Category: Worldwide

Marc Gasol, for a short period of time, is headed back to the Memphis Grizzlies. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the Grizzlies worked out a deal for the veteran big man with the Los Angeles Lakers, who rumors indicate have been looking to move him for much of this offseason.

The catch: While the Lakers will salary dump Gasol, Memphis doesn’t plan on keeping him around, either. The Grizzlies — which sent L.A. the draft rights to Wang Zhelin and received a second round pick and cash for their troubles — reportedly plan on working out an arrangement with Gasol that will see him waived. As a result, the former All-NBA center will remain in Spain.

Memphis has been busy this offseason, as the team has been involved in a number of transactions that have let them build up their draft capital while giving them the chance to look at younger players who need to jump start their careers. Unfortunately for those of us who enjoy nostalgia, though, it appears giving Gasol one last chance with the franchise isn’t in the cards. Perhaps he’ll be able to join up with his older brother, Pau, as a member of Barcelona’s basketball team, instead.

Everyone, even President Joe Biden, is frustrated with the amount of COVID vaccine misinformation that’s been circling online right now. It’s gotten so bad that, during his address to the nation Thursday evening, Biden made a point of calling out the vaccine-hesitant among us.

“My message to unvaccinated Americans is this: What more is there to wait for? What more do you need to see?” Biden said in his speech after laying out a multi-step plan to ramping up vaccinations and reducing the surge of COVID cases happening thanks to the more contagious Delta variant. “We’ve been patient but our patience is wearing thin and your refusal has cost all of us.”

Harsh? Maybe. Necessary? Depends on who you ask. If you’re talking to CNN’s Jake Tapper, Biden’s “scolding” tone was a bit over-dramatic and directed at the wrong people.

The news anchor shared his thoughts on Biden’s address during the network’s New Day segment, telling hosts John Berman and Brianna Keilar that he thought the president’s censure was uncalled for.

“I don’t think scolding is the approach. There are these purveyors of misinformation out there, and they’re not just on the right,” Tapper said. “He’s scolding the people that are being lied to as opposed to the liars.”

Social media platforms like Facebook have been instrumental in convincing skeptics that the FDA-approved vaccines for COVID aren’t necessary or, worse, are dangerous, despite a lack of evidence to support those claims. Because so many of these conspiracy theories live on social media, it’s difficult to combat the stereotypes now associated with the virus and our best preventative measure of fighting it, which might be why Biden decided to directly call out the people falling for this nonsense instead. But Tapper does have a point: if we’re trying to convince more people to get their shot, taking a 360-degree approach to that by contradicting and challenging those spreading misinformation seems like a good way to do that.

Ryan Pollie is formerly known as Los Angeles Police Department, and last year, he took on yet another moniker with his Total Revenge project. Now, though, he’s back to making music under his own name (as he did on his 2019 self-titled album) with a new single, “The Shore House.” It starts as a breezy tune with some pep in its step before going through multiple other moods and musical ideas, so it’s fitting that Pollie describes the track as “a concept album within a song:

“Featuring a ripping guitar solo by Michael Rault, ‘Shore House’ is a concept album within a song. There is a chromatic breakdown that features a desk bell and gym whistle and a chorus that strips down to my voice, a string quartet and a lonely harpist. Inspired by my father, ‘The Shore House’ is a story about a man raising children in suburbia. The character grew up at the shore and always thought he would see his kids grow up next to the beach as well. Now stuck in the mundanity of a predictable suburban life, he dreams of the waves and longs for even just a weekend back home at the shore.”

Of his upcoming music and life in general, he noted that things are going exceptionally: “I felt so much support from our music community when I had Cancer that it’s absolutely necessary to say my thanks here. Artists, journalists, industry folk and the like — reaching out and checking in… I truly appreciate it. Quick update — I’ve been in remission for 3 years almost, which is HUGE. Every year that goes by, the more in the clear I am. Of course the music you’re going to be hearing from me has a bit to do with when I was sick and what I’ve been pondering about my own life and life in general since then. Looking back, regret, and the like. But this is certainly the most joyous material I’ve ever released — my sad boy 22-year-old self would be in disbelief!”

Watch the video for “The Shore House” above.

