Teacher Fired for Magic Trick, County Calls It "Wizardry"
POSTED: 7:24 pm EDT May 5, 2008
UPDATED: 9:39 am EDT May 6, 2008
PASCO COUNTY, Fla. -- A Florida substitute teacher says his job disappeared after doing a magic trick in front of his students.
STRANGE PHOTOS
VIEW 99 PICS capturing a variety of strange news.Substitute teacher Jim Piculas made a toothpick disappear, then reappear in front of a classroom at Rushe Middle School in Land O' Lakes, Florida. The Pasco County School District says there were several other performance issues, but none compared to his "wizardry."
"I get a call the middle of the day from head of supervisor of substitute teachers. He says, 'Jim, we have a huge issue. You can't take any more assignments. You need to come in right away.' I said, 'Well, Pat, can you explain this to me?' 'You've been accused of wizardry,'" Piculas explained.
The assistant superintendent with the district said Piculas had other issues, like not following lesson plans and allowing students to play on unapproved computers.
Piculas said he's concerned the incident may prevent him from getting future jobs.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Not-So-Jolly Roger
Father who flew Jolly Roger for daughter's birthday prosecuted by councilBy OLINKA KOSTER - More by this author » Last updated at 23:43pm on 6th May 2008
Comments (60) One particular pirate prop was a must for David Waterman as he organised a themed party for his daughter's birthday.
With cutlass-wielding youngsters running around in eye patches, he thought, a Jolly Roger flag would add the perfect finishing touch - and he duly hung the Skull and Crossbones from the side of the family home.
Unfortunately the local council didn't see the jolly side and Mr Waterman has been threatened with prosecution unless he removes the 5ft by 3ft banner.
Scroll down for more
All aboard: Firefighter David Waterman with children Ewan and Madeleine
Last night, the fireman and former soldier hit out at the "disgraceful" waste of taxpayers' money.
While his daughter Madeleine's eighth birthday party went off successfully, he is so angry at the council's pettiness that he has decided to leave the flag in place on a point of principle and pay the £95 administration fee to apply for 'advertising consent' which would enable him to continue flying it outside his home in Ashtead, Surrey.
A senior council officer has warned him it is unlikely to be granted.
Father-of-four Mr Waterman, who works at Battersea fire station in South London, said: "I find it ridiculous that the council are fighting me over this.
"It's a £5 flag, not hurting anyone, and they're probably spending hundreds of pounds of our cash getting me to take it down. That could be spent on improving the local area."
The problems started when the council received a complaint about the flag from a neighbour on April 16.
Scroll down for more
Causing a flap: Mr Waterman is paying £95 to apply for advertising consent for the flag after a neighbour complained
Mr Waterman, 41, was sent a letter on April 21 informing him he had seven days to remove it.
He was told that the flying of flags was controlled by the Town and Country (Control of Advertisements) Regulations 1992.
These stipulate that only 'a national flag of any country, the flag of the European Union, the Commonwealth, the United Nations, English County flags and saints' flags associated with a particular county' can be flown.
The regulations also set out commercial flags that are normally allowed, such as those used by housebuilders and car showrooms. But they state that specific permission has to be granted to fly any other type of flag - such as a Jolly Roger.
Mr Waterman, a former trooper with the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, said he believed the complaints made about the flag were linked to a dispute about his children-playing outside. "My kids are well-behaved but there's one set of neighbours who would rather they sat inside playing computer games than run around on the lawn," he said.
"They don't like my kids being outside but they can't complain to anyone about it so they've picked on the flag.
"I can't believe the council is backing them. This is a point of principle and I'm standing firm."
A spokesman for Mole Valley District Council said it had not yet launched legal proceedings against Mr Waterman and would consider his application.
"We received a complaint about the flag flying outside Mr Waterman's house and are duty-bound to investigate complaints and enforce Government regulations," he added.
The term Jolly Roger is used to describe various flags flown to identify a ship's crew as pirates. The Skull and Crossbones is the most famous.
Comments (60) One particular pirate prop was a must for David Waterman as he organised a themed party for his daughter's birthday.
