Category Archives: Blog

Hot Ones host Sean Evans is very good at what he does, and big credit to the show’s crack team of researchers, too. But when an interview like Colin Farrell comes along, you also see how much of a difference a good guest can make.

This sitdown with The Batman‘s Penguin actor isn’t exactly spilling over with the usual pile of factoids and surprising bits of trivia that Evans often mines as his guests playfully suffer through a gauntlet of fiery hot sauces. But it’s just a good conversation. Farrell comes off as down-to-Earth and engaged in the show’s process. Not only that, he clearly did his research before appearing.

The result is a flowing chat that leaps from topic to topic as Farrell expounds on his process, his tastes as an entertainment consumer, his Irish background, and his views on the acting profession as a whole. He may not remember if Al Pacino actually damaged a car that was used in The Recruit, but by the end of the episode he’s likely someone you’d be thrilled to sit down and chat with over a pint.

• ‘The Batman’ Review: A crime-thriller suffocated by PG-13 demands

• ‘The Batman’ reviews are in. Here’s what critics think.

• ‘The Batman’ star Jeffrey Wright gives Stephen Colbert some hints about the movie

• Paul Dano reveals what it took to get The Riddler’s costume right in ‘The Batman’

It’s March, as in the month after February. How did that happen? It’s already March 2022. If that doesn’t sound like a fake date, I don’t know what does. That’s the kind of thing they put on the screen for some robot movie we watched as kids.

Anyway, where were we? Oh yes, another week down. Another week past us. And another week of collecting the absolute funniest tweets. It’s time to enjoy the weekend and laugh at some funny stuff we saw online. Because it’s nice to laugh, my dear reader, and you deserve it.

So here they are, the 14 best and funniest posts of the week.

1. The things is, both of these things are Draconian. I hate NJ gas laws so much. The best thing about driving in New Jersey is leaving New Jersey.

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2. Yes, me too.

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3. “I think I’m either going to kick the bucket or just like black out for a bit. Could go either way. See you in the morning. Or not.”

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4. Just a very funny clip. Nothing else.

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5. Air Bud was an absolute menace on the hardwood

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6. I do love this. I have a Google Maps tab open at most times.

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7. He has 100 percent nailed the fame thing.

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8. Sounds like a plan.

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9. Obligatory dril tweet

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10. Factually speaking, the T-shirt from my college soccer team that’s like a decade old is more rare.

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11. There is simply no better day you could have on any job.

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12. “So you tricking me.”

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13. Cannot explain why this Soprano’s meme killed me as much as it did.

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14. And finally, this heartbreaking and hilarious I Think You Should Leave meme.

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South by Southwest, the annual tech, music, film, and art mega-festival, is back in person this year after it was canceled in 2020, and relegated to virtual-only status last year because of the pandemic. It will actually now be both in-person and virtual.

It kicks off in Austin next week, so before the big acts and crowds arrive, we’re taking a peek at what to expect on the ground in Texas or streaming into your home office.

The Basics

SXSW will run from Friday, March 11 through Sunday, March 20, and events are being held all over Austin.

Venues are scattered throughout the city, including theaters, convention halls, stages, hotels, restaurants, and even churches for talks and panels, concerts, movie and TV premieres, and a comedy festival that comedian John Cleese will kick off.

Featured speakers at conference events, which include “tracks” on transportation, healthcare, advertising, gaming, climate change, and more, will be available to stream online.

Admission

This year has big “hybrid” energy, meaning some events will be IRL in Austin, others will be streamed, and some will be available for both in person and online audiences.

Registration rates go up by Sunday night (March 6), so if you want IRL or online-only access, now’s the time to sign up.

Students (high school, college, and grad) can get a discount rate, but it’s a separate sign up process.

Lineups

SXSW is a chance for big and small artists alike to perform or even make a debut. Here are highlighted premieres and performances.

