Fallon and The Roots were joined by much of the cast of "The Force Awakens," including Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Gwendoline Christie, Lupita Nyong'o, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford for an a cappella tribute to "Star Wars."
The question of whether our road leads to Piketty (2014)—a new Belle Époque plutocracy—or Keynes (1936)—a euthanization of the rentier in which the wealth of the rich is outlandish but their incomes are not due to low rates of profit—hinges on our politics. And our politics is something we can control.
We as a civilization could decide that we are not willing to let money talk so loudly in politics. We could keep our politics from being one of establishing monopoly after monopoly and rent-extraction chokepoint after rent-extraction chokepoint. If we manage that, then the forecasts of Keynes (1936) and Rognlie (2015 will come true, and a rise in wealth accumulation will carry with it a fall in the rate of profit, and a highly-productive not-too-unequal society.
But right now money talks very loudly indeed. And I leave the Piketty debate more depressed about our ability to keep it from talking so loudly. What makes me more depressed? The Piketty debate itself does: The eagerness of so-many economists to aggressively make so many shoddy arguments that Piketty does not know what he is talking about.
SpaceX made history Monday night when it successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket into orbit, deployed 11 satellites, and then brought the 15-story booster back to Earth for a soft, vertical landing just six miles from where it took off at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Rep. Steve Russell (R-OK) delivered a speech on the House floor Wednesday tearing into his colleagues' push to restrict Syrian refugees' ability to come to the U.S., arguing that such policies will make the U.S. like the Islamic State.
"While I have focused my comments on actions we should take to eliminate ISIS, one action we should not take is to become like them. America is a lamp that lights the horizon of civilized and free mankind. The Statue of Liberty cannot have a stiff arm. Her arm must continue to keep the torch burning brightly," he said in his floor speech.
"But if we use our passions and our anger, fear, and we use that to snuff our her flame by xenophobic and knee-jerk policy, the enemy wins. We have played into their hands. Period," he continued.
...
He noted that in 1939, members of Congress made similar comments opposing a refugee bill that would have aided Jews fleeing Nazi Germany.
"America protects her liberty and defends her shores not by punishing those who would be free. She does it by guarding liberty with her life. Americans need to sacrifice and wake up. We must not become them. They win if we give up who we are and even more-so without a fight," Russell said.
I'm having issues embedding video from Facebook. Here is the URL for the video.
This towering fire tornado, or ‘firenado,’ was created when lightning struck a Jim Beam warehouse in Kentucky, and 800,000 gallons of bourbon spilled into a retention pond and went up in flames. You have to have exactly the right conditions for something like this to happen.
Brands can't be as honest as they might like in dealing with haters on Facebook. But sometimes other Facebook users can do it for them.
That dynamic played out in particularly rogue fashion on Target's Facebook page this week. As the retailer received a steady stream of nasty comments from people upset about its move toward gender-neutral labeling of children's products in its stores, Facebook user Mike Melgaard came to Target's defense—in a provocative manner. He created a fake Facebook account and posed as a Target customer service rep—under the name Ask ForHelp, with a bull's-eye profile pic—and began excoriating the haters with comically sarcastic replies.
He got away with it for about 16 hours, too, commenting on about 50 posts before the fake account was shut down.
Remember when Trolls were the kings of the world? Woo hoo! They're back and only at Target stores.
No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.
If you are attacked by a black bear, DO NOT PLAY DEAD. Try to escape to a secure place such as a car or building. If escape is not possible, try to fight back using any object available. Concentrate your kicks and blows on the bear's face and muzzle.
On June 19, 2008, in Venditte's professional debut with the Staten Island Yankees, the fourth batter he faced, Ralph Henriquez of the Brooklyn Cyclones, was a switch-hitter. There were two outs in the bottom of the ninth. In the on-deck circle, Henriquez had warmed up as a left-hander. When he entered the batter's box, Venditte had his glove on his right hand, tipping that he was going to throw left. Then Henriquez stepped in right. Venditte switched his glove to his opposite hand. Henriquez switched sides, and so did Venditte. Then they switched sides again. "Boy, I have never seen anything like this," one of the broadcasters said. (An eight-minute video of the at-bat has been viewed more than a million times on YouTube.) Finally, the umpires ordered Henriquez to step in. He went right, and so did Venditte. An enraged Henriquez struck out on four pitches, ending the game and modern baseball's first switchy-switchy matchup by clubbing the dirt with his bat -- with his left hand.
Walter Carlisle, although more famous for something he did in the minors, played 3 games in the major leagues with theBoston Red Sox in 1908. Also trying for a job in the outfield of the Red Sox that year was a 20-year-old named Tris Speaker.
On July 19, 1911, while playing for Vernon of the Pacific Coast League in a game against Los Angeles, Carlisle completed the only known example of an unassisted triple play by a centerfielder. Carlisle made a diving catch off the bat of Roy Akin just behind second base with runners on first and second, but the runners had taken off with the hit, so he touched second, and then ran by himself all the way back to first to complete the triple play. In the following year, Akin pulled off his own unassisted triple play, albeit as an infielder.
