Category: News

On August 6, Lady Gaga performed at Toronto’s Rogers Centre. As she has done on her Chromatica Ball tour, she closed her encore with “Hold My Hand,” her song from Top Gun: Maverick. As she sang the track, though, she was struck on the head by an object thrown from the audience. Thankfully, it was a soft object, a doll, and Gaga was unfazed, continuing to perform through it.

As Stereogum notes, a Twitter user claimed credit for the throw, sharing photos of the doll they threw and writing (translated from Spanish), “From Mexico to Toronto,” and adding in another tweet (also translated), “Out of nerves I didn’t record when I threw it hahahaha, sorry @ladygaga.”

The doll is of Dr. Simi, the mascot of Mexican pharmacy chain Farmacias Similares. Throwing Dr. Simi dolls on stage (but not necessarily at the performer’s head) has apparently become a new concert tradition in Mexico since last year. The character is popular enough that in 2018, a Mexican 3-year-old generated some attention for their Dr. Simi-themed birthday party.

All in all, Gaga fared better than Kid Cudi did at the Rolling Loud festival in July, when he cut his set short after fans kept throwing things at him despite his stern warning.

Ex-President Trump set himself up for ridicule when he trotted down to New York Attorney General Letitia James office and decided not to answer any of her questions (relating to the NY civil investigation into the Trump Organization’s many alleged shady deeds) and gold-blanketed himself by using the Fifth Amendment. This, of course, was only one of the two big Trump ouchies of the week (the other being the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago that Trump brought upon himself by hoarding all of those McDonald’s wrappers boxes of documents). What was particularly telling about the NY AG story, though, was that Trump made a move that he claimed was reserved for people who were definitely criminally guilty.

As it turns out, Trump truly went to town with the Fifth Amendment thing. NBC News is reporting that he pulled that card literally hundreds of times. Over 400 times, actually. That is absolutely wild, and Trump apparently only knew the answer to one godforsaken question, and that’s probably only because he had to accurately provide his name or be held in contempt. Does that sound cynical? So does this:

The deposition lasted four hours, and the only question the former president answered was about his name, Trump attorney Ron Fischetti told NBC News.

A source with knowledge of the deposition said Trump took the Fifth more than 440 times.

It should be noted that Letitia James’ office wouldn’t elaborate upon “specific details” regarding the deposition but did confirm that Trump pleaded the “Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.” And Trump initially claimed that he only took the Fifth because he now knows why people do that: because he has “no choice” due to an “unfounded politically motivated Witch Hunt.” Always on brand, that guy.

(Via NBC News)

For Lil Nas X, it all started with “Old Town Road,” his earth-shattering 2019 hit. Now, the song’s classic music video has entered rare territory, having just reached 1 billion views on YouTube (it’s at exactly 1,000,153,128 as of this post). According to data from kworb.net, the clip is just the 322nd music video to ever top a billion plays on the platform.

Nas had a celebratory reaction to the news, tweeting a photo of a woman at a party with a shirt reading “Old B*tches Winning” and writing, “WE DID IT!”

The official video isn’t the only “Old Town Road” clip with a high view count: The “Official Movie” has about 648 million plays and the audio of the Billy Ray Cyrus remix has about 580 million views of its own. In total, all the “Old Town Road” videos on Lil Nas X’s YouTube channel have about 2.4 billion views.

Just how uncommon is it for a music video to hit a billion views on YouTube? Well, let’s look at some data (which may not be completely accurate but is good enough for the purposes of this thought exercise). Per a July post from Earthweb, there are about 800 million total videos on YouTube. In 2019, Digital Music News noted that videos in the music category made up 5 percent of total YouTube videos in 2018. 5 percent of 800 million is 40 million. Not all of those 40 million are music videos, though, so let’s say (based on absolutely nothing) that just 1 percent of those 40 million videos are music videos, so 400,000. Of those, only 322 have hit a billion views, which is about 0.08 percent (or 8 percent of 1 percent).

