Month: July 2022

Despite how messy the original Pretty Little Liars turned out to be (probably because they had multiple people posing as “A” and also they added in some secret twins towards the end of the series…the whole thing was very confusing) HBO Max has moved forward with a new spinoff series of the uber-popular teen slasher drama.

Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin follows a new group of liars set in the fictional town of Millwood. The trailer shows all of your typical teen drama tropes: dances, school assemblies, and your run-of-the-mill mass murderer. Just another day in high school!

The series is the third spinoff in the PLL franchise, but the first to be on HBO Max, so there is some room for more gore. Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin stars Bailee Madison, Malia Pyles, Maia Reficco, Chandler Kinney, and Zaria.

Here is the official HBO Max description:

Twenty years ago, a series of tragic events almost ripped the blue-collar town of Millwood apart. Now, in present day, a disparate group of teen girls — a brand-new set of Little Liars — find themselves tormented by an unknown Assailant and made to pay for the secret sin committed by their parents two decades ago…as well as their own. In the dark, coming-of-age, horror-tinged drama Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin, we find ourselves miles away from Rosewood, but within the existing Pretty Little Liars universe — in a brand-new town, with a new generation of Little Liars.

The series begins streaming July 28th on HBO Max. Check out the trailer above.

As much as I love summer, there is one thing I could do without: bugs. More specifically, mosquitoes. Those pesky little buggers can wreak havoc on a beautiful summer day. Who hasn’t spent time outside in summer and then come in all itchy and covered in bites? There are multiple reasons why some people are more susceptible to mosquito bites than others, but there’s a new one that likely isn’t on people’s radars. Mosquitoes could be attracted to the odor certain viruses create in the body.

There is evidence that mosquitoes are attracted to the odor given off by mice infected by the parasite that causes malaria. Now, a team is looking at how the scent of mosquito-borne viruses such as dengue and Zika would attract mosquitoes to people rather than mice.

For those who may be unfamiliar with the two viruses, the most important thing to know about them both is how dangerous they are to humans. Some effects of dengue include vomiting, aches and pains, and in severe cases, internal bleeding, according to the CDC. Zika virus is best known for being dangerous for pregnant women, as it can cause certain kinds of birth defects in fetuses, per the CDC.

Because both viruses rely on mosquitoes for transmission, it begs the question: Do people infected with either viruses give off extra tasty odors? That’s what the team was looking to discover.

“I mean, the infection just increase[s] the chance to be located by a mosquito,” Penghua Wang, an immunologist with University of Connecticut Health, told NPR.

Wang and the rest of his team set out to find out if it’s true that infected people become mosquito chow, and undertook a study, which was recently published in the journal Cell. In the study, they blew two different types of air: one infected with either of the two viruses and one without, over two different groups of mice. As to be expected, the mosquitoes buzzed around those infected mice like they were a buffet dinner.

“These two viruses can alter a person’s body odor to be more attractive to mosquitoes,” Wang said. What happens is that the smell alters the skin’s microbiome to make it more appetizing to the blood-sucking little critters. Wang explained to NPR that he was “excited” by this new development as it could lead to a lot of understanding of virus transmission by mosquitoes.

While this is an incredibly positive prospect, it’s important to keep in mind that experimenting on mice isn’t really the same as experimenting on people. And just because this is going well with mice doesn’t mean it will go well with people. But, during the study, the team discovered that people infected with dengue had similar attention from the mosquitoes.

The other promising thing? Since they’ve discovered the attraction, they were also able to find a possible treatment plan. They discovered that when they gave the sick mice a vitamin A supplement, the mosquitoes lost interest. Knowing this information can help researchers explore how Zika and dengue spread. According to Wang, in some of the areas where dengue and Zika are most common, many people are vitamin A deficient.

Whatever they discover, I’m very curious to see if this information will offer insight on not only how diseases get spread, but also what makes people (like me) more susceptible to getting bitten in the first place.

Fans at a Michigan show on Tuesday night ended the night quite worried as Carlos Santan passed out on stage during the show. Santana was performing at the Pine Knob Music Theatre in Clarkston, Michigan when he took the fall on stage, but luckily, he was able to get up a short time later and walk away under his own power. The incident occurred during the Miraculous Supernatural 2022 tour with Earth, Wind & Fire, and afterward, Santana shared an update on his well-being through messages from himself and his team.

