Month: July 2022

Everyone has that one vegetable that turns them into a sneering 3-year-old. You know what I mean. The one you straight-up refuse to eat and if it was the only food available to you, you’d rather starve then let it touch your lips. Some people just can’t get behind spinach and apparently a lot of people dislike turnips, others will say Brussels sprouts are the absolute worst.
One woman on Twitter declared that peas are the “nastiest” vegetable, and while some people agreed with her, others chimed in to give their opinions.

For some of us, our distaste for certain veggies is something concrete, like a traumatic memory. Maybe when you were a kid, you had them prepared a particular way and it soured you on the veggie for the rest of your life. Or it could be an aesthetic choice—some vegetables taste delicious but don’t look it. You do eat with your eyes first, after all. For others, there’s the issue of taste. Some people simply can’t eat a vegetable because it tastes terrible to them.

In 2019, scientists revealed that there are people called “super-tasters” who have a genetic predisposition to taste food differently than others. For super-tasters, leafy dark green veggies like broccoli, Brussels and cabbage taste extremely bitter and unappetizing.
According to a CNN article on the subject, people with this “bitter” gene are 2.6 times more likely to not eat as many vegetables in general because of the bitter taste of others.

“So that [bitter] vegetable is disliked, and because people generalize, soon all vegetables are disliked,” Valerie Duffy, a University of Connecticut professor and expert in the study of food and taste, told CNN. “If you ask people, ‘Do you like vegetables?’ They don’t usually say, ‘Oh yeah, I don’t like this, but I like these others.’ People tend to either like vegetables or not.”

When user DES made her declaration, the responses were swift.

Canned GREEN Lima beans 🤮🤮🤮

— tbd… (@YoungUmmi) July 10, 2022

Asparagus. Never had it but it’s just so ugly 🤮 pic.twitter.com/r0QDxBNigC

— 𝐉𝐔𝐍𝐈𝐎𝐑 (@WrittenByTerry) July 11, 2022

Let me see a mushroom ANYWHERE near something that I plan to eat & you’ll see me get violently repulsed & upset

— Harriet Tubman’s Armorbearer 😏🤯🤭🤷🏽‍♀️ (@LocdbyanAngel24) July 11, 2022

Lima beans literally didnt have to make through evolution

— FullGhetto Alchemist (@FlintGreyJune) July 11, 2022

Water infused grasssss🤢🤮

— Butterfly in the sky🦋 (@ayenyeree) July 11, 2022

Okra is Mother Nature’s boogas.

Periodt.

— The Foncé Is Fully Vaxxed n’ Boosted😷 💉 (@ChocnessMonsta) July 11, 2022

But for all the veggie haters out there, there are people who’ll come to their defense as well.

Used to think that but roasted till they’re crispy with some balsamic vinegar and YUM!

— Jen (@jenniredd37) July 11, 2022

Butter, sugar and black pepper for me please

— 𝕷𝖎𝖔𝖗 𝕮𝖎𝖋𝖊𝖗𝖎 (@thatwhorelior) July 11, 2022

What the hell they talking bout peas is the best and with the carrots in them too

— $$C.Rizzle$$ (@KingCRayCr88) July 11, 2022

Don’t be disrespectful

— Shadiah✨ (@Play_YoRoll) July 11, 2022

Don’t you ever say in your life again that brussel sprouts are nasty. Blasphemous

— Shawn Crysis (@ShawnCrysis) July 11, 2022

I just be snacking on raw carrots like a rabbit. If theyre sweet especially, they are the best

— . (@BakedPoetato) July 11, 2022

For three-and-a-half decades, few in the general public knew the name Dr. Anthony Fauci. Since 1984, he’s been the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a post he’s led mostly quietly. But during the pandemic he’s became a household name. Now, though (or in another two-and-a-half years), his tenure will be coming to an end.

In a new interview with Politico, Dr. Fauci, who is now 81, has announced he will (probably) retire at the end of President Joe Biden’s first term. He didn’t announce a specific retirement date, something he said he’s long been wary of doing. But he would say that by the end of January 2025, he will “very likely” throw in the towel he’s carried since the Reagan administration.

At the same time, Dr. Fauci said he expected to stay in government until COVID-19 is eradicated. He also noted that he thinks we’re “going to be living with this” for quite some time.

Dr. Fauci later clarified — sort of — his statement to CNN, saying that “it is extremely unlikely — in fact, for sure — that I am not going to be here beyond January 2025.” (It’s still kind of confusing, but then, these are confusing times.)

The divisive response to Dr. Fauci’s handling of the pandemic reflects a nation sharply divided. To that wanted to stay safe amidst a highly infectious and deadly disease, he was admired for trying to keep us all safe. To those skeptical of a virus that has now killed over a million Americans (to say nothing of worldwide), he was (nonsensically) a monster.

