Month: October 2021

Chris Brown and Drake are being accused of copyright infringement in a new lawsuit that alleges their song “No Guidance” uses parts of another artists’ song without permission, according to TMZ. Mr. Cooper and Drum’n Skillz, the artists suing Drake and Brown, say that “No Guidance” sounds just like their song “I Love Your Dress,” which was released three years before. Cooper, whose real name is Brandon Cooper, and Drum’n Skillz, real name Timothy Valentine, say that even inexpert listeners would hear the similarities, which they say proves “No Guidance” is principally derived from “I Love Your Dress.”

The lawsuit points specifically to the refrain of “She got it; she got it,” which they say Drake and Brown recreated as “You got it, girl; you got it.” While “I Love Your Dress” uses its line 16 times, “No Guidance” uses it 11. The duo also insists that a lyric using the phrase “flew the coop” was a subliminal shot at Cooper. You can compare the two tracks for yourself below.

In the wake of the lawsuit, though, Brown at least also got some better news in a separate case; TMZ reports charges were dropped in an assault case in which Brown was accused of slapping a woman so hard her weave came loose. Prosecutors cited a lack of evidence.

Phoenix Suns guard Chris Paul joined ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith on First Take Wednesday morning to provide his thoughts on a range of topics, including Deandre Ayton’s contract negotiations, which have stalled as of late.

Following a breakout 2020-21 in which Ayton averaged 14.4 points, 10.5 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks, the third-year center is eligible for a rookie scale maximum contract extension. However, with fewer than two weeks remaining for both sides to reach an agreement before the deadline of the 2021-22 regular season, he’s yet to receive one.

On Tuesday, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported Phoenix is reluctant to offer Ayton the max, while he “has no intention of accepting a deal less than the comparable max contracts that several of his 2018 NBA Draft classmates signed, including Trae Young, Luka Doncic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Michael Porter Jr.”

Paul, entering his 17th NBA season, recognizes such occurrences are merely the way of the land, but does not anticipate this current impasse jeopardizing Ayton’s tenure as a Sun.

“I’m not concerned, that’s the business of the game,” Paul said. “Those contract talks happen as players, agents, all that stuff. We got Mikal Bridges, another guy who’s a big part of our team (eligible for an extension), so hopefully that stuff will take care of itself, so we can get back to playing and doing what we do.”

The deadline for Ayton and the Suns to agree on an extension is Oct. 18. Should the two sides fail to figure out a new contract, Ayton will hit restricted free agency next summer.

While the ongoing pandemic has reduced movie premieres, film festivals, and the entertainment industry at-large to a fraction of their former glory, some stars are going the extra mile to celebrate the folks keeping the industry alive. According to a Deadline report, movie fans attending Paramount’s CineEurope Presentation in Barcelona this week were treated to one such appearance by none other than action star Tom Cruise, who dropped by the festival to promote both Top Gun: Maverick and Mission: Impossible 7. The surprising cameo reportedly brought “CineEurope attendees to their feet,” and brightened up the starless affair.

Following the reveal, Cruise took the opportunity to thank those attending the presentation, stating he “wanted to come personally” before adding he’s “had a great relationship” with CineEurope over his 40-year career” and he is “always thinking” about moviegoers.

“I love making movies, it’s my passion,” Cruise said from the stage this afternoon, telling exhibition, “Every day we want the very best it can be. We’re out here with you and for you and we’re never going to stop.”

Cruise then introduced the attendees to a previously shown clip from Mission: Impossible 7, followed by the first 13 minutes of the Top Gun sequel, Top Gun: Maverick. The long-awaited second entry in the Top Gun series hit theaters next May, followed by Mission: Impossible 7 in late September.

A Korean man has been bombarded with over 4,000 calls a day since Squid Game premiered due to having the same phone number as one that’s featured on the popular Netflix series. Everyone with an 867-5309 number in the early 1980s can relate.

“After Squid Game aired, I have been receiving calls and texts endlessly, 24/7, to the point that it’s hard for me to go on with daily life,” he said in an interview with Koreaboo. “This is a number that I’ve been using for more than 10 years, so I’m quite taken aback. There are more than 4,000 numbers that I’ve had to delete from my phone and it’s to the point where due to people reaching out without a sense of day and night due to their curiosity, my phone’s battery is drained and turns off.”

That sounds like a nightmare (I get anxiety if I get an call from one unknown number, let alone 4,000), so Netflix has decided to “edit out the scenes that include the phone number,” according to EW. “The unfortunate incident was accidental as the Squid Game creators thought that removing the first three digits of the number would render it unusable. However, they were unaware that if the number was dialed as a local call, those numbers would be automatically added, allowing anyone to reach its owner.”

