In the span of a few weeks, rumors about Hillary Clinton’s supposedly failing health have wormed their way from conspiracy websites into a Donald Trump speech. At a campaign rally in Ohio yesterday, Trump questioned Clinton’s “judgment, stability, and temperament,” adding that she “lacks the mental and physical stamina to take on ISIS.”

The rumors—or, renewed rumors—about Clinton’s health emerged from the conservative website the Drudge Report. Earlier this month, Drudge published a Reuters photograph which appears to show Clinton being helped up porch stairs by two aides. The photograph was, apparently, evidence of some kind neurological disorder that Clinton had been nefariously keeping under wraps since 2012. In 2012, Clinton had a well-publicized blood clot, the result of a concussion she had sustained months prior. It’s worth noting that blood clots following head injury are common, particularly among women.

Since then, Clinton has been on blood thinners and, last year, her physician said she is in “excellent physical condition” in a health report that included Clinton’s test results. Clinton’s health should be much of an issue, blood thinners are commonly prescribed—Americans spend roughly a billion dollars on different kinds of anticoagulant—but instead of leaving the rumors to the grind of the conspiracy mill, they’ve become the cause du jour of Fox News.

In a segment this morning, Fox and Friends welcomed radio host Mark Davis to offer perspective on Clinton’s health. The segment begins with host Steve Doocy wondering aloud that the seven days that Clinton has reportedly taken off this month are a sign of her impending physical decay.

The most recent Fox and Friends might be Fox’s most restrained coverage of Clinton’s health. Network personality Sean Hannity has run numerous segments on Clinton’s health. In one Hannity, speaking with Fox News medical expert Dr. Marc Siegel, speculates that Clinton might have aphasia, a brain disorder that affects language. Or maybe, Hannity suggests, she’s just suffered simple traumatic brain injury, or maybe Clinton has a seizure disorder. But whatever the exact nature of the disorder Hannity believes Clinton to have, her gestures, her speech, and even her delivery are all evidence of disorder, symptoms awaiting the diagnosis of medical experts.

Last week, CNN’s Brian Stelter had a helpful montage of the handful of segments Hannity has run on Clinton’s health.

If Hannity’s concern for Clinton’s health seems suspicious, then he’s quick to frame the speculation under the broad banner of “the public’s right to know.” In an early August segment, Siegel again told Hannity, “I think a traumatic brain injury with symptoms down the road is very, very likely here especially since she had a blood clot on her brain.” Fox News is just doing their job, the argument goes, reporting on potential health problems that could result in a disastrous presidency.

But there’s something unsettling about this concentrated focus on Clinton’s health, it’s not simply because it’s “conspiratorial,” as Stetler suggested (though it is that, too). Rather, there’s a strain in here of old stereotypes—of irrational women who are unable, perhaps for reasons beyond their control, to maintain themselves. Clinton’s tone is, by a handful of accounts, already evidence her ability to assert herself correctly. Clinton shrieks, she grates, and she yells, but she rarely just gives a speech

Similarly, too with Hannity’s interest in Clinton’s comportment, his overblown descriptions of her deficient speech delivery or head nodding or tripping, point solely to her inability to exercise control over her own body and thus the free world. It’s telling that the conspiracy theories about Clinton’s health point directly to neurological disorder rather than good old-fashioned heart problems.

There are repercussions for calling Clinton old or crazy; that’s more familiar language that would reek of desperation. Turning the focus instead to Clinton’s health problems is an easier way to depict a woman who is fragile, irrational, and unable to control her tone or the tics and twitchings of neurological damage. Name-calling isn’t serious; health problems are.

The mentally frail woman is the flipside of another time-honored stereotype: the sinister woman who silently plots, purposefully aiding evil for her own gain. Trump and the far right from whom he draws his rhetoric have already, it seems, devoured that stereotype up and spit it out. Clinton’s plotting of Benghazi and that the persistent belief that she’s a criminal hasn’t done much to improve Trump’s poll numbers.

Perhaps this tactic will be more effective. If not, there are always rigged elections to blame.

A particularly gruesome domestic abuse case is rocking Kenya, where a man is believed to have hacked off his wife’s hands after they couldn’t have children, although he was evidently the one who was infertile. Jackline Mwende, 27, says she was counseled by her pastor to try to save her marriage, despite escalating abuse.

Mwende lives in Machakos, southeast of Nairobi, and told the Los Angeles Times that her husband Stephen Ngila slashed her face and cut off her hands with a machete in late July.

“I saw him, and he told me: ‘Today is your last day,’” she told the paper. “I never thought something like this would happen to me.”

Mwende told the Daily Nation, a Kenyan paper, that Ngila, 34, began to drink heavily and abuse her after three years of marriage, but that their pastor urged her to stay and “fight” to save the relationship. One of their issues was having failed to have children; Mwende says a hospital in Nairobi told the couple in 2014 that she was fertile, but her husband was unable to bear children.

