Author Archives: Carol Edwards

“Die Hard at a destination wedding” is what I wrote in my notes while watching Shotgun Wedding, and what do you know — that phrase appears in the marketing materials verbatim. It’s nice, isn’t it, when a film delivers pretty much what it promises? 

Instead of a retired cop, our unlikely heroes trapped in the party-turned-hostage situation are Darcy (Jennifer Lopez) and Tom (Josh Duhamel), whose wealthy Latino and gauche white Midwestern families, respectively, gather on a private island in the Philippines for their lavish wedding. They’re deeply in love, but Tom has been consumed by every tiny detail of the big day, while independent big-shot lawyer Darcy feels a chill nipping at her heels and never wanted a huge production of a wedding in the first place. The night before, she’s literally begging him for sex (in a sweet-and-spicy scene that will have you saying “You know J-Lo is FIFTY-THREE?” out loud whether you’re watching alone or not) while he’s on the floor hot-gluing twinkle lights to the pineapple centerpieces.

But just as their issues come to a head the morning of, the island is swarmed by pirates in apocalyptic arts-and-crafts masks and their motley bunch of guests taken hostage in the resort pool, and the bride and groom must fumble their way across the island to stage a rescue. Naturally, amusingly violent chaos ensues.

It has some of the sly, chaotic energy of Game Night, John Francis Daley’s underrated 2018 action farce with an ordinary, loving but “stuck” couple at its center you do actually want to root for. But where Game Night wrings comedy out of its most violent moments, Shotgun Wedding director Jason Moore (Pitch Perfect) doesn’t get the tone right in its attempts to make the danger feel genuine while still keeping things light. 

2023 is clearly the year of giving Jennifer Coolidge a gun. Yes, it’s fun watching Jennifer Coolidge trying to mow down baddies with an assault rifle — just. But it’s not actually fun watching the pirates spray bullets at the edges of a trapped crowd and terrified hostage/guests, shrieking and whimpering in very convincing fear. Those moments tipped over the thin line the film manages to walk in other moments of real violence that are played for laughs, like Tom’s shocked processing after he semi-accidentally kills a pirate. 

The film’s biggest crime, though, is the proportion of usually charismatic performers who are wasted or miscast. Comedy icon Cheech Marin is barely there as Darcy’s wealthy father; D’Arcy Carden doesn’t quite have the malevolent ethereality required for the role of his hippie girlfriend; there are severely diminishing returns on an initially promising Lenny Kravitz as Darcy’s absurdly smooth and unwelcome ex; and a promising, sparky B-romance between You’re The Worst‘s Desmin Borges and The Flight Attendant‘s Callie Hernandez sputters and never gets resolved. 

And then there’s Coolidge. Her entire career, let alone her recent dream award-season run, has shown that she can say literally anything and make it funny even when she’s just being herself, and Moore has said that she was free to improvise on set and did so. So why does almost every line she has land with a thud? It’s mostly the fault of the script, which saves its funniest lines for everyone but her (her Wish.com Vin Diesel line as she shoulders that machine gun? “Nobody fucks with my family!”) — but it also feels like she’s been stuffed into a generic embarrassing-mom role that unforgivably stifles her natural irrepressibility. 

Also unforgivable? Casting her as Duhamel’s mother when she’s barely 11 years his senior. C’mon, Hollywood.

The action is mostly fun, though it gets a little shaggy towards the end (notwithstanding the most absurdly gruesome comedy death I’ve seen since Violent Night) and even Darcy and Tom’s unlikely action hero status is semi-backed up by their backstories (Tom is a minor league baseball player, for example, so despite being a bit goofy he’s fit and has good hand-eye coordination) while also keeping things relatable for comedy reasons (Darcy faints at the sight of blood, and their cobbled-together schemes rarely play out as planned). 

It’s also refreshing to see two — admittedly very genetically blessed — people in their 50s as the central couple in a wedding movie, with genuinely sexy chemistry, and to have zero chat about babies or children, especially given the title. And let’s face it, what we’re really here for is that inevitable shot of Lopez with her battered wedding dress torn artfully down to the bones, toting the titular weapon. When it gets there, it’s hard not to be impressed. It’s her star power — and her wildly underrated ability to lift mid-tier material with her Marilyn-like sparkle and comedic timing — that save Shotgun Wedding from being a total misfire.

Shotgun Wedding is now streaming on Prime Video.

