The state of women online is a much discussed topic, and rigthfully so. From Gamergate to the state of YouTube comments aimed at women to the newly revived Celebgate hack, which continues to target female celebs while failing to leak a single X-rated male image, being a women seems to make you fair game for harassment and injustice online.

BuzzFeedYellow sat down with several women to discuss just what it's like to pocess two X chromosomes and dare to have a Web connection. Former Daily Dot writer Gaby Dunn, who also starred in BuzzFeed's recent video spoofing "fake geek guys," leads off the YouTube clip.  

"If I tweet about something that a guy doesn't agree with, instead of being like, 'I kindly disagree,' the next at-reply is, 'You should get raped to death,'" Dunn explained. 

Across the board, their experiences have included sexism, harassment, and threats. The women describe the hyperfocus on their physical appearance and disregard for their intellegence and knowledge about the subjects they discuss. More than anger, the predominant disposition of the women featured is resignation. 

"At this point, I'm so used to it," said Sara Benincasa, a comedian and author with more than 24,000 Twitter followers. "It still bothers me. I just expect it." 

"It's like, why would you mention you had lunch," Dunn explained, likening the harassement to a daily occurance.

Videos like this serve to remind us that this kind of behavior is wholly unacceptable.

Screengrab via BuzzFeedYellow/YouTube 

We often wonder about the possibilities of time travel, but why does it inspire us? And how likely is it that we might ever be able to test out theories of time travel ourselves instead of just consuming them in pop culture?

A Brief History of Time Travel, a new documentary looking for funding on Kickstarter, is hoping to explore all these things. The film was created by a team of women who may not have scientific backgrounds in the subject but share a personal interest in time travel. Director Gisella Bustillos was inspired to explore why people are so obsessed with time travel after watching the movie La Jetée. She later met Dani Creech, the documentary’s editor, and Wanda Bertram, the documentary’s producer, at some film events where they discovered a common love of sci-fi.

“The bulk of our theoretical physics education has definitely happened on the film—we interviewed some brilliant scientists, like Ed Farhi and Seth Shostak, but we're filmmakers first," Bertram told the Daily Dot. "Our fan loyalties are all over the place! Gisella is a huge fan of Star Trek: Voyager, Dani's a serious Whovian (we had to have one on crew!), and I go for the noir-ish ones like Looper." 

The crew traveled around the country and spent two years interviewing a wide range of people to get their thoughts on time travel, including Bill Nye, cryobiologist Chana Phaedra, and Double Fine Productions founder Tim Schafer. As they traveled the country speaking with various people, the crew found themselves sometimes surprised by what they discovered.

“It's fascinating to hear about scientific research that seems to be getting us closer to actual time travel, like the theoretical experiment that might solve the grandfather paradox," Bertram said. "But it's also mindblowing to learn how time travel stories are connected to our perception of free will and physicality, which sounds like it should take a back seat to the ‘Is it possible?’ question, but is actually very connected to that question. Interviewing people on the street challenged our assumptions too. We'd ask silly questions like, ‘Would you rather go forward or back?’ and the vast majority of people wanted to go to the past, which surprised us. We three all want to go to the future!”

In the documentary, people will learn if time travel to the future or past is more likely possible, when humans first started thinking about time travel, and much more. Now that filming is complete, the crew is turning to Kickstarter for help getting through their post-production phase. The funds will pay for hiring additional crew like an animator and editor, and paying for archival footage and copyright material.

“Choosing Kickstarter had a lot to do with the supportive fan base we developed during production—an overwhelming number of people we've met have been really excited and offered their help to the point where we can do really gorgeous post-production on an efficient budget," Bertram said. "Community-based fundraising is something we really believe in, and we want the community of time travel fans to grow!” 

The crowdfunding campaign ends on Oct. 17.

Photos courtesy of Wanda Bertram

We tend to give witty noncommittal answers to the oft-asked question, "What inspires you?" This time we decided to reminisce on writing-days-gone-by and dish out some specific examples of songs that intentionally or otherwise directly inspired the creation or arrangement of Jukebox the Ghost songs. 

Tommy Siegel (guitar/vocals) 

"Little Girls," Oingo Boingo

This song, admittedly, has a pretty uncomfortable lyrical focus. But the first time I heard this, the amount of melody bottled in the frenetic energy blew me away. "Half Crazy" was my attempt to bottle that same frantic feel into a pop song.  

"The Gates of Delirium," Yes 

I fell in love with this song in a deeply nerdy prog kick, and "The Sun (Interlude)" was my attempt to recreate something like the beginning of this song in a pop format (as you might guess, we cut a lot of it).

"Money Music," Pretty and Nice

We toured with this fantastic band in 2011, and I remember watching them play this song well before it was released and thinking, God, that rhythmic hiccup in the verse is amazing, and trying to piece something together in the parking lot of a venue in Omaha, with Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" also swimming in my head. That eventually turned into "Say When."  

"Someone Great," LCD Soundsystem

In 2011, LCD Soundsystem felt like the coolest band on the planet. I had an odd little acoustic song that I realized went pretty well with upbeat drums, and we eventually ended up with a quirky dance song called "Oh Emily," in our best attempt to sound like LCD Soundsystem… Which, we admittedly don't. At all.  

"Third Planet,"  Modest Mouse

The lyrical imagery in this song blew me away, and got me on a kick of imagining events surrounding the end of the world, which eventually blossomed into an entire rock opera-ish suite of songs, some of which made it on our first album and some of which didn't. The point being, I wrote 10 songs because of this song and am probably still writing songs because of it.  

"Someone to Watch Over Me," Ella Fitzgerald

For a while I was using a Gershwin songbook as fodder for inspiration. Something in the sweetness and sadness of this song, along with some of the magical chord changes he uses, inspired "Man in the Moon" when I was feeling particularly wistful.  

