Month: July 2021

Diplo’s legal troubles are far from ending. According to TMZ, the DJ and producer has been hit with yet another sexual assault allegation involving a woman who said he coerced her into performing oral sex on him after a Las Vegas concert in 2019. The victim says the incident occurred when she was invited to an after-party by the DJ, which she attended with friends. She claims that she and her friends were all intoxicated upon arriving at the party and that they accepted weed and more alcohol from Diplo at the event.

Later on, the victim claims she was invited to Diplo’s personal room, and his security team proceeded to kick everyone out, including her friend, who was allegedly punched in the face when he refused to leave without her. Eventually, it was just the woman and producer alone in the room. Here, Diplo reportedly told the victim that she could not leave the room without performing oral sex on him. She repeatedly refused, but after realizing there was no way out, she reluctantly gave in and followed his demand. She also alleges that he filmed the encounter without her permission. As a result of it all, she’s suing the DJ for an unspecified amount in damages.

Bryan Freedman, Diplo’s attorney, denied the allegations and claims there’s a connection between the victim’s account and that of another woman, Shelley Auguste, who is also suing him for sexual assualt. “This complaint is completely outrageous, wildly untrue and yet also entirely predictable, given that it simply repeats the exact same claim already made by the plaintiff’s friend Shelly Auguste, an individual who has been harassing Mr. Pentz and his family for more than a year and already has repeatedly violated the restraining order issued against her,” he said.

He adds, “We have irrefutable evidence that this is a completely meritless claim and we will be providing it to a court as quickly as we possibly can to put an end to this shakedown by Ms. Auguste and her accomplices once and for all.”

Auguste, who is Diplo’s ex-girlfriend, sued him for sexual battery, assault, defamation, infliction of emotional distress, and fraud at the end of last month.

Now that we’re done freaking out over the lack of an end credits scene following that episode (but like seriously, how does this show just keep getting better?), let’s talk about where we did leave off: Loki and Sylvie, hand-in-hand, facing a giant palace after entering the mind of Alioth. Much like every scene of Loki, this then raises the question of what exactly are we looking at here — and we think we might know. Here are a few possibilities as to where the “enchanting” series finale will take place that would be equal parts epic and enlightening.

1. Kang’s Domain/Chronopolis

Between Ravonna, Alioth, the Time Variance Authority, and his role confirmed in 2023’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, all signs point to the location we see being none other than the home of Kang the Conqueror, Chronopolis. If so, it’s likely that rather than taking Kang on, Loki and Sylvie’s discovery is inevitably going to lead to his rise to power. This would reinforce Loki’s tendency to cause chaos wherever they go, which feels bleak for the show to do but is likely, and set a lot of phase four into motion. In addition, since the show is focusing on Ravonna, who is also on her way to the home of the TVA’s ruler, it would make sense for it to be Kang due to the nature of their shared story.

2. Evil Loki’s Palace

While this show certainly has the potential to go big, it could fool us all by going a bit smaller than we anticipated — which is a pretty Loki thing to do, Mobius would say. Just as Loki and Sylvie’s relationship can be seen as Loki finally finding a way to love and understand himself after years of self-loathing and insecurity, watching him face-off against a true evil Loki would give us a chance to see how far the God of Chaos has come. While it’s one thing to love yourself, it’s another thing entirely to own up to the worst bits of yourself. It could be that Loki is about to enter his own darkest lair, which will make for an exciting and cathartic final episode.

3. Doctor Doom’s Castle/Doomstadt

If Kang’s domain is Loki going big, Doctor Doom’s castle takes the show to a different dimension. I truly don’t think this is likely, but I’ve seen the rumors on Reddit and can’t deny that the location seen in their enchantment looks irrefutably like Doomstadt! If this ends up being true, this is a helluva way to introduce legendary villain Doctor Doom — and the Fantastic Four — to the MCU.

Of course, we have to admit there is always the possibility that Marvel will take us somewhere completely unexpected and our grasping at threads was all for naught. However, while all this speculation is maddening now, we know we sure are going to miss it when all our questions are answered in next week’s series finale.

Last week, Tucker Carlson made a surreal claim, even for a guy who sloppily attempted to downplay the Jan. 6 insurrection. He said he was being spied on. By the U.S. government. Why? Because, he said, they wanted to take down his show. He painted himself as an innocent journalist (even though his own bosses wouldn’t use that term), being pushed around by The Man. But the story seemed not only far-fetched but incredibly vague, as though he was omitting a key piece of information. Well, guess what?

