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Tag: selfies

  • Bison Selfie Turns Ugly for Woman at Yellowstone

    When deciding whether or not to take a selfie with a wild animal, you gotta do some risk-reward calculations.

    Is taking a selfie with a bison worth the risk? I don’t know, it’s not that cool. But hey, if you want to risk it …

    Don’t be like this 43-year-old mom, who was unable to surreptitiously snap the photo before being rammed by the camera-shy beat.

    Officials at Yellowstone National Park say that the woman and her six-year-old daughter were attempting to snap a selfie with a bison – but things went awry.

    Apparently, the bison charged, hit the woman on her right side, and tossed her.

    Maybe they should’ve tried a selfie from a greater distance. Park officials say they lineup up abut six yards from the clearly no-nonsense bison.

    The woman was taken to a local hospital where she was treated for minor injuries.

    “The family said they read the warnings in both the park literature and the signage, but saw other people close to the bison, so they thought it would be OK,” Colleen Rawlings, a ranger in the park’s Old Faithful District told CNN. “People need to recognize that Yellowstone wildlife is wild, even though they seem docile. This woman was lucky that her injuries were not more severe.”

    Plenty of people have lived to enjoy the likes on their own bison selfies:

    Yellowstone is pretty cool #bisonselfie

    A photo posted by Josh Gilbert (@gilbyy48) on

    Just a #bisonselfie with Buford. #bison #buffalo #katerraexotics #katybison #ranchlife #katerrahomestead

    A photo posted by Patrick Bierschwale (@patthebison) on

    Bison selfie! #olympicgamefarm #bison #feedinganimals #lifeisgood #bisonselfie #sequim #washingtonlife

    A photo posted by stacie (@stacie.kain.and.reggie) on

    But really, you gotta be careful.

    This isn’t the first bison encounter that’s made headlines. Just a couple months ago, a 16-year-old girl was gored while trying to pose for a picture with a Yellowstone bison.

    The National Park Service recommends a 25 yard buffer zone between people and bison.

    “Visitors are reminded that Yellowstone wildlife is wild. Wildlife should not be approached, no matter how tame or calm they appear. Visitors must stay at least 100 yards (91 m) away from bears and wolves and at least 25 yards (23 m) away from all other large animals – bison, elk, bighorn sheep, deer, moose, and coyotes. Bison can sprint three times faster than humans can run and are unpredictable and dangerous. Just because an animal may be near a trail or boardwalk does not mean it should be approached within the recommended safe distances. Visitors are advised to give the animals enough space and be willing to alter their plans to avoid interacting with an animal in close proximity,” says the NPS.

    Be smart out there, folks.

    image via Yellowstone National Park, Flickr Creative Commons

  • White House Lifts Ban on Photos, Social Media Posts

    After 40 years of surreptitiously snapping photos of the White House during public tours, people can now do it out in the open.

    The White House has lifted its ban on taking photos during tours of the Presidential mansion. Not only that, but it’s now encouraging people to do so and to share the photos across social media using the #WhiteHouseTour hashtag.

    “Big news! Starting today, we’re lifting the ban on cameras and photos on the White House public tour. Visitors are now able to take photos and keep those memories for a lifetime!” said First Lady Michelle Obama in an Instagram post.

    So, you can now take selfies at the White House. Just don’t bring your selfie stick, however. That’s still banned. Tripods, videos cameras, and flash photography are also banned.

    Last year, the White House got pretty pissed at Samsung and Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz when the selfie he snapped with President Obama turned out to be a marketing ploy.

    Image via David Ortiz, Twitter

  • Disney Is Banning Selfie Sticks

    Disney Is Banning Selfie Sticks

    If you’re planning a trip to any Disney World, you should leave your selfie sticks at home.

    Disney has announced that, effective Tuesday, selfie sticks will no longer be allowed into any Disney World theme park. This also includes Disney World water parks or DisneyQuest. A similar ban goes into effect on June 30 at Disneyland in California.

    “We strive to provide a great experience for the entire family, and unfortunately selfie-sticks have become a growing safety concern for both our guests and cast,” said Disney World spokeswoman Kim Prunty in a statement.

    If you do happen to bring a selfie stick to the park, Disney will take it at bag check. You’ll be able to pick it back up when you leave.

    From the Orlando Sentinel:

    The issue has been building at Disney. Previously, the sticks were prohibited from its rides, and “no selfie-sticks” signs were at select rides, such as Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at Magic Kingdom. Cast members have given verbal warnings to rule breakers.

     

    Several incidents preceded the change, but officials have been discussing the rules for some time, Disney said. This week at Disney California Adventure park, a roller coaster was halted after a passenger pulled out a selfie-stick. The ride was closed for an hour.

    Disney falls in a long line of places and attractions now banning selfie sticks, including music festivals like Coachella and Lollapalooza.

  • Apple Bans Your Dumb Selfie Sticks at Next Event

    Selfie sticks offer a much better solution to getting a photo of yourself than actually approaching another human being and asking them to help, so they have that going for them. They also make you look pretty silly, unfortunately.

    That’s the quandary many selfie-lovers face on a daily basis. But if you attend Apple’s next event, its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, in June, you won’t have to make this conflicting decision.

    Apple has made it for you.

