The internet is arguably one of the most racist places on the planet. Nowhere else do people feel so comfortable flaunting their most flagrant racist remarks than from behind a computer screen. Well, one  new Tumblr page is looking to stop that party in its tracks.

Racists Getting Fired is exactly what it sounds like. The page finds individuals who have made racist comments on social media and then exposes their behavior to their employers–which ultimately gets many of them fired.

One of the more popular examples that has been floating around the internet is that of Virginia truck driver Remington Allen Geisler.

Ultimately,  Geisler was suspended from his job without pay. There are other examples on the page of people who have posted discriminatory remarks or pictures and have ultimately lost their jobs.

So far, everyone who has been exposed by the page has deleted their social media profiles. Whether or not this is ultimately the right path to justice, it has definitely brought vindication to the many commenters and posters on Tumblr.

The host of an Indian signing competition was attacked and slapped in the face on Sunday because a man in the audience did not approve of her clothing.

Gauhur Khan, a Bollywood actress and model, was in the middle of taping the finale episode when 24-year-old Akil Malik decided to attack. According to The Times of India, Malik had been attending tapings as an audience member for a couple of days prior to the incident.

“Around 8pm on Sunday, while the shoot was on, Malik suddenly got up and went on the stage. He tried to touch Khan who was taken aback and resisted. Malik then slapped her. He asked her how she could wear skimpy outfits and dance to cheap songs despite being a Muslim,” a police official said.

DNA India reports that Malik also touched Khan inappropriately, and that will be reflected in his charges.

India has been under fire in the last couple of years for its treatment of women. In 2012, a 23-year-old student died after being gang raped on a moving bus in Delhi. The tragic incident sparked national outrage.

Just last week, two sisters physically fought off three alleged molesters on yet another moving bus. Arti and Pooja Kumar, aged 22 and 19, were filmed thrashing their alleged harassers on the bus with their hands and a belt. The men fought back while other passengers merely looked on, with the exception of one pregnant woman who filmed the ordeal.

The footage was replayed on multiple 24-hour news channels resulting in the police arresting the men on Sunday. The girls are now being praised and rewarded with cash for their bravery.

The outspoken Republican aide who blasted the Obama girls on her Facebook page for showing a “lack of class” was once arrested for misdemeanor larceny during her own “awful teen years,” according to court documents.

Elizabeth Lauten, former communications director to Republican Steven Fincher, resigned from her position after her “Dear Sasha and Malia” Facebook post. In the note, she criticized the girls’ outfits and demeanor at the annual turkey pardoning ceremony. But after some digging in court papers, Lauten has been exposed as a thief in her own teenage years. She was arrested in December 2000 for larceny. The 31 year old was caught stealing from a Belk department store in her North Carolina hometown when she was 17.

Since Lauten was a first-time offender, her case was handled via the District Court’s deferred prosecution program, and resulted in the charge’s eventual dismissal after she stayed out of trouble for a prescribed period of time.

Lauten was just another teenager caught shoplifting at the mall, and it’s unlikely she was publicly scolded for her lack of class, nor were her parents criticized as poor role models, like she attempted to do to Malia and Sasha Obama.

White privilege strikes again.

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In a bizarre plot twist, St. Louis Rams Executive Vice President Kevin Demoff, who endured extreme backlash for allegedly apologizing for five Rams players protesting with the “hands up, don’t shoot” pose, claims he did not apologize after all on Monday night.

“In none of these conversations did I apologize for our players’ actions,” he told the St. Louis Post. “I did say in each conversation that I regretted any offense their officers may have taken. We do believe it is possible to both support our players’ First Amendment rights and support the efforts of local law enforcement as our community begins the process of healing.”

Demoff says he was merely expressing that he “felt badly that our players’ support of the community was taken as disrespectful to law enforcement.”

On Sunday, Chris Givens, Kenny Britt, Tavon Austin, Jared Cook, and Stedman Bailey raised their hands in solidarity with Ferguson protestors.

The St. Louis Police Officer’s Association called it a “display that police officers around the nation found tasteless, offensive and inflammatory.” The organization released a statement chastising the players for ignoring “the mountains of evidence released from the St. Louis County Grand Jury,” who chose not to indict Officer Darren Wilson for the fatal shooting of Michael Brown.

Amid the brewing controversy, Demoff contacted the police department. St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar told his department in an e-mail that Demoff called to apologize for any player who slighted police.

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Soccer player Mario Balotelli is under investigation by the English FA after he uploaded an Instagram post that has been deemed racist and anti-Semitic. The controversial photo shows Super Mario — the Nintendo video game character that Balotelli shares a name with — leaping over a line of text that reads: “… jumps like a black man and grabs coin like a jew.”

The Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) said the incident “reinforces the need for continued education” for footballers who use social media. “The situation regarding Mario Balotelli’s Instagram post … highlights how vigilant players need to be in all of their dealings with social media,” the PFA said in a statement.

