Category: News

2020 has been a long year. So long, that it might have even been five years packed into one. Why not start the new year off right with a little self-care? If you want to turn 2021 into a 365-day spa day, nobody’s going to blame you. These products on Amazon can help you ring in the new year with some R&R.

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Jade Roller and Gua Sha Set

Jade rollers massage your face, reduces puffiness, stimulates collagen, and allows for better penetration of skin products. And at the very least, there’s just something so soothing and satisfying about running a rock over your face. This set also comes with a gua sha scraper, which can boost circulation and alleviate chronic pain.

Roselyn Boutique, $15.95; Amazon

Baby Foot Exfoliation Foot Peel

Baby Foot is the original DIY foot peel, intended to make cracked feet feel like, well, baby’s feet. You just leave on the treatment for one hour, then your dead skin will gradually peel away over the course of five to seven days. It’s not a pretty process, but nobody said self-care can never get ugly.

Baby Foot, $25; Amazon

Stress Relief Herbal Tea Pack

This sample pack has an herbal tea for whatever your self-care need is. Stressed? Clementine stress support tea can calm you down. Can’t sleep? There’s a caramel bedtime tea for that. You may never get stressed again!

Yogi Tea, $24.88; Amazon

Warming Eye Mask

Not only is the warmth of Popmask’s Starry Eyes self-heating mask designed to calm you down and help you fall asleep, but the one-time use masks also de-puffs your eyes while it relaxes you. The heat lasts for up to 20 minutes. All you have to do is pop open a pouch, sit back and let the mask work it’s magic.

Popmask, $16.99; Amazon

Cooling Weighted Blanket

Weighted blankets can help alive anxiety or be used to lull yourself into a deep sleep with the sensation of being hugged. This soothing 100% cotton blanket is also cooling, so you won’t feel as if you’re getting smothered with warmth.

AN, $39.99; Amazon

Japanese Harmony Adult Anti-Stress Coloring Book

One of the greatest discoveries of the 21^st century is that adults can – and should – color in books. This adult coloring book’s Zen gardens can help you achieve your own state of Zen. And if you’re proud of how you stayed inside the lines, there’s no rule saying you can’t hang it on your own fridge!

Sara Muzio, $10.38; Amazon

Essential Oil Diffuser

If you’re looking to get a bang for your buck, this triple threat is a humidifier, atomizer, and essential oil diffuser all in one. Plus, it’s shaped like a fancy art piece, because sometimes self-care doubles as home décor. Just put in your favorite essential oil and let the calm wash over you…

Young Living, $96.99; Amazon

Gratitude Journal

Taking out the time to jot down the things you’re grateful for is a little thing that goes a long way in cultivating peace of mind. This journal is also peppered with inspirational quotes to help you feel like you’re starting your day off right!

Pretty Simple Press, $6.99; Amazon

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LaMelo Ball was instrumental in the Charlotte Hornets’ comeback win over the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday night, coming off the bench and making his impact felt in a big way in the 113-105 victory. His performance was so good that Ball managed to etch his name in the NBA’s record book for stuffing the stat sheet.

With 6:13 left in the fourth quarter, Ball set up P.J. Washington for a bucket. He’s quite good at doing this, of course, but this one was a little extra special, as it was Ball’s 10th assist of the evening and helped him set the record for being the youngest player in NBA history to record a triple-double in a game.

On the whole, Ball scored 22 points, reeled in 12 rebounds, and dished out 11 assists in 31 minutes of work on the bench. It was an encouraging game in a number of ways — namely the fact that he was quite efficient from the field, going 9-for-13 and 3-for-5 from three — but the triple-double is what makes this one noticeable. And watching him play, you can just see that Ball was in control of the game, making things look far too easy for someone who was playing in their 10th NBA game.

It’s a particularly fun record for Ball to set because it means the title returns to a member of his family. Ball broke the record set by Markelle Fultz, but prior to his getting it, the record was held by Ball’s older brother, Lonzo.

A month after Dan Le Batard announced that he is leaving ESPN for a new opportunity, we now know what that opportunity is. Sports Business Daily reported Saturday that the TV personality and radio host is starting his own sports content company with some help from another former ESPN figurehead.

John Ourand’s report detailed that Le Batard, who issued a tearful farewell to ESPN and launched a podcast after leaving the network for good, will work with former ESPN president John Skipper to build a new site and potentially sell Le Batard’s show to a company that can give it a platform.

Neither Skipper nor Le Batard could be reached for comment. Skipper’s first order of business: sell Le Batard’s show to a media company, like SiriusXM or iHeartRadio. Then the duo will look to hire reporters and editors that initially will focus on sports. Their belief is that Skipper’s editorial background is well-suited to grow this type of company.

One of ESPN’s most popular on-air figures for the better part of the past decade, Le Batard’s future has been the subject of much conjecture since his final show with ESPN Jan. 4. Le Batard launched a podcast in the week after leaving ESPN and found success — his first podcast show after leaving ESPN topped the iTunes ranking of sports podcasts and it finished the week as the No. 7 Apple podcast across all categories.

