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There is Clairo shade for those with the eyes to see and more and more people have the eyes.
If you have no idea what I'm talking about, on X / Twitter users twist headlines and pop culture moments to be disparaging to the singer-songwriter, Clairo. They write, "Anyone else feel like this is Clairo shade?" followed by truly incomprehensible reasons why it relates back to the "Bags" singer.
SEE ALSO: Why we persist in calling modern photos 'Renaissance paintings' onlineFor example, after popstar Chappell Roan uploaded a video to TikTok voicing the mistreatment fame brought her, someone posted, "Now this is DEFINITELY Clairo shade- like she’s basically saying “oh I’m annoyed of fans I wish I could be Clairo so I wouldnt have as many fans.”
In response to Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez's second divorce one user wrote, "Does anyone feel like this is clairo shade? They’re like oh we hated charm it couldn’t save our marriage," in reference to Clairo's most recent album, Charm.
Tweet may have been deleted Tweet may have been deleted Tweet may have been deleted Tweet may have been deleted Tweet may have been deletedThe phrase parodies the kind of stan behavior that runs rampant on X where fans make any trending topic about their fave. Infamous Timothée Chalamet stan account Club Chalamet is a perfect example. However, Clairo lacks her own aggressive fanbase like the Swifties or BeyHive — which further adds to the humor of the trend.
But some Clairo fans are trying to turn the meme into streaming numbers. One wrote, "clairo shade this clairo shade that how about you stream clairo." Another said, "the concept of “clairo shade” being more popular than her new album IS clairo shade like…"
Tweet may have been deleted Tweet may have been deletedKnow Your Meme tracks this iteration of the meme back to a nonsensical July 10 tweet about Katy Perry's album covers reading, "This might be Clairo shade bc 1, 4, and 3 respectively correspond the letters to “A” “D” “C” in the Latin alphabet, which could stand for “And Die, Clairo”…….." But the concept of Clairo shade dates back to the beginning of her career where she faced "industry plant" allegations due to her nepo baby status.
Tweet may have been deletedSoon the meme will be walking out the door with its bags, but for now, get out of the sun and relax in all the Clairo shade.
The Mini is a bite-sized version of The New York Times' revered daily crossword. While the crossword is a lengthier experience that requires both knowledge and patience to complete, The Mini is an entirely different vibe.
With only a handful of clues to answer, the daily puzzle doubles as a speed-running test for many who play it.
So, when a tricky clue disrupts a player's flow, it can be frustrating! If you find yourself stumped playing The Mini — much like with Wordle and Connections — we have you covered.
SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on MashableHere are the clues and answers to NYT's The Mini for Saturday, August 24, 2024:
AcrossEight: PrefixThe answer is Octo.
The answer is Froze.
The answer is Forest.
The answer is Swimcap.
The answer is Nepali.
The answer is Siphon.
The answer is Cent.
The answer is Offs.
The answer is Crown.
The answer is Tories.
The answer is Ozempic.
The answer is Escape.
The answer is Talon.
The answer is Pint.
If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Featured Video For You The Wordle Strategy used by the New York Times' Head of GamesAre you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.
Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Mini Crossword.
Connections is the latest New York Times word game that's captured the public's attention. The game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.
If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for August 24's Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.
SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable What is Connections?The NYT's latest daily word game has become a social media hit. The Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the new word game and bringing it to the publications' Games section. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.
Tweet may have been deletedEach puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there's only one correct answer. If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.
Tweet may have been deletedPlayers can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.
SEE ALSO: NYT's The Mini crossword answers for August 24 Here's a hint for today's Connections categoriesWant a hit about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:
Yellow: Gossip
Green: Sneak around
Blue: Need to borrow a car?
Purple: Chemically-spelled words
Need a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:
Yellow: Hearsay
Green: Move Stealthily
Blue: Car Rental Companies
Purple: Ending with Chemical Elements
Looking for Wordle today? Here's the answer to today's Wordle.
Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today's puzzle before we reveal the solutions.
Drumroll, please!
The solution to today's Connections #440 is...
What is the answer to Connections todayHearsay: RUMBLING, SPECULATION, TALK, WHISPERS
Move Stealthily: CREEP, SLIP, STEAL, TIPTOE
Car Rental Companies: BUDGET, ENTERPRISE, NATIONAL, THRIFTY
Ending with Chemical Elements: ENVIRON, JARGON, LATIN, PLEAD
Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be new Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.
Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.
If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Connections.
Oh hey there! If you're here, it must be time for Wordle. As always, we're serving up our daily hints and tips to help you figure out today's answer.
If you just want to be told today's word, you can jump to the bottom of this article for August 24's Wordle solution revealed. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.
SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable Where did Wordle come from?Originally created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner, Wordle rapidly spread to become an international phenomenon, with thousands of people around the globe playing every day. Alternate Wordle versions created by fans also sprang up, including battle royale Squabble, music identification game Heardle, and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once.
Wordle eventually became so popular that it was purchased by the New York Times, and TikTok creators even livestream themselves playing.
What's the best Wordle starting word?The best Wordle starting word is the one that speaks to you. But if you prefer to be strategic in your approach, we have a few ideas to help you pick a word that might help you find the solution faster. One tip is to select a word that includes at least two different vowels, plus some common consonants like S, T, R, or N.
What happened to the Wordle archive?The entire archive of past Wordle puzzles used to be available for anyone to enjoy whenever they felt like it. Unfortunately, it has since been taken down, with the website's creator stating it was done at the request of the New York Times.
Is Wordle getting harder?It might feel like Wordle is getting harder, but it actually isn't any more difficult than when it first began. You can turn on Wordle's Hard Mode if you're after more of a challenge, though.
SEE ALSO: NYT's The Mini crossword answers for August 23 Here's a subtle hint for today's Wordle answer:A cut of meat.
Does today's Wordle answer have a double letter?There are no reoccurring letters.
Today's Wordle is a 5-letter word that starts with...Today's Wordle starts with the letter F.
SEE ALSO: Wordle-obsessed? These are the best word games to play IRL. The Wordle answer today is...Get your last guesses in now, because it's your final chance to solve today's Wordle before we reveal the solution.
Drumroll please!
The solution to today's Wordle is...
FILET.
Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be a new Wordle for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.
Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.
Reporting by Chance Townsend, Caitlin Welsh, Sam Haysom, Amanda Yeo, Shannon Connellan, Cecily Mauran, Mike Pearl, and Adam Rosenberg contributed to this article.
If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Wordle.
Sinéad O'Connor's life was marred with controversy over her steadfast, clear-eyed rejection of the status quo. She shaved her head in response to her beauty becoming a marketing tool, ripped apart a photograph of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live to protest child abuse in the Catholic church, and sang illuminating protest songs ranging in topics from Black liberation to Ireland's history of oppression.
SEE ALSO: 'Kneecap' takes the Irish language revolution to the big screenNow, a TikTok trend once again proves that the Irish singer-songwriter, who passed away last year, was on the right side of history.
"I want to talk about Ireland. Specifically, I want to talk about the famine, about how there wasn't actually a famine," O'Connor raps over a rhythmic beat on her 1994 song "Famine." On the social media platform, it's become the soundtrack for Irish people sharing experiences reckoning with British colonialism, from mockery of their Irish names to misinformation about Ireland's independence.
One video caption reads, "me to an English in-law when he thought it was okay to laugh when telling us his uncle was a black and tan." Another says, "me when people ask why irish isn't spoken widely in Ireland or why we should care about it."
Ciara Ellen, an Irish creator based in Dubai, decided to participate in the trend after facing yet another mispronunciation of her name. "I had a conversation with someone where they said my name wrong, and I corrected them politely. Then they just were very, 'Oh, why would you spell it like that doesn't make any sense?'" she told Mashable.
