Month: July 2021

Have you ever seen anyone put an avocado pit in water to grow an avocado tree? I’ve seen lots of people try, but only a few succeed. My mom has a tiny avocado tree growing in her living room that she managed to grow from the pit of a Hass avocado she ate. It’s small but thriving, and I’ve often wondered if it will ever grow actual avocados.

As it turns out, it could—but they won’t be Hass avocados.

Wait, huh?

In a wow-that’s-an-interesting-factoid-I-never-knew-before video, an avocado tree grower explains in this YouTube video why a Hass avocado seed doesn’t grow into a Hass avocado tree. Avocados, apparently, are not “true to seed” plants, meaning if you plant the seed, you’ll end up with a different variety of the fruit the seed came from. Apples are the same—if you plant a Fuji apple seed, you will not get a Fuji apple tree. In fact, chances are really, really high that you’ll get an avocado or an apple that tastes terrible if you try to grow it from a seed of an existing fruit.

The guy from Sleepy Lizard Avocado Farm explains how it all works using an analogy with candy flavors. This is the genetics lesson we all needed in school when we were trying to figure out Punnett squares, and he explains it all so clearly.

Incredible how nature works, and so amazing what human beings have been able to figure out over millennia of agricultural advancements.

Why a Hass Avocado Seed Does Not Give Us a Hass Avocado Tree

youtu.be

So how do you get a Hass avocado tree if you can’t plant a Hass avocado seed to grow it? As he explains in the video, you can plant the pit and start to grow the tree, but if you want Hass avocados you have to graft a branch of a Hass avocado tree onto the stem of the tree you’re growing.

Or, you can just buy a baby Hass avocado tree that’s already been grafted, which is probably a heck of a lot easier than figuring out how to graft one yourself.

So go ahead and sprout that seed in water and grow yourself a pretty avocado plant if you’d like. Just don’t expect any yummy avocados from it, since your chances are about 1 in 10,000 that it’ll happen.

Thanks for the fascinating lesson, avocado guy!

Sha’Carri Richardson officially will miss out on the Summer Olympics. USA Track and Field announced the group that will make up the 4×100 team in Tokyo, and while Richardson was eligible to participate, the organization opted to take opted to go in a different direction. Richardson, who won the 100 meter dash at U.S. Olympic Trials and was viewed as one of the favorites to take home the gold in that event, tested positive for marijuana and was handed a one-month suspension, thereby disqualifying her from participating in Tokyo.

There was, however, still a path for Richardson to make the team: the 4×100 relay. She would have needed to get one of the two discretionary spots that are selected by the team’s coach, but instead, those went to English Gardner and Aleia Hobbs, who were the next highest finishers in the 100 meter dash at trials.

In a statement, USATF explained the decision, saying that while there is agreement that the World Anti-Doping Agency should reconsider its stance on THC, it will follow those standards, anyway.

“While USATF fully agrees that the merit of the World Anti-Doping Agency rules related to THC should be reevaluated, it would be detrimental to the integrity of the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Track & Field if USATF amended its policies following competition, only weeks before the Olympic Games,” the organization said in the statement, per USA Today.

“All USATF athletes are equally aware of and must adhere to the current anti-doping code, and our credibility as the National Governing Body would be lost if rules were only enforced under certain circumstances.”

USATF told USA Today that Gardner and Hobbs were selected to fill the two discretionary spots on the roster before Richardson’s suspension from the 100 meters.

There was a good while when we didn’t get a new Zack Snyder movie. Before this year, the last proper one was back in 2016, with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Then he got caught up in the headache that was Justice League, which ended with him walking away from the project and laying low while it was finished by Joss Whedon. But 2021 has seen a flurry of activity, from the “Snyder Cut” to the hit Netflix zombie saga Army of the Dead. He liked working with the latter so much he’s going back for seconds.

