Category Archives: Blog

If a baguette was alive and could move around, how would it move?

This is the vital question posed by a comedian and animator named Dave (@sheepfilms on Twitter), who gave the internet its latest thing to debate on Thursday. According to Dave, there are four possible ways a baguette could move: worm, gallop, robot rotate, and caterpillar.

Please observe: 

A poll tweeted shortly after the video reveals number 3 (robot rotate) as the clear frontrunner. I agree, as this is the only scenario in which the baguette’s crusty exterior would not be compromised. You know what they say: A floppy baguette is no baguette at all. (No one says that.) Read more…

More about Twitter, Viral Videos, Social Media, Culture, and Web Culture

Seth Meyers is a renowned king of late night comedy. But is he the king of surviving scorchingly spicy hot wings? 

On the third episode of Hot Ones, a YouTube series in which celebrities answer big life questions while eating increasingly spicier chicken wings, Meyers did not disappoint. 

During the first six wings, Meyers is surprisingly coherent on topics such as politics and eSports. But by the seventh wing, he begins to break down. The schadenfreude is deliciously good when he’s asked to perform impersonations of Boston accents as he laughs through the intense pain. 

There’s just something so satisfying about watching a grown man, tears streaming, say “Da Bomb is too hot. It’s wicked hot.”  Read more…

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Watch out, Tesla. One of your rivals, Aurora, just got serious money from retail behemoth Amazon. 

Aurora isn’t just another self-driving tech company. Co-founder Sterling Anderson was the head of Tesla’s Autopilot program and was sued by his former employer back in 2017 for allegedly taking information and engineers with him to his new company. The case eventually settled and Aurora paid Tesla $100,000.

Now, Amazon is one of several backers in a $530 million funding round announced Thursday for Aurora, which is based in Palo Alto but maintains a big presence in Pittsburgh.

Aurora doesn’t build self-driving cars. It provides software for partners, including Volkswagen, Hyundai, and Chinese carmaker Byton — which promises vehicles capable of Level 4 autonomy by 2021. Last year Aurora secured the first state permit to test its vehicles throughout Pennsylvania, beating out Uber. Read more…

More about Amazon, Aurora, Autonomous Vehicles, Tech, and Transportation

As soon as this year, self-driving cars in the UK could be truly driverless.

That is, except for the remote control driver monitoring the vehicle while it drives in trial runs. But no one has to be in the car, so the future really is here.

The UK’s Department for Transport put out an updated “Code of Practice” Wednesday for testing autonomous vehicles. In the new guidelines (the previous report was from 2015) for companies trialing self-driving vehicles it outlines what’s permitted. Notably, “during trials, it is a legal requirement that there is a safety driver or safety operator ready and able to override the vehicle, though not necessarily within the vehicle.” Read more…

More about Uk, Driverless Cars, Autonomous Vehicles, Tech, and Transportation

Look, we get it. With that big video-conference call fast approaching, and all those reports your manager made you pull together at the last freaking minute, it’s totally understandable that you forgot all about that huge bong sitting on the shelf right behind you. 

Thankfully, Skype gets it too. The video chat service you never knew was so chill has a new feature that totally has you covered. It’s called background blur, and it’s here to save you from all kinds of potential video call embarrassments. 

“[Background blur] takes the stress out of turning on your video and puts the focus where it belongs—on you,” explains Skype. “With a simple toggle, right-click, or even through your Skype settings, your background will be instantly and subtly blurred, leaving just you as the only focal point.” Read more…

More about Microsoft, Skype, Video Chat, Tech, and Big Tech Companies

E-scooters can cause way more than a few scrapes and bruises.

A UC Los Angeles study from last month looked at two Southern California hospitals and the number of electric scooter injuries reported there for about a year. It totaled 250 people sent to the ER and 100 with head injuries. Now Consumer Reports has found throughout the country more than 1,500 scooter-related injuries that can be blamed on the two-wheeled vehicles.

In a report released this week looking at e-scooter crashes since the end of 2017 when the motorized scooters started arriving en masse, CR found 1,545 patients treated for scooter-related injuries. This number was determined by contacting 110 hospitals and five transportation agencies. Sixty medical centers and other police, city, and transportation agencies responded. All cities had a major e-scooter-sharing company like Lime or Bird introduced to the area in the past year. Read more…

More about Bird, Consumer Reports, Lime, E Scooters, and Tech

Every time we’re feeling just fine to go to sleep, Jordan Peele unleashes another sneak peak at his upcoming film, Us.

Wednesday was no exception, with the Oscar-winning Get Out director casually dropping a frightening new poster for his upcoming thriller featuring Lupita Nyong’o.

Nyong’o plays Adelaide Wilson, whose family is visited by some unexpected and weirdly familiar guestsAccording to Peele, the film tackles the idea that “we are our own worst enemies.”

And, well, this poster takes the idea of duplicity to a pretty frightening place, with Nyong’o lifting off a mask of her own face.  Read more…

More about Jordan Peele, Movie Posters, Lupita Nyong O, Jordan Peele Us, and Entertainment

Internet outrage might feel tiresome sometimes, but it can also be a force for good. 

The grocery and food delivery company Instacart has changed the way it pays its gig-economy workers, according to BuzzFeed. Following the outrage and worker organizing that occurred after several reports detailed the company’s payment structure — in which it used tips, not company revenue, to cover base wages — Instacart CEO Apoorva Mehta told delivery workers in an email that the company would reverse its policy.

“Based on your feedback, today we’re launching new measures to more fairly and competitively compensate all our shoppers,” Mehta wrote. “Tips should always be separate from Instacart’s contribution to shopper compensation.” Read more…

More about Doordash, Gig Economy, Instacart, Tech, and Activism

The secrets of Game of Thrones‘ upcoming Season 8 may be guarded more carefully than Lyanna Stark at the Tower of Joy, but with the final episodes’ release date looming closer, HBO has graced us with a handful of promotional stills. 

Although most of them are relatively close shots of characters, a close look at some of their details reveals some potential for analysis that’ll get fans looking forward to the Throne Zone. 

Let the wild speculation begin.

Jon Snow/Aegon Targaryen and Daenerys Targaryen

More about Game Of Thrones, Entertainment, Game Of Thrones, and Movies Tv Shows

Schitt’s Creek thrives on the power of character development. This sweet Canadian comedy wielded the best tool at its disposal — a genius writing team led by co-creators Eugene and Daniel Levy — to transform a fairly unknown show into a warmer, wittier version of itself by the time it reached Season 5, which premiered on POP TV last month. 

The show looks quite different from when it first began in 2015. I know, I know, progression is natural for every television show. Yet the creative powers that be have refined every rough edge from early episodes to deliver a remarkable feat: a near-perfect comedy. Read more…

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