Scarlett Johansson topless request rejected by Michael Bay - "Johansson had a problem with The Island and particularly some of Bay’s directing. The film features a sex scene between the actor and her so-star McGregor, and she was handed a black bra to wear to cover herself up so that the film could receive a PG-13 rating as marketed. Johansson felt that wearing a bra was a ridiculous notion, though, and asked Bay if she could remove it and do the scene topless to give the movie a greater sense of realism... “She’s standing there, and she says, ‘I’m not wearing this cheap… bra. I’m going naked.’ I said, ‘It’s PG-13, you have to wear the bra’.” The problem for Johansson was that she thought it unrealistic that a woman would be wearing a tight black bra in bed. “Women don’t normally sleep in a bra,” she noted. “I can’t wake up in this scene wearing a bra; it’s ridiculous.”"
How mutton flaps are killing Tonga - "The low-quality end of a sheep's rib - connected to the high-quality ribs and spare ribs - also known as breast... Flaps make up 9-12% of a sheep's carcass by weight, but only 3-5 % by value In the Pacific, they are sometimes the only cut of the animal found on sale... According to Soakai, it's not unusual for a Tongan to eat 1kg of mutton flaps in one sitting. He did so himself in days gone by. "Over the years, I got quite big, I probably tipped the scales at 170kg (375lb, 26st 11lb)," he says... Some scientists believe Tonga's problem is partly down to genetics - that Pacific islanders in the past had to survive long periods without food so their bodies are programmed to cling on to fats. But there's no question the role that society plays here. "The bigger you are, that's beauty," says Drew Havea, chair of the civil Society Forum of Tonga. Size and status in Tonga have often gone together. The Tongan King Tupou IV, who died in 2006, holds the Guinness record for being the heaviest-ever monarch - 200kg (33 stone, or 440lbs). Being thin would traditionally have indicated a position lower in the social pecking order... There is also a tradition of feasting, which to an outsider almost resembles competitive eating. "Good food, in a Tongan sense, is lots of food," says the Rev Dr Ma'afu Palu, a minister who is making it his mission to preach healthier eating. He's among many who criticise church leaders for failing to set a good example to their parishioners. Ministers are authority figures in this deeply religious society and according to Palu, 85% of them are obese, thanks partly to the regular feasts they take part in. The obesity epidemic is not solely down to mutton flaps and turkey tails. Lots of fatty canned meat is consumed - sometimes from giant 2.7kg (96oz) tins. And then there are fizzy drinks. "You have to understand that in Tonga we are catching up," says Lepaola Vaea, deputy Chief Executive at the Ministry of Revenue and Customs. "We used to watch American movies and TV shows and everyone was drinking soda. We sat there and thought, 'Wow, I would love to drink soda and we're poor because we're drinking water.' But now everyone's drinking water and we are drinking soda!" In 2008, Vaea tried to raise duty on mutton flaps, as Fiji has successfully done. The result: "There was a large public outcry," she says. "People are addicted." It says a lot about Tongan eating habits that a healthfood restaurant here serves fish and chips. But this really is healthier than a lot of Tongan dinners... Life expectancy, which was once in the mid-70s, has fallen to 64."
Ranking (% obesity by country) | World Obesity Federation Global Obesity Observatory - "1. American Samoa 75.92
2. Tonga 72.35
3. Nauru 71.06
4. Tokelau 71.02
5. Cook Islands 69.58
6. Niue 67.27
7. Tuvalu 65.25
8. Samoa 63.67
9. French Polynesia 49.00
10. Federated States of Micronesia 48.19
11. Bahamas 48.15
12. Marshall Islands 47.11
13. Kiribati 46.89
14. Saint Kitts and Nevis 46.65
15. Egypt 45.59
16. Kuwait 44.43
17. Qatar 44.00
18. Belize 43.29
19. United States 42.74
20. Saudi Arabia 42.45"
Time to mock the Americans again
Everyone Says They’ll Pay More for “Made in the USA.” So We Ran an A/B - "As small business owners, we’ve heard it a thousand times: “I’d gladly pay more to support American-made.” We wanted to believe it. So we put it to the test... We found a U.S.-based supplier. The new unit cost us nearly 3x more to produce. To maintain our margins, we’d have to sell it for $239... visitors were given the choice to either buy the Made in USA or the Made in Asia version... Not a single customer purchased the Made-in-USA version... We wanted to believe customers would back American labor with their dollars. But when faced with a real decision—not a survey or a comment section—they didn’t... If policymakers and pundits want to rebuild American industry, they need to grapple with this truth: idealism doesn’t always survive contact with a price tag."
