Patrick Kennedy

You know things are ugly in the Roy Moore camp when they start shoving journalists from Fox News, of all outlets. The camera crew was trying to get a shot of Moore as he entered through a side entrance at a rally in Alabama. Big bruisers came out to put an end to the publicity.

Comcast fought the last net neutrality regulation in 2015 by making a bunch of promises about how fair it would be, whether or not the FCC regulated its behavior; this week, Comcast has put on charm offensive by repeating all but one of those promises, namely, its promise not to create internet slow lanes and then extort money from web publishers by threatening to put them there unless they paid for "premium access" to the Comcast subscribers who were trying to retrieve data from them. (more…)

This photo of a storm supercell in Montana taken by Ryan Wunsch? Wowza. I can see why people get hooked on chasing these storms about western North America…I’d love to see something like that in person. (via @meredithfrost)

The Road Movie, out in theaters in January, consists of nothing but videos taken from Russian dashboard cameras. There are car accidents, animal hijinks, fistfights, high/drunk people, meteors, and fires. The trailer is really entertaining…I’m curious to see the entire film to see how it’s stitched into something resembling a narrative that can sustain a viewer’s attention for more than 20 minutes.

Untouched sharable bikes on China's sidewalks are now being gathered in a massively grim pile of failed business endeavors.

Thousands of the bikes were dumped in the Chinese city of Xiamen after the country’s third largest bicycle sharing company went bankrupt, according to The Guardian. Bluegogo, who claims to have had 20 million users at its peak, shut down its operations earlier this month due to a market apparently inundated with affordable shared bikes.

The pile contains multiple-colored bikes from all three companies. These bike sharing systems still have a healthy environmental impact, but overeager venture capitalism left behind an unfortunate mountain of aluminum and polymer.

Bluegogo’s CEO Li Gang seems to have said it best when he described himself as “filled with arrogance” in an open letter apology. Gang also cited criticism for running a promotion on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests showing bike icons depicted as tanks for contributing to the company’s downfall. https://youtu.be/1IYu4wzy9Lw

rstevens:

gonna solve this problem with the power of design http://ift.tt/2A7ipoR

In discussing allegations on CNN that Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore assaulted a minor teenage girl Breitbart News senior editor-at-large Joel Pollak pointed out that Ringo Starr was "thirtysomething" when he covered “You’re Sixteen, You’re Beautiful, and You’re Mine.”

From Washington Examiner:

“You know, in 1973, Ringo Starr hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts with the song ‘You’re Sixteen, You’re Beautiful and You’re Mine,’” Pollak said on CNN. “And it was a remake of an earlier song. He was 30-something at the time, singing about a 16-year-old. You want to take away Ringo Starr’s achievement?”

CNN anchor Chris Cuomo frowned and replied, “You can’t be serious.”

“You think that Ringo Starr’s song is supposed to be a nod towards allowing 30-year-old men to prey on teenagers?" Cuomo continued. "You don’t believe that, Joel. You’re a parent. You don’t believe that."

Pollak shot back at Cuomo, saying, “You’re also a parent, and you know that when you raise sons, the risk that our sons face today is that they’re going to be exposed to accusations that may or may not be true.”

Most Michelin-starred restaurants are on the pricey side, although you do hear of the occasional food truck that earns a star. But this food cart in Singapore, Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice, run by 52-year-old master chef Chan Hon Meng, serves the "cheapest Michelin-starred meal in the world," at just $1.50. Now, if I can just afford a ticket to Singapore.

I aspire to be this petty in my life. Honestly and truly.

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The Daily Show's Chrome plugin Make Trump Tweets Eight Again uses subtle orthography to remind us about the emotional, intellectual and attentional character of the 45th President of the United States of America.(Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

Oklahoma Republican state Sen. Ralph Shortey has resigned after pleading guilty to trafficking a teenaged boy for sex; when Shortey was serving as Trump's Oklahoma campaign manager, he introduced an anti-sanctuary cities bill, claiming that immigrants trafficked their children for sex. (more…)

The stunt was apparently meant to be taken in a light-hearted way but numerous people pointed out that the fresh take on the 2,000-year old scene could cause offence because Jesus was Jewish and eating pork is forbidden in the Jewish faith.

