TitBits: July 2013

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Rowling Accepts Donation for Identity Revelation

Author J.K. Rowling accepted an apology and a charitable donation Wednesday from a law firm which revealed she wrote a crime novel under a pseudonym.

The “Harry Potter” author was exposed by a newspaper on July 14 as the author of “The Cuckoo’s Calling,” a thriller ostensibly written by former soldier and first-time novelist Robert Galbraith.

The book was published in April to good reviews but modest sales, and there was speculation that Rowling or her publisher had leaked the news to raise the book’s profile.

But the law firm Russells, which has done work for Rowling, acknowledged that one of its partners had let the information slip to his wife’s best friend, who tweeted it to a Sunday Times columnist.

Rowling sued the lawyer and the friend. Her attorney, Jenny Afia, told Britain’s High Court on Wednesday that Rowling had been left “angry and distressed that her confidences had been betrayed.”

“As a reflection of their regret for breach of the claimant’s confidence, including frustrating the claimant’s ability to continue to write anonymously under the name Robert Galbraith, the defendants are here today to apologize publicly to the claimant,” Afia said.

Russells agreed to reimburse Rowling’s legal costs and to make a “substantial” donation to The Soldiers’ Charity, which helps former military personnel and their families.

Rowling also said she was donating all royalties from the book for the next three years to the charity.

The hero of her novel, Cormoran Strike, is a veteran who lost a leg in Afghanistan, and Rowling has said she drew on conversations with serving soldiers and veterans to create the character. “This donation is being made to The Soldiers’ Charity partly as a thank you to the army people who helped me with research, but also because writing a hero who is a veteran has given me an even greater appreciation and understanding of exactly how much this charity does for ex-servicemen and their families, and how much that support is needed,” Rowling said in a statement.

The writer said she had always intended to give part of Galbraith’s royalties to the organization, “but I had not anticipated him making the best-seller list a mere three months after publication — indeed, I had not counted on him ever being there!”

Since Rowling was outed as the author, “The Cuckoo’s Calling” has topped best-seller lists in Britain and the United States.

A second Cormoran Strike novel is due for publication next year.

YouTube Sensation 'Kickalicious' Impresses at NFL Training Camp

As of Wednesday morning, Rugland was 11-for-11 on field goals kicked in scrimmage situations at the Detroit Lions' pre-season camp, including a booming 58-yarder that turned plenty of heads, according to an Associated Press report on his progress.

“It’s kind of surreal,” Rugland tells the AP. “A year ago, I was kicking all alone in Norway. And suddenly, I’m here.”

Rugland surged to Internet fame last September when his "Kickalicious" YouTube video, embedded above, went viral. It features the Nowegian kicking American footballs with astounding power and precision, despite being a self-proclaimed novice at the sport and its rules.

In the video, he kicks the ball into a garbage bin several yards behind him without looking, into a variety of moving vehicles and 50 yards through a pair of goalposts, among a plethora of other feats. The compilation has been viewed more than 4.5 million times since hitting the web on Sept. 16.

In April, the Lions signed him to a three-year deal, thanks to his YouTube exploits and the Internet's mysterious ability to make even the most far-fetched realities come true. He's currently competing with 12-year NFL veteran David Akers for the team's place-kicking role, and the pressure is certainly on. If he plays out the entire deal, it will be worth a reported $1.485 million in total. But it's not guaranteed, meaning the team could also cut him at any moment.

But Rugland's already won over at least one big-name teammate.

“That big boot? He’s legit,” wide receiver Nate Burleson tells the AP. “Kickalicious is for real. He isn’t just an Internet sensation.”

Nevertheless, Lions genearal manager Martin Mayhew says that despite Rugland's strong showing in practice, he needs to prove himself in some game situations to have a legitimate shot at making the final roster. The team plays its first pre-season game next Friday, then starts the regular season on Sept. 8. NFL teams rarely carry more than one place-kicker, so Rugland probably has to beat Akers out to stick around.

As he soaks up his first NFL experience a year after kicking alone into Norwegian garbage cans, however, Rugland seems to be enjoying the moment — whatever it does or doesn't end up leading to.

