“Bomb squad members study the damage at a fast-food restaurant after a grenade exploded in Tegucigalpa in the early morning of July 03, 2009.” Orlando Sierra/AFP/Getty Images on The Big Picture.

“Bomb squad members study the damage at a fast-food restaurant after a grenade exploded in Tegucigalpa in the early morning of July 03, 2009.”

Orlando Sierra/AFP/Getty Images on The Big Picture.

Poor little guy, but let’s face it: hilarious. “Waffles grabbed a bee”.

Poor little guy, but let’s face it: hilarious.

“Waffles grabbed a bee”.

“It is also designed to channel the cool breeze from the Datun river through the house and is raised off the ground to let flood water flow underneath.” Dezeen — Chen House by C-Laboratory.

“It is also designed to channel the cool breeze from the Datun river through the house and is raised off the ground to let flood water flow underneath.”

Dezeen — Chen House by C-Laboratory.

"I look cool", she said.

"I look cool", she said.

Brother and Sisterly fun.

Brother and Sisterly fun.

You can have several photos in one post now. Who knew.

“Marine 1st Lt. Sam Oliver goes over the mission with his company as they prepare to deploy.” By Nikki Kahn for The Washington Post.

“Marine 1st Lt. Sam Oliver goes over the mission with his company as they prepare to deploy.”

By Nikki Kahn for The Washington Post.

“  What I’m wondering is: Has Sarah Palin undergone some kind of secret lobotomy?

✐ Reihan Salam, in an article from earlier this year. I think we know the answer now.

Apparently, Tentemøller thoroughly owned the place when he closed the first day with a 2 hour set at the main stage, “Orange Scene”, at what is certainly Denmark’s but probably also northern Europe’s largest music festival, Roskilde Festival. Photo by Peter Helles Eriksen for Berlingske.
Apparently, Tentemøller thoroughly owned the place when he closed the first day with a 2 hour set at the main stage, “Orange Scene”, at what is certainly Denmark’s but probably also northern Europe’s largest music festival, Roskilde Festival. Photo by Peter Helles Eriksen for Berlingske.

“Lee Daniels’s Precious: Based on the novel, “Push”, by Sapphire is a vibrant, honest and resoundingly hopeful film about the human capacity to grow and overcome. Set in Harlem in 1987, it is the story of Claireece “Precious” Jones (Gabourey Sidibe), a sixteen-year-old African-American girl born into a life no one would want. She’s pregnant for the second time by her absent father; at home, she must wait hand and foot on her mother (Mo’Nique), a poisonously angry woman who abuses her emotionally and physically. School is a place of chaos, and Precious has reached the ninth grade with good marks and an awful secret: she can neither read nor write. Precious may sometimes be down, but she is never out. Beneath her impassive expression is a watchful, curious young woman with an inchoate but unshakeable sense that other possibilities exist for her. Threatened with expulsion, Precious is offered the chance to transfer to an alternative school, Each One/Teach One. Precious doesn’t know the meaning of “alternative,” but her instincts tell her this is the chance she has been waiting for. In the literacy workshop taught by the patient yet firm Ms. Rain (Paula Patton), Precious begins a journey that will lead her from darkness, pain and powerlessness to light, love and self-determination.” “Precious”.

“Lee Daniels’s Precious: Based on the novel, “Push”, by Sapphire is a vibrant, honest and resoundingly hopeful film about the human capacity to grow and overcome.

Set in Harlem in 1987, it is the story of Claireece “Precious” Jones (Gabourey Sidibe), a sixteen-year-old African-American girl born into a life no one would want. She’s pregnant for the second time by her absent father; at home, she must wait hand and foot on her mother (Mo’Nique), a poisonously angry woman who abuses her emotionally and physically. School is a place of chaos, and Precious has reached the ninth grade with good marks and an awful secret: she can neither read nor write.

Precious may sometimes be down, but she is never out. Beneath her impassive expression is a watchful, curious young woman with an inchoate but unshakeable sense that other possibilities exist for her. Threatened with expulsion, Precious is offered the chance to transfer to an alternative school, Each One/Teach One. Precious doesn’t know the meaning of “alternative,” but her instincts tell her this is the chance she has been waiting for. In the literacy workshop taught by the patient yet firm Ms. Rain (Paula Patton), Precious begins a journey that will lead her from darkness, pain and powerlessness to light, love and self-determination.”

“Precious”.

Ha! Via mikehudack, via thisrecording.

Ha!

Via mikehudack, via thisrecording.

Now serving grief: Irwin (right) gives Holcomb (left) a lesson on why no plebe should ever forget the menu. Photo by Lucian Perkins. “Up in Arms Over a Co-Ed Plebe Summer” – Smithsonian Magazine.

Now serving grief: Irwin (right) gives Holcomb (left) a lesson on why no plebe should ever forget the menu. Photo by Lucian Perkins.

“Up in Arms Over a Co-Ed Plebe Summer” – Smithsonian Magazine.

“  Britney Spears could be returning to film for the first time since “Crossroads” in 2002, for which she was given a Golden Raspberry award for worst actress of the year. She is said to be reviewing the script for “The Yellow Star of Sophia and Eton” a romantic tragedy partially set in the Holocaust. 

✐ FP Passport. Delicious.

Via youmightfindyourself.
Via youmightfindyourself.

“  As full awareness took hold, I realized I was not dead, but had somehow separated from the airplane. I had no idea how this could have happened; I hadn’t initiated an ejection. The sound of rushing air and what sounded like straps flapping in the wind confirmed I was falling, but I couldn’t see anything. My pressure suit’s face plate had frozen over and I was staring at a layer of ice.

The pressure suit was inflated, so I knew an emergency oxygen cylinder in the seat kit attached to my parachute harness was functioning. It not only supplied breathing oxygen, but also pressurized the suit, preventing my blood from boiling at extremely high altitudes. I didn’t appreciate it at the time, but the suit’s pressurization had also provided physical protection from intense buffeting and g-forces. That inflated suit had become my own escape capsule.

✐ SR-71 Spyplane Break-Up in Mid-Air. Amazing. Read the whole thing. Via Kottke.

“  When Trig was born, Palin wrote an e-mail letter to friends and relatives, describing the belated news of her pregnancy and detailing Trig’s condition; she wrote the e-mail not in her own name but in God’s, and signed it “Trig’s Creator, Your Heavenly Father.

✐ Todd S. Purdum on Sarah Palin in Vanity Fair

“  Lots of people are squishy about abortion, though I firmly believe the vast majority of people in this country are pro-choice for me if not for thee, but those involved in the anti-abortion movement don’t just care about embryos and fetuses, they care about punishing women for unapproved fucking.

✐ Atrios