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Whoopi Goldberg rushed to Kate Middleton‘s defense after the Princess of Wales got caught up in even more conspiracy theories surrounding her seemingly suspicious absence from the public eye.

On Sunday, Kensington Palace released a Mother’s Day photo of Middleton that triggered a kill notice after several news agencies spotted several signs that the photo was digitally manipulated. The photo was pulled from publication, but it was too late. The damage was done. Social media sleuths pored over the image, which showed sloppy signs of photo editing. Needless to say, that only further fueled unfounded theories that Middleton is divorcing Prince William or in a far worse medical state than the royal family is disclosing.

However, in a bizarre twist, Middleton came forward and took responsibility for the doctored photo. Or at least a tweet from the royal couple’s official account claimed she did. Pretty suspicious, right? Not if you ask Goldberg.

While Monday morning’s episode of The View tackled the latest development in the ongoing #WhereIsKate mystery, Whoopi wrote the whole thing off as much ado about nothing.

“I’m sorry, I know very few people who don’t manipulate their own photos. I mean all your gotta do is swipe. Those editors swipe, God knows people look how those photos look,” Goldberg said via Page Six. “You know what, I have to tell you, she may be the future queen, she’s still an amateur photographer. That’s what they do!”

Alyssa Farah Griffin brought up the online conspiracies and how the photo just added more fuel to the fire. She then suggested that Middleton release a selfie video to put the matter to rest, but Whoopi wasn’t having that either.

“She doesn’t need to do it! She doesn’t need to do it!” Goldberg said before saying that photo editing has been a longtime practice for magazine covers and celebrity Instagrams for years.

(Via Page Six)

The future is female — the future of science, fashion, and tech, specifically.

As we celebrate Women’s History Month by honoring the women who paved a path to a better, more equal present, it’s also inspiring to look forward to a future designed and built by some of the brightest women working in their respective fields. That’s what host Drew Dorsey is doing in the latest episode of Wom/n Worldwide.

Wellness is the game for some of the most promising fashion and tech designers hoping to help us improve our fitness routine fits. Iambic co-founder Maeve Wang is customizing footwear using artificial intelligence, serving up one-of-a-kind kicks with the perfect fit while SUPA is a fashion company crafting high-tech leggings that use biometrics to improve your workouts.

But these women aren’t just saving humanity, they’re saving the world. Whether it’s the entrepreneur building bikes out of bamboo in Ghana, the Peruvian engineer developing smarter ways to keep our air clean, or the Mexican researcher creating plastics from cactus juice, female inventors around the globe are solving sustainability for the rest of us.

To learn more about these and other femme inventors, watch the full episode above.

Walton Goggins is a busy guy. Timothy Olyphant? Same. The former will soon enter HBO’s The White Lotus, and the latter will soon hit FX’s Alien TV series. Still, the world awaits news of the pair reuniting as fellow coal diggers Boyd Crowder and Raylan Givens in a second season of Justified: City Primeval.

Will this happen for real and when? Goggins has been promoting The Uninvited at SXSW (like we said, he’s a busy dude), and Screenrant asked him whether there would be official news on Boyd’s adventures after escaping prison, and The Righteous Gemstones star revealed what he’s thinking about timing:

“Always. I think everybody – all the players involved – want another lap. I didn’t anticipate that, and it took a while to kind of jump back into that. But once we did it, we kind of kept it from everybody. I had such a good time, and I think Tim was inspired. And there is more to say, actually. I didn’t think there was, but there is. Everything is in line. I think everybody’s just waiting for schedules and FX to say, ‘Go.’ We’ll see. We’ll see what happens.”

Well, that’s the official word from Team Goggins, but it must be noted that he is also very good at following directives to not let anything slip that could possibly spoil surprises for his audience. And since — let’s be honest — everyone involved would want to see Boyd and Raylan doing cat-and-mouse in, like, Brazil, the only thing we can do is hang tight and see what rolls forth. Heck, maybe Raylan Givens is still staring at his phone from that boat, and it could very well still be ringing. By the way, it’s probably Rachel Brooks (Erica Tazel) on the phone, right? Telling him to get his cowboy hat-wearing butt in gear. Please. Make that happen.