This poor person can finally sleep sound knowing that the next time someone calls him, it will be about his car’s extended warranty.

(Via EW)

While Britney Spears’ conservatorship isn’t over yet, significant progress has been made in freeing her from it: A week ago, her father Jamie was removed as Spears’ conservator. Spears has been vocal about the situation on social media lately, and yesterday, she took some time to both throw some shots at her family and some praise at her new lawyer, Mathew Rosengart.

Spears took to Instagram to share an image of an underwater scene, featuring one woman encountering another. She explained the image, “his picture is everything to me !!! It makes me want to cry … she’s saving her divine feminine sister !!!!”

She then went on to write about how her family treated her during her conservatorship, saying, “I suggest if you have a friend that’s been in a house that feels really small for four months … no car … no phone … no door for privacy and they have to work around 10 hours a day 7 days a week and give tons of blood weekly with never a day off … I strongly suggest you go pick up your friend and get them the hell outta there !!!!! If you’re like my family who says things like ‘sorry, you’re in a conservatorship’ … probably thinking you’re different so they can f*ck with you !!!!”

She concluded by praising Rosengart, writing, “Thankfully I found an amazing attorney Mathew Rosengart who has helped change my life !!!!”

Check out Spears’ post below.

It’s been a rough week for social media platforms. After Facebook went down for literal hours on Monday, Twitch announced on Wednesday that it had been “breached” and were unaware to the extent of it.

Early Wednesday morning, VGC reported that 125 GB of data from Twitch had been leaked on forums. The information reportedly contained source code as well as streamer payment info. Now that Twitch has confirmed that the hack occurred, we need to wait for them to confirm the extent of the damage, but with the original report stating that the leaked information is “all of Twitch,” there are plenty who have understandable concerns.

How does this Twitch hack impace me?

For the average person, this Twitch hack is hopefully not going to affect them too much. As with most platforms like this, it’s probably a good idea to change the password connected to it and set up some form of Two-Factor Authentication if you haven’t already. If you’re one of those people that uses the same password across multiple sites then you might need to change that one on those other sites as well.

How does this hack impact streamers?

Streamers, like the rest of us, are going to need to double-check some of their passwords. Unfortunately, it sounds like their compensation information may have been lost in the breach. While that exactly means is unclear, reports do state that the information lost includes payment info for some Twitch streamers. While many public figures, such as athletes, are used to having their salaries reported, this has not been the case for streamers.

How will this impact Twitch?

This could be potentially disastrous for Twitch depending on how deep this breach goes. Having many of their proprietary assets, source code, and internal information stolen is one thing, but it runs the risk of doing damage to its relationships with the Twitch community. Twitch has already seen many of its public faces, such as “TimTheTatman” and “Dr. Lupo,” leave for competing streaming services. Having a security breach like this is could make it difficult to convince notable streamers to stick around when other companies are willing to bring them over for more money and a more secure platform.

This story originally appeared on 04.01.19

Australia is sending a strong message to domestic abusers worldwide: You’re not welcome here.

Australia has recently broadened a migration law to bar any person who has been convicted of domestic violence anywhere in the world from getting a visa to enter the country. American R&B singer Chris Brown and boxing star Floyd Mayweather had been banned from the country in the past, following their domestic violence convictions. Now the ban applies to all foreign visitors or residents who have been found guilty of violence against women or children.

Even convicted domestic abusers who already have visas and are living in Australia can be kicked out under the new rule. The government is using the rule, which took effect on February 28, 2019 to send a message to domestic violence perpetrators.

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“Australia has no tolerance for perpetrators of violence against women and children,” Federal Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs David Coleman said in a public statement. “The message is clear: if you’ve been convicted of a violent crime against women or children, you are not welcome in this country, wherever the offence occurred, whatever the sentence.”

The ban is supposed to make Australia safer, but not everyone is happy about it.

“By cancelling the visas of criminals we have made Australia a safer place,” Coleman said. “These crimes inflict long lasting trauma on the victims and their friends and family, and foreign criminals who commit them are not welcome in our country.”

However, Australia’s neighboring country of New Zealand has long taken issue with Australia’s policy of exporting convicts, and this new policy highlights why. Under the new rule, New Zealanders who have already served their sentences for domestic violence and lived in Australia most of their lives could be kicked out and sent to live in New Zealand. Such circumstances raise questions about when justice has been served and the role of rehabilitation in domestic violence convictions.

