You'll never guess the White Sox' stadium's new name, guaranteed

Bad news, White Sox fans -- the rest of the league has another reason to poke fun at your team.

On Wednesday, the White Sox announced new naming rights for their stadium, currently known as U.S. Cellular Field. You'll never guess the new name. Nope. Not that either. Here you go:

#WhiteSox have naming rights deal in place. Going from US Cellular Field to Guaranteed Rate Field starting next season. — Dan Hayes (@CSNHayes) August 24, 2016

That's Guaranteed Rate as in Guaranteed Rate Inc., a mortgage company whose headquarters is located in Chicago. Whether that local flavor helps offset the oddness of the name ... well, no, it almost certainly doesn't. Sorry, folks.

But hey, on the bright side: at least nobody will forget where the White Sox play?


Share. Dropping the subtitle altogether. Dropping the subtitle altogether.

The first entry in Warner Bros.' pair of upcoming Justice League films has dropped the "Part One" subtitle and will officially be called Justice League. DC chief creative officer—and newly appointed DC Films' co-head—Geoff Johns' took to Twitter, to confirm that "the Justice League movie is called 'Justice League.'"

Just last week, several rumored titles surfaced, suggesting the film would either be called Justice League: Angels and Demons, Justice League: United, Justice League: Gods Among Us, or Justice League: Gods Among Men. What do you make of Warner Bros. and DC Films' decision to simply call the film Justice League? Let us know in the comments, and for more on the upcoming superhero flick ahead of its November 17, 2017 release, here's why Jeremy Irons believes the film won't be as "muddled" as Batman v Superman.

Alex Osborn is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

At long last, the official title of Zack Snyder's next DC film has been revealed.


How High Can Runaway Helium Balloons Fly?

If there is no ceiling or other obstacle in their way, balloons ascend higher and higher until they are out of view, but how high can balloons actually fly? Helium-filled balloons can reach several miles above the Earth's surface, but they cannot float into space (if they could, that'd just mean more space junk we'd have to deal with).

According to Robert Matthews of Science Focus, toy balloons can ascend around six miles high, while weather balloons (which are made of more durable materials) can go three times that distance. This is thanks to the Archimedes Principle (explained here in this Carol Hodanbosi article for NASA). The balloon floats in the first place because its helium is less dense than the air outside. As a balloon climbs higher, the surrounding air pressure drops, and the helium inside expands. When the density of the balloon matches the density of the air, its ascension stops. And when the expanding helium becomes too much for the toy balloon's latex material, it bursts.

Please don't feel compelled to test this out, however. Not only do helium balloons mess with wildlife, they have also been known to cause problems for commercial planes. Sorry to burst your bubble.

Test your knowledge with amazing and interesting facts, trivia, quizzes, and brain teaser games on MentalFloss.com.

A few miles high, but not into space. #StopClickBait


What Science Says About Women Who Are Able to Have Kids Later in Life

Because if you are able to have kids later in life, you might be wired to live longer, too.

Attention, 30-something single ladies: If you’re tired of people dropping not-so-subtle hints about having kids while you still have the eggs and energy, you can (probably, politely) tell them to back off.

A Boston University School of Medicine study found that women who can still give birth naturally after age 33 have a higher chance of living to extreme old age than those who had their last child before age 30. But the report, published in the online version of the journal Menopause in April 2014 doesn’t imply that putting off pregnancy will add years to your life. "If you physically delay having children, that’s not going to help with longevity, Paola Sebastiani, a Boston University biostatistics professor and study co-author, told OZY. A woman with a natural ability to have children later in life suggests that her body – including her reproductive system – just happens to age at a slow pace. Some women’s biological clocks simply tick more slowly than most.

Women who had their last child after 33 were twice as likely to live to 95 or older, compared with those who had their last child by 29.

Sebastiani and her colleagues analyzed data from the Long Life Family Study, a survey of 551 families, many of whose members lived to a ripe old age. They determined the ages at which 462 women had their last child and how long they ended up living. Turns out women who gave birth to their last child after 33 were twice as likely to live to 95 years or older, compared with those who had their last child by age 29.

The researchers suspect that the former group’s DNA might harbor genetic variants that slow aging and lower the risk for age-related diseases that can hamper fertility (like ovarian cancer or diabetes). Women with such variants could presumably bear children for a longer period of time, boosting their chances of passing these genes down to future generations — meaning we may have women to thank for the evolution of longevity genes. It could also explain why of the people who live to be 100 or older, 85% are women, compared to only 15% of men.

Earlier studies have unearthed similar insights. Take the ongoing New England Centenarian Study, which found that women who had children after 40 were a whopping four times more likely to live to 100 than women who had their last child at a younger age.

Given the possible link between longevity and a longer fertility window, Sebastiani’s findings also suggest that researchers should further investigate the genetic influences of reproductive fitness, since they might also affect aging rates and vulnerability to age-related diseases. Sebastiani and her team have been working to identify the genetic variants that make some women age slower and plan to publish their results at the end of this year. Understanding the pathways they govern could help scientists develop drugs that produce the same effect.

So even if your biological clock is ticking, it might still be a while before its alarm goes off — depending on your genes.

A recent Boston University School of Medicine study found that women who are able to have children later in life have a higher chance of living to extreme old age.

They tend to live longer. However, it's not necessarily the act of having a child later in life that causes longevity, but that the bodies of women who can support healthy pregnancies later in life tend to age slower. #StopClickBait


Sex toy company Lovehoney surveyed 4,400 of its customers and found that the whole affair lasted an average of 19 minutes, with ten of those minutes reserved for foreplay. Just over half of the respondents said they were happy with this, but 19 per cent of women and 23 per cent of men said they wished it lasted longer.

Nearly a quarter of all respondents said they’d like sex to last for more than half an hour, and two thirds said they’d like at least 15 minutes in the sack. We don't ask for much, do we?

The survey also revealed that couples have to make do with a "quickie" 21 per cent of the time.

Iit’s probably worth bearing in mind that the survey’s respondents, who were all Lovehoney customers, are perhaps a little more sexually liberated than Jane from accounts and her estranged husband Derek.

This is how long the average person lasts in bed The list

While most of us aren’t shy to admit we’re getting it, fewer people would be willing to go into the details of exactly how long they last. But now, thanks to a new survey, you can calculate if you’re going at it for longer than the national average.


Something Was Spotted On Trump’s Head During Press Conference – And It Explains His Hair

Donald Trump’s hair has been a punchline for some time now. It’s practically a national icon almost.

Questions like "Why is Trump’s hair so bad?" or "What is that thing on his head?" have popped up contentless amounts of times, and many a meme has been made about him.

Well, we may finally have an answer as to why his hair is so bad.

Several people noticed during Trump’s press conference that he was wearing bobby pins. Yes, bobby pins. He forgot to take them out before giving his big speech on the world stage, apparently.

Men generally wear bobby pins to pin down their hair and keep it from moving. One good use for them is also to hide bald spots. If Trump has a bald spot, that’s probably why he combs his hair the way he does. And, also why it looks so ridiculous.

How long has he been wearing them? No one knows. But, chances are it’s been for awhile. He’s had the same haircut for who knows how long.

Twitter is basically going crazy over this Trump "bobby pin" thing. It’s funny. It really is.

Something Was Spotted On Trump’s Head During Press Conference – And I...

A bobby pin. The article suggests his wacky hair style is his way of covering up a bald spot.


#Mitron... meet this tea-seller from #Gujarat #Demonetisation

The Income Tax Department on Saturday raided the premises of city-based tea seller-turned-financier Kishore Bhaijyawala and seized cash worth approximately Rs 400 crores, including cash, bullion, jewellery and property papers from his possession.

(Also read: Rs 10 Crore Old Notes Seized From Private Car, Cash Belonged To A Bank Controlled By BJP MP)

The IT search was on Bhajiyawala's premises by the time of filing this report. Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) seized Rs. 30 lakh, of which Rs. 18 lakh were in new currency notes and 2.5 kg gold from the premises of a tailor in Mohali and Chandigarh.

(Also read: Amidst Demonetisation Chaos And Cash Crunch, Rs 3,600 Crore To Be Spent On Shivaji Memorial To Be Build Off Mumbai Coast)

(Also read: Chandigarh Tailor Caught With Black Money Worth 30 Lakhs In Cash And 2.5 Kilos Of Gold)

The case one of the many cases registered across the country. Tea sellers, tailors, labours and many more are being caught with lakhs and crores in their account.

Are they innocent? We don't know! But there's some sorcery going on, for sure!

Copyright © 2016 Times Internet Limited. Powered by Indiatimes Lifestyle Network. All rights reserved

This Surat Tea Seller Just Redefined 'Black Tea' For Us, I-T Seizes Rs 400 Crores And Jewellery From Him

The story is about a tea seller-turned-financier in Surat, who has been caught with cash worth approximately Rs 400 crores.


You'll never guess which Oscar nominee is behind this moody school snap...

SACRED HEART SCHOOL Lady Gaga in black and white throwback snap

One unrecognisable snap has emerged of none other than Lady Gaga - real name Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta - documenting her rise from stroppy school kid to international music star. In the black and white snap, a very young looking Lady Gaga doesn't look too impressed to be having her photo taken while wearing nothing but a cream dressing gown.

The moody looking star stares straight at the camera while she defensively wraps her arms around herself. However the picture, taken at Sacred Heart School in New York, hints at Lady Gaga's later musical success as she's sitting next to a grand piano.