Skipper, who currently works for DAZN as an executive, is reportedly staying with the company while he helps Le Batard build out his new venture. The host had clashed with ESPN’s management in recent months about talking politics on his programs, and now he will get the chance to build a company in his own vision.

Part of the Atlanta Hawks’ spending this offseason included forking over a pretty penny to bring Sacramento Kings wing Bogdan Bogdanovic to town. With the team having its eyes firmly set on making the postseason for the first time since 2017, bringing in players like Bogdanovic who immediately make them better was an important part of the plan.

He’s come off the bench in most of the team’s games this year, and it’s been a process getting him used to his new digs, as Bogdanovic is averaging 10.5 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 2.4 assists in 25.3 minutes per game. But on Saturday night against Charlotte, Bogdanovic hit a bump in the road when he had to leave the team’s game with a leg injury. Bogdanovic brought the ball up the floor and tried to get past an attempted steal by LaMelo Ball. He planted his right foot awkwardly and ended up going down in serious pain — a warning that the video does not look particularly good.

While his ankle rolled pretty badly, the team ultimately announced that Bogdanovic would miss the remainder of a game with a knee injury.

At the time of his injury, Bogdanovic had five points in 11 minutes of work. There is no word on whether this sort of injury that will keep him out for any period of time. The Hawks’ next game is on Monday against the Philadelphia 76ers.

Parler is officially significantly harder to download if you don’t already have the social media network’s app on your phone already. After reportedly being threatened with removal from the Apple app store and getting pulled from Google’s Play store, Apple followed through on Saturday and removed the MAGA-friendly networking site.

The New York Times reported the news on Saturday, noting that Parler’s popularity briefly soared in the wake of Donald Trump’s ban on Twitter and several other QAnon and conspiracy-filled accounts.

By Saturday morning, Apple listed Parler as the No. 1 free app for its iPhones.

But hours later, Apple said it had removed Parler from its App Store. Google had made a similar move a day earlier. The companies both said that Parler had not sufficiently policed the conversation on its app, allowing too many posts that encouraged violence and crime.

“We have always supported diverse points of view being represented on the App Store, but there is no place on our platform for threats of violence and illegal activity,” Apple said in a statement late Saturday. “Parler has not taken adequate measures to address the proliferation of these threats to people’s safety.”

Apple reportedly shared the message it sent Parler, in which the tech company claimed the site did not do enough to implement moderation for hate speech on the site. A slew of conservatives have organized and shared messages on Parler in recent months, including hate speech and calls for violence as Trump supporters have spiraled into election conspiracies in the months following his election loss.

Earlier on Saturday it appeared that some popular messages from the site that explicitly called for violence had reportedly been removed, including one a conspiracy theorist who had been banned from Twitter wrote calling for an attack against vice president Mike Pence.

Amazon employees are also reportedly asking Amazon Web Services, which controls a large portion of cloud storage online, to cut ties with Parler as well.

Despite billing itself as an unmoderated forum for discussion, it’s clear the site will have to change significantly in order to regain distribution on the app stores, if that’s even possible in the wake of a MAGA riot that was planned and amplified, at least in part, on Parler. Without app store support the social media site will struggle to grow and, in the tech world, growth is essential to survival.

The Boston Celtics got a bit of brutal news on Saturday afternoon as word dropped that star forward Jayson Tatum will miss up to two weeks due to the league’s COVID-19 protocols. It is unclear if Tatum tested positive or was just a close contact, but regardless, he is now set to quarantine for the next 10-14 days.

The news of Tatum getting sidelined did not just impact the Celtics, however. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, Washington Wizards star and league-leading scorer Bradley Beal will miss the team’s game on Saturday night against the Miami Heat following exposure to Tatum.

Beal and the Wizards played the Celtics on Friday, falling 116-107. Charania added the reason why in a subsequent tweet: After the game, Beal and Tatum, both of whom are natives of St. Louis and attended the same high school several years apart, spent time on the floor speaking to one another. It was determined that Beal was close enough to Tatum that this was cause for concern.

The news of Beal being out is the latest in what has been a brutal week for the NBA with regards to its ability to put on a season amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier in the day, a mix of normal injuries and COVID-19 protocols led to the Philadelphia 76ers only having eight players — the minimum required to play a game‚ in a loss to the Denver Nuggets, which was without young standout Michael Porter Jr. due to his need to quarantine after exposure.

If all things go well for the West Coast rapper, 2021 will be the first full year of freedom for Drakeo The Ruler. For the last four years, the rapper was locked up in Los Angeles’ Men’s Central Jail following a pair of arrests that stunted his initial rise to fame.

A month after his release from prison in November, Drakeo shared his We Know The Truth mixtape which delivered 25 new songs to fans including “Mr. Mosley Claps Back,” one that he recently delivered a music video for. The visual finds Drakeo posted in a loft with a few of his friends as he delivers slick bars that warns his listeners and fellow competitors that he is certainly not the one to play with.

