Predictions of the future are rarely accurate, but Microsoft’s vision of what its technology would look it 2019 would be like is pretty off the mark.

The promotional video originally launched in 2009 was unearthed on reddit recently, where translucent, ultra-thin screens and interactive newspapers, slick (albeit dated looking) graphics are part of everyday life.

There are handful of things in the video that have become reality, not necessarily all by Microsoft though, like the foldable phone, augmented reality, gesture controls, but these technologies aren’t as slick as the tech giant envisaged them to be by now. Read more…

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Imagine waking up fresh after this medium-level bin fire of a year, with no knowledge whatsoever of everything that went down.

That’s the privilege of this offensively cute baby penguin, a newborn addition to the Cincinnati Zoo.

First reported by NBC affiliate WLWT, the zoo posted a delightful photo to Facebook of the adorable one-day-old chick, and we’re pretty jealous of its fresh perspective on things.

“1 day old little penguin. Welcome to the world little one,” read the caption on Saturday.

The zoo has not yet announced what type of penguin the chick is, its gender or name. By Sunday, it was making infuriatingly cute chirps, at two days old.  Read more…

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Sadly, Game of Thrones isn’t returning until April 2019, but if you’re in the mood for some show- related news to hold you over, we’ve got you covered.

Brett Ratcliffe, a University of Nebraska entomologist and professor, decided to name three of his eight newly discovered beetle species after Game of Thrones characters. How fun!

According to The Omaha World-Herald, Ratcliffe named the three species of beetles — each from the Gymnetis genus — after Daenerys Targaryen’s three dragons: Drogon, Rhaegal, and Viserion.

The official species names are drogoni, rhaegali and viserioni, the Latin versions of characters’ names. Read more…

More about Television, Science, Culture, Game Of Thrones, and Beetles

Lady Gaga has officially made her Las Vegas debut with brilliant blue hair and an emotional AF performance of “Shallow.”

The singer closed out the opening night of her Enigma residency by performing the hit song from A Star Is Born live, for the first time, and boy was it something.

“For a really long time I felt so misunderstood about the way I dressed, the way I talked, my attitude,” Gaga explained before sitting down at the piano to play. “They thought it was shallow. But this shit is deep as fuck.”

“I love you so much. You’re a star,” she said to the crowd. “But the truth is, you gave birth to me.” Read more…

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As any true horror fan should know, in the movies, senses like sight, speech, and hearing sometimes work against characters.

In the 2016 film Hush, the protagonist, Maddie, can’t hear. The 2018 film A Quiet Place follows a family who must remain silent, as sound attracts deadly monsters. And in Netflix’s recently released hit Bird Box, the characters must wear blindfolds to avoid seeing threatening creatures with the potential to invade their minds.

All three are terrifying, slightly similar scenarios, so naturally the lovely people of the internet decided to lump them into one glorious meme. Read more…

More about Memes, Web Culture, Horror Movies, Hush, and Bird Box

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson slayed the gift-giving game this year.

For Christmas, he went big and bought his mom a brand new home. Then he captured her reaction on video and shared the touching footage with his 126 million Instagram followers.

“This one felt good… Bought my mom a new home for Christmas,” The Rock captioned the video of his mom unwrapping the card, which he disguised as a “Willy Wonka Golden Ticket.”

More about Instagram, Christmas, The Rock, Web Culture, and Dwyane Johnson

In the days of cold, hard newsprint, only people who could draw were successful comic strip authors. In some cases, this resulted in comic strips that had very nice pictures, but weren’t all that funny (cough, Blondie). Thankfully, the internet has taught us not to accept an inferior form of comic artistry, but a more flexible one.

Comic strip enthusiasts who want funny but don’t care about pretty drawing can have their strips, those who want artistry have theirs, and even those with very specific tastes can find something just right.

The best part about these developments is that they allow you, regardless of any talent as an artist or comedian, to create your very own comic strip. Depending on what you’re going for, you can use one of these four sites to help you do it. Read more…

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Clark the bald eagle does what he wants when he wants, and after the national anthem performance at the Cotton Bowl, he wanted to fly into the stands.

Before the Clemson Tigers played Notre Dame in Arlington, Texas on Saturday, Clark was supposed to fly around the stadium, high above people’s heads. But instead, he went rogue and decided to perch on two unsuspecting fans.

Videos shared on social media show the stadium abuzz as Clark drops in on two Notre Dame fans at AT&T Stadium.

The first man, 42-year-old Albert Armas, chose to remain very still while the eagle perched on his shoulder, later explaining to Sports Illustrated that he was “scared crapless.” Understandable! Read more…

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Even in a year that gave us peak Q Anon, this may be the most 2018 conspiracy theory ever. There are people online who believe Netflix used bot accounts to spread viral memes about its record hit movie Bird Box. 

The over-the-top apocalyptic thriller, which features a family making the perilous journey down a river in hopes of finding a community safe from invisible monsters that have taken over the world, is ripe with meme potential. The monsters inexplicably make victims commit suicide, which plays perfectly into the younger generation’s grimdark sense of humor.

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Expect to see more floppy-eared good boys at your local airport in 2019. 

In an effort to put passengers at ease, the Transportation Security Administration says it is deploying more floppy-eared dogs to detect explosives in airports. Their pointy-eared brethren, apparently, tend to make us more nervous.    

“We find the passenger acceptance of floppy-ear dogs is just better,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske told the Washington Examiner. He added that a pup with downward-facing dog ears is “just a little bit less of a concern. Doesn’t scare children.” Read more…

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