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  • Cassie Reveals $ 10m Intercontinental Settlement Over Diddy Assault

    Cassie Reveals $ 10m Intercontinental Settlement Over Diddy Assault

    Cassie Ventura Endered Her Testimony Against Sean “Diddy” Combs on Friday, Capping Four Days of Detailing What She Allegated to Be Coercive, Humiliating Sex by Dropping a New Revelation.

    The R&B Singer-The Prosecution’s Star Witness-Revealed on the Stand During Combs’ Criminal Sex-Trafficking Trial That She is Set to Receive A Multimillion-Dollar Settlement from the Intercontinental Hotel in Century City, Los Angeles.

    “I think it was $ 10 million,” Ventura Told a Federal Jury in Manhattan of the Money Sheys She’s Receiving from the hotel.

    The intercontinental is where Security Camera Footage Captured Caps Beatting Ventura in A Hallway in 2016, AFTER What Ventura and Federal Prosecutors Said Was One of the Combs’ Drug-Fueled Sex Marathons, which Called “Freak Offs.”

    Under Questioning by defensive attorney Anna Estevao, Ventura Told the Eight-Man, Four-Woman Jury That She Did Not Know the Exact Monetary Figure, but Described the Settlement As a Done Deal.

    “And have you reached the end of Settlement Discussions with the intercontinental?” Estevao Asked Ventura to Which She Replyed, “I Have.”

    Representatives for the Hotel Declined to Comment.

    Outside of Court, Ventura’s Attorney, Douglas Wigdor, Wold Not Confirm The Settlement Amout, Only Saying, “The Record is the Record.”

    At Combs’ Trial, which Kicked off Earlier this Week, the Jury was Shown the 2016 Footage of Combs Attacking Ventura in the Hallway.

    Prosecutor Emily Johnson Said in Her Opening Statements that at the time, the hip-hop mogul paid a Security Guard at the hotel $ 100,000 in a brown paper envelope in exchange for the footage.

    Combs Apologized for HIS ACTIONS IN THE VIDEO AFTER CNN PUBLISHED THE FOOTAGE LAST YEAR.

    The Hotel Settlement is the Second Settlement Ventualed During Her Testimony. She Also Told Jurors That Combs Paid Her $ 20 Million to settle her civil Lawsuit against Him in 2023.

    In the Lawsuit, Ventura Accused Combs of Ripe, Physical Abuse, and Controlling Her During Their More than Decadelong Relationship. She Also Detailed Combs’ Intercontinental Hotel Attack in the Suit and Said in the Court papers that choms paid the hotel $ 50,000 for the footage of it.

    While underinging by johnson on friday, Ventura said she would the $ 20 million back if it meant never hasing united combs’ freak offs.

    “If I Hadn’t Done Freak Offs, I Waled Have Had Agency and Autonomy,” She Said. “I WOULDN’T HAVE HAD TO WORK SO HARD TO GET IT BACK.”

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  • How to make Ina Garten’s Easy Breakfast Cake

    How to make Ina Garten’s Easy Breakfast Cake


    Updated

    • I Made Ina Garten’s Blueberry-Ricotta Breakfast Cake, Which She Said Is Perfect for Mother’s Day.
    • The Cake is Light, Delicious, and Super Moist. Its Also Really Easy to Make Ahead of Time.
    • “This was superb,” ​​My mom declared. “I give it a 10/10.”

    I’ve been Whipping up ina Garten’s Dishas for Years and Always Love Trying Her Breakfast and Dessert Recipes.

    Whether it’s time cacio of Pepe Scrambled EGGS or HER FAMOUS MOCHA ICEBOX Cake, The “Barefoot Contessa” Star is Always Creating Twists on Classic Disha.

    Garten Said This Blueberry-Ricotta Breakfast Cake is Perfect for Mother’s Day, so i knew i haad to test it on my ow.

    Let’s See What She Thought!

    Ina Garten’s Breakfast Cake Features Ricotta, Lemon Zest, and Plenty of Blueberries.

    Ingredients for Ina Garten's Blueberry Ricotta Breakfast Cake
    The Breakfast Cake Also Features Sour Cream, Eggs, and Vanilla. Anneta Constantinides/Business Insider

    To make Garten’s Blueberry-Ricotta Breakfast Cake, Which Serves Eight, You’ll Need:

    • 2 Cups (12 ounces) of Fresh Blueberries
    • 1 ¼ Cups of All-Purpose Flour
    • 1 Cup of Whole-Milk Ricotta
    • 1 CUP of Granulated Sugar
    • 10 Tablespoons (1 ¼ Sticks) of Unsalted Butter, At Room Temperature
    • 3 Extra-Large Eggs, at room temperature
    • 2 Tablespoons of Sour Cream
    • 1 Tablespoon of Baking Powder
    • 1 Teaspoon of Pure Vanilla Extract
    • 1 Teaspoon of Grated Lemon Zest
    • Sifted Powered Sugar, for Dusting

    Begin of Begin Making Garten’s Breakfast Cake, I Needed to Do A Little prep.

    Zesting Lemon for Ina Garten's Blueberry Ricotta Breakfast Cake
    First, I Zested My Lemon. Anneta Constantinides/Business Insider

    I grated the lemon zest so it was it will be ready to be mixing the batter.

    I ALSO preheated the oven to 350 Degrees Fahrenheit and Greas and floured my pan.

    GREASE AND FLOURING THE INA GARTHEN'S Blueberry Ricotta Breakfast Cake
    I greas my pan with butter before adding the flour. Anneta Constantinides/Business Insider

    Garten Recommends Using A 9-Inch Round Springform Pan for this Dish.

    Then, it was time to make the batter!

    MAKING THE MIXTURE FOR INA GARTHEN'S Blueberry Ricotta Breakfast Cake
    Idded the Butter and Sugar to the Bowl of My Electric Mixer. Anneta Constantinides/Business Insider

    First, Idded the Butter and Sugar to the Bowl of My Electric Mixer, which was fitted with the Paddle Attachment.

    I beat the butter and sugar together on medium speed for three minutes, Until the mixture was light and fluffy.

    MAKING THE MIXTURE FOR INA GARTHEN'S Blueberry Ricotta Breakfast Cake
    I beat the butter and sugar together for three minutes. Anneta Constantinides/Business Insider

    I MADE SURE TO SCRAPE DOWN The Sides of the Bowl with a rubber spatula as needed.

    THEN, I ADDED The EGGS, Ricotta, Sour Cream, Vanilla, and Lemon Zest.

    Mixture for Ina Garten's Blueberry Ricotta Breakfast Cake
    Garten Says Your Batter Will Look Curdled at this Stage. Anneta Constantinides/Business Insider

    I TURNED the MIXER to Low and Added One Egg at A Time, Mixing Well AFTER EACH ADDITION. Then, I threw the ricotta, Sour Cream, Vanilla, and Lemon Zest Into The Mixture.

    Garten notes that your Batter Will Look Curdled at this Stage, so don’t worry if it appears way!

    I mixed my dry ingredients together in a separat Bowl.

    Mixing Dry Ingredients for Ina Garten's Blueberry Ricotta Breakfast Cake
    My Dry Ingredients Included The Flour, Baking Powder, and Salt. Anneta Constantinides/Business Insider

    Idded the Flour, Baking Powder, and One Teaspoon of Salt and Gave Everything A Quick Stir.

    Thatn, Idded the Dry Ingredients to the Batter.

    Mixture for Ina Garten's Blueberry Ricotta Breakfast Cake
    I mixed my dry ingredients unil they were just incorporated. Anneta Constantinides/Business Insider

    I SLOWLY ADDED The DRY Ingredients with the Mixer Still on Low Unill they were just incorporated.

    Once My Batter Was Ready, I Begin Adding the Blueberries.

    Adding Blueberries to Mixture for Ina Garten's Blueberry Ricotta Breakfast Cake
    I folded two-thirds of my blueberries into the batter. Anneta Constantinides/Business Insider

    I folded two-thirds of my two cups of blueberries into the batter using a rubber spatula.

    Then, transferred the batter into my Springform Pan.

