Month: June 2023

Jennifer Coolidge is living her best life — but her life before The White Lotus was fun, too. The certified comedic genius, who once pretended to have an identical twin so she could date two guys at once, had some of the “best d*ck” of her life for playing one of pop culture’s most famous MILFs in the American Pie movies. The role came with a lot of benefits, including finding a roommate in co-star Eddie Kaye Thomas.

The duo lived together in the early 2000s. “I wasn’t the love of his life,” she told GQ UK with a laugh. “He had girlfriends. My bedroom was across the hallway from his.” In American Pie, Kaye Thomas plays high school senior Finch, who is infatuated by Stifler’s mom, Jeanine, portrayed by Coolidge. She inspired one of the most important conversations in cinema history:

MILF Guy #2: Dude, that chick’s a MILF!
MILF Guy #1: What the hell is that?
MILF Guy #2: M-I-L-F: Mom I’d Like to F*ck!
MILF Guy #1: Yeah dude! Yeah!

I hope MILF Guy #2 is doing OK. MILF Guy #1 can kick rocks. He knows what he did. Anyway, back to the GQ UK profile. “I’m single,” Coolidge said. “My way of talking myself into a different job is like, well, it could be romance, or it could be, you know, a whole different group of friends. Cool things could come out of it.” As long as she stays away from the “sexy” chefs.

(Via GQ UK)

Jennifer Coolidge is living her best life — but her life before The White Lotus was fun, too. The certified comedic genius, who once pretended to have an identical twin so she could date two guys at once, had some of the “best d*ck” of her life for playing one of pop culture’s most famous MILFs in the American Pie movies. The role came with a lot of benefits, including finding a roommate in co-star Eddie Kaye Thomas.

The duo lived together in the early 2000s. “I wasn’t the love of his life,” she told GQ UK with a laugh. “He had girlfriends. My bedroom was across the hallway from his.” In American Pie, Kaye Thomas plays high school senior Finch, who is infatuated by Stifler’s mom, Jeanine, portrayed by Coolidge. She inspired one of the most important conversations in cinema history:

MILF Guy #2: Dude, that chick’s a MILF!
MILF Guy #1: What the hell is that?
MILF Guy #2: M-I-L-F: Mom I’d Like to F*ck!
MILF Guy #1: Yeah dude! Yeah!

I hope MILF Guy #2 is doing OK. MILF Guy #1 can kick rocks. He knows what he did. Anyway, back to the GQ UK profile. “I’m single,” Coolidge said. “My way of talking myself into a different job is like, well, it could be romance, or it could be, you know, a whole different group of friends. Cool things could come out of it.” As long as she stays away from the “sexy” chefs.

(Via GQ UK)

Noted connoisseur and Jan. 6th insurrectionist Patrick Stedman is going to have to settle for a cheaper version of wine — the kind that comes from a prison toilet.

Stedman, who filmed his participation in the assault on the Capitol, even sharing footage from inside Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office once his fellow MAGA rioters broke in, has been found guilty on all five charges brought against him by the D.C. District Attorney. Stedman’s facing 23 years behind bars and hundreds of thousands of dollars in penalties for, among other things, disorderly conduct, illegally entering a restricted building, and obstructing an official proceeding. The New Jersey native was offered a plea deal that would’ve seen his sentence significantly lowered to just a few years with smaller fines but he rejected those offers.

Now, after lamenting the loss of his social life because of his publicized role in the insurrection — he can’t enjoy old wedding videos because he’s not friends with any of his groomsmen and he got kicked out of the wine club his dad founded 40 years ago — Stedman’s going to have to find a new friend group. And, ya know, learn the recipe for prison hooch.

Here was Stedman before the verdict was read, feeling fairly confident after taking the stand in his own defense.

He even encouraged fans to donate to help with his legal fees, offering “masterclasses” in dating and relationship advice in exchange. (Because, of course, this guy is a “men’s coach.”)

But ultimately, it took the jury less than a day to convict him on all counts.

Cheers to you, Pat!

(Via The Retrospect)

Noted connoisseur and Jan. 6th insurrectionist Patrick Stedman is going to have to settle for a cheaper version of wine — the kind that comes from a prison toilet.

Stedman, who filmed his participation in the assault on the Capitol, even sharing footage from inside Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office once his fellow MAGA rioters broke in, has been found guilty on all five charges brought against him by the D.C. District Attorney. Stedman’s facing 23 years behind bars and hundreds of thousands of dollars in penalties for, among other things, disorderly conduct, illegally entering a restricted building, and obstructing an official proceeding. The New Jersey native was offered a plea deal that would’ve seen his sentence significantly lowered to just a few years with smaller fines but he rejected those offers.

