Author Archives: Carol Edwards

Lady Gaga took her Hollywood golden age persona to a new level Thursday when she surprised a crowd at a Hollywood music venue to perform some jazzy standards.

Gaga appeared at the Black Rabbit Rose venue Thursday night where — get ready — LimpBizkit frontman Fred Durst organizes a weekly live jazz night. (Who knew?!?)

Gaga floated onto the stage wearing a ’50s-style halter dress, a large fur-looking stole, a beehive-esque bun, and some wicked cat eye. After greeting the band members with cheek kisses, she took the microphone and said “I’m here to ruin the party.” The crowed whooped. Read more…

More about Lady Gaga, Jazz, Frank Sinatra, Fred Durst, and Entertainment

The greenest day of the year will always be St. Patrick’s Day.

Cities around the world celebrated the Irish holiday on Sunday by turning their most famous landmarks green. It’s amazing what a quick dye job can do to your standard government building.

St. Patrick’s Day commemorates St. Patrick and the first appearance of Christianity in Ireland. While there’s so much more to the holiday than the color green, it’s the color that’s become synonymous with the celebration as well as with Irish culture.

Over the weekend, Ireland’s official tourism account celebrated the holiday with photos of green-dyed or illuminated landmarks from around the world. Read more…

More about Culture, Green, St Patricks Day, Culture, and Other

We already knew that Facebook moved quickly on Thursday to stop videos of the New Zealand mass shooting from spreading, but now we have some actual numbers.

In a public statement and identical series of tweets dispensed by Facebook Newsroom, the company confirms that 1.5 million videos were removed in the first 24 hours following the terror attack on two New Zealand mosques that left 50 dead and 50 injured as of Sunday. Of those, 1.2 million were stopped before they were even uploaded.

The news and accompanying statement comes from Facebook exec Mia Garlick:

More about Tech, Facebook, New Zealand, Social Media Companies, and Tech

Qualcomm has won a victory against Apple in a sideshow to the main legal struggle between between the two tech giants.

A San Diego jury has found that Apple infringed three Qualcomm patents regarding iPhone startup and battery life, according to Reuters. The jury has ordered that Apple pay $1.41 per iPhone with patent infringement, which comes to about $31 million.

Apple and Qualcomm are engaged in an ongoing legal battle regarding Qualcomm’s policy of charging intellectual property licensing fees on top of the actual prices for its smartphone chips. Apple has brought a lawsuit against Qualcomm for $1 billion alleging that Qualcomm is charging for IP that it has no right to — that case goes to court in April.  Read more…

More about Apple, Lawsuits, Qualcomm, Tech, and Iphone

Poor Dumbledore. The world’s most powerful gay wizard still can’t find love on screen.

In a feature for the DVD and Blu-ray versions of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald released on March 12, author J.K. Rowling revealed that Dumbledore had an “incredibly intense” “love” relationship with Grindelwald, adding that she believes that “there is a sexual dimension to this relationship.”

Of course, there were no scenes in the film that even  nodded to this dynamic.

Here’s how the author described their relationship in the interview: Read more…

More about Entertainment, Film, Lgbtq, Jk Rowling, and Fantastic Beasts The Crimes Of Grindelwald

Did Pet Sematary really need a remake? Does the answer to that question even matter?

The 2019 remake directed by Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer is real, and it’s ready for its April 5 release. Critics and fans attending South By Southwest got an early look at the horrors to come on Saturday night, and the first reactions are now coming in.

It’s looking good, King fans! There’s only a handful of published reviews to draw from at this point, but they’re mostly positive, heaping praise on the writing and direction, the performances, and — notably — the smart tweaks that were made to one of King’s most popular and widely known stories. Read more…

More about Entertainment, Film, Stephen King, Pet Sematary, and Sxsw 2019

Mark Hamill you rascal.

The Luke Skywalker actor had a good laugh at everyone’s expense on Saturday when he tweeted a look at his very own trailer for Star Wars Episode IX.  His very literal trailer that he hung out in when he wasn’t on set. 

(I’m not even sure this is the Episode IX trailer he used, not that it matters.) Read more…

More about Entertainment, Film, Star Wars, Mark Hamill, and Entertainment

Nothing gold can stay. 

A bunch of humorless and fun-hating jerks are trying to ruin the famous Hillsborough, Calif., Flintstones-style house by getting it declared a public nuisance. So reports the East Bay Times, which notes that it’s the latest additions to the home that have Hillsborough planning and building officials peeved.

And what might those additions be? Why, freaking dinosaurs, of course. 

More about Homes, Flintstones, Culture, and Other

Having tasted the viral birth highs of 2017, it was only a matter of time before April the giraffe came back to YouTube for another sweet hit of the good stuff. 

That’s right, everyone’s favorite cam star is back at it again. According to the Animal Adventure Park in Harpursville, New York, April gave birth to a healthy male calf at 12:43 p.m. ET on March 16. 

A Facebook post announcing the birth neglected to mention that we are all born into suffering. 

“Approximately 11:00 am, Jordan entered the barn to check April, who laid with her back end just out of camera view on both camera angles,” reads the post. “Upon Jordan’s entry to the barn, April stood up and revealed that she had in fact been in labor and the calf’s hooves and first 8-10” of leg were emerging!” Read more…

More about Youtube, April The Giraffe, Culture, and Animals

Eighty-four percent of the time, it works every time. 

A study involving more than 400,000 participants and their Apple Watches indicated that the smart device may provide some form of early warning for those experiencing the heart rate irregularity known as atrial fibrillation. So reports Reuters, which notes that the research was funded by Apple. 

The study, done in collaboration with Stanford Medicine, required people to wear an Apple Watch and made use of the watch’s irregular rhythm notification feature. It found that around 84 percent of the people notified of an irregular heart rate by the watch were actually confirmed “to be in atrial fibrillation at the time of the notification.” Read more…

More about Apple, Apple Watch, Tech, Consumer Tech, and Big Tech Companies