Robertjames

Beetlejuice vs Gary the Retard

International Nurses Day 2021: Nurses, the caring change agents of our society the roles of nurses have changed with great responsibilities and with a lot of challenges. A typical day in the life of a nurse on the COVID war front is filled with great uncertainty and a constant marathon. Every single shift has the potential to be momentous, exhilarating, exhausting, energizing, or all of the above. On any given day, nurses can see people at their weakest and most vulnerable, or at their strongest and most resolute times. Moreover, a single breach in infection prevention practice can cause life-threatening infections to any patient, especially for critical COVID patients who are immunocompromised considering the use of steroids, raised blood glucose levels, and use of medications that suppress immunity. Nurses acts as patient advocates to ensure that the right treatment reaches the patient in the right manner. They witness the results of life-ending injuries and illnesses with such regularity that they become par for the course. Yet, this just the tip of the iceberg. The stories and experiences that nurse have had since the pandemic is beyond compare but the lessons learned are here to stay. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Her banter with Cher was among the film's highlights, including a scene in which Dukakis scolded her daughter during a kitchen dissection of her love life. “Your life's going down the toilet,” Dukakis said in her throaty voice. At another point, she tells Cher it is good she did not love her fiance. “When you love them, they drive you crazy because they know they can.” “Moonstruck,” considered one of Hollywood's great romantic comedies, won three Academy Awards, including Cher as best actress, and was nominated in three other categories, including best picture. It also was one of the highest-grossing films of 1987. In accepting her Oscar as best supporting actress in April 1988, when her cousin was battling to become the Democratic Party's presidential nominee, she thanked Jewison, her husband and a few others. She then raised the golden statuette over her head and shouted to the worldwide TV audience, “OK, Michael, let's go.” Michael Dukakis won the nomination but lost badly in the general election to Republican George H.W. Bush. Olympia Dukakis embraced liberal views like her cousin, advocating for causes including women's rights, gay rights and the environment. Dukakis was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, on June 20, 1931 and continued to act into her 80s. Referring to becoming a movie star at an age when many actresses have a hard time finding good roles, Dukakis told the Guardian newspaper in 2012, “Who knows how that happened? Chance, fate or a bit of both. But I'm very glad I did ‘Moonstruck.' It meant that I woke up the next day and was finally able to pay the bills.” Dukakis said she enjoyed her fame after “Moonstruck.” “The fun part is that people pass me on the street and yell lines from my movies,” she told the Los Angeles Times in 1991. “For ‘Moonstruck' they say, ‘You're life is going down the toilet.'” Her TV appearances included playing a transgender landlady in the 1993 miniseries “Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City” and its 1998 and 2001 follow-ups. Other films included “Cloudburst” (2011) playing a foul-mouthed lesbian, “Away from Her” (2006) with Julie Christie, “The Event” (2003), “Better Living” (1998) with Roy Scheider, “Never Too Late” (1996) with Cloris Leachman, and “Dad” (1989) with Jack Lemmon and Ted Danson. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Kim Kardashian is rumored to be dating CNN's Van Jones Are they or aren't they? Rumors of Kim Kardashian possibly dating CNN's Van Jones have been circulating since the announcement of her split with Kanye West this year. 52-year old Jones is a bestselling author and nonprofit founder as well as a commentator. He was first publicly seen with Kim Kardaashian in 2018, at Rolling Stone's Criminal Justice Reform Summit. As keynote speakers, the pair discussed the need for prison reform in the United States. this year. 52-year old Jones is a bestselling author and nonprofit founder as well as a commentator. He was first publicly seen with Kim Kardaashian in 2018, at Rolling Stone's Criminal Justice Reform Summit. As keynote speakers, the pair discussed the need for prison reform in the United States. Jones also interviewed Kardashian on CNN for The Van Jones Show to discuss her meetings with President Trump to discuss commuting the sentences of nonviolent offenders like Alice Johnson. Per the outlet, Jones called her meeting with Donald Trump to discuss Johnson and others “the most effective, emotionally intelligent intervention that I've ever seen in American politics.”As for Jones' personal life, he split from his wife Jana Carter in 2018 and hasn't been linked to anyone publicly since, telling Wendy Williams in 2019 that he had no dating life to speak of. But amid the news that Kim is leaving her marriage and the reported reasons why, fans seem to think that Jones would make a suitable love interest for her. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Dream & MrBeast Burger is the crossover you never knew you needed MrBeast has truly taken his YouTube fame to new heights. As if his impressive cash giveaways and incredible charity work weren't enough, he created his very own restaurant in December 2020, aptly dubbed “MrBeast Burger.” The chain is very much your usual fast food joint; boasting juicy cheeseburgers, crispy chicken sandwiches, and even loaded “Beast Style Fries,” the YouTube star has successfully opened over 600 locations across the United States. Now, it's set to get another huge addition in the form of an unforeseen collaboration with a massively popular YouTuber in the Minecraft space — Dream, who boasts an impressive 21 million subscribers and a massive fanbase on Twitter. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

LETS RAISE OUR VOICE ..............Brown died one day after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd — a case that inflamed nationwide protests against police brutality and racial injustice. The Elizabeth City mayor is calling for North Carolina to change its laws to streamline the release of footage from officer-worn cameras, saying a delay of up to 48 hours should be sufficient. Initial details about Brown's death "are tragic and extremely concerning," North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said on Friday. He added, "The body camera footage should be made public as quickly as possible and the SBI should investigate thoroughly to ensure accountability." Seven sheriff's deputies have since been placed on administrative leave. Three others resigned, though the sheriff's office said the resignations were not related to the shooting. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Oscars 2021: Chloé Zhao, 'Nomadland' make history at wobbly Academy Awards The producers of the 93rd Academy Awards were handed an unenviable assignment. They were tasked with putting on a lively show that resurrected both the rarefied glamor of vintage Hollywood and the comforting normalcy of life before the pandemic — all while abiding by a laundry list of Covid-19 safety protocols. If they succeeded, the thinking went, they just might be able to stave off a record-low ratings disaster and maybe even drive some Americans back to movie theaters. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

UFC 261 Fight Companion: Usman vs. Masvidal 2, Zhang vs. Namajunas, Shevchenko vs. Andrade Join Matthew Wells and Ant Walker as we watch Kamaru Usman vs. Jorge Masvidal, Zhang Weili vs. Rose Namajunas, Valentina Shevchenko vs. Jessica Andrade, Uriah Hall vs. Chris Weidman, and Anthony Smith vs. Jim Crute. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