Film and TV

• Under the Influence: Social media star David Dobrik’s documentary

• The Lost City: Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, and Daniel Radcliffe come together in this action-comedy

• WeCrashed: The Apple TV+ series stars Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway, and tells the story of the rise and fall of the coworking company, WeWork

• Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off: A documentary about the skating pro’s life

• The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent: Nicolas Cage stars in this action-comedy alongside Tiffany Haddish and Pedro Pascal

• Atlanta: The Season 3 premiere starring Donald Glover will close out the festival

• Bodies, Bodies, Bodies: A comedy-horror film with Pete Davidson as part of the cast

Music

With over 300 artists performing, there’s a frankly overwhelming amount of musical talent at SXSW, in genres ranging from folk to hip-hop to rock to reggae.

• Dolly Parton. Arguably the most famous and beloved country singer in the world will be at the Moody Theater, making her first-ever appearance at the festival (She’ll also be dropping an NFT)

• KT Tunstall. The Scottish singer-songwriter will perform at Creek and the Cave Backyard

• Black Lips. The Atlanta garage rockers will perform somewhere, at some point (as of this writing, their date, time and venue were still TBA)

• Shamir. The Las Vegas-based creator of effervescent, experimental pop with attitude will play a set at the Empire Control Room

• Alex the Astronaut. The Australian folk singer-songwriter’s set time and venue are still TBA

Appearances

Beyond screen and music events, there will be a lot of experts, politicians, celebs, musicians, actors, CEOs, and more roaming around the conference (or streaming in). Here are some folks we’re tracking:

• The O.C.‘s Ben McKenzie to talk about cryptocurrency skepticism

• Better Call Saul actor Bob Odenkirk in conversation with his son

• U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg

• NPR’s Audie Cornish

• Ted Lasso stars Brett Goldstein and Brendan Hunt

• Texas governor candidate Beto O’Rourke

• Celebrity chef Alison Roman

• Daily Show correspondent Roy Wood, Jr.

Freebies

The outdoor stage at Lady Bird Lake is three days of free charity events from March 17 through March 19. The public can enjoy Golden Dawn Arkestra, Sammy Hagar and the Circle, and Mt Joy as headliners.

Come for the crowds.
Credit: SXSW

There’s also a daily selection of free events, like art installations, talks, and Disney+ screenings, all around the city.

Each year the festival and conference relies on volunteer crews, but you have to put in at minimum 24 hours of work before you can get access to events. Out of town volunteers are welcome to apply, but you’ll have to find nearby housing and accommodations.

Social media

Even if you don’t get online access you can follow along on social media. SXSW just launched a TikTok channel, and there’s always Instagram. Of course Twitter will be brimming with #SXSW content. It’ll feel like you’re there.

In The Tourist, Jamie Dornan plays a man who doesn’t know who he is — and that might be the main problem with HBO and Two Brothers Pictures’ miniseries in a nutshell. While The Tourist offers up admirable production, performances, and execution, it squanders seeds of dark comedy promise. The six episodes ultimately amount to an ordinary thriller, even as Dornan leads with aplomb.

Dornan plays a man who wakes up with amnesia and a troubling past waiting in the wings. He has no ID and no memories. But while retracing his steps, he receives frantic phone calls from a man buried alive in the Australian outback. With no friend in the world besides probationary constable Helen Chambers (Danielle Macdonald), The Man races to save the man in the ground and discover exactly what sort of person he is. Harry and Jack Williams wrote the series and executive produced with Chris Sweeney, who directs with Daniel Nettheim.

That’s a spoiler-free overview of the first two episodes, which misrepresent The Tourist‘s highlights. The man-in-the-ground and a violent cowboy on The Man’s tail (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson) set up Breaking Bad levels of darkness and some truly sickening scenes. But McDonald in particular seems to be on a different show, playing Helen with mockumentary-tier comic timing and an awkward charm that sets The Man at ease from the start. The Tourist is a buddy comedy in its best moments, something it should mightily lean into if it gets another season.

