They needed to come up with better aliases. Like: The Gay Pope or Pope Condom
No word on if white smoke will accompany every pitching change.
The Philadelphia Phillies will give away Pope Francis rookie cards during their game against the Washington Nationals Thursday. The Pope will visit the City of Brotherly Love on September 27.
Courtesy of the Phillies
The Pope, who will instantly become at least the third most recognizable member of the Phillies roster, was assigned #266.
Courtesy of the Phillies
Pope Francis will host Mass to celebrate the World Meeting of Families 2015 at 4 p.m. on Sunday the 27th. Earlier that day, the Phillies will face the Washington Nationals at home.
Also, French Foreign Affairs Minister Laurent Fabius, a member of the Bilderberg Group, proclaimed on May 13, 2014 that the world had "500 days to avoid climate chaos." 500 days from May 13, 2014 is September 24, 2015.
European shorthair is a fancy way of classifying your "Average Joe" of the cat world. These cats originated in Europe and their colors vary immensely. Personality-wise they vary a lot as well, from super affectionate and fun playmates to reclusive and sneaky hunters.
The Snowshoe is characterized by the inverted white "V" facial marks, four white paws or "boots", and their brilliant blue eyes. They're very affectionate cats who love to be cuddled, and sometimes are actually big fans of water.
The Sphynx is a breed of hairless cat, and the skin is colored in the way that the fur would be -- if they had any. Sphynxes are intelligent and friendly, known for being one of the more "dog-like" breeds.
He grew his own veggies, made salt from ocean water, milked a cow for cheese and butter, ground his own flour from wheat, collected his own honey, and killed a chicken.
How To Make Everything's Andy George aims to discover the complex process of making simple products that are often taken for granted by making everything from scratch. This is how he made a sandwich over the course of six months:
Nice. Though if you're going to try and challenge Tesla, at least make your car faster than it!
Porsche
The Mission E is a handsome car.
4 more images in gallery
You knew it couldn't last. Tesla's Model S came along a couple of years ago and shook up the way we think of electric vehicles (EVs), offering 200 miles of range and an experience that was more Wall Street than Main Street. But the startup car maker wasn't going to have the segment to itself for ever. This week at the Frankfurt International Motor Show, Porsche debuted the Mission E, and it's obvious whom the car is aimed at.
The Mission E is a four-seater that promises a 310-mile (500km) range and batteries that can be recharged to 80 percent in 15 minutes. But since it's also a Porsche, the Mission E has 600hp (447kW) and will accelerate from 0-60 in 3.5 seconds, topping out at 124mph (200km/h). Porsche is leveraging the knowledge it has built up racing the 919 Hybrid, which blew away the competition at this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans, thanks in part to rapidly advancing battery technology that left rival solutions from Audi (flywheel) and Toyota (supercapacitors) in its wake.
The Mission E is only a concept, so we don't have a price or ETA for when it might go on sale. But Porsche isn't in the habit of building concept cars that go nowhere, either. Previous concepts like the Panamericana (1989) and the Boxster (1993) both got the public ready for new production models, and we expect to see a production four-seat Porsche EV in the not-too distant future.
I'm still slowly making my way through this game. (With bouts of Rocket League here and then to add some variety). I just got back to the witcher homestead and got very (in-game) drunk and put on a dress. It was hilarious.
The Witcher 3 developer CD Projekt RED denies a new report that says Electronic Arts plans to purchase the studio.
DSOGaming was contacted by a CD Projekt RED employee who said EA was visiting their offices:
Im employee of CDProjekt Red and I have some bad news to share with you. Our management is probably talking with Electronic Arts about potential take over. Electronic Arts representatives are currently visiting our studio and meeting with top management. We are not going to release any game soon, so for sure its not about any publishing deal, so the only possible reason for EA guys being here is that they want to buy us.
CD Projekt community manager Marcin Momot shot down the report over Twitter. He said that he spoke with studio co-founder Marcin Iwiński and that there's no EA purchase in the works:
@astreamz Just bumped into Marcin Iwiński - it was new to him. I guess the "informer" has better insight than the @CDPROJEKTRED founder. :)
There's admittedly not much to the rumor. The source for the original report says that EA and CD Projekt are "probably" talking about takeovers. The sole evidence for this claim is that the two companies are holding meetings, that seems like a big conclusion for them to jump to.
