The Wheel and Axle

Credits: Reuters/David Gray

Did you know that there is a Refugee Olympic Team in Rio this year?

That’s right.

From a pool of 43 candidates, the IOC selected ten athletes (five from South Sudan, two from Congo, two from Syria, and one from Ethiopia) to compete under the Olympic flag with country code Refugee Olympic Team.

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Out Tongan Olympic swimmer Amini Fonua rightfully gave The Daily Beast the #burn.

There is absolutely no excuse to The Daily Beast’s stunt of an “article” – an article that ultimately served no true journalistic purpose.

Their faux-journalist – a straight white privileged male named Nico Hines – wrote an article that was, as The Slate perfectly put it, “sleazy, dangerous, and wildly unethical.” In it, Hines wrote about going on Tinder and Grindr as he wandered through the Olympic Village in Rio; he zero’ed in on Grindr (because, you know, gays are more promiscuous), then proceeded to out several gay athletes he met through the dating app.

Oh, he didn’t name them directly. No, that would be wrong. He only proceeded to describe them in detail, including their statistics, their events, and their goddamn nationalities. Because, you know, Google doesn’t exist, and no one would ever figure out who these people are.

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Photo credits: Rappler

Hidilyn Diaz, Filipina weightlifter from Mindanao, just brought us a silver medal in the Rio Olympics. This is our first medal since 1996 and the first from a woman, the first for someone from Mindanao, and the first for a non-boxer since 1936.

This is what we call #PinoyPride.

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Recently, a comedian pretending to be a senator and who shall remain nameless is now pretending to be a businessman, too. He filed a bill would require employers to give 14th month pay on top of existing 13th month obligations.

As with anything that this moron does, there is a lack of intellectual thought and foresight in his output. This is not surprising as he learned business and economics in Iskul Bukol.

Yes, as an employee, I would be very happy to get another full month’s pay. In fact, we used to have it as an incentive in one of my former companies until they scrapped it.

The question is: why did they scrap it?

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It was hard to get a good profile pic in the days of Mahmud I.

I’ve long known that I shared my birthday with the late, great Peter O’Toole as well as Eddie Furlong (yes, kids, you probably have no idea) and, oh all right, Dingdong Dantes.

However, I recently came upon a more comprehensive list, and I must say, I’m in pretty good company.

Mahmud I. 1696. Because one needs to throw royalty into this list. Mahmud was a Sultan of the Ottoman Empire who fought Persia, Austria, and Russia. He also wrote poetry because obviously one needs a soothing distraction from the occasional pillaging.

Constantine I of Greece. 1868. Okay, fine, just one more royal. Even if he was accused of being a German sympathizer during World War I  (officially, he advocated for neutrality).

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I’ve been following internet personality Chris Thompson on his blog as well as his various social media channels for some time now – both YouTube channels, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat. No, he’s not exactly a famous celebrity, but he has built up a fairly good internet presence and a solid following as a YouTube star who can also sing.

Admittedly, I was initially enticed to follow him because I encountered one of his vlogs and I found him very attractive. The more I watched his many videos, however, the more I saw he was more than just a pretty face; he was a man with a lot of very good things to say.

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The new Ghostbusters movie has been the subject of much misogynistic controversy since the all-female cast was announced last year. I had wanted to write about the issue more in-depth, particularly around how these entitled privileged white males are pretending it’s simply about the legacy of the original when it’s really about how insecure they are with their penis size.

Misogynistic morons deserve this.

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It’s been forty-seven years today since we landed on the moon. (Lu Parker would be so happy.)

Neil Armstrong’s small step out of Apollo 11 was indeed one giant leap for mankind. Here’s hoping that we continue to advance, not just in science and technology but in everything that we do.

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God made Philippine mangoes, and it was good.

Run!

Hide!

Flee to the hills!

Chinese social media users have, oh my goddess of mercy, threatened to boycott Filipino mangoes because of the Hague ruling regarding the West Philippine Sea!

This will, like, destroy our economy and everything! We’ll have no more means to sustain our growth and development! I see starvation! I see hunger! Pestilence is coming! Perhaps even a well-orchestrated locust swarm!

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