IKEA Monkey

Rodrigo Duterte, president of the Philippines, admitted to personally killing people during his time as mayor of Davao.

Speaking at the presidential palace late Monday on his war on drugs and drug users, Duterte said, "In Davao I used to do it personally. Just to show to the guys [police officers]...

The “mega serving” challenge lives up to its name.

Editorial Cartoon: ‘Brute Of My Loins’

Brexit, climate change, Trump, Syria, white nationalism, Turkey, racism and police violence, the Flint water crisis, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, drowned migrants. I was tempted to just post a photo of a burning dumpster or the this is fine dog and leave it at that. But professional photographers and the agencies & publications that employ them are essential in bearing witness to the atrocities and injustices and triumphs and breakthroughs of the world and helping us understand what’s happening out there. It’s worth seeking out what they saw this year.

Several sites, publications, and agencies have published lists of the best and most newsworthy photos of the year. Among them are In Focus’ Top 25 News Photos of 2016 as well as their three-part 2016: The Year in Photos (part 1, part 2, part 3), National Geographic’s The 52 Best Photographs of 2016, Time’s Top 100 Photos of the Year 2016, AFP’s Pictures of the Year (part 1, part 2, part 3), 2016: The Year in Photos from CNN, Pictures of the Year 2016 from Reuters, the AP’s Top Photos of 2016, some of the top images from the World Press Photo exhibition, which “highlights the best photojournalism of the year”, The Top Photos of 2016 from Maclean’s, and The Best Weird and Wonderful Photos of 2016 from totallycoolpix.com.

I’ve selected five of my favorite photos from these lists and included them above. From top to bottom, the photographers are Jonathan Bachman, Brent Stirton, Kai Pfaffenbach, Anuar Patjane Floriuk, and Mahmoud Raslan. The top photo, by Bachman, pictures the arrest of Ieshia Evans while protesting the death of Alton Sterling by the Baton Rouge police and is just flat-out amazing. In a piece for The Guardian, Evans wrote:

When the armored officers rushed at me, I had no fear. I wasn’t afraid. I was just wondering: “How do these people sleep at night?” Then they put me in a van and drove me away. Only hours later did someone explain that I was arrested for obstructing a highway.

There’s so much fear in that photo — institutional fear, racial fear, societal fear — but none of it is coming from Evans. Total hero.

Update: Buzzfeed shares The 46 Most Powerful Photos of 2016 and the BBC has the 15 finalists in the 2016 Art of Building architectural photography competition.

Update: The NY Times offers up The Year in Pictures 2016.

Update: From Artsy, The Most Powerful Moments of Photojournalism in 2016.

Tags: best of   best of 2016   Ieshia Evans   journalism   photography

You think you have the mettle and athletic character to block Steven Davis’s mighty dunk attempt, scrawny Urbana defender?

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The 'heartbeat bill' would have prohibited most abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can be before women even know they're pregnant.

Researchers now think the 'brightest supernova ever' may actually have been the death throes of a star ripped apart by a supermassive black hole up to billions of times the mass of the sun.

The former Illinois Congressman, usually so fond of putting his foot in his mouth, is shockingly talking a lot of sense on this one. [ more › ]

What this video purports to show is a group of Turkish men rescuing a bear. What are they rescuing the poor best from, you ask? A life of shit and piss.

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New Jersey governor, professional sycophant, and unrequited Bruce Springsteen lover Chris Christie seems to be dislodging himself from Donald Trump’s shrieking asshole—but not for any noble reason, mind you. Offered several executive appointments, Christie turned down all of them, and in the meantime was passed over for the one he really wanted: attorney general.

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There are some things that, once seen, cannot be unseen. Like when someone draws hands on a pair of mittens on McDonald’s McCafe cup, and changes innocent outerwear into, well, something not quite so innocent.

