Justin Trudeau’s Quantum Computing Explanation Was Likely Staged for Publicity

J.K. Trotter · 04/18/16 08:15AM

Justin Trudeau, the newly elected Prime Minister of Canada, received a wave of universally positive press last week after he appeared to explain the mechanics of quantum computing in an impromptu answer during a press conference held at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario. Trudeau’s remarkably erudite explanation, captured in an instantaneously viral video, suggested a deep personal interest in the subject, one unrelated to any obvious publicity benefits. According to the sharp-eyed Canadian blogger J.J. McCullough, however, everything about the press conference—the setting, the question, and the answer—was choreographed by Trudeau himself.

Melissa Cronin · 04/17/16 02:00PM

“He mostly always smelled like soap and just naturally had a wonderful odor to his body,” retired federal prosecutor Lillian McEwen, 70, told The New York Post, for a story about with the unfortunate headline, “My threesome with Clarence Thomas.”

Melissa Cronin · 04/17/16 11:54AM

“Demi Moore is not, nor has ever been, a member of the American Independent Party,” a representative for the actress told the Los Angeles Times, as part of an investigation into the American Independent Party and its mistakenly-registered voters. Good to know.

Melissa Cronin · 04/16/16 01:45PM

“A microcosm of the whole history of American slavery,” said Georgetown historian Adam Rothman, part of a group studying ways for the university to make amends with the descendants of the 272 men, women and children it sold as slaves in 1838. The New York Times published a thorough dive into the effort and its ramifications Saturday, and what to do with an institution that exists because of slavery.

Melissa Cronin · 04/16/16 12:25PM

“I felt like every layer of my skin and my identity were ripped off of me in ’98 and ’99,”said former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, in a devastating interview with The Guardian. “It’s a skinning of sorts. You feel incredibly raw and frightened. But I also feel like the shame sticks to you like tar.”