Are you a bank? If no: are you a lunatic who's about to throw a bunch of money in the garbage because you can't find anything Twin Peaks-related to give it to? Hey, hold on! Maybe you want to give it to this Kickstarter instead!

The Palmer house, as seen in the Twin Peaks pilot and Fire Walk With Me, is up for sale in in Everett, Washington for $549,950. Seattle's Stephen Lange would like to buy the house and, barring any complications that will arise from it existing in a residential area, turn it into a business: part museum and part bed and breakfast. Because the business will be related to a deeply- if not widely-loved piece of pop culture, he'd like it if you could please help pay for it:

"This is going to be a huge undertaking, so we're going to need help from each and every one of you. But if we succeed, we're all going to have a place where we can bask in the terrifying beauty that is Twin Peaks."

Uh-huh. The Kickstarter has a goal of $600,000. Here's the whole pitch:

Pledge rewards range from personalized tweets to Palmer House memberships and overnight rentals. And, of course, the satisfaction that comes with knowing you gave your hard-earned money to a group of strangers trying to start a bed and breakfast that sort of has something to do with a TV show you like.

[h/t LAist]

Maria Zhang, the Yahoo engineering executive sued for sexual harassment by one of her female employees, is striking back. Zhang, who helps lead Yahoo's crucial mobile efforts, filed a cross-complaint (embedded below) against her accuser, Nan Shi. It alleges defamation and claims Shi was trying to "extort" Yahoo.

Although Yahoo was named as a defendant in Shi's sexual harassment suit, the cross-complaint was only filed by Zhang, not Yahoo (the party allegedly being extorted).

Making such false and outrageous allegations is so unimaginable it raises the question of why anyone would resort to such extreme measure. In Shi's case, the answer is simple: financial gain. Shi made false claims that Renhui ("Maria") Zhang ("Zhang" or "Defendant") coerced her into having sex so that Shi could extort Yahoo! Inc. ("Yahoo") for money. Zhang submits this Cross-Complaint for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress ("Cross-Complaint") to redress the harm caused by Shi's attempt to ruin Zhang's professional and personal life for Shi's own financial gain.

In the sexual harassment suit, Shi claims that Zhang instructed her to move into temporary housing in Sunnyvale, which is where the alleged harassment began. (Shi worked at Alike, Zhang's previous Seattle-based startup. When Alike was acquired, they both joined Yahoo in California.) Zhang's complaint does not mention the housing arrangement at all. Rather, the filing says Shi retaliated out of concern that she would be fired for performance.

By March 2014, it became obvious to Shi that her job was in serious jeopardy. She had already received negative performance feedback from one technical lead, [Ben Xing], in the third quarter of 2013 and her new technical lead, [Qichu Lu], had raised serious concerns with her performance in the first quarter of 2014.

Realizing that consistent negative performance feedback would likely lead to the termination of her employment and the loss of unvested stock worth potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars, Shi attempted to save her job by making complaints to Yahoo's Human Resources department.

Shi's first attempt was carefully investigated but Yahoo found her claims to be unsubstantiated. In March 2014, Shi approached Yahoo's Human Resources department. She complained that she did not like being told what to do by Lu. She also complained that Zhang was a demanding manager. She also stated that Zhang threatened her job.

The cross-complaint highlights the fact that Shi did not mention sexual harassment allegations until the following month when: "Shi realized that she would not receive another chance and her termination of employment was likely to be imminent." (Shi has said she did not mention the harassment earlier because she feared it would end her career.)

To support the fact that Zhang and Shi never had a sexual relationship, the cross-complaint mentions the lack of witnesses or physical evidence, including no references to it in email, text message, or letter during the time span of the alleged harassment.

The Yahoo spokesperson who sent Valleywag the complaint would only offer the following comment:

As we previously stated, there is absolutely no basis or truth to the allegations against Maria Zhang. Maria is an exemplary Yahoo executive, and we intend to fight vigorously to clear her name.

Yahoo executive Maria Zhang cross-complaint v Nan Shi

To contact the author of this post with information about this lawsuit, please email nitasha@gawker.com.

