Something snapped in this country. I don’t know when it happened — maybe right after the airlines decided a “snack” was now six pretzels in a zip bag — but the behavior in airports has gone feral. And the language? Off the charts. We’re talking full-volume obscenities that used to…
Category: Culture
Culture
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The Great Chili Stampede-When a Viral Rumor Turned a Village Farm Into a Free-For-All
There’s a special kind of chaos that only social media can produce — the kind where a village wakes up expecting a normal workday and instead finds half the province rummaging through its chili fields like they’re at a clearance sale. That’s exactly what happened in Liujiangou, a rural village…
Culture
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China’s Robot Strip-Show-When a Tech Demo Turns Into a Live Dissection
Somewhere between a TED Talk and a magic show gone sideways, a Chinese robotics firm decided the only way to calm the internet was to cut open its humanoid robot — live, onstage, in front of an audience that expected a product launch and ended up watching synthetic surgery. I…
Culture
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A Life Sentence, Zero Vegemite and One Lawsuit Australia Didn’t See Coming
There’s no shortage of strange legal battles in this world, though every so often one comes along that forces you to stop scrolling, blink twice, and mutter, “Yeah… that tracks.”That was my reaction when I read about a man in Victoria serving a life sentence who decided he’s had enough…
Culture
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Holiday Travel Chaos Hits New High With Mile-High Meltdown
Thanksgiving week is already the busiest, most patience-draining travel stretch of the year. People are packed into airports like they’re waiting for free Beyoncé tickets. Lines everywhere. Tension everywhere. Delays everywhere. And that’s before you factor in the one person who decides to turn a routine inconvenience into a Broadway…
Crime
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The Fake Attack Story So Bonkers I Had to Read It Twice
There are bad decisions. There are regrettable decisions. And then there’s the “I hired a scarification artist to carve me up so I could report a violent political hate crime” decision — which is its own category somewhere between Maury Povich and unemployment line. I read the DOJ release like…
Culture
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A Titanic Love Story Encased in Gold
Every once in a while, something goes up for auction that isn’t just an object — it’s a fragment of a moment. This time, it’s a gold pocket watch from the Titanic, the one owned by Isidor Straus of Macy’s fame. The thing stopped ticking at 2:20 AM, the exact…
Culture
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Kids Don’t Shake Piggy Banks Anymore — They Check Their Balance
Somewhere in an attic — next to the Beanie Babies and the box of VHS tapes nobody wants to throw out — sits a ceramic pig with a coin slot carved into its back. It had a good run. But like most analog traditions, it’s now being replaced by something…
AI
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Holy Bots, Batman — Faith Goes Digital
Something strange is happening in churches across America. People are texting Jesus. Pastors are building sermon outlines with AI. And somewhere in Pennsylvania, a chatbot is probably explaining the difference between transubstantiation and metaphorical presence at 3 a.m. Welcome to digital ministry 2.0 — where theology meets technology, and the…
Culture
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When Did Fun Become Illegal? The Vanishing Art of Being American
There was a time when being bored was a skill. You didn’t scroll through your phone—you made up entertainment. Usually at someone else’s expense. Like ringing a stranger’s doorbell and sprinting away laughing so hard you could barely breathe. “Ding-dong ditch” wasn’t about cruelty; it was childhood cardio. We also…