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In the Pacific Northwest, orca sightings are a fairly common occurrence. Still, tourists and locals alike marvel when a pod of “sea pandas” swim by, whipping out their phones to capture some of nature’s most beautiful and intelligent creatures in their natural habitat.

While orcas aren’t a threat to humans, there’s a reason they’re called “killer whales.” To their prey, which includes just about everything that swims except humans, they are terrifying apex predators who hunt in packs and will even coordinate to attack whales several times their own size.

So if you’re a human alone on a little platform boat, and a sea lion that a group of orcas was eyeing for lunch jumps onto your boat, you might feel a little wary. Especially when those orcas don’t just swim on by, but surround you head-on.

Watch exactly that scenario play out (language warning, if you’ve got wee ones you don’t want f-bombed):

I would’ve shit my pants https://t.co/eJa6GDyNkk

— Eye- (@castrowas95)
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Ummm, yeah. An orca sighting is one thing, but this is a whole other story. Orcas have been known to knock large prey off of icebergs, so the whole “orcas don’t hurt humans” thing doesn’t feel super reassuring in this scenario.

The footage came from TikTok user @nutabull, whose now-deleted account stated she was from Vancouver Island.

The second video is even more intimidating.

The viral video sparked a debate about whether the sea lion should be kicked off the boat or not. The woman kept telling the sea lion it “had to go” with a frank “Sorry, buddy, that’s life,” message, though she never actively tried to push it off. Many commenters joked about yeeting the sea lion off the boat to avoid a potentially disastrous encounter with the orcas. Others were on #teamsealion, saying they wouldn’t have the heart to boot the poor thing.

This part of the video: The Sea Lion jumps back into the water, tries to jump back up when chased by the Orcas, and… https://t.co/V87R9E7HrI

— Jermaine (@JermaineWatkins)
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The reality is orcas eat sea lions—the circle of life and whatnot. Most of us just don’t find ourselves in the middle of that circle, having to figure out whether the apex predators surrounding our boat are going to patiently wait for their lunch to come back or take it upon themselves to bump it back into the water.

Thankfully for the woman, the sea lion seemed to decide on its own that its options were limited and dove back in to take its chances with the orcas. But phew, that encounter would be harrowing for just about anyone.

Best of luck, sea lion. Hope you’re an exceptional swimmer.

We have hit an awkward point in the pandemic where concert and sports stadiums are open across the country while the delta variant is raging in areas where vaccination numbers are low. To create a safer environment, some venues are requiring masks, vaccinations or a negative COVID-19 test to enter.

In the NFL, the Buffalo Bills and Las Vegas Raiders have put vaccination mandates in place. In the world of music, Jason Isbell, Maroon 5, Foo Fighters and Dead & Company have made similar requirements for their fans to attend gigs.

Unvaccinated people are three times more likely to spread COVID-19 than those who got the jab. People who are vaccinated have about a one in 5,000 chance of catching the virus and a one in 10,000 chance in places where risks are lower.

One performer who took a huge hit in the wallet and disappointed a lot of fans by canceling his concerts due to COVID-19 concerns is Garth Brooks.

Brooks launched a stadium tour in 2019 and put it on hold when the pandemic hit in 2020. He started up again this July, but after four shows he shut it down due to the rise of the delta variant.

“The thing that scares me that you have to look it is: I never saw the second wave coming,” he said. “I didn’t know there was going to be such a thing. Well, is there a third wave? So you just watch this.”

“I’m vaccinated, 100% vaccinated. Everybody on the freakin’ tour, vaccinated. I cannot make you get vaccinated. Until it becomes a law, it is a choice. And people, when things are a choice, you have to understand and respect that we’re all going to make our own choices,” he said.

Brooks’ team refunded 350,000 tickets when he could have kept playing and putting lives at risk.

Brooks and his band want to keep playing so they’re doing a tour that will make a lot of people happy while keeping them safe. He’s announced a dive bar tour where attendees will have to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test. He believes that smaller venues have a better shot at enforcing mandates than large stadiums.

“The dive bars are vaccinated, that’s how you get to do it,” Brooks said in a recent Facebook Live. “So, the great thing about this is, [the fans are] vaccinated or they have to show a three-day negative in-advance test.”