Revisit the “Old Town Road” video below.

At the moment, Britney Spears is in the midst of some family drama. While that sort of thing has typically involved her parents or sister, this time, it’s more focused on her ex-husband Keven Federline and their two children, teenage sons Preston and Jayden.

Federline recently said in an interview that the boys had decided to distance themselves from their mother, which got a response out of Spears. Now, in a since-deleted Instagram post, Spears has shared more lengthy thoughts about her relationship with her kids.

In the post, she described how her visits with her kids have become less frequent and what they look like, writing:

“I looked forward to seeing my kids every week … It was 2 days a week but I asked him to ask to stay for more days … maybe 3 days … but then the next week they stayed for only one day . Yeah, I know that teenagers are just hard to deal with at that age … but COME ON, there’s being rude then there’s being HATEFUL …. they would visit me, walk in the door, go straight to their room and lock the door !!! The MONITOR would tell me that he just likes to be in his room … I’m like why come visit me if they don’t even visit me !!! […]

The teenage age is weird, I don’t know what’s going on in their heads !!! We would always do prayer time, not really prayer time, that sounds silly but it’s called ‘devotion’ . where you read two or three pages in a prayer book and talk about it !!! I always TRIED and TRIED, and maybe that’s why they stopped coming here !!! I wanted them to love me so much that I might have overdone it !!!”

She added, “This summer, they told me ‘we may come here less’ and I was like that’s fine. I called their dad and I told him that it seems like the boys are wanting to stop coming here as much, which I get because they have their own thing going on but I feel like they are being pretty harsh !!! His words were ‘I would never let them make that decision on their own … I would never do that to you’ !!! Well after that, I haven’t seen them since !!! I will say though, as available as I had to be for 8 people a day when my dad took me out of my home for 4 months … it’s been kinda nice not having to ask about which day the boys are coming this week … and making me wait 2 or 3 days for a reply !!!”

Spears also turned her sights on Federline, writing, “So as much of you watch, what he refers to his family as the PERFECT BRADY BRUNCH family … I can guarantee you, that house has more weed than Ludacris, 50 cent, Jay Z and Puff Daddy combined !!!!”

Check out the full post below.

“Just another day here in my new adorable neighborhood I live in !!! It’s honestly really cool, I take my dogs to this tiny park and I see how incredibly smart my baby dogs are !!! They actually sense that we are in a new place at the park and they absolutely love it !!! Daisy literally runs around with her mouth open, but the little white puff ball tried to run away the first time, so I keep them close !!! I haven’t really shown my house yet because it’s hard to completely embrace it !!! Yes, it’s beautiful, but I miss my other house for some reason !!! It’s hard for me to let go of things I truly love … like my kids.

The situation should have 100 percent been dealt with privately and definitely not online !!! A British network claimed that their stepmom’s goal is to keep the children away from all of the controversy and trauma in my home … I have love in my home and I have blessings from the people I allow in and out of my home !!! I looked forward to seeing my kids every week … It was 2 days a week but I asked him to ask to stay for more days … maybe 3 days … but then the next week they stayed for only one day .

Yeah, I know that teenagers are just hard to deal with at that age … but COME ON, there’s being rude then there’s being HATEFUL …. they would visit me, walk in the door, go straight to their room and lock the door !!! The MONITOR would tell me that he just likes to be in his room … I’m like why come visit me if they don’t even visit me !!! But I never said that because I have to be kind !!! REMEMBER … if I speak up as a woman or say something argumentative like I did with a dance move saying no to it, I got sent to that place for 4 months !!! So do I dare speak up and show my upward thoughts of being a real woman and possibly offend the person in front of my face? No … I take it and I keep my mouth shut !!! It registers right in the core of my stomach … it hurts and I want to scream !!! I want to shake their shoulders and say wake up I’m here too !!!

