Some music videos are just made to be transformed into GIFs.
Take Lizzo’s latest single, “Juice,” a raw neon throwback to the greatest exercise videos of the ’80s (Jane Fonda, anyone?).
It’s been over three years since Lizzo released an LP. Thank you, Lizzo, for kicking off 2019 in the most fluorescent way possible.
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Aquaman slid past Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice on Saturday to become the highest-grossing DC Extended Universe film internationally.
Dawn of Justice made $863 million at the global box office – Aquaman is already at $887 million, after just two weeks in theaters.
SEE ALSO: ‘Aquaman’ is a weird, wild party that overstays its welcome
Though reviews weren’t universally positive, many were average (the film has 64 percent on Rotten Tomatoes) and audience response has been favorable. What sets Aquaman apart from other DCEU fare is that it’s fun. This movie gets ridiculous and sometimes down right weird, but it’s colorful and powerful and just a good time at the movies.
Maybe the lesson here is for DC to take more big swings and let its movies be weird, rather than emulate its grimdark predecessor (Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy) and subsequent Superman or even Wonder Woman films.
Aquaman is now in theaters.
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USC isn’t keen on letting Kliff Kingsbury interview with NFL teams as a potential head coach one month after the school hired him to be its offensive coordinator.
Per ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter, USC has denied the Arizona Cardinals and New York Jets’ requests to interview Kingsbury for their coaching vacancies.
This article will be updated to provide more information on this story as it becomes available.
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The CDC only has enough money to study a finite number of conditions, putting disease advocacy groups in competition with each other. | Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
Changing the definition could unlock more money for cures.
Mental health advocates are lobbying Congress to help them get schizophrenia classified as a brain disease like Parkinson’s or Alzheimers, instead of as a mental illness, a move that could reduce stigma and lead to more dollars for a cure.
Federal health officials, scientists and doctors say conditions that cause psychosis, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, are poorly understood and, in the public mind, often associated with violent behavior. Patients are more likely to be homeless, incarcerated, commit suicide and die younger than those with any other neurological diseases.
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“Look at the disconnect in the way these patients are treated. It’s unconscionable,” said Raymond Cho, professor of psychiatry research at Baylor College of Medicine and chairman of the Schizophrenia and Related Disorders Alliance of America.
His group is among those focusing on appropriators in Congress — particularly those who have championed mental health in the past — to include schizophrenia in a new CDC program that aims to collect data on the prevalence and risk factors of neurological conditions in the U.S. population. The findings could eventually be used to push the World Health Organization to reclassify the disorder — a complicated process that may take years.
The problem is the CDC only has enough money to study a finite number of conditions, putting disease advocacy groups in competition with each other.
The schizophrenia patient advocates’ efforts are just beginning, and to date, no lawmakers have clearly adopted the cause as their own. The Trump administration hasn’t taken a position at this point, although the chief mental health official Elinore McCance-Katz acknowledged there’s data supporting a neurological underpinning to the condition.
John Snook, executive director of the Treatment Advocacy Center, a nonprofit that aims to eliminate barriers to treating mental illness, said the CDC has long ignored some less understood conditions despite alarming mortality rates. The death rate among people with schizophrenia is four times higher than the general population, according to one study.
“To not have the CDC engaged in this sort of outsized burden is very much a signal to other researchers and people in the pharmaceutical industry and to everyone that we aren’t taking mental illness as serious as other illnesses,” he said.
Part of the attitude may stem from the fact the cause of schizophrenia is unknown. Genetics, environment and an imbalance in brain chemistry all contribute to the risk of developing the condition, which may afflict upward of 2 million Americans, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. It’s long been considered a severe mental illness because people with it experience episodes of psychosis involving delusions and hallucinations — often beginning in early adulthood. Treatments typically focus on minimizing symptoms.
Groups pushing for reclassification hope to do the same for other conditions like bipolar disorder, which can also involve psychosis, but are starting with schizophrenia because of its dire consequences. The NIMH ranks the condition among the top 15 causes of disability worldwide and estimates serious mental conditions like it can reduce the average lifespan by 28 years.
