Being alone on a cold alien landscape may seem like a sad way to pass six years, but for the Mars Curiosity rover, it’s been a brilliant stretch. 

Sunday, Aug. 5 marked the sixth anniversary of Curiosity’s historic touchdown on the surface of Mars and the rover celebrated the way we all do: with a post on social media. 

More about Space, Mars, Mars Rover, Curiosity, and Science

Vampire Weekend, you okay dudes?

The band, which announced on Saturday night that its fourth album is complete, certainly had a lot to celebrate during their Lollapalooza performance. And it seems when the members of Vampire Weekend get excited they just play “A-Punk” over and over.

That’s right. To open their set, Vampire Weekend played the fan favorite song from the self-titled 2008 album Vampire Weekend, not one, not two, but THREE whole times in a row.

That’s a lot of “say ohs.”

The setlist for the Aug. 4 performance confirmed that the band did in fact plan to play approximately seven minutes of “A-Punk.” Why???? Uh, nobody is really clear on the details. Read more…

More about Entertainment, Music, Lollapalooza, Vampire Weekend, and Entertainment

The revival of popular 1990s sitcom Murphy Brown has kicked off filming and we’re beginning to learn more about the topical nature of the show, including plans to directly address the #MeToo movement and plenty about Donald Trump’s attacks on the press.

Speaking at the Television Critics Association summer press tour Sunday morning in Los Angeles, creator Dianne English confirmed that President Trump and his continued attacks on the press would be a big topic of the upcoming series. 

Per the Hollywood Reporter, English said, “Our show has always been in the real world, but I’m focusing the show through the prism of the press. The First Amendment is under attack like we’ve never seen it before.” Read more…

More about Donald Trump, Metoo, Murphy Brown, Candice Bergen, and Diane English

It’s been a few months since it was announced that Donald Glover’s heavily-anticipated Deadpool animated TV series, to be produced for FX, was being shelved. But we finally have a few more details about why that came to be, thanks to FX chief John Landgraf.

Landgraf, the CEO of FX, was speaking at the Television Critics Association (TCA) summer press tour on Saturday when he put the blame squarely on MarvelPer The A.V. Club, Landgraf said:

Well, then. 

This is as specific a reason as we’ve heard since the March news that the show wasn’t happening and that the three entities — Glover, Marvel, and FX — were parting ways. It’s a bit of a sensitive situation since this triangle has a few other relationships ongoing: Marvel and FX work together on Legion and, of course, Glover and FX have had huge success with Atlanta. Read more…

More about Marvel, Deadpool, Fx, Donald Glover, and Entertainment

Star Wars: The Force AwakensAvatar. And now, introducing..Black Panther.

As of today, Aug. 5, 2018, the February hit from Marvel Studios has officially crossed the $700 million threshold at the U.S. box office. That’s a huge achievement, one that only three movies in history — the three named above — can claim credit for.

Star Wars is the big winner, having amassed an astonishing $936.7 million during its theatrical run in domestic theaters. The considerably older Avatar (it hit theaters in 2009) comes in as a distant #2, with $760.5 million earned domestically. Read more…

More about Entertainment, Film, Marvel, Black Panther, and Entertainment

Hello, Song Of The Summer Committee? We know it’s late in the season but have you heard this freaking Taylor Swift and Bryan Adams duet? Because it honestly might be a game changer.

In a ~Summer of 2018~ miracle, Swift brought the Canadian singer on stage in Toronto to tag team his 1984 jam, “Summer of ’69.” It was magical, to say the least, and according to Swift she was “losing it” as much as everyone else.

“I didn’t even know Bryan was gonna be in town until last night and I asked him completely last minute if he wanted to come sing!! Pretty evident from the videos (um yes I’m posting another one) that I’m FULLY LOSING IT with excitement, and I can’t thank @bryanadams enough ✨⭐️?” Swift captioned a glorious Instagram video of the performance. Read more…

More about Music, Culture, Taylor Swift, Duet, and Bryan Adams

CBS dropped a bomb on Saturday: Sir Patrick Stewart is returning to the Star Trek universe. Fandom collectively lost its shit after the announcement.

An upcoming CBS All Access series will explore the life and times of former U.S.S. Enterprise captain Jean-Luc Picard during his golden years. We don’t know much about the story just yet beyond Stewart confirming that it’s set two decades after Star Trek: Nemesis.

Really, the thing that matters here is new Picard stories. Stewart’s Enterprise captain is one of the most widely beloved Star Trek characters of all time. Now we’ll get to see his story continue. Read more…

More about Entertainment, Tv, Star Trek, Web Culture, and Patrick Stewart

The tie Randy Moss chose to wear to his induction into the NFL Hall of Fame spoke volumes.

The star wide receiver-turned-NFL analyst for ESPN was one of eight new members welcomed into the Hall of Fame on Saturday. On the big day Moss chose to make a powerful statement with his tie, which displayed the names of 12 black men and women who were killed by police.

The tie featured the names Greg Gunn, Tamir Rice, Akai Gurley, Paul O’Neal, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, Walter Scott, Sandra Bland, Akiel Denkins, Alton Sterling, Michael Brown, and Trayvon Martin, in gold lettering. Read more…

More about Sports, Football, Culture, Police Brutality, and Randy Moss

iOS 12 has truly been a treasure trove of both heating up the rumor mill and strongly hinting at upcoming devices.

Since last’s September iPhone X unveiling, rumors have been swirling that a larger model, presumably the iPhone X Plus, was en route for 2018. Now, legendary iOS developer, Guilherme Rambo, has taken to Twitter to show off a sketch of the presumed iPhone.

While digging through the latest iOS 12 beta, now up to version 5 for developers, he discovered a new sketch of what looks like a larger iPhone carrying the X’s trademark notch. You might recall that he found the original iPhone X in an iOS 11 beta at around this time in 2017. Read more…

More about Apple, Iphone, Developers, Iphone X, and Ios 12

Let’s start with something positive: Seven extremely cute puppies have been rescued from the wilds of Canada, and are right now on the road (literally) to a better life.

The circumstances of how the puppies came to be stranded on an uninhabited island in the Canadian province of Manitoba remains a mystery, however. Most of the obvious possibilities here lead to some troubling conclusions.

The saga of the puppy rescue began on Monday when a volunteer for Winnipeg’s Norway House Animal Rescue called in to report their existence. The roughly four-month-old pups had been discovered by a local boater, Junior Cook, near Cross Lake, Manitoba, about 300 miles north of Winnipeg. Read more…

More about Animals, Culture, Puppies, Culture, and Animals