"How Celebrity Pets Became Big Business"

P:

“People are much lonelier than they used to be,” says Gray. “So what do they do? They get a pet, or if they can’t, maybe because of their landlord, they spend all their time on YouTube looking at other people’s pets acting human.”

Indeed, celebrity animals are like an “electronic pet,” says Susan Nance, a history professor at the University of Guelph in Canada’s Ontario province. Tamagotchi for the digital age – with even fewer responsibilities.

“It's a collective delusion or group fiction that we all create together to imagine that this animal exists out there somewhere and that he somehow knows he's famous, and that he likes the attention,” says Nance.

"Meet the Olympic handball team made up almost exclusively of well-paid foreigners"

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Though most of Qatar’s players are past their primes, the nation shells out millions of dollars in salaries for a sport where scratching out a living often can entail a second job. The money has worked: Qatar won the silver medal at the 2015 Men’s Handball World Championships, held in its capital city of Doha, a result that rankled the tight-knit community. Players complained. Officials sneered. No less authority on right and wrong than Sepp Blatter, the former FIFA president who resigned amid oceans of corruption, said Qatar’s recruitment of foreign players reached “the point of absurdity.

Department of Energy's Public Affairs Employee writes about Stranger Things

"while I really enjoyed “Stranger Things” as a mashup of Goonies and X-Files with some amazing 80s music mixed in, the show’s portrayal of the Energy Department was a little less than accurate. Here’s why"

How the meaning of Hodor's name was revealed in various languages

Many more.

"A Chinese tourist who lost his wallet in Germany signed the wrong paperwork and ended up being placed in accommodation for refugees"

TG:

With help from a translation app and then from a translator at a Chinese restaurant, it became clear that the man wanted to travel on to France and Italy, not seek asylum.

It took German officials 12 days to put the story together and send the 31-year-old tourist on his way

"A Transocean semi-submersible drilling rig is hard aground in Scotland’s Western Isles after breaking free from its tow overnight in heavy weather"

"The rig was reportedly under tow from Norway to Malta when the incident occurred"

"It was NFL fans being tricked into staying more than an hour inside a football stadium where no football game was going to be played"

IS:

The Indianapolis Colts and Green Bay Packers were in their locker rooms at about 6:40 p.m. when they were told their preseason opener had been cancelled. It was a shame, but it was an accident.

What happened to the fans at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium over the next 80 minutes was no accident.

It was intentional. It was deceitful. It was the Pro Football Hall of Fame keeping alive the façade, using its scoreboard to show a countdown to an 8 p.m. kickoff that would never happen, because there was money to be made.