TIME animals

World’s Tallest Dog From Otsego Dies at Age 5

Zeus sits on Nicholas Doorlag as Denise and Kevin Doorlag sit close by on Sept. 18, 2012 in Otsego, Mich.
Zeus sits on Nicholas Doorlag as Denise and Kevin Doorlag sit close by on Sept. 18, 2012 in Otsego, Mich. Josh Mauser—AP

(OTSEGO, Mich.) — The Great Dane from Michigan that held the title of world’s tallest dog has died at age 5.

Owner Kevin Doorlag told the Kalamazoo Gazette that Zeus made his debut in the 2012 edition of Guinness World Records as the tallest living dog. Zeus was 44 inches tall at the shoulder and 7 feet, 4 inches on his hind legs.

Zeus weighed 165 pounds and ate a 30-pound bag of food every two weeks, the Battle Creek Enquirer reported.

Doorlag, of Otsego, said the entire family will miss Zeus.

Zeus was a local celebrity in the Kalamazoo area and frequently visited local schools and hospitals as a therapy dog. Doorlag said he will also miss seeing the joy Zeus brought to other people.

“Those are some of the things I’ll never forget about him,” Doorlag said. “He was definitely a great dog.”

Zeus died last week from old age, just two months shy of his sixth birthday, according to Doorlag.

TIME celebrities

Arnold Schwarzenegger Removes Ex-Wife From Governor Portrait

Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveil's his official portrait during ceremonies at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif. on Sept. 8, 2014.
Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveil's his official portrait during ceremonies at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif. on Sept. 8, 2014. Rich Pedroncelli—AP

A failed marriage can really tarnish your legacy—if by "legacy" you mean a 6-foot-tall oil painting

Consider that a divorce!

Former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger has had the image of ex-wife Maria Shriver terminated from his official government portrait.

The 6-foot-high oil painting was noticeably lacking the depiction of a small pin featuring Shriver that was worn on Schwarzenegger’s suit lapel when the work was unveiled at the California Capitol in Sacramento on Monday, the New York Post reports. Schwarzenegger sat for the portrait in 2003.

“Whoever touched it up did not do a very good job,” Richard Granis, a tour guide for the capitol, told the Post. “It was softball sized, right there on his left lapel.”

Schwarzenegger and Shriver separated in 2011, though their divorce has not yet been finalized.

[New York Post]

TIME celebrity

David Beckham Just Proved He’s a Bigger Fan of Jay and Bey Than Anyone Of Us Will Ever Be

Did you just get a tattoo to prove it? I didn't think so.

You might like Beyoncé and Jay Z. You might even love them. But David Beckham probably just one upped your super fandom by tattooing one of Jay Z’s lyrics from the On the Run tour on his hand.

The picture below shows four words Jay Z shouted into the crowd during a performance: “Dream big, be unrealistic.”

Celebrity Sightings In New York City - September 10, 2014
David Beckham NCP/Star Max—GC Images

According to an August tweet, Victoria was a fan of the inspiring mantra, as well:

TIME viral

The Newest Drake Meme Shows That He Can Never Escape His True Identity as Jimmy From Degrassi

It's all taking place in Toronto

Sometimes, we all lose sight of the fight that before Drake was Drake, he was Aubrey Graham, a young actor on the Canadian teen drama series Degrassi.

Well, one Toronto resident is hoping to remind us of Drake’s roots by plastering pictures of his face on handicapped wheelchair signs around the city. (Drake, of course, played Jimmy, who was in a wheelchair after a shooting left him paralyzed from the waist down.)

Behold:

Behind this trend — simply called “draking” — is journalist and blogger Lauren O’Neil. She told BuzzFeed that she and her boyfriend saw an accessibility sign on the subway recently and the idea just kind of came to them. Soon, they began “draking” all over town. “We just want to make people smile,” she said.

Man, that’s kind of a bummer. We were secretly hoping this was a viral campaign for some kind of Degrassi revival.

