Nascar season started last weekend so let’s rewatch one of last year’s memorable moments–Ross Chastain using the wall to slingshot his car across the finish line. Unsurprisingly, Nascar banned the maneuver.
Category: Pop Culture
Popular culture, culture that seems to spread beyond more than three people
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Competitive authoritarianism
Competitive authoritarianism will transform political life in the United States. As Trump’s early flurry of dubiously constitutional executive orders made clear, the cost of public opposition will rise considerably: Democratic Party donors may be targeted by the IRS; businesses that fund civil rights groups may face heightened tax and legal scrutiny or find their ventures stymied by regulators. Critical media outlets will likely confront costly defamation suits or other legal actions as well as retaliatory policies against their parent companies. Americans will still be able to oppose the government, but opposition will be harder and riskier, leading many elites and citizens to decide that the fight is not worth it. A failure to resist, however, could pave the way for authoritarian entrenchment—with grave and enduring consequences for global democracy.
In Foreign Affairs, The Path to American Authoritarianism
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SNL lonely Island medley
So many contributing to the Lonely Island medley for the SNL 50th anniversary concert. Spot them all! Gaga does Dick in a Box with Samberg. Chris Parnell, T-Pain, Bad Bunny. Eddie Vedder as a pirate.
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Michael Shannon and REM
Actor Michael Shannon will tour again, performing REM songs.
On February 14, Shannon will begin his second tour inside of a year devoted to R.E.M. It will take him to more than a dozen cities in the US. Interest in the shows has been so high, with some tickets for a stop in Athens, Georgia, on the secondary market going for north of $600, that dates have been added in England as well.
And most of the songs they are performing come from the early years of REM’s catalog.
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How Kendrick Lamar’s halftime show came together
How Kendrick Lamar’s halftime show came together.
For Lamar’s video game-themed show that meant more than 50 carts of staging and equipment—each weighing between 1,500 and 3,500 pounds—to be rolled out in the center of the stadium. To protect the field, the carts rode on specially designed wheels (“turf tires” is their nontechnical name), so the playing surface remains ready for the game’s second half.
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Tom Brady’s Superbowl watch
If you watched Superbowl 59 yesterday, you most likely saw Tom Brady’s wrist shine brighter than the sun.Turns out it’s a $740,000 piece with 338 yellow sapphires, 338 diamonds, and an 18k yellow gold case.
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Dyatlov Pass incident
In 1959, nine experienced Russian skiers died under mysterious circumstances, referred to as the Dyatlov Pass incident. Bodies found in different locations with varying amounts of clothing and an array of injuries. The facts made for ripe speculation: stumbling on a secret government project, a sadistic murderer, American spies, and the supernatural.
In 2021, Douglas Preston covered the history of the investigations, and modern science may have solved it. The likeliest culprit? An Avalanche.
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Texas blade shop owner refuses to add Nazi symbol to knife
Texas blade shop owner refuses to add Nazi symbol to knife.
What stands out about this incident:
- how emphatic on what he would not do “I won’t re-Nazify shit.”
- offered the woman an out to “add a modern German forestry seal… de-Nazify shit.”
- how nonchalant the woman was with her request
The shop, https://www.thebladebartx.com/, is located in Edom, TX, and one of the owners, Jonathan Sibley, competed on Forged in Fire.
