Charlize Theron might be the biggest action star in the world right now, and Netflix is claiming massive numbers (at least 72 million within weeks of its release) for The Old Guard, which seems destined to have a sequel, but it’s only a question of when that will happen. Now, director Gina Prince-Bythewood (who became the first Black woman to helm a comic-book movie for Hollywood) reveals that there was a lot more (virtual) butt-kicking going on behind the scenes to get the film ready for streaming.
As Prince-Bythewood reveals, the post-production team for The Old Guard was around 85% female. That’s incredible for any high-profile movie, let alone an adrenaline-fueled action picture, and as the director pointed out, this certainly “doesn’t happen, or very rarely happens on any movie, but on an action film, I guarantee you that’s never happened before.”
The post-production crew included frequent Prince-Bythewood collaborator Terilyn A. Shropshire, who became the first Black woman to edit a Hollywood comic-book movie, as well as Oscar-winning VFX supervisor Sara Bennett (Ex Machina), supervisor Hayley Williams (Annihilation, so there are two Alex Garland films looking even better than previously right about now), costume designer Mary Vogt (Crazy Rich Asians), and cinematographer Tami Reiker.
The news arrives after Chiwetel Ejiofor already called the movie an “important marker” for inclusive stories, and it seems that Netflix is committed to significant inclusion behind the scenes as well. Even better news: an example-setting franchise has been born.
Hayley Williams made a decisive pivot to a solo career this year with her debut solo effort Petals For Armor. Since Williams can’t tour behind the record, the singer has been filling her time by sharing acoustic covers of her favorite tracks, as well as stripped-down renditions of popular Petals For Armor numbers. Following her quiet cover of Björk’s song “Unison,” Williams gets some fresh air with a version of “Simmer” performed from her back porch, complete with a cameo from her scruffy dog Alfie.
Sharing the acoustic version to Instagram, Williams wrote that it feels like her record came out months ago but she’s been enjoying continuing to tweak different tracks: “this song came out 6 hundred years ago, b.c. (corona) but i still love it and it keeps evolving. ‘SIMMER’. thanks for listening to me sing to myself all these months. i have really enjoyed sharing lil glimpses into my solitude like this. hope you’re stayin safe and allowing yourself some peace in your own solitude. oh yeah, Alf says hello.”
Watch Williams sing “Simmer” from her porch above.
Petals For Armor is out now via Atlantic. Get it here.
Hayley Williams is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
When I found out I was pregnant in October 2018, I had planned to keep the news a secret from family for a little while — but my phone seemed to have other ideas.
Within just a few hours of finding out the news, I was being bombarded with ads for baby gear, baby clothes and diapers on Facebook, Instagram and pretty much any other site I visited — be it my phone or on my computer.
Good thing my family wasn’t looking over my shoulder while I was on my phone or my secret would have been ruined.
I’m certainly not alone in feeling like online ads can read your mind.
When I started asking around, it seemed like everyone had their own similar story: Brian Kelleher told me that when he and his wife met, they started getting ads for wedding rings and bridal shops within just a few weeks. Tech blogger Snezhina Piskov told me that she started getting ads for pocket projectors after discussing them in Messenger with her colleagues. Meanwhile Lauren Foley, a writer, told me she started getting ads for Happy Socks after seeing one of their shops when she got off the bus one day.
When online advertising seems to know us this well, it begs the question: are our phones listening to us?
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“There is a common myth that companies like Facebook are using the microphone on your device to passively listen to all your conversations,” says Marshall Erwin, Senior Director of Trust and Security at Mozilla and cybersecurity expert who worked for Congress during the Snowden disclosures in 2013. “This isn’t the case.”
However, your phone — just like your computer — is collecting your personal data.
It’s collecting this data with cookies and other web trackers embedded in the sites you visit, with the data you provide freely when you create social media profiles, use apps or buy things online, with your location data, and with your device ID.
“Your phone is the most complete surveillance device invented by mankind,” says Bruce Schneier, adjunct lecturer in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and renowned security technologist. “It knows where you live, it knows where you work, it knows when you wake up and when you go to sleep. It knows who you sleep with. It knows you better than your spouse.”
“Surveillance is the business model of the internet,” he adds.
For example, Schneier tells me, “the fact that we are talking is recorded somewhere and we actually don’t know which of our cell phone companies is selling that data. We don’t know which apps on our phone are grabbing that data and using it.”
Pretty much everything we do on our computers or our phones — which, remember, are mini-computers we carry around all day — produces personal data.
Our data is often then bought, sold, and correlated against other data to create a profile of who we are. That profile is in turn targeted in a variety of ways.
For example, internet advertisers, Erwin explains, can use it “to anticipate and target ads related to what you are thinking and talking about, without actually having to listen to your conversations.”