“The science is clear, it’s a neurological condition,” said Snook. “If schizophrenia was a disease that we just discovered today there would be no question that’s how we would classify it.”
“It’s a brutal disease,” added Linda Stalters, executive director of the schizophrenia alliance. “We are still treating people like they did in the medieval times.”
But discussions of the disease and its telltale symptoms are often confined to the aftermath of mass shootings, when the focus typically turns to the shooter’s mental health.
Cho’s group, along with the Treatment Advocacy Center and the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said reclassification as a neurological condition would potentially unlock more research funding. The agencies that make up the National Institutes of Health were on pace to spend $1.9 billion on Alzheimer’s research alone in 2018, more than the entire $1.2 billion budget for the National Institute for Mental Health.
Heightened awareness could also increase access to treatments that aren’t always fully covered by insurance. Mental health services aren’t always covered at the same level as other medical conditions, despite federal parity laws.
Arman Fesharaki-Zadeh, an instructor of psychiatry and neurology at Yale School of Medicine, said separating people with schizophrenia and other serious mental illnesses from other brain diseases is an outdated approach that he described as “insane.”
“They’ve been shunned away from society,” he said. “I don’t believe in the separation of this diagnosis at all.”
But some in the mental health community aren’t sure that reclassifying the condition will transform attitudes.
“I’m skeptical that officially classifying it is going to change how the general population thinks about it,” said Joe Parks, medical director at National Council for Behavioral Health.
“I think it’s more like a Hail Mary,” said Paul Gionfriddo, president and CEO of Mental Health America. “I’m not sure that this could catch on just yet. There’s not the kind of science yet behind this that would generally have people think about it the same way” as Alzheimer’s and other common brain diseases.
But the groups lobbying for reclassification said that’s exactly why they want schizophrenia included in the CDC surveillance: to convince researchers and the public the condition is biologically based with probable causes.
Schizophrenia research “would probably glean more funding once we have actual numbers showing there are more people suffering from this than we currently know,” Stalters said. “There would be more of an emphasis on discoveries and treatment.”
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As much as we’d all like to leave 2018 firmly in the past where it belongs, Apple can’t seem to shake one pesky problem from the prior year: bendgate.
The company has delivered yet another explanation for the slight bend some users have noted in the latest generation of iPad Pro. The trouble started in November, shortly after the tablet launched, when a video of someone easily folding a Pro in half went viral.
SEE ALSO: Apple’s 2018 transparency report shows a rise in government requests for data
Apple addressed the situation in mid-December, noting that the warping people had noticed was a product of the device’s manufacturing process — but it’s not a defect. A few days after that, an Apple exec responded to a customer support request with a more involved explanation.
The same email noted that a more official, public response would be coming. It never surfaced, not even after Mashable reached out for comment, but it’s important to note that all of this unfolded just a couple days before Christmas.
Now, just a few days into the new year, Apple’s most detailed explanation yet is available, in the form of a support doc posted on the company’s website.
The issue, according to Apple, relates specifically to LTE-capable models of iPad Pro. The process of building cellular bands into each unit is what leaves them prone to a slight bending. Though the doc also notes that Apple’s “flatness specification,” which dictates how much of a bend is acceptable, is smaller than it’s ever been.
To provide optimal cellular performance, small vertical bands or “splits” in the sides of the iPad allow parts of the enclosure to function as cellular antennas. For the first time ever on an iPad, these bands are manufactured using a process called co-molding. In this high-temperature process, plastic is injected into precisely milled channels in the aluminum enclosure where it bonds to micro-pores in the aluminum surface. After the plastic cools, the entire enclosure is finished with a precision CNC machining operation, yielding a seamless integration of plastic and aluminum into a single, strong enclosure.
These precision manufacturing techniques and a rigorous inspection process ensure that these new iPad Pro models meet an even tighter specification for flatness than previous generations. This flatness specification allows for no more than 400 microns of deviation across the length of any side — less than the thickness of four sheets of paper. The new straight edges and the presence of the antenna splits may make subtle deviations in flatness more visible only from certain viewing angles that are imperceptible during normal use. These small variances do not affect the strength of the enclosure or the function of the product and will not change over time through normal use.
