There were a few major disappointments at this year’s Super Bowl. The biggest, obviously, is that the Philadelphia Eagles lost. Some of the commercials weren’t so hot (or at least panic-inducing). And if you were Elon Musk, you were mad that your Super Bowl tweet had less engagement than a similar one by President Joe Biden. In fact, if you were Elon Musk, you’d do the sensible thing: delete it then order your techies to make a big change to the algorithm.
As per Platformer, on Sunday Musk picked sides in Sunday’s big game with a tweet that read, simply, “Go #Eagles!!” It got about 9.1 million impressions. Not bad — but not as good as Biden’s, in which he retweeted his wife, an Eagles fan, who posted a video of her wearing an Eagles shirt emblazoned with her surname.
“As your president, I’m not picking favorites,” he wrote. “But as Jill Biden’s husband, fly Eagles, fly.” That post got nearly 29 million impressions, handily housing Musk’s. So Musk did the mature thing and deleted it, as confirmed by Snopes.
But that wasn’t all. Having been at the game — sitting next to Rupert Murdoch, no less — he then flew back to Twitter HQ in the Bay Area and threatened to fire staffers who wouldn’t rework the algorithm so his tweets essentially received a kind of favoritism. As per Platformer:
By Monday afternoon, “the problem” had been “fixed.” Twitter deployed code to automatically “greenlight” all of Musk’s tweets, meaning his tweets will bypass Twitter’s filters designed to show people the best content possible. The algorithm now artificially boosted Musk’s tweets by a factor of 1,000 – a constant score that ensured his tweets rank higher than anyone else’s in the feed.
What Musk’s account received was what is internally called a “power user multiplier.” However, the “chief twit” is the only user who receives the luxury.
Musk even appeared to be tweeting through it.
Please stay tuned while we make adjustments to the uh .… “algorithm”
And so anyone who hadn’t muted or blocked Musk’s account suddenly saw him everywhere in their feed. He even joked about forcing Twitter users to see his tweets, whether they wanted to or not, with a meme involving a woman forcing another to drink milk. That post, incidentally, received 118.4 million impressions — exponentially more than his not exactly creative pro-Eagles post.
Of course, as some Twitter engineers argued, perhaps Musk’s posts were, in his opinion, underperforming is because so many people had either muted or blocked him. Since taking over the platform, his account has not exactly been one of its most popular. But surely one way of making people like you more is forcing them to notice you.
Veteran forward Joe Ingles has always been considered as somewhat of a jovial, lighthearted personality among NBA players. During Tuesday’s game between the Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics, he put those qualities on display. After he drew an illegal screen from Blake Griffin, Ingles jokingly gave Griffin a pat on the head and received a technical foul as he sauntered down the floor.
It looked like a playful move from Ingles, but one Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla took exception to, for which he was vindicated by Ingles’ tech. The video above makes it hard to tell how Griffin interpreted Ingles’ tap on the head, but the officials clearly didn’t approve.
This isn’t the first time Ingles and Griffin have been involved in some on-court banter and high jinks either. Back in January 2019, after Ingles was penalized for an illegal screen against Griffin, Ingles called Griffin a “flopper” as the two walked to the other side of the court together. While Ingles never appeared in a preseason game with Los Angeles Clippers, the two did spend some together in the organization when Ingles was on Los Angeles’ 2014-15 training camp roster as well, so they have a history that dates back a while.
Bad Bunny has shared the video for “Ojitos Lindos,” a fan favorite from his Grammy Award-winning album, Un Verano Sin Ti.
In the video for the Bomba Estéreo-assisted track, Bunny is seen going on dates with several women in Puerto Rico. However, he can’t get over a special woman with the “ojitos lindos,” which means “beautiful little eyes” in Spanish.
After dropping off a montage of dates in their homes, Bunny drives off into the dark. He seems heartbroken, hinting that he is still not over his ex.
He then gets into a car wreck, and the screen fades to black.
In the next clip, he wakes up in a hospital, and is later greeted by his most loyal companion.
Nearly a year after its release, Un Verano Sin Ti continues to provide iconic music moments. During his acceptance speech at the 2023 Grammys for the Best Musica Urbana Album award, he revealed that making this album was a process that came naturally to him.
“I just made it, this album, with love and passion,” he said. “And when you do things with love and passion, everything is easier, and life is easier.”
You can watch the video for “Ojitos Lindos” above.
