Burger King Takes a Shot at McDonald’s Happy Meals With a Dark Ad and Sad Teens
Boxed meals like the Pissed Meal, Salty Meal and DGAF Meal are a clear shot at McDonald’s Happy Meal.
Article via Entrepreneur
Burger King is taking another jab at McDonald’s.
On Wednesday, the fast-food chain debuted a series of “Real Meals,” a clear counter to McDonald’s iconic Happy Meals. The moods of these boxed meals include the Pissed Meal, Blue Meal, Salty Meal, YAAAS Meal and DGAF Meal.
The Real Meals boxes — which include the Whopper meal or a Whopper, fries, and a drink — are available at a handful of locations in Austin, Seattle, Miami, Los Angeles and New York City starting Wednesday.
While the Real Meal rollout is limited, it is part of a wider campaign by the chain to promote mental health, with Burger King releasing an atypical commercial of sorts on the subject.
“Not everybody wakes up happy,” a young man says in the starting seconds of the video. “Sometimes you feel sad, scared, crappy. All I ask is that you let me feel my way.”
The video goes on to show a teenage girl discovering the word “skank” carved into her locker, an angry woman yelling that she just told her boss “to go f— himself,” and a young man despairing over student loans. Other people featured in the video are dealing with being ghosted and being judged as a young mother.
The video closes with the words: “No one is happy all the time. And that’s OK.” Images of the different Real Meals then flash on the screen.
Watch the video here:
Burger King partnered with the nonprofit Mental Health America to launch the Real Meal campaign.
“A natural extension of encouraging people to ‘be their way’ is encouraging them to ‘feel their way,'” Burger King said in a press release. “With the pervasive nature of social media, there is so much pressure to appear happy and perfect. With Real Meals, the Burger King brand celebrates being yourself and feeling however you want to feel.”
An amputee says he was left ‘crawling across the floor’ after airline security confiscated his scooter batteries
Article via CNN
(CNN) – A Canadian amputee is petitioning to have his case heard by the Canadian Human Rights Commission after officials at a Calgary airport confiscated the batteries needed to power his portable scooter, according to CNN affiliate CBC. Stearn Hodge lost his left arm and right leg in a workplace accident in 1984 and uses a scooter powered by lithium batteries to get around. He can wear a prosthetic leg, but not for long because of the risk of infection, according to the outlet.
In 2017, Hodge was traveling to Tulsa, Oklahoma, with his wife for their 43rd wedding anniversary when a security agent at the Calgary International Airport and a representative from United Airlines told him it was unsafe to fly with his scooter’s $2,000 battery and its spare.
Hodge was prepared and presented documents he’d printed from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), that said that while there is a risk of fire hazard with Lithium-ion batteries, the association’s global standards make exceptions for the medical devices of travelers with disabilities if the airlines gives prior approval, the outlet reported. He had that approval, he told CBC.
But Hodge told the network that no one would listen to him or read the documents.
“I still remember the CATSA agent saying, ‘Well, you could get a wheelchair.’ How’s a one-armed guy going to run a wheelchair?” Hodge told the outlet. “How am I going to go down a ramp and brake with one hand? But that shouldn’t even have to come up.”
The Canadian Air Transit Security Authority declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
When Hodge asked a United Airlines representative to confirm for security that he had gotten permission to bring the batteries on board, CBC reported, the agent sided with security.
Airline: Experience ‘falls far short of our own high standard’
“We are looking into the allegations, and because of the pending litigation, we are unable to provide further comment,” Andrea Hiller, a spokeswoman for United Airlines, told CNN. “That said, the experience described falls far short of our own high standard of caring for our customers. We are proud of the many steps we have taken over the past few years to exhibit more care for our customers and we are proud to operate an airline that doesn’t just include people with disabilities but welcomes them as customers.”
Without the batteries to power his scooter, Hodge told CBC he spent much of his three-week vacation confined to his bed and was left to crawl when he needed to get around.
“An anniversary is supposed to be all about remembering how you fell in love … and keeping that magic alive,” he said, according to the network. “And those things were denied. I’m crawling across the floor and it is pathetic.”
On May 9, Hodge’s lawyer, John Burns, will ask a Federal Court judge to compel the Canadian Human Rights Commission to review the case.The matter was previously presented to the commission, but last September it was was referred to the Canadian Transportation Authority, which has no power to award general damages, according to CBC.The Canadian Human Rights Act allows for up to $20,000 in damages for each count of pain and suffering, and up to another $20,000 if the discrimination is “willful or reckless,” CBC reported.”