Now, after lamenting the loss of his social life because of his publicized role in the insurrection — he can’t enjoy old wedding videos because he’s not friends with any of his groomsmen and he got kicked out of the wine club his dad founded 40 years ago — Stedman’s going to have to find a new friend group. And, ya know, learn the recipe for prison hooch.

Here was Stedman before the verdict was read, feeling fairly confident after taking the stand in his own defense.

He even encouraged fans to donate to help with his legal fees, offering “masterclasses” in dating and relationship advice in exchange. (Because, of course, this guy is a “men’s coach.”)

But ultimately, it took the jury less than a day to convict him on all counts.

Cheers to you, Pat!

(Via The Retrospect)

Back in 2022, Charles Barkley revealed that there was a plan in place to give a spot on the Inside the NBA desk to one of Shaquille O’Neal’s old running mates. Barkley told Draymond Green that the late Kobe Bryant put pen to paper on a contract to join Turner when his NBA career came to an end, but ultimately, things fell through due to the fact that Bryant had some qualms about doing the additional promotional appearances that would pop up beyond just being on the show.

It’s a fascinating story, one that came up during Barkley’s cameo on “New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce.” After retelling the story that he told Green, Barkley expressed that he had some reservations about whether adding Bryant to the fold would have worked.

“I don’t think his personality … I don’t think he’s built to have a lot of fun,” Barkley said at the 1:58:00 mark.

“I don’t know if he was built to have fun,” he continued. “He was a great person, I liked him, rest in peace. But like, he was a real serious guy. And the problem you have, if you’re gonna do our show, I don’t think people understand, we’re on from seven to two in the morning. Nobody wants to be damn serious from seven to two in the morning, ok?”

Bryant was, obviously, a gigantic personality and someone who was excellent whenever he appeared on TV after his playing career ended. But like Barkley said, one defining feature of Bryant’s prior to his passing in 2020 was how serious and professional he was, so maybe some of the jokes that can be a little personal that Chuck/Shaq/Kenny throw around might not have gone over especially well.

Back in 2022, Charles Barkley revealed that there was a plan in place to give a spot on the Inside the NBA desk to one of Shaquille O’Neal’s old running mates. Barkley told Draymond Green that the late Kobe Bryant put pen to paper on a contract to join Turner when his NBA career came to an end, but ultimately, things fell through due to the fact that Bryant had some qualms about doing the additional promotional appearances that would pop up beyond just being on the show.

It’s a fascinating story, one that came up during Barkley’s cameo on “New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce.” After retelling the story that he told Green, Barkley expressed that he had some reservations about whether adding Bryant to the fold would have worked.

“I don’t think his personality … I don’t think he’s built to have a lot of fun,” Barkley said at the 1:58:00 mark.

“I don’t know if he was built to have fun,” he continued. “He was a great person, I liked him, rest in peace. But like, he was a real serious guy. And the problem you have, if you’re gonna do our show, I don’t think people understand, we’re on from seven to two in the morning. Nobody wants to be damn serious from seven to two in the morning, ok?”

Bryant was, obviously, a gigantic personality and someone who was excellent whenever he appeared on TV after his playing career ended. But like Barkley said, one defining feature of Bryant’s prior to his passing in 2020 was how serious and professional he was, so maybe some of the jokes that can be a little personal that Chuck/Shaq/Kenny throw around might not have gone over especially well.

Technology is constantly changing and teens are usually ahead of the curve when it comes to the newest tech on the block. Many parents are asking their children how apps work or using their teens as in-home tech support for anything technology related, so it’s not a surprise when parents are two steps behind in warning their children about a problematic app or unsafe trend.

Think about being a teen in the late 90s and our not-so-smart greeting of “ASL” (Age, Sex, Location) for AOL chatrooms full of strangers that used to offer to pick us up for parties. Most of our parents didn’t know how to get past the Ask Jeeves screen, let alone navigate to an AOL chatroom to see who we were talking to. In many ways, teens today are doing the exact same thing but with a faster internet connection, more platforms and high-definition cameras. But now, we’re the parents trying to Ask Jeeves what Omegle is.

I’ll give you a hint: Jeeves doesn’t know, but this cyber security educator does, and she’s sending out massive smoke flares to get parents’ attention.

Tiana Sharifi, a cyber security educator, replied to a question asked on her TikTok page. The commenter asked if Sharifi thought Omegle was inappropriate and was given an in-depth answer about the dangers of the app for children.

“I educate parents but I also educate kids and teens, and what I will tell you is that when I go into these presentations, from grade six and upwards, they’ve all heard about Omegle,” Sharifi says. “When I say, ‘Have you heard of Omegle?’ everybody’s hands go up. But when I ask parents in parent nights, you get maybe two or three hands go up. This is not a safe platform.”