For Brooks, it’s all about safety.

“The joy I have seen in everyone’s faces as live music returns has been more than worth our constant diligence to maintain safety protocols not only for the fans, but for our band, the crew and the hard-working staff in these stadiums,” Brooks said. “Their dedication to safety for the people who fill those seats has been a miracle to watch and a blessing to receive. I am truly grateful.”

One day, we’ll be able to put the COVID-19 pandemic behind us, and artists such as Brooks will be able to look back at how they handled the situation and take pride in the fact that they put the safety of people first.

R&B star Miguel and his longtime partner Nazanin Mandi have announced their separation today. In a statement to People the couple said “they wish each other well,” and a statement from a rep to the magazine also said that “after 17 years together, Miguel and Nazanin Mandi have decided to separate and have been for some time now.” Though they were together for over a decade, the pair decided got engaged back in 2016 and were married in 2018 at the the Hummingbird Nest Ranch in Simi Valley, California. Now, after three years of marriage, they’ve decided to call it quits.

Plenty of couples have experienced turmoil or dissolution during the pandemic, but it’s nice to see that these longterm partners are apparently able to make that call while staying on good terms. As for Miguel, he announced a return in the spring of this year, letting fans know that Art Dealer Chic Vol. 4 was coming in April. The Art Dealer Chic series was one that began early in his career, so along with the new installment he also made the earlier EPs from the series available on streaming for the first time. Other than that it’s been a quiet year for the R&B star, but a divorce is often the catalyst for a new creative era, so we’ll see what the future brings for him.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage was one of the many blockbusters that received a massive delay due to the pandemic. But it’s finally out on Friday, exactly one day shy of a full year after it was once supposed to drop. And to whet appetites for the big day, Sony dropped a brief clip showing a daring prison escape unlike anyone’s seen before.

The clip finds Woody Harrelson’s serial killer about to be executed in a gas chamber. But instead of wiping him out, it only awakens the Kraken — or Carnage, a rival symbiote to our hero’s still foul-tempered Venom. It lasts only 45 seconds, and the cutting is so fast that the version in the full movie is bound to be much longer and even nastier.

Sony also released another video, a short behind-the-scenes doc finds director Andy Serkis talking about how the sequel is more of an “odd couple” comedy. We’ll get to see even more of Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock quarreling with his much tetchier alien symbiote, not only out and about but in the apartment they now unwittingly share. So they’re basically Felix Ungar and Oscar Madison, only with far more smackdowns.

You can watch the clip in the video above and the vignette below. Venom: Let There Be Carnage hits theaters on October 1.

Billie Eilish has quickly become one of the biggest pop stars on the planet, as her debut album, subsequent documentary, and this year’s second album have revealed. She might be young, but she’s got her career under control, and seems to be very involved with all the collaborations and partnerships that are coming her way after the industry success she’s experiencing.

Today’s new partnership, though, might be one of the most high-profile she’s done — a collaboration with Michael Jordan on not one but two Jordan silhouettes. While it might be par for the course for a rapper with the kind of reputation Billie has to be working on sneakers with MJ’s brand, it’s pretty rare for a pop star! She’s definitely showing her range with the partnership, and the two sneakers are very different, just like her two albums are. Take a sneak peek below:

One set is the lime green color that permeated her When We All Fall Asleep Where Do We Go debut album era, and the second is a deep, warm beige, the overarching palette of her Happier Than Ever record that dropped just a few months ago. Both shoes are available for purchase right now on her website. Check them out here.

The fight for Britney Spears’ autonomy from what seems to be an incredibly controlling, potentially illegal conservatorship continues on. Though it was fans who initially prompted the #FreeBritney movement to investigate her situation, a documentary from The New York Times called Framing Britney Spears catapulted the singer’s abusive situation out of conspiracy territory and into mainstream recognition. Legal shifts in the case over the last few months have led many to believe the conservatorships should be abolished, particularly when Britney publicly addressed the court herself asking for this, but so far the process has been moving slowly.

