Month: May 2024

Tom Hanks is generally regarded as a generational actor and among the most pleasant celebrities alive, so it checks out that Hanks was profoundly confused by Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s beef, which hit apex earlier this month with back-and-forth diss tracks, including Lamar’s Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper “Not Like Us.”

On Monday morning, May 20, Chet Hanks, one of Tom Hanks’ four children, posted screenshots to his Instagram Story showing an endearingly funny text exchange with his father.

“Big Main, can you explain the Drake/Kendrick Lamar feud to me?” Hanks is shown to have texted Chet.

Chet’s reply needed a second screenshot to be captured in its entirety, as he was very thorough (and slightly erratic). All his father could muster in response was, “Holy cow! These are fighting words. People taking sides?? Who’s winning??” Chet shot back several laugh-crying emojis alongside, “Did you not just read what I said[?]”

To be fair, as lengthy as Chet’s text was, it is impossible to sum up the Drake-Kendrick saga via iMessage. Seth Rogen even struggled to adequately assess the various moving parts, though he did definitively declare Drake as the loser. Meanwhile, J. Cole made it out blissfully unscathed after removing himself from the beef in April.

The human body is an amazing organism, to say the least.

To watch an athlete dunk a basketball or a ballerina turn a pirouette is to witness an extraordinary machine at work. But the human body is also a biological junkyard of useless ideas it has yet to ditch as we evolve.

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If humans have a creator, it has a sense of humor, because why else would it clutter the human body with organs that have no use? Why is the occasional baby born with a tail? These useless body parts are known as vestigial organs.

The video below goes over just a few of the vestigial organs we can locate on our bodies if we know where to look.

Ten to 15 percent of people can see a tendon in their wrists that connects to the palmaris longus muscle. Although it serves no purpose for humans, it’s essential for primates that live in the treetops and swing from limb to limb.

Humans also have three muscles around their ears that allow some people to make them wiggle. When fully formed in other mammals, the muscles work to rotate the ears in order to pinpoint the source of sounds.

Although these body parts are worthless in a practical sense, they serve as a reminder of our vast evolutionary history and reveal our deep connections to other beings on the planet. That knowledge is far from useless.

This article originally appeared on 10.27.17

(full text transcribed under the post).

A Facebook user recently commented that the Eagles had “played like they were wearing tutus!!!”

Our response:

“With all due respect to the Eagles, let’s take a minute to look at what our tutu wearing women have done this month:

By tomorrow afternoon, the ballerinas that wear tutus at Pennsylvania Ballet will have performed The Nutcracker 27 times in 21 days. Some of those women have performed the Snow scene and the Waltz of the Flowers without an understudy or second cast. No ‘second string’ to come in and spell them when they needed a break. When they have been sick they have come to the theater, put on make up and costume, smiled and performed. When they have felt an injury in the middle of a show there have been no injury timeouts. They have kept smiling, finished their job, bowed, left the stage, and then dealt with what hurts. Some of these tutu wearers have been tossed into a new position with only a moments notice. That’s like a cornerback being told at halftime that they’re going to play wide receiver for the second half, but they need to make sure that no one can tell they’ve never played wide receiver before. They have done all of this with such artistry and grace that audience after audience has clapped and cheered (no Boo Birds at the Academy) and the Philadelphia Inquirer has said this production looks “better than ever”.

So no, the Eagles have not played like they were wearing tutus. If they had, Chip Kelly would still be a head coach and we’d all be looking forward to the playoffs.”

Happy New Year!

In case it wasn’t obvious, toughness has nothing to do with your gender.

Gendered and homophobic insults in sports have been around basically forever — how many boys are called a “pansy” on the football field or told they “throw like a girl” in Little League?

“They played like they were wearing tutus” is the same deal. It’s shorthand for “You’re kinda ladylike, which means you’re not tough enough.”

Toughness, however, has a funny way of not being pinned to one particular gender. It’s not just ballerinas, either. NFL cheerleaders? They get paid next to nothing to dance in bikini tops and short-shorts in all kinds of weather — and wear only ever-so-slightly heavier outfits when the thermometer drops below freezing. And don’t even get me started on how mind-bogglingly badass the Rockettes are.

