We are fully into the NBA’s silly season, where rumors are flying as everyone looks to find scoops and insight into what is going to happen when free agency opens on Friday afternoon.
Among the biggest talking points, to the frustration of many, is Damian Lillard’s future in Portland after the Blazers stayed pat at the Draft and chose to use the No. 3 pick on Scoot Henderson rather than trading it for a veteran star. Lillard met with the Portland front office recently and the reports after indicated all parties are still committed to each other, for now, with the Blazers still having work to do to build the kind of roster Lillard wants to make him believe he can contend for the playoffs again.
There haven’t been a lot of rumblings about what additions the Blazers can realistically make, but the one player somewhat connected to Portland has been Draymond Green, as he gets set to be a free agent for the first time in his career. While most anticipate him returning to the Warriors, particularly after they shipped Jordan Poole to Washington for Chris Paul, the Blazers, Pistons, and Kings all reportedly would love to at least meet with him to pitch the former DPOY on leaving the Bay.
This brings us to an incredible rumor that popped up on Portland sports radio on Wednesday, where Dwight Jaynes of 620 Rip City Radio, said he had a friend text him that his dinner reservation at a Portland restaurant got cancelled because Damian Lillard rented the entire place out to have a dinner with Draymond Green to pitch him on joining the Blazers.
“I just got a text… [Draymond Green] is in Portland tonight meeting with [Damian Lillard] at a restaurant. A friend had reservations & was told Dame rented out the restaurant & they had to cancel his reservation.”
This is a Hall of Fame worthy radio rumor, because it touches all the bases. It involves a player fans want on the team with a secondhand report of a thing that may be happening that they learned about in the funniest possible way. Jaynes’ co-host goes on to immediately pour cold water on this by, rightfully, pointing out how difficult it would be for the Blazers to acquire Draymond since the only avenue given their cap situation is a sign-and-trade. That said, it’s an incredible way for a rumor to start and I would like it to be true because it’s very funny.
There’s no movie I’ve tried this hard in my life to like, and failed, than Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Okay, Star Trek: The Motion Picturecomes close, but I’ve always appreciated its beauty and the director’s cut is a vast improvement. And, of course, there are many acclaimed movies that I can appreciate while realizing, well, this just “isn’t for me.”
But, in theory, I should like Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. And watching Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destinymade me rethink this. Is Dial of Destiny as good as the original three Indiana Jones movies? No. But it’s not trying to be that. It’s its own thing and, taken as such, I found it a highly enjoyable (and somewhat nuts) adventure. There is no way to recreate the original three Indy adventures. None. There’s only one Harrison Ford and he’s 80 years old now. And he’s still great, as busy as ever. But when the first three movies came out he was in his prime as a movie star. (Not as an actor, but maybe. Though I could make the case he’s doing some of his best work now.) The new movie is very much about an Indiana Jones who is not in his prime and knows that. So my negative feelings toward Crystal Skull are not that. So what is it? Why won’t Crystal Skull let me like it? Cate Blanchett plays a Russian villain! When you say that out loud, that sounds great!
There is a rhythm and formula to the Indiana Jones movies that is, basically, they are grounded movies, until they are not. Basically, nothing too crazy happens, except for the one thing. Now, this doesn’t have to be one event at the end like what happens at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. In Temple of Doom, Indiana Jones becomes a zombie halfway through, but we accept this because pretty much everything that happens inside the temple is supernatural. So, once inside … anything goes. (Yes, that’s a purposeful pun.) The problem with Crystal Skull is that formula is broken. Too many unrelated unbelievable things happen, to the point a viewer is just left thinking, “This is ridiculous.” I truly think the “unrelated” part is key here.
Even with the Star Wars prequels, I walked out of each midnight screening liking them. It was only later I realized, hm, maybe I don’t? (Though I’ve come around on Attack of the Clones being so absurd that it’s good. It’s the only prequel that knows what it is.) The Prequels and Crystal Skull were before I did this job for a living. I was a paying customer and I wanted to like every movie. (To be fair, I still do want to like every movie, but now I am forced to face facts when I don’t.) Crystal Skull, my reaction was immediate. I saw it at midnight at the Ziegfeld and then, immediately after, texted my friend Rob in St. Louis, who I knew was still watching it, an hour behind me, to express my dissatisfaction. And then, over the years since, I’ve done my best to avoid it. Every now and then it will be on television and I watch the first few minutes thinking, “This isn’t that bad,” then Mutt Williams rides in dressed like Marlon Brando and it becomes, “Oh … right. Yikes.”
