Cooper Griggs

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Christoph Niemann

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Fried green tomato and bacon grilled cheese

One day after making controversial remarks about vaccines, Sen. Rand Paul argued that his remarks were misreported — while bringing New York Times reporter Jeremy Peters to watch him get a booster shot.

Ironic: Today I am getting my booster vaccine. Wonder how the liberal media will misreport this? pic.twitter.com/1vSqwfBp5u

— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) February 3, 2015

Paul told Peters that he believed all children should be vaccinated. He said he believed "the science is clear that if you compare the risks of taking a vaccine to the ill effects of taking a vaccine, it's overwhelming."

As for Paul's Monday comment that he's heard stories of vaccinated children coming down with "profound mental disorders," he told Peters that he was merely referring to the beliefs of others: "I said I've heard of people who've had vaccines and they see a temporal association and they believe that." (Paul apparently did not, however, walk back his belief that most vaccines should be voluntary.)

As Zack Beauchamp wrote Tuesday morning, Paul's comments on vaccines put his likely presidential candidacy at risk — making him appear to flirt with a fringe and discredited position. He's clearly perceived the problem, and wants to show off to reporters that he's a pro-science, pro-public health candidate, in hopes of putting this controversy behind him. Read more about the latest political developments on vaccines here.

Where do comet tails come from?

Happy Birthday! Have some racism from Elmwood Cafe!

sometime in the last day or so someone posted (sorry, can’t recall who) about w. kamau bell recently encountering racism at a berkeley california restaurant he frequents, and i can’t seem to stop thinking about it.

i have nothing insightful to add to this that hasn’t already been said, but it’s gnawed at me and i felt a need to help post his account more widely.

there have been several horrifying events that have had racism recently come to (white) public consciousness. but insidious everyday racism, highlighted in this article, also has to be given constant voice.

a call to arms to other white people - we must stop this shit. never do it, challenge it when you see it, and know that it is happening all the damned time.

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The newest member of Apple's iPad family, the thinner and faster Air, was welcomed by the company with a new commercial shown off during Tuesday's event. The star of that one-minute spot is actually a humble pencil, with the iPad Air only making a dramatic appearance right at the end. The point, as Apple puts it, is that an "extremely simple tool" can also be "extremely powerful."

What you might not have immediately noticed is the identity of the person speaking those words — it was none other than Bryan Cranston, the actor who played the iconic Walter White in the recently concluded Breaking Bad. His soft and reassuring voiceover sounds a million miles away from the steely resolve of Mr. White — though its talk of classrooms and...

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Google's chief internet evangelist, Vint Cerf, suggests that privacy is a fairly new development that may not be sustainable. "Privacy may actually be an anomaly," Cerf said at an FTC event yesterday while taking questions. Elaborating, he explained that privacy wasn't even guaranteed a few decades ago: he used to live in a small town without home phones where the postmaster saw who everyone was getting mail from. "In a town of 3,000 people there is no privacy. Everybody knows what everybody is doing."

"It will be increasingly difficult for us to achieve privacy."

Rather than privacy being an inherent part of society that's been stripped away by new technology, Cerf says that technology actually created it in the first place. "It’s...

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Expanding on the tried-and-true historical miniseries that makes premium cable subscribers swoon, Variety reports that HBO is in talks to take on the story of Napoleon's life (not to be confused with a film on the same topic that's also in the works right now). Since this isn't just any ... More »

Taking the common fear of having a sex scene appear on screen while you’re watching TV with your parents three steps further, The Skeleton Twins director Craig Johnson endured all our nightmares Wednesday afternoon when a surprise screening he thought would be the new Wes Anderson movie turned out instead ... More »

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Silver Insecta Lamp, 2013. Metallic material, machinery, electronic device (cpu board, motor, led), resin, magnet. 16 1/2 × 9 1/10 × 14 3/5 in. Courtesy of the artist and GALLERY HYUNDAI, Seoul.

Gold Insecta Lamp, 2013. Metallic material, machinery, electronic device (cpu board, motor, led), resin, magnet. 16 1/2 × 9 1/10 × 14 3/5 in. Courtesy of the artist and GALLERY HYUNDAI, Seoul.

Korean sculptor U-Ram Choe (previously) builds kinetic sculptures embedded with CPUs, motors, and LEDs that appear to be equal parts organism and artwork. Seen here are two of his smallest works to date, a pair of insect-like lamps aptly titled Silver Insecta Lamp and Gold Insecta Lamp. When switched on, the lamps reveal an ornate set of five wing-like appendages that cycle through a gentle flapping motion. You can see how they work in the video above. All photos courtesy Gallery Hyundai. (via Artsy)

'Tonight Show Celebrity Photobomb' with Chris Pratt, Chris Evans, and Jimmy Fallon

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Ladies and Gentlemen, Pacific Coast Yachts is delighted to offer you an exclusive opportunity to purchase a unique piece of maritime history for a rock-bottom price. After being pressed into service in 1996, Lockheed Martin's experimental naval vesse...

Why would the surface of Titan light up with a blinding flash?

Economic or industrial espionage has long been one of the most important strands of intelligence activity – regardless of the sponsor nation — so it is unsurprising that many quietly suspect the U.S. National Security Agency of stealing corporate secrets from other countries. I’ve heard it plenty of times here in Germany, though in the absence of proof it’s not usually something people want to talk about too loudly.

But now the economic espionage angle has surfaced for real in the long-running NSA scandal: working with leaker Edward Snowden ally Glenn Greenwald, Brazil’s O Globo has published new training slides that suggest the NSA has targeted the private networks of Google, the French foreign ministry, SWIFT (the organization that enables secure international communications between financial institutions) and Petrobras.

SWIFT would be an obvious target for those investigating terrorist money-laundering. However Petrobras is an oil firm – not the sort of outfit you’d expect to be targeted in an anti-terrorism drive.

But that’s OK, U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has said. Responding to the O Globo piece, he said in a statement:

“It is not a secret that the Intelligence Community collects information about economic and financial matters, and terrorist financing. We collect this information for many important reasons: for one, it could provide the United States and our allies early warning of international financial crises which could negatively impact the global economy. It also could provide insight into other countries’ economic policy or behavior which could affect global markets…

“What we do not do, as we have said many times, is use our foreign intelligence capabilities to steal the trade secrets of foreign companies on behalf of — or give intelligence we collect to — US companies to enhance their international competitiveness or increase their bottom line.”

It is certainly the case that Petrobras is a big deal. Majority-owned by the Brazilian government, the company is one of the largest in the world. Petrobras’s thoughts are plainly of interest to those observing the economic tides – but then again, there are plenty of U.S. firms that would sell their firstborn for insights into the company’s oil reserve findings.

At this point, we know nothing about the true reasoning behind the NSA spying on Petrobras, but that won’t stop people guessing — don’t forget that Brazil (Greenwald’s home) is already outraged at the NSA’s spying on President Dilma Roussef.

The NSA private networks operation is apparently known as “Royal Net”. Meanwhile, O Globo’s scoop also includes references to two British programs called “Flying Pig” and “Hush Puppy”, which apparently involve the bypassing of TLS/SSL encryption — this ties into last week’s revelations about the weakening or cracking of basic web encryption methods.

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News: A May 2014 small plane crash was blamed on the pilot's taking selfies.