Month: May 2023

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis — noted as a man who eats pudding with his fingers and laughs like a hyena on cocaine — is expected to officially toss his hat in the presidential ring next week.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the conservative firebrand who appears afraid his balls might shrivel up if people in his immediate vicinity utter the word “gay” at any given time, is planning to announce his candidacy on May 25th. DeSantis will reportedly file paperwork with the Federal Election Commission next week before kicking off a major fundraising party and a string of donor events to raise the millions it will take to go up against his former mentor, Donald Trump.

Now, running against another Republican who might just be orchestrating his presidential campaign from the inside of a jail cell seems like a no-brainer, but this is Ron DeSantis we’re talking about. Even with Trump’s recent string of lawsuits, some which carry serious jail time and others which confirm what we all knew to be true — that he’s a gross, corrupt, creep — DeSantis is somehow still behind him in the polls. Like, 30 percentage points behind.

Announcing his candidacy will allow the Florida governor to begin fundraising in earnest — something he couldn’t do while simply contemplating a presidential run — but all the money in the world can’t make some of his recent political moves attractive to moderate voters. Currently, DeSantis is signing bills into law that strip gay and trans people of their rights, and he’s also in a one-man losing war with Disney, an obsession that could cost his state billions and land him in legal trouble as well.

But sure, take your own brand of right-wing crazy to the national stage DeSantis. We can’t wait to hear more about how your conservative buddies would rather have their teeth pulled without anesthesia than hang out with you.

(Via NYT)

Miley Cyrus made a strong return this year with her song “Flowers,” which instantly became a beloved No. 1 hit. Fans loved it for its fierce confidence and its not-so-subtle digs at her ex-husband Liam Hemsworth, made by playing with the words of Bruno Mars’ “When I Was Your Man.”

In a new interview with British Vogue, she revealed that the track was initially much less optimistic.

“I wrote it in a really different way,” she said. “The chorus was originally: ‘I can buy myself flowers, write my name in the sand, but I can’t love me better than you can.’ It used to be more, like, 1950s. The saddest song. Like: ‘Sure, I can be my own lover, but you’re so much better.’” She added, “The song is a little fake it till you make it, which I’m a big fan of.”

“Flowers” comes from her new album Endless Summer Vacation. About the record, she explained, “When it comes to the sequencing of ‘Endless Summer Vacation,’ I divided it by two parts, ‘AM’ and ‘PM,’ to kind of represent almost an act,” she said. “The ‘AM’ to me is representing the morning time, where there’s a buzz and an energy, and there’s a potential of new possibilities. It’s a new day.”

The Writers Guild of America labor union is currently on strike, marking the largest labor stoppage that we’ve seen from the organization since their three-plus month long strike back in 2007. You can read up on why they are striking right here, and ever since it began earlier this month, plenty of individuals and organizations have expressed their support for the WGA.

This includes Stephen A. Smith, who backed the writers during a recent episode of the Know Mercy podcast. Smith told the story about his contract dispute with ESPN that led to him leaving the network in 2009, which he called “devastating” but stressed was “the best thing to ever happen to me in my life” because “I became a master of my business, which means I ultimately found out exactly what I was worth.”

Smith turning this into a point about, say, James Harden hitting free agency or Lamar Jackson’s now-resolved contract dispute would have made sense. But instead, he used this as a jumping off point to express support for the WGA.

“I say all of that to say, to the Writers Guild Association of America, you have a supporter in me,” Smith said. “And I think that, sooner than later, this strike will come to an end and we’ll all be blessed with you putting your wonderful talents on display, to make sure this nation and this world is entertained due to your brilliance as writers.”

Stephen A. Smith is right.

Collective Music Group rapper 42 Dugg was sentenced to a year in prison for failing to report for a previous sentence for carjacking and firearms possession. This situation isn’t working for CMG founder Yo Gotti. The Memphis rap mainstay was willing to pay big money to secure his artist’s release, posting a call to action on his Instagram Story. According to XXL, he wrote, “I got $2 million for any lawyer that can get Dugg out early.[That’s] what I want for my birthday #FreeDoggy”

Dugg appeared to be having a miserable time in prison as well, sharing an Instagram post of his own (perhaps through an intermediary) in which he claimed that he wasn’t being given hot water in the commissary to heat up food. “Man, I’m in this b*tch heating my food up with water from the nasty ass shower — they don’t even give us hot water to heat food up,” he asserted. “Ain’t no microwave, I can’t get no visits from my family, nothing. I’m sure they gone do some more illegal sh*t but what I ’pose to die in this b*tch for probation violation?”