Just a couple pals going for burritos!
Credit: Ian Routledge / Two Brothers Pictures

Once the show hits its stride, Dornan gets to showcase an underutilized side of him (known to those wise enough to check out Barb and Star go to Vista Del Mar, but still). The show’s best moments are The Man discovering Mexican food, angrily screaming that he doesn’t know who Simon & Garfunkel are, and an ill-timed pun that made me shriek with laughter so baldly that I nearly blew out a nearby candle. Dornan and McDonald’s comedic chemistry outshines the contrived sexual tension between The Man and Luci (Shalom Brune-Franklin) by a long shot. It’s also a rare treat to hear Dornan in all his Northern Irish glory without the honey-bee baggage.

Despite the uneven tone, The Tourist executes its story with style. Scott Bird’s production design works with Geoffrey Hall and Ben Wheeler’s cinematography for a gritty, rustic visual palette. Everything feels just slightly orange, a little sunburnt like our lost hero on his quest. The fight sequences and chase scenes elicit the desired physical effect and emotional response — in other words, everyone did their job and did it well. Damon Herriman, Alex Dimitriades, and Kamil Ellis round out a strong supporting cast, and Victoria Haralabidou gives a scene-stealing turn as a mysterious woman popping up in flashes of memory.

With such charm in its lighter moments, The Tourist struggles to match that magnetism with its drama. It’s no surprise to learn The Man is the one responsible for burying that guy, or that he has a dark history of violence, murder, and drug running. I’ve seen The Bourne Identity, but these days I’m more into Barry: A twisted, refreshing story about a tortured man seeking lightness and redemption. The Tourist falls short of that bar, but it’s a valiant effort.

The Tourist is now streaming on HBO Max.

As Sex and the City’s Samantha Jones once said, “Honey, they don’t call it a job for nothing.”

And, as you might have guessed from the headline, we’re talking about blowjobs. Specifically, whether consuming pineapple affects the taste of your, err, semen. In layman’s terms — and please do pardon the graphicness — does it make your cum taste better?

This burning question is one that’s currently doing the rounds on TikTok, with many claiming that the tropical fruit holds a secret power. As with many supposed ‘facts’ being circulated on social media, we have to ask: is there any truth to this?

Never one to shy away from uncomfortable subjects, I decided it was incumbent upon me to get to the bottom of this issue and to investigate whether eating copious amounts of pineapple will make your spunk less funky (I’m sorry).

After speaking to two doctors, we can safely say that it’s a little bit more complicated than TikTok creators will have you believe.

Men’s health expert GP Dr. Jeff Foster from H3 Health told Mashable that more than 80 percent of semen is made up of water. “The rest of it contains the following: amino acids, citric acid phosphorous potassium, zinc, calcium, sodium potassium, and various enzymes,” said Foster. “The proportions of these have evolved over hundreds of thousands of years to support sperm as it makes its journey towards to an egg for reproduction.”

Changing the taste of semen would mean altering these core components, said Foster. “There are no quality studies that have really looked at this as it is a difficult thing to justify getting funding for,” he added. “However there are certain foods that are supposed to make semen taste sweeter, i.e. those high in fructose/glucose (for example pineapple, orange juice, kiwi).”

Foster said that in reality, eating these fruits is unlikely to make a difference to semen taste. “If it did, it would alter the constituents of the medium that the sperm is in and potentially damage it. Semen is almost completely protected from what you eat,” he explained.

The idea itself doesn’t make much sense, according to Foster. “If you eat pineapple, it goes into your stomach, is then digested, goes into your liver and blood and eventually small aspects of it broken down many times, are used to make more semen products in the future,” he said. “It is not linked directly at all and even if it did, it would take weeks.”

“Not much research has been done on the subject, but also there are no specific indications…”

Dr. Dmitry Loktionov — a gynaecologist and sexual health specialist who developed CBD lube Quanna — agreed that there is insufficient research into the subject to prove that pineapples have an impact. “Not much research has been done on the subject, but also there are no specific indications that the composition of sperm changes after eating pineapple,” said Loktionov. “Generally, a healthy diet will contribute to healthier or ‘better tasting’ sperm, compared to an unhealthy, junk food diet and smoking, alcohol etc.”