This is why those promote economic patriotism keep pressing for restrictions on foreign products - they know most people won't pay for locally made products without coercion
Meme - *Similar white and black doll*
White doll: "14.99€"
Black doll: "% reduziert 9.00€ 14.99€"
Meme - Woman having sex with man: "YES YES YES!"
Woman to baby grabbing toilet brush: "NO!"
Woman to baby looking at knife: "NO!"
Woman to baby biting wire and trying to stick hand in electrical socket: "NO!"
Meme - "When you promised yourself you wouldn't masturbate today"
Britney Spears: "Oops, I did it again"
Snails with shells coiling to the left survive snake attacks (w/ Video) - "Snail shells can spiral to the left (sinistral) or to the right (dextral), as determined by a single gene, and a new study has found the advantage of being in the minority sinistral group: they survive predation by snakes much better than dextral snails. The effect of this advantage is so great they could separate into a distinct species. Mating between sinistral and dextral snails is almost impossible because their genitals are on opposite sides of their bodies... Dextral snails are far more common than sinistral snails, and therefore have far more mating opportunities. This and the difficulty in mating means sinistral snails should become extinct unless sinistrality has some unknown advantage. Now, scientists in Japan and Taiwan have discovered the advantage is a resistance to snake predation. Southeast Asian snakes of the pareatidae family — the oriental slug-eating snakes — specialize in eating slugs and snails, and because the majority of snails are dextral with the shells on the right side, the snakes attack from the left, grabbing the shell with its upper jaw and sticking its lower jaw into the gap. The snakes have also evolved asymmetrical mouth parts with more fangs on one side than the other to help them eat the dextral snails. These changes, however, make it difficult for them to eat sinistral snails, especially as the snakes continue to attack from the left."
Sick man of Europe? Germany’s bosses sound alarm on staff illness - "German business executives have warned that high levels of sick leave are damaging the competitiveness of Europe’s largest economy and compounding its economic woes. Workers missed an average of 19.4 days because of illness in 2023, according to Techniker Krankenkasse, the country’s largest public health insurance provider. Preliminary figures suggest the trend is on course to continue its upward trajectory, TK told the Financial Times, exacerbating challenges for an economy that many expect to contract for the second year running in 2024. While it is notoriously difficult to compare data from country to country, Christopher Prinz, an expert on employment at the OECD, said Germany was “definitely among the higher countries” when it came to sick leave. The issue has fed into a debate about the future of the country’s economic model, with high energy prices, labour shortages and stifling bureaucracy hitting manufacturers that have for decades driven growth. An executive at a blue-chip manufacturer lamented “a complete unwillingness”, especially among some “work-shy” younger workers, to understand the sacrifices needed to maintain prosperity and competitiveness. “And then everyone wonders why Germany is the sick man of Europe,” he said. Paul Niederstein, co-owner and chief executive of steel galvanising business Coatinc, which has about 600 employees in Germany and 900 elsewhere, said the high absence rate was a symptom of a labour force that had become “too spoilt and too self-confident”. A study published in January by the German Association of Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies (VFA), an industry body, found that were it not for the country’s above-average number of sick days, the German economy would have grown 0.5 per cent last year, rather than shrinking 0.3 per cent. Claus Michelsen, the study’s author, said high sick levels were exacerbating a shortage of skilled workers. Heads at Elon Musk’s electric-car maker Tesla in September sought to tackle high sick rates by conducting unannounced home visits to check up on absent employees at its factory near Berlin... Mercedes-Benz chief executive Ola Källenius recently claimed that sickness absence in its Germany production was sometimes twice as high as in other countries, despite the same conditions... The TK data show the biggest change, besides a post-coronavirus bump in respiratory illnesses, has come from a steep rise in mental health cases since the turn of the millennium... Even before the pandemic, sick leave rates were among the highest in the developed world. OECD data on compensated absence from work due to illness — compiled from sources including health ministries and health insurers — shows Germany’s rate as the highest in the group of advanced countries, with 22.4 days a year in 2022, the latest available data. The OECD’s labour force survey, which Prinz said enabled better comparisons because it was self-reported by workers, places Germany seventh — behind countries such as Norway, Finland, Spain and France — with 6.8 per cent of workers’ usual weekly hours lost due to sickness absence. The OECD survey did not provide figures for the UK, where the statutory sick pay regime is one of the least generous in the developed world. Sickness absence has also increased in Britain since the pandemic, but to a much lower level. The latest UK data, for 2022, shows an absence rate of 2.6 per cent, up from 2 per cent in 2019. In Germany, all employees are entitled by law to six weeks’ sick leave a year at full pay."
