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Have You Ever Had A Bad Experience With An Edible Marijuana Goodie?

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We want to know about it! Or at least, whatever details you remember.

Usually being stoned is a pleasant experience.

Usually being stoned is a pleasant experience.

FOX / Via giphy.com

I mean, marijuana is awesome.

I mean, marijuana is awesome.

Universal Pictures / Via giphy.com

These days you can get all kinds of weed-infused food items. They can be delicious.

These days you can get all kinds of weed-infused food items. They can be delicious.

Disney

But troublesome.

But troublesome.

FOX / Via media.giphy.com


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5 Great Books To Read In June

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A roundup of recent favorites we’ve reviewed in the BuzzFeed Books newsletter.

Maritsa Patrinos / BuzzFeed

Simon & Schuster

Leslie Hassler


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Gay High School Valedictorian Gets Second Chance At Graduation Speech He Was Banned From Giving

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Evan Young was not permitted to speak at graduation after school officials found out he was planning to come out as gay during his speech. He had the opportunity to read his full speech, as intended, on Sunday at a fundraising event.

Evan Young, the 18-year-old valedictorian at Twin Peaks Charter Academy high school in Colorado, was not allowed to deliver his speech at graduation this month after refusing to edit out the section where he planned to come out as gay.

Evan Young, the 18-year-old valedictorian at Twin Peaks Charter Academy high school in Colorado, was not allowed to deliver his speech at graduation this month after refusing to edit out the section where he planned to come out as gay.

outboulder.org

According to Young, he received several edits to his planned speech from the school's principal, BJ Buchmann, all of which he was fine with making — except for the edit asking him to remove the section in which he discloses his sexuality.

"One of my themes is that I was going to tell everyone my secrets," Young told Daily Camera. "Most of the things were stupid stuff — books I never read that I was supposed to, or homework I didn't like. But then I gradually worked up to serious secrets."

After the high school student refused to make the requested edits to his speech, Buchmann called his parents to inform them of its contents. "Mr. Buchmann called me and said, 'I've got Evan's speech here. There are two things in it that I don't think are appropriate.' One was he had mentioned another student's name. And then there was his coming out that he was gay," Young's father recalled. The principal had inadvertently outed Young, as his parents were not aware of their son's sexuality prior to the phone call.

According to Young's parents, just minutes before the May 16 ceremony was scheduled to begin, they were informed their son's speech would not be happening.

"When we got to the part of the ceremony where in the program it said it was time for his speech there was just silence, there was no acknowledgement of his accomplishments," Young's mother stated during a press conference.

youtube.com

"The initial draft of the student's speech submitted for review was condescending toward the school and the student's peers and included, among other things, ridiculing comments about faculty and students. The draft speech also included references to personal matters of a sexual nature. None of these topics are ever appropriate for a speech at a graduation ceremony," read the statement.


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26 Fast Food Lunches That Are Actually Healthy

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Yes, it’s true! These lunches are great options for those days when you just can’t get around to packing your own — because it definitely happens.

Pret A Manger / Starbucks / CK for BuzzFeed

And sometimes that's just not realistic and not gonna happen. And if you DO find yourself with fast food as your only option, wouldn't it be nice to know which food choices you can make that are the healthiest for you? (Fun fact: It might not be the salad!)

Here's how to think about what "healthy" means for this particular article:

Here's how to think about what "healthy" means for this particular article:

When it comes to fast food, "healthy" basically means food that offers you a decent combination of macronutrients, without going overboard on calories or potentially harmful things (like sugar or sodium, for people who have high blood pressure). The key here is moderation, with ideally some benefits if possible. With all that in mind here are the parameters for the foods below:

• Low in calories: For lunch, that means about 500 calories or less.
• Protein, to help you build muscles: Each of these meals has at least 10 grams of protein (ideally more!).
• Low in sodium (or at least not HIGH in sodium): We aimed for less than 1,000 milligrams of sodium per meal (which is high already, yes). Unfortunately some of the options are a bit higher than that — for anyone with high blood pressure, these are definitely not ideal.
• Low in sugar (or at least not HIGH in sugar): Each of these meals has less than 20 grams of sugar.
• No trans fat: Trans fats are related to heart disease, so each of these meals comes with 0 grams trans fat.

Another thing: I'm also assuming that you're not ordering sides or any sugary drinks. If you combine these meals with just water, and don't add a side of fries or what have you, then you can get a decent lunch without overloading on things you don't need or that might make you feel kind of gross.

And on a final note: Obviously you should eat whatever you want to eat. This is just a helpful guide to people who are trying to make healthy decisions about their food and would like some help.

PBS / Via pbs-food.tumblr.com

McDonald's

McDonald's

OK, so. The key here is to keep your orders small (so no super-sizing anything), and make sure not to order a side of fries or soda or apple pie to round out the meal. You won't be getting any veggies here (beyond what's on your sandwich), but you will be getting some protein, and keeping your serving sizes in check. Hey — you do what you gotta do. McDonald's DOES offer a few salads that all come in under 500 calories, but the dressings that go with them bring the sodium totals up well above 1,000 milligrams. It's really a personal call whether you'd rather eat more veggies and more sodium, or less veggies and less sodium when eating here.

