Looking back, 1998 was a solid year filled with the likes of The Backstreet Boys, 1080° Snowboarding, Armageddon and the colorful iMac G3. And this 15-minute supercut jams the year's top pop culture moments into a clip of digestible nostalgia
Watch it, then you really might know what it's like.
Manny Pacquiao has reportedly agreed to two of the key obstacles holding up his long-awaited showdown with Floyd Mayweather, Jr. First, a 60/40 split of the revenue, with Pacquiao's side taking the short end; second, a fight date on May 2, Cinco De Mayo weekend, a popular date for pay per view cards featuring Mexican fighters, and hence a way for Mayweather to thumb Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum in the eye. (Arum was looking to hold that date for his fighter Miguel Cotto to take on popular Mexican star Canelo Alvarez.) The solid gold ball is now squarely in Mayweather's gem-encrusted court. Will he finally accept the bout, or will he find another way to wriggle out of a tough challenge, as he has done many times before in his career? Cynical boxing fans who'd repeatedly promised themselves that they would never allow themselves to be suckered into rooting for this fight again are quietly burning their resolutions. The biggest fight in boxing history, at least financially speaking, suddenly looks not only possible, but likely to come about.
Chipotle says it stopped serving pork at hundreds of its restaurants after suspending a supplier that violated its standards.
Chris Arnold, a spokesman for the Mexican food chain, told The Associated Press it's the first time the company stopped serving a topping for its burritos and bowls. He said Chipotle learned of the violation by the supplier on Friday through a routine audit, and did not have a timeline for when carnitas would return to affected stores, about a third of its total base.
Earlier in the week we reported on a story that Google was readying an update for Translate that would make for easier real-time translation. We speculated the company would also look to bring Word Lens functionality, which allows you to get instant translation of words through your camera as if the sign had its info in your language of choice.
And now that update is already here. Word Lens is just like it is in the app that’s been in Google Play for quite some time. You point your camera at a sign, menu, or what have you, and it’ll transform any foreign words on it into the language of your choice as it would show up on the actual sign. Neat stuff, there. The functionality only works when translating English to and from French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish languages, with more said to be on the way soon.
Also, as mentioned, they’ve vastly improved real-time translation features. Simply tap a button to signify that you want translate to start listening, and it’ll begin dictating words that you speak. It automatically recognizes the language, and will automatically translate to or from the languages you specify. The sweet part is that you no longer have to tap a button for each and every bit of dialog you want to exchange: just keep talking and the app will do all the work.
The update should be going live in Google Play later today, though as of the time of this writing it has yet to show up. Be sure to check for it throughout the day if you’ve been waiting on it.
Google has a developers’ conference going on this morning, in case you didn’t know. It’s a long shot from Google I/O, but this one focuses on Project Ara, the company’s modular phone project that would let users choose their own specs by fitting a frame with LEGO-like blocks.
This is the second Project Ara developers’ conference ever, and we’re expecting a couple of different things:
Google is going to talk about MDK — Ara’s development kit — version 0.2, and everything it enables
Google is going to help module developers get up to speed on everything they need to start creating modules
That’s what we know for sure. What we’re hoping? Google surprises us with availability information (the earliest reported window was January 2015, but that could have easily changed behind the scenes). Regardless of what happens, though, it’ll all be interesting, and you can follow along with us thanks to this handy live stream. Can’t watch live? We’ll do our part to bring any breaking news right to the front page.
It's nearly inconceivable that a national championship team, one that defeated the top two teams in the country with its third-string quarterback, lost earlier in the season to a school that had a losing conference record and barely qualified for a bowl game. But somehow Virginia Tech defeated Ohio State, by two touchdowns in Columbus, OH, on Sept. 6. While it's not rare for a national champion to drop a game (since 1968, there have been 25 losses and ties among champions), it's unusual for a champion to lose to such a bad team. So we examined how Virginia Tech compares to other teams who beat national champions to see if they were the worst team to ever beat the best team.
After a long-ass interview with Raider brass—his second—recently fired Broncos DC Jack Del Rio is reportedly closing in on officially getting the job. According to ESPN's Chris Mortensen, the deal will be announced as early as today.
Nissan's attempt to show its brand in a more human light with a Reddit AMA backfired on Tuesday after Redditors accused the company of manufacturing questions.
Redditor Kislen took a look at the accounts behind the AMA (Ask Me Anything) session with Nissan and Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn and found that many were brand new, leading some to conclude that the questions were planted by the company's public relations team. Nissan says that's not the case, however, and Reddit says there was nothing abnormal about the AMA. Here are a few of the accounts in question:
Shortly after two gunmen killed 12 people at the offices of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, the attackers shouted, "We are avenging the prophet Muhammad!" before firing on a police car and making their escape, according to a new eyewitness video released on Tuesday.