[Image via Berita Teknologi]

Huge media conglomerate Time Warner rejected an $80 billion takeover offer from News Corp today, but the company may still be "in play," so it's not too late for an even more enormous portion of the U.S. media to fall under the control of Rupert Murdoch, a rich old climate change denier.

First impressions are important. For those who've only just moved to San Francisco, they often find themselves smitten with the city's fog-swept valleys, Victorian architecture, curious eccentrics, alluring hills, and adorably incompetent bus system. But not for hacker-maker Keith Horwood: he's just stoked that it's a hotbed of techno-libertarian capitalism.

Horwood fired off his love letter to the San Francisco Chronicle's Letters to the Editor section, eschewing the techie's choice publication platform, Medium. In his note to the dying 149-year-old newspaper, he expresses that he's "humbled to be at the center of the single largest tech hub in the world." To Horwood, San Francisco is the home of the future.

If I can romanticize it, it's that the future seems more real here. It is not a dream. It is not something that passively rolls in, soothing waves lapping up against our toes. It is menacing. It is fierce. And it ours to conquer.

The letter communicates an attitude we see from tech time and time again: San Francisco is a place you come to conquer, not to participate in, explore, or contribute back to.

Fortunately for Horwood, if his startup career ever tanks, he can always fall back on penning motivational Hallmark cards.

[via Joe Fitz Rodriguez]

Thailand's Kalasin Rajabhat University is investigating a lecturer who allegedly gave students A's in exchange for collectable stamps good for discounts and gifts at 7-11. The teacher was caught on video offering a grade bump for every 25 stamps, the Bangkok Post reports.

The instructor, who works in the university's preschool education department, allegedly gave one student an A+ in exchange for an incredible 400 stamps, prompting others in the class to call bullshit on her corrupt system.

In the video, she tells them, "You complained that you lost a lot of money to earn stamps. Did I force you to give me those stamps? I just offered you a suggestion."

"Khanittha got 17 points in psychology class," she continues. "She gave me stamps. Then, I gave her A+. Do you think you got that grade by your own brain?"

She's now been suspended, pending the outcome of an outside investigation by the Council of Rajabhat University Presidents of Thailand (Yes, CRUPT. You can't make this stuff up.) But the 7-11 scandal isn't the only charge of corruption plaguing the faculty. Students also claim that an educational trip to Vietnam turned into basic extortion, a vacation for the lecturers where students were forced to pay for passing grades.

The administration's response, months after the accusatory YouTube video was posted, doesn't do much to inspire confidence: "She might have thought it was ordinary practice, judging from what I heard, that some lecturers at other places also exchange grades for some beer,'' the university's acting rector told the Post.

[H/T Time. Photos: Google Maps/7-11 Thailand]

Jezebel Noted Dummy Abigail Fisher's Rights Weren't Violated, Rules Court | Gizmodo Why Tesla's Model 3 Could Be the Most Important Electric Car Ever | Deadspin Joel Embiid Is Really Good At Twitter. Let's Not Ruin This. | Jalopnik How GM Dodged Telling The Truth About Their Crashes

Tonight on TV we've got Linda Perry crushing dreams, Halle Berry lying about her space sex, sad Frodo whose only friend is an Australian and also a dog, and the return of those teen moms and their upstanding young lovers.

At 8/7c. two less people will Think they Can Dance after the Top 18 drops to 16. At my house though, there's another dang episode of Big Brother on CBS! (Doesn't it seem like that show is always on? "More like Oh Brother!") Tonight is POV, which hopefully means the next thing America sees will be a giant, crazy man getting back-doored. Hard.

At 9/8c., leading up to Linda Perry's new songwriting VH1 show Make Or Break, a whole hour about what her deal is and where did she come from and does she know Prince Adam of Eternia personally, or just in a professional capacity. Also the new Extant. I hope that show stays awesome! I love it. (I also hope homeboy gives more 3-dimensional TED Talks where words like "connectivity!" and "human contact!" float around in the air, because that is the funniest fucking thing I have ever seen in my life. That and the space trash Halle's always taking out to her space trashcans.)

