Your oven is sick of spending the holidays all alone.
More tender and flavorful than roast turkey, and more appropriately sized for a smaller crowd. Recipe here.
So simple! Recipe here.
Dumping a huge pot of boiling water and hot potatoes into a colander is sort of a pain. With this recipe, you never have to deal with that again. Recipe here.
Not a single viewer noticed, despite his female co-anchor receiving regular complaints about her wardrobe choices.
Channel 9 / Via novajam.tumblr.com
Channel 9 / Via youtube.com
Naturally, Australians all find this very endearing.
Channel 9 / Via Facebook: IwakeupwithTODAY
They’re not just for parties anymore.
Jenny Chang / BuzzFeed
Also great for trendy office spaces.
Victoria Smith / sfgirlbybay.com
See how they made this one here.
foundthispaintedthat.wordpress.com
“Is this legal?”
BuzzfeedVideo / Via youtu.be
Grand gestures are way overrated. Sometimes it’s the small, simple things that make a huge difference in your relationship.
BuzzFeed
BuzzFeed
Gratitude is one of the most important traits in happy relationships. The obvious reason is because it feels good to feel appreciated and acknowledged by someone you love. And the less obvious reason is that in high-gratitude relationships, both of you will be more willing and open to doing the work needed to keep the relationship strong and healthy. Researchers from Florida State University found that expressions of gratitude are correlated with greater "relationship maintenance behavior" — like bringing up concerns in a mature way, rather than letting them fester.
And here's something else: "The more you train yourself to acknowledge all the positive things your partner does, the more likely you are to see those positive things instead of the negative ones," Robert Taibbi, L.S.C.W., a Charlottesville Virginia-based therapist told BuzzFeed Life. Got that? Saying thank you can make you both feel better about the relationship.
Warner Bros. Pictures / Via reddit.com
Fear of small holes? Beware.
Unfortunately, "objects with small holes" describes LOTS of delicious foods.
See if you can get through this list of horrifying snacks without wanting to puke. If you can, congratulations: you don't have trypophobia.
Flickr: niznoz / Creative Commons
Flickr: redbettyblack / Creative Commons
Flickr: bump / Creative Commons
Computers were a bit bigger in those days.
It was an Elliot 405, and the first municipal computer in Britain.
Norfolk Record Office / Via davidthompson.typepad.com
Electronic computers are already being put to a wide range of uses in industry. This week, however, they have entered a new sphere of usefulness. A local authority–Norwich City Council—has installed a computer, and is the first to do so.
...
Local government work involves a large volume of repetitive processes. It is, therefore, obviously a field where the advantages of speed and accuracy inherent in electronic data processing will lead to substantial savings.
The computer was soon put to work at processing the council's accounting, payroll, stock control, and more.
Their school computer was called "Nellie".
Come on humanity. Raise your game.
One Brisbane bar played the song “99 Luftballons” in honor of the German Chancellor.
Handout / Reuters
The strip is home to a number of pubs, as well as a German sausage hut, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
Hashtags and filters aren’t everything.
Candace Lowry / BuzzFeed / Thinkstock
Candace Lowry / BuzzFeed / Thinkstock
Candace Lowry / BuzzFeed / Thinkstock
Candace Lowry / BuzzFeed / Thinkstock
He’s dressing up as a different moustache-sporting character every day of November to raise money for men’s health charities.
Image courtesy of Clare Heath
Movember participants grow a moustache for the 30 days of November to spread awareness about issues in men's health, and to raise money for the Movember Foundation, which supports charities working in prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and mental health.
William heard about the Movember Foundation when his favourite rubgy club, the Northampton Saints, participated in Movember 2013 as part of a team captained by Dylan Hartley called #FrontMoUnion.
Image courtesy of Clare Heath
Instead, with the help of his mother Clare, he's decided to dress up every morning of November as a different famous moustachioed personality.
It was the first time the show has ever aired on television, and here’s what happened!
CBS / Dick Clark Productions
A young girl places a rose at the Berlin Wall memorial in Bernauer Strasse, during a ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, in Berlin, Nov. 9.
Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters
Fireworks illuminate the Brandenburg Gate during celebrations on the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 2014 in Berlin, Germany.
Sean Gallup / Getty Images
(L-R) French Education Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) president Jean-Yves Le Gall, French President Francois Hollande, and former French astronaut and minister Claudie Haignere wear 3D glasses to view the first results of the Rosetta mission on the 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet at the Cite des Sciences in Paris on Nov. 12.
