Crawling on the ground for hours at a time in the middle of winter at the mouth of a cave doesn’t sound like a particularly fun time, but for Finland-based photographer Konsta Punkka it’s a necessary sacrifice to get the perfect photograph … of a mouse. At the age of only 21, the budding wildlife photographer has proven himself wildly capable of capturing affectionate portraits at extremely close quarters of squirrels, birds, foxes, and other woodland animals.

“My main goal always is to try to capture the emotions and feelings my animals feel while I take the photos of them,” he shares with Colossal. “The animals health always comes first and then I get the shots if I can. All animal portraits that I have taken have been done with trust between me and animals. And with patience you earn the trust.”

Punkka has amassed a sizeable following on Instagram where he shares photographs from his travels around the world.

Spanish photographer Xavi Bou combines a series of photographs taken in succession to create one glorious image! More from “Ornitographies” below.

The level of disrepair leading up to this year’s Olympic Games in Rio has evolved into something that borders on the darkest comedy. When New Zealand sportsman Jason Lee was kidnapped by men wearing police uniforms Sunday, he tweeted it glibly, like he’d just slipped on a banana peel.

Womp womp. In the leadup to next month’s games, local officials had hoped (as does every Olympic host city) they would receive a huge boost in tourist cred. Instead, the Games have served to shine a harsh spotlight on a location with immense social, political, health (see: zika) and environmental issues. Everyone is watching Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons.

In Lee’s description in the New Zealand Herald, he was confronted by men in uniform, who threatened to arrest him if he didn’t go with them to a couple of ATMs and withdraw bribes. Whether they were actual law officers is unclear, but Lee seems understandably shaken.

"I'm not sure what's more depressing, the fact this stuff is happening to foreigners so close to the Olympic Games,” the Jiu Jitsu athlete said, “or the fact that Brazilians have to live in a society that enables this absolute bullshit on a daily basis.”

Last month two members of Australia’s Paralympic team were robbed at gunpoint while biking through a park; their bikes were stolen. And three members of the Spanish sailing team were also robbed back in May.

Rio officials keep reacting as if these are anomalies, little kinks they’re addressing appropriately. But the AP reports murders in Rio have sharply risen in the first half of 2016, with shootouts in Rio’s slums erupting daily. Additionally, police violence is spiking, as is violence against law enforcement (61 Rio officers killed since January).

"2016 has been a very bad year. We have seen a dramatic increase in homicides, robberies and other crimes," Ignacio Cano, a sociologist at the Violence Studies Lab of Rio de Janeiro State University, told the New Zealand Herald. "We lost a big opportunity to transform police and develop a new public safety model.”

There will be 85,000 police and soldiers on-hand for the games next month, double the presence at the 2012 Olympics in London. Still, skeptics remain doubtful of things to come. “This place is well and truly f***ked in every sense of the word imaginable," Lee wrote on Facebook.

Correction: A previous headline for this story called Lee an Olympic athlete. He was actually a professional athlete in Rio to attend the games.

It’s no secret that in the fashion industry, certain looks appear fresh one minute only to seem stale as week-old bread the next. In an attempt to stay abreast of rapidly shifting trends, some designers are going to extreme lengths, and for Tina Gorjanc, that means growing leather from human DNA.

Though Gorjanc’s designer jackets won’t be sourced from just any human DNA—they’ll be reproductions of Alexander McQueen’s very essence. Dubbed “Pure Human,” the project will use McQueen’s actual DNA to grow human skin that will then be tanned and conditioned to create clothes and accessories. But unlike your typical batch of animal leather, the human-made variety is susceptible to sunburn, allowing for strangely unique pieces.

On her website, Gorjanc describes the collection as “a critical design project that aims to address shortcomings concerning the protection of biological information and move the debate forward using current legal structure.” Having gone to the same school as McQueen, Gorjanc claimed the runner-up creative talent award for her graduate collection by using pig skin to demonstrate the proposed process.

But how was Gorjanc able to get her hands on Alexander McQueen’s genetic code for the real deal? Seeing as the ingenious designer died in 2010, that might seem like no easy task. Luckily, McQueen, never to be intimidated by the futuristic or macabre, sewed locks of his own hair into the labels of his Victorian-inspired garments for his own graduate collection at St. Martin’s in London, giving Gorjanc all the information needed to generate new skin. 

And with McQueen’s representatives on board with Pure Human, it looks like we might be wearing human skin sooner than you’d think. Incorporating McQueen’s tattoos and even his freckles into the textiles will make these garments some of the most personal yet. And if you think that’s weird, don’t forget people have been using human DNA in jewelry and art for millennia. From ancient Greeks adorning marble sculptures with human teeth and hair to diamonds made from compacted ashes, there’s no limit to the ways we can repurpose our bodies once we no longer need them for ourselves. Just don’t tell Buffalo Bill that. 

It’s hard to underestimate just how important composer John Williams’s music has been to the history of cinema. His iconic film scores for E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial, Superman, Schindler’s List and the Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jaws, Jurassic Park, and Harry Potter film franchises are some of the most recognizable compositions of the past century. To pay homage to this musical genius, 13 year-old-trumpeter, Bryce Hayashi, and flugelhorn player Michael Miller stood in front of Williams’s Los Angeles-area home and played the main theme from Star Wars for him.

While some celebrities might have a big problem with being disturbed in their own home, Williams graciously came out to greet the two musicians for a chat. It was a wonderful gesture by Williams because the 84-year-old composer has a lot of work on his plate. In addition to recently completing the scores for Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Steven Spielberg’s recently-released The BFG, Williams has signed on to do the eighth and ninth installments of the Star Wars franchise as well as the upcoming fifth Indiana Jones film. 

.@ThirdEyeBlind trolls #RNCinCLE pic.twitter.com/zXIKWdO5Hj

— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) July 20, 2016

Do you remember the 90’s modern rock hitmakers Third Eye Blind? The band behind songs like “Semi-Charmed Life” and “Jumper” have been on the comeback trail in recent years. This week, they got a gig playing at an event sponsored by the Recording Industry Association of America that was hosted next door to the Republican National Convention.

Events like these usually come and go without much attention. But Third Eye Blind singer Stephan Jenkins must feel like it’s 1996 all over again as his name is suddenly everywhere. That’s because he used the concert to brilliantly troll the Republicans in Cleveland and has the internet laughing and applauding his antics.

