It’s one thing to get a negative review. It’s another thing entirely for the work to be deemed completely useless and a waste of space on the internet. When you’re as famous and successful as Tyga, who released $TARFACE in July 2026, a critic’s review might not mean much of anything. But a 0.0 out of 10 definitely still has to sting.
In a review from Pitchfork, they gave the “Rack City” rapper a plain zero. The last time they gave a rating like that was almost 20 years ago for Jet’s Shine On in 2006. But while they thought the rock band’s album was a catastrophic creative flop, Tyga’s album was deemed lazy and pointless beyond its use of AI.
But influence is a form of personal expression,” journalist Drew Millard wrote of Tyga. “And it often elicits a feeling of connection in the listener, whether the reference is identifiable or subliminal. Not so with $TARFACE, an album that confuses loving music with prompt engineering.”
To conclude the review, Millard warned that even morbid curiosity is harmful. The album itself is too boring to care about, but streaming it just to confirm only fuels further slop releases in the future.
Tyga Receives a Brutal 0/10 In Pitchfork’s Latest Review
“$TARFACE is smug and complacent, an amalgam of 80s synth-pop and disco slapped together by someone who’s seemingly never cared to listen to one synth-pop or disco record in his life. Stream it out of morbid curiosity if you must,” Millard continued. “But know that even a single listen runs the risk of making it profitable and therefore encouraging the music industry to commit such atrocities again.
At the very least, Tyga admitted to using AI in creating $TARFACE. The Compton MC toldVIBE that it played a pretty significant role in the album. However, he parroted the same argument that every pro-AI artist uses to defend the technology: it’s just a tool.
“It’s supposed to give you an experience and a feeling. But we definitely used AI as a [tool],” Tyga told the outlet. “And I know people are going to be mad about me saying this, but it’s where technology is going. It’s no different than when Auto-Tune came out. Some people were opposed to it, but real artists took it and used it. But as far as the writing, all the vocals are all me. There’s nothing wrong with using technology as a tool.”
Photo by Jerritt Clark/Getty Images for Neon Carnival
Jason Sudeikis IS Ted Lasso. And that show’s theme song, penned by Marcus Mumford of Mumford & Sons, is crucial to the viewing experience.
All of this is why New York City fans got a huge surprise when the band played Madison Square Garden on August 11, 2026. During the set, Marcus brought Sudeikis out on stage to perform the hit tune. It was clearly a magical moment for everyone involved, especially the crowd. Watch a clip below.
| jason sudeikis and marcus mumford singing ted lasso's opening theme at msg tonight! pic.twitter.com/F421bdELuR
Marcus Mumford and Sudeikis go way back. The pair met when Mumford and Sons was performing on Saturday Night Live. Sudeikis was a cast member at the time. Later, the band invited him to be part of the music video for their 2013 single, “Hopeless Wanderer”.
Eventually, Sudeikis got around to asking Marcus to do the theme for Ted Lasso. But, as the musician explained it, he almost missed out. “He loves leaving a long message, that one,” Marcus recalled to USA Today. “But he left me a very long message on my U.S. phone, which I don’t keep on when I’m in the U.K.”
“So I actually missed it,” he continued, “and it had been in my phone for a couple of months, and he thought I was just ghosting him. So when I finally picked it up, I called him and was like, “So sorry, man, but I’d love to talk more about your TV show.” And then I eventually went to set while they were filming in the U.K. before I started the music, and that’s how the story went.”
Marcus Mumford actually liked being able to write the ‘Ted Lasso’ theme with minimal lyrics
Marcus later offered some perspective on the challenges of crafting a TV series theme song. “Obviously there’s no lyrics, but that was actually quite freeing to me,” he confessed, “after having just finished the Delta (album) tour.”
“I really enjoyed being able to try my hand at different instruments to build emotional moments and comic ones,” the Mumford and Sons founder added. “I’d never written music for comedy before, which was a challenge but pretty interesting as well. I like that it broadened my palette as a musician.”
Finally, Marcus added, “The scoring of it was (done during) lockdown, so halfway through the process I lost my engineer and had to learn how to do all that recording myself, which is a skill I should have learned long ago.”
Ted Lasso Season 4 is now streaming on Apple TV+, with new episodes uploaded weekly.
Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker developed a crippling fear of flying after he was involved in a plane crash in September 2008. He’d flown to South Carolina from L.A. to perform with DJ AM, aka Adam Goldstein. But according to Barker, as he was leaving his house, his three-year-old daughter Alabama could not be consoled.
“She’s like, ‘Dad, don’t go!’ She’s bawling, and she doesn’t usually do that,” Barker said during an August 2026 appearance on Jay Shetty’s podcast On Purpose. “She’s like, ‘The roof’s gonna come off, the roof’s gonna come off!’ and I’m like, ‘What is she talking about?’ To the point where I went back in the house and I was like, ‘What’s going on, baby?'”
Even at three years old, Alabama sensed something was wrong, said Barker. Later, when he was preparing for a last-minute flight back to L.A. on a small private plane, he sensed it too.
“I was like, ‘Something feels off.’ I even told my dad, ‘If something happens to me, please make sure the kids are taken care of,'” Barker admitted. “I was saying way too much. All the signs were there.”
He added, “Now older me would just say, ‘I think I’m not gonna get on the plane.'”
Travis Barker Recalls Near-Fatal Plane Crash in Upcoming Documentary
Travis Barker did get on the plane in 2008, however. During takeoff, a tire burst, and the debris damaged the plane’s brake system. This caused the plane to skid off the end of the runway and break through the airport barrier fence. It crossed South Carolina Hwy 302 before crashing into an embankment. Then it caught fire. Barker and Goldstein were the only survivors.
