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MEH!!!
MEH!!!
THIS DAY IN HISTORY: JULY 29TH- THE CLEOPATRA OF THE SECESSION
This Day In History: July 29, 1862
Confederate spy Marie Isabella “Belle” Boyd, often called the “Cleopatra of the Secession”, was arrested by Union troops on July 29, 1862, and incarcerated in Old Capital Prison in Washington D.C. It was the first of three arrests for this teenage espionage agent from Martinsburg, Virginia.
Belle’s town was one of the first to fall to Union forces during the early days of the Civil War in 1861. It wasn’t long after that her career in espionage began. On July 4, 1861, Belle shot and killed a Union soldier, who, as she penned in her memoirs, “addressed my mother and myself in language as offensive as it is possible to conceive. I could stand it no longer… we ladies were obliged to go armed in order to protect ourselves as best we might from insult and outrage.” …
Bill Maher and his guests – Salman Rushdie, Michael Moynihan, and Amy Holmes, discuss the 2016 Democratic National Convention during this special edition of Real Time.
THANKS to HBO and Real Time with Bill Maher for making this program available on YouTube.
This election isn’t just Democrat vs. Republican. It’s normal vs. abnormal.
What we just witnessed in Cleveland and Philadelphia defies our normal political vocabulary. We are used to speaking of American politics as split between the two major parties. It’s Democrats versus Republicans, liberals versus conservatives, left versus right.
But not this election. The conventions showed that this is something different. This campaign is not merely a choice between the Democratic and Republican parties, but between a normal political party and an abnormal one.
The Democratic Party’s convention was a normal political party’s convention. The party nominated Hillary Clinton, a longtime party member with deep experience in government. Clinton was endorsed by Bernie Sanders, the runner-up in the primary. Barack Obama, the sitting president, spoke in favor of Clinton. Various Democratic luminaries gave speeches endorsing Clinton by name. The assembled speakers criticized the other party’s nominee, arguing that he would be a bad president and should be defeated at the polls.
That isn’t to say that Democrats didn’t show divisions or expose fault lines. They did. Political parties are chaotic things. The Democratic Party’s primary was unusually bitter, and listening to the loud “boos” of Sanders’s most committed supporters, there’s real reason to wonder whether Democrats will fracture in coming years. But for now, the Democrats nominated a normal candidate, held a normal convention, and remain a normal political party. …
Muslim Father Of Fallen Soldier Tells Trump ‘You Have Sacrificed Nothing’
Khizr Khan, the father of an American Muslim captain killed in Iraq, had a message for Donald Trump at the Democratic National Convention Thursday night:
“Have you ever been to Arlington cemetery? Go look at the graves of brave patriots who died defending the United States of America. You will see all faiths, genders and ethnicities. You have sacrificed nothing and no one.”
Khan is the father of Capt. Humayun Khan, a 27-year-old killed while serving in Iraq in 2004.
The elder Khan moved to the United States nearly 40 years ago. His son attended the University of Virginia, participating in ROTC before he joined the Army after graduation.
At the convention, Khan told Muslim immigrants and all immigrants to take the upcoming election seriously. He evoked the memory of his son:
“This is a historic election and I request to honor the sacrifice of my son, and on Election Day, take the time to get out and vote and vote for the healer, vote for the strongest, most qualified candidate, Hillary Clinton, not the divider.”
…
10 Experiments That Solved Archaeological Mysteries
Archaeology can be a frustrating pursuit. Getting objects out of the ground is only the first step. Understanding what they are, how they were made, and how they were used can be baffling. Sometimes, the only way to work things out is to try them for ourselves. This is called experimental archaeology, and here are 10 of the most amazing examples of it.
10. The Trireme Olympias
Ancient Greek triremes were the ultimate sea weapon of the Mediterranean. Fast and agile, they could travel long distances under sail or deploy oars and fight at close quarters. Images of the ships abound in carved reliefs and descriptions of naval battles. But there was long debate over exactly how the triremes’ most distinctive features, the three banks of oars for which it is named, were deployed. The conditions were definitely cramped for the rowers (Aristophanes the comic poet describes the scene of the rowers packed in—“Fart(ing) in the face of their rowing mate“), so just how did they work the oars together?
To settle the matter, experimental archaeologists built a full-size trireme. Crewed by enthusiasts. the ship was put through its paces over several years. Given just a small-time of training, they achieved speeds of 9 knots and rapid 180 degree turns. Given a properly trained crew, a fleet of such ships would have been truly formidable. …
A Message of Calm in an Agitated Time
Can Hillary Clinton’s projection of steadiness resonate with an unsettled country?
