Category: News

Elon Musk has had a day, alright. First, his SpaceX rocket experienced “rapid unscheduled disassembly”/exploded. Then he finally put his plan in motion to strip legacy verified Twitter users of their Blue checkmarks if they hadn’t signed over $8 per month for Twitter Blue. This means that Taylor Swift and Beyoncé are no longer verified, which is a bizarre thing to behold. The takedown wasn’t universal, though. Stephen King and Ice-T discovered that they have retained Blue checkmarks, but both of them insist that they didn’t pay for the enduring symbol.

Both Ice and King have also been vocal about their intent not to pay up, and on 4/20 (yep), they’re calling shenanigans on whatever is happening behind the Twitter scenes with their accounts.

“My Twitter account says I’ve subscribed to Twitter Blue. I haven’t,” the horror maestro wrote. “My Twitter account says I’ve given a phone number. I haven’t.”

Yep, that’s what his profile says, so King is setting the record straight.

As well, the Law & Order: SVU star and rocker tweeted, “Thanks Stephen. Don’t believe the Hype.”

I smell a crossover coming. Or maybe some Body Count spoken word guest vocals. Something! Also, yep, no one knows what is going on at Twitter.

Many parents will do just about anything for their children, but oftentimes that just means showing up for events and being their biggest cheerleader. It’s a seemingly small act that can absolutely mean the world to a child and creates positive core memories they’ll talk about with their own children.

For one dad, showing up for his kids’ activities got a little more challenging after he was struck by a drunk driver in 2006. The accident left him using a wheelchair. “I had to relearn how to do everything from crawling, eating, like I had to relearn everything,” Charles Potter told Good Morning America. But that hasn’t stopped him from doing all the dances his daughter’s school puts on, like the one that went viral in December 2022.

Potter was on stage participating in a daddy-daughter dance recital when his wife caught it on video and uploaded it to TikTok, where it quickly went viral. The video currently has over 13 million views, 2.2 million likes and over 37K comments, and while the text overlay gave some background on the video, it doesn’t tell the complete story.

Potter explained to GMA that his daughter’s school puts on the father-daughter dances every few months, so they’ve done them several times. But when his daughter first asked if he would participate, the dad didn’t hesitate.

“My youngest is doing … a dance hip-hop chair class. And they had these daddy-daughter dances and she asked if I was up to, you know, doing them with [her],” he told GMA. “I was like, ‘If you want to. Yeah, absolutely. We’ll make it work.'”

The interesting thing about these dances is that there’s no instructor. The family is sent an instructional video and they’re in charge of learning the routine on their own, so they modify the movements accordingly and practice after school.

“They get like, two or three weeks to learn the dance on their own,” Potter’s wife, Rhonda Conrad, told GMA. “They don’t have anyone teaching them. It’s all done in the living room.”

Potter’s dance video with his daughter is sweet for many reasons, but it’s made even sweeter by the love and dedication from a father to his daughter.

Watch their update below:

When we talk about environmental justice, we usually talk about how vulnerable communities are disproportionately impacted by things like contaminated water, air pollution, toxic living conditions and lack of access to healthy food. We aren’t usually referring to about how many trees someone has around them on a regular basis, but a push for “tree equity” indicates that maybe we should.

That’s right, tree equity. It’s a real thing.

The impact that trees have on our daily lives is significant. Not only do trees provide natural beauty that brings us joy and comfort, but they absorb carbon dioxide and other air pollutants, release oxygen, provide cooling shade, filter drinking water and support wildlife. Being near trees helps us live healthier lives in various ways, but some people see more of these benefits than others.

In fact, according to the non-profit group American Forests, wealthy areas have 65% more tree cover than lower-income areas nationwide in the U.S., and it’s especially an issue in our cities.

“The inequitable distribution of trees exacerbates social inequities,” American Forests shares on its website. “A map of tree cover is too often a map of income and race—especially in cities. That’s because trees often are sparse in low-income neighborhoods and some neighborhoods of color. In fact, policies from the early 1900s are still shaping the way redlining contributes to periods of disinvestment, exacerbating tree inequity in these neighborhoods.”

