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A key organizer for Donald Trump‘s now infamous “Stop The Steal” rally that snowballed into the January 6 attacks has apologized after being accused of soliciting teenage boys for sexual photos. In a statement issued on Friday evening, Ali Alexander addressed the allegations, which he initially called “so gay” before admitting to flirting with boys whose age he failed to verify.

“I apologize for any inappropriate messages sent over the years,” Alexander wrote. “When I’ve flirted or others have flirted with me, I’ve flexed my credentials or dropped corny pick up lines. Other times, I’ve been careless and should’ve qualified those coming up to me’s (sic) identities during flirtatious banter at the start.”

At one point, Alexander was such a rising star in the MAGA world that Trump personally requested that he speak during the “Stop The Steal” rally. However, that request was squashed by Trump’s aides. According to The Daily Beast, Alexander’s proclivities have been rumored for years and his proximity to Milo Yiannopoulos didn’t help:

Rumors about Alexander’s alleged sexual behavior towards younger men have circulated in conservative online circles since at least 2015. But they reached a new level late last month after Milo Yiannopoulos —the controversial British provocateur and one-time Alexander ally—turned on Alexander after Alexander and Fuentes pushed him out of a potentially lucrative position in West’s nascent presidential campaign.

Alexander did not respond to requests for comment from The Daily Beast, but he did claim in his statement that some of the screenshots of his alleged messages were “edited” and that some accusations were “false.” He did not elaborate on which.

(Via The Daily Beast)

The Grizzlies led the Lakers at halftime of Game 1 of their first round series on Sunday, but as the Lakers clawed back into what became a back-and-forth game in the fourth quarter, Memphis saw its star point guard suffer a hand injury after a collision with Anthony Davis that sent him crashing to the court from above the rim.

Morant landed awkwardly on his already banged up right hand and ran off the floor to the locker room in pain. He would return to the bench with a wrap on his hand and X-rays came back negative, but he would not re-enter the game as the Lakers pulled away for a 16-point win. After the game, Morant said the pain was at a “10” and he was unable to use that hand to grab anything, saying his Game 2 status was “in jeopardy” but that he would try everything he could to play.

On Monday, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski hinted further at the likelihood of Morant sitting out Game 2, saying there was “significant doubt” in Memphis of his availability for Wednesday’s game, but said that with another two days off before Game 3 on Saturday, the schedule did provide as much rest time as Morant and the Grizzlies could possibly get in the playoffs with only missing an additional game.

As Woj notes, the Grizzlies do have a very capable backup point guard in Tyus Jones. Still, without Morant they lose their dynamism on offense and the Lakers can shift their defensive focus to other areas of the floor — throughout Game 1, Jarred Vanderbilt shadowed Morant and pressed high to deny him the ball. Hopefully Morant is able to recover enough to not miss the majority of this series, but for the second straight postseason he finds himself on the shelf during a series with the Grizzlies having to try and battle without him.

Age is just a number if you ask some people. Once you pass all of the milestone birthdays, time just seems to zoom right on by. You still feel like you’re 32, but your birth year is saying you need to add a decade or two. But if you don’t feel old, are you actually old or is society trying to put you in an age-shaped box?

If you ask the ladies of Sun City Poms, a cheerleading squad in Arizona for women over 55 years old, age really is just a number. That’s right, these ladies, some of whom are well past retirement age, have a cheer squad and man, are they active. Not only do the ladies perform, but they also march, and their practices would be a lot for people half their age.

According to People, the seniors practice three times a week for three hours at a time. That’s pretty intense, but it doesn’t stop these women from sticking it out, even the ones who are in their 80s.

While people outside of Arizona may just now be hearing of the Sun City Poms, the cheer squad has actually been around since 1979. It started as a cheerleading squad for a women’s softball team called Sun City Saints, and eventually evolved from cheering at games to performing 50 shows a year at different events.

Mary Zirbel, 81, has been with the squad since she was around 58. According to People, she joined after she saw them marching in a local parade. The group is only for people who live in the Sun City retirement community, and the group currently has 30 members. They even have some trainees who are being put through a thorough recruitment process to make sure they can hang with the lively crew.

“They’re always kidding me about being an old lady but they tolerate me,” Ginger Price, now 90, told Today in 2018. “I mean, I could make a mistake or something and I can say, ‘Well what do you expect, I’m old,’ you know.”

The group even performs at local high schools, and there are times when the students scream so loud for them that they can’t hear the music.