NASA and the U.S. military plan to test a nuclear-powered rocket engine in space as early as 2027, potentially revolutionizing how people travel the cosmos in the coming decades.

The two agencies will work on a nuclear thermal propulsion system, a technology NASA wants to use to send humans to Mars in the late 2030s. But the test mission — known as Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations, or the DRACO program — would not involve astronauts.

Advocates of nuclear-powered rockets have long-stressed the advantages: allowing spacecraft to travel faster, carry heavier loads of people and cargo, and use fuel more efficiently than the chemical-based rockets of today. Lately, the idea has galvanized, with $110 million budgeted for the project this year.

It’s not clear how much everyday people know about the technology and whether the project will renew concerns about nuclear disasters. NASA and defense leaders say the rocket will be safe for people on the ground, as well as eventually make space travel safer for astronauts: Faster trips mean they’ll have less exposure to harmful cosmic rays.

But at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics conference, where the new collaboration was announced in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, the moderator might have spoken for the collective conscience when he said, “Obviously, the public is going to say, ‘You’re going to put a reactor over my head?'”

“We are putting radioactive materials into space, but we have designed the entire process to be safe,” said Stefanie Tompkins, director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the research and development arm of the military, which is leading the overall program. “Part of the reason for doing it in space in a lot of ways is it’s safer than having to do it on Earth.”

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How would nuclear rockets change space travel?

Experts described nuclear-powered rockets to Mashable as being a leap-ahead technology, on the level of horse-and-buggy stage coach to steam locomotive or landline telephone to smartphone. Right now, engineers rely on swinging around planets to get gravity boosts, the extra oomph needed to send space probes deep into the solar system. But nuclear power would free missions of having to wait sometimes years for the correct timing of orbits.

“You’re opening up the outer solar system to scientific exploration. You don’t have to wait for the planets to align. You’ll have launch opportunities every year,” said Dale Thomas, deputy director of the University of Alabama in Huntsville’s Propulsion Research Center. “And, by the way, since we’re talking about direct trajectories, you get there in about half the time.”

With nuclear-thermal propulsion, getting to Mars could take as little as two months instead of nine, depending on the path taken, engineers said. And reducing the trip time would have the advantage of limiting the supplies needed for such a journey.

Why did the U.S. stop testing nuclear rockets?

The United States’ last nuclear thermal rocket engine tests happened more than 50 years ago. During that time, the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico helped build nuclear rockets for NASA’s Project Rover program. The program ended in 1972 when President Richard Nixon made the political decision to cut funding for human missions to Mars and instead focus spending on the Space Shuttle and research in low-Earth orbit.

A nuclear thermal propulsion system would pump liquid hydrogen through a reactor, where uranium atoms would split apart and release heat. This process, known as fission, would convert the hydrogen into a gas and eject it through a nozzle, creating thrust to propel a spaceship.

“You’re opening up the outer solar system to scientific exploration. You don’t have to wait for the planets to align. You’ll have launch opportunities every year.”

The “game-changer” in developing the technology today is a new form of uranium, which is not considered a weapons-grade material. That opens the door for commercial space companies to work on spin-offs after the test mission, said Pam Melroy, NASA’s deputy administrator.

But this low-enriched uranium poses one of the biggest challenges for NASA. Materials in direct contact with the reactor fuel have to withstand over 4,600 degrees Fahrenheit, about half the temperature of the sun’s surface.

Are nuclear-powered rockets safe?

In terms of safety, engineers say the nuclear systems would not be used at the launch pad at all. In fact, that’s one of the most common misconceptions about the technology. In sort of a hybrid approach, chemical rockets would get the spacecraft off the ground. Then, once the ship had climbed to an altitude in space between 400 to 1,300 miles — well above the International Space Station — the nuclear-powered engines would take over. That’s critical to ensure the material is no longer radioactive by the time it re-enters Earth’s atmosphere, Melroy said.

If for some reason the chemical rocket blows up and the nuclear-powered engine ends up in the ocean, the nuclear hardware still can’t “go critical,” Thomas said. The in-space rocket system doesn’t work until it reaches orbit.

Perhaps the greatest safety risks come into play during ground testing, a crucial step before launch. Engineers will need huge facilities that don’t yet exist to capture the exhaust, a recommendation that came out in a 2021 independent report NASA had requested from the National Academies to study nuclear propulsion. New construction or modifications to existing facilities could cost billions of dollars.