The offending photograph was one of a number of publicity photos for the calendar, including a Santa with flakes of pastry in his beard, a Greggs shop in a snow globe and a woman puckering up to kiss what appears to be a chicken slice under the mistletoe.

Greggs said in a statement: “We’re really sorry to have caused any offence, this was never our intention.”

Already facing severe medical and food shortages, Venezuela is out of money and out of credit. The country issued a statement that it was defaulting on its debt, having missed its 30-day grace period on bond payments. This means investors can start seizing Venezuela, including barrels of oil that are being stored out of the country. This will make the already awful conditions there worse.

From CNN Money:

Venezuela has no other meaningful income other than the oil it sells abroad. The government, meanwhile, has failed for years to ship in enough food and medicine for its citizens. As a result, Venezuelans are waiting hours in line to buy food and dying in hospitals that lack basic resources.

If investors seize the country's oil shipments, the food and medical shortages would worsen quickly.

"Then it's pandemonium," says Fernando Freijedo, an analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit, a research firm. "The humanitarian crisis is already pretty dire ... it boggles the mind what could happen next."

It's not immediately clear what steps bondholders will take. Argentina went through a vaguely similar default, and its bondholders battled with the government for about 15 years until settling in 2016. Every case is different, though.

By Jamez42 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

Over 400 American millionaires – including Ben & Jerry's Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, billionaire George Soros, Steven Rockefeller, and fashion designer Eileen Fisher – have signed a letter that tells Congress they don't want their taxes cut.

"We are high net worth individuals, many in the top 1%, who care deeply about our nation and its people, and we write with a simple request: Do not cut our taxes," says the letter, which will be sent out this week by the progressive group Responsible Wealth.

An excerpt from the letter:

We believe the key to creating more good jobs and a strong economy is not tax breaks for those of us who have plenty, but investing in the American people. Our civic institutions that help people meet basic living standards and protect the climate are critical to supporting our prosperity as a nation. Yet, Congress is already shortchanging the investments needed to strengthen our economy, and the Administration and some in Congress are looking for deeper cuts. Current federal funding for non-defense discretionary spending was slashed overall by more than 13% (adjusted for inflation) over the past seven years, leaving many programs severely underfunded. While Congress should be finding ways to increase funding for these vital investments, the Republican tax plan would instead add at least $1.5 trillion in tax cuts to the deficit over the next decade. This would leave us unable to meet our country’s current needs and restrict us in advancing any future investments.

But Republicans in congress see it differently. According to the The Washington Post:

The White House and congressional Republicans argue that everything in the bill is geared toward pumping more investment into the U.S. economy. They say the money that corporations and the rich save on their taxes would likely be used to start new companies or build new factories...

But signers of the Responsible Wealth letter disagree, arguing that corporations are already at record profit levels and that wealthy people don't need more money. They would rather see the government use the funds to invest in education, research and roads that benefit everyone and to ensure that safety net programs such as Medicaid aren't cut.

Most of the letter's signatures come from residents of California, New York, and Massachusetts.

Red Sox outfielder Mookie Betts on Sunday bowled a perfect game at the World Series of Bowling, a Professional Bowlers Association tour event. The two-time All Star—who ESPN called a “bowling aficionado”—told ESPN he’d estimated it was his 10th perfect game in his life (but his first at a PBA event).

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Compuserve's sprawling, paleolithic forums were acquired along with Compuserve itself by AOL in 1998, and their fossil remains were augmented, year after year, decade after decade, by die-hard users who continued to participate there. (more…)

Oregon-based cannabis delivery company Briteside has just created a dope ad for its new weed subscription box service. The one-and-a-half minute long video takes a well-deserved shot at Big Pharma by parodying their formulaic TV commercials.

