Scatty.com

Author: scatty

Oregon’s 5 Greatest Ever Sports Heroes

Posted on by scatty

Across all levels of sports, the state of Oregon has had a tremendous amount of athlete who has called the Emerald State their home at one point. Oregon was once known almost exclusively as the home for track and field in the United States, but over the years has gotten a lot more attention for other sports, especially football.

Between the Ducks, Beavers, Trail Blazers, and many other teams that are based out of Oregon, who are the top sports heroes that the state claims? While there are sure to be differing opinions, here are our picks for the five greatest Oregon sports heroes.

Clyde Drexler

Clyde Drexler could be considered a legend in many different parts of the country. He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana then raised in Houston, Texas where he became a college basketball legend. Drexler then entered the 1983 NBA Draft where he became the 14th overall pick. Thanks to his career with the Portland Trail Blazers, Drexler was one of just two Hall of Famers selected in that year’s draft.

During his 12 seasons in Portland, Drexler averaged 20.8 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 5.7 assists per game. Drexler was named an All-Star for eight of those seasons, including his tremendous 1988-89 campaign. During that season, Drexler averaged 27.2 points and 7.9 rebounds per game, both of which were career highs. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2004.

Marcus Mariota

Hawaii native Marcus Mariota was highly sought-after when he was coming out of high school in 2011. Oregon ended up being the lucky recipient of his services at quarterback, and Mariota didn’t disappoint. He would end up playing for three seasons with the Oregon Ducks, including getting significant playing time as a freshman.

All in all, Mariota finished with 10,796 passing yards and 105 touchdowns while also adding in 2,237 rushing yards and 29 touchdowns. Mariota only had 14 interceptions throughout his career, as well, with the cherry on top being the first Oregon player to win the Heisman Trophy. Mariota was selected second overall in the 2015 NFL Draft by the Tennessee Titans.

Steve Prefontaine

The first member of the list to be born and raised in Oregon, Steve Prefontaine became the face of running during the early 1970s. In fact, more people took up running as a hobby because of “Pre” and his signature mustache. He grew up in Coos Bay, Oregon, and chose to stay in-state for college at the University of Oregon.

Prefontaine participated in the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich the year after winning gold at the Pan American Games. He broke the 4-minute mile barrier, and set a personal best of 3 minutes 54.6 seconds in 1973. Sadly, Prefontaine’s was taken in his prime in 1975 as a car crash claimed his life at just 24 years old. To this day, though, he remains an iconic figure in the world of track.

Danny Ainge

Danny Ainge is the only member of the list to not participate in college or professional sports in the state of Oregon but was a legend because of his high school days. Aigne was born and raised in Eugene, Oregon, attending North Eugene High School during the mid-1970s. Ainge excelled at every sport and was named an All-American for football, baseball, and, of course, basketball.

Ainge had the offer to stay in-state for college but ultimately decided to head to BYU. While there, he was a member of the All-WAC Team in all four seasons and had his number retired by the BYU basketball program. Ainge spent well over a decade in the NBA before retiring as a member of the Phoenix Suns in 1995.

Damian Lillard

The other Portland Trail Blazer to make the list is point guard Damian Lillard, who has established himself as the franchise’s all-time best player. Lillard didn’t go to a large school for his college hoops days, heading to Weber State as he was only a two-star recruit and ranked outside of the top 100 in the nation.

Lillard showed his value, though, and he would end up being taken sixth overall by the Blazers in the 2012 NBA Draft. Since then, Lillard has been named an All-Star more than a half-dozen times while also being named to the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team. Being able to average more than 25 points per game after a decade in the NBA is remarkable, and Lillard did just that.

5 Best Acting Performances by Singers

Posted on by scatty

If you haven’t been trained in acting, it can be extremely hard to give a convincing performance on-screen. Movie studios are willing to take a chance on singers, though, as their name power alone can help bring in audiences. There have been some truly poor performances from singers who dabble in acting for the first time, but there have also been some great ones.

Let’s take a look at some of the musicians who wowed audiences with their performances, with several of them getting nominated for Academy Awards. Here are our picks for the five best acting performances from those who came from the music industry.

Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls)

Jennifer Hudson made waves in 2004 when she appeared on the third season of “American Idol” as a contestant. Hudson made it deep into the competition, but ultimately fell short as she finished in seventh place. Still, Hudson made a big impact during that time. Hudson didn’t go into singing after her “Idol” days, though, but instead went into acting.

