Month: January 2024

Americans have a style and personality all their own, which isn’t a bad thing. It’s just noticeable when they travel aboard. Americans often stand out because of their outgoing personalities. They are friendly and enjoy having casual conversations with strangers.

This is an endearing trait to a lot of people in more reserved cultures, although it can also come off as a little brash.

An American characteristic that isn’t quite endearing to people in other countries is that they can be rather loud. In Europe, one can always notice the Americans in the restaurant because they can be heard from across the room.

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A Reddit user named Frosty-Ad3575 wanted to know the specific ways that Americans stand out when traveling abroad, so they asked the AskReddit subforum: “What’s an obvious sign that someone is an American?”

The post was popular, receiving nearly 6,000 responses in just 6 days. The most popular ones described how Americans’ unique personalities, style of dress, dental hygiene and body language make them easy to spot.

Here are 14 “obvious” signs that someone is an American.

1. Posture

“Apparently, the CIA trains American agents to not lean on things if they go undercover in foreign countries because Americans lean on anything they can while standing around.” — Clown1998

“I bet MI6 trains British agents to lean on everything if they go undercover in America because Americans lean on anything they can while standing around.” — KingoftheMongoose

2. The date

“MMDDYYYY.” — LowRevolution6175

3. Distances are different

“Anything under 4 hours is ‘close by.'” — Grey-Canary

“Everything in Europe is around the corner if you’re from the US. I can drive the whole day and not leave my state, but in Europe, I can pass through 4 countries in that same time frame.” — JayHitter

4. They’re polite to servers

“In the touristy cafe-restaurant I worked at:

If they asked me for the nicest spot we had

If they asked me my recommendation without seeing the menu first

I would walk to the table, and they would say right away ‘hey, how are you doing?’ This one threw me off a lot at first. Why is this person asking me how I’m doing?? I’m just there to take the order. I got used to it, and I think they found my awkwardness cute.

They would ask my name when I greeted them and took their order.

I’m Northern European.” — Muc_99

“It’s under-appreciated just how polite, friendly, and sincere Americans are in general. It blew my mind the first time I came to the US, and I love that my children are growing up with those same values.” — Irishweather5000

5. The water bottles

“I was told, ‘Americans carry water bottles around like they’re worried they’ll never have access to clean water ever again.'” — Kosher_Dill

“I don’t care what anyone says. If you think carrying a water bottle when walking a lot is weird, you’re probably slightly dehydrated all the time and are just desensitized to it. You seriously need to drink water frequently if you want to be ideally healthy.” — Tan11

6. Smiling

“I was in Germany this past summer, and I realized smiling at everyone you make eye contact with is very American. When I went to London on the same trip, they seemed less weirded out by it but would awkwardly return the smile. I was taught to always start with a disarming smile. Never realized it was American.” — 12ozFitz

7. “More ice, please.”

“I spent a year in Europe completely iceless to the point I forgot that was a thing. I stopped at a bar in Chicago fresh off the plane and not only did I get free tap water, but water with ice. I instantly felt at home.” — Outside-Crezz8119

8. Personal space

“As an American man, I’ve been told repeatedly by European and Asian friends that we simply take up space (not by being fat) as though we’re entitled to it. Men in other countries apparently don’t claim the same personal space we do.” — Potomacan

9. White teeth

“It’s even more bizarre that they assume we have braces or bleach our teeth because they’re straight and white. I have naturally straight white teeth. I brush them twice a day so they stay white. I don’t do anything special to them, but I remember being in London and some similar-aged students literally making fun of me for my teeth… it’s true that they don’t naturally look like headstones in an ancient graveyard, but there’s no need to make fun.” — DPretilloZbornak

10. Casual dress

“My friend went to Germany recently, and what people said about Americans is you can spot them a mile away because they’re the ones wearing pajamas in public. Apparently, in other countries, at least Germany, they dress a little more formally and in less baggy clothes than we do in America.” — MarcusWahlbezius

