![]()
Who broke the cat?
Who broke the cat?
THIS DAY IN HISTORY: JUNE 2ND- MOSES AND THE RIVER RAID
This Day In History: June 2, 1863
On June 2, 1863, three Union gunboats set sail up the Combahee River from Beaufort, South Carolina. The ships were able to avoid any confrontation with Confederate forces thanks to intelligence provided by a trusted Union spy known as “Moses.”
The master of espionage “Moses” was none other than Harriet Tubman, the hero of the Underground Railroad, who helped hundreds of people escape north to freedom. Although her exploits during the Civil War are less well-known, they are no less extraordinary. …
A Federal Court Just Silently Slipped A Knife Into North Carolina’s Anti-LGBT Bathroom Bill
A federal appeals court’s decision backing one of the Obama administration’s most significant efforts to eliminate discrimination against transgender people will remain in effect, thanks to an order handed down on Tuesday. This is not a total victory for trans rights — in no small part because federal appeals courts do not have jurisdiction over the entire nation in the way that the Supreme Court does — but it is a significant one, especially because of the specific court that handed down Tuesday’s order. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit includes North Carolina, the home of what is probably the highest-profile anti-LGBT law in the nation.
To recap the events in this litigation so far, last April, the Fourth Circuit ruled in favor of a trans student who was prevented from using school bathrooms that aligned with his gender identity. The decision primarily relied upon the Education Department’s interpretation of its own regulations governing sex-segregated bathrooms, as well as the Supreme Court’s decision in Auer v. Robbins, which requires courts to defer to such interpretations. Under the agency interpretation at issue in this case, “when a school elects to separate or treat students differently on the basis of sex” it “generally must treat transgender students consistent with their gender identity.” …
Religious Exemptions Gone Wild
The Obama administration really blew it when they decided to allow a religious exemption for contraception coverage, because conservatives are now demanding religious exemptions for everything.
Oklahoma is in an economic crisis with their state budget $1.3 billion in the red, so Republican lawmakers there got right to work with several important pieces of legislation: One, according to Reuters, was to approve a bill “that would make abortions a felony punishable by up to three years in prison for doctors who perform them” (since vetoed by the governor). And the other calls on Oklahoma’s representatives in Congress to impeach President Obama for violating good Christians’ rights to pee and change their gym shorts without any he-shes around.
“Lawmakers in the socially conservative state took up another measure on Friday that would allow students to claim a religious right to have separate but equal bathrooms and changing facilities to segregate them from transgender students.”
You know, because of all that stuff in the Bible forbidding hormone injections and gender-reassignment surgery. …
THANKS to HBO and Real Time with Bill Maher for making this program available on YouTube.
10 Bizarre Claims Of Alien/Human Hybrids
Of all the alien claims and theories out there, the ones that speak of an alien/human hybrid agenda might be the most outlandish. However, many people do make these claims to the world, and although they themselves sometimes note how crazy they sound, they insist that what they’re saying is real. While it is hard for even the most enthusiastic ufologist or alien researcher to take these statements entirely seriously, they are still very interesting ideas.
10. The Body In The Car
In July 2015, the story of a supposed alien hybrid government agent, who had been found decomposing in a car, appeared on several online media outlets. The man, who was eventually identified as Jeffrey Alan Lash, was found with over a thousand guns, as well as other weapons such as knives, machetes, and a bow and arrows. He also had seven tons of ammunition and cash amounting to $230,000.
In addition to the car he was discovered in—which was designed to be able to drive underwater, no less—he also owned 14 other vehicles.
His fiance, Catherine Nebron, made the off-the-wall announcement of his otherworldly origin through her attorney shortly after his death. She stated that Lash had confided in her several weeks before he died that he was working undercover for several unnamed government agencies. He had left Catherine with instructions to leave his body in the car when he died, and that “government agencies” would come to retrieve it. …
Trump’s personal, racially tinged attacks on federal judge alarm legal experts
Donald Trump’s highly personal, racially tinged attacks on a federal judge overseeing a pair of lawsuits against him have set off a wave of alarm among legal experts, who worry that the Republican presidential candidate’s vendetta signals a remarkable disregard for judicial independence.
That attitude, many argue, could carry constitutional implications if Trump becomes president.
U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is handling two class-action lawsuits against Trump University in San Diego, has emerged as a central target for Trump and his supporters in recent weeks. The enmity only escalated after Curiel ordered the release of embarrassing internal documents detailing predatory marketing practices at the for-profit educational venture; that case is set to go to trial after the November election. …
Trump University Promised To Help People Profit Off The Foreclosure Crisis
Picture this. An email pops into your inbox. It promises to help you “make some real money and live the kind of life that you thought was only for ‘rich’ people.” To help you “spend your life living it your way.”
The pitch sounds promising, because it’s December 2008, and the economy has collapsed all around you.
