Russian Sledges

The body of a four-meter long walrus was discovered while renovating London's enormous St Pancras train station.

Both the archaeologist who discovered the bones, Phil Emery, and the zoologist who studied them for the Museum of London Archaeology, Alan Pipe, are not sure how the bones came to be in St Pancras Church on the northern side of the station. “It’s a bit of a mystery”, Mr Emery told The Times

The next step is be to identify which king this was, then conduct a forensic facial reconstruction as a prelude to reestablishing their reputation.

GEORGE WILL, a conservative pundit, bow-tie enthusiast, and eminent vocabularian, considers in the pages of National Affairs the question of whether American democracy requires a foundation of religious belief. Mr Will, a force of secularist reason on the God-sodden right, helpfully reminds us that there was nothing particularly religious about America's foundingest fathers. George Washington, who "famously would not kneel to pray" was a sort of Roman stoic. Benjamin Franklin was some manner of Deist. "It has been said", Mr Will relates, "that the Deist God is like a rich aunt in Australia: benevolent, distant, and infrequently heard from." John Adams subscribed to Unitarianism, the undemanding faith of self-hating atheists. James Madison, Mr Will says, "explained away...religion as an innate appetite." Thomas Jefferson, who took it upon himself to edit superstition out of the Gospels, wrote that "our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or geometry." We knew that colonial America's...Continue reading

THE suburbs are where you will find America’s biggest and fastest-growing poor population. It is not easy to be poor anywhere, but the suburbs present particular difficulties

Read on: Broke in the ’burbs

The famous Secret History (Lat. Historia Arcana) was discovered centuries later in the Vatican Library[14] and published by Niccolò Alamanni in 1623 at Lyons. Its existence was already known from the Suda, which referred to it as the Anekdota (Ancient Greek: Ἀνέκδοτα, Latin Anecdota, "unpublished writings"). The Secret History covers roughly the same years as the first seven books of the History of Justinian's Wars and appears to have been written after they were published. Current consensus generally dates it to 550 or 558, or maybe even as late as 562. The Secret History reveals an author who had become deeply disillusioned with the emperor Justinian and his wife, Empress Theodora, as well as Belisarius, his former commander and patron, and Antonina, Belisarius' wife. The anecdotes claim to expose the secret springs of their public actions, as well as the private lives of the emperor, his wife and their entourage. Justinian is portrayed as cruel, venal, prodigal and incompetent; as for Theodora, the reader is treated to the most detailed and titillating portrayals of vulgarity and insatiable lust combined with shrewish and calculating mean-spiritedness.

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker John Boehner says Congress "ought to be judged on how many laws we repeal."

Religious scholar Reza Aslan recently appeared on the FoxNews.com show Spirited Debate and the host insisted that his being a Muslim somehow affects the quality of his new book about Jesus. The whole ordeal was embarrassing for Fox News, but things are only going to get better from here for the author. 

Aslan appeared on the online show on Friday to promote his new book, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, about how the environment Jesus grew up in shaped him. But host Lauren Green didn't want to talk about the book so much as she wanted to talk about how Aslan is a Muslim. "You’re a Muslim, so why did you write a book about the founder of Christianity?" was Green's very first question. "Well, to be clear, I am a scholar of religions with four degrees, including one in the New Testament, and fluency in biblical Greek, who has been studying the origins of Christianity for two decades, who also just happens to be a Muslim," Aslan politely replied. Green doesn't give up, though, the interview goes downhill from there: 

At one point Green goes so far as to accuse Aslan of hiding his religion, as if he was trying to be sneaky, or as if it matters. "Ma’am, the second page of my book says I’m a Muslim," he tells her. "Every single interview I have ever done on TV or in print says I’m a Muslim."

The whole ten minute appearance is embarrassing for the news network, even if it was an online show, for a number of reasons. As Uproxx's Josh Kurp points out: "At no point does Fox News realize the irony of persecuting someone over their religion in a discussion about Jesus." That's probably the biggest one. 

But after the interview started to get passed around quietly on Saturday, and then exploded late last night after Buzzfeed called it "The Most Embarrassing Interview Fox News Has Ever Done," the outrage train was off and running. The reaction fell somewhere between praise for Aslan and disbelief at Fox News' horrible behavior. "This Fox interview with Reza Aslan is absolutely demented (& he handled it with remarkable calm)" said The New Yorker's Emily Nussbaum. Wired's Steve Silberman simply called the interview "embarrassing," as did many others. "Please, please watch this if you haven't yet. It's amazing," urged Digg editorial director David Weiner. "How fitting to watch that [Aslan] clip during a commercial break from Idiocracy," he added later. Buzzfeed's Raymond Sultan called it "the greatest thing" he's ever seen. "The level of stupidity and ignorance here is bewildering," said writer Chris Addison. "My patience would have vanished within a few minutes if I was being asked these questions," said Deadspin's Samer Kalaf. "Reza Aslan is superhuman." 

