Month: September 2023

Donald Trump loves to project strength…while safely ensconced in the bubble of rallies or interviews he can mostly control. But not everyone is buying his bull. One Trump turncoat is Chris Christie, who has made the primary focus of his presidential campaign to slam the former president early and often. He’s already made it clear he thinks Trump is a big coward for skipping the GOP debates (and in general). But he thinks there’s another reason the big guy won’t throw down with the likes of Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy and, of course, him.

As per HuffPost, Christie went on CNN, where he told Wolf Blitzer it made sense that Trump wouldn’t mount the debate stage. “If I had his record, I wouldn’t want to debate either,” he argued.

He elaborated on what he means by his record:

“He said he was going to balance the budget in four years, as a business man. He added $7 trillion to the national debt. Said he was going to build a ‘big, beautiful wall’ across the entire border of Mexico. He built 52 miles of new wall in four years. And he said Mexico was gonna pay for it. They never did. He said he was gonna repeal and replace Obamacare. He had a Republican Congress, he couldn’t get it done. Look, that’s not a record to be proud of.”

His poor lone term in office isn’t the only reason he’s hiding out. “He doesn’t want to face me,” Christie explained. “I prepared him for the debates in 2016. I prepared him for the debates in 2020. He knows what that’s like. He doesn’t want the American people to see it. I do.”

Still, Christie dares Trump to debate his fellow candidates. “And by the way, if he had any guts, he’d get on the debate stage,” Christie charged. “And he’s got things to say about me? Stop hiding behind your social media site, your failed social media site, Donald, and start taking me on directly. Show up. Stop being a coward.”

(Via HuffPost)

The game of football is pretty easy. For a few seconds, a ball is in play. You have to win that seconds-long battle of wills. And then, it ends, and you have to do that, over and over again, with the hopes that your team is going to be able to win enough of these battles of wills. And sometimes, you see an offensive lineman do a cartwheel in the middle of a play, for no reason.

That exact thing happened on Saturday afternoon when Louisville played host to Boston College in an ACC showdown. The Cardinals faced a second-and-7 right near midfield, and in a pretty normal sequence of events, the team’s quarterback, Jack Plummer, opted to run the ball because he didn’t like any of his options down the field. But pay attention to the slot on the near side of the screen, where … this happened.

As you can see, Willie Tyler was lined up in the slot. Tyler is a 6’6, 320 pound offensive lineman who was eligible as a receiver, and after jumping straight up after the ball was snapped, he decided to do a cartwheel.

Why did he do this? Who knows, but more importantly, who cares? I am glad that the big fella enjoyed himself.

One of the many ranked matchups during Week 4 of the college football calendar saw the Colorado Buffaloes take on their biggest test of the year, as the team had to travel to Autzen Stadium to take on the Oregon Ducks. With Travis Hunter sidelined and Oregon built to take advantage of Colorado’s struggles in the trenches, Deion Sanders’ squad had quite the uphill battle ahead of them.

Things started off very poorly for them, as the Ducks went up, 13-0. While the Buffaloes were able to get something going on their drive immediately after Oregon’s second score, things stalled out and Sanders opted to punt from the Ducks’ 38. It looked like the decision was gonna work out for them, as their defense was able to make a stand and force a fourth-and-4, to which Dan Lanning sent out his punt team on his own 17.

But instead of booting it, Lanning called for a fake, with the ball going to the 6’5, 305 Casey Rogers, who is listed as a defensive lineman. Rogers got the snap, had a lane, and ran 18 yards for a first down.

Oregon would continue to march down the field, and eventually, Bo Nix was able to connect with Troy Franklin for their third touchdown of the day.

No one has ever gone to Michael Bay movies for logic or easy-to-follow filmmaking, to say nothing of science. But you probably wouldn’t be surprised to learn that actual physicists don’t think much about his most science-heavy movie, Armageddon. (Safe to assume that The Island, about clones, doesn’t know what it’s talking about either.) Still, at least it’s no longer the most physics-illiterate movie out there, thanks to a newish usurper of the title.

As per Deadline, everyone’s favorite movie ruining scientist (and sometime Steak-umm sparring partner), Neil deGrasse Tyson, went on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show, where he and his host talked about popular movies he can’t watch because they’re too bad at science. Cagle pointed out that his guests once said something to the effect that Armageddon “violates more laws of physics per minute than any other film ever made.”

“That’s what I thought until I saw Moonfall,” deGrasse Tyson replied, referring to the most recent ridiculous blockbuster from Independence Day’s Roland Emmerich. “It was a pandemic film that came out, you know, Halle Berry, and the moon is approaching Earth, and they learned that it’s hollow and there’s a moon being made out of rocks living inside of it and the Apollo missions were really to visit, to feed the moon being, and I just couldn’t, so I said, ‘Alright, I thought Armageddon had a secure hold on this crown, but apparently not.’”