For example, a shoe manufacturer could use your data to target you simply because you’re in your 30s and you seem interested in sports. But they might also target you because you googled running trails or you recently visited a running hobbyist website. Meanwhile, a politician might use it to target you because you are white and live in a battle-ground state.
It’s easy to use (or misuse) your data.
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“Data is what powers a lot of misinformation because it is easier to influence people with malicious messages if those messages are highly targeted towards susceptible groups or populations,” explains Erwin.
He continues, “Our data can be misused in discriminatory advertising, where job or housing ads are targeted to only certain racial groups, in violation of people’s basic rights.”
Personal data can also be targeted by malicious actors, especially when the apps on our phone aren’t secure. For example, the app TikTok had vulnerabilities that allowed hackers to manipulate and retrieve user personal information.
So what can you do to protect yourself?
Well, the bad news is that there’s no way to fully protect your data.
“Your data isn’t under your control,” says Schneier, “Your email is held by Google, your photos are held by someone else, your files are on some company’s hard drive and your financial purchases are held by credit card companies. Your data is not yours anymore.”
“That’s the baseline,” he continues. “There’s largely nothing you can do about it.”
But you can take steps to limit the collection of your data.
1. Turn on your privacy controls.
“A lot of tech companies provide ways for people to enhance their privacy and to decrease the amount of data collected about them,” explains Erwin. “These privacy settings are often off by default, however, and need users to turn them on.”
2. Use a browser that turns those privacy protections by default.
“For example, our Enhanced Tracking Protection feature prevents third parties from tracking you and building a profile of your activity from the websites you visit,” says Erwin. “And our DNS over HTTPS (DoH) feature protects that same data from people spying in the middle of the network, encrypting DNS traffic and ensuring it is only disclosed to parties with strong privacy practices.”
3. Use private browsing.
Private browsing — or incognito mode — allow you to browse the web without saving your browsing history. How? They automatically clear cookies and your cache, making it a little harder to track you and target you with ads.
If you use Firefox, you can also use enhanced tracking protection, which blocks a number of trackers before they’re even placed on your device in the first place.
4. Avoid public WiFi.
Public wifi networks are less secure and it’s easier for your data to be hacked.
5. Use a VPN.
The Mozilla VPN is available on Windows and Android devices and it will help keep you safe online by protecting your data, IP address and location. It also encrypts your activity and communications.
Earthgang’s debut album Mirrorland has been out for a nearly a year now, but the Atlanta duo still has yet to end the promotion cycle for it. Over the weekend, they premiered the video for album standout “Top Down” on Adult Swim and today, they’ve made it available to watch online.
Like the other videos from across the Mirrorland cycle, “Top Down” finds a creative way to get Olu and Wowgr8 involved without actually needing them to be in the same place or employ the usual elaborate video shoots that would usually be needed to convey their creative ideas. Rather than appearing themselves, they utilize puppets in their likenesses, cruising through the city in a convertible and hitting a local strip club — also staffed by puppets, if you’re into that sort of thing.
Taking full advantage of all the surreal possibilities provided by their stuffed stand-ins, Earthgang takes “Top Down” to the bottom of the sea as well, where they’re joined by a few mermaids for a chorus of the song and also “smoke” a ridiculously huge blunt underwater.
Previous trips to Mirrorland have included videos for “Hypnotic Fields,” “Avenue,” and “Lala Challenge,” while the Atlanta boys took a break from their psychedelic creation to participate in the video for Spillage Village’s “End Of Daze.” Olu also paid tribute to his late father with a hair-raising rendition of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On.”
Ever since making a name for himself in music, Jay-Z has been committed to giving back. The rapper often rears his head during matters of criminal justice reform and uses the legal side of the organization Team Roc to effectuate change. In February, the rapper teamed up with Yo Gotti and Team Roc to sue Parchman Prison in Mississippi after reports of “inhumane” conditions surfaced from inmates. While the case has been ongoing, there was just a major breakthrough in their push for justice.
Team Roc represented 227 Parchman Prison inmates and filed a class-action lawsuit against the prison’s healthcare provider Centurion. According to documents obtained by Pitchfork, Centurion announced it will be terminating its contract with the Mississippi Department of Corrections this October.
Since Team Roc first filed a lawsuit citing poor conditions and a lack of necessary healthcare, several inmates have submitted questionnaires that show a lack of COVID testing options, social distancing measures, and protective equipment like face masks and latex gloves. The original lawsuit alleged inmates experienced “meals of just a slice of bologna with a packet of mustard, sightings of rats and mold, and nights spent on a mat on a cold, damp floor.”
In a statement filed by Centurion CEO Steven H. Wheeler wrote they “do not believe we can further improve the effectiveness of our level of care without additional investment from the Department in correctional staffing and infrastructure along the lines of what we have already recommended.”
