TIME Tech

Watch Samsung’s Rap Video About Corporate Diversity — It’s Just as Bizarre as It Sounds

The tech giant hired Korean rapper Mad Clown to do the honors

Tech giant Samsung announced its sustainability report just the way that a tech giant should: By hiring a Korean rapper named Mad Clown to rap about it.

No, this is not a spoof.

Lyrics include:

Samsung we two hundred
Eighty thousand humans
Forty percent of 100
Twelve thousand women
That don’t have to worry
After giving birth
Sit back, relax, no need to work

Translation: 40% of Samsung’s 280,000 employees are women. Parental leave policies are illin’.

Sure, this outreach method may be a little quirky, but it’s better than Samsung’s past PR gaffes — like that kinda sexist Galaxy S4 Broadway spectacular launch event at Radio City Music Hall last year. And who can forget that quickly yanked ad that made light of abusing puppies?

In fact, we’re kind of hoping that one of Samsung’s competitors will challenge Samsung to a rap battle. Dare to dream.

[H/t The Verge]

TIME society

Listen to Bryan Cranston Read a Truly Profane Bedtime Story

And he really puts his heart into it

Audiobook retailer Audible released a clip of Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston channeling his inner patriarch by reading the inappropriate children’s tale, You Have to F-cking Eat.

The book is the sequel to Adam Mansbach’s bestselling 2011 story, Go the F-ck to Sleep. That cathartic tale was narrated by the great Samuel L. Jackson.

And download the audiobook for free here.

TIME Television

Watch Woody Harrelson Turn SNL Into a Hunger Games Arena

Aidy Bryant volunteers as tribute

This weekend, Woody Harrelson will take a break from being Haymitch in the Hunger Games movies to host Saturday Night Live. He dropped by Studio 8H to record this promo video with cast member Taran Killam, who really just cannot contain his excitement — even though he confuses Harrelson with other famous Woodys (like Allen and Guthrie.)

Harrelson also reveals that he spoke with Lorne Michaels about doing an SNL version of the The Hunger Games — and Killam does not do very well.

TIME Body Image

Old Navy Explains Why It Charges More for Women’s Plus Sizes

US-ECONOMY-OLD NAVY
An Old Navy clothing store is seen in Springfield, Virginia,/AFP/Getty Images) SAUL LOEB—AFP/Getty Images

Almost 20,000 people petitioned the company to stop

Old Navy is under fire for its double standards when it comes to plus size clothing prices. While men pay the same price for regular and larger sizes, women get charged up to $12 to $15 more for plus sized items.

Almost 20,000 people have signed a petition asking Old Navy to change its practices. Renee Posey, who started the Change.org petition, notes that while she was “fine paying the extra money as a plus-sized woman, because, you know, more fabric equals higher cost of manufacture,” she was alarmed that the same standards didn’t apply to men, inciting that “Old Navy is participating in both sexism and sizeism, directed only at women.”

Old Navy’s explanation? A spokesperson for Gap Inc., the retailer’s parent company, issued a statement to TIME (among other outlets):

Old Navy is proud to offer styles and apparel designed specifically for the plus size customer. For women, styles are not just larger sizes of other women’s items, they are created by a team of designers who are experts in creating the most flattering and on-trend plus styles, which includes curve-enhancing and curve-flattering elements such as four-way stretch materials and contoured waistbands, which most men’s garments do not include. This higher price point reflects the selection of unique fabrics and design elements.

So more detail equals more money.

Spokesperson Debbie Felix didn’t respond to questions about Posey’s rebuttal about why the extra cost doesn’t apply to regular women’s clothing that includes the same fabrics and “figure-enhancing elements.”

A look at Old Navy’s petite section shows that the retailer charges the same amount for its smaller sizes as it does its “regular” sizes.

[BuzzFeed]

TIME celebrity

Aubrey Plaza Says You Might Have to Be Drunk to Really Enjoy the Grumpy Cat Movie

"It's really the weirdest thing I've ever seen"

Like many great films, Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever might be best appreciated when the viewer is drunk, says Aubrey Plaza, who’s lending her deadpan voice to the curmudgeon-y feline in the Lifetime special.

