People Who See Themselves as Unique Are Drawn to Conspiracy Theories
People Who See Themselves as Unique Are Drawn to Conspiracy Theories.
Test 1
The first test was designed to confirm or refute the researchers’ prediction that “high believers in conspiracy theories assume that they possess information that other people do not have about the events in question.” There were 190 French subjects — with an average age of 24.85, and 117 of whom were female — who responded to online questionnaires in exchange for entry in a gift-card lottery.
Confirming their initial hypothesis, the researchers found that the more strongly respondents believed in the Kennedy assassination conspiracy, the “more they thought they possessed scarce information.” Test 2
This test looked at subjects who had a need to see themselves as special, to find out if it was true that “people with a chronic high need for uniqueness believe in conspiracy theories to a larger extent.” They studied 208 participants—average age, 32.44, and 96 female—who worked for Amazon Mechanical Turk in the U.S. Again, the online test had two phases.
Next, subjects responded to a variety of conspiracy-related statements—none of which used the word “conspiracy” so as to avoid tipping the researchers’ hand—to assess their affinity for conspiracy theories, with a scale of 1-Definitely not true to 5-Definitely true.
That is, “people for whom a high need for uniqueness is activated should manifest higher conspiracy beliefs than people for whom a lower need for uniqueness is activated.” There were 143 French psychology undergraduates in the final study—age 20.93, and 121 female.
A pair of two-part sessions were held.
Next, subjects were asked to respond to questions based on the Self-Attributed Need for Uniqueness (Lynn & Harris, 1997) scale.
The researchers found that there was in fact a correlation between an attraction to conspiracy theories and a desire for specialness that had only been recently developed.
Useless Points of Comparison
However, make sure you don’t end up in an apples and oranges situation where the comparisons don’t even make sense or are completely useless.
Actual Okay, but these average prices don’t account for inflation.
So the ground beef price of $1.82 in 1980 dollars is $5.73 in 2017 dollars, meaning the price decreased.
Incorrect conclusion White people must be really fertile and have a lot of kids!
Actual Okay, but the chart shows absolute counts.
Incorrect conclusion How weird that the states with large populations have a lot of cancer deaths.
There must be something weird about living in areas with a lot of people that make cancer more prevalent.
When you compare the rates for each state, there’s a lot less variation.
Incorrect conclusion I can jump higher than Michael Jordan in his prime, I am taller than the average professional basketball player, and I shoot better than most.
Actual Okay, but you’re comparing apples and oranges.
Stunning Photos Show The Beauty Of Albino Children To Raise Awareness Of Their Heartbreaking Situation In Tanzania
Stunning Photos Show The Beauty Of Albino Children To Raise Awareness Of Their Heartbreaking Situation In Tanzania.
In Tanzania, when you have albinism, you are thought to be evil.
The fears and superstitions surrounding albinism run very deep in Tanzanian society.
So deep that many women who give birth to a child with albinism are told to kill the baby at birth.
Because of the killings, many children with albinism now live in camps.
They are secluded, kept apart, hidden, often mistreated and shamed.
Besides the superstitions, PWA in Tanzania faces another threat.
Their skin and eyes are without any pigmentation, which means that they have no natural protection against the harsh African sun.
Dedicated organizations are working hard to get sunscreen to Africa to help protect PWA – organizations like “Under the Same Sun” in Canada or “Stichting Afrikaanse Albino’s” and “Stichting Inside the Same” in the Netherlands.
They need all the support they can get.
Why You Should Carry A Tennis Ball With You When You Fly
Why You Should Carry A Tennis Ball With You When You Fly.
If you already know the answer then you’re probably one of the few who include a tennis ball in their carry-on luggage, but for those of you who were like me and had no clue here’s why: Ali Gjoz, a surgeon from the London Orthopaedic Clinic shared a few tips with the Daily Star. “Taking a tennis ball or a massager on the plane will help increase circulation,” he says.
Roll it over your shoulders, lower back, legs, and the bottoms of your feet to help get your blood flowing again.
…Gjoz suggest massaging your legs, starting with the ankles and moving up, to help get the blood moving back toward your heart.
: Your ankles can benefit greatly from a few simple tennis ball based exercises.
Place the tennis ball beneath your foot and flex the ankle while the ball is rolled back and forth.
Struggling with poor circulation in your wrists?
While you are seated on the plane, using a tennis ball to increase the circulation in your thighs is also important.
For added relief, repeat the motion on the entirety of the thigh as you continue to apply added pressure.
Public Image Isn’t New: Even Lincoln Went to Extremes to Look Good in Photos
Public Image Isn’t New: Even Lincoln Went to Extremes to Look Good in Photos.
If you’re any kind of geek when it comes to presidents, you probably already know that Abraham Lincoln wasn’t the most polished looking fellow.
A North Carolina newspaper, The Newbern Weekly Progress, wrote that the future president was “coarse, vulgar and uneducated.” The Houston Telegraph claimed he was “the leanest, lankiest, most ungainly mass of legs, arms, and hatchet face ever strung upon a single frame.