Either way, should he indeed leave in early 2025, you know what that means: No more having to sit on Capitol Hill and testily squabble with perhaps his greatest nemesis, Rand Paul, an ophthalmologist who seems to think he knows more about diseases than an immunologist. If you had to talk to someone named after the author of Atlas Shrugged (much less deal with bizarre misinformation recklessly spread by pop stars), you’d announce your retirement, too.

(Via Politico and CNN)

There are lots of ways a crowd can express enthusiasm. They can sing along, scream, dance, mosh. But maybe they shouldn’t start a fire. That’s what someone(s) in the audience did at Iron Maiden‘s show at Olympic Stadium in Athens, Greece over the weekend. The band, unfortunately, did not appreciate the gesture.

“The c*nt with the f*cking flare,” frontman Bruce Dickinson said, pausing his singing. “I’m trying to sing up here, you f*cking c*cksucker. You Greek c*nt. I’ve got to f*cking sing, alright? F*ck you.”

In all fairness, the fire looks, well, not so safe. It’s burning in the middle of the crowd, and it reaches over many people’s heads. A lot of the comments on the video claim that the vocalist’s anger is valid.

Dickinson’s temper is nothing new. In an interview in 2015, he said that he regretted not punching Axl Rose when Guns N’ Roses were opening for Maiden at a Quebec City show in 1988, and Rose made fun of the largely French-speaking crowd. “I should have come onstage and given him a punch,” Dickinson said. “How could he dare speak to my audience in that way? I always regretted not having done so.”

Watch the video of the fire and Dickinson’s outrage above.

Rumors don’t always turn out to be true, but this one, alas, is on the level. On Monday, word spread through the grapevine that Desus Nice and the Kid Mero might be splitting up, bringing an end a pairing that saw both a podcast and two separate shows of the same name. Welp, sorry to report, but that’s exactly what’s happening.

Hours after the rumors began, the Showtime show’s official Twitter account confirmed that Desus and Mero would be “pursuing separate creative endeavors moving forward.” The post added, “It’s been a good run, fam.”

Details about what caused the rift have yet to be made public, but fans have been speculating that there’s been drama between the two comics, who’ve spent nearly a decade as a parternship. Social media posts between the two have been obsessively mined for gossip, with the two seemingly throwing shade at each other. Meanwhile, it’s been just under a month since the last episode of Desus & Mero.

But all good things have to come to an end, and a near-decade is a mighty fine run. The Beatles lasted about that long. And they’ve given so much, including arguably (or not!) the greatest ever interview with Denzel Washington. Still, we’ll be hearing from these two again, and we don’t mean a postcard.

Nature is full of wonders, from the breathtakingly beautiful to the truly terrifying. (Ever seen an anglerfish? Yikes.) But some wonders come from the most unexpected places.

For instance, the unassuming sea cucumber.

If you’ve ever seen a sea cucumber, you know they’re not terribly exciting. I’d bet $1,000 that if you were to ask 1,000 people what animal they wish they could be, none of them would say “sea cucumber.” They don’t fly, they don’t really swim, they don’t make funny noises and they’re not particularly cute. The name “cucumber” should be a clue that they basically just sit there like vegetables, a background feature adding a little shape and color to the underwater landscape. They don’t even have a brain. They’re just kind of there.

Or at least that’s what I thought before I saw one eat.

Because pretty much all these creatures do is eat and poop, something about one of those things had to be interesting, right? As it turns out, the way sea cucumbers eat is flippin’ fascinating, if not slightly nightmarish.

When it’s dinner time, the cucumber opens up its mouth and extends a network of tendrils attached to “feet” out into the surrounding water. These tendrils act as hands, grabbing the plankton, algae and other tiny things in the water, and then the feet shove that organic matter into the sea cucumber’s pie hole.

That sounds all well and good on paper, but it’s a whole other thing to actually see it in action. I had no idea what I was in for when this video started, and now I’ll never be the same.

u201cThis is how sea cucumbers eat nhttps://t.co/KC7IWqdFuHu201d

— Science girl (@Science girl)
1657807579

Gaaaahhhhh. Whyyyyy? Why is it so cool and so disturbing at the same time? Why do sea cucumbers suddenly turn into strangely beautiful horror movie creatures when they get the munchies?

As it turns out, sea cucumbers really aren’t as boring as they seem. They also breathe through their bums and let little fish live inside their anuses, so that’s neat. Also, when they feel threatened, they literally shoot their own guts out of their butts.

Three cheers for the surprisingly bizarre sea cucumber for reminding us that there’s always much more to nature than meets the eye.

