Category: News

The majority of the The White Lotus vacationers are somehow miserable in paradise, but the viewing experience is much more pleasurable. This week’s episode contained a number of salacious revelations toward the back end, and that’s a pretty awful game with words that I’m tossing out here. There’s possible incest on the loose involving a “naughty nephew,” and then there’s another Game of Thrones-style suggestion at hand.

In particular, people now wonder whether Daphne and Cameron’s children are even his, which means that Daphne might be pulling a Rhaenyra from House of the Dragon:

Daphne certainly stirred that pot, not too long after she made a confession to Harper: Daphne is well-aware of Cameron’s wandering eye and his consummation of such. As Daphne gushed about her personal trainer with gorgeous blonde hair and massive blue eyes, Daphne passed her phone to Harper, and there was a photo of her children. Harper was like, girl, did you mean to show me this photo, and Daphne knew exactly what she was doing. It’s no wonder that actress Meghann Fahy is out there telling people not to “underestimate” her character in the wake of this episode.

Yep, it sure looks like Daphne’s been getting hers for awhile, so it’s no wonder that she really doesn’t care that Cameron cheats like he’s drinking water. As a result, social media is loving this turn of events.

HBO’s The White Lotus airs on Sunday nights.

As Black Panther: Wakanda Forever continues to dominate the box office, Marvel fans are no doubt curious as to what further adventures await its characters. Specifically, the blockbuster sequel debuted the live-action version of Namor, one of Marvel Comics’ oldest characters if not the oldest. He has a comic book history stretching back nearly a century, so surely, Marvel must have plans to use the aquatic character in his own series of films. Well, not so fast.

According to Wakanda Forever producer Nate Moore, Namor is still trapped in a complicated rights issue that prevents him from starring in solo films. Like the Hulk, Universal snatched up the rights to Namor back when Marvel Comics was selling off characters left and right to stave off bankruptcy in the ’90s. While Marvel Studios has been able to slowly claw back those rights thanks to Disney’s acquisition of Fox, it still has to “borrow” characters, which has had its hiccups. (See: The Great Spider-Man Debacle of 2019)

However, despite Universal’s ownership of Namor, Marvel still enjoyed free reign with the character. Via The Wrap:

“It honestly affects us more, and not to talk too much out of school, but in how we market the film than it does how we use him in the film,” Moore said. “There weren’t really things we couldn’t do from a character perspective for him, which is good because clearly, we took a ton of inspiration from the source material, but we also made some big changes to really anchor him in that world in a truth that publishing never really landed on, I would argue, in a big way.”

Of course, Namor has historically worked best when he’s bouncing off other Marvel characters, particularly the Fantastic Four and Dr. Doom. Giving him a solo film could be interesting, but for now, MCU fans will have to content themselves with Namor being a secondary character, which is often where he’s the most dynamic.

(Via The Wrap)

Metallica earned themselves a bunch of new fans earlier this year thanks to Stranger Things, and now it’s time to give them fresh music: Today (November 28), the band announced they have a new album, 72 Seasons, set to drop on April 14, 2023. They also unveiled “Lux Æterna,” an in-your-face rocker that shows James Hetfield and company really haven’t lost a step all these years later.

Hetfield says of the album in a statement:

“72 seasons. The first 18 years of our lives that form our true or false selves. The concept that we were told ‘who we are’ by our parents. A possible pigeonholing around what kind of personality we are. I think the most interesting part of this is the continued study of those core beliefs and how it affects our perception of the world today. Much of our adult experience is reenactment or reaction to these childhood experiences. Prisoners of childhood or breaking free of those bondages we carry.”

On top of that, the band is going on a big tour starting in 2023 and extending into 2024.

Watch the “Lux Æterna” video above. Below, find the 72 Seasons art and tracklist, as well as Metallica’s tour dates.