Democrats took to begging the newspapers not to show his picture – a jeering, anti-Republican rallying cry that seemed to catch fire.
Now, being awkward is no crime, and it certainly has no bearing on one’s ability to govern, but it turns out that a public image was as important to a political career back then as it is today.
In order to gain and then retain the confidence of the people, Lincoln resorted to what amounts to some old school Photoshopping.
He visited well-known Pennsylvania photographer Mathew Brady – a man who, according to The New York Times, was “not averse to certain forms of retouching.” Brady was also quite good at posing his subjects to their advantage, and he combined his skills in the portrait above to brighten Lincoln’s face, disguise his neck with a broadened shirt collar, and to have the future President stand with curled fingers in order to obscure their impressive length.
Over the years, Brady created over 30 images of the President, all tweaked, smoothed, and adjusted to paint Lincoln in the best possible light.
After his assassination, people lamented the lack of “heroic style” portraits of Lincoln, causing painter Thomas Hicks to get super creative with his 19th-century ‘Photoshopping’ skills.
If you thought retouching photos was a 21st-century invention, the story of Lincoln’s photographs surely proves otherwise.
Dark Star Park
Dark Star Park.
Artist Nancy Holt’s installations often occupy remote, rural spaces.
Her large scale sculptures like Sun Tunnels offer alternative frames through which individuals can observe nature.
But Dark Star Park is a much more public project.
The first major art project commissioned by Arlington County is also Holt’s most urban creation, and was completed in 1984.
This is a historical monument that eschews typical historical monument conventions.
Instead of a decorative archway or a statue of a man on horseback, the area features large concrete spheres designed to resemble fallen stars.
Even the name masks its intentions: Dark Star Park commemorates August 1, 1860, the day William Ross bought the land that would become Rosslyn.
Towering black poles are erected along a winding trail meant to slow one’s pace and provide relief from the bustling city streets.
The surreal park contrasts the surrounding grid of buildings and, as art critic Lucy Leppard noted, give each visitor “a sense of one’s individual place, at this very moment, in the universe.” The spheres and poles in one section of the park feature oblong discs that mimic the shadows of the objects, and every year at 9:32 a.m. on August 1, the shadows line up perfectly for 60 seconds.
The Bloody San Antonio Origins of Chili Con Carne
The Bloody San Antonio Origins of Chili Con Carne.
But that date is an function of the name chili con carne existing in published sources.
So how do you define chili con carne in order to find its origin?
An article at Smithsonian gives some of the conflicting origin stories, including one that goes back as far as an uprising in 1813.
It was another in the long line of wars fought over Texas.
Most of that, save for the two post-San Jacinto Mexican incursions, is well known.
Were it not for the fact that the (partially) American side lost in ignominious fashion, movies would have been made about the Gutierrez-Magee Expedition of 1812 to 1813.
Encouraged by the near-success of the 1811 Casas Revolt in San Antonio, and with covert support from Washington, D.C., Spanish Texan revolutionaries traveled to Louisiana and enlisted Anglo and Louisiana Creole soldiers of fortune in a joint “Republican Army of the North” to sever Texas from Madrid for good.
(The Spanish and Anglo contingents had different plans—the former wanted Texas as part of a free Mexico, while the latter preferred annexation to the U.S., or perhaps an independent republic as envisioned by Aaron Burr.
It seems both sides agreed to set that matter aside until they had seized Texas.)
Stranger Major League – Hawkins’ Heaviest Hitters
Stranger Major League – Hawkins’ Heaviest Hitters.
It helps to have a team behind you when you’re battling those evil sluggers from the Upside Down, so Eleven gathered up her buddies and formed the Stranger Major League, home of the Hawkins High Rollers.
But even with a team beside her young El had a hard time striking out the mighty Demogorgon because it swatted down every thing she threw at it- so she decided to try for a double play.
El hit the Upside Down’s biggest power hitter with a psychic blast right before she let the ball go, and as the ball went sailing by the Beast of Baseball the High Rollers realized they stood a chance against the interdimensional champs after all… Add a fashion home run to your geeky wardrobe with this Stranger Major League t-shirt by Mr.
Jungle, it’s a real knockout!
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The Space Shuttle Discovery and Its Toilet
The Space Shuttle Discovery and Its Toilet.
A final reverse shift opened the overboard vent valve, exposing the inner compartment and the solid waste therein to the vacuum of outer space.
Gregory didn’t realize it, but the valve had failed to close.
Now both the toilet gate valve and the overboard valve were open at the same time, exposing the interior of the space shuttle to the vacuum of outer space.
NASA’s own flight rules dictated that if a space shuttle’s toilet stopped working and could not be fixed, the shuttle had to return to Earth “as soon as reasonably possible,” according to NASA Flight Director Rob Kelso, who was on duty that Thanksgiving morning.
So what was it about using the Apollo bags that made them so unpleasant that even astronauts who’d worked their entire lives to get into space would rather return to Earth than remain in space and use the bags?
An astronaut was supposed to glue the opening of the bag to his rear end to create an airtight seal that prevented the solid waste from escaping and floating around the cabin of the space shuttle.
