life, the universe, and everything

A British vicar got more than he expected from his first attempt at an online sermon when he leaned too close to a candle on a cross and his sweater caught fire.

It’s true: I’ve dragged my feet over writing a guide to what I keep in my “pantry” (I don’t have a pantry) and fridge for 14 years now. I have my reasons, primarily that I’m not sure I know what your kitchen needs. I mean, shouldn’t you stock the stuff you need for what you’ll want to cook and not some arbitrary list from a lady who loves Triscuits? Maybe you don’t love Triscuits! (Sorry you’re so wrong.) The idea of buying a kitchen full of someone else’s groceries is very much against the way I think anyone should shop. I know your kitchen will grow organically, and accurately reflect what you need if you buy things for what you want to cook as you want to cook them. Second, due to the nature of my work here I have an absolutely unusual amount of stuff in my kitchen cabinets and fridge. It’s totally justified for me, while making little sense for others. On the flip side, I live in NYC and have grocery stores and Greenmarkets quite close, but also as a small kitchen with very few cabinets, meaning that not only can I not stock very much at a time, I don’t need to — I can always dash out for vinegar or dried pasta. This is not the way most people shop.

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Concerns raised about ‘disproportionate’ use of force after young black man is seriously injured

The police watchdog has launched an investigation after a black man in his 20s was left with a life-changing injury after he was shot with a stun gun by officers in north London.

Police on patrol in Haringey chased the man on Monday after he ran away from them following an approach, it is understood. They used the stun gun as he jumped over a wall and he fell, suffering serious back injuries, which his family fear could leave him at least partially paralysed.

Our pets are our children, and they deserve to be spoiled as such.

That's why we had to share with you these tiny crochet cat couches created by the crafty people on the subreddit r/crochet.

Sure, you could go and just buy a cat bed without exerting much effort, but they're not as fun or cute as this too cute to handle cat couch.

So, if you're looking for a new crochet project to tackle, this has got to be it! 

The couches are shaped with thick foam and polyester filling to really give it that comfy sofa look.

There are a few craft stores online who are offering the crochet patterns if you like. 

Also debuts for PSVR, Oculus Rift, SteamVR in early 2021

Animal Crossing: New Horizons sells 11.77 million units in 1st 11 days for "best start ever"

Remake of Monolith Software's Wii game launches on May 29

Everyone should just play nice with each other. But instead, we have dudes like this guy "Evan", who run around and spill negative, toxic chaos everywhere. Evan thought he'd play a "game" with his friends by bullying a Tinder match for the way she looked, from afar. 

Well, that whole operation definitely went on to catch up with him. I would've loved to have seen that date going down, as it experienced all the (intentional) customer service disasters. I wonder if there was ever a point where it occurred to the dude, "man I wonder if all my negativity is catching up with me?" Maybe, so. 

This week, you can download desktops featuring the new cover art and stills from the trailer, then get a discount on the Steam edition of the Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game in anticipation of its launch on the Switch! Ready? LET’S DO THIS THING. Living Social We’re expanding out social media presence! You should already [...]

The big draw this week is our fourth Microfiction, but there’s plenty more to get excited about! We’ve got the Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game’s debut on switch, an upcoming Trailer Rewatch event, a $1.99 ebook deal on Death Masks, and more. It’s also the last week to submit your costumes for our contest. Read [...]

For orangutans, scratching is contagious – but unexpectedly, the behaviour is transmitted more between individuals that do not know each other well