In the video, Ellen writes, "Me when someone tells me my name should be pronounced differently than it's spelled." It garnered over 2.4 million views and over 250,000 likes.
SEE ALSO: Why the internet stans IrelandThe TikTok trend is part of a larger cultural interest in Ireland and its history. The internet is obsessed with actors like Paul Mescal and Cillian Murphy, and the Irish-language rap group Kneecap recently released a semi-autobiographical film that was met with critical acclaim.
Ahead of the release of Universal Mother, the album featuring "Famine," O'Connor told The New York Times, "I am Ireland. Everything that has happened to Ireland has happened to me." The famine was a defining moment in Irish history, with over one million people dying and nearly two million people emigrating out of the country. The track — relaying O'Connor's belief that the individual and their country are connected — weaves together her experiences of child abuse with Irish oppression. She urges, “And if there ever is gonna be healing / Then there has to be remembering and grieving / So that then there can be forgiving / There has to be knowledge and understanding.” When posting videos to the song, Irish creators embody this ethos.
"Famine" was met with mixed reception at the time of its release. It was a tense political climate, as the Irish Republican Army was in its first ceasefire and the teaching of a "nonpartisan" history of the Irish potato famine — known more accurately as the Great Famine in Ireland — was in a state of transition. Additionally, there wasn't much scholarly work on the political underpinnings of the famine before the late 20th century.
A Los Angeles Times article published a year after the song's release reports that the track "created a controversy that raged through the Irish press… many said [it] irresponsibly dredged up an anti-English attitude that had dissipated." The article also notes that an Irish government minister said peace in the North would "enable all Irish people to explore more freely the truth about the famine."
Despite the song being released several years before her birth, Ellen remembers "Famine" playing at Christmas and her uncles rehashing its controversy. Later, in fourth year, the Irish equivalent of sophomore year of high school, it was used as a teaching tool in her history class.
But as with most TikTok trends, the sound left its bubble of Irish creators, like Ellen, and reached Americans, morphing its meaning. Some, like Indigenous American creator @ndnreginageorge, match the song's tone. Their video reads, "The Choctaw Nation sent money to feed their people 16 years after the Trail of Tears because they knew what it was to starve and wanted to help." Others, mainly posted by Irish Americans, missed the mark.
"Some sounds and trends with a clear message behind them should probably be used in a different sense. And there was a mass amount of videos about Irish toes," said Ellen, referring to TikToks from Irish Americans talking about inheriting "Irish toes" and "Irish knees," things the 24-year-old and her friends and family in Ireland have never heard of.
The flood of comments and DMs she received asking for an explanation of O'Connor's provocative words led her to make a 7-minute video about Irish history she thinks every Irish American needs to know — her audience is 90 percent American.
"I'm happy that me, as an Irish person, could be someone people could learn from rather than someone who might be spreading misinformation," said Ellen. "On TikTok, it's hard to know the truth sometimes, and there's so much misinformation about the famine out there because a lot of history was erased. Not everyone had the privilege of learning and having their family tell them stories because [Irish Americans] had to lie to fit in."
One thing remains clear: O'Connor's message endures, more relevant than ever.
Our Milky Way galaxy is a cannibal.
It has grown by consuming other galaxies. Yet, it too, may be destined to collide and merge with an even bigger galaxy: Andromeda. Though galaxy collisions are normal events and NASA suspects this collision is inevitable (in billions of years), new research argues that with our current knowledge about Andromeda, such a future impact is still not certain — and has about 50-50 odds.
You might wonder what would happen if our disk-shaped spiral galaxy were to one day collide with Andromeda, which is over twice the size of the Milky Way. Astronomers anticipate such a cosmic crash would ultimately create a giant, egg-shaped galaxy.
SEE ALSO: NASA scientist viewed first Voyager images. What he saw gave him chills.But what would happen to the stars and planets of the Milky Way? And what would be the destiny of Earth?
In a hypothetical view from Earth, the warped Milky Way and Andromeda (on right) after their initial collision. Credit: NASA The Milky Way and Andromeda collisionSuch a galactic collision doesn't sound pretty.
After all, these objects pack at least hundreds of millions of stars, millions of black holes, and likely trillions of planets. If you were, hypothetically, standing on a rocky world like Earth, would catastrophe be imminent?
Thankfully, no.
Galaxies collide because they harbor unimaginable amounts of gravity, and are attracted to each other. "It's very likely that a galaxy will encounter a galaxy comparable or smaller over the course of its lifetime," Diego Muñoz, an astrophysicist at Northern Arizona University, told Mashable.
Yet these encounters don't spell doom for a solar system like ours. "The solar system will in all likelihood be almost unaffected," Muñoz said.
"The solar system will in all likelihood be almost unaffected."A prominent reason why is because space is immensely vast; there are huge distances between the stars, and stars are comparatively tiny. "In fact, if you were to shrink the sun to the size of a sand grain, the distance to the nearest star would be measured in miles. That makes close encounters with other stars extremely unlikely, even during a galaxy merger," Sally Dodson-Robinson, a planetary scientist at the University of Delaware, told Mashable.
What's more, stars and their solar systems can't match the gravitational power of the greater galaxy. Solar systems will orbit around the galaxy's core — just like our system completes an orbit around the Milky Way every 240 million years —and aren't pulled into one another as galaxies merge.
A graphic of the Milky Way galaxy, with the sun show below the galactic center. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / R. Hurt (SSC / Caltech) The star-filled center of the Andromeda galaxy, also known as "M31." Credit: NASA / ESA / B. Williams and J. Dalcanton (University of Washington, Seattle)The impact between the older galaxies, however, may spawn some stellar activity as the galaxies' gasses collide and condense. The resulting weighty clouds of gas can collapse, driving the formation of new stars.
"It will create some fireworks," Nelson Caldwell, an observational astronomer at the Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian, told Mashable.
What will change after a galactic collisionA galactic collision won't violently throw planets and stars around like billiard balls. But it will change things — some visibly.
When hundreds of millions of stars merge, objects are reorganized. Stars and their planetary systems may move to a new place. The sun, for example, could end up much farther away from the center of its new egg-shaped galaxy, called an "elliptical galaxy," Muñoz said.
And our literal view of the cosmos — if we were around to see it — would likely change considerably. "Planets will keep on orbiting as usual, though the constellation patterns visible from each planet will change," Dodson-Robinson said. Andromeda would also gradually become a dominant, imposing feature in our night sky, as NASA has depicted in visualizations. The giant galaxy, just a faint (but poignant) presence in the sky today, would grow larger and larger, eventually colliding with the Milky Way and stoking vivid star formation.
Eventually, after billions of years, a view from Earth, or a planet like Earth, may look like the view depicted below: the bright center of an enormous elliptical galaxy.
A giant elliptical galaxy formed after the merger of the Milky Way and Andromeda, as hypothetically seen from Earth. Credit: NASAThese changes in the sky, of course, wouldn't be rapid. They'd happen over billions of years. An immensely long-lived civilization may observe these incredible cosmic changes, but not the relatively short-lived lifespan of a person. "Any individual person would not be able to see things moving," Jackson Taylor, a PhD student at West Virginia University researching pulsars, exoplanets, and gravitational waves, told Mashable.
It's not certain, however, this space event will occur, according to some popular new research, mentioned above. That's because both the Milky Way and Andromeda inhabit a "local group" of galaxies, and two in particular (M33 and the Large Magellanic Cloud) may exert gravitational influences that deter such a collision. There are still too many unknowns to say, with certainty, what will happen in billions of years, the researchers argue. After all, similar to weather forecasting today, a small error or inaccurate assumption will amplify over time, dramatically deviating from the initial prediction.
