Month: December 2020

The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers are one of the best stories in college football this season. Head coach Jamey Chadwell and his team finished the regular season with a spotless 11-0 record, and that undefeated mark includes a memorable win over a previously unbeaten BYU team. As a reward for their play, Coastal Carolina was scheduled to square off against the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns in the Sun Belt Championship Game on Saturday afternoon but, with an announcement from the conference on Thursday, that is longer the case.

As part of the announcement, it was revealed that an “entire position group” would be ruled out for the game due to contact tracing from COVID-19 and, as such, the face-off is canceled.

“We are very disappointed that the championship game cannot be played, but we are so proud of all of the players and staff members and their hard work during this truly challenging season,” Sun Belt Commissioner Keith Gill said in a release. “We will honor both teams as 2020 Sun Belt Conference Co-Champions.”

While unfortunate, this result seems oddly fitting for what has been a troubled college football season, and the odds were that a significant game would be affected on championship weekend. Still, it is brutal for both Coastal Carolina and Louisiana to not be able to finish off the season in a showcase game and, hopefully, the two teams can take the field again in the setting of a bowl game in the near future.

Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, a fact that still remains true after the Electoral College voted Joe Biden as the next president on Monday. Even some Republicans are admitting Trump lost despite his desire that everyone live in the same fiction he desperately clings to even in the dying days of 2020. The last days of the Trump administration appear to be filled with denial in the White House and among those who still think he was somehow wronged by 80 million or so Americans who didn’t want him to be president anymore.

Biden, meanwhile, is trying to assemble a transition government while Trump’s personal lawyer is playing pitchman for cigars and gold coins while portraying the president-elect as part of a vast amoral crime family. It’s a lot, but everything is in 2020, isn’t it?

Including the latest scuttlebutt going around conservative circles that Supreme Court chief justice John Roberts is part of a vast conspiracy to deplatform Trump from the presidency. And that he also has ties to Jeffery Epstein. The buzz seemed to have started on Thursday when the Washington Post published a perspective piece about Roberts and his apparent attempts not to politicize the Supreme Court, which seem to have backfired now that he’s being lumped into a vast political conspiracy by those in his own party.

Here’s an example of one of the tweets that was very popular among the right on Twitter on Thursday night.

As is the case with every failed conspiracy theory attached to Trump losing the election, there’s really no proof here beyond the fact that the Republican-appointed justice didn’t help Trump by ruling in his favor in any of the hilariously bereft cases regarding the election. But for some people it certainly was amusing to see conservatives turn on one of their own members of the Supreme Court.

On occasion, NFL handicapping is a maddening experience. That was the case in Week 14, at least in this space and with one particular decision. Overall, we posted a 2-3 output, which is far from disastrous, but we rolled with the first half under in the Bengals game, only to lose that particular wager with a handful of seconds left in the first half. Predictably, the full game total stayed under with ease and, well, that is the difference between a winning week and a losing week.

Alas, we remain undeterred, and the Week 15 slate has some appetizing spots. Before diving into our five selections, let’s pause and check out the season-long effort.

• Week 14: 2-3
• 2020 Season: 33-35-2

Come get these winners.

Carolina Panthers (+8.5) over Green Bay Packers

The Packers are red-hot, winning three straight and five of six. In contrast, the Panthers have lost seven of eight, and things are seemingly going in the wrong direction. With that said, six of those seven defeats came by one possession, and Teddy Bridgewater is the king of all underdogs. Carolina’s quarterback is 33-13-1 all-time and a blistering 23-6 as an underdog. That isn’t the basis for the pick, but it certainly helps. Give me the Panthers to keep it close.

Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings UNDER 47 points

We always enjoy a good Under bet and, with Akiem Hicks back for the Bears, this feels snug. Minnesota loves to pound the rock with Dalvin Cook and, quite honestly, that usually works. The Bears have had mild success in slowing Cook, though, and Chicago’s offense might also be overvalued right now after facing two putrid defenses in Detroit and Houston. It may not be comfortable the entire way, but this feels like a rock fight. Give me a few points and perhaps a missed field goal (or two) from Dan Bailey.

New England Patriots (+2) over Miami Dolphins

There is a lot happening here. Bill Belichick owns rookie quarterbacks, and the Dolphins are starting one. Miami is running unbelievably hot in turnover luck. New England’s strength offensively is on the ground, while Miami’s defensive strength is against the pass. The Dolphins are also 10-3 against the spread. Did I mention that they are running unbelievably hot and we get to take Bill Belichick against a rookie quarterback?

Jacksonville Jaguars (+13) over Baltimore Ravens

Hold your nose. I’m tempted to give out the Jets at +17.5, too. Be thankful we settled here instead.

