You may have noticed that Facebook decided to celebrate its birthday with personalized Friends Day video montages much to the irritation of social media users the world over, who have been complaining of a cold algorithms failure to comprehend human relations.
Facebook chose to mark their 12th birthday by inundating their users timelines with monotonous montage videos of people nobody is actually friends with anymore.
Either that or they created a nice little trip down memory lane for BFFs everywhere. It depends what side of 20 youre on.
Of course there are some people who insist on being positive and post things like this. Ignore those people:
To celebrate turning 12, Facebook has introduced a holiday of its own: Friends Day.
On Thursday, Feb. 4, the social media site rolled out a Friends Day video for users that depict photos with them and their Facebook buddies. As TechCrunch notes, the short videos, which already come populated with images, can be edited.
For Friends Day, you can celebrate the important people in your life with a personalized video weve made for you and everyone in our community, wrote CEO Mark Zuckerberg on his Facebook page.
Each year we recognize this day as Friends Day and invite the world to celebrate and reflect on the importance of connecting, according to a Facebook blog post.
Facebook added in its post that its users are now more connected than ever before with some statistics:
Over the past five years, the global Facebook community has more than doubled in size. Today were announcing that during that same time period, the degrees of separation between a typical pair of Facebook users has continued to decrease to 3.57 degrees, down from 3.74 degrees in 2011. This is a significant reflection of how closely connected the world has become.
To view your Friends Day video, you can go to Facebook.com/friendsday.
By: Alysha Tsuji| February 4, 2016 11:01 pmFollow @alyshatsuji
This trick shot-shooting girl puts all others to shame. Her name is Riley Dashwood and this video was posted back in June, but it will forever be cool. Plus,its making its rounds again.
She flips and flicks and drops various household items from a CD into a DVD player to a toothbrush into a cup to toast into a toaster. And she has a boss expression on her face every time.
Mashable Australias Jenni Ryall talked to Riley and her father (who produced this video and produces all the videos they make together) in July about the filming process. It took a lot of time, to say the least. Ryall wrote:
It took 64 shots to get the paper ball into the yellow bowl, around 300 times to rebound the tennis ball into the same bowl, 12 attempts to get the spoon in the cup, 36 shots over two days at milk landing in the fridge, 54 goes at the toast and 136 with the toothbrush. In good news, the long cardboard tube took only one attempt to land upright. Riley was having a good day.
In my opinion, those are low numbers. If I tried to nail those, well, Id probably still be filming years later. She was 6 years old at the time. Purely amazing.
They filmed the misses, too.
Another thing of note here, as Rileys father pointed out in his tweet, Steph Currys daughter is also named Riley. I dont know what this means. Theres some sort of weird connection going on here. No one question it.
Groundhog Day is the dumbest American holiday3d agoTwo guys sneak into a movie theater dressed up as one person4d agoPeople in Holland are training eagles to hunt drones4d ago
ESPN NCAA College Football Images of the Decade 2000s (2000-2009)
ESPNs (DIS) broadcast of the 2016 College Football Playoff National Championship drew a 15.8 overnight rating, the network said Tuesday. Ratings were down 15% compared to last year despite a competitive game that saw the Alabama Crimson Tide narrowly defeat the Clemson Tigers, 45-40.
According to Nielsens live-plus-same-day metric, this years national championship drew a 14.7 final rating. Roughly 25.6 million viewers tuned in to watch Alabama vs. Clemson, down from more than 33 million viewers a year ago. The online stream of Alabama vs. Clemson drew more unique visitors than any other game in ESPN history, with the exception of the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
Even with the ratings decline, the broadcast generated the third-highest overnight rating of any game in ESPNs history and drew the sixth-largest audience in cable history, ESPN said. The networks megacast of the national championship the combined coverage for the event on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU, drew a 16.0 overnight rating.
ESPN and sponsors are probably cool with the expected slight decline in ratings for the CFP Championship game between Alabama and Clemson, said John Vrooman, a sports economist at Vanderbilt University. Declines for the championship game were expected because of the loss of novelty from the inaugural CFP and the deep south regional nature of the teams involved.
ESPN charged an estimated $1.2 million to $1.3 million for 30-second commercials during Monday nights broadcast, according to Navigate Research. Corporate sponsorships for the College Football Playoff cost anywhere from $14 million to $16 million each, the Sports Business Journal reported.
In January 2015, the first-ever College Football Playoff championship between the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Oregon Ducks drew an 18.2 rating. It was the highest-rated cable broadcast in history.
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The ratings decline for this years College Football Playoff semifinals, which saw a 36% drop in viewership compared to last year. Critics attributed the drop to the decision to hold the games on New Years Eve rather than New Years Day.
The lack of interest in this years semifinal games likely had a negative impact on the championship games ratings.
