Peruvian authorities want to know why more than 10,000 endangered frogs living near Lake Titicaca have suddenly died.
The Titicaca Water Frog is considered a “critically endangered” species, according to conservation groups. The giant amphibians, which can weigh more than two pounds, have excessive skin folds that have earned the species a rather wrinkly nickname: scrotum frog. …
Dear CNN, are you now employing a nine-year-old to write your headlines?
THIS DAY IN HISTORY: OCTOBER 18TH- FERDINAND AND ISABELLA
This Day In History: October 18, 1469
Ferdinand and Isabella were one of the most famous power couples in European history. In their eyes, their crowning achievement wasn’t expanding their empire to include the New World, or uniting the various dominions that would become modern Spain- they believed their greatest accomplishment was driving out all Muslims from their country.
When Ferdinand, the son of King John I of Aragon, married Isabella, the daughter of King John II of Castile, on the morning of October 18, 1469, many areas of the Iberian peninsula had been ruled by Muslims for over 700 years. Spurred on by their religious beliefs to unite their land under exclusively Christian leadership, Ferdinand and Isabella waged a costly and bloody battle that lasted a decade to rid their lands of the Moors. In January of 1492, they finally achieved their goal, and conquered the last Muslim stronghold. …
The Effect of Voter Turnout on Political Polarization
In Brief
Voter turnout in California and across the country has been steadily declining over the past decade, especially in primary elections. At the same time, our legislators are becoming more and more ideologically entrenched, with Republicans and Democrats seemingly incapable of finding common ground. This article argues that, in part, the former causes the latter: that a restricted primary voter pool allots disproportionate influence to voters at the extreme ends of the political spectrum. We examine trends behind low voter turnout and discuss strategies to improve voter registration and turnout.
Trends in Voter Turnout: Plummeting Participation
“Voting at elections is one of the most important rights of the subject, and in a republic ought to stand foremost in the estimation of the law.”
-Alexander Hamilton, 1782
One of the founding principles of the United States is that the government derives its authority from the consent of the governed. To ensure that its agents represent the will of the people, the republic needs its citizens to demonstrate their will through the vital democratic process of voting.
This summer’s primary elections in California, however, have yet again exposed a discouraging reality in recent American politics: very few people vote. Statewide, fewer than 4.4 million people cast ballots in the June primary, setting a record low 25.2% turnout among registered voters (and a ghastly 15% of the voting-age population). These statistics embody the latest chapter in what has been a steep, decade-long decline in primary election turnout in the state (Figure 1).
…
While this article is more than two years old, READ IT ANYWAY if you’re considering not voting.
Thanks for passing it along Will.
Watch Donald Trump privately tell supporters in Maine why election is ‘rigged’
Before his Saturday rally in Bangor, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump privately told supporters that sexual misconduct allegations from “liars” could work “to our benefit” in the campaign.
The comments were recorded by progressive activist Wells Lyons of Portland, who provided the video to the Bangor Daily News. Lyons said he went to the rally to protest, but he was able to get into a question-and-answer session with the New York billionaire ahead of his speech at the Cross Insurance Center by agreeing to work for a phone bank on behalf of Trump.
The remarks provide a rare look at Trump privately talking to supporters. They show that Trump’s main talking points in private didn’t differ much from his later speech, in which he lashed out at “a rigged system” stacking the election against him, including media he said are working to elect Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. …
Federal Judge Excoriates Florida’s “Obscene” “Undeclared War” on Voting Rights
Poor Rick Scott! The Florida Republican governor had just one job this election season: Vigorously enforce the state’s voter disenfranchisement laws to disqualify as many Democratic votes as possible. Unfortunately for Scott, over the weekend, U.S. District Court Judge Mark Walker barred the governor from deploying one of his best disenfranchisement tools through two equally excoriating rulings. Both decisions provide an excellent example of the federal judiciary’s increasing skepticism over irrational voting restrictions.