JACQUES BRINON/AFP / Getty Images
Workers wearing radiation protective gear rest on a road at TEPCO's tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima prefecture, Nov. 12.
POOL New / Reuters
Children watch as health workers spray disinfectants at a mosque in Bamako, Africa, on Nov. 14.
Joe Penney / Reuters
A Kurdish man mourns next to grave markers during a funeral for Kurdish fighters, in a cemetery in the southeastern Turkish town of Suruc, Sanliurfa province, Nov. 13.
Osman Orsal / Reuters
Kieran Megraw (center) and family members follow the remains of his brother Brendan Megraw, known as one of "the Disappeared," as his funeral takes place on Nov. 14, in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Charles McQuillan / Getty Images
A group of around 400 demonstrators participate in a protest by burying their heads in the sand at Sydney's Bondi Beach, Nov. 13. Hundreds of protesters participated in the event, held ahead of Saturday's G20 summit in Brisbane, which was being promoted as a message to Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott's government that, "You have your head in the sand on climate change." REUTERS/David Gray (AUSTRALIA — Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS ENVIRONMENT SOCIETY TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) — RTR4DYRJ
REUTERS © David Gray / Reuters
New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton (center) holds up a bag of oregano to demonstrate what 25 grams of marijuana looks like at a news conference with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (lef) to announce changes to New York City's marijuana policy on Nov. 10, in New York City.
Spencer Platt / Getty Images
The world's shortest man Chandra Bahadur Dangi greets the tallest living man, Sultan Kosen, to mark the Guinness World Records Day in London, Nov. 13.
Luke MacGregor / Reuters
People play sport in front of the boardwalk as the sun begins to set at Kandahar airfield on Nov. 12, in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Matt Cardy / Getty Images
Running back Marshawn Lynch, No. 24 of the Seattle Seahawks, dives into the end zone for his fourth touchdown during the fourth quarter of the game against the New York Giants on Nov. 9, in Seattle, Washington.
Otto Greule Jr / Getty Images
Afghan women sit in the rafters as they watch girls compete in a taekwondo match in Herat on Nov. 13.
AREF KARIMI/AFP / Getty Images
Volunteers continue to remove 888,246 handmade poppies, representing each of the commonwealth servicemen and women killed in the first World War at Tower of London on Nov. 14, in London, England.
Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images
A Palestinian girl looks on as members of Hamas's armed wing take part in an anti-Israel rally in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip Nov. 13, 2014.
Ibraheem Abu Mustafa / Reuter
A man walks past graffiti denouncing strikes by U.S. drones in Yemen, painted on a wall in Sanaa, Nov. 13.
Khaled Abdullah Ali Al Mahdi
The lava flow from the Kilauea Volcano is seen passing through the Pahoa transfer station outer fence in this U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) handout photo taken near the village of Pahoa, Hawaii, Nov. 13.
Handout . / Reuters
In this Nov. 10, handout photo illustration provided by the European Space Agency (ESA) the Rosetta probe (left) and Philae lander are pictured above the 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet. ESA will attempt to land the Philae lander onto the comet in the afternoon (GMT) of Nov. 12, which, if successful, will be the first time ever that a man-made craft has landed onto a comet. The Philae lander is a mini laboratory that will harpoon itself to the surface, though a problem with a gas thruster detected Nov. 11 is making the outcome of the landing uncertain.
ESA via Getty Images ESA
A young Hong Kong couple wears gas masks as they pose for a wedding photographer prior to their marriage next to the tents used by pro-democracy demonstrators at the Admiralty protest site on Nov. 14, in Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Kevin Frayer / Getty Images
An art installation by a local artist made with umbrellas, tents, and metals in the shape of a tank is seen on a blocked road during the Occupy Central civil disobedience movement in Hong Kong, Nov. 11.
Tyrone Siu / Reuters
A child plays next to "Personnes" (Persons), a sculpture made with used clothes, at the Fine Arts Museum in Santiago, Nov. 12.
Ivan Alvarado / Reuters
French Chief of Staff General Benoit Puga looks at engraved names as he attends the ceremony to inaugurate the new war memorial at Notre Dame de Lorette, an elliptical ring engraved with the names of the 580,000 men who died in northern France during the first World War, in Ablain-Saint-Nazaire, Nov. 11.