At 10/9c. there's The Bridge, Graceland, Wilfred, Teen Mom and a LMN Special entitled simply "Mommy's Little Murderer." But as cheerful as all of those things sound, I think I'll be Through the Wormhole with MC Morgy Freegs, answering common everyday science questions such as:

Q: "Is There A Shadow Universe?"
( A: "No. Also, What?")

Eff is a Shadow Universe? I thought we lived in an n-dimensional hyperspace of strings, p- and m-branes, all that. I thought we figured this one out already. Is it like a Shadow Cabinet and somewhere there's a me with a goatee, just itching to subvert my policies?

Actually you know what, I already bet I know; this is what my old boyfriend Ben would call the "dark matter hoax." Million bucks. (Big Bang Was An Inside Job!) So I guess tonight we're just gonna be getting more lies. Through the wormhole, you will find a universe much like our own, except Morgan Freeman is not lying about science all the time.

Finally at 11/10c., Liv Tyler and somebody we don't know who they are yet will be on Watch What Happens: Live, silently staring at Andy Cohen until he feels guilty about what he did.

[ Image via Youtube]

Morning After is a new home for television discussion online, brought to you by Gawker. What are you watching tonight? What are we missing out on? Recommendations and discussions down below.

ModCloth, the online clothing retailer, laid off 70 employees yesterday. The Los Angeles-based company has raised $63.7 million since it launched in 2002, including investment from Accel Partners and First Round.

TechCrunch says the company, which focuses on indie and vintage designs, does not plan on changing its focus:

Apparently the layoffs affected all three company offices (San Francisco, Pittsburgh, and Los Angeles) and represent an effort at restructuring and consolidation — but they don't indicate a broader shift in direction.

An anonymous tipster who wrote in to Valleywag says that part of the problem lies with ModCloth CEO Eric Koger, who cofounded the company with his wife, Susan Gregg Koger. Somewhat contrary to the tipster's claims, Koger's academic background appears to be in marketing and entrepreneurship.

It's in trouble, running constant sales and struggling to turn a profit. The CEO is an engineer without a head for marketing and brand and as a result the company is suffering. Moral [sic] is at an all time low these days. It's a shame because overall the concept is great, they are just failing on the execution.

Fast Company named ModCloth one of the most innovative companies in 2013, noting that the online shop was "growing at more than 50% annually, and the Kogers raised $25 million last year to fund a significant expansion."

Yo, if any #Modcloth expats need any help finding a new job or need help getting on their feet, DM / @ reply me. I'd like to help.

— mitch (@msprout) July 16, 2014

This post is breaking, we will update if we learn more. If you have any information about the ModCloth layoffs, please email tips@valleywag.com.

Israel has agreed to halt its attacks on Gaza for five hours Thursday in accordance to a deal brokered by the United Nations' special envoy to the Middle East, Robert H. Serry. The temporary break from assaults for a "humanitarian window" comes after days of airstrikes between the Israeli military and Hamas and the death of more than 200 Palestinians.

The Associated Press reports that it remains unclear whether militants in Palestine would reciprocate, though Israel has vowed to strike aggressively should the temporary ceasefire be violated:

Israel said it would hold its fire Thursday from 10 a.m. (0700 GMT, 3 a.m. EDT) under a U.N.-brokered plan to allow Palestinians to restock food, water and other necessities. But it vowed to retaliate "firmly and decisively" if Hamas or other militant groups launch attacks on Israel during that time.

Even with the five-hour reprieve, all signs point to Israel's attacks escalating soon. From the Wall Street Journal:

Despite Israel's success in limiting the costs inflicted by rocket fire from Hamas and other Palestinian militant factions, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli authorities have repeatedly warned that they are prepared to escalate the war to end the rocket barrages, which have caused one death and disrupted daily life across the country.

While underscoring the increasing impatience of Israel's political and military establishment with Hamas and making plain that there were contingency plans for the re-occupation of the Gaza Strip, the senior military official said most Israeli policy makers still opposed any attempt to end Hamas rule in Gaza.