In 2006, Hudson made her acting debut in the biopic “Dreamgirls” playing real-life singer Effie White. Hudson, like her co-star Beyonce Knowles, was nominated for an Oscar. Out of the two, Hudson was the only one to take home the trophy, winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Since then, Hudson has starred in films including “Chi-Raq” and “Respect”, this time playing Aretha Franklin.

Eminem (8 Mile)

During the late 1990s, underground Detroit rapper Eminem hit the mainstream when he was discovered by Dr. Dre and released his first debut with Aftermath, “The Slim Shady LP”, in 1999. Born Marshall Mathers, Eminem is considered by many to be the greatest rapper ever due to his songwriting and flow. He hasn’t dabbled much in acting, but when he has, it’s been memorable.

Eminem’s best role came when he played a fictionalized version of himself in the hit film “8 Mile” in 2002. The film had a large budget, but it ended up paying off as it grossed nearly a quarter-billion at the box office. Taking on the part of Jimmy (a.k.a. B-Rabbit), Eminem gave a heartfelt performance with audiences able to tell that Eminem tapped into his Detroit upbringing for the performance.

Cher (Moonstruck)

Cher had a little acting work early in her career with then-husband Sonny Bono when the two had a variety show together. However, Cher mainly was known for her music career in the 1960s and 1970s thanks to hit songs like “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)”, “Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves”, and “Dark Lady”. 

After the height of her music career, Cher got into acting during the early 1980s. After appearing in “Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean”, she starred in the 1983 film “Silkwood”, leading to her first Oscar nomination. Four years later, she starred as Loretta Castorini in the hit film “Moonstruck”, this time earning herself her first Oscar win.

Lady Gaga (A Star Is Born)

Lady Gaga burst onto the scene in the mid-2000s with the release of her debut album “The Fame” which featured a long list of massive hits. She quickly became one of the most popular names in music and was even chosen to headline the Super Bowl Halftime Show. After accomplishing basically all she could in music, Gaga turned her attention to acting.

She had made appearances in the films “Machete Kills” and “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For” during the mid-2010s, but her acting career really took off at the end of the decade. That’s when she starred in the remake of the 1954 film “A Star Is Born”, playing Ally Maine. Gaga was nominated for a pair of Oscars, taking home the title for Best Original Song (“Shallow”), but was snubbed for Best Actress.

Mary J. Blige (Mudbound)

Mary J. Blige is music royalty as many consider her to be the Queen of R&B. Blige churned out hits in the 1990s and 2000s including “Family Affair”, “Real Love” and “I Can Love You”. Blige made her acting debut in 2001 with “Prison Song”, but it would be a long time until she returned. In 2017, she came back in a big way, playing the role of Florence Jackson in “Mudbound”.

Blige starred alongside the likes of Carey Mulligan and Garrett Hedlund in a critically acclaimed performance. Like Lady Gaga, Blige was nominated for both acting and singing at the Academy Awards. While she didn’t win either title, she did get the nod for Best Supporting Actress and Best Original Song (“Mighty River”).

5 Call of Duty Swatting Incidents

Posted on by scatty

There was a time when “swatting” was so rare that nobody had ever heard of it. In the digital age, though, swatting has become so common that instances barely make the front page of headlines unless tragedy happens. Many of the targets for swatting are live streamers, many of which have rubbed certain fans the wrong way. All it takes is one deranged viewer to swat someone, and the results can be deadly.

If you’re unfamiliar with swatting, it’s when emergency services are called to someone’s house that requires the local SWAT team to arrive. This can be anything from a bomb threat to a hostage situation, and the SWAT team enters the home with their weapons drawn expecting the worst. However, they find unarmed people who were simply live streaming. Some of the most common targets for swatting are streamers who play “Call of Duty” games in front of fans. Here are five instances of those streamers being swatted.

Casey Viner

The tragic and unnecessary event surrounding this swatting incident resulted in the death by officer shooting of an uninvolved victim Andrew Finch. In 2017 a feud erupted between Call of Duty: WWII players Casey Viner and Shane Gaskill. At the height of their dispute, Viner threatened Gaskill with the act of swatting. 

Gaskill proceeded to give Viner a false address in Wichita, Kansas. Viner’s friend Tyler Barris made the actual call to the police department, resulting in a swift arrival at Finch’s residence. Unaware of why police were swarming his home, Finch exited his home and officer Justin Rapp fatally shot the innocent man. 