The attackers, brothers Chérif and Saïd Kouachi, are seen in the video adjusting their weapons and driving away in their hijacked black Citröen C3 car in the street outside Charlie Hebdo's Paris headquarters.
They then encounter a French police car, exchange gunfire for a few brief seconds and drive away. They were shot dead three days later by French commandos in a siege at a printing house. Read more...
You've seen plenty of bicycle kicks, but have you ever seen a bicycle goal celebration? Mexico's Alejandro Díaz Liceaga broke it out after scoring his second goal against Cuba today in a CONCACAF U-20 tournament match. El Tri is defending its title, and doing so in brutal fashion—they're up 6-1 at halftime.
A new Norma Jean album will soon begin its path to fruition with the group offering the following tweet today: Today we start setting up the new practice space in preparation to…. start writing a new record. — Norma Jean (@NormaJeanBand) January 12, 2015
Travolta's doggleganger has his look right down to his piercing baby blues and giant grin
Image: Imgur, slothsandstuffyeh
But the similarities aren't just skin deep — the canine Travolta can't pronounce Idina Menzel's name, either
What's important now is finding every single dog that looks like John Travolta. If you see a Saturday Night Retriever or Pup Fiction character, let the world know. Read more...
A game changed, a potential career-defining play nullified and a heavy dose of karmic comeuppance — 24 hours after the fact, it's still hard to process
Dez Bryant's jaw-dropping catch that didn't count in the NFL Playoffs on Sunday reignited outrage (which hadn't simmered much in the first place) about the quality of NFL rules and referees. It robbed fans of a thrilling finish to a much-anticipated game. And, to many, it was a cosmically deserved turn of events for the Dallas Cowboys
The play, if you haven't heard by now, came in the fourth quarter of the NFL Playoffs' divisional round game between Bryant's Cowboys and the host Green Bay Packers. Down by five with just over four minutes remaining, Dallas faced a critical fourth-down play. Quarterback Tony Romo lofted a pass 30 yards down the left sideline for Bryant, who made a spectacular, leaping, diving catch over a hapless defender just short of the goal line Read more...
The video includes interviews with two men who identify themselves as Russian Intelligence (FSB) agents Mamayev Jambulat Yesenjanovich from Kazakhstan and Ashimov Serge Nikolayavich, who says he used to be Muslim. The men state they were sent to spy on the militants in territory held by the Islamic State to relay information back to Russia in exchange for money. Later in the video, they appear to be executed by a young boy with a handgun. Read more...
Tony Romo's on the ground, it's cold, and his butt hurts. Let him feel sorry for himself for a second. Fortunately for the Cowboys, Romo's butt wasn't seriously injured.
A week ago, just three days after dismantling rival Daniel Cormier in a brilliant title defense, UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones announced he was entering a drug treatment facility after testing positive for cocaine on a December 4 test. "I am taking this drug treatment program very seriously," he said in a statement, and UFC president Dana White and the promotion itself issued supportive statements of their own. As it turns out, though, according to his mother, Jones checked out of rehab after just one day.
LOS ANGELES — You've seen the red carpet photos, the winners' room photos and the viral GIFs. But a backstage Instagram stunt may have topped everything you've seen from the 72nd Golden Globes. We'll let you be the judge with the images, below
Noted fashion photographer Ellen von Unwerth captured the backstage portraits, immediately after winners left the stage, for The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which then uploaded the photos to the @GoldenGlobes Instagram account.
The Instagram booth interrupted the traditional process for winners. In the past, they left the stage after their acceptance speeches to head toward the press photographers pen backstage and then the media room for interviews. The gold-streamers backdrop provided a refreshing look, one without distracting Golden Globes branding emblazoned everywhere Read more...
We're not exactly sure how it happened, but here's a great three-photo sequence from photographer Tom Pennington of Ohio State emerging from the tunnel, which we've turned into a GIF I've now watched 50 times.
As soon as the Buckeyes finished off their championship, fans and students flooded the streets on and around Ohio State's campus. They were largely well-behaved, but it didn't matter: after about 90 minutes, authorities cleared out the area with mounted police, riot cops, liberal use of pepper spray, and even three canisters of tear gas.
The new Ford GT had its world premiere in Detroit on Monday at the North American International Auto Show, and it's more powerful than ever.
Ford's storied GT models are among the car manufacturers most famous. It's been nearly a decade since the last GT, but it's been worth the wait. It packs a 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6 that produces more than 600 horsepower, according to the company, making it one of Ford's most powerful and efficient engines ever.
