FYI: Elvis Presley was a natural blonde.

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Quibi, the 10-minutes-or-less content vehicle tied directly to your cell phone, will start to lose the second half of that distinction sometime in May. Quibi founder Jeffrey Katzenberg told Reuters on Wednesday that the application will start offering options to watch content via television screen, a departure from the company’s mobile-only business model.

The news came in a Reuters report that said downloads of the streaming platform are nearing 3 million, up from a paltry start that was a fraction of the initial support Disney+ received from content-hungry users. Katzenberg said 2.7 million people have downloaded Quibi since its April 6 launch, and some of them will get the option to watch that quick bite content on much larger screens:

Katzenberg also said that some Quibi users will have the ability to cast the service from mobile phones to their televisions starting in May. Some early viewers had complained that they were unable to watch Quibi programming on their TVs.

Quibi originally had been promoted for on-the-go viewing. Executives stuck with their launch plan even though it came when audiences were sheltering at home to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

As noted in the Reuters story, the Quibi model of short form content on mobile phones is severely limited by people not commuting to and from work or even leaving their homes amid the pandemic and the need to practice social distancing. So it’s interesting that a platform with a philosophy meant to differentiate it from other streaming services has immediately pivoted to make itself more like the competition.

What’s interesting more, all the content was meant to be watched on phones, and some screeners of Quibi content came in different aspect ratios to reflect that. In other words, it’s entirely unclear how much of this quick content will be optimized for far bigger screens, which perhaps is why the function will be rolled out slowly. We’ll know more about what Quibi shows look like on the big screen once we can actually see it, but it will be interesting to see if this news gets more people to give Quibi a go while the offer for a free trial in its first few months still stands.

(Via Reuters)

ASAP Ferg resurrects his Trap Lord persona in the mind-melting video for his new single, “Value.” As the Harlem rapper insists that you “Look at me, look at me, look at me, look at me, look at me, look at me now,” the jittery video rattles through clips of Ferg’s greatest hits, flashing shots of his various fashion shoots intercut with a wildly edited performance sequence.

Mid-way through the video, though, Ferg takes advantage of an intermission in the goth-trap insanity to comment on the current conditions of the coronavirus crisis not being shown in mainstream newscasts. As he delivers a somber voiceover, the camera rests on empty store shelves, homeless people sleeping on sidewalks, and shut-down storefronts. “The internet brought us closer — and closed stores,” he intones. “You’re just like me. I’m just like you. Look at me.”

“Value” is Ferg’s first new track of 2020, following his 2019 Floor Seats EP, which contained the singles “Pups,” two versions of “Wigs,” and “Floor Seats.” The EP was followed by the Big Sean collaboration “Bezerk,” which the duo performed at the 2019 VMAs, but Ferg’s been mostly quiet since then, aside from closing 2019 with the “Jet Lag” video. The fact that he’s once again releasing new music and calling himself Trap Lord suggests that a new release may well be on the horizon.

Watch the “Value” video above.

The 2020 NFL Draft is now just a day away, and teams are finalizing their big boards and making phone calls and trying desperately not to be the team that screws up and misses a pick due to a bad internet connection during the virtual draft.

As is often the case, the offensive players are the headliners going into the Draft, with buzz about quarterbacks, offensive tackles, and the deepest receiver class maybe ever. However, there are some special defensive players and we’ll begin our look at the best of those guys available with a look at the defensive tackle class that features a clear top-10 talent, another first-round lock, and some quality depth in the mid-rounds.

Tier 1

Derrick Brown: As good of a defensive tackle as you will find in the draft. Brown plays with a nastiness and an edge to him that all the great defensive linemen have. But like the best guys at that position, he is in total control of that edge at all times, never finding himself in positions where he’s losing his head. His hands are active, he takes pride in pushing back offensive linemen, and he has the versatility teams love, lining up anywhere on the line and winning 1-on-1 battles with linemen. Read our interview with him here.

Tier 2

Javon Kinlaw: Kinlaw’s backstory will, rightfully, get a lot of play on Thursday night as he’s fought from homelessness to a first round pick. At South Carolina, he trimmed down to as light as 295 after starting school at 345 and has built himself back up to 324 and is a tremendous physical specimen. He’s got more length than is typical at DT (6’5 with 35 inch arms) and that can at times lead him to get a bit too tall, but when he stays low and keeps his leverage he is dominant. He’ll be a mid-first round pick and, as Will Muschamp recently told us, he believes his best football is ahead of him.

