Roger Ebert loved movies.
Except for those he hated.
For a film with a daring director, a talented cast, a captivating plot or, ideally, all three, there could be no better advocate than Roger Ebert, who passionately celebrated and promoted excellence in film while deflating the awful, the derivative, or the merely mediocre with an observant eye, a sharp wit and a depth of knowledge that delighted his millions of readers and viewers.
“No good film is too long,” he once wrote, a sentiment he felt strongly enough about to have engraved on pens. “No bad movie is short enough.”
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PLUTONIUM GATE TO HELL FOUND
Hell is a hard place to describe in detail, since, after all, going there would require dying first. But in an effort to find out what the ancient version of the underworld looked like, archaeologists may have unearthed the gateway to Hades.
Several birds died as they tried to get close to the warm opening, instantly killed by the carbon dioxide fumes,”
more at Plutos Gate Discovered: The Plutonium Gate To Hell Found In Ancient City Of Hierapolis.
GOOD SAMARITAN JUMPS ONTO SUBWAY TRACKS TO RESCUE VICTIM IN PHILADELPHIA AREA
When a man fell onto the tracks of a Philadelphia subway line, it was a quick thinking Good Samaritan who may have saved his life.The 63-year-old North Philadelphia man fell onto the tracks at the Cecil B. Moore Broad Street Line Thursday.
Surveillance video released by SEPTA shows the man walk across the subway platform, seemingly unaware he was about to fall. The video then shows the man fall right onto the tracks.
Christopher Knafelc, who happened to be visiting Temple University, hopped down on the tracks and helped the man.
VET PSYCHOLOGIST SAVED MANY COULDN’T ESCAPE DEMONS
Capt. Peter J.N. Linnerooth was an amazing Army psychologist who served in Baghdad, Iraq. He was nicknamed “The Wizard” by his colleagues because of his “magic” ability to help people through the most horrific situations by creating a rapport with empathy and a big heart. He had been concerned with the mental health and suicide rate of soldiers even before working with them.
Many soldier leaned on him as he served thousands in the camps and was called on to do a myriad of jobs that he was not trained to do, but did anyway just to help out. He blasted heavy medal music to drown out the outside world while in his office. Yet, when he was able to sleep, he took all of his personal images and those of the soldiers he talked with and dreamt of them vividly.
There were only three mental health personnel for the camp, and he was the only one with a Doctorate of Psychology. While on tour, he ended up on anti-depressants, as did one of his colleagues. He had finally come to the point where he just didn’t know how to handle all of the stories and things he had seen any longer. He went to one of the doctors. The doctor asked if he was going to hurt himself. He responded he didn’t know. He would be leaving as a suicide risk. His own demons and those of others had become too much for him to bear.
In 2007, just a few months short of his 15 month tour, he was sent to Germany and then home. In 2008, after 6 years in the army, he tried to get back into the life he had left behind as a professor, but the trivialness of the concerns of the students and his inability deal with what he had been through made that tough. He nearly overdosed on pills in 2009 in an attempt to just make the pain stop. He realized his mistake and regretted the pain he brought to his wife and kids. He went to marriage counseling to try and save what was left of the life he knew, but he still wasn’t able to talk. His marriage crumbled and ended in divorce.
His behavior at work had brought a friend to suggest a leave of absence so he could get himself together. He headed out to California to get help from his friend Brock McNabb whom was one of the others on the mental health team in Baghdad.
Linnerooth joined McNabb at the Santa Cruz County Vet Center. There he seemed to turn his life around. He lost some weight, shaved his long beard, and spent his evenings talking with McNabb. He kept in contact with his children on the phone nightly and by Skype, sometimes just watching them watch TV. He was helping vets while he himself was also dealing with his PTSD.
In 2010, he started to speak out more on the pressures and stress on military psychologists. He talked to the New York Times and Time Magazine about how there just weren’t enough mantel health experts to deal with all the needs of the soldiers. In the magazine, he also accused the Army of being criminally negligent. He then joined another former Army psychologist, Bret Moore whom he had befriended in Iraq, to write an academic paper about professional burnout. He was finally getting all of the things he had held in so long out of him in a more productive manner.
In July 2011, Linnerooth seemed happy enough and became married for the second time in Lake Tahoe to a woman he had met a decade before. This marriage became strained as well though. He also began missing deadlines for the academic paper. Moore had to go over all of Linnerooth’s work because there was so much anger toward the military as well as his personal life reflected. An American Psychological Association journal published the paper in 2011.
He moved to Reno to be with his new wife and to work for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Unfortunately, as he approached a two-year deadline for a state license required by the VA, he did not go take the test, even at teh urging of McNabb. He felt betrayed once again when the VA was forced to let him go, even though they had stated they would rehire him when he completed the requirements necessary for the position.
