Traditionally, the presidential nominating conventions are followed by a few slow news weeks. Tradition, meet Mr. Donald Trump.
The past 24 hours alone have been a microcosm of the Trump campaign: He's (knowingly or not) threatened democratic norms by suggesting months in advance that if Hillary Clinton wins in November it'll mean the election was "rigged"...
...he's done his best to break the modern Republican Party (this time refusing to endorse Speaker of the House Paul Ryan in his primary — using the same words that Ryan did before Ryan endorsed Trump — and praising Ryan's primary opponent)...
...and he's done things that are simply ridiculous but are covered as if they're outrageous because he's Donald Trump, like kicking a baby out of his rally for crying.
It seems as if Trump might finally have crossed a line. A sitting Republican congressman (albeit one who's not running for reelection in November) has said he's voting for Hillary Clinton, citing Trump's feud with the parents of fallen soldier Humayun Khan.
French President François Hollande also weighed in Tuesday, saying that Trump's "excesses make you want to retch, even in the United States" (which presumably has a higher vomit threshold than France).
These are extraordinary actions. For any candidate other than Trump, they'd be wildly inappropriate. But with some reporters openly questioning Trump's mental health, this seems like nothing so much as an immune system reaction from the body politic.
For years, the federal government has told Americans to floss to prevent tooth decay. It turns out there really isn't scientific evidence that flossing works for that.
This discovery comes thanks to the Associated Press, which filed a Freedom of Information Act request with government agencies last year about the scientific evidence for flossing, only to find out there wasn't much.
The best available analysis, from the Cochrane Collaboration, suggests there's weak evidence that flossing reduces plaque. But there simply weren't enough studies available that tracked flossing over more than three months to figure out the impact on long-term tooth decay.
This doesn't mean flossing isn't a good thing (and you definitely shouldn't change your hygiene habits based on the headlines of news articles!). Just because there isn't evidence that flossing prevents tooth decay doesn't mean there isn't.
Nicolás Maduro has issued an order enabling the conscription of Venezuelans to do up to 60 days of forced labor on farms in an attempt to generate enough food.
The military has tightened its control over the food supply and ports, but it's not clear if it's a last-ditch effort to shore up Maduro's power — or a partial coup over a president too weak to defend himself.
The country's border with Colombia is closed to Venezuelans; during a temporary opening in the border last month, 35,000 Venezuelans crossed in a desperate search for food.
Perhaps the most accurate (if horrifying) measure of how desperate the government is: It spent $45 million over the past few years to sponsor a mediocre Formula 1 driver. This year, it couldn't even come up with the money for that.
At the Ranch, celebrities pay $4,100 to be woken up at 5:30 in the morning, get dragged on four-hour hikes, and receive no more than six almonds on the trail.
"Amir Khan, a 23-year-old student at a local community college, has born uneasy witness to young men as the gatekeepers of Harvard social life. He drives a cab at night, and regularly picks up profoundly inebriated women from outside final clubs. 'You give them power and they think that everyone has to kneel down to them,' Mr. Khan said of the club members."
"Unlike crustaceans, insects seem to have no pain-related behaviors. If an insect’s leg is damaged, for example, it does not groom or try to protect the limb afterward. Even in extreme cases, insects show no evidence of pain."
