Runescape is the game I had to play when I was 17 so that my boyfriend would pay attention to me.
Your perception of vaping may range anywhere from “that is a thing only douches and dirtbags do” to “I am a dirtbag or douche and that is a thing I do.” Maybe there’s a third option out there, who knows. It is a massively successful industry, theoretically healthier than smoking and certainly less smelly, and it has birthed a pop-up industry of vape shops in strip malls throughout the country. In them, kids gather and do their best impression of Austin Lawrence, a.k.. “The Vape God.”
GQ profiled Lawrence at his strip-mall emporium of vape-related paraphernalia Vertigo Vaporium, and some of the details are what you’d expect. He uses the phrase really sick a lot; he has 330,000 followers on Instagram, a tidy following that has netted him a DM and real-life acquaintanceship with Drake; prior to vaping, he spent most of his time playing Runescape ...
Well, shit. Our president’s dropping bombs, the White House Press Secretary won’t stop talking about Hitler, J. Geils is dead, and apparently The Fate of the Furiousisn’t that good. Not even the reemergence of the Tamagotchi can save us now. We rage. We continue to rage. We try to continue to rage. We collapse, tethered to the planet as it rotates into oblivion.
We are Sienna.
She hasn’t given up. No, you can see her hand pushing her along. But fate is in control now. ‘Round and ‘round she goes, where she stops...well, she’ll stop on a patch of blue or yellow interlocking foam. Us, though?
It’s a fantastic year for wildflower lovers, who’ve been flocking to fields of poppies, lupine and golden brush. The orange, purple and yellow blooms are already populating the warmer climes of southern California and the Central Valley thanks to above average winter rainfall following five years of drought.
Carrizo Plain National Monument is bursting with flowers after one of the wettest winters in years. (Bob Wick/BLM)
Hundreds of wildflower species blossom in California between March and July.
The bloom is just beginning in coastal areas of Northern California, but some areas, like Lassen Volcanic National Park, won’t see snowmelt until June or July, so there are plenty more opportunities to catch upcoming wildflowers this summer.
At KQED, we were curious about the size of the early spring Southern California blooms and whether or not you could see them from space. The answer: absolutely. The view from on high is spectacular.
Use the vertical slider to compare side-by-side images.
Near Los Padres National Forest
Carrizo Plain National Monument
Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuge
Satellites captured the images in late March, at the height of the bloom, and in most of those places, the wildflowers are now gone. Lush green and yellow is replaced by reddish browns as the flowers opened up for just a few weeks to become pollinated before dying off.
But you can still see vibrant colors in the satellite images on this page. Move the white scroll bar in the middle of each photo from left to right and to see a before and after comparison.
And if you’re looking to see wildflowers in person, check out Visit California, which created a list of when different California regions will see peak blooms.
My mom was ultimately hospitalized because she was hemorrhaging blood during her period (she had an untreated cyst) and refused to leave active duty for fear of seeming weaker than her male counterparts.
A policewoman for Spain’s Guardia Civil paramilitary police was allegedly harassed by a lieutenant officer because she was menstruating while on duty.
According to the Local, the Spanish policewoman says she was forced to stop the patrol car and rush to the bathroom after she began menstruating suddenly. Her fellow officer, who was on duty with her in the car, scolded her for taking the five to 10-minute break. According to one witness, the lieutenant told the policewoman not to “tell fibs,” and that she should “go to the toilet before or after patrol, not during.”
The policewoman was suspended for two days along with a fine. She has since filed a complaint and requested a hearing with her captain. She alleges that her superior officer harassed her at work, whereas he still believes he was justified in talking down to her for going to the bathroom on short notice.
Ironically enough, the incident happened on March 8th: International Women’s Day.
Any Simpsons fan knows that Lenny’s cry of “DENTAL PLAN!” will be swiftly followed by Marge’s reasoned plea that “Lisa needs braces.” They know this because the loop is played over and over again in the show’s season four episode “Last Exit to Springfield.” In the episode, Homer faces a quandary: If he and his colleagues give up their dental plan, they can have a keg of beer at their meetings. It takes these two voices, echoing endlessly, to help him realize this is a bad idea.
Another bad idea? The Australian TV station Eleven—which is home to a host of shows, which include The Simpsons, Futurama, and How I Met Your Mother—playing this clip on a loop for nearly four hours straight. Recently, the station posted the loop via Facebook Live video with the caption, “Just ‘Lisa needs braces’ on loop. How long can ...
Yuri on Ice, the best anime in anime history, finished its first season in December 2016. And let me tell you, it’s extremely normal to wake up each morning, gaze out at the barren hellscape of real life, and think: “You know what today needs? Some new material from Yuri on Ice, the pinnacle of human artistic achievement.”
For once, this dream has actually come true. There’s a brand new Yuri on Ice clip online, and you can experience it with your own joyful eyeballs.
The clip teases an unseen sequence starring the tiny Russian rage teen Yuri Plisetsky. It’s an excerpt from his exhibition skate, “Welcome to the Madness,” which didn’t appear onscreen in season 1.
Yuri’s exhibition skate is one of the bonus features on Vol. 6 of the show’s DVD and Blu-ray release, which comes out on May 26.