Jesse Kristin (drums)

"Misunderstood," Wilco

When we were arranging the climactic section of "Dead," I felt Wilco's "Misunderstood" telling me it's acceptable to let a soft, careful track fall from something cerebral and "thinky" to something muscular, physical, and reckless.

"Age of Consent," New Order

A YouTube video of New Order's Stephen Morris being a savage on the drums while the band played "Age of Consent" in the studio had a big impact on what I felt "real" drumming had to sound like in a pop-rock song. When we were arranging "Adulthood," Ben's consistent, pulsating piano rhythm instantly made me think of playing a shamelessly repetitive dance beat with conviction and intensity a-la-Morris, and I decided to channel his unrelenting human-drum-machine focus for this song just as I had witnessed it in the video.

"Temporarily Blind," Built To Spill

A fun choppy little groove emerges from Built To Spills "Temporarily Blind" at 1:53, 2:40, 3:26. Three times is enough for one song, yet when it ends, I just want to hear the part again and again. It's one of those parts, and it directly inspired the rock groove section in "The Stars" following the second chorus. 

"Play The Game," Queen

The very short open hi-hat accents over the snare.. cough.. the "PSST" sound on beats 2 and 4 in the verses of our song "Somebody" was inspired directly by almost every Queen song. "Play The Game" is a solid example of drummer Roger Taylor creating this easily achieved but distinct sound.

Ben Thornewill (vocals, piano)

"I've Got Rhythm," Jacques Gauthe

I wanted to use the “I've Got Rhythm” chord progression (known as "rhythm changes") in a pop song. So this in turn inspired “Victoria”—same chords in the verse, same chordal turn-around out of the chorus and the same bridge progression. BAM. I chose this recording because it has the chords clearly outlined up front for those of you who really want to geek out to it (the “Victoria” chord changes happen at about 1/4 the rate but the progression is the same). 

"Chopin Nocturne C-Sharp - Lang Lang – Nocturne Op. post, KK IVa, No. 16 (20a), in C-Sharp Minor,"    Frederic Chopin

I spent a lot of time reading through classical music, for entertainment and for inspiration. I was playing this piece and got to the end and loved the way it sounded so much I kept playing it and repeating it and started writing to it, and then it turned into the song “Summer Sun.” 

"Good Day," Jukebox the Ghost

This is a bit meta, but for our second record I tried to write a song with piano parts that were like the guitar parts in “Good Day.” Inverting the arrangement and the responsibilities of the piano/guitar and ended up with “Empire.”

"I'll Be Home," Harry Nilsson 

I was listening to this song and this record on repeat when I wrote “The Spiritual.” Even beyond this song, the whole record has had and continues to have a huge influence on me and my writing. 

Jukebox the Ghost’s new self-titled album, due Oct. 21 via Yep Roc Records, is available for digital and physical preorder. You can follow the band on tour and on Twitter.

While actresses including Rosario Dawson, Brit Marling, Oona Chaplin, and Jessica Biel are apparently still duking it out for a spot in the cast of True Detective’s second season, one male lead has been confirmed: Colin Farrell.

The Irish actor revealed as much in comments published by the Sunday World:

I’m doing the second series. I’m so excited. I know it will be eight episodes and take around four or five months to shoot. I know very little about it, but we’re shooting in the environs of Los Angeles, which is great. It means I get to stay at home and see the kids.

Farrell had for months been rumored, along with Taylor Kitsch of Friday Night Lights, to be a top contender for a role in HBO’s anthology-style crime series, which held viewers rapt with singular performances from Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson earlier this year. 

Series creator and writer Nic Pizzolatto is also said to have written an antagonist with Vince Vaughn in mind, though neither he nor Kitsch are attached yet.

New plot details are scarce: all we really know is that the California-set season will focus on the maybe-Satanic murder of a corrupt businessman just before a major city planning deal goes through, as well as “the occult history of the United States transportation system”—a phrase that has already triggered feverish speculation.

The new episodes will likely premiere next summer, possibly paired with paranormal drama The Leftovers, which would make for the bleakest Sunday nights in television history. 

H/T Uproxx | Photo via David Shankbone/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Emma Watson was in New York City yesterday to give a speech as the UN Women Goodwill Ambassador. More specifically, the Harry Potter star focused on a new online gender equality campaign called HeForShe, which is hoping to “galvanize as many men and boys as possible to be advocates for gender equality.”

Her speech touched on a lot of issues women face in real life, and online, and she spoke about how feminism's become a dirty word:

I was appointed six months ago and the more I have spoken about feminism the more I have realized that fighting for women’s rights has too often become synonymous with man-hating. If there is one thing I know for certain, it is that this has to stop.

For the record, feminism by definition is: “The belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. It is the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes.

She also offered a timeline for her own relationship with feminism, which was shaped in part by the entertainment business:

I started questioning gender-based assumptions when at eight I was confused at being called “bossy,” because I wanted to direct the plays we would put on for our parents—but the boys were not.

When at 14 I started being sexualized by certain elements of the press.

When at 15 my girlfriends started dropping out of their sports teams because they didn’t want to appear “muscly.”

When at 18 my male friends were unable to express their feelings.

I decided I was a feminist and this seemed uncomplicated to me. But my recent research has shown me that feminism has become an unpopular word.

The UN has been actively seeking out celebrity faces for its causes: We're living in an age where Leonardo DiCaprio is now the UN's Messenger of Peace, with a focus on climate change. You can watch her whole speech here: 

The UN is hoping to get 100,000 men to join the HeForShe cause by next September, but it will be interesting to see if this movement does galvanize people beyond hashtag activism. Towards the end of Watson's speech, she quotes writer Edmund Burke to drive her point home: “All that is needed for the forces of evil to triumph is for enough good men and women to do nothing.”

