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The Golden State Warriors were busy on Saturday, hammering out a pair of big contract extensions to lock their core group in long-term.

First, they inked Jordan Poole to a 4-year, $140 million deal that pays him $20 million more than the guarantee number Tyler Herro got in Miami that seemed to set what the market would be for the Warriors scoring guard. That was particularly noteworthy considering Poole is a week removed from getting punched by Draymond Green in practice, with Green reportedly snapping over Poole bragging about his impending extension and Green not getting one.

Green continues to be without an extension and this could be his final season in the Bay, but a different member of the Warriors title team last year inked a new deal shortly after Poole. Andrew Wiggins, who emerged as a key two-way contributor to the Warriors a year ago, earned himself a $109 million extension from the team and joins Poole in being locked in for five more seasons in San Francisco.

Wiggins’ contributions last year were huge for the Warriors returning to title contention and he proved himself to be a 16-game player in the playoffs, where at times he was arguably their second-best player. The Warriors prioritized Poole and Wiggins’ extensions and now have their core locked in for the long haul, with Green notably not part of that currently.

One of the best things about baseball is that every ballpark can be unique, with varying dimensions and strange wall angles that make every deep fly ball its own little adventure.

There’s a homefield advantage element to knowing your park and where the weird bounces come from and how to play them as an outfielder, but also when you hit the ball to one of those weird walls and the opposing player doesn’t have that same experience. On Saturday afternoon, the Phillies were the beneficiaries of just such a moment when JT Realmuto hit a ball to deep left center, where Braves centerfielder Michael Harris came just short of making an incredible running catch.

Instead, the ball bounced off the angled wall and instead of bouncing back into the outfield as it would in most parks, it shot dead right and rolled down the warning track away from Harris, with no one else in sight. Realmuto (who is very fast for a catcher) turned on the jets and touched em all while the Braves tried to get the ball back to home plate.

It’s a microcosm of how this series has gone for the Braves, as they just haven’t been able to get key outs on defense or key hits on offense for most of the series. For the Phillies, it keeps their hot streak going as they woke up the bats after a low-scoring Wild Card and have been absolutely shelling Braves pitching with the exception of Game 2. This inside the park home run put Philadelphia up 3 as they looked to close out Atlanta at home and advance to their first NLCS since 2010.

House of the Dragon has been doing this thing where it introduces child actors as the many kids in Targaryen/Hightower/Velaryon family and then suddenly, just when you finally processed who they are, they’re gone and replaced by a slightly older actor in the next episode. Aging up the actors helps move the show’s accelerated timeline forward, but it also doesn’t help anyone become attached to any of the kids. So when Prince Aemond lost his eye in the gruesome cousin-on-cousin combat in episode seven, no feelings were felt until the adults got involved.

But in episode eight, everything changed with literally one eye. Prince Aemond Targaryen (my spell check insists I change it to Almond Targaryen) is all grown up now, and he wears an eye patch. Over the time that passed between episodes, the character has been recast. Now, and (hopefully?) permanently, Prince Aemond is played by Ewan Mitchell, who is doing some of the greatest eye work any screen has ever seen. Steve Buscemi, you better watch out.

The episode teases Aemond’s big debut as a grown-up, a sign that everyone involved knows how iconic this guy’s eye is. It had to have its moment. Aemond is fighting Criston Cole, and we see nothing but the back of his long white-blonde hair (similar to Daemon Targaryen’s) and the black band of his eyepatch. Then we finally get to see the front of his face. Here it is in all its glory:

Mitchell understands exactly what House of the Dragon is: a high fantasy soap opera. With its royal intrigue, complex family dynamics, hint of camp, and slightly trashy melodrama, it’s like Succession meets the Real Housewives plus incest. Prince Aemond is obsessed with Daemon (aren’t we all thanks to the brilliant Matt Smith), and he communicates all of this with his body language and his eyeball. There is a glimmer in his eye when he is in the presence of his uncle/brother in law Even when he’s out of focus, his eye is working:

Once King Viserys is carried out of the strange family feast, Aemond immediately stirs the pot with his toast to his cousins which includes the intentionally insulting use of the word strong, because that’s the name of their real father. “Let us drain our cups to these three strong boys,” he says even after his mother Queen Alicent tells him to stop. He is a badass.