Santana’s team was the first to share a message as they did through a message on the famed guitarist’s Facebook page. “Rock Legend Carlos Santana was over-taken by heat exhaustion and dehydration during a concert Tuesday (July 5) evening in Michigan,” the message read. “The guitar great was taken from his show at Pine Knob Music Theatre (formerly DTE Energy Music Theatre), an outdoor amphitheater in Clarkston, some 40 miles northwest of Detroit, Michigan.”

They continued, “Carlos was taken to the emergency department at McLaren Clarkston for observation and is doing well, it was announced by Santana’s manager Michael Vrionis tonight.” Santana himself chimed in with a message of his own a short time later. “To one and all,” he wrote. “Cindy and I, we are good just taking it easy. Forgot to eat and drink water, so i dehydrated and passed out. Blessings and miracles to you all.”

You can see Santana’s posts on Facebook above.

You may be one of those people who constantly ask, “What exactly does DJ Khaled actually do?” And you know what? It’s high time you learned that it doesn’t matter what DJ Khaled actually does. He makes albums. He makes HITS. And now he’s got — say it with me — another one. That’s right, it’s time for the thirteenth studio album from DJ Khaled, hitmaker extraordinaire, God Did. As of now, there’s no release date or singles… but he’s DJ Khaled. He doesn’t need those things. He’s a one-man self-promotion army. And by god (see what I did there?), he’s gonna make sure you know he’s got an album coming out, even if all he’s got so far is a title.

But considering the eventful rollouts for the last handful of albums from Khaled, we can likely look forward to shenanigans both hilarious and genuinely entertaining as he pulls together the cross-branding opportunities and assembles a massive list of featured artists. His last album, 2021’s Khaled Khaled, featured an impressive slate that included 21 Savage, Bryson Tiller, Buju Banton, Jay-Z, Justin Bieber, HER, Lil Baby, Lil Durk, Lil Wayne, Megan Thee Stallion, Migos, Nas, Roddy Ricch, and more. It debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and was certified platinum by the RIAA. So yeah, DJ Khaled goes No. 1. He goes platinum. He makes some of the splashiest posse cuts since Heavy D did “Don’t Curse.” He doesn’t make his jumpers though. Can’t do everything.

God Did is out soon via We The Best and Epic.

In the land of sociopolitical opinions, there are smart takes, there are hot takes, there are bad takes, there are sh*t takes, and then there are Tucker Carlson’s takes, which typically fall a few places below wherever a sh*t take would find you. And his newest theory about the reason behind America’s mass shooting problem might be one of his most putrid opinions yet: Blame it on nagging women!

Sigh.

That’s right, ladies. It’s we—not guns, nor mentally unstable individuals with access to guns—who are really to blame for the more than 300 mass shootings that have taken place so far in America this year, because of all our whining about “male privilege.” That can really get to a guy!

As Mediaite reports, Tucker was as sympathetic as ever while reporting on Robert Crimo III, the suspect arrested in connection with the July 4th parade shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, which took the lives of seven people and injured dozens more. Investigations into Crimo’s past have shown that he’s not a stranger to local police—they’ve been called to his house on at least two occasions, once when he was threatening to kill himself and another when he was threatening to kill his entire family. Though police confiscated weapons from Crimo at the time, including knives and a sword, the 22-year-old was easily able to legally obtain FIVE guns in the Chicago area, including one AR-15-style rifle.

“Would you sell a gun to that guy?,” Tucker asked. “Does he seem like a nutcase? Of course he does.” But Carlson contended that the reason Crimo didn’t stand out is “maybe because there are a lot of young men in America who suddenly look and act a lot like this guy,” and that part of that is because so many young men are “numbed by the endless psychotropic drugs that are handed out at every school in the country by crackpots posing as counselors.” (Note to Tucker: School counselors are generally not licensed medical doctors, meaning they cannot prescribe—and most definitely cannot randomly “hand out”—antidepressants or any other prescription drugs.)

