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Little America’s Second Season Offers a Much-Needed Dose of Optimism: Review

The Pitch: It’s often very difficult to feel optimistic about the general state of things in this country. For people who have grown up and lived through crisis after crisis, the many who were thrust into unsteady job markets and a Sisyphean uphill battle of debt and financial instability, the elusive American Dream sounds like just that — a dream. For the particularly vulnerable, like people of color and members of the LGBTQ+ community who face a rapid increase in life-threatening rhetoric, there’s an intersectionality to the frustration and fear that can accompany everyday life in the US. While film and television aren’t an immediate salve for wide-reaching systemic issues, stories do matter, as does representation. Little America, the Apple TV+ anthology series developed by Le...

5 Times Michael Bublé Reached ‘Higher’ as He Brought His ‘Higher’ Tour to L.A.

Michael Bublé engaged in a little market research on Friday (Sept. 23) as he brought his “Higher” tour to Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. He asked how many people were seeing him in concert for the first time. When a large percentage of the audience signaled that they were, in fact, first-timers, Bublé joked about what their preconceptions of him must be — the Christmas guy who would sing a set of ballads and polite toe-tappers like “Haven’t Met You Yet.” His show shattered those preconceptions. It’s a big, wildly varied show, and Bublé is a master showman. The term “Great American Songbook” long ago came to refer to a specific strain of American music — the timeless songs that were written by the likes of Cole Porter and Irving Berlin from the 1930s to the ’50s. Bublé sang...

Review: Bots abound in NFT castle-building game League of Kingdoms

With the development of gaming platforms, virtual items have also become a popular method of monetization, but most games store data on private servers, giving gamers a reason to doubt their reliability and transferability. Developers can change the game policy at any time to maximize their profits. They are not obliged to consult users or take responsibility for the harm caused to the game ecosystem. This problem can be solved by blockchain technology which makes it possible to own and transfer virtual assets to anyone through nonfungible tokens (NFT). In a world where gamers spend a lot of time and money developing their characters and seeking out unique items, games that allow them to earn and influence the game’s development are very attractive. One of the most popular genres of games ...

One Nation Under a Stylus

Vinyl Nation, a new documentary from directors Kevin Smokler and Christopher Boone, is, as the title may suggest, as much a chronicle about a growing community than it is about the medium of vinyl records. To be clear, the history of vinyl pressing, from its early market dominance to its later decline due to the advent of the compact disc, to its glorious return over the past decade — nearly 42 million records were sold in 2021(outselling CDs for the first time since 1986!) — is thoroughly covered (occasionally bordering on repetitive) by the filmmakers. The focus, however, is more on the collectors. The film opens outside the Mills Record Company in Kansas City. It’s Record Store Day, an annual celebration of independent record stores across the country, and a long line of collectors, obs...

What is Etherscan, and how does it work?

Etherscan is the most trusted tool for navigating through all the public data on the Ethereum blockchain and is sometimes called “Ethplorer.” This data includes transaction data, wallet addresses, smart contracts and much more. The application is self-contained and is neither sponsored nor administered by the Ethereum Foundation, which is a non-profit organization. The team behind Etherscan includes seasoned developers and industry professionals, who developed the Etherscan app to make the Ethereum blockchain more accessible to everyday users. Although Etherscan is a centralized platform, the app does make it easier for people to search through the Ethereum blockchain. Is Etherscan a wallet? Etherscan is not an Ethereum wallet, nor is it a wallet service provider. Users don’t receive an Et...

Cookies Connects With G Pen For The Stylish G Pen Micro+ Vaporizer [Review]

HipHopWired Featured Video Source: G Pen / G Pen Cannabis consumption has changed dramatically over the years and most especially in the 21st Century with vaporizers, concentrates, tinctures, and other delivery methods inspiring innovative minds to create new lanes. Berner, one of the leaders within the cannabis industry space, continues his collaborative efforts via his Cookies line and G Pen, introducing the brand-new and supremely stylish G Pen Micro+ vaporizer. G Pen, which has been an industry leader for years by way of its vast array of portable vaporizer devices, and has recently partnered with the likes of rapper B-Real, teamed up again with Berner, who runs the expansive Cookies empire that has transformed cannabis culture along with bringing some of the highest quality product to...

