The Morning News

“Go out there, play it up. Find some scouts, tell them how bad it is—and be really theatrical about it, make the badness part of its appeal.”

At the 2014 Jamboree, Eagle Scout Rosecrans Baldwin learned how to trade the lamest patch ever.
↩︎ Oxford American

8h

For the first time since 1974, eight tropical cyclones were active in the north Pacific on Saturday.

↩︎ The Weather Channel 11h

Cracking down on designer furniture knockoffs, in 2016 customs agents confiscated $4.2 million in fakes.

↩︎ Quartz 11h

After a reader backlash, medical journal retracts a paper that used only male pronouns to refer to surgeons.

↩︎ Retraction Watch 11h

If not evidence of malicious deception, the story reveals a young man who is in over his head and out of his depth to such a degree that he does not know he is in over his head and out of his depth.

In his testimony, Kushner claims incompetence—an appealing quality to Russians looking to infiltrate the White House.
↩︎ The Washington Post

12h

An outpouring of social media love spares MS Paint, but no one's upset over the demise of Outlook Express.

↩︎ BBC 12h

Reddit is ground zero for opioid addicts to connect, recover, or relapse—and sometimes mourn lost members.

↩︎ The New York Times 12h

Heeding a "duty to warn," psychiatry group lifts embargo on speculating about Trump's mental health.

↩︎ STAT 12h

The rise of automats sprouted from a dislike of waiters, "one of the necessary evils of an advanced civilization."

↩︎ Atlas Obscura 12h

Your favorite independent fact-checking site, Snopes, is battling a service provider and in danger of shutting down.

↩︎ Save Snopes 13h

While lambasting the Washington Post, Donald Trump may have tweeted the existence of a covert CIA operation.

↩︎ The Washington Post 13h

In case you missed it last week, here's a video of the selfie that knocked over $200,000 worth of art—in this case crowns, part of Simon Birch's Hypercaine.

A note from Birch following the incident:

People ask why the plinths were not bolted down. Well, people are warned to be cautious in that room but the idea was that they should be delicate, exposed, and fragile. They are crowns, and crowns—symbols of power, are fragile things. A well-timed selfie could bring down a president. And anyway, you can do your best to make things idiot-proof, but eventually someone will make a better idiot.

1d

Word of the day: "Brosectomy," a vasectomy with friends, couches, snacks, big-screen TV, and liquor.

↩︎ The Wall Street Journal 1d

Despite its alleged "contagious sex scenes," *Lipstick Under My Burkha* wins the war against India's censors.

↩︎ The Guardian 1d

An Australian surf magazine tows a 100-foot dock and six professional surfers into the middle of a Balinese lineup. Havoc ensues!

1d

American servicemembers are defending a nation of laws, not of men. Their obligation to obey the orders of their superiors does not include orders that are palpably illegal.

A thoughtful look at a tricky question: When can an American soldier legally disobey an order?
↩︎ War on the Rocks

1d

Children in Cameroon are much better than German kids at self-control, likely because of parenting styles.

↩︎ Goats and Soda 1d

I feel like we all wear the same shoes... of course, I went through a huge Dansko phase... They’re a classic hippie-ceramist studio shoe.

What you need to own and wear to pass as a nouveau hippie ceramist.
↩︎ The Strategist

1d

Jepsies, Marranos, Pine-Nuts, Nolanites: A list of fandom nicknames.

↩︎ Wikipedia 1d

Some scary stuff here. How many deaths does it take to make a natural disaster newsworthy for TV networks?

↩︎ Our World in Data 1d