1. “72 Seasons”
2. “Shadows Follow”
3. “Screaming Suicide”
4. “Sleepwalk My Life Away”
5. “You Must Burn!”
6. “Lux Æterna”
7. “Crown Of Barbed Wire”
8. “Chasing Light”
9. “If Darkness Had A Son”
10. “Too Far Gone?”
11. “Room Of Mirrors”
12. “Inamorata”

04/27/2023 — Amsterdam NL @ Johan Cruijff Arena
04/29/2023 — Amsterdam NL @ Johan Cruijff Arena
05/17/2023 — Paris FR @ Stade de France
05/19/2023 — Paris FR @ Stade de France
05/26/2023 — Hamburg DE @ Volksparkstadion
05/28/2023 — Hamburg DE @ Volksparkstadion
06/16/2023 — Gothenburg SE @ Ullevi Stadium
06/18/2023 — Gothenburg SE @ Ullevi Stadium
08/04/2023 — East Rutherford, NJ @ MetLife Stadium
08/06/2023 — East Rutherford, NJ @ MetLife Stadium
08/11/2023 — Montreal, QC @ Stade Olympique
08/13/2023 — Montreal, QC @ Stade Olympique
08/18/2023 — Arlington, TX @ AT&T Stadium
08/20/2023 — Arlington, TX @ AT&T Stadium
08/25/2023 — Inglewood, CA @ SoFi Stadium
08/27/2023 — Inglewood, CA @ SoFi Stadium
09/01/2023 — Glendale, AZ @ State Farm Stadium
09/03/2023 — Glendale, AZ @ State Farm Stadium
11/03/2023 — St. Louis, MO @ The Dome at America’s Center
11/05/2023 — St. Louis, MO @ The Dome at America’s Center
11/10/2023 — Detroit, MI @ Ford Field
11/12/2023 — Detroit, MI @ Ford Field
05/24/2024 — Munich DE @ Olympiastadion
05/26/2024 — Munich DE @ Olympiastadion
06/07/2024 — Helsinki FI @ Olympic Stadium
06/09/2024 — Helsinki FI @ Olympic Stadium
06/14/2024 — Copenhagen DK @ Parken Stadium
06/16/2024 — Copenhagen DK @ Parken Stadium
07/05/2024 — Warsaw PL @ PGE Narodowy
07/07/2024 — Warsaw PL @ PGE Narodowy
07/12/2024 — Madrid ES @ Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano
07/14/2024 — Madrid ES @ Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano
08/02/2024 — Foxborough, MA @ Gillette Stadium
08/04/2024 — Foxborough, MA @ Gillette Stadium
08/09/2024 — Chicago, IL @ Soldier Field
08/11/2024 — Chicago, IL @ Soldier Field
08/16/2024 — Minneapolis, MN @ US Bank Stadium
08/18/2024 — Minneapolis, MN @ US Bank Stadium
08/23/2024 — Edmonton, AB @ Commonwealth Stadium
08/25/2024 — Edmonton, AB @ Commonwealth Stadium
08/30/2024 — Seattle, WA @ Lumen Field
09/01/2024 — Seattle, WA @ Lumen Field
09/20/2024 — Mexico City MX @ Foro Sol
09/22/2024 — Mexico City MX @ Foro Sol
09/27/2024 — Mexico City MX @ Foro Sol
09/29/2024 — Mexico City MX @ Foro Sol

72 Seasons is out 4/14/2023 via Blackened Recordings. Pre-order it here.

Star Trek co-stars William Shatner and George Takei haven’t worked together in over 30 years (1991’s Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country), but they can’t stop griping about each other. A few weeks ago, Shatner told the Times that the only reason his former colleagues have an issue with him is for publicity. “Sixty years after some incident they are still on that track. Don’t you think that’s a little weird? It’s like a sickness.” He specifically called out Takei, who once referred to the Captain Kirk actor as an “unfit” guinea pig. The LGBTQ icon replied to Shatner in a new interview with the Guardian.

When asked if the Star Trek cast got along with each other, Takei replied, “Yes. Yes. YES. Except for one, who was a prima donna.” Gee, I wonder who that could be. “But the rest of us shared a great camaraderie,” he continued. “One of the gifts from Star Trek was not just longevity but colleagues that became lasting friends. My colleagues were part of my wedding party in 2008. Walter Koenig [Chekov] was my best man. We asked Nichelle [Nichols] to be our matron of honor but she said: ‘I am not a matron! If Walter can be the best man, why can’t I be the best lady?’ So she became the best lady.”