Are you ready for the greatest saga out of Australia since The Thorn Birds? Well, here it is: A rapper who goes by the name of “2pec” allegedly tried to dine and dash on several hundred dollars’ worth of seafood by walking into the ocean, but was pursued and finally arrested via jet ski.
An aspiring rapper gorged himself on seafood and alcohol at a Gold Coast restaurant and then fled into the surf without paying his $621 bill, a Queensland court has heard.
Terry Peck, 33, allegedly devoured two lobsters, 17 oyster shooters, a baby octopus, and several beers at Main Beach’s Omeros Bros Restaurant before making his getaway.
The staff from Main Beach restaurant took off in hot pursuit.
Peck, who goes by the name 2pec, ran onto the beach and into the surf, and efforts to cajole him back to shore were unsuccessful.
Two police jumped on a lifeguard’s jet ski and arrested him in the ocean.
“Oh God! By himself?” exclaimed the magistrate in whose court Peck landed, at the alleged figure of $621 Australian dollars, roughly $465 in American currency. But “two whole lobsters, six oysters, four Coronas and a baby octopus,” plus “21 oyster shooters, a vodka cocktail similar to a bloody mary,” as per News.com.au, wouldn’t be cheap, now would they? Especially not from Omeros Bros Restaurant, whose website proudly declares they made TripAdvisor’s list of top ten Australian fine dining experiences. Peck countered that the lobster mornays were “overcooked”—a claim that the restaurant specifically denies—and “There was oyster shell in the oyster [shot] and he said he was going to take off the bill.”
Also, “Peck said he had only left the restaurant to help a friend who was he said was giving birth on the beach,” added ABC News in an absolutely incredible display of straight-faced, bone-dry news reporting. “He said he was arrested before finding her.”
Fortunately, BuzzFeed has found some of 2pec’s work, which I will share with you now.
Two nights ago, while I was trying to shove a plate of slightly burnt asparagus into a Ziploc bag, slap some Bandaids on my ankles, and figure out how to get to the Passover dinner I was inappropriately late for, I got a Snapchat. It was a life-altering Snapchat, the kind I imagine is reserved for DJ Khaled, or an extremely popular teen, or Sir Evan Spiegel himself.
I received a photo of an Executive Producer Dick Wolf Tramp Stamp (EPDWTS).
I do not check Snapchat all that often anymore. This is perhaps a stupid confession coming from someone who works for Gizmodo, Jezebel’s tech-oriented sister site, but I am too lazy to keep up to date with all of the Snaps. I usually wait a few weeks and check the direct messages all at once, which is both sad yet satisfying.
On Sunday night, however, I decided to check the unopened message from Kara, my best friend from high school. Here is what greeted me:
“Is that an EPDWTS?” you might be thinking. As Kara’s helpful and furious red circles confirm, that is indeed an EPDWTS. It is a bold, inky, font-matching tribute to Dick Wolf, the prolific auteur of shows like Law & Order and Crime and Punishment. I firmly believed everyone in the world needed to see this tramp stamp, so I tweeted a screenshot and let the magic happen. (The magic, in this case, was a fave from venture capitalist Marc Andreessen.)
My tweet went viral. And a few hours later, I got a reply from the tattoo owner himself.
That night, Bernard Johnson—a 29-year-old resident of New Orleans—added me on Facebook, because sometimes the internet is good. He even left a very nice post on my wall (“Thanks for making me popular”).
The next day, Jezebel deputy editor Kate Dries asked me if I had any plans to talk to him. I told her I would ask, and when he said yes, I was happier than I had been in weeks. What follows is a transcript of our conversation, which has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Jezebel: How’s the viral fame been treating you?
Bernard Johnson: I love it. This is, like, the third time it’s happened just randomly. Not just from the tattoo—from random things about me. One time BuzzFeed got a picture of my eyebrows when I was making a funny face, and I got on their list for worst eyebrows, and everyone tagged me [on Facebook] for that too. And there was another time for my ears.
Tell me about the genesis of this wonderful tattoo.
Obviously I’m obsessed with Law & Order:SVU. Obsessed. I watch it every single day of my life. So one day, me and my tattoo artist were just talking about what I should get next. I told him I’ve wanted a tramp stamp for a while, and we were talking about Law & Order and Mariska Hargitay and everything, and I was like, man, I would love to get a Law & Order tramp stamp. And then he thought of the executive producer thing, and I was like, that is so perfect. I want that right now. And the rest is history.
So it was actually the tattoo artist’s idea?
Yeah, it was a collaboration. I mean, he enjoyed the [idea] to get a tramp stamp to do with Law & Order, and I was like, well I love the executive producer Dick Wolf!
And the font matches, too.
Yeah, my tattoo artist just copied and pasted it and inverted it so it would be the exact same font.
Why the tramp stamp location? I don’t have one, but I’m a big believer in them.
That’s how I was for the longest time. I was like, I am such a believer in tramp stamps, I love them so much, and when I saw EPDW the sparks just blew up in my mind. That’s fucking genius, I love it.
I feel like there’s some stigma associated with tramp stamps. You know, it’s like, ‘Oh, you skank.’ Do you think that’s true?
I feel like about 10 years ago, there was a stigma. But now there’s a throwback to the early culture of tattoos. New it’s an embrace of something that used to be tacky.
You’re a pretty big Law & Orderfan.
The day I meet Mariska Hargitay is the day I can just die peacefully.