"In the full system, we find that uncertainties in the present positions, motions, and masses of all galaxies leave room for drastically different outcomes, and a probability of close to 50 percent that there is no Milky Way - Andromeda merger during the next 10 billion years," the researchers, whose paper is under peer review (a process of healthy scientific scrutiny), wrote.
Yet Earthlings, if we manage to avoid self-annihilation and persist for billions of years upon our shape-shifting continents, might still never witness such a merger — from Earth, anyhow. In some 5 billion years' time, the aging sun will have vastly expanded into a red giant star, either boiling away our oceans or consuming us entirely.
"The sun will be much older," Muñoz noted, "but that's a different problem."
On Thursday, at the Democratic National Convention, a rumor took hold. Someone tweeted that Beyoncé would perform, and an anticipatory buzz commenced. TMZ confirmed it. Viewers waited with bated breath for the arrival of Queen Bey. And then, nothing. No Beyoncé. On Friday morning, in the cold light of day, the jokes began. "They’re saying Beyoncé might come to the Lunch and Learn seminar at work today," someone wrote on X.
In a 2011 interview with Collider, actor Christopher Heyerdahl said, "Fandom can keep something alive, and fandom can take it down." He was talking about fans' passion for his work in the Twilight movies because — 13 years ago, as the internet stretched its young legs — fandom was a powerful vehicle driving the success of YA fantasy novels and franchises.
In 2024, fandom is helping to decide the outcomes of elections. And fandom may finally put a woman in the White House.
Once the purview of nerds and wonks, fandom has been mainstreamed in monoculture. In its annual trends report from this year, YouTube found that 80 percent of respondents between the ages of 14 and 44 consumed content about something they’re a fan of at least weekly on YouTube. Research conducted by Amazon's advertising arm in 2023 found that 70 percent of respondents consider their fandom and fan community part of their everyday lives, and almost 90 percent share their passions and fandoms with other people in their lives.
Fandom has also become intertwined with identity. For example, 47 percent of Gen Z respondents (ages 14-24) in the YouTube survey said they belong to a fandom that no one they know personally is a part of.
Over the past decade, as politics has become more personal, fandom and the fight for freedom of expression have merged. Pop stars are increasingly outspoken about political issues and have become powerful mouthpieces for the causes that matter most to them and their fans. It's no coincidence that a large faction of pop star fandom comprises women and LGBTQ people, two groups with bodily autonomy at risk in a second Trump presidency.
Megan Thee Stallion performs at a campaign event for Democratic presidential candidate, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris at a campaign rally at the Georgia State Convocation Center on July 30, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. Credit: Megan Varner/Getty ImagesOlivia Rodrigo, for example, has been particularly outspoken about abortion. When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, she dedicated the song "Fuck You" to the court of record. This year, Rodrigo partnered with the National Network of Abortion Funds to provide free contraception, lubricant, and Plan B to attendees of her Guts World Tour until her team swiftly reversed course after widespread media attention. Concert handouts read "Funding abortion? It's a good idea. Right?" in reference to Rodrigo's song "bad idea, right?"
Pop star endorsements of Harris range from overt to implicit. Megan Thee Stallion, for example, performed at a Harris rally in Atlanta, wearing a cropped pantsuit. She introduced her song "Body" by addressing the audience: "I know my ladies in the crowd love they body, and if you want to keep loving your body, you know who to vote for." And, after fans of Charli XCX transformed memes about her brat album into a cultural commentary about Harris's social capital, the Brit tweeted, "Kamala IS brat" in a show of support.
Perhaps rumors of Beyoncé's appearance at Thursday night's DNC caught on quickly because she has only offered a tacit endorsement of Harris, allowing the campaign to use her song "Freedom" while threatening legal action against the Trump campaign for its recent use of the same track.
The Harris campaign has cleverly leveraged this perceived alignment with the pop star constituency. It sponsored a "This is Charli XCX" playlist on Spotify. References to Chappell Roan, a pop artist with a recent meteoric rise, are woven into the literal fabric of the campaign: it raised more than $1 million through sales of a hat that resembled the pop star's merch. The singer's "Good Luck, Babe" played during the DNC roll call for Roan's home state of Missouri.
Tweet may have been deletedWinking at fans in these ways is not just smart; it's critical. Fandoms are excellent grassroots organizers. They unite across religion, race, sexuality, and geography to help their idol win awards and gain media coverage through methodical, consistent action. K-pop fans organizing against Trump became one of the biggest stories from the 2020 presidential election. In 2024, fandoms have learned from past attempts to effect change and are faster and fiercer than ever.
That may be why no pop star endorsement is more anticipated than that of Taylor Swift. When Harris replaced President Biden as the de facto Democratic nominee in July, Swifties created a flurry of organizing activity under the moniker Swifties4Kamala. In a widely shared screenshot, one overseas Swiftie earnestly asked where they could cast a vote for Harris online. It was a delightful example of the modern fan's instinct to effect change through purely digital channels.
In a statement to Mashable, Laura Brounstein, Spokesperson for Harris for President, said, "Trusted and authentic messengers can be some of the most effective in today's media environment, so when the Swifties talk to their friends and family about why they’re voting for VP Harris, they’ll be listened to!" The campaign expressed gratitude for other fandoms, too. "There is nothing like organic, heartfelt support!" said Brounstein. "We are so grateful to have such diverse, passionate, and creative supporters using their platforms to talk about the stakes of this election."
Though she has been silent thus far, it would make sense for Swift to endorse Harris. She endorsed Biden and Harris in the 2020 presidential election. Before that, in 2018, she made her first-ever political statement in an Instagram post rebuking the views of Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn, who was seeking election in Tennessee. "[Blackburn's] voting record in Congress appalls and terrifies me," Swift wrote in a caption. "She voted against equal pay for women. She voted against the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which attempts to protect women from domestic violence, stalking, and date rape. She believes businesses have a right to refuse service to gay couples. She also believes they should not have the right to marry. These are not MY Tennessee values."
A delegate wears a "Swiftie" hat during the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, US, on Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. Credit: Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesIn this election, those values remain most closely aligned with the Harris/Walz campaign, which would seek to codify reproductive rights for women and protect the LGBTQ community from gender and sexuality-based hate and violence. And Swift — who is unmarried, does not have children, and is a loud and proud owner of three cats — could take issue with past comments from Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance that called Democratic leaders "a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too." Swift's fans have already pounced on the prospect of her reclaiming the label in a show of support for Harris. As one X user put it, "hell hath no fury like a certain childless cat lady who has yet to endorse a presidential candidate."
Over the past week, two developments have strengthened the argument for a Swift endorsement. On Aug. 20, the singer concluded the European leg of her billion-dollar Eras Tour and won't tour again until October. That means she could shift her focus to an endorsement in the interim. And on Aug. 18, Trump published AI-generated photos of women in "Swifties for Trump" shirts on his Truth Social account. Some suggested that his accompanying caption, "I accept," implied that the artist had endorsed his campaign. (The Trump campaign did not respond to Mashable's request for comment.) Swift, who is notoriously litigious and fiercely protective of her likeness, could see the move as a final straw.
Of course, Trump himself is a lesson in the power of fandom. Despite having no political experience, a shady business background, and a damning, decades-long record of racism and misogyny, he radicalized a riotous base to become president. Now, even with a few felonies under his belt, his campaign is still alive and kicking. But can Trump's cult of personality outlast the pulsating tides of pop fandom? As one pop star puts it, "Good luck, babe!"
A new study on boredom prompts a question you should consider: When was the last time you watched a video from start to finish?
If it feels like forever, and all you can remember is a flurry of skipping or clicking away in order to find a more entertaining video, you might be interested to learn that "digital switching" can actually lead to more boredom, not less.