Drift0r

In 2021 streamer and YouTube personality Drift0r revealed he and his family were victims of multiple swatting attempts at his Texas residence in 2019 and 2020. He posted a video on his YouTube channel discussing his experience with those incidents where he claimed there was a barrage of violence against him and his family by crazed fans of other creators who had a strong disliking for the streamer. 

He stays vigilant, though he’s reported a number of perpetrators have been apprehended by police and the charges were brought upon them. The trials have since ended, giving him the freedom to detail the harrowing experience further. 

Nadia Amine

Twitch streamer and Warzone pro Nadia Amine was one of the more recent incidents where a popular Call of Duty streamer was swatted. Though, the outcome was much more wholesome and didn’t result in anyone being injured. 

The SWAT member involved with investigating the call thankfully had knowledge of the streaming platform Twitch and the swatting of popular streamers. He even joined the stream at one point and encouraged viewers to sub to the channel and help Amine reach her sub goals. A wholesome outcome for what could have been another tragedy. 

iShowSpeed

Another recent swatting attempt came on August 8th, 2022 to twitch streamer and YouTuber iShowSpeed. The fun and energetic up-and-comer, who was a regular on Call of Duty, was swatted during a YouTube live stream where he was placed in handcuffs and arrested at his home. 

He was thankfully unharmed, though very shaken up and confused by what had occurred. Fellow streamer, Adin Ross, who became a swatting victim just one day before, was said to have paid the streamer’s enormous bail for his unnecessary arrest. 

Adin Ross

When he first started streaming, Adin Ross teamed up with his sister and started to grow a following on Twitch. Ross was known in his early years for playing the NBA 2K franchise, and even rubbed elbows with some current ballplayers. Ross quickly became one of the most followed people on Twitch with millions of loyal fans that would boost his popularity.

While Ross has certainly been a controversial figure on Twitch and YouTube, nobody deserves to be swatted due to the danger of the situation. However, multiple people felt the need to do just that, and in late 2022, he was swatted twice in a matter of weeks. After the second incident, Ross tweeted out “I’m done bro. I really got swatted again please stop whoever’s doing it.” The person who claimed to be the swatter said they did it because they felt Ross deserved it and that he didn’t respond to a message on Discord.

5 Controversial Opinions of Tucker Carlson

Posted on by scatty

Tucker Carlson has been a presence on television for decades now, getting his start as a host on CNN at the start of the new millennium after years of being a writer. Carlson spent the first half of the 2000s with the Atlanta-based news network and made his way to both PBS and MSNBC before heading to Fox News in 2009.

Ever since then, Carlson has been a staple for conservatism on the right-wing news network, with “Tucker Carlson Tonight” beginning in 2016. The show has been consistently near the top of the ratings since its inception, with some agreeing with what he’s saying while others see him as one of the most controversial people in the history of media. So what is it that Carlson says that makes him so controversial? Here are five of his opinions that had people reacting the most.

Climate Change

One major study conducted regarding the content of the Fox News Channel said that in the first half of 2019, there were nearly 250 segments that spoke about climate change. Of those, 86 percent were dismissive of the severity of climate change or outright said that it was a hoax. No other anchor on Fox News had more of these segments throughout the months than Tucker Carlson.

Carlson has hosted countless climate change deniers on his program, echoing his feelings regarding the topic. “It is a war against people,” Carlson said of the introduction of green energy. He went as far as to say that fossil fuels were “our greatest blessing,” and that “It’s not global warming; it’s global cooling. That’s what’s going to kill your grandmother.”

 Perhaps the most controversial line from Carlson came when he said “in the hands of Democratic politicians, climate change is like systemic racism in the sky. You can’t see it, but rest assured, it’s everywhere and it’s deadly.”

Race

And that line leads us to our next point. Nobody has stoked the flames of race-related topics quite like Carlson since he landed his own show on Fox News. Many of these times have concerned immigration in the United States. Many sources have said that Carlson’s show has promoted racism, which he has denied.

Carlson has said that white supremacy as an idea is “a conspiracy theory used to divide the country and keep a hold on power.” When pushed back on the issue, Carlson said “I’ve never had a white supremacist work for me. I don’t think I’ve ever talked to a white supremacist…I’m stating my sincere views as reflected in my personal life and my professional life as clearly as I can.”

LGBT Rights

When talking about the LGBT community, especially transgender people, Tucker Carlson has been extremely outspoken. He has said that gender-related treatment for minors is “sexual mutilation of children” and encouraged parents to get in the face of any teacher who talked about transgender people.