The stock market has tanked, major financial firms have gone under, and the federal government has just begun to enact an unprecedented $700 billion bailout in order to keep credit flowing through the financial sector. In Phoenix, Ariz., where you live, neighbors are being forced out of their homes due to foreclosure filings.
“The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes,” the email reads, next to a large image of billionaire Donald J. Trump. “Are you ready?”
This was the initial pitch for a 90-minute session that functioned as a gateway to Trump University. …
At least 33 US cities used water testing ‘cheats’ over lead concerns
Exclusive: Guardian investigation reveals testing regimes similar to that of Flint were in place in major cities including Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia
• Water departments to change lead-testing methods after investigation
At least 33 cities across 17 US states have used water testing “cheats” that potentially conceal dangerous levels of lead, a Guardian investigation launched in the wake of the toxic water crisis in Flint, Michigan, has found.
Of these cities, 21 used the same water testing methods that prompted criminal charges against three government employees in Flint over their role in one of the worst public health disasters in US history.
The crisis that gripped Flint is an extreme case where a cost-cutting decision to divert the city’s water supply to a polluted river was compounded by a poor testing regime and delays by environmental officials to respond to the health emergency.
The Guardian’s investigation demonstrates that similar testing regimes were in place in cities including Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit and Milwaukee. …
10 Otherworldly Sea Creatures You’ve Never Heard Of
The sea is filled with weird, alien, and obscure animals. Even creatures already peculiar, such as jellyfish and sea slugs, may take on a still odder form when adapted to a unique ecological niche.
10. Benthic Ctenophores
You might already be familiar with the Ctenopihores as animals called “comb jellies,” transparent invertebrates who usually use their beautiful, rippling cilia to swim through the water. Some species, however, don’t have the cilia and don’t swim at all, They slowly crawl around on the sea floor, mouth-down.
Branching into two large horns, they tend to resemble a cross between a slug and a pair of bunny ears, each horn able to extend a long, silky feeding tentacle into the water. Other, smaller species are transparent and amazingly camouflaged, while still others spend their entire lives clinging to the bodies of starfish. …
Kid breaks $15,000 Lego statue an hour after exhibit opens
Leggo my Lego! The artist who created the Lego “Zootopia” fox figure refuses compensation from the boy’s parents after the child shatters the blocky creature.
Artist Zhao with his creation before the incident.
Nick Wilde, the con-artist fox in the animated film “Zootopia,” is a pretty sly fellow. But even he couldn’t escape the clumsiness of one lone kid.
A Chinese Lego artist named Zhao spent three days and nights using the toy bricks to construct a human-size figure of Nick, which the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports was worth 100,000 yuan ($15,000, £10,000, AU$20,000). Zhao hurried to get it ready for the Lego Expo in Ningbo, China, where it met its demise Sunday faster than anyone could sing “What Does the Fox Say?” …
Dagger in Tutankhamun’s tomb was made with iron from a meteorite
Researchers who analysed metal composition of dagger within wrapping of mummified teenage king say it ‘strongly suggests an extraterrestrial origin’
A dagger entombed with King Tutankhamun was made with iron from a meteorite, a new analysis on the metal composition shows.
In 1925, archaeologist Howard Carter found two daggers, one iron and one with a blade of gold, within the wrapping of the teenage king, who was mummified more than 3,300 years ago. The iron blade, which had a gold handle, rock crystal pommel and lily and jackal-decorated sheath, has puzzled researchers in the decades since Carter’s discovery: ironwork was rare in ancient Egypt, and the dagger’s metal had not rusted.
Italian and Egyptian researchers analysed the metal with an x-ray fluorescence spectrometer to determine its chemical composition, and found its high nickel content, along with its levels of cobalt, “strongly suggests an extraterrestrial origin”. They compared the composition with known meteorites within 2,000km around the Red Sea coast of Egypt, and found similar levels in one meteorite. …
THIS DAY IN HISTORY: JUNE 2ND- THE DAY THE VANDALS CAME TO TOWN
Today in History: June 2, 455
Rome was already taking its last breaths when the Vandals came to town on June 2, 455 C.E. and began the sacking of the dying city, something the Vandals proved to be very good at across the Western Empire: crush floundering cities and kingdoms into complete oblivion. And under Gaiseric’s very capable rule, they did so with frightening efficiency.
When Gaiseric took over leadership of the Vandals in 428 C.E., he quickly launched an offensive on North Africa with his army, which included Vandals (naturally) and also ex-slaves, numerous Barbarians and others of “questionable” origins. They not only fought in battle, they terrorized the locals and looted the cities, towns and villages. There’s ample reason Vandal-ism has come to mean “willful and malicious destruction.” …
Can Neuroscience Understand Donkey Kong, Let Alone a Brain?
Two researchers applied common neuroscience techniques to a classic computer chip. Their results are a wake-up call for the whole field.