Arizona Cardinals (-6) over Philadelphia Eagles

If it feels like we’re on the Cardinals every week, it’s because we basically are. Some of that is about Arizona being undervalued (at least at times) but, this week, a lot of it is about Philadelphia. The Eagles aren’t very good and, with all due respect to Jalen Hurts, Philly is getting more respect from last week’s performance than they should. This number should be 7.5 or higher, and with more than half of the tickets on Philadelphia, Arizona is the rare sharp favorite. Lay the number.

Preseason is different for everyone in the NBA world, especially in 2020 with limited deployment and a shortened window to prepare for the regular season. That dichotomy was on full display in one particular moment on Thursday evening, and it came during the third quarter of an otherwise anonymous tilt between the Washington Wizards and the Detroit Pistons. With the Pistons playing quite well in the first half, Washington was trailing and, apparently, frustration set in for Thomas Bryant.

Pistons star Blake Griffin, who is attempting to re-establish himself after a long-term injury, got into a mini-tussle with Bryant, slinging him to the ground during the course of live action. From there, Bryant didn’t take kindly to the gesture.

As noted here, Griffin was assessed a Flagrant-1 foul for his actions, and that is some level of justice for Bryant. Still, it is undeniably amusing to see Griffin flatly laughing as Bryant was incensed, and while Bryant isn’t that young, it could also be the difference between an established long-term veteran and a player that is still rising in the league.

Nothing is that serious in the preseason but, to be charitable to Bryant, it is possible that he thought it was a dangerous action by Griffin and no one wants that. In the end, all was well, and the Wizards got the (very small) win of the flagrant foul.

Twitter is a tough place to exist in even the best of times, but according to a report the company is trying to make everyone using the social media site to remember that actual humans exist behind all those avatars. Well, mostly.

According to Mashable, Twitter is testing a feature that will show you some mutual interests in a window below what you may fire off at a random stranger with a bad take on the social media site.

The intent is to make you think twice about roasting a human with a bad opinion because you both like, you know, cats or something.

The company began testing a new feature, dubbed humanization prompts, on Thursday with the goal of improving conversational health on the platform. As part of the test, some Twitter users will be presented with the shared interests and mutual followers of the accounts they’re replying to.

In other words, humanization prompts aim to not-so-subtly point out what Twitter users have in common. But don’t be surprised if you personally don’t see the prompts. The test will only go into effect for approximately 10 percent of English-speaking Android users.

Fittingly, that Mashable tweet had some pretty funny responses in the replies about some of the weirdness that may come from knowing mutual interests among your sworn internet enemies.

Some think this kind of thing may just end up being weaponized, anyway.

The most common response to all this is that Twitter should simply get rid of abusive users of the platform and better protect users from Nazis and trolls, rather than encourage them to just play nice with others. But perhaps that’s more difficult than using some algorithms to discover that most people like dogs.

[via Mashable]

Lorde has been slowly but surely returning to the public eye, a clue that her next album will be dropping shortly. She tends to be very public during an album release cycle and during tour, and then take a lot of time off being a celebrity when she’s in writing mode, so if she’s doing interviews, new music is about to come.

Recently, the New Zealand singer revealed that a trip to Antarctica had deeply impacted her, so much so that she’s written a book about it called Going South. She further mentioned during an extensive interview about the same freezing trip that she’s working on “the whole cinematic universe” of her next record.

Now, we’ve got something even more specific — the record itself, Lorde LP3, does indeed have a title. And, she said that title was itself also influenced by her trip to the frozen tundra. “I felt incredibly inspired by going to Antarctica,” she said in a video interview with Antarctica New Zealand. “I actually decided on the album name right around that trip, just coming back from that trip I thought ‘this is what it is,’ which is not something that’s even close to being announced, and that in itself is a weird announcement. There is something so inspiring about it.”

Check this clip for her exact mention of the album title, and further reflection of why Antarctica is so inspiring:

And watch the full interview with Antarctica New Zealand here.

Cyberpunk 2077‘s tough 2020 just got more difficult thanks to Sony. The makers of PlayStation announced on Thursday night that it would be pulling the highly-anticipated game from its online stores and offering full refunds several days after the game’s developer made the same offer.

In a statement, Sony stressed that not only will they now give refunds, it will not sell the game to any customers through its online store “until further notice.”

SIE strives to ensure a high level of customer satisfaction, therefore we will begin to offer a full refund for all gamers who have purchased Cyberpunk 2077 via PlayStation Store. SIE will also be removing Cyberpunk 2077 from PlayStation Store until further notice.

Once we have confirmed that you purchased Cyberpunk 2077 via PlayStation Store, we will begin processing your refund. Please note that completion of the refund may vary based on your payment method and financial institution.