H/T Jezebel | Photo via Marco Bond/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

On Sept. 27, Guardians of the Galaxy sweetheart Chris Pratt will host the season premiere of Saturday Night Live, with musical guest Ariana Grande. The following week, comedian and former SNL cast member Sarah Silverman will host alongside musical guest Maroon 5.

Pratt, Silverman, and whoever else Lorne Michaels has in mind for the coming months will be ushering in the late night program's 40th—yes, 40th—season on the air.

On Oct. 11, 1975, Michaels, then 30, kicked off the comedy and musical program that would go on to become a staple of popular culture. Since then, Saturday Night Live has launched the careers of countless stars, ranging from Chevy Chase and Bill Murray in the 1970s to Eddie Murphy and Phil Hartman in the 1980s to Mike Myers and Will Ferrell in the 1990s through to Tina Fey, Jimmy Fallon, and Andy Samberg today. For four full decades now, its ever-changing cast and writers have lampooned movies, television, politics, and current events in a way that has often been imitated but never successfully duplicated. In addition, the show itself has spawned several popular movies and TV programs of its own, including 30 Rock and the Wayne's World film series.

Since NBC's nod to the show's milestone anniversary won't occur until February, we decided to put together a list of some of the program's most memorable moments from the past 40 years.

1970s

While SNL tends to begin each episode with some sort of political commentary today, this wasn't always the case. "The Wolverines," starring John Belushi as a foreign student and Michael O'Donoghue as his inept English teacher, was the first sketch in the program's history. Bonus appearance by Chevy Chase (then with a full head of hair) saying "Live from New York" for the very first time.

Entertainer Andy Kaufman, one of the original trolls out there, brought his bizarre humor to the SNL stage on its second episode. Appearing nervous and saying nothing at all at first, he then began to lip-synch to the chorus from the Mighty Mouse cartoon. This appearance, as well as Kaufman's subsequent ban from the show by audience poll in the 1980s, was documented in the 1999 biopic Man on the Moon.

British punk musician Elvis Costello was responsible for one of the first of SNL's many, many controversies. When Costello and his band, the Attractions, appeared as a replacement for the Sex Pistols, they were contracted to play "Less Than Zero." In the middle of the song, Costello ordered the band to stop, announced "I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, there's no reason to do this song here," and went on to play the anti-commercialization tune "Radio, Radio." The move resulted in a 10-year ban for Costello. During the program's 25th anniversary show in 1999, Costello would repeat the scenario (planned this time, of course) with the Beastie Boys.

1980s

SNL's original cast—as well as Lorne Michaels—moved on after the 1979-’80 season (though Michaels would return in 1985). The program underwent its first of many cast changes, with one star rising above them all: a young man named Eddie Murphy. The comedian went on to create several hilarious characters, including a surly version of Gumby, Mister Robinson (a spoof of Mister Rogers), and the adult version of Little Rascals staple Buckwheat.

The self-deprecating humor that William Shatner has exhibited through much of his recent work likely had its start with the famous 1986 SNL sketch "Get a Life." In the skit, which co-stars Phil Hartman, Jon Lovitz, and Dana Carvey, Shatner tells passionate Star Trek fans at a convention to "get a life" and that Star Trek was "just a TV show." It wouldn't be the only time SNL stars would parody geek fandom: They would later lampoon anime fans with the recurring skit "J-Pop America Fun Time Now!"

While his Wayne's World co-star Mike Myers would go on to receive Hollywood fame, it was Dana Carvey who was the breakout SNL star in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Breathing eccentric life into original characters (Church Lady) and impersonations (George H.W. Bush), nary a skit went by without Carvey in it somewhere. His character Derek Stevens and his "hit" song "Choppin' Broccoli" proved so popular that he would go on to recreate the moment years later during an appearance on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon.

1990s

Arguably the most memorable moment of Saturday Night Live's entire 40-year history involved a performance by singer Sinead O'Connor. In a supremely unscripted moment, O'Connor concluded her a cappella rendition of Bob Marley's "War" by saying "Fight the real enemy" and tearing up a photo of Pope John Paul II to illustrate her disgust with allegations of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. NBC was flooded with over 4,000 angry calls as news of the incident spread in subsequent days. On the following week's episode, host Joe Pesci showed that they had taped the photo back together.

The early 1990s of SNL belonged to talents like Mike Myers, David Spade, Chris Rock, Adam Sandler, and, of course, the late, great Chris Farley. In one of the show's most popular sketches, Farley and host Patrick Swayze show off their dance moves as two hopefuls auditioning to be members of the Chippendales family.

Later on in the 1990s, the successors to Farley, Sandler, and friends proved to be just as popular with audiences: It was here that talents like Norm MacDonald, Will Ferrell, and Darrell Hammond—who's returning this season as announcer—got their starts. In a classic Christmas-themed episode of the "Delicious Dish" skit, hosts Molly Shannon and Ana Gasteyer welcome guest Pete Schweddy (Alec Baldwin) and his unintentionally hilariously named holiday treats. Baldwin, a frequent host, would go on to become a mainstay of Tina Fey's SNL-themed sitcom 30 Rock.

2000s

With the advent of the Internet, a lot of sketches that popped up on Saturday Night Live in the early 2000s would go on to achieve everlasting life thanks to YouTube, Facebook, Reddit, and other social media. This was certainly the case with "More Cowbell," which featured frequent guest host Christopher Walken as a music manager demanding that Blue Oyster Cult insert "more cowbell" into their classic tune "(Don't Fear) The Reaper."

Singer Ashlee Simpson caused quite a stir when it was revealed—live on the air—that she was a full-blown lip-syncher. She and her band began to perform "Autobiography," but the audio track began to play "Pieces of Me." Embarrassed and confused, she engaged in a now-famous awkward jig before walking off of the stage.