Takei wasn’t done with Shatner, however. He called him a “cantankerous old man,” adding, “He enjoyed being the centre of attention. He wanted everyone to kowtow to him.” Only two members of the main Star Trek cast who starred in all three seasons are still alive: Shatner and Takei. It’s going to be a spite-off to see who can last longer.

(Via the Guardian)

At 7-11 and 13th in the Western Conference, the Los Angeles Lakers‘ first five weeks of 2022-23 have not been the bounce-back season they hoped for following a tumultuous 2021-22. The offense is clunky and full of ineffective shooters. The defense has been solid, though not good enough to prop up the cramped offense. LeBron James has missed six games and not consistently played like his superstar self when available. In a deep and competitive Western Conference, the Lakers are already two games back of a play-in spot and three games back of a top-six seed.

However, they are providing glimmers of optimism recently, as they are 5-1 in their last six games following a 2-10 start and Anthony Davis is in superstar form again. On top of Davis’ stellar play, James played perhaps his finest game of the young season on Saturday, dropping 39 points (76.8 percent true shooting), 11 rebounds, three assists, one steal and one block. The optimism that things are trending in the right direction exists internally as well, and according to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin, L.A.’s top stars see this as a potential contender with the right additions.

“There is belief shared by leaders in the Lakers’ locker room, sources said, that the team is only a couple of players away from turning this group into a legitimate contender,” McMenamin wrote.

Among possible trades involving “a couple of players” is the staunchly reported Russell Westbrook-for-Buddy-Hield-and-Myles-Turner deal, which would likely require Los Angeles to ship off its 2027 and 2029 first-round picks. The Lakers are already low on first-round picks after acquiring Anthony Davis 3.5 years ago. That move, of course, did propel them to a championship in 2020. While the front office has been reportedly skeptical of there being a move that can give them a chance to contend for another ring, that belief is at least growing inside the locker room that a title run is within reach if they can bolster the rotation.

Artist Haley Morris-Cafiero describes herself on her website as “part performer, part artist, part provocateur, part spectator.” Her recent project, titled “Wait Watchers” has elements of all her self-descriptors.

In an email to us, Morris-Cafiero explained that she set up a camera in the street and stood in front of it, doing mundane activities like looking at a map or eating gelato. While she’s standing there she sets off her camera, taking hundreds of photos.

Later, she looks through them and sees what is happening around her. Morris-Cafiero finds that people are often looking at her body, or commenting on it with their gaze or body language, at times even appearing to mock her.

“I then examine the images to see if any of the passersby had a critical or questioning element in their face or body language.”

“I consider my photographs a social experiment and I reverse the gaze back on to the stranger and place the viewer in the position of being a witness to a moment in time. The project is a performative form of street photography,” she writes.

Her work has been exhibited across the U.S. and abroad.

She also published her book, The Watchers, which shows her photo collection and includes comments made to her about her body from passerby.

You can see that even people in positions of authority, like this police officer, feel comfortable mocking her just for being out in public.

Though she’s not looking at the people around her, Morris-Cafiero’s photographs capture a split second in time that really crystalizes how people relate to one another on the street and the judgment she receives from strangers.

In galleries, with the words beside them, the photos are even more pointed. She also includes the positive words she receives from people who have experienced discrimination for their size or any other aspect to their body that is consistently bothered by the dominant culture.

Though we all theoretically know that people, women in particular, are discriminated against for their size, seeing it captured in photographs is gut-wrenching:

The project has gone viral as people identify with Morris-Cafiero’s experience, which means a lot of people relate to being stared at and commented on by folks who should mind their own business. Does that include you? You can check out more of her incredible work here.

This article originally appeared on 02.13.18

You wear extra chunky sweaters. You’ve never met a mitten you didn’t like. You may even keep a lap blanket at work.

You’re one of those people who is always cold. And you are not alone.

@Cynderness @Girlinthe As someone who is nearly always cold, you have my sympathy. Being the wrong temperature is m… https://t.co/Sfy4nCkkqJ

— Dr Schopflin (@Dr Schopflin)
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Inside or outside, you just can’t seem to get warm. This characteristic of yours manifests itself in extra blankets, wild heating bills, and enough complaints that you start going hoarse.

But surely there’s a scientific reason as to why some people are always cold, right?

It can’t just be random chance that has doomed you to a life of perpetual shivers. I reached out to an expert to learn more.