The Suicide Squad': The First Trailer Is Wild, And NSFW At long last, the trailer to James Gunn's The Suicide Squad has finally been released. As we knew from the initial casting announcements, there aren't many characters in common with the original film from 2016: Viola Davis is back as Amanda Waller, the government agent who helps assemble the team. Also is Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn, who starred in her own film, 2020's Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). But Warner Brothers seems to want to distance this film from the original: they are not calling the film “Suicide Squad 2,” but The Suicide Squad. The 2016 film's official title was Suicide Squad (without the “The”). Unsurprisingly, the film seems more like a spiritual cousin to Gunn's Marvel series, the Guardians Of the Galaxy, which also features a bunch of misfits coming together as family to… well, get something done. And like Guardians, Gunn's Suicide Squad features Michael Rooker, who we see in the trailer, as well as Gunn's brother Peter Gunn. Like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, this sequel also features Sylvester Stallone. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

‘Women Belong In The Kitchen': Burger King's International Women's Day Tweet Goes Down In Flames Women belong in the kitchen.” For Burger King's United Kingdom division, those five words tweeted on International Women's Day prompted a day of flame-grilled outrage from social media users. The tweet was meant to be a humorous tease for a campaign promoting a cooking scholarship for female employees, but it fell flat. Follow-up tweets put the first tweet in context: “If they want to, of course. Yet only 20% of chefs are women. We're on a mission to change the gender ratio.” Unfortunately for Burger King, many Twitter users never got past that first tweet, which hung there for hours and attracted a litany of abusive comments. The ad offered immediate context through the copy: “Fine dining kitchens, food truck kitchens, award-winning kitchens, casual dining kitchens, ghost kitchens, Burger King kitchens. If there's a professional kitchen, women belong there.” The ad continued: “But can you guess who's leading those kitchens these days? Exactly. Only 24% of chef positions in America are occupied by women. Want to talk head chefs? The number drops to fewer than 7%.” Like many fast-food brands, Burger King has enjoyed a boost in popularity during a pandemic when drive-through lanes became a socially distant solution for hungry travelers and hometown diners alike. The Burger King Foundation's H.E.R. (Helping Equalize Restaurants) Scholarship will give two female employees a grant of $25,000 each to be used toward culinary education. It's a worthy program, Fer Machado, the global chief marketing officer at Restaurant Brand International, Burger King's parent company, told Fast Company. “It's a real shame that it's getting lost on the U.K. conversation,” said Machado. “In the end, the intention behind what we are doing here is really good. And the whole thing is more than just an ‘ad' or a ‘tweet.' But we are discussing here.” Still, the backlash against Burger King may turn out to be a storm in a teacup compared to a recent PR disaster for Hyatt. A Nazi symbol integrated into the stage design at Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), held earlier this month at the Hyatt Regency in Orlando, Florida, fueled a campaign to boycott the hospitality brand. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Elon Musk trolls GM, Chrysler on Twitter. Ford CEO responds with 1 word. Just one word. That's all Ford CEO Jim Farley used to respond to Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Friday. "Tesla & Ford are the only American carmakers not to have gone bankrupt out of 1000's of car startups. Prototypes are easy, production is hard & being cash flow positive is excruciating," Musk tweeted Thursday. Farley retweeted Musk early Friday saying only, "Respect." Reaction on Twitter has been swift with likes, retweets and spicy comments. Musk, of course, is quietly acknowledging the bankruptcies of General Motors and Chrysler, now part of Stellantis. Staying afloat during the Great Recession a decade ago has long been a point of pride for Ford. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Sony patents tech that turns ‘bananas'into a PlayStation controller The patent is essentially a method that turns a “non-luminous passive object being held by a user” into a controller, superimposing virtual buttons on top of it, with a banana being described as the example. A camera could detect the objects so they could be used as controllers, or a camera could “detect a user's finger in the obtained images” to coincide “with the location of the virtual button”. The idea is to use any physical object, it could a coffee mug or an orange, as a video game controller. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Coming to America 2' review The 33-years-later sequel “Coming 2 America” starts poorly but gets funnier and more likable as it goes, and it's stolen by a newcomer to this particular nostalgia tour: Wesley Snipes, fopping it up as the military --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Powerful earthquakes force thousands to evacuate in New Zealand; tsunami threat passes WELLINGTON, New Zealand — One of the biggest earthquakes to hit the South Pacific in modern history forced thousands of people in New Zealand to evacuate and triggered tsunami warnings across the world Friday, but it did not appear to cause injuries or major damage because it struck in remote ocean. The magnitude 8.1 quake was the largest in a series of tremors that hit the region over several hours, including two earlier quakes that registered magnitude 7.4 and magnitude 7.3. The earthquakes triggered warning systems and caused traffic jams and some chaos in New Zealand as people scrambled to get to higher ground. Residents recorded videos of small wave surges in some places, including at Tokomaru Bay near Gisborne. In the afternoon, the National Emergency Management Agency said the threat had passed and people could return to their homes, although they should continue avoiding beaches The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said ocean gauges had measured tsunami waves of 30 centimeters (1 foot) in Vanuatu and said waves of similar size could cross the Pacific to Latin American coasts. The largest quake struck about 620 miles off the coast of New Zealand. One of the earlier quakes hit much closer to New Zealand and awoke many people as they felt a long, rumbling shaking. Hope everyone is ok out there,” New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern wrote on Facebook during the night. After the largest quake, civil defense authorities in New Zealand told people in some coastal areas to immediately get to higher ground. Emergency Management Minister Kiri Allan told reporters that people had followed the advisory. “They felt the long or strong earthquakes, and they knew to grab their bag and head into the highlands,” she said. “I can only thank and acknowledge the tireless efforts of the men and women from up and down the coast who knew how to act, when to act, and what to do.”The U.S. Geological Survey said it was centered near the remote Kermadec Islands at a depth of 12 miles. The agency said in a report that the quake occurred at the intersection of the Pacific and Australia tectonic plates and eclipsed the largest quake previously recorded in the region, a magnitude 8.0 in 1976. It said the interaction between the plates creates one of the most seismically active regions in the world, and it has recorded 215 quakes there above magnitude 6.0 over the past century. Jennifer Eccles, an earthquake expert at the University of Auckland, said the quake was at the top end of the scale for those involving only the Earth's ocean crust. This is about as big as it gets,” she said. She said most quakes larger than magnitude 8.0 tend to occur when a section of more robust continental crust is involved. The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude 7.4 quake was likely a “foreshock” that contributed to the larger quake but that the first quake that hit closer to New Zealand was too far away in time and distance to have directly contributed. Officials in New Zealand had hours earlier issued a tsunami warning for coastal areas after the first quake struck off its northeastern coast at about 2:30 a.m. Friday. There were no immediate reports of serious damage or casualties, and the warning was lifted just before the largest quake hit. The U.S. Geological Survey said the first quake was centered at a depth of 13 miles under the ocean about 108 miles northeast of the city of Gisborne. It was widely felt in New Zealand, and residents in the major cities of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch reported being shaken awake. In 2011, a magnitude 6.3 quake hit the city of Christchurch, killing 185 people and destroying much of its downtown. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Symphyotrichum novi-belgii, the New York aster, --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Lakers vs. Suns, Three Things to Know: March 2, 2021 SUNS NOTES: Via Lakers.com's Joey Ramirez: - Have won 14 of their last 17 games. - 4th in defensive rating (108.5) and 8th in offensive rating (114.4). One of two teams in the top 10 for both (UTA). - 2nd-slowest pace (97.8 possessions), next to NYK (96.8). - 3rd in point differential (+5.9; tied LAC), behind UTA (+9.7) and MIL (+7.5). - 2nd in FT% (83.3), behind LAC (84.0); but last in FTA (18.3) and 3rd-fewest FTM (15.3). - Holding opponents to the 4th-fewest points (107.5), next to NYK (104.0), LAL (105.6) and UTA (106.5). - Holding opponents to a league-low 11.0 opponent 3PM. Next is UTA (11.1). - Holding opponents to the 2nd-lowest 3P% (34.3), next to NYK (32.5). - Allows the 3rd-fewest points off turnovers (15.0; tied DAL). - 3rd-fewest steals (6.5). - 3rd in corner 3s (4.4) and 3rd in corner 3 percentage (44.0%). Mikal Bridges (37; 4th) and Cameron Johnson (36; 5th) are both among the top 5 in individual corner 3s. - 3rd in mid-range baskets (6.9) and 5th in mid-range percentage (45.3). - Leads NBA in percentage in the non-restricted paint (51.5%), far ahead of BKN (47.0%). - Makes the 3rd-fewest baskets in the restricted area (14.6). --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