First up: On Saturday, Walker bench-slapped Scott and his administration for attempting to delay a ruling on a bizarre Florida statute about ballot signatures. Under state law, if a voter’s signature on a mail-in ballot doesn’t match the signature on file, the ballot is declared illegal, the vote isn’t counted, and the voter receives no notice, and thus gets no opportunity to fix the problem. County “canvassing boards” decide whether a ballot signature matches the signature on file; these boards are staffed by laypeople who are not required to undergo formal handwriting analysis education or training. As Walker put it, applying the law this election cycle would entail “taking as many as 23,000 ballots, crumbling them into balls, and throwing them in the trash like dirty tissue, without any opportunity to cure.” (Oddly, if a voter simply forgets to sign her ballot, she is notified and has an opportunity to fix the error.) …
Donald Trump’s North Carolina death spiral: Even white suburbanites flee the “idiot”
Only strong anti-Clinton sentiment is keeping Trump afloat in North Carolina’s heavily Republican suburbs
North Carolina should be a hotly contested swing state. In 2008, Barack Obama turned North Carolina into the leading edge of the Democratic resurgence in the South, narrowly snatching the state from John McCain thanks to a surge in black voter turnout. Mitt Romney managed to claw the state back into the Republican column in 2012 by juicing rural and suburban turnout enough to overcome the Democratic advantage in the cities. At the start of the 2016 election cycle, the state was expected to be one of the most hard-fought battlegrounds.
And up until a few weeks ago, the Tar Heel State was indeed a toss-up: depending on which polling model and aggregator you choose to believe, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were running about even in mid-September in North Carolina, with Trump probably enjoying a slight edge. But after two bad debate performances, the release of the “grab them by the pussy” tape, and an ever-growing number of sexual assault allegations, Trump looks to be fading. All the recent North Carolina polling puts Hillary Clinton up by low- to mid-single digits. As of this writing, FiveThirtyEight gives Trump less than a 3-in-10 shot of winning the state.
I went down to North Carolina this past weekend to see Trump speak to his supporters and break a malfunctioning teleprompter at a rally in Charlotte. Then I headed southeast to the wealthy suburbs of Union County to chat up some voters and get their impressions of the 2016 race and the Trump candidacy. What I found was a mix of voters who are either having a lot of difficulty backing the Republican nominee or are voting Trump primarily because they can’t abide by the idea of another Clinton presidency. …
In Ferguson, the Seeds of Trump’s Defeat
Trump may have risen on the wings of white backlash. But black Americans’ fierce resistance to a candidate they see as racist could SHOULD spell his defeat.
For a lot of people this year, but maybe especially for black people, the election seemed like a joke until it stopped being funny.
“I mean, is it even real? What’s going on?” said Corey Moore, 27, otherwise known as Memphis the Barber. At Freestyle Barber & Beauty, less than a mile from where Michael Brown was fatally shot by police in August 2014, Moore was laughing as he applied clippers to a young boy’s head. Then he sighed. “I don’t know, I just hope Trump don’t get in there, or we doomed,” he said. “I mean, Donald Trump? Are you serious? It’s funny, but it’s a lot more scary.”
Two years ago, the protests in Ferguson that followed Brown’s death galvanized African Americans—and many others—around what some see as a new civil-rights movement. Now, as a presidential election of historically divisive proportions nears conclusion, the black community has experienced it as a fresh trauma: As America’s first black president prepares to leave office, one of the major-party nominees appears to them to be not just a racist, but running on a platform of racism. …
The Nasty Realities Of The Political Attack Ad Industry
If shady political attack ads have a Mona Lisa, it’s probably the one that slammed presidential candidate Michael Dukakis for issuing “weekend passes” to a convicted murderer named William Horton. Horton went on to commit assault, armed robbery, rape, and career assassination (on Mr. Dukakis). No attack ad this election season has come close to that amount of damage. Cracked wanted to know why, and what makes a good attack ad in the first place, so we sat down with a man who makes them. Rick Wilson is a Republican strategist who has helped to craft hundreds of attack ads. He explained …
#5. You Attack Strengths, Not Weaknesses
One of Rick’s most infamous ads was produced during the 2008 election, highlighting the fact that Barack Obama’s former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, said “God Damn America.”
