Melrose Castle, in Virginia's horse and wine-rich Fauquier County, was built by the husband of a shipping heiress, between 1856 and 1860. After that it served as both a Confederate hospital and a Union encampment.

What happened between then and now that's put the castle in foreclosure? Listing agent Steve Gardner tells HuffPost he "doesn't know the history," but that there's been "a lot of curiosity" since Melrose Castle went on the market for $1.5 million about a month ago.

Looking through the listing photos, it's not hard to see why, at least for those who are inclined to think of themselves as the main character in a gorgeous, if ultimately tragic, novel.

The five-bedroom castle, which sits on 50 acres, with horse facilities and an in-ground pool, is also "priced pretty well," says Gardner, because it "needs some work."

If Your Dream Is To Live In A Castle, This One's In Foreclosure

This massive castle is unbelievably romantic -- except maybe for the whole foreclosure thing.

Melrose Castle, in Virginia's horse and wine-rich Fauqui...

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Yes a castle in foreclosure; in Fauquier County VA; listed at $1.5 mil


There are very few things that $78.5 billion can't buy you. Unfortunately for Bill Gates, the title of richest man in the world is one of them.

Amancio Ortega, best known as the founder of Zara, inched past Gates when shares of Inditex (Zara's parent company) went up 2.5 percent Wednesday. It was an increase which equated to $1.7 billion for Ortega. He is now worth an estimated $79.5 billion.

This isn't the first time Ortega's won the world's richest designation. Back in October 2015, Inditex shares soared, and he claimed the title. But the stocks quickly fell, and Gates returned to the top of the list.

It is anticipated that the honor will continue to change hands as the stock market fluctuates over the coming months.

However, it should be noted that Gates's impressive philanthropic legacy has greatly impacted his fortune, with Forbes estimating he has donated $31 billion in his lifetime. If Gates had kept the money for himself, no one would even come close to his net worth.

He may not be the world's richest man, but that's quite the consolation prize.

Bill Gates is no longer the richest man in the world - Yahoo Finance ...

Read 'Bill Gates is no longer the richest man in the world' on Yahoo Finance Canada . Meet the man who ousted him.

Amancio Ortega's (founder of Zara) company's shares rose by 2.5% an increase which equated to $1.7 billion for Ortega. He is now worth an estimated $79.5 billion.


24 brutally honest confessions from a sex therapist

Yes, your genitals are perfectly normal, and no, we’re not unshockable.

We’re therapists, not sexual-technique coaches. Our work is basically problem-solving: helping couples communicate about sex, helping individuals feel more confident sexually, and working through deeper issues around love and relationships. We certainly don’t stand in the corner of bedrooms with a clipboard.

2. And we don’t have sex with our patients either.

You’re thinking of sex surrogates, and that’s a very different thing. Surrogates work closely with individuals who are having sexual problems, and part of that work can involve having sex with their clients. We just talk about sex – we don’t do it.

3. People have absolutely no idea how to react when we tell them what we do.

And the responses we do get tend to be inappropriate, e.g. "Ooh, I could do with some help from you!" or "Well, a sex therapist is the last thing I need, I get laid all the time." Come on, we just met you at a party, we don’t need to know that.

4. We sometimes use explicit photographs to help us explain concepts and reassure people.

Sometimes, the only way to explain something clearly is to use quite graphic photographs. Some couples aren’t happy about seeing them, but realising what a broad range of genital sizes, sexual positions, sexual acts, options, and body shapes there is out there can help them feel better about themselves.

5. We also use sex-ed charts and diagrams to help people get to grips with their partner’s anatomy.

Occasionally we might use 3D models as well. It’s hard to pleasure someone else if you’re not sure how their equipment works. A lot of men think the cervix is on the outside of the vagina, for example, which can cause quite a bit of confusion.

6. We do a lot of work with older people.

A lot of retirement age couples find their sex life has been gradually dropping off for years, and worry they might never have sex again if they don’t fix it. We tend to give these couples exercises to help them reconnect, starting with holding hands and cuddling, then moving on to kissing and sexual touching.

7. We also see a lot of couples whose sex lives have taken a dive after having kids.

Just because the doctor says it’s OK to have sex again six weeks after childbirth, that doesn’t mean things immediately snap back into place. A woman might find she’s too sore, or self-conscious, or both parents might simply be too tired. We often end up comforting new parents and reassuring them that the situation is normal.

8. Lots of couples we work with have issues that can be solved with just a bit of communication.

Many couples can have sex but can’t bring themselves to talk about the details, i.e. what they enjoy most. This in turn can put people off sex, because they find it unsatisfying but they can’t face asking their partner to change their technique. Our sessions help people open up about what really gives them pleasure.

9. Other clients have never explored their bodies, so they’re not sure what they do enjoy.

Masturbation and self-exploration (sometimes involving looking at your genitals in a mirror) can help you get to know your body and learn about what feels good for you. In turn, this will help you guide your partners to those sweet, sensitive spots.

10. A sexless relationship is seen as a massive taboo.

But if both partners are comfortable with that, why should it be? It’s seen as the worst thing in the world, but some very loving relationships do end up being nonsexual for various reasons, and we can help people come to terms with this.

11. Fifty Shades of Grey caused us lots of problems.

Suddenly couples were showing up in our offices, often upset because one partner had tried to act out their Fifty Shades fantasies and the other didn’t want to. The novels don’t contain much clear or helpful information about how to start experimenting with BDSM. It should be approached very carefully and sensitively.

12. You have to have a good sense of humour to do our job.

We do find some of the stuff our clients say pretty darn funny, especially the misconceptions about anatomy ("I fingered her ovaries!"), and we do talk about some of the funniest things outside work, but we’d never tell anyone your name, or go into loads of detail about the ins and outs (heh) of your sex drive and habits.

13. And sometimes we really don’t know what to say.

Just when we think we’ve heard it all, someone will always surprise us with a new fetish. Even though we’re pretty unshockable, we might still need a second to gather our thoughts if you tell us you love sticking wooden spoons up your butt while masturbating to old episodes of Gordon Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares.

14. It can be really emotionally draining as well.

Obviously sex problems don’t just appear from nowhere, and sometimes we hear some really traumatic things that have happened in people’s pasts. We’re trained to deal with this, of course, but it can be a daunting, painful process.

15. We don’t ask people to tell us their fantasies.

We might suggest you write down your fantasies and discuss them with your partner if you feel comfortable with that, but you don’t have to tell us your deepest, darkest, most unusual desires. Unless you really want to, of course.

16. Women often say they’re disappointed that they can’t orgasm the "real" way.

And by that, they mean penetrative intercourse. But the reality is that the clitoris and the opening of the vagina aren’t always positioned in a way that makes it possible, and a lot of women feel self-conscious pleasuring themselves during sex. We work hard to explain there’s no real, right, or (particularly) wrong way to do things.

17. Men tend to present with problems about erections and ejaculation.

Porn makes it seem like every man has a massive dick and has no problem at all keeping an erection, lasting for hours in bed, and ejaculating at the end of it all. There’s also a feeling that you’re less of a man if you don’t perform as expected. We might end up referring some clients to a doctor if their problems are medical.

18. And as women get older, dryness and related pain during sex can start to be an issue.

Again, this is perfectly normal and doesn’t mean you don’t find your partner attractive, or feel horny, but it can take a while to come to terms with these physical changes and understand what’s causing them. Thankfully, lube exists.

19. Mismatched levels of desire are common too.

If one person in a relationship wants sex more than their partner, they often end up feeling very hurt whenever they’re turned down. Learning to compromise can really help in this situation, as can finding ways to take the sting out of rejection: like kissing, cuddling, and finding other ways to be intimate with each other.

20. There’s a lot of pressure to have a "perfect" or generally amazing sex life.

There are so many strange ideas floating around about how much sex "typical" people should be having. Some people book appointments in a panic because they’re only having sex four nights a week and it used to be seven. Yes, we’re sex therapists, but we’d be the first to admit that sex isn’t the be-all and end-all.

21. Which means the most common question we get asked is: "Am I normal?"

Meaning "Do I/we have a normal amount of sex?" or "Do I last for the normal amount of time?" There’s an easy answer to this – nothing is normal! Instead of trying to fit in with what you’ve seen on TV, in magazines, or in porn films, explore what you want, what you enjoy, and what your specific desires are.

22. Also, your genitals are perfectly OK, honestly.

A lot of clients feel self conscious about their vagina or penis and decide it looks "weird", especially compared to porn. We have diagrams, drawings, and photos that show how vastly different people’s hoo-hahs and willies are, which helps.

23. Laughter and sex don’t have to be incompatible.

Once sex starts to become "serious" or "an issue", i.e. something you’re going to therapy for, it feels more pressured. Laughter can help diffuse that tension and get things back on track. Sex games, roleplay, and toys are fantastic ways to start, but don’t take it too far and dress as a clown (unless you really want to).

24. And we feel genuinely delighted when we work our sex magic and help people past a problem.

We can tell that things are going well thanks to the spring in their step and the smile on their faces when they come back to see us. Congratulations, guys! Keep it up.

This post was put together with the help of a trained relationship and couples therapist, as well as this AMA on Reddit.

24 Brutally Honest Confessions From A Sex Therapist


Another sign of anxiety is specific, irrational fear. This could be a fear of an object, activity or situation, for example. But this symptom might be harder to spot, because people with phobias tend to form avoidance behaviour. This means you, possibly subconsciously, avoid the phobia, therefore reducing the fear and not realising the severity of the problem.

Sufferers of anxiety are more likely to experience high-arousal states, when the sympathetic nervous system is activated. This puts the body in fight or flight mode, and subconsciously tenses muscles so they're prepared to see off the perceived threat.

The mind and the digestive system are closely linked, and research has found that stress and anxiety can cause digestive problems, such as symptoms associated with irritable bowel syndrome.

