Welcome to Overnight News Digest, where the usual crew, consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors maggiejean, wader, Man Oh Man, side pocket, rfall, and JML9999, alumni editors palantir, Bentliberal, Oke, Interceptor7, jlms qkw, and ScottyUrb, guest editors annetteboardman and Doctor RJ, and current editor-in-chief Neon Vincent, along with anyone else who reads and comments, informs and entertains you with tonight's news. OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00AM Eastern Time.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
From Entertainment Weekly: Court papers detail sexual assault claim against Bill Cosby
Bill Cosby was criminally charged with sexual assault for the first time Wednesday after being accused by more than 50 women of wrongdoings over several decades, and new court papers reveal unsettling details about the allegations against him.
In a criminal complaint filed in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania and obtained by EW, prosecutors claim that Cosby drugged and assaulted Andrea Constand, a former Temple University employee who considered him a mentor and friend, in 2004.
According to the complaint, Constand met Cosby through her work at his alma mater, and the two developed what she “believed to be a sincere friendship.” The complaint notes that Cosby is 37 years Constand’s senior and “provided her with guidance and career advice.”
From NBC News: Grand Jury Indicts Enrique Marquez, Friend of San Bernardino Shooter
A federal grand jury on Wednesday indicted the friend of a gunman who along with his wife opened fire on a crowd at a California conference center earlier this month, killing 14 people, prosecutors said.
Enrique Marquez Jr., 24, was charged with conspiring with Syed Farook to plan terror attacks in 2011 and 2012, years before Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, opened fire at the Inland Resource Center in San Bernardinoon Dec.2.
Farook and Malik were killed in a shootout with police hours after the massacre. Prosecutors have said there is no evidence Marquez knew about the San Bernardino attack, but Marquez is accused of buying two of the guns that were used in the shooting rampage.
From the Los Angeles Times: Texas 'affluenza' teen is fighting deportation from Mexico
The Texas teenager who became infamous for using an "affluenza" defense in a fatal drunken-driving accident is now fighting deportation from Mexico after being apprehended Monday in a seaside resort along with his mother.
His mother, though, was deported back to the U.S., where she could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted of helping her son run from the law.
Ethan Couch and his mother, Tonya, were being hunted as international fugitives after the 18-year-old failed to show up for a routine probation hearing. Authorities said the two fled across the border, drove to Puerto Vallarta and settled into the city's old town.
But the two managed to quickly expose themselves when they used one of their cellphones to place a delivery order from a Domino's pizza near where they were staying.
From the Washington Post: Still struggling to rebound, Bush cancels ad buys in Iowa and South Carolina, redeploys staff
Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush is canceling reserved advertising time in Iowa and South Carolina, the latest reminder of his struggles to connect with voters -- and a sign of possible fundraising troubles.
The decision will keep Bush from paying for roughly $3 million of reserved TV time in January -- a little more than $1 million in Iowa just under $2 million in South Carolina. Instead, Bush plans to redeploy roughly 50 staffers to the four states that hold the first contests next year.
The campaign acknowledged that its announcement came on Wednesday because it was the final day before payment was due for the January air time. But the first hint of impending reassignments appeared in an email sent to staffers just before Christmas. When you come back from the holidays, the message said, make sure to pack gloves and warm clothes.
Some staffers will be leaving desk jobs at campaign headquarters in Miami while others already working in southern and Midwestern states to collect ballot signatures will move on to a new field assignment, senior aides said.
From the Chicago Tribune: Rescue crews evacuate residents as water spills over levees in Midwest
As swollen rivers and streams pushed to heights not seen in nearly a quarter-century, officials in Missouri and Illinois helped residents get to higher ground Wednesday amid fears that already dire conditions could worsen as floodwaters began spilling over federal levees protecting communities and farmland.
