A plane trailing a banner advertising the website Proswastika.org flew over the beach at New York’s Fort Tilden yesterday, part of the sixth annual Swastika Rehabilitation Day. (Sorry we couldn’t make it to the barbecue.)

“We’ll be flying banners featuring swastikas in several cities around the United States, including New York, and for the first time this year, Chicago,” Thomas Kaenzig, president of the ProSwastika Alliance, said in a press release.

The “Rehabilitate the Swastika” movement is, apparently, an international one. Yesterday, promotional events were held all over the world, in South Korea, France, and Mexico, amongst other places. (And also Long Island.)

“The swastika is found in cultures around the world from the very earliest times,” Kaenzig said. “In the United States, you can see it in a New Orleans synagogue, and in lots of pre-Nazi-era monuments and historical sites. That’s because, until the 20th century, the swastika had nothing to do with Hitler, who used it for evil purposes.”

“And remember, lots of bad things were done in the name of the cross. Think of the Ku Klux Klan! But the cross is still a revered religious symbol for countless people worldwide. So is the swastika, and it’s time for that to be acknowledged in the West!”

In addition to being president of the ProSwastika Alliance, Kaenzig is also a member of the International Raelian Movement, which is quick to identify itself as a 501(c) 3 tax-exempt organization and describes itself as “Intelligent Design for Atheists”:

At the age of 27, on the morning of December 13, 1973, while he was still leading his successful racing-car magazine, RAEL had a dramatic encounter with a human being from another planet, at a volcano park in the center of France, known as “Puy de Lassolas”. This extra-terrestrial gave him a new detailed explanation of our origins and information on how to organize our future, as recorded in the book: Intelligent Design. After six consecutive meetings in the same location, Rael accepted the mission given to him, to inform humanity of this revolutionary message and to prepare the population to welcome their Creators, the Elohim, without any mysticism or fear, but as conscious and grateful human beings.

In 1997, Rael founded a Bahamas-based human-cloning company called Clonaid. Raelians believe that cloning is the path to immortality. The Raelians are also responsible for Go Topless Day.

The swastika is a revered symbol for members of this... community. Raelian symbology combines the swastika with the Star of David: “The star of David represents infinity in space whereas the swastika represents infinity in time i.e. there being no beginning, no end in time and everything being cyclical.”

Kaenzig and Proswastika.org did not immediately return requests for comment.

Contact the author of this post: brendan.oconnor@gawker.com.

“Nobody writes emails anymore!” is something nobody in this piece quite comes out and says, but it’s almost there. Email nostalgia is just around the corner. Give it, hmm, five years? And then we have emailing ironically to look forward to! Haha oh god when does it end.

Dianna Bedwell, 68, was stranded in her car in a South California desert for two weeks in May. Yesterday she made her first public comments about the ordeal which she barely survived and killed her 79-year-old husband Cecil “Paul” Knutson.

“I told him, ‘Honey, we all make mistakes. We all make wrong choices.’ That’s all that was,” the Associated Press reports. “We had 29 wonderful years together. If we make it out, fine. If we don’t make it out, fine.”

The couple were heading to their son’s home in Palm Springs, California for Mother’s Day when Knuston took a wrong turn, their Hyundai Sonata became stuck on a rock.

The remote location of the car made it difficult for rescuers to spot the car, though they continued to search. Knutson passed away a week after the couple went missing. “He just fell asleep,” Bedwell said. “I thank God for that. There was no pain, no anger.”

Bedwell survived on rainwater, eight pounds of oranges, and a butter cream pie. She was found on May 24 and airlifted to the hospital. The Associated Press reports that—physically—she is fully recovered.

Image via Getty.

Presented without commentary or context.

Brooklyn lost its whole sense of adventure for me.

I see Detroit becoming like Berlin just after the wall came down.

You can find your purpose in Detroit, which is nearly impossible to do these days in New York.

What has surprised me is how Detroit has allowed me to mature.

I came here thinking I might help save Detroit, and instead it has saved me.

What else is there to say?