According to Axios, around the time Carlson claimed he was the subject of illegal government surveillance by an agency that looks at foreign powers, he was…talking to a foreign power, one that’s been accused of spying on America and messing with its elections. Specifically he was trying to score an interview with Russian president Vladimir Putin. And wouldn’t you know government officials caught wind of that.

This, however, doesn’t mean that the NSA, or any government agency, had illegally intercepted any of Carlson’s emails, as he has alleged on his show, and there’s no proof that they had. Axios also points out that reporters reaching out to foreign leaders is common practice.

What actually happened is unclear — far foggier than Carlson has let on — but the publication says the most likely scenario is that whoever the Fox News host contacted was already under surveillance. What’s more, the two Kremlin intermediaries Carlson was allegedly dealing with allegedly live in the U.S., either as citizens or simply here temporarily. If the latter is true, the U.S. government doesn’t have to seek approval to monitor their communications.

The news broke soon before Carlson’s nightly Fox News show, and of course he did some damage control.

Carlson admitted the story about the attempted Putin interview, which he had kept hidden, was true, claiming that “any type of publicity would rattle the Russians and make the interview less likely to happen.” But then, he claimed, Biden and team decided to paint him as “a disloyal American, a Russian operative.” That seems far-fetched, but he had more, accusing whoever leaked the story, and thus unmasking him, to of committing an illegal act.

But people still werne’t buying his version of the story.

Some did their best to sum it all up.

Even some on the right saw through Tucker’s m.o.: to paint Americans as the enemy.

And others reminded everyone that his employers don’t even think he’s a real journalist.

Anyway, as usual with Tucker, what a mess.

(Via Axios)

Game 1 of the NBA Finals went to the Phoenix Suns, with Chris Paul playing a classic Chris Paul game and largely orchestrating the Suns’ 118-105 win. It was as strong as a start to the series as the Suns could have hoped for.

For Game 2 and the rest of the series, there’s also a lot of reason to think Milwaukee isn’t out of it. For one, a bigger offensive night out of Jrue Holiday would help immensely. Holiday has a large defensive burden regardless of who he’s guarding, but he was 4-14 from the field and 0-4 from three. When Paul has 32 points on 12-19 shooting and Devin Booker has 27 points (10 of which came from the free throw line), Holiday just has to be better.

There’s also the health Giannis Antetokounmpo to consider. Antetokounmpo played in Game 1 after being listed as doubtful, and then questionable, due to the hyperextended knee he suffered in the Eastern Conference Finals. In Game 1, he did score 20 points and largely looked physically right despite the injury. He also only took 11 shots (making six) along with 12 free throws (making seven).

For Game 2, a big night from Antetokounmpo seems possible if he can simply get more shots up and the Bucks make some adjustments to get him free on cuts and rolls towards the rim. It’s also likely that he’ll just be more aggressive after feeling out his knee in the opener. In 16 playoff games this year, Antetokounmpo is averaging 20.4 shot attempts per game, which would be the highest mark of his career if it holds through the end of the NBA Finals.

On the other side, Booker also could be primed for a big night. He was just 1-8 on three-point attempts, a very large dip from the 32.7 percent he’s shooting from three during the playoffs and the 34 percent he shot during the regular season. If Booker is more like his normal self, it could be a big advantage for Phoenix as they look to go up 2-0 in the series.

Game 2 TV Info

Tip Time: Thursday, June 8; 9 p.m. ET
TV Network: ABC

Game 2 Betting Lines (via DraftKings Sportsbook)

Series Prices: Suns (-345), Bucks (+270)
Spread: Suns -5.5 (-110), Bucks +5.5 (-110)
Total: Over 219.5 (-112), Under 219.5 (-109)
Money Line: Suns (-225), Bucks (+185)

Game 2 Player Scoring Props (via DraftKings Sportsbook)

Jae Crowder O/U 10.5 Points (Over -105/Under -122)
Brook Lopez O/U 13.5(-106/-121)
Chris Paul O/U 22.5 (-106/-121)
Deandre Ayton O/U 16.5 (+102/-129)
Jrue Holiday O/U 19.5 (-106/-121)
Devin Booker O/U 28.5 (-105/-122)
Mikal Bridges O/U 10.5 (-125/-103)
Giannis Antetokounmpo O/U 26.5 (-125/-103)
Khris Middleton O/U 25.5 (-120/-107)
PJ Tucker O/U 4.5 (-135/+104)

A few weeks back, Marjorie Taylor Greene did something she’d never done before: She admitted she’d done something wrong and pledged to do better. After repeatedly comparing attempts to stop an out-of-control pandemic to the Holocaust — then doubling and tripling down on it after being called out, including by the social media team for the Auschwitz Museum — she did the unthinkable and apologized. But her promise to become a better person lasted, oh, about three weeks.

