If your 2020 wasn’t already going poorly, a group of murder hornets are officially here to make it worse.
On Saturday the New York Times wrote a story about an invasive species that quickly went viral, and for good reason. The subject is the appearance of the asian giant hornet in the United States, a huge predatory insect that can decimate honeybee populations with deadly efficiency. They also look absolutely terrifying to humans because their queens can grow up to two inches long.
Asian giant hornets, nicknamed “murder hornets,” have mandibles shaped like spiked shark fins to decapitate honeybees. Their venom and stingers have been likened to hot metal driving into skin. And now, for the first time, they have arrived in the U.S. https://t.co/q3YWAJ7ql0
The article is an urgent case of scientists and beekeepers reacting to an invasive species that can cause real damage to an ecosystem. Basically, that metaphor in Season 1 of Ozark playing out in real time, but with honeybees this time. The details of what the hornets are and the damage the can cause, both to humans and bees alike, was a bit terrifying to say the least.
With queens that can grow to two inches long, Asian giant hornets can use mandibles shaped like spiked shark fins to wipe out a honeybee hive in a matter of hours, decapitating the bees and flying away with the thoraxes to feed their young. For larger targets, the hornet’s potent venom and stinger — long enough to puncture a beekeeping suit — make for an excruciating combination that victims have likened to hot metal driving into their skin.
In Japan, the hornets kill up to 50 people a year. Now, for the first time, they have arrived in the United States.
The whole thing is equal parts fascinating and horrifying, but in the current climate we live where people are trapped inside due to a pandemic, another sign of the endtimes arriving via giant pestilence was just too on the nose. The article drew plenty of reaction on Twitter, where the phrase “murder hornets” quickly started to trend.
Murder hornets. Sure thing, 2020. Give us everything. Hypno-frogs. Fecal blizzards. Toilet tsunamis. A CATS sequel. We can take it. https://t.co/DSDpgKhKzQ
This may be yet another sign that the end times are near, but there is some hope in pitcher plants, which are really good at trapping these insects and murdering them by drowning them in fluid before they can murder other creatures. In conclusion: nature continues to be terrifying.
Coming off her “original” contribution to the 2020 film Dolittle, Sia has returned in earnest with her radiant single “Saved My Life.” Debuting the song Friday night during Americares’ COVID Is No Joke livestream fundraiser, she stood behind a light fixture to deliver a stripped-down rendition backed by just a piano. The song’s studio version, however, features the addition of many more instruments for a more complete sound. The song is also written by Sia herself, Dua Lipa, and Greg Kurstin.
A recently recorded effort, Sia and Kurstin followed social distancing guidelines as, according to Rolling Stone, Kurstin recorded the keyboard, drums, bass and more from his studio in Los Angeles while Sia recorded her vocals at her studio in Palm Springs. The single also arrive days after Sia remixed Megan Thee Stallion’s “Savage” to create a Tiger King parody for charity.
Following her initial 2016 album, Sia would ring in the holiday season with her 2017 album, Everyday Is Christmas, a thirteen-track effort that featured original music composed by frequent collaborator Kurstin. Since then, Sia’s releases have included sporadic singles including “I’m Still Here,” features with the likes of BTS and the late Mac Miller, and her collaborative album LSD with Labrinth and Diplo.
You can hear “Saved My Life” to watch the video of her performance, which appears at the 59-minute mark.
Sia is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Hafthór Björnsson, the Strongman competitor who famously appeared on Game of Thrones as “The Mountain” Gregor Clegane, set a new world deadlift record on Saturday afternoon in Iceland. Björnsson broke the previous record, which was set in 2016 by British Strongman Eddie Hall, by lifting 501 kilograms, which comes out to 1,104.52 pounds.
Hall’s record was 500 kilograms, which is 1,102.31 pounds. Saturday’s event took place on ESPN, and when it was finally time for Björnsson to set the record, he was able to take care of business.
Following his record-setting attempt, Björnsson took to Instagram to thank everyone who helped make this possible.