By far, cast member Andy Samberg's "SNL Digital Shorts" were what resonated most with the Internet community. Almost every single one of the pre-taped sketches went viral as it was passed around social media during work the following Monday. By far the most renowned Digital Short was the band Lonely Planet's "Dick in a Box," starring Samberg and frequent SNL host Justin Timberlake.

After producing several more viral hits, including "I'm on a Boat" and "Lazy Sunday," it was announced in August 2014 that Lonely Planet was in talks to have its own movie.

2010s

The Internet has continued to play a key role on the show. In 2012, a massive Facebook campaign resulted in the Web's favorite foul-mouthed actress, Betty White, to land a hosting gig. White, whose episode was a colossal ratings success, became the program's oldest host at age 88.

Since White's successful hosting gig, the show has turned to its online audience time and time again for host and musical guest suggestions. In 2012, comedian Louis C.K.'s appearance was the direct result of a Facebook and Twitter vote.

Lonely Planet continued to nail it with pitch-perfect representations of various facets of popular culture. In May 2014, they tackled the EDM scene, in which listeners were so eager to "hear the beat drop" that, once it did, their heads exploded. Eerily enough, later that very same weekend, 29 people were hospitalized following an EDM show put on by Avicii (presumably after the beat was dropped).

No longer content with the Internet being a source for just hosts and musical guests, SNL continued to adapt to the times and began recruiting popular YouTube personalities to headline its cast. Five of last season's new cast members, including Kyle Mooney, had very strong presences on YouTube and Tumblr prior to their tenure on the storied program.

Happy 40th birthday, Saturday Night Live! Here's to another successful 40 years.

Collage by Mike Fenn

Prank videos on YouTube often blur the line between appropriate and inappropriate, but a new video by Sam Pepper definitely crossed that line, according to prominent YouTubers who rallied for it to be removed over the weekend.

Pepper released a prank video Friday that showed him approaching unsuspecting women on the streets. His hand appears to be tucked into his sweatshirt pocket, but it's really free for him to touch the women's behinds and then explain it wasn't really him since they could see where both his hands supposedly were situated. 

The YouTube community reacted swiftly, calling Pepper out for touching women without their consent in the name of a prank video. Laci Green, a vlogger who deals with sexuality on her channel, penned an open letter to Pepper on her Tumblr urging him to remove the offending video, writing:

Please stop violating women and making them uncomfortable on the street for views. Please stop physically restraining them and pressuring them to be sexual when they are uncomfortable. Please show some respect for women’s right to their own bodies. While it may seem like harmless fun, a simple prank, or a “social experiment”, these videos encourage millions of young men and women to see this violation as a normal way to interact with women. 1 in 6 young women (real life ones, just like the ones in your video) are sexually assaulted, and sadly, videos like these will only further increase those numbers.

The letter is cosigned by several prominent YouTubes including Tyler Oakley, Grace Helbig, Hannah Hart, John and Hank Green, and several others. The post has 76,000 notes on Tumblr and counting, with reblogs from users like Hank Green chiming with the expectation that Pepper will remove the video. 

"I hope (expect even) that Sam will be taking the video down soon, because every moment it’s up is another moment where he’s normalizing assault and societal dominance of women," he wrote. He also shared another post that pointed out women who've taken to Pepper's YouTube comments to respond to users who claim it's "just a joke." Several YouTubers have taken to their social media channels to join in the call for Pepper to remove the video, and fans are using the hashtag #ReportSamPepper to rally others to report his YouTube page for abuse.

Saddened by @sampepper's new video. Sexually harassing women is vile to begin with, but normalizing it by calling it a prank? So harmful.

— Tyler Oakley (@tyleroakley) September 21, 2014

Sexual assault isn't funny. @SamPepper is funny. He can do better. Let's take a step in the right direction: http://t.co/8BbqEzmgnk

— Hannah Hart (@harto) September 21, 2014

No one has the right to touch someone if they don't want to be touched. No one. @sampepper proudly says that it's okay to grab women's asses

— Matt Lieberman (@mattlieberman) September 21, 2014

So far, Pepper has not removed the video, which has racked up over 1.3 million views since Friday, nor has he addressed the uproar on his social media accounts. Collective Digital Studio, the multichannel network that represents Pepper, did not respond to a request for comment over the weekend.

Update 11:45am CT, 9/22/14: YouTube has removed the video as "a violation of YouTube's policy on nudity or sexual content." Pepper has still not addressed the controversy, but two prominent YouTube conventions—Playlist Live and VidCon—issued statements on Twitter about protecting attendees from harassment.

Photo via Gage Skidmore/Flickr (CC BY SA 2.0)

Thom Yorke understands the Internet buzz furnace and seems to enjoy stoking it with minimal, teasing gestures. 

The latest is a photo of a mysterious white record that appeared on his Tumblr. He and Nigel Godrich, the producer often thought of as Radiohead’s sixth member, tweeted a link to it, prompting rumors of a new solo or Atoms For Peace record.  

http://t.co/gVd6gZ0wVY

— Thom Yorke (@thomyorke) September 21, 2014

The Tumblr post follows several months’ of cryptic, black-and-white landscape drawings marked by mountain peaks, leafless trees, and funerary obelisks—including visuals from their psychedelic PolyFauna smartphone app, which the two recently updated with a trove of new, original music. Some of these images have shown up on Yorke’s Twitter timeline as well.

pic.twitter.com/C69SN3fmGo

— Thom Yorke (@thomyorke) August 30, 2014

pic.twitter.com/mU5OXvwMq3

— Thom Yorke (@thomyorke) September 1, 2014

The MotherLode! pic.twitter.com/svuCurx9Si

— Thom Yorke (@thomyorke) September 9, 2014

pic.twitter.com/tRvzvH8EjO

— Thom Yorke (@thomyorke) September 11, 2014

Because Radiohead only just started recording new work this month, speculation has veered toward some other type of collaboration between Yorke and Godrich. But does it really matter? Unless it’s an album of Celine Dion covers—and maybe even then—you’ll buy it.

