TOMMY RAMONE, DEAD

Tommy Ramone, last surviving original member of punk band the Ramones, dies aged 62

PHOTO: Tommy Ramone was the last surviving original member of the Ramones. 

The last surviving founding member of the groundbreaking punk band the Ramones has died.

Drummer Tommy Ramone was in a hospice in Queens, New York, and died from bile duct cancer, aged 62.

The band's official Facebook page released a statement paying tribute to the former drummer.

"We are saddened to announce the passing of Tommy Ramone (nee Erdelyi), the original drummer for the Ramones, earlier today, 11 July 2014," the statement said.

The statement quoted Tommy talking about what the band meant to him back in 1978.

"It wasn't just music in the Ramones: it was an idea. It was bringing back a whole feel that was missing in rock music – it was a whole push outwards to say something new and different," he said.

"Originally it was just an artistic type of thing; finally I felt it was something that was good enough for everybody."

Born Thomas Erdelyi in Hungary to Jewish parents who had survived the Holocaust, he migrated with his family to New York when he was young.

He was responsible for two of the group's biggest hits, writing I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend and the majority of Blitzkrieg Bop.

He was the last remaining original member of the influential 1970s band.

original post found herhttp://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-07-12/tommy-ramone-last-original-member-of-the-ramones-dies/5592428

SEXUAL ACTICITY AND STUDENT

Teacher Facing Charges For Alleged Sexual Activity With Students.

                                                      

MOON TOWNSHIP  – A local teacher is facing charges after allegedly engaging in sexual activity with two of her students.

According to the criminal complaint, the suspect has been identified as Tiffany Leiseth, 26, of Moon Township.

Leiseth has been a substitute teacher in the New Brighton School District for two years. This past year, she was serving as a long-term English class substitute at the high school.

Police were initially contacted after the superintendent received two phone calls claiming senior male students at the school were engaging in sexual activity with a teacher. The investigation began at the end of May.

“They had a rumor that a school teacher was sending nude photographs of herself to two male students,” said Chief Leo McCarthy, of Moon Township Police. “They followed up on that rumor and they found those students, and they found the nude photographs, and they identified the teacher.”

During the course of their investigation, it was determined that Leiseth texted nude photos to two 18-year-old seniors.

Class schedules for both students showed Leiseth as their teacher.

During follow up interviews with police, the victims each described how they had been separately invited to Leiseth’s house to have sex.

Both of the victims said she offered them beer at the house before engaging sexual activities.

“It’s known as institutional sexual assault. It’s a felony of the third degree,” said Chief McCarthy. “This crime came on the books around 2007. It’s designed to give people who are being supervised by others protection.”

Defense attorney Mike Deriso disagrees.

He says, “She was not their teacher at the time, and they were not her students. My client did not pursue those boys. They are adults. They make their own decisions.”

“In this case, a school teacher cannot have sex with a student. Now, in this case, these sexual acts are alleged to have occurred hours after the last day of school, but it was several days before they graduated,” Chief McCarthy said. “The superintendent in New Brighton told us ‘those kids are our students until they walk across that stage and get that diploma.’ Therefore, they were still students, so this law applies.”

Investigators concede they could not charge Leiseth with any crime related to sending nude photographs of herself to the 18-year-old boys because of their age at the time they are described as adults.

Leiseth is now facing a list of charges including, institutional sexual assault and furnishing alcohol to minors. She has also been fired by the school district.

original post found herhttp://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2014/07/09/teacher-facing-charges-for-alleged-sexual-activity-with-students/

WHEN ARE FOOTBALLERS AT THERE PEAK"

When do footballers reach their peak?

It's often said that footballers are at their peak between the ages of 27 and 29 and World Cup stats provide a startling confirmation.

Historically, the perfect age to be a player in the World Cup is 27.5.

That's the average age of the winning teams in the 19 World Cup finals from 1930 to 2010, from the youngest - Argentina in 1978 (25.7) - to the oldest - Brazil in 1962 (30.7).

World Cup winning teams
Year	Winners	Average age
1962	Brazil	30.7
2006	Italy	29.6
1934	Italy	29
1954	West Germany	28.5
1994	Brazil	28.5
1998	France	28.3
1982	Italy	27.9
1990	West Germany	27.8
2010	Spain	27.3
1974	West Germany	27.1
1930	Uruguay	27
1970	Brazil	26.9
1966	England	26.7
1986	Argentina	26.7
2002	Brazil	26.6
1958	Brazil	26.3
1938	Italy	26.2
1950	Uruguay	25.9
1978	Argentina	25.7
Average		27.5

Interestingly, this figure, 27.5, also jumps out of the stats from the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. It's the mean age of the 32 teams that played in the first group matches.

The median age is also very close - if you list all 32 teams in order of age from the youngest (Nigeria, 24.4) to the oldest (USA, 29.5), the two teams in the middle of the table (England and Australia) both have an average age of 27.4.

