Monday, June 30, 2014

Rare Bill Murray Footage Proves He Was Born To Play Nick The Lounge Singer

Though Nick the lounge singer was one of actor Bill Murray's signature recurring characters from his stint at "Saturday Night Live," the role did not actually originate on the sketch comedy TV show.



Rather, Murray polished his lounge lizard act on the stage at Second City in Chicago, where the Wilmette, Illinois native got his start in comedy in 1973 before moving to New York City the following year. He didn't debut on "SNL" until 1977.



In a rare vintage clip posted by the Media Burn Archive earlier this year, a young mustachioed Murray can be seen singing "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" at 13:07 in the above video, taken from a local TV news broadcast.



Clearly, the role felt like a natural one for the musically-inclined Murray. One of his most well-known performances as Nick was his take on the "Star Wars" theme. In another incredible sketch, his drawn-out "Stairway To Heaven" became a instant fan favorite.



The real-life Chicago lounge singer who inspired Murray's act, Jimmy Damon, died last year at the age of 75.



(h/t Chicagoist)



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Chicago's Manufacturing Institute and Benefit Corporations: Aligning Stakeholder Interests

Chicago's digital manufacturing institute overseen by the Defense Department aims to build the next gen factory for U.S. manufacturing. The idea behind these national manufacturing institutes is to aggregate money and resources to shorten the time and cost to bring advanced research to market, thereby gaining competitive advantage. Modeled after a German research network, Chicago's public-private endeavor outraised the other three U.S. manufacturing institutes and has access to a super-computer to run prototypes and simulations at speeds and in numbers not previously possible for participants. Four more manufacturing competitions are underway, and legislative support is sought for a nationwide network of at least 15 more.



Chicago's institute is about integrating the supply chain -- having the right data in the right place at the right time, to make the right part in the right place, and doing it all for less. This means asking participants to align stakeholder interests for common economic good. That falls in the wheelhouse of benefit corporations and offers opportunities for collaboration.



Benefit corporations are not commonly thought of as building blocks for the for-profit sector. To the extent they are known, they often are associated with non-profit or low-profit social enterprises providing products or services to impoverished communities. Chicago has its share of such needs, and benefit corporations can elect this type of public benefit purpose.



But benefit corporations' role as building blocks for the new economy has greater significance in this author's opinion. Their public benefit purposes can focus on high-tech innovation for common economic good in the broader community -- the goal of Chicago's manufacturing institute. Delaware, for example, which is the home of American corporate law, authorizes benefit corporations of an economic, educational, environmental, medical, scientific or technological nature (among other categories).



Let's be very clear that benefit corporations -- regardless of the community they serve -- are for-profit entities, with the rigor that involves. They embody accepted business principles and are taxed the same as traditional corporations. They are responsible, sustainable and have a positive impact on society. They aim to build better businesses that generate common good -- something that should garner broad support in the wake of the recession. In fact, benefit corporations have elicited largely bipartisan support in the 23 states, including Delaware and Illinois, and the District of Columbia, which have adopted authorizing statutes.



The primary difference between benefit corporations and traditional corporations goes back to aligning stakeholder interests, the digital institute's core challenge. Benefit corp directors can consider stakeholder interests in addition to those of shareholders. Directors are legally protected from lawsuits by third parties who might otherwise consider themselves beneficiaries of the business's public purposes -- leaving it to owners to insure the business stays true to mission.



Participants do come to the table in Chicago incentivized by defense budget initiatives to both achieve savings and transition from ground wars to cyber threats. But they have countervailing concerns arising from genuine business issues such as liability or intellectual property, or, more simply, inertia. Media reports participants like Boeing struggling with supply chain issues and being criticized when they try to reach agreements with suppliers to lower costs. Yet there also are positive stories about Boeing's partnering with a Seattle nonprofit to manufacture aircraft parts using hard-to-place workers, so obstacles are not insurmountable.



The value of including benefit corporations in the innovation mix is that they have what participants in the digital institute are looking for: they come to the table predisposed by structure and MO to integrate innovation and stakeholder interests for the common good. Benefit corps can brainstorm operational experiences and partner with lab participants to meet supply chain needs.



The Midwest already has benefit corporations operating at this level. Solberg Manufacturing, Inc., for example, was one of Illinois' first statutory benefit corporations and already works with Rolls-Royce. Founded in 1966 and headquartered in Itasca, Solberg has developed a global presence in standard and custom filtration, separation, and silencing products that protect machinery, the environment and the workplace. It prides itself on state-of-the-art facilities, excellent customer service, innovation and sustainable responsibility. No Solberg employees lost jobs during the recession.



Benefit corporations hold lessons for participants in Chicago's initiative, and contributing to such innovation projects can move the conversation about them to a new level.



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Oh My Morty, There's Going To Be A 'First Wives Club' Musical

NEW YORK (AP) — Revenge will be in the air in a few years when a musical version of "The First Wives Club" comes calling on Broadway.



The comedy about a trio of vengeful ex-spouses has been revamped and rewritten for the stage by Emmy Award-nominee Linda Bloodworth Thomason, the writer and producer of such TV shows as "Designing Women" and "Evening Shade." The musical will make its debut at Chicago's Oriental Theater next spring, with hopes it can come to Broadway in the 2015-2016 season.



The 1996 film "The First Wives Club," starring Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton, was based on Olivia Goldsmith's novel about three women who are dumped by their powerful husbands for slim, young trophy wives. The first wives band together and take back their lives in style.



"One of the reasons I agreed to do it was the feisty feminist, 'Designing Women' side that Olivier created with her book," said Bloodworth Thomason. "It was the same DNA as 'Designing Women.'"



The story was first made into a musical with a story by Rupert Holmes that debuted in 2009 at the Old Globe in San Diego, but never made the expected jump to Broadway. It will now, thanks to Bloodworth Thomason, who produced the film "The Man From Hope," a campaign biography of Bill Clinton, and directed the new documentary "Bridegroom."



Bloodworth Thomason said she was given the freedom to rip up the old script and write her own. "They said, 'Write whatever you want.' So I've just had a ball,' she said. "You're going to hear a lot of different dialogue, and there will be some new characters in it. It's a whole new ballgame."



The director will be Simon Phillips (who helmed "Love Never Dies" and "Priscilla Queen of the Desert") and the songs — both original music and classics — will be supplied by Motown legends Lamont Dozier and brothers Brian Holland and Eddie Holland, who are behind such hits as "Stop in the Name of Love" and "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)."



"It just turned out to be a big, lovely valentine that was laid in my lap," said Bloodworth Thomason, who will be making her Broadway debut as a book writer. But like most of her projects, "The First Wives Club" will be about more than humor. "I so wanted an opportunity to do a show that stands as an antidote to the Kardashian culture. I like to say about this that we're promoting big mouths instead of big asses."



The new musical is only one of two new projects Bloodworth Thomason hopes to bring to Broadway. She and producer Elizabeth Williams, who also is steering "The First Wives Club," are working on another show but won't reveal many details. She said she's not afraid of failure.



"Listen, I'm perfectly aware of the concept of falling on your face. I've done it on many occasions. That doesn't scare me because I'll just get back up and start over," Bloodworth Thomason said. "I'm still a novice, so we'll see what happens. It's a tough place to go but I'm anxious to get there."



___



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Is New Haven the Best Pizza Town in the Country?