If charged by the FA, Balotelli faces a five-match ban from Liverpool, which faces Leicester City later on Tuesday.

Balotelli, who has been on the receiving end of racist taunts while playing in Italy and England, tried defending his post. “My Mom is Jewish so all of u shut up please,” he said. But the athlete relented, deleted the post, and apologized. “I apologize if I’ve offended anyone. The post was meant to be anti-racist with humor,” Balotelli wrote on Twitter. “Not all Mexicans have moustache, not all black people jump high and not all Jewish people love money.”

Balotelli is an Italian professional soccer player who plays as a striker for Premier League club Liverpool and the Italian national team. The 24 year old was born in Sicily to Ghanaian immigrants, but was raised by Italian foster parents. He became an Italian citizen the day after his 18th birthday.

In the past decade, ride-on toys like the popular Razor scooter have become popular on kids’ wish lists for Santa. For parents thinking about buying toy scooters for their kids this Christmas, a new study suggests toy scooters might not be the best option.

Researchers at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital found that between 1990 and 2011, more than 3.2 million kids were estimated to have been sent to the emergency room for toy mishaps. The rate of injury increased by 40 percent within that time. A large percentage of those ER visits were attributed to injuries as a result of ride-on toys, including popular foot-powered scooters, tricycles, and toy wagons.

The full study published in the Journal of Clinical Pediatrics is a first of its kind study that links ride-on toys such as scooters to emergency room visits for children under the age of 18. Males accounted for higher percentages of injuries. Most of the reported injuries occurred at home, where most kids use the toys hopefully under parental supervision. Researchers in the study aim to find prevention methods that will mean less time spent in the ER and more time enjoying their Christmas toys.

[Image: Shutterstock]

“Parents can really be assured that toys sold on U.S. shelves are safe,” Rebecca Mond, director of federal government relations for the Toy Industry Association, said. “It’s important for us as parents to also pay attention to our children when we’re playing and pay attention to age grading for toys and making sure that our children are safe when they are riding on these scooters.”

Razor USA, the company behind the popular Razor scooter, recommends that parents grab a helmet and knee pads to go along with their scooter and other ride-on toys. ” … When compared to other competitive ride-on products, scooters are actually less risky and, even so, the rate of injuries associated with the use of a scooter is not statistically different today than it has been for years,” said Katherine Mahoney, vice president of marketing at Razor, in a statement.

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First dates can be extremely nerve-wracking and awkward, or is that just me? Finding someone interesting enough to have a first date with can be an obstacle in itself. You find someone you like, text, or in very rare cases, actually speak to them on the phone, then you get asked out. Yes!!! Now you have to figure out what to wear and this can be really difficult because unfortunately people judge each other first, based on appearances. So, do you wear a dress, a shirt, jeans, a suit and tie? Wait a minute, where are you going on your date? Dinner, a movie, museum, or coffee? Should he/she pick you up or should you meet them there? Should you flat-iron your hair or leave it curly? Get a haircut and a shave or wear your beard? Ack … this is too much!!! Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered …

Here are five things you can do to ease first-date stress:

[Image: Shutterstock]

1. Talk to Your Date Prior to Meeting Up: Talking seems to be a lost art form that our parents once did after school, while listening to records on the jukebox and drinking milkshakes at the local burger joint. What happened to talking? Where the hell did it go, and can we bring it back? I vote yes. Talk to your date before you actually go on your date. Don’t plan the entire thing through text. I am not suggesting you have a three-hour phone conversation about what type of cheeses you like, or your favorite wine, but connecting verbally gives you a sense of direction when it comes to how you feel about someone. Call them and discuss, what you both like to do for entertainment or what you are interested in, so that you can both enjoy yourselves on your date. How many times have you showed up to a restaurant that literally has nothing on the menu you want to eat, or suffered through a film or game you have no interest in for the sake of the date? Talk first, gauge your interests, and plan accordingly.

2. Let Your Guard Down Just a Bit: This is a biggie for pretty much all of us. We are a generation of people who constantly tweet or Instagram how quickly we cut people off, don’t trust others, or are giving up on love. What the hell happened to us? Why are we so cynical and jaded? I think I am having an existential moment right now, but I digress. Letting our guard down — especially for me — is terrifying. Opening yourself up to rejection, heartache, pain, and all of the other descriptive ways in which you can be hurt is scary and can make you really nervous, especially on date one when you are already in a bit of a frenzied state. If you don’t open yourself up to all of the possibilities of love whether they be negative or positive, then love will never find you. Let your guard down and allow them to really get to know the real you, which leads me to tip number three.