Last week, a follow-up documentary from The New York Times might’ve potentially helped speed up the process. One of the bombshells included in the second doc, Controlling Britney Spears is that Britney’s father and conservator Jamie Spears was secretly recording the singer in her home as part of his extensive surveillance and monitoring. California’s two party consent rule for recording makes this illegal, Since this news broke, Britney’s new lawyer Mathew Rosengart has filed a motion requesting Jamie be immediately suspended from the conservatorship as soon as the next hearing, September 29, and that the conservatorship itself be terminated promptly.

In a statement obtained by Variety Rosengart said that her private communciations are a “sacrosanct” part of the legal system and invading this is a “disgraceful violation. “Unauthorized recording or monitoring of Britney’s private communications — especially attorney-client communications, which are a sacrosanct part of the legal system — represent an unconscionable and disgraceful violation of her privacy rights and a striking example of the deprivation of her civil liberties,” he said. “Placing a listening device in Britney’s bedroom would be particularly horrifying, and corroborates so much of her compelling, poignant testimony. Mr. Spears has crossed unfathomable lines. Ms. Spears will no longer be bullied or extorted, nor will she further tolerate her father’s abuse, with its apparent misogynistic underpinnings.”

There will definitely be updates one way or another after her next hearing this Wednesday, September 29.

If you’re feeling down about not being able to get your hands on a PlayStation 5, just imagine how you’d feel if you were the star of one of the console’s biggest exclusive games and still couldn’t figure out a way to snag one. Unfortunately (but also, let’s be real, hilariously), this situation is exactly what unfolded for Deathloop voice actor Jason Kelley.

Just one day before Deathloop hit shelves, the game’s official twitter account shared a video of Kelley (the voice actor behind the game’s protagonist, Colt) in the recording studio hyping up the game and encouraging fans to pick up a copy. He then joked they should also send a copy of the game and a PlayStation 5 his way, implying that despite working on a title for PlayStation and the console being nearly a year old, the voice actor still hadn’t managed to get ahold of one, leaving him unable to play his own game.

The short video quickly caught the attention of fans who both praised Kelley’s Deathloop performance and were shocked the actor didn’t have a console or even a copy of the game, for that matter. Fortunately for Kelley however, his video also caught the eye of Pete Hines, the senior vice president of global marketing and communications at Bethesda — the parent company of Deathloop developer Arkane. Within ten minutes of the video being shared, Hines responded to it, stating he could “probably help [Kelley] find a PS5,” so he could enjoy his own “amazing performance.”

While Hines’ offer to send Kelley a PlayStation might have come as a shock to some considering Sony’s biggest competitor, Microsoft, purchased Bethesda earlier this year, it turns out Hines is just a really nice dude. And not only is Hines a really nice dude, but he’s also a really nice dude who comes through. Two weeks later, we now have confirmation Bethesda has in fact sent both a PlayStation 5 and a copy of Deathloop to Kelley. Kelley shared the big news during an interview with JumpCut PLAY, stating:

“I was just notified by Bethesda that a PS5 was made available and is going to be shipped to me, with the game as well. So, I’ll be playing the game… I’m super excited.”

While it seems like it will still be a while until everyone who wants a PlayStation 5 has one and perhaps even longer until Xbox fans finally can play Deathloop on the console of their choice, we’re just happy things ended working out for Kelley.

Facebook, the social media site your uncle gets his misinformation from, is pulling back from a plan to make a social media network just for kids. According to a blog post from the square picture’d sibling Instagram, a plan to make an Instagram Kids social media site has officially been put on pause following a wide array of backlash for all the reasons that likely just popped into your head.

You can pretty much take your pick from a long list of problems when it comes to the reason the company decided to pull the plug. Social media’s impact on brains both young and old is still being studied but the early returns are not good, and there is a long list of controversies the Mark Zuckerberg-owned company has endured in recent years as the massive entity comes to grips with its impact on the real world.

The company’s been accused of aiding in sex trafficking in the past due to lax moderation, for starters. Then there’s that same moderation problem that has led to the radicalization of countless thousands of people to conspiracies like QAnon or anti-vaccination nuts because of a mysterious algorithm that has more power over society than you can even imagine.

But as Variety notes, a likely reason the app got put on pause is a bit more political. Like, “the government actually getting involved to regulate these massive online entities because they’re (probably) a public health risk” political.

The move to pause Instagram Kids comes three days before the Sept. 30 House subcommittee hearing “Protecting Kids Online: Facebook, Instagram, and Mental Health Harms,” at which Antigone Davis, Facebook director, global head of safety, is the sole witness scheduled to testify.