There is a close relationship between sleep and anxiety. If you notice your sleeping patterns change, you find it more difficult to sleep or become more tired, this could be a sign of anxiety. And this can become a vicious cycle; a lack of sleep can contribute to stress and anxiety levels. The mental health charity Mind has some good advice for getting a better night's sleep.

Prolonged anxiety can weaken your immune system, and result in you suffering from more viruses.

Anxiety becomes a disorder when it interferes with your everyday life. It can make it difficult to maintain relationships, to concentrate on something for a prolonged period of time, to hold down a job, and to relax.

If you or someone you know is suffering from anxiety, visit Anxiety UK for advice and support.

If you have any of these symptoms you may have an anxiety disorder The list

Anxiety is part of our lives, but it can sometimes be difficult to notice when it becomes a problem. Here are seven signs your anxiety might have progressed into a disorder, and it's time to see your doctor: 1. Excessive worry Worrying is something we all do now and again, but if your worrying is repetitive, it focuses on hypothetical problems, or it starts to disrupt your life, it could be a sign of something more serious.


The truth about how often you should shower

A survey last year revealed that four out of five women don’t shower every day, while a third said they could go three days without washing.

Another study, conducted by researchers at the Universities of Manchester, Edinburgh, Lancaster and Southampton, showed that three-quarters of respondents had at least one shower or bath a day.

But are we overshowering? And is there a ‘correct’ number of showers or baths we should be having a week?

According to Professor Stephen Shumack, President of the Australasian College of Dermatologists, you should only shower when you need to.

Speaking to the Sunday Morning Herald, he said: "It's only in the last fifty to sixty years (since the advent of bathrooms with showers) that the idea of a daily shower has become commonplace. The pressure to do that is actually social pressure rather than actual need. It's become popular because of the social need to smell good. But it's only the glands in your armpit and groin that produce body odour. They're not all over the body."

Shumack also warned that a hot daily shower could do more damage than good, saying: "Overwashing causes 'defatting' of the skin – getting rid of the natural body oils we produce to protect the skin cells. This can cause actual damage making them more permeable to bacteria or viruses, precipitating itchy skin, dryness, flakiness and worsening conditions like eczema."

One professor argues that as long as you’re focusing on the ‘right areas’, you shouldn’t need to shower too often. John Oxford, Professor of Virology at Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry, told the Daily Mail: 'As long as people wash their hands often enough and pay attention to the area of the body below the belt, showering or bathing every other day would do no harm."

This shower head can stop you wasting so much water

For those of you that worry you may be spending too long in the shower, a new showerhead from Hydrao can alert you to when you've spent too much time washing by changing colour. By using your smartphone, you can set your desired water consumption rate which then syncs with the showerhead.

There are conflicting views as to how many times a week we should shower. Depending on your hair and skin type, you may be told that showering every day could be better for your skin - or, in fact, worse for your skin if it’s particularly sensitive. Overshowering can cause adverse effects to hair such as causing split-ends, while excessive use of product could result in product build-up.

showering, Personal care, Healthy Living, Health & Families, Lifestyle


The Royal Family has a hamster—with an adorable name!

Introducing His Royal Highness, Marvin the Hamster!

During an outing with school children in London on Wednesday, Princess Kate revealed that the royal family has a tiny new member.

During a chat with kids at the new Magic Garden playground at Hampton Court Palace, 9-year-old Darcey reported that the royal mom "said she had a hamster, and [Princess] Charlotte really likes it because the whiskers always tickle her face."

Earlier in the outing, Kate revealed that Charlotte’s big brother, Prince George , would have been "a bit scared" of the playground’s 25-ft. dragon. But the school children in attendance were charmed by the real-life royal in their midst.

As Kate toured the garden, one youngster tugged on the sleeve of the chairman of Historic Royal Palaces, Rupert Gavin, and asked him: "Who’s that?"

"Then the child said, ‘Ooh, are you the princess?’ " says Gavin.

She said: "Just call me Kate." (When Kate herself had asked the kids her name, they chorused, "Princess Kate!")

For the school children, it was hard to tell which was the most thrilling part of the day: the arrival of the Duchess or a trip down the playground’s impressive slide.

"I said, ‘Would you like to go down the slide?’ " Aqeelah Raamah, 7, shared. "She said she is going to bring her jeans and trainers next time so she can go down.

Kate Middleton Reveals Royal Family Has a Hamster Named Marvin

"She said Charlotte really likes it because the whiskers always tickle her face,"

kate middleton, princess kate, prince george, princess charlotte, prince william, marvin hamster


"I was naïve enough to believe I had all the answers. I'm still kicking myself in the butt for that."

Former University of Wisconsin and Denver Broncos running back Montee Ball says he drank heavily throughout his college and NFL careers, and that through counseling he has accepted he is an alcoholic.

Now sober, Ball is enrolled at Wisconsin for summer classes. He told the Sporting News that his heavy drinking began in 2011, his junior season for the Badgers, and throughout his brief NFL career when he would get drunk four times a week.

He said he regrets not taking advice given to him in the NFL seriously.

"I wouldn't take any of it seriously," Ball told the Sporting News. "I was naïve enough to think my playing days would last forever. I would literally sit in the back of the room texting or being on Instagram not paying attention to the professional explaining to me about preparing for life after football and how important it is.

"I failed to use my platform to help others and to use the NFL as a steppingstone in life. I surrounded myself with bad people, not on the team but in the city. I was naïve enough to believe I had all the answers. I'm still kicking myself in the butt for that."

Ball said Broncos running backs coach Eric Studesville told him after one meeting that he could smell alcohol on his breath.

"He talked about how he could smell the alcohol on me and that he thinks I may have a problem with drinking," Ball told the website. "He said if I needed any help with that he could reach out to people I could talk to. I didn't listen to him."

The Broncos waived Ball in 2015 after selecting him in the second round of the 2013 draft. The New England Patriots signed him to their practice squad in 2015, but he never played a game for the team. He watched the Broncos win Super Bowl 50 over the Carolina Panthers from his jail cell after he was arrested on a felony battery charge Feb. 5 of last year.

"It brought tears to my eyes," he told the Sporting News. "At one point, I was on top of the world and now watching the team that cut me a few months prior from a jail cell, that stung a lot."

He was sentenced to 60 days in jail last August after pleading guilty to disorderly conduct and battery for his role in two domestic abuse incidents.

In the Feb. 5 incident, his girlfriend told police he had thrown her across a Madison hotel room. A month later, a previous girlfriend told police she had been assaulted by Ball in 2014. He told the Sporting News that he has evidence to show the previous girlfriend was lying but decided to accept a plea deal as he was facing six charges, including two felonies, and didn't think he would receive a fair trial because he is black and because of his history.

Also last year, Ball learned he was a father when a past girlfriend from Denver told him in a telephone call that she was pregnant. He says the birth of his son, Maverick, "was the turning point" for him as he "realized I have a purpose to raise that kid."

His addiction and mental health therapist told the Sporting News that Ball's turnaround began last summer.

"He acknowledged being an alcoholic, which is a significant thing, and coming from a domestic violence background himself," Cory Devine told the website. "He recognized, 'This is a pattern I've got to stop. It's my responsibility to do so.'"

Ball told the Sporting News that alcoholism runs in his family, starting with his grandfather and then his father.

Now back as a student at Wisconsin, he told the website he is "focused on improving my image and relationships I destroyed." He said he hopes to open a charitable foundation and is writing a book about his struggle with alcoholism.

Ex-NFL RB Montee Ball reveals he would get drunk 4 times a week

Former Wisconsin and NFL running back Montee Ball told the Sporting News that alcoholism contributed to his downfall and his legal troubles. He now is sober and enrolled back in school.

alcoholic, alcoholism, jail, domestic abuse, counseling, comeback, , Denver Broncos, NFL, College Football, Wisconsin Badgers, Montee Ball


Have Children? Here’s How Kids Ruin Your Romantic Relationship

Lots of women look forward to motherhood – getting to know a tiny baby, raising a growing child, developing a relationship with a maturing son or daughter. All over the world, people believe that parenting is the most rewarding part of life. And it’s good that so many mothers treasure that bond with their child, because the transition to parenthood causes profound changes in a woman’s marriage and her overall happiness... and not for the better.

Families usually welcome a baby to the mix with great expectations. But as a mother’s bond with a child grows, it’s likely that her other relationships are deteriorating. I surveyed decades of studies on the psychological effects of having a child to write my book "Great Myths of Intimate Relationships: Dating, Sex, and Marriage," and here’s what the research literature shows.

When people marry, they’re usually in love and happy to be tying the knot. But after that, things tend to change. On average, couples' satisfaction with their marriage declines during the first years of marriage and, if the decline is particularly steep, divorce may follow. The course of true love runs downhill. And that’s before you factor in what happens when it’s time to start buying a carseat and diapers.

For around 30 years, researchers have studied how having children affects a marriage, and the results are conclusive: the relationship between spouses suffers once kids come along. Comparing couples with and without children, researchers found that the rate of the decline in relationship satisfaction is nearly twice as steep for couples who have children than for childless couples. In the event that a pregnancy is unplanned, the parents experience even greater negative impacts on their relationship.

The irony is that even as the marital satisfaction of new parents declines, the likelihood of them divorcing also declines. So, having children may make you miserable, but you’ll be miserable together.

Worse still, this decrease in marital satisfaction likely leads to a change in general happiness, because the biggest predictor of overall life satisfaction is one’s satisfaction with their spouse.

While the negative marital impact of becoming parents is familiar to fathers and mothers, it is especially insidious because so many young couples think that having children will bring them closer together or at least will not lead to marital distress. Yet, this belief, that having children will improve one’s marriage, is a tenacious and persistent myth among those who are young and in love.

It seems obvious that adding a baby to a household is going to change its dynamics. And indeed, the arrival of children changes how couples interact. Parents often become more distant and businesslike with each other as they attend to the details of parenting. Mundane basics like keeping kids fed, bathed and clothed take energy, time and resolve. In the effort to keep the family running smoothly, parents discuss carpool pickups and grocery runs, instead of sharing the latest gossip or their thoughts on presidential elections. Questions about one’s day are replaced with questions about whether this diaper looks full.

