Aaron Carter, teen heartthrob turned Twitter troll, strikes again.

Carter, who rose to fame as a young teen in the early aughts and continues to produce music and tour to this day, has a tumultuous relationship with social media. (And with Shaq, but that's another story.)

Carter's Twitter feed, @aaroncarter, is equal parts complaints about his life, retweets from excited fans, and self-promotion about his current tours. Carter is not a celebrity hidden behind a glass case: He is extremely interactive with his fans. For that reason, many of them believed him when he tweeted a phone number he claimed was his. Several fans were momentarily excited that they had a legitimate way to call Carter.

My phone on silent when @aaroncarter tweeted his number I can see that I have a notification but not the number. Aaron you should call me

— Mikey Marx (@Mikey_Marx) October 10, 2014

AARON CARTER GAVE AWAY HIS PHONE NUMBER I'M FREAKING CRYING HOW CAN I CALL HIM DGHDSJFKALH

— #RealerThanReal (@owbaekyeol) October 10, 2014

Is it me or did @aaroncarter really just tweet his phone number and then deleted the tweet?

— Anjori (@Annie23703) October 10, 2014

Carter deleted the number shortly after. A subsequent tweet revealed that the number belonged to a girl who, apparently, had Carter’s actual phone number and gave it to her friends to let them “bully” him over the phone. Carter was not happy about this.

We've blocked the phone number in the screengrab below. The digits belong to a family in Lincoln, Neb., where Carter performed on Thursday, Oct. 9.

Man fuck people sometimes!! Girls like that make me not want to be nice to people cause I never know what to expect after. Not cool

— Aaron Carter (@aaroncarter) October 10, 2014

It's fine. Make fun of me. Put me down. Say whatever you want. What I know is how far I've come from where I've been and the work I put in.

— Aaron Carter (@aaroncarter) October 10, 2014

You Guys don't understand how tough it is on me at times. Always constantly trying to prove myself is really hard at times. #ImNotGivingUp

— Aaron Carter (@aaroncarter) October 10, 2014

Everyone have a great night. Sorry for bombarding you with my problems sometimes I just don't have anyone else to talk too....

— Aaron Carter (@aaroncarter) October 10, 2014

It's not the first time Carter has lashed out on social media against his fans and encouraged followers to prank people who annoy him. Last year, Tumblr’s Amber Gordon wrote an article on the Daily Dot describing how Carter’s fans harassed her and she was subsequently blocked by the singer after she called him out for cyberbullying women on Twitter. 

The Daily Dot reached out to the owner of the phone number but has not yet received a response. In the meantime, Carter is "rebuilding" his "love with his fans."

Rebuilding my love with my fans 🙈 pic.twitter.com/iMbGVH8VhA

— Aaron Carter (@aaroncarter) October 10, 2014

Photo via fireatwillrva/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Saturday Night Live alum Jan Hooks passed away on Oct. 9 at the age of 57. The cause of death is still unknown, but on Facebook and Twitter, our digital mourning ground, the remembrances have come pouring in.

My girlfriend in the 80’s and my friend forever, Janners. God, were you talented. Too soon and too sad. #JanHookspic.twitter.com/l2wGR9HJ0x

— Kevin Nealon (@kevin_nealon) October 10, 2014

From 1986 to 1991, Hooks was a cast member on SNL, and she created some of the most memorable characters of the era. In this recent “The Women of SNL” retrospective, former cast members like Ana Gasteyer, Tina Fey, and Maya Rudolph mock The Real Housewives franchise as part of a faux “reunion.” Hooks appears via satellite, in bed, and makes a joke about how she fell down the stairs and got two black eyes from her boobs hitting her in the face.

She then delivers the gut-punch: “Life is a lot like live TV. You just go with it.”

Hooks knew how to toe the line between comedy and sincerity perfectly. Hopefully there will be an SNL tribute this weekend. Here are five of her best sketches.

1) Tammy Wynette

Hooks was great at channeling singers, and her Tammy Wynette impression is no exception.

2) Kathie Lee Gifford

Here she plays Kathie Lee Gifford, singing to a monkey.

3) Sinéad O'Connor

Hooks and Phil Hartman were SNL’s power duo; their chemistry was untouchable and any scene they were in together was gold. Here they are in the classic Sinatra Group sketch, in which Hartman plays a cantankerous Sinatra and Hooks plays Sinéad O’Connor.

4) BeautyBath

Corazon Aquino, forever. 

5) Love is a Dream

The Hooks/Hartman short “Love is a Dream” is a classic, and an example of how SNL could sometimes hit you right in the heart.

You can watch all her sketches here. 

Screengrab via Hulu 

Warning: This story contains sexually explicit material and may be NSFW.