Even during the Colorado Springs nightclub shooting, Carlson said “These horrifying murders in Colorado over the weekend quickly became a pretext for yet more censorship of your speech. You are responsible for this, they told you, because you said the wrong thing.” Members of GLAAD responded by saying that Tucker was fueling anti-LGBT hate speech.

COVID-19

Throughout the first couple of years of the COVID-19 pandemic, Tucker Carlson had opinions that seemed to be all over the place. At first, Carlson said that the virus was incredibly deadly and needs to be taken more seriously than Republicans had been. However, just two months later, he minimized the seriousness of the pandemic.

Carlson then went on to claim that people shouldn’t be vaccinated and that the entire pandemic was a hoax. This caused an uproar as his viewers that follow him loyally weren’t sure what to believe because of the constant changes. He has now stood firm on being anti-vax despite receiving it himself.

Abortion

Despite once being a registered Democrat, Tucker Carlson has been a long-time supporter of the pro-life movement. Carlson has only dug his heels deeper onto that side of the argument and said that many people only support abortion because they don’t want to spend money and it will affect the economy.

“When you get to this point, and this point is a place where the economy is so completely distorted that only Democratic voters – donors – can still afford to have normal families,” Carlson said. “When you get there, the solution is simple: Don’t reproduce. Childlessness is the cure for the economy they created. And that’s why abortion is so very important, especially now.”

Recapping All the Times Donald Trump Ran For President

Posted on by scatty

Donald Trump has been a public figure for pretty much his entire adult life. In the early 1970s, he took over his father’s real estate company and enhanced the branding so that everybody in the world knew the name Trump. He then began making appearances across all forms of media, making him a celebrity of sorts. From board games to reality television and everything in between, Trump was as famous as just about any Hollywood actor.

During most of his business career, Trump was very opinionated about the political world. When he first got involved with politics, Trump identified as a Republican but switched gears in the late 1990s as he became a brief member of the Reform Party. 

In 2001, Trump became a Democrat until the late 2000s and has largely been a Republican ever since. Throughout the years, Trump has at least considered a run for president, with several full-fledged campaigns. Let’s take a look at Trump’s history with presidential candidacies, which goes back further than you may have thought.

1992

When Ronald Reagan was getting close to his second and final term, almost every Republican knew that then-Vice President George H.W. Bush would be the next Republican nominee for the White House. Everyone, that is, except for Donald Trump. Trump took out advertisements in newspapers across the United States voicing his political beliefs and was asked if this meant he was running for office.

Trump denied that he was running for president and said he’d win if he did, but Bush himself said that he was approached by Trump to become his Vice Presidential running mate. Bush called the encounter “strange and unbelievable,” while Trump said, “at that time I had no political aspiration.” It’s unlikely we’ll ever truly know how it all went down specifically.

2000

After sitting out the 1996 election between Bill Clinton and Bob Dole, Trump decided that he wanted to throw his hat into the ring when it became a wide-open race in 2000. Instead of running as either a Democrat or Republican, though, Trump decided to run as a member of the Reform Party.

Trump, however, didn’t even win the presidential nomination from the party. Instead, that spot went to Pat Buchanan, the former speechwriter, and advisor for Richard Nixon who chose Ezola Foster as his running mate. There were two states in which Trump won his primary for the Reform Party, though (Michigan and California).

2004 and 2008

After failing to secure the third party bid in 2000, Trump decided to take a bit of a back seat during the following two elections. Trump considered running again in 2004, but it wasn’t a serious interest. In 2008, he initially supported Hillary Clinton during the Democratic primaries, but when she lost the bid to Barack Obama, he began supporting John McCain.

Two of those people would end up being direct Trump opponents down the road, so it was interesting to see him support both during the same year prior to his presidential run in 2016. Ultimately, Obama would win the presidency, and Trump would be one of his biggest critics with the advent of Twitter.

2012

Because he was gaining so much support on social media for his opposition to Barack Obama, there were many who felt that Trump should run for president in 2012 while Obama was up for re-election. Trump ran an “unofficial” campaign and dropped out rather early in the process. 

It was around that time when Trump attended the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner and was a massive target for Obama’s jokes. Many felt that this was the time when Trump began taking his political career seriously and started laying the groundwork for a 2016 campaign. This included requesting some of his records either removed or sealed.