Safe testing facilities are a consideration that didn’t happen decades ago when engineers were working on earlier versions of these systems, said Roger Myers, an aerospace consultant who co-chaired the National Academies’ study.

“The U.S. government fired nuclear rocket engines in the desert in Nevada in the night, in the late 1960s and early ’70s, and they fired them in open air,” Myers said. “We’re much more careful today.”

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Radiation exposure risks for astronauts

Perhaps surprisingly, experts say future astronauts would not be at greater risk of radiation exposure because of the engine — their bigger concern would still be deep space radiation from the sun. That comes from the design of the ship, Thomas said. NASA has a research grant to model how a spacecraft could be engineered to work with nuclear-powered rocket engines.

The crew would be at the front and the engine in the back, with a large hydrogen tank between them. Hydrogen happens to be an exceptional neutron absorber. Translation: “It’s like your fuel is your shield,” Thomas said. “I’d say you’re actually in better shape with the nuclear-thermal” rocket than a legacy chemical system.

“It’s like your fuel is your shield.”

Another bonus for astronauts is that nuclear-powered rockets afford the crew chances to abort a deep space mission. On chemical engines, once a spacecraft were headed to Mars, there would be no coming back until the planets lined up again.

Nuclear thermal vs. Nuclear electric rockets

Other kinds of nuclear propulsion aren’t being developed in the collaborative DRACO program, such as nuclear-electric power. A nuclear-electric rocket would use a reactor to create electricity like a small power plant. Myers believes NASA should invest in all of them because they have different advantages for space travel. But joining the Defense Department in this nuclear-thermal test project was wise to combine resources, he said.

There is also something in all this for people whose feet are planted on Earth. If scientists and engineers can develop a fuel and reactor that can take an extremely high temperature, that could lead to safer nuclear power plants on the ground.

“The reactor fuels that will work there, if you put them in a terrestrial reactor, they will make that reactor bulletproof,” he said.

Though it seems like it was just New Year’s Eve, we’re now almost entirely through the month of January. That’s pretty wild, right? Time, what a menace. Before you know it, it’ll be summertime and, my friend, it won’t be a moment too soon.

But for now, we’ve still got to wrap up the end of January and, you know, slog through the final weeks of winter and then get through spring and all that.

That in mind, it’s been a good week for tweets to round out the month. While you wait for February, why not enjoy some good posts? We rounded up eight of our favorite tweets for you to enjoy this week, just like we always do. Sit back, relax, and enjoy.

1.This is perhaps the best nickname I’ve ever heard.

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2. I need sour Starbursts right now. This is a fantastic idea.

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3. This one might mean nothing to you, but guess what? It means a lot to me.

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4. An obligatory dril tweet.

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5. And yet another dril tweet.

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6. I never imagined a French Pokémon before, but now I love the idea.

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7. Yes, this sounds like such a lovely vibe. No more considering, just being mindless.

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8. And finally, this is something that would stick with a person, for sure.

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Like the spaces we frequent in the physical world, each social app serves a different, fairly obvious purpose. If LinkedIn is a job fair of some sort, Instagram is a playground, or a party — both of which can be simultaneously bright, loud, and exhausting. The distinctions between these platforms are very much known.

But these are places we go to everyday, and in each, we shift. We flick through a handful apps everyday, the more prominent ones arguably being TikTok, Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. On some, our tone may be nonchalant; on another, indignant. These are emotions expressed daily, sometimes concurrently, with different interfaces displaying alternative views, moods, even personas.

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How much do we actually do shape-shift across social media? Turns out, a lot.

Samara Madhvani, who owns a boutique social media consultancy, says that what she shares on TikTok is vastly different from her posts on Instagram.

“Most of my friends don’t use [TikTok], so I feel like I can post more freely without being judged,” she tells Mashable. “It’s a great space to experiment with different kinds of content, that I would probably never share on Instagram.”

Similarly, brand management and development specialist MaryKate Foley tells Mashable that she shows her “full authentic self” solely on Snapchat.

“Snapchat is for [my] innermost thoughts,” she says. Meanwhile, she uses Instagram to post “photos of things, travel and the occasional selfie”. TikTok is for more niche interests, where she posts “drone footage or animal footage”. Twitter is a point of conflict, where she feels more filtered.

“I feel like each social media platform is a different part of me,” she says.

