Month: July 2022

Elon Musk has a bizarre (and incendiary) obsession with America’s low birth rate, and it’s to the point where he’s got a warning about “below min sustainable levels” pinned to the top of his Twitter profile page. And it seems that he’s living what he preaches because around the same time that he and Grimes welcomed a second baby (before breaking up again) last fall, Elon also welcomed twins with a different woman. That makes him the (bio) dad of nine kids, including a set of twins and a set of triplets with ex-wife Justine Wilson.

These days, he seems to be pulling a Nick Cannon, but more to the point here, Elon’s newest two secret kids have been revealed to be born with Shivon Zilis, a top executive of Elon’s Neuralink. This news arrives courtesy of court documents detailed by Business Insider, and PEOPLE has more details:

The papers reveal that in April, Musk and Zilis –– who is the project director at his Neuralink company –– asked a Texan county court to change their babies’ names so they would “have their father’s last name and contain their mother’s last name as part of their middle name.”

The twins’ sexes were not made public and their names were redacted from the documents.

And now we know the probable reason why Elon and Grimes broke up (again), but also, he refused to buy a new mattress when Grimes found herself sleeping atop a hole. The news also arrives shortly after Elon’s transgender daughter, Vivian Jenna Wilson, filed papers to remove Elon’s name because “I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form.” For his part, Elon has been known to post insensitive tweets regarding gender identity and how “pronouns suck.”

Well, people are side-eying Elon all over the place for his executive twin-birth, and let’s just say that there are a ton of jokes about populating Mars out there.

Are there more red flags here than children? That’s entirely possible, too.

Throughout the week, NBA 2K23 has been unveiling their cover athletes for the latest game in the franchise. They started off with the legendary edition featuring Michael Jordan returning to the cover, and on Wednesday they unveiled a duo of Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi to represent the WNBA edition.

This only left one more cover athlete, the traditional NBA star that has been on the cover of the game since the franchise first began all the way back in 1999 with Allen Iverson. This year’s cover athlete is none other than Phoenix Suns star, Devin Booker. A rising star in the NBA, Booker is coming off a recent NBA Finals appearance in 2021, his first-ever All-NBA team in 2022, and just signed a huge extension with the Suns during free agency. As is tradition at this point, there will be two covers for fans to choose from when getting the game. The standard edition and the more expensive Digital Deluxe edition.

“It’s a dream come true to see myself on the cover of NBA 2K,” said Devin Booker in an official press release. “I’ve been a huge NBA 2K fan since I was a kid, and it’s surreal to finally join the exclusive club of basketball greats who’ve been cover athletes. I’m also honored to share this year’s covers with the iconic Michael Jordan, who changed the game for all players who came after him, as well as two of the all-time WNBA GOAT’s, Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird, who continue to make a huge impact on the game.”

Booker is genuine when he says he’s been a fan of 2K as a kid. He’s previously told us that he’s the NBA’s best gamer and we have no reason to doubt him. His accolades will only increase as his career continues, but he gets to check off being a video game cover athlete at only 25 years old.

In late May, UK actor Joseph Quinn had himself a moment with his show-stealing role of Eddie Munson on the fourth season of Stranger Things. He instantly endeared himself to many, including Doja Cat, who tweeted days after the season premiere, “joseph quinn fine as sh*t.” It turns out Doja wanted to do more than just shout him out on Twitter, as she went as far as going through his Stranger Things co-stars to try to get in touch with him.

Last night, Noah Schnapp (aka Will Byers) took to TikTok to share a DM conversation he and Doja had on Instagram. It starts with Doja saying, “Noah can u tell Joseph to hmu,” then adding, “wait no. does he have a gf?” Schnapp responds, “LMAOO slide into his dms.” Doja replies, “idk his ig or twitter,” adding, “he doesn’t have a dm to slide in.” Schnapp then directs Doja to Quinn’s Instagram account and adds, “Right here ma’am,” and that ends the conversation.

Meanwhile, Quinn recently spoke about his big Metallica moment in the season finale, telling Entertainment Weekly of the scene, “I was playing [the song] on the day. We had a backing track and I was playing along with it. I wouldn’t wanna mess with what they’ve already got, but it was very useful to be able to play along character-wise. It’s a pretty adolescent fantasy to be a rockstar, isn’t it? I felt like one for a night. It was great having Gaten [Matarazzo] up there with me. They really turned it up when they played ‘Master Of Puppets’ and the whole crew were there. It was the first time that everyone felt like they were seeing live music — I say ‘live music’ — since the pandemic. So it felt like a real celebration.”