“He found out that he had a problem,” she told the Los Angeles Times. “So the doctor advised him to attend the clinic, but he never went. Every time I reminded him to attend the clinic, he would dismiss it. He would say, ‘I will see if I will get time to go,’ then he would never go.”

The pastor, Patrick Kioko, told the paper that when the couple couldn’t reconcile, he held a church “hearing” and the two agreed to live separately:

Pastor Kioko added: “But we noticed the man was determined to leave. So it was agreed that they live in peace in their separate homes and ask the courts to dissolve the marriage. Because, as a church, we don’t end marriages.”

Instead, Mwende’s family told CNN, Ngila found her the night of July 23 and attacked her with the machete, an attack which besides taking her hands and deeply scarring her face also rendered her deaf in one ear.

Pastor Kioko pronounced himself shocked by the whole thing, saying he’d hoped to bring the couple together for another shot at reconciliation:

He said the church was planning to bring them together but then the attack happened.

“We were shocked how it turned out even after all the effort we put in. Anger is dangerous in a union and this is something we all should learn from.”

Ngila was arrested the day after the attack, when he showed up at the hospital where Mwende was being treated.

The case has become a national symbol of the continued problem of domestic abuse, even as Ngila’s family insists that Mwende is at fault, for having had “loose morals.” They’ve variously suggested that she had numerous lovers, one of whom maybe attacked her, or that it was a “business deal” gone bad (she ran a small stall in a local market). Ngila’s sister insists he was with her the night of the attack. He was denied bond on August 10.

The case has prompted an unusually strong response from the local government, who have offered her a monthly stipend, free medical care and help obtaining prosthetic arms.

Beware, beware! If you leave your Roomba bustling about your home unattended, and it encounters pet leavings, the results could be nothing short of a shit-smeared catastrophe. Even a spokesperson for the company that makes them admitted of the terrible poop + Roomba combination that,“we see this a lot.”

Inspired by a recent Facebook post that went viral, describing the foul consequences when a Roomba encounters dog poop—“It will be on your floorboards. It will be on your furniture legs. It will be on your carpets. It will be on your rugs. It will be in your kids’ toy boxes. If it’s near the floor, it will have poop on it. Those awesome wheels, which have a checkered surface for better traction, left 25ft poop trails all over the house”—the Guardian rounds up a couple of similar stories.

For instance, a woman with four cats said the Roomba does “an amazing job,” except when it occasionally catches a stray turd, though the damage is generally concentrated to a small area. A man with a pug named Alice reports they’ve had three recent incidents, including one that was particularly severe: “It’s almost like [Alice the pug] deliberately left it right in front of its path at the start of the cycle.” Maybe Alice just doesn’t appreciate the Roomba invading her space.

The Guardian also talked to a spokesperson from Roomba manufacturer iRobot, who admitted that, “Quite honestly, we see this a lot.” Oh?

“We generally tell people to try not to schedule your vacuum if you know you have dogs that may create such a mess. With animals anything can happen.”

Are there any plans to introduce any poop detection technology to the product? “Our engineers are always trying to figure out ways to help people with their problems, and we’ve known this is an issue people deal with.”

The spokesperson apparently speculated that perhaps they could add some specialized sensors or image recognition in future models. “I can’t say we have the solution yet but it’s certainly something our engineers are aware of.”

Remember this the next time somebody tries to sell you on the concept of the imminent Singularity.

Earlier this month, a Pennsylvania married couple and their three small children were found shot to death in their home. The Berks County District Attorney’s Office said Monday they believe Mark Short Sr. was the gunman, killing his wife Megan and their children before shooting himself.

Police were called to the Short family home in Sinking Spring, Penn., on August 6 after Megan failed to show up for a planned lunch date. She was found dead, along with Mark and their children 8-year-old Lianna, 5-year-old Mark Jr. and 2-year-old Willow. The family dog was also shot to death.

The DA said today the medical examiner has determined Mark Sr. died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. A suicide note left on the dining room table also matched his handwriting. Short had lost his job as a loan officer shortly before the shooting, NBC Philadelphia reports.

Berks County DA John Adams also said at a Monday press conference that the couple had previously had “domestic disputes,” and that police were called to the home on July 18. No charges were filed; Megan Short told responding officers she was afraid of her husband, Adams said. They gave her instructions on how to get a protective order but she “declined” to proceed with the paperwork, The Morning Call reports.

Mark Short legally purchased a .38 caliber handgun the following day from a licensed dealer. Megan Short posted on social media sometime before the shooting that she planned to move out, and had already leased an apartment, where she planned to move August 6, investigators said.

Baby Willow had a heart transplant when she was just six days old, and the New York Times wrote about Megan’s difficulties obtaining anti-rejection medicine for her. A video from the hospital where Willow’s transplant was performed shows Megan holding her and beaming, thanking the staff for taking care of them.