POOL New / Reuters
Riot policemen walk toward protesters as several hundred masked men who broke away from a far-right march threw stones and flares in Warsaw, Nov. 11.
Kacper Pempel / Reuters
A shell explodes on Nov. 13, in the Syrian city of Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab, as seen from the Turkish border village of Mursitpinar, Sanliurfa province.
ARIS MESSINIS/AFP / Getty Images
A mother holds a piece of gauze to the face of her injured daughter at a field hospital after what activists said were airstrikes by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in the Duma neighborhood of Damascus, Nov. 11.
Stringer . / Reuters
Pope Francis (right) kisses a girl during a special audience with business consultants at the Paul VI hall at the Vatican, Nov. 14.
Alessandro Bianchi / Reuters
A Pokot girl, covered in animal skins, walks to a place where she will rest after being circumcised in a tribal ritual in a village about 80 kilometres from the town of Marigat in Baringo County, Oct. 16.
Siegfried Modola / Reuters
A tear rolls down the cheek of Joan Demonte as she attends Remembrance Day ceremonies at Old City Hall in Toronto, Nov. 11.
Mark Blinch / Reuters
Chinese dancers perform in front of the National Stadium, known as "Bird's Nest," during the fireworks show of the Welcome Banquet for 2014 APEC leaders on Nov. 10, in Beijing, China.
Feng Li / Getty Images
A Hijra, or transgender, performs at the Hijra talent show, part of the first ever event called Hijra Pride 2014, on Nov. 10, in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Allison Joyce / Getty Images
Mata Amrtanandamayi Devi, primarily known simply as Amma ("Mother"), the hugging saint, hugs a devotee in the event hall Arena, on Nov. 12, in Berlin, Germany.
Adam Berry / Getty Images
President of Poland Bronislaw Komorowski, First Lady Anna Komorowska and Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz attend the official presidential march, "Together for Independent Poland" to celebrate Independence Day on Nov. 11, in downtown Warsaw, Poland.
Getty Images
Police arresting hooligan during Independence Day March on Nov. 11, in Warsaw, Poland.
Adam Guz / Getty Images
An officer from the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, also called the Old Guard, adjusts his cover at The Tomb of the Unknowns during Veterans Day observations at Arlington National Cemetery, Nov. 11, in Arlington, Virginia.
Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
World War Two veterans, and their escorts, salute during the playing of ÒTapsÓ at a Veterans Day ceremony at the World War Two Memorial, Nov. 11, in Washington, D.C.
Win McNamee / Getty Images
In December 2006, Tondalo Hall’s boyfriend pled guilty to breaking the ribs and femur of their 3-month-old daughter. For his crime, Robert Braxton Jr. served two years in prison.
In court, prosecutors presented no evidence that Hall herself had harmed the child. But for failing to intervene against Braxton’s abuse, Hall was sentenced to 30 years behind bars.
Her tough sentence was meted out despite evidence that Braxton had also been violently abusing her. In statements to authorities in and out of court, and in a recent interview with BuzzFeed News, Hall described Braxton choking her, punching her, throwing things at her, and verbally assaulting her. Even the judge who sentenced her said that during her testimony, Hall seemed to fear her boyfriend.
Hall is one of 28 mothers in 11 states who a recent BuzzFeed News investigation found were sentenced to 10 years or more for failing to protect their children. In every one of these cases, there was evidence the mother herself had been violently abused by the man. Hall is one of three cases BuzzFeed News found in which the mother got a longer sentence than the man who actually abused the child.
Braxton walked free eight years ago, having been let go for time served. Meanwhile, Hall has been locked up in an all-female prison in McLoud, Oklahoma. She said that she has seen her children only once since she went to prison but that they write each other monthly. In letters shared with BuzzFeed News, the children tell her about sports, school, and clothes. They make reference to her case, too. “I hope God Let's [sic] you out of jail,” one letter says.
Hall has been trying to get her sentence reduced. She currently has 20 years left behind bars. She appealed but lost, and the trial judge in her case has denied a request to modify her sentence. She will not be eligible for parole until 2030.
But she is pursuing one last hope: clemency. Earlier this month, Hall applied for her sentence to be commuted — which would release her while not absolving her of her crime.
In the wake of BuzzFeed News’ original investigation, a women’s rights organization took up Hall’s cause, creating an online petition to the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board. “Tondalo Hall shouldn't be in prison while the man who abused her and her children is free,” wrote UltraViolet, a group that claims nearly 600,000 members nationwide. On Tuesday, an UltraViolet official said that more than 44,000 people had signed the petition since it was first circulated on Nov. 6.