More immediately obvious, of course, is the car's sleek design. The sporty blue vehicle has vertical-opening doors and is designed with aerodynamics in mind, making the car ideal for racing. To further up the racing-friendly ante, the vehicle's also mostly comprised of lightweight materials, like aluminum and carbon fiber. Read more...
In case you didn't think the New York City subway system was germy and uncomfortable enough, Improv Everywhere's annual "No Pants Subway Ride" came back to shock and scar straphangers
Sunday marked the 14th annual tradition, and thousands of New Yorkers stripped down in 30-degree Fahrenheit weather to enjoy a breezy train ride
If you're one of the few people in the US who wants a Chromecast for your living room and doesn't yet have one, you might want to check out this Best Buy sale. The already inexpensive dongle has been reduced to $29.99 ($5 off), and it comes with $20 of free Google Play Store credit. Assuming you'll eventually spend twenty bones on the Play Store (and I should hope any regular AP reader would), the effective price is a cool ten bucks.
The network announced on Sunday the renewal of eight — yes, eight — of its series for the 2015-2016 season. They include: Arrow (Season 4), Jane the Virgin (Season 2), Reign (Season 3), Supernatural (Season 11), The 100 (Season 3), The Flash (Season 2), The Originals (Season 3) and The Vampire Diaries (Season 7).
“Each of these series have helped define what The CW is today, a network that is home to smart, provocative, quality programming, targeting a savvy adult audience,” said network president Mark Pedowitz. “By picking up these shows now, our executive producers can start planning next season’s storylines, and rolling these shows out throughout next season guarantees The CW will have more proven original series for our fall, midseason and summer 2016 lineups.” Read more...
For the third time in a row, Fey and Poehler delivered a hilarious opening monologue, except this time, they didn't back off from pulling a few gut-rattling punches. As Amy Poehler said on E!'s red carpet, "What are they gonna do, fire us?"
They started the evening off with some witty jokes, poking fun at Steve Carell in Foxcatcher, Emma Stone's big eyes and George Clooney receiving lifetime achievement award. But the audience was left fairly shocked after Fey and Poehler's joke about Bill Cosby's recent rape allegations — complete with impressions Read more...
Golden Globes' hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler wasted little time Sunday night making jokes about the Bill Cosby rape allegations, quickly making everyone uncomfortable. The duo closed their 10-minute monologue by joking about Into the Woods, saying in the film, "Cinderella runs from her prince, Rapunzel is thrown from a tower and Sleeping Beauty just thought she was getting coffee with Bill Cosby."
There was a slight gasp from the audience, followed by murmurs and then laughter, groans and "ohs." They continued by claiming Cosby had admitted to drugging females and then argued over their impersonations of the comedian Read more...
Samsung’s continuing their trend of metal-clad goodness as the company has announced another new smartphone this morning. It’s the Samsung Galaxy A7, a phone which is being billed as Samsung’s thinnest yet, and does so with a nice metal unibody casing.
The device joins the Samsung Galaxy A5 and Samsung Galaxy A3 to round out a trio of teasers for what Samsung’s dreaming up for their first 2015 flagship (which is expected to be revealed at next month’s Mobile World Congress). Let’s jump right into the nuts and bolts:
5.5-inch HD Super AMOLED display (resolution not listed)
Octacore 1.8GHz – 1.3GHz chipset for LTE version, Octacore 1.5GHz – 1.0GHz for LTE/3G Dual-SIM
2GB of RAM, 16GB internal storage, MicroSD up to 64GB
13 megapixel camera w/ 5.0 megapixel front camera
2,600mAh battery, Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi N, aGPS w/ GLONASS and NFC (only for LTE version)
151 x 76.2 x 6.3mm, 141g
Android 4.4 KitKat
Samsung’s calling it the ultimate social phone, likely due to the front camera’s wide-angle selfie-appropriate lens. Other than that there isn’t much special going on here software-wise — it’s TouchWiz on top of KitKat, and we’re sure it’s soon to see Lollipop.
The star of this show is that stunningly thin metal build, and if this is a sign of things to come we can’t imagine anyone will opt to argue. No word on pricing or availability just yet, but we’re sure that info will be coming along shortly.
More about Viral Videos, Nostalgia, Watercooler, Videos, and 1998
If you're one of the few people in the US who wants a Chromecast for your living room and doesn't yet have one, you might want to check out this Best Buy sale. The already inexpensive dongle has been reduced to $29.99 ($5 off), and it comes with $20 of free Google Play Store credit. Assuming you'll eventually spend twenty bones on the Play Store (and I should hope any regular AP reader would), the effective price is a cool ten bucks.
