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Congress might allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

In parts of the United Kingdom Monday morning, people woke up to a blood-red sun — a phenomenon seen around the globe this year.

The color was caused by smoke that blew in from wildfires across Portugal and Spain. Hurricane Ophelia deepened the reddish hue by dragging up dust from the Sahara.

Red skies have haunted the western U.S. recently as wildfires burned in Montana and ash rained down in Seattle. This month in Northern California, 20,000 people evacuated from massive wildfires under a red-orange sky.

Anadolu Agency / Contributor / Getty Images

On the other side of the world, wildfires burned in Siberia all summer long, covering the sun with enormous clouds of smoke and ash.

REUTERS/Ilya Naymushin

To understand why this happens, you need to know a bit of optics. Sun rays contain light from the whole visible spectrum. As the sun’s white light beams into the atmosphere, it collides with molecules that diffuse some of the wavelengths. On a normal day, short wavelength colors, like purple and blue, are filtered out, making the sun look yellow.

But high concentrations of light-scattering molecules in the air (like smoke particles from a wildfire) crowd out more of those short-wavelength colors, leaving behind that hellish red color.

Since climate change makes wildfires worse, we’ll be seeing a lot more of it.

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Congress might allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

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A Senator Just Asked Trump’s Supreme Court Nominee A Question That Is Going To Make The Internet Explode

Mother Jones

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Jeff Flake’s son is about to be the most popular person on reddit.

Would you rather fight 1 horse-sized duck or 100 duck-sized horses? This is a famous internet question. Hard to answer! Who knows! Large duck would be quite hard to fight! But also 100 mini horses would not be a walk in the park either. In reality, man is a delicate thing. Our flesh is soft. If it weren’t for our opposable thumbs we’d have been eaten by venus flytraps long ago. What I’m saying is, no matter which answer you choose, you’re going to lose that fight, my friend. Real question is how do you want to die? Both sound bad! Being eaten by a horse-sized duck seems awful, but being attacked and devoured by little duck-sized velociraptors horses? Well, that doesn’t seem like the way I want to go out.

Anyway, I don’t know the answer. Stupid question. Stupid internet. But it is a famous question! Obama said he’d fight the horse-sized duck.

Sen. Flake asked Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch the question on behalf of his son (who must be dying right now).

Watch:

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A Senator Just Asked Trump’s Supreme Court Nominee A Question That Is Going To Make The Internet Explode

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I Have Thoughts About the Oscars

Mother Jones

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The Oscars! They are tonight! I went to them once and my dad lost to Nicolas Cage and then took us to McDonald’s and I had 20 McNuggets and many hot mustard sauces. (But like dad already had an Oscar so like it was totes political; Dad totally should have won).

Anyway! I’m going to watch the Oscars and put some thoughts about them in this here post. The kids, they used to call this live blogging, but Twitter sort is a running live blog and it kind of killed that whole thing, so instead of doing proper live blog time stamp stuff I’m just going to continually update this article and we’ll see where it goes! Maybe tomorrow morning this will just be a Reuters post I copy and pasted in.

Buckle up, friends! This baby is about to get cooking. (Don’t cook your baby. Unless it’s not a human baby and you are referring to a Boar’s Cut piece of meat as ‘baby’)

• This Jimmy Kimmel monologue is either a) not great and totally forgettable, or b) i have not been paying enough attention because I was making that art of me in the grass with Julie Andrews and the Oscar statue.

• The first Oscar is Best Supporting Actor and it goes to Mahershala Ali from Moonlight! He’s apparently the first Muslim actor to ever win an Oscar, which is nuts. That’s insane. That it took this long for Hollywood to give a performer of the second largest religion in the world its highest recognition is insane.

Suicide Squad, an unwatchable film, just won some technical Oscar. Think about that. Suicide Squad is an Academy Award winning film and Donald Trump is president. God is dead.

• You know what was really great this year but wasn’t nominated for an Oscar because it is actually not a movie at all and thus not eligible? The Amazon Original television show Mozart In The Jungle! It’s better than like 90% of this crap. Do you like it? They’re so cute together, the weird conductor and the weird oboist! I hope they fall in love. I mean they are in love but I hope they admit it to themselves, get together, and stay together. Relationships are hard, but when when you put in the effort they can be really rewarding. Anyway, it’s not a film so it wasn’t eligible tonight.

OJ: Made In America won best documentary! I haven’t seen all the other nominees but I have seen that and it was great. It was a great companion piece to the similarly great The People Vs OJ Simpson. My colleague Edwin Rios actually wrote a great thing about how OJ: Made In America is great.

• Mel Gibson is nominated for Best Director tonight. A story:

• LOL at this prophetic Trump tweet

• Viola Davis won! And she gave a really sweet speech.

• The film The Salesman from Iran just won best Best Foreign-Language Film. The film’s director Asghar Farhadi announced a few weeks ago that he was going to boycott the ceremony because of Donald Trump’s stupid fucking Muslim ban. A statement was read in his absence.

• The dude from Mozart in the Jungle just appeared at the Oscars to present some animation award! Is he reading this post? If you are reading this, star of Mozart In The Jungle, please know that I am a big fan and would love to hangout sometime. Do you go to SoulCycle? I love SoulCycle. Let’s go to SoulCycle!