[Image: Shutterstock]

3. Be Your Authentic Self: Listen, when I tell you that many of us are not presenting our true selves on these first dates! Why am I meeting your representative instead of the real you? We have all been there. Conversation is flowing, smiles are exchanged, laughter is had, and you find all of these similarities between you two, you’re all, “I like sushi, and football, and hiking.” And they’re all, “What? No way! Sushi is my favorite food, I played high school football, and I just hiked Mount Kilimanjaro this summer!” Having activities and likes in common is what brings us together and can help our relationships grow, but you know what doesn’t? Pretending to like all of the same things he/she does, and even participating in activities you have absolutely no interest in just to get them to like you. Six months down the line the real you will eventually surface and will not only confuse the hell out of them, but make them wonder if anything you ever said or did were real. Be confident in who you are. I was a great pretender in my early twenties especially, but now I’m all, “I don’t watch football, I love to vacuum, I’ve never seen Star Wars and no, I do not want to cuddle.” Don’t pretend for the sake of keeping someone. Be you, not your representative because if he/she can’t love all of the awesome, quirky, or just weird things about you, they sure as hell don’t deserve you.

4. Do Not Discuss Your Ex: This recently happened to me and I must tell you that it immediately made my interest wane on my date. Why do people even ask you these questions on date one? Why does it matter who he/she last dated, how long it lasted, or why they broke up, on date one?! Really, date one people? Here’s the thing, discussing your ex or the sordid details of your relationship is bound to bring up some sort of emotion. Sometimes it can be positive, but oftentimes it’s anger, resentment, or sadness, so why even go there? It’s very easy to ask the “So how long did you last relationship last?” question, and I am even guilty of this myself, but what I found is that we unknowingly judge them by their answer, or even worse, by who they last dated. When you begin your new relationship with memories and/or feelings from your past, you are invariably blocking your possible future together. Focus on getting to know him/her for who they are now instead of focusing on their past right away. After you’ve been able to get to know them and base your feelings on your interpretation of them, then discuss your past as it pertains to your future.

[Image: Shutterstock]

5. Don’t Have Sex — Yet. Wait: Here me out on this one. As a disclaimer I would like to say that if you are living life, having fun, and not looking for a commitment, then go ahead and have first date sex. Women especially are put down constantly for this while men are praised for it, and it’s bullshit. Sex on the first date is not a bad thing and owning your sexuality is bad ass … What I am referencing is, sex on the first date, in relation to the chances of it leading to a committed and long-lasting relationship. The chances are slim. There is no magical number of how many dates it takes to get to know someone or a rule à la the 90 Day Rule many women follow, but waiting to allow your feelings to develop without sex usually lets you see someone for who they really are.

Good luck on your next date … and remember, calm down it’s just dinner!

[Image: Shutterstock]

The Los Angeles school district has agreed to pay a $140 million settlement to 81 victims of an elementary school teacher who blindfolded his students and forced them to eat cookies made with his semen. That brings the grand total to $170 million when including a previous case that settled the claims of 65 students for $30 million.

Mark Berndt, 63, had been a teacher with the L.A. Unified School District for 30 years when he was finally exposed in 2012. A young pharmacy clerk noticed that he had bondage-style photos of elementary school students and alerted the authorities, against the wishes of her supervisors.

Investigators uncovered a long history of performing lewd acts on children, including about 800 photos of blindfolded children eating the semen cookies, eating semen from a spoon and letting roaches crawl on them. Many of these incidents had been reported to the district, but never acted upon, including accusations from two teachers who said Berndt was masturbating in front of a class in the 90’s.

The plaintiffs’ lawyer, John Manly, described one such incident:

“There were so many things along the way that were signs,” Manly said, including photographs a parent brought to the head of the school in 2008 of a child eating a cookie covered in white slime.

“This is wrong, do something about it or I’m going to call the police,” the parent demanded, Manly said. “The principal said, ‘Don’t call the police.'”

Being that the school was located in a poor, Spanish neighborhood, sources speculate that the fear of deportation may have been a factor in why the police weren’t involved.

Berndt pleaded no contest last year to 23 counts of lewd acts upon children and is currently serving a 25-year sentence.

Money from the settlement is being divided by the judge in the case based upon the nature and duration of the abuse and its impact, which ranges from “doing fine” to “suicidal.”

[Source: EdWeek]

“Real Housewives of Atlanta” husband Todd Tucker‘s mom passed away in New York Tuesday after suffering a stroke. A friend of his discovered Miss Sharon before she was rushed to the hospital Monday, according to a source.

Although Tucker was in Atlanta when his mother fell ill, he rushed to New York to be with her. She was reportedly unconscious when he arrived. She slipped into a coma overnight before passing away.

Kandi Burruss, Tucker’s wife and entertainment mogul, was reportedly in Los Angeles when Miss Sharon was hospitalized.