2014-06-30-nh.jpg

CREDIT: Flickr/Joe Hall









In a country filled with large cities constantly warring over whose pizza is superior, a smaller town's claim can sometimes get overlooked. That would be the case for New Haven, except for the fact that they already know they have the best pizza in the country -- and they don't need to publicize that fact. For generations, a pizza culture that rivals those of Chicago and New York has been developing on the sleepy Southern Connecticut coast. It's got its own legends, language, and style, and it's quietly become the dependable powerhouse of the American pizza mythos. Plus, Frank Sinatra liked it.



Here's what you need to know about New Haven "apizza," as told to us by several impassioned New Havenites and pizza expert Tony Gemignani.



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CREDIT: Flickr/Krista





Wait, what the hell is "apizza"?

You might've noticed that New Haven pizza's got its own name -- apizza. It's pronounced "ah-beets", and it's derived from the Italian dialect of the Neapolitan immigrants who first settled there. Since the people making the pizzas were from the area around Naples, the pizza tends to skew toward the stylings of the original Italian pizzaiolos.



That means coal-fired or coal-powered ovens (though most places have adopted less carbonic methods like gas and wood), a thin crust, lots and lots of char, tangy tomato sauce, and NOT NECESSARILY cheese. That's right. They're crazy.



More: These are the 33 best pizzas in America



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CREDIT: Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana





Some History

It all started back in 1925, when Frank Pepe, originally of Maiori, Italy, founded his signature pizzeria, Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana, on Wooster Street in New Haven. This establishment came after years of hardship for the young man, who previously had taken jobs in factories and macaroni manufacturing (no joke), before deciding to start a delivery business selling "tomato pies", which are a type of pizza made with spongy dough, tomato sauce, and a light sprinkling of Romano cheese.



Pepe soon abandoned the delivery business and decided to start his own joint in 1925, eventually taking over his former bakery employer's building in 1937 and opening what is known today as the precursor of all New Haven-style pizzerias. From there, he sold tomato pies and other types of pizza that eventually incorporated other cheeses, like mozzarella, presumably attracting droves of young mutant ninja turtles.



Pepe's family flourished in the new business, and his nephew, Salvatore Consiglio -- having learned the craft of pizza-making from his relatives -- soon decided to branch off from Pepe's to open his own pizzeria: Sally's Apizza, which makes Neapolitan-style pizzas just like Pepe's. It was the shot heard 'round the world and launched what is assuredly one of the biggest rivalries in the food world today. US presidents have even been divided on which joint makes the better pie.



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CREDIT: Flickr/Stu_Spivack





From there, the world of New Haven-style pizza grew to include a slew of other pizzerias attempting to emulate what Frank Pepe created back in 1925. Some succeeded, some didn't.



See who the big players on the New Haven scene are, the science behind why New Haven pizza is so delicious, and which former US President likes Sally's (and which one is a Pepe's man) -- all on Thrillist.com!



More from Thrillist:



Taste Test: The Secret Menus at 8 Fast-Food Chains



33 of the Best, Most Iconic American Foods



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I Don't Diet, I Just Go Gluten-Free

This is the final part of a series in which I attempt to take on four different lifestyle diets in four weeks. For the past few years, I've dubbed myself a flexitarian -- I don't eliminate anything from my diet and enjoy all types of food in moderation. However, I think it's time for me to assess what foods actually work well with my body -- and what foods don't. As always, talk with a doctor before undergoing any rapid change in diet.



I survived paleo. I worked with vegetarianism. I dealt with being a vegan. And now it's on to the final lap of this dietary racetrack: I have approached the gluten-free finish line.



Ah, the diet that hath spun a thousand webs of confusion and elation for health professionals and average Joes everywhere. There are even some who think it's a "fad" and that it should -- for lack of a better word -- "die." I must admit I had my doubts about going gluten-free and braced myself for the onslaught of figuring out the dos and don'ts of removing the dreaded gluten from my body. Surely, this would be easier than my paleo experience... right?



To clarify for anyone who doesn't know what gluten is, Merriam-Webster's definition of gluten states: "a tenacious elastic protein substance especially of wheat flour that gives cohesiveness to dough." Well, looks like it's time to avoid that wheat!



Unfortunately, it's not just anything made with wheat that basks in the limelight. Barley (adios, favorite brand of tempeh), rye (sayonara, delicious deli bread), and other types of grain are not allowed, but there are several helpful alternatives that you can manipulate to make your meal du jour. Rice, corn, and soybean products, and the other "almost-over" fad item, quinoa, are all acceptable for those maintaining a gluten-free diet.



At first, some awful thoughts ran the gamut through my head: No traditional pizza. Not even an ice cream sandwich. No bagels! Let me just say: When you also get that initial craving for a large burrito with its warm, floury tortilla, all your inhibitions tend to go out the window. (I exercised restraint and checked out Chipotle on a day I didn't bring my lunch, and minus the tortilla, their menu notes that all other items are gluten-free.)



Exploring the various products that cater to the gluten-free community was on my to-do list, so I popped into Crumbs, a renowned cupcake bakery which boasts its only solely gluten-free store in New York, and upon recommendation, tried their chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies -- not too shabby, albeit a tad dry. Gluten-free pretzels were a must; could that signature wheat taste be matched by corn and potato starch? Why yes, yes it can.



When it came to buying the occasional snack, a gluten-free designation on the packaging and rereading the ingredients' list were my calling cards. Thanks to analyzing too many bags of chips than I'd care to admit, it's incredible how prevalent wheat is in most processed foods thanks to the wonderful, bold, all-caps label, "May contain traces of wheat."



The only thing I could do for this week was make it even more of a challenge: create meals I could enjoy that replicated the dishes I had come to know and love -- minus the gluten.



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Pancakes made with coconut flour, topped with chocolate chips, pecans, and a drizzle of condensed milk





First off, there are a plethora of flours for baking -- and it's really not all about the all-purpose. Have you tried cooking with coconut flour? Buckwheat? (Don't let the name fool you -- it's perfect for a gluten-free diet.) They aren't common, but they sure pack a punch when baking.



Because of these substitutions and the general adherence to scrapping gluten, my cravings for anything and all things bread-like slowly subsided as I was able to enjoy diary and other sorts of grains that didn't revolve around wheat, barley, or rye.



Sure, when I didn't cook, I was missing out on warm sandwiches, pizza slices, said burritos, pita bread and beer. But in the end, I did not feel as weighed down as I felt on a normal day. I felt that the gluten brick in my belly had diminished and the head fog I tended to experience had, once again, practically ceased.



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Mac and cheese made from rice pasta with Isle of Man cheddar cheese, chopped spinach and sauteed onions



I do feel sometimes that most people embark on this "mission" to feel better, and I can't necessarily say that I blame them. Deciding or having to go gluten-free is essentially a matter of changing your perspective and nudging your taste buds to ditch that familiar taste of wheat and other glutinous products. In the beginning, it seems like an exhausting idea to remove conventional bread, pasta, cookies, cakes, beer, cereal, and even soy sauce from one's diet, as it would prove futile and immediately send some people packing. Like it or not, gluten-free is the mother of controversy to some, and a saving grace to others. Personally, I'm likely to believe the latter.