(Via Screenrant)

Dalton Ross wanted to make sure his family didn’t miss him too badly while he was studying abroad in London.

To help them cope, the 22-year-old Tennessee native did what any selfless college student would do…

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He sent his mom a life-size cutout of himself.

“I thought maybe they’d put it in the living room corner until I got back to remember I exist,” he explained about the cutout, which came with a short note: “You’re welcome.”

But like any clever mom, Susan Talley couldn’t just stash this amazing piece of work away when it arrived about two months ago.

No, no — she had better plans in mind.

Talley decided the cardboard version of her son could be a great companion “while the real one is in Europe.” So she brought him along with her to events, like basketball games …

Can you spot cardboard Dalton in the stands?

… trips to the doctor’s office …

… and sub sandwich runs.

Fake Dalton celebrated Valentine’s Day with a fellow inanimate object.

He enjoyed playing with a furry, four-legged friend in the sunshine.

And he appreciated a good bedtime story, just like the rest of us.

The photos of fake Dalton are spreading like wildfire.

Without showing her son the photos first, Talley went ahead and uploaded them to Facebook. And after Dalton shared them on Imgur — explaining his mom “seems to be entertaining herself” while he’s gone — the story sent the Internet into a buzzy frenzy.

“The attention is crazy,” Ross told Upworthy, noting the story has gained so much traction that a restaurant featured in one of the photos, O’Charley’s, sent the family a gift card.

“I hope my mom’s holding up all right,” he said. “It’s awesome though.”

Fake Dalton has been hitting the batting cages…

… taking in some nightlife…

… and celebrated Easter with his family.

Although the viral reaction to the photos has been a bit nuts, Ross isn’t all that surprised his mom was up for a good laugh.

“Oh yeah, my mom is very funny,” he explained to Upworthy. And it’s a good thing, too: Laughter can be a great tool in improving the quality of family dynamics and boosting a loved one’s emotional health. (A student studying abroad should especially keep that in mind, considering being away from loved ones and familiarity can be tough.)

“We’re a big family of jokesters.”

Bravo, mom, for setting the bar very high ahead of April Fools’ Day.

This article originally appeared on 03.30.16

Photographer David Jay specializes in fashion and beauty, stuff that’s “beautiful and sexy — and completely untrue,” as he puts it. But that’s not all he photographs.

Three years ago, Jay began to take pictures of young, severely wounded soldiers returning home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Trigger warning: These portraits don’t shy away from wounded bodies.

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Be prepared. I found them shocking at first. But keep looking. The more I looked, the more beauty and humanity I found reflected here. (The photo captions are from the Jay’s Unknown Soldier Project Facebook page. All images used with permission.)

This is 1st Lt. Nicholas John Vogt, U.S. Army. On Nov. 12, 2011, he was severely injured by an IED while on a foot-patrol in Panjwaii, Afghanistan. We took these pictures this past weekend in the swimming pool at Walter Reed Medical Center. I asked Nicholas for his permission to post these images and this was his response: “The only thing that I want to pass on is this: Losing limbs is like losing a good friend. We wish we could still be with them, but it wasn’t ‘in the cards.’ Then we get up, remember the good times, and thank God for whatever we have left.” Image by David Jay/ David Jay Photography. All images used with permission.

In a National Public Radio interview about his project, Jay said, “You can imagine how many times each of these men and women have heard a parent tell their child, ‘Don’t look. Don’t stare at him. That’s rude.'”

“I take these pictures so that we can look; we can see what we’re not supposed to see. And we need to see them because we created them.” — David Jay

Jay wants us to see, to become even a little familiar with the tragic loss of limbs and burned skin of wounded vets — his portraits are 4 feet wide — but he also wants us to see them as people and to think about their experiences and those of people in their lives.