Funeral services were held Friday for Megan and the children, Philly.com reports. Mark Short was mentioned only in passing and wasn’t shown in a photo on a funeral card. A separate, private memorial service is reportedly planned for him.

Today’s bizarre and upsetting peek into the tumultuous marriage of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard comes in the form of a TMZ report that Depp created some bloody, drug-fueled artwork earlier this year during one of the couple’s many fights.

Heard claims that Depp was “drunk and high on ecstasy” this March when he accidentally “cut off a portion of his forefinger” while smashing a “plastic phone” against a wall. Convinced Heard had been cheating on him with Billy Bob Thornton (a claim she denies), Depp then dipped his bloody stump of a finger into some “dark blue paint”and wrote a message that appears to say, “STARRING BILLY BOB” and “EASY AMBER.”

They continue:

Amber’s people say Johnny didn’t get medical help for nearly 24 hours, so doctors could not reattach the fingertip ... they used a flap from his hand to sew on a new tip.

You can see Depp’s disgusting finger over at TMZ, as well as his alleged Danny Torrence-esque painting, though I honestly don’t recommend looking at either.

TMZ is also reporting on a “stalemate” in the couple’s divorce proceedings. Heard wants Depp to release a statement admitting “he committed domestic violence,” but he’s reportedly refusing to sign it.

Synchronized swimming has never been what you might call “cool” or “hip to the latest trends.” At this year’s Olympic games, for example, swimmers have performed to a mix of bad ‘80s music, classical tunes, and “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke. But nothing really beats the time France put together a routine set to the Schindler’s List soundtrack.

The year was 1996. The plan, according to the New York Times report at the time: “In black bathing suits, team members would goose-step in German military style to the side of the pool.” Sehr cool!

Then, “they would re-enact the arrival of Jewish women in the death camps, the selection by Nazi doctors and their final march to the gas chambers.” It would be performed to music from Schindler’s List, which had premiered a few years earlier, along with “chants sung in Jewish ghettoes before the Holocaust.” Can you imagine what this might have looked like? “C’mon, ladies, let’s nail this swastika!”

The public reaction was, of course, not great:

“The routine is ridiculous,” Henri Hajdenberg, head of the Representative Council of French Jewish Organizations, told the New York Times. “It’s tactless and in poor taste.”

“Now I’ve heard everything. Aqua-Nazis,” wrote then-Los Angeles Times columnist Mike Downey, as news of the planned routine spread. “Leave it to France to find a way to make a dumb sport dumber.”

In a Baltimore Sun column titled “French Swimmers Have All the Reich Moves,” Mike Littwin wrote: “No, this is not a plot from The Producers... This is Dr. Mengele in spandex as the Gestapo swims its way into your hearts.”

Despite the technical director’s pleas that the team’s program had “great emotional value”—the team’s trainer also argued that the routine was “an appeal to combat racism,” and made the dubious point that France’s ice dancers had performed a similar routine “evoking torture in Chile”—France’s sports minister anticipated outrage and instructed the team to remove any references to the Holocaust.

While what they ended up with was not exactly Holocaust-themed (no more Schindler’s List soundtrack, black swimsuits replaced with, uh, red ones), the routine has distinctly ominous vibes—and, if you skip to 3:02, it looks like there’s one element of the original program they just couldn’t bear to part with:

Oh my god!

OH MY GOD!

What you are seeing is not some fancy theater or place of worship, but rather the Crossness Pumping Station, part of London’s ambitious Victorian-era sewer system, which is now open to visitors. Only the finest, most ornate repositories for the turds of the Victorians!

After years of restoration work, the Telegraph reports that the Crossness Pumping Station—part of London’s solution to the reeking pile of poop that the Thames had become, culminating dramatically in the Great Stink of 1858—is now open as a sort of sewage museum, with a visitor’s center having just opened last month. The Telegraph explains how it all worked:

But in 1865, engineer Joseph Bazalgette unveiled a complex new modern sewage system, which used steam engines to pump the capital’s waste into a 27 million gallon reservoir - enough to fill 49 Olympic swimming pools.

The sewage then remained in the reservoir, concealed from the public, until high tide, when it was released into the Thames and carried out to sea.

The steam-powered above-ground pumping station, built in Bexley, south-east London, successfully solved London’s foul stench, and continued to pump waste away from London for almost a century.

Slate explains of the pumping stations specifically:

Designed in Byzantine style with hints of Moorish influence, these ornate cathedrals of waste held steam pumps surrounded by red-brick arches, octagonal cupolas, shiny brass handrails, wrought-iron detailing, and elegant “MBW” monograms—for the Metropolitan Board of Works. At Crossness, the steam pumps were named Victoria, Prince Consort, Albert Edward, and Alexandra, after members of the British royal family.

Visiting hours look a bit spotty, so check before you embark, but if you time it right you can even catch a “public steaming day” to see one of the original engines in action.

