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On Sunday Donald Trump said a lot of alarming things at a rally in South Carolina. Absolutely the most shocking remark was that he’d let Russia “do whatever the hell they want” to certain NATO nations, which sounds an awful lot like welcoming World War III. The former president also attacked not only Nikki Haley, a former employee who’s now the only candidate left running against him for the GOP ticket, but also her husband. Both insulted parties have since responded in kind.

At the rally, Trump mocked Michael Haley for being away while his wife is running for president. “Where’s her husband? Oh, he’s away. He’s away,” Trump joked to the crowd. “What happened to her husband? What happened to her husband?! Where is he?! He’s gone. He knew. He knew.”

Turns out Admiral Michael Haley is abroad in Africa, serving for South Carolina’s National Guard. Michael responded with a meme, which read, “The difference between humans and animals? Animals would never allow the dumbest ones to lead the pack.”

Nikki herself responded in multiple ways, including on Twitter/X, where she wrote, “Michael is deployed serving our country, something you know nothing about. Someone who continually disrespects the sacrifices of military families has no business being commander in chief.”

She also pounded him during a campaign appearance Saturday night. “Donald, if you have something to say, don’t say it behind my back,” she thundered. “Get on a debate stage and say it to my face.”

Haley has repeatedly dragged Trump for not debating her. She even (controversially) went on SNL to do it. Trump hasn’t budged, and he probably won’t: He’s destroying her in every poll and primary. That hasn’t stopped her from continuing her campaign. Maybe she’s keeping it alive because, as Ron DeSantis used to think, maybe something will happen that makes Trump unable to run for president a third time. If it does, it won’t be because people are worried about his brain or about him being a dictator. After all, we already know neither of those issues bothers his base.

(Via HuffPost)

Super Bowl LVIII, better known as Usher Bowl, is tonight, and pople online are rushing to get their final setlist predictions for the highly-anticipated Halftime Show. Of course, that isn’t the only thing folks are fiercely debating. Sports fans are putting up big bucks on their favorite team, with the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs ready to collide in Las Vegas. One of those folks digging deep into their pockets is Drake.

On Saturday, February 10, the “You Broke My Heart” rapper shared his seven-figure bet on the game inspired by Taylor Swift. “I can’t bet against the Swifties,” he wrote.

In the screenshot totaling over $1 million, Drake waved the ally flag to Swift’s avid fanbase. As most (sometimes pissed-off) football fans know, Swift is currently dating the Chiefs’ Travis Kelce. To ensure no beef arises from the two musicians’ supporter circles, Drake decided to go all in on the safe bet.

However, Chiefs fans might want to perform their pre-game rituals a few times before the coin toss. The Drake Curse has taken out franchises across sports, including soccer, basketball, UFC, boxing, and more. Given that Super Bowl LVIII is being held in Las Vegas, who knows? Maybe the odds will be in the Chiefs’ favor. The team has two foes: the Drake Curse and the 49ers.

The Miami Heat have been lacking at the point guard position for much of the season, but made an upgrade ahead of the trade deadline when they traded Kyle Lowry and a pick to Charlotte for Terry Rozier to provide some backcourt scoring pop.

Rozier had a rocky start in his first nine games in Miami, scoring just 12.6 points per game on 35.7 percent shooting, but the hope has been that as he got more time with the Heat he’s settle into his role and find a rhythm. Unfortunately for Rozier and the Heat, it looks like he’s going to miss some time after he suffered a right knee injury on Sunday afternoon against the Boston Celtics, as he landed awkwardly coming down from a layup and immediately collapsed to the ground in pain.

Rozier eventually was helped back to the locker room and was ruled out for the game by the team. It was the second injury to a key guard on Sunday for the Heat, as Josh Richardson left earlier in the game with a right shoulder injury and likewise did not return. Any extended absences from Rozier and Richardson would leave Miami extremely thin at the guard spot, with Tyler Herro as the only player on the roster left that’s an experienced or trusted ball-handler.