Shortly after his release, Drakeo shared the reason behind Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey’s ill feelings toward him after he refiled new charges against the rapper in 2019. “I was successful and I was from the streets. They don’t like to see someone like me make it, it goes against how they operate,” he said. “For someone like me to get out of the streets, it just goes against everything that they stand for.” Since his release, Drakeo has been unstoppable, sharing a second mixtape, Because Yall Asked at the end of December.

You can watch the “Mr. Mosley Claps Back” video above. We Know The Truth is out now via Stinc Team. Get it here.

Football teams love running screen passes because they are, theoretically, low risk plays. They involve the quarterback getting the ball quickly to a pass catcher — whether they be a wide receiver or a running back — and setting them up with at least a blocker so they can pick up a few easy yards.

The issue is that when they don’t work, they end in disaster. That’s what happened in the NFC Wild Card tilt between the Los Angeles Rams and the Seattle Seahawks. During the second quarter of what had been a pretty defensive football game, Russell Wilson dropped back and looked to pick up a few easy yards with a screen pass to DK Metcalf.

Unfortunately for Wilson, Rams cornerback Darious Williams knew exactly what was coming. Whether it was because he read something or he just knew what his division foes like to do in that spot, Williams blew the play up, reeled in the pass from Wilson, and despite Metcalf’s best effort was able to stroll into the end zone untouched.

The craziest thing about this is that the play was not only the first pick six on a WR screen pass this season, it was the first time a quarterback was picked off on this play all year.

Weird things happen in the playoffs, and few things are weirder than something like this happening. Regardless, this is one hell of a play by Williams to give the Rams their first touchdown of the game.

For the past two years, CBS has been working on a reboot of the 1980s drama series, The Equalizer. At the time of its announcement back in November 2019, it was revealed that Queen Latifah would be an executive producer for the show and play the lead role of Robyn McCall in the series as well. A pilot order for the new reboot was issued a few months later and once production for the first season was complete, a premiere date of February 7, 2021 was shared with fans.

With less than a month to go until the show launches on CBS, the first trailer was shared with fans on Twitter and it only added to the excitement many have for the new series.

The 30-second trailer begins with Latifah walking alongside her daughter Delilah, who is played by Laya DeLeon Hayes, as a few action shots of Latifah appear on the screen while her daughter questions her seemingly random decision to quit her job. The next 20 seconds find the famed actress and singer ducking gunshots and shooting some of her own all while solving crime in the process. When asked about her occupation towards the end of the trailer, Latifah confidently says, “I’m the one you call when you can’t call 911.”

After getting a glimpse of what’s the come in The Equalizer reboot, fans quickly took to Twitter to share their reactions. “Queen Latifah as a badass in The Equalizer new series?” one viewer asked. “Yes Please!!!” Another said, “All I saw was Queen Latifah with a gun and immediately said “I don’t care what it is, I’m gonna watch that.”

You can watch the trailer above and read more reactions from fans below.

For the first time since 1995, the Buffalo Bills have won a playoff game. The AFC East champions and the pesky Indianapolis Colts kicked off the 2021 NFL Playoffs with an absolutely thrilling football game, and despite the fact that Indy threw everything it could at them late, Buffalo came out on top, 27-24.

Indianapolis rushed out to an early 10-7 lead and appeared to have the perfect gameplan for taking Buffalo down. They relied heavily on their ability to run the ball and asking Philip Rivers to make high-percentage throws in the passing game, but there was an issue: The Colts could not finish drives, getting inside the Bills’ 15 three times and only turning it into 10 points.

Their third trip to the doorstep may have turned the tide of the game — Indianapolis got it down to Buffalo’s 1 but could not punch it in. On the next drive, the Bills went 96 yards just before the end of half and scored on a Josh Allen run.

In a move that was trademarked by the team that had dominated Buffalo’s division for decades, they scored late to end the first half, got the ball to start the second, and got points via a field goal. Their next two drives ended in similar ways — an Allen touchdown toss to Stefon Diggs and a field goal — but Indianapolis kept finding answers. They began to stray from their gameplan and began attacking a little more, which led to a pair of touchdown passes by Rivers, one to Zach Pascal and one to Jack Doyle.

Buffalo managed to get a little cushion between those Colts touchdowns on a 54-yard field goal by rookie kicker Tyler Bass, whose boot into the wind looked like it would have been good from at least 60.

But the Colts kept coming, and after forcing a Bills punt with 2:37 left — the drive was going well until disaster struck and an Allen fumble put them in an insurmountable second-and-33 — Indianapolis got the ball back just before the two-minute warning and needing a field goal to force an extra period.

The game seemed over with less than 30 seconds left. Rivers found his receiver, Pascal, over the middle of the field. Pascal went down to reel the pass in, but got up, started running, and had the ball jarred out by Matt Milano. He was called down on the field, though, and the officials determined after a review that the play stood as called, despite the fact that replays looked to show his knees off the ground and the ball recovered by Jordan Poyer.

It was a controversial decision, but it ended up delaying the inevitable — Rivers attempted a hail mary that would have been short even if it landed in the arms of one of his receivers.