The “tree equity” project aims to minimize these disparities so that everyone can reap the health, economic and other benefits trees provide. Through calculating a “tree equity score” derived from tree canopy cover, climate, demographic and socioeconomic data in 486 Census-defined Urbanized Areas, the project aims to prioritize planting trees in neighborhoods that need them the most.

And cities are stepping up to the plate. Washington, D.C., now boasts an overall tree equity score of 91 out of 100—one of the best in the nation—but it took concerted, sustained effort to get there. Decades of disinvestment in the 70s and 80s led to a profound reduction in tree cover in the city, and by the late 1990s, the impact of that disinvestment was clear. In 1999, the Washington Post’s Metro section shared two aerial photos of the city, one from 1973 and one from 1997, showing how the landscape had changed over that time and people were shocked.

“The story needed no words,” shares American Forests. “From the perspective of the 30-meter resolution available at the time, one image was predominantly green, the other looked like a tornado had ripped through a majority of the nation’s capital.”

The stark difference between those images sparked a citywide conversation about priorities, and a push for more vegetation ensued. The city created an Urban Forestry Administration with a robust budget for getting the city’s tree canopy thriving. And according to D.C.’s current tree equity score, it has worked.

On the other side of the country, the other Washington is also investing in trees, which may seem ironic considering its nickname as The Evergreen State and Seattle’s “Emerald City” moniker. Trees have always been a big part of Washington’s identity, but that doesn’t mean its overall tree equity score is good. The interactive tree equity score map shows neighborhoods around Seattle ranging from a perfect score—100 out of 100—all the way down to 16 out of 100.

According to Grist, Washington has initiated the nation’s first statewide tree equity project, the Washington Tree Equity Collaborative, bringing together city governments, Native tribes, community groups, businesses and researchers to expand the tree canopy in Washington’s urban areas with a focus on underserved populations.

u201cThe Washington state government and a local nonprofit announced Thursday the country’s first statewide collaborative on u201ctree equity,u201d which aims to expand tree cover to underserved communities. https://t.co/ZXj96swGNbu201d

— grist (@grist)
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Washington’s commissioner of public lands Hillary Franz said in a statement, “We must invest like never before, in order to ensure our most vulnerable communities have cleaner air and are better protected from extreme heat.”

Grist offers a specific example of tree inequity in Seattle: Wealthy neighborhoods along Puget Sound and Lake Washington tend to have a lot of trees, while lower-income areas of south Seattle do not. Some communities will naturally have more trees due to proximity to water or natural topography, of course, but an analysis from Seattle’s Office of Planning and Community Development found that the most disadvantaged communities have been losing tree coverage 11 times faster than the least disadvantaged. That’s an equity issue.

With climate change leading to more deadly heat waves in the American West, trees have become even more vital. The shade provided by trees can lower surface temperatures by double digits, and the evaporative properties of tree leaves can lower overall temperatures by as much as 9 degrees Fahrenheit. Lowering temperatures reduces energy use, which in turn helps lower pollution and increase air quality and even helps reduce the costs of street pavement maintenance since excessive heat makes pavement break down more quickly.

Of coure, the flip side of thee relationship between climate change and trees is that extreme weather events put a lot of stress on trees. Heat waves, droughts, strong storms, fires—not exactly ideal conditions for trees to thrive in overall. Even in areas where climate change may appear to be having a positivite impact on tree growth, researchers have found that pollution and higher temperatures are making trees larger, but weaker.

There’s no question, however, that planting more trees is a good thing. Seattle’s current plan will see three new trees planted for every healthy, site-appropriate tree removed from city property and two trees planted for every tree that dies or is deemed hazardous or invasive. And over the next five years, the city plans to plant 8,000 trees on public and private properties and 40,000 trees in parks and natural areas, with underserved communities being prioritized.

We all deserve the benefits trees have to offer. To learn more about tree equity and projects to build more tree cover and find out how you can help, visit the American Forests website.

