Author Archives: Carol Edwards

Veteran actor and singer René Auberjonois has died of metastatic lung cancer at his Los Angeles home on Dec. 8. Auberjonois’ son Rèmy-Luc confirmed the news to The Associate Press on Sunday. He was 79.

Auberjonois was a well-respected and admired actor, having worked in the industry for over four decades. After studying theatre at Carnegie-Mellon University, Auberjonois performed with various theatre companies before landing his first Broadway role in 1968. His career quickly took off, the actor winning a Tony the next year for his role in as Sebastian Baye in Coco, opposite Katharine Hepburn. Read more…

More about Obituaries, Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Rene Auberjonois, Entertainment, and Celebrities

South Park jokes often very pointedly come at someone’s expense. But a throwaway joke from the Season 23 episode that aired Tuesday, Dec 3 had an unintended victim for a change.

A real person from Fairway, Colo. got bombarded with hundreds of calls from fans misdialing a number advertised as co-creator Trey Parker’s during the episode titled “Basic Cable.” The number appeared in an in-universe commercial urging streaming services to call and buy the rights to a variety of fake spin-off shows like “PC Babies” and “The Scott Malkinson Show.”

More about Entertainment, Twitter, Culture, South Park, and Trey Parker

There’s been a lot of (understandable) hand-wringing around deepfakes, but consider this: What if you could swap your face onto your cat’s body? Not so apocalyptic anymore, right?

It looks like that’s the pitch for Snapchat Cameo. You can use it to superimpose a face over another face in your Snaps, creating a sort of low-rent deepfake GIF or video clip.

While the upcoming feature hasn’t technically been revealed, some Snapchat users in France got to access it a bit early on Sunday. TechCrunch then confirmed with Snapchat that Cameo exists, and it’s undergoing limited testing in international markets. Read more…

More about Snapchat, Snapchat Cameo, Tech, and Big Tech Companies

He’s been saying it for years: Bernie Sanders is one of the most meme-able presidential candidates of our time. 

Just one week into December and he’s already announced a radical plan to bring everyone high-speed internet. Now, the presidential hopeful is contributing to web culture in the form of a fantastic meme, seemingly adding his voice to the chorus of supporters demanding hungry felines get a fair shot because “cats can have little a salami.”

When you visit the goldmine of a URL www.cancatshavealittlesalami.com, you’ll find Sanders’ latest policy plan to tackle the issue of systemic wealth inequality plaguing our country. Read more…

More about Politics, Cats, Culture, Bernie Sanders, and Meme

It’s been a long, patience-testing road for Wonder Woman fans. The movie’s sequel was originally slated for Nov. 2019, but it eventually got pushed back to June 2020 due to Warner Bros.’ desire for another summer release.

Still, they say good things come to those who wait, and we finally have some footage! The trailer for Wonder Woman 1984, which sees the alliterative Amazonian facing off against Cheetah during the Cold War, is every bit as epic as we could have hoped.

Is it June yet? Read more…

More about Dc, Wonder Woman, Gal Gadot, Wonder Woman 1984, and Entertainment

Claremont United Methodist Church transformed its Christmas nativity scene into a powerful statement about family separation by caging their figures of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph and releasing a theological statement on the United States’ treatment of refugees. 

A Facebook post by Senior Minister Karen Clark Ristine includes a picture of the nativity and the aforementioned statement, which encourages onlookers to “consider the most well-known refugee family in the world.” The statement continues:

Clark Ristine also wrote that the church building contains a second set of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph figures depicting the family’s reunion. Read more…

More about Nativity Scene, Family Separation, Culture, Activism, and Politics

Caroll Spinney, the beloved and renowned puppeteer who brought the original Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch to life on Sesame Street for nearly 50 years, died on Dec. 8 at the age of 85. 

According to a statement from his colleagues, Spinney left this world in his Connecticut home after a long battle with the muscle disease Dystonia. He leaves behind an enduring legacy of kindness, with his loving world view having helped shape Sesame Street into the unmistakable force for good it remains to this day.

“His enormous talent and outsized heart were perfectly suited to playing the larger-than-life yellow bird who brought joy to generations of children and countless fans of all ages around the world, and his lovably cantankerous grouch gave us all permission to be cranky once in a while,” the statement reads. Read more…

More about Entertainment, Sesame Street, Obituary, Big Bird, and Entertainment

Apple gave Mac fanatics their first look at the new $6,000 Mac Pro at the Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) in July, and after months of speculation on the desktop computer’s eventual release date, the day to pre-order the infamous cheese grater–lookin’ processor is nigh.

According to TechCrunch, Apple customers received email notifications stating that the Mac Pro will be available to pre-order on Dec. 10, but the emails gave no indication as to when those pre-orders would ship. 

When the Mac Pro was first unveiled, many noticed its uncanny resemblance to a cheese grater. The grater-y holes in the desktop tower are actually vents for its fans, which keep the computer quiet and protect it from overheating. That said, it also looks like it could do some serious damage to a block of Parmesan.  Read more…

More about Apple, Wwdc, Mac Pro, Tech, and Consumer Tech

When Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan duct-taped a real banana to the wall of the Galerie Perrotin at Art Basel Miami and listed it for a starting price of $120,000 dollars, it was par for the course in the art world. 

When Georgian artist David Datuna walked up to the banana, removed it from the wall, and ate it in a piece of unexpected performance art titled “Hungry Artist,” that was somewhat under par for the art world, but Datuna’s fruity performance wasn’t nearly as destructive at it seems.

More about Art Basel, Culture, and Web Culture

The free ride is almost over, late-arriving Tesla drivers.

A new update on the auto maker’s website confirms that Tesla data access will divide into two tiers starting on Jan. 1, 2020. It doesn’t affect every customer (more on that below), but many of them will soon need to choose between the free “Standard Connectivity” tier and the $9.99/month “Premium Connectivity” tier.

If all you want from your car’s data access is basic maps and navigation, plus the ability to stream media over Bluetooth, then Standard is the way to go. You’ll still have access to the fancier features (if you want them) whenever your car is connected to Wi-Fi. Read more…

More about Tesla, Tech, and Transportation