On Tuesday, one of Donald Trump's longtime dreams finally came true: He got a Purple Heart award, and he didn't even have to serve in the military for it. Instead, retired Lt. Col. Louis Dorfman handed Trump a copy of his Purple Heart award before a rally in Ashburn, Virginia. Trump was positively floored by the gesture. "Man, that's like big stuff," Trump said. "I always wanted to get the Purple Heart. This was much easier."

Video: “I always wanted to get the Purple Heart. This was much easier,” Trump says after man gave him his at rally https://t.co/bHmuK794wA

— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) August 2, 2016

Trump claimed the Purple Heart the veteran had given him was "the real one" he'd received through his service, and that Dorfman had wanted Trump to have it because he had "such confidence" in Trump's candidacy. In fact, Trump said, Dorfman declined his invitation to speak for a moment onstage, saying, "I'd just like you to keep saying what you've been saying."

Dorfman, however, later clarified that the Purple Heart he'd given to Trump was just a copy, not his actual award.

Gawker Media had a party last night and I’m very tired now. It’s hot as hell and blogging is hard and I just want these terrible-sounding Swedish fish Oreos. I like things that are bad and that’s just who I am, all right?

I’m not in the office right now—it’s unclear if I’ll make it to the office today, to be perfectly honest with you— but bring me these godawful-sounding, trash, chemical-laden cookies and I’ll give you a tour or something. Maybe I’ll rain-check you on the tour, but, you know, it’ll totally happen. Yeah.

“That’s not a Senior Week blog post,” sniffed managing editor Kate Dries, when I asked if I could write this post. “It’s just a regular post for you.”

Whatever. Bring me these Oreos, which are, for very good reasons, only available for a limited time.

This isn’t a sponsored post or a money-making venture of any kind, I just want to eat this assuredly shit-tasting cookies and then insistently offer them to other people, as is my wont: “Try this! You won’t believe how bad it is!”

I would also accept a burrito.

Who wants to stay in a run-of-the-mill above-ground hotel when you can relax in a room beneath the surface of the Indian Ocean? In the case of the Manta Resort, this is one time in life when sleeping with the fishes is actually a good thing.

The luxury hotel room is situated off the Pemba Islands in Tanzania and is as gorgeous as it sounds. If the thought of ducking your head under the ocean’s surface promptly freaks you out, then this hotel room provides the perfect way to observe the beautiful marine life without the fear of inhaling water.

On the other hand, those who love to snorkel won’t be able to resist the chance to dive from their room into the ocean. Stunning photos of the isolated quarters look like scenes from your favorite beach movies:

#ViewsFromParadise:

A photo posted by The Manta Resort (@themantaresort) on Jun 19, 2015 at 12:45am PDT

Get your dive on:

Experience our underwater room #themantaresort #underwaterroom #unique #experience #pemba #zanzibar

A photo posted by The Manta Resort (@themantaresort) on Jul 2, 2015 at 1:20am PDT

Simply magical:

A photo posted by The Manta Resort (@themantaresort) on Feb 6, 2016 at 1:24am PST

Tropical fish swimming past your window? NBD:

A photo posted by The Manta Resort (@themantaresort) on Aug 5, 2015 at 9:14am PDT

This guy was lucky enough to spend his honeymoon at The Manta. Our vacay envy is so real rn.

Best honeymoon ever and I'm not even married.. For those who were wondering what I meant when I said I'm staying in an underwater hotel room in the middle of the ocean, now you know. I have never experienced anything so magical in my life. The top floor is a private sun deck, the middle floor my eating area which looks over the sea and outdoor shower, and underneath the ocean my bedroom. #zanzibar #pembaisland #africa #tanzania #underthesea #ocean #aquarium #travel #worldtraveler #hotel #relax #vacation #mantaresort #pembaisland #underwaterroom #bucketlist #iphone6 #bucketlist✔️

A photo posted by Dimitri Kermani (@dkermani) on Aug 1, 2016 at 9:22am PDT

So, clearly we need to go ASAP. One question, though: Which one of our BFFs should we invite?

The post There’s a hotel room below the surface of the Indian Ocean and we need to go to there appeared first on HelloGiggles.

We love our pets, and we love Pokémon GO, but we’re feeling a little freaked out by a recent phenomenon that seems to be mixing the two in a way that’s a little eerie… because it seems like they have the uncanny ability to see the Pokémon. TBH, it has us just a *wee* bit terrified.

Don’t believe us? Here’s proof

1. The horrified pet that started it all

pic.twitter.com/xBwa0Fv0qg

— --- (@masaiai6) July 24, 2016

We’d be freaked out too, little buddy.

2. This intrigued kitty

ポケモンGOが見えてるかのよう！！可愛い〜 pic.twitter.com/BHF6IehBgq

— はっち▷ (@haruo0414) July 23, 2016

Doesn’t seem to hate it.