WENN Lady Gaga is now an international superstar

SACRED HEART SCHOOL Lady Gaga couldn't have looked more different in her school days

WENN Lady Gaga is known for her quirky sense of style

In a strange way I feel like it won't define me anymore after I sing it on TV at the Oscars Lady Gaga

Since her school days, Gaga, who is now 29-years-old, has become known as a innovative singer with a questionable dress sense. It was her her debut album The Fame (2008) which first propelled her to fame and produced global chart-topping singles such as Just Dance and Poker Face. The songstress quickly became known for her incredible voice, and she recently wowed at the Super Bowl 50 with her spine-tingling rendition of the US national anthem. Her career has gone from strength-to-strength and the Manhattan born star is set to perform her Oscar-nominated song - in the best original song category - Til It Happens To You at the awards bash later this month.

Can you guess the celebrity from their yearbook picture? Fri, June 10, 2016 Can you guess the celebrity from their yearbook picture? Play slideshow PaulFraserCollectibles/BNPS 1 of 90 Can you spot Marilyn Monroe in her year photo?

GETTY IMAGES Lady Gaga wowed at the Super Bowl 50

SHE'S a worldwide superstar thanks to her smash hit songs and unique sense of style, but back in her high school years, this starlet couldn't have looked more different.


The 17-year-old reality star and model appears to have dyed her hair a light brown, ditching her darker 'do for some highlights.

She also shared pics from her weekend at the iHeart Radio Music Festival with her sisters Kourtney and Khloe Kardashian and Kylie Jenner.

And although Kim K was absent from the festivities, it looks like Kendall followed in her newly-blond big sister's footsteps.

Kendall Jenner Dyes Her Hair, At Least It Looks Like It

Kendall Jenner took to Instagram yesterday (Sept. 22) to debut what looks to be some lighter locks.

The 17-year-old reality star and model

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This restaurant just unseated Chipotle as the most popular Mexican chain

Moe's Southwest Grill has unseated Chipotle as fast casual Mexican restaurant "Brand of the Year," according to an annual Harris Poll. (Photo: Moe's Southwest Grill)

People with a hankering for a burrito are no longer beelining for Chipotle first. Or second, or third, or fourth.

Moe's Southwest Grill , a Tex-Mex chain with less than half the number of locations as Chipotle, has unseated the former fast casual king as the most popular brand selling Mexican-inspired food, according to an annual survey out Thursday from Harris Poll that measures how people feel about restaurant brands. Moe's has more than 650 restaurants to Chipotle's more than 1,900.

Moe's, which is owned by the same company that operates shopping mall mainstays Auntie Anne's and Cinnabon , claimed the "Brand of the Year" title for fast casual Mexican restaurants for the first time, while Chipotle fell hard. The No. 1 pick for the past three years, it's now ranked below not only Moe's but Taco Bell , Qdoba and Baja Fresh .

The survey is yet another sign of the harsh impact Chipotle's food-safety issues have had on the brand in the past year. Chipotle has been grasping at a former semblance of its reputation as a purveyor of fresh food in the months since dealing with multiple incidences of E. Coli and norovirus at restaurants across the country. Sales tanked, a rude awakening for a brand that had been wildly popularity for years.

The company has said customers are coming back around though, and has tried to lure customers back with offers for free burritos and buy one, get one deals. In the first quarter, sales at stores open at least a year fell nearly 30%, though the company said transaction volume improved as the quarter went on. A free burrito offer in February had a 67% redemption rate.

But beyond Chipotle's issues, the fast casual restaurant landscape has also become more competitive as chains have gone head to head to offer customers healthier food and new menu options. Qdoba rolled out a new taco menu last year with fillings like tequila lime chicken, steak and bacon; Taco Bell has gained prominence for its breakfast menu and started selling alcohol in some restaurants last year. Moe's is known for a wide selection of ingredients for build-your-own tacos, quesadillas and burrito bowls — the brand also frequently offers limited time menu additions, such as an ancho chili lime rice bowl and seasonal salsas like ghost pepper and mango tomatillo.

Chipotle, meanwhile, has rarely introduced new menu items, and some say the company hasn't done enough to show customers its food is safe to eat, even though it has adopted new food safety protocols.

"Their sales have been under tremendous pressure," says Andrew Charles, an equity research analyst with Cowen and Co. who follows both Chipotle and Qdoba. "Brand perception is down. In retrospect, I just don't think they did enough to convince customers that Chipotle food was safe to eat," pointing out that there are no signs in stores alerting customers to the changes and announcements on social media have been scarce.

Moe's rose to the top for ranking the highest in familiarity, quality and purchase consideration. Harris Poll surveyed more than 97,000 U.S. consumers for their thoughts on more than 3,800 brands. Moe's has benefited from a rapid expansion in recent years, which has given the brand a stronger position as a Chipotle alternative, says Lisa Recoussine, vice president of client services at Nielsen, which owns Harris Poll. Moe's opened 70 new restaurants last year, when sales hit nearly $640 million.

To be sure, Chipotle still has much larger market share and sales, which were $4.5 billion in 2015. According to Placed Insights, an analytics firm that measures traffic trends, just 2.3% of the U.S. population visited a Moe's last month, while nearly 9.4% visited a Chipotle.

Though the poll results show Moe's may be poised to steal more customers, says David Shim, CEO of Placed Insights.

"Moe’s has an opportunity to continue to convert that brand equity into restaurant visits," Shim says, "closing the visitation gap with Chipotle."

A recent survey gives another sign that Chipotle's food safety scares hit the brand hard.

Moe's Southwest Grill according to a poll, although Chipotle has 4 times as many customers


The first Top Gear reviews are in and you'll never guess what they say

The new series of Top Gear is "as entertaining as ever", according to an early review.

The show has been plagued by reports that new hosts Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc are at loggerheads and that members of the audience walked out before the end of taping.

The newly launched show will return to television screens this weekend, featuring the all-new line-up of Evans, Friends star LeBlanc and four other hosts, plus The Stig.

Good if you give it a chance, purists will dislike it


One LvG Rule Proves Why He Could Never Be A Success At Old Trafford

When a manager doesn't do well at a club he has to take a majority of the blame but the players must also face up to their failings. However it's a good job Jesse Lingard didn't listen to his manager because then Manchester United might not have been FA Cup winners on Saturday.

In the two seasons that Van Gaal stuck around at Old Trafford fans had to endure a lack of spark and excitement in the football that was being played, far removed from the usual style seen at Old Trafford for years.

At times LvG's management bordered on bizarre, with Ashley Young's changing of position from left back, to right back, to striker and Phil Jones being on corners possibly the two best examples and some of the chat coming from 'sources' in the club shows just how daft things got at Old Trafford.

It's been reported today that one of the rules on the pitch for United players was that they couldn't shoot first time. The players were instructed that they had to take a touch in the box before shooting. If Lingard had stuck to the rules there's a good chance he wouldn't have scored.

That rule alone might explain why the team scored their fewest in the Premier League era this season.

Van Gaal also reportedly used group meetings to publically put players down and criticise them, including for missing a first time shot, something that senior players Wayne Rooney and Michael Carrick went to the Dutchman earlier on in the season to complain about.

The manager also got so fed up with players not reading the emails he sent to them about which included those criticisms after the meeting with Rooney and Carrick stopped the public shalakings. and video analysis of previous games that he had software added that informed him when emails had been opened and videos watched.

Reportedly the players cottoned onto this practise and would open the videos and let them run whilst carrying on with other business and not actually watching them. That just proves how much the players had stopped playing for their manager, a damning indictment to both.

Oh wait, don't forget about the time in a must win game he took Juan Mata off and brought on Nick Powell who hadn't played in well over a year because of an injury.

Van Gaal's time at Old Trafford was all rather odd and his sacking coming less than 48 hours after winning the FA Cup just suits perfectly.

The players couldn't shoot first time. #StopClickBait


7 ways you're completely killing your iPhone battery

If you're like the majority of iPhone addicts, you're constantly scanning for outlets the second you walk into a room, hoping to find a spot to charge your phone before it dies... again.

But before you find yourself stuck without a cord, available outlet or portable charger, you may want to consider taking a more proactive approach to preserve battery life.

Here are 7 ways you could be draining your iPhone's battery without even knowing it:

When you've misplaced your charging block, plugging into a computer seems like an obvious alternative. But if your device is connected to a computer that's turned off or is in sleep or standby mode, that can cause problems. To avoid battery drain, make sure your computer is plugged in and powered on while charging.

Too hot: Avoid exposing your iPhone to temperatures higher than 95° F. When your phone is exposed to this kind of heat it can cause permanent damage to battery capacity; your battery won't power as long on a given charge, Apple warns.

Too cold: If your battery is in a cold environment, you may notice the charge start to decrease. However, this is only temporary and your phone will return to its normal range when it warms up.

If you notice your phone battery draining too quickly, the Facebook app may be to blame. In February, The Guardian tested out the impact the popular app has on a phone's battery. The study discovered that removing the Facebook app from an iPhone saved up to 15 percent of the phone's battery life. Here's a suggestion: Instead of surfing Facebook via the app, try using the mobile version on your phone's browser instead.

When your phone gets into the dreaded red zone -- the 20 percent battery or below phase -- you're going to be thankful you turned on "Low Power Mode." This option, which can be enabled in your settings, will help you conserve battery when you're getting close to zero by temporarily reducing brightness and disabling features like iCloud sync and AirDrop that suck up juice.

Commuters, take note: If you're on an underground subway or traveling in an area with poor cell coverage, switch your phone to Airplane mode. Though you can't make or receive calls while using this feature, it will help save your battery by preventing your phone from constantly searching for a better signal.

Every time your phone gets a notification the screen lights up, and more often than not you're tempted to swipe to open that notification. Only turn on notifications for apps that you use regularly. That way, you can avoid temptation.