Twitter user @SamSykesSwears had some fun with the fast food chain’s coffee cup, turning mittens into an image reminiscent of a person clasping their buttocks with their hands to spread the cheeks apart. Ah, how very Ace Ventura: Pet Detective:

Twitter is having a field day with the image now, of course, with another user comparing the image to a famous sculpture:

Some thought it was McDonald’s fault:

Again, to be clear, McDonald’s isn’t selling the cups this way, so if you want to spread Christmas cheer the cheeky way, you’ll have to do it yourself.

Want more stories from Consumerist? We’re a non-profit! You can get more stories like this in our twice weekly ad-free newsletter! Click here to sign up.

In an interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace on Sunday, Donald Trump, who has no idea what the office of the President entails and doesn’t give a fuck about it, confirmed reports that he is indeed receiving intelligence briefings much less frequently than previous President-elects have.

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Donald Trump is poised to select Rex Tillerson, the president and chief executive of Exxon Mobil, to serve as Secretary of State, sources have told NBC News. Trump is expected to officially announce his decision next week.

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Denver Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall got a letter at work on Friday. It wasn’t from a fan.

Marshall posted to Instagram a letter he received at Broncos team headquarters filled with expletives, racial slurs, and threats. The letter is presumably in response to his joining Colin Kaepernick in kneeling during the National Anthem earlier this season. The move was a silent protest in response to police brutality against people of color.

Marshall didn’t censor the language he read and neither will we. The letter said that “if you’re so unhappy with America, turn in your ‘millions’ and move back to the jungle.” It also threatened Marshall personally, saying “we are ‘channeling’ a devastating hard hit for you!!”

It would be easy to poke fun at the scare quotes and rantings of a crazy person here, but the danger is real. This is a threat no person should endure just for kneeling on the ground quietly. Marshall commented on the all-caps, handwritten letter saying it’s important to know the kind of language and abuse he receives in response to just being a person of color in America today.

“The hatred by some against people of color is one of the reasons we are where we’re at in the world today,” Marshall wrote on Instagram. “And they wonder why we feel the way we do and take the stances that we take. I received this letter at work.”

It’s the second incident in a week where an NFL player beared the brunt of a racist tirade. Earlier this week Nikita Whitlock reported a break-in at his New Jersey home where someone scrawled the letters “KKK” and “Go back to Africa” in his basement apartment. It was the second incident in Whitlock’s home within the last six months.

China has warned that it's "seriously concerned" after President-elect Donald Trump questioned whether the United States should keep its long-standing position that Taiwan is part of "one China."

If you Google “Demi Moore Tobey Maguire Dating 2002" you’ll be reminded of the easily forgettable moment some 14 years ago when the two were said to be “in love.” In a gossip report from late that year, The Chicago Tribune wrote:

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Country Fried Poutine 😁 📷: @nonstopeats /📍: @thekroft #forkyeah http://ift.tt/2htSjmO

Carl's Jr.'s French Toast Dips feature five French toast sticks dusted with powdered sugar. Syrup comes on the side for dipping.

An order goes for $2.99 at my local restaurant but I received these courtesy of Carl's Jr.

The French Toast Dips looked to have been fried fairly recently as they were piping hot inside and nice and crispy without. There was a thin and crunchy but not-too-oily crust all around that contrasted rather well with the soft, moist, and slightly chewy crumb.

There's a very light sprinkle of powdered sugar that combined with the deep frying gave these a bit of a funnel cake vibe. I could have used some more powdered sugar though. Fortunately, the syrup picked up the slack rather well.

The syrup offered a measured amount of sweetness and an interesting tang. It was pretty thin though; thin enough that it sort of looked like I was trying to do a nice syrup design for plating.

I ended up liking Carl's Jr.'s French Toast Dips quite a bit. As long as you can get them relatively fresh, they make for an enjoyable breakfast indulgence.

Nutritional info not available.