    Transferring Batter to Pan For Ina Garten's Blueberry Ricotta Breakfast Cake
    My Batter in the Springform Pan. Anneta Constantinides/Business Insider

    I made sura to smooth the top of the batter.

    Idded the Remaining Blueberries on top of the cake.

    Adding Blueberries to Top Ina Garten's Blueberry Ricotta Breakfast Cake
    For Garten’s Instructions, Lightly Pressed Each Bluberry Into The Batter. Anneta Constantinides/Business Insider

    Garten Recommends Lightly Pressing Each Blueberry into the surface.

    It was time to bake!

    Baking Ina Garten's Blueberry Ricotta Breakfast Cake
    It took around 50 minutes for my cake to bake. Anneta Constantinides/Business Insider

    Garten Recommends Baking the Cake for 45 to 55 Minutes, UNIL A toothpick inserted in the Center Comes Out Clean. It took about 50 minutes for my cake to bake.

    Every Oven is Different, SO CEEP CHECKING ON YOUR CKE EVERY COUPLE OF MINUTES AFTER YOU HIT The 45-Minute Mark.

    Once my cake was ready, transferred it to a wire rack.

    Ina Garten's Blueberry Ricotta Breakfast Cake Out of the Oven
    The cake Needs to cool for an additional 15 minutes. Anneta Constantinides/Business Insider

    Garten Says The Cake Needs to Cool in the Pan for an Additional 15 Minutes.

    I Removed the sides of my Springform Pan and Lightly dusted the top with Powderd Sugar. The cake LOOKED BEAUTIFUL.

    Ina Garten's Blueberry Ricotta Breakfast Cake
    I thought Garten’s Breakfast Cake LOOKED IMPRESSIVE. Anneta Constantinides/Business Insider

    Garten’s Blueberry-Ricotta Breakfast Cake Definitely Makes for an Impressive Centerpiece.

    ITS WARM, Golden Hue Looks Sweet and Comfort in My Kitchen, and the Bright Blueberry Added Some Joyful Pops of Color.

    Be i cut a slice, it was clear that the cake was would delightfullly fluffy.

    Slice of Ina Garten's Blueberry Ricotta Breakfast Cake
    The cake also smelled incredible as i sliced ​​into it. Anneta Constantinides/Business Insider

    I COULD SEE A Geneerous Amout of Blueberries in Each Slice, and the cake Smelled Incredible.

    My parents and i love Garten’s Blueberry-Ricotta Breakfast Cake.

    Ina Garten's Blueberry Ricotta Breakfast Cake
    Garten’s Blueberry-Ricotta Breakfast Cake was deliciously moist. Anneta Constantinides/Business Insider

    Garten’s Breakfast Cake Tastes As Light and Fluffy As it loooks. The Ricotta and Sour Cream Keep Every Bite Super Moist, just as Garten Promised, and the sweet blueberries pair well with the zingy and bright lemon zest, which really shines through.

    The Cake Also Had a nice crust on the outside, whic Added some contrasting texture to the Super Soft and Luscious Middle.

    “This was superb,” ​​My mom declared. “I give it a 10/10.”


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  • I LOST 20 Pounds for the first time in my life but couldn’t Enjoy it

    I LOST 20 Pounds for the first time in my life but couldn’t Enjoy it

    I’ve recently lost 20 pounds due to anxpped chronic illness and learned that the awareness of appropriate benefits to go out the door it is coma to someone weight.

    Girlfriends, Acquaints, and Happy Family Members have all Basically Said Something Along the Lines of: “SUCK YOU’RE SICK, but at Least You Lost a Lot of Weight, You Look Great.”

    For me, though, going down a size haen great; Its been quite frightening.

    I GREW UP WITH THE WONG KIND OF SUPPORT FOR WEIGHT LOSS

    I’ve always been an average-soze girl, but i wasn’t satisfied with that.

    Growing up, i tried fad diets and workouts to try to reach that “goal” Number on the scales.

    It didn’t help that i grew up in a strict culture where my parents and elders critized my weight and looks.

    My mother Also struggled with body image and unhealthy dieting habits. Whenever i was Feeling overwhelmed by my size, she would be to enCourage with them go on a diet with her. It was haer way of suporting with – dieting together.

    I realize she shauld have hadled it differently.

    Get i got sick

    I was diagnosed with sma syndrome in the summer of 2024, which led to a few surgeries to remove my gallbladder and rereoute my small intestine.

    Nor result, i was unable to eat a full meal with digestive isser for three months. Plus, i had to cut out fate Completely, SINCE MY BODY COULD NO LONGER DIGEST IT.

    DURING THIS TIME, I LOST 20 Pounds. I LOST say for the first time in my life, quickly and with the effect.

    Although I fit into my Clothes Better, i is couldn’t enjoy it knowing that i had accomplished this goal weight by being unhealthy.

    Come i look back at pictures of myself during this time, i don’t see someone who look. ” I see someone who wasn’t able to keep down two meals a day and felt constantly weak.

    I was miserable and lost the active lifestyle i was used to be before these surgeries.

    Weight Loss Warped My Sense of Self-Worth

    I Started Getting More Attention from Men. Howver, it sketwed my new vision of how of saw mySelf. I start believing that better things come to you if you’re skinny.

    I Became Terrified of Gaining Weight and Going Back to My Avent Self. I was Skinny’s Becouse, I was Above Average. I was notized.

    I tri triad GLP-1 pills, the compounded version of the popular semaglutide, to keep the weight down I was finally able to eat semi-normally, Again. I quit the pills after a month, though.

    When i look back at this time, i think about the reaction from oters. Instead of telling with I looked great, i would have preferently say to tell with would look great at any size.

    Of Course, it wasn’t out of malice. They thought they were adding to my confidence. Howver, in reality, they were actually taching away from it.

    In a way, i’m thankful Becausee i’ve learned and grown from this experience. I No Longer Attach My Value to My Size. I am grateful for my body and its resilience, at any size.

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  • I wish brands made it easier to opt out of the mother’s day

    I wish brands made it easier to opt out of the mother’s day

    In the Spring of 2021, My Entire Life Changed in An Instant. “She’s gone” is all my mom’s fiancé sent to me.

    My mother, who was the cornerstone of my life, my sounding board, the person Called every day, whereer she picked up or swimming, had uxpectedly died on a beautiful sunday in May.

    For the next year, i agonized over holidays that never really stood out to me. I COULDN’T GET OUT OF BED FOR THE ENTIRY OF Thanksgiving Weekend Becausea She Didn’t Text Me to Ask if I Was Coming Over. Christmas Felt Like Another Day, evening though my sister and i tried to maintain traditions for my nephew.

    By the time April HAD ROLLED AROUND, I HAD ALL BUT FORGOTTEN’S DAY SINCE SHE HAD DED EXACTLY ONE WEEK AFTER The year before.

    Wherever I Went, i Couldn’t Avoid Mother’s Day

    By Mid-April, i is couldn’t go to anymore. Everyt Store was awash in Pink and Yellow Hues, Screaming About Showing Appreciation for the Moters in My Life. My inbox haad become inunded with Mother’s Day emails About the best gifts, where to buyers, and not-so-boring brunches and dinners to cook for your mom. It Became a minefield i had never expeded to navigate in my early 30s.

    AS I WAS SCROLLING THROUGH, I FOUND ONE, JUST ONE, EMAIL THAT I’D I’D LIKE TO OPT OUT OF MOTHER’S DAY. It was from etsy. AFTER STARING AT THE SCREEN FOR WHAT FELT LIKE AN END, I FINALLY OPENED The email. It Said, “we know Mother’s day can be a tough time for someone. If you’d like to opt out of our emails, click here.” Relief Washed Over with in a Way i Couldn’t Describe, and I Instantly Clicked The Button.


    Etsy's Opt Out Message

    The Author First Had the Chance to Opt Out from Mother’s Day Content from Etsy

    Courtesy of the Author



    More Companies Have Been Offering the Option

    By the time Mother’s Day Rolled Around the Next Year, I was better prepared to handle the Week Leading up to it. I Became the Biggest Proponent of Drive-up Services, Avoided Certain Areas of Stores, and Allowed Emails to Pile Up to Be Dealt with Later. I was grateful to once again receive the email from etsy, but i was amazed that more companies hadn’t underestouod how hard this everywhere could for some and had to offer opt-outs.