The two pilots were killed, along with Barker’s assistant Chris Baker and his bodyguard Charles Still. It took almost an hour for firefighters to get the flames under control. Both Goldstein and Barker suffered severe burns and had to have skin grafts. Goldstein emerged on fire, but quickly extinguished the flames with stop, drop, and roll.
Barker recalled running and ripping his clothes off in an attempt to extinguish himself at first. Eventually, stop, drop, and roll put out most of the flames. But he was left burned over 65 percent of his body. He recovered in the hospital for 11 weeks, but also developed PTSD from the incident and a debilitating fear of flying. Barker didn’t get on a plane again until 2021.
The scene kid era was more about setting ourselves apart from previous decades. Each decade had its respective fashion trends that coincided with pop culture. Scene kids had their own era in the 2000s, often referred to as the Myspace era. This era was defined by skinny jeans, teased and/or straightened colorful hair, tight colorful band tees, and the Vans Warped Tour. It was a beautiful time. Scene kids everywhere, myself included, were peak “scene” in the late 2000s. These four albums were loved by every scene kid.
‘bone palace ballet’ by chiodos
Craig Owens’ flexible vocals mixed with Jason Hale’s virtuosic guitar were very distinct in a vast sea of post-hardcore bands in the 2000s. Their 2007 sophomore release, Bone Palace Ballet, was bigger and bolder than their 2005 debut. The album is the band’s masterpiece, finely curated and perfected with astounding production.
Chiodos offered their best work on this album. They carry over Bradley Bell’s beautiful piano work from the debut record. Drummer Derrick Frost graciously carried elements of Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham into a new era. The sophomore album is heavier than the first, and at times, much softer as well. It became a massive commercial success for a post-hardcore band, peaking at No. 1 on the Independent Albums Chart. Additionally, the album hit No. 1 on the Billboard Top Rock Albums and No. 5 on the Billboard 200.
‘suicide season’ by bring me the horizon
For their sophomore release, Bring Me The Horizon transitioned from deathcore into metalcore. This was a great move, as metalcore was at the forefront of the scene-kid era. Suicide Season was a Myspace staple in 2008, and songs such as “Chelsea Smile” and “Diamonds Aren’t Forever” were common profile songs on Myspace. Scene kids often had images of Oli Sykes on their Myspace page too. In real life, his image was the centerpiece of countless scene-kid bedrooms as Oli Sykes became a poster boy for scene kids in this era.
‘witness’ by blessthefall
This metalcore band created an easily accessible album for non-metalcore fans to tap into. In 2009, Blessthefall perfectly balanced clean vocals with screams on Witness. It was a successful effort for the band, selling 11,000 copies in its first week. It peaked at No. 6 on the Independent Albums chart and No. 9 on the Top Hard Rock Albums chart. The album features a block of notable tracks in the first half, which includes “To Hell And Back”, “God Wears Gucci”, “Hey Baby, Here’s That Song You Wanted”, and “Witness”.
The stars of KPop Demon Hunters are still navigating their newfound fame. In February 2026, EJAE, Andrey Nuna, and REI AMI performed “Golden” at the EE BAFTA Film Awards, held at the Royal Festival Hall in London. That evening, One Battle After Another dominated that ceremony with six big wins, including Best Film and Best Director. The film’s high-profile star, Leonardo DiCaprio, was in attendance, sitting front and center.
EJAE had faced years of rejection leading up to her casting in KPop Demon Hunters. Released in 2025, it quickly became the most-watched film in Netflix history. That’s an overwhelming feat for the new stars. The stars are now navigating how to be role models for millions of young girls around the world. This marked the singers’ first major televised performance as HUNTR/X. Ejae’s opening solo was noticeably shaky, and in a recent interview with The Times, she explained her nervousness.
EJAE said, “The BAFTAs haunt me. I made mistakes. I cracked a little bit on the high notes. Leonardo DiCaprio was [in the audience] right in front of me, and he was not smiling.”
In particular, a high note in the song heightened EJAE’s nervousness, with DiCaprio fully attentive. “That’s what put me off. He made me so nervous. It was already so nerve-racking to be in front of all these celebrities, and then I look up and lock eyes with Leonardo DiCaprio? Come on.” No matter how many celebrities you encounter, some are guaranteed to leave you starstruck. DiCaprio is widely considered one of the greatest actors of his time, so it’s completely understandable to feel the pressure while singing in front of him.
ejae’s mistake PARALLELS her CHARACTER’S voice crack in the film
EJAE’s character in the film, Rumi, cracks on the same note in the same place in the song. Many assumed her voice crack at the BAFTAs was purposeful, meant to reference the scene in the film. EJAE later denied that this was intentional and further explained that the major stars made her nervous.
One month after the BAFTAs, Netflix announced a KPop Demon Hunters sequel. The second film is sure to follow this first film’s massive global success. Given this, EJAE will have plenty of opportunities to redeem herself, and her die-hard young fans won’t hold the performance against her. In a turn of events, the way she accidentally paralleled a scene in the film was well received by her young audience. The experience may haunt EJAE now, but this will soon be forgotten with time as she’s brilliantly laughed off the moment.
PlayStation Plus has revealed its full lineup of August 2025 additions to the game catalog and this round includes multiple big budget and indie hits from the last few years.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Comes to PlayStation Plus
2025’s Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is coming to the PlayStation Plus game catalog for Extra and Premium subscribers just a little more than a year after it originally launched in February 2025.
The game was a huge hit and on multiple short lists for game of the year, so it is likely going to be a popular addition to the service.
For those who aren’t familiar with the game, players take on the role of Henry of Skalitz, an ordinary man doing extraordinary things, caught in a gripping tale of revenge, betrayal and discovery.
Henry will embark on an epic journey, from a humble blacksmith’s forge to the court of Kings, as he searches for purpose in this beautiful but brutal medieval world. From bustling city streets to lush forests, discover an open-world medieval Europe through this thrilling action RPG set amid the chaos of a civil war in 15th-century Bohemia.
