Jimmy Fallon has never exactly been a trendsetter. But a Monday episode of The Tonight Show makes clear just how disconnected from reality the celebrity host truly is.
In a clip shared by the official Tonight Show Twitter account, Fallon and his guest Paris Hilton awkwardly show off the cartoon apes associated with their Bored Ape Yacht Club non-fungible tokens. It’s beyond cringe, and the audience’s scattered applause feels like an act of kindness.
“We’re part of the same community,” he says to an affectless Hilton. “We’re both Apes.”
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And indeed, Paris Hilton and Jimmy Fallon are both part of the same community: that of extremely wealth. Fallon’s net worth is estimated to be around $60 million, and Hilton’s is around $300 million.
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By showing off their Bored Ape NFTs on national television, the two celebrities were essentially pumping their crypto assets under the guise of “community.”
The transparent shilling wasn’t received well.
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The public’s general skepticism didn’t stop Fallon from tweeting the cryptocurrency in-group hashtag #WAGMI, which stands for “we are going to make it” or “we’re all gonna make it.”
And when it comes to riches, of course, Fallon already made it. Self-awareness, unfortunately for the host, still can’t be bought on the blockchain.
Apparently, neither had Donald Trump and his family…that is, until yesterday.
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“Fraud Alert: It has come to our attention that someone is promoting a crypto currency called ‘TrumpCoin’ (Symbol ‘TRUMP’),” tweeted the former president’s son Eric Trump. “This has NOTHING to do with our family, we do not authorize the use and we are in no way affiliated with this group.”
“Legal action will be taken,” he said.
TrumpCoin is an alternative cryptocurrency, which is also commonly referred to as an altcoin or memecoin. These types of cryptocurrencies are often connected to a theme — in this case, Donald Trump — and have no real utility.
Yet, people invest in memecoins believing that this memecoin will be the one to take off and make them rich. They’re sort of like those physical “collectable” gold bullion Trump Coins you see sold in TV infomercials. (Note: TrumpCoin is not affiliated with those bullion coins, either.)
It appears to have taken Eric Trump and the rest of the family quite a while to discover TrumpCoin. According to the cryptocurrency’s website, TrumpCoin launched in February 2016 during the campaign season, well before Donald Trump was elected in November of that year.
CoinMarketCap, a crypto listing source, has trading data for TrumpCoin going back to March 2016. According to this data, there are around 6.6 million coins currently circulating with a market cap of $1.8 million.
In an immediate response to Eric Trump’s tweet, the official Twitter account for the unauthorized TrumpCoin retweeted another user pointing out that the memecoin’s website does point out that it’s completely unaffiliated with Trump, his family, and organizations.
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This morning, the TrumpCoin Twitter account released a statement saying it was “currently in direct communication” with Eric Trump.
TrumpCoin isn’t the first Trump-inspired cryptocurrency to make headlines.
Last month, LGBCoin was thrust into the spotlight after NASCAR turned down a sponsorship deal it had offered driver Brandon Brown. LGBCoin is a cryptocurrency based on Trump supporters’ new favorite catchphrase “Let’s Go Brandon,” a euphemism for “Fuck Joe Biden.”
It’s unclear what the future holds for TrumpCoin as it relates to Eric Trump’s legal threat. But if there’s one thing we know about Donald Trump, if a deal can be made that’s prosperous for Trump, perhaps TrumpCoin will live on…that is, until its holders dump it.
Historically Black Colleges and Universities, known as HBCUs, have a storied place in American society, acting as central organizing spaces, cultural bulwarks, and institutions for the education of Black communities before desegregation. These schools still serve a vital role today, but their rich histories — from successful sports teams to homes for national heroes — aren’t as widely publicized.
A recent initiative from Getty Images is supporting efforts to preserve visual stories and histories from HBCUs. The following images were digitized as part of the Getty Images Photo Archive Grant for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), in partnership with the Getty Family and the philanthropic network Stand Together. The program awards a $500,000 grant to digitize up to 200,000 archival photos supplied by colleges and universities.