British prime minister and Gary Busey look-alike Boris Johnson announced his resignation on Thursday amid a series of scandals.

“In the past few weeks, I have been trying to convince my colleagues it would be eccentric to change governments when we have achieved so much,” he said in his speech outside No. 10 Downing St. amid boos from the assembled crowd. “I regret not to be successful in those arguments and, of course, it’s painful not to be able to see through those projects myself.” Johnson added, “I want you to know how sad I am at giving up the best job in the world. But them’s the breaks.”

The step bookends an extraordinary 36 hours in British politics in which more than 50 ministers and senior government aides resigned, leaving the government in a state of paralysis. Johnson said he would appoint a new cabinet as he stays in office until a successor has been found, a process that could take months.

Things are not going great across the pond, unlike in the United States where everything is hunky dory. But many Brits are celebrating Johnson’s departure with good humor (sorry, humour), as evidenced by this live interview with lawmaker Chris Philp, one of the dozens who resigned this week, on Sky News. He’s not thrilled, but everyone else is.

They have Benny Hill. We have the Curb Your Enthusiasm theme. It’s only fair.

(Via the Wall Street Journal)

There’s only one more Friday to go before Lizzo’s new album Special: It’s not out this week but it’s set for release on the 15th. Ahead of then, Lizzo has offered a better idea of what the album looks like by sharing the tracklist.

Included on the 12-song list is of course the single “About Damn Time,” as well as “Grrrls,” “I Love You B*tch,” “Everybody’s Gay,” and album closer “Coldplay,” which is named after the band that, like Lizzo, is signed to Atlantic Records. The tracklist doesn’t indicate if they — or anybody else, for that matter — feature on the album.

This comes after Lizzo received some good news earlier this week: On the latest Billboard Hot 100 chart, “About Damn Time” reached a new peak at No. 3. That makes it tied for her second-highest-charting song of her career: “Good As Hell” peaked at No. 3 while “Truth Hurts” was a chart-topper. Lizzo’s other charting singles are the Cardi B collaboration “Rumors” at No. 4 and “Juice” at No. 82.

Check out the Special tracklist below.

1. “The Sign”
2. “About Damn Time”
3. “Grrrls”
4. “2 Be Loved”
5. “I Love You B*tch”
6. “Special”
7. “Break Up Twice”
8. “Everybody’s Gay”
9. “Naked”
10. “Birthday Girl”
11. “If You Love Me”
12. “Coldplay”

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Chief Keef is known for many things, especially the popular line from the cult classic “Faneto,” where he references riding through New York and intending to shoot up New Jersey. However, the Chicago legend took to Twitter Wednesday to clarify that his alleged violent streak does not extend to schools after catching wind of a Fox News clip where Laura Ingraham links violence to marijuana use in the wake of the July 4 mass shooting in Illinois.

In a tweet, Keff posted a picture of the conservative television host with the caption “Somebody tell this TRAMP I don’t shoot schools up.” Back in early June, Ingraham was speaking about the unintended consequences of normalizing pot use and attempted to blame that on recent school shootings, as the suspects were known users. “Why aren’t people in general not talking more about the pot psychosis violent behavior connection?” she asks. She doubled down Tuesday and evidently, the 26-year-old had enough as her words literally hit close to home.

Chief Keef is a known user and advocate for marijuana, and like many who use it, he understandably did not take too kindly to such conclusions being drawn about the drug, especially in reference to the state he resides in. Though his choice of words in the tweet is quite humorous, the messaging is important. Besides, Ingraham provides zero evidence for her boisterous claim.

Check out Chief Keef’s tweet and Laura Ingraham’s diatribes above.

Is there anything that dogs can’t improve? They make us healthier, happier and even more attractive. That’s right. If you have a photo with your dog in a dating profile people are more likely to swipe right.

Now, a new study reported by Ohio State News shows that having more dogs in your neighborhood can make you safer by lowering the overall crime rate.

The study, conducted by sociologists at Ohio State, was recently published in the journal Social Forces.

According to researchers, dog-walking isn’t just about getting exercise—it makes us all security guards whether we know it or not.

“People walking their dogs are essentially patrolling their neighborhoods,” Nicolo Pinchak, lead author of the study, told Ohio State News. “They see when things are not right, and when there are suspect outsiders in the area. It can be a crime deterrent.”