Björnsson told us this week that he was able to accomplish this in part because of the circumstances surrounding the lift, namely the fact that he was able to use a deadlift bar, which was not the case when he tried lifting 501 kilograms in 2019.
“I have never had chance to break the 501 kg deadlift with a deadlift bar the last two years, actually,” Björnsson said. “2019, I trained for the Arnold Strongman Classic and I pulled 501 kilograms to my knees, but I didn’t finish the lift. That was with an elephant bar, it’s a different bar and I’m also not allowed to use a deadlift suit, which makes things much more difficult. It wasn’t until this year when World Ultimate Strongman reached out to me and told me that they want to have a regular deadlift bar with the suit with figure eight straps, the same way Eddie Hall has the world record now. So I accepted that and I said I’m going to accept this challenge.”
While sports leagues around the world are trying to figure out how their seasons can operate amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the NFL reportedly plans on going about their business without any complications. According to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, the league will announce its 17-game 2020 schedule sometime in the next week, with the assumption being that the start date will not be changed.
In a statement to ESPN, NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy said that “We plan to start on time,” which would mean the first game of the year would kick off on Sept. 10 and the Super Bowl would occur on Feb. 7.
Fowler went on to report that while the league is not considering any sort of a bubble league, there are plenty of plans on the table that the NFL could turn to if it has to adjust on the fly.
The league has evaluated contingency plans should the pandemic intensify, working in conjunction with the NFL Players Association and medical experts on a set of protocols.
One of those contingencies is delaying the season until mid-October, according to the Sports Business Journal. Empty stadiums and no bye weeks have long been discussed.
The NFL has already been impacted in a few ways by the pandemic, most notably by the 2020 NFL Draft moving from Las Vegas to a virtual event. But when it comes to actual games, the league is trudging forward with the hopes that things will not veer off course with regards to its regularly-scheduled start date.
While the federal government hotly debates future stimulus packages to aid those impacted by the coronavirus lockdown, people have been forced to turn elsewhere for help — namely to each other. Charities have become commonplace, some of them hawked by celebrities, ranging from Ashton Kutcher Mila Kunis to the cast of Parks and Recreation. Add Chris Evans to the list of those going online to entertain us, but for a cause.
As caught by Deadline, the erstwhile Steve Rogers took to his newly launched Instagram, making his first — and so far only — post a goodie. In a video, he invited five fellow MCU cast members to join him in a virtual hangout that doubles as a fundraiser for All-In Challenge, which raises money for various charities that help food insecurity for children, the elderly, and frontline workers. It wasn’t Evan’s idea; it was Chris Pratt’s.
“I am accepting the All-in Challenge. I was challenged by Chris Pratt,” Evans says in the video. “This is a great cause, this helps get food to people who are in need during this COVID nightmare, so I am very happy to be doing this.”
Evans didn’t state when the hang would happen, but he did promise it include such colleagues as Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, and Jeremy Renner. He said they’d take some Q&A questions and maybe even play some games — he recommended Scattergories. He then extended the challenge to Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, and Billy Porter.
Stay tuned for the big day, and in the meantime you can donate here.
Previously on the Best and Worst of Friday Night Smackdown: We experienced Triple H Appreciation Night, which ended up being him and Shawn Michaels being lame to each other until a depressed Vince McMahon showed up, called them shitty, and literally shut off the lights on them.
One more thing: Hit those share buttons! Spread the word about the column on Facebook, Twitter and whatever else you use. Be sure to leave us a comment in our comment section below as well. I know we always ask this, and that this part is copy and pasted in every week, but we appreciate it every week.
Here’s the Best and Worst of WWE Friday Night Smackdown for May 1, 2020.
This Week On Smackdown
GIPHY
Time-Life presents, Sounds of Smackdown! All your favorite Smackdown hits in one incredible collection. Get Sounds of Smackdown for just 9.99 on compact disc or double length cassette! That’s more than two full hours of classic Smackdown hits, like:
Disqualifications!