TIME NextDraft

Even Tech Entrepreneurs Limit Their Kids’ Tech Consumption and Other Fascinating News on the Web

September 11, 2014

nextdraft_newsfeed_v2

1. Going Over the Limit

A few years ago, a parent explained his kids’ experience with the newly released iPad: “They haven’t used it. We limit how much technology our kids use at home.” It might surprise you to learn that the parent who said that was Steve Jobs. But to many tech entrepreneurs, investors, and journalists, that quote will hardly sound like a revelation. Here’s former Wired editor Chris Anderson: “We have seen the dangers of technology firsthand. I’ve seen it in myself, I don’t want to see that happen to my kids.” As Nick Bilton writes in the NYT, those closest to technology are often those most wary of it. The benefits of technology are countless. But we need to consider the impact of these technologies — especially as we start to wear them on our person — as we move forward. I have seen devices and social networks bring distant people together. I have also seen my daughter kiss my laptop goodnight.

+ “Pens and paper, knitting needles and, occasionally, mud. Not a computer to be found. No screens at all. They are not allowed in the classroom, and the school even frowns on their use at home.” Back in 2011, the NYT’s Matt Richtel talked to the tech execs who send their kids to Waldorf.

2. The Long(er) War

The New Yorker’s John Cassidy sums up President Obama’s return to the familiar battlefield: “Still, the fact remains: President Obama, long a reluctant warrior, has committed the United States to a risky and open-ended military campaign, the ultimate consequences of which are difficult to predict. Confronted with popular outrage at the beheadings of James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and political opponents keen to exploit any hint of weakness or indecision, the realist has relented.”

+ Fred Kaplan on the complexities: “So, the cause is just, and Obama’s plan sounds reasonable, even nuanced. What could go wrong? Well, as anyone who’s studied the region (and the cavalier predictions made, time and again, by Westerners who go to war there), everything.”

3. Nine Eleven

Thirteen years after first responders ran in while everyone else was running out, Rex Sorgatz reflects on the changes he’s seen from his life atop Ground Zero. “The new World Trade Center is the embodiment of New York City as the fantasy it has always projected, a constantly refurbished dream of America. In this place, images can change, but names are always waiting to be remembered. This is what it means to never forget.”

+ “We wouldn’t be shooting it down. We’d be ramming the aircraft. I would essentially be a kamikaze pilot.” WaPo with another reminder of just how crazy that day was: F-16 pilot was ready to give her life on Sept. 11.

+ Longreads has a excellent collection of archived stories about 9-11.

4. Let’s Go to the Videotape

The NFL says they didn’t see the Ray Rice tape. A report from the AP suggests that law enforcement sent the tape to their offices back April, and now a former FBI director will investigate. What did they see and when did they see it? That question is a red herring. It doesn’t matter. Why? Because we know that everyone had already seen the original video of Rice pulling his then-fiancee out of the elevator unconscious. His abuse of her has never been in question. Because we know that, we also know that his increased suspension was not a reaction to them seeing the second tape. It was a reaction to you seeing it.

+ “Pro football, I love you, but we can’t see each other anymore. And it’s definitely you, not me.” My indie syndication partner Jason Kottke: I’m quitting football.

5. Low Riders

As a kid, I was nicknamed Low Riders because I wore my pants low. It was less a fashion statement than a reaction to the place along the body shape continuum upon which I fell (what the experts would describe as a pear atop two toothpicks). But the level I wore my pants was high compared to the sag exhibited by some of today’s teens who seem satisfied if their belt rises above the calf. It’s a style that’s rooted in history, and one that has been attacked by parents and politicians for years. From NPR: Sagging Pants And The Long History Of Dangerous Street Fashion.

6. I’m the 22 Percent

“He logs into the internal project room where team members post discussions about what they’re doing. It’s buzzing with hundreds of updates from employees working from their homes in Europe, Asia, Australia, and the East Coast. Most of them only see each other once or twice a year. Mullenweg turns on some jazz and starts reading. There will be no formal meetings today, or on any day this month. And only rarely does anyone communicate using email … And that is how Mullenweg, creator of WordPress, founder of Automattic, and chairman of The WordPress Foundation, runs 22% of the Internet.” And hopefully he keeps running it. WordPress dot com is my sponsor and the tech that powers my blog and iOS app. When I go to the WordPress offices, there are usually only a couple of people there. So, with some help from FastCo, it’s worth learning How Matt’s Machine Works. (They didn’t ask me to post this. Amazingly, they never ask anything of me. But they support NextDraft and keep it coming to you gratis.)