These changes can be profound. Fundamental identities may shift – from wife to mother, or, at a more intimate level, from lovers to parents. Even in same-sex couples, the arrival of children predicts less relationship satisfaction and sex. Beyond sexual intimacy, new parents tend to stop saying and doing the little things that please their spouses. Flirty texts are replaced with messages that read like a grocery receipt.

With nearly half of all births being to unmarried couples, some parents may think they have gamed the system by skipping the wedding. Not so. The relationship burden of having children is present regardless of marital status, gender orientation or level of income. In addition, the adverse impact of becoming a parent is found in other countries, including those with greater rates of nonmarital parenting and more generous family policies.

Not surprisingly, it is mothers, not fathers, who bear the heaviest cost of becoming parents. Even when both parents work outside the home and even in marriages in which both spouses describe themselves as sharing the burden of household chores, most parents slide toward gender-stereotypical ways of parenting. Women are more likely to become the "on call" parent, the one who gets up in the night to bring a child a tissue or who’s called by the school nurse.

As part of this pattern, new mothers tend to cut their hours in outside work, which often leads fathers to feel more of the burden of financial responsibility. A common pattern emerges in which dads start spending more time and energy on outside work and moms start doing an increasing percentage of the childcare and housework. Cue the feelings of frustration, guilt and distress for both parents.

New mothers often talk about their social isolation, becoming disconnected from friends and colleagues and how their world feels like it’s shrinking. All of these changes lead to fundamental and long-lasting effects on new mothers' circle of support, including with their spouses.

The consequences of the relationship strain can be serious. Marital stress is associated with many serious physical health problems as well as symptoms of depression and other mental health problems. The link between psychological and marital problems is strong enough that researchers have found that couples therapy is one of the most effective ways of treating depression and some other mental illnesses.

If the arrival of children is hard on marriages, is the departure of children good for marriages? Some marriages do improve once the children leave the nest. In other cases, the successful launch of the children leads spouses to discover they have few shared interests and there’s nothing keeping them together.

These downsides to having children may partly explain why more and more women in the United States and around the world are choosing not to procreate. According to the U.S. Census, the percent of childless American women (ages 15-44) increased a staggering amount in just two generations: from 35 percent in 1976 to 47 percent in 2010.

Despite the dismal picture of motherhood painted by researchers like me (sorry Mom), most mothers (and fathers) rate parenting as their greatest joy. Much like childbirth, where nearly all mothers believe the pain and suffering was worth it, most mothers believe the rewards of watching their children grow up is worth the cost to their romantic relationships.

Children can cause a decline in relationship satisfaction. #StopClickBait


The president who brought God back to the White House -- and had a complicated history on racial discrimination.

Editor's note: This is the 39th entry in the writer's project to read one book about each of the U.S. Presidents in the year prior to Election Day 2016. Follow Marcus' progress at the @44in52 Twitter account and the 44 in 52 Spreadsheet.

Hard as it is to believe, there was a time when religion wasn't such a big deal during the race for the White House.

Outside of a few instances (John Adams' supporters claiming Jefferson was an atheist, fears over JFK's Catholicism), I haven't encountered much in the way of religion affecting an election during this project.

SEE ALSO: The fevered dreams of a paranoid president

Randall Balmer's Redeemer: The Life of Jimmy Carter focuses on Carter, religion, and the rise of evangelicals as a rising segment of the voting population.

It was also a book I listened to while driving cross-country. That big move, which I first mentioned in my Nixon post, finally got underway as I wrapped up Ford. My traditional wariness of audiobooks went out the window for Redeemer, partly because there was nothing to distract me from listening as I drove mile after mile.

There were two particular threads that caught my interest. The first came early in Carter's political career: after losing a bid for Georgia governor in 1966, he used racially-charged politics to capture the same position in 1970 — aligning himself with segregationist Democrat George Wallace.

Ballmer's preface does an excellent job of laying out the arch of evangelicals and politics in the 20th Century and how Carter squeezed in. — 44 in 52 (@44in52) September 30, 2016

It's startling to hear about such a campaign by a man who has come to represent liberal compassion. Balmer doesn't relent on his criticism of Carter's decisions here.

When you run a campaign that's comparable to George Wallace... jeez. Ballmer uses the phrase "prostituting" to describe how Carter won — 44 in 52 (@44in52) September 30, 2016

Never realized the depths he went to in order to win the office. Even he was sick of himself for that. Whatever it takes... — 44 in 52 (@44in52) September 30, 2016

But neither does he ignore the guilt that Carter felt — and the way Carter atoned for his pro-segregation stance. It seems the ongoing guilt from that effort pushed Carter to emphasize his liberal slant in later years.

The other thread is more closely tied to the religion angle. Balmer outlines how a Democrat like Carter was able to ride a wave of religious revival into the White House — before evangelicals made the shift to the right that we're now familiar with.

A peculiar religious-themed ad for Jimmy Carter. Image: ASSOCIATED PRESS

There's plenty on the infamous Playboy interview in which Carter admitted to feeling "lust" in his heart (someone take a time machine to 1976 and show them this year's election rhetoric). But it was the description of how evangelicals abandoned Carter over the course of his single term in office that had me hooked.

Balmer lays out the rise of Jerry Falwell and Phyllis Schlafly — and how they led a semi-revolt against Carter for being soft on Communism and abortion, often cited as the reason why evangelicals turned against Carter in favor of Reagan in 1980.

But Balmer argues it was a court case over perceived segregation in religious schools that really turned the tide against Carter: Coit v. Green (later Green v. Connally). The Supreme Court upheld a decision that revoked the tax-exempt status of private religious schools — if they practiced racial discrimination.

Rise of religious right / moral majority came from school case about segregation at religious schools (Coit v Green) — 44 in 52 (@44in52) September 30, 2016

What's even stranger is that both the decision and the IRS' effort to enforce it on Bob Jones University both happened before Carter took office. Yet Carter became the target for evangelicals like Falwell and Paul Weyrich, founder of the Heritage Foundation, who opposed the ruling.

I take all of this about Carter to heart because he's a fellow Southerner, one of a string of Southern presidents in my lifetime (particularly if you count George W. Bush's Texas as the "south" — although Texans may disagree with that, because Texas is its own universe).

The South and religion have always been tightly bound together. That a Southern evangelical Democrat could win the Presidency seems almost impossible in 2016. As my wife and dog slept and the road kept flying by, I couldn't help but think of my native South and wonder if such a thing would even be possible again.

A Southern Democrat reached the White House with evangelical votes -- and a compromised record on racism.

religious-right, 44-in-52, jimmy-carter, entertainment, mashreads, history, politics


1 of world's richest women is in major battle with her kids

SYDNEY, Oct 18 - A bitter legal battle between Gina Rinehart and her children over control of Australia's largest mining fortune could ultimately lead to a shift of power in the board room and loosen the tycoon's legendary grip on her business empire.

Asia's richest woman is being sued by two of her children who accuse Rinehart of breaching her duty as the sole trustee of a $4 billion family trust. She denies acting improperly and recently agreed to step down as trustee.

But the feud, which has gripped Australia as details of the family's testy relationships have been laid bare in personal emails tendered to the court, still has a risk of playing out in the boardroom of privately held Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd.

With the disputed trust and Rinehart the only shareholders, her power over Hancock Prospecting has been virtually absolute as the sole trustee of the fund for her four children.

So the appointment of a new trustee could have major ramifications in the two-year legal battle with her eldest two children, John Hancock, 37, and Bianca Rinehart, 36.

With access to the trust, the children could press their rights as minority shareholders for representation on the board, leaving Hancock Prospecting more open to external influence, legal experts say, just as Rinehart is trying to wrap up funding for a $10 billion iron ore project.

"They will become substantial shareholders and may push for influence in management decisions, rather than being passive shareholders," said Professor Michael Adams, dean of the law school at the University of Western Sydney.

John, Bianca and their sister Hope Rinehart Welker, 28, sued in 2011 to remove their mother as the trust manager after she pushed out its vesting date until 2068, meaning the children would not get their shares until they were in their 80s and 90s.

Rinehart warned they would be hit with a huge tax bill if the trust was allowed to vest and offered them each $300 million to accept the change in the vesting date.

Lawyers for the children are also examining changes made by Rinehart to the rules governing the trust, barring the children from transferring their shares to each other and giving Rinehart preemptive rights to buy the shares if any of them want out.

Rinehart later made concessions -- moving the vesting date to April 2012 and, ahead of the trial, stepping down as trustee.

She said the changes to the company constitution overseeing the trust were necessary because she needed total control for negotiations with Rio Tinto to form a joint venture to develop the Hope Downs mine.

Lawyer Christopher Withers, representing John and Bianca, told the New South Wales Supreme Court there was no evidence to support this and argued the changes were for Rinehart's benefit.

Rinehart's hard head for business is legendary. The so-called "Pilbara Princess", the only child of Australia's most prominent frontier miner, has used a string of lawsuits to protect her riches, estimated by Forbes at $18 billion.

Rinehart, 59, has multiplied the fortune left by her father, Lang Hancock, who is credited with discovering the world's largest deposit of iron ore in Australia's Pilbara region.

"The value of the trust property has grown enormously through Mrs Rinehart's responsible endeavours and very hard work," her lawyer Paul McCann said.

Among the revelations in court was an email from Hope, who pulled out of the case earlier this year, to her mother complaining about being "down to my last $60,000". Younger sister Ginia, 27, who has sided with her mother in the dispute, told Hope in another email to "just take the 300 million dollars mum has repeatedly offered you and walk away."

Rinehart, in turn, has described her elder children as lazy, spoilt and lacking skills to run the multi-billion-dollar trust.