A senior Israeli military official, reports the New York Times, has said that the likelihood of Israel mounting a ground invasion grows with "every day that passes." More from the Times:

The stark assessment came as Israel bombed 60 targets, most of them in northern Gaza, after warning 100,000 residents to evacuate their homes by 8 a.m. via leaflets, text messages, and automated telephone calls. The Palestinian death toll reached at least 205 by late afternoon, including four children killed in a strike on the seashore.

The lone Israeli casualty, a 37-year-old man killed by a mortar round as he distributed food to soldiers Tuesday night near the Erez crossing, was eulogized by Israel's president-elect, Reuven Rivlin, at an afternoon funeral.

A ceasefire agreement proposed by Egypt earlier this week failed. http://gawker.com/israel-hamas-c...

[Image via AP]

President Obama announced today that the U.S. will be expanding its sanctions against Russia for the country's intervention in Ukraine. The sanctions target banks and energy producers, as well as several defense firms.

"I've repeatedly made it clear that Russia must halt the flow of weapons and fighters across the border into Ukraine, that Russia must urge separatists to release their hostages and support a ceasefire, that Russia needs to pursue internationally mediated talks and agree to meaningful monitors on the border—I've made this clear directly to Mr. Putin," Obama said. "So far, Russia has failed to take any of the steps that I mentioned."

The increased sanctions follow accusations by the U.S. that Russia continues to support pro-Russian separatists in their fight against Ukraine. From the Washington Post:

As fighting between Ukrainian government forces and separatists continued, the administration charged that Russia continued to mobilize and distribute equipment, including armored vehicles, multiple rocket launchers, artillery and air defense systems, to the separatists.

A State Department "fact sheet" this week said that "Russia continues to deploy new forces extremely close to the Ukrainian border" and was mobilizing additional units.

The primary targets of the sanctions, as reported by the New York Times:

Among the firms targeted were some of the most prominent in Russia, including Rosneft, the state-owned oil company and largest oil producer; Gazprombank, the financial arm of Gazprom, the giant state-controlled natural gas producer; Novatek, another Russian natural gas producer that has been competing with Gazprom; and VEB, the state economic development bank.

The administration also targeted eight state-owned defense firms; four Russian government officials, including an aide to President Vladimir V. Putin and a top official in the Federal Security Service; an oil shipping facility in Crimea, which Moscow annexed; a pro-Russian separatist leader; and the rump rebel organizations in the eastern Ukrainian cities of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Sergei A. Ryabkov, Russia's deputy foreign minister, responded to the sanctions by telling the Interfax news agency, "The new decision by the U.S. administration to lodge sanctions under false pretenses against a number of Russian businesses and individuals can't be called anything other than outrageous and totally unacceptable."

[Image via AP]

A federal judge in Southern California ruled Wednesday that the state's death penalty is unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney wrote that the "dysfunctional administration of California's death penalty system" has led to years-long delays for executions. According to the Los Angeles Times, 900 people have been given the death penalty in California since 1978—only 13 have been executed.

The ruling was made following a petition from Ernest Dewayne Jones, who was sentenced to death two decades ago (the judge vacated his sentence). "Allowing this system to continue to threaten Mr. Jones with the slight possibility of death, almost a generation after he was first sentenced, violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment," Carney wrote.

As the San Francisco Chronicle points out, executions in the state had previously been halted following a ruling from federal courts, owing to problems in the lethal injection process. Further from the Chronicle:

As Carney noted, out of more than 900 convicted murderers sentenced to death since voters passed the current death penalty law in 1978, far more - 94 - have died from illnesses, suicide or other causes than on the executioner's table. An additional 39 have had their sentences reduced by the courts.

For most condemned prisoners, "systemic delay has made their execution so unlikely that the death sentence carefully and deliberately imposed by the jury has been quietly transformed into one no rational jury or legislature could ever impose: life in prison, with the remote possibility of death," said Carney, a 2003 appointee of President George W. Bush.