Aemond thinks he’s giving some dark, mysterious, sneaky Daemon energy here, but immediately silences his uncle/brother-in-law once he steps in. Daemon and Aemond have a little moment where they understand each other, and Daemon lets out a deep, heavy sigh, because he knows he’s accidentally created a problem. I hope we will be seeing more of this eyeball, perhaps even an episode from the perspective of it but maybe not until in season five, when they’re really trying to drag things out. If not, maybe there will be an Emmy category for best eye work by the time House of the Dragon ends its run.

Over a month and half after sexual misconduct accusations were made against Arcade Fire singer Win Butler, tour opener Beck has decided to pull out of the upcoming North American tour dates. Considering that days after the accusations against Butler became public, Feist pulled out of Arcade Fire tour bill six weeks ago herself — issuing an a well-articulated statement as to why she couldn’t be a part of it anymore in the process — it’s surprising that it took Beck this long to follow suit. Not to mention how surprising it was that Arcade Fire even decided to continue on the tour despite Butler being faced with a number of detailed sexual misconduct claims to begin with.

While Beck didn’t issue a statement as to why he chose to leave the tour, Consequence reports that an email was sent to ticket holders indicating that, “Beck is unfortunately no longer able to join Arcade Fire on their upcoming North American Tour. Taking his place will be [Haitian roots band] Boukman Eksperyans.” Following a run of European tour stops, Arcade Fire are set to begin their North American tour on October 28th in Washington D.C. But Beck is no longer a part of those plans.

In August, Pitchfork reported that four people came forward alleging that Butler engaged in unwanted and inappropriate sexual conduct towards them between 2015 and 2020. Butler has since denied any wrongdoing, saying that, “While these relationships were all consensual, I am very sorry to anyone who I have hurt with my behavior.” Meanwhile, Arcade Fire have continued to tour, but some Canadian radio stations have begun pulling the band’s music from the airwaves.

It has been quite the past couple of weeks for Jordan Poole and the Golden State Warriors, as all the good vibes coming off a championship and getting ready for ring night were wiped away with one punch from Draymond Green in practice.

Green has returned to the team after a week away, but there’s still fences to mend internally in the Bay between the veteran star and the team’s future. The reported reason for the practice “fight” — as much as a couple shoves and one punch can be characterized as a fight — was Poole being a bit vocal about his impending contract extension with the Warriors, while Draymond won’t be getting one and is likely to hit the free agent market this coming summer.

Sure enough, on Saturday, word broke that Poole is finalizing a 4-year, $140 million extension to keep him in Golden State — which pays him $20 million more than Tyler Herro’s recent extension in Miami — for the long-term.

With Poole’s deal done, attention now turns to Andrew Wiggins who is likewise extension eligible and proved his value to the Warriors on both ends last year in their run to the championship. As for Poole, he is the heir apparent in Golden State, but also a massive part of their present day alongside Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, making up one of the most lethal backcourts offensively in the NBA.

The Los Angeles Lakers’ preseason finale was supposed to offer up an opportunity to try out Russell Westbrook in a bench role. That experiment did not last long, however, as Westbrook left the game in the first quarter and will not return.

Westbrook left the game with less than three minutes remaining in the first. While there was no obvious moment where he might have gotten hurt, Westbrook had a visible limp as he made his way into the back.

Eventually, the team announced that Westbrook would not return to the game. It is unclear if this is precautionary or if there is concern that the former league MVP could miss an extended period of time.

Westbrook, for the first time since joining the team last summer, came off the bench during Friday night’s game against the Sacramento Kings, with Lakers coach Darvin Ham stressing that the move should not be viewed as a demotion. Westbrook has previously said that he’s not opposed to a role coming off the bench.

The news comes hours after a report indicated that another member of Los Angeles’ backcourt rotation, Dennis Schröder, would not be able to play against the Kings due to a finger injury, with further testing needed to identify the extent of his injury.

Bray Wyatt returned to live television for the first time since his appearance at the conclusion of WWE Extreme Rules over the weekend, debuting new entrance music and walking to the ring holding his customary lamp on his way to the ring.

Once in the ring, the crowd chanted welcome back and gave him a superstar’s return.

Wyatt was emotional in the ring, speaking for the first time as a genuine version of himself. He spoke of struggles in recent years and said over the last year he lost a lot of things: his career, self-confidence, two people very close to him, and he lost his way.

He continued that he thought everything he’d done was meaningless. He talked about speaking with fans who told him he’d saved their lives. Wyatt said to all the fans that they were there for him when he was weak and vulnerable and they saved his life.

In the middle of his promo, a video played on the screen with a masked man saying that “life is done, forget the future and the past, life is over, you’ve got no idea who you’re dealing with, but you will.”

After that Smackdown went off the air, setting up the long game for what incarnation of Wyatt will show up next in WWE.

