Month: May 2022

Last year, Nicki Minaj suffered a huge loss in her life through the unexpected death of her father Robert Maraj. The 64-year-old was walking between Roslyn Road and Raff Avenue in Long Island, New York on February 12, 2021 when he was hit by a car heading northbound. The driver did not stop at the scene and Maraj would eventually die from his injuries. The vehicle in question was driven by 71-year-old Charles Polevich who turned himself in for the incident less than a week later. As a result, Polevich was charged with one felony count of leaving the scene of an incident without reporting and another count of evidence tampering.

A little over a year after the tragic incident, we now know how long Polevich might stay in prison. According to TMZ, the 71-year-old pled guilty to the aforementioned felonies during a recent hearing. With that, he escaped a seven-year sentence after Judge Howard Sturium agreed that Polevich could serve a maximum of one year in prison in addition to fulfilling community service requirements and getting his license suspended.

Shortly after her father’s death last winter, Nicki took to Instagram to remember him with a heartful message and pictures of them together. “I can say it has been the most devastating loss of my life,” she wrote in one post.

Polevich will head back to court on August 3 to receive his official prison sentence.

The Dallas Mavericks will not find themselves in position to get swept in the Western Conference Semifinals. Dallas played host to the Phoenix Suns in Game 3 of their series on Friday night, and thanks to a monster game by the team’s starting backcourt, the Mavericks were able to pick up a 103-94 win to make the series 2-1 in favor of the Suns.

After losing the first quarter in each of the first two games of the series, Dallas came out in front of their home fans at the American Airlines Center and led 29-20 after one. While Phoenix shot better from three and from the field, the Mavericks got an extra 10 shots in the frame by reeling in four offensive rebounds and forcing four turnovers.

That, mixed with 10 early points from Jalen Brunson and Luka Doncic getting well on his way to a triple-double (seven points, seven rebounds, five assists), helped Dallas get an early edge.

The Mavs looked like they were going to cruise into the locker room, leading by double-digits for much of the second quarter and extending their lead to 14 with just under three minutes remaining in the frame thanks to a triple by Dorian Finney-Smith.

If there is one thing the Suns have shown over and over again these last two years, it’s that you cannot let them see a hint of daylight or else they’re going to take advantage. After Finney-Smith’s three, Phoenix ripped off seven consecutive points, and after trading buckets dow the stretch, Dallas took a 51-44 lead into the locker room. Doncic had 16 with nine boards and six assists, while Brunson had 14. Jae Crowder led the way for the Suns with 11 points, Devin Booker had nine, Deandre Ayton had eight, and Chris Paul had seven with an uncharacteristic seven turnovers.

Doncic and Brunson continued to give the Suns defense headaches throughout the third. Dallas’ general plan to attack the paint put those two in situations where they repeatedly went at the rim, which helped them combine to score 47 of the team’s 82 points through three.

The Mavericks got their lead up to as many as 17 in the fourth when disaster potentially struck, as a dubious foul call against Doncic with 8:07 left gave him five on the game and led to him going to the bench. Phoenix immediately responded, with Booker and Paul hitting shots to get the lead down to 12 and forcing Jason Kidd to call a timeout.

The Suns kept chipping away, getting it down to a single-digit game on a pair of Mikal Bridges free throws with just more than four minutes left. But Dallas had an answer, and it kept having answers, and when Phoenix got it down to eight and nearly forced a turnover with just under a minute remaining, it appeared like one final push was in the cards.

That ended up not being the case. The Mavericks were able to get the ball to Reggie Bullock in the corner, and the veteran sharpshooter did what he’s done so well over the course of his playing career.

Brunson led all scorers with 28 points to go along with five assists and four rebounds, while Doncic had 26 with 13 boards and nine dimes. Bullock scored 15, and both Finney-Smith and Maxi Kleber pitched in 14. Crowder’s night — 19 points, seven rebounds, five assists, and two steals — was the most productive for the Suns. Booker had 18 and Ayton had a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds.

Game 4 between the Mavericks and Suns will take place on Sunday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.