Tier 3

Ross Blacklock: TCU is going to have quite the draft, and Blacklock could be among the Horned Frogs to hear his name called on Thursday night — and if not, early on Friday. He’s an explosive athlete and at his best attacking upfield — nine of his 40 tackles last year were for a loss. At 290 he’s not the biggest tackle and isn’t a huge force against the run, but he can shoot gaps and wreak havoc in the backfield.

Neville Gallimore: Gallimore impressed during his senior campaign in Norman, and as such, his name is one to watch a little later in the first round. He plays hard, battles on every play, and kept improving during his time at Oklahoma, a place where it can be awfully hard to get better and better as a defensive player. Ran an impressive 4.79 40 after coming into the combine at 6’2 and 304 pounds. Best football might be ahead of him, but questions exist about his ability to eat up space along the defensive line.

Justin Madubuike: The Texas A&M product produced great numbers in College Station, and while he’s undersized he has some serious athleticism (4.83 in the 40) and quality strength (31 bench reps). Like the guys in front of him in this tier, his best skill is getting off the ball and attacking upfield to get into the backfield (11.5 TFL, 5.5 sacks). He might fall to late Day 2 or even Day 3 due to size, but he’s got skills and production. He might start out playing in specific packages where he’s unleashed to attack upfield rather than trying to fill gaps and stack up the line, but in the right position he could be impactful.

Raekwon Davis: We’re high on Davis, betting on his talent and the flashes of brilliance we saw at Alabama. As a sophomore, the big man registered 69 sacks with 10 TFLs and 8.5 sacks, and at 6’6 and 311 pounds, he has the size and strength you want to play defensive tackle in the NFL. The question: What the hell happened in his junior and senior campaigns, where he put up decent tackle numbers (55 and 47, respectively) but had 8.5 TFLs and two sacks total in two years? May be better against the run than the pass, which is perfectly fine, but limits what he can be in the league.

Davon Hamilton: An interesting player, one who projects out to being a load against the run and someone with the power to sometimes get into the backfield against the pass. The questions are that of sample size — he hasn’t played a ton of snaps in five years by nature of Ohio State being a defensive lineman factory — and whether or not he’ll ever be more than a powerful DT. Came in at 6’4 and 320 at the combine, while his 33 reps on the bench were the most of any player at his position. Had only 28 tackles as a senior, but accrued 9.5 TFLs and six sacks.

Tier 4

Leki Fotu: I love Utah guys, as has been established, and Fotu fits the bill of a tough, physical Kyle Whittingham guy. He’s a massive man at 6’5, 330 and likely projects as a 3-4 nose, but he’s got good athleticism and was very productive for a good Utah defense. He’s not a twitchy athlete or the quickest, but he’s huge and strong and can fill gaps and stop the run.

Rashard Lawrence: Came to LSU as a five-star but did not turn into a centerpiece of the Tiger defense. A good player, though, who put up decent numbers in four years — 120 tackles, 20.5 TFL, nine sacks — and plays with urgency at all times. If he can build on that and mix in consistently good play diagnosing and technique, he could end up being a very nice pick for a team on day two or three. Has dealt with a bad ankle and needed knee surgery.

Hundreds of people gathered at the Arizona State Capitol on Monday to protest Governor Doug Ducey’s stay-at-home order that closed non-essential businesses in March.

The protesters waved pro-Trump flags and held up banners that read, “Give me liberty or give me COIVD-19,” “Cure is worse than the virus,” and “Make America work again.”

Apparently, no one told the protesters that Donald Trump is in favor of the stay-at-home order and that he’s also doesn’t really like liberty.

One of the most powerful images taken at the rally was of Lauren Leander, an intensive care nurse at a hospital in Phoenix. In the photo, she stands firmly in her protective gear as a protester looks like he wants to whack her over the head with ol’ glory. Another photo of her and her colleagues standing strong in the face of anti-vaxxers is striking as well.

Leander had the day off from work at the hospital so she decided to show up at the rally to represent the workers who are risking their lives on the front lines. “That was the kind of action we could take against something like this,” Leander said according to Arizona Central.

