Author: Shaylin Clark

A picture showing a UFO near a historic barn in Santee, California is drawing a bit of attention this week. Ellen Henry was taking pictures of the Edgemoor barn when she noticed the object. Before she could get any clearer pictures, however, she says her camera stopped working.

While the images leave plenty of room for discussion and speculation, Henry herself has no doubts. She told local Channel 10 News that she was absolutely certain that the object was from another world.

She did get one decent picture of the barn with the object in the background before her camera stopped working, though it is a little hard to see. Take a look at the image for yourself below:

The object is a little hard to see in the image, but if you look over to the left you should see a cigar-shaped object in the sky. Here is the same image zoomed in a bit, with a circle drawn around the object in question.

This is not the only time that the Edgemoor barn has drawn attention for things other than its historical significance. The barn is reportedly haunted and is a popular destination for paranormal investigators.

Local airfields, including the Marine Corps Air Station at Miramar, have no record of any aircraft in the area. Which means that, strictly speaking, the object is a UFO, in that it is unidentified. The question of whether it is really an alien spacecraft will likely remain a mystery, though.

Personally, though, I think it looks a little bit like a Battlestar…

Soda may be as damaging to your teeth as meth or crack in the long run, according to a recently released study. The study claims that the damage done by high soda consumption combined with a lack of proper dental hygiene can do damage that is substantially similar to “meth mouth.”

(Do yourself a favor and do not do a Google Image search for meth mouth. You can thank me later.)

The study was conducted by Dr. Mohamed Bassiouny. Bassiouny works at Temple University School of Dentistry as a professor of restorative dentistry. In the study, recently published in the journal General Dentistry, Bassiouny compares the damage done by various kinds of substances, including soda, crack, and meth.

While the weight loss benefits of diet soda are debatable, Bassiouny says that when it comes to damaging your teeth, there is little difference between diet soda and regular. The reason for this is that they have comparable acid content – citric acid and phosphoric acid, to be precise. Regular exposure to these acids without proper hygiene can do catastrophic damage to the teeth in the long term.

Fortunately for all you soda fiends out there, the damage from soda is much easier to mitigate than the damage from meth. One of the soda-drinking subjects of the study was a woman in her 30s who had been consuming two liters of soda every day for five years, and had not been to see a dentist in 20 years. That suggests that a little work to keep your teeth healthy can help prevent some of the damage soda can do. Brush regularly, go to the dentist at least once a year, preferably twice, and don’t drink an entire 2-liter per day, and you should be fine.

Other subjects of the study included a 29-year-old man who had been using meth regularly for three years, as well as drinking 2-3 cans of soda per day. Another was a 51-year-old crack user. All three subjects had to have their teeth extracted and replaced with dentures.

A zoo worker mauled by a tiger at a British zoo died of her injuries at the hospital yesterday. The worker, 24-year-old Sarah McClay was in the big cat enclosure when the tiger attacked her. She was airlifted to nearby Royal Preston Infirmary, but did not survive. She reportedly suffered numerous head and neck wounds.

The zoo, South Lakes Wild Animal Park in Dalton-in-Furness, closed early and sent all visitors away after the incident. Zoo officials said in a statement that the tiger had been secured in its cage, and that at no time was there any danger to the public.

The circumstances of the attack remain unclear, though area authorities and zoo officials are investigating.

R&B singer Chris Brown, best known for beating the crap out of then-girlfriend Rihanna in 2009, is once again in the news for hitting a woman. This time, though, he did it with his car, rather than inside it. Fortunately, the woman he hit was also in her car, so the damage caused was relatively minor.

According to TMZ, Brown was driving his Range Rover with current girlfriend Karrueche Tran near Toluca Lake in Los Angeles when he rear-ended a woman driving a Mercedes.

According to a photographer who was apparently following Brown around the time of the accident, the singer quickly pulled his Range Rover in front of the Mercedes and exchanged insurance information with the driver. There was no police involvement. And nobody had to go to the hospital.

