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A Teenager Was Hilariously Caught By Police Trying To Organize A Massive Party On Twitter


36 Unexpected Origins Of Everyday British Phrases

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Etymology, my dear Watson.

Meaning back to the beginning, the phrase originated in the 1930s when the first radio broadcasts of football matches were made by the BBC.

To help listeners keep track of the game, The Radio Times devised a numbered grid system which they published in the magazine, enabling commentators to indicate to listeners exactly where the ball was on the pitch.

"Square One" was the goalkeeper’s area, and whenever the ball was passed back to him, play was referred to as being ‘back to square one’.

BrAt82 / Shutterstock

Meaning to carry out a task against the doer’s wishes, or getting on with something that ‘has to be done’, this phrase has its origins in the British Empire during the Indian Mutiny of 1857.

Bullets of the time used grease made of either cow or pork fat to hold the missile in the cartridge. Before they could be fired, the two parts had to be bitten apart and the base filled with gunpowder.

In times of battle, low-ranking Hindu soldiers - to whom cows are sacred animals - were often tasked with separating the cartridges, forcing them, against their wishes, to ‘bite the bullet’.

A.G.A / Shutterstock

Meaning to demand money by threats, usually involving violence or the exposing of secrets, the phrase originated in the Scottish Highlands in the 1600s.

The ‘mail’ in blackmail is from the old Scottish word for rent, usually spelled either ‘maill’ or ‘male’. In those days rent was paid in silver coins - known as ‘white money’ or 'white maill'.

When Highland clan chiefs began a protection racket, threatening farmers with violence if they didn’t pay, this additional rent became known as ‘black money’. As such ‘blackmaill’ was used to describe the practice of obtaining money by threat of violence.

During the 1900s, when criminals first began demanding money not to divulge a person's secrets, the word ‘blackmail’ was adopted to describe this.

Taylor Leopold / Via taylorleopoldphoto.com

Often used as a threat, "there will be Dickens to pay" is not actually related to 19th-century author Charles Dickens, as popular belief would have it.

As long ago as the 16th century the word ‘Devil’ was, in fact, ‘Devilkin’ and having ‘the devilkin to pay’ meant a passage straight to Hell for one’s crimes.

Back then, Devilkin was pronounced ‘Dickens’, as evidenced by the line ‘I cannot tell what the Dickens his name was’, from The Merry Wives Of Windsor by one William Shakespeare, written in 1601 – more than 200 years before Charles Dickens was born.

The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun by William Blake


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29 Super Adorable Nail Art Designs For Easter

What Color Lightsaber Would You Wield?

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Have you ever even considered what color lightsaber you would use if you were a Jedi or Sith? This technology is just around the corner. Better figure it out now so you’re ready when lightsabers finally do become a reality.

Why 3-Year-Old Ava Is The Queen Of Vine

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QUEEN.

The wiiiiiiickedly talented Ava came into our lives with this wonderfully helpful tip on flirting with boys.

vine.co

Proving she wasn't just another basic one-hit wonder, Ava stormed back onto the scene with this incredibly accurate rendition of every average white girl.

vine.co

Spot on. Nailed it. THIS IS PRECISION.

vine.co

But that's not all!

vine.co


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How Many Of These Movies By Female Directors Have You Seen?

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Women have been making films for more than 100 years, but they’re still startlingly outnumbered in Hollywood. Here are more than 175 movies from female filmmakers. How many have you seen?

How Politicians Killed The Selfie

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I like taking selfies. These guys should have not ruined it for the rest of us.

There was once a simpler time when politicians were not aware of the "selfie."

There was once a simpler time when politicians were not aware of the "selfie."

And we liked it like that.

AP Photo

Someone in the press shop yells: "Hey! We should have them do one of those self-photo things that all the kids are doing."

"It will make us look cool and relevant!"

instagram.com


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Progressives Will Vote For Kay Hagan, But They're Not Happy About It

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North Carolina’s progressive activists are critical to Sen. Kay Hagan’s reelection chances — and they want more from her. Live from one of 2014’s toughest races.

Yuri Gripas / Reuters / Reuters

DURHAM, N.C. — Bill Clay drives a car that runs entirely on recycled vegetable oil, and prominently displays a "No Keystone XL" sign through the back window so drivers behind him can know exactly where he stands.

