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4 adorable facts about history’s greatest dictators Finally an excuse for those kawaii dictator memes.
Saddam Hussein wrote romance novels Really sappy ones too. Before he was found in a hole and hung from his neck while having someone record the snuff video, he was a jolly dictator who had hobbies. One of them was to write love stories on the side to show his softer side. When finding time out of his day to stop torturing people and shooting AK-47s into the air, he wrote the book Zabiba and the King. Zabiba and the King was a piece of historical fiction that portrayed Iraq as Zabibah, the lead female in the story. She was abused and raped by her sadistic husband, who was very…
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10 celebrated scientific breakthroughs that turned out to be hoaxes Come with us on a journey into scientific iniquity as we spotlight bogus science in near and far history.
It’s an exciting time to be alive, as the march of human progress is moving at seemingly impossible speeds. We’re curing diseases, connecting minds and reshaping the world we live in, and seemingly every day we hear about a new breakthrough that promises to change everything all over again. The thing is, though, not all of those breakthroughs are actually… well, real. For a number of reasons, scientists often over-promise and underdeliver and at the end of the day these massive discoveries turn out to be hoaxes or worse. Come with us on a journey into scientific iniquity as we spotlight ten bogus breakthroughs. The Tasaday Tribe Watch this video…
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6 ways social media is turning us into monsters All I'm offering is the truth. Nothing more.
According to Statista, social media platforms now have 3.81 billion active users. There is no denying that social media has long since moved beyond novelty and become an essential part of normal everyday lives. With this in mind, here are some of the many ways that social media is turning us all into monsters. Disclaimer: we know it isn’t all bad Line goes up and that’s good for stonks Social media allows businesses to effectively communicate with customers, increase brand visibility and sales, and humanize their cold corporate machinations with novel takes on memes from half a generation ago. In fact, social media is key to almost any successful business…
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46 things I learned from being gulaged Varlam Shalamov spent much of the period from 1937 to 1951 gulaged in the arctic cold of Kolyma. These are the 46 things he learned from the experience.
Varlam Tikhonovich Shalamov (June 18, 1907 – January 17, 1982) was a Russian writer, journalist, poet and Gulag survivor. He spent 15 years enslaved in Soviet gulags — six of them in the gold mines in the bitter arctic cold of Kolyma — due in part to having supported Leon Trotsky and praised the anti-Soviet writer Ivan Bunin. One of Shalamov’s surviving writings is a 1961 list of 46 things he learned from his gulag experience. You will benefit the most from it by already knowing the basics about these slave camps which worked many inmates to death (and in some cases even forced the slaves to eat each other),…
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Chinese police cage, interrogate man for criticizing traffic cops online "Uncle Police, I'm so sorry, I'm wrong."
A viral video from China shows a man in a strange Thomas the Train like cage being interrogated by police. According to the translation, the caged man, who says his name is Luhua, is remorseful for WeChat group comments where he criticized traffic cops for confiscating motorcycles. “Uncle Police, I’m so sorry, I’m wrong,” Luhua pleads with the police officers, who demand information on the WeChat group and a grovelling apology. He repeatedly excuses the crime by claiming he was drunk, and he probably ended up getting off with a fine and a light beating. The video is a helpful reminder that freedom of speech is a radical concept and…
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Russian cows are living in virtual reality to produce more milk The Matrix is preferable to Russia, according to the cows' measured stress levels.
Farmers in the Moscow region have fitted their cows with virtual reality headsets to see if it helps them produce more milk, The Moscow Times reports. “Experts noted reduced anxiety and improved overall emotional mood in the herd” during the VR experiment, said the agriculture administration for the region. Citing Dutch and Scottish research suggesting that a calming atmosphere increases dairy production, it said that milk production is what is now being studied during the second phase of the experiment. It also said that some Russian farmers are already playing classical music to their cows to achieve a similar “positive effect on milk flow.” The virtual reality the cows are…
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UK man under police investigation for refusing sex with transwoman’s penis Getting consent is important, but denying it could be a hate crime — in the UK at least.
Police in Hull, UK has confirmed to Hull Live that they’re investigating a man for turning down sex with a “transwoman” – because “he has a cock.” Ria Cooper, 25, filed the police report after a potential sex partner and business associate ghosted him on Whatsapp upon learning he’s a man. “This is absolutely fucking disgusting behaviour,” said Ria on social media, where he shares photos and says he hopes to become a glamour model and a porn star. “I am reporting this as a hate crime. It’s like calling someone who is black the ‘N’ word. I doesn’t matter if I have cock or not. The pictures should be…
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The big list of China’s corporate puppets Reddit doesn’t want you to see A far greater issue than a few spineless suits at Activision Blizzard and NBA.
Game publisher Blizzard recently caused a stir by banning Hearthstone champion Blitzchung and confiscating his winnings for verbally supporting his native Hong Kong in a livestreamed post-match interview. It couldn’t have happened at a worse time for Blizzard. NBA had just thrown Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey under the bus for pro democracy sentiments, and South Park was reportedly being censored in China for making fun of Chinese censorship in the west. Everyone were suddenly talking about Western corporations stamping the Communist Party of China’s boot on the necks of westerners, and a lot of anger had to be channeled somewhere – anywhere. And while most of the conversation…
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Kickstarter says MS-13 gang is a “marginalized group,” bans comic book project depicting them as villains "As a Public Benefit Corporation committed to fighting inequality and creating a more equitable world, Kickstarter does not allow discrimination, subjugation, or intolerance toward other groups," says the email about comic portraying MS-13 as criminals.
A woke artist would be hard pressed to portray villains as non-white – even when depicting real life events – but now big tech has decided that portraying the criminal gang MS-13 as Hispanic (which they almost exclusively are) is not only bad form: it’s bannable hate speech. Mike S. Miller has received a message from Kickstarter notifying him that his crowd-funded comic book, Lonestar, is hate speech, and that it will not be allowed on their crowdfunding platform. “As a public benefit Corporation committed to fighting inequality and creating a more equitable world, Kickstarter does not allow discrimination, subjugation, or intolerance toward other groups,” the company wrote. But there’s…
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Read Mark Zuckerberg’s leaked internal meeting transcripts Transcripts of the leaked audio where Mark Zuckerberg rallies employees against critics, competitors, and the US government.
The Verge got their hands on recorded audio of Mark Zuckerberg’s internal meetings with employees and leaked it fully this morning. You can listen to the leak here and read the full transcript below. ON THE POTENTIAL BREAKUP OF FACEBOOK Question: With the recent FCC fine, investigation, and with the rise of politicians like Sen. Warren, I was wondering how personally worried you are about regulators coming in and breaking up Facebook? Mark Zuckerberg: Well, I think you want to separate out a couple of things. I’m certainly more worried that someone is going to try to break up our company. Now, there’s a separate question about, at the end of the…