In Oklahoma, a pardon or commutation cannot be granted without the approval of the state’s parole board. It is unclear when the parole board will make a decision on Hall’s case.
Hall herself almost missed the deadline to apply for a commutation. In Oklahoma, only inmates with 20 or more years left on their sentences can apply. When she mailed her application, Hall had 20 years and five days left behind bars.
Another Oklahoma mother, Alishia Mackey, also received a longer sentence than the abuser, and the victim, her son, believes she should be free. But Mackey has 10 years left on her sentence, so she is ineligible for a commutation.
The parole board declined to comment on Hall’s case.
Courtesy of Tondalo Hall, Oklahoma Department of Corrections
Some prosecutors defend the long sentences given to battered women who don't intervene to stop their children from being harmed as sending a message that mothers have a duty to protect their children, even if they must risk their own safety. But many domestic violence advocates women counter that such punishments blame the victim and demonstrate a profound misunderstanding of what it means for women to be trapped in abusive relationships. Such women often fear alerting authorities because doing so can provoke their partners to extreme violence and because the authorities often fail to protect battered women and their children.
Hall, who dropped out of high school in 10th grade, told BuzzFeed News that she met Braxton in either 2000 or 2001, when she would have been between 15 and 17. They soon began dating, and Braxton, who is two years older than Hall, seemed ambitious and nice — in the beginning.
She can’t quite remember what it was that set him off the first time: “I didn’t tell him where I went, or something,” she recalled. They got into an argument, she said, and he punched her in the face.
He apologized, she recalled, and said it wouldn’t happen again, and it didn’t, for a while at least. But then, during another argument, this time when she was pregnant, he put his hands around her throat. “He told me that my mouth was too smart,” she would later testify in court. With her head on the seat of the blue couch in her apartment, he choked her.
The abuse, both physical and verbal, picked up once her third child (and second with Braxton) was born in August 2004, Hall told BuzzFeed News. He isolated her from her loved ones, driving “a wedge between me and my family,” she said.
Hall summed up the alleged abuse in her commutation application: “Robert regularly choked me, blackened my eyes, threw objects at me and verbally assaulted me, while my children were in the home.”
Somewhere along the way, Hall’s friend Gayla Watts-Sparger noticed changes in Hall and her children. Watts-Sparger has known Hall since kindergarten and said Hall was always goofy and outgoing. “You know how you meet somebody, and everything they say is funny?” Watts-Sparger said.
But after Hall moved in with Braxton, Hall became “a lot quieter,” Watts-Sparger said, and Hall’s children acted strange too. Watts-Sparger recalled seeing Hall’s son, who was maybe a year old at the time, sitting upright and very still for a young child. When Braxton came by, Watts-Sparger said, the young boy would flinch.
Reached through his Facebook account, Braxton at first said he would speak with BuzzFeed News but then did not respond to subsequent messages. After BuzzFeed News left repeated voicemails and sent a detailed letter to Braxton’s address given in court papers, a woman identifying herself as “Ms. Braxton” called and said that Robert Braxton does not live there and that she doesn’t know where he is.
In the fall of 2004, Hall said, she noticed that her 20-month-old son’s leg was swollen. Braxton told her he didn’t know what might have happened. The problem persisted for several days, so she brought the boy to the hospital.
Doctors determined he had a fractured femur and other broken bones. Suspecting child abuse, authorities checked on Hall and Braxton’s 3-month-old daughter, and found similar injuries. Both Hall and Braxton were arrested.
Detectives at the Oklahoma City Police Department brought them both into the same interview room. Before the interrogation, Braxton was heard whispering to Hall, “Don’t say nothing.”
Hall initially told the police that she had hurt their son by throwing him on the bed as they were playing — a version she later said was a lie. After Braxton admitted he had squeezed his baby daughter too tightly and cranked her leg, detectives concluded that he was the one who had injured both children, not her.
Hall remained in jail, though. She pled guilty to enabling child abuse, which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison. She agreed to testify against Braxton — though she did not receive a deal from prosecutors for a reduced sentence.
Braxton took his case to trial. Hall wrote in her commutation application that Braxton “repeatedly threatened me” during their initial court hearings. “For example, when Robert and I were being shuttled to and from court he would terrorize me. He would tell me that I would spend the rest of my life in prison and he would be out with our children.”
