Zeros

The Red Card Heard Round the White House On Sunday, FIFA did something it had not done at a World Cup since 1962: it rescinded a red card . Folarin Balogun , the American forward who'd been sent off for a foul on Bosnia and Herzegovina's Tarik Muharemović , was staring down a one-game suspension that would've cost the U.S. its best scorer against Belgium . Then the phone rang in Gianni Infantino's office, and the caller ID read President of the United States . Hours later, FIFA's disciplinary committee announced the suspension was, "suspended for a probationary period of one year." Balogun played. Belgium called it an insult. Their coach compared FIFA's timing to April Fools' Day , four months late. Let's be clear about what actually happened, because the mechanism matters more than the outrage . A red card triggers an automatic ban — that's the rule , no discretion involved . What FIFA invoked instead was Article 27 of i...

The latest development in the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie has added another strange chapter to an already heartbreaking case. A California man has now pleaded guilty to sending fake ransom communications to Guthrie's family after initially denying any involvement. His last-minute plea agreement closes one legal case , but it leaves behind a much larger mystery—who sent the other ransom messages, and were any of them connected to the actual disappearance? For digital currency hobbyists, one detail stands out immediately: Bitcoin was placed at the center of the story. According to federal prosecutors, Derrick Callella admitted to contacting members of the Guthrie family to inquire about a Bitcoin transfer. Investigators said he already knew that an earlier ransom demand had been made , and used that knowledge to harass the family while trying to learn more about the investigation. Authorities traced the messages back to him, leading to his guilty plea. What makes t...

Ruined. Completely, Irreparably Ruined. Let us observe a moment of silence, gentle reader , for the woman formerly known as pop music's last great mystery. As of Friday night at Madison Square Garden — under Adam Sandler's officiating hand, as though the universe required one final absurdist flourish — Taylor Alison Swift became Mrs. Kelce , and with that single vow, by all reasonable accounts, torched the entire architecture of her existence to the ground! Consider what she has thrown away. The mystique! The mythology! An entire cottage industry of Easter-egg theorists, bracelet-code cryptographers, and Wembley-adjacent conspiracy boards — gone , replaced overnight by the crushing banality of a marriage certificate. She could have kept us guessing forever!  Instead she chose certainty, that most unforgivable of celebrity sins. She had the whole world convinced she was unknowable, and then she went and let everyone watch her do the electric slide at her own rece...

The Billion-Dollar Side Hustle A 927-page disclosure form, one very generous royalty arrangement, and the quiet dread of doing the math . So here's a number to consider: $1.4 billion . That's roughly what landed in Donald Trump's pocket from digital-currency ventures in 2025 alone, according to the annual financial disclosure his own ethics office released this week . For comparison, Joe Biden's final disclosure ran eleven pages. Trump's ran 927. I don't know what to do with that information except to state it repeatedly. The bulk of it traces back to two places. First, the meme token launched three days before his inauguration, spiked to over $74 within a day, and now trades around $1.67 — a fact that should haunt everyone who bought at the top. Trump himself doesn't profit from that price collapse; he profits from royalties on every sale, regardless of whether the buyer wins or loses . That royalty stream alone brought in over $635 million ...

Two Guests Check Out of Level 0: What the Empire State Building Climb Looked Like From the Backrooms A Russian rooftopping couple scaled New York's most famous spire, got engaged, and got arrested — and somewhere behind the wallpaper, a very different broadcast was airing. Somewhere between the yellowed carpet and the buzzing fluorescent hum of Level 0, two figures noclipped straight into the biggest engagement stunt of the summer, and they had no idea the rest of us were watching through the seams in the wallpaper. Around noon Wednesday, Ivan Vanya Beerkus and Angela Nikolau, the Russian rooftopping duo behind Netflix's Skywalkers: A Love Story , free-climbed the antenna atop the Empire State Building — 1,454 feet up, no ropes, no harness, just vibes and, apparently, a ring. They unfurled a black-and-white banner referencing Jimi Hendrix , held the moment for the cameras, and Beerkus got down on one knee. Nikolau said, yes . The NYPD said, several felonies ....

Getting paid in digital currency and gambling with it are becoming more closely linked than many people realize. So , what are your thoughts on it? I'm really interested to hear how you feel about this. Are you comfortable earning part of your income in Bitcoin or another digital asset? Are you willing to risk some of it on a sporting event? Or does that combination make you uneasy? Many people already earn digital currency online without thinking twice. Shortened links are one of the most common examples. Link-shortening services often pay publishers in Bitcoin , Litecoin , Dogecoin , or other digital assets instead of traditional U.S. dollars . Faucets , online rewards programs, and some freelance opportunities do the same. For thousands of people , collecting digital currency has become part of an everyday routine. But here's where it gets interesting. If someone offers to pay you in Bitcoin instead of fiat U.S. dollars, would you take it? Sometimes the paym...