In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

Blah blah Paul Ryan fart: "Hard-line conservatives cleared a path Wednesday for Rep. Paul Ryan to become House speaker when some of his most disgruntled fellow Republicans signaled that they would support his bid for the top job. ...The group stopped short of an official endorsement, which would have required 80 percent support, but members said a 'supermajority' of the caucus would back a Ryan bid for speaker." Can't wait for this guy to start flexing his muscles in the speakership, amirite?!

First Nations news from the Canadian election: "Monday's election was historic for Canada's First Nations community, which saw 10 indigenous MPs elected. ...The election also saw a record-breaking 54 indigenous candidates run for office. ...[Grand Chief Sheila North Wilson, of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak] estimated that more than 11,000 new voters went to the polls in northern Manitoba on Monday. 'We have to say our people got engaged, got involved, and they were tired of what they were seeing in the last six years especially,' North Wilson said. At least five first nations reportedly needed extra ballots brought in to accommodate the numbers. 'In other southern communities, we are told there was, in fact, ballots that ran out,' said Wilson. ...While efforts were made to mobilize First Nations voters through a 'Rock the Vote' campaign, Manitoba's Grand Chiefs believe the huge response can be attributed solely to a desire to oust Stephen Harper from office. 'I believe that Mr. Harper, when he was prime minister, awoke a sleeping giant in our people, and that giant is awake,' said Wilson." YES.

[Content Note: Misogyny] Good grief, Jeb Bush: "When asked to name his favorite Marvel superhero at a campaign event in Las Vegas, Bush struggled for a minute, according to CNN, then tried to wiggle free using his powers of Republicanism. 'I like watching the movies. I wish I owned Marvel, as someone that believes in capitalism,' Bush said. ...Then Bush tried again, saying he saw a commercial for the new CBS show Supergirl while he was working out earlier in the day. Still DC, but give the man a point for naming a current TV show! Then get ready to take it away. 'She looked kinda ... she looked pretty hot,' Bush said." This fucking guy.

Sesame Street has introduced its first character with autism: "Fuzzy favorites Grover, Abby and Elmo are joined by their newest muppet pal, Julia, a character with autism, in Sesame Street Workshop's new nationwide initiative. Launched Wednesday morning, Sesame Street and Autism: See Amazing in All Children aims to reduce 'the stigma of autism' with the introduction of the first muppet with autism. ...In the storybooks, Julia explains to her Sesame Street friends how she likes to play a little differently from them. ...Researches worked for three years developing the initiative and hope it will ultimately bring people together."

[CN: Misogyny] After Jennifer Lawrence penned an essay about pay inequality in the film industry, her co-star in several films Bradley Cooper vowed that he would "start sharing salary information with female costars before movies go into production to help them negotiate." But their American Hustle co-star Jeremy Renner isn't into it: "That's not my job. I don't know contracts and money and all that sort of stuff." Yeesh this guy.

The IRS has announced that they will "recognize same-sex marriages regardless of where they were performed and will interpret the terms 'husband' and 'wife' to apply to both same-sex and opposite sex couples." I'm assuming that's just until the forms are changed!

[CN: Misogynoir] This is a great piece by Candace Simpson on the limitations of politics to achieve social justice: "They might be humans who happen to have a job. Thinking of our leaders in this way is disruptive. It means we have to rethink the placement all of our political-involvement eggs in the formal political process basket. It's just not enough. What do we do when the people we rallied and voted for harm us? What do we do when our interests are not protected by those who share vulnerabilities? And what is left for us who have nothing but a basement storage bin of betrayal, 'BaRack the Vote' para, and reminders that we are forgotten by our own? We resist."

[CN: Disablist language] Whoa: "A new, [impressively] massive picture of the Milky Way—46 billion pixels across—marks the largest astronomical image of all time, researchers say. ...The amazing view of the Milky Way was built out of 268 individual views of the galaxy that includes the sun and the Earth, captured night after night over the course of five years with telescopes in Chile's Atacama Desert. Astronomers at Ruhr-Universität Bochum used the data to examine stars whose brightness changes over time—and the image portrays more than 50,000 new objects with variable brightness that have never been recorded before. The researchers made the zoom-able, searchable image available their website, so galactic explorers can scroll across the Milky Way and examine its famous and lesser-known features with more detail than ever before."

OMG! "NASA discovers real-life 'death star' ripping apart and vaporizing tiny faraway planet: A white dwarf star in the Constellation Virgo turns out to be a 'death star' worthy of Star Wars. Astronomers announced Wednesday that they have discovered a rocky object coming apart in a death spiral around this distant star. They used NASA's Kepler spacecraft to make the discovery, then followed up with ground observations."

Congratulations to Charlotte Riley and her husband Tom Hardy on the birth of their new baby! As much as I would swoon eleventy million times over pictures of Tom Hardy and a baby, I will happily settle for pictures of Tom Hardy and dogs, because celebrity babies deserve their privacy!

And finally! BABY TAPIR!!! Squeeeeeeeeee!