3. This friendly bird

絶対に見えてるし狙ってる…….#ポケモンGO pic.twitter.com/QmaOTegbcE

— 梨花 (@harruha) July 23, 2016

This bird is down to make Poké pals.

4. This staring cat

まってwwwwww

#ポケモンGO pic.twitter.com/qlHwXPvKXn

— ふぅた (@F0506K) July 22, 2016

Attempting to figure out the scene.

5. This displeased bird

いけー！そこだ！戦えー！ pic.twitter.com/3TLr0BCixr

— 透はしゃけちゃづけ (@plmn_1226) July 22, 2016

This pet is *not* having it.

6. This disinterested kitten

そのうち狩るんじゃ…… pic.twitter.com/nqxetjjg5C

— 久米夏生@猫と日常 (@tabasa_uran) July 23, 2016

Some pets just DGAF.

7. This freaked out pet

これ絶対見えてるよね。 #ポケモンGO pic.twitter.com/2qB9qB07Kd

— 雪丸 (@hiziriyuki0810) July 23, 2016

Others, however, are not fans at all.

8.This resentful cat

見ないで。怖い pic.twitter.com/Z0LgbPgqaM

— 久米夏生@猫と日常 (@tabasa_uran) July 23, 2016

This cat does not like to share.

9. This concerned pup

妹から送られてきたんだけど、うちの実家のわんさんポケモン見えてる！！食べようとしてる！ pic.twitter.com/Ydkqw24nVo

— 水梨ひなた8/7ライブです！ (@hinata_mz) July 23, 2016

Who may or may not be considering eating its first Pokémon.

10. This glaring fuzzball

ポケモンおった。こいつには見えてるらしいな。 pic.twitter.com/Cj5p3D8ZNK

— 橋本　智広 (@hashimoto_shogo) July 22, 2016

TBH, the cats are overwhelmingly not in love with the Pokémon.

11. This friendly pooch

あみポケモン見えてるっぽい pic.twitter.com/1hAdNwP04V

— 渚猿 (@nagizaru7) July 23, 2016

But the dogs seem to be chill about the situation.

12.This curious shiba

ももにもポケモン見えてるみたいです！ pic.twitter.com/J4hWcJNpu2

— 柴犬ももた (@shiba_momota) July 23, 2016

This is actually so sweet.

The post So, it appears that animals can *definitely* see Pokémon and these 12 pets prove it appeared first on HelloGiggles.

Tickets are on sale for next week’s Beverly Hills 90210 “Something in the Air” live read, benefiting the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, and Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles. For cast updates, ticket info, and more, visit: www.donnamartingraduates.com

You’ll be relieved to hear that England is getting back to the business of being England: The town of Ipswich is currently seeking a “Hedgehog Officer” to be their “face of hedgehog conservation.”

The Telegraph points to the job listing from the Suffolk Wildlife Trust. They seek “an inspirational individual,” ready to “use your knowledge of nature conservation and hedgehog ecology to lead an ambitious project seeking to make Ipswich the most hedgehog friendly town in the UK.” Hedgehogs are the subject of some concern in the UK, as their numbers have reportedly dropped drastically in recent years.

Make no mistake—this is not some part-time gig you can hold down while also maintaining the busy schedule of a cozy mystery series protagonist.

Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s Suffolk Hedgehog Survey and a recent Ipswich Wildlife Audit highlighted Ipswich as a hedgehog hotspot, with remarkably rich, well connected wildlife habitat. However, like any modern townscape, it is fragmented by houses, roads, walls, fences and over-tidy gardens. Bringing together your wildlife conservation skills and your experience of leading and developing community wildlife initiatives, you will mobilise participants in Ipswich to create a street by street network of hedgehog accessible habitat and monitor hedgehog activity; following the model of the ‘Hedgehog Street’ initiative developed by British Hedgehog Preservation Society and People’s Trust for Endangered Species.

By inspiring streets of people to act together to create habitat links and remove the barriers to hedgehog movement between gardens, your goal is to establish a network of feeding, nesting and hibernating habitat across the town.

Part of the effort to conserve hedgehog populations around the UK has involved attempts to build “a network of hedgehog superhighways crisscrossing Britain,” according to NPR—with, for instance, homeowners putting holes in their fences expressly for traveling hedgehogs.

Should you secure this job, you would be “leading hands-on community activities, training events and driving a proactive media campaign, to raise awareness of the needs of hedgehogs and the opportunity to turn around their fortunes in Ipswich.” If your entire home is decorated in Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle memorabilia, this is your big moment.

Photo via Shutterstock.

With Joël Robuchon at the MGM, Alain Ducasse’s Rivea at the Delano and Daniel Boulud’s DB Brasserie at the Venetian, Las Vegas is considered one of the best places to eat in the country. This fall, Taco Bell is hoping you’ll add its name to the city’s long list of top dining destinations. 

The...

Hey! Remember when we all low-key lost our minds after Sam entered the Citadel’s GORGEOUS library in Oldtown? (If not, check out this post here.)

