Month: April 2022

In recent weeks, as the Toronto Raptors have climbed out of the play-in tournament in the East and firmly into a playoff spot, there has been ample conversation about how potential opponents may be effected by the vaccination requirements for visitors to Canada.

The Miami Heat and Milwaukee Bucks have confirmed their entire teams are vaccinated and eligible to play, but the Celtics and Sixers would not comment publicly and with both making late season visits to Toronto, people were pouring over the injury report to see who wasn’t making the trip. For Boston, they kept a number of players home, including Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Tatum said prior to the season he was vaccinated, while Brown has not been willing to comment publicly on his status but stated recently that he is ready for any opponent in the playoffs, which some have taken as an indication he’ll be able to play.

While the mystery around who Boston potentially may be missing for road games in a series against the Raptors continues, we seemed to learn who the Sixers won’t have on Wednesday when the injury report came out and Matisse Thybulle was simply listed as “ineligible to play.”

Thybulle missed time earlier this season in league protocols and there’s a bit of confusion regarding whether he’s vaccinated or not, but it’s hard to imagine why he’d be listed as ineligible to play the Raptors for any other reason. He played in their December game in Toronto, but at that time there was a waiver for professional athletes to enter the country who were unvaccinated that was taken away in January.

Unless the Sixers provide an update to the contrary, it certainly seems like Philly will be without their defensive ace for road games in a potential series against Toronto. Thybulle’s absence may not be as disastrous as Joel Embiid, James Harden, or Tyrese Maxey, but he is one of the league’s best perimeter defenders and without him, Philadelphia will struggle to replace what he brings on that end of the floor. How Doc Rivers handles rotations for Thursday night’s game in Toronto might offer a clue as to what would happen should they meet in the postseason — which they would in the first round if the standings remain the same.

One also can’t help but wonder if Thybulle’s vaccination status played a role in Philly keeping him at the trade deadline rather than including him in the James Harden trade, as there were a number of reports that Brooklyn had been trying to acquire the skilled defender but if he is indeed unvaccinated, he would’ve been ineligible for home games alongside Kyrie Irving.

There are two Republican governors who have been trying to one-up each other in cartoon villainy. One is Florida’s Ron DeSantis, who’s been steaming at critics of his newly signed so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill, who’ve argued it marginalizes already marginalized people. The other is Texas’ Greg Abbott. He’s already threatened to target parents of trans kids, accusing them of child abuse. Now Abbot has a dastardly plan involving refugees.

The Southwestern border is currently seeing a large number of migrants approaching the border seeking asylum. The increase is due in part to a rolling back of a Trump era order ostensibly meant to keep pandemic numbers down. Instead of finding a civil way to deal with the numbers, Abbott instead proposed a more flamboyant not-quite-solution.

“To help local officials whose communities are being overwhelmed by hordes of illegal immigrants who are being dropped off by the Biden administration, Texas is providing charter buses to send these illegal immigrants who have been dropped off by the Biden administration to Washington D.C.,” Abbott told reporters during a press conference.

Abbott vowed to drop them right off at the United States Capitol building, “where the Biden administration will be able to more immediately address the needs of the people that they are allowing to come across our border.”

The response was livid, as Abbott must have intended it to be. Some pointed out Abbott was being greatly misleading about who is crossing over the border (and might not be legal anyway).

Some wondered who would be footing the bill for all those bus tickets.

Others wondered if Abbott had lost any last trace of of humanity.

Other pointed out that forcing people to cross state lines sounds pretty devious.

Some found another reason to be ashamed of what’s happening now in the Lone Star State.

And some wondered if Texas doesn’t have other issues to take care of first, like fixing that grid.

(Via The Texas Tribune)

Sometimes art imitates life. And other times, life imitates an art heist movie.

More than a century ago in the late 1830s, the innovative and disruptive scientist Charles Darwin had just returned from the Galapagos Islands. In his small, leather-bound notepad, he began to draw a vision that played on his mind: a tree with many branches.

The sketch was simple, crude even, but it helped inspire Darwin’s most elegant and groundbreaking theories on natural selection and evolution. His “Tree of Life” sketch put forth the notion that we are all connected, not just metaphorically. Without it, we might never have had his famous book “On the Origin of Species,” considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology.

Darwin’s sketch of the Tree of Life.

www.flickr.com

The notebook holds one of science’s most important moments in history. And yet many thought it was gone forever. Until now.

BBC News reported that two of Darwin’s notebooks (one containing the original “Tree of Life” sketch) had first been noted as missing from their rightful home at Cambridge University back in January 2000.

Only two months prior, the University had received an “internal request” to remove them from the library so they could be photographed.

Could this photo request have been a ruse? Merely an elaborate scheme for the thief to get their hands on the parcels? Where’s Sherlock when you need him?!

