Weekly Rewind: March 16
Stephen Hawking's celebrity cameos, Snapchat's tin-eared ad shenanigans & a motivating can of Lynx body spray are among this week's wackiest stories from the interwebs.
)
5. Hawking is finally having fun among the stars
Everyone from Barack Obama to Sir Tim Berners-Lee paid tribute to British physicist Stephen Hawking, who died this week at the age of 76 after a decades-long battle with motor neurone disease. But, as the BBC revealed, he was more than just a brilliant scientist and best-selling author; he also had an impressive sideline in TV and film cameos. Hawking put in appearances in Star Trek: The Next Generation; Little Britain, and, most famously, The Simpsons - though surely the best example of his deadpan humour was Monty Python's The Meaning of Live, where he mowed down fellow physicist Prof Brian Cox with his motorised wheelchair, for being 'pedantic'.
4. Snapchat apologises for 'domestic abuse' ad
After Kylie Jenner wiped a reported $1.3 billion off Snapchat's value by posting she was 'soooo over it', you'd have thought the social giant would be on its best behaviour. Not so: this week, reports the Fader, it was forced to issue a grovelling apology for running an ad for a smartphone game called Would You Rather, which asked users if they'd rather slap Rihanna or punch Chris Brown. After widespread criticism on Twitter for the 'tone deaf' decision, Snapchat removed the offending ad, admitting it 'makes light of domestic violence' and appeared 'in error'. But the apology has fallen on deaf ears, it seems, with Ri-Ri condemning the company yesterday in an Instagram Story - "I'd love to call it ignorance, but I know you ain’t that dumb!” - which has seen the company's stock fall a further five per cent.
3. The furry, five-star trend taking over Twitter
The latest Twitter trend is one of the most adorable yet, and is causing feeds in the US and UK to be bombarded with pictures of animals (which is amazing, of course). The trend involves people using the hashtag #rateaspecies and writing in the style of Amazon product reviews to "rate" various kinds of animals. According to Stylist, a few zoos started the trend by rating their animals, such as the Oregon Zoo, which gave a bat a five-star rating with the comment: "GREAT VALUE, LOVE these. Must-have on all outdoor adventures. Keeps bugs off even when wet. Cordless." As more zoos across the US and UK joined the trend, people also started to jokingly leave "negative" reviews, like zookeeper Rick Schwartz, who tweeted about a parrot: "3/5 Audio Recorder: Mixed feelings on this review. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. It only records what it finds interesting. AND will replay LOUDLY usually at or BEFORE sunrise. Also, no battery needed. Requires fresh fruits & veggies. VERY MESSY."
2. Kloss expands course to reach more female coders
It's no secret that female coders are severely outnumbered by their male counterparts, however in an effort to reverse this statistic, supermodel Karlie Kloss is opening up her Kode with Klossy programme across the US, according to Mashable. Having launched in 2015 to give young girls the tools and expertise to learn to code, after discovering her own love of it, the super has decided to increase her reach and enlist another 1,000 girls onto the scheme. So maybe there is hope of changing the gender imbalance in the tech industry after all.
1. Big Shaq sprays motivation with Lynx
Sometimes it can be hard to feel good in the morning, let alone leave the house on time, feeling pumped and ready for the day ahead. But 72andSunny has created a custom-made Lynx can that spouts motivational messages from British comedian and rapper Michael Dapaah, aka Big Shaq. While there's only one can out there at the moment, owned by the man himself, his Instagram post about the prototype has been so well received that the team are keen to release a few more. We didn't know we wanted one so much...
