Month: September 2021

In the last five years, Eminem has released four project, his most recent one being 2020’s Music To Be Murdered By. It’s clear the rapper is on a streak and it looks like that may continue: Hints from his frequent collaborators have led many to believe he could be releasing new music soon.

https://twitter.com/JaySines2/status/1440100812185763843F

According to Rap-Up, a Reddit user noticed that Fredwreck, one of Eminem’s producers, shared a pair of posts to his Instagram story that fueled the new music rumors. The first was an image of an individual fishing on a boat in open waters with the caption, “The calm before the storm.” The second was a drawing of Eminem’s childhood home with the house number “1001,” leading them to believe the new release would arrive on October 1.

This theory was further fueled when Skylar Grey, a singer who has worked with Eminem on numerous occasions, shared a post that hinted at something arriving on October 1. “This month has been hellish,” she wrote. “But I see the light at the end… can’t wait for October 1st… mark your calendar.” The Reddit user also noted that Royce Da 5’9″ has been celebrating his “Scary Movie” collaboration with Eminem, which was released on October 1, 1999.

Eminem has yet to confirm any of the rumors so we’ll just have to wait.

Joe Biden reversed Donald Trump’s ban on transgender people serving in the military earlier this year, allowing the entire LGBTQ community to serve for the first time.

Anti-gay sentiment in the U.S. military goes as far back as 1778 when Lieutenant Frederick Gotthold Enslin was convicted at court-martial on charges of sodomy and perjury. The military would go on to make sodomy a crime in 1920 and worthy of dishonorable discharge.

In 1949 the Department of Defense standardized its anti-LGBT regulations across the military, declaring: “Homosexual personnel, irrespective of sex, should not be permitted to serve in any branch of the Armed Forces in any capacity, and prompt separation of known homosexuals from the Armed Forces is mandatory.”

via Tony Fischer / Flickr

This continued until 1993 when restrictions were slightly eased through the vague “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy set forth by the Clinton administration. Barack Obama improved on this policy by allowing LGBT people to serve openly in the military in 2011.

“There’s about 114,000 veterans that were discharged either ‘other than honorably’ or ‘dishonorably,’ because of just simply being LGB and trying to serve in the military under discriminatory policies,” Jennifer Dane of the Modern Military Association of America (MMAA) said according to Marketplace.

These unfair discharges have resulted in countless veterans losing access to VA health care and benefits such as education, burial, and memorial services, and home loans.

Democratic Representative Chris Pappas of New Hampshire has reintroduced legislation that would guarantee and protect Veteran Affairs (VA) benefits for LGBTQ veterans discharged from the military due to their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Pappas is openly gay and serves on the Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus.

via Tedd Eytan / Flickr

The SERVE Act (Securing the Rights our Veterans Earned) would reinstate VA benefits for those discharged as far back as World War II and covers those impacted by DADT and Trump’s recent, short-lived transgender ban.

“A double standard continues to persist for LGBTQ+ service members and veterans who suffered from government-sponsored discriminatory policies simply because of who they are,” Pappas said in a statement. “As we near the tenth anniversary of the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ it’s long past time that these veterans are afforded the benefits they’ve rightfully earned defending our country.”

“Those who have courageously served our nation in uniform should never have to worry about receiving the benefits to which they’re entitled for their service,” said David Stacy, Human Rights Campaign Government Affairs Director. “No LGBTQ veteran who has been discharged based on their sexual orientation or gender identity should be denied the VA benefits they deserve.”

The tens of thousands of people who’ve been discharged from the military due to their sexual orientation put their lives on the line to serve their country. They should be repaid for their willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice by being given what they were promised.

A spyware company has developed an easy way to take over any Apple computer, watch, or iPhone so the software giant is asking everyone to update their devices. The malicious software attacks Apple devices through the iMessage app.

“It’s absolutely terrifying,” said John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at The Citizen Lab, the company that discovered the hack and reported it to Apple.