Leander and a handful of medical professionals stood strongly and silently at the rally while an angry mob yelled viscous attacks at them. The protesters accused Leander and her colleagues of not really being nurses and claimed they were possibly abortionists or dental assistants instead.

That’s probably because if the protesters believed they were berating front-line healthcare workers then they’d have to accept the fact that they are terrible people. Who the hell has any right to scream at a nurse who’s saving lives during a pandemic?

“The noise was deafening,” Leander said according to ABC 15. “But we were there to be a voice for our patients and the immunocompromised and the people who are sick with COVID that would be out there fighting with us if they could asking people to follow the stay at home rules.”

“It doesn’t matter if you believe in the virus or not. I’m going to take care of you one way or the other,” she said. “It was sad to see people throw insults that number one didn’t make sense and number two didn’t align with us as health workers,” she said.

Although she endured abuse at the rally, the photos of her standing in defiance went viral and she has received messages of support from people across the world.

“I feel proud because it’s not just me. It’s me and it’s my doctors and all the health care workers that would’ve been out there with me if we could’ve had time to rally a bigger group together,” said Leander.

Arizona governor Doug Ducey’s stay-at-home order is in place until April 30, and there has yet to be an announcement on what will happen May 1.

Leander and her colleagues’ bold stance in the face of the protesters showed the world that when people fight social distancing, they are directly attacking America’s healthcare workers and most vulnerable citizens.

Lauren Leander is a hero and everyone should know her name.

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Kevin Garnett played himself in the film Uncut Gems, the acclaimed 2019 release by the Safdie brothers that saw the future Hall of Fame inductee receive praise for his role. The gist of the movie is that Adam Sandler’s character, an all-time degenerate gambler named Howard, runs a jewelry shop. Garnett comes in, he is shown a rare black opal, and once he decides that the opal plays a role in his success on the basketball court in the 2012 Eastern Conference Semifinals against Philadelphia, KG tries to win it at auction.

The entire movie rocks and you should see it immediately, if only for meme literacy purposes and Mike Francesa’s cameo. But beyond that, there’s an upcoming fundraiser tied to the film — and a host of other movies in the A24 universe — that puts Garnett’s jersey on the auction block.

While other auctions are currently ongoing, the Uncut Gems auction begins at noon on May 4. According to Variety, the Garnett jersey from the movie will be available, with proceeds benefitting the Queens Community House in New York. Unfortunately, while the opal is not available for auction, other items like the jewel-encrusted Furby from the movie are available.

Garnett was not the first choice for the role — the film was in development for years, and names like Amar’e Stoudemire, Kobe Bryant, and Joel Embiid were linked to it for some time — but he ended up earning widespread praise for his performance.

It’s been two years since Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson squared off in “The Match,” a pay-per-view one-on-one golf event on Thanksgiving weekend 2018 in Las Vegas that Mickelson won in extra holes, and with the golf schedule currently pushed back to mid-June, a second match has been in the works.

This time, there will be no PPV price tag, though, as they will play for charity and broadcast it on TNT, while also bringing in Tom Brady and Peyton Manning for a two-on-two match play event to add even more name-brand cache. According to Bleacher Report and The Action Network‘s Darren Rovell, Turner has confirmed “The Match: Champions For Charity” will take place sometime in May, with the 15th and 24th as possible dates, per Rovell.

There were reports last month that they were working towards an agreement, but needed the PGA Tour’s blessing to sign off on it. That appears to have happened, likely due to the Tour now having plans for its future, and things are being finalized now. Where they play remains to be determined, but Tiger’s home course of Medalist Golf Club in Jupiter, Florida is a strong possibility, per Rovell.

The teams are unknown, as Rovell reports Woods-Brady v. Mickelson-Manning, which contradicts initial reports of Woods-Manning v. Mickelson-Brady. The latter makes more sense given Woods and Manning have teamed in pro-ams in the past, but whatever the case, there will be some team match play format. The details on what kind of match format they’ll play remains to be seen as well. I’m rooting for foursomes rather than fourballs, because alternate shot would make this way more fun and put way more pressure on the two football legends.

Earth Day 2020 is shaping up to be the best earth day in the 50 years. Not for humans, of course. We’re in a bad way. But there are jellyfish and dolphins in the Venice canals, bears roaming Yellowstone and Yosemite in record numbers, and emissions have plummeted worldwide. It’s tough to argue that the planet seems to generally enjoy seeing less of us.

