-
Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - Aug 11, 2015
August 11, 2015
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. -
One toke over the line, dep't:
Lotsa talk about the possibility that WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE may have been a pot-smoking fiend after clay tobacco pipes, dating over 400 years ago, were found in the playwright's garden and further analysis with a very sensitive gas chromatograph revealed traces of marijuana in the pipes.
Researchers from the South African Institute of Science say with the delicate instrument, anything smoked out of the pipes leaves a residual trace, even after centuries, and the 24 pipe fragments revealed traces of pot in eight of them, along with nicotine in another, and two of them even had residual particles of Peruvian cocaine from coca leaves.Filling a need:
The Battleship USS New Jersey will be in service for POPE FRANCIS's visit to Philadelphia --not as a warship, but as a hotel! Newsworks.org reports the alternative accommodations on the retired Navy vessel are the bunks more typically used by scout troops, youth groups and other historically-motivated visitors with a sense of adventure.
As its permanent berth is on the Camden waterfront at the Jersey side of the Ben Franklin Bridge into Philadelphia, the location is particularly convenient for pilgrims who will be walking across the span for the World Meeting of Families and other Papal events in September.
Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial senior VP JACK WILLARD says it'll be an authentic experience: "We serve dinner and breakfast from the chow line, guests will also get a tour of the battleship. They can ride the flight simulator and of course, sleep in the bunks that the crew of the USS New Jersey once did" --bunks that are eight feet long by three feet wide.
The price is $75 per person, per night, to share rooms in triple-decker beds. (Kaye)On, off and way-off Broadway:
"Hamlet" has enough problems in the play, but idiots with cell phones in the audience only make things worse. Playbill.com says BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH is starring as the meloncholy Dane at the Barbican Theater Center in London, and on Saturday night, there was a technical problem during the "To Be or Not To Be" speech. Benedict broke character and begged the audience to stop recording the performance on their phones because the red lights were making it difficult for him to perform.
After the show, Benedict was outside the stage door and asked the fans who waited around to actually use their phones to record his warning and blast it all over the internet. He said (quote), "I can't give you what I want to give you, which is a live performance that you'll remember, hopefully, in your minds and brains --whether it's good, bad or indifferent-- rather than on your phones." He also said that from now on, anyone caught recording the play will be (quote), "detected and evicted." (Marino)Today's police blotter:
A man in Omaha, Nebraska, has been shot three times in three years at the exact same intersection.
Police say RAN'DELL BUSH was ambushed near 18th and Emmet Streets in North Omaha --again. He survived multiple bullet wounds and was discovered by officers in a nearby backyard. Bush was transported to a nearby hospital in critical but stable condition. Police say Bush has an extensive criminal record. (Still)Going Geek-dot-com:
New research from Facebook says "L-O-L" is on it's way to being D-O-A. The social media giant examined (in ridiculous detail) how its users express laughter in their Facebook comments. They found that hardly anyone uses "L-O-L" anymore. Instead the vast majority of people --more than 51 percent-- used "HaHa. More than 33 percent used some type of laughter emoji. 12 percent of users used "HeHe." The "L-O-L" users ranked dead last, used by just under two percent of Facebook commenters. (ROFL didn't even register.)
The Facebook research also broke down laughter expressions by age and geography. Older users tend to use L-O-L, while younger users used their emoji keypads. "Haha" "Hehe" are more popular on the West Coast. Emojis are preferred in the Midwest. Southern states tend to prefer the "L-O-L." (Bartha) -
-