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Over the years, Lil Baby has exhibited several acts of kindness toward people living in his hometown. From young kids to grown adults, the rapper has always done his best to lend a helping hand to his community and another example of that was on full display recently. The rapper donated several bikes to kids within the Atlanta community and the good deed was captured on camera as it displayed a number of kids racing towards the bike of the choice in a park with bright smiles on their faces.

Lil Baby himself was seen in the video as his Ferrari was parked on the grass nearby.

The act continues a long streak of philanthropy that the rapper has displayed over the past few months. He recently teamed up with Foot Locker to refurbish a basketball court for the youth of Atlanta. Prior to that, he purchased an entire store of sneakers to give away to people in Atlanta. After videos of the giveaway made their rounds on social media, the rapper explained his motivation behind the act.

“Buying shoes ain’t what I mean by saving [my] community or giving back!!” he wrote on his Instagram Story. “That was some sh*t I did cause I seen a lot of them had on flip flops. When I say save [my] community, I mean centers, programs, jobs. You can’t imagine the sh*t I don’t post…”

You can watch a video of the bike giveaway above.

The Capitol Police officer who shot and killed a woman during the January 6 insurrection attempt in Washington went public with his identity on Thursday. The man, who was interviewed for the first time after months of speculation about his identity, claimed responsibility for the shooting of Ashli Babbitt, who was one of five people killed during the riot sparked in an effort to deny the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.

Babbitt has become something of a martyr among those on the far right, and there have been demands to reveal the identity of the officer who fired the deadly shot. But this month, that officer was cleared of all wrongdoing in the shooting and will not face discipline despite some outcry among conspiracy theorists and others in Donald Trump’s orbit.

Authorities declined to name the shooter, but in an interview with NBC News, Lieutenant Michael Byrd said he opened fire as a “last resort” and claimed defending the Capitol from the insurrection “saved countless lives.”

“I know that day I saved countless lives,” Byrd said. “I know members of Congress, as well as my fellow officers and staff, were in jeopardy and in serious danger. And that’s my job.”

…

Asked why he pulled the trigger, Byrd said it was a “last resort.”

“I tried to wait as long as I could,” he told Holt. “I hoped and prayed no one tried to enter through those doors. But their failure to comply required me to take the appropriate action to save the lives of members of Congress and myself and my fellow officers.”

Byrd’s account of the day is harrowing, including the reports of injuries and attacks on officers from the crowd. The officer stressed that he and others in that doorway were trapped by the advancing crowd, and he could not tell if Babbitt had a weapon or not. The full interview with Lester Holt is certainly worth watching, if only for a reminder of just how harrowing January 6 was for those involved in the coup attempt. Byrd revealing himself to the public answers a question many on the far right have railed about for months, though his name was already leaked in some right-wing circles that came with inevitable death threats and other safety concerns.

“They talked about killing me, cutting off my head,” Byrd said, adding that there were also racist attacks.

“It’s all disheartening because I know I was doing my job.”

…

“Sometimes, you can’t do anything but cry,” Byrd said, his voice growing heavy. “You felt like you did your job. You helped protect our legislative leaders of this country and you fought for democracy and keeping them established.”

Hopefully telling his side of the story is a positive for him, but it will likely do little to stop the abuse he’s seen in the wake of January’s events, which continue to damage the republic as Trump’s biggest supporters continue to believe the Big Lie.

[via NBC News]

If you’re a Stranger Things fan living in Poland, you have the rare opportunity to check out Netflix’s first foray into gaming. Netflix announced Thursday that it is officially giving gaming a go after months of rumors indicating that the streaming platform wants to tackle video games as part of its offerings.

Netflix tweeted about the news on Thursday, sharing that two Stranger Things video games will be the first thing fans of the Netflix original can check out. But there’s a catch: the games are only available in Poland.

“Today members in Poland can try Netflix mobile gaming on Android with two games, Stranger Things: 1984 and Stranger Things 3,” the tweet said. “It’s very, very early days and we’ve got a lot of work to do in the months ahead, but this is the first step.”

Netflix has flirted with gaming in the past, but officially becoming a mobile games maker is certainly the first real indication they’re serious about the venture. But as Ars Technica pointed out, this is a far cry from being a real mobile games streaming service in the vein of Xbox Game Pass and the like. To play the games you have to download them, for starters.

As the tweet said, it’s a “first step” in actually making games, not the streaming infrastructure that the company would need to build to actually add gaming to its traditional revenue stream. But it’s certainly an interesting way to kick things off.

A couple days ago, the music community was met with the sad news that The Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts died at 80 years old. Watts’ passing came as the band was preparing for a tour, and since Watts died, a lingering question has been whether The Rolling Stones would go on with the tour as planned. Well, it turns out they are.

In a statement to Rolling Stone, promoter Concerts West said simply, “The Rolling Stones’ tour dates are moving ahead as planned.”