The research, published this week in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, included a series of studies testing whether people thought they'd prevent feeling bored while watching YouTube videos by clicking away from them to view something else, and what happened in different scenarios when they either had or didn't have a choice to switch.
Though the study participants predicted they'd be more bored if they didn't click away, the study's co-author, Dr. Michael Inzlicht, said the researchers found the exact opposite situation occurred. Instead, the participants' boredom increased. They also experienced reduced satisfaction and attention, and found the videos less meaningful.
SEE ALSO: I used an AI journal for a week. What I learned about myself surprised me.Inzlicht added that the findings might help explain our modern boredom paradox. While we have far more entertainment options than ever before, surveys suggest that young people are experiencing more boredom than in the past.
"I think we have a deeply held belief that if I'm free to choose…that, in fact, I will enjoy it more," said Inzlicht, professor of psychology at the University of Toronto. "But sometimes too much choice can not only paralyze us in terms of what to choose at any given moment, but it can actually lead to outcomes that are less desirable than if we had fewer choices altogether."
For someone watching videos online, convinced that hopping from clip to clip will ultimately bring more satisfaction, that less desirable outcome could be feeling more bored, and having wasted their time.
What to do instead of impulsively video switchingSo what should you do if you suspect this is happening? Inzlicht has an idea: Immerse yourself in the content.
Inzlicht and his co-authors found that, in most cases, people who had no choice but to watch the video presented to them had more positive experiences than their freely choosing counterparts.
Inzlicht said that people inclined to video-switch to avoid boredom might try a range of other tactics instead. Whatever you choose, the goal is to increase your ability to experience discomfort or even mild distress, and to practice greater acceptance of the current moment.
"Can you cultivate a tolerance for boredom?" Inzlicht said. "Can you sit with those feelings and maybe push through and realize, 'Oh, this video was actually OK.'"
In terms of practical strategies, Inzlicht recommends reducing stimuli that grab your attention outside of the video, so it's harder for you to video-switch.
If you're streaming Netflix on a laptop, for example, expand the screen to full-size and leave your phone in another room, so you're not tempted to switch to TikTok or YouTube or use a second screen while viewing.
When watching short-form videos on platforms like TikTok or YouTube, try to remain mindful of any desire to change what you're viewing and remain curious about why it comes up. If you do skip to another video, reflect on how that made you feel.
Inzlicht said that an app or device or platform feature that lets you restrict access to your internet browser or one of your go-to apps during certain time periods can also foil any attempts to start watching something else.
However, Inzlicht doesn't recommend watching genuinely terrible or boring videos for the sake of it.
He also cautions that his study's findings should be replicated by others in order to fully understand the effect of digital switching on boredom. As Inzlicht and his co-authors found, this behavior may not affect everyone in the same way or apply equally to all forms of content, like written articles.
Tips from a meditation teacher who video-switchesAlexis Santos, a meditation teacher on the app Ten Percent Happier, said that he's found himself switching from one video to the next to avoid boredom.
In order to respond to this dynamic thoughtfully, Santos recommends both being aware of what you're viewing and also understanding something about yourself in that moment.
Asking yourself things like whether you're on autopilot, laughing or feeling at ease, getting tired, or becoming hooked on scrolling or skipping can help you understand why you feel the urge to change what you're viewing.
"It's natural not to want to feel bored — when we’re bored, we've lost connection with the present moment." - Alexis Santos, meditation teacher, Ten Percent HappierWhen that urge hits, Santos suggests slowing down, then trying to lift your gaze, look away from the screen, and notice what happens.
"Sometimes this can pause the endless grasping-for-more cycle," Santos wrote in an email. "It's natural not to want to feel bored — when we’re bored, we've lost connection with the present moment."
To ground yourself in the moment, Santos said to check in with your body and its sensations, such as the feeling of a phone in your hand and the temperature of your skin. Consider your mood, too, which may be driving your behavior.
There's no need to judge yourself for getting lost in video-watching, either, Santos said.
Instead, use the experience as a learning opportunity and reflect on what you really want to be doing.
"There’s so much to learn. None of it is wrong," Santos wrote. "But some decisions will make us feel better and return us home."
TL;DR: Regularly $99, score Treblab X3 Pro wireless earbuds for just $34.99 — great for workouts and on-the-go listening.
Opens in a new window Credit: TREBLAB TREBLAB X3 Pro True Wireless Earbuds $34.99 at The Mashable ShopWhen your day’s packed with activities, you need earbuds that can keep up. The Treblab X3 Pro true wireless earbuds are designed for people who are always on the move.
A solid option for gym sessions, taking calls, or simply enjoying your favorite playlist, these earbuds — on sale for $34.99 — deliver powerful sound that keeps you motivated and connected. With a secure fit that stays in place even during intense workouts, you can focus on your day without constant adjustments.
A key feature of the Treblab X3 Pro is its impressive battery life of up to 45 hours with the charging case. This means you can go from your morning run to evening relaxation without needing to recharge. Plus, the water-resistant design makes sure sweat or rain won’t ruin them.
The built-in microphones provide clear call quality, no matter where you are. Intuitive controls allow you to manage your music and calls with a simple tap, giving you complete control over your audio experience.
Don’t let tangled wires or short battery life hold you back.
For a limited time, grab a pair of Treblab X3 Pro earbuds for $34.99 (reg. $99) and enjoy your music everywhere you go.
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TL;DR: Get the PowerBand Apple Watch band with a built-in charger for just $29.97 through August 25 and never worry about your Apple Watch running out of juice again.
Opens in a new window Credit: WonderCube PowerBand: Apple Watch Band with Built-In MagSafe Charger $29.97 at The Mashable ShopYou know that sinking feeling when your Apple Watch dies right when you need it most? Meet PowerBand, the world’s first Apple Watch band with a built-in MagSafe charger, designed to keep your watch powered up no matter where you are.
Grab the PowerBand on sale for just $29.97 (reg. $49) through August 25.
This watch band is a game-changer for anyone who relies on their Apple Watch throughout the day. The PowerBand’s sleek design conceals a powerful MagSafe charger, so you can juice up your watch without having to carry around extra cables or chargers. Whether you’re heading out for a long day, traveling, or simply don’t want to be tied down by a wall socket, the PowerBand helps your Apple Watch stay ready for action.
Perfect for busy professionals, fitness enthusiasts, and tech-savvy travelers, this band is all about convenience and functionality. The built-in charger is discreetly hidden within the band, so it looks just like a regular Apple Watch strap — no one will know you’re charging your watch until they see how much longer yours lasts. Plus, it’s super easy to use: just pop your watch onto the band, and it starts charging immediately.
Forget about battery anxiety and keep your Apple Watch powered up wherever you go.
Take advantage of this deal on the PowerBand Apple Watch Band with a built-in MagSafe charger on sale for $29.97 until August 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT.
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A new film in the Alien franchise has arrived in theaters. That means it's time to catch up on the collection of films that came before it. Sci-fi movie marathon, anyone?
Unlike many other film franchises, all of the Alien films are currently housed in one place in the streaming-verse. It's a modern-day miracle, truly. Here are all the juicy details you need to know to watch every film online (and in order!) before you head to the theaters to see Alien: Romulus.
How many Alien movies are there?There are seven films in the classic Alien franchise, including the new release, Alien: Romulus. Prior films include Alien (1979), Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992), Alien: Resurrection (1997), Prometheus (2012), and Alien: Covenant (2017). There are also two crossover films to add to your binge if you really want to complete the saga: AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007).