This past week, I went to San Antonio, Texas. There I had the privilege of photographing both Daniel Burgess and Bobby Bernier. They are friends. Daniel stepped on a IED, losing one leg and destroying the other. Bobby was hit by incoming artillery, sustaining burns over 60% of his body. He is pictured here with his daughter Layla.

This is Maj. Matt Smith. This past week, Matt allowed me to photograph him in his room at the Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Less than three months ago, on June 8, 2013, in Paktika province, Afghanistan, Matt was shot along with five others by a member of the Afghan National Army. The bullet severed his femoral artery, resulting in the amputation of his leg. A private and soulful man, it was an honor to photograph him. Thank you, Maj. Smith.

This is Jerral Hancock. He was driving a tank in Iraq. A roadside bomb pierced the armor, breaching the interior. We shot these pics two weeks ago at his home in Lancaster, California, where Jarral lives with his two beautiful children. We ended up hanging out into the night, smokin’ ciggys … so I kept taking pictures.

“To the men and women of The Unknown Soldier, I can’t thank you enough for your courage and sacrifice … both on and off the battlefield. It is an honor to photograph you.” — David Jay

On July 25, 2012, SFC Cedric King, an Airborne Ranger, was severely injured by an IED while serving his country in Afghanistan. Due to the explosion, Cedric sustained a multitude of internal and external injuries, losing both his legs. Cedric was doing his laps while I was photographing 1st Lt. Nicholas Vogt in the pool at Walter Reed Medical Center last week. Cedric kept watching, so I had to ask. Cedric said, “That man (Nicholas) doesn’t know it, but he changed my life. There was a point when I was so down that I thought I couldn’t go on. And then one day I saw him swimming … and I just thought, wow … if he can go on like that, then I can go on too.” Cedric will also change people’s lives. Already has.

This is Michael Fox, a 27-year-old Marine and an amazing man. On Nov. 15, 2011, Michael was on foot-patrol in the Helmand province of Afghanistan. His is the first picture of “The Unknown Soldier.”

This past weekend, I photographed Staff Sgt. Shilo Harris in Houston, Texas. He came up from San Antonio to see one of my other exhibitions, The SCAR Project (www.thescarproject.org). Shilo was severely burned on Feb. 19, 2007, by a roadside bomb estimated at 700 pounds. He lost three men out of a crew of five. Only Shilo and his driver survived the blast. Shilo has a book coming out soon. He is truly an amazing man, and I am honored to call him a friend.

“The Unknown Soldier is about neither war or politics … but rather something infinitely simpler and more powerful.” — David Jay

The Library of Congress has acquired images from Jay’s The Unknown Soldier project as part of its documentation of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This speaks to the power of these images in capturing war’s aftermath. But they are so much more than documentation.

Pictures like these help those of us who remain at home to begin to comprehend the true human cost of war.

This article originally appeared on 05.31.15

Madeleine Albright once said, “There is a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.” It turns out that might actually be a hell on Earth, because women just do better when they have other women to rely on, and there’s research that backs it up.

A study published in the Harvard Business Review found that women who have a strong circle of friends are more likely to get executive positions with higher pay. “Women who were in the top quartile of centrality and had a female-dominated inner circle of 1-3 women landed leadership positions that were 2.5 times higher in authority and pay than those of their female peers lacking this combination,” Brian Uzzi writes in the Harvard Business Review.

Part of the reason why women with strong women backing them up are more successful is because they can turn to their tribe for advice. Women have to face different challenges than men, such as unconscious bias, and being able to turn to other women who have had similar experiences can help you navigate a difficult situation. It’s like having a road map for your goals.

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​It’s interesting to note that women in leadership positions who lacked this style of support system didn’t make as much as the women who did. “While women who had networks that most resembled those of successful men (i.e., centrality but no female inner circle) placed into leadership positions that were among the lowest in authority and pay,” Uzzi writes. Men and women have different needs, and that even extends to their tribe.

But it’s not just in the workplace. A 2006 study found that women who had 10 or more friends were more likely to survive the disease than women who lacked close friends. The study found socially isolated women were 64% more likely to die from cancer, and 43% more likely to have a breast cancer reoccurrence. Friendship is literally the best medicine.