Gentrification brings slow-drip coffee, pedigree pork and almond milk, but it also brings hyper-policing.

Oh, haha, right.

Photo credit: AP Images. Contact the author of this post: brendan.oconnor@gawker.com.

A classic summertime severe weather outbreak is likely to unfold over the next few days across the eastern half of the U.S., with each day seeing the potential for extensive straight-line wind damage, large hail, and some tornadoes. The storms could organize into a much-hyped feature known as a “derecho.”

The risk for dangerous thunderstorms will migrate southeastward each day through Tuesday, beginning in the Upper Midwest today, extending into the Lower Midwest and Ohio Valley by Monday. The severe storm risk shifts to the southeast states by Tuesday.

A large, well-defined upper-level ridge is in place over the Plains states, leading to a phenomenon known as the ring of fire. Locations under the ridge are very hot, while severe thunderstorms blow up in the extreme instability, wind shear, and moisture pooled-up along the outer edge of the ridge.

This is a classic setup for a dangerous phenomenon known as a derecho, which is a highly organized squall line that produces extensive wind damage over a 250-mile path. The complex is only classified a derecho if the length of its path of damage reaches that magic, arbitrary 250-mile marker; a storm that produces significant wind damage over a 230-mile path isn’t technically a derecho, but it’s dangerous just the same.

Just saying the term “derecho” in public is frowned upon in the weather world because of the amount of hype it can cause (and some technical reasons), but to be honest, saying “a derecho is possible” is a hell of a lot more effective in people taking the threat seriously than saying “Indiana could experience an intense mesoscale convective system on Monday night.” Responsible sources don’t throw around the term lightly, so take the threats seriously.

Beware Nighttime Storms

Severe thunderstorms are dangerous enough, but what’s most concerning is that the majority of the storms anticipated over the next couple of days will unfold overnight when people are tuned-out or asleep. Every year, people stumble to the nearest news camera and shout out “WE HAD NO WARNING” when their homes are demolished at 3:00 AM, and without fail, news organizations manage to spin “we had no warning” into a failure on the part of meteorologists instead of a failure on the part of residents in the path of the storms.

You need to be proactive about your own safety. Make sure you have a way to receive alerts both day and night, ensuring you can quickly act if dangerous storms threaten even if you’re dead asleep. Go to Walgreens or Walmart or Lowe’s or Home Depot and buy a weather radio that, when properly set-up, automatically activates a loud tone when a warning is issued for your county. The baseline models are $20-$30, but they’re well worth the cost. Email me if you can’t figure out how to set it up and I’ll gladly guide you through it.

Sunday, July 12

Risk Level: 4 out of 5, or a moderate risk.

Hazards: Powerful straight-line winds in excess of 70 MPH, hail the size of golf balls or larger, a couple of tornadoes.

Storm Mode: Supercells at first across Minnesota and Minneapolis—this is where the hail/tornado risk will come from—evolving into a powerful squall line that races east or southeast after nightfall.

Select Cities at Risk: Minneapolis, St. Paul, Rochester, Fargo, La Crosse, Madison, Davenport

Discussion: All of the ingredients are in place for a dangerous severe weather event this evening and overnight tonight in the Upper Midwest. Extreme instability, deep wind shear, a pool of very high dew points in the mid- to upper-70s, and a stationary front will all serve as the catalyst for what is likely going to be a pretty bad night for residents of parts of the Midwest.

The storms will likely start out as supercells in northern Minnesota and North Dakota, which will carry the greatest risk for hail larger than golf balls and a couple of tornadoes. As the evening wears on, however, the storms will coalesce into a mesoscale convective system (an organized squall line) and race east-southeastward along the stationary front at the surface. These lines of storms move quickly, so be prepared to take swift action tonight if you’re in or around the areas identified by the SPC at risk tonight.

Monday, July 13

Risk Level: 4 out of 5, or a moderate risk.

Hazards: Powerful straight-line winds, a few tornadoes, large hail.

Select Cities at Risk: Madison, Milwaukee, Chicago, Champaign, Terre Haute, Lafayette, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Louisville.