There are two traits that define Luka Doncic. One, and by far the more important of the two, is that he is extremely good at basketball, to the point that he is among the best players in the world and is the centerpiece team of a Dallas Mavericks franchise that has aspirations of winning a championship sooner rather than later.

The other trait is that the dude gets really, really mad sometimes. Doncic is among the most expressive players in the league, and when he is unhappy with something, he lets people — and by people, I mean the referees — know about it. An example of this came in Game 3 of Mavs-Suns, as Doncic tried to barrel his way through Chris Paul and got called for a charge.

Now, Paul is very much a master of the dark arts, and is not afraid to embellish contact as a way to get a call. While this did seem like a legitimate offensive foul call, Doncic didn’t buy it, and as a result, he did an impression of Paul by pretending to flop.

A lot of things went right for Doncic in the first half — 16 points, nine rebounds, seven assists, Dallas leading by seven — but this one seemed to really get under his skin.

Ronald Acuña Jr. is high on the list of baseball’s coolest players. The 24-year-old Venezuelan has turned into one of the league’s brightest young stars, a legitimate 5-tool talent and one of the centerpieces of the Atlanta Braves’ franchise as it looks to defend the World Series it won while he was on the sideline last season.

Acuña’s 2021 season was cut short after he suffered a torn ACL in July, and this season, the former Rookie of the Year didn’t get to make his debut until the end of April. As a result, he’s been a bit rusty, and he entered Friday night’s game against the Milwaukee Brewers hitting .200 and with zero home runs.

He did manage, however, to fix the whole zero home runs thing pretty emphatically during the game. Acuña stepped up to the plate against Eric Lauer in the bottom of the fourth and got a 1-1 breaking ball. It was down and outside in the strike zone and Acuña read it perfectly, and as a result, he hit the thing 450 feet to dead center. He managed to pull this off while falling down, too.

There are lots of ways for baseball players to get their uniforms dirty, none of them are as cool as hitting a dinger.

The Philadelphia 76ers got a big boost in the lead-up to Game 3 of their Eastern Conference Semifinal series against the Miami Heat, as it was announced that Joel Embiid would return from a concussion and an orbital fracture as the series shifted back to the City of Brotherly Love. Between his debut in the series and one of the worst offensive performances the Heat had this year, Philly was able to pick up a 99-79 win to cut Miami’s series lead in half.

The first half was perhaps the ugliest half of basketball that we have seen this postseason. After Miami jumped out to an early 6-4 lead, Philadelphia was able to get the home crowd engaged with a 14-2 run that saw the Heat go nearly five minutes without scoring a point.

While a 12-point first quarter lead is hardly insurmountable, the Sixers were able to use that to create a cushion that existed for essentially the remainder of the half. Miami never got within four points from that point on prior to going into the locker room, as Philadelphia pestered them on defense and threw them completely out of the rhythm they had through the first two games of the series. While Jimmy Butler had 10 points and six rebounds at the break, no one else on the Heat scored more than six, and as a team, Miami shot 14-for-43 (32.6 percent) from the field and 2-for-16 (12.5 percent) from three.

As a result, the Sixers entered the locker room with a 41-34 cushion, powered in large part by a big first half from James Harden — he scored eight of his 15 points from the charity stripe with four rebounds and two assists — nine points from Danny Green, and seven points and seven boards from Embiid in his return.

Out of the break, both offenses started to find their footing. Butler, in particular, gave the Heat a huge lift, scoring 14 of the team’s 31 points in the third quarter. The team doubled-up their first half total by knocking down four threes, and found themselves only down 68-65 heading into the fourth.

Perhaps the most surprising development for the Sixers was the play of Green, who has long been a bellwether for his team’s chances of winning a game throughout his career. By the end of the third, the veteran had 18 points and made six of his seven attempts from three.

But at the start of the fourth, Miami’s offense cratered once again. Philadelphia opened up a double-digit lead by scoring the first seven points of the frame until Bam Adebayo got to the charity stripe more than three minutes in and hit a pair of free throws.

Even when it looked like Miami was going to have easy baskets, the Sixers managed to come out on top. No better example of that came when PJ Tucker stripped Harden and tried to throw a pass to Victor Oladipo, but led him just a little too much. As a result, Tyrese Maxey raced out ahead of him and made one of the best defensive plays we have seen this season, which led to an Embiid jumper that went in as he got fouled by Adebayo.