N.B. I must recognize that my lack of a gluten intolerance likely made this diet change much easier than expected. Most people who suffer from gluten intolerance/celiac disease must consume products with a gluten amount less than 20 ppm. Any cross-contamination could lead to serious side effects.



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64 Colleges Are Now Under Investigation For Their Handling Of Sexual Assaults

Sixty-four colleges and universities are under federal investigation over concerns about how they handled sexual assault cases on campus.



The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights began disclosing all colleges under review for their handling of sexual assault cases following a White House task force on campus rape. The Department of Education faced pressure from activists and members of Congress for greater transparency, as colleges typically refrained from discussing or disclosing their federal investigations unless asked about them.



When the Department of Education published the full list for the first time on May 1, there were 55 schools facing federal scrutiny.



Since then, OCR has opened inquiries into the University of Alaska system of higher education, Berklee College of Music, Missouri University of Science & Technology, Elmira College in New York, the University of Akron, Cisco Junior College in Texas, James Madison University and the University of Richmond.



The Department of Education is not disclosing specifics about what prompted the investigations, but is specifying whether they are due to complaints or are proactive compliance reviews initiated by OCR. The agency has emphasized that compliance reviews are not random, and are more comprehensive investigations than those sparked by complaints. OCR has also told The Huffington Post it faced a steady increase in the number of complaints about how colleges handle sexual violence, leading to a rise in the number of investigations.



Colleges are required under the gender equity law Title IX to investigate and respond to reports of sexual assault and harassment on campus. If OCR were to determine a college was not compliant with Title IX, it could yank federal funding from the school, something it has never done with a higher education institution.



OCR may be conducting additional Title IX investigations related to sexual violence, but those inquiries are not being disclosed because they are not tied specifically to investigations of sexual assault cases. They may instead include concerns about Title IX retaliation or failure to designate a Title IX coordinator, among other things.



The full list of colleges and universities under Title IX investigations for handling of sexual assault cases is printed below, sorted by state, with the date the inquiries began.






  • University of Alaska system of higher education -- 5/5/2014



  • Arizona State University --1/26/2012



  • Butte-Glen Community College District -- 2/27/2013



  • Occidental College -- 5/2/2013



  • University of California-Berkeley -- 3/25/2014



  • University of Southern California -- 6/26/2013



  • Regis University -- 4/30/2013



  • University of Colorado at Boulder -- 6/18/2013



  • University of Colorado at Denver -- 4/29/2014



  • University of Denver -- 12/12/2013



  • University of Connecticut -- 12/6/2013



  • University of Delaware -- 5/8/2014



  • Catholic University of America -- 1/8/2014



  • Florida State University -- 4/3/2014



  • Emory University -- 12/13/2013



  • University of Hawaii at Manoa -- 5/28/2013



  • University of Idaho -- 4/18/2013



  • Knox College -- 1/2/2014



  • University of Chicago -- 6/28/2013



  • Indiana University-Bloomington -- 3/12/2014



  • Vincennes University -- 3/20/2014



  • Boston University -- 12/16/2013



  • Emerson College -- 12/23/2013



  • Harvard College -- 4/24/2014



  • Harvard Law -- 12/21/2010



  • Amherst College -- 1/6/2014



  • Berklee College of Music -- 6/19/2014



  • University of Massachusetts-Amherst -- 6/30/2011



  • Frostburg State University -- 9/18/2013



  • Michigan State University -- Case 1: 7/21/2011; Case 2: 2/18/2014



  • University of Michigan-Ann Arbor -- 2/21/2014



  • Missouri University of Science & Technology -- 5/21/2014



  • Guilford College -- 11/18/2013



  • University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill -- 3/1/2013



  • Minot State University -- 2/26/2014



  • Dartmouth College -- 5/31/2013



  • Princeton University -- 12/15/2010



  • City University of New York - Hunter College -- 2/8/2013



  • Hobart & William Smith Colleges -- 4/24/2014



  • Elmira College -- 5/12/2014



  • Sarah Lawrence College -- 12/4/2013



  • State University of New York at Binghamton -- 12/31/2013



  • Denison University -- 3/7/2014



  • Ohio State University -- 6/23/2010



  • University of Akron -- 5/6/2014



  • Wittenberg University -- Case 1: 8/25/2011; Case 2: 4/18/2013



  • Oklahoma State University -- 4/10/2014



  • Carnegie Mellon University -- 1/13/2014



  • Franklin & Marshall College -- 3/26/2014



  • Pennsylvania State University -- 1/23/2014



  • Swarthmore College -- 7/12/2013



  • Temple University -- 8/9/2013



  • Vanderbilt University -- 3/12/2014



  • Southern Methodist University -- Case 1: 8/17/2011; Case 2: 4/19/2013; Case 3: 4/19/2013



  • Cisco Junior College -- 5/7/2014



  • University of Texas-Pan American -- 4/21/2014



  • College of William & Mary -- 4/18/2014



  • University of Virginia -- 6/30/2011



  • James Madison University -- 6/4/2014



  • University of Richmond -- 6/12/2014



  • Washington State University -- 1/15/2013



  • University of Wisconsin-Whitewater -- 2/14/2014



  • Bethany College -- 4/28/2014



  • West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine -- 3/25/2013










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NBA Free Agency: What Are The Best Fits For LeBron James And Carmelo Anthony?

The NBA offseason arrived with a flurry of perfectly manicured -- and not so perfectly manicured -- draft night suits in what was perhaps the most anticipated draft crop to enter the league since the one containing two guys, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony, way back in 2003. All they've done since is combine for 17 All-Star teams and play for two different franchises each. LeBron has amassed four MVPs and two rings, while Carmelo has a scoring title to his name but has advanced out of the first round just two times in his career. James is 29 years old, Anthony is 30 and both want to win, perhaps now more than ever.



Let's take a look at the best fits for the two free agents, both of whom have recently opted out of their contracts.



LeBron James



Miami Heat



Under the halo of team president Pat Riley, James has achieved tremendous success with the Heat, making it to four consecutive Finals while becoming the undisputed best player on the planet. With the news of Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh also opting out, along with veteran forward Udonis Haslem, the Heat have an NBA-record $55 million in salary cap room. That means that Riley could go after Luol Deng, or feasibly sign Toronto Raptors point guard Kyle Lowry, whom the team has been rumored to like, or even pursue a talented young forward like Houston Rockets restricted free agent Chandler Parsons. Riley, in a typically shrewd move, acquired former Connecticut point guard Shabazz Napier (the 24th pick) from Charlotte on draft night, a guy LeBron deemed as his favorite player in the entire draft. If James wants max money from the Heat (five years, $130 million), as a recent report noted, Riley is seemingly setting himself up quite nicely. For James, who met with six teams during the summer of 2010, going elsewhere would mean taking a significant pay cut, up to $38 million. Staying with the Heat might just be the best long-term solution for LeBron's legacy and for his wallet.



Chicago Bulls



derrick rose



The Bulls can potentially offer an elite point guard in Derrick Rose (above), depending on his return. They can also offer one of the game's most respected coaches in Tom Thibodeau and a premier center in Joakim Noah. Acquiring James would be tricky for the Bulls to pull off -- they'd have to amnesty forward Carlos Boozer and trade a future first-round draft pick -- but Chicago represents a real opportunity to win both now and in the future.