Tucker expressed his grief to family, friends, and fans via Instagram:

Tucker captioned the post: “Today I lost my partner, my ride or die my best friend! I don’t know what to do? I’m lost! My heart hurts so much! She was a fighter, a warrior for her son! It was me and her against the world! She’s in a better place!! Mom I love you to death! Rest in peace!”

Tucker and Burruss’ mother Mama Joyce have a notoriously contentious relationship. Miss Sharon was known for appearing on RHOA on behalf of her son. The two mothers-in-law have come close to throwing bows in the past. However, Burruss and Miss Sharon seemed to have a loving relationship. Burruss has described Miss Sharon as a “great mother-in-law.”

Our condolences are with Tucker and Burruss, and the rest of Miss Sharon’s family.

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The U.S. Congress wants to push a new initiative for disabled Americans, but in order to do so they needed to shift around some money. So, they’ve decided to take away Medicare coverage of the penis pump, which will save $44 million a year.

As it stands, Medicare does not cover cheaper erectile dysfunction remedies such as Viagra or other pills, yet it does offer the expensive appliances. Congress intends to remove the option for “vacuum erection systems” until Medicare also offers the cheaper therapy, thus saving tens of millions of dollars per year, which they can dedicate to their new plan.

The ABLE (Achieving a Better Life Experience) Act would allow states to set up and manage specialized savings accounts for Americans with disabilities, allowing them to receive tax breaks and access to Medicare entitlements that they currently can’t receive.

The act would allow disabled people to partake in tax write-offs that other citizens take for granted, such as “the ability to earn tax-free interest in the way parents with ‘Section 529′ plans can while saving for their children’s college tuition.”

According to House Speaker John Boehner, “Under the status quo, which dates back to 1974, people with disabilities can only save $2,000 in assets’ before taxes kick in.” Boehner said that this makes it “nearly impossible” to save in the way that any other family would.

Republicans in the House propose to pay for it using a series of budget “offsets,” of which the erection pump maneuver is the largest. The nine offsets also include an IRS proposal that will increase non-payment penalties and increasing fuel taxes for cargo ships operating on U.S. inland waterways.

“The Wire” is widely hailed as the crown jewel of television programs. Critics raved about how smart and well-done it was. Just about everyone you know has watched it, but if you’re one of the few people who hasn’t seen it, HBO is gifting you with the opportunity for the holidays!

The cable network announced it will begin to re-air a remastered HD cut of “The Wire” on December 26th. The series will be available in its entirety on HBO Go and will start airing one season per day on HBO Signature.

Series creator Dan Simon has said he prefers the look of a 4×3 ratio, in which the show was originally shot. However, according to HBO, they rescanned 8,000 reels of original negative and did extensive work to ensure that the HD cut retains the feel of the original.

Starting January 5th, you will be able to purchase the remastered series on download platforms (Amazon, iTunes, Xbox Video, Google Play, Vudu) and a Blu-ray release is due next summer.

So word to the wise, many of your co-workers and friends (if not you, yourself) will likely be binging on “The Wire” over the holidays and you will be reliving all of those crazy moments again soon.

It’s not so important that disgraced former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice won his suspension appeals case as it is important that the NFL accepted it. This was all pro-forma, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell understanding from the get that Rice would be back at some point – and soon. This has been one of the more exciting, unpredictable seasons in recent memory with wrinkles aplenty.  Why not add another wrinkle to it?

There had been no real revenue threat to the league that had emerged since the scandal let loose before the season.  We don’t know about league earnings just yet, but we do know that ratings – which dictate earnings – are up despite heinous off-field scandals committed by players from Rice to Adrian Peterson.

And it wasn’t like Ray Rice jerseys hit rock bottom. The black and purple merchandise hitting gold on Halloween when many oblivious and mostly white trick-or-treaters couldn’t help expressing masked pre-election bigotry. Over a month later, and even white female federal district court Judge Barbara S. Jones found a technicality to spare the PR-remorseful Rice (to Jones, black couple troubles had nothing to do with her). The optics of a female judge reversing the suspension played beautifully for the NFL.

A new CBS/NFL Thursday night football package is nearly 17 million audience strong, way up from the 8 percent at this time last year when it was just CBS. Monday Night Football on ESPN is up 7 percent in viewing.   Sunday Night Football is averaging 22 percent, compared to 21.7 percent last year. CBS Sunday Football is averaging 17.52 million viewers versus FOX Sunday Football at 20.8 million (but who watches CBS football coverage that much when you’ve got star-studded panels and attractive female sideline reporters at FOX). And any reductions have nothing to do with Rice beating down then fiancé Janay or Peterson putting scars on his 4 year old. Experts attribute any fluctuations to all these big score blowouts we’ve been seeing lately.

NBC’s Sunday match-up between the Kansas City Chiefs and Denver Broncos topped TV ratings this week, maintaining Sunday Night Football’s dominance on that night.  Here’s what it looked like a month ago

And, certainly Goodell was watching the polls, too.

