Category: News

Center for Disease Control infographics are usually not very funny, but when you mix in swimming, children, and, uh… diarrhea, well, anything is possible. After more than a year of dire updates and regulations about the deadly realities of COVID-19, perhaps the American public was waiting for a sign that they can enjoy their summers and share a laugh by the pool.

But the CDC really outdid themselves on Thursday with a graphic that went viral because it was, well, pretty graphic. The image was part of their pool safety awareness campaign that got right down to business. “Don’t leave your mark at the pool this summer,” the ad read, which is pretty cheeky because it’s an image about the dangers of diarrhea at the swimming pool. But what really got people talking about the graphic interchange format animation was the visual of a young smiling girl sliding down a water slide leaving a trail of brown in her wake.

And given the context of the rest of the image, it’s safe to say that the government paid someone to animate a little kid going Number Two down a water slide.

The tweet is oddly mesmerizing, and very funny despite it covering a very serious topic. Contaminated swimming pools can cause serious illness, especially for young people. But the image associated with the post was ripe for jokes, which is what social media was flooded with in the aftermath of the slide down the tube.

The tweet also linked to a CDC webpage simply called “diarrhea and swimming,” complete with an image of smiling children staring at the camera. Hopefully, none of them were currently… well, you know, at the time the image was taken. But the site itself does have plenty of good advice about what not to do in a swimming pool, starting with not relieving yourself in it. And if someone fails to adhere to those rules, well, don’t drink the water.

Stay safe out there this summer, folks.

On Thursday, NCAA athletes could begin making money off of their name, image, and likeness in sponsorship deals, and plenty took advantage on Day 1. Over the coming months we will see more and more deals struck and athletes getting to make money, finally, off of their popularity while in college.

This is important for all athletes, particularly in the social media age, as many are able to cultivate massive social followings — particularly athletes in smaller, non-revenue sports — and now they can cash in at the peak of their popularity. There is also the obvious advantage for superstars in the biggest sports, as the best football and basketball players will be able to ink endorsement deals in college rather than having to wait for when they turn pro ahead of their draft day.

One of the conversations that has popped up on social media in recent days is what former players would’ve made the most money off of endorsements in college and a number of the same names came up regularly. Tim Tebow, certainly, has to be near the top of any list, as does Reggie Bush, who famously had his Heisman Trophy taken away for taking $300,000 in benefits while at USC — which is likely a drop in the bucket compared to what he could’ve been making under the current rules. Bush himself sees the irony in this now being legal and him being stripped of college football’s highest individual honor, and is seeking to get his Heisman reinstated, posting a statement on Twitter that, as of now, the Heisman Trust has refused to do so.

Bush’s quest has gained plenty of support from fans, and he has a fair point — particularly given that the Heisman Trust isn’t even an NCAA property and can just make this happen whenever they want. As Bush says, he never cheated the game and gave it his all on the field, his only violations were of taking benefits that, now, would be legal for him to get over the table rather than under it. Hopefully the Heisman Trust eventually listens to the people and reinstates Bush’s Heisman, as his 2005 season remains one of the best of all-time.

When we talk about systemic, structural, or institutionalized inequality, it can be hard for some to understand what those terms even mean. In a racial context in the U.S., the idea is that oppression like slavery and Jim Crow laws, racist policies like redlining, and the racism in scientific, medical, and educational and other fields erected various barriers for Black Americans. The laws or policies may have changed, but those changes didn’t automatically dismantle all the barriers that went along with them.

Such barriers are invisible, though, and when you aren’t impacted by them you might not even see them at all, or understand what it’s like to be on the other side of them. That’s where analogies come in handy.

TikTok creator @tavitalkstrash shared a video skit that illustrates how systemic inequality works with a metaphor of a fence and fruit trees.

Watch:

Many commenters pointed out that the analogy works for all kinds of issues, from racial inequality to wealth or class inequality. Those who have the power and advantage are often blind to the barriers that exist for those who don’t, and even if they do see a barrier, they may actually end up reinforcing it. After all, that barrier isn’t hurting them; in some ways, it actually makes life easier for them.