Toughness also has nothing to do with what kind of clothes you wear.

As my colleague Parker Molloy astutely points out, the kinds of clothes assigned to people of different genders are, and have always been, basically completely arbitrary. Pink has been both a “boys color” and a “girls color” at different points throughout history. President Franklin D. Roosevelt — longtime survivor of polio, Depression vanquisher, wartime leader, and no one’s idea of a wimp — was photographed in his childhood sporting a long blonde hairstyle and wearing a dress.

Many of us are conditioned to see a frilly pink dance costume and think “delicate,” and to look at a football helmet and pads and think “big and strong.” But scratch the surface a little bit, and you’ll meet tutu-wearing ballerinas who that are among toughest people on the planet and cleat-and-helmet-wearing football players who are … well. The 2015 Eagles.

You just can’t tell from their outerwear.

Ballerinas wear tutus for the same reason football players wear uniforms and pads:

To get the job done.

This article originally appeared on 01.05.16

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You know how a picture is worth a thousand words? I’ll just let these images sum up the daddy-daughter bond.

A 37-year-old Ukrainian artist affectionately known as Soosh, recently created some ridiculously heartwarming illustrations of the bond between a dad and his daughter, and put them on her Instagram feed. Sadly, her father wasn’t involved in her life when she was a kid. But she wants to be sure her 9-year-old son doesn’t follow in those footsteps.

“Part of the education for my kiddo who I want to grow up to be a good man is to understand what it’s like to be one,” Soosh told Upworthy.

There are so many different ways that fathers demonstrate their love for their little girls, and Soosh pretty much nails all of them.

Get ready to run the full gamut of the feels.

1. Dads can do it all. Including hair.

2. They also make pretty great game opponents.

3. And the Hula-Hoop skills? Legendary.

4. Dads know there’s always time for a tea party regardless of the mountain of work in front of them.

5. And their puppeteer skills totally belong on Broadway.

6. Dads help us see the world from different views.

7. So much so that we never want them to leave.

8. They can make us feel protected, valued, and loved.

9. Especially when there are monsters hiding in places they shouldn’t.

Seeing the daddy-daughter bond as art perfectly shows how beautiful fatherhood can be.

This article originally appeared on 04.09.16

Somewhere in Salt Lake City, a Girl Scout is getting allll the good mojo from The People of the Internet.

Over the weekend, Eli McCann shared a story of an encounter at a Girl Scout cookie stand that has people throwing their fists in the air and shouting, YES! THAT’S HOW IT’S DONE. (Or maybe that’s just me. But I’m guessing most of the 430,000 people who liked his story had a similar reaction.)

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“I just saw the most wild thing!” McCann wrote on Twitter. “A man started walking toward the Girl Scouts cookie stand in front of the grocery store and he yelled ‘My bitches are BACK’ and this Girl Scout just yelled ‘No. Walk away.’ AND HE DID.”

So simple. So straightforward. But it gets even better.

McCann wrote out the full story on his blog, It Just Gets Stranger, offering some extra details to his tweets.

“It was truly jarring,” he wrote of the man’s exclamation. “Like, it was sort of the last thing I expected anyone to say. My mind suddenly rebooted. The six or so other people who were all standing around in front of the grocery store froze and looked at him. I opened my mouth to say something, but then really didn’t know what to say.”

“It was unclear who he was calling ‘bitches,'” he continued. “If it was the Girl Scouts, well obviously that was terrible. If it was the cookies, I mean that’s kind of funny (don’t @ me), but totally inappropriate to say to a bunch of 12 year olds (is that how old Girl Scouts are?). Either way, he shouldn’t have said it and I don’t know what could have possibly made him think this was a fine way to approach a group of Girl Scouts.”

McCann said the girl’s response was immediate, and it floored everyone. “Her tone was so full of confidence and sass,” he wrote. “It was the most perfectly delivered line I have ever heard.”