Even before Dugg’s troubles, though, Gotti was working hard on prison reform. Last year, he allied with Jay-Z and Meek Mill to throw support behind a bill to prohibit the use of rap lyrics in criminal trials, and before that, he and Jay sued the Mississippi Department of Corrections over inmate rights violations, prompting the prisons’ healthcare provider to end its contract. Hopefully, their efforts will yield greater results in the future, because the prison system as it stands is pretty awful.

Have you ever been walking your dog around the neighborhood, noticed a pretty flower, and wondered what kind it is? Have you ever looked at your dog and wondered what breed they are? Well, a new feature on your iPhone called Visual Look Up provides you with information about plants, pets and landmarks while you’re on the go.

A lot of people don’t even know that this helpful feature exists. It became available with iOS 15, so if you’re running an older operating system, then you’ll have to update your iPhone or iPad to use the feature.

Here’s how the feature works:

• Open a photo in full screen; the Visual Look Up button (an “i” enclosed in a circle with a small star on the left side) indicates that Visual Look Up information is available for that photo.

• Swipe up on the photo or tap the Visual Look Up button.

• Tap the icon on the photo or at the top of the photo information results to view Siri Knowledge and more information about the object.

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I photographed a cactus outside of my home to try the feature out. After taking the picture and opening it up on my iPhone, I noticed that the Visual Lookup Button appeared at the bottom of the photo. I clicked it and could learn more about the cactus by clicking on “Look Up — Plant >,” which appeared beneath the image. The same information is available by clicking on the leaf icon that appears on the photo.

The Visual Look Up told me that the succulent was a Bilberry cactus when I always thought it was a San Pedro. Who knew?

Next, I tried the feature on my dog, Archie. I’ve had him for over six months and still haven’t figured out his breed. I’ve been told he is probably a mixture of Labrador, Boxer, Pit Bull, and/or German Shepard.

I took a photo and used the Visual Look Up to see which breed came up. This time, after I clicked the Visual Look Up link, instead of a leaf appearing on the photo, I got a pawprint. Cute!

Lo and behold, according to Visual Look Up, Archie is a Greater Swiss Mountain Dog. I’ve never even heard of a Greater Swiss Mountain Dog. I definitely have to look into that.

Finally, I wanted to see how good the feature was at identifying landmarks, so I drove to the closest one near my home, the Walter Pyramid at Cal State University Long Beach. It’s a local icon, so I used the app to see if it could identify the structure.

In this case, the feature didn’t deliver as well as I had planned. The landmark’s name didn’t pop up in the results. Instead, it identified it as a landmark and shared a link to photos others have taken of the pyramid. After clicking on those, I could determine its name.

This feature is an easy way to identify things when it’s hard to find a reasonable way to search for them in Google. Let’s face it, you’re not going to get reliable results if you Google “tall green cactus” or “brown and white dog with droopy jowls.”

Debates around the societal differences between men and women are likely as old as humanity. There will always be a shift in expectations and personal needs, but some things never get old, like men discovering just how expensive it can be to be born with female reproductive organs. Or to simply exist as a woman in America, specifically.

So for everyone’s viewing pleasure, the folks at the React YouTube channel gathered up a handful of average guys and asked them to guess what certain traditionally female items were used for, how they are used and how much they cost. The results were a mix between impressive and amusing.

React started off fairly easy by giving the men a box of tampons and asking what they were for. We are going to hope that most guys who reach adulthood have some general idea of what a box of Tampax is for, and these guys were off to a strong start.

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Of course, the host of the show didn’t stop there. She hit the guys (and likely the women watching) with invisible pearl-clutching math on how much money women spend on average over their lifetime. $18,000. Yes, people who use tampons as their feminine hygiene product of choice spend about $18,000 on something that’s just going to go in the trash…or going to make some plumber a lot of money. Can you claim tampons on your taxes? Totally asking for a friend.

