America's infrastructure is close to hitting rock bottom. In fact, infrastructure as a whole in the US received an embarrassing D+ on the American Society of Civil Engineers latest Infrastructure Report Card. And when talking specifically about bridges, the grade was a C+. Way to go, Congress.

According to Business Insider, "Every state has at least one structurally deficient bridge, which the US Department of Transportation (DOT) defines as when one or more key bridge components (e.g. the deck, superstructure, or substructure) is in 'poor' condition."

And the Auto Insurance Center says that "tens of thousands of bridges across the country are currently falling apart." Great. So which of these over 10,000 crumbling US bridges are in the worst condition? The Auto Insurance Center put out a list, which includes the worst bridge in every state, including Washington D.C. Here is a sample from the list:

• Arizona I-17 over 19th Avenue in Maricopa County • California I-110 over Dominguez Channel in Los Angeles • Colorado I-70 ML over Havana St Railroad in Denver • Florida Fuller Warren Bridge in Duval County • New York Route I-278 over Relief in Richmond County • Washington DC Anacostia Freeway over Suitland Parkway Southeast

For an easy way to read the full list, check it out at Business Insider.

Image by Payton Chung from Chicago, USA - 105 freeway @ Harbor?, CC BY 2.0, Link Read the rest

A supposedly odorless, open-air urinal has been set up in the middle of Paris, and some folks are irked. The bright red no-flush urinal – set up so that pissers face tourist boats cruising the Seine river – could pass as a planter, trash can, or some sort of utility box at first. But a sign above it reads "uritrottoir" (pavement urinal).

Three other similar urinals were set up in Paris months ago, but this one, on the Ile Saint-Louis, "has met with a more robust response," according to CBS.

But some residents have complained that the bright red boxes are a blight on the picturesque streets of the city.

Others say there is something more than a little distasteful about encouraging men to urinate right on the street, even if it's into a box...

"It's a little bit in the open, some people might be uncomfortable," he said as several boats packed with tourists floated past along the Seine...

Local resident Francoise said she was "outraged" by its presence, describing it as "really not very attractive".

Others like the idea of it, but think the location isn't appropriate, while the biggest complaint is that it discriminates against women, because it caters only to men.

Here's a video showing the urinal with some action. A fun bonus attraction for those cruisers.

Read the rest

Sarah Sanders told a whopper at yesterday's briefing when she claimed that Trump had so far created over triple the amount of jobs for African-Americans than President Obama did during his time in the White House.

"This President since he took office, in the year and a half that he's been here, has created 700,000 new jobs for African-Americans. That's 700,000 African-Americans that are working now that weren't working when this President took place. When President Obama left, after eight years in office, he had only created 195,000 jobs for African-Americans."

Of course she was wrong.

First of all, according to CNN, the figure Sanders was trying to push included 140,000 new jobs from November-January of 2016, which is when Obama was still president. It also tried to blame 162,000 lost jobs during November-January of 2008 on Obama, even though George W. Bush was still president during that time.

Secondly, CNN points out that Sanders conveniently left out the fact that 3 million new jobs went to "black workers" while President Obama was in office.

When Obama took office in 2009, 15.5 million African Americans had jobs in an economy filleted by one of the country's worst recessions. When he left office, the economy had 18.4 million black workers.

The White House issued a rare, albeit skimpy, apology about their botched math, calling it a "miscommunication": "Apologies for @WhiteHouseCEA's earlier miscommunication to @PressSec."

Apologies for @WhiteHouseCEA's earlier miscommunication to @PressSec.

— CEA (@WhiteHouseCEA) August 14, 2018

Image by The White House - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glKTertdqXk, Public Domain, Link Read the rest

Donald Trump Jr. wanted to brag about his father's approval rating, but the only way to brag about it would be to fudge the numbers, so that's exactly what he did. But not very well.

Junior wanted it to look like Trump's approval rating was better than Barack Obama's at this point in their presidencies, but since that wasn't possible, he took a screengrab of a cable news graphic that compared Trump to Obama, and then Photoshopped a 50% approval rating over Trump's real 40% approval rating so that it beat Obama's 45% approval rating. He did such a botched job that you can actually see 40% trying to hide behind the 50%.

He then put it on Instagram, writing, "“Amazing. I guess there is a magic wand to make things happen and @realdonaldtrump seems to have it. #maga #amreicafirst [sic]”

Yes, fake news is real. Junior kept the ridiculous post up for over 12 hours before it finally disappeared.