Stephen A. Smith is one of the defining takesmen of our time. Smith, as has long been evident, takes a quantity over quality approach to dishing out his beliefs on a given subject, as the longtime ESPN personality has the breathtaking ability to come up with something for literally every subject. They’re not always good — in fact, some of them are quite bad — but they are consistent in their ability to exist.

The sheer volume of takes Smith has doled out was revealed during a recent appearance on Ebro in the Morning. Smith, while discussing the end of Max Kellerman’s time on First Take, said that while the pair have a good relationship, sometimes, chemistry between two people can begin to grow stale. He slipped in his sheer output as a takesman and good LORD.

“What a lot of people don’t realize is the work that goes into doing the show every single day,” Smith said. “And the reality is that we have 15 segments a day, 75 segments a week, over 3,000 takes a year. In the nine years that I’ve been on First Take, I’ve given over 33,000 takes.”

That is a lot of takes! The wild thing is this does not include Smith’s take output on, say, his radio show, or SportsCenter, or Stephen A’s World, or any of the other shows he appears on, or that time he went onto Fox News and no one on set had any idea how to respond to the fact that Stephen A. Smith is a master takesman who was unfazed by the general weirdness of being on Fox News (link here, but be warned that you’re going to Fox’s YouTube page and it might totally mess your YouTube algorithm up, so maybe go Incognito for this one).

Anyway, I would love to know exactly how this number is kept. Does Smith do it himself? Does someone on First Take keep count like they’re watching a pitcher on a strict pitch limit? Is there a big board that has a number that goes up with every new take? Is this just unique takes, or does this include ones that are constantly repeated? What happens when he hits 50,000? Or 100,000? More questions than answers exist, surely.

On August 13, 2020, Fortnite developer Epic Games “declared war on Apple” after the company’s frustrations with the iOS version of their app being forced to use Apple Pay reached a boiling point. Following their 1984-inspired declaration, Epic Games proceeded to add an option in Fortnite‘s main menu that allowed players to choose to pay Epic directly — and at a lower cost — in order to cut Apple Pay out of the equation. As you can imagine, tech giant Apple didn’t take too kindly to Epic’s bold move, and quickly removed the Fortnite app from the App Store, kicking off a massive legal battle between the two.

Now, over a year later, the judge overseeing the case, Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, has issued a ruling in favor of Epic Games, stating that Apple can no longer force developers to use its own payment system within their apps as it engages in what the state of California refers to as “anticompetitive conduct.” However, the judge also ruled Epic Games must pay Apple $3.6 million in revenue that was previously withheld, stating Epic’s “Project Liberty” (Epic’s name for its aforementioned attempt to allow players to buy from them directly and circumvent Apple Pay) was nothing more than a “highly choreographed attack” on Apple. Lastly, Judge Rogers argued Epic’s description of Apple as a monopoly was incorrect, stating “success is not illegal.” This ruling is scheduled to officially take effect in 90 days, meaning Apple could seek to block the order before then.

As you can imagine, both Apple and Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney had a lot to say about the ruling. In a New York Times article published earlier today, an Apple representative said:

“Today the Court has affirmed what we’ve known all along: the App Store is not in violation of antitrust law. Apple faces rigorous competition in every segment in which we do business, and we believe customers and developers choose us because our products and services are the best in the world. We remain committed to ensuring the App Store is a safe and trusted marketplace.”

Sweeney provided his own comments on the ruling via tweet, stating “today’s ruling isn’t a win for developers or for consumers. Epic is fighting for fair competition among in-app payment methods and app stores for a billion consumers.”

Ultimately, the ruling given by Judge Rogers could cost both parties a lot of money and neither one is walking away with a “victory royale,” meaning if you were someone who was rooting for both big businesses to be knocked down a peg or three, you just got your wish. However, I think the real takeaway from the whole trial has to be that popular Fortnite mascot Peely was also ruled to be “just a banana man,” which really throws the absurdity of this whole ordeal into perspective.

In an almost on-brand moment considering she was promoting The Morning Show Season 2, Jennifer Aniston left BBC viewers scratching their heads after an awkward exchange with The One Show host Jermaine Jenas. While appearing alongside her Morning Show co-star Reese Witherspoon, Aniston was seemingly cut off by Jenas, and her reaction has people divided over who was in the wrong.