She told Jimmy Kimmel Monday that he should “have a couple glasses of wine” before watching it to “get in the right mood.”

“It’s really the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen,” she said. “It’s so confusing.”

But it’s also “a gift to America.”

See for yourself when it premieres Nov. 29.

PHOTOS: Grumpy Cat Is Not Impressed by TIME’s Photo Shoot

LIST: The 11 Most Influential Animals of 2013

TIME viral

Watch Anderson Cooper Get Pranked by His Staff

The airing of grievances on live TV was like an early Festivus present

On Anderson Cooper 360, the “RidicuList” segment is a time to poke fun at absurd news stories of the week. Last night, the show’s staff made it all about a foul-smelling scented candle on Anderson Cooper’s desk. He claims he had no idea they felt that way until he was reading their list of grievances off of the teleprompter, which says the candle smells like “Mario Batali’s Crocs” and “a garden gnome’s underwear drawer.” Looks like Festivus came early this year for the CNN host.

WATCH: Anderson Cooper Thought Seth Meyers Was Gay

MORE: Anderson Cooper Gets ‘Sunburned Eyeballs,’ Goes Temporarily Blind

 

 

 

TIME Television

There Was an Entire Category About Beyoncé on Jeopardy! Last Night

The Glastonbury Festival 2011 - Day Four
Beyonce headlines the Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, Pilton on June 26, 2011 in Glastonbury, England. Samir Hussein—Getty Images

But if you're a true fan of Queen Bey, the questions were insultingly easy

Last night on Jeopardy!‘s Tournament of Champions, contestants got a chance to show off their knowledge about literature, geography, politics, blah blah blah — and oh wait, also BEYONCÉ.

Yup, an entire category was dedicated to Queen Bey — but for any true fans, the questions were pretty easy.

Check them out and play along here:

Contestants got all of the questions right, except for one minor hiccup from Arthur Chu, who responded with “Drunk on Love” instead of “Drunk in Love.” He later defended himself on Twitter:

Tread lightly, Arthur, because that kind of sass is what lands you in deep trouble with the Beygency.

TIME society

Which Word Should Be Banned in 2015?

Katy Steinmetz for TIME

If you hear that word one more time, you will definitely cringe. You may exhale pointedly. And you might even seek out the nearest the pair of chopsticks and thrust them through your own eardrums like straws through plastic lids. What word is this? You tell us.

For TIME’s fourth annual word banishment poll, we’re asking readers to vote another word off the island, following previous castoffs OMG, YOLO and twerk. Cast your vote, encourage your friends to share their curmudgeonly angst and we’ll announce the results next week on Nov. 19.

If you need help deciding (or a little background on the words), see our blurbs below the poll, in which we’ve channeled the type of person who would like to see each nominee launched into the deepest, darkest, most hopeless eternity from whence there is no salvation nor return.


bae: Yes, this term of endearment has been around for years, but suddenly it’s everywhere. You can’t turn around without encountering someone’s bae or some bae meal or some bae bae. The cool factor is being smothered. It’s time to start using something Chick-Fil-A managers have never heard of.

basic: You get it. Girls need a word for other girls who name-drop D-listers in their fake Louboutins, going around thinking they’re a Carrie, even though they’re really a Miranda — if Miranda had a less remarkable hair color and worked at TJ Maxx. But basic has become basic. Bad bitches can do better.

bossy: You are leaning in all over the place. If Sheryl wants a word banned, then we best get banning.

disrupt: Silicon Valley types may be changing sleepy industries, but this word is more worn out than startup names that sound and look like six-year-olds came up with them. You just might strangle the next “disrupt0r” you meet with his hoodie drawstrings.

feminist: You have nothing against feminism itself, but when did it become a thing that every celebrity had to state their position on whether this word applies to them, like some politician declaring a party? Let’s stick to the issues and quit throwing this label around like ticker tape at a Susan B. Anthony parade.