Just who will become the new trustee -- and have responsibility for managing a shareholding controlling almost a quarter of Hancock Prospecting -- will now be determined by the court after the family was unable to agree on a candidate.

Judge Paul Brereton has asked for further submissions before making a decision, while there will be further hearings to decide whether anyone is liable for damages.

While the children's combined shareholding is just shy of the 25 percent needed to pass special resolutions, it puts them in a position to press their rights as minority shareholders and seek more power via the courts, legal experts say.

As well as the restrictions imposed by Rinehart's changes due to the Rio joint venture, Hancock Prospecting's current constitution bars them, even as shareholders, from a board seat or from increasing dividends they receive.

Gina is entitled to a seat as a 75 percent shareholder. That, combined with the fact she is trustee of the only other shareholder, has given her power to appoint -- and remove -- the children on the board as they have fallen in and out of favour.

"It would be a strong argument that the majority shareholder has so changed the constitution to reduce the genuine trust value of the minority shareholders," said Roger Downs, a senior partner at Kells Lawyers in Sydney.

A move to vest the trust and hand the children direct control of the shares would be down to the new trustee, but it's likely that one or more of the children will push for board representation.

This could also theoretically mean they could take out loans using shares as a collateral that in the event of a default could be claimed by an external lender, said Downs.

Law Professor Adams also said Rinehart could suffer reputational damage if found to have breached corporate governance rules, an outcome that could be unsettling for future negotiations with investors.

Rinehart, who did not respond to a request for comment, has complained that the litigation was damaging her attempts to line up funding for the Pilbara-based Roy Hill iron ore mine.

Sources told Reuters in July that Roy Hill had overcome key hurdles holding up debt negotiations, but the company was yet to make a formal announcement.

Roy Hill has faced delays lining up $7 billion in debt funding and is now expected to begin production in 2015. Hancock owns 70 percent of the project, with the rest held by South Korea's POSCO, Japan's Marubeni Corp and Taiwan's China Steel Corp.

Hancock Prospecting's lawyer, David Studdy, told the court that Bianca and John were on a "kamikaze mission" that could threaten the Hope Downs venture with Rio Tinto. Withers, representing the children, said they had no interest in damaging the agreement and legal fixes were available to avoid that scenario. (Editing by Ed Davies)

Gina Rinehart's Family Drama Could Threaten Her Empire

* Gina Rinehart legal dispute could eventually lead to power  shift in company                * Children accuse mining mogul of breaching du...

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Here's the Most Dangerous City in California

When asked to name the most dangerous place for crime in California, Compton, L.A.'s Eastside or the East Bay might come to mind.

The most dangerous city in the Golden State when it comes to crime, police presence and other "community factors" such as poverty, the high school graduation rate and comparatively low police budgets, is in the Inland Empire.

That, at least, is according to the Southern California law firm of Graham Donath, which commissioned a report that crunches the numbers and gives us a list of California's most dangerous cities.

San Bernardino, a Great Recession–embattled town that's in bankruptcy, doesn't have the highest crime rate. Oakland and Stockton are worse when it comes to serious, violent crimes (murder, rape, robbery and assault), the analysis found.

But when all the factors were calculated, including unemployment, police per capita and even the number of days in a year when the high temperature was higher than 80 degrees, San Bernardino is your winner, the Donath report says.

The city, for example, ranked in the top 10 for municipalities with the lowest investment in law enforcement. It also ranked in the top 10 for those "community factors" we talked about.

All across this great state there's a lot to be desired when it comes to fixing lawlessness, however.

The analysis notes that all of its top-10 cities had a poverty rate of nearly 15 percent (14.5) or greater. That includes Los Angeles, where about one in five people (21.2 percent) lives in poverty, according to the report.

San Bernardino's poverty rate is pegged at a whopping 30.6 percent.

The analysis cites the high cost of living as a possible pressure point for crime. We don't need to tell you that housing costs in L.A. are out of control.

"One explanation for high poverty levels in California cities could be the rising cost of living with stagnant wages," the report says. "The poverty has actually grown in the state since 2007, and this could be because the increased cost of living is sending people into debt. It’s also encouraging people to leave or discouraging them from moving to the state."

Los Angeles, by the way, ranked 19th on the dangerous cities list.

One analysis of crime and other data says San Bernardino is California's most dangerous city.

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Michael Phelps explains the hilarious reason he named his son Boomer

Michael Phelps just explained the hilarious reason he named his son Boomer More

It doesn’t surprise us these days when people name their kids unusual names anymore. But it’s always nice to hear the reasoning behind their atypical choice. And since Michael Phelps has just revealed why he and his fiancée, Nicole Johnson, named their son Boomer, we have to admit it’s pretty hilarious.

On Thursday, Phelps was on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and revealed the news:

His reasoning? It was the only thing they came up with.

"We heard the name, and we didn’t want, like, a normal name," Phelps said.

"Boomer, like boom boom — we didn’t know either," he said, laughing. "We had no second option — once we picked that, we were like, ‘Yeah.’ I mean, he’s definitely gonna be the cool kid."

With his super cool parents and his growing Internet fame, how could he not be?!

Of course, you remember Boomer from the Olympics in Rio.

And, ever since, he has hundreds of thousands of fans on Insta (which Phelps himself runs for Boomer).

With that super cute face and calm demeanor, how could we forget him?!

If you want to follow Boomer yourself, click here. Just be warned: You’re in for some seriously adorable posts.

The post Michael Phelps just explained the hilarious reason he named his son Boomer appeared first on HelloGiggles.

It doesn’t surprise us these days when people name their kids unusual names anymore. But it’s always nice to hear the reasoning behind their...


A guy just transcribed 30 years of for-rent ads. Here’s what it taught us about housing prices

Update: Before you read this, know that there’s since been some pretty persuasive criticism of Fischer’s initial model (and therefore my analysis of it) summarized here. His raw data, in any case, is unimpeached.)

I don’t know anything about Eric Fischer except that he’s a freaking hero.

Much like everyone else who has recently attempted to live in San Francisco, Fischer is very interested in housing costs. However, unlike every other such person, Fischer decided to contribute to this conversation by doubling the depth of modern historical data about them.

Until now, the most commonly cited information about SF housing prices had gone back to 1979, when the city started tracking the "median rent of two-bedroom apartments advertised in the San Francisco Chronicle on one Sunday per year."

Unfortunately for this data, 1979 also happens to be the year that San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein imposed a rent freeze that transitioned into rent control. If you want to argue about the merits of rent control — and in the handful of U.S. cities facing rapidly rising housing prices, who doesn’t? — your arguments on either side aren’t going to be very useful without any information about the situation before rent control so you have something to compare to.

So Fischer found the "before rent control" data. He gathered it himself ... by spending many, many hours going through old image files and microfilm of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Fischer talks a lot about his methodology in his excellent post about this project, published Saturday. Here’s the short summary: His methodology is not perfect but it’s solid and I don’t see any great ways to improve it.

Instead of getting any further into that, this blog post exists to re-emphasize what his new data revealed: this chart.

That, my friends, is 70 years of San Francisco housing prices. There are some ups and downs, but for the most part there is a very simple trend: 6.6 percent.

That’s the amount the rent has gone up every year, on average, since 1956. It was true before rent control; it was true after rent control. It wasn’t entirely true during the 2000 tech bubble, but it was still sort of true and it became true again afterward.

6.6 percent is 2.5 percentage points faster than inflation, which doesn’t seem like a lot but when you do it for 60 years in a row it means housing prices quadruple compared to everything else you have to buy.

That’s bad. But that’s SF today, compared to 1956.

So what caused prices to go up? That’s the really exciting part of Fischer’s discovery. Armed with his data, he more or less answered that question.

This is as close as you’re ever likely to see to an answer to life, the universe and everything.

It’s a chart that almost perfectly predicts the San Francisco housing market using only three variables:

The number of jobs located in San Francisco County. The number of places in San Francisco County for people to live. The total amount of money that is paid to everyone who works jobs in San Francisco County.

It’s all summarized in the formula at the top of the chart. If you gave me values for (1), (2) and (3) above, then I could predict to you with startling accuracy how much the median two-bedroom apartment in San Francisco will cost to rent in that situation.

It follows that if we could change (1), (2) or (3), then we could maybe change what it costs to rent a place in San Francisco. Here’s how Fischer summarizes a scenario in which, his formula suggests, apartment prices would drop 67 percent:

It would take a 53% increase in the housing supply (200,000 new units), or a 44% drop in CPI-adjusted salaries, or a 51% drop in employment, to cut prices by two thirds.

OK, so this would mean the way to make San Francisco as affordable as (say) Portland would be to either cut everybody’s salary in half, or fire half of them, or rapidly increase the number of homes by 50 percent, which would let the population rapidly leap to about 1.2 million.

But wait, you might be saying. Prague has about 1.2 million residents. Milan has about 1.2 million residents. Those are nice cities. It would actually be fine if San Francisco turned into Prague, especially if the prices went down by two-thirds.

That’s probably true. The problem is that rapidly turning into Prague would require thousands of developers to go bankrupt, because (remember?) rents would drop by 67 percent so all those developers would not be able to pay off the loans they took out to build those 200,000 new homes.

Come to think of it, thousands of bankrupt developers may not sound too bad to you, either. But believe me, it sounds bad to the developers. Which is why there could never be a situation where private developers would add that many new homes at once — they would stop building long before that return to paradise could happen.

The way I see it, this leaves us with a few interesting lessons for San Francisco:

Adding new units is mostly only going to keep shit from getting worse.

2. Rent control does not seem to be a huge cause of the problem per se. Shit was bad before; shit was bad after; shit did not get notably better or worse for the median apartment seeker, at least if you start in 1956. (On the other hand, something odd is going on in Fischer’s early price data from the 40s. If you omit the 1950–1960 dip in rents, then everything before rent control in 1979 starts looking more like a plateau. Here’s his first chart again for good measure.)