It all happened as Aniston described experiencing the intense early morning grind that talk show hosts go through … only to have Jenas abruptly toss a question at Witherspoon who took the whole thing in stride. Via The New York Post:

“Reese, I’ve got to be honest with you, Jennifer’s pretty much sold it to me that she’s not a morning person,” he said, at which Aniston appeared stunned.

“Did I sell that to you?’” Aniston uncomfortably asked, to which Jenas responded, “A little bit, a little bit.”

“Did I get a good deal?” the actress snapped back.

Jenas, a former English soccer player, then laughed awkwardly and tried to move forward with his conversation with Witherspoon, abruptly saying, “So, what about you, Reese?”

After the back-and-forth between Jenas and Aniston went viral, BBC viewers were split over whether Jenas was rude or Aniston overreacted.

Without picking a side here, Jenas did cut her off, but it also seemed like Aniston was rolling with the punches and delivering some friendly jabs that wouldn’t be out of place on The Morning Show. It’s almost like the whole blue and gold dress debate, but without the deep emotional scars that will haunt an entire generation.

The Morning Show Season 2 premieres September 17 on Apple TV+.

(Via New York Post)

It was reported this morning that Josh Homme’s young children, 10-year-old Orrin and 5-year-old Wolf, have filed (through their mother and Homme’s ex-wife, Brody Dalle) for restraining orders against their father, citing physical and emotional abuse as the reason. It looks like that didn’t go as planned for them, though, as TMZ reports the requests have been denied by two separate judges.

The publication notes the requests were first filed in Los Angeles, but after they were denied there, Dalle brought them to a Santa Monica court, where they were again shot down.

At the time the original news was announced this morning, Homme’s attorney, Susan Wiesner, told TMZ, “Ms. Dalle has previously brought these claims to the police, DCFS, and the presiding judge of the family law court, all of whom have declined to take any action based upon these spurious claims.”

Documents indicated that Homme’s sons are scared their father will harm them. Homme allegedly drinks and drives with the children in the vehicle and physically and emotionally abuses the children, with Orrin claiming examples of that behavior include “flicking his ears, hitting his head, poking his chest and throwing things at him — while calling him fat and allegedly making threats about murdering Brody’s boyfriend.”

Masters of design are like magicians. They have a beautiful gift of being able to manipulate our movements, thoughts, and emotions without us even knowing. Their clandestine work is all around us but only those who practice the arts can see it in action.

One such master is Svilen, an inventor, designer, and futurist originally from Bulgaria who’s since moved to the Washington, D.C. area. According to his Medium page, he invents “concepts for products and experiences ranging from reimagining the mundane, to protecting fundamental human rights.”

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In his downtime, he’s created a TikTok page where he reveals the design secrets behind everyday things that we take for granted. He has nearly 600,000 followers and his videos have received 5.6 million likes.

Here are nine of his most popular videos that reveal the hidden secrets behind everything from kids’ cartoons to snack foods.

1.) Why do old cartoon characters wear neck collars?

“By giving characters something to wear around their necks, it meant that animators could keep the exact same body position and only animate the head while it was moving and talking, which not only meant that the frames required for a 7 min cartoon were reduced from 14000 down to just 2000, but this move is actually credited with saving the entire animation industry.”Why are the interiors of movie theaters red?

2.) Why are movie theater interiors red?

“If you ever noticed that in theatres curtains and seats tend to be the color red, that’s no coincidence, that’s by design. And that’s because the color red is the first color that the human eye loses sight of in dark and low light conditions, making it easier for you to focus on the performance or movie screen and not get distracted by the surroundings.”

3.) Why do snipers wear their watches upside down?

“The reason snipers wear their watches upside down like this is to avoid the sun or moonlight from reflecting off their watch face, into the enemies eyes and therefore, giving away their location.”

4.) Why are Pringles shaped that way?

“Pringles enlisted the help of supercomputers to come up with an aerodynamic shape for the potato chips known as a hyperbolic paraboloid, so the chips don’t fly off of the production line.”