Throughout the show, Jenkins stressed his band’s support for progressive issues, asking the those in the crowd to, “Raise your hand if you believe in science,” vocalizing support for LGBT rights and other issues, often earning jeers and boos from the conservative audience. 

“You can boo all you want but I am the motherf**ing artist up here,” Jenkins said in a video from the show posted on Twitter.

He also reportedly refused to play any of the bands classic hits, with the exception of “Jumper,” which he noted is about a former gay friend who committed suicide over anti-LGBT prejudice. "To love this song is to take into your heart the message and to actually, actually have a feeling to arrive and move forward, and not live your life in fear and imposing that fear on other people," Jenkins said.

Afterward, the band released a statement clarifying that it did not in fact play the RNC, but was there as part of its efforts to support the RIAA’s program Musicians on Call, which puts on concerts for bedside patients. 

On Monday, President Barack Obama became the first sitting president in American history to author an academic paper.

An article titled, “United States Health Care Reform: Progress to Date and Next Steps,” published under the name, “Barack Obama, JD,” in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) defends the Affordable Care Act with extensive support of its progress.

In summation, the paper presents the facts regarding Obamacare and recommends how the next president could continue to improve upon US health care. Obama writes, “Since the Affordable Care Act became law, the uninsured rate has declined by 43 percent, from 16.0 percent in 2010 to 9.1 percent in 2015, primarily because of the law’s reforms.”

Obama continues on to acknowledge that, notwithstanding opposition, the nation has come a long way following implementation of the Affordable Care Act; however, there is work yet to be done. He writes:

“Despite this progress, too many Americans still strain to pay for their physician visits and prescriptions, cover their deductibles, or pay their monthly insurance bills; struggle to navigate a complex, sometimes bewildering system; and remain uninsured.”

The president then suggests a few ways in which the next POTUS could perpetuate this founded progress, including providing a “public option” for more affordable health care coverage in comparison to existing plans offered by private companies. Obama also mentions the need for the federal government to lower the cost of prescription drugs.

Though the article is not peer-reviewed, as most JAMA-published journals, Editor-in-Chief Howard Bauchner confirmed the piece went through multiple rounds of editing and fact-checking prior to publishing. Bauchner told Bloomberg, “While we of course recognized the author is the president of the United States, JAMA has enormously high standards and we certainly expected the president to meet those standards.”

Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton has been vocal throughout the 2016 presidential race about her support for taxpayer-funded insurance options, positioning herself in line with Obama’s suggestions outlined in the essay. Presidential candidate Donald Trump, however, has vowed to repeal the Affordable Care Act should he be voted into office.

In the conclusion of the article, President Obama writes:

“I will repeat what I said 4 years ago when the Supreme Court upheld the ACA: I am as confident as ever that looking back 20 years from now, the nation will be better off because of having the courage to pass this law and persevere. As this progress with health care reform in the United States demonstrates, faith in responsibility, belief in opportunity, and ability to unite around common values are what makes this nation great.”

Read President Barack Obama’s full academic journal here.

In an attention-grabbing piece of social media hoopla, England’s favorite rogue Prince Harry aired his HIV test live on Facebook for all the world to see on Thursday. The goal was to promote awareness, both of the importance of getting tested and how to show just how easy it is. 

It was a bold move for the royal family’s first-ever Facebook Live video, following in the footsteps of Harry’s mother Princess Diana, and her fervent activism on behalf of HIV awareness. The prince admits to being nervous at first, then visibly loosens up as the test proceeds.

The entire video—and the procedure itself—lasts a grand total of five minutes. Prince Harry receives a rapid HIV test, which involves nothing more than a pinprick, a smear, and results within a minute (the prince tested negative). This particular test screens for the antibodies produced by the body to combat HIV.

"Whether you're a man, woman, gay, straight, black, white, even ginger; why wouldn't you come in and get a test?" the jovial prince quipped.

The event was lauded by HIV prevention organizations as a triumph. “Not only does it show His Royal Highness’s genuine and personal commitment to tackling the HIV epidemic,” said Ian Green, head of Terrence Higgins Trust, in a statement, “it will amplify a message to millions all over the world: testing for HIV is easy, quick and nothing to be feared." 

This week, history was made when Dr. Carla Hayden, CEO of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore’s library system, was confirmed by the Senate as the first woman and first African American Librarian of Congress, a position that, until now, has solely been held by white men.

Hayden’s appointment has overwhelmingly been met with praise and touted as long overdue. But it’s significant for a lot of reasons beyond those that are symbolic in nature. The position of Librarian of Congress is one of incredible power and scope, most notably because the individual in the role oversees the U.S. Copyright Office, ultimately deciding what is and is not considered a copyright violation. In addition, Hayden’s staff of thousands will follow her leadership in the preservation and continued acquisition of a vast array of texts, documents, and oral recordings in over 450 languages.

Hayden will be the first Librarian of Congress appointed during the internet age. Her predecessor, James Billington, was appointed during the Reagan administration, and frequently criticized for what was perceived as reluctance to usher America’s library online. In 2000, he stated, “It is dangerous to promote the illusion that you can get anything you want by sitting in front of a computer screen.” A decade and a half later, he still preferred faxing to emails.

Over the next 10 years of her appointment, Hayden will have the unique distinction of developing a robust agenda to adapt technology in innovative ways for present and future generations. She’s had good practice, overseeing a $114 million renovation of the Baltimore Library to get it up to date for the digital era. As reported in Oregon Live, Senator Barbara A. Mikulski said of Hayden’s work on the project that “she not only brought the library into the modern age, she avoided technical boondoggles. She's a transformational leader.” The library’s website even features “Carla’s Most Recent Picks,” which include a book about presidential dads, inherited disorders, and Champagne, Uncorked: The House of Krug and the Timeless Allure of the World's Most Celebrated Drink.

In a video released by the White House upon her nomination, Hayden describes libraries as “opportunity centers”—safe spaces that provide access to information and computers to anyone regardless of class, race, creed, or gender. This devotion to the notion of library as refuge may have delayed her appointment in the Senate, which was held up by anonymous Republicans for five weeks. Upon Hayden’s nomination in February, The Nation suggested that Senate Republicans might block Hayden’s appointment in an article titled “This Radical Librarian May Soon Run The World’s Largest Library,” stating that her personal biography is peppered with examples of her activism that might inform her leadership, including her actions during protests that followed the death of Freddie Grey, when she turned Baltimore Library into a community center where protestors could go to receive food or even utilize a meeting room. 