7. Adulthood in the Age of Hoodies

In the NYT Magazine, A.O. Scott reflects on the death of adulthood in American culture: “What all of these shows grasp at, in one way or another, is that nobody knows how to be a grown-up anymore. Adulthood as we have known it has become conceptually untenable. It isn’t only that patriarchy in the strict, old-school Don Draper sense has fallen apart. It’s that it may never really have existed in the first place, at least in the way its avatars imagined. Which raises the question: Should we mourn the departed or dance on its grave?”

8. iWaterslide

“Waterslide designers compete in a parallel-universe version of The Right Stuff, vying for height and speed records because — this can be the only reason — it seems like a really awesome thing to do. Of these men, Jeff Henry is the most brilliant. He has the ability to make humans not only go down waterslides but up them, in the manner previously possible only on roller coasters. More than one of his employees compares him to Steve Jobs.” From Grantland’s Bryan Curtis: The Wet Stuff.

9. Bono Over the Edge

Like many others, Sasha Frere Jones didn’t approve of Apple shoehorning U2’s new and free album into our iTunes accounts: “U2 stuffed a locksmith card in your doorframe, which you’ve probably already tossed. In case you didn’t delete this modern-rock wet wipe, here is my track-by-track guide to Songs Of Innocence. (People are angry about a free album. The Internet is a tough room.)

10. The Bottom of the News

Which are the best and worst airlines? For that answer, you can just ask Twitter. (Few people know that Twitter was originally created to give people a platform to complain about United.)

+ Richard Kiel has died at the age of 74. You probably know him better as Jaws, the Bond villain with the teeth of steel.

+ Lionel Messi’s hometown bans parents from naming their children Messi. (Just name a few kids Ronaldo — they’ll lift the ban…)

+ 93 people. 30 billionaires. 13 millennials. Here’s look at the twentieth anniversary of Vanity Fair’s New Establishment (which, until it includes me, will remain in the bottom of the news section).

nextdraft

TIME Appreciation

Hero Starts a Petition to Get His Cat Into the High School Yearbook

Seems like a totally reasonable and attainable dream

Draven Rodriguez is just a normal high school kid in upstate New York hoping to make his dreams come true. In this case, those dreams involve getting the administration at Schenectady High School to agree to use the following photo as his senior portrait:

Vincent Giordano / Trinacria Photography

The school has said the photo can be included in the yearbook somewhere, but not as Rodriguez’s official senior portrait, a local CBS affiliate reports. So Rodriguez has started a petition as a “pre-emptive strike.” He hopes to gain enough backers so that the school simply can’t deny this request.

His goal was to reach 500 signatures by Sept. 15, and by the morning of Sep. 11, he’d already hit 721.

TIME Bizarre

Watch a Bat Interrupt a Live News Broadcast

An early Halloween surprise during this morning show

+ READ ARTICLE

A bat flew into the Good Morning Tennessee studio in Knoxville yesterday morning, causing the anchors to go a bit batty.

“Out of nowhere the bat comes about this far from my face,” anchor Tearsa Smith said on the website for ABC affiliate WATE. “It dive bombed us and you could literally hear me screaming because we’re on TV and I get that and it’s a newscast, but I was gone!”

Eventually, with the help of trained professionals, the bat was caught after several hours and will be released into a wooded area.

TIME autumn

16 Drinks That Would Be Better Than a Pumpkin Spice Latte

Pumpkin Spice Latte
Starbucks

It's time to walk back from the Peak Pumpkin ledge

There is a specter haunting America — the specter of the pumpkin spice latte, henceforth referred to as the PSL.