The video also highlights how bias and prejudice can result from such barriers. “You should just come over here!” As if it’s that simple. “Lazy AND impatient,” as if the challenges posed by the barrier aren’t real.

A person recognizing the barrier and exercising empathy would listen to the person on the other side and try to see their perspective. A person exercising compassion would toss over some fruit and then help tear down the fence.

The tradition of having the fence there wouldn’t matter as much as the harm it’s causing on the other side. The fact that an occasional person manages to get over the fence wouldn’t matter, since the majority aren’t able to. Telling the person to plant their own trees or tear down the fence themselves would be recognized as a cruel response, not a helpful one, considering the lived reality on the other side. The idea of what’s “fair” would take the full reality and history into account.

One key takeaway here is that the person on the fruit tree side needs to listen to the person limited by the barrier when they tell them how it has affected them and what they need to remedy the situation. The solutions offered from the fruit tree side might not make sense from the other side of it. Such solutions might not be possible, or they might not actually be as helpful as they sound.

Another point made in the comments is that the hungry person’s ancestors were probably the ones who planted those fruit trees in the first place. That works whether you look at the metaphor through a historical racial lens (so much of the foundation of this country’s wealth was built on the backs of unpaid, enslaved Black people) or a wealth inequality lens (underpaid working class laborers being exploited by obscenely wealhty business owners in the name of capitalism).

Some might argue that such barriers don’t actually exist anymore, that this is the land of opportunity and equality where we’re all on equal footing. But statistics do not bear that out. As of 2016, the average white family’s net worth was ten times that of the average Black family in the U.S. What is the explanation for that?

If you argue that it is not because structural or systemic racial barriers have made it more difficult for Black Americans to build wealth, then what explanation are you left with? That Black Americans are consciously choosing to live with such a wide economic disparity? Why would they choose that? If they aren’t choosing it, do you think there is some inherent quality that makes Black people unable or unwilling to do whatever it is white people do to build wealth? Isn’t that idea just blatantly racist?

Hopefully, this analogy makes the concept of systemic, structural, and institutionalized inequality easier for people to unpack. Complex social realities aren’t easily simplified, so when someone manages to make a clear visual metaphor, it deserves to be celebrated.

A “dark” cover of Nirvana’s classic Nevermind hit “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is set to soundtrack the opening credits of Marvel’s Black Widow. The 2015 cover, performed by singer-songwriter Malia J, was produced by composer collective Think Up Anger.

In an interview with Consequence, Malia J said at first she thought the request to use her cover was “a joke” and she “didn’t immediately respond.”

“A different version of this cover has been circulating in the TV and film industry since 2015, and I can only speculate that someone from their camp was a fan and wanted to put it in the movie.”

The Los Angeles-based performer also called the experience of her track being used “a dream come true.” “I’ve always written my own music, but when I started covering other artists’ music in a completely different light, people really connected to it,” she wrote on her artist website.

Without giving too much away, the orchestral reimagining of the song will play over a sequence looking back at Natasha Romanoff’s (Scarlett Johansson) dark past.

You can check out the track itself above.

Black Widow arrives in theaters and on Disney+ with Premier Access on July 9. Read Uproxx‘s Black Widow review here.

Has it really been seven years since P.T. was striking fear into PlayStation 4 owners everywhere? The teaser demo for what turned out to be the next Silent Hill game was a modern phenomenon. A demo that was also an announcement of the next game in a beloved franchise, and it had Hideo Kojima collaborating with Guillermo del Toro working on it? This was going to be a monumental game that completely changed the franchise.

Unfortunately, we all know what happened after that. Kojima and the owners of the Silent Hill IP, Konami, had a rather public falling out. The new game was canceled and P.T. was pulled from the PlayStation store, never to return. After Kojima left the company, Konami showed less of an interest in making video games and it seemed like the Silent Hill franchise was dead for good.