Side effects may include euphoria, increased appetite, uncontrollable giggles, elevated sensitivity to musical dopeness, and reduced anxiety.

(Mashable)

Despite dogged attempts by Donald Trump and the GOP to throw salt on Obamacare, early data shows that Americans are signing up for it in record numbers.

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Ultra right-wing Christian GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore is accused of having sexually abused four underage girls, the youngest of whom was 14 at the time. .

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I can't believe we've not posted this before! I searched high and low, but the closest thing I could find was this post from Mark featuring a camel biting a reporter's hair.

Dance like it's still 2013 on the web:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMuVajp1RRo&feature=youtu.be

U.S. Attorney Jeff Sessions keeps hinting that he's going to wage war against marijuana in states that have legalized it, and he probably would have started it by now if he wasn't so busy trying to weasel out of the Russia/perjury bind he got himself into. Meanwhile a 12-year-old girl, Alexis Bortell, who says her epileptic seizures have gone away since she started using cannabis oil, has filed a lawsuit against Sessions over the federal classification of marijuana as a Schedule One drug, which is reserved for drugs that have no medical value.

From KDVR:

"As the seizures got worse, we had to move to Colorado to get cannabis because it's illegal in Texas," said Bortell, who was diagnosed with epilepsy as a young child.

The sixth-grader said traditional medicine wasn't helping her seizures and doctors in her home state were recommending invasive brain surgery.

But a pediatrician did mention an out-of-state option: Medical marijuana.

Shortly after moving to Larkspur [Colorado], Bortell's family began using a strain of cannabis oil called Haleigh's Hope.

A drop of liquid THC in the morning and at night has kept her seizure-free for 2 1/2 years.

"I'd say it`s a lot better than brain surgery," Bortell said.

Other people joining Bortell in the lawsuit include a former pro football player, another minor, and a military veteran. The federal government moved to have the case dismissed, but lost.

Never give up! I won't! #alexisbortell

A post shared by Alexis Bortell (@alexisbortell) on Sep 14, 2017 at 8:33am PDT

A little less than two months after its uncomfortable premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, the New York premiere of Louis CK’s new Woody Allen-inspired dramedy I Love You, Daddy has been canceled, according to The Hollywood Reporter. In an email, distributor The Orchard said, “Due to unexpected…

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French-language broadcasters in Canada have been given the all-clear signal to freely use the word “fuck” on radio and television. The Canadian Broadcasting Standards Council (CBSC), which decides which words are safe and which ones will cause grievous damage to the nervous systems of people who hear them uttered, declared "fuck" to be “part of the common French spoken language” and that it doesn't have “the same vulgar connotations when used in French.”

For now, English speakers in Canada will remain under the care and protection of the CBSC when it comes to the forbidden word.

Image: Metropolico.org/Wikipedia

Next year, French graphic design house Super Terrain will publish this very special edition of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 that can only be read by burning the pages.

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Architecture firm Snøhetta released its design concept for Under, a restaurant planned for the coast along Norway's southernmost tip. (more…)

Why You Should Trust Us

Drawing from decades of experience covering cleaning products, we created a grading system by consulting at length with paper towel experts and manufacturers. Then, we corroborated our findings against thousands of online ratings and sources like Consumer Reports and Good Housekeeping. To create the tears, we referenced a complete list of every mistake we’ve ever made, usually right as we were trying to fall asleep.

Puerto Rico’s power authority, PREPA, has awarded a lucrative contract to rebuild the island’s devastated power grid to a small, 2-year-old Montana firm that had only two full-time employees at the time Hurricane Maria hit, according to a report by the Washington Post.

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My latest Twitter follow is @jakelikesonions, whose bi-weekly cartoon of the same name has been going since 2015, and represents a very deep set of funny stuff to lose yourself in. Some recent gooduns below: (more…)

It’s been a loooong couple of days / weeks / months / years / decades / centuries / millennia, hasn’t it? Sometimes you have to laugh, just a little. And then back to it. Thanks for the chuckle, Jessica Hische.