Month: March 2022

The Cleveland Cavaliers are in the midst of a slump right now, having lost four of their last five games coming into Wednesday night’s contest against the Hornets. The good news for the Cavs was they were getting Darius Garland back in the lineup, but even with the return of their All-Star guard, their defensive struggles continued to open things up against Charlotte.

The Hornets jumped out to a 20-point lead on the Cavs in the third quarter and frustrations with the team’s play and with the officials seemed to come to a head for coach J.B. Bickerstaff, who absolutely lost it on referee Natalie Sago after a blocking call on Cedi Osman, who hit him with a quick first technical and then a second that Bickerstaff more than earned.

It is, at worst, a questionable call if not the correct one, as it’s Osman was close to being in position but it isn’t hard to see how you could think he was still leaning and sliding when the contact gets made.

Bickerstaff gave a few magic words to get his money’s worth out of his first career ejection as a head coach, as he tried to light a fire under his guys. Unfortunately, that did not turn the tide in the game, as the Cavs continued to struggle to get any stops against the Hornets, as they appear headed to a tie for the 6-seed with Boston, with a real risk of falling into the play-in if they can’t get things turned around quickly on that end of the floor.

Drake has always loved his hometown basketbal team, the Toronto Raptors. That love turned into a business relationship in 2013 when he was announced as the team’s Global Ambassador. Drake has since helped the team from behind the scenes by promoting them and serving as a host for some of their events, as well as providing consulting services to rebrand them. More times than not, you will catch Drake sitting courtside at their games, enthusiastically cheering the team on, even trash-talking opponents at times. So what’s it like to sit next to the Certified Lover Boy rapper at these games?

Toronto’s The Star recently spoke to some people who were fortunate enough to be next to Drake during games. “Sitting beside Drake was awesome. It was the biggest game of the season at that point, and he and K.D. [Kevin Durant] had something going most of the night,” NHL analyst Sam Cosentino said. “It was great to see his fandom and how passionate he is for the game, and especially for his home team.”

Raptors’ play-by-play announcer Matt Devlin also shared his thoughts. “He’s close with Steph (Curry). He’s close with (Kevin Durant),” he says. “There’s some fun back and forth going on during a game, and it’s cool to sit there and observe.”

This also brings us back to the hilarious moment in December when Drake sat next to an older couple who had no idea who he was. Jim and Renee Stanley, who are both in their 70s, shared what it was like to sit next to Drake. “When the game was starting after the half, a young man sat down next to us and really didn’t say anything at first,” Jim said. “My first reaction was — don’t get this wrong — he smelled good. I said to him, ‘I really like what you are wearing.’ He turned to me and said thanks and shook my hand.” The trio would end up taking a selfie together where Drake called them “my new parents.”

You can read the full piece on The Star here.

Ron DeSantis has long acted like a tough guy. As governor of Florida, he’s cast himself in a Trumpian mold (much to the fury of Trump himself). He talks smack about anyone who gets in his way, from academics teaching about racial injustice, LGBTQ+ people, and doctors and scientists who’ve advised things like masks and vaccines as ways to combat a highly contagious virus that is very much still around. Now it even includes students who simply want to stay safe, perhaps for immunocompromised relatives.

On Wednesday, footage leaked of DeSantis’ prelude to what was supposed to be a simple publicity event, in which he touted new funding for cybersecurity education at the University of South Florida. Audio reveals the governor berated a bunch of teenagers positioned behind his podium who dared be masked-up.

“You do not have to wear those masks,” DeSantis barked at them. “I mean, please take them off. Honestly, it’s not doing anything and we’ve gotta stop with this COVID theater. So if you want to wear it, fine, but this is ridiculous,” he said with a loud scoff.

DeSantis has long made a big show of opposing health safety measures, even as cases and deaths in his state skyrocketed. He’s blocked mask mandates and even signed an executive order withholding state funds to any school that tries to impose them. He believes in the freedom to do whatever you want whenever you want, but he also apparently enjoys bullying people much younger than him.

When footage of DeSantis berating teenagers leaked, the governor — one of the Republican frontrunners in the 2024 presidential election — was dragged.

Sure would be a shame if the footage was aired constantly if or when he runs for president. But then, he probably knows Republican voters are not only not turned off by such behavior, but quite the opposite.

(Via News Channel 8)

In his final moments, a fallen Russian soldier reached out to his mother. His words are full of regret, confusion and fear.

The text reads:

“Mama, I’m in Ukraine. There is a real war raging here. I’m afraid. We are bombing all of the cities together, even targeting civilians. We were told that they would welcome us, and they are falling under our armored vehicles, throwing themselves under the wheels, and not allowing us to pass. They call us fascists. Mama, this is so hard.”