Discussion: Monday has the potential to be the most dangerous of the three days. The risk on Monday will mirror today’s potential in the Upper Midwest, but the outcome is highly dependent on what happens on Monday morning. Any lingering convection or cloud cover will hinder the atmosphere’s ability to quickly recover and destabilize itself enough to support a robust second round of severe thunderstorms.

The Storm Prediction Center’s current thinking indicates that the worst storms will fire up in southern Wisconsin on Monday evening, organizing into a severe squall line as it shoots southeast through Chicago and makes its way through the areas under the moderate and enhanced risks.

Tuesday, July 14

Risk Level: 3 out of 5, or an enhanced risk.

Hazards: Straight-line wind damage, a couple of tornadoes, some large hail.

Select Cities at Risk: Chattanooga, Huntsville, Nashville, Knoxville, Asheville, northern suburbs of Atlanta

Discussion: I could really copy/paste the previous two discussions in here and, for the most part, it would fit.

The risk on Tuesday a little less certain since it’s three days out, but another organized batch of severe thunderstorms is possible in the southeast on Tuesday afternoon and night. As we likely will have seen on Sunday and Monday, the initial storm mode will start as supercells—possibly producing tornadoes and large hail—before organizing into a squall line that produces wind damage across the enhanced risk zone.

Things You Need to Do to Prepare

• Buy a weather radio, set it up properly, and keep it where you can hear it.
  
• Keep cell phones fully charged until the threat for severe weather diminishes. You don’t want to get caught in a power outage with a cell phone that only has a few minutes of battery juice left in it.
  
• Secure loose outdoor objects—umbrellas, tables, chairs, grills—and bring smaller objects indoors. Lawn gnomes are creepy enough on the ground, let alone soaring through the neighbor’s sliding glass door.
  
• Trim tree branches and limbs that could fall during a storm.
  
• Make sure you have supplies to deal with any potential outages of power or water. Some things you should have include first aid supplies, batteries, drinking water, food you don’t have to cook, and water to flush the toilet. It’s not a bad idea to keep some cash on hand—if your whole town loses power, nobody will be able to process your debit or credit cards.
  
• Gather emergency supplies into a central, safe location in your house for quick access if you sustain damage or lose power for an extended period of time.
  
• Mentally prepare yourself for your local broadcast meteorologist to interrupt your favorite primetime show. You’ll get to watch it another day. The town getting wiped away three counties over may not have the same luxury, so let them get to shelter with his or her on-air assistance.

Also, remember that a severe thunderstorm/tornado watch means that conditions are favorable for the development of severe thunderstorms over the next couple of hours. A severe thunderstorm or tornado warning means that severe weather is imminent and you need to take immediate action to ensure your safety. Watches are issued for many counties or even entire states, often staying in effect for six hours or longer. Warnings cover a handful of communities and are issued based on the path of individual thunderstorms, lasting for 15 to 60 minutes at a time.

The Storm Prediction Center handles severe weather forecasts and issuing watches, while local National Weather Service offices issue warnings for individual thunderstorms.

[Top Image: Jerry Huddleston via Flickr | Model Image: Tropical Tidbits | Maps: author]

You can follow the author on Twitter or send him an email.

After his 22-year tenure as the host the Late Show, there was almost nothing that could bring David Letterman out of his well-deserved retirement. Except for, apparently, former The Apprentice host and current dried apricot Donald Trump.

“I have no regrets. None. I was happy,” Letterman told the crowd at San Antonio’s Majestic Theatre on Friday. “And then a couple days ago Donald Trump said he was running for president. I have made the biggest mistake of my life, ladies and gentlemen.”

As the special guest of performers Martin Short and Steve Martin, Letterman came on stage to deliver one last Top Ten List dedicated to the frog-mouthed cheddar golem.

“A lot of people think we would know everything by now about a man, Donald Trump, a high profile fellow,” said Letterman. “But take a look at the list I have here tonight: Interesting Facts About Donald Trump.”