In her opening remarks during her confirmation hearing in April, Hayden expressed her respect for the creative process and the importance of digitizing books to make them accessible. “Of all the titles I've had in my professional career I'm most proud to be called a librarian,” she said.

Turkish citizens, already reeling from a recent devastating terrorist attack, and likely expecting another, were shocked to instead find the military on the streets after dinner Friday night. Suddenly, the nation’s airports and bridges were closed and the state media shutdown as one of the world’s largest armies seized the country with tanks and jets in tow.

Helicopters flew overhead and blasts could be heard. The city of Istanbul, filled with 14 million people, previously buzzing with pedestrians and buses went into a frenzy as the military declared martial law. Bomb blasts shook windows. On a normally quiet street on the Asian side of Istanbul, gunshots could be heard close to midnight. Sonic booms used by militaries to keep people home exploded across neighborhoods. People lined up at the ATM to withdraw money while others shopped at grocery stores to stock up on food. Cars honked in support of the coup on the street while protestors shouted “God is Great” on the sidewalk.

Neighbors gathered in common areas of buildings to talk, smoke and pace. “I’m afraid of a civil war,” one building guard told his buddies who drank tea and nodded. “A terrorist attack we were expecting but this?” said the guard’s friend. “Just sit tight and watch the show,” a third friend said watching protesters march by, drinking his tea.

Cars blared music with patriotic songs. Cengiz Tomar, a professor of Middle Eastern Studies, stood in line at the ATM machines nearby his home. People are getting money out because political upheavals in the past have shut down banks, he said. He said he thinks it’s going to be a failed coup. Even if Turks don’t support the government, they need to oust it through elections, he said.

The last military coup in Turkey occurred in 1980. Little blood was shed but dissenters were tortured and disappeared after the takeover. This time, Turkey is fiercely polarized and fragmented between secularists and two factions of Islamists. The ousted Islamist Justice and Development Party, known as the AKP, has majority support but it’s at odds with the Islamist Gulenists whose leader, Fethulla Gulen, is currently living in exile in Pennsylvania. Reports from some officials say Gulen supporters and secularists are involved in the seizure. However, the Alliance for Shared Values, the group associated with Gulen, denies this claim, telling the Associated Press, "we condemn any military intervention in (the) domestic politics of Turkey."

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan used FaceTime to tell Turks a small group in the military was responsible and would be defeated. He urged his supporters to protest the coup and not long after, the sound of demonstrators echoed from different neighborhoods. Hundreds gathered at one of his homes in Istanbul in his defense.

The situation on the ground is fluid, facts unclear on who’s responsible and why. Before 3 a.m. local time, the state run TRT TV station was back in government control.

UPDATE 10:30 A.M. Pacific Time: Friday night’s military coup against Turkey’s civilian leadership appears to have failed, with 2,800 military personnel who’d participated detained as of publication. Recent estimates put the death toll at approximately 300, wounded at 1,400. 

Dallas Police Chief David Brown is being the lawman that America needs right now.

Following the horrific events of Thursday night’s sniper attack that left five police officers dead and seven more wounded at what was a peaceful demonstration in the massive Texas city, Brown has reiterated his department’s commitment to community policing and the use of de-escalation tactics.

“We won’t militarize our policing standards, but we will do it in a much safer way,” explained Brown at a press conference. “We are not going to let a coward who would ambush police officers change our democracy. Our city, our country, is better than that.”

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, who was standing alongside Brown to field questions, reiterated his Chief of Police’s point, saying, “This police department trained in de-escalation far before cities across America did it. We are one of the premier community policing cities in the country. We are working hard to improve, and there’s always room for improvement. But we are best in class we feel.”

And Rawlings and Brown aren’t just tossing out empty words, either. The data seems to bear out the Dallas Mayor’s assessment of a top-tier department. BuzzFeed reports the DPD’s excessive force complaints dropped more than 60 percent between 2009 and 2014, thanks to a deliberate campaign that trains officers engage with suspects calmly and slowly, instead of immediately resorting to shouting or uses of force.

The Department also apparently has seen declines in officer-related shootings, and has developed a policy of transparency around incidents that do occur. They maintain a website where people can access data about a decade’s worth of police-involved shootings in the city, and they keep a second website “that catalogues all police encounters that result in an officer drawing a weapon, using a baton, or physically restraining a suspect,” according to Slate.

Major General Max Geron, head of the DPD’s Media Relations and Community Affairs and Planning Units, told The Washington Post two years ago that from his perspective, “The ideal police response to a protest is no response at all,” adding, “You want to let people exercise their constitutional rights without interference.” (Geron received his Master’s from the Naval Postgraduate School, and wrote his thesis on policing and protests examined through reactions to the Occupy demonstrations in Oakland, California.)

Before the shooting started on Thursday night, Dallas police officers were posing for pictures with fellow citizens, one even featuring a sign that said “No justice, no peace.”

In the wake of Ferguson, Missouri, when the city rioted after the shooting of Michael Brown, Dallas Police Chief Brown started reviewing his department’s policies so it could proactively address problematic practices. According to the Dallas Morning News, he wanted to, “make changes voluntarily rather than end up under a court-ordered consent decree as has occurred in other major big cities.”

No department will have a perfectly clean record, and the inherently violent nature of law enforcement will mean that incidents will occur that result in deaths. But Chief Brown and Mayor Rawlings have demonstrated a commitment to better policing that has yielded a concretely better police force in its community. That’s a strong indicator that in the wake of Thursday’s sniper attack, the Dallas Police Department is willing and able to be better still. 

The great Henry David Thoreau once said, “This world is but a canvas to our imagination.” Well, L.A.-area comedian-prankster Jeff Wysaski, aka Obvious Plant, uses the world as his canvass by pranking the general public with funny flyers, signs and products. Recently, he took his project to the Los Angeles Zoo where he planted fake animals facts that made zoo patrons do double-takes. One poster outside of a bear habitat was designed to give zoo visitors a scare.

ANIMAL FACT: Never trust a bear. They are very sneaky. If you don’t see our bear in its pen it means HE”S ESCAPED OMG HE’S RIGHT BEHIND YOU DON’T TURN AROUND JUST RUN. 