Sam Smith and Kim Petras have everybody talking with their smash hit, “Unholy.” But even after a week of Grammys buzz, and several complaints to the FCC, the hype isn’t dying down. Today, BBC Radio 1 shared a cover of “Unholy” performed by the one and only Lizzo.
She sang the song during an appearance on BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge show. When explaining her choice, Lizzo said “It’s a massive tune,” in a British accent.
She continued, saying, “I’m such a huge fan of Sam and Kim, and this song is just hot right now. I’ve been wanting to sing it, so you gave me a reason.”
During her cover, she sang to the beat of rolling drums and blaring, seductive horns. Her signature, soulful vocals gave the song a jazzy feel — not to mention, new sounds from a flute, and a hypnotic electric guitar bridge.
It’s been a big month for Lizzo. Last weekend, her song “About Damn Time” won the Grammy for Record Of The Year. This weekend, she will kick off the second leg of her Special Tour, appropriately called the Special 2our.
In the meantime, you can listen to Lizzo’s “Unholy” cover here at the 9:30 mark.
Lizzo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Keanu Reeves is not just one of the nicest, kindest, most gregarious folks in Hollywood. He’s also the star of a franchise in which machines take over humanity. So when he weighs in on all this rapidly evolving AI tech, as well as comparatively older stuff like deepfakes, and concludes that they’re worth worrying about, it’s probably a good idea to worry.
In a new interview with Wired, the sometime Neo was not cool with ChatGPT, the latest evolution in artificial intelligence, which people have been using to have “conversations” with dead people, ranging from William Shakespeare to Adolf Hitler. So far the AI responses have been just off enough to be unconvincing. But when the Wired interviewer wondered if a Keanu bot could one day conduct an interview, Reeves wasn’t worried about it happening in his lifetime.
“Oh no,” he told the reporter, “you should be worried about that happening next month.”
At one point the conversation turned to deepfakes, including the shot-down claim that Bruce Willis, who had to retire from acting due to having aphasia, was going to allow himself to be deepfaked (but has already had that happen in a Russian ad). Reeves really doesn’t like deepfakes.
“What’s frustrating about that is you lose your agency,” he said. “When you give a performance in a film, you know you’re going to be edited, but you’re participating in that. If you go into deepfake land, it has none of your points of view. That’s scary.”
Reeves said it was going to be “interesting to see how humans deal with these technologies,” which are already having “such cultural, sociological impacts.” For instance, he points out all the “data” computers amass about anyone using gadgets. “Technologies are finding places in our education, in our medicine, in our entertainment, in our politics, and how we war and how we work.”
He’s already worried about young people who’ve grown up with tech and may not see the dangers:
“I was trying to explain the plot of The Matrix to this 15-year-old once, and that the character I played was really fighting for what was real. And this young person was just like, ‘Who cares if it’s real?’ People are growing up with these tools: We’re listening to music already that’s made by AI in the style of Nirvana, there’s NFT digital art. It’s cool, like, Look what the cute machines can make! But there’s a corporatocracy behind it that’s looking to control those things. Culturally, socially, we’re gonna be confronted by the value of real, or the nonvalue. And then what’s going to be pushed on us? What’s going to be presented to us?
Reeves concludes that things like the metaverse are already “a system of control and manipulation. We’re on our knees looking at cave walls and seeing the projections, and we’re not having the chance to look behind us.”
Again, this is someone who’s been thinking about the machines taking over humanity for the last quarter century. It’s probably worth doing some unplugging before AI suddenly starts getting dangerously good at their jobs.
In the meantime, you’ll soon get to see the non-deepfaked Keanu Reeves really doing his own stunts again in the fourth John Wick, which is very real and very long. That film will be released on March 24.
The eyes of the basketball world will turn to Salt Lake City this weekend for the 2023 NBA All-Star festivities. While the All-Star rosters, Rising Stars rosters, and Celebrity Game rosters are already publicly available, the league waited until just days before the extravaganza to formally announce the players taking part in Saturday night’s competitions.
However, the league and TNT joined forces to announce the participants on Tuesday and, as usual, Saturday’s slate will begin with the Skills Challenge. This year’s field for that event will feature three teams of three players with three rounds of competition. One team is entirely comprised of the Antetokounmpo brothers (Giannis, Thanasis, Alex) with another three-man group of Jordan Clarkson, Collin Sexton, and Walker Kessler. The final team is Paolo Banchero, Jabari Smith Jr., and Jaden Ivey.