Last summer Linnerooth moved back to Minnesota so he could see his children daily. He did travel back to California for the birth of his son with his second wife.
During the holidays things were busy. Texts to his mother thanking her for the kids gifts. Pictures of his infant son sent to his sister. January 1, 2013 was spent with his older son and plans were being made to visit his infant son again.
On January 2nd, a lethal combination of too much alcohol, a fight with his wife, and a gun ended his life at the age of 42. He left a note giving instructions of what he wanted done from there, but nothing about why he had done the unthinkable, committed suicide. It seemed all the demons he had taken on had finally become too much for him to bear.
Mc Nabb stated Linnerooth did not want to die, he just wanted the pain to end. The man whom had taken on the burdens of so many, never learned how to let his own burdens go. He wanted to help others and not be a burden himself. From the time he was a child, his adoptive mother noticed how he would not open up and instead locked himself in his room to deal with things from a very young age.
Linnerooth’s Army buddies came in from all across the country and celebrated him. They placed a Motorhead T-shirt over his urn as they toasted him with rum and scotch. The next day, his family and friends gathered at Fort Snelling National Cemetery to say their final good-byes.
On a cloudless, 4-degree morning in Minnesota, amid taps and a 21-gun salute, Captain Peter J.N. Linnerooth was laid to rest. McNabb presented Linnerooth’s Bronze Star to his older son and reminded him how proud his dad was of him.
McNabb was given the responsibility of the writing on the headstone. He grappled with how to sum up a man’s life whom had helped so many in 30 characters or less. When the headstone arrived in February, it had the traditional name and military service engraved on it. The epitaph summed up his great deeds to those with the fortune to come his way in few words:
HE SAVED MANY
NOW HE’S HOME.
PRISONS MAY BE FORCED TO HIRE WITCHES, IF FEDERAL COURT RULES
By Jessica Chasmar-The Washington Times, Monday, February 25, 2013
California taxpayers, who already pay for prison chaplains covering such faiths as Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Protestant and American Indian religions, might have to add witches to the list.
A lawsuit working its way through the federal court system would require state prisons to hire Wiccan chaplains. Two female convicts who practice Wicca sued the state for refusing to hire a paid full-time Wiccan chaplain and “by failing to apply neutral criteria in determining whether paid chaplaincy positions are necessary to meet the religious exercise needs of inmates adhering to religions outside the five faiths (Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Native American and Protestant),” according to an appellate court’s decision.
A federal court in Fresno, Calif., dismissed the lawsuit in 2011 after finding no violations in the women’s rights, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals brought it back to life this week by overturning the trial court’s decision. The San Francisco-based appellate court ordered the original judge to reconsider the case and determine whether state prisons unconstitutionally cater to majority religions, Judicial Watch reports.
The appellate court wrote that if the allegations are true, “the prison administration failed to employ any neutral criteria in evaluating whether a growing membership in minority religions warranted a reallocation of resources used in accommodating inmates’ religious exercise needs.”
While “the First Amendment does not require prison administration to provide inmates with the chaplain of their choice,” the state does require it to employ neutral criteria in deciding where funds are allocated, the decision reads.
MORE AT Federal appeals court ruling may force California prisons to hire witches – Washington Times.
WHY WAS THE FIRST LADY A PRESENTER AT THE OSCARS?
TEENS HAD 3-WAY SEX ON BODIES OF MEN THEY STRANGLED
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER – Mail Online, UK
PUBLISHED: 14:55 EST, 26 February 2013 | UPDATED: 04:35 EST, 27 February 2013
An 18-year-old woman with a necrophilia fetish had three-way sex on the corpses of two men who she and her sexual partners strangled, it was claimed today. Joshua Miner, 24, piled the bodies of Eric Glover and Terrence Rankins, both 22, together and placed a beige sheet across them so he and his longtime girlfriend, Alisa Massaro, could lie together on top of them at Massaros home in Joliet, Illinois, according to police reports.
The corpses elicited a ‘zombie noise’ – a final gasping sound. The bodies also evacuated their bowels, Miner claimed.
They then hog-tied the victims’ hands and feet together with dirty clothes and and an electrical cord.
‘This is one of the most brutal, heinous and upsetting things I’ve ever seen in my 27 years of law enforcement,’ Police Chief Mike Trafton said after the January slayings.
‘Not only the crime scene, but the disregard for common decency toward human beings.’
Police reports say McKee knew Rankins and invited him and Glover over with promises of sexual favors.
Miner later admitted that they four believed the men had carried ‘lot of money’ and that they were planning to rob them. They believed Rankins was a drug dealer and carried $100 with him.
‘It’s demonic,’ Rankins’ mother, Jamille Kent, said.
‘This is evil.’
Trafton, the police chief, said Massaro, Landerman and Miner were ‘very much surprised’ when police walked in on them Thursday. McKee had left the house but police arrested her later in nearby Kankakee.
more at Joliet murders: Teens had 3-way sex on bodies of men they strangled | Mail Online.