Which is to say, I don’t mind Indy surviving the nuclear explosion. (Just rereading that sentence sounds ridiculous.) But it is a big ask and if this were somehow part of the finale, where the powers of the Crystal Skull saved Indy from the explosion, yeah that lines up with the rest of the movies. But, no, he just lives because he found some lead. Which, again, fine … but then you start adding all this up: Mutt swinging from vine to vine with monkeys, landing a tank on a branch, Mac changing allegiances multiple times, etc … it becomes too much. Okay, yes, I know what you’re thinking: Oh, but in Temple of Doom they jump out of an airplane with an inflatable raft and live! Yes, that true, but here’s the difference: It looks cool! No one mentions this, but viewers will forgive unbelievable plot points if what they are looking at looks cool! The scene with the raft is undeniably cool! Mutt Williams swinging with monkeys looks the opposite of cool! And I think, there, is the main fault of Crystal Skull … the unbelievable parts also happen to look stupid or silly.
Actually, Raiders of the Lost Ark came really close to making this mistake. When Indy leaves the ship and gets on top of the submarine on the way to the island to open the Ark, we don’t really think about what happens in-between. I think I always assumed he made his way into the submarine and just, somehow, hid. But, no, Spielberg filmed Indy just holding onto the periscope the whole way while the rest of the submarine is underwater. It looks stupid! And Spielberg was very correct to make sure people didn’t see this!
Maybe some of that can be forgiven with a good payoff. But that’s something Crystal Skull is lacking. I just rewatched this movie again and I still can’t tell you exactly what the Skull even does. I can tell you, yes, it turns into an inter-dimensional being and just kind of vanishes in its inter-dimensional spacecraft, or whatever. Even Indiana Jones seems confused at the end. If he turned to the camera, shrugged, and said, “It’s a living!,” it would not be out of character for this movie. In every other movie, including Dial of Destiny, Indiana Jones knows exactly what’s going on by the end. In Crystal Skull he’s as baffled as the rest of us.
To be honest, rewatching now, I don’t hate it as much as I used to. I actively try to like it and it won’t let me. This past time, I got somewhere close to, “It’s fine,” but with huge caveats. I always love Harrison Ford in this role and I’d rather it exist as “this weird fourth one,” than not. But, even coming to terms with it, there are just one too many, “yikes,” moments.
Over the years, American Idol alums Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood have been pit against each other. Now, Clarkson has set the record straight on any supposed beef between them, on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen.
A viewer, Megan, started asking Clarkson a question by establishing the context that she and Underwood have been pitted against each other. However, she stumbled over Underwood’s name, calling her “Carrie Wood.” After a quick laugh about that, Clarkson jumped in, “I think I know where you’re going with this. People always pit us [against each other] and we don’t even know each other well enough to be pitted [against each other]. Like, literally, we’ve run into each other a handful of times, and we’ve… there’s no beef between us. There’s, well, nothing, between… like, we don’t know each other! So, we’ve literally run into each other a few times.”
After Clarkson’s answer, Cohen asked Megan if that was actually her question, and Megan continued, “What was your favorite part of having her as a guest on your talk show?”
After a laugh and a walk around the room, Clarkson explained, “Look, everybody always asks me the ‘pitted against each other’ question.” Clarkson’s response to the talk show question was similar to the beef question anyway, as she said, “It was awesome. It was great to have her on the show. I think the thing that was cool about it is that everybody always pits us against each other, and I don’t know why they do that. They don’t do that with dudes. They only do it with females! And I’m like, ‘We don’t even know each other well enough to do that!’”
Check out the interview clip above.
Kelly Clarkson is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Ever since Boy Meets World co-stars Danielle Fishel, Will Friedle, and Rider Strong launched their wildly popular podcast, Pod Meets World, fans have wondered why the ’90s series star Ben Savage hasn’t stopped by for an episode. The answer to that question is no longer a mystery.
While talking to Variety to commemorate the podcast’s one-year anniversary, Fishel, Friedle, and Strong revealed that they haven’t spoken to Savage in three years. His sudden absence in their lives came as a shock as the three were close and continued to do conventions even after the spinoff series Girl Meets World wrapped in 2017.
“He ghosted us,” Fishel said after noting that Savage was there for her when her son was born early in 2019 and had to stay in the NICU.