As per The Washington Post, the most controversial freshman lawmaker is back at it. President Biden recently announced he was taking the push to get everyone vaccinated one step further, saying he’d send people door-to-door, offering live-saving jabs. After all, right now the vast majority of COVID-19 cases, and COVID-19-related deaths, are from people who haven’t received even a first injection.

But Greene wasn’t having Biden trying to save American lives. “Biden pushing a vaccine that is NOT FDA approved shows covid is a political tool used to control people,” she tweeted . “People have a choice, they don’t need your medical brown shirts showing up at their door ordering vaccinations. You can’t force people to be part of the human experiment.”

The “brown shirts” are a reference to what were dubbed “brownshirts” — what people called Hitler’s paramilitary organization, so named because of the color of their garbs.

This being Greene, her comment was, along with being offensive, misleading. All three vaccines being distributed in the U.S. were approved by the Food and Drug Administration last winter, at the behest of no less than then-president Donald J. Trump. They don’t, however, have full approval, and the organization is under pressure to do so to convince doubters, like Greene, to get vaxxed. (Greene, of course, has declined to say whether or not she’s been vaccinated.)

In mid-June, when she was being called out even by top members of her own party, Greene tried to educate herself about why making comparing life-saving actions to life-killing ones is not only inaccurate but wrong. She even went to D.C.’s Holocaust Museum. But clearly learning about one of the 20th century’s worst atrocities didn’t take.

(Via The Post)

More than three years ago, Nipsey Hussle released his official debut album, Victory Lap, which arrived after years of critically acclaimed mixtapes including The Marathon Continues, Crenshaw, and Mailbox Money. The 16-track effort would become of the best hip-hop releases of that year and it later earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Album. Now it’s earned a new milestone: Its 100th overall week on the Billboard album chart.

It’s a feat few artists today have achieved, and it demonstrates the power Nipsey has continued to exude well after his untimely death. The album’s success started with its release, as it debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200. It was later certified Platinum at the beginning of 2020.

The news comes after an announcement that revealed Nipsey would receive a posthumous star on Hollywood’s Walk Of Fame in 2022. Next year’s class of inductees also includes Ashanti, Black Eyed Peas, DJ Khaled, and late actress, producer, and writer Carrie Fisher. Nipsey’s star joins previous hip-hop inductees like Snoop Dogg, Missy Elliott, and 50 Cent.

Nipsey’s alleged killer, Eric Holder, still remains behind bars on a murder charge. Despite it being more than two years since the shooting, a trail for the murder has not begun.

Nipsey Hussle is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Seventeen years ago, Ben Stiller and Jack Black teamed up in a forgettable comedy called “Envy” about two guys who are best friends, neighbors, and co-workers at 3M. However, their relationship sours when Black’s character becomes wildly successful after inventing the Vapoorizer.

The Vapoorizer is a powerful spray that makes dog poop mysteriously vanish. Although the invention seemed pretty unlikely at the time it made countless dog owners fantasize about a magical day when they’re liberated from having to pick up after their pets.

Excited to try #RocketBook but why does it remind me of the #VaPooRizer? https://t.co/8Bp4LBjLYU

— Jason Judge (@MrJasonJudge)
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It’s been 17 years since the release of “Envy” and nobody has figured out how to vaporize doggie doo-doo quite yet. But a new invention called the Beetl may be even better because it hunts down the dog poo for you.

The Beetl is an autonomous robot that cruises your lawn, locates dog poop, and then picks it up with a claw. It’s equipped with computer vision and a front camera that helps it navigate lawns and locate piles of poop.

via Beetl Robotics

“There are over 35 million households in the US with dogs and backyards,” the robot’s creator, Beetl Robotics, says on its website. “Nobody likes picking up poop, so we built a computer vision-enabled robot to address the needs of dog owners everywhere.”

