Everyone who has ever suffered from addiction and beaten it has almost always had a profound wake-up call. There’s a moment in our lives where we don’t want to struggle with the things that slowly kill us. For Travis Barker, that moment happened after he nearly died in a fatal plane crash in 2008. The incident caused four people to pass away, while the iconic drummer and Adam “DJ AM” Goldstein survived with intense burns.

Admittedly, the plane crash kept him horrified from flying again for 13 years. But his near-death experience did help him realize he “never wanted to touch a drug again.” In an interview with the Associated Press, Travis Barker recalled his intense nerves about flying. Consequently, he found drugs were the only efficient way to calm him down. Additionally, he admitted that being away from his kids also screwed with his nervous system.

“I have no clue where that even comes from except for flying when I was a kid and I was with my mom and I saw her terrified,” Barker told the publication. “I don’t know if that really had an effect on me or what it was. But my drug use started from first being able to get on planes because they scared me so much. Then to not only being afraid of flying, but I had to leave my children for long periods of time to go on tour.”

Travis Barker Candidly Opens up About His Drug Addiction and Fear of Flying

Then, the drug habit became a full-blown addiction. It wasn’t until he had to endure dozens of surgeries and was placed on morphine that he realized he never wanted to be so low again.

“Instead of ever going to rehab or quitting, I got into a plane accident where I nearly lost everything and I was in a burn center for six months on morphine and I had 30 surgeries,” Travis Barker added. “70 percent of my body was burnt and I never wanted to touch a drug again in my life. So, I don’t know if that didn’t happen to me if I would still be using drugs in some way, shape, or form. But that was my wake-up call. That was my rehab.”

The aftermath was particularly difficult for Travis Barker. DJ AM was the only one he felt like he could confide in for a long time. However, once he died from a drug overdose, he vowed to never fly again. It wasn’t until his wife, Kourtney Kardashian, finally convinced the Blink-182 legend to try again. Nowadays, flights and turbulence don’t bother him anymore.

(Photo by Gary Gershoff/WireImage)

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A lot of people don’t realize that tensions between Drake and Kendrick Lamar had been brewing for over a decade. Dating at least back to 2013, the pair have thrown shots at each other. The only reason things didn’t absolutely explode sooner was that Drake made an abundance of other enemies that took priority in the years since. Moreover, Lamar had different aspirations and grander ideas to exercise than bickering with the Toronto MC.

To properly document the years of beef simmering between the two hip-hop giants, we’ve collected four verses where the Compton legend threw shots at his biggest rival.

4 Kendrick Lamar Verses That Proved His Beef With Drake Long Before ‘Not Like Us’

“Control”

The funny thing about Kendrick Lamar’s infamous “Control” verse is that the “diss” in question was extremely tame. All he did was list his many contemporaries, including Drake, and challenge them to be the best rapper in the game. “I got love for you all but I’m tryna murder you n***as/Tryna make sure your core fans never heard of you n***as/They don’t wanna hear not one more noun or verb from you n***as,” Kendrick Lamar spit.

Still, it was enough to get Drake in his feelings and start a long cold war for the next decade.

“All The Stars”

Who knew that you could throw subliminal disses at your enemies in a song for a Disney soundtrack? Kendrick Lamar’s verse on “All The Stars” for the Black Panther soundtrack is largely subliminal in the shots fired. You might even think it’s too broad to apply to any specific person.

But knowing that Kendrick Lamar had constantly questioned Drake’s moral integrity in 2024, the shoe fits on “All The Stars”. He scoffed at ego and entitlement, wanting nothing to do with fake people. “I hate people that feel entitled/Look at me crazy ’cause I didn’t invite you/Oh, you important? You the moral to the story? You endorsin’?/Mothaf***a, I don’t even like you,” he rapped.

2013 BET Hip-Hop Awards Cypher With TDE

In the immediate aftermath of the “Control” verse, Drake threw some scattered shots and complained a little bit during interviews. Lamar largely scoffed at his reactions during the 2013 Hip-Hop Awards, dropping a sly reference to Drake and telling him to toughen up.

“Yeah, and nothing been the same since they dropped ‘Control’/And tucked a sensitive rapper back in his pajama clothes,” Kendrick quipped.

“King Kunta”

Ever since he battled ghostwriting allegations from Meek Mill in 2015, Drake’s legitimacy as a rapper started to come into question. Skeptics turned to full-blown haters, and pre-existing haters only had more fuel to argue Drake wasn’t that great.

Kendrick Lamar also indulged on “King Kunta”, wondering what happened to hip-hop for ghostwriting to be acceptable. Moreover, he even teased that he quietly knew about the allegations long before we did. “I swore I wouldn’t tell, but most of y’all sharing bars/Like you got the bottom bunk in a two-man cell,” Lamar rapped.

(Photo by Michael Buckner/Billboard via Getty Images)

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Legendary Four Seasons singer Frankie Valli is retiring, or so we thought. Earlier this week, Frankie’s brother Bobby posted what appeared to be a retirement announcement on Facebook. “He has millions of fans who love him dearly. He is now 92 years old. In his illustrious career, he has sold over 100 million records, R&R Hall of Fame. He will now retire. We will always have special memories of Frankie Valli. He has reached a place in his life where his family is there to love, cherish, and be there for him.”

Frankie Valli followed up with his own post on Instagram. “In spite of what you might have heard, I am not retired. – Frankie.” The iconic singer was quick to shut down any sort of retirement announcement.

Due to this, Frankie’s brother Bobby amended his original message. He replaced “he will not retire” with “In my humble opinion, there is a possibility he will stop touring.” Again, Bobby updated the message once more, replacing that line with “We are all hoping for a speedy recovery and that he can continue to tour and perform.”

In May, Frankie Valli Canceled His Remaining 2026 Performances

On August 14, Bobby Valli posted an apology. “I apologize; I was misinformed. I was under the impression my brother Frankie was retiring.” The next day, Bobby added, “If I misled or offended anyone, once again I apologize.”

