Author Archives: Carol Edwards

One of Taylor Swift’s multiple stalkers was found on Friday in Taylor Swift’s New York townhouse, sleeping in her bed.

The stalker, known as Roger Alvarado, had been arrested early in February for attempting to break down Swift’s door with a shovel.

Alvarado was charged with stalking, burglary, criminal mischief and trespassing.

Not only did Alvarado reportedly take a nap in the home, he showeredAccording to TMZ, the stalker used an old-fashioned ladder and broke a window to gain entry.

He also hails from Homestead, Florida, so get out your tired Florida jokes now. Read more…

More about Watercooler, Taylor Swift, Stalking, Culture, and Music

This is one very good dog. 

Max, a 17-year-old Blue Heeler, may be deaf, partially blind, and getting on in his years, but that didn’t stop him from playing the role of loving companion and hero to a lost three-year-old girl in Queensland, Australia. 

According to ABC Brisbane, Aurora was first reported missing on Friday after apparently wandering away from her grandmother’s house. Rescuers, including the local police and volunteers, searched the surrounding bushland throughout the night, but were unable to find her.  Read more…

More about Australia, Dogs, Culture, and Animals

Jane the Virgin Twitter went WILD on Friday night. Spoilers ahead.

The show’s fourth season ended with a major reveal: Michael Cordero, a character that’s been dead since just before a time jump skipped the story ahead by three years back in Season 3.

So for Jane — who was married to Michael — and the people in her orbit, they’ve all lived on for the past four or five years in TV time believing this man is dead. Then he turned up in the final moments of Season 4.

We still don’t know what happened or how this believed-dead man is actually alive. Season 5 will presumably clear that up. For now, you’ll have to live with the incredible reaction on social media. Starting with a post from showrunner Jennie Urman offering a behind the scenes look at the cast learning that Michael actor Brett Dier was coming back. Read more…

More about Entertainment, Tv, Jane The Virgin, The Cw, and Entertainment

Ever wanted to learn to code, but didn’t know where to start? Google’s new app wants to help.

This week the company launched Grasshopper, an app that aims to help teach adults to code (javascript, specifically) with a series of bite-sized puzzle games.

Launched from Google’s Area 120 incubator, which is devoted to experimental projects, Grasshopper takes a Duolingo-like approach to coding. It breaks down the basic concepts behind javascript, like functions and variables, into lessons you can complete in just a few minutes.

Like some of the coding apps aimed at kids, Grasshopper game-ifies the process a bit, turning coding lessons into mini-puzzles you need to solve. After you learn one concept, the next lesson will build on it and slowly add new elements so each one gets progressively more complicated. Read more…

More about Tech, Google, Apps And Software, Tech, and Big Tech Companies

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains major spoilers for the Season 4 finale of Jane the Virgin: “Chapter Eighty-One.”

Jane the Virgin has always had a knack for wringing our hearts out like old rags (sometimes in a good way), but the Season 4 finale ended with a special kind of torture. 

In the very last moment of the episode, Jane visits a grimly aloof Rafael at his apartment, expecting him to propose, where instead he reveals the secret he learned from Rose:  a living, breathing Michael Cordero.

So, in no particular order, here are 12 thoughts we had during that 5-second scene that felt like it lasted an eternity, and which we subsequently watched dozens of times and will haunt us until fall. Read more…

More about Entertainment, Television, Tv Recap, Jane The Virgin, and The Cw

Google finally has a plan to fix Android’s texting problem.

This week, the company confirmed its long-rumored plan to improve messaging on Android and bring its features up to par with other popular messaging apps like Apple’s iMessage.

Google being Google, though, the plan is much more complicated than simply improving its own Android Messages app (though that’s certainly part of it). Instead, Google is beginning what will be a years-long effort to get carriers and phone makers to all agree to work together and commit to using the same standard for messaging, called Rich Communications Services (RCS). Read more…

More about Google, Android, Imessage, Consumer Tech, and Big Tech Companies

After a racial incident that garnered national attention last weekend, Starbucks has required racial-bias training for all its employees. This move has the potential to positively impact America, but the company has an uphill climb.

Here’s what happened. On April 12 a patron at a Philadelphia Starbucks captured a video of two black men being arrested, seemingly for doing nothing. The store manager called the police, saying the men had not bought anything and refused to leave. It turns out they’d only been in the store for two minutes and were waiting for a friend to order. The video quickly went viral, getting millions of views on Twitter and YouTube.  Read more…

More about Starbucks, Sensitivity, Racial Discrimination, Culture, and Food

Over the past several weeks, arrests of members from the purported self-help group Nxivm have revealed an underground web of heinous crimes, from sex slavery to pyramid schemes.

Reports and rumors about the groups connections to Hollywood actors were mounting. And on Friday, actress Allison Mack — best known for her roles on Smallville and Wilfred — was arrested on sex trafficking and forced labor charges.

Mack allegedly recruited women into a sex trafficking pyramid scheme within Nxivm. The group’s founder, Keith Raniere (known by group members as “Vanguard”), has been accused of standing at the top of said pyramid. He was arrested in Mexico last month on the same charges.  Read more…

More about Entertainment, Sex Trafficking, Smallville, Nxivm, and Entertainment

The teen who marched alone last month, attracting the attention of the country, just got his classmates to join a student walkout in memory of the 15 victims of the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School.

Justin Blackman received massive support on social media last month for being the only student at his high school to participate in the nationwide walkout, part of movement led by Parkland survivors that called for lawmakers to pass stricter gun laws. 

“It’s National Walkout Day, I’m the only one from my school out here,” the 16-year-old said in a video he tweeted. “I’m just going to be chilling here for the next 15 minutes.” Read more…

More about Twitter, Protest, Gun Control, Culture, and Web Culture

After years of languishing under Yahoo’s (and, more recently, Oath’s) ownership, Flickr has finally found a buyer.

Image hosting company SmugMug announced Friday that it’d acquired Flickr for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition, which was first reported by USA Today, comes as Yahoo’s parent company, Oath, looks to slim down the company’s holdings.

More about Yahoo, Flickr, Consumer Tech, Tech, and Consumer Tech