Twenty years of book scouring later (Cambridge University’s library contains more than 10 million books) and finally Dr. Jessica Gardner, the university’s librarian, called Interpol to report the books as stolen.

At this point, they could be anywhere.

Maybe it was coincidence, or maybe the burglar had a change of heart, but only 15 months after issuing a worldwide appeal, the library received a bright pink bag from an anonymous sender.

In the pink bag was a blue box. In the blue box was a plain brown envelope. In the envelope … the two notebooks, perfectly protected by plastic wrap. You can’t make this stuff up.

Another five days followed. The library would have to get permission from the police to open the plastic wrap. And then they’d have to spend time painstakingly examining the contents for authenticity; things like multiple types of ink, a bit of copper coming off the hinges and the right type of paper.

Not only were the notebooks genuine, they were “in remarkably good condition,” Dr. Gardner told the BBC. “Every page that should be there is there.”

As far as who sent the package, well … that remains the biggest mystery of all. The sender left no traces of their identity, and to the package only attached a short, cryptic typed note which read:

“Librarian. Happy Easter. X.”

It’s rare to have such a fascinating whodunit in our modern time. But boy does this check all the boxes.

Though the university may never figure out exactly what happened to Darwin’s notebooks, having them back is enough for Dr. Gardner.

“I was heartbroken to learn of their loss and my joy at their return is immense,” she told the BBC.

It’s certainly made for one thrilling tale, all with a happy ending.

Dogs are like toddlers, they’re always getting into things and can be quite sassy when they’re feeling ornery. Anyone who’s spent time with dogs will know they can get up to all kinds of shenanigans. But in their defense, it’s not always their fault. A fluffy chow named Duke found himself in a predicament and he did nothing other than be his sweet happy self. Duke’s owner, who graciously runs the furry animal’s TikTok account, posted a video explaining what she found when he made his way into the house after a jaunt in the yard.

As he came into the house, the dog’s human noticed something dark brown on his fur, but she couldn’t get a good look. Once she did, however, she was shocked at her discovery. In the video, the owner calls Duke over to the camera so she can get a better picture for their followers showing what he had gotten himself into. The woman zooms in and we can see a brown thing stuck to the dog’s fur, but once the curious owner takes a towel and gives a small tug and a wiggle, it’s revealed that Duke had in fact made friends with a baby possum.

The possum isn’t the possums we are used to seeing in America, this is a possum that is native to Australia. It’s a bit bigger than what you’d expect a baby possum to be, but it’s also surprisingly adorable. Duke, on the other hand, looks confused as to why his mom just removed his newly adopted baby from his chest as she shows him the critter saying, “That’s what was attached to you.” With a “Hi, little fella!” she lifted the possum onto a fence and set it free to find its biological family, or at least other possums that can teach it the difference between mommy possums and furry canines.

@dukeofhawthorn

A chow and his baby possum friend hanging out #dogsofttiktok #chowchow #possum

In the comment section, Duke’s owner answered some questions posed by curious viewers. In reply to one comment, the dog mom said “Duke was so upset we didn’t get to keep it.” She also went on to clarify that the dog did not attempt to bite the possum as he’s used to being gentle due to him sharing his mom with cats. Duke’s human also cleared up the confusion for people that thought the animal looked like a sugar glider, stating, “It was 100% a possum. We do not have sugar gliders where I live. It didn’t have winged arms or the characteristic stripe.”

When seeing the little creature, it’s easy to see how some American viewers may have confused the possum with a sugar glider, but given the owner’s accent and the name of the TikTok account, Duke of Hawthorn, it’s presumed the duo lives in Australia. Dogs will keep you on your toes, but showing up with a possum attached to their coat is something I can’t imagine most would expect. I’m sure Duke’s owner will share this story for years to come.

Come this Friday, Camila Cabello’s long-awaited album Familia will be out into the world. Among the tracks featured will be her collaboration with Ed Sheeran, “Bam Bam,” which pretty directly references her November breakup from pop singer Shawn Mendes. “Yeah, love came around and it knocked me down. But I’m back on my feet,” she sings, among myriad other references to the widely-publicized breakup. Now in a new interview with ET, Cabello opened up about how “Bam Bam” sees her “living the lesson” she learned from falling in and out of love.

“…reminding myself, as my mom has told me many times, ‘That’s life,’” she tells ET. “You’re on the ground crying on the bathroom floor and then you’ll have feelings for another person again, and you’ll be crying on the bathroom floor again. And that is the cycle of change. Things just change, you never know what’s around the corner.”

Cabello elaborated on how working on “Bam Bam” with Sheeran was “cathartic,” and how she nearly pinched herself when the “Shape Of You” singer agreed to the collaboration. “When I sent the song and he said, ‘I love, let’s definitely do this,’ I just felt like, ‘This is too good to be true, he’s going to change his mind,’ she said. “He didn’t and he has been so exciting about it throughout.”