In today’s modern social media-saturated culture, many people’s first instinct when something happens to them – good or bad – is to tell the internet. Find out your pregnant? Post it to Facebook! Find a great new restaurant? Check in on Foursquare! Think of a clever one-liner? Tweet it! Cut off your finger in a shop accident? Instagram, here we come, baby!

That, at least, was the approach of Jesse James. When the famed custom motorcycle builder lost the tip of his pinky finger in an accident yesterday, almost the first thing he did was post pictures – very graphic pictures – to his Instagram and Twitter accounts.

Impressively, James was able to take a joking tone about the loss of his littlest digit. The first picture he posted came with the caption “OOOpps. Bad day at the office. Headed 2 Surgery in a few. #PayUpSucker.”

In the caption on his second picture expressed doubt that his fingertip could be reattached: “Doesn’t look like this little dude’s gonna make it. Nice know’n you little buddy.”

Now, you might think that a man who’s just had part of his body lopped off might take a day off work, right? Well, in this case, you’d be wrong. James was back at the shop today, welding with his bandaged hand.

As noted above, James was not optimistic as to the fate of his forlorn finger. That said, there has not been any conformation yet as to wether the piece of his pinky could be put back on.

In the aftermath of this week’s tragic tornado outbreak in Oklahoma, many people across the country have rushed to do whatever they can to help. Donations of money, food, and other supplies have been sent by individuals and organizations in every corner of America.

Midwest City, Oklahoma native Matt Kemp is certainly no exception. The Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder pledged via Twitter on Monday, the day of the tornados, that he would donate $1,000 for every home run he hit until the All Star Break (in mid-July) to relief efforts.

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Matt Kemp
@TheRealMattKemp

I’m giving $1000 for tonight’s HR and every HR until the All-Star break for the victims of my hometown in OKC. #PrayforOklahoma

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While the gesture is undeniably generous, there were many who felt that it wasn’t enough. After all, critics argued, Kemp will make $20 million this year. Surely he could afford a little more than the few thousand dollars his initial grand-per-home run pledge would amount to? Well, Kemp apparently took those criticisms to heart. He announced today via the Chris Singleton Foundation that he would also donate $250,000 to relief efforts immediately, while continuing to honor his earlier $1,000 per home run pledge. Check out the announcement below:

Dear Families of OKC,
On Monday, out of concern and emotion I committed $1,000.00 for every home run I hit until the All-Star Break. It was a quick and small gesture in advance of what I knew would be my greater contribution through your rebuilding process. I am keeping my pledge and in addition, donating $250,000.00. May God bless you through this and the many generous donations coming to your aid.” -Matt Kemp #PrayforOklahoma

Kemp has spent his entire career with the Dodgers, who drafted him in 2003. He rose to the majors in 2006 and has remained. In his seven years with the team he has hit 156 home runs. Only two of those home runs have come in the 2013 season.

A three-judge panel has denied requests to release the photos and videos taken on the night Osama Bin Laden was killed. The District of Columbia Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals sided with the Obama Administration against a conservative watchdog group, Judicial Watch, that had been attempting to get the photos released.

The administration argued – and the court agreed – that the photos and video footage from that night should remain classified in the interests of the safety of Americans abroad. The administration expressed concern that if the photos became public, it would spark riots and other anti-American violence in certain parts of the world. The ruling, which was unanimous, held that the government’s reasons for classifying the photos Top Secret – and thus exempt from the Freedom of Information Act – were justified.

The raid that killed Bin Laden, for whom U.S. authorities had been searching for over ten years, was conducted by U.S. Navy SEALs in May 2011 in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The SEALs took several photos and video of the raid and its aftermath, including photos of Bin Laden’s body, partly so that the CIA could use facial recognition technology to confirm Bin Laden’s death.

While a perfect game in the majors is pretty much always newsworthy, it’s rare that a non-professional player gets much attention for it. Sometimes, though, a pitcher manages to accomplish this rare feat in a way that makes the larger sports world sit up and take notice.

That’s just what happened when Michael Strem, senior at St. Francis School in Mountain View, California, threw the first perfect game in his school’s history. Throwing a perfect game – especially the first in your team’s history – is impressive enough. What’s really remarkable is that Strem did it with a mere 66 pitches. In seven innings of baseball, Strem faced 21 batters, which means that each batter saw, on average, just slightly more than three pitches. That makes it one of the most efficient perfect games you could ever hope to see.