That said, it's easy to imagine EA purchasing CD Projekt, a developer with a proven track record. EA has a long history of acquiring other studios: BioWare, Maxis, and DICE are just a few studios that the company has bought over the years.
A deal to purchase CD Projekt would also presumably include its digital store, GOG. If EA owned both Origin and GOG, they'd have a serious share of the digital PC games market. That could earn the company a huge amount of money in the future.
While buying CD Projekt might be smart for EA, I'm not sure many gamers would be happy about it. Many studios acquired by EA, such as Mythic Entertainment and Westwood Studios, were shut down later down the road. Gamers also feel that EA hurt many of the studios they buy by meddling with their development process. The anxiety about a possible takeover of CD Projekt - and what that would mean for Witcher and GOG - was palpable on social media.
What were EA and CD Projekt meeting about, then? I'm not convincing that an acquisition is the only reason the two companies would meet. CD Projekt is planning to release boxed copies of Witcher 3's expansion packs so presumably they're going to rely on a third-party distributor. Furthermore, they haven't announced a publisher for their upcoming game Cyberpunk 2077. It's worth considering these possibilities before getting worried that EA's about to buy the studio.
In recent interviews, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg has addressed the social network's "like" button, which users can use to quickly acknowledge posts or messages—but which also lacks a certain amount of nuance for more sensitive or sad content. As recently as December, Zuckerberg said that he wasn't interested in a "dislike" button, but a Tuesday "town hall" Q&A saw the cofounder change his tune.
“People have asked about the dislike button for many years," Zuckerberg told a crowd on Tuesday at Facebook's Menlo Park office (and a livestream crowd at the event's official site). "We’ve finally heard you, and we’re working on this."
Like in prior interviews, Zuckerberg commented on fears that a form of "dislike" button would be used to "downvote" posts à la Reddit, but on Tuesday, he acknowledged growing interest in a simple interaction that better fits sad posts—he mentioned topics ranging from personal trauma to international tragedies—that offers "the ability to express empathy."
WEST PALM BEACH, FL—Admitting it has had its eye on the property for quite some time, the Atlantic Ocean confirmed Monday that it was looking forward to moving into a beautiful beachfront mansion in the near future. “For the longest time it seemed like this place was completely out of reach for me, but I’ve come a long way in the past few years, and now it’s looking more and more like a real possibility,” said the body of water, which confided that, after having admired the building’s impressive exterior and grounds for so long, it was thrilled at the prospect of finally going inside and exploring all eight bedrooms and 7,500 square feet of living area. “I’m not quite ready yet, but in a couple years or so, I can definitely see myself in there, making the place completely my own. And the ...
SpaceX has given us a peek into the Crew Dragon capsule it's currently building to take astronauts to the ISS. And as you can see from the images and video below the fold, it looks downright luxurious inside despite its no-frills guitar pick-shaped...
The magical parrot that helps designated hitter Edwin Encarnacion hit home runs.
The "official" history of Encarnacion's distinctive home run trot is an obvious cover story. All fans know he is giving rides to the invisible magic bird from which he draws his power.
Absolutely everyone loves this guy. Fans love him, teammates love him. Even opposing players root for him and against themselves. Other than the fact that he can't really hit and had to be sent down to the minor leagues, he's the perfect baseball player.
The Blue Jays have the only starting pitcher in baseball who throws a knuckleball. And the knuckleball is wizardry.
Look at that thing. It goes left-right-left-right-down. How are you supposed to hit that? The knuckleball is the equivalent to finding a glitch in the Matrix. It's cheating physics. If Dickey was around 200 years ago we'd be burning him at the stake for witchcraft.
How does it work? The short answer: black magic. The medium answer: by throwing the ball with hardly any spin you create a drag force behind the ball that causes it to jolt and shimmy in unpredictable ways. The long answer is here.
They literally committed highway robbery to trade for Josh Donaldson.