Dimming the brightness on your phone will help conserve your battery. But if you're not a fan of having your screen be constantly dark, turn on "Auto-Brightness." When activated, the tool will help adjust your screen to lighting conditions automatically.

These lesser-known iOS features will make your iPhone more useful than ever

Think you know how to extend your battery life? You may actually be doing quite the opposite

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Grammy-nominated band cancels show at SeaWorld after watching documentary

From Mother Nature Network's Michael d'Estries:

The fallout from the animal documentary "Blackfish" continues to plague SeaWorld - with the theme park receiving it's latest publicity hit from the Barenaked Ladies.

The Canadian band, best known for its hit "If I Had $1,000,000," has made the decision to cancel a February 2014 gig at the theme park after fans signed a petition citing animal abuse concerns. "We've talked things over, and decided not to play at SeaWorld at this time," the group said on its Facebook page.

Canadian Mike Garrett started the petition on Change.org after viewing the documentary "Blackfish," which alleges animal abuse and negligence at SeaWorld. "In light of all the horrific information we're learning about places like Seaworld and Marineland. I'm hoping to grab the band's attention on this issue and ask them, on behalf of all their animal-loving fans, to reconsider performing there," he wrote.

After nearly 12,000 signatures, the Barenaked Ladies took notice; with drummer Tyler Stewart viewing the film and helping the group make the decision to cancel.

"This is a complicated issue, and we don't claim to understand all of it, but we don't feel comfortable proceeding with the gig at this time," they wrote. "The Seaworld folks have been gracious, and extended us invitations to the park to learn more about what they do, and how they do it.

"We encourage anybody and everybody to get involved with a charity organization they feel passionate about. We here at Barenaked Ladies have made a decision based on what we feel. It's not about money, or petitions, or press... But it is about our fans. We listen to them, and they're important to us. Their sensibilities resonate with ours, and have for decades now. We've grown up together. Ultimately though, we made the decision that WE feel good about."

Barenaked Ladies Cancel SeaWorld Show After Watching 'Blackfish'

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New study sheds light on THIS fishy behavior

The genetic basis underlying the complex, social behavior of schooling is revealed in two studies published Sept. 12 in the journal Current Biology. The studies suggest that schooling is not a learned behavior, and instead show it relies on several regions of the fish genome.

The findings may point to the genetic underpinning of why humans also are social, and tend to gather in groups, some experts said, although others debated this.

Most fish exhibit schooling during some phase of their life cycle, research has shown. Fish evolved to swim in schools to better protect themselves from predators, improve their foraging and swim more efficiently.

Unlike shoaling, in which fish merely swim loosely together, schooling requires coordinated body positions and synchronized movement. Fish in schools need to sense their environment with high accuracy, maintain awareness of their position within the school, and respond quickly to changes in both water currents and movement of the group.

Exactly how fish pull off this feat has remained elusive.

In one of the new studies, researchers led by Catherine Peichel, a human biology researcher at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, studied sticklebacks, small fish about 3 inches (8 centimeters) long that live in both salt and fresh water. [Photos: The Freakiest-Looking Fish]

The researchers created a handful of fake fish models, suspended them in the water and whirled them about, to entice the real stickleback to join schools.

By crossbreeding one kind of stickleback prone to schooling with another kind of stickleback more reluctant to join a school, the researchers identified two genomic regions in sticklebacks associated with schooling. One of these regions is also associated with development of a highly specialized sensory structure unique to fish, known as the lateral line, which can detect vibrations in the water.

The lateral line is made up of cells called neuromasts, which are similar to the hair cells found in the human ear and enable the fish to sense changes in water currents and respond accordingly.

In the second study, researchers led by Clifford Tabin of Harvard Medical School in Boston studied the Mexican tetra, a freshwater fish also about 3 inches long that lives in open rivers and lakes, and sometimes in the streams of caves. The cave-dwelling variety is blind, and largely albino.

The surface-dwelling tetra swim in schools, but the blind cavefish do not, which suggested to the researchers that vision is important to schooling. But after crossbreeding the two varieties and conducting a genetic analysis, the team determined that as the cavefish evolved, they lost the ability to school, and they lost their vision in separate events.

This provided more evidence that schooling behavior is genetic-based and not learned, the researchers said.

Both research teams identified only genetic regions, not the exact genes, controlling the schooling behavior.

The teams remained split, however, on how these findings may relate to humans. Anna Greenwood, a member of Peichel's team, said the findings could be applicable to complex social human behaviors.

"Because an evolutionarily shared neural circuit, as well as some of the same neurochemicals and hormones, control social behavior in all vertebrates, what we learn about genetic changes in fish could ultimately provide insight into human behavioral variation," Greenwood told LiveScience.

Hans Hofmann, a professor of integrative biology at the University of Texas at Austin, who was not involved in either study, said the stickleback work rebuts the assertion that human behavior is too complex to understand.

"I think it shows that even such complex behaviors associated with other individuals in a very rigid and organized manner can be dissected genetically," Hofmann said. "Studies like this tell us that we might get there eventually."

Tabin, however, said the findings of his Mexican cavefish study "do not tell us anything at all about human social behavior."

But he also said that both studies can tell researchers much about the evolution of schooling behaviors in fish, and that's what makes it worthwhile.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

How Do Fish Swim In Schools? Scientists Say It's In Their Genes

How do fish swim in schools, effortlessly coordinating their every move? The answer appears to be ingrained in their genes.  The genetic basis...

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THIS = swimming in schools; because of genes

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ingrained in their genes


Man Pours Milk Into A Bottle Of Coke, Shows Startling Results Minutes Later

Coca-Cola and milk are two seemingly innocuous substances that most of us probably have in our kitchens. When combined, however, they produce something unexpected and potentially stomach-churning.

Now consider the health risks of consuming too many soft drinks: In this comprehensive article published by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health , these sugary beverages are linked to increases in diabetes, heart disease, and other obesity-related ailments in individuals who regularly indulge. The studies and statistics are chilling in an abstract way, but the video below provides a much more concrete demonstration that allows us to visualize the potential damage soft drinks may be doing to our bodies. The premise for this experiment is simple enough to be replicated in a science fair or even a for high school science project, especially since it only requires two ingredients (both of which are readily available). As you may have guessed, the "scientist" in the video simply pours milk into a bottle of Coca-Cola, then waits. After only 15 minutes, the solution begins to visibly change. An hour later, the Coca-Cola and milk form a transparent liquid with what can only be described as chunks of sediment settled on the bottom.

A blog post on Steve Spangler Science (a website dedicated to making science experiments more accessible and the man responsible for the 2005 " Diet Coke and Mentos " viral video) and the YouTube video description for this experiment attribute this "invisible soda" phenomenon to Coca-Cola's high phosphoric acid content. The soda and milk react to each other in this way because the phosphoric acid molecules in Coke adhere themselves to the milk, which in turn creates a dense solid. That solid separates from the liquid and sinks to the bottom of the container. The coagulate is essentially curdled milk, and looks about as appetizing as it sounds.

While this experiment is a cool way to visually demonstrate a chemical reaction in progress, it also reveals a harrowing health hazard in a tangible way. According to WebMD , there has been an observed connection between high soda intake and increased risk of bone fractures, but it wasn't until recently that theories about why this might happen have surfaced. The article mentions that the increased occurrence of osteoporosis in frequent soda drinkers was previously attributed to those people consuming soft drinks instead of calcium-rich beverages like milk or orange juice.

However, recent studies have shown that the phosphoric acid in colas may reduce bone density due to the chemical reaction demonstrated below. Katherine Tucker , associate professor of nutritional epidemiology at Tufts University, published a study examining the relationship between regular soft drink consumption and bone health in adults. Tucker found that the differences between her subjects' bone densities, after eliminating other variables, "was not due to lower calcium, it was not due to the caffeine in the cola, it was not due to the sugar, and we adjusted for calcium and vitamin D as well as body size. It seems the thing that's left is the phosphoric acid." There is still more research to be done, of course, to find an unequivocal answer. In the meantime, to counteract potential bone loss, it's important to increase calcium intake in your diet.

An Easy Science Experiment Idea Involving Milk And Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola and milk are two seemingly innocuous substances that we all probably have in our kitchens. When combined, however, they produce something unexpected and potentially stomach-churning.

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The video is an experiment showing the effects of phosphoric acid on calcium. #StopClickBait
Video in comments!


Apparently we're in serious denial about our weight

Although the obesity rate is increasing in the United States, Americans seem to be in denial about their own expanding waistlines.

More than half of adults (55 percent) said they don't think they are overweight and aren't making an effort to shed pounds, according to a new Gallup poll. In contrast, recent studies have shown that two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese.

When the researchers considered the genders separately, they found that although men are more likely to be overweight than women, 60 percent of men reported that they were neither overweight nor trying to lose weight, compared with 50 percent of women who said the same. [7 Little-Known Tricks That Shave Pounds]

"These data highlight the importance of perception in the battle to fight obesity in the U.S.," Gallup officials said. "This discrepancy may suggest that addressing the obesity crisis in America must first start by convincing overweight Americans that they are indeed overweight."

A recent study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle found that two-thirds of Americans (an estimated 160 million people) are overweight or obese. That finding is consistent with another recent Gallup poll, which found that 35.3 percent of Americans were overweight and 27.7 percent were obese — a new high — after calculating the survey participants' body mass index (BMI) based on their self-reported heights and weights.

In the new poll, only about 36 percent of those surveyed described themselves as overweight. Among those people, 18 percent said they were trying to lose weight and another 18 percent said they were not.