The Obvious Plant project grew out of Wysaki’s boredom with the current state of comedy. “I was somewhat bored with these more traditional humor avenues, so I started looking for something new,” Wysaski told Fast Company. “Late last year, I hit on the idea of ‘street humor’—for lack of a better term. I’d done a bit of this in the past, but the more I thought about it, the more ideas I had, so I felt the project warranted it’s own name and website.” If you’d like to see Wysaki’s work for yourself, unfortunately, according to Zoo spokeswoman April Spurlock, the signs were removed June 30th. 

Here are a few of the flyers Wysaki hung at the Los Angeles Zoo.

The filibuster initiated by Connecticut Senator Christopher Murphy is over, and with it, comedienne journalist Samantha Bee’s live tweeting of the 15-hour long event.

The face of Full Frontal was running commentary like this filibuster was her Game of Thrones. As we’ve come to expect from the sharpest host in late night, she was incisive, funny, a little bawdy and entirely on point with her tone. So here are Bee’s best tweets from Senator Murphy’s marathon political stand.

Then there’s this. What?!

Meanwhile, Donald Trump whipped up the devout racists, isolationists, xenophobes, bigots and fear-mongers in his discipleship by calling for surveillance of mosques. So if you smelled burning garbage in your immediate vicinity, that’s just the odor of Donald Trump eminating from your screens.

Poor, unlovely opaque couché. This lowly cousin of olive drab may be the only color that’s designed to repulse consumers, rather than entice them. After extensive research and focus grouping, the UK government determined it is the ugliest color in the world—and they’re putting it on every cigarette pack.

“It’s used to deter you, to make you feel sick,” says UK-based Karen Haller, who consults on color psychology for big brands. “This particular sludgy green is like decay. You would never get this reaction for lime green or grass green or forest green.”

Opaque couché, known as Pantone 448C among certain crowds, was one of many ugly ducklings presented to 1,000 smokers by global marketing agency GfK. “Dirty” and “death” were words that came up again and again with this one—opaque couché was perfect.

The UK recently made draconian changes to their tobacco marketing laws. All branding has been removed from cigarette packages, a tactic that proved a strong smoking deterrent in this 2013 study. The new packs are 60% covered in health warnings. Health warnings and opaque couché, that is. 

Like standing up for an unpopular child, Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, defended Pantone 448C to the Guardian: “At the Pantone Color Institute, we consider all colours equally,” she said. Eiseman then mentioned opaque couché might look nice on a sofa.

GfK’s study was first conducted in Australia, several years back. When the Australian government stamped the ugly color on its own cigarette packaging, they initially called it “olive green”—until the olive industry freaked out. “To associate any food with cigarettes is a thoughtless thing to do, especially one that's had a very good reputation as being a healthy product,” Lisa Rowntree, chief executive of the Australian Olive Association, told The Sunday Age. “You could have called it 'drab green' or 'khaki green' or, better still, not used green at all.'' 

Color is the first thing our brains absorb on a product package, according to Haller, before shapes or words or a logo. “The job of a brand is to align the color—which reaches you on a subconscious level—with the rest of the messaging,” she says. It may not be voluntary branding, but opaque couché certainly aligns with the new health warnings. (Research participants also associated the color with “Tar”.)

If Haller had conducted the focus group testing, her questions would have been more nuanced and probing: “But how does this color make you feel?” Even so, she suspects her results would have been the same as GfK’s. Haller claims she loves all colors, and yet: “[Opaque couché] really makes you think of rotting.”

Update: Hyperallergic mounted a defense of opaque couché this morning, claiming it’s very similar to the color of Mona Lisa’s shawl.

Blink, and you’ll miss it. Secreted amongst weeds growing in the cracks of sidewalks or hidden in a tiny pile of trash, street artist Slinkachu creates site-specific interventions of miniature people living just under our feet. More than just hiding tiny figurines in public places, each of his artworks are carefully considered, crafted, and installed before the artist takes a photo to document it. While clearly humorous in nature, Slinkachu’s pieces touch on much larger ideas of environment, globalization, and a culture of isolation often found in large cities. Via Andipa Gallery:

These figures embody the estrangement spurred by the over-whelming nature of the modern metropolis, and incite a renewed perspective of the everyday urban experience to those who find them. This sense of isolation and melancholy, however, is accompanied by sense of irony and humour that makes Slinkachu’s commentary all the more poignant.

You can see more of his little people artworks on Instagram and at Andipa Gallery. (via This Isn’t Happiness)

All images ©2016 LEGO Group

LEGO designers have developed a new flashback kit, an advanced model that replicates many of the iconic elements of a vintage 1960 Volkswagon Beetle. Built using 1,167 pieces, the bright blue replica has several operational features, including a pop-up hood and truck, flip-down seats, and a removable roof to peep the steering wheel and other accessories found inside.

Designers made sure not to leave out any detail, including a model of the original 4-cylinder air-cooled engine, fuel tank, rounded mudguards, interchangeable license plates, and tiny window decals. On the roof of the vehicle, LEGO also added a rack that fits a tiny surfboard and cooler containing ice and bottled drinks. In total, the new kit is 15 centimeters high, 29 centimeters long, and 12 centimeters wide. You can learn more about the details of the kit in the video below before it becomes available to the public on July 17. (via Designboom)

In the aftermath of the Orlando mass shooting, the largest of its kind in American history, many people have asked why our politicians continually fail to take action on gun control. Even the most basic, routine background check proposals have stalled in the wake of horrific events, despite polls routinely showing that a overwhelming majority of people support tightening restrictions on access to firearms for those with criminal records, mental health issues or other potential red flags.

That cause may have just gotten a jump start in the U.S. Senate today, where Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) has launched a filibuster (watch live here on C-SPAN) in an attempt to force the governing body to vote on legislation that would ban terrorists from purchasing firearms and require universal background checks on future gun purchases. “I've had enough and I just couldn’t bring myself to come back to the Senate this week and pretend like this is just business as usual,” Murphy said Wednesday in remarks posted by Roll Call. “We've got to find a way to come together. Now I don't know how long this will take but I'm going to stand here and hold the floor while we give time to our colleagues to try and find a path forward.”  

“I'm going to remain on this floor until we get some signal, some sign that we can come together on these two measures, that we can get a path forward on addressing this epidemic in a meaningful, bipartisan way,” Murphy added as he took to the Senate floor Wednesday morning.

Though rarely used, a filibuster holds up action on the Senate floor, so long as a legislator refuses to step down during their turn speaking. It was most famously used in the film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. But in reality, it’s most infamously been used by folks like former Sen. Strom Thurmond, who stood on the Senate floor for more than 24 hours straight to oppose the Civil Rights Act in 1957. Ted Cruz recently also held a 21 hour filibuster in a failed attempt to end Obamacare. But in this case, it might be the catalyst to bringing some attention, and momentum, to the gun control debate.

