Andrew.frampton

Matt Wisniewski using photography by Derrick Leung. Go get inspired here

If there is one man in the world who is on Grindr, it is Gaston.

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hahaha  via buzzfeeed

The fascinating work of Angelica Garcia explores the concept of emptiness. Go check more of it here

via dailyinfographic

There's a place called Ben's Chili Bowl on U Street in Washington D.C. that's been the talk of the town since 1958. Ben's half-smokes and chili sauce — a riff on the traditional chili dog — has been raved over by the rich and famous and showcased on any number of popular cable food programs. I've always wanted to visit. Now I don't have to.

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Interesting collages to discover over at Joe Webb’s online portfolio

Victoria Duval

CREDIT: USA Today

Jumping for joy and collapsing at the net, 17-year-old Victoria Duval provided the biggest moment of the U.S. Open thus far, rallying from a set and two games down Tuesday night to oust 11th-seeded Sam Stosur from the major tournament she won just two years ago. Duval’s tennis is fascinating, her squeaky voice endearing. The story of how she got to this point, of how tennis itself made her presence on this stage possible, is downright amazing.

Duval was born in Miami but spent most of her young life in her parents’ native Haiti, where her brothers played tennis but she focused primarily on ballet. As a seven-year-old, she was kidnapped, along with her aunt and cousins, and taken hostage. In 2010, her father nearly died when he was buried alive under rubble from the massive Haitian earthquake.

“It was traumatizing, [but] worse things have happened to people,” Duval told the New York Daily News last year. “I’m lucky I got out of it. I’ve kind of erased that all from my mind.”

Somewhere in between, Duval found tennis. She won her first tournament, worked her way up the junior ranks, and lost to her idol Kim Clijsters in the first round of last year’s U.S. Open.

Like most American tennis prodigies, Duval matriculated through a prominent academy in Florida. Unlike most of them, she needed far more than help on the court to get here. The earthquake left her father, a doctor, paralyzed in one arm and unable to return to his medical practice. He was brought back to the United States on a private jet chartered by a friend the family met through tennis. According to ESPNW, the U.S. Tennis Association has offered support to keep her playing, and coaches have offered services pro bono.

“It was definitely financially difficult, especially after the earthquake,” she told Sports Illustrated. “My dad wasn’t able to work anymore. I’ve been very fortunate. A couple family members have helped me. Hopefully with this win today, that will change a little bit.”

Becoming a professional tennis player isn’t cheap. The USTA estimates that it costs $150,000 to turn a junior player into a professional. The British association estimates that training a top player from age 5 to 18 costs $400,000, according to Bloomberg. A single academic year at the IMG Tennis Academy in Boca Raton, Florida, where Duval trained, can cost $80,000. The USTA provides financial assistance to its top junior players and scholarship opportunities to others.

That cost, which without a few strokes of luck could have prohibited Duval from reaching this point, keeps many American teenagers who don’t have family friends or connections willing to help from pursuing tennis, which relies on an “exclusive pay-for-play model that restricts tennis to those who can afford it,” the New York Times wrote last year. As a result, the USTA’s player development wing and top tennis insiders are wondering if the entire model should be restructured. USTA player development head Patrick McEnroe is now pushing more tennis players toward college, where they can save money while still playing competitively. The USTA also wants more public schools to embrace tennis — and for more young stars to embrace it along with them instead of going to exclusive clubs, academies, and leagues.

That all seems to make sense: the United States hasn’t produced a men’s Grand Slam champion since Andy Roddick won the U.S. Open in 2003. The most successful American women, Venus and Serena Williams, came from modest financial backgrounds and skipped the academy route to be coached by their father. Right now, the USTA may provide financial assistance when players need it, but it also perpetuates the gap between the haves and have-nots by pulling the most talented young Americans away from scholastic tennis and open tournaments.

Duval may have overcome her hardship and the cost of turning young talent into professional skill with help from the USTA and others, but how many other American teenagers are missing out on the sport because of its exclusive nature and prohibitive cost? That may not only be hurting American tennis, but the entire professional game, and making stories like Victoria Duval’s more rare than they could be.