We talk a lot about closing the income gap between men and women, but just how much money are women being cheated out of? Sarah Silverman has an easy way to figure it out. It’s called the “vagina tax.”

In a new video for the Equal Payback Project, Silverman explains that every year, the average woman loses roughly $11,000 to income disparity, and that added up over her professional life, that number rises to nearly $500,000.

“That’s a $500,000 vagina tax,” she says.

She decides the best way to avoid this gap is to get surgery to become a man, which leads into a NSFW portion in which she tries on different penises. This understandably upset people in the transgender community, who saw what many consider as a real-life decision reduced to a joke. Transgender people also face more harassment and discrimination in the workplace. 

.@nwlc@SarahKSilverman Sex reassignment doesn't help one advance in workplace. Ask one of the most underemployed populations: trans people.

— Janet Mock (@janetmock) October 8, 2014

In the video, Silverman then waves around a prosthetic penis to highlight the amount of money owed to women due to the income gap: $29, 811,746,430,000, a number arrived at after multiplying that $500,000 figure with the 69 million women in the American workforce.

This goal of the project is to crowdfund that nearly $30 trillion figure and donate to the National Women’s Law Center. On the Equal Payback Project’s site, it’s explained that they’re “not asking women to literally pay themselves back. That would be silly. Instead, the money raised goes to the National Women’s Law Center, a non-profit group fighting for equal pay through legislation, education and advocacy.”

They also break down what your donation might equal, in terms of how much money a woman loses every day, week, month, year, and illustrate the disparities in certain fields. 

This is coming in the wake of Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella’s tone-deaf remark at a panel on women and computing about how women shouldn’t ask their bosses for raises. Instead, it’s about “having faith that the system will actually give you the right raises as you go along.”

The NWLC did apologize for any insensitivity towards trans people, and vowed to advocate for trans men and women as well. 

Screengrab via Sarah Silverman/YouTube 

For kids who grew up in the ‘80s and had a sexual awakening after seeing David Bowie in Labyrinth, your day has come: A sequel to the 1986 fantasy film might be in the works. 

This news comes courtesy of an exclusive Variety story about Billy Crystal’s latest movie, Which Witch, a new production from the Jim Henson Co., which is also behind Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

At the very end of the article is a list of other titles the company is allegedly working on, including “a Fraggle Rock movie that’s been in development at New Regency; a sequel to 1982’s The Dark Crystal; a sequel to 1986’s Labyrinth; and a movie based on the Emmet Otter character.”

Sources told Entertainment Weekly that the idea for a sequel has been tossed around in meetings, but there are no plans to revive it at the moment. Still, fan reactions to this sort of announcement have been known to turn the tide. The Henson Co. had no comment. 

While you wait to see if this dream ever comes true, please revisit this amazing fan-penned backstory from 2013. 

H/T i09 | Photo via Ingrid Richter/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

You’re never too young for fine dining, or at least that’s the thesis behind The New York Times Magazine’s latest video that gave six second-graders the opportunity to eat at one of New York’s fanciest and most expensive eateries.

For its fall food issue, The New York Times Magazine sent the students from P.S. 295 in Brooklyn to Daniel for a typical tasting menu, which costs $220 a person and was not watered down for kid tastes. At least these kids didn’t run up the bill with expensive wine and mixed drinks, although the staff clearly prepared them some fun kid-style mocktails to go along with their meals.

In the video you see the kids go from prim and proper about being in a fancy setting to unabashedly vocal and opinionated as the meal goes on. They definitely aren’t big fans of the inventive appetizer courses that range from fish eggs to a squash pasta one child explains is like “eating soap.” However, once Chef Daniel Boulud start putting out main courses of fish and steak, the kids come around. Dessert is then an obvious winner, with chocolates hidden in poppable balloons and lemon-scented madeleines.

Try not to get too jealous that children are having a better dinner than you are tonight.

H/T Eater | Screengrab via The New York Times

In the fast-moving world of YouTube, it's hard to keep up. With creators uploading videos, sharing on Twitter, creating Snapchat stories, and engaging in every other form of social media imaginable, the canon of the fandom is ever-expanding. Thankfully, one Twitter account is distilling the world of YouTube into easily digestible nuggets of information that will keep you informed about the video platform's goings-on—without ever actually watching a video.

Lohanthony is bald

— YouTuber Updates (@ytuberupdates) September 28, 2014

The mastermind behind @YTuberUpdates is 16-year-old New Jerseyan Ryan Curran. He began YouTuberUpdates in January 2014 on a snow day, inspired by other Twitter fan accounts for acts like One Direction and Justin Bieber. The account grew quickly, with more than 6,000 followers in the first month of it running, and has grown to 45,700 followers in less than a year.

