Guess someone was going to do it.

A Kim Jong-un impersonator went to greet North Korean cheerleaders at the Winter Olympics, and you can bet it caused quite the stir.

Only identified as Howard, the Australian man of Chinese descent attended the women’s ice hockey match between a unified Korean team and Japan on Wednesday. 

During the match, he walked over to the group of North Koreans waving a unified Korea flag — only to be pushed aside by a group of apparent DPRK minders.

Suffice it to say, the some of the North Korean cheerleaders weren’t so impressed. Read more…

More about Sports, Olympics, South Korea, North Korea, and Kim Jong Un

Grace Dolan-Sandrino, a 17-year-old transgender high school student, was prepared for the Department of Education to let her down. 

The federal agency had done so already a year ago, she says, when it rescinded an Obama-era guidance advising schools to allow trans students use of bathroom facilities that matched their gender identity.

Dolan-Sandrino, however, didn’t expect the department to openly abandon students like her by refusing to investigate or take action on complaints filed by children and teens whose schools implement discriminatory bathroom policies. But, as of Monday, that became the agency’s official position.  Read more…

More about Social Good, Transgender, Transgender Rights, Transgender Bathroom, and Betsy Devos

The most undeniable part of Outlander is the powerful chemistry between its two leads, burning with the passion of a thousand fierce highland warriors fighting for their independence. 

And it looks like it’s been that way from the very beginning.

A video of the first ever “chemistry read” between Sam Heughan (Jaime Fraiser) and Caitriona Balfe (Claire Beachum) was released just in time for Valentine’s Day. Even when their fabulous costumes are replaced by flannel and they’ve got a sterile white room for background instead of gorgeous Scottish scenery, the spark between the two is enough to light a fire that will melt your heart. Read more…

More about Entertainment, Starz, Outlander, Sam Heughan, and Caitriona Balfe

Can one person revitalize a country while sharing its history with the world? Mokhtar Alkhanshali is trying to do just that.

In his new book, The Monk of Mokha, Dave Eggers (author of The Circle and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius) tells the true story of Alkhanshali’s journey to inspire coffee cultivation in Yemen. 

It’s a thrilling work that documents an ambitious young man connecting with his ancestral country, along with his mastery of coffee production and the experience of being in Yemen during the outbreak of the Yemeni Civil War.  Read more…

More about Mashreads, Mashreads Podcast, Dave Eggers, Monk Of Mokha, and Mokhtar Alkhanshali

We interrupt the 2018 Winter Olympics to bring you some very important Summer Olympics-related news.

Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps and his wife Nicole have just welcomed their second child, Beckett Richard Phelps.

You know what that means? Boomer’s a big brother, baby.

On Tuesday night the Phelps family pulled a classic Instagram move, announcing the birth of Beckett (another cool as hell name, BTW) on their individual accounts minutes apart. Maybe I cried when I got the notification on a train, maybe I didn’t. That’s beside the point. Read more…

More about Sports, Instagram, Olympics, Michael Phelps, and Boomer Phelps

We’ve been watching “Starman” cruise through space in his cosmic Tesla Roadster for a week now.

But on Valentine’s Day, Elon Musk’s shrewd payload from SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket will disappear into deep space — and you can watch it happen live.

Streaming live via the Virtual Telescope Project, an Italy-based project dedicated to streaming real-time telescope footage online, you’ll be able to see Musk’s Tesla Roadster disappear from view.

In a live event scheduled for Feb. 14, beginning at 7:15 a.m. ET (4:15 a.m. PT, 12:15 a.m. UTC, 11:15 p.m. AEDT), robotic telescopes will capture the Roadster in its final visible stage. Read more…

More about Space, Mars, Tesla, Elon Musk, and Spacex

Passengers on United Airlines flight 1175 from San Francisco to Honolulu experienced an unfortunate incident Tuesday when the engine’s cowling fell off mid-flight. The plane made it to its destination safely, though it did make an emergency landing. 

Google Engineer Erik Haddad was on the flight, and captured this video from his seat on board the Boeing 777-200. The cowling, or the piece that cover’s the plane’s engine, is completely missing. A piece of the plane can also be seen shaking in the clip.

More about Travel, Plane, Culture, and Web Culture

Ten years ago, the pressure my fellow teens and I felt to make a budding relationship “Facebook Official” was real. But with fewer teenagers than ever using Facebook (in favor of Snapchat), and with us now-twenty-somethings living our lives on Instagram, the stress-inducing relationship status feature has become blissfully irrelevant.

Now, Facebook might be trying to reverse that trend — using Valentine’s Day as its weapon.

On Tuesday, Facebook rolled out new features in Messenger that give significant others special statuses with each other.  Read more…

More about Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Relationships, and Valentine S Day

In the Game of Thrones, you win or you die. Or maybe you tap on your touch screen to try again.

HBO and game developers Behaviour Interactive and GAEA Technology just announced their partnership to create a strategy iOS game based on the TV series. There aren’t many details on exactly what the game will be, but Game of Thrones is ripe for adaptations into actual gaming worlds. 

I mean, it’s already in the title, right?

One thing we do know is that it’ll be a “free-to-play” mobile game. Now, those words are usually enough to send many running for the hills with PTSD flashbacks to Farmville.

More about Entertainment, Gaming, Game Of Thrones, Ios Games, and Strategy Games

Need to clean your house but keep dragging your feet? Just pretend you’re curling.

Better yet, get your children to pretend they’re curling — a genius idea perpetuated by the Olympics network itself, NBC. All you need is a broom or Swiffer and a rounded object of some kind. Anything will work, because you are not competing for any medals. You are in your own home!

See? A clean floor and a child who thinks he is an Olympic athlete! You truly couldn’t ask for more. Read more…

More about Olympics, Kids, Winter Olympics, Curling, and Culture