Gallup found that 21 percent of women said they were overweight and trying to lose weight, compared with 15 percent of men who said the same. Meanwhile, 10 percent of women said they were trying to lose weight even though they didn't consider themselves overweight, compared with 6 percent of men who said the same.

Younger adults tended to be more content with their weights. Among those ages 18 to 34, Gallup found that 68 percent reported that they were neither overweight nor trying to lose weight, compared with 47 percent of adults 55 and older who said the same.

Obesity — which is often linked to other health complications like type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea and high blood pressure — was recently recognized as a disease by the American Medical Association.

The new results were taken from phone interviews with a random sample of 3,066 adults, ages 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, as part of Gallup's Health and Healthcare surveys from 2011 through 2013.

We're In Serious Denial About Our Weight

By Megan Gannon, News Editor
Published: 06/11/2014 10:05 AM EDT on LiveScience

 Although the obesity rate is increasing in the United States, Ame...

obesity denial,weight denial,overweight denial


You might be surprised at which city sends the most students to study in the U.S.

American higher education is increasingly a global export -- something colleges and universities are selling abroad. Now, a new report from the Brookings Institution finds certain cities around the globe are emerging as the hometowns of a large majority of foreign students studying in the U.S.

The foreign city that sends the most students to the U.S. isn't in China or India, it's in South Korea.

"The number one sending hometown of foreign students is Seoul, South Korea, to the whole United States. And in Boston, in particular, about 4 percent of students are from Seoul," said Neil Ruiz, a researcher with the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.

His research shows that from 2008 to 2012 there were 53,000 foreign students studying full-time in Boston. And he says more and more of them came from Seoul because it's a large, fast-growing city and a major business hub. Also, many of the students from Seoul are studying management.

Counting foreign students and what they study hasn’t always been so easy. After 9/11, the U.S. government refocused on tracking foreign students and their activities.

For the first time, Ruiz was able to comb through that data.

"Where they come from; their hometowns. What they're studying as well as where they work after they graduate," said Ruiz.

Data and Information from the Brookings Institution.

What was most surprising, he says, is that despite the fact that many countries are investing heavily in higher education, the United States remains the global hub of academic training.

"I think foreign students are attracted to our centers of research and development," Ruiz said. "I mean, MIT and Harvard located there in Cambridge - these are just the top places in the world to do the type of research that many cities around the world want to replicate."

The problem, Ruiz says, is that higher education and civic leaders are missing an opportunity. They're failing to take advantage of these foreign students who can both connect the U.S. to their growing home cities and offer skills to local employers.

"The foreign students are economic ambassadors that can serve as that bridge between U.S. economies and global economies around the world," said Ruiz.

Paul Guzzi is president of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. He admits civic leaders in and around Boston could do more to capitalize on students’ connections to fast-growing foreign markets.

"I think the first step is to focus on the students who come here," Guzzi said. "We are already a net importer of extraordinary talent. And I think the key is to keep that talent here."

Once the city has attracted them, the key, Guzzi says, is to connect them in more meaningful ways to employers, through internships, while they’re still in school.

"We are more and more a talent-based, innovation-based, brain-based economy," Guzzi said. "And I think as part of that, this particular segment of our college graduates is particularly important."

Guzzi and Ruiz agree: If Boston is to fully benefit from foreign students, there need to be fewer obstacles for them to stay and work in the U.S.

This City Sends The Most Students To Study In The U.S.

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This news about chicken nuggets is truly disturbing

Where do chicken nuggets come from? The answer may not be straightforward following the Department of Agriculture's announcement on Friday that it has approved four Chinese poultry processors to begin shipping meat to the U.S.

According to The New York Times, the poultry that processors are allowed to ship will initially be restricted to cooked meat from birds raised in the U.S. But critics worry that the rules will change in the future, opening the door for poultry raised and slaughtered in China -- a country notorious for its food safety problems -- to be shipped to the U.S.

Among those critics is Tony Corbo, a senior lobbyist for the advocacy group Food and Water Watch. "This is the first step towards allowing China to export its own domestic chickens to the U.S.," he told the Times.

Corbo has reason to be concerned; in the last months alone, Chinese police discovered an illegal food smuggling plot to sell 46-year-old chicken feet treated with bleach, a criminal ring accused of selling rat and fox meat as lamb and abnormally high levels of cadmium, a metal that can cause cancer and other illnesses, in rice sold in Guangzhou restaurants.

Also troubling, an explosion at a Chinese poultry factory in June killed at least 119 people, and concerns over avian flu remain rampant. Earlier this year, 20,000 birds were euthanized after the human death toll in China rose to six.

Unlike other meat imported to the U.S., the poultry shipped by Chinese processors will not require point-of-origin labeling. Under USDA rules, the labeling does not apply to foods that have been cooked.

"Consumers will have no way to tell if those chicken nuggets in the supermarket freezer were processed in the U.S. or in China," writes Bloomberg correspondent Adam Minter. Moreover, the USDA will not require its own regulators to supervise the processors on premises.

Point-of-origin labeling is relatively new in the U.S. (new rules went into effect and May), but has proved unpopular with meat producers. In July, industry groups filed a suit against the USDA, which charges that requiring more information about a product's origin on its label is too expensive and provides no benefit to public safety or health.

Read the USDA's full audit of the Chinese processors here.

Chinese Poultry Processors Will Be Allowed To Export Meat To The U.S., USDA Rules

China food safety,Food Safety,china poultry,chinese poultry processor,china,china poultry processor,chicken nuggets china

USDA allows Chinese processors to export to US


Men Are Afraid to Take Parental Leave. Guess Why

Paid time off for new fathers is on the rise, but fear of career damage is still prevalent. Sound familiar?

Men not taking time off to care for newborns, it turns out, is a difficult cultural norm to overcome. Parental leave policies that offer the same amount of time off to all new parents are on the rise. Yet fathers still don't want to take it.

They're afraid. Men still think their careers will suffer if they take leave, according to a new Deloitte survey out this week. More than a third of the 1,000 respondents said they felt that taking leave would "jeopardize their position" at work. More than half said it would be perceived as a lack of commitment, and another 41 percent worry they would lose opportunities on projects.

These fears aren't unfounded. Women have historically been penalized for taking time off for all the reasons cited by men: Parental leave often jeopardizes their position, deprives them of opportunities, and places them at a disadvantage to non-moms.

In fact, countries that offer more liberal parental leave policies have larger pay gaps, according the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development, because women tend to take more time off than men. It follows, then, that if men act like women, they will also face the same discrimination. Hence the fear.

But men actually have less to worry about, it turns out. Research has found that having a child boosts men's careers. Dads get a "fatherhood bonus:" Their earnings increase more than 6 percent for each kid they have, one study found. Part of that has to do with the fact that many don't take time off. But men are also perceived differently than women for having kids. Dads are seen as being responsible, while moms are perceived as distracted.

Parental leave policies are supposed to even out these imbalances, ensuring that new moms aren't the only ones putting a dent in their career. All-encompassing leave policies shift some child-care responsibilities onto men, so they too can be seen as having priorities other than work. Everyone loses, so everyone wins.

"It has been historically difficult for women," said Deepa Purushothaman, the head of Deloitte's Women Initiative, said. "By encouraging all of our employees to take it, more women will take it." The absence from the office of men and women alike theoretically helps close the gender pay gap.

Of course, all of this works only if men actually use the benefit, which, for competitive reasons, they have been hesitant to do. But the male fear factor is slowly changing: About a quarter of eligible dads are taking advantage of California's paid family leave, up from 17 percent five years earlier.

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Companies offering parental leave have also attempted to remove some of the stigma. Both Etsy Inc. and Twitter Inc., which this year expanded their leave policies, train managers to avoid bias against working parents and to support their careers while they care for newborns. Other organizations lead by example: Facebook Inc.'s chief executive officer, Mark Zuckerberg, took two months off to care for his child.

"What I'd like to see is we encourage both our men and women to take it, where it is OK for both genders to take generous parental leave," said Purushothaman. "It's something as a culture we need to stress and make easier to do."


Flight Attendant Demands Woman Get Off The Flight, The Reasoning Floors Her

"The gate agent told me to check in at the desk and when I did she told me to call my husband," Uhle said.

When Uhle checked in, she learned that her son, 24, had been injured. He was in a coma in Denver.

"The gate attendant already knew the situation and had booked me on a direct flight to Denver that was leaving in the next two hours," Uhle explains.

The airline re-routed Uhle's luggage and arranged for it to be delivered to where she was staying in Denver. They allowed her to board first and even packed a lunch for her for when she disembarked in Denver.

"Southwest never asked for payment for the Denver flight, luggage delivery or anything else," Uhle said, as quoted by the Southwest website. "The care that I was shown is second to none. We have always liked Southwest Airlines and now we can’t say enough good things about them."

Uhle's son is recovering, and she's grateful to the airline for their help.

Most of the time when airlines make headlines, it's due to complaints. This time, it's because the staff at one airline went above and beyond the call of duty to help a mother in a terrible moment.
Peggy Uhle was sitting on the plain in Raleigh-Durham, which was bound for Chicago. Just before take-off, the pilot got news and aborted, and the plane was taxied back to the gate.
Uhle had no idea at the time, but it was all for her.
A flight attendant approached Uhle and asked her to get off the plane. Uhle thought she'd boarded the wrong one.

Southwest Airlines, Peggy Uhle, Chicago, Denver, Reroute, Flight, Flying, Coma, Southwest, Customer Service

They heard her son had been injured and was in a coma in Denver. They stopped the jet from leaving for Chicago and asked her to disembark and call her husband.They arranged a flight for her to Denver.[newsiosity]


Netflix series ending sooner than expected?