Familia is out 4/8 via Epic. Pre-order it here.

Some of the artists mentioned are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Basketball is pretty good. In spite of this, every year around the NCAA Tournament, people who primarily like college basketball and people who primarily like the NBA yell at each other about which version of the same game is better, which never changes anyone’s minds and then, at the end of it all, people usually just end up watching whatever basketball is on TV.

This year, JJ Redick saw a take that bugged him about how college players play defense harder than NBA players, and if they just tried harder on that end, games would end up in the 70s and 80s. Redick, on a crossover podcast between The Old Man & The Three and The ETCs with Kevin Durant, said the tweet came from a “knucklehead” before diving into why it was wrong.

“First of all, it’s just math, first of all, the shot clock’s longer, so there’s gonna be more possessions in an NBA game and there’s eight more minutes of basketball, so f*ckhead, that’s not possible,” Redick said. “Secondly, what he doesn’t understand is, you watch college basketball, man, I’m like, ‘these guys have not evolved their philosophy since the 1980s or 1990s,’ it’s ridiculous. Same sets, same sets that I used to run, that I used to watch growing up, that Kansas used to run. I’m like, bro, do you know why it’s so hard to play defense in the NBA? It’s not cause we can’t, and it’s not cause we don’t try, it’s cause there’s f*cking space, and the players are so good.”

Durant, who knows a thing or two about scoring in a basketball game, agreed with Redick, asking, “do you think somebody’s just gonna guard up and hold a team to 70 points that has a f*ckin’ 30-point scorer on it?” You can watch the whole podcast here.

While people are focused on the elderly being murderers, it’s time we as a society confront the real demons: babies. At least that’s what HBO’s latest series wants you to believe.

The Baby is an eight-part series that will focus on Natasha, played by Michelle De Swarte, as she unexpectedly has to take care of a baby on her own when the newborn “falls from the sky” close to a gruesome crime scene. While that’s already a terrifying premise, it turns out that the baby is actually maybe a murderer, and she needs to get rid of “it.” By the way, this is a comedy.

The series will also feature Patrice Naiambana, Sinéad Cusack, Shvorne Marks, Tanya Reynolds, and more. As per the official HBO synopsis:

Michelle De Swarte (The Duchess) stars as 38-year-old Natasha, who is furious that her closest friends are all having babies. But when she is unexpectedly landed with a baby of her own, her life dramatically implodes. Controlling, manipulative, but incredibly cute, the baby twists Natasha’s life into a surreal horror show. As she discovers the true extent of the baby’s deadly nature, Natasha makes increasingly desperate attempts to get rid of it. She doesn’t want a baby. But the baby definitely want her. The series also stars Amira Ghazalla (The Rhythm Section) as Mrs. Eaves, the 70-year-old enigma who has spent the last fifty years living out of her car and seems to be everywhere the Baby is, and Amber Grappy as Bobbi, Natasha’s younger sister, a children’s magician who would love nothing more than to be a parent, to give love and to receive it.

With spooky cult-like imagery paired with witty one-liners, this series will probably make you think twice about babies. The Baby premiered Sunday, April 24th at 10:30 pm on HBO and streaming on HBO Max. Check out the trailer above.

The tragedy of having pets is knowing that one day you’ll have to say goodbye to your loved ones. The average dog lives between 10 and 13 years, depending on its breed, but researchers believe that with the help of a drug called rapamycin, their lives can be extended by around three years.

Rapamycin was discovered nearly 50 years ago from soil that was found on Easter Island, an island in the South Pacific famous for its mysterious Moai statues. The drug was approved by the FDA for human use because it suppresses the immune system to prevent it from attacking donated organs.

“Rapamycin seems to have the ability to ‘reset’ immune function by reducing the increase in chronic inflammation that goes along with aging,” Dr. Matt Kaeberlein of the Dog Aging Project says according to Yahoo. “This also seems to have benefits beyond the immune system in all sorts of tissues and organs.”

Early tests on dogs, rats and mice show the drug is very effective at reducing the aging process. It was found to reduce age-related declines in mice, most notably in the heart, ovaries, brain and oral cavity. It was also found to boost the immune system’s response to cancers and COVID-19.

The study found that rapamycin increased the mice’s average life spans by up to 25%. If the same results are found in dogs, then a canine with a 12-year life span could presumably live to 15.

“You can take an old heart or an old immune system, treat a mouse with rapamycin for eight weeks, and see that function improve. I know it sounds a little bit like science fiction, but when you actually look at the data, it’s quite remarkable,” Kaeberlein says, according to KRTV.

The drug is found to have serious side effects in humans including cancer, diabetes and infections. However, Kaeberlein believes that they are partially the result of the drug being administered to people who already have health problems. Further, the drug will be administered in much smaller doses to dogs, compared to humans who have had organ transplants.