She’s your favorite character?
She’s my favorite character, she’s my favorite everything. I live for her.
If you live for her, why not tattoo something in her honor? Unless you already have!
That’s my next thing. My next piece that I’m working on right now—I’m gonna get a portrait of her on my back, above it.
What other tattoos do you have? I noticed you have one near your neck.
Yeah, I have my mom’s name on my neck, I have a diamond on the front of my neck, a transsexual pinup girl on my leg, along with a naked—you know the Scream killer? The guy in Scream?
The ghost.
I have a naked guy with the mask on, and it’s pretty cute.
When people see the Dick Wolf tattoo, what’s their initial reaction?
Everyone just has to go up to me and talk about it and tell me how much they love it. It happens whenever I take my shirt off. Like, it’s funny this happened at [The Country Club, a bar in New Orleans], because the last time I was there I had like, 20 people take pictures of my back, and post it on Facebook.
Were you just hanging out with friends that day?
I’m a drag queen, I was just having a pool day with my drag queen friends.
I live in New York, but my best friend from high school lives down in NOLA, and she was at this bar, and she snapped me. Afterward she was like, I feel so bad because I was sort of creeping on him with this surreptitious photo. I was like, from the reaction it got, it seems like he would be pretty—
Yeah, I want all the attention for Law & Order I can get. I want everyone to know that I’m a super Law & Order fan.
Do you have a favorite episode?
Season 7, Episode 3. I can’t remember the title of it, but it’s the one where there’s a child porn ring, and Mariska’s just a fucking badass.
I think I’ve seen that one! Is that the one where she’s like, on the phone all the time? Is she on the phone for most of the episode?
Yeah, she’s on the phone for a lot of the episode.
And the girl is trapped somewhere, or she’s in a basement or something.
I’m here for it.
After the tweet started blowing up, one of my friends sent me a photo. Apparently, these executive producer Dick Wolf tattoos are actually—well, not common, but more people have them than you might think. I saw one where the girl had sort of a ribcage/underboob type deal going on.
Cute!
Do you think you would feel like kindred spirits?
Yes, 100 percent. I feel no competition with Law & Order whatsoever. I wish everyone had the tattoo so that we could all love Law & Order the same.
How long have you been watching Law & Order for?
As long as I can remember. My parents watched it, my grandparents watched it. I would bond with them and watch it, and I used to love it as a kid. I love it even more as an adult.
What do your friends and family think of the tattoo? Are they fans?
My family loves it. As soon as I got it, they thought it was hilarious. My friends love it, it’s such a party trick—whenever I take off my shirt and I have that there.
People responded really, really strongly. I was going through some of the responses on my own Twitter feed, and so many of them were like, “same,” “it me,” “I want this,” or tagging friends or whatever. Why do you think that the response is that way? Is it just a shared bond over Law & Order?
I feel like tons of people love Law & Order: SVU and they just don’t really talk about it as much as they should. It’s a controversial show—it [has] sex abuse, crimes, but when you get down to it, it’s about the characters and about the stories and showing that a strong woman can be empowered. That’s what I value most about it, because Mariska Hargitay reminds me a lot of my mother, [whom] I lost when I was 19. I just get it. I love Mariska so much.
This was one of those weird things for me where it was sort of like the internet coming to life. You always see these types of things on Tumblr or Instragram, but you’re never there for the moment of creation. You’re never there to see it before it gets crazy.
It was really fun to see that transpire all at once. I was on my way home from the pool and I checked my Facebook feed and someone posted on my wall already that you had tweeted it, and I was like, oh my goodness. And then all night long I was just watching the views and retweets go higher and higher.
What’s the craziest thing anyone’s ever said to you about the tattoo?
Some people just think it’s stupid. They’ll be like, why would you get that, it’s ridiculous! I’m like, I like Law & Order a little bit more than you. If you liked it more you’d understand why I had this tattoo. Why wouldn’t you if you’re dedicated?
Do you have any idea if Mariska has seen the Dick Wolf tattoo?
As far as I know she has not. I’ve tweeted several times at her because I want her to see it more than anything.
The Pontifical Swiss Guard is one of the oldest military units in the world. Established under Pope Julius II in 1506, this exceptionally elite military force is charged with protecting the pope and the Vatican.
Swiss guards stand at attention before the start of the Easter mass in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on March 27, 2016 | (REUTERS/Max Rossi)
The Pontifical Swiss Guards are unique in many ways — they are relatively small (just 110 soldiers) and the selection process is one of the most rigorous — but their iconic striped uniforms may be their most striking quality. But this is no costume. The colorful Renaissance-style garb, medieval weaponry, and intricate armor date back to the Swiss Guards' inception. In fact, the metal harnesses the guards wear are 500 years old.
By 2009, such centuries-old armor was in need of an upgrade. When the Vatican required highly skilled metal artisans — a rare breed in this age of industry and automation — it turned to blacksmith brothers Johann and Georg Schmidberger, the fifth generation in a 200-year-old family business in Molln, Austria.
Johann Schmidberger works on a suit of armor for the Vatican's Swiss Guards at his workshop in Molln, Austria | (REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger)
The Vatican ordered 80 breast harnesses, which would gradually replace the ancient collection. Each harness takes roughly 120 hours to weld and fashion and, besides being brand new, the final product is indistinguishable from the original. Since 2009, the brothers have produced approximately 10 of the Swiss Guard's arm-and-torso pieces each year. Each finished piece is delivered personally to the Vatican and put immediately into rotation.