The human brain contains 86 billion neurons, underlies all of humanity’s scientific and artistic endeavours, and has been repeatedly described as the most complex object in the known universe. By contrast, the MOS 6502 microchip contains 3510 transistors, runs Space Invaders, and wouldn’t even be the most complex object in my pocket. We know very little about how the brain works, but we understand the chip completely.
So, Eric Jonas and Konrad Kording wondered, what would happen if they studied the chip in the style of neuroscientists? How would the approaches that are being used to study the complex squishy brain fare when used on a far simpler artificial processor? Could they re-discover everything we know about its transistors and logic gates, about how they process information and run simple video games? Forget attention, emotion, learning, memory, and creativity; using the techniques of neuroscience, could Jonas and Kording comprehend Donkey Kong?
No. They couldn’t. Not even close. …
Along the U.S.-Canada border, an invisible but hardening wall rises
For some folks living in a cluster of small towns straddling the U.S.-Canada border here, life could not feel more comfortably secure.
Six Canadian and U.S. checkpoints service the 2½ -mile stretch that cuts through the villages of Derby Line and Beebe Plain in Vermont and the town of Stanstead in Quebec. Street cameras, satellite and sensor surveillance, vehicle patrols and the occasional thumping helicopter overhead ensure that residents can’t budge without someone watching.
It’s no wonder that many don’t bother to lock their doors.
“We really feel safe,” said Laurie Dubois, 56, an American living on the Canadian side. With the cameras and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, she noted, “there’s not a whole lot of bad stuff going on.”
But the heightened security is a sign of the times that doesn’t sit well with all of the residents in these once close-knit cross-border communities tucked into the northern highlands of the Appalachian Mountains. …
5 Mysteries About Space That Might Have Horrifying Answers
NASA: Those wonderful eggheads with their rockets and their math and their math-rockets — they’ve got this whole space thing under control. Or so we like to think. In reality, even Earth’s best and brightest have scores of questions whose terrible answers could doom us all. Well … probably not. But that doesn’t stop our fevered imaginations from running wildly out of control whenever we consider these mysteries …
#5. Is There An Extra Planet Hiding In Our Solar System?
Imagine a messy clump not unlike the hair clogging your sink, only on a celestial scale. This wad of soggy detritus sits way out in the Kuiper belt, where Pluto and other small, icy bodies hang out. Also, the mysterious clump in question consists of said icy objects and not actual hair. This would be a very different entry otherwise.
The clump in space, not your sink. We have no idea
what’s in your sink, you animal.
Scientists weren’t quite sure what caused this, so they started running computer simulations of different things that might make them clump in the observed way. …
A New Origin Story for Dogs
The first domesticated animals may have been tamed twice.
Tens of thousands of years ago, before the internet, before the Industrial Revolution, before literature and mathematics, bronze and iron, before the advent of agriculture, early humans formed an unlikely partnership with another animal—the grey wolf. The fates of our two species became braided together. The wolves changed in body and temperament. Their skulls, teeth, and paws shrank. Their ears flopped. They gained a docile disposition, becoming both less frightening and less fearful. They learned to read the complex expressions that ripple across human faces. They turned into dogs.
Today, dogs are such familiar parts of our lives—our reputed best friends and subject of many a meme—that it’s easy to take them, and what they represent, for granted. Dogs were the first domesticated animals, and their barks heralded the Anthropocene. We raised puppies well before we raised kittens or chickens; before we herded cows, goats, pigs, and sheep; before we planted rice, wheat, barley, and corn; before we remade the world. …
A warning left on a nanny’s car. License plates stolen. And a top Pentagon official in big trouble.
The mystery that for weeks unnerved this quiet Capitol Hill neighborhood began with a warning placed on a nanny’s windshield.
“I know you are misusing this visitor pass to park here daily,” the April 4 note read. “If you do not stop I will report it, have your car towed and the resident who provided this to you will have his privileges taken away.”
Baffled, the young couple who employ the nanny sent out a message on the community email group asking for the note’s anonymous author to contact them. No one came forward.
Instead, two days later, the nanny’s license plates were stolen from her SUV, according to charging documents. Two days after that, another plate was stolen. Then, in late April, the thief struck once more — but this time the couple caught him on a video camera they had mounted inside their home’s front window.
And the alleged culprit? In an only-in-Washington story, police identified him as Bryan Whitman, a top Pentagon official who has worked at the Defense Department for more than two decades. …
10 False Advertising Promises That Cost Companies Millions
Taking advertisements with a grain of salt is definitely a good practice. However, for some, the dashed promises and deceit are just too much to bear. Dreams are broken, lofty expectations are shattered, and lawsuits are filed.