It was a hot and stormy week at the Democratic convention, one that began with discord and ended with invocations of togetherness. “People are anxious and looking for reassurance,” Hillary Clinton, the newly anointed Democratic nominee, told a cheering convention crowd—“looking for steady leadership.”
This was the theme of speaker after speaker at the Democratic convention: steadiness, calm, shelter from the storm. The party’s stars took the stage one by one, railing against divisiveness and doomsaying and fear. They painted a picture of a new American normal: optimistic, stable, square, patriotic. A silent majority of tolerant, diverse, cosmopolitan people, hopeful and unthreatened by suspicion or difference. A transgender woman, an illegal immigrant, a Muslim veteran’s father: This, the convention asserted, is the face of a country that has been through the discombobulating wringer of social and demographic change, and come out the other side smiling and holding hands.
“America is already great,” they insisted, again and again and again. …
Donald Trump takes bait and responds to Clinton’s DNC speech with Twitter salvo
• Republican nominee tweets ‘corruption and devastation follows her’
• Trump campaign attacks ‘insulting collection of cliches and recycled rhetoric’
• Hillary Clinton accepts Democratic nomination for president
Donald Trump used Twitter, as per his habit, to respond to Hillary Clinton’s acceptance speech on Thursday night.
In a brief series of tweets, the Republican nominee started by attacking “Hillary’s refusal to mention radical Islam” in her speech. Trump also bashed Clinton as “owned by Wall Street” and claimed her “vision is a borderless world where working people have no power, no jobs, no safety”.
Trump eventually concluded with “no one has worse judgement [sic] than Hillary Clinton – corruption and devastation follows her wherever she goes.”
The tweets came as Clinton launched a pointed attack on Trump, questioning his fitness for office and questioning his temperament – both on and offline.
“Imagine him in the Oval Office facing a real crisis,” she said. “A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons.” …
10 Conspiracy Theories That Didn’t Quite Catch On
In the Internet age, conspiracy theories are so widespread that when someone says the Moon landing was faked by lizard people who killed Princess Diana on September 11, we don’t even argue anymore. But there are some theories that never quite caught on. Hidden away on the Net are theories so crazy that they even made the lizard people–truthers a little skeptical.
10. Adam Sandler Can Predict The Future
Two years ago, The Onion’s site Clickhole posted an article called “5 Tragedies Weirdly Predicted By Adam Sandler.” It was a joke, of course, but some people took it seriously.
People went to Twitter and Facebook to gasp about the story, most of them strangely not even that surprised at a ‘90s comedian’s mystical clairvoyance. One particularly blase reader tweeted, “Adam Sandler Is An Oracle Of Sorts Who Can Predict The Future,” before letting out a confident, “I Always Knew This Sumhow.
White supremacists really took it to heart. On their forums, they chalked this up as another nail in the coffin of the great Jewish conspiracy. “All the Jews know what the schedule is,” they wrote, taking a smug sense of self-confidence in an ideology backed by The Onion’s articles. …
Cozy Bear and Fancy Bear: did Russians hack Democratic party and if so, why?
Analysts and the US government suspect an official hand behind the breach of the DNC’s emails – but if so it would represent a major escalation of cyber-activity
In April of last year, at 10pm on a Wednesday, French network TV5Monde suddenly began to broadcast Islamic State logos and slogans in French, Arabic and English. Simultaneously the broadcaster’s Facebook page began to post inflammatory messages. “Soldiers of France, stay away from the Islamic State!” read one. “You have the chance to save your families, take advantage of it.”
“Je suIS IS,” read another.
But the second message was a lie.
According to security researchers, the culprit was a Russian hacking team long believed by cybersecurity analysts in and outside the US government to be working for the country’s largest intelligence agency, GRU. Fascinated researchers have given it a variety of names: APT 28, Strontium, the Sofacy Group, and Fancy Bear.
Last week, WikiLeaks distributed 20,000 emails from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) obtained after Fancy Bear and another hacking team believed to be tied to a competing Russian intelligence service, known as Cozy Bear, breached the DNC’s internal network. Cozy Bear is believed to have entered the network a year before and waited quietly, gathering information and cataloging emails. Fancy Bear came later. WikiLeaks’ consistent position is not to discuss its source and to push back against suggestions that it gained the data from either Bear.
