IKEA Monkey

A Lamborghini was “cut in half” after its driver crashed into a concrete light pole, the FairFax Fire and Rescue Department said.

“These are not the kinds of things we expect to happen in this city,” said Toronto’s mayor after a van mowed down pedestrians on a busy sidewalk Monday. Other Torontonians echoed his sentiment. “We never thought this would happen here,” said a supervisor at a trauma center that received several of the attack victims. Similarly, a government employee said, “This is not something that happens here. We always think we are insulated from this kind of thing.”

Canadians often react this way when a grisly attack occurs in the country. But in fact it is the kind of thing that happens there. When it comes to addressing gender-based violence—and that, evidently, is what the Toronto attack was—Canada may have better systems in place than some other countries. Yet it is far from insulated.

Alek Minassian, the 25-year-old suspect in the van attack, has been charged with murdering 10 people—mostly women—and injuring several others. In a Facebook post published shortly before the attack, he lauded “incels,” or involuntary celibates, and declared, “The Incel Rebellion has already begun!” The so-called rebellion aims to punish women for denying incels sex, which they view as a basic right for men. On online platforms like 4Chan, some of the group’s more extreme members discuss the desirability of carrying out gruesome misogynistic crimes, including mass rapes. Several quickly celebrated Minassian’s rampage, with one user on the site “incels.me” saying he could be their “next new saint.”

While vehicular attacks resulting in mass murder are unfamiliar to Canada, gender-based violence is not. A 1993 survey found that more than half of the country’s women and girls reported experiencing it at least once in their lives. The single incident that looms largest in many Canadians’ memory—not least because its anniversary is marked every year by a national day of remembrance—is the Montreal massacre. In 1989, a 25-year-old man walked into that city’s Ecole Polytechnique and carried out a mass shooting. He killed 14 women at the engineering school, claiming that he was “fighting feminism,” before turning his gun on himself. His suicide note accused feminists of ruining his life.

Then there’s the country’s long record of violence against indigenous women, which stretches all the way back to the European colonization of Canada. In the past few decades alone, thousands of indigenous women have been murdered or gone missing. Between 2001 and 2015, indigenous women were six times more likely to be murdered than other women in Canada, according to a report by the national statistics agency, Statistics Canada.

“Canada in its very founding as a nation-state is based in gender-based violence—on at least two counts,” said Robyn Bourgeois, an indigenous professor of women’s and gender studies at Brock University who has herself survived such violence. “Canada was founded on the deaths of indigenous women and girls.” Early colonial writings portrayed indigenous women as lewd and sexually available, which served to justify sexual violence against them. Indigenous girls and boys were forcibly removed from their families and subjected to abuse in the residential school system, which operated from the 1800s until the 1990s. Women were also subjected to coerced sterilizations.

“And Canada’s law is based on British common law, which was very permissive about violence against women and girls,” Bourgeois continued, pointing out that marital rape was legal as late as 1983. Nowadays, some critics say that Canadian law is still not equitable when it comes to sexual violence, arguing that the courts often go too easy on men accused of it. The case of former star radio host Jian Ghomeshi, whom multiple complainants charged with sexual assault and who was acquitted of all charges in 2016, is a prime example cited by such critics.

“In Canada, we like to think we’re better than other countries,” Bourgeois told me. “We may not have something like what’s happening with Boko Haram. And we may have more support for survivors, and more strategies intended to educate folks. But we have very polite violence against women and children that sometimes gets masked. And we have not seen a reduction in violence.” A 2013 Statistics Canada report noted that over the prior decade, the rate of homicide against women had remained stable; the rate of other forms of violence against women had also been stable in the preceding 15 years.

The Canadian government has poured money into supporting those who have experienced gender-based violence (for example, by funding rape crisis centers), but its efforts don’t seem to be doing much good when it comes to prevention. Bourgeois said that’s because they haven’t targeted the root cause: misogynistic thinking, and the persistent belief among some that men should dominate over women.