Clay, a North Carolina native, has been involved in Democratic politics for decades. He volunteers on campaigns and works as a progressive activist. He's also an active participant in the Moral Monday movement — the statehouse protests that have harnessed the progressive fury at the Republican-controlled legislature in North Carolina.

Like many progressives here, Clay isn't that impressed with the state's Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan, one of the most vulnerable senators in the country this year. He calls Democrats like Hagan "corporatists" and said he worked for Hagan's primary opponent Jim Neal in 2008, though he eventually volunteered for her.

"A lot of the progressive community, people that are focused on policy, aren't enthusiastic about Kay Hagan," Clay said. "But a lot of them are like me. I look at it like it's a pragmatic exercise: the lesser of two evils should result in less evil."

"She's better than the alternative," echoed Joshua Bradley, a member of the Wake County Progressive Democrats after a meeting in Raleigh. "I'm still probably going to wake up in the fetal position in the shower sobbing after I vote for her, but I'm going to vote for her."

People like Clay and Bradley — motivated, active Democratic voters — will be essential to Hagan this fall if she is going to hold onto her Senate seat. They believe most will eventually come around to support the moderate Hagan, not because she's especially inspiring, but because Democratic-controlled Senate could hang on the outcome of Hagan's race.

The frustration among some Democrats is real, though. While Hagan is essentially aligned with progressives against the state's conservative legislature, she remains elusive.

When Democrats gathered in Charlotte earlier this year for a state executive committee meeting, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar was there to meet with them — but Hagan didn't show.

"All the people there were telling us we had to vote for Kay Hagan and I'm thinking, This is disrespectful to the state party you want to be the Democratic nominee for," said Chris Telesca, president of the Wake County Progressive Democrats and an active member of the state Democratic Party.

"Amy Klobuchar was there telling us what a great friend Hagan was," he said. "Klobuchar was there and is a lot more progressive than Hagan, but Hagan wasn't there. "

Now that campaign season has picked up in earnest, Hagan has begun showing up at party county conventions to meet with activists and party officials. (A few said that was the first time they had actually seen her.) She held one public event during the first week of Easter recess, delivering a bronze star to the widow of a World War II veteran.

After the event, Hagan played it safe with reporters. Moral Monday participants are "showing their anger and frustration with the actions taken by the current general assembly which hurts North Carolina," she said.

"I go to work every day working for jobs and economic growth. People are worried about social security and Medicare," Hagan told reporters. "I put North Carolina first. And I contrast that with my opponents and they are putting the special interests first, particularly the Koch brothers."

Elected in the Obama wave of 2008, the moderate Hagan is staring down one of the toughest reelection bids in the country. Polling shows her neck and neck with several of the potential GOP contenders, including Thom Tillis, the speaker of the House who is backed by Karl Rove's American Crossroads and the NRA. Republicans in the state, which went red in 2010, have made unseating Hagan a priority since she won.

The good news for Hagan, Democrats in the state say, is that the sustained efforts of the Moral Monday movement will be a key factor in her race.

Primarily organized by the North Carolina NAACP, the Moral Monday movement now includes a broad array of progressive, liberal, and activist groups who have shown up to the statehouse week after week when the legislature is in session. The Monday protests grew out of the NAACP's annual "Historic Thousands on Jones Street" march, or HKonJ.

Rev. William Barber, president of the North Carolina NAACP and widely viewed as the leader of the movement, said that the Moral Monday movement stage was not for politicians and called the senate race "critical." They've organized 117 Moral Monday rallies around the state since the legislative session ended.

Now, however, the NAACP is working to building out the movement, creating coalitions with other groups, and sending organizers to parts of the state dominated by Republicans. While maintaining that the movement is "nonpartisan" — they do not officially endorse candidates — Barber said that it was still deeply political.

Some of the groups involved in those coalitions, like Planned Parenthood, are enthusiastically behind Hagan and have vowed to work for her. Planned Parenthood's action fund and their North Carolina affiliate have pledged a $3 million get-out-the-vote effort in targeted districts.