2016 and 2020

In June 2015, Trump announced his official candidacy for the 2016 presidential election as a member of the Republican Party. Many felt that Trump had no chance, but continued to gain support in the primaries and knocked out candidates including Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and John Kasich on his way to winning the bid.

Trump earned 1,441 delegates during the primary elections, though he still wasn’t given a chance by most analysts in the general election. However, Trump pulled off one of the biggest upsets in election history when he defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016. 

Four years later, though, Trump failed to win his re-election campaign in what has gone down as one of the most talked about elections in American history. Before even leaving the White House, though, Trump had announced that he was running once again in 2024 while contending the results of the 2020 election.

5 Republicans Who Could Have Been President

Posted on by scatty

There have been plenty of politicians throughout the years who have revealed they have no aspirations of being the President of the United States of America. There are even people who have no background in politics, but enough felt like that person should be the leader of the country. One of the biggest examples was Donald Trump, who developed enough of a following to actually become president when he officially ran on the Republican ticket.

Trump isn’t the only Republican who people have wanted to run for president. There have been many instances of others who either ended up surprisingly not winning their election, or didn’t run altogether. Here are five members of the Republican party who could have been president had they run a serious and official campaign.

William Seward

When we hear the name William Seward, we tend to think of “Seward’s Folly” which historians have said was never actually a popular phrase in the 19th century. What we’re referring to is when William H. Seward was serving as the 24th United States Secretary of State and oversaw the treaty that led to the U.S. purchasing Alaska from Russia. Some saw it as useless land at the time, but Alaska has proven to be a valuable asset for the country.

Seward had a long political career, getting his start as the Governor of New York from 1839 until the end of 1842. He then served as a U.S. Senator representing New York before becoming Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln. Seward had moved from the Whig to Republican Party in the 1850s and was primed to actually become president instead of Lincoln in 1860. Seward withdrew from the race, worked for Lincoln, and decided to step aside for Ulysses S. Grant in the following election.

Robert A. Taft

If the name Taft sounds familiar, it’s because Robert Taft was the son of the 27th President, William Howard Taft. His son had become quite a popular politician of his own during the 1930s through the early 1950s, and was so ingrained into the Republican Party that he was once dubbed “Mr. Republican”. 

Taft was a state representative early on in his political career, and toward the end of the 1930s he represented the state of Ohio at the U.S. Senate. He became Senate Majority Leader for the final few months of his time in the Senate and attempted to run for President multiple times. Unfortunately for Taft, when Republicans felt he was finally ready to be the top candidate, he succumbed to pancreatic cancer at 63 years old.

Colin Powell

The amount of overall experience that the late Colin Powell gave him a resume that’s almost unmatched. Powell began his military career in 1958 with the United States Army and worked his way up to the rank of General. Powell served in three wars and became a member of the Republican Party in 1995.

Powell was the U.S. National Security Advisor under Ronald Reagan, then became the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for both George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. He went on to become Secretary of State under George W. Bush but never ran for the White House himself. Instead, he gave his full support to John McCain in 2008 and didn’t support anyone in 2016.

Condoleezza Rice

Powell wasn’t the only one to serve as Secretary of State for George W. Bush as Condoleezza Rice took over from 2005 until 2009. Rice was also the U.S. National Security Advisory and registered as a Republican after spending her early life as a Democrat.

Rice has plenty of experience in politics and business throughout her career, though it seems that she’s been more interested in the world of sports as she serves as part of the College Football Playoff Committee. She shot down rumors that she will run for president, saying that she’s a “policy maker, not a politician.”

Elon Musk

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has changed his political affiliations a handful of times throughout his business career, but in more recent years has shown his Republican side. After his foray into social media (purchasing Twitter), many of his followers felt that he would be a good candidate for President on the Republican ticket.

There’s just one small problem, however. Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa, thus disqualifying him as he’s not a natural-born United States citizen. There is a technicality that he could become Vice President, but a lot of electoral college rarities that have never happened before would need to fall in place, so don’t hold your breath.

5 Best Detroit Red Wings of All Time

Posted on by scatty

The Detroit Red Wings, as one of the Original Six in the National Hockey League, have a history that dates back longer than just about every other team in the league. Throughout the years, there have been several stretches of absolute dominance by the Wings because of some all-time great players.

It’s hard to narrow it down to just a few, but there are a handful of Red Wings players who stand out as the franchise’s best. Let’s take a look at the five players who stood out above the rest in Hockeytown history. Before we start the list, here are some players that just missed the cut: Serge Fedorov, Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, and Alex Delvecchio.