On Tuesday, the first batch of images from this year’s four recipients was released. “The Getty Images Photo Archive Grants for HBCUs were created to honor the vast history of HBCUs and their contribution to American history,” said Cassandra Illidge, vice president of partnerships at Getty Images, in a Tuesday press release.
First announced in August 2021, the recipients of this year’s grant include Claflin University, Jackson State University, North Carolina Central University, and Prairie View A&M University. According to Getty Images, each HBCU will retain all copyrights for digitized photos, and any revenue will be funneled back into HBCU impact programs, including scholarship funds.
The first batch of images, which will be updated as images continue to be restored, include the campus homecoming queens of Jackson State University, images of student unrest following on-campus police brutality, and even community images from the surrounding town at Prairie View A&M University. Students go about their days in chemistry and domestic arts courses, while basketball players win championships and agricultural clubs take home ribbons for prized livestock. The images show the joy, tragedy, and day-to-day life of HBCU students and their communities.
Check out some of the historic images from the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Collection below, ahead of February’s Black History Month.
Students participate in a class at Claflin University in Orangeburg, South Carolina. Credit: Claflin University / Historically Black Colleges and Universities via Getty Images
The Claflin University majorettes pose for a picture. Credit: Claflin University / Historically Black Colleges and Universities via Getty Images
Basketball coach Greg Jackson hypes up the university team during tournament finals Credit: North Carolina Central University / Historically Black Colleges and Universities via Getty Images
Students participate in a chemistry course, circa the 1960’s. Credit: Claflin University / Historically Black Colleges and Universities via Getty Images
Members of the agricultural club, 4-H, participate in a wildlife conservation course, led by state leader Dr. E.B. Evans. Credit: Prairie View A&M University / Historically Black Colleges and Universities via Getty Images
Students and community members of Claflin University protest segregation. Credit: Claflin University / Historically Black Colleges and Universities via Getty Images
Coretta Scott King attends a march for hospital workers in South Carolina. Credit: Claflin University / Historically Black Colleges and Universities via Getty Images
Students congregate outside of a dorm building, where two students were killed and 15 others injured by police in 1970. Credit: Jackson State University / Historically Black Colleges and Universities via Getty Images
Young women learning about domestic arts pose for a classroom picture in 1918. Credit: Prairie View A&M University / Historically Black Colleges and Universities via Getty Images
Students march down the main streets in Orangeburg, South Carolina. Credit: Claflin University / Historically Black Colleges and Universities via Getty Images
Two girls pose in their sleeping quarters at Prairie View A&M University, circa 1918. Credit: Prairie View A&M University / Historically Black Colleges and Universities via Getty Images
Students get ready for testing with their instructor keeping an eye. Credit: North Carolina Central University / Historically Black Colleges and Universities via Getty Images
A student art class paints on the green at Claflin University, circa the 1960s. Credit: Claflin University / Historically Black Colleges and Universities via Getty Images
Dr. Ethel Williams leads a course to Claflin University students. Credit: Claflin University / Historically Black Colleges and Universities via Getty Images
Like most social media apps, the fitness side of TikTok is full of content — workout regimes, food videos, and body positive influencers float around For You Pages sharing an overwhelming amount of information about personal health and body image. While some FYPs are awash in hundreds of gym bros, visually-appealing fruit bowls, and “What I eat in a day” videos, others are filled with less popular, but still important, conversations about what health means for people with diverse bodies and life experiences.
Many of these conversations are helmed by fitness and health professionals who promote what they call an inclusive fitness culture — fat-positive, intersectional programs that don’t focus on weight loss or goal-setting in the traditional sense and in doing so, subvert the often unapproachable, even unsafe, fitness spaces found both online and in-person.
Inclusive fitness culture acknowledges a variety of experiences and identities: people with disabilities, fat bodies, neurodivergent people who need accommodations in exercise programs, transgender and gender nonconforming people, and people of color. Just like the medical industry, health spaces contain a multitude of biases and institutional barriers that prevent the fitness world from being a safe space for all. In addition to male-dominated gyms that can put women in danger, queer and fat communities battle constant microaggressions in fitness spaces, and people of color navigate a world where their physical appearance is discriminated against. Intersectional fitness seeks to address the misogyny, racism, and fatphobia we’ve come to accept in the fitness world.