Every Game Coming to PlayStation Plus in August 2026
Helldivers 2 and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II are the spotlight games for the month, but they are not the only title being added to the service. There are plenty of other big additions across genres that PlayStation Plus subscribers can check out during August.
Here is a full list of all the changes arriving in August:
PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium | Game Catalog
Helldivers 2 | PS5
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II | PS5
Vampire Survivors | PS5, PS4
Hell is Us | PS5
Hell is Us will be available August 25 in the US, the UK and Japan.
Umamusume Pretty Derby – Party Dash | PS4
Umamusume Pretty Derby – Party Dash will be available August 25 in the US, the UK and Japan.
Two Point Museum | PS5
Two Point Museum will be available August 25 in the US, the UK and Japan.
Metro Exodus | PS5, PS4
Metro Exodus will be available August 25 in the US, the UK and Japan.
Dying Light 2 | PS5, PS4
Dying Light 2 will be available August 25 in the US, the UK and Japan.
PlayStation Plus Premium
Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams | PS5, PS4
Disney’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire | PS5, PS4
That’s an impressive list of titles and it seems like PS Plus subscribers will have plenty of options when it comes to exploring the game catalog throughout the final weeks of the summer.
Be sure to check back soon for more news and updates on the latest PlayStation Plus game catalog rotations.
Rapping is a competitive sport. Every artist worth their salt is hell-bent on proving why they’re the best rapper alive by releasing the best album or having the best verse on a given song—anything to prove that they’re in the upper echelon. For J. Cole in 2013, he was still cutting his teeth in the industry alongside the other two parts of the infamous Big 3. He had his fair share of hits, but he wasn’t quite Drake. There wasn’t an obvious good kid, m.A.A.d city in his discography.
So what did Cole do to get that extra bit of credibility? He went after one of the real legends in hip-hop. He moved the release date of his sophomore album, Born Sinner, to match Kanye West’s Yeezus. In an interview with Billboard, J. Cole talked about how learning Ye’s date only made him want to move up accordingly.
“Instantly the lightbulb [turned on]… it got real. I made one phone call to somebody that would know, just to make sure first. As soon as I got it confirmed, I was like, ‘Yo…’ The idea hit me instantly: ‘You got to go to that date,’” the North Carolina rapper said.
Additionally, he thought that if he stuck to his original release date, people would forget him in comparison to Ye’s blockbuster album.
J. Cole Tried to compete With Kanye West in 2013 with ‘Born Sinner’ vs ‘Yeezus’
“I’m not going to sit [here]… I worked too hard to come a week later after Kanye West drops an amazing album. It’d be like, ‘Oh, and J. Cole dropped too, a week later.’ Nah. I’m going to go see him on that date. He’s the greatest. So it’s like, I’m a competitor by nature, so it was instant. It wasn’t even a thought,” Cole continued. “It’s a definite statement about how I feel about my album, which is confident.”
Still, J. Cole insisted that it wasn’t a matter of arrogance. As excited as he was to battle for sales and quality, he remained humble and gave Kanye West his flowers. He just wanted to put his record in the same conversations, rather than be forgotten by history.
“At the same time, let’s not forget this is Kanye West. He bets 100, 1,000, whatever the perfect is. His track record is flawless. I’m only expecting an incredible album from him,” J. Cole said of Yeezus. “But I know what I have.”
Last week, Warner Bros. Discovery confirmed that Jim Carrey will be starring in a new live-action film adaptation of The Jetsons. Longtime fans of the original Hanna-Barbera cartoon will no doubt recall that this isn’t the first time Hollywood has attempted to bring the characters to the big screen.
Paramount tried to get something going as far back as 1985, but nothing ever came of it:
Made-for-TV movies like The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones followed in the late ‘80s, but the only theatrically released film the franchise has gotten to date was 1990’s Jetsons: The Movie. However, the long-awaited adaptation wasn’t well-received, and poor ticket sales prevented it from making a profit at the time. That’s in addition to the two dark clouds hanging over the film’s production. And just in case viewers hadn’t heard, the end credits made sure to hit them with this somber reminder that we lost the two lead voice actors before the movie was completed:
Before Jim Carrey’s ‘Jetsons’ Movie, the Franchise Had a Tragic Big-Screen Debut
For the uninitiated, we’re not talking about two nobodies who happened to land these parts. George O’Hanlon and Mel Blanc had been voicing George Jetson and his boss, Cosmo Spacely, respectively, since The Jetsons debuted in 1962. They also came back to reprise the roles for the 1985 revival series and the aforementioned TV films. Jetsons: The Movie would be the last project either of them worked on.
O’Hanlon suffered a stroke in the studio and passed away just after he finished recording his lines. He was 76 years old. Blanc was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center a few months later, where he died from heart disease and emphysema at the age of 81. Jeff Bergman, who eventually replaced Blanc as the voice of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, was brought in to complete the dialogue for Blanc and O’Hanlon’s characters following their deaths.
On March 27, 1985, comedian and future Law & Order: SVU star Richard Belzer welcomed Mr. T and Hulk Hogan—who were promoting WrestleMania I—onto his short-lived talk show Hot Properties. Belzer interviewed Mr. T first that night, and things turned combative pretty early on in their conversation. When Belzer asked if the violence on Mr. T’s popular action series The A-Team was antithetical to his image, Mr. T dismissed the question because of Belzer’s use of a big word. “I’m a street brother,” Mr. T started to say, before Belzer interjected, telling him, “I’m from the street, too. I learned that word myself, not in college.”
