We have recently posted about the ways that Russia is attempting to destabilize the United States and gain advantage for themselves on the international stage. This article is yet more evidence that their meddling is working. Here’s the gist. Arctic ice is melting, and Russia is trying to take over more of the Arctic for its tremendous resources. The Coast Guard needs many more icebreaking ships to give the US access to this part of the world, but the funding is going to a useless border wall. That means Russia will have basically unfettered access. 

Paul Manafort made his reputation lobbying in Washington D.C. But before the 2016 election, he had been overseas make a fortune. Then he came back and joined the Trump team. And then that whole “making his fortune overseas” thing, predictably, came back to bite him. He worked with some bad people, and he made some very bad choices. This Washington Post video digs into Manafort’s seedy past and describes how it might land him in jail. 

Patrick Stewart, famed for his role as Jean-Luc Picard, captain of the USS Enterprise. Stewart played the role for “Star Trek: The Next Generation” from 1987 to 1994. He also was the captain in several films. “I feel I’m ready to return to him for the same reason — to research and experience what comforting and reforming light he might shine on these often very dark times. I look forward to working with our brilliant creative team as we endeavor to bring a fresh, unexpected and pertinent story to life once more.” The show will be streaming on CBS All Access.

There are two opinions about the Big Bang Theory. Either people love it, or they think it’s literally the worst thing ever to happen to television. If you’re in the former camp, you’re not going to get much out of this video––unless you are open to enlightenment. Because dang. This show is really bad. This video explains why the show is inherently meaningless because its references are meaningless, and that’s where the show went wrong. 

Many airlines have policies that allow musicians to bring their instruments on board the plane, so long as they buy a ticket. This became especially important after the infamous “United Breaks Guitars” incident. Given that incident, cellist Jingjing Hu did not want to check her $30,000 instrument. So, she bought it a ticket. The first round of her trip was great. But the second round did not go so great––she was allowed to board, and then suddenly she was escorted from her seat by law enforcement. 

The first commercial jet was called the de Havilland Comet. It was a vast improvement over some of the major issues of propeller planes. Those were very loud, vibrated constantly, and they couldn’t fly high enough to avoid bad weather meaning lots of turbulence. But even though the de Havilland Comet looked so awesome and modern, it was still the first commercial jet, and it had issues. One of which was––and there’s no nice way to put this––catastrophic depressurization. 

The difference between success and failure in most things––and, heck, in life in general––is often self-discipline. There are no magic tricks, hacks, or ways around it. To succeed, you just have to be disciplined. And what’s worse is, we know this. The great myths of the world tell us that great gain comes from great sacrifice. So why don’t we sacrifice the way we need to? This video explains the chemical process in our brain that prevents us from being as disciplined as we should be.

The gruesome collage above is just a small taste of the horrors Bangladeshi students are experiencing. Do you see the middle right panel? That young man’s eyes were gouged out by government agents. His friends wrapped his face in the Bangladeshi flag. What caused such violence? Protests for safe streets after two students were run down by a bus.

Experts in Russian-US relations have called the 2016 election meddling the Pearl Harbor of our era. This article serves as a reminder that US-Russians relations have been strained since Putin took power nearly twenty years ago. From the article, “The Russian national had been hired by the US Secret Service and is understood to have had access to the agency’s intranet and email systems, which gave her a potential window into highly confidential material including the schedules of the president and vice-president.” It is unknown how much damage the spy caused. 

If you do pub trivia, then you’re going to want to bookmark this video––and its predecessor––and watch them once or twice a day. You’ll learn tons of interesting facts, like the fact that Saudi Arabia has the highest military spending per capita and Sri Lanka has the highest suicide rate in the world. Obviously, these facts run the gamut of good news to bad news, so expect weird juxtapositions like the last one.

Guy Fieri gets a lot of flak on the internet, mostly because of his frosted tips and all of the frequent flier miles he accumulated traveling to flavortown. José Andrés is much more low key in terms of internet fame. The unlikely duo have teamed up to help victims of the Carr Fire, which is now the seventh most destructive in California history. Together, the two chefs have helped provide thousands of meals to victims and firefighters. 

ElectroBOOM brings you all the fun of science experiments with all the drama of the old school World Wrestling Federation. In this video, a followup to the one in which he constructed his own Van De Graaff generator, ElectroBOOM does some experiments. Of course, in true ElectroBOOM style most of the experiments end in swear words and electric shocks. But you will also learn how Van De Graaff generators work, which may not be useful is nevertheless awesome.