Category Archives: Blog

The post-election bloodbath within the Trump administration continues as embattled chief-of-staff John Kelly is out, and is expected to be replaced by Vice President Mike Pence’s chief-of-staff Nick Ayers, who is now Trump’s third chief in less than two years, an unprecedented revolving door for a key position.

Trump confirmed the news himself on Saturday while speaking with reporters on the White House lawn, per the New York Times. “John Kelly will be leaving — I don’t know if I can say ‘retiring,'” Trump said. “But he’s a great guy. John Kelly will be leaving at the end of the year.” Read more…

More about Donald Trump, John Kelly, Chief Of Staff, Culture, and Politics

If you’re looking for more info on Avengers: Endgame, the Infinity War follow-up that go its first trailer on Friday, you might think that pointing your browser at AvengersEndgame.com is the answer.

Wrong. Typing “AvengersEndgame.com” into your address bar will take you to the official Fox Movies web portal for Once Upon a Deadpool, the family-friendly Deadpool 2 re-cut that uses the same “reading stories to a sick kid in bed” framing device as The Princess Bride (right down to Fred Savage!). 

There’s still some question as to whether or not this is an intentional marketing ploy, however. It’s definitely something you could see coming out of the Deadpool playbook. But the only figure to step forward and take credit so far is an anonymous Twitter user. Read more…

More about Entertainment, Film, Once Upon A Deadpool, Avengers Endgame, and Entertainment

Grab your popcorn. Refill your tea. Individual-1 is getting meme’d. 

Special Counsel Robert Mueller and federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York filed separate memos giving their sentencing recommendations for Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen. Manhattan prosecutors suggested “substantial” prison time of between roughly four and five years, while Mueller noted Cohen has been helpful to his investigation even though his crime was “serious.” 

Cohen pleaded guilty to tax evasion, bank fraud, and campaign finance violations in August, and last week pleaded guilty to lying to Congress. New York prosecutors have been handling the financial crimes while Mueller has been focused on the lying part. Cohen asked for no time behind bars because he’s been so chummy with Mueller, and Mueller didn’t give a suggested timeframe for his sentence.  Read more…

More about Memes, Trump, Michael Cohen, Mueller Investigation, and Culture

Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Thor, Thanos — gang’s all here in the action-packed Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order trailer, which premiered at The Game Awards on Thursday night.

Coming exclusively to Nintendo Switch, Marvel’s new multiplayer naturally follows Marvel Ultimate Alliance and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, published with Activision in 2006 and 2009 respectively. 

The Black Order trailer reveals a host of playable Marvel characters, including the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, the X-Men and more. Seriously, they’re pretty much all here. It’s like Super Smash Bros. but with Marvel characters. Read more…

More about Marvel, Nintendo Switch, Entertainment, and Gaming

Long criticized for his time management skills, billionaire inventor Elon Musk is once again behind schedule on a major project.

This time it’s the underground Hawthorne test tunnel for The Boring Company’s high-speed transit system underneath Los Angeles. A big public opening experience was scheduled for Tuesday, but a company spokesperson emailed over a new date set for Dec. 18.

Musk tweeted about the delay, expertly spinning it as an improved event that just needs a bit more attention and time to pull off. He promised “more than a tunnel opening” with autonomous transport cars and car elevators. Maybe something like the elevator approved for under a Hawthorne home the company purchased? Guess we’ll find out later this month. Read more…

More about Elon Musk, The Boring Company, High Speed Transit, Tech, and Transportation

We live in the golden age of bad non-apologies, but Kevin Hart’s response to recent backlash over resurfaced homophobic jokes might take the cake.

“Stop looking for reasons to be negative… Stop searching for reasons to be angry,” Hart wrote in his Instagram, along with a grainy video of him shirtless expressing the same sentiments.

For those playing catch up: On Wednesday, Hart was announced as the host of the 2019 Oscars. Within hours, concerns were raised online that resurfaced a litany of (now-deleted) tweets. 

One described how, if he ever saw his son playing with his daughter’s doll house, “I’m going 2 break it over his head and say n my voice ‘stop that’s gay.'” Others included him using homophobic slurs against other people. Read more…

More about Watercooler, Entertainment, Twitter, Kevin Hart, and Homophobia

Nymeria howls.

That impressive vocal ability was just part of what I learned about my newly adopted pup, Nymeria (aka “Meerie”), as I watched her, pacing and barking non-stop, from a dog nanny cam live feed on my phone, while I sat in my office, miles away. 

I was heartbroken. 

I thought she was adjusting, doing fine! But a livestreamed feed showed me that her adorable affection while I was around translated to separation anxiety when I wasn’t. On the live feed, I had to watch her clearly suffering, or at best bored, and there was not much I could do about it.

More about Dogs, Parenting, Parenting With Technology, Furbo, and Tech

The holidays are upon us and, for Instagram users, that can only mean one thing: it’s time to make your “top nine” collage.

For those not familiar, these are the posts that inundate Instagram feeds and Stories at the end of each year, with users showing off their nine most-liked Instagram posts of the year in a single collage.

The Top Nine tool, which is created by app developer Beta Labs, is available now and has been updated for 2018. You can download the app in the App Store or Google Play Store, or make your collage on the the Top Nine website. You’ll need to use the app if you have a private Instagram account. Read more…

More about Tech, Instagram, Tech, and Social Media Companies

There’s no time like the present to slow the tide of a technology-enabled facilitation of discrimination aided by facial recognition. 

So, somewhat surprisingly, argues one key developer of said facial recognition tech: Microsoft. 

On Dec. 6, Microsoft president Brad Smith released an over 3,500-word blog post detailing his concerns with the aforementioned technology and calling for immediate government regulation. The post gets straight to the point, noting that as a society we can’t risk waiting any longer.

“The facial recognition genie, so to speak, is just emerging from the bottle,” reads the post in part. “Unless we act, we risk waking up five years from now to find that facial recognition services have spread in ways that exacerbate societal issues.” Read more…

More about Microsoft, Facial Recognition, Tech, and Big Tech Companies

Are these workouts even effective? 

A supercut of workout videos went viral for being — for lack of a better description — absolutely wild. 

The screen recording posted to Twitter shows a trio of unsettlingly buff guys lifting weights while getting kicked in the abs, doing crunches while getting hit by medicine balls to the abs, and doing sick  crunches underwater to strengthen the abs. At one point, one of the unsettlingly buff men sprint-flails on a treadmill, while the other two unsettlingly buff men hold him back with a resistance band. 

Again, it’s absolutely wild. 

More about Twitter, Instagram, Workout, Culture, and Web Culture