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The world is still jolted by the 2016 Brexit decision, but apparently it’s not too soon to make a movie about it.

HBO has released a trailer for its new telefilm Brexit, produced in collaboration with BBC Studios, Channel 4, and House Productions, that shows Benedict Cumberbatch as Dominic Cummings, the man who spearheaded the Vote Leave campaign, which resulted in U.K. voters opting to leave the European Union.

“Everyone knows who won,” Cumberbatch’s Cummings says in the preview, “but not everyone knows how.”

The how comes with him suggesting his party “hack the political system” through targeting users on social media and tapping into people’s fears around immigration and race. “We want to return to a time when we knew our place, when things made sense — fictional or not,” Cummings says. (Sound familiar?)

Rory Kinnear also plays Craig Oliver, Prime Minister David Cameron’s director of communications and head of the Remain campaign.

Directed by Toby Haynes (Black Mirror, Sherlock) and written by James Graham (A Brilliant Young Mind), Brexit will premiere Saturday, Jan. 19, at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.

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When discussing Stan Lee's legacy, it's easy to get distracted by the flourishes and flares. After all, as the man who co-created heavy hitters like Spider-Man or The Fantastic Four, it's not hard to see why -- there's no small amount of glitz and glamor to be had. But buried beneath Lee's massive roster of creative contributions to Marvel's pantheon is a detail that may be considerably less flashy than the Bang! Zoom! Pow! of his costumed heroes, but is no less monumental in scale. By crafting himself into a bombastic, over the top editorial voice -- "Stan The Man" or "Smilin' Stan" -- that featured heavily in every Marvel publication, Lee was leading a quiet revolution in not only the comic book industry's business practices, but the world of superhero fandom as a whole.

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Sometimes it seems like Spider-Man is the loneliest and unluckiest hero in the entire Marvel Universe. But as it turns out, he's far from the only wall-crawling hero out there. The Marvel multiverse is full of like-minded do-gooders who use their spider-powers to defend innocent lives. And when those heroes come together, the Spider-Verse is born.

And now, with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse hitting theaters, what better time to delve into the history of the Spider-Verse? The film stars the voice talents of Shameik Moore (as Spider-Man/Miles Morales), Jake Johnson (as Peter Parker), Hailee Steinfeld (as Gwen Stacy), Mahershala Ali (as Miles' uncle Aaron), Brian Tyree Henry (as Miles’ father Jefferson), Luna Lauren Velez (as Miles’ mother Rio), Lily Tomlin (as Aunt May), and Liev Schreiber (as The Kingpin).

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With The CW's announcement that 2019's Arrowverse crossover will be Crisis on Infinite Earths, it got us theorizing on just what that could mean for this DC TV universe. It also got us questioning how a specific character in this year's crossover is significant to next year's Crisis.

Full spoilers for the "Elseworlds" crossover finale continue below.

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If there’s one thing I love, it’s Kingdom Hearts. If there’s a second thing I love, it’s keeping track of weird phenomenon in pop culture release date scheduling. Luckily for me, 2019 has already proven itself to be a surprisingly packed time during a normally quite period of the year — February.

While Sony has used February expertly for hits like Horizon Zero Dawn and Shadow of the Colossus, it’s a normally quiet month in pop culture. Until 2019, specifically on February 15.

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Netflix has finally taken the wraps off its adaptation of the Dark Horse comic The Umbrella Academy. The streaming service has posted a teaser trailer that both confirms the series' February 15th premiere date and offers a glimpse into its take on G...

Innovation usually happens in slow, measured steps over many years, but a demo in 1968 transformed the world of personal computers in just 90 minutes. In a presentation dubbed "the mother of all demos," Douglas Engelbart showed off technology t...

Given the phenomenal popularity of craft beers and ales sweeping bars across the globe, it's surprising that homebrewing hasn't yet taken off to the same levels. Sure, we've seen a number of systems touting the trend -- Picobrew and Brewie are two th...

Microsoft may have bought Obsidian, but that isn't stopping the developer from releasing at least one multi-platform title. Obsidian has taken the wraps off The Outer Worlds, a single-player sci-fi RPG headed to PC, PS4 and Xbox One in 2019. In spi...

The HTC Exodus 1 - the company's first cryptocurrency-focused phone - is now available for purchase. The first wave of shipments is starting and if you want in, you can buy one with Litecoin, Bitcoin or Ethereum. You can't buy this phone with fiat currency. Meanwhile, Litecoin founder Charlie Lee has joined the Exodus team as a consultant. Besides the Exodus 1 itself, this marks the debut of the Zion crypto wallet. It's backed by hardware security that's separate from the Android system. There's a clever Social Key Recovery function too. Using the wallet you can trade...