HOMELESS MAN SUES PARENTS FOR NOT LOVING HIM ENOUGH
A 32 year old man is still blaming his parents for the life he now leads.
Bernard Anderson Bey has self-filed a suit with the Brooklyn Supreme Court against his parents, Vickie and Bernard Manley, in the amount of $200,000. He claims that they didn’t give him enough support him enough or show him enough affection. He and his siblings were allegedly raised in a poor household where they were not loved enough. This is why he is homeless and destitute.
Now he wants his parents to make up for it. He wants them to mortgage their share of a Bedford-Stuyvesant home and use the money to open two franchises like Domino’s Pizza. This would provide employment for all of his family including his 5 younger siblings he claimed are on public assistance.
“Our whole family is really poor, and my father doesn’t care about the situation,” Bey said yesterday. “I feel unloved and abandoned.” He also claims in the suit that his father beat him, called him names, and did drugs in front off him.
His mother, Vickie Anderson, said, “He’s 32 years old. That speaks for itself. Welcome to America. Everyone in America has the same opportunity. Don’t blame the parents at this point. The choice is yours. You’re an adult.”
Bernard Manley said, “He’s not related to me. He’s not my son.” Bey is his step-son.
A sister said, “I’m not on public assistance. My parents were not terrible. They did the best they could. He chose the life he’s leading now.”
read more Homeless man sues parents for not loving him enough | Fox News.
Homeless man sues parents for ‘too little love’
FRENCH MOTHER ARRESTED FOR SLITTING THROATS OF HER 3 CHILDREN NEAR PARIS
A French woman has been arrested after her three children were found with their throats slit at their home near Paris Friday.
Sky News reports that two of the kids—a 9-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son—died of multiple stab wounds. Their 17-year-old brother was still alive when emergency services arrived, but later died of his wounds.
Their father, a doctor, discovered the scene after returning home in the morning from work, according to judicial sources and police. He was reportedly in a state of shock.
“The children had their throats slit but we are still awaiting forensic reports,” authorities told Sky.
Police launched a hunt for the mother after the bodies were found, eventually apprehending her and holding her in Paris. The family lived in a suburb east of Paris called Dampmart.
Investigators said the couple was having marital problems.
more at French mother arrested for slitting throats of her 3 children | Fox News.
METEORITE CRASH IN RUSSIAS URAL MOUNTAINS SPARKS UFO FEARS
Explosions and bright flashes in the sky over several locations in Russias Urals region, has sparked fears of a UFO crash, according to RT news.
The number of people injured by the blast above the mountain range soared to “nearly 1,000,” according to the Associated Press.
The crash — felt in Chelyabinsk, Tyumen and Sverdlovsk and elsewhere — resembled an earthquake, witnesses report.
There were conflicting reports. The Interfax news agency described the event as a meteor shower, a spokeswoman for Russias Emergency Ministry, told the AP. But the Interfax news agency described the incident as a single meteorite.”
It was definitely not a plane,” an emergency official told Reuters. “We are gathering the bits of information and have no data on the casualties so far.”
RT quotes witnesses who say the blast and unusual spectacle overhead had some residents fearing a UFO.“
My windows were not smashed, but I first thought that my house is being dismantled, then I thought it was a UFO, and my eventual thought was an earthquake,” Bukreeva Olga wrote on Twitter, according to the news site.
more at Meteorite Crash In Russias Ural Mountains Sparks UFO Fears Video.
WOMAN HIT, KILLED BY SUBWAY AFTER FAINTING IN BROOKLYN STATION
A woman was hit by a train and killed after she fainted on a train platform in Brooklyn Tuesday morning.
The MTA said the woman was struck at the Eastern Parkway and Utica Avenue station at about 10:30 a.m.
Brooklyn-bound 3 trains are running express from Atlantic Avenue to Utica Avenue, and some southbound 4 trains are rerouted. There are delays in both directions, and Brooklyn-bound trains are bypassing Utica Avenue.
Two recent pushing deaths, one in Queens and another in Manhattan, have drawn attention to the dangers underground.
Fifty-five people died last year after they were pushed, fell or jumped onto the tracks, up from 47 in 2011, according to the MTA. On average, about 135 people a year are hit by New York City subways; most survive.
At a City Council hearing last week, Transportation Committee Chairman James Vacca said the recent deaths should be “a wake-up call to our transit system.”
MTA officials say they’re working toward testing barriers on platform edges and technology that sounds alarms when someone or something is on the tracks.
The subway workers’ union, meanwhile, is pushing another approach: telling drivers to enter stations as slowly as 10 mph. The trains’ average speed is about 30 mph.
The MTA says slowing the trains would lengthen commutes by about 30 seconds per station, make platforms more crowded and reduce the frequency of arriving trains by about 20 percent unless more trains were added.