But there is one thing everyone can agree on: 

Fox News really doing a great job drawing attention to @rezaaslan's book.

— NickBaumann (@NickBaumann) July 28, 2013

The disgust and glee and outrage stemming from the interview should actually help Aslan. Controversy like this usually drives book sales through the roof. Remember what happened with J.K. Rowling's pseudonymous mystery novel? The same thing will likely happen with Aslan's book, too, because plenty of people have mentioned buying the book after seeing the interview. And Aslan's book was selling well without the help. While Rowling's book had sold less than 2,000 copies before the big reveal -- leading some to suspect it was a promotional work -- Aslan's Zealot debuted at the number two spot on The New York Times' Best Seller list behind Mark Leibovich's This Town this morning. 

Friend of the blog Aaron (@aatrek), who ALWAYS has my back on All Things TNG, discovered these awesome costume sketches in a 1988 issue of a TNG magazine and scanned them all for me. Basically: true American hero.

"Replacing those sweaters is a one-piece jump suit for Acting Ensign Wesley Crusher." See? Even at the time, THEY KNEW.

We haven’t covered this episode yet. What are we even doing?!?!

The Ten-Forward uniform here pretty much manifested this way, though I am SO GLAD they went with houndstooth rather than checkerboard for the undershirt. (See it in action here.) You can see how this admiral uniform turned out here.

These are the warring faction guys from Loud as a Whisper. I think the costumes realized are better than the sketches suggest - which is good, because the “brunette” version looks like a humanoid poop, and the “blonde” version looks like if C-3PO was unemployed. 

These are also from Loud as a Whisper and actually made it on-screen pretty much this way - though as the caption notes, the cap ended up on the “scholar/artist’s” head instead of Riva’s, I assume because the actor playing Riva had that glorious ginger mullet.

DAMMIT I’M DOING THIS EPISODE NEXT

"A revealing pullover and pant suit is devised for a teenager in ‘The Dauphin’” - that one changed a bit in reality, with more flowing fabric and less skintightness.

We haven’t done “Unnatural Selection” yet but I really like the magazine’s use of the phrase “casual scientist uniform” like that is actually a thing. “You know…just my casual scientist uniform. Doin’ some real chill titration, man, just hangin’ out with mah petri dishes ‘n’ shit.”

More from “Unnatural Selection” and “The Schizoid Man” - you can see how the “slightly Oriental approach” worked out here. The Darwinian outfits made of popcorn spandex (maybe?? Looks kind of smooth in this shot) are here.

This is just fucking great.

It looks like they didn’t stick with this nice purple scheme for “The Child,” since this little guy has too-short sleeves (REALLY? AGAIN!?!?) and a color scheme of Sad Beige. If you can’t wear hella bright colors as a child, WHEN CAN YOU? (Answer: anytime.)

Thanks again, Aaron, and thanks to trekcore for always having sweet screencaps.

WHAT

"Who am I to judge a gay person of goodwill who seeks the Lord?" the pontiff said, speaking in Italian. "You can't marginalize these people."

Now, more than ever, the type of vodka one drinks is very important to gay men. This time it has to do with gay rights. More specifically, we're talking about Russia — the supposed birthplace of "the little water" — and that the country has passed one anti-gay bill after another, effectively making being gay or even telling a child that gay people exist a punishable offensive. And now, Russian vodka companies could pay the price.

Over the past few months, Russian lawmakers have made that nation increasingly hostile to homosexuals. In June, for example, Czar President Vladimir Putin signed a law banning "gay propaganda," which not only prohibits gay pride marches but potentially sends people to prison for explaining homosexuality to children. That same month, Putin signed yet another law allowing police to jail tourists who are believed to be homosexuals. And in July, Stalin Putin signed a law that bans gay couples, among other constituencies, from adopting Russian children. BuzzFeed has a powerful series of photos starkly showing the state-sanctioned violence gay people routinely face there.