The space shuttle Discovery wasn’t the only spacecraft to have bathroom problems.
The astronaut was just along for the ride—they were little more than “Spam in a can,” it was said.
If you like Today I Found Out, I guarantee you’ll love the Bathroom Reader Institute’s books, so check them out!
Why Imposing Restrictions Can Actually Boost Creativity
We all want to be more creative.
Because of this, many creatives put artificial limitations on themselves.
“Participants generated more creative rhymes when they had to work with the externally imposed constraint of a given noun,” the judges wrote.
In the second experiment, containing 46 college students, participants were made to write rhymes but were asked to create their own rules and constraints.
They first group was told to write down the first four nouns that popped into their head and use them to create their rhymes.
Researchers noted that prompts that imposed more restrictions tended to amplify creativity, while those which were less restrictive led to less creative rhymes.
The more novel experiences you have, the more creative you may be when restrictions are thrust upon you.
Next, get out of your comfort zone.
If you’re an artist, consider working only in one medium.
Also, learn how to experiment with different restrictions and see what results you get.
What the UN Commission on Human Rights Thinks About Universal Basic Income
What the UN Commission on Human Rights Thinks About Universal Basic Income.
Can Universal Basic Income (UBI) be the solution to the ever-increasing economic insecurity and inequality around the world?
On June 8th, a special side event of the UN Human Rights Council gathered to discuss a new report by Professor Philip Alston, U.N. Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, which calls UBI “a bold and imaginative solution” to the economic and social changes taking place globally.
Speaking to the Human Rights Council, Alston described many ordinary people feeling “exposed, vulnerable, overwhelmed, and helpless” while some “are being systematically marginalized both economically and socially.” He called upon the human rights community to engage with the resulting “deep economic insecurity.” He sees the coming economic changes affecting not only the currently unemployed and underemployed but even those who have a job now, citing looming game-changers like the advent of full automation in many industries and the freelancer-based “Uber economy.” From that perspective, the growing economic insecurity presents “a fundamental threat to all human rights,” said Alston.
All of these things are fundamentally linked to human rights,” he said during an earlier Facebook live event. “While there are many objections, relating to affordability in particular, the concept should not be rejected out of hand on the grounds that it is utopian.
Currently, an experiment with UBI in Finland has shown some positive initial results, with many in the trial group of 2,000 reporting less stress, as well as growing confidence and success in getting more work.
Speaking at the UN Human Rights side event, Mme Terhi Hakala, the Ambassador of Finland explained that the purpose of their country’s experiment with UBI was to “make the system more empowering and more effective in terms of providing incentives to work” while reducing the bureaucracy of welfare.
The trial will be fully evaluated in two years.
You can watch the full event here.
Mindy Kaling confirms pregnancy
Mindy Kaling confirms pregnancy.
In a new interview with NBC’s “Today” show, “The Mindy Project” star confirmed her long-rumored pregnancy and was candid about her feelings entering the realm of parenting. “It’s so unknown to me,” she told Willie Geist in an interview airing in full on September 10. “I have a lot of control over a lot of aspects of my life and this is one where I’m like, ‘Okay, it’s out of my hands,’ which is kind of a fun feeling.”
The 38-year-old actress has not been publicly linked to anyone and has not disclosed the identity of her baby-to-be’s father.
The series is about a charming gym owner (“Workaholics” star Anders Holm) whose life is turned upside down when his teenage son with a former high school girlfriend (played by Kaling) comes to live with him.
NBC Entertainment President Jennifer Salke told CNN recently that the series will not be delayed due to Kaling’s pregnancy.
Bowen was eight months pregnant with twins at the time of the filming, Salke, who was at Fox at the time, recalled. “She had a laundry basket, she was styled in a way you didn’t know,” she said. “We’re not worried.”
Natalee Holloway
Natalee Holloway.
Natalee Holloway has been missing for 12 years, and her story is still embroiled in controversy … a story that has triggered a new lawsuit.
Edward Kramer just filed suit against 2 production companies — Brian Graden Media and Lipstick — for allegedly stealing his idea for a miniseries about Holloway’s cold case.
He says what’s worse, he worked for the companies for more than a year without getting as much as a penny.
In the docs, obtained by TMZ, Kramer claims after Lipstick put him in touch with BGM in 2014 to develop the Holloway project, he was tasked with doing a lot of the legwork, like figuring out how to turn it into a miniseries, doing interviews, and getting the pitch ready for NBC and Oxygen (which is airing “The Disappearance of Natalee Holloway” this week).
Kramer says when he began asking about compensation, he got the runaround.
He’s asking a judge to block the airing of the show.
We’ve reached out to BGM … so far, no word back.
Taylor Swift Is Too “Pretty” to Draw Properly, Courtroom Sketch Artist Says
Taylor Swift Is Too “Pretty” to Draw Properly, Courtroom Sketch Artist Says.
Were it not for Jeff Kandyba, the world would have never seen Taylor Swift in court.
