“We’re all Mikes, but we all want to be Trents,” Swingers director Doug Liman said in 2016, later adding that Trent’s unsavory qualities — his sexism and racial insensitivity — were his and screenwriter Favreau’s way of “rebelling against the political correctness of our time.” That second quote is cringey, but my younger self understands what he’s getting at because of what he says in the first quote.

The town of Takikawa, on the northern island of Hokkaido, purchased and installed two Monster Wolf robots after bears were found roaming neighbourhoods in September. City officials said there had been no bear encounters since.

Quek had been touring the United States on and off since graduating; dancing at clubs, doing interviews, selling merchandise, and taking on clients for private fetish sessions on the side. One of those clients had introduced her to the basics of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript — he had a thing for teacher-student role play. Dressed in a schoolgirl’s uniform, pausing only to deliberately make a mistake or two so that the client could spank her, Quek swiftly built a simple webpage with a button that, when clicked, revealed text that read “hello, world.”

Authorities said the bond was posted around 2 p.m. and was arranged by Rittenhouse's attorney. Stipulations, such as conditions of release, were not released.

A new book shows how the NRA forged an alliance between cops and civilian gun owners.

On Wednesday (18 November) the company asked him to send a self-image for real-time verification of his Uber Eats account. He took a selfie – the image on the right in the picture at the top – but it was flagged by the computer and verification failed. Why? Because it didn’t ‘match’ his original, bearded profile picture (on the left above). He had decided to go clean shaven in anticipation of getting a job interview. The software then started an automatic termination of Cristian’s account. That’s because it assumed he was letting someone else use his account to carry out his deliveries, which is against the rules.

WAUWATOSA, Wis. (AP) — Police searched Friday evening for the suspect in a shooting at a suburban Milwaukee mall that left seven adults and a teenager injured. Wauwatosa Police Chief Barry Weber gave no motive for the attack at the Mayfair Mall in a brief update about three hours after the 2:50 p.m. incident near an entrance to the Macy’s store. He said the extent of the eight victims’ injuries was unknown, but all were alive. He added that the shooter was “no longer at the scene” when authorities arrived. “Preliminary statements from witnesses indicate that the shooter is a white male in his 20s or 30s,” Weber told reporters. “Investigators are working on determining the identity of that suspect.” The chief called the mall an active crime scene and asked people to continue to stay away. He said the mall would remain closed until further notice.

KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — A 17-year-old from Illinois who is charged with killing two people during a protest in Wisconsin and whose case has become a rallying cry for some conservatives posted $2 million bail Friday and was released from custody. Kyle Rittenhouse is accused of fatally shooting Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and wounding Gaige Grosskreutz during a demonstration Aug. 25 that followed the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha. He posted bond through his attorney at about 2 p.m., Kenosha County Sheriff’s Sgt. David Wright said.

The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Irinej, died in a Belgrade hospital on Friday after contracting coronavirus, according to a statement from the church. Irinej, who was 90, led an open-casket funeral service for the church's top cleric in Montenegro, Metropolitan Amfilohije Radović, on November 1. Three days later, Irinej was admitted to hospital after testing positive for Covid-19. Amfilohije's body had been displayed in an open casket during the service before being interred in the crypt of the church in Podgorica, Montenegro. A large crowd had gathered in front of the crowded church, with only a few of the attendees inside the building wearing face coverings. Video of the service showed mourners kissing the deceased cleric's hands and forehead, as is custom.

I am seriously doubting that Biden will do anything that is remotely tough on the Kingdom.

The former Deputy Secretary of Veteran Affairs has claimed in an exclusive interview with Newsweek that he was fired for refusing to damage the reputation of a female Navy veteran who alleged she was the victim of a sexual assault in a V.A. facility. Former Deputy Secretary James Byrne is a Marine veteran and former federal prosecutor. He was Senate-confirmed as V.A. general counsel in August 2017 and then nominated by the president the following year for deputy secretary, a position in which he served in an acting capacity until September 2019, when he again was Senate-confirmed just four days before the alleged incident. According to Byrne, Secretary of Veteran Affairs Robert Wilkie embarked on a mission to discredit the female veteran, citing the name of a U.S. congressman to help support his disparaging claims in an attempt to shut down her sexual assault allegations and attack her reputation. Byrne told Newsweek that his refusal to go along with the conspiracy contributed to his eventual ouster from the V.A. and a forced retirement.

Noble bird or nuisance? Gerald the rose garden turkey inspired a debate among Oaklanders about the place of nature in our city.