Photo by Mariel A. M./Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

South Park has set its sights on the NFL and the Washington Redskins.

Over the summer, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office cancelled Washington’s trademark registration because it ruled that the name “Redskins” is “disparaging to Native Americans.” Washington is currently appealing the ruling, but for now, anyone can use the name and logo of the Washington Redskins for themselves for profit.

People have disapproved the use of the team name for years, but support for changing the name has swelled this year, despite Washington owner Dan Snyder being adamant about keeping the name. Many sports journalists and analysts are refusing to say the name “Redskins” on-air, sports Twitter has derailed almost every conversation about showing pride for the name, and an upcoming Daily Show segment will show a tense meeting between some Washington fans and Native Americans.

During the Washington-Philadelphia Eagles game yesterday, South Park aired a preview of its upcoming season premiere this Wednesday (reportedly only in the Washington, D.C., market), and it’s a direct hit on Washington—well, another one, since the team ended up losing to Philadelphia 34-37. And some of the arguments sound quite familiar for keen ears.

Out of everyone in the town of South Park, Colo., does it really surprise anyone who took advantage of the trademark?

H/T SB Nation | Photo via South Park Studios/YouTube

The inevitable Edward Snowden movie has found its leading man: dimple-faced indie sprite Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

According to a report from Variety, he was offered the part by director Oliver Stone, and has accepted. Contract negotiations haven’t begun yet, but for the moment it looks like Gordon-Levitt is set to take on the role.

After recently filming another biopic (The Walk, a film about high-wire artist Philipe Petit, best known for the documentary Man on Wire), this looks like a definitive new step for Gordon-Levitt’s career. In the past his leading roles have mostly been in indie movies like Mysterious Skin and Brick while he played supporting parts in blockbusters like Inception and Sin City 2, but a role like Edward Snowden is an obvious move toward big-budget Oscar fare.

The Snowden movie will be based on two books: Luke Harding’s The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World's Most Wanted Man, and Time of the Octopus by Anatoly Kucherena, Snowden’s lawyer. Oliver Stone’s biopics and historical films aren’t known for their strict adherence to cold hard facts, but it’s likely that this movie will be weighted in Snowden’s favor. Stone has long been an outspoken supporter of Wikileaks, and at one point described Snowden as “a hero.”

Once Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s deal is finalized, they will start filming in late 2014 or early 2015. Sooner will be better than later in this case, because Oliver Stone isn’t the only filmmaker working on a Snowden biopic. In May of this year, the producers of the James Bond franchise bought the rights to Glenn Greenwald’s book No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State, with the aim of adapting it into a movie as well.

Photo via PunkToad/Wikimedia (CC 2.0)

Whether it be John Krasinski, Jimmy Fallon, or Chris Pratt, we’re on a hot streak of fawning over cute white actors capitalizing on an opportunity to flex their hip-hop credibility in public. Enter titan of industry Leonardo DiCaprio, a capable rendition of A Tribe Called Quest’s “Scenario,” 1 Oak nightclub in Los Angeles over the weekend, and credible hype men like Jamie Foxx, Diddy, and Jason Derulo.

To quote Jay Z, the ruler’s back.

DiCaprio (at least, we're told that's him under cap and beard) storms through Phife’s iconic opening bars with enough of a forceful East Coast accent to sell the act. As XXLpoints out, DiCaprio has an unimpeachable record of hip-hop fandom—2 Chainz performed at his birthday party, and he developed a TV series with Tribe’s frontman, Q-Tip. 

Photo via Wikimedia Commons

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

Avoiding spoilers on the Internet has now become a full-contact sport, but Netflix has decided to embrace them as a way of life. So, naturally, it's made a handy personality profile for you. 

Netflix just debuted Living with Spoilers, a site that offers a three-part look into the business of ruining plot twists and surprise endings. According to a recent Canadian survey of Netflix viewers, 72 percent saw spoilers as a part of the everyday struggle. Sixty-nine percent of those surveyed said they’ve accidentally revealed spoilers online or to friends. I'd be interested to see how those stats stack up to an American survey. 

The first section asks, “What kind of spoiler are you?” This leads into a flow chart, which probes deeper into your masochistic psyche and asks if you’ve ever spoiled a show for someone on purpose. Turns out I’m a “clueless spoiler,” which sent me spinning into an existential abyss. Look, I thought everyone had seen Koyaanisqatsi.

I, the clueless spoiler, was then treated to a scene from Mean Girls and not Clueless, and offered a condolence card to those I’ve spoiled shows and movies for. You can “share” the cards on Facebook and Twitter, if you’re into self-flagellation or promoting the existence of the unfortunate term “derp.”

Netflix offers further profiles of these spoiler types, including the “coded spoiler,” “shameless spoiler,” “power spoiler,” and “impulsive spoiler.”

There’s also a section for watching some famous spoilers, like the end of Lost, which is great because I don’t want to watch the whole series. The most interesting part might be the “public domain” section, which shows you how well-known spoilers for movies and TV shows are. You can also help rate certain spoilers as “too soon” or “old news.”

We spend a lot of time debating how to approach spoilers, and whether there should be rules online, but Netflix wants to change that, which is fair enough. Breaking viewers down into personality types is an easy way to get them to interact with the brand and click through to the site, but it might not necessarily change people's views on spoilers. 

Bu what do I know? I'm a just clueless spoiler.

Or at least that's what I want Netflix to think. (Cue me nonchalantly walking away from an explosion in slow motion.)

Photo via Austen Squarepants/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

YouTube continues to be a major media landgrab this year, with another multichannel network bought by a mainstream powerhouse.

Otter Media, a Web video venture between AT&T and Chernin Group, agreed to purchase a majority stake in Fullscreen. The deal will leave CEO and founder George Strompolos in place, maintaining a material ownership stake in the company. Stompolos wrote about the acquisition in a blog post on the company's website.

