Month: August 2023

Fast X zoomed into theaters in May, and since then, we’ve all been initiated into the Toretto family. No driver’s license required! Even though we thought it was over (how naive) it turns out that there will be more Fast movies for several years/decades to come, or at least until Vin Diesel decides he wants to go back to his given name, Mark Sinclair. Nobody would see an action movie starring a dude named Mark Sinclair, probably.

But before we get ahead of ourselves and start plotting out Fast plotlines, it’s almost time to rewatch Jason Momoa blow stuff up. If you need a refresher, Fast X brought back Diesel and the gang, including Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, John Cena, Brie Larson, and Helen Mirren, for a whole new round of action-packed car shenanigans that brought them all the way to Rome and Brazil and London. Who knew cars could travel internationally so easily?

The movie will land on Peacock beginning September 15th, but that’s not all: several other Fast titles are dropping on the streamer, including Fast and Furious 6, Fate of the Furious and Hobbs & Shaw, all on the same day. Two weeks later, on October 1st, Furious 7 will also hit the streamer.

As for the rest of the series, you’ll have to fish around the internet, but, really, it’s the one with Jason Momoa that we are all focused on, right?

Fast X zoomed into theaters in May, and since then, we’ve all been initiated into the Toretto family. No driver’s license required! Even though we thought it was over (how naive) it turns out that there will be more Fast movies for several years/decades to come, or at least until Vin Diesel decides he wants to go back to his given name, Mark Sinclair. Nobody would see an action movie starring a dude named Mark Sinclair, probably.

But before we get ahead of ourselves and start plotting out Fast plotlines, it’s almost time to rewatch Jason Momoa blow stuff up. If you need a refresher, Fast X brought back Diesel and the gang, including Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, John Cena, Brie Larson, and Helen Mirren, for a whole new round of action-packed car shenanigans that brought them all the way to Rome and Brazil and London. Who knew cars could travel internationally so easily?

The movie will land on Peacock beginning September 15th, but that’s not all: several other Fast titles are dropping on the streamer, including Fast and Furious 6, Fate of the Furious and Hobbs & Shaw, all on the same day. Two weeks later, on October 1st, Furious 7 will also hit the streamer.

As for the rest of the series, you’ll have to fish around the internet, but, really, it’s the one with Jason Momoa that we are all focused on, right?

Ron DeSantis has not been shy about touting his “anti-woke” crusade that has wreaked havoc on Florida’s education system due to schools being forced to ban Shakespeare or teach students that slavery was actually beneficial because it taught the slaves a trade. However, one particular institution is really feeling the brunt of DeSantis’ meddling.

Earlier this year, the Florida governor overhauled a small liberal arts college, and the effects have been disastrous. The school in question, New College of Florida, has now reportedly seen a mass exodus of more than 40 faculty members after DeSantis appointed six conservative trustees to the board, stripped away the DEI office, and started denying tenure.

Without enough faculty to teach courses, the already thin catalog has become so sparse that students can’t even take classes for their majors or “areas of concentration” as the school calls them. Instead, they’re being told to “choose something else.” Needless to say, the parents of those students are not happy.

Via Inside Higher Ed:

“These are young adults who are not looking to fill up a semester with high school electives. It’s not like, ‘Oh, chorus is closed, let me just go take that art class,’” [one mother] said. “There are classes [students] need to take to continue to propel [their] studies forward … that was just an absolute stunning thing to have a college tell us, just pick something else. No.”

On top of the faculty exodus, New College is reportedly having a housing crisis as well. Students are being forced to stay in off-campus hotels where there’s not enough room on shuttle busses to bring them to campus for the few classes they can actually take.

Great job, Ron.

(Via Inside Higher Ed)

Ron DeSantis has not been shy about touting his “anti-woke” crusade that has wreaked havoc on Florida’s education system due to schools being forced to ban Shakespeare or teach students that slavery was actually beneficial because it taught the slaves a trade. However, one particular institution is really feeling the brunt of DeSantis’ meddling.

Earlier this year, the Florida governor overhauled a small liberal arts college, and the effects have been disastrous. The school in question, New College of Florida, has now reportedly seen a mass exodus of more than 40 faculty members after DeSantis appointed six conservative trustees to the board, stripped away the DEI office, and started denying tenure.

