Golf Ad Commemorating 9/11 Sparks Outrage

The owner of the Wisconsin golf course says he has offered the promotion for two years but never received backlash until now.

A Wisconsin golf course owner has said he received death threats after he advertised nine holes of golf for $9.11 to mark the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Tumbledown Trails Golf Course near Madison advertised the special in the Wisconsin State Journal newspaper on Monday, saying it was intended to commemorate the 12th anniversary of the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.

The discount, which also included 18 holes for $19.11, was valid for the anniversary on Wednesday only.

News of the offer spread on social media and the golf course's Facebook page was overrun with negative comments.

Course owner and general manager Marc Watts said he received death threats and threats to burn down the family-operated public golf course.

An apology posted by Mr Watts on Facebook said: "We would first like to apologise to everyone that we have upset or feels we have disrespected in anyway. By no means did we mean to do this."

One World Trade Center has been built on the site

He added that anyone who booked a tee off time under the offer would receive the deal, but that the course would donate the difference between the special rate and the normal daily rate to the 9/11 Memorial.

"We hope that everyone will now see this as a positive as we really meant it to be," he said. "Again we do sincerely apologise for offending anyone and hope that you do accept our sincere apology."

Mr Watts said he considered closing the 20-year-old golf course on Wednesday because of safety concerns but decided to keep it open.

The sheriff's department sent a deputy to the course on Tuesday, and Mr Watts said another officer will be back on Wednesday.

"We're a little hurt by the fact that people are putting such a negative context on this," Mr Watts said. "I thought people would appreciate it."

Mr Watts said he began running the promotion two years ago, and until now it had been warmly received. 

But this year, after the newspaper ad circulated on social media, Mr Watts said the club's phone has been ringing off the hook.

It is not the first time that promotions tied to 9/11 have drawn criticism.

Last year the Coeur d'Alene Casino Resort Hotel in Worley, Idaho, offered hotel rooms for $91.11 and a food voucher for $9.11 as a "Thank you to our heroes".

Two years ago New York Sports Club offered 9/11 first-responders cheap memberships, drawing outrage from some who were targeted for the discount who said it a shameless use of a national tragedy to make money.

33 Teachers Who Got The Last Laugh. BREAKING: Your teachers were funnier than you all along.

1. The teacher who gave out this:

2. These guys:

3. The teacher grading these:

4. This teacher:

5. This prof who went HAM on whoever stole his Big Lebowski bobblehead:

6. This physics teacher:

7. This AP Physics teacher:

8. From Reddit: “This is my gay teacher the day after one of his students said, ‘I’m glad gays can’t marry here. They scare me, kinda like clowns.’”

9. The teacher who wrote this test:

10. This professor:

11. This testmaker:

12. This teacher:

13. This teacher:

14. This literature teacher:

15. This teacher who started “quiz shaming”:

16. This teacher:

17. This teacher:

18. The bio teacher who made this slide:

19. The teacher who wrote this test:

20. This teacher who just doesn’t care anymore:

21. This teacher:

22. This professor:

23. The teacher who wrote this email:

24. This chemistry professor:

25. The teacher who put up this sign:

26. This math teacher:

27. This grader:

28. This teacher:

29. This classroom decorator:

30. This teacher:

31. This teacher:

32. THIS teacher:

33. And this one:

Look out world! Kylie Jenner is back on the road in an indentical White SUV just two days after crashing her Matte Black $125,000 Mercedes-Benz

The skid-marks are probably still visible on the tarmac following her three car smash in Calabasas on Tuesday, but Kylie Jenner is already back on the road in a brand new car.

Kylie, 16, damaged her prized $125,000 Mercedes-Benz SUV after running into the back of a car  and causing a bit of a pile-up in the California suburb just 18-days after obtaining her license.

The young model was taking the powerful car for a spin when she hit the back of a Toyota that subsequently ploughed into a stationary Volkswagen SUV. 

Road warrior: Kylie hits the road again in a white Mercedes truck almost identical to the black version she damaged in a car accident

Look out world: Kylie Jenner is back on the road, just days after crashing her black Mercedes-Benz SUV in Calabasas on Tuesday

 

Previously: The result of Kylie's 'chain-reaction' car accident in Calabasas on Tuesday afternoon

The teenager had been driving for at least six months with a learner's permit, and was clearly delighted to be a fully fledged driver on the LA highways.

Kylie had previously shared an image of her car before it underwent detailing work at Spin Imaging in Long Beach, California.

She was first spotted driving the powerful black G500 at her sweet sixteenth party one week later, after which she became a regular fixture behind the wheel of her new car on the streets around Los Angeles.

Whoops: Kylie caused a three chain collision in Calabasas on Tuesday 

Happy birthday, Michael Jackson

The King of Pop passed away four years ago. But fans still send him birthday greetings.