The 27-year-old “Wildest Dreams” singer managed to evade the paparazzi for several days during her trial in Denver. “A person like Taylor Swift, who is very pretty, who has perfectly proportioned dimensions on the face, is actually much harder [to draw],” Kandyba, who has been sketching in Colorado courtrooms since the 1980s, told Fox-31 Denver.
Some people are just much easier to draw than others. “I don’t think you can ever draw a personality like Taylor Swift well enough to have everybody go out and say, ‘That’s great.'”
After six days in court, a jury deliberated for several hours Monday before ruling that former radio host David Mueller assaulted and battered Swift at a meet-and-greet photo session at the Pepsi Center in June 2013; she is being awarded $1.
Personally, sitting there listening to it, I can’t imagine that this guy ever thought he had a case to begin with.
And this guy keeps saying, ‘I need to move beyond this, I need to move beyond this’—but he’s the only one making any noise about it,” Kandyba added. “If that’s really what your intentions are, you’re making this so much worse.”
CCP unveils non-VR version of Eve: Valkyrie
CCP Games has been one of the strongest supporters of virtual reality, but it is taking its flagship VR property, Eve: Valkyrie, and making a version for broader audiences without Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, or PSVR headsets on the PC and PlayStation 4.
Dubbed Eve: Valkyrie — Warzone, the new version will enable PC and PlayStation 4 gamers to play together, both in and out of VR, in a big space combat multiplayer arena.
To make it through the VR desert to the riches on the other side, companies are coming up with creative strategies.
Eve: Valkyrie — Warzone will sell for $30 to new players, while Eve: Valkyrie owners can get the expansion as a free download.
In some ways, it’s a pretty smart re-use of assets created for VR games.
Iceland-based CCP raises $30 million in November 2015 as it made its big push into VR.
“Releasing Eve: Valkyrie for high-end VR headsets embodied the culmination of a decades-long dream for CCP,” said Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, the CEO of CCP Games, in a statement.
We look forward to seeing the already intense competition between Valkyrie pilots going up a notch, as more players from around the world can join existing pilots for space-dogfighting battles.” Eve: Valkyrie — Warzone introduces a new fleet of ships and weapons.
Also new is the Extraction game mode that puts capture-the-flag in outer space for an exhilarating gameplay experience.
Stephanie Llamas, analyst at SuperData Research, said in an email, “Oculus co-published the former platform-exclusive, but now CCP has the freedom to expand its accessible audience– and revenue potential– far beyond the limited VR market.
Research Reveals That Honeybees Comprehend the Number 0
The number zero is relatively new.
Prior to its introduction in India around the fifth century A.D. — and across the pond in Mayan culture a few hundred years earlier — it existed only as a placeholder, as in the way we tell 1 and 100 apart. “A full zero is a number on its own; it’s the average of –1 and 1.”
Even now, little kids often have trouble understanding 0, grasping it after other numbers, unsure of whether it’s larger or smaller than 1.
But zero’s something special, and scientists are still trying to figure out who can understand it.
So far, it’s just been vertebrates.
They set up one platform with fewer objects and a sweet sucrose solution.
The bees learned over time to associate fewer objects with getting a reward, and subsequent tests without sweet or bitter solutions found them navigating to a platform that held fewer objects 80% of the time.
A second experiment was conducted with another set of bees along the same lines, though this time the choice was between a reward platform with no objects and a treat, and a platform with from one to six objects and the quinine.
While the bees reliably came to select the zero platform even after the flavor incentives were removed, it took them more time to do so when the number of objects was one, suggesting they had similar issues to young humans in recognizing the difference.
How to Install and Set Up the Kwikset Kevo Smart Lock
If you don’t, then you’ll need to drill a completely new hole in your door to install the Kevo (or any deadbolt for that matter) using one of these.
Step Two: Install the Kwikset Kevo First off, Kwikset says that you can follow installation instructions within the Kevo app on your phone.
The first step is to install the new door latch.
Insert the door latch into the door.
Step Three: Install the Kevo App Download and install the Kevo app to your phone, which is available for iPhone and Android.
Next, press and release the program button on the interior of the lock and make sure your phone is close by (you don’t actually need to tap your phone on the lock like the app says).
If so, tap on “Update Lock” at the bottom and leave your phone open and close to the lock during the update process.
Next, tap on your lock in the app.
From there, you can either use the app to lock and unlock the Kevo, or simply just touch the Kevo lock itself.
In order for touch to work, though, your phone must be in Bluetooth range and the app running in the background (you don’t need the app open on your screen—just make sure you don’t swipe it away from your recent apps list).
Named Suspect In Battery Investigation
Named Suspect In Battery Investigation.
… Over Basketball Fight Ex-NBA star Robert Horry is being investigated by the LAPD over a fistfight outside of a youth basketball game at Staples Center earlier this month … TMZ Sports has learned.
Law enforcement sources tell us … Horry has been named a suspect — but so far, no arrests have been made and no charges have been filed.
TMZ Sports obtained the video of the August 5 incident — which shows the 7-time NBA champ squaring up and throwing punches at another man near the basketball court.
