Month: July 2023

The Boys has been popping up in an increasing number of video games lately, and fans of the hit series are starting to get miffed that their favorite characters seem to be noticeably snubbing one particular game: Fortnite.

The fan backlash started on Friday afternoon when The Boys official Twitter account tweeted out an announcement that Homelander, Butcher, Hughie, and Starlight are coming to the survival game Last Fortress: Underground.

“Let’s dust some zombies on Monday, shall we?” the account tweeted.

Now, if you’ve never heard of the game Last Fortress, you’re not alone. The Boys fans took to the replies to practically beg for a Fortnite collaboration after characters have already been announced for Mortal Kombat, Call of Duty, and whatever the heck this latest game is.

You can see some of the reactions below:

However, The Boys fans should be careful what they wish for. Homelander’s presence in Call of Duty has reportedly not been going well thanks to the game making him way too overpowered. Shortly after his character became available, Call of Duty fans took to Twitter and Reddit to complain about Homelander’s wildly powerful skillset, which includes the ability to jump incredibly high without taking fall damage and the more vexing laser eyes that also allow him to briefly fly.

Like the show, Homelander is just way too strong, and it doesn’t always make for the greatest gaming experience.

(Via Last Fortress: Underground on Twitter)

What do you do when yet another large corporation announces it’s laying off 350 hardworking Americans? If you’re GOP Representative Lauren Boebert, you celebrate. With a tweet.

On Thursday, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Bud Light’s parent company, released a statement announcing they planned to cut hundreds of corporate jobs — or about 2% of its 18,000-member workforce. The decision comes just four months after the brand made headlines by partnering with transgender social media influencer, Dylan Mulvaney. Mulvaney made a 50-second video for Instagram, introducing specialty beer cans with her face on them as part of the brand’s attempt to diversify its customer base, but the sponsored post angered right-wing conservatives. Trolls used the endorsement to brand Mulvaney a pedophile — a common form of attack against the LGBTQ+ community used by far-right fanatics — and to publicly denounce Bud Light, posting videos that showed them shooting up cans with semiautomatic rifles and dumping cases of beer.

Though Anheuser-Busch InBev didn’t blame the controversy for the recent round of layoffs, smooth-brained goblins like Boebert are practically salivating over the news that 350 are now without jobs simply because they work for a company they hate.

“Bud Light went woke, then Bud Light went broke!” she crowed like a Betty Crocker Mr. Burns before sharing a Fox News article that broke down the cutbacks, along with an American flag emoji, of course. Because what’s more American than that!?

Naturally, folks on Twitter dragged her over the coals for her insensitivity and stupidity, which ended with Boebert trying to backtrack a few hours later, tweeting, “Innocent employees shouldn’t be forced to pay the price for the disastrous decisions of their woke bosses.”

This isn’t the first time Boebert has launched a shockingly tone-deaf tweet related to the beer company. Earlier this year, after the Mulvaney video, she shared a photoshopped picture of a Bud Light can with the late NFL player and military veteran Pat Tillman’s face on the front. Still, if Boebert wants to keep going after Bud Light, we say go for it. It’s clearly not working out for her.

(Via LGBTQ Nation)

Marjorie Taylor Greene is not exactly the portrait of manners and decorum. She honestly seems to shun the very thought, given that she heckled President Biden while he discussed his dead son (Beau) during a State Of The Union speech. She also showed censored nude photos of Biden’s other son (Hunter) during a House Oversight Committee hearing, which is still hard to believe actually happened, even when it comes to Greene.

As well, Greene recently doubled down on calling rootin’ tootin’ Lauren Boebert a “little b*tch” on the House floor, which has led some of their colleagues to admit that they wouldn’t be surprised if that rivalry came to a fist fight. With all of that considered, it’s rather rich for Greene to take umbrage with Rep. Robert Garcia, who dared to show a screenshot of Greene’s very public tweets. Garcia was drawing attention to how Greene equated requirements for employees to be vaccinated against Covid with how “the Nazis forced Jewish people to wear a gold star.”