Once this order is complete, the Vatican likely won't need further metalwork for a few hundred years, the brothers estimate. Their small family workshop will continue to produce the Guards' unique helmets, as well as metalwork for other clients, including locks, swords, gates, and other items, typically for private collectors, theaters, and hobbyists.
Take a look at the careful, painstaking craftsmanship behind the Swiss Guard's iconic armor:
(REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger)
(REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger)
(REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger)
(REUTERS/Lisi Niesner)
(REUTERS/Lisi Niesner)
(REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger)
(REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger)
New Vatican Swiss guards adjust their uniforms prior to a swearing-in ceremony at the Vatican on May 6, 2016. | (REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini)
As for many of their fans, Korn probably came to you early — perhaps while they dominated MTV’s TRL in the late ’90s and early ’00s, offering you the perfect conduit for your screaming, preteen rage. Now Korn is touring South America with an actual tween filling in as bassist, and you’re not mad, exactly — it just would have been nice if it were you.
Tye Trujillo, son of Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo and bassist for the tween band the Helmets, will perform with the nu-metal band during their upcoming dates in Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Peru this month, beginning on April 17. Korn’s regular bassist, Fieldy Arvizu, is unable to to attend for reasons unspecified in the band’s Facebook announcement — which also explained, “We are bummed Fieldy can’t join us on this run but excited to do a few gigs with a young player like Tye. We look forward to welcoming our brother Fieldy back when we return to the States in May.” Hey, cheer up: Maybe one day the band will suddenly find itself in need of an adult who has hasn’t picked up an instrument since eighth grade? Then all your secret, Korn-related dreams could come true.
In Bakersfield, California, 22 children tackled an Easter egg hunt in an unexpected way — instead of looking for the eggs, they listened.
The kids, between the ages of 3 and 13, were all blind and visually impaired, and for the second year in a row they went on an early Easter egg hunt featuring plastic eggs specially designed by the Bakersfield Police Department's bomb squad. The eggs were outfitted so they would make beeping noises, which the children would follow. The kids exchanged the eggs they discovered for snow cones, popcorn, candy, and other treats, and they all went home with individualized Easter baskets.
Gaylene Roberts, a principal who oversees education for the blind and visually impaired, said for kids who have difficulty seeing, egg hunts are the type of experience they typically don't get a chance to have. For them to be able to participate in a traditional event in an innovative way, "you can't really put a value on it," she told TheBakersfield Californian. "It touches the hearts of all of us."
A lady at work has one of these. Unrelated: she regaled a lesbian coworker with tales of using a hollowed-out grapefruit to assist in giving a blow job.
You may have forgotten about the tooth jewelry of the ’90s, but it might be coming back
Fashion trends from the ’90s keep coming back with a vengeance. Chokers, wide legged jeans, bucket-hats, and brown lipstick have all made their way back into our lives — whether they were invited or not. And now, ’90s tooth gems are making a comeback, and we’re kind of not mad about it.
If you don’t remember tooth gems, allow us to refresh your memory. They’re tiny gold, silver, or crystal gems that people had bonded to their teeth using a strong adhesive that would keep them attached for insanely long periods of time. Usually, people would only have one tooth adorned with the gem — kind of like an accent nail, but for teeth. But some people went overboard and had more than one…or even ALL…of their teeth gem-ified.
Well, tooth jewelry seems to be making a strong comeback thanks to various celebrity endorsements.
Katy Perry sported the Nike symbol on her tooth at last month’s iHeartRadio Music Awards. (And yes, she knows there was quinoa in her teeth).
You can probably find a dentist to adhere a gem to your tooth, or you can also check out places like Tooth Kandy in Los Angeles. You’d obviously need to come to L.A. to get your very own gem, but the company carries the largest selection of tooth gems in the U.S. ~The more you know.~
Soooo, spring break, anyone?
Prices range from $85 to $160 per gem, depending on the size and design you get. Tooth Kandy gave model Adwoa Aboah a crystal-studded Chanel logo gem, which was featured on the cover of i-D magazine.
As K-pop superstars BTS wrap up five sold-out U.S. dates on their Wings tour, the international fandom is sprawling.
Die-hards of the Asian boy band, called ARMY (“Adorable Representative M.C for Youth”), express love for the boys in many ways: jaw-dropping art, YouTube covers, and even massive fan-coordinated gatherings like the Rainbow Ocean light stick event. But a fan-made video game, released this week, takes the idols into the digital realm with meticulous attention to detail.
The demo, which is free to download, is a visual novel called To the Edge of the Sky. It takes place in the year 2077, and puts the player in the role of Seven, a secret agent joining a mysterious faction called Phantom Alpha. Seven looks a whole lot like BTS’ youngest member, Jeon Jungkook. Hang around and you also might meet some guys who look a lot like BTS leader Kim Namjoon and gravely rapper Min Yoongi.
Within five minutes of my phone interview with Ajané J.K. Celestin, the CEO of Aeon Dream, we’re laughing. It’s because we speak the same language: the joyful, bubbling excitement of K-pop fandom.