With Super Bowl LVIII being broadcast by CBS, there will also be a Nickelodeon simulcast as they’ve done for a few regular season and postseason games each year.

The broadcast will feature a SpongeBob SquarePants-centric presentation as they come “Live from Bikini Bottom,” and that means appearances by favorite SpongeBob characters and, yes, a special performance before the game by SpongeBob and company of “Sweet Victory” from the 2011 episode “Band Geeks.” Travis Scott used the intro when he performed at the Super Bowl, but we finally get a full cut of “Sweet Victory” in the Super Bowl this year.

A couple hours before kickoff, CBS released the Super Bowl LVIII edition of “Sweet Victory,” featuring an updated version of the performance from SpongeBob and the band, along with Travis Kelce and George Kittle air guitaring along with them as the star tight ends for each team were unsurprisingly the most game to get in on the fun.

Fans have been asking for years for SpongeBob to hit the Super Bowl stage and they have finally gotten their wish (in a way). The bar is now set for the rest of the musical performances at this year’s Super Bowl, headlined by Usher in the halftime show.

On Friday night’s episode of Real Time, Bill Maher offered some sound advice to the MAGA crowd: Don’t mess with Taylor Swift. Alas, he was too late: Pharma bro-turned-failed presidential candidate already got the ball rolling by hatching a tinfoil hat conspiracy theory about the “deep state” rigging the Super Bowl for her boyfriend’s team, then somehow getting Joe Biden re-elected. That one prompted well-earned scorn. And on Sunday, the party’s leader decided to make the siutation even worse.

Per The Daily Beast, Donald Trump took to his rinky-dink Twitter clone to trash Taylor. What was his beef? That she was ungrateful for him signing into law the Music Modernization Act in 2018, which updated copyright-related issues. And yet, in 2020 she punted for Biden, and she’ll probably do it again.

“Joe Biden didn’t do anything for Taylor, and never will,” Trump steamed. “There’s no way she could endorse Crooked Joe Biden, the worst and most corrupt President in the History of our Country, and be disloyal to the man who made her so much money.”

But there was an upside, sort of. “Besides that,” he wrote, “I like her boyfriend, Travis, even though he may be a Liberal, and probably can’t stand me!”

Of course, even if Travis Kelce didn’t like Trump already, he probably didn’t appreciate him calling his girlfriend “disloyal” because of a bill he signed into law. And of course, let’s not forget about all the Swifties, who will never even consider voting for him now. Nice work, buddy.

It’s yet another unwelcome insight into Trump’s increasingly broken brain, which has caused him to say things that are stupid — like saying he’s more popular than Taylor Swift — or dangerous, like that he’d let Russia “do whatever the hell they want” to some NATO nations, which would effectively start World War III.

Super Bowl LVIII begins at 6:30 EST. Election Day is on Tuesday, November 5.

(Via The Daily Beast)

In another timeline — in which Hollywood’s major studio honchos didn’t play hardball with writers and performers — Dune: Part Two would have come out around Thanksgiving. Instead it’s arriving in a few weeks from now. But that’s not all: There’s also a fancy new behind-the-scenes book en route. And guess what? It has poems by supporting player Josh Brolin.

Per Variety, the actor, who plays House Atreides weapons master Gurney Halleck, teamed up with cinematographer Greg Fraser for the coffee table book Dune: Exposures. Out on February 13, it boasts off-the-cuff photos from the shoot, shot by Fraser, accompanied by writing from Brolin.

“The writing is very different, tonally,” Brolin said. “Sometimes it’s tongue-in-cheek, sometimes it’s descriptive, sometimes it’s a dialogue and sometimes it’s a poem.”

One selection shared with Variety pairs a close-up of star Timothée Chalamet and his giant, floppy hair with a reflective ode by Brolin:

Your face is etched by adolescence.