“I did not think they could dance like that or they could carry people, they could do the splits. Like I thought they were going to do like simple hand movements but no, they like blew my whole mind away, and the whole school’s minds away,” Emily Essa, a high school student, explained to Today.

Sun City Poms seems to be in a league all on their own. Remember the trainees mentioned earlier? Well, they have to do a three-month class and learn two routines to see if they can keep up before they’re even allowed to join the group. While their members are currently ages 58 to 90, the ladies plan to keep going until they can’t physically do it anymore.

Peggy Parsons, 81, told People that she’s hoping to continue with the Poms until she’s at least 90, so they can all celebrate together, saying the goal of the group is, “We aspire to inspire before we expire.”

Math is weird.

On the one hand, it’s consistent—the solutions to basic math problems are the same in every country in the world. On the other hand, there are multiple strategies to get to those solutions, and it seems like people are still coming up with new ones (much to the chagrin of parents whose kids need help with homework using methods they’ve never learned).

Math professor Howie Hua shares math strategies that make math easier on social media, and his videos are fascinating. Hua, who teaches math to future elementary school teachers at Fresno State, demonstrates all kinds of mental math tricks that feel like magic when you try them.

For instance, Hua has two videos showing how easy and quick it is to add multidigit numbers left to right instead of right to left, and it’s genuinely mind-blowing.

Check out how he explains why adding left to right is “underrated.”

u201cNew TikTok video: Adding left to right is underratedu201d

— Howie Hua (@Howie Hua)
1665353677

OK, seriously. That is way easier to do in your head. It’s basically putting the numbers into expanded form and adding them, which makes it easier to visualize.

Adding this way makes sense, but subtracting is a bit more complicated, right?

Wrong, apparently. Watch Hua work his math sorcery subtracting two and three-digit numbers.

@howie_hua

Did you know you can subtract left to right? #math #mathematics #mathtok #maths #teachersoftiktok #teacher #mathtricks #mathtrick

Holy moly. That’s faster than the right-to-left, borrow-from-the-next-column method, isn’t it? And again, so much easier to visualize what’s actually happening, though I don’t know if I could fully do this in my head like I could with the left-to-right addition.

Hua recently shared another cool subtraction trick for problems with minuends that have a lot of zeroes. (The minuend is the first number in a subtraction problem. Don’t be too impressed. I had to look it up.)

Check this out:

@howie_hua

An underrated subtraction strategy #math #mathematics #mathtok #maths #teachersoftiktok #teacher #mathtricks #mathtrick

So simple, so time-saving and so something I would never have figured out on my own.

These tips and tricks might come in handy for anyone, but they’re especially useful for kids who are having to do these kinds of math problems at school all the time. Even if they’re supposed to solve the problem with a different strategy, these methods can be a quick way to check their answers.

Anything that makes math easier, I say. You can watch Hua’s videos on TikTok, YouTube and Twitter.

This article originally appeared on 10.12.22

We’ve all been there at some point or another, nervously waiting for a big job interview hoping you don’t sweat through your good shirt. Interviews are stressful but there’s likely no job interview more stressful than the one Guy Goma went on in 2006 for the BBC, when he was mistaken for an expert for a news segment. The person they were supposed to interview for the news segment was Guy Kewney, an actual music industry expert. But with cameras rolling and questions being asked, Goma took a deep breath and answered the newscaster.

In the clip you can see Goma likely thinking through how he could gracefully exit the situation after the realization that he had been placed on live television with no idea what he was about to be asked. It didn’t stop him though, once he committed to going along with the expert interview he did pretty well. While he tried desperately to control his breathing, he was able to inform the interviewer that he was predicting more people would begin downloading music online and it would become a faster process. I mean, he was right, even if he had no idea at the time.

Surprisingly, after the on-air snafu and subsequent save by Goma, he didn’t get the job he applied for, which is weird because he was clearly perfect for whatever position he wanted. I’m pretty sure they dropped the ball there, but it sure would be nice to know what happened to the quick-thinking faux expert.

Unfortunately there are no recent updates about the whereabouts of Guy Goma after his brief and random moment in the spotlight, but he’ll always hold a place in television history. Watch Goma’s WTF reaction when he realizes what’s going on below.

This article originally appeared on 10.20.22

For those not well versed in moose facts, the shedding of antlers is normally a fairly lengthy process. It happens only once a year after mating season and usually consists of a moose losing one antler at a time.

It’s incredibly rare for a bull moose to lose both at the same time—and even more rare that someone would actually catch it on film.

That’s why shed hunter (yes, that’s a real term) and woodsman Derek Burgoyne calls his footage of the phenomenon a “one-in-a-million” shot.