Back in mid-September, when  YouGov released its BrandIndex Buzz poll on reactions to the NFL’s handling of the Rice case, it found men more disgusted with the episode than women.  The expectation was the reverse, but many polls showed otherwise:

An Ipsos-Reuters poll back then also showed men 2 percentage points more negative on Rice and the NFL than women. Another NBC News poll showed only 50 percent of women compared to 55 percent of men frowned at the league’s handling of the fiasco, numbers the League front office more than likely looked at with particular interest.

And if we factor in race – since it was a black woman who was brutally assaulted – African American viewers appeared to shrug the whole thing off. According to YouGov, 21 percent of whites were less likely to watch an NFL game compared to only 8 percent of blacks.  For the most part, blacks were more likely than whites – by 7 percentage point spreads – to approve of the way teams like the Baltimore Ravens and Minnesota Vikings handled their respective scandals.  So if neither women or African Americans as major demographics were making a big deal out of it (the latter perhaps explaining league tone-deafness when it failed to appoint any black women to its domestic violence panel), reinstating Rice and eventually Peterson will carry little risk.

CHARLES D. ELLISON is a veteran political strategist and Chief Political Correspondent for Uptown Magazine. He is also a frequent contributor for The Root and Washington Correspondent for the Philadelphia Tribune. He can be reached via Twitter @ellisonreport.

A large part of me didn’t want to write this. I didn’t want to give light and attention to obscenely ignorant comments that only serve to obfuscate the goal of achieving equality, whether they be from a white man like Joe Scarborough or a Black man like Ben Carson. The reason it becomes so difficult to craft an engaging, open, and serious dialogue about race in North America is because the conversation contains too many buffoons who really don’t want a solution, just a platform to make ignorant, overgeneralized comments that solve nothing yet raise their personal profile. And as someone who loves to debate, it saddens me whenever a discussion becomes so full of shit that I must mute someone for the sake of a progressive conversation, but after hearing Charles Barkley call Ferguson protestors “scumbags” and opine that justice was served with the Darren Wilson grand jury decision, when many legal experts of all races and political denominations state otherwise, was just far too much to ignore.

In reality, Barkley is a man that we should be able to talk with in regards to the Black community. Hell, being born in Alabama in 1963, he has experienced a form of overt discrimination that many of us will never have to directly face. It was 1963 when Alabama finally conceded to desegregating public schools, after fiercely and violently avoiding its implementation after Brown v. the Board of Education in 1954. It was 1963, in Alabama, when four innocent Black girls were killed when their church was bombed in Birmingham. Alabama in the 1950s was the battleground where the civil rights movement took off with the cases of Claudette Colvin and Rosa Parks. The upcoming movie Selma will show us all what life was like in Alabama, fighting off rabid racism and police brutality. While we all watch these aberrations of justice on the big screen, Black folks like Charles Barkley had to watch them outside of his window. Yet, he has become persona non grata by Black intellectuals and anyone with any sense of the true nature of racial tensions on this continent when it comes to discussing issues of race.

Barkley says that he encourages a constant stream of conversation around racism (which I completely agree with) and he wants Black folks to be equal in all senses. If that’s his goal, then the best way Charles Barkley can help is by shutting his mouth. And that doesn’t go for him alone, that is for all the Black men and women who share his mentality. Why? Because this new revolution for equal rights in the face of police brutality and excessive force is being predominantly lead by the young men and women of our community, and if some of us simultaneously claim to be for equality yet apathetic towards making the actual change, the best thing they can do is simply shut up. I don’t believe he needs to be muzzled because he doesn’t have anything of value to say (hell, I just lauded his comments against “talking white” the other day), but I do believe that a man uninterested in identifying with the struggles of non-wealthy Blacks desperately needs to let them figure out how to achieve equal rights in their own manner.

And therein lies the problem with people who think like Barkley. Their ownership of Black skin makes them want equal rights, yet they want to do absolutely nothing to achieve them, and still believe they have legit grounds to criticize everyone else’s efforts. I’m sorry, but it doesn’t work that way. If your personal mantra is to let the chips fall where they may and pray racism ends itself, you get no say in repudiating the efforts of the boys and girls fervently fighting for social change. At a time when reports of police shootings are higher than ever before, yet crime and murder rates are dropping to lows we haven’t seen in decades, there’s clearly a problem that needs to be addressed. But if you’re unwilling to participate in achieving change but want to reap its benefits, you have to keep your lips sealed because it serves no functional purpose. What can these young men and women leading this charge learn from you except passivity and cowardice?

I may not be an old man, but being in my early thirties allows me to see the looming silhouette of my midlife (hopefully, without an accompanying crisis), yet I sometimes feel myself hopelessly waiting for the other shoe to drop. For us to all give up the fight on excessive force, let a few news cycles run, and then return to watching “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” with no concern for what’s truly going on outside our front doors. But now that we find ourselves more than 100 days into this revolution, it’s clear that this is not just a fad — it’s a movement — just like the movement that occurred, lead by young Blacks who were tired of the status quo, outside of Charles Barkley’s window in the ’60s.