Every Song Ranked on Billie Eilish’s ‘Happier Than Ever’: Critic’s List

Below, Billboard ranks every track on Billie Eilish’s sophomore album. 16. “Not My Responsibility” This spoken-word track finds Eilish calmly cataloguing all the ways the public picks her apart, from her body to her clothes to her brazen personality, ultimately concluding that those opinions aren’t her responsibility. It’s a strong message, albeit a little belabored. 15. “OverHeated” “Overheated” serves as the followup to “Not My Responsibility,” with Eilish writing for Spotify that she took the latter’s production and constructed a beat around it to create the former. This song touches on similar themes as its counterpart, namely Eilish wondering about the ridiculous public upset over her body. “And everybody said it was a let down I was only built like everybody e...

Sonic Frequencies from “The Black Album” Make Metallica’s Latest Blackened Whiskey the Perfect Sipper: Review

Metallica have unveiled The Black Album Whiskey Pack, the latest release in their Blackened American Whiskey line. The 12 songs from the classic 1991 album were used for the “Black Noise” sonic-enhancement process, literally pummeling the casks with sonic frequencies to extract flavors from the wood. The new pack includes a bottle of Batch 114 Blackened whiskey — finished to the low hertz frequencies of “The Black Album” — a collectible coin, and a Snakebite cocktail booklet. It’s a dream gift for Metallica fans and at a very modest SRP of $49.99, considering this is high-grade craft whiskey. I was fortunate enough to have been gifted a pack for this article. Knowing that I certainly couldn’t polish off the whole bottle alone — or shouldn’t, at least — I decided to bust out ...

Pentagon: US team going to Haiti to assess needs

A team of U.S. security and law enforcement experts is traveling to Haiti to determine what assistance Washington can provide following the assassination of the Haitian president last week, the Pentagon said on Sunday. “Today, an inter-agency team largely from the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI are heading down to Haiti right now to see what we can to do help in the investigative process,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told “Fox News Sunday.” “That’s really where our energies are best applied right now – in helping them get their arms around investigating this incident and figuring out who’s culpable … and how best to hold them accountable,” Kirby said in the interview. President Joe Biden will be briefed by the team when it returns and “then make decisions about the way forwa...

South Africa extends tight coronavirus restrictions for another 14 days

South Africa extended tight COVID-19 rules on Sunday for another 14 days, maintaining restrictions that include a ban on gatherings, a curfew from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m. and a prohibition on the sale of alcohol. The country, the worst-hit on the African continent in terms of recorded cases and deaths, is in the grip of a third wave of infections driven by the more infectious Delta coronavirus variant. “Our health system countrywide remains under pressure,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a televised address to the nation. Early this month South Africa recorded a new record of over 26,000 daily cases, stretching hospitals to breaking point. Ramaphosa moved the country to the fourth level of a five-tier restriction scale in late June as infections climbed, promising to review the restrictions af...

Nigerians urged to reject PIB for failing to address key issues

Socially relevant and need-meeting organisations in partnership with civil society movements have called on Nigerians to massively reject the long-expected PIB as it has failed to address fundamental issues. Rather the organisations said that the outcome of PIB was mischievous and would compound the problems of the communities, just as it would create another avenue to make the rich even richer while the suffering communities continue to languish in difficulty and poverty. The coalition group said the PIB “failed to properly address the lingering issues of the oil and gas host communities” submitting that the recent position on critical issues is a far cry from the yearnings of oil and gas host communities. “The current version of the Petroleum Industry Bill failed to address community, ec...

CSOs: No to manual transmission of election results

No fewer than 42 civil society organisations have rejected the Electoral Amendment Bill (2021) being proposed by the National Assembly. The CSOs in a statement on Sunday said the manual transmission of election results would be used to manipulate the outcome of polls. Some of the CSOs are Center for Liberty, The Electoral Hub, Yiaga Africa, Raising New Voices, Ready To Lead Africa and Speak Out Africa Initiative, Centre for Development Alternatives Research and Studies, Aspilos Foundation, Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre and South-South Professional Women Association. “As everyone may be aware, the National Assembly will pass the Electoral Amendment Bill (2021) this week. Barring any last-minute changes, the bill is expected to be passed by both chambers on Thursday. “Som...