My guess is sponsors are not thrilled with the rating, but also not surprised, said Andy Billings, director of the University of Alabamas sports communication program. The game itself was everything a college football fan could ask for, but the headwinds of having two schools from the same region of the country, combined with lower built-in interest from the semifinals having much lower numbers likely led to this lower rating.
ESPN declined FOXBusiness.coms request for comment on this story.
Upset with the results from the caucuses, Donald Trump wants a do over, something that he has considerable previous experience with in bankruptcy court. Having not passed the support threshold to make it into the debates, Rick Santorum is wondering whether he crossed the support threshold to land a Fox News contributing gig. And Rand Paul suspended his presidential campaign, immediately throwing his support behind not losing his Senate seat this November. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Wednesday, February 3rd, 2016:
@gov_gilmore: Started out as 1 of 17 GOP Candidates, now with Rand Paul & Rick Santorum out, 1 or 9. #StillStanding
HOUSE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE SO MAD - Members of Congress wanted to get to the bottom of the Flint water crisis, but several key players were missing from an oversight hearing on Wednesday. House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) opted not to call Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) to testify, to the consternation of committee Democrats. And Darnell Earley, one of the emergency managers Snyder had appointed to run Flint, refused to testify even after Chaffetz issued a subpoena Tuesday. "We"re calling on the U.S. Marshals to hunt him down and give him that subpoena," Chaffetz said. Lead poisoned Flint"s water after the city switched its water source in 2014. The state water regulator told Flint not to control for the corrosiveness of the water, and the lack of treatment resulted in the water leaching lead from the city"s pipes. And the federal Environmental Protection Agency dragged its feet last year after it knew there was a problem. "This is the United States of America -- this isn"t supposed to happen here," Chaffetz said. "We are not some Third World country where 100,000 people get poisoned." [w/ HuffPost"s Laura Barron-Lopez]
Darnell Earley"s lawyer, A. Scott Bolden, did not like this proposed hunting down of his client, saying he told the committee they"d cooperate if they"d give him some other dates. "I have not heard back from the committee since then -- other than what I saw on TV, that the chairman indicated that he was going to have to hunt my client down like he was an animal. My client"s not an animal, and neither am I, and neither one of us are running and hiding from the committee. We"re ready, willing and able to participate, just under reasonable circumstances."
RECKLESS OBAMA WANTS FEDERAL EMPLOYEES TO AFFORD MILK - How can you drown the government in a bathtub if it"s out buying groceries with its COLA? Joe Davidson: "President Obama will include an average 1.6 percent pay raise for federal employees in his fiscal 2017 budget proposal. This year, the average raise is 1.3 percent. The 2017 pay increase was announced in a conference call with administration and union officials. The complete budget will be announced next week... the president will propose six weeks of paid parental leave for federal employees, as he has previously. Currently, they may take 12 weeks of unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act, like all workers of many companies." [WaPo]
DELANEY DOWNER - Tyler Tynes: "Gladyes Williamson paced the halls of Congress on Wednesday, armed with a bottle of brown water and clumps of her own hair. She"d traveled with a group from Flint, Michigan, where high lead levels have made the water irritating to the skin and unsafe to drink since 2014. Williamson trekked 14 hours on a packed bus, with no sleep, to remind Washington of whats happening in a poor, embattled, industrial town nearly 75 miles north of Detroit. "Not only do we feel like the Republicans hate us, but now that the Democrats dont care either," Williams, 62, told The Huffington Post. "We just need something tangible to make us believe that politicians care about us. The wards in Flint havent seen any of this federal aid, but we do all the tax paying and all the dying."" [HuffPost]
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HUMBLED DONALD TRUMP BLAMES THE SYSTEM, REASSERTS HIS OWN GREATNESS - What a mild mannered man. Maggie Haberman: "After hinting at it for a day, Donald J. Trump on Wednesday bluntly accused Senator Ted Cruz of "stealing" victory in the Iowa caucuses and demanded a do-over... In typical fashion, Mr. Trump first tested lines about Mr. Cruz committing voter fraud in a speech at a rally in New Hampshire, sprinkling it in with a larger address. Mr. Trump is basing his claim on reports that Mr. Cruzs aides and allies, including Representative Steve King of Iowa, had posted a false report on Twitter that Ben Carson had suspended his campaign while the voting was still going on. The implication is that some of the Carson votes ended up going to Mr. Cruz." [NYT]
CLINTON, SANDERS AGREE TO FOUR DEBATES - Ben Kamisar: "Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have agreed to four more debates beginning with a Thursday night showdown in New Hampshire, the Democratic National Committee confirmed to The Hill. After Thursday"s debate, the campaigns will next square off in Flint, Mich., the city facing a public health crisis due to contaminated water, in March. The DNC adds that there will be two other debates, one in April and one in May, but did not specify the locations. The Washington Post reports that the April debate will take place in Pennsylvania and the May debate will be in California. The partys decision to sanction the debates allows the candidates to appear without triggering a party provision that bars candidates who appear in unsanctioned debates from appearing in future official contests." [The Hill]