Houston Rockets



You can never count out general manager Daryl Morey, who did the nearly impossible by acquiring two superstars before their prime in James Harden and Dwight Howard. Morey already dealt reserve center Omer Asik and would have to deal Jeremy Lin as well. James clearly loves the idea of a Big Three, and with him, Harden and Howard, it wouldn't be entirely dissimilar to the Miami format, with another elite perimeter scorer and an All-Star big man.



Carmelo Anthony



New York Knicks



Anthony's tenure in New York has yielded middling success, but to be fair, he's never been surrounded with a championship caliber roster, at least not the way James has in Miami. The Knicks now have a savant at the helm in 11-time world champion coach Phil Jackson (serving as team president), though it remains to be seen how much power disheveled owner James Dolan will afford him. Still, the Knicks, who will have cap room in 2015, can offer a staggering five-year deal worth $129 million while Jackson has been hard at work to repair a severed roster. In a busy 36-hour period last week, Jackson packed off salary albatrosses Raymond Felton and Tyson Chandler to Dallas, picked up a true pass-first lead guard in Jose Calderon and got the Knicks back into the draft to nab a gifted small forward in Cleanthony Early. And the news of Jackson's interest in Los Angeles Lakers free agent center Pau Gasol is highly intriguing because Gasol would give Anthony a wonderful big to run pick-and-roll with. The triangle offense would seemingly benefit Melo's skill set as well, requiring him to handle the ball a bit less. If Carmelo were to win a title under the bright lights of Madison Square Garden, he would cement his legacy, giving the Knicks their first championship in over four decades.



Chicago Bulls



tom thibodeau



This may be the ideal fit for Anthony, and from what I'm hearing, this is where he's likely to end up. Thibodeau (above) would find a way to make him a better defender, while also hiding his deficiencies alongside Joakim Noah. Plus, Rose's dynamic playmaking ability would instantly take the pressure off of Anthony, and don't forget about scorer extraordinaire Doug McDermott, whom the Bulls acquired on draft night. Chicago has not been the same since dealing Luol Deng to Cleveland, and creating their own Big Three would make sense for Anthony. For this to happen, Anthony would have to take a pay cut, but then again, he would have to take a pay cut with Houston or Dallas as well.



Dallas Mavericks



We can expect Dirk Nowitzki to take less money and give owner Mark Cuban more cap space. And yet, Cuban says his team will not be offering a max deal this summer. Melo and Dirk both need the ball to be effective, and this move seems unlikely, but it is certainly a possibility. The Mavs, who have about $26 million in cap room, offer a decent chance to win, but the long-term upside for Anthony simply isn't there.



Houston Rockets



Houston offers Howard and Harden and no state income tax (like Dallas), but the rugged Western Conference is full of minefields (also like Dallas, actually). Morey, the Rockets' GM, has been rumored to have a deal lined up for Lin, but the Rockets are a terrific offensive team already, ranking first in the league in scoring. How badly does Anthony want to win and how badly does he want to score 25-plus a night?



Email me at jordan.schultz@huffingtonpost.com or ask me questions about anything sports-related at @Schultz_Report and follow me on Instagram @Schultz_Report. Also, be sure to catch my NBC Sports Radio show "Kup and Schultz," which airs Sunday mornings from 9 to 12 EST, right here.



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The 10 Commandments of Grocery Shopping

Given the fact that the employees at my local grocery store see me more than my own family does, it's safe to say that I have quite a bit of experience pushing a full cart around.



While I generally enjoy the experience because a) I love finding and checking things off of a list and b) food, there are a few simple things that would make it better for all those involved.



The 10 Commandments of Grocery Shopping





1. Thou shall not leave your cart in an empty parking spot.



There are two kinds of people in this world: 1) those who return carts to the cart corral and 2) a-holes. Leaving a cart to find it's own way home often results in the cart camping out in a parking spot someone will inevitably pull halfway into before realizing the cart is there and angrily backing out, pissing off people behind them. The carts have a home. Help them find their home.



2. Thou shall not walk down the center aisle of the parking lot.



You do not have super-human pedestrian powers that override people in their cars trying to get past or around you. Pick a side -- any side -- and no one gets hurt.



3. Thou shall travel up and down the aisle like a civilized person.



Up one side, down the other. If you're barreling down the middle or the wrong side like a linebacker and clip my cart, I am not above throwing a shoulder. Also, try to refrain from doing a 180 halfway down a jam-packed aisle only to amble along as if you're taking in the sights of the Louvre. It's soup. Not the Sistine Chapel.



4. Thou shall obey the express line rules.



The sign says 15 items or less. It does not say, "Everything you can stick in the small-ass cart you chose instead of regular cart." That does not refer to the number of item types, but the actual item count. For example, those 75 cans of soup that took you 15 minutes to pick out does not count as a single item. You are not a special snowflake. If everybody ignored this rule, it would just be a regular line.



5. Thou shalt not decide against the frozen pizza you picked up in the frozen foods section and then place it on the shelf next to the shampoo.



Really? Come on now, people.



6. Thou shall respect the invisible checkout line bubble of personal space.



Regardless of how close you creep up or how many items you throw on the belt, you will be next--after me. If you continue to creep up, I will pretend to go through my coupon keeper for an extraordinary amount of time and chit chat with the cashier...unless you would like to pay for my produce. In that case, you have a deal.



7. Thou shall treat the cashier with respect.



This means not chatting on your phone while she's ringing up your groceries or getting ticked when she won't accept the four expired coupons you thought she'd ignore. If you get caught trying to sneak in an expired coupon, just let it go. It's 35-cents off of dish soap. You'll survive.



8. Thou shall not stop at the exit to go over your receipt.



Once given your receipt and all 300 extra pieces of paper that get pumped out of the printer with it, do not stop and read the receipt like it's a treasure map. There is nothing on that paper that is that important that you need to throw on the brakes and cause a backup. Move it along.



9. Thou shall reconsider the self-checkout.



Know your limits. Can you find a bar code on a product? Match the picture of bananas on the screen to the bananas in your cart? Flatten paper money to insert into a slot? If you answered "no" to any of those questions, don't be a hero. Go through the normal checkout.



10. Thou shall not stalk for a parking spot.



Finally, do not slowly drive behind me at 5 mph impatiently waiting for my parking spot that is often only two down from another available spot. Unless you're going to get out and help me unload my groceries into the back, your insistence on sitting there, impatiently revving the engine on your minivan, will force me to do a full vehicle check -- interior and exterior -- before getting back in and leaving 5 minutes later.



Thank you for shopping with us.



Have a nice day.



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The Sidepiece Agreement: 10 Rules for The Other Woman

A close male friend (who used to cheat on his wife) has enlightened me that some of us otherwise intelligent chicks enter into the Sidepiece Agreement -- that is, knowingly becoming the mistress or other woman -- without fully understanding the terms of the deal.



My friend should know; he had a lover that stalked his wife and told her everything after they broke up. His wife gave him another chance and my friend seems to be on the good foot these days.



However, my friend explained the dirty details of what men expect of their sidepieces, even if they don't explain the rules as thoroughly as they should. Thus, without further ado, here are the top 10 rules that men expect their sidepieces to know.



1. You are the other woman. This does not mean that you are the only other woman. Act accordingly.



2. Please focus on the stolen moments that we spend together. Do not concern yourself with my whereabouts when we are apart. Frankly speaking, my life outside of our time together is not your concern.