Think of it as a Roomba that instead of sucking up dirt in your house, picks up poop outside.

Just like a Roomba, you can program the Beetl to roam within preset boundaries so it stays in your yard or avoids going into the street.

An Autonomous Dog Poop Robot

www.youtube.com

After the Beetl finds a pile of poop it picks it up and places it in a container you can throw out when full. The Beetl runs on a battery and will charge itself when it’s about to run out of power.

Beetl Robotics says it’s “probably the smartest pooper scooper ever” and that it “relentlessly” hunts and disposes of dog poop. The Beetl also connects to the cloud to learn new ways of detecting dog poop as the technology improves.

Imagine how great it would be if the Beetl eventually developed a sense of smell? Then, it wouldn’t even need a camera.

The company hopes to take the design one step further by creating a Beetl that can mow your lawn as well. This version would be equipped with a sickle-bar grass shear that cuts grass with a mechanism similar to a shaver.

Now, all of this probably sounds great to you, but there’s one catch, Beetl Robotics hasn’t set a date for the product to come to market so you’ll have to wait a little while longer before your poop-free days are over.

But for now, take solace in the fact that one day you will be able to walk across your lawn with confidence, knowing you can do so without stepping in doggie doo.

The age of Instagram and the ubiquitousness of photo editing tools that can completely change the way you look—on a screen, at least—have made body image issues even trickier to navigate than they already were. While “perfect” model bodies used to be the Photoshopped domain of magazines and print ads, now anyone with a smartphone can manipulate their image to be more or less curvy, lean, muscular—whatever the “in” body type is at any given moment.

The problem is that young people see such images and then look in the mirror. Faced with the reality of a human body in all of its normal imperfections, it’s easy to feel down on what you look like, especially when it doesn’t match the (highly edited) ideal version of a human body your favorite influencer shares in her Insta feed.

At least one country is taking action on the issue in an attempt to assuage some of the damage such comparisons can cause. Norway has passed legislation that requires content creators to disclose when they’ve edited a photo. The addition to its existing Marketing Act states that any photo in which “a body’s shape, size or skin has been changed by retouching or other manipulation” must be marked as edited. The reasoning behind the law is that undisclosed photo editing “plays on social insecurity, bad conscience, low self-esteem or contributes to body pressure.”

According to The Hill, the law applies to advertisers as well as social media influencers and content creators.

The issue is definitely real. BBC reports that the majority of kids under 18 said in a UK survey that social media images were “extremely influential” on their body image. Only 5% of them said they wouldn’t consider dieting or getting surgery to change their appearance. Other research has found that social media can be a positive influence on body image when people post body-positivity-oriented content, but most social media influence has a negative effect on body image.

All of this isn’t surprising. But as much as Norway’s requirement to disclose photo edits seems like a move in the right direction, it’s not going to do much to solve the real problem.

I think most people, even young people, know that social media photos have been edited. It’s not like it’s a big secret anymore. If you are on Instagram, you know that people have put automatic filters on their photos or adjusted the exposure, brightness, contrast, etc. to create the most pleasing image. That’s literally the way the app is used by almost everyone.

Filters and lighting adjustments aren’t new, and they’re not the real problem. Professional portrait photographers manipulate lighting and use filters all the time to make people look their best. We’ve all taken photos in bad lighting and wondered, “Yeesh, is that really what I look like?” No, it’s not. Cameras don’t capture exactly what our eyes perceive and the wrong lighting can make us look unnaturally bad. Adjusting lighting before and/or after taking a photo can actually give us a more true-to-life image, as long as it’s not overdone.

Photoshopping bodies, though? That’s a whole other story. Literally adding or taking away skin or fat to change a body shape should be noted. Making someone’s eyes bigger or nose smaller or lips fuller—not to make the image look more like how they really look, but to create an unrealistic ideal—is worth disclosing. But even not all Photoshopping is bad. I’m not bothered if someone uses Photoshop to remove a big ol’ zit from their face, for example, but I do care if they erase part of their cheek to make their face look slimmer. Blemishes happen, but they are temporary. They’re not part of how you really look. But changing the shape of your face or body? That’s what creates unrealistic expectations and body image issues when someone looks in the mirror.

Some might argue that makeup can do many of the same things photo editing can do and can also lead people to unrealistic beauty standards, though. So should makeup be disclosed too? Do we really expect people to only show raw, bare-skinned, no-make-up photos of themselves to be considered authentic? I don’t think so, but the line for what needs to be disclosed is definitely a bit fuzzy.