The teenage age is weird, I don’t know what’s going on in their heads !!! We would always do prayer time, not really prayer time, that sounds silly but it’s called ‘devotion’ . where you read two or three pages in a prayer book and talk about it !!! I always TRIED and TRIED, and maybe that’s why they stopped coming here !!! I wanted them to love me so much that I might have overdone it !!!

This summer, they told me ‘we may come here less’ and I was like that’s fine. I called their dad and I told him that it seems like the boys are wanting to stop coming here as much, which I get because they have their own thing going on but I feel like they are being pretty harsh !!! His words were ‘I would never let them make that decision on their own … I would never do that to you’ !!! Well after that, I haven’t seen them since !!!

I will say though, as available as I had to be for 8 people a day when my dad took me out of my home for 4 months … it’s been kinda nice not having to ask about which day the boys are coming this week … and making me wait 2 or 3 days for a reply !!! But again it’s just another way for my family to make me feel like absolutely nothing !!! ‘We will let you know ma.’ ‘When can we see you !!!’

So as much of you watch, what he refers to his family as the PERFECT BRADY BRUNCH family … I can guarantee you, that house has more weed than Ludacris, 50 cent, Jay Z and Puff Daddy combined !!!! He wants to bring up my past with that bald- headed peckerhead face Kaplan and circle back to that hard time in my life !!! That was almost 20 years ago … their game doesn’t work anymore !!! In those years of the conservatorship, I had to become a f*cking saint with the pain I had to endure by keeping my mouth shut in my stomach as they literally took my womanhood away from me !!! I made up for past mistakes and MORE in that time !!! My sister does it … she speaks up in her household and corrects people !!! But how come whenever I did it, it was considered a THREAT ??? Oh sh*t he might have to get involved with this one … but if he did, he would say SIT DOWN we need to talk … first thing was ALWAYS ‘nobody likes you’.. then the rest of it was I guess due to whatever I said. It was basically, how dare I say something to offend others and make them THINK for a change !!!

Anyways, I know it’s all worded out but you know what, I talk about it because my heart doesn’t understand cruelty. It breaks my heart because it seems to me that these days, cruelty does in fact win, although it’s not about winning or losing !!! But I can’t process how I dedicated 20 years of my life to those kids … everything was about them !!! For them to knock the breath out of me … see you can’t fix me !!! No therapy or sense of worship can fix my heart !!! I will forever have trauma and I know this, I’ve accepted it .. it would take a miracle to fix my heart and not one miracle, maybe 3 !!! Either way, I have a beautiful pool, a supportive husband, and 5 dogs … ok I’m much but that’s how I love … have a good day !!!”

City Girls, comprised of JT and Yung Miami, are a truly dynamic duo. They possess the charisma, popularity, talent and work ethic to go as far as they see fit because both members bring a lot to the table. Over the last few months, we’ve seen Miami pursue a new solo venture in her Revolt show Caresha Please, with memorable interviews featuring her boyfriend Diddy as well as Kevin Gates. This week’s episode, releasing on Thursday, August 11, will include her partner-in-rap JT and the enigmatic Saucy Santana. Though they all have fun-loving personalities, the trailer for the episode shows JT getting emotional.

The official Revolt Twitter account shared a nearly minute-long clip ahead of the episode where Santana can be heard telling JT how talented she is and questioning why she won’t “do nothing,” though it’s unclear whether these are his personal thoughts or the thoughts of some fans. As Saucy Santana says this, JT is shown wiping tears from her face.

As the clip continues, Yung Miami says “Oh, I’m not thinking ‘I’m gon’ do this sh*t without JT.’ People love us as a group and we’re stronger as a group. We’re stronger together.” JT replies with “Why the f*ck are y’all doing that?” which comes off as if the conversation was about people wondering if the duo might break up. It’s a natural thought to have when a member of a group begins to do their own thing, especially as music history has shown that very thing has led to the demise of many a group. However, these thoughts may be a bit premature.