3. Be comfortable with who you are to me; do not mention my wife and/or main woman, as she is not your concern. Do NOT compare yourself to my main chick in any way and do not attempt to contact her -- to do so would be a breach of our agreement.



4. Anticipate frequent changes in our plans; for the most part, a spur of the moment escape is the best that I can do.



5. You must understand that maintaining a positive vibe while we are in each other's company is vital to the success of our situationship. No bickering or nagging about promises that I didn't keep.



6. We are secret lovers; we can't blast our situationship to the world. Please don't tag me on Facebook, and don't send me invitations to your work/family functions or events. Major holidays -- more likely than not -- will be missed.



7. No discussions about "where this situationship is headed." We are where we will be; together, in this moment. Enjoy it.



8. Yes, I am still sleeping with my significant other, and we do not use condoms. Again, focus on our time together, and not what I do while we are apart.



9. I am not interested in bringing a child into our situationship. By the way, an unplanned pregnancy will not force a relationship commitment of any kind from me nor will it guarantee a promotion to main chick status for you.



10. There are no guarantees about the outcome of our situationship save one: I am a cheater at heart, and that won't change unless I want it to. Until that happens, if you are promoted to the main chick, please know that yet another sidepiece will fill the vacancy that you've left behind.



And one last piece of advice that my friend wants sidepieces to know: If you choose to enter into a situationship with someone do not get emotionally attached, as things won't be easy for you if and when you separate.



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To Close the Achievement Gap, We Need to Close the Teaching Gap

For years now, educators have looked to international tests as a yardstick to measure how well U.S. students are learning 21st-century skills compared to their peers. The answer has been: not so well. The U.S. has been falling further behind other nations and has struggled with a large achievement gap.



Federal policy under No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the Department of Education's 'flexibility' waivers has sought to address this problem by beefing up testing policies -- requiring more tests and upping the consequences for poor results: including denying diplomas to students, firing teachers, and closing schools. Unfortunately, this strategy hasn't worked. In fact, U.S. performance on the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) declined in every subject area between 2000 and 2012 -- the years in which these policies have been in effect.



Now we have international evidence about something that has a greater effect on learning than testing: Teaching. The results of the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), released last week by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), offer a stunning picture of the challenges experienced by American teachers, while providing provocative insights into what we might do to foster better teaching -- and learning -- in the United States.



In short, the survey shows that American teachers today work harder under much more challenging conditions than teachers elsewhere in the industrialized world. They also receive less useful feedback, less helpful professional development, and have less time to collaborate to improve their work. Not surprisingly, two-thirds feel their profession is not valued by society -- an indicator that OECD finds is ultimately related to student achievement.



Though it has been conducted since 2008, 2013 was the first time the United States participated in TALIS, which surveyed more than 100,000 lower secondary school teachers and school leaders in 34 jurisdictions. Although U.S. participation rates fell just below the minimum for full inclusion in the comparative report, OECD prepared a U.S. country report. These data tell an important story.



Nearly two-thirds of U.S. middle-school teachers work in schools where more than 30 percent of students are economically disadvantaged. This is by far the highest rate in the world, and more than triple the average TALIS rate. The next countries in line after the United States are Malaysia and Chile. Ignored by our current education policies are the facts that one in four American children lives below the poverty line and a growing number are homeless, without regular access to food or health care, and stressed by violence and drug abuse around them. Educators now spend a great deal of their time trying to help children and families in their care manage these issues, while they also seek to close skill gaps and promote learning.



Along with these challenges, U.S. teachers must cope with larger class sizes (27 versus the TALIS average of 24). They also spend many more hours than teachers in any other country directly instructing children each week (27 versus the TALIS average of 19). And they work more hours in total each week than their global counterparts (45 versus the TALIS average of 38), with much less time in their schedules for planning, collaboration, and professional development. This schedule -- a leftover of factory-model school designs of the early 1900s -- makes it harder for our teachers to find time to work with their colleagues on creating great curriculum and learning new methods, to mark papers, to work individually with students, and to reach out to parents.



Partly because of the lack of time to observe and work with one another, U.S. teachers receive much less feedback from peers, which research shows is the most useful for improving practice. They also receive less useful professional development than their global counterparts. One reason for this, according to our own Schools and Staffing Surveys, is that, during the NCLB era, more sustained learning opportunities reverted back to the one-shot, top-down, "drive-by" workshops that are least useful for improving practice.



The picture is very different in countries that rank highly in both the TALIS survey and in student achievement on international tests. Here are some policy lessons we can learn from these high-achieving nations:



Address inequities that undermine learning: Every international indicator shows that the U.S. supports its children less well than do other developed countries, who offer universal health care and early childhood education, as well as income supports for families. Evidence is plentiful that when children are healthy and well-supported in learning in the early years and beyond, they achieve and graduate at higher rates. The latest PISA report also found that the most successful nations allocate proportionately more resources to the education of disadvantaged students, while the United States allocates less. It is time for the U.S. finally to equalize school funding, address childhood poverty as it successfully did during the 1970s, institute universal early care and learning programs, and provide the wraparound services -- health care, before- and after-school care, and social services -- that ensure children are supported to learn. A bill introduced into the Congress this week by Senators Reed and Brown, with a companion bill introduced by Representative Fudge -- the ''Core Opportunity Resources for Equity and Excellence Act" -- would make headway on the school resource issues that are essential for progress.



Value teaching and teacher learning: Countries where teachers believe their profession is valued show higher levels of student achievement. Nations that value teaching invest more in high-quality professional learning -- paying the full freight for initial preparation and ongoing professional development, so that teachers can continually become more capable. OECD data show that they also pay teachers as well as other college-educated workers, while U.S. teachers earn only 60 percent of the average college graduate's wage and receive little support for their learning. To recruit and retain top talent and enable teachers to help all children learn, we must make teaching an attractive profession that advances in knowledge and skill, like medicine and engineering.



Redesign schools to create time for collaboration: OECD studies show that higher-performing countries intentionally focus on creating teacher collaboration that results in more skillful teaching and strong student achievement. U.S. researchers have also found that school achievement is much stronger where teachers work in collaborative teams that plan and learn together. Teachers repeatedly confirm that opportunities to work with their colleagues often determine where they are willing to work. Collaboration, however, requires time as well as will, and this means that school staffing and schedules must be designed differently. The TALIS data show that U.S. schools generally hire many fewer teachers and many other non-teaching personnel than schools in other countries. We need to rethink how we invest in and organize schools, so that time for extended professional learning and collaboration become the norm rather than the exception.



Create meaningful teacher evaluations that foster improvement: All U.S. teachers stated that formal appraisal is used in their schools, based on classroom observations; feedback from parents, guardians, and students; and review of test information. This is not very different from the TALIS average. What is different is the nature of the feedback and its usefulness. American teachers found the feedback they received to be less useful for improving instruction than their peers elsewhere. Interestingly, they received much more of their feedback from busy principals (85 percent of U.S. teachers vs. a TALIS average of 52 percent) and much less from other teachers or assigned mentors (27 percent vs. a TALIS average of 42 percent), who can generally offer more targeted insights about how to teach specific curriculum concepts and students.