5.) The mysterious power of Baker-Miller pink

“[Alexander Schauss] discovered that this very specific shade of pink had a very profound calming effect on people. It would make them relax, lower their heart rate, breathing, and even curb their appetite.”

6.) How an airport reduced complaints at airport baggage claims

“The Houston Airport in Texas was experiencing an extraordinary amount of complaints regarding the baggage claim wait times. … Upon further investigation, they found out that it only took passengers 1 minute to walk from their arrival gate to baggage claim and then 7 more minutes for their luggage to arrive. … They moved baggage claim as far as possible, so now it took passengers 6 times longer to get to it. And just like that, overnight complaints dropped to nearly zero.”

7.) Why do London pubs have weird names?

“Since many of the pubs in Britain are hundreds of years old, back in those days, a lot of people were illiterate, which meant that they couldn’t easily identify and discover businesses. So business owners got creative and instead of using letters, they started using pictures of easily identifiable and recognizable objects in their logos, so that even people that can’t read can still find the business easily.”

8.) How does blue lighting stop drug use?

“The blue lighting makes it impossible for the drug user to find his or her veins because they’re also colored blue; therefore, it elegantly prevents them from injecting drugs in the first place in a non-confrontational and cheap fashion.”

9.) What secrets are lurking in your elevator?

“Moving down to the lobby, you will notice a lot of mirrors and reflective surfaces. It could be the elevator doors themselves or just decorative mirrors hanging around. And those are there to actually distract you from the fact that the elevator is taking a long time.”

In what absolutely sounds like a sentence uttered after some audience interaction on Match Game 77, James Gandolfini was once so drunk people desperately tied him to a tree on the set of the Sopranos so he didn’t fall off a cliff.

As IndieWire detailed, Michael Imperioli was also involved thanks to the precarious filming details of a pivotal scene in Season 4 of the HBO drama. Imperioli does the Talking Sopranos podcast with Steve Schirripa, who, during an interview with Insider, retold a story from the filming of “Whoever Did This” where (mild spoilers) Tony and Christopher need to hurl a body off a cliff.

The problem was that they were filming at night, near a real ledge, and it was taking a while to get things right. So they started drinking.

The production required the two actors to stand close to the edge of a cliff, which was made risky because they were inebriated.

“On the break, while they set up the lights, Michael and Jim [Gandolfini] drank a bottle of Wild Turkey,” Schirripa said. “They were so drunk that they had to chain their legs to a tree, because they were afraid they were going to fall off the cliff.”

Given the strong pivot toward green screens and risk reduction in Hollywood these days (unless you’re Tom Cruise filming Mission Impossible, I suppose) there’s something refreshing about this slightly dangerous behind-the-scenes story about filming on location. Thankfully everyone got the shot they needed without incident, but it’s very funny to imagine the powers that be needing to break out the chains to keep two stars safe because they accidentally had a bit too much Wild Turkey to be trusted near a ledge. Happens to everyone.

[via Insider]

The past few years have been impressively productive for Ariana Grande, as she dropped new albums in 2018, 2019, and 2020. At the moment, though, she’s not focused on music, as her attention is on her new R.E.M. Beauty cosmetics line. In fact, it appears she’s in the midst of a break from music at the moment, as revealed in a new Allure feature.

The piece is mostly centered on Grande’s cosmetics line, but there’s one section of it that pulls back the curtain on what Grande’s up to now aside from that. It says she’s been “taking a break from recording” music lately to explore “new versions of storytelling,” as she puts it. She seems to be making a push to get more into acting again, as she’s currently “working with an acting coach who trains leading ladies.” That section of the feature also notes her judging gig on The Voice and her Fortnite virtual concert.

She also addressed her thoughts on the “crowded” space of celebrity cosmetics lines, saying, “I’ve thought a lot about this, of course, because I don’t want to just hop onto any bandwagons ever. I think that… I wear my peers’ makeup as well, just like I listen to their music. I’m not going to say, ‘Oh, there’s too many female artists.’ I love and I’m [a] huge fan of my peers that do both, and I think that it’s just another way to tell stories. Because you can never have enough makeup, just like you can never have enough music.”

Read the full feature here.