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The study reviewed 595 census block groups in the Columbus, Ohio, area. It also used data from the Adolescent Health and Development in Context study that rated the level of trust people have in their neighborhoods.

What’s unique about the study is that it compared neighborhoods that have high levels of trust, meaning the residents agree that people on the streets can be trusted. High-trust neighborhoods have lower levels of homicide, aggravated assaults and robberies. So it makes sense that people who live in these neighborhoods are probably more likely to say they trust the folks who live around them.

However, the study found that when comparing two high-trust neighborhoods, the ones with higher concentrations of dogs had “two-thirds the robbery rates” and about “half the homicides.” That’s a pretty substantial reduction in crime.

Pinchak says it’s all about having boots and paws on the ground.

“It’s not enough for residents to just be taking walks in their neighborhood—there has to be trust among residents to foster deterrence and intervention norms. It’s similarly not enough for residents to just trust one another—people have to actually be present to identify problems and intervene,” Pinchak told USA TODAY.

Further, regardless of a neighborhood’s trust level, the study found that a higher concentration of dogs is related to fewer property crimes, such as robberies.

Having a dog isn’t just good for your neighborhood’s safety but your home, too. Over the years, multiple publications have interviewed burglars about the things that deter them from entering homes and having a loud dog was a major one.

Even if a small dog doesn’t isn’t physically intimidating, they are incredibly effective at alerting people of an intruder.

The Guardian interviewed 12 burglars a few years ago and found that dogs, security cameras, heavy doors and a television being turned on made them less likely to invade a home.

Given the result of this study, realtors should take its results to heart and publish the concentration of dogs in a neighborhood in home listings. That way people will know that the neighborhood is safe and there are plenty of opportunities to give out belly rubs on the sidewalk.

There are a lot of things that people are socialized to look down on that aren’t all that bad when you take two minutes to think about them. But the problem is that people are hard-wired to make snap judgments about others when it’s none of their business.

According to The Learning Mind, Harvard psychologist Amy Cuddy, Ph.D. says we make quick judgments about people for two reasons.

First, we want to make sure they are trustworthy. “If we don’t feel we can trust someone, we instinctively feel the need to protect ourselves and our interests. We respond to the warmth of a person, their openness and authenticity,” Francesca Forsythe writes at The Learning Mind.

Second, we want to know if someone is worthy of our respect. “This question revolves around how competent we deem a person to be. This comes from the qualifications or specific expertise and experience,” Forsythe continues.

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Being that just about everyone we encounter is constantly making judgments, it’s our jobs to seriously consider which ones we all allow to affect us. Conversely, it’s also our responsibility to be conscious enough to avoid being reflexively judgmental of others.

Both are very difficult tasks.

A Reddit user by the name fren-z703 asked the online forum a question that plays perfectly into the problem of snap judgments outlined by Cuddy. The Redditor asked, “What things are frowned upon for no obvious reason?”

The post received a ton of great responses and a lot of them dealt with social behaviors that others may deem untrustworthy such as being quiet or going places alone. But what’s so bad about keeping to one’s self?

There were also a lot of responses where people are judged because they make decisions that show a disregard for status. Some people think that people who are unconcerned with status aren’t worthy of their respect. When, in reality, it may be the height of enlightenment.

Here are 19 of the best responses to the question, “What things are frowned upon for no obvious reason?”

1. 

“Spending time by yourself that is intentionally ‘non-productive.'” — myaskredditalt21

2. 

“Getting the cheapest bottle of wine on the menu.” — fizzytangerines

3. 

“Getting help for anything.” — gliitch0xFF

4. 

“Going out alone. Anywhere. Park, cinema, restaurants. All my friends and relatives think I’m weird, but I just want to have some good time with nobody I know around.” — North_15

5. 

“Confidently being quiet/silent.” — Celq124

6. 

“Certain jobs. If you tell someone you’ve been a janitor for 6 years there’s a good chance their response will be a frown.” — Jabber-Wookie

7. 

“Calling out sick when you’re actually sick. Especially when it’s more than one day.” — Snoo-6071

8. 

“Not having an opinion on a subject.” — flacocaradeperro

9. 