With cutlass-wielding youngsters running around in eye patches, he thought, a Jolly Roger flag would add the perfect finishing touch - and he duly hung the Skull and Crossbones from the side of the family home.
Unfortunately the local council didn't see the jolly side and Mr Waterman has been threatened with prosecution unless he removes the 5ft by 3ft banner.
Scroll down for more
All aboard: Firefighter David Waterman with children Ewan and Madeleine
Last night, the fireman and former soldier hit out at the "disgraceful" waste of taxpayers' money.
While his daughter Madeleine's eighth birthday party went off successfully, he is so angry at the council's pettiness that he has decided to leave the flag in place on a point of principle and pay the £95 administration fee to apply for 'advertising consent' which would enable him to continue flying it outside his home in Ashtead, Surrey.
A senior council officer has warned him it is unlikely to be granted.
Father-of-four Mr Waterman, who works at Battersea fire station in South London, said: "I find it ridiculous that the council are fighting me over this.
"It's a £5 flag, not hurting anyone, and they're probably spending hundreds of pounds of our cash getting me to take it down. That could be spent on improving the local area."
The problems started when the council received a complaint about the flag from a neighbour on April 16.
Scroll down for more
Causing a flap: Mr Waterman is paying £95 to apply for advertising consent for the flag after a neighbour complained
Mr Waterman, 41, was sent a letter on April 21 informing him he had seven days to remove it.
He was told that the flying of flags was controlled by the Town and Country (Control of Advertisements) Regulations 1992.
These stipulate that only 'a national flag of any country, the flag of the European Union, the Commonwealth, the United Nations, English County flags and saints' flags associated with a particular county' can be flown.
The regulations also set out commercial flags that are normally allowed, such as those used by housebuilders and car showrooms. But they state that specific permission has to be granted to fly any other type of flag - such as a Jolly Roger.
Mr Waterman, a former trooper with the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, said he believed the complaints made about the flag were linked to a dispute about his children-playing outside. "My kids are well-behaved but there's one set of neighbours who would rather they sat inside playing computer games than run around on the lawn," he said.
"They don't like my kids being outside but they can't complain to anyone about it so they've picked on the flag.
"I can't believe the council is backing them. This is a point of principle and I'm standing firm."
A spokesman for Mole Valley District Council said it had not yet launched legal proceedings against Mr Waterman and would consider his application.
"We received a complaint about the flag flying outside Mr Waterman's house and are duty-bound to investigate complaints and enforce Government regulations," he added.
The term Jolly Roger is used to describe various flags flown to identify a ship's crew as pirates. The Skull and Crossbones is the most famous.
Florida to Split in Two!
Florida to become two states?
Reported by: Brandon Moseley Email: bmoseley@abcactionnews.com Last Update: 3:11 pm
Related Links
Weary pirates continue road trip in Florida NORTH LAUDERDALE -- Tired of what they say is mistreatment by the State government, the North Lauderdale City Commission is pushing a resolution that would split Florida into two separate states - North and South.North Lauderdale city leaders say South Florida contributes more tax dollars to the State than they're getting back and are unable to meet all the needs of tax payers.The commission is trying to rev up support by sending out hundreds of resolutions to other South Florida cities and the Miami-Dade, Monroe, Broward and Palm Beach counties.The resolution will be up for discussion Wednesday at the City of Margate commission meeting.
Copyright 2008 The E.W. Scripps Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Reported by: Brandon Moseley Email: bmoseley@abcactionnews.com Last Update: 3:11 pm
Related Links
Weary pirates continue road trip in Florida NORTH LAUDERDALE -- Tired of what they say is mistreatment by the State government, the North Lauderdale City Commission is pushing a resolution that would split Florida into two separate states - North and South.North Lauderdale city leaders say South Florida contributes more tax dollars to the State than they're getting back and are unable to meet all the needs of tax payers.The commission is trying to rev up support by sending out hundreds of resolutions to other South Florida cities and the Miami-Dade, Monroe, Broward and Palm Beach counties.The resolution will be up for discussion Wednesday at the City of Margate commission meeting.