The post Teenager Victoria Duval Upsets Former Champ At U.S. Open, But How She Got There Is Even Better appeared first on ThinkProgress.

Last year: 6-10, third place in AFC East

Acquisitions: Geno Smith, Dee Milliner, Kellen Winslow, Dawan Landry, Sheldon Richardson

Departures: Darrelle Revis, LaRon Landry, Shonn Greene, Joe McKnight, Yeremiah Bell, Tim Tebow

Vegas win total over/under: 6 1/2 wins

Verdict: UNDER

Five ways this season might not be so horrible for Jets fans:

- No Tebow!

- No Fireman Ed!

- No hope! (actually not as bad as it sounds)

- Jeff Tuel creates the possibility of not having the worst starting QB in the division.

- I dunno, maybe someone hurts Tom Brady?

Fan forecast, by kommenter Lord of the Buttfumble (formerly Lord Revisisle):

Before I start evaluating the 2013 New York Jets, I’d like to introduce my tried and true ranking system How Fucked Are the Jets This Year©. In order of increasing fuckedness:

Tier One: A Little Fucked
Tier Two: Somewhat Fucked
Tier Three: Averagely Fucked
Tier Four: Royally Fucked
Tier Five: More Fucked than the Whores of Tijuana when the Ryan Brothers are in Town.

2012 Recap

Offense

Things that I would trust to be more effective than the Jets Offense: 1) Antonio Cromartie, Sex-Ed Instructor, 2) Mark Brunell, Financial Advisor, 3) Mark Sanchez, High School Prom Chaperone, 4) Santonio Holmes, DEA Agent.

The Jets will likely struggle mightily to generate points as they have over the course of the past two years. While the offensive line is serviceable, the receiving and running back corps are not first rate units. The Jets are still running the Wildcat which leads me to believe that the Buttfumble game drove Rex to insanity and he still thinks it is 2011. It would not surprise me that he called Geno Smith “Brad” throughout training camp and has one of the running backs always peddling on the sideline cycles to channel Tomlinson. However, considering the QB situation, maybe having an offensive scheme that does not rely on a QB is not such a bad idea after all. I don’t consider Mark “El Shitbox” Sanchez a QB as much as a football satirist. No quarterback who is trying to play the position seriously could fuck up as magnificently as El Shitbox has during his four year stint as a starter. Just watch the video above and tell me El Shitbox’s play does not have seem deeper meaning behind it, such as why our culture should not lionize quarterbacks or something like that. Of course thanks to the brilliant general managing of Mike Tannenbaum (may his name be forever accursed), Mark graces us with his presence for at least another year. I’m sure the rest of you will greatly enjoy that, while I will go one lamenting why I chose the Jets over the Giants for my football-rooting interests. As for Geno Smith (I’m writing this after the 3rd preseason game), he still has a long way to go before he’s a viable NFL QB. It is a sad state of affairs when one is fondly pining for the Chad Pennington days. I’m sure I’ll be raising Les TriFuckore several times this year.

Fuckedness Rating: Tier Five

Defense

The Jets traded away, in my estimation, their franchise’s all-time best player during the offseason. I understand that it was probably necessary from a financial standpoint to trade Revis away, but the “trading away one’s best players” plotline follows “terrible drafting” in the hilarious routines of America’s favorite sitcom “That’s Such a Jets Thing to Do”. However, Rex can still field a capable defense. The Jets have invested heavily in improving their defensive line and natural pass rush by obtaining players such as Wilkerson, Coples, and Richardson and I think these investments should produce some solid dividends. I’m somewhat concerned about the linebacking corps as the Jets have a tendency to allow some huge plays once the opposition gets into the second level of the defense. As for the secondary, Cromartie had a very productive year. However Kyle Wilson is good for at least half a dozen boneheaded pass interference penalties on 3rd-and-infinity this season. I hate Kyle Wilson more than Eric Cartman hates Kyle Broflovski. LaRon Landry has been replaced by his brother, Dawan, but it will be seen if he’s a good a crippler as LaRon was as a Jet. The defense will likely not be on the same caliber as the 2009 and 2010 ones, but it should be capable nonetheless.