I can’t even: … finish a sentence, apparently. Nobody is this speechless.

influencer: This kind of business jargon makes you want to pivot yourself into a gorge. Stop throwing trumped up labels on people with a bunch of Twitter followers or five friends who might sign up for something if they do.

kale: You haven’t been so tired of having a single thing talked about and trumpeted and pushed in your face since people started signing up for Twitter. You even saw kids selling dried kale chips on the street the other day instead of running a lemonade stand. Kale chips, people! This is America!

literally: You continue to hate it when people use literally to mean figuratively, even if the word just won’t be separated from that usage. The least you can do is cast a vote against everyone who has ever “literally” lost their mind, because they are metaphorically driving you bananas.

om nom nom nom: If people could stop posting pictures of their brunches like their fancy toast slices were newborn babies, then maybe you would be spared this overdone onomatopoeia. You get it. Food is delicious. Restaurants serve bacon. Moving on.

obvi: You hate this particular unnecessary, cloying word-shortening about as much as you hate perf, whatevs, adorbs, natch, totes and amaze (when used in place of amazing). If truncation is cool, then you’d like to buy a ticket to the hottest place on earth, please.

said no one ever: “A joke like this stays fresh no matter how many times you hear it,” said no one ever.

sorry not sorry: #sorrynotsorryyoureoverthisnonapology

turnt: Parents in Middle America may still be struggling to understand what this word means, but everybody else knows all too well — including writers at SNL, who portrayed the state of being turnt as a remedy to an unsatisfying sex life. It’s time for turnt to turn down.

yaaasssss: Nooooooooo mmooooorrrreeeeee. If only for poor Lady Gaga’s sake.

This is an edition of Wednesday Words, a feature on language. For the previous post, click here.

TIME Pop Culture

Benedict Cumberbatch Is Actually Related to Alan Turing, Researchers Claim

Benedict Cumberbatch and Alan Turing.
Benedict Cumberbatch and Alan Turing. Getty Images

The two men are 17th cousins

Actor Benedict Cumberbatch is distantly related to Alan Turing, his character in newly released film The Imitation Game, genealogists claim.

Turing was a mathematician and code breaker who helped alter the course of World War II by breaking the Enigma code and creating a machine that allowed Britain and the U.S. to read secret German messages.

Researchers from the family-history website Ancestry have now said that Cumberbatch, 38, is actually Turing’s 17th cousin, sharing a common ancestor back in 14th century England. Tracing the paternal lines of both men revealed that the pair are related to John Beaufort, the first Earl of Somerset, who was born around 1373.

Miriam Silverman, U.K. content manager for Ancestry, said: “It’s amazing to think that that when stepping into the role of Alan Turing, he would not only be portraying a world-class code breaker but a real-life relation.”

[Daily Telegraph]

TIME People

Police Rescue Man Believed Trapped in Marshalls Wall for Days

TJX Cos. Posts 48 Percent Profit Increase
MOUNT PROSPECT - MAY 19: A shopper with her purchases walks to her car outside a Marshalls store May 19, 2004 in Mount Prospect, Illinois. T.J. Maxx' and Marshalls' parent company TJX Cos. posted a 48 percent first-quarter rise in profit. Sales alone from the T.J. Maxx and Marshalls stores rose 12.6 percent from last year. (Photo by Tim Boyle/Getty Images) Tim Boyle—Getty Images

Marshalls employees couldn't figure out where his yells were coming from

A 35-year-old man was rescued Tuesday after being trapped in a wall of a Marshalls store, where police he had been stuck for up to three days.

Employees at the store in Longmont, Colo. first heard the man, identified as Paul Felyk, yelling on Monday, but they couldn’t locate him, according to the city’s police department. When they heard him yelling again on Tuesday, they alerted authorities, who found the man between an interior and exterior wall, NBC affiliate 9News reported.

In the space, accessible only by roof, there was enough room between the walls for Felyk to lay down but not enough to move, police said. Firefighters resorted to breaking open the exterior wall so Felyk could crawl out.

Felyk was hospitalized in fair condition, and is under investigation for criminal trespass.

[9News]

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