J.J. Watt agrees to two-year contract with Arizona Cardinals TEMPE, Ariz. -- Free-agent pass-rusher J.J. Watt has agreed to a two-year contract with the Arizona Cardinals, the team announced Monday. Terms were not disclosed, but a source told ESPN's Adam Schefter the deal is worth $31 million and includes $23 million guaranteed. Before the Cardinals announced the agreement, Watt broke the news by sharing a photo on Twitter: Watt later indicated he and his wife, Kealia, were traveling to Arizona on Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill's plane. He tweeted two photos, one of himself posing with Bidwill and the other of himself and his wife sitting in Bidwill's plane. "I'm excited to get started," Watt said on the tarmac after the plane landed. "Very excited to get started, get to work, get to know the people of Arizona." Watt, 31, was released by the Houston Texans, who granted his request on Feb. 12, ending his 10-year run with the franchise. Four days later, Watt's former Texans teammate and current Cardinals wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins posted on Instagram a photo of himself and Watt edited to be in a Cardinals uniform with the caption: "Let's finish what we started..." --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Zaha Hadid Architects releases visuals of amorphous OPPO Shenzhen headquarters Zaha Hadid Architects has revealed its proposal for four interconnected towers in Shenzhen, China, which will contain the open-plan headquarters for OPPO. Set to break ground later this year, the amorphous OPPO headquarters is designed by Zaha Hadid Architects to accommodate the continual growth of the company dubbed as China's leading smartphone manufacturer. The headquarters will measure 185,000-square-metres, and in a bid to echo the company's "commitment to connectivity", it will contain a number of large atriums surrounded by light-filled open-plan offices. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

CPAC 2021: Here are the lies Donald Trump told Donald Trump clung to his core election falsehoods in his first post-presidential speech, wrongly blamed wind power for the catastrophic power failures in Texas and revived a variety of the baseless claims that saturated his time in office, on immigration, the economy and more. A look at Trump's remarks Sunday at the Conservative Political Action Conference: TRUMP: “We built the strongest economy in the history of the world.” THE FACTS: No, the numbers show it wasn't the greatest in U.S. history, much less in the history of the world. He was actually the first president since Herbert Hoover in the Depression to leave office with fewer jobs than when he started. The U.S. did have the most jobs on record before the pandemic, but population growth explains part of that. The 3.5% unemployment rate before the pandemic-induced recession was at a half-century low, but the percentage of people working or searching for jobs was still below a 2000 peak. TRUMP: “We built the strongest economy in the history of the world.” THE FACTS: No, the numbers show it wasn't the greatest in U.S. history, much less in the history of the world. He was actually the first president since Herbert Hoover in the Depression to leave office with fewer jobs than when he started. The U.S. did have the most jobs on record before the pandemic, but population growth explains part of that. The 3.5% unemployment rate before the pandemic-induced recession was at a half-century low, but the percentage of people working or searching for jobs was still below a 2000 peak. Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Romer looked at Trump's economic growth record. Growth under Trump averaged 2.48% annually before the pandemic, only slightly better than the 2.41% gains achieved during Barack Obama's second term. By contrast, the economic expansion that began in 1982 during Ronald Reagan's presidency averaged 4.2% a year. Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Romer looked at Trump's economic growth record. Growth under Trump averaged 2.48% annually before the pandemic, only slightly better than the 2.41% gains achieved during Barack Obama's second term. By contrast, the economic expansion that began in 1982 during Ronald Reagan's presidency averaged 4.2% a year. WIND POWER TRUMP, assailing Democrats on energy policy: “The windmill calamity that we're witnessing in Texas ... it's so sad when you look at it. That will just be the start.” --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Golden Globes 2021: Complete list of winners and nominees The 78th Golden Globe Awards kicked off Sunday night after being delayed for nearly two months by the coronavirus pandemic. "Nomadland" won the award for best drama film and "Borat Subsequent Moviefilm" won best comedy film. Andra Day won best actress in a drama for "The United States vs. Billie Holiday" and Chadwick Boseman posthumously received the award for best actor in a drama for what became his final movie role in "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom." --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Chinese mum pays over US$150,000 to have ‘perfect' seven kids, bucking country's Zhang's family has paid more than 1 million yuan (US$155,000) in “social support fees” – effectively fines – to the local government for the privilege of giving birth to more than the permitted number of children. Until six years ago, most women in China could only bear one child. Get the latest insights and analysis from our Global Impact newsletter on the big stories originating in China. Without paying the fines, the children – five boys and two girls, including a set of twins, aged between one and 14 – would not have received their all-important identity documents. skincare business in Guangdong province in southern China. She was born and raised in the Chaoshan, or Teoswa, region in eastern Guangdong where traditionally families have been large, with a preference for sons. Even so, Zhang's brood of seven is a rarity. “There are families with three or four kids, because Teochew people usually prefer boys to girls ... if the first two kids are girls, they'll try for a third or fourth one, but seldom as many as I have,” Zhang said. Chinese divorce court orders husband to pay wife for years of housework Zhang's decision to give birth to such a large number of children was not driven by gender preference, she said; her first two children were a boy and a girl. She simply hopes never to be alone. “When my husband's away on trips and the older kids are also away for study, I still have other children around me ... When I'm old, they can visit me in different batches,” she said. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