Here's what must have happened. One day during the off-season Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane (yes, the one played by Brad Pitt in Moneyball) was walking down a dusty country road when he suddenly found himself surrounded by intimidating Blue Jays executives.
The execs forced Beane at knife-point to trade them third baseman Josh Donaldson for a less good, often injured third baseman and a couple B-list prospects.
Donaldson now leads the league in runs batted in and could end up the American League's Most Valuable Player. Oakland is last in the American League.
Now wanted by authorities for the steal of the century, Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos manages the team through dispatches from his various Central American hiding spots.
Google has a new logo. A few weeks after the company announced a huge restructuring effort that will split the search, advertising and internet giant into several different organizations, the new Google is showing off a new identity. The iconic fou...
Alberto E. Rodriguez / Getty. Andrew Richard / BuzzFeed
What's the wallpaper on your phone and/or computer?
A photo of a painting called Kamikaze by Shannon Crawford. It hangs in my dining room. I travel so much for work and that painting reminds me of home.
When you walk into a bar, what do you typically order?
Southern Comfort, Diet Coke with a lime. It’s an easy, sipping drink. Plus, I’m Southern and it’s comforting. I dare you to drink 5 of them and disagree. In every new city I move to, I pick one bar that becomes my local spot. For me, a local bar is an extension of my living room. In New Orleans, it’s Vic’s. Most recently, I lived In Vancouver and I called The Moose home.
What's the one word you are guilty of using too often?
Fuck. All day, everyday. It’s not original, but it’s a fucking great word.
What is the last thing you searched for on Google?
I googled the image “small ginger cock” (you asked) and sent the photo to several people claiming it to belong to my buddy, Jesco. If you saw him, it’s astonishing how much it looks like it belongs on his body. You wanna see it?
Who is the last person that called or texted you?
I got a text from my friend Kellie expressing how excited she and James (her husband) are that I’m going to be in London next week and telling me how much fun we are going to have. I responded saying that I needed to buy 2 pillows from John Lewis and some orange Kit Kats. If you've never had an orange flavored Kit Kat, I suggest you go to the UK and try them. Look at me, I’m like Gwyneth Paltrow advising you to try something awesome that will cost several thousand dollars to obtain. I still say a trip overseas to try a candy bar is more practical than a $2000 pair of sweatpants.
What was the last awkward situation you were in and how did you handle it?
I was at the Entertainment Weekly party at Comic Con. It was, perhaps, the largest number of wasted famous people I’d even seen in once place. Well, at least, in a long while. One of the kids from Teen Wolf told me he was a huge fan of mine since childhood. He had tears in his eyes and I didn’t know what to say. It was actually more sweet than awkward. Later that evening, as things got weirder, I wound up kissing Seth Green on top of the head. That was probably more of an awkward situation. I handled it by getting on a flight and going back to Vancouver.
When is the last time you went to a theater?
I honestly cannot remember the last time I saw a movie in a theater. I was dragged to The Commodore Ballroom to see some hipster bullshit about a month ago. Does that count?
Andrew Richard / BuzzFeed
What TV show should everyone be watching?
I dunno. I don't watch a lot of scripted TV. The Price is Right is good. Mila Kunis learned to speak English from watching it.
And what is your TV guilty pleasure?
I hate the term “guilty pleasure.” Fucking HATE it. Any pleasure that doesn’t result in harm to myself or another person, I don’t feel guilty about. When someone says, “That is my guilty pleasure,” what they are really saying is, “I really like this thing but I have to shit on it so you won’t judge me.” There is an exception. Someone I know saw me leaving a 7-11 with a giant carton of those gas station style nachos. You know the ones? Round yellow chips and that orange liquid cheese…pickled Jalapeños? I love them, but unless you’re in a ballpark or movie theater, they can be embarrassing to been seen with.
What's the first CD you bought?
I’m from the record and cassette tape era. My first album was the Flash Gordon soundtrack by Queen. My first tape was Purple Rain by Prince. I bought it at a yard sale and WORE IT OUT! Darling Nikki was the dirtiest thing I had ever heard at that point. I still like that song.
What is the one food you cannot resist?
Gas station nachos.
What music are you currently listening to?