Without enough faculty to teach courses, the already thin catalog has become so sparse that students can’t even take classes for their majors or “areas of concentration” as the school calls them. Instead, they’re being told to “choose something else.” Needless to say, the parents of those students are not happy.

Via Inside Higher Ed:

“These are young adults who are not looking to fill up a semester with high school electives. It’s not like, ‘Oh, chorus is closed, let me just go take that art class,’” [one mother] said. “There are classes [students] need to take to continue to propel [their] studies forward … that was just an absolute stunning thing to have a college tell us, just pick something else. No.”

On top of the faculty exodus, New College is reportedly having a housing crisis as well. Students are being forced to stay in off-campus hotels where there’s not enough room on shuttle busses to bring them to campus for the few classes they can actually take.

Great job, Ron.

(Via Inside Higher Ed)

Britney Spears and her husband Sam Asghari have reportedly separated over cheating allegations, according to TMZ. TMZ’s sources say that Sam moved out of the couple’s home after accusing Spears of cheating on him and that “it’s only a matter of time before Sam files for divorce.” The couple’s relationship was reportedly close to being on the rocks for months, despite Asghari’s public defense of Spears for behavior some observers have called erratic.

The couple began dating in 2016 after meeting on the set of Spears’ music video for “Slumber Party.” Asghari is a personal trainer who was very vocal about supporting her through her conservatorship and the responding #FreeBritney movement. He proposed to her in September 2021, and in April of 2022, they announced her pregnancy with her third child and his first, which ended in a miscarriage. The couple was married in June of 2022 in a home ceremony that her ex, Jason Alexander, tried to crash, leading to his arrest.

Throughout the past year, Asghari has stood by Spears as she was caught up in an incident at a trendy Los Angeles restaurant and as fans speculated about her mental health due to her social media activity. “My wife is in full control of her life and will continue to make all decisions involving her care regardless of circumstances,” he said. “Speculation on her health is inappropriate and should end immediately.”

Spears recently dipped her toe back into the music biz with the will.i.am collaboration “Mind Your Business,” and has been writing a memoir after what she calls “a lot of therapy.”

Sure, there are inherent problems that come from assigning children with the label “gifted,” among them being the constant pressure to succeed, equating good grades with self-worth, being alienated from peers, and last but not least, having to deal with the psychological whiplash of learning that being “special” doesn’t protect you from real-world problems once school is over.

With that said, are parents doing their high-achieving kids a disservice by calling them “gifted?”

One dad seems to think so…although he may be regretting sharing that perspective.

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On Reddit’s Am I The A**hole forum, the dad explained that he and his wife both hold degrees in electrical engineering and have two children—a son, 17, and a daughter, 15.

Their daughter finished high school early and is heading to college at the same time as their son. She’s already chosen to study physics and computer science, while their son hasn’t picked a major yet.

After commending his daughter for her achievements and saying that she had been in the gifted program at her school, the dad goes on to share a dinner conversation that quickly went south.

“My wife mentioned how proud she was of our daughter and how lucky we were to have gifted children going to good university programs and how not many people can do what our daughter did.”

Aw. What a nice mom. Here’s how the dad responded.

via GIPHY

“I was also very happy but I said that while (daughter) is really hardworking and smart, I would not say that she is actually gifted and others can’t do it if they put in the same amount of work,” he said. “Her school does a lot to try to admit girls into her program, and my wife helped teach her advanced college level math and physics from an earlier age, she didn’t naturally pick it up on her own. If anything being a younger applicant with the same credentials probably helped her stand out more for the admissions committee.”

While the dad attests that he was merely trying to avoid the term “gifted” because he had seen how it has “ruined” other people’s lives, his intentions didn’t exactly pan out.

“Both my wife and daughter are upset at me now, my wife thinks I was trying to put her down which is not true and says she is gifted, while my daughter actually agrees with me but says I should not have said it as she already knows,” he wrote.

And therein lies the OP’s question: was he the jerk in this situation? Did he unrightfully downplay his daughter’s abilities?

