Last week, the cast of Parks and Recreation fired up their computer cameras and reunited for a virtual reunion, both to entertain antsy quarantiners and to raise money for charity. It went very well. And so another NBC favorite is doing something similar. Variety reports that the cast of Community are banding back together, not to give us a where-are-they-now special à la Parks and Rec, but to do a virtual table read of a favorite episode.
On the afternoon of Monday, May 18, Greendale Community College’s best and brightest will reconvene to read the fourth season’s “Cooperative Polygraphy” — a “bottle” episode that takes place entirely in the library study room and in real time. It’s the one where we discover what happened to Pierce, played by Chevy Chase, who had left the show after the previous season. (Obviously Chase will not be in attendance.) It also sets up the eventual exit of Donald Glover’s Troy.
Speaking of which: Yes, Glover isn’t too cool to not return. He’ll join erstwhile co-stars Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Danny Pudi, Yvette Nicole Brown, Alison Brie, Jim Rash, Ken Jeong, as well as creator Dan Harmon. One person who will be MIA: Walton Goggins, a guest star on the episode back in 2014. The cast will also take questions, which can be submitting to @CommunityTV with the hashtag #AskCommunity.
As for the charities, two will be taking donations during the table read: José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen and Frontline Foods — both of them involved in Covid-19 relief, sending meals to first responders and vulnerable communities.
The Community table read will happen on May 18 at 5pm EST on Sony Pictures TV’s “Community” YouTube page.
As the UFC continues working toward an expected trilogy bout between Stipe Miocic and former heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier, the current king of the division is on the defensive following less than encouraging comments from UFC president Dana White.
Miocic recently told Uproxx Sports the only delay in getting back into the Octagon and defending his belt is his ability to train, with Ohio under stay-at-home orders until May 29. With limited equipment at home, Miocic added he would fight “anyone” as long as he has a full camp when his gym opens back up. That put Miocic competing this summer into question, to which White responded to Barstool Sports, “You either want to fight or you don’t.”
White called holding off on putting together a heavyweight title fight for Miocic until August “unrealistic” and wouldn’t rule out the possibility of stripping the champion of his belt.
In a Twitter thread following White’s comments, Miocic made it clear he wants to fight Cormier, that his management is working on dates and that he “can’t control a global pandemic.” This is the most definitive Miocic has been in months, initially delaying a return fight for Cormier after undergoing eye surgery to repair a torn retina suffered in their last bout. After successful surgery, Miocic’s agent told ESPN that his client would return to “competition this year in a fight that makes sense and against an opponent that Stipe has not beaten before.”
Cormier, however, has been relentless in his approach to getting what could be his final UFC fight as a professional.
“When you lose to a guy like Stipe Miocic, he beat me and I need to go get that right. If I don’t get that right, I don’t know how I’m going to live with myself,” Cormier later told Uproxx Sports.
For Cormier, it’s not necessarily his competitiveness that’s driving this fight. According to the man himself, it’s knowing he was better than Miocic all along.
“I lost to (Jon) Jones, but he was better,” Cormier said on his weekly podcast on ESPN (H/T MMA Junkie). “Stipe Miocic is not better than me, and that’s going to be something I regret for the rest of my life, is letting him get a victory over me. It should’ve never happened.”
With the UFC hosting its first live event since shutting down operations in March this weekend and Miocic’s latest comments around accepting a third fight, a final showdown could be on the horizon. Whether that means the champ has to get creative to get back into training or not remains to be seen.
The coronavirus pandemic has brought out a whole slew of interesting human tendencies, including a veritable tsunami of conspiracy theories. Like, holy cow, folks. When did everyone start pulling out their tinfoil hats?
And of course, there’s always a shred of truth in any conspiracy theory, which pulls people in. But just as a shred of fabric doesn’t make a shirt, a shred of truth in a conspiracy theory doesn’t make it credible or true.
