Month: October 2022

Last month, Jeopardy! executive producer Mike Davies kicked off a swarm of controversy by proposing a rule change that could see contestants walk away with a cash bonus if they answer an entire column of clues a.k.a. “run a category.” It used to be an exciting moment for Jeopardy! fans to watch, but the practice has gone away as more contestants have adapted a strategy of “DD-hunting,” randomly picking clues to score a Daily Double.

In an effort to restore the excitement of category running to the game, Davies revealed that he’s been toying with the cash bonus incentive. “It’s a moment in the studio; it’s a great thing,” Davies told former champ Buzzy Cohen during a September episode of the Inside Jeopardy! podcast.

Since then, there’s been a sizable amount of feedback from fans who are worried that the rule change could affect the show’s gameplay. It got to the point where Davies felt the need to respond to the backlash in the latest podcast episode. Via TVInsider:

While the new rule is something Davies is seriously mulling over, he stated that it hadn’t yet been implemented, so people don’t need to be worried.

“A lot of response, we should say, to my, let’s say, positing the not yet reined-in idea that I floated. It doesn’t need to be reined-in yet because it hasn’t been enacted in any way,” Davies said.

Despite not implementing the rule change yet, it appears to be in the mix, which is why Davies repeated his initial explanation that the category run bonus would not affect the contestant’s actual scores.

“It would not add to that game total; it would not be there [on players’ scores]. It would be a separate thing,” Davies said.

However, when Davies first shared the rule change, he did note that it could cause contestants to switch up their strategies. “It might also give incentive to people who are trailing to try and go into a category and get something from the game beyond their second or third place prize,” Davies told Buzzy Cohen back in September.

If contestants are chasing ancillary bonuses, that could affect gameplay even if that bonus isn’t added to their total, so it’ll be interesting to see if the category run rule change comes into play or if it stays on the drawing board.

(Via TVInsider)

If there’s a topic that continues to linger in between BTS‘ music and schedules, it’s the conversation on the super group’s mandatory military enlistment. Questions whether the septet are exempted from serving the South Korean military or will be enlisting have been a hot topic since last year.

As BTS’ eldest member Jin (29) approaches his 30s (the age to which compulsory military service can be extended, according to the 2020 amendment of the Military Service Act), The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) announced they would be making a decision on the group’s military service by December, according to a report from Naver and Soompi today (October 5).

“Member Jin’s enlistment is set to be sorted out by December, but the MCST will finalize our stance as soon as possible before then,” Minister Park Bo Kyun of the MCST said at the National Assembly’s parliamentary inspection of the administration in Soompi’s report. “We are comprehensively reviewing the issue by looking at various aspects including the points that national defense is a sacred duty, military service is a symbol of fairness, BTS has made Korea known as the vanguard of K-culture and created a huge economic ripple effect, there are equity issues between popular artists including BTS and those who practice fine arts, this will affect the group when one of the BTS members joins the army, there are [results of] public opinion analysis and opinions of men in their 20s, and so on.”

With that being said, the possibility of BTS being exempted from military service is still present. It’s just a matter if the new pending amendment to the Military Service Act will be passed. If passed, the group is freed from military obligation. If their exemption does not apply then members must enlist starting early 2023.

Let’s be honest: ESPN’s studio shows don’t always care about diving into the nitty gritty of a given sport. This is, of course, a decision that was made based on plenty of analysis that showed it is better business to lean into stuff like debate shows instead of intricate breakdowns of how little things in a sport make a huge different. While it does not mean that you never see big, Xs and Os breakdowns or anything like that, it does mean that they can be drowned out by the latest debate about whether Carmelo Anthony or Bob Sura is a better NBA player or whatever.

Now that all of that is out of the way, NFL Live gave us an outstanding, nearly 9-minute segment in which its panel — hosted by Laura Rutledge, comprised of Ryan Clark, Mina Kimes (who came in on a day off), Dan Orlovsky, and Marcus Spears — discussed how a quarterback lining up in shotgun is different from when he lines up under center. That description does not do it justice, as they go into the weeds on things like how play action is something a defense has to consider when a QB is under center on early downs. It is excellent.

This sort of thing makes sports fans smarter and gives them a glimpse into how former athletes view particular situations in their sports, while Kimes chimes in with data and insight that elevates the conversation and gives context to how it is relevant right now for a team like the Cincinnati Bengals. It rocks, more of this, please.