This hidden iPhone feature just went viral on TikTok Interestingly, this is not a new feature. It was first shown off during the iOS 11 beta back in 2017. We're now currently on iOS 14, with the 14.5 public beta happening right now. But after a decade of iPhone software development, many handy features have slipped through without the majority of users noticing. For example, with the latest iPhone, there are 10 iPhone 12 features users should enable right away. This includes managing 5G data, fine-tuning Face ID, enabling picture-in-picture video, and using Apple ProRAW for photos. And it's not just iPhone 12 users that should catch up on all the new tricks. People using older iPhones with iOS 14 have a wide array of tools to tinker with. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Rachel Lindsay deletes Instagram account following harassment from 'Bachelor' fans Media personality Rachel Lindsay, who was "The Bachelor" franchise's first-ever Black lead in 2017, has deleted her Instagram account due to harassment and hate she has received from fans of the show. The online harassment follows Lindsay's "Extra" interview with "The Bachelor" host Chris Harrison, during which he defended current contestant Rachael Kirkconnell, who has been under fire for resurfaced photos of her in attendance at an antebellum plantation-themed fraternity formal. After apologizing, Harrison then announced that he is "stepping aside" from the franchise for "a period of time," causing some fans to direct hateful comments toward Lindsay. "My co-host on 'Higher Learning,' Rachel Lindsay, disabled her Instagram earlier today," Lathan said. "She did it because that's how much hate she's getting from Bachelor fans, who are spamming her with all kinds of rude, hateful things to say." In his video, Lathan said that people should "get a f------ life" and are misdirecting their anger at Lindsay, when they should be outraged at Harrison for his defense of Kirkconnell. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Canelo Alvarez vs. Avni Yildirim odds picks, predictions: Boxing insider who's 32-8 unveils best bets, props Since turning pro in 2005, Alvarez has compiled a 54-1-2 all-time record, with his only loss coming at the hands of Floyd Mayweather Jr. in September 2013. William Hill Sportsbook pegs Alvarez as a -4000 favorite (risk $4,000 to win $100) in the latest Alvarez vs. Yildirim odds, with the Turkish fighter getting +1500 (risk $100 to win $1,500) as the underdog. Before making any Alvarez vs. Yildirim picks, see the latest boxing predictions from SportsLine analyst Peter Kahn. A 2020 Boxing Writers Association of America Cus D'Amato Manager of the Year nominee, Kahn has his finger on the pulse of what's going on inside and outside of the ring. Kahn has managed numerous world champions and currently manages 20 fighters through his company, Fight Game Advisors. He can be seen and heard weekly on "The Fight Guys" on YouTube. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

James Charles denies accusations of 'grooming' a 16-year-old fan James Charles, a beauty YouTuber with over 25 million subscribers, denied "grooming" a minor. On Friday, a TikTok user who says he's 16 posted censored nude photos he says Charles sent him. In a statement, Charles said he would ask for ID from men he pursues in the future. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

You know you're in for trouble right at the start, when the pigeons begin rapping. Tim Story's Tom and Jerry opens to the strains of A Tribe Called Quest's classic “Can I Kick It?” as the camera swoops over the New York City skyline and finds Tom relaxing between subway cars and Jerry looking at rental properties with a shady rat real-estate agent. (“Wait till you see the next place. It just screams ‘Mouse House.' Wait, can I say that?”) Ignore the anachronism of lyrics like “Mr. Dinkins, will you please be my mayor?” — the idea here is presumably to situate Tom and Jerry in a modern-day version of the city. Maybe the filmmakers were just trying to cash in on the Secret Life of Pets gravy train, but it also makes some narrative sense: After all, the city is full of cats tasked with catching mice, in bodegas and apartments and even some movie theaters. But look, this is already way too much work to do for a Tom and Jerry movie. A cluttered, awkward, pandering mess, Tom and Jerry (which debuts on HBO Max today) is a good example of what happens when the filmmakers don't understand (or maybe just forget) what made their subject exciting in the first place. The classic Tom and Jerry cartoons were engines of wordless slapstick joy: fast, clever, and fun. While they have certainly gone through many iterations over the decades and are maybe not as well-regarded today — with little of the surreal inventiveness of Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner, or the wiseass narrative intricacy of Bugs Bunny & Co. — their thundering bluntness retains a primal cinematic appeal. (Besides, for all the show's simplicity, you could spend hours arguing over who was the good guy and who was the bad guy: the craven Tom, with his Sisyphean drive, or that ever-triumphant teacher's pet Jerry.) A nightly newsletter for the best of New York SIGN UP FOR ONE GREAT STORY Anyway, you'd think that a new Tom and Jerry feature film would prioritize the part where, you know, the cat chases the mouse. You would be wrong. Story's film sidelines its title characters to focus on the efforts of Kayla (Chloë Grace Moretz), a young woman who loses her bicycle delivery job and then lies her way into a gig at a fancy hotel as it prepares for “the wedding of the century” between two celebrity influencer types, Preeta (Pallavi Sharda) and Ben (Colin Jost). Kayla immediately draws the suspicions of the hotel's ambitious, snooty event manager Terence Mendoza (Michael Peña), even as she becomes friendly with the soon-to-be-weds. When Jerry wreaks havoc in the hotel's fancy kitchen and strikes fear in the hearts of management on the eve of the big day (“If a picture of this mouse is tweeted to the InstaBookFace, or the Ticky Tock, we will be ruined!”), the resourceful but out-of-her-element Kayla hires Tom to catch Jerry. For about ten minutes, at least. Tom and Jerry the film seems interested in just about everything but Tom and Jerry, with its elaborate (but somehow still totally half-assed) plot and its scenes of nonstop talk that pile unfunny jokes atop one another. These aren't bad actors: Moretz was once one of our most promising young performers, and Peña is among our most versatile. But they've clearly been directed to exaggerate wildly, perhaps in an effort to match the cartoons they're acting against. The result is a kind of gathering desperation, as if by making bigger facial expressions or talking faster the actors might be able to will laughs out of lines like “I'll catch it, sir. Him. Or her. It could be a female. I'm not gender-biased.” (Still, it could be worse. Even as everyone else hams it up, the stone-faced Colin Jost drifts through the film, seemingly asking himself the very question that is also on the audience's minds: Why is Colin Jost even in this movie?) --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Pokémon Legends: Arceus is an open-world RPG coming to the Switch a special live-streamed event today, The Pokémon Company revealed something fans having been waiting a long time for: an open-world Pokémon adventure. The next major entry in the franchise will be called Pokémon Legends: Arceus, and it looks to be a huge evolution of the long-running RPG formula. The developers describe it as a “pre-make,” which offers “a new challenge and a new frontier for the Pokémon world.” The story takes place in the Sinnoh region, at a period that appears to be long before other Pokémon games, and will include a number of iconic monsters like Piplup, with your choice of starters including Rowlet, Oshawott, and Cyndaquil. It's expected to launch worldwide on the Switch in early 2022. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