Before Watts’ death, it was announced that he would not be participating in the tour to rest and recover after a medical procedure. Revered drummer and longtime Rolling Stones associate Steve Jordan would replace Watts, which is presumably still the case. At the time, Jordan said, “It is an absolute honor and a privilege to be Charlie’s understudy.”

Check out The Rolling Stones’ upcoming tour dates below.

09/26 — St. Louis, MO @ The Dome At America’s Center
09/30 — Charlotte, NC @ Bank Of America Stadium
10/04 — Pittsburgh, PA @ Heinz Field
10/09 — Nashville, TN @ Nissan Stadium
10/13 — New Orleans, LA @ New Orleans Jazz And Heritage Festival
10/17 — Los Angeles, CA @ SoFi Stadium
10/24 — Minneapolis, MN @ US Bank Stadium
10/29 — Tampa, FL @ Raymond James Stadium
11/02 — Dallas, TX @ Cotton Bowl Stadium
11/06 — Las Vegas, NV @ Allegiant Stadium
11/11 — Atlanta, GA @ Mercedes-Benz Stadium
11/15 — Detroit, MI @ Ford Field
11/20 — Austin, TX @ Circuit Of The Americas

This article originally appeared on 08.17.19

In the United States, close to 10% of the population has depression, but sometimes it can take a long time for someone to even understand that they have it.

One difficulty in diagnosis is trying to distinguish between feeling down and experiencing clinical depression. This TED-Ed video from December 2015 can help make the distinction. With simple animation, the video explains how clinical depression lasts longer than two weeks with a range of symptoms that can include changes in appetite, poor concentration, restlessness, sleep disorders (either too much or too little), and suicidal ideation. The video briefly discusses the neuroscience behind the illness, outlines treatments, and offers advice on how you can help a friend or loved one who may have depression.

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Unlike the many pharmaceutical ads out there with their cute mascots and vague symptoms, the video uses animation to provide clarity about the mental disorder. It’s similar in its poignant simplicity to the HBO short documentary ” My Depression,” based on Liz Swados’ book of the same name.

What is depression? – Helen M. Farrell

www.youtube.com

This article originally appeared on 11.26.18

Meet Mason Brian Barclay, a teen and self-described “very homosexual male.” He recently wanted to attend a sleepover at his “new best friend” Houston’s house, because teens are gonna teen. But he’s a boy, and everyone knows boys aren’t allowed to attend girls’ sleepovers, because of cooties/patriarchal norms.

She hates this picture but idc. I’m in love with your soul. You pretty cute too. https://t.co/YVL0GzrlcR

— May THEE stallion (@maymaybarclay)
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So he behaved more maturely than most adults, and crafted a long text message to Houston’s mom, Mrs. Shelton, in which he politely asked for permission to attend Houston’s sleepover.

“I think the common meaning behind only allowing the same sex to share sleepovers is due to the typical interest in the opposite sex, when, in this case, I do not like the opposite sex,” he explained in the text.

Mrs. Shelton’s response was so good that Mason tweeted it out and it went viral:

I TEXTED HOUSTONS MOM TO ASK IF I CAN STAY THE NIGHT FRIDAY HAHAHAHAHA https://t.co/Ovr74V869W

— May THEE stallion (@maymaybarclay)
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“Hmm. Well my husband is hot. Should I worry?” she responded.

Evidently Mason found Mrs. Shelton’s text hilarious. So does Twitter.

And others are just wondering if the sleepover is on, or not??

@itstreverr @maymaybarclay @TheEllenShow Wait. Did we ever learn the answer??? Lol

— Zachary Zane (@ZacharyZane_)
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Others need to know if Houston’s dad lives up to the hype:

This article originally appeared on 08.27.18

Chris Hemsworth is the 35-year-old star of “Thor: Ragnarok,” or you may know him as the brother of equally attractive actor Liam Hemsworth. But did you know he’s also a father-of-three? Well, he is. And it turns out, he’s pretty much the coolest dad ever.

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In a clip from a 2015 interview on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” Hemsworth shared an interesting conversation he had with his 4-year-old daughter India.

“My daughter’s kind of envious of my boys,” Hemsworth told Ellen. “She came to me the other day, and she’s like ‘You know, Papa, I want one of those things that Sasha and Tristan have.’ And I’m like, ‘What do you mean?’ She said, ‘You know the things in between their legs that you have.'”

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Hemsworth said he tried to explain the differences between male and female bodies, but his daughter wasn’t having it.

“She goes, ‘I really want one!’ Hemsworth said. “I’m like, ‘A penis?’ And she’s like, ‘I want a penis!’

And then, Hemsworth had the best possible response. He recalls:

She’s four and I’m like, ‘You know what, you can be whatever you want to be.’ And she goes, ‘Thanks, Dad.’ Runs off into the playground and that was it.