The decision to pull the game from the store is complicated, but as Patrick Klepek explained, it has to do with Sony’s refund policy.

CD Projekt Red announced Monday that it would be offering refunds to anyone who bought the game and was unsatisfied. The game, available on multiple consoles and PC, could be purchased through a number of different digital and retail stores. CD Projekt Red, for example, owns GOG.com and could easily facilitate those. But several customers struggled to get refunds directly from Sony, which cited forthcoming bug fixes and patches on the way from CD Projekt Red in the coming weeks and months that would likely fix problems customers were having.

In Monday’s announcement about refunds, CD Projekt Red apologized in particular for the game’s performance on last-gen consoles like the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the former of which had countless gamers complaining the title crashed and rendered it essentially unplayable. And though the game seems to perform with more stability on the next-gen Sony console, as of Thursday night, it seems it’s also unavailable for PS5 gamers, too.

It’s unclear how long the game will be unavailable in the Sony store, and anyone who already has a copy or a physical disc of the game will be able to endure it on the PlayStation 4 and 5, but it’s a massive blow for a game that’s had one of the roughest launches in 2020 to say the least.

The two subjects that dominated cultural conversation most during 2020 are, obviously, COVID-19, followed closely by the song “WAP” from Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion. So as creatives with too much time on their hands are wont to do, some concerned citizens at John Hopkins University decided to pair the two together in a little PSA about wearing a mask — and yes, it’s as well-meaning and cringe-worthy as it sounds.

Orchestrated by the Bloomberg School Of Public Health, the parody of “WAP” is dubbed “WAmP” (Wear A Mask, Please) and seeks to help people understand how important it is to actually wear a face covering — “not just hold it as a prop.” The parody song includes other lyrics that point to social distancing and other seemingly hard-to-follow instructions, like not wearing the mask on your chin, and making sure it covers both mouth and nose.

“There’s a mask on his mouth,” goes the sampled refrain in this version, replacing the original’s declaration “there’s some ho’s in this house,” and in general the new version hews pretty close to the rhythms and melody of the original, it’s mostly the lyrics and visuals that have been swapped. Credited artists for the song are “Birdi Jay” and “Thee Mental Notes,” with the former alluding to John Hopkins’ mascot, the Blue Jay, who stars in the video. Watch the clip below. All corniness aside, they get full marks for creativity.

Cardi B has yet to weigh in on the PSA.

After a period of relative tranquility after James Harden reported to training camp and appeared in a preseason game for the Houston Rockets, the rumor mill began churning again in earnest on Thursday evening. First, ESPN reported that the Rockets are “expanding trade discussions” for the star guard, even beyond the destinations (Brooklyn and Philadelphia) that Harden is thought to prefer.

From there, multiple reporters weighed in with insight that the Philadelphia 76ers could be at least willing to include superstar Ben Simmons in the discussions.

However, Sixers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey responded swiftly to those rumblings, telling Shams Charania of The Athletic that the team is “not trading Ben Simmons.”

Though next week’s start of the 2020-21 regular season could act as a soft deadline for negotiations, the Rockets do not have to move quickly, with Harden under contract for multiple seasons. To add to that, Harden did show up for camp and all indications are that he will take the court and (very likely) perform at a high level as he awaits the deal that he is reportedly seeking.

As for Philadelphia, the 76ers would potentially love to lure Harden away from Houston without giving up Simmons and, at least from a contractual perspective, the organization does have other ways to get that deal done. However, the Rockets should absolutely be asking for Simmons in return and, if Philadelphia is unwilling to include Simmons or Joel Embiid, it is entirely possible that Houston might hang up the phone before talks can escalate.

In some ways, it feels as if a deal could be on the way, if only because the chatter has been happening for a long time. Still, this on-record denial from Morey is the latest road block, and the partnership between Harden and the Rockets may need to continue for a while.

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Dreaming about lo mein on the season finale of Pod Yourself A Gun.

On the latest episode of Pod Yourself A Gun: A Sopranos Podcast, Rolling Stone chief television critic and co-author of The Sopranos Sessions, Alan Sepinwall, returns to talk to Matt and Vince about the final episode of The Sopranos season 3, “Army of One.”

In the last pre-9/11 Sopranos episode, everyone’s favorite fail-stunad’ is at it again. The principal has a DNA match on AJ’s peepee, and Tony thinks military school will straighten the little piss bandit out. He’ll never get to be Donald Trump’s helicopter pilot if he doesn’t learn some discipline. During their talk, the guys decide when it’s okay to hit your kids, and try to find out if David Chase has heard the show. Let’s hope not!

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