First group match starting 11 (2014)
Team	Average age	Team	Average age
USA	29.5	England	27.4
Iran	29.5	Uruguay	27.2
Greece	29.3	Chile	27.2
Portugal	29.2	Holland	27.1
Ivory Coast	29.1	Japan	27.1
Honduras	29	Costa Rica	26.9
Russia	28.8	Bosnia	26.7
Argentina	28.7	Switzerland	26.6
Spain	28.7	Ecuador	26.5
Mexico	28.3	France	26.5
Italy	28.2	Germany	26.4
Colombia	28	Algeria	26.1
Croatia	28	Belgium	25.8
Brazil	27.8	Korea	25.7
Cameroon	27.6	Ghana	25.2
Australia	27.4	Nigeria	24.4

In all cases we have taken the starting line-up of 11 players, ignoring substitutions.

Continue reading the main story

Well, maybe not. Consider Wednesday's semi-final. Argentina beat a team whose starting 11 had an average age of exactly 27.5 - the Netherlands.

Two other conclusions can be drawn from these figures.

Argentina goalkeeper Sergio Romero is 27.5 - though goalkeepers peak later than strikers

One is that the headlines about Roy Hodgson picking a very "young" England side for Brazil 2014 were misleading. England's average age was 27.4, which - as mentioned above - is the median age in this competition. (And incidentally the England team's starting 11 in the 1966 World Cup final was a lot younger, averaging 26.7.)

We can also dismiss the idea, widely bandied about on the eve of the competition, that Spain's team was too old to retain the trophy it won in 2010. Spain's average age in its first group match was 28.7 - the same as Argentina's in its first group match.

And note that Argentina beat four of the 10 youngest sides in the competition to reach the semi-finals: Bosnia-Herzegovina (26.7); Nigeria (24.4); Switzerland (26.6); Belgium (25.8). (Again, these numbers are the average age of the starting 11 of the first group match.)

Semi-final starting 11 (2014)
Team	Average age
Brazil	28.3
Germany	27.7
Holland	27.5
Argentina	28.4
Average	28

It's also worth mentioning that Brazil's 1958 World Cup winning team was one of the youngest (26.3) but their 1962 winning team was the oldest by a long way (30.7). The huge difference in average age is explained by the fact that eight of the team that started in the 1958 final also started in 1962 - which proves that the age of a side is irrelevant if it's simply incredibly talented.

original post found herhttp://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28254123

NEW SPACE JUNK

Australian Fireball Caused by Russian Space Junk (Video)

take a look her for more.

JAPAN QUAKE

Offshore quake rocks northern Japan -- but no tsunamis, no reports of damage

A powerful earthquake struck early Saturday off the coast of northern Japan -- rattling nerves in a region rocked three years ago by a deadly tremor, tsunami and nuclear crisis, though thankfully the latest episode didn't nearly measure up.

The Japan Meteorological Agency at one point issued a tsunami warning, which it later amended to tsunami advisories for coastal regions in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures. The latter is the site of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility that was the center of a weeks-long radioactive crisis.

But a large tsunami never materialized.

At 6:15 a.m. Saturday (5:15 p.m. ET Friday), the same agency noted that all tsunami advisories had been canceled.

Whereas before the JMA urged everyone to "get out of the water and leave the coast immediately," that last update was less alarming. "Pay attention when fishing, swimming or engaging in other activities," the agency noted, "as there may still be slight sea-level changes for the time being."

The Japan Meteorological Agency characterized the quake as a 6.8-magnitude. Yet the U.S. Geological Survey had it a little weaker, downgrading its earlier estimate in calling it a 6.5-magnitude tremor.

According to the USGS, the quake was centered off Honshu island some 129 kilometers (79 miles) east-southeast of Namie and 284 kilometers east-northeast of Tokyo. It was 11 kilometers, or 7 miles, deep.

There were no immediate reports of damage.

Any sizable tremor in or near Japan -- and any tsunami warning -- inevitably raises dark memories dating to March 11, 2011, when a 9.0-magnitude struck 231 miles northeast of Tokyo.

That quake, the fourth largest on record since 1900 and the largest ever to hit Japan, produced a tsunami with 30-foot waves

When all was over, the combination of the quake and, especially, the tsunami left some 16,000 people dead.

The event also set off a prolonged crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in the northern part of Honshu, including the spread of some radioactive material and very real fears of an even worse calamity as authorities tried to bring the dangerous situation under control.

A repeat of that situation seemed unlikely after the early Saturday earthquake.

A spokesperson for TEPCO, the utility company that controls the Fukushima Daiichi facility, told CNN there were no disruptions to operations at the plant and that everything was operating normally.

original post found herhttp://edition.cnn.com/2014/07/11/world/asia/japan-earthquake/index.html?hpt=hp_t3