Australia, like many other countries, is trying to come to terms with its domestic violence problem.

Barring domestic violence perpetrators from other countries sends a strong message, but it’s only meaningful if the country also tackles the problem among its own citizens. According to a Personal Safety Study conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, about 17% of Australian women and 6% of Australian men have experienced partner violence since the age of 15. And the numbers have remained relatively stable since 2005.

That may seem to indicate that little progress has been made; however, as Australian law professor Heather Douglass points out, the numbers only tell part of the story. Since most people in abusive relationships don’t report the abuse until after they’ve left, it could simply be that more are leaving, which is a good thing. There has also been a marked increase in people seeking domestic violence services in some areas, which, again, is a good thing. For far too long, domestic violence was swept under the rug while victims were often too afraid or embarrassed to seek help. More calls for help could mean that the stigma associated with domestic violence is starting to fade.

This story originally appeared on 03.11.20

The most recent data shows that about one in 68 children in the U.S. are affected by autism and boys are four times more likely than girls to be diagnosed.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is marked by communication and social difficulties, sensory processing issues, and inflexible patterns of behavior. Almost everything that researchers have learned about the disorder is based on data derived from studies of boys.

However, researchers are starting to learn that ASD manifests differently in girls. This has led many girls to be undiagnosed or misdiagnosed.

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“The model that we have for a classic autism diagnosis has really turned out to be a male model,” Susan F. Epstein, PhD, a clinical neuropsychologist said according to Child Mind.

via PIxaBay

“That’s not to say that girls don’t ever fit it, but girls tend to have a quieter presentation, with not necessarily as much of the repetitive and restricted behavior, or it shows up in a different way,” Epstein added.

Stereotypical ASD behaviors may also get in the way of recognizing the disorder in girls.

“So where the boys are looking at train schedules, girls might have excessive interest in horses or unicorns, which is not unexpected for girls,” Dr. Epstein notes. “But the level of the interest might be missed and the level of oddity can be a little more damped down. It’s not quite as obvious to an untrained eye.”

Girls with ASD are usually better at hiding their autistic behaviors, so they suffer in silence.

Paige Layle, a 19-year-old eyelash technician from Ontario, Canada, has autism but because she’s a social butterfly, most people don’t realize she has the disorder.

“I get that a lot, that because I’m good-looking, nothing can be wrong with me — so I want to show that mental illness is diverse,” Layle told BuzzFeed.

To help people better understand how autism manifests in girls and women, Layle has made a series of videos on her TikTok page.

“I decided to start making videos because of an audio that was going all over TikTok that was making fun of autistic people. I hated it. I feel like many people don’t understand how many people are autistic,” she said.

Layle’s videos are eye-opening because they shatter some big myths about autism and show how difficult it can be to live with the disorder, especially if you don’t know you have it.

In the first video, she explains how the initial research done on autism was only on boys or men.

“Girls usually end up showing different traits than guys do. Which is why it can take us years to get diagnosed. I was 15 when I got diagnosed and that’s considered early for a girl.”

She also explains that girls often are diagnosed later because they are better at hiding autistic behaviors.

“This is something we call masking. Masking is basically just being like a really good actor.

It’s where you take traits that everyone else is showing and start portraying them as yourself. It’s like a lot of copying going on. … In your mind you don’t think you’re copying. You think that this is normal and everyone feels the same way you do.

You basically feel like an alien and you’re really good at hiding that. Which is why I don’t seem autistic.”

In part two, she discusses the idea of being high-functioning.

“Get high-functioning and low functioning out of your vocabulary. It doesn’t help anybody. I know you may think that saying ‘Oh like you’re high-functioning’ is compliment. It’s not a compliment. It’s also like a reminder that I’m just masking, and it’s so hard.

Masking is the most exhausting thing in the world… ‘High-functioning’ is basically a label that you can use to be like ‘Your autism doesn’t affect me that much.’ But I’ll tell you that everyone you think is high-functioning is greatly affected by their autism.”

In part three, Paige discusses common autistic traits that girls have.

“I am overly social. I give way too much eye contact. I’m really good in social situations. It’s also very common for girls with autism to have other mental disabilities or mental disorders as well. I have seven and one of the main ones is OCD.

All of these mental illnesses stem from having autism. But OCD, anxiety, and depression are very common, especially in girls. Just the feeling that the world needs rules for you to understand it. That’s why a lot of autism special interests include things like anatomy, the human body, psychology, just figuring out how the world works is our way to figure out how to live in it.”