Connor Franta is a plant killer

— YouTuber Updates (@ytuberupdates) September 29, 2014

YouTuberUpdates isn’t a promotional kiss-ass, however. The account doesn’t endlessly retweet YouTubers, or even link out to their projects. Instead it adopts a straightforward, almost affectless style of simply stating what a certain YouTuber is doing or what the underlying theme of their most recent video was. Sometimes an update feels nonsensical, though, if you’re not plugged into the world of YouTube that Curran is following.

Jc Caylen has 2 penises

— YouTuber Updates (@ytuberupdates) September 24, 2014

Andrea Russett is allergic to fish

— YouTuber Updates (@ytuberupdates) September 27, 2014

For Curran, that style was a conscious choice.

“Since the beginning of my account I never linked any YouTubers in my tweets mostly because I thought it looked better and sounded more informational,” Curran told the Daily Dot. “People never ask me to link YouTubers in my tweets but sometimes people will ask me to link them to a picture of the update or the video.” 

Alfie got the iPhone 6

— YouTuber Updates (@ytuberupdates) September 21, 2014

YouTuberUpdates isn’t the only update-style Twitter out there (unofficial accounts focused on One Direction can command half a million followers), but in covering stars of a medium that’s inherently visual, the text-only storytelling lends a certain otherworldly quality to the missives. At the very least, it’s inherently teen in style, keeping the account linguistically authentic to the demographic, a kind of authenticity full-fledged adults have trouble matching. 

Tyler Oakley wants to eat Caspar Lee's skin

— YouTuber Updates (@ytuberupdates) September 20, 2014

Staples of the account are the big names of YouTube that the post-high school social media crowd might vaguely recognize, but are staples to the under-18s. Curran frequently updates about Lohanthony, Tyler Oakley, the boys of Our2ndLife, and much of the AwesomenessTV crowd. It’s decidedly not an update on all things YouTube, as adult-aged powerhouses like Smosh or PewDiePie get nary a mention, even though demographically they appeal to the same age range. It’s more of a update board of fans' contemporaries than an all-encompassing news account. Curran admits that he gives preference YouTubers he likes personally, like Miranda Sings, but he also has no one to answer to than his fan base.

“Someone is worth an update tweet based on how popular they are,” Curran said. “I'm not going to tweet about YouTubers who aren't that popular because the tweet wouldn't get many retweets and favorites, which is the overall goal for my updates. I pick out bits of information from things a YouTuber says in a video, what a YouTuber is doing in an Instagram post, or something they tweet about.”

Jc Caylen and Lia Marie Johnson got a kitten

— YouTuber Updates (@ytuberupdates) October 1, 2014

To keep up with the overwhelming world of YouTube, Curran keeps up a strict regimen of video consumption in between his responsibilities as a high school student.

“A typical day for me would be waking up, checking my phone, going to school if it's a school day, and coming home at 3,” he said. “From then on I would watch YouTube videos trying to find updates and doing my homework. I try not to spend so much time on the Internet, but I probably spend at least five hours a day online.”

Curran, who is a YouTuber himself, says he can’t imagine a world without the platform.

“I've been watching YouTube since I was in third grade, and it's a universal platform with millions of videos that can be about anything,” he explained. “I wouldn't have my account without YouTube, obviously.” 

Miranda Sings prays for her haters

— YouTuber Updates (@ytuberupdates) September 18, 2014

Illustration by Jason Reed

The Kuala Lumpur Tower is an iconic building in Malaysia. The 1,100-foot-tall building has a revolving restaurant at the top of the structure that gives patrons a 360-degree view of the capital city.

What the Kuala Lumpur Tower usually doesn't have is people jumping off of it and landing in a pool on another building.

YouTuber John Van Horne uploaded a video of two people BASE jumping off the tower and parachuting flawlessly into the middle of a pool party on the 34th floor of a hotel.

Yes, you read that correctly. Watch the video for yourself.

If you can find a better way to make an entrance at a pool party, please let us know.

H/T Gizmodo | Screengrab via John Van Horne/YouTube

Although punk band Against Me! recently released the album Transgender Dysphoria Blues, in the new AOL webseries True Trans, frontwoman Laura Jane Grace reveals that every album the band has created features songs about her experience.

"Literally every single Against Me! record has songs that was me dealing with my dysphoria," Grace said. "And at first, I really masked the lyrics and it wasn't very direct. And then it almost became my subconscious pushing me forward to deal with it. And I didn't intend to necessarily out myself, but it was just happening."

Grace, who came out as transgender in 2012, uses the webseries to both explore the various issues and moments shared across the transgender experience, as well as shed light on her own personal story. While Grace may be the focal point, she’s not the sole subject of the series. She interacts with a variety of other gender-variant people, including luminaries like Our Lady J and Buck Angel. However, Grace’s story is central and illuminates the themes—the fourth episode discusses suicide and depression among transgender individuals.