Artisan Grilled Chicken Sandwich (pictured)
360 calories
32 g protein
6 g fat (1.5 g saturated, 0 g trans)
930 mg sodium
43 g carbohydrates (3 g fiber, 11 g sugars)

Chicken McNuggets (6 piece) with Honey Mustard Sauce (1 package)
340 calories
13 g protein
22 g fat (3.5 g saturated, 0 g trans)
655 mg sodium
24 g carbohydrates (2 g fiber, 5 g sugars)

Here are McDonald's nutrition facts in case you want to check out some other options.

mcdonalds.com


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Drake Bell Has Made Transphobic Comments On Twitter And People Are Not Happy

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“I liked Josh better anyway.” The comments came after the unveiling of Caitlyn Jenner’s July cover of Vanity Fair.


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I Watched My Ex Fall In Love With Someone Else On Facebook

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Keeping tabs on him via social media became a form of self-inflicted torture that I just couldn’t quit.

Maritsa Patrinos / BuzzFeed

We broke up in the parking lot of an Uno Pizzeria in Boston.

He wanted to settle down. He wanted kids and a good job and a yard for a dog to run in. I wanted New York. And London. And maybe Thailand for a year or two. I wanted to write and to live in a shitty apartment and to be in love in a tumultuous way. I was barely 21; I didn't want it to be easy yet.

We ordered two individual deep-dish pizzas to go and sat in his car eating them in silence. We told ourselves it would be nice not to tip, or to listen to the bad '90s songs they played inside the restaurant, but maybe it was just nice to not talk for a while.

"Something isn't right," I said.

"Did they give you the wrong sauce?" He looked at me with a face of genuine concern that reminded me why I loved him.

"No. Not the pizza. Us," I said.

A spot of red sauce crept down his chin. Without permission, I wiped it away with my thumb.

Through tears, we sat in the car making promises we couldn't keep, our cold pizza unattended at our feet.

Maybe in a couple years, we promised each other.

I held onto that longer than I should have.

It was my justification three months later as clicked through his Facebook profile late at night. I just want to see how he is, I told myself. I wonder if he's found that job yet, I reasoned. I wonder if his parents are still in good health.

I always had a good reason for going back.

Maritsa Patrinos / BuzzFeed

Their first photograph together was taken at a party.

At least I can assume it was a party from the red Solo cup she held and his tipsy half-smile — the same one I used to tease him about. His fingers were wrapped around her waist and as I stared at my computer screen I tried not to think about how I used to feel when he put his hands the same place on me.

Maybe they're just friends. Did he know her while we were dating? I wonder if they spent the night together.

I'm not allowed to care, I reminded myself. But I did. I slammed my laptop shut. I was done torturing myself for one night. But when I fell asleep, I dreamed of him.

It was winter. Dirty snow lined the parking lot of the 7-Eleven where we bought papers to roll joints. As we leaned against the car I could feel the cold spreading through my body from the soles of my feet.

He exhaled purposefully onto me, his cloud of hot breath drifting toward me.

Like any dreamscape, it wasn't quite right. The plotline didn't make sense. Why were we standing outside rather than walking in? Why were we driving my mother's car instead of his? Why wasn't he wearing a jacket?

Why were we still together?

I took my hands out of my gloves and put them under his shirt, finding my way to his chest. He winced and then smiled at me.

"I'm just here to warm your extremities, aren't I?" he said.

"Maybe," I said, grinning.

I woke up cold, searching for him in my bed.

That brief moment after waking was always the worst. That moment when I felt like the dream was reality — like maybe we never broke up at all. That moment when I willed myself back to sleep, wishing nothing more than to return to my hand on his chest. That moment where I remembered so easily what it felt like to love and to be loved that it seemed impossible it wasn't true anymore.

I grabbed my phone from my nightstand and started scrolling through his Twitter. I needed to be with him, in whatever capacity I could. As I read the words on my screen I could hear his voice so clearly. I imagined him laughing at his own joke before posting it and smiled at the thought. I could hear his voice so easily that for a moment my bed didn't feel quite so empty.

Six months after we broke up, there was another photo: him and the girl with the red Solo cup at a baseball game. My stomach twisted as I realized she was destined to become a recurring character in his life. I scrolled through the photos of them together, each holding a drink. I wondered if she liked sports, or if she was more interested in the overpriced beers and hot dogs like I was. I wondered if she enjoyed remarking on the tightness of the player's pants, or discussing the blood alcohol content of the people around her. I wondered if they were having fun.

Seeing them together, with their easy smiles and full cups, it still didn't register that he had moved on.

Maybe in a couple of years — that promise came back to me too easily. I didn't want him now, but I didn't think that meant I couldn't have him ever.

I couldn't digest that he could fall in love with someone else while I still loved him. At that point, I didn't understand love could be one-sided like that. I couldn't imagine he told her the things he told me, or looked at her the same way.

In my deluded state, I actually felt sorry for her. This poor girl's boyfriend is in love with his ex, I thought. It's funny how easy it is to believe the unbelievable when it hurts less.

I pictured him lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, wishing the girl lying next to him was me. It was easier to imagine he was sleeplessly staring at walls, searching for me in his bed, than to believe the truth: He wasn't thinking of me at all.

The internet told me a lot about her. It told me she was beautiful and smart. It told me she was social and her smile made her seem kind. I wanted to hate her, but I couldn't.

She took pictures with children and smiled wholeheartedly in photos. She laughed in a way that seemed authentic. She looked like the kind of girl who didn't take long to get ready.

