Via LastWeekTonight
Last year, John Oliver bought $14.9 million dollars of medical debt for $60,000 on a Last Week Tonight segment. And now the man who was relieved of that debt is speaking out.
On Reddit, user EricHill posted a letter from Last Week Tonight explaining that his debt had been cleared.
via Reddit
According to Mashable:
“Not only had the comedian paid the debt, he also alleviated Eric of having to pay any taxes on his "cancellation of debt" income. That's because the series paid for Eric's debt through "RIP Medical Debt," as a 501(c)(3) charity. Eric's debt was paid off, no strings attached.“The show cautioned that this was for this medical debt only and not future medical debts.”
So while everyone might not care about John Oliver, John Oliver certainly cares about something.
Via Jenkem
Lots of us played Tony Hawk: Pro Skater and expected to leave the house doing kickflip to tailslide to bluntslide to that Chad Muska beats-slide where he pulls out a boombox. But very few of us could.
Still there are skateboarders who can trump the impossible things we’ve seen in video games. One of them is Dan Mancina, a skateboarder who is legally blind.
Mancina, who’s vision started to fade at 13, only has a slight amount of peripheral vision and a cane, but he’s still able to pull off some things most could only dream of — namely skating with a smooth controlled style. That’s the real money.
But according to Spolid, that’s not all that Mancina can do. In the video compilation “Dan Mancina Does Stuff Blind,” he chops wood, throws a bullseye, and fires a machine gun. Let this be an inspiration to all of us.
Via Huffington Post
Blessed be he, the Grimace.
That’s right. Grimace, Fry Guy, and Ronald McDonald are opening up shop right next to the Pope in downtown Vatican City, catering to the some six-millions tourists that pass through those hollowed grounds every year.
Not everyone’s looking to give the Hamburglar forgiveness, though. Only God may judge the Hamburglar.
According to Vice, the new McDonald’s is "at the corner Borgo Pio and Via del Mascherino, a mere block and a half—about 100 yards—from the famous St Peter’s Square. While neighbors already displeased by vendors hawking knickknacks in the area have complained that the McDonald’s would be a 'decisive blow on an already wounded animal,' at least one Cardinal is also saying leasing Vatican real estate to Ronald McDonald isn’t in keeping with the Church’s mission.”
Vice recieved an official response from McDonald’s, which stated they are occupying “a popular tourist area outside the Vatican that already has many other restaurants, bars, and retail shops… As is the case whenever McDonald’s operates near historic sites anywhere in Italy, this restaurant has been fully adapted with respect to the historical environment.”
McDonald’s isn’t the only chain that’s coming to the Vatican. Hard Rock Cafe is coming to Via della Conciliazione, answering the prayers of millions who want yet another Hard Rock Cafe, apparently.
Enjoy the Vatican, tourists, it’s yours now!
Via whitebearautos
Sometimes, a video comes along that perfectly encapsulates the culture. At one point, it was “Charlie Bit My Finger.” Then came “The Sneezing Baby Panda” and, of course, “Drummer at the Wrong Gig.”
Now, in 2017, is the time of the “White Bear Mitsubishi’s Gopher Hockey Outtakes — White Bear on Ice.”
This video delivers. You want to see a bear mascot slipping on ice over and over? Well, you got it. The description asks “How many takes to have a White Bear not slip on the ice during a commercial shoot?” But the real question is how many times can we ask. The answer: As many as it takes.
Enjoy this video, bookmark this video, and watch it whenever you’re feeling a little blue.
This is your failsafe.
H/T Gothamist
Via @woofjustin
Save your receipts because if you don’t like something the Gap will accept your return, apparently.
This Gap employee accepted a return from almost 17 years ago, and trust us, this manager is nothing happy about it. Still, the red shirt-vest combo looks pretty dope.
The worst part of all, the manager can’t figure out which one of his disrespectful employees returned the garb, so they had to post this sad letter to the wall.
Sigh.
When will you kids learn to follow protocol?!?
Via LinkedIn
Take a seat because that toilet isn’t nearly as disgusting as the hand towel.
TIME magazine talked to Charles Gerba, a professor of microbiology at the University of Arizona, to get the dirty truth about what’s the grosses thing in the bathroom. Turns out, you’re probably touching them in hopes of getting cleaner. But you’re wrong. Dead wrong. Nothing is safe. Germs everywhere.
According to Gerba, the top five grosses things are:
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Bathroom Towel because bacteria grows in moist conditions, especially in things that, like, never get washed.
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Toothbrush Holder — Again, because you never clean that thing.