The guys were shocked, and one pointed out they could use that money to buy a motorcycle. As the guys moved through different menstruation products, they became more confused about the proper way to use them. But to be fair, there are plenty of people who have periods who don’t know how to use every feminine hygiene product on the market.

True confusion and flabbergast came when the guys watched a video of a girl explaining how much she spent on a haircut and color. While some of the men guessed in the hundreds, some guessed as low as $35, so when the girl revealed her haircut costs upwards of $450, audible gasps were taken.

“That’s a year of haircuts for me,” one guy said.

“I wouldn’t be let back in the house if I went out and spent that much money on a haircut,” another participant declared.

The guys moved on to other items like bras, shapewear and skin care products with confusion and shock growing with each revelation. Watch the entire video below and tell us how you did in the comments.

An image that initially went viral eight years ago is having a second life as a fun personality quiz. The Minds Journal published a picture of a cat on a flight of stairs, and it claims that if your first impression of the photo was that the cat was walking up the stairs, you are an optimist. But if you think the cat is walking down the stairs, you are a pessimist.

The image first appeared at 9Gag in 2015.

According to The Minds Journal, you are an optimist who sees “potential and growth” wherever you look if you see the cat walking upstairs. “Your mind has been trained to look at ways of rising higher in life, so given a situation where you have the choice of rising higher than others or falling to their levels, you would inevitably be the better person.”

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However, if you saw the cat going downstairs, you are a pessimist.

“It may have been based on your experiences in life or just because of the sort of people you may have met that tilted your view of life towards the negative side,” The Minds Journal’s article says. “But this means that you don’t trust easily now, you calculate before you commit and you are wary of people who seem too sweet,” the article continues.

So what’s the truth? Is the cat walking up or down the stairs?

Here’s the argument for the “down” folks or, as The Minds Journal would call them, pessimists.

Down, usually decorative tiles are on riser part.

— Alicia APG.Studio (@APGFitnessUK) May 31, 2021

I would argue that the cat is travelling down the stairs… Although this image has been made as an illusion with many questionable details, it’s safe to say that from the design of the stairs themselves. We are looking up from the bottom.

— Jinx (@JinnxyJinx) March 30, 2021

Cat is going down as there are dirt marks on the walls and they are consistent with looking at a staircase from downstairs. 🧐🔎

— Leo Sanders (@LeoSandbox) March 23, 2022

Here’s the argument from the “up” people or optimists.

The stairs make this an optical illusion. Look at the cats tail. Up. That’s a happy cat trotting upstairs… Or… it’s a photoshopped cat walking on a flat surface, superimposed over stairs, which would make it neither going up or down. 😉

— Ce n’est pas une rose.🌹 (@mollimediaART) November 14, 2022

They say that which direction you see determines if you’re a pessimist or an optimist.
[I saw the kitteh going up, which means I’m an optimist. Which is true!]

— Soonamisam (@Soonamisam1) March 23, 2022

The cat is coming up but we are looking down the stairs are as you can see the flat landing at the bottom of the stairs ..so it is a good optical illusion imo

— Emilie (@paintsandsings) March 17, 2022

Business Insider took a hard stance, saying it’s “obvious” that the cat is going downstairs. “First, look at the architecture of the stairwell. The nose of the stair treads is overhanging the riser, which has a pebbled texture,” Business Insider says.

“Plus, if you look closely, there’s even a slight shadow under the overhanging nose of the stair treads,” the argument continues. “These shadows would only be visible if the cat was going down the stairs towards the viewer who is looking upstairs. The light coming from the upstairs landing is causing the shadow of the tread to fall on the riser.”

Here’s a visual explainer:

These stairs have a nosing and shadows.
The cat is coming down the stairs.

This isn’t an optical illusion. pic.twitter.com/3RHvPyt5W3

— Andrew Rollason (@rollo75) March 17, 2022

Obviously, a simple reaction to a photo of a cat is a far from perfect way to determine one’s personality. But research shows that optimists and pessimists have explicit biases when interpreting the world around them. It could also decide whether or not they thought the cat was walking up the stairs to greet its owner walking down the stairs to avoid a predator.

