THIS DAY IN HISTORY: JULY 1ST- THE BIRTH OF A PRINCESS
This Day In History: July 1, 1961
“I was supposed to be a boy,” she often said. And yes, her birth must have been somewhat of a disappointment to an aristocratic family with two daughters who had suffered the death of baby boy the year before. Unlike her older sisters, her christening was a relatively subdued affair, and she boasted no royal godparents.
The Honourable Diana Frances Spencer was born on July, 1 1961 to John Spencer, Viscount Althorp (later the 8th Earl Spencer) and his wife, Frances. She joined two older sisters, Sarah (b.1955) and Jane (b.1957). Diana’s father had been an equerry to both George VI and Queen Elizabeth II, and her grandmother Lady Ruth Fermoy had been a lady-in-waiting and close confidante to the Queen mother for decades. …
Why (a Little Corner of) the Internet Is Losing Its Mind Right Now
Hillary Clinton wrote something for The Toast today. Are you sobbing yet?
Either you’ll immediately get why this is crazy, or you won’t: Hillary Clinton wrote a thing for The Toast today.
Are you weeping? Did your heart skip a beat? Maybe your reaction was, “What. Whaaaat. WHAT,” or “Aaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!” or “OH MY GOD,” or simply “this is too much goodbye I’m dead now.”
Perhaps your feelings can only be captured in GIF form, as was the case for someone commenting on Clinton’s post under the name Old_Girl:
Reader comments like the ones above are arguably best part of Clinton’s post, because they highlight just how meaningful hearing directly from Clinton is to The Toast’s community of readers. The Toast is a small but beloved feminist website known for its quirky literary humor. It announced last month it couldn’t afford to continue operating. Friday is its last day of publication.
“I know that today is the final day of The Toast, and I wanted to take a moment to reflect on what this space—and spaces like it—mean for women…” Clinton wrote. “With this site, Mallory, Nicole and Nikki did the same for so many women—and they made us laugh and think along the way… As we look back at what this site has meant to so many of you, I hope you’ll also look forward and consider how you might make your voice heard in whatever arenas matter most to you.” …
Trump fundraising emails overseas prompt complaints here and abroad
Sir Roger Gale was puzzled when a string of emails from Donald Trump’s presidential campaign landed in his inbox. As a Briton and a member of Parliament, Gale is barred by U.S. law from giving Trump money, much less voting for him.
“I’ve gotten rid of most of that rubbish,” Gale said in an interview.
The emails to Gale were among a wave of fundraising pleas inexplicably sent by the Trump campaign in recent days to lawmakers in the United Kingdom, Iceland, Australia and elsewhere. The solicitations prompted watchdog groups in Washington to file two separate complaints Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission alleging that the Trump campaign was violating federal law by soliciting funds from foreign nationals. …
10 Scientific Projects Where Men Played God
Science has greatly improved our lives, made our world a more convenient place to live in, and helped us gain a better understanding of ourselves and our universe. As science progresses, so does humanity. With this in mind, many researchers are eager to embark on scientific projects that can potentially revolutionize and benefit all of mankind. However, there are times when scientific progress, innovation, and discoveries can only be made if scientists take the role of God.
10. Bringing An Animal Back From Extinction
The Pyrenean ibex, or bucardo, was a wild goat that lived high in the Pyrenees—the mountain range that divides France and Spain. For thousands of years, these animals thrived in the region, but due to excessive hunting, they were driven to extinction. However, before the last bucardo (a female named Celia) died, scientists were able to preserve her intact cells.
Several years after the animal was officially declared extinct, a team of French and Spanish scientists embarked on a controversial scientific project reminiscent of the classic sci-fi novel Jurassic Park—they brought a bucardo (Celia’s clone) back from extinction. Sadly, she didn’t live long. She died 10 minutes after her surrogate mother gave birth to her. …
The lies Trump told this week: from US trade policies to his own campaign
Donald Trump’s latest tweak to proposed Muslim ban, disavowal of Republican leader he once praised and more exaggerations, contradictions and half-truths
In speeches from Pennsylvania to Scotland, on subjects ranging from founding fathers to campaign cash, Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump has had trouble with the truth this week. In the second of a series, the Guardian looks at some of the tallest tales Trump has told over the past seven days.