Mom Much More Insistent About Getting Grandkids From One Child Than Other

FREMONT, NE—Noting the constant stream of questions and blatant suggestions directed solely at his sibling, area man Josh Koppel, 32, reported Friday that his mother was much more insistent about getting grandkids from his brother than from him. “Whenever the family’s together, Mom’s always asking Matt when he and his wife are going to have a baby, even though we’re both married and I’m actually two years older than him,” said Koppel, adding that his mother has been repeatedly dropping hints about her desire to be a grandparent and talking about how cute his brother’s kids will be, but has never once inquired about the elder son’s desire to be a father or mentioned the fact she already had kids when she was his age. “Matt told me they went out for lunch last week and Mom was going on and on about how lucky her friends were to have grandkids and how much she’d love to babysit. Denise and I have been married for three years and I don’t think she’s ever mentioned being excited about us having kids or asked if we have any favorite baby names. Even Dad hasn’t said anything about it.” Koppel added that his family was also far less likely to complain about the fact that he had moved so far from home, despite his brother living about the same distance away as him.

Papa really is a Rolling Stone.

This mumps outbreak covers almost every U.S. state — 3,832 cases and counting — nearly triple the number seen in 2015.

The rare Steven Seagal movie to open in American theaters, Contract To Kill is so crude and anti-cinematic—so fucking bad—that it becomes its own parody. It is a treasure, as are all of the god-awful movies put out by the onetime black belt with the help of his dedicated team of “whatever, sure” men. (This is writer-director Keoni Waxman’s third such film this year.) Seagal, in his triangular Bela-Lugosi-in-Dracula toupee and his clothes picked straight from a big-and-tall outlet store and his orange prescription Oakleys, walks stiffly and very slowly. It is possible that he never once bends at the waist. Most of the movie, he spends sitting down or walking (again, slowly) up and down flights of stairs. There is a love scene—and, Jesus, what a love scene. His fully dressed body is lowered over a naked woman like a drawbridge. He doesn’t ...

Kellyanne Conway on Friday defended President-elect Donald Trump's decision to remain an executive producer on NBC's "Celebrity Apprentice" even as he takes office, arguing that "presidents have a right to do things in their spare time."

2011's Rise of the Planet of the Apes surprised almost everyone. Its teaser trailer, which showed James Franco unconvincingly saying things like, “YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU’RE DEALING WITH,” to other scientists, was easy to ridicule, and the very idea that Hollywood would reboot such a campy series was offensive to anyone who’d ever had an original idea in their lives.

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We just saw a similar but not identical look on Lily Donaldson (by Burberry), and I'm so bored of the basic style that I'm actually finding myself thinking wistfully of culottes. Or genie pants. Or stirrup pants. SOMETHING about which we can work up a righteous snit, rather than simply shaking our heads and lamenting that…

What makes a good shopping experience for some folks is not always ideal for others. That’s why a Pennsylvania Target store is setting aside certain hours on Saturday so autistic customers can shop in peace and quiet.

Sensory stimulants can be frustrating and upsetting for some people on the autism spectrum, so between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m., a store in Lancaster, PA, will turn off the music, dim the usually bright lights, and keep the action to a minimum.

Target doesn’t have plans to roll these events out to all its stores, but a spokeswoman for Target tells Consumerist that if you’d like your local store to host a similar shopping day, talk to a store manager or team leader.

“At Target, we are committed to creating an environment where our team members and guests feel welcome, valued and respected,” she said in an emailed statement. “As part of that commitment, we empower our store leaders to make decisions that help meet the needs of the guests they serve.”

In this case, the store leader worked with his team and community partners “to create a welcoming shopping event for his guests on the autism spectrum and we applaud his efforts,” she added.

(h/t Philly.com)

Police secure the scene near Comet Ping Pong in Washington, DC, Sunday, December 4, 2016. Photo by Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post via AP

A version of this article originally appeared on the Trace.

The armed assault on a Washington, DC, family restaurant last Sunday was perplexing for a variety of reasons. Why did Edgar Welch take the harebrained "Pizzagate" internet conspiracy theory so seriously he felt compelled to bring three guns with him on a drive from North Carolina to Comet Ping Pong? Given Welch's criminal record, which includes two drug possession charges, how did he manage to get those weapons? Doesn't federal law prohibit people with documented history of possessing or using illegal substances from buying guns?