Today Microsoft has officially announced it is going to abandon its EdgeHTML and Chakra scripting engines, and move to Chromium for their first-party web browser, Microsoft Edge. This is big news for the company that once dominated the web browsing market. There’s a lot of reasons for this change, and the move is a good one, but it’s also a little sad for the web as a whole.

Despite being the built-in browser on Windows 10, which is installed on around 700 million active devices, Edge owns just a tiny fraction of the desktop browsing market. Google Chrome is far and away the leader here, and with Google’s relentless update schedule, there is no indication of this reversing anytime soon. I recall when Google Chrome was first launched, and wondered if the world really needed yet another browser, and clearly the answer was no. The only thing was the no was not for Chrome.

With such a small share of the market, and Edge only available on Windows 10, developers would often never even see if a website worked on Edge or not. Even though Edge was the most standards compliant browser Microsoft ever shipped, that still was not enough for a perfect web experience on every site. If users ran into an issue, they would just move to Chrome even if they had given Edge a chance.

The move to Chromium as the underpinnings of Edge should improve the situation quite a bit. As well, Microsoft will be releasing versions of Edge based on Chromium for Windows 7, Windows 8, and even macOS, in addition to Windows 10. This should help developers who use those platforms test Edge if they need to.

In addition, Edge has been powered by Chromium on Android already, so the team is at least somewhat familiar with what it can do.

Goodbye EdgeHTML - we hardly knew you

Microsoft is has been heavily involved in open-sourcing its own software lately, and with Edge it will now join the Chromium community with their own contributions. Microsoft has committed to still advancing web standards, and bringing the current advantages from Edge over to Chromium, such as the accessibility and security features. By embracing Chromium, they will be having a much larger impact on the web than they ever could have maintaining their own code, so it should be a win for people who never even use Edge.

It’s sad that the web has evolved into this, and although you can’t really compare the world of IE6 to today, there are similarities there that can’t be forgotten, but for Microsoft and its users, this is a good move, and we look forward to seeing how the project evolves.

Source: Microsoft Edge on Github

Toshiba on Thursday said that its latest and largest hard drives for high-end desktops and NASes will be available later this month in the US. The new N300 and X300-series HDDs will offer not only increased capacities, but also provide improved performance.

Available in 12 TB and 14 TB capacities, Toshiba’s latest N300 and X300-series helium-filled hard drives are built around 1.56 TB PMR platters from Showa Denko, with the drives incorporating up to 9 of the platters. The drives generally resemble Toshiba’s enterprise-grade MG07-series HDDs introduced last year: they feature a 7200 RPM spindle speed, a 256 MB cache buffer, and a SATA 6 Gbps interface. As for performance, Toshiba has rated the maximum sustained data transfer speeds for the drives at 260 MB/s for 14 TB models and 253 MB/s for 12 TB SKUs. Power wise, expect the HDDs to consume around 9W.

It is particularly noteworthy that both HDDs feature top and bottom attached motors to minimize vibrations (Toshiba calls the feature Stable Platter Technology). Meanwhile, being aimed at different kinds of applications, the new HDDs are not just rebadged MG07 products. Toshiba’s N300-series 12 TB and 14 TB hard drives for NAS (aka MN07-series) with up to 8 bays are outfitted with rotational vibration (RV) sensors to ensure consistent performance in vibrating multi-drive environments. By contrast, desktop-oriented X300-seires 12 TB and 14 TB HDDs do not have RV sensors since modern desktops hardly use multiple hard drives. Meanwhile, neither of the new HDDs are equipped with environmental sensors, persistent write cache (PWC) with power loss protection (PLP) technology, or other enterprise-grade features.

When it comes to rated workloads and durability, Toshiba’s N300 drives are rated for 24/7 operation, up to 180 TB per year workloads and 1 million-hour MTTF. The X300 HDDs are not officially designed for 24/7 operation, but it still features improved reliability courtesy of its Stable Platter tech and the enterprise nature of the platform. All the new drives will be covered by a three-year limited warranty.

Toshiba’s new N300 and X300-series HDDs will be generally available in the US later this month. The new N300 and X300 hard drives are priced equally despite being slightly different. The 12 TB SKUs cost $429.99, whereas 14 TB models carry a $539.99 price tag.