“We decided to put the next chapter of Mystic Destinies on hold to do this demo,” Celestin tells the Daily Dot. “We actually pulled it together in about two weeks. We knew that BTS were coming in concert and we thought it’d be a great way to tell fans about the game.”
Celestin, along with art director Chieu Nguyen and scriptwriter Eglé Dilyte, have been fans of BTS since early last year. But when the band released its award-winning Wings album in 2016, the three became enthralled in a completely new way.
“We were so inspired by the aesthetics of Wings and Herman Hesse’s novel Demian [which Wings quotes at length in the concept videos], we read the book and started dreaming about working with Big Hit to do a game,” Celestin said.
To research what fans would enjoy most, Celestin and her team went to Twitter to talk to BTS’ burgeoning followers. What they got back was intense, rabid enthusiasm for the project.
Celestin stresses that there’s a noticeable gap in how much international fans can relate to BTS, and she hopes her studio’s game can change that.
“BTS don’t have fan meets here in the U.S. like they do in Korea,” she says about the band’s inherent language barrier. (Only one member of BTS is fluent in English.) “We hope that this game might be able to help English-speaking fans feel closer to BTS, ‘spend time with them’ in a way.”
Celestin coyly mentioned a second version of the game, but remained quiet on the details. As far as a full game, though, fans can’t count on that unless Aeon Dream gets unexpected licensing permissions, Celestin notes.
“We won’t make a full game without Big Hit’s consent,” she says respectfully. “We want them to be a part of it. We’re working on getting in touch with them. We’re willing to do all the work, so all we need is their seal of approval.”
Then again don’t be surprised if, somewhere, a superfan comes down with the BTS bug and makes it.
You can download the demo here (for both Windows and Mac) and get updates on the project via its official Twitter.
We’re having trouble processing this makeup artists’ intense optical illusions
Okay, we’ve seen some amazing special effects makeup in our time, but Mimi Choi’s makeup takes optical illusions to the next level! Seriously, whether or not you have a particular enthusiasm for makeup, you need to be following Choi (a Vancouver-based makeup artist) on Instagram.
In an Insta post, Choi noted that, “[The] key to doing this type of #trickart is using the color black to mimic space and depth, and using light colors to highlight edges to create the illusion of height, volume and separation. Taking your photo and video at the right angle is also crucial in creating an impactful illusion. If you truly understand the concept of highlighting and shading, I believe you can create anything on any canvas!
In an interview with Allure.com, she said, “When I do illusions now, I draw my inspiration mostly from my surroundings, photography, paintings, and emotions. I try not to look at other makeup artists’s work too much and challenge myself to produce original, unique work.”
As you can see in her descriptions, the products that Choi is using usually aren’t any different from the regular mascara, lip pencils, eye shadows and creams that we use for our normal makeup routine. Damn, girl!
For the better part of the last year, Slash has toured with a reformed Guns N’ Roses, playing shows around the world and helping bring in more than $100 million last summer.
But if you don’t have any interest in paying hundreds of dollars to see some 50-year-olds regurgitate a bunch of hard rock tunes from 30 years ago (totally worth it, by the way), Slash has another offer for you. How about you watch him play a gig at the Los Angeles Zoo while it’s broadcast in virtual reality?
As Billboard notes, the content can be found on the Google Daydream headset (with the NextVR app from the Google Play store) or the Samsung Gear VR headset (with the same app available at the Oculus store).
It’ll take place May 20 to benefit the zoo and the Species Conservation Action Network, and Jack Black will be among the guest stars that join in the gig. Fans who watch will have the ability to view behind-the-scenes footage in VR, his rehearsal, and an interview with Slash.
Perhaps this shouldn’t be a surprise since Slash is such an animal lover. He is a board trustee on the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association, and the conservation effort strikes a chord with him.
“I used to not believe in zoos as a concept, but now because there are so many endangered animals; there’s so much poaching,” Slash told Samaritan Mag in 2012. “With zoos now, it’s really about conservation. They become safe houses for a lot of species so, I think, now, zoos are really necessary places, not totally about just family entertainment at any cost. It’s about education; it’s about conservation.”
And it’s about starring in zoo commercials with Betty White.
Ever since Billions’ second season kicked off, performer Asia Kate Dillon has been drawing strong reviews for their performance as Taylor, the latest recruit into Bobby Axelrod’s cult of financial worship. Identifying as gender non-binary, Dillon (and Taylor) is a knowing antidote to the show’s hyper-masculine pissing matches, defusing situations with calm logic instead of bellowing speeches. It’s the kind of work that can secure a young performer a coveted supporting performer nod when the next Emmy Awards roll around. But that consideration also forced Dillon—whose assigned sex is female—into an awkward position: Whether to submit as a supporting actor, or actress.
Per Variety, that answer apparently involved a healthy amount of research, plus a letter to the Television Academy itself. Noting that the word “actor” was originally gender-neutral, with actress invented several years later to denote a female actor, Dillon wrote,
Just interviewed someone who went to law school with Jerry O'Connell. The law students were out at a bar talking about their brushes with fame. My interviewee said that when she was a kid, she was an extra on Full House. Jerry instantly responded, "Ooooh, did you get to meet John Stamos?!"