11. Baseball hats

“Baseball cap… even on an infant riding in a pram.” — SyntheticOne

12. Shoes

“Americans are shoe snobs (they don’t think they are, but they are). Setting aside wealthier business types, Americans generally wear more on-brand, on-trend, high-quality shoes than others.” — Mouflony

13. They’re loud

“That was my first thought. Americans yell at each other in normal conversation in public. I noticed it years ago in Europe, and now I can’t stand it in the US.” — SucccotashOther277

14. Occupation matters

“Immediately asking someone what they do for a living when meeting them. Our jobs and work are our entire identity.” — Bealzu

“I hate that about American culture. I’m an American and recently became a SAHM, so I don’t have an answer to ‘What do you do for a living?’ Half the time, I add the caveat, ‘Oh, my last job was with Apple,’ so that I’m not written off as an unemployed ‘loser.’ But it really is dumb to determine a person’s worth by what they do in order to afford food and shelter.” — WassupSassySasquatch

No one enjoys being made fun of. It can be difficult to manage no matter how old you are, but the internet has brought teasing and bullying to a whole new level. People no longer have to see their bullies face-to-face, and instead of maybe someone turning a few of their friends against you, it’s a few hundred or few thousand joining in on the teasing.

In this digital age, people are still trying to learn new ways to deal with finding themselves on the receiving end of online bullies. Mychal, a librarian who has become a viral sensation for his unique way of excitedly telling people about the library, recently found out he was the subject of online bullies. He had no idea anyone was teasing him until followers started doing mental health check-ins to make sure he was okay.

Once he found out why his community was reaching out with concern, the librarian decided to address the situation head on and in the process he gave a masterclass in kindness.

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Mychal reveals that the offending post is on “Twitter,” (now known as X) and some comments are so bad that he refused to repeat them. He also advised that his followers not look at the comments under the thread due to their inappropriate, harmful nature. According to the librarian, people mocked the way he spoke, his mannerisms and more. But instead of angrily responding, Mychal reminded his followers that sometimes people have bad days.

“I am talking about this because I want people to remember that sometimes people have their worst day and they are really struggling in life,” Mychal says. “Sometimes what that results in is they say very mean, very cruel things about other people, which is not okay. It’s not okay to say mean, cruel things about people.”

He further explains that he is reminding himself along with others that sometimes people are saying mean things because that’s what they feel about themselves. Mychal went on to wish the bullies kindness and joy in their lives to top off his lesson in handling internet bullies. While being on the receiving end of bullying does hurt, it’s people like Mychal that let others know they’re not alone. Commenters were quick to remind the librarian of the same.

@mychal3ts

Quite a few people messaged me “mental health check” before I became aware of that Twitter thread, and I just want to say, “THANK YOU!” 💚 #BookTok #LibraryTikTok #Storytime

“Obviously they’re not kind library friends. Sending love, Mychal. You’re great.,” one person writes.

In a three-part comment, one viewer wanted Mychal to know just how much he was appreciated. “Mychal, I’m not even kidding but every single time you come onto my for you page, you make my day. I love when I see you on my page because you just make me feel so genuinely safe. You are such a sweet, wonderful, and truly beautiful person, and I’m sorry that some people are so miserable that they feel the need to bring you down. But I just want you to know that you are deeply appreciated. By me, and by all the other people who look forward to seeing your content every day, I can’t even express to you or properly thank you for what you’ve done for me and others.”

Clearly the community Mychal has built is amazing, and no matter what the bullies say, his followers are there with enough positive affirmations to last a lifetime. Keep being you, Mychal. It’s obvious that your voice is needed.

Few video games are as compelling and addictive as Tetris. Nor are other games, even the most difficult ones, literally impossible to beat.

The task behind Tetris is simple: rotate the falling blocks to fit the puzzle. But as those pieces fall at a faster and faster rate, at some point even the most skilled player becomes outmatched. In fact, no player (other than an AI bot) has been known to ever actually beat the game.

Until now.

Thirteen-year-old Willis Gibson, better known as “Blue Scuti” when he’s gaming, was about 39 minutes into a Tetris competition, rotating blocks at lightning speed, when he achieved a “True Killscreen,” signaling the game couldn’t keep up and crashed.