UPDATE 12/8: Adding official MSRPs of the products.

Related Reading:

• Toshiba Unveils MG07SCA 12 TB & 14 TB Enterprise-Class HDDs with Dual-Port SAS
• Toshiba Unveils MN07 Series HDDs Featuring 12 TB & 14 TB Capacity
• Toshiba’s 14 TB HDDs Now Available from Supermicro
• Toshiba Announces 14 TB PMR MG07ACA HDD: 9 Platters, Helium-Filled, 260 MB/s
• Toshiba Launches S300 and V300 HDDs for Surveillance and Video Applications
• Toshiba Launches MN06ACA 10 TB HDD for NAS: 7 Platters, Up to 249 MB/s

Source: Toshiba

The latest adaptation of Nightflyers, a novella and short story collection written by George R. R. Martin in the 1980s, premiered on Syfy last weekend. If you're following the nightly episodes, you'll know how integral the titular spaceship, with its...

This post contains spoilers for the Arrowverse "Elseworlds" crossover. Check out our reviews for "Elseworlds" Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

This year's Arrowverse crossover, "Elseworlds," introduced the Monitor (played by LaMonica Garrett), an omniscient being who watches over the entire multiverse and whose presence foretells dire things to come for the Arrowverse - a "Crisis on Infinite Earths," as revealed in the final moments of "Elseworlds Part 3."

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We might finally get some more Black Mirror this month.

Netflix reportedly tweeted a premiere date for a single episode of the acclaimed anthology drama from an official account, then quickly deleted it.

The date: Friday,  Dec. 28. The timing lines up last year’s season 4 release date — those episodes were released on the last Friday of 2017.

The new episode’s title: Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. The Bandersnatch is a creature in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass. But TV Guide points out that word might relate a 1984 computer game — and that such a game was previously referenced during Black Mirror‘s season 3 episode “Playtest”:

WHHAAATTTT, Bandersnatch was referenced all the way back in Season 3 on the front cover of the gaming magazine in Playtest pic.twitter.com/LabQe7dX6v

— Ebejeevezner Scrooge (@jeeveswilliams) November 26, 2018

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None of this, to be sure, is confirmed by Netflix, which has maintained radio silence on future Black Mirror episodes, and in true Black Mirror fashion the leak only raises additional questions — like, does this mean we’re only getting a single episode in 2018, and not a full season?

When Linux adopted its new Code of Conduct, many predicted it would lead to increasing censorship, and that appears to be exactly what is happening: in a new patch series, all instances of the f-bomb have been replaced by the word "hugs." Neowin points out that many of the comments (e.g., "some Athlon laptops have really hugged PST tables") just sound confusing. Surprisingly, at least with this initial patch series, it's just 33 lines of changed comments out of 3.3+ million lines of code comments within the kernel source tree, but we'll see what other words may get cleaned up next for making the Linux kernel more inviting to all. Linus Torvalds has also cleaned up his colorful language and refrained from any outbursts on the mailing list since his brief retreat during the 4.19 cycle. Discussion

How does a person land their first job as a developer these days?

This was one of the questions discussed last night at the Cascadia JS Scholar Success Mixer.

A special event bringing together CascadiaJS scholarship recipients with senior members of the JS community here in Seattle for an evening of networking and fun.

Now that I’ve left GitHub, I have more time to get involved in such events and ponder these questions with others.

What the hell do I know about this?

I’ll be honest, it’s been a long time since I had to do a job search. My first job as a programmer came right out of college when dinosaurs still roamed the earth crapping out startups like there was no tomorrow.

And to lean into this crappy metaphor, this was just before the big Dot Com comet came and burned them all to the ground. Really, how was Kozmo supposed to survive having bike messengers deliver me a Frappucino and a CD at below cost?!

Here’s a photo of me hard at work back then.

I found that first job through applying to a series of job ads when I was a senior in college. But after that, every other job I had came through a contact.

So I felt a bit unprepared to help answer the question about how to land your first job. I even asked if dice.com was still a thing, clearly identifying myself as a dinosaur.

It occurred to me that I might have something to offer. It wasn’t long ago that I was a hiring manager and that experience might be useful.

Hiring practices

Before I get into some tips, it’s important to understand that hiring practices differ widely. And most interviews are no better than random chance at predicting future success.

For example, when I was at GitHub, we adopted structured interviews because studies showed they had a better than random predictive validity. How much? 51%.