People with disabilities should be taken seriously. You don’t take away somebody’s legs and then describe it as an inconvenience. No, this is an injury,” Burns told CBC.
Check out some Lovelyti videos:
Jess Hilarious responds to R@cism Claims~ After Saying She Was ‘Nervous’ About Muslims on Her Plane
Video Of A Passenger dragged off overbooked United flight goes viral!
Ratchet FL~Woman SCREAMS and accuses airline employee of R@p3 after her flight gets CANCELLED
Chvrches increase security at gigs after receiving rape and death threats from Chris Brown and Tyga fans
Article via NME
“We have to have the police at our shows now. If that’s what I deserve for saying mainstream music should be more morally conscious, then so be it.”
Chvrches‘ singer Lauren Mayberry has revealed that the band now require a police presence at their shows after receiving rape and death threats from supporters of Chris Brown and Tyga.
Last week, the Scottish electro-pop trio said that they were “upset, confused and disappointed” at Marshmello’s decision to work with Chris Brown and Tyga – having worked with the EDM star themselves on recent single ‘Here With Me‘.
“We are really upset, confused and disappointed by Marshmello’s choice to work with Tyga and Chris Brown,” said the band on social media. “We like and respect Mello as a person but working with people who are predators and abusers enables, excuses and ultimately tacitly endorses that behavior. That is not something we can or will stand behind.”
Brown then fired back at the band, calling them a “bunch of losers” on Instagram.
“These are the type of people I wish walked in front of a speeding bus full of mental patients,” he wrote. “Keep grovelling over you own insecurities and hatred. IM BLACK AND PROUD. AND I KNOW ITS HURTS THAT U GUYS ARE STRUGGLING WIT LIFE OR PEACE SO U ARE FORCED TO SEE MY SUCCESS. You aren’t even #2 (REMEMBER 2nd place only means YOU LOST FIRST! TA-TA. GOODDAY PEASANTS.”
Having shared images of abusive messages that she has since received, Mayberry has now said that the band have had to increase security at their shows as a result of the threats.
“I am not staying in my own home when we finish tour because the threats we have received have reached such a scale,” wrote Mayberry on Twitter in response to a journalist. “We have to have the police at our shows now. If that’s what I deserve for saying mainstream music should be more morally conscious, then so be it.”
She continued: “And again, it is not you who is having to have police presence at shows and advance security in their actual own real life outside of a band persona.”
Mayberry has highlighted some of the shocking abuse that the band have received with screen grabs of messages:
In February 2009, Chris Brown was found guilty of felony assault after attacking Rihanna on their way to the Grammy Awards Ceremony. Earlier this year, he denied allegations of rape at a hotel in Paris, later filing a defamation suit against the accuser before many believed he was selling merchandise that appeared to mock the alleged victim.
Tyga was sued for sexual assault by a woman who appeared in his 2012 for ‘Make It Nasty’. Replying to the band’s original post, Tyga wrote: “Where [sic] all God’s children. Everyone makes mistakes no ones perfect. Let’s Keep the energy positive.”
Check out some Lovelyti videos:
Chris Brown is released after being detained in Paris on r@pe~”This b!tch lyin”
Chris Brown A.r.r.e.s.t.e.d for FE!ONY~”v!ctim” Baylee Curan wanted for theft! ??#FreeBreezy
Tyga booted out of Floyd’s party+Kid Buu Calls Him Out For Saying He Paid Blac Chyna To Date Him
‘Surviving R. Kelly’ follow up coming to Lifetime with Soledad O’Brien
Article via USAToday
“Surviving R. Kelly” is getting a highly-anticipated follow-up.
“Surviving R Kelly: The Impact,” a two-hour follow-up special to the explosive “Surviving R. Kelly” series that debuted in January, premieres on the network on May 4th at 10 p.m. E.T.
The special, hosted by Soledad O’Brien, will recap the reactions to the initial explosive documentary, which premiered shortly before Kelly was charged with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse in February.
The special intends to “elevate the conversation on sexual violence and what it means to be a survivor,” per a press release.
Most recently, lawyers of Kelly’s were in court in April to argue over pretrial motions, including Kelly’s demand that prosecutors turn over copies of communications from Michael Avenatti, the attorney who claims to have found an old video showing Kelly having sex with one of his then-teen accusers.
Check out some Lovelyti videos:
Old azz couple, find an old azz R-kelly S3x tape in their attic…?
New R. Kelly Accuser Speaks Out “he groomed me then gave me HERPES”
EX DJ Kitti Jones Details Her Life in R Kelly’s Alleged Cult
Parents vote on removing Michael Jackson’s name from L.A. school auditorium
Article via LATimes
Gardner Street Elementary School is undergoing a most unusual soul searching this week, weighing whether to break a symbolic link with pop star Michael Jackson, whose name is on the auditorium of the Hollywood campus.
