Author Archives: Carol Edwards

After a fierce Sunday of back-to-back playoff games between the final four, the NFL has its Super Bowl LIII competitors — and Saints fans are furious.

They’re channelling their frustration through Bird Box memes. 

In the final moments of a sudden death overtime period, the Los Angeles Rams defeated the New Orleans Saints 26-23, an upset many Saints fans blame on a controversial non-call from the fourth quarter. Rams defender Nickell Robey-Coleman has admitted to the alleged pass interference on Saints receiver Tommylee Lewis that effectively stopped what looked like a game winning drive by the Saints and led to overtime — where the Rams won on a long field goal.  Read more…

More about Memes, Netflix, Nfl, Los Angeles Rams, and New Orleans Saints

Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ tweet honoring Martin Luther King Jr. is not going over well. 

In a tweet, the White House press secretary wrote that King “gave his life” for the civil rights movement, and that “our country is better thanks to his inspiration and sacrifice.” 

Here’s the thing: King didn’t give his life. He was assassinated four years after he was blackmailed by the FBI; his family still believes his death was a government-orchestrated conspiracy to silence the civil rights movement.  Read more…

More about Trump, Mlk Day, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Culture, and Web Culture

In the wise words of Yello, “Oooh yeah. The moon is beautiful.” 

Western hemisphere skywatchers enjoyed front row seats to a stunning celestial treat Sunday night as the only total lunar eclipse of 2019 arrived in its full glory. An eclipse of similar caliber is not due again until 2022. 

“Visible for its entirety in North and South America, this eclipse is being referred to by some as a super blood moon,” explains Lyle Tavernier, educational technology specialist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “‘Super’ because the moon will be closest to Earth in its orbit during the full moon … and ‘blood’ because the total lunar eclipse will turn the Moon a reddish hue.” Read more…

More about Space, Science, Moon, Lunar Eclipse, and Science

A brand new teaser for The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part dropped on Sunday, featuring the debut of a character based on Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Although the pioneering Supreme Court Justice didn’t voice the character, USA Today reports she agreed to the use of her likeness — she’ll even reportedly be released as an official Lego figurine for the film’s release.

“These movies are so full of surprises. And we were thinking, ‘Who’s the last person you would think to see in a Lego film as a minifig?’ Ruth Bader Ginsburg!” director Mike Mitchell told the publisher. “And we’re all huge fans. It made us laugh to think of having her enter this world.” Read more…

More about Trailers, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, The Lego Movie, The Lego Movie 2 The Second Part, and Entertainment

Your electric scooter could one day be autonomous. 

Uber is working on self-driving scooters and bikes, according to 3DRobotics CEO Chris Anderson. The company announced plans to explore electric scooters and bikes that can drive themselves to charging stations and riders. 

In a tweet on Saturday, Anderson revealed that the ride-hailing app is hiring engineers for “Micromobility Robotics” — a division under JUMP, Uber’s on-demand rideshare for bikes and scooters. Its main group, Uber Advance Technologies Group, will continue its work on self-driving cars.

More about Uber, Self Driving, Electric Scooter, Tech, and Silicon Valley

Entertainment’s most dishonorable honors are back and this time their public shaming is focused on the White House.

Mocking the worst of the worst in last year’s cinema, the 39th Annual Razzie Awards announced their nominees today with President Donald J. Trump notably front and center. Nominated for his “roles” in documentaries Fahrenheit 11/9 and Death of a Nation, Trump is in the running for 2018’s Worst Actor as well as half of 2018’s Worst Screen Combo. (The other half? “His Self Perpetuating Pettiness.”)

Also appearing in Fahrenheit 11/9, First Lady Melania Trump and Counselor for the White House Kellyanne Conway are going head-to-head for Worst Supporting Actress. Read more…

More about Entertainment, Johnny Depp, Melania Trump, Donald J. Trump, and Razzies

PSA: Ruth Bader Ginsburg is alive and well, thank you very much. 

The Fox & Friends co-hosts apologized after a graphic aired on the show appeared to announce her death. Before Ainsley Earhardt’s interview with a college professor about diverse viewpoints on Monday, the segment showed a photo of Ginsburg with “1933-2019” accompanying it.

“A technical error in the control room triggered a graphic of Ruth Bader Ginsburg with a date on it,” co-host Steve Doocy said in a later segment. “We don’t want to make it seem like anything other than that was a mistake, that was an accident. We believe she is still at home recovering from surgery. Big mistake in the control room.”  Read more…

More about Fox News, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Mistake, Culture, and Web Culture

We’ve already spoken about Data Privacy Day, and we are probably going to continue talking about it all week, because the date has sparked a massive influx of fantastic VPN deals. 

Data Privacy Day falls on Jan. 28, and to bring attention to the signature event in a greater privacy awareness effort, StrongVPN has cut the price of its annual plan by an extra 25%. This means the total saving on list price is now a massive 56%. You can secure StrongVPN for 12 months for just £3.40 a month in this promotion, available until midnight on Jan. 28.

You’ll be billed in one lump, paying just over £40 for the whole year. That’s an extra discount of around £15 over the course of the plan. This deal is only available to new customers and comes with a generous 30-day money-back guarantee, so you don’t have to feel like you are taking a gamble with StrongVPN.  Read more…

More about Vpn, Data Privacy, Data Protection, Cyber Security, and Mashable Shopping

For Clarence Jones, legal adviser to Martin Luther King Jr. and author of What would Martin Say?, hearing the civil rights leader speak was otherworldly. 

“I never heard anybody speak like that before. It was spellbinding. It was mesmerizing,” Jones says in a video reflecting on his friend’s legacy and the lessons of the non-violent movement. 

The video, produced by The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands in partnership with the Gandhi King Institute for Nonviolence and Social Justice (which Jones founded), features several of King’s contemporaries.

And they all came to the same conclusions: King transformed their feelings into empowering words and convinced them to make sacrifices, even put their lives on the line. Read more…

More about Martin Luther King Jr., Social Good, and Activism

It’s not every day a member of Congress drops by a Twitch session.

Streamers of a session of Donkey Kong 64 on Sunday were treated to a cameo from newly elected Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

YouTube star Hbomberguy, a.k.a. Harry Brewis, is streaming a Twitch marathon of the classic 1999 Donkey Kong adventure platformer released by Rare for Nintendo 64, which he’d never finished as a kid (preach).

Brewis explained in a video announcement he intended to play the game start to finish, streaming from January 18 to raise money for Mermaids, a charity providing resources and support for transgender children and young people.  Read more…

More about Nintendo, Twitch, Donkey Kong, Twitch Streaming, and Nintendo 64