Carney also cited in his ruling that more than 40 percent of the inmates waiting on California's Death Row have been for nearly two decades. His ruling can be appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

[Image of Ernest Dewayne Jones via AP]

Slow-moving thunderstorms around Colorado Springs this afternoon dumped enormous amounts of rain over the region in a short period of time, leading to dangerous flash flooding across the area. One resident of the city took this incredible video of the water pounding a bridge with the fury of Niagara Falls.

Richelle Britigan took the video and posted it to KRDO News Channel 13's Facebook page this afternoon, depicting the flooding at the intersection of Garden of the Gods Road and Chestnut Street, located just off I-25 in northern Colorado Springs.

The station also posted the above image of water flooding down a brick staircase in nearby Manitou Springs.

Radar estimates as of 7:48PM MDT show that between one and three inches of rain have fallen across the Colorado Springs area today, leaving the onslaught of water no place to go but to run off in flash flooding. To highlight how fast the rain is falling, the NWS received a spotter report that a half of an inch of rain fell in Woodland Park, Colorado — northwest of Colorado Springs — in just fifteen minutes during one of the storms this evening.

Colorado Springs should have a chance to dry out after tonight. While a chance of storms exists in the area over the next couple of days, today held the best opportunity for flooding rains.

[Video by Richelle Britigan via KRDO, images via KRDO and Gibson Ridge | h/t to Nurse Kelley, thank you!]

North Carolina State Police are on the hunt for two twentysomethings with an apparent affinity for fake, expensive dinosaurs. The couple can be seen in security footage from the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh jumping a barrier, snatching the $10,000 Edmontosaurus hatchling replica, and running off with it in a bag.

WRAL has a useful, detailed description of the thieves, apparently a couple:

The man, believed to be in his 20s, has light brown hair and is about 5 feet 7 inches tall. He was wearing a dark gray T-shirt, white shorts with gray or green stripes and black and white sneakers. The woman, also believed to be in her 20s, has brown hair, is about 5 feet 6 inches tall and was wearing a pink shirt, blue shorts and ankle-high boots.

The two are apparently museum bandits: There's also security footage of them making off with $1,000 worth of loot from the North Carolina Museum of History, conveniently located next door to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

Texas actress Shannon Guess Richardson, 36, was sentenced to 18 years in prison after sending ricin-laced letters to President Barack Obama, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Mark Glaze, the former head of Bloomberg's anti-gun group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns. Then-pregnant, she sent the letters and was arrested by police last year after trying to implicate her husband.

The contents of the letters, from USA Today:

Richardson mailed three letters in May 2013 from her home in New Boston, near Texarkana, and then drove to a Shreveport, La., police station to implicate her estranged husband, who had filed for divorce. She told the FBI she did not think the letters would be opened because of security measures.

"What's in this letter is nothing compared to what ive got in store for you mr president," read the letter to Obama. "You will have to kill me and my family before you get my guns. Anyone wants to come to my house will get shot in the face."

Richardson, who had small roles in The Walking Dead and the Vampire Diaries, will also be required to pay $367,000 in restitution as part of plea deal she entered into last December. She gave birth to her son while in custody. http://gawker.com/walking-dead-z...

"I never intended for anybody to be hurt," Richard said at her sentencing today. "I'm not a bad person. I don't have it in me to hurt anyone. I do love my country, and I respect my president."

[Image via Texarkana Gazette]

A woman takes a photo on the flooded streets of Quezon City in the Philippines, Wednesday. Typhoon Rammasun struck the country late Tuesday, leaving at least five dead. Photo by Aaron Favila via AP.

Comedy Central hosts and friendly rivals Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert just corpsed their way through a battle of Star Wars trivia—and lightsabers—to determine which of them is a bigger nerd.

In real life, it's probably Colbert, but in the Comedy Central Expanded Universe, Stewart takes it because he's more willing to cosplay. (And why not? The man has his own official Stormtrooper action figure, given to him by George Lucas.)