For a quick refresher, we noticed in the Season 6 finale, “The Winds of Winter” that the orbs hanging from the ceiling in the Citadel’s library (orreries, if you want to get technical) looked EXACTLY like the orrery in the Game of Thrones intro.

And collectively, we all went…

Then it made us seriously wonder WHAT IT ALL MEANT.

Lots of fan theories have been going off the rails since then about this eye-opening scene, but our very own Samwell Tarly IRL, actor John Bradley, has thoughts of his own, too. And they have pretty HUGE implications.

Bradley recently told The Hollywood Reporter, “One theory is that what we’re seeing now and how we’re experiencing Game of Thrones is Sam telling the story of Game of Thrones.” he continued, “If you take the logic of the story now, the story of Westeros and the story of the battle for the Iron Throne, it would be a book in that library.”

That is a VERY good point, young Bradley. It also means that since the very beginning of the show, we’ve been seeing Sam’s POV through one of the Citadel’s orrery lenses during the intro.

The idea that the “story” of Game of Thrones is being told by Sam in the future, is really not a stretch. We know the show is getting into the whole time travel thing with Bran’s storyline. We also know the showrunners are SUPER into foreshadowing.

And let’s not forget the fact that George R.R. Martin is a notorious fan of The Lord of the Rings. If you recall, in that film franchise, director Peter Jackson made nice little bookends of the characters writing the tales we’d just seen.

Could we be in for something similar with the end of Game of Thrones? Will the very end of the show be a white-bearded Samwell Tarly writing the story of the “Battle of the Iron Throne?”

If only we could time travel into the future like Bran and find out…

The post Is this how the entire “Game of Thrones” series will end? appeared first on HelloGiggles.

When Ken and Erika first met through mutual friends, one of the only things Erika knew about Ken was that he loved The Simpsons. That was enough for her; she decided she liked him already. Their relationship bloomed and soon enough they had their wedding (complete with Simpsons accents here and there).

Fast forward a few more years and Erika and Ken are about to be parents. Before life becomes all about baby, Erika and Ken wanted to throw a co-ed baby shower that reflected their favourite thing: The Simpsons. This isn't any ordinary party, though, this is the ultimate DIY baby shower that will have any Simpsons fan in awe…

The invites

When Erika first started planning the baby shower, she turned to her friend and fellow Simpsons-trivia partner, Lisa, as well as her online Woo-Hoo Simpsons Trivia/Quotes group for inspiration. Together they brainstormed the plethora of Simpsons related references. The theme of the shower was based on a Simpsons reference: "Come to Erika + Ken's BBBQ, the extra B is for BOYBB."

The food

With barbecue catered from Hogtown Smoke, Erika and Ken had established the basic theme and casual entree…

The remainder of the food was all Simpsons references. Each and every item. Since not all of Erika and Ken's friends are Simpsons fans, behind each label was written the reference to the item so that even the non-fans (or those whose memories needed a little prompting) could enjoy. A Simpsons lego character held up each and every sign.

The decor

Lemons were also used as decor on the main table as Springfielder's love their precious lemon tree. In addition to the food, one of the cocktail tables had a bowl of lemons + lemon gum…

And the other cocktail table — the "Shelbyville table" — was adorned with a big ol' turnip.

The background, in front of which Erika and Ken opened their presents (which included a super cute Simpsons inspired onesie from a good friend) also served as a backdrop for a photo booth.

Aside from preparing the majority of the food, Erika also made Simpson's-appropriate props for the photo booth.

While crafting, Erika also took the time to re-create the sailboat painting that silently hangs behind the Simpsons couch; present in each and every episode.

Favors

As guests arrived they were given their "Stone cutter numbers" and each and every guest left with a box of Trucker's Choice stay alert capsules (don't worry, it was just gum and mints!)

The entertainment

There was an Evil Clown Bed bean bag toss game, and a little baby-themed Cards Against Humanity.

The day was filled with not only a lot of great food and laughter but also countless references from The Simpsons classic years (Seasons 1-12). This intricately nerdy event could not have happened if it weren't for Erika and Ken's amazing friends and the fine folks in the Woo-Hoo trivia group.

Recent Comments

• Emily: Best baby shower ever. I wish I'd thought of this! [Link]
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After 45 years of tips, witness interviews, theories, and searches, the FBI announced Tuesday it is closing the case file on D.B. Cooper, the only unsolved hijacking in U.S. history.

Just when I was THIS close to finding DB Cooper, FBI closes case. 6pm news conference in Seattle pic.twitter.com/AGI0fMSjX5

— Dave Wagner (@DaveKIRO7) July 12, 2016

On Nov. 24, 1971, a man aboard a Seattle-bound Northwest Orient Airlines flight identifying himself as Dan Cooper (the press later reported it as D.B. Cooper) made several demands, including money and parachutes. After making an emergency landing to pick up the ransom and supplies, the plane took off again, and the man parachuted into the night with $200,000, never to be (knowingly) seen again.