For years, one of the most pernicious and prevalent narratives running through hip-hop for the past two decades has been that Diddy withheld royalties from his Bad Boy artists, especially Mase, who has repeatedly gone on record with complaints about his former label boss. However, Diddy decided to defend himself on The Breakfast Club, winding up not only challenging his longtime frenemy to “bring your receipts” but also calling him a “fake pastor” who “conned people.”

“I did one album with Mase,” he noted. One album. How much money do you think I owe this guy? And then he became a fake pastor and went and conned people. And y’all gon’ let him throw dirt on the god’s name. Anybody can come and step up. Bring your receipts. But I’m not playing. I’m back outside and I’m fighting back for us. And I’m also doing some fighting back for me.”

In fact, he says, the debtor situation between them is actually vice versa from how it’s been pitched over the years. “Mas owes me $3 million,” Diddy asserted. “That’s facts, I got the receipts. And I’m not gon’ go back-and-forth with Ma$e. I’m not going back and forth with nobody. I’m just gonna speak up for myself now. Anybody that thinks I owe them something, show me the receipt and you’ll get paid within 24 hours.”

Diddy isn’t the first or only music impresario to be accused of shady business practices but for what it’s worth, most of the time it seems these disagreements stem from young artists not understanding how their record contracts work. It could also be argued that the industry standard for contracts is what was shady from the start but at least there’s some semi-solid (albeit risk averse) reasoning behind it. Mase should have at least a little experience with this; he recently defended himself from Fivio Foreign’s claim that he only gave him a minuscule advance.

As far as Diddy’s assertion that he only did one album with Mase goes, that could be slightly inaccurate, considering Bad Boy put out three Mase albums, Harlem World, Double Up, and Welcome Back, all of which have gone at least Gold. Depending on Mase’s advance and the marketing budgets, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle between both men’s personal stories.

This article originally appeared on 01.31.20

As the nation helplessly watches our highest halls of government toss justice to the wind, a 2nd grader has given us someplace to channel our frustrations. In a hilarious video rant, a youngster named Taylor shared a story that has folks ready to go to the mat for her and her beloved, pink, perfect attendance pencil.

Instagrammer @tabgeezy shared a video of her daughter telling the story of how she put her perfect attendance pencil—the pink one that she had legitimately earned—in the classroom box of pencils to be sharpened. But when she went to retrieve it from the sharpened pencils box, all she found were plain yellow pencils. That’s because Lizzie—who, by the way, had not earned a perfect attendance pencil because she had gone to CANADA—was using it. And not only that, but Canada Lizzie then lost Taylor’s pencil in her desk, and her teacher was no help.

You have to hear Taylor tell it to understand why this travesty of justice has gone viral.

See on Instagram

If you think this pencil battle is of no consequence whatsoever, think again. People on Twitter got hold of the video, and folks are rallying behind Taylor as if that pink pencil is our democracy and Taylor and Lizzie are the House and Senate.

If somebody ever takes my childu2019s perfect attendance pencil which SHE earned cuz she didnu2019t even go to Canada, the entire school getting shut down.

— riley wuz here (@riley wuz here)
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IS THERE NO JUSTICE IN THE WORLD

— Charlotte Clymer ud83cudff3ufe0fu200du26a7ufe0fud83cuddfaud83cudde6 (@Charlotte Clymer ud83cudff3ufe0fu200du26a7ufe0fud83cuddfaud83cudde6)
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“Lizzie” was trending on Twitter as people called out the little girl who went to CANADA and then dared to take Taylor’s perfect attendance pencil.

Me and the crew showing up to school the next day looking for Lizzie and getting to ride out for Tayloru2019s Perfect Attendance Pencil https://twitter.com/_FemGod/status/1223105472393121793u00a0u2026pic.twitter.com/3Hw7ASVmpX

— Matthew A. Cherry (@Matthew A. Cherry)
1580483395

All I am saying is that if Lizzy wanted a pink Perfect Attendance pencil then she shouldn’t have gone to CANADA.nn#JusticeForThePencil

— Gail Simone ud83dudc99ud83dudc9b (@Gail Simone ud83dudc99ud83dudc9b)
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There were some shout-outs to Taylor’s classmate who understood what that pencil meant to her.

shout out to reece who was the only one who understood the gravity of the situation. don’t let me see lizzie in the streets! https://twitter.com/_FemGod/status/1223105472393121793u00a0u2026

— in charge of the girls (@in charge of the girls)
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But Taylor’s teacher certainly wasn’t getting any love.