As much as I'd love to imagine that this is what Stewart and Colbert always do with their free time, there's a point to it: They're promoting UNICEF through the Star Wars charity campaign that J.J. Abrams launched a while back. If you're still hoping to win that Episode VII cameo, there are 8 days left.

[H/T Mary Sue]

In honor of today's premeire of her new webseries, Touching the Art—the first episode of which is viewable above—Gawker is pleased to present an exploration of digital life by artist and comic Casey Jane Ellison. This essay takes place from the time Casey wakes up to 10 minutes later.

I open my eyes. I know the meaning of life. I'm without desire. I'm not scared, not ecstatic, not discontent. I'm pure existence. I am a monk. Then, my Diva Cup explodes.

Or I remember all the suffering in earth's history, or something else earthly happens. The answers and the wholeness is gone and the void resets. It's just me, Your Girl Casey, lying in bed, waking up, being mortal as fuck.

Then, my arm extends to my nightstand without any electro conductivity from my brain. I am a bot. I feel the tranquilizing ridges and smoothness of my phone. The weight of it in my hand switches on my brain. It's time to look at shit. It's time to consume. Desire, fear, excitement, hope. Chemicals flood.

What am I looking for?

I want an update that 50 Cent followed me back.

I want an email from the President saying, "Hey."

I want to be unblocked from that bitch's profile. JK. I don't want to be unblocked.

I'm looking for purpose. I'm looking for proof of existence. I'm looking for…Me. Lol.

Instead of finding me, Your Girl Casey, I find a gorgeous pic from my frenemy's trip to Barcelona; a news story on how baby piglets are being systematically thrown off cliffs; a hilarious new webseries by a white male. All of it, crushing!

Oh thank God!—a red "2." A Like from an important hottie and a Share from my frenemy?!

No. It's two identical comments from Ymujitki Cortansipipi, on my labored yet playful tweet about my art practice, about how he (she?) lost 13 pounds in 17 months, please check it out.

It's like, I can't check it out, because there's no link, IDIOT! And before I can post my response, Ymujitki deletes her comment. We're just two bots trying to connect, but can't. Is it me? Can't be. I guess Ymujitki doesn't exist.

This exercise proves I'm alone in the universe. My chemicals are depleted. I can actually feel my heart hurt. Lol.

Unfortunately self-induced mental torture disallows sobbing. Sobbing alleviates sadness, but is not possible in this case because there are only two kinds of tears produced by hormones conducted by the brain. Reflex tears are triggered by dryness of the eyes while emotional tears are triggered by actual loss. I'm not experiencing anything dry eyes or loss, just full-blown nothingness. So, I can't cry even though I'm sad. Lol.

My mind asks me, Your Girl Casey, "Why are you like this?"

"I don't know."

"Why can't you be grateful? Grateful for life."

"I am. Let's meditate."

"Go. Do it."

"K, I'm doing it …Where's my phone?!"

"OMG where's your phone?! You just had it."

"I know! …K, I found it."

"You go, GIRL!"

"Yes! We're safe now!"

My mind and I rejoice in finding our phone, which we just put down so we could meditate. The cycle continues.

Wow, she is part of the problem! I continue to scroll. He's in pain and doesn't know it! Still scrolling. They're on a steep spiral. Referring to Coldplay.

Why do I bother? How dare I? My excuse for this behavior is that everything is meaningless and it's meaningless that it's meaningless so fuck you. But shouldn't that motto make me feel bomb instead of lost and angry? Free instead of captive?

At least I'm not posting and spreading h8. I'm just wasting time talking to myself in bed, festering as I continue my trudge toward oblivion. Is this how I'm spending my only time on earth?

If I met a guy at a thing IRL and he said, I like your shit. Let's say the way he said it made me hate him and let's say I never saw him again. I'd project whatever I thought of that interaction onto him and live my whole life knowing that this guy was dumb or whatever. Never mind the fact that in this case I would have disliked him only because I can't take a compliment.

The same is true if I saw that he Liked or Faved something of mine online. I'd be all like, Oh, you like my shit, Bro? You don't know me! Same shit. Same shit, Dawg. My systemic loathing applies to real life and net life, Dawg. It's me. I'm my problem.