By now, you’ve undoubtedly seen or at least heard about the Plandemic video making the rounds. YouTube keeps taking it down because of its policy against spreading harmful misinformation about the coronavirus, but that of course just fuels the fire of conspiracy theorists who think the truth is being silenced. The good news is that the claims in the video have been debunked many times over at this point. The bad news is that the people who need to see these debunkings have probably not even read this far into the article, and are definitely not going to take the time to read and process what we share past this point.
But we’re gonna go ahead and share these well-cited debunkings anyway, because facts matter, sources matter, not all opinions are equal, and we can’t keep letting paranoid theories that don’t hold up to scrutiny and can’t be backed up with well-done science go unchecked.
(And yes, there is such a thing as well-done science. The scientific world has spent many, many decades improving and systematizing processes for checking data, replicating studies, peer-reviewing findings, etc. so that we have a good idea of what science we can trust and what science is not credible. The only way to refute well-done science is to toss the entire systematized scientific process out the window and instead listen to random individual scientists who refuse to accept that their work was shoddy. Not all scientists are credible, and if a scientist is publishing their opinion outside of the scientific community—especially via YouTube—you should immediately be skeptical and look for whether or not their claims have been debunked by well-done science.)
Case in point, Judy Mikovitz, the scientist at the forefront of the Plandemic video.
Since there are so many clear refutations of the claims in that video and there’s no need to reinvent the wheel, we’re just going to share a bunch of them with you. Off we go:
– Here’s an explanation from a microbiologist (see her credentials here) who outlines some of the most blatantly wrong things in the Plandemic video with links to back her up:
– Here’s an explanation of the difference between a scientific theory and a conspiracy theory, for those who think that the conspiracy theories are using science as their basis:
– Here’s a Snopes piece that details the issues with Judy Mikovitz’s research and history and why she is no way a credible source. (It’s worth noting that this was written in 2018, long before the pandemic. This woman has been discredited in the scientific world for years.)
– And here’s another Snopes piece about the issues with the chiropractor in the video who advocates drinking tonic water as a way to prevent coronavirus.
(I realize that most conspiracy theorists don’t trust Snopes because…well…they think the site is part of a liberal conspiracy. But the Snopes debunkings include links to reputable sources to back up their facts checks, so if the conspiracy theorists really look at everything and think critically like they claim to do, they have to look at the information and sources claiming to debunk their theories. Then they have to either refute them with actual science from reputable sources or admit that they have no credible basis for their beliefs.)
– Here’s an article I wrote about how medical associations as well as statistical experts have condemned the Bakersfield doctors shown in the video (which is a bit unnecessary since the docs issued a public statement condemned the Plandemic filmmakers for using footage of them anyway).
– Here’s a very thorough explanation of the Plandemic erroneousness on Reddit, where you can also see discussion on the video and the debunking (for those of you who say, “Let’s at least have a debate!” about already thoroughly debunked claims—here’s where you can have at it.)
– If you prefer doctors on YouTube sharing their professional opinions on all things pandemic—which seems to be the favorite method for conspiracy theorists to do “research”—here’s a doctor who explains a bit about the psychology of the Plandemic video and also explains the shoddy research behind it.
“Plandemic” Video Analysis | Did Judy Mikovits Connect the Dots?
– This final one from Stanford-trained physician Dr. Zubin Damania might be just be my favorite (but only after reading everything above for the facts). For those of us who are trying not to lose our minds over having to continually fact-check all of this misinformation for people who really should be able to do it themselves, this 3-and-a-half minutes is quite cathartic. Enjoy.
Bottom line: The video is bunk, but conspiracy theorists will keep on insisting that it’s not. (Wake up! You’re all sheep following the mainstream media! Experts who provide data backed up by multiple peer-reviewed studies can’t be trusted! Individual doctors and scientists are more trustworthy than professional associations of thousands of doctors and scientists!Everyone is getting paid off, except these conspiracy theory pushers because I trust them because they say they’re being persecuted by the science community for no reason and that sounds totally legit! And maybe the earth really IS flat—scientists have been wrong before!)
Fast fashion was always a problem. Now, COVID-19 has deepened the inequity between garment workers and fashion labels rebranding themselves as saviors.
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