The Bears have three important things in common: expensive digital tools, suggesting state sponsorship; an interest in pursuing sensitive, embarrassing or strategically significant information, rather than financially beneficial data; and a choice of targets that align with Russian political objectives. Both Bears infiltrated the DNC: Cozy beginning in summer 2015, Fancy in April this year. …
Here’s what we know about Donald Trump and his ties to Russia
On Wednesday, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump asked the Russians to release emails from his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, if they have hacked them. He later said he was being sarcastic, but his invitation to a foreign power to meddle in the U.S. election sparked concern among foreign policy experts. So just what are Trump’s ties to Russia?
Q. What has Trump said about his connections to Russia?
A. Trump has said he has no ties. At a news conference Wednesday, he said “I have nothing to do with Russia,” indicating he has never met Russian President Vladimir Putin. A day earlier, he tweeted “For the record, I have ZERO investments in Russia.”
Q: Is it true that he has no investments in Russia?
A. We don’t really know. Trump has not released the financial documents that would shed light on the issue, particularly his tax returns. Breaking a tradition dating to Richard Nixon, he says he won’t make those documents public because he is being audited by the IRS.
…
THIS DAY IN HISTORY: JULY 29TH- A FAIRYTALE WEDDING
This Day In History: July 29, 1981
On July 29, 1981, the Fairytale Wedding of the Century took place at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. The handsome prince stood at the altar awaiting his young and beautiful blushing bride who had won his heart over all the other girls in the kingdom. The Lady arrived at the church a mere commoner, but when she departed the Cathedral at the side of her new husband, she had been transformed into a Royal Princess.
This was what the 600,000 people lining the streets of London and the additional 750 million watching at home wanted to believe was happening that July morning. The fairytale was what they had slept curbside for, or had set their alarms to go off in the middle of the night to witness. And, at least visually, that’s exactly what they got.
When Charles, the Prince of Wales and heir to the British throne married Lady Diana Spencer, it was a Very Big Deal. The 20-year-old bride would someday be Queen of England, so this was no ordinary wedding. Diana traveled to St. Paul’s with her father Earl Spencer in a glass coach right out of Cinderella. When she emerged to cheering crowds, she looked every inch a Disney Princess. …
A Post reporter was banned from a Trump-Pence rally yesterday. That should frighten you.
Jose DelReal is one of a small team of people who cover Donald Trump’s presidential campaign for The Washington Post. On Wednesday, he was in Milwaukee to cover an appearance by Trump running mate Mike Pence. DelReal was barred from covering the event as a reporter, in keeping with Trump’s six-week-old ban on The Washington Post. DelReal then tried to enter the event as a citizen. He was told he could not enter with a cell phone despite the fact that other people were not held to that same standard. He put his phone and computer in the car and again tried to enter. He was refused — again — and patted down. “I don’t want you here. You have to go,” the security official told him.
That should scare the hell out of you.
It’s easy to let this whole episode fall into a partisan trap. “He deserved it!” Trump allies will argue. “Reporters at mainstream outlets are biased against Trump! Maybe if you told the truth sometimes, he would let you in!” …
Does it matter that Donald Trump has banned us? Not in the way you’d think.
Donald Trump Jr. Just Accused Obama Of Plagiarizing Him And It’s Hilarious
The Republican National Convention featured two separate plagiarism controversies. Part of Donald Trump Jr.’s speech was lifted from an American Conservative article, but it turned out the author of the article was also one of Trump Jr.’s speechwriters. More blatant, of course, was Melania Trump’s plagiarism of Michelle Obama.
Thursday morning, Trump Jr. alleged that plagiarism has occurred at the Democratic National Convention as well. Specifically, he accused President Obama of lifting a line from his RNC speech. But the only problem for Trump Jr. is that by his logic, he’s actually guilty of plagiarizing the president (and George W. Bush too).
Here’s the tweet in which Trump Jr. made his accusation:
I'm honored that POTUS would plagiarize a line from my speech last week. Where's the outrage? #DemsInPhilly https://t.co/sFQ7fblpLh
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 28, 2016
The line in question is this: “That’s not the America I know.” …
I guess the turd didn’t fall too far from the toilet.
A Glimpse Into The Weird, Stupid Future Of Politics
The iPhone was a weird new invention when Barack Obama was first running for president in 2007. MySpace utterly dominated social media; no one had heard of Twitter. Netflix was a company that delivered DVDs by mail. The box office was dominated by a Marvel franchise, a bombastic Zack Snyder movie, and a movie about somebody called Jason Bourne. It was a simpler time.