As per Deadline, Snyder has already inked his next Netflix flick, and — surprise surprise — it’s not another Army of the Dead. It’s a sci-fi action movie called Rebel Moon, and here is how Deadline describes it:

The story is set on a peaceful colony on the edge of the galaxy that finds itself threatened by the armies of the tyrannical Regent Balisarius, they dispatch a young woman with a mysterious past to seek out warriors from neighboring planets to help them take a stand.

In other words, it’s another ensemble movie, like Army of the Dead. In fact, it faintly sounds like a Dirty Dozen-style, “let’s round up a bunch of badasses for a mission”-type deal. No actors have been named as of yet, but now that he’s back in action, he should no problem wrangling up a cast — even if he has to later replace one of them in post.

(Via Deadline)

Comics are divided about the modern practice that’s been dubbed “cancel culture.” Much of the older guard is against it, arguing that singling out older material for scorn — even punishing them in some form for what they once said — is a form of censorship. Others, like Seth Rogen and Katt Williams, think it’s necessary. As the former, whose past has plenty of gags now considered problematic, has said, sometimes joke “age terribly.” But count Conan O’Brien — and decided non-comic Sean Penn — as those who are against it.

Penn was the guest on a recent episode of the podcast Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, and the two came out against the idea of punishing people for past behavior.

“Empathy is a very important word and also forgiveness,” said O’Brien, who usually refrains from wading into political territory. “This whole concept of cancel culture is… We found that someone did something in 1979 that is now not appropriate. They’re dead to us.”

Penn deemed the practice “ludicrous,” prompting O’Brien to elaborate. “People can also be forgiven. If they even need forgiving. What happened to that?” he said, adding, “It feels very Soviet, kind of, sometimes.”

Penn then addressed the case of Alexi McCammond, the Teen Vogue editor who was fired over anti-Asian tweets she made when she was a teenager.

“When we’re destroying careers like that, what are we really achieving? What are we doing?” the two-time Oscar-winner asked. “Or you look at politicians. I give a big nod to anybody who’s willing to enter the public arena who is doing so because they give a damn.”

Granted, O’Brien and Penn were addressing a specific part of cancel culture, in which people lose jobs over material that may no longer be reflective of who they’ve become. It’s a little different from what Rogen and Williams have discussed, which involves accepting that times change.

You can listen to the full episode in the video above. The discussion about cancel culture begins around the 30-minute mark.

(Via Mediaite)

Whether it’s on-screen or behind the curtains, there’s nothing the modern entertainment industry loves more than a good ol’ fashioned team-up. Luckily for us, the one Universal and sister streaming service Peacock just formed is pretty damn powerful, and great for those of us still hesitant to visit theaters. Earlier today, Universal Film Entertainment Group stated all their upcoming feature films will hit Peacock no later than four months after their theatrical release.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, this decision was made in an effort to “grow the streamer’s subscriber base” and accelerate “what’s traditionally referred to as the pay-one home entertainment window, which — in pre-pandemic times — didn’t kick in for six to seven months.” With all the extra income Universal and Peacock are anticipating from this move, the pair hope to work together to make original films for the streaming service. While no specific titles were announced, the report stated the projects are expected to begin debuting on Peacock sometime in 2022.

Now, while it might sound like this is all an attempt for Universal and Peacock to outdo the competition with their own collection of exclusive films, as of right now that’s not entirely the pair’s gameplan. Turns out, Universal isn’t resigning their films to solely existing on Peacock. According to reports, the studio is adopting an 18-month cycle. For both the first and last four months of a film’s cycle, they will be streaming exclusively on Peacock. However, during the ten months in middle, the films will be available on other services that have yet to be disclosed. Interestingly enough, HBO — Universal’s current pay-one partner — isn’t believed to be one of them.

If all goes according to plan, this partnership could help keep Peacock afloat. It’s no secret that since the streaming service launched just over a year ago, it’s struggled to compete with the likes of Netflix and Disney+. Whereas both Netflix and Disney+ have about 208 million and 103.6 million paid subscribers respectively, Peacock sits at just about 10 million. Just this past April, Peacock/NBCU’s parent company Comcast disclosed it is expecting losses of $2 billion in 2020 and 2021 as it invests in the streaming service.