Garcia’s point was not only that certain “members of this committee spread irresponsible facts” but also, obviously, that they “attack vaccines.” Well, Greene was not pleased to see the actual words that she said up on a screen, so she objected: “I ask the members be reminded of the rules of decorum.”

To which plenty of people are amused at where Greene draws the line. She deems it appropriate to show nude photos of the president’s son with the resulting footage being shown across the U.S., but what about showing a tweet and directly quoting her words? That makes her furious.

Garcia was first in line to respond to this contradiction.

He wasn’t alone. Enter the flow of people who still can’t believe Greene’s behavior. And surely, this won’t be the last time that this happens.

Break out the “Margot Robbie was right” shirts.

The Oscar-nominated actress pitched Barbie to studio executives as a movie that could make a billion dollars at the box office. “I think my pitch in the green-light meeting was the studios have prospered so much when they’re brave enough to pair a big idea with a visionary director,” she told Collider, including examples like “dinosaurs and Steven Spielberg.”

Robbie continued, “And I was like, ‘And now you’ve got Barbie and Greta Gerwig.’ And I think I told them that it’d make a billion dollars, which maybe I was overselling, but we had a movie to make, OK?!”

A billion dollars was too low of an estimate.

Barbie is already up to $700 million at the worldwide box office; by Sunday, “some think it could even cross $750 million, making it the third-biggest title of 2023 so far after only its second weekend,” according to the Hollywood Reporter. The only 2023 films that have made more are The Super Mario Bros. Movie ($1.34 billion) and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ($844.8 million).

Only 52 movies have grossed over $1 billion at the worldwide box office. Let’s say Barbie — which will clear a billion in the next few weeks — gets in the range of Mario‘s total gross. That would make it one of the 20 biggest movies ever. It could have been in the top five, if only the “fart opera” had been left in.

(Via the Hollywood Reporter)

If you’ve ever been pregnant, you know that after a certain point, nothing is comfortable. Growing an entire human being inside your own body is no small feat, and between the weight of your belly, your hormones haphazardly ricocheting all over the place, the ravenous hunger that comes out of nowhere and a host of WFT-I-didn’t-know-this-could-happen-with-pregnancy surprises, it’s a lot.

So going to a concert pregnant is a big commitment, which singer Jessie J understands because she herself was seven months pregnant when she gave a live concert. A viral video shared by @mafaldamcruz on TikTok shows the pop star sitting on a stool on stage during a concert in the spring of 2023. She was chatting with the audience when she spotted a fellow pregnant woman in the crowd.

“You’re pregnant, too?” she asked the audience member. “Do you want to sit down?”

She asked how far along the concertgoer was, and while we can’t hear the answer, they must’ve been pretty far long because Jessie J responded, “Oh, sh_t. Come sit here,” while pointing to an area in front of the stage.

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She then spotted another pregnant audience member.

“You’re pregnant as well? You want to come up?” she asked. As she had the pregnant fans come to the front to sit, guiding them around the security barrier, she started chatting about what it’s like to be pregnant before spotting yet another baby belly.

“Isn’t it wild? Isn’t it the weirdest, most amazing, creepiest, beautiful—you look really pregnant as well,” she interjected while pointing to someone in the crowd. “We’re like f-cking Teletubbies, that’s right…we need one more. Where’s Po? she joked.

Then the performer offered them all snacks—”Seriously, do you want like an apple or a banana or something?”—and even handed some snack bars out herself.

Watch the endearing moment:

@mafaldamcruz

this was the funniest thing EVER. I can’t, she’s absolutely hilarious #fyp #jessiej

People loved seeing this very real interaction between the “Price Tag” singer and her fellow preggo fans.

“I used to be a fan of her now I am a whole air conditioner 😍😍😍,” wrote @taniagonese on Instagram.