This was after his mother worriedly asked about his whereabouts, why he hadn’t responded to her. She wanted to send her son a package, something to bring the comfort of home. You know, like moms do. She’ll never get to send that package. Or see her boy again. Only minutes later, he was killed.

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A transcript of their conversation was read aloud by Ukrainian Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya in front of the U.N. General Assembly as an earnest call to “visualize the magnitude or tragedy” caused by Russia’s invasion.

Ukrainian Ambassador to the @UN @SergiyKyslytsya reads text messages between a Russian soldier and his mother moments before he was killed.⁰

“Mama, I’m in Ukraine. There is a real war raging here. I’m afraid. We are bombing all of the cities…even targeting civilians.” pic.twitter.com/kbWYZfbSpE

— CSPAN (@cspan) February 28, 2022

And the tragedy is indeed massive. This is an act of violence and corruption that leaves both the people of Ukraine and the people of Russia as rubble in the fallout. While the streets of Ukraine fill with the smell of smoke and sound of gunshots, cities in Russia are filling up with anti-war protestors, many who have been detained despite peaceful demonstration. It’s a huge risk, one with severe consequences.

Even the Russian soldiers, like the man mentioned above, are victims in their own right. Earlier on Monday, the MFA of Ukraine’s Twitter account posted, “Russia promised its soldiers they would be greeted in Ukraine with flowers. Russia has been lying for years about how the Ukraine authorities are keeping Ukrainian people in ‘captivity’.”

In a country where only government-sanctioned, Putin-approved propaganda is allowed in the media, Russians by and large are being fed one grossly illegitimate narrative. Namely, that Ukraine is a dictatorship and that Russia’s use of force is a necessary and defensive act. With that kind of coerced vitriol, it’s no wonder that half the population voted that military force was justified.

This young man was made to believe he’d be doing something heroic, and he died under that illusion. And he is one of many.

And yet, in the chaos of misinformation, the words of this dying man offer a sobering dose of brutal reality that shoots straight to the heart. The losses caused by this attack are irrefutable and irrevocable. It is a horror happening on both sides. Russia itself is not the enemy here. Deception, greed and the brutality of an immoral leader are to blame.

More sons and daughters will be lost. More mothers and fathers will wonder whether that next text message will be the last. The real tragedy of war is that it destroys while promising reconstruction.There are no victors, only survivors.

This is only the newest incident that sheds a light on the devastating effect of the “us versus them” mentality. As we continue to read gut-wrenching headlines, it’s important to quiet the voice that longs to demonize an entire people for the lack of virtue of one man (and his followers). Just as it is important to practice good social media hygiene during these times, it is crucial to practice empathy. In a time of mindless violence and toxic division tactics, connection is one of the few things truly worth fighting for.

Kendrick Lamar’s third album, To Pimp A Butterfly, was a big change in direction from his 2012 sophomore album, Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City. It found the rapper ditching his previous West Coast influences for a sound based on jazz, soul, funk, and more. The change wasn’t easy for him, requiring plenty of experimentation and trial and error to get it right. During an episode of Alex Pappademas’ Spotify podcast The Big Hit Show, which is studying the seminal album for its second season, Kendrick dove into how he made it work.

“Yeah I’m just trying stuff, throwing the paint on the wall and writing as these incredible musicians rock out,” he said. “I like that for eight bars. I like that. I like that. So… prior to the album actually coming out the sh*t actually sounded way more complex.”

Kendrick then explained how his longtime friend and producer Terrace Martin taught him about jazz. “Miles [Davis] is playing and you know he’s doing these skats and these rhythms. And man I said to myself, ‘I wanna be able to do that, but I wanna rap that way.’ And you know, be on that cadence and it’s super out of pocket, but you know it’s very jazz, it’s very Miles Davis influenced,” Kendrick said. “It was what I was inspired by what Terrace was telling me. He was like, ‘Man, you gotta be unapologetic. If you’re going to go there, you gotta go there.’”

The new episode arrives as Kendrick was announced as one of the headliners for Rolling Loud’s Miami festival.

You can listen to the full episode of The Big Hit Show here.

Since invading Ukraine last week, Russia has been met with widespread condemnation. If you actually in Russia, however, you might not have a clear picture of what’s going on. State TV has been spewing propaganda, making outrageous claims, even airing Putin-praising Americans, such as former president Donald Trump and Fox News host Tucker Carlson. But some have found clever ways to circumvent the Russian president’s stranglehold on the news.