According to The Guardian, Burgoyne was flying his drone through a remote patch of forest in Canada when he spotted three moose in a clearing. His drone followed one of the bulls, who began doing the wobbly little shake thing that signals these antlers are going bye-bye.

Burgoyne knew he had to keep his camera on the moment—but he had no idea that he’d hit the jackpot.

Watch below:

It’s hard to tell which is more fun to watch— the super rare moment in nature or Burgoyne’s pure passion for his hobby.

“I shook a little bit. It was an adrenaline rush for sure,“ he told CBC News, sharing that he has previously found hundreds of shed antlers in his life.

Antler hunting has become a hot and profitable pastime over the past few years, although Burgoyne affirms that his shed hunting ambitions are born from a desire for well-being, not monetary gain.

“I enjoy being in the woods. It’s great exercise and it’s fun tracking the moose through the winter and looking for their sheds in the spring. Each one you find feels like the first one. It never gets old,” he told The Guardian.

Well Derek Burgoyne, thank you for doing what you love. Thanks to your passion, we too can share this once-in-a-lifetime moment. Here’s to good moose news!

This article originally appeared on 1.20.23

Even from beyond the grave, Logan Roy is messing with his kids.

In “Honeymoon States,” the latest episode in an eventful season of Succession, Frank discovers that the recently-deceased Logan left a will in his private safe. “It has a list of wishes in the event of Logan’s death,” he explains to Gerri, including that Kendall take over as CEO. Unless he crossed out the name? It’s unclear. A lot of the paper is unclear, actually, but Succession fans on Reddit have done their best to transcribe the will.

From user Educational-Green711 on the Succession subreddit:

To my executors and family,

The following is a record of additions and clarifications to be added to my official letter of wishes in the… of my passing:

I have … this record to provide my executor and family with information they will need after my death. It includes financial and personal information that will be needed to settle certain affairs … performances and suggestions for arrangements that must be made. I hope this record will help make a difficult time easier for my family.

It is my preference that the title and role of CEO should be bestowed upon my son, Kendall Logan Roy.

Regarding my funeral arrangements: my funeral and burial are to take place in accordance with the … practices of the Roman Catholic Church.

My preferred hymns:

Amazing Grace, Abide With Me, Here I Am, Lord, I Watch the Sunrise Lighting the Sky, The Lord’s My Shepard (Psalm 23)

I wish to be buried with the attached copy of my sister Rose’s photograph placed in … of my wife, Marcia in my right hand … pocket.

I would like to change the epitaph on my headstone …

“Truthful lips, endure forever, the lying tongue lasts only a moment.” Proverbs 12:19.

Leave my head of security, Colin Stiles, my Rolex Daytona Lapis …

Regarding personal assets, include the following: I advise that … should remain in a secured facility indefinitely, and … family … unnecessary financial complications … collection of Impressionism paintings and … Switzerland.

Sincerely yours, Logan Roy.

Congratulations to Colin. He lost a friend, but gained a $3 million watch.

There are four addendums at the bottom of the paper, three of which are tough to decipher. The fourth: “Greg?” Remember when everyone thought Greg was going to become the new head of Waystar Royco? The innocent who gets corrupted by capitalism? That’s still in play — but a funnier scenario would be Logan writing Greg’s name in his will to remind himself that Brightstar Adventure Park needs a mascot, and he knows just the guy for the job.

(Via Reddit)

Last month, a bunch of unreleased Ariana Grande songs leaked online, with one Reddit poster noting the tunes, of which there are “more than 18,” come “from basically every era” of her career. Now, Grande has addressed the leak in a new R.E.M. Beauty video.

In the clip, she applies various makeup products and answers fan questions. At one point, Grande says, “You guys have heard every bad song and bullsh*t demo that I’ve ever made. Hilarious. It’s impossible to keep things from you. You gotta take some swings and misses.” Later, at the end of the video, Grande was asked, “Any secrets soon to come?” She responded, “Hmm… no secrets. I’m all out of secrets. You’ve stolen all my unreleased music, it’s horrible [laughs].”

Elsewhere in the video, she noted of how things are going in general, “Life is beautiful and surreal and I’m learning so much, and I’m growing so much right now, and I’m working my ass off, and I’m enjoying and savoring every moment of it as much as I possibly can. So yeah, very grateful.”