2a. The way that rent control might matter indirectly is if it leads indirectly to fewer new units, for example because it gives people a reason to protest or sue to prevent developers from replacing little old rent-controlled buildings with big new market-rate ones. Which is pretty understandable on the part of the poor people but it’s still a shitty outcome, because (as Fischer’s formula suggests) every fancy new roof holds prices down a little bit because the rich people under it don’t push middle-class people out from under their middle-quality roofs, and so on down the line until someone ends up in a tent.

2b. Still, there’s no clear sign in this data that rent control has had this additional anti-new-housing effect on San Francisco. Again: shit was bad before. Shit was bad after.

3. Cutting infill development costs would help if there are ways to do that without screwing other things up too much.

4. If there is something stopping the housing market from building enough new homes for newcomers, then it’s probably got to be something that arrived around 1960 or earlier.

I’m going to stop talking about San Francisco at this point, because San Francisco depresses me. Basically, I think San Francisco is fucked.

Instead, I’m going to close with a lesson for cities that are adding jobs and/or wealth faster than homes but are not yet San Francisco: Portland, Seattle, Austin, Denver, Minneapolis. Maybe Oakland and Los Angeles and San Diego and DC still, too.

For the love of god, keep adding homes. Keep adding homes so things don’t get any worse and you’re not trapped in a lose-lose-lose shitstorm like San Francisco.

Rent control? This particular renter is nervous but sure, maybe try it out as long as you are working hard to ensure that it’s not going to get in the way of continuing to add homes.

Endless sprawl? That’ll keep the houses cheap (just ask Atlanta, Dallas and Phoenix) but it fucks up the planet and it seems to make us fatter and lonelier, plus cars are expensive. So maybe try doing townhouses if you can. Townhouses are great. Cliff and Claire Huxtable lived in a townhouse. Duplexes are nice too. A lot of cities have actually made it illegal to build either of these. That is nuts.

Taxes to create public or other subsidized housing? The poorest people will never be able to afford market-rate housing, and people in cheap but livable little homes tend to get into much less trouble than people in tents. So yeah, probably it’s a good idea to use taxes to build cheap but livable little homes for poor people, while also looking for other ways to help people get out of poverty.

Mass layoffs? Well, apparently those would reduce rents but somehow I don’t think they’d get the mayor re-elected.

But whatever you do, definitely buy Eric Fischer a drink if you see him. He earned it.

Update: Before you read this, know that there’s since been some pretty persuasive criticism of Fischer’s initial model (and therefore my analysis of it) summarized here. His raw data, in any case, is...

Rent goes up by 6.6% annually in San Francisco.


You Won’t Believe How Much Britney Spears Spends On Her Pets

Britney Spears may be frugal when it comes to some of her expenses (this killer bathing suit she caused a sensation in is just $22!), but when it comes to her pets and personal grooming, she spares *no* expense. But not to worry — we’ve got a feeling she won’t be sharing in Adele’s credit card embarrassment anytime soon!

Due to the nature of her conservatorship, which requires her to file how much she makes and spends in a public court, we got a little insight into the life of Ms. Spears, and let’s just say her pooches are living large.

In 2015 alone, Britney spent more than $8 million total, $37,360 of which was all spent on her dogs.

Topping that? Massages, manis and pedis, which rang in at $67,800 (in all fairness, girl probably has a LOT of kinks to work out after all that dancing) and clothes, which totaled $62,813.

While that all sounds absurdly excessive, when you consider the fact that she is estimated to have raked in a whopping $51 million last year, it quickly turns into a drop in the bucket.

All we’ve gotta’ say is, those are some lucky pups!

Are you shocked by Britney’s spending habits? Share your thoughts over @BritandCo!

(h/t E!, photos via Frazer Harrison + Kevin Winter/Getty)

You Won’t Believe How Much Britney Spears Spends on Her Pets


Stephen Hawking Crushed Donald Trump And His Supporters In One Sentence

We here at Elite Daily seem to really love a good hot take on Donald Trump.

But, Trump’s latest critic may be our favorite one yet.

In a recent interview with In a recent interview with CNN affiliate ITV , legendary scientist Stephen Hawking was asked to explain why someone like Donald Trump would have such a meteoric rise to political fame.

However, the most brilliant mind living couldn’t find an answer.

Here are a few appropriate reactions to this comment:

However, believe it or not, Hawking still thinks there is one thing worse than Donald Trump.

Hawking added in his interview, he believes climate change is the single biggest threat facing all of humanity. He says,

A more immediate danger is runaway climate change. A rise in ocean temperature would melt the ice-caps, and cause a release of large amounts of carbon dioxide from the ocean floor. Both effects could make our climate like that of Venus, with a temperature of 250 degrees.

So remember to reduce, reuse, recycle and, according to Hawking, don’t vote for Trump.

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"He is a demagogue, who seems to appeal to the lowest common denominator."


Electrician Tries to Fix Broken PS4, Makes Startling Discovery

A electrician in Brazil was attempting to fix a busted PlayStation 4, when he discovered a dead snake inside, fused with internal circuits in multiple places.

According to the ViralHog video, the electrician's bug report stated, "It turned on and then off, and it released a strong smell." So the man opened up the console, thinking it might be an electrical failure. What he found was the the remains of the small snake.

As you can see in the video, the snake had fused with the circuit board, resulting in the electrical problem--and a nasty smell, apparently.

Check out the full video above (via CNET). There is no word on how the snake got into the console or what species it is.

This incident occurred in December 2015, in Braganca Paulista, Sao Paulo, though the video only came online this week. This does not mean Metal Gear Solid 6 is confirmed.

While repairing a busted PS4, an electrician smelled something foul and opened the system to make a remarkable discovery.


The substance Charlie Sheen blames for his infamous 2011 behavior isn't what you'd guess.

2011 was a time so dominated by bizarre Charlie Sheen news that browser plug-ins blocking mentions of Sheen's antics were necessary for just making it through the day. In an upcoming interview with 'respected medical professional' Dr. Oz, the self-proclaimed "Vatican assassin" revealed that his very public breakdown five years ago was caused by...testosterone cream?

Testosterone cream made this man get up to a lot of odd things in 2011.

Testosterone cream is not the first substance you'd suspect as the culprit when it comes to a man who allegedly participated in a crack sex tape. According to Page Six, Sheen said:

"That was a very specific period of time that did feel very out-of-body and very just detached from all things real. I felt superhuman during some of that...I was taking a lot of testosterone cream and I think I went too far with it. It was, kind of, like, a borderline, not a 'roid rage, but a 'roid disengage."

If a cream really did cause Charlie Sheen to consume unthinkable amounts of crack cocaine and pay porn stars to hang out with him, the FDA's regulation standards should be put under thorough investigation.

Below is a clip from the interview, set to air Wednesday, where Sheen will reportedly open up about his tumultuous relationship with ex-wife Denise Richards and his desire to enroll in a clinical trial for an HIV treatment developed by CytoDyn.

Charlie Sheen blames his 2011 meltdown on testosterone cream, which is confusing.

2011 was a time so dominated by bizarre Charlie Sheen news that browser plug-ins blocking mentions of Sheen's antics were necessary for just making it through the day. In an upcoming interview with 'respected medical...


Bride Is 11, Groom Is 35. When They Get Married, Watch What Her Family Does...

John and Lilly’s wedding looks as stunning as any other. The event was filled with roses, ribbons, and beautiful decor. John’s and Lilly’s families were there, too. On the surface, it looked like something out of a storybook. But the heartbreaking truth for Lilly — an 11-year-old girl — is true for the very real 15 million little girls who are married every year. Bridal Musings and UNICEF have collaborated on this powerful video to show the horrors of child marriage. These little girls are treated more like property than human beings. Child marriage happens all over the world, in just about every continent, but together we can stop it.

According to Bridal Musings and UNICEF: "The sad truth is that a girl who is married as a child is more likely to be out of school, experience domestic violence, and become infected with HIV/AIDS. She is more likely to have children when she herself is still a child, and is far more likely to die due to complications during pregnancy and childbirth."

In the video, Lilly, who would normally be in middle school, marries 35-year-old John. Watch as her family looks on complicity in the living tragedy. They do nothing to stop it; in fact, they help move the process right along.

Watch UNICEF’s Powerful Video To End Child Marriage

John and Lilly’s wedding looks as stunning as any other. The event was filled with roses, ribbons, and beautiful decor. John’s and Lilly’s families were there, too. On the surface, it looked like something out of a storybook. But the heartbreaking truth for Lilly — an 11-year-old girl — is true for the very real...

They don't get married because it's a UNICEF ad campaign to end child marriage.

And her family doesn't do anything...even in the ad.

#StopClickBait


Here's Why Bam Margera Is Nicknamed 'Bam'

Bam Margera has made a career out of putting his body in harm's way, so it's quite an achievement that he's managed to make it to his 37th birthday, which he'll celebrate tomorrow.

The professional skateboarder, stunt performer, and television personality rose to fame as part of MTV's Jackass crew and went on to star in shows such as Viva La Bam and Bam's Unholy Union.

Some of his most ridiculously dangerous stunts included 'Electric Avenue', which involved him getting hit by a stun gun, and 'Grass Skiing', which involved him running full speed up a ramp and jumping onto the top of the tree. As you do.

On of my personal favourites is from the first season of Jackass, when Bam pushes a shopping cart which Brandon DiCamillo is sat in dressed as a knight, swinging a sword. DiCamillo goes flying in the air and crashes on the floor and it's brilliant.

Anyway, if you've ever wondered why the 37-year-old daredevil calls himself 'Bam', wonder no more.

It turns out his grandfather nicknamed him that at the age of three because of his habit of running into walls. Sounds about right, that, doesn't it?

Apparently, when he gained professional success, he changed his legal name to it.

He ran into walls a lot as a child [The Lad Bible]


Released earlier this week, the report -- Pornhub's "2013 Porn In Review" -- says that Americans spent an average of 10 minutes, 39 seconds on the website every time they visited this past year. That's a whole minute longer than the average visit from porn lovers in the U.K., who claimed the second spot on the list.