The White Lotus was one of last summer’s most popular feel-bad shows, but there was one problem when it came to giving viewers more of the same: It would be impossible, for multiple reasons, to bring back the same cast. So the showrunners came up with an elegant solution: Don’t do that. Turn it into an anthology show, but also bring back one of them: Jennifer Coolidge’s hot mess Tanya, who can hobnob with a whole new impressive cast in a whole new picturesque vacation spot.

Now there’s a first look at what The White Lotus, Round Two looks like — albeit the briefest of looks. HBO Max unveiled a short trailer for their upcoming shows: House of the Dragon, Season 4 of Westworld, a new rounds of Pretty Little Liars, Doom Patrol, and Titans.

Embedded within was The White Lotus: Sicily, as it’s now called (meaning the first season now goes by The White Lotus: Hawaii). It’s not much. There are literally three shots. The first features Coolidge on a moped with…someone. (It doesn’t appear to be Jon Gries’ Greg, with whom she connected in the first season.) Another shot contains four people toasting, one of them played by Aubrey Plaza. That’s it!

It may be a bit longer until HBO unveils the rest of the cast, which also includes F. Murray Abraham, Michael Imperioli, Haley Lu Richardson, and Tom Hollander. There’s also not yet a release date, though presumably it won’t be another summertime bingewatch, like it was last year. So hang tight, fans of the world’s most chaotic fictional tourist hotspot!

You can watch the ad in the video above.

The Los Angeles Lakers have not had a particularly active offseason thus far, but that hasn’t kept them from dominating headlines. While their biggest acquisition to this point has been Lonnie Walker IV on the mid-level, they have found themselves constantly in rumors because of the status of Russell Westbrook.

Westbrook has been in trade rumors since before the February deadline, but the Lakers have been insistent on not wanting to attach a first round pick to him just to deal the disgruntled point guard away. L.A. remains hopeful that they’ll be able to acquire a helpful player in return for Westbrook, and are publicly speaking as though they’re willing to play out this next season with him on board, with new head coach Darvin Ham talking up Russ at every opportunity in an effort to reconcile with the star who felt alienated by Frank Vogel and the previous Lakers staff.

Still, there’s plenty of buzz about Westbrook trade rumors, from discussions with the Pacers about a Buddy Hield swap — which is made all the more interesting by the fact that they traded for Westbrook instead of Hield last summer — to the much rumored Kyrie Irving for Russ trade talks with Brooklyn. To this point, none of that has come to fruition and if that remains the case going into this season, they’re going to have to get everyone on the same page moving forward. While there was plenty of chatter about Russ and LeBron James not interacting at Summer League while they watched the Lakers in Vegas, those two, plus Anthony Davis, reportedly had a call earlier this month to talk through some things and reaffirm that if they’re all in L.A. to start next season, they’ll do what it takes to try and win a title, per Yahoo’s Chris Haynes.

The Los Angeles Lakers’ Big 3 of LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook huddled up on a phone conversation the first weekend of NBA Summer League in Las Vegas with each expressing their commitment to one another and vowing to make it work, league sources told Yahoo Sports.

While the uncertainty of Westbrook’s future with the Lakers remains, the conversation was organized to make sure all three were on the same page as long as they’re joined together in their pursuit of a championship, sources said.

It still feels notable that this conversation took place over the phone and not in person considering James and Westbrook were in the same place at the same time, but there is at least some dialogue happening between the three stars right now which is a mild positive for Lakers fans. This isn’t exactly a revelatory report in that Haynes is quick to note it did nothing to take Westbrook off the market, but it’s better than there being a complete divide among the stars.

Donald Trump may not be coming back to Twitter any time soon, or ever, but that’s okay: He has his own Twitter clone. But it’s just not the same. Truth Social, which bowed chaotically in February, hasn’t been an outright failure like so many of the former president’s business ventures. But it has struggled with tech issues and slow user growth. And it’s been shady from the start.

Now, as per The New York Times, there are more questions about its dealings. A new federal investigation is looking into how an obscure Miami investment firm knew about a key deal months before it was made public. That deal, announced in October of last year, was between Trump Media & Technology Group and Digital World Acquisition Corporation, a venture capital company that reportedly had no idea at the time that Trump was involved.

The firm in question, called Rocket One Capital, had reportedly learned of the pending deal last summer. Sources said they then sought to find ways to make money off it. Those either currently or previously involved with the firm have denied such claims, including that they knew about the merger. But while the exact scope of the federal investigation is not yet known, Rocket One’s name has come up:

In the days before the Trump Media deal became public, there was a surge in trading in a type of security known as warrants, which entitled investors to buy shares of Digital World at a preset price in the future.

