Author Archives: Carol Edwards

Your Uber driver is not your friend. In fact, they may very well be narcing on you right now — and you could get banned from the ride-hail app as a result.

The company’s Community Guidelines strictly prohibit “bringing open containers of alcohol or drugs into the car,” and that apparently includes weed. Marijuana, of course, is recreationally legal in nine states and the District of Columbia, but that doesn’t mean Uber is cool with it. 

One rider found that out the hard way after he got a notification from the company threatening “permanent account deactivation.” The offense? Allegedly bringing some drugs into the vehicle. Read more…

More about Uber, Marijuana, Weed, Ride Hailing Apps, and Tech

A planet and its moon are getting chatty in deep space. 

A new video from NASA shows off the complicated interactions between plasma waves moving from Saturn to its moon Enceladus and back. 

The new video, produced by converting plasma wave data into sound waves, shows that the plasma actually moves along magnetic field lines, like energy moving between the two bodies, NASA said.

“Enceladus is this little generator going around Saturn, and we know it is a continuous source of energy,” planetary scientist Ali Sulaiman said in a NASA statement.  Read more…

More about Space, Nasa, Science, Saturn, and Planets

When you think of Snapchat, you probably think of faceswaps and dancing hot dogs. But you might soon have a new reason to think of the messaging app: Shopping. 

Code unearthed by a developer strongly suggests that Snapchat is readying a new feature that will let users shop on Amazon by pointing their camera at objects around them.

The feature, which was first reported by TechCrunch, is called “Camera Search” in the app’s code. From the text within the code, it sounds like camera search would function similarly to the app’s current Shazam integration. Read more…

More about Tech, Amazon, Snapchat, Apps And Software, and Snap Inc

This article contains spoilers for the ending of Sorry to Bother You

Sorry to Bother You is one of the wildest rides in theaters this summer. The movie not only defies all genre convention, but seemingly reality itself.

Both an office-comedy about the soul-sucking nightmare of entry level desk jobs, and a reality-bending sci-fi horror depicting the uprising of a half-horse half-human hybrid species — it is designed to make you ask questions.

And the final act of the movie introduces the most WTF elements of all.

More about Entertainment, A24, Boots Riley, Lakeith Stanfield, and Sorry To Bother You

Hundreds have ditched their robes in Melbourne, Australia for an epic mass nude photoshoot. 

U.S. artist Spencer Tunick, famed for his mass nude shoots, staged one of his signature installations atop a Woolworths supermarket car park in the suburb of Prahran on Monday. 

Although the temperature was sitting at a chilly 9-10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit), various media outlets reported somewhere between 300 and 500 participants showed up. 

The nude installation, dubbed Return of the Nude, was commissioned by Melbourne’s PROVOCARÉ arts festival, and saw the crowd don rather Handmaid’s Tale-like translucent red cloaks before their moment of exposure. And it almost didn’t happen, thanks to Woolworths originally denying the artist permission for use of the site. Read more…

More about Photography, Art, Nudes, Nude, and Nudity

The brightest (and fiercest) witch of her age is back.

Performer Kelsey Ellison reprised her viral “dancing Hermione” outfit for a magic moment during Saturday’s Pride event in London.

The YouTube personality and self-proclaimed Harry Potter enthusiast gained fame when she appeared at MCM London’s ComicCon, stupefying all with a casually fierce dance while dressed up as Hermione Granger.

On Saturday, she brought the magic to Pride in London, voguing her way through her celebrated routine, backpack and all, and finishing with a casual split — all in a casually steamy summer temperature of 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit). Read more…

More about Lgbtq, Viral Video, Pride, Hermione, and Pride Month

Put away that Rolex, because there’s a new conspicuous consumption totem on the block. 

A June paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research looking at, in part, common predictors of wealth, found that owning an iPhone is a strong sign that someone is in fact straight ballin’. Or, at least “high-income.”

“We measure cultural distance between two groups as the ability to infer an individual’s group based on his or her (i) media consumption, (ii) consumer behavior, (iii) time use, or (iv) social attitudes,” notes the study abstract. 

The paper, by Marianne Bertrand and Emir Kamenica, has some interesting details. For example, while in 1992 using Grey Poupon Dijon was 62.2% indicative of being high income, by 2016 that fanciest of mustards had been replaced by the iPhone.  Read more…

More about Apple, Iphone, Tech, and Iphone

The G.O.A.T. is back with an ace of an answer to a reporter’s question.

Serena Williams is seemingly unstoppable both on and off the court. And her latest press conference at Wimbledon 2018 confirms this factTelegraph reporter Jamie Johnson asked Williams what it’s like being the one who motivates other players to up their game just to compete with her.

More about Tennis, Goat, Serena Williams, Wimbledon, and Entertainment

Turns out everyone’s favorite ahistorical Bean Town boy and resident Sad Man is more than just a pretty face. 

That’s right, Ben Affleck, the star of such films as Gigli and Pearl Harbor, is so much more as this random (apparently) 2003 interview showing him basically predicting Spotify and Netflix streaming proves. 

In the middle of a fast-paced rant about file-sharing, he notes that in the future everyone will have access to music and video on demand for an annual subscription fee. 

“I think an annual subscription-based system is one that works,” he tells the interviewer. “It will be movies on demand but it will be a tiered structure,” he adds.   Read more…

More about Netflix, Spotify, Ben Affleck, Entertainment, and Celebrities

Gal Gadot met a few real-life superheroes at a children’s hospital this weekend. 

The brave little heroes at Inova Children’s Hospital in Falls Church, Virginia came face-to-face with Wonder Woman herself when Gadot visited outfitted in her full costume. 

Warning: You’re going to need Wonder Woman-level strength to make it through these photos without melting into a pile of happy tears. Oh, you thought the ending of the first Wonder Woman emotionally wrecked you? It has nothing on this. 

Told you.

Gadot brought big smiles and gifts, including coloring books, toys, and autographed photos, to the little fighters.  Read more…

More about Inspiring, Wonder Woman, Gal Gadot, Culture, and Kids