“This dude completely froze. He just stopped walking. His face went bright red. His mouth was sort of gaping open. He did this very awkward and stilted nod, almost apologetic, abruptly turned around, and shuffled back to his car at like 6-minute-mile pace. The girl just death stared him all the way through his walk of shame.”

I still can’t process what I just saw. I don’t understand it at all. It was like witnessing the worst miscalculation he was bright red and just went back to his car. Everyone just stood in silence. This girl death stared him all the way through his walk of shame.

— Eli McCann (@EliMcCann) March 7, 2020

McCann says it took him a bit to digest what he’d just seen.

“I ended up walking into the store and the entire time I was shopping I was just trying to process what had happened. I kept replaying it over and over and wondering if I had misheard or misunderstood something,” he wrote.

“Who was this guy? Did he just make the biggest miscalculation of his life? Is he going to move away and start a new life now? Is that girl going to be president one day? Can I adopt her? Can she adopt me? Can I start a cult to follow her?”

As he was leaving the store, he went up to the girl to compliment her—then got another perfectly delivered line from the intrepid Girl Scout.

“Two adult women were standing behind the girl (the troop leaders, I assume),” he wrote. “I said to the girl, ‘I saw how you handled that man earlier. That was really really impressive. Your troop is pretty lucky to have you.'”

“And this girl. This Goddess of a human. The one I’m for sure going to worship if ever she starts a religion. Without stuttering. With perfect comedic timing. She responded:

‘You gotta be pretty tough if you’re gonna go out in THIS outfit.‘”

OMG.

I just went and talked to her (tried to buy cookies but couldn’t because cash only). I told her I was impressed with how she handled that dude and she just said with perfect comedic timing “you got learn to be pretty tough if you’re gonna go out in THIS outfit!”

— Eli McCann (@EliMcCann) March 7, 2020

Let’s all give this girl a virtual high five for her gumption and wit. It takes a lot of courage to say something to an adult when you’re a kid, especially a man who is doing something inappropriate. The fact that she seemed to have been perfectly prepared for that moment, shutting him down so immediately and decisively that everyone in the vicinity stopped to take note, is so dang impressive.

This is what happens when you teach girls their true worth and encourage them not to accept anything less than respect and dignity. Gotta love it.

This article originally appeared on 03.09.20

The pandemic has caused many people to reevaluate their surroundings. When you’re stuck at home more often than you’d like, you start to pay a lot more attention to what goes on in your own backyard.

This type of introspection inspired wildlife photographer Carla Rhodes to get a closer look at the furry friends that live near her home in the Catskill mountains of New York.

What she found was magical.

“The winter of 2020-2021 was particularly brutal to humankind. After months of enduring the Covid-19 pandemic, we were now collectively slogging through winter. As a result of being stuck at home, I focused on my immediate surroundings like never before,” Rhodes said in a statement.

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Rhodes positioned a DSLR camera trap beneath her bird feeder to get an up-close glimpse of the wildlife that came to sample her delicious seeds. The results are an incredible series of photos of birds and other woodland creatures from a vantage point most people never see. Rhodes calls her project, “Beneath the Bird Feeder.”

The birdfeeder photos also gave a new glimpse into the behavior of several species of birds and rodents that call the Catskills home.

“As I got deeper into the project, intriguing observations emerged,” Rhodes says. “I noticed distinct repeat visitors such as a Dark-Eyed Junco with an overgrown beak, a deer mouse with a notched ear, and an irruption of Red-Breasted Nuthatches. Dark-Eyed Juncos always showed up at the crack of dawn and Northern Cardinals would always be the last visitor of the day as dusk turned into evening.”

Here are 15 of the most captivating photos that Rhodes captured from beneath her bird feeder.

1. Dark-eyed junco

“Often overlooked and considered drab ground-feeding birds, Dark-Eyed Juncos hold a special place in my heart due to their funny and curious behaviors. Every day they were first to arrive beneath the bird feeder,” Rhodes says. “Dark-Eyed Juncos were one of the most frequent and curious subjects beneath the bird feeder.”

