A Brooklyn brawl. A Pyongyang fail. A galactic feast. It’s Friday, and here are the 5 things you need to know to Get Up to Speed and Out the Door.
1. Democratic debate
Now that was a debate! Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders both consider New York home turf. So they said fuhgeddaboudit to the niceness and tried to rip each other to shreds, while a rowdy crowd cheered and hissed. Uncle Bernie said he doubts Hillz has the right stuff for the job (the credibility argument). She said he’s unyielding in his pie-in-the-sky proposals (the pragmatism argument). Missed the battle in the Big Apple?
2. North Korea
Cue the sad trombone. North Korea tried to fire a missile off of its eastern coast early this morning. FAIL! It might have been an intermediate-range missile, but South Korea’s military is still checking that out. Oh, and the test happened on the Day of the Sun, the birthday of North Korea’s founder. Some birthday gift.
3. Japan earthquake
Search crews are out digging through the rubble of collapsed buildings after a massive quake hit Japan’s Kyushu island yesterday. It killed at least nine people and triggered landslides, ripped up roads and even derailed a bullet train. And the worst isn’t over. “This is an earthquake that is going to shake for a long time,” says our meteorologist Chad Myers. Which could mean more building collapses. Japan sits along the Ring of Fire and so, is no stranger to calamitous quakes.
4. Manson killings
You know what they say about If at first, you don’t succeed…The 19th try might be the one for Leslie Van Houten, who’s a step closer to freedom after a California parole board panel said she should be released. Van Houten was a follower of killer Charles Manson and was convicted of murdering supermarket exec Leno Labianca and his wife in 1969 with other members of the cult. But the release isn’t a done deal. The full Board of Parole Hearings has to sign off on it. So does Gov. Jerry Brown.
5. Live-streamed attack
There’s no end to people’s depravity, is there. A woman in Ohio’s been charged with live-streaming the rape of a friend. Cops say Marina Alexeevna Lonina used Periscope to webcast while a man raped her friend. Lonin will be arraigned later today. It’s another headache for Twitter, which owns Periscope and has had issues with online harassment in the past.
BREAKFAST BROWSE
People are talking about these. Read up. Join in.
Quote of the day:
“When you tell a 22-year-old to ‘turn off the phone, don’t ruin the movie,’ they hear ‘please cut off your left arm above the elbow'”
Adam Aron, CEO of AMC Entertainment, entertaining the possibility of phone-friendly movie theaters for millennials. Yes, really.
Perks of the office
The President gets to see the 6th season of “Game of Thrones” way before us plebs because, as the producer put it, “when the commander in chief says, ‘I want to see advanced episodes’ — what are ya gonna do?”
Celestial cannibals
You can’t see it without a high-powered telescope but in the middle of the three bright blobs is one hungry galaxy getting fat swallowing smaller ones.
A bit much, no?
James Cameron is promising FOUR “Avatar” sequels because he finds three limiting. Hey, we sat through 7 “Fast & Furious” flicks, didn’t we?
What are you wearing?
Ambergris is a rare substance used to make perfumes last longer on the skin. People call it “whale vomit” but they shouldn’t. It’s more like whale poop.
Czech this out
The Czech Republic is tired of everyone screwing up its name into Czecho or Czechland. It’s gotta suggestion. Call us Czechia.