As far as what else lies ahead for Universal, the studio does have quite a few big blockbusters scheduled for release in the next year. These titles include Jurassic World: Dominion, a new original film from Jordan Peele, DreamWorks Animation’ The Bad Guys and Puss in Boots, The Last Wish, and Illumination’s Minions: The Rise of Gru. Here’s hoping we catch them on Peacock soon.

Midwestern alt-emo standard bearers Foxing have announced the limited run of their upcoming concert film, Draw Down The Moon In St. Louis. According to a press release, the film chronicles a 48-hour period of the band recording a companion to their upcoming album, Draw Down The Moon, at The Grandel Theater in the band’s hometown of St. Louis.

Draw Down The Moon, Foxing’s fourth full length, is “about the idea of your cosmic significance,” said frontman Conor Murphy in a statement when the album was announced. “The way you feel like a tiny speck in the grand scheme of the universe, that’s a feeling everybody has. You can get lost thinking about how small you are. Draw Down The Moon explores how our connections to people and places and ideas are what binds us to the universe and reality.” Press materials also noted that the band worked on the album in their St. Louis studio with guitarist Eric Hudson producing.

Draw Down The Moon In St. Louis will air on August 6 at 6:00 p.m. PT. After the initial airing, it’ll be available for on-demand replays for 24 hours only. Grab your tickets here, and look out for Draw Down The Moon when it drops on August 6 via Hopeless Records and the band’s own Grand Paradise.

The story of the making of Rocky is as heartwarming as Rocky itself. Sylvester Stallone, a struggling thespian with a few, not-so-notable credits, wrote a Hail Mary script about a struggling pugilist. He miraculously got it made, with him as the lead. The result was the biggest hit of 1976, and the rest, as they say, is history. (Which is to say that 15 years later we got Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot.) But there’s an alternate timeline in which Stallone’s original script got made — and that sounds like an even darker film than a Rocky IV in which Paulie’s robot has been deleted.

The Hollywood Reporter dug up an old interview with Stallone, in which he admitted that the initial script for Rocky was a lot closer to the bleak-o-rama fare trendy in ’70s Hollywood. In fact, Rocky Balboa was less a sadsack than just another of the era’s antiheroes — a Travis Bickle with boxing gloves — who threw the big fight with Apollo Creed.

“The character was very dark. As a matter of fact, he throws the fight at the very end,” Stallone said in the old interview. “And Mickey [Burgess Meredith] himself turns out to be this very angry, racist man. And the reason Rocky throws the fight is because he doesn’t want to be involved in this kind of world. He says, ‘I would just rather be who I was and just have all this hatred around me and so on.’”

Luckily he had a fierce critic: his then-wife Sasha Czack. “And she goes. ‘Oh. I don’t like it. Rocky seems so nasty,’” Stallone recalled. “Because I had made him very street-like and unrepentant. He did not have the attitude that he eventually ended up with. So I went back and re-wrote and re-wrote.”

Had he not, would the darker Rocky had been a blockbuster that turned him into an instant megastar? Probably not. Rather than gift the world with another cinematic downer, Stallone went the other way, offering audiences beaten down by grim movies — not to mention even more grim times — a respite. Which they enthusiastically took. Indeed, along with the previous year’s Jaws and the next year’s Star Wars, it helped usher in a new, happier time at the movies, laying the foundation for the blockbuster future we live in today.

It’s worth noting, incidentally, that the original Rocky is still pretty dark. Balboa is a sadsack who no one believes in, except for Talia Shire’s Adrienne. And it captures Frank Rizzo’s Philadelphia at its grimiest, before it had an icon, even a fictional one like Rocky, it could believe in. Still, things could have been worse.

You can watch the full, old interview below.