“To use the common expression, the optimist focuses his attention on the glass half full; that is, an optimist selects the positive/reinforcing cues from the environment, and tends to filter and ignore information that does not match his brighter outlook,” David Hecht writes in Experimental Biology.

“A pessimist tends to do the exact opposite. In general, a pessimist’s attention is focused on the glass half empty; i.e. the pessimist allocates a disproportionately greater attention to the negative cues, while tending to forget the positive aspects of a situation,” Hecht continues.

While the rest of the conservative world has turned its attention to being mad at Miller Lite for… having a girl in its latest ad (?), Ted Cruz has yet to move on from the Bud Light debacle. The Senate’s King of the Self Own has signed onto a new bill demanding a congressional investigation into both the beer maker and trans activist Dylan Mulvaney, whose singular sponsored social media post sent Republicans spiraling so hard that Kid Rock started shooting beer cans.

On Thursday morning, Cruz stopped by Fox & Friends to defend the bill, which he co-sponsored with Senator Marsha Blackburn of Kentucky. In a blatant attempt to continue to make political hay out of the controversy, Cruz accused Anheuser-Busch of using Mulvaney to target underage drinkers.

Via Fox News:

“A massive percentage of Dylan Mulvaney’s audience are kids. And Budweiser was trying, I believe, with this ill-fated marketing attempt to target teenagers,” Cruz, R-Texas, said on “Fox & Friends” Thursday.

In a joint effort with Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., the Texas senator sent a letter to the Beer Institute Chairman Brandon Whitworth who also serves as the CEO of Anheuser-Busch, the parent company of Bud Light. The letter called on the Beer Institute’s Code Compliance Review Board to investigate the beer brand’s controversial ad campaign with Dylan Mulvaney.

It didn’t take long for Cruz’s Fox News appearance to go viral on Twitter where the Texas senator was ruthlessly mocked for continuing to milk the Bud Light debacle.

You can see some of the reactions below:

(Via Fox News)

Jorja Smith is back. The 25-year-old singer has collaborated with FKA Twigs, Brent Faiyaz, and Sonder. Today (May 18), she announced her new album Falling Or Flying arriving this fall. Her previous songs “Little Things” and “Try Me” will be on the record.

Falling Or Flying comes on September 29. It follows her 2021 EP Be Right Back. “It’s called Be Right Back because it’s just something I want my fans to have right now, this isn’t an album and these songs wouldn’t have made it,” she said at the time. If I needed to make these songs, then someone needs to hear them too.”

About Falling Or Flying, she said in a statement, “It touches on breakups, relationships with my friends, relationships with old friends, relationships with myself. It’s definitely about a lot of relationships, but every song I write I can sing it to myself.”

Meanwhile, her collaborator Twigs actually ended up being her cousin. “I’d never met her before, and I jumped in her car with her,” Twigs shared, “and I remember thinking to myself, ‘Gosh, that’s really strange: we’ve got exactly the same kind of skin.’ […] A few months later, I was on the road to go to LA and [Smith] left me a voice note saying, ‘You’re never going to believe this, but I’ve just spoken to my dad and he’s spoken to his sister and we’re related.’”

Falling Or Flying is out 9/29 on FAMM. Find more information here.

Nicki Minaj has been much more active on social media lately, promoting collaborations with Ice Spice and Kim Petras, sharing the video for “Red Ruby Da Sleeze,” and telling fans that her new album will be the best of 2023. But with increased access to the star, her fans are also learning her tolerance for foolishness.

When one fan shared a less-than-attractive pencil illustration of her on Twitter, Nicki was apparently offended enough to block the user, who shared a screenshot of their blocked status and requested Nicki unblock them, insisting that “it was a joke.”

You know what they say about playing stupid games and winning stupid prizes.

Nicki Minaj fans, collectively known as Barbz, have been known to pull some pretty wild stunts over the years for her attention. Such is their devotion that last year, when she shoved a fan during a public appearance in London, fans on Twitter were actually jealous. Of course, they’ve also earned a reputation for taking things too far; they’ve been accused of harassing individuals who’ve been critical of Nicki in the past, with one YouTuber even plotting a lawsuit against the fanbase for an ongoing campaign of bullying behavior lasting years. But at least we know the one thing that they can do to get into her bad graces: Make her look bad, literally.