In May, Frankie Valli announced he would be cancelling the remainder of his 2026 concerts. His representative confirmed, “He realized he needed to take a break and get his health in order.” Ultimately, she emphasized that the singer is expecting to perform in 2027.

Frankie’s brother continues to wish the “Sherry” singer a speedy recovery. As Valli’s health issues haven’t been publicly disclosed, it is still unclear what this entails. He has noticeably struggled to perform for years, leading many fans to be concerned for his well-being. I have to admit, his relentlessness is admirable, to say the least.

Valli’s 75-year career dates back to the early 1960s. Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons penned 29 top-40 hits, with six No. 1 hits. As a solo artist, Valli earned two No. 1 hits in the 1970s, “My Eyes Adored You” and “Grease”. Additionally, his origin story with the Four Seasons has been adapted into a Broadway musical titled Jersey Boys. This resulted in a 2014 film of the same name, directed by Clint Eastwood.

Photo by Bobby Bank/Getty Images

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Artists only respond to critics when there is immense backlash to whatever they made. Mainstream acts, especially, never respond to a particularly thoughtful, favorable review. Instead, they’re merely in the business of amplifying the haters and making it look like it’s them against the world. In the case of Tyga, he released a record that the large majority of people are hating on. Even Doja Cat called him a “penis” for using AI on $TARFACE.

Naturally, Tyga’s first instinct was to deflect from all criticism. Talking to TMZ, he shrugged that he’s never even heard of the popular publication Pitchfork to care about their review. “I don’t know what Pitchfork is. All I know is the devil uses a pitchfork. Unfortunately, Gen Z can’t read,” he said.

Then, Tyga doubled down on how exactly he utilized AI in the making of $TARFACE, emphasizing its use as a tool. “I used AI-assisted things in the production. All the vocals are me. I wrote all the songs. When it comes to the 80s synths and the guitar solos, yes, I used AI for that. But I didn’t make a full AI album. I was in the studio for 3 months working on this,” he explained.

Tyga Claps Back at All The Hate Over His AI-Aided Album

In regard to Doja Cat, the Compton-bred rapper chuckled and pointed the finger back at her. “Listen, I love Doja, but she made a demonic album. But I still love her,” he laughed.

Pitchfork was especially cold towards $TARFACE, zeroing in on how, regardless of AI, Tyga is creatively bankrupt on the album. They rated it a devastating 0.0 out of 10, their first 0.0 in almost 20 years.

“But influence is a form of personal expression,” journalist Drew Millard wrote. “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.”

Tyga isn’t the only West Coast rapper intent on tinkering with AI. Fenix Flexin finally opened up about using Treblo for his song “RUBBERZ” after months of denying it. “Never said I didn’t use AI, I said it had nun to do with the recording process,” he replied to a fan on Instagram. “I didn’t even know what da app was till we mixed it and erybody started commenting. Ain’t nothing wrong with using new technology as a tool, keep up with the times or get left behind.”

Photo by Scott Legato/Getty Images

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The South has ruled hip-hop with an iron fist over the last 20+ years. When considering the genre and how it’s risen in pop culture, places like Atlanta were instrumental in the process. Starting with Geto Boys and 2 Live Crew, then Outkast, UGK, and others, the region carved out a space of its own amidst the infamous East Coast vs. West Coast beef. In a way, there was a harmony among Southern rappers that almost acted as an example for how hip-hop could be without all the turmoil.

Naturally, even with the South’s prominence, there’s still an abundance of underrated greats over the years. Consequently, in the spirit of celebrating the region’s contributions to hip-hop, we’ve selected five southern rappers who are criminally slept on.

5 Southern Rappers You Should Be Showing a Lot More Love

Young Dro

Young Dro should get a lot more credit for how innovative he was as a rapper. Few artists in any region were as imaginative with how he would describe colors or alter typical punchlines. Take “Rubberband Banks”, where he raps, “Mathematically with a pistol, I do trigonometry“.

Or on the same song, he’ll say his diamonds are the color of passionfruit, while his Chevy Suburban is the complexion of a Snapple. Instead of saying he has alligator-skinned shoes, he calls his feet “amphibian.” Young Dro is quietly one of hip-hop’s most skilled writers because of his knack for distinct details.

Trick Daddy

You can’t tell the story of hip-hop in Florida without Trick Daddy. Artists like Kodak Black take after his unabashedly country twang, distinct lingo, and trademark sense of humor.

“I’m A Thug” distills his entire essence, confronting bigots who judge him on the gold slugs shining out of his mouth or the baggy jeans that make him stand out. Then, in the second verse, he mischievously grins that his name alone could break up happy, healthy relationships. Although 2 Live Crew opened the doors for Florida to enter hip-hop, Trick Daddy was the image young rappers could look to emulate.

Phonte

Phonte is an all-time great everyman in hip-hop. He identifies with the common man and their social plight all while hilariously satirizing the state of art and culture in the same breath. This applies to his solo rapping and his Little Brother work as much as it does for his work in Foreign Exchange. There, he croons about relationships and sleeping on the couch after an argument with his woman.

Long before Drake became the all-encompassing superstar we know him as today, he was just trying to emulate Phonte first. Compare and contrast Drake’s first mixtapes next to Little Brother and Phonte’s singing, and you hear virtually the same artist.

Slim Thug

If you’ve heard a Houston rapper, you’ve heard almost all of them. They really capture the essence of hip-hop, staying true to the art of freestyling all while musing about riding slabs and sipping lean. But Slim Thug threw a slight curveball into the tried-and-true formula early in his career by taking his titanic voice and dominating a vast array of different beats.

For instance, Pharrell and Chad Hugo laced him with these booming beats that would devour any other rapper. But in Slim Thug’s hands, he would steamroll over them, flashing his diamond-encrusted grill in the process.