So, in come a new generation of “fitfluencers” using TikTok to share another perspective on health and fitness. Videos using the #bodyinclusive hashtag have racked up more than 3 million views, while the broader #dietculture and #nondiet tags appear throughout the fitness content and have gathered hundreds of millions of viewers. It’s important to note, though, that not all of these videos actually share inclusive fitness content, so keep a discerning eye while scrolling.
Appreciating your body, what it does for you every day, and holding space for your body.
AK MacKellar is a certified trainer and personal fitness coach, and the founder of Free to Move, an online, queer-inclusive movement program (a phrase that centers positive, enjoyable movement rather than intense exercise). It offers workout courses and other wellness resources catered to building positive, queer fitness communities. “I talk — broken record style — in my classes about appreciating your body, what it does for you every day, and holding space for your body. Using fitness and using movement as a way to change how you feel, and change what you feel in your body and in your mind,” MacKellar said.
MacKellar also runs a successful fitness TikTok account. Here, their workout videos de-emphasize appearance and diet in favor of intuitive movement, and share resources for people with disabilities or chronic illnesses, primarily for a queer audience. “I think there’s this long-held belief and ingrained idea in all of our brains that fitness equals weight loss, and that’s the goal. That’s the only goal and there’s no other reason to do it. That’s such a shame,” MacKellar said.
Chelsea Kronengold, associate director of communications for the National Eating Disorders Association, agrees that this traditional fitness thinking can have a dangerous effect on the mental health of many marginalized groups. “Fitness influencers, the diet industry, exercise companies, gyms, etc., often promote dangerous messages to their followers or their consumers that can instill a disordered relationship with food, body image, and exercise issues,” she explained. Kronengold pointed out that a lot of fitness language (like “earn those calories”) assigns a moral worth to eating and exercise, which can negatively impact people who struggle with eating disorders and body acceptance.
MacKellar is a former athlete who wasn’t originally working in the fitness space. In 2019, they had a bike accident that resulted in a traumatic brain injury and limited their ability to participate in the traditional fitness routines they used before. Instead, they started a career as a fitness coach, taking courses and training that emphasized alternative, holistic health programs — ones that accounted for their experiences as both a nonbinary and neurodivergent person. These are now core elements of the fitness programs they offer on TikTok and through Free to Move, in a fat-positive, queer-accepting, non-diet space.
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In practice, that means MacKellar focuses on representation, seeing people of your own identity and experiences leading a class or exercising near you. It also means divorcing the idea of fitness from the gender binary: Gym environments are inherently gendered (think men’s and women’s locker rooms, “women-friendly” machines, or even fitness classes divided along the gender binary) as are many diet apps, athletic wear, and other curated online fitness content. MacKellar, on the other hand, makes their workouts universal. They avoid gendered language in their coaching and utilize queer music, icons, and other cultural references.
The program also avoids conversations about “normal” or “ideal” bodies, and emphasizes frequent personal check-ins as you exercise. You should never feel pushed or coerced into pain while exercising, they explain. “The biggest thing that I want folks to take away is that they’re listening to their body and doing whatever they need to feel safe, to feel comfortable, and to feel good in this workout,” they said.
On TikTok, some of MacKellar’s most popular videos are found in their “True Beginner” series, designed to share approachable workouts that are actually for beginners — no strenuous or complex exercises that could create barriers for people with disabilities, those who have never worked out before, or neurodivergent people who might not be able to focus through a 30 minute workout, they explained. Some of these include fully seated workouts that can be done in any environment, or exercises that don’t put strain on specific body parts, like knees or wrists. The workouts are designed to adapt to the needs of the person, and free of the expectation that you need to “level up” your workout or “work up” to an end goal, whether that’s a specific number of reps, speed, or weight. This kind of thinking is not only shame and guilt-inducing, it can lead to injury or harmful eating and exercise behaviors, MacKellar and Kronengold agree.