(Via THR)

For nearly two decades, Hugh Jackman kept his body shredded and those claws razor sharp as he took on the role of X-Men‘s Wolverine across nine 21st Century Fox films, and it looks he might be back at it again. While the actor stated his role in Logan would be the last time he reprised his arguably most iconic role, earlier this week Jackman shared two posts on his Instagram story that sent fans into quite the frenzy and might be foreshadowing his return to Marvel and (thanks to Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox) big debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The first image Jackman shared was one Wolverine fan art created by popular artist Bosslogic. This post was then followed by a photo of Jackman standing next to Marvel Studio’s chief creative officer Kevin Feige.

While the first image doesn’t feel too unusual for Jackman to share — after all, who doesn’t appreciate some good fan art? — the second image raised several eyebrows. While the picture is merely a simple shot of reported friends Feige and Jackman standing next to one another, its lack of caption and context outside of following a picture of Wolverine is a bit incriminating. In addition, the MCU’s current trajectory makes the possibility of Jackman’s return feel not only possible, but pretty damn likely and seamless.

After acquiring 21st Century Fox back in 2019, fans have been waiting for the X-Men to be introduced to the current MCU. All throughout WandaVision, we got hints of how that might happen that led to us speculate just how the two universes will connect. As we learn more about Marvel’s fourth phase films, it seems plausible that the X-Men might make an appearance either in Shang-Chi‘s Madripoor scene or Doctor Strange in the Mulriverse of Madness. Regardless of how, there are certainly ample ways for Marvel to introduce Wolverine into the MCU — whether through cameo or major role — and it’s seemingly more likely it might happen soon.

Kayleigh McEnany is nothing but consistent. She lied about never telling lies while serving as press secretary — her upcoming book about “what really happened within the Trump administration” will almost certainly be filled with blatant lies and disinformation — and on Tuesday, she made one of her boldest inaccurate claims yet.

While appearing on Fox News, McEnany criticized Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) for tweeting, “When they say that the 4th of July is about American freedom, remember this: the freedom they’re referring to is for white people. This land is stolen land and Black people still aren’t free.” She said, “The haters never take a day off from hating, that is clear. And they never take a day off from getting the facts wrong. We know most of our forefathers, all of our main Founding Fathers, were against slavery, recognized the evils of it.”

There’s a lot wrong here, beginning with McEnany’s assertion that “the haters never take a day off from hating.” That’s maybe not the best way to get your point across (“The haters never take a day off from hating, yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth…”). More to the point, of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, 41 of them owned slaves. McEnany might try to claim that by “main Founding Fathers,” she means George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison, none of whom signed the Declaration of Independence, but Washington and Madison were not “against slavery,” and Hamilton may have been a slave owner as well. Thomas Jefferson, a “main” Founding Father who did sign, alone enslaved over 600 people.

We should expect nothing less from McEnany, but it was still an incredible, well, declaration.

As the dust settles from Donald Trump’s presidency, which culminated in a failed insurrection that violently breached the U.S. Capitol building, audiences’ interest in political news has been plummeting. In an effort to keep eyeballs, Fox News is turning to the one area that’s continue to grow while politics is fading: the weather.

Citing reports that The Weather Channel has seen a 7 percent boost as audiences at MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News have dropped almost 38 percent, Fox News is making an aggressive move into meteorology, according to The New York Times:

“All the networks are ramping up for this,” said Jay Sures, a co-president of United Talent Agency who oversees its TV division. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that climate change and the environment will be the story of the next decade.” One of his firm’s clients, Ginger Zee, the chief meteorologist at ABC News, now has 2.2 million Twitter followers — more than any ABC News personality besides George Stephanopoulos.

According to the Times, Fox is already poaching top talent from The Weather Channel, whose parent company welcomes the “competition.” But as the two monoliths prepare to go head-to-head over who tells America when it’s going to rain, people on social media are obviously concerned about how a right-wing, climate-change-denying network like Fox will cover the weather. The consensus? Probably not well.