Curren$y

Few rappers are as effortlessly cool as Curren$y. But he’s not the kind of artist with preposterous boasts either. Instead, he lounges in his luxury, rolling up spliffs and making runs to the corner store in his vintage rides. Spitta Andretti has a million and one ways to describe driving his insane car collection.

For instance, on “Showroom”, he gives us a play-by-play breakdown of how the spoiler gets deployed from the trunk once he drives 70 MPH. The only reason we know this is that he bragged about studiously reading the handbook in his console. Hearing other people talk about it might sound a little sweaty and nerdy. But Curren$y’s chill demeanor makes it extremely addicting.

(Photo by Julia Beverly/Getty Images)

The post 5 of the Most Slept-on and Underrated Southern Rappers of All Time appeared first on VICE.

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The Fortnite Chapter 7 Season 4 key art has reportedly been leaked online. Although many players initially believed the artwork was fake, prominent dataminer HYPEX now says it is likely legitimate. If accurate, the leak reveals every major Fortnite Override collab, including Kingdom Hearts, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Sonic, and more.

Fortnite Chapter 7 Season 4 Collabs Reportedly Leaked

A leaked image of the Fortnite Chapter 7 Season 4 key art recently surfaced on social media and reportedly reveals all upcoming Fortnite Override collabs. The artwork features numerous gaming legends, including Crash Bandicoot, Pac-Man, Spyro the Dragon and Megaman.

While the leaked key art initially had many players divided over whether it was real, prominent dataminer HYPEX says it is likely legitimate after an official Fortnite Sonic comic book also surfaced early online. The character’s design in the comics appears to match his appearance in the leaked Override image.

FORTNITE 'C7S4: OVERRIDE' UNFINISHED KEY ART

The Sonic Comics from today have confirmed it pic.twitter.com/GMYisa0fLZ

— HYPEX (@HYPEX) August 15, 2026

Here is the full list of Fortnite Override collabs coming to Chapter 7 Season 4 according to the leaked key art:

All Fortnite Chapter 7 Season 4 Collabs

• Sonic, Shadow, Eggman, and Tails
• Kingdom Hearts (Sora and a Keyblade)
• Mega Man
• Pac-Man
• Persona 5 (Joker)
• Beyond Good & Evil (Jade)
• Spyro the Dragon
• Crash Bandicoot
• 99 Nights in the Forest (Roblox)
• Tetris
• Screamer (Hiroshi Jackson)
• Street Fighte
• The Witcher
• Tomb Raider
• Halo
• Honkai: Star Rail

Leaked Fortnite Chapter 7 Season 4 Key Art Is Reportedly Unfinished

One reason some players initially believed the leaked Fortnite Chapter 7 Season 4 key art was fake is that parts of the artwork appeared unfinished. For example, Pac-Man was missing his eyes. However, it now appears that the image is a WIP, or work-in-progress, version of the season’s key art. It is still unclear how an unfinished image like this could have leaked online in the first place.

Even so, the artwork being incomplete is a bit strange, given that Fortnite Chapter 7 Season 4 launches in just five days on August 20. Epic Games is also releasing the first official Fortnite Override trailer on August 16, which will likely feature the completed season key art and confirm the upcoming gaming legends crossovers.

Regardless, HYPEX believes the leaked Fortnite Chapter 7 Season 4 key art is likely real due to the newly discovered Sonic comicbook. Still, players should take the full collab lineup with a major grain of salt until Epic Games officially confirms which characters are coming to the new Fortnite Override season launching later this week.

The post All Fortnite Chapter 7 Season 4 Collabs Leaked – Kingdom Hearts, Crash Bandicoot, and More appeared first on VICE.

Leaving behind a bandmate after 30 years is much harder than it seems. After countless rumors and an announcement, Slipknot is sending mixed messages on whether Sid Wilson is staying in the fold. The band briefly announced on social media that they were officially parting ways with Wilson. But before you could even read them wishing him the best in his future endeavors, the post was gone.

Then, an hour later, the same announcement resurfaces on Slipknot’s music festival Knotfest account. But why share the announcement there and not on their main social media account as they did before? Currently, there’s no word on why they deleted it in the first place, if the departure still holds true, or if this is just some odd publicity stunt.

This comes on the heels of bandmate Jim Root teasing that we shouldn’t believe all the rumors on the internet. Instead, he suggested that we should wait for Slipknot to formally address all the buzz around Sid Wilson. I wonder what he’ll say after the confusing social media debacle.

“Don’t believe everything you read. Stop. Think. Take a breath. Sit with it for awhile. Maybe. Just maybe even wait until there’s more information,” Root stressed to fans.

Slipknot Officially Breaks up With Sid Wilson After 30 Years… Or Not?

Allegedly, bad behavior is what caused the band to finally break things off with one of their original members. Reports suggest that Wilson was notorious for mistreating other bandmates and that the decision to fire him had been in the making for quite some time. Moreover, the band hadn’t planned on making the decision public so soon. However, once the information leaked and the rumors really started swirling, Slipknot had no choice anymore.

Perhaps what makes this most confusing of all is that Sid Wilson is yet to formally address the big split. In fact, he is still going around introducing himself as a part of the band. Making an appearance at the inaugural World Scratch Invitational, he was still identifying as “no. 0” from the band.

Wilson was one of Slipknot’s earliest members, serving as their DJ since 1998. He joined the group three years after percussionist Shawn Crahan, bassist Paul Gray, and original vocalist Anders Colsefni founded the group. Now, Crahan is the only one left from the first iteration of Slipknot, as countless band members have cycled in and out of the group over the years.

(Photo by Nigel Crane/Redferns)

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No one’s getting hired by sending a PDF into the void anymore.

The math on job searching in 2026 helps explain why. The average corporate job posting attracts 242 applications, and according to data from The Interview Guys, 75% of resumes never reach a human being at all, filtered out in under a second by AI before anyone with a pulse sees them. Only 2-3% of applications lead to interviews. So now, people are posting their resumes on TikTok.