How to watch the Alien films in orderLike any good franchise, the official release order of the films differs from the actual narrative. The order you watch the films is completely up to you. If you want to simply watch the films in release order, it would go like this:
Alien (1979)
Aliens (1986)
Alien 3 (1992)
Alien Resurrection (1997)
AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004)
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)
Prometheus (2012)
Alien: Covenant (2017)
Alien: Romulus (2024)
If you're more into the timeline jumps and lore of it all, you'll probably want to watch the films in chronological order. Romulus takes place somewhere in the 57-year gap between Alien and Aliens, so you'll have to head to the theater midway through your streaming session if you want to do it correctly. Story-wise, your marathon would go something like this:
AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004)
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)
Prometheus (2012)
Alien: Covenant (2017)
Alien (1979)
Alien: Romulus (2024)
Aliens (1986)
Alien 3 (1992)
Alien Resurrection (1997)
Thanks to Hulu, you can officially watch every Alien movie in one place — minus the new film, of course, which is exclusively in theaters. Hulu subscriptions start at just $7.99 per month. Plus, there are plenty of ways to save on a subscription if you're looking to cut back on spending. We've rounded up all the best Hulu streaming deals below.
Is there a Hulu free trial?New to Hulu or returning after a while? You can kick off your streaming with a free 30-day trial. That's the most generous of any streamer. Just remember that if you want to avoid charges, you'll have to cancel your subscription before the 30 days are up. If you choose to keep it going, it'll cost you $7.99 per month with ads.
Opens in a new window Credit: Hulu Hulu (with ads) Free 30-day trial, then starting at $7.99 per month Get Deal The best Hulu streaming dealsBest Hulu deal for most people: Hulu annual subscription Opens in a new window Credit: Hulu Hulu (with ads) annual subscription $79.99 per year (save 16%) Get DealIf you don't qualify for the trial or you just want to save some money after your trial ends, you can sign up for an annual Hulu subscription instead of monthly and save about 16%. Hulu with ads typically costs $7.99 per month, but if you pay annually, that monthly fee drops down to just $6.67 per month. Sure, you'll have to pay more up front, but in the long run, it'll save you about $15.89 total.
Best bundle deal: Get Hulu and Disney+ for 37% off Opens in a new window Credit: Hulu / Disney Duo Basic bundle: Hulu and Disney+ with ads $9.99 per month (save 37%) Get DealWant more bang for your buck? You can bundle Hulu with Disney+ (with ads) for just $9.99 per month. That's just $2 more per month and about 37% in savings for access to another entire streaming library. Even better, if you're a sports fan, you can add ESPN+ into the mix for just $14.99 per month and save 44% on all three streaming services.
Best for students: Hulu Student Opens in a new window Credit: Hulu Hulu Student $1.99 per month (save 75%) Get DealAs long as you're a college student, you can sign up for Hulu for just $1.99 per month instead of the usual $7.99 per month. That's 75% in savings for the ad-supported plan. You'll just have to verify your student status using SheerID in order to secure the deal.
Best for T-Mobile users: Hulu (with ads) included for one year for Go5G Next customers Opens in a new window Credit: T-Mobile / Hulu Hulu (with ads) Free for select T-Mobile customers Get DealT-Mobile customers on the Go5G Next plan now get Hulu with ads included with their plan for no extra cost. And that's on top of the already stacked streaming lineup of Netflix and Apple TV+. Just head over to the T-Mobile promo page and click on "redeem now" to claim your offer if you haven't already. You'll just have to enter your T-Mobile number and account details in order to sign up.
Note: After your initial 12-month promotional period, you'll have to take action in order to keep your subscription alive.
TL;DR: Score lifetime access to OysterVPN for $39.99 (reg $199.97) and enjoy streaming from 27+ countries with built-in ad blocking.
Opens in a new window Credit: Oyster VPN OysterVPN: VPN Lifetime Subscription $39.99 at The Mashable ShopEver felt the frustration of being locked out of your favorite streaming service just because you’re traveling? With OysterVPN, those days are over.
OysterVPN provides more than security; it also gives you the freedom to stream like a local, no matter where you are in the world. Take advantage of this low price on a lifetime subscription: just $39.99 for a limited time.
OysterVPN boasts a network of over 262 servers spread across over 27 countries, making it your go-to solution for unblocking content from virtually anywhere. Whether you want to catch the latest episodes on Netflix while on vacation or explore exclusive content from other countries, OysterVPN has the reach and reliability you need.
Safeguard your privacy with OysterVPN’s powerful AES 256-bit encryption, combined with a kill switch and split tunneling features to guarantee secure web browsing. By masking your IP address and connecting to remote VPN servers, you can maintain complete anonymity online. Plus, OysterVPN makes it easy to unblock streaming sites and hide your location, letting you enjoy your favorite content without restrictions.
Not only does it help you bypass geo-restrictions, but it also includes an integrated ad blocker. That means you can enjoy your shows and movies without those annoying interruptions. It’s a little extra that makes a big difference when you’re binge-watching your favorite series.
So, if you’re tired of missing out on content just because of your location, it’s time to take control. Get OysterVPN today and open up a world of unrestricted streaming.
For a limited time, get a lifetime subscription to OysterVPN on sale for $39.99.
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TL;DR: Grab a lifetime subscription to FastestVPN for $29.99 (reg. $360) through September 3 and enjoy top-notch speed, security, and privacy.
Opens in a new window Credit: FastestVPN FastestVPN: Lifetime Subscription $29.99 at The Mashable ShopWe all want the best of both worlds online: speedy connections and solid security. But sometimes, finding that perfect balance feels like a struggle.
That’s where FastestVPN steps in, offering a solution that delivers both speed and security without compromise. You can get lifetime access for up to 15 devices for the low price of only $29.99 through September 3. That means you can use it anywhere you go, whether it's on your phone, computer, tablet, video game system, smart TV, and more.
You’ve probably heard the concerns about VPNs slowing down your connection, especially with features like Double VPN. But FastestVPN is built differently. It’s optimized to keep your connection fast, even when you’re layering on extra security. With a variety of server locations and protocols, you can fine-tune your setup to get the best performance while staying secure.
FastestVPN packs in features like 256-bit AES encryption, a NAT firewall, and a kill switch, making sure your data stays protected. Plus, with their no-logging policy, you can browse with confidence, knowing your online activity isn’t being tracked — something not all VPNs can promise.
Secure a lifetime of fast and private internet access. That’s a one-time payment for a service that typically costs a lot more over time. If you’re looking to boost your online security and keep things running smoothly, this digital tool could be a great investment.
Score a lifetime subscription to FastestVPN for up to 15 devices on sale for $29.99 through September 3.
Browse more privacy and security deals here.
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TL;DR: Get lifetime access to 1minAI Pro for $39.99 (reg. $234) and automate your workflow with AI-powered tools.
Opens in a new window Credit: 1minai 1minAI: Lifetime Subscription $39.99 at The Mashable ShopLet’s be honest — nobody loves spending time on repetitive tasks. If you’re looking to reclaim your day and focus on what truly matters, 1minAI is here to help.
1minAI is an AI-powered tool that's like having a digital assistant on standby, ready to handle everything from content creation to image editing and PDF analysis. You can get 1minAI Pro for life for a one-time payment of $39.99 for a limited time.
1minAI taps into the power of advanced AI models like GPT-4 and Claude 3 to make your workflow more efficient. Whether you need to whip up a blog post, clean up an image, or dig into a document, 1minAI has you covered. And while AI is incredibly useful, it’s good to remember that a little human oversight goes a long way in fine-tuning the final result.
The Pro plan also comes with free monthly credits, giving you the freedom to tackle various projects without the stress of running out of resources. For instance, generating a 1,000-word blog post might use a portion of these credits, but with a lifetime subscription, you can plan and manage your tasks without worrying about recurring costs.