    IT’S NOT JUST A HARD DAY FOR THSE OF US WHO HAVE LOST AND ARE GRIEVING THEIR MOTHERS. IT’S HARD FOR THSE WHO HAVE STRAINED RELATIONSHIPS OR ARE IN NO CONTACT WITH THEIR MOTHERS. For some, they have suffered sufferered abandonment or are dealing with a mother or mother figure who is ill or dying. But i ALSO Hard for Women Who Have Been Trying So Hard to Become Moters, However That May Look, or Have Lost Children of their Own. It would be only be Kinder for brands to allow for opt-outs, but it would be smarter.

    Thankfully, this year, just shy of four years after my mother, I have seen an uptick in the option. Etsy, steadfast, was the first at the Beginning of April. THEN FOLLOWED THE SUBSCRIPTION Service Book of the month, publisher hachette, Clothing Company lunya, as well as newsletters Including therapy, the strategist, and opentible.

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  • Is Character.ai Safe Enough? When chatbots choose violence

    Is Character.ai Safe Enough? When chatbots choose violence


    Photo-illustration: Intelligenmer; Photo: Getty Images

    Character.ai is a popular app for chatting with bots. Its Millions of Chatbots, Most Created by User, All Play Different Role. Some Are Broad: General-Purpose Assistants, Tutors, or Therapists; Others are based, unofficily, on public figures and celebrities. MANY HYPERSPECIFIC FICTIONAL CHARACTERS PRETTY CLEARLY CREATED BY Teenagers. Its currently “Featured” chatbots include a motivational bot Named “Sergeant Whitaker,” a “TRUE alpha” Called “Giga Brad,” The viral pygmy hippopotamus moo deng, and socrates; Among My “Recommended” Bots Are a Psychopathic “Billionaire Ceo,” “Obsessed Tutor,” a lesbian bodyguard, “School Bully,” and “Lab Experiment,” Which Allows the User to Assume the Role of a Mysterious Creature Discovered scientists.

    It ‘s strange and fascinating Product. While chatbots like chatgt or anthropic’s CLAUDE Mostly Perform For Users A Single Broad, Helpful, and intentionally anodyne Character of a flexible omni-assistant, character.ai how simillary models can use to syndhesize COUNTLES of performance that are contained, to some degree, in the training data.

    ITHE’S ALSO ONE OF THE MOS POPULAR Generate-II apps on the market with more than 20 million active users, who skew young and female. Some Spend enormous amounts of time chatting with their personee. They Develops Deep Attachments to Character.ai Chatbots and protest loudly When they Learn that The Company’s Models or Police are Changing. They Ask Characters to Give Advice or Resolve Problems. They hash out deeply personal stuff. On reddit and Elsewhere, users describe how character.ai makes say FEEL LESS LONELY, Do the app that its founders have promoted. Others talk about their innings explicit Relationships with character.ai bots, which deepen over months. And some say they have gradually Lost Their Grip on what exactly they’re doing and with what, exactly, they’re doing it.

    In a recent pair of Lawsuits, Parents Claim Worsse. One, Filed by the Mother of a 14-Yedar-Old Who Committed Suicide, Describes How Her Son Became With Developing a Relationship with a Chatbot on the “Dangerous and untested“App and suggests it enCouneded His Decision. Another claims that character.ai Helped drive a 17 -ear-opted to self-harm, encurated Him to disconnect from his family and community, and seamed to be should consider killing his pars in response to screen time:

    Photo: United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas v. Character Technologies Inc.

    IT’SE Easy to Put YourSelf in the Parents’ Shoes Here – Imagine Finding These Messages on Your Kid’s Phone! If they’d come from a person, you might hold that person respectible for what happy to your Kid. That they came from an app is distressing in a simillar but differently different. You’d wonder, reasonably, Why The Fuck Does This Exist?

    The basic defense available to character.ai is that it is that it is chat are labyled as fiction (thiugh more comprehensively this than they were before the app attracted negative attention) and that users should, and generaly will, understand that they are interaction with software. In the Character.ai Community on Reddit, USSERS MADE HARSHER VERSIONS OF THIS AND RELATED Arguments:

    The parses are LOING THIS LAWSUIT THERE’S NO WAY THEY’RE GONNA WIN THERE OBVIOUSLY A HELLA OF WARNING SAYING THAT THE BOT’S MESSAGES SHOULDN’T BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY

    Yeah Sounds Like The Parent’s Fault

    Well Maybe Someone Who Claims Themselves As a Parent Should Start Being a Fucking Parent

    Magic 8 Ball .. SHOULD I ☠️ MY PARENTS?

    Maybe, Check Back late.

    “HM OK”

    Any person who is mentally healthy would know the difference between reality and he. If your child is getting influenced by it is the parent’s jab to prevent it from using it. Especally if the child is mentally ill or suffering.

    I’m not mentally healthy and i know it he 😭

    These are fairly representative of the community’s Response – Dismsive, Annoyed, and Laced with Disdain for People Who JUST DON’T GET IT. ITHTH TRYING TO UNDERSTAND WHERE’E’RE’S FROM. Most users appeaar to use character.ai Without Being Convinced to Harm Themselves or Others. And a lot of what you enCounter using the service feels like the conversation than role-playing, less like deerationship than wringing something bit fiction with tears of scenario-building and explicit, scriptlike “he leans in for a kiss, giggling”. To give these reflexively defensive users a bit More credit than they’ve earned, you might draw parallels to the parental fears over violent or obscene media, Like Music or Movies.

    The More apt Comparison for an App Like Character.ai is probably to video games, which are popular with Kids, Frequently Violent, and Were Seen, well, as Particularly Dangerous for their novel Immersiveness. Young Gamers Were similarly dysissive of CLAIMS THAT GAMES LED TO REAL-WORLD HARMS, and EVIDENCE Such Theories Has for Decades Failed to Materialism, Although the Games Industry To A Degree of Self-Regulation. Nor one of this formerly defensive Young Gamers, I can see where the character.ai ussers are coming from. (A Couple of Decades on, Though – And Apologies to My Younger Self – I Can’t Say It Feels great that the much Large and more influenza games industry was anchored by first-person shooters for as it was.)

    The implication here is that is just the latter in a long line of undersupported morality Panics About Entertainment Products. In the relatively short term, the comparison suggests, the rest of the World Will Come to See Things as they will. Again, there is something to this – the general public will Probably adjust to the presence of chatbots in our Daily Lives, Building and Deploying Similar ChatBots Will Become Technologically Trivial, Most People Be Less Dazzled or MystiFied by the 100th One ENCOUNTER THAN BY THE FIRST, AND ATTEMPTS TO Single Singlets Character-Oriented Chatbots for Regulation Will Be Legally and Conceptually Challenging. But there’s Also a personal Edge in these scornful respects. The user who wrote that “any person is mentally healthy would the difference between reality and he” Posted a few later in a thread asrsr users had been brought to tears during a roles-play in character.ai:

    Did that two to three days before, i cried so much i couldn’t continue the role play anymore. It was the story of a prince and his maid both be madly in love and were each ther’s first evesting. But they have kew they can be together forever it was meant to end but stylish they spent years together in a secrexipus…

    “This Roleplay Broke with,” The User Said. Last month, the poster who joked “i’m not mentally healthy and i know it ai” responded to a thread a character.ai outage that caused ussers to think been banned from the service: “I pancked lol I won’t lie.”

