Things they don’t teach you when you learn how to drive: What to do if you see an emu running on the highway.

And yet that’s exactly the situation these New Mexico motorists found themselves in when they came across this strange scene involving various law enforcement officers trying to capture a very frightened emu.

According to Las Cruces Sun-News, traffic was stopped by two truck drivers when they realized what was going on. And while the video ends with the emu still running free, Sun-News reports that it was eventually captured and is waiting in detention for its owners to pick it up. Read more…

More about Watercooler, Conversations, Animals, New Mexico, and Highway

AMBAR DEL MORAL/MASHABLE

Al Belmont just knew knew it in his gut: he was going to become prom king.

Belmont is 17 and a student at North Central High School in Indianapolis, Indiana. He’s also transgender, a part of his identity he would have likely had to hide or “correct” if he had wanted to attend prom at pretty much any other point in history besides this one

As Indiana’s first transgender prom king, Belmont hadn’t even seen a trans person be nominated at his school. This year, he joined a growing list of LGBTQ youth who’ve not only attended prom, but captured prom nominations and won.

Millennials are the most queer and trans-friendly generation in history, and that energy appears to have trickled down to one of the institutions most hostile to it: the prom. Still, advocates stress, President Trump has helped cause a spike in bullying against a population already vulnerable to it. The demand for separate LGBTQ proms and more inclusive school ones has grown both because of increased visibility and aggravated harassment Read more…

More about Watercooler, Prom, Queer, Prom Season, and Watercooler

Welcome to our weekly series “Cry of the Week,” in which we highlight whatever moment made us ugly cry on our couches the most in the past seven days. 

It’s all been leading up to this. 

Over the past two and a half seasons, we’ve watched as the relationship between Jimmy and Chuck on Better Call Saul has gone from uncomfortable to ugly to downright toxic. In this week’s episode, “Chicanery,” that sibling rivalry comes to a head in a devastating courtroom showdown.

Our boy Jimmy comes out on top, as we kinda-sorta knew he would. (There’s no Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad if Chuck is successful in stripping him of his law license.) This should be a moment of triumph – he’s devised a perfect plan and executed it flawlessly, and the outcome has been exactly what he wanted.  Read more…

More about Better Call Saul, Cry Of The Week, Entertainment, and Tv

More about Elon Musk, Los Angeles, Lax, Boring Company, and Tunnels

Tom Brady’s 2017/2018 season is doomed, and New England Patriots have EA Sports to thank for that.

The infuriatingly talented quarterback — full disclosure: I am a Giants fan, and therefore hate the Pats — has been chosen as the featured athlete on the cover of Madden NFL 2018. Remarkably, this is Brady’s first Madden cover, despite the fact that he’s the proud owner of five Super Bowl rings.

Some see the distinction as a dubious honor, thanks to the so-called “Madden Curse.” Every game in the series since Madden NFL 1999 has featured one of the league’s stars on its cover and, more often than not, those featured players go on to struggle in the subsequent season, which usually starts right after Madden‘s annual release. Read more…

More about Sports, Gaming, Esports, Entertaiment, and Tom Brady

Things were going so well! 

A smooth intro: self aware but still forward, unimposing, nothing too inappropriate. All stacked up to be a decent Tinder interaction (if there is such a thing). 

And then: crash and burn. 

“Are you a banker because leave me a loan.” 

She played him at his own game, with some extremely decent wordplay, and for that: nothing but respect. 

The guy who posted the image followed up on Reddit, saying “I ended up getting her Snapchat so all in all not too bad imo.”

So she just wanted to show off a little, make it clear she was clever above all else. Again, respect.  Read more…

More about Watercooler, Tinder, and Watercooler

Everyone stop what you’re doing: Melissa McCarthy as Sean Spicer is speeding through the streets of NYC on the famous Spicey podium. 

Or at least she was Friday morning. 

McCarthy, who is hosting Saturday Night Live this week, is famous for her impeccable impression of Press Secretary Sean Spicer. And now, it looks like she’s taking her character to the streets with a little jaunt through Manhattan. 

According to CNN’s host of Reliable Sources Brian Stelter, McCarthy was seen taping scenes for the show outside the CNN building this morning – not something you’d expect to see outside your office window. Read more…

More about Watercooler, Snl, Nyc, Saturday Night Live, and Melissa Mccarthy

It’s good practice to not open your door to strangers, but is the prime minister technically a stranger?

David Bryan got a surprising home visit from the Prime Minister Theresa May, but he didn’t greet her in the way you’d expect. In fact, he didn’t greet her at all.

Bryan tweeted a video that he shot while in the sweet safety of his living room. On his CCTV monitor, he could see Theresa May and company standing outside his door. When he doesn’t answer, the two walk away.

Bryan then swivels around to his window to record May and her crew walking away from the house. Read more…

More about Watercooler, Twitter, Politics, Uk, and Theresa May

Google’s messaging app Allo — one of the several confusingly similar communication apps Google has launched in the past year or so — has a new trick: It can create a Bitmoji-like, cartoon version of yourself. 

Even better, Google’s using a neural network, an artificial intelligence of sorts, to do it. 

Instead of analyzing a photo of you pixel by pixel, Google’s algorithms recognize “qualitative features” of your face such as eye color, and then turn them over to another algorithm which picks from more than 563 quadrillion combinations to make a funny image that sort of looks like you.  Read more…

More about Google, Emoji, Bitmoji, Allo, and Neural Networks

As I get ready to walk at my college graduation next week, I have more gratitude for one thing above all: YouTube. YouTube was my go to while doing homework, prepping for exams or just when I needed to refresh a term meant.

It’s also the first place I go when I want to learn about a subject I don’t know a lot about. Time and again, YouTube has helped me understand concepts, offering numerous different explanations till I found one that clicked.

Sometime in high school, my Economics teacher introduced Keynesian economics to us with this video: Read more…

More about Youtube, Education, College, Professor, and Tech Column