In other words, Gibson did the impossible. The 34-year-old old game was finally beat…by a teen.

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As soon as it happened, the young gamer threw up his gloves in shock and screamed, “Oh my god!” nearly hyperventilating with excitement.

“I can’t feel my fingers,” he said in the live broadcast of the game.

According to 404 Media, Gibson’s history-breaking success is thanks in part to a revolutionary new technique that became popular in 2021 called “rolling,” where he holds the controller in a way that allows him to push the D-pad up to 20 times per second. This method surpasses the “hyper tapping method,” another well known controller technique among Tetris players.

In an interview following his historic win, Gibson dedicated the game to his father, Adam Gibson, who died Dec. 14, 2023. But his mom was there to give him the ultimate “I have no idea what any of this means but it’s important to you so I’m proud” high-five.

Gibson’s remarkable feat of both beating a computer game and outplaying AI stands as a reassurance in the lasting potential of the human mind as discourse about artificial intelligence makes it appear obsolete. Even in the digital age, humans constantly strive to learn, adapt, evolve and push the limits. And they succeed. Suddenly a simple game has a much more profound meaning.

Remember when you were little and learned you could make shadow puppets on the wall from the bathroom light that peeked through your bedroom? Most people learned how to make a fairly realistic-looking frog or rabbit, but that’s about where the talent ended for most. Shadow Ace, an “America’s Got Talent” alum, took that childhood skill and never stopped honing it.

The shadow artist first appeared on Season 18 of the iconic show, coming in 3rd place after charming the crowd with his shadow routine. But he still had more up his sleeve when he returned for “America’s Got Talent: Fantasy League” where he’s competing on Howie Mandel’s team. It’s a good thing too, because it’s Mandel’s head that’s used as his stage for his shadow act that will have you wanting to bust a move.

Shadow Ace starts off strong with the famous Sir Mix-a-Lot song, “Baby Got Back,” and yes, he was somehow able to make his hands look like a person shaking their derrière.

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Immediately, the judges still seated at the table start freaking out. Mandel’s role in this whole performance is just to sit quietly with his famous shiny bald head still while Shadow Ace (real name Philip Jose P. Galit) makes all dancing shadows. The recently released video is part of the early release footage from the new Fantasy League edition of AGT, which premiered on January 1.

There’s no mistaking the talent that Shadow Ace brings to the stage as he moves his hands through a series of shapes to reflect each new song that plays. There were points in the act when Mandel’s head doubled as a DJ’s turntable and a drum that sent the audience into laughing fits. The song selection is top tier, but you have to check out his moves below to get the full effect of the performance.

Usually, it’s singing, dancing and magic acts that take the lion’s share of applause on “America’s Got Talent.” But every once in a while, more out-of-the-box performances take the spotlight.

Kseniya Simonova, a Ukrainian sand animation artist, makes it onto that list.

Simonova, who won the title for “Ukraine’s Got Talent” in 2009 and was a finalist for other “Got Talent” seasons, returned for the first ever “America’s Got Talent: Fantasy League,” where fan favorite contestants form teams under each of the judges: Howie Mandel, Mel B, Heidi Klum and Simon Cowell.

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For this performance, titled “Follow your Dreams,” Simonova told a sweeping, poignant and heartfelt story honoring the love between a mother and her son—using only the sand in her hands.

In only a couple of minutes, a phone turns into a house, then into two faces, then into two figures, then into a boy looking out of the window and into the sky, then a rocket and finally an astronaut in space. It’s pretty unreal.

Watch:

Not only did Simonova receive a standing ovation from the audience, but praises from three of the four judges, with Howie Mandel calling her work “an amazing, emotional work of artistry.” Simon Cowell also commended her, saying, “no one else in the world can do what you can do.”

Online viewers seemed to agree and found Simonova to be one-of-a-kind.

“I always love these types of acts. Something unique that you don’t often see but can clearly see the talent and skill that it takes to perform,” one person wrote on YouTube.