And talking to activists, that same thing comes up again and again: voter turnout. In addition to the Planned Parenthood efforts, the NAACP is engaged in an extensive voter registration operation in counties across the state. "The Senate race is critical and certainly we are going to mobilize to get out the vote, we're going to be mobilizing people to examine the candidates, and examine where they have stood on these issues of economic stability, education, and health care," Barber said. "Those are critical moral questions."

For their part, Hagan's campaign plans to build off of Organizing for Action's considerable data and voter identification work in the state. Morgan Jackson, a Democratic strategist in Raleigh, said that Hagan's campaign would have to, and is, appealing to a largely urban voter base and must "do her best to limit losses in rural areas."

"There is not one issue right now — an anti-war or something like that — that motivates everyone to turn out and vote in a low turnout election," Jackson said. He noted that Hagan has talked up issues that play to certain parts of the base, a clear nod to the Moral Monday movement. "Frankly, I'm one of those people who said 18 months ago, 'This is great but we are a long time from an election and can we sustain this?' What we've seen over the last 12 to 16 months is that it is being sustained, but it's not one issue."

If progressives haven't come home to her to yet, they will, the strategists say, especially if the Republican nominee ends up being Tillis. They argue Tillis' position in helping pass an array of laws (abortion restrictions, voter I.D. laws, and blocking Medicaid expansion to name a few) helped ignite the Moral Monday protests and those stances will help rally frustrated liberal blocks in places like Charlotte, Raleigh, and Durham.

"Look at what Thom Tillis, the speaker of the House has done," Jackson, the strategist, said. "It gives Hagan a great latitude. You aren't damping any of the outrage of the base, he is actually continuing to feed it. That's going to keep a lot of the energy alive."

"It's easy at this point to take it a little for granted and say yeah, 'I'm not with her' but the reality this fall, the rubber meets the road," Jackson said. "If nothing else, Tillis by himself is a motivator."

Washington Republicans remain enthusiastic about their chances to retire Hagan.

Outside groups like Americans for Prosperity have poured millions of dollars already into negative ads. If Tillis does end up as the nominee, Republicans aren't concerned yet that his tenure as speaker will weigh him down: A Republican source working to defeat Hagan told BuzzFeed that the National Republican Senatorial Committee had done several focus groups in North Carolina with independent and center-right women and found little controversy over the state legislature.

"The NRSC is neutral in the primary, but Thom Tillis has demonstrated that he is an effective leader capable of getting things done for his constituents, which is the exact opposite of Kay Hagan who has been an inept legislator and a rubber stamp for the Obama agenda even when North Carolinians disagree with it," said NRSC spokesman Brad Dayspring. "People are looking for competency, effectiveness, and someone who can get Washington working again. It's a simple fact that voters in North Carolina — Democrats, Independents and Republicans alike — have trouble naming a single accomplishment of Kay Hagan's."

If anyone's looking for clues on what the campaign against Hagan will look like: A spokesman for Tillis also dinged Hagan for "rubberstamping" President Obama's agenda. "We are happy to compare Thom Tillis' record of solving problems and tackling tough issues with Kay Hagan's record of rubberstamping the Obama/Reid agenda in Washington," campaign spokesman Jordan Shaw said.

The summer session is approaching at the state house — and Moral Monday will soon return. And the progressives who aren't Hagan's biggest fans are looking for a sign from her.

"I will undoubtedly vote for Kay Hagan, but I just wish she took more interest in the needs of the average North Carolinians than the needs of the establishment crowd," Telesca said.

Planned Parenthood of North Carolina's president Janet Colm, who was arrested last year during a Moral Monday protest, said that even skeptical Democrats in the state will come around to Hagan, if only to begin the long process of getting the legislature back and that Democrats needed to look at the long-term picture.

"The Hagan race is the key to take back the state," she said. "If we win this race, which is independent of redistricting, then in 2016 we have a gubernatorial race, which is independent of redistricting, so if we can begin to show that we can win some of these statewide races and eat away what's happening in the legislature, our goal is by 2020 to have one house of the legislature."

"It's not a quick thing, but Hagan is the key. It's the opening; this race is not just about her."


Are You A Beauty Addict?

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You love Sephora so much, you’d almost marry it.