Even more impressive, 48 of Strem’s 66 pitches were thrown for strikes, and only 18 were balls. He also recorded 8 strikeouts.

Strem’s gem turned out to be a major boon to his team, whose offense was a little slow. The game was tied 0-0 until the 6th inning, when St. Francis scored two runs on an infield single by Mark Cardinalli.

Thanks to Strem’s amazing pitching (and Cardinalli’s two-run single) St. Francis improved their record to 26-4 and advanced to the semifinal round of the Central Coast Section Division I playoffs.

Five people are dead after an apparent bank robbery in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba went tragically wrong yesterday.

Around lunchtime yesterday, an armed man entered a branch of Bank Hapoalim in a residential area. In the ensuing standoff with police, two bank employees and two customers were killed before the gunman killed himself.

While initial reports called the incident a botched robbery, subsequent information has revealed a slightly different picture. According to the Jerusalem Post, the gunman, 40-year-old former border guard Itamar Alon, had recently been denied an extension on his credit due to an outstanding debt.

The victims were branch manager Avner Cohen, deputy manager Meir Zeitoun, and customers Anat Evan-Haim and Idan Schnitzer Sabiri.

Boston Celtics guard Terrence Williams was arrested Sunday in Washington State on charges of brandishing a firearm. According to police, the incident happened during an argument with the mother of his 10-year-old son. When Williams arrived to pick up his son, he got into an argument with the boy’s mother. During the argument Williams allegedly made threats and brandished a firearm.

Williams was later tracked down by police and arrested, though his gun was not found. He appeared in court yesterday in Kent, Washington, where a judge set his bail at $25,000.

According to the Boston Herald, officials with the Celtics have declined to comment on the situation, the organization is said to be conducting its own investigation of the incident, per policy.

Williams came to the Celtics late last season after playing for the Nets, Rockets, Kings, and a team in China. He played a handful of games – including two playoff games – last season. The Celtics have signed him to a $948,000 contract, provided he earns a spot on the team’s roster during training camp.

One of the realities of working in the food service industry is that sometimes you have to deal with dissatisfied, angry customers. Every server, cashier, or chef in the world could probably tell you horror stories about customers who have reacted poorly to a meal or service they found less than satisfactory. Almost never, however, do such incidents come to violence, and even more rarely do they end in a death.

Unfortunately, though, once such incident on the German vacation island of Sylt came to just such a tragic end. Two as-yet-unidentified men ate in a restaurant owned by 57-year-old Miki Nozawa, a highly-regarded chef known primarily for his particular Japanese-Italian fusion style. For unknown reasons, they were unhappy with the beef and fried noodle dish Nozawa prepared. After a brief confrontation, they left the restaurant without paying.

Ordinarily, that would be the end of such a story – frustrating for all parties, but neither tragic nor newsworthy. Unfortunately, however, it seems that Nozawa encountered the two men later that evening in a bar. The men exchanged words, and then blows. Nozawa suffered at least one blow to the head and was rushed to the hospital, where he died of trauma to the brain and internal bleeding.

Nozawa was, according to his ex-wife, good-natured man who would not have started a fight with the two men. She said that the men asked for a refund on their meal and believes that the attack was racially motivated.

No charges have been filed against the two men, as authorities on the island are still investigating the incident.

Last month we brought you news that rapper Eminem was working on a new album. The long-rumored album was all but confirmed by Dr. Dre, a long-time collaborator and producer for Eminem.

Now it seems that Eminem may have brought in a rather unique collaborator: comedian Chris Rock. Late last week The Daily Loud posted a photo of the two in the studio together on Twitter:

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TheDailyLoud
@DailyLoud

Eminem and Chris Rock in the studio http://t.co/j3c2DkZI6R

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In a recent appearance on The United States of Hip Hop Rock confirmed that he had been in the studio with Eminem, but declined to say what his role in the new album would be.

The new album will be Eminem’s seventh studio album, and his first since 2010′s Recovery.

