Month: June 2019

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10+ Entirely Wholesome Stories Involving Keanu Reeves

Keanu Reeves is undeniably America’s sweetheart these days. Not content with being the star of blockbuster franchises like John Wick and The Matrix, Keanu has apparently also been on a decades-long secret campaign to quietly establish himself as one of the nicest guys in showbiz.

And here are 11 more stories that prove what everyone already knows by now: Keanu is the man.

1. A true gentleman

2. Tour guide

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Hey everyone- There’s been a lot of attention about a recent story I posted about an “adventure“ on a minibus with one of the great humanitarians (and fav actors) of our time. I don’t have anything to add other than that all the passengers were incredibly kind and lovely people, including the folks who took care of us in Bakersfield, CA. Perhaps though, with all this attention we can do some good. In the spirit of what a generous person Mr. Reeves is here are a few charities that you might consider donating to (if you don’t already). If you do have copies of the video (news outlets:), please attach links to these charities alongside them. Maybe we do a little good. ? I posted links to charities in stories so you can easily click to each of these. ???? Song: It’s Such a Pretty World Today / Wynn Stewart #itssuchaprettyworldtoday www.sickkidsfoundation.com www.standuptocancer.org www.scorefund.org www.wildlifewaystation.org www.coachart.org/get-involved www.coachart.org www.stjude.org www.cityofhope.org/giving

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3. A memory he’ll never forget

4. Nice guy

5. A long chat

6. Call in advance

7. Excellent!

8. For the kids

After filming a scene for John Wick 3 with a bunch of child actors, Keanu stuck around to meet and take pictures with all the kids. from KeanuBeingAwesome

9. In the crowd

Went to see John Wick 3 tonight and this guy happened to be in the audience too! from KeanuBeingAwesome

10. Wow

Fans trespassed on Keanu’s property back in the 1990s. Instead of calling the police, he had a beer with them. from KeanuBeingAwesome

11. That is amazing

“A friend of mine told me that she was once stranded on the side of a highway outside LA when her jalopy broke down. She had no cell phone (that was before most people had cell phones) and no way to call for help. Then a nice black porsche pulls over and as you can guess, it was Keanu. He tried to help her jump start the car and when it didn’t work, he called AAA for her.

When they towed her car, he offered her to drive her home, which she accepted. He drove about 50 miles out of his destination just to drive her home. She told me she hoped he would hit on her but he didn’t, he was just a gentleman, dropped her at her house, gave her his phone number and told her to call him if she needed further help.”

He just keeps getting better and better, doesn’t he?

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America’s Most Decorated Female Spy Finally Gets the Recognition She Deserves

There are many great heroes of WWII who have become household names by now, their exploits immortalized in movies, TV shows, and books. One name most people haven’t heard, however, is Virginia Hall.

Today, that changes, though Virginia herself might not be too happy about becoming a household name. As she liked to say, “Many of my friends were killed for talking too much.”

Since it’s been over 70 years since she worked as a wartime spy, and she’s no longer living, it’s probably safe – and high time – to talk about her contributions.

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Unsung Hero of #DDay , #virginiahall , the only American woman to win the Distinguished Service Cross ? : “for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an armed enemy while serving as an American Civilian Intelligence Officer in the employ of the Special Operations Branch, Office of Strategic Services, who entered voluntarily and served in enemy-occupied France from March to September 1944. Despite the fact that she was well known to the Gestapo because of previous activities, Miss Hall established and maintained radio communications with London headquarters, supplying valuable operational and intelligence information. With the help of a Jedburgh team, she organized, armed, and trained three battalions of French resistance forces in the Department of the Haute Loire. Working in a region infested with enemy troops and continually at the risk of capture, torture, and death, she directed the resistance forces with extraordinary success in acts of sabotage and guerrilla warfare against enemy troops, installations, and communications. Miss Hall displayed rare courage, perseverance, and ingenuity. Her efforts contributed materially to the successful operations of the resistance forces in support of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in the liberation of France.” ?

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Hall was born in 1906 to a wealthy Baltimore family who expected her to educate herself and then marry into more money. She had other ideas, wearing bracelets of (live) snakes to school, becoming an avid hunter, and taking pride in being “capricious and cantankerous.”