“It will be exciting if I get a chance,” he says. “I’m doing a lot of things for the first time.”

Muscle Car's - Ex-Stirling Moss 1965 Shelby Mustang GT350 race car

Greatest Tampon Ad Ever. Here’s Why

Adolescence has always been a bipolar time. Girls and boys with the minds of children and the rapidly developing bodies of adults must try to reconcile those opposing pulls—with all the psychic turbulence that characteristically results. In recent years, the struggle has been especially hard for girls, for whom the age at which puberty begins has gone into free fall. As I reported in 2011, up to 40% of African-American girls, 30% of Latinas and 20% of Caucasian girls are now showing some breast development—typically the first indicator of puberty—by age eight. In the U.S., puberty in girls is not even technically considered premature unless it begins before the eighth birthday.

Kudos then to HelloFlo, for launching a service and, much more important, a buzzworthy Internet ad that makes the hardest part of early puberty—the first period—not merely OK and unthreatening, but actually cool. HelloFlo’s product is straightforward enough—a monthly, mail-order shipment of tampons and panty liners to make sure girls who are not yet in the habit of tracking their cycles don’t get caught out. A few pieces of candy are included in the box because, well, who doesn’t like candy?

Much more important is the spokeskid who pitches the product. The 1 min and 47 sec. ad is set at a summer camp and features a girl who looks no older than 10 or 11, a self-described “big random loser” who does not yet fit in. “And then,” she beams, “things changed. I got my period.” She is the first in her bunk to be awarded what she delightedly calls “the red badge of courage,” and in a blink, her status soars. She becomes a combination teacher, drill seargent, and life coach—the “camp gyno,” as she puts it. “For these campers, I was their Joan of Arc,” she boasts, as she hands one girl a tampon and a hand mirror. “It’s like, I’m Joan and their vadge is the arc.” Ultimately, she concedes, “The power got to my head a little bit. Popularity can do that.” Finally, it all comes crashing down when the other girls discover HelloFlo and don’t need her help anymore.

OK, so there are lots of ways to argue with the ad—though none of them concern the star, who has become a sensation. Plenty of teen and preteen girls feel like “big random losers” and may be disappointed to find that that existential angst does not go away at the moment of first menses. In an online discussion on theAtlantic.com, under the headline, “There Has to Be a Better Way to Sell Tampons,” two editors also argue that the inclusion of candy in the shipments makes a period out to be something harder than it is, “As though women somehow just can’t handle getting their period without a side of chocolate,” writes one. She adds that the breezy language on the company’s website (using the term “when you flo” as opposed to “when you get your period”) is “infantilizing.”

All of that would be true enough for a woman—even an older teen—who has been around the track a few times, who has become familiar with the menstrual routine and has reached the developmental point at which body changes and the larger life changes they imply aren’t the seismically thrilling and seismically scary things they can be to a kid. But that’s not the target audience of this ad. “Infantilizing” is surely too strong a word when you’re dealing with people who in some ways are still infants—at least compared to the grownups they’re rapidly becoming. Simple biology will always make adolescence a more difficult transition for girls than it is for boys—and the medical trend lines means that they will be facing it when they’re younger and younger. It’s hard to argue with something that tries to make the passage a little easier.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Denied at Drive Thru, Woman Brings Horse Inside McDonald’s

Have you ever thought about riding your horse to the McDonald’s drive-thru? Last Saturday a woman didn’t just think about it – she did it. But when she and her daughter showed up around lunch time on horseback at the drive-thru in Whitefield, England, they were both turned away.

That’s when things got ugly. Denied at the drive-thru, the woman led her horse inside the restaurant, where the animal promptly defecated on the floor. The staff called the police, and the woman was fined, as the Mirror News reports. “The sight & smell of this caused obvious distress and upset to customers trying to eat, as well as staff members,” the Whitefield division of the Greater Manchester Police noted in a Facebook post.

McDonald’s said in a statement reported by the BBC, “The health and safety of our customers and staff is our top priority, and for this reason we are unable to serve pedestrians, bicycle riders or customers on horseback through the drive-thru,”