Via Think Progress

Top image: DonkeyHotey/Flickr Read the rest

Alas, here is the trailer for Michael Moore's new anti-Trump documentary, Fahrenheit 11/9, a title that references the day that Trump won the electoral vote (and, of course, a play on the title of his other documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11). Fahrenheit 11/9 will be released September 21. Read the rest

A fire that broke out at a plastic tray factory in Derbyshire, England caused a spectacular fire tornado to form. Also known as a fire whirl or firenado, the rare spectacle could be seen from 25 miles away and took 12 hours to put out. No one was injured.

Via The Independent:

Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service, which helped the Derbyshire and Staffordshire services tackle the blaze, shared the video on Facebook, saying: “Whilst we were firefighting at Occupation Lane we witnessed a firenado or a fire whirl.

“It’s created as cool air enters the top of the hot air causing a swirl similar to how a tornado is formed.”

Worms in fish are not so uncommon. But rarely do we actually see them, especially alive, on a dinner plate, at a restaurant. That's what makes this video so fascinating. It's well-shot and captures a live wriggling worm on someone's plate of codfish.

As a side note, after the customer posted the video on Facebook, the restaurant who served the pink appetizer, Stella Marina Bar & Restaurant, was none too pleased, and a social media feud between customer and restaurant ensued. You can read about it here if you're interested. Read the rest

A little over two weeks ago, Russian feminist protest group Pussy Riot was arrested for crashing the field at the World Cup final wearing police uniforms. They were protesting illegal arrests. After serving 15 days in jail for their "crime," they were released, but then, to their surprise, were immediately arrested again. Looking at this video, it's obvious they weren't expecting this.

Their crime this time? According to The Guardian:

A tweet on Pussy Riot's official Twitter page said they had been charged with "the organisation and holding of public events without prior notice" and could face another 10 days behind bars.

our 4 activists (nika nikulshina, olya pahtusova, olya kuracheva, petya verzilov) are arrested again and brought to the police station; they're charged with article "20.2.2" - "the organization and holding of public events without prior written notice’ - up to 10 days of arrest.

— 𝖕𝖚𝖘𝖘𝖞 𝖗𝖎𝖔𝖙 (@pussyrrriot) July 30, 2018

Here they are at the world cup:

Read the rest

Three people brought a net to the San Antonio Aquarium, and when no one was looking, they scooped up a 16-inch horn shark and placed it into a baby carriage. They then strolled it up a staircase and made their way to the parking lot, taking off in a red pick up truck.

The thieves were able to steal the shark from the aquarium's "touch pool," the area where people are able to touch and pet sea life, while the attendant was distracted by other visitors.

According to NBC:

They then ducked into a filter room and emptied out a bleach bucket, into which they deposited the shark, the aquarium said. They used the bucket to transfer the shark into the stroller and "hurried up the stairs and out to the parking lot," it said.

Unfortunately, the shark is still at large.

"We are offering a reward for any tips that lead to the recovery of this animal," says the aquarium. "We value the lives of all of our animals and take pride in the care that we are able to give them as well as the education that we are able to give to the general public about these treasured species."

Via NBC news

Image: by Ed Bierman from CA, usa - horn shark, CC BY 2.0, Link Read the rest

From Fresno to all over the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond, three women have been sauntering into Lululemon stores, stuffing large tote bags with as much clothing as they can, and taking off with up to $17,000 worth of merch. And they do this right in front of the store's employees and customers, including kids.

It's not clear whether the thieves in Fresno are the same people who are stealing in Berkeley (at least 3 times at the same store), Stanford, Walnut Creek, San Mateo, and other locations, but in all cases they've made it out of the store without a hitch. Why so easy? One reason is because at Lululemon, "Employees are not allowed to confront or chase thieves due to a company policy," according to CNN.

So far no one has been arrested.

Via CNN and San Francisco Chronicle Read the rest

UPDATE: The video below showing a man who scooped up a ball that was tossed to a child at a Cubs game made it seem like the kid lost out, but apparently, we all got it wrong. According to Digg: "We spoke too soon — according to a bunch of reports collected by Deadspin, the guy who appeared to snatch a baseball from a child had actually helped the kid get a ball earlier in the game and is not, in fact, a bad dude."

I spoke with people from the Cubs. The man who grabbed the ball on the widely seen video had actually already helped the little boy get a ball earlier. The young man has a game used ball and a Javy Baez ball. All is well. Guy is A-OK so let it go people.