Green went 7-for-9 from three for 21 points, which was tied with Maxey for the most on the Sixers. Embiid scored 18 points and pulled in 11 rebounds in his return, while Harden had 17 with eight boards and six assists. Butler’s 33 led all scorers while Tyler Herro had 14 off the bench.

Game 4 between the Sixers and the Heat will take place on Sunday evening. The game is scheduled to tip off at 8 p.m. ET on TNT.

When thinking about what we did during lock down, it’s a wide variety of experiences. Some people created businesses, learned a new skill, or moved from one couch to the other without spilling their overflowing plate of nachos. Then there’s Benjamin Choi, a 17-year-old junior in high school who decided to build a prosthetic arm that could be controlled by brain waves. Choi actually started the extensive project in 2020 at the age of 15 using his sister’s 3D printer. The idea for the prosthetic arm came from a feature on “60 Minutes” about a mind-controlled prosthetic arm, but in order for the arm to work it required surgery to implant sensors on the motor cortex of the user’s brain.

He told Smithsonian Magazine, “I was really, really amazed at the time because this technology was so impressive,” he says. “But I was also alarmed that they require this really risky open brain surgery. And they’re so inaccessible, costing in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

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The teen’s goal was to make the robotic limb affordable, allowing it to be more accessible. He also wanted to eliminate the need for a surgery that requires digging around in someone’s brain to get the prosthesis to work. Using his sister’s 3D printer for his first prototype was time consuming and required tedious work to connect the pieces since the printer could only print pieces 4.7 inches long. It took Choi 30 hours just to print the parts of the arm before using rubber bands and bolts to put it together. The prosthetic worked using head gestures and brain wave data.

Amazingly, the prosthetic arm isn’t Choi’s first go at coding. Choi has been participating in robotics competitions since elementary school, requiring him to not only build robots, but code them so they move the way he wants. He’s gone to the world championships several times and in 9th grade he taught himself computer programming languages C++ and Python by watching videos on Stack Overflow.

For now, the arm is mounted on a stand. Over the past two years Choi has been working to perfect the arm before adding a socket, which he says would require a recipient to be custom fitted. Currently on its 75th iteration, Choi is still able to maintain the affordability of the prosthetic manufacturing costs being around $300. The current basic body powered upper body prosthesis will run you $7,000.

Choi works with volunteers to collect data and improve the functionality of the AI arm. The high schooler still has a way to go before the arm is complete and ready to be put on the market but that hasn’t stopped him from being recognized. Choi has won awards in Microsoft Imagine Challenge, the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair, and the National At-Home STEM Competition. The teen is also a recipient of a manufacturing grant from PolySpectra Inc., awarded in 2020 to help with the production of the arm. PolySpectra produces durable 3D material.

Choi plans to attend college for engineering with a plan to continue working on his prosthetic arm, eventually bringing it to clinical trials. If Choi pulls this off, it could be life changing for the 2 Million people in America that live with the loss of a limb.

In the 1988 Disney classic “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” the titular character is in an unlikely relationship with his voluptuous wife Jessica. Roger is a frantic, anxious rabbit with a penchant for mischief, while Jessica is a quintessential ’40s bombshell who stands about a foot and a half taller and isn’t “bad,” just “drawn that way.”

When private investigator Eddie Valiant asked Jessica what she sees in “that guy?” she replies, “He makes me laugh.”

This type of couple may seem like something we only see in the movies, but don’t underestimate the power of humor when it comes to attractiveness. A new study published in Evolutionary Psychology found that being humorous is the most effective way to flirt for both men and women.

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“People think that humour, or being able to make another person laugh, is most effective for men who are looking for a long-term relationship. It’s least effective for women who are looking for a one-night stand. But laughing or giggling at the other person’s jokes is an effective flirtation tactic for both sexes,” says Leif Edward Ottesen Kennair, a professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology’s (NTNU) Department of Psychology.

“It is not only effective to be funny, but for women, it is very important that you show your potential partner that you think they are funny,” Rebecca Burch, a co-author from SUNY Oswego in New York, added.