One group working on that issue is White Ribbon. The organization was founded in Toronto in 1991 as a reaction to the Montreal massacre. Since then it has spread to 60 countries, making it the world’s largest movement of men and boys dedicated to ending violence against women. Its strategy involves helping individual men review their own attitudes and behaviors, and then encouraging them to be good role models for boys, peers, and coworkers. White Ribbon also runs programs in schools and corporations.

“This is close to home for us,” the executive director, Humberto Carolo, said of the Toronto attack, “both because our office is just a few kilometers from where this happened, and because this follows in the path of the tragedies dating back to the Montreal massacre. … It’s young men taking their hatred out on women.”

Carolo sounded an optimistic note about a new strategy that Canada is launching to address gender-based violence; Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s 2017 federal budget allocated $100 million to the cause. “The federal government has introduced a strategy for engagement with men and boys, which is pretty unique around the world,” Carolo said. “That points to the government’s commitment to address the root causes.”

Bourgeois was doubtful, though. She has already seen the government sink millions into promising-sounding plans only to watch them founder. In 2016, Canada launched an independent, $53.8-million national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. But now some families of the victims say they’ve lost confidence in the ongoing process, which has become bogged down in controversies, missed deadlines, and resignations.

“That’s painful and it leaves me with very little hope at certain moments,” Bourgeois told me. “That being said, I think maybe even if the government isn’t ready, Canadians are ready. #MeToo has galvanized women across the country. And after seeing what happened in Toronto, I can’t imagine Canada continuing to turn a blind eye to the death toll of misogyny.”

Even though Bourgeois said that for many years Canada did seem to largely ignore the death toll among indigenous women, she added that now, “people will be more likely to pay attention because this was in Toronto—in an urban center where there’s a lot of wealth. … Some lives are worth more than others in this country.”

That’s an uncomfortable thought for many proud Canadians, and many others around the world who perceive Canada as a paragon of gender equality and multiculturalism. The country has a lot more work to do—and the incel attack in Toronto is a reminder. When I asked Carolo what he felt his organization should do in response to the attack, he responded matter-of-factly: “We have to scale up.”

Opening up your house to a bunch of hungry friends can be quite fun, but you can quickly rack up some pricey party expenses if you’re not careful. But there are a lot of ways to serve fancy food without draining your bank account, and we’re going to show you how. This week, we’re focusing on fromage fort, a cheesy…

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In a 2013 piece, Christie Aschwanden suggested a test in the spirit of the Bechdel test for avoiding gender bias in profiles written about scientists who are women.

To pass the Finkbeiner test, the story cannot mention:

- The fact that she’s a woman
- Her husband’s job
- Her child care arrangements
- How she nurtures her underlings
- How she was taken aback by the competitiveness in her field
- How she’s such a role model for other women
- How she’s the “first woman to…”

Aschwanden named the test after her colleague Ann Finkbeiner, who wrote that she was going to write a piece about an astronomer without mentioning that she, the astronomer, was a woman.

Meanwhile I’m sick of writing about [gender bias in science]; I’m bored silly with it. So I’m going to cut to the chase, close my eyes, and pretend the problem is solved; we’ve made a great cultural leap forward and the whole issue is over with.

And I’m going to write the profile of an impressive astronomer and not once mention that she’s a woman. I’m not going to mention her husband’s job or her child care arrangements or how she nurtures her students or how she was taken aback by the competitiveness in her field. I’m not going to interview her women students and elicit raves about her as a role model. I’m going to be blindly, aggressively, egregiously ignorant of her gender.

I’m going to pretend she’s just an astronomer.

(via @john_overholt)

Tags: Ann Finkbeiner   Christie Aschwanden   gender   science   writing

Janelle Monáe has devoted years to developing the saga of Cindi Mayweather, a renegade android hunted for having the gall to fall in love with a human. The meticulously crafted character is at the center of much of the Grammy nominee’s work, including the funk-opera Metropolis, and her subsequent full-length releases, …

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When we last rounded up our staff’s Weekly Upgrades, our editors were getting rid of our Facebook news feeds, dabbling in clothing rental, giving up on bad books, and spring cleaning our financial lives.