But this is where Carlson took a sharp right turn and went full caveman by putting an equal part of the blame for acts of violence committed by mentally unstable individuals on the “women” authority figures in their lives, who make them angry:

[T]hey’re angry. They know that their lives will not be better than their parents’. They’ll be worse. That’s all but guaranteed. They know that. They’re not that stupid. And yet the authorities in their lives—mostly women—never stop lecturing them about their so-called privilege. ‘You’re male, you’re privileged!’ Imagine that. Try to imagine an unhealthier, unhappier life than that. So, a lot of young men in America are going nuts. Are you surprised?

Well now that you put it that way, Tucker… wouldn’t the non-privileged males be angrier? And how did you calculate that most of the authority figures in these young men’s lives are women? Most importantly: Is there anyone at Fox News who’s vetting what Carlson is saying before it goes on the air?

Carlson, of course, has other questions, including: Is there a connection between antidepressants and mass shootings? While logic would dictate that a psychologically unwell person would take medication to help with their condition, and might also be more prone to violence, Carlson’s assumption is the reverse. That it’s the medications that are causing people to act out in homicidal ways. But given that approximately 13.2 percent of American adults are currently taking antidepressants, it would seem that easy access to guns might be the bigger problem. Tucker might want to check that out.

(Via Mediaite)

An early aughts favorite has returned: Limewire is back, and this time, you won’t have to worry about potentially crapping out your computer with viruses, as the new iteration of Limewire is a 100-percent legal NFT marketplace.

Austrian brothers Paul and Julian Zehetmayr purchased the rights to Limewire back in March, as they announced their plans to convert the once-notorious peer-to-peer file sharing platform into a marketplace for music non-fungible tokens.

“We see a huge demand in the entertainment space for platforms that recognize and appreciate artists for their talent and put them in the driver’s seat,” said the Zehetmayrs in a statement. “Limewire presents a new commercial opportunity for artists of all sizes and genres to engage with their fans, gain more exposure in a unique way, and retain more of their earnings.”

Reigning in the new era of Limewire are artists across a variety of genres, including Brandy, Nicky Jam, Aitch, Dillon Francis, Soulja Boy, and Travis Barker. Some of the NFT products include new music, behind-the-scenes videos, and exclusive artwork.

“I have always been interested in Web3 and NFTs so I am pretty stoked to release my first NFT collection and to do it on Limewire,” said Barker. “I hope that my NFT collection will inspire aspiring artists and fans who want to learn about my creative journey and how I make music. Limewire has created a platform that makes exciting content like this accessible to all of my fans — even ones who are unfamiliar with Web3.”

Every so often, one’s reminded that Bill O’Reilly is still around and acting like the same old Bill O’Reilly. This usually happens because O’Reilly has alerted everyone to his presence by saying something (at least moderately) awful, long after he became known for (reportedly) grunting like a wild boar while referring to a female coworker as “Hot Chocolate.” A $30 million sexual harassment settlement later, and O’Reilly went on from Fox News to become a podcaster who ranted about clothing sizes. He’s also been melting down at airports and threatening to have people fired because he (like everyone else) is experiencing massive airport delays lately.

O’Reilly’s ranting elsewhere now, and he’s hopping mad about anyone threatening any type of gun control law. O’Reilly is also very upset about Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker speaking about the mass shooting at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, outside of Chicago. A lone gunman killed at least seven people and injured dozens, and O’Reilly seems to be awfully angry after Pritzker (accurately) stated that the Founding Fathers were referring to muskets, rather than assault weapons when crafting the Second Amendment.

Here’s a video clip from O’Reilly’s own website (via Ron Filipkoswki on Twitter). He unleashed a racially charged rant for the ages here:

There’s no telling why O’Reilly was tying “minority gangs” to this mass shooting, which was carried out by a Robert E. Crimo III, a 21-year-old Caucasian male who’s been charged with seven counts of first-degree murder. Investigators have revealed how Crimo (via CNN) allegedly planned the mass shooting “for several weeks” and disguised himself by wearing women’s clothing as he attended the Fourth of July parade. The suspect remains in custody.

The release of NBA 2K23 is approaching faster than you may realize. The latest game in the extremely popular franchise is starting to do its cover unveiling tour, and on Tuesday, 2K Sports announced that Michael Jordan fittingly would be on one of them.

On Tuesday, 2K unveiled the athletes on the cover of the WNBA edition for this year’s game: Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird. The cover itself is fantastic.