Earlier it was reported that some enterprising people have been bombarding restaurants and bars with five-star “reviews,” which actually contained real news about what’s happening in Ukraine. As per The Guardian, some have taken a different tack: They’ve been uploading photos and videos of captured Russian soldiers to Google Maps.

One video shows Leonid Paktishev, the commander of a sniper unit based in the Rostov region. It shows him clearly injured. His sister, Yelena Polivtseva, told The Guardian that she was “sent the video of my brother captured at 2am last night. I was completely shocked. I had no idea that he was fighting in there.”

Another family member of Paktishev, who spoke anonymously, was outraged that Russia was sending its young into the neighboring nation. “How else can you feel?!” they said. “Young boys are thrown like cannon fodder, and most importantly for what?! For palaces in Gelendzhik?”

Ukraine has set up a hotline for family members of Russian soldiers to contact them, voice their opposition to the invasion, and beg them to return home. The Kyiv Independent has reported that the hotline has received “hundreds of calls” since the invasion’s start last week.

Despite Putin’s propaganda, it’s not working on everyone. Protests within the nation have attracted thousands of citizens, who risk their lives and freedom to stand up to an authoritarian regime whose leader, again, is admired by both a certain former U.S. president and a certain Fox News host.

In the meantime, casualties from both the Russian and Ukrainian side continue to escalate. Putin himself has reportedly grown “frustrated” and is considering a more brutal attack on both Ukraine and any nation that gets in his way. The U.S. and its allies have responded by imposing sanctions that have crushed the ruble and seized assets from Putin’s oligarch cronies, including a $600 million superyacht owned by one of the earliest investors in Facebook.

(Via The Guardian)

Have you ever come across something online that instantly made you smile? That’s what happens when people see Locklan Samples pop up on their Instagram feed. The cute dimple-faced toddler has a rare condition known as uncombable hair syndrome, which results in locks that stick straight up no matter how you try to manipulate them. It also causes the hair to be extremely fragile, so frequent combing can cause it to break off. The syndrome is so rare that Locklan is just one out of 100 people known to have it.

Locklan’s parents spoke with People magazine about how they discovered he was living with this ultra rare condition. Katelyn Samples, Locklan’s mom, explained that when he was born he had a head full of jet black hair, but eventually it fell out and was replaced with peach fuzz. A newborn baby’s hair is often completely different than the hair they end up with by the time they’re toddlers. It’s not uncommon for their hair to fall out in one spot or another, but it’s also not unheard of for their whole head to end up bald while their second sprigs of hair grow in.

See on Instagram

Hair can grow back coarser, curlier or a completely different color. In Locklan’s case, his hair went from being jet black to platinum blonde peach fuzz, which eventually grew into hair that stood on end. Locklan’s parents said the color of his hair matched his brother’s hair, so it wasn’t a surprise, but the texture threw them for a loop.

When Katelyn posted pictures of Locklan on Instagram, a stranger messaged her asking if he had “uncombable hair syndrome.” This started Katelyn on a journey to find answers to what was going on with her infant’s hair, and if the condition was something she needed to be concerned about health-wise. Katelyn told People, it sent her into a “tailspin on Google.” Eventually, after climbing out of the Google rabbit hole, Katelyn called her son’s pediatrician to get answers. This turned out to be the first step toward an accurate diagnosis.

See on Instagram

Locklan’s pediatrician had not heard of the condition and referred them to Atlanta’s Emory Hospital to see a specialist. It was there they got the diagnosis. Katelyn explained to People, “We went to see her and she said she’d only seen this once in 19 years.” The doctor “didn’t think it was uncombable hair syndrome because of how rare it is, but they took samples and a pathologist looked at it under a special microscope,” and confirmed the diagnosis, she said.

He joins the very small club of people with the syndrome. Thankfully, this condition only affects the toddler’s hair and he is developing normally in all other aspects of his childhood. Katelyn revealed she hardly ever has to wash his hair unless it gets visibly dirty as it doesn’t collect oils at the scalp. Everywhere they go people are fascinated by Lock’s locks and ask to touch his soft tresses.

See on Instagram

The family documents their journey on their Instagram account, and have found a support group via Facebook, where Katelyn says “it’s cool to see how other kids’ hair has changed over the years—for some people it does not go away, and for others it becomes a little more manageable.” For now, Locklan enjoys the attention he gets from strangers, and he continues to bring a smile to people’s faces wherever he goes.

Right now, life isn’t so hot for you if you’re a Russian billionaire. Since Vladimir Putin ordered forces to invade Ukraine, the pushback has been severe. Ukrainians, including their former comic president, have refused to stand down. The sanctions have been mighty, and the ruble is now essentially worthless. They’re even losing movies and concerts. Now Western governments are turning their attention to another group: Russian billionaires.