Marcy Croft, Team ROC’s attorney responded to Wheeler’s statement, saying:
“We hope that Centene’s decision to end its relationship with the Mississippi Department of Corrections sends a clear message to Governor Tate Reeves—it’s time to invest in the health and well-being of the people in your prisons. There is no excuse for the 53 deaths across the Mississippi prison system over the past several months, many of which were preventable. We will not stop until the incarcerated receive consistent and competent medical care, especially now with the COVID-19 crisis. This must be a priority.”
While the NBA awards voted on by the media will not be handed out for some time — although voting has commenced for those — the National Basketball Coaches Association has named its Co-Coaches of the Year after voting from the 30 coaches in the NBA.
In a bit of a surprise, Nick Nurse of the Toronto Raptors is not one of the two co-winners of the award, as Mike Budenholzer of the Milwaukee Bucks and Billy Donovan of the Oklahoma City Thunder will share the award after a tie in votes, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Nurse reportedly received one fewer vote than Budenholzer and Donovan, nearly making it a three-way tie.
Others receiving votes include Nate McMillan of the Pacers, Taylor Jenkins of the Grizzlies, Erik Spoelstra of the Heat, Brad Stevens of the Celtics, and Frank Vogel of the Lakers. If anything the vote represents just how strong the coaching around the NBA has been this season, as you can make a case for a number of coaches for the jobs they’ve done getting the most out of their rosters.
While Nurse is the expected frontrunner for the media award given the job he’s done keeping the Raptors as a top-two seed in the East despite the loss of Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green, what Donovan has done in OKC and Budenholzer has done in Milwaukee are each incredibly impressive. Bud won the award a year ago and after the Bucks shuffled around some roster pieces this summer around their top stars, the Bucks have only continued to improve. For the Thunder, this was supposed to be a rebuilding year, but Donovan has managed to bring young players and veterans alike into harmony, resulting in the current 5-seed in the West who look like a team no one wants to see come playoff time.
You can make similar cases for a number of coaches, as Jenkins has his young Grizzlies ahead of schedule in the 8-seed out West, McMillan continues to get the most out of Indiana despite injuries, Stevens has the Celtics still in the mix despite losing key frontcourt pieces, and Vogel has done a spectacular job coaxing one of the league’s best defenses out of the Lakers.
MTV recently announced the nominees for its 2020 VMAs, and one artist who wasn’t selected for the honor decided to vent his frustrations at MTV on Instagram Live.
Lil Yachty, whose “Oprah’s Bank Account” video accumulated well over 20 million YouTube views between two versions and lit up social media thanks to its creative re-imagining of Yachy as the media mogul, told viewers on his Instagram Live session that he felt disrespected by the perceived snub. Even Oprah loved Yachty’s ‘Oprah’s Bank Account’ video, but it wasn’t enough to earn him a VMA nomination.
“I be doing some sh*t. Putting my all in some sh*t,” Yachty said. “People be trying to sh*t on that and try to discredit some of the things that I’ve done, or try to downplay it or try to make it seem as if that sh*t ain’t nothin’… I don’t f*ck with that. That sh*t is wack, bro. I don’t know, that’s all I gotta say. VMAs is dumb wack for that sh*t.”
He also downplayed the VMAs, saying,” Nominations, all that shit is corny. N****s don’t be giving me no f*ckin’ respect.”
Had it been selected, “Oprah’s Bank Account” would have been in contention against DaBaby’s “Bop,” Eminem’s “Godzilla‘ featuring Juice WRLD, Future and Drake’s “Life Is Good,” Megan Thee Stallion’s “Savage,” Roddy Ricch’s “The Box,” and Travis Scott’s “Highest In The Room.”
Watch Lil Yachty’s reaction to being snubbed for a VMA above.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
I’ve seen Toy Story 3 at least a dozen times, and cried during the incinerator scene every time (it’s not the saddest Pixar moment, but it’s up there). But one thing I’ve never stopped to consider is: if Woody, Buzz, etc. hadn’t been saved by the Claw-loving aliens, what would happen if they were engulfed by fire? Would Hamm’s consciousness be transferred to another piggy bank? Are toys immortal? Or would they, y’know, die?
Here’s your childhood-ruining moment of the week.
Over the weekend, Twitter user “mustard clown” tweeted, “My girlfriend and i are having a big fight bc i think the toys from Toy Story are immortal and she thinks they can die.” The replies to this philosophical question ranged from the scientific (“they aren’t biologically living, they’re just sentient. technically they aren’t even actually alive, just animated”) to the morbid (“ok so mr potato head can be completely dismembered and still be alive. but if you chopped off woody’s head… and put it far far away from his body where no one could put it back on… he must be dead. right?”), but the tweet caught the attention of Toy Story 3 and Coco director Lee Unkrich, who wrote, “They live as long as they exist. But if they were to be utterly destroyed? Say, in an incinerator? Game over.”