Loktionov said that the same rule is true for people with vulvas. “Vaginal pH changes with women’s overall health and diet as it contains a lot of bacteria — Lactobacillus, for example — which respond to such changes. But specifically saying that pineapple will change its taste is not correct. It’s about more major changes to your diet,” he explained.

Foster added that the best thing to do is drink plenty of fluid, which might help dilute any taste, and to keep good hygiene.

Sorry to anyone that’s been bulk-buying pineapples. On the upside, your body’s probably loving the Vitamin C boost.

Russians have turned to the popular hybrid messaging-forum app Telegram for news and conversations about the war in Ukraine that’s not the officially state-sanctioned version of events. But some of these Telegram users might want to tread lightly.

Telegram has a reputation as a secure messaging app, but, contrary to that reputation, not all communications on the platform have the highest level of security. Unlike on Signal or WhatsApp, messages on Telegram are not end-to-end encrypted by default. End-to-end encryption prevents even the platform from knowing the content of users’ messages. Instead, Telegram uses a different type of encryption that does not protect the privacy of conversations from Telegram itself. Here’s Mashable’s detailed breakdown on Telegram’s privacy blindspot.

Telegram users can enable end-to-end encryption for some messages by making them “secret,” but that’s not the default, and it’s limited to one-on-one chats and not extended to private group messages. That’s particularly worrisome to privacy experts because group messages are where a lot of organizing against the war in Russia is taking place, according to Eva Galperin, the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s director of cybersecurity.

Ukrainians are also using Telegram, and the fully end-to-end encrypted messaging app Signal. But the matter of cybersecurity may be understandably less top of mind to people under threat of bombing than it is to people within Russia who may be organizing or speaking out against the government.

That makes Galperin concerned that some of these Russian Telegram users may be vulnerable to having their private information exposed, which could happen in a few ways. The first is that the Russian government might demand that Telegram hand over this user information. Telegram stood up to Russia in 2018 when Russia previously required this, and Russia took Telegram to court as a result. Russia dismissed the case in 2020. Still, using Telegram means users’ conversations and metadata are not protected from the platform itself.

“All of this data is available to Telegram as a company, and because of that, you’re essentially trusting Telegram not to hand it over,” Galperin said.

But Galperin believes the greater threat has to do not with Telegram’s trustworthiness, but with its security. 

“What I would have much less confidence in is Telegram’s ability to protect that data from hacking or insider threat,” Galperin said.

In this scenario, a hacker might access Telegram’s records in order to hand over the data to outside parties. Even worse is what Galperin thinks is “the single most likely source of threat”: that someone within Telegram might compromise that security, accessing and transferring user data, with the company and the public none the wiser.

Still, Telegram has been a valuable source of counter-propaganda for Russians. Which makes another possible scenario: Russia cutting off access to Telegram entirely. 

“I wonder if the government very soon will speed up its attempts to block Telegram,” Ian Garner, a Russian historian who has been documenting social media trends in the Ukraine war, said over email.

Galperin said that this would be technically possible. And not having an information pipeline — even a cryptographically flawed one — is concerning in and of itself.

“Fundamentally, yes, people should be concerned about using Telegram,” Galperin cautioned. “But realistically, people just need to be aware of what the risks are so that they can make an informed decision.”

Scammers and other bad actors are once again up to their old tricks in search of ill-gotten profits, and this time they’ve set their sights on Ukraine. In order to take advantage of the ongoing war in the country, they’re using an old, reliable tool to trick internet users: Domain names.

More than 4,200 Ukraine-related domain names have been registered since Russian troops invaded the country last week, according to the domain monitoring service DomainTools. 

DomainTools has been tracking newly registered domain names that contain the terms “Ukraine” or “Ukrainian” for the past week. The company has made this data freely available to the public. 

Domain name registrations connected to the conflict have continued to rise, most notably jumping from 46 domains on Feb. 24, the day Russia’s invasion began, to more than 200 the next day.