A man in a white T-shirt and tan shorts said he was conflicted.
“I’ve tried to digest this,” said the man, whose daughter is a fifth-grader at the school. “I’ve grappled with it and I haven’t come to any decision.”
“The documentary was a dark thing,” he said. “And I believe the two men. But his music still lives. My gosh, people love his music. It’s a huge joy for them.”
He walked away shaking his head.
The documentary is “Leaving Neverland,” which aired on HBO in March and portrays Jackson through the eyes of Wade Robson and James Safechuck, two men who allege Jackson sexually abused them when they were children. Jackson was never charged with molesting either.
Still, the broadcast was deeply unsettling for parents and staff at Gardner, who are voting this week on whether to banish Jackson’s name.
The documentary should not convict Jackson in the eyes of the Gardner community, said Howard Weitzman, who represents Jackson’s estate, which has sued HBO.
“It would be a terrible shame to remove Michael’s name from the auditorium based on an intentionally one-sided film,” Weitzman said. “There is no fair consideration when you only hear from one side. Michael Jackson is not guilty, and he, like all citizens, is entitled to the presumption of innocence.”
The man in shorts requested anonymity because he knew people who worked for the Jackson estate and said he couldn’t afford to damage personal and professional relationships. Gardner has a sizable contingent of parents in the entertainment industry, who know its dark and light sides.
Their presence at Gardner represents something of a middle-class resurgence at the diverse campus, where families speak languages from across the globe and range widely across the spectrum of prosperity.
Outside the campus Tuesday morning, some parents or grandparents replied in broken English that they didn’t know enough to comment. Others said they wished the school could be left alone to settle the matter out of the spotlight.
Jackson long has been a small but significant piece of the school’s history, starting as an 11-year-old, when he attended the school for several months — before stardom whisked him away and ended any semblance of a normal childhood. He returned to the school in 1989, to celebrate the naming of the auditorium.
It has been a subject of pride or embarrassment and a regular tourist stop for out-of-towners.
The issue has divided the campus, which is nestled on a quiet street just north of Sunset Boulevard in the flats below the Hollywood Hills. For some, the path ahead is clear.
“The name probably should be taken down,” said parent Robert Fitzgerald. “It’s just not appropriate for an elementary school. The documentary painted the picture pretty clearly.”
Fitzgerald, who spoke after dropping off his daughter for kindergarten, found the accusers believable and felt “disgust” toward Jackson.
But Myreon Arslan said he voted to keep the name.
“There are people in this country who have done worse things to the country that have been convicted and that still have their names on buildings,” Arslan said. “The gentleman’s passed away. His name’s been on that building for, God only knows, more than 20 years, I think.
“We have people like President Trump, who’s assaulted women, and he becomes president of the United States,” Arslan added.
(Trump has denied the numerous allegations of assault and improper conduct levied against him. He has not been charged in connection with any alleged acts.)
Voting among parents began April 10 and 11 and will resume Wednesday and Thursday. Staff members have been able to vote by picking up ballots in the office.
One teacher said she did not want a name on the school “that is associated with allegations of pedophilia.” She declined to give her name because she wasn’t authorized to speak. Principal Karen Hollis also declined to be interviewed, but she had lots of hugs for students and parents as she waved students across a crosswalk before school.
District officials said Tuesday they would follow the lead of the Gardner community, but school board member Nick Melvoin, who represents the school, said “the figures whose names adorn our school buildings should be held to the same standard of values that we wish to impart on our students.”
He added, “Many of his alleged victims were the same age as the students who gather in that auditorium daily.”
So indeed was Jackson when he enrolled after his family moved in 1969 from Gary, Ind., to Los Angeles. Family members were staying in the nearby home of famed Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. The youngest of the Jackson Five attended school only briefly before the group — comprising Michael and four older brothers — scored a hit record, and that was it for public school.
His association with a local campus was so brief that Jackson is not included in an authoritative online site of famous students from the L.A. Unified School District. But Jackson attended the 1989 dedication of the spruced-up auditorium in his name.
Jackson, dressed in a tight-fitting black-and-red outfit with silver buckles and a thick silver belt, walked onstage to loud applause and scattered screams. A school chorus performed his song “We Are the World.”
“I am deeply touched and honored that the PTA, principal and faculty members and students have been so kind as to dedicate the auditorium, where I sat as a child, in my honor,” Jackson said. “We must all never forget that the children are our future and without them humankind will become extinct.”