Never underestimate the power of a group text with your girlfriends. Having a place to commiserate over sexism and support other women with goofy gifs when someone succeeds can enrich your life on all fronts.

This article originally appeared on 12.03.19

Last year, scientists in Peru announced they had discovered the world’s heaviest animal. Dubbed Perucetus Colossus or P. Colossus, for short, this ancient whale with a bloated body, small head and small fins, was estimated to tip the scales at a resounding 700,000 pounds. That’s larger than the largest animal up to that point—the Blue Whale—which can weigh up to 540,000 pounds.

The unusual fossils of P. Colossus believed to be nearly 40 million years old, were discovered in a desert in Peru. Whereas bones are normally spongy-looking, these fossils appeared dense and inflated, leading scientists to debate whether these were bones or rocks. It was determined they were, in fact, bones—vertebra bones, to be exact, each of which weighed at least 220 pounds. They also found ribs measuring nearly five feet across. All told, they found 13 vertebrae, four ribs, and part of a hip.

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Using projections, it was estimated that this was the heaviest animal ever to have lived.

Headlines abounded, mentioning the size of this silly-looking beast.

However, in late February 2024, scientists changed their tune. It turns out the estimates were off, and this chonky gal was merely big-boned, literally.

The new estimates put P. Colossus at 60 to 70 tons at 17 meters long and 98 to 114 tons at 20 meters long. It is still quite heavy, maxing out at 228,000 pounds, but not nearly as heavy as the blue whale, which maxes out at approximately 540,000 pounds or 270 tons.

So what happened? Here’s some sciency language from the new study, “Downsizing a heavyweight: factors and methods that revise weight estimates of the giant fossil whale Perucetus Colossus.”

“[The scientists who said P. Colossus was the heaviest animal] based their estimates on a new method, in which they first estimated the total skeletal mass of Perucetus through extrapolation from the skeletal material and then used the value to secondarily extrapolate its body mass, assuming skeletal to body mass ratios based on extant cetaceans and sirenians. A simple ratio mandates an isometric relationship between body and skeletal masses, and they justified this step by testing for isometry using a phylogenetically controlled regression.”

Ah yes, how many times a phylogenetically controlled regression has come around to bite us on the butt.

Translation: It’s understandable, sort of, why they used the wrong equation, but make no mistake—they used the wrong equation. And now, some science shade from the same paper:

“Their method involves questionable assumptions that suggest their body mass estimates are not reasonable…”

“It is important to note that the overall size estimate of Perucetus has remained the same,” Cullen Townsend told Upworthy. Townsend is an artist who renders prehistoric animals for the Natural History Museum Los Angeles, among others, and who created a corrected rendering to accompany the new paper.

Says Townsend: “What is now being debated is how heavy the animal potentially was. Our understanding of prehistoric animals is filled with holes and can change drastically with a new discovery or research. It is not surprising that scientists are coming to new conclusions. Our depictions of nearly every prehistoric animal have changed over time to better correspond with advancements in paleontology and our interpretation of the fossil record. Our current understanding of Perucetus is no different and will likely change again in the not-too-distant future. It is the nature of this field.”

So no “Real Scientists” reality show coming to cable TV anytime soon?

Or “Biggest Loser, Animal Style”? (P. Colossus wins, obviously)

The NatureWasMetal Reddit group saw this coming:

“Of course, Perucetus was going to be downsized… I’m never going to trust this sort of claim again, I felt like it couldn’t be true,” said Kaam00s.

“All my hopes and dreams shattered… I lived for that chonky whale man,” said Grouper3.

But Time-Accident3809 pointed out the silver lining:

“We are so lucky to coexist with the largest known animal to have ever lived. Now here’s hoping we don’t [mess] that up as well.”

Ariana Grande just released her highly anticipated new album Eternal Sunshine, so of course fans are wondering when (or if) they’ll get to hear its songs live.