According to the folks on Reddit, the answer is unequivocally yes. Not only was the action unnecessary and toxic but it was also deemed as pretty illogical.

via GIPHY

“Putting your daughter down served no positive purpose. Discouraging a young teen like that can have serious detrimental effects. Even if she isn’t actually gifted, you were the asshole,” the top comment read. “That being said, she is gifted. Not every 15-year-old can go to a university to study physics. Not only is she gifted academically, she is gifted with drive and determination. Not everyone has that. And you tried to put her down.”

“The very fact that she was able to pick up calculus at an early age is evidence she is gifted. I’m assuming she was doing calculus at age 12-13 if she’s already going to college for physics. Anyone doing calculus before high school is gifted, she’s several standard deviations higher than the average student,” wrote another.

Posts from the amitheasshole
community on Reddit

Several women who worked in STEM also chimed in to point out how the dad’s rhetoric reflected sexism.

One person wrote: “I spent my career as a woman in the sciences and I’ve been around countless guys like you who are quick to praise their little female ‘worker bees’ as long as they know their place, but who are incapable of acknowledging when a woman is genuinely exceptional. It’s especially heartbreaking that you have managed to erode her awareness of her own gifts to the point where she ‘actually agrees’ with you that she is ‘just’ a hard worker and not really gifted.”

And perhaps the comment to drive it all home:

“The horrible part here is that this message is coming from the girl’s own father. He should be her biggest fan, not her harshest critic.”

Parents want to do what’s best for their kids—setting them up for the highest success while protecting them from potential danger. But sometimes that objective gets warped by a parent’s own limited viewpoint. Hopefully, other parents can take this story as a reminder that when their kids are excelling, knocking them down a peg doesn’t really do them any favors.

Sure, there are inherent problems that come from assigning children with the label “gifted,” among them being the constant pressure to succeed, equating good grades with self-worth, being alienated from peers, and last but not least, having to deal with the psychological whiplash of learning that being “special” doesn’t protect you from real-world problems once school is over.

With that said, are parents doing their high-achieving kids a disservice by calling them “gifted?”

One dad seems to think so…although he may be regretting sharing that perspective.

---

On Reddit’s Am I The A**hole forum, the dad explained that he and his wife both hold degrees in electrical engineering and have two children—a son, 17, and a daughter, 15.

Their daughter finished high school early and is heading to college at the same time as their son. She’s already chosen to study physics and computer science, while their son hasn’t picked a major yet.

After commending his daughter for her achievements and saying that she had been in the gifted program at her school, the dad goes on to share a dinner conversation that quickly went south.

“My wife mentioned how proud she was of our daughter and how lucky we were to have gifted children going to good university programs and how not many people can do what our daughter did.”

Aw. What a nice mom. Here’s how the dad responded.

via GIPHY

“I was also very happy but I said that while (daughter) is really hardworking and smart, I would not say that she is actually gifted and others can’t do it if they put in the same amount of work,” he said. “Her school does a lot to try to admit girls into her program, and my wife helped teach her advanced college level math and physics from an earlier age, she didn’t naturally pick it up on her own. If anything being a younger applicant with the same credentials probably helped her stand out more for the admissions committee.”

While the dad attests that he was merely trying to avoid the term “gifted” because he had seen how it has “ruined” other people’s lives, his intentions didn’t exactly pan out.

“Both my wife and daughter are upset at me now, my wife thinks I was trying to put her down which is not true and says she is gifted, while my daughter actually agrees with me but says I should not have said it as she already knows,” he wrote.

And therein lies the OP’s question: was he the jerk in this situation? Did he unrightfully downplay his daughter’s abilities?

According to the folks on Reddit, the answer is unequivocally yes. Not only was the action unnecessary and toxic but it was also deemed as pretty illogical.

via GIPHY

“Putting your daughter down served no positive purpose. Discouraging a young teen like that can have serious detrimental effects. Even if she isn’t actually gifted, you were the asshole,” the top comment read. “That being said, she is gifted. Not every 15-year-old can go to a university to study physics. Not only is she gifted academically, she is gifted with drive and determination. Not everyone has that. And you tried to put her down.”

“The very fact that she was able to pick up calculus at an early age is evidence she is gifted. I’m assuming she was doing calculus at age 12-13 if she’s already going to college for physics. Anyone doing calculus before high school is gifted, she’s several standard deviations higher than the average student,” wrote another.