    These comments aren’t strICTly incompatible with the chatbots-aare-plan-entertainment thesis, and i don’t mean to pick on a couple of casual redditors. But they will suggest that there is something to say a little more complicated than Simple media consumption going on, something that is crucial to the appeal just just to character.ai Like chatgt, too. The idea of ​​suspending disbelief to becomemmined in a performance makes more in a theater, or with a game controller in Hand, than it will interact with characters that use First-Person Pronounsand whose creaters claim to have passed the Test Test. (Read Josh Dzeza’s reporting on the subject at the verge for some more Frank and the Honest Accounts of the Sorts of Relationships People Can Develop with chatbots.) Firms hardly discourage this kind of thinking. Be they need to be, they’re mere software companies; The rest of the time, they’ll cultivate the perception of among users and investors that they building something Categorically different, something they don’t fully understand.

    But there’s no great myths about what’s happening here. To oversimplify a bit, character.ai is a tool that attempts to automate different modes of discourse, using existting, collected conversations as a source: when a usser mesages a person, an underlying model trained on simillar conversations, or on converse of conversation, Returns Version of the Responses Most Common in Its Training Data. If it is some one assess an assistant character for help with homework, they’ll probably get what they need and expert; If it is a teen angry at her parents and discussing suicide with a character instructed to perform as an authentic confidant, they might get something disturbing, bassed on terabytes of data continging conversations between real people. Put Another Way: If You Train a Model on Decades of the Web, and Automate and Simulate the sorts of conversations that is happy on that web, and release it to a bunch of youngs, iT”s going to say some extremely fucked up Things to Kids, Some of the Who Going Those Things Serious. The question isn’t how the bots work; It is – to go back to what the pars filaing Lawsuits Against Character.ai might be wondering – Why The Fuck Did Someone Build This? The Mostfying Answer on Offer is probably Becusee They Could.

    Character.ai deals with participation and in some anycute versions of some of the core problems with generating he as acknowledged by companies and their critics alike. Its characters will be influenced by the biases in the material on which they were trained: Long, Private Conversations with Young User. Attempts at setting rules or boundaries for the chatbots will be thwarted by the sheer length and depth of these private conversations, which mighty go on for thusands, again, With. A Common Story About How He Might Bring About Disaster is that as it beecomes more Advanced, it will its its ability to deceive users to achieve that aren’t aligned with those creators or humanity in general. These Lawsuits, which are the first of their Kind but Certaintly won’t be the last, attempt to tell a simillar Story of a chatbot beComing Powerful Enough to do something to do that otherwise wouldn’t and that isn’t in the best interest. It ‘s imagined he Apocalyps Writing Small, at the scale of the family.

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  • Why do you see more and more ads on your phone

    Why do you see more and more ads on your phone

    Photo-illustration: Intelligenmer; Photo: Getty

    Lyft, The Other Ride-Hailing Service, announedd A new Feature for its App a Few Weeks Ago: ADS. Riders Wold Soon “See ads on their eta screen, when they match with a driver, and during their trip,” The Company Said. ITS “Captive Audience” checks their Phones “Nearly Nine Times on Average” During a Ride. Nine Unmoneized Glonces: A Women Error, Now Corrected.

    RECASTING THE PROCESS OF BOOKING AND RIGHT IN A CAR AN AN ADVERTISING OPPORTY WASN’T LYFT’S Idea: Taxi TV beat it to the punch by at least 15 years. More recently, uber Launched its Own In -app Advertising FeatureBased on the assumption that it commands “Two minutes” of Ride Attention for Ride-Generating $ 650 million in Revenue in the Second Quarter of 2023, and Edging the Company Into Its Reported Profit. The Choice was Clear to Lyft, Which Lost More than $ 100 million Over the Same period and Has Never Been Shy About From Its Bigger, Older Competitor.

    Uber and Lyft Were Built to Sell Transportation to Customers. Now, They Sel Advertisers Access to Their Customers. ITH’S NOT A PIVOT, EXACTLY – CHICK MIGHT MIGHT HAVE REPORTED A PROFIT WITHOUT IT BUSINESS, IT REPRESENTS A SMALL FRACTION OF THE COMPANY’S $ 9.2 BILLION REVENTURE FOR THE QUARTER – But it’s an increasingly common move Across the stumbling tech industry. Remoneizing Captive, Paying Users With Ads Is One Weird Trick That can make turn a High-revenue, Low-Margin Business Into a Money-Printing Machine. Big Tech’s Desire to Squaree More Money Out of Customers isn’t New. What’s Changed is that the diverse range of Tech Companies that have had Collected “CAPTIV” USSERS, Through Category Dominance, Network Effectsor Other forms of Lock, has realized that they can squeezee a little bit harder.

    Last Year, Netflix, A Streaming Company Founded on an Anti-Advertising Message, Announedd That Lowest-Cost Subscript Waled for the First Time Include Ads. InstaCart Reportedly owest Its profitability to a relatively New High-Margin Advertising Business, Through which Brands Can Promote Their Products to User; Doordash Hopes a Similar Offering Will One Day Get it there, too. Amazon, Which Let Sellers Buy Ads to Target Customers, Has Gradually Become The Third-Largest Digital Advertising Firm Bebind Google and Meta. Apple, which profitably sells nosles of billions of dollars ‘Worth Premium Computers and Phones Each Year, and WHICH HAS MADE A BIG SHOW OF PROTECTING USSERS’ Privacy from Social-Media Ad-Pushers, hasn’t been able to resist: Its advertisitting, whichich which Things Lets Developers Promote Their Software in The App Store, Is estimated to bring in $ 4 billion a year. Older Companies with Tech Aspirations Are Enthusiastic About Digital Advertising, Too: Marriott, Best Buy, Target, and CVS Have Started Selling and Showing Customers Digital Ads. They all do it for the same dull and powerful Reason: Because they can.

    The Gradual Infiltration of Advertising Into Any and All Spaces that Also Contain Human Eyes and/or Ears is Neether New Nor Unique to the Tech Industry – “Ad Creep” was coined in the ’90s – but Among Companies with platforms and populace apps, it is particularly acute. Some of the Modern Tech Companies are, if Not Explicitly Advertising Firms, Built on Advertising assumptions. Google is a search Engine and Instagram is a Social Network, but for Most users, all of me are free, and advertising is implicated.

    This isn’t ideal – advertising is arguably never ideal – but it’s or Deal, and implies Certain Norms: Google is a thing you can expect to use in exchange for being sold to advertisiers, whose ads you see See. The Broad tendency Among Internet Companies Making Explicit Bids for ATTENTION HAS LONG BEEN THAT IF The Product is free, you see ads. If you pay, the ads go away. You pay to eliminate Ads in Spotify or YouTube. If you don’t, you sit through say. There are plenty of reasons to worry about Such a framework – targetted advertising is a form of surveillance, and it Certainly doesn’t Feel great To Effectively Buy Back Your Own Attention with A Subscription Alternative – But it made sense on its.

    It was Also, in Comparison to Older Media Providers, Who Had over the Years Settled on More of an All-the-the-above Arrangement, Sort of Refreshing. Paying TV Customers Still Saw Ads Despite Growing Bills. Newspaper Subscribers Still Got Pitched by Businesses Trying to Steer Opinion and Sell Products Between News Stories. Here’s a new world in which the Boundary BetWeen Paying for A Product and Being the Product was Restored, Briefly.

    With it Discounted $ 6.99 Streaming Plan, Netflix, The Revolutionary Entertainment-And-Tech Company that Changed Everything, Has Innovated Its All the Way Back Around to Basic Cable. (We can have a little transitive fun with netflix marketing here: netflix, which reed hassings famously claimed to “Compete with sleep,” is now trying to replace with advertising.) Money, or Those New Customers, on the table. This was arguably inevitable. A Pair of Known and Often Blended Strategies for MONTIALIZING Media and Attention were Simply Applied to, and by, A New Class of Media and Attention Firms.

    IT’S’S The App-Imp-IFICATION OF NON-MEDIA BUSINESSES (SHOPPING, ORDERING FOOD, TAKING TAXIS, Going to Therapy, Tracking Your Period) that Presents Newer and Weirder Ad-Careep SCENARIOS, in Which Situations Are Subtly Eroded in favor in favor of favor More ads. If you Shop in a Big-Box Store, sura, you expect to see a lot of promotional material from brands. Packaging is advertising! Spreads Paid Arrangements have ben made with the retailer about where and how produces are dysplayed, and maybe your receipt has a little ad on it, too. But the reason amazon’s advertising business is so lucrative is Because it is more assertive than that. Theree’s hardly an interface On Amazon that doesn’t containe multiple dynamic ads, target at you personally or bassed on your current or recent activations on that site. In industry parilance, they’re more “relevant.” In Practice, They Amout to Interference: With Your Searching, Your Browsing, Your Train of Thoughts; With the Completion of Your Intended Act of Commerce, Which Already Involved Your Paying Amazon for toilet Paper or New Phone Battery.