Shutterstock

Gap's New Personalization Tactics Are "Cool, Not Creepy," Exec Says

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Gap is piloting an in-store tracking app of sorts next month and increasingly tailoring its web presence for individuals. It’s facing new mall competitors as well as Amazon, the master of online personalization.

Via gapinc.com

As customer data becomes more available than ever before, Gap, the biggest U.S. specialty retailer, plans to use it to personalize its web presence and store experience for shoppers in a way a top executive describes as "cool not creepy."

Online, that means different landing pages based on your browsing history, ads targeted to where you live — it's called "geosniffing" — and more targeted emails, Gap executives said at an investor presentation yesterday. As for the physical world, the company will pilot a program at "a small group" of Banana Republic stores in two markets next month that will incentivize customers to identify themselves when they walk in, either through a smartphone app or via email addresses and phone numbers, Gap executive Art Peck said in an interview with BuzzFeed.

Gap was unusually open about how it's using customer information at a time when the collection of personal data by the government and companies has become a topic of concern. Peck was quick to note that Gap uses opt-in technology, and that the personalization must be "cool not creepy," acknowledging that without care, "it can go to a not good place." The in-store program will be opt-in, which will help Gap avoid the pitfalls other retailers, most notably Nordstrom, faced after testing in-store tracking without customer permission last year.

Once customers join, they might get deals and style and product information when they walk in, though the company "hasn't fully landed on the format yet," said Peck, the president of growth, innovation and digital for all of Gap's brands. Gap, presumably, will get a better sense of what that customer is looking for and, of course, a stronger chance of closing a sale. Most importantly, it's a chance to personalize a shopper's time in stores in a way that wasn't possible before smartphones became so pervasive, Peck said.

"The simple model we have in mind here is if you have an incentive to walk in our stores and digitally tell us, 'Hi, I'm here, this is who I am,' that allows us to bring to you a number of very good things," Peck told investors. The program "has the potential to open up that dialogue either before the customer comes in the store, when they're in proximity, or when they cross the lease line in the store, so we can begin personalizing the store experience through this device."

Gap, which operates more than 2,500 namesake, Old Navy, and Banana Republic stores in North America, is also rolling out the ability to order from stores and to reserve items online as it works to make those locations more productive. The company's facing lots of competition offline with H&M, Forever 21 and even discounters like T.J. Maxx, as well as online, where of course, Amazon reigns king. Glenn Murphy, Gap's chief executive officer, noted at the start of yesterday's presentation that he believes customers are looking for something "in between" an online-only retailer like Amazon and "global competitors" who are building 20,000 square foot stores — that is, Uniqlo.

To that point, a major part of Gap's presentation focused on personalization online, where it's seeing tremendous growth — e-commerce sales soared 21% to $2.3 billion last year, a big chunk of the retailer's $16.1 billion in overall revenue. Much of that tailoring is coming from cookies in the average person's browsing history, as well as information they might voluntarily provide on Gap's websites. Recently, Gap has started modifying homepages based on who's looking at it, something most customers probably don't realize is happening, Peck said.

"If you've told us and your cookies show us you're really primarily a baby shopper, then we would probably go and put a baby landing page in front of you rather than landing on the generic brand landing page," Peck said in an interview, adding that it leads to customers spending more time on the site and greater purchases. "For the online shopping experience, every click matters."

Similarly, Gap can serve up information to customers about events at your local store, even if you haven't logged in to its websites, again using browsing history and email.

"Whether you come in through an email or come directly, we geosniff you, the industry terminology to determine where you are — I know it's a strange term — and then we push localized information to you, which is again, more relevant," Peck told investors yesterday.


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Twitter's Rosetta Stone

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The social network’s term glossary could help solve one of the company’s biggest problems.

Via Twitter: @articles

At its core, Twitter is an idiosyncratic service. Part of its charm — and popularity among core users — is its cryptic language, which is full of initialisms and user-created shorthand. Terms like "RT," "#FF," and "TL" are second nature to the platform's devoted users, but they're also part of the network's biggest problem: inaccessibility among new users.

So far, the site has tried to streamline the service through a series of smaller tweaks aimed at moving Twitter's opaque language into the background. Retweets were formalized, removing the manual "RT" structure. Tagging photos no longer requires placing an "@" before the user's name.

