In what has been described as a hate crime, nine people have been gunned down in the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Charleston, South Carolina, USA. On Wednesday evening, 17 June, around 9pm local time, a white gunman who had entered the church began opening fire, shooting and killing nine people. Another person was taken to hospital. The suspect is described as a white male, in his twenties, and is clean-shaven with a slender build. Police have said he was wearing a grey sweatshirt, blue jeans and boots. One man fitting the description, with a backpack, was taken into custody by police. However, the police are continuing to look for the shooter, even as a helicopter circles overhead and police patrol the area. The FBI has also been reported as on the scene. The shooter was described as “evil” by Charleston Mayor Joe Riley, in the following statement: ...

“I didn’t do it.” Well, actually you did do it, Bart Simpson. But at least it’s better than saying “woozle wuzzle”. Unfortunately due to work commitments, like voicing Bart Simpson on that little show called The Simpsons, Nancy Cartwright has had to cancel her appearance this year at the Australian Supernova Pop Culture Expo in Sydney (19-21 June) and in Perth (27-28 June). As the Supernova website broke the news, citing an email from Nancy Cartwright in which she wrote: “Sadly, you should know I’ve received the below message from The Simpsons Producers and am unable to travel to Australia. As you may have heard we have been playing catch up on the show.” It’s likely the “playing catch up on the show” may well be a reference to the Harry Shearer incident a short while ago. Following Nancy Cartwright’s inability to attend, Supanova will be honouring refunds of tickets, ...

Until recently there was an easy way to suspend a Facebook account. The catch was, to do so required being in a US prison. Even that has now changed, the ease of suspending a Facebook account for incarcerated Americans that is. Going to prison is still basically the same, and perhaps easier to get into than it is to get out of Facebook. Official members of law enforcement agencies may submit a direct request to Facebook via the Report An Inmate’s Account form submission webpage to restrict or control access. This has reportedly been in place since 2011. Although, as Dave Maass reported in Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), suspensions and deletion of content from prison inmates’ Facebook accounts could occur via prison officials emailing Facebook, with little-to-no questions asked. Until now that is. Facebook has revised its policy. Believing it is not Facebook’s role to censor content; and that suspension ...

Tbilisi, Georgia, has been inundated and flooded by heavy rains which on Sunday caused the Vere River to overflow. Floodwaters in places rose as high as rooftops. Washing away cars, along with roads and buildings. Uprooted trees, mud, and debris line the streets. Today, Monday has been declared a day of national mourning in Georgia. Reports indicate that at least 12 people were killed by the floods, including the deaths of three zoo employees. More than 24 people are believed to be missing, and 37 people hospitalised due to injuries, according to Interior Minister Vakhtang Gomelauri. Deputy Mayor Irakly Lekvinadze said: “Dozens of families remain homeless as their houses were destroyed or damaged in the capital.” Georgia’s Finance Ministry has estimated the cost of damage to the capital as high as 40 million lari, approximately 0.1 percent of Georgia’s GDP. The Georgian Government is currently discussing international aid options. Amidst ...

It seems 20th Century Fox has pulled its films the Fantastic Four (2005) and the Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) from digital platforms such as iTunes and Amazon, in the wake of the upcoming rebooted Fantastic Four (2015) film to be released this August. As reported by THR, a trade source said Fox has removed the digital distribution of the older films: “so as not to distract from promotion of the rebooted franchise, which is seeking to establish a different tone than the previous releases. The source says the older titles might cause confusion in the marketplace.” To the extent that Fox wishes to distance the new rebooted Fantastic Four film from the earlier versions, and potentially not cannibalise its sales, this does make sense. Further, THR also included: “The source also indicated the older films could once again be available digitally after this summer’s Fantastic Four ...

Sydney, Australia, a child seen carrying a realistic looking toy gun in Martin Place has renewed debate about toy guns in general. Plus raised questions of how safe, or unsafe, it is to make toy guns look realistic; and to what degree realism should be pursued – if at all. It follows in the unease of recent siege of the Lindt Café in Martin Place in December last year. That people would be on edge, with a heightened sensitivity to anything resembling a gun, especially within Martin Place, is understandable. It tends to be a combination of several things. One of which is known as the recency effect, where recent events are remembered easily and feature more prominently within the memory (likely related to the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve). This is also often related to various acts of committing base rate fallacies, and where people overweight the recent evidence as representing ...

If the found Star Wars script was real, then Han Solo really did shoot first. Unfortunately it wasn’t real, and was the fourth draft. Yet was the scene with Han and Greedo unchanged from this version of the draft to what is seen in the 1977 version of the film? Within the University of New Brunswick, librarian Kristian Brown had been digitising old materials in the science fiction archives. Amongst the items, was a Star Wars script dated 15 March, 1976, complete with the Lucasfilm Industries stamp. The script is actually for Saga 1 instead of its later, and better known, re-retitled name of Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. It also contains the original name of the character Luke Starkiller, instead of the later revision, Luke Skywalker. So far, so good. However, according to statements from Lucasfilm Publicity, they believed it appeared to be a replica of ...

Amidst the claims of corruption and scandal plaguing FIFA, it seems others are trying to stoke the flames of another controversy with FIFA. This time, it relates to the testing of women in the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, to ensure that they are in fact female. If that seems like somewhat of a non-issue, the potential perceived controversy is because the rules as stipulated by FIFA call for gender verification of all players, but records of male players being tested are apparently non-existent. The same cannot be said of females. Existing since 2011, FIFA requires the teams of players are “of an appropriate gender” with a signed declaration. With FIFA’s rules stipulating that each participating member association is to: “ensure the correct gender of all players by actively investigating any perceived deviation in secondary sex characteristic.” Verification in the past has included physical exams, and hormones and chromosomes testing. ...

Talk of spicy Moroccan lamb is fine. Spicing up Jennifer Lopez’s rump in Morocco is another matter entirely. Especially if it’s shaking on public television. J-Lo’s performance on Friday 29 May before a live audience of 160,000 at the Mawazine Festival Rhythms Of The World, in Rabat, sparked no shortage of commentary from Morocco’s conservative local media. Including calls of her performance being a “a breach of public decency” noting that she was “scantily” dressed and managed to strike more than a few “suggestive poses”. This may not have been such an issue, nor out of the norm for the Booty singer, but for the fact that the concert was also broadcast on the 2M TV network. There are unconfirmed reports of an unnamed educational group filing a lawsuit against the singer and the promoter, claiming that Jennifer Lopez’s performance “disturbed public order and tarnished women’s honour and respect”. How ...

A man in Lynn, Massachusetts, has learnt about the Dark Side of cosplaying. George Cross, 40, was walking around near Brickett Elementary School on Lewis Street (Route 1A), dressed in costume as a stormtrooper from Star Wars. The school’s principal noticed the cosplaying stormtrooper was carrying what appeared to be a gun. Although suspecting the gun was a plastic toy, fearing for the younglings, the principal extended the school day by placing it into lockdown around 1:30pm. No word on whether the principal first tried to Force push the cosplayer away. After placing a call to 911, police arrived and arrested the cosplayer. George Cross was charged with disturbing a school and loitering within 1,000 feet of it. Lieutenant Rick Donnelly, of the Lynn Police said: “Our feelings are that he was not there to cause harm to the kids, but he used bad judgement.” Adding that: “He did cause ...