Me writing an email to my babyu2019s teacher saying that messy ass Lizzie better come up with a perfect attendance pencil or sheu2019s going to be going back to Canadapic.twitter.com/ZbcjpwBvUr

— u2728La Bruja Buenau2728 (@u2728La Bruja Buenau2728)
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Twitter’s collective reaction even started getting its own GIFs.

All of Twitter getting ready to go ask Lizzie, who was in Canada, about a certain pink perfect attendance pencilpic.twitter.com/xwIBRzYFF5

— Lana Del Gay (@Lana Del Gay)
1580485811

Twitter uniting to get her perfect attendance pencil back from Lizzie because she went to Canada and DID NOT earn it:pic.twitter.com/4U9qFgB6Jm

— Sarah Guy (@Sarah Guy)
1580477370

People had so. many. feelings. about baby girl getting back her pencil, about the way her mom and teacher dismissed it as “just a pencil,” and about poor little Lizzie who probably still doesn’t understand what all the fuss is about.

Why do we care so much? Adorableness aside, we’re all a little burned out on politics and the methodical dismantling of our country’s checks and balances, so maybe getting charged up over an adorable little girl’s pencil injustice somehow feels cathartic.

John Delaney dropped out of the race… Meh!nnThereu2019s a Presidential impeachment… Yawn. nnSomeone stole a little girlu2019s perfect attendance pencil. nnMe:pic.twitter.com/aXBot4y58G

— AL (@AL)
1580478694

Hope you get your pencil back soon, Taylor. We all need a little glimmer of hope that justice can, indeed, prevail.

This article originally appeared on 03.25.20

As the U.S. slogs through the second week of widespread social distancing, many of us are feeling the impact of cabin fever and near-constant family togetherness. For many families, the past 10 days have felt like a combo of “Yay, more quality family time!” and “OMG, more social distance in this house, please.”

We’re also all looking for bright lights of joy in the midst of all the pandemic uneasiness and uncertainty and the Starkey family in Denver, Colorado has provided some of that joy this week.

Chris Starkey posted a video to Facebook on Monday of himself and his daughter Brooklyn doing a dance-off to Flo Rida’s “Low”—and it’s unexpectedly awesome. Starkey wrote, “My daughter challenged me to a dance off and said I don’t have it anymore. See that closet in the back she is still crying in it!!!” So much silly shade thrown around in this family, it’s delightful.

When you see their fun banter and Starkey’s middle-aged-man moves, you’ll see why the video has been shared more than 280,000 times in two days. Starkey wrote in a comment that the reaction has brought tears to his eyes and encourages everyone to “Give back to your community” right now. He also says another video will be coming on Monday.

Excellent. We need this kind of levity right now more than ever.

Chris Starkey

After Hurricane Ian plowed through Fort Myers, Florida, people began sifting through the rubble, desperately searching for family members they hadn’t been able to reach. Beth Booker was one of them.

Booker’s 78-year-old mother, Carole McDanel, lives in Fort Myers and didn’t evacuate as she didn’t think the storm would hit the beach town. But it did, and when Booker saw pictures of her mom’s house underwater, she took to Twitter to try to locate her mother.

Booker put out a desperate plea on the social media platform on September 28: “I have never felt more helpless in my life. I called my mom and it went to voicemail. I’m praying that she put her phone on airplane mode to save battery. So scared. Can’t stop shaking.” The distraught daughter went on to say, “Please, angels. Get her through this. I can’t believe this is happening.” After essentially putting her desperate cries into the void of the internet, she reached people from around the country who got to work offering prayers, tips and suggestions on how to try to contact her elderly mother.

u201cI have never felt more helpless in my life. I called my mom and it went to voicemail. Iu2019m praying that she put her phone on airplane mode to save battery. So scared. Canu2019t stop shaking.nnPlease, angels. Get her through this. nnI canu2019t believe this is happening.u201d

— Beth Booker (@Beth Booker)
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After a natural disaster like a hurricane, cellphone service can be hard to come by as cell towers can be taken down by the storm, and several Twitter users pointed this out. Someone else suggested that Booker fill out a “shelter in place” form for her mother so officials knew to account for her.

