There’s protecting a nation — and then there’s scaring the hell out of people for sport. Reports out of Los Angeles say immigration agents were spotted this week wearing Halloween masks — yes, actual Chucky and Momo masks — while conducting raids. Photos show what appear to be federal agents…
Culture
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Solitaire Smash-The Scam-Free Game That Promotes Theft?
Some mobile ads are annoying. Others are flat-out toxic. If you’ve scrolled through your feed or played a game recently, you’ve probably seen that “Solitaire Smash” ad — the one where someone finds a wallet, steals the cash, and then smirks about it like they just won the lottery. Or…
Comedy
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Laugh Until You Drop… Literally-The Strange Science of Dying from Humor
People say laughter is the best medicine. But like all medicine, take too much—and it might kill you. Now before you cancel your Netflix comedy queue, it’s worth noting: death by laughter is rare. Very rare. As in “lightning-strike-while-winning-the-lottery” rare. But it has happened. Enough times, in fact, that doctors…
Culture
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Breaking Wind Breaking News Humans Can Breathe Through Their Butts Now
For years, “butt science” was the stuff of bathroom humor and bad tabloid headlines. Now it’s in Med, a serious medical journal, and yes—it’s official: scientists have tested enteral ventilation, aka breathing through the rectum, in humans. And it’s safe. You couldn’t invent a story more perfectly engineered for the…
Culture
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When the Car Goes, Everything Goes-The Economic Warning No One’s Talking About
If you want to know how the American economy is really doing, don’t look at the stock market. Look at the parking lots behind the repo yards. Tow trucks are working overtime again across the country. The numbers are grim: analysts at CURepossession, using Recovery Database Network data, project that…
Culture
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The President’s Daughter Eliza Monroe Hay Who Came Home After 185 Years
When Barbara VornDick lifted a yellowed letter from a gray archival box at William & Mary, she didn’t expect to feel a voice grab her by the collar. The handwriting was frantic, the words desperate. “I am now in distress, in ill health, & in a foreign country,” the writer…
AI
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Your Digital Shadow Has a Rap Sheet and Advertisers Know It
The headline almost sounds like a Black Mirror episode that didn’t make it to air: AI companies are training their systems on crime data to sell ads more effectively. Yes, you read that right. The same information that used to live in dusty police databases—arrests, mugshots, court records, neighborhood stats—is…
Insects
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The Bug That Made It Past Customs — Almost
It started with a box of radicchio. One of thousands that pass through the Port of San Luis every week. But this one had a passenger. During a routine inspection, U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s agricultural specialists found something they’d never seen before — a leafhopper called Osbornellus sallus. For…
Media
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The Founders Didn’t Predict TikTok—But They Did Predict Demagogues
If you missed it, The Atlantic just kicked off a 250-year gut check on the American experiment, and Fintan O’Toole opened with a hard truth: our debates about the Founders often sound like a ventriloquist act. We move our lips to say what we want to hear. The package is…
Apocalypse
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Phase Zero – The War That’s Already Started (And We’re Pretending It Hasn’t)
I’ve read a lot of headlines designed to shock. Most don’t stick. But this one from The U.S. Sun stopped me cold: Russia is in “Phase Zero” of World War III. Not “preparing for.” Not “considering.” Already in it. The term comes from the Institute for the Study of War…