What’s scary about the hack is that it doesn’t require the victim to download or click on anything to take effect. A device can be taken over by simply receiving a message. In the cybersecurity industry, it’s known as a “zero-click” exploit.

People who have been attacked by the hack are extremely unlikely to know anything happened. “The user sees crickets while their iPhone is silently exploited,” Scott-Railton said. “Someone sends you a GIF that isn’t, and then you’re in trouble. That’s it. You don’t see a thing.”

The Citizen Lab says the hack has been around since February. It was created by NSO Group, an Israeli company that sells its hacking software to “vetted” customers across the world for counterterrorism and law enforcement purposes.

Today, September 13th, Apple is releasing an update that patches CVE-2021-30860. We urge everyone to immediately update all Apple devices.

— Citizen Lab (@citizenlab)
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After the attack was discovered by The Citizen Lab and reported to Apple, it created a fix that’s available to users in its latest iOS or Mac OS updates. However, most users shouldn’t be too concerned about the hack unless they believe they’re being targeted by a government that uses NSO’s software.

“This will prevent you from being infected with this exploit going forward,” Scott-Railton said. “But what we know is NSO is always trying to find other ways to infect people’s phones, and they may turn to something else.”

Apple thanked The Citizen Lab for notifying them of the hack. “Attacks like the ones described are highly sophisticated, cost millions of dollars to develop, often have a short shelf life, and are used to target specific individuals,” Ivan Krstić, Apple’s head of Security Engineering and Architecture, said in a statement.

The hack was developed by NSO Group to deploy Pegasus, the spyware it sells to governments around the world to surveil suspected criminals or terrorists. NSO Group claims that the software is only used for those purposes but it’s been found on devices belonging to human rights activists, dissidents, and journalists.

Apple is urging all users to update their iPhone, iPads and computers as soon as possible after discovering a major… https://t.co/FRpvDIUfuk

— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings)
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The hack was discovered by The Citizen Lab on the phone of a Saudi dissident. “In this case, it’s pretty clear that this person was targeted for being an activist and not for any other reason,” Bill Marczak, a Citizen Lab senior research fellow, said according to Today.

The company insists that it can’t be used to target Americans’ phones. Facebook has accused NSO Group of hacking over 1,400 mobile devices using WhatsApp. NSO has disputed the accusation.

How to update your iPhone:

1. Plug your device into power and connect to the internet with Wi-Fi.
2. Go to Settings > General, then tap Software Update.
3. Tap Install Now. If you see Download and Install instead, tap it to download the update, enter your passcode, then tap Install Now.

Parents of young children who are of the opposite gender face a perplexing question: which bathroom do I take my kid into when they need to go? It’s even more difficult for men with young daughters because if they take them into the women’s bathroom, they might be seen as a predator.

However, men’s rooms rarely have any changing tables for dads that need to put on a fresh diaper.

Parenting blogger and self-proclaimed dad-vocate, Muhammed Nitoto, has no problem taking his young girls, Zendaya and Zuri, into the women’s restroom.

The first time he had to take his daughter to a restroom, he chose the men’s, and it was the last time he’d ever make that decision.

“Now I’ve been to a men’s bathroom millions of times but walking in with your daughter makes you look at it completely different,” he wrote on Instagram “Men’s bathrooms are DISGUSTING. They smell like pee and nothing is set up for a woman or a person with a child. The changing table was right next to the urinal which means my child literally would be next to where men pee while she’s being charged. Not to mention that there are men going in and out while you’re in there.”

Now, Nitoto only takes his daughters to the women’s room or a family room if the establishment has one.

“After doing that one time I decided I’d never take my daughter’s to the men’s bathroom again. I use the women’s bathroom when I’m out with them,” he wrote.

Nitoto says that when he enters a women’s restroom, being respectful is his number one concern.

“I try to be as respectful to women as I can while doing so which consists of knocking on the door before entering and announcing myself. Making sure if someone is inside that they know I am a dad coming in with his daughter and making sure they are comfortable with that,” he wrote.

He also makes sure that he announces himself whenever any women enter the bathroom.