Bottom line: it's terrible to be a gay person in Russia, and LGBT folks lucky enough not to be living there are stuck helplessly watching as Moscow becomes increasingly hostile to gays. And that anger is manifesting itself in calls to boycott the 2014 Olympic games, which will take place in the southern Russian city of Sochi, as well as smaller, more accessible moves, like telling gay bars to dump their Russian vodka. 

The face of the Russian vodka boycott is Dan Savage, the man known for permanently attaching Rick Santorum's name to frothy feces and the brain behind the It Gets Better anti-bullying project. Savage explains that vodka is a good place to start:

[B]oycott or no boycott there is something we can do right here, right now, in Seattle and other US cities to show our solidarity with Russian queers and their allies and to help to draw international attention to the persecution of gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, trans people, and straight allies in Putin's increasingly fascistic Russia: DUMP RUSSIAN VODKA.

Following Savage's lead is Sidetrack, one Chicago's biggest gay bars. Its statement, picked up by the Huffington Post, reads: 

Sidetrack cannot support a brand so associated with Russia at a time when Russia is implementing (against strong world criticism) it's [sic] anti-gay law that bans gay "propaganda". The Stoli story is complicated by decades of lawsuits whereby the actual Government of Russia has laid claim to the Stolichnaya brand name. Very soon the Russian government itself, which bans positive portrayals of LGBT people, may be the beneficiary of the goodwill earned by Stoli's distributors and bars over the years.

A fellow Chicago bar has propped up a sign that states, "proudly serving non-Russian vodkas."

Now, will this push be enough to actually hurt Russia's vodka companies and affect change? There is evidence, according to one marketing study, that 45 percent of gay men and 44 percent of lesbians who drink prefer to drink vodka. That's a solid number, but given that LGBT people are just a small number of the general population, the boycott could be futile.

What Savage and fellow vodka boycotters need is for this movement to catch fire among straight allies. There's nothing wrong with gin, after all.

[Note from Editor: An earlier version of this article opened with a different lead paragraph. It didn't get the message across and was amended.]

International Business Times

EBRSO: Park arrests needed different approach The Advocate The East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office said Sunday it should have taken a different approach with a task force that made at least a dozen arrests since 2011 using a struck-down law to arrest men at parish parks who discussed or agreed to have ... Louisiana sheriff's office arrested 12 men in the past two years under invalid ...Daily Mail La. city police arrested men under sodomy lawSalon One State Is Still Enforcing Its Anti-Sodomy LawThe Atlantic Wire Advocate.com all 57 news articles »

Happy Moonlanding Day

Entertainment Weekly is reporting that an upcoming episode of MythBusters (“MethBusters“) will test myths featured in the series Breaking Bad (including “whether you can really dissolve a body — and your tub and bathroom floor — with hydrofluoric acid”). The trailer for this special episode was first shown at San Diego Comic-Con and the full episode will air on August 12th.

image 1 via MythBusters Facebook page, image 2 via Entertainment Weekly

This page contains an HTML5/JavaScript web application for finding gravitational n-body choreographies. These are especially beautiful configurations of n stars under Newtonian gravity: if you set them up just right, they chase each other endlessly around the same curve.

Archaeologists have uncovered several pieces of elite Viking jewelry on a modest farm in Denmark that date back between the late seventh to the early 11th centuries.

Read more...

The curious heresy of Shakespeare denial. Does historical evidence even matter to those who insist that the Bard was not the Bard?… more»

Please share this message from Tilda: "In solidarity. From Russia with love." pic.twitter.com/3Mtsd8sLzS

WAKEFIELD — A 68-year-old Danvers man involved in multiple motor vehicle accidents Friday morning at the intersection of North Avenue and Chestnut Street and in Greenwood became trapped inside his gray 2008 Chevrolet Trailblazer when it rolled over on Main Street near Forest Street. Police said the Jaws of Life had to be used to pull the man out of the vehicle. Police now plan to summons the man to court when he is released from Lahey Clinic in Burlington on a host of motor vehicle charges, including reckless operation of a motor vehicle and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon on a person over 60. Sgt. George Thistle and Patrol Officer Christopher Whalen were dispatched to the intersection of North Avenue and Chestnut Street at 11:42 a.m. Friday after two women reported that the man struck their vehicles while they were headed south on North Avenue. One woman reported that while in traffic the man struck her BMW in the rear with his SUV before he backed up and struck the front end of the other woman’s Subaru. Sometime during the collisions, the man is alleged to have struck a person over 60 years old, resulting in the charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (car). The women allege that when the man struck the BMW and then the Subaru, he started yelling and struck the BMW a second time. He then left the area and headed toward Greenwood where he allegedly struck three cars parked in MBTA commuter rail spaces before his Trailblazer rolled over. The extent of his injuries was unknown. Injuries to the two women were not reported. In addition to facing charges of reckless operation of a motor vehicle and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon on a person over 60, the man also will be charged with leaving the scene of property damage. Police plan to cite him for a marked lanes violation and passing on the right where prohibited.