Still, I don’t think the issue is that people don’t know that images are manipulated on social media. I think the real issue is the normalization of following influencers who constantly share photos of themselves all the time in the first place. For instance, the Kardashians have nearly a billion Instagram followers between them, and almost all they post are selfies in various states of undress. I don’t think disclosing that their photos are edited would do anything to change the impact accounts like that have on their followers.

What we really need to do is teach young people that their value and worth aren’t to be found in what they look like, either in real life or on social media. And neither is anyone else’s, even if they’ve made millions off of their image as their “brand.” Find your worth in what you’re contributing that’s making the world a better place, not in how many compliments your social media images get.

We also need to teach kids to analyze their own habits when it comes to who they choose to follow: If you’re following people who share selfies to get attention or likes or beauty praise, why? What purpose does that serve? Is it actually serving you in any way other than to make you wish you looked different? Are there actually inspiring influencers who are making a real difference in the world that you could follow instead?

Norway’s law might make a powerful statement, but I don’t think it will solve the problem it’s attempting to address. Appreciate the attempt to tackle body image issues, but the real problem goes deeper than any law or photo editing disclosure can go.

One of the best stories of the NCAA Tournament is staying in the NBA Draft.

Jason Preston, a 6’4, 187-pound guard from Ohio University, told ESPN through his agency, Roc Nation Sports, that he was staying in the 2021 NBA Draft. Preston originally declared without signing with an agent so he had the option of going back to school, but will stay in after he reportedly impressed at the NBA Combine.

He also confirmed the announcement via Twitter:

Preston’s story is incredible. He averaged two points a game in high school, went to prep school, made his own highlight video and then posted the video to Twitter where it was then seen by Ohio head coach Jeff Boals and resulted in a college scholarship. Last season as a junior, he missed some time due to COVID-19, but also dropped 31 points against Illinois and was the driving factor in the Bobcats reaching the Sweet 16 in the tournament. For the year, he averaged 15.7 points, 7.3 assists and 7.3 rebounds while shooting 38.5% from three and 51.4% from the field.

Where he falls in the draft remains to be seen. He seems to be ranked a high second round pick right now, which isn’t a bad place to be. But perhaps some teams in late first round believe in him enough to take a flier on him there. For what it it’s worth, he spent Wednesday working out with the Lakers, who pick No. 22 overall.

Regardless of where he ends up, Preston has taken the next step from complete unknown to a legitimate NBA prospect who seems like he’ll get drafted later this month. That’s a cool story for someone who took the beaten path to get here.

Warning: This post contains spoilers for the fifth episode of Loki, which went live on July 7.

Disney has always known cute, from the earliest cartoons of its founder, Walter Elias Disney, through The Mandalorian, which lives on a platform that wouldn’t exist without his tireless work almost a century ago. And it looks like, with its third show, the Marvel wing has finally found its Baby Yoda: Its most recent episode featured something that was called “Alligator Loki,” which is as cute as you’re going to get with a creature who could chomp someone’s hand off (and, in the episode, does).

The show’s fifth episode finds Tom Hiddleston’s mischievous antihero surrounded by variants of himself from other dimensions: Boastful Loki, President Loki, Kid Loki, etc. There’s also Classic Loki, played by no less than Richard E. Grant. But one clearly stood out from the rest, including the guy who once played the peerlessly disreputable Withnail: one that’s a small alligator wearing Loki’s ostentatious horned headgear.

In a new behind-the-scenes piece on Marvel.com, Hiddleston though it offered some deep stuff about identity. “The question is, ‘Is he really Loki? Or is he just green?’” Hiddleston asked. “It’s such a funny question that [the Lokis] all bicker about. One thing about Loki is that Loki loves to be right. And they all have a different opinion about this alligator.”

But others weren’t taking it that seriously. Series director Kate Heron had a jokey post about how the lizard Loki is a “diva.”

The reptile take on the MCU’s popular trickster quickly dominated social media. Stan accounts were born.

And there was plenty of love to go around.

Anyway, perhaps Alligator Loki can get a spin-off series where he hangs with Baby Yoda (sorry: Grogu), BB-8, and any other recent Disney-owned cute critter. Of course, the last two better watch themselves around this hungry, hungry green guy.