At their core, these apps are intending for users to be on display, in whatever curated form they desire. Apps like BeReal have attempted to offer a different side to social media, with the premise that users can be their most authentic selves. Yet, it’s another platform that is, in reality, asking something of the user: who are you in this moment? What do you and to show?

“When you look at our behaviour on social media as a whole, our personality on a platform depends on how we perceive its usage.”

Ria Chopra, a writer and journalist, says that she is guarded about her personal life and selective when it comes to posting across all platforms.

“The sides of my personality I choose to show differ from platform to platform,” she says. “When you look at our behaviour on social media as a whole, our personality on a platform depends on how we perceive its usage. LinkedIn is perceived by me to be a professional space, so I’m professional there. Instagram is for personal connections, so I’m more likely to put up birthday posts there, while Twitter is more stream-of-consciousness, simply because of that’s the kind of stuff I see there and believe it’s for.”

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Being human means having to change, situationally and socially, on the daily. This isn’t news to any adult. Who you are at work may be a far cry from who you are at home. What you show to your closest friends can be deviation from who are you with your siblings. For Black people and people of color, code switching is even more habitual, particularly in the workplace where bias based on factors like speech has long had a negative impact. These ever-so-subtle shifts that take place are near instinctive for most. But when this applies to the internet, too, identity can be in constant flux.

For many users, this is a natural aspect to having more than one social media account. It’s almost a given: an exercise in construction and curation, for numerous reasons.

Being a woman or a marginalized person on social media comes with its own set of complications, for instance. These are ones that can largely hinder what a person chooses to share and speak about on public platforms. Seyi Akiwowo, author of How to Stay Safe Online, addressed this extensively in her guidebook to the internet. “The idea that online platforms are neutral is a fairy tale. It’s not a few bad apples ruining the experience for the rest of us. The very DNA of these platforms is in conflict with the best interests of a large number of their users,” Akiwowo writes. “Women and girls across the globe are walking on eggshells because of the fear of online abuse.”

Research by Plan International in 2017, which Akiwowo cites, found that 43 percent of girls aged 11 to 18 admitted to holding back their opinions on social media for fear of being criticized. Self-censorship, while admittedly an issue for all on social apps, is heightened when it comes to young girls who are doing so for their own safety online.

“Women can post on almost any topic — animal rights, climate change, healthcare — and abuse usually follows,” writes Akiwowo.

Then there are the lesser but significant factors everyone faces – like who your followers are and whether your account is private. These will also play a natural role in choosing how to behave on a certain platform. This is perhaps what led to the surge of “finstas” — which now seem near extinct — a few years ago. These “fake” Instagram accounts allowed for privacy and exclusivity, but are now a dated concept, shadowed by integrated features like Instagram’s Close Friends and Twitter Circle. The demand for these also alludes to the greater desire to post and interact in different ways, even in the space of a singular app.

Madhvani believes that total, complete authenticity is a far reach on any platform. “Even a comment or a like on someone else’s content will leave a digital footprint,” she says. “Today, everything that people post is somewhat curated. At the end of the day, you’re posting and sharing for a purpose whether it’s to look a certain way or to get more followers or even sell a product.”

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Alex Quicho, head of futures at trends agency Canvas8, suggests there is a positive side to the transformations we undergo on apps, saying that social media can play a role in “trying out different facets of one’s persona”.

“Today’s crop of users are less concerned about projecting a stable image or personal brand,” says Quicho. “We’re seeing many Gen Zers adopt an exploratory attitude to how they appear on social platforms: seeing these false personas as creative and constructive.”

In this vein, having different sorts of social media can provide paths to traverse identity and to explore different interests. The possible trouble is not in utilizing these purpose-driven platforms. Instead, there is potential for burnout in these spaces, which is already a dangling possibility for anyone who uses social media.

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Chopra says that she is increasingly “cross-posting” across platforms, in an endeavor to integrate content and show her comprehensive self.

“It’s unconscious, but maybe that’s my bid to be more ‘me’ everywhere. So I’ve posted my tweets on LinkedIn, my Instagram posts on Twitter, if I want to. And it’s paying off — I feel more authentic knowing that I’m reflecting a more holistic sense of my personality everywhere,” she explains.

Let’s face it: authenticity and social media are hardly interconnected. Some social media users are increasingly pursuing this concept, seeking to be themselves on platforms designed to allow the opposite. But living in the digital age — with an influx of apps at our disposal — means having to have more than one public face: a near constant metamorphosis.