Booker began using the hashtag #GetCaroleHome as a means to have everyone’s efforts in one easy-to-find place after her mother stopped updating her. The fear that Booker felt after losing contact with her mother is unimaginable. The last update Booker had was of her mother’s house becoming submerged in water, so fearing the worst was not a far leap in this situation.

u201cStorm surge outside of my moms house on Fort Myers Beach.nnIu2019m so sick.u201d

— Beth Booker (@Beth Booker)
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In a follow up video on Twitter, Booker said, “You see this kind of stuff happen on the news. You see this on social media. You see it happen in other cities and you know it can happen here when you live in Florida. We all know that, but when it’s actually happening to you, it is honestly unbelievable.”

Thankfully, rescue efforts were underway a few hours later and according to Good Morning America, Booker’s husband and his friend went out in a boat in hopes of finding the elderly woman. Fortunately, the two men located the missing woman right in her house on the couch where she rode out the storm.

Booker posted an emotional update on her Twitter page letting her followers know that her mother had been located and was safe. The embrace between mother and daughter in the picture is heartwarming.

u201cHome. nnSafe.nnNot a scratch.nnGrateful. nn#GetCaroleHome, we did it.u201d

— Beth Booker (@Beth Booker)
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Disaster relief efforts are still underway in Florida as communities work to salvage what they can from their properties. Hopefully there are many more happy endings to come from other families looking for their loved ones, but for now, it sure feels good to know that Carole is home safe and a daughter’s worries are put to rest.

Every dog owner has the sense that their pet knows when they’re feeling big emotions, whether you’re angry and your dog knows to give you space or you’re feeling sad and they nuzzle up next to you on the couch.

However, scientists have never been sure whether pet dogs are picking up on visual or audio cues to get a sense of their owners’ emotions or if they are tuned into something more profound.

A new study published in the scientific journal PLOS One has found that when humans are stressed we have a change in body odor and our dogs take notice and act accordingly.

“The take-home message of this study is that our bodies’ psychological stress response changes the smell of our breath and sweat and that dogs can detect this change,” Clara Wilson, a Ph.D. student in the School of Psychology at Queen’s University Belfast, told Gizmodo.

To find out if dogs can smell our stress, researchers took sweat and breath samples from 36 human volunteers before and after they were given a tricky math question. The humans were asked to count backward from 9,000 in increments of 17.

Doesn’t the idea just make you sweat?

Four dogs were trained to detect stress smells by learning to differentiate the scents from three different types of gauze, one that was unused, one from someone who was stressed and another from the same person before they were given the stressful math question.

After the guessing sessions, the dogs were 93.5% accurate at differentiating the stress odors from the other scents.

“This study provides further evidence of the extraordinary capabilities of ‘man’s best friend,’” the study’s first author, animal psychologist Wilson, said according to NBC News.

But that doesn’t mean dogs are only using scent to pick up on our emotional states.

“While it is likely that in a real-life context dogs are picking up on our stress from a variety of context cues, we have shown using a laboratory study that there is a confirmed odor component that is likely contributing to dogs’ ability to sense when we are stressed,” Wilson continued.

This is just another incredible example of how well dogs can smell. For comparision VCA Animal Hospitals says that dogs can smell anywhere from 1,000 to 10,000 times better than people.

If dogs can smell our stress, I wonder what else they are smelling on us?

The study gives us some insight into the close relationship between humans and dogs. But it may also provide new ways of training service dogs to better care for their human friends. If dogs can learn to quickly smell emotions they may become even better at taking care of humans.

“Knowing that there is a detectable odor component to stress may raise discussion into the value of olfactory-based training (e.g., taking samples from a person when relaxed and experiencing stress) and positively reinforcing the dog to attend or perform attention-seeking behaviors in response to this odor,” Wilson said.

Over a year ago, Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchens died from injuries that she sustained from a firearm held by Baldwin. He has maintained that he didn’t fire the gun, which was somehow loaded with real bullets despite being declared a “cold” weapon. The situation only grew messier over the past year or so, with the official FBI investigation finding that the gun wouldn’t have fired if someone hadn’t pulled the trigger. Previously, Baldwin publicly suggested that Rust plaintiffs went after deep-pocketed defendants, and a lawyer for Hutchins’ estate called some of Baldwin’s actions (in the aftermath of the incident) “shameful.”

Baldwin was, in fact, exonerated by the New Mexico Occupational Health and Safety Bureau’s investigation, which found that he believed that the gun only held dummy rounds, and his producing responsibilities only extended to creative decisions and budgetary matters and had nothing to do with crew member hiring or negligence that resulted from hiring practices.

