Hamilton Nolan · 03/25/16 04:00PM

A study finds that people who have “recurrent bouts of extreme, impulsive anger” are more than twice as likely to carry a parasite that is transmitted through the feces of infected cats. Eating cat butt make you mad.

The National Enquirer Has Been Right Before

Sam Biddle · 03/25/16 03:50PM

It’s easy to dismiss today’s National Enquirer story about the alleged secret, highly active extramarital sex life of Ted Cruz, because, hey, it’s just some crappy tabloid that makes up all of its stories, right? And it’s true: They’ve printed a lot of fantasy and nonsense. But on some stories—including some huge ones—the Enquirer has been very right.

Listen to the Full Conversation About Sex and Love Between Alabama Governor Robert Bentley and His Alleged Mistress

Jordan Sargent · 03/25/16 03:35PM

In 2014, when he was still married to his now-ex wife Dianne, Alabama governor Robert Bentley was secretly recorded talking to his alleged mistress Rebekah Caldwell-Mason, who is also one of his closest advisors. Earlier this week, after months of public speculation regarding his alleged infidelity, Bentley held a press conference to address an excerpt of a recording of a phone call between he and Mason that was leaked to AL.com. The two-minute long snippet posted by the newspaper captured Bentley describing both physical and emotional intimacy with Mason, who currently serves as the governor’s senior political advisor. Above, you can hear relevant parts of the entire 14-minute recording obtained by Gawker, the full contents of which have not been previously published.

Robert De Niro Is Doing a Convincing Portrayal of an Anti-Vaccination Kook

Tom Scocca · 03/25/16 02:38PM

Robert De Niro’s upcoming Tribeca Film Festival is in trouble for including the movie Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe, directed by Andrew Wakefield, the disgraced physician turned anti-vaccination activist. The festival site describes the film as “[d]igging into the long-debated link between autism and vaccines,” a description that avoids the official conclusion of that debate, which is that Wakefield was a fraud peddling destructive lies to desperate parents.

People Have Been Talking About "The Thing" With Ted Cruz For Some Time Now

Gabrielle Bluestone · 03/25/16 01:36PM

This week, the National Enquirer published a story claiming Ted Cruz may have been involved in as many as five extramarital affairs. But the general allegations are nothing new. People have been talking publicly about, well, something involving Cruz for weeks.

Automation and Basic Income

Hamilton Nolan · 03/25/16 12:46PM

Without meaning to, the CEO of a restaurant corporation that is busily trying to automate employees out of existence is becoming one of the best spokesmen for the idea of providing all Americans with a universal basic income.

Hamilton Nolan · 03/25/16 11:41AM

Atop the New York Times homepage today is a banner ad for the Broadway play “Shuffle Along” that clicks through directly to this week’s New York Times Magazine story about “Shuffle Along.” That’s... very synergistic.

Stop-and-Frisk Is Bad in Philly, Too

Andy Cush · 03/25/16 11:01AM

The NYPD’s use of stop-and-frisk, and the subsequent federal lawsuit against the department, became a big enough news story over the last several years that the practice is virtually synonymous with New York’s Finest. Stop-and-frisk is used in plenty of cities, however, and it’s bad in other places, too. Take Philly, for example.

Class War: Yale Edition

Hamilton Nolan · 03/25/16 09:13AM

Yale University is sitting on an endowment worth $25.6 billion. The state of Connecticut, on the other hand, is pretty broke. Now, Connecticut wants to tax Yale’s endowment. This could be more revolutionary than it sounds.

Saudi Royal Drama: The Graduation Party

Gabrielle Bluestone · 03/25/16 08:35AM

Graduation—some of us have one, some of us don’t. Some of us have a few friends over to celebrate, and some of us rent out a house in Los Angeles for a month and fill it with strippers and drugs. We’re a diverse people.