In Eureka southwest of St. Louis, firefighters and their boats have been in high demand since Tuesday, accounting for roughly four dozen rescues of people in their homes, businesses or vehicles. Television news footage showed at least one home there drifting in the swollen river Wednesday, when firefighters rescued by boat a man and a dog as floodwaters lapped at the eaves of the house roof on which they'd been trapped for a night.
"Our crews are getting dispatched to another rescue now," Scott Barthelmass, a Eureka Fire Protection District spokesman, said mid-afternoon Wednesday as the swollen Meramec River there was cresting. "I think you're seeing people who are desperate or impatient, putting themselves in predicaments."
From the New York Times: Cellphone Contacts in Paris Attacks Suggest Foreign Coordination
The terrorists who killed 130 people in Paris in November were in contact by cellphone with at least one person in Belgium during their attacks, suggesting that they may have been coordinated or monitored from abroad while killing, according to French police reports on the investigation.
The reports on the cellphone connections come after weeks of mounting evidence of ties between Belgium and the assailants in France. They also raise questions about the breadth of the terrorist network surrounding the attackers and challenge an assumption that one of them, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was the chief planner.
Instead, the reports suggest, Mr. Abaaoud may been reporting back to someone more senior … An account of the police reports, which first appeared in the French newspaper Le Monde on Wednesday and were confirmed by the Paris prosecutor’s office, said that cellphones used by two of the three teams of assailants had communicated with two numbers at the same location in Belgium during the attacks.
From the A.V. Club: The internet has become strangely invested in Carrie Fisher’s weight
The actress Carrie Fisher, who reprised her role as Leia Organa, the intergalactic revolutionary princess turned general in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” is taking on Internet trolls who criticized her appearance. “Please stop debating whether or not I aged well,” the actress, 59, wrote on Tuesday via Twitter. “Unfortunately it hurts all three of my feelings.”
Ms. Fisher, whose public battles with addiction, weight gain and mental illness formed the basis of her 2009 stage show, “Wishful Drinking,” has long pushed back against expectations that she physically remain frozen in time as Princess Leia from the original “Star Wars,” in which she starred when she was 19.
In advance of the release of “The Force Awakens,” Ms. Fisher told “Good Morning America” that while she did lose weight for the franchise’s new film, “I think it’s a stupid conversation.” And on the red carpet at the film’s premiere, she joked on camera that to research the role, she talked to the younger version of herself, who “was very busy partying and making sure that I look” terrible later.
From The Hollywood Reporter: Crowdfunded 'Star Trek' Movie Draws Lawsuit from Paramount, CBS
For decades, Paramount and CBS have tolerated and even encouraged fans of theStar Trek franchise to use their imagination at will, but on Tuesday the entertainment companies went to their battle stations and launched a legal missile at a production company touting the first independent Star Trek film.
Axanar, the subject of a lawsuit filed on Friday in California federal court, is no ordinary Star Trek film. The forthcoming feature film (preceded by a short film) is the source of more than $1 million in crowdfunding on Kickstarter and Indiegogo. The producers, led by Alec Peters, aim to make a studio-quality film. As the pitchto investors put it, "While some may call it a 'fan film' as we are not licensed by CBS, Axanar has professionals working in front and behind the camera, with a fully-professional crew — many of whom have worked on Star Trek itself — who ensure Axanar will be the quality of Star Trek that all fans want to see."
Paramount and CBS see a violation of their intellectual property.
"The Axanar Works infringe Plaintiffs’ works by using innumerable copyrighted elements of Star Trek, including its settings, characters, species, and themes," states the complaint.
From The Daily Beast: Why Jennifer Lawrence’s New Year’s Humbug Is So Right
Thank you, Jennifer Lawrence. Thank you for saying what any sane and reasonable person knows. There is only one thing to do come New Year’s Eve. Stay in. Possibly stay sober. Go to bed before midnight.
If you must do something, do something you will enjoy, not force yourself to enjoy—or endure.
“I really hate it,” Lawrence tells British chat show host Graham Norton in a show to be broadcast on the dreaded evening itself.
“I’ve never had a good one,” Lawrence said.