Taco Bell, perennial favorite of those who love cheap, tasty food that kills you slowly (myself included), has apparently begun testing a new waffle taco as part of their breakfast menu. Though Taco Bell officials have remained quiet on the subject, the restaurant’s customers began seeing the new menu option at three southern California locations over the weekend.

Last year Taco Bell began experimenting with a new breakfast menu dubbed the “Firstmeal” menu, a reference to the “Fourthmeal” ad campaign they ran several years ago when they began staying open later several years ago. The Firstmeal menu was initially brought to several hundred restaurants scattered across the country. If it is successful in its test market, the new menu will likely be rolled out to the rest of the Mexican-ish food chain’s 6,000 restaurants before long.

According to witnesses, the waffle taco consists of a waffle (hence the name) with a sausage patty and scrambled egg, stacked and then folded into the shape of a taco (again, hence the name). It is reportedly served with a side of syrup and sells for a whopping $0.89.

A Florida man was wounded on Tuesday when the pistol he was carrying accidentally discharged while he was bowling.

The man was bowling at the Jupiter Lanes Bowling Alley in Jupiter, Florida. Witnesses say that the gun, which was apparently in his pocket, was struck by the ball during the man’s backswing. The bullet grazed the man’s leg before lodging in the floor.

According to local authorities the man, whose name has not yet been released, owned the firearm legally and had a license to carry it concealed. As such, they do not expect to file charges in the incident.

It’s the sort of thing you usually only see in the movies or on medical shows on TV: a patient is clinically dead and all hope seems lost, when suddenly he (or she) is miraculously revived after an impossibly long time. Well, that scenario played itself out in Melbourne, Australia several months ago when Colin Fielder, 39, of Dandenong, Victoria was revived after being clinically dead for 40 minutes.

The reason for Fielder’s amazing recovery is an experimental combination of new techniques: the use of a new automated CPR machine, called the AutoPulse, and the use of a blood-oxygen machine. As the name implies, the AutoPulse automatically performs regular chest compressions on patients in cardiac arrest. Meanwhile, the blood-oxygen machine – a device usually reserved for the operating room – maintains the blood’s oxygen levels, ensuring that the brain and other vital organs continue to receive oxygen while the patient is “dead.”

When Fielder suffered a heart attack in June of last year, paramedics in his ambulance gave him a choice of two Melbourne-area hospitals. As luck would have it, he chose the Alfred Hospital, which is the only hospital in Victoria currently using this new technique. After coming back from his 40 minute rendezvous with death, Fielder made a full recovery and has suffered no ill-effects.

Since his recovery he has stopped smoking and takes a much more relaxed approach to life, Fielder told the Herald Sun.

Fielder is one of three patients to have been brought revived after a long time clinically dead. One patient was brought back after 60 minutes. While the system is still in clinical trials, physicians hope to bring it to more hospitals eventually. Meanwhile, the AutoPulse machine is currently deployed in three Melbourne ambulances, though the company that produces it is working to deploy it more broadly.

Law enforcement officials in California have intensified their efforts to locate triple-homicide suspect Shane Franklin Miller. Miller is believed to be hiding in the dense, foggy redwood forest region of Humbolt County in northern California. The region is so difficult to navigate that is has long been dubbed “the lost coast.”

Miller, 45, of Shingletown, California, is suspected of murdering his wife and two daughters. The bodies of Sandy (age 34), Shelby (age 8), and Shasta (age 5) were found at 7:45 pm Tuesday. The three were shot multiple times.

Miller, who grew up in Humbolt County and knows the wooded region quite well, appears to have made the 200-mile drive from Shingletown to Petrolia, where his truck was found, sometime after the shooting.

Law enforcement officials have begun searching the region in a strategic manner for Miller, whom they regard as armed and extremely dangerous. Officials say that hiding in the rugged terrain – where parts of Jurassic Park were filmed – could be all too easy. They believe that Miller could be making for a cabin, or could simply be hiding out in the bush somewhere.

This is not Miller’s first run-in with law enforcement, though it is his most severe. In 1996 he was convicted of felony marijuana cultivation. In 2002 he was caught growing marijuana again and served three years and ten months in prison for cultivation, and for possession of a firearm by a felon.