Savage ghosting hit Friedle the hardest. The two played brothers on the hit ABC sitcom and were close, until suddenly they weren’t:
“He disappeared — I wish I knew why, to this day,” Friedle says. “We didn’t have a fight. There’s no falling out. There was no animosity. He just woke up one day, and decided I don’t want this person in my life anymore.
“I finally sent a text saying, ‘I’ve known you for 30 years, what’s going on?’” Friedle continues. “I said, ‘I’m gonna call you every day until you tell me not to call you anymore.’ That lasted about three weeks or a month, every single day.”
The three co-stars also said that Savage going radio silent was even weirder because he was actually supportive of their podcast even though he made it clear that he didn’t want to participate.
“He was very adamant that it was not for him,” Fishel said. “He was also very clear, ‘I don’t want it to stop you. If you guys want to do it, go ahead.’ The time between those conversations and the time we actually started the podcast was a significant amount of time.”
Can we get Mr. Feeny to weigh on this? We feel like Mr. Feeny wouldn’t like this. Also, he was the voice of K.I.T.T. on Knight Rider, which isn’t important right now, but it could be later.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, TCM‘s newest interns are named Marty and Stevie. The result of backlash to Warner Bros. Discovery’s CEO David Zaslav gutting the beloved network of its core programming team, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg have committed to helping the movie-focused channel. This comes after an emergency Zoom call between Zaslav, Scorsese, Spielberg, and Paul Thomas Anderson set up to stem the bleeding inflicted by the short-sighted CEO.
At the very least, it seems like TCM has been given a lifeline provided by the very same filmmakers that Zaslav so desperately wants to convince of his company’s pro-filmmaker stance.
To solidify the changes to the channel, it’s now being overseen by Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy at Warner Bros. Pictures. They said in a statement, “TCM is a cultural treasure, and we are honored to help steer the future direction of this beloved brand with the partnership of three of the most iconic filmmakers of our time.”
However, this, like Zaslav’s previous statements proclaiming to love TCM even as he was immolating it, is just talk. The company has taken action to bring back one of the hearts of the channel, programmer Charles Tabesh, after his departure last week following the decision to massively cut the channel’s budget. It’s a smart move, but a lot of damage has already been done, and it’s unclear whether TCM can survive (or if Zaslav even really wants it to).
After being traded to the Bulls in an all-in move in 2020, Nikola Vucevic has not quite had the impact Chicago had hoped. He’s continued to post solid averages (17.6 points, 11 rebounds, 3.2 assists per game in 2022-23), but has seemed like a bit of an odd fit with Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan.
That said, having given up a pair of first-round picks and Wendell Carter Jr. to get him, the Bulls entered this offseason needing to bring him back unless they planned to blow things up completely. With LaVine trade rumors subsiding and no draft night moves, the expectation was for them to bring Vucevic back to try one more time to coax the All-Star caliber play back out of the 32-year-old center. Sure enough, on Wednesday afternoon, word broke that Vucevic was returning to the Bulls on a deal worth $60 million over three years.
With Vucevic back, it seems the Bulls hope is simply that things click in a way they haven’t since Lonzo Ball’s injury — Ball, it should be noted, is expected to miss all of next season. The problem for Chicago is there wasn’t a good alternative. Vucevic may not be playing at the All-Star level he was in Orlando when they traded for him, but he’s still highly productive and with a very light center market this summer, there weren’t many alternatives.
The questions about this deal will revolve around any sort of options or partial guarantee as it goes on, and of course, if Chicago will be able to move Vucevic should the team decide to go in another direction. But as of now, one thing is clear: Nikola Vucevic will remain a Bull.
Director Nimrod Antal was clearly given the directive to make the Liam Neesoniest Liam Neeson movie possible, and it looks like he pulled it off. Neeson’s newest skill in the set is driving his car indefinitely to avoid a madman blowing him and his children up.
It’s like The Commuter decided public transportation was too dangerous and only landed in hotter water.
A remake of the Spanish film El Desconocido, the plot is as high concept as it gets. Bad guy with a voice modulator on the phone, pressure sensors on the seats, and the need to do whatever the bad guy says to avoid going kaboom. Theoretically, there will be even more sadistic tasks for Neeson’s banker character to perform at the behest of the kidnapper/bomber beyond killing his best friend and trying to kill the planet one mile at a time. Will the bad guy let Neeson refuel? Is it an electric? Will Neeson shout “I’ve got a Hybrid!” when he finally takes down the villain? This trailer thankfully raises more questions than it has answers.