All of that was in 2014 and as time has gone on some of those old feelings have cooled down. Konami isn’t all the way back into video games, but they’re not as opposed to them as they once were, and new hope has begun to form in the Silent Hill fanbase that one day the franchise will return. This hope has been fueled by rumors that Konami is interested in selling the rights to develop some of their most well-known IPs such as Metal Gear Solid and, yes, Silent Hill.

Adding to the bread crumb of rumors is the announcement that Konami and Polish developer Bloober Team are forming a partnership together. The assumption is that Bloober Team will be making a horror game for them, and it just so happens that Konami has one that’s been dormant for quite some time.

It is a historic day for me and the culmination of several years of our work. The fact that such a renowned company as KONAMI has decided to strategically cooperate with the Bloober Team means that we also joined the world leaders in gaming and became an equal partner for the leading players in this market. – comments Piotr Babieno, president of the Bloober Team.

Bloober Team’s previously developed titles, The Medium, Observer, and Layers of Fear were all Psychological Horror games, so a Silent Hill like horror game is clearly in their wheelhouse of games they can make. However, does that mean this newest game is going to be a Silent Hill game? Fans of the franchise certainly hope so. Their love for it is so strong that they recently tried to talk themselves into a conspiracy theory that Hideo Kojima was using viral marketing to secretly develop a new Silent Hill game for a studio called Blue Box Game Studios. In reality, they’re making a game called Abandoned and had to shoot those rumors down multiple times until everyone accepted it.

This idolization of a single franchise from the outside can sound a little absurd, and to be honest, it is, but that absurdity comes from a fanbase that just wants to see a revival of what some argue are the best horror games ever made. Before P.T. came out the bigger question about Silent Hill was if they were going to consistently make good games ever again. Silent Hill: Homecoming and Silent Hill: Downpour were despised by fans, while Silent Hill: Shattered Memories was a welcome surprise. Silent Hill: Origins was disliked, but not as much as Downpour, and Silent Hill 4: The Room was just disappointing. So, after the first three games, which are all considered great horror games, there is a single game that is considered well done. The rest were okay at best and despised at worst. So to have P.T. be a game that not only struck the same kind of fear everyone felt when playing those original three games but also be a new game in the franchise, only to have that taken away from them, it felt like fans were robbed of something great.

That is where the source of this major desire to have a new Silent Hill game comes from. They just want to see a franchise that was so close to being relevant again actually get the return it deserves. Until they get that they’re going to continue chasing every single rumor they can find. Every bread crumb is a new one in the hope that Silent Hill comes back. On the positive side, it really does feel like a new game is in the works somewhere. The town of Silent Hill will call us back eventually. We just need to wait a little longer.

With Madden 22 quickly approaching, we’re beginning to learn more about the latest installment in the long-running EA Sports franchise. They’re advertising a lot of changes to modes such as Franchise, and they’re going to attempt to make some much-needed atmosphere improvements on top of that.

One of the ways they’re working on improving the atmosphere is by adding some more ebb and flow to the games themselves. The last few installments of Madden had a problem where it didn’t really matter what stadium the player was in, who they were playing as, or what the current status of the game itself was, it just felt like two teams with different colored uniforms playing football in stadiums of different designs. In order to address these issues, the Madden developers are adding two big features to the upcoming game: Momentum and a home field advantage system.

Momentum is exactly what it sounds like, teams that play well will have a boost while ones who are struggling will be at a disadvantage. This should help make deficits feel larger and comebacks more intense. The home field advantage system, or “M-Factors” as they’re calling them, is going to be team-specific. Each team will have their own benefits to playing at home giving them different benefits and personality. In concept, this is a great idea, because we all want to feel the intensity that comes with playing in the NFL’s most well-know stadiums.

Unfortunately, the current homefield advantage buffs feel extremely imbalanced and the reasoning for why each team has them feels kind of random. A few of the, are going to be extremely frustrating to deal with, and not in a “this is a fun challenge” way.