“OK, but I love this. Women loving women. Supporting each other. My heart. ❤️” wrote @run_rhea_run.

“THIS is the type of show I would pay big money to see – women supporting women and being totally real and honest 🥹” shared @melissa.sews.

“I once heard a comedian on a panel show refer to her as ‘The Lovely Jessie J.’ Never knew much about her, but now I see she has definitely earned that distinction. ❤️” shared @waynetbaker.

Jessie J had her baby, Sky Safir Cornish Colman, on May 12. Behold the cuteness:

See on Instagram

Here’s to women supporting women, and here’s to all who bear the weird, amazing, creepy and beautiful burden of perpetuating the human race. You deserve all the seats and all the snacks you desire.

One thing humans are really good at is hearing about a tragic situation and telling others how they would’ve handled it differently, which presumably would’ve resulted in a better outcome. But the thing is, no one actually knows how they’ll respond to a terrifying situation until they go through it. Even those with specialized training don’t know how they’ll respond until the thing they’ve been training for is unfolding in front of them.

This is why we see stories of police officers mistaking a cell phone for a gun or not immediately entering a building to stop a gunman. So it’s interesting that people think they’ll make just the right decision in a traumatic situation as an everyday citizen. Trauma does weird things to your brain in the moment, and oftentimes we aren’t in control of what our brains decide to do.

But one man on Reddit says his wife believes he should’ve been able to override his trauma response to “defend” her during an armed robbery. Overwhelmingly, his AITA thread is proving that he is indeed not the bad guy in this situation.

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The anonymous poster explained that after a date night, he and his wife decided to cut through the park for a romantic walk home. That’s when things quickly took a turn.

“Well shortly after we get approached by two guys who present, what we believe, are guns demanding our phone/wallets. We are totally caught by surprise and freaked out so we hand everything over,” the man wrote. “They get more elevated and tell us to ‘take off your sh*t’. Now I’m starting to panic, obviously, but what the h*ll am I going to do against a gun.”

Eventually, the husband and wife found themselves standing in their underwear when the men finally took off running. The couple flagged down a driver who called the police and gave them something to cover themselves while they waited for law enforcement to arrive.

The entire event was traumatic, to say the least, but a few days later, his wife angrily confronted him about his failure to protect her during the robbery. And while they both experienced the same traumatic event, their responses afterward were different. Because again, trauma does weird things to your brain. This includes feeling irrationally angry and blaming others for what may have felt like inaction on their part, when logically, you know they couldn’t have done anything differently.

In this situation, you had men who were armed with guns and who were becoming more hostile. Had the original poster attempted to become an Avenger in that moment, it’s a good guess that neither he nor his wife would be here to seek advice from strangers on the internet.

“You both probably would have been shot and killed if you fought back. It happened to a family member of mine. You did the right thing,” one commenter wrote. “Trauma gives people weird feelings and reactions. I hope you guys talk to a therapist to process it.”

“This is absolutely a trauma response. Not a doubt in my mind. Trauma affects everyone differently. Hell, it even affects the same person differently at different times,” someone who works in the mental health field said in part. “It’s really important to find some therapy help soon though. The longer you wait, the worst it can get. And try not to take what your wife said personally. There’s a whole lot to unpack after something like this, and right now, you’re the closest one, and thus the easiest to lash out at.”

The internet isn’t all bad. Many commenters reassured the husband that he did nothing wrong and explained that his wife’s response is also likely related to the trauma. Hopefully, they both come to realize there’s no wrong or right response when it comes to surviving a traumatic event and seek out a qualified trauma therapist to help them overcome that night.

Dating apps are challenging for the average guy because they can be a big blow to their self-esteem. They can contribute to feelings of anxiety and depression because of the heightened competition on the apps and the pressure to present a perfect image.