The Rolls-Royce Phantom Tempus is inspired by time We're all used to seeing the Rolls-Royce Starlight Headliner by now, aren't we? Well, in pictures at least. Anyway, check out what Rolls has done to it in this new time-inspired Phantom Tempus Collection… Apparently, this is now a Pulsar Headliner, with fibre-optic lighting and intricate embroidery combining to recreate the rare astronomical phenomenon. For those (like us) who are wondering how that relates to time, Pulsars are dense stars found in the farthest reaches of space that ‘emit electromagnetic radiation in extremely regular pulses'. Essentially a posh clock, then. There's more where that came from in the Tempus Collection too. Rolls will build 20 examples of these extra special Phantoms and each will feature the new Kairos Blue exterior paint. Rolls says it has been created ‘to embody the darkness and mystery of space' (woah) and that it uses mica flakes that sparkle like stars when they catch the light. Lovely. On the inside there are hundreds of illuminated stars on each door, and the Phantom's Gallery on the passenger side features a piece of aluminium art known as the ‘Frozen Flow of Time'. This is all getting very deep. Rolls has got rid of the clock – which it says signifies the owner's freedom from time and its limitations – and has replaced it with a single billet of aluminium that's milled to form 100 wavy columns. Pretty much everything in the Tempus Collection has a meaning, so this represents the 100-million-year period of a rotational spin of a pulsar star. Far out, man. Oh, and to save you having to explain that meaning to everyone you offer a lift to, there's a little description of the Gallery on an engraved plaque in the glovebox. Although you'll then be forced to explain why there's also an Albert Einstein quote in the glovebox. Real catch-22, that. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Instagram launches Instagram Lite, Here's a look at the top features Instagram Lite fulfils their promise of bringing an all-new Instagram Lite app with new features. They had pulled the older version of the app earlier this year. Here's a look at the new features! Instagram Lite needs just 2 MB data to be downloadedReels and IGTV get omitted from the app Regional language support will make the app reach remote users who may not have premium smartphones --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Affordable House Can Be 3D Printed for $4,000 These 3D printed structures not only reduce labour costs, construction time and material wastage, they are also quite durable and more disaster-resistant, says Ballard: There are fundamental problems with conventional stick-building that 3D printing solves, besides affordability. You get a high thermal mass, thermal envelope, which makes it far more energy-efficient. It's far more resilient. The team plans to use the 3D printed demonstration model in Austin as an office in the near future, to test and tweak it out further. The aim is to offer the Vulcan at an affordable price internationally, so that it can be adopted on a wider scale, explains New Story CEO Brett Hagler: Ideally we can move from thousands of people to millions of people around the world by allowing other nonprofits and governments to use this technology. That's the big goal, because our goal is impacting the most families possible. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Elon Musk believes Bill Gates had a big short position on Tesla (TSLA) and lost a lot of money Billionaires Musk and Gates don't always have good words to say about each other, but they do appear to share similar concerns about climate change. However, Gates made some strange comments about electrification last year, including that electric trucks, like the Tesla Semi, and electric airplanes will “probably never” work. In a new interview on the Joe Rogan Experience, Musk was asked about those comments from gates. Tesla's CEO responded: “He didn't know what he was talking about. Probably somebody told him that and he is just not that close to the physics of it. I don't think he is ill-intentioned here, I just think he doesn't know what he is talking about.” He added Tesla already has working prototypes of electric trucks that are transporting cargo – something that we already pointed out in our original report about Gates' comment, including the fact that not only Tesla has working electric semi truck programs, but also other automakers like Daimler. But then Musk revealed that he has heard that Gates was betting against Tesla with a large short position: “I also heard that at one point he had a large short position. I don't know if that's true or not, but it seems weird. People I know who know the situation pretty well, I asked them “are you sure?” and they said “yes, he has a huge short position on Tesla”. That didn't work out too well.” We have reached out to Gates' foundation to see if we could get a comment on Musk's claim, and we will update if we get an answer. Tesla has sometimes been the most shorted stock on the NASDAQ, and people who bet against the electric automaker lost $38 billion in 2020. Electrek's Take This would be surprising to me. Bill Gates doesn't seem like the shorting type, but you never know. He did have a weird stance on electric vehicles on occasions, and he doesn't seem to be a big fan of Elon nor Tesla. That doesn't mean that he has been betting against the company though. I don't have an actual problem with shorting like Elon and some other people recently with what happened on Reddit and with Robinhood, but when it comes to shorting Tesla, it's a bit different for me. I understand if you believe that the company is overvalued and you want to make money on a correction, but I feel that betting against Tesla's stock is also betting against accelerating the electric transition. I'd hope Bill Gates wouldn't do that. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

help parents choose what content their kids can see YouTube is announcing “supervised experiences,” a new set of restrictions that allows parents to better control what content their children can access on the streaming video platform. According to a blog post, YouTube hopes the filters will help parents slowly introduce their older children to age-appropriate content and features outside of the YouTube Kids app. The program will launch first with an early beta, with a wider beta rolling out “in the coming months.”Parents have three levels of strictness to choose from, which determines the content a child is allowed to view on their account. There's the “Explore” level, which YouTube says is “generally suitable” for kids nine and up' “Explore More,” which is meant for kids 13 and up; and “Most of YouTube,” which is pretty much everything except age-restricted content. In the US, and most other countries, people over the age of 13 can make their own unsupervised YouTube accounts. isn't clear exactly what content will be allowed at which levels, but YouTube says the “Explore” level will have “vlogs, tutorials, gaming videos, music clips, news, educational content and more.” As the name suggests, the “Explore More” level will have a wider range of videos, as well as live streams for the aforementioned “Explore” categories. The company says that “Most of YouTube” will contain “sensitive topics that may only be appropriate for older teens.” For all its promise, YouTube's supervised experiences is still a system that relies on user input, human review, and machine learning. YouTube knows it won't be perfect, admitting that it “will make mistakes,” which we've seen happen with the Kids app. As such, parents shouldn't think of it as a “set it and forget it” solution. They'll still need to remain vigilant. Nevertheless, the new content options should help parents with children who feel too confined by the Kids app (which YouTube still recommends for younger kids) but are too impressionable to be exposed to the full YouTube experience. YouTube can be a dangerous place full of misinformation and conspiracy, so it's good to see Google giving parents tools to help ease their children into it. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Xbox Live was down for more than five hours --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Former USA Gymnastics Coach Charged With Abuse Dies By Suicide A former USA Gymnastics coach charged Thursday morning with two dozen criminal charges died by suicide hours later, Michigan's state attorney general has confirmed. 14 counts of human trafficking — forced labor resulting in injury, a 15-year felony six counts of human trafficking of a minor for forced labor, a 20-year felony one count of continuing criminal enterprise, a 20-year felony one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, a life offense felony one count of second-degree criminal sexual conduct, a 15-year felony one count of lying to a peace officer during a violent crime investigation, a four-year felony --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Lady Gaga's Dogs Are Stolen and Dog Walker Is Shot man was shot while he was walking two French bulldogs in Los Angeles on Wednesday night and the dogs were stolen, the police said. The dogs belonged to the singer Lady Gaga, according to a representative. The shooting took place around 9:40 p.m. local time as the man, whom police did not identify, was walking north on Sierra Bonita Avenue in Hollywood, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. It was not clear why the man was shot. The man, who is in his 30s, was shot at least once, the police said. The gunman stole the dogs and was seen leaving in a white vehicle, the authorities said. The victim was cradling a third dog as emergency medical workers treated him, according to KABC-TV which had a helicopter over the scene. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