The trailer also shows the three laughing with one another and JT doing her best Yung Miami impression, so whoever has questions about the City Girls’ future will simply have to wait until Thursday for the full discussion.

Check out the promotional clip above.

When Jordan Klepper crashed a Trump rally in Waukesha, Wisconsin on Friday, it was a very different era. That Monday, the former president’s home (i.e., the resort he now lives in) was searched by the FBI. MAGAland has been in a hissy fit ever since, possibly because it really looks like Trump may be in trouble this time, and it could be because of a law he put in place himself. But on Friday he and his supporters were doing just fine — which is to say they were spouting nonsense that was out-there even for them.

For his latest adventure, the Daily Show correspondent journeyed to the Badger State, to see how Trump fans were faring in the last few months of midterm season. The answer: not great! Everyone’s minds had been rotted away by conspiracy theories, some you’ve heard before, others you hopefully haven’t.

One expects to hear people talk about Pizzagate and JFK Jr. still being alive, maybe even 9/11 conspiracy theories, all of them present and accounted for. What one might not expect is to hear that so is Michael Jackson. Ditto Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Al Qaeda leader killed under orders from Trump’s successor, partly because Trump could never remember his name. And Osama Bin Laden? He’s still alive, and his name is “Tim.”

Klepper also tried to reason with supporters who at least claim they want more secure elections but still support Wisconsin representative Ron Johnson, who told Mike Pence he could bring him a slate of fake electors. When told Johnson did that, they didn’t seem to mind.

It’s a wild segment with many curveballs. Surely you weren’t prepared to be reminded about the 2006 comedy Man of the Year, starring Robin Williams as a Jon Stewart-esque political comedian, and whose plot — and this is true — concerns malfunctioning electronic voting systems that screw up an election.

You can watch Klepper’s segment in the video above.

(Via The Daily Beast)

Suicide is an emotionally fraught and complex topic to discuss. But one overlooked part of the issue that provides some hope is that even though suicidal crises are predominantly caused by chronic issues, they are usually short-lived.

An article in the journal Crisis, cited in a Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health news piece, states that the acute period of heightened risk for suicidal behavior is often only hours or minutes long. Around 87% of people deliberated for less than a day. Another article in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry found that of people taken to the hospital after a suicide attempt, 48% considered the idea for fewer than 10 minutes.

Another study found that nine out of 10 people who attempt suicide do not go on to die in a subsequent attempt.

The research shows that if we can stop someone in an attempt or prevent it from happening in the first place, there is a very good chance that they will never die by suicide. That’s one reason that a story out of Rochester, New York, reported by WHEC News is so powerful.

David DelleFave was driving over the East Henrietta Road bridge over Interstate 390 in Rochester on his work break when he saw a man climb over the railing and step out onto a small ledge. He called out to the man from his car.

“He didn’t say much. He sat there. He said he was having some issues,” DelleFave told WHEC. “So I told him whatever it was, whatever was going on in his life, it was going to be OK.”

The man was crying and learned over the ledge even further, so DelleFave hopped out of his car.

“I looked down over the edge and realized none of these vehicles are not going to stop in time if it does happen. I reached up behind him and I just embraced him. I put my arms around him. I hugged him from behind and I just held him,” he said. “And I told him whatever it is, please come with me. Whatever is going on today, whatever it is, we’ll fix it just please come with me.”

He held the man who was shaking and as he began to learn forward, DelleFave feared they both may fall off the bridge. After a perilous half minute or so, the suicidal man turned to DelleFave and said, “OK.”

When both men returned to safety they realized that the bridge was jammed with people watching the incident.

“I seen the lady here crying hysterically. I seen the other lady on the phone. I seen a gentleman down here leaning out of his truck cheering me on,” he said. “That’s when I realized that—I probably just saved someone’s life.”

u201cDavid DelleFave didn’t take his break from work yesterday thinking he would face a life and death situation. But that’s what happened. “This is the edge right here,” he said, walking along the rail of the East Henrietta Road bridge over I-390. https://t.co/koFZhId1bRu201d

— news10nbc (@news10nbc)
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He then bought the man some food at Taco Bell where a sheriff’s deputy arrived and took the man to the hospital. It was then that the suicidal man realized he had a new purpose in life.