46-year-old Horry previously told TMZ Sports … the other man had been taunting him and his son throughout the game.
Horry says the other man got physical first and he was just protecting himself.
The other man sees it differently … claiming Horry was the aggressor.
When the investigation is complete, the LAPD will kick the case over to the City Attorney’s office — which will ultimately decide if charges should be filed.
Natalie Cole’s Son Dead at 39
Natalie Cole’s Son Dead at 39.
The son of legendary singer Natalie Cole was found dead Monday night, and he was only 39 … TMZ has learned.
Robert Yancy’s body was found in his San Fernando Valley apartment when a friend who hadn’t heard from him in a few days checked up on him.
Family members tell us … authorities contacted them at 2:30 AM Tuesday and said Robert died of a heart attack.
Law enforcement tells us, pending an autopsy, they have listed it as death from natural causes, but that can change once the autopsy and toxicology tests are completed.
The family tells us authorities were clear to them, drugs were not involved.
As you know, Natalie famously fought drug addiction throughout her adult life until her 2015 death.
Family members say Robert — the grandson of Nat King Cole — had never abused drugs and was “turning his life around.”
He worked in the music industry.
Robert’s dad died of a heart attack at age 34, so it could be heart disease runs in the family.
Facebook’s AI assistant M expands to Australia, Canada, South Africa, and the U.K.
Facebook’s AI assistant M expands to Australia, Canada, South Africa, and the U.K.. Facebook’s intelligent assistant M is now available for Facebook Messenger users in Australia, Canada, South Africa, and the U.K. M in Facebook Messenger first became available in April.
M uses machine learning to scan words used in conversations to recommend actions or services.
Tell someone good night and M may suggest a good night sticker.
Chat about a plan and M may suggest you create a calendar event.
M also suggests you do things like share your location, save a URL or video, initiate a voice or video call, or send best wishes when you’re speaking to someone on their birthday.
Third-party chat extension suggestions from M that bring bots for Delivery.com food orders, Food Network recipes, and Spotify music are only available in the United States.
The move to English-speaking nations beyond the U.S. continues the spread of M to Messenger’s 1.2 billion monthly active users.
M for Spanish speakers launched earlier this summer in the U.S., Mexico, and Spain.
However, earlier this year, reports surfaced that M was unable to handle a majority of tasks without human intervention.
Earlier this month, anonymous sources told Bloomberg Facebook’s experimental Building 8 is developing a smart speaker and a laptop-sized device for video chat that could be released by spring 2018.
US Government demands details about all visitors to an anti-Trump site
US Government demands details about all visitors to an anti-Trump site.
Web-hosting company Dreamhost revealed this week that it was locked in a legal battle with the US Department of Justice over a protest site — and the DoJ wants all the information it can get on the site’s visitors — all 1.3 million of them.
The DoJ served Dreamhost with the warrant in July, but Dreamhost wrote a blog post about the suit yesterday, titled “We Fight for the Users” (I like anyone who can throw in an apropos Tron reference).
According to the post, it filed legal arguments in opposition to the warrant this week.
It said that such requests are not uncommon, and are frequently challenged by their legal team, but this one was especially galling: Chris Ghazarian, our General Counsel, has taken issue with this particular search warrant for being a highly untargeted demand that chills free association and the right of free speech afforded by the Constitution.
The site in question, distruptj20.org, was allegedly used by anti-Trump protesters to coordinate inauguration day protests.
The Department of Justice seeks to obtain the information of over 1 million people who merely visited the website.
Dreamhost is steadily resisting the demand, though it did provide the government with some information about the site’s owner when it was originally served the subpoena.
WWE Raw Results: Winners, Grades, Reaction and Highlights from August 14
Also on tap was a four-way confrontation between the men who will make up Sunday’s Universal Championship match, a Cruiserweight Championship match between Akira Tozawa and Neville, and the latest chapter in the Dean Ambrose-Seth Rollins melodrama.
The match Sunday night should be red-hot, thanks to the strength of the storytelling and the long-anticipated reunion of the beloved Rollins and Ambrose.
Big Show and Enzo hit the ring but are attacked from out of nowhere by Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson.
Late in the match, Neville attempted the Red Arrow that had earned him so many victories over the course of his title reign but Tozawa rolled out of the way.
Result Akira Tozawa defeated Neville to win the Cruiserweight Championship Grade
Result Bray Wyatt defeated Finn Balor Grade
Balor vs. Wyatt is a fresh match.
Analysis It is fine for Emma to be presented as a heel looking for an opportunity but with every loss, she loses more and more credibility.
Result The Hardy Boyz and Jason Jordan defeated The Miz, Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas Grade
He said as much Monday night before being interrupted by Samoa Joe.
Teen Choice Awards’ best dressed: Zendaya, Paris Jackson, Fifth Harmony top the list
Teen Choice Awards’ best dressed: Zendaya, Paris Jackson, Fifth Harmony top the list.
Zendaya In addition to winning the award for choice summer movie actress for Spider-Man: Homecoming and calling out injustice with her speech, Zendaya also co-stars in Bruno Mars’ new Versace on the Floor music video, which aired a sneak peek during the show.