HBO Max vs Netflix: Which streaming service is best for you? With HBO Max now live, you may be weighing the differences between HBO Max vs Netflix. The streaming service landscape is getting very crowded now and subscribing to all of them isn't possible for everybody. HBO Max is the new platform from WarnerMedia that aggregates content from that company's iconic brands, including HBO, DC and Warner Bros. film and television. Netflix, of course, is a pioneer in the streaming space. It's built a huge library of licensed TV shows and movies as well as buzzy originals like Stranger Things, Ozark, The Crown and BoJack Horseman. HBO Max's price is $14.99, which is the same amount as HBO Now. (Confused? Learn more about HBO Max vs HBO Go vs HBO Now.) That price was lowered to $11.99 per month if you preordered a full year, though that deal has expired. Netflix's price depends on which of the three plans you get. Basic costs $8.99 (standard definition, one stream), Standard costs costs $12.99 (high-def, two streams) and Premium costs $15.99 (HD and 4K, four streams). --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Ex-Aide Details Sexual Harassment Claims Against Gov. Cuomo Look, I fought for and I believe a woman has the right to come forward and express her opinion and express issues and concerns that she has,” Mr. Cuomo said during a news conference last year. “But it's just not true.” On Wednesday, The New York Times spoke to three people who worked in the governor's office during Ms. Boylan's time there. The people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that while they could not corroborate her allegations, they concurred that the governor would sometimes make inappropriate remarks during work and comment on people's appearances. Early Wednesday evening, the governor's office facilitated a statement to The Times from Ashley Cotton, a former aide to Mr. Cuomo when he was state attorney general, a position he left in 2010. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

GameStop (GME) is on the rise once again --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

WhatsApp will stop working if you do not agree to its new terms and privacy policies WhatsApp is updating its terms of service and privacy policy on February 8, 2021. Users who do not agree to the new policies will not be able to use the app. The new policies include information about how WhatsApp manages user data and how it shares information with Facebook companies. Facebook-owned messaging app WhatsApp has started sending an in-app notification to its users, informing them that it is updating its terms and privacy policy, asking users to agree to the new policy. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

First 'Spider-Man 3' Images Revealed by Cast, Alongside Wild Joke Titles Okay, I'm just going to be upfront with you: The following are not the real titles for the upcoming Spider-Man 3, the next chapter in Tom Holland's MCU take on the webslinging superhero. I'm telling you this because when I recently looked at Holland and fellow castmate Jacob Batalon and Zendaya's social media accounts and saw their "title announcements," and took them at face value, I nearly fainted at how silly they were. Luckily for us, that's the point; they're goofing with us! And to cut the jokes with some real intel, they've also provided our real, first images from the film's production. Let's tackle the images first. We see Holland, Batalon, and Zendaya together in a pair of shadowy, sepia-toned images. Holland is fully Peter Parker here, no Spider-suit at all. And the three seem to have stumbled their way into haunted looking house or basement, staring off in that kind of terrifying/awe-inspiring wonder you get in a classic Spielberg kinda shot. What are they looking for? What did they find? Is Spider-Man 3 gonna feel like The Goonies? Have they stumbled upon the multiverse-maker? Why is Zendaya's outfit so cool? And now... the fake titles. We've had Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home, leading many to believe the third will also have a "home theme." And when Holland posted earnestly it would be called "Spider-Man: Phone Home," my brain just about blew up in "this can't be correct" incomprehensible energy. Batalon's fake title, "Spider-Man: Homewrecker," is at least a little more real-feeling, though it does imply the film will be a '90s domestic thriller about Peter Parker busting up a happy marriage (which, like, let's see that movie!). And in Zendaya's take, we've got the hip "Spider-Man: Homeslice," which is obviously about Peter Parker's old school hip-hop/breakdancing team earning enough money to keep their community center open. All in all, this is a very solid goof, one designed to rile up fans and dorks like me into disbelief and eventual laughter. Check out the first official images from Spider-Man 3 — and the absolutely fake-ass titles — below, courtesy of the cast. As for what Spider-Man 3 will actually be called... I have a feeling we'll find out soon enough. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

spacex satellite internet speed will be double Musk confirmed the speed boost in a tweet responding to a user who tapped Netflix's broadband speed test site fast.com after installing the Starlink dish and reported a speed of 130 Mbps. "Speed will double to ~300Mb/s & latency will drop to ~20ms later this year," Musk replied. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Here are 3 reasons why the stock market can survive rising bond yields in 2021 Rising Treasury yields have contributed to a selloff by the stock market's pandemic high-fliers, but probably won't be enough to spoil the appeal of stocks over bonds in 2021, according to one analyst. U.S. equity investors “have become focused on the recent increase in 10-year Treasury yields over the past week, which are all the way back to mid-February 2020 levels,” wrote Lori Calvasina, head of U.S. equity strategy at RBC Capital Markets, in a Tuesday note. Yields and bond prices have an inverse relationship. The 10-year Treasury yield TMUBMUSD10Y, 1.343% is coming off its largest rise in six weeks, which has been blamed for sparking a pullback led by tech-oriented stocks that had benefited most from the stay-at-home dynamic created by the COVID-19 pandemic. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

The Los Angeles Lakers are waiving fifth-year guard Quinn Cook, according to The Athletic's Shams Charania. Cook, a lifelong Lakers fan who won a championship with the team last season, struggled to find any minutes in a revamped rotation. The decision serves multiple purposes from a roster-building perspective. The decision to waive Cook will not cost the Lakers any money from a cap perspective. His contract was non-guaranteed, and the deadline to waive such deals before guaranteeing them is Saturday, Feb. 27. The Lakers have apparently decided that they prefer the freedom waiving Cook grants to keeping him. They can wield that freedom in a variety of ways. The simplest would be to simply sign another player. The Lakers are reportedly interested in bringing back DeMarcus Cousins, who is being released by the Houston Rockets, per The Athletic's Shams Charania. They could not have immediately signed him, though, because they are pressed up against the hard cap. By using the non-taxpayer mid-level exception (on Montrezl Harrell) and the bi-annual exception (on Wes Matthews) this offseason, the Lakers committed to remaining below the $138.9 million hard cap for the entire season. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