"The statistic is that 41 percent of trans people attempt suicide in their life, and I'm part of that statistic," Grace explained in the episode.

The first four episodes are streaming now, with more to come from AOL Originals in the 10-part series.

Screengrab via True Trans/AOL Originals

On one of those blazing hot Phoenix afternoons—the kind that the Weather Channel speaks of with a mix of disdain and disbelief—I ventured outdoors to see if it there was enough scorching heat to fry an egg on the sidewalk. 

Capturing the historic event on video and posting it to YouTube led to a whopping half-dozen views (the main reason being the egg did not cook, resulting in two minutes of yours truly rambling on with a series of “how hot is it” humor). Major fail. Luckily, YouTube is loaded with far more interesting (and sometimes funny) videos on how to prepare the incredible, edible egg. 

Cooking eggs may seem like a pedestrian activity for anyone with any sort of kitchen prowess, but YouTube proves that there are myriad ways beyond scrambling, poaching and even shirring to prepare your morning protein. What follows is a playlist of sorts that captures the odd, interesting, offbeat, and occasionally disgusting ways eggs can go from farm to table.

1) The paper bag and bacon routine

I have no idea who the Intense Angler is, but his novel way of cooking eggs and bacon in a paper bag over an open campfire is clever, even if it may result in an angioplasty. Even with rubbing gobs of bacon fat over the bottom of the bag, I still have no idea why the sack doesn’t burst into flames.

2) The potato trick

Of course, like everyone else who has seen this clip, I do wonder why the host/narrator is wearing a green mask. Putting that eccentricity aside, you have to admire the technique of scooping out the guts of a potato, filling it with an egg and burying it in the ground to cook. Not sure it’s my cup of morning grub, but survivalists will dig it.

3) The office lunch hack

If you happen to be in an office that has one of those electronic water heater things (more common in the U.K. than the U.S.), politely wait until everyone else has boiled water for their tea and commandeer that baby to add eggs to your midday meal.

4) The steam king

Cooking your eggs with steam? Yep, it looks like this gentle and time-consuming approach can yield the perfect yolk. But you'd better have plenty of time on your hands and a lot of patience to pull this one off.

5) The nerdy scramble

Speaking of having too much time on your hands… If you feel like ruining a perfectly good tennis ball and want to scramble your egg (and then check your handiwork with a laser read-out) without creating a mess, check this one out. We can't help but wonder if this was someone’s high school science project.

6) The Philippine gross-out

Apparently balut is a common Asian street food that sits somewhere between an egg and a duck embryo. Since I have never seen the show Fear Factor (in which eating this is routine), watching Americans eat this disgusting item (prepared hard-boiled, if you must know) would be enough to make me become a vegan if I weren't one already.

7) The under-the-sea edition

This crazy traveler goes from the Philippines to China, where visiting a night market is a must to experience the range of culinary oddities presented as routine edibles. Prepared and eaten raw, sea urchin eggs have a less-than-yummy appeal to anyone with an American palate or a bad gag reflex.

8) The old school standard

No set of videos that has anything to do with cooking would be complete without a nod to the French chef herself, the late, great, Julia Child. This is the complete episode of her cooking elegant eggs that are for more than breakfast. Julia still reigns supreme. 

9) The microwave hack

Not exactly a real hack, but when demonstrated by CrazyRussianHacker, cooking eggs in a microwave becomes a garbled, somewhat poorly articulated adventure which is must-see for the absurd commentary alone. If you really want to learn how to cook eggs in a microwave, I suggest going here.

10) The sidewalk fry

The truth is, even those desert dwellers who claim they can fry an egg on a sidewalk end up with slightly cooked egg whites and uncooked yolks. I did not fare well in physics, geology, or whatever branch of science would help accomplish this insane feat of magic. So, who pulls off this stunt with the best style? Here’s a BBC presenter who fails miserably, but does so with aplomb and succeeds in scaring off a coyote. Well done, you.

If that doesn’t whet your appetite for an egg salad sandwich, eggs Benedict, or some tobiko on your California Roll, YouTube has countless other eggy clips to satisfy your craving for one of America’s favorite foods. Scramble on.

Screengrab via North Survival/YouTube

Season five of The Walking Dead premieres tonight on AMC, and the fandom has been patiently awaiting its arrival. There was, of course, some Bad Lip Reading to tide us over.

Yesterday, AMC ramped up the promo machine and released the first four minutes of the new season before tonight’s premiere, which you can watch here. So. Much. Tension.

