Category Archives: Blog

Okja director Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite won the Palme d’Or in a unanimous decision at 2019’s Cannes Film Festival. This is the first time a Korean director has won the festival’s top honor.

Cannes jury president Alejandro G. Iñárritu said, “We all shared the mystery of the unexpected way this film took us through different genres and spoke in a funny, humorous, tender way — with no judgment — of something so relevant and urgent, so global in such a local film, with such a beautiful efficiency of media, and an understanding of what film really is. We were all fascinated when we saw it, and it kept growing and growing: that’s why it was a unanimous decision.” Read more…

More about Entertainment, Movies, Cannes, Parasite, and Bong Joon Ho

It’s about to be Pride season, the time of year when brands cash in on “diversity” and emblazon a bunch of crap with the rainbow flag.

Every once in a while, however, a brand does something that actually moves the LGBTQ community forward. Take the latest ad from Gillette, which was posted on Thursday and which features a young trans teen from Canada by the name of Samson Bonkeabantu Brown, shaving for the first time.

Try to watch this without tearing up.

The ad is effective not only because of its writing, which ignores clichés, but because the producers actually cast a trans person to play a trans role. Here’s how Brown described the experience in a public Facebook post. Read more…

More about Advertising, Transgender, Razor, Culture, and Identities

The Trump administration has banned seven words from the Centers for Disease Control’s upcoming budget documents, the Washington Post reports. The words are “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.”

CDC analysts were not given a reason for the banned words, they were simply informed of the new policy. Some phrases can be replaced or retooled, like by saying “CDC bases its recommendations on science in consideration with community standards and wishes” – an actual alternate phrase offered to CDC analysts in the first briefing about these words. Read more…

More about Cdc, Donald Trump, Health And Human Services, Center For Disease Control, and Hhs

All the noise around the “drunk Pelosi” video has made something clear: Facebook wants to have it both ways. 

Some at the company would have us all believe that great strides have been made in the platform’s ongoing fight against misleading “fake news” content. But Facebook also won’t take the step of removing material like the doctored Pelosi clip, preferring instead to let users make their own choice about what to believe.

That’s the takeaway from comments made by Monika Bickert, Head of Global Policy Management at Facebook, in an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper.

More about Facebook, Anderson Cooper, Fake News, Tech, and Social Media Companies

Most galaxies are traveling away from our galaxy, not closer to it. Still, there are exceptions.

Take Messier 90, one of the few galaxies that appears to be traveling towards our own Milky Way galaxy. Recently, NASA’s Hubble telescope caught an awe-inspiring photo of the galaxy.

Here it is in full.

Because the universe is expanding, most galaxies are moving away from the Milky Way galaxy. Consequently, these galaxies appear to be on the red side of the spectrum, a phenomenon known as redshift. Read more…

More about Space, Nasa, Galaxies, Science, and Space

On Friday, after failing to secure a deal for Brexit, Prime Minister Theresa May offered a tearful resignation speech. But not everyone was equally as moved.

Owen Jones, a left-wing columnist for The Guardian,  expressed no pity for the Conservative prime minister in a video that has since gone viral. But some folks took an entirely different route — an interpretative dance route, if you will — in response to May’s resignation.

Here are dancers Kelsey Ellison and Mahou Shounen interpreting May’s resignation speech through dance.

More about Viral Videos, Dance, Theresa May, Culture, and Web Culture

Cats love computers — but their attachment comes at a cost.

This cat, from China, recently attempted to scratch themselves only to find a computer monitor blocking their way.

Watch as they nobly scratch anyway. Bless them. Read more…

More about Cats, Viral Videos, Cat Videos, Culture, and Web Culture

Hold onto your grandma, or she may rush the stage.  

Once classes end for seniors, the only thing standing between them and the rest of their lives is a graduation ceremony. These uppity events are full of speeches, applause, and awkwardly tense moments. While they’re meticulously planned, from the seating to the staging, there’s a lot that can happen unexpectedly when hoards of people are stuffed under one roof for several hours.

From blow-up sex dolls to fascist grandmas, here are some whacky graduation ceremony highlights:

1. Wake up call 

“I fell asleep while they were calling names and totally missed my name being called. What’s even funnier is that neither of the two troglodytes sitting next to me thought about waking me up. We were NOT all in this together. I woke up somewhere around the Ls (fitting) and realized that everyone around me had their fake diplomas in a little red scroll. So what did I do? I got up and walked to the end of the line and made them re-announce my name because I deserve my moment. We all do.” – Matty, 20 Read more…

More about Funny, College, Graduation, Roundup, and Culture

Back in 2011, no one could have predicted that Game of Thrones would become Game of Thrones. Fans of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series were probably hype about getting an HBO adaptation of a book series they knew and loved, but a fantasy TV show where heroes die and villains (sometimes) win was considered a gamble for a network better known for The Wire and Sex and the City.

The sheer excellence of Thrones shone through even in its earlier seasons, and from the moment Ned Stark’s head tumbled off the chopping block in “Baelor,” the stage was set for this compellingly violent character extravaganza to take over the world. And take over it has.  Read more…

More about Game Of Thrones, Entertainment, and Game Of Thrones

HBO’s Deadwood is perhaps known best for its creative use of profanity, its poetic dialogue, and its showcasing of star Ian McShane’s considerable acting talents. But there’s a common refrain about the HBO series that tends to get shouted louder than any of those other points whenever the subject comes up: It died too young.

The show ended without fanfare in 2006 after HBO opted against a fourth season. Creator David Milch moved on shortly thereafter to the failed “surf noir,” John From Cincinnati. But fans have been chasing closure on Deadwood ever since.

Well, it’s finally happening. On May 31, HBO will release a two-hour Deadwood movie set 10 years after the events of the third season. I’ve seen it and I’ll tell you now: The movie doesn’t tie up every single thread left dangling when the show ended. There’s not enough runtime to pull off such a feat. Read more…

More about Hbo, Deadwood, Entertainment, and Movies Tv Shows