According to Pornhub, which is one of the Web's largest porn sites, people in Mississippi (11:47), Hawaii (11:36) and Arkansas (11:32) spent the most time, per average session, watching porn on the site. In contrast, residents of Rhode Island, Vermont and New Hampshire had the shortest porn-watching sessions.

Of course, Americans aren't the only ones who enjoy their porn. In its report, Pornhub also revealed just how many visitors it received worldwide in 2013.

"Over the last year, our oh-so-valued users came to Pornhub an astonishing fourteen billion, seven hundred seventy–five million times," the site writes. "That works out to roughly 1.68 million visits per hour over the entire year."

According to the report, January was the most popular month and Monday was the most popular day of the week for porn-viewing worldwide, while August was found to be the least popular month and Sunday the least popular day.

As for search terms, the report says that "teen" and "milf" were among the top search terms worldwide in 2013. "Compilation," "lesbian" and "anal" were also hot terms this year.

For more on Pornhub's "2013 Porn In Review," click here.

One Stat That Proves America Really Enjoys Its Porn

Americans' porn-watching sessions are, on average, the longest on the planet, according to a new report about the world's porn habits in 2013.

Releas...

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How to get that song out of your head, according to science

Are you imagining music in your head? If so, it’s probably a certain Kylie Minogue hit. Sorry. But hopefully, once you’ve read this, you’ll be in a better position than you were before to get rid of it, or any other imaginary music playing on repeat in your mind’s ear.

Research suggests that 'earworms' – that experience of having music stuck in your head – are commonplace. It also suggests, contrary to popular belief, that most of the time earworms are not particularly troublesome. But I’m not alone in sometimes seeking to silence those silent songs. So here are six tips for earworm eradication based on the latest research.

First of all, avoid music. This is certainly easier said than done – and, as a musician, not something I would seriously recommend. That being said, I’m careful to avoid hearing any music before going to bed, since its transformation into an earworm interferes with my sleep. Repetition and recency are the dreaded 'Rs'of earworm sufferers.

Try not to listen to a song over and over again, and avoid music that is in itself highly repetitive. We also know that having heard a song recently is the most cited reason for then imagining it. If you’d rather that a different song played from your mental jukebox, make sure that this is the last thing that you hear.

There is also some evidence that if the music we are listening to is interrupted, we continue it mentally (known as the Zeigarnik effect). To prevent this from happening, it’s advisable to listen through to the end of the track.

But should these earworm prevention tips have failed, how can we get rid of intrusive musical thoughts?

A recent research paper claims that chewing gum provides a simple solution. In a series of experiments, participants who were given gum to chew reported fewer earworms than those who weren’t. Normally, our vocal apparatus is involved in singing, so the theory goes that when our jaws are otherwise engaged, our ability to imagine music is impaired.

Another tip to foil your earworm is to walk at a much faster or slower pace than the song’s beat. It seems that we form relatively accurate memories for the tempo of familiar music.

We also know that movement (for example dancing, tapping, nodding along) is an important contributor to earworm experience. By using body movement to disturb our memory for the musical tempo, we can interrupt the musical flow to end the seemingly automatic mental replay.

A popular way to engage with music is to sing it. Research suggests that if you’re prone to everyday singing, you’re also prone to earworms that last for a relatively long time. Why not turn this to your advantage and make an active choice to serenade those around you with music that would provide a positive mental accompaniment to your day?

When that unwanted earworm starts, sing something else, out loud. Singing the theme to 80 Days Around the World, the cartoon from the 1980s, used to be my personal antidote, but now I’m more selective in my musical choices.

One of the factors shaping my choice of music to imagine is my mood. An extensive survey of earworm reports points to the importance of mood, stress and emotional state in the occurrence of earworms.

There is also some evidence that when we imagine a particular song, our mood approximates the way we felt when we heard it. So if you were angry when you heard Justin Bieber on the radio this morning, you might feel angry when it’s circling your brain later in the day.

More psychological research is needed to understand whether we deliberately imagine music to regulate our emotions. In the meantime, if the mood evoked by the music in your head does not correspond to your desired emotional state, change the (mental) record.

To eradicate earworms altogether, consider doing a mental activity that is either more or less challenging. We know that routine activities which are low in cognitive load, such as tooth brushing, are conducive to mind wandering, which can, in turn, lead to involuntary musical imagery. On the other hand, mentally demanding tasks such as difficult homework have also been associated with earworms.

But mind wandering rarely occurs when we socialise; an activity that lies in the middle of the range for its mental challenge. A potentially pleasant way to banish unwanted musical thoughts could be to spend time with friends.

It would be remiss of me not to warn you of the irony that attempts to deliberately control our thoughts have been known to have the opposite effect. Interestingly, differences in how much we want to suppress earworms appear to be reflected in the cortical structures of our brain.

If your earworms have resisted all deliberate attempts to banish them, my final advice is to stop trying and to distract yourself. Some people find musical or verbal distractions such as watching TV to be particularly effective if you have the leisure. I should be so lucky. ("Lucky, lucky, lucky...")

Freya Bailes, Academic Fellow in Music Psychology, University of Leeds.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

How to Get That Song Out of Your Head, According to Science

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1.Avoid Music
2.Exercise or chew gum
3.Sing
4.Listen to your mood?
5.Phone a friend
6.Don't try so hard

#StopClickBait

1. Shut your ears
2. Physical remedies
3. Sing
4. Listen to your mood
5. Phone a friend


If you've shared this status on Facebook, delete your account

In the image, 'Zuckerberg' is alleged to have replied that if the screenshot received 500k likes, 50k comments and 20k shares, he would ban the Republican presidential candidate from Facebook.

Because there's no problem with mob rule dictating the use of censorship. Nope. None.

Here's the problem. Why in his right mind would Zuckerberg reply? This is a fairly obvious case of 'like-farming', when users create spurious Facebook posts just for the likes, as many other media outlets have claimed.

The Huffington Post already cast doubt of the veracity of Mccaster's story, as did Yahoo News - it's a format well trodden with free Lamborghini's, although the banning of a presidential nominee would be novel.

To add to this, there are other posts on Mccaster's Facebook purporting to be conversations with other well knowns.

For instance, here is this 'conversation' allegedly with the Donald himself.

And here's an identical post to that one, from 'Callan Brown'. The writer David Puente has been debunking these posts by Brown, who also shared the Zuckerberg posts when they began appearing in September.

But back to the 'Zuckerberg' post, perhaps the Zinoviev letter of the 21st century. It has become a social media juggernaut.

As of Monday morning, the post had exceeded every single target. It had over 1,000,000 likes, over 200,000 comments, and had been shared over 179,000 times.

Even if this were real and verified, there's a broader point here about free speech - despite all this enthusiasm Trump is still on Facebook.

Mark Zuckerberg is highly unlikely to use his awesome power over Facebook audiences to sway a presidential election in such an overt manner.

In addition, if 'likes' meant anything then all the posts about keeping Facebook 'free' must have worked - and all your information is definitely set to 'private' ever since we all copied and pasted a message about it.

If you've shared this Facebook post about Donald Trump it's probably time to delete your account

There's a pointless 'campaign' happening on Facebook to get Donald Trump banned from the website. Here's all you need to know about it.  On Saturday, someone asked Mark Zuckerberg what it would take to have Donald Trump banned from Facebook. According to the post, the multi-billionaire accepted the premise of the question from a stranger and set them a challenge. The user, Gavin Mccaster told (slightly forcefully, if we're honest) Zuckerberg that he would be taking a screenshot of their conversation.

this = fake Messenger screenshot of Mark Zuckerberg saying he'll delete Trump's account if the poster gets 500k likes, 50k comments and 20k shares


10 New Year's resolutions for your wallet

Love or hate New Year's resolutions, there probably are a few you could stand to make for your wallet's sake. They can be short-term, easy fixes to save money throughout the year, while also potentially helping you achieve larger financial goals.

Here are my 10 suggestions to make sure you start off 2017 on the right financial footing:

1. Clean out your wallet. A cluttered wallet isn't just bulky; it also can be expensive if you're paying for cards you don't use. Start lean and mean in 2017. Review the cards and figure out how they benefit you. Many people, myself included, signed up for some cards merely for their cool factor or maybe to pursue a one-time benefit   such as a juicy sign-up bonus that has long since been exhausted. At best, these cards can be a distraction and waste of space. At worst, they can cost you an annual fee without making up for it in benefits. Keep only cards earning high rewards that you'll actually use or cards that are important to maintain your credit score.

2. Prioritize your purchases. Healthy budgeting may sound about as fun as healthy dieting, but success for both often can start with something as simple as understanding what works best for you. At its heart, a budget helps you recognize trade-offs in your purchases. Movies or dining out? Game console or summer vacation? New clothes or weekend getaway? Until you're able to identify and plan for these trade-offs in advance, you're not in charge of your money.

3. Optimize your credit cards. Whether you're trying to maximize rewards or minimize the cost of credit card debt, you probably have room for improvement. At this point, 1.5% cash back is the new gold standard for rewards, so make sure you're earning at least that much on every purchase. And if you're looking to minimize the cost of debt, a 12-month, 0% intro APR offer is a good baseline. If you're unsure what kind of card you might qualify for, I recommend checking your free credit score or seeing whether you pre-qualify for a card.

4. Upgrade your checking account. As I emphasized a couple of columns ago, bank fees bite. If you're paying fees for your checking account regularly, that's a sign you could be doing better   either with your own money management or your choice in banks. A new account might also come with new capabilities such as mobile check deposit or better ATM access. Here's a handy guide to find the right checking account for you.

5. Upgrade your savings account. There's a fair chance you could be earning higher interest in the coming new year than you did in 2016. Many online banks are offering annual percentage yields of 1% or higher, which we hope will rise since the Federal Reserve increased its funds rates in December.