What started as a Gen Z workaround is now an actual job search strategy across generations. TikTok has officially overtaken LinkedIn as the top job search tool among Gen Z, with 22.1% using it compared to 20.8% on LinkedIn. And 46% of Gen Z workers say they’ve landed a job or internship by using the platform, according to Zety’s 2025 Gen Z Career Trends Report. One in five scored an interview because of a post.

Gen Z Is Using TikTok to Find Jobs Because Regular Applications Feel Broken

Times are-a-changin’ and how people look for jobs is no exception. “The application process seems kind of broken, and applying to jobs on LinkedIn feels like a wild black hole where your resume gets screened out by AI filters before you get seen by a person,” creative strategist Josh Katz told the New York Post. Katz posted a 60-second video resume and invited his comments section to serve as his reference letter. It pulled hundreds of thousands of views, produced multiple interviews, and kept pulling in freelance work months after posting.

TikTok is just the most visible example. 73% of millennials say they found their last job through a social media platform, and Instagram portfolios, LinkedIn video posts, and YouTube channels are all new platforms of choice, especially in creative fields. Employers are already looking at your social media profiles anyway: 91% of U.S. companies now use social media in their hiring process, with 82% using it to find candidates who aren’t actively applying anywhere. People sourced through social media are eight times more likely to get hired than those coming through traditional job boards.

The one real caution is how public this all is. A post that comes across as sloppy or desperate can circulate just as fast as one that was done well. Before you post, ask yourself if this is how you would really present yourself at an interview. Just because the platform changed doesn’t mean the job standards did. 

The post Gen Z Started Using TikTok to Find Jobs Out of Desperation, and It’s Actually Working appeared first on VICE.

China’s short drama industry is worth nearly $18 billion globally. And some of that money is going toward very personalized passion projects

Actor Zhong Yufei, 23, recently went public on social media about a production that was supposed to be his big break in the Chinese short drama world. The unnamed investor behind the 50-episode series had two non-negotiable conditions for putting up the money: she would play the lead female role, and she would have final say on the script. No one on set was in a position to argue, because she could pull the plug at any time, and everyone knew it.

What she did with that power was commission over 60 kissing scenes.

According to Zhong and producer Meng Xing, who later came forward to explain what happened, the crew pushed back. The director reportedly told the investor repeatedly that the volume of intimate scenes would disrupt the plot and lose audiences. The investor’s alleged response: “I’ve seen more short dramas than you’ve ever made.” The kissing scenes stayed.

A Short Drama Investor Allegedly Gave Herself the Lead Role and 60 Kissing Scenes

Zhong says his co-star took things further on set. During their first romantic scene, he claims she French-kissed him without warning. When he instinctively pulled back, she allegedly grabbed the back of his head and held him there. He was new to lead roles, and he felt like speaking up could cost him the project, so he didn’t. He also says the rest of the crew looked the other way.

The production ended in commercial failure. After filming wrapped, the streaming platform rejected over 20 scenes for being too explicit, gutting chunks of the plot. The investor then allegedly refused to pay the remaining 30,000 yuan (roughly $4,100) of the production fee, reportedly because she was unhappy that so many of her kissing scenes got cut.

The story blew up on Chinese social media, and the numbers behind the industry make it more unsurprising than it sounds. China’s short drama market hit $6.9 billion domestically in 2024, and the flood of outside investment has come with almost no creative gatekeeping. Whoever controls the budget controls everything, including the script, the casting, and how many times the male lead has to kiss them.

Producer Meng Xing said he and his team had almost no say throughout the entire production. The director clarified publicly that all decisions ran through the investor. The production company stated it would do a better job protecting actors’ rights in future contracts. Whether that actually changes anything remains to be seen.

The post A Wealthy Woman Funded a Drama Series Just So She Could Kiss the Male Lead 60 Times appeared first on VICE.

There’s a fluffy Yorkie in the produce section, and its owner cannot understand why anyone has a problem with this.

Pet humanization has been building to this for years. Sixty-nine percent of millennials and Gen Z now describe their pets as family members. The American Pet Products Association projects the US pet industry will hit $165.6 billion in 2026. When the average annual cost of dog ownership hits $2,500, the grocery store ban feels almost arbitrary.

Reddit has been arguing about it for weeks. On r/AskUK, shoppers complained about dogs urinating in aisles, owners touching produce while carrying their pets, and staff allegedly affording animals “superior rights.” One commenter described the habit as “unsanitary and inconsiderate.” Not everyone agreed.

“Do you really think having a dog in a grocer is that unhygienic compared to the average person? They’re hardly going to be licking the fruit,” one commenter wrote on Reddit. “If anything, letting kids run amok would be less hygienic.”

Why Are People Bringing Dogs Into Grocery Stores?

People act surprised by the rules, but the rules aren’t new. The FDA Food Code bans live animals from food establishments across the board. Trained service animals get an exception under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Emotional support animals do not. Publix felt compelled to post signs about this at its store entrances in 2023—”not permitted in Publix, even with a doctor’s note”—and the signs went viral.

The fact that a grocery chain had to put up a sign explaining federal law tells you where things stood. AKA—entitled owners. The UK draws a similar line, with pet dogs holding no legal right of access to food shops and only assistance dogs protected—though enforcement gets complicated when handlers aren’t required to show proof.

Dogs carry pathogens on their paws and coats, and a grocery store has no shortage of open surfaces for those to land on. Fresh produce bins, deli counters, and bakery displays were not designed with a dog in the aisle in mind. A calm, leashed dog poses minimal risk. What’s harder to manage is the dog that isn’t calm or leashed, the one sniffing shelves and making contact with surfaces that don’t get wiped down between shoppers.

That dog exists; it shows up in grocery stores, and most stores have no infrastructure to address it before something has already gone wrong.

The pet industry got to $165 billion by following the dog wherever it wanted to go. Federal food safety law draws the line at the grocery store. One of those forces is winning, and it isn’t the FDA.

