On Wednesday, President Biden ordered the U.S. Intelligence Community to “redouble their efforts” to come to a solid conclusion about the origins of the covid-19 virus. This comes after the Wall Street Journal reported that three researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology fell ill and were hospitalized in November 2019, shortly before the covid-19 outbreak was made public, according to a previously undisclosed U.S. intelligence report. The revelation placed increased attention on a theory that has been denied by the Chinese government.

hat were you like as a child?’ Dick Cavett asked Edward Gorey on his talk show in November 1977. ‘Small,’ he replied. Gorey, who died in 2000 at the age of 75, did not like to talk about himself or his work, which depended, like the Japanese literature he admired, ‘very much [on] what is left out’. Someone who thought of himself principally as a writer, but is now remembered chiefly as an artist and illustrator of his own and other people’s work, Gorey created a peculiar, hermetic world in which the comic and the macabre combine in proportions dependent on the reader’s temperament. It has been described variously as Edwardian, Jazz Age, avant-retro, surreal, picturesque and English; Gorey said it had the effect of ‘Victorian novels all scrunched up’. The only really accurate word is ‘Goreyesque’. The term was in circulation by the time of his death, and doubtless long before among aficionados. When he did the Cavett interview Gorey was no longer a cult figure. His set and costume designs for a hit Broadway production of Dracula had brought him recognition and a great deal of money. Soon he had a Tony Award, which he gave away to a friend. By the 1980s he was famous. But he remains a specialised taste. His father, to whom he wasn’t close, described the way his son divided opinion: ‘He has you either amused – or clutching the chandelier.’

Two entrepreneurs have built a business dredging up white women’s shame.

The acronym ACAB—"all cops are bastards"—has become a popular slogan at protests against police brutality and corruption. Cops whose feelings are hurt by this have little legal recourse since declaring all cops bastards is protected speech whether they like it or not. But Phoenix-area law enforcement apparently thought that they had found a way around this: by declaring ACAB to be the name of a criminal gang, and those chanting it to be declaring their gang membership. This was a fiction—and authorities now admit as much. Prosecuting slogan-chanting protesters on gang charges was "deeply flawed" and there was "no likelihood of conviction on the gang charges," wrote Maricopa County prosecutor Ryan Green in a court motion.

We regret to inform you that the cis are at it again.

30 Jeans in 30 Days is an experiment in upcycled denim, drawing inspiration from Martino Gamper’s 100 Chairs in 100 Days.

The cache includes data on 1.7 million incidents, giving insight into the scale of Citizen around the country.

A business operator in Tokyo is partly crediting the COVID-19 pandemic for bringing an end to an annoying, years-long practice: paying “protection” money to yakuza gangsters. “Although the money did not have a significant impact on our financial condition, I felt I should not pay it anymore,” he said. “I am relieved that I could kick the habit.”

How could you continue to face the contractor, hand over your daily catch, meekly accept weekly rations, if you suspected he’d murdered your only son?

I don’t know who crafted the first tweet that simply said “Eve Fartlow,” but whoever it was—bot or human—started a fire. Over the past two weeks, Twitter has been littered with the words “Eve Fartlow.” Every time I tweet, this title is the response I attract, and it is pelted at me irrespective of what I write. Hundreds of trolls, some with blue ticks and some without, just start responding to me “Eve Fartlow” (some people have recently switched it to “Eve Shartlow” but “Eve Fartlow” seems to be the one that sticks). If we donated a JNF tree to Israel for every time someone tweeted “Eve Fartlow,” there’d be no Negev left.

In a landmark mega deal, Amazon is acquiringMGM Holdings — whose storied studio boasts one of the largest film and TV libraries — in a bid to turbocharge its Prime membership offering to customers…

Watch the film composer squish some CGI bugs.

When the Olympics came to Tokyo in 1964 (and went off as planned, unlike 2020’s games), Japan hired filmmaker Kon Ichikawa to chronicle the events.

Hacked emails show City Hall struggling to find evidence that would justify Lightfoot and Brown’s claims linking gun violence to bond court.

The what?

In the north Bronx, a small group of elite Ethiopian runners struggle to survive. The persecution they fled was far more harrowing.

One of the enduring mysteries of Spygate is the identity of the person who reached out to the late Sen. Arlen Specter to coax him into dropping his Senate probe. Now Specter's son and ghostwriter have come forward with a name: Donald J. Trump.

The reason this statement was deemed controversial is because China considers Taiwan to be part of its territory, despite it being self-ruled.

Jacob Fauci, who sparked criticism after occupying a Palestinian woman's home is back in the news after his social media was discovered.

I believed I was helping an honorable, decent man—until he was released from prison