Hogan evidently wasn’t happy with the way Belzer was talking to Mr. T, and made his feelings clear by the time his segment came around. Throughout the course of Hogan’s interview, he referred to Belzer as “cocky,” a “little dude,” and a “coward.” Finally, Belzer asked the pair to demonstrate some wrestling moves for him, to which Mr. T replied, “We ain’t showing you nothin’!” Belzer then stood up and pointed to Hogan, saying, “I’m talking to him, man, OK?”
Richard Belzer Sued Hulk Hogan After a Wrestling Move Went Horribly Wrong
After consulting with Mr. T, Hogan decided to oblige Belzer, and the two walked over to the side of the stage. From there, Hogan explained that the floor was hard and he didn’t want Belzer to get hurt, so he was going to use a simple front chin lock on him. “You just tell me, brother, when you want him to quit squealing,” Hogan joked to Mr. T, who was sitting off-screen. Within seconds of Hogan applying the hold on Belzer, the comedian’s body went limp, and Hogan let go, causing Belzer to drop to the ground and hit his head.
The impact cut the back of Belzer’s head open, requiring him to get nine stitches. “[Hogan] came very close to killing me,” Belzer said years later. “I was told by a sports medicine expert that if I had fallen a few inches either way I could be crippled for life, I could have been dead.” Belzer sued Hogan, Mr. T, Vince McMahon, and the WWF over the incident and received $400,000 in a 1990 settlement.
You can watch the entire 1985 episode of Hot Properties with Hogan and Mr. T below.
On December 5, 1992, Saturday Night Live opened up with a Wayne’s World sketch in which Wayne (Mike Myers) and Garth (Dana Carvey) count down the top ten things they love about Bill Clinton. Among the items on their list are universal healthcare, investment in infrastructure, and the president-elect’s huge head. But modern-day viewers will no doubt notice a glaring omission by the time Wayne and Garth get to the number one entry: number two was completely skipped over. All you can tell from the edited version on SNL’s official YouTube channel is that the item in question had something to do with Chelsea Clinton:
During the original broadcast, Wayne had the following to say about Chelsea, who was 12 years old at the time: “While it is true that adolescence thus far has been unkind, we think she’s a future fox.” Myers reflected on the deleted gag in 1999, saying that he’d had horrible acne as a kid and was sensitive to what Chelsea was going through.
“She had the adolescent face, the kind of please-don’t-look-at-me face, and that was my adolescence,” Myers explained. For that reason, he worried that the joke would be misinterpreted and asked to have it taken out.
The Wayne’s World Sketch That Made ‘SNL’ Issue a Rare Apology
However, the producers told Myers that if it got a laugh in the dress rehearsal, it would stay in, and that’s precisely what happened. Come Monday morning, the gag had predictably sparked outrage, which Myers said was mortifying because it wasn’t done with ill intent. As a result, Myers made the unusual decision to write Hillary Clinton a letter apologizing for the joke.
Though it was never officially acknowledged by the Clintons, word eventually got back to Myers that it was appreciated and understood.
SNL showrunner Lorne Michaels even issued a rare apology of his own in response to the backlash. “We felt, upon reflection, that if it was in any way hurtful, it wasn’t worth it,” Michaels said of the offending joke, which hasn’t been seen since it originally aired. “She’s a kid, a kid who didn’t choose to be in public life.”
Bill Clinton shared similar sentiments, telling People, “I think you gotta be pretty insensitive to make fun of an adolescent child. I think there is something pretty off-center with people who do that.”
The Fortnite Unstable Story Moment event will go live on August 15, which is a finale to Chapter 7 Season 3. Here is when the Fortnite live event starts in every region and what players can expect from the story experience.
Fortnite Unstable Story Moment Start Time Explained
Screenshot: Epic Games
The Unstable Story Moment Fortnite live event is on Saturday, August 15, and starts at 11 AM PT / 2 PM ET. The live experience will largely serve as a finale to Chapter 7 Season 3 and will set up the game’s story for the Fortnite Override season, which goes live five days later on August 20.
However, the Fortnite Unstable Story Moment experience has multiple events that day, including a lobby queue. Epic Games will also host two Mythic Sprite Hours on August 15, after the live event. During these limited-time Power Hours, some of the game’s rarest Sprites, such as the Zero Point Sprite and Grim Sprite, will appear across the map.
As a result, trying to figure out when to log in based on your region can be a bit confusing. For your convenience, we have created easy-to-read tables below that list when the Fortnite live event starts on August 15:
Fortnite Live Event Start Times (United States)
Screenshot: Epic Games
US Time Zone
Date
Start Time
Pacific Time (PT)
August 15
11:00 AM
Mountain Time (MT)
August 15
12:00 PM
Central Time (CT)
August 15
1:00 PM
Eastern Time (ET)
August 15
2:00 PM
Fortnite Live Event Global Start Times
Region
Date
Start Time
São Paulo, Brazil (BRT)
August 15
3:00 PM
London, United Kingdom (BST)
August 15
7:00 PM
Paris, France (CEST)
August 15
8:00 PM
Berlin, Germany (CEST)
August 15
8:00 PM
Istanbul, Turkey (TRT)
August 15
9:00 PM
Dubai, UAE (GST)
August 15
10:00 PM
Beijing, China (CST)
August 16
2:00 AM
Tokyo, Japan (JST)
August 16
3:00 AM
Seoul, South Korea (KST)
August 16
3:00 AM
Sydney, Australia (AEST)
August 16
4:00 AM
Auckland, New Zealand (NZST)
August 16
6:00 AM
Fortnite Unstable Story Moment – What to Expect
Screenshot: Epic Games
According to datamine leaks, the Fortnite Unstable Story Moment will only last around three minutes. So, don’t expect it to be a massive story experience like Fortnite Shattered was in Chapter 7 Season 2. Instead, the Fortnite Unstable live event will largely bridge the story from Chapter 7 Season 3 to the Fortnite Override season.