6. Open a P2P account. Still writing and receiving physical checks to and from friends and family? What a hassle. It's nearly 2017, not 1987. If you need to pay someone back quickly and easily   whether for baby-sitting, splitting utility bills or sharing a restaurant tab   open an account on a peer-to-peer (P2P) payment app such as Venmo, PayPal, Zelle or Square Cash. Ask around to see what's popular among your friends, as they'll need to use the same app to receive or send money.

7. Boost your savings rate. Saving money can be hard, especially if it's for a less-immediate goal such as retirement, an emergency fund (see below) or a down payment on a home. Here are tips to boost your savings rate: (1) If your employer matches 401(k) contributions, make sure you're contributing enough from your paycheck to get the full match. (2) Divert some of your wages automatically into your savings account before you have the chance to spend it. (3) Plan now to save any windfalls, such as tax refunds, gifts or the occasional lottery winnings. (4) Check your credit card and checking account statements to see whether you can cut any charges for recurring services that aren't needed.

8. Build an emergency fund. A key measure of financial freedom is the ability to cover short-term emergencies with cash instead of by taking on debt. That said, many of us already have plenty of debt, and it's often difficult to decide between saving cash or paying down that debt. The short story? All things being equal, putting a little money in the bank generally should be prioritized in most cases.

9. Use your rewards card for every purchase. Sure, credit card rewards rates won't make you rich, but the 1.5% you could earn back on every purchase adds up. It can help boost your savings or make a significant dent in a planned purchase.

10. Use your airline miles. Airlines historically devalue points on their loyalty programs every few years, and you'll also want to make sure there's no expiration policy on your points or miles. Saving them for some big future vacation might sound nice, but if they need to be redeemed by a certain point, don't let them slip through your fingers.

10 New Year's Resolutions For Your Wallet

Life leaves our wallets full of relics from past financial decisions — some good, some bad. As the new year approaches, take the opportunity to ensure you have the right products working for you, and clean out the rest.

1. Clean out your wallet.
2. Prioritize your purchases.
3. Optimize your credit cards.
4. Upgrade your checking account.
5. Upgrade your savings account.


You’ll never believe what’s making the ocean look like a Van Gogh painting

NASA just beamed down an incredible photo of Earth taken via satellite, but what is it exactly?

While your first guesses might be pollution or some kind of chemical, this is actually a natural phenomenon that takes place twice a year. What you’re looking at is the Atlantic Ocean hosting a massive phytoplankton bloom. Practically billions (if not more) of these creatures are spawning in the water, leaving it with a greenish-hue. And don’t let their microscopic size fool you, these things actually form the foundation of the underwater food chain.

The reason NASA is taking an interest in them, however, is much more interesting. The agency believes phytoplankton play a role in carbon cycling. Through the process of photosynthesis, these tiny creatures can actually consume as much carbon dioxide as forests. Phytoplankton are sometimes referred to as a "biological carbon pump" because they can transport these gases to deeper parts of the ocean, whether because they died or because they were eaten by a predator.

As a result, researchers want to see if tiny phytoplankton actually have the power to influence clouds and climate. The space agency has actually been observing these blooms for some time. Here is another image it released from 2004:

Unfortunately, all researchers will say for sure is that the image of these phytoplankton shows a link between ocean physics and biology...whatever that means.

"The features that jump out so clearly represent the influence of ocean eddies and physical stirring on the concentration of phytoplankton pigments and, possibly, colored dissolved organic matter," phytoplankton ecologist Michael Behrenfeld said in a statement.

For now, we guess we’ll sit back and enjoy the pretty image. But remember phytoplankton, because they may have a lot more to do with global warming than we realize.

You'll never believe what's making the ocean look like a Van Gogh painting - The Loop

The Loop is Canada’s source for social lifestyle and entertainment content. From life hacks and beauty tips to sex advice from the Golden Girls, we serve up fresh content daily with a dash of perspective and plenty of humour. It’s just what you need, just when you need it!

A phytoplankton bloom, which occurs twice a year in the Atlantic ocean. #StopClickBait


This website will share your personal information with anyone — here's how to stop it

A writer named Anna Brittain recently made people aware of a site called FamilyTreeNow, which lets anyone search for someone by name and location for free. The results show family members, their birthdays, their home addresses, your possible associates, and your own current and past addresses. It may seem creepy, but all of this information is already available in various public records. The ease with which it is viewable, however, is a bit unnerving. Fortunately, there is a way to opt out.

This website will share your personal information with anyone â here's how to stop it

A genealogy website may haveÂ given cyber criminals an easy tool to help them steal your identity, and the Internet is freaking out.


They Found An Abandoned School Bus In The Woods, And Couldn’t Believe What Was Hiding Inside!

With the rising popularity of tiny homes and DIY houses, people are making living spaces out of all kinds of unconventional structures, from lighthouses, to shipping containers, and even grain silos.

One father and son team enjoy finding these quirky little places, so they took a trip to a small farm in Saxapahaw, North Carolina. There, they found a peaceful meadow, a bubbling stream... and the most unusual house they’d ever seen.

Who would have thought that a school bus would turn out to be the perfect tiny home? The son wrote of his experience in this funky crash pad: "While the amenities were very sparse, staying in this bus reminded me of just how little we need to survive, and how cheaply we can attain it."

Check Out This Cool Converted Old School Bus!

Tiny homes are everywhere these days, but this one made from an old converted school bus definitely has character.

Someone turned it into a house. #StopClickBait


Why Demi Lovato didn't think she would live to 21

Demi Lovato gets candid about her history with addiction and an eating disorder in a new interview with American Way.

The 23-year-old singer told the American Airlines magazine that her mother and grandmother both struggled with eating disorders, which made Lovato self-conscious of her body when she was very little.

"Even though I was 2 or 3 years old being around somebody who was 80 pounds and had an active eating disorder ... it’s hard not to grow up like that," Lovato said.

Lovato traces her experience with bulimia back to age 9. Participating in pageants at a young age and later getting bullied at school only increased the "Cool for the Summer" singer's issues with eating. As her fame grew, Lovato told American Way that she was cutting herself and self-medicating with alcohol, cocaine and OxyContin.

"I lived fast and I was going to die young," the singer said. "I didn’t think I would make it to 21."

Lovato has credited rehab and therapy for helping her battle bulimia and her addictions, as well as manage her bipolar disorder. In an interview with HuffPost Live in 2015, Lovato also said her then-boyfriend Wilmer Valderrama (the two recently split) helped save her life.

"He'll never take credit for a lot of my sobriety and my recovery, but I guarantee it, I wouldn’t be alive without him today," said the singer.

To read the rest of Lovato's interview, head here.

Why Demi Lovato Didn't Think She Would Make It To 21

The singer opens up about her past struggles in a new interview.


When a K-9 died, its handler seemed distraught. But then investigators dug up his back yard.

Veteran K-9 officer Daniel Peabody has been accused of killing three of his dogs, two of which were K-9 police dogs. (CBS46)

At least, that’s the way it looked to students whenever Peabody, a hulking and heavily tattooed school cop, strode into northern Georgia classrooms with a K-9 at his side.

The lieutenant loved his animal partners so much that when one dog retired, Peabody promptly adopted him.

But Peabody wasn’t the dog savior he portrayed himself to be, authorities say.

Instead, the veteran K-9 officer now stands accused of leaving one police dog in a roasting car to die and executing another.

Cherokee Co Schools Police Lt Daniel Peabody could face animal cruelty charges. His K9 Inka died in his hot car. pic.twitter.com/OGqDGohNMz — Matt Johnson (@MJohnsonWSB) June 11, 2016

On Tuesday, investigators announced that the remains of a third dog — unearthed in Peabody’s back yard — indicated the animal also had been shot, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The alleged case of animal cruelty is all the more bizarre because of the special protections police departments bestow on the expensive and highly trained animals.

[‘No choice but to start stabbing’: Family fights off retired K-9 as he mauls man who gave him water]

In Georgia, for instance, it is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison to intentionally kill a K9 — a penalty stiffened just last year after a police dog was killed in the line of duty.

Few in Cherokee County could have imagined that the biggest threat to a beloved police dog was the man holding its leash.

Daniel Peabody. (Cherokee County Marshal’s Office)

The strange story dates to at least 2012, but only came to light last month.

On June 10, Peabody and his pawed partner, Inca, a four-year-old Belgian Malinois, came home from work about 4:15 p.m.

Peabody, a 16-year police veteran who had worked with K-9s for five years, rushed inside to deal with another dog, Cherokee County Marshal’s Office Maj. Jamie Gianfala told the Marietta Daily Journal.

Nearly three hours later, Peabody suddenly remembered he had left Inca in his squad car. When Peabody went outside to check on the dog, she was dead, Gianfala said.

Gianfala also said Peabody’s 2001 Ford Crown Victoria was not equipped for police dogs.

"There’s no kennel, there’s no alarms," he added. "It’s basically just a Crown Vic police car."

Gorgeous K9 gone too soon. Inka died when she was left in a hot car. Ch. 2 right now. https://t.co/o07Uq0QIdn pic.twitter.com/7exiUb9KAs — Matt Johnson (@MJohnsonWSB) June 12, 2016

The temperature that afternoon was in the 90s, "and that was outside, so I’m sure the temperature in that police car was much higher," added Chief Marshal Ron Hunton.

Hunton told the Daily Journal that Peabody was visibly distraught over the dog’s death, hyperventilating so badly that he had to be taken to a hospital and passed out at one point.

"He is very, very upset about the death of his dog," Hunton said.

A few days later, Peabody abruptly resigned, according to the Journal-Constitution.

When authorities investigated Inca’s death, however, they quickly stumbled upon other suspicious incidents involving the K-9 officer and his partners.

When they asked Peabody about Dale, a yellow lab he adopted in 2012 after five years of working alongside the animal, Peabody initially said the retired dog died in a freak accident.

