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Facebook isn’t doing so hot. The combined powers of a massive document leak and a whisteblower whistleblowing have shed new and disturbing light on a company already seen by many as detrimental for society. It’s gotten so bad that the company is actually doing something. First, they’re launching something called the “metaverse.” Now, as per Insider, on a third-quarter earnings call — during which they assured investors they’re still a money-gobbling machine — co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg pitched a radical new direction for the company. It just happened to sound a lot like what it was initially.

On the call, Zuckerberg — who started the company with Eduardo Saverin and others while they were undergrads at Harvard — said that the social media giant would start “serving young adults the North Star, rather than optimizing for the larger number of older people.” Their target demographic would move from all ages — or at least your cousins who are bad at spotting conspiracy theories — towards ages 18 through 29.

Part of the shift would include a pivot to video. The plan involves ramping up Reels, the video feature on Instagram, which they purchased in in 2012. Since its launch last year, Reels has been a clear attempt to do battle with TikTok, the video service that has transfixed Gen-Z and which survived an assassination attempt last year by then-president Donald J. Trump. Zuckerberg has called TikTok “one of the most effective competitors we’ve ever faced.”

Zuckerberg also wanted to target teenagers. Among the many damning details in the leaked or whistleblown intel was that company employees know Instagram been deemed detrimental to teens’ mental health.

Over the last few years, Facebook had moved from a youth-oriented service to one accused of brainwashing their parents and grandparents. The service has been a bastion of misinformation, and among the revelations was that the powers-that-be had altered algorithms to favor more explosive (and often simply incorrect) content. So perhaps your uncle who believes nonsense about vaccines may have to get his misinformation elsewhere. But then, it seems like a certain former president is already working on that.

(Via Insider)

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After a couple weeks off, the Manningcast returned to ESPN2 for Saints-Seahawks with Peyton Manning donning an Ole Miss jersey after his Vols lost to Eli’s Rebels two weeks ago, and once again the brothers were joined by some high-profile guests.

The first of those was Marshawn Lynch, a natural fit with the Seahawks playing, but ESPN seemed to not quite recognize why putting Lynch on live television from his house might create some, well, FCC issues. Over the course of his interview, which took up about half of the first quarter, Lynch said “shit” three times and dropped one f-bomb, and each time you could see Peyton die a little bit inside.

The interview, despite the continued stepping on toes due to the remote delay, was tremendously entertaining, because Marshawn Lynch can’t help but be, but what comes with that is that Lynch is always his natural self, which, like most of us, includes cussing. After Lynch left, Peyton had to trot out the old apology for the viewers, despite the resounding response to the interview being “give us more Marshawn.”

It’s not the first time they’ve had to come back from break and issue an apology, which Peyton notes, as Eli got himself in some trouble for throwing up the double birds a few weeks ago. It’s, honestly, part of the charm of the Manningcast, but I’m not sure ESPN will be thrilled with cutting an extra check for a fine.

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Tom Brady made NFL history on Sunday as the first quarterback to ever throw 600 touchdown passes (now 602) with a pass for a TD to Mike Evans in the Bucs blowout win over the Bears. Evans, not realizing the momentous occasion, gave the ball to a fan in the stands in Tampa as he so often does, and had a rather hilarious reaction to learning he gave away Tom’s 600th TD ball.

The Bucs did some negotiating and got the ball back, and there’s been a bit of uncertainty on exactly what the fan, Byron Kennedy, got in exchange. On Monday, Rick Stroud reported quite the haul was headed his way, with signed jerseys, helmets, cleats, and balls from Brady and Evans, as well as the Bucs taking care of him with tickets for this season and the next.

That’s a pretty good get for, effectively, being the lucky fan to get a ball tossed your way on a Sunday, but Brady decided to loop one of his sponsors in to sweeten the pot with something of seriously substantial value, as FTX will send him a Bitcoin for being willing to trade the ball back to Brady.

I do like that Brady is getting his sponsor to shoulder the financial burden here, but they’ll happily do it for the tremendous pub that will come with it. For Kennedy, getting a whole Bitcoin is a helluva reward, as the ever-mercurial cryptocurrency is valued at $63,000 currently, which, again, is a solid day’s work for…going to a football game and being in the right place at the right time.