Vacca and other council members pushed MTA officials to move faster on evaluating the bigger measures, noting that the agency started gathering information two years ago about the barriers. They have been installed in subway systems from Shanghai and Dubai to Paris.
“Why haven’t we had action?” Vacca asked outside the hearing, adding that he wasn’t sure he favored the idea but wanted the analysis to move faster.
View 2012-2013 NYC deaths in a larger map
more at Woman Hit, Killed by Subway After Fainting in Brooklyn Station: MTA | NBC New York.
2 DEAD IN SHOOTING AT HAZARD COLLEGE, KENTUCKY
Two people were killed and a third person was injured in a shooting in Hazard Tuesday evening.
The shooting happened in a parking lot on the campus of Hazard Community and Technical College.
Hazard police said two people have turned themselves in, but their role, if any, in the shooting is still unclear.
Police said the scene is secure, but the campus is still on lockdown.
more at 2 dead in shooting at Hazard college | Kentucky News – WLKY Home.
NEW YORK CITY FERRY CRASH – AT LEAST 50 INJURED, 1 CRITICAL.
View SEASTREAK WALL STREET FERRY CRASH AT LEAST 50 INJURED ONE CR in a larger map
At least 50 people were injured, two critically, after a commuter ferry slammed into a dock Wednesday morning in Lower Manhattan.
The Seastreak Wall Street ferry from Atlantic Highlands, N.J., banged into the mooring as it arrived at South Street around 8:45 a.m. Wednesday. One person is in critical condition with head injuries.
Those on board said passengers were waiting to disembark and were hurled on the deck after the impact.
“We were pulling into the dock. The boat hit the dock. We just tumbled on top of each other. I got thrown into everybody else. … People were hysterical,” said Ellen Foran.
Those injured were being treated at the scene. There were no immediate details of the injuries and reports on the number of those injured vary.
The Coast Guard said it will be administering drug and alcohol testing on captain and crew as soon as the injury count concludes.
A corner of the ferry was ripped open like a tin can. Fire fighters were seen setting up a temporary staging area on the dock, with stretchers and other medical equipment, and some passengers were being removed from the ferry on stretchers for evaluation. A passenger, Ellen Foran of Neptune City, N.J., said people tumbled on top of one another, hysterical and crying.
More than 340 passengers and crew members were aboard the ferry from New Jersey, one of many that carry commuters to the island of Manhattan. Dee Wertz was on shore waiting for the ferry and saw the impact. “It was coming in a little wobbly,” Wertz said. “It hit the right side of the boat on the dock hard, like a bomb.” After the impact, the boat was able to dock normally. Wertz said “passengers raced off once the ramp came down.
I think people just wanted to get the heck off the boat as soon as they could,” she said.
Ferry company officials were at the scene.
Ferries are a fairly common way to commute to work in Manhattan, an island separated from New Jersey and the rest of New York City by several rivers.
MORE AT Ferrys crew to take drug test after NYC crash injures dozens | Fox News.
ADAM LANZA’S FORMER CLASSMATE REVEALS SANDY HOOK GUNMAN HAD ‘ONLINE DEVIL WORSHIPING PAGE’
The Sandy Hook gunman worshiped the devil and had an online page dedicated to Satan, a former classmate revealed, as his childhood barber recalls Adam Lanza never spoke and would stare at the floor every time he had his hair cut.
Lanza’s worshiping page had the word ‘Devil’ written in red, Gothic-style letters against a black background, Trevor L. Todd told The National Enquirer, something which he said was ‘weird’ and ‘gave him the chills’.
The FBI are trying to piece together his smashed up hard drive to see if his online footprint will reveal any motive for the killing, but they strongly believe he made use of devil-worshiping and suicide sites and boasted of his murder plans on message forums.
Adam Lanza’s childhood barber Bob Skuba revealed today that Nancy Lanza stopped bringing her son in for haircuts a few years ago so he thought he had moved away from the area.
Time was running out: Nancy Lanza was searching for other places to have her son Adam educated and traveled all over the world to find something suitable
He told CNN that Adam would never speak or even look at him any time he came in for a cut, which was every six weeks for years.
‘It’s just weird that I actually touched him. I’d tried to joke with him,’ Skuba said. ‘He wouldn’t even look at me. He would just be looking down at the tiles the whole time.
‘I wish I would have killed him then. Or he should have killed himself a long time ago. He would have saved us all the trouble.
‘I should have slit and stabbed him by accident. It would have been a lot better for those people.’
Cutting Adam Lanza’s hair ‘was a very long half an hour. It was a very uncomfortable situation’, stylist Diane Harty said.
She said that she never heard his voice even once and that Nancy, a divorcee, also hardly spoke – only to tell Adam what to do as he would not listen to anyone else.