She was educated at Radcliffe and Barnard before traveling to Paris and falling in love with France, a love that would change the course of her life. Once she’d gone overseas, Hall became set on becoming a diplomat, said Sonia Purnell, the author of a forthcoming book on Hall.

“She wanted to be an ambassador. She got pushed back by the State Department. She applied several times.”

While working in a secretarial capacity at a U.S. consulate in Turkey, Hall had a hunting accident that cost her her left leg below the knee. She persevered through a long and painful recovery, and learned to maneuver on a wooden leg.

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With the anniversary of D-Day (officially known as Operation Overlord) approaching, we at the MI Library would like to acknowledge Virginia Hall. Virginia Hall established the Cosne resistance in the weeks preceeding D-Day overcoming reluctance from others to work for a woman! She had overseen coordination of airdrops that supplied explosives, weapons and other forms of support equipment. This resistance set about destroying railroad lines, bridges and disrupting communications. Virginia's force grew to more than 1,500 men by the 4th of June 1944 and after D-Day. Hall died at the age of 77 in July 1982. She committed to the cause, placed the mission above accolades, practiced sound operational security and effectively used the resources available. Hall routinely overcame hurdles, often in the face of life threatening circumstances. —————– To receive or renew a remote user account: Navigate to our website at https://www.ikn.army.mil/apps/milibrary Click on the ‘Remote Registration’ button in the left column Open the form and enter all requested information Using your Enterprise Email account, send the completed registration form to us at the address provided on the bottom of the form. You can also come into the MI Library at Building 62723, Hatfield St, Fort Huachuca, AZ 85613 and our phone number is (520)-533-4100! —————– Christopher G. Nason Military Intelligence Library and Museum where, "Intelligent action leads to peak performance and proper planning!" —————— #dday #operationoverlord #virginiahall

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Another Hall biographer and ex-CIA officer, Craig Gralley, believes that losing her leg was a turning point in her life.

“She had been given a second chance at life and wasn’t going to waste it. And her injury, in fact, might have kind of bolstered her or reawakened her resilience so that she was in fact able to do great things.”

She was living in France when WWII broke out, and immediately jumped into the fray, volunteering to drive a French ambulance. As her beloved France was overrun, Hall fled to Britain and quickly fell in with British intelligence. After a bit of training, she found herself back on French soil and working as a British spy in 1941.

Hall posed as a reporter for The New York Post and saw many in her network arrested and even killed. The Gestapo had her number and knew they were in search of a woman with a limp, but Hall was a natural at the spy game – like many women who were an active part of the resistance, she exploited her female-ness and her “cripple-ness” to fly under the radar.

“Virginia Hall, to a certain extent, was invisible,” says Gralley. “She was able to play on the chauvinism of the Gestapo at the time. None of the Germans early in the war necessarily thought that a woman was capable of being a spy.”

Hall operated largely in Lyon, which put her in the path of Klaus Barbie, otherwise known as “the Butcher of Lyon,” but thankfully she was never counted among the thousands tortured and killed by his forces. He was aware of her, however, posting signs around the city that featured a drawing of her and the words “The Enemy’s Most Dangerous Spy – We Must Find And Destroy Her!”

While there, she recruited everyone she could, from nuns at the convent where she was staying to a local brothel owner who helped by passing along information the prostitutes gathered from German troops. She organized the resistance in Lyon, providing safe houses and intelligence that altered the course of the war on French soil.

Even though she constantly changed her appearance, the Nazis got close enough in 1942 to send her into hiding in Spain. To get there, she walked 50 miles a day for 3 days in heavy snow, over the Pyrenees Mountains.

With a wooden leg. Remember?

Gralley, who considers himself in good shape, tried making the trek and found it exhausting.

“I could only imagine the kind of will and the kind of perseverance that Virginia Hall had by making this trek. Not on a beautiful day, but in the dead of winter and with a prosthetic leg she had to drag behind her.”

A snafu with her passport had her wasting 6 weeks in a Spanish jail before being released back to Britain. All Virginia wanted to do was to return to her work in France but the British refused her request, fearing her life.