“Now once inside our stall, I still am aware of the door and whenever I hear it open and someone new is coming in I announce myself again and make sure they know I’m inside with my child so that they aren’t surprised,” he wrote.

Nitoto wouldn’t have to take his daughters to the women’s restroom if men’s rooms were designed with fathers in mind. But sadly, most of them aren’t. It’s pretty sexist to assume that men aren’t interested in having a safe, clean place to change their children. The lack of facilities for men also makes it so women have to take on most of the public changing duties.

His post also highlight the fact that men often have to deal with facilities that aren’t as clean as those provided for women. Men deserve to have clean bathrooms, too.

“Women’s bathrooms are so much cleaner and set up perfect just in case they have children,” he wrote. “The changing station is usually inside a stall instead of just in the open and it’s always clean. As a girl dad, I can’t help but want to protect my daughters from all things that aren’t for them and the men’s bathroom is 100% one of those things.”

Girl In Red has been racking up critical acclaim for her debut album, If I Could Make It Go Quiet, which came out this spring. Marie Ulven, the aforementioned girl behind the project, is a Norwegian songwriter who has worked with the likes of Finneas O’Connell — on her breakout single “Serotonin” — and is beloved enough off the strength of her debut to be working the late night circuit. Last night on a live performance for Late Night With Seth Meyers she took advantage of the enormous platform and performed her latest single.

“I’ll Call You Mine” slots neatly alongside the other early tracks off her debut, sharing the same jumpy guitar and drum line as “Serotonin” even as it veers into a more languid vibe than that early hit. While she wasn’t wearing her signature red for the performance, Ulven did stick to her signature hoodie and baseball hat for the set. Check out the live performance of the new single above and look for a lot more coming from Girl In Red as she embarks on a massive set of tour dates this fall and into next year — and if all the sold out dates don’t win you over, then her slouchy jams definitely will.

Earlier this week, fans of Little Brother learned that the duo’s sophomore album, The Minstrel Show, would receive a vinyl reissue. The album was released back in 2003 and ABB Records, who currently owns the rights to it, is behind the reissue. Alas, Little Brother’s Phonte and Big Pooh were not pleased with it.

“I see ABB Records has decided to put up a repress of The Minstrel Show on vinyl instead of answering for 16 years of non payment on TMS or answering for 18 years of non payment for The Listening,” Pooh tweeted. “Humbly asking that you not support bad business practices. Thank you for listening.”

Later on, Phonte responded to the matter in the comments of an Instagram post from FatBeats about the reissue:

Peace Everybody, Phone from @lilbrother_nc here. Hope everybody is safe and healthy.

I’ve done Direct business with Fat Beats many times in the past and they’ve always done right by me, so this post is in no way indicative of their business practices. I hate to see a reputable company get caught in the crossfire, but enough is enough.

ABB Records hasn’t paid us a dime on any of these Listening and Minstrel Show vinyl pressing. We haven’t seen a royalties statement from ABB records since 2004. Until they make things right and do proper business with my brother @rapperbigpooh and I, we are humbly asking all of our fans to not buy any of this sh*t. Thanks for your support.

We’re closing in on a year since the 2020 election, which means it’s been almost that long since the Trump team has been peddling voter fraud nonsense. The former president still insists, without proof, that his second term was stolen from him. But one key detail has only been made public: At least part of the Trump campaign knew that one of the biggest conspiracy theories, that has gotten a lot of his associates in hot water, was pure balderdash.

As per The New York Times, an internal memo from within the campaign was recently made public, which examined the claims made by lawyers such as Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani. It alleged a massive, byzantine plot involving financier George Soros, Venezuela, the voting machine company Dominion Voting Systems, and a separate company, Smartmatic. And they concluded that it was garbage.

Among the findings, as listed by NYT:

• That Dominion did not use voting technology from the software company, Smartmatic, in the 2020 election.
• That Dominion had no direct ties to Venezuela or to Mr. Soros.
• And that there was no evidence that Dominion’s leadership had connections to left-wing “antifa” activists, as Ms. Powell and others had claimed.