While Barack Obama’s gigantic, disembodied head stared down in shame.
Obviously, it didn’t win the election for McCain. Rick explained that the most successful attack ads don’t go after a candidate’s weaknesses: They take aim at strengths. One of Rick’s most successful ads was an attack against Democratic Senator Max Cleland during his 2002 campaign against Saxby Chambliss:
…
Trump’s Divisive Rhetoric Unparalleled In American Political History, Presidential Historian Says
Inflammatory Rhetoric Is Not New In Politics, But Trump Is Taking It To A New Level, History Professor Says
Divisive rhetoric on issues of race is nothing new in American politics, but one presidential historian says it’s never been quite as inflammatory as what is being seen now from Donald Trump’s Republican presidential campaign.
Modern politics has never seen such a brazen and polemical presidential candidate, said Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University and author of several presidential biographies.
“I’ve thought a lot about this because people are always asking me for what the historical precedent is, and what we’ve seen is there have been many politicians who have played on some of these divisions in society, but they’ve also felt the need when they were the candidate to contain their rhetoric,” Zelizer said.
Zelizer said the United States has seen plenty of periods of bitter discord in modern politics, starting in the 1960s with sharp disagreements about the Vietnam War and the struggle for civil rights. …
Election officials brace for fallout from Trump’s claims of a ‘rigged’ vote
Donald Trump’s escalating effort to undermine the presidential election as “rigged” has alarmed government officials administering the vote as well as Democratic and Republican leaders, who are anxiously preparing for the possibility of unrest or even violence on Election Day and for an extended battle over the integrity of the outcome.
Hillary Clinton’s advisers are privately worried that Trump’s calls for his supporters to stand watch at polling places in cities such as Philadelphia for any hint of fraud will result in intimidation tactics that might threaten her supporters and suppress the votes of African Americans and other minorities.
The Democratic nominee’s campaign is recruiting and training hundreds of lawyers to fan out across the country, protecting people’s right to vote and documenting any signs of foul play, according to several people with knowledge of the plans. …
Drudge, Limbaugh Fall for Twitter Joke About Postal Worker Destroying Trump Ballots
@RandyGDub said he ‘loves’ working at an Ohio post office where he rigs the election for Hillary Clinton. Right-wing media took him seriously.
Human bag of gas, perhaps
Just when you thought 2016 couldn’t get any stupider, a Twitter user who describes himself as “the cool and chill guy of online” inadvertently punked two of the most powerful figures in conservative media.
And it shows just how easy it is to goad credulous Trump-loving media figures into distributing absurdly bad information to their massive audiences.
A little after 4 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, Twitter user @randygdub—whose previous two tweets made fun of Breitbart and Trump acolyte Bill Mitchell—tweeted:
i love working at the post office in Columbus, Ohio and ripping up absentee ballots that vote for trump
— raandy (@randygdub) October 16, 2016
You don’t have to be a great intellect to get that this is obviously a joke. For starters, @randygdub’s Twitter bio says he’s from California. And it takes about 60 seconds to go through his timeline and see that many of the tweets there are, well, not meant to be taken literally.
i am a Black man for trump. that's right libs, we do exist pic.twitter.com/TXx9lX7kM4
— raandy (@randygdub) October 12, 2016
…
10 Skulls Deformed For Fashion
For millennia, humans have altered their body for aesthetic reasons. One of the most ancient and widespread practices was changing the shape of the skull. Technically known as artificial cranial deformation, it involved manipulating babies’ soft skulls.
There were many reasons for modification. Often, it was associated with nobility, beauty, and intelligence. Given the practice’s prevalence, it’s strange that it has become almost unknown in the modern world. Tastes change; it may only be a matter of time before people start deforming their skulls in the name of fashion once more.