A study out of the University of North Texas found that male Tinder users reported lower levels of satisfaction with their faces and bodies and lower levels of self-worth than those who aren’t on the dating app.

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A big reason is that it’s a lot harder for straight men to find matches on dating apps than straight women. An eye-opening video created by Memeable Data clearly shows why dating apps can be so frustrating for the average guy.

In the video, the narrator explains there are three significant reasons dating apps are so challenging for most men. Although he doesn’t have all the data necessary to make precise claims, the numbers are aligned with those reported by Hinge.

Reason 1: There are more male than female users. On most sites, men outnumber women 2-to-1.

Reason 2: Men give more likes than women. Men are nearly three times as likely to swipe a profile “like” (46%) than women (14%).

Reason 3: A small share of the users get a big percentage of the likes. About half the likes from men are given to about 25% of the women, and half the likes from women are given to only 15% of the men.

This means that out of 100 swipes per user, the average man only gets one like and zero matches.

Have you ever seen a post by some guy on Facebook with a photo of his significant other and a message that says, “She is my rock. I could never live without her,” or something similar? Did it make you think that the couple was doing well or that he just messed up and needed a little external validation?

If you were skeptical and thought that the relationship might be in trouble, you’re probably right.

A survey of 2,000 British people ages 18 to 50 by Shotkit found a dramatic difference in relationship happiness between people who post a lot of couples’ content and those who “never” share any.

Of those who share excessively (three or more times a week), only 10% report being “very happy” in their relationships, and 42% say they are “very unhappy”—as opposed to those who “never” share couples’ content, of which 46% are “very happy,” and 13% are “very unhappy.”

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Those who also share a moderate amount of couples’ content (birthdays, anniversaries, etc) tend to have healthy relationships as well. Thirty-two percent are “very happy,” and 12% are “very unhappy.”

“We wanted to carry out this research as there are often mixed views on whether posting on social media regularly has positive effects on us or not. We, in particular, wanted to look at the correlation between this and people in relationships. We expected there to be some disparities with the survey, but we didn’t know quite how much of a difference it could make in relationships,” Mark Condon of Shotkit said.

“However, this isn’t to say that all selfies are bad, of course not,” he added. “Perhaps the saying ‘too much of a good thing’ is true in this case. We hope that the research provided some insight and perhaps food for thought for some people.”

A study published by Psychology Today found that posting “general” social media content about a significant other can be a sign of happiness. However, when people make “excessive” posts about their significant others, it’s often a sign of an unhappy relationship.

“So people who post relationship information that they deem as potentially embarrassing or that shows more affection than they are comfortable expressing in person were actually less satisfied,” Gwendolyn Seidman, Ph.D. writes.

Further, people who make these “excessive” posts assume they will help their relationship, which doesn’t always happen.

“This suggests that these types of over-the-top displays are being used to compensate for weaker relationships,” Seidman continues. “These individuals then believe that engaging in these types of posts has helped their relationship.”

However, Seidman says that it’s “not clear” if these posts improve their relationships.

So the takeaway is that it can be healthy for couples to post normal status updates about their relationship, such as “George and I went camping this weekend,” or “Happy anniversary to my boo.” But when the posts are excessive, both in quantity and the amount of personal information disclosed, and out of character for the person posting, they may be a sign of trouble.

Traveling with preteens and teens is a breeze in comparison to traveling with little ones but as a parent you still want to sit near your kiddos in case they need you for anything. If you’ve traveled on an airline in the last several years, you know it’s much cheaper to chose the basic seats in the main cabin.

There’s nothing different about these particular seats other than the airline sort of randomly selects your seat and if you’re traveling alone, that’s really not a bad deal. The risk gets to be a little higher if you’re traveling with a party that you’d like to keep together – like your children. One mom took the risk and banked on a stranger accommodating…that’s not quite how it played out.