RAND PAUL OUT - The invisible hand pointed him to the exit. Paul Kane and Dave Weigel: "Sen. Rand Paul will now pivot from battling other Republicans in the presidential race to beating a Democrat in what could be a competitive race to hold his Kentucky Senate seat in November. After exiting the presidential contest on Wednesday morning, Pauls campaign leadership said the senator was turning his attention fully to his Senate reelection bid, arguing that his steady voting record had shored him up at home. "His national race transfers to the state level in terms of fundraising," said Paul strategist Doug Stafford. Still, Pauls fundraising suffered from the Kentucky Republicans decision to simultaneously pursue the White House and Senate reelection in 2016." [WaPo]
SANTORUM OUT - Just couldn"t get things frothy. John King and Jeremy Diamond: "Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum is ending his presidential bid, two Republican sources told CNN. He is expected to make the announcement Wednesday night and will endorse a candidate. Santorum won the 2012 Iowa caucuses and ended that race with the second-most number of delegates to eventually GOP nominee Mitt Romney. But he was unable to capture any momentum this year, despite extensive barnstorming efforts in Iowa. He is the third Republican presidential candidate to drop out after Monday"s caucuses. Mike Huckabee ended his campaign that night, and Rand Paul suspended his campaign Wednesday morning. The Santorum sources did not say whom Santorum would endorse. When asked about a possible endorsement, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said he hasn"t spoken to the former Pennsylvania senator on Wednesday." [CNN]
AWKWARD - Josh Gerstein: "President Bill Clinton once had the opportunity to save his daughter"s future father-in-law from spending five years behind bars, according to never-before-revealed White House files. But the asked-for reprieve never came. In the waning days of Clinton"s presidency, federal prosecutors and the FBI were bearing down on former Rep. Ed Mezvinsky (D-Iowa), who had fallen for a series of Ponzi schemes and pulled in nearly $10 million money from other investors to cover his losses. Mezvinsky would not be formally indicted until March of 2001, but records released last week by the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock and obtained by POLITICO show Mezvinsky and his then-wife ex-Rep. Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky (D-Pa.) pleaded with the former president for a presidential pardon to head off the looming federal case." [Politico]
Um, ok?: "A new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report recommends that women of childbearing age who are sexually active and not using birth control stop drinking alcohol altogether. "The risk is real. Why take the chance?" the CDCs principal deputy director says in the press release accompanying the report." [Slate]
BECAUSE YOU"VE READ THIS FAR - Here"s an adorable magic trick.
OBAMA ALL, "HAI MOSQUE," MOSQUE ALL, "HAI OBAMA" - Roberta Rampton: "U.S. President Barack Obama visited a U.S. mosque on Wednesday and declared that attacks on Islam were an attack on all faiths in a move to counter rhetoric from Donald Trump and other Republican presidential candidates that have alienated Muslims. "We have to understand that an attack on one faith is an attack on all our faiths," Obama said at amosque outside Baltimore. "When any religious group is targeted we all have a responsibility to speak up."" [Reuters]
COMFORT FOOD
- French words hidden in English.
- Orangutans playing Xbox.
- A very large freezer.
TWITTERAMA
@embeedub: I wish that whenever someone quits a presidential campaign there could be a goodbye montage like they do on Idol.
@SimonMaloy: [inside the National Press Club]
CARSON: Thank you for coming. There comes a time in every candidate"s life when he needs new pants, and
@ThePlumLineGS: Sure, Trump is unconventional, but is there any precedent for writing off someone as buffoonish loser for finishing second in Iowa?
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Gordon Ramsays Hells Kitchen is welcoming a reality TV VIP on Wednesdays (Feb. 3) episode in the form of Keeping Up With the Kardashians matriarch Kris Jenner and the chefs are a bit starstruck. Check out Zap2its exclusive sneak peek to see how one in particular crumbles under the Jenner pressure.
Kris Jenner, she looked fabulous. Her shoes, everything. Her shoes! gushes chef Jackie Fuchs.
I was totally blinded by Kris Jenners smile, adds chef Manda Palomino. Im not even looking up because right now she is the only person I care about.
RELATED: Gordon Ramsay gives Hells Kitchen chefs devilish distractions: b***s or dumplings?!
Blinded is right, because Palominos risotto appetizer does not turn out very well, because she was concentrating so hard on Jenner eating in the restaurant. In true Ramsay style, he really lets his contestant have it.
Did you taste that risotto? Young lady, are you serious? Its like you dont care. Kris Jenner has put out a f***ing cookbook. If you dont care, then go home! shouts the fiery Michelin star-winning chef.
Also in the episode are a rubber duck hunt challenge, a day of yachting for the winners and VIP guest Dita Von Teese. To find out what happens, tune in Wednesday, Feb. 3 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on FOX.