Unfortunately, this study was only conducted on heterosexual couples.

For men, showing off their sense of humor was found to be the most effective way to flirt whether they were looking for a short-term or a long-term relationship. For women, being funny was the most effective tactic when looking for a long-term relationship. For people looking for a short-term fling, appearing available was the most effective tactic.

According to the study, humor is effective regardless of one’s attractiveness. “Individual differences in age, religiosity, extroversion, personal attractiveness and preferences for short-term sexual relationships had little or no effect on how effective respondents considered the various flirting tactics to be,” says study co-author Prof. Mons Bendixen.

If you see someone you like but don’t think you’re good-looking enough for them, give it a shot. You may still have a chance if you can make ’em laugh.

The most effective tactics for those looking for a long-term relationship:

For women:

1. Makes him laugh

2. Shows interest in conversations

3. Spends time with him

4. Engages in deep conversations

5. Kisses on mouth

For men:

1. Makes her laugh

2. Spends time with her

3. Shows interest in conversations

4. Engages in deep conversations

5. Smiles

The study is proof that looks aren’t everything and shows that having a good sense of humor isn’t just about making someone laugh. A great sense of humor is evidence that someone is intelligent, wise, perceptive, confident, can see things from new perspectives and has good intuition. It also helps people quickly build bonds and share experiences, which is a great way to get close to someone in a fast and fun way.

So why wouldn’t Jessica be with Roger? The guy is hilarious.

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California has long positioned itself as a safe haven for those seeking an abortion: making it accessible to minors without need of parental consent, and even allowing non California residents to receive them. Newsom told The Associated Press in Dec 2021: “we’ll be a sanctuary. We are looking at ways to support that inevitability and looking at ways to expand our protections.”

One protection already existing is the Abortion Accessiblity Act, which eliminates out-of-pocket costs for abortion services covered by health plans. This comes as a direct response to “nationwide attacks on reproductive rights,” said First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, adding that “California will continue to lead by example and ensure all women and pregnant people have autonomy over their bodies and the ability to control their own destinies.”

NEW: If the Supreme Court rolls back the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, abortion rights would be up to individual states. 23 states would institute bans, and 13 have “trigger laws” waiting for the ruling. https://t.co/RIdU9ObKGw pic.twitter.com/dA7EVNXYJa

— NBC News (@NBCNews) May 3, 2022

Though the reveal of the draft has no immediate effect on abortion access, if the Supreme Court were to overturn Roe v. Wade, 13 states with “trigger laws” in place would immediately enact the ban. And according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights advocacy group, that number shoots to 23 states based on passed laws that predate Roe.

However, Axios reports that at least 17 states, not just California, have enacted laws to keep abortion legal.

For example, in March 2022, Colorado created a bill called the “Reproductive Health Equity Act” codifying the right to abortion. Axios added that, similar to California, abortion advocates in Colorado are potentially pursuing a ballot measure in 2024 to place abortion access in the state’s constitution. In Vermont, lawmakers have already voted to protect abortion rights under the state’s constitution. If passed, it would be the first state to do so. And in Washington, Gov. Jay Inslee signed a bill prohibiting legal action against people seeking abortion and those who aid them, ensuring the state won’t endure a Texas-style ban.

In less than fifty years time, the rights to abortion might once again be in the hands of the states, rather than nationally protected. The thought of that looming potential reality is a nightmare for many. However, there is a small (very small) comfort in seeing some states taking countermeasures.

It’s Derby time! Well, if you live in Kentucky, it’s been Derby time for the last two weeks, so we’re a little late to the party, even if the big race isn’t until Saturday, May 7th. But better late than never, and anyway, any time is a great time for a serious mint julep.

Last year, we taught you how to make a classic version with sugar cubes, Woodford Reserve (the official whiskey of the Derby), and a ton of mint. This year, we’re bending the rules a little and making a Habanero Mint Julep, or just a spicy mint julep if you want to keep things easy.

For this recipe, I’m making it a little easier at the base while adding in some serious heat! While the mint julep is the ultimate hot-weather drink, adding spicy heat to it helps the drink cool you off even more because, remember, spicy food and drinks cool you down by warming you on the inside so your body sweats and cools off on the outside. That’s just science. So let’s get mixing up some spicy juleps!