Copyright 2008 The E.W. Scripps Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
The New Cult Canon: Clerks
Welcome to Cult On The Cheap month, where we celebrate the DIY outsiders who maxed out their credit cards, sold their plasma, participated in medical experiments, or did whatever else they could to scrape together the paltry sum needed to share their irrepressible vision with the world. Many of these Cinderella stories are a master class in resourceful and innovation, with first-time filmmakers stretching budgets so shoestring that they wouldn't cover craft services on other cheapo independent productions. In the absence of money, these scrappy little movies made the most of things that are free—making bold choices in the editing room, taking advantage of viewers' imaginations, and advancing big ideas over expensive special effects.
Kevin Smith's Clerks is not one of those movies.
Clerks may be the only $25,000 movie ever made that leaves people wondering where all that money went. There's the film stock, of course, but next week's NCC entry, Primer, was shot on 16mm a decade later for a third of the cost. Presumably, the surplus was spent on hookers and blow, because there isn't much to the film—a couple of locations, a small troupe of rank amateurs, no complicated setups, and a mise-en-scène that's only a hair more sophisticated than a day's worth of surveillance-camera footage. And it's not as if Smith's ideas were carrying the day, either: Aside from a thoroughly juvenile treatment of male sexual hang-ups, the film is just a crude assemblage of comic vignettes. Cut one away, and nothing's lost but a few minutes off the running time, which may or may not bother you, depending on how much you'd miss throwaway gags about an egg-obsessed guidance counselor or a virulent pro-gum lobbyist.
So why was Clerks such a sensation? Back in 1994—the first and last time I saw the film until this week—I had no idea. It was just after college, and I was in the perfect mindset to appreciate the film: Much like Dante Hicks, a reasonably intelligent guy mired in a dead-end job, I was logging time doing grunt work at a stone quarry outside Toledo, Ohio. (This is what that Bachelor's Degree in Literature will get you, kids: $8 per hour shoveling limestone sand from under the conveyor belts.) Whenever I had the chance, I'd drive an hour north to Ann Arbor to take in all the arthouse cinema I could (Hoop Dreams, Oleanna, Spanking The Monkey, et al.), and I remember heading up there on a weeknight to see Clerks, knowing full well that I'd pay for it in the morning. The film had come out of Sundance with tremendous momentum, and earned even greater cachet by winning its David vs. Goliath battle with the MPAA, which originally slapped it with an NC-17 for foul language alone. Reviews were good, the theater was packed, and…
I don't think I laughed more than a couple of times. And for the past 14 years, all I could remember about the film was the pick-up hockey game on the roof and the big punchline about Dante's ex-girlfriend's encounter in the bathroom. In the years that have followed, the cult of Kevin Smith has waxed and waned but mostly endured, spinning off into comic books, diaries, and concert appearances, several well-trafficked websites (and many other fan sites), and other assorted merchandise and pop-cultural flotsam. His "View Askewniverse" builds on a mythology not unlike that of the Star Wars movies, only much, much punier—akin to George Lucas basing two sequels and three prequels around the goofy creatures in the Mos Eisley Cantina. Yet for all his lingering deficiencies as a filmmaker, Smith has been expert at finding a cult audience and nurturing it like a delicate flower, one strong enough to weather the cold winter frost of Jersey Girl.
So again, why was Clerks such a sensation? Kevin Smith, obviously. There have been plenty of inspiring DIY success stories in independent film past and present, but Smith remains a special case. He's a true outsider: a Jersey boy who's down-to-earth and fundamentally unpretentious; who likes Star Wars, comic books, and dirty jokes; and who could never be mistaken for a Hollywood phony. Throughout the years, he's been remarkably accessible to friends and foes alike, unchecked by the usual phalanx of agents and publicists who keep artistes away from the common man; say something about Kevin Smith, and damned if the man himself doesn't turn up, Rumpelstiltskin-like, on the message boards to mix it up. Even this non-fan finds him likeable, and trusts that his "one of us" persona isn't a pose.