“Everyone’s chasing a good time, and it’s always a disappointment. I plan on doing nothing and then if something lands in my lap... but I always end up drunk and disappointed.”
Drunk and Disappointed should be the title of her memoir, Lawrence apparently adds.
As ever, she speaks sense, and there should be no shame in being a New Year’s refusenik.
From Slate: Odell Beckham Jr. vs. Toxic Black Masculinit
I hope Odell Beckham Jr. never comes out. Actually, I hope the New York Giants wide receiver isn’t even gay. I hope he ends up with the flyest chick on the block, and they give joint interviews where she says she enjoys a man who’s fun and lives his life and doesn’t feel the need to scowl 24/7, hunched over like a Neanderthal trying to protect his manhood.
In case you missed it, there’s an outing campaign in progress against Beckham, because over the weekend someone posted a video to Instagram of him dancing with a friend. (Well, the same people calling his video “suspect” already said he was gay due to similar videos, but now I guess he’s even gayer.) This sort of witch hunt is the reason why black men and athletes still don’t like coming out of the closet, and black masculinity continues to make life more difficult for all of us, regardless of our sexuality.
The response to this video is the difference between black masculinity and white masculinity in a nutshell. White men are allowed a greater range of expression before they are automatically considered gay. The boys in Marvel movies are always flirtingand nobody cares. Matt McGorry can say his male co-star has a pretty mouth and nobody cares. Channing Tatum “vogued” and nobody cares.
From /Film: Making A Murderer: Best Theories, Shocking Evidence, Possible Sequel and More
Yesterday I mentioned I recently got hooked on Netflix’s new doc-series Making A Murderer. If you haven’t yet checked it out, I urge you to do so, but don’t read this post as it will explore spoilers from the real-life events presented in the show. It seems like I was not alone in getting sucked into this long-form documentary series, and there has been a lot of coverage on the web this week. I did a deep dive and wanted to highlight some of the articles and topical news since the release of the series. We look at the following:
- The best theories as to what really happened.
- The story of how the series was created and filmed over ten years.
- Read about possibly shocking evidence that was not presented in the tv series.
- Could we get a Making A Murderer sequel?
- Online petitions have popped up demanding that President Obama take action
- Prosecutor Ken Kratz‘s Yelp page has been flooded with negative reviews, forcing the company to take action.
- Hacker group Anonymous claims they will make new evidence public
- The problem with treating true crime villains like fictional villains
From The Atlantic: In Defense of Food and the Rise of ‘Healthy-ish’
Abstinence, we are usually told around this time of year, makes the heart grow stronger. It’s why Dry January, which started in the green and pleasantly alcoholic land of Britain a few years ago before reaching the U.S., is increasingly being touted as a good and worthy thing to do, and why so many people are currently making plans to remove whole food groups from their diet: carbs, fat, Terry’s Chocolate Oranges. The key to health, books and websites and dietitians and former presidents reveal, is a process of elimination. It’s going without. It’s getting through the darkest, coldest month of the year without so much as a snifter of antioxidant-rich Cabernet.
The problem with giving things up, though, is that inevitably it creates a void in one’s diet that only Reese’s pieces and a family-sized wheel of brie can fill. Then there’s the fact that so many abstinence-espousing programs require spending money on things; on Whole 30 cookbooks and Weight Watchers memberships and $10 bottles of bone broth. For a process that supposedly involves cutting things out, there seems to be an awful lot to take in.
This, Michael Pollan posits, is the problem with food: It’s gotten extraordinarily complicated. The writer and sustainable-eating advocate has written several books on how the simple business of eating has become a minefield in which earnest Westerners try to tiptoe around gooey, genetically engineered sugar bombs without setting off an explosion of calories, corn sugar, and cancer. In Defense of Food, published in 2008, offers a “manifesto” for eaters (i.e. humans) that’s breathtaking in its seven-word simplicity: Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants. This mantra is repeated once more in a documentary based on the book that airs Wednesday night on PBS, and it’s felt in the January issue of Bon Appetit, which is based almost entirely around the concept of “healthy-ish” eating: “delicious, comforting home cooking that just happens to be kinda good for you.”