The reign of "House Of Cards" may be short-lived. According to executive producer Rick Cleveland, the upcoming 13-episode Season 2 is likely to be the show's last.

Netflix ordered the Kevin Spacey-fronted drama directly to series with a two season commitment, bypassing the typical pilot stage.

"'House of Cards' is only going to go a second season and I think that’s it," Cleveland told Gold Derby. "Kevin Spacey likes to do movies and Robin Wright likes to do movies," he added.

However, executive producer and creator Beau Willimon had previously tweeted that he hopes to write more seasons.

@andrewbarrett From the BBC when Urquhart first meets Mattie. From ours, I hope my favorite moment is one I'll write many seasons from now! — Beau Willimon (@BeauWillimon) August 10, 2013

At the 2013 Emmy Awards, "House of Cards" picked up three statues and shook up the race. Stars Spacey and Wright both earned nominations in the lead drama categories.

Season 2 is currently in production. Details are scarce, but Oscar winner Jodie Foster will helm an episode.

'House Of Cards' Season 2 Likely To Be Its Last, Producer Says

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House of Cards; second season may be last


Anna Gunna is following up her "Mindy Project" guest role and sticking in the Fox family by starring in "Gracepoint," Fox's upcoming adaptation of "Broadchurch." Gunn will co-star opposite David Tennant and Oscar nominee Jacki Weaver.

In "Gracepoint" the "Breaking Bad" star will play Detective Ellie Miller, a "happily married wife and mother who is looking forward to a promised promotion." However, the job goes to Detective Emmett Carver ("Doctor Who" star Tennant) and Ellie must take care of her disappointment quickly and work with her new partner on a murder case. "As the case progresses, she'll have to look at her hometown, and those she cares about, through a different prism," Fox said in a release.

Weaver will play Susan Wright, a "glowering, mysterious woman who is new to town and lives in the RV park, alone with her dog. She works various cleaning and odd jobs and prefers to remain anonymous, but has a dark history kept fiercely hidden."

Fox's "Gracepoint," which was originally ordered as "Broadchurch," premieres in the 2014-2015 season. Tennant stars in the original as well.

Anna Gunn Joins 'Gracepoint,' Fox's 'Broadchurch' Remake

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Anna Gunn; "Gracepoint" Fox's "Broadchurch" remake


WATCH: Country star delivers EPIC slam to Westboro Baptist Church

Country singer Vince Gill isn't afraid to confront the Westboro Baptist Church head-on, and that's exactly what he did when members from the hate group decided to protest his Missouri concert over the weekend.

On Sunday, Sept. 8, Gill stepped outside at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City, Mo., to face down some Westboro Baptist Church members gathered on the sidewalk. The hate group purportedly decided to protest Gill's concert because he is a divorced man who remarried, Country Music Television noted.

The 56-year-old musician was once married to Sweethearts of the Rodeo singer Janis Oliver. After their 1998 divorce, he married Christian singer Amy Grant in 2000. Grant, who has offered support to her gay fanbase, was previously married to Christian musician Gary Chapman.

Apparently, that union doesn't sit too well with the WBC, best known for its anti-gay rhetoric, as well as its unwanted appearances at funerals.

Hey, Vince Gill-@VGcom: God hates adultery and violence to marriage covenant. By whorish woman, destruction pic.twitter.com/rRIVKsutci — Westboro Baptist (@WBCSays) September 8, 2013

"Vince Gill, what in the world are you doing out here?" a WBC member can be heard asking, in a video of the confrontation uploaded to YouTube. "But, more importantly, what are you doing with another man's wife?"

"I came out to see what hatred really looked like in the face," Gill responded.

"Don't you know that divorce plus remarriage equals adultery?" she asked.

"Don't you know that you f**kers are lucky that you don't have a sign that says something about my wife?" Gill asked. "You know what else [Jesus Christ] said? He said a lot of stuff about forgiveness, about grace. You guys don't have any of that."

Gill then called another picketer a "big dips**t" and later asked if they are the Phelpses or just "the C Team."

On Sunday, the group also protested outside a Michael Buble concert. Its GodHatesFags website reveals the group has picketing plans at several places over the next two months, including a Mumford & Sons concert on Sept. 20 and two Florida high schools in October.

Westboro is about to get a protest of its own. Nonprofit group Planting Peace announced that in October it will be staging a drag show at the Equality House in Topeka, Kan., to draw attention to the anti-gay group and raise money for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality. The Westboro Baptist Church compound is set to be in the center of the parade.

Country Singer Vince Gill Blasts Westboro Baptist Church Protestors At Kansas City Concert

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The Grand Theft Auto series is without any doubt one of the most popular gaming series out there. Even if the GTA 5 game is quite old already, there are still a good amount of gamers that are playing this game every day. While the story mode is not played as much as before, it seems that most of the gamers are focusing on GTA Online. Let’s not forget that Rockstar is still releasing new DLCs for the GTA Online which are free and can be accessed by any gamer that has purchased the GTA 5 game.

However, there are still a good amount of gamers who are now waiting for the GTA 6 game. Unfortunately, Rockstar doesn’t want to reveal any information about this title, so it’s not sure if this game is actually in development right now. According to some new rumors, Rockstar might announce the GTA 6 this year or sometime in early 2017. If this will happen, the GTA 6 title will most likely hit the stores in 2018.

GTA 6: Can This Game Be Released In 2018?

We don’t think that the GTA 6 will come this year, but there are high chances that it will be announced in 2017. When it comes to the release date, the GTA 6 will most likely arrive in 2018 or later. We remind you that some previous rumors were suggesting that this title will hit the stores sometime in 2019-2020, when the new PlayStation 5 and Xbox One are expected to be released.

In other words, the developer might also wait first for these two next gen consoles to be released and only after that, the game will be available for them. We remind you that some reports were suggesting that the GTA 6 will actually be one of the first games that will be released for the two upcoming consoles.

Do you think that GTA 6 will be released in 2018?

GTA 6 is probably not going to be released this year


One weird trick for not losing your iPhone 7 headphone dongle

The elimination of the headphone jack from the latest iPhone, replaced with a mildly inconvenient dongle adapter, has created a cottage industry of tricks. Today’s latest innovation is Uncourage, a keychain with a 3.5-millimeter jack that you can connect your dongle to in order to keep track of it.

As an iPhone 7 user, I have a better idea:

Just leave the dongle attached to the headphones.

Instead of paying $6 plus shipping for a keychain ring (35 cents) and headphone plug (70 cents), just leave the dongle attached to the headphones you use. That way, when you grab your headphones in the morning on your way out the door, you will be picking up the dongle at the same time.

"But what if I plug my headphones into a computer, requiring me to remove the dongle, separating the two?" Decent question. Here’s what to do. If you have a laptop, put the dongle right next to the headphone jack, so when you unplug your headphones, the dongle is right there. If you use a desktop computer, just put the friggin’ thing in your pocket or something. Honestly, it’s not that hard.

The dongle sucks. Products like the Uncourage (ugh, that name) suck just as much. Do not encourage this stuff.

A Good Way to Not Lose Your Headphone Dongle


12 artists we can't wait to see at #Coachella🌴

Coachella 2017 is almost here, and as always, the cream-of-the-crop festival has tonsÂ of incredible music lined up for those who have tickets to either weekend. With so many notable names on the bill, it's hard for us at Billboard to not be thrilled about just about everyone who will be there.

In looking at the roster, though, there are a few names that stand out as artists we really can't wait to see, whether it's because they're legendary, they have new music to perform, or they're promising up-and-comers. Take a look at who we're most looking forward to seeing in Indio.

The alt-R&B-meets-pop group knows how to bring people together with their eclectic, synth-heavy jams. Sure, Kanye West, Chance the Rapper and Bon Iver are supporters, but frontman Francis Farewell Starlite & co.'s knack for piecing together diverse melodies make the crew a sight to see.

The sibling duo hailing from New Zealand has made waves with their electro-pop jams like "Free" and "Bridges," with Georgia NottÂ taking lead on vocals and her multi-instrumentalist brother Caleb providing the bumping background sounds.Â While they're not strangers to the festival scene, Coachella is perhaps the biggest stage they've taken yet -- so they likely won't be holding anything back.

Sampha's mood music will bring the soul to Coachella's diverse lineup. The Drake- and BeyoncÃ©-approved crooner's recently released album Process is sure to bring the instant feels (especially with deep cuts like "(No One Knows Me) Like the Piano" and "Timmy's Prayer") when attendees need a break from the turn-up.

Considering the rock band's absence and the general demographic of Coachella, the fest will likely serve as the first Radiohead experience for thousands in attendance.Â Above all, though, aÂ festival setting is definitely the prime place to hear Thom Yorke and co. deliver their eerie rock tunes.Â And a festival in the California desert? Talk about a perfect situation.

By now, it's no secret that Coachella is the breeding ground for some insane surprises. And with the star-studded roster DJ Snake has racked up with his handful of hits -- Justin Bieber,Â AlunaGeorge, Lil Jon and Migos, to name a few -- there's definitely a chance for a guest appearance or two.Â Seeing a DJ at a festival is exciting enough, but if said DJ brings out one (or several) of his famous friends during their set, that'd make for one exciting time.

Any follower of the trap baptist knows Future brings his Hive to church during his live performances. After accomplishing the historic feat of landing back-to-back consecutive No. 1 albums earlier this year with Future and HNDRXX, respectively, the Atlanta hitmaker has more than enough material to heat up the desert.

