Competing under a neutral flag, curlers Anastasia Bryzgalova and Alexander Krushelnitsky win first medal for curling in #Russia history at #Pyeonchang2018 https://t.co/XuhRChMQfZ pic.twitter.com/na4yl1TVfv

— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) February 13, 2018

The Russian Olympic Team was barred from the 2018 Olympic Games because of doping. That doesn't mean there aren't Russian athletes in the games, but each had to register as an independent athlete, and they were not allowed to march under the Russian flag at the opening ceremonies. The IOC had considered letting the athletes unite under the Russian flag at the closing ceremonies, but that idea has been dropped for now. What could have changed their minds? A new doping scandal. After winning a bronze medal, Alexander Krushelnitsky failed a drug test. His sport? Curling. If you are surprised that curling has a doping problem, you aren't the only one.

Alexander Krushelnitsky, who competes in curling, one of the Games’ least physically taxing sports, is suspected of testing positive for meldonium, a banned substance that increases blood flow and improves exercise capacity.

“It’s stupid, but Alexander is not stupid, so I don’t believe it,” Russian women’s curling coach Sergei Belanov said.

He echoed a general bewilderment among curling athletes who could not fathom why anyone would use drugs that aid endurance in a sport that is a kind of chess on ice, needing steady hands and concentration rather than physical fitness.

Krushelnitsky, who won bronze with his wife Anastasia Bryzgalova in mixed-doubles curling in Pyeongchang, has not responded to a request for comment.

Read more on the Olympic curling doping scandal at Reuters. -via Leslie Jones

The Chinese New Year fell on February 16th this year, which means it's officially the Year Of The Dog and a good year for wearing purple and smelling the roses but a bad year for those born on a Dog year.

Over a quarter of the world's population celebrate the Lunar New Year and follow the Chinese Zodiac, but the rest don't understand why all those animal signs are such a big deal, which technologist ShaoLan Hseuh thinks is a shame.

So she gave an educational and fun TED talk explaining how the Chinese Zodiac works, including "how it's believed to influence your personality, career, marriage prospects and how you'll do in a given year."

(YouTube Link)

Dye makers have been in search of materials that would produce rich, vibrant colors throughout history. There was a lot of money to be made! And when a better dye came along, or one that was easier to make, it instantly became all the rage among those who could afford it. Such was the case when Conquistadors brought back cochineal insects, which produce carmine red dye, back from the Aztec empire. Amy Butler Greenfield wrote the book A Perfect Red, and talks about how the Mexican dye took off in Europe.

Dye from the cochineal bug was ten times as potent as St John’s Blood and produced 30 times more dye per ounce than Armenian red, according to Butler. So when European dyers began to experiment with the pigment, they were delighted by its potential. Most importantly, it was the brightest and most saturated red they had ever seen. By the middle of the 16th Century it was being used across Europe, and by the 1570s it had become one of the most profitable trades in Europe – growing from a meagre “50,000 pounds of cochineal in 1557 to over 150,000 pounds in 1574,” writes Butler.

Read about the history of cochineal red dye and a new art exhibit in Mexico City dedicated to the color and its origins at BBC Culture. -via TYWKIWDBI

Discussing "the bathroom situation" is usually enough to resolve it before it gets out of hand, and if the one causing the situation needs a little push then their partner should work with them to get them on track.

But you should never ever leave a letter like Rosie's husband did because it makes you look spineless and you may not like the nasty letter you receive in return.

Rosie's husband left the wonderful letter "RE: The Bathroom" on the bathroom mirror for his wife to find, and it started off nice enough:

‘Babe can you remember 20 days ago, you said, ‘babe, I know my bathroom habits really piss you off, but I am gong to change this year I promise!’ Unfortunately, not much has changed.

‘In fact, it’s worse, to the point that I now suffer from Bathroom Surprise Anxiety.

But then Rosie's dear old hubbie went off, which is an understatement considering he got anal about covering all the bases, from the drawers to the toothpaste to the towels to the trash bin:

‘You have 4 drawers and I have 1. Do you have some sort of drawer FOMO that incites you to invade my only drawer area? Granted I do have the top drawer vanity – and this is so I don’t have to bend down as far to get MY things: remember I am 6ft effing 6, compared to your 5ft 7, and I have 2 titanium hips, so bending isn’t my strong point.’

‘The toothpaste: how effing hard is it to put the lid back on the tube so that the next person (i.e. me) comes along to use it and it’s not dry and congealed like roadkill. Do we need his and hers toothpaste?? If I didn’t love you quite as much I may be tempted to sabotage the toothpaste with some foreign matter (use your imagination) to teach you a lesson.

He wrote: ‘Bath towels: they belong on hooks not on the floor! For your well-educated benefit, the Oxford Concise dictionary defines HOOK as the device that protrudes from the wall for you to hang things on.’