I looked at her profile and then went back to my own, attempting to step outside of myself and act as an unbiased judge between the two of us. I looked at our profiles and saw all the things we had in common, and all the things we did not. My face was more angular and sharper than hers, my hair a little less blonde. My smile didn't come as easily, except in the photos in which I was with him. She volunteered more than I did, but I seemed to get outdoors more. She looked like she came from money, and I looked like I was living on hand-me-downs and budgeted grocery lists. We had our differences but we also had our overarching similarities: We both loved our family, our friends, and the same guy.

Months passed and I watched them tag each other in photos and their relationship status change. I cringed as they exchanged banter on Twitter and speculated what their jokes were about. I noticed when she became friends with his sisters and took a photo with his mother. I saw him wearing the watch I bought him as he stood next to her on a vacation they took together. I saw them driving in the car we kissed in — the car we broke up in.

I saw their relationship go the places ours had gone and to places it had not.

I wondered if they fought. I wondered if the things he did that annoyed me bothered her in the same way. I wondered if she wanted the big yard and the good job, too.

I could have stopped looking at any time, but it was addicting. I wanted to know what happened next. I wanted to see if it worked out. Or maybe I wanted to see if it didn't.

Despite my self-inflicted torture, I didn't reach out to him.

I still wanted New York. And London. And maybe Thailand for a year or two. Nothing had changed. But I liked seeing photos of that toothy grin. I liked when he made a goofy face or wasn't ready for a picture. He reminded me what it felt like to love someone, and I liked that part of myself.

We were both spiraling off in vastly different directions, but I still felt an inexplicable pull toward him. It was nice having him be so accessible, even if he wasn't.

I didn't fancy myself a stalker, though maybe that's what I was — leering through the virtual windowpane of someone else's happy life. I guess I just thought if I could see him on that 13-inch computer screen, then maybe he was still with me in a way, maybe I wasn't alone, maybe I was loved. Maybe he was looking, too.

As time passed, I visited him less often. And when I did concede, the twist of the knife was not as sharp. Instead, it felt like the prodding of a dull familiar wound, one that leaves its mark, but the pain is felt more from memory than from anything else.

Eventually, I went an hour without thinking of him, then a few hours, then a day, then a week, then a month.

When I visit his profile now, the sting isn't as sharp. I am proud of him when he finds success in his career, and I am sad for him when someone he knows dies. I am happy for him for being in love.

I am glad for the girl with the red Solo cup for finding such a good man.

Maybe he's different now. Maybe he doesn't snort when he laughs, or fold his pizza into a sandwich before eating it. Maybe I don't know him at all. But still, visiting him reminds me that I am capable of love, and that I am worthy of love. It reminds me that when you truly care for another person, it never really goes away.


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Did You Hear The One About Venezuelans Buying Food By Blood Type?

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Stand-up comedian Rey Vecchionacce performs during the "Malas Ideas" show outside of Caracas. Part of his act includes making jokes about Venezuelans that have migrated to escape the economic crisis.

(Meridith Kohut for Buzzfeed News)

CARACAS, Venezuela — The problem is that Mercury is in retrograde.

“That’s why the country is like it is,” said Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro recently. It may be a satisfying explanation for the problems plaguing the country, though to be fair, the quote was made up by popular satirical website El Chigüire Bipolar. “That’s why everyone is in a bad mood, it’s not because I’m doing things wrong or anything,” Maduro continued, in the fake story.

To end hours-long lines that have come to define the shopping experience in Venezuela, food sales will now be based not only on ID numbers — a real practice already in place — but also on blood type and eye color, a tongue-in-cheek headline on the website said.

As shortages of basic items like diapers and milk grow, inflation spirals to triple digits, and violence rises, Venezuelans have become more frustrated. The popularity of El Chigüire Bipolar, which has more than 1.4 million followers on Twitter, shows how people are turning to comedy to get a respite from the challenges of everyday life.

“I think people are mad,” said Juan Ravell, co-creator of El Chigüire Bipolar. Venezuelans are taking humor “as a way of understanding reality … laughing at yourself, understanding your pain,” added the 33-year-old.

Members of the audience laugh while attending the "Malas Ideas" stand-up comedy show outside of Caracas.

(Meridith Kohut for Buzzfeed News)

At a sold-out stand-up comedy show last month, Verónica Gómez looked out at the audience pensively. “One goes around life a little angry,” Gómez observed before asking showgoers to close their eyes and yell an insult or a bad word. Amid shrieks, it was easy to hear some say "Chavista," a reference to people who support the former president, Hugo Chávez, and, to some degree, the current administration.

Rey Vecchionacce, another comedian headlining the show, went through a list of Facebook groups dedicated to exiled communities: Venezuelans in Chile, Venezuelans in Madrid, and so on. Why not “a group for Venezuelans in Venezuela,” asked Vecchionacce, referring to the mass exodus from the country. The room vibrated with chuckles.

"Laughter is made for the most painful things,” said Laureano Márquez, a humorist who has a weekly column in the Tal Cual newspaper. People “find a relief in humor, which makes them feel like they don’t have to commit suicide and can instead keep fighting,” he added.

It’s not just momentary anesthesia. Satirical websites and comedy shows are becoming akin to independent news outlets as government hostility toward private media intensifies and limits the news flow. Freedom House, a press freedom advocacy group in Washington, D.C., gave Venezuela a 78 press freedom score (with 100 being the worst).

El Chigüire Bipolar staff members work on the script of an upcoming episode of the faux news show, Weekly Report.