Your cheekbones jump toward
what are youth-laden eyes that slide down
a prominent nose and onto lips of a certain poetry.

And the way you hold my gaze
makes me fear my own age.

because something in me tells me
you are going to offer me something and,
for now,
I’m not sure
it’s going to be
something
I want anymore.

Perhaps you weren’t expecting meditations on aging to be in a Dune coffee book, and yet here we are. One fan of Brolin’s writing is Fraser.

“When I read those words next to one of those images, it grows, it makes something more than what those images are by themselves,” Fraser told Variety. “And when there are words by themselves with no images, then it allows the next image to have context.”

Brolin shared another sample with Variety:

Brolin doesn’t have a favorite passage but says, “I love haikus.” He reads a passage from the book, “‘Lie down in the light, as fictional characters watch you from afar.’ I love that because it’s pointing out the fact that this is not real, but there’s nothing more real. The light is real, lying down is real, the sand is real, the experience is real, and yet, it’s this great contrasting thing.”

So there you go! Dune: Exposures is out on February 13 while Dune: Part Two hits theaters on March 1.

(Via Variety)

It’s no secret that even the most seemingly safe of public places can instantly turn dangerous for a woman. Is it fair? No. But is it common? Absolutely, to the point where more and more women are documenting moments of being stalked or harassed as a grim reminder to be aware of one’s surroundings.

Lacie (@lacie_kraatz) is one of those women. On April 11th, she was out on a run when she noticed a man in front of her displaying suspicious behavior. Things got especially dicey when the man somehow got behind her. That’s when she pulled out her phone and started filming—partially to prove that it wasn’t just her imagination, and also out of fear for her safety.

“Hello. I’m just making this video so that women are a little more aware of them,” she begins in the video. “See this gentleman behind me? Yeah, this is what this video’s about.”

According to Lacie, the two were initially running in opposite directions. But at some point after seeing her, the man stopped in the middle of the trail and waited for her to pass so that he could follow her path from behind.

“Now, I know what you’re thinking—‘Why are you suspecting that he’s following you?’” Lacie continues. “Well, let me tell you. I was just walking like this, and I look up, and he’s in front of me, and he just keeps doing a ‘peek’ like this behind him, over and over again.”

Lacie added that at one point, she even made an illegal crossing when “do not walk” sign was still up in an attempt to put some distance between herself and the man. After looking over her shoulder, she noticed that the man was visibly “speeding” to keep up.

In case there is still any doubt, Lacie then begins to run to see if the man will follow suit. Sure enough, he does.

Luckily the man eventually seems to give up, though he still seems to be watching her from a distance. Lacie ends up safe back home, but she didn’t even accomplish what she set out to do that afternoon.

“I couldn’t even finish my run,” she concludes. “I only ran like a mile and a half. I wanted to do 3 miles, but no—creepy men just had to be creepy f****** men today.”

Watch:

@lacie_kraatz #foryou #ladies #awareness ♬ original sound – Lacie

Countless women empathized with Lacie in the comments section. Clearly, this was not a unique circumstance.

“What I do when I’m being followed is act feral,” yet another person shared. “Like I’ll bark and growl really loud and flail my arms around. If you look crazy, you’re doin’ it right.”

Another added, “Man, nothing pisses me off more than men who make me feel uncomfortable doing things that I NEED to do for my health and well-being.”

Others tried to give their own tips for handling the situation, from finding nearby police or fire stations to using a variety of running trails to simply notifying the first visible passerby of what’s happening and asking to stand with them.

And of course, the resounding advice was to use the public space, and modern-day technology, to one’s advantage.

As one person wrote, “Girls we have got to normalize turning around and yelling at people following us. Let them know you know, take pictures of them, scream, make a scene.”

It’d be nice if these kinds of unsettling interactions didn’t exist. But here we are. At the very least, it’s good that women are speaking up more so that these situations are easier to spot early on and women can know how to navigate them in the safest way possible.