“When he was talking to the sheriffs he said that he realized that he’s here and how many lives he can help and he said, ‘That’s what it’s all about,'” DelleFave told WHEC.

Given the fact that such a large number of people who survive a suicide attempt are unlikely to die by suicide in the future, DelleFave’s actions will be felt for decades. He put his life on the line to save that of a stranger and that is the very definition of the word hero.

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, call the Suicide Crisis & Lifeline at 988 immediately. The Lifeline provides 24/7, free and confidential support for people in distress as well as prevention and crisis resources for healthcare professionals.

In 1952, a 25-year-old medical student did what people had said was impossible. Roger Bannister made history when he ran a mile in under four minutes, shifting the sports world and challenging our ideas about the limits of athletic performance.

Since then, countless records have been set in every sport people play. We keep getting better and better, and just when we think someone has surely reached the pinnacle, someone else comes along to push the limit even further.

One sporting event where such constant improvement is made crystal clear is gymnastics. I remember how enthralled we all were with Mary Lou Retton’s perfect 10 vaults when I was a kid, and now they look fairly basic. (Not to take anything away from her—at the time it was truly amazing, and she did execute them flawlessly.)

A video showing how much competitive gymnastics has evolved has gone viral on Twitter. The timing it claims is incorrect, however; it says it shows “100 years different in athletic ability,” from 1912 to 2012, but the videos from the past are clearly from the 1940s or ’50s.

The fact that the sport has evolved so much in an even shorter period of time is more impressive, actually, as an MTV News video shows. Check this out:

Granted, Simone Biles pushed the sport even further than it had already gone, but that’s really the point. Someone will come along in a year or five and blow Simone Biles off the mat. Even the best of the best get bested eventually. It’s just the way it goes.

But why? Have human bodies really changed that much in a few generations? And why is record-breaking usually done in such dramatically small increments? Rarely do we see someone come along and completely obliterate a previous time or previous feat. It’s usually just a tiny bit better, a tiny bit faster, a tiny bit more precise—just enough to break the record, but not push much further. Over and over and over.

We should give record-breakers the credit they’re due, but the evolution of athletic performance is not all about individuals and what they can do. So much about sports has improved over time, from the apparatuses athletes use to the training methods they employ to the nutrition they consume. The mats, fields, tracks, and so on, are not the same today as they were decades ago.

Additionally, peak performance has become an entire multifaceted industry and field of study, and what we know about how to optimize ability keeps expanding.

At some point, though, we have to actually hit our physical limits, don’t we? Or do we? Will humans be able to run a 1-minute mile in 300 years? Will all of the elements that affect athletic performance be honed and trained such that we’ll be able to do the impossible-for-now?

According to Scientific American, we may be getting closer to plateauing at our human limits, as record-breaking appears to be slowing in pace. And, of course, as biotechnology evolves, we have to wonder what parameters we even put on what “counts” when it comes to achievement. Performance-enhancing drugs have already created conundrums in competitive sports; how much more will genetic tinkering and the like?

All questions we don’t have answers for, but it is fun to imagine what humans will be able to do in another 50 or 100 years, isn’t it?

Let me start by saying I don’t care whether you breastfeed or not. Everyone’s circumstances are different, no one needs to explain why they did or didn’t breastfeed their babies and we’d all be better off with far fewer judgments across the baby-feeding spectrum.

With that disclaimer out of the way, can we at least all agree that breastfeeding is freaking awesome?

I mean, the whole biological process of growing an entire human practically from scratch is mind-blowing all by itself. But the fact that our bodies then create food to feed that human, with a whole system for how and when that food gets made and released, is just so cool.