Damn fascists forcing sick workers to work!
We need even more awareness about mental health!
We're Spending $300B a Year on Mental Health. Why Is It Making Us Sicker? - "We're spending nearly $300 billion a year on mental health care, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Yet Americans are more anxious, more medicated, and more emotionally fragile than ever. The system isn't just failing, it's making us worse. As we mark Mental Health Awareness Month, it's worth asking whether this growing investment in therapy is truly helping or if it's fueling a culture of emotional fragility. Despite therapy's rapid growth, Americans are growing sicker, weaker, and more divided. I've spent two decades as a psychotherapist in New York and Washington, D.C., and I've watched the system drift away from building strength and toward rewarding weakness. One woman came to me after her previous therapist told her to quit a new job after a single week because it "triggered" her. The real issue was that she didn't like taking direction, but instead of helping her confront it, the therapist just affirmed her discomfort. Another patient was told by her therapist that setting "healthy boundaries" meant cutting off her entire family. No discussion. No healing. Just emotional isolation disguised as progress. That's not counseling. That's enabling. What was once a tool for meaningful change has turned into a comfort industry. Many therapists now prioritize validation over challenging patients to face hard truths and change self-defeating behaviors. Therapy is now a place where discomfort is avoided, not explored. This mindset doesn't build resilience; it reinforces fragility. When done right, therapy can spark real growth. But increasingly, it enables emotional weakness instead of helping people get stronger... There's a broader cultural problem, too. Therapy isn't just feeding personal fragility; it's fueling societal division. In today's therapy culture, people are cast as either oppressed or oppressors, as if those are the only options. This binary doesn't promote healing; it breeds resentment and victimhood. We live in an era where disagreement is treated like trauma, and emotional reactions are weaponized for political gain. On social media, vulnerability is currency. On TikTok, influencer "therapists" dish out instant validation in 30-second bursts. The most anxious voices often hold the most influence. Complex issues get reduced into content. Millions watch, but few get better. Being "in therapy" has become a badge of honor. Mental health struggles have morphed into an identity. But that's not strength. We should celebrate emotional resilience, not broadcast pain for validation. Much of this dysfunction begins with how therapists are trained. Graduate programs often prioritize emotional safety and unconditional validation over fostering real growth. Future therapists learn to tiptoe around discomfort instead of helping patients face it head-on. That has to change. Therapists should be trained to help patients build grit and achieve goals, not just listen passively, offer vague reassurances, or affirm every feeling. We also need to stop outsourcing our emotions. People have been trained to seek validation from therapists, social media followers, even strangers online. But true emotional strength doesn't come from likes or labels. It comes from within. Therapy should build that foundation, not create lifelong dependence on external approval... We need to rethink how we view discomfort. Pain, failure, and adversity aren't disorders. They're part of life and part of how character is built. Treating every challenge as trauma doesn't help people. It weakens them. When we pathologize ordinary struggles, we rob people of the opportunity to grow stronger. Disagreement isn't an attack. Setbacks aren't mental illness. Life is hard, and that's OK. The truth is, we don't need more therapy. We need better therapy. Therapy should make people stronger, not dependent. If we want a healthier, more resilient country, we need to stop turning therapy into an emotional pacifier and start using it as a tool for real change. It's time to demand more from therapy because the future of our mental health depends on it."