Dr. Christopher Minson is a professor in the department of human physiology at the University of Oregon. One of his primary research interests is thermoregulation, that’s how the brain and body interact and adapt as we heat and cool. Plainly put, he is the perfect guy to answer a few questions from #TeamCold.

(This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.)

Upworthy (UP): So what is actually happening in the body when a person gets chilly?

Dr. Chris Minson (CM): In the simplest of terms, feeling either cold or warm means that the temperature “set point” of the body is being challenged by thermal inputs throughout the body, including in the brain, the blood, the spinal cord, our organs, our muscles, and our skin. Part of our brain collects all of those thermal inputs and essentially compares them to what body temperature it wants to hold. So if your skin temperature is lowered, even though the rest of your body is still at a comfortable set-point, you will feel cold — in some cases, cold enough to make behavioral changes like putting on a sweater.

UP: Is there a reason this seems to largely impact women?

CM: The people who feel “always cold” will typically have lower muscle mass relative to body surface area (typically, women and older people). Their actual body core temperature may not really be below normal, but they feel cold because their body is telling them to conserve heat.

There have also been limited reports that women have a higher density of blood vessels at the skin surface, which would make them more sensitive to cold. However, there hasn’t been enough good data collected on this theory to confirm or disprove it.

This also explains a frequent frustrations about women and men in relationships…

CM: A common complaint by women and men in relationships is that women’s feet are often very cold, especially in bed. That goes along with the lower body mass to surface area relationship in women. As their body works to conserve heat, it vasoconstricts blood vessels in the extremities (hands and feet) to keep the core warm. This reduced blood flow results in cold hands and feet in women more than men.

So there you have it: Your brain is simply an overworked project manager trying to keep you alive. But there are a few things you can do about it.

UP: If you are a person who is always cold, is there anything you can do to “retrain” your body, so to speak?

CM: One of the best things someone can do is to increase their fat-free mass (muscle). This will increase overall metabolic rate (although it’s not easy to do.)

Another thing a person could do is undergo cold-stresses, such as allowing themselves to be exposed to very cold temperatures for short periods of time. It sounds counter-intuitive, but it’s been suggested that this could decrease the sensation of feeling cold. An example is putting the shower on ‘cold’ for a short period of time in the shower. Not easy to do, and you would want to build up to a full minute each day, but in some people it can help them to decrease the feeling of being cold.

UP: There are a lot of jokes at the expense of people who are always cold, but at what point does it go from “I’m always cold, and it’s a quirky thing about me” to “I’m always cold and I should probably see my doctor”?

CM: There is the possibility that someone’s perpetual coldness could be caused by abnormally low thyroid hormone levels, and that can be verified with a blood test. That is by far the rarer condition, but taking hormone supplements if medically needed can help. If a person is quite lethargic, has low motivation, and is always cold, it might be worth having thyroid hormones evaluated.

So if you are a lap-blanket wearing member of #TeamCold, don’t fret.

You are strong. You are capable. And unless you have pain or some of the symptoms Minson mentioned, there is likely nothing wrong with you. Our bodies just require different things of us, and yours requires that you have to deal with an overly-air conditioned-society. My sincerest apologies. On behalf of #TeamHot, your next cocoa is on me.

This article originally appeared on 10.06.15

A previous episode of “The Daily Show” addressed two hot-button issues at the same time: abortion and gun control.

It was one of the earliest tests for new host Trevor Noah, and he pretty much knocked this one out of the park. The segment began with a discussion about the pro-life movement’s laser focus on making completely legal abortions really, really hard to get.

Noah started with the movement’s push to defund Planned Parenthood on what turned out to be deceptive, altered, and debunked videos. And even he had to admit, pro-lifers are pretty great at what they do, given that they were able to get Congress to hold hearings based on … nothing, really.

Of course, not all people in the pro-life movement are against gun control, and not all people who are against gun control are pro-life, but there is a certain significant — and confusing — overlap on those two issues that is worth investigating.

So Noah turned his attention to the mass shooting in Oregon — the 294th of the year — and how we as a country are once again discussing gun control.

If pro-lifers are so concerned about the preservation of all lives, Noah wonders, then why don’t they support common-sense gun control measures?