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Kitchen Sponge — There’s a reason you don’t like touching that thing and it’s because it’s filled with bacteria. You want something you can wash, like a brush.
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Cellphones — You probably already knew this because Japan is putting those smart phone wipes in bathrooms.
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Supermarket Carts — I can’t even read this quote from Gerba — too scary— so you have to: “Almost 100% of them are home to E. coli because people are constantly touching the handles after holding raw food products.”
You can read more about the millions of tiny things that’ll make you sick and kill you over at TIME, but I don’t see why you’d want to. The germs are everywhere. We’re all doomed.
Apparently the answer is a resounding “No.”
Billy Eichner, the screaming, yelling, hollering host of Billy on the Street, hit his normal beat this week with John Oliver of HBO’s Last Week Tonight. As per Eichner’s thing, he wants to deflate the star of whoever is on the show with him. Sometimes it’s telling people that Seth Rogen is dead when Rogen is standing right next to him, and this time it was asking gay people if they
care about John Oliver.
Accosting people on the street and asking them if they're gay and "care about John Oliver, Billy gets to the heart of one of the most pressing questions of the modern age: "Do gay people care about John Oliver?"
The answer, for the most part, is still no. But one thing Eichner does discover that they love Wendy Williams.
Via CNN
As Eminem once said, “You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow because opportunity knocks once in a lifetime.”
That’s how the son of Kansas Rep. Roger Marshall felt during a quick photo op at his father’s swearing in ceremony. As House Speaker Paul Ryan turned and smiled for the camera, Marshall’s son went for a quick, inconspicuous, and heroic dab.
That’s when Ryan, perhaps, smelling dissent in the air turned and shut it down, like so many public healthcare initiatives.
Ryan asks the young man, “Are you going to sneeze?”
The boy, having just taken his only opportunity to embarrass his father, future self, and the guy who’s only dream is to have 100% privatized healthcare, put his hand down for the picture. The people, once again, have been crushed.
Aftermath:
Paul Ryan admits that he’s totally out of touch with young voters:
Rep. Marshall jails his son for something that’s clearly protected by the First Amendment:
Keep fighting.
Bane. Mad Max. Charles Bronson. Mother Goose?
Tom Hardy is mostly known for playing anti-social, bloodthirsty monsters. With his rich British accent and hulking physique, Hardy is an indomitable and unsuspecting screen presence known for tapping into the rawest parts of the human psyche. His voice synonymous with the eloquent ravings of a madman; his actions, the missing link between the modern and primordial man.
So it should come as no surprise that Tom Hardy reading a bedtime story about a party that requires guests wear a hat sounds like he’s reading a malevolent riddle to the good people of Gotham City.
Appearing on the BBC’s CBeeBies BedTime Story on New Years Eve, Hardy chilled on a couch — golden retriever on his lap, giant stuffed monkey to his side — to read You Must Bring a Hat, a darling children’s book by Simon Philip and Kate Hindly. The story of a young man who was invited to a party with a very specific set of instructions, You Must Bring a Hat, as read by Tom Hardy, sounds like something Charles Bronson says before he beats someone in prison.
Tell me that, “All penguins accompanying pink-tutu-wearing elephants MUST bring with them a suitcase full of cheese” doesn’t sound like something this guy would say:
Or “You think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it, molded by it.” Ok. That was from The Dark Knight Rises, but the point is because Hardy’s voice is closely connected to these lunatic characters, You Must Bring a Hat sounds like something they would say. Especially considering the book puts such dire emphasis on the whole “you must bring a hat to this party thing.”
Anyway, check out the video, close your eyes, and imagine Mad Max muttering this story under his breath.
Via Kuri Robot
Say “Hello” to Kuri, a new robot that follows you around, charges on its own, plays music, and loves you.
Reporting from the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Mashable introduced us to Kuri, who we fell in love with immediately. It's basically a cat that you can control and at least pretends to like you.
Mashable write, "The 14-pound, 20-inch robot from Mayfield Robotics makes its debut this week at CES in Las Vegas. There’s no complicated touch screen or even an animated face. Instead, the rolling bot has a round head that can look up at you with two simple eyes (it even has plastic eyelids) and a cone-like body with a pair of what appear to be fixed, gray plastic arms."
What does Kuri do exactly? Well, so far, all we know is that it wheels around your house, plays music, and apparently entertains children (although, the ad cuts before we see exactly how Kuri plays).
In this add, it shows how much better Kuri is than a parrot.
Anyway, Kuri follows you around and plays music and can read stories. It’s just like the Jetsons. It's $699. Again, what Kuri does is still a mystery. Slap a vacuum cleaner under this thing, and you've got yourself a sale.