Leaks have also revealed that the Fortnite Unstable Story Moment will feature posters of Sonic and other gaming legends. The story experience will reportedly tease the Fortnite Chapter 7 Season 4 collabs that will be heavily featured next season.
Overwatch players can now take a new hero onto the battlefield after installing the Season 4: Heroes of Busan update.
Overwatch Adds D.Mon To The Roster
Season 4 has officially arrived and Overwatch players are now free to explore all of the updates that arrive in the Heroes of Busan content update. For many gamers, the most exciting part of this addition will be the arrival of D.Mon.
“In Season 4, the Junkers and Talon descend upon Busan, the MEKA base is called to action, and one long-awaited pilot finally steps into the roster.”
D.Mon arrives with the Season 4 launch and she brings her sword, shield, and a whole lot of MEKA muscle to the Tank roster.
Players will be able to wield her Plasma Saber to cut through close enemies, take one for your teammates with a strategically placed Power Barrier, launch yourself anywhere with Propulsors, and trade close range pressure for the reach of a Fusion Repeater to keep your opponents on the back foot. Then, when the moment is right, unleash D.Mon’s Limit Break Ultimate and help your entire team push forward.
Battle Pass Revamp Details
Additionally, this season finally delivers some long-requested updates to Battle Pass progression.
Instead of working through a fixed order, players will choose which Legendary skin they want to pursue first after completing an introductory track, so you can prioritize the things they want most.
Premium Battle Pass owners will also be able to use a Tier Hack once per Battle Pass to swap an eligible Legendary reward for another curated cosmetic from the seasonal Swap Pool.
This season’s pool launches with returning favorites spanning all Hero roles to include Raijin Ashe, Mob Boss Junker Queen, Cardboard Reinhardt, Sakura Lifeweaver, and Crustacean Wrecking Ball.
Additionally, arriving at Season 4 midcycle, Unvaulted Passes will give players a second chance to catch up on rewards from select Battle Passes past. Once players pick one up (or if you already owned the original eligible Battle Pass), it will stay permanently available, letting owners progress alongside the current season whenever it fits their schedule.
It will be very interesting to see if the combination of the new hero and the Battle Pass revamp are enough to bring some lapsed players back to the game and potentially bring some new players into the mix, as well.
Be sure to check back soon for lots more Overwatch news and updates.
Overwatch is available now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series consoles.
Back in December 2025, I wrote about how more and more people around the United States were getting into fits of vomiting so violent that they scream and puke at the same time. The act has been disgustingly named “scromiting,” or screaming vomiting. It seemed to be happening primarily among heavy marijuana users, people for whom weed had essentially become a dietary staple. Back then, I wrote about how cases were exploding.
According to a new CDC report, things have not exactly calmed down. But why the number has continued to rise is really what matters.
As reported by the CDC, emergency-room visits involving cannabis hyperemesis syndrome took a big jump between September and October 2025, from 3.35 per 10,000 to 11.26 per 10,000. By May 2026, it jumped even further to 13.10 per 10,000. That jump can be partly attributed to the rollout of a specific medical billing code for the condition, meaning doctors now officially have a way to log in their databases that someone is puking and screaming like Linda Blair in The Exorcist because they got too high.
CDC Says Cannabis Hyperemesis Syndrome Is Being Diagnosed More Often
It’s not that all of a sudden multiple millions of Americans have suddenly started using and immediately started overusing marijuana until it makes them violently ill. The CDC says the code change likely explains the sudden statistical explosion.
It doesn’t help that one of the big underlying problems isn’t the legalization and/or decriminalization of marijuana, but that THC levels are bonkers nowadays, having risen from four percent to around 16 percent since 1999. Some products, like Vapes and dabs, are highly concentrated. Some folks are just not capable of handling it all. The CDC found evidence that symptoms can appear within the first year of cannabis use, with young people ages 15 to 24 being disproportionately affected.
The symptoms are exactly as it sounds: violent vomiting, severe nausea, abdominal pain, and of course, the signature screaming, though that part is seemingly more of an anecdotal thing. Really, it’s just violent marijuana-induced vomiting. If you’re a heavy marijuana user, and you don’t want to scream and puke at the same time, consider cutting back just a tad.
Welcome to RATED AND SLATED, the column that is terminally online so you don’t have to be.
Whenever the reply guys have me feeling bad about my “pathetic excuse of a career,” I think, “oh well, at least I’m not a political journalist.”
I mean, you sacrifice your health, jeopardize your social life, and miss out on time with the family to get on the White House beat where you can enjoy such perks as inhaling Donald Trump’s recycled hamburger breath during an intercontinental flight on Air Force One.
But the president neither respects nor understands your work and, when the credible threat of an Iranian missile being fired at the plane is detected, he’ll happily sacrifice your life, swapping flights by hiding in the catering truck like a weird, morbidly obese James Bond.
So I think I’ll just stick to writing about dank memes and AI videos, since brainrot appears to be the only thing that the U.S. and Iran can agree on.
On this new cover of Robyn’s “Robotboy,” Jonatan somehow sounds both younger and older than ever before. Robyn says that the track is like he’s “singing this lullaby to the person he once was.” It reminds me of those little tunes we used to chant in the playground while playing childish games as a way of slowly learning about the grown-up world. Dude famously looks like the kid from the Bully video game, but somehow, through all the scraps and brawls, he’s managed to keep a hold of his innocence. When you’re listening to Yung Lean, you can tell he’s in your corner. Gang!
Gamers spent the 90s arguing about which was the superior console, Nintendo or Sega, but after the horrors of 9/11 it was Super Mario who hunted down and executed Osama bin Laden—where was the coward Sonic through all of this? You might be fast, hedgehog boy, but these colors don’t run.
DRINKING ALCOHOL AGAIN AFTER SEVEN YEARS SOBER
Brad Pitt says he's drinking alcohol again after seven years sober.