Michael Jackson had a career fit for a superstar, full of astronomic highs and shocking lows. The singer passed away on June 25, 2009, from cardiac arrest, leaving behind a legacy as the king of pop.  Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY

Today would have been Michael Jackson's 55th birthday. Though the King of Pop died four years ago at the age of 50, Twitter was full of birthday greetings and retrospectives of the late singer.

The Jackson 5, made up of Jackson and his older brothers (from left, Tito, Marlon, Michael, Jackie and Jermaine), perform on the 'Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour' television program in Los Angeles. The group was a fixture on variety shows and even had their own cartoon series.  AP

Also, producer Timbaland hinted at a new project that could include Jackson's vocals. In a teaser initially posted on YouTube's Revolt TV channel, Timbaland talked about being approached by Epic Records executive L.A. Reid about a project that "would be like two kings working together." Timbaland never mentions Jackson's name, but the singer's image appears throughout the clip, which has appeared in several third-party versions since the original was removed from YouTube.

Here's a Spotify playlist featuring Jackson's biggest hits.

Gold Hits All-Time High Against Rupee

(Kitco News) - Gold hit an all-time high against the Indian rupee Wednesday and analysts are expecting that the higher prices could have an impact on demand in the near-term.

Gold, priced in rupees, hit a record of Rs 33,265 per 10 grams. According to analysts, the biggest factor behind gold’s localized rise is that the Indian currency slid to a new all-time low of Rs 69.22 against the U.S. dollar on the same day.

Paolo Lostritto, director, equity research analyst, metals and mining with National Bank Financial said that consumers throughout India have been hoarding gold the last few months in anticipation and fear that the country’s currency would be devalued.

“Even though their cost of buying gold has gone up by 10%, on a net basis, because their currency has fallen so much, they are still up,” he said. “It has actually reinforced people’s thinking and psychology towards gold.”

However, Lostritto added that moving forward he doesn’t see demand as strong as the price is no longer the bargain it was just a few months ago. Looking at the international market, Lostritto said he is starting to see some short-term equilibrium between the price and demand.

Jessica Fung, commodity analyst at BMO Capital Markets, said if the rupee continues to weaken against the U.S. dollar, consumers might jump back into gold to protect their wealth. For example, earlier this year South African investors jumped into platinum-backed exchange traded funds to protect their wealth as the rand lost significant ground to the U.S. dollar, she said.

Fung added that she doesn’t expect to see a similar performance in Indian ETF markets as culturally consumers prefer to hold physical gold.

George Gero, vice president and precious-metals strategist with RBC Capital Markets Global Futures, said gold hitting an all-time high in rupees will definitely hurt demand going forward.

He said not only does the high price hurt demand but the middle class has very few options to protect their wealth as the rupee loses ground to the U.S. dollar. He added that import restrictions and higher tariffs, put in place by the Reserve Bank of India and the Indian government, make it difficult for regular consumers to buy gold.

“Only the very wealthy will be able to buy it in Dubai, where there is no tax on the gold,” he said.

Simon Derrick, chief currency strategist from the Bank of New York Mellon, said that there have been two major factors hurting emerging-market currencies like the Indian rupee.

Since May, the U.S. dollar has made significant gains against the rupee as the U.S. Federal Reserve started talking about slowing its monthly bond-purchasing program. Derrick said India’s massive current account deficit makes it an unattractive investment because it shows the country is not as self sufficient as other countries.

He added the selling pressure picked up this week because as global uncertainty grew as a result of continued turmoil in the Middle East and the threat of U.S.-led military action against Syria.

However, Derrick said he expects government and central bank officials prefer the selloff in the rupee as it has managed to protect the country’s equity market. Derrick pointed out the currency has declined 24% against the U.S. dollar so far this year and the Indian stock market has only declined 10.5%, which is a much better performance compared to other emerging equity markets.

“(The central bank) is letting the currency take the strain,” he said.

Derrick said he would not rule out continued weakness in the rupee; however, the selloff could slow down if the Federal Reserve stops talking about tapering its bond purchase program. The Fed could hint at moderating its tapering stance this weekend during a Group of 20 meeting, he added.

Mystery of the ancient kingdom discovered in Nepal where thousands of caves are carved 155ft off the ground

• An estimated 10,000 of the caves have been found in the former Kingdom of Mustang in North, Central Nepal
• They have either been dug into the cliffside or tunnelled from above
• Caves are thousands of years old but who built them and why remains a mystery

Hidden within the Himalayas, 155ft from the ground, these man-made caves are one of the World's greatest archaeological mysteries.

Thousands of holes are carved into the fragile, sandy-coloured cliff in a gorge so large it dwarfs the Grand Canyon.

