Yep Its Stupid

The gunman who shot and killed 12 people at a country music bar in a Los Angeles suburb was a former military machine gunner who mental health specialists interviewed earlier this year after a neighbor reported a disturbance. Ian David Long, 28, served in the Marines for nearly five years, including a seven-month tour in Afghanistan, according to the Pentagon. He left with the rank of corporal in March 2013, divorced soon after, and had been living with his mother in Thousand Oaks. In April, a neighbor called authorities to report loud noises coming from Long"s house. Deputies found Long "was somewhat irate, acting a little irrationally" and called in a mental health specialist, Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean said. That specialist assessed Long but concluded he couldn"t be involuntarily committed for psychiatric observation. "The mental health experts out there cleared him that day," Dean told reporters Thursday, less than 12 hours after the Wednesday n...

When Melbourne wildlife campaigner Donalea Patman walked into an antique store on Chapel Street and saw cabinets full of ivory trinkets for sale she was shocked. “I was thinking that can’t possibly be legal, given everything that is trying to be done to protect elephants,” Ms Patman told nine.com.au. But Ms Patman soon discovered she was wrong. Ivory displayed for sale at a Gold Coast antiques store. Photo: For the Love of Wildlife. (Supplied) Items made of elephant ivory are regularly, and legally, sold in Australia. Environment minister Melissa Price is considering whether Australia should ban ivory and rhinoceros horn trade - as the UK, China and the US have already done. Under current regulations, ivory and horn items made before 1975 can be sold freely in Australia, with no legal requirement to prove their age or provenance. The items can also be imported or exported, with evidence of provenance, but that evidence can be as limited as a statutory declaration from ...

Parker Donham campaigned for the Democratic Party this month in Texas during the U.S. midterm elections. - Contributed SYDNEY, N.S. — Parker Donham doesn’t hesitate when asked why he just spent 10 days in Texas campaigning for a Democrat candidate in the U.S.’s midterm elections. “I am really concerned about the political situation in the United States right now,” said the 73-year-old communications specialist, political blogger (Contrarian) and former independent journalist. “I think it’s very dangerous and very ugly and it seems we’re at one of those points of history when people need to stand up and be counted.” About a month before Tuesday’s elections, Donham began researching Democrat candidates running in what are referred to as “toss-up” congressional districts. He whittled his list down to two, one in Albany, N.Y. and one in Dallas. He chose the Texas district. “I figured Dallas was warmer and I was ri...

Cricket is a game of innovations where bowlers and batsmen come up with new ways to outwit each other. From "switch hits" to "scoops", over the years batsmen have changed the game with out-of-the-box shots but bowlers have had little scope of doing anything similar with the rules not permitting them. Recently, Uttar Pradesh"s left-arm spinner Shiva Singh, playing in a CK Nayudu Trophy match, tried to fox the batsman with his bizarre style of bowling . However, the umpire signalled for a "dead ball" as the ball was making its way towards the striker.  Shiva Singh did a full 360 degree twirl in his run-up, just before his delivery during a match between Bengal and Uttar Pradesh in Kalyani. But to the frustration of the bowler and other Uttar Pradesh players, umpire Vinod Seshan signalled "dead ball". What are your thoughts on Shiva Singhs 360 delivery in the CK Nayudu Trophy game against Bengal ? pic.twitter.com/l82YI275dr — UPCA (@UPCACricket...

A police sergeant has been dismissed after he assaulted a sleeping woman on a train before squaring up to passengers who tried intervene. PS Kyle Blood broke down in tears as he told a Metropolitan Police  tribunal he would be losing his dream job over the incident, which took place in June 2016. The hearing was told the officer sexually assaulted the woman once she fell asleep, after the pair had initially kissed on a Thameslink service out of London. Despite gaining her trust by saying he worked for Scotland Yard , Blood assaulted his sleeping victim before she woke up and told him: “I don’t want this”. Two other passengers on the train who witnessed what had happened then came to the woman"s aid, prompting a furious reaction from the sergeant. Blood, who had been assigned to duties in Enfield , north London, was found not guilty of sexually assaulting the woman after a criminal trial at Luton Crown Court last year....

TV producer and award-winning writer Travon Free issued an apology early Thursday for multiple old tweets that were derogatory toward Jews and joked about Adolf Hitler. Mr. Free , the producer of HBO ’s “Camping” who won two Emmys as a writer for “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee,” said the nearly decade-old tweets that resurfaced this week were a poor attempt to be funny. “Got cut off in traffic by a Jew. WWHD? (what would Hitler do?)” the writer tweeted in 2010, before deleting it on Wednesday. “Happy 122nd birthday Hitler. It’s a good thing you’re not around to see how much you motivated the Jewish community to run everything,” read a now-deleted 2011 tweet, according to a screenshot  posted  by the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council. Several other offensive tweets remained on Mr. Free ’s account as of Thursday afternooon. How come no one ever channels their inner Hitler anymore? — Travon...

“I’ll give you ten bucks to eat that.” That was the dare facing 17-year-old Liam McGuigan on a school footy trip on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. His response: “It won’t kill me.” Liam picked up a slug, put it in his mouth and swallowed it. He now realises how incredibly lucky he is to be telling his story, particularly this week, after a Sydney man died from doing the same thing . In the days that followed Liam’s dare, the Year 12 student started feeling lethargic. His muscles stopped working. “I went to hospital and they thought it might be my appendix. So they took that out,” he tells news.com.au from Brisbane. Doctors were wrong. Within hours he was in the back of an ambulance, stripped naked, covered in ice to reduce his soaring temperature. Liam’s body was shutting down because the slug he swallowed was carrying a parasitic worm. When the slug died, the worm found a new home in his spinal cord and “basically a...