There’s a bit of a mental leap required here: the flatness specification may be smaller than ever before, but iPad flatness hasn’t ever really been an issue until now.
The support doc ends with Apple reiterating its standard 14-day return policy for products purchased directly from the company. In other words: this is still a non-issue in Apple’s eyes.
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Kevin Hart probably expected his interview with Ellen DeGeneres, one of the most beloved lesbians in America, to clear him of any wrongdoing.
Instead, Hart sparked even further outrage, claiming that he had already apologized to the LGBTQ community — when no real apology could be found. Ellen was quick to accept Hart’s claim.
Twitter and CNN host Don Lemon was not.
SEE ALSO: Kevin Hart released a truly awful statement about his homophobic tweets
On his show Friday, Lemon carefully broke down why Hart’s “apology” wasn’t good enough for him. Hart had previously agreed to stop posting offensive content, but only because crowds had grown more sensitive.
“Apologizing and moving on does not make the world a better place for people who are gay or people who are transgender, being an ally does,” Lemon said.
Hart may have intended his anti-LGBT jokes to be simply humorous. For those who’ve been victimized because of their gender or sexuality, Lemon went onto argue, none of it is funny:
Twitter largely echoed Lemon’s thoughts:
It is remarkable to see Kevin Hart do a media blitz to drive the false narrative that he is a victim in a controversy of his own creation. It’s also quite curious to see he’s only talking to white people about it. https://t.co/VZuudg6GqP
— Michael Arceneaux (@youngsinick) January 5, 2019
Literally tearing up watching @donlemon’s thoughtful, piercing essay on @KevinHart4real, homophobia within the black community, and why it’s not @TheEllenShow’s place to act as the forgiver here. Really, find it and watch. (Or send me link and I’ll thread here)
— Clara Jeffery (@ClaraJeffery) January 5, 2019
This morning I would encourage everyone to remember that Kevin Hart’s jokes aren’t of the garden variety mockery of gay men (limp wrists, effeminate voices etc), but promotion of violence against LGBTQ youth and HIV stigma. Don’t ask why it upsets us, ask why it doesn’t upset you
— Phillip Henry (@MajorPhilebrity) January 5, 2019
This is so powerful and so moving. Thank you @donlemon.
Especially in the black community, homophobia is not a joke. It has life or death consequences for black children and transgender people. https://t.co/2oES1MR67e
— Karen Attiah (@KarenAttiah) January 5, 2019
As a Black queer someone who, when my body began to manifest aspects of my identity even I was unaware of was punched in the chest by Black men in my family and told to “man up,” Ellen can’t and doesn’t speak for me. #KevinHart https://t.co/biFbhtGTdm
— Tre’vell Anderson (@TrevellAnderson) January 4, 2019
In short, being human allows Kevin Hart to make mistakes, grow and seek forgiveness for his past. Perhaps he has grown, but I absolutely refuse to be gaslit into him being some martyr for refusing to simply say “I’m sorry. I was wrong. It was wrong. Won’t happen again.”
— Phillip Henry (@MajorPhilebrity) January 5, 2019
It’s now rumored that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences may re-consider Hart as the 2019 Oscar host after his interview with Ellen on Friday.
The drama — and people’s real pain — will continue.
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Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott reportedly wants a contract extension during the upcoming offseason.
According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Elliott’s desire for an extension directly relates to the heavy workload he has carried during his first three seasons in the NFL:
Ian Rapoport @RapSheet
From @gmfb Weekend: #Cowboys RB Ezekiel Elliott would like his contract extension to come this season, which makes sense given his workload. Add him to the long list. https://t.co/bUDTx0LmoG
Elliott and the Cowboys will host the Seattle Seahawks in a wild-card playoff game Saturday night.
Since entering the league in 2016, Elliott has been the truest definition of a workhorse.
He led the NFL in both carries and rushing yards as a rookie with 322 totes for 1,631 yards, and he repeated that feat this season with 304 carries for 1,434 yards.
Elliott also became a huge part of the passing game in 2018 with a team-high 77 grabs for 567 yards, which inflated his value even more.
Although Elliott missed six games because of suspension in 2017, he still finished with 242 carries and almost certainly would have been over 300 if not for the suspension.