An example: Players on the road facing the Washington Football Team will have to deal with the horrible field conditions that are associated with playing there. This makes it harder for them to change direction while running. It’s a cool idea, but in execution, that very well make playing away games more frustrating than fun. Then, there is the other side of it, where teams have an advantage but it’s barely anything — against the Houston Texans, for example, scoring a touchdown will only give the away team a smaller momentum boost.

In concept, this is a great idea and a way to make games actually feel like they aren’t just taking place in slightly different locations, but it’s also something that has the potential to backfire if it’s not done well. More than likely, there will be an option to turn off M-Factors, so at the end of the day, it’s really not a big deal. But when a significant portion of the player base has been saying for years that the act of playing football is becoming more challenging with every title, it doesn’t make much sense to add a feature that will only make things worse.

No Sudden Move (Warner Bros. film on HBO Max) — Right at home in the comfort of your own living room, you can enjoy the newest Steven Soderbergh-directed picture that’s set in 1954 Detroit. The cast includes half of Hollywood, it seems, including Don Cheadle, Benicio Del Toro, David Harbour, Jon Hamm, Amy Seimetz, Kieran Culkin, Ray Liotta, and Brendan Fraser. The name of the game is a botched plan by a gathering of small-potatoes criminals, who must hunt down who hired them and find out what’s actually going on in the rapidly morphing city.

Martha Gets Down and Dirty: Season 1 (Discovery+) — The frequent onscreen and business partner of Snoop Dogg goes solo while traveling home to her 150-acre farm where, as the title suggests, she gets her hands seriously dirty. Martha Stewart might be 79 years young and a total perfectionist, but she’s entirely engaged in prepping her farm for summertime, and that means some serious digging in the dirt alongside her gardener, Ryan McCallister. That’s only part of the dirty work on this show, and Stewart duly promised, “I’m going to take you behind-the-scenes as I get my hands dirty around my property, as well as help my celebrity friends and surprise some unsuspecting callers.” So… Snoop? C’mon, Martha.

Tom and Jerry in New York: Season 1 (Warner Bros. Animation series on HBO Max) — This spinoff to the recent Tom and Jerry movie (starring Chloe Moretz) strips things down to the classic duo’s adventures while cat and mouse continue to cause mayhem in the Big Apple and, more specifically, the Royal Gate Hotel. Naturally, chaos follows everywhere that the iconic pair travels, surrender to the madness.

Audible (Netflix film) — This coming-of-age documentary follows a group of Deaf high school students as they confront the impending reality of graduation and heading into the real world. A popular athlete, Amaree, tears up the football field following a tragic loss, and overall, this group of teens seek to conquer adversity while looking toward the future and intending to prove their worth to the world.

Young Royals (Netflix series) — A teenage prince heads to a ritzy boarding school, where he intends upon exploring his identity and figuring out what he’d really like to do in the future. His dreams turn to freedom and unconditional live and away from royal duty, but those dreams are thwarted when he finds himself next in line to become king. Will he choose love… or his apparently predestined life?

Holey Moley 3D in 2D (ABC, 9:00pm) — This new season of holes (yes, that’s right) includes a Corny Hole, a North Pole on the Ho Ho Hole, and Holey Matrimony. These puns never get old for the contestants or the audience.

In case you missed this pick from last Thursday:

LFG (HBO Max film) — This documentary film presents an unflinching look at the fight by U.S. women’s soccer team members (Megan Rapinoe, Jessica McDonald, Becky Sauerbrunn, Kelley O’Hara, Sam Mewis, and more) for equal pay. This battle takes a look behind the curtain of the 2019 class-action, gender discrimination lawsuit (filed against the U.S. Soccer Federation) mere months before the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Expect to see the legal fight coverage interspersed with transcendent athleticism while the documentary highlights how these women’s courage will hopefully lead to society-wide change that hasn’t been seen since Title IX.

While we’ve had our Joel, Ellie, and Tommy for quite some time now, we now know who will be playing another one of the The Last Of Us series’ most important roles: Joel’s daughter, Sarah. According to Deadline, Dumbo star Nico Parker is joining HBO’s The Last of Us as Sarah Miller, the daughter of Pedro Pascal’s character, Joel. Parker joins Game of Throne’s star Bella Ramsey and Agents of SHEILD‘s Gabriel Luna, who are set to appear as Ellie and Tommy, respectively.