Nearly 30 years since Jack Black hit the music scene with his band Tenacious D, he has scored his first Top 100 solo hit, and it’s a real earworm. “Peaches” is a single taken from the “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” where Black plays Bowser the Koopa King who’s madly in love with Princess Peach (voiced by Anya Taylor-Joy).

The song debuted on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 at number 83 and has gone as high as 11 on the UK indie charts. In 2006, Black scored a Hot 100 hit with Tenacious D when “The Pick of Destiny” debuted and peaked at No. 78.

The video is also a hit on YouTube, racking up over 17 million views. It features Black in a Bowser-inspired costume tinkling the ivories on a peach-colored piano in a peach-colored room, while occasionally gazing at a framed photo of Princess Peach.

The song is delivered with genuine gusto, once again proving that Black isn’t just funny but also has some serious pipes. For the hook, Black sings little more than “Peaches” over and over again—which is just the right amount of times for it to sneak inside your head for a week.

“Jack Black is an incredible singer and musician, so we spent a night writing the song and sent the demo to Jack,” “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” co-director Aaron Horvath said, according to Insider. “A couple [of] days later, Jack sent us back a finished track. He had added his own twist on it and his pianist played an original music track for it. We were blown away.”

Bath time is either a parent’s favorite time of the night or their most despised. The shift in perspective usually depends on the child, whether it be age or attitude. Baths are supposed to be relaxing for kids in preparation for bed, but for some kids, bath time just winds them up and you debate pouring the entire bag of sleepytime Epsom salt in the tub.

But no matter your child’s personality, the smaller the child, the messier the clean-up and the more you have to do as the one giving the bath. To top it off, babies in bathtubs are slippery, so cleaning off your tiny chubby-cheeked clone can get even more interesting. These little inconvenient factors can sometimes cause parents to come up with creative ways to get out of messy bath times—like only cooking messy dinners when it’s your partner’s turn to wash the munchkin.

That’s exactly what one mom does, and her husband looks absolutely defeated in the most relatable way possible.

In a video posted to TikTok that has over 1.2 million views, Taylor Bunton’s 11-month-old daughter, Reese, sits in her high chair covered in spaghetti sauce as the baby rubs it in her hair. But when the camera pans over to her partner…he is not amused. It’s his turn to give the baby a bath, and now that involves cleaning spaghetti noodles and sauce out of her hair.

The caption of the video reads, “Spaghetti night always falls on Dad’s bath night🤭🤪🍝.” I think Dad would like to renegotiate.

“His reaction was just so funny because he knew it was his turn for her bath night and so he was telling me, ‘Stop, stop recording. We shouldn’t let her do this.’ And I was like, ‘No, this is so funny,’” Bunton told GMA. “She probably gets more on her body than she does in her mouth. You can’t blame her. She just loves making a mess and I just love her being able to feed herself, feel the different textures and just enjoy herself.”

Judging by the comments, the short video gave just about everyone a chuckle except Reese’s dad. Maybe for payback, Dad can introduce the messy eater to chocolate pudding just before Mom is ready to get her bathed. It’s only fair, right?

You can see the spaghetti monster below:

@taylorbunton2

Spaghetti night always falls on Dads bath night🤭🤪🍝#babiesoftiktok #fyp #foryoupage #babytok #dadsoftiktok #daddydaugther #fypシ #foodie

For the past five years, the biggest hits in rap have been written and released by the women of hip-hop. Each year seems to bring with it a new rap it-girl (I wrote a bit about them here) who captures fans’ attention with a flirty, dismissive hit that listeners can’t seem to get enough of. Fans on Twitter often declare these tracks “the song(s) of the summer” — even when they were released months before or even the last year.

Some recent examples include Coi Leray’s “No More Parties,” FloMilli’s “Conceited,” GloRillla’s “FNF (Let’s Go),” Ice Spice’s “Munch,” Latto’s “Big Energy,” and Lola Brooke’s “Don’t Play With It.” One of this year’s early contenders is “Pretty Girls Walk” by St. Louis rapper Big Boss Vette, which is still going strong despite being released in October of last year.

So, who is Big Boss Vette, and why is she in the running for rap’s latest it-girl?