She also offered an update on her pet pig Piggy Smallz, saying, “Piggy is with the twins [dancers Brian and Scott Nicholson] right now, staying with my siblings while I am away, and she is being taken such good care of, and she is happy, healthy, and thriving. Brian makes her the most beautiful dinners and they’re taking such good care of her. She’s very happy. I miss her a lot. Unfortunately, she couldn’t make the flight. She was busy, she couldn’t get on the plane to London. She had a lot of meetings that day.”

Dexter Fletcher had quite a streak going, making movies and television about real, actual people. There was Eddie the Eagle about an Olympic ski jumper. Then came Bohemian Rhapsody, where Bryan Singer is officially credited as director, but Fletcher is the one who came in and righted the ship. Then came the Elton John biopic Rocketman. Then Fletcher helmed the The Offer, about Al Ruddy’s experience producing The Godfather. His latest film, Ghosted, starring Chris Evans and Ana de Armas, contains no actual depictions of famous people. Which, when Fletcher thinks about it, yeah, it is a little liberating.

In Ghosted Chris Evans plays Cole, a man who just isn’t lucky with the ladies (Evans should probably win an Oscar for this portrayal). He meets Sadie (de Armas) and things are going well, until one day she stops replying and Cole does the thing he’s warned by everyone not to do: keep texting. He finds out she’s in London on business and decides it would be a good idea to fly there and surprise her. The surprise winds up being Sadie’s a spy and now Cole’s been also been targeted as a spy and his life is very much in danger. Ghosted is the kind of movie that in the ’90s would play in theaters and be a huge hit, but now lives on streamers. In this case, Apple+.

Speaking of The Offer, a couple of interesting things have happened since we last spoke to Fletcher. First, it turns out Al Pacino did watch The Offer and shared his opinion with Fletcher, and now Fletcher is sharing that exchange with us. And second, Al Ruddy, who produced The Godfather (played by Miles Teller in the series), went on to produce The Cannonball Run. I joked Fletcher should make a series about the making of that movie, to which he tells us that, yes, Al Ruddy wants Dexter Fletcher to make a straight-up reboot of The Cannonball Run. Honestly, this sounds like a great idea.

You finally made a movie that doesn’t involve real-life famous people.

Oh yeah, I know. It’s a departure for me. I know. It was difficult. I was like, who are these people? What on earth? What do you mean they’re not real? Very confusing.

Eddie the Eagle and then Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocket Man and The Offer … did it feel a little more freewheeling not to have to worry about a phone call from the actual people?

That’s true. I mean, yeah, you are not as restricted, I suppose. Not that I was massively restricted in those other films.

But it’s not the fact you did movies about actual people, it’s just you did so many in a row.

No, you’re right. And that wasn’t an intentional move. It was just how things were playing out. And I suppose I just, yeah, I don’t know. I didn’t even think about it like that. The Offer was 50 years ago…

Yeah, but a lot of them are still around. Those are still phone calls.

Yeah, they are still about. But in answer to your question, you’re right. But this was a lot of fun in terms of the, I suppose, you call it fantasy, but it’s not a fantasy film as such. But the element of fiction rather.

In a perfect world, would you have wanted people to come in to this thinking it was a full romantic comedy?

Yeah, I would I think, if I’m honest. Because we worked so hard at creating that meet cute kind of movie opening. And it gives the film a kind of authenticity, that relationship. I really wanted people to buy into, oh yeah, they’d be great together these two. And it’s a debate that we have with the marketing department. And they’re like, no, with streaming, the general consensus or the perceived way of thinking is you want to let people know what they’re going to get. So when they go, great, they know what they’re turning on for and the ride that they’re into. And I’m loathe to talk about many aspects of it. There are people in it as well that people get very excited about.

Okay, you brought that up. I’m not going to say who they are. But how did you get all those people? Obviously, Chris Evans has worked with a good number of them. So does he make calls? Do you make a call?

Yeah, Chris makes calls or I just say this person’s really interesting to me, I’d love to work with him, would you ask him? And they go, well, I’ll ask him. And they say, oh, he said yes. Right. Fantastic. Great.

I’m assuming Chris Evans liked playing a loser. Because in real life he’s really funny. I’ve interviewed him a couple of times before, and he was so funny I’m pretty sure I’m banned from talking to him now because it’s been over 10 years.

“He’s funny, man. He’s a funny dude.” That’s what they said to me about him. I was like, I’m interested in that. Because I agree, I think he’s really funny. But even his earlier work, if you go way back when, he’s funny.

Oh yeah. Not Another Teen Movie, even back that far, he’s hilarious in that.

He’s hilarious in it. I agree. And I even mentioned to him. And he went, “Really?” I was like, “I really fucking liked you in that movie when I saw it.”