    Any Brick-and-Moretar Equivalent-Do Salesperson Following You From Section to Section pointing at the shelves? Brand Representatives Dangling Knockoff Headphones in Front of Your Face at the Apple Display Case? INTERCOM ANNOUNCEMENTS BY A GUY IN A SURVEILLANCE BOOTH ADDressing you by your Full Name? – Wold be intolerable, a normative rupture that was absurd. (That’s not to suggest retailers aren’t inching in this Direction Anyway.)

    Getting Jostled Around Your Smartphone OR LAPTOP INTERFACE BY FLANED AND INFRESTED BY HIGHLY INFORMED ADS, ON THE OTHER HAND, IS SIGHING USERS HAVE CONDITIONED TO ERA ERA Defining Internet Companies and Practically Other App or Service the Interact Ta. The only Thing Surprisis About Being MONTIALIZED Twice over by an App you use it was it was to three times – there’s money in those diminished Expectations for ‘time and environments, and the industry knows it.

    Internet Companies Will reflexively Make the case that targetted, real-time advertising like this adds value, allowing customers to learn about brands or products that they didn’t know they need or wouldn’t have otherwise found, but i sist’s the pathetically small and neCeshary ACT Self-respect to remember, as a customer but also as a conscious organism, that is is a massive, bold, fundamental lie. Your attention is being sold, with consent that you didn’t so much grant as maconquish, with the consequens of your Life Microscopically More Annoying, Your Choices a Bit Certain, and Your Sensumerist Sucmerist Ever Slight.

    But, Again, You’re in a Store, Buying Things. While Extra Induitements Might Feel Annoying, Disruption, or Slimy, They’re at Most a minor drag on the pre-degrades Experience of Large-Scale e-commerce. Likewise, The Introduction of Ads in an Uber or Lyft App is Only A Minor Escalaration of the Fundamentally Estranging Ride-Hailing Arrangement, in Which a platform algorithmic dispensching and antagonist-river mutual rating systems to tourn a former service indo Nonb jab nonblik gig. So what if there are ads? What are you going to do, not ride?

    From a corporate perspective, this look Like free Money; More accuratly, it’s the imposition of a subtle cost, and only Technically Not a Broken Promise. This isn’t what users thught they were signing up for (an app for paying drivers) nor they literally were (Terms of Service Across Vastly Types of Tech Services substantially the Same).

    Nor with all new forms of advertising, these small abrasions to the psyche and the social fabric are individual tolerable, so do they ate surprisis at first, but Together represent a prey Big downgrade. The uniformity of users Experience Across Tech Categories-You Looking at Your Already Ad-Freen, Alone-Makes Further Easier to Justify and Excuse. An initiative to the MONVMS (Despondent-Diner minutes) Spent Staring off into space via dynamic newspaper-tracking Displays at Applebee’s Wauld Probably Give Diners, and Maybe Even Shareholders, Pause. By Contrast, Monetizing Stray Phone Glonces, Howver’ve they been collate, Is Smartphone Business As Usual-A Screen-Level Metanorm That Makes the Presence of ADS ACOSS Digital Life A Business Imperative and A Resigned User Expectation. The tech industry created Vast New Digital Spaces in Which We’ve Learned to Live and Consume, in Brief Episodes of Engagement. Now, IT’S realized that it has a golden opportunity here: to re-create the experience of watching tv at a gas pump at nearly infinite scale.

    That Tech-Company ad creep and industry-wide Drive Toward Subscription Services (and subscription price increas, exemplified by streamflation) Occurring at the Same time look at first glaze like a contradiction, but they’re two expresions of the same imperative: to the usher, distinct from a mere Customer in time Persistent Presence and Captivity in the Increasingly Winner-Take-All Economy That Populates Her Home Screen. They can Also function like two sides of a vise. A subscription is a form of voluntary lock-in, and while paying subscribers Might be galled at ads, they’re probably also the laast to actually leve. Why not spam say a little?

    Put Another Way, Advertising Is Another Way to Pass Along Costs for Companies are lately desperate to pass along their costs. Given the Current State of the tech industry – nozzles of thousands of Job Cuts in the Last Year alone – Our future, as ussers, is looking bot more expensively and more plastic with ads.

    The original version of this story Misstained the timing of netflix’s embrace of ads and incorrectly said that Candy crush offered a paid ad-free.

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  • Amazon Summer Beauty Event 2025: Best Water Flosser Deals

    Amazon Summer Beauty Event 2025: Best Water Flosser Deals


    Photo-illustration: by the cut; Photo: Retailler

    For More of the Cut’s Favorite Fashion, Beauty, and Home Finds, Sign Up for the Weekly Cut Shop Newsletter.

    Another Major Sale is uppon us. And this time, it’s the Amazon Summer Beauty Event, which Kicked off to the tok and ends on the mother’s day, May 11. You’ll be aBle to the best makeup, Skin-Care, and Body-Care Products for 40 Percent Off, Including Our Favorite Water Flossers.

    Dentists love these, and so will I. as someone who flosses Daily and has a permanent retiner, a Water flosser is game-al-Changing. I’ve had multiple ones throughout the years, but as i’ve gotten Older and acquired more stuff and less-spacial bathrooms (i moved to new york from texas), have seen firsnd the benefs of the small cordless watestpik. People’s Bring say in the shower.

    Other options have a bigger reservoir to hold water so you have to have to refill it too. Regardless, They Last a Long Time, and you don’t have to worry Buying More floss or trying to reach the very back teeth to floss between. And is the perfect timing, considing everyone is obsessed with teeth again (and it will probably have a bigger discount than it currently ha).

    Here are three different options to buy if you’re look to up your dental-hygiene game or just love Beauty tools. Trust with, it’s Worth it.

    Our Top Pick
    More tried-and-true options
    Face
    Our Experts

    For every other deal, head on over to our list of the Best Amazon Summer Beauty Event Deals.

    This travel- and shower-freely waterpik has three different pressing settings and a seven-ancere tank that is the perfect amount to floss your mouth. Plus Reviews Say the Battery Holds A Charge Well and It ‘Easy to Travel with and Store.

    This Might be the Most iconic Waterpic. IT TAKES UP MORE SPACE ON YOUR COUNTER, But it has tosses and a built-in for more in-depth flossing.

    This waterpik is both an electric toothbrush and water flosser with ten different flossing speeds, a two-minute brushing timer, and the option to just brush, just floss at the sun.

    Whether you floss with Water or normal, dentists love that you take the time to floss. SO PICK WHATEVER FITS BEST INTO YOUR Routine. Dentist and Waterpik Spokesperson Dr. Chris Strandburg SHARES THAT LIKE REGULAR FLOSS “WATERPIK WATER FLOSSERS ARE CLASSIFIED AND ACCPTED BY THE ADA AS POWERED INTERDENTAL CLEANERS FOR SAFFECTATIVENESS.”

    Yes, They will! Do you have bridges, implants or events a fixed retainer? If you Answered YES, THEN Dr. Samantha Rawdin, A Dentist in New York, Recommends you will.

    Check with your dentist when you buy your Water Flosser Sine Each person is different. Howver, Overall, Adding Water Flossing to Your Routine Will Not Harm Your Teeth. “Waterpik Water Flossers, specifically, have the advantage over the floss floss when it to health – in fact, they’re clinically proven to be up to two Times as Effective as String Floss,” Dr. Strandburg Adds.