Some companies spend years in court and are forced to pay millions to compensate those they’ve wronged. Despite the trickery, many remain successful and vehemently deny any wrongdoing. But try selling that BS to a sad consumer who thought their waist would get slimmer and their genitalia would grow.
10. Nutella
It’s nutty, chocolaty, and downright delicious. Nutella takes basic foods and dresses them up in new, delicious forms. However, the hazelnut spread came under fire in 2012 for spreading some seriously false information to its consumers.
In its ads, the company claimed that Nutella was a healthy breakfast option for kids and had various nutritional benefits, which was quite the opposite of the information printed on the product label. Nutella actually contains over 20 grams of sugar and 11 grams of fat per serving.
A California mother sued Nutella, stating that she felt misled by the company and had been serving the sugary tidbit to her child without realizing its unhealthy ingredients. Apparently, rather than simply reading the nutritional label, she decided to put all her faith in the company’s advertisements, a decision that ended up costing Nutella over $3 million. …
Popstar: Celebrity Satire Done Right
The first film from Saturday Night Live’s Lonely Island trio gently mocks the fame of popstars like Justin Bieber.
Perhaps the biggest compliment you can give Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping is that it absolutely shouldn’t have worked. Woven whole-cloth from the sensibilities of the comedy team The Lonely Island, and inspired by the trio’s years making Saturday Night Live parodies of pop hits, Popstar could have ended up feeling like an overlong series of TV sketches, much like Key & Peele’s Keanu. And yet it mostly dodges those pitfalls by adopting a “mockumentary” approach that forgives its episodic structure.
Popstar doesn’t quite reach This Is Spinal Tap levels of satire (few things could), but as a send-up of the mores of today’s celebrity-obsessed culture, it largely succeeds.The film stars the Lonely Island frontman Andy Samberg as Conner4Real, a Justin Bieber-esque recording artist who left his lyricist Lawrence (Akiva Schaffer) and producer Owen (Jorma Taccone) in the dust on his way to the top, and is now faced with inevitable humbling failure on the fall back down. Like so many genre parodies, Popstar stumbles most when its plotting gets conventional, particularly when Conner rounds the bases for a third-act return to fame. But it makes up for that late swerve toward formula by being—simply put—really, really funny. …
This 24-Hour Clock Will Help You Slow Down
Time has always governed how people live. But the precision, and persistence, with which it is measured today leads some people to obsess over how they spend it. “There’s an epidemic of anxiety across the world, people feeling like they don’t have enough time,” says Scott Thrift. “I think that has a lot to do with how we relate to time.”
Nearly five years ago (but who’s counting), Thrift designed The Present, a clock with no numbers, just a single arm passing over a gradient of rainbow hues suggesting seasonality. The arm needed 365 days to complete one trip around the clock face. The arm ticked so slowly, it appeared not to move at all. It was an interesting way of thinking about time, and destroyed preconceptions of what “present” means. Thrift hoped looking at the clock would let you feel as if you had more time. Those advocating for more mindful living loved it, as did people eager to step off the hamster wheel of life. Thrift raised nearly $100,000 to make The Present. Today you can buy it from the MoMA Design Store.
Now, Thrift is back with a clock he calls Today. The hand makes one revolution every 24 hours, “turning the knob toward practicality,” he says. Like The Present, Today has no numbers and a color gradient—in this case the hues you might see glancing out of an airplane at 30,000 feet. …
Solved: The Mystery Of The Bearded Chickens
Move over, human hipsters, you’re not the only ones growing outrageous facial hair.
For years, farmers have noticed that some chickens have tufts of elongated feathers around their face and beak, making it appear like they had grown a beard. The cause of the feather beards was a mystery. Now, thanks to scientists in China, the mystery of the bearded chicken has been solved.
The answer appears in a study published in PLOS genetics on Thursday. Chinese scientists compared the DNA of bearded chickens to nonbearded chickens. The results led them to investigate a gene, HOXB8. Bearded chickens had multiple copies of HOXB8 and surrounding genes. Nonbearded chickens only had one copy of HOXB8.
No beard. Beard. Beard. Next!
…
WHY CLOCKS RUN CLOCKWISE
Pretty much everyone knows that if you’re asked to pass something clockwise around a table, you hand it to the person on your left because that is the same direction that the hands of a clock move. But what you may not know is that this standard direction is a function not only of timekeeping, but the Earth’s rotation and the happy accident that much of human civilization evolved in the Northern Hemisphere.
If you could look directly at the North Pole from space, it would appear to spin counterclockwise. Given that spin, when a stick is placed in the ground parallel to the Earth’s axis in, say, Egypt, the shadow cast by the stick as the Sun moves across the sky will move in a clockwise direction (notably, a similarly placed stick in Australia would cast a shadow that moves counterclockwise). …
Video Goodnesses
(and not-so-goodnesses)
(and not-so-goodnesses)
CAUTION: Some language may not be appropriate for work or children.