Today though, Twitter seems to be trying a new tactic by plainly translating its foreign language.

For devout users, the glossary will read like it was written by a robot that's trying to become sentient. The language can be clumsy and a few of the terms ("Email Notifications") feel so obvious that they border on parody. What's most interesting, though, is to see which user quirks made the cut and found their way into Twitter's official lexicon. "RLRT," or "real life retweet" made its way in while the oft-used "subtweet" is nowhere to be found.

While the glossary is first and foremost a translation and accessibility tool, it's also a wonderful snapshot of the peculiar service and, quite possibly, an effort to preserve the quirks that make it great.


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The 25 Least Sexy Things That Have Ever Happened

We Got Bookies To Predict The Future Of Tech

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Want to wager on Google Glass or Amazon drones? These guys will be happy to place your bets.

Christina Lu/BuzzFeed

Over the past few months, tech news has been dominated by breathless reports about massively ambitious projects started by some of the biggest companies in Silicon Valley. These so-called "moonshots" represent the wildest dreams of extremely wealthy people whose success at the Internet has enabled them to reinvest their fortunes into technology previously considered only by science fiction. Cynics view these moonshots as marketing ploys or hubristic attempts by powerful CEOs to secure their legacies; others see them as laudable, even plausible efforts to alter the course of human history.

But are any of them actually going to, y'know, happen?

In the interest of getting a better idea of which of these projects could come to fruition, BuzzFeed decided to talk to people who actually know how to speculate: professional oddsmakers. While prediction markets are prohibited in America by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, they're perfectly legal in Great Britain. So we asked Alex Donohue, an oddsmaker at the proud English gaming house Ladbrokes, to come up with some wagers for ten of the most hyped moonshots. The method Donohue uses combines quantitative and qualitative factors and an all-important "gut feel"*.

Here's what Ladbrokes came up with:

google.com

What is it? A headworn computer, displaying smartphone-like information, attached to a glasses frame.

The Bet: Google Glass to ship more units worldwide than the newest iPhone in any year running up to 2020.

The Odds: 100/1.

"Simply put, we don't feel like this will catch on with the wider consumer base in remotely the same way as the iPhone since we feel the majority will still perceive it as something of a gimmick not relevant to their daily lives, especially for the cost. Therefore we are happy to make it a longshot that this item ever outsells the latest iPhone in any year until the end of the decade."


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19 Magical Ways To Remember Your Disney Vacation

How Big Of A Britney Spears Fan Are You?

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Find out if you’re a chosen true Stan.


Which Television Antihero Are You?

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Are you a cold-blooded monster like Tony Soprano, a pragmatic genius like Walter White, or just an oblivious, self-absorbed Hannah Horvath? There’s only one way to find out.

In Loving Memory Of Gabriel García Márquez

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March 6, 1927 - April 17, 2014

Paco Junquera/Cover / Getty Images

Edgard Garrido / Reuters

Piero Pomponi/Liaison

Katherine Young / Getty Images


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21 Reasons Why The "Scandal" Finale Was Everything Gladiators Wanted And Deserved

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Everything was definitely handled in the Season 3 finale. Is it time for Season 4 yet? Obviously, SPOILER ALERT!

The bomb went off almost right away, leaving plenty of time for a plethora of other metaphorical bombs.

The bomb went off almost right away, leaving plenty of time for a plethora of other metaphorical bombs.

ABC / Via Emily Orley / BuzzFeed

Every news channel showed Vice President Langston tending to the bombing victims over the president's speech.

Every news channel showed Vice President Langston tending to the bombing victims over the president's speech.

And rightfully so, because who really cares what he has to say at this point?

ABC / Via Emily Orley / BuzzFeed

Olivia completely and wholeheartedly cared for and trusted her father.

Olivia completely and wholeheartedly cared for and trusted her father.

Season 3 Olivia really should have listened to Season 2 Olivia, because she knew how to see things clearly.

ABC / Via Emily Orley / BuzzFeed


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Can You Guess These Popular Books By Their Spoilers?

How Boston Are You?

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From the Back Bay to the Dunkin’s in J.P.

Correction: A previous version of this post spelled Plimoth Plantation the way the town is spelled now, not the old timey way. We apologize to all pilgrims for the error.

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