The American OSS, however, had no such qualms – though Purnell points out that Hall did take precautions before returning to occupied soil.

“She got some makeup artist to teach her how to draw wrinkles on her face. She also got a fierce, a rather sort of scary London dentist to grind down her lovely, white American teeth so that she looked like a French milkmaid.”

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Observances of the 75th anniversary of D-Day are properly focusing on the troops and the architect of Operation Overlord, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, who freed Europe from Hitler and his Nazi hordes. One person—a woman—has not received the credit she deserves for her efforts with the French Resistance. Without her daring and heroism, the war would most assuredly have been prolonged and many more lives would have been lost. Her name was Virginia Hall and her story is told in a new book by Sonia Purnell titled “A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II.” The title does not exaggerate Virginia’s contributions to the Allied victory. Never have I read anything like it. Every page is compelling and demands not just to be read, but absorbed. Every act reflects incredible bravery. This is what heroism looks like. Virginia’s actions, along with the men who gave their lives for the freedoms that France, the rest of Europe, and America enjoy today, should never be forgotten. Sonia Purnell has ensured Virginia Hall’s place in that great pantheon. Tap our stories to see more stories from #DDAY75 and read Cal Thomas’ full book review.

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Back in France, she worked with resistance fighters to blow up bridges, sabotage trains, and reclaim villages ahead of advancing Allied troops.

The war ended and Virginia Hall, like all of the fighters abroad, returned home. She brought with her a French-American soldier (now her husband) and a penchant for keeping her mouth shut.

Her niece, Lorna Catling, recalled meeting her aunt after the war in a conversation with NPR.

“She came home when I was 16, and she was pale and had white hair and crappy clothes.”

And as for the war?

“She never talked about it.”

Both the British and the French recognize Hall’s contributions, though only in private. She declined public accolades in the States, too, claiming she’d rather remain undercover.

William Donovan, the OSS chief, bestowed the Distinguished Service Cross on Hall – the only civilian to receive such an honor during WWII – and only her mother witnessed the ceremony.

She joined the CIA and worked there for 15 years, though she did not thrive and wasn’t happy being stuck behind a desk, CIA historian Randy Burkett tells NPR.

“As you get higher in rank, now it’s all about money and personnel and plans and policy and that sort of bureaucratic stuff. …Was she treated properly? Well, by today’s standards, absolutely not.”

She retired in 1966 without ever having spoken publicly about her experiences as a WWII spy, and died in 1982 without the public realizing who she was or what she had contributed to the successful war effort.

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??‍♀️ A Woman of No Importance. ??‍♀️ . . ??‍♀️ Here's the thing. Virginia Hall deserves WAY more credit than what she received. . . ??‍♀️ This woman pretty much single handedly dove into enemy territory, built a resistance empire, and TORE SHIT UP on the Nazis. All the while being disregarded and disrespected by many of her male counterparts (shocker). That didn't stop her though, she refused to give a crap about any of them. She disregarded them right back, straight up left them and refused to work with them. Why put herself and others in danger because of chauvinistic nonsense? . . ??‍♀️ This woman was a badass in the most incredible way and I'm disappointed that I haven't read more about her before now. A beautiful person, changing her name and appearance numerous times (see what I did there), an amputee, crossed the Pyrenees during winter and survived!? She was THE most wanted woman in Europe by the Nazis AND NEVER GOT CAUGHT! . . ??‍♀️ After all that, she came back and joined the CIA (no small feat despite her experience) and was STILL underutilized. — "In its own secret report on her career, the CIA admitted that her fellow officers 'felt she had been sidelined — shunted into backwater accounts — because she had so much experience that she overshadowed her male colleagues, who felt threatened by her.'" ??? . . ??‍♀️ So much more to say but I'll let you pick it up and read it. Sonia Purnell has done incredible research and truly put together this fascinating and eye-opening book about one of the most important women in history. Virginia paved the way for so many others that came after her, even in indirect ways. Not only for women, but the government, the CIA, secret service and more should all be eternally grateful. . . ??‍♀️ Anyway, this week's #sundaywiththeselftimer is my appreciation for this book and me wishing and dreaming I was half the badass Virginia was. ? #powerfulwomenrepresent . . #awomanofnoimportance #soniapurnell #virginiahall #bookreview #bookrecommendation #readingwanderwoman #readingww2019 #readingwanderreviews #badasswomen #womeninhistory #sundayselfieshelfie

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Recently, her public moment has arrived: three books have been published and two movies are in the works, so Americans are finally going to know Virginia Hall in the way she deserves (if not the way she would have wanted).