DeGrasse Tyson went on to deconstruct a film that actually has even more ludicrous plot developments than the moon threatening to destroy the Earth:

“All you gotta do is just nudge it, and if you do that early enough, if you nudge it like one centimeter per second to the right, in space, there’s no friction, so it’ll just keep drifting to the right. If you do that early enough, then you can have the asteroid pass in front of the earth rather than hit the earth, or you can slow it down so that it’ll pass behind the earth. Two ways you can adjust it. So, yeah. You know what it’s like? It’s like The Terminator thing where I want to kill your parents so that you’re never born. Really? All you have to do is prevent your parents from meeting each other or have them have sex 20 minutes later than the other one. That will create a different zygote and you won’t be born, so the movies go, in some cases, they get hyperbolic on their solutions to problems.”

DeGrasse Tyson is famous for tearing apart the logic of cheerfully stupid movies that most moviegoers don’t watch because they want things to make sense. That said, his deconstruction of Barbie was actually pretty civil.

(Via Deadline)

It’s been almost 10 years since Sky Ferreira released her debut album, Night Time, My Time. Since then, fans have been anxious for new music.

Though she’s revealed that her second album is titled Masochism, a release date for this hotly-anticipated album, years and years of rumored release dates have come and gone.

Fans felt a glimmer of hope back in 2019, when Ferreira released “Downhill Lullaby,” which was said to be the single that would kick off the Masochism era. Ferreira would not release music for another three years, until 2022, when she released the song “Don’t Forget.”

Because of these numerous delays and pushbacks, fans have gotten fed up waiting for her. So much so, that some fans took the liberty of renting a helicopter and flying a banner reading “Free Sky Ferreira” outside of the Capitol Records building in Los Angeles yesterday (September 22)

And this isn’t the first time fans have go to such extremes. Last month, fans evidently rented a billboard in Times Square in New York City, which featured a picture of Ferreira, also reading “Free Sky Ferreira.” Ferreira later vocalized her support for the billboard.

This fall, Ferreira will be going on a nationwide tour, performing at several intimate venues throughout the United States. Though there is no word if this will be to promote Masochism, as there is still no word as to when we can expect the album.

Lil Durk had a hit on his hands this past summer. His J. Cole collaboration “All My Life” was in heavy rotation on the radio and streaming platforms these past few months. The song even reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. But despite the two rappers’ musical chemistry and the song’s undeniable impact, the two had never performed the song live together.

Until last night (September 22), that is. At iHeart Radio Festival in Las Vegas, Durk performed a comprehensive set of his several hits. During the set, he surprised fans by bringing out Cole for a performance of “All My Life.”

Though this was only the first time the duo has performed the song together live, the two matched each other’s energy well. The audience cheered when Cole arrived to the stage, and maintained their good spirits as the two performed the song.

While the two have a clear admiration for each other, Durk admitted in an interview with Complex that he felt Cole outrapped him on the song.

“The number one thing, he smoked my ass on that, for one,” Durk said. “Barely. That barely happens. But shoutout to Cole…We made it happen.”

You can see a clip of the performance above.

When Lenny Kravitz first sang “All of my life, where have you been? / I wonder if I’ll ever see you again” on his 2000 hit single, “Again,” he was likely referring to a past love. But fans of Kravitz — as well as fans of memes — get to see a familiar favorite again.

Today (September 23), Kravitz made his debut on TikTok, with the legendary scarf. You know, the giant scarf. The scarf that launched a thousand memes.

In his first-ever TikTok, Kravitz is seen walking toward the camera wearing the scarf, saying “Grab your big scarf. It’s the first day of fall.”

Kravitz was first seen photographed wearing the scarf back in 2012, while he was out running errands, as photographed above. However, the size of the scarf spawned many a joke and meme on the internet. Some fans have even photoshopped the picture, growing the scarf larger and larger over time.

He has addressed the memes on several occasions, including a 2020 interview with GQ, in which he said “You look at some of those [images] and it’s just like, ‘Okay guys, the scarf is three times bigger than it really is in this picture, but it was big and it was cold.’”

But thankfully, it seems like he recalls this memory fondly.

You can see a clip on the TikTok above.

A lot has changed for Russell Brand in the last week. The British performer has been accused of multiple counts of sexual misconduct. Though Brand has denied the allegations, the claims are so severe that he’s received sharp blowback, including being demonetized on YouTube, where he has over six million subscribers. He’s still going strong at Rumble, the far right video service, but now they’re paying the price for their actions.

As per The Guardian, a number of companies have pulled ads from Rumble, the most prominent being Burger King and Hello Fresh. You may be thinking: Wait, Burger King and Hello Fresh advertised on a home for Don Jr. and other extremist conspiracy theorist wackos? Apparently! Other companies that no longer advertise on Rumble include the fashion and cosmetic retailer ASOS and the London residential complex the Barbican.

Brand has long had a home on Rumble, which purports to be a haven for free speech, i.e., a place where you can spread nonsense without any consequence. Once upon a time Brand was a fierce cheerleader for progressive values. He still is, to a point, but he’s also added anti-vaccine and other far right beliefs to his repertoire. Last year, after YouTube took down a video in which Brand spread misinformation — misinformation he himself admitted as wrong. He then claimed he was being censored, then declared he’d found a new, more welcoming home over in the MAGA land that is Rumble.