It’s unclear how widespread the memo was disseminated internally, much less if Trump himself ever saw it. But some knew. In a court filing last week from former Dominion director Eric Coomer — who filed defamation suits against Powell, Giuliani, the Trump campaign, and many more — alleges that the Trump team “continued to allow its agents” to “advance debunked conspiracy theories.” (Dominion itself has also filed lawsuits against Powell, Giuliani, and My Pillow guy Mike Lindell. They recently did the same to the Trumpist news networks OANN and Newsmax.)

Though, again, it’s unknown who saw the memo, when news of it broke, people on social media posited that those who were already screwed were now extra-screwed.

And that includes Trump.

And the My Pillow guy, of course.

Powell, Giuliani, and Lindell all continue to allege voter fraud, although the former at least admitted that “no reasonable person” would have believed her Dominion claims anyway.

(Via NYT)

Overwatch 2 has gone through a rather tumultuous development cycle since it was first announced at BlizzCon in 2019. At the time, director Jeff Kaplan stated that they would be shifting the majority of their work on the series away from Overwatch so they could focus on Overwatch 2. While an anticipated release date was never announced, it was assumed that the usually very transparent Blizzard branch of Activision Blizzard would provide regular updates on the sequel.

Those updates have, for the most part, not been happening. Obviously, a global pandemic impacted many video game developers, but everything around Overwatch 2 has created concern for fans, including the departure of Kaplan from the company. They did eventually host an event to show all the new features that will come in Overwatch 2, and announced some major changes to the series in the process, but fans were still weary about the direction of the sequel.

Those concerns only continue to grow with the report from Jason Schreier of Bloomberg that Chacko Sonny, the executive producer of Overwatch 2, is leaving the company. Per Schreier, Sonny was expected to play a major role in the future of Overwatch 2 following Kaplan’s departure. Despite his departure, though, Activision Blizzard maintained in a statement to Bloomberg that the game is entering the “final stages of production” and more information will be available soon.

Chacko Sonny, executive producer of Overwatch, told staff he will leave the company on Friday, according to people familiar with the situation. A spokesman for parent company Activision Blizzard Inc. confirmed his departure.
…
Several Blizzard employees, speaking anonymously because they were not authorized to talk with the press, said Sonny was well-respected and that they weren’t aware of any allegations against him. Sonny was perceived as a stabilizing force on the Overwatch team following the departure of director Jeff Kaplan earlier this year, the people said.

Sonny’s departure comes during a period in which Activision Blizard is being carefully observed by everyone. Multiple allegations and lawsuits have been filed against the company ranging from ignoring sexual harassment, gender disparity in pay, and unfair labor practices. His reason for leaving was not mentioned, but Bloomberg’s report stated that the lawsuits and investigations were not mentioned in his email when he announced his departure.

Overwatch 2 has now had two major leaders for the game leave in the middle of production. This is not normal, as most developers do their best to stay on until a game is complete or in a state where they can feel confident that it can be finished without them. Currently, the director of the game is Aaron Keller who took over for Kaplan in April.

Parents of young children who are of the opposite gender face a perplexing question: which bathroom do I take my kid into when they need to go? It’s even more difficult for men with young daughters because if they take them into the women’s bathroom, they might be seen as a predator.

However, men’s rooms rarely have any changing tables for dads that need to put on a fresh diaper.

Parenting blogger and self-proclaimed dad-vocate, Muhammed Nitoto, has no problem taking his young girls, Zendaya and Zuri, into the women’s restroom.

The first time he had to take his daughter to a restroom, he chose the men’s, and it was the last time he’d ever make that decision.

“Now I’ve been to a men’s bathroom millions of times but walking in with your daughter makes you look at it completely different,” he wrote on Instagram “Men’s bathrooms are DISGUSTING. They smell like pee and nothing is set up for a woman or a person with a child. The changing table was right next to the urinal which means my child literally would be next to where men pee while she’s being charged. Not to mention that there are men going in and out while you’re in there.”