Posts from the amitheasshole
community on Reddit

Several women who worked in STEM also chimed in to point out how the dad’s rhetoric reflected sexism.

One person wrote: “I spent my career as a woman in the sciences and I’ve been around countless guys like you who are quick to praise their little female ‘worker bees’ as long as they know their place, but who are incapable of acknowledging when a woman is genuinely exceptional. It’s especially heartbreaking that you have managed to erode her awareness of her own gifts to the point where she ‘actually agrees’ with you that she is ‘just’ a hard worker and not really gifted.”

And perhaps the comment to drive it all home:

“The horrible part here is that this message is coming from the girl’s own father. He should be her biggest fan, not her harshest critic.”

Parents want to do what’s best for their kids—setting them up for the highest success while protecting them from potential danger. But sometimes that objective gets warped by a parent’s own limited viewpoint. Hopefully, other parents can take this story as a reminder that when their kids are excelling, knocking them down a peg doesn’t really do them any favors.

Gyms are communal spaces where people can come to improve their health, fitness and/or overall well-being.

However, it’s no secret that many gyms have also become a production studio of sorts where influencers can set up a tripod to demonstrate the most cutting-edge squatting technique or where the average Joe can take that obligatory gym selfie to prove that the workout did, in fact, happen.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with either of these activities. However, they have sparked a new kind of behavior in gymgoers where they feign extreme frustration if folks walk from one machine to the next or grab a piece of equipment and, heaven forbid, enter the frame.

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Take for instance a video shared to Reddit by u/ASTATINE_628, where we first see several cuts of a young woman at the gym, seemingly perturbed that people are continuously walking through her frame in her video.

The clip then cuts to a guy who breaks down what’s wrong with this scenario in a very clear and concise way.

“This sense of entitlement has gotten out of hand,” he said, noting that “for you to get upset because there’s people simply in your video going about their workout, not bothering you, minding their own business, is ridiculous.”

To act like she owns the gym.
by u/ASTATINE_628 in therewasanattempt

He certainly has a point. Of course, when personal space is actually being infringed upon, like when someone is facing harassment, that’s a different story. But in this case, as the man stated, there is no wrongdoing by simply existing.

The man then summed it all up with a short and sweet reminder about common decency. Or maybe not-so-common, since we’re needing reminders.

“Unless your name is on that gym, your filming is never a priority over other people. They pay the same gym membership that you do. If you can’t film responsibly, if you can’t respect other people in a shared space, you don’t belong filming at all,” he said.

Really, this behavior stems from something larger than modern-day gym culture. We film ourselves a lot these days, and often in public. This has undoubtedly caused a shift in how we view personal boundaries in the outside world, with both positive and negative effects.

On the one hand, it can be fun and self-esteem-boosting to treat your life as one big video diary. On the other hand, we bring strangers unwillingly into our orbit, treating them as punching bags, entertainment, or, in the case of the miffed gymgoers, nuisances. We vainly stop treating other people like fellow humans sharing life on this crazy blue planet. No video seems worth forgetting that.

Even for those who have never set foot into a gym, and never will, this is a poignant reminder to not lose our humanity as our relationship with social media grows. It’s perfectly fine to tap into “main character energy.” Let’s just keep in mind that really, we’re all part of the same story.

This article originally appeared on 3.28.23

Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey is the best-selling and most recognizable American whiskey in the world. It’s a true powerhouse. But a lot of that love for Jack Daniel’s worldwide (and at home) is driven by Old No. 7 Tennessee Whiskey. And while Old No. 7 is a classic and has its place in the pantheon of great American whiskey, it’s in no way the whole Jack Daniel’s story. Especially not in 2023. Jack Daniel’s has been releasing some of the best mainstream and limited edition whiskeys over the past few years and, well…

They just dropped a goddamn game-changing rye whiskey.

Seriously. Released on August 15th, 2023, this rye expression is a “Heritage Barrel” rye — meaning that Jack’s signature Tennessee rye whiskey was aged in specially made barrels for years until it was just right. It’s a hell of a concept out of the gate, since Jack’s base rye whiskey is already pretty spot-on as a standard pour. Using special barrels to age that whiskey only means more concentrated and heightened flavors.