I get frustrated at WWE’s obsession with “promo parade” segments — somebody opens the show with a promo, somebody else interrupts, a third party interrupts (and so on) until somebody gets attacked, somebody else makes the save, and it sets up a tag team match for later in the show — but promo parades feel like roller coaster rides compared to time-killers. That’s when, say, someone starts off the show with a really good promo and follows it with a watchable 10-15 minute match, but the finish is so flat and retreaded that it feels like you sat through all of it for nothing.
For example, Daniel Bryan opens the show with a good promo about being hungry and leaving no man untested and gets interrupted by Corbin, who might as well have a script in his hand while he talks. I think it’s the rehearsed “ha ha!” laughs that ruin it for me. But yeah, they share a 10-minute promo to set up a 15+ minute match that … ends with Corbin nonchalantly chucking a ladder at Bryan’s face for the disqualification. Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura show up, and the Monarchic Socialists beat Bryan down and throw him into some additional ladders. Because there’s a pay-per-view about ladders coming up. Sami Zayn is at home somewhere, by the way, because the money decision during the pandemic is to win a championship and then bail. See also Rob Gronkowski.
In the interest of any available positivity, the content here’s about as good as it’s going to be considering everyone’s kind of wrestling on a treadmill waiting for shit to get back to normal. Which for Smackdown is just all this same shit, but with people watching.
Promo Parade (Digest)!
If you’re missing the promo parade, here it is crammed into one backstage segment. Tamina is being interviewed and is briefly Tamina before getting interrupted by Sasha Banks. Bayley tries to attack Tamina from behind, and Banks and Bayley clubber her until Lacey Evans makes the save. This sets up Bayley and Sasha Banks vs. the oh my God no all-star team of Tamina Snuka and Lacey Evans. Team name “Snookey.” All I can guarantee you about this interaction is that it’ll make you turn down your volume.
Mandy Rose loses a Money in the Bank qualifier to Carmella when Sonya Deville shows up on the stage and delivers like 90 straight seconds of distraction. Mandy seems fine at first, but ultimately the constant microphone yelling of goth Gina Linetti is too much, and she catches a sneaker to the face. The match is only about three and a half minutes long, so the distraction portion makes up about 40% of it.
After the match, Sonya gets in the zone and sNaPs on Mandy. I know Sonya provided a lot of information about her motivation as it relates to jealousy, societal expectations for female performers, and vague heel wrestler ennui, but I love that based on the information we were actually given by watching the show every week, Sonya basically turned into a violent, vindictive bully because she tried to micromanage Mandy Rose’s love life and got called out for it. “If you don’t date Dolph Ziggler instead of Otis I’ll kill myself, and then you!!!”
Dolph Ziggler Insisting He’s The Best Wrestler In The World And Then Immediately Losing!
Did you know that nobody in that locker room can do what Dolph Ziggler does, and that he’ll prove it here tonight and eventually be World Champion again? I think Ziggler cuts this promo more often than R-Truth says “what’s up.”
He also almost always follows it with an embarrassing loss. This time around he loses his second match in a month to Otis née Dozovic, an overweight lover with a Kool-Aid Man gimmick. Like most of what Otis has done during quarantine, it’s fine, but would be tremendously improved by crowd response. Shout-out to Otis just kicking Ziggler’s ass again, though, and not losing to the same distraction finish that took away Mandy Rose’s chance to put on gold lamé hot pants and throw forearms in the stairwell of an office building.
Challenger Has Pinned The Champions! You’ve Got To Think That Puts Them Into Contention For A Future Title Shot!
It wouldn’t be a modern WWE show without a champion being pinned in a non-title mach, to set up a title match the champion will win. A couple of hours before the show started, I saw that the match had been announced and Tweeted, “the Forgotten Sons have pinned the Smackdown Tag Team Champions!” The reason I bring this up isn’t because I’m “smart” or “clever” or even because I’m “paying attention.” I bring it up because it’s creatively unacceptable that half the audience could’ve typed this with absolute certainty, because the Smackdown playbook’s seriously only got like five plays in it.
promos to interruptions to attack to tag team match
challenger has pinned the champion, you’ve got to believe that puts them into consideration for a title shot somewhere down the line
So, the Forgotten Sons? Really? Are we just running the New Day up against a three-man team to play up the Damned Numbers Game so Xavier Woods can make a triumphant return to even the odds? They did say “six months to a year” for his injury to heal, and it’s been seven. At the very least maybe he’ll be well enough to show up and smash a trombone over Gunner’s head, or whatever.