The Skills Challenge will be followed by the annual three-point contest, with a star-studded field in place. All-Stars Jayson Tatum, Damian Lillard, Lauri Markkanen, and Tyrese Haliburton headline the field, and they will be joined by Kings guard Kevin Huerter, Heat guard Tyler Herro, Pacers guard Buddy Hield, and Blazers guard Anfernee Simons.
Finally, the Slam Dunk Contest field is set with high flyers from across the league. Pelicans forward Trey Murphy is the most prominent player in the field, with Knicks center Jericho Simons, Rockets forward KJ Martin, and fan favorite Mac McClung, who recently agreed to a Two-Way contract with the 76ers, also in the mix.
Shakira isn’t going to let her ex have the last word. Last month, she kicked off the new year with her scathing “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53” collaborative single, with Argentine DJ Bizarrap. Now, in a special Valentine’s Day TikTok post, she has another message for Gerard Pique, her former partner of 12 years.
In the clip, she is seen sweeping her floor, while wearing a black shirt and pants, with matching heels. She lip-syncs to SZA’s “Kill Bill,” which has become a viral hit on the video-sharing platform.
The video is set to the song’s chorus, which contains the lyrics, “I might kill my ex, not the best idea / His new girlfriend’s next, how’d I get here? / I might kill my ex, I still love him though / Rather be in jail than alone.”
Shakira hasn’t spoken much about the split with Pique in recent months, however, she did open up about the breakup in an interview with Elle back in September. She revealed that being around friends and family has helped her heal through the heartbreak.
“I think that even when you feel like you’re falling down an abyss and there’s no end to that abyss, there’s always a certain safety net at the bottom. And that safety net is formed by family and friends. And if you’ve done things right, you will find that helping hand. And friendship, they say, is the purest form of love, and maybe the most long-lasting one.”
Donald Trump has plenty of enemies, but he hates few with the ire he reserves for Mitch McConnell. The former president hates the Senate minority leader so much — despite McConnell refusing to convict him during his second impeachment, effectively ensuring he can run a third time, which he now is — he even goes after his wife. And Trump doesn’t just go after Elaine Chao, who was secretary of transportation in his administration. He pelts her with taunts that are straight-up racist. Will that stop McConnell from supporting him if he winds up with the Republican ticket again? Of course not.
As per Mediaite, McConnell spoke to reporter after Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina, announced she was throwing her hat in the ring, making her the only official rival to her former pal, Donald Trump. When asked if the GOP should finally move on from the guy who keeps calling his wife “Coco Chow,” he responded not with a definitive answer but a non-committal, rambling non-response.
“Well, what I think we’re going to have is a vigorous primary with a number of candidates making their case,” he said. “And the American people, those who are registered Republicans who are going to participate in these primaries are going to decide who they want to nominate.”
He added, “And obviously, I’m going to support whoever the nominee ultimately is.”
McConnell’s not the only member of his party who won’t condemn a guy who insults his wife. Just ask Ted Cruz, who had the added bonus of Trump calling his dad a murderer, too.
It’s impossible to mention the Slam Dunk Contest and not have the face of one man conjured up like its high-flying, gravity defying genie. Vince Carter solidified his place in the NBA and in the Contest’s history with his 2000 performance. It would become something of a double-edged sword, with Carter swearing off for a time the very thing that made him so mesmerizing for so many to watch. Before he retired, Carter returned to dunking and his legacy is traceable in pretty much every Dunk Contest entry since, as well as on the floor in real-time bounce.
As part of this year’s NBA All-Star weekend, Carter teamed up with Paul George and AT&T. The two were scanned using 3D technology to be put into a custom-built video game that fans can play online and in person over the weekend as AR avatars.
Dime caught up with Carter over the phone to talk about the collaboration, his stance on the Dunk Contest’s past and present, making peace with his part in the history of the dunk itself, the surprising takeaways from his post-playing career as an analyst for ESPN, and that 2014 return to Toronto, when he finally got a standing ovation.
Well first, I want to wish you a happy Valentine’s Day.
Thanks, same to you.
What was it about AT&T’s Playmaker AR Arcade game that appealed most to you?
Well first of all, I’ll say this, I’ve been a longtime customer with AT&T, so it was a no-brainer for me. As a kid, growing up, playing video games, and then as a professional having the chance to be in a video game — it’s just a great opportunity.
I saw some of the behind the scenes footage you and Paul George did for your avatars, can you tell me a bit about that process?