Valentine’s Day can be a weird holiday to shop for, especially because every gift option seems to be themed and covered in hearts. That’s fun for the few days surrounding Feb. 14, but what about the rest of the year? What are you supposed to do with a teddy bear holding a plush heart in July?

Skip the heart-shaped jewelry this year and get your girlfriend something she really wants for Valentine’s Day. Whether she’s a plant mom, into tech, or a beauty guru, you’ll be able to find a gift she loves. And look, we know V-Day is a sexy holiday — we’ve got you there, too.

Who says Valentine’s Day gifts have to be cheesy and romantic? Not us. You can get something thoughtful and useful. What a concept!

We dug around the internet to help you find the perfect Valentine’s Day gift for your girlfriend. You can still opt for traditional V-Day gifts like red roses or lingerie, but seriously: Steer clear of the heart-shaped stuff this year. Get your girlfriend something that suits her personality and shows you really know her and care about her interests.

P.S. If you’re looking for Valentine’s Day gifts for your boyfriend, check out our gift guide for him.

You made it! It’s Saturday, it’s Wordle time, and that means we’re here to help, as always.

The bottom of this article features January 28’s Wordle solution. If that’s not why you’re here, scroll down and see what’s on offer here, from clues, to strategies. You’ll find what you need.

Where did Wordle come from?

Originally created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner, Wordle rapidly spread to become an international phenomenon, with thousands of people around the globe playing every day. Alternate Wordle versions created by fans have even sprung up, including battle royale Squabble, music identification game Heardle, and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once. 

Wordle eventually became so popular that it was purchased by the New York Times, and TikTok creators even livestream themselves playing.

Not the day you’re after? Here’s the Wordle answer for January 27.

What’s the best Wordle starting word?

The goal of Wordle is to have fun, and there’s no right way to have fun. Just choose whatever starting word feels right to you, and don’t let anyone shame you for it. However, if you want to take a more strategic approach, we have a few ideas to help you pick a word that will spark joy. One tip is to select a word that includes at least two different vowels, plus some common consonants like S, T, R, or N.

What happened to the Wordle archive?

The entire archive of past Wordles used to be available for anyone to play in glorious days gone by. Unfortunately it has since been taken down, with the website’s creator stating it was done at the request of the New York Times.

Is Wordle getting harder?

It may feel as though Wordle is getting harder, but we can assure you it isn’t. Conversely, if you’re finding it too easy, you can turn on Wordle‘s Hard Mode.

Why are there two different Wordle answers some days?

Occasionally the Wordle gods will accept two different answers on a single day, defying the accepted norm of one correct solution per day. This anomaly is due to changes the New York Times made to Wordle after it acquired the puzzle game.

The Times has since added its own updated word list, so this should happen even less frequently than before. To avoid any confusion, it’s a good idea to refresh your browser before getting stuck into a new puzzle.

Here’s a subtle hint for today’s Wordle answer:

Think dating.

Does today’s Wordle answer have a double letter?

Nope!

Today’s Wordle is a 5-letter word that ends with…

Today’s Wordle ends with the letter T.

What’s the answer to Wordle today?

If you want to guess today’s Wordle yourself, now’s the time to do so! 

Is your answer locked in?

The solution to Wordle #588 is…

FLIRT.

Don’t be sad if you didn’t get it this time — we still have many more Wordle puzzles ahead of us. Come back tomorrow for more helpful clues and hints!

When deciding on the perfect college, prospective students have a lot to consider. They’re probably researching universities’ academic rankings, and they certainly crunch the numbers of high tuition versus accessible financial aid. Or maybe they care more about a school’s athletics programs, alumni network, or party scene. But one factor that is universal to all students is the need for safety, and a new Campus Accountability Map and Tool now offers critical insight to inform the college selection process: the ability to compare how well educational institutions address and work to prevent instances of sexual assault on their campuses. 

The digital platform was created by End Rape on Campus (EROC), a 2013 student-founded initiative to end sexual assault on campus through national advocacy and survivor support. It’s part of the social engagement nonprofit Civic Nation, which also funds initiatives like the It’s On Us sexual assault prevention campaign and legal advocacy network We The Action. The organization describes the tool as the first of its kind to centralize information on university policies and responses to sexual assault — enabling transparency, accountability, and support all at once — and its searchable map function lets users quickly find resources at campuses near and far.