There’s no need for doctored videos. Gun violence statistics exist (and they’re terrifying). Imagine if the pro-life movement rallied behind that?

Noah then brilliantly compared reactions from two “pro-life” presidential candidates on the Oregon shooting and on abortion.

First up was Jeb Bush on what happened in Oregon. He urged against reactionary gun legislation. “Stuff happens,” he said.

But compare that to his recent comments on abortion — which is, again, totally legal:

Now that’s a response fitting for a mass shooting.

Noah looked over to candidate Carly Fiorina for her thoughts on the Oregon shooting. Similar to Bush, Fiorina cautioned against taking any action on gun control until we know more about what happened.

Now compare that to her comments on abortion:

It’s not clear whether pro-lifers are waiting for an even 300 mass shootings in 2015 — which, at the pace we’re going, should be sometime in the next month or so — before taking action. But in the meantime, it’s really hard to see the “pro-life” rhetoric as anything more than hypocrisy.

In closing, Noah posed this to pro-lifers: If you actually care about lives, do something about guns.

Redirect the energy, lobbying, and rhetoric spent on fighting a more than 40-year-old Supreme Court decision toward sensible steps to curb gun violence.

“They just need to have a superhero’s dedication to life,” Noah says. “Because right now, they’re more like comic book collectors: Human life only matters until you take it out of the package, and then there’s nothing left.”

Watch the complete segment in the video below.

Trevor proposes that anti-abortion advocates like Carly Fiorina and Jeb Bush channel their pro-life rhetoric into another vital issue: gun control.Watch full…

This article originally appeared on 07.02.15

What if you needed a word for something that you can’t quite define? Where would you turn?

Have you ever tried to explain something but gave up because the person you’re talking to wouldn’t be able to relate? Or worse yet, there’s not an actual word for what you’re trying to explain?

Well, there’s a word for that feeling: exulansis.

Haven’t heard that term before? How about this one:

Anecdoche — a conversation in which everyone is talking, but nobody is listening.

No? How about this:

Opia — the ambiguous intensity of looking someone in the eye.

Now, before you start doubting your own vocabulary skills, you won’t find those words in any of the major dictionaries. Instead, they come from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, a collection of newly minted words for life’s hard-to-define feelings.

So, these words aren’t real? Well, it’s not quite that simple.

What makes something a “real” word?

It’s a word that’s found in the dictionary, you might say. That leads to an entirely separate question: Whose dictionary? Merriam-Webster? Oxford? Cambridge? Urban?

The truth is that language is ever-changing, and what one might say is a “fake” word today could very well be a “real” word tomorrow (or within a few years, at least).

In June 2015, the Oxford English Dictionary added a handful of new words to its rolls, including “Interweb,” “jeggings,” “hot mess,” “crowdfunding,” and “cisgender.” Will all of these words stick with us for the long haul? Almost certainly not. Still, in the mind of OED’s editors, those words are just as real as any others.

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, on the other hand, contains many useful terms that you won’t find in a traditional dictionary … yet.

You’ll find words like “Vellichor” (“The strange wistfulness of used bookshops”) and “Adronitis” (“Frustration with how long it takes to get to know someone”) buried within the dictionary’s six-year history.

While some terms come off as, well, obscure, others seem to fill meaningful voids left by the limitations of language for common emotions.

Its existence feels almost otherworldly, like spells from the mind of J.K. Rowling.

u201cHarry Potter Spells Listu201d

— Harry Potter World (@Harry Potter World)
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“I’ve been writing a dictionary of emotions for about five years, and still the most common question I get is, ‘Are these words real?'” Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows creator John Koenig told Upworthy over email.

To answer that question, Koenig says (emphasis mine):

“One answer is an obvious ‘no,’ [they’re not real] because you couldn’t find them in a leather-bound dictionary — and because I create them myself by twisting together word roots from any one of a dozen different languages, from French, Japanese and Mayan to my personal favorite, Greek.

On the other hand, of course these words are real, because in reality there is no such thing. A word is not like a gold coin that you bite to tell whether it’s counterfeit, so you might be able to trade it for a mule. It becomes real when it’s spoken and understood. And by that standard, I’ve seen some of my words (particularly ‘sonder’) used earnestly in many different conversations online. Are they all wrong? Is ‘sonder’ any less meaningful because it hasn’t yet been enshrined on the page of a leather-bound book? After all, almost every word in the Oxford English Dictionary has a birthdate, a notation of its first recorded use, back when it was just a yawp of nonsense that only made sense to one person, then two. All words were born this way.”