Nintendo has just issued a short statement announcing that president Satoru Iwata has passed away at the age of 55.

The statement reads:

Nintendo Co., Ltd. deeply regrets to announce that President Satoru Iwata passed away on July 11, 2015 due to a bile duct growth.

Iwata was forced to skip last year’s E3 due to his poor health, and shortly afterwards underwent surgery to remove the bile duct growth. A few months later, in the wake of concerns over his health, he said via Twitter “I’m progressing well”.

A talented programmer, Iwata first joined Nintendo’s HAL Laboratory in the 1980s, where he worked on games like Balloon Fight and EarthBound. He became a Director of the company in 2000, and in 2002 was appointed as only the fourth President of Nintendo when he succeeded Hiroshi Yamauchi.

In his time as President, Iwata oversaw some of the strongest (Wii, DS) and weakest (GameCube, Wii U) periods in Nintendo’s history as a video game company. In recent times, he developed almost cult status as the host of the Nintendo Direct programs.

An immensely popular figure both within the industry and with Nintendo fans, he will be sorely missed. Rest in Peace, Mr. Iwata.

All 54 stingrays at an Illinois zoo have died after an equipment malfunction caused a sudden drop in their tank’s oxygen levels on Friday, the Chicago Tribune reports.

“It’s just an incredibly unfortunate accident,” Bill Zeigler, the Brookfield Zoo’s senior vice president of animal programs, told the Chicago Sun-Times. “The staff worked extremely hard, even some of our mammal keepers were in the water. Everyone is very bummed out about the whole thing.”

Zoo officials say they managed to return oxygen levels to normal within 20 minutes of an alarm sounding, but keepers were unable to save any rays. From the Brookfield Zoo Facebook page:

Veterinary staff was promptly on the scene to provide medical treatment to the affected stingrays. Additionally, immediate action was taken by animal care staff to rectify the situation and get the levels back to normal. Despite tireless efforts by staff, all the animals, which included four southern stingrays and 50 cownose rays, succumbed.

According to CNN, a different malfunction at the Brookfield Zoo killed more than a dozen stingrays in 2008.

“It was a water temperature increase,” zoo spokesperson Sondra Katzen told the network on Sunday, “and the exhibit temperature increased by about 10 degrees, and we lost about 16 stingrays in that.”

Zoo staff said they are still trying to determine the cause of Friday’s accident.

According to CBS News, an anonymous (almost certainly green and broom-straddling) donor has offered a $1 million reward for a pair of Dorothy’s ruby slippers stolen from a Minnesota museum in 2005.

“We didn’t think the offer was legitimate at first,” a Judy Garland Museum spokesperson told The Washington Post. “[The presumed crone] wanted to remain anonymous. They only wanted to share that they are a huge Wizard of Oz fan, based in Arizona.”

The Associated Press reports that there are only three other surviving pairs of the slippers that will grant a sorceress the greatest power in all of Oz. From Vanity Fair:

At the time of the theft, the ruby slippers, which owe their glitter to burgundy sequins, were insured for $1 million. [Museum executive director John] Kelsch says they could be worth $2 million to $3 million now. The last pair to hit the auction block took in $666,000 in 2000.

To collect the reward, both the exact location of the shoes and the name of the shoe thief are required.

[Image via AP Images]

A woman angered by a poor internet connection was arrested on Thursday after police say she threatened a group of teens with a knife outside an Oklahoma Taco Bell, KOKI-TV reports.

According to Tahlequah Police Chief Nate King, 48-year-old Amber Henson initially became upset because the restaurant’s Wi-Fi wasn’t working, but soon directed her fury at a group of teen boys.

“The boys were kind of in the way of the drink fountain and she had to squeeze through them to get her drink,” King told the Tahlequah Daily Press, “and she got agitated and spilled her drink on one of them.”

Henson was then reportedly kicked out of the restaurant and waited outside “glaring” through the window.

“When they left she confronted them and pulled a knife and said, ‘If you want some of me, come on,’” said King.

The teens then called police who identified the suspect through social media.