He still has one year remaining on his contract, plus a possible fifth-year option in 2020. However, the shelf life for running backs is short—Frank Gore notwithstanding—and with the number of times Elliott touches the ball, his injury risk is heightened.
Rapoport noted the Cowboys have to make contract decisions on several other players in the near future, including quarterback Dak Prescott, wide receiver Amari Cooper, defensive end Demarcus Lawrence and defensive back Byron Jones.
Of course, Dallas will want to avoid what the Steelers experienced with Le’Veon Bell this season if at all possible.
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US President Donald Trump’s comments mocking New Delhi’s role in Afghanistan have drawn widespread ridicule and anger both in India and Afghanistan.
On Wednesday, Trump said he got along very well with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but the Indian leader was “constantly telling me he built a library in Afghanistan”.
“That’s like five hours of what we spend… And we are supposed to say, ‘oh, thank you for the library’. I don’t know who is using it in Afghanistan,” Trump said.
He also said Russia, Pakistan and India should be intervening in Afghanistan, not the US. “Why are we there, 6,000 miles away?” he asked.
India has been Afghanistan’s close ally and has committed $3bn to various development projects in the country, as well as financing its new parliament building.
New Delhi trains Afghan military officers in India but has refrained from sending its own soldiers to the war-torn country. India has repeatedly said it backs an “Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process”.
India’s strategic partnership agreement signed with Kabul in 2011 saw it donating light helicopters and vehicles, providing military training, building roads and financing a $300m hydroelectric dam project.
The country offers 1,000 scholarships each year to Afghan students, as well as specialised treatment of critically ill Afghans in Indian hospitals.
There is also a soft power side to India’s Afghan strategy; it offers Kabul the use of two of its stadiums to host cricket matches with other countries and has announced plans to build sporting facilities around Afghanistan.
Trump certainly views foreign policy through a commercial lens.
Analyst Michael Kugelman, Wilson Center
New Delhi’s engagement in Afghanistan is “characteristically different from that of any other country,” says Happymon Jacob, professor at the School of International Studies at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University.
“India is not driven by commercial or short-term strategic gains. Projects such as major road construction activities, construction of the Salma Dam and the new parliament building or investments in women’s education are aimed at achieving long-term peace and stability in the war-torn nation.
“The objective has been to cater to the needs of the Afghan people and earn their goodwill and India has achieved these aims,” Jacob tells Al Jazeera.
During a conference in Geneva in November last year, the Afghanistan government said India is supporting “116 new ‘High Impact Community Development Projects’ in 31 provinces of Afghanistan”.
Trump’s comments riled up politicians and observers in both India and Afghanistan.
An unnamed Indian government spokesman told AFP news agency that New Delhi would like to highlight the “critical role that developmental assistance can play in transforming human lives”.
Dear Mr. Trump,
Stop mocking India’s PM
India dosn’t need sermons from the U.S on Afghanistan
Under Dr Manmohan Singh, India helped build Afghan National Assembly
Humanitarian needs to strategic economic partnership, we are one with our Afghani brothers & sisters pic.twitter.com/DlK9BM9XsZ
— Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) January 3, 2019
Michael Kugelman at the Wilson Center in Washington told Al Jazeera that “Trump’s mocking comments about New Delhi are tone-deaf at best and deeply insulting to a key US partner at worst”.
However, India was not the only country on Trump’s radar. He also went on a tirade against allies for not spending enough on overseas engagements while the US, he claimed, spends billions.
Analysts say Trump tries to make commercial sense of “strategic investments” and is trying to downplay the soft power of foreign policy.
“Trump certainly views foreign policy through a commercial lens. Foreign affairs, for him, are more about deals and dollars than about careful diplomacy,” Kugelman tells Al Jazeera.
“The problem with Trump’s tactic is that the very nations he tends to accuse of punching below their weight are in fact doing much more than he gives them credit for,” he said.
“India is no free rider in Afghanistan; it’s a top financial supporter, even in an era of donor fatigue.”
Many Afghan citizens also ridiculed Trump’s comments, saying “India is fighting terrorism in Afghanistan by eliminating poverty and providing education to its youth”.