The allegations against Brand are largely from the days when he was at the height of his fame, during which he admitted he was “very, very promiscuous.” Some of the claims include that he raped a woman against a wall and that he took advantage of a woman when she was 16. On Friday Brand posted a video on Twitter/X and (yes) Rumble in which he claimed the government was trying to censor him.

(Via The Guardian)

A 29-year-old woman had a baby girl, and after a brief maternity leave, she had to return to work. She couldn’t afford childcare, so her husband, 35, reluctantly agreed to watch the baby while she was at work.

“It’s important to know that he’s been unemployed since 2021,” the woman wrote on Reddit’s AITA subforum. “He receives benefits. It’s also important to know that he’s extremely lazy. He doesn’t cook, clean, or help out in any way. I was nervous about leaving her home with her father, but I had no choice.”

The mother had reason to be worried about leaving her baby home alone with her husband, but in the beginning, things seemed fine. “When I came back from work, she was clean and sleeping. The next few times I came home, he was either playing with her, feeding her, or out for a walk with her. I was happy,” she wrote.

The mother thought things looked nice on the surface, but they weren’t as they seemed.

“A few days ago, my neighbor told me that as soon as I leave, the baby cries, and she cries for hours,” the mother wrote. “My neighbor said that she knocked on our door, and he finally answered it. He was sleeping. I concluded that he sleeps all day and right. Before I come home, he pretends to care for her.”

The mother hatched an elaborate plan to see if he was watching the baby or sleeping all day.

“I decided to take the day off of work. I left home at my regular time,” she wrote. “I waited 30 minutes and then went home. Sure enough, he was knocked out, sleeping with his stupid noise-canceling headphones on. I went to my daughter’s room, scooped her up, and took her to my friend’s house.”

Two hours later, she called her husband and said she was coming home. He was frantic because he couldn’t find the child and almost called the police. The wife then explained to her husband that she had taken the baby while he was asleep. When she got home his mother was there “calming his nerves,” and they both had strong words for the wife.

The husband went to live at his mother’s house, and their family members have been telling the wife that she’s a “terrible” person. She admits that her tactics may have been a bit “extreme” but doesn’t think she’s in the wrong.

Her husband was obviously neglectful and putting the baby in extreme danger, so it was commendable that the mom saw the situation for herself and took the baby to a safe place. However, the situation could have gotten worse if her husband had called the police and reported the kidnapping.

It probably would have been best if she had caught the husband sleeping and called him out for neglect instead of escalating the situation with a fake kidnapping. After the incident, the mother left her husband, took the baby to live with a friend, and is considering pressing charges against him.

The commenters on the Reddit thread overwhelmingly believed that the wife did the right thing by catching the husband in the act and leaving him.

“FYI, this isn’t just a leave your husband because he sucks. You need to leave him before you loose your child. Neglect is abuse. Your neighbor was nice and called you instead of CPS. But if you stay with your husband they can take your child from you as well,” mandytheratmom wrote. “So you managed to get inside the house and grab your child and he never noticed you? What if something happened to your kid while he had his noise-canceling headphones?!” Elderberryown666 added.

The mother responded to the repeated calls to leave her husband with a simple remark that sums up the whole story: “I’m done with him. He’s waiting for an apology.”

Madeleine Albright once said, “There is a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.” It turns out that might actually be a hell on Earth, because women just do better when they have other women to rely on, and there’s research that backs it up.

A study published in the Harvard Business Review found that women who have a strong circle of friends are more likely to get executive positions with higher pay. “Women who were in the top quartile of centrality and had a female-dominated inner circle of 1-3 women landed leadership positions that were 2.5 times higher in authority and pay than those of their female peers lacking this combination,” Brian Uzzi writes in the Harvard Business Review.

Part of the reason why women with strong women backing them up are more successful is because they can turn to their tribe for advice. Women have to face different challenges than men, such as unconscious bias, and being able to turn to other women who have had similar experiences can help you navigate a difficult situation. It’s like having a road map for your goals.

​It’s interesting to note that women in leadership positions who lacked this style of support system didn’t make as much as the women who did. “While women who had networks that most resembled those of successful men (i.e., centrality but no female inner circle) placed into leadership positions that were among the lowest in authority and pay,” Uzzi writes. Men and women have different needs, and that even extends to their tribe.

But it’s not just in the workplace. A 2006 study found that women who had 10 or more friends were more likely to survive the disease than women who lacked close friends. The study found socially isolated women were 64% more likely to die from cancer, and 43% more likely to have a breast cancer reoccurrence. Friendship is literally the best medicine.

Never underestimate the power of a group text with your girlfriends. Having a place to commiserate over sexism and support other women with goofy gifs when someone succeeds can enrich your life on all fronts.

This article originally appeared on 12.03.19