Besides Neeson, the film also stars Jack Champion, Lilly Aspell, Embeth Davidtz, Noma Dumezweni, and Matthew Modine.
“Y’all remember when the FCC almost sued me cuz I performed WAP at the Grammys?” Cardi B asked on Twitter today. “What about when all the republicans literally harassed me over it? On the news everyday… Y’all remember? Oooohhh cuz I do.”
Y’all remember when the FCC almost sued me cuz I performed WAP at the Grammys? What about when all the republicans literally harassed me over it? On the news everyday… Y’all remember? Oooohhh cuz I do
Cardi is, of course, reflecting on the weeks-long backlash to the 2021 Grammy Awards performance of her raunchy hit song, “WAP” with Megan Thee Stallion. While the news cycle has long since moved on, with conservative commentators finding plenty of other outrage-bait with which they could incite their audience, Cardi B — like Pepperidge Farms — remembers the aggravation they heaped on her for the audacity of celebrating her sexuality as a woman in the public eye.
In case you forgot, here’s a recap: After the show-stopping performance, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson worried that “WAP” would “hurt our children” on his show — while playing nearly the entire titillating performance from the night before, conservative grifter Candace Owens called the show an “attack on American values,” and the Federal Communications Commission supposedly fielded over 1,000 complaints of indecency (complaints Cardi herself laughed off).
What was the reason for all this faux consternation? Cardi’s theory is that “they secretly like it.” They definitely seemed to enjoy the attention (and advertising dollars) complaining about it brought them, but since then, Tucker’s been fired, Candace is now agreeing with Cardi, and the Republican political apparatus has turned its ire against drag shows — which is going about as well as you’d think. It just goes to show, you don’t want to get on Cardi’s bad side; even when she wins, she doesn’t let anything go.
Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Dr. Daniel Mansfield and his team at the University of New South Wales in Australia have just made an incredible discovery. While studying a 3,700-year-old tablet from the ancient civilization of Babylon, they found evidence that the Babylonians were doing something astounding: trigonometry!
Most historians have credited the Greeks with creating the study of triangles’ sides and angles, but this tablet presents indisputable evidence that the Babylonians were using the technique 1,500 years before the Greeks ever were.
Mansfield and his team are, understandably, incredibly proud. What they discovered is that the tablet is actually an ancient trigonometry table.
“The huge mystery, until now, was its purpose – why the ancient scribes carried out the complex task of generating and sorting the numbers on the tablet. Our research reveals that Plimpton 322 describes the shapes of right-angle triangles using a novel kind of trigonometry based on ratios, not angles and circles. It is a fascinating mathematical work that demonstrates undoubted genius.”
u201cAussie mathematician cracks code of famous 3,700-year-old Babylonian clay tablet https://t.co/f7h6oIfBDru201d
— China Xinhua News (@China Xinhua News) 1503639811
“The tablet not only contains the world’s oldest trigonometric table; it is also the only completely accurate trigonometric table, because of the very different Babylonian approach to arithmetic and geometry. This means it has great relevance for our modern world. Babylonian mathematics may have been out of fashion for more than 3,000 years, but it has possible practical applications in surveying, computer graphics and education. This is a rare example of the ancient world teaching us something new.”
The tablet predates Greek astronomer Hipparchus, who has long been regarded as the father of trigonometry. Mansfield’s colleague, Norman Widberger, added:
“Plimpton 322 predates Hipparchus by more than 1,000 years. It opens up new possibilities not just for modern mathematics research, but also for mathematics education. With Plimpton 322 we see a simpler, more accurate trigonometry that has clear advantages over our own.”
“A treasure trove of Babylonian tablets exists, but only a fraction of them have been studied yet. The mathematical world is only waking up to the fact that this ancient but very sophisticated mathematical culture has much to teach us.”
People were understandably excited by the news.
u201cA 3,700 year olf Babylonian tablet revealed as the world’s first trigonometry table https://t.co/AQlpsndM92u201d
But all in all, Twitter users were pretty impressed with the Babylonians’ skills.
And they figured it out 3,700 years ahead of me…and counting.— Marty (@Marty) 1503631905
u201c@prophiphop And we’re over here trying to figure out how to do trig with our TI-83s… man I love it when the ancients show what real intelligence is.u201d
Congratulations to Dr. Mansfield and his team on their incredible discovery… and for making trigonometry exciting!
This article originally appeared on 07.10.21
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