Ted Lindsay

Many know about how Gordie Howe dominated for the Red Wings in the post-World War II years, but the casual fans might not know much about his longtime teammate Ted Lindsay. The left winger played for 14 seasons in Detroit (and another three with Chicago), recording 728 points in his 862 Red Wings games.

All of Lindsay’s best seasons came in the Motor City, and he won four Stanley Cups along the way. Lindsay was named an All-Star in nine seasons and won the 1950 Art Ross Trophy in addition to being named to the NHL’s 100th Anniversary Team. His jersey hangs in the rafters at Little Caesars Arena, and he became a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1966.

Terry Sawchuk

There were a couple of times in which goaltender Terry Sawchuk left the Red Wings only to return to the franchise. Sawchuk started his career with Detroit where he spent his first six seasons, five of which resulted in him being named an All-Star and three of which saw him win the Vezina Trophy.

Sawchuk then spent two seasons with the Boston Bruins before his first return, and his second Red Wings tenure lasted for seven seasons. He had a third one-year stint, bringing his total to 14 seasons in Detroit. Sawchuck finished with 350 wins in his 734 appearances, saving 90.4 percent of shots and allowing 2.44 goals per game.

Nicklas Lidstrom

If it weren’t for the fact that Steve Yzerman was there for almost his entire career, Nicklas Lidstrom would have been the captain in Detroit for many more years. The Swedish defenseman played all 20 of his NHL seasons with the Red Wings and his list of accolades is one of the most impressive in NHL history.

Lidstrom recorded 1,142 points in 1,564 NHL games, which was good enough for sixth all-time when he retired in 2012. Lidstrom was named an All-Star 12 times, winning four Stanley Cups for the Wings. He famously won seven Norris Trophies as the best defenseman in the NHL and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2015. Naturally, his number six jersey was retired by the Red Wings not long after his career ended.

Steve Yzerman

Spending your entire NHL career with one team used to be more common in the early days of professional hockey, but changed dramatically during the 1990s and 2000s. One man that still remained with one franchise despite the ever-changing league was Steve Yzerman, who spent all 22 of his NHL seasons with Detroit and was everyone’s favorite Red Wing if they grew up in the 1990s.

Yzerman won the Art Ross Trophy in his first year and finished with 692 goals and 1,063 assists in 1,514 career games. The Hall of Famer won three Stanley Cups with the Red Wings, winning the Pearson, Smythe, Selke, and Masterson Trophies along the way. Strangely enough, Yzerman was only named an All-Star once (1999-2000).

Gordie Howe

Yzerman is a legend and will forever be synonymous with the Red Wings, but there’s only one “Mr. Hockey” and that’s Gordie Howe. Howe started his NHL career in Detroit when he was just 18 years old following the end of World War II. By his third year, Howe was an NHL All-Star and remained with the franchise until his early 40s. All in all, it was 25 seasons for Howe wearing the winged wheel, most of which came as the team’s captain.

During those 25 seasons, Howe collected 786 goals and 1,023 assists (1,809 total points) over 1,687 games. He won four Stanley Cups to go along with his six Ross Trophies and six Hart Trophies. The 21-time All-Star was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame and was considered the best NHL player of all time before Wayne Gretzky came along.

5 Self-Taught Mathematicians Who Blitzed The Academic World

Posted on by scatty

There are a lot of us in the world who couldn’t learn math even if we had the best and brightest minds teaching us for several hours per day. Then, there are those that can simply open up a math book and figure out equations without any formal education. It seems unfair, but when this happens, that person is an autodidact. This is the art of teaching yourself a particular topic, and math can be the hardest to learn.

Throughout the course of history, there have been many notable math autodidacts. Many of them have gone on to change the way we think about and study mathematics to this day. Let’s take a look at five of those self-taught mathematicians who blitzed the academic world, leaving it better off.

George Green

Nottingham, England native George Green was born toward the end of the 18th century and only had one year of schooling as a child. Green taught himself pretty much everything that he knew when it came to academics. When he attended school for that year, teachers said they taught him all they could. He spent much of the 1820s working as a miller with his father while working in math on his own.

In 1828, he published “An Essay on the Application of Mathematical Analysis to the Theories of Electricity and Magnetism”. The following year, his father passed away and left Green a hefty sum of money. This allowed Green to focus all of his time on mathematics and he attended college at nearly 40 years old. He continued to churn out publishings and by the time of his death in 1841, Green had become quite accomplished.