Still, Hall agreed to testify against him. During Braxton’s trial, she was the main witness who could have seen Braxton actually harming the children. Yet Hall could not point to any specific abuse that she witnessed — because, she told BuzzFeed News, she didn’t actually see any abuse happen. In court, she also couldn’t recall the date her son began having trouble walking.
Prosecutor Angela Marsee grew frustrated that Hall was not providing enough testimony to nail Braxton. “What do you know?” she asked.
Hall replied that she had once woken up to hear that her daughter was screaming. Braxton had been changing the girl’s diaper. He told her nothing was wrong and that she should go back to sleep.
The prosecutor asked for more. “Was there anything else that happened in your apartment that gave you reason to know that your children were in danger at the hands of this defendant?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Hall replied. That’s when she began to describe the time that Braxton had choked her, when she was pregnant. Yet Braxton’s lawyer objected to this line of questioning, saying it was not relevant to the child abuse charge against him. The judge sided with Braxton.
Prosecutors, who wanted life in prison for Braxton, sensed that their case against him was crumbling. With the trial in recess, the state and the defense worked out a deal. Braxton pled guilty but admitted to having harmed only one child. He said he grew frustrated while changing his daughter’s diaper and then broke her bones by “using too much force and pressure for a baby.” He was sentenced to 10 years in prison — but eight of those years were suspended, and he was released for time served.
Hall was upset with the verdict. “I didn’t feel like there was any justice for my kids,” she told BuzzFeed News.
Someone else was also upset with the trial’s outcome: Marsee, the prosecutor. And she would lay much of the blame on Hall.
Courtesy of Tondalo Hall
Hopefully they don’t catch an STD from the cuddly creatures. Because that’s a thing.
Handout / Via Reuters
Handout / Via Reuters
Handout / Via Reuters
Handout / Via Reuters
Give thanks. You can make a great Thanksgiving dinner without the entire turkey.
Be thankful for bacon. Recipe here.
The best part is that as the turkey and cranberry sauce simmer away in the Crock Pot, your oven will be free for making sides and pie. Recipe here.
These turkey thighs are even better if you make them a day ahead of time, so you can actually enjoy Thanksgiving instead of spending all day cooking. Recipe here.
He calls them “vacation breasts.”
Via abcnews.go.com
After 24 hours, the bigger breasts deflate back to their normal size.
Via abcnews.go.com
Kudos to you, Josh Hara . BuzzFeed News spoke to him about his brew-tiful creations.
And he's hit upon a way of combining his hobby with his love of coffee. The blank parts of his Starbucks takeaway cups have become his canvas for what he's called the #100CoffeeCups project on Twitter and Instagram.
It was a perfect surface for drawing, outside of the curvature of course. I had an idea for a cartoon about a barista asking someone how they spell their name, so I thought doing it on a cup would make it that much funnier.
Give generously to your local food bank this holiday season, and make sure you’re giving the stuff they really need.
Thanksgiving rocks. It's a long holiday weekend to spend with family and friends and a chance to give thanks for a life that's good. Of course, it's also a great time to think about helping people who might not have enough to eat by donating to a canned food drive that benefits your local food bank.
Silvia Davi, Chief Marketing Officer for Food Bank For New York City, told BuzzFeed Life that donations to area food banks, which help feed millions of Americans, are more important than ever because of cuts to federal funding of food assistance programs.
Davi adds, "Part of what Food Bank prides itself on is nutrition education and offering healthy foods to those we serve. We welcome food donations low in fat and sodium, high in protein, and rich in all the kinds of good ingredients that you would find in your own homes."
She stresses that food banks in New York and around the country are looking for healthy options to make sure individuals and families who need assistance are getting nutritious meals, so we asked nutritionists to weigh in on the best foods you can donate. And don't forget, their tips for making healthy eating choices around the holidays can apply to you, too.
Food banks like to have juices on hand, especially for kids, but juices with high fructose corn syrup can be harmful for kids who are struggling to get proper nutrition. Nutrition consultant Keri Gans, MS, RDN, CDN, told BuzzFeed Life, "As long as it is 100% fruit juice it is a healthy choice," so just make sure that percentage checks out before you donate.
Food banks face high traffic around the holidays and need lots of these seasonal staples. Holiday foods aren't always the most healthy; Gans recommends looking for stuffing mix that's low in sodium and notes that cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes can be "packed with antioxidants which help strengthen your immune system during cold and flu season."
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