“Peter Chernin’s The Chernin Group (our first investor) brings unparalleled entertainment experience to Fullscreen, which is critical as our world continues to merge with the broader entertainment industry,” said Strompolos in the blog post. “AT&T is a worldwide leader in mobile, which is a key area of interest for us, and their TV footprint is poised to expand significantly. WPP will continue to serve as our valued partner in the world of advertising and marketing.”

The purchase values Fullscreen's 50,000 content creators and 450 million subscribers between $200 million and $300 million, according to Re/code. The acquisition is one in a long line of recent YouTube buys: In March, Disney purchased fellow MCN Maker Studios for $500 million. Last year, Dreamworks purchased AwesomenessTV for $33 million plus incentives, which in turn picked up management company Big Frame for $15 million.

Otter Media formed in April as a joint venture between AT&T and Chernin Group, pledging $500 million toward acquiring, investing in, and launching over-the-top video services. Chernin Group has continued its stake in anime VOD service Crunchy Roll, and the venture has aquired crafting site Creativebug from Demand Media for $10 million. 

H/T Re/code | Photo by kelly.sikkema/Flickr (CC BY 2.0) | Remix by Fernando Alfonso III

As the music subscription service market gets more and more crowded, companies are looking for ways to personalize the experience. Today, Internet radio service Pandora debuted a new project that breaks down the fourth wall and brings the experience to listeners.

On Pandora, hitting a thumbs-up trains the program to play related songs and genres; a thumbs-down lets listeners move on to another genre or song. Earlier this month, Pandora tested out a new campaign related to the thumbs-up feature. Listeners who “liked” popular YouTube artist Lindsey Stirling were treated to a message from her, asking them to chat via FaceTime. If they chose to do so, they were offered an intimate performance from the violinist, via a studio in Los Angeles. Her fans were elated.

In a blog posted yesterday, chief marketing officer Simon Fleming-Wood explained a bit more about these proposed “Thumb Moments,” and how interactive they might be. Eight listeners “were connected via FaceTime for a personal chat and an intimate, private concert. Taking it even further, they were able to control the lights with hand motions during her performance.”

“We see this project as an extension of the highly personalized experience that our listeners already know and love,” Fleming-Wood told the Daily Dot. “Every time a listener thumbs a song, they are providing feedback that makes their Pandora stations more personalized. We wanted to create a thought-provoking experience that illustrates the power of Pandora’s personalization to create magic moments for our listeners by connecting them to the right music at the right time.”

Stirling was the beta test for this new online campaign, which comes courtesy of San Francisco advertising agency TwoFifteenMcCann and follows up other targeted Pandora efforts. According to the New York Times, the “advertising expenditure for the campaign, which will appear on websites including BuzzFeed, Facebook, and Twitter, is estimated at $5 million.” Fleming-Wood says they zeroed in on the “Thumb Moment” and grew the campaign from there.

“When we were thinking of how to best exemplify the Pandora brand in this campaign, we looked to the thumb and how we could build on that experience,” he added. “We feel we accomplished the best of both worlds—for artists and listeners—with Thumb Moments. The listener gets a once-in-a-lifetime experience in direct response to an action they just took and the artist gets to connect, in-person, with their fans.”

Pandora wouldn’t comment on who might be next in the lineup, but Fleming-Wood says the element of surprise is key here, and that the goal is to “reflect the diverse range of artists that listeners know and love on Pandora.” By breaking down that fourth wall, they’re also tapping into the emotional experience of the fan-performer relationship, which is increasingly important online. 

H/T New York Times | Screengrab via Pandora/YouTube

If you thought the first official peek at Better Call Saul, the much-anticipated prequel to Breaking Bad, wasn’t nearly enough to satisfy you, prepare to be... disappointed yet again.

But if you want to soak in every single tease you can get your Internet hands on, AMC released another teaser in which we learn absolutely nothing. But Bob Odenkirk is as charming as ever in this latest 10-second clip—in which his face is only seen for four of them. Also, he’s totally got your parents’ sense of humor nailed down.

We hardly know anything about this younger Saul Goodman—er, Jimmy McGill. AMC describes him as a “small-time lawyer searching for his destiny, and, more immediately, hustling to make ends meet” in the years before he meets Walter White. Breaking Bad fan favorite Mike Ehrmantraut will show up, along with a number of new characters, and we’re already guaranteed 23 episodes unless the show does so poorly (unlikely) that AMC rescinds them. That’s already plenty more than we’ve gotten in those two 10-second teasers.

Seriously, AMC. Just put out an actual trailer already. (February’s not that far off, you know!)

Photo via amc/YouTube

From the Wayne’s World School of Broadcasting, Laura Vitale has gone from her basement studio to YouTube celebrity to the latest Cooking Channel Web-to-TV sensation.

After the economy went south in 2008 and her father closed his New Jersey restaurants, Vitale found herself without an outlet for her culinary skills and cooking passion. So, while remodeling their home, Joe Vitale went Garth and Wayne on his wife and built a model kitchen in their basement in hopes Laura would take the hint and whisk her way into the world of cooking videos. Four and a half years and more than 850 YouTube videos later, Vitale will debut her series, Simply Laura, on the Cooking Channel at 1:30pm Sept. 27.

The basement studio gathered dust for about a year, Vitale told the Daily Dot, but one night, after too many glasses of wine, she took the plunge. Her husband filmed her first show using a $49 point-and-shoot video camera, but the admittedly rather crude early episodes captured the interest of fans who related to her charm, passion for food, everyday cooking skills, and ability to connect with her audience. Vitale now has more than 1.3 million YouTube highly engaged subscribers filling her comment field with requests for her take on their favorites dishes.