Susan Fowler

We now go from someone born in the 1790s to someone born in the 1990s. Susan Fowler is an Arizona native who was homeschooled while her father worked as a preacher. Wanting to get away from the homeschool structure that was based around religion, Fowler spent much of her free time in the public library teaching herself mathematics.

Because of this, Fowler was able to learn enough to ace her college entrance exams and attended Arizona State University before transferring to the Ivy League school Penn where she finished her degree before it was rescinded. Fowler used her mathematics skills to become an engineer for Plaid, PubNubu, and Uber, helping to put all three companies on the map.

Srinivasa Ramanujan

Our next genius is Srinivasa Ramanujan, an Indian native who had just about zero training in math but still went on to become one of the greatest in the field during the past couple of centuries. Though he lived to be just 32 years old, Ramanujan accomplished more than just about anyone else had at that time.

Ramanujan would put himself in isolation to study math and what he came up with was so revolutionary that even experts couldn’t comprehend what they were seeing. There were a lot of new pieces of math which were named after Ramanujan, including the Ramanujan sum and Ramanujam prime. At just 30 years old, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

Out of the hairdos on the list, it would be hard to top Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz of Leipzig. It wasn’t just mathematics that Leibniz excelled in, but also philosophy. As for the former category, Leibniz developed the base of integral and differential calculus, even forming a more widely-accepted theory than that of Isaac Newton.

Leibniz was born in 1646 and lived a long life at that time, making it to 70 years old. Leibniz received very little formal training but was able to develop parts of a curve including the abscissa and tangent. What truly made him memorable was that Leibniz invented one of the first mechanical calculators, saving mankind countless hours working on mathematical problems both simple and complex.

Mary Everest Boole

Born in Wickwar, England in 1832, Mary Everest Boole was the niece of George Everest. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because Mt. Everest was named after him. As for Boole, she had a private tutor during her early years, but after the age of 10, she began teaching herself mathematics and eventually worked with her future husband George Boole.

Following his death, Mary was just 32 years old and took on a job as a librarian while continuing her mathematical studies. She lived to be 84 years old, and throughout her adult life, she taught many people how to do math. She even created curve stitching (or string geometry) as a teaching tool. Without Boole, the modern education system would look much different today.

How to Recognize An Unsafe or Hacked Website

Posted on by scatty

Almost all of us have run into a problem where we don’t know why our computer isn’t operating the way it should be. After doing some research, we find out that we’ve gotten hacked or have been infected with a virus. Then, you’re left wondering how that could happen. Every website you go to says that it’s secure, and browsers like Google Chrome confirm that, and you make sure to never open anything from an unknown email address.

So how does this happen? There are way more websites out there than you might think that are unsafe or hacked, and they can cause harm to your computer and your personal information. Before you click on any webpage, there are some surefire ways to spot a harmful site. Here are five tips on recognizing websites that have been compromised.

Respect the S

There was a time when we would all just blindly go to any website that started its URL with HTTP. These days, you want to make sure that every website you visit instead starts with HTTPS. What’s the difference between the two? 

HTTPS is the same thing, except it has an extra layer of encryption that makes sure that your data is more secure. The ‘S’ stands for secure, simply enough, and most websites have made the switch in recent years to avoid data breaches.

Keep Looking at the URL

The “HTTPS” at the beginning of the URL isn’t the only thing that you should be looking for. There are a lot of people who end up typing in the wrong web address when they’re moving too fast in their browser’s address bar and still hit enter. 

This can lead you to a similar-looking website that’s not actually safe. If you’re looking for sports scores and accidentally stumble on WSPN.com instead of ESPN.com, you might get something that looks legit but is actually a harmful website.

Payments

Almost all of these fake or unsafe websites have store options, but you can spot which ones aren’t legitimate by the ways that you can pay. The safest ways you can pay online are through sites like PayPal or via credit card. Fake websites won’t be likely to accept credit cards since they can easily be hit with a chargeback as credit card protection is more stringent than debit card protection.

If there is a website that only accepts mailed payments or money orders, that’s a massive red flag to stay away from that website and block it from your browser forever. Even some sites that look shady can be legitimate because they accept encrypted payments, allowing your payment information to remain safe.

Trust the Chrome

Over the years, Google Chrome surpassed all of the other web browsers to become the most commonly used in the world. These days, around two-thirds of computer users trust Chrome, and for good reason. Not only does it have a very user-friendly interface, but it has plenty of extension options that make the browsing experience much better.