As Sonia Purnell muses, “Through a lot of her life, the early life, she was constantly rejected and belittled. She was constantly just being dismissed as someone not very important of of no importance.”

Just one more example of “a woman of no importance” putting her head down and managing to change the world for the better, anyway.

Nevertheless, she persisted.

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Whiskey Actually Tastes Better When You Add a Splash of Water. Here’s Why

If you’re like me, you might have been raised to believe that putting ice or water in your whiskey was some kind of cardinal drinking sin. But science would definitely quibble with my Scots-Irish grandma on this point, because chemists have the scientific proof we need to back up the idea that water (or ice) actually enhances your  favorite barrel-aged flavor.

Researchers from the Linnaeus University Centre for Biomaterials Chemistry in Sweden analyzed whiskey at a molecular level to see how exactly it interacts with water.

Image Credit: Pixabay

The molecule responsible for whiskey’s smokey taste and smell is called guaiacol, and it bonds to alcohol molecules in your glass, which distributes the taste evenly. But when you add a splash of water or a couple of ice cubes, the water molecules repel the alcohol (and the guaiacol), pushing more of the taste to the top of the glass.

When that happens, your drink’s distinctive, alluring taste and smell is what fancy bartenders would call “spirit forward.”

Image Credit: Pixabay

The results of the experiments were published in Scientific Reports, and recommend diluting your whiskey to about 40-45% alcohol. Of course, most commercial whiskey’s are diluted before bottling, so just a splash of water or a couple of ice cubes should do you.

Image Credit: Pixabay

You’ll have to do some experimenting of your own in order to find the optimal amount for you, but I’m sure you won’t mind.

I’m about to do some of my own. Just don’t tell my grandma.

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15 Non-Americans Share the Wildest Things They’d Heard About the U.S. That Were Actually True

Let’s face it: people in the rest of the world have a somewhat skewed idea of what life in America is really like. Thanks to Hollywood’s wildly exaggerated stereotypes, it’s no wonder people of the world are all confused about what America is like.

In these 15 cases, though, non-Americans were totally shocked to learn that the “crazy” thing they’d heard about the States was actually pretty much true.

#1. Halloween culture shock.

Masked people come to your house, knock on your door asking for candy. Mostly it’s just packs of kids but sometimes whole families. This was my friends Halloween culture shock.

#2. Holy sh*t.

Drink sizes. Holy shit.

When my family visited in 2017 we landed in Texas for a stopover. First thing I saw in the shops part of the terminal was a dude who was drinking from what looked like an actual fucking bucket – here in NZ our “large” drinks would be considered an American “small” or maybe “medium”

#3. Only in Florida. Mostly.

That people actually get attacked by Alligators which got in their pools (specifically referring to Florida here).

#4. I thought it was nice.

I’m from Quebec and when we went down to Boston for a school trip, I sneezed in public and heard two or three people say “bless you”. Quite a weird rumour I had heard not 2 months prior to that. I thought it was nice.

#5. A Hollywood prop.

I’m from Australia, and all my life I believed red Solo cups were like 555 area codes – a Hollywood prop. When I immigrated to the US, my MIL was making dinner and offered me iced tea in a red Solo cup.

I lost it, made everyone sign the cup. I’ve still got it.

#6. All the Coke!

Free refills!

#7. Not-so-sweet tea.

Biscuits and gravy is a legit thing. Also you can ride motorcycles without helmets in some states??? And your iced tea isn’t sweetened unless you ask for sweet.

Edit: nothing could have possibly prepared me for the absolute dichotomy of sweet tea vs iced tea in the comments. This is evidently very important to many

#8. Conversations with total strangers.