The post Why Everyone Is Suddenly Fighting About Dogs in Grocery Stores appeared first on VICE.

In 1987, the descendants of Boston-area blacksmith Thomas Wells donated a label belonging to a chest of Chinese tea recovered from the Boston Tea Party to the Old South Meeting House. It’s a museum today, but back in 1773, that’s where the Boston Tea Party was planned. The problem, as researchers have just discovered, is that the label was probably created somewhere between the 1860s and 1870s, about 100 years after the historic event.  

MIT historian Tristan Brown initially assumed the label was genuine. Then he translated the Chinese script on the label.

It’s not like he was the first to do this. Previous researchers have translated its writing, but they translated it in Mandarin. Brown is a historian of China and, as such, realized that part of the writing made more sense in Cantonese, the language that dominated Chinese commercial shipping networks.

Suddenly, the label made a lot more sense. It revealed an American name, “Smith, Archer,” as it identified Smith, Archer and Co., a New York trading firm active in East Asia during the 1860s and 1870s.

A Supposed Relic From the Boston Tea Party Just Got a Very Different Origin Story

And thus, the idea that this label belonged to a chest of tea tossed into the harbor during the Boston Tea Party died. But that doesn’t mean the label doesn’t have a little bit of fascinating history of its own. Brown says the label likely made it to the Wells family through John Milton Wells, a relative who went west during the gold rush and later sold imported Asian teeth in Michigan.

Somewhere along the way, as it traveled through the tangled web of history, the label became associated with a foundational moment in American history and eventually became a museum piece.

The myth grew larger and larger during the 19^th century, an era when America became obsessed with its own revolutionary past. Family stories, museum displays, and newspaper articles passed it on. At some point, what might’ve started as an understanding became historical fact.

The post A Supposed Boston Tea Party Artifact May Not Be From the Boston Tea Party at All appeared first on VICE.

AI is threatening to replace human workers in some fields, and rightfully, many people are furious that they’re going to be replaced by lines of code. Count scumbag scam artists among them, as a report in Wired dives into the results of a study showing that AI chatbots may be significantly better at scamming people than humans are.

Researchers from four universities, who published their findings on arXiv, tested an AI chatbot against human scammers in a simulated “pig butchering” scam, a particularly vile form of fraud in which criminals spend weeks or months pretending to be friends or romantic partners before lulling victims into making shady investments.

For the experiment, 22 unsuspecting participants spent a week texting with two strangers: one was a human scammer, and the other was an AI chatbot told to pretend to be human and never admit it was AI.

The AI won.

AI Scammers Could Be Better at Manipulating People Than Human Ones

Forty-six percent of participants agreed to download an app at the chatbot’s request, compared with just 18 percent who complied with the human scammer. Participants also reported trusting the AI more than the human and sent roughly 80 percent of their messages to the chatbot.

What’s especially troubling is that the AI wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary. It didn’t find some clever, significantly more sinister way of scamming people. It was just persistent. It just made conversation, remembered people’s details the way a robot can, and generally did the thing AI does best: be a ruthless, shameless sycophant that gets people on its side by showing a degree of interest in the victim that humans generally don’t. It pretended to give a s—t better than humans can pretend to give a s—t.

Researchers warn that eventually, these ass-kissing scam AI artists will be used to automate their scummy work, which could have at least one upside of reducing or eliminating the need for all the human trafficking victims who currently are forced to work in Southeast Asian scam compounds. An AI might reduce the amount of exploited people in the world while making pig butchering scamming more efficient, prevalent, and harder to trace than ever.

Congrats, humanity! We finally created a technology that’s so good at replacing human labor that one of its most promising uses will be emotionally manipulating people into handing a scammer their life savings.

The post AI Chatbots Are Better at Scamming People Than Human Scammers, Study Finds appeared first on VICE.

When Tropical Storm Hilary hit Southern California in August 2023, the first of its kind to make direct landfall this century, most people were focused on the flooding. They weren’t paying attention to what the sharks were doing.

When Tropical Storm Hilary made landfall in August 2023, researchers at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Shark Lab at CSU, Long Beach were already tracking 22 juvenile great white sharks off the San Diego coast with acoustic tags. The resulting study is the first to document storm-response behavior in white sharks, and the behavior was much more coordinated than anyone expected.

As the storm closed in, more than half the sharks bailed on their nursery off Torrey Pines and Del Mar, retreating to the calmer waters of La Jolla Cove, which sits next to a submarine canyon with quick access to depth. One individual dove 433 feet, probably trying to escape the chop near the surface. Most came back within days.

“We think that some were seeking shelter from the storm,” said co-author Chris Lowe of the CSULB Shark Lab. “It makes sense that not all sharks did the same things, in much the same way people respond differently. It’s a key survival characteristic that humans seem to share, too.”

Great White Sharks May Know When It’s Time to Flee a Storm, and That Could Help Humans

The likely trigger was temperature. Sea-surface temps at the nursery dropped from 68°F to 57°F in under 24 hours as the storm hit. Juvenile great whites are more sensitive to cold than adults, and researchers believe that drop was the cue. “To our knowledge, this is the first study to document storm-response behavior in white sharks,” said lead author and Scripps PhD student Jack Elstner.

Meanwhile, on the East Coast, researchers at the University of Delaware are running a different experiment with a similar cast of characters. They’re attaching electronic tags to shortfin makos, blue sharks, smooth hammerheads, and juvenile great whites to pull ocean temperature and salinity data from the Atlantic. The data feeds into hurricane intensity forecasting, specifically around the Mid-Atlantic’s “cold pool,” a layer of bottom water under 50°F that affects how fast storms strengthen before hitting shore.

“For hurricanes, warm water is the gas, and cold water is the brakes,” doctoral candidate Caroline Wiernicki told the University of Delaware. “Depending on where that cold pool is relative to the shore, that will impact how strong a hurricane is when it makes landfall.”