This article originally appeared on 4.4.23

Soooo, there’s this dog and I’m pretty sure it’s the actual Snoopy come to life. Seriously all the dog needs is a red dog house out back and a little yellow bird that follows it around. If you think it can’t be true, then you’re going to have to fight the entire internet about it because nobody can get enough of how much this sweet dog looks like the iconic cartoon character.

Snoopy is Charlie Brown’s pet from the comic strip “Peanuts” that eventually spawned several movies and cartoon series, and Bayley is a dead ringer for the black and white animated pup. Since we live in a digital age, people across the country have been falling all over themselves to get to the pooch’s Instagram account and admire her cartoonish mug.

Bayley is a 1-year-old mini sheepadoodle, which is a cross between a miniature poodle and an Old English Sheepdog. Her sweet face is something you have to see to believe and even then you may question if she’s real.

The dog’s perfectly groomed curly fur makes her face look fluffy and cartoon-like. Once you add in her black ears and black button nose, that honestly looks more like a smooth lump of coal than a dog nose, then you have the perfect Snoopy doppelgänger. Bayley came into her viral fame after Doodle Dogs Club shared her photo on their Instagram account that has over 230,000 followers, and just like that, she was “famous.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Doodle Dogs Club 🧸 (@doodledogsclub)

The introductory post of the live version of Charlie Brown’s best friend racked up over 1.4 million likes and 10.3K comments. The comments ranged from people reminding others that the fictional dog was a Beagle to people demanding Bayley star in the live action version of Charlie Brown.

Whether Snoopy was a Beagle or not, there’s no arguing that Bayley looks more like the cartoon canine than real life Beagles. This probably has a lot to do with cartoons being…cartoons. Everything tends to be a bit bubbly and over exaggerated with cartoons.

Charlie Brown was supposed to be between the ages of 4 and 8 years old according to PeanutsWiki, who busted out the comic strip receipts. If cartoons looked exactly like real life, poor Charlie Brown would have a hard time walking with his oversized noggin.

Bayley’s curly fluffy fur gives her an advantage over actual Beagle’s when it comes to the ability to look like the famous cartoon character. It’s something she probably couldn’t care less about, unless every time she got compared to Snoopy equaled a dog treat. Otherwise, I’m sure the black and white sheepadoodle is perfectly happy just being a dog wondering why suddenly her mom keeps taking pictures of her.

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A post shared by B A Y L E Y 🐾♥️ (@bayley.sheepadoodle)

Since Bayley’s debut on Doodle Dogs Club, the animated dog come to life has climbed up to over 240k followers and her fanbase just can’t get enough of her. To make people love her even more, the dog’s mom uploads videos of Bayley using audio that makes it sound like the pup is a toddler trying to tell a story.

Check out some of the love Bayley gets on her Instagram account.

This article originally appeared on 4.17.23

Once upon a time, our only option for getting clothes clean was to get out a bucket of soapy water and start scrubbing. Nowadays, we use fancy machines that not only do the labor for us, but give us free reign to choose between endless water temperature, wash duration, and spin speed combinations.

Of course, here’s where the paradox of choice comes in. Suddenly you’re second guessing whether that lace item needs to use the “delicates” cycle, or the “hand wash” one, or what exactly merits a “permanent press” cycle. And now, you’re wishing for that bygone bucket just to take away the mental rigamarole.

Well, you’re in luck. Turns out there’s only one setting you actually need. At least according to one laundry expert.

While appearing on HuffPost’s “Am I Doing It Wrong?” podcast, Patric Richardson, aka The Laundry Evangelist, said he swears by the “express” cycle, as “it’s long enough to get your clothes clean but it’s short enough not to cause any damage.”

Richardson’s reasoning is founded in research done while writing his book, “Laundry Love,” which showed that even the dirtiest items would be cleaned in the “express” cycle, aka the “quick wash” or “30 minute setting.”

