Category Archives: Blog

Facebook revealed new rules meant to prevent meddling in the upcoming U.S. census. 

Under the new policy, Facebook and Instagram will ban content, including paid advertisements, aimed at suppressing participation in the census. This comes nearly six months after promising to take census manipulation as seriously as voter suppression.

Many of the rules are similar to the social network’s policies around election misinformation. The policies specifically ban content that misrepresents dates, locations, and eligibility requirements for the census. It also specifically addresses “content stating that census participation may or will result in law enforcement consequences” and “misrepresentation of government involvement in the census.” Read more…

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When shark scientists handle sharks, they often come away with “shark burn.” 

“It will give you an abrasion,” said Brendan Talwar, a research associate at the Cape Eleuthera Institute who studies sharks. “It’s like sandpaper.”

That’s because shark skin is composed of hard scales, similar to microscopic teeth. But little to no research has been done on how the continually acidifying oceans — which absorb the skyrocketing carbon dioxide concentrations now amassing in the atmosphere — impact these scales, which, similar to your teeth, might corrode when exposed to carbonic acid (the result of adding carbon dioxide to water). Read more…

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TL;DR: Launch a freelance career with the The Complete Photography Side Business Bundle for $29, a 98% savings off the full price. 

It’s no secret that the typical nine-to-five workday is slowly becoming obsolete. We’re shifting gears into a “gig economy,” with freelancing and side-hustles offering an alternative, flexible lifestyle. The good news is that you can join in on the fun with something you already do daily: photography.

Whether you fancy yourself a brilliant photographer or just a person with a smartphone, this Complete Photography Side Business Bundle can help you get started with launching a lucrative side biz or freelance career for just $29. Read more…

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Say “Goodbye” to 2019 streaming, and “Hellooooo” to 2020 streaming!  

In January 2020, Hulu is delivering tons of fresh titles, including new seasons of Shrill, The Bachelor, Last Man Standing, and The Bold Type. Subscribers can also enjoy the arrival of Seasons 6 and 7 of Homeland, and the complete collections of series Damages and Justified. Then, be sure to stream the 77th Annual Golden Globe Awards live on Jan. 6. 

As for movies, Hulu will offer indies like The Skeleton Twins, rom-coms like My Best Friend’s Wedding, docs like Honeyland, dramas like Eyes Wide Shut, adventures like Conan the Barbarian, and tons of comedies, including Bachelor Party and Mystery Team. If you’ve got the STARZ premium add-on, you can also check out Spider-Man: Far From Home starting Jan. 31.  Read more…

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Good news for people who like show tunes but hate weirdly smooth CGI cat-people! The cast of Cats appeared on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday, performing the musical’s most well-known song, “Memory”, on milk bottles, garbage can lids, and xylophones. Now you can enjoy the music without any of the creeping nightmares.

Backed by The Roots on an assortment of makeshift instruments, Fallon, Taylor Swift, Jason Derulo, Francesca Hayward, and James Corden each sing a few lines before Jennifer Hudson strides in and completely overshadows them all. It makes sense that Hudson would own it considering the song belongs to her character Grizabella, but I almost feel embarrassed for her castmates. Read more…

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Scooting on any old electric scooter won’t cut it. You need a “hyperscooter.” Enter the Dragonfly. 

Touted as a premium scooter and the first of its kind, this three- or four-wheeled beast opened for $100 refundable pre-orders this week. The first 500 scooters are supposed to arrive next summer. Until then, you can gaze longingly at the cobra-like lightweight carbon fiber frame, low center of gravity, tilt-based steering, and 4.5-inch high-def screen with turn-by-turn directions.

Starting at about $5,000, the electric vehicle better pack a lot of punch. The luxury scooter company also offers a four-wheeler for just under $6,000. For the price of a used car, you get a 38-mph ride , although in most places in the U.S. you can’t legally drive it that fast on public roads. Read more…

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There was never any doubt Cats was going to be bonkers. From the trailer drop that created the single funniest day on the internet in 2019 to the dazed, screeching post-premiere reactions earlier this week, the content has been glorious, and at no point has there been any suggestion that this movie will be anything but a fuzzy, face-melting horror show, covered painstakingly in digital fur technology.

But weirdly enough, a running theme through some of the first reviews is that its bonkersness at least has a lurid, irresistible charm, that it commits so hard that you can’t help but be sucked in, that criticising it at all misses the point, that it feels almost cruel to tear it to shreds because it believes in itself so much. Read more…

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Back in July, James Corden uttered a statement in a Cats featurette that’s been stuck in my mind ever since. 

“These are people, but they’re cats,” he says, looking slightly stunned, “and this is kind of blowing my mind.”

At the time, I remembered it because it sounded ridiculous: Yes, James, that is the premise of Cats. It’s called acting, and maybe you should learn about it if you’re planning to do it.

Having seen Cats now, though, I understand. These are people. But they are cats. And it completely blew my mind. 

Welcome to the journey

To call Cats a cinematic experience unlike any other does not do justice to precisely how mind-meltingly bizarre Cats is. To say it must be seen to be believed is to undersell just how hard it is to believe it even once you’ve seen itCats is a movie to make you feel sky-high even when you’re stone-cold sober, to push an otherwise even-keeled mind into Joker-like peals of hysterical random laughter.  Read more…

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Netflix has been saving something special for a rainy day. No, no, it’s not some sort of special unreleased episode of Strangers Things or Mindhunter. 

It’s international subscriber numbers.

According to Netflix, the streaming service had more than 47 million subscribers across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East at the end of Q3 2019. That’s double the amount of subscribers it had from those regions at the start of 2017. 

Netflix also has more than 29 million subscribers in Latin America and over 14 million in Asia for that same time period.

In total, Netflix currently has 158.3 million customers worldwide. Its non-US and Canada markets now make up more than half of its total subscriber base. As Deadline points out, 90 percent of its growth is from these markets outside of the U.S. Read more…

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From cheap plastic miniatures to extremely expensive replicas, Star Wars is a toy goldmine. Here are our favorites.  Read more…

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