Clearly we need even more "awareness" about mental health
Man arrested after death of former NHLer won't face charges - "A man arrested on suspicion of manslaughter following the death of hockey player Adam Johnson has been told he will not face any charges, British prosecutors said Tuesday. Johnson played for the Nottingham Panthers and died shortly after his neck had been sliced in a collision with Sheffield Steelers defenceman Matt Petgrave during a game on Oct. 28, 2023... During the game, Johnson had skated with the puck into Sheffield's defensive zone when Petgrave collided with another Panthers player nearby. Petgrave's left skate elevated as he began to fall and the blade hit Johnson in the neck."
Meme - "I AM NOT BIASED. I AM PREPARED TO BELIEVE ANY SIDE OF ANY ARGUMENT. THAT SAID I DO HAVE CERTAIN STANDARDS FOR EVIDENCE. PEOPLE WHO DON'T AGREE WITH ME MUST PROVIDE AT LEAST SIX FIFTY-YEAR LONGITUDINAL STUDIES, WITH 10,000 PARTICIPANTS PER STUDY, WITH EACH STUDY COMPLETED IN THE LAST SIX MONTHS. PEOPLE WHO DO AGREE WITH ME MUST PROVIDE THE HEADLINE FROM A TABLOID ARTICLE, OR A CARTOON IN WHICH THE PEOPLE I DISLIKE ARE DEPICTED AS PIGS WITH FANGS."
"YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT BIAS IS."
"THAT'S BECAUSE I'M THE ONLY ONE WHO NEVER EXPERIENCES IT."
Altered Sexual Orientation Following Dominant Hemisphere Stroke
Meme - "Her: "my pussy is so wet"
My dick inside the condom: *sad Skeletor looking out of rain-covered window*
Meme - Luke Skywalker: "Why do you keep bringing up nazis, Han?"
Han Solo: "Kid, I keep sounding the alarm bells of nazis so it doesn't reach Holocaust levels"
Matt Silverman: "Somebody never read "The boy who cried wolf." Or heard of Chickenlittle. When everyone is Hitler, nobody is Hitler. It becomes background noise."
Meme - *Busty woman brooke markhaa with tattoos*
*Apartment block with graffiti*
Meme - "Hitler (in Hell): gonna prank Hirohito when he gets executed!
1945. 1946. 1988"
Meme - Bison Valley @bison14397: "@AbhishBanerj , before the internet, India was still somewhat perceived as this mysterious land full of wisdom, meditation masters and ancestral knowledge. But with the internet era now everyone knows it is the land of inbreeders, rapists, pollution and hygiene hell."
*Woman submerged in trash water*
@tli-burn on Tumblr - "alright power ranking the continents by their animals:
1. africa: really no competition it’s got all the heavy hitters, this is the shit you put on a 2000s classroom poster, it’s the shit you brag about aliens too, it’s most of the appeal of the zoo
2. australia: the edgy kids africa, the evil version of earths biome, plenty of absolute legends out here
3. asia: kinda high class polished vibes imho, very strong still but less of the shock factor of our top 2
4. south america: the birds are really carrying it here, the rainforest brings a lot to the table especially on the bird front, but it lacks definite mascots
5. north america: we’ve got some lads up here, the moose and bison come to mind, but we don’t have enough uniqueness nor color imho, the north american vibe is drab
6. europe: sorry, you guys are strong in many other categories but the animal kingdom is not your forte, its dire enough that your most iconic crest (the lion) isn’t even from your continent
7. antarctica: the one relevant land species it has is an absolute banger, a top 10 animal, one of the most earthcore mfs out there, but one perfect animal just isn’t enough to build a palette out of"
Prince Harry says he's devastated to lose his bid to restore his UK government-funded security - "Harry claimed that he and his family are endangered when visiting his homeland because of hostility aimed at him and Meghan on social media and through relentless hounding by news media."
Looks like the UK is a very dangerous country and lots of people need security
(30F) I lived in Japan for about six years. And likely had sex with around 300 women while I was there. AMA. : r/NSFWIAMA - "The Japanese are actually oddly open about things as long as your not going it in public. Like the average even old Japanese person does not care if your Gay/Lesbian. They are uncomfortable with ALL public displays of affection not just the gay ones."