2. Dark-eyed junco

3. Dark-eyed junco

4. Tufted titmouse

According to All About Birds, the tufted titmouse is “common in eastern deciduous forests and a frequent visitor to feeders.”

5. Mourning dove

​”Observing Mourning Doves was a daily pleasure, especially when they gathered to form a clean-up crew beneath the bird feeder. Mourning doves are monogamous and possibly mate for life,” Rhodes writes.

6. Mourning dove 

7.  Mourning doves

8. Blue jay

“Blue Jays are known for their intelligence and complex social systems with tight family bonds,” All About Birds says. “Their fondness for acorns is credited with helping spread oak trees after the last glacial period.”

9. Northern cardinal

“Northern Cardinals were always the last to show up beneath the bird feeder, shortly after dusk every evening,” Rhodes writes.

10. Black-capped chickadee

“Little flocks of Black-capped Chickadees enliven the winter woods with their active behavior and their cheery-sounding chick-a-dee callnotes as they fly from tree to tree, often accompanied by an assortment of nuthatches, creepers, kinglets, and other birds,” the Audubon field guide to North American birds says.

11. Black-capped chickadee

12. Eastern gray squirrel

Eastern gray squirrels are important members of forest ecosystems as they play a vital role in dispersing seeds.

 13. American red squirrel

The American red squirrel is known for its distinct bushy and dark red tail with hints of a white outline.

14. American red squirrel

15. Northern short-tailed shrew

If you see a northern short-tailed shrew, be careful. It’s venomous and paralyzes its victims with poisonous saliva. In humans, a bite can cause swelling and intense pain.

This article originally appeared on 01.03.22

Megan Thee Stallion kicked off her #MeganMonday campaign earlier this month with a freestyle over the beat from Gucci Mane’s “I Think I Love Her.” After taking a week off to release the video for her new single, “Boa,” got back to business today with her latest freestyle. This time, she tackled the EDM-inspired beat from Far East Movement’s signature hit, “Like A G6,” donning a curly blond wig and a pink baby tee, while keeping the staging simple. The video is currently available on her socials only; you can check it out at the bottom of this post.

Megan’s 2024 has been pretty action-packed so far; she’s release another snake-inspired single, “Hiss,” while delivering a pair of feature verses to very different projects. The first was for “Not My Fault,” Renée Rapp’s unofficial Regina George theme song from the Mean Girls musical movie, while the second, for GloRilla’s “Wanna Be,” found her returning to her ratchet rap roots and revisiting campus life in its exuberant music video.

Last week, the Houston Hottie kicked off her Hot Girl Summer Tour with GloRilla, and by all accounts, it’s already been a success. In Chicago this weekend, Meg brought out WNBA star Angel Reese and debuted her tequila ahead of its impending launch, giving fans on future dates plenty to look ahead to.

You can watch Megan Thee Stallion’s “Like A G6” freestyle video below.

Every week, Billboard unveils the top 10 songs on the latest Hot 100 chart. The most recent rankings, for the chart dated May 25, are out now, so let’s run down who had this week’s biggest hits.

10. Hozier — “Too Sweet”

“Too Sweet” is Hozier’s biggest hit to date, and now the former No. 1 hangs on to round out this week’s top 10.

9. Sabrina Carpenter — “Espresso”

“Espresso” is a bona fide hit and it’s fresh off getting some major exposure via Carpenter performing the tune on Saturday Night Live.

8. Taylor Swift — “Fortnight” Feat. Post Malone

It’s not often you see Taylor Swift without a song in the top 5 these days, but here we are, with her Post Malone collaboration “Fortnight” resting at No. 8.

7. Future, Metro Boomin, and Kendrick Lamar — “Like That”

The beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake has pretty much died down at this point, but there are still some remnants of it on the charts, including the track that started it all.

6. Teddy Swims — “Lose Control”

Swims’ No. 6 position with “Lose Control” begins the section of this week’s chart owned by newcomers with their first major hits. “Lose Control” was previously No. 1, and it got bumped up from No. 10 last week.