Sharks are clearing out ahead of storms and simultaneously serving as floating weather stations for the scientists trying to forecast them. That’s a pretty good week for shark research.

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As I’ve gotten older, standing on one leg when I, say, put on pants has become a trickier athletic feat than it used to be. It probably means I have to get myself in shape before it’s too late, because according to a study published in JAMA Network Open, my ability to balance on one leg may be a decent indicator of how many years I’ve got left ahead of me.

Researchers from Taiwan tracked 13,423 adults aged 65 and older. All the participants had to do was complete seven basic fitness tests that measured balance, agility, strength, flexibility, and cardiovascular endurance. By the end of the study, 1631 participants had died. The study didn’t kill them, but rather their deaths revealed some valuable information to the researchers.

They found that the strongest predictor of life expectancy in older folks had nothing to do with heart and lung fitness, despite how much medical professionals focus on them. The strongest predictors were standard tests involving standing on one leg for 30 seconds and a classic “8-foot up-and-go” test, wherein the participant had to stand from a seated position in a chair, walk around a cone, and return to the seat as quickly as possible.

People in the fastest group had about 59 percent lower mortality risk than those in the slowest group.

Standing on One Leg May Reveal How Long You’ll Live

People who could stand on one leg for 30 seconds had roughly half the mortality risk of the worst performers.

People who passed all seven tests had a strong association with long-term survival. As for why, the researchers think that balance and mobility reveal a lot about a person’s survivability because they require several parts of your body to work in concert. Standing on one leg requires vision for balance, leg strength, a well-balanced inner ear, and a functioning brain that can coordinate with the body. It also helps that not falling is a great trait to have as you get older. That alone can tack on extra years to your life.

It’s a low-tech health test that isn’t a replacement for in-depth medical analysis, but serves as a supplement and a general rule of thumb for estimating someone’s overall health and how many years they may have.

The post The One-Leg Test That Could Reveal Your Risk of Dying appeared first on VICE.

Reality television feels so orchestrated now—everyone is purposefully trying to create a viral moment what will sky rocket their careers. It’s completely inauthentic. In the early 2000s, that was far from the case. The unscripted programs didn’t feel like the cast were reading from a script or having a producer tell them what to do. American Idol was arguably the biggest reality competition show in 2006, creating superstars like Kelly Clarkson, Adam Lambert, Jennifer Hudson and Carrie Underwood.

However, one audition sticks out for all the wrong reasons that it’s unbelievable how American Idol let it happen.

The American Idol stalker

Producers would often pick the worst singers to perform in front of the judges. This led to them being publicly embarrassed on national television; but this audition was different. Paula Goodspeed was a superfan of judge Paula Abdul. However, it went far beyond liking her music or being a tribute act. Immediately when she stepped into the room, Abdul looked terrified (we later learn Goodspeed had allegedly been stalking Abdul for over a decade). Abdul was forced to sit through her rendition of “Proud Mary,” to which she received three “no’s” and was eliminated.

But her infatuation with the star didn’t stop there. Despite threats of police involvement, she continues. In November of 2008, Goodspeed tragically took her life in front of Abdul’s home in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, California. The fact that her insecurities were picked apart on a big stage and exploited to the public should’ve never happened. Furthermore, American Idol producers should’ve done more to protect their celebrity judges.

Abdul recalled the situation in an interview with Barbara Walters in 2008. “She came to the audition. I said, ‘This girl is a stalker of mine. Please do not let her in.’ Everyone knew. I was shaking. Abdul also claims producers insisted Goodspeed go through with the audition because it would “be fun for them to cause me stress.” She also claimed that wasn’t the only audition Goodspeed showed up to.

At the time, she was still under contract with American Idol, but she officially parted ways with the show in 2009.

The post The Dark ‘American Idol’ Audition Paula Abdul Said Should Never Have Happened appeared first on VICE.

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Fortnite Mythic Hours is happening today following the Unstable Story Moment live event. The special Power Hour features increased Mythic Sprite spawn rates, better loot across the Island, and several powerful gameplay bonuses. Here is when both Fortnite Power Hour today starts in every region and everything included on August 15.

What Time Is Fortnite Power Hour Today?

The first Fortnite Mythic Hour starts today at 11 AM PT / 2 PM ET on August 15, 2026. The Power Hour will begin immediately following the Unstable Story Moment Fortnite live event, giving players a reason to remain in the game after the Chapter 7 Season 3 finale concludes.

Epic Games will host two separate Mythic Hours sessions, with each one lasting two hours. The second Fortnite Power Hour today starts at 6 PM PT / 9 PM ET, giving players another opportunity to participate later in the evening.

Depending on where you live, the second session may not begin until August 16. To make the schedule easier to follow, we have created two tables below showing the Fortnite Mythic Hours start times for every major region:

Fortnite Mythic Hours Schedule for Every Region

Fortnite Mythic Hour #1 (August 15)

Region	Date	Time
PT (West Coast US)	August 15	11:00 AM–1:00 PM
ET (East Coast US)	August 15	2:00 PM–4:00 PM
UK (BST)	August 15	7:00 PM–9:00 PM
Europe (CEST)	August 15	8:00 PM–10:00 PM
Brazil (BRT)	August 15	3:00 PM–5:00 PM
Japan (JST)	August 16	3:00 AM–5:00 AM
South Korea (KST)	August 16	3:00 AM–5:00 AM
Australia (AEST)	August 16	4:00 AM–6:00 AM
New Zealand (NZST)	August 16	6:00 AM–8:00 AM

Fortnite Mythic Hour #2 (August 15)

Region	Date	Time
PT (West Coast US)	August 15	6:00 PM–8:00 PM
ET (East Coast US)	August 15	9:00 PM–11:00 PM
UK (BST)	August 16	2:00 AM–4:00 AM
Europe (CEST)	August 16	3:00 AM–5:00 AM
Brazil (BRT)	August 15–16	10:00 PM–12:00 AM
Japan (JST)	August 16	10:00 AM–12:00 PM
South Korea (KST)	August 16	10:00 AM–12:00 PM
Australia (AEST)	August 16	11:00 AM–1:00 PM
New Zealand (NZST)	August 16	1:00 PM–3:00 PM

All Fortnite Mythic Hours Rewards and Bonuses

The Fortnite Power Hour today features boosted Mythic Sprite spawn rates and higher-quality loot across the entire Island. Every player will also begin each match with Seven Sliders and a Self-Revive Device, giving them an immediate traversal advantage.