(Meridith Kohut for Buzzfeed News)

During a recent editorial meeting at El Chigüire Bipolar, José Rafael Briceño and his team sat down to calculate how much inflation had accumulated over the last year. Briceño had the person in charge of company finances called in to help. They finally figured it out: One minimum salary in 1989 could get someone 2,666 cups of coffee; now it suffices for about 193 cups, despite numerous and much-touted salary increases from the socialist government since then. This may be satire but it is triple-checked.

Chigüire Bipolar, which is owned by Plop, a content agency with 25 employees, has strict guidelines: They don’t make fun of political prisoners (but they do mock the opposition at times), and children are off limits. They fact-check everything that goes into Briceño’s weekly news segment.

“It’s very hard to mess with us and win,” said Ravell from his office overlooking El Ávila, an enormous mountain range towering over Caracas. “We really take care that everything we do is bulletproof,” added Ravell, who describes the website as a combination of The Onion and John Oliver’s weekly TV show.

One of its most popular shows, Isla Presidencial, a cartoon parody of several Latin American presidents stranded on a desert island, has become so big that both Chávez and Maduro have referred to it during TV appearances.

“Did you see the Isla Presidencial yesterday? Very poorly done, very bad. It’s not my face, nor my mustache, nor my voice,” said Maduro. “And they make me seem very dumb.”

YouTube

Márquez, too, has established rules for himself to avoid the headaches he's faced in the past. He was sent to a courtroom and fined for a newspaper column in which he mentioned one of the daughters of former President Hugo Chávez. Now he is constantly investigated by the tax authorities. Márquez no longer mentions any specific names in his work or shows up at government-owned theaters.

But despite strict editorial processes in place, publications are not immune from government hostility. In April, Diosdado Cabello, the president of Venezuela’s congress, filed a lawsuit against three opposition media companies, including La Patilla, which Ravell’s father directs, after they republished a report by Spanish newspaper ABC accusing him of being involved in a drug-trafficking scheme.

Several weeks later, in May, Ravell’s father and 21 other media directors were prohibited from leaving the country after Cabello accused them of aggravated and continuous defamation.

As the government has tightened its grip on media, those who mock it have not only hardened but flourished. “This is the most creative moment in life. Humorists living in a democracy don’t have to be as creative,” said Márquez. “It’s beautiful to live this way,” he added, a hint of irony in his voice.


These Amazing Young Female Athletes Will Inspire You To Go Out And Play

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“For some reason, the world loves to show young women in pink and wearing princess dresses, but the truth is: these girls are badasses.”

With the 2015 Women's World Cup starting on June 6, it's the perfect time to champion young women playing the beautiful game.

With the 2015 Women's World Cup starting on June 6, it's the perfect time to champion young women playing the beautiful game.

WildFang / Via andreacorradiniphotography.zenfolio.com

That's exactly what Wildfang clothing company CEO Emma McIlroy and photographer Andrea Corradini hope to do with their #GameFace photo series.

That's exactly what Wildfang clothing company CEO Emma McIlroy and photographer Andrea Corradini hope to do with their #GameFace photo series.

WildFang

"We are beyond excited about the Women's World Cup. It's one of the most amazing moments in sports and women get to take center stage. For us, the World Cup is all about potential and inspiration," McIlroy told BuzzFeed News. "We wanted to look forward to the next generation of female footballers and, as you can see, the future of the sport is in good hands," she added. The project aims to show these young female athletes as their authentic selves. "For some reason, the world loves to show young women in pink and wearing princess dresses, but the truth is: these girls are badasses," said McIlroy.

Who are the young women in the photos? Actual soccer players from the Portland, Oregon, area. "Honestly, we did zero casting. We just reached out to some local coaches in Portland and explained the concept. Most of these young women came straight from training or just before training—zero styling, zero casting—just a group of young athletes who love their sport," explained McIlroy. "They are inspiring, no matter what age you are. They work hard, they are committed to their sport, they are passionate, and they want to be the best. We think that's pretty damn inspiring."


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Are You More Harvard Or Yale?

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This is the best way to find out without having to go through the effort of actually applying to these universities.

21 Problems All Gym Addicts Know To Be True

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Just about recovers from leg day… aaaand it’s leg day again.

When you get to the gym and you realise you forgot your headphones and can't listen to your "get pumped" playlist.

When you get to the gym and you realise you forgot your headphones and can't listen to your "get pumped" playlist.

WWE / Via imgur.com

When you're lifting your heaviest and someone walks right in front of you to pick up 5kg dumbbells.

When you're lifting your heaviest and someone walks right in front of you to pick up 5kg dumbbells.

Via knowyourmeme.com

When you're resting in between sets and someone is hovering over you, waiting to use the machine.

When you're resting in between sets and someone is hovering over you, waiting to use the machine.

Via hafletcher9718.wordpress.com


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This Hotel Went All Out And Decorated A Customer's Room With Nic Cage Photos

23 Struggles Kids Today Will Never Know Or Understand

You Can Now Speed Date A Sarcastic Pug And It Is Glorious

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You never knew you needed this.

"Hot Date" is a game where you speed date the sassiest pug you've ever met in your life.

"Hot Date" is a game where you speed date the sassiest pug you've ever met in your life.

George Batchelor / Via georgebatch.itch.io

Designed by 21-year-old London-based game developer George Batchelor (with music by Levi Pack), the game lets you choose from an impressive number of questions to ask this little guy.

Designed by 21-year-old London-based game developer George Batchelor (with music by Levi Pack), the game lets you choose from an impressive number of questions to ask this little guy.