While MacKellar shares inclusive fitness tips to their 131,000 TikTok followers, Malarie Burgess went viral for fitness videos that reject diet culture and embrace intersectionality. Her page, @thejockscientist, aims to take back exercise from the toxic diet and wellness space, and instead promotes new understandings of how food and exercise fit into your day-to-day life.
Burgess, who uses they/she pronouns and wishes to use both in this article, has worked in the fitness industry for 10 years. Now they’re an exercise physiologist, with both a degree in exercise science and a training certification from the American College of Sports Medicine, and works full time as an exercise specialist for a local government office on aging. They say this experience helped inform her perspective on intersectional fitness.
“I specifically work with older adults and adults with disabilities. And that really opened my worldview up in fitness, because [they] don’t really take the approach to exercise that many folks and young adults do,” they said. “It’s about being able to maintain your independence and maintain your function and make sure your body is working to the best of its ability. And using exercise to help with that kind of longevity.”
Burgess’ TikTok reflects those ideas, focusing on reassurance that all forms of movement, health, and appearance are valid. “I want people to not be scared of fitness, if they can approach it. Because we’ve been taught for so long that it’s a punishment for what we eat, or how we look, or that we need to be doing it for a really specific reason,” she said.
If you’re disabled, you’re a person of color, if you’re queer, those spaces exist.
Other videos on Burgess’ page breakdown how diet culture was fed to people throughout the 2000’s, how to combat fatphobia, and how to create inclusive exercises for people with chronic illness or disabilities. She also shares workout and health tips that acknowledge the emotional impact of the media’s fitness obsession. She wants her account to validate diverse experiences. “My particular little space will always be a safe space for individuals of all types. If you’re disabled, you’re a person of color, if you’re queer, those spaces exist,” Burgess said.
Burgess points out a few red and green flags for finding fitness programs that might be more inclusive. Try to avoid professionals or classes that use phrases like “get in shape” or other appearance-focused terms that imply there’s a single, ideal body image. Professionals who use diet or BMI (Body Mass Index) measurements, before and after photos, or body part measurements to gauge progress are also no-goes for Burgess. And consider what kind of photos they’re sharing on their fitness pages. Do they work with diverse clients?
“You can inquire about it if you are interviewing somebody. Someone that’s worked with a lot of diverse populations, I’ve found in my experience, tends to be more adaptable, and they’re going to be better at individualizing your program,” Burgess explained.
Kronengold also flags the terms “regime” and “program” as signs of potentially unhealthy fitness behavior and noninclusive spaces, because this often implies strict goal setting and weight loss, rather than fitness for “pleasure,” she said. Instead, she suggests people find certified professionals that use terms like “joyful movement” or “intuitive movement” in their marketing, much like Burgess and MacKellar use.
It’s important to keep in mind, Kronenberg says, that fitness influencers and professionals are ultimately selling you something, trying to earn money or followers to build their own careers. And the thing that often sells best is claiming they can fix your insecurities. On the other side of the spectrum, Burgess and MacKellar say they turn away people who aren’t looking to have conversations about non-diet focused, intersectional fitness, and only seek weight loss.
For all the professionals dipping their followers’ toes into the inclusive fitness world, there are others who still perpetuate a harmful diet culture, stigmatize certain bodies, and threaten to expose many to harmful weight loss behaviors. Deconstructing the diet culture monster and internalized fatphobia is a long battle. “I will take that beating so that this can continue to be a space where people can unpack their relationship with their body, with food, with exercise, because I think there’s been a lot of damage done to a lot of individuals, and I want to help undo that damage,” Burgess said.
There’s hope that people in need will stumble across their accounts and find a space that is comforting and accessible, filled with reassurances and an emphasis on the personal, individual nature of fitness and health. No shame involved.
“It is sort of like a David and Goliath situation,” MacKellar said. “There’s all these small trainers and people scattered all over the world… Using their tiny platforms and voices to try to make a difference. Trying to fight that real big beast.”
If you feel like you’d like to talk to someone about your eating behavior, call the National Eating Disorder Association’s helpline at 800-931-2237. You can also text “NEDA” to 741-741 to be connected with a trained volunteer at the Crisis Text Line or visit the nonprofit’s website for more information.