So slightly better than flipping a coin! However,

You might think 51% is really bad, but compare that to, say, basing hiring decisions solely on someone’s reference checks (26%). And it doesn’t mean that 49% of your hires are going to do inherently bad - it just means that, with that practice adopted, you’re essentially giving up ~49% of your hires to chance.

Combinations of practices can net up to 60% predictive validity.

A big part of GitHub’s hiring practices is to remove bias from the process. For example, GitHub doesn’t use your GitHub profile as a signal because whether you have time to contribute to projects on GitHub depends on a lot of other factors that may not correlate to being a solid performer.

Getting Noticed

The tips I will provide are not comprehensive. There’s probably much better resources a Google search away. These are just a few tips I want to highlight based on my own experience.

The first step is to get noticed. This is bidirectional. You need to notice a good place to work. And the good place to work needs to notice you.

Networking comes in real handy here. The more people you network with, the more opportunities you learn about. If you don’t have the benefit of a deep network, reach out to folks you know. Try and attend events like the Cascadia Scholars mixer. Attend user groups. Connect with folks on LinkedIn and note that you’re looking.

When you find a job you’re interested in, see if you know someone who works there. Or ask for an informational interview. The goal is to find out as much as possible what the company is looking for and what they value in an employee.

This last bit is important because you want their values to align with yours, or it’s not going to go well.

Applying for that job

Most developers know that companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Google, GitHub, etc. are constantly hiring.

A company like GitHub can get hundreds of applications for a given position. Reviewing that many applications can put a reviewer in a zombified state.

This is one reason that networking is important. It can uncover a smaller company that is a diamond in the rough and isn’t getting overloaded by applications.

In either case, it’s important to make sure your application stands out. For example, many applications have a short set of screener questions. This is not your opportunity to write a long manifesto. This is your chance to demonstrate competence and communication skills by answering the question succinctly.

I also don’t recommend spamming your resume to a bunch of jobs. As one who reviewed a ton of resumes, the ones that caught my attention seemed tailored to the applied position. It was clear to me they emphasized their experience that related to the position. Walls of text cause my eyes to glaze over.

Even with these tips, there’s a lot of luck involved.

Interviewing

If you make it pass the screeners, it’s now time to interview. Hopefully, you’re applying to a company that is committed to removing bias from its interviews.

If someone asks you why manhole covers are round, flip the table and leave. Those questions are useless and reflect an outdated approach to interviewing. You don’t want to work there. Unless, of course, you’re applying to a job making manholes. Only then is that question relevant.

Research the position and look online for the types of questions that might be asked. It goes without saying that you should be prepared to answer technical questions relevant to the position.

But be prepared that many questions will be situational. It’s good to think through situations from your own past relevant to the position and how you’d answer such questions. For example,

Tell me about a time you had to deal with a difficult peer. What did you do?

Many of the scholars I talked to at the mixer were folks making a career change. They had recently completed a developer bootcamp and were looking to land a developer position.

In my mind, these folks have a leg up on folks right out of college. They already have work experience and a work history to draw upon to answer such questions with.

But if you don’t have much work experience, when faced with such a question, note that you haven’t been in such a situation, but answer with what you would do if faced with such a situation.

For those hiring

Many of the readers of my blog are experienced software engineers managers, and leaders. I encourage you to get involved with mentoring the next generation of developers. Reflect on the anxiety you felt when you looked for your first job.

Also, I think many companies still have a bias against developer bootcamp in favor of recent grads with a four year computer science degree.

From my experience, a degree in computer science is great, but isn’t as relevant to day to day web development. If you’re hiring a React developer, a recent bootcamp grad who spent the last 13 weeks learning React can hit the ground running.

Also, bootcamp grads often are mid-career and exhibit the level of professional maturity that will benefit your team. I’ve had a lot of success with hiring bootcamp grads and completely changed my own outlook towards these programs.

There’s a lot of software jobs out there and a lot of people looking to fill those positions. I hope we can work together to match people up with a great opportunity.

UPDATE: Neil deGrasse Tyson responded to the two accusations of sexual misconduct and one accusation of rape lodged against him by three women over the past few weeks.

In his statement, released over his official Facebook page, the astrophysicist offered his account of all three alleged incidents and supported the independent investigations Fox Broadcasting Company and National Geographic are conducting on the matter.