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Furthermore the laundry expert, who’s also the host of HGTV’s “Laundry Guy,” warned that longer wash settings only cause more wear and tear, plus use up more water and power, making express wash a much more sustainable choice.

Really, the multiple settings washing machines have more to do with people being creatures of habit, and less to do with efficiency, Richardson explained.

“All of those cycles [on the washing machine] exist because they used to exist,” he told co-hosts Raj Punjabi and Noah Michelson. “We didn’t have the technology in the fabric, in the machine, in the detergent [that we do now], and we needed those cycles. In the ’70s, you needed the ‘bulky bedding’ cycle and the ‘sanitary’ cycle … it was a legit thing. You don’t need them anymore, but too many people want to buy a machine and they’re like, ‘My mom’s machine has “whitest whites.”’ If I could build a washing machine, it would just have one button — you’d just push it, and it’d be warm water and ‘express’ cycle and that’s it.”

According to Good Housekeeping, there are some things to keep in mind if you plan to go strictly express from now on.

For one thing, the outlet recommends only filling the machine halfway and using a half dose of liquid, not powder detergent, since express cycles use less water. Second, using the setting regularly can develop a “musty” smell, due to the constant low-temperature water causing a buildup of mold or bacteria. To prevent this, running an empty wash on a hot setting, sans the detergent, is recommended every few weeks, along with regularly scrubbing the detergent drawer and door seal.

Still, even with those additional caveats, it might be worth it just to knock out multiple washes in one day. Cause let’s be honest—a day of laundry and television binging sounds pretty great, doesn’t it?

To catch even more of Richardson’s tips, find the full podcast episode here.

Everybody wants to see themselves in a positive light. That’s the key to understanding Jonah Berger’s simple tactic that makes people 30% more likely to do what you ask. Berger is a marketing professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the bestselling author of “Magic Words: What to Say to Get Your Way.”

Berger explained the technique using a Stanford University study involving preschoolers. The researchers messed up a classroom and made two similar requests to groups of 5-year-olds to help clean up.

One group was asked, “Can you help clean?” The other was asked, “Can you be a helper and clean up?” The kids who were asked if they wanted to be a “helper” were 30% more likely to want to clean the classroom. The children weren’t interested in cleaning but wanted to be known as “helpers.”

Berger calls the reframing of the question as turning actions into identities.

“It comes down to the difference between actions and identities. We all want to see ourselves as smart and competent and intelligent in a variety of different things,” Berger told Big Think. “But rather than describing someone as hardworking, describing them as a hard worker will make that trait seem more persistent and more likely to last. Rather than asking people to lead more, tell them, ‘Can you be a leader?’ Rather than asking them to innovate, can you ask them to ‘Be an innovator’? By turning actions into identities, you can make people a lot more likely to engage in those desired actions.”

Berger says that learning to reframe requests to appeal to people’s identities will make you more persuasive.

“Framing actions as opportunities to claim desired identities will make people more likely to do them,” Berger tells CNBC Make It. “If voting becomes an opportunity to show myself and others that I am a voter, I’m more likely to do it.”

This technique doesn’t just work because people want to see themselves in a positive light. It also works for the opposite. People also want to avoid seeing themselves being portrayed negatively.

“Cheating is bad, but being a cheater is worse. Losing is bad, being a loser is worse,” Berger says.

The same tactic can also be used to persuade ourselves to change our self-concept. Saying you like to cook is one thing, but calling yourself a chef is an identity. “I’m a runner. I’m a straight-A student. We tell little kids, ‘You don’t just read, you’re a reader,’” Berger says. “You do these things because that’s the identity you hold.”

Berger’s work shows how important it is to hone our communication skills. By simply changing one word, we can get people to comply with our requests more effectively. But, as Berger says, words are magic and we have to use thgem skillfully. “We think individual words don’t really matter that much. That’s a mistake,” says Berger. “You could have excellent ideas, but excellent ideas aren’t necessarily going to get people to listen to you.”