The actress kicked off her big night on the red carpet, showing off the Ashish men’s pajama-style separates that she ingeniously repurposed as formalwear.
The 19-going-on-39-year-old dyed her bleach-blonde hair darker and wore a floral Zimmermann gown that’s considerably more conservative than some of her past red carpet choices.
Combined with her smoky brown makeup and chin-grazing jewelry, she’s never looked better.
And while Millie Bobbie Brown’s Kenzo dress was a little reminiscent of Big Bird, theStranger Things star elevated her look with a pair of Chrome Hearts tinted lenses perched on her nose.
Maddie Ziegler Let’s recap what exactly is going on with this look.
Ziegler is wearing a two-piece Zac Posen suit with a cropped, Mandarin-collar jacket with puffed sleeves, paired with cropped flares, all in red brocade.
And honestly, it kind of works.
Rita Ora With highlighter-yellow hair and a bubblegum-pink wrap dress by Alexandre Vauthier, the Your Song performer channeled playful elegance, even while accidentally wearing the exact colors of the backdrop behind her.
The Final Taylor Swift Post-It Message Says It All
The final Post-it message for Taylor Swift ‘s groping trial got it right.
In case you missed it, when the 27-year-old pop star’s trial against radio DJ David Mueller began in Denver, Colorado last week, employees of Craftsy working in the office building directly across from the courthouse began putting up Post-it note messages on their windows to show their support for the singer. “We are just a group of creative women supporting another creative woman” – The women at @beCraftsy who are behind the daily post-it-notes ?
He was then fired from the station and, two years later, filed a lawsuit against Swift, claiming he lost his job over “false allegations.”
Shortly thereafter, Swift responded by filing a counter suit for assault and battery.
The jury deliberated for four hours today before coming to the unanimous decision, finding Mueller guilty of assault and battery.
Though Swift left the courthouse winning a mere $1 she requested in punitive damages, the outcome resulted in something much larger: A new chapter and an even greater, more personal motivation to give back.
She continued, “I acknowledge the privilege that I benefit from in life, in society and in my ability to shoulder the enormous cost of defending myself in a trial like this.
My hope is to help those whose voices should also be heard.
Therefore, I will be making donations in the near future to multiple organizations that help sexual assault victims defend themselves.”
Why Oprah Winfrey Never Married Stedman Graham — and Probably Never Will
Why Oprah Winfrey Never Married Stedman Graham — and Probably Never Will.
In fact, the famous talk-show host admitted that they’ve only talked about marriage once during the course of their relationship.
the 63-year-old told Vogue. “And the answer is: ‘We wouldn’t be together.’
We would not have stayed together, because marriage requires a different way of being in this world.
His interpretation of what it means to be a husband and what it would mean for me to be a wife would have been pretty traditional, and I would not have been able to fit into that.”
While the couple faced wedding rumors last September, which Oprah promptly shut down on social media, she adds that choosing to live as lifelong partners rather than husband and wife has helped her “live life on your own terms.”
And she isn’t the only celebrity following this mantra.
Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, who first started dating in 1983 and share a beautiful family together, have also vowed not to get married.
Image Source: Getty / Steve Granitz
Tiger Woods Traces of Weed In System … During DUI Arrest
Tiger Woods Traces of Weed In System … During DUI Arrest.
Tiger Woods had 5 different drugs in his system at the time of his DUI arrest — including painkillers and THC, the main chemical compound in marijuana.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office released the toxicology report from the May 29 arrest — in which Tiger was whacked out of his mind when officers found his car on the side of the road.
The report shows Tiger tested positive for Hydrocodone (painkiller, generic form of Vicodin), Hydromorphone (powerful painkiller known as Dilaudid), Alprazolam (aka Xanax), Zolpidem (sleeping pill also known as Ambien) and THC.
Woods had chalked up the arrest to an unexpected reaction to prescription medication — “I didn’t realize the mix of medications affected me so strongly.”
He never mentioned weed.
Woods announced he was getting treatment after the arrest and later struck a deal with prosecutors to enter a DUI diversion program.
The program essentially means Woods gets 12 months probation and he’s required to complete DUI education classes.
Stunt driver dies while filming ‘Deadpool 2’ in Vancouver
Stunt driver dies while filming ‘Deadpool 2’ in Vancouver. “Today, we tragically lost a member of our crew while filming Deadpool,” the actor wrote. “We’re heartbroken, shocked and devastated … but recognize nothing can compare to the grief and inexplicable pain her family and loved ones must feel in this moment.”
Nathan Kramchynski, who works on the seventh floor of the building, said he watched rehearsals for the stunt outside the Vancouver Convention Centre.
But on the occasion when the accident happened, the driver appeared to pick up speed, crossed the street and swerved to avoid pedestrians before disappearing from his view, Kramchynski said.
It happened in a split second,” he said.
She ran outside and saw glass still falling on the body of the motorcycle driver.
The name of the stunt woman was not immediately released.