It’s important to note that not all of these domain name registrations are malicious. However, preliminary research into the data by both DomainTools and Mashable have uncovered a number of likely scams. Within hours of the invasion of Feb 24, DomainTools discovered URLs, such as “support-ukraine.eu” and “donatetoukraine.org,” set up to take donations for unspecified organizations. The Federal Trade Commission website warns against just these sorts of emotionally charged appeals for donations that don’t include details about how the money will be used.

Mashable has uncovered similar Ukraine-related domains being used for apparent scams, particularly ones related to cryptocurrency. “Crypto4Ukraine.com” was registered eight days ago. A website at the URL was quickly setup using the hosting service Wix. Donation links and QR codes can be found on the site, which sends users to specific crypto wallets for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, and a number of other tokens.

“Crypto fundraising for all the victims of the gruesome events” reads the website, without any mention of where these donations will go. A Google search for the Bitcoin wallet address provided found it listed on a website where users can report crypto scams. At publishing time, the website is no longer resolving at the domain.

Another website posing as a crypto fundraiser for Ukraine, “cryptocurrency-helps-ukraine.com” lists a number of wallet addresses that have not previously been shared online. The website also does not specify which organization these donations will ostensibly be going to.

As Shoshana Wodinsky of Gizmodo pointed out on Twitter, other URLs registered related to the conflict in Ukraine seem to point to other possible scams. One domain pointed to a website for “Ukraine Brides.” Another URL forwarded users to real estate listings in nearby countries.

Nefarious actors have long weaponized URLs in order to scam users out of money or steal their personal information. This tactic exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, as thousands of domain names were registered promoting COVID-19 vaccines in order to trick people into thinking they were visiting official health websites.

If you’re looking for legitimate Ukraine aid organizations to donate to, you can find those here.

The Russian government is tightening its grip on social media as it attempts to control the message over the war in Ukraine.

Russia is now moving to block access to Facebook across the entire country, according to a March 4 official press release, translated by Google. Notably, only the Facebook platform itself appears to be the target of Russia’s ire — Meta-owned apps like WhatsApp and Instagram look to remain unscathed (at least for now).

“On March 4, 2022, a decision was made to block access to the Facebook network (owned by Meta Platforms, Inc.) in the Russian Federation,” reads the statement in part. “In recent days, the social network has restricted access to accounts: the Zvezda TV channel, the RIA Novosti news agency, Sputnik, Russia Today, the Lenta.ru and Gazeta.ru information resources.”

This move comes as the deadly Russian war in Ukraine continues to elicit international outrage and sympathy for the Ukrainian people. It follows actions taken by numerous tech giants, including Twitter and Google-owned YouTube, to limit Russian war propaganda by blocking, labeling, or limiting the spread of state-run media companies.

On Friday, the Russian parliament passed a new law meant to combat the sharing of war-related information online. Specifically, reports Reuters, offenders could face up to 15 years in prison for spreading “fake” information about the Russian military.

We reached out to Meta (formerly known as Facebook), which owns the Facebook platform, and asked if it has any response to the Russian government’s announcement. We received no immediate response, however the company’s president of global affairs shared a statement on Twitter.

“Soon millions of ordinary Russians will find themselves cut off from reliable information, deprived of their everyday ways of connecting with family and friends and silenced from speaking out,” wrote Nick Clegg. “We will continue to do everything we can to restore our services so they remain available to people to safely and securely express themselves and organize for action.”

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Russia justified its decision to block Facebook by saying the platform had violated Russian law. Specifically, a provision meant to (at least ostensibly) guarantee open internet access for Russians.

“The above restrictions are prohibited by Federal Law No. 272-FZ ‘On measures to influence persons involved in violations of fundamental human rights and freedoms, the rights and freedoms of citizens of the Russian Federation’, adopted, among other things, to prevent violations of the key principles of the free flow of information and unhindered access Russian users to Russian media on foreign Internet platforms.”

This is only the Russian government’s latest effort to crack down on social media companies. Just last week, Russia’s communications regulator accused Facebook of censoring state accounts and moved to restrict access to the platform as a result.

Friday’s announcement suggests that, in the mind of Russian officials, previous efforts to crack down on social media either hadn’t worked, or hadn’t gone far enough.