Dale, retired k9 living w/former school police Lt. Daniel Peabody. Police say Peabody killed him too. Live at 4 pic.twitter.com/uVkLRwEuXO — Tyisha Fernandes (@TyishaWSB) June 22, 2016

"Peabody initially claimed Dale’s death was accidental due to Dale choking on a toy," the marshal’s office said in a statement, according to the Journal-Constitution. "However, the investigation yielded evidence that Dale was in fact shot and killed by Peabody at his Paulding County home."

On June 20, investigators executing a search warrant on Peabody’s former home in Paulding County unearthed the remains of a dog they suspected was Dale.

Peabody was charged with aggravated cruelty to animals and making a false statement to investigators.

His wife, Tyler Verlander, meanwhile, was cited for operating a dog boarding and training business without a Cherokee County occupation tax certificate, according to the Journal-Constitution. She was also charged with operating a boarding and training business inside a residential district and too close to a residential property. The charges are unrelated to the K-9 deaths.

On Tuesday, investigators announced yet another twist in the curious case.

A forensic veterinarian had determined that the dog remains did not, in fact, belong to Dale.

Instead, they belonged to a Belgian Malinois — possibly Inca’s grandmother.

The discovery brought to three the number of dogs Peabody is suspected of killing, although authorities say the development won’t affect charges facing the former school cop.

Daniel Peabody, a former K-9 officer and school cop in northern Georgia, is now suspected in the deaths of three dogs.

Daniel Peabody, K-9, dog, cop, police, Georgia, Cherokee County Marshal's Office, crime, animal cruelty

Turned out he killed 3 of his own dogs. #StopClickBait


The Horrible Choice Zika Is Forcing Some Brides to Make

Sara Brooks was sure Cabo would be the perfect place for her destination wedding this coming November. The desert landscape reminded her of her Arizona hometown, and Will had always loved to surf the coast of Mexico. Plus, she and Will had their first Tinder conversation in Spanish, so it seemed like a special gesture to get married in a Spanish-speaking country. But that was December 2015, when no one had even heard of the Zika virus, a mosquito-borne illness that can cause severe birth defects, which was spreading northward from South America.

"Five months into planning my dream wedding, my maid of honor called to tell me she was pregnant and didn’t feel safe traveling to Mexico," Brooks says. Her other best friend also said it was highly unlikely she’d attend, saying she plans to be pregnant or actively trying by November. "I had what I can only describe as a mini nervous breakdown in my office."

Brooks, 33, called her fiancé and told him they had to cancel the wedding because there was no way she was getting married without her best friends there. "I had visions of the entire wedding party in mosquito net dresses," she says. She embarked on a 48-hour tailspin of planning three alternate weddings in other locations and tried to convince herself she was all right with losing the nearly $35,000 that canceling the Mexico wedding would mean. The venues in Cabo told her they weren’t giving any deposit refunds as there hasn’t yet been a case of Zika in the region.

But after a few days of "mediation and an attempt at return to logic," Brooks decided that she wasn’t going to cancel the wedding. "I realized that by November, no one knows where Zika could be," she says, thinking it might be affecting most of the U.S. by then. Her fears of Zika’s spread weren’t unfounded: The CDC is currently reporting 691 travel-associated cases in the United States as of June 8.

Many couples are now faced with the same decision Brooks had to make. In 2015, Destination Weddings Travel Group found that 24 percent of couples chose destination weddings, and the top four destinations are Jamaica, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Hawaii. The top emerging destinations are Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, St. Lucia, and Grenada. Of those eight locales, seven are in areas the CDC has now placed under alert for active Zika transmission. The CDC and many OBs advise pregnant women or anyone thinking of conceiving - i.e. a lot of engaged couples and wedding guests - against traveling to Zika-affected territories to avoid the risk of microcephaly, a birth defect where the brain and head develop smaller than normal. ( There have been 1,326 confirmed cases of Zika-caused microcephaly in Brazil alone .) It’s an unusual and unpleasant dilemma: Cancel your wedding and forfeit many thousands of dollars, or don’t cancel and accept the absence of some of your closest friends, plus the risk of you or someone you love contracting a virus that has no cure.

‘The wedding planning process is stressful enough. If someone were to get sick, god forbid, the guilt just wouldn’t be worth it.’

The choice to cancel might seem like the easy one - and when the news of Zika really started to break in February, there was a higher-than-average rate of cancellations. Jennifer Doncsecz is president of VIP Vacations, a travel agency that plans about 115 to 200 weddings a year, mostly in Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the Caribbean. This year, Doncsecz saw guests cancel in almost all 50 destination weddings she planned between March and June. "In February we had three or four weddings with contracts in hand who backed away," she says. "And that month, at the height of everything, we also had three weddings planned for this summer that canceled entirely."

Karrah Pieper, 27, and her fiancé Zach, 33, who live in Austin, had just sent out their save-the-dates in February when they decided to cancel their plans for a November wedding in Puerto Rico. "The wedding planning process is stressful enough as it is," Pieper says, "and if someone were to get sick, god forbid, the guilt just wouldn’t be worth it." Since they were set on a beach wedding, the couple switched their nuptials from an island in November to Vancouver in August, losing about a third of their guests due to the date and location change. Thanks to a good lawyer and a "natural disaster" clause in their Puerto Rico cancellation policy, they were able to get back their $2,250 lodging down payment. But other couples’ venue contracts aren’t so forgiving.

Whether to cancel their destination weddings or not. How "horrible", compared to deciding whether to have kids or terminate pregnancies due to Zika fears.


You won't believe how much Baz Luhrmann's new series cost

After two-and-a-half-years of reshoots, rewrites, stopping, starting and earning the nickname "The Shut Down", Baz Luhrmann's new Netflix series will finally air this Friday.

However The Get Down wasn't exactly cheap to make.

According to The Daily Telegraph, Luhrmann's new project has broken records before airing, being tipped as the most-expensive series Netflix has ever produced after the budget exceeded $120 million

The director has a history was going over budget - and film schedules - with his 2012 retelling of The Great Gatsby going significantly over budget.

Similarly to the Gatsby, Luhrmann went through numerous script writers for The Get Down, and according to Variety, "two showrunners and every inch of the patience among executives at Sony Pictures Television."

Jaden Smith on set of The Get Down. Source: Getty

Despite this, the show, that chronicles funk music in the Bronx during the 1970s, has already received some decent reviews.

Indewire have called it Luhrmann’s best work since Moulin Rouge while The Hollywood Reporter have said the series thrives when Luhrmann’s influence becomes less evident.

"(Luhrmann’s) excesses work best in specific environments (Moulin Rouge) and less effectively in others (Australia, The Great Gatsby)," they wrote.

Jaden Smith stars in the series, alongside Jimmy Smits, Shameik Moore and Justice Smith.

The series will air on Friday. Source: Netflix

"The budget exceeded $120 million."
#StopClickBait


This Is What Happens When You Ask for Weed on Twitter

If you're looking for some sweet ganja on the 'net, keep this in mind — police departments are on Twitter too.

WHOS IN SARASOTA FLORIDA AND HAS WEED #Sarasota

When @preznixon16 tweeted out a request for weed in Florida, police department in Sarasota, Florida, responded, asking @preznixon16, whose Twitter name is Fly Shit Only, to stop by its headquarters. Busted.

If you'd like to stop by our HQs, our Narcotics Detectives would be more than happy to talk. #SayNoToDrugs #LESMhttps://twitter.com/preznixon16/status/729138884878192642 ...

And she would have gotten away with it, too if it weren't for that meddling hashtag. Fly Shit Only included #SARASOTA at the end of her tweet — which probably put the tweet on the Sarasota Police Department's radar. If you search for "weed" on Twitter, it's a goldmine of illegal tweet nuggets. @preznixon16 responded by retweeting department's request.

This isn't the first time a Florida police department used its Twitter presence to instill fear in desperate #marijuana seekers — the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office also responded to a request for weed in July 2015.

Where should we meet you?https://twitter.com/Rosa_Sparkz/status/623585018087100416 ...

It remains to be seen who sent the tweet to Fly Shit Only, but it likely wasn't a police officer scouring #Sarasota weed tweets on their iPhone. A Sarasota Police Department Narcotics Investigations official said in a phone call that the person in charge of the department's media affairs runs the social media account and probably sent out the tweet, possibly running it by the narcotics team first. We have reached out to the media affairs contact for comment.

As to whether Fly Shit Only scored some dope via the web, she tweeted at Mashable's Brian Koerber, "Unfortunately not." She has since turned to Twitter as a soap box to advocate for the legalization of weed.

This Is What Happens if You Ask for Weed on Twitter

twitter, marijuana, weed, police department, Tech

Your local police will probably tweet you back. #StopClickBait


The townhouse from @Beyonce's "Halo" video hits the market for an insane price

While Beyoncé's super secret visual album practically broke the Internet with its release earlier this month, a pricey piece of New York City real estate with ties to the singer has one prospective homeowner going for broke.

The 13,000-square-foot loft townhouse located at 214 Lafayette Street in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood features 3 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, a 925 square-foot terrace, an indoor pool and full basement, according to a listing on real estate website Street Easy. The "architectural masterpiece," as its described, is also where Mrs. Carter filmed the video for one of her biggest hits back in 2009.

Recognize these ethereal digs? (Hint: The loft was also featured in John Mayer’s "Who Says" video.) Check out the answer after the jump.

According to listing agent Steven Halpern of Urban Compass, the Lafayette Street townhouse where Beyoncé filmed her 2009 video "Halo" is now available for rent for $80,000 per month. It's also available for $20,000 a day — or $50,000 a week, Street Easy notes.

The 6-story townhouse also features 19-foot ceilings overlooking SoHo, an open, industrial chef's kitchen and a massive "cinematic living/dining area" with exposed brick, wood-burning fireplace and motorized movie screen.

Townhouse From Beyoncé's 'Halo' Video Hits The Market For An Insane Price (PHOTOS)

While Beyoncé's super secret visual album practically broke the Internet with its

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