It isn't as catchy as "May the Force be with you," but there's a line in Clerks that defines Smith's philosophy in a nutshell: "Title does not dictate behavior." As spoken by Randal (Jeff Anderson), the more unruly of two clerks running adjacent convenience and video stores, the line is meant to inspire his mild-mannered cohort Dante (Brian O'Halloran) to break the rules a little. Clerks are supposed to be subservient to the customer, but Randal isn't one to believe that the customer is always right; just because the customers aren't logging time behind the counter at a video store doesn't mean they're superior to the hump who is. And if, say, a mother annoys Randal by asking him about some kid's video for her daughter, he isn't shy about ordering Ass-Worshiping Rim-jobbers in front of them. Dante, on the other hand, is so used to absorbing the petty abuses of his customers that he's come to believe that being a clerk is his sorry lot in life.
"Title does not dictate behavior" also helps explain the Clerks phenomenon, which now seems as revolutionary in its own way as Reservoir Dogs did two years before. Once the province of earnest, buttoned-down indies and imports, the arthouse seemed too hoity-toity a place for movies this rude and ill-behaved. But Clerks, with an assist from the Weinsteins, muscled its way into theaters anyway, creating an audience that hadn't existed previously, and challenging people's expectations of what an art film could be. The odd thing about Smith is that unlike Quentin Tarantino—who legitimized genre pictures for arthouse consumption—he's really just opened the door for himself. It's possible that mainstream American comedies have gotten cruder in the Smith era, but it's hard to think of a single Clerks-inspired independent film that has made it past the straight-to-DVD market.
Plot-wise, there isn't much of consequence to Clerks. It takes place over a day in the life of Dante and Randal, and the only story arc concerns Dante's screwed-up relationships. He's currently seeing Veronica (Marilyn Ghigliotti), a ball-buster who castigates him about not doing more with his life, but is devoted enough to bring him lasagna and make him one of only three men she's bedded. (Unless he cares to count the 36 others she's blown, including "Snowball," the bearded goofball who likes to taste his own ejaculate after a BJ.) But Dante can't stop thinking about Caitlin (Lisa Spoonhauer), an ex-girlfriend who appears poised to marry an Asian design major. Will Dante keep chasing Caitlin, whom he's idealized out of proportion to the real thing, or settle for Veronica, who ignites his Madonna-whore complex?
The sexual politics in Clerks are dubious, to put it mildly. It's true that men often have a hard time dealing with their girlfriends' sexual history—a subject that Smith tackled more thoroughly with Chasing Amy, if not necessarily with more maturity. (Noah Baumbach's underrated Mr. Jealousy, made the same year as Amy, did the job with a deftness and wit that seems beyond Smith's capabilities.) But the women in Clerks are broadly sketched, in part because the film spends so much time spinning its wheels with Dante and Randal (and Jay and Silent Bob, for that matter) that it doesn't have time for them. Dante's choice is between The Whore Who Brings Him Lasagna or The Whore Who Fucks The Dead Guy In The Bathroom. To me, the latter is a prime example of sacrificing too much for a joke; rather than find a more subtle way for Dante to deal with his romantic past and present, Smith makes the choice easy by turning his ex-girlfriend into an unwitting necrophiliac.
