
A new film about criminal and cult leader Charles Manson has just been released and the early reports seem to be that people are more excited than they were for Zac Efron’s performance as serial killer Ted Bundy.

A new film about criminal and cult leader Charles Manson has just been released and the early reports seem to be that people are more excited than they were for Zac Efron’s performance as serial killer Ted Bundy.
Anna Sorokin, who pretended to be a German heiress, bilked Manhattan hotels, banks and a private jet operator.

Anna Sorokin, the fake German heiress who swindled her way into Manhattan’s elite party circles, was sentenced on Thursday to four to 12 years in prison for bilking hotels, banks and a private jet operator out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The sentencing capped a case of a young grifter who spun her tale with brazen flair. Ms. Sorokin wore designer clothes, lived in boutique hotels, dined in expensive restaurants and lured investors for a $40 million private club — all without a penny to her name.
LINK: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/09/nyregion/anna-delvey-sorokin-sentenced.html

Gilberto Valle might not be a bloodthirsty cannibal — but he hopes to cook up some cash thinking like one.
The former NYPD cop, who spent almost two years in prison on charges that he was plotting to kidnap, slaughter and eat young women, has penned an “extremely violent” horror novel that he hopes will rake in some green. The conviction was later thrown out after a federal judge decided it was all fantasy.
“Even though I’ve been completely exonerated, all this stuff about ‘Cannibal Cop’ is still there,” Valle, 33, told the Daily News on Monday. “Writing the book comes down to me trying to find a way to make a living.”


People are too complacent about the asteroid threat for Bill Nye’s liking.
The former TV “Science Guy,” who currently serves as CEO of the nonprofit Planetary Society, warned that catastrophic impacts like the one that offed the dinosaurs 66 million years ago are not confined to the past.
“The Earth is going to get hit with another [big] asteroid,” Nye said yesterday (May 2) at the International Academy of Astronautics’2019 Planetary Defense Conference in College Park, Maryland.
LINK: https://www.space.com/killer-asteroids-warning-bill-nye.html
Part of what makes Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War so scary is that his “evil” plan makes a certain amount of rational sense: The greatest enemy of the Marvel Cinematic Universe isn’t Thanos; it’s overpopulation that will eventually lead to famine and ruin. By writing his own narrative, Thanos becomes the hero if he succeeds in wiping out half of the universe’s population from existence. Thanos isn’t a generic villain like Ultron or Steppenwolf who simply wants to destroy everything. He’s much more calculated, even logical in his approach, and more than 20,000 people in the real world agree with him enough to subscribe to a subreddit called /r/thanosdidnothingwrong. Even in moral philosophy, they’re probably not alone.
LINK: https://www.inverse.com/article/44383-avengers-infinity-war-thanos-ethics-philosophy
What living director has drawn the descriptor “surreal” more often than David Lynch? If you’ve seen, or rather experienced, a few of his films — particularly Eraserhead, Lost Highway, Mulholland Dr., or Inland Empire, or even the first half of his television series Twin Peaks — you know he’s earned it. Like any surrealist worth his salt, Lynch creates his own version of reality, with its own set of often unfathomable and inexplicably but emotionally and psychologically resonant qualities. In 1987, the year after his breakthrough Blue Velvet opened in theaters, the BBC apparently thought him enough of an authority on the matter of cinematic surrealism to enlist him to present an episode of Arena on the subject.
LINK: http://www.openculture.com/2013/10/david-lynch-presents-the-history-of-surrealist-film-1987.html

China officials have launched its latest crackdown on funeral strippers. Yes, funeral strippers.
The country’s Ministry of Culture announced late last month that it will be targeting a slew of rural provinces “for their obscene and vulgar performances at weddings, funerals and temple fairs,” China’s state-run Global Times newspaper reported.
LINK: https://nypost.com/2018/02/21/china-cracks-down-on-funeral-strippers/
A Reseda man planned to detonate improvised explosive devices at several Southern California locations to cause “mass casualties” in a terror plot thwarted by law enforcement officials, authorities said Monday.
It’s been nearly 50 years since notorious cult leader Charles Manson and some of his devout followers shocked the world with a series of brutal murders, including that of “Valley of the Dolls” actress Sharon Tate, who was more than eight months pregnant at the time.
And yet, despite knowing what he’d done, one of his followers, Lynette Fromme, said she’s still in love with Manson.
“I don’t think you fall out of love,” she told ABC News. “I feel very honored to have met him, and I know how that sounds to people who think he’s the epitome of evil.”
Fromme and Dianne Lake, two members who lived with the so-called “Manson Family” for years, spoke to ABC News about how they came to know Charles Manson and how the group’s 1969 murders shaped their lives and impacted American culture.
Watch the full story of “Manson Girls” tonight, April 30 at 10 p.m. ET on ABC.