The last stunt death in British Columbia was in 1996, when a person jumped from a helicopter and a parachute failed to open, she said.
WorkSafe BC said Fox Productions Inc. didn’t rehearse a stunt sequence properly, but Fox said the stunt was thoroughly rehearsed.
Chelsea Clinton calls on Trump to apologize for ‘vile and wrong’ tweet
Chelsea Clinton calls on Trump to apologize for ‘vile and wrong’ tweet.
After an unhinged morning that included the president retweeting and then promptly deleting a confusing tweet about fascism and another violent CNN meme, Clinton called out Trump’s behavior by bringing up his past controversy with comedian Kathy Griffin.
She accused Trump of hypocrisy by calling on him to apologize, the same way Griffin did after sharing a photograph of a beheaded Donald Trump back in May.
When a comedian mimicked killing the President, I said that it was vile & wrong.
https://t.co/Z3DbXqkaVc — Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) August 15, 2017 Clinton highlighted the fact that, like Kathy Griffin’s controversial photograph of Trump, the CNN cartoon “mimicked killing” a person.
The comedian made several public apologies after sharing the image, saying “I went way too far.
I understand how it offends people.”
Trump’s retweet of the meme showing a journalist being hit by a train also came less than a week after 32-year-old Heather Heyer was killed by a vehicle plowing into a protest crowd in Charlottesville.
According to Twitter, a White House official told NBC News White House Correspondent Kristen Welker that the image was “inadvertently posted” by Trump.
But as Maggie Haberman, White House correspondent for New York Times, reminded everyone, “retweets require two clicks, not one.”
Why Microsoft Dropped 3D Pinball From Windows (and How to Bring It Back)
Why Microsoft Dropped 3D Pinball From Windows (and How to Bring It Back).
The best game ever included with Windows was a virtual pinball table.
Why Pinball Was Dropped From Windows Vista “3D Pinball for Windows – Space Cadet” is the most 90s Microsoft name possible.
No, Microsoft commissioned Texas-based developer Cinematronics to build 3D Pinball, which was intended to show off the gaming capabilities of Windows 95 in a world where most PC developers were sticking with DOS.
Microsoft included the game in “Microsoft Plus!
The game was later bundled with Windows NT, ME, and 2000; Windows XP was the last version to include the game.
How to Extract Pinball From an Old Windows XP CD Microsoft didn’t want to include a 32-bit game with 64-bit operating systems, which is understandable, but 3D Pinball still works perfectly fine on modern operating systems like Windows 10 thanks to reverse compatibility.
* C:\pinball This uses the “expand” command to extract every file starting with the word “pinball” over to the C:\pinball folder we made earlier (if you put your folder somewhere else, use that location instead.)
We’ll run a similar command for the sounds, fonts, and a picture of the table included for context: expand -r sound*.wa_ C:\pinball expand -r font.da_ C:\pinball expand -r table.bm_ C:\pinball Finally, we need to copy one more file: copy wavemix.inf C:\pinball When you’re done, head to the Pinball folder you created earlier: if everything worked, you should have 70 files.
You’ll need to run the above steps on a Windows computer, but the resulting files run very well in Wine.
What Is PlayStation Plus, and Is It Worth It?
If you have a PlayStation 4, Sony’s PlayStation Plus service is required to play multiplayer games online.
PlayStation Plus is Sony’s online gaming subscription service for the PlayStation 4.
Only PlayStation Plus members can upload their game saves, storing them online where they can be accessed on another console.
You can play online games for free.
You Need PlayStation Plus For Multiplayer Gaming (on the PS4) If you want to play online multiplayer games on your PlayStation 4, you’ll need PlayStation Plus.
Every month, Sony offers several free games to PS Plus subscribers—sometimes known as “Instant Game Collection” games.
If you restart your subscription, you’ll regain access to all those free games you previously acquired and you can play them once again The free games Sony offers always include a mix of games for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Vita.
You can’t play a PlayStation 3 or Vita game on the PlayStation 4, although some of the free games may be available for multiple consoles.
Some of the sales on the PlayStation Store are only available for PlayStation Plus subscribers.
However, if you just have a PS4, you’ll only get a few free games every month and won’t be able to play every one of them.
Build an LED Broom to Light Up Life’s Dark Corners
My first thought was to just re-skin all this stuff inside a broom, but I eventually decided I did not want to have to worry about figuring out a way to plug my broom into a USB charger when I wasn’t using it.
Also, I bought two worklights, because I wanted illumination on both sides of the broom, but in use it turns out that’s a bit of overkill—one LED strip on one side is plenty.
So you could get away with buying only one worklight and no flashlight.
Finally, carefully drill a 1/4″ diameter hole in the center of the lower end of the handle where it threads into the bristle, and a matching hole in the whisk, at the bottom of the socket the handle threads into.
Drill all the way through the aluminum, the plastic, and the steel of the broom handle itself, then install a rivet in each hole.
These must somehow connect to the two positive and negative pads on the flashlight PCB, and rather than mess with wire nuts or splices or some other arrangement for splitting two leads into four, I decided to run all four wires the whole length of the broom.