Vitale’s path from basement to the big screen is punctuated by a series of fortunate breaks, including a mention in Entertainment Weekly in which her YouTube food work was mentioned as a don’t-miss along with the prophetic words, “Hey Food Network, I think we’ve found your next star.”

Walking into the Food Network offices, which sit above the bustling Chelsea Market in the Meatpacking District of Manhattan, Vitale was awestruck by her surroundings, despite her webseries fame. The large framed pictures of Iron Chefs Bobby Flay and Morimoto that dot the entrance to the offices nearly brought tears to her eyes. “I still can’t believe it,” says Vitale. "When my commercial [for the new show] comes on, I do a double-take.”

Vitale believes her passion for cooking will come through in her new series. The first show is a tribute to her Nonna, who still lives in Naples, with such recipes as pasta al forno with mini meatballs and a side of spicy broccolini. That initial show brings to mind Vitale's all-time favorite food, potato gnocchi. “It was the first thing I remember making,” Vitale recalls. “I was 3 or 4, and my grandfather built me a little stool out of crates and I would stand next to grandmother.  She would mix the dough for the gnocchi, and I would make them on the homemade wooden gnocchi board.”

Vitale, who came to the U.S. as a teen, has come a long way since her first video, preparing "Bruschetta with Tomato & Basil" in January 2010. Although the lighting was off and the amount of ambient noise was distracting, you could sense her commitment to her craft.  “Every time we filmed, I learned something new,” notes the YouTube celebrity chef. “But the one thing I did keep was the belief that I love to cook.”

Even with her new Cooking Channel series, Vitale will continue her Laura in the Kitchen work on YouTube, with husband Joe as a one-man band shooting, editing, and producing. And, if that’s not enough, the overachieving video chef also is working on a cookbook that she hopes to have in print by late 2015. In fact, Vitale had just finished testing her recipes for roasted squash soup and cornbread dumplings when we chatted on the phone.

In speaking with Vitale and watching countless episodes of her YouTube series, her authentic take on food and its role in the home and hearth comes through loud and clear. Her technique may not be Cordon Bleu, and she may not chiffonade like a Culinary Institute of America graduate, but she gets the job done in a manner that makes her accessible to a wide variety of food fans.

“I never had an interest in going to culinary school,” says Vitale. “My take on food is different—it’s more about that the kitchen is the heart of the home and not another chore to do. It’s the place you go to to prepare something for your friends and family or reward yourself after a long day.

“I have always thought the dining table is where laughs are shared and memories made,” she continues. “I am here to celebrate that.”

Screengrab via Laura in the Kitchen/YouTube

It wasn't all that surprising when we learned that someone had used a drone to spy on the set of Star Wars: Episode VII. What was surprising was learning the company behind the production took all of those "shoot them down!" jokes seriously.

On Friday, Motherboard reported that Pinewood Studios, the British production house that Lucasfilm is using as its base of operations, had attempted to purchase an American-made device called a DroneShield that warns its owners of nearby drones.

Why "attempted," you ask? Because the U.S. State Department denied DroneShield's request to export its product, which "can provide advanced warning of helicopters and drones commonly used by paparazzi and media," to the U.K.

Motherboard gained exclusive access to a DroneShield order form that lists Pinewood Studios' post-production department as the buyer. Reporter Jason Koebler contacted DroneShield, where a representative told him that they couldn't send the product to Pinewood "because our ITAR [export] application, filed in May, hadn't been approved."

Four months later, the spokesperson said, "it STILL hasn't been approved."

ITAR stands for International Traffic in Arms Regulations, a set of rules that implements the federal Arms Export Control Act. The State Department has apparently classified DroneShield as a "defense article," which means it is subject to U.S. export regulations.

We've reached out to the State Department and will update when we have more information.

Photo via Don McCullough/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

In early September, a YouTuber by the name of Kutiman released a video called “Give It Up,” which promptly went viral and clocked more than 1.4 million views. It features 23 clips of amateur musicians on YouTube, playing alone in various rooms to an unseen audience.

Kutiman stitched them together, so the discord becomes a song. Suddenly, these strangers were making music together.

Kutiman is Ophir Kutiel, a 32-year-old Israeli musician and producer, and this isn’t the first time he’s played matchmaker. In early 2009, he received quite a bit of media attention for his ThruYOU project, a seven-video collection of amateur musicians' YouTube videos stitched together to create a series of vignettes. One track, “The Mother of All Funk Chords,” sweats like a Stones Throw b-side, building on drummer Bernard “Pretty” Purdie’s signature funk shuffle.

It was Kutiel’s revision on the concept album, and people started taking notice, including Creative Commons founder Lawrence Lessig, who wrote about ThruYOU on his blog in March 2009 and compared it to David Post’s book In Search of Jefferson’s Moose:

“This video is Jefferson’s Moose. If you come to the Net armed with the idea that the old system of copyright is going to work just fine here, this more than anything is going to get you to recognize: you need some new ideas.”

In 2010, YouTube invited Kutiel to perform at the Guggenheim Museum as part of its YouTube Play event, and his solitary craft was put in front of another group of relative strangers. In the years after ThruYOU, Kutiel has continued to dig into YouTube’s source material. Not all his videos sample amateur musicians—he has an excellent series titled “SueYou,” which features edited-together music video and live performance clips from Questlove, Limp Bizkit, 3rd Bass, and Boss Hog.

Kutiel’s final projects feature elements of sampling, mashup culture, and looping, but it's their creation process that proves the most taxing. 

“Yeah, it’s just watching a lot of YouTube,” he says by phone from Tze'elim, the small village in Israel where he lives. “Most of the time it’s really fascinating, but it can also be really frustrating. I just find something that I want to start with and put it on loop with the software and then just have YouTube open with a lot of tabs until I hear something that I’m looking for.”