The legendary dance duo has called it quits 28 years after forming in Paris Daft Punk, the Parisian duo responsible for some of the most popular dance and pop songs ever made, have split. They broke the news with an 8-minute video titled “Epilogue,” excerpted from their 2006 film Electroma. Asked if Daft Punk were no more, their longtime publicist Kathryn Frazier confirmed the news to Pitchfork but gave no reason for the breakup. Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo formed Daft Punk in Paris in 1993, helping to define the French touch style of house music. Their debut album, 1997's Homework, was a dance music landmark, featuring classic singles “Around the World” and “Da Funk.” By the release of its follow-up, Discovery, in 2001, the duo had taken to making public appearances in the robot outfits that became their trademark. The singles “One More Time” and “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” cemented them as global superstars. Their imprint in the popular imagination continued to deepen in subsequent years, with records including third album Human After All, live LP Alive 2007, and the Tron: Legacy soundtrack album. Twenty years into their career, Daft Punk blew up once more with “Get Lucky,” the lead single of their 2013 album Random Access Memories. The ubiquitous track sold millions of copies around the world and won two Grammys for the duo and guests Nile Rodgers and Pharrell Williams, both of whom also featured on follow-up single “Lose Yourself to Dance.” Random Access Memories earned Daft Punk a further three Grammys, including Album of the Year, and the ceremony hosted one of the last stagings of their spectacular live show. “When you know how a magic trick is done, it's so depressing,” Bangalter told Pitchfork in a 2013 Cover Story. “We focus on the illusion because giving away how it's done instantly shuts down the sense of excitement and innocence.” The year of Random Access Memories' release, Daft Punk were also credited with co-production on several tracks from Kanye West's Yeezus, including the formidable opening trio of “On Sight,” “Black Skinhead,” and “I Am a God.” They would go on to collaborate with the Weeknd on the 2016 single “Starboy”—Daft Punk's first Billboard singles chart topper—as well as a second hit, “I Feel It Coming.”Beyond the singles, their visual identity, interstellar mystique, and party-music ethos inspired generations of artists across genres. LCD Soundsystem's breakout song, “Daft Punk Is Playing at My House,” captured the duo's paradoxical embodiment of hipster cool even as their singles dominated airwaves. They released several batches of incredible holiday merch. They were sampled by R&B greats Janet Jackson and Jazmine Sullivan, parodied in Family Guy and Powerpuff Girls, and celebrated in art galleries around the world. Watch their farewell video below. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

New YouTube TV Bundle Offers Discount on HBO Max Are you a YouTube TV subscriber who also enjoys the premium streaming options of services like HBO Max? The good news for you is that the popular live streaming TV service just unveiled a new “Entertainment Plus” bundle that may be worth exploring. Details on YouTube TV's New “Entertainment Plus” Bundle YouTube TV users can now subscribe to three premium services for an additional $29.99 per month. HBO Max, Showtime and Starz Subscriptions If you're not already a fan on these three premium streaming add-ons, let's take a quick look at what each offers: HBO Max HBO Max, Showtime and Starz Subscriptions If you're not already a fan on these three premium streaming add-ons, let's take a quick look at what each offers: HBO Max This is the headliner in this bundle. With a normal monthly price of $14.99, HBO Max debuted in 2020 as AT&T and WarnerMedia's answer to competing with on-demand streaming giants like Netflix, Hulu and Disney+. That's one of the most expensive non-live video streaming services on the market, so it better be good, right? This is the headliner in this bundle. With a normal monthly price of $14.99, HBO Max debuted in 2020 as AT&T and WarnerMedia's answer to competing with on-demand streaming giants like Netflix, Hulu and Disney+. That's one of the most expensive non-live video streaming services on the market, so it better be good, right? --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Feline lonely: Pet cat Fu Fu appears to 'cry' into security camera pet cat has gone viral in China after appearing to cry into a security camera while being left at home alone during a holiday. The two-year-old British Shorthair, Fu Fu, supposedly wept while hearing his owner calling his name through the home monitor, his owner said. The CCTV clip was filmed on the night of February 8 in eastern China's Xuzhou after Ms Meng had gone to her parents' home in a nearby town to celebrate the Lunar New Year. The 17-second video, which has received more than 8million 'likes', propelled Fu Fu into social media stardom, leading him to be known as the 'left-behind cat'. Ms Meng told MailOnline she had decided not to bring Fu Fu out of fear that he could not get used to her parents' home. She described Fu Fu as shy and clingy, adding that the pet loves spending time with her. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