This one-time investment keeps your productivity high without tying you down to monthly payments. Don't miss this deal on a lifetime subscription to 1minAI Pro on sale for $39.99 for a limited time.
StackSocial prices subject to change.
Looking to get lost in a postapocalyptic world of oversexed teenage superheroes who wield emotions as heightened as their spiky hairdos? Sounds like you want to watch yourself some anime. The Japanese word for "animation" is really so broad in meaning that it covers multiple genres and styles — anime can be deeply somber, it can be utterly terrifying, or it can be total goofballs. Heck, sometimes it's all of these things in the span of a single scene. But as Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart infamously said about pornography in 1964, we know it when we see it. And we know the best ones when we see them even more so.
Here are the 10 best anime series currently streaming on Hulu.
1. Cowboy BebopThe legendary Cowboy Bebop ran for two seasons and 26 episodes back in 1998, and tells the story of the space cowboy Spike Spiegel and his merry band of bounty-hunter outlaws aboard the spaceship Bebop. The year is 2071 and Earth is uninhabitable — humanity now lives on moons and space-rocks where lawlessness pervades, which… well, if I had to live on a space-rock, I'd probably turn to a life of crime, too. Not a lot of lifestyle choices on a space-rock! The series follows Spike and his team as they hunt down different criminals each episode to earn their bounty, with the big bad of Spike's ex-bestie, Vicious, lurking about doing his own damage until their inevitable big showdown. One of the most beloved anime series ever made, Netflix live-actioned it in 2021 with John Cho in the lead, to little acclaim. Just watch the classic!
How to watch: Cowboy Bebop is now streaming on Hulu.
2. One-Punch ManIt's the same problem that plagues Superman movies — if your superhero is too superpowered, finding somebody for them to fight that's an actual challenge becomes an issue. For Saitama, the lead hero of One-Punch Man, it's all right there in the title: He can obliterate anybody with a single punch. So where do you go from there? Smartly, the manga artist called ONE who created this series put this problem right at the center of it. Basically Saitama is just bored most of the time, and the series gets a lot of humor out of that. But it also leads Saitama to seek out bigger and bigger duels, needing that sweet real challenge high, until he's literally fighting "God." Talk about an overachiever.
How to watch: One-Punch Man is now streaming on Hulu.
3. Sonny BoyWritten and directed by Shingo Natsume (who also worked on One-Punch Man), Sonny Boy tells the story of a student named Nagara who finds himself and his entire school class suddenly and inexplicably transported to a different dimension. As the students try to figure out not just what happened to them but also the strange rules of this new world — where physics itself works differently — they discover they have all gained different superpowers as well. The fascinating thing about how Sonny Boy handles all of this, though, is that the focus remains on the young people's relationships. The big action happenings are usually skipped right over, and we watch how they deal with the aftermath instead. Naturally, they start forming cliques and rivalries in what reveals itself to be an excellent metaphor for everybody's isolating and strange high school experience.
How to watch: Sonny Boy is now streaming on Hulu.
4. Yu-Gi-Oh!One of the better-known stateside mangas thanks to its aughts-era Saturday morning airings and the tremendously successful card game that goes along with it, Yu-Gi-Oh! tells the story of young Yugi Moto. A picked-on nerd at series' start, Yugi solves an ancient Egyptian artifact called the "Millenium Puzzle" which has two immediate effects — it possesses him with the spirit of a gambler, and it unleashes the "Shadow Games" upon the world. Caught up in an endless tournament of "Duel Monsters" card battles with various foes (including his main nemesis, a corporate prick named Seto Kaiba), Yugi and his gang of good-natured pals travel around throwing their magical cards down at the bad guys, endlessly one-upping one another with bigger, badder creatures, over and over again. And again. It's basically the same thing every episode. And let someone who intimately knows via the experience of watching this on Saturday mornings during his early 20s tell you, this is exquisitely mindless hangover television. The epitome of veg-out TV.
How to watch: Yu-Gi-Oh! is now streaming on Hulu.
5. Assassination ClassroomI think most of us had that one substitute teacher in school who grabbed our attention and made us wonder who the heck this person was and what their story might be. Well, in Assassination Classroom, a 2015 series based off Yusei Matsui's manga, this fascinating homeroom substitute called Koro-sensei turns out to be, uhh, an enormous space octopus who's just eaten the moon and is currently threatening to destroy the world. But he somehow also finds the time to befriend the misfits of Class 3E in Kunugigaoka Junior High School, and it turns out that Koro-sensei is the best teacher they've ever had! So things get complicated when the government tasks the school kids with killing their teacher before he can gobble up Earth. Besides this series, the Assassination Classroom manga has been turned into a video game and two live-action films, but the 22 episodes of this wildly over-the-top anime are really where it's at.
How to watch: Assassination Classroom is now streaming on Hulu.
6. Attack on TitanRunning for four seasons spread out across a decade, Attack on Titan was a massive success both in its native country and in the U.S., where Hulu actually premiered episodes during its last season at the same time they aired in Japan. It finished its run last year, so you can binge all 94 episodes of the series, which is set (where else) in a post-apocalyptic future. This specific post-apocalyptic future is due to the Titans, a race of evil giant humanoid creatures that have wreaked total destruction across the globe. That brings us to our lead character, Eren Jaeger, who watched his mother get gobbled up by one, only to later discover he has the ability to transform into a Titan himself. Which Eren then uses to get his revenge, one evil giant humanoid creature at a time.
How to watch: Attack on Titan is now streaming on Hulu.
7. My Hero AcademiaIf you watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer, then you know that the big deal with the character of Xander (Nicholas Brendon) was that he was a powerless regular dude amid a bunch of super-slayers and witch-champions and immortal demons who fought the good fight anyway. His ordinariness was what made him special. My Hero Academia is basically that — Deku is a young boy born without powers in a world where nearly everybody has powers. But he manages to become a hero despite that, lifting himself up by his bootstraps and getting into the big academy for superheroes anyway, winning the more powerful people he meets along the way over through sheer force of can-do attitude. Which is a good thing, because a big League of Super Villains just formed, and it's comin' this way!
How to watch: My Hero Academia is now streaming on Hulu.
8. Star Wars: Visions F in a scene from "Star Wars: Visions" short, “The Village Bride." Credit: Lucasfilm Ltd. & TMOne of the best received of the current Star Wars spin-off-mania programs we find ourselves buried beneath, Star Wars: Visions succeeds because of its willingness to be different. Different not just for telling stories unrelated to the 40-year Skywalker Saga we've all come to know so intimately, but wildly different in tone and execution from episode to episode. The show accomplishes this by having each episode of the anthology tell its own standalone story that's designed and delivered by an entirely different animation studio. One week you're watching the Sith-Jedi War get turned into a feudal-era revenge tale from the animators behind JoJo's Bizarre Adventure; the next, the folks behind the Scott Pilgrim anime are telling the story of a droid who dreams of becoming a Jedi. And at approximately 13 minutes each, none of these outstay their welcome — heck, you'll probably want spin-offs of their own for several.
How to watch: Star Wars: Visions is now streaming on Hulu.
9. Undead UnluckWith shades of Pushing Daisies and X-Men's Rogue, Undead Unluck (based on Yoshifumi Tozuka's manga) tells the story of 18-year-old Fuuko Izumo, whose mere presence causes people to drop dead. After an accident leaves hundreds of people (including her own parents) exactly that, Fuuko goes into hiding for years. Ultimately she decides she can't continue living with this curse and is going to end it all… only to stumble upon her perfect foil, a dude named Andy who's immortal.
The two hit it right off and find in each other reason to keep going, but before they can celebrate too much, they find themselves being chased by a shadowy group called The Union that wants to use their powers for mysterious reasons. They propose teaming them up with the other "Negators," a collection of people who "negate" the rules of the world — you know, little things like life and death. And on the other side of the battlefield? Oh, just God. These anime sure do love to make shit epic, huh?