10. The Woman Of Tlailotlacan
In the shadow of Teotihuacan’s Pyramid of the Sun, archaeologists unearthed a curious skull. It belonged to a woman aged 35 to 40 and was artificially elongated. Her teeth are intriguing. The top front incisors were encrusted in pyrite. A missing lower tooth was replaced by a prosthetic one made of serpentine. This 1,600-year-old skull was an extremely rare find in the area.
Experts believe the “Woman of Tlailotlacan” was a foreign aristocrat. Artificially deformed craniums are common in the Mayan strongholds of Southern Mexico and Central America. However, they are extraordinarily rare in Teotihuacan, located in the center of Mexico. The woman was buried with 19 jars containing offerings, which along with her elongated cranium and extravagant teeth, suggest wealth and nobility. …
LBGT Students Are Not Safe at School
They are disproportionately harassed, and few teachers are trained to help.
When Salem Whit walked through the hallways of their high school in Spring Grove, Pennsylvania, overhearing classmates ask one another, “What is that thing?” happened with nearly enough frequency to become background noise. Unlike the sound of lockers slamming, however, comments about Salem’s gender identity were too targeted for the teen to treat them as white noise. “I actually thought I was inhuman,” Salem recalled when thinking about the years of bullying and harassment they experienced in high school. “I thought I was an alien. I definitely thought I was going to hell.”
Salem graduated from high school in 2015 but says the process of getting to that point was far from easy. “I’m not sure how my grades were good enough to graduate,” the 19-year-old explained. After years of experiencing gender dysphoria—feeling an intense and innate disconnect from their body, gender presentation, voice, and name—Salem came out as transgender during their senior year of high school. More specifically, Salem identifies as both non-binary and agender, meaning that while Salem does not identify with the female sex they were assigned at birth, they also do not identify as male or use male pronouns. …
To the First Lady, With Love
Four thank-you notes to Michelle Obama, who has spent the past eight years quietly and confidently changing the course of American history.
She had rhythm, a flow and swerve, hands slicing air, body weight moving from foot to foot, a beautiful rhythm. In anything else but a black American body, it would have been contrived. The three-quarter sleeves of her teal dress announced its appropriateness, as did her matching brooch. But the cut of the dress scorned any “future first lady” stuffiness; it hung easy on her, as effortless as her animation. And a brooch, Old World style accessory, yes, but hers was big and ebulliently shaped and perched center on her chest. Michelle Obama was speaking. It was the 2008 Democratic National Convention. My anxiety rose and swirled, watching and willing her to be as close to perfection as possible, not for me, because I was already a believer, but for the swaths of America that would rather she stumbled.
She first appeared in the public consciousness, all common sense and mordant humor, at ease in her skin. She had the air of a woman who could balance a checkbook, and who knew a good deal when she saw it, and who would tell off whomever needed telling off. She was tall and sure and stylish. She was reluctant to be first lady, and did not hide her reluctance beneath platitudes. She seemed not so much unique as true. She sharpened her husband’s then-hazy form, made him solid, more than just a dream.
But she had to flatten herself to better fit the mold of first lady. At the law firm where they met before love felled them, she had been her husband’s mentor; they seemed to be truly friends, partners, equals in a modern marriage in a new American century. Yet voters and observers, wide strips of America, wanted her to conform and defer, to cleanse her tongue of wit and barb. When she spoke of his bad morning-breath, a quirky and humanizing detail, she was accused of emasculating him. …
THAT TIME SOMEONE GAVE A HOMELESS PERSON $100,000 JUST TO SEE WHAT WOULD HAPPEN
In 2005 a homeless man called Ted Rodrigue stumbled upon a briefcase filled with crisp $20 and $50 bills totaling $100,000 (about $123,000 today). Ted was then told by screenwriter Wayne Powers that the money was his to keep and do with as he wished, so long as he would allow a film crew to document the result. Rodrigue, understandably, jumped at the opportunity, leading to a somewhat controversial documentary- Reversal of Fortune.