Some people believe he did not survive the jump, while others think he committed the perfect crime. In a statement, the FBI said it is "redirecting resources" allocated to the case to focus on other "investigative priorities." If new or compelling evidence is uncovered, the FBI said, it will reopen the investigation.

Usually if you do something illegal while driving, there are harsh consequence that include a hefty fine, prison, or both.

But in Dundee, Scotland, they do things differently, and you can avoid the slammer if you have a mean stitch and purl. Local resident Amanda McCabe was accused of punching another driver in the face back in January. But rather than send her straight to prison, the judge gave her another option—knit some items for charity, and if they’re good enough, don’t go to jail.

But how did McCabe get such a crafty sentence? According to the Courier, when this case finally reached the courtroom, McCabe started talking passionately about knitting. She argued that she was on her way to a specialty wool shop near where the assault took place, and that the incident was a coincidence.

The Sheriff decided that this was “out of character” for McCabe, (who actually does have a criminal record, but nothing violent, and nothing in the last decade) and focused on the knitting, of all things. And so, in a truly British fashion, McCabe has to knit for her freedom.

Upon returning to court in December, McCabe is to present multiple knitted items that are good enough to be sold in a charity shop that raises money for worthwhile causes. The Sheriff told McCabe, “You have committed serious offenses, but you have the chance to do something useful with your time.”

But if the knitted items are not up to snuff, or if McCabe exhibits any bad behavior between now and her next court date, the case will be pursued as normal and she’ll likely go to prison.

So just remember—they can take your spools, they can take your needles, but they can never take your freeeeeedom!

The post Woman charged with road rage could avoid prison sentence by knitting sweaters appeared first on HelloGiggles.

There's a controversy brewing in the Catholic Church over whether priests should celebrate Mass "facing the people," as the vast majority of them do nowadays (versum populum), or ad orientem, "towards the East," or, colloquially, with his back to the people.

I would guess that most Catholics today have no idea that this back-to-the-people position is an option, and would be sincerely baffled as to why anybody might find it desirable.

And yet, some do. Cardinal Sarah, who heads a Vatican task force on liturgy, recently recommended to priests at a liturgy conference that they start using the ad orientem posture more (and received a standing ovation). Sarah has become the unofficial leader of the loyal traditionalist opposition to Pope Francis, who is widely seen as leading the church in a progressive direction, and "flipping the altars" is widely seen as a traditionalist move. The Vatican press office quickly downplayed Sarah's comments. Because the issue is a cultural flashpoint between the church's left and right camps, this created a mini-controversy.

But why is this even an issue? And why care about it at all?

While all major Christian denominations, and indeed all major monotheistic faiths, have some form of weekly group worship, for Catholics, Mass is particularly special. This is deeply connected to the strangest Catholic belief, which is the belief in the Eucharist — that the bread and wine used during Mass quite literally become "the body, blood, soul, and divinity" of Jesus Christ. These objects literally become Jesus, who Catholics also believe is God.

Catholics believe that Mass is not simply an occasion to hear important and holy texts, to pray, to reflect, to celebrate as a community — all the things that Protestants, Jews, and Muslims do — but also to encounter God, who literally comes down from Heaven to meet you.

This is why a famous document from the Second Vatican Council called the Mass "the source and summit" of Christian life, and the most important thing the church does. Not prayer. Not right belief. Not good deeds. Those things are important. But in the Catholic view, you will not have those things, or you will get them wrong, if you get the liturgy wrong. At Mass, you are filled with the Holy Spirit, who gives you the power and discernment to be holy in the rest of your life. That is the most important thing.

This is why the Catholic Church says it is a mortal sin — an action that will send you to Hell if you do it knowingly and unrepentantly — to not attend Mass on Sundays. This doctrine has become taboo in the modern Catholic world, but if going to Mass is literally the most important thing you can do as a Christian, and if it really is the place where God is literally coming down from Heaven specifically to meet you, by not going you're essentially giving God the middle finger.

The Mass is that important.

These are ideas that are, in my experience, foreign to most Catholics sitting in the pews — if indeed they sit there at all. If Catholics go to Mass it's because they're happy to, but many of them are there for things that would be, in the Catholic view, nice-to-haves, but not the main part. Community. Celebration. Music. A good homily if you're lucky. Rote habit.

It's not that conservative Catholics dislike folksy, easy-to-sing tunes (as opposed to reverent, classical, or medieval music) on aesthetic grounds (although they often do). It's that privileging this form of music subliminally reinforces the message that going to Mass is a form of entertainment rather than a form of worship.

This is the main virtue of the ad orientem posture. It says, loudly and clearly, "This is not about you." The Mass is supposed to be about God — an act of worship of God. The priest does not have "his back to the people," traditionalists say. He faces in the same direction as the rest of the people: toward God, to worship Him.