For those unfamiliar with The Last of Us, the game follows the story of Joel and Ellie as they make their way across the country in hopes of finding a cure to the virus that caused society’s ruin. However, what begins as a simple job for Joel — to smuggle Ellie out of the city and bring her to a safer place — turns into a heartbreaking and violent journey where the unlikely duo are forced to find family and strength within one another. While the upcoming television series focuses solely on the first entry in the IP, a sequel to The Last of Us — The Last of Us Part II — was released last summer to record-breaking sales and critical acclaim.

For the upcoming series, The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann is teaming up with Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin to produce, write, and bring Joel and Ellie to life. Russian film director Kantemir Balagov will be directing the pilot episode of The Last Of Us, and the whole project is a co-production between Sony Pictures Television and HBO. The series has yet to be given a release date.

After journalists caught wind that William Shatner has a new show on RT, the infamously state-funded propaganda network for the Kremlin, the Star Trek actor spent the bulk of Thursday raging on Twitter at any and all criticism of what he calls a simple “distribution deal.” While the Q&A show titled I Don’t Understand doesn’t air until later in July, journalists have attempted to explain to Shatner that his mere presence on RT will be used as a propaganda for Vladimir Putin.

Shatner was hearing none of it.

One of Shatner’s largest critics was independent Russian journalist Alexey Kovalev who wrote a thread on how RT works and why Shatner can’t feign ignorance because he’s just an actor getting paid for work.

According to The Daily Beast, RT is a well-known “propaganda machine” for the Kremlin:

The various news shows featured on the network are largely packed with Putin loyalists dedicating significant amounts of airtime denigrating the U.S—and any Putin rivals, for that matter.

The head of RT, Margaret Simonyan, has warned of an “inevitable war” with the U.S., is a staunch supporter of a “sovereign” state-controlled Russian internet, and once tweeted that she was “jealous” of Belarus over their abhorrent nabbing of a dissident journalist mid-flight.

However, efforts to educate Shatner on his new TV home fell on deaf ears:

(Via William Shatner on Twitter, The Daily Beast)

Just one month after the former president’s “blog” was shuttered because of poor readership and plenty of internet ridicule, Team Trump is making another attempt at a social media come back with, what may in fact be, the most unfortunately named app we’ve ever heard of.

According to a Politico report, Trump’s former shady spokesman Jason Miller recently launched an app called GETTR, which appears to function as a poor man’s Twitter for the ultra-conservative set. According to the site’s tagline, GETTR is the “marketplace of ideas” whose mission includes “fighting cancel culture, promoting common sense, defending free speech, and challenging social media monopolies.” (The jokes really just write themselves these days, huh?)

It’s doubtful this new platform will perform any better than Trump’s press release strategy — and we’re positive we’ll see even more weird, completely tone-deaf social media sites from Trump’s camp in the months to come, but for now, we’ll enjoy the best Twitter reactions to GETTR’s genesis. (You gotta laugh to keep from crying, right?)

https://twitter.com/timodc/status/1410648490909179910?s=21
https://twitter.com/petridishes/status/1410648117486272516?s=21
https://twitter.com/palmerreport/status/1410657429960994818?s=21
https://twitter.com/not_vikash/status/1410656418999332864?s=21
https://twitter.com/blackknight10k/status/1410662500853600256?s=21
https://twitter.com/covie_93/status/1410666753378619400?s=21
https://twitter.com/daveweigel/status/1410648721260429319?s=21
https://twitter.com/pappiness/status/1410671070093451273?s=21
https://twitter.com/jeremynewberger/status/1410673171511091201?s=21
https://twitter.com/joexhunt/status/1410666509752438786

UPDATE: Apparently, Trump is not officially affiliated with this site and he currently has no plans of joining. We’ll see how long that lasts.