How to watch: Undead Unluck is now streaming on Hulu.
10. One PieceIf you'd like to set yourself a viewing challenge, tackling One Piece is your ticket — the show premiered in 1999 and now has nearly 1,200 episodes under its belt. That's 50 percent more episodes than The Simpsons! That said, you should prepare yourself going in that Hulu doesn't yet have all 20 seasons of the show streaming; they're up to season 11 at this point. But that's still hundreds of hours adapting Eiichiro Oda's manga, so by the time you make it through, they'll probably have added more. One Piece tells the story of treasure hunter Monkey D. Luffy and his team of Straw Hat Pirates, who're on the (long, long, long) hunt for the ultimate treasure of the title, which crowns the person that finds it Pirate King. Although at this point, one wonders if they're very good at their job, to be honest. It’s been 1,200 episodes and you're still looking. Come on, Monkey, get your act together.
How to watch: One Piece is now streaming on Hulu.
Hulu 1-Month Free Trial at HuluDuring a solar storm, the sun unleashes a torrent of radiation into space.
If you're on Earth, the planet's atmosphere and magnetic field shield you against the most harmful health impacts. But if you were on Mars some 140 million miles away, how those gusts of energy would affect you and the rest of the Red Planet are less clear.
Scientists know Mars once had a much thicker atmosphere, perhaps one capable of supporting life. But the planet's climate has changed dramatically over billions of years, from an Earth-like world bathed in lakes and rivers to an arid desert. The question is where did the atmosphere go?
A new NASA-funded science mission will get to the bottom of how solar radiation strips away the tattered Martian atmosphere, and it doesn't involve the usual cast of contractors. The company at the center of this mission is Rocket Lab, started in New Zealand in 2006.
Of all the new space ventures, that name might come as a surprise, given how relatively unknown the company is to the general public — and how obsessed its competitor SpaceX, or rather its founder Elon Musk, is with getting to Mars.
"I always joke that we're the only non-billionaire led space company right now," Peter Beck, CEO of Rocket Lab, told Mashable. "Our two biggest competitors are the two wealthiest people on the planet, and — most unfortunate for our PR and comms department — I'm probably a really boring kind of CEO. I don't post controversial things and don't do crazy stuff. I'm just trying to build rockets."
SEE ALSO: A little-known U.S. spaceport shoots into the big rocket scene How exactly Mars lost its thick atmosphere remains a mystery to scientists. Credit: NASANot just rockets, though. Rocket Lab built two spacecraft for the upcoming Mars mission, Escapade, short for the Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers. The pair are expected to launch this October.
If successful, the mission could set an example for how NASA and the commercial space industry approach interplanetary missions at a lower cost in the future. From soup to nuts, Escapade had a budget of $80 million, under NASA's Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration (Simplex) program. Rocket Lab built the twin probes in just 3.5 years for $57 million, a bargain basement price relative to the multi-billions the agency would normally spend for a complex mission beyond Earth's orbit.
While legacy NASA contractors usually work under a cost-plus-fixed-fee deal, which means if they have to spend more money, the space agency foots more money, Rocket Lab provided the probes at a fixed price.
The NASA-funded Escapade mission, led by UC Berkeley, will seek to answer questions about how solar wind impacts the Red Planet's atmosphere with twin spacecraft built by Rocket Lab. Credit: Rocket Lab USA / UC Berkeley illustration"Rocket Lab undertook a task that, to be honest, I'm not going to name names, but at least one of those prime contractors said, 'We're not interested in this because if you need to fit everything into a $57 million cost cap, we can't build you two spacecraft for the price you'd be willing to pay us,'" Rob Lillis, the mission's principal investigator based at UC Berkeley, told Mashable. "Actually, two said that."
The Escapade probes, one dubbed Blue and the other Gold in honor of UC Berkeley's school colors, are each about the size of a stacked washer and dryer. They were recently shipped to Cape Canaveral, Florida, where they will be integrated onto a competitor's rocket, Blue Origin's New Glenn. Rocket Lab's own Electron rocket isn't powerful enough to carry the load. Though the company is developing a multi-ton, medium-lift launch vehicle, to be called Neutron, it won't be ready for another year, Beck said.
"I'm just trying to build rockets."The UC Berkeley-based science team would not want to wait that long. Not only would they miss the planetary alignment that shortens the travel time, but they might blow their chance to observe how the sun's peak activity affects Mars' atmosphere. Escapade was already sidelined for a couple of years due to changes NASA made to the mission's original rocket. It was once intended to ride along with the agency's Psyche asteroid mission, before NASA altered that probe's trajectory.
The spacecraft were recently shipped to Cape Canaveral, Florida, where they will be integrated onto a Blue Origin New Glenn rocket. Credit: Rocket LabThe Escapade spacecraft will travel for about 11 months before reaching Mars. Both will adjust their orbits over several months before beginning their primary science mission in April 2026.
Auroras on MarsWhen the sun blasts out radiation, charged particles travel along Earth's invisible magnetic field lines, interacting with the atmosphere. When these particles strike gasses, they heat up and glow. The side effects are colorful light displays known as auroras.
For nearly two decades, scientists have known Mars also has auroras, but these lights aren't isolated to the polar regions of the planet as they are on Earth. Rather, Martian auroras can be found in a hodgepodge of places around the planet and come in at least four varieties: localized discreet auroras, global diffuse auroras, proton auroras on the side facing the sun, and a large wormlike aurora stretching to the nightside of the planet. Some of the auroras sprout from the ground, thought to form around what's left of an ancient magnetic field in the planet's crust.
A graphic from the United Arab Emirates Space Agency shows a green wormlike aurora wrapping from the dayside of the planet to the nightside. Credit: UAE Space Agency / Emirates Mars MissionOther orbiters have studied how solar wind interacts with the Martian atmosphere but have been hamstrung: One spacecraft alone can't measure the real-time consequences of solar storms.
"It only takes one or two minutes for one of these space weather disturbances to propagate through the system and, for example, tear out a whole bunch of atmosphere," Lillis said. "Single spacecraft missions cannot separately measure the cause and the effect."
In addition to their instruments, the probes will be equipped with cameras to take the first global snapshots of Martian auroras. The United Arab Emirates' orbiter Hope has obtained images in ultraviolet light, and NASA's Perseverance rover just detected the first aurora from the planet's surface in March following a particularly strong solar flare. But Blue and Gold could be the first to capture overviews of auroras in visible light — likely glowing in shades of ruby and emerald.
Tweet may have been deletedScientists emphasize this study has practical implications. In order for astronauts to land on Mars and explore one day, they'll need navigation and communication systems that pass signals through the planet's upper atmosphere. The more accurate scientists' models are of Mars' ionosphere, the layer of charged particles surrounding the planet, the better those technologies will work.
For Beck's part, he hopes Rocket Lab's role in the mission will show off the company's engineering prowess for difficult interplanetary assignments and that they can deliver quickly at a competitive price.
"If you can build a spacecraft to go to Mars," he said, "you can build anything you want."
Blink Twice is a thriller so rich with twists and clues you ought to see it twice. Sure, it begins like a dream: A cocktail waitress named Frida (I Wanna Dance With Somebody's Naomi Ackie) gets swept away to the private island of a debonair tech billionaire named Slater King (Channing Tatum). But beyond bountiful brunches and endless streams of champagne and plumes of pot smoke, something sinister slinks in the shadows of this seeming paradise.
If you've seen Blink Twice and found your head spinning, we're here with the medicinal venom to set your mind straight. Let's dig into Zoë Kravitz's sensationally twisted thriller one burning question at a time.