Also Read: The Top Five Cocktail Recipes of the Last Six Months

• The Corpse Reviver No. 2 Is The Best Gin Cocktail For Winter — Here’s Our Recipe
• The Black Manhattan Is Our 2021 Thanksgiving Cocktail, Here’s The Recipe
• The Vieux Carre Is The Perfect Whiskey Cocktail For The Holidays
• The Americano Is An Excellent Low-Alcohol Cocktail For January, Here’s Our Recipe
• Our French 75 Cocktail Recipe Will Make You A New Year’s Eve Pre-Party Star

Spicy Mint Julep

Ingredients:

• 3 oz. bourbon
• 2 sugarcubes
• 1 barspoon of mineral water
• 6 fresh mint leaves
• 1 thin slice of fresh habanero chili (with seeds for extra hot)
• 3-4 dashes of Angostura Bitters
• Crushed Ice

The best part of this recipe is that all the ingredients are easily sourceable. Any store will have habanero chili, raw sugar, and fresh mint. The Woodford Reserve and Angostura are in pretty much every liquor store from sea to shining sea.

Some people will insist that you crush the ice yourself for this drink. You can also buy crushed ice. It’s fine, though purists may complain.

What You’ll Need:

• Julep cup or rocks glass
• Muddler
• Barspoon
• Paring knife
• Jigger
• Metal straw

Method:

• Add the two sugar cubes and one barspoon mineral water to the bottom of the julep cup. Use the muddler to break up the sugar cubes into the water to create a sugary base.
• Slice one thin coin of habanero from the stem side of the fruit (if you want it extremely hot — like Nashville hot chicken turned up to 11 hot — then use two slices). Add the chili and six mint leaves to the sugary base and (kind of gently) muddle the mint and chili into the sugar base until the leaves are well-bruised and the chili is just starting to fall apart.
• Add the three ounces of bourbon to the mix and stir until the sugar is mostly dissolved into the drink.
• Fill the cup about 2/3 with crushed ice. Use the barspoon to stir the drink until the level of the cocktail is above the crushed ice in the cup.
• Make a snowball of crushed ice in your hand and jam it on top of the cocktail, creating a dome over the cup.
• Garnish with a bushel of fresh mint, the metal straw, and hit the ice with a few dashes of Angostura Bitters. Serve.

Bottom Line:

I left the seeds in my mint julep and it was hot with a capital “H.” But still not quite “this is a stunt hot.” I like it that way. If you’re more on the side of just wanting an easy layer of heat in the drink, then deseed the chili and maybe only use half of a slice.

Anyway, the heat, mint, and sugar really blend well with the bourbon to create a super refreshing drink that you kind of don’t want to end. It was ice cold (the cup got that heavy layer of frost on it after a few minutes) but had serious heat to help you break out into the cooling sweat. Plus, I think mint and chili are underutilized in cocktails, especially the heat from the chilis part. This is a great combination that is perfect for watching the ponies, or just a hot day when you need to cool down.

The Miami Heat have not had the services of Kyle Lowry since the first round of the postseason. Lowry, who has been an important member of the team’s starting lineup since joining from the Toronto Raptors this past offseason, suffered a hamstring injury in Game 3 of the Heat’s opening round series against the Atlanta Hawks.

Lowry did not play in the final two games of their 5-game gentleman’s sweep of the Hawks, nor did he play in the first two games of Miami’s series against the Philadelphia 76ers. His absence has not been felt quite yet, as the Joel Embiid-less Sixers have been unable to take a game off of them, but just before it was announced that Embiid is slated to return for Philly on Friday night for Game 3, the Heat announced that Lowry will be inserted into the team’s starting lineup in his hometown.

Lowry will slide into the starting lineup with Gabe Vincent returning to his role on the bench. Otherwise, the Heat are slated to start their usual starting five, with Max Strus, Jimmy Butler, PJ Tucker, and Bam Adebayo taking the floor alongside the veteran floor general.

Game 3 is slated to tip off at 7:00 p.m. ET on ESPN.