70’s R&B, 80’s pop, Classic rock (that is new for me) and the occasional mid 90’s dance hit. I don’t have a great passion for music. I envy people for whom music touches this magical spot deep inside them. I’m fighting so hard not to tell you how you can touch that magical spot deep inside me. I’m not going to do that because I’m a serious actor now.
What movie makes you laugh the most?
Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. That movie fires on a bunch of levels and it holds up. I also recently rewatched Arthur. What a perfect movie. It broke my heart when they remade it. If you’ve never seen either of these movies, trust me. They are beauties.
Andrew Richard / BuzzFeed
What drives you absolutely crazy?
I hate mouth noises. Loud chewing, lip smacking. I fucking hate them.
What's your favorite day of the year?
Thanksgiving. I love the idea of getting together with people you love and sharing a meal. I also love ditching them after and getting wrecked with other people you love.
What was your first online screen name?
I’ve never used an online screen name. I have an email address. I still have the first one I ever opened. I don’t like change.
What's your favorite emoji?
A hammer. I actually just found out where the emojis are on my iPhone. I was at The Moose, my local spot in Vancouver, and the DJ was killing me. He was playing all this obscure 80s hair metal that no one in the place knew. I felt like I was listening to him masturbate. After I returned from attempting to buy ear plugs from a nearby store, I saw someone on their emoji page and asked where it was. I found it and then I saw the hammer. I threatened to kill Sheldon with it in a text. I’m not an emoji guy, though.
Honestly, when someone sends me some sort of smiley face or that kind of thing, it (temporarily) dents my opinion of their intelligence.
Pick one: Kittens or puppies?
Puppies.
New York or Los Angeles?
Love both cities for different reasons, but London is my choice for a big city. My heart is in New Orleans, though.
Andrew Richard / BuzzFeed
Comedy or drama?
Comedy to watch, drama to perform.
Bacon or Nutella?
Bacon.
Coffee or tea?
I hate coffee so tea, I guess.
'80s or '90s?
'80s.
Britney or Christina?
I know them both. I was famous in the early 2000’s.
NSYNC or BSB?
NSYNC. Dirty pop.
Beyonce or Rihanna?
I’m a boy.
Hannah Montana or Lizzie McGuire?
See above.
And finally: tell us a secret.
Anything you would want to know probably involves other people. I never talk about my friends’ business. I love them deeply and keeping their confidence is important to me.
Andrew Richard / BuzzFeed
Z Nation Season 2 premieres on Friday, September 11 at 10/9c.
OXNARD, CA—His heart pounding in fear as he stared at the unread message in his inbox, area man Joe Dubbin reportedly checked Gmail at 11 p.m. Sunday night to discover a horrifying email from his ex-girlfriend titled simply “A few things.” “Oh, God,” Dubbin said under his breath as he worked up the nerve to move his cursor over the wholly unexpected message, a film of cold sweat materializing on his brow as he scanned the previewed line of text that read “Just so you know” followed by an ellipsis. “Should I just open this thing and get it over with now, or maybe mark it as ‘read’ and look at it tomorrow? Or I could just delete it quickly and forget this ever happened. Jesus.” Sources reported that Dubbin’s pupils then dilated in terror when, 12 minutes after the email arrived in his inbox, the number ...
"They love fashion and they like to dress the same," the twin's mother Stephanie Boyd tells BuzzFeed Life. Boyd features the twins on her Instagram account, which has over 45,000 followers.
Humor writers are inadvertently prophetic at times -- just ask The Onion, whose joke about five-bladed razors was all too prescient. And apparently, that translates to the world of tech-themed comics. Hijinks Ensue and Sharksplode creator Joel Wa...
After living with Type 1 diabetes for more than two decades, Wendy Peacock was used to the constant daily juggling act of monitoring her blood sugar, taking insulin and paying attention to everything she ate.
But in recent weeks she was able to stop taking her insulin after doctors transplanted new cells in her as part of a clinical trial at the Diabetes Research Institute (DRI) at UHealth — University of Miami Health System.
“To think I can go to sleep at night and not worry that my blood sugar is going to drop it’s almost like a weight has been lifted,” Peacock said during a news conference Wednesday, where doctors shared her success story.