Authorities say Henson didn’t deny pulling the knife but claimed she had done so in self-defense. She now faces one charge of assault with a dangerous weapon on a minor.

[Image via KOKI-TV]

Donald Trump, whose overarching personal and political strategy is to make everything about him, is making the prison escape of Mexican cartel boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman about him. Trump has alerted the FBI about death threats that El Chapo’s son allegedly made against him on Twitter, TMZ learned from a source very close to Donald Trump (Donald Trump).

The drug kingpin’s Twitter account, reportedly run by his son Ivan, went after Trump in response to his recent comments about Mexican immigrants and Trump’s boast that if he were president, he would kick El Chapo’s ass. http://gawker.com/leaked-photos-...

Probably-Ivan told Trump in Spanish that he’d “fucking make you eat all your bitch words, whitey milkshitter.” (According to TMZ, that’s an anti-gay slur.)

Sigue chingando y voy hacer que te tragues todas tus putas palabras pinche guero cagaleche @realDonaldTrump

July 12, 2015

Trump took the threat—or at least the publicity he could generate from the threat—very seriously, and he says he called the FBI to request an investigation. Of the recently-escaped high-profile head of a Mexican cartel and his son.

“I’m fighting for much more than myself. I’m fighting for the future of our country which is being overrun by criminals.” Trump adds, “You can’t be intimidated. It’s too important.”

Thank you for heroically bringing this situation to law enforcement’s attention, Donald Trump. God only knows where they’d get their information on druglords’ Twitter accounts without you.

[Photo: AP Images]

The Army announced last week that budget cuts would necessitate the reduction of the regular army from 490,000 to 450,000 soldiers by the end of fiscal year 2018. An additional 17,000 civilian positions will be cut during the same time period. Citing “strategic factors, to include readiness impacts, mission command and cost,” the Army already has a vocal legion of lawmakers lined up ready to call foul. But this position shouldn’t fool anyone. Through their continued investments in unmanned aerial vehicles, automated weapons, and a host of other technological advancements, the Army is doing exactly what it has strategically planned to do all along—take the human component out of warfare.

And while that’s not the worst thing that could happen, blaming the budget is good PR for a military industrial complex already shelling out billions on the recruits that don’t even make the cut. Luckily for everyone making decisions in Washington, Maryland and Virginia Army bases have been spared. No soldier left behind, indeed.

Contact the author at sultana.khan@gawker.com.

Today, Hillary Clinton gave her first major speech on her economic policy. “Blah blah working families,” she said. What did she really say?

Talk is cheap. This speech was amply hyped as Hillary’s big, progressive statement—one that would establish once and for all that she is liberal enough (and fiery enough) to be an acceptable choice for the Democratic party’s left wing, which has spent the past several years appropriately raging over America’s growing economic inequality. This speech, in other words, was Hillary’s chance to convince the Bernie Sanders demographic that she, too, can be their champion.

Anyone who wants to call themself a progressive in this country today must grasp how entrenched, pervasive, and harmful our inequality is. The worst since the Great Depression. A simple plan for addressing this issue should include things like, A) Higher taxes on the very wealthy, including estate taxes and capital gains taxes; B) Addressing systemic concentration of power in “too big to fail” institutions; C) Raising wages for low-income workers by a significant amount; and D) Expanding and strengthening the government programs that constitute the social safety net. Just to begin with! Patter about “growing the economy” and “creating jobs” “strengthening small businesses” is meaningless campaign rhetoric mouthed by Democrats and Republicans alike. What we really need to know is, does Hillary Clinton actually have any proposals that might resemble something so gauche as an ideal?

Once you scroll past the large amount of “I care about you, the average worker” filler, the answer is: meh. Here are the things that could be construed as real progressive economic proposals by Hillary Clinton** (**Subject to change by 2016):

I’ll also push for broader business tax reform to spur investment in America, closing those loopholes that reward companies for sending jobs and profits overseas.

Promising, but desperately vague.

You know, when we get Americans moving, we get our country moving. So let’s establish an infrastructure bank that can channel more public and private funds…channel those funds to finance world-class airports, railways, roads, bridges and ports.