After receiving the key to the school, Jackson was escorted by security to Room 8, his former classroom, where he autographed the wall. As he walked, he flashed the peace sign and blew kisses to children.
Since then, Jackson’s evolving reputation has made for an on-, off-, on- and off-again love affair with the school. Some parents complained about the name on the auditorium in 1993 — just four years after the dedication — when word leaked that Jackson was under investigation for his conduct with a boy. Jackson settled out of court with his accuser and prosecutors filed no charges.
In 2003, district officials ordered that Jackson’s name be covered with plywood — but not removed — after Jackson was arrested on charges of sexually abusing another boy. He was found not guilty following a criminal trial in 2005.
In 2010, a year after Jackson’s death from an accidental drug overdose at age 50, school district officials ordered the covering removed — amid much celebration from Jackson fans.
The man in the shorts, a longtime area resident, remembers feeling mixed emotions.
“To me it was a little strange when the sign came back up,” he said. “The general feeling was that there was something weird going on here.”
Parent Maria Frank said she’d love to see the end of the association and all the distraction that came with it.
But another parent, Meredith Patterson Brayley, opposed removing the name. She felt that weight should be given to the fact that Jackson was tried and acquitted in the 2005 case. She felt the documentary was not enough despite content that she agreed was “shocking.”
“It’s a dangerous road we are going down,” she said.
Heather Fox, parent of a kindergartner, supported removing the name from the auditorium but said it was important for people to separate the art from the artist.
She admires Jackson’s music, Fox said. “I still believe he should be recognized for his place in music history.”
Parents were making their way to home and work, and school was getting started when the man in the shorts returned.
“I’ve made up my mind,” he said. “The name needs to come down.”
Florida House passes bill requiring felons to pay court fees before voting
Article via The Hill
The Florida House on Wednesday passed a bill that would require felons to pay all court fees and costs in addition to restitution before becoming eligible to vote.
The measure, which would significantly curtail a state constitutional amendment that restored voting rights to felons who have been released from prison, passed 71-45 along party lines, according to The Miami Herald.
The newspaper noted that measure’s approval would likely set up a dispute between Florida’s lower chamber and the state Senate.
The Senate version of the bill enforcing Amendment 4 is only requiring felons to pay restitution, as long as the court fees and fines have been converted to a civil lien. The measure has yet to be heard by the Senate.
The bill’s passage on Wednesday comes months after Florida voters approved an amendment automatically restoring voting rights to approximately 1.5 million felons in the state.
Former offenders who have completed “all terms of their sentence including parole or probation” had their voting rights automatically restored in January. The legislation does not apply to Floridians convicted of murder or sexual offenses, however.
Those cases will reportedly be considered individually by the state’s Clemency Review Board.
The new measure to curb the rights is facing criticism from Democratic lawmakers in Florida, as well as on the national stage. State Rep. Adam Hattersley (D) described the House bill as a “blatantly unconstitutional” poll tax after the measure was approved by the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee in March.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), a 2020 presidential candidate, slammed the bill as a “poll tax” in a tweet on Wednesday.
State Rep. James Grant (R), the bill’s sponsor, has contended that the measure clarifies the ballot proposal that voters supported last November. He’s also argued that Amendment 4 advocates testified before the Supreme Court that fees and fines are a part of a sentence, according to The Tallahassee Democrat.
Callichimaera Perplexa: Bizarre ‘Platypus of the Crab World’ Discovered From 95 Million Years Ago
Article via Newsweek
Researchers have discovered a “unique” 95-million-year-old crab species that casts new light on the evolutionary history of crustaceans.
An international team, led by paleontologist Javier Luque from Yale University, found the unusual specimen—dubbed “Callichimaera perplexa”—in Colombia alongside several other well-preserved fossils in rocks dating back to the mid-Cretaceous period (90-95 million years ago).
The fossil cache included numerous shrimp fossils and other marine creatures, but Callichimaera was by the far the most intriguing, according to the researchers. They described the animal in a study published in the journal Science Advances.
“Callichimaera perplexa is the strangest—and cutest—crab yet discovered,” Luque told Newsweek. “It is in a way like the ‘platypus’ of the crab world. A truly perplexing beautiful chimera, as its name indicates. This new discovery is one of the most exciting fossil findings in the tropics in the last decade. It reveals a long-gone branch in the crustacean tree of life that has never been seen before.”
Furthermore, it was the first arthropod—a large group of animals that includes lobsters, crabs, spiders, mites, insects, centipedes and millipedes—to evolve swimming oar-like legs since the disappearance of “sea scorpions” more than 250 million years ago, according to Luque. In addition, its unique body form “pushes the textbook definition” of what a crab is.