Every actor’s got a project or 30 in their past that they’d rather forget, which is what makes Only The Worst, a new column from Vice, so full of potential. For this edition, Justin Caffier talks to Jerry O’Connell of Jerry Maguire, Stand By Me, and Scream 2 fame about the universally despised Kangaroo Jack, a 2003 rapping kangaroo comedy he starred in alongside Anthony Anderson, Christopher Walken, and Michael Shannon. Caffier even notes our own Nathan Rabin’s review, which describes it as “some of the longest 90 minutes ever committed to film.”
O’Connell is a gracious interviewee and, having been told by producer Jerry Bruckheimer to “never read reviews on it,” has no idea how it’s perceived publicly. He’s shocked to learn it currently holds an 8 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but less so once he and Caffier begin discussing the ...
Kendall Jenner wore shorts that are attached to her shirt and ankles (??), and we have all of the questions
Always one to stay ahead of the sartorial curve, Kendall Jenner wore denim cutoffs with the ankles still attached and we’re…like, genuinely not sure what to make of this. It also appears that her shirt is attached to her denim cutoffs, so really we think she’s wearing what must be the MOST unique romper we’ve ever seen. We have so many questions, not the least of which is how she didn’t ruin the attached ankles the moment she put them on. We can barely wear a pair of distressed jeans without accidentally kicking our foot through the knee, so this is seriously impressive.
Behold, what is either the most fashion forward or fashion backward romper we have ever seen, ever.
BG001/Bauer-Griffin/ Getty Images
Please take a moment to tear your eyes away from figuring out how on earth the shirt is connected, or IF it’s connected and not just tucked in so deeply that it came out the leg of her shorts, to behold these attached ankles. Because, wow.
BG002/Bauer-Griffin/ Getty Images
We genuinely don’t know how we feel about this look. It’s just so different from anything we’ve ever seen before. We have to give Kendall props, if nothing else, for wearing something so unique.
BG001/Bauer-Griffin/ Getty Images
If nothing else, we are DEFINITELY super into her unique aviator sunglasses and killer white sneakers.
While, again, we legitimately don’t think we could make it out of our homes without immediately ripping the lining connecting the ankle cuffs to the cutoffs, we admire that Kendall Jenner is so ready to step outside of — let’s be real — most people’s comfort zones.
Later this month, scientists will march in San Francisco and across the country to protest the Trump administration’s rejection of scientific facts and data.
The event may be marked by a unifying splash of color similar to the hot pink pussy hats worn at the Women’s March in January.
A Bay Area researcher, and avid knitter, has designed a turquoise resistor hat for scientists, and made the pattern free online.
Heidi Arjes, a microbiologist at Stanford University, never cared about politics until recently. “I’ve been very complicit to just come into lab, work really long hours and collect as much as data as I can, she says.”
Microbiologist Heidi Arjes in a lab at Stanford University wearing her turquoise resistor hat. (Andres Aranda Diaz)
Arjes remembers when things changed. She was on the phone with her parents, who live in rural Iowa, about a week after the election. She complained to her mom about the state of the country and her grievances fell on deaf ears.
“She told me, ‘You can’t change the world Heidi.’ That riled me up,” says Arjes. “I answered, ‘Well I can’t if I don’t try, Mom.’”
Arjes picked up her knitting needles and turned her longtime hobby into a political act. Her latest creation is the double entendre resistor hat. It’s a bright turquoise and white beanie with a simple circuit diagram depicting a battery and three resistors.
In an electrical circuit, a resistor applies, you guessed it, resistance. On Arjes’ hat, the resistors are strategically lined up in a row because, set up this way, they would slow down the electrical current in a real circuit. Arjes hopes pressure from protesters will slow down funding cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
“People are painting science in a bad light and trying to ignore facts!” exclaims Arjes. “And, that’s just really painful.”
Arjes has posted her patterns online along with her other designs featuring a double helix, a space shuttle and wind turbines. She hopes marchers will come out in droves wearing knitted caps in a few weeks at the San Francisco march on April 22, Earth Day. Arjes will also be passing out fabric headband versions at the event.
The San Francisco march is one of more than 400 satellite marches inspired by the main March for Science in Washington, D.C.
It’s not easy to sell carbonated beverages in 2017. So we have to congratulate Pepsi, whose new ad may have just unseated rivals Coca-Cola when it comes to finding that Orwellian sweet spot between “having a message” and “saying nothing.”
In the two-and-a-half-minute ad, a perfectly art-directed group of young people march through the streets, holding signs with pictures of peace signs and slogans like “Join the Conversation” and “Love.” But as we all know, vague peace-sign iconography isn’t enough to affect change. You need a leader to spark a rallying cry for the revolution, like a Martin Luther King, or a Gloria Steinem or a … Kendall Jenner? Sure, that works.
Midway through the ad, revolutionary leader Kendall Jenner, clad in a blonde wig for a fancy photo shoot (signifying: not yet woke), catches the eye of a figure in the crowd. Something stirs within her. She rips off her wig, rubs off her lipstick, and joins the crowds in the streets (signifying: she’s woke now).
Police presence? No problem! When a line of attractive cops gets in the marchers’ way, Kendall Jenner simply picks the hottest one and hands him a Pepsi, and suddenly the police are all smiles.