The post Tom Brady Is Going To Get The Fan Who Gave Back His 600th TD Ball A Bitcoin (Plus Season Tickets) appeared first on UPROXX.

On Sunday, Rolling Stone published an explosive Rolling Stone report that linked several Republican congresspeople to the events that led to the Capitol attack of Jan. 6. Among them, to the surprise of no one, was Marjorie Taylor Greene. Many of the names named — usual suspects such as Lauren Boebert, Madison Cawthorn, Mo Brooks, etc. — kept quiet the day after the piece dropped. Not Greene.

As per Raw Story, the Georgia representative tried to torch the report in an interview with The Daily Caller, though she didn’t actually deny what had been said. She simply demonstrated that she doesn’t know how journalism, especially journalism involving sensitive and ongoing investigations, works. For one, she’d apparently never heard of anonymous sources, nor read the article itself, which went to great lengths to explain why their sources were protected.

“They’re talking about their sources and sources and quoting sources, but not giving names, so that just reminds me of the whole Russian collusion lie, and the type of language that Adam Schiff uses when he’s talking about sources,” Greene told the publication. “The whole thing is their same playbook. Make up a story, publish it, then all the other outlets rinse and repeat.”

The report, mind you, did not link Greene with the actual Capitol storming itself. It simply said she and a number of other congresspeople had taken part in “dozens” of meetings planning rallies in the lead-up to the big one on Jan. 6. Some of them, including former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, allegedly knew that the event could turn violent but ignored the warnings.

The sources also said they had plenty more dirt where that came from, but most of it they were saving for the committee and public hearings.

Greene wasn’t even the politician who came off the worst. That would be Paul Gosar, who the piece claimed had promised organizers that they’d receive blanket pardons for any wrongdoing they committed in the lead-up to what proved the Capitol riot. But it’s also clear that she’s taking a cue from the Donald Trump playbook: When accused, simply deny and blame the media. It works with their supporters every time.

In the wake of the report, fellow representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called for any colleague who was involved in the lead-up to the attack, Greene included, to be expelled. In the meantime, surely there isn’t video of Greene in 2020 talking to cameras about the “great planning session” she had about rallies leading up to that fateful day.

(Via Raw Story)

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In an era of debates over cancel culture and increased accountability for people with horrendous views and behaviors, the question of art vs. artist is a tricky one. When you find out an actor whose work you enjoy is blatantly racist and anti-semitic in real life, does that realization ruin every movie they’ve been a part of? What about an author who has expressed harmful opinions about a marginalized group? What about a smart, witty comedian who turns out to be a serial sexual assaulter? Where do you draw the line between a creator and their creation?

As someone with his feet in both worlds, actor Wil Wheaton weighed in on that question and offered a refreshingly reasonable perspective.

A reader who goes by @avinlander asked Wheaton on Tumblr:

“Question: I have more of an opinion question for you. When fans of things hear about misconduct happening on sets/behind-the-scenes are they allowed to still enjoy the thing? Or should it be boycotted completely? Example: I’ve been a major fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer since I was a teenager and it was currently airing. I really nerded out on it and when I lost my Dad at age 16 ‘The Body’ episode had me in such cathartic tears. Now we know about Joss Whedon. I haven’t rewatched a single episode since his behavior came to light. As a fan, do I respectfully have to just box that away? Is it disrespectful of the actors that went through it to knowingly keep watching?”

And Wheaton offered this response, which he shared on Facebook:

“Answer: I have been precisely where you are, right now. In fact, we were just talking about this a few days ago, as it relates to a guy who wrote a ton of music that was PROFOUND to me when I was a teenager. He wrote about being lonely and feeling unloved, and all the things I was feeling as a teenager.

He grew up to be a reprehensible bigot, and for years I couldn’t listen to one of the most important bands in my life anymore.

But this week, someone pointed out that he was one member of a group that all worked together to make that thing that was so important to me. And the person he was when he wrote those lyrics is not the person he is today. And the person I was when I heard those lyrics doesn’t deserve to be shoved into a box and put away, because that guy is a shit.

This is a long way of saying that Joss sure turned out to be garbage. Because of who my friends are, I know stuff that isn’t in the public, and it’s pretty horrible. He’s just not a good person, and apparently never was a good person.