Not exactly crazy, but I wanted to test out the stereotype that Americans will talk to anyone so I sought out a sports bar on my first visit. Ended up having a ton of really fun conversations with total strangers who I’ll never talk to ever again. It was great!

Edit: It seems reddit likes hearing stories about this trip, so here’s another one I shared a while back.

#9. Actually.

Surfer-dudes actually speak like that.

#10.  Code for “generic restaurant.”

I always thought that the Olive Garden in The Simpsons was just code for ‘generic restaurant’

#11. I thought it was a joke.

That Dolly Parton has her own theme park in Tennessee. I thought it was a joke.

#12. Our waistlines prove it.

All the food is bigger.

#13. Can confirm.

I’m still not 100% sure is true so hopefully can confirm – “buoy” is pronounced “boo-ee” ?

#14. Super good at pie.

I studied in Maryland for about half a year back in 2017. I’d always heard that Americans are like… super good at pie. I was pretty much all alone during thanksgiving since everyone else was with their families. One of the RAs I’d befriended knocked on my door and brought me all different kinds of pie. Dear lord, I’ve never tasted anything that delicious. From blueberry to apple to pumpkin. Every. Single. Pie. They were all amazing.

#15. As seen on tv.

Sports Bars are actually exactly how they’re portrayed on TV

Bless our hearts over here.

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8 Great Facts That Will Send Your Brain Into Overdrive!

Attention! Attention! You will engage in some brain power exercises starting RIGHT NOW.

You’ve been a little lazy lately (haven’t we all?) and it’s time to kick that brain into overdrive!

3…2….1…GO!

1. I did not know that

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2. Disgusting!

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3. A wonderful idea

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4. Survivors

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5. Thank God

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6. Dum Dums

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7. Man of culture

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8. Wow

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Brain power!

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Ex-Convicts Share the 15 Most F***ed Up Aspects of Prison Life

Prison is hell, and we should all be incredibly thankful that most of us will likely never experience it.

Thank heavens for that, because this AskReddit thread had ex-cons shed some light on the most f*cked up things about prison that the general public doesn’t know about, and it’s messed up.

1. Smokes

“A cigarette in prison consists of the following:

Take a regular cigarette out of the pack

Cut the tobacco portion of that cigarette into 4 equal parts

Remove the tobacco from each of those separated portions and reroll it using Bible pages into 4 mini-cigarettes called a “clip”

Sell each clip for $2-$4

A cigarette out of that pack can be sold whole for between $10-$20 each.

Edit: Here is the currency conversion for the prison where I was incarcerated:

1 ramen noodle soup = $1

1 mackerel fish pouch = $1.50

bag of coffee = $8

new bar of Ivory soap = $2

1 pack of duplex cookies = $2

bed made = $1

laundered t shirt = $1

tattoo = $20 – $50 (depends on how many hours spent)

fellatio in far stall = $5

All part of the cigarette/clips/tobacco trade

It was very common for someone to walk around the yard picking up fully Smoked Cigarettes to shake out the last few crumbs of tobacco for rolling into a clip.

Most people were fine just buying a clip or two that would last them for the entire evening. If someone saw you smoking a Cadillac you are either going to have to share that Cadillac or fight. (Again a Cadillac is a full Factory rolled standard cigarette.)”

2. NOISE

“With the acoustics of concrete, steel and glass, its not only not quiet noises all the time… it’s LOUD noises all the time. Barely can think in some cell blocks.”

3. GOT is everywhere

“On a slightly lighter side, a sort of family friend recently got out of prison after ~18 years for holding up a gas station for drug money.

My uncle was his friend and when the guy got out my uncle said “Man, there’s this show you’re gonna love called Game of Thrones.”. The guy laughed and said he was current on it. The in-prison black market was his source for a tiny ~2 inch battery powered screen and microSD cards with the episodes on it.

Every now and then it would be confiscated as contraband and he’d have to save up for a month to buy another.

He also had a prison-cat that knew to leave his cell before morning activities and to come back after lights out, he’d feed it little chunks of meat he smuggled out of the mess hall. One big thing for him was making sure to train the cat who to go to next because there’s definitely some people that would have killed it just for the unique experience.”