Screengrab via amc/YouTube

Creepy clowns are so in right now, especially in one California town where masked performers are lurking the streets at night for no discernable reason.

We wouldn’t put it past Ryan Murphy for this to be some covert American Horror Story: Freak Show viral marketing, since his show’s main villain is a terrifying clown with murderous tendencies. Or it could be freaky coincidence. This clown is not on a murder spree. Rather, he just seems  content with creeping everyone out in Wasco, Calif., and there’s an Instagram dedicated to the strange appearances, with more than 15,000 followers already. 

 

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Come play with me

View on Instagram

 

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Like I said there's more than one of us were all over

View on Instagram

 

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Just thought you all should know I'm not the only one out there

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Where should I go tonight Bakersfield 🔪🔫 Delano 🔫 Wasco 🔪

View on Instagram

There’s nothing illegal about dressing up like a clown and wandering around your town, although there was one arrest in Bakersfield, Calif., related to the clowning, after a teen impersonated the Wasco clown but carried a weapon and chased other teens.

This is also not the first time a town has been stalked by a clown. In Northampton, England last September, a clown was spotted around town knocking on doors and offering to paint houses, but without a paint can in sight. He was eventually unmasked as a 22-year-old aspiring filmmaker.

One report claims that the Wasco clown phenomenon is part of a yearlong husband-and-wife art project, citing the clown himself who wished to remain anonymous. The clown claims they didn’t mean to cause a stir.

H/T Jezebel | Photo via Wasco Clown/Instagram

Red alert! Stop whatever you’re doing because you could be watching an otter livestream right now.

The Zoological Society of London is currently livestreaming a romp of darling otters, along with meerkats and Galapagos tortoises.

The stream is more than just adorable, however. It’s an opportunity for the Zoological Society to test out the use of white spaces, or vacant broadcasting waves on the TV spectrum, and how that could apply to animal research and conservation. The tech seems pretty cool, but we’re also just gratuitously enjoying cute animals 24/7, which will be available for at least another month.

H/T Tubefilter | Photo by KIUKO/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

The Internet’s hottest club is this clip of Stefon’s glorious return to Saturday Night Live last night.

Bill Hader returned to the show as host, which means beloved club reporter character Stefon made an appearance at the Weekend Update desk with a big announcement.

Stefon’s last appearance was an emotional farewell when Hader left the show, culminating in his marriage to Weekend Update's former host, Seth Meyers. In this appearance, he doesn’t disappoint with his increasingly improbable and insane club elements, name-checking human defibrillators and former MTV star Dan Cortese, to name a few.

Hader’s hosting gig was an effort to promote his new film, The Skeleton Twins, and former SNL cast member and film co-star Kristen Wiig also appeared in the episode.

Screengrab via Hulu 

Back in January, I saw my first 4K Samsung UHD TV on display in what some consider the most lavish shopping experience in the world—the Dubai Mall. Cool does not describe its curved, eye-popping wonder.

But, as I learned during my discussion with the exhibit attendant, the new television—which boasts more than 2,000 pixels (the top HD set has 1,080)—at that time faced the chicken and egg challenge of what comes first, the technology or the content. Nine months later, as UHD users are gaining in numbers, Netflix has chosen to raise the price of its monthly services for 4K (ultra high definition) users from $8.99 to $11.99. For 4K subscribers, Netflix offers all 62 episodes of Breaking Bad and House of Cards season two, NBC’s hit, The Blacklist,Smurfs 2, Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters 2, and the four-part Moving Art nature documentary series.

While Netflix does not report usage statistics, the company justified the price change—it has to increase the number of streams needed to send a 4K stream to the consumer. For $8.99, a consumer receives two separate streams that come together to produce a 1080 pixel picture; by doubling the number of streams required to offer a 4K stream, the company is only raising the fee $3 per month. The company will use some of that service upcharge to produce upcoming original series, such as Marco Polo, in 4K. Beyond Netflix, 4K programming options are spotty as disc-based video providers are having difficulty settling on a standard format for films and TV delivered to the home market.

Shipments of UHD TVs, manufactured by the likes of LG, Samsung, Sony, and Vizio, are taking off. According to research firm NPD, more 4K ultra HD TV sets were shipped in the second quarter of 2014 than in all of 2013. The company reports that  2.1 million sets were shipped in the second quarter, compared to 1.6 million in 2013. Looking at pricing from electronics retailer Best Buy, prices of 4K TVs range from $899 for a 40-inch Samsung up to $6,999 for a 79-inch LG.

There is another potentially gating factor for consumers just itching to watch Walter White whip up a batch in startling 4K; in order to receive a 4K streaming signal, a user must have Internet connectivity with a minimum of 25 MBpS bandwidth. For many ISPs, 25 MBpS is considered a high-priced premium service, and is one that the FCC says lacks competitors that would lead to fair pricing.