Did you know that eyes don't see? The brain sees. Each of our brains is unique based on our experiences and biology so our individual memories, moods, traumas, and habits inform what we each see. So really, there is no such thing as reality. Lol.

My eyes introduce the light of my screen to my brain, my brain receives the images, headlines and/or lack of fan mail, and I decide to see a hole. Now, I'm living my life from inside that hole. I'm defined by that hole and I believe that everyone who sees me, can see I'm just a big fat hole of a girl. I didn't know it was possible to radiate a vacuum until I realized I was doing it everyday!

My mind asks me, Your Girl Casey, "Case, what's up?"

"I feel scared and alone."

"Because you actually are scared and alone?"

"Yeah, but it's actually my fault I can't connect."

"But most people are fucking dumb."

"Yeah, but I have to learn to love them anyway."

"Sure. Let's do that now."

"K! I feel better already!"

"You go, GIRL!"

My mind and I think that's really cool of us.

It must be my fear of loving that perpetuates this insistence on emptiness. I'm only as empty as I fear I am. It's like, my emptiness is only matched by my shallowness.

Some days my shallowness is profound.

Other days I'm grateful and I'll see things online that turn me off, hurt me, weird me out and it's amazing. I say Thank you. Her work is completely inverted, but thank you. Thank you for this moment of life.

I'll just get like a real life donut and I'm just like, Thank you. We're all alive right now and I'm just like, Thank you.

I know I've created these problems because I'm not dealing with real problems like starvation that isn't self-inflicted or any real pain ever except for cramps.

A lot of people might advise to, Get offline, bitch! And while that is an excellent suggestion, it's not practical. What you should say is, Stop hating yourself and be of service every day and everywhere you can, bitch! That is true.

I have to change how I h8 everything if I want to change how I h8 myself.

After all, if I wasn't online, you couldn't read this essay by me, Your Girl Casey.

I'm going to clean my bloody sheets now and try to continue to love every day.

Love you,

Casey

Casey Jane Ellison, artist and comic, is a bicoastal bisexual. People think her mole is fake, but it's not.

Media attention in Gaza yesterday focused on a sudden Israeli artillery strike that killed four children as they played on the beach, in front of numerous journalists. One of those reporters, NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin, documented the aftermath in stark detail. Today, NBC pulled him out of Gaza.

Mohyeldin's quick hook and replacement has raised questions about NBC's motivations, according to an inside report by Glenn Greenwald at The Intercept:

[Mohyeldin] has been told by NBC executives to leave Gaza immediately. According to an NBC source upset at his treatment, the executives claimed the decision was motivated by "security concerns" as Israel prepares a ground invasion, a claim repeated to me by an NBC executive. But late yesterday, NBC sent another correspondent, Richard Engel, along with an American producer who has never been to Gaza and speaks no Arabic, into Gaza to cover the ongoing Israeli assault (both Mohyeldin and Engel speak Arabic).

The Intercept's account is light on speculation about why Mohyeldin was replaced, though Greenwald does say that "neocon and 'pro-Israel' websites have repeatedly attacked [Mohyeldin] as a 'Hamas spokesman' and spouting 'pro-Hamas rants.'"

It's possible that the intensification of violence has raised Gaza's profile and NBC wanted Engel, its version of a Scud Stud (who, like Mohyeldin speaks fluent Arabic), to be the face of the network's coverage for whatever reason.

It's also possible that executives did have sincere concerns for Mohyeldin's safety, particularly after yesterday's events. On MSNBC with Chris Hayes yesterday, he recalled playing soccer and joking with the boys just moments before they were killed by the two targeted explosions on the beach:

We stopped, I just joked around with them a little bit. We kicked a ball around for maybe just a few minutes and then walked on...

Minutes later, the children were dead in a cloud of smoke.

Researchers say that "the closer a nation is to the genetic makeup of Denmark, the happier that country is." Unless the Olympics are happening.

Radar shows flights moving away from Ukrainian airspace after Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crashed in eastern Ukraine today, killing at least 295 people.