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Lincoln Anthony Blades blogs daily on his site ThisIsYourConscience.com, he’s an author of the book “You’re Not A Victim, You’re A Volunteer” and a weekly contributor for UPTOWN Magazine. He can be reached via Twitter @lincolnablades and on Facebook at This Is Your Conscience.

The findings of a new study suggest that brain activity can predict if tobacco smokers will relapse after quitting.

The research, published in Neuropsychopharmacology, found that smokers who relapse within seven days of their target quit date who signs of disruption in their memory systems during the period when they don’t smoke. Participants who quit successfully did not exhibit this same activity. The findings could prove to be an accurate predictor of successful quitters, in addition to being a “therapeutic target” for new treatments.

“This is the first time abstinence-induced changes in the working memory have been shown to accurately predict relapse in smokers,” said senior author Caryn Lerman, PhD professor of Psychiatry and director of Penn’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Nicotine Addiction.

The research team studied 80 smokers ages 18-65 who reported smoking over 10 cigarettes per day for at least six months. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to see how a brief abstinence from smoking influenced memory and the neural activity therein. Participants underwent an fMRI session right after they smoked a cigarette, and then again after a 24 hour abstinence period. They were then given counseling to quit smoking and made a target quit date. Seven days after their quit dates, researchers checked in to see if they’d relapsed. Only 19 participants successfully quit.

Neural activity was found to decrease in the part of the brain responsible for self-control and increase in the region that deals with promoting an introspective state.

“The neural response to quitting, even after one day, can give us valuable information that could inform new and existing personalized intervention strategies for smokers, which is greatly needed.”

In the United States, smoking is at an all-time low in adults, but there are still 42 million Americans who smoke.

Chris Rock has never shied away from talking about the uncomfortable topics. Of course, that is his job as a comedian, but he has always had a penchant for breaking down complex topics in hilariously intelligent ways. He brings this barbed wit to the essay he penned for The Hollywood Reporter about Hollywood’s race issue.

Rock is promoting his new film Top Five, which he wrote, directed and starred in. The film, which is receiving critical acclaim, started as an independent feature before getting picked up by a major studio. “I couldn’t have made Top Five at a studio. First of all, no one’s going to make a movie with a premise so little and artsy: a star putting out a movie and getting interviewed by a woman from The New York Times. I would have had to have three two-hour meetings explaining that black people also read The New York Times. A studio would’ve made it like Malibu’s Most Wanted.”

Rock lays plain the reality of Hollywood: “It’s a white industry.” He explains that the majority of black people hired in Hollywood are females with Ivy League degrees, but that you will rarely see black men. He also spends time discussing the lack of Mexicans in Hollywood. “You’re in L.A, you’ve got to try not to hire Mexicans…[There’s] just an acceptance that there’s a slave state in L.A. There’s this acceptance that Mexicans are going to take care of white people in L.A. that doesn’t exist anywhere else.” Although Rock isn’t expecting for people of color to have the power of studio heads overnight, he takes issue with the fact that even the simplest of tasks are only entrusted to white people.

In terms of casting, he bluntly exposes Hollywood’s reluctance to cast black people in roles that could easily be played by a black person. “Now, when it comes to casting, Hollywood pretty much decides to cast a black guy or they don’t. We’re never on the ‘short list.’ We’re never ‘in the mix.'” He also acknowledges that black women often get even less shine on the big screen, saying, “There are almost no black women in film. You can go to whole movies and not see one black woman. They’ll throw a black guy a bone. OK, here’s a black guy… I go to the movies almost every week, and I can go a month and not see a black woman having an actual speaking part in a movie. That’s the truth.”

The root of the issue, Rock believes, is that black people are not considered for roles that they could easily be cast in over white people. He recounted being told that he was being considered for the part of ‘Huggy Bear’ in the Starsky & Hutch reboot, but not wanting to play that role. “Do you understand that when my brother and I watched Starsky & Hutch growing up, I would play Starsky and he would play Hutch? I don’t want to play f—ing Huggy Bear. This is not a historical drama. This is not Thomas Jefferson. It’s a movie based on a shitty TV show, it can be anybody. Who cares. If they want me to play Starsky or Hutch, or even the bad guy, I’m down. But Huggy Bear?”

Rock also pushes Hollywood to examine the audiences and the relevance of numbers in the conversation of what and who is culturally relevant. “If Kevin Hart is playing 40,000 seats in a night and Jon Stewart is playing 3,000, the fact that Jon Stewart’s 3,000 are white means Kevin has to cross over? That makes no sense. If anybody needs to cross over, it’s the guy who’s selling 3,000 seats.”