Before you shell out good money for a 4K TV, plan for fairly quick obsolescence. 8K sets from LG and Samsung were on display at the recent IFA Consumer Electronic Show in Berlin. No timetables were announced for these dazzling TVs, which have more than 4,000 pixels.

H/T Variety | Illustration by Jason Reed 

When you announce that you're going to throw a dinner party, have you ever wondered why your friends politely, yet firmly, decline your offer? Unless you're forcing your own strict diet upon everyone, chances are that your invitations are being avoided because you have no idea how to properly prepare a meal.

Well, not to worry. Thanks to a series of YouTube tutorials, you can figure out the best methods to do everything from properly making steak to  pouring wine. The video-sharing site has already showed us how to correct our eating habits; now, it's poised to do wonders for our preparation skills. 

1) You're serving pineapple wrong

A pineapple can be a tricky fruit to deal with, but when served properly, it adds an exotic taste to almost any meal. YouTuber DaveHax shows us how to best cut and serve the tropical treat.

2) You're pouring wine wrong

Wine sommeliers have made a career out of selecting and serving wine in the classiest way possible. While no one expects you to be Gerard Basset, you can nevertheless add a degree of flair to the refined beverage.

3) You're serving cheese wrong

What is wine without some cheese to accompany it? Preparing a cheese plate is much more than slicing the wrapper off whatever you happen to pull out of the Hickory Farms gift basket you received for Christmas last year. Let the fine folks at CHOW show you the best and only way to cut the cheese.

4) You're preparing salad wrong

A delicious salad is a perfect prelude to any meal. However, don't just tear open a bag of mixed vegetables and empty it into a bowl. Rather, take six minutes out of your life and learn the true art form of salad-making. After all, you want your guests to actually stick around after the first course, don't you?

5) You're making steak wrong

Yes, there are a zillion ways to make the perfect steak. However, Dave Beaulieu of No Recipe Required has narrowed down the preparation of your meal's main course to five simple steps. The result is a tasty cut of meat that is guaranteed not to have your guests exchanging glances and saying, "Even Outback is better than this."

6) You're making mashed potatoes wrong

Mashed potatoes are an ideal accompaniment to a delicious, properly-prepared steak. Let CHOW show you how to turn raw starch into a captivating side dish.

7) You're making Mai Tais wrong

A Mai Tai is far more than just another mixed drink; it is leagues above your run-of-the-mill rum and coke or vodka cranberry. CHOW is back to show you how to perfect this tropical concoction.

8) You're making chocolate chip cookies wrong

Once dinner is done, it's time to start on dessert! Retire whatever methods you may have learned for making chocolate chip cookies with friends during the holiday season and take an honest, educated stab at it.

9) You're cutting cake wrong

Maybe your post-dinner treat is a mouthwatering cake. While it's perfectly acceptable (if not encouraged) to bring the cake to the table, leave the harried mess of cutting it with a cheap knife far, far away. Let Alex Bellos show you a scientifically proven way to slice.

10) You're pouring cream into coffee wrong (or at least not impressively enough)

Any coffee drinker is likely familiar with the intricately designed leaves and other shapes that baristas will occasionally add to the surface of your beverage. How do they do it? Fortunately, HowcastFoodDrink is here to reveal some decorative secrets and show you how to cap off your latte with an impressive heart shape.

11) You're cutting your cigar wrong

What great, filling meal is complete without a fine cigar? However, the mini guillotine that you received as a gift continues to bewilder you to this day. Here, To Serve Men shows you how to snip off the edge of a fresh cigar to maximize its unique flavors.

Screengrab via 99999/YouTube

The Mortal Instruments is getting a second life on TV.

A film adaptation of City of Bones, the first novel in the bestselling fantasy series from Cassandra Clare starring Lily Collins and Jamie Campbell Bower, flopped at the box office and only earned $31 million domestically. Constantin Film, which owns the rights to the series, is relaunching it as a TV show after pledging to restart production on City of Ashes.

While the production of City of Ashes was halted after City of Bones’s failure to make a profit at the box office, Constantin film and TV head Martin Moszkowicz are as excited as ever to adapt Clare’s work, albeit for a different format.

“It actually makes sense to do [the novels] as a TV series,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “There was so much from the book that we had to leave out of the Mortal Instruments film. In the series we’ll be able to go deeper and explore this world in greater detail and depth.”

Helix showrunner Ed Decter is tapped to turn the books into a TV show, which is currently in development. No television network or broadcast partners have been attached to the show yet.

It’s unclear if the television version of The Mortal Instruments would pick up where the movie left off or would be rebooted entirely, or whether any of the actors from the film would return to television. Clare is looking forward to her work being explored further in the television format, although she imagines the TV show would be a reboot.