“When this information is scattered across various federal databases and university websites, students and survivors face barriers to understanding their campus policies, finding resources, and holding their campuses accountable for protecting students on and off campus,” EROC explained in a statement to the press. 

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Kenyora Parham, executive director of EROC, said that the tool is a tech-driven version of the organization’s foundational work. “In 2013, our founders drove across the country meeting with thousands of students to fill in a gap in their understanding of their rights, especially as it pertains to Title IX,” Parham explained. “We like to think of the map and tool as a mirror to that. Instead of, you know, driving across different college campuses and giving each student that one-on-one interface, we’ve essentially crowdsourced the data into one centralized space, so it’s an easier, accessible, and faster way of getting that information out.”

The database collects information based on five parameters: numerical statistics, policy information, prevention efforts, investigation procedures, and survivor support, gathered through university websites, self-reporting, and federal databases like the U.S. Department of Education’s Campus Safety and Security Data site. Information on accessibility and Title IX, a federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, is also included in the database. Users can even use the built-in comparison tool to assess university metrics side by side. 

The current pilot version has assembled data on more than 750 college campuses using the help of around 100 volunteers including students, parents, and advocates. This pool includes eight Ivy League schools, community colleges, and the two largest four-year colleges in each U.S. state, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

Parham explained that EROC wanted to prioritize data that would align with their “Centering The Margins” framework, which “focuses and centers historically underserved and marginalized student survivors in the campus anti-rape movement and attends to the particular needs of those survivors.” To that end, the organization prioritized including universities like Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs), Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), Rural Serving Institutions (RSIs), and community colleges in the resource’s first iteration. 

“We know that these students are historically marginalized in this space. They are often left out of the national discourse when it comes to campus sexual assault,” Parham said. “We wanted to make sure that this mapping tool started with them first and foremost, and provided them with access to information that would help them navigate the Title IX complaint process, as well as ways to hold their institutions accountable.”

She hopes that it can act as an intersectional feature of EROC’s work, building connections between students and advocates across issues. “We’re hoping that through way of our programs — and by way of our partnerships with other survivor advocacy organizations focused on other intersectional issues like gun violence or abortion access — other intersectional issues are also incorporated into the mapping tool as a feature,” Parham explained. 

EROC says the tool is an evolving resource, one which will be updated frequently and adjusted as needed to help best support student survivors. Individuals can request a school be added to the map using this online form, or report an error in the database if needed. 

“We definitely want prospective students and their families to be using the map and tool as a part of their decision-making process,” she said. “And we want this mapping tool to revolutionize how we talk about safety — not only in our homes, but also what safety looks like in the classroom.”

If you have experienced sexual abuse, call the free, confidential National Sexual Assault hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673), or access the 24-7 help online by visiting online.rainn.org.

On my bedside table, you’ll currently find a calendar my aunt designed and gifted me for Christmas, a pink claw clip, a candle, a tiny empty purple bowl, a bright blue coatcheck claim ticket, a loose credit card, one unfinished book, a pencil, a pen, and a small lamp precariously stacked on two notebooks and two books. On TikTok, this scene would reveal something profound about my womanhood.

Back in August, TikTokker @starlingblue uploaded a fan edit to Hozier’s “Would That I.” The video begins with a clip from Anne with an E where a character says, “oh how I love being a woman,” and is followed by a montage of beloved female characters including Jo March in Little Women, Sam of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and Penny Lane from Almost Famous.

The combination of the Anne with an E quote and “Would That I” quickly became the go-to sound for videos about womanhood. It’s been used over 155,000 times. When it first took off on the platform, creators used it to celebrate the intricacies of womanhood and to ironically share the pitfalls of being a woman. In one video @jamec0zzie lists things she loves about womanhood, including sapphic love, mornings in bed after sleepovers, unspoken solidarity, and going to the bathroom in big groups. On the more morbid side, @brennalina posted a video of herself leaving a hair in an Uber with the caption, “Ever since a girl on TikTok said she leaves [sic] hair and fingerprints in all her Ubers.” That video garnered over 4 million likes.

The sound was also utilized to celebrate female creators and became a staple sound for talking about whatever is trending among women on TikTok, for example @harrysguccidress posted a video of Diet Coke, chicken Caesar salad, and a side of fries, when that combination of food blew up on the platform. It received over 1.4 million likes.