‘Bathroom bin: tell me honestly, do you believe in some sort of bathroom bin fairy? We have been together 8 years = 416 weeks, with the bin emptied once a week by me = 416 by me and donuts, zero, Roy Orbinson by you – any chance babe?”

Read more at Metro

No one is serving lab-grown meat yet, but scientists are working on it. Would you eat it? It seems "unnatural" to eat an animal that could still be alive, but how is that worse than eating an animal that is dead? We have some time before we really must decide on a personal level, but maybe we should learn about the research going into it.

(YouTube link)

Lab grown meat may allow us to enjoy being carnivorous without using up the planet's resources, but overcoming the "ick" factor may be the biggest obstacle. It's enough to make you consider going vegetarian ...until you have a strong craving for a hamburger. -via Digg

The following is an article from the book Uncle John's Canoramic Bathroom Reader.

You probably know that the “D.C.” in Washington, D.C., stands for “District of Columbia” and that the district is not part of any state. But do you know why America’s Founding Fathers placed such importance on creating a capital outside of any state? We owe it all to piles of unpaid bills.

EVOLUTION OF THE REVOLUTION

In April 1783, the U.S. Congress (then known as the Continental Congress) gave preliminary approval to the Treaty of Paris, which, if ratified by both England and the United States, would end the Revolutionary War after eight long years of fighting. Final ratification was still a year off, but it was clear that the war was all but over and that the American colonies had won. That was good news for the colonies… but not necessarily for the soldiers who’d done the fighting, because it wasn’t clear that they would ever be paid for their years of service and sacrifice.

The Congress had run up huge debts to finance the war effort, and it had no real means of paying back the money. The Articles of Confederation, which served as the American constitution from 1781 until it was replaced by the U.S. Constitution in 1788, gave Congress the power to declare war and the power to raise an army to fight it. But it didn’t give Congress the power to levy taxes. Without this power, it had no way to raise the money it needed to pay its war debts. The Congress could ask the states to contribute, but it couldn’t compel them to do it. The states had run up huge war debts of their own that had to be repaid.

BEG, BORROW, STEAL

Many soldiers had been paid with IOUs or not at all. Their material needs had often gone unmet as well. During the winter of 1777, for example, nearly a quarter of the 10,000 soldiers camped at Valley Forge died there -not from combat, but from malnutrition, exposure, and disease. “We have this day no less than 2,873 men in camp unfit for duty because they are barefooted and otherwise naked,” General George Washington complained in a letter two days before Christmas in 1777.

FREE… FOR NOW

Soldiers with the means to do so had supported themselves during the war, and when their money ran out, they had amassed debts of their own. Now, having shed their blood to secure America’s liberty, they faced the prospect of losing their own liberty in debtors’ prison as soon as they were discharged from the army. “We have borne all that men can bear,” one group of soldiers wrote in a petition to Congress in early 1783, “our property is expended, our private resources are at an end.”

In response to this and other demands for payment from the soldiers, Congress could offer only vague promises to make good on its obligations to pay them …someday.

Darth Banksy by Dr Simon Butler

After faking his own death and going into hiding the dark Sith lord they call Darth started to feel like his life lacked purpose, and since he had a chip on his shoulder as big as a Star Destroyer he decided to rebel against the Empire in his own way- by becoming a street artist. His force powers made it easy to tag and slap up posters wherever he wanted without getting caught, so he started hitting the sides of Imperial vehicles and on the backs of oblivious stormtroopers, Darth's equivalent of a "kick me" sign. This naturally pissed off the Sith powers that be, and soon Darth had a bounty on his head that made Fett foam at the mouth, but one of the perks of being a badass fighter with force powers is nobody wants to mess with you even when they catch you red handed!

Paint the town red while wearing this Darth Banksy t-shirt by Dr. Simon Butler and you'll be declaring your independence from the dark forces of boring fashion.

Visit Dr Simon Butler's Facebook fan page and Twitter, then head on over to his NeatoShop for more rebelliously geeky designs:

View more designs by Dr Simon Butler | More Sci-Fi T-shirts | New T-Shirts

Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!

A blind date might be surprisingly good, especially if you've been set up by people who know you well. Or it can be a nightmare. Check out a bunch of reader-submitted stories about blind dates gone horribly wrong. The "happy ending" is when you never have to see that person again.

3. The date with a KISS-enthusiast:

"I was set up by a friend with a guy who seemed really nice at first. I soon realized that he was absolutely obsessed with the band KISS. He spoke at length about wanting to be buried in a KISS coffin. I was thrilled when the date was over, right up until the moment he asked if I wanted to go back to his place and test out his KISS condoms. No. No. No. I still shudder every time I hear a KISS song."