Dr. Katelyn N. Allers claimed she was “felt up” by Tyson during a photo op in 2009 when he allegedly examined her body tattoo in an “uncomfortable and creepy” manner. With his detailed recollection of events, Tyson denies groping her, stating he only searched “under the covered part of her shoulder of the sleeveless dress.”

Tyson’s former assistant Ashley Watson described an alleged incident in which he allegedly made unwanted sexual advances over wine in his apartment. Tyson writes how she confronted him about this meeting in the days that followed.

“At that last meeting in my office, I apologized profusely,” he states. “She accepted the apology. And I assured her that had I known she was uncomfortable, I would have apologized on the spot, ended the evening, and possibly reminded her of the other social gathering that she could attend. She nonetheless declared it her last day, with only a few days left of production. I note that her final gesture to me was the offer of a hug, which I accepted as a parting friend.”

Tchiya Amet, a fellow grad student of Tyson’s in 1984, publicly accused him of drugging and raping her. Tyson writes how he had “a brief relationship with a fellow astro-graduate student” at the time but remembers “being intimate only a few times, all at her apartment.” He adds, “but the chemistry wasn’t there. So the relationship faded quickly. There was nothing otherwise odd or unusual about this friendship.”

“I didn’t see much of her after that time,” Tyson writes. “Our student offices were on different floors of the building and we were not in the same classes. A few years later, I ran into her, pregnant, with who I think was the father by her side. That’s when I had learned that she dropped out of graduate school. Again, this is not itself an unusual fact, but I nonetheless wished her well in motherhood and in whatever career path would follow.”

“I’m the accused, so why believe anything I say? Why believe me at all?” Tyson writes in conclusion. “That brings us back to the value of an independent investigation, which FOX/NatGeo (the networks on which Cosmos and StarTalk air) announced that they will conduct. I welcome this. Accusations can damage a reputation and a marriage. Sometimes irreversibly. I see myself as loving husband and as a public servant – a scientist and educator who serves at the will of the public. I am grateful for the support I’ve received from those who continue to respect and value me and my work.”

Read Tyson’s full statement below.

Posted by Neil deGrasse Tyson on Saturday, December 1, 2018

EARLIER: The producers behind Cosmos, as well as Fox Broadcasting Company and National Geographic, are currently investigating sexual misconduct claims against Neil deGrasse Tyson, the astrophysicist and author who hosts the science series.

Patheos.com published accounts from two women this week who stated Tyson behaved inappropriately with them.

Dr. Katelyn N. Allers said she was “felt up” by Tyson at an American Astronomical Society after-party in 2009. He allegedly “grabbed” her during a photo op to look at a tattoo running along her arm. “He looked for Pluto and followed the tattoo into my dress,” she said, describing the incident as “uncomfortable and creepy.”

Ashley Watson, one of Tyson’s former assistants, said she was forced to quit her job following unwanted sexual advances. She claims Tyson, who was still married during the alleged incident, invited her to his apartment to “share a bottle of wine” when he made unwanted sexual advances — asking if she needed any type of “releases,” walking around in a tank top undershirt, performing an intimate “Native American handshake” that involved holding hands tightly and feeling for her pulse, and suggesting he would “just want more” if he went to hug her.

This follows an account from Tchiya Amet, who publicly accused Tyson of drugging and raping her in 1984.

“The credo at the heart of Cosmos is to follow the evidence wherever it leads. The producers of Cosmos can do no less in this situation,” a statement from the show’s producers to EW reads. “We are committed to a thorough investigation of this matter and to act accordingly as soon as it is concluded.”

In a joint statement, Fox Broadcasting Company and National Geographic said, “We have only just become aware of the recent allegations regarding Neil deGrasse Tyson. We take these matters very seriously and we are reviewing the recent reports.”

Cosmos: Possible Worlds, the 13-episode new season of the series, was announced earlier this year for a premiere in 2019. Tyson has been attached to host again. He’s also planning for the release of Astrophysics for Young People in a Hurry, an adaptation of his best-selling Astrophysics for People in a Hurry that’s geared for younger readers.

Tyson serves as the director of the Hayden Planetarium at New York’s American Museum of Natural History. He has yet to publicly address the matter.

Reps for Tyson, the museum, and Tyson’s publisher W.W. Norton did not respond to EW’s requests for comment.

Related content:

New Neil deGrasse Tyson book to target curious young readers Cosmos to return in 2019 with Possible Worlds Neil deGrasse Tyson approves of time travel comedy Future ’38 in exclusive trailer

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Marvel comics legend Stan Lee died last week at 95. Aside from creating dozens of iconic superheroes, Lee was also known for ushering in the modern comic book era and becoming the face of it through his cameo appearances in film and television projects. 