BUT! Buffy is more than him. It’s all the actors and crew who made it. It’s all the writers who aren’t Joss. Joss is part of it, sure, and some of the episodes he wrote are terrific.

At least one of the episodes he wrote was deeply meaningful to you at a moment in your life when you’d experienced a loss I can only imagine. The person you are now, and the 16 year-old you were who just lost their dad, are more important than the piece of shit Joss Whedon revealed himself to be.

His bad behavior is on him. He has to live with it, and the consequences of it.

16-year-old you, who just lost their dad, shouldn’t have to think about what a shit Joss Whedon is for even a second. That kid, and you, deserve to have that place to revisit when you need to go there.

I can’t speak for the other actors, even the ones I know. But I will tell you, as an abuse survivor myself who never wanted to be in front of the camera when he was a kid: it’s really okay for you to enjoy the work. The work is good and meaningful, and if nobody is going to watch it because of what one piece of shit did two decades ago, what was it all for?

I’m not the pope of chilitown, so take this for what it’s worth: I believe that when some piece of art is deeply meaningful to a person, for whatever reason, that art doesn’t belong to the person who created it, if it ever did. It belongs to the person who found something meaningful in the art.

If it feels right to you to put it away and never look at it again, that’s totally valid. But if it brings you comfort, or joy, or healing, or just warm familiarity to bring it out and spend some time with it, that’s totally valid, too.

I’ve written a lot of words. I hope some of them make sense and are helpful to you.“

As with practically everything in this world, the question of whether art can or should be separated from the artist is complex. It involves philosophical questions about the nature of art—where it comes from and who it belongs to—as well as questions about how imperfect a person has to be for us to reject everything they create. Wheaton’s response feels right, especially when we’re regarding art that is collaboratively created.

The tragic shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in 2018 inspired a heated debate in the country over how to best keep our nation’s students safe.

Liberals favored stronger gun control measures they hoped would reduce the chances of such an atrocity. While many on the right advocated for increasing the number of armed police officers in schools to keep them safe.

A new study by the Annenberg Institute at Brown University has shed some light on the debate over how to keep our schools safe.

It found that between 2014 and 2018, having a police officer or school resource officers (SROs) (as they are commonly known) on campus did not reduce school shootings, but increased suspensions, expulsions and arrests of students.

The study shows that with an increase of law enforcement in students’ lives, the more likely they are to face stronger disciplinary actions.

Latest: New research says police in schools don’t reduce gun violence, but they do increase suspensions, expulsions… https://t.co/udC6XftUNh

— CJ Ciaramella (@cjciaramella)
1634755900.0

“We also find that SROs intensify the use of suspensions, expulsions, police referrals, and arrests of students,” researchers wrote. “These effects are consistently over two times larger for Black students than white students.”

The study did have one positive finding: that schools with SROs experience a small reduction in non-gun-related violence.

Another study out of Florida found that after SROs were made mandatory in the state in 2018, the number of school arrests, which had been on the decline, started to rise. There was also a huge uptick in the number of students that had to be restrained.

Since the increase in law enforcement in the nation’s schools, there has been a rash of shocking videos featuring kids being restrained or beaten.

In 2019, a 16-year-old in Chicago was kicked, punched and tasered by police. Another video from Camden, Arkansas showed a police officer putting a student in a chokehold and pulling him off the ground.

ACLU: “cops in schools lead to students being criminalized for behavior that should be handled inside the school.”via Kindel Media/Pexels

The study found that the presence of SROs “predicted greater numbers of behavioral incidents being reported to law enforcement, particularly for less severe infractions and among middle schoolers.”

It makes sense, when you put a police officer in every school, the number of kids that get arrested goes up. Petty infractions that were once handled by school officials become instances where kids wind up in handcuffs.

The Annenberg study says the arrests happen “despite the fact that SROs are typically not supposed to, and often do not intend to, become involved in minor disciplinary matters in the school.”

Researchers find their results to be “worrisome” because SROs are clearly working to promote the “school-to-jail” pipeline.

As the ACLU points out, “cops in schools lead to students being criminalized for behavior that should be handled inside the school” and “harsh disciplinary policies push students down the pipeline and into the juvenile justice system.”