As we delve into Blink Twice's ending, we'll be getting into spoilers. Consider yourself warned.
What does "red rabbit" mean? Frida (Naomie Ackie) chills in a pool in "Blink Twice." Credit: Amazon MGM Studios"Red rabbit" is first spoken by an unnamed maid who spooks Frida while she's getting settled in her guest room. She later runs into the woman again, in a grubby prep area that adjoins the glossy gift bag room. (Perhaps this drastic aesthetic shift is another hint that under the glitz is something grim.)
"Red rabbit!" The older woman says over and over to Frida, leaving the heroine bewildered. But once she takes a sip of the eyelash viper venom offered by this savior of few words, Frida will remember what "red rabbit" refers to: It's the animal (or "an-nail-mals") that adorned her fingernails the year before, when she first came to the island.
Ahead of her meet-cute with Slater at the King-Tech Gala, there are clues she's met him before. Her boss chides her for getting too "chatty" last year, and she defends herself by noting Slater talked to her first! It seems her roommate/co-worker Jess (Alia Shawkat) also knows about this encounter, as she conspires with Frida to help her reconnect with her celebrity crush, bringing the bag with the two glamorous cocktail dresses to change into, ditching their cater-waiter uniforms.
Flashbacks reveal Frida and Slater's interaction was more than a flirtation at a party. She'd been to the island before and forgotten. The abandoned lip gloss she finds in the bathroom drawer is hers; she'd left it there last year, back when her DIY nail art featured 10 little red rabbits, leaping across her fingers.
How did Frida get her scar? Naomi Ackie stars as Frida and Channing Tatum as Slater King in director Zoë Kravitz’s "Blink Twice." Credit: Carlos Somonte / Amazon MGM StudiosFlashbacks reveal that during her first trip to Slater's island, she was knocked down and hit her head on a rock. At that time, one of the men even scoffs, "That'll leave a mark." But Frida will leave one too.
What happened to Vic's finger?Rewatching Blink Twice you might notice that Vic (Christian Slater), Slater's "right and left-hand man," doesn't like Frida. He antagonizes her with pointed remarks over cocktails. When she says she has a good memory, he raises an eyebrow and insists she looks familiar, asking if they've met before.
He takes this risky joke at her expense a step further when Slater's therapist Dr. Rich (Kyle MacLachlan) comes to visit. He asks if the two have met, and Frida chirps they had, at the gala. Rich looks surprised, not because he doesn't remember her but because the assaults against her are ongoing; he witnessed one himself the previous night. Rich is stunned that the perfume means Frida remembers nothing of the trauma she's endured on the island.
Vic uses this exchange to prove the power of the perfume, but he also relishes the power it gives him over Frida. She doesn't remember what's come before, but she can't keep her eyes off the nub of his amputated pinky finger. He catches her staring in the sauna, and stares back hard. Flashbacks explain his animosity and her connection to that missing digit. In the climactic showdown, Vic lies bleeding and likely paralyzed from Heather's vengeance, and Slater reveals to Frida it was she who bit off Vic's finger last year during her "vacation" here. She may have forgot, but Vic sure as hell didn't.
What happened to Jess? Naomi Ackie stars as Frida and Alia Shawkat as Jess in director Zoë Kravitz’s "Blink Twice." Credit: Amazon MGM StudiosThe first to die in this mind-bending thriller, Jess got wise to Slater's scheme after being bit by the indigenous viper, as we see in a flashback.
Frida realizes the perfume Slater gave her — and all the female guests — is not only from a flower native to the island, it's also a memory-erasing drug. Essentially, l'eau du roofie! But in the gift bag hut, the maid gives Frida the venom of the eyelash viper, which serves as an antidote to the forgetfulness that's caused by breathing in the perfume.
Jess's death, however, implies the venom isn't just a quick fix. Once you remember, you remember for good. Otherwise, Slater and his bros could have doped her again. Instead, in a flashback, Frida remembers him noting Jess's bite, then fatally breaking her neck.
"Forgetting is a gift." Naomi Ackie stars as Frida and Adria Arjona as Sarah in director Zoë Kravitz’s "Blink Twice." Credit: Amazon MGM StudiosFrida says this to Slater early on in their (second) island courtship. But as others repeat the phrase — like his assistant Stacy — it's hinted this is a Slater catchphrase that some part of Frida remembers. Another element that slips past the perfume potion is the lizard. Blink Twice's opening shot is a bright green lizard on a rock, which stares at the camera lens while distorted sounds roar in the background. Then, the film cuts to a cute little green lizard painted as nail art being posted to Frida's Instagram grid. This shows some part of her remembers her first trip to the island.
Talking with Slater, Frida notes she wishes she could forget the trauma of her past, and Slater smiles, adding he has forgotten "everything before I was 10."
In the climax, the tech billionaire brings up his sister, saying she's miserable and she can't understand why he can play tennis with "that man" after what he did to the siblings. Implied is that their father abused them horrendously, but Slater thinks that because he doesn't remember anything, the abuse doesn't affect him. However, this flimsy rationalization is what he uses to abuse others. If forgetting allows them to be happy, what's the harm of hurting them if you make them forget? Frida shows him the harm.
Why did Slater stop his rampage? Credit: Amazon MGM StudiosIn the film's climax, Frida looks on, seemingly helpless, as Slater holds a knife to the neck of Sarah (Adria Arjona). Once rivals for his attention, the two women trauma-bonded over the horrors of this island. Frida begs for Sarah's life — but she's stalling. While Slater wrestles Sarah to the ground, Frida gets her hands free, thanks to quick thinking and broken glass, then pours Slater's proprietary potion of forgetfulness into his trusty vape. So, after taking a few hits while threatening Sarah, he forgets his scheme, the knife, and why there's a pile of bodies around him. Shocked, he slips and falls. In a bit of symmetry, he cracks his head on a stone table, and earns a forehead scar of his own, just like Frida.
"Success is the best revenge." Naomi Ackie stars as Frida in director Zoë Kravitz’s "Blink Twice." Credit: Amazon MGM StudiosWhile primping for the gala at the beginning of the movie, Frida shares this adage with Jess, crediting it to her long-lost mother. The film's final sequence sees this line pay off big, at the next annual King-Tech gala.
This time, Frida isn't serving drinks; she's serving as CEO of the company as Mrs. Frida King. Slater — with his forehead scar and his trusty vape filled with forgetting potion — is less her partner and more her pleasant puppet. She can even goad him into giving up his vegetarianism for a thick steak now. His plans to spread the perfume seem to have been squashed, as she has security lead the nefarious Dr. Rich away from her husband. Then, Frida accepts the praise of the dinner party, who raise their glasses to her. All the while, the funky song Frida listened to on her headphones on her way to work the last gala plays over the events. It is, quite fittingly, James Brown's "The Payback."
Could there be a Blink Twice sequel? Channing Tatum, Naomi Ackie, director Zoë Kravitz, and actor Levon Hawke on the set of their film "Blink Twice." Credit: Carlos Somonte / Amazon MGM StudiosWhile the story feels pretty self-contained, there's a curious thread left dangling. What of Slater's sister? The way Slater talks about her — even avoiding the use of her name — suggests they are estranged. But could the news of him turning over a new leaf and getting a new wife bring her back into his life? What would that mean for Frida? Could exposure to his sister resurface dark memories from his past? Could this sister come to question his reliance on his vape and throw Frida's safety into question?
Or, consider the bigger picture. Sarah and Frida know the truth of the island, and they have some idea of how its dastardly perfume has reached out to the wider world through gifts to vile men. Will they seek to bring the others down? Or perhaps vice versa? When memory isn't guaranteed and money is no object, Blink Twice 2 could go even wilder.
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