Murphy has been joined by fellow Democrats Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) in his filibuster. “I've cleared my entire day," Booker said in remarks carried by Politico. "I've cleared my evening events ... so that I can stay on this floor and support Sen. Murphy.”

Though Democrats and Republicans are about as far off as two sides can be on the issue of gun rights, Politico says there were some early potential signs of compromise, noting that Michael Bloomberg’s gun control group “Everytown for Gun Safety” revealed it was working on a compromise with Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) on mesures that would keep suspected terrorists from buying guns.

Last week a group of former Walmart employees from around the country—allegedly laid off because of their labor organizing—traveled thousands of miles to the annual shareholder meeting in Bentonville, Arkansas. In a telling moment, the activists got a half-hour of face time with Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, finishing things off with a friendly photo shoot.

In another telling moment, the organizers were later evicted from Walmart property by armed security personnel.

Last week’s action was the culmination of several years of toil, a quest for what many Walmart employees see as their due. They’re fighting for reasonable wages. They’re fighting for a sane pregnancy policy. They’re fighting for full-time positions, with benefits. They’re fighting for the very right to fight. 

“People always ask me ‘Is it really that bad to work at Walmart?’” says former employee Venanzi Luna. “I tell them, ‘If you’re not into basic rights and respect, and you like being treated like an animal, then hey Walmart’s your place!’”

Luna was an associate at Walmart’s location in Pico Rivera, California (a working-class Los Angeles suburb). This store is the second largest employer in town behind the school district—500 families rely on Wal-Mart paychecks. Many of its stores are in communities like this, where a lack of manufacturing and other entry-level employers build a deep reliance on the company—and a fear to speak out.

Back in 2012, Luna and several Pico Rivera co-workers started balking at various labor practices, casually discussing what could be done. Store management was none too enthused. “There’s a practice called ‘coaching’ at Walmart, after you’re overheard saying something the company doesn’t like,” says Annelise Orleck, a Dartmouth history professor who’s writing a book on the new global labor movement. “A manager takes you—it’s typically a male manager and a female employee—into a closed room. Blinds are drawn, threats and intimidation ensue. It’s demoralizing.”

Luna and her co-workers were not easily spooked. In fall of 2012, they became the first U.S. Walmart location to stage a strike. Under the name OUR Walmart (Organization United for Respect), and with the support of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, the workers continued to agitate and stage periodic strikes. Finally in April of last year, the Pico Rivera store and four other Walmart locations were closed indefinitely—with five hours notice—for “plumbing issues.” 

“There is a strong sense that closing these stores was a punitive action,” says Denise Barlage, another Pico Rivera employee-turned-activist, “that we were being given a message.” Walmart denies these claims, though Barlage, Luna and all the store’s other labor organizers were not rehired when the store reopened last November. Due to an injunction, Barlage cannot set foot inside a Walmart. 

Make no mistake, however—national progress is being made. The National Labor Relations Board has repeatedly sided against Walmart in labor disputes, citing violations such as surveilling, threatening and firing activist employees. Last year, Walmart raised all employee wages to at least $9/hour, then in January they promised to give further raises to 1.2 million employees. And Walmart’s ungenerous policies towards pregnant employees were given an upgrade last year.

Organizers are nowhere close to done, however. Changes to the pregnancy policy were seen as lukewarm (pregnant workers can now receive lighter physical duties), so an OUR Walmart subgroup called Respect the Bump continues to agitate. And the wage increases, while welcome, still fall short of the 15-dollar national average for retail workers. Another subgroup named 15 at Walmart soldiers on.

“When we started out, we were talking with maybe 100 [Walmart] associates in our store,” says Luna. “Then people at other stores saw what we were doing and were like, ‘Damn, if they can do that and not get fired, maybe we can too!’ It started a movement.”

Wal-Mart did not return a request for comment.

Security cameras are usually installed to deter people from committing crimes. But down in Louisiana, Hollie Breaux Mallet noticed something entirely unexpected on her security footage.  A young boy kept sneaking into her garage in order to steal a few brief moments with her dog, Duchess. He’d routinely ride up to her property, lay down his bike, run into the garage, hug the dog and scamper off like he had just thrown a grenade.

To solve the mystery of the boy’s identity, Mallet posted security footage of a recent incident on Facebook to see if anyone knew who he was.

Soon after, the boy’s mother, Ginger Clement Breaux, saw the video and realised it was her son, Josh. She was touched by the video because their family dog, Bella, died last year and Josh still wasn’t over it. “Josh talks about your dog all the time!” Breaux commented on the post. “Every time we pass he looks to see if she was sitting where he could see her. Just didn’t know he was doing things like this.” 

Breaux knew her son was acting out of love, but still felt conflicted about the video. “Last night when I first saw it, I was torn as a momma being happy and upset because he knows he shouldn’t be on someone’s property,” she wrote. “But I wake up this morning more happy that he just absolutely adores dogs so much.” Mallet was just excited to learn who the boy was and didn’t mind that he was sneaking onto her property. “So mystery solved guys,” she wrote, “hope this sweet little boy Josh continues to come play and love up on Duchess! A dog is a friend for life!”

Breaux then played the video for her son. 

After watching the video on Facebook, Josh received permission from his mother and Ms. Mallet to stop on by and play with Duchess. Breaux posted a few photos of the two playing together for the first time without it being in secret.

Country music icon Dolly Parton has a long history of standing up for the LGBT community. Her progressive stance on gay rights has been seen as a bold move for a performer in an industry with a huge conservative fan base. Back in 2014, the singer-songwriter spoke out against intolerant Christians saying, “They know that I completely love and accept [gays]...I think everybody should be allowed to be who they are, and to love who they love. I don’t think we should be judgmental. Lord, I’ve got enough problems of my own to pass judgment on somebody else,” she said.

So, last week, some were shocked when Parton said she wouldn’t cancel her North Carolina performance scheduled for June 7th. Performers such as Bruce Springsteen, Ringo Starr, Boston, Nick Jonas, Pearl Jam and Demi Lovato have all recently canceled performances in the state due to its anti-transgender HB2 “bathroom” law. Parton says her and her band decided to perform in the Tar Heel State because she believes they “will serve better from the stage.”

