have anything on this video.
Try it out for yourself, below, but be forewarned: The optical illusion may make you feel a bit dizzy.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, who shared an Oscar for Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Last Emperor” score, has been diagnosed with throat cancer and has canceled his upcoming performances to focus on his health.
“I promise to return after a full recovery,” Sakamoto, 62, said Thursday on his official website. He apologized for bowing out of his upcoming events, saying he would not be able to attend the First Sapporo International Art Festival, which starts later this month. He said he was also “deeply upset” at having to cancel a July 30 concert for the Park Hyatt Tokyo’s 20th anniversary, where he had planned to unveil new material.
At “the end of June, I was diagnosed with throat cancer,” he said on his website. “I have decided to take time off of work in order to concentrate on treating it. I deeply regret causing so many people considerable inconvenience.”
Hideaki Tamamushi, spokesman at Avex Group, which manages Sakamoto, said that in early June the musician went for a checkup after feeling a strange sensation in his throat, and the diagnosis came toward the end of the month. He said the company has been deluged with calls asking about Sakamoto. Tamamushi declined to release further details about his condition.
Sakamoto’s daughter and musician Miu Sakamoto said on her Twitter account that her father was going to stay for a while in the U.S., where he is based.
“I would like my father to take a good rest after working so hard all the time. I hope he will recover completely and return to playing his great music with all his heart,” she tweeted.
Sakamoto, born in Tokyo, rose to fame as a member of the electronic pop band Yellow Magic Orchestra in the 1970s and 1980s. He has been based in New York in recent years, although he visits Japan often.
Since the March 2011 tsunami set off a nuclear catastrophe in Japan, Sakamoto has been one of the most vocal celebrities against nuclear power along with Nobel-winning writer Kenzaburo Oe and visual artist Yoshitomo Nara.
Sakamoto, who also acted in and wrote the score for the 1983 film “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence,” directed by Nagisa Oshima, has appeared at anti-nuclear protests and urged Japan to reflect on what he called the mistake of Fukushima.
In a July 2012 rally, he got up on stage and read from notes on an iPhone, warning Japan not to risk people’s lives for electricity.
“Life is more important than money,” he said in Japanese, then added in English, “Keeping silent after Fukushima is barbaric.”
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