Category Archives: Blog

The brightest (and fiercest) witch of her age is back.

Performer Kelsey Ellison reprised her viral “dancing Hermione” outfit for a magic moment during Saturday’s Pride event in London.

The YouTube personality and self-proclaimed Harry Potter enthusiast gained fame when she appeared at MCM London’s ComicCon, stupefying all with a casually fierce dance while dressed up as Hermione Granger.

On Saturday, she brought the magic to Pride in London, voguing her way through her celebrated routine, backpack and all, and finishing with a casual split — all in a casually steamy summer temperature of 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit). Read more…

More about Lgbtq, Viral Video, Pride, Hermione, and Pride Month

Put away that Rolex, because there’s a new conspicuous consumption totem on the block. 

A June paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research looking at, in part, common predictors of wealth, found that owning an iPhone is a strong sign that someone is in fact straight ballin’. Or, at least “high-income.”

“We measure cultural distance between two groups as the ability to infer an individual’s group based on his or her (i) media consumption, (ii) consumer behavior, (iii) time use, or (iv) social attitudes,” notes the study abstract. 

The paper, by Marianne Bertrand and Emir Kamenica, has some interesting details. For example, while in 1992 using Grey Poupon Dijon was 62.2% indicative of being high income, by 2016 that fanciest of mustards had been replaced by the iPhone.  Read more…

More about Apple, Iphone, Tech, and Iphone

The G.O.A.T. is back with an ace of an answer to a reporter’s question.

Serena Williams is seemingly unstoppable both on and off the court. And her latest press conference at Wimbledon 2018 confirms this factTelegraph reporter Jamie Johnson asked Williams what it’s like being the one who motivates other players to up their game just to compete with her.

More about Tennis, Goat, Serena Williams, Wimbledon, and Entertainment

Turns out everyone’s favorite ahistorical Bean Town boy and resident Sad Man is more than just a pretty face. 

That’s right, Ben Affleck, the star of such films as Gigli and Pearl Harbor, is so much more as this random (apparently) 2003 interview showing him basically predicting Spotify and Netflix streaming proves. 

In the middle of a fast-paced rant about file-sharing, he notes that in the future everyone will have access to music and video on demand for an annual subscription fee. 

“I think an annual subscription-based system is one that works,” he tells the interviewer. “It will be movies on demand but it will be a tiered structure,” he adds.   Read more…

More about Netflix, Spotify, Ben Affleck, Entertainment, and Celebrities

Gal Gadot met a few real-life superheroes at a children’s hospital this weekend. 

The brave little heroes at Inova Children’s Hospital in Falls Church, Virginia came face-to-face with Wonder Woman herself when Gadot visited outfitted in her full costume. 

Warning: You’re going to need Wonder Woman-level strength to make it through these photos without melting into a pile of happy tears. Oh, you thought the ending of the first Wonder Woman emotionally wrecked you? It has nothing on this. 

Told you.

Gadot brought big smiles and gifts, including coloring books, toys, and autographed photos, to the little fighters.  Read more…

More about Inspiring, Wonder Woman, Gal Gadot, Culture, and Kids

Who would have thought getting in shape could be so risky. 

Fitness apps help you track your runs, calories burned, and maybe even your heart rate. If you happen to be using a Polar device and its associated app, however, that information — in addition to small details like where you live — could end up in the wrong hands. 

Approximately six months after researchers revealed that so-called Strava heatmaps allowed for the identification of secret overseas military bases, a joint effort from the Dutch De Correspondent and the open source investigative site Bellingcat discovered that another fitness app was making all kinds of user data public that, if it got into the wrong hands, could do serious harm.  Read more…

More about Privacy, Fitness Trackers, Tech, and Cybersecurity

Picture this: You’re wandering through the desert and stumble on a hamburger with a face. Are you hallucinating? Are you high? Are you just really hungry? No, no, and maybe.

On Friday, Sela Shiloni encountered a googly-eyed, tongue-protruding hamburger in the middle of the barren landscape of Llano, California and tweeted a photo asking “What…. is this?” Well, it turns out that the giant hamburger is the missing “Durr Burger” from the popular game Fortnite. 

Luckily, Twitter’s Fortnite fans were mostly helpful (although several complained that Shiloni didn’t touch the burger and that he Photoshopped the whole thing) and helped Shiloni figure out what the burger was.  Read more…

More about Twitter, Gaming, Desert, Fortnite, and Entertainment

The news is very bad, but this cat is very good. 

Dutch news show Nieuwsuur was interviewing Polish academic Jerzy Targalski about the controversial forced removal of Poland’s top Supreme Court judge when Targalski’s cat Lisio demanded a moment in the spotlight. 

Targalski didn’t even paws (sorry) as Lisio crawled up his arm, perching on his human’s shoulder and grooming Targalski’s ear. When the pesky scene-stealer blocked Targalski’s eyes with his tail, Targalski just kept talking about the serious subject matter and held the cat’s tail down.  Read more…

More about Cats, Culture, and Animals

The Marvel universe lost one of its most influential craftsmen with the recent death of Spider-Man and Doctor Strange co-creator Steve Ditko at the age of 90.

Current Spider-Man Tom Holland took to Twitter to thank Ditko for his contributions to the crafting the high-swinging superhero.  

Holland tweeted, “We all want to leave our mark on the world – this guy crushed it. He made so many people so happy and changed lives – most of all, mine! Thank you Steve – your life lives on man, thank you.”  Read more…

More about Twitter, Spiderman, Tom Holland, Remembrance, and Entertainment

Elon Musk is coming to the rescue.

The tech leader, along with SpaceX and Boring Company engineers, have been working with cave experts in Thailand to rescue the boys’ soccer team of 12 that’s been stuck in a cave system since June 23.

On Saturday, Musk tweeted an updated rescue plan, which essentially involves constructing “a tiny, kid-size submarine” that he plans to fly to Thailand.

Musk began his Saturday updates by discussing an “escape pod design” and “an inflatable tube with airlocks.” But as the day progressed, he settled on the idea of a mini-submarine. Read more…

More about Tech, Thailand, Elon Musk, Spacex, and Submarine