George Batchelor / Via georgebatch.itch.io

"It was inspired by my one-and-only, Barbarella," Batchelor told BuzzFeed. "We haven’t been on any actual dates (yet)."

"It was inspired by my one-and-only, Barbarella," Batchelor told BuzzFeed. "We haven’t been on any actual dates (yet)."

George Batchelor

The game, which took Batchelor around two months to make, allows you construct some very specific questions.

The game, which took Batchelor around two months to make, allows you construct some very specific questions.

(Some of which would actually be amazing first date questions.)

George Batchelor / Via georgebatch.itch.io


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31 Animals Crashing Professional Sports Like Champions

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Put me in, coach.

"Coach said I'm substituting in for you. Stinks for you, smells like catnip for me."

"Coach said I'm substituting in for you. Stinks for you, smells like catnip for me."

Darrin Zammit Lupi / Reuters

"Vroom! Vroom! I'm definitely a race car and not a rabbit! Vroom!"

"Vroom! Vroom! I'm definitely a race car and not a rabbit! Vroom!"

Max Rossi / Reuters

"I'm open! I'm open!"

"I'm open! I'm open!"

Pascal Lauener / Reuters

"If you can't catch me, you're not gonna catch the ball!"

"If you can't catch me, you're not gonna catch the ball!"

Paulo Whitaker / Reuters


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Deadly Heat: Police Dogs Die When Left In Patrol Cars

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In the last seven years at least 29 police K-9s have sweltered to death after officers left the dogs inside hot patrol vehicles. Such deaths can easily be prevented with new technology.

Primo, a New Orleans Police K-9 in 2004.

Matt Rose / The Times-Picayune / Landov

By the time Officer Jason Lewis of the New Orleans Police Department returned to his police SUV, his K-9 — a six-year-old Belgian Malinois named Primo — was battling for his life.

While Lewis got ready for his shift, he had left the dog inside the police vehicle. As the temperature inside the SUV rose on that hot May day in 2009, Primo tore, clawed, and bit into the upholstery on the seats — apparently trying to escape to cooler air. His body temperature spiked far above normal for a dog, to almost 110 degrees.

When Lewis returned to the vehicle he saw Primo "lying in the back coughing." The officer hosed down the dog then rushed him to a local veterinary clinic, where the dog subsequently collapsed, suffered three seizures, and died. Cause of death: "shock due to heat stress."

Interior of the police SUV after the officer found Primo "lying in the back coughing."

Metropolitan Crime Commission

Primo is one of more than two dozen police K-9s that were left in vehicles and have died of heat-related symptoms since 2007. The animal rights group PETA identified 20 deaths; BuzzFeed News confirmed those and found another nine, based on local and national news reports.

Untold numbers of pets die because they are left in cars, but the deaths of police dogs can be particularly heartrending because they, like uniformed officers, put their lives on the line. And these dogs don't need to die. New technology can warn handlers who've left their K-9s in cars.

"It is a painful, horrible death," said Justine Lee, a veterinary specialist in emergency critical care and toxicology for nearly 20 years. "Once a dog's temperature goes above 105 or 106 degrees, their cells start dying, and they can start going into seizures or have mass organ failure."

With the exception of their paws, dogs lack the sweat glands that humans have on their skin. The main way dogs cool themselves is panting. Lee said that since police dogs are usually German shepherds or Belgian Malinois, with thicker coats and darker hair, they are more susceptible to heat stroke than other breeds.

Ike, a Department of Corrections K-9 in Phoenix, died last year after being left in the back of a police vehicle for seven hours after an officer forgot about him. Two police K-9s — Vegas and Hades — perished after they were left in a police vehicle for nearly 30 hours in Bexar County, Texas, in 2012. Again, their officer said he forgot he left them in the kennel portion of the specially equipped police vehicle. (A spokesperson for the Arizona Department of Corrections said that the department installed "a motion-sensing alarm system to help prevent similar accidents from occurring," while a spokesperson for the Bexar County Sheriff's Office said it had initiated "extra measures to help ensure incidents like this don't happen again.")

The vast majority of such K-9 deaths occur in local police forces, but dogs also sweltered to death while in vehicles belonging to airport police, corrections departments, and other types of law enforcement agencies. Forgetting the dog in the car is one problem, but some handlers intentionally put their dog in the vehicle, mistakenly trusting the air-conditioning system to keep running for hours.

In a particularly ghastly case, police K-9 Sasha was found in her handler's SUV after three hot August days in Warwick, Georgia. Lt. T.J. Frye, Sasha's K-9 handler, told investigators the dog must have made it into the vehicle on her own, according to a local Atlanta TV station WSB. Sasha's final moments in the car were eerily similar to Primo's. Both dogs apparently tried to chew through the car to escape.

After Frye found Sasha's bloated and decomposing body in the vehicle, he buried the eight-year-old Dutch shepherd in his backyard. Local residents and city officials expressed shock and grief, demanding that the dog receive a proper burial. An online petition for an investigation into the dog's death received more than 4,000 signatures. Officer Frye resigned from the force a week after the dog's death. The Warwick Police Department referred comment to its lawyer, Tommy Coleman, who said the department has "tried to put in place procedures" to prevent such deaths.

"When you have public ​officers who serve in the capacity of, basically, a trustee of the public, and they cause the death of an animal who had been charged with serving the same community, most people get really charged," said Scott Heiser, director of the Criminal Justice Program at the Animal Legal Defense Fund. "These dogs are a voiceless class, much like kids, and they are at that compete mercy of their handlers​."