“@Alvampirita: " What do you think about the news?” I think it is cool. There is so much scope in a TV series to explore the story.

— Cassandra Clare (@cassieclare) October 12, 2014

“@uanrunes: " do you think they will start over with city of bones or start from city of ashes?” Start over.

— Cassandra Clare (@cassieclare) October 12, 2014

“I have absolutely no idea!” she wrote to fans on Tumblr about the actors being recast. “I am sure they are not casting at the moment and probably nobody knows. There is absolutely nothing whatsoever I could possibly ever do to influence whether they kept the same cast (assuming they were available) at all, so I will be waiting, like you, to see if they cast new people, and hoping that if they do, those people will be good.”

H/T Hollywood Reporter | Photo via Sony Pictures Entertainment/YouTube

John Oliver is at war with the very essence of the American fall season: pumpkin spice.

As he’s done in the past, Oliver put together a Web exclusive rant online while he was off for the week, and he went to town on the pumpkin spice phenomenon and why, once it’s October, people look at pumpkins and go, “I don’t know why, but I simply have to drink that.”

He doesn’t really reach any conclusions other than to continually bash pumpkins and pumpkin spice for more than three minutes as he tries to understand why people go nuts for pumpkin spice products even though they don’t really have any pumpkins in it.

He offers up some alternative fall flavors, but they don’t sound nearly as appetizing.

Screenshot via Last Week Tonight with John Oliver/YouTube

When I told a friend I was writing a piece on the new documentary The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin, his response was telling.

“Is that still around?”

Indeed, mainstream exposure to Bitcoin has largely involved the occasional media blitz when its value rockets upward or comes crashing down. Between all the ups and downs, it’s becoming increasingly normalized across the globe, effectively etching a place for itself in both physical and virtual marketplaces that accept it as payment alongside the dollar and the euro.

As somebody whose previous knowledge of Bitcoin is limited to an aborted foray into Silk Road in 2011, I seem to be in the target audience for The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin, which pulls its narrative thread from the early interest of director Nicholas Mross’s brother, Daniel, and slowly expands as the currency explodes in popularity. What starts as a story about Daniel’s mining hobby becomes a tale of lavish conferences, million-dollar companies, and, in the end, some pretty bad outcomes for folks, if not for the currency itself.

Browsing the r/bitcoin subreddit, most users agree the information presented in the film is old news to true Bitcoin enthusiasts, with some wishing  the film focused less on “Bitcoin celebrities” and more on the philosophical implications of the technology. But, as a relative newbie to the concept, I appreciated learning about the more sensational aspects of the story: the early movers who set up servers, the onscreen flashes of  USD value as the timeline progresses, and the “celebrities.”

The celebrities aren’t unlike those created by the tech boom of the ‘90s. There’s Charlie Shrem (CEO of BitInstant), Jared Kenna and Ryan Singer (CEO and COO of TradeHill), the reclusive Mark Karpeles (CEO of Mt. Gox), Roger Ver (major investor in BitPay and general Bitcoin evangelist), and even the Winklevoss twins, who claim to own 1 percent of all Bitcoin.  

It’s been a rocky road for Bitcoin, and the film was there early to catch much of the drama, from its initial break of the $1 USD mark in early 2011 to the charge past $100,000 at the close of 2013. By that point, Bitcoin was featured by every major news outlet imaginable, transforming from something previously seen as speculative into a formidable financial powerhouse. The value ended up hitting an incredible $1.2 million before security issues began to make investors uneasy. Things came to a full panic when Mt. Gox was allegedly hacked earlier this year and 750,000 Bitcoins suddenly went missing, ultimately sending the value hurtling back down to around $300.

Mark Karpeles was forced to file for bankruptcy with Mt. Gox. Charlie Shrem was arrested for allegedly aiding in money laundering connected to Silk Road, and TradeHill was forced to close when a lack of regulation resulted in banks cutting ties with their operations. In September, long after the film was finished, the Federal Trade Commission shut down Butterfly Labs, the company Daniel Mross orders his new bitcoin-mining servers from in The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin, after consumer complaints of fraud and the misappropriation of company funds.

What’s driven home in the film is the fact that Bitcoin is not something that can go out of business or become obsolete, not any more than the Internet can file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. At the heart of the technology is the fact that every owner of bitcoin is their own bank. Even if the financial industry pulls out all the stops in trying to crush those that make it easier to use, the platform is impossible to stomp out. Its peer-to-peer nature makes it similar to torrenting; even if you shut down sites like Pirate Bay, you’ll still always be able to send files via torrents. This aspect makes it an inevitable game-changer. The number of small businesses that accept the currency is currently exploding worldwide.