The answer to what motivated Welch is still being sorted out. On Monday, DC police said that Welch told them that he had driven to the pizzeria to "self-investigate" bogus sex abuse claims made against the Establishment during and immediately after the heated presidential election.

Once in the restaurant, he pointed a rifle at an employee and fired at least one shot into the floor before surrendering.

It's also not yet clear where, or how, Welch obtained his arsenal—an AR-15 rifle, a .38-caliber revolver, and a shotgun. But it appears that despite his rap sheet, he is not what the FBI or the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives deem a "prohibited purchaser," someone flagged in the federal background check system as unfit to receive a firearm in a gun purchase or transfer.

John Sifford, a captain in the sheriff's office in Rowan County, where Welch lives, said the gunman's misdemeanor charges would not have impeded the department from issuing him a concealed weapons license or a permit to purchase a pistol. But there is no evidence that Welch applied for, or received these permissions, Sifford said.

It appears that Welch may have not obtained legal permission to buy or carry the .38-caliber revolver found in his possession in the pizza parlor.

Broadly speaking, convicted felons are not allowed to own or buy guns in the US. A federal background check form asks prospective buyers if they are "an unlawful user" of drugs or "addicted to a controlled substance"—a vague classification that can include misdemeanor drug offenses. In the last two decades, the FBI has blocked hundreds of thousands of people with records of drug possession or use from buying firearms.

It can sometimes take more than three days to sort out the specifics of a would-be buyer's drug record. If that happens, sales automatically go through—sometimes with calamitous results.

Check out the TONIC documentary on the HIV crisis in the American South.

After Dylann Roof killed nine churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, federal officials found that he should have been prohibited from buying the gun he used in that crime: Three months earlier, Roof had confessed to misdemeanor illegal possession of drugs, specifically Suboxone, a prescription pharmaceutical used to manage opioid addictions. Due to a paperwork error, the FBI was not able to determine that Roof's charge was indeed sufficient to block his gun purchase within three days, at which point he got the weapon anyway in what's called a default proceed sale.

Welch had also been convicted of drug crimes. In 2007, he pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor drug possession charges. But the "unlawful user" prohibition has an expiration date. A conviction, positive drug test, or confession only prohibits individuals from buying guns if it occurred in the past year. That's according to the FBI's detailed guidelines about just what designates someone as an "unlawful user" of illegal drugs, which indicates that Welch was probably not covered by the prohibition.

So as long as Welch obtained his guns after 2008, there is likely no legal reason why the sales should have been blocked. Stephen Fischer, an FBI spokesman, declined to directly address whether Welch had passed a background check or not, due to privacy restrictions.

Welch had other run-ins with the law. Also in 2007, he pleaded guilty to driving after consuming alcohol and with an open container. (This October, he struck and severely injured a teenager with his vehicle, though the incident did not result in criminal charges.) Alcohol-related misdemeanors don't stand in the way of passing a federal background check, and only a small handful of states like neighboring South Carolina impose their own restrictions on people with histories of drunken behavior. However, states like Virginia or Florida suspend concealed carry licenses after DUIs.

The system designed to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people is riddled with complexities like these. State laws complicate things further: There are varying rules regarding who can carry guns in public, and some states employ different standards for allowing or denying gun purchases.

In Welch's native North Carolina, gun laws are relatively loose. The state allows individuals to buy rifles and shotguns without undergoing background checks, but citizens must obtain a permit to purchase a handgun or carry a concealed weapon. These permits are issued by the local sheriff's office.

The Trace has asked the Rowan County Sheriff's Department if there is any other way that Welch would have been able to legally purchase the pistol without receiving a permit in advance. We will update with the department's response.

A version of this article was originally published by the Trace, a nonprofit news organization covering guns in America. Sign up for the newsletter, or follow the Trace on Facebook or Twitter.

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