A new WPA? Perhaps? Who can tell?

Fair pay and fair scheduling, paid family leave and earned sick days, childcare are essential to our competitiveness and our growth. And we can do this in a way that doesn’t impose unfair burdens on businesses, especially small businesses.

Promising, but desperately vague.

So, we do have to raise the minimum wage, and implement President Obama’s new rules on overtime, and then we have to go further. I will crack down on bosses who exploit employees by mis- classifying them as contractors or even steal their wages.

Raise the minimum wage by how much? Hillary Clinton does not say. And she certainly does not say “I support the ongoing effort to raise the national minimum wage to $15 an hour.” And the “crack down” she offers here amounts to saying, “I will enforce current law.”

First, hard-working families need and deserve tax relief and simplification. Second, those at the top have to pay their fair share. That’s why I support the Buffet Rule, which makes sure millionaires do not pay lower rates than their secretaries. I have called for closing the carried interest loophole, that lets wealthy financiers pay an artificially low rate.

Piss poor and lacking in specifics. The Buffet Rule is rather weak sauce for a “progressive.” Closing the carried interest loophole, which would make a relative handful of fantastically wealthy money managers pay more, is good; raising the capital gains tax rate, which would compel millions of investors to pay a fair tax rate, would be much better.

[Evidence] shows that the decline of unions may be responsible for a third of the increase of inequality among men, so if we want to get serious about raising incomes, we have to get serious about supporting union workers.

Promising, but desperately vague.

Over the course of this campaign, I will offer plans to rein in excessive risks on Wall Street and ensure that stock markets work for everyday investors, not just high-frequency traders and those with the best or fastest connections. I will appoint and empower regulators who understand that too big to fail is still too big a problem. We will ensure that no firm is too complex to manage or oversee. And we will also process individuals as well as firms when they commit fraud or other criminal wrongdoing.

Promising, but desperately vague.

The rest of the speech was feel-good pap.

In essence, Hillary Clinton is asking America’s progressives to trust her. She is offering sentiment without specifics. For the voting bloc that does not have enough money to make campaign donations large enough to whisper in Hillary Clinton’s ear, that is not going to be enough.

[Photo: AP]

Kristin Cavallari recently got fake bangs for an infomercial—a fact she would like the public to promptly forget. They look like this:

As you can see, not even an Eternal Sunshine-style blackout could erase this image from your brain. Our feeble minds may lose all happy memories, but we will never lose Kristin’s bangs. Pardon me—Kristin’s Secret Bangs™.

What are Secret Bangs™? In a video on SecretBangs.com that Kristin was contractually obligated to implore us to watch last week—likely hoping against hope we’d ignore her request—she explains how these suckers work. (Not well.)

“Hi, I’m Kristin Cavallari, and I have something to show you,” Kristin says to the camera from what appears to be the closet of a much older woman who resides in Boca Raton, Florida.

Without explaining what she is rudely and perhaps illegally doing in someone else’s walk-in, she continues her pitch: “What’s my secret? Secret Bangs™...Bangs without commitment.”

Kristin then removes her bangs.

“Didn’t see that coming, did you?” she asks her viewers, who saw that coming 500 miles away.

Voiceover Kristin then reveals that the “secret” is “in the headband.” Secret’s out:

Secret Bangs™ are made not from hair but from a “keratin-conditioned fiber” that approximates hair, Kristin explains. In some cases, your lover can touch it without becoming ill:

But that’s not all. In a sudden new outfit, Kristin demonstrates that you can wear Secret Bangs™ backwards should the spirit move you.

Neat.

Later, while sporting the blazer of a businesswoman and the Secret Bangs™ of a sheepdog, Kristin discloses her own Secret Bangs™ shade: Medium Golden Blonde.

Kristin’s demonic twin’s shade is Light Golden Blonde. It “enhances her highlights.”

Did Kristin’s informercial convince you to become a secret banger?

Secret Bangs™, you should know, cost $29.99. Shhh.