One of those appearances included that of an anonymous bus driver on NBC’s Heroes, which counted among its producers Jeph Loeb, who now serves as the head of Marvel TV and crossed paths regularly with Lee throughout his Marvel career. Below, Loeb remembers working with Lee for the first time, reflects on his legacy, and reveals his favorite Lee cameo.

The first time I worked with Stan was not on a Marvel project. I was on a show called Heroes, and we thought it would be fun if Stan did a cameo on the show. That’s when I learned the first lesson of having Stan do your cameos, that he can take one line and make it into a soliloquy. What was happening was, he was the bus driver — he always played the everyman — and Hiro, the young Japanese character , was getting on the bus.

Stan’s line was “Hi there.” We set it all up, the bus pulls up, the door opens, and Stan leans out and says, “Well, young man, where you headed off to?” And Hiro says, “I’m trying to get to California.” And Stan says, “Well, I’ve got good news for you! We’re headed right there, so come on board!” We were like, “I guess that’s the same as ‘Hi there’ if you’re in Stan’s world.” We tried to use him in all of the Marvel series, but on the shows in New York , it was harder for him to come from California, though every one of the showrunners asked if we could.

When I started working in the business and had the chance to meet him, people would say, “You know Stan Lee?” And I would go, “What’s extraordinary to me is that Stan Lee knows who I am.” It just seemed impossible to me. And he was so good about that. Even at 95, he would go, “Oh, Jeph, how are you, what’s going on at Marvel?” It was remarkable.

It’s not in the movies or television shows, but cameo is at the end of the wedding of Reed Richards and Sue Storm. He and Jack are two guys at the wedding, and that’s the end of the story. There are these two guys with top hats and tuxedos walking down the street, talking about the Fantastic Four.

On a professional level, Stan took these mysterious people who wrote and drew and inked and lettered and edited comics, and he made them into characters. He gave them nicknames, and you had a sense as a reader that getting a chance to work at the Marvel bullpen or see the Marvel bullpen was like going to the circus, and these were the people who were having the greatest time and every now and then would draw themselves into the comics.

And it’s why you loved them, because Stan created a world where he and the rest of the bullpen could play in the Marvel universe, which told us youngsters who were going to come in and write and draw for Marvel and eventually make movies and television shows, that we were always a part of the story, and that we could be in the Marvel universe any time we wanted to be. a hero, a brilliant storyteller, a fantastic marketer, and a promoter without peer. He really took hold of the comic book industry and told the world that these aren’t just for children. This is literature.

Related links:

All of Stan Lee’s Marvel cameos Netflix’s Stan Lee Easter egg salutes Marvel legend

Too bad Jason Mendoza is alive again to see what has become of his beloved Jacksonville Jaguars and Jake Jortles Blake Bortles.

Once upon a time, The Good Place was the best thing that had happened to the lowly NFL franchise, one of only four organizations to never make the Super Bowl. The 2016 debut of the NBC comedy gave the team something they have rarely ever had: relevance. The presence of Jacksonville native/backup dancer/terrible safe robber Jason Mendoza (Manny Jacinto) gave The Good Place ample opportunity to make jokes at the expense of Florida, and more specifically, Florida’s least successful football team.

But you know what, something funny happened amidst all of the Jaguars digs and Blake Bortles GIFs — the Jaguars became good. In the biggest Good Place twist of all, the 3-13 team and their disappointing first round draft pick of a quarterback transformed into a winner, making a run to the AFC Championship and coming up only a few minutes short of advancing to their first Super Bowl. The playoff run even included an in-person appearance by Jason Mendoza himself, when Jacinto and Good Place writer Joe Mande attended a playoff game in Jacksonville.

Jason made it back. Duval Til We Die and forever.#DTWD @nbcthegoodplace pic.twitter.com/zIsOfJcqAY

— #DUUUVAL (@Jaguars) January 7, 2018

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The Jaguars might have lost to the New England Patriots, but they proved to be the future of the NFL, loaded with the best young defense in football, an elite running back in Leonard Fournette, and a much improved Bortles, who was given a rich contract extension. It looked like nothing could stop them — until the very thing that made them America’s team (or at least the team for the millions of non-football fans who watch The Good Place) is exactly what killed their bright future.

