watch paul ryan actively doing nothing to improve gun control

Day after shooting, House Democrats erupt in protest; some walk out during moment of silence https://t.co/l5g73n1fS6https://t.co/PrsT9B8V9y

— ABC News (@ABC) June 14, 2016

welcome to the party, new york times.

you're late.

Cornhole, a simple yet addictive pastime with Midwestern origins, is sweeping the Northeast. This summer — from the Jersey Shore to Brooklyn, and from the Hamptons to the Catskills —the satisfying thump of weighted sacks hitting plywood reverberated across New York area beaches, lawns, rooftops and city sidewalks. Its mainstay is fall and the football season, when cornhole is also known as “tailgate toss” (a name that might sound better to folks who prefer to avoid the rude double entendre). (via)

(photo from our fifth annual tournament...)

thx erin!

the last thing you need.

there are about to be no more bananas.

This week's New Yorker has a huge story about the banana industry that touches on all of the familiar complaints against it: the inherent lack of sustainability of their product, company-funded massacres. But what it mostly focuses on is Tropical Race Four, a sort of super-fungus that turns Cavendish bananas into mush. So scientists are trying to build a better banana! One that is resistant! Here's the thing: It doesn't sound like they're making a lot of progress.

One of the most interesting pieces of info in the story is that this already happened once. See, the bananas that were originally eaten all over the U.S. weren't the Cavendish variety, they were Gros Michel bananas. (They were also, by all accounts, far tastier.) But a fungus called Race One, which is closely related to Tropical Race Four, wiped them out in the first half of the twentieth century. Really, one of the main reasons we have Cavendish bananas is because they're resistant to Race One. But it sounds like we might not have them for much longer either. (via)

great.

thx a lot, liz.

so um...how about that smaller federal government stuff?

remember when republicans wrote their "pledge to america", stating "we will stand committed to our principles and fight to renew the drive for a smaller... (federal) government". and then yesterday, republican leaders were all "the democrats need to stop wasting time on '...controversial items such as immigration, a repeal of "don't ask, don't tell...'". tmai.

well, they are getting down to some m-f-ing brass tacks; reducing the reach of the federal government and focusing on the real problems facing american families by insisting the smithsonian portrait gallery remove some gay video art. THANK PISS JESUS!

i will be the first and the loudest to say video art is the absolute worst. and gay video art? ...whhhhhell, if you're looking for the root of the economic recession, and sky-high unemployment, look no further than gay video art. any economist will tell you that as the presence of gay video art increases, short-term lines of credit sink like a weighted crucifix in a vat of artist piss. sorry, but those are the facts. deal with it.

[nymag]

thanks for ruining my life google

google's new 'buzz' application has had some unintended side-effects on users. like providing abusive ex-husbands with their ex-wives contact information.

debt clurk

has your chest tightened today? [U.S. national debt clock : real time]

can't see

nErD aLeRt!

guess what opened today...

the burj dubai!!

thx SOM! it looks great. i mean terrible.

new passion pit video!

but you can't watch it here. isn't disabling embedding the worst?

click this.

Medical news: your body is a f***ing joke

The New York Times is reporting breaking medical news: if you have a hard time with balance you might sprain your ankles lots, and visa versa. "People with bad ankles have bad balance."

Improving your balance could reduce the risk of ankle injury and especially multiple ankle injuries, and sprainers often re-sprain quickly after the first injury. The way to improved balance is the old trick: stand on one leg for a while, as still as you can, then try it whit the other leg. Sounds like a perfect subway platform activity. Do you hear that, idiots! Do you know were your feet even are?

Why should balance training prevent ankle sprains? The reasons are both obvious and quite subtle. Until recently, clinicians thought that ankle sprains were primarily a matter of overstretched, traumatized ligaments. Tape or brace the joint, relieve pressure on the sore tissue, and a person should heal fully, they thought. But that approach ignored the role of the central nervous system, which is intimately tied in to every joint. “There are neural receptors in ligaments,” says Jay Hertel, an associate professor of kinesiology at the University of Virginia and an expert on the ankle. When you damage the ligament, “you damage the neuro-receptors as well. Your brain no longer receives reliable signals” from the ankle about how your ankle and foot are positioned in relation to the ground. Your proprioception — your sense of your body’s position in space — is impaired. You’re less stable and more prone to falling over and re-injuring yourself. --NYT

After reading this article, I sauntered over to my favorite website Texas A&M Engineering, and read about how they're helping people stop falling, especially if you're over 65. Apparently 1 in 3 elderlies will fall each year. And its not just a little inconvenience, as 1 in 4 of those who fall will die on the bathroom floor. Those engineers down in Texas are making an ankle brace with a chip inside that buzzes when it senses an ankle roll, so you fix yourself.

hey, nymag!

where the FUCK is my summer issue?!?!

you just charged my bank account for another year, i see. the least you can do is send me what i'm paying for.

thx.

4 nothing.

give it a rest, PETA.

WASHINGTON - The group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants the flyswatter in chief to try taking a more humane attitude the next time he's bedeviled by a fly in the White House.

PETA is sending President Barack Obama a Katcha Bug Humane Bug Catcher, a device that allows users to trap a house fly and then release it outside.

"We support compassion even for the most curious, smallest and least sympathetic animals," PETA spokesman Bruce Friedrich said Wednesday. "We believe that people, where they can be compassionate, should be, for all animals." (msnbc)