Could this be a groundbreaking antidote to bullying? Rapper 50 Cent is hoping to exert "a positive influence on all teenagers" with a new book for young adults, reported The Guardian.
The novel – titled Playground – is about a bully who learns the error of his ways, and is inspired by Mr Cent's own experiences. "I wanted to explore how a kid becomes a bully," he said. "This book would have been very helpful to me growing up." However, it seems the rapper's brushes with bullying weren't simply an adolescent phase. "In his messy beefs with Ja Rule, Rick Ross and Fat Joe (other rappers, of course), 50 Cent has often been criticised for bullying other artists," said The Guardian. The reformed drug dealer is famous for his bullet wounds and once rapped: "Give me a knife, I'll get rid of your neighbourhood bully." What a charmer.
Forget Mystic Meg and Ollie the Octopus. It seems that teenagers possess the power to predict the future – or at least their brains do.
The Daily Mail reported on a US study which accidentally revealed that teenagers' subconscious could help predict whether new songs will be hits. Twenty-seven young people aged 12 to 17 each listened to 120 songs while their neural reactions were recorded for the study, which originally set out to discover how peer pressure affected musical preferences. Songs were by relatively unknown musicians without recording contracts and it was only when one became a hit that "neuro-economist" Gregory Berns realised he might be onto something. "It occurred to me that we had this unique data set of brain responses of kids who listened to songs before they got popular," he told the Mail. "I started to wonder if we could have predicted that hit." His team went on to match the brain data with record sales and found a link. "It's not quite a hit predictor," he said. "But we did find a significant correlation between the brain responses in this group of adolescents and the number of songs that were ultimately sold." The link was strongest when it came to the flops, with 90 per cent of songs that got a weak response selling poorly. This pop music experiment is just the beginning for Berns, who says his aim is to "understand cultural phenomena and trends". "Ultimately, I'm trying to predict history," he said. Such modesty.
Prize for the most revolting photo published in a local newspaper goes to the Halifax Courier, which reported on "a spill of animal waste" near a school.
"There were intestines and internal organs splattered onto the pavement and other fluid offal," said one parent. "The smell was absolutely vile and there were several small children retching." Pupils at Foxhill Primary had to be evacuated from the playground because of the stink and this is not the first time this has happened. "There is a constant trail of wagons carrying vile-smelling, insecure loads, dripping animal bodily fluids through Queensbury," complained the same disgruntled dad. Sounds like a lovely place to bring up kids. We'll spare you the picture on this one.