But just because Parton is playing North Carolina does not mean she supports HB2. While speaking with CNN Money the brassy star came out in support of transgender rights saying, “I don’t judge people and I try not to get too caught up in the controversy of things. I hope that everybody gets a chance to be who and what they are,” she added. And concluded her statement in pure Dolly style saying, “I just know if I have to pee, I’m going to pee—I don’t care where it’s going to be.”

Jessie Graff is a national hero. Actually, she’s two of them. The stuntwoman has a regular gig on the Supergirl tv show but decided to dress in a Wonder Woman outfit for her appearance on American Ninja Warrior.

And what an appearance it was. Graff completely demolishes the challenge, becoming the first woman to complete the first course. “That’s as good as we’ve seen anyone!” one of the announcers shouts out early in her run.

Seriously, this is a master class in strength, poise and pure athleticism. A former pole vaulter at the University of Nebraska, and black belt in Taekwondo the 32-year-old is a veteran of American Ninja Warrior but truly set herself apart with this performance, offering inspiration for women and men everywhere who dream of taking it to the next level. 

Photos by Jon Kay

Elementary students at Bridge Farm Primary School in Bristol arrived this morning to discover an eye-opening new mural by Banksy that appeared sometime in the night, but the placement wasn’t random: the building itself is used for a house bearing elusive street artist’s name. Several weeks ago the school held a competition to rename houses and the winners were Brunel, Blackbeard, Cabot and Banksy (the artist’s work first appeared in the city in the early 1990s). When the students returned from half-term they found the new mural on a blank wall of the building.

The new piece depicts a scribbled figure of a child playing with a stick and hoop, but the hoop has been replaced with a giant flaming tire. Perhaps not the inspirational motif you’d expect to adorn a primary school, but we imagine it must be inline with their sense of humor. The mural was also accompanied by a fantastic note:

“Dear Bridge Farm School, thanks for your letter and naming a house after me. Please have a picture, and if you don’t like it, feel free to add stuff. I’m sure the teachers won’t mind. Remember, it’s always easier to get forgiveness than permission. Much love, Banksy.”

(via Arrested Motion)

Photo by Jon Kay

Photo by Jon Kay

Photo by Jon Kay

Nothing can ruin a relaxing weekend or holiday like an email from the office. Even if there’s no need to take action until Monday, the unwanted intrusion of professional life can really suck the joy out of a Sunday afternoon barbecue.

That’s why the country that’s famous for giving its employees 30 days off a year and 16 weeks of full-paid family leave in May 2016 made itself even cooler with its new “right to disconnect” rule.

In France, if you’re a company of 50 employees or more, you cannot email an employee after typical work hours. The labor law amendment has come about because studies show that in the digital age, it’s increasingly difficult for people to distance themselves from the workplace during their off hours. This new provision allows people to get the full advantage of their time off.

“All the studies show there is far more work-related stress today than there used to be, and that the stress is constant,” Benoit Hamon of the French National Assembly told the BBC. “Employees physically leave the office, but they do not leave their work. They remain attached by a kind of electronic leash — like a dog. The texts, the messages, the emails — they colonize the life of the individual to the point where he or she eventually breaks down.”

The rule stipulates that companies must negotiate policies that limit the spillover of work into their employees’ private lives. Although there are no penalties for violations, companies are to establish “charters of good conduct” that specify the times which employees are free from being digitally connected to their workplaces.

This right to disconnect amendment was passed as part of a controversial French labor law that some say will weaken unions and enhance employee job insecurity. The digital disconnect amendment was the one part of the law that’s been viewed favorably by the French public. 

Why build a clock that lasts for 10,000 years? Because the future is always getting shorter and shorter.

“Everybody was doing things faster and faster. I needed to slow down, stretch out, and think on a different time scale.

Any engineer wants to build something that lasts. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy to build. From the beginning I wanted to make a little model of the clock, and then make a bigger one and a bigger one. I finally realized the clock couldn’t go in a building—it had to be in a mountain.

I’m very optimistic about the future. I’m not optimistic because our problems are small … I’m optimistic because our capacity to deal with problems is great.”

###

Tech, in all its iterations and corollaries, tends to drown out most conversation about the current state of San Francisco. Are young tech workers destroying the city’s cultural and demographic core? Is it a bubble? What’s up with those Google buses? A slice of toast costs how much now?

But virtually all of San Francisco’s media outlets -- newspaper, magazine, TV, radio, blog -- want you to focus on something else, at least for a day. San Francisco is plagued with an epic and persistent homeless problem, and it’s time to start talking about it. For one day, on June 29, media competitors are forgetting all their traditional rivalries to blitz the city with homeless coverage.

“It’s like a proof of principle for the city,” says Jon Steinberg, editor in chief of San Francisco magazine. “If all these independent businesses and individuals can set aside their differences and break down their little fiefdoms, just think of what our government agencies could do if they followed suit.”

In 2016, it’s fair to say that media is fractured -- consumers access news in an unprecedented number of formats, from a vast array of outlets. The idea here is to flood the city with coverage from almost all of these news sources, so no one can avoid thinking about the homeless. This project is the brainchild of Audrey Cooper, head editor at the San Francisco Chronicle. “The thought is, there is not anywhere you could turn that day where you aren’t forced to look at this,” says Michael Gray, enterprise and investigations editor at the Chronicle. 

Gray is Cooper’s point person in the newsroom. While she builds partnerships and tends to big-picture strategy, he will manage the reporters and stories his paper is devoting to the cause. Though there is one official day for the citywide media event, the Chronicle intends to focus on homeless issues for the entire week of June 29th. It’s a massive project, and there are a host of moving parts to wrangle.

“Instead of just bemoaning the fact that this problem exists,” says Gray, “we want to move the dialogue in another direction.”

At last count, 30 organizations had pledged their involvement. This includes all the local television and radio stations, the San Francisco Examiner (Chronicle’s daily competitor), SF-based Mother Jones magazine, even the local arms of Buzzfeed and Mashable. Every outlet will tackle the problem differently, but the collective effect will be a deluge. 

San Francisco’s homeless population approached 6,700 at last count, plus around 850 homeless youth. The problem is very apparent when you walk through many city neighborhoods, with de facto Hoovertowns lining scattered boulevards, pervasive smells of urine and feces, distressed individuals accosting passersby. Cooper told the New York Times a colorful tale of losing her cool when a homeless couple had sex in front of her infant child. It was a formative moment, part of her impetus for the entire project.