The most powerful telescope ever rocketed into space arrived at its destination Monday, concluding a white-knuckled journey from its launchpad in South America to a sweet spot in orbit about 1 million miles away.
In the first days following the James Webb Space Telescope’s liftoff on Dec. 25, the spacecraft blew past its low Earth-orbiting predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, and put the moon in rearview. During a month of traveling since Christmas, the spacecraft completely unfolded its antennas, tennis-court-sized sunshield, and mirrors like a Swiss Army knife. On Monday, the mission’s ground team fired Webb’s thrusters to nudge the observatory to its final post in an orbit around the sun. NASA announced it arrived at 2:24 p.m. ET.
The achievement marks the completion of a series of complicated, first-of-its-kind maneuvers in space and a crucial make-or-break period for the $10 billion telescope that some experts forewarned as “30 days of terror.” But with diligent planning and careful rocket engineering, the terror never came to pass.
“You’ve heard people talking about how it looked so easy. It is not easy. NASA makes it look easy, and sometimes they’re a victim of their own success,” Heidi Hammel, a planetary astronomer and part of the Webb telescope’s science team, said during a phone briefing with reporters. “We all, as humanity, can be proud that we are working collectively to do great things, to expand our knowledge of the universe, to make the universe more accessible to all of us.”
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Webb, with its giant infrared telescope, will observe some of the oldest, faintest light in the universe. It will study a period less than 300 million years after the Big Bang, when many of the first stars and galaxies were born. Scientists also will use the powerful telescope to peer into the atmospheres of planets outside our solar system, called exoplanets. Findings of water and methane, for example, could be potential hints of habitability or biological activity, i.e., life.
Astronomers anticipate the telescope will facilitate a golden age in our understanding of the cosmos, with 10 to 20 years of never-before-seen snapshots of space billions of light-years away.
“You’ve heard people talking about how it looked so easy. It is not easy. NASA makes it look easy, and sometimes they’re a victim of their own success.”
The massive telescope has perched in a place dubbed “L2,” or the second Lagrange point. The location is named after Joseph-Louis Lagrange, an 18th-century mathematician who solved the “three-body problem.” The question was if a configuration existed in which three masses could orbit each other and stay in the same position relative to each other. It turns out there are five such points where that can happen, and the second is where Webb will conduct unprecedented science.
L2 is an ideal vantage point because it will keep the radiant sun and Earth at the observatory’s back, facing away from our star to get clear views of deep space. From this location, Webb will move in unison with Earth so its robust sunshield can constantly block the sun, moon, and Earth’s light and heat.
The -388-degree Fahrenheit temperature at L2 makes it possible for Webb to see distant stars and galaxies in infrared, an invisible light commonly understood (or felt) as heat radiation. To detect dim objects, the telescope needs to be extremely cold to pick up faint heat signals from trillions of miles away.
At L2, Webb will also be close enough to Earth to regularly communicate through the Deep Space Network, an international array of jumbo antennas supporting NASA’s deep space missions. And, critically, the side of the spacecraft facing the sun will have constant access to solar power.
Before Monday’s maneuver, NASA exuded confidence. The team had already implemented vital rocket thrusts to tweak the spacecraft’s trajectory, said Mike Menzel, Webb’s mission systems engineer. The final thrusts helped avoid overshooting the L2 mark. That’s crucial. There’s no option to turn around and propel back towards Earth, explained Randy Kimble, a Webb commissioning project scientist, in a blog post. Doing so would expose the telescope’s optics to the sun, overheating and ruining the instruments.
The last thrust gave Webb just enough of a boost to “insert” into its orbital position. “We’re not at all worried about it,” Menzel had said earlier this month. “It’s a very minor burn.”
The near-perfect execution of the mission so far has been a welcome surprise to mission planners. When it comes to space missions, their modus operandi has been to expect the unexpected. The initial troubles with Hubble — NASA had to send astronauts out to the observatory to fix the blurry telescope in 1993 — perhaps also put Webb’s team on edge. If problems arose this time, Webb would be too far from home to send repair workers.