This has been 500 Days of Kristin.

[Photos via Secret Bangs™ and Getty]

Ariana Grande, toony tiny pop singer who could basically wear a cupcake wrapper as a long skirt, was recently caught on video licking donuts that she had not purchased. Sadly, despite her flouting of American donut law and basic hygiene, she will not face criminal mischief charges, TMZ reports. That means Ariana Grande’s sandpapery forked demon-tongue could be all over your donuts right now. http://defamer.gawker.com/demon-popstar-...

The victimized donut shop, Wolfee Donuts, is partially to blame for letting Grande walk free. TMZ reports the owner declined to press charges against the singer (and, presumably, her donut-licking backup dancer boyfriend-accomplice).

Ariana has apologized multiple times for saying she hates America, but has been far less repentant about her mistreatment of American donuts. This, coupled with the fact she may be Satan, suggests she will strike again. She could lick anything, anywhere, at any time. Donuts in particular. None of us is truly safe.

[Photo: Ariana Grande/Instagram]

Kristen Stewart recently made a big change in her life. Anyone know what that was?

Did she redecorate her spare bedroom?

No.

Did she buy a Lamborghini?

Nah.

Did she get a hypoallergenic dog?

That’s possible, but I don’t think so.

She lit her universe on fire and watched it burn.

Anyway, now things are way different than they were before she did that, as you can see from this quote from Stewart’s cover story in the August issue of Marie Claire:

“My hair was such a crutch. I looked quote unquote ‘sexy’ no matter what. I could hide behind it. As soon as I didn’t have all that hair, I had to let my face hang out. I felt more confident than I had in a really long time. And it felt really good. Maybe to most people long hair is prettier. But then what? Is your main goal in life to be desired? That is boring as fuck.”

God she’s great. But did she cut her hair or did she burn it all off?

“I lit my universe on fire,” she admits with a sly smile, “and I watched it burn.” Stewart drops her head, tugs at the hem of her simple black sweatshirt. Fans away a mosquito. Yanks a fallen tube sock from its cotton pool in her Converse sneaker. “Speaking very candidly,” she says at last, lifting her chin and swallowing a gulp of her vodka tonic, “it was a really traumatic period in my early 20s that kick-started something in me that was a bit more,” she pauses, then settles on the word, “feral.”

Sounds like she burned it all off and now she’s a cat. Meow!

One thing, though, is that she has not been taking Patti Smith’s advice, which is rude. Why not take advice if Patti Smith is the one giving it to you?

On the best advice she’s received: “Patti Smith told me to always take care of my teeth and lungs.”

Kristen Stewart Smoking At Coachella ... #CoachellaMusicFestival #KristenStewart - http://t.co/PtrtPVGBCz pic.twitter.com/jrQ92BuYUo

April 20, 2015

Maybe it’s time to light that bad attitude on fire and watch it burn, Kristen.

Image via Marie Claire. Contact the author at dayna.evans@gawker.com.

The Pentagon is in the final stages of ending a ban on transgender people serving in the U.S. military, according to senior officials who spoke with the Associated Press. An announcement is expected sometime this week.

Before the ban is officially lifted, there will reportedly be a six-month buffer period during which branches of the military will investigate the decision’s potential impact on day-to-day operations. From the AP:

Military chiefs wanted time to methodically work through the legal, medical and administrative issues and develop training to ease any transition, and senior leaders believed six months would be sufficient.

During that time, transgender individuals would still not be able to join the military, but any decisions to force out those already serving would be referred to the Pentagon’s acting undersecretary for personnel, the officials said. One senior official said the goal was to avoid forcing any transgender service members to leave during that time.

Despite the ban, the AP notes that, according to studies, as many as 15,000 transgender people currently serve in the U.S. military, including convicted Wikileaks source Chelsea Manning. Last year, the U.S. Army agreed to pay for Manning’s hormone therapy after she filed a lawsuit from prison, where she’s serving a 35-year sentence.

Contact the author at taylor@gawker.com.