It’s not like the residents of San Francisco -- or its government agencies -- are unaware of the problem. This is common water cooler talk, but the tenor is often anecdotal, lacking in hope or meaningful analysis. (Sometimes it’s downright awful.) But the leaders of this project feel the problem is not endemic to the city -- progress can be achieved. “Instead of just bemoaning the fact that this problem exists,” says Gray, “we want to move the dialogue in another direction.”

The Chronicle has devoted much ink to homelessness in the past, but this time will be somewhat different. Instead of the classic journalistic approach of simply shining light on a problem, their reporters intend to present an array of potential solutions. They won’t purport to have all the answers, but they want to at least acknowledge the problem can be tackled.

Some outlets are shying from the Chronicle’s solutions-driven approach. Public radio affiliate KQED, another of the leaders in this project, plans to stick with what they are calling “pure journalism.” San Francisco magazine intends to provide political analysis -- “Something we’re good at,” says Steinberg -- as well as a huge, data-driven series of profiles of homeless individuals, produced in collaboration with outside partners.

“This is not just some West Coast hippie dippie thing,” says Steinberg. “San Francisco has the same kind of experienced and jaded journalists as you'll find anywhere. I’ve lived and worked in other cities -- including New York -- and I think so many places would jump at the chance to embrace this level of real journalism.”

If the future looks anything like the Met Gala red carpet looked last night, it’s going to be boring, and rest too heavily on conventional tastes. The theme, Manus X Machina, should have inspired more outlandish and innovative designs, but celebrities and designers alike were inhibited by a deference to traditional beauty and a lack of imagination. Even Lady Gaga looked comparatively normal in a bedazzled body suit and jacket. The truth is, “the intersection of art and technology” is a bit of cliche in the creative industry. Too often, it serves as a placeholder for “the future”. But that interpretation ignores the realities we’re living in now, a present in which unmanned planes trawl the skies and surveillance technology is helping corporations and governments build robust databases of our facial maps. What does fashion look like when it takes into account our high-surveilled environments, or the facts of climate change? Here are some suggestions for our tech-challenged celeb colleagues:

Stealth Wear “Anti-Drone” Burqa by Undisclosed LLC

This metal-plated garment shield against thermal surveillance used by military drones. The interior is lined with black silk and it comes with a thermally reflective visor while the silver-plated exterior is hand oxidized with a brush stroke camouflage pattern. The item will set you back $2,500, but this is drone protection we’re talking about. No amount of “fiber optic woven organza” in a Zac Posen gown (that would likely cost more than double) is going to protect you from that.

Camoflash, An Anti-Paparazzi Handbag by Adam Harvey

This project is the creation of Berlin artist and researcher Adam Harvey, who wanted to create a functional handbag that would also protect celebrities from the prying lenses of paparazzi cameras. This accessory—currently just a prototype—flashes a 12,000 lumen LED pulse when activated, effectively overexposing the camera’s sensor. Camera-shy celebs like Sia might find this high-tech clutch useful.

Wearable Solar by Pauline Van Dongen

Here’s fashion for a progressively warmer planet: Van Dongen’s beautiful wool and leather designs implement the use of solar cells, which, when exposed to the sun, produce enough electricity to charge your smartphone battery to 50 percent. There’s already a coat, dress and shirt in the collection (all prototypes), so pretty soon your entire wardrobe will be capable of generating sustainable energy.

Anti-Surveillance Makeup by Jillian Mayer

Mayer, who is an artist and filmmaker, diverges from the typical smokey eyes and winged eyeliners typically demonstrated on YouTube makeup tutorials and instead shows viewers how to make up their facse to evade cameras and facial recognition technology. Nothing about this is conventionally beautiful—and some Hollywood makeup artists might even be repulsed by it—but it will allow you to navigate the world undetected by computers, machines, robots and other facial recognition devices. And all you need is white eyeshadow, black lipstick, and a few other implements.

Biomimetic 3D Printed Fashion by Neri Oxman

Neri Oxman’s biomimetic wearables would turn heads in any room. These flamboyant pieces are not only inspired by nature but actually mimic its functions. The capillaries that compose Al-Qamar, store and generate oxygen, with pockets for “algae-based purification” and “biofuel collection”. Lady Gaga could have really pulled off Otaared, a piece of protective headgear that is designed to contain calcifying bacteria, which, over time, would grow bone structures.

The esteemed elephants of Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus performed for the last time Sunday, officially entering retirement and signaling the end of the show’s long-standing use of trained pachyderms. USA Today reports the circus has been employing elephants in their acts for 145 years, but local and global restrictions on the use of live animals in such performances and continued pressure from animal rights activists have caused Ringling Bros. to finally conclude the practice.     

Two shows in Providence, RI and Wilkes Barre, PA, marked the elephants’ last night in the spotlight, with the scene in Pennsylvania described as a collision of “bittersweet” feelings from trainers and fans, and protesters bearing signs with slogans like, “Ban circus animals” and “Cruelty is not entertainment.”

Ryan Henning, an animal trainer and 12-year veteran of Ringling Bros., said he would miss the animals. “When the elephants peek through the curtain ... the crowd's reaction just goes crazy,” he told USA Today.

“I think people will get a lot more satisfaction out of elephants living their real lives than to see them performing as clowns,” Ronald B. Tobias, author of Behemoth: The History of the Elephant in America, told the Associated Press. “It's kind of a new age in our understanding and sympathy and empathy toward elephants.”

And so it is. In the last few decades, elephants’ rare intelligence, long memories, and unique social proclivities have marked them as creatures particularly deserving of our fascination, empathy, and respect. To force the independent-minded animals into dancing and doing tricks for human audiences, circuses have long used cruel techniques like whipping, electrocution, and bullhooks—sharpened metal implements used to goad the elephants—when they don’t comply with trainers. As these practices become more well known, and municipalities move to ban circus-related animal abuse, the spectacle and amazement at watching the mammoth beasts prance and tumble has become tainted with the knowledge of their suffering.

And that’s just the physical stuff. Living and performing with a circus can be emotionally scarring and mentally tortuous for elephants. In a 2006 New York Times piece, author Charles Siebert wrote that after capture, elephants “are then dispatched to a foreign environment to work either as performers or laborers, all the while being kept in relative confinement and isolation, a kind of living death for an animal as socially developed and dependent as we now know elephants to be.”