From the Christian Science Monitor: Why do humanoid robots give so many people the jitters?
Nobody calls C3PO creepy, eerie, or spooky. But humanoid doppleganger social robots like Nadine are being found unsettling by many, both because of their appearance and also due to ethical issues connected to the ways they may be used.
Nadine is a social robot made in the likeness of creator Professor Nadia Thalmann from Nanyang Technological University (NTU Singapore). Nadine is programmed with intelligent "assistant" software similar to Siri (the Apple computer program that works as an intelligent personal assistant) and Siri's Microsoft counterpart Cortana. Nadine, however, also expresses a version of moods and emotions with the ability to remember the people she has met before as well as conversations.
The problem for some experts is not the human-like appearance of such robots, but rather moral and ethical questions about how they will be used. For instance, would it be right to fool an elderly person into sharing his or her personal concerns with a robot with a human face? Or what about a child? Humanoid robots like Nadine can be programmed with child-rearing applications. But what are the ethics of using a robot like Nadine to fill in societal and personal needs? Can these actually be met by a machine that is not actually returning genuine responses and cannot provide an emotional connection?
From askmen: Best Netflix And Chill Movies
So you've finally convinced her to get on board for a night of Netflix and chill. You've settled down on the couch, (signed the necessary paperwork) kicked up your feet after an awesome sushi delivery dinner, but the night is young. What's next? Netflix, then chill, or chill then Netflix (or both at the same time)? You fired up the 'flix and are scrolling through the tons of B-level action movies, depressing documentaries and children's animation movies. How the hell are you supposed to find the one? That one flick that will upgrade your night in to the next level. What's the elusive, third base enabling, make out movie that will get you laid?
To give it to you straight, it ain't about the movie. Besides - let's be real - a successful Netflix and chill night should be heavy on the chill and very light on the Netflix. But sometimes things take a little longer. And once you sense that your date needs some more time, it's vital you give her some space. So, what better thing to do than to fire up a movie together? Who knows, maybe you can get away with the arm-around-her-while-yawning trick and ensure you'll see each other again another day.
So here are 13 steamy Netflix movies for your next date. Some of them we guarantee will move things along smoothly. Others will create a deep bond between you and your date (or her and Johnny Depp in Chocolat) that will leave her begging to see you again. But whatever you do, be safe and err on the side of safety and be wary of what she wants. You don't want to overwhelm her with your Netflix-and-chill-skills.
From Gizmodo: LA's Gas Leak Is a Global Disaster
One of the worst environmental disasters of the decade is currently underway in a quiet community 25 miles northwest of Los Angeles. Putrid, methane-rich natural gas has been spewing into the air at an estimated rate of nearly 1,300 metric tons per day for over two months. Experts are calling it the climate version of the BP oil spill, and the leak isn’t going to be contained anytime soon.
Natural gas is often touted as a cleaner energy source than oil or coal, because of the lower greenhouse gas emissions associated with burning it. But as this disaster highlights, there are insidious risk to natural gas production. Coupled with weak regulation, they can make this energy source as dirty as the fossil fuels it’s meant to replace.
“The science is crystal clear: if you allow the methane to leak, you can wipe out its climate benefits,” Tim O’Connor, director of the Environmental Defense Fund’s Oil and Gas Program in California told Gizmodo.
From BBC News: Should we solar panel the Sahara desert?
Could one solution to climate change be to harvest the power of sunlight where it shines brightest on the planet? Should we solar panel the Sahara desert?
Four experts discuss the radical proposal with the BBC World Service Inquiry programme.
Gerhard Knies: Scientifically sound and economically viable
Dr Gerhard Knies co-founded TREC, a network of experts on sustainable energy that gave rise to the Desertec initiative, which aimed to provide Europe with clean energy by harnessing sustainable power from sun-rich deserts.