Spoiler alert: This is a f*cking banger, folks. Can you sense my enthusiasm?

Read on for my full review. I also make sure to get into how to actually score a bottle. It’s not going to be easy but, holy shit, will it be worth it.

• The 100 Best Bourbon Whiskeys From Kentucky, Ranked
• The Absolute Best Bottle Of Whiskey From Each Of The 50 States
• The ‘Smoothest’ Bourbons On The Market, Blind Tasted And Ranked
• The 100 Best Bourbons That *Aren’t* From Kentucky, Ranked
• The 100 Best Bourbons Under $100 Right Now, Ranked

Jack Daniel’s Twice Barreled Special Release Tennessee Rye Whiskey Heritage Barrel Rye

ABV: 50%

Average Price: $75

The Whiskey:

This whiskey starts off with Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Rye Whiskey which is hewn from a mash of 70% rye, 18% corn, and 12% malted barley with Jack’s own yeast and lactobacillus strains. After a slow drip-drop filtering through 10 solid feet of sugar maple charcoal (which strips oily graininess and highlights sweet fruitiness, among other notes), the mellowed juice is filled into “Heritage Barrels.” Those barrels were seasoned in the open air for years. Once coopered, the American white oak barrels are heavily toasted and lightly charred. That toasting allows the sugars to caramelize and become more easily available to the distillate while the light char means less filtering as the whiskey moves in and out of the wood.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: The nose opens with a deep sense of Christmas spiced cakes brimming with candied cherries and orange peels next to roasted walnuts and a moist strip of pear brandy-soaked marzipan with a light hint of homemade cranberry sauce, roasting herbs, and a light sense of fresh pipe tobacco just kissed with spicy chili-infused Mexican hot chocolate with a real vanilla pod as a swizzle stick.

Palate: That vanilla gets super creamy on the palate as eggnog with clove and nutmeg drive the taste back to candied pear, cherry, and orange with an underbelly of dry smudging sage, cedar bark, and tobacco leaves braided and rolled into an old cigar humidor with a sweet leathery edge.

Finish: The end marries the candied cherry, spiced chocolate, and vanilla buttercream into a bespoke Black Forest cake with a holiday spice vibe next to soft sweetgrass, more of those roasting herbs, and a whisper of dried ancho chili soaked in pear brandy that’s just kissed with huckleberry pie.

Bottom Line:

F*cking delicious. This was amazing neat. It sipped like a dream. Over a rock, it turned extra creamy and luscious with more marzipan covered in dark chocolate alongside brandy-soaked dried fruits and fresh gingerbread with a flake of salt.

Ranking:

100/100 — this is one of the best whiskeys of the year (so far). And value wise? It’s beyond killer.

Where To Buy:

You’re not going to find this at MSRP unless you win a lottery. Sorry, but thems the breaks on something this limited/allocated and good. It’s only been 24 hours, but this is already appearing in retail shops online for anywhere from $299 to $599.

Outside of really good whiskey bars and restaurants with a killer whiskey list, you’re going to have to pay dearly for this one. Pay it. This is truly top-tier whiskey that not only lives up to the hype but goes beyond it. This is Jack Daniel’s at its absolute best.

A month and change after Usher and Keke Palmer set the internet on fire in Las Vegas, they linked up for Usher’s new “Boyfriend” video today (August 16). In light of that, Palmer took a minute to heap some praise onto Usher, who, like many of her peers, saw him as an idol during her childhood (and also still).

Shortly after the video was released, Palmer tweeted, “Usher! I remember when I was 12 and auditioned for ‘In The Mix’ [crying laughing emoji] You have been killing it all my life. As a true lover of the arts, your talent and craftsmanship are a rare combination that I aspire to achieve as a performer. You are a living legend who is worthy of awe! Thank you for encouraging me and seeing me as the entertainer I am. I know I’m a gUrL but when I watched your videos, I never wanted to be the girl in them, I wanted to be YOU. Thank you for making a dream come true.”

History has shown that Palmer ended up doing fine without landing that role in In The Mix, a 2005 film that was one of Usher’s first leading roles as an actor. In fact, when she was 12, Palmer had her highly praised breakout role starring in the 2006 movie Akeelah And The Bee. In The Mix, meanwhile, was far from a critical hit.