As Elle points out, this final set piece is an image that recalls past protest imagery, like the now famous photo of Black Lives Matter protester Ieshia Evans being arrested by cops at a protest in Baton Rouge. Only, instead of an African-American woman being arrested while peacefully protesting, it’s Kendall Jenner not getting arrested for drinking Pepsi, and instead of protesting systemic racism, these people are just trying to sell you sugary beverages. Anybody else thirsty?
Invader Zim just joined a growing list of classic Nickelodeon cartoon shows getting new TV movies.
Entertainment Weekly reports that the wonderfully weird and satirical Invader Zim is coming back to TV for a 90-minute movie featuring the original voice cast of Richard Horvitz (Zim), Rikki Simons (GIR), Andy Berman (Dib), and Melissa Fahn (Gaz). With the news, Invader Zim joins Rocko’s Modern Life and Hey Arnold! in Nickelodeon’s upcoming TV movie lineup.
The 90-minute movie will focus on Zim—an alien attempting to live among our strange human species while also plotting against us—who has a new (probably delusional) plan to take over the world. Nickelodeon confirmed to Polygonthatshow creator Jhonen Vasquez is on board for the movie, though he’s previously assured fans that Zim wouldn’t be getting a reboot.
He had this to say on Tuesday afternoon.
Believe me, if any new ZIM stuff was happening I would tell you bigly. I have the greatest truths. Fake news! Sad! My neck is gross.
Like lots of our favorite 1990s and early 2000s Nickelodeon shows, Invader Zim has retained a cult base of loyal fans. After more than a decade of waiting, they’re sure to be excited about the return of Zim, even if it’s for a one-time TV special. They will have some more waiting to do. Hey Arnold: The Jungle Movie is due out later this year, and Rocko is in production ahead of Invader Zim with no announced release date.
They were briefly the bane of elementary school teachers (Time magazine even ran a story about schools banning them), then they disappeared like every other trend.
But it’s not like little kids suddenly stopped wanting to wear fun colorful bracelets. In fact, anything laying around the house can totally probably work. Like, let’s say you’re visiting your aunt. Why not just slip on her boyfriend’s cock ring, that the poor fool left just sitting out on the nightstand? That’s how Ben Lauder ended up receiving this text message from this girlfriend.
Ben didn’t know what was going on when he received the first text. “I just replied asking ‘What?’” he said in an interview, “and I was trying to think what I’d done wrong now. I was not expecting to get that at all, when the picture came through I just couldn’t believe it.”
Ben’s girlfriend Amy found her two-year-old niece wearing the sex toy like a bracelet and calling it her “new watch.” She quickly snagged it off the kid, who was apparently super bummed out and went around the house crying and looking in drawers for her lost toy.
“I found the whole thing so funny right away,” Amy said, “but it was so awkward explaining what had happened. My mum kept asking what it was, but I just told her she doesn’t want to know.”
A tiny Dik-dik is making a big impression at Chester Zoo. The little Antelope is being cared for by zoo staff after its mother passed away soon after giving birth.
Standing only about 8 inches tall at the shoulders, the tiny Kirk’s Dik-dik is being bottle fed by staff five times a day. He will continue to receive a helping hand until he is old enough to eat by himself.
Photo Credit: Chester Zoo
Assistant team manager Kim Wood and keeper Barbara Dreyer have both been caring for the new arrival, who is currently so light he doesn’t register a weight on the zoo’s set of antelope scales.
Kim said, “The youngster is beginning to find his feet now and is really starting to hold his own. We’re hopeful that, in a few months’ time, we’ll be able to introduce him to some of the other members of our group of Dik-diks. He may be tiny but he is certainly making a big impression on everyone at the zoo.”
Kirk’s Dik-diks grow to a maximum size of just 16 inches tall at the shoulders, making them one of the smallest species of Antelope in the world.
The species takes its name from Sir John Kirk, a 19th century Scottish naturalist, as well as the alarm calls made by female Dik-diks.
Kirk’s Dik-diks are native to northeastern Africa and conservationists say they mark their territory with fluid from glands between their toes and just under their eyes, not dissimilar to tears. Populations in the wild are stable.
When the little boy of 43-year-old Chris Newsome’s friend lost his frog, the man decided to do something quirky, unexpected and toad-ally amazing – start taking pictures of a toad with a hat to cheer the little fellow up. While this may have started as a modest act of kindness, it turned into a real toad fashion couture extravaganza.
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The man, who has background in graphic design, took some foam paper and demonstrated some serious arts and crafts skills, taking toad millinery to the next level. While some people started writing negative comments saying that the guy has too much time on his hands, Chris, who currently works as the Director of Web Services for a University, told Bored Panda: “The longest I spent on each hat may have been 10 minutes.” Take that, toad fashion haters!
The gorgeous Alabama-based model, aka a Fowler’s Toad, seemed more than happy to try on different hats, including that of a dandy, a street kid, a pimp, and a Texas boy. After the little impromptu fashion show and a photoshoot, the man sent the hats to his friend’s boy. While this didn’t bring his frog back, we’re sure it made the boy feel a bit better.
Meet Friar Bigotón (Friar Moustache), the stray doggie who just became a member of a St Francis Monastery in Cochabamba, Bolivia. The saint after which the Franciscan order was established is known as the patron of animals, so it’s only natural that the monks extended their helping hand to the pooch living on the streets. Now he is one happy doggie who gets to enjoy life to the fullest. “His life is all about playing and running,” fellow friar Jorge Fernandez told The Dodo. “Here, all of the brothers love him very much. He is a creature of God.”