In part four, Paige discusses the topic of masking.

“When you’re in the autistic closet and you are not known to be autistic yet … you like subconsciously know that you’re weird and you don’t know how to act or how to be.

It’s like the way you walk, the way you talk, the way you wear your hair, like your mannerisms. Like everything you say. Everything you think. Everything you think that you enjoy. It’s all what you are accustomed to from your peers.

I’ve been diagnosed for four years and I’m still trying to figure out who I am and what I actually like to do. You just get to used to creating this mask that when it’s like ‘Hey, you can take it off,’ It’s like what the frick is underneath it? I don’t know what’s going on.”

This story originally appeared on 02.13.20

There’s a lot of men out there that shy away from discussing menstruation with women. But any man who’s ever taken a class in basic human biology or had a mother, sister, wife, girlfriend or any other woman in their life should know the basics of how it works.

That’s why a mother on the Mumsnet message board was completely “shocked” that her daughter’s teacher told her to “hold in” her period.

Does he think a woman can hold in her period like it’s pee?

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Mumsnet is a UK website where parents come together to discuss anything from adoption to women’s rights. This post appeared under the “Am I Being Unreasonable” thread.

via Mumsnet

According to the post, the 15-year-old’s teacher prevented her from using the bathroom because he legitimately thinks women can hold back period blood. Or he knows a bit about biology but still decided to put her in the position to be mortally embarrassed.

The mother later said that the lessons last two hours so the girl had a long time to wait before being able to change her pad.

A few parents said that the teacher was correct to say no because students often lie about their periods to get out of class.

But most parents thought the teacher did the wrong thing and needs a lesson in basic biology.

One poster was irate but completely right about the issue.

Another believes the daughter should have disobeyed the teacher and gone to the bathroom.

This poster did a great job at re-framing the situation so that the teacher’s actions seem even more ridiculous.

Why should the mother even have to justify herself?

The $50,000 question: What subject does the instructor teach?

This story originally appeared on 1.05.19

It started with a simple, sincere question from a mother of an 11-year-old boy.

An anonymous mother posted a question to Quora, a website where people can ask questions and other people can answer them. This mother wrote:

How do I tell my wonderful 11 year old son, (in a way that won’t tear him down), that the way he has started talking to me (disrespectfully) makes me not want to be around him (I’ve already told him the bad attitude is unacceptable)?

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It’s a familiar scenario for those of us who have raised kids into the teen years. Our sweet, snuggly little kids turn into moody middle schoolers seemingly overnight, and sometimes we’re left reeling trying to figure out how to handle their sensitive-yet-insensitive selves.

A mother of two with an uncanny amount of wisdom gave a solid gold answer all parents need to read.

Jo Eberhardt, a fantasy writer and mother of two from Australia, penned a reply that is so spot on that it keeps repeatedly popping up on social media. When you nail it, you nail it—and this mother nails it.

“Ah, puberty,” she wrote, “It changes our sweet, wonderful little boys into sweet, eye-rolling, angsty, accidentally disrespectful, but still wonderful young proto-men.” Yup.

Eberhardt then described a discussion she had with her 11 1/2 -year-old son when he started going through this stage—a conversation they had in the car, which is usually the best place to have potentially uncomfortable discussions with kids.

She told her son that she’d messed up in the way she’d talked to him about puberty, then explained exactly what was happening in his brain.

“I’ve spent all this time talking to you about the way puberty changes your body,” Eberhardt told her son, “and what to expect as you go through the changes, but I completely forgot to talk to you about what’s going on in your brain right now. Puberty is the time when your brain grows and changes more than at any other time in your life — well, except for when you’re a baby, perhaps. So I really let you down by not preparing you for that. I’m so sorry.”

Her son accepted her apology, then asked why is his brain was changing.

“That’s the amazing thing,” she told him. “Did you know that your brain grew and developed so quickly when you were little that by the time you were about five or six, your brain was almost as big and powerful as an adult’s brain?”

“But here’s the thing,” she continued, “Even though your brain was super powerful, the instructions were for a child’s brain. And all the information about building an adult’s brain was a bit… let’s say fuzzy. So your brain did the best it could, but it didn’t really know what kind of person you were going to be back then, or what shape brain you were going to need.”

“Now we come to puberty,” she went on. “See, puberty is amazing. Not only is your body being transformed from a child’s body to an adult’s body, your brain has to be completely rewritten from a child’s brain to an adult’s brain.“

“That sounds hard,” her son responded.