"Fifteen minutes after I learned about the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, I made an assessment of how much energy comes from the sun to the earth. It was about 15,000 times as much as humanity was using, so it was not a question of the source, it was a question of the technology.
"When the climate change issue became more prominent, I said we have to pull forward this solution, because it solves the industrial vulnerability problem of our civilisation, and at the same time, the climate vulnerability.
"My strategy was to look for amplifiers. A very good one was The Club of Rome, with its president, Prince Hassan from Jordan. We had a seminar with experts. We included European participants, but also people from North Africa, Jordan and the Middle East. They all said 'Yes, that would be great for us to have such a thing.'
From The Guardian: US marines reject BigDog robotic packhorse because it's too noisy
The US military is cooling its eagerness for robots in the battlefield, after trials with quadrupedal robot and nightmare machine Big Dog revealed one crucial flaw: it’s much, much too loud.
The Big Dog robots, first demonstrated almost a decade ago, are developed by Boston Dynamics, a Massachusetts-based robotics firm that was purchased by Google in 2013. They became well known through a series of impressive demonstration videos showing the machine keeping its pace over uneven and slippery surfaces, and even managing to stay upright after a strong unexpected kick from the side.
But the robots, which have always been intended for military use (primarily as a futuristic beast of burden), have reportedly been ill-received by the US marine corps, which was testing out one version of Boston Dynamics’ quadruped: the Legged Squad Support System, or LS3.
Kyle Olson, a spokesman for the US marine corps’ Warfighting Lab, Military.com: “As marines were using it, there was the challenge of seeing the potential possibility because of the limitations of the robot itself. They took it as it was: a loud robot that’s going to give away their position.”
From Rolling Stone: Axl Rose, Slash to Reunite Guns N' Roses at Coachella
It's official: Slash will reunite with Guns N' Roses and Axl Rose. The band will play Coachella on the weekends of April 15-17 and April 22-24, according to the New York Times. It's still unclear if original members Steven Adler, Izzy Stradlin and Duff McKagan, all of whom appeared on the group's 1986 album Appetite for Destruction, or subsequent members Matt Sorum and Dizzy Reed, will join the shows.
According to Billboard, the band is also in negotiations for a North American headlining tour. The group has reportedly asked for up to $3 million per show, with tickets reported to cost up to $275 per night for the reunion tour.
Rose is set to appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live next week to discuss the group's future plans for the first time.
From Cosmopolitan: Watch This Video If You Want to See What a Man Will Do When He Truly Loves Someone
Though Kortney Reid of Pensacola, Florida, doesn't ask her boyfriend Kylle Cota to monitor her health, he has taken it upon himself to check her blood sugar at 4 a.m. each morning so she can sleep through the night without worrying. The video above captures his nightly ritual.
Cota explains in the comment section of the video — which has more than 19 million views in three days — he has insomnia so he's not sleeping much these days anyway, but "I just do [this] because I worry about her constantly. I guess it is a little weird, but I love her. Lol." LOL!
"No big deal," he's saying basically. "I will give up fundamental human needs in the name of love," he is proclaiming. "Literally there's nothing I won't do for this woman," he is casually showing. This is, as the kids say, #goals. Watch the video above.
From the New York Daily News: George Lucas didn’t like ‘retro’ feel of new ‘Star Wars,’ says he sold franchise to ‘white slavers’
It wasn't the movie he was looking for.
"Star Wars" creator George Lucas admits he was disappointed by how similar the franchise's latest installment, "The Force Awakens," is to his original trilogy — and even contended he sold his beloved sci-fi series to "white slavers."
"They wanted to do a retro movie," Lucas said in an interview with Charlie Rose. "I don't like that."
"Every movie, I work very hard to make them different," he continued. "I make them completely different, with different planets and different spaceships, to make it new."
He also called the first six movies his "kids," saying he "sold them to white slavers that take these things and…," before halting the remark and laughing it off, presumably thinking better of it.