Across America, there are at least 20,000 working police dogs, said Rick Ashabranner, president of the North American Police Work Dog Association. "Probably 95% of dogs stay with their handler and their family," said Ashabranner, who worked with a police narcotics dog for 22 years. "It's no different than owning a pet. The bond is so tight that when they die it's like losing a family member."

No one knows how many police dogs die annually in hot cars. No federal agency keeps track. The Connecticut Police Work Dog Association tallies K-9s that died in service from all causes. The organization has tallied more than 2,000 K-9 deaths since 1940 from agencies including the Navy, Border Patrol, and local police. K-9s who died of excessive heat because they were left in vehicles are not listed explicitly, but some of those deaths can be found on the website under the category of "Heat Exhaustion." The 29 deaths confirmed by BuzzFeed News occurred in 14 states from North Carolina to California, and only between April and September.

Even on mild summer days, closed vehicles act like a greenhouse. When it's 85 degrees outside, one study found that in 20 minutes, the temperature inside a car can rise almost to 114°F — almost 30 degrees. After an hour, the inside temperature can hit a scorching 128 degrees.


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18 Reasons Phryne Fisher Is The Badass TV Detective You Need In Your Life

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The Queen of crime solving.

For those who don't know, Phryne Fisher (Essie Davis) is the title character of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, an Australian TV series based on a series of novels by author Kerry Greenwood.

For those who don't know, Phryne Fisher (Essie Davis) is the title character of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, an Australian TV series based on a series of novels by author Kerry Greenwood.

Alongside her companion Dorothy Williams (Ashleigh Cummings) and policemen Jack Robinson (Nathan Page) and Hugh Collins (Hugo Johnstone-Burt), Phryne investigates and solves a different murder in each episode. But she's not just an investigative genius — she's also "able to speak a million languages and shoot a gun and drive a fast car and throw a dagger and climb a building."

ABC Television

She is fiercely feminist and has no intention of waiting for the men of society to catch up.

And she mixes feminism with humor flawlessly.


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There's A Movement For Men To Regrow Their Foreskin

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They really want their foreskin back.

Fusion's "Asking For A Friend" explores the growing movement of foreskin regeneration.

youtube.com / Via youtube.com

While the majority of US males are circumcized, the numbers are steadily declining.

While the majority of US males are circumcized, the numbers are steadily declining.

Via youtube.com

The American Academy of Pediatrics finds that circumcision health benefits outweigh the risk, but they're not enough to recommend circumcision universally.

The American Academy of Pediatrics finds that circumcision health benefits outweigh the risk, but they're not enough to recommend circumcision universally.

Via youtube.com

A growing population of women and men, called Inactivists, started a movement to keep foreskin around.

A growing population of women and men, called Inactivists, started a movement to keep foreskin around.

Via youtube.com


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Will This Battered Woman Be Set Free? Parole Board Set To Decide

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The case of Tondalo Hall, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison for failing to protect her children from abuse — while the actual abuser got only two years — will go before the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board later this month. The case, part of a BuzzFeed News investigation, has received attention from a national advocacy group.

Tondalo Hall

Oklahoma Department of Corrections

After months of delay, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board will hear the case of Tondalo Hall later this month.

Hall is a decade into a 30-year sentence for failing to protect her children from her boyfriend, Robert Braxton. She has served far longer in prison than Braxton, who received a two-year sentence for breaking the ribs and femur of their 3-month-old daughter. Hall alleged in statements to authorities that she also suffered violent abuse at the hands of Braxton, describing him choking her, punching her, throwing things at her, and verbally assaulting her.

Hall was identified in a BuzzFeed News investigation as one of 28 mothers in 11 states who have been sentenced to more than a decade in prison for failing to protect their children from abusers — despite evidence that the mothers themselves were physically abused.

When Hall submitted her application for clemency from the parole board in November, a national women's rights group, UltraViolet, took up her case, gathering more than 70,000 signatures for a petition demanding she be set free.

But the parole board, which has faced turmoil in recent months, hadn't set a date to hear her case until now.

The board will meet to hear her case, and dozens of others, starting the fourth week of June. A parole board employee told BuzzFeed News that commutations will be heard on that Monday, June 22.

If the board grants Hall's request, then Gov. Mary Fallin will have final say over her fate.

If either the board or Gov. Fallin deny clemency, then Hall will remain behind bars until at least 2030.

Judy Blume Talks About The Incredible True Story Behind Her New Novel

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David Bertozzi / Via BuzzFeed

For the first time in seven years, Judy Blume has gifted the literary world with a brand-new addition to her already exceptional collection of books. After decades of writing children’s books and coming-of-age stories that shaped the lives of so many of her readers, Blume is using part of her own coming-of-age experience as the inspiration for her new novel — her fourth novel for adults — In the Unlikely Event.

In the early 1950s, Judy Blume was a teenager growing up in Elizabeth, New Jersey, when the unthinkable happened: A series of three plane crashes hit the small, suburban town within the span of 58 days and shook its residents to their core. This is the foundation of In the Unlikely Event — the characters, events, and emotions motivated by real-life events from a midcentury town, living in fear and transition.

BuzzFeed had the chance to catch up with Blume and discuss her new novel, her own teenage years, and any plans she has for future writing. Here’s what she had to say:


You’ve been working on In the Unlikely Event for five years. What is it like to work on one project for that long?