4. Sounds terrible

“You never wake up feeling safe, ever. There is so much hanging over your head that you may not be in control of that the stress level is through the roof.”

5. Lifers

“The lifers are usually the nicest people you will meet while you are there. This is their home, this is their whole world. Most of them try to make it as pleasant for themselves as possible.”

6. A business

“The fact that literally every single aspect of the infrastructure is setup to be for-profit, to exploit your family. From arrest quotas, to plea deal quotas, to the corporate run phone system, the prison labor gimmick slave labor used to make PRODUCTS FOR COMPANY PROFIT, not to better the community or help society.

Prison is a business, a corrupt, criminal, awful business run by politicians and special interests that are more evil than the inmates.”

7. Interesting…

“The most unlikely people are chess masters.”

8. The simplicity

“When you get out you miss the simplicity of choices.

When you are in all you think about is getting out and what you will do when that happens. Everything focuses around this.

When you are out, at first, the input is enormous and a small part of you miss the simplicity. ? “

9. The rules

“Former prison librarian here.

Dental care – Dentists won’t fill your teeth, they will just pull them. No caps, no implants.

Race – Prisons are still self-segregating in a lot of ways. When I worked in a prison in WV, one dorm had a black TV (controlled only by black inmates) and a white tv (controlled by only white inmates).

Honor culture – If you call someone a name or steal from them, the other person must retaliate to save honor. As a result, you will see a lot of black eyes in prison.

Postage stamps are a form of currency.

Many prisons censor what books come into the institution. At one prison I worked in, The Art of War by Sun Tzu was banned simply because of the title. I assure you that no one in admin had ever read the book.”

10. Guilt

“My dad was in prison, in his situation, and in many others, you feel immense guilt after getting to know your fellow inmates. Because you’re gonna get out, and they’re not, ever.”

11. Broken spirit

“A neighbor of mine was locked up for murder and released some time before I was born. It’s one of those things where everyone knew about it but no one talked about it.

I remember him telling me the story of why he was in there and what it was like (very rarely did), and the most surprising thing in his experience was that the smaller/quieter/weaker/more vulnerable in general were typically left alone. It’s only if you acted like a big shot did people want to fight you.

Also, picking fights with said smaller/quieter/weaker/more vulnerable ones will instantly get you a nonstop flogging by other inmates until your spirit broke.”

12. Ugh

“Shit-bombing.

I had a friend go to prison for a drug related crime. He had his own cell and stuck to himself for the most part. Another inmate shit into a water bottle and filled it to the brim with water and mixed it up into a slush.

Said inmate then took the water bottle to the my friends cell, placed at the slit at the bottom of his cell door, and fucking stomped on it! Shit water sprayed absolutely everywhere… while my friend was in the cell too.”

13. Barefoot

“When you get out, the feeling of soft carpet on your bare feet is borderline orgasmic and you’ll never take it for granted again.”

14. Sickness

“Don’t get sick! You’ll probably die a horrible death.”

15. Withholding

“Guards can and will withhold medical treatment. When I was in county jail, there was an older woman, vomiting profusely. She couldn’t keep water down, her skin was tenting and she was hallucinating.

I explained all this to the guards and that she needed medical treatment immediately. For two days she was like that until I transferred out. I have no idea what happened to that woman and I still think about her. This was in Georgia, USA.”

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Michelin’s New “Puncture-Proof” Tire Promises to Make Flats a Thing of the Past

Flat tires have been an issue plaguing drivers ever since the dawn of the automobile. At this point, learning to fix a flat is a vital skill that literally every driver on the road should be familiar with.

That knowledge may not be as necessary for much longer, however, as Michelin is here for us!

They’re working with General Motors to develop and test a tire called Uptis (Unique Puncture-Proof Tire System) that doesn’t use air – and therefore, cannot go flat.

They debuted the groundbreaking design at the Movin’ On Summit in Montreal and I’ve gotta say…sign me up.