The Internet is “really, really, bad” in his village, but people live simply, and Kutiel says that’s one of the reasons he came to live there. He doesn’t identify as a crate-digger or music nerd, and didn’t really grow up obsessing over music. The Internet and YouTube were essentially his gateway into music, and he explains it’s helped him not only learn how to play better, but also how to do everyday things like cook pasta.

“Anything you want to know, just type it in and some kid shows you how to do it.”

He says he initially stumbled upon YouTube’s amateur musician subculture when he was looking for instrument tutorials to improve his own playing. He would often have several tabs open at once, and would hear a melody or harmony match together from two musicians in different tabs.  

“A lot of the time, they’re playing like they’re actually playing together,” he added. “So I just need to put them together, you know?”

And so Kutiel went about matchmaking, editing together strangers, often performing alone in a room, into a band, creating a song only Kutiel knew about. He explains this is a very intense, solitary endeavor, and like many of us, he often gets sucked into a YouTube black hole. But for him, the black hole can offer inspiration. He’s lost track of how many clips he’s actually sifted through, and laments that YouTube doesn’t have a counter for that kind of thing yet.

The follow-up to ThruYOU will be released Oct. 1, and it continues that album’s theme of unrelatedness (edited together, he says, with Sony Vegas). ThruYOU Too is a six-song collage, and "No One in This World" is the second song from the album. As with many of his works, it starts with the drummer. 

In sewing together these clips, he’s connecting strangers. Everybody can relate to sitting in front of a computer and trying to connect with an exchange of art or performance. In his collages, there’s a human thread. He always lists all the components of his remixes, so you can isolate a part and learn all about YouTube’s giant wind chimes subculture, or see this ecstatic performance with its raw nerve intact.

Kutiel understands this isn’t just about finding the right beat.

“It’s kind of tricky,” he said. “Me and all the other musicians just sit home alone in front of the computer, and after so many times I watch them and it’s like I know them by now. And yeah, eventually you get the feeling that everybody knows each other and they’re playing together. And a lot of the [comments] say that this is bringing people together.

“I want to believe that’s what it’s doing.”

Photo by Haim Yafim Barbalat 

It’s been years since Ana Gasteyer impersonated Martha Stewart on Saturday Night Live, but she’s finally apologizing to the Queen of Lifestyle herself.

Appearing on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Gasteyer had the letter ready, and although she was probably about seven years too late, she took to reading a letter full of “I’m sorry’s” to the woman who inspired one of her most famous impersonations. She has full respect for (and fear of) Stewart, but she may have made life even harder for her over the years due to impersonating her.

Stewart was also on the show, so she was able to respond almost instantly while taking some jabs at Gasteyer’s expense. But for anyone looking for a fight will be disappointed; Stewart loves the impression.

“Actually I loved your impersonations of me, they were very very accurate,” Stewart said. “But I still say ‘herb,’ I still say ‘oregano,’ and I do say ‘chutzpah.’”

H/T Jezebel | Photo via Late Night with Seth Meyers/YouTube

YouTube star Sam Pepper now claims that his “Fake Hand Prank” video was just one part of a staged series through which he intended to call out sexual harassment. The YouTube community is not letting him off the hook so easily.

Pepper’s first video, which featured him pinching women unsuspectingly on their behinds, was protested by the YouTube community and subsequently removed from the platform for violating the site's terms of service. Pepper stayed silent on the issue, then released another video that featured women pinching men on the behinds, labeling it the second of three. That video was also removed for a terms of service violation.

A third video, which went up this morning, featured just Pepper talking to the camera and calling the videos a “social experiment” aimed to bring awareness to sexual assault. However, while some commenters defend the creator, saying they supported him the whole time, many others are outraged at the alleged bait and switch. They've also called out inconsistencies with Pepper's story; among other things, they cite fact that there was no indication that the original video was part of a series.

Pepper appears to have deleted his original tweet promoting the first video, which was not described as part of a series or indicated to be the first of a three-part series. He did, however, leave up a Sept. 18 tweet that claimed he'd have a “really good video” coming on Saturday, Sept. 20.

got a really good video coming for you on saturday :) subscribe here > http://t.co/IRtylUrPFK

— Sam Pepper (@sampepper) September 18, 2014

Pepper claims his intention was to shock with his videos and then make viewers think about the realities of abuse. However, he’s taken flak for using the “experiment” to talk primarily about female-on-male abuse. Pepper relates the videos to domestic abuse experienced by a friend and uncomfortable situations Pepper says he has experienced with fans invading his personal space at YouTuber events.

The YouTubers who penned an open letter to Pepper over the weekend calling him out on his actions have not been mollified by the third video, and several continue to speak out against Pepper and his actions, including Tyler Oakley and Laci Green.

DID YOU KNOW? If you're a horrible person, just claim it was a social experiment, then it's everyone else's problem if they're offended!

— Tyler Oakley (@tyleroakley) September 23, 2014

no pic.twitter.com/bGMDSQYxuo

— Tyler Oakley (@tyleroakley) September 23, 2014

Call it a "prank" or an "experiment", if you touch someone w/o consent, and promote that as comedy, you are part of the problem. @SamPepper

— Laci Green (@gogreen18) September 23, 2014

(PPS: Since writing my open letter, I've received multiple scared emails from women @SamPepper has harassed & assaulted at conferences.)

— Laci Green (@gogreen18) September 23, 2014

To further discredit Pepper’s claims, Mazzi Maz, a frequent collaborator, told the BBC that he no longer wished to be associated with the prankster. He said he called Pepper after the first video went up on Saturday, and at the time Pepper didn’t disclose the “social experiment” to him.

"When I saw it, I called him straight away and was like bro, are you feeling OK?" Maz told the BBC, who reported that Maz said Sam told him he didn’t think the video would blow up like it did.

Neither Pepper nor his multichannel network Collective Digital Studio had responded to a request for comment as of press time.

Screengrab via Sam/YouTube