When students find themselves in juvenile detention facilities, they face numerous barriers to returning to school. Then, without a diploma, the former students are more likely to find themselves in the criminal justice system.

When Idris Elba teased to everyone that he was going to be voicing Knuckles in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 it was met with immediate excitement. Elba is an incredible actor with a distinct voice that is going to do an incredible job in the role.

There was one concern about his casting though, Elba is someone that is known for thriving in some of the more villainous roles he’s played. While Knuckles did initially start off as an antagonist against Sonic, he eventually flips over to Sonic’s side and becomes a member of his trusted group of friends. How is Elba going to handle playing that kind of role and will he be able to handle a potential flip over mid-movie? Unfortunately, in an interview with Screenrant, Elba refused to give any details on how he would be performing his role as Knuckles.

He did give one interesting detail though: Knuckles voice will not be “sexy.” So anyone that was hoping for that is gonna have to look elsewhere.

“Honestly, I cannot say. Contractually, I cannot say anything. But I wouldn’t say he was sexy. I don’t think I’m going for that. That’s for sure.”

While this quote might seem out of the blue, it actually makes sense why he would get asked about it. Elba is a former winner of People’s “Sexiest Man Alive” award and he has something of a sultry British accent. It’s not a giant leap to wonder if some of those traits of Elba would bleed over into his portrayal of Knuckles’ character.

It’s unfortunate that Elba can’t give us a little more detail on how he plans to portray Knuckles. This is a character that has gone through many interpretations over his appearances in games and cartoons. In the games, he started off as an antagonist, before becoming something of an anti-hero, before eventually transitioning fully to one of Sonic’s heroic friends. In the surprisingly good Sonic Boom cartoon, Knuckles is a meathead without much brains but a lot of brawn. With so many different versions of Knuckles over the years the scriptwriters had plenty to pull from, but we’re sure that Elba added his own flair to the character to make him unique — even if it’s not sexy.

The post Idris Elba Isn’t Trying To Do A ‘Sexy’ Voice For Knuckles In ‘Sonic The Hedgehog 2’ appeared first on UPROXX.

Back in the spring, people were shocked — but honestly that shocked — that Jim Caviezel, who rose to fame for his turn in a Mel Gibson movie, was parroting QAnon conspiracy theories. So maybe this won’t be surprising either: The Passion of the Christ star delivered a speech at a convention that was lousy with QAnon talking points, and for some reason it included him quoting Braveheart.

Video of Caviezel’s 20-minute-long speech made its way to social media, and it featured him rhapsodizing the crowd at a convention called For God & Country: Patriot Double Down. It opens with him quoting William Wallace — played, of course, by his future Christ director Mel Gibson — as he tries to pump up his fellow fighting Scotsmen. (It’s the one where he yells, “You can take our lives, but you can never take our freedom.”)

What was Caviezel trying to pump the crowd up about? The QAnon conspiracy involving a global sex trafficking ring (and lizards), of course. But there was a lot of coded talk about resisting, too.

“We must fight for that authentic freedom and live, my friends,” Caviezel bellowed at a convention that was seriously held in Sin City itself, Las Vegas. “By God, we must live and with the Holy Spirit as your shield and Christ as your sword may you join Saint Michael and all the other angels in defending God and sending Lucifer and his henchmen straight back to hell where they belong.”

Caviezel ended his speech by telling the audience, “We are headed into the storm of all storms. Yes, the storm is upon us.” QAnon, as we all unfortunately know, promotes the idea of “The Storm,” in which former president Donald J. Trump would suddenly return to power and order mass arrests of the Satanic cabal that doesn’t exist.

The actor’s appearance at a QAnon-friendly convention mirrors his speech at a similar conference held in Tulsa in April, where he discussed “adenochrome,” a conspiracy theory that last year became popular with believers of QAnon and Pizzagate which involves a drug believed to be inbibed by members of this Satanic cabal they all believe isn’t fiction.

Caviezel, one of Hollywood’s few conservatives, hasn’t had the robust career one would expect from a star of a bona fide blockbuster like The Passion of the Christ. But he’s done enough that fans of his work — including on the hit show Persons of Interest — were disappointed in him.

Others weren’t surprised, especially considering he was hand-picked by no less than Mel Gibson.