“US is thinking about their interests when they sent troops to our country and fought for the past 17 years,” Asad Khoramj, a Kabul resident told Al Jazeera.
“But India has started many welfare projects here out of goodwill. These development projects are very important for our country in the long run.”
On Friday, during his trip to India, Afghan National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib made comments appreciative of India’s role in the reconstruction of the war-ravaged country during his talks with his Indian counterpart, Ajit Doval.
Held productive meetings in India with my counterpart NSA Ajit Doval and other security officials on regional stability, the democratic progress and ongoing peace efforts in Afghanistan, and bilateral security cooperation. pic.twitter.com/KfuDi47GIo
— Hamdullah Mohib (@hmohib) January 4, 2019
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s adviser, Ziaulhaq Amarkhil, said Afghans see the positive contribution of India towards the country with “more respect and honour”.
“There is no doubt that every player has its own stakes in Afghanistan. But we have to see these stakes in different perspectives,” he said.
“India is contributing in developmental projects like health, roads and education. These projects give more benefits and provide material basis to have peace and stability in the long run.”
The Indian embassy in Kabul claims India is the biggest South Asian donor to Afghanistan, spending around $2bn on reconstruction and rehabilitation.
Analysts point out Trump may not be on the same page with the US administration on India’s role in Afghanistan.
“Even the American establishment understands the importance of investing in civilian infrastructure and primary education. So, I do not think Trump’s views reflect those of the American foreign policy even as the US has been pushing New Delhi to be militarily involved in Afghanistan,” said national security analyst Jacob in New Delhi.
But this is not the first time Trump has mocked the Indian prime minister. Earlier last year he rebuffed Modi’s import tariff cuts on Harley Davidson bikes.
The Washington Post previously reported senior White House officials saying Trump mimics Modi’s accent.
The Indian Foreign Ministry is yet to officially react to Trump’s latest comments, although most media outlets have published unnamed government sources criticising the US leader.
But analyst Kugelman says India would need to shrug off incidents like these “in service of a partnership that both Washington and Delhi are keen to deepen”.
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Even the most casual, airport sushi-eating consumer will tell you that raw tuna is one of the best fish you’ll ever eat. (Step aside, salmon-lovers).
So you can almost understand why Kiyoshi Kimura, owner of the Japanese restaurant chain Sushizanmai, recently decided to purchase a 613-pound, $3.1 million bluefin tuna for his restaurant.
Almost.
SEE ALSO: This talking fish has Amazon Alexa inside
Kimura purchased the fish at an auction at Tokyo’s newest fish market. In 2015, Kimura purchased a fish approximately half its weight and at half the price.
Still, Kimura seemed to experience some mild regret.
“The tuna looks so tasty and very fresh, but I think I did too much,” Kimura later told reporters. “I expected it would be between 30 million and 50 million yen, or 60 million yen at the highest, but it ended up five times more.”
She’s beautiful
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The decrease in supply of the fish appears to have caused the spike in price. Bluefin tuna is severely overfished and is listed as a vulnerable fish by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
That sounds terrible. Now please … someone get me a cut of that fish.
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By Chloe BryanThis is One Good Thing, a weekly column where we tell you about one of the few nice things that happened this week.
Sometimes a video comes around that has it all: a cute dog, a Southern accent, and a primal scream.
Today, we’d like to thank Rose the dog, whose affinity for mud was one of the best things online this week. Rose doesn’t just like mud, either: Rose loves mud. She loves putting her nose in it, she loves lying down in it like it’s a bathtub, and — crucially — she loves to run into a carpeted area with mud all over her paws and lower body.
The internet was blessed with Rose’s presence on Sunday, when Rose’s owner’s niece Sarah-Ashley tweeted a clip of the dog’s muddy exploits.
SEE ALSO: Watch some adorable dogs lose it over a magic trick
Spoiler: Rose ends up darting into the house. This is bad news for the carpeting but good news for us, since it leads to the greatest asset a viral video can have: a loud, cut-off shriek.
So be this Rose this year: Roll in some mud and mess up some carpets. Or, if you care about the resale value of your home, take a more spiritual cue from our hero. Don’t be afraid to get messy.
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