Trade
“When subsidized foreign steel is dumped into our markets, threatening our factories, the politicians do nothing.” – 28 June, Monessen, Pennsylvania
In 2015, five US steelmakers complained that Chinese producers, boosted by government subsidies, were flouting import rules. This spring the Obama administration struck the Chinese companies with a 522% tariff. The US International Trade Commission also announced an investigation into aluminum imports, hinting at more tariffs on the Chinese.
“Today, we import nearly $800bn more in goods than we export.” – 28 June, Monessen, Pennsylvania
Trump is not telling the whole story. The US’s 2015 deficit on goods was indeed $762.6bn. But the US is largely a service economy and last year it had a surplus in its service trade – the exports of services performed by people in tech, finance, hospitality and other industries – which, with other market forces, drove the overall trade deficit down to about $500bn, according to the Census bureau.
Trump himself outsources manufacturing to China and Bangladesh, making suits and ties there and importing them to the US. …
The Daily Show fact-checked Donald Trump’s economics speech. It found a lot of errors.
In between the vague rhetoric about making America great again during an economic policy speech on Tuesday, Donald Trump seems to have made quite a few factual errors — many of which correspondent Desi Lydic blew up on Wednesday’s The Daily Show.
“It’s time once again to fact check Donald Trump,” Lydic said. “And now that I’ve had a Xanax and half a bottle of rosé, I am ready.”
Here are the errors Lydic found:
• Trump claimed America is “one of the highest-taxed nations in the world.” But as Lydic pointed out, “Of the world’s 34 developed economies, only three have lower taxes than America.” She added, “He’s trying to sell people on something that’s totally bullshit. That’s why I give this claim one Trump University.”
• Trump argued, “Our Founding Fathers understood trade much better than our current politicians. Believe me.” But as Lydic pointed out, the Founding Fathers lived in a world in which trade wasn’t nearly as complicated as it is now — thanks to the Industrial Revolution, the development of much faster modes of travel and communication, and globalization. “If you have to say ‘believe me’ after every sentence, something tells me I shouldn’t believe you,” Lydic quipped.
• …
DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY: Trump commented “I don’t think that anybody should listen to me.” “Yeah,” Lydic remarked, “that part is 100 percent true. Believe me.”
Donald Trump used money donated for charity to buy himself a Tim Tebow-signed football helmet
Did Donald Trump violate IRS rules, by using a charity’s money to buy himself a signed football helmet?
Four years ago, at a charity fundraiser in Palm Beach, Donald Trump got into a bidding war at the evening’s live auction. The items up for sale: A Denver Broncos helmet, autographed by then-star quarterback Tim Tebow, and a Tebow jersey.
Trump won, eventually, with a bid of $12,000. Afterward, he posed with the helmet. His purchase made gossip-column news: a flourish of generosity, by a mogul with money to burn. “The Donald giveth, and The Donald payeth,” wrote the Palm Beach Daily News. “Blessed be the name of The Donald.”
But Trump didn’t actually pay with his own money. …
10 Disturbing Facts About Britain’s Creepiest Unsolved Murder
In 1987, a private eye was murdered in South London. The case seemed open-and-shut, but no one has ever been convicted of the murder. Over almost 20 years, the investigation into the killing has shone a light into the dark underbelly of modern London, from endemic police corruption to a criminal enterprise at the country’s largest newspaper to the very highest levels of power in the world’s greatest city.
10. The Murder
Sydenham is an unassuming district of South London, the sort of place that tourists don’t visit but where lots of people actually live. On March 10, 1987, a private investigator named Daniel Morgan was in the area to have a few drinks at the Golden Lion pub. At around 9:00 PM, Morgan left the pub to walk back to his BMW. He was found in the parking lot shortly afterward, with an axe buried in his face.
The killing was clearly premeditated: The handle of the axe had been carefully wrapped in elastoplast to improve grip and help avoid leaving fingerprints. Yet it was also extraordinarily vicious, with the killer slamming the axe into Morgan’s head four times. The final blow was so brutal that the coroner had to get help to remove the axe from Morgan’s cheekbone. The detective’s watch had been stolen, and one of his pockets was torn open. However, his other pocket still contained credit cards and £1,000 in cash, making theft unlikely as a motive.