For those who have Type 1 diabetes, the body’s immune system destroys cells that make insulin, the hormone needed to regulate blood sugar. About 1.25 million Americans have Type 1 diabetes, including 200,000 youth. Those with the disease must take insulin either through multiple injections a day or continuously with a pump. They must measure their blood-glucose levels by pricking their fingers multiple times a day.
Researchers are examining a new transplant technique for islet cells, which are clusters of thousands of cells in the pancreas that produce insulin to regulate the body’s blood sugar. Physicians implanted islet cells within a biodegradable scaffold on the omentum, an apron-like lining covering the abdominal organs, to determine whether it were a more viable location than the liver, where many of the implanted cells do not survive.
Doctors transplanted the cells during a laparoscopic procedure at Jackson Memorial Hospital on Aug. 18. The FDA-approved study is a step toward the development of the DRI BioHub, a bioengineered mini organ that will mimic the pancreas to restore natural insulin production in people with type 1 diabetes.
Since the transplant, Peacock’s glucose levels have remained at a healthy level, and she was taken off insulin and has no dietary restrictions.
“She is like a nondiabetic person but requires antirejection drugs,” said Dr. Camillo Ricordi, director of the Diabetes Research Institute. “When you can do it without antisuppression, then it’s a cure.”
Peacock said that she has not experienced side effects as a result of the drugs.
So is she going to eat ice cream now?
“I’ve been following a certain diet for 26 years,” said Peacock, 43. “I don’t know if I will have ice cream.”
In the past, diabetes ruled Peacock’s life. A legal consultant, Peacock lives with her 5-year-old son and her parents in San Antonio.
“It’s a constant juggling act,” she said. “It is always there. I just lived with it constantly.”
Peacock said that when her blood sugar would drop, it would make her feel like she was living in a fog and would make it difficult to process and think logically. Peacock developed a condition in which she could no longer tell whether her blood sugar was dropping — a dangerous situation.
In February 2014, Peacock came to Miami to get tested for the clinical trial and found that she was eligible. On Aug. 16, she flew to Miami with her father and was admitted to Jackson for the surgery.
“From then on it has been a whirlwind,” she said. “I was of course scared, excited and hopeful.”
Peacock plans to return to San Antonio later this month, where she will resume her life — minus insulin. That will make her daily life much easier, she said. She will no longer need her mental checklist that revolves around measuring her blood sugar. For example, if she wants to go for a run, she can just put on her sneakers and go without figuring out if she has to eat first.
Ricordi transplanted the cells in collaboration with Dr. Rodolfo Alejandro, an endocrinologist and director of the DRI Clinical Cell Transplant Program; Dr. Gaetano Ciancio, a UHealth surgeon and director of Urologic Transplant Surgery; and Dr. Jose Martinez, a laparoscopic surgeon at Jackson. The team collaborates with other doctors worldwide and hopes to do 20 to 30 more of these transplants within the next year, including a few at Jackson.
Ricordi told the Miami Herald last year that within three to seven years there will be a cure for Type1 patients.
“It’s not a prediction — it’s a promise that I make to patients. We will defeat this disease for sure,” Ricordi told the Herald in November. “Depending on how many obstacles we hit, and regulatory complexities and cost, it could take more than 10 years, depending, but we’re getting there.”
After a couple of months off to let the Pluto scientists breathe and get their lives back in order, a new batch of images of the tiny world nearly 5 billion kilometers away has been released. These are from the encounter of the New Horizons spacecraft with Pluto back in July, and have much higher resolution. New Horizons can’t transmit data back to Earth quickly because of the huge distance, so we got “quick look” shots before.
Photo by NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
This is a mosaic of several images, stitched together and mapped to keep the spherical nature of the overall view intact. It shows the left-hand side of Sputnik Planum, the “heart” region on Pluto, which is most likely a plain of frozen nitrogen. It abuts against a much darker highlands area, obviously much older due to the number of craters there—the flatter plains area is younger, possibly resurfaced in recent geologic history. There are no craters in the plain down to the resolution of the image that I can spot.
The left lobe of the heart, Sputnik Planum.
