IKEA Monkey

Vladimir Putin said Friday that Donald Trump's views on the need for the United States to strengthen its nuclear capabilities were not a surprise.

No, Giant isn’t named after the extra space in the restaurant. It’s named for its flavor. If you’re in Chicago, you need to check this place out. 📷: @hugegaldones /📍: @giantchicago #BestRest2016 http://ift.tt/2hAAXkF

Roman Fedortsov is a deep sea fisherman in Russia. And he’s been taking photos of OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT?

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For a direct-to-DVD Disney movie about adorable golden retrievers forming a dog sled team in Alaska and making a young boy’s dreams come true, 2008’s Snow Buddies has an almost impossibly tragic backstory. Andrew Gruttadaro tells the sad tale behind the film’s making in a disheartening piece written for Complex. A warning in advance to pet lovers: This article contains the term “puppy-killing virus.” The production of Snow Buddies should have been routine; this was, after all, the seventh film in the incredibly durable Air Bud series, making it only about the midway point in that franchise. But the lighthearted sequel was filmed in February in Vancouver, British Columbia during an outbreak of “highly contagious” parvovirus. In the end, at least five puppies associated with the production were dead, and PETA alleged that as many as “40 or 50” could have been made sick. The animal rights ...

A passenger claimed he was kicked off a JetBlue flight on Thursday after an incident involving President-elect Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka.

Veal dumplings smothered in a sauce made of tomatoes, garlic, shallots, Marsala wine and parmesan cheese. 📷: @goodeatzco /📍: @therecessroom #forkyeah http://ift.tt/2hdAvsB

It’s that time of year when we all gather ‘round the fire, sip hot cocoa, and discuss whether or not Love Actually is actually a good movie. Some of us despise it, some of us love it, and many of us haven’t even seen it—but however you feel about Richard Curtis’s holiday epic, there’s no denying its impact on popular culture since its release.

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For the past year Victoria Hearst, the granddaughter of William Randolph Hearst, has been on a rampage to censor or remove Cosmopolitan from the shelves, asserting in a ridiculous campaign that “Cosmo Harms Minors” because of its open, liberated approach to sex. It’s worked in several markets, and this week a major grocery chain announced the magazine will be pulled from the checkout lanes, in what’s a could be a hit to the business but a win for evangelical puritanism, I guess.

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Me and my home. All photos by the author with help from Ben Thomson and Ashley Goodall

This article originally appeared on VICE Australia

I've just spent a month building my own house for free, which actually means "built out of stuff from a garbage dump." This started because I turned 30, and thought about buying a house only to quickly realize I couldn't even slightly afford one. As you may have noticed, house prices around the developed world have detached themselves from wages and rocketed out to some fantastic land of random numbers. You earn $70K? Then a $1 million price tag is about meaningless. It might as well be a billion. Or $7 billion. Fuck it, make it infinity dollars. I'm about at the stage where if I saw an ad for a treehouse in Antarctica for infinity dollars I wouldn't even blink. I'd just be like, "Oh Antarctica has trees? I didn't know that."

So I was feeling angry and, yes, melodramatic and I decided to build a house for free. You can read the full tale of construction in part one of the article here. But then I had my parents over for dinner. They told me I should pull my head out of my ass, stop being weird, and just save some money. And they were right, of course. In the end we all just give up and start saving, bitterly.

So I decided to turn my shack into an asset, and put it on Airbnb. At first, I couldn't figure out why I wasn't getting any inquiries, but then I realized I needed to lie in the description more. After all, I'm sure real estate agent training manuals all start with a chapter titled Lying is Incredible.

I changed my listing to "Micro-Lux Outdoor Rejuvenation Hut" and wrote some crap about how it was made from "gorgeous recycled timbers" and "situated on a grassy acreage." What is an acreage anyway? Does it involve acorns?

Quickly, the inquires began rolling in. People were nice. People were polite, and their emails contained an aura of sweet optimism. They were tourists who dreamed of staying somewhere cheap and fun, with maybe a kangaroo to ride about in the morning. They'd stumbled upon my place and thought they'd hit gold.

I felt like a dick. It wasn't just that I was renting out a house made of garbage. It was also the fact I'd built a house made of garbage. A huge percentage of the world's population have to live in shantytowns and refugee camps, in cobbled together shacks like mine. Friends asked if I'd considered that my first article seemed to be smugly parodying this sad reality. That had never even crossed my mind. Now I was trying to make money off it?

But then I realized those property flipping, negatively geared millionaires aren't haunted by these thoughts. They don't make time for ethics. And I didn't want 20 investment properties, I just want one home. Stay the course Julian—make money, get house.