In addition, the feedback from test data is different across countries. Most tests in other countries are open-ended measures scored by teachers, usually internal to the classroom or, occasionally, standardized across schools (typically in one or two grade levels). The United States is the only country in which students are tested annually with external, multiple-choice standardized tests, with scores reduced to a value-added metric assigned to teachers. Aside from the wide error range found to be associated with these metrics, they offer no information about what students actually did, said, or thought that could help teachers improve their practice. A more meaningful system would use classroom data and feedback from peers and principals in ways that are much more focused on how to teach specific content to particular students.



We cannot make major headway in raising student performance and closing the achievement gap until we make progress in closing the teaching gap. That means supporting children equitably outside as well as inside the classroom, creating a profession that is rewarding and well-supported, and designing schools that offer the conditions for both the student and teacher learning that will move American education forward.



______________



Linda Darling-Hammond is Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education at Stanford University and Faculty Director of the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education. She is also the Founding Director and a Commission member of the National Commission on Teaching & America's Future, which hosted the release of the TALIS results Friday, June 27th, in collaboration with the OECD.



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Emergency Evacuation Slide Deploys Midair On United Flight



June 30 (Reuters) - A United Airlines flight bound for southern California with 101 people on board was diverted to Wichita, Kansas on Sunday night after an emergency evacuation chute inflated inside the aircraft in mid-flight, the airline said.



United flight 1463, which was carrying 96 passengers with five crew members on board, was bound for Orange County's John Wayne Airport, south of Los Angeles, when the emergency chute accidentally deployed, the airline said.



"The flight diverted to Wichita ... No one was injured and the flight landed safely," United said in a statement. The Boeing 737-700 took off from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.



United said all passengers were seated at the time of the incident and added that earlier reports that a passenger had attempt to open the door in flight were false.



It said its maintenance team would inspect the aircraft to determine what happened.





(Reporting by Chris Michaud; Editing by Catherine Evans)





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Sunday, June 29, 2014

The States With The Most Gun Violence: 24/7 Wall St.

As mass shootings continue to appear in the news, many Americans and state leaders are asking how to address the problem without restricting constitutional rights.



The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tracks the number of gun-related fatalities — including homicides, suicides, and accidents — in each state. The frequency of firearm-related deaths varies widely across the U.S. Firearms were associated with just 3.0 deaths per 100,000 residents in Rhode Island in 2011, the lowest gun-related fatality rate of any state. Louisiana, on the other hand, reported 18.8 firearm-related deaths per 100,000 residents, the most of any state. 24/7 Wall St. examined the 10 states with the highest gun-related death rates.



Click here to see the states with the most gun violence.



Suicide is the leading cause of gun-related deaths across the nation in recent years. Of the 32,351 firearm deaths in 2011, nearly 20,000 were suicides. In all but one state with the most gun-related deaths, suicide accounted for the majority of fatalities. Six states — Alaska, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Montana, Arkansas, and New Mexico — reported more than 10.0 firearm-related suicides per 100,000 residents, versus the national rate of 6.2.



24/7 Wall St. discussed the CDC’s figures with John Roman, senior fellow at the Urban Institute, an economic and social policy think tank. Roman explained the probability of accidents, suicides, and domestic violence goes up in homes with guns. Americans are “three times more likely to have a suicide in a home with a gun than [they] are in a home without a gun.”



According to Roman, “The overwhelming trend is that strong gun law states have seen dramatic declines in violence. Weak gun law states have not seen the same decline.” While stricter gun laws lead to less violence, Roman noted, this relationship is not exactly straightforward, because people may purchase a gun in one state and bring it into another. “As long as there are weak gun law states, even strong gun law states will see gun violence.”



Federal law controls some aspects of firearm regulation, but for the most part, state legislatures choose to what extent firearms are governed. None of the states with the most gun violence require permits to purchase rifles, shotguns, or handguns. Gun owners are also not required to register their weapons in any of these states. Meanwhile, most of the states with the lowest rates of gun deaths require a permit to purchase a handgun.



In a number of these states homicide and violent crime rates were also particularly high. Gun-related homicide rates in all but three of the 10 states with the most firearm death rates were above the national rate of 3.6 homicides per 100,000 residents. Louisiana, the only state on this list where homicide accounted for more gun-related deaths than suicides, reported 9.4 homicides per 100,000 residents in 2011, more than in any other state.



Although not necessarily gun related, violent crime, overall, was higher in many of these states. Seven states reported at least 420 violent crimes per 100,000 residents in 2011, versus the national rate of just 386.3 violent crimes per 100,000 residents that year. There were more than 600 violent crimes per 100,000 residents in Alaska, second only to Tennessee. Some specific crimes were even more likely in many of these states. Six of the 10 states reported more than 3,500 incidents of property crime per 100,00 residents, for example, versus a national rate of just 2,908.



According to Roman, politics and culture often influence gun ownership. In fact, a majority of the states with the most deaths from guns are politically conservative. They are also states with residents that tend to be comfortable with carrying and owning guns.



Economic factors also appear to be related to firearm death rates. The poverty rate in seven of the 10 states with the most gun violence was above the national rate of 15.9%. New Mexico and Mississippi, the states with the first and second highest poverty rates in the nation of more than 20%, were among the states with the most gun violence.



Educational attainment rates also tended to be lower in states with the most gun violence. The percentage of residents who had attained at least a bachelor’s degree as of 2012 was lower than the national rate in all of the 10 states with the most gun violence.



Based on CDC data, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the 10 states with the most firearm-related deaths in 2011, including suicides, homicides, and accidents.Firearm death rates represent the CDC”s age-adjusted figures, to avoid distortion in states with large populations of young people. We also considered 2012 data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATF) on the time between a gun’s purchase and its involvement in a crime. Violent crime data are for 2011 and are from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Report. Poverty and income figures are from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2012 American Community Survey. Information on firearm policies for each state are from the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) Institute for Legislative Action.



These are the states with the most gun violence, according to 24/7 Wall St.:





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17 Movies That Get Summer Right

"Wet Hot American Summer"



"Wet Hot" is the perfect camp movie, whether you've been to camp or not. David Wain's brilliance is best immortalized in Christopher Meloni's relationship with the fridge, a trip into town gone awry and Elizabeth Banks' burger breath.



"The Parent Trap"



Pre-everything Lindsay Lohan is a dream. Dare we say the 1998 remake of "The Parent Trap" is better than the original 1961 version starring Hayley Mills? But the updated Disney film has so many good movie montages. There's that incredible bridal photoshoot, the classic camp prank war and a terrible hiking trip with the evil almost-stepmom. Plus, "The Parent Trap" taught all tweens two very important lessons: all you need to pierce your ear is a needle, an apple and an ice cube, and Oreos are best eaten with peanut butter.



"Do The Right Thing"



Spike Lee's seminal film is set in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn on the hottest day of the year. "Do The Right Thing" was nominated for two Academy Awards, earned controversial but fantastic reviews and highlights racial tensions that are still relevant 25 years after the movie's release. Summer's never been so real.



"Camp"



Your artsy friend who went to Stagedoor Manor for one summer probably made you watch "Camp" at a sleepover. It's a feel-good movie about theatrical outsiders before "Glee" was even a thing. Plus, there's a straight-up insane Anna Kendrick cameo.



"Moonrise Kingdom"



Wes Anderson's symmetrical summer camp saga is all about precocious young love. "Moonrise Kingdom" has every necessary ingredient to make it an Anderson classic: Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, a super nerdy protagonist and Roman Coppola credits.