Forbes reports that Alisher Usmanov — one of a number of oligarchs who amassed unimaginable wealth in the immediate aftermath of the Soviet Union’s dissolution in the early ‘90s, as well as an early investor in Facebook — has seen one of his most prized possessions seized by the European Union. That would be Dilbar, a 512-foot yacht estimated to have cost him around $600 million.

The firm that built it for him called it “one of the most complex and challenging yachts ever built, in terms of both dimensions and technology.” As per Forbes, it contains “two helicopter pads, a sauna, a beauty salon, and a gym. Its plush interiors have more than 1,000 sofa cushions and it can host up to 24 people in 12 suites.”

Since late October of last year, the superyacht has been sitting in a Hamburg shipyard, where it’s been undergoing refitting job. Now it’s in the possession of German authorities.

The move comes the day after U.S. President Joe Biden delivered his maiden State of the Union, in which he addressed Russian oligarchs directly, warning them America and its allies will “seize your yachts, your luxury apartments, your private jets.”

When news broke of the yacht seizure, many on social media were not sympathetic to Usamov’s plight.

There were also jokes.

Usmanov is far from the only oligarch who’s no doubt shaking in his boots right now. CNN reports that Roman Abramovich, whose estimated worth is $13.5 billion, is suddenly selling the Chelsea Football Club, which he bought in 2003. Abramovich has not yet been sanctioned but he’s reportedly “terrified” he will be and is off-loading certain assets in panic.

Meanwhile, at least four Russian-owned superyachts have been spotted moving toward Montenegro and the Maldives, the latter of which doesn’t have an extradition treaty with the U.S.

In other words, right now it doesn’t pay to be Russian-rich.

(Via Forbes and CNN)

Kanye West has always had an offbeat and kind of juvenile sense of humor — just check out the video for “Famous” — but in his new video for “Eazy,” that humor takes a sharp left turn into the world of the macabre. Filmed in grainy black and white stop-motion animation, the “Eazy” video finds Kanye sending The Game and Eazy-E after his imagined romantic rival Pete Davidson — whose ass, remember, he threatens to beat in the lyrics of the song — to kidnap and bury the comedian up to his neck, turning him into an unorthodox planter.

Kanye’s been borderline hyperfocused on Davidson ever since the SNL member took up with West’s ex-wife Kim Kardashian. While Pete’s dating history has been the subject of much amusement online, Kanye hasn’t found it all that funny (he rarely does when he thinks he’s the butt of the joke — the South Park fish sticks gag wasn’t far off the mark). Instead, he’s taken to calling the comedian “Skete” and repeatedly railed against him, writing that he doesn’t want Davidson around his kids and gloating that he had the comedian chased off Instagram.

The timing of Kanye sharing the video is uncanny; earlier today, a judge granted Kardashian single status, effectively ending the couple’s near-seven-year marriage. While Kanye has said that he wants to reconcile — the “Eazy” video even ends with a tongue-in-cheek declaration of his belief that they’ll live happily ever after once Davidson is out of the picture — Kardashian has adamantly and repeatedly said that she has no desire to do so. Something tells me that this video won’t help Kanye’s case much.

Watch the “Eazy” video above.

The world of soccer got rocked on Wednesday afternoon when Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich confirmed the rumors of his intention to sell the club. Abramovich, a Russian oligarch who purchased the club in 2003 and has been credited with investing the gobs of money that have turned them into one of Europe’s elite clubs, previously announced that he was stepping away and handing “the stewardship and care of Chelsea FC” to the trustees of its charitable foundation.

Much has been made of the timing of the announcement — Abramovich’s ties to Russian president Vladimir Putin are well-documented — but the fact of the matter is one of the most valuable teams in all of sports is now up for sale. There will assuredly be a bidding war to acquire the London-based side, and if New Orleans Pelicans forward and well-documented Chelsea supporter Larry Nance has his way, he’ll be able to acquire it with fellow Chelsea supporter Josh Hart.

Hart, meanwhile, is extremely into this idea.

It goes without saying that, despite both guys being very well-compensated professional athletes, the bids to get Chelsea will almost certainly be a bit too high for them — Forbes estimated in 2021 that Chelsea is worth $3.2 billion, which is tied for the 25th most valuable team on earth with the Denver Broncos and the Boston Celtics. Having said that, LeBron James has an ownership stake in Liverpool, while a handful of NBA players hold ownership stakes in MLS clubs, so perhaps Hart and Nance can figure out a way to make something happen here.