But as is the plight of most TikTok sounds, it’s recently devolved into consumerism. What was once a tool to discuss womanhood, although superficially, is now the the soundtrack to women showing off their nightstands. Most of these videos are captioned something like, “heard we are showing our nightstands in their true form,” and then they pan to their nightstand littered with trendy products.

One creator @drag0nballsno_z’s bedside table features fake flowers, Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino, lots of necklaces, and a pair of mittens. Another creator, @jeanbean2780’s, has six candles, a fuzzy coaster, flowers, and some hair clips on hers. While there is an understandable fascination with seeing something as private as a bedside table — and many of the women posting these videos have very cute set-ups —the discrepancy between “oh, how I love being a woman” and a table of products is stark. The trend had me side-eying my own nightstand, and critically examining if a piece of furniture designed for convenience is representative of who I am. Once again, this trend brought the desire to perform for TikTok into my private space.

Nightstand videos are another way women on TikTok are encouraged to define themselves through their stuff and to organize their lives into highly readable aesthetics.

And it doesn’t end with nightstands. TikTok is also locked in a heated debate over the state of a girl’s messy room. Creator @latenightwar sparked this conversation by posting a very funny video in which she says, “When a girl’s room is messy it’s Sofia Coppola. It’s ‘Hell Is a Teenage Girl.’ It’s Lindsey Lohan in an early 2000s movie. It’s indie. It’s hot.” Like the “oh, how I love being a woman” sound, women are posting videos of their artfully messy bedside tables and rooms to the satirical clip.

Only time will tell what hyper-specific part of your life TikTok will require to fit your aesthetic next.

One of the best video games ever made is making its triumphant return on Nintendo Switch and Xbox consoles this week. However, Xbox owners got the short end of the stick in one major regard.

On Friday, Goldeneye 007 is finally getting an official re-release after 27 years of being stuck on the Nintendo 64. What’s even better is that it’s available via the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription ($50/year) and Xbox Game Pass ($10/mo), so you don’t even have to buy it if you already pay for one of those services.

However, it should be noted that these appear to be two different versions of the game with some major differences. Particularly of note is that online multiplayer is exclusive to the Switch version; if you want to recreate all those college dorm room deathmatches with your homies who all live in different cities now, you can’t do that on Xbox.

What you can do on Xbox is play the game in 4K and widescreen with new control options to make it feel more like a modern shooter. It’s also got achievements so you can boost your Gamerscore using all those tricks you used to beat the game a quarter of a century ago.

Of course, the Xbox version has split-screen multiplayer, so if your homies all live in the same city, you can make that dorm room magic happen again. Just remember: No screen-peeking, and no Oddjob.

Another AI image generation platform hit the internet on Wednesday (Jan. 25), this time launched by Shutterstock. Now, not only can you find stock photos and illustrations on the site, but you can generate your own.

Working with AI isn’t anything particularly new for Shutterstock. Over the past two years, they’ve partnered with OpenAI, Meta, and LG AI Research to “fuel their generative AI research efforts,” Paul Hennessy, the chief executive officer at Shutterstock, said in a press release. It’s available in multiple languages and comes included with paid customers’ packages. 

“Our easy-to-use generative platform will transform the way people tell their stories — you no longer have to be a design expert or have access to a creative team to create exceptional work,” Hennessy said. “Our tools are built on an ethical approach and on a library of assets that represents the diverse world we live in, and we ensure that the artists whose works contributed to the development of these models are recognized and rewarded.”

Here’s how to use Shutterstock’s AI image generator.

1. Navigate to Shutterstock’s home page

This is likely the easiest step. Go to shutterstock.com.

2. Click “AI Generator” in the search bar

The search bar will automatically be set to “Image” on the left. Click “Image” and you’ll see a drop down menu of other options, including “AI Generator.” Choose that option.

3. Type in what you’d like to see and click enter

You can type in just about anything — within reason. Here, I’m looking for a “match on fire.”

4. Search

You’ll have to be logged in for this next step, but you can create an account without paying anything. Click search, and see four images tailored to your request. At the bottom of the page, you have the option to click “More AI-generated images from the Shutterstock library,” if you’d like to see some unrelated images created by artificial intelligence.

It can be a fun tool to play around with, but keep in mind that even though Shutterstock promises that their tools are “built on an ethical approach and on a library of assets that represents the diverse world we live in,” and that “the artists whose works contributed to the development of these models are recognized and rewarded,” using AI to find art is still controversial.