The film spends some time with Roger Ver, who’s also known as “Bitcoin Jesus.” Ver’s company, BitPay, makes it easier for businesses to accept the currency, evading its fluctuating valuation by instantly converting bitcoin to dollars when a transaction is made. In the film, we see him explain this concept to the owner of a grocery store in the San Francisco Bay area. When he tells the man that his service only charges 1 percent service fees, the owner’s eyes glaze over as he grasps at how much money he’d be saving over the 1.5 to 3 percent service fees of major credit companies. 

For a newbie like me, The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin was a great introduction to all this madness. If you’re a Bitcoin fanatic, you may find yourself a tad bored with the film, but find a friend who’s clueless to watch it with. You should get quite a thrill from their reaction, especially if they’re a Libertarian.

The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin is available on Vimeo on Demand for $4.99 to rent and $12.99 to own. Ironically, there’s not yet an option to pay for the film with bitcoin.

Photo via BTC Keychain/Flickr (CC BY 2.0) | Remix by Max Fleishman 

BY JOSHUA COHEN

Maker Studios is prepping for its television debut. The multichannel network with a talent roster of more than 55,000 YouTube channels worldwide that was recently acquired by Disney for upwards of $950 million will use its new multinational mass media parent company’s assets to its advantage.

Maker announced at Cannes, France’s global entertainment market MIPCOM that it’s set to air a “Maker branded special” in October 2014 on the Disney Channel as part of the cable network’s annual programming event “Monstober." The special will be comprised of two 11-minute episodes airing together as a standard 22-minute TV program and will feature an “unscripted clip series hosted by top digital and traditional talent” showcasing the best “Halloween-themed content from the Maker network” in addition to “vignettes and sketches” produced specifically for the Disney Channel.

Maker will also produce a similar special for Disney’s XD cable and satellite channel, featuring the best prank videos from Maker’s network.

The “Monstober” special is what Maker hopes will be the first in a prolific catalog of branded blocks of programming, packaged especially for television (and, presumably, other premium, subscription-based video-on-demand platforms). With an extensive list of creators producing thousands of videos a month, garnering more than 9 billion monthly views around the globe, the MCN undoubtedly has an exhaustive amount of programming that can be culled together for any particular type of clip show, in any particular market, for any particular type of audience.

Maker Studios also announced more blocks of curated programming are in development with Disney Channels Worldwide. If the specials stateside do well, except television programs to hit cable and digital broadcasts around the world, both on and off Disney owned-and-operated entities.

Photo via flash.pro/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Billy Eichner is used to yelling at people on the street as part of his TV show, Billy on the Street. Now Burger King is on the receiving end of his rage.

The fast food chain recently debuted a new commercial for its chicken nuggets, in which a host asks two people on the street about the new nugget-shaped product. The host looks a bit like Eichner, but he doesn’t quite have the personal space-invading invective Eichner has perfected.

Still, it didn't sit well with Eichner. Over the weekend, he waged a war of words against Burger King for this infraction.

Hey @BurgerKing-thanks for stealing my act for ur new commercial!! Except its not as funny & everyone knows u stole it. GET YOUR OWN IDEAS.

— billy eichner (@billyeichner) October 13, 2014

So far 14 people have died in the Billy on the Street vs Burger King War of 2014! This must end soon!!!

— billy eichner (@billyeichner) October 13, 2014

One thing Burger King is learning at least is that you do NOT fuck with Billy on the Street fans. OUR VOICES WILL BE HEARD!!!

— billy eichner (@billyeichner) October 13, 2014

With shots fired, his friends quickly had his back, and many chose #TeamBilly.

Yo @BurgerKing, stop stealing from the hilarious @billyeichner and stick to what you're good at: giving me diarrhea.

— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) October 13, 2014

.@BurgerKing@billyeichner brothers have taken opposing sides. families are torn. burger king, you must concede. end the tragedy you caused.

— spooky patroclus (@babeIincoln) October 13, 2014

Hey @burgerking, you were stupid if you think hiring some random actor to rip off @billyeichner was going to work. I WAS AVAILABLE!!!

— Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) October 13, 2014

Eichner also found an unlikely ally: McDonald’s.

@billyeichner Can’t wait to see you! Oh, and bring Elena!

— McDonald's (@McDonalds) October 13, 2014

Who knows how long this war will rage on, but it’s certainly more entertaining than Burger King’s commercial. Burger King has yet to respond to the allegations, but they've continued tweeting like nothing happened. 

Onion rings are like a best friend. But you can’t eat your best friend, so onion rings are better.

— Burger King (@BurgerKing) October 12, 2014

H/T Uproxx | Screengrab via Billy Eichner/YouTube