And then, I cannot confirm, but I’m pretty sure the Ellen audience did this:

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Major kudos to Hemsworth for taking a potentially awkward parenting situation and turning it into a lesson about love and acceptance.

You can watch the full clip here:

Chris Hemsworth’s Daddy Dilemma

www.youtube.com

This article originally appeared on 10.02.18

For anyone who thinks stories of sexual harassment and assault are complicated, writer Maura Quint has a story for you. Actually, she has quite a few.

Quint posted a thread on her Twitter account that quickly went viral in which she talked about a number of real-life encounters with men that started out sexual, involved her expressing disinterest, and the men responding appropriately.

It wasn’t an unrealistic hero’s tale of men handing over the keys to their autonomy. Rather, Quint’s incredible thread made it clear that the only variable in cases of assault vs. non-assault are when a man doesn’t respect the autonomy of the woman he’s propositioning.

Her thread opens up in an all-too-familiar tone, where we’re led to believe it will go to an incredibly dark place:

Instead, Quint says her indifference to his proposition was met in kind with a guy just acting in a basic, non-rapey way:

She goes on to offer several other examples of being in sexual or potentially sexual situations with men who also managed to not sexually assault her:

And here’s the real kicker, Quint says she has been assaulted. To her, the difference isn’t hard to pinpoint:

Her thread has been re-tweeted nearly 50,000 times and “liked” more than 100,000 times. Other women and some men jumped in with their own tales of drinking, partying and still, somehow, managing to not assault or even harass the women they encountered.

It’s a stark contrast to the half-baked defenses of Brett Kavanaugh and other men like him. There are incredibly rare exceptions where a man is accused of assault or harassment and he is entirely free of guilt. But for women, or anyone for that matter, who has survived sexual assault or experienced sexual harassment, there is no “gray area.”

There’s being OK with assault and then there’s everything else. Whether or not we’re consciously aware of this, we’ve all chosen a side. But if you’re on the wrong side, it doesn’t have to be that way forever.

Few people in the public eye have been as universally beloved as Bob Ross, especially across multiple generations. The first time my husband and I shared “The Joy of Painting” with our kids, they were almost instantly mesmerized. Just as I had remembered from my own childhood, Ross’s calm voice and “happy little trees” commentary as he painted felt almost like a form of therapy.

So naturally, when Netflix announced the release of a new documentary titled “Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal and Greed,” people (me, I am people) freaked out a bit.

With a title like that, how could you not? Bob Ross is up there with Fred Rogers and Steve Irwin in the “pure, wholesome, and untouchable” category, and even just seeing the words “betrayal” and “greed” so close to his name is enough to make a fan plug their ears and yell, “Na na na na, I can’t hear youuuuu!”

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@NetflixFilm This is such a 2021 title.

That thing you thought was great? HAHA NOPE! LIFE SUCKS AND EVERYTHING IS A LIE.

— Kristen Skeet (@castawaykristen)
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But fans needn’t worry. The betrayal and greed referred to in the title aren’t about Bob Ross himself, but rather the key players in the management of his business after his death.

If you’re looking for a purely feel-good film about Bob Ross, this isn’t really it. Thankfully, you won’t walk away with a tarnished view of the man himself—the most “scandalous” thing you might learn is that he permed his hair to get that famous ‘fro. But many people are walking away feeling angry and frustrated over the way his art and name have been handled by the Kowalski family who manages them. You’ll still love Bob Ross as much as ever, but you might feel some not-so-happy little feelings about Bob Ross, Inc.

The documentary was produced by actress Melissa McCarthy and her filmmaker husband Ben Falcone, and the couple spoke with NPR about some of the making the film and some of the legal perils they faced.

Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed | Official Trailer | Netflix

www.youtube.com

“Bob certainly wanted it to go to — most of the business — to his son,” McCarthy said. “He left it to his son and his brother. And very quickly, that was kind of taken through litigation. And because at the time [Bob’s son] Steve was so young, Bob thought, you know, let’s have an adult still guiding him with where he’s going to take this company. … But he didn’t get to take hold of it at all.”

The crux of the film is how Ross’s business partners, the Kowalskis, have held a tight grip on Bob Ross, Inc. and how Ross’s son, Steve, has allegedly been shut out of his father’s business. Getting to the bottom of it all posed a challenge, however, as apparently few of the people involved wanted to speak to the filmmakers.

“Everyone’s afraid of getting sued,” Falcone said. So that’s neat.

Now the Kowalskis have responded to the accusations in the film with a statement defending their role in the business they started in partnership with Bob Ross. They wrote, in part:

Bob Ross Inc. never pursued or threatened legal action against Steve Ross, and, in fact, no one at Bob Ross Inc. heard from Steve Ross for almost twenty years, until 2017 when Steve filed suit against the company without any prior communication.