Born Diamond Alexxis Smith, Big Boss Vette — like many if not most rappers these days — has been a fixture on TikTok, where much of her following originates thanks to viral favorites like “Bad Bitch” and “Outside.” Those hits built on the momentum she first gained in 2015 with a cover of Dej Loaf’s “Try Me”; since “Bad Bitch” became a trending sound on TikTok, her account has accumulated more than a million followers. Meanwhile, her Spotify has garnered more than 2.5 million monthly listeners, and “Pretty Girls Walk” has more than 23 million combined streams on that platform between the original and remix featuring Coi Leray — the YouTube video has 4 million plays.

The song’s success is likely a huge part of the reason she’s now signed to Republic Records, where her debut album is in the works. Another standout single is “Snatched,” which has nearly 9 million streams on Spotify, and a remix featuring Flo Milli and Saucy Santana. Meanwhile, “Pretty Girls Walk” continues to bulldoze its way into thousands of TikTok users’ videos, putting Vette in contention for XXL‘s coveted Freshman cover for 2023. Don’t be surprised if/when she appears there — and then proceeds to take over the rap game.

For the past five years, the biggest hits in rap have been written and released by the women of hip-hop. Each year seems to bring with it a new rap it-girl (I wrote a bit about them here) who captures fans’ attention with a flirty, dismissive hit that listeners can’t seem to get enough of. Fans on Twitter often declare these tracks “the song(s) of the summer” — even when they were released months before or even the last year.

Some recent examples include Coi Leray’s “No More Parties,” FloMilli’s “Conceited,” GloRillla’s “FNF (Let’s Go),” Ice Spice’s “Munch,” Latto’s “Big Energy,” and Lola Brooke’s “Don’t Play With It.” One of this year’s early contenders is “Pretty Girls Walk” by St. Louis rapper Big Boss Vette, which is still going strong despite being released in October of last year.

So, who is Big Boss Vette, and why is she in the running for rap’s latest it-girl?

Born Diamond Alexxis Smith, Big Boss Vette — like many if not most rappers these days — has been a fixture on TikTok, where much of her following originates thanks to viral favorites like “Bad Bitch” and “Outside.” Those hits built on the momentum she first gained in 2015 with a cover of Dej Loaf’s “Try Me”; since “Bad Bitch” became a trending sound on TikTok, her account has accumulated more than a million followers. Meanwhile, her Spotify has garnered more than 2.5 million monthly listeners, and “Pretty Girls Walk” has more than 23 million combined streams on that platform between the original and remix featuring Coi Leray — the YouTube video has 4 million plays.

The song’s success is likely a huge part of the reason she’s now signed to Republic Records, where her debut album is in the works. Another standout single is “Snatched,” which has nearly 9 million streams on Spotify, and a remix featuring Flo Milli and Saucy Santana. Meanwhile, “Pretty Girls Walk” continues to bulldoze its way into thousands of TikTok users’ videos, putting Vette in contention for XXL‘s coveted Freshman cover for 2023. Don’t be surprised if/when she appears there — and then proceeds to take over the rap game.

If you could, imagine watching Star Wars for the first time. After you made it through all of the intricate storytelling, rich imagery, and silly little outfits, you might have noticed that there was one thing missing in the space epic, and it wasn’t a freak alien sidekick, though he did come later. It was a strong Italian-American presence. That’s what the series was lacking: someone who would not put up with Chewy’s constant yelling.

It might seem far-fetched, but there was a time when Al Pacino could have been the rugged space pilot in Star Wars. Of course, that meant he would have taken the spot from Harrison Ford, but Ford had Indiana Jones in his back pocket, so he would have been fine. The only thing Pacino had was a gun, a three-piece suit, and a dream. That’s the perfect type of person to lead a space mission.

Pacino gave a talk at the 92nd Street Y this week where he mentioned that he almost boarded the millennium falcon. “Well, I turned down Star Wars. When I first came up, I was the new kid on the block, you know what happens when you first become famous,” he said, assuming that we all know what it’s like to be a famous person in the 1970s. But he made his point.