Another added, “An incredible talent. Such an original and unique form of artistry!”

Not only is sand animation a rare art form, it’s also a fairly new one. According to the site Animation Explainers, it’s only been around since 1968, when artist Caroline Leaf manipulated beach sand on a lightbox for each frame of her film, “Sand or Peter and the Wolf.”

Animation Explainers also has a great passage about why sand animation is intriguing, saying, “The beauty of sand animation lies in that it only lasts for a short moment. It is a fragile form and often evokes very impassioned responses in viewers.”

If that doesn’t sum up the raw beauty of Simonova’s art, I don’t know what does.

By the way, if you’d like to see even more of Simonova’s sand animations, check out her website. You can also find a full length version of “Follow Your Dreams” here.

In the olden days, fans had to wait six months — even a year! — for a theatrical release to hit home video. These days it’s somewhere between zero days and a few months. After that one year when they dumped an entire year’s worth of big movies on their streamer, Warner Bros. Discovery, as run by hissable cartoon villain David Zaslav, has gone back to a slightly more traditional model, wherein their new films get theatrical releases then wind up on their streamer, the confusingly called Max, somewhere between 67 and 90 days later.

So when are subscribers going to get their mitts on Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom?

The answer? Somewhere between 67 and 90 days after its release date, namely December 22.

The earliest the film could arrive (should WBD stick by their current game plan) is February 27. That’s how long it took DCEU titles like Shazam! Fury of the Gods and The Flash to arrive. Or it could be closer to April, if it follows the 90-day window of Blue Beetle.

Right now Aquaman 2 is still in theaters, and it’s doing…okay. It actually had a smaller opening than The Flash, though the build-up for that was so high that it felt like more of a bomb when it performed mediocrely. As of this writing, some two weeks into its run, it’s still way behind the $100 million mark domestically, and about $300 million worldwide. By comparison, the first Aquaman hauled in over $1 billion overall. It’s yet another sign that the age of the comic book movie blockbuster may be on the outs.

Anyway, expect Aquaman 2 to be on Max in just shy of two months. Or maybe longer.

It’s 2024, and Britney Spears is still shutting down miscellaneous reports and rumors about her. On Wednesday, January 3, Page Six reported that Spears had begun working with Charli XCX and Julia Michaels on an album, which would be her first full-length album since 2016’s Glory. Hours later, Spears disputed any such rumor — and more. Much more.

“Just so we’re clear most of the news is trash !!!” Spears captioned an Instagram photo of a beheaded man. “They keep saying I’m turning to random people to do a new album … I will never return to the music industry !!!”

Spears continued, “When I write, I write for fun or I write for other people !!! For those of you who have read my book, there’s loads that you don’t know about me … I’ve written over 20 songs for other people the past two years !!! I’m a ghostwriter and I honestly enjoy it that way !!! People are also saying MY BOOK WAS RELEASED WITHOUT MY APPROVAL ILLEGALLY and that’s far from the truth … have you read the news these days ??? I’m so LOVED and blessed !!!”

Spears’ memoir, The Woman In Me, was released in late October. The book dropped bombshell after bombshell and left Spears similarly distressed over how the media chose to frame coverage about the book. The Woman In Me sold 1.1 million copes in the US in its first week, per The Associated Press.

Charli XCX is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Toronto Raptors have been a team to watch on the trade market for years now, as there have always been questions about whether or not Toronto would try to move players who could leave in free agency at the end of the season. The answer has usually been no, but the team decided to change that perception over the weekend, when the Raptors traded OG Anunoby (along with Precious Achiuwa and Malachi Flynn) to the New York Knicks for RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley, and a pick.

Now, all eyes are on whether Toronto will do something with its other big name that can walk this summer: Pascal Siakam. A frequent name in trade rumors, Siakam is on an expiring deal and could help a whole lot of teams right now. And according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, a team to watch here are the Indiana Pacers, which have snapped out of their post-In Season Tournament malaise to win four in a row and put themselves in the 6-seed in the Eastern Conference. Now, if you have push notifications on for Woj’s Twitter account, you would not have seen this, as he dropped this bit of intel on … Threads.