"It Takes Two"



"It Takes Two" is prime Steve Guttenberg in the early '90s. Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen star as "identical strangers" trying to set up one of the girl's wealthy father with the other's -- an orphan -- lovable caseworker, played by Kirstie Alley. The girls meet at summer camp and decide to get rid of terrible Clarice. It also features the best food fight in cinematic history. (Sorry, "Animal House.")



"Heavyweights"



Fat camp rules in "Heavyweights," where Ben Stiller is a terrifying exercise freak-turned-camp director. Things we love: A young Kenan Thompson and his buddies made "the blob" the ultimate lake toy, and Paul Feig plays a counselor who, in the off-season, lost a ton of weight and gets made fun of for being skinny.



"Dirty Dancing"



Botched abortions, water dancing, "No one puts baby in a corner," etc. "Dirty Dancing" is the classic I-hate-my-parents-on-this-summer-vacation film and Patrick Swayze is the only way to get through it all.



"Friday The 13th"



Sometimes, camp is full of murderers, or rather, one killer. The Camp Crystal Lake counselors just want to get it on, but instead they ignite a "death curse." Summer fun for the whole family.



"Indian Summer"



Eight adults head back to their summer home, Camp Tamakwa, and get thrown back into all the love, freedom and fun they felt 20 years before as campers. Alan Arkin plays camp director to some of 1993's finest stars: Elizabeth Perkins, Matt Craven, Diane Lane, Bill Paxton and Kimberly Williams-Paisley.



"Meatballs"



From Ivan Reitman and Harold Ramis, "Meatballs" launched Bill Murray's career as a movie star, and showed us just how ridiculous sleepaway camp can be. It's a classic '70s screwball comedy featuring girls girls girls, short shorts and dorky guys who triumph outside of the big city.



"Camp Nowhere"



When a group of kids create a fake summer camp staffed by Christopher Lloyd, viewers are treated with chaos and early-'90s hilarity. The tweens -- Jessica Alba's included! -- trick their parents into sending them away to what the adults think is camp, and even fix up a faux visiting day. It's basically every antisocial 13-year-old's dream come true.



"Adventureland"



Post-grad Jesse Eisenberg returns to work at the amusement park near his parents' house, falls in love with Kristen Stewart's character and screws around with Bill Hader and Martin Starr. The sweet, sad, tragicomedy makes you miss your hometown, but not enough to go back there for the summer.



"Dazed And Confused"



"All right, all right, all right." The first day of summer vacation is full of possibilities and hope, especially if Parker Posey is drenching you in condiments. Chock full of incredible one-liners, now-classic bong hits and young Matthew McConaughey, "Dazed And Confused" gets everything about leaving high school just right.



"Stand By Me"



The summer of 1959 will always be about "Stand By Me." Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell, Kiefer Sutherland, Wil Wheaton and River Phoenix star in the ultimate coming-of-age '80s film that launched its stars' careers -- some tragically doomed -- and became the template for hundreds of movies about teens.



"Jaws"



You may never get the "Jaws" theme song out of your head, but Steven Spielberg's classic tale of terror on the beach is a summer keeper. Shot mostly on Martha's Vineyard, the beautiful scenery is almost enough to distract you from the man-eating shark. Just kidding, this is "Jaws." You're never going swimming again.



"Addams Family Values"



Even Wednesday Addams had to go to camp. The "Addams Family" sequel follows the Addams kids as they get booted off to camp by accident. Obviously they don't mesh very well with the other campers and try to escape. Classic Addams mayhem -- like attempted murder -- ensues.



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Gay Pride Parades Step Off Around The U.S.

NEW YORK (AP) — Gay Pride parades are stepping off around the world, in cities large and small.



In the U.S., rainbow flags line the streets of New York City's Fifth Avenue. Politicians including Gov. Andrew Cuomo (KWOH'-moh) and Mayor Bill de Blasio (dih BLAH'-zee-oh) are among those walking along a lavender line painted on the avenue from midtown Manhattan to the West Village. Marchers are commemorating the 45th anniversary of the Stonewall Inn riots, which are credited with launching the modern gay rights movement.



In Chicago, about 1 million people are expected at this year's Gay Pride Parade. It's the first since Illinois' same-sex marriage law went into effect. Chicago's parade is also in its 45th year.



Parades are planned Sunday from coast to coast. Festivals were held Saturday in France, Spain, Mexico and Peru.



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Saturday, June 28, 2014

These Are The Most Generous Cities In America

A new study found America's Emerald City is filled with people who like to click their gifts away to charitable causes.



Seattle took the top spot on Blackbaud's sixth annual ranking of the Most Generous Online U.S. Cities in 2013. The report tracked per capita online giving rates for 265 American cities with populations over 100,000, looking at donations processed between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2013.



And it seems as though America's selflessness is going viral. A different study conducted earlier this year by M+R’s Benchmarks found that donors in the U.S. gave more online last year than ever before.



Check out the list below to see if your city landed in Blackbaud's top 10:



10. San Francisco, California

san francisco



9. Bellevue, Washington

bellevue



8. Cincinnati, Ohio

cincinatti



7. Arlington, Virginia

arlington memorial



6. Ann Arbor, Michigan

university of michigan



5. Cambridge, Massachusetts

cambridge massachusetts



4. Washington, D.C.

washington



3. Atlanta, Georgia

atlanta



2. Alexandria, Virginia

alexandria virginia



1. Seattle, Washington

seattle



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Friday, June 27, 2014

Teen Handcuffed And Beaten For A Week In Chicago Basement By Family

CHICAGO (AP) — A 15-year-old Chicago boy was handcuffed in a basement by relatives who subjected him to a week of beatings with a belt and doused him with buckets of ice water, police said Friday.



Jose Quilabaqui, 40, and Carlos Quizhpi, 53, were ordered held in lieu of $90,000 bail after a court hearing Thursday. They've been charged with felony kidnapping. Police Department spokeswoman Janel Sedevic said their motive was to punish the boy for misbehaving.



"The victim was struck with a belt to various parts of his body and he was subjected to buckets of ice water being poured over his body and being bathed with a garden hose," Sedevic said.



Prosecutors said Quilabaqui is the boy's father and Quizhpi is the boy's godfather.



A cousin of the teen, Diana Bermeo, defended the men, saying the boy had become involved in gang activity and that they were trying to protect him and keep him off the streets.



"It started out with him being gang-affiliated and then the drugs and stuff," she told WMAQ-TV. "My uncle, to protect him, he did what he could and to prevent him from going out at night and avoid him dying out in the street."



The teen escaped from the basement in the northwest side Albany Park neighborhood on Monday, a week after he was confined there, and contacted police, Sedevic said. He was hospitalized and released.



It was not immediately clear if the pair have attorneys. Their next court date is July 2.



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10 Nostalgic Photos That Capture The Disappearance Of An American Icon

The Only Thing Better Than Taking A Bath: Adorable Animals Taking Baths

When was the last time you took a bath? You probably can't even remember. Well, we are here to remind you that baths are awesome, relaxing and sometimes kind of stressful.



And in case you need some major cleansing inspiration or a reminder, look no further than these adorable animals demonstrating how to best take advantage of bath time. So sit back, run the water, and start taking baths as seriously as these awesome critters do.



So you're contemplating taking a bath...







Yes, it does feel a little unfamiliar.











And tubs can feel mighty cramped if you're not, y'know, the size of a toddler.







