During the 2016 election, Russian bad actors intentionally targeted American social media––and especially Facebook––showed us that Facebook has the potential to be abused to great effect. Unfortunately, that’s not just happening in the United States, it’s also happening in Myanmar. Facebook is free in Myanmar, so it’s the primary internet activity there. Most people get their news from Facebook, a fact that the anti-Muslim extremists use to their advantage to spread lies and hate about Myanmar’s Muslim population.

In 2010, the city of Seattle ceased to prosecute low-level marijuana cases, and more recently marijuana was legalized in Washington state. The latest development in Seattle’s increasing progressivism in terms of marijuana came recently when Seattle judges opted to clear past marijuana misdemeanor convictions. This decision could affect 542 people who have been convicted of crimes between 1996 and 2010. Other cities and states are considering similar plans, making Seattle one of the first dominos to fall in an inevitable shift in the criminal justice system. 

Movie accents mostly stand out when they’re bad. Think Tom Cruise’s awful Irish accent in Far and Away. This video isn’t about bad accents, it’s about good ones. It’s especially about the nuances that make those accents good. The expert focuses a lot on non-Americans doing American accents, such as Nichole Kidman from Big Little Lies or Andrew Lincoln in The Walking Dead. This video is not only fun to watch (and actually kind of addicting), but it will also teach you a bit about how accents work.

The obesity epidemic was already a big problem, as it were, but now it’s getting bigger. Two years ago, obesity rates were 35% in five states. Now, they’re 35% in seven states, according to the report from Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. But it’s not all doom and gloom. From the article: “The good news is that there is growing evidence that certain prevention programs can reverse these trends. But we won’t see meaningful declines in state and national obesity rates until they are implemented throughout the nation and receive sustained support.” 

We know how bad the pun was in the title. It was so bad we deserve to be…stoned. Ok that was the last one, we don’t want to get thrown into the joint for bad punnery. Onto the serious news. The Canadian cannabis company Tilray has ballooned over five-hundred percent in the last month, and it is now larger than a whopping forty-five percent of stocks on the S&P 500. That’s bigger than companies like Coors, Chipotle, and Macy’s. 

Back in 2015, Marine Le Pen posted some rather graphic tweets. She posted things, including the ISIS-led beheading of journalist James Foley. Le Pen took to twitter to respond, writing: “I thought I had seen it all: but no! For having denounced the horrors of #Daesh in tweets, the ‘justice’ is submitting me to a psychiatric evaluation! How far will they go? It’s UNBELIEVABLE.” This criticism fits her party’s continued claims of persecution, which will undoubtedly lead to interesting political issues in France in the near future.

Fred Rogers once said that, whenever you see a disaster, look for the helpers. There are always people who will help. This story is one of the best examples of “the helpers” that you’ll ever see. A group of marines literally sprinted to a senior home that was on fire. Without hesitation, they swarmed into the home and saved the trapped seniors. So far, no fatalities have been reported.

Recently, we posted some tips about how to engage in civil, productive arguments. This video is not about that. This video is full of dirty tricks that will just help you win. Sometimes arguing is like a boxing match. You have to act like a sportsman. Other times, arguing is a street fight. You need to use dirty tricks to win. You’ll learn those dirty tricks here. For example, sometimes you just need to get the audience on your side, even if that means take a few cheap shots at your opponent. 

This is a revenge story. Most revenge stories involve jilted lovers or maybe hurt relatives. Revenge stories do not involve mini horses. Judy B. Cochran, mayor of Livingston, Texas, owns mini horses. Years ago, one of those horses were eaten by an alligator. She believes she found that alligator, and she took her vengeance. She took some raccoon roadkill. She baited the gator, and when it took the bait she shot it in the head with a shotgun. 

If you spend any time on social media––which you probably do since you’re reading this on the internet, and pretty much everyone on the internet uses social media––then you have likely noticed that any platform you use feels like a dumpster fire. There’s a reason for that. Even though it’s called social media, it’s not really social. See, in real life, we get cues from people we talk to telling us that we’re either being crazy or being cool, extreme or reasonable. We adjust our behavior accordingly. Social media rewards us with likes or shares or just plain old attention for being extreme or crazy. We’re not incentivized to be cool, we’re incentivized to be jerks. 

Sperm whale poop is worth more than gold. That’s hard to believe, we know, but it’s true. Don’t even think about what physical qualities make it valuable. Consider its scarcity. Scarcity, as Adam Smith teaches us, is inherently valuable. Imagine how hard it is to find a floating nugget of Sperm whale poop. Very hard, hence its value. But then there’s the quality of the poop, also known as ambergris. It’s got a funky smell that is critical to high quality perfumes. This video tells you how poop becomes gold. Or, if it’s too long, see the one below which is much shorter and much funnier, an dit is from Bob’s Burgers. 

There’s one thing you never want to hear about a pilot: that he or she forgot to do something. Unfortunately for these passengers on a Jet Airways from Mumbai to Jaipur, India. The plane had to turn back soon after takeoff because the pilot forgot to flip a switch regulating air pressure. Passengers tweeted videos of the oxygen masks deployed, and some passengers experienced bleeding from from their ears and their eyes. The pilots have been grounded.