Photo by NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
In this shot we’re looking more directly down on the heart. This really makes it look like glacial flow, viscous ice moving slowly, flowing around obstacles. Interesting: The lighter region in the center gives way suddenly to somewhat darker ice on the left, along a segmented line. I can’t wait to hear from the scientists about that!
Where the (nitrogen) ice meets the shore.
Photo by NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
This is a closer view of the left-hand side of the heart where it meets up with the higher elevation features. Note the swirl near the top! That’s exactly what you’d expect from near-fluid movement. But remember, we’re talking nitrogen ice here, not water!
The craters on the left are interesting. Many appear to have rings in them, like little craters inside. We see something similar on Mars and the Moon, and usually indicates a subsurface layer with a different tensile strength (on Mars, for example, it’s ice under rock).
A dark region with craters and odd ridges.
Photo by NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Look at those craters! This is the dark region at the bottom of the bigger view above. Many of the craters have radial ridges down the inner wall. Collapse features? Gullies from runoff? Some of the parallel features in the central dark triangle (and in a smaller area off to the right) look almost like dunes, too. I doubt that’s what they are; the atmosphere on Pluto is a tad thin. Perhaps they’re compressional folding. I’m totally guessing here. It’s fun, but take it with a planetoid of salt.
Charon, Pluto's big moon.
Photo by NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Charon! Pluto’s biggest moon, half the width of Pluto itself. That dark spot near the north pole is very peculiar (and also red, which you can’t tell here). Besides the obvious features, the horizon is … lumpy. This moon has seen a lot of action, I think. That canyon to the upper right is huge. This image is much higher resolution than what we saw back in July, and shows features far smaller, down to less than 5 kilometers in size.
Pluto, backlit by the Sun as New Horizons pulled away.
Photo by NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
This is what the New Horizons probe saw as it left Pluto behind: the world backlit by the Sun off to the right, the thin atmosphere lit up. The left image is lightly processed, but the one on the right shows layers of haze in the atmosphere. And this astounds me: In the left image, you can see a very faint parallel streak in the haze. Those may be crepuscular rays; shafts of sunbeams caused by surface features casting shadows! These happen on our own fair world all the time, and one of my favorite atmospheric effects.
And this is just the beginning. There are hundreds more of these on New Horizons, waiting patiently for their turn to be beamed back to Earth. There will be more released over the coming months. Stay tuned for more outer solar system awesomeness.
Tip o' the lens cap to Emily Lakdawalla, who of course found the pictures before anyone else.
LOL "“This sounds like a great way to filter out the people who are just looking for a casual hookup from the people who are desperately looking for a casual hookup.”"
Dating app Tinder announced Wednesday the addition of a “Super Like” function that allows users to “swipe up” on people they’re most interested in, and stated that it intends to keep the feature meaningful by limiting users to only one Super Like per day. What do you think?
WASHINGTON—A new study commissioned by the National Association of Home Builders revealed Friday that 74 percent of home contractors end up accidentally walling themselves in when constructing or renovating a residence. “A review of home construction projects since 1995 shows that in roughly three of every four cases, workers inadvertently erected drywall or laid bricks and mortar around their bodies, trapping themselves inside the barrier where they remained until someone heard their desperate cries for help,” said lead researcher Mark Vander, adding that, on average, there is a minimum of three contractors stuck inside any given newly constructed home. “During the building phase, many workers accidentally put the last piece of Sheetrock into place before realizing that they’ve made a huge mistake and didn’t provide themselves with a way out. Without any doorways or other exits, the contractors roam inside the walls frantically searching for an escape ...
60 minutes ago 
SpaceX has given us a peek into the Crew Dragon capsule it's currently building to take astronauts to the ISS. And as you can see from the images and video below the fold, it looks downright luxurious inside despite its no-frills guitar pick-shaped...
Google has a new logo. A few weeks after the company announced a huge restructuring effort that will split the search, advertising and internet giant into several different organizations, the new Google is showing off a new identity. The iconic fou...
Humor writers are inadvertently prophetic at times -- just ask The Onion, whose joke about five-bladed razors was all too prescient. And apparently, that translates to the world of tech-themed comics. Hijinks Ensue and Sharksplode creator Joel Wa...