• The guy from Mozart In The Jungle came back to present some second animation award but first gave a really eloquent little speech about how Trump’s wall is dumb and evil. Sir, sir, sir, I love you. I want to be your best friend. I should probably learn your name.

• I’m tired. I have to be up early tomorrow to interview someone :(. I might just stop watching this. But I also might not stop. You know what they say, “life isn’t a song you’re playing, it’s a song you’re writing.” No one knows what the next brick on your path is even though you’re the one who lays the bricks, you dig? I dig. And I might keep updating this…or i might not.

• I personally don’t really care for Seth Rogen’s films but he seems nice?

• Michael J Fox just said he wanted to point out how much “we all owe to editors.” Indeed. This rambling ramble could probably use one.

• Some British dude won some Oscar. Finally, the British have arrived.

• Oh the British dude who won was the editor of Abortion, I mean Arrival. Arrival was about abortion.

• Hahaha the We Bought A Zoo thing was great.

• The cat who directed La La Land just won Best Director. It could have gone to the dude who did Moonlight. I don’t know who should have won and believe “should have” is a question for the poets, but I really liked La La Land and I say that as a person who went to theater camp and, i don’t mean to brag, had their first sexual relations backstage at a musical.

• Emma Stone won Best Actress! I don’t personally care if she was better than whoever, but she seems like such a sweet person. I really think that she at least appears to be maybe the most lovable Hollywood celebrity. I hope and believe that she probably is. Anyway, my main point is: congrats for this actress who seems objectively wonderful.

•HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT Warren Beatty just gave Best Picture to La La Land but then they came out to say he fucked it up and it was actually Moonlight!!

This was just so nuts

A post shared by Ben Dreyfuss (@bendreyfuss) on Feb 26, 2017 at 9:34pm PST

• i’m going to bed, but the real winner tonight was Marisa Tomei.

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I Have Thoughts About the Oscars

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JK Rowling Just Trolled Piers Morgan So Good

Mother Jones

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Valentine’s Day: A Play in 3 Acts.

Act 1:

Act 2:

Act 3:

(curtain)

(via Jamie Ross)

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JK Rowling Just Trolled Piers Morgan So Good

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Donald Trump Just Attacked Another Judge

Mother Jones

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Good morning.

Last night, a federal judge in Seattle issued a sweeping stay against Donald Trump’s “Muslim Ban.” Soon after, US Customs informed airlines that they could go back to doing things the old way and the State Department announced that it was halting all attempts to implement the immigration executive order.

Seeing all of this, this morning Donald Trump woke up and decided to launch an attack on the judge.

This isn’t the first time he’s attacked a federal judge, and it probably won’t be the last.

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Donald Trump Just Attacked Another Judge

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One of the Largest Magazines in Europe Just Sent Donald Trump One Helluva Statement

Mother Jones

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Haha this cover is amazing.

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One of the Largest Magazines in Europe Just Sent Donald Trump One Helluva Statement

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They Thought They Were Just Recording A Message For Michelle Obama. Then She Surprised Them Herself.

Mother Jones

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This is so cute. I don’t know if I am going through some stuff and this isn’t really about this or whatever, but this Jimmy Fallon segment made me really emotional.

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They Thought They Were Just Recording A Message For Michelle Obama. Then She Surprised Them Herself.

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Donald Trump’s Pick To Head The EPA Is "An Existential Threat To The Planet"

Mother Jones

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Donald Trump’s transition team has announced that the next head of the EPA will be Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt. This is very bad news!

As my colleague Jeremy Shulman noted earlier this year, Pruitt has some very dumb views about climate change.:

Views on climate change: “The EPA does not possess the authority under the Clean Air Act to accomplish what it proposes in the unlawful Clean Power Plan. The EPA is ignoring the authority granted by Congress to states to regulate power plant emissions at their source. The Clean Power Plan is an unlawful attempt to expand federal bureaucrats’ authority over states’ energy economies in order to shutter coal-fired power plants and eventually other sources of fossil-fuel generated electricity.” Pruitt press release, 7/1/15

Writing in National Review year, Pruitt blathered:

Scientists continue to disagree about the degree and extent of global warming and its connection to the actions of mankind. That debate should be encouraged — in classrooms, public forums, and the halls of Congress.

Think Progress has many more reasons why Pruitt at the EPA is a disaster.

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Donald Trump’s Pick To Head The EPA Is "An Existential Threat To The Planet"

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Last Night, Mitt Romney Hiked Up A Very High Mountain

Mother Jones

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“Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; and he said to him, ‘All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.'” —Matthew 4:8

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Last Night, Mitt Romney Hiked Up A Very High Mountain

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Ari Emanuel Just Met With Donald Trump. Here’s What He Said About Mel Gibson In 2006.

Mother Jones

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Ari Emanuel, July 30, 2006:

At a time of escalating tensions in the world, the entertainment industry cannot idly stand by and allow Mel Gibson to get away with such tragically inflammatory statements…

People in the entertainment community, whether Jew or gentile, need to demonstrate that they understand how much is at stake in this by professionally shunning Mel Gibson and refusing to work with him, even if it means a sacrifice to their bottom line.

There are times in history when standing up against bigotry and racism is more important than money.

Ari Emanuel, November 20, 2016:

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Ari Emanuel Just Met With Donald Trump. Here’s What He Said About Mel Gibson In 2006.

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