Judy Blume: While I was working on the novel, a writer friend of mine who was between books said to me, “You’re so lucky, Judy, because you get up every morning and you know exactly what you’re going to do.” At the time, I didn’t have the sense that it was five years. I spent five months doing research, which I adored because I had never done any research before when I wrote my books. It was all I wanted to do, but I realized I eventually had to stop researching and start writing. I also took a two-year break to make the Tiger Eyes movie, which is not a good thing to do, by the way, in the middle of a book.

What took up most of your time during that five-year period?

JB: I spent five months doing research and three years working on writing the novel. It was a complicated story, and I don’t write quickly.

Are there any other books you’ve written that have taken a similar amount of time?

JB: Summer Sisters took me three years to write, and when it ended I said that I would never, ever do this again, and I meant it. If the idea for In the Unlikely Event hadn’t come to me out of nowhere, Summer Sisters would have been my final long, complicated novel.

What made you want to tell the stories of Miri Ammerman [one of the main characters in In the Unlikely Event] and the rest of the characters?

JB: I was sitting in an auditorium in Key West at the Key West Literary Seminar, which we do every January. I was listening to Rachel Kushner, who was on stage talking about her first novel, Telex from Cuba, and how the idea came from her mother telling her stories of her own life in the '50s. I grew up in the ‘50s and, all of a sudden, it clicked. I thought to myself, Oh my god, I have a story to tell. It came to me really all at once; I didn’t know the details of the characters and I didn’t know their names, but I knew the families instantly, and I knew so much right away. I knew this is a story I needed to write.

Why do you think you decided to tell this story now, over 50 years later? Why didn't it come sooner?

JB: Because it must have been buried so deep. I’ve been a writer for 40-something years and I had this great story somewhere in the back of mind. How come I didn’t think about telling it? My daughter became a commercial airline pilot and after she read a draft of the book she said, “Mother, you never talked about this story." Why didn’t I ever tell anybody this story? It happened, I was there in Elizabeth while I was growing up. My father was even a dentist like Dr. O in the book.

How much of the story is based on your own, autobiographical experience?

JB: I would say almost none of it, except for the dentist, Dr. O, who is very much based on my father.

How did all of this history in Elizabeth shape your experience growing up there?

JB: It all happened in 58 days, so it was a very small part of my youth, but it was also a very intense period of time to have three planes crash in your hometown. One crashed just two blocks from the junior high where I was a student, another crashed almost through a window of the girl’s public high school — we had sex-segregated high schools — and the third crashed in the playing field of the only orphanage in town. All of that sent a message to the kids that it was about us. Of course, we were teenagers, so everything was about us, but we really felt that these plane crashes were about us, and "they’re" out to get us; we just didn't know who "they" were. The boys were sure the plane crashes were a result of flying saucers, aliens, or zombies, and the girls talked about sabotage, but those were just our youthful guesses. We still didn't know who was responsible for this. It was Cold War time, so there was also a lot of talk about communism. I remember all of it; I remember being in school and all of these events happening all around me, but we’re talking about 58 days, which was not a very lengthy, extended period of time.

David Bertozzi / Maritsa Patrinos / BuzzFeed

So after the 58 days were over, what kind of a legacy did the plane crashes create in Elizabeth?

JB: Newark Airport was closed for nine months, but I didn’t know that as a kid. News coverage wasn't the same, because the media was so different; the news wasn’t covered on TV, so you didn’t come home from school and turn on the set or look at your computer and find things out everywhere. It wasn’t anywhere; it was up to the reporters and the news photographers to paint this picture for us. To tell you the truth, I don’t think I read the paper when I was 14. Miri is different; she’s a year older, her uncle works on the newspaper and makes his name telling these stories, and so she’s very much in the middle of all of this. My father was identifying victims at the morgue by their dental records because there wasn’t any DNA, so it was all done by dental records. Even though I knew that he was doing that, no one ever talked about it at home. I don’t remember any teacher ever talking about it in school because it was the norm back then: You don’t talk about these things in front of the kids or with the kids — making it worse actually for the kids who ended up making up their own stories about the whole thing based on their own memories. Were we scared? I don’t know, I don’t remember. It was a scary idea, but there was also the drama of it that I think we got off on, too, and I was full of drama as a kid.

When we’re 15, we’re all full of drama. Everything feels like the end of the world.

JB: Well, this actually was.

In your dedication and in your acknowledgments, you talk about your husband George. What role did he play in helping you with In the Unlikely Event?

JB: I did all of this research, and I knew that I wanted to use newspaper stories to help me tell it. First of all, I can’t write descriptive prose. I am hopeless at descriptive prose, and there was going to have to be descriptive prose in this book. I like to make up characters and put them in different situations and have them talk to each other — I’m good at that — but not descriptive prose. So I was depending on these fabulous news stories from the ‘50s, full of kind of what we’d call today "purple prose" — "but then it falls down and it breaks apart like a swollen cream puff" — and I wanted to use that language. I thought I was going to be able to use the real news stories, but they came with bylines, and even though the reporters are sadly not living anymore, and the newspaper are defunct, I wanted to give Henry Ammerman all of these bylines, and I found out you can’t do that. Bylines are already there. So I found out late in the game, last fall actually, that the news stories were all going to have to be redone, I was going to have to rewrite them all, and I wasn’t going to be able to meet my deadline because I was still so involved in revising my story and adding to it.