It’s no surprise, perhaps, that Facebook continues to insist in Dril-like fashion that this is actually a good idea despite the news.

Mosseri, in a blog post Monday, predicted that critics of “Instagram Kids” will interpret the pausing of the app’s development “as an acknowledgement that the project is a bad idea. That’s not the case. The reality is that kids are already online, and we believe that developing age-appropriate experiences designed specifically for them is far better for parents than where we are today.”

That logic may have some semblance of truth, but it’s also fair why no one really seems to trust a company like Facebook (or Twitter or any other one that currently exists) to handle it properly given the current state of things. The Variety story digs into exactly why an Instagram Kids could be so dangerous for so many given how damaging Being Online can be to young people.

The decision to pause Instagram Kids also follows a Wall Street Journal report earlier this month that cited Instagram’s own research showing that Instagram is “toxic” for teenage girls. For example, 32% of teen girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies, “Instagram made them feel worse,” according to a March 2020 research report conducted by Instagram that was shared on Facebook’s internal message board, per the WSJ report.

…

In fact, according to Raychoudhury, on 11 of 12 well-being issues, teenage girls who said they struggled with difficult issues also said that Instagram made them better rather than worse.

It’s all fairly harrowing stuff, and while Facebook may be trying to be less toxic to humanity it’s easy to understand the skepticism basically across the board on it all, even in the American government itself. All of this a good reminder to log off every now and again, regardless of your age. It’s good for your health.

[via Variety]

Louisville was never known as a hotbed of hip-hop but in recent years, the city’s profile has risen considerably thanks to the success of hometown heroes like Bryson Tiller, Jack Harlow, and EST Gee. Harlow especially has had a standout year; riding the wave of his No. 2 hit “What’s Poppin,” he managed to turn that buzz into a No. 5 chart debut for his debut album, Thats What They All Say, and turn himself into a fixture of pop culture thanks to a string of viral moments and his placement on Lil Nas X’s “Industry Baby.”

A big part of Harlow’s rise was a boost from Tiller on the song “Thru The Night” from his 2019 mixtape Confetti. However, before that collaboration, Harlow counted himself one of Tiller’s biggest fans, telling Complex in a new interview today that he was actually “totally jealous” of his fellow Louisvillian when Tiller first crossed over in 2015 with “Don’t” and Trapsoul.

“I’d hear Outkast, or I’d hear Drake, or I’d hear Kendrick Lamar talk about where they’re from and rep it,” Jack explains. “And I was like, ‘Who’s going to do that for Louisville?’ Bryson Tiller comes out. I’m in awe. I’m inspired. And I’m totally jealous. And I’m just like, ‘Oh my God, this guy got it.’”

In addition to “Thru The Night,” the two Kentuckians also teamed up with their late fellow local Static Major for “Luv Is Dro” from Jack’s new album. You can read Complex‘s full profile on Harlow here.

Jack Harlow is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Denver Nuggets have dreams of winning the Western Conference this season after two trips to the conference semis and one conference finals appearance in the last three years. Nikola Jokic comes into 2021-22 as the reigning NBA MVP and seemingly gets better each season, and has plenty of talent around him if the Nuggets can get and stay healthy.

Jamal Murray being able to return from an ACL tear is near the top of the list of needs for this Nuggets team if they are to compete with the best in the West, but not far behind is another step forward into superstardom from Michael Porter Jr. The Nuggets’ sharp-shooting forward is entering his fourth season as an NBA player, but only the third on the court after sitting out his rookie season with a back injury. Last year saw him become one of the NBA’s most fearsome big shooters and his continued growth as an offensive weapon could hold the keys to the Nuggets taking another leap as a team.

Denver has high hopes for a player they stole in the 2018 Draft due to his injury red flags, and they have now committed to him long term, inking Porter Jr. to a 5-year, designated max extension on Monday.

The deal is worth $172 million for now, but could jump to $207 million if MPJ makes it onto one of the three All-NBA teams next season. That is obviously a big if, but he undoubtedly has the offensive talent to make a case for himself, particularly in a season where he’ll be the second star to Jokic for much of the year until Murray can return.