On Feb. 20, 2019, the No. 1 ranked Duke Blue Devils played host to their heated rivals, the eighth-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels. While UNC was able to walk into Cameron Indoor Stadium and pick up an 88-72 win, the big story from that night was Zion Williamson blowing out his shoe while plating his left foot on the ground in the early moments of the game. Williamson ended up suffering an injury, but he eventually returned to the team later in the season.

Fast forward to Friday night and Grant Williams of the Boston Celtics got his own shoe blowing out moment — although best as I can tell, this one does not feature former President of the United States Barack Obama sitting courtside and saying “his shoe broke.” Williams pushed the ball up the floor during the team’s preseason tilt against the Toronto Raptors and got hounded by Scottie Barnes and Fred VanVleet the entire time.

At one point, Williams planted his right foot on the ground, which led to his foot blowing through his shoe.

Fortunately it seems like Williams was ok, which is good, because the Williamson incident showed that this can end poorly. Here’s hoping we do not get another shoe blowout this season.

Before the advent of TikTok, we hardly ever heard from Poison Control. But as challenges continue to go viral and people continue to eat questionable foods for views, Poison Control is staying busy! Their latest warning concerns the Paqui One Chip Challenge, a viral trend on TikTok that is causing all sorts or problems for school districts and people’s stomachs and throats.

You’ve likely seen a handful of these videos on your feed, a person eats a single spicy high capsaicin — and frankly disgusting looking — tortilla chip and slowly devolves from a normal functioning human to an absolute mess of watery eyes and gag reflexes. The idea is to eat the chip and see how long you can last before needing to drink or eat something for relief. It’s the sort of challenge that smart people see and say ‘not for me,’ and fun people see and say ‘I bet I can handle it.’ Paqui’s latest tortilla chip features a blend of Carolina Reaper and Scorpion peppers which are no joke, each pepper contains over two million Scoville Heat Units, so this is well beyond something you’d find on Hot Ones.

Even if your spice tolerance is high, you’re not getting through this chip without losing your mind or worse, which is why Poison Control has an official page (written by an MD!) explaining the dangers of taking part in the One Chip Challenge. According to Poison Control, high capsaicin consumption can cause mouth irritation, pain, and intestinal discomfort, as well as more serious health problems “including chest pain, heart palpitations, and even heart attacks. Consumption of larger amounts of capsaicin can also cause repeated vomiting that can lead to life-threatening esophageal damage.”

So, you know, fun times!

While it would seem like serious instances are extremely rare, the chips do in fact come with a warning label that states “keep out of reach of children,” which, as you might remember from being a teenager, is absolute cat nip to high schoolers. Most of the people taking part in the One Chip Challenge on TikTok seem to be incredibly young, and according to local Atlanta Georgia broadcaster 13WMAZ, the local Treutlen Middle and High School has seen 20 students missing class from becoming ill with the chips, with hospitalizations also occurring in California, Texas, and Alabama. That’s a strong chip!

So maybe skip out on this challenge, though feel free to live vicariously through a bunch of teenagers, college students, and full-grown adults who don’t know any better below! They might be burning their mouths but it looks like the kids are ultimately alright. So you know, feel free to laugh.

Capturing the perfect image is difficult even under the best of conditions, but when trying to get a snapshot of once-in-a-lifetime moments in nature, the task becomes herculean. The reward, however, is witnessing beauty almost too dazzling to be real.

On Oct. 6, Christopher Ison was awarded the title of Weather Photographer of the Year for his breathtaking photo of storm waves crashing against a lighthouse. According to My Modern Met, judges received entries from more than 119 countries and created a shortlist of 22 stunning images. The annual contest, held by the Royal Meteorological Society, celebrates weather of all forms, from whimsical rainbows to chaotic lightning storms and phenomenon in between.

Below are the eight winners this year. Believe it or not, some pictures were even taken with a smartphone.

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Main winner: “Storm Eunice” by Christopher Ison

Photo location: Newhaven, East Sussex, U.K.

Camera: Canon EOS R5

Ison’s bold, dramatic, almost monochromatic image comes as a result of Storm Eunice, an intense cyclone that wreaked havoc in the U.K. in February. Its 122 mph wind speeds set a new record in England.

Needless to say, getting the photo successfully (and safely) would not be easy. Ison chose to head to high ground and stand slightly further away from the harbor wall. With his back to the weather, he snapped the image.

“When the storm was predicted and that it was carrying the first ever red warning for the south coast, I knew I had to find a spot to record it – this was going to be big!” Ison shared.