This is Leilah and Lucca from Germany. I still don't really understand why, but they wanted to stay. "We just like nice adventures," explained Leilah as I drove them from the airport to my house. "And this will make a funny story." But as we pulled into the shitty industrial estate where I'd built the place, the car fell noticeably silent.

We parked, I showed them over a fence and through some trees, and the two backpackers went inside. I took this photo and left, wondering what sort of a story I was trying to write.

The story I'm trying to write is that entry-level houses shouldn't cost a million dollars. Houses represent the human desire to not stand about in the rain, and it's unfair to twist this desire into a commodity.

As Leilah and Lucca stayed at the house, I spoke to Philip Soos, an economist and co-author of Bubble Economics: Australian Land Speculation 1830-2013. I wanted to know why houses were so expensive. According to Philip it's all about banking deregulation.

"What we're seeing since countries began deregulating their banking systems in the 80s, is banks lending money to anyone who wants it," he told me. "That's turning housing into a speculation game, which throughout the 90s and 2000s significantly ramped-up housing prices. In the US this obviously led to the Global Financial Crisis."

I asked Philip what evidence there is for this, as opposed to it being a result of simple supply and demand. He response was simple, "If housing prices were being driven by a lack of supply, rental prices would have risen at the same rate. You can see on this graph this just isn't the case."

"No, house prices are driven by lending, and by a reluctance by governments to stand up to banks."

I went back the next morning to collect Leilah and Lucca. They said they'd had a good sleep, even though a section of the roof blew off in the night. "When we got here last night there were candles and it was cozy," explained Leilah with that slightly funny earnestness possessed by all Germans. "Then we woke in the morning and I was like, 'Eh? What is this place?'"

I told them I was sorry and refunded their money, then drove them to an actual hostel where they could get on with their lives.

I hadn't made any money, but somehow my house had made headlines. Part one of this article had come out on VICE and other actual journalists were trying to scoop a piece of the hut. It was at this point that my Airbnb listing went bananas as weirdos everywhere clamoured to stay in a politically insensitive shack made of garbage.

I couldn't keep up with it. Have you ever posted a photo of your dog wearing a hat on Instagram? Then you'll know what it's like to get some attention on the internet. Now imagine what it's like if you have to respond to every person that likes your dog-hat photo, otherwise Airbnb will drag your status rating down to "unreliable host." The stress of this was debilitating.

It was about this point that the whole thing stopped being fun. Suddenly I realized that I hadn't built a house, I'd just built a sort of adult cubby, which are two words that look creepy together. Building a cubby was a bad way to deal with turning 30.

Adult life is hard and houses are expensive, but these are realities. I'm not going to be in a boy band. I'm not going to Hollywood. I'm not going to invent anything remotely useful or solve any big problems. This is life now, and that effortless mansion I'd always expected to be just around the corner probably isn't. Also, I'm just a guy who's treated fairly well by modern living, and maybe expensive houses are one of its very few drawbacks.

So I called my parents and told them they were right. I would just have to start saving and get on with life like a normal person. And then I went and said goodbye to my house.

Follow Julian on Twitter or Instagram.

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I recently left New York, where I was a fashion editor for nearly a decade, to attend graduate school in the suburbs of D.C., where I grew up. I'm happy to be home in most ways, but there's one suburban habit that I can't get used to: yoga pants.

Women in my neighborhood go about their entire day...

These alternately terrified and cozy-over-everything puppers are all of us right now. [ more › ]

Carl's Jr.'s Budweiser Beer Cheese Fries features criss-cut fries topped with Budweiser beer cheese sauce and crumbled bacon.

They go for $3.99 at my local Carl's Jr. but I received an order courtesy of Carl's Jr.

I lucked out as my fries came piping hot from the fryer and were super crispy but still moist inside. The seasoning added a nice but not-too-heavy flavor. I was very happy with the fries.

The cheese offered a sharp cheddar note to go with a thick and creamy consistency. It didn't have the tanginess you might get with other beer cheese. While it went well with the fries, there wasn't much to go around and I found myself scraping for cheese at some points.

The bacon was thick but not crispy. It was salty but not all that smoky. It's okay for fast food but could be better.

While Carl's Jr.'s Budweiser Beer Cheese Fries were a solid and very enjoyable dish they don't showcase the namesake cheese enough.

Nutritional Info - Carl's Jr. Budweiser Beer Cheese Fries (318g)
Calories - 1160 (from Fat - 790)
Fat - 88g (Saturated Fat - 20g)
Sodium - 2180mg
Carbs - 75g (Sugar - 0g)
Protein - 20g

Welcome to Midweek Madness, where we notice that all of today’s tabloids are for the week of December 20 and get really sad that the holiday season is almost over and we haven’t watched all the movies we’ve been meaning to watch, like The Family Stone and Home Alone and Christmas Vacation and, when we’re feeling like a good cry, The Best Man Holiday.