The date was Oct. 4. The Jaguars were riding high at 3-1, having just recently demolished the mighty Patriots, officially positioning themselves as the new team to beat in their conference. But then, The Good Place aired “The Brainy Bunch.” In the third episode of the third season, the gang is fully reunited back on Earth with the help of Michael (Ted Danson) and Janet (D’Arcy Carden), which the Judge (Maya Rudolph) soon discovers. She rips Michael and Janet for interfering in human affairs, saying it has caused ripple effects and “weird stuff” is happening as a result, ranging from Brexit to the wild success of The Greatest Showman. But she saved the biggest offense for last. “Also, the Jacksonville Jaguars are good now,” she declares, which Michael deems impossible. “I’m serious. They’re gonna make the playoffs. Blake Bortles is kind of okay, maybe, I don’t know, it’s being debated amongst experts; it’s confusing. But whatever it is, it’s yo’ fault!”

Why is this exchange so significant when the show has made countless Jaguars jokes? Well, because the Jaguars have not won a single game since. Yep, seven straight losses. And guess what else? Remember that “kind of okay, maybe” quarterback Blake Bortles? Yeah, you see, he wouldn’t even be able to hit a boat with a Molotov cocktail right about now, which is why he was just benched for the rest of the season in favor of Cody Kessler. The same Cody Kessler who sports an 0-8 career record.

Now with only one episode left during the football season, there’s nothing The Good Place can do at this point to salvage the Jaguars season, but how about moving forward? How can they right this wrong? Will it require them to start making fun of how bad the team is again? Do they need to get Blake Bortles an offseason cameo to get him back on track? (Jason surely would have some tips for him).

Or maybe, just maybe, this was always the plan. Creator Mike Schur is a New England native and noted Boston sports fan. Could he have seen how close the Jaguars were to beating the Patriots in the playoffs last year and gone into the season 3 writers’ room with the sole focus of bringing about the downfall of his favorite team’s toughest competition? Let’s go directly to Ted Danson for his thoughts:

Virgin Orbit just edged closer to its goal of launching rockets in mid-air. The company has completed the first "captive carry" test for its LauncherOne rocket, hauling the 70-foot machine under the wing of Cosmic Girl (its Boeing 747 launch aircraf...

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CNN is taking legal action against the White House after the Trump administration suspended the “hard pass” press credentials of the network’s correspondent Jim Acosta.

“CNN filed a lawsuit against the Trump Administration this morning in DC District Court,” a statement from the news outlet released on Tuesday reads. “It demands the return of the White House credentials of CNN’s Chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta. The wrongful revocation of these credentials violates CNN and Acosta’s First Amendment rights of freedom of the press, and their Fifth Amendment rights to due process. We have asked this court for na immediate restraining order requiring the pass be returned to Jim, and will seek permanent relief as part of this process. While the suit is specific to CNN and Acosta, this could have happened to anyone. If left unchallenged, the actions of the White House would create a dangerous chilling effect for any journalist who covers our elected officials.”

According to the legal documents, shared on CNN’s press website, the lawsuit was filed against President Trump, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications William Shine, Chief of Staff John Kelly, Director of the United States Secret Service Randolph Alles (who took Acosta’s pass), and an unnamed Secret Service agent.

Sanders announced Acosta’s White House media pass would be revoked after a contentious face-off during a press conference on Nov. 7. In what amounted to a shouting match, a female intern attempted to grab the mic away from Acosta. Sanders shared doctored video footage of the incident on social media and accused Acosta of “placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern.”

“This conduct is absolutely unacceptable. It is also completely disrespectful to the reporter’s colleagues not to allow them an opportunity to ask a question. President Trump has given the press more access than any President in history,” she tweeted — even though Trump has previously barred multiple members of the press from various events.

Some, like Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert, called on Sanders to be fired, as the video, which appeared to be the same one shared by an Infowars personality, made the interaction seem more violent.

This conduct is absolutely unacceptable. It is also completely disrespectful to the reporter’s colleagues not to allow them an opportunity to ask a question. President Trump has given the press more access than any President in history.

— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) November 8, 2018

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“We have been advised that CNN has filed a complaint challenging the suspension of Jim Acosta’s hard pass. This is just more grandstanding from CNN, and we will vigorously defend against this lawsuit,” a new statement from the press secretary reads in response to CNN’s complaint.

While Sanders’ earlier tweets focused on Acosta “placing his hands” on the intern, her new remarks argue the pass was revoked for Acosta refusing to give up the mic to other reporters.