My favorite planet

Earlier today in the Sub Pop mailbag, we received an enthusiastic message from a college student running for homecoming queen. She asked for a video affirming support from our one time recording artists, Nirvana, in order to aid her campaign in becoming homecoming queen. We dressed up and obliged.

Video forthcoming with the script: "What’s up Virginia Tech? This is Nirvana! Just wanted to wish you guys a Happy Homecoming Week and good luck at the game this Saturday. LET’S GO HOAGIES!" Or something like that.

Original Source

Okay, I’m ready.

From the extremely deadly/wonderful department store Manufactum in Germany: “The Notebook of Antiquity" — Paired beechwood (I think) note/sketch tablets in the ancient Roman style, filled with beeswax impregnated with graphite. The set comes complete with stylus.

Also: refills.

…WANT

(via Römische Wachstafel - Manufactum)

Several readers reported that zefrank1 has posted another great animal video, this one a bit lighter on the weirdness but heavy on great clips and True Facts.  Actually, we (Kelly Williams and I) were asked to provide a photo for this video—the one showing the owl’s eyes visualized through its ear holes—but we were too late to get our picture in.

Regardless, enjoy this 4:21 tour through Owl World.

Drinking several cups of coffee daily appears to reduce the risk of suicide in men and women by about 50 percent, according to a new study by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). The study was published online July 2 in The World Journal of Biological Psychiatry.

The controversial chief executive of the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences has agreed to resign on July 31 following reports that she embellished her resume, the institution announced Thursday. She will receive a one-time payment of $475,000 for retirement and other benefits, according to an academy statement, but no severance payment. Leslie Cohen Berlowitz, who has overseen the 233-year-old honorary society for the past 17 years, had been on paid leave from the academy for more than a month after the Globe reported that she falsely claimed a doctorate from New York University and misstated her work history in federal grant applications and other documents over the past decade.

Thums Up was introduced as a flagship brand in 1977 by a company called Parle Agro to offset the gap in the Indian cola market when Coca-Cola and Pepsi were expelled by the Indian government. Over the the next 16 years, the brand enjoyed great success, ratcheting up to over an 80% market share. In 1990, though, the Indian government okayed the reentry of the cola giants back into the market (Pepsi came first, Coke 3 years later), and rather than go head to head with the marketing machines of the big boys, the Parle group sold Thums Up to Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola reportedly considered killing the Thums Up brand to try and push regular Coke Classic, but decided instead that keeping the brand would better their chances in the battle against Pepsi. Thums Up is still the cola leader in India, with a 42% market share as of 2012. Much of the marketing focuses on making it seem like a 'grown up' drink: on the Coca-Cola India website, they state: "Thums Up is known for its strong, fizzy taste and its confident, mature and uniquely masculine attitude. This brand clearly seeks to separate the men from the boys."

shh-im-wondering:

#UNIT Dating Controversy

Today we received a fresh shipment of Gaziano & Girlings, and aren’t they gorgeous. G&G creates contemporary designs of traditional English shoes bench-made in their factory in Kettering, UK. G&G shoes are distinctive for their superb craftsmanship, meticulous style, and sharp, modern look.

Their Mayfair is a classic double monk strap shoe in Vintage Oak Calfskin. On the soft square MH71 last, they’re both versatile and elegant, and can be paired with anything from jeans all the way to a suit. The St. James is a captoe oxford in Vintage Cherry Calfskin, made on the TG73 last. Wear them with a navy or grey suit and you’ll be the sharpest one in the room.

Mayfair, MH71 Last, Vintage Oak Calfskin, Oak Bark Soles

St. James, TG73 Last, Vintage Cherry Calfskin, Oak Bark Soles

 

fuck-yeah-romanov-hotties:

just gonna leave this here…

Sophie Aldred: ‘I beat up a Dalek with a baseball bat’:

heartoftardis:

Seventh Doctor companion Ace, better known as actress Sophie Aldred, spoke to us at a recent Big Finish recording about playing her character.

She talks about her tombstone, stunts and gives a top tip to being a companion