Omegle is a video platform that essentially allows you to video chat with strangers for a few minutes at a time. Sharifi explains it as webcam chat roulette where the only safeguard is a box that you click saying you’re 18. No math required to try to guess the correct birth year, just a box to check. There are no moderators and you can’t choose the rooms you get dropped into, so kids can and do get paired with adults, and not always safe adults.

“If you want to do an experiment, you can go on Omegle yourself and you will see within five seconds of being on the platform, there will be a lot of inappropriate nakedness,” Sharifi reveals.

@tianasharifi

Replying to @eveybevy70 #parenting #parentingtips #onlinesafety #childsafety

But if you think kids being dropped into random rooms with anonymous strangers is the worst part, Sharifi drops a bomb that most parents aren’t ready to hear.

“The most alarming part is that the kids are being recorded without their knowledge,” the educator shares.

Since the platform is live-streamed, the kids believe the interaction is completely temporary, unaware that the adult could be filming them. If a child decides to engage with the naked individual in any way, including in a way that’s inappropriate, these screen-recorded interactions are then uploaded to inappropriate adult entertainment sites, according to Sharifi. But there’s no extortion or blackmail, so neither the kids nor parents ever find out their children are on these sites that are specifically frequented by people looking for sexual content involving minors.

Teens aren’t aware of the recordings and their parents aren’t aware of the sites, so Sharifi bringing this to light on a public platform that teens and parents both frequent could make a positive impact.

Technology is constantly changing and teens are usually ahead of the curve when it comes to the newest tech on the block. Many parents are asking their children how apps work or using their teens as in-home tech support for anything technology related, so it’s not a surprise when parents are two steps behind in warning their children about a problematic app or unsafe trend.

Think about being a teen in the late 90s and our not-so-smart greeting of “ASL” (Age, Sex, Location) for AOL chatrooms full of strangers that used to offer to pick us up for parties. Most of our parents didn’t know how to get past the Ask Jeeves screen, let alone navigate to an AOL chatroom to see who we were talking to. In many ways, teens today are doing the exact same thing but with a faster internet connection, more platforms and high-definition cameras. But now, we’re the parents trying to Ask Jeeves what Omegle is.

I’ll give you a hint: Jeeves doesn’t know, but this cyber security educator does, and she’s sending out massive smoke flares to get parents’ attention.

Tiana Sharifi, a cyber security educator, replied to a question asked on her TikTok page. The commenter asked if Sharifi thought Omegle was inappropriate and was given an in-depth answer about the dangers of the app for children.

“I educate parents but I also educate kids and teens, and what I will tell you is that when I go into these presentations, from grade six and upwards, they’ve all heard about Omegle,” Sharifi says. “When I say, ‘Have you heard of Omegle?’ everybody’s hands go up. But when I ask parents in parent nights, you get maybe two or three hands go up. This is not a safe platform.”

Omegle is a video platform that essentially allows you to video chat with strangers for a few minutes at a time. Sharifi explains it as webcam chat roulette where the only safeguard is a box that you click saying you’re 18. No math required to try to guess the correct birth year, just a box to check. There are no moderators and you can’t choose the rooms you get dropped into, so kids can and do get paired with adults, and not always safe adults.

“If you want to do an experiment, you can go on Omegle yourself and you will see within five seconds of being on the platform, there will be a lot of inappropriate nakedness,” Sharifi reveals.

@tianasharifi

Replying to @eveybevy70 #parenting #parentingtips #onlinesafety #childsafety

But if you think kids being dropped into random rooms with anonymous strangers is the worst part, Sharifi drops a bomb that most parents aren’t ready to hear.

“The most alarming part is that the kids are being recorded without their knowledge,” the educator shares.

Since the platform is live-streamed, the kids believe the interaction is completely temporary, unaware that the adult could be filming them. If a child decides to engage with the naked individual in any way, including in a way that’s inappropriate, these screen-recorded interactions are then uploaded to inappropriate adult entertainment sites, according to Sharifi. But there’s no extortion or blackmail, so neither the kids nor parents ever find out their children are on these sites that are specifically frequented by people looking for sexual content involving minors.

Teens aren’t aware of the recordings and their parents aren’t aware of the sites, so Sharifi bringing this to light on a public platform that teens and parents both frequent could make a positive impact.

The world economy runs on maritime shipping. More than 80% of international goods by volume are transported by ships, which together weave the essential fabric of the global supply chain.

But all of that shipping comes at a high cost to the climate: Right now, every ship is powered by carbon-emitting fuel, which means maritime shipping is responsible for an estimated 3 percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions. Curbing those emissions as soon as possible—and fully decarbonizing the industry as a whole—is an important piece of the worldwide project to fight climate change and reach net zero emissions by 2050.