Still, he does see things improving. He cited his recent hosting gig on SNL and doing a skit with Sasheer Zamata that had nothing to do with race, but was just based on what was funny. Rock recognizes that change takes significant time. However, he never let the restrictions of any era direct his steps. He draws comparison of this attitude to that of President Obama:

“I wouldn’t be here if I thought I couldn’t play those parts. I never limited myself. And that’s the beauty of Obama. It might be a generational thing, because the difference between Barack Obama and Jesse Jackson was that Jesse Jackson never actually ran for president. He ran to disrupt the presidency. If he actually ran for president, he probably could have been president. Jesse Jackson won a bunch of primaries in Southern states, but not for five seconds did he think he could be president, whereas Obama was like, ‘Yeah, I could be president,’ and nobody stopped him. Literally, nobody stopped him.”

Women’s rights attorney Gloria Allred has joined with new Bill Cosby accusers to demand he be held accountable for alleged sexual assaults against multiple women spanning decades.  Allred lead a news conference with Helen Hayes, Chelan and Beth Ferrier. The latter was scheduled to testify in a lawsuit against Cosby in 2005 that was settled out of court in 2006.

Allred proposes that the comedian agree to be sued and judged in a court of law or be judged by a group of retired judges and compensate each of his alleged victims if it’s deemed that the claims have merit.

“It could be advantageous for Mr. Cosby to give up the statute of limitations because there is a huge cloud on his reputation and legacy,” Allred said. “The public deserves to know if Mr Cosby is a saint or a sexual predator.”

Over 17 women have come forward accusing “The Cosby Show” star of drugging and sexual assault with incidents spanning as early as one decade ago and as late as 40 years ago.  Judy Huth is the most recent accuser to step forward, saying the comedian assaulted her when she was 15.  Huth filed a lawsuit Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court claiming sexual battery and infliction of emotional distress.

The LAPD is prepared to investigate the alleged crime, although Huth has not filed a formal complaint with them.

Cosby had remained silent about the allegations until Tuesday when he reached out to two of his most unapologetic supporters.  He first sent out a tweet expressing appreciation for one of his friends, Whoopi Goldberg.  “Thank You @WhoopiGoldberg,” the tweet read.

Last month on “The View,” Goldberg questioned the validity of the alleged victims’ stories and refused to choose sides.

“Perhaps the police might have believed [the allegation], or the hospital. Don’t you do a kit when you say someone has raped you?” said Goldberg.  “I hope somebody gets to the bottom of this, but I’m going to reserve my judgment because I have a lot of questions, as I said. It’s crazy, but I have a lot of questions, because I know we all have friends who have gone through this.”

Yesterday, Cosby sent out another tweet, this time referencing singer Jill Scott.  “Thank you @MissJillScott, from the Cosby Family,” he tweeted.  Scott has recently come under fire for saying she wanted more proof from Cosby’s accusers before condemning him.

“So they’ve proven the alleged allegations?,” she questioned one anti-Cosby tweeter.

“I’m respecting a man who has done more for the image of Brown people [than] almost anyone EVER,” she tweeted.

Cosby accompanied Scott this May when she received an honorary degree from Temple University.

Did you set your clocks back 300 years yesterday? Another unarmed black man was killed by a white police officer on December 2 in Phoenix. A white cop who was feeling threatened used lethal force on Rumain Brisbon, 34, leaving him dead with two bullet wounds in his torso at a north Phoenix apartment complex. The unnamed officer, a 30 year old with seven years on the force, was unharmed.

Police statements and mainstream media outlets allege Brisbon was a drug dealer and threatened the officer, causing the officer to use deadly force, in a statement detailing the incident released Wednesday morning. But portions of that account have already been challenged by some witnesses and community activists who say that the officer’s use of force was excessive and that Brisbon’s death was unwarranted.

On Tuesday around 6:00pm, police were in the area of Interstate 17 and Greenway Road when a resident of an apartment complex told them that men inside a black Cadillac SUV were engaged in a drug deal. The license plate matched the name and address of a resident in the complex, where there was also a pending complaint of a “loud music disturbance.” The officer began questioning the persons inside the car, including Brisbon, who was in the driver’s seat.

According to the cop, Brisbon got out, appearing to be remove something from the rear of the SUV. The officer told Brisbon to show his hands, but Brisbon stuffed his hands into his waistband. The officer drew his weapon and Brisbon ran toward nearby apartments, where a brief foot chase ensued.

A woman inside an apartment opened a door at that moment Brisbon and the officer began scuffling on the ground, and the pair  tumbled inside, where two children, ages 9 and 2, were in a back bedroom. The officer could no longer keep a grip on Brisbon’s hand and, because he feared that the suspect had a gun in his pocket, fired two shots, according to Sgt. Trent Crump, a Phoenix police spokesman.

