The Intercept reports that In-Q-Tel, a CIA-funded nonprofit venture capital firm, just joined the likes of Peter Thiel and Winklevoss Capital in throwing money at Colossla Biosciences, a company committed to cloning Woolly Mammoths.

Of course, as some people are quick to point out, even the best case use of this technology won't lead to any wonderful woolly mammoth petting zoos:

From the abstract of "Health and temperaments of cloned working dogs," a study published in the journal J Vet Sci:

Only about half of all trained dogs may qualify as working dogs through conventional breeding management because proper temperament and health are needed in addition to their innate scent detection ability.

From the official website of the Food and Drug Administration of the United States of America:

A recent social media video challenge encourages people to cook chicken in NyQuil (acetaminophen, dextromethorphan, and doxylamine) or another similar OTC cough and cold medication, presumably to eat. 

The Kansas City Star reports that police in Platteville, Colorado went full-on Western movie villain on a woman following an alleged road-rage incident. After pulling the 20-year-old woman over near some railroad tracks, the police parked their own car on the railroad tracks, and threw the woman in the back seat of the squad car while they went to search her car — supposedly for a firearm, which is honestly confusing, because I was under the impression that this country was basically throwing out all oversight on firearms. — Read the rest

Via KLTV-7:

A woman was arrested after walking into a bar in North Dakota carrying a raccoon, according to the Benson County Sheriff's Office.

Erin Christensen, 38, was charged with North Dakota Game and Fish violations, tampering with evidence and providing false information to law enforcement.

Like many of us, I assumed online dating was a fairly recent invention — certainly something that came about post-2000, right?

But apparently that's not the case (or at least, not entirely). In a great new article, The Cut explores the history and experience of Operation Match, a computer-facilitated dating service that launched in the 1960s. — Read the rest

Let's be honest: poop is funny. It's a silly word on its own, regardless of your maturity level; and of course, the social taboo of bodily functions makes them even funnier.

Kids have no shame in acknowledging this universal truth. Which is why so many of them like to tell Alexa to "Play poop" and other such commands. — Read the rest

The high five, as Wikipedia defines it, is "a hand gesture that occurs when two people simultaneously raise one hand each, about head-high, and push, slide, or slap the flat of their palm against the flat palm of the other person."

But let's turn our attention to the "Variations" section, where Wiki editors determined that it was important to note that, "In addition to the classic high five several other types of high five exist." — Read the rest

In a recent study published in the journal Nature Energy, a group of researchers from MIT explained how they figured out how to increase the energy output from a wind farm by decreasing the efficiency of each individual wind turbine. — Read the rest

Religion News recently published a, uhhh, interesting article about Evangelical Christians within the Furry movement, such as those who belong to the Christian Furry Fellowship. Furrydom is a notoriously accepting and tolerant community … but given the associations between white American Evangelical Christians and homophobia, some of these Christian Furries are reportedly concerned that even their fur community has its limits:

Christians in the furry community are cautious about who knows about both their furry and faithful selves.

The Boston Globe recently printed an op-ed by former Ithaca, NY mayor Svante Myrick, who talks about his own city's approach to police reform. Myrick was originally elected when he was just 24 years old, and served in his position for 10 years, during which he dealt with a number of complications involving the police department in that 32,000-person city. — Read the rest

Badlands is "a true crime podcast that dives deep into the real stories of the famous at their most infamous," spinning off from the immensely popular Disgraceland podcast (which I believe is the most downloaded music podcast ever?) I've been doing some writing for them, including the fourth season finale, which focused on the darker side of Robin Williams' life. — Read the rest

From the Natural History Museum:

Rising from the ashes of the wastebasket taxon, 49 Bowie spiders have been reclassified from Ctenus. Other species, meanwhile, have had previously unknown sex morphs described for the first time.

In addition, Peter has described 55 entirely new species, whose names draw on David Bowie's musical catalogue.

Back in June, Erik Prince — founder of the notorious private military contracting corporation behind the Nisour Square massacre, brother of former education secretary Betsy DeVos, and son of the MLM pioneer Edgar Prince — announced his latest business venture on Steve Bannon's radio show: a standalone mobile device called Unplugged, designed to allow "patriots to communicate securely." — Read the rest

Land Life is a company that offers "Technology-driven reforestation at scale," the kind of business that boasts buzzwords like this:

Land Life Company is committed to its high-tech approach to smart reforestation, and applies it every step of the way: from beginning the process with detailed climate analysis to using specialized machines to mechanically speed up the planting of biodiverse species to then monitoring growth with our proprietary terrestrial monitoring app and drones. 

From Reuters:

A subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Co has used child labor at a plant that supplies parts for the Korean carmaker's assembly line in nearby Montgomery, Alabama, according to area police, the family of three underage workers, and eight former and current employees of the factory.

Rolling Stone reports that WarnerMedia recently commissioned a new infosec report on the various fiascos surrounding the Justice League film, which found — among other things — that the campaign to #ReleaseTheSnyderCut was disproportionately troll-heavy:

According to two reports commissioned by WarnerMedia and recently obtained by Rolling Stone, at least 13 percent of the accounts that took part in the conversation about the Snyder Cut were deemed fake, well above the three to five percent that cyber experts say they typically see on any trending topic.

25-year-old Jagger Freeman did accompany Christopher Ransom when Ransom robbed a T-Mobile store in Queens, New York. This is true. Freeman was standing across the street when Ransom entered the store brandishing a fake pistol, demanding cash. He was still there on the corner when NYPD arrived on the scene, too, but he fled as soon as he heard the gunshots. — Read the rest

During a police standoff in North Providence, Rhode Island on Wednesday, July 13, 2022, the shooting suspect and his spouse got three hot wieners.

According to the Providence Journal, a woman named Rachel Lombardi was assaulted in her home by an acquaintance. — Read the rest

Researchers from the University of Warsaw examined a 2,000-year old Egyptian mummy from Thebes that was discovered in the sarcophagus of a male priest called Hor-Djehuty. Turns out, it was actual a female … who was around 26-30 weeks pregnant when she died of cancer. — Read the rest