That’s why animal welfare experts and activists rejoiced last year after Ringling Bros.—which accrued $270,000 in fines for violations of the Animal Welfare Act in 2011 alone—announced they would end their remaining elephant acts by 2018. But it wouldn’t even end up taking that long; the pressure of growing public distaste for these shows and the associated rising costs of transporting and housing the animals caused the circus to relent even sooner, announcing an early retirement for the elephants in January.

“Rather than fight city hall, we decided to take those resources and use them for conservation of the species,” Stephen Payne, a spokesman for Feld Entertainment, which owns Ringling Bros., told the New York Times.

For those that fought for elephant liberation, the move is just one small step on the road to freeing all animals from cruel training methods, inhumane confinement, and unhappy lives. “The last #RinglingBros performance with elephants may be tonight, but they should end ALL animal acts!” tweeted animal rights group PETA on Sunday night.

Now the sunsetting elephants will be moved to the circus’ 200-acre Center for Elephant Conservation in Florida, where they will join the largest herd in North America and can hopefully find a better life. A National Geographic trip to the Center in December described what the elephants there eat: “Favorites here are carrots, apples, and corn in the husk. Cheap bread, à la Wonder Bread, is a daily treat.” While the Center for Elephant Conservation has received its own share of criticism for its policies and the way it maintains the elephant herd, the move will surely take much stress off the animals, as they can finally socialize and amiably ambulate without trainers, crowds, or hot, bright lights pounding down on them night after night.  

“They’ll be able to behave like elephants instead of circus animals,” DeeAnn Reeder, an animal behaviorist at Bucknell University, told USA Today.

Watch a short National Geographic video on the Center for Elephant Conservation below:

There’s a secret branch of government you’ve never heard of and this one has deep roots. One of the world’s oldest trees, a Great Basin bristlecone pine, is about to turn an amazing 4,847-years-old. “Methuselah,” named after the longest living character in the Bible, is located somewhere in California’s Inyo National Forest. But beyond that, its exact location remains a protected government secret.

That’s because the National Forestry Service doesn’t want someone walking up and damaging the ancient tree, or even worse, chopping it down. Sound crazy? It’s not. That’s because it already happened once about 50 years ago.  In 1964, Donald Currey accidentally chopped down another bristlecone pine named Prometheus. His tree corer became stuck in the pine and a park ranger helped him chop it down. They didn’t realize they had unintentionally made bad history until they started counting the tree’s rings and realized it was nearly 5,000-years-old. In fact, the Forestry Service estimates there are far older trees, probably within the same park, which just haven’t been identified yet.

But they’re not taking any chances with Methuselah. The department won’t even release a photo of the tree out of fear it could inspire some misguided individuals or groups to vandalize the historical landmark or turn it into some kind of political statement. They don’t even want overly eager nature enthusiasts popping by to snap a photo for sharing on social media feed.

“If you are so focused on seeing that tree, you are literally missing the forest for the tree,” Debra Schweizer, a spokeswoman for Inyo National Forest, told the New York Times.

Nice try, Canadian press. During a recent question and answer session at a media event, a reporter found out that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was ready for just about any question, including the future of often hard to translate computing technology. “I was going to ask you a question about quantum computing…” the reporter began in a snarky precursor to his “serious” question about Canada’s involvement in the fight against ISIS. However, Trudeau momentarily sidestepped the terrorism question and went head first into a brief and surprisingly accessible explanation of what quantum computing is.

Trudeau began by saying, “Very simply, normal computers work by — ” before being cut off by audience laughter and cheers at his seemingly cheeky response. But it wasn’t just a wink and a nod. “No, no, don’t interrupt me,” Trudeau insisted with a smile, before continuing.

“What quantum states allow for is for much more complex information to be encoded into a single bit. A regular computer bit is either a 1 or a 0. A quantum state can be much more complex than that because as we know, things can be both particle and wave at the same time. And uncertainty around quantum states allows us to encode more information into a much smaller computer. So, that’s what is exciting about quantum computing.”

And at that point the crowd, including a panel of scientists, broke into cheers and applause. The video quickly went viral, already having been watched more than 7 million times.

No one, including Trudeau, is trying to argue that he’s a scientist. And there’s a cynical take floating around that because Tradeau encouraged reporters to ask him about quantum computing that the whole thing was little more than propaganda to gin up publicity for the event. But when held in contrast with other world leaders who struggle to convey even a basic understanding of the science behind policies they support or oppose, “staged” for not, it was refreshing to see a politician who at least took the time to understand the basic fundamentals of what they were talking about. 

There was also some muscle behind the otherwise funny and informative exchange: Trudeau was using the moment to announce $50 million in funding for a new physics think tank.

What really happened to Jon Snow? Will Arya get her eyes back? What the hell is Bran doing?!

All these questions and more will be answered in the sixth season of Game of Thrones (or at least we hope they will), but no one — not even TV writers — will get closer to answers until the show returns on April 24th. No one, that is, except the President of the United States. And one Refinery 29 journalist isn’t having it!

In the good old days, the entertainment journalism elite got advance screeners of GoT for reviewing purposes, but as HBO’s head of programming made clear at the beginning of March, the network is not taking any chances when it comes to protecting the secrets of season six. “We’re not sending out press copies this year, anywhere in the world,” Michael Lombardo told Entertainment Weekly. “There will be no copies for review.” That’s a hard and fast policy. No DVDs. No electronic downloads. No password-locked streaming options. Unless, of course, your name is Barack Obama. The Commander in Chief requested early access to the episodes and HBO acquiesced, and now Vanessa Golembewski has filed a Freedom of Information Act Request to get her hands on the protected media.

As Golembewski says in her request, “If the president — and by extension, our government — is in possession of a file, surely that file is subject to my request to see it as a U.S. citizen." And she’s not without a case, because according to the FOIA website, “Federal agencies are required to disclose any information requested under the FOIA unless it falls under one of nine exemptions which protect interests such as personal privacy, national security, and law enforcement.”

You can find some very detailed information on what comprises those nine exemptions here, but the summary is this: Asking Obama to share his Game of Thrones episodes doesn’t seem to meet any of them! It doesn’t affect someone’s personal privacy, national security or law enforcement practices, and it doesn’t disclose any information about oil wells (the very specific ninth exemption). So, unless you’re afraid the internal operations of a government body will be exposed by the HBO hit series, it looks like you might want to fork over those episodes to Vanessa Golembewski, Mr. President. Because that is how democracy works.

The dead might be coming… but so is this Freedom of Information Act Request.