From her Everest scoop to her journey as a trans woman, the author’s authoritative voice and questioning mind found an eager audience

President-elect Joe Biden has made assembling a diverse team a priority. He also faces pressure from the progressive wing of his party to limit corporate influence on hires for his administration, avoiding candidates from Wall Street or company boardrooms. But narrowing the candidate pool that way won’t help create a more representative administration, some suggest. “Big Business is here to help,” said Ron Parker, the chief executive of the National Association of Securities Professionals. He told DealBook that women and people of color in business have “a unique experience that lends itself to being heard.” This week, the N.A.S.P. and seven other trade groups sent a letter to Mr. Biden urging him to prioritize diversity in top economic policy positions and to “reject demands for a blanket exclusion on potential appointees with experience in the corporate sector or financial services field specifically.”

Shana Blackwell, 19 Position: CAP 2 associate (night stocker), Walmart Started: April 2019 Quit: October 2020 Salary: $11.22 per hour Shana Blackwell quit her job at Walmart via intercom. Maybe you saw the video—she posted it to Twitter in October, and it quickly went viral. “Attention all Walmart shoppers, associates, and managers,” she announced before launching into a speech in which she called out specific employees for having made what she said were racist or sexual comments. “I hope you don’t talk to your daughters the way you talk to me,” she added, naming a group of “perverts.” As for Walmart itself, she said, “This company treats their employees like shit.” She closed by saying, “Fuck the managers, fuck this company, fuck this position….I fucking quit.” At the moment the video has more than 55,000 likes and 11,000 retweets.

The British Library is nearing the end of a project to make 40,000 early maps and views freely available online for the first time.

Two years ago, I lived through a coup in Sri Lanka. It was stupid. The minority party threw chili powder at everyone in Parliament and took over by farce. Math, however, requires a majority and the courts kicked them out. They gave in. We’d been protesting for weeks and yay, we won. No. I didn’t know it at the time, but we had already lost. No one knew — but oh my God, what we lost. The legitimate government came back but it was divided and weak. We were divided and weak. We were vulnerable. Four months later, on Easter Sunday, some assholes attacked multiple churches and hotels, killing 269 of us. My wife and kids were at church, I had to frantically call them back. Our nation was shattered. Mobs began attacking innocent Muslims. It was out of control. The coup broke our government, and four months later, that broke us.

- A divided federal appeals court on Friday struck down laws in south Florida that prohibited therapists from offering so-called conversion therapy to children struggling with their sexual orientation or gender identity. In a 2-1 decision, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the laws in Boca Raton and Palm Beach county were unconstitutional content-based restrictions on speech that violated the First Amendment. The laws had been challenged by two therapists who said their clients typically had “sincerely held religious beliefs conflicting with homosexuality,” and sought counseling to conform their identities and behaviors with those beliefs. Both judges in the majority were appointed to the bench by Republican President Donald Trump, while the dissenting judge was appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama.

America’s 40th president was a lot of things: a right-wing talk radio host, a Hollywood actor, a Red Scare monger, a charismatic liar. A great leader wasn’t one of them but for some reason Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War seems keen to revive that long-standing conservative fantasy.

At least three major streaming devices are hosting multiple channels dedicated to the dangerous QAnon conspiracy theory, despite its supporters’ ties to violence -- and seemingly in violation of the platforms’ terms of service. Most of these QAnon channels appear to be using the same video hosting service, Secure Server TV, which facilitates the channels’ distribution across streaming platforms.  In recent months, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube have all cracked down on the QAnon conspiracy theory, which is premised on claims that President Donald Trump is part of a secret fight against a cabal of pedophiles and the so-called “deep state.” The conspiracy theory has been connected to multiple killings and multiple kidnappings and has been embraced by some militia groups. The FBI in 2019 warned that the theory’s supporters presented a potential domestic terrorism threat. Additionally, QAnon supporters regularly circulate harmful falsehoods, ranging from unfounded wildfire conspiracy theories to election misinformation and coronavirus misinformation, along with anti-Semitism. Nevertheless, at least 10 QAnon channels -- nearly all of which used to be on YouTube before the platform’s crackdown -- still have a home on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and Apple TV. Most of the channels use a video hosting service called Secure Server TV, which describes itself as “an OTT (over the top media service) platform designed to distribute your content on multiple platforms all while securing your content with military grade encryption.” The service adds that through its service “you will be featured on your own Web TV site, Roku, Amazon Fire, Google TV, Apple TV, iOS and Android Mobile Apps.”