Fast forward to now, and the powers that be have decided to reboot production on the film in early 2023. The original cast will be in tow, and Halyna’s husband, Matthew Hutchins, will be onboard as executive producer. This is happening as part of producers’ (and that includes Baldwin) settlement with Halyna’s family. Via Deadline:

“We have reached a settlement, subject to court approval, for our wrongful death case against the producers of Rust, including Alec Baldwin and Rust Movie Productions, LLC. As part of that settlement, our case will be dismissed,” said Matthew Hutchins this morning.

“The filming of Rust, which I will now executive produce, will resume with all the original principal players on board in January 2023,” added Hutchins. “I have no interest in engaging in recriminations or attribution of blame (to the producers or Mr. Baldwin),” he added, “All of us believe Halyna’s death was a terrible accident. I am grateful that the producers and the entertainment community have come together to pay tribute to Halyna’s final work.”

Again, casting for the film will remain intact, meaning that Baldwin will return to his role of Harland Rust, and this also includes Jensen Ackles, who previously posted a tribute while calling Halyna’s death “a tragedy of epic proportions.” Also on board: Joel Souza, who was wounded by the live round that killed Halyna and will return to direct.

(Via Deadline)

Based on nothing more than a teaser poster and the involvement of Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto, it’s not insane to already call The Super Mario Bros Movie a better Mario movie than Super Mario Bros. Will this bold claim still be true if the movie begins with Chris Pratt’s Mario, sounding exactly like Andy Dwyer and Star-Lord and what’s-his-face from Jurassic World, saying something like, “My life is a lot like a video game”? We’ll find out soon enough (tomorrow!), but at least one of the movie’s stars didn’t have to get drunk to finish making it. I mean, probably. You never know with Jack Black.

Directed by Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel, 1993’s Super Mario Bros. has a long, tortured history, which you can read about it here. But the tl;dr version can be summed up through quotes over the years from the late, great Bob Hoskins, who played Mario.

The Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Mona Lisa legend only learned Mario was a video game character after agreeing to star in the movie. “I didn’t even know it was a game,” he said. “It was my kids that told me. They said, ‘What’s your next film’, and I said ‘Super Mario Bros.’ ‘Oh, that’s the game.’” Hoskins had no idea what his kids were going on about, so they showed him the video game. “And I saw this thing jumping up and down,” he said, “and thought [sobering, Chris Pine-style pause], I used to play King Lear.”

That’s my second favorite actor quote ever, after “I cannot sanction your buffoonery.”

Things only got worse once filming started. From a 1992 set report:

“All these rewrites get frustrating so I don’t do too much research,” says Hoskins grimly, while waiting all morning for the directors to decide the shot. “The trick is: Don’t take the job too seriously, turn up and do your day’s work. That’s all.”

Hoskins and John Leguizamo, who played Luigi, would get drunk between takes, “a habit that may have contributed to Hoskins breaking a finger during a driving stunt,” the Guardian theorized. He also told Entertainment Tonight that “if you’re going to survive this film, you’re going to have to be very, very careful… I got stabbed four times. Electrocuted. Broke a finger. Nearly got drowned. And that’s just what happened to me.”

Hoskins later called making Super Mario Bros. a “f*ckin’ nightmare.” And he wasn’t done: “The whole experience was a nightmare. It had a husband-and-wife team directing, whose arrogance had been mistaken for talent. After so many weeks their own agent told them to get off the set! F*ckin’ nightmare. F*ckin’ idiots.”

In 2011, Hoskins participated in a rapid-fire Q&A interview with the Guardian. When the actor was asked to name the worst job he ever agreed to, he replied, “Super Mario Brothers.” What has been your biggest disappointment? “Super Mario Brothers.” If you could edit your past, what would you change? “I wouldn’t do Super Mario Brothers.”

I’m beginning to think Bob Hoskins did not enjoy making Super Mario Bros.

Maybe in 20 years, Seth Rogen will share all the dirty laundry about voicing Donkey Kong in The Super Mario Bros Movie, and how Anya Taylor-Joy flushed his weed down the toilet and Chris Pratt broke his precious pottery, or whatever. But more likely, it was a smoother production than making the original Mario movie. Less terrifying goombas, too.

The Super Mario Bros Movie comes out on April 7, 2023.