The wild plot involved faking his own death, stealing the identity of a Florida attorney, using an app to disguise his voice, and pretending to have prostate cancer, bone cancer, and a brain aneurysm.Unemployed Virginia man Russell Louis Geyer was so determined to hide his assets in bankruptcy proceedings, he even threw his own wife under the bus—duping her into handing over $70,000 and using her email address to inform an attorney he was dead. Geyer, 50, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to contempt of court, bankruptcy fraud, wire fraud, and aggravated identity fraud. He faces up to life in prison.“In an effort to game the bankruptcy system, Mr. Geyer devised a made-for-TV plot that ultimately collapsed under its own weight,” U.S. Attorney Thomas Cullen said in a statement.Minnesota Man Killed Wife, Buried Her Under Home, Then Faked Her Disappearance: Court DocsGeyer and his wife, Patricia Sue Geyer, from Saltville, filed for voluntary bankruptcy in late 2018, listing liabilities of $532,583.80, according to court documents.They were behind on payments for three of their four vehicles, for both their home and a rental property they owned, and for most of their furniture. They hadn’t paid electricity bills, bank overdrafts, credit card bills, and dozens of medical bills, and more than 50 creditors were chasing them for everything from their 65-inch TV to their Kawasaki ZX1000 motorbike. At one point in the bankruptcy proceedings, Geyer told his lawyer, John Lamie, he’d gone to the Mayo Clinic in Florida to be treated for prostate cancer, but it had spread to his bones and he intended to stop treatment.Four months later, according to a criminal complaint, he told Lamie he was now in a hospice in Florida after treatment failed. He said his wife was there, too, and had undergone bypass surgery for a heart condition. She wasn’t cleared to drive back to Virginia, he claimed.Then, a few days before September 5, 2019, when Geyer was due to appear in person at a bankruptcy hearing, Lamie received an email from Geyer’s wife. Her husband was dead, it said. He’d apparently had a brain aneurysm in June while being transported back from Florida after his chemotherapy treatments.Around the same time, Geyer’s attorney got a threatening email from an attorney in Florida who said he’d sold the assets that debtors were trying to recover in the bankruptcy case. “[Patricia] doesn’t know anything about this, and neither does Russell,” the email said. “I have complete control of Russell and told him to kill himself. You will not find him in time.” He ended the email by saying: “I am on a plane out of the country.”However, investigators later found that the Florida attorney whose name was used in the email existed but had nothing to do with the case. Geyer had simply set up a bogus email account using his name.‘Please Come Get Me’: Fatal Indianapolis Police Shooting May Have Aired on Facebook He even used the attorney’s identity to fleece his wife, a registered nurse who earned $3,200 a month, for $70,000. Geyer told his wife he’d won a $1 million settlement in Florida in an unrelated court case but needed her to pay $70,000 in legal fees for the money to be released. He used the bogus email address and an app that disguised his voice to pose as the Florida attorney and confirm the settlement was imminent. “It was all untrue,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia said in a statement on Thursday.The plot unraveled on Sept. 4, the day before the bankruptcy hearing, when a process server visited the couple’s Saltville home to give them a notice to appear.The home was empty but, just as the process server was leaving, Geyer and his wife arrived home in their car and got out—far from the Florida hospice he had claimed to be languishing in. The next day, Patricia Geyer, who said she’d largely let her husband deal with the bankruptcy case, left home to attend the court hearing about an hour after her husband. He never showed up.She told the court she had no idea about her husband’s wild story. She said they hadn’t been in Florida recently, she hadn’t had bypass surgery, and her husband didn’t have cancer. The first time she’d heard of her husband’s supposed death was two days earlier, when Lamie called her to say he’d heard about Geyer’s passing.“A few days ago, [Lamie] called me at work,” she said under cross-examination in court. “I got a message to call him. So I immediately called him and then he told me all this stuff about Russell being dead and all that. It just floored me, so I had no clue.”“Where’s Mr. Geyer now?” a judge asked her.“I couldn’t tell you, because he left the house this morning an hour, hour before me. And he was supposed to come down here and be here at 10:30, and then when I ended up here, he wasn't here. So I don’t know.” After that day in court, she only ever received text messages from Geyer saying he was in a hospital in West Virginia following a suicide attempt. Geyer was tracked down two weeks later and charged with criminal offenses. He underwent a psychiatric evaluation as part of the criminal case but was found to be competent to stand trial.“Despite its complexity and shameless use of deceit, including against his own wife, Mr. Geyer’s scheme failed to account for the FBI’s and the US Attorney’s office’s commitment to protect both fraud victims and our judicial system,” FBI Special Agent David W. Archey said.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

At the Springplank school in the Dutch city of Den Bosch, staff have installed plastic shields around students' desks and disinfectant gel dispensers at the doorways as part of preparations to reopen amid the country's coronavirus outbreak. New infections in the Netherlands have been declining for weeks, and the government on Wednesday announced a schedule to relax some of its lockdown measures, with elementary schools to reopen on May 11. "Our teachers are not worried," said Rascha van der Sluijs, the school's technical coordinator.

Against her will, Sita Tyasutami became "case one", the face of Indonesia's coronavirus outbreak.

He and his stage partner Siegfried Fischbacher were one of the longest-running acts in Las Vegas.

Inside the Nicaraguan boxing event that caught the world's attention during the pandemic.