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Friar Bigotón even gets to wear a habit. Maybe inspired by his outfit, the doggie was caught seriously attending to his monk duties: “[Here’s] Brother Carmelo preaching to the fish,” wrote Franciscan Kasper Mariusz Kaproń, who first posted these adorable photos online.
“If only all the churches of our country [would] adopt a dog and care for him like Friar Bigotón,” Proyecto Narices Frías (Cold Nose Project), a local animal rescue, wrote in a post on Facebook, “we are sure that the parishioners would follow his example.”
The guy who owns the banana car came to the Zoo to try to sell us on a promotional idea where he'd throw bananas at the primates we care for.
Photo by C.J. Salgado
EAST LOS ANGELES — C.J. Salgado took this photo of a “banana car” — sporting a license plate that spelled out “SPLIT” — as it traveled the boulevard this afternoon. The banana on wheels was a promotion for a company that makes a line of dehydrated, organic banana snacks. Can’t wait until a low-rider banana cruises on Whittier.
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British company Surrey NanoSystems created the color specifically for the military. The company calls it “the darkest man-made substance.” It’s literally the blackest material to ever exist. Furthermore, Vantablack absorbs nearly all light. Additionally, it even makes three-dimensional objects appear flat.
So trippy, right?
They photograph a technician, holding an actual sphere (not a disk), coated in vantablack—(the darkest pigment ever created): pic.twitter.com/JzYwyjQiHy
The company gave out a few samples of Vantablack for educational purposes. But other than that, it’s impossible to get your hands on it.
You can find the color at Harvard’s Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies’ Forbes Pigments Collection. It’s a collection of around 2,500 synthetic and organic pigments. The center helps conservators, curators, and students study art.
But Vantablack’s material isn’t a traditional pigment.
“It’s not a powder that’s mixed with something and then applied … it’s grown there in situ,” said Straus Center Director Narayan Khandekar.
Furthermore, he added:
“You have small round tubes that grow outwards from the surface. The light goes into those tubes, bounces around, and then is transferred into heat energy, which is then dissipated. And so the surface is more than 99.9 percent light-absorbing.”
This sphere is coated in Vantablack, the darkest pigment ever, making it look 2 dimensional pic.twitter.com/V6i3Tfz25y
It’s hard to even fathom how people make this pigment. Let alone how the color absorbs light.
As cool as it is, don’t plan on ever seeing much of it. Because only one person in the world has the right to use it. Sculptor Anish Kapoor negotiated exclusive artistic rights to Vantablack S-VIS. That’s a spray form said to be the world’s blackest paint.
It must be a pretty cool feeling for Kapoor to be the only human being allowed to use a specific color in his artwork. But we can’t help but think other artists might be having some serious FOMO.
Check out a video Harvard put together explaining Vantablack:
Jeni’s newest ice cream flavor is what Sailor Moon would eat for breakfast
Oh, look — it’s time for ice cream (well, it is somewhere, anyway). Lucky for you, there’s a brand spankin’ new flavor in Jeni’s Spring 2017 Collection, so drop everything you are doing and listen up. It’s called Supermoon, and it’s the stuff of cosmic legends. Jeni’s Supermoon ice cream is a swirl of light yellow ice cream, which tastes like vanilla marshmallow, and pale blue ice cream, which tastes like candied violets. Drooling rn.
We can’t exactly explain the flavor unless you try it for yourself, but we swear this is exactly the flavor Sailor Moon would create if she were asked to make her own ice cream. Besides, it just looks like it came straight from the galaxies. Have a look for yourself.
A post shared by Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams (@jenisicecreams) on
Apparently, the flavor of marshmallows is perfectly potent and sweet, but the foamy texture of the marshmallows has completely disappeared, to leave you with nothing more than a creamy ride into the cosmos. The blue half has a bit of a floral taste in it as well, which we’re sure complements the marshmallows to a T.
To break it down even further, the marshmallow flavors used in Jeni’s new ice cream are inspired by two different kinds, according to their Instagram: “super familiar fluffy vanilla marshmallows, and colorful, almost floral, dehydrated, cereal marshmallows.”
Sailor Moon would approve, as would any Lucky Charms fans out there. You don’t need to wait for this Supermoon goodness to be in your freezer — it’s available right now. So go forth and scream for ice cream!
Swiss guards stand at attention before the start of the Easter mass in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on March 27, 2016 | (REUTERS/Max Rossi)
Johann Schmidberger works on a suit of armor for the Vatican's Swiss Guards at his workshop in Molln, Austria | (REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger)
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New Vatican Swiss guards adjust their uniforms prior to a swearing-in ceremony at the Vatican on May 6, 2016. | (REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini)
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• It was midnight and I literally could not stop laughing at myself. Being a single child has made me extremely good at being my own best entertainment. 
Done using @kryolanofficial Aquacolors, @suvabeauty Hydra Liners and @stilacosmetics intense black stay-all-day liquid eyeliner. Video coming next. ✌
I apologize for the lack of posts lately - 24 hours per day have not been enough. 
#handpainting
The horse is expected to heal from its injuries. [ 