Extracting a Sprite during Mythic Hours will also fully restore your health and grant the Slap effect. This should make Sprites even more useful during a match, especially when you need to quickly recover after a difficult fight.

Here is everything included in the Fortnite Power Hour today:

• Everyone starts with Seven Sliders and a Self-Revive Device.
• Mythic Sprites appear more often, with an extra boost for base Grim and Zero Point Sprites.
• All locations on the Island offer higher-quality loot.
• Extracting a Sprite fully heals you and grants the Slap effect.

Mythic Hours also officially kicks off the Fortnite Sprite Spree Week today. That means starting right now, Sprites no longer cut Sprite Dust to resummon. That means if you lose your Sprite in a match, there is no longer a penalty and you can get them back instantly. Campfires also give you double XP!

Which Sprites Are Featured During Fortnite Mythic Hours?

The featured Sprites during Fortnite Mythic Hours are the Grim Sprite and Zero Point Sprite. Although all Mythic Sprites will appear more frequently, these two variants will receive an additional spawn-rate boost during both sessions.

This makes today’s Power Hour one of the best opportunities to find the extremely rare Grim and Zero Point Sprites before Chapter 7 Season 3 ends. Players still missing either one from their collection will have four total hours to track them down across the two Mythic Hours sessions.

The boosted rates also apply to other Mythic Sprites, so you should encounter rare variants more frequently throughout the event.

How Long Does Fortnite Mythic Hours Last?

Each Fortnite Mythic Hour lasts two hours. Epic Games will host two sessions on August 15, giving players four total hours to take advantage of the increased Sprite spawn rates and special gameplay bonuses.

You don’t need to participate in both sessions, but joining each one will give you the best chance of finding the featured Grim and Zero Point Sprites. The second session is also useful for anyone who misses the first Power Hour following the Unstable Story Moment live event.

With Chapter 7 Season 3 coming to an end, Mythic Hours is one of the final major events before Fortnite Override launches on August 20. Between the boosted Mythic Sprite rates, improved loot, and free Self-Revive Devices, players will have plenty of reasons to jump back into the Battle Royale after today’s live event.

The post Fortnite Power Hour Today: Mythic Hours Start Times and Featured Sprites appeared first on VICE.

Square Enix has revealed new Kingdom Hearts 4 gameplay and story details following its major D23 presentation. Alongside confirming a late 2027 release window, the publisher released an official game summary explaining Sora’s new journey and launched the sequel’s PS5 wishlist page.

Kingdom Hearts 4 Story Details Reveal Sora’s Mission in Quadratum

Square Enix surprised players at D23 by revealing that the Kingdom Hearts 4 release date is set for late 2027. However, following the event, an official KH4 wishlist page also went live on the PlayStation Store, revealing new details about the game’s story and combat.

According to the PS5 page, Sora will be on a separate journey to find his way home after awakening in Quadratum. Meanwhile, Donald and Goofy will travel to the Underworld to find clues about his disappearance, seemingly setting up their encounter with Hades.

Here is the full Kingdom Hearts 4 game summary:

“As the Kingdom Hearts series approaches its 25th anniversary, a new adventure begins. Our hero Sora awakes in the unfamiliar world of Quadratum. As he looks for a way to return from this modern metropolis to his own world, his friends Donald and Goofy head for the Underworld in hopes of finding a clue to his whereabouts.

The dynamic, fast-paced battle system allows you to effortlessly combine attacks and magic, as well as build combos with a brand-new battle feature. Change the Keyblade Sora wields to unleash unique attacks, matching the flow of battle to your own strategies and play style.”

Interestingly, the description also confirms that players will be able to change Sora’s Keyblade during combat to unleash unique attacks. The popular weapon feature originally made it’s debut in 2019’s Kingdom Hearts 3, and is set to return. In KH4, it appears weapon swapping will play a major role in the sequel’s combat system.

New Kingdom Hearts 4 PS5 Screenshots Reveal Improved Visuals

In case you missed it, we also got a new Kingdom Hearts 4 trailer revealing that Pixar’s Coco is the game’s first new Disney world. Following its release on social media, Square Enix also uploaded several new KH4 screenshots to the PlayStation Store.

Technically, most of these images were already shown during the June Nintendo Direct trailer. However, the screenshots released on August 15 are substantially higher resolution, giving us a better look at the PS5 version of Kingdom Hearts 4 and its improved visual fidelity.

If you want never-before-seen footage, though, you can check out the new Kingdom Hearts 4 Coco trailer, which features additional story cutscenes with Sora and Mickey. It also reveals Sora wielding a new Keyblade inspired by Miguel’s guitar from the Pixar film.

Kingdom Hearts 4 Is Now Available to Wishlist on PS5

Finally, you can now wishlist Kingdom Hearts 4 on PS5 through its official PlayStation Store page. Unfortunately, we still can’t pre-order the game, as it currently only has a “late 2027” release window.

The new store listing should be updated once Square Enix announces an exact release date. For now, fans finally have a new trailer, official gameplay and story details, and confirmation that Kingdom Hearts 4 is arriving next year. Considering we’ve been waiting since 2019 for a new mainline Kingdom Hearts game, this has been a pretty incredible week for fans.

The post Square Enix Reveals New Kingdom Hearts 4 Gameplay and Story Details appeared first on VICE.