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"The toddler was just standing there confused, dressed like the little brother from 'A Christmas Story' while their parent went around the corner to get the car. What the hell?!" [ more › ]

The father of Ethan Couch, the notorious “affluenza teen” sentenced to probation after causing a horrific car wreck that killed four people, has been convicted of an exceedingly dumb but fortunately non-fatal crime. Fred Couch, 51, was convicted of falsely identifying himself as a police officer, a misdemeanor offense.

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By selecting ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson to serve as secretary of state, Donald Trump on Tuesday guaranteed that his four most influential departments will, if confirmed, be led entirely by white males for the first time since George H.W. Bush's first cabinet was approved in 1989.

This story begins as nearly all stories about Florida politics do: with Pitbull, an autotune machine, and a handful of scantily-clad women grinding on Mr. Worldwide as he barks out the words, “sexy beaches, hotels.”

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The low temps create an other-worldly steam cloud affect over the lake, which thankfully many social media users were able to capture from apartments and office buildings this morning. [ more › ]

Most vegetarian pâtés rely on mushrooms for their meaty texture and flavor, but this one turns to a surprise ingredient—roasted cauliflower—for similar effect. Pecans help thicken the purée to a pâté-like consistency, while splashes of brandy and soy sauce add even more savory depth. Read More

Army documents contradict retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn's public statement in August.

The coldest December air in years is descending on Chicago this week, with subzero cold possible the next three days and wind chills of minus-25 or lower.

While the chill will be powered by the infamous polar vortex — the circulation of air around the Arctic Circle — meteorologists don't believe...

Prosciutto & Caprese, all you could ever need. 📷: @mychefpty #forkyeah http://ift.tt/2hPhHiZ

The city of Chicago is proposing urban plazas, open spaces and upgrades to pedestrian paths and bike bridges as part of guidelines for potential redevelopment of the North Branch industrial corridor.

The land-use guidelines, which also include a 7-mile jogging loop that could connect to The 606...

Cindy Stowell was a quiet Jeopardy! champion who got excited about ice cream and slowly knitted her friends’ children baby blankets. Tragically, she died of cancer before her episodes of Jeopardy! ever made it on air.

Last week, it was revealed that a future Jeopardy! contestant died after she competed on the show while battling stage IV cancer. Stowell’s boyfriend, Jason Hess, confirmed on Twitter that she had died days before her episode was scheduled to air.

What people didn’t know until the episode aired is that Stowell actually went on to win her episode. Stowell knocked off a 7-day champion to win $22,801 on Tuesday’s Jeopardy! Hess later revealed she had a high-grade fever during the taping that turned out to be a blood infection. She was also on painkillers.

It was a feat that even Jeopardy!‘s most decorated champion — 74-day-winner Ken Jennings — found impressive.

Jeopardy! released a statement about Stowell on its official website when she died last week last week.

“When Cindy Stowell taped her appearance on Jeopardy!, she had Stage 4 cancer,” Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek said. “Competing on Jeopardy! was a lifelong dream for Cindy, and we’re glad she was able to do so. Sadly, Cindy died on December 5. Our condolences and best wishes to her family and friends.”

The show noted that Stowell intended to donate her winnings to cancer research.

A science content developer from Austin, Texas, Cindy passed the online contestant test in early 2016. This summer, she received an invitation to the next round of the process: an in-person audition in Oklahoma City, Okla. She reached out to Jeopardy! contestant producer Maggie Speak with this message:

“Do you have any idea how long it typically takes between an in person interview, and the taping date? I ask because I just found out that I don’t have too much longer to live. The doctor’s best guess is about 6 months. If there is the chance that I’d be able to still tape episodes of Jeopardy! if I were selected, I’d like to do that and donate any winnings to … charities involved in cancer research. If it is unlikely that the turnaround time would be that quick, then I’d like to give up my try out spot to someone else.”

Stowell returned as the show’s new champion on Wednesday night, her name once again followed by an exclamation point.

Cindy! led with $13,500 heading into Final Jeopardy and outlasted two challengers to win an additional $8,199 when none of the contestants knew who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1962 (John Steinbeck).

Stowell — a 2-day champion — will posthumously donate at least $31,000 to cancer research, and it was still unclear whether she won the following episode. I hope she keeps winning so we don’t lose her forever. At the very least, I’m thankful for one more day.

President-elect Donald Trump, who faced fierce opposition from some Silicon Valley leaders during the election campaign, strove to assure the titans of tech on Wednesday that his administration is "here to help you folks do well."

Trump, still savoring his election victory, convened a summit at...