Now, Nitoto only takes his daughters to the women’s room or a family room if the establishment has one.

“After doing that one time I decided I’d never take my daughter’s to the men’s bathroom again. I use the women’s bathroom when I’m out with them,” he wrote.

Nitoto says that when he enters a women’s restroom, being respectful is his number one concern.

“I try to be as respectful to women as I can while doing so which consists of knocking on the door before entering and announcing myself. Making sure if someone is inside that they know I am a dad coming in with his daughter and making sure they are comfortable with that,” he wrote.

He also makes sure that he announces himself whenever any women enter the bathroom.

“Now once inside our stall, I still am aware of the door and whenever I hear it open and someone new is coming in I announce myself again and make sure they know I’m inside with my child so that they aren’t surprised,” he wrote.

Nitoto wouldn’t have to take his daughters to the women’s restroom if men’s rooms were designed with fathers in mind. But sadly, most of them aren’t. It’s pretty sexist to assume that men aren’t interested in having a safe, clean place to change their children. The lack of facilities for men also makes it so women have to take on most of the public changing duties.

His post also highlight the fact that men often have to deal with facilities that aren’t as clean as those provided for women. Men deserve to have clean bathrooms, too.

“Women’s bathrooms are so much cleaner and set up perfect just in case they have children,” he wrote. “The changing station is usually inside a stall instead of just in the open and it’s always clean. As a girl dad, I can’t help but want to protect my daughters from all things that aren’t for them and the men’s bathroom is 100% one of those things.”

When we hear about hospitals running out of ICU beds and having to ration care, we may erroneously picture Hollywood movie scenes with frantic healthcare workers hustling constantly with patients and crash carts being frantically wheeled around.

That kind of hectic scene might happen in a single mass tragedy event in an emergency room, but a real ICU isn’t like that, even when it’s full. The ICU (Intensive Care Unit) is where patients go when they are severely ill or have sustained injuries that require ongoing, life-saving care. Saving lives in the ICU is a days, weeks, and sometimes even months-long endeavor, where nurses and doctors get to know patients a little before sending them home (which is always the hope) or saying goodbye (which has happened far too often in the past 18 months).

A crew from 4 News Now in Spokane was granted rare access to the ICU at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center, where COVID-19 is taking a toll on doctors and nurses.

“We have 54 beds for adult critical care at Sacred Heart; 26 are in our general medical neuro-trauma ICU and 28 are in our cardiac ICU, but we have had to use the cardiac ICU beds also for COVID patients,” ICU nurse manager Deb Gillette told 4 News Now. The hospital has also designated two additional floors for COVID patients who aren’t sick enough to need ventilators.

You can hear the weariness in the voices of the doctors and nurses as they explain what they do to keep COVID patients alive and how hard the pandemic has been, even for people who are accustomed to critical care.

Watch this rare glimpse inside an ICU:

Inside the ICU: An exclusive look inside Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center’s intensive care

www.youtube.com

The nurses interviewed pointed out that the age of those being admitted to the ICU has dropped from earlier in the pandemic, when it was mostly older patients. Now they’re mostly seeing people in their 30s to 60s.

And the message they are sending is the same one we are hearing from ICU staff across the nation: “Get vaccinated.”

“We’re really trying here and the best thing our community can do is get vaccinated. We really have nothing else,” nurse Emily Crews said. “That’s our only solution and the more that people do that, the less time we’ll spend in here, and the less time at home I’ll be thinking about these people who are never going home.”

This is the kind of coverage we need to see more of. When the overwhelming tragedy of the pandemic is happening inside hospital rooms where average Americans don’t have access, it’s far too easy to ignore numbers and pleas because it feels like it’s not that bad.

It is that bad. Hospitals across the country are telling us it’s bad. ICU workers are telling us it’s bad. The past year and a half has been exhausting, but we can relieve some of the burden on healthcare workers by getting vaccinated as soon as we are able.