5. Benson Boone — “Beautiful Things

Similar story for Boone: Breakout hit that peaked at No. 2, rising from No. 9 to No. 5 this week.

4. Shaboozey — “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”

After achieving a peak at No. 3 and descending to No. 5, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” has settled in the middle at No. 4 on the new chart.

3. Tommy Richman — “Million Dollar Baby”

Richman has a Song Of The Summer contender with the TikTok hit “Million Dollar Baby,” which is down a spot this week from its previous high at No. 2.

2. Kendrick Lamar — “Not Like Us”

Drake is all over this week’s top 10, in the sense that he’s the subject of diss tracks. After debuting at No. 1, Lamar’s “Not Like Us” has moved down to No. 2 to make way for a new Hot 100 champ.

1. Post Malone and Morgan Wallen — “I Had Some Help”

Given that Malone and Wallen are both proven hitmakers, guessing that their new single together would debut at No. 1 wasn’t exactly a bold prediction. “I Had Some Help” is now Malone’s sixth No. 1 song and Wallen’s second.

The first Disney movie to receive an R rating was 1986’s Down and Out in Beverly Hills. It would be a fun Easter egg for Nick Nolte or Bette Midler to make a fourth-wall-breaking cameo in the studio’s next ages-17-and-up feature, Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine, but you’ll probably have to make do with a lot of “f*cks” instead. Even in the plot summary.

Here is the official sanitized synopsis for Deadpool & Wolverine, according to Comic Book:

Wolverine is recovering from his injuries when he crosses paths with the loudmouth, Deadpool. They team up to defeat a common enemy.

And here is the uncensored synopsis:

Marvel Studios presents their most significant mistake to date – Deadpool & Wolverine. A listless Wade Wilson toils away in civilian life. His days as the morally flexible mercenary, Deadpool, behind him. When his homeworld faces an existential threat, Wade must reluctantly suit-up again with an even more reluctantlier… reluctanter? Reluctantest? He must convince a reluctant Wolverine to – Fuck. Synopses are so fucking stupid.

Ryan Reynolds was as surprised as anyone that Disney let Deadpool & Wolverine be as not-family friendly as it is. “I hope it doesn’t sound condescending, I’m really proud of them for doing this. I think it’s a huge step for them,” he told Fandango. “I mean, it adds a whole other color to this kaleidoscopic wheel that is that company and the different people that they have been entertaining forever… I was surprised though, that they let us go as hard R, but very grateful. I mean there’s no other way to do it.”

Deadpool & Wolverine probably isn’t Martyrs-level hard R, but it’s something!

Deadpool & Wolverine opens in theaters on July 26.

Although tape recently surfaced confirming that Sean “Diddy” Combs assaulted his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016, the music mogul will not face charges in that incident, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. The LAPD told local news that the incident is past the statute of limitations, meaning charges couldn’t be filed due to the amount of time that has passed.

A statement from LAPD reads:

We are aware of the video that has been circulating online allegedly depicting Sean Combs assaulting a young woman in Los Angeles. We find the images extremely disturbing and difficult to watch. If the conduct depicted occurred in 2016, unfortunately we would be unable to charge as the conduct would have occurred beyond the timeline where a crime of assault can be prosecuted.

Diddy’s alleged abuse was first made public when Cassie sued him in November of last year. The incident from the footage was mentioned in the lawsuit, as well as the claim that Diddy paid the hotel $50,000 to suppress the security footage, which depicts Diddy, clad in only a towel, chasing Cassie down the hallway, knocking her down, and kicking her on the ground.

Diddy settled the lawsuit out of court a day after it was filed, but that only set off a firestorm of additional suits; additionally, a federal investigation into sex trafficking claims against the Bad Boy Records founder led to raids on several of his properties. Diddy recorded an apology video on Sunday (May 19) but did not mention Cassie or the 2016 hotel incident, leaving it unclear to whom he was apologizing — or what for.