If this photograph is anything to go by then Brad Pitt is spending his first night “back off the wagon” sinking Millers down the bowling alley with his friends Donny and The Dude. He claims to be drinking “in a more restrained manner,” but if someone’s toe slips over the line in a league game then he’s pulling out a handgun and warning them that they’re about to enter a world of pain.
— r̷̳̆ó̶͎m̵̞̀e̶̫͗o̵̱̚~̵̦͒d̷͕͋ỉ̶̳à̵͍b̴̧̀l̸̰̚o̵͇̐s̷ (@romeodiablos_) August 10, 2026
Short video content is great: where once you had to spend an evening getting stoned with a Vietnam veteran to learn how Jimi Hendrix’s guitar tones let you reach higher levels of consciousness through astral projection like in the CIA’s Gateway Process, now you can access this kind of forbidden knowledge from the comfort of your own bathroom. Before you’ve queued “Purple Haze” on the Bluetooth speaker, the algorithm has served up a new video of Sydney Sweeney in swimwear and now you’re lying in the tub tugging one out. Talk about the Ultimate Dionysian sound bath.
No one tell this guy about Jeanne Calment. If he finds out that a French woman lived to age 122 (and that she was a smoker) then we’re not talking about a reaction video so much as picking up actual bits of his exploded head off the laptop screen. I’ll be covering my mouth in shock as pieces of skull and grey matter fly towards the camera, like damn maybe how long you live isn’t as important as the way you pass.
I quit being a pescatarian after learning that Kurt Cobain’s claim that fish don’t have any feelings is not strictly scientifically accurate. They can feel pain, and so can the jacked failson of a famous Hollywood actor, so I’ll refrain from saying how I really feeling about Chet’s version of “Something in the Way,” except to point out that if you’re recording Nirvana covers that sound like they’re being played by Limp Bizkit bassist Sam Rivers (RIP) then something has gone very badly wrong. In fact, the only way your white boy summer could have turned out worse would be if you ended up living underneath an actual bridge.
THE CINDY WORKOUT
Tom Holland reveals his go-to workout for when he’s short on time.
“I do a CrossFit workout called Cindy. It's five pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 squats, as many times as you can in 20 minutes.
I think my record is 27 rounds.”
Actually, Cindy wasn’t the name of the workout, but the personal trainer who was inexplicably wearing high-heeled boots and latex mini-dress and kept hitting me with a riding crop the whole time I was exercising in her dungeon (they’ll call gyms anything these days). Afterwards, I was completely monstered, and come to think of it, this is the first CrossFit session where I needed a safe word. Maybe I should’ve known something was up when she made me put on a ball gag. Well, I’ll be back there tomorrow. After all, fitness is a lifelong commitment.
KENDRICK LAMAR’S “NOT LIKE US“ AS A SORORITY RUSH ANTHEM
You might not have realised, but in the title of Kendrick Lamar’s infamous 2024 diss track, the “us” does actually include sorority girls. In fact, the “they” is really only Canadians. Now the campus has been cleared of colonizers (including Drake), college baddies with matching tracksuits and perfectly straightened hair can perform choreographed dances with their mobile phone torches to celebrate The Culture.
Don’t worry, if you think AI Family Guy rage-rap is “tuff” then you’re probably not alone. The more brain-fried reaction is to look at the above post and assume that it’s not about the 21st century American rapper Yeat, but rather the 20th century Irish poet W. B. Yeats. “Things fall apart,” that much is clear either way. “The centre cannot hold, bitch!”
Speaking about the unexpected collision between bad rapping and the kind of beautiful art no one cares about any more because the literacy rate is in hell…
It’s bad news for the lit bros. While you’re still struggling to get through Ulysses with the aid of multiple reading guides, this kid has already polished off Finnegans Wake and now he’s rapping about it. If that doesn’t have you feeling as pitiful as Leopold Bloom, then just wait for his next trick: a devastating couplet rhyming “cuck” with “bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk.” (At which point, it might be time for the James Joyce estate to look into what how these LLMs are being trained).
It has been nearly 15 years since Smash Mouth released a full album of original music. The last was 2012’s Magic, which was sadly their last with original singer Steve Harwell. That streak ends today, as the band has unveiled Mercury Comet, their seventh full-length studio album.
The new record finds the band revisiting their surf rock roots, harkening back to the days of their first two albums: Fush Yu Mang (1997) and the musical juggernaut that was Astro Lounge (1999). I had a chance to chat with Smash Mouth bassist Paul de Lisle, who is the band’s primary songwriter, as well as its last remaining original member.
During our conversation via Zoom, he shared what went into crafting Mercury Comet with Noisey. He revealed that it was the band’s longtime manager, Robert Hayes, who urged them to start writing new music and suggested they draw inspiration from their past.
Smash Mouth’s longtime manager urged the band to write some new surf punk songs and get back into the recording studio
“The idea for [Mercury Comet] actually came from our manager,” De Lisle said. “He told me about two years ago that we need a new album. ‘You need a new album of full original material. It’s been a long time,’ he said.
Hayes pushed for the band to “make it like the first album” Smash Mouth released, back in the late 90s. “Make it like Fush Yu Mang, man. Get back to some surf punk,” De Lisle recalled Hayes saying. The tough love worked, because De Lisle said the band knew Hayes “was right” and that it was “time to get back to the first album and, dare I say, surf punk stuff.”
Since it’d been so long since the band worked on an album of new music—in addition to this being their first time writing original songs with new singer Zach Goode—I inquired if making Mercury Comet was similar to making Fush Yu Mang.
“It was similar to making the first album,” De Lisle admitted. “We did have a lot of time to make this record, as we did the first one. You know, as they say, you have your whole life to make your first record and six months to make your second.”