Okay, I have an idea for you for a project. I’m going to see what you think of this.

Okay. All right.

The Offer 2 – The Cannonball Run. You can use Miles Teller again as Al Ruddy. He has to build the cast for The Cannonball Run.

Burt Reynolds! I’ve got to find the Dom DeLuise, right?

Yeah, and Roger Moore basically playing James Bond.

Roger Moore playing James Bond. Yeah, of course. There’s that. Yeah, that’s quite a cast you’d have to find there. Yeah, I’m up for it. Al Ruddy would definitely be up for it.

I have no doubt he’d like some more movies made about him.

He’s already asked me, “Hey, would you want to remake The Cannonball Run?”

Wait, he’s asked you just to remake the movie?

Yeah.

I’ve actually thought about this. The problem is you would need someone on a Tom Cruise level of fame like Burt Reynolds was then. But those people don’t do movies like The Cannonball Run anymore.

You’d need Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie.

Yeah, and George Clooney.

Leonardo DiCaprio, Clooney, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Christian Bale, there’s a whole raft of people that you really need.

If you got all the people you just mentioned, I think people would show up to see that movie.

If anyone got all of those people I just mentioned, they’d show up…

Yeah, but then put them behind some cool cars. Yeah, I think we’re talking now.

No-brainer.

Were you happy with the reaction to The Offer? Because I feel like critics were mixed, but once people saw it, people really liked it. Everyone I know who has actually just sat down and watched it couldn’t stop watching it.

Yeah. Look, I mean, I get, it’s a really big thing to take on. It’s not The Offer you’re taking on, it’s The Godfather. You’re just trying to dance around the edge of something that’s so seminal for so many reasons.

When I spoke to you for The Offer, you said you hadn’t heard from anyone from the cast. So you mentioned you’ve known Al Pacino for a while. Now that it’s aired and it’s been out for a while, have you heard from anyone?

Well, I see Al Ruddy a lot. I know Al Ruddy, he’s lovely. And I spent more time with Pacino…

But did Al Pacino watch it?

Pacino did, yeah, and he likes it.

He comes off pretty well in that. He comes off as a serious actor who is hesitant to do it.

Yeah, Pacino’s good. He goes, “That’s what it was like.” He goes, “It’s like watching at home, it’s like watching my memories,” he said to me at one point. I mean, obviously, it’s 50 years ago, and we’re basing it on retold stories that have been retold a million times. But there’s something about it for him that I think captured the spirit of what was going on there for him. And each of their experience and memories of it are really personal. How Al Pacino talks about it is very different from how Al Ruddy speaks about it.

I bet.

Yeah, exactly. But they love recounting the stories. And it brings up stuff in their memory and they go, oh fuck, yeah. And there was this guy and that thing happened. And then this woman came and did this. There’s all these sort of things it starts kicking off with them. So it’s a really good thing. Look, he’s really pleased with it. I don’t know about Coppola… I haven’t had a chance to speak to him. That would be the big one. But he’s rather busy in Atlanta I think by all accounts.

Yeah, he’s got his own movie he’s making.

He doesn’t need fanboying around him. But yeah. It’s the nice thing about Rocket Man, you meet certain people who were involved with Elton over his career and they go, yeah, you really found a moment there that I enjoyed. So that’s a real boost.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

Keanu Reeves is not one to phone it in, as the kids say. In every role he takes, he gives the performance of a lifetime, whether it be as a depressed action figure in Toy Story 4 or in real life kissing his girlfriend with his eyes open. It’s not weird when he does it! Even when the actor was tricked into starring as a serial killer, he pulled it off without complaining (but never spoke of the movie again). So it’s no surprise that people want to see this man on the big screen. A lot of people, actually!

The latest installment in the John Wick franchise has already beaten John Wick Chapter 3 at the global box office, raking in $349.7 million since hitting screens just over a month ago. For reference, Chapter 3 managed to secure a measly $329 million at the box office back in 2019.

Unfortunately, John Wick couldn’t use his martial arts skills to take down Mario and Co., who dominated the box office once again last week and is inching closer to that $700 million mark. As the saying goes, no matter how hard you try, no matter how many dinosaurs you might throw at him, Chris Pratt will never fail.

There is only one logical next step here, which is to add Reeves to the cast of the eventual Super Mario Bros Movie sequel. But who would he play? Obviously, that would be Cappy, Mario’s hat when it gets possessed by a helpful little ghost. The Academy won’t even be able to wait to give him an Oscar then.

(Via Deadline)