Of course, the same pandemic that has driven us indoors has absolutely laid waste to the national economy. Businesses large and small are collapsing and entire industries are begging the U.S. government for relief. In the process, the cracks in how certain economic systems are constructed have grown increasingly visible — with perhaps the easiest example being the amount of money that airlines spend on stock buybacks and dividends to benefit investors, rather than keeping enough cash on hand to build a financial firewall in case of a catastrophe like this one. The enormity of the wealth gap and the severe financial exposure of millions upon millions of Americans have also both been particularly obvious since the start of the pandemic, reminding us that poor distribution of financial resources is actually a bad thing for the nation on the whole.

A third piece of the “what a terrifying fascinating Earth Day this is” puzzle is less dramatic. It’s found in how we’ve spent our time indoors. People are learning to bake bread and make drip coffee. They’re pulling out the sewing machine and using YouTube to learn how to mend clothes. Bean recipes are getting passed around and there’s been a dramatic spike in home gardens. The joke that Americans have lost the spirit of resilience we were once globally famous for seems to have been revealed as false. We’re still do-it-yourself-types at our core, we’ve just been too busy working ourselves to the bone to have any time for hobbies.

Watching the planet thrive with fewer humans around, seeing the flaws in our economic system, and witnessing a return to self-reliance are three downstream effects of the pandemic that feel particularly relevant on this, the 50th Earth Day. Three distinct elements of this catastrophe that help us recognize how we’ve been failing the planet and ourselves. Three threads that can weave together to help us create a more sustainable, ecologically sound cultural tapestry when this is all over.

While a proliferation of bears and bees is lovely (and vital to our global ecosystem), it’s the newfound transparency on all sides of our economy that is perhaps the most vital in motivating us to change our habits out of the shutdown. Much has been made about how the Wall Street investment model (which forces all businesses to chase constant growth at all costs until they can’t grow any further) has pushed airlines to flounder when the quarantine hit; but on the flip side, the success of working from home and boom in digital meetups may have taught us that much of the travel we thought was essential actually isn’t. It’s nice to imagine a world where we travel less for work and save our personal carbon allotments for the chance to eat parmesan fresh from the wheel in Italy or surf in Sri Lanka or dance and do yoga with hippies in Costa Rica.

Would that mean smaller airlines and fewer routes? Yep. That’s one cost of making a greener world that we rarely actually address — the need to reduce.

Meanwhile, our widespread return to “making shit” — whether it’s sourdough bread or needlepoint throw pillows — a trend that had been booming for the better part of a decade and has gone stratospheric during the pandemic, might just remind us that we don’t need to consume as much as artificially deflated prices propped up by unsustainable supply chains have tricked us into believing over the decades. From fast fashion to food that has traveled thousands of miles just to get to our local markets, maybe this shutdown really will help us all reevaluate our spending. Maybe value will begin to trump price (though this will be hard with people also struggling financially) and we’ll see a new era of conscious consumerism with a constant sustainability focus.

The absence of purchases over the past five weeks has reminded us that our collective purchasing power is huge. The question will be whether or not we can harness it to work for the betterment of the planet. Whether we can vote with our dollars to force polluting industries to change. If not now, when?

In the tweet above Elon Musk cuts to the heart of one of the toughest-to-swallow pills of this pandemic. Some industries don’t deserve to be revived or helped in their continued destruction of the earth. Meanwhile, some sectors overexpanded. Some permanent shutdowns, while sad, will reflect necessary market corrections. Part of “going green” has always been about consuming less, as hard as that is to stomach. If we do that, certain businesses will indeed fail.

With Earth Day upon us and fields of wildflowers soon to bloom around the country (without people trampling them), we have a chance to treat COVID-19 as a call to action. A chance to preserve the more-pristine planet that sheltering in place revealed by supporting green energy, tech, and policies. A chance to cut our personal carbon footprints. A chance to celebrate local — whether that means planting a garden at home or taking the train to a town a few hours away for vacation.

With the world hitting the pause button in a major way over the past month, the door is wide for us to change everything, from how we eat to how we travel to what we wear. Meaning that we could potentially do better. If we’re willing to heed the lessons flying at us, that is. If we can’t learn from our mistakes — especially when they’re so easy to see right now — we’ll be destined to repeat them.

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