Unlike DJ Snake, Gryffin doesn't have an album's worth of his ownÂ materialÂ to play during his 50-minute set. Yet, the New York City-based DJ has delivered a number of dance-worthy singles that are sure to make any festivalgoerÂ bust a move, and he's done a masterful job at remixingÂ hits like Tove Lo's "Talking Body"Â and "Surprise Yourself" by Jack GarrattÂ -- both of whom will be at Coachella, so you never know what surprisesÂ GryffinÂ could have up his sleeve.

For 'Chella-goers craving alternative rock mashed with hip-hop, Banks & Steelz -- the duo comprised of Interpol frontman Paul Banks and Wu-Tang Clan's RZA -- will deliver the best of both worlds. Their collaborative debut Anything But Words not only carries the standouts "Giant" and "Love and War," it also features contributions from Method Man, Ghostface Killah and Florence and the Machine's Florence Welch, which -- fingers crossed -- means a surprise-filled set.

Her 2016 offering For All We Know delivered finger-snappin' electronic R&B gems like the lead single "Bad Blood" and other highlights like "Get to Know Ya" and "Adore You." The British singer-songwriter's sweet vocals are sure to lure attendees into a body-roll party.

It's not every day you see a famous composer at a music festival, and if there's one who would serve as a must-see, it's the guy behind classic film scores from the likes ofÂ The Lion King,Â The Dark Knight Rises and Gladiator.Â C'mon, whoÂ wouldn'tÂ want to seeÂ thisÂ performed live, by the original composer, right in front of their eyes?

While she has gifted us with a couple of new tracks from her forthcoming album, as well as a live performance of both, Coachella marks Lorde's first concert since beginning her comeback. Whether that means those in attendance will get the chance to see the live debut of more new material, witnessing "GreenÂ Light" and "Liability" (and frankly, just Lorde's presence in general)Â in person is pretty frickin' exciting.

When the rap god touches the stage on Sunday night, his new album DAMN. will be about 72 hours old, which is more than enough time to commit his wordplay to memory. The studio effort's lead single "Humble." is sure to ring off in Palm Springs along with whatever material -- both new and old -- K.Dot delivers.Â

12 Artists We Can't Wait to See at Coachella

In looking at this year's Coachella roster, there were a few names that stood out as artists we really can't wait to see, whether it's because they're legendary, they have new music to perform, or they're promising up-and-comers. Take a look at who we're most looking forward to seeing in Indio.

Francis and the Lights
Broods
Sampha
Radiohead
DJ Snake


GTA 5 REDUX’ MOD: YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE WHAT A MODDER DID TO ‘GRAND THEFT AUTO V’

GTA 5 Redux has a release date, and what has been done to the game is unbelievable without watching the gameplay video released by Josh Romito Productions.

Without a doubt, Grand Theft Auto V looked gorgeous when Rockstar Games released it almost three years ago. It was by far the best looking GTA in the series on consoles and looked even better on the PC, but that was not good enough for some fans of the game.

Mods are not unusual to PC games in general or GTA 5 in particular. There are dozens of modifications to the game that have popped up since its release. Rock Paper Shotgun compiled a list of some of the best mods that rebalance crime and police response, remove police and make civilians riot, put the player in the shoes of the police fighting crime, and allow the editing of maps, just to name a few.

GTA 5 Redux takes modding of the title to a whole new level. Josh Romito took on the ambitious task of revamping nearly the entire game. Graphics, weather, police and weapons, melee combat, the population (fewer pedestrians at night versus day), and vehicle handling systems have all received a makeover. According to ExtremeTech, he has also added "ragdoll physics" to the game.

Going LIVE with the NEW #DLC For GTA5 Come Watch & retweet for a LIVE Shoutout! 😀 https://t.co/5iTElON5Y7 #gaming pic.twitter.com/uj7sQKJdyg — Team Epiphany (@Team0Epiphany) July 15, 2016

The mod encompasses quite a big part of the core game’s code, but the graphics are what truly make the game stand apart from other modifications. Romito has retouched the graphics to a near photorealistic state. Cars have realistic reflections and damage. When it rains, the player’s clothes look wet and snow appears to be a new addition.

"GTA 5 Redux" adds a whole new list of graphic improvements. The mod uses 4K textures with improved injury and damage overlays. Shadows, light pollution, improved terrain detail have all received tweaks.

On his website, Romito states that he has "lowered lens artifacts, removed chromatic aberration, noise, and environmental blur for a clean view."

Better motion blur, depth of field and bokeh effects have been added along with "volumetric lighting for all times of day."

GTA 5 DLC "CUNNING STUNTS" SPENDING SPREE, BUYING ALL NEW CARS & INSANE STUNT RACES! https://t.co/w66f6hIDFH pic.twitter.com/GMWWpyHzzH — Ross (@MrBossFTW) July 12, 2016

Josh did not stop at simply crisping up the graphics either. He added a slew of all new effects to GTA 5 Redux. Particle counts have been increased. Debris blows from the ground naturally. Leaves fall from trees and trash blows off of garbage trucks. Water splashes are more natural looking. Blood and wound effects have also been improved.

For those interested in a full list of graphical improvements and game enhancements, visit the Features page of Josh’s website.

As amazing as GTA 5 Redux looks and feels, the mod is not without its drawbacks and those issues can be pretty severe for some gamers.

GTA 5 INSANE FIRE STUNT RACES! + WORLD'S FASTEST CAR! (GTA Online DLC) https://t.co/T841VclSTZ pic.twitter.com/3PSaiSY7ot — Austin (@Dat_Saintsfan) July 14, 2016

The first drawback is a loss of frame rate. ExtremeTech reports that users of the mod should expect a 5-10 fps drop in frame rate. The amount of frame rate loss experienced will vary widely depending on which settings are turned to active and the power of the installed graphics card. Those running a top-of-the-line GPU, like the GeForce GTX 10 series, should see the least frame rate degradation when applying the settings.

Graphics-processing performance raises another potential problem, that being of overall system requirements. Romito does not list the minimum system requirements for his mod, but on his YouTube page, he does list the specs of the computer that he uses to create the mod. Users can view these specs as a general rule of thumb when trying to determine whether their current gaming rig can handle GTA 5 Redux.

Computers that meet or exceed the above requirements should have no problem running the mod.

GTA 5 Redux is in the final stages of production. It is fully complete and receiving some final testing and debugging. Players can get their hands on GTA 5 Redux on August 26, 2016. Visit Josh’s website for more details.

‘GTA 5 Redux’ Mod: You Will Not Believe What A Modder Did To ‘Grand Theft Auto V’ [Video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdB4ytHvX8o GTA 5 Redux has a release date, and what has been done to the game is unbelievable without watching the gameplay


Railway under fire for treatment of special needs children

U.K. train operator CrossCountry recently came under fire when a company employee allegedly refused to seat 10 children, some of whom have special needs, according to local news outlet Daily Record. The company faces a wave of criticism over its policy on the treatment of customers with disabilities.

The controversy began when the children, ages 4 to 11, were reportedly denied access to business-class seating, and instead were forced to sit on the floor near the train's toilet. They were returning from a trip to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with Stage Right, a Lanarkshire theatre group and acting school that offers inclusive classes for children who need additional support.

One of the children has a prosthetic leg, while others have autism, ADHD, extreme phobias or hearing impairments, StageRight workshop leaders Elaine Berry and Rebekah Aitken told The Huffington Post in a Facebook message. "When asked why the children were not allowed into the empty seats, [StageRight] workers were told, '[T]hese are business passengers, they do not want the likes of your children spoiling their journey' by the train manager," the women wrote.

"We were discriminated against because of the ... kids we had with us. The train manager thought they weren’t of the standard to be allowed to sit in the business carriage. ... I’m embarrassed for the kids as they were paraded in front of the passengers and made to feel like an inconvenience," Aitken told the Record.

A petition posted on Sum of Us, a site that seeks to "hold corporations accountable," urges supporters to "[t]ell CrossCountry and its owners, German railway giant Deutsche Bahn, to treat all their customers fairly." The petition also claims CrossCountry has mistreated passengers with special needs before.

A spokesperson for CrossCountry told the Record that the incident is being investigated. The Huffington Post's request for comment was not immediately returned.

But the events on the train weren't the only inconveniences the children likely faced that day. According to The Guardian, the festival they had attended offered paltry access for patrons with disabilities. Although the festival featured several fringe theater works showcasing the experiences of people with disabilities, less than half of the 273 venues were fully wheelchair accessible, and less than one percent of the shows offered signed or captioned performances.

Railway Company Under Fire For Treatment Of Kids With Disabilities

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A Major Musician Keeps Trying To Be On The Walking Dead By Laura Hurley The Walking Dead has amassed a huge fanbase over its six seasons so far, and some of those fans happen to be very famous folks. A couple of them have even managed to sneak in The Walking Dead is none other than musician Chris Daughtry, but it hasn't been for lack of trying. He recently spoke out about the lengths he's been going to in the hopes he'll nab a part on the show. Honestly I’ve been lobbying for The Walking Dead. I’ve been auditioning for the last season. You know the stringy blonde-haired dude with the half burnt face? That was the role I auditioned for. We hate him, so maybe it’s a good thing I didn’t get him because I’ll have a more beloved role.

Chris Daughtry’s reveal to the The Walking Dead shows some nice optimism. He didn't get a job on TWD in the first six seasons, but Season 7 may just be the one that lands him a beloved role. One can hope.

Of course, perhaps he would have an easier time landing a spot on The Walking Dead if he had lower expectations. Chris Daughtry seems to want an actual character to play on the show, and Dead presumably has a more rigorous audition process for characters than for random zombies. If Daughtry isn’t willing to put on the Walker makeup and be put down in a gloriously gruesome way, he may still have a long wait ahead of him before he joins the ranks of Rick and Co. in the zombie apocalypse.