He added that he was trying to be more selective with his roles at the time since he was fresh off of the success of The Godfather. “It’s like, ‘Give it to Al.’ They’d give me Queen Elizabeth to play. They gave me a script called Star Wars. … They offered me so much money. I don’t understand it. I read it. … So I said I couldn’t do it. I gave Harrison Ford a career,” he joked. Or at least it was allegedly a joke.

This begs the question: at what point in the script did Pacino decide to pass on the role of Han Solo? Was it when Jabba the Hut showed up, or when he learned that his best friend would be a giant hairy dog? Maybe he just really didn’t want to wear a shirt with such a deep V-neck, even if he embraced said look later on. Who knows? Perhaps one day Italian-Americans will get the space hero we deserve… but not today.

George Lucas even used Italy as a backdrop for Naboo, which implies the existence of olive oil orchards in the Star Wars universe. Surely there could be some Italians roaming around there.

(Via Variety)

If you could, imagine watching Star Wars for the first time. After you made it through all of the intricate storytelling, rich imagery, and silly little outfits, you might have noticed that there was one thing missing in the space epic, and it wasn’t a freak alien sidekick, though he did come later. It was a strong Italian-American presence. That’s what the series was lacking: someone who would not put up with Chewy’s constant yelling.

It might seem far-fetched, but there was a time when Al Pacino could have been the rugged space pilot in Star Wars. Of course, that meant he would have taken the spot from Harrison Ford, but Ford had Indiana Jones in his back pocket, so he would have been fine. The only thing Pacino had was a gun, a three-piece suit, and a dream. That’s the perfect type of person to lead a space mission.

Pacino gave a talk at the 92nd Street Y this week where he mentioned that he almost boarded the millennium falcon. “Well, I turned down Star Wars. When I first came up, I was the new kid on the block, you know what happens when you first become famous,” he said, assuming that we all know what it’s like to be a famous person in the 1970s. But he made his point.

He added that he was trying to be more selective with his roles at the time since he was fresh off of the success of The Godfather. “It’s like, ‘Give it to Al.’ They’d give me Queen Elizabeth to play. They gave me a script called Star Wars. … They offered me so much money. I don’t understand it. I read it. … So I said I couldn’t do it. I gave Harrison Ford a career,” he joked. Or at least it was allegedly a joke.

This begs the question: at what point in the script did Pacino decide to pass on the role of Han Solo? Was it when Jabba the Hut showed up, or when he learned that his best friend would be a giant hairy dog? Maybe he just really didn’t want to wear a shirt with such a deep V-neck, even if he embraced said look later on. Who knows? Perhaps one day Italian-Americans will get the space hero we deserve… but not today.

George Lucas even used Italy as a backdrop for Naboo, which implies the existence of olive oil orchards in the Star Wars universe. Surely there could be some Italians roaming around there.

(Via Variety)

Marc Maron recently entertained everyone while revealing that he was flat-out happy not to have been cast in Avatar 2, and he’s here to detail more adventures in auditioning. This time around, he’s discussing a project that was smaller in scale but big on personality. Well, other than the role that Maron would have been going for, which didn’t appeal to him for a specific reason.

That film was Bad Education starring Hugh Jackman, and while talking with Ray Romano (who also appeared in the movie) on the Maron’s WTF podcast, the host revealed that he had apparently auditioned for the role of Jackman’s boyfriend. He decided that he didn’t want that part because the role simply wasn’t gay enough, via Indiewire:

“I thought I was auditioning for the role you had,” Maron told guest Ray Romano during his “WTF” podcast. “I just didn’t want to do it. I read the script and I said I don’t want to do it. It was for Hugh Jackman’s boyfriend. He’s got nothing in there.”

Maron added, “I said, ‘If I’m going be gay in a movie, [Jackman] would be a good guy to be gay with, but there didn’t seem to be much to the role other than that.’ I said, ‘I’ll wait to be gay when there’s more gayness.’”

Fair enough. Here’s to hoping that Maron eventually finds that role, and if the acting thing stops working out, in addition to Maron’s domination of podcasting and enduring success in stand-up comedy, he could always carve out an advice columnist future. I’d be listening.

(Via Indiewire)