Author Archives: Carol Edwards

Call it the Christmas Spirit: 2018 Edition.

Writer Candice Marie Benbow chose to handle what could have been a sticky situation with a neighbor with kindness, and, also, cake.

On Dec. 15, Benbow shared an unusual (and hilarious) letter she wrote to her downstairs neighbor on Twitter. The neighbor had an unfortunate habit of blasting music at 3:00 a.m. This was something Benbow had somewhat resigned herself to: “to be fair, you’ve helped me catch a vibe.”

But soon, the neighbor took it too far. Or, in Benbow’s words, “But last night… fam, you tried it. You really, really did.” Read more…

More about Holidays, Cake, Ava Duvernay, Kindness, and Culture

In 2011, Louis CK, Ricky Gervais, and Chris Rock all sat together in a room and tossed around the N-word while a visibly uncomfortable Jerry Seinfeld watched.

It was a moment from HBO’s unscripted comedy special, Talking Funny, in which the four comics sat together and pondered their work in stand-up. It’s not a new video. But it’s newly resurfaced, and its rediscovered existence has raised quite a ruckus.

On the one hand, you have two white men dropping the N-word repeatedly as they discuss the word’s use, or lack thereof, in their work. And on the other, you have Rock sitting right there, laughing along with and encouraging the tangential exploration of a horrible slur’s comedic value while two of the white men sitting beside him say it again and again. Read more…

More about Entertainment, Chris Rock, Louis Ck, Ricky Gervais, and Jerry Seinfeld

SpaceX just ended 2018 with a bang. 

Elon Musk’s private spaceflight company performed its 21st launch of the year on Sunday, Dec. 23, lofting a GPS satellite to orbit for the U.S. Air Force. 

The company didn’t bring its Falcon 9 rocket booster back in for a landing due to the Air Force’s mission requirements. Instead, this brand new rocket was used the old fashioned way and discarded after it performed its duties admirably. 

The Sunday launch comes at the end of a full week of scrapped attempts, most of which were the result of unfavorable wind and weather conditions. Read more…

More about Space, Science, Spacex, Science, and Space

A high school wrestler from New Jersey, facing the threat of a forfeit, had his dreadlocks cut at a wrestling meet on Wednesday, sparking outrage across the internet against the white referee that gave him the ultimatum.

A video of 120-pound Beuna Regional High School wrestler Andrew Johnson getting his hair cut was posted to Twitter by SNJ Today News sports director Mike Frankel. Johnson can be seen being consoled by his teammates and appears visibly upset after his overtime victory over his opponent.

More about Wrestling, Culture, Discrimination, and Sports

Is Bethesda Softworks just getting into the holiday spirit here, or is this an unspoken “make good” apology after Fallout 76‘s borked launch?

No one can say! And frankly, it doesn’t matter. Bethesda has a special holiday offer in place for anyone who’s played Fallout 76, which takes the popular apocalypse-centered role-playing game and turns it into an online game. 

The offer is for more Fallout, and — importantly — free Fallout. Here’s the deal, straight from the publisher’s Twitter account:

More about Entertainment, Gaming, Fallout, Fallout 76, and Entertainment

Apple has already confirmed that it’s fine if some newer iPad Pros don’t lie completely flat, but now there’s an actual numeric measurement for acceptable iPad bendiness.

Apple’s Dan Riccio, VP of hardware engineering at the company, confirmed the detail in an email. Riccio sent the note as a response to a customer who had written to Apple CEO Tim Cook with concerns about the company’s suggestion that warped iPads aren’t actually the product of a manufacturing defect.

It’s a situation that’s been brewing since a November video that went viral purported to show how easily Apple’s latest iPad Pro could be bent. (Mashable’s own review found that it would take more than a “moderate” amount of pressure to produce the result seen in that video.) Read more…

More about Tech, Apple, Ipad Pro, Tech, and Big Tech Companies

Spoiler alert: this post contains some spoilers for the movie Bird Box.

Netflix’s new horror movie Bird Box has been receiving some decent critical reception since its release on Friday, but despite some of its faults, viewers can’t stop talking about the movie.

Specifically, people are enamored with the monster of Bird Box, if you can even call it a monster.

While many horror movies explain what it is that’s haunting the protagonists, Bird Box keeps its threat pretty mysterious all the way through the end of the movie. There are some ideas presented as to what exactly is happening on Earth, but it’s never made completely clear. Read more…

More about Movies, Netflix, Horror Movies, Bird Box, and Entertainment

Uranus has always been a bit of an oddball in our solar system and a new simulation presented by a group of researchers might explain why.

Uranus, the seventh planet from the sun, is a peculiar ice giant that is tilted at a 98-degree angle — while every other planet spins on a vertical axis in relation to its orbit, Uranus spins on a horizontal axisResearchers suggest that this may have been caused by a massive collision.

Jacob Kegerreis, a PhD researcher at Durham University, presented the analysis that a huge rock, possibly the size of a small planet, collided with Uranus, causing it to tilt dramatically, affecting its spin, its magnetic field, and even its heat distribution. Read more…

More about Uranus, Science, and Space

Aquaman commands more than just the denizens of Earth’s oceans. He’s also got a vise-like hold on the box office, at least outside the United States.

The latest entry in the DC Extended Universe opened in U.S. theaters on Friday with an impressive $332.1 million already banked. That’s after almost three weeks in theaters in a number of overseas markets — including the historically Hollywood-friendly China.

That’s where Aquaman has made the biggest splash so far. As of Dec. 16, the movie’s Chinese box office total had reached $189 million, according to Box Office Mojo. For comparison: that’s already more than Justice League, the 2017 tentpole DCEU release from Warner Bros., managed to pick up in China during its entire theatrical run there ($106.1 million). Read more…

More about Entertainment, Film, Box Office, Aquaman, and Entertainment

This is One Good Thing, a weekly column where we tell you about one of the few nice things that happened this week.

Good news everyone, real love does exist. 

This compilation of a little girl greeting her sister after school will probably make you cry because it’s that freaking precious. 

Every time Shenica Bernal picked up her younger sister, the adorable elementary schooler welcomed her by shouting “ate!” — Tagalog for older sister — and running straight to her with a hug. Please enjoy an impossibly wholesome 50 seconds of it:

More about Twitter, Viral Videos, One Good Thing, Culture, and Web Culture