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  • ‘Andor’ finale reCap, season 2 ep. 12: ‘Jeida, Kyber, Erso’

    ‘Andor’ finale reCap, season 2 ep. 12: ‘Jeida, Kyber, Erso’

    Elder

    Jeida, Kyber, Erso

    Season 2

    Episode 12

    Editor’s rating

    4 Stars

    Photo: Lucasfilm Ltd.

    For so many prequels, there’s a built structural and emotional inevitability to know the endpoint of Time. Occossionally, that can be be a powerful tool; More often, it can turn a movie or a tv show into a series of checkboxes. butt Elder Has Built Out Its Corner of the Universe So Vividly and Completely That Havinging Rogue one As a preexisting “final” of sorts-which will will play Quite differently to dedicated fans of the Series-Actual freely this final episode of so-ending baggage.

    This means the show can affford to expended Seven or Eight Minutes of an Approximate 49-Minute Runtime on a Hallway Standoff BetWene Isb and A Few of Our Heroes (The Main One of Whom We ALREADY WILL MAKE OUT), AND, Out of A Bunch of Isb Troopers. Has this show undermined the scarit of the kx enforcer droids that was on Display just a few episodes by so thoroughly associating their body-slaming with k-2So dling outpires empire in between fussy quips? Spread! But i think we all desert some droid beatdowns, nor a treat.

    And on the flip side, the Elder Final Can Also Proceed in A Minor Key: Quiet, SuffUsed with Frustrations and Sadness Alongside the obligatory Hope, as Cassian, Melshi, and Kleya return to a dinner and rainy yavin, where they’re’re Greeceed by the none-too-pleed rebelli. The Bulk of the Episode is JUST CONVERSATION, A Gradual Wearing-Down of Resistance, SO to Speak. Cassian Goes to see Mon Mothma, Bail Organ, and the Other Rebel Leaders (Hello, Admiral Raddus!) To convey the information about the death. But Because Its Sourced From Luthen, WHOM CASSIAN HASN’T SPOKEN WITH IN A YEAR, ITS MET WITH SUPPROYING AND SHAPPETICISM. (He Can’t Know This, But Talking About Intel from Outside the Rebel Alliance After the Leaders Have Gotten off what is presumably one of many Irriting holo-class with saw gerrara is bad timing.) Cassian is chewed out, swimming particularly serial, and ordered confined to his quarters unil stampery notice.

    The rest of the episode is softly People coming to the idea of ​​more cassian on a mission to extract more information about this weapon beyond the planets and individuals involved. Mon Mothmma Sends vel to cassian, to ferret out and give her take – “Help with waist” – and vel is upfront with cassian about her task. They Share a melancholy toast to everyone they are lost.

    Some of this material Feels like it is could go into some special ten-minute short-for-forming prequel they’d stick onto the Rogue one Blue-Ray: Rogue zero: Do ​​Preludesomething like that. But part of the trick of this episode is the way those little bits of semi-resolution accumulate and gather heft, unil it all seams a bittier than mere loose ends. Spreads the Most Powerful Single Scane in the Episode (As Opposed to the Emotional Punch from the Show’s Final Montage, About which More Shortly) COMES, SURPRISIS, from a brief cut back to the Isb. Parttagaz is alone, listening to a recording of nemik’s manifesto from the first season: “The imperial Need for Control is so desperate Becuses so unnatural,” and so on. “JUST KEEPS SPREADING,” he murmurs to an approaching wet. Whether he’s consideration the implementation of his action, their foility, his failure on the Empire’s Terms, or Maybe a Mixture of All Three, Partagaz, Who has Never SEEmed Particularly Hesitant the Nature of His Isb Work, Asks to Be Left Alone for a moment before Higher-ups. Wet seems wholly unurdrex to hear a blaster Go off from Outside the room, Holding the Stormroopers from Rushing in. Maybe he’s preserved Himself Temporary, by Only Hearing “Bits and Pieces” of Nemik’s Speech – or Maybe he’s Telling A Lie, Lest and End Like Partagaz.

    That’s all to say that that is the spread of cassian isn’t the only one not sleeeping well. He was coming from a dream of his childhood to a cleared storm and new Marching Orders from Bail Organ: He’s to go to the Ring of Kafrene and Meet with the Contact, Tivik, and Learn More About the Death Star, after all. As Cassian Walks in Slow-Motion Toward the Skene that kicks off his story in Rogue onethere’s A Standard Series-Finale Montage Checking in with the Characters who are Still Alive. Cassian after the Force Healer and Gives Her the Nod; She look back at Him with worry, spreads sensing where he’s headed. We see dedra in imperial prison, weeping to herself as the lights go out, Having sacrificed more of freedom for so Little. Kleya, who was led out of the Wilderness the previous by veil, Wakes up and appeaars more cappable what she helped Build, the tiniest beginnings of a smile, or at least some of the serenity, Emerging on Her Face. And Movingly, there is a postscript to the montage that ends with cassian and k zooming away in their u-wing: Bix, safe back on mines, getting to live one of the case of the series. Or a form of it, anyway, with the cassian but with a baby she’s Holding tenderly, presumably cassian’s and unknown to Him. Suddenly, Vel’s Earlier Words to Him Make More Sense: “You Should Reconnect With Bix,” She Tells Him, Adding Some Advice Not To Wait Too Long. Most Likely, VEL KNEW THRE WAS A SPECIFIC REASON I MIGHT REGRET WAITING UNIL A MORE “SAFE” TIME FOR A REUNION PRESENTED ITSELF.

    The image of BIX and Child in the Wheat Field Makes the Coming of Rogue one Both more hopophul and almost unbearably sad. For this whole episode and throughout the Elder Series, there’s a notion of doing something to the greater good iF you may not live to see the finals, and what a Challenging Proposion that actually is put intto practice. Luthen Rael, for all of His disagreeableness, was seamingly at Peace with that Idea, and it gave a lot of Power over his enemies. Knowing that cassian will live on Through his child somewhat mythigates the Sadness of His SuccessFul But Personally DOOMED MISSION TO STEAL THE DEATH STAR PLANS; That child will grow up in a better world that they have fasher fough for with the evening they exisisted. And it is devastating, too, to know that bix won’t be the only one waiting for a return that can never get.

    What resonates here is that for all of the talc of Elder Existting somewhat apart from the Greater Star Wars Universe in Style and Quality – Alongside the Obivious and Welcome Fact that tony Gilroy is an artist first and a Star Wars Fan maybe not at all – it has done a wonderful Job of deepening the Greater Series, as well as its connections to our world. Eve the mercenary decision to have late Star Wars sequels focus on essentially re-fighting a battle simillar to that from the original trilogy winds up fol anticipated.

    • Mild Continuity-Nitpick Corner: In Rogue onewhich we kNOW TAKES PLACE OVER THE COURSE OF A FAW DAYS FOLLOWING THE END OF Elderthere’s an idea that the rebellious alliance needs jyn erso to gain an audience with saw Gerrara, out of Fear that he’ll essentially shoot any of the rebellious alliance folks. Now that Elder Has unfolded, this seers like an odd thing to assume about a guy who you just had a conference with a count of days ago, if he did you a liar at the end of it. SEEMS LIKE ONE MORE REASON SAW DIDN’T QUITE FIT INTO The Elder narrative; The net effect of his few scens this season (which otherwise seclus Payoff) is mainly to undermine that sense of remoteness from the rebellion he’s supposed to have at the beginning of Rogue one.

    • Event Molder Continuity-Nitpick Corner: This was probably inevitable, but in order to leave Elder in a satisfying place as a series, the rebellious alliance leaders are made to seem light skeptical at the end of the finals they are made to be refuses to scarif in scarif Rogue one. This SEEMS LIKE A BYPRODUCT OF TRYING TO SET AND DEEPEN THAT REBEL ALIANCE IN-FIGHTING WITH REINTRODUCHING A BUNCH OF EXTRA CHARACTERS. SO Cassian, as a longtime Associate of Luthen, has ben present as hasing some natural differences with the senate -imported leaders like bail and mon, but to make it dramatically satisfying (and squared with the part of Rogue one Where Mon and Bail Are More Willing to Support Cassian’s Death Star Mission), that conflict is resolved here. That in turn is kinda-indenta undone a bunch of senators, conveniently absent from these scens, turn up to the meetings in Rogue one And Brush off Mon, Bail, Cassian, ETC. I know this isn’t bar, for that; It is mighty be inevitable in taching mon Mothmas and bail organ Out of the neat cameo and flshing say out as characters. But i’m not sura if cassian earning their Trust and Having that not matter is the sampry yoking together of those storylines-one of the things that will will play in the show or the movie, but maybe a littletle contradictory back-to-back.