At that point, my Henry, who is my husband, who’s also a wonderful writer on his own, stepped in and said, "I can be your Henry, and we can do this together." So while I was doing one thing, he was doing news stories and bringing them to me and saying, how about this? And I was really tough! Fortunately he has very good humor, and feels good about himself so that I could say, "No, this has to be better. Let’s make this better." So he took what I had and was able to mix and match and put it together so that it flowed well and told the story. We had a good time working together like that.

How did it feel to fictionalize these stories that were actually based on real facts?

JB: Everybody on the planes and everybody on the ground who was killed or injured, they were real in the story. Some of them I use as characters, like the dancer Ruby, who’s 22. Yes, there was actually a 22-year-old dancer on the plane, and yes, I learned about her life through news stories, but of course I don’t know what really happened on the plane. I don’t know who she was sitting with, and so I’ve changed the names of people who have become characters in the book. But then the families, who the story is really about, show how everyone is somehow connected to someone else. We learn about that as we go along. You have to have patience in the beginning of this book — please do have patience; there are a lot of characters.

David Bertozzi / Maritsa Patrinos/ BuzzFeed

You wrote these lines on the first page of the novel: “After enough time it fades and you’re grateful. Not that it’s ever completely gone. It’s still there, buried deep, a part of you.” Is this how you feel too?

JB: No, this isn't true for me. I become Miri when I write about her, I become everybody as I write about them, but no. I went back to Elizabeth all the time; my mother lived in Elizabeth until she died, and my cousin lives right down the street from the house where I grew up, so there was never a time when I didn’t go back to Elizabeth. And I swear to you, I never thought about this. It was buried so deep.

What do you hope readers take away from In the Unlikely Event?

JB: What I think makes a successful novel is when you miss a character after being done with a book. That's what happens to me when I read a book that I really like: If I think about the characters after I finish reading, then I know that book really means something to me. That’s my greatest hope as a writer, that the characters will stay with my readers. From this book, I would like people to take away the same idea that my father always said to me: “Life goes on.” And it does; we manage to get through it. As Henry says to his niece [in the novel], terrible things happen in life, but it’s all eventually worth it.

How is it different for you to write young adult novels versus adult novels? Do you prefer one over the other?

JB: I've never written a YA novel. I didn't write YA, because there wasn't such a thing as YA when I was writing children's books; it wasn't a genre. But I love writing both children's books and books for adults. They're both hard to write, but you write because you can't not write. They're all emotional undertakings because the stories stay with you. Writing YA is hard because life is hard when you're young, but neither one is easier than the other. I don't prefer to write one over the other. They're all stories in me.

Will you write any more books?

JB: I'm not planning on writing any more adult novels. My publisher does not like it when I say that, but that’s the truth. Will I write something else? Probably. But I don’t have any plans. I need time off and time to regroup. There are plenty of other things I would like to be doing that don't involve planning, researching, or writing complicated adult novels, and I haven’t had a day off since Christmas.

In the past, some of your books like Forever or Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. have been banned. What would you say to the people who banned them?

JB: If a parent were in doubt about allowing a child to read a book, I would always say, “What’s the worst thing that could happen?” She or he will ask you a question that you might not want to answer, but you better be ready. Kids either read right over something they don't understand — they invent their own idea of what something could be, or they ask questions. I will say this: With everything else that was bad about the '50s and my mother’s anxieties and her desire to protect her children, never, never did my parents think reading wasn’t a good thing. They knew it was a great thing. And never did they worry about what I was reading; I was reading everything on the bookshelves that flanked the fireplace, and these were adult books. I was 12 or 13, but reading was such a good thing and my parents celebrated that I was a reader. They couldn’t have been happier. Let’s go back to that; let’s stop being afraid or feeling like we need to control every single thing that kids read, because we can’t. Don’t be judgmental about what your kids are reading.

There were no YA books then for me, so I was making up book reports. In sixth grade we had to do book reports and I was really reading these books on my parents’ bookshelves and I knew I wasn’t going to report on any of them. That's why I invented a series of horse books. I didn’t actually write the books, but I stood up in front of the class, talked about them, and gave an oral book report. It was called Dobbins or something like that. We had to stand up and say the theme and characters and all that, and I got an A on those. I always tell teachers, just one time during the school year, let the kids do this. Invent a book, an author, and a theme and characters, and have them stand up and give these reports.

If you could go back in time and say something to your younger self, what would you say?

JB: To 18-year-old Judy, I would say: Take your time. Go to college, but not to meet somebody to marry as our mothers told us we were supposed to do, because we were from a generation of women that married really young. Take your time, get to know who you really are. Go to work, live on your own, and if it comes time to marry — if you even want to get married — then do it carefully, because this person is most likely going to be the father or mother of your kids. So be careful.

Be sure to check out In the Unlikely Event, which is on sale now.

Be sure to check out In the Unlikely Event, which is on sale now.

Doubleday Press / Via knopfdoubleday.com

21 People You Meet When You're Expecting A Baby

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They can make nine months seem like an eternity.

The Detective

The Detective

They interrogate you about whether the pregnancy was planned, if you know what you're having, and anything else they can think of.

NBC

The Mystic

The Mystic

They claim to be able to predict the sex of the baby with nothing more than a wedding ring and string.

Sergey Mironov / Getty Images

The Doomsdayer

The Doomsdayer

They say things like, "The fun times are over for you, pal!" and "I don't know if I could bring a kid into the world the way it is right now."

Fox

The Homebirther

The Homebirther

They strongly campaign for you to have a home birth, and show you photos of their home births that either convince you or make you say, "Oh, hell, no!"

Flickr: eyeliam / Via Creative Commons


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