Bob Ross may not have shared the inherent structural features of his company with family and friends – which are very common in small private companies – resulting in many of the unsubstantiated accusations made in the film.

They also claim that the merchandise they sell with Bob Ross’s image on it is meant as a way to share the late painter’s message of positivity. “Bob Ross Inc.’s hope is that items bearing Bob’s likeness and messages prompt smiles as they remind people of the love of painting Bob shared with all,” they wrote.

At the very least, we can all still agree that Bob Ross himself was a national treasure whose love of painting and positive outlook were genuine. Nobody mess with the legacy of the man himself, please. None of us could handle that. Let us keep our happy little memories of him pure and untarnished.

For Deuntate Copeland, the work he’s doing off the court is just as important as what’s happening on the sidelines.

Copeland’s nonprofit, the National High School Basketball Association or NHSBA for short, uses the sport he loves to reach underserved kids where they’re at. For many, that just so happens to be on a gym floor or a concrete square.

“We’re using basketball to get our message across,” Copeland told Dime.

He launched the NHSBA after a trip home during his senior year in college sparked a desire to help the youth in his community. “I loved playing basketball and I always wanted to help kids,” he said. “I remember being like, ‘Man, I wonder if there’s something we can do for those kids that don’t [have] a school team? Can they learn those skills as well? [Can we] kind of help them to do other things?’

The program started in Arkansas, quickly spreading to surrounding areas like Memphis, Tennessee before migrating to bigger cities like Atlanta, Ga. Its goal was simple: invite kids to play ball, get them to stay to work on their future. Copeland recruited high school and community coaches and eager-to-help educators and volunteers, all with a passion for mentoring the next generation who could foster both a love of the sport and an interest in other career paths.

“Some of the kids think they’re going to be the next Michael Jordan or LeBron James or Kobe Bryant,” Copeland says.

But the NHSBA is less focused on churning out future NBA stars and more interested in helping young teens discover potential jobs and forms of higher education that speak to their unique passions. To do that, Copeland connects with companies and celebrities who have a direct tie to the game, even if they aren’t necessarily playing it as their day job.

This past year, as COVID forced most gyms to close their doors, Copeland and his team took their program virtual, hosting Zoom sessions with kids who were stuck inside and missing that time on the court. Instead of reaching them at the free-throw line, the organization invited guest speakers to hop on virtual conference sessions to expose them to potential careers they never would’ve imagined for themselves.

“We had speakers from Ralph Lauren. We had speakers from ESPN. We had folks from Adidas. We had folks from the NBA. We had folks from Turner Sports,” Copeland recalls. “We had all these different people that talked to the kids about [their] careers and [the] things they dealt with.”

The medium might have been different, but whether it’s on a computer screen or on the court, Copeland’s goal has always been to use basketball as a gateway for a better future for kids who might have a hard time envisioning one.

“A lot of kids come in because they just want to play ball, but then you have people that pique their interest and they get engaged,” Copeland explains. “So like, ‘I want to be in broadcast and media,’ then when ESPN comes to talk to them, they get engaged. You have folks that want to design clothes. Okay. Well, [someone from] Ralph Lauren comes into the mix and talks to them, then they get engaged. You have people from the NBA that may talk to them, they work in different departments like maybe marketing. They get engaged behind that because they see there’s more than just being an NBA player.”

For Copeland, the goal is to improve these kids’ game and their prospects. His coaches teach valuable skills on the court, and some former players have even gone on to play college ball, but they’re just as invested in forging connections with universities and businesses, helping these teens to network in the hopes of placing them in college or a fulfilling career once they graduate.

“It’s about helping them to essentially ignite a passion,” Copeland says. “A lot of kids we deal with, they come from unserved communities, and they don’t know what’s out there. They haven’t spoken to these types of people.”

And while the NHSBA continues to broaden its players’ horizons off the court, the time they spend in the gym is used for instilling life lessons that transcend basketball.

“I think basketball brings so many things to the table,” Copeland says. “I mean, you learn everything from how to work with other people to how to deal with adversity. How do you adapt to certain situations? All these things you learn from playing ball. I think that basketball is designed to bring folks together.”

For now, the program itself is learning how to adapt to changing times. There’s a huge demand across the country for organizations like the NHBSA that go out into underserved communities and help inspire the youth to dream big. The group has drastically expanded its operations in recent years, receiving funding from organizations like the NBA Players Association Foundation. As we hopefully return to some kind of normal post-pandemic, Copeland is excited to add more programs, more speakers, and more opportunities for the kids coming back to his courts but his motivation for using the game to reach the next generation remains the same as it’s always been.

“It’s always great to see kids better themselves,” Copelands says. “Whether they’re going to college to play, going academically [or] able to go get jobs and better themselves. It’s a great feeling to know that you had an impact on helping them get there.”