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In a world where headlines barrage readers with news of mass attacks on humanity, the inefficacy of elected leaders, and sexual predators in power, finding levity in it all can feel counterintuitive. Counterproductive even. But 2018 is perhaps a perfect moment to celebrate the tragicomic—or finding humor in life's darkened corners.

The revival of the #MeToo movement, a rallying cry coined over a decade ago by Tarana Burke, has empowered women to call out and dismantle institutional sexism and sexual harassment. And it’s welcome progress. Yet one artist is finding catharsis in a subtler, and snarkier, way: by calling men out on their bullshit through satire and unpacking the insidious masculinity that fuels today’s headlines.

“I’ve always found that humor is an incredibly valuable tool for both coping and change,” Shelby Lorman, the 24-year-old writer and artist behind the bitingly brilliant Instagram account @awardsforgoodboys, told VICE. She started the account in 2017 as a way to make fun of “good boys”—her moniker for men who expect praise for not being absolute monsters.

“People are so quick to praise men for avoiding vehemently bad behavior, whilst holding women to a million standards they’ll never meet,” Lorman explained. “It’s like, ‘Oh, he didn’t murder anyone? He’s my hero.’”

The @awardsforgoodboys account unpacks the double standards of hardwired sexism while making women howl with laughter. And if you gauge by Lorman’s nearly 20,000 followers, clearly it’s resonating. “The vibe I get from my followers and friends is that it’s a relief to consume something that is still topical, still critical, but has some levity,” she said.

No one is safe from Lorman’s ire; when an IRL dude once gave her a backhanded compliment on her illustrations via Tinder messenger, she screenshotted it and put his DM up on her account. “Obviously him ‘complimenting’ my work is not evil,” Lorman explained. “I think he meant it in earnest. The issue is that men like this compliment downwards: it’s inherently patronizing.”

Calling men out in this way isn’t meant to be malicious. Lorman’s trying to get them to recognize when they marginalize women, intentionally or not, and then laugh at themselves. “When you’re laughing, your guard is down, and when your guard is down, sentiments can seep in,” she said. “Something you may have previously pushed away, because it was too hard to think about [or hit] too close to home,” can be reframed as a nonthreatening way to think about behavior.

Lorman is acutely aware that the issues she’s addressing on her account were around “a long, long time before Hollywood elites decided they wanted change.” She thinks the current conversation around #MeToo is incredibly important but also “inherently flawed, as most large movements are. It leaves things out. It’s stemming from a lot of powerful and rich white voices.” Trying to fundamentally change society via Instagram doodles isn’t what @awardsforgoodboys is about, but it provides a critical perspective on the issues making headlines by calling out everyday examples of bad behavior.

While the general response to @awardsforgoodboys has been, according to Lorman, overwhelmingly positive, certain folks haven’t embraced its criticism. There are men (and women) who object to her public chiding, especially if they feel they may be the butt of the joke. But whenever a GoodBoy™ thinks a post is shaming him—or even “about” or “for” him—it proves the account's point. “If people can laugh and think critically, in lieu of outright judgement,” Lorman said, “that’s an effective loophole to get people talking.” And talking is exactly what women are doing.

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It seems the Ball family excursion to Lithuania has abruptly ended.

LiAngelo and LaMelo Ball are leaving BC Vytautas, the professional basketball team they signed with to start their hoops careers in an attempt to avoid the NCAA and prepare for the NBA.

The three-month odyssey of playing professional basketball on another continent now appears to be at an end. Ball first moved his kids overseas after LiAngelo left UCLA following a Chinese shoplifting incident. According to journalist Donatas Urbonas, the Ball’s time in Lithuania is over.

Urbonas spoke to LaVar Ball, who said he wasn’t going to waste his son’s time sitting on the bench.

Thought Vytautas embraced the Ball family and its Big Baller Brand Challenge league to showcase the two sons, it seems that LaVar Ball clashed with the team’s coach significantly, causing the rift.

