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Ugh, is there anything worse than a Tuesday after a long weekend? I personally am dragging after a long weekend spent celebrating ‘Merica by eating, shopping and gambling. With any luck, all of you had a fantastic long weekend spent rejoicing in our independence…or at the very least, it was hopefully better than these peoples’.
Lady Liberty
Wait, what? Didn’t we just spend a whole weekend celebrating this badass bitch? We did, but it turns out…she may be a bro.
It’s been long thought that French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi modelled the statue’s face after his mother. However, author and journalist Elizabeth Mitchell, in researching a book on the sculpture (which has took in New York Harbor since 1886), discovered that Lady Liberty’s face may be that of a man.
“As I was looking at it more carefully, the structure of the face isn’t really the same. [His mother] has a more arched eyebrow, has a thinner nose, has thinner lips, even in her youth. And he was a bust-maker … and was known for his accuracy,” Mitchell tells The Post [of Bartholdi].
“Going through photos he had in his files of his brother, I started to look at the face more carefully, and it really did look to be like Liberty. His brother in his adult years had actually gone mad, and it was Bartholdi’s task to go once a week to visit, sometimes [spending] hours just staring at his brother, who was not speaking.”
Hey dudes: can you imagine everyone thinking you were a girl for 130 years? Ouch. [via New York Post]
Renters
I’ve never actually rented an apartment as an adult. Sure, I had one when I lived off campus in college, but Mom and Dad footed the bill for that one. After graduation, given that I live in one of the highest rent locales in the country, I decided to live at home and save money until I could buy a place of my own. So yes, I was the nerd that lived at home with my mommy.
But as it turns out, my childhood bedroom was not only more cost-effective than your rental, it was probably bigger too. According to a recent report from online rental marketplace RentCafe, not only have the rents for all apartments on the market gone up 7% in the last five years, the new apartments that are hitting the market are 8% smaller than they were 10 years ago. Bottom line: renters are paying more for smaller spaces.
You still gonna call me a nerd for living at home until I could afford to buy? Yeah, yeah, I know I am. But I’m one with an 1,800-square foot house with a mortgage that’s probably lower than the rent on your shoebox. [via CNNMoney]
Olympic Rowers
I can’t imagine the dedication it takes to be an Olympic athlete. Training day in and day out for years and years on end. And then you finally get to the pinnacle of your sport – the Olympics. Jubilation right? Mmmm, maybe not if you are one of the rowers participating in this year’s summer games in Rio. Because those rowers will literally be competing in shit.
It’s been reported for quite a while that raw sewage (read: poop) flows directly into the major bodies of water where the events will take place. Despite this being known for a while, no moves have been made to clean up the polluted water. So, for their part, the US Olympic rowing team revealed last week that they planned to wear special high-tech bodysuits that included an antimicrobial finish. But scientists aren’t so sure it will make a difference. According to Wired,
“They will literally be immersing themselves in very high levels of pathogens,” says Katherine Mena, who researches waterborne pathogens at the UT-Houston School of Public Health. “The infection risk will be pretty high.”
As for that special antimicrobial finish?
“Not all biocides can kill microbes fast enough,” says Gang Sun, who researches textile and clothing technology at UC Davis. Often the killer molecules don’t release from the fabric fast enough to meet the onslaught of microbes, or are plugged up by initial layers of dead bacteria cells.
Holy shit – literally. I don’t care how long I’d trained for something, there’s no way I’m going into a river of crap voluntarily. I’d just hold out for Tokyo 2020 – I hear the water’s cleaner there…as long as they don’t hold the events near that leaking nuclear power plant. [via Wired]
Game of Thrones Fans
As you can see, I don’t care about Game of Thrones.
But I know there are plenty of people that are crazy passionate about it, which is why the news that the upcoming last two seasons will likely be much shorter than they expected must be painful.
While discussing the Season Six finale this week, the show’s co-creators, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, told Deadline, “It’s two more seasons we’re talking about. From pretty close to the beginning, we talked about doing this in 70-75 hours, and that’s what we’ll end up with. Call it 73 for now.”
So what’s the big deal? Well, the first six seasons were 10 episodes, each an hour long. Meaning that the last two seasons apparently only be 13 hours in total. And while there’s no word on how the episodes will be spaced out over the two seasons, they will definitely be way shorter than GOT fans would like. Although, on the bright side, at least I won’t have to see 1000 tweets about it every Sunday night. [via Deadline]
Novak Djokovic
Another thing I don’t care much about is tennis, but much like GoT, it’s another thing that other people seem to care about. But even I knew that it was a big deal that American Sam Querrey beat tennis legend Novak Djokovic in the third round at Wimbledon on Friday.
Querrey, who was seeded 28th and ranked 41st in the world, ended the number one seed Djokovic’s 30-match Grand Slam winning streak with the win. Djokovic, who was trying to become the first man to win a calendar-year Grand Slam since 1969, conceded that it wasn’t his day, saying “He deserved to win,” after the match.
Still, it’s got to be a crappy start to the weekend to lose to a guy ranked 40 places below you…particularly one that appeared on Millionaire Matchmaker..
[via People]
Image via Shutterstock
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Jenna Crowley
Jenna used to be known as 2NOTBrokeGirls, but then one of the girls actually went broke, so she's struck out on her own. Jenna spends her free time saving the world, one sorority girl at a time (usually while wearing yoga pants), questioning why she decided to get a doctorate, documenting her love of all things cheese related, and hosting the new PGP podcast Don't Take It From Us. You can ask her anything you want about football, using your boobs to get what you want, and pizza at @JennaLCrowley on Twitter or via email at JennaLCrowley@gmail.com.
@JennaLCrowley
@donttakeitfromus
Thinking that an 1,800 square foot house is impressive. PGP.
I’ve been inside Lady Liberty, definitely a woman.
Giggity.
Funny, six-fig career, and 1800 sq foot home. Sup, J?
Runner Up: Fans of any NBA team that isn’t Golden State.
Too soon bro… Too soon… 🙁
I thought Ruxin was more of a football guy?
It sucks that there will be less episodes, but that means more money per episode to spend on huge battles. Plus, the actors are paid on a per episode basis, so that means even more money for huge battles. Really the actors are the losers here.