The post Jim Caviezel Delivered A Surreal Speech At A QAnon-Friendly Convention Where He Quoted ‘Braveheart’ (Of Course) appeared first on UPROXX.

Now that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has announced its final DLC character that should be the end of the “Which character should be in Smash?” cycle for at least a little while. It will obviously pick up again whenever rumors of a new game begin, but until then we’ll need to find different platform fighters to argue about. One game that many have already begun debating about is Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, but we may soon have another roster of characters to debate.

What started as a rumor on Reddit, but has been reported as real by GamesBeat’s Jeff Grubb, is a Warner Bros. Super Smash Bros. clone called Multiversus. The concept is just as it sounds: a crossover platform fighting game featuring WB licenses such as Shaggy from Scooby-Doo, Batman from DC Comics, and Tom and Jerry from, well, Tom and Jerry.

“…it also includes an unannounced Warner Bros. take on the genre with the working title Multiversus.

Like Smash Bros., Multiversus is a platform fighter. It features characters like Shaggy from Scooby-Doo, Gandalf from Lord of the Rings, Tom & Jerry, Batman, and more. I’ve confirmed that this game is real and these details are accurate as of today. But while some reports claim that Mortal Kombat developer NetherRealm Studios is working on the game, that is not the case.”

The report goes on to say that they’re going to try and use this game to get in on the media cycle that Nintendo would create for Super Smash Bros. by unveiling must-see DLC characters. One name that could possibly be among those DLC fighters? LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers.

Regardless of the upfront business model, though, you should expect WB to lean into releasing DLC fighters. I’ve heard rumblings that WB is considering bringing in characters from its Space Jam films, including a certain active NBA star.

As weird as this entire thing sounds, WB having its own licensed fighting game really isn’t that much weirder than Nickelodeon or Super Smash Bros. They’ve technically already done the multiverse crossover thing with the most recent Space Jam movie. That said, there would be obvious difficulties if WB started trying to get the licenses of real-life people instead of fictional characters or cartoons. WB has a pretty vast library of fictional characters so it wouldn’t need to rely on a LeBron James to hook players in, but getting a huge name like that would definitely be a big pull for them.

Even without a big name, WB can still pull from licenses such as Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, and DC Comics. That alone could get them Jake and Finn from Adventure Time, the crew from Aqua Teen Hungerforce, and any members of the Justice League. Obviously, all of this is still in the rumors phase right now, but hopefully, we learn more and get something official in the near future.

The post A Warner Bros. ‘Super Smash Bros.’ Clone Named ‘Multiversus’ Is Reportedly In Production appeared first on UPROXX.

Nintendo expanding its virtual library of games to include select Nintendo 64 and Sega Genesis titles is certainly good news for those who may have parted ways with their old consoles over the last few years. The added package, which launched on Monday, will bring titles like Super Mario 64, Star Fox 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time to millions of people carrying Nintendo Switch consoles in their backpacks.

Updating those old games to play on new hardware was certainly an obstacle, but one minigame from an old title will apparently return to a new game with a very familiar warning thanks to decades of pain and suffering. As Kotaku detailed, the “Tug o’ War” minigame from Mario Party will return to the forthcoming Mario Party Superstars, this time with a warning that attempts to diffuse any issues you may have by mashing your palm into the controller’s joystick in order to win the game.

As you can see from the video above of the original Mario Party 64, the concept of the minigame is simple: time the rotation right (and quickly) to win the tug of war and send your opponent into the Piranha Plants below. The 3 v 1 game gives the single player Bowser-like powers, but working quickly on either side can be enough for the win. But many resorted to not using a single thumb, but their entire palm in order to get maximum rotation. Which, on the old Nintendo 64 controller, often hurt like hell.

Kotaku has the full story on all the painful results of the palming method, which included an eventual official safety warning and complaints from a lot of parents and kids. But according to leaks from the new title, there’s now a warning that comes with Tug O’ War that warns players not to, you know, smash your palm into your JoyCons.

There’s also a bit of extra incentive to not play rough with this one: the temperamental nature of JoyCons in general make this one rife for creating drift in your favorite controller. So it’s best to go easy here: no minigame victory is worth having to repair that over and over again yourself.

[via Kotaku]

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