Tribal tattoos became a fad in the late 90s and throughout the 2000s. Rock stars, professional wrestlers, and professional athletes sported tribal tattoos. Many of them became an identifiable symbol of their image. In time, tribal tattoos fell out of style. Many still have their tattoos from this era, and these three rock songs will take them back to their glory days.

“scars” by papa roach

“The scars remind us that the past is real / I tear my heart open, just to feel”.

The lines were personal for rock fans of the early 2000s. It brought together lyrical elements of emo and attached them to post-grunge. This crossover of styles was successful, as the song hit No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 2 on the Alternative Airplay chart. They just don’t make them like they used to. You don’t have to tear your heart open just to feel; you can simply listen to the song to feel something.

“song for the dead” by queens of the stone age

In 2002, Dave Grohl took a break from his role as frontman of Foo Fighters. He returned to drums, briefly joining Queens of the Stone Age. He appeared on their critically acclaimed third album, Songs For The Deaf. Not only were their fans the type to sport tribal tattoos, but Grohl has multiple himself. A shirtless Dave Grohl opens this track with explosive drums, which ranks among his best drumming moments. Fans went wild for this one in the early 2000s. It continues to be a fan-favorite track from the band.

“blurry” by puddle of mudd

Puddle of Mudd’s “Blurry” is a defining post-grunge track from the turn of the century. This power ballad was released as the second single from their sophomore album, Come Clean, becoming the band’s signature hit in 2001. The album went to No. 9 on the Billboard 200. “Blurry” hit No. 1 on both the Mainstream Rock chart and the Alternative Airplay chart upon release. Puddle of Mudd’s music video for the track featured Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit.

Photo by Hayley Madden/Redferns

The post 3 Rock Songs from the 2000s That Could Make a Man With a Tribal Tattoo Feel Something Again appeared first on VICE.

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Square Enix has finally revealed the Kingdom Hearts 4 release date at D23. The much-anticipated sequel will launch late next year, and its first Disney world is based on the popular Pixar film Coco.

Kingdom Hearts 4 Release Date Is Late 2027

Square Enix has confirmed that the Kingdom Hearts 4 release date is set for late 2027. The Japanese publisher revealed the long-awaited launch window during the Disney Entertainment panel at the D23 convention in Anaheim, California.

Following the presentation, Square Enix uploaded a new Kingdom Hearts 4 trailer showcasing new story and gameplay footage from upcoming sequel. More importantly, the trailer ends by confirming that the game will finally launch near the end of 2027.

Although an exact release date wasn’t announced, this is still a major update for fans who have been waiting years for the sequel. KH4 was originally revealed in April 2022 before disappearing for several years.

Kingdom Hearts 4 Trailer Reveals Coco World

Square Enix also revealed that the first Disney world in Kingdom Hearts 4 is based on Pixar’s Coco. The colorful new level will allow players to explore the Land of the Dead from the beloved 2017 animated film.

The new trailer gives players their first look at how familiar characters and locations from Coco will look in the 2027 RPG. The footage also shows Sora obtaining a new Keyblade based on Miguel’s iconic guitar from the Pixar film. Unsurprisingly, the Coco’s vibrant world looks absolutely gorgeous in the new Kingdom Hearts 4 engine.

While this is the first official Disney world revealed for KH4, there are still many additional crossover levels that have yet to be revealed. Regardless, Coco feels like the perfect Disney world for Square Enix to reveal first. The Pixar film’s themes surrounding memories, family, and the afterlife also seem like they could connect heavily to Sora’s story in Quadratum.

After years of waiting, we finally know when Kingdom Hearts 4 will launch and have our first look at one of its Disney worlds. With a late 2027 release window now confirmed, it appears Square Enix is finally ready to reveal more about Sora’s next adventure.

The post Kingdom Hearts 4 Release Date Revealed Alongside First Disney World appeared first on VICE.

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Zara Larsson, proving she’s the sweetest heart on Earth, wrapped up a big festival set and immediately headed to a meet-and-greet with young cancer survivors.

As first reported by the Budapest Business Journal, Larsson was a performer at the 2026 Sziget festival. The event is held in Budapest from Aug. 11 through the 16. Larsson was part of the line-up on the fest’s kickoff day, Tuesday, playing the main stage. She delivered a rousing set, with the crowd going wild for her performance.

Afterwards, Larsson wasn’t too tired, so she went straight to a planned meet-and-greet with members of the European Youth Cancer Network. Larsson spent time with about 20 young people from 11 European countries, chatting and hearing their stories. One person said that speaking with Larsson was “like talking to a fellow advocate.” Another added that she was “a kind human being.” Check out footage of the event below.

View this post on Instagram

Zara Larsson is coming up on two decades in the music industry. She has numerous tours under her belt, as well as five full-length studio albums.

During a May 2026 interview with Paper magazine, Larsson opened up about her artistry and, at one point, shared her thoughts on creativity. “I genuinely think that everyone has an artist who lives inside of them,” she said. “How do you express that? And how little do you want to conform?”

She added, “Because there’s something punk about Love Island, about going to a place where you’re getting scrutinized, or people think you’re dumb, and you don’t care about that. Yeah, maybe you are. And who cares? I’m like, Oh, wait, that kind of eats down. But no, I do think that you can have a lot of attention without much substance.”

Larsson continued, “I love most things. I love everything. There’s some things I don’t like, but I don’t even dislike them. I just think they’re not for me. And then if it’s really not for me, and I lowkey think that’s f**king trash. It’s just camp. Like, I don’t even hate it. I’m like, That’s so camp, you know? I either love it, it’s not for me, or it’s camp.”

Finally, the Swedish pop singer-songwriter shared, “And that’s just how I view things. I think celebrity of it all, at least it’s entertaining, and that is some sort of an art form, I guess, yeah. But I obviously like to see myself as an artist.”

Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for The Recording Academy

The post Zara Larsson Wrapped a Big Festival Set and Then Immediately Did a Meet-And-Greet with Cancer Survivors Because She’s Literally The Sweetest appeared first on VICE.