Author Archives: Carol Edwards

You have four hours max to visit a galaxy far, far away. 

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, the $1-billion Disneyland attraction set to open May 31, will employ Stormtroopers to enforce a strict time limit on visitors. The Los Angeles Times reports that the four-hour rule is only one part of the park’s efforts to avoid overcrowding and a situation that feels as claustrophobic as being stuck in an Imperial trash compactor with a wookiee. 

During the first three weeks after opening, guests will be required to make reservations and wear colored wristbands that designate their time slot. Once that four hours expires, the Galactic Empire forces will escort visitors out in a way likely more polite than normal Stormtrooper protocol.  Read more…

More about Star Wars Galaxy S Edge, Entertainment, and Star Wars

Game of Thrones Season 8 has had no shortage of twists, good and bad. (Okay, mostly bad.) But the biggest one, in my book? 

Bran Stark, he of Three-Eyed Raven nonsense, emerging as the most relatable character in all of Westeros. 

No, really.

Up through Season 7, I was, like so many others, a Bran hater. I sighed theatrically whenever his scenes came up, I yelled at the TV as yet another kind-hearted Northerner sacrificed themselves for him, I took pleasure in dunking on him relentlessly. 

Then the fuckery of Season 8 came along, and none of the characters or storylines made sense anymore. Is that really where the Night King storyline was going all along? How did Brienne become the weepy girlfriend type? When did Tyrion get so stupid? How did Jon Snow get even stupider? Read more…

More about Entertainment, Tv, Game Of Thrones, Game Of Thrones Season 8, and Entertainment

Elon Musk will soon find himself in court once again thanks to his tweets.

According to court documents filed on Friday, a judge is allowing the defamation lawsuit filed by British cave diver Vernon Unsworth against Musk to proceed to trial. Unsworth sued the Tesla CEO after Musk referred to the diver as a “pedo guy” in a tweet. 

Musk engaged in a public spat over the rescue of a Thai boys soccer team that was trapped in a cave last summer. Musk was upset that the professional cave diver knocked his plan to rescue the soccer team via a specialized submarine as “a PR stunt” that “had absolutely no chance of working.” Read more…

More about Twitter, Elon Musk, Trial, Defamation Lawsuit, and Thai Cave Rescue

A video of a couple having sex in a moving Tesla Model X has sent users scrambling to Pornhub in search of kinky, self-driving car porn.

According to Pornhub, searches for “Tesla” on the site started climbing at the beginning of May when the video began circulating. But then the searches spiked on May 9 and May 10 following some tweets from Musk on the video. 

Overall, Pornhub projects more than 3 million searches for “Tesla” between the video’s upload date on April 30th and the end of the day Friday, May 10.

The couple claims that the car was in Autopilot and driving down the road when the film was made.  Read more…

More about Tesla, Elon Musk, Pornhub, Culture, and Elon Musk

If you’re in the market for a new pair of headphones, you’ll likely be tempted to pick up a pair of the latest wireless earbuds à la Apple’s popular AirPods. After all, that’s the direction in which the tech world’s been gravitating lately.

Still, you’d be remiss to not consider a pair of on-ear headphones as an option. They tend to have longer battery lives than their bud counterparts and are comfier for everyday wear; plus, they’re far less easy to lose amid the subway tracks. (That’s a thing, apparently.) 

On the flip side, on-ear headphones tend to be way more expensive than earbuds — as in, *hundreds of dollars* more expensive.  Read more…

More about Headphones, Beats, Mashable Shopping, Tech, and Music

Pilots flying at high altitudes need extra oxygen, or they’ll start to lose vision — and eventually pass out.

Similarly, creatures dwelling in the oceans also require oxygen to see. Unfortunately for them, the seas are now gradually losing oxygen, a problematic marine event known as deoxygenation. Recognizing that this loss of oxygen could also cause blindness in sea organisms, scientists at the Scripps Institution for Oceanography tested how reduced oxygen levels impacted the vision of squid, octopus, and crab species. Their results, published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, showed that these organisms did indeed experience varying degrees of blindness, including near total blindness.  Read more…

More about Science, Global Warming, Climate Change, Oceans, and Oxygen

Imagine the IRS sitting on a vast database of unique voiceprints collected from millions of citizens.

That’s basically what happened in the U.K., but at least the country has an agency to fix the problem. The U.S. has no such safeguard — and one of its agencies has already started collecting face scans.

Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs office (HMRC) has been instructing customers to submit “voiceprints” since 2017, and it may not have received proper consent to do so. 

Now, the nation’s data protection enforcement agency, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has filed an official order that the HMRC must delete the Voice ID data of 7 million citizens. It has 28 days to comply with the May 9 order.  Read more…

More about Facial Recognition, Gdpr, Voiceprint, Biometric Data, and Tech

“Let second grade begin.”

The “unhinged” (not our words!) moms of Monterey are back for Big Little Lies Season 2, to deal with the fallout of a murder and – more importantly – relentless gossip.

Big Little Lies continues the story that concluded in Liane Moriarty’s 2014 novel. Madeline, (Reese Witherspoon), Renata (Laura Dern), Celeste (Nicole Kidman), Bonnie (Zoë Kravitz), and Jane (Shailene Woodley) share the treacherous truth of Perry’s (Alexander Skarsgård) death, but they can’t risk any semblance of peaceful life. 

Gossip they can deal with – Madeline delivers some delicious sass by sardonically unwrapping a cupcake. But that’s nothing compared to the arrival of Perry’s mother, played by Meryl Streep in a role so obviously set up for an Emmy that you have to respect it. Read more…

More about Entertainment, Television, Hbo, Reese Witherspoon, and Meryl Streep

Whether you’re an illustrator, designer, or just getting started; there’s plenty of tablet options for digital art-making. Mashable illustrators Bob Al-Greene and Vicky Leta give us the rundown on 3 different tablets and compare features to help you figure out which is best for you. Read more…

More about Art, Mashable Video, Ipad Pro, Wacom, and Wacom Tablet

“Avengers: Endgame” directors Joe and Anthony Russo say Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige will be unveiling the mystery character. Read more…

More about Mashable Video, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Avengers Endgame, and Entertainment