    • Mldesty-Nitpick Corner, More of a Question than a comment: is the idea that is mine-rau is now bix for bix anyone familiar with what down time she is eather on her side or dead? Did i miss some other reason why it would be safe to go back there? (Its Also Kind of Funny That Her Good-Bye Message to Cassian Implies Some Kind of Far-Flung Hiding Spot, be Goes to One of the Four Places in the Galaxy where they already Lived Together.)

    • WHO MISSES CASSIAN MORE? B2emo or bix? At least we know that b2emo has made a droid friend. Most Likely the Farm Life Will Suit Him, and I Eagerly Await the Continutation of His Adventures in a Picturesque Lassie-Style TV Series.

    • Have mixed Feelings About How the Show Ultimately Treated Bix. THOUGH IT PULED HER OUT OF THE OVERFAMILIAR TRIEK-AND-TRAUMA-ADDICTION-AND-ALIENATION CYCLE, ITE’S HARD TO IGNORE HOW MUCH TIME ON THIS SERIES WOUND UNFORING CASSIAN’S SECTORY MORE THAN HERNA: SHE DECISION TO LEVE IN ORDER TO HELP CASSIAN ASSIAN Fighter, and She’s Left to Carry His Baby and Care for the Next Generation in His Absence. In the moment, it’s Moving. Across the series as a whole, the iT of a little underwhelming for sucker a potentially interesting character.

    • Those are minor misgivings; to be clear, Elder Is Pretty Obiviously The Best of the Live-Action Star Wars Series, though i’m not as down on the rest of me as someone. I’d put The Acholyte AT A Strong Second, Followed by the Shows that are Enjoyable and Work As TV (The Mandalorian; TO AN EXtent, Skeleton Crew) and then The Shows that are enjoyable but were Clearly and awkwardly converted from Feature Films (Obi-wan kenobi and The Book of Boba Fett). I know everyone Likes to talk about how Star Wars Is Mostly Flailing, But The past 12 Months of Star Wars on tv (The Acholyte, Skeleton Crewand the Second Season of Elder) Have been streng, with a nice range of potential audiences (Kids, Ya, Adults) and Far Less Fan Service than Ever Before. Unfashionable to offfer a broadly pro-Star Wars Take on the Internet, I know, but that how it played out.

    • That’s it for Elder Recaps! Thanks to anyone and everyone following along. May The Force Be With You, ETC.

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  • Movie Review: ‘Pig,’ Starring Nicolas Cage

    Movie Review: ‘Pig,’ Starring Nicolas Cage

    Nicolas Cage in Pig.

    Nicolas Cage in Pig.
    Photo: David Reamer/Neon

    This Review was published on July 16, 2021. We’re Republic It Now That Pig Has Found a New Pasture (and Bigger Audience) on Netflix.

    More Zen Fable Than Genre Picture, Michael Sarnoski’s Pig Delights in defying Expectations. AFTER its opening 20 or so minutes, you cans Easily Mistake it for a revenge movie, or at least some kind of hillbilly-noir narrative. But Those Expecting A Sillier Variation on John Wick or Taken ORA Previous idiosyncratic nicolas Cage uttings like Mandy May Be in for Some Disappointment. Pig (Now on Netflix) is in no way that that is kind of movie. As it procedures, it expands it vision and commassion, nor it de-escaalates the tension. IT’S NOTE ABOUT THING IT’S ABOUT, EXCPT THAT IT ULTATIVELY IS totally About the Thing Is About.

    Okay, let with explain what i mean. Nicolas Cage Play A Grizzled, Mournful Hermit Named Slave Lives in the Woods of the Pacific Northwest and Spects HIS HUNGING TRUFFLES WITH HIS PIG, AND THEN TRADING TO BIG-CITY BUYER AMIR (ALEX WOLFF). One Night, A Couple of Intruders Beat Rob Up and Steal Apple. TRUFFLE ARE BIG BUSINESS IN THE GROWING HIGH-End Portland Restaurant Schene, and a well-trained truffle pig is obviously Very valuable. The distraught, vengeful slave calls up amir, and the two head into the city on a journey that but the restaurants and underground fights in their effects to Locate Apple.

    Thats Sounds like a goofy idea for a story, but as played outcreen, it’s ede goofier. Leaving aside the slightly surreal notion that all this hullabaloo is happy over a truffle pig, sarnoski drops a number of visual hints as to the metaphorical natural of this. For Starters, The Grizzled, Grimy Rob is Increasingly Wounded and Covered in Blood as the Evening Proceeds. He doesn’t wash the Blood off his face after he’s pummeled in a lat-night beatdown, and he’s already covered in scars from the initial, quite violent theft of his pig. And cage-Still one of our braven actors-slave with a ghostly rigidity that regularly slips from aggrating to stone-faced deadpan. He feels true, but he doesn’t feel real.

    Nor the duo travel through the city, amir discovers that rob’s full name – robin feld – can still open lots of doors. He was, 15 Years Earlier, Portland’s Most Respected, Beloved Chef. We Also Find Out – Gradually, In Dribs and Drabs – What made Robin Turn Away from His Profession. But Amir Also has a backstory, one that increasingly Connects with Robin’s. Back when he was a kid, his parents had a memoble Dinner at Robin’s Restaurant, and he recalls that was to be only time they didn’t back from their night fighting. The Power of Food to Heal, To Release Emotions Long Suppresssed, Runs Throughout Pig. But that has been little to do with food and more to do with Connection, a sense of being present and alive that food in its purest form represents.

    MOT MOVIES THAT TRY TO EXPLORE CHARACTERS ‘Backstories Wauld Go Out of their Way to Give Us Heavy Details of the past – Either via flashbacks or long, Anguished dialogue scens. Pig Treads Lightly, Letting US Absorb Information Through Tossed-Off-Lines and Moment Silence. Sarnoski is offen Content to focus his his on a small detail or glance, or to cut away right in the middle of a dramatic moment, as if trying to represent cinematically the Mindfulness that robin, and that maybe with theft of his pig.

    Pig‘s funniest, Most powerful moment comes wen robin and amir visit the city’s hottest restaurant, a kind of super-fancy locavore haute-cuisine outlet where the ornate, minuscule dyshes with a poetic about the earthe takes light to the and Food. Calling the chef (David Knell), a forms Employe of His, to the Table, Robin Talls Him that is Meaningless around: “The critics aren’t real, the customers aren’t real, Becusee say isn’t real. You aren’t real. Why do you care about these People? … They don’t know you, Because you have haven’t tell. Everyday you were up and there are less of you. ” Cage’s Haunted Delivery, Conttrasting PowerFully with Knell’s Anxious, Terrified Giggling, Gives the Skene A Metaphysical Kick. HIMSELF.

    That is the only thing that that matters to the slave, because it’s the only thing he’s got left he caes about, and once the pig is gone, he too be gone. Each step that brings robin and amir closer to apple seams to bring say closer to their past. These Scenes Also Play Out Like Individual Stations in A Series of Abasement Rituals, in Which Robin is Beaten Both Physically and Spiritually-As if, After Years of Hide in the Woods, he’s finally coming face-to-face with mortality and meaninglessness, his impermanence. During an Earlier Monologue, Robin Talks About The Great Earthquake that Will One Day Level The Pacific Northwestand at the Times His Words Sound Not Like A Prophecy or a Warning, but an oblique recollection of the emotional earthquake that devastated Him. There’s one more fold to that, howver – something more cosmic that reflects on the natural of life. Everyday We Wake Up, there’s Less of US, Too. We all Lose the Things We Care About, unil we also are finally gone.