Chris Daughtry made a name for himself when he made a deep run on the fifth season of Idol alums when it comes to album sales. In fact, he’s been such a success as a musician that it’s almost hard to believe that he’d wanted to be an actor rather than a singer as a child.

His wins on the music scene haven’t stopped him from pursuing acting every so often. Chris Daughtry was cast in a pilot for Fox called The Walking Dead, but some experience is better than no experience.

Only time will tell if Chris Daughtry will finally win his dream role on The Walking Dead. Unfortunately, The Walking Dead is currently on hiatus, but that hasn't stopped news from the series from spilling out on a regular basis. In fact, one superfan actually put together a video following rigorous analysis that may reveal who POSSIBLE SPOILERS... has amassed a huge fanbase over its six seasons so far, and some of those fans happen to be very famous folks. A couple of them have even managed to sneak in guest appearances on the show. One celebrity who has not yet succeeded in nailing a part onis none other than musician Chris Daughtry, but it hasn't been for lack of trying. He recently spoke out about the lengths he's been going to in the hopes he'll nab a part on the show.Chris Daughtry’s reveal to the Music Times that he’s been lobbying for a part onshows some nice optimism. He didn't get a job onin the first six seasons, but Season 7 may just be the one that lands him a beloved role. One can hope.Of course, perhaps he would have an easier time landing a spot onif he had lower expectations. Chris Daughtry seems to want an actual character to play on the show, andpresumably has a more rigorous audition process for characters than for random zombies. If Daughtry isn’t willing to put on the Walker makeup and be put down in a gloriously gruesome way, he may still have a long wait ahead of him before he joins the ranks of Rick and Co. in the zombie apocalypse.Chris Daughtry made a name for himself when he made a deep run on the fifth season of American Idol . The fact that he wasn’t the ultimate victor didn’t stop him from launching a successful music career, and he’s one of the top threealums when it comes to album sales. In fact, he’s been such a success as a musician that it’s almost hard to believe that he’d wanted to be an actor rather than a singer as a child.His wins on the music scene haven’t stopped him from pursuing acting every so often. Chris Daughtry was cast in a pilot for Fox called Studio City , which was unfortunately not picked up to series. He made it to primetime as an actor on Fox earlier this year in the role of Judas in Tyler Perry’s live Jesus musical . Neither role will likely do much to pad his resume for a shot at, but some experience is better than no experience.Only time will tell if Chris Daughtry will finally win his dream role on. Unfortunately,is currently on hiatus, but that hasn't stopped news from the series from spilling out on a regular basis. In fact, one superfan actually put together a video following rigorous analysis that may reveal who actually died during that epic season finale. You can click over to the next page, but be aware, there are... Continued On Next Page > Blended From Around The Web Comments Facebook

The Walking Dead has amassed a huge fanbase over the years, and some of those fans happen to be very famous. One celebrity who has been dying to appear on the show hasn't yet succeeded, but he's still trying.

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Woman Caught Stealing Packages From Stranger’s Home, Her Response Will Floor You [VIDEO]

Thievery has reached bold new heights. This woman just walked up to a home and took the packages sitting outside the door. What if you had been the one who caught her?

A 20-year-old woman is in jail on one count on felony grand theft after police say this video shows her taking packages that did not belong to her from a home. The person who lives at the home shot the video and confronted the woman, asking why she was taking his stuff. Her answer: "My mom lives here." Clearly, that didn’t confuse the guy who actually does live there. When he said he was going to call police, the woman on the video drops the packages and walks away.

This is one more example of the fact that too many in our culture have zero morality. It’s pretty disgusting we can’t trust that our packages won’t be stolen when we are not home. But there it is, we can’t. See video below:


Revenue Ran Away: Pokémon GO's Lost Billions

Pokémon GO has entered Phase 2. Phase 1 was something somewhat surreal, with people roaming in packs in every major city, enriching developer Niantic Labs and the Pokémon Company by untold millions in the process. That was bound to end. The game ended its record breaking stint at the top of the app store's "top grossing" chart, yielding to more reliable stalwarts like Clash Royale, Mobile Strike and Game of War: Fire Age. It's a shame, if only because those first two weeks or so with Pokémon GO were some of the most exciting video game experiences I've had -- pretty much ever. And it's a shame because the game stood to make billions more if it had been able to capitalize on that.

I don't use the word "billions" lightly. While real figures for the revenue of any mobile game are notoriously hard to come by, some estimates peg Pokémon GO's revenue up at $500 million in just 60 days, putting it on track for $1 billion by the end of the year. And that's for the totally bizarre state that it launched in, without even standard, simple revenue streams like cosmetic items, one where you can't even buy premium items with real money. That's what the developer has repeatedly referred to as a"bare-bones" state. Even with that, Pokémon GO earned money at a scale that the mobile world has never seen before, sparking a genuine international craze in the process. That fever pitch has now decayed into a standard blockbuster hit, but what if that craze had kept going for just one more month? Two? Not only could it have kept up those numbers for a little while longer, it could have sustained a much smoother drop over the long run. It's a big table with a lot of money left on it.

It makes me think of Fallout Shelter, another breakout mobile hit on a much smaller scale. Fallout Shelter, like Pokémon GO, came out of the gates with a huge amount of momentum based on the strength of its brand. It made a bunch of money in a few days, and developer Bethesda considers it a smashing success. But like Pokémon GO, it launched without a lot of key features, and players found themselves spinning their wheels after a week or two of play. It started to drop down the charts.

More than a year later, Fallout Shelter is an infinitely better game. It has more content, more activities, and more ways to keep players occupied after their initial burst of playtime. The people that stuck around are having fun, but most have moved on. It makes you think: had Bethesda released that game with the fanfare it gave the initial launch, it stood to make not just twice as much money but five, 10 times as much. Maybe more. The thing is, once you integrate the sorts of activities that can really hook people into your gameplay loop, weeks of play can start to turn into months and even years. And that's why a game like this needs them at the beginning, when there are the most people around to be hooked.

I foresee something similar happening with Pokémon GO. This game is only going to get better, and Pokémon GO has a long life -- and a hell of a lot of revenue -- left in it. Those that stick around will get gradual improvements, and people who come back up for new waves of Pokémon will find themselves with a better, more addictive experience than they had before. We already have a buddy system, we'll hopefully get nearby tracking back soon and someday we might even get multiplayer battles or, who knows? Maybe a single-player progression. We could, ideally, end up with a Pokémon GO that has an actual endgame -- something to do with all those Pokemon you catch. Some more fleshed out monetization wouldn't hurt, either.

It's going to work out well for Niantic, to be sure. But that initial craze is not going to happen again. And so we imagine this improved version of Pokémon GO and we wonder what would have happened had the developer released that game on day one. Would we still have seen the same player drop off? Would we have seen more money out of the players the game did have? It is, of course, impossible to say. But I think about my own experience, and the experience of everyone I know that's played the game. Most people I know played for two weeks. The most enthusiastic lasted a month or so. They could have been convinced to stick around, and they could have been convinced to spend much more money. It's true, Pokémon GO has had better user retention than a lot of other popular apps, but the rules are just different here. On a an intuitive level, it's not hard to imagine how it could have kept going for longer.

Most mobile games are total crapshoots, and that's why it's common practice to release them in a "bare-bones" state and improve them based on player feedback -- in the likelihood that they bomb, you want to minimize your losses by not doing too much development up front. Games like Pokémon GO are not like this. It was bound to be a hit, even if nobody could have predicted it would have been a hit on this scale. If you go into that with that knowledge, it makes sense to work as hard as possible to capitalize on that launch momentum.

We'll see what happens when releases Super Mario Run. Nintendo isn't given to half-releases, and the success of Super Mario Run is as written in stone as Pokémon GO's was. We're entering into a new era of mobile gaming, and we'll see if the next game to ascend to the heights of Pokémon GO can stay there a little longer.

Revenue Ran Away: 'Pokémon GO's Lost Billions

Those first two weeks or so with Pokémon GO were some of the most exciting video game experiences I've had -- pretty much ever. And it's a shame it didn't last, because the game stood to make billions more if it had been able to capitalize on that.

Niantic didn't improve gameplay immediately. Still on track for $1 billion revenue.


Actress blames her new Blackberry for accidental topless tweet

Remember when "Newsroom" star Alison Pill accidentally tweeted a nude topless photo of herself to the whole, wide Internet? Well, apparently it all boiled down to a BlackBerry snafu.

The 27-year-old sat down with Conan O'Brien Tuesday night and O'Brien broached the subject of the naked selfie she tweeted last September. The talk show host didn't quite understand how someone could unwittingly tweet such a personal pic.

The photo in question was a topless snapshot of Pill, who was lying in a bed with nothing but a pair of oversized glasses on.

"It's a fascinating story involving not knowing that my new Blackberry had a touch screen and responding to somebody on Twitter," Pill explained of the topless gaffe, "Like, 'Oh yeah, New York was great. It's 9:30 on a Wednesday. Also, apropos of nothing, here are my boobs!'"

Apparently, Pill had the topless pic on her phone because she was away from her ex-fiance Jay Baruchel at the time.

"I don't know. It's a dumb thing to do I suppose," she continued. "And now, I've realized just how dumb. And so embarrassing, so hideously embarrassing, that for about three months after it happened I couldn't... every time I met a new person I [kept thinking], 'Boobs! Nice to meet you, you've seen my boobs.' It's not even the case."

Last year, after the indecent exposure incident, Pill quickly deleted the photo and fessed up to her mistake.

"Yep. That picture happened. Ugh. My tech issues have now reached new heights, apparently. How a deletion turned into a tweet... Apologies," she tweeted.