2nd place: “Frozen” by Zhenhuan Zhou

Photo location: Ontario, Canada

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark IV

Photographer Zhenhuan Zhou perfectly captured the mystical essence of a frozen Niagara Falls in winter. Extreme low temperatures cause sheets of ice to form over the water’s surface, giving the illusion that the Falls have completely stopped, when in reality water continues to flow underneath.

The cold imagery is balanced out by the warm glow of a single light emanating from a cozy cabin, which clearly belongs to some kind of winter fairy.

3rd place: “Ghost Under the Cliff” by Emili Vilamala Benito

Photo location: Tavertet, Barcelona, Spain

Camera: Sony SLT-A99V

The shadowy figure shrouded in a rainbow seen in Emili Benito’s photograph is called a Brocken Spectre—an optical illusion that occurs when the observer’s shadow is magnified as it’s cast onto a cloud or mist.

The Brocken Spectre is a type of glory. Glories are often seen by air travelers, who notice the shadow of their airplane cast on clouds below. The airplane’s shadow will be moving along on the cloud tops, surrounded by a rainbow-like halo of light as it flies through the air.

Public vote winner: “Departing Storm Over Bembridge Lifeboat Station” by Jamie Russell

Photo location: Bembridge, Isle of Wight, U.K.

Camera: Nikon d7500, Sigma 10-20 lens

Photographer Jamie Russell has apparently been chasing storms all across the Isle of Wight, capturing gorgeous rainbows. But the one found after a show in Bembridge was the ultimate prize, causing him to rush into “waist-deep water, fully dressed” to compose this image.

This double rainbow comes as a result of sunlight being refracted twice within a raindrop. A key characteristic of the “second bow” is a fainter hue and reversed color sequence.

Mobile category winner: “Sunset” by Aung Chan Thar

Photo location: Kyaikto, Myanmar

Camera: Vivo X70 pro+

This one’s a delight to weather enthusiasts and architecture buffs alike.

The richness of the sunset happens because of Rayleigh scattering, aka nature’s Instagram filter. When the sun is very low (as in sunrise and sunset), its light has to travel further through the atmosphere. Blue light, which is shorter in wavelength than red light, is therefore scattered away and deflected before our eyes can see it. The longer wavelengths of orange and red light are scattered less, and therefore more visible. Not to mention gorgeous.

Mobile category runner-up: “Scotch Mist” by Vince Campbell

Photo location: Tarbet, Loch Lomond, Scotland

Camera: Samsung SM-J530f 3.71mm

I knew that smartphones could take some pretty epic pictures, but I didn’t know they could be this epic.

Photographer Vince Campbell was up before the sun and walking with his dogs Oscar and Ollie to capture this beautiful misty scene.

This is a “misty” scene, rather than a “foggy” one, because of the visibility. Mist and fog are both caused by water droplets suspended in the air close to the ground. Mist is less dense and dissipates more quickly. The rule of thumb is—if you can see more than 1,000 meters (in the pictures, for example, you can see all the way across the lake), then it’s mist. If you can’t see past 1,000 meters, it’s fog.

Young Weather Photographer of the Year winner: “Mammatus Sunset” by Eris Pil

Photo location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.

Camera: Pixel 3 Phone

“The sky was completely lit up in a way I had never seen before, like these beautiful backlit watercolor clouds,” recalled Young Photographer of the Year Eris Pil.

What looks like a Van Gogh painting in the photo are mammatus clouds, which, despite their fluffy, pleasant seeming demeanor, are created under tumultuous conditions. Often, but not always, they are sweet-looking harbingers of severe thunderstorms and even tornados. But hey, they’re nice to look at.

Pil shared that this photo was her “first time ever witnessing” mammatus clouds, and that she hopes for the “opportunity to see them again.”

Young Weather Photographer of the Year runner-up: “Tyndall Effect” by Shreya Nair

Photo location: Trivandrum, India

Camera: Redmi Note 9 Pro

Photographer Shreya Nair was taking a walk through their backyard in India when they spotted light peaking through the tree canopy.

This heavenly effect is known as the Tyndall effect. Similar to a Rayleigh scattering, the Tyndall effect is a scattering of beams of light that attach to floating particles like smoke or dust. Again, because blue and red light have different wavelengths, they are affected differently during this weather phenomenon. The Tyndall effect is why the sky appears blue.

Wanna bask in beautiful weather year-round from the comfort of your own home? The Weather Photographer of the Year 2023 calendar is available on pre-order.