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Webb, a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency, is now preparing for science operations. The next step will involve the careful calibration of the telescope’s 18 hexagonal mirrors pieced together in a massive honeycomb dish. All of the segments must work in harmony to take uniform images of deep space. The first crisp pictures ready for primetime will be released in June.
“The core science of this telescope was to see the very first light in the universe, the first galaxies that formed, with some clever projects, perhaps even the first stars that formed,” Hammel said. “That’s its raison d’être. That’s why it was built the way it was built.”
SAVE 25%: If you have pets or kids — or are prone to spillages yourself — check out the iRobot Braava Jet 240. As of Jan. 24, this robot mop is on sale at Amazon for $149. That’s 25% less than its regular price of $199.
Ever mop yourself into a corner of the room, then have to choose between going about your day and mussing your newly clean floor? If this scenario strikes a familiar dread into your heart, consider the iRobot Braava Jet 240.
This robot mop (a.k.a. wet Roomba) is app-enabled — just press clean on the unit and watch it go. You can also customize the areas of the house it’s allowed to roam with Virtual Wall Mode, schedule mopping sessions during the week, or start/stop its process remotely.
That’s not to say the Braava Jet 240 requires monitoring or manual control. It is programmed to automatically select and execute the best mode — wet mopping, damp mopping, or dry sweeping — for the type of floor it’s cleaning, and it remembers obstacles so it can slow down and avoid them next time.
When it detects obstacles, it’ll also refrain from carrying out its usual Precision Jet Spray so as not to accidentally wet an antique rug or two. When obstacle-free, however, Precision Jet Spray and the robot’s Vibrating Cleaning Head ensure a thorough cleaning for every last part of your floor, even the hardest-to-reach bits. In fact, you might want to set it free under the kitchen counter or the bed for a while longer.
Credit: iRobot
iRobot Braava Jet 240 Robot Mop
$149 at Amazon (save 25%)
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If your home internet is too slow, AT&T’s got a new solution that could be like putting a jet engine on a bicycle.
The telecom giant announced on Monday that its first multi-gig fiber internet service would start rolling out immediately. They’ll serve a little more than five million people scattered across parts of 70 metro areas in the United States, a comprehensive list of which can be found on AT&T’s website. Cleveland, Dallas, Memphis, and Atlanta are just a few of the cities listed, though availability could vary by neighborhood. Prospective customers should check first.
You’ll also need a WiFi 6-compatible router to get the most out of it. Those are gradually becoming more widely available and affordable, though they’re still a little pricey.
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Put simply, multi-gig fiber internet is ultra-fast internet pushed through fiber-optic cables that, in AT&T’s case, can reach speeds of 2Gbps (gigabits per second) or 5Gbps, depending on which service you pay for. Speaking of which, AT&T is packaging these with a self-proclaimed “straightforward” price structure that doesn’t include contracts, equipment fees, or annual price increases. The 2Gbps option is $110 per month and the 5Gbps one is $180.
Both come with a complementary HBO Max subscription, should you need one.
If these services do indeed provide the speeds they claim to provide, there could be some major advantages beyond just downloading and streaming faster. AT&T claims the speeds are symmetrical, meaning upload speeds will be just as fast as download speeds. Normally, upload speeds are much lower, which can make things like, well, uploading files a pain. Beyond that, more bandwidth means more devices can connect to a network without causing congestion.
In a phone call with Mashable, AT&T Broadband executive VP Rick Welday emphasized that particular boon as something people can look forward to if they happen to have access to multi-gig fiber.
“There appears to be a liberation, a freedom, that a cohort of consumers are seeking, to know that how many devices they have, no matter how much bandwidth they consume…they are not worried about any of that not working properly,” Welday said.
“Access” is going to be the key word going forward. AT&T says it wants to have fiber serving 30 million people by 2025, which isn’t a small amount but does pale in comparison to the 77 million Americans with no adequate home internet at all. It’s obviously not on one provider to fix that problem, but with these impressive advancements in home internet tech, it’s worth remembering the people who might not see the benefits.
Still, 5Gbps home internet is a doozy. If you happen to qualify for it, just go nuts downloading gigantic files that you don’t even plan on using.
