Girl Thompson On The History Of April Fool’s Day

Let the sassy man who wears a turtleneck better than your dead grandma give you a bit of a history lesson on this most important of days.

9 Awesome Portraits Of Rappers As 17th Century Aristocrats

The egos. The larger than life personalities and over-the-top, signature styles. Of course it makes sense to paint Tupac, Biggie, Nas, et al as 17th century aristocrats. Or at least it does to British artist Amar Stewart. Lacking any sort of professional training, Stewart manages to convene timeless artistic masters–Dutch painters and contemporary rappers–in a project that is as refreshingly original as it is technically well done.

Notorious B.I.G. as King Henry VIII by Hans Holbein the Younger

Mary J. Blige as “Portrait of a Woman” by Frans Hals

Tupac as “Portrait of a Man Holding a Skull” by Frans Hals

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Want An A On Your Next Awful, 143-Word Paper? Be An Athlete

The Article: Here’s the Awful 146-Word “Essay” That Earned an A- for a UNC Jock by Jordan Weissmann in Slate.

The Text: The University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill has already been embroiled in a scandal for allowing its athletes to enroll in fake courses for easy credit. Now, the whole controversy has a rather potent visual symbol to go along with it: a 146-word, ungrammatical essay on Rosa Parks that earned an A-.

Mary Willingham, who spent a decade tutoring and advising UNC’s jocks before turning into a whistleblower, unveiled the paper during an interview with ESPN. As the segment explains, academically troubled UNC athletes were encouraged to sign up for so-called “paper classes”—which were essentially no-work independent studies involving a single paper that allowed functionally illiterate football players to prop up their GPAs, thus satisfying the NCAA’s eligibility requirements. Here’s the sort of work that was involved:

And here’s the text.

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My First Gay Hug

15 homophobes. 15 homosexuals. One camera. What happens next isn’t exactly what you would expect.

Why Are We Arguing About Birth Control In 2014?

The Article: In 2014, why are we still arguing about birth control? by Dr. Jeanne Conroy in CNN Online.

The Text: The headlines seem like something from the past: Congressional hearings are held to debate women’s access to contraceptives. A talk show host uses a derogatory and misogynist term to describe a graduate student seeking access to contraception on her campus. And for-profit employers are suing the government to avoid providing coverage for contraception within their employees’ insurance plans on the basis of their personal beliefs.

But this is no flashback: These conversations about contraception are happening now, in the present day, with outdated views and inaccurate information playing a leading role.

As physicians dedicated to improving the health of women, we ask: Why is contraception still seen as controversial in the face of overwhelming evidence about its benefits? Why is birth control questioned, in this day and age, despite its widespread acceptance and use?

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