AT+T
It was a pretty cool process. I didn’t know what to expect walking into it. For me, personally, I hadn’t been in a uniform, in jersey for a really long time. And to put the Raptors jersey back on and understanding what this avatar’s going to be for, and the big picture. Like I said, pretty cool situation, particularly now being retired away from the game a couple years and getting to relive some fun moments and be a part of something like that with a guy like Paul George — who’s playing well, is an All-Star, and very in right now.
It would be impossible not to talk to you about dunks and with this project, the All-Star game, so, I don’t know if you clocked it, but this is the first Valentine’s that hasn’t fallen on All-Star weekend in a while. Little bit of backstory — my husband and I have watched the Dunk Contest together for Valentine’s since we met, we also have matching Dunk Contest tattoos.
Oh wow.
It’s a dumb tradition, but it’s ours. But I mention the tradition, because I started to think about the tradition of dunks. The first dunk in the 1930s, to the move being banned by the NCAA, to Dr. J and Kareem popularizing it in-game, the first dunk contests and then of course yours in 2000, which I think captivated so many people, including myself. Dunks themselves take on elements of past dunks as callbacks, or put twists on classics — and now, you are such an undeniable part of that tradition forever, and I wanted to get your thoughts on that.
I’m thankful for it. I’m one with it now. At one point it was, I don’t want to say uncomfortable, but it was just like, no way. You’re talking about history. When you talk about situations or moments for those who are around can relive, or talk about all-time leading scorer, people can think back to where they were when Kareem broke the record, and now people will think back to where they were or what they were doing when LeBron broke the record. So, now when you talk about dunks and your name is thrown around with the elite, a lot of people say the best — I leave it up to them for debate — but that’s a great feeling.
For me, particularly because being a part of the Dunk Contest, being in the NBA, was it. That’s the goal of every player who’s there. But while doing so, I also wanted to be a part of the Dunk Contest. That’s something I used to watch, I used to tape it, I used to study it. I used to try and figure out why guys are doing particular dunks, what are they trying to get out of it? Then I got my opportunity. So, I wanted to make the best of my opportunity. I felt like I was prepared for it. And I wanted people just to see how crazy my imagination was outside my athleticism. My imagination heightened my athleticism, if that makes sense. You have the god-given athleticism, but you allow your imagination to flow with that, you can take it to another level and I was able to do it that night.
It makes perfect sense. Cause correct me if I’m wrong, you had some ideas and then you just decided to go from, basically scratch as soon as you got to that Contest, did you not?
Yeah. Which is a scary thing if you think about. Because if this doesn’t work out, [laughing] we’re not having this conversation about it.
Absolutely true. On a less serious note, I was curious if you sit in any firm camp when it comes to the Dunk Contest? You know, there are people who are strictly no props, people who love the props, people who think it should be one attempt only, people who think the format should change. Where do you fall?
I’m more of the old school mindset. I thought the gimmicks and stuff watered it down a little bit. The one thing I did not like, and I’m glad they got rid of it immediately, was the wheel. Because I feel like a Dunk Contest is for people to go out there and show what they can do, and not what other people feel like they can do. And what I mean by that is when you talk about a wheel, guys get exposed. You’re talking about a two foot jumper, a guy who’s great at jumping off of two feet, picks a dunk on the wheel that requires a one foot jump that they’re not able to do. And you don’t get to see the best of the athlete because of it.
So, I thought it was a bad idea. I didn’t like it. There were some cool dunks on there but it should’ve been on the wheel, or not even the wheel, but options to pick from that fit in your wheelhouse — no pun intended. I like just actually back and forth. You dunk, then I dunk. I know they had a couple of dunks in a minute, or something like that, it’s just like, what are we doing? That’s not how the history of dunks go, that’s like trying to rewrite history. Like somebody going back in time to rewrite how hip-hop started — it started in the park, battle raps. That’s kind of the same thing. Dunking started like you go dunk, get through your line, throw the ball to the next person like ‘Alright, what you got?’ And that’s how people fell in love with it.
I’m with you on that. I want to switch over to your job as an analyst because in the same vein as this AR game, you’re seeing and interacting with the game at a different level now. What’s been the biggest surprise for you since you began your work as an analyst?
That’s a tough one. This is going to sound crazy, like I’m trying to make a joke, the biggest surprise is man, I can’t believe — I guess it’s spoiled, hmm, maybe — but I can’t believe how uncomfortable it is to sit at these tables. Because they’re not making these tables for Reggie Miller, Grant Hill, 6’7, 6’8, Chris Webber at one time, 6’10. They’re not making them for these guys. You go to some of these arenas and try to sit at these tables and you try to sound comfortable on TV, and that’s the biggest surprise and toughest task because sometimes I’m sitting there squirming and uncomfortable [laughs]. It makes me laugh because I just think of some of the arenas I’ve been in, like, this is not going to work. How?