This is the second year in a row that we’ll get a WNBA athlete on a cover of the NBA 2K franchise, with Candace Parker being the first to grace it on NBA 2K22. Parker is an all-time great, so it only made sense to follow her up with two of the best to ever do it.

Taurasi has won three WNBA titles, five gold medals, and six Euroleague championships. Bird, meanwhile, has won four WNBA championships, five gold medals, and five Euroleague titles. The former UConn teammates are two of the most accomplished basketball players of all time, and now, they can add a video game cover to their respective lists of accomplishments.

Both players spoke about the news, per Insider.

“This is huge because this is the type of thing that, in subtle ways, helps change narratives and conversations,” Bird told Insider. “It just makes it normal. A woman’s basketball player in a game, on a cover, it just normalizes it all. In 10 years, it won’t even be a big deal, which is a good thing.”

“There are so many kids that dream of pursuing a professional basketball career, and they can now also dream of being on the NBA 2K cover, whether they want to play in the NBA or WNBA,” Taurasi added in a statement.

Bird is in the midst of her final season. NBA 2K23 will hit consoles on Sept. 9, 2022.

John Hinckley Jr. was sentenced to three decades in a psychiatric hospital for shooting President Ronald Reagan in 1981 in a failed assassination attempt. He was freed in 2016 to live full-time with his mother, but as of last month, the 67-year-old has been “fully released from court restrictions.” Hinckley has spent his time tweeting, having his sold-out concerts be canceled, and calling for better gun reform in America.

“I certainly don’t think the mentally ill should have access to guns. I mean, that’s kind of obvious,” he told anchor Juju Chang on Nightline in the days following the latest mass shooting in America (there have been at least 314 of them this year alone). “I mean, background checks are good and waiting periods are good. I think there’s too many guns in America. The climate of the country is not good right now.”

Chang responded, “Coming from you, that’s quite a statement.”

Hinckley contended that he’s not the same man he was in 1981. He told Nightline that in his 41 years of therapy he has “worked hard to overcome [his] illness,” and is confident he will stay on track. His medical team at St. Elizabeth’s, and the judge who released him, seem to agree.

Hinckley has voluntarily been taking his anti-anxiety medication and an anti-psychotic medication, continues to get therapy, and says he has a sound support system with his siblings.

You can watch the interview above. And an excerpt below:

(Via ABC News)

Laura Ingraham has weed on the brain. In the wake of May’s tragic shooting at Uvalde, Texas’ Robb Elementary School, the Fox News host went on a several-day tear about how “pot psychosis” was clearly to blame for America’s gun problem. Even after being schooled by former RNC chairman Michael Steele on the topic—who wanted Ingraham to share “What kinda sh*t you smoke?”—Ingraham is back at blaming weed for society’s most violent ills.

On Tuesday night, Ingraham was happily blaming pot for the July 4th mass shooting that left seven dead and dozens injured in Highland Park, Illinois—and just moments after her fellow Fox News host Tucker Carlson was blaming recent shootings on nagging women!

Ingraham didn’t mince words when she gave her expert opinion on Robert Crimo III, the suspected shooter in the Highland Park tragedy. Noting that “indications are that Robert Crimo was a regular pot user. Now, one look at him and, to the untrained eye, he looks like a complete psychotic—if you’ve ever seen anyone looking like him.”

Ingraham went on to claim that regular pot use can trigger “psychosis and other violent personality changes” in young men, yet cited no evidence to support her claim. Instead, she claimed it was part of a larger conspiracy being perpetrated by Big Pot. While marijuana is legal, at least to some degree, in 38 states, Ingraham isn’t buying that it doesn’t pose a grave danger to users.

While Ingraham admits that not everyone who uses pot becomes a violent psychopath, because that would be “ridiculous,” but she really wishes the media would spend more time “scaring” young people away from smoking pot in the first place.

Ingraham closed out her diatribe by telling parents that they need to get into the game and make sure they’re scaring their kids away from smoking weed. “This could happen to you—to your family—no matter how wealthy you are, how well-adjusted you are, how mature and together your children seem. It’s time to call out the phonies and call in the warriors for common sense.”

Sounds like someone could use a joint.