The University of Washington’s Dog Aging Project is taking this research a step further by doing a nationwide study on almost 600 dogs.

The Dog Aging Project is recruiting dogs to participate in the largest #canine health study ever conducted. This is an opportunity to be part of a research project that can dramatically extend what we know about #health and #aging in our dogs.https://vimeo.com/dogagingproject/joinu00a0u2026

— Dog Aging Project (@Dog Aging Project)
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Kaeberlein believes that a dog is just as likely as a mouse to benefit from the effects of rapamycin, although the reaction will differ by breed. He believes that when it becomes widely used by veterinarians it’ll be administered to larger dogs at around 6 or 7 years and smaller dogs at 9 or 10.

The drug is already approved for use in humans by the FDA, so further studies will help dog owners and veterinarians decide whether it’s a safe treatment. “If our trial shows compelling evidence for beneficial effects and little in the way of side effects, I suspect many veterinarians will become more comfortable prescribing it for owners who request it,” Kaeberlein says.

There is never a right time to say goodbye to our beloved pets. But if these studies turn out as researchers predict, we may be able to have a few more years of memories with our dogs before they cross the Rainbow Bridge.

The 2022 WNBA Draft is less than a week away, as the three-round event will begin at 7 p.m. ET on Monday, April 11 on ESPN, with some debate still ongoing about who will end up as the top overall pick.

Baylor forward NaLyssa Smith and Kentucky guard Rhyne Howard are the consensus top two players in this year’s draft, but what order they’ll go in remains a mystery. Adding another layer to that debate was news breaking that the Atlanta Dream had acquired the No. 1 overall pick from the Washington Mystics, moving up from the third position by sending Washington this year’s second rounder at No. 14 overall and the right to swap 2023 first rounders with the first round pick Atlanta received from Los Angeles in a trade earlier this offseason.

Washington moves back and seems likely to end up with Ole Miss center Shakira Austin, while the Dream will get their choice at the top of the draft. Atlanta is a team in rebuilding mode after a 2021 season that saw coach Nicki Collen leave for the Baylor job just before the season started and then had internal turmoil involving a fight that went viral between Courtney Williams and Crystal Bradford, as well as suspending their 2020 first round pick Chennedy Carter for conduct detrimental to the team in the middle of the season.

All three of those players are gone from this year’s roster, and as such the Dream will go with who they think is the best player available at the top of the draft to pair with last year’s third overall selection, guard Aari McDonald, and clearly have one of Smith or Howard in mind. We’ll have to wait until Monday night to find out which they’re selecting and which will stay on the board for the Indiana Fever picking second.

Following the tragic passing of iconic Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek, The Big Bang Theory star Mayim Bialik emerged as a fan favorite, and reportedly, was almost offered the top spot before executive producer Mike Richards essentially took it for himself, causing a fiasco for the beloved game show. However, since then, Bialik has been hosting Jeopardy! specials and occasionally filling in for Ken Jennings as the show takes its time picking Trebek’s successor once and for all. (Despite initially not wanting to be the permanent host because of her busy schedule, Bialik is reportedly still in the mix for the full-time gig.)

In a lengthy interview with The Daily Beast to promote her directorial debut, As They Made Us, starring Dustin Hoffman and Candice Bergen, Bialik revealed what it was like to experience the chaotic hosting mess and how the Jeopardy! producers have been helping her fill Trebek’s shoes behind the podium (by calming down a little), which is no easy task:

The role of Jeopardy! host carries a lot of authority. You’re viewed as a bastion of truth. Does that burden weigh on you?

I think as a woman there’s a special consideration, because when women sound definitive or stern it’s a different message than when men sound definitive or stern. And a lot of times when people will say, “Oh, you sound like you think you know it all,” I’ll think, gosh, that’s just because I’m using an affirmative voice. One of the neat things about having a woman in this role is it’s bringing up a lot of questions about the labels we put on those things. One of my biggest challenges is I’m so impressed that people know the answers that they’ve asked me to tone down how excited I am when people get them right, which I think is s a great note to get.

Claire McNear, who wrote a book on Jeopardy! and the article about Mike Richards that got eventually got him booted, called the above excerpt to attention.

Bialik also touched on the controversy regarding her prior vaccine skepticism — this was a full decade before COVID, by the way, and she got the jab — which was a topic that eventually engulfed Aaron Rodgers, who was also one of the top Jeopardy! guest hosts. Mayim may have been partially referencing those issues in the below excerpt.

“We have the complete ability to have access to people, and as I’ve experienced, you can have people pass around a piece of information that’s not true on Twitter and it can grow exponentially,” Bialik said. “I think Jeopardy! was a perfect example of all the things that can go wrong in terms of social media and the handling by social media of certain information that normally people would know very little about.”

(Via The Daily Beast)