The strange animal was very small—about the size of a quarter—and featured large compound eyes with no sockets, bent claws, leg-like mouth parts, an exposed tail and a long body—traits that are characteristic of crab larvae. The researchers say that several larval traits may have been retained in the animal in a process that could have led to the evolution of novel body plans.
“Callichimaera hints at how novel forms can evolve via the retention and amplification of larval traits in miniaturized adults during development,” Luque said.
“Usually we think of crabs as big animals with broad carapaces, strong claws, small eyes in long eyestalks, and a small tail tucked under the body. Well, Callichimaera defies all of these ‘crabby’ features and forces a rethink of our definition of what makes a crab a crab,” he said in a statement.
The unusual body plan of the newly discovered species provided the inspiration for its name, which derives from the word “chimera”—a mythological creature that contained body parts from more than one animal.
The fossil cache in which Callichimaera was found was first discovered by chance in 2005 when Luque was an undergraduate student studying geology in Colombia.
“During a field expedition, a friend and I were doing geological mapping of an area in the Andes,” he said. “After a long day of walking through the mountains we sat on a hill to take a break. It was already late in the afternoon, and I just decided to swing my hammer one more time to check the rocks we were sitting on. It was there that I discovered a layer in the rock with hundreds of fossils of marine creatures—most of them crustaceans of different shapes and sizes—and among them the ‘beautiful chimera’ that is the focus of our study today.”
“The rocks from where these specimens come were deposited during the mid-Cretaceous in a relatively shallow and narrow inner sea that ran all the way from Venezuela and Colombia to Peru and Bolivia,” he said. “That is why we find marine fossils in rocks that are today in the middle of the Andes.”
In total, the researchers collected more than 70 individual specimens of Callichimaera, including males, females, babies and adults. Despite their small size, the fossils were preserved in “exquisite detail,” including body parts like antennae, sexual appendages, mouth parts and even large eyes.
“It is very exciting that today we keep finding completely new branches in the tree of life from a distant past, especially from regions like the tropics, which despite being hotspots of diversity today, are places we know the least about in terms of their past diversity,” Luque said.
Tiger attacks Arizona animal sanctuary director, former Las Vegas illusionist
Article via ABCNews
Jonathan Kraft, the director and founder of Keepers of the Wild, was moving the 11-year-old tiger to a safer area during a heavy rainstorm and was attacked by the normally docile animal.
“Jonathan was concerned for the welfare of several large cats in his approximate area including the tiger and took unilateral action to allow them access to protection from the elements,” the sanctuary said in a statement on Wednesday. “During that process, a safety protocol had obviously failed resulting in the incident.”
Kraft was flown to a hospital in Las Vegas where he was treated for “multiple wounds and two broken bones.” The sanctuary said he will take several months to recover.
The tiger, Bowie, was taken into the sanctuary last year after previously being owned as a pet. The animal was declawed as a cub and had difficulty walking, the sanctuary said.
The sanctuary said in its statement that Kraft “made the decision to shift Bowie’s gates to allow him access to his den box area. During the process, the usually docile behaving Bowie exhibited unusual conduct by suddenly pushing the gates prior to Jonathan being able to secure the safety clips.”
Bowie bit down on Kraft, before other staffers freed him from the tiger’s jaws.
The tiger will not be euthanized, the sanctuary said.
Keepers of the Wild is a nonprofit that cares for 150 exotic animals, including tigers, lions, leopards, bears and wolves. The facility is open to visitors, but was being closed due to the storm, the sanctuary said.
The facility was established in 1995 in Las Vegas, but later relocated to rural Valentine, Arizona, about two hours southeast of Las Vegas.
Kraft previously worked as an entertainer on the Las Vegas Strip, appearing in shows with two tigers he trained starting as cubs. He initially started the sanctuary as a place for retired animals from stage shows and eventually decided to cut animals out of his shows entirely.
The sanctuary said it was conducting an internal investigation into the accident.
The attack was the second by a tiger in a matter of days in the U.S., after a zookeeper at the Topeka Zoo was mauled on Saturday. The keeper, identified as Kristyn Hayden-Ortega on Tuesday, was removed from the intensive care unit a day after the attack and is expected to make a full recovery from puncture wounds to her head, neck, back and arms.
World Health Organization says no screen time for babies
The World Health Organization has issued its first-ever guidance for how much screen time that children under five should get: none!
Rico Nasty and Kenny Beats – Cold [Official Audio]
Rico Nasty’s album Anger Management is out now!