PSA: Don't throw your phone at celebrities ☏
+ A submarine on the way to view the Titanic has gone missing, & Reddit communities are on strike 🛳❌
Hi angels!!! So glad you loved yesterday’s special edish of the newsy yesterday where I got to dive into the tay-baiting and tay-trapping phenomenon. Stay safe out there!!!
Bel and I recorded you an ‘on the fly’ Culture Vulture yesterday morning, and then some new episodes of Own The Feels last night (Close Friends saw it all), so I am currently feeling VERY PODCASTED OUT and very glad to be simply writing you a normal newsy today.
Love you all - miss you! xxxx
Did you know that Reddit communities are on strike rn?
A submarine on an expedition to the Titanic wreck has gone missing
Bebe Rexha had to get stitches after being hit by a phone on stage
Today’s mundane poll: When you’re served a meal in a bowl do you mix it all up or eat it as is?
Did you know that Reddit communities are on strike rn?
It’s been about a week and I haven’t gotten around to covering it yet, but communities on the popular message board site ✨Reddit✨ are on strike!! Thousands of the most popular channels have gone dark (become inaccessible to the general public) as a way of protesting the company’s plan to charge for third-party integrations (apps that have been built to make the experience easier, more accessible, or just more enjoyable.)
Why do Reddit plan to charge for these third-party integrations now?
Well - they need to make money. Reddit, as it stands is a highly valued service for users, but not so much a highly profitable one for its owners, and they’re wanting to go public in an IPO this year, so wanted to find some new revenue streams. And if this is all sounding like mumbo jumbo to you, I highly recommend this brilliant episode (they’re all brilliant) of Hard Fork.
Community is not just at the heart of Reddit, it’s the point of Reddit - so when the communities strike, they actually do hold an enormous amount of power (the whole site is based on the content they post!) Now, instead of posting as usual, three of the largest communities have reverted to simply posting photos of John Oliver (he even offered up a few himself.)
A submarine on an expedition to the Titanic wreck has gone missing
Ok when I tell you this is my WORST nightmare I’m not lying. A submarine on its way to visit the wreckage of the Titanic has gone missing and sparked a major search and rescue operation.
The submarine - which is believed to be a truck-sized sub - holds five people and usually dives with a four-day supply of oxygen. It lost contact with the ship that ferried the crew and expedition members to the dive site approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes after leaving.
Among those missing on the submarine is Hamish Harding, a 59-year-old British billionaire businessman and explorer. Over the weekend he’d announced the mission to the wreck on Instagram, saying:
“I am proud to finally announce that I joined @oceangateexped for their RMS TITANIC Mission as a mission specialist on the sub going down to the Titanic.
Due to the worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years, this mission is likely to be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023. A weather window has just opened up and we are going to attempt a dive tomorrow. We started steaming from St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada yesterday and are planning to start dive operations around 4am tomorrow morning. Until then we have a lot of preparations and briefings to do.
The team on the sub has a couple of legendary explorers, some of which have done over 30 dives to the RMS Titanic since the 1980s including PH Nargeolet.
More expedition updates to follow IF the weather holds!”
Live updates on this story here.
Bebe Rexha had to get stitches after being hit by a fan’s phone on stage
Yesterday as I was scrolling on Twitter (but Substack is still in a stupid fight with Twitter and won’t let us embed links so you get a TikTok video) I saw Bebe Rexha get hit in the face by a phone a fan had thrown on stage.
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You can all watch for yourselves, but to me it looks like what happened was that she gestured for the phone to be thrown, but it came at her with so much force that she was rushed off stage and to the hospital immediately after it struck her in the face.
New York Police have confirmed that a 27-year-old concertgoer has been charged with assault.
In a TikTok video Bebe reassured everyone that she’s “good yeah I’m feeling alright” (lol the lyrics to one of her songs.) That’s all I got on this sitch!
Today’s mundane poll:
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This 'mission' to the Titanic, is a rich man's road trip, is getting so much money and coverage thrown at it.
But what about refugees who's boats capsize, where is the mass rescue mission? It's very transparently placing higher value on one human life over another. I guess his estate is paying for the rescue?
I can barely put my phone in my pocket at a concert without thinking I've lost it how the fuck are these people throwing their phone onto the stage?????