The item in Brisbon’s pocket turned out to be a bottle of oxycodone pills.

Brandon Dickerson, who was in the car with Brisbon shortly before the shooting,  witnessed some of the incident, saying Brisbon was dropping off fast food to his children in the apartment.

The controversial Aaliyah lifetime biopic left much to be desired. Yet now that the controversy has died down somewhat, Lifetime is rolling out the red carpet for its next controversial biopic.
The anticipated Whitney Houston biopic directed by the late singer’s former co-star Angela Bassett has finally received a release date. Lifetime announced the film Whitney will premiere Saturday, January 17, 2015 at 8pm ET/PT.

As previously reported, the film will focus on the relationship between Whitney and Bobby Brown. Yaya Da Costa Alafia plays the title role and Arlen Escarpeta plays Bobby Brown. Whitney’s Waiting to Exhale co-star Angela Bassett told E! News that their love for one another is at the core of the special.

“I just want them to go on a journey between Whitney and Bobby. I considered it a love story… I guess they had great business between them,” the first time director said.

The Whitney project comes on the heels of the Aaliyah biopic, and similarly, the Houston family wouldn’t allow any music from Whitney in the Lifetime project. Instead, talented vocalist Deborah Cox sang the vocals to 4 classic Whitney songs.

Cox will be heard on “Greatest Love of All, ” “I Will Always Love You,” “I’m every woman, ” and “I’m your baby tonight. ” Cox, who was at one time signed to Clive Davis’ Arista label like Whitney, said she “has some big shoes to fill”. Cox and Houston recorded the hit song “Same Script, Different Cast” in 2000 while the two were label mates.

With credible acting talent and singing talent, the movie appears to be set up well. If not, we’re sure Lifetime will hear about it.

[Source] / Photos: Lifetime

After the nation was stunned after the grand jury’s decision not to indict the New York officer who killed Eric Garner via chokehold on camera, celebrities took to Twitter, expressing their concerns about the lopsided system.

Unarmed man put n2 ILLEGAL chokehold, says he can’t breathe, caught on tape, later dies &no charges?! Tell us again ALL our lives matter…

— Gabrielle Union (@itsgabrielleu) December 3, 2014

I just found out about #EricGarner….I am in disbelief. #nojustice #thisisnotok — Tracee Ellis Ross (@TraceeEllisRoss) December 3, 2014

Grand Jury says guy choking person to death in front of all of us, is not worth looking into. http://t.co/LyAgSEEpaK pic.twitter.com/OCowjA78PS

— jesseWilliams. (@iJesseWilliams) December 3, 2014

SMDH….God the world is crying for your help. This really makes me sad. All I can do is pray & I plan on doing … http://t.co/hWGE9vJal4

— Kevin Hart (@KevinHart4real) December 3, 2014

So much for body cameras #EricGarner — Big Boi (@BigBoi) December 3, 2014

I feel like I’m in a bad dream and can’t wake up!!! I gotta go. Sad sad day for humanity. #RIP….shit, too many names! I CAN’T BREATHE!

— Taraji P. Henson (@TherealTaraji) December 4, 2014

Too many. Enough is enough. — Antonio French (@AntonioFrench) December 3, 2014

How is this America? #ICantBreathe

— shonda rhimes (@shondarhimes) December 4, 2014

In an interview with CNN, Charles Barkley put his foot in his mouth spoke on race relations and police brutality, saying that he didn’t think a Staten Island grand jury should indict the New York City police officers involved in Garner’s death.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced Monday night that the Justice Department will launch a civil rights investigation into the death of Eric Garner, the Staten Island, NY man who died on July 17th after a policeman used an illegal chokehold during an arrest.

The announcement came hours after the grand jury decided not to try Officer David Pantaleo, who executed the hold.

Holder promised that the department would conduct an “independent, thorough, fair, and expeditious investigation.” Noting that many had seen the video of the incident, he said, “all lives must be valued, all lives.”

Witnesses captured the incident on a phone camera. The tape shows that Garner was unarmed and posing no immediate threat to the officers surrounding him. Pantaleo puts him into the illegal chokehold while other officers hold him down. Garner can be heard on tape saying, “I can’t breathe.”

The decision not to indict comes on the heels of the non-indictment of Officer Darren Wilson, who killed Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. The news sparked protests across the country last Monday.

“[These incidents] have tested the sense of trust that must exist between law enforcement and the communities they are charged to serve and protect.” He added, “This is not a New York issue or a Ferguson issue alone. Those who have protested peacefully across our great nation following the grand jury’s decision in Ferguson have made that clear.”

Holder did issue an urgent plea to those who would undoubtedly hit the streets as a result of the news: “I urge all those inclined to demonstrate tonight and in the days ahead to remain peaceful in their demonstrations, and not to engage in activities that deflect our attention from the very serious matters our nation must confront.”

[Source: ABC News]