Author Archives: Carol Edwards

This Christmas season, the Royal family is bonding over pudding. 

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge published adorable photos on their Instagram and Twitter accounts showcasing four generations of the family having a little Christmastime fun. Prince William, Prince Charles, and Queen Elizabeth II look on in delight as little Prince George stirs up a batch of holiday pudding.

Then, in a second photo, we get to see each of the four generations of British royalty preparing their own bowls.

More about Culture, Royal Family, Queen Elizabeth Ii, Culture, and Web Culture

#SantaKnew

A harried Eddie Murphy popped up as one of Santa’s elves – I won’t spoil his name – in a Saturday Night Live sketch set after a deadly fire breaks out in the North Pole. It all started with a rampaging polar bear, apparently.

Murphy keeps it together for most of the sketch, shouting about the hellish event and openly accusing Santa Claus of having some involvement. But he does break briefly after a line flub before quickly reverting back to freaked out elf. And like any other break in the history of SNL, it’s great fun. Read more…

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Here’s one of several sketches that proved Eddie Murphy doesn’t necessarily need one of his classic Saturday Night Live characters to be funny.

This goof on a holiday baking show is filled with confectionary monstrosities, but none are worse than Murphy’s… loose interpretation of Sonic the Hedgehog. Sporting human teeth and possessed by some kind of underworld creature, this thing clearly needs to be destroyed.

The sketch caps off with a kicker moment in which Murphy accidentally says “shit” and then immediately catches himself, covering his mouth in mock shame. It’s perfect. Read more…

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The Tesla Model 3 might be getting a couple of improvements according to some lines of code found by notoriously eagle-eyed Twitter user Green.

In looking at Tesla’s software, Green found a couple of notable changes coming to the Model 3, including an inclusion of the company’s Ludicrous Mode and an option for a 100kWh battery, which is a nice upgrade from the car’s current 75kWh battery.

Of course, it’s important to note that Tesla is no stranger to changing plans for its vehicles and that sometimes even the things it promises don’t quite line up to reality (*cough* cybertruck windows).

Along with these finds, Green pointed out some other changes in the software that could point toward new options for Model 3 buyers. There could be new tire pressure sensors, new rim options, new options for glass roofs, and improved airflow. Read more…

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When you go to the Star Wars parks at Disneyland or Disney World, there’s a place where you get to craft your own lightsaber for the not-low-at-all price of $200. You get to build the hilt and choose your kyber crystal, which Star Wars geeks know determines the color of your blade.

Officially, you’re only allowed to pick from the four colors seen in the movies: blue, green, purple, and red. Unofficially, you can actually make it any color you want.

Gene Chorba, a developer at Riot Games, tweeted Friday that those kyber crystals actually house a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag that determines the color of the blade. With the right technology, you can actually rewrite the RFID to get a different color. Read more…

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After operating in Colombia in a legal gray area for years, Uber has been ordered to halt its app business there.

A judge ruled Friday that Uber was violating competition rules in Colombia, Reuters reported, after a lawsuit was filed against the company by taxi dispatcher Cotech SA. The Superintendency of Industry and Commerce in Colombia ordered Uber to cease its ride-hailing services specifically through the use of the Uber app, effectively stating that the company had too much of an advantage over competition.

Uber immediately condemned the ruling and filed an appeal. In a statement provided to Reuters, Uber called the move a violation of human rights. Read more…

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Garfield creator Jim Davis is auctioning off his spare comic strips — but not all at once.

Heritage Auctions, based in Dallas, started auctioning off two comic strips per week in August, specifically the daily strips that appear in newspapers; they sell for around $500 to $700. 

Longer strips, like those from a Sunday newspaper, will be available at the auction house’s bigger events, and go from closer to $1,500 to $3,000. A comic grader at Heritage said strip price can increase depend on more character appearances or Garfield behaving in his signature way — hating Mondays, eating lasagna, and so on. Read more…

More about Entertainment, Comics, Auction, Garfield, and Entertainment

A network of false accounts and pages spreading pro-Donald Trump rhetoric to more than 55 million people were removed by Facebook and Twitter on Friday, The Verge reported, making the internet just slightly more genuine than it was on Thursday.

Facebook detailed its actions in a blog post, noting that it removed 610 Facebook accounts, 89  pages, and 156 groups, as well as 72 Instagram accounts, most of them originating in Vietnam, that were automating content, spamming the site, and spreading misinformation. The examples that Facebook shared in the blog post included pro-Trump messages and posts that had negative and false information about Democrats in the U.S. Read more…

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The world is looking a little bit greener today.

Team Trees took to Instagram on Friday with the news that donations received so far will fund the planting of 20 million new trees. The campaign launched back in late October with the ambitious goal of raising enough money by 2020 to pay for the planting 20 million new trees, at $1 per tree.

The roots of this campaign (pun definitely intended), which is working in a partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation, took hold in an unexpected place. It all started back in May 2019, when the YouTuber Jimmy “Mr. Beast” Donaldson was looking for a way to celebrate after hitting 20 million subscribers. Read more…

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