Tie the other end of the twine to one of the leftover rivet mandrels from Step 2, then fish the twine down the length of the handle from grip end to whisk end, using the mandrel as a weighted leader.
Cut off the twine and the tape (or heat-shrink) before going on to the last step.
Use the PCB as a template to drill four shallow 1/16″ diameter mounting holes into the plastic, and secure with four small case screws salvaged from the worklight.
Repeat this step if necessary to install the other LED strip on the other face of the whisk.
Mount Zion Cemetery’s Underground Railroad Shelter
Mount Zion Cemetery’s Underground Railroad Shelter.
Tucked away in the corner of the Mount Zion Cemetery in the hills above Washington, D.C.’s Rock Creek, an unassuming outbuilding may have been a waystation on the Underground Railroad.
It’s one of many African American history sites in the District nearly lost to midcentury redevelopment.
Top Places in Washington, D.C. See more things to do in Washington, D.C. » The hiding spot is a eight-foot-by-eight-foot windowless brick structure that was once used for wintertime corpse storage when the ground was too hard for digging.
Washington was not a destination, but a thoroughfare on the Underground Railroad.
Some of the most prominent families in the city where slavery sympathizers, counting among their ranks the Alexanders’, Lee’s, and Peters’.
It’s something of a miracle that the site has survived at all.
Many of the headstones were stolen, sanded down and reused anew.
The group undertook the first efforts to rehabilitate the dilapidated cemetery.
Thickets were cleared, saplings pulled, and gravestones piled.
An Oregon Town Welcomed Its Sister City’s Festival Queen—3 Decades Late
An Oregon Town Welcomed Its Sister City’s Festival Queen—3 Decades Late.
Guanajuato, a city of around 170,000 people smack in the middle of Mexico, has been hosting a summer festival for decades, when it crowns one young woman its queen.
That year, Guanajuato and Ashland “twinned,” or became “sister cities,” despite Ashland having just one-eighth the population.
For nearly 50 years, festival queens have taken a seat in an open convertible for the Ashland celebrations and waved to thousands of cheering American spectators.
But in 1980, something went wrong.
She didn’t go that year, or the next, or the next.
And she finally took a seat in the parade, flanked by this year’s festival queen.
Many “twins” do little more than namecheck one another on signs.
In the wake of World War II, it was thought of as a good way to kindle international cooperation and generally help thaw frostiness between former foes.
In theory, the relationship between such cities should look like Ashland and Guanajuato’s, with regular opportunities for people from both places to mingle and mix.
Giving Trees Probiotics Can Help Clean Up Superfund Sites
Trichlorethylene is an industrial solvent once used to degrease metal parts, clean rocket engines, and remove paint (it was even used as an anesthetic) that is now known to be carcinogenic and a cause of developmental and nervous system problems.
The chemical doesn’t occur naturally, but is found in soil and water in areas contaminated by industrial waste.
Cleanup efforts often require laboriously excavating contaminated soil or using expensive groundwater treatment processes.
A particular strain of bacteria acts as a sort of probiotic for poplar trees, and helps them absorb the chemical from the soil to break it down into less harmful compounds.
Using plants to clean up toxic waste is known as phytoremediation, and while it’s a relatively inexpensive method, the plants involved are at risk of stunted growth, or may die in the process.
But in field tests in California, the trees given the probiotic not only grew better than control trees, they also pulled more trichloroethylene out of the soil.
The bacteria is a naturally occurring strain that scientists found in the Midwest.
“The poplar at the older site in the Midwest selected for the best microbes to help it do its job,” said Sharon Doty, a professor at University of Washington and lead author of the study, in a press release.
“We took advantage of that natural selection process.
We just had to find the best ones that the plant already chose.”
Google Allo is now available for desktop… but who cares?
Google Allo is now available for desktop… but who cares?.
Google is at long last making good on its promise to bring its messaging app Allo to desktop – and the roll-out has already been set in motion.
Earlier today the search engine giant launched the web-based version of its Assistant-powered messenger, which you can now access straight from your browser using this link.
To load the desktop version, users will have to open Allo on their phone and scan the QR code displayed on the web page.
The web-based version so far works solely with Android devices, but Google promises it will soon be compatible with the iPhone too.
The company further notes that the app works only on Chrome – which will likely vex non-Chrome users.
The Big G also warns that should you choose to “view Allo for web on your mobile browser, the app won’t work.” It also clarified that certain Allo features will remain mobile-exclusive.
The list so far includes: Connecting, switching, or removing Google accounts Adding or removing members from an existing group Backing up your information Notification and privacy settings Some chat features, like taking a photo, deleting a conversation, blocking contacts, or starting a chat with someone who’s not in your contacts While Google first announced that Allo would eventually land on desktop back in February, it ultimately abstained from setting a release date in stone.
But here is the thing now that it’s finally out: With so many Google-made messaging apps, including Hangouts, Voice, Duo and recently added YouTube chat, do people really care about Allo?
I’m not so sure… all I know is that the only contact I have on Allo is Assistant.
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