Here’s “sonder” by the way:

When it comes to how we think about words, popularity is often a stand-in for legitimacy.

You might not find the verb “retweeted” in the dictionary on your bookshelf, but it’s an understood term. Koenig has thoughts on that, as well:

“So then, does realness require the blessing of popular use? How many millions of people does it take to change the word ‘literally’ to mean ‘figuratively’? Is a word still alive if only one person knows its meaning? Or is that too far?”

“Personally, I think words should exist for their own sake, regardless of how they are used,” Koenig says, pointing out that our language is particularly lacking when it comes to describing emotions.

“When I post a new definition or a new episode of The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, I often have no idea if anyone else out there feels the emotion I’m trying to pin down. Because it’s a one-man show, it’s totally possible that it’s just me. So then this question about realness [of a word] becomes just another way of asking, ‘Am I the only person who feels this way?‘”

Koenig isn’t alone in his curiosity about the authenticity of words. English professor Anne Curzan gave a TED Talk on this exact topic.

During her talk, Curzan recounts someone asking her if “defriend” is a “real word.” She wound up in the same sort of existential rabbit hole:

“What makes a word real? My dinner companion and I both know what the verb ‘defriend’ means, so when does a new word like ‘defriend’ become real? Who has the authority to make those kinds of official decisions about words, anyway?”

Here’s Curzan giving her TED Talk “What makes a word ‘real’?” in March 2014.

She touched on the process of words making their way into the dictionary. This might seem like a stale topic, but it’s pretty fascinating.

To her, dictionary editors are similar to anthropologists — that’s a way most of us probably hadn’t thought about them before (if we thought about them at all).

“So how does a word get into a dictionary? It gets in because we use it and we keep using it, and dictionary editors are paying attention to us. If you’re thinking, ‘But that lets all of us decide what words mean,’ I would say, ‘Yes it does, and it always has.’

Dictionaries are a wonderful guide and resource, but there is no objective dictionary authority out there that is the final arbiter about what words mean. If a community of speakers is using a word and knows what it means, it’s real. That word might be slangy, that word might be informal, that word might be a word that you think is illogical or unnecessary, but that word that we’re using, that word is real.”

So, what makes a “real” word? That’s entirely up to you.

Donald Trump has been raked over the coals ever since he confirmed that he had dinner with Kanye West and prominent white supremacist incel Nick Fuentes. On top of justified criticisms from his opponents, even overwhelmingly MAGA sites like Breitbart have called out Trump for the dinner. Trump has maintained that he doesn’t know who Fuentes is and only allowed him to attend as a courtesy to Kanye, and that decision is now biting Trump even further in the butt.

In a series of posts on Telegram, Fuentes has reportedly turned on Trump just a few days after the now fateful dinner. According to Fuentes, the Republican Party needs a primary challenger who will outflank Trump on the right. Fuentes argued that Ron DeSantis isn’t up to the task because he’s too “moderate.” Via Newsweek:

When I say that Trump vs DeSantis is the wrong ‘dialectic’ (discussion with two more opposing opinions), I mean that they are both inferior to the campaign that Trump ran in 2016.

“DeSantis is a moderate and he would moderate Trump: lose-lose. We need Trump and a new candidate who will outflank him on his right.”

Fuentes also railed against Trump and diehard MAGA acolyte Marjorie Taylor Greene for trying to “lure the base back into supporting people like Kevin McCarthy, Ronna McDaniel, and Rick Grenell” who will fail “Christian Americans.”

“I didn’t leave the MAGA movement,” Fuentes said. “The MAGA movement left me.”

Fuentes’ rant arrives after a video posted by Kanye where he slammed Trump over their dinner conversation. Trump reportedly yelled at Kanye that he’d lose if he also tried to run for president in 2024, which the rapper did not appreciate.

“I mean has that ever worked for anyone in history?” Kanye said in the deleted video. “I’m like, ‘whoa hold on, hold on, hold on. You’re talking to Ye.’”

(Via Newsweek)