The astonishing number of caves, some dug into the cliffside, others tunnelled from above are thousands of years old but who built them and why remains a mystery.

Mystery: Thousands of man-made caves 155ft from the ground lie hidden within the Himilayas in a gorge so large it dwarfs the Grand Canyon

Bizarre: With dozens of holes carved into the fragile, sandy-coloured cliff face this unusual 'neighbourhood in the sky' looks like a giant sandcastle

Dangerous: Climber Cedar Wright explores the series of caves near the village of Tsele

It is also not known how people climbed into the caves which are dug into a cliff 155-foot above the valley floor.

An estimated 10,000 of these mysterious human-built caves have been found in the former Kingdom of Mustang in North, Central Nepal. Those who have seen the mysterious caves say the effect of them on the cliff face makes it look like a giant sandcastle.

Adventure photographer, Cory Richards joined climber Pete Athans, archaeologist Mark Aldenderfer and a team of explorers to unearth the hidden relics of the ancient and remote caves.

Mr Richards said: 'I was in Nepal working in this village called Forte, where Pete [Athans] and I were teaching a group of Sherpas climbing techniques, safe climbing techniques so they could climb Everest.

'And Pete asked me if I would be interested in this project in Mustang.

Odd: The astonishing number of caves, some dug into the cliffside, others tunnelled from above, are thousands of years old but who built them and why remains a mystery. A scientist scales a fragile rock face to reach the 800-year-old caves, right, while the team hike below some of the entrances, left

Adventure: Climbers and scientists follow a trail above the Kali Gandaki River

High up: Climber Pete Athans looks inside a cave found near Chuksang. It is not known how people climbed into the caves which are dug into a cliff 155foot above the valley floor

'He started telling me about this place where we were going. The words he was using conjured these images of a place I couldn't really imagine.

'Quite honestly when I got there it was even bigger and more grand than anything I ever could ever have imagined.

'We're talking about somewhere that reminds us of the Grand Canyon, the desert south west but then has this incredible history to it. You see these caves carved into the rock and now they're completely inaccessible.

'As we started getting deeper into it, I started to see the magic of what we were approaching, the culture in practice, a 12th century village underneath the caves they used to live in, caves that are now forgotten.

'We started asking questions about how did people get into them?

Impressive: This image shows eroded murals on the walls of the Ritseling Cave in Upper Mustang. The astonishing number of caves are thousands of years old

Discovery: A scientist enters a maze of rooms in a looted cave near Chuksang, left, while another member of the team hoists himself up at a Mustang cave entrance, right

Exploration: Members of the team do a preliminary survey of a cave

'I started wondering how do I light up people's imagination to make them think what it would have looked like thousands of years ago, that was my final challenge, how do I give people that imagination.

'One of the ways we did that was lighting up the caves, going them into them a night, spending the night in caves, using lights to light them up and strobes.

'Trying to give people the feeling this is a very ancient place, this is a place that has so many stories to tell us so much more than we can even really imagine in our lifetime.'

Climbing into the sky caves was no easy feat, the rock was unstable and posed a real danger to the team of explorers.

In fact climbing into the caves was so dangerous, Mr Richards lost his footing, fell and broke his back. On another assignment to Mustang the following year, videographer Lincoln Else was hit by a falling rock, fracturing his skull.

He said: 'This was real exploration. It's dangerous it's loose rock it's scary. Everything is loose, everything around you feels like it's crumbling. You feel like when you're climbing everything is going to collapse.'

'One of the things I think we forget when we're talking about adventure, science and exploration is it gets dangerous at times one of the reasons its so exciting is because there are consequences and big consequences.

'On my first trip there I was trying to climb in and a foothold broke and I fell about 12-20 feet, I landed on my butt and I broke my back.

'It was an eye-opener because yes it this was really exciting, really engaging, I want to tell this big story but I just broke my back, maybe this isn't as important as I thought.

'The next year we came back to try again. I took this shot and my friend Lincoln Else was filming right next to me.

'Next thing I heard was Pete's wife scream, she said "oh my god, oh my god" Lincoln was lying on the ground with blood pouring from his head and convulsing.

'A rock had fallen from above, hit him and given him a 21cm skull fracture, it completely depressed his skull.

'Again it was a point of realisation that yes what you are doing is very important but it's also very dangerous and when you talk about adventure there are sides to it that are unpleasant.

'Lincoln made a full recovery, I thought for certain I think we all thought at the point that Lincoln was going to die.

'Essentially at the end of the experience, what was illuminated to me the marriage of science and exploration and culture is the ultimate in how we bring the world to everyone.

'We have to make it exciting, digestible but we also have to give the knowledge of what's out there to everyone else.'