There was one obvious suspect. On the night of the murder, Morgan had been drinking with Jonathan Rees, his partner in Southern Investigations, the detective agency they had cofounded. Rees had invited Morgan to the Golden Lion, and the pair were known to be on bad terms. Morgan was seen taking notes during his meeting with Rees, but these weren’t found on his body, leading investigators to suspect they were taken from the pocket that had been torn open. …
This Is a Generic Presidential Campaign Ad
Inspired by the presidential campaign, the stock-footage company Dissolve created a satirical version of the traditionally cheesy campaign advertisement. It’s predictable, and also hilarious. If you’d like to watch more videos by Dissolve, you may enjoy this satire of generic branding and this whimsical mockumentary about emoji. …
Why Mississippi’s Law on Religious Rights and LGBT Discrimination Got Blocked
In a 60-page ruling, a U.S. district-court judge stopped enforcement of a law providing religious exemptions for LGBT discrimination.
Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant
Why doesn’t anyone care about Mississippi?
This spring, the state’s legislature passed H.B. 1523, an extensive law written to protect people who believe any of the following: that marriage is between a man and a woman; that sex should only happen in the context of marriage; and that the words “male” and “female” refer to “an individual’s immutable biological sex as objectively determined by anatomy and genetics at time of birth.” The law claim these protections are a form of religious freedom.
It provides that religious organizations can refuse to rent out their social halls for a same-sex wedding, for example, and that clergy can refuse to perform a same-sex marriage ceremony. These groups can also fire a single mother who gets pregnant, or, in the case of religious adoption agencies, decline to place a child with a same-sex couple. Doctors and psychologists can refuse to get involved with gender-reassignment procedures or take cases that would violate their religious beliefs. Schools and other public agencies can create “sex-specific standards” for dress code, bathrooms, and more. State employees can also refuse to sign same-sex-marriage licenses, and they can’t be fired for saying they believe homosexuality is wrong, for example.
It is, without a doubt, the most extensive legislation of its kind to be passed into law since the U.S. Supreme Court’s same-sex-marriage decision one year ago. And for the most part, the country has been silent. …
THIS DAY IN HISTORY: JULY 1ST- FIRST KNOWN KIDNAPPING HELD FOR RANSOM IN U.S.
This Day In History: July 1, 1874
On July 1, 1874, a little four-year-old boy from Germantown, PA had the tragic distinction of being the first known kidnapping victim held for ransom in United States history. Two strange men coaxed him and his eight-year-old brother into their wagon with promises of candy. (This is thought by some etymologists to be where the expression, “Don’t take candy from strangers” originated.) They sent the older brother into a store and when he emerged, the wagon, the two men, and his little brother were gone, never to be seen again.
Christian Ross thought his boys were outside playing in a neighbor’s yard. Luckily, a stranger returned his older son Walter to him. When Walter told him what had happened, he immediately contacted the police, who told him drunks had probably taken the kid as a lark and would return him once they sobered up. …
#BoycottCinemark Erupts After Exhibitor Asks Aurora Victims To Pay $700K In Legal Fees
UPDATE, 8:31PM: The hashtag #BoycottCinemark filled social media pages today after it was reported that the nation’s third-largest exhibitor was seeking to stick a $700,000 legal bill to victims and surviving family members of the July 20, 2012 mass shooting at the Century 16 multiplex during a screening of Warner Bros’ The Dark Knight Rises.
Even California’s Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom was appalled at Cinemark’s legal maneuvers, tweeting out tonight:
Shameful! #BoycottCinemark —-> @Cinemark attorneys want Aurora shooting victims to cover $700k in legal fees https://t.co/GcPuVlrinz
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) July 1, 2016
The move by Cinemark has not only created anger in the social media universe, but the story’s headlines have been picked up by news outlets nationwide. Among othe 30 victims that Cinemark wants legal fees from include two families whose sons heroically saved others in the theater, a woman who had to hold her own intestines in after being shot, and a boy who was shot in the head.
The state law in Colorado is such that the winning side in a civil suit can seek compensation for their legal costs. News of Cinemark’s recent filing for legal fees comes in the wake of its recent quarterly earnings in which it reported revenue of $704.9 million. …
$3.1 billion – at least — lost in bogus tax refunds to ID thieves in 2014
Even during this era of cyber-insecurity, here’s a chilling figure: 3.1 billion.