Here’s something you don’t see everyday: A ransomware group that hacked graphics card marker NVIDIA has a very specific demand. Make NVIDIA graphics cards mine cryptocurrency faster or we will release your stolen, private data.

The hackers, known as Lapsus$, say that they have stolen over 1TB of data after hacking into Nvidia’s private network. The data includes email addresses and login credentials for more than 71,000 of NVIDIA’s employees. Some of this private data has already been released by the hackers.

However, Lapsus$ is issuing a ransom for the most valuable of NVIDIA’s data: the company’s source code and trade secrets.

“We decided to help mining and gaming community,” reads a message on Telegram attributed to Lapsus$ members. “We want nvidia to push an update for all 30 series firmware that remove every lhr limitations otherwise we will leak hw folder. If they remove the lhr we will forget about hw folder (it’s a big folder). We both know lhr impact mining and gaming.”

In early 2021, amid a graphics cards shortage due to an uptick in cryptocurrency mining, NVIDIA adopted a new feature called Lite Hash Rate (LHR). LHR was designed specifically to limit Ethereum mining so that more graphics cards would be available for its intended purposes, like gaming.

LHR seems to have angered these hackers and the result is the ultimatum. Either NVIDIA removes LHR or, according to Lapsus$, they will “release the entire silicon chip files so that everyone not only knows your driver’s secrets, but also your most closely-guarded trade secrets for graphics and computer chipsets too!”

NVIDIA released the following public statement on the matter:

On February 23, 2022, NVIDIA became aware of a cybersecurity incident which impacted IT resources. Shortly after discovering the incident, we further hardened our network, engaged cybersecurity incident response experts, and notified law enforcement. 

We have no evidence of ransomware being deployed on the NVIDIA environment or that this is related to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. However, we are aware that the threat actor took employee credentials and some NVIDIA proprietary information from our systems and has begun leaking it online. Our team is working to analyze that information. We do not anticipate any disruption to our business or our ability to serve our customers as a result of the incident. 

Security is a continuous process that we take very seriously at NVIDIA–and we invest in the protection and quality of our code and products daily.

The ransomware group has given NVIDIA until Friday to make its decision. 

UPDATE: Mar. 4, 2022, 3:00 p.m. EST An earlier version of this piece misspelled NVIDIA.

The much-maligned song from Dominic Fike, as featured prominently in the Season 2 finale of Euphoria, is out now. Fike teamed up with co-writer Zendaya to release a shortened version of “Elliot’s Song” after Euphoria fans criticized (and meme’d) its excessive length.

The track was written by Zendaya and Labrinth, the musician responsible for the hypnotic Euphoria soundtrack, and performed by Fike’s character Elliot in the season finale. In the episode, Elliot serenades Rue (played by Zendaya) for an entire 3 minutes and 30 seconds.

As far as song lengths go, that’s pretty standard. However, amid a finale episode with way too many unanswered questions and plot holes at stake, the song felt a little too long.

Fans flocked to Twitter and TikTok to let out their frustrations, channelling their annoyance into memes and making “Elliot’s Song” the most viral moment of the finale. Users complained that Fike got to perform a whole “Tiny Desk” concert while other characters got zero closure.

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Fike took the trolling in stride and posted his favorite reactions to “Elliot’s Song” on his Instagram Story alongside a selfie captioned, “The internet remains undefeated I am humbled.” When he announced the release of the song on his Instagram yesterday (March 3), he wrote, “We made the song shorter…” And he wasn’t lying: The studio track is an entire minute shorter, and it features Zendaya on backing vocals.

Though, it’s a shame that the official track is shorter since, in retrospect, it’s a good song. Fans were simply annoyed that the song itself played such a significant role in the episode. The frustration was never about the song! It seems like the more logical decision would have been to feature a shorter version in the episode and release the longer version, but Euphoria is nothing if not illogical.

In an interview with Insider, Fike shared that his character was originally supposed to play the trumpet before he requested to play the guitar instead. So “Elliot’s Song” could have been much worse, folks!