“Off-brand clothing. Who cares if I’m wearing Bobos, I don’t have $300 to spend on Jordan’s and even if I did I wouldn’t. My daughter is entering middle school this year and is so nervous about her clothing not being in style. We do the best we can getting her name-brand things bc kids are fucking mean. Luckily my triplets don’t give AF.” — Fun-Oraganization8742

10. 

“Going to a movie by yourself. You literally sit there quietly watching a screen for hours. I usually catch them by myself, but people act like I’m disposing of a body when I do that.” — yankstraveler

11. 

“As a dude, ordering a sweet and fruity alcoholic drink. Sorry I don’t like to drink isopropyl, give me my ‘Bahama Mama,’ and shut up.” — gummby8

12. 

“Talking about your salary. Frowned upon and people think you aren’t supposed to do it but that’s just the man trying to keep your pay as low as possible!” — Mister_JayB

13. 

“Having a slightly different sleep schedule/ability than others. My god, the number of times I’ve harassed by Boomers for “staying up late/all night” when I stayed up 1-2 hours later than them, slept in the same amount, and maybe didn’t have breakfast with them. They act as if I’ve murdered a child.” — ephemere66

14.

“Being a recovered addict. There’s so much stigma towards the disease of addiction and people see you as a monster when in reality you’re just trying to be a better person dealing with a mental illness that overpowers you if you don’t learn how to control it.” — csrlmnv

15. 

“Men watching their own children. We usually get the ‘Oh babysitting today are we?’ No Karen, I’m doing what a parent is supposed to do and taking care of my kids, maybe if you’d pay a bit more attention to your demon spawn it wouldn’t be trying to choke that goose to death over there.” — Rare-Outside-8105

16. 

“Being a male in the early years education sector. When I was an ECE teacher (Early childhood educator) I had a male collègue. Parents etc were always worried about him with their kids—but he was a better teacher than most. He used a rough and tumble play approach and kids loved him. He also taught them boundaries and consent at a young age because a lot of kids weren’t listening to ‘keep your hands to yourself.'” — Apprehnsive_Oven924

17. 

“Taking care of your mental health.” — ABAxStorm

18. 

“Wearing your pajamas all day when you aren’t going anywhere. like bruh do you want me to step into a suit and tie for literally nobody, if im gonna be in my house sleeping all day then im gonna look like it.” — SeaShark14

19. 

“Choosing to not have children.” — ParfaitOrganic3597

Trevor Noah’s scripted comedy is great, but his off-the-cuff commentary during commercial breaks is often where he truly shines. The comedian has a way of sensibly framing hot topics and getting to the heart of important issues. For someone who didn’t grow up in the U.S., he also seems to have his finger directly on the pulse of American culture and is able to accurately describe us to ourselves.

In a “Between the Scenes” segment, Noah expressed his bafflement at how America is the land of the possible when it comes to everything except stopping gun violence.

“One of the strangest things about conversations involving guns in America,” he said, “is how quickly America goes from being the most hopeful and almost impossible-chasing nation to a nation that just believes nothing is possible all of a sudden.”

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Send a man to the moon? Let’s do it. Go to Mars? Totally possible. Cure for cancer? Always working on it, and actually making some decent strides.

But mass shootings happening at an astronomical rate compared to other developed nations? Nope. Can’t do anything about those.

He’s right. It’s a weird reaction for a people who are so “can do” about everything else. But as Noah points out, it’s actually a small group of people who resist action on this issue and have convinced us that the situation is hopeless. Most Americans, including many gun owners, believe there should be more regulations on gun ownership.

Noah also pointed out that there’s not one big solution that will solve all of our gun violence issues.

“What really frustrates me is how people try and make it a game of whack-a-mole when it comes to solving problems,” he said. “You propose any type of solution and they go, ‘Well that wouldn’t have solved this one. This wouldn’t have stopped that.’ But that’s not how solutions work. There is no problem that is going to be solved by one solution. A lot of the time big problems require a multitude of solutions, and what you do is you try to fix it incrementally, step by step.”

He pointed out that people will pull the “slippery slope” argument and ask which guns to ban.

“Just start with the ones people seem to be using over and over again to go into schools to kill a bunch of children at one time,” he said. (Then, if people start using other kinds of guns regularly for the same purpose, we can deal with those at that time.)

“It’s a lot harder to commit these mass shootings when you don’t have certain types of weapons,” he said. “Nothing fixes everything, but you’ve got to start somewhere.”

And, as he points out, we have to maintain hope that change is possible, just as agents of change have always done. So much good stuff here. Worth a watch: