I've been using iTunes Match since the service launched in 2011, and it's been nothing but great until now. At the time, I had a personal laptop and a work computer, along with an iPhone that maybe held 16 gigs. The fact that I could just upload my extensive music library up to Apple's servers and stream or download any of my songs onto any of those devices at any time was a game changer. I'm one of those people who still likes to buy music whenever possible (maybe it's karmic, and I'm hoping someone buys my music some time, too), so I've continued to use the service, downloading my preferred albums at any given to listen to on-the-go instead of dipping into my data plan.

Honestly, the only quirk I discovered with the service was a blessing in disguise. iTunes Match will upload any of your music, but if matches something that already exists in their library, they'll let you download the corresponding high-resolution audio files. I had a lot of shitty CD-rips from high school that were suddenly returned to their high-quality glory, and freed of those obnoxious data squelches on the high end.

That is, until the other day. When I had a hankering to listen to "I Don't Want To Be An Asshole Anymore" by the Menzingers. 'Cause it's great song!

Except it wasn't there. In fact, the entire album was missing from my library. I own the entire Menzingers discography — purchased music! — and Rented World was now completely gone. Read the rest

My friend Emily Edwards has a delightful podcast called Fuckbois of Literature, that, well, pretty much explores exactly what it promises: fuckbois, in literature.

The characters of literature other readers exalt, but you hope never to meet. Maybe they screw everything that moves (and moos). Maybe they’ve locked their first wife in the attic. Maybe they’re the author of love poetry that’s screwed up our concept of romance for over 150 years. The literary fuckboi toys with your heart and leaves you hung out to dry. Join host Emily Edwards every week to discuss the most toxic characters, writers, and tropes of literature, folklore, myths, and legend. Topics include feminist literature, toxic masculinity, gender roles, and intersectional representation in books. These are the Fuckbois of Literature.

There are lots of great and insightful episodes, from comedian Sara Benincasa talking about the Bible, to my personal favorite one on David Foster Wallace. But Emily was also kind and/or foolish enough to invite me and one of my best friends onto the show to discuss the various fuckbois of the X-Men universe — but namely, that hedonistic bald manipulator Professor Charles Xavier, and his fickle, horny protege, Scott Summers AKA Cyclops.

I have been waiting a long time for an audience to let me indulge in my deeply serious literary analysis on sex and the X-Men, and I'm just so glad that there's more than one person in the world who cares to hear my rant about the cycle of abuse and patriarchal privilege that make Professor X and Cyclops alike both treat women like crap in the pursuit of their self-righteous goals. Read the rest

Wally Backman, seen here as manager of the South Georgia Peanuts, just wants to know what he said that got him ejected from the game along with his player. The umpire, he says, is "an embarrassment to professional baseball."

The screaming begins 1 minute in; the action begins 3 minutes 8 seconds in. Read the rest

Michael "Rands" Lopp spotted something beautiful about this White House photo: everyone in it who doesn't have the word "president" in their job title has been fired.

Only the best people.

Here's the season 1 winner of the blunder games, as shot by Jonathan Ernst with Reuters. Read the rest

To celebrate the abusive lying bastard's sacking by Fox News, let's once again enjoy this classic dance remix of his legendary meltdown from the "brown acrylic wig" era of his career.

The original:

Read the rest

DBO writes, "A new report by Deflect Labs tracks the complex ways that hackers have sought to take down the Black Lives Matter website. The attacks, which relied on harvesting WordPress sites, increased in sophistication and left a murky, unsavory trail by actors who did everything from try to extort the website to taking it down entirely." Read the rest

For the last six weeks, residents of El Segundo, California have been startled from sleep in the early hours of the morning by the ear-splitting blast of an air horn. On Sunday morning at 4 am, police officers caught the gentleman who was blowing the horn. His name is John W. Nuggent and he admitted doing it because he wanted to annoy a specific person.

From The El Segundo Police Department Facebook page:

On November 13, 2016 at around 4:00 AM, El Segundo Officers heard an extremely loud air-horn being actuated (similar to a train horn) on the west side of town. There have been numerous reports of similar occurrences over the past several weeks involving a blue 4-door compact vehicle driven by a male white adult (see attached picture captured from a residential surveillance video).

Shortly after hearing the loud horn, El Segundo Officers initiated a traffic-stop in the area of Grand Avenue and Main Street on a 4-door blue 2006 Chevrolet Aveo. The vehicle was driven by John W. Nuggent and officers found air-horn equipment inside his vehicle.

Several El Segundo residents, who were alleged victims of the air horn noise, responded to the scene and initiated a citizen’s arrest on Nuggent. He was subsequently transported to El Segundo jail for booking and his vehicle was impounded.

CBS News's Betty Yu reports that San Jose's Westfield Valley Fair mall is being sued after one of its guards, Francis Lancaster-Abraham Fielding, pulled a gun on a driver who knocked over a traffic cone. Read the rest

Penn State is to celebrate the 50th anniversary of hiring Joe Paterno, the coach who helped his school rack up countless victories and his assistant cover up countless rapes.

The plans for exactly what Penn State will do is unknown, other than stating that the program will be "commemorating the 50th anniversary of Coach Paterno's first game as Penn State head coach" before the game. ... The Nittany Lions, until this point, seemed to want to distance themselves publicly from Paterno since his last game in 2011, most notably taking down his statue outside Beaver Stadium. Now, the program is looking to honor the former coach, who died in 2012, for the 50th anniversary of his first game with Penn State in what is a controversial choice.

Paterno was fired in 2011 after it emerged that during his tenure, Jerry Sandusky had assaulted dozens of youngsters in his care. Sandusky was ultimately convicted on 45 separate charges. Though Paterno claimed to have been ignorant of his actions—pretending at one point not even to know what "sodomy" means—it later emerged he knew of Sandusky's activities since the 1970s. At least two victims accused Paterno, who died in 2012, of telling them not to go to the authorities. Read the rest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G1chkvRcW8

Paul LePage, the Republican governor of Maine, told reporters that people of color are the enemy in his state. Read the rest

Stephen Bannon, the Breitbart News boss recently hired to lead millionaire businessman Donald Trump's faltering presidential campaign, was charged in 1996 with domestic violence, battery and dissuading a witness after allegedly beating his then-wife. The charges were dropped, reports Politico, after his alleged victim failed to appear in court.

The Santa Monica, Calif., police report says that Bannon’s then-wife claimed he pulled at her neck and wrist during an altercation over their finances, and an officer reported witnessing red marks on her neck and wrist to bolster her account. Bannon also reportedly smashed the phone when she tried to call the police. While the case ended when Bannon's ex-wife did not appear in court, the incident presents a new problem for the Trump campaign following the hiring of the controversial Bannon. He went on leave from Breitbart News, where he is chairman, to take over the Trump campaign.

The police report describes a distressing scene: responding to a silent 911 call (the phone was found smashed), a cop encounters a crying woman with red marks on her neck and arms.

According to the report, she said, “Oh, thank you, you are here. How did you know to come?” and took several minutes to compose herself.

Bannon, according to the report, was less than seven months into his second marriage, though the couple had known each other for a number of years prior to their April 1995 wedding. The couple just had twin girls seven months earlier, Bannon’s ex-wife told police at the time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeVLxcekEsw

It's hard to say why The world's biggest asshole is worth watching without spoilering it, but Coleman Sweeney is at least an entertaining asshole—until he isn't. Read the rest

How to have fun by turning friends into foes. Bonus points for the cameraman's Muttley laugh. Read the rest

A man who decided to shoot a bunch of puppies was himself shot by one of his intended victims. NBC News reports that Jerry Allen Bradford, 37, of Pensacola, Florida, sustained a gunshot to the wrist when "one of the dogs put its paw on the revolver’s trigger."

On Monday, Bradford was holding two puppies — one in his arms and another in his left hand — when the dog in his hand wiggled and put its paw on the trigger of the .38-caliber revolver. The gun then discharged, the sheriff’s report said. Deputies found three of the puppies in a shallow grave outside Bradford’s home, said sheriff’s Sgt. Ted Roy.

The other four appeared to be in good health and were taken by Escambia County Animal Control, which planned to make them available for adoption.