Other than that, I think it wasn’t honestly a lot of surprises because of my preparation prior to. Meaning, nine years prior to retirement, I was doing just this. After the season was over I would do studio work at Turner, and then in the playoffs, during the Finals, I would do work with ESPN — sideline reporting, studio stuff, and everything. So I had some experience and preparation so I knew what to expect. So it wasn’t like anything caught me off guard. The biggest challenge, and this is not even a challenge, I get the chance to work with some of the greats in the play-by-play world. For me, I’m like, man, don’t mess this up. And they always ask me, you good? Anything I need to do? I’m like, you’re Mike Breen. You’re Mark Jones. Like, what? I’m making sure I’m doing what I need to do to make this flow. So that’s been, if you would, the challenge personally, internally, was just flowing with some of the greats. I’ve only been in it for a couple years but I’ve had the opportunity to work with a lot of greats so far that we hear every day, every week.
I was at the Memphis-Toronto game in 2014 where you got the tribute and the boos turned to a standing ovation.
Ah.
It was honestly like seeing history change in real-time. It was really powerful, I definitely cried. But it struck me as such a full-circle moment, going from being the sweetheart of the city, to so disparaged for a long time, and that coming back around to a very deep love, acknowledgement and appreciation from the fanbase. As an athlete, I wondered, do you get many moments like that?
Ooh, man. A select few. Obviously the superstars, when they come back home, and things like that, but not often. I knew about it, I knew it was happening, but I didn’t know how it was going to feel. You can’t prepare for that. Particularly in those situations, where do you go Google that? You can’t go look up, former player who had this moment. I had a unique situation like none other [chuckles]. There hasn’t been a player who has gone through that. It’s been funny over the years, when people talk about oh, they’re going back to their old team, or former team, and the boos should be crazy. I’m like, aight, if that’s what you guys call crazy. [laughing] Just cause I know what that really looks like.
And to go from that to that moment — ah man — was just … I felt like I was in my little bubble. It was just me sitting out there by myself in the arena watching this film, the tribute. They asked me, I remember them asking me all these questions about did you see the crowd, I had no clue. I just felt like I was standing in the bubble by myself, reliving some great moments. And when I actually came to, if you would, and paid attention, hearing people cheer when it was over. It was like, Oh man. What’s going on? [laughing] It was just a cool moment.
Between Joe Biden’s State of the Union address and Rihanna’s explosive Super Bowl Halftime Show, we’ve hardly had a moment to check in with Rudy Giuliani. Though it doesn’t seem the same could be said for Fani Willis, the district attorney in Fulton County, Georgia, where Donald Trump and his cronies could be in big trouble once the grand jury report related to the former president’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election are unsealed.
As Raw Story reports, Harry Litman — a former federal prosecutor — is feeling pretty confident in his assumption that an indictment could be coming Giuliani’s way in the VERY near future. While appearing as a guest on MSNBC’s All In on Monday night, the topic turned to Trump’s shady phone call to Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s Secretary of State, whom Trump and his team pushed to help them “find 11,870 votes” so that he didn’t lose the Peachtree State, or the general election. (The same call during which the former president may have loudly farted.)
“If I had done that, if some random person off the street in Georgia had done that, we’d be in prison right now wouldn’t we?,” Hasan asked, with Litman responding in the absolute affirmative. In fact, Litman went so far to to claim that such a statement could easily be considered “solicitation to commit election fraud,” and feels pretty confident that there will be repercussions.
“He’s gotten the target letter, and that means for the listeners out there, that [Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis] has decided he is in her sights,” Litman said. “So, she intends to indict him. But since he took the Fifth, I doubt it. I anticipate, and it’s a really good general point, it is not just Trump involved here. He did as much as suggested it was Trump because he once talked about people not before the grand jury. Seventeen target people, sort of all the president’s men and women. Giuliani really, really — he goes down to Georgia, tells all these fibs. I think he’s in a world of hurt and is likely to be indicted.”
On the bright side, maybe Rudy can get a discount on those cozy sandals he was hawking a few months back for MyPillow man Mike Lindell. We hear them make comfy shower shoes, and where Giuliani is going, he might very well need them.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