Saying "It's not about you!" is a message that is counter-intuitive in a culture that is overly invested in affirmation and self-centeredness. This explains why this conservative Catholic practice turns off so many people. It also explains why it's so needed.

Only a few nerds and wacko birds even seem to care about this stuff. But as a Catholic, I really do believe that the Mass is "the source and summit of the Christian life." It is an act of divine worship and not a community meeting, a literal encounter with God. We ought to treat it that way. And that begins with priests facing God, not us.

It pains me that so many Catholics can't see this. They are visiting the river but not drinking the water that sustains life. What a shame.

Scientists have created a synthetic stingray that’s propelled by living muscle cells and controlled by light, a team reports Thursday in the journal Science.

And it should be possible to build an artificial heart using some of the same techniques, the researchers say.

Source:: Future of You – tagged “kqedscience”

Your honeymoon is meant to be the most amazing holiday of your life, right? You’ve just got married, you’ve had the most amazing day, and now you’re off with your significant other on a gorgeous break to allow yourself to chill after the inevitable stresses of planning your nuptials.

For Huma Mobin, however, her honeymoon wasn’t so much a dream trip come true as a bit of a nightmare. After planning a beautiful trip to Greece with her husband, Arsalaan Sever Butt, the couple from Lahore, Pakistan, failed to make their vacation a reality when Butt was refused a visa into the country.

Speaking to Buzzfeed, Huma said how she decided to decided to travel with her in-laws instead, even if she was a bit miserable.

“I cried the first night on my mother-in-law’s shoulder,” she told Buzzfeed, “but she told me to make the best of it.” So, she did.

Deciding to visit every spot they planned to visit, Huma took a HILARIOUS sad pictures “posing” with her invisible husband.

Later in on the vacation, Huma dropped her phone in the sea and therefore started “posing” with the two things that were now missing from her trip.

We totally hope that if we ended up having to honeymoon alone, we’d have the guts to be as funny, hilarious, and downright amazing as Huma Mobin was. It takes a lot to turn such a bad situation into something that WINS THE INTERNET.

To see all of Huma’s tragically hilarious pictures, visit her Facebook page here.

The post This woman had to honeymoon without her husband and she responded hilariously appeared first on HelloGiggles.

When you live on a tiny 18-island archipelago in the north Atlantic, you can fall by the wayside of giant corporations like Google. But luckily for Faroe islanders who are without Google Street View, they have sheep. A lot of sheep.

While 360-degree cameras on Google cars have mapped vast swaths of the world, some Faroe islanders were frustrated that they couldn't share their chilly, majestic landscape with friends abroad. That's when Durita Dahl Andreassen fitted five of the island's 80,000 sheep with 360-degree cameras and set them loose to map.

"Most of the time my sheep just like to walk around and eat grass, and every minute [the camera] takes a picture I can upload to Street View," Andreassen said.

With sheep outnumbering the 49,188 people who live in the Faroe Islands, "sheep view" might be even more appropriate a way to explore the archipelago than Street View (but hey Google, that doesn't mean you're off the hook). Take a sheep for a spin, below, or learn more about the project in this video, or over at The Guardian.

Not even the best pilot in the world can fly an airplane like the erratic path of an insect, and now scientists know why — bugs are simply exempt from the same laws of aerodynamics that apply to airplanes.

"We've known for quite a while that the aerodynamic theory for airplanes doesn't work so well in predicting the force of lift for flapping wings. We found that the drag or wind resistance also behaves very differently, and we put together a new law that could help explain how insects move through the air," assistant professor at New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Leif Ristroph, told Futurity.

Researchers had to go back to the drawing board to figure out the significance of wing thrust on overcoming aerodynamic drag. While an airplane, with its static wings, must increase its thrust fourfold to double its flight speed against wind resistance, a bug only needs to double its thrust to go twice as fast due to having a drag "that is in direct proportion to its flight speed," Ristroph said.

To understand this, though, the NYU researchers actually built robotic wings to measure the way the air flowed and where the forces were acting. And now that they know more about how the drag on the wing acted more like a thrust in some instances, they think they may be able to design "tiny flying robots that mimic the wing motions of insects," Futurity reports.

Hey, at least robotic bugs don't sting. If you want to learn more — and are undaunted by the title "Linear drag law for high-Reynolds-number flow past an oscillating body" — check out the full study with diagrams in Physical Review Fluids, here.

Unlike the last home tour, this house looks very normal-looking from the outside. You would never know of the kalaidascope of color and decor that this home contains within it's unassuming brick facade. The real estate listing describes this Australian home as, "A wonderland of colour, this torrens titled character maisonette is filled with a whole lot of charm!"

You say "whole lot of charm" I say "whole lot of pictures of cats" …and dolls, and hanging baskets full of fake flowers. I could literally stare at these photos for hours, swimming in the swirls of color and mind-boggling collection displays…

Thanks to Offbeat Homie di for alerting me to the fact that this magic exists.

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