In classic LaVar Ball fashion, he was incredulous when the reporter asked if he would return for another season, saying the coach who sold meat out of the back of his car “ruined everything.”

It brings to a close what was an odd but oftentimes compelling era of the Ball family. LaVar certainly has had his issues with coaches before, but this is the first time a conflict like this has made him leave a country.

Though she is wealthy and famous, anti-cyberbullying activist Melania Trump is just like any one of us: When she puts on her pants, she does it one leg at a time. Jackets, however, are a different story. To the first lady, sleeves are useless. Arms are best glued to the torso under the body of a coat, not maneuvered into tubes to be flailed about or, heaven forbid, used.

This article originally appeared on VICE Canada.

Facebook has confirmed to VICE that an online post apparently made by the man accused of killing ten pedestrians with a van in Toronto on Monday, referencing “incels,” a misogynistic online community, came from his authentic profile. The post has been widely discussed following the attack, and subject to intense suspicion as online hoaxes are common in the wake of such tragedies.

On Monday, at around 1:30 PM, a white van mounted the sidewalk in a diverse north Toronto neighborhood and ran down pedestrians for nearly a mile. After the event was over, bodies were strewn along the road. Ten pedestrians died as a result of the attack and 15 more were wounded. Police arrested Alek Minassian, 25, after a tense standoff in which he asked the police officers to kill him, according to bystander video.

Minassian appeared in court on Tuesday morning where he was charged with ten counts of first- degree murder and 13 counts of attempted murder. Police have released no information regarding a motive, but a Facebook post may shed some light on the alleged killer’s mindset. Facebook confirmed to VICE that the post came from Manissian’s authentic Facebook account, but this does not necessarily mean that Manissian is the person who wrote the post.

The post, which began making the rounds on social media after the attack, referenced an online community of “incels,” a term that means “involuntary celibate.” Elements of this community are known to be extremely misogynistic as incels largely blame their celibacy on women. In 2014, mass killer Elliot Rodger posted a manifesto shortly before killing six people in which he explained that he wanted to punish women for rejecting him. In the video, Rodger dubbed himself the “supreme gentleman,” a moniker that Minassian referenced in his alleged Facebook post. The post also made reference to a “Sgt. 4chan,” apparently referring to the long-standing anonymous message board and troll hub.

“Private (Recruit) Minassian Infantry 00010, wishing to speak to Sgt. 4chan please. C23249161,” reads the post. “The Incel Rebellion has already begun! We will overthrow all the Chads and Stacys! All hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger!” In many online communities, “Chads and Stacys” is slang for attractive, non-socially awkward people.

“This is a terrible tragedy and our hearts go out to the people who have been affected. There is absolutely no place on our platform for people who commit such horrendous acts. We have found and immediately deleted the suspect’s Facebook account,” a Facebook spokesperson wrote VICE in an email.

The Globe and Mail reported that students who spent time with Minassian at Toronto’s Seneca College, where he was reportedly enrolled, described him as a socially awkward tech nerd who was good with computers, and had no real violent tendencies nor strong political or religious beliefs.

The incel community faced intense online pushback, with one subreddit dedicated to the group (their main gathering point) being taken down in 2017. Reddit also banned another popular subreddit page for incels, called /r/malecels, in the hours following the Toronto incident. Reddit spokespeople did not immediately respond to VICE’s request for comment. Since Monday, the incel and 4chan communities have attempted to distance themselves from Manissian.

Posts following the attack on major online hubs for the incel community expressed disbelief that Minassian’s Facebook post could be authentic. “Everything about this situation seems fishy to me,” a moderator of a forum called Incels.me going by “Master” wrote in a post on Tuesday. “It was clearly a troll,” another poster wrote on Incels.me. VICE reached out to Master on Incels.me but didn’t immediately hear back. “Who talks like that?” one user of /Pol/, 4chan’s notorious politics message board, wrote on Monday regarding Manissian’s Facebook post referencing “Sgt. 4chan.” “Totally one of us 4Channers,” wrote another. On /r9k/, another notorious 4chan board, users were also incredulous.“

Why are we such a good scapegoar t [ sic],” one user wrote on Monday, with another user adding, “If this isn't fake, it's gonna bring a lot of attention here. Fuck, we really don't need this right now.”