A CGI video depicting the process in a simple, clear way has people marveling at how it all works. The video gives an internal view of what’s happening below the skin’s surface as a baby latches on. (The depiction of the latch isn’t great, FYI—a proper latch is an important part of breastfeeding working as it should, but what comes after is the cool part.)

We could get into some nitty gritty anatomical terms here, but the high-level explanation of what’s happening is that when a baby suckles, a signal is sent to the mother’s brain. That signal prompts the release of the hormones prolactin (which stimulates milk production in the alveoli—the grape-like clusters in the video) and oxytocin (which stimulates the muscles around the alveoli to push the milk into the milk ducts—the white tubes).

It’s a basic but beautiful biological process, the way the baby, brain and breast communicate and coordinate to make and deliver milk on demand.

Watch:

u201cLactancia maternau2026ud83cudf7cud83dudc76u201d

— Julio (@Julio)
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But that’s just the mechanics. There’s so much about breastfeeding that’s scientific but feels like magic.

For instance, the flavor of breastmilk changes depending on what the person breastfeeding eats, which means baby gets to experience a range of taste sensations starting very early. That may not seem particularly consequential, but studies have found that children who breastfeed tend to be less picky and more willing to try different foods later on.

It can also change color, ranging from blue to green to yellow to pink. Neat, huh?

Breastmilk also changes to meet a child’s nutritional needs as they get older. If you watch the last eight seconds or so of the video, you can see the flow of milk stop and then see a reverse flow coming from the baby’s mouth. That’s the baby’s saliva, which contains chemicals that react with the mother’s body to adjust the makeup of the breastmilk to meet the baby’s needs at any given stage. So cool.

That same saliva exchange can also prompt the mother’s body to add germ-fighting elements (leucocytes, antibodies, etc.) to her breastmilk that help fight infections. Such immune boosting can happen when either baby or mom are sick, providing an immune boost for baby.

We may not think of it this way, but breastmilk is actually a living substance containing live cells. And there’s still so much we’re learning about what it can do, not just for babies but for non-nutritional medicinal purposes as well.

So often, the wonder of it all gets lost in the debates and judgments that surround breastfeeding. Not everyone can breastfeed and there are a million challenges that can get in the way of it feeling like a magical experience, even for those who do it. But that doesn’t change the fact that breastfeeding is a miraculous process when it works.

Let’s just take a minute to appreciate the incredible way breasts can manufacture and deliver baby food, always at the perfect temperature, through a process that continually individualizes that food to make it ideal at every stage. Our bodies are simply amazing.

Perhaps Weezer were too ambitious? The storied alt-rock band, who commanded a massive crowd at Outside Lands Festival this past weekend on the main stage ahead of Post Malone, were set to begin a literal Broadway residency next month at the famed Broadway Theatre. Over the course of five nights between September 13- 18, each evening would have been dedicated to a different installment in their new four-part SZNZ series. But alas, the dream has come to an end according to singer Rivers Cuomo on Weezer’s Discord as reported by Stereogum:

“I just learned that our Broadway shows have been cancelled (due to low ticket sales and unbelievably high expenses.) I’m very sorry to be telling you this now after we’ve already invested so much time, thought, and emotion. Extra apologies to those of you who cleared your schedules and made travel plans to be with us. Thanks to @Broadway Producer for all your hard work and great ideas. I loved where we were going and I hope we can find a way to resurrect our vision.”

Credit to Cuomo who seems to be taking the news in stride. But it is a bit surprising to hear that these five shows have been cancelled. The Broadway Theater has a seated capacity of 1,761, a venue size that Weezer typically has no problem filling up. Perhaps fans thought the band would only be playing these new EPs (two of which haven’t been released yet) instead of the classics? Granted a note in fine print at the bottom of the residency poster says “Each evening will also feature a unique set of Weezer classics.” A residency themed after each of the band’s ubiquitous albums instead might have fared better? Maybe one day we’ll find out.