That’s the number of dollars the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) paid in bogus tax refunds in 2014 because of identity theft refund fraud, according to the Government Accountability Office.
The IRS has a Taxpayer Protection Program (TPP) that sounds like it should provide security. It does, but not enough to prevent IRS from paying $30 million to identity theft fraudsters in 2014, based on the 1.6 million screened by the program. That’s just one of the ways Uncle Sam fights identity theft fraud. About 7,200 of them were bogus. In total, IRS processed more than 150 million individual tax returns in 2015.
Overall, the GAO report indicates the IRS does a decent job of detecting and stopping ID fraud, which is a big business. Crooks attempted to get $25.6 billion from bogus refunds in 2014. The IRS beat them most of the time, stopping or recovering the theft of $22.5 billion, 88 percent of the attempted pillage. But in the remaining cases, crooks got the $3.1 billion. …
Here’s Why Credit Cards Are Different For Rich People
Modern society basically forces you to have a credit card: Your credit score is greatly affected by it, and that sucker is used to determine everything from your employment to your eligibility to rent a home to whether or not you will be spared when the ant people take over the world. Yet so much of the industry is unknown, cloaked behind financial doublespeak and straight-up lies. We spoke with “Megan,” who worked as a customer service agent for one of the biggest credit and loan companies in the country. She told us …
#5. Your Personal Info Is Only As Secure As The Credit Card Reps
Having your identity stolen rarely ends with some roguish academic using it to publish a breakthrough cancer research paper in your name. Usually, it ends with you having your credit score obliterated and moving into a nice refrigerator box. That’s what makes the following sentences so scary:
“Telephone agents at my credit card company are not drug-tested,” Megan told us. “And yet they have access to your SSN, phone number, name, address, etc. … In the past, people had either used their phones to take pictures of accounts on the screen or wrote down the account numbers and pertinent info in a notebook. I can’t go into detail about it, but, yes, fraud does happen. … This has resulted in a ‘no pen, no paper, no phones’ policy on the floor. Now having your phone out while at your desk is a fire-able offense.” But, according to Megan, people still have their phones out whenever management isn’t looking, and we don’t think they’re using them to secretly watch porn at work. Although, that would be the less troubling option.
“Johnson! You better be looking at naked people over there!”
And sometimes the customer service agent might accidentally give a scammer all of your personal info because many of them are barely trained kids with zero supervision. …
Nonstop Flight: How The Frigatebird Can Soar For Weeks Without Stopping
Frigatebirds, seagoing fliers with a 6-foot wingspan, can stay aloft for weeks at a time, a new study has found. The results paint an astonishing picture of the bird’s life, much of which is spent soaring inside the clouds.
Frigatebirds are unique among aquatic birds. Their feathers are not waterproof, so they can’t rest on the waves. Males sport a vivid red pouch along their throats that they inflate when trying to attract females. They’re known for stealing food from other seabirds.
Since the frigatebird spends most of its life at sea, its habits outside of when it breeds on land aren’t well-known — until researchers started tracking them around the Indian Ocean. What the researchers discovered is that the birds’ flying ability almost defies belief. …
What media companies don’t want you to know about ad blockers
NEW YORK TIMES CEO MARK THOMPSON caused a minor stir a couple weeks ago when he gave a speech at an advertising conference declaring that “No one who refuses to contribute to the creation of high quality journalism has the right to consume it.” He went on to say that while the Times is “not there yet,” the company may soon prevent users with ad blockers from accessing its site.
But newspaper executives like Thompson often focus exclusively on the drawbacks of ad blockers, leaving a big part of the story untold. Thompson did not say one word in his keynote address about the significant security benefits of ad blockers, which is ironic, because his paper was one of several news organizations that served its users ransomware—a particularly vicious form of malware that encrypts the contents of your computer and forces you to pay the perpetrators a ransom in bitcoin to unlock it—through its ad networks just a few months ago. Several major news sites—including the Times, the BBC, and AOL—had their ad networks hijacked by criminal hackers who attempted to install ransomware on readers’ computers. …
10 Ancient Megalith Monuments With Unsolved Purposes
All over the world, historic monuments made of stone have been standing for millennia. Given that they were raised before the concept of writing extensive logs caught on, there are no records from builders or nearby residents as to the purpose of each monument.