According to an interview with Powers, the genesis of the documentary stemmed from his time in LA where he was frequently asked for money by the homeless, prompting him to ponder, “What would a homeless person do if I gave them a million dollars?” Powers was curious if such a substantial amount of money could change a person’s life for the better or if it’d simply make it worse. He took this idea to an executive at Showtime where he’d briefly written a short-lived series called Out of Order. The executives loved the idea, but weren’t exactly thrilled at the idea of paying out a million dollars, eventually talking Powers down to $100,000.
With funding in hand, all Powers needed was a homeless person to give the money to. …
Saudi Arabian artists confront Islamophobia on US road trip
As anti-Muslim feeling in the US is stoked by Donald Trump, a group of young Saudi Arabian artists travel from Texas to California, exhibiting their work and confronting their audience’s fears, prejudices and stereotypes. They explain what it means to be an artist in Saudi Arabia.
A Mustachioed Colbert Asks Obama If He Would Like a Golden-Haired ‘Shriveled Tangerine’
President Obama sat down with Stephen Colbert for a segment on his show tonight, and a preview clip shows a mustachioed Colbert ever-so-subtly asking about the election.
He provided the president with two choices of snack: an extra-fiber nutrient bar or …
THANKS to CBS and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert for making this program available on YouTube.
10 Real People Condemned To Dante’s Inferno
Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy is one of the world’s most epic works of literature. The imagining of all the punishments that await the world’s sinners is filled with terrifying imagery that we can still relate to today. Guided by the ancient Roman writer Virgil, Dante heads down through the Nine Circles of Hell and speaks to a number of people along the way. Some of those people were very real and were condemned to Hell as a social commentary, for religious reasons, and in some cases, because Dante didn’t like them.
10. Farinata Degli Uberti
Dante and Virgil meet Farinata degli Uberti in the Sixth Circle of Hell, a place reserved for heretics. The bleak landscape is filled with cemeteries, and the dead are buried there again in tombs and sarcophagi to indicate that they are dead even to the afterlife. Dante carries on a relatively long conversation with Farinata in a scene that likely had more drama for contemporary readers than modern ones.
Outside of Dante’s narrative, the real Farinata led one of two opposing factions struggling for power. When Farinata’s Ghibellines were in power, he stopped the potential destruction of Florence. The tide turned with the Battle of Montaperti in 1260, which saw Florence burned to the ground and the Uberti family exiled. Their property was completely destroyed, and Farinata—along with his wife—was put on trial for heresy. Found guilty, he was exhumed and his remains were scattered on unconsecrated ground. …
This is Spinal Tap star sues Vivendi for $125m in profits row
Harry Shearer alleges parent company of Universal Music and StudioCanal withheld millions of dollars in profits owed to creators of rock mockumentary
This is Spinal Tap star Harry Shearer is suing Vivendi, the parent company of Universal Music and StudioCanal, alleging it has withheld millions of dollars in profits owed to the creators of the cult 80s rock mockumentary.
Shearer, who co-wrote the film and soundtrack and starred as bassist Derek Smalls, has lodged the legal action at the Central District Court of California.
Shearer, who has voiced 23 characters on The Simpsons including Ned Flanders and Mr Burns, is claiming $125m (£102m) in compensatory and punitive damages from the French conglomerate.
Vivendi acquired the rights to This is Spinal Tap, through its subsidiary StudioCanal, in 1989.
Shearer claims that since then, profits from This is Spinal Tap have not been fairly shared between its four creators, cast or crew. …
I’m going up against @vivendi and @studiocanal to ensure #fairplayfairpay for the movie #SpinalTap – #fairnessrocks pic.twitter.com/fTG23OMbsW
— Harry Shearer (@theharryshearer) October 18, 2016
‘Portlandia’ stars say they’re not to blame for Portland’s growing pains
Inside the Jasmine Pearl Tea Company in Northeast Portland, nobody is chilling out, or tasting a soothing cup of organic Chai or Green Jade Oolong. On this Wednesday, the shop is packed with “Portlandia,” as the comedy TV series is shooting on location.
