Category Archives: Blog

When making sense of the youth voter turnout in the 2018 midterm elections, there’s good news, bad news, and some more good news. 

Early estimates show young people voted at historic rates. About 31 percent of people aged 18 to 29 voted in the midterms this year (a significant increase from 21 percent in 2014), according to a day-after exit poll by Tufts University’s Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. The estimate suggests the midterm elections marked the highest level of participation among young voters in the past quarter century. 

More about Elections, Voting, Midterm Elections 2018, Social Good, and Politics

The battle to reform Google is just getting started. 

Hours after Google CEO Sundar Pichai emailed employees a plan to end forced arbitration in cases involving sexual harassment and assault at the company, organizers of last week’s global Google walkout responded with a statement of their own. The letter, signed by nine employees, was clear: There’s more work to be done. 

“We commend this progress, and the rapid action which brought it about,” read the statement in part. “However, the response ignored several of the core demands — like elevating the diversity officer and employee representation on the board — and troublingly erased those focused on racism, discrimination, and the structural inequity built into the modern day Jim Crow class system that separates ‘full time’ employees from contract workers.”  Read more…

More about Google, Sundar Pichai, Tech, and Big Tech Companies

Diablo Immortal is just the tip of the iceberg for Blizzard Entertainment’s new ventures in mobile.

After the reveal of Diablo Immortal at BlizzCon Friday, I had a chance to talk to Blizzard founder Allen Adham, who is currently the executive producer of incubation, about its newly announced mobile game and the possibility of other Blizzard franchises getting the mobile treatment.

No other new mobile games were confirmed by Adham, but he did nod at the fact that the company is interested in creating more mobile games, even hinting at the fact that more unannounced projects are currently in production. Read more…

More about Mobile Gaming, Blizzard Entertainment, Blizzcon 2018, Diablo Immortal, and Entertainment

Trump’s fiery exchange with CNN’s White House correspondent Jim Acosta has led to the reporter’s press credentials being revoked.

On Wednesday evening, Acosta tweeted that he was denied entry to the White House grounds by the Secret Service, after his pass was taken off him.

A video posted by Acosta shows a Secret Service officer informing the reporter that he was “just told to do it.” Read more…

More about Politics, Cnn, Trump, Trump Administration, and Jim Acosta

Flexible, foldable phones are about to become a reality.

Samsung finally unveiled its long-rumored foldable phone, which uses a new type of display technology the company has dubbed an “Infinity Flex Display.” Google also announced that Android will support these devices, saying it expects several more to be announced from other Android makers. 

But these devices also mean we’ll have to relearn how to use our phones — again. Just as edge-to-edge bezel-less displays forced us to relearn basic navigation, phones that can fold up will also require a major behavioral shift. 

More about Tech, Google, Android, Samsung, and Smartphones

It isn’t easy being MoviePass right now.

Over the past few months, the subscription-based movie ticket service has lost millions of dollars, run out of money, limited its titles, and changed its pricing models more times than we could count. It’s lost customers (some of whom found it exceedingly difficult to get out) and been hit with an investigation by the New York Attorney General.

Somehow, they’ve survived — but their reputation has taken a serious hit in the process. Naturally, then, they’re eager to get back into the good graces of their understandably disgruntled customers.  Read more…

More about Moviepass, Entertainment, and Movies Tv Shows

Apparently there’s no spell to protect yourself from getting swindled.

J.K. Rowling was robbed by one of her former assistants, according to a recent BBC report. The Harry Potter author is now suing Amanda Donaldson for making unauthorized purchases totaling about £24,000 (or $30,000).

If true, Donaldson sounds like a real Mundungus Fletcher, having worked for the author from February 2014 until April 2017 all simultaneously stealing from her. She denies all charges. 

To add insult to injury, the list of stolen items cited are incomprehensibly stupid.  Read more…

More about J.K. Rowling, Entertainment, and Harry Potter

A video of a horrified girl giving a middle aged man the hand after he says something to her at a watch party for Dan Crenshaw went viral on Tuesday night. 

But the girl from the video wants everyone to chill — it’s just her dad. 

In the video posted by @gina_lolz, the man says something to the girl before she turns to him, clearly offended. She throws up a hand before he can finish and struts away.

“Please find this girl I have to know what that guy said to her,” the OP tweeted.

Ellie Delgado, a high schooler from Houston, set the record straight.  Read more…

More about Viral Videos, Twitter Reactions, Dads, Culture, and Web Culture

In this episode of Technically Speaking with Michael Nuñez, we analyze how Techtober hype feeds into holiday gadget shopping and increasing e-waste culture, unregulated election meddling via social media platforms, and Amazon’s media stunt to find a home for its new HQ2. Read more…

More about Amazon, Mashable Video, Social Media, E Waste, and Tech News

Good job everyone: Americans took a break from looking at porn long enough to watch the midterm erection election results roll in. 

According to Pornhub’s ever-insightful analytics, traffic in the United States was up as much as 20 percent on Tuesday morning. 

The report theorizes that Americans jerked off early before hitting the polls, or “perhaps they woke up more anxious than usual and needed to relax.” 

Traffic dipped between 4 to 7 p.m. and then again between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. as results rolled in across the nation. Strangely, traffic was up 1.7 percent at 8 p.m. — maybe it was too late to vote but too early for results?  Read more…

More about Pornhub, Midterm Elections 2018, Culture, and Web Culture