“This album took about a year to make,” De Lisle continued. “We took our time with it, and having that sense of not having the pressure to deliver, having a deadline or anything like that, we wanted to keep rolling on it, keep moving.”
‘mercury Comet’ was mixed by grammy-winning engineer Robert Orton
Something that certainly should not be overlooked is that this record was mixed by Grammy-winning engineer Robert Orton, who has worked with artists like Lady Gaga, the Police, and Pet Shop Boys.
“It did remind me of making the first album because it had that freshness and youthful enthusiasm that everyone brought to it,” De Lisle explained. “I think it comes out because we really took our time with the mixing and mastering.”
“Robert Orton did a great job of mixing the record, and so there are a lot of similarities between this record and the first one,” he added. “I’m just pleased with the result. It sounds like a complete album. It flows together nicely. The sequence and everything is good.”
Every member of Smash Mouth contributed to crafting the sound of their new album
In regard to writing the record, De Lisle is credited as the main songwriter. However, he’s quick to point out that this was no one-man project whatsoever. He and his bandmates work as a unit, and all contribute. He did note how both Goode and keyboardist Michael Klooster “really stepped up” on Mercury Comet. “I hope they keep writing more,” he said. “They were both trying to write a Smash Mouth song, and they did, and it was fun to work with them together.”
De Lisle also praised the work of guitarist Sean Hurwitz, and added, “I got to give a lot of credit to our drummer Randy Cook for the punk rock sound. He really set the tone on this record. Once we had the drums down, it just set the tone for everything else. He deserves a lot of credit for really creating the foundation of the whole thing.”
Finally, offering his overall feelings on the new record, De Lisle said, “It all came together really, really nicely, and we took our time making it. There was a lot of care put into it, and then when it all came together, I was really pleased with the way everything stacks up.”
PlayStation Plus Game Catalog is getting a popular new addition today with Helldivers 2 joining the subscription service just in time to drop a major content update.
Helldivers 2: Devoid of Liberty Update
It’s been more than two years since Helldivers 2 took the gaming world by storm in early 2024, but the game is still making content additions and connecting with new gamers.
The latest push to keep the Helldivers 2 community engaged and growing arrived this week when the title became available to PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium members. This is a major addition to the subscription service and is likely going to bring in a lot of new players who haven’t checked out the game yet.
In addition to joining the PlayStation Plus game library, Helldivers 2 also released the Devoid of Liberty content update, which includes a ton of new action for players to dive into.
Journey to the Void – Getting into the Void presents a unique challenge. High Command has ordered reconnaissance missions to gather as much intel as possible in order to give us an advantage.
Complete new missions – You will be given new objectives to conquer–destroy Illuminate spires and gateways, complete data reconnaissance, and infiltrate Illuminate structures with your team. New secondary objectives will also become available, from eradicating Void mutations to extracting materials for research, as well as the opportunity to open a secondary extraction zone on the map to potentially evacuate your squad faster.
Exterminate new threats – As you fight your way toward the Void, you’ll encounter new, hideously mutated organisms. We have received intelligence reports that indicate these metamorphosed creatures are emerging from the heart of the Void–they are ghoulish diversions wrought into existence by the Illuminate scourge to threaten our freedom.
The Wretch
The Crusher
Dive with more impact – You may now gain all 300 ranks of security access and privileges, as well as new rank titles. We have commissioned SEAF platoons to aid in completing operations. They’ll arrive on dropships to fight alongside you and your squad, offering medical support via stims, but also give a boost to your morale when you salute, shake hands, and–of course–hug them.
PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium members can download the game now to jump into the action. They’ll also be able to join in as the community takes on the latest epic collective challenge. Players will be working together to eliminate 500 million enemies by August 18 to unlock four Helldiver PlayStation avatars.
Be sure to check back soon for lots more Helldivers 2 news and updates.
Helldivers 2 is available now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series consoles.
An Italian spearfishing champion thought he was looking at some pretty undersea rocks. Turns out those rocks were just a wee bit more significant: they were the remains of a 2,000-year-old Roman shipwreck, now being hailed as one of the most important archaeological discoveries in recent Italian history.
According to Italy’s Ministry of Culture, diver Giacomo De Mola was exploring about three miles off Sicily’s coast. Sonar pinged back something interesting beneath the murky water. De Mola thought it was just some rock, but upon closer inspection noticed that the various stones that made up this large expanse of rock were all uniformly shaped, and that shape was a bit familiar. It kind of looked like hundreds of ancient amphorae, those classic two-handled clay vessels used to transport goods like wine and oil.
It wasn’t worthless stone; it was a priceless historical artifact, evidence of a ship believed to have sank some time between the second and first centuries BC. It’s cargo includes the huge mound of amphorae, which measures about 70 feet long, along with two lead anchor stocks and a variety of other historical goodies.
A 2,000-Year-Old Roman Shipwreck Was Found Off the Coast of Sicily
Finds like these are of incredible value to historians, as objects like amphorae let archaeologist reconstruct commercial routes connecting different Mediterranean civilizations, giving researchers a detailed understanding of the interconnectedness of ancient life.
Cambridge archaeologist Simon Stoddart told NBC News that the discovery could help researchers understand ancient trading networks and the risks faced by Mediterranean sailors.
As easily as the wreck was stumbled upon, it won’t be easily excavated. And then there’s the matter of the finds getting strip-mined by scavengers, so the precise location of the wreck is being kept secret.
Pheromone maxxing is the latest self-optimization trend to make a bold claim about attraction. Like most bold claims about attraction, it’s about 30% correct.
The practice, circulating on TikTok as part of the looksmaxxing pipeline, involves ditching deodorant, skipping showers, and occasionally—among the more committed—drinking their own urine to “sweat out toxins.” All of this in service of amplifying a “natural musk” that allegedly contains pheromones that make you biologically irresistible. The sell is basically this. Stop trying so hard, smell like an animal, watch the attraction happen.