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People sit in the wrong seats on planes all the time, usually because they read their ticket wrong or accidentally sit one row ahead. Takes no time to double check your ticket and move along, but when Tammy Nelson did a double take at her ticket after seeing the mom in her window seat, she realized she wasn’t mistakenly staring at the wrong row.

This mom boarded the plane with her older children and had taken it upon herself to sit in the same row as her children, essentially commandeering a stranger’s seat. Nelson assumed it was a mistake and informed the woman that the seat was in fact hers but the response she received was surprising.

“She said, ‘Oh, you want to sit here?’,” Nelson tells Good Morning America. “She said, ‘Oh, well I just thought I could switch with you because these are my kids.'”

That’s an interesting assumption when seats are assigned and many people, like Nelson, pay extra to have the seat they prefer. Now, there’s no telling if funds were tight and this was an unplanned trip for the mom and kids which caused her to buy the more budget friendly tickets or if she was simply being frugal and was banking on the kindness of a stranger.

Either way, Nelson specifically paid for a window seat due to motion sickness and though she paid extra, she was willing to sit in the other row if that seat was also a window seat. But it turns out, it was a middle seat.

Surely there’s someone out there that loves the middle seat. Maybe a cold natured person that enjoys the body heat of two strangers sitting uncomfortably close. Or perhaps someone that doesn’t mind accidentally sleeping on an unsuspecting passenger’s shoulder. But that person isn’t Nelson, so when the middle seat was offered in exchange for her bought and paid for window seat, she politely but sternly declined.

@myconquering

Having had only 90 minutes of sleep the night before and knowing I had to give a presentation to 500 people, I desperately needed some sleep, so I did not agree to switch seats. 🤷‍♀️ Before anyone comes after me… the kids looked like they were about 11 and 15 years old. And the mom was in arms-reach of both of them from the middle seat in the row behind us. The mom proceeded to complain for at least 15 minutes to the person next to her loud enough for me to hear. But the woman actually defended me – several times. It was so kind and I appreciated it so much because I was feeling really guilty. 🤦‍♀️ ##airplaneseat##seatswitching##airplanekarens

Her refusal to give in to the mom’s seemingly entitled request for Nelson’s seat has resulted in parents and child-fee people cheering her on after she posted the details on her TikTok page, MyCONQUERing. The video has over 3.4 million views.

“Nope. If it’s not an upgrade it’s a sacrifice,” a commenter writes.

“You did the RIGHT thing. Folks need to plan their travel together. Lack of planning on their part does not constitute an inconvenience on yours,” one person says.

“I have 3 kids and have sat in different rows when they were passed toddler age. I agree, book your flight earlier,” another writes.

“You were right. As a woman with 3 children, I always pay extra so we’re sat together,” another mom says.

Nelson is also a mom so she knows how important it is to sit next to kids on flights. But since airlines have made that a luxury, as the parent, you have to plan to pay extra or accept that you likely won’t be seated next to your children. Hopefully in the future, this unnamed mom is seated next to her children or pays extra to make sure it happens. In the meantime, people continue to support Nelson standing her ground.

In May, Grimes launched Elf.Tech, a platform that allows fans to use AI technology to replicate her voice. She shared “Cold Touch,” a collaboration with Kito made with Elf.Tech. After, she released “Welcome To The Opera,” a song she first debuted at Electric Daisy Carnival in 2022.

The eccentric pop star confronts her interest in technology on her new clubby track “I Wanna Be Software”: “I wanna be software / Upload my mind / Take all my data / What will you find?” she sings, her vocals warped and alien-like. “I wanna be software / Battery heart / Infinite options / State of the art.”

However, despite her advocation and excitement for the intersection of AI and music, it was reported that Grimes was a signee on a short statement from the Center For AI Safety (CAIS) that warned of AI posing an extinction threat to humanity. “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war,” the brief statement read. CAIS also noted in a press release that they want to “put guardrails in place and set up institutions so that AI risks don’t catch us off guard.”

Listen to “I Wanna Be Software” above.