Crew members crowd in to operate cameras and sound equipment, while near the front of the small space, “Portlandia” co-creators, co-writers and costars Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein are preparing for the scene.
Brownstein is doing double duty, directing as well as acting, and she and Armisen start tossing lines back and forth.
It doesn’t take long to get what they want, and the crew begins moving equipment out so they can shift to the next location, a nearby nondescript office/warehouse building at Northeast 22nd Avenue and Oregon Street. …
DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY: Things have changed in Portland since “Portlandia” made its low-profile debut in 2011. Portlanders can’t stop talking about the rising cost of housing, an influx of new residents and arguing about whether Portland’s growth is good or bad.
I’m still blaming Mork and Mindy for Boulder’s growing pains…
Verizon’s bid for Yahoo on the rocks ahead of latest revenue results
With a hack of half a billion users and a government spying program uncovered at Yahoo in the last four weeks, Verizon may be looking for an out.
Analysts are predicting more bad news for Yahoo on Tuesday as the company releases its latest results amid a now floundering takeover bid.
The research firm eMarketer is expecting a double-digit decline in ad revenue. The drop comes as Verizon is attempting to renegotiate its $4.8bn bid for the company.
On Friday, chief executive officer Marissa Mayer canceled the usual results call with analysts. The firm will release filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and a press statement, but will not take questions “due to the pending transaction with Verizon”.
That transaction may not be pending for much longer: Yahoo took such a beating in the press after revelations that half a billion of its customers had been hacked and that it had secretly monitored the accounts of its customers for US authorities that Verizon has reportedly sought a billion-dollar discount on its pricey acquisition. The telecoms company is now sending signals that it may try to scuttle the deal altogether. …
10 Cultural Capitals Of The Ancient World
“Cultural importance” is a difficult quality to measure. Some cities are important for their contributions to art, architecture, or political theory. Others are important for their effect on the imagination or their place in literature. In some cases, cities had an enormous influence on their region for a time, but this influence is no longer felt today.
After taking all of these factors into account, the following ten cities stand out as the most important cultural capitals of the ancient world.
10. Cuzco
Cuzco, now a city in Peru, was once the capital of the Inca Empire, which reached its apex during the 15th century. Using Cuzco as a base, the Inca conquered territory all the way from Quito to Santiago—making their empire the largest in the world at the time. A mere 40,000 people came to control around ten million subjects, a form of overextension that the Spanish Conquistadors would later use to their advantage.
Cuzco itself is one of the oldest cities in the Western Hemisphere. Its most impressive remnant is the fortress of Sacsahuaman: It contains stones that weigh as much as 300 tons, and it took 20,000 laborers around 80 years to complete. …
What a Pizza Delivery Driver Sees
Angela Nguyen talks about how her job at Domino’s in Ham Lake, Minnesota, has shown her the inner life of her community.
Pizza is big business in America: U.S. pizza sales total more than $37 billion per year for roughly 3 billion pies. According to a report by the Department of Agriculture, 13 percent of Americans eat pizza on any given day.
Delivery drivers play an important role in getting those meals to consumers. One of them, Angela Nguyen, is a delivery driver with Domino’s in Ham Lake, Minnesota. For The Atlantic’s ongoing series of interviews with American workers, I spoke with Nguyen about making deliveries in bad weather, why the pizza shop is such a fixture in her community, and how she deals with people who don’t tip. The interview that follows has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Adrienne Green: How did you get started as a delivery driver with Domino’s?
Angela Nguyen: Before Domino’s, I worked for Minnesota Visiting Nurses. I did housekeeping for people with AIDS and HIV. Then they closed my department. They offered me another position with hospice, but I had a daughter that had died while I was working for Minnesota Visiting Nurses, and it was just too difficult for me to think of going to work with other people that were dying. So I left.