As the season draws to a close for most TV shows, the time has come once again to see which shows will continue another year and which are on the chopping block. This can be a very nerve wracking time for fans of many borderline shows (not to mention the cast and crew and production staff). While some shows are a lock for renewal, many eye their ratings numbers warily, and wonder if they’ll be around another year.

Well, ABC has announced which of their shows won’t be coming back next year. Five programs got the ax this year. Topping the list is Happy Endings, which has had difficulties find an audience despite solid reviews from critics. In addition, the network has chosen not to renew thriller Red Widow, How to Live with Your Parents for the Rest of Your Life, crime drama Body of Proof with Dana Delaney, and sitcom Malibu Country staring Reba McIntire.

On the bright side, ABC’s most popular shows will be coming back next year. Fans of shows like Castle, Grey’s Anatomy, Modern Family, Once Upon A Time, Suburgatory, Revenge, and more can rest easy knowing their favorite shows will be around for at least one more year.

AT&T has announced the launch of their own no-contract mobile provider. The new subsidiary, Aio Wireless, is launching this week in three markets – Houston, Orlando, and Tampa, with a nationwide rollout planned over the course of the next year.

Aio Wireless will offer customers a variety of plans ranging in price from $40 to $70 per month, as well as a $15 per month tablet plan. The basic plan is available only for feature phones (i.e., not smartphones) and gets you unlimited talk, texting, and data. Of course, this is AT&T, so “unlimited” doesn’t actually mean unlimited when it comes to data. Under this plan your data connection is throttled after 250MB of use. The intermediate plan, dubbed Aio Smart (as in, smartphone) is much the same as the basic plan, except now your data connection gets throttled after 2GB of use. For $70 the Aio Pro plan will get you a whopping 7 GB of data usage per month before you get throttled. The $15 per month tablet plan gets you a paltry 250MB of data before you get throttled.

As with other no-contract providers, you are free to either bring your own phone to Aio Wireless, or purchase one of the models they have available. Their smartphone selection is decent but fairly iPhone heavy (they have at least two models of every iPhone since the iPhone 4), and light on high-powered Android devices. Of course, since there’s no monthly contract, you pay full price for any phone you buy through Aio.

There’s no information yet on which markets Aio will be reaching and when. Much will depend on how popular the service proves in Tampa, Orlando, and Houston. Given the recent popularity of no-contract mobile providers, though, it seems likely that Aio will be sticking around for awhile

When Mars One announced that they were opening up applications for permanent residency in their proposed permanent colony, they expected to generate some interest. After all, they’re shooting for a half million applicants. What they did not expect, according to Mars One co-founder and CEO Bas Lansdorp, was a rush of over 78,000 applications in just two weeks.

Lansdorp told Business Insider that his organization had expected “a slow start,” that would eventually build toward their 500,000 applicant goal by the August 31st deadline. Instead they got nearly a sixth of their goal in a fraction of the expected time. According to Lansdorp, many applicants say that they have been following the project since before the application process began.

According to information released by Mars One on Tuesday, applicants come from more than 120 countries, and have a variety of backgrounds. The countries contributing the most applicants are, as you might expect, the United States with 17,324, China with 10,241, and the United Kingdom with 3,581.

The application deadline is August 31st. Once applications are closed, Mars One will begin the process of selecting the best candidates. While you might think that scientists and engineers would be the most desirable, Lansdorp says that the program isn’t that picky about applicants’ backgrounds. According to Dr. Norbert Kraft, the program’s chief medical officer, the key qualities they look for in applicants are commitment, creativity, and resiliency.

The selection process will consist of four rounds and will seek to identify the 28-40 most qualified candidates. Those candidates will then undergo seven years of training before the final team will be chosen to go to Mars.

The initial Mars One expedition will be a four-person mission designed to establish a foothold on Mars. This team will begin laying the groundwork for a full permanent settlement on Mars.

Many of the Mars One applicants have submitted videos discussing their qualifications and their motivations for applying. You can check out some of the videos and even apply yourself (if leaving the planet forever is your thing) at applicants.mars-one.com.