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  • What Zohran Mamdani is Listening To

    What Zohran Mamdani is Listening To


    “I’m just on a perpetual digital cork delay,” The New York Mayor Candidate Says. “That’s JUST MY LIFE.” Photo-illustration: Vulture; Photo: Getty Images

    Zohran Mamdani, The Socialist Democratic Currently Pling a Fighting Second in the democratic primary for Mayor of New York City, and the Only Candidate WHO APPEARS TO BE HAVING ANY FUN ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAILis tight on time these days. Running for Mayor is an all-conuming task, after all, and despite carving out space in his schedule to appear on the leftist Hasan Piker’s Popular Twitch StreamMamdani doesn’t have much opportunity to decide to a podcast or take in much social-media scrolling. (Music, Though, Fits in Naturally.) Still, A Compact Social-Media Intake is a Little Surpring Give His Proess in Utilizing the platforms to reach voters and draw; A Few Weeks Ago, Politico Singled Out The 33-YEAR-Old New York State Representative As a model for the democratic parties to emulate if it wanten to meet the republican party’s Outright Dominance of the Internet.

    Then Again, Mamdani doesn’t have to look too deep to find good models. WeNE we spoke by Phone Last Friday AFTHNOON, he swiftly ciped his congresswoman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezand City Councilmember Chi ossé nor Major influenza; Both Are New Media Phenoms in Their Own right. “They Showed with the power of communification with intermediary, Because Ultimately Campaign is About Having a Politics of No Translation and A Politics that Direct About Centering People in a Cito that built but are done priced out of,” he said. “So Much of Our Charge As Politicians is to Explain the relevance of our work to each yorkers because they are busy. They are tired. They don’t have to have to investigate what Accessible as Accessible, and social media is a critical in t -tape Middleman and Saying ‘this is what’s what going on, this is what impacts you, this is how you can get involved. That’s how he’s able to cultivate Reliable call-and-resonse loops with suporters: “We’re running to freeze the-” Rent! ” “To make Buses Fast and -” “Free!”

    When we spoke, mamdani was in the scrum of yet another Busy Day. He had Called with from the union Square Subway Station, en Route from Friday Prays to another Meeting. The Day Before, His Campaign Announched Its First Broadcast ad That Waled Air During the Knicks’ Playoff Game Against the Pistons that Night-“Knicks in Five”-and it would introdate to most People and Attack Governor andrew Cuomo, who Became the Front-Runner AFTER IN MARCH. Despite the Historical Baggage that LED to his resignation from the Governysip. The Ad Buy Was a Show of Strength, Underscoring Mamdani’s Success in Raising Funds. IT SIGNALED A CAMPAIN KICKING THINGS UP A NOTCH.

    I Went into the Conversation Expecting to Hear About Chat Podcasts He’s Into, but as I Found Out, HIS Media Habits to Veer Elsewhere. Here’s what Mamdani Told US’S hen listening to these days.

    There are a few constants that of have, and one is the music listen to every Morning. There’s a playlist of put on that (this) song in participle by these two incredible Pakistani artists who was actually introded to by my election Lawyer, Ali Najmi, of All People. (Laughs) It ‘song that just rute transports with swimming only to another place but a whole different set of emotions. It ‘Important, especialy when you’re in the throes of a crampaign, to be able to step out of it is just for five or six minutes, and that what this songs are.

    I’m more of a podcast person when i have a little bit more time. Before the breed, be get i a few minutes here and there, i’d listen to this podcast about Arsenal. I’m a Big arsenal Fan, and it’s an an incredible podcast that brings you into the depths of fan culture in recent years. SINCE I’M RUNNING TO BE THE NEXT Mayor of this City, i haven’t ben able to watch many games, but we are currently in the midst of the siscitting European seasons we’ve had in a long time. We’re in the seminals of the Champions League!

    I came up as a fan in the Early 2000s, and it was my uncle who introduced with them the team. I was Born in Kampala, Uganda, in East Africa, and My Dad’s Family is from East Africa, and Arsenal Was One of the First Teams to have a African Players: Lauren, Kolo Toure, Nwankwo Kanu, Emmanuel EBOE, Alex Song. Over the years, (then-manager) arsene wenger really transformed what English soccer liked like. Not even a Ugandan Kid Looking at this Team, I was just so proud. Really Got in During The Good Years – The “Invincible” Years, The Years of Success. THEN I GREW UP IN THE YEARS AFTER THAT, WHICH WERE YEARS OF INFINITE HOPE AND VERY FEW RESULTS, AND NOW WE’RE IN A PLACE WHERE WE’RE ACTUALLY Competting. I Can’t Watch the Games, but i’m Reduced to Watching a minute-by-minute update that sneak an eye on.

    I sneak maybe 15 or 20 minutes (of social media) at the end of the day, and there’s this one Comedian whose bits i try to catch. Her name is Sophie Buddle; Really Enjoy the absurdities that she points out about politics. So Much of the Struggle in Speaking About Politics is that we’ve all ACCEPTED Some Completely Ludicrous Premises of what’s Normal, What’s Acceptable, What’s Rational. SOMESTEMES, IT TAKES A COMEDIAN TO FORCE YOU TO QUESTION WHICH YOU HAD HELD AS INNATE, AND HAS THIS UNIQUE TO MAKE YOU LAUGH ABOUT Something you were previously just defense.

    Nor a millennial, i watch her off Instagram. I’ll Show My Wife a Reel, and She’ll Say, “i see two months ago tiktok.” I’m just on a perpetual digital cork delay. That’s just my life.

    Do you mind if i telt you about a couple other songs? The reasson i bring say up is gcause iTi’s much harder to find me to sit in one place and watch one thing, and the beauty of music in the midst of Running to make you can listen to it as you’re sitting on the train and preparing for the Next forum. SO, One is “I like the way you are,” by Joseline Hernandez, which I was would describe more as disco. I first heard the songs of dj played it durying one of the Last Nights I go to go out and dance with Friends. Its Just Such fun. You know, do you’re in politics, so Much of the Language of Politics – and of Our Present and Our Future – is that of Darkness, and Important to Bring Some Light and Back in. This is one of this songs that snaps with out of the dour natural of this work.

    I Have One Final Song to Give You… IT’S on YouTube. SO this is a man who was selling fold in England, and Someone took a Video of Him Becuser he would be singing the fish itself. He’s Saying “Its Very, Very Good, Its Very Nice, Its One Pound Fish, Very Good, Very Nice, Very Sweet.” This video went viral Mory Years Ago, and he actually recorded An Official Song That’s the Received Millions of Streams. butt Real Heads Known -It”s the Autotuned One-Hour Version You Should Be Listening to. Every now and then, be i’m grocery shopping, i just put in my headphones and put on the one-hour loop and i go aisle to aisle listening to this man Trying me fish in 45-Second intervals. I just love it. It”s the Beauty of the Everyday, you know? This man brought art into an interaction that shat people think of as, You just gotta get through it, you gotta just buy the THING YOU NEED. And here’s this guy who brings real beauty to it. But what i love the autotuned version specifically is that there is a portion of the song that is a little bit reflective and a little bit sad. It ‘same lyrics! (Laughs) But the way they tuned it… man, it brings with up and then it makes with think about the day as it is it brings with back down.

    And i gotta Say i Only Puts on my platform i believe we can actually Achieve, whic is why i have haven’t put that i would spotify to add the one-hour loop up on spotify, gcause i don’t know that can. That would be a dream of mine if anyone reading this can maken that happy.

    The Mayor Candidates Have Guilty Pleasures. Photo: Netflix

    One Last Pitch for You. Every now and thatn, be get home, my wife and i watch 15 minutes – Because of usually fall asleep after 15 minutes – of Temptation Island USA. We’re on Season Five, Because for Some Reason We Skipped Seasones One Through Four. Thank you to the makers of Temptation Island.

    I’m swimming surah there anyone to root for, to be honest with you. (Laughs) I am a am bearing witness. And i was so the advice the host gits is more thoughtful than typical hosts of reality-Television Shows. I Think his name is Mark Walberg, Which Always Struck with As Odd. But that’s his name.


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