Fuckedness: Tier Two

Special Teams

Billy Cundiff and Nick Folk are battling for the place kicker spot (ed. note: so long, Cundiff!), so this team does not want me to enjoy watching them this year.

Fuckedness: Tier Four

Prognosis

Unfortunately, this season reeks of that oh-so-wonderful franchise stage of “rebuilding year”. This will likely be Rex’s last season as the Jets head coach. He probably needs to go to the postseason to keep his job, but considering the titanic struggles the offense has in moving the ball that will probably not happen. I still like Rex, at the very least he can build a solid defense and coach up players. Without him, the Jets would probably not have made those playoff runs in 2009 and 2010. He did win four of the franchise’s twelve all-time playoff victories. A lot of the team’s recent struggles stems from some poor decisions made by the previous GM. Also, it does not help having El Shitbox as your starter for the bulk of his tenure, as he is the Cleveland of starting quarterbacks in this league. However, Rex is probably better suited as a defensive coordinator than a head coach. His teams were rather volatile and while that can produce great highs, as evidenced by the 2009-2010 years, it can also result in terrible lows, as shown by the 2011 and 2012 campaigns. The Ryan era will probably end with a whimper instead of a bang, unless Rex immolates Sanchez on the field and sets a pack of rabid dogs upon him then rides off into the sunset on his chopper, the “Pussytuber Express”. Good Night Sweet Rex and flights of Steaks and Blowjobs sing thee to thy rest.

Forget Miley. Raven is the former Disney star on Peter LaBarbera's mind:

[Peter LaBarbera]

Raven could not be reached for comment. So here, take your pick:

Francesca Schiavone might have said she didn't need a hug, but as her first-round U.S. Open match against Serena Williams got completely out of hand Monday night, Francesca Schiavone totally needed a hug.

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Matt Harvey found out that he has a partially torn UCL yesterday, so it's safe to say that he was having a pretty shitty day. Good thing his buddy John Buck was there to comfort him.

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via e-n-d-o-r

This is REDONK. If you use the Google Chrome browser, install this plug-in- go to any site with a photo, and then click the plug-in’s logo on your browser bar.

Voila! Instant Pugs. (Refreshing the page makes ‘em disappear, but who wants to do that?)

Perfect for National Dog Day. From Cuteporter Kevin M. Headline idea totally stolen from Austin.CultureMap.com.

How are you guys doing? Did you like the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards? Did your diva of choice make you proud with her performance? Oh, she did? Well that’s great. Wait, do you feel that? That slight drop in temperature? It’s…it’s…yes, it’s from the immense tower of shade that just descended upon your faves, as the cold breeze grazes across their wigless scalps.

The source of this VMA “Ether”-ing? Kelly Clarkson! Fans of Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry, you may want to sit down for this next part. Earlier this morning (August 26), as we were busy compiling the best and worst moments of the VMAs and feeling out the rest of the Web’s reactions, Clarkson tweeted the final word on the ceremony: “Just saw a couple performances from the VMA’s last night. 2 words…. #pitchystrippers.” Ice. Cold.

Everyone else, you can stop now, the best VMA reaction has been handed in. See the tweet below so you can be sure we’re not making this stuff up.

Just saw a couple performances from the VMA’s last night. 2 words…. #pitchystrippers

— Kelly Clarkson (@kelly_clarkson) August 26, 2013

Do you agree with Kelly? Let us know below, or by hitting us up on Facebook and Twitter!

If you were lucky enough to miss out on the whole controversy over Katy Perry's new song being verrry similar to Sara Bareilles' new song, sorry to drag you into it now. However, your terrible new knowledge will not go unrewarded, as it's totally worth it to hear this kid's remix of the remix of the two songs. Self-harmonize on, you little crooner.

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