The Washington Post today published a nice blow job of a piece on so-called millennial news sites like .Mic, Fusion, and the hilariously named “Ozy.com,” and how these angel-invested content theme parks are capturing the minds of socially interested young ones (are they? they’re not).

According to Fusion’s editor, Alexis Madrigal, his site is not only where America’s LGBTQROYGBIV youth gets its news but also probably a breeding ground for the next Martin Luther King, Jr.:

Fusion’s new editor in chief, Alexis Madrigal, 33, offers a more expansive variation on that theme: “What ties our audience together isn’t a particular demographic affiliation, but an interest in equality, social justice, and the idea of an America that isn’t dominated by old white men. . . . Our audience doesn’t care if a bunch of old people want the world to go back to the 1950s. We’ll be happy living in a more free, more equal future.”

Fusion’s readers, Madrigal says, are “suspicious of the institutions that our parents and grandparents built, which are mostly failing us anyway.”

Sure. I hate my grandpa, too. Just kidding, he’s dead, and he was fine when he was alive, although he always liked to whisper in my ear: “Leah, the 1950s... they were amazing... when I am dead please bring them back... also raw hamburger meat is good for you.”

The Post’s Paul Farhi, a fine man, could not seem to find any women to interview for this article on the future of news, which is weird because there a lot of female journalists working in news today, last time I went to the gynecologist. Maybe they are not working at these cool “millennial” sites, though, which appear to be just for men like:

• Jake Horowitz, 27, Mic’s co-founder and editor in chief, who told Farhi that “young people look at the world ‘very, very differently’ than older generations and are hungry for a newer style of news.”
  
• Carlos Watson, founder and chief executive of Ozy.com, no age given, “We’re doing original, global reporting on both serious and fun stories.”
  
• And, of course, Mr. Madrigal: “We’re the same as all other people, aside from having to launch our lives and careers at a time when our country’s 20th-century physical, financial, and educational infrastructure is buckling from lack of care and maintenance. But you don’t hear the old-timers complaining about us mention that very often.”
  

These are the words of some thirsty-ass motherfuckers who don’t really give a shit about “journalism” or “social justice” but clearly love being quoted in the Washington Post, a paper of their corrupt pop-pops. Don’t worry, the world is crumbling and the Fusion troops will save us. Imagine the movie San Andreas but instead of the Rock, Alexis Madrigal. Sheee-it.

The real question is: Why do millennials need their own news sites? They can’t read the big-kid papers? Are the fonts too small? Not enough Rihanna content? They don’t understand a news article if it doesn’t have the word “fleek” in it? Give me a break. The New York Times is written at an eighth-grade reading level. It’s dumb enough for everyone.

Contact the author of this post at leah@gawker.com. I do not give advice

“The recent handcuffing of an inmate without food for 32 hours is part of a troubling pattern of similar mistreatment in the Los Angeles County jails since [last year]... Inspector General Max Huntsman cited three additional incidents in which inmates were allegedly tethered to objects for prolonged periods.”

The ridiculous ban preventing gay adults from leading Boy Scout groups could come to an end later this month following a unanimous vote last week by the group’s 17-member executive committee. The change will be effective immediately if its approved a meeting of the full 80-member executive board on July 27.

From Yahoo News:

Under the new resolution, local scout units would be able to select adult leaders without regard to sexual orientation — a stance that several scout councils had already adopted in defiance of the official national policy.

“This change allows Scouting’s members and parents to select local units, chartered to organizations with similar beliefs, that best meet the needs of their families,” the BSA statement said. “This change would also respect the right of religious chartered organizations to continue to choose adult leaders whose beliefs are consistent with their own.”

The vote came two months after president of the Boy Scouts of America and former defense secretary Robert Gates called for an end to the ban.

“I must speak as plainly and bluntly to you as I spoke to presidents when I was director of the CIA and secretary of defense,” Gates said in May. “We must deal with the world as it is, not as we might wish it to be. The status quo in our movement’s membership standards cannot be sustained.”
http://gawker.com/boy-scouts-pre...

Contact the author at taylor@gawker.com.