But then you remember: BUBBLES!







Which are awesome...



bathdog



... even if you accidentally eat some.







You forgot how much you love bath toys.







And, er, bath mates.







Hey, it's nice to have someone to wash your back.



dogbath











And those other hard to reach spots.














There's no denying it. Baths make you feel so fresh.







And so clean.







Clean.



This is Steve. Our vet loves when we bring him in and snapped this pic while giving him a bath.







You're so relaxed you may fall asleep...







Then you realize you may have stayed in the bath for too long. The water's cold.







You've gotten all pruny.







Wait, you forgot to actually wash yourself.







And yet you don't... want... to... leave.







Because baths, you've been reminded, are the best.









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WATCH: A Shark-Deterrent Wetsuit (And It's Not What You Think)

Ocean swimmer Hamish Jolly wished there was a wetsuit that could keep sharks at bay -- so he invented one. Find out how he did it, and how you could apply the same techniques to create an innovation of your own.



We want to know what you think. Join the discussion by posting a comment below or tweeting #TEDWeekends. Interested in blogging for a future edition of TED Weekends? Email us at tedweekends@huffingtonpost.com.





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It's Official: The United States As A Nation Has Gone World Cup Crazy

The Germans may have bested Team USA in the World Cup group stage, but it turns out the real winner of Thursday's thrilling USA-Germany match is ESPN. Despite the noon Eastern start time, the match drew in enough viewers to score a 6.3 overnight household Nielsen rating -- the third-highest rating ever for a men’s World Cup match on ESPN, according to Variety.



Online, ESPN was even more popular: At its peak, 1.4 million concurrent viewers were logged on to WatchESPN, more than the number that signed in to watch the most recent Super Bowl, Forbes reports.



The spike in viewership -- to which workplaces around the nation no doubt contributed -- was so great it crashed ESPN's streaming service during the first half of the match.



Spanish-language Univision, meanwhile, boasted to Techcrunch.com that their live stream "absolutely did not experience any outages” when a record 750,000 concurrent viewers were logged on to their free internet stream.



The World Cup has proved to be a ratings bonanza for the networks, thanks to both the tournament's Prime Time scheduling and American's soaring interest in soccer.



Sunday's 6 p.m. Eastern USA-Portugal match was seen by a record-breaking 18.2 million viewers making it the most-viewed soccer game in American history.



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This Is How Skyscrapers Play Peek-A-Boo

For most of the past week, much of lakefront Chicago has been shrouded in a very thick, very eerie fog like something out of a horror film, allowing the bulk of its iconic skyline to pull a vanishing act.



The situation has a relatively simple weather explanation but has, nonetheless, set the scene for some incredible photos of the city.



chicago fog








































AccuWeather meteorologist Frank Strait explained to the Chicago Sun-Times that the extremely foggy conditions are largely due to the fact that Lake Michigan remains unusually cold for this time of year -- the result of the historic, record-breaking "polar vortex" the city experienced this winter.



In addition, Strait said, when the high-moisture air mass currently over the region moves over the lake, it causes fog to develop rapidly. From above, it looks like a giant cotton ball has swallowed up the city:












According to the National Weather Service, the city has seen quadruple the normal amount of fog and low cloud cover in recent days, the Chicago Tribune reports.



The foggy conditions caused a number of flight delays and cancellations at Chicago's Midway and O'Hare airports.



Other cities along the still-chilly Great Lakes have also seen much more fog than usual for the same reason.



Duluth, Minnesota, has also been coated with fog:












As has Muskegon, Michigan:












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America's Coolest Rooftop Bars (PHOTOS)

How to Become Your Local Bar's Favorite Regular

Corn's-a-Poppin': A Strange Case for Film Preservation

I had the darndest experience at the movies recently. I saw Corn's-a-Poppin', a presentation of the Northwest Chicago Film Society, which, proclaims its website, "exists to promote the preservation of film." Films capture the past uniquely, and few are as unique as Corn's-a-Poppin'. It is a singular viewing experience, and how many movies today can make that claim?



Produced seemingly on a shoestring in 1956 with a no-star cast, Corn's-a-Poppin' is an hour-long country-swing musical about Thaddeus Pinwhistle, whose popcorn empire is in jeopardy. To boost sales, he produces a half-hour TV variety show, oddly enough called the Pinwhistle Popcorn Hour. Spoiler alert: The PR man behind the TV show is actually in cahoots with Pinwhistle's competition and, like Max Biyalistock in The Producers, schemes to sabotage the Popcorn Hour. It's up to the show's announcer Johnny Wilson and his pre-teen sister (Little Cora Rice, a dynamo) to save the day with some surprisingly catchy tunes, like "Running After Love," "Mama, Wanna Balloon" and "On the Way to Mars."



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Like I said, it's the darndest thing. But here, as radio legend Paul Harvey used to say, is the rest of the story. Corn's-a-Poppin', a regional independent film, was produced in Kansas City by budding talent who got their starts with Calvin Company, the Midwest's biggest and most innovative producer of industrial films. One of those budding talents was Robert Altman, who co-wrote the screenplay. Yes, that Robert Altman; the M*A*S*H, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Nashville Robert Altman.



Altman felt about Corn's-a-Poppin' the way George Lucas feels about the dread "Star Wars Holiday Special." Perhaps to his relief, the film was consigned to obscurity. It is rarely cited in articles or books about the filmmaker. The original camera negative is presumed lost. But Altman's participation put this this already unclassifiable artifact atop the Northwest Chicago Film Society's preservation to-do list. All told, the public screening was the culmination of a seven-year process, which got a boost last year with a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation to produce a full photochemical preservation of the film. A duplicate negative was created from two of the few surviving 35mm release prints, one of which the Northwest Chicago Film Society fortuitously acquired in an estate sale and the other from the Wisconsin for Film and Theatre Research.



Does Corn's-a-Poppin' rate all the time, money and effort to ensure its posterity? I've made it this far in life not even knowing it existed, but now having seen it, I can't get "On the Way to Mars" out of my head. Those who are proponents of the auteur theory have drawn a throughline from Corn's-a-Poppin' to Nashville and Prairie Home Companion with their country and folk music soundtracks.



"The film marks an important transitional step in Altman's career and is a fascinating rarity that reveals a lot about regional independent filmmaking and the energetic, creative milieu from which its co-screenwriter, Robert Altman, sprang," observed Shannon Kelley, Head of Public Programs for the UCLA Film and Television Archive, in a statement.



But beyond that, when it comes to preserving America's cinematic heritage, I am reminded of the tagline for "That's Entertainment": "Boy, do we need it now."



A Library of Congress study last year revealed that 75 percent of the nearly 11,000 silent films released by the major studios have been lost forever. And it's not just vintage films. The most recent preservation cause celebre is the 70mm roadshow version of John Wayne's epic, The Alamo, which is reportedly in desperate straits but seems caught in a Catch-22. The studio, MGM (not alone in this mindset), does not seem willing to spend the money required to save the film, Wayne's sole directing credit. But it doesn't want outsiders to take on the job either, lest it makes the studio look bad.



But it begs the thought: Never mind long lost classics such as Orson Welles' original cut of The Magnificent Ambersons. How many other singular, surprising films like Corn's-a-Poppin' are out there? Will they be found in time before they disappear?



This story originally appeared on millionairecorner.com



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