Alison Pill Says Nude Topless Photo Gaffe Was 'Dumb,' 'Hideously Embarrassing'

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New Galaxy S8 Leak Reveals Samsung's Powerful Surprise

The rumored specifications for The rumored specifications for the presumptively titled Samsung Galaxy S8 suggest that the South Korean smartphone will ship with one of the most powerful graphics chips on the market, ARM’s Mali-G71. This monster of a chip will be paired up with a 4K resolution screen (typically 3840 x 2160 pixels). That much power in both graphical ability and in computational power (with an octa-core SnapDragon system-on-chip) paired wit an ultra high definition screen suggests that the Galaxy S8′s secret weapon will be VR.

D.J. Koh, president of mobile communications business at Samsung Electronics (Photo: Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Images)

Thanks to the Thanks to the various iterations of the Gear VR , Samsung has a significant amount of corporate knowledge and consumer data to help it understand what is required in the public space for a low-cost VR solution. With Sony’s Playstation platform gaining its own VR system, the technology is quickly moving towards the mainstream. The partnership with Oculus has given the headset legitimacy with the early adopters, and the increased graphical performance of the Galaxy S8 should deliver a VR experience that satisfies the public’s expectations.

Samsung has always felt the need to project a sense of innovation and cutting-edge technology with its handsets. Now that curved screens are considered to be the default choice for Samsung’s devices (and are set to appear in 2017′s presumptively named iPhone 8), the South Korean company needs something else to provide the gee-whiz. While VR has been around for a ridiculously long time in consumer electronic circles, it has yet to find the killer application that will allow it to cut through the noise.

Could that be the Galaxy S8′s mission for Samsung in the spring of 2017?

Samsung’s Mobile Comunications Business chief DJ Koh (R) shakes hands with chairman, chief executive, and co-founder of the social networking website Facebook Mark Zuckerberg (Photo:Lluis Gene/AFP/Getty Images)

A push towards VR on the Galaxy S8 would build both on Samsung’s previous experience and the marketing around the successful Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge smartphones – Mark Zuckerberg walking unnoticed through an audience transfixed by Samsung’s Gear VR presentation remains one of the key images of 2016. By leaning heavily on the Galaxy S8 as the handset to bring VR to the masses Samsung will be continuing to push an ecosystem that is ‘more than just a handset’, it will be promoting itself as a company with along-term plan for innovative products and it will be in the driving seat as the industry defines what mobile VR can do.

With the updated Galaxy Note 7 phablets still sitting in Samsung's warehouse waiting for the right moment to go back on sale, the South Korean company will be looking to next year's flagship smartphone to recover some of the excitement and rebuild trust in the Galaxy brand. And a recent hardware leak suggests that Samsung is going all-in on one of those exciting areas .

The article suggests VR due to rumored ARM’s Mali-G71 graphics chip and 4K screen.


This Is the Scariest Sentence You Will Ever Read About the Internet

For those of us who care about democracy and the importance of a healthy political discourse, a story published by Bloomberg this week, "How to Hack an Election," was incredibly distressing.

In it, Colombian hacker Andrés Sepúlveda comes clean about eight years he spent allegedly using dark, and often illegal, computer skills to help conservative candidates throughout Latin America; some won and a few lost. He describes exploits in major elections in Colombia, Nicaragua, Honduras, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Panama and Mexico.

In his most noteworthy alleged victory, he claims to have assisted the increasingly unpopular Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto win his 2012 election. Sepúlveda claims that he was given a budget of $600,000 to rig the election in favor of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate. He says he installed malware in his opponents’ routers, which let him tap their phones and computers; sent prerecorded messages to tens of thousands of people in a critical swing state at 3 a.m. on election night, purporting to support another candidate to anger voters; and set up fake Facebook accounts of gay men who purported to support a conservative Catholic candidate, angering many. Bloomberg says that it has verified some of what Sepúlveda claims to have done, but there is no way of verifying it all.

Finally, what most caught my eye, and what I think has the most relevance in our broader society, Sepúlveda claims to have maintained an "army" of over 30,000 fake Twitter profiles to "shape discussion" around certain topics in favor of his candidate, "priming the social media pump with views that real users would mimic."

This was, according to the report, the tactic that likely had the most impact. It’s a technique that academics call "cognitive hacking"—in which an attacker attempts to change people’s perception of reality. With the bots in place, Sepúlveda could fabricate trends, and "manipulate the public debate as easily as moving pieces on a chessboard," Bloomberg writes.

Which leads me to the scariest quote I have read in a very, very long time, from Sepúlveda:

What’s notable about this tactic is that it’s not even illegal, only against Twitter policy.

You may be wondering why Sepúlveda would admit to all this. Well, he’s telling the story from behind bars. Sepúlveda is currently serving 10 years in Colombian prison "for charges including use of malicious software, conspiracy to commit crime, violation of personal data, and espionage, related to hacking during Colombia’s 2014 presidential election," writes Bloomberg.

Maintaining Twitter bots may not have been his major crime in the eyes of the law, but the impact that trend bots could have is enormous. Our generation has told ourselves that the value and beauty of social media is that it offers authentic, real-time perspectives from real people. It’s a way to get unfiltered news, rather than being spun by political pundits on cable television.

But that perception means we’re vulnerable to the dubious use of such technologies. And people in power have figured that out. In 2014, there was the "Cuban Twitter" scandal, in which USAID, an international development arm of the federal government, quietly created an app that allowed Cubans to message each other. Through the use of casual surveys in the app, its creators hoped to identify which users were pro-U.S., seemingly in hopes of giving them an outsized influence over their peers.

"When I realized that people believe what the Internet says more than reality, I discovered that I had the power to make people believe almost anything." - Andrés Sepúlveda, Colombian hacker

The app ultimately failed, having got too big, too fast, and it became clear that the creators were unable to explain to Cuban authorities how it was paying for itself.

A more successful example of cognitive hacking was the Joseph Kony video that went insanely viral in 2012, which introduced the world to a Ugandan war criminal and inspired the U.S. Senate to write a resolution condemning him. The video, which was later found to have falsely manipulated the narrative, was eventually revealed not to have been a completely organic viral success but rather masterfully marketed through a series of seemingly unrelated religious groups that were actually connected and engaging in "stealth evangelism," as one critic put it.

Speaking specifically about how Twitter armies affected the 2012 Mexican Presidential election, Andrés Monroy-Hernández, a researcher at Microsoft Research who studies the use of social media in Mexico, was dubious about their effects in an interview with my colleague Kashmir Hill in 2014.

"No one was fooled by the bots. People had a strong negative reaction toward them," he said then. "But social media plays an outsized role in affecting other types of media — newspapers, radio, TV — and the sheer noise can fool some people into thinking a candidate is more popular than he is. Whenever something happens in the offline world, journalists head to social media to find out more."

Going back to at least 2010, the use of Twitter bot armies have been decried for their ability to influence the outcome of elections in the U.S.. That year, an army of tweet bots persistently attacked Massachusetts U.S. Senate candidate Martha Coakley, in what researchers at Wellesley College dubbed "Twitter bombs."

The result was "disproportionate exposure to personal opinions, fabricated content, unverified events, lies and misrepresentations that would otherwise not find their way to the first page (of Google search results)," researchers wrote. Coakley lost the race.

In the latest Pew Research Center survey, 14% of all people polled said they primarily get news about the 2016 presidential election from social media, a tie with local television. Cable television leads the pack, with 24% of all surveyed. But among 18- to 29-year-olds, social media is the top source, with 35% of them saying it’s their primary news source. That makes young people much more susceptible to this kind of manipulation.

Not surprisingly, there’s a prime contemporary example for why we should be more questioning of the "data" and the "trends" that we are currently seeing ripple through the political sphere.

For news organizations, one of the biting facts of covering this election cycle has been that the words "Donald Trump" attract readers and watchers, thus generating advertising revenue, and incentivizing those same outlets to give him more exposure.

It has been mystifying, yet patently real. No one seems to like the guy; his unfavorability rating is currently at 63.3%, according to the Huffington Post. Yet traffic to pieces about him and searches for his name have been hitting the ceiling since very early on.

This quote from Quartz, from January, explains it:

"We first noticed how Trump stories drove traffic—and thus revenue—at TheStreet.com last summer, when the name "Trump" suddenly spiked in Google searches. Traffic to stories about Trump, even if they contained no substantive new information or a comment from the candidate himself, was running some 10 times higher than that of any other candidate. "Trump interest has since continued to dominate the web. A simple glance at Google Trends shows Trump searches far outpace those for any other candidate, Democrat or Republican (a phenomenon clearly at play during the Jan 28. debate)."

When media get a lot of traffic to a certain kind of story, it’s a sign that their audience is interested and they tend to write more about it. So, if you wanted to manipulate journalists into writing about something, you could send fake traffic to stories on that topic, in hopes that they write more.

Now, that’s not to say Trump is rigging the computers. There’s such a thing as a hate search, and a hate read, and I don’t doubt for a second that many people who hate Trump are reading about him just to keep up-to-date and informed on their hatred. But can that account for all the hype?

In yet another troubling quote from the Bloomberg piece, the authors ask Sepúlveda a blunt question: do you think the U.S. election is being tampered with? His response leaves no room for doubt.

This is the scariest sentence you will ever read about the internet

A hacker claims to have maintained an army of 30,000 fake Twitter profiles that helped candidates win elections in Latin America.

"When I realized that people believe what the Internet says more than reality, I discovered that I had the power to make people believe almost anything." - Colombian Hacker Andrés Sepúlveda. #StopClickBait