(30F) I lived in Japan for about six years. And likely had sex with around 300 women while I was there. AMA. : r/NSFWIAMA - "So. Japanese girls Irl fake moan and bad as in Japanese porn? (I hope this they don't and I know porn is fake)"
"… Yes, yes they do. Again it’s part of this strange cultural virtual signaling thing that Japanese women do. The up side is it’s LESS common than in porn. It’s less common with Lesbians. It’s less common with women over about 30… And it’s’ less common with any group of Japanese girls who just kinda don’t give a shit."
Clintons' speaking tour event in Toronto had 83% of the seats empty
From 2018
The 10 Professions Where You Will Find More Psychopaths - "10. Civil servant... In fact, in 2014, UK Government officials considered recruiting psychopaths specifically “to keep order,” because they are “very good in crises” and have “no feelings for others, nor moral code, and tend to be very intelligent and logical.”
9. Chef
8. Clergy person
7. Police officer
6. Journalist
5. Surgeon
4. Salesperson
3. Media person in TV or radio
2. Lawyer
1. CEO"
Thread by @EnswellJones - "I want to say I was 16, maybe. My family went to Florida. I was—and still am—a passionate SCUBA diver. The water is the only place I feel graceful. I went by myself on a dive boat. There was me and maybe six other divers—all big, brawny men. I felt very small and hairless. You have to understand dive culture. Some people like the fish. Some people like the quiet. Some people—dudes with bad fathers—like to pretend they’re NAVY Seals. They strap knives to their legs and wear huge watches and get all big-balled about how little air they use. This boat was filled with those meatheads. On our way out to the dive site, I was like, Are we invading Bermuda? They were all strapped and wearing four-foot fins, telling tales about how they routinely dived to 300 feet and fought sharks. Several confessed underwater murders. Today I’d be like, Sorry about your shitty childhoods. But being a teenage boy is hard in some ways. I was sort of intimidated and wanted badly to belong. I did not belong. My mummy and daddy had driven me to the boat and were waiting on shore for me with ice cream. Anyway, we dived, and the biggest Chet of the bunch got a wicked jellyfish sting on his face, like he’d been slashed with broken glass. Whether any of his other stories were true, I had no idea. But now he had a true story about the time a jellyfish turned his lips into sausages. We scrambled back onto the boat. The guy was screaming through his gritted teeth, so pretty quickly, he was laid out flat on the deck. Back then, the theory was that ammonia helped treat jellyfish stings. (Apparently it does not.) A good source of ammonia is… urine. Out of nowhere, these big hairy bros started pissing on his face, like dogs fighting over a fire hydrant. I’d never seen anything like it. (I mean, where would I have?) But I still had a lot to learn about diving and manhood. I was like, Okay, I guess we’re doing this. I shouldered into the circle and peed on him, too. I didn’t just take a tinkle on this dude, either. If you’ve ever gone diving, you know that you absorb or swallow half the ocean. You have to piss like a racehorse. It was like I was a bilge pump. I emptied a bucket on this guy. I was reminded, years earlier, of going to Cleveland Municipal Stadium, maybe? Some ballpark that had circular urinals. I had to stand there in this circle of bikers and longshoremen and take out my tiny peen and hang one. The boat was like that, but at least I’d hit puberty. We doused that guy like he was on fire—there was more urine on that boat deck than in the ball pit at IKEA. And then we all acted like the biggest fucking heroes in the world, giving each other high fives and shit. It was the weirdest thing. These guys were JACKED. We headed back to shore. Pissboy sat alone, staring out to sea. I remember thinking, He doesn’t look okay. It wasn’t just the jellyfish sting. That trip changed him. He’d gone out a man who’d never been peed on. He was coming back knowing that he could never say that again. Everybody else was quiet, too, until one of the other guys piped up: “We shoulda pissed into cups or something, and then poured them on you. That woulda been better.” And the guy just looked over, like a man who wished everything was different, and whispered: “Yeah.” We got back and said goodbye: six strangers brought together by fate to urinate all over another stranger’s face. My parents asked me how my dive had gone. “Great,” I said. I didn’t tell them I had peed on a man for the first time. I just ate my ice cream. It was reward enough."