“Yeah, it is,” Eberhardt replied. “That’s why I wish I’d warned you first. See, it takes a lot of energy to completely rewrite a brain. That’s one of the reasons you get tired quicker at the moment — and that, of course, manifests in you being crankier and less patient than normal.”

Eberhardt paused, then added, “That must be really frustrating for you.”

Her son looked over at her, wiping his eyes. “It is,” he responded. Sometimes I just feel really angry and I don’t know why.”

It’s amazing what happens when we explain to kids the physiological reasons for what they’re going through.

Eberhardt continued, “The other thing is that one of the first parts of your brain that gets super-sized to be like an adult is the amygdala. That’s the part that controls your emotions and your survival instincts. You know how we’ve talked about fight/flight/freeze before, and how sometimes our brains think that being asked to speak in public is the same level of threat as being attacked by a sabre tooth tiger?”

Her son laughed. “Yes. So you have to tell your brain that there’s no sabre tooth tiger to help you calm down.”

“That’s right,” Eberhardt replied. “Well, that’s what the amygdala looks after: sabre tooth tiger warnings and big emotions. So, the thing with puberty is that all of a sudden you’ve got an adult-sized amygdala hitting all your emotion buttons and your sabre-tooth tiger buttons. That must be really hard for you to manage.”

Her son nodded and said, “Sometimes I don’t know why I say the things I do. They just come out, and then I feel bad.”

This is the moment where what a parent says can make or break a kid’s spirit. But Eberhardt handled it with empathy and expertise.

“I know, Sweetheart,” she said before explaining:

“See, the last part of your brain that gets rewritten is right at the front of your head. It’s called the frontal cortex. And that’s the part of your brain that’s good at decision making and understanding consequences. So you’ve got this powerful adult amygdala hitting you with massive emotions, but you’ve still got a fuzzy child frontal cortex that can’t make decisions or understand consequences as quickly as the amygdala wants you to. It pretty much sucks.”

“So it’s not my fault?” her son asked.

“No, it’s puberty’s fault your brain works the way it does,” Eberhardt answered. “But that doesn’t mean it’s not your responsibility to recognise what’s going on and change your actions. It’s not easy, but it’s not impossible, either. Your feelings are your feelings, and they’re always okay. But you get to choose your actions. You get to choose what you do with your feelings. And, when you make a mistake, you get to choose to apologise for that mistake and make amends.”

Eberhardt said she then paused for dramatic effect. “That’s how you prove that you’re becoming an adult.”

It’s also remarkable what happens when we empathize and communicate with our kids instead of simply chastising them.

Her son responded with a perfectly understandable and relatable, “Puberty sucks.”

“Puberty absolutely sucks,” Eberhardt responded. “I’m not in your head, but I can only imagine that it’s a mess of confusion and chaos, and you don’t know from one minute to the next how you feel about things.”

Her son looked at her in surprise. “Yes! Exactly!”

“If it’s confusing for you living inside there,” Eberhardt continued, “imagine how confusing it is for me, when I only see your actions.”

“That must be really confusing,” her son agreed.

She nodded. “Do you know what that means?”

“What?”

“It means sometimes I’m going to make mistakes. Sometimes I’m going to get upset at things you do because I don’t understand what’s going on in your head. Sometimes I’m going to forget that you’re halfway to being a man, and accidentally treat you like a child. Sometimes I’m going to expect more from you than you’re able to give. This is my first time parenting someone through puberty, and I’m going to make mistakes. So can I ask you a favour?”

“What is it?”

“Can you just keep telling me what’s going on in your head? The more we talk, the easier it will be for both of us to get through this puberty thing unscathed. Yeah?”

“Yeah,” her son said.

When we let our kids know that we’re going through these various phases together, it’s easier to work with them instead of against them.

Eberhardt said they “had a cuddle” before they got out of the car. She also said this conversation didn’t magically make her son always speak respectfully or make her remember that he’s not a little boy anymore. However, it did open up lines of communication and gave them a shared language to use.

For example, she wrote, “He knows what I mean when I say, ‘Sweetheart, I’m not a sabre tooth tiger.'”

Ebehardt wrapped up her excellent answer by saying that she and her son are “muddling through this crazy puberty thing” together, and that she’s “completely confident that he’ll come out the other end a sweet, wonderful young man.”

It’s always so helpful to see examples of good parenting in action. Ms. Eberhardt’s response is something all parents can tuck away for the appropriate time. It’s also a great reminder that our tweens aren’t trying to try us—they’re just trying to get used to their new and improved brains.