Just to get on track, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has concluded that international shipping emissions must remain steady through 2025, then decline by three percent annually until the end of the decade. And the average lifespan of a shipping vessel is 25 years, which means that ships built from 2025 onward will need to run on zero-emission fuel or be powered by engines that are convertible to zero-emission fuel.

We need to build ships that can run on zero-emission fuel, we need to build them as soon as possible, and we need to scale up the production of fuel that will keep those ships running efficiently.

Today’s industry standard is bunker fuel, also known as heavy fuel oil (HFO), because it has a high energy density and it is easily and efficiently transported. Both of those characteristics will be necessary for any fuel source that powers zero-emission maritime shipping. Unfortunately, batteries don’t offer enough energy density to compete with bunker fuel in most situations, and the hydrogen that powers fuel cells is expensive and difficult to transport in liquid form. While methanol offers both high energy density and efficient transportation, it still has carbon intensity and the production of green methanol is not cost-effective.

That’s where ammonia will make a difference. While batteries, liquid hydrogen, and methanol will all play significant roles in reaching Net Zero 2050, ammonia is the most promising affordable, zero-emission fuel. Ammonia is three times more energy dense than hydrogen, making it a clean and efficient solution that’s also easier and faster than battery charging without the size and weight constraints. The production of green ammonia is scalable and cost-effective, sufficient to provide hundreds of million tons of affordable fuels.

At Amogy, we’ve pioneered an ammonia-to-power technology that uses its unique properties as a carrier for hydrogen. The key is a process called “cracking,” which converts ammonia into hydrogen. By combining our cracking system with hydrogen fuel cell technology, it is possible to use ammonia as fuel without any combustion or carbon emissions.

Maritime shipping is a gigantic industry. Ammonia-to-power technology must develop concurrently with increased production of blue and green ammonia, supported by public policy encouraging both. And ammonia is just one piece of the Net Zero 2050 mission to fight climate change.

But the technology exists to make it happen. At Amogy, we’re using it to retrofit a tugboat into the world’s first ammonia-powered, zero-emission ship. By acting urgently—by taking the steps now that will speed the transition to carbon-free shipping tomorrow—we can transform that knowledge into real progress for our decarbonized future.

The world economy runs on maritime shipping. More than 80% of international goods by volume are transported by ships, which together weave the essential fabric of the global supply chain.

But all of that shipping comes at a high cost to the climate: Right now, every ship is powered by carbon-emitting fuel, which means maritime shipping is responsible for an estimated 3 percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions. Curbing those emissions as soon as possible—and fully decarbonizing the industry as a whole—is an important piece of the worldwide project to fight climate change and reach net zero emissions by 2050.

Just to get on track, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has concluded that international shipping emissions must remain steady through 2025, then decline by three percent annually until the end of the decade. And the average lifespan of a shipping vessel is 25 years, which means that ships built from 2025 onward will need to run on zero-emission fuel or be powered by engines that are convertible to zero-emission fuel.

We need to build ships that can run on zero-emission fuel, we need to build them as soon as possible, and we need to scale up the production of fuel that will keep those ships running efficiently.

Today’s industry standard is bunker fuel, also known as heavy fuel oil (HFO), because it has a high energy density and it is easily and efficiently transported. Both of those characteristics will be necessary for any fuel source that powers zero-emission maritime shipping. Unfortunately, batteries don’t offer enough energy density to compete with bunker fuel in most situations, and the hydrogen that powers fuel cells is expensive and difficult to transport in liquid form. While methanol offers both high energy density and efficient transportation, it still has carbon intensity and the production of green methanol is not cost-effective.

That’s where ammonia will make a difference. While batteries, liquid hydrogen, and methanol will all play significant roles in reaching Net Zero 2050, ammonia is the most promising affordable, zero-emission fuel. Ammonia is three times more energy dense than hydrogen, making it a clean and efficient solution that’s also easier and faster than battery charging without the size and weight constraints. The production of green ammonia is scalable and cost-effective, sufficient to provide hundreds of million tons of affordable fuels.

At Amogy, we’ve pioneered an ammonia-to-power technology that uses its unique properties as a carrier for hydrogen. The key is a process called “cracking,” which converts ammonia into hydrogen. By combining our cracking system with hydrogen fuel cell technology, it is possible to use ammonia as fuel without any combustion or carbon emissions.

Maritime shipping is a gigantic industry. Ammonia-to-power technology must develop concurrently with increased production of blue and green ammonia, supported by public policy encouraging both. And ammonia is just one piece of the Net Zero 2050 mission to fight climate change.

But the technology exists to make it happen. At Amogy, we’re using it to retrofit a tugboat into the world’s first ammonia-powered, zero-emission ship. By acting urgently—by taking the steps now that will speed the transition to carbon-free shipping tomorrow—we can transform that knowledge into real progress for our decarbonized future.