Woj actually does this more than you might think, as he has a weekly Q+A over on Facebook’s attempted response to Twitter. Here, he dropped some nuggets about the Atlanta Hawks and Mikal Bridges, too.

If anything, this is teaching me that I really should turn on push notifications for Woj over there.

Usually, it’s singing, dancing and magic acts that take the lion’s share of applause on “America’s Got Talent.” But every once in a while, more out-of-the-box performances take the spotlight.

Kseniya Simonova, a Ukrainian sand animation artist, makes it onto that list.

Simonova, who won the title for “Ukraine’s Got Talent” in 2009 and was a finalist for other “Got Talent” seasons, returned for the first ever “America’s Got Talent: Fantasy League,” where fan favorite contestants form teams under each of the judges: Howie Mandel, Mel B, Heidi Klum and Simon Cowell.

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For this performance, titled “Follow your Dreams,” Simonova told a sweeping, poignant and heartfelt story honoring the love between a mother and her son—using only the sand in her hands.

In only a couple of minutes, a phone turns into a house, then into two faces, then into two figures, then into a boy looking out of the window and into the sky, then a rocket and finally an astronaut in space. It’s pretty unreal.

Watch:

Not only did Simonova receive a standing ovation from the audience, but praises from three of the four judges, with Howie Mandel calling her work “an amazing, emotional work of artistry.” Simon Cowell also commended her, saying, “no one else in the world can do what you can do.”

Online viewers seemed to agree and found Simonova to be one-of-a-kind.

“I always love these types of acts. Something unique that you don’t often see but can clearly see the talent and skill that it takes to perform,” one person wrote on YouTube.

Another added, “An incredible talent. Such an original and unique form of artistry!”

Not only is sand animation a rare art form, it’s also a fairly new one. According to the site Animation Explainers, it’s only been around since 1968, when artist Caroline Leaf manipulated beach sand on a lightbox for each frame of her film, “Sand or Peter and the Wolf.”

Animation Explainers also has a great passage about why sand animation is intriguing, saying, “The beauty of sand animation lies in that it only lasts for a short moment. It is a fragile form and often evokes very impassioned responses in viewers.”

If that doesn’t sum up the raw beauty of Simonova’s art, I don’t know what does.

By the way, if you’d like to see even more of Simonova’s sand animations, check out her website. You can also find a full length version of “Follow Your Dreams” here.

The Indianapolis Colts have a chance to make the playoffs on Saturday night if they can beat the Texans, as a win would guarantee them a Wild Card berth (either the 6 or 7 seed in the AFC). A win and a Jaguars loss to the Titans would hand Indianapolis the AFC South title and give them a home game in the Wild Card round of the playoffs.

That’s quite the rise for a team that went 4-12-1 a year ago and saw its top pick and hopeful franchise quarterback, Anthony Richardson, suffer a season-ending shoulder injury. New Colts head coach Shane Steichen has been given a lot of the credit for their turnaround, as they just seem like a team that’s well-coached, on the same page, and does the little things necessary to give themselves a chance in games. Last season that was not particularly the case, but they also were pretty clearly tanking for much of the second half of the season.

Part of that tank was firing Frank Reich and bringing in franchise legend Jeff Saturday fresh off of the ESPN set with no coaching experience beyond the high school level to be the interim head coach. That experiment didn’t go particularly well, with the Colts moving on and Saturday returning to his role with ESPN this season. On Wednesday morning, Saturday was on Get Up! and, unsurprisingly, made his bold declaration that the Colts would win the AFC South this weekend. Mike Greenberg then unleashed a quip that I’m sure he’s been sitting on all season, waiting for the right time to prod his colleague, saying they’re “so well coached this year.”

It’s a very good line delivery from Greenberg, who I have no doubt has been waiting patiently for a chance to make that comment to Saturday on air. Saturday, for his part, found it very funny and gave a hearty laugh, as I think he even knows his turn as an NFL head coach last year was truly wild — even if he really did want to succeed at it and do it long-term.