Will Ariana Grande Go On Tour For Eternal Sunshine In 2024?

In a February interview with Zach Sang, Grande said:

“I would love to do shows. I love being on stage, I miss being on stage, I miss my fans so much, that’s the honest-to-God truth. I had a really hard time emotionally on my last tour, but I think that’s because of where I was at. So just like with music, I think I’m really excited to redefine my relationship to shows, when I’m ready, and to see what that looks like. I do have a very busy year, with this and with Wicked, and then the next year, I also have Wicked Part 2, so I’m interested to see what that would look like.

It would obviously be shorter. If it were anything, it would be a littler something, but I definitely do have the itch. I miss my fans and miss being on stage, but then again, I also am not ready to announce any sort of thing or get people too excited, because I don’t want to disappoint.”

So, at the moment, it appears Grande would be interested in touring in at least a small scale, but she’s not ready to commit to anything on that front as of now.

After two years away from the road, Uproxx cover star Russ announced a 10-city, headlining tour, It Was You All Along. The tour will begin at the end of May and run through the end of June, with support from 6lack and Melii. In the announcement video, Russ pokes fun at YouTube personalities who negatively critique artists for attention, subtly suggesting that they might not always be genuine with their criticisms.

Tickets will go on sale this Friday, March 15 at 10 am local. They are currently on artist presale, with additional presales throughout the week. You can buy tickets and get more information at livenation.com.

In the comments for his announcement video, Russ addressed the “anxiety” of announcing such a short tour, explaining that, “I HATE disappointing people,” but that he “just wanted to do an arena tour for progress purposes.”

“I didn’t wanna be on the road for too long,” he continued, “So I know some of yall are mad bout your city not bein on here but I love all of you. Hope to see a bunch of you!!” However, after the prospect of a long haul away from home prompted him to pull the plug on his last tour in 2022, it seems he’s prioritizing mental health over forcing himself to fulfill arbitrary obligations.

See below for the tour dates.

05/31 –- Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena
06/02 –- Oakland, CA @ Oakland Arena
06/06 –- Inglewood, CA @ Kia Forum
06/08 –- Phoenix, AZ @ Footprint Center
06/13 –- Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center
06/15 –- Denver, CO @ Ball Arena
06/21 –- St. Paul, MN @ Xcel Energy Center
06/23 –- Chicago, IL @ United Center
06/25 –- Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena
06/28 –- Brooklyn, NY @ Barclays Center

Shameik Moore has apologized and admitted to being a “sore loser” after Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse lost Best Animated Feature Film to The Boy and the Heron.

Moore voices Miles Morales in the Spider-Verse films, and he did not react well to the sequel missing out on Oscar gold. The actor initially tweeted “robed” before correcting himself and writing “robbed” in a follow-up tweet.

However, Moore quickly backtracked and apologized after fans began calling him out for the outburst.

“Respect to the winners. It’s true, I’m definitely a sore loser,” Moore tweeted. “But we didn’t lose, Spiderverse has impacted ALOT of lives, we may not have been acknowledged tonight but life goes on, and BEYOND….. yea get ready.”

Moore also agreed with a fan who noted that Spider-Verse producer Christopher Miller had the correct reaction to losing to the Hiyao Miyazaki film: “Well, if you’re gonna lose, might as well lose to the GOAT.”

“Your right, honestly the whole Spiderverse team are such good sports,” Moore wrote. “Very professional and I’m excited to see what comes of this. I’m young, and a fighter, so forgive my nature. Congrats to the winners.”

Across the Spider-Verse was one of the few critically acclaimed superhero movies in 2023, which was a rough year for the comic book genre. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Shazam: Fury of the Gods, The Flash, The Marvels, and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom all failed at the box office while the Spider-Verse was a bonafide hit.

Unfortunately, fans will be waiting a while. In the midst of the actors and writers’ strike, the third film, Beyond the Spider-Verse was delayed indefinitely. It currently does not have a release date, but the film isn’t canceled. It’s just going to take a little longer than expected before arriving in theaters.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)