Despite this, clues in the structures themselves may tell us why they were raised. Dolmens were used to bury the dead while some standing stones “worked together” with other monuments to help early peoples chart the stars.
Some sites, however, have histories so shrouded in mystery that it’s hard to say what they were truly for. We have hints, clues, and archaeological proof that something was happening at these locations but no decisive evidence to tell us the full stories behind these mysterious sites.
Here are 10 such puzzling monuments. What do you think they were for?
10. Beltany Stone Circle
Found in the North West of Ireland near the town of Raphoe, the Beltany Stone Circle is made of 64 stones spanning 45 meters (145 ft) in diameter with the entire setup encircling a mound. It’s thought that the stones were raised around 1400 BC to 800 BC, with the average height of the stones being about 2 meters (6 ft).
It appears that some makeshift investigation of the site occurred around the beginning of the 20th century. When a man called Oliver Davies investigated the site in the 1930s, he stated that “the platform had been recently and unscientifically excavated and had been left in dreadful confusion.”
Despite the crude search, not much is known as to why Beltany was raised. One theory suggests that its origins are hidden in its name. The word “Beltany” might have originated from the word “Beltane,” which was the name of a pagan festival. “Beltane” originates from “Baal Tinne,” meaning “Baal’s fire.” …
AI, Frankenstein? Not so fast, experts say
It’s easy to worry about what artificial intelligence will deal us. Some people are trying to sort things out before we get too far down the road.
Ask Apple’s Siri digital assistant if she’s evil, and she’ll respond curtly, “Not really.”
Repeat a famous line from the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey,” in which a computer on a spaceship kills nearly all the human crew, and Siri groans. “Oh, not again.”
And who can blame her? We humans have a morbid fascination with machines rising up to wipe us out or to enslave us as cocooned, flesh-and-blood battery packs. You can see that vision of the future streaming over Netflix whenever you want.
Face it. For every lovable R2-D2 and C-3PO from the Star Wars universe, it’s the dark side that seems to resonate most: the Cylons, who nearly eradicate human civilization in “Battlestar Galactica,” or Skynet and its murderous robot warriors from the Terminator movies.
That gets under the skin of those working in the field of artificial intelligence, the science of computers that will someday resemble humans in their sweeping, world-altering capabilities, if not their physical form. AI is something we know, or think we know, better as a character from science fiction, grim or otherwise, than as an app in reality. The experts are having none of that. …
Is the Loch Ness monster DEAD? Picture of skeletal remains on shoreline stuns tourists
It is claimed that a dog walker stumbled across the bizarre sight on the banks of Loch Ness yesterday
This picture showing skeletal remains on the shore of Loch Ness have caused quite a stir
It is one of the world’s great mysteries – does the infamous Loch Ness monster exist?
Well, if this picture is anything to go by, it certainly doesn’t anymore.
This bizarre image appearing to show the skeletal remains of a beast on the banks of the famous Scottish loch have started quite the debate.
The apparent remains can be seen surrounded by police tape. …
THE POPULAR ONEIDA SILVERWARE AND THE POLYAMOROUS RELIGIOUS CULT THAT STARTED IT ALL
For many Americans in the 20th century, holiday meals meant getting out the special Oneida Silverware. Stainless steel, ornamental and moderately expensive, it wasn’t a fancy dinner unless there was a Silverplate Oneida spoon on the table. Despite its traditional look, the history of Oneida Silverware is anything but. The company was originally founded by a 19th century upstate New York religious community who believed in communist ideals (while simultaneously exploiting capitalism for their own benefit), women’s and workers’ rights, parents not being overly fond of their own children, and polyamorous relationships. Here now is the story behind the forks, spoons and knives that grandma puts on the table every Thanksgiving.
John Humphrey Noyes was born to a financially comfortable family from Vermont in 1811. His father, John Noyes, was a United States Congressmen and uncle to future US President Rutherford B. Hayes. Noyes’ mother was an ardently religious woman who often forced her views onto her children. As a teen, Noyes was hormonal like any boy his age, but painfully shy around the opposite sex, convinced his red hair and freckles made him ugly. …
Video Goodnesses
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