When you see how radically the landscape has changed since then — and how radically it seems to be changing on a week-to-week basis now — it’s actually hard to guess what the presidential campaign for 2024 will look like. But, having spent these last two weeks on the ground at both party conventions, I’m ready to give it a shot:
#5. Voters Will Be More About Single Issues (And Hobbies) Than Parties
With the exception of the small but vocal Never Trump movement, the vast majority of Republicans either fell in line behind Trump this year or, like the Bushes, quietly excused themselves.
One of them was pretty quiet even before he excused himself.
The Democrats at the DNC displayed much less unity, and the word “less” in that sentence is actually a synonym for “fucking none at all.” Or, at least, that was the view from outside; many of Bernie Sanders’ 1,900 delegates refused his calls to back Hillary Clinton and, instead, walked out of the convention and held a strike in the nearby press tent. You know all of those “HILL-AR-Y” chants that kept breaking out during her acceptance speech last night? Those were delegates covering up Bernie chants. …
“Republicans Buy Sneakers, Too”
That quote has haunted Michael Jordan for decades. But did he really say it?
On Monday, basketball great and noted apolitical icon Michael Jordan condemned police violence and the recent killings of police officers while calling for racial unity in the United States. In a statement published on ESPN’s the Undefeated under the headline “Michael Jordan: ‘I Can No Longer Stay Silent,’ ” he wrote:
As a proud American, a father who lost his own dad in a senseless act of violence, and a black man, I have been deeply troubled by the deaths of African-Americans at the hands of law enforcement and angered by the cowardly and hateful targeting and killing of police officers.
Later in the statement, the Charlotte Hornets owner announced he would donate $1 million each to the Institute for Community-Police Relations and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Jordan did not elaborate on why he chose this particular moment to speak out and donate money, and he was very careful to avoid offending anyone:
Over the past three decades I have seen up close the dedication of the law enforcement officers who protect me and my family. I have the greatest respect for their sacrifice and service. I also recognize that for many people of color their experiences with law enforcement have been different than mine. I have decided to speak out in the hope that we can come together as Americans, and through peaceful dialogue and education, achieve constructive change.
For Jordan, whose reticence in wading into political and social issues is almost as well-known as his ruthless determination to win, this mild message was a radical statement. …
My night out in Cleveland with the worst men on the internet
At the Republican convention, Laurie Penny was invited to a rally led by alt-right provocateur Milo Yiannopolous and an unholy cast of characters united behind Donald Trump – for whom turning raw rage into political currency is just a game
This is a story about how trolls took the wheel of the clown car of modern politics. It’s a story about the insider traders of the attention economy. It’s a story about fear and loathing and Donald Trump and you and me. It’s not a story about Milo Yiannopoulos, the professional alt-right provocateur who was last week banned from Twitter for directing racist abuse towards the actor Leslie Jones.
But it does start with Milo. So I should probably explain how we know each other and how, on a hot, weird night in Cleveland, Ohio, I came to be riding in the backseat of his swank black trollmobile to the gayest neo-fascist rally at the Republican national convention.
Milo Yiannopoulos is a charming devil and one of the worst people I know. I have seen the death of political discourse reflected in his designer sunglasses. It chills me. We met four years ago when he was just another floppy-haired rightwing pundit and we were guests on a panel show. Afterwards, we got hammered and ran around the BBC talking about boys.
Since that day, there is absolutely nothing I have been able to say to Milo to persuade him that we are not friends. The more famous he gets off the back of extravagantly abusing women and minorities, the more I tell him I hate him and everything he stands for, the more he laughs and asks when we’re drinking. …
Top 10 Misconceptions About Swords
From pirate films to the swashbuckling Three Musketeers, from medieval knights to the samurai movies of directors like Akira Kurosawa, swords are an enduring part of our pop cultural imagination. However, many bits of common knowledge that we carry around about swords are incorrect. This list hopes to offer come interesting corrections to the way we think about swords.
10. Rapiers Are Light And Delicate
Every decade has its own Three Musketeers movie and quite possibly several. This has ensured that the rapier is well enshrined in all our heads as the weapon of choice for foppish, yet deadly, European aristocrats. In fact, most rapiers weigh between 1–1.4 kilograms (2–3 lb), the same as surviving historical longswords.
Many rapiers have narrower blades than other renaissance swords, but they are also longer, some 107 centimeters (42 in). The reason we think of rapiers as particularly light is probably because we confuse them with other thrust-centric swords like 18th-century small swords or even modern epees. …
An Exciting History of Drywall
It’s a staple in American homes, but at what environmental cost?