Also On This Episode
Hello Again, Friend Of A Friend
Bray Wyatt reads Braun Strowman a story about black sheep. When Braun challenges him to come to the ring, Wyatt just waves and says “bye!” All right, well, that was nothing. At least Bray’s practicing proper social distancing. Honestly, I hope they decide to be brave and have Wyatt actually regain complete control over Strowman. Bray would take a lot of the stuff Braun’s not good at off his plate, and Braun being subservient would “give” Wyatt the Universal Championship without him having to frustratingly win or lose championship matches.
Finally, we get the hilarious announcement that both Money in the Bank ladder matches will happen at the same time. What would’ve been harder to predict three months ago; a WrestleMania at the Performance Center with no fans, or two concurrent Money in the Bank ladder matches happening on the roof of WWE Headquarters?
The dream of the WWF Super Bowl commercial is alive at Money in the Bank.
Best: Top 10 Comments Of The Week
Birdman
Daniel Bryan’s psyched to wrestle at WWE HQ. So many people will be wearing ties
troi
Ziggler had one of the most memorable cash ins ever. Who can forget when he pinned [Deleted] and celebrated with Big E [Deleted] and [Deleted].
Baron Von Raschke
Dolph and Sonya are whispering so much they must think they are in the last five minutes of a Chicago PD episode.
AshBlue
Jeff Hardy must be one of the easiest wrestlers to put a promo package together for. Dude has almost killed himself for our entertainment so. many. times.
AddMayne
Oh Yeahs ranked
Macho Man
Otis
Percy Watson
notJames
Mandy Rose: Carmella is a formidable opponent, and a former Ms. Money in the Bank.
Kayla: So, you’ve basically got no chance, huh.
Otis: WHO ARE YOU TO DOUBT EL MANDY!?!?
LUNI_TUNZ
Sheamus: “I’m coming to work next week.”
Taylor Swish
Why do all Kings in WWE dress like court jesters
DaveyBoy1991
Retroactively, Corbin is his only name; Baron really was only ever a title which has been upgraded to King of TGI Friday’s
GLOSS
*sees the Make-A-Wish logo on the ramp, remembers that WWE is allowed to have a small live crowd next week* OH NO
WWE
That’s it for this week’s Best and Worst of Smackdown. As always, thanks for getting through this with us and checking out the column, especially during this pandemic. It’s hard to keep a lot of this in context, especially with what’s going on with the company in the real world. We appreciate you, as well as your comments in our comments section below, and your social media shares.
Next week we sit through two more hours of this and then Climb The Corporate Ladder at the weirdest Money in the Bank pay-per-view® ever. See you then!
Since the start of 2020, Gorillaz has been delivering music through their new series, Song Machine. So far three songs in the series have been released: “Momentary Bliss,” “Désolé,” with Fatoumata Diawara, and “Aries,” with Peter Hook and Georgia. Its latest song is a tribute to the legendary Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen, who died of a heart attack in Paris on Thursday.
In a press release for the track, Gorillaz revealed that it was recorded with Skepta in London prior to the lockdown and is “being shared immediately as a tribute to the spirit of a great man,” which is to say Allen.
Allen was the drummer and musical director for Fela Kuti’s band Africa 70 in the 1960s and 1970s; Kuti credited him with developing the specific rhythmic style that came to be known as Afrobeat. He’s also collaborated with Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn before, having been one-fourth of the supergroup The Good, the Bad and the Queen, alongside Paul Simonon and Simon Tong. That group played their last show this past summer in support of their Merrie Land album at Netherlands’ Lowland Festival.
You can watch the video for “How Far” in the video above.
Gorillaz is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
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(@cultleaderresca) May 2, 2020
(@MollyJongFast) May 2, 2020
at the weirdest Money in the Bank pay-per-view® ever. See you then!