Category Archives: Blog

Six hours in and I’m still not sure what The Outsider is trying to say. It weaves an intriguing mystery, but I’m not convinced there’s enough happening week-to-week to keep a hungry audience chasing its baited hook.

Richard Price’s HBO adaptation of the 2018 Stephen King novel leans in heavily on the spooky mystery, and it works well enough on that level. Every answer we get only leads to more unsettling questions. It’s the same kind of recursive loop that made Lost so popular, but with a hefty side of menace creeping in from the shadows.

To what end, though? I haven’t read the book, so I couldn’t even begin to guess at where things are headed. But I’ve had a tough time syncing up with this dark story’s underlying themes, and I think this is an issue lots of viewers will face. The show’s success or failure hinges on how the central mystery eventually wraps itself up, but fair warning: You’d best be patient. Read more…

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All the way back in 2019, a few tech companies decided the world really needed phones with bendable screens. We didn’t actually get our hands on very many of these mobile oddities, but the most notorious, Samsung’s Galaxy Fold, was at least an interesting failure.

All you have to do is take one look at the Galaxy Fold to know that, as a consumer product, foldables aren’t quite there yet. We’ve seen plenty of concepts from companies like TCL, too, but even those are far off from being in our hands. The good news is we know that a handful of foldables will come out in 2020 and some of them look pretty neat. Read more…

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Gen Z’s intergalactic takeover has begun. 

On Monday, NASA announced that its Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which captures images to be uploaded to the Planet Hunters TESS citizen science project, had evidence of a new planet. The first circumbinary planet captured by TESS, “TOI 1338 b” as it is now known orbits two stars in the constellation Pictor — approximately 1,300 light-year away from Earth.  

The person responsible for the new discovery? 17-year-old intern Wolf Cukier. 

In summer 2019, Cukier was tasked with examining “variations in star brightness” in images captured by TESS. In a NASA press release, Goddard researcher Veselin Kostov explained that the human eye is better equipped than an algorithm when it comes to detecting subtle changes and patterns — so, a perfect job for a first-week intern.  Read more…

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The Bullitt is going, going, gone. 

On Friday, the Ford Mustang driven by Steve McQueen in the 1968 thriller Bullitt sold for $3.4 million at a Mecum Auction in Kissimmee, Florida. The star in a chase scene lauded by many as the greatest in cinematic history, the vehicle just became the highest-priced Mustang ever sold in a public auction. The previous record was $2.2 million. 

Fans of the McQueen classic may be surprised to learn bidding for the car started at just $3,500 — at the owner’s insistence. In an interview with Bloomberg, Sean Kiernan, who inherited the car from his late father, said that was the original purchase price when it became the family’s car in 1974.  Read more…

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Instagram and Facebook are removing posts that support Qassem Soleimani, a top Iranian general and leader who was killed in a U.S.-sanctioned airstrike, according to CNN. 

Coda Story reports that Iranian journalists, influencers, and human rights activists have had posts if not their entire accounts removed from the platform. 

Instagram is one of the few Western social media sites not blocked in Iran. As such, many Iranians posted about Soleimani after his death. Facebook is blocked (as well as Twitter), but some people access it through VPN. 

Facebook, which owns Instagram, says that it is complying with United States sanctions against Iran by removing the posts and accounts. “We operate under U.S. sanctions laws, including those related to the U.S. government’s designation of the IRGC and its leadership,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement provided to CNN. The spokesperson also said that people who feel like their posts were wrongfully removed can go through the appeals process.  Read more…

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We may have no idea who’s competing for 2021’s Golden Globes, but we do know who’s hosting — and it is glorious, spectacular, wonderful news.  

On Saturday at the Television Critics Association Tour, NBC Entertainment announced that all-star hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler will return for a fourth Globes hosting gig in 2021. 

The duo previously hosted from 2013 to 2015, universally delighting fans of Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock, Parks and Rec, and great comedy everywhere. They made fun of Martin Scorsese’s glasses. They made Anne Hathaway relive her Oscars hosting with James Franco. They even made rival host Neil Patrick Harris listen to their advice at the 2013 Emmys.  Read more…

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The first full week of the new decade is about to wrap, and it’s already been stressful with serious issues in Iran and surprises like Megxit. Now, we have to deal with the manifestation of the climate crisis in our respective cities.

Take those in North Texas, where it is currently snowing — while in New York City, where I’m currently writing this, it’s 60 degrees. Totally cool and normal, right?

It’s not just NYC that is experiencing unusually high temperatures, where the average high for a January day is 40 degrees. States such as Ohio and Massachusetts are also experiencing spring-like weather: Read more…

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The Hummer could be making a comeback as an electric pickup truck.

According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, the Hummer name, once known for outrageous gas-guzzling and general douchebaggery, will be repurposed for a new battery-powered SUV from General Motors as early as 2022. 

Rumors of the vehicle’s second lease on life began swirling in summer 2019 when GM president Mark Reuss told reporters the company was considering Hummer as one of many possibilities for its “all-electric future.” Unlike its predecessor, the new Hummer will not be a standalone brand, instead appearing as the first of several large, eco-friendly models available to consumers in the coming years.  Read more…

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You can be a cat owner and have absolutely zero clue how your pet will react to something new in its environment. For example, they may be scared of the new toy you bought them, but love the cardboard box it came in. They may be terrified of a toy car on a racing track or they may love it — you just don’t know until you put it in front of them.

In a video from Brazil, a kitten named Athena leans more towards the latter. She bounces and hops and chases after the car as if it was smuggling some catnip around that track. “Athena was very excited when she saw the Autorama and started jumping endlessly behind the race car,” the description states.  Read more…

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An upcoming #MeToo documentary will no longer have Oprah Winfrey’s name attached when it debuts at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival in January.

The as-yet-untitled documentary focuses on an unnamed former music executive who has accused Def Jam Recordings co-founder and Rush Communications CEO Russell Simmons of sexual misconduct. It’s not the first time Simmons has faced such an accusation.

Winfrey was originally on board to executive produce the documentary, which comes from the filmmaking team of Kirby Dick (director) and Amy Ziering (producer). But Winfrey confirmed in a statement provided to The Hollywood Reporter on Friday that she’s stepping back from the project. Read more…

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