As a portrait of male friendship, Clerks isn't much better. The dynamic between Dante and Randal isn't that far off from buddies like Dane Cook and Dan Fogler in Good Luck Chuck: The hero is a base, sex-addled doofus, but compared to his Neanderthal best buddy, he's the sensitive guy who deserves our affection. O'Halloran and Anderson aren't skilled enough as actors to serve as more than mouthpieces for Smith's lowbrow gags and bits of philosophy, and they often choke on his reams of dialogue. (Smith has always been praised for his tart screenplays, but to me, he's a writer much too in love with his own voice; his films are littered with scenes that are allowed to drag on several beats longer than they should.) That said, even Anderson can't trample over this fine monologue about the destruction of the Death Star in Return Of The Jedi:
As Star Wars theory goes, that speech is second only to Patton Oswalt's recent riff on the prequels ("At Midnight I Will Kill George Lucas With A Shovel"). It also establishes Smith as a champion of blue-collar types like the poor roofers, aluminum-siders, and other wage slaves who paid the price for their boss' tyranny. A second viewing didn't bring me around to liking Clerks, but Smith's scrappy, workaday roots provide the film's best touches: filling up the newspaper rack with Asbury Park Press papers stolen from the box; the shoe-polish sign assuring customers that the store is open in spite of the gummed-up shutters; the litter box set on the countertop; the pile of change for coffee-and-paper buyers to serve themselves; and the fact that guys like Dante will do anything to keep people from disrupting the numb, dead-eyed inertia that propels him from one day to the next. It's when the movie starts running off at the mouth that things go awry.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Attack of the Sith
Star Wars comes to Holyhead as Darth Vader strikes back in Jedi's back garden
By Tom Chivers
Last Updated: 1:12am GMT 29/03/2008
A Star Wars fan got closer to his idols than he would perhaps have liked when he was attacked in his garden by Darth Vader.
Jedi Master Jonba Hehol - known to family and friends as Barney Jones, 36, of Holyhead - was giving a TV interview in his back garden for a documentary when a man, dressed in a black bin-bag and wearing Darth Vader's trademark shiny black helmet, leapt over his garden fence.
Wielding a metal crutch - his lightsaber presumably being in for repairs - the Sith Lord proceeded to lay about his opponent, whose Jedi powers proved inadequate for the task of defending himself. After besting Master Hehol in single combat, Vader, who The Sun reports was under the influence of alcohol, went on to assault the camera crew and a hairdresser. Police are investigating a claim of assault. The Jedi "religion" was born as a joke in the 2001 census, when almost 400,000 people claimed to believe in the Jedi faith. Based on the teachings of Yoda, the crinkly green dwarf of the films, the "church" has a branch in Florida and plans to open another in the Philippines. |
A Knight out on the town
Police said the suit was found inside a Salem bus shelter about 6 a.m. Friday on Wheatland Road North, just south of Parkmeadow Drive Northeast.
The owner was not able to give a dollar value but did state it was taken from her front porch sometime during the early morning hours of March 28th.
After a local television news station aired a photograph of the suit, a woman saw it and claimed it. Police delivered it to her around
Wikipedia 10 Million!!!
Wikipedia Hits Milestone of Ten Million Articles Across 250 Languages
Hungarian biography of 16th century painter Nicholas Hilliard declared ten millionth article
San Francisco, California, March 28, 2008
Earlier this week the Wikimedia Foundation reached a significant new milestone: on Thursday, March 27, at 00:07 UTC the official article count for all Wikipedias combined reached 10 million. The ten millionth article, a short biography of 16th century English goldsmith and painter Nicholas Hilliard, was created in the Hungarian Wikipedia by user Pataki Márta.
Wikipedia now boasts articles in more than 250 languages, with the English Wikipedia having the largest number, followed in descending order by the German, French, Polish, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish Wikipedias. The project is also experiencing rapid growth in many young Wikipedias, including Marathi, Tagalog, and Cantonese.
Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation remarked on the occasion of this milestone, "It's incredible to think that we've grown from one Wikipedia in English to over 250 language Wikipedias. Ten million articles is something we could never have imagined happening so fast when we embarked on Wikipedia in 2001. This is a testament to the incredible dedication of our volunteers around the world."
In December 2007, the German magazine Stern announced in an independent study of 50 articles that the German Wikipedia was more accurate, complete and up-to-date than the longstanding print encyclopedia Brockhaus. In April 2007, a study conducted by the Hewlett Packard Information Dynamics Laboratory found that the best articles on the English Wikipedia are those that have been edited the most frequently, by the largest number of people. It concluded that the correlation between article quality and the number of edits validates Wikipedia as a successful collaborative effort.
Similar studies around the world continue to point to the increasing accuracy and quality of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that is written, edited and maintained by a global community of thousands of volunteers.
Wikipedia is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation, a charitable, non-profit organization based in San Francisco, California.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