The trend is running several laps ahead of the research. “As a means of survival, sex workers are eroticizing body parts that can get through the algorithm,” sex educator Topher Cusumano told Men’s Journal. As platforms have cracked down on explicit content, underarms and sweat became vehicles for erotic material that doesn’t trigger a flag. What starts as an algorithmic workaround becomes a trend. A trend becomes a guy skipping showers and calling it a dating strategy.
The problem with the whole thing is that human pheromones, as a confirmed scientific category, are still theoretical. A 2025 review in Physiology & Behavior took a detailed look at androstadienone—a steroid in male sweat that’s been the frontrunner for decades—and still concluded the classification “remains inconclusive.” That’s 60-plus years of searching, and the answer is still a polite shrug. The pheromone cologne industry, though, is not letting that slow it down.
What Is Pheromone Maxxing? The Dating Trend Telling Men to Stop Showering.
The actual science is more interesting than the trend. Research on the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), a cluster of immune system genes, has found that people are unconsciously drawn to partners whose immune profile differs from their own. In a famous set of experiments nicknamed the sweaty T-shirt studies, women consistently preferred the body odor of men whose MHC genes were most different from theirs.
There’s a wrinkle. Research has found that hormonal birth control appears to completely reverse the MHC preference. Women on the pill tend to be drawn to men with similar immune profiles rather than different ones, raising a question no one warned them about when they started the prescription. The scent-attraction connection has more going on than a hygiene boycott can fix. It also works better when you don’t smell like a gym bag.
Your body odor is carrying biological data that someone, somewhere, is evolutionarily primed to find attractive. The deodorant is probably getting in the way, but please, please still take a shower.
Sex with yourself is, theoretically, the time when you can drop the moaning and the sexy faces and just enjoy yourself. New data suggests we’ve found a way to ruin that too.
A 2026 Pleasure Census conducted by dating app HUD and sexual wellness brand Girls Get Off surveyed 2,183 people across 63 countries and found that 54% of Gen Z catch themselves “performing” during solo sex—thinking about how they look, sound, or should feel, with no one even in the room. Across all age groups, the figure sits at 44%. The same survey found 73% of Gen Z say appearance concerns make sex harder to enjoy.
There’s a clinical name for this. Spectatoring—coined by sex researchers William Masters and Virginia Johnson in 1970—describes the act of mentally observing yourself during sex from a third-person perspective, evaluating your performance rather than experiencing your body. It was originally studied as a factor in sexual dysfunction and assumed to require a partner. The Pleasure Census data suggests the imagined audience is sufficient.
Performance Anxiety Is Ruining Masturbation for Gen Z
And once again, you can’t not talk about porn. A 2026 study found that women who watched porn reported increased performance anxiety about how they look and behave during sex. One participant said: “I feel stressed about not looking like the girls in porn movies.” The study found pornography led many respondents to view sex as performative rather than a shared pleasurable experience—a subconscious thought that doesn’t turn off when the other person leaves the room.
“For a generation raised on porn, it can be genuinely hard to unlearn the way we think we’re supposed to behave during sex,” sexologist Becky Crepsley-Fox told Metro. The internal audience doesn’t switch off. For many people, it eventually becomes the default, operating beneath every experience that was supposed to be free of it.
There’s decades of spectatoring research confirming what most people already know from experience: the moment your attention shifts outward, your body checks out. Orgasm requires presence, not an audience. Solo sex is the one place in the world where nobody else’s needs, reactions, or expectations are in the room. Using it to rehearse for them anyway is a waste
The only audience in the room is the one you built yourself. That’s both the problem and the only place the solution lives.
Fandom in general seems to have been one of humanity’s big mistakes. That’s a broad statement, but you see what I mean when you start exploring individual fandoms, from the notoriously toxic corners of Star Wars to unsettling devotion surrounding The Pitt. You know, a show that has only released 30 episodes and already has a fanbase that has developed enough toxicity for several fandoms.
Harry Potter fans are making a strong case for the top spot in the toxic fandom rankings. Case in point: a Welsh beach where a fictional elf was buried in a movie has apparently become sacred ground, and fans successfully stopped a $570 million electrical cable project from passing underneath it.
The key word here is underneath.
Harry Potter Fans Successfully Protected Dobby’s Grave From an Underground Power Cable
As reported by The New York Times, the character Dobby, the enslaved house elf who eventually wins his freedom and then dies shortly thereafter in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. In the movie, Harry buries him at Freshwater West beach in Pembrokeshire, Wales, beneath a marker reading, “Here lies Dobby, a free elf.”
Dobby is of course fictional. He was words on a page that got turned into a fully computer-generated character voiced by famed British character actor Toby Jones. Dobby is very fake, and so is his grave, along with everyone who buried him. Fake. Fake. Fake; they’re all fake.
None of that mattered to hundreds of Harry Potter fans who contacted Greenlink after project manager Simon Ludlam mentioned during a BBC interview that the company’s undersea electricity cable would pass beneath the beach. Ludlam initially had no idea who Dobby was. His colleagues eventually explained that, apparently, this was “very, very serious,” as The Guardian reports.
So planners changed the route.
The new cable avoided Dobby’s imaginary grave while also avoiding actual Bronze Age burial remains nearby. We put this in the plainest terms possible: a fictional dead elf got roughly the same consideration as ancient dead humans.
The cable is now operational, and Dobby remains undisturbed. So… win-win, I guess?
Fans can keep on visiting his memorial and leaving stones to honor him, and now they can take pride in the fact that they rerouted millions of dollars of infrastructure as they moved a cable that links the power grids of two nations, all underground, and all because they are emotionally attached to a dead CGI elf.
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