As Hurricane Katrina raged through New Orleans in 2005, neighborhood after neighborhood collapsed from flooding. Of the houses that stood, many still had to be bulldozed due to mold within the walls. But one building, a plantation-home-turned-museum on Moss Street built two centuries before the disaster, was left almost entirely unscathed.
“The Pitot house was built the old way, with plaster walls,” says Steve Mouzon, an architect who helped rebuild the city after the hurricane. “When the flood came, the museum moved the furniture upstairs. Afterwards, they simply hosed the walls—no harm done.”
The other houses weren’t built the old way. “All the homes around the Pitot house were lost because they were built with drywall,” says Mouzon.
Drywall, also known as plasterboard or wallboard, consists of two paperboards that sandwich gypsum, a powdery white or gray sulfate mineral. Gypsum is noncombustible, and compared to other wall materials, like solid wood and plaster, gypsum boards are much lighter and cheaper. As a result, drywall is popular in homes across the U.S.: According to the Gypsum Association, more than 20 billion square feet of drywall is manufactured each year in North America. It’s the staple of a billion-dollar construction industry that depends on quick demolition and building. …
A Century of Highway Zombies
Since the 1920s, “highway hypnosis” has lulled drivers to disaster. An Object Lesson.
Sixty years ago, America was reinventing the road. Eisenhower had just signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act, which funneled billions of dollars into thousands of smooth and precisely designed highways. A general feeling of national pride pervaded: Goods would flow more efficiently, citizens would travel more comfortably, and the nation would draw together more intimately.
But that comfort and ease belied something ominous—these sleek new highways, the country soon discovered, conjured ghosts.
During long drives, the roads could begin to play tricks on the mind. During the 1950s, public safety organizations and newspapers began to report unusual experiences. Drivers forgot routes they once knew by heart, or weirdly recognized highways they had never driven before; some drivers felt as though they had been transported some 20 miles further ahead in a mere blink of the eye. More disconcerting: People started to have strange visions. A man on an expressway near Joliet, Illinois, noticed a tiger stalking the light beams of his car. Another, driving at a swift clip through rural Georgia, saw a stately colonial mansion materialize in the middle of the highway, which he barely missed by swerving off the road. Yet another reported hitting a man, but when the police arrived there was no sign of a body. The visions weren’t benign, either. One newspaper reported that by 1956, one-car accidents with no apparent cause were responsible for a third of all traffic deaths. …
What It Actually Takes to Get a Flat Stomach
There are all kinds of trainers, videos, and products that say they can get you a flat stomach in no time, but there are no shortcuts to six pack city. It takes a lot of work, discipline, and time.
As this video from the PictureFit YouTube channel explains, the only guaranteed way to get a flat stomach is through—brace yourself—diet and exercise. To be more precise, you need to use up the fat you have stored around your abs. But because spot reducing is a myth, you’ll have to focus on reducing the fat throughout your entire body. To do that, you’ll need to burn more calories than you put in every day, but it’s more complicated than “eat less, move more.” You need to eat fewer carbs while increasing your lean protein intake. Why? Your body will try to burn carbs for energy first, but if you haven’t ingested many carb-heavy foods, your body will target fat for energy instead. Plus, protein makes you feel full longer. You also need to incorporate resistance training in your workouts to keep yourself from losing muscle mass in addition to fat (more muscle means burning more calories naturally). Low intensity cardio training can help with burning more calories each day, but it won’t help you retain muscle, so make sure it’s not the only thing you do. …
WHAT DO TONSILS DO?
What most people refer to as “tonsils” are known as Palatine tonsils. These are the two large protruding tissues that reside on the sides of the back of your throat. These are actually part of a grouping of lymphoid tissues (tissue that perform different functions for your immune system) known as Waldeyer’s tonsillar ring.
Waldeyer’s ring creates a rough circular edge at the opening of our digestive system. Encompassing both the nasopharynx (the space where your nose meets the back of your throat) and the oropharynx (the back of your throat), it creates a barrier of sorts. It’s the first point of contact our immune system has with the bacteria and microbes we ingest or inhale. …
Video Goodnesses
(and not-so-goodnesses)
(and not-so-goodnesses)
Seth takes a closer look at the final night of the Democratic National Convention.
THANKS to NBC and Late Night with Sety Meyers for making this program available on YouTube.
In a rousing speech to close out the DNC, Hillary Clinton accepted the Democratic nomination, marking the biggest achievement for women since they won the right to bust ghosts.
THANKS to CBS and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert for making this program available on YouTube.
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