—angels4d4906ef4

4. The date with a drug-dealing hustler:

"I was out to dinner with this guy when he suddenly went outside for a smoke break. Whatever, do you — but I looked out the window to see him talking to someone else. It looked a bit odd and ~sketchy~, so when he came back in I asked him who that was. He told me he sells meth as a side job. "

—nelliem4f49128cd

5. The date with a big spender:

"I was set up on a blind date and told to dress nice for dinner. We ended up at Famous Dave’s. He told me I had to choose between the kids menu chicken tenders or the half-rack of ribs because he had a coupon. "

—kateb47a2cf44a

Some stories touch on adult subjects, but none end up with someone in jail or the hospital. Read 16 blind date horror stories at Buzzfeed.

(Image credit: Fileri)

If you ever cruise down to the Barra de Navidad marina and lagoon in Jalisco, Mexico, be on the lookout for a French baker peddling fresh bread and other baked treats boat to boat. Who could resist?

Chef Emeric Fiegen opened up shop, with his wife Christine, in this small laidback beach town over 15 years ago after a stint in Montreal. Early each morning, Chef Emeric still personally delivers his many breads, baguettes, croissants, pies, and quiches by boat. Not surprisingly, his pastries sell out by the time he's done making his rounds.

Fiegen also has a shop on land. Check out the menu and see more pictures at Boing Boing.

(Image credit: Andrea Cook)

I've been going to the theater more often now that I can use a $5 senior ticket, but Pillsbury was confronted with the prospect of buying $12 tickets for Black Panther Friday night. What to do? He and a friend decided to try the old 2-for-1 deal by impersonating a tall man in a trench coat.   

We tried getting the two for one special at black panther. The manager was not having it. pic.twitter.com/Ktqsuh7s3m

— Pillsbury (@stevelikescups) February 16, 2018

The ticket seller didn't buy it, but the line of movie patrons got a real show, and the hundreds of thousands of likes and retweets was worth the effort. You can see a longer video here, but you'll have to put it in full-screen mode to see it. -via The Daily Dot

(All photos via Libby Oliver/CHEW ON THIS ART)

It's natural to assume fashion models own a lot of clothes, especially when you consider many of the designers and brands they pose for give them a ton of free clothes after the shoot.

But how many articles of clothing is considered too many? I guess that's a subjective question that can only be answered by seeing all the clothes a person owns heaped up in one big pile.

Or better yet do like Canadian artist and photographer Libby Oliver did for her series "Soft Shells" and make the models wear all the clothes they own at once, so you can really get a sense of how much is too much.

Libby's photos were recently exhibited at the arc.hive gallery in Vancouver, and now she's selling the Soft Shells Fashion Magazine through her Instagram page, for people who dig these spooky living style totems as much as I do.

A post shared by Libby Oliver (@chewonthisart) on Jan 21, 2018 at 11:08am PST

-Via Laughing Squid

He built exactly what he was asked to build, as far as he knows. You can't help but think of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge when you read this comic, can you? This pun story is from Mark Pain at Pain Train Comics. -via Geeks Are Sexy

I used to trip out on how cool the Unknown Comic looked when he came out on The Gong Show and did his stand up while wearing a paper bag over his head.

It was avant-garde performance art, it was edgy in a "he might be in the witness protection program" kinda way and it made me want to become a Baghead.

But after watching this animated short created by D.R. Beitzel for Cartoon Hangover called "The Bagheads: Get Trashed" I'm starting to think the Unknown Comic's bag was actually a mask of shame.

(YouTube Link)

When we try to rank movie franchises, we must remember that such a thing did not really exist until recently. Serials from the early 20th century weren't expected to be blockbusters, and after those died out, few movies had sequels before the age of home video. If you go by box office take, you have to keep in mind that the older a movie is, the less expensive the tickets were. Also, there's the problem of defining a franchise. The Spider-Man series is not considered part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe because those movies are from a different studio. The Marvel Cinematic Universe includes both the Avengers movies and Guardians of the Galaxy, even though one takes place on earth and the other in space. Yet X-Men is a different franchise, even though they are also about comic book characters produced by Marvel. Confused yet? Maybe it will be clearer when you see how the top ten movie franchises ranked, in a list at Mental Floss. Or maybe not. The list tells us that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is officially a part of the Batman franchise, but not tell us whether Suicide Squad or Justice League are included.

People have always and will always stereotype other people, hell we even stereotype animals, inanimate objects and entire religions so why wouldn't they stereotype other humans, right?

Attempting to characterize millions of people seems a bit strange, but sterotyping an entire country is bonkers- because a country's population is almost always made up of people from different regions who come together under one flag.

Is Romania really full of vampires? Are all Swedes tall, drunk Vikings? Does every Haitian know Voodoo? Does the Pope crap in the woods? Wait, don't answer that...

(YouTube Link)

In this episode from the Many People From Many Countries Say Things by Condé Nast Traveler we meet 70 people who reveal the most prevalent stereotypes about their respective countries, most of which are truly laughable.

-Via Tastefully Offensive