'Obviously a mistake': Sen. Ted Cruz says he regrets going to Cancún while Texans froze WASHINGTON — Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told reporters Thursday his decision to go on a family vacation to Cancún, Mexico, as Texans suffer without heat, water and power because of a historic winter storm was "a mistake" that he now regrets. "It was obviously a mistake, and in hindsight I wouldn't have done it," Cruz said outside his home after having returned to Houston, where he was greeted by protesters chanting, "Resign." I understand why people are upset," Cruz said. He said that he was trying to make his daughters happy by going with them on the trip but that "leaving when so many Texans were hurting didn't feel right, and so I changed my return flight and flew back on the first available flight." News of Cruz's trip emerged Wednesday night as pictures of him and his family as they waited at an airport gate with luggage and boarded a plane began circulating on social media. With school cancelled for the week, our girls asked to take a trip with friends," the statement said. "Wanting to be a good dad, I flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon. My staff and I are in constant communication with state and local leaders to get to the bottom of what happened in Texas. "We want our power back, our water on, and our homes warm. My team and I will continue using all our resources to keep Texans informed and safe," he added. Cruz gave an account similar to his statement when NBC News encountered him at the airport in Cancún on Thursday before his return flight, suggesting that he had just gone to drop his daughters off. With school cancelled for the week, our girls asked to take a trip with friends," the statement said. "Wanting to be a good dad, I flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon. My staff and I are in constant communication with state and local leaders to get to the bottom of what happened in Texas. "We want our power back, our water on, and our homes warm. My team and I will continue using all our resources to keep Texans informed and safe," he added. Cruz gave an account similar to his statement when NBC News encountered him at the airport in Cancún on Thursday before his return flight, suggesting that he had just gone to drop his daughters off. "We had no heat and no power, and yesterday my daughters asked if they could take a trip with some friends, and Heidi and I agreed, so I flew down with them last night and dropped them off here, and now I'm headed back to Texas and back continuing to work to get the power back on," Cruz said. A source with knowledge of the situation said that Cruz was initially booked to return home Saturday and that he booked his return ticket at 6 a.m. Thursday. "We had no heat and no power, and yesterday my daughters asked if they could take a trip with some friends, and Heidi and I agreed, so I flew down with them last night and dropped them off here, and now I'm headed back to Texas and back continuing to work to get the power back on," Cruz said. A source with knowledge of the situation said that Cruz was initially booked to return home Saturday and that he booked his return ticket at 6 a.m. Thursday. After Cruz's Senate office did not respond to repeated requests for comment Thursday, Cruz released a statement explaining his decision to leave the state and said he was returning home Thursday afternoon. He said that it has be an "infuriating week for Texans" and that his family had "lost heat and power, too." --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Waymo, Google's self-driving car spin-off Waymo, Google's self-driving car spin-off, has been granted a patent for a design that would see its vehicles automatically soften if they collide with a pedestrian. The patent, granted last week, focuses on the car's exterior and the way it could "alter its rigidity" when it detects that it is about to hit a human. It would do this through mechanisms located across the car's surface, which Waymo calls "tension members". The car's motion sensors would identify the potential collision before sending a signal to the tension members. These would then respond by altering the rigidity of specific panels – therefore lowering the impact on the human that the car is about to hit. The patent details a number of ways this could happen. One would see the car made up of corrugated sections that fold when the tension members are triggered, while another suggests sections of the car would have parts that move in relation to each other to absorb any impact. It also predicts that the system would be able to recognise what it was about to hit, classifying it a s either animal, cyclist or pedestrian. Collisions involving at least one vehicle occur frequently and often cause serious harm," the patent reads. "The force of the vehicle's impact is a primary factor in the amount of damage that is caused by the vehicle. Accordingly, it is desirable to design a vehicle that can reduce the force of impact experienced during a collision." Google announced in 2016 that its self-driving car project would continue life as a separate entity named Waymo, a subsidiary of Google's parent company, Alphabet. Later that year, the company unveiled the first vehicle under its new name – a driverless Chrysler minivan. Although currently only an idea, the patent shows that Google is responding to concerns over pedestrian safety, following an incident when one of its vehicles collided with a public bus in California. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Facebook Inc. will suffer damage to its core business when Apple Inc. implements new privacy changes, advertising industry experts say, as it becomes harder for the social-media company to gather user data and prove that ads on its platform work. Facebook Inc. will suffer damage to its core business when Apple Inc. implements new privacy changes, advertising industry experts say, as it becomes harder for the social-media company to gather user data and prove that ads on its platform work. Facebook warned this week that Apple's new feature, which is expected to roll out this quarter, will pose risks for its business, but the company hasn't detailed how it is exposed. Facebook in August pointed to a small corner of its business that facilitates ad placements on third-party sites and apps. It has also played up how the change would hit small developers. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Billie Eilish history Born and raised in Los Angeles, Eilish grew up in a household of actors and musicians and was home-schooled along with her brother Finneas O'Connell (the Slightlys). At the age of eight, she joined the Los Angeles Children's Choir, developing the soulful vocals that would later appear on her early singles. After the release of the pop-leaning "Six Feet Under" and "Fingers Crossed," Eilish made her breakthrough with "Ocean Eyes," produced and co-written with her brother Finneas and released by Interscope. It surpassed 14 million online streams and spawned a number of remixes with Astronomyy, Blackbear, and Goldhouse. Eilish followed up in February 2017 with "Bellyache," then landed another track, "Bored," on the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why. An EP, don't smile at me, featuring the singles "Copycat" and "watch," followed later that summer. In 2018, Eilish contributed a track to the second season of 13 Reasons Why, collaborating with Khalid on the hit single "Lovely," which charted globally. Later that year she issued a pair of singles, "You Should See Me in a Crown" and "When the Party's Over," which both landed on her full-length debut, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? Issued in March 2019, the breakthrough effort showcased her hybrid blend of pop, electronic, and hip-hop textures with a rock edge. Debuting at number one on the Billboard 200, the LP quickly became a worldwide smash and one of the most critically lauded efforts of 2019. Meanwhile, the pulsing single "Bad Guy" topped the Hot 100 and even got the remix treatment with Eilish's childhood idol, Justin Bieber. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Ariana Grande history Edit Ariana Grande-Butera (/ˌɑːriˈɑːnə ˈɡrɑːndeɪ/, born June 26, 1993) is an American singer and actress. Born in Boca Raton, Florida, Grande began her career at age 15 in the 2008 Broadway musical 13. She rose to fame for her role as Cat Valentine in the Nickelodeon television series Victorious (2010–2013) and Sam & Cat (2013–2014). She subsequently signed with Republic Records in 2011 after the label's executives discovered YouTube videos of her covering songs. Her 1950s doo-wop-influenced pop and R&B debut album,[1] Yours Truly (2013), topped the US Billboard 200 chart, while its lead single, "The Way", charted in the top ten of the US Billboard Hot 100. Upon release, critics compared Grande to Mariah Carey for her wide vocal range and whistle register. Grande maintained her pop and R&B sound on her second and third studio albums, My Everything (2014), and Dangerous Woman (2016), with the former exploring EDM and producing the UK number-one singles "Problem", and "Bang Bang", and the latter becoming her first of four consecutive number-one albums in the UK Singles Chart. Her personal struggles influenced her trap-infused fourth and fifth studio albums, Sweetener (2018) and Thank U, Next (2019), which were both critical and commercial successes. The former won Grande a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album, while the latter broke the record for the largest streaming week for a pop album, and was nominated for the Album of the Year.[2] The singles "Thank U, Next", "7 Rings", and "Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored" made Grande the first solo artist to hold the top three spots on the Billboard Hot 100 simultaneously, and the first woman to succeed herself at the top of the UK. In 2020, her collaborations "Stuck with U" with Justin Bieber and "Rain on Me" with Lady Gaga helped her break the record for most number-one debuts on the Hot 100. Grande's R&B-influenced sixth studio album, Positions (2020), and its title track, debuted at number-one in the UK and US. She has received numerous accolades throughout her career, including one Grammy Award, one Brit Award, two Billboard Music Awards, three American Music Awards, nine MTV Video Music Awards, and 20 Guinness World Records.[3] Grande also holds several Billboard Hot 100 chart records; among the above, she is also the only artist to have five number-one debuts, to have their first five number one singles debut at the top spot, to have three number one-debuts in one calendar year, and to have all lead singles from each of her first six studio albums debut in the top ten. Grande's first five full-length albums have been certified platinum or multi-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Having amassed billions of streams thus far, Grande is the most streamed female artist on Spotify and Apple Music,[4][5] and is currently the most followed solo female artist on Spotify, and YouTube. She has been included on Time's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world (2016 and 2019) and on Forbes Celebrity 100 (2019 and 2020), while Billboard has honored her as Woman of the Year (2018), the greatest pop star of 2019,[6] and the most accomplished female artist to debut in the 2010s.[7] Aside from music, Grande is known for her fashion, and signature ponytail hairdo. Since 2019, Grande is the most followed woman on Instagram. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app