As we cap off the year and the decade, there’s plenty to keep you entertained. You have Netflix and Hulu movies to help you learn something new or make you feel like a wine mom or sappy dad watching Lifetime. You have mobile games to play under the dinner table when you can’t take the politics talk any more. You have family-friendly video games to play and movies from the Disney+ vault to enjoy. 

If you want a change of pace, though, here’s an idea. Curl up on the couch with your phone or tablet (or sit at your desk while peddling a mini exercise bike) and read some of our compelling longform features from 2019. Read more…

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In 2010, the future of electric vehicles looked wide open. The terrain was rocky, but fertile; full of opportunity, if you could make it through the technical and consumer crags. 

Now, 10 years later, things look different. Established car companies like General Motors and Porsche are elbowing for their share alongside startups like Rivian and Byton. But one company is inarguably both the trailblazer and master of EVs: Elon Musk’s Tesla.

In the first half of the decade, headlines frequently predicted doom for the fledgling company. When any new all-electric vehicle idea came out, critics were quick to anoint it with the label “Tesla killer,” no matter car type, range, or level of luxury. Those labels didn’t stick, however: Tesla is still alive and well. In fact, is “affordable” sedan, the Model 3, made up an eighth of all EV sales worldwide this year. It dominates.  Read more…

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Christmas came early for Tesla owners with a “holiday” update that added new features and tools to the software system controlling the electric vehicles. 

But with new features like more voice commands, TRAX music-making, Twitch video streaming, Camp Mode, and new games like Stardew Valley and backgammon comes the inevitable errant Tesla whose computer just won’t update.  

Tesla with its screen-based driving system is known for its quick and painless over-the-air updates. It’s similar to downloading and installing a new operating system on a smartphone. While connected to your WiFi, the car downloads and updates to a new version in about 30 minutes, bringing a slew of new features and changes to the driving experience. But sometimes things get sticky.  Read more…

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Spoilers, and answers, ahead!

Given how well The Mandalorian kept Baby Yoda a secret all the way up until its premiere, it’s not surprising that the show’s biggest twist was unknown until it arrived to drop everyone’s jaws in the finale’s last few seconds. That twist, that Giancarlo Esposito’s villainous character Moff Gideon somehow wields the funny looking lightsaber that any Clone Wars or Star Wars: Rebels fans would recognize as the legendary Darksaber, completely recalibrates what we know about his character. It also blows open a huge world of mythic possibilities for The Mandalorian Season 2.  Read more…

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Ah, the perennial question, at least in 2019: go to class or attend a protest? For some students in Virginia, answering might have just become easier. 

Starting on Jan. 27, one of the nation’s largest school districts, Virginia’s Fairfax County Public School District, will grant students in seventh through 12th grades excused time off to engage in “civic engagement activities,” likely making it one of the first school districts in the U.S. to adopt such a policy, according to the Washington Post. 

The Northern Virginia district will specifically allow one excused absence per school year for such activities, which could include things like marches or sit-ins, school system spokespeople told the Post.  Read more…

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Spoilers ahead! I have spoken. 

What a finish!

The Mandalorian was mostly content to spend its first season introducing characters and setting a mood. Exposition took a back seat again and again even as a larger story was clearly developing. That changed in a big way in Chapter 8.

The final episode of Season 1 is filled to the brim with major developments that are sure to shape the course of the story as we head into a second season. We know more than ever about our heroes and villains, as well as the various forces (no Star Wars pun intended) that guide their actions.

So let’s get to it. What are the big details we should all be chewing on as we start to look ahead toward Season 2? Read more…

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As the presidential election grows closer and 2019 comes to an end, let us take some time to remember the 2020 candidates who have dropped out of the race.

Thanks to Trevor Noah and The Daily Show‘s parody “In Memoriam” video, titled, “In Demoriam: The Campaigns We Lost,” we can fondly look back on the candidates who will definitely not be elected president in the coming year.

There are some names we remember, like Kamala Harris and Kirsten Gillibrand, and other people we associate more with their character traits, like “Skateboard Guy” and “Dude who farted on TV.”

We miss them all, but maybe not “Dude who watched porn with his mom” or the guy simply labeled “F*ck if I know” so much. Read more…

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We can’t seem to quit Saturday Night Live.

In any given episode, you’re never more than a tasteless punchline away from cringing out of existence. And yet the show can still bring plenty of laughs, too, usually thanks in no small part to the Herculean efforts of its talented team of cast members and featured players.

It’s been a long, brutal 2019 for an awful lot of us, but these 10 SNL sketches managed to pierce the darkness and get us shouting with joy. Let’s take a look at the best the year had to offer across the back half of the show’s 44th season and the first half of its 45th. Read more…

10. Weekend Update: Smokery Farms

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We regret to inform you that the fashion industry has officially gone too far in 2019. Specifically with regard to jeans fashion, otherwise known as jashion. 

Jeans are simple, classic, and a reliable tenant of wardrobes everywhere. You can wear them any season, any time, almost anywhere. 

But certain clothing lines have turned our humble blue denim friends into a mad science experiment of tacky awfulness. And who among us has the right to play fashion god? Certainly not these runway clowns. 

Jeans are dead and we’ve killed them. Here are the worst offenders of 2019. 

1. Janties

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HEY-HEEEEYYYYY. All aboard the Babu Frik hype train. 

People have officially fallen in love with the tiny alien droidsmith in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and we can’t blame them. In fact, there’s even some debate over whether little Babu’s adorableness rivals that of the now legendary Baby Yoda. 

But we’re not here to take sides, and we’re not going to argue. We just want to gather all the wholesome Twitter reactions to our hero and rising star, Babu Frik. Enjoy these Frik-kin’ tweets.

It’s unavoidable. Babu Frik is a Disney marketing dream

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