— David Kaplan (@thekapman) July 23, 2018

I apologize to the man for calling him a ball-snatching gentleman!

Here's the story we ran before the update:

During yesterday's game at Wrigley Field, one of the coaches tossed a ball to a young boy sitting in the front row. But when it slipped through his hands and rolled under his seat, a fully grown gentleman sitting behind him snatched it up and handed it to a woman he was sitting with.

When going to a baseball game, DON'T be this guy. pic.twitter.com/pAeiRN6Q2X

— Cut4 (@Cut4) July 22, 2018

From USA Today:

When first base coach Will Venable tossed a baseball to a young fan seated in the first row, the ball got away and bounced beneath the seat.

Grammar might be dead, but Schoolhouse Rock! isn't (thanks to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert!).

This latest episode of Schoolhouse Rock! teaches us all about the use of double negatives so that we can speak just like the US president.

Double negative what's your function? A desperate way to not side with the Russians. Double negative how's that function? Confusin' the people with sentence construction... Read the rest

It's a bird eat bird world on the beaches of Vancouver where crows are attacking a bald eagle, who is simultaneously attacking a young seagull. The pecking order in action. Read the rest

It's hard to believe, but according to Axios and Yahoo Finance, as well as my own ears, The Stuttering John Podcast just recorded a prank phone call with Trump.

Yesterday, comedian John Melendez just called the White House switchboard and was put through to Trump (or a really good impersonator). Melendez told the switchboard that he was NJ Senator Bob Menendez's assistant, Sean Moore – "S-E-A-N as in Sean Connery" and "Moore as in Roger Moore."

The fun starts at about 32:00 into the podcast. After getting hung up on, then getting a vapid switchboard operator who believed him, and then a call back asking why he had a California phone number (to which Melendez responded that he was on vacation), and finally getting a call from Jared Kushner from Air Force One, Trump calls him back (at 1:10:00 on the recording).

“You went through a tough, tough situation, and I don’t think a very fair situation, but congratulations,” Trump tells The Stuttering John prankster.

The two chit chat about various items, including immigration, to which Trump said, "Bob, let me just tell you I want to be able to take care of the situation every bit as much as anybody else at the top level. I'd rather do the larger solution rather than the smaller solution."

And who's going to replace Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. "I have a list of people, I have a big list of people, Bob, and we’ll take a look at it and we’re gonna make a decision. Read the rest

Michael Moore is just finishing up his anti-Trump documentary, which he talked about – along with the plight of America – on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last night.

His new film, Fahrenheit 11/9 – a title that references both his 2004 Fahrenheit 9/11 documentary about President George W. Bush and the date that Trump won the presidential electoral vote – is about "how we got in this situation and how we're going to get out of it."

He shows us a short clip of the film, and then asks Colbert, "When you read the paper every day or watch the news, do you ever cry?...It happens to me now every day...That has become the norm."

He reminds us that the majority of Americans are liberal, which is proven by the fact that Democrats have won the popular vote in the last 6 out of 7 presidential elections, losing only once since 1988 when George W. Bush won in 2004.

Fahrenheit 11/9 will be released September 21. Read the rest

Police in Dover, Delaware were flummoxed on Tuesday when they found a house sitting in the middle of a two-lane road with an "Oversize Load" banner hanging across it.

According to the police on their Facebook page:

"Sooooo somebody left a house on Long Point Road. Nope this is not a joke. We are unable to get anyone to move the house until Wednesday, so Long Point Road is closed until further notice. Please use an alternate route of travel."

Turns out part of the trailer had fallen into a ditch, and it was too late in the day for the owner to have someone come out and fix it. By Wednesday the big load was taken away and a state of normality on Long Point Road was restored.

Via Inside Edition

Image: Dover Police Dept. (Delaware) Read the rest

Arnold Schwarzenegger is at it again with a new Trump bobblehead video, this time schooling Trump on his attempts to bring back the coal industry.

"As a businessman, you have to admit that it absolutely makes no sense to go through all this effort to keep a failing business afloat," he says.

"You’re only supposed to go back in time to protect future generations. But your administration attempts to go back in time to rescue the coal industry, which is actually a threat to future generations,” Schwarzenegger says. "What are you going to bring back next? Floppy disks? Fax machines? Beanie Babies? Beepers? Or Blockbuster? Think about it. What if you tried to save Blockbuster?”

Schwarzenegger says we should secure new jobs for coal miners in safer industries. "It's time to start looking at the future instead of the past." Read the rest