It’s like The Walking Dead up in here, but instead of zombies, every other person, bros and basics alike, is a Starbucks PSL drone. You can’t wear so much as a flannel scarf out of the house without fending off wild-eyed PSL lovers raving about the onset of autumn and the arrival of PSL season.

We used to call it football season, people. This used to be football season.

But lest you take comfort in the oddity of human nature — “oh what cute goofs we can be with our whims” and so forth — know this: the success of the PSL is no accident. It’s a covert campaign on the part of a multinational corporation to pervert your affinity for the holiday season into a manufactured desire for a (gross) beverage, and in so doing subvert the most American of all holidays, Thanksgiving. Yes, I’m talking about a secret army of un-American zombie drone PSL drinkers.

All this hysteria despite the fact that a Starbucks PSL tastes like neither pumpkin nor pumpkin pie (nor for that matter anything that could reasonably be called “pumpkin spice,” whatever that means) and have about as much to do with an actual pumpkin as a cat.

If a PSL doesn’t have to taste even remotely like an actual pumpkin then neither does my hypothetical and far more interesting Beet Spice Latte have to taste like a real beet. And if we’re going to have these abominable pumpkin impostors foisted upon us, I demand additional options. (Aside: pumpkin flavored beer walks a thin line but gets a pass because this is my list and I can make it how I want).

Here, via free association, are fall-inspired lattes I would rather have right now than a Starbucks pumpkin spice latte:

Brussels Sprout Spice Latte

Celery Root Spice Latte

Potato Spice Latte

Turnip Spice Latte

Horseradish Spice Cappuccino (feels a little aggressive without the foam)

Hay Spice Latte

Hayride Spice Latte (Hay, dirt, upset stomach bile)

Halloween Spice Latte (candy, fear)

Candy Corn Spice Latte (sugar, sugar, sugar)

Cavity Spice Latte (flouride, antiseptic, other unidentifiable dentist-related tastes)

Dental Insurance Spice Latte (paper)

Job Spice Latte (stale coffee, lunch at desk)

Toil Spice Latte (sweat)

Political Campaign Spice Latte (beer, fried everything, rubber chicken)

John Boehner Spice Latte (not going there)

Etc.

Do you see now where this road leads, pumpkin spice lovers? Nowhere good.

Now we can all call a truce and switch back to real pumpkins. Or better yet, try an apple. You don’t even need a scientist to manufacture apple “spice” this time. Apples are delicious on their own!

TIME Food & Drink

Burger King Japan Unveils Black Burger

Kuro Burger
Burger King's KURO Pearl Burger Burger King

The buns, cheese and ketchup are black

At Burger King Japan, black is the new orange.

For a limited time starting Sept. 19, the fast food chain’s Japanese stores will offer two Kuro Burgers (“Black Burgers”) that swap their orange-yellow buns and cheese for ones that are pitch black, according to a press release. The Kuro Pearl features solely the black buns, black cheese and a beef patty (which isn’t black), while the Kuro Diamond adds on familiar toppings, like lettuce, tomato and onions (which also aren’t black). Both variants have black ketchup, too.

But why are the burgers black in the first place? The buns, cheese and ketchup are made with squid ink and bamboo charcoal, according to Kotaku. The black buns and ketchup aren’t anything new—Burger King Japan had unveiled them in Sept. 2012—but the addition of black cheese, however, is a novelty.

 

TIME celebrity

Nick Offerman Has Some Very Helpful Advice for College Freshmen

The main takeaway: don't use your roommate's soap

+ READ ARTICLE

Parks and Rec star Nick Offerman stopped by The Tonight Show last night to offer some sage words of wisdom. First, he responded to a Tonight Show fan who wrote in requesting general advice about starting college. Because he’s Nick Offerman, things got real weird real fast.

The actor also offered some advice to fans who wrote in with other random questions, such as I’m running my first marathon in a month and don’t know what you wear. What do you think? and I’m thinking of leaving my teenage son on someone’s doorstep so they can finish raising him. Is this a good idea?

Don’t agree with his advice? Well, he’s Ron Swanson, and we all need to do as he says.

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