Sometimes social media is a good thing.

The anger over a Trump administration plan to curtail the rights of transgender citizens is still palpable. But the Sunday morning eruption that followed the revelations aired in a New York Times report came with a hefty side of advice from the people who knows these issues best.

Trans activists spent the morning and afternoon flooding social media with helpful tips. Charities to support. Activist organizations to connect with. Meaningful, tangible suggestions that any ally can act on immediately if they want to help. Read more…

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The New York Police Department is pulling thousands of body cameras from the field after one of them caught on fire while a police officer was wearing it.

The Daily Beast reports that a Vievu model LE-5 body camera “burst into flames” early Sunday morning while an officer was wearing it right outside a Staten Island police precinctAccording to the NYPD, “an officer retrieved a body-cam for deployment on a midnight tour and noticed there was smoke exiting from the bottom portal and immediately removed it. After it was safely removed, the device exploded.”

The officer wearing the faulty body camera was not injured. Read more…

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The Star-Spangled Banner has stayed the same, with the same words and the same tune for 87 years, but a Hawai’ian musician reinvented the song while performing the song at a football game in Hawai’i and left quite an impression. 

The singer, who goes by Willie K., reinterpreted the national anthem by accompanying himself on the ukulele and singing the tune in an original melody of his own creation. 

Isn’t it nice to hear a new spin on an old creation?

More about Football, National Anthem, Star Spangled Banner, National Anthem Protests, and Willie K

For years, Elon Musk has been touting the promise of a self-driving car. Well, it looks like that promise is a little further off than Musk previously thought, if it materializes at all.

On Thursday, Elon Musk unveiled a new “lower cost, mid-range” Tesla Model 3 car coming in at around $45,000. At the same time, one eagle-eyed Twitter user noticed another update over at Tesla: the optional add-on “Full Self-Driving” feature was gone.

According to Musk’s reply tweet, the option is still available for Tesla customers who’d like it, but the company won’t be advertising it as it “was causing too much confusion.” Read more…

More about Advertising, Tesla, Elon Musk, Autonomous Cars, and Self Driving Cars

Just over a year ago, the adaptation of Stephen King’s It shook horror fandom with a $123.4 million opening weekend — the highest ever for a horror movie. Now Halloween is here to join the party.

The 40-years-later sequel that opened on Friday picked up an estimated $77.5 million in the U.S. during its opening weekend. That’s not quite It levels of success, but it’s more than enough to make Halloween‘s first three days the second highest for an R-rated horror movie.

In an amusing twist, Halloween‘s ascendance to that #2 spot effectively unseats the previous box office runner-up, The Nun, which opened in September just a day before the one-year anniversary of It‘s release. Horror, in case you haven’t noticed, is very “in” right now. Read more…

More about Entertainment, Film, Halloween, Entertainment, and Movies Tv Shows

Selma Blair is starring in Another Life, a new Netflix sci-fi series, but an experience getting fitted for a costume for the show led her to disclose that she has been living with Multiple Sclerosis for years. 

Multiple sclerosis is a neurological disease that affects the brain’s ability to effectively communicate with the body by attacking the central nervous system. Its cause is yet to be discovered, but the symptoms include numbness, fatigue, involuntary movement, chronic pain, sensory loss, and a host of other difficult issues.  Read more…

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When a Twitter user asked Elon Musk if future Teslas would include a “dog mode” to keep car-bound pets safe and cool while their owner was away, he responded with a simple “yes.”

The idea behind dog mode, a pitch that in this case also included the Tesla displaying a readout of the car’s interior temperature to assure passersby that the pet inside is safe, is definitely within the realm of possibility when it comes to future Tesla features. But it also highlights the fact that electric vehicles like Teslas typically come with a system that regulates internal car temperatures.  Read more…

More about Tesla, Elon Musk, Electric Vehicles, Tesla Dog Mode, and Dogs In Cars

Hope you have tissues nearby. 

The Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School rowing club found a rose attached to the locked gate at a nearby lake, with the most heartbreaking note accompanying it. 

“Please can someone throw this in the lake for me?” the note says. “My late husband’s ashes are in the lake and I can’t get to the lakeside in my wheelchair anymore + gates are locked — have to drive back up north tonight. Thank you.” 

More about Twitter, Aww, Culture, and Web Culture

Chubbs the gator is back, everyone. 

The massive 15-foot alligator first made a name for himself when he casually strolled through Buffalo Creek Golf Course in Palmetto, Florida in 2016. In a viral video, Chubbs ambles through the green fields, unbothered by the audibly freaked out course patrons. 

He was spotted roaming the green again this year. In a video posted to Facebook on Saturday, Chubbs appears to be just as unbothered as the last time he was spotted. Somehow looking even chubbier, the absolute unit of a beast trudged through the field until he found a comfortable patch of grass for a midday sploot. Read more…

More about Animals, Viral Videos, Culture, and Web Culture

The Super Bowl is the biggest night of the year for two things: Pro football and very expensive commercials. Amy Schumer has decided to use one to influence the other.

Her concern stems from ongoing protest actions in which certain players kneel, raises fists, or stand together united during pre-game National Anthem performances. They’re doing it to take a stand against police brutality and racial inequality in America — sticking to the message of exiled NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

Schumer isn’t involved in football, but she does acknowledge that there’s one place she can push back: Super Bowl ads. She’s not doing them this year. She also urges Maroon 5 — the next Super Bowl’s halftime band — to drop out. Read more…

More about Entertainment, Nfl, Super Bowl, Amy Schumer, and Entertainment