Image Credit: YouTube

Even though the Uptis has conventional treads on the outside, the middle layer is made of composite rubber and resin-embedded fiberglass spokes. Air would typically provide the support for the outer treads, but in this case, the spokes do the job just as well (arguably better).

Michelin and GM believe these tires will also last longer, because they aren’t in danger of wearing down more quickly due to over or under-inflation. For the same reason, they claim the tires are more environmentally-friendly, since fewer tires means less tire waste over all.

 

Image Credit: YouTube

Right now, over 200 million tires are tossed into the rubbish every single year.

The company plans to test the Uptis tires on a fleet of Chevy Bolts (electric vehicles) later this year. If it goes well, you can expect to see the tires on all new GM vehicles as early as 2024.

Right now, it’s not clear whether or not the tires would be available for purchase separately, so don’t let those tire-changing skills go dormant just yet.

But fear not! A brighter future with less squatting by the side of the road in the heat or rain could be on the very near horizon.

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These Boxers Feature a Built-In Cup to Protect Every Dad’s Nuts

Here’s a problem that, as a man with no children, I had no idea existed. Apparently, part of being a new dad is keeping on constant guard against an assault on your crown jewels… an attack launched by none other than the fruit of thine own loins.

Who knew?

I think it’s because they know they can get away with it, but I’m not a child psychologist. Yet.

Anyway, FridaBalls is a product you definitely need to check out. They’re boxer shorts with a built-in cup to protect manhood throughout the land. No more nut shots if you’re wearing these babies!

The company writes, “Protecting Your Tomorrow. Today. The hits keep coming when you’re a Dad. Head butts, the baby carrier swinging heels, and the good ole Sunday morning bed jump. Parenting really can be a contact sport. FridaBalls is the world’s first Dad friendly underwear, designed to simultaneously protect your [Frida]Balls and your lineage.”

Genius. As they say in the Instagram post below, “Parenting is a contact sport.”

You can buy the boxers on Amazon for $27.99.

The company describes itself as “THE BRAND THAT GETS PARENTS. That means you. We’re not a lifestyle. Far from it. We’re a solution-based brand. The 411 of parenting.”

Imagine a world with no more writhing around on the floor in excruciating pain after a full-on foot, knee, or foreign object to the testicles.

It is possible! And it looks beautiful, doesn’t it!

Father’s Day is right around the corner…I think I know what you’re gonna order…

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Hilarious New Photo Trend for Grad Students Celebrating Their Thesis

Every summer, we’re treated to a never-ending barrage of people celeberating all sorts of things from graduations and proms to weddings and baby announcements. But here’s a new style of photoshoot you probably haven’t seen before that promises to be a big hit. I mean, this gal is really starting a trend, I CAN JUST FEEL IT!

Sarah Whelan Curtis just finished her PhD at Emory University in Atlanta, and she decided to have a little photo shoot with her baby.

No, not her actual human child – her thesis. And she added the comment, “Longest labor ever.”

Amen to that.

Curtis wrote her thesis on genetics so you know this was no easy task. We’re talking years in the making here, folks. Four years, to be exact.

Other students shared their own photos and “labor stories” after seeing Curtis’ tweet.

Curtis clearly hit a nerve because a lot of people feel the same way.

Curtis said her mother gave her an ultimatum: “Either give me a Ph.D. or give me a grandchild. I got my doctorate.” Yes, you did. Congratulations, Doctor!

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This American’s Experience with Iceland’s Healthcare System Really Strikes a Nerve

Stop me if you’re heard this somewhere, possibly from your local politician: “We have the best health care ever invented! Of all time! Can’t be touched!”

I think most people know that A WHOLE LOT of other countries on the planet have much better health care than Americans do – plus, overseas it’s CHEAP. But that’s not what politicians and insurance companies want you to hear.

A woman named Mary Robinette Kowal shared her health care experience in Iceland, and her tweets went viral. I think that this will be very eye-opening for a lot of you. It sure was for me.

Let’s take a look at Kowal’s Twitter thread.

3 dollars…

Kowal offered a little clarification about an earlier tweet.

We get your point, Ms. Kowal. Something to think about…

What do you think? Share in the comments, we’d love to hear from you!

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