Federal prosecutors and regulators are now investigating the merger between Digital World and Trump Media, including the frenzied trading in the SPAC’s warrants, according to people familiar with the investigation and public disclosures. Digital World said in a recent regulatory filing that a federal grand jury in Manhattan had issued subpoenas seeking information about Rocket One, among other things.

Subpoenas, incidentally, tend to indicate that prosecutors are pursuing a criminal investigation.

After months of mostly not using his very own social media service, Trump finally, belatedly started posting, attempting to use it as he once used Twitter. That’s to say he’s used it to start fights, though it’s worth noting that some of them — like his recent beef with Elon Musk — had to be conducted over multiple services, because who’s even paying attention to Truth Social posts not written by its owner?

(Via NYT)

Unfortunately for Blake, Emmanuel has been a bad, bad influence on the other Knuckle Bump critters, who have joined him in anti-animal education protests.

@knucklebumpfarms Animals against education, episode 2. #animalsagainsteducation #emmanueltheemu #ellentheemu #princessthedeer #reginatherhea #farmlife ♬ original sound – Knuckle Bump Farms

Among his most loyal cohorts is Princess, a deer who refuses to stop biting, licking and altogether ruining the shot. Emmanuel has taught her well.

Luckily, Blake has discovered an unbeatable weapon of discipline known by parents far and wide: whipping out the full government name.

@knucklebumpfarms He knew I meant business when I whipped out his government name 😩🤣 #emmanueltheemu #emmanueldontdoit #emmanuel #emu #animalsagainsteducation ♬ original sound – Knuckle Bump Farms

All bets are off once “Emmanuel Todd Lopez!” is shouted, no doubt about it. Yes, that’s his full name. Emmanuel Todd Lopez.

“He tightened up real quick when he heard the full name,” joked one viewer.

This trick seemed to work on Emmanuels of all species. “My name is Emmanuel and I fully froze,” wrote one person.

In his defense, it’s not all pranks with Emmanuel. When not choosing violence, this emu is quite the cuddler.

@knucklebumpfarms Early morning emu snuggles #emmanueltheemu #emu #farmlife ♬ original sound – Knuckle Bump Farms

There he is, happy as can be after finally getting the attention he’s been so aggressively fighting for.

​He’s also fond of hats.

@knucklebumpfarms Morning pep talks with Emmanuel #emu #emmanueltheemu #emusoftiktok #birdsoftiktok #farmlife #cowboy ♬ original sound – Knuckle Bump Farms

Nobody that’s completely evil could look this adorable in a hat.

Emmanuel might be aggravating his owners, but he is winning the hearts of millions.

Some were finding a bit of themselves while watching. “Emmanuel needs chaos and attention. I feel that to my core,” one person commented.

Others found Blake and Emmanuel’s tumultuous-yet-loving dynamic to be inspirational.

“This is how chaotic I want my farm to be one day,” wrote one person.

Another added, “You give me such comic relief. I love your animals and their crazy personalities and your patience with them.”

One thing everyone can agree on: It’s Emmanuel’s world. We’re just living in it.

See on Instagram

You can follow along on all the wholesome Knuckle Bump Farm shenanigans via Instagram and TikTok. There you’ll find one big happy and haywire animal family ready to put a smile on your face.

Thank you Blake for your delightful content and unbeatable patience. And Emmanuel, thank you for being you.

Former Trump Chief Strategist Steve Bannon is (once again) in court this week on contempt charges stemming from his refusal to testify in front of Congress. The topic in question, of course, would be the insurrection of January 6, 2021. And although Bannon resisted testifying, he also threatened to “go medieval” on U.S. lawmakers and ignite a “firestorm” over the 2020 election (that Trump lost). Leaked audio also revealed that he pushed Trump to declare victory even though Bannon himself didn’t seem to believe in that statement, and yeah, it’s no wonder that people call him a “coup plotter.”

As it turns out, Bannon’s War Room podcast continued in his absence, and it sure seems like right-wing lawyer David Freiheit doesn’t see any way that Bannon can squirm out of the contempt charges. He received the subpoena and decided to refuse attendance. And there’s not much else that can be done. “Case closed,” Freiheit declared without any hope to offer the MAGAs.

Well, at least Bannon appeared to clean up for court. He was previously revealed to actually be upset that people thought he resembled a “deranged incel,”

From there, it sure looks like Steve Bannon’s in a heaping helping of trouble. And there’s nothing new there, he has frequently appeared pleased to be in court, but that tends to be someone’s outlook when a president pardons them on multiple fraud charges for ripping off MAGA supporters. The outcome with this week’s court proceedings could turn out quite differently, though.