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NEW YORK (AP) — The Rock has his third Rockette.

Whether you’re depressed, or sick, or feeling like shit for reasons unknown, it’s important to take care of yourself. Block out a little bit of time, maybe a few times a day, to click on over to YouFeelLikeShit.com.

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I like a quiet bar. I have since I was 21. This isn’t an unusual desire; any time I’m at a bar past 8, someone (sometimes it’s not even me!) eventually says “Sorry, I couldn’t hear you. The bar got so loud!” Even the quietest dive fills up now and then with people shouting to be heard, when each person individually…

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Parks And Recreation alum and A.V. Club regular Jim O’Heir is taking his talents to the web as host of a new singing competition series, Lullaby League. The series will pit a cappella groups against one other to see which one can most effectively sing a crying baby to sleep. In honor of the new series, we played a…

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With incredible views toward Olympic National Park

Have a nomination for a jaw-dropping listing that would make a mighty fine House of the Day? Get thee to the tipline and send us your suggestions. We’d love to see what you’ve got.

Location: Bainbridge Island, Washington

Price: $1,375,000

This incredible midcentury modern home on Bainbridge Island, Washington, is on the market for the first time. Designed in 1965 for Jack Christiansen, the pioneering engineer behind Seattle’s Kingdome roof and many other iconic buildings throughout the state, the post-and-beam waterfront residence appears to be virtually untouched and beautifully maintained over the years.

Although details about the property are sparse, it comprises a two-story main house and a separate master suite connected by a glazed hallway and an expansive deck propped on a concrete dais. (This structure appears throughout the property.) Midcentury era details abound, starting with its glass and wood construction, network of Japanese-inspired beams running through the interiors and framing the facade, wood screens, open floorplan, indoor-outdoor connections, and glazed expanses that frame stunning water and mountain views.

Upstairs, the main living room features a brick fireplace and an expanse of glass looking out toward Olympic National Park. A dining room follows then flows into a period kitchen with what appears to be original wood cabinetry and tiling. Downstairs, there’s a smaller family room that also has a brick fireplace and even includes a sink.

As for bedrooms, there are four, with the aforementioned private master suite occupying its own space. Here, wood panels the walls, while built-in shelving, a dressing room, wood-burning stove, and a bathroom complete it. And, of course, glass doors open directly onto the deck. An additional full and partial bath round out the listing.

Located at 7799 Hansen Road on three acres with two lots and 175 feet of private beach access, it’s offered at $1.375 million. Have a look.

Via: Sotheby’s International Realty

If your board game cabinet has been gathering dust, it’s time to freshen up your collection with today’s board game Gold Box sale on Amazon, the largest we’ve ever seen.

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Oh, how the mighty have fallen: Onetime vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin is doing sponcon on Instagram.

Taco Bell's $5 Cravings Box gets a minor face-lift with the replacement of the Gordita Crunch by the slightly cheaper Chalupa Supreme.

The Chalupa Supreme, which features a fried flatbread shell, goes for $2.69 while the Gordita Crunch, which features a crunchy taco shell inside of a flatbread shell, goes for $3.29.

The current iteration of the $5 value combo includes a Chalupa Supreme, a Beefy 5-Layer Burrito, a crunchy taco, Cinnamon Twists, and a medium fountain drink. Purchased separately, the items would cost almost $9 (may vary).

The chain is also looking into adding entree options for a $5 Cravings Menu test. Choices being looked at include either a Doritos Locos Taco or a Chicken Gordita Supreme in addition to the Chalupa Supreme.

Photo via Taco Bell.

“Smallville” star Allison Mack pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and charges that she helped recruit women in NXIVM.

(NOTE: Beer and wine not included.)

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Arby's Gyro Loaded Curly Fries features seasoned curly fries topped with sliced gyro meat, tzatziki sauce, gyro seasoning, red onions, and diced tomato.