They live as long as they exist. But if they were to be utterly destroyed? Say, in an incinerator? Game over. https://t.co/p9nwIAjAl8
Why LEGOs? Well, the American Printing House for the Blind recently found that only 8.4 percent of visually impaired children read Braille, as opposed to 50 percent in 1960. With the advent of audio books and voice-to-text technology, reading and writing are becoming lost arts for the visually impaired, often for lack of resources or time — modern braille education methods include expensive “Braille writers” or a slate and stylus, both of which create text that is difficult for students to edit or erase. LEGO bricks are not only swappable, but children are already familiar with their mechanics!
There is a high demand for this kind of educational tool. The Danish Association of the Blind and the Dorina Nowill Foundation for the Blind in Brazil have both called upon LEGO to make something like this in the past decade — even making their own product, Braille Bricks, which will continue to be compatible with LEGO.
The Royal National Institute of Blind People in the United Kingdom is helping to develop the bricks. David Clarke, the director of the institute, is quoted as saying, “Thanks to this innovation, children with vision impairment will be able to learn Braille and interact with their friends and classmates in a fun way, using play to encourage creativity while learning to read and write.” This is a truly wonderful partnership — pretty much a full redemption from when LEGO partnered up with Shell gas stations in 2014.
Smithsonian Magazine reports, “Currently, Lego has developed sets covering Danish, English, Norwegian and Portuguese, but will also have French, German and Spanish versions ready to go by the 2020 launch date.”
“With thousands of audiobooks and computer programs now available, fewer kids are learning to read Braille,” Philippe Chazal, Treasurer of the European Blind Union, recently said in a report by the National Federation for the Blind.
“This is particularly critical when we know that Braille users often are more independent, have a higher level of education and better employment opportunities. We strongly believe Lego Braille Bricks can help boost the level of interest in learning Braille, so we’re thrilled that the Lego Foundation is making it possible to further this concept and bring it to children around the world.”
In a year where Major League Baseball has been delayed, the 2020 Olympics have been postponed, and the NBA season has been moved to something called a “bubble,” a new sport has emerged as the ultimate athletic challenge in our COVID-19 world, at least for one British woman.
The 39-year-old veterinary surgeon ascended over 35,000 meters on her run, completing the trek in just 6 days, 17 hours and 51 minutes, just eleven hours short of the record, which was broken last year. She completed the race on July 12th, after beginning it on the 6th, and plans to do it again in the near future. When she finished there were two previous Wainwright record holders, Joss Naylor and Steve Birkinshaw, waiting to congratulate her at the finish line.
“I’m so happy to have completed my round and more than a little relieved. My right knee hasn’t been happy for a couple of days, so the final sections were very tough, especially as the fatigue really started to kick in,” Verjee said in an interview.
Sabrina has finished the Wainwrights in about 6 days 18 hours. 3rd fastest ever and first women. What an amazing ac… https://t.co/myw1XJk0Ly
— Steve Birkinshaw (@Steve Birkinshaw)1594588158.0
Sabrina Verjee isn’t new to pushing the limits of human endurance, just last year she took fifth place in the Montane Spine Race, a 270-mile ultramarathon through the blistering winter cold across the Pennine Way, an English national trail that runs through Scotland. She was also the first woman to complete the race. Before that, she came in second in the 2017 Berghaus Dragon’s Back Race, a Welsh mountain race that boasts ascents adding up to twice the height of Mount Everest. Despite her resume of being, perhaps, the greatest walker alive, Verjee claimed in a Facebook post that she doesn’t “claim any record for this achievement,” on account of her relying on her support due to a knee injury. She does, however, look forward to completing the challenge again in the future. More than 200 people have responded to the post, praising Verjee for her endurance and humility, and congratulating her for completing the challenge.
Despite being one of the most prominent athletes in her field, Verjee is also a veterinary surgeon based in Ambleside. She had been waiting for the go-ahead from Prime Minister Boris Johnson for British citizens in the pandemic to be allowed to participate in “unlimited exercise.” As soon as she got it, she completed the hike, despite having minimal support due to her insistence on taking COVID-19 precautions.
Verjee exhibits perseverance in an unprecedented time of anxiety, uncertainty, and immobility for the world as it faces the current pandemic. By continuing to train throughout quarantine, adjusting her support system to lower risk for potential COVID-19 transferrances and continuing to push through a knee injury that threatened to spoil the whole hike, Verjee proves that global pandemics aren’t an excuse for people to stop doing amazing things, as long as they’re gone safely, that is.
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