[About three months later,] I was looking for something part-time, and my oldest daughter was working there. I would help her out quite a bit, watching her children. I got a job at Domino’s and worked the opposite hours of her. It was flexible enough for me to watch her kids while she worked, and then for her to have her children when I went to work. I’ve been at Domino’s for three years, so I work during the day now. …
Top 10 Most Popular Foods On Twitter Reveal Health Disparity Across US Neighborhoods
The 140-character tweets posted on Twitter can reveal a great deal about the health of Americans. A new study used the microblogging site to gain insights on the health of people in the United States and, in the process, found the most popularly tweeted foods.
In a new study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research – Public Health, researchers from the University of Utah used federal grant money to see if social media can paint a picture of the nation’s health.
The researchers looked at 80 million geotagged tweets from more than 603,000 Twitter users across the United States and found the most tweeted-about foods, the most popular of which is coffee, which was mentioned in 250,000 tweets. The caffeinated drink is followed by beer, which was mentioned in more than 200,000 tweets.
Below is the list of the top 10 most popular foods on Twitter:
1. coffee
2. beer
3. pizza
4. Starbucks
5. IPA (beer)
6. wine
7. chicken
8. barbecue
9. ice cream
10. tacos
…
THE SIBERIAN FAMILY WHO DIDN’T SEE ANOTHER HUMAN FOR OVER 40 YEARS
To this day, the Siberian wilderness is still one of the most isolated places in the world. Known as the Siberian taiga (meaning “forest” in Russian), its harsh, cold climate greatly discourages human habitation. Its steep hills and difficult terrain makes it nearly impossible to travel through it, much less live there. It’s filled with pine and birch trees, nearly undisturbed by humans for centuries. Bears and red foxes wander through the forest during the day, while wolves hunt at night. It’s freezing cold with the average mean yearly temperature at negative five degrees Celsius. Stretching east to west, from the Atlantic Ocean across the continent to the Mediterranean, and extending up north to the Mongolian Arctic border, the Siberian taiga is the largest of Earth’s nearly uninhabited wilderness. Nearly five million square miles of barren land sparsely populated by a few towns containing only a few thousand people.
In 1978, a team of Russian geologists were sent to explore the deepest, most isolated part of this region. Forest and wilderness that, at the time, have been barely touched by human hands. Traveling there via helicopter, from high above the taiga, they spotted something that seemed quite unusual- a clearing with a garden, clear evidence of human life. This seemed nearly impossible to the geologists. They were nearly 150 miles from the nearest human settlement. Upon landing, the geologists knew they had to investigate, despite their trepidation. One of the geologists, Galina Pismenskaya, said later that they had “put gifts in our packs for our prospective friends,” but also checked “the pistol that hung at my side.” …
Video Goodnesses
(and not-so-goodnesses)
(and not-so-goodnesses)
And now, an extra special Real or Fake with two GOP women whose votes Donald Trump did not manage to grab by the pussy.
THANKS to TBS and Full Frontal with Samantha Bee for making this program available on YouTube.
Stephen brings out the chalkboard to illustrate the multiple connected conspiracies swirling around Donald Trump’s campaign.
President Barack Obama sits down with Stephen Colbert for a frank discussion of his career prospects after he leaves office.
THANKS to CBS and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert for making this program available on YouTube.
“As always, we work closely with trainers to keep the hamsters safe and happy. All food is strictly reviewed to ensure it’s hamster-healthy.”
Om Nom Nom Nom Nom
FINALLY . . .
The Last Nuremberg Prosecutor Has 3 Words Of Advice: ‘Law Not War’
When the Nazi leadership was put on trial in Nuremberg, Germany, in the wake of World War II, the notion of an international war crimes tribunal was new and controversial.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill proposed a summary execution of Nazi leaders. But it was decided that trials would be more effective, and would set a precedent for prosecuting future war crimes.
Thirteen trials were held in Nuremberg from 1945 to 1949, with multiple defendants in the cases. The prosecutor for one trial was Benjamin Ferencz, who was just 27 at the time, and it was his first trial. …