One thing that not many people consider when using Chrome is that it adds a lot of layers of protection. Whenever you’re about to visit a site that seems unsafe or hacked, Chrome will offer up a warning. In most cases, you can still surpass Chrome’s suggestion, but there are other times when the browser simply won’t allow you to continue. It’s best to heed Chrome’s warning when it does come up.

Layout

There are plenty of legitimate websites that look like they were designed back in the Angelfire days (looking at you, Wikipedia). However, most of them that are completely dated and look like they have no HTML arrangement whatsoever and can hardly be trusted. Any legitimate website will make sure that there’s a web designer to make sure everything looks up to date.

They say that you should never judge a book by its cover, but that mostly applies to books themselves or human beings. When it comes to websites, though, image is everything for legit businesses, and they wouldn’t allow a shady-looking website to go live.

Bonus Tip: Email Links

Another thing that you should look out for is your email inbox. Instead of clicking on a link that you receive in an email, always make sure to type in a web address yourself. This will ensure that you’re not going to any harmful websites as there are plenty of virus-filled emails that look authentic. If you have any doubt whatsoever about the validity of an email, it’s best to just delete it and move on with your day instead of putting your computer and private info at risk.

5 Reasons Why DVDs Are Still Great in the Digital Age

Posted on by scatty

There have been many ways in which to watch movies and television shows over the years. We started back with getting original prints of a film and using a projector to watch on a wall or large screen and eventually worked our way up to the current digital age. Now, even video game consoles are able to stream all of the media we consume through endless apps for streaming services.

We’re not too far removed from the days when the DVD was king, though. Even though digital has taken over for the most part, the DVD market is still very much alive. In fact, there are some people that haven’t made the jump to digital because the DVD is still a fantastic product. If you’re in this group or wondering why so many are, here are five reasons why DVDs are still great in the digital age.

No Internet Needed

First and foremost, to stream any movie or TV show, you need to have a stable internet connection throughout the entire stream if you haven’t downloaded it. Even then, you may live in an area where downloading a video can take ages and could possibly become corrupted. You also have to have storage room for all of your digital media and it can fill up quickly.

With DVDs, you don’t have to worry about that at all. Even if you’re using one of those video game consoles where you have to be online to play, you can still use a DVD while the internet is out or unstable. This makes a portable DVD player perfect for something like camping when your phone won’t connect to the internet to watch YouTube videos.

Quality

If you want a movie with better audio quality that’s better than a streaming service, watch it on DVD. If you want the best quality, watch it on Blu-Ray. Blu-Ray discs and players have Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD, making sure that you hear everything at the highest quality. Then, of course, there’s the video quality.

Unless your disc is really scratched up, your Blu-Ray player is going to have the best possible quality outside of a movie theater itself. Streaming services are often buffering and upload speeds can hiccup and make things blurry. Nobody has ever complained about a blurry screen with a Blu-Ray film.

Collecting

There are plenty of people out there who like to collect physical media, but it seems to be a dying art with the advent of streaming services for television and digital copies of video games. Those of us who are still collecting pine for the physical release of everything because of the aesthetic factor.

A solid chunk of the population will look at someone who collects DVDs or other physical forms of media as living in the past but don’t scoff at people who collect movie posters. It’s essentially the same thing, and people love to collect as a hobby. DVDs are no exception, especially with some of the covers being works of art.

Resale

Let’s say that you’re an avid collector and you’ve run out of room for your newest purchase. Because of that, there might be a DVD that you don’t particularly care for and want to get rid of. Instead of simply uninstalling it from a hard drive, you can sell it to someone to recoup at least some of the money.

In the cases of rarer DVDs, you can end up making money overall. DVDs that are still in their original shrink wrap are quite valuable to other collectors depending on what movie it is. “The Cremaster Cycle” is the rarest and most valuable DVD set, coming in at six figures since only 20 copies were made.

Forever Yours

There are going to be times when old episodes of TV shows are removed from reruns and streaming services because they were a product of their era. This includes some content that would be considered sensitive or offensive today. There may also be instances like the “Pokemon” episode which could cause seizures.

When you get the DVD collection, you don’t have to worry about losing an entire episode of a show or a whole movie. There’s also the case of streaming services losing the rights to certain movies and TV shows. This has caused fans of shows like “The Office” to simply buy the DVD box set since the streaming rights have bounced around so much.