“CNN, who has nearly 50 additional hard pass holders, and Mr. Acosta is no more or less special than any other media outlet or reporter with respect to the First Amendment,” she says. “After Mr. Acosta asked the President two questions — each of which the President answered — he physically refused to surrender a White House microphone to an intern, so that other reporters might ask their questions. This was not the first time this reporter has inappropriately refused to yield to other reporters. The White House cannot run an orderly and fair press conference when a reporter acts this way, which is neither appropriate nor professional. The First Amendment is not served when a single reporter, of more than 150 present, attempts to monopolize the floor. If there is no check on this type of behavior it impedes the ability of the President, the White House staff, and members of the media to conduct business.”

Olivier Knox, head of the White House Correspondents’ Association, released a statement in solidarity with CNN. “Revoking access to the White House complex amounted to disproportionate reaction to the events of last Wednesday,” he said. “We continue to urge the administration to reverse course and full reinstate CNN’s correspondent. The president of the United States should not be in the business of arbitrarily picking the men and women who cover him.”

Statement from WHCA President Olivier Knox on CNN lawsuit. #whca @oknox pic.twitter.com/y5uJwnGfqb

— WHCA (@whca) November 13, 2018

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At the end of its latest episode on Tuesday night, Fox’s The Gifted aired a title card showing the X-Men drama’s cast with Stan Lee in memory of the Marvel Comics legend, who died Monday at the age of 95. Lee, who created countless iconic superheroes including the X-Men, had appeared in the series’ pilot as a customer exiting a mutant-friendly bar, and later mingled with the cast for the photo used in the remembrance:

RIP #StanLee ending credits #TheGifted https://t.co/hCMTZuuX2a—
The Gifted Wiki (@TheGiftedWiki) November 14, 2018

Below, the drama’s showrunner Matt Nix reflects on scrambling to make the Lee cameo happen. What could have been a logistical nightmare — the team had little time, not to mention a potential conflict with horses — turned into an appearance that, Nix says, “felt meant to be.”

We were in Dallas shooting when we realized in the morning that he was there at a comic book convention, so one of the executive producers and I just rolled out of bed and ran. I had never met him, so I was super excited. Weirdly, as we walked out of the hotel, we bumped into Amy Acker . Amy just happened to be at the valet at the time, and we said, “Hey, we’re going to try to go to this comic-con,” and she said, “Oh! My roommate from college runs that comic-con, she can get you in!” Because, you know, we didn’t have tickets.

So, she calls her friend, we arrive, her friend meets us and walks us right in so that we’re just in time to find Stan and his people. We say, “Hey, will you be in this episode?” And his people are like “Yeah, he’ll do it, but he has a 20-minute window.” He had to get on a plane! We had no location — we had nothing, so basically, I sat down and was like, “Okay, he’s in this mutant bar,” and we had to pull out all the stops to get the bar. The bar said, “Yeah you can do it, but we have this whole event planned here. A bunch of horses are showing up, so there are going to be horses in the bar, so we’re not sure it’s going to work out.” Like, who has horses in a bar?

Anyway, turns out the horses were late. And so, because the horses were late, the bar was available, and because we got there at exactly the right time — we got a new camera crew and literally pulled it together in two hours — he was available. He said yes, we all got there, he had literally 20 minutes before he had to leave, so he walked into the bar, he walked out of the bar, he walked into the bar, he walked out of the bar, he walked into the bar, he walked out of the bar, and we called “Cut.” He was like, “Thanks, everybody!” He took a picture, then got on a plane. That was it.

We didn’t go through any channels. We literally found a camera and shot it, so we were incredibly excited. It felt meant to be! I mean, by that point in his life, he was so good at being Stan Lee, you know what I mean? It’s exciting, and it’s such an honor to be able to play in the sandbox of these modern heroes. These are iconic — and to get the opportunity to play with them is an honor, and to actually get the opportunity to meet the guy who made it all happen? It’s pretty amazing.

So obviously we have great affection for him, and as soon as we heard about his passing, we thought, “We have to do something.” Fortunately, we have that great picture. And fortunately, it’s a post-production thing. Everybody’s always scrounging money and time, but when something like that happens, what’s great is that everybody is just like, “Yes, this must happen,” and everybody comes together to make it happen.

The Gifted airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on Fox.

Related links: 

Stan Lee offers touching salute to fans in one of his final videos Stars pay tribute to Stan Lee for leaving ‘an indelible mark’ on pop culture