It was $4.59 for an order or two for $6.

I liked this better than Arby's regular Loaded Curly Fries, which I felt the bacon and ranch made too salty. There's more of a balance here with the seasoned gyro meat, mild tzatziki sauce, onions, and tomato.

The onion and tomato, while relatively sparse and fairly mild, still contributed a nice freshness to the dish.

I ate in the restaurant so my fries were nice and crispy but given the shape of the plastic container and the added moisture of the veggies and sauce, they would likely get soggy in short order during a drive home.

The gyro meat was tasty and added a meaty component but the seasoning of it felt more like it was competing with the seasoning of the fries rather than complementing them. I found myself enjoying the dish more when I ate the meat and fries separate.

When it comes down to it, Arby's Loaded Curly Fries felt like less than the sum of its parts. Still, I'm not really complaining about eating crispy curly fries and tender gyro meat.

Nutritional Info - Arby's Gyro Loaded Curly Fries (261g)
Calories - 820 (from Fat - 530)
Fat - 59g (Saturated Fat - 12g)
Sodium - 1650mg
Carbs - 57g (Sugar - 3g)
Protein - 14g

If Congress won't simply legalize weed, it needs to clarify how federal law enforcement interacts with the pot industry

President Donald Trump launched a Twitter attack on The New York Times and one

A Waffle House in suburban Nashville was the scene of chaos and mayhem early Sunday morning when a seminude gunman opened fire and killed four people. Two others suffered gunshot wounds in the Antioch shooting that took place at around 3:25 a.m. while another two suffered minor injuries. Police are on the hunt for the suspect who was wearing only a green jacket that was stuffed with ammunition when he opened fire using an “assault-type rifle.” When he fled on foot the suspect had shed his coat and was naked, according to police.

A former juvenile justice department employee from Texas was sentenced Friday to 50 years in prison after being convicted of stealing $1.2 million in fajitas with county funds.

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Long John Silver’s Customer Finds Deep-Fried Poseidon Head In Value Meal

CINCINNATI—Causing a wave of disgust and outrage among his fellow diners, local man Tobin Sullivan said Friday that, to his horrified surprise, he had found the deep-fried head of Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea, in his $8.99 Two Fish And Six Shrimp Combo Platter. “I was eating my fish when I noticed what looked like this long, flowing, batter-fried beard,” Sullivan said, adding that he later found the ocean deity’s entire fried trident amongst shrimp and coleslaw. “At first, I thought the head was just part of the fillet or something, but then when I saw the blank, watery eyes staring up at me, I knew something was not right. I mean, even at a fast-food place, there’s no excuse for letting the severed head of a god end up on a customer’s plate.” A spokesperson for Long John Silver’s told reporters that Sullivan had accepted a free order of hush puppies as compensation for the ordeal.

Save your money.

Babies aren’t interested in your board games, video games, or iPhone Applications. They just want to play Peekaboo, Patty Cake, Ripping up Wrapping Paper, Breaking Your Glasses, or Sticking Their Hands In Stuff. And playing with babies is great fun. You don’t need to look for batteries, find a set of dice, or put your shoes on. You just make faces, do baby-talk voices, and fly your hand around like an airplane. They laugh and giggle and you’re suddenly a world class entertainer.

It’s great.

Until of course, it’s that time of the afternoon. You know what I’m talking about. Mommy or Daddy pops in, picks up the baby, does the classic Reverse Angle Diaper Peek move, and finds a little chocolate factory working overtime back there.

When they say “Looks like somebody needs a changing!,” that’s your cue to slink off silently to the kitchen or bathroom. The party’s on pause during your daring Dirty Diaper Dash but it’s back on ten minutes later when you casually show up and ask “Hey, can I play with the baby again?”

AWESOME!

Photos from: here and here

— Follow me on Instagram —

The post #859 Playing with a baby and then handing it to someone else to change its diaper appeared first on 1000 Awesome Things.

I need to lie down.

When I first started dating my husband, an avid hunter, I was overwhelmed by the idea of cooking with wild game.