    Selfie sticks are officially banned at WWDC. Apple made the update to its WWDC in Detail page, saying,

    “You are not permitted to make audio or audiovisual recordings of WWDC or take professional photographic or video equipment, or wearable recording devices into Moscone West or Yerba Buena Gardens. In addition, you may not use selfie sticks or similar monopods within Moscone West or Yerba Buena Gardens.”

    Regular photographs are still allowed.

    Apple isn’t the first event host to take a no-selfie stick stance. Music festivals like Coachella have banned the products, citing concerns of obstructed views.

    The WWDC kicks off June 8 in San Francisco. You can apply for tickets now, but you’ll have to win one in a lottery and then pay $1,599 to attend.

    Image via R4vi, Flickr Creative Commons

  • Mesa Shooting Victim Has Ultimate But First, Let Me Take a Selfie Moment

    I most certainly require medical attention, but first let me take a selfie.

    One way to document a traumatic ordeal is to Snapchat it and send it to your friends. Isaac Martinez, who was one of the people shot in the Mesa, Arizona shooting spree on Wednesday, took that route.

    Arizona Republic reporter Yihyun Jeong tweeted out Martinez’s selfies, one of which appears to be taken right after being shot in the shoulder. “I just got shot,” it reads. The other features a smiling Martinez presumably in the hospital.

    Check it out:

    On Wednesday, a man reportedly shot a man and two women at a motel. The man died at the scene and the two women have been taken to the hospital. He then went to a restaurant near East Valley Institute of Technology and stole a car, shooting an EVIT student in the process. That was Martinez.

    He then went to an apartment complex, broke into a room, and shot another man. Authorities say he’ll survive.

    Police eventually caught up to him and arrested him at a vacant condo building. They’ve identified him as 41-year-old Ryan Elliot Giroux. According to CBS News, Giroux is a white supremacist with a “lengthy criminal history.”

    [h/t CNET]

  • Everyone Must Get a Selfie with This Gold Van Double Parked at a Walmart

    In Maricopa, Arizona, there’s a new local celebrity.

    It’s not a person, but an old, gold van that’s terribly parked in the local Walmart parking lot. For some reason, the golden Oldsmobile Silhouette is the must-selfie location of the year.

    There’s even a 500+ member Facebook group devoted to discussing and posting selfies with the van.

    “This group was made for the infamous ‘Gold Van’ parked at our local Wal-mart. This van has been double parked, in the same prime parking spots for about two weeks now. There has been multiple facebook posts made on various Maricopa facebook pages in regards to this van. Since this van is so ‘locally famous’ now, of course we HAVE to get a selfie with it!!!” says the group’s description.

    Post by Jenny Radigan.

    According to AZ Central, the van was recently abandoned in the Walmart parking lot near State Route 238 and Porter Road. Since then, it’s become a thing for resident of Maricopa to go take selfies with it. Nobody knows to whom it belongs, or how long it’ll stay double parked at Walmart.

    As it stands, there are hundreds of selfies with the van. Small town America is truly incredible.

    Image via Walmarts Golden Van Selfie, Facebook

  • Selfie Seekers Caught Carving Initials into the Colosseum

    What would you do for the perfect selfie? Would you deface a landmark – one of the most famous historical locations in the world?

    Two Californian women did.

    The Guardian reports that security at Rome’s Colosseum caught the women, aged 21 and 25, shortly after carving their initials into the ancient rock. The two were apparently able to scratch a “J” and an “N”, each a few inches tall, and then snap a selfie before police caught on.

    The authorities were tipped off by other tourists.

    The two women could face penalties for defacing the site, as it is strictly forbidden.

    “There’s a difference in perception. Museums are treated like churches, sacred places where there are things of great value. Whereas the Colosseum is an incomplete building which has already been robbed,” a spokesman with the Special Superintendency for the Archaeological Heritage of Rome told The Guardian.

    It’s just some old, crumbling rock, right? What’s the big deal?

    According to The Daily Dot, the section the tourists carved up is part of a 19th-century papal restoration project. The specific part of the Colosseum, however, was first constructed in 80 AD.

    Remember kids, try not to go full vandal for the sake of a selfie.

  • Selfies Contributed to Fatal Plane Crash, Says NTSB

    In May of last year, two men were killed when their Cessna 150 crashed in a field outside Denver, Colorado.

    Now, the National Transportation Safety Board has issued its official report – and the agency is saying that selfies likely contributed to the fatal crash.

    According to the NTSB, a GoPro recovered near the scene gave clues as to what could have caused the plane to go down in the early morning hours.

    “An onboard recording device (GoPro) was found near the wreckage and the files were recovered. Based on the available information, it is likely that the GoPro files were recorded on May 30 and May 31, 2014, with the final GoPro file recorded during the 6-minute flight in the traffic pattern. The accident flight was not recorded. The GoPro recordings revealed that the pilot and various passengers were taking self-photographs with their cell phones and, during the night flight, using the camera’s flash function during the takeoff roll, initial climb, and flight in the traffic pattern,” says the report.

    “A postaccident examination of the airplane did not reveal any preimpact anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. Based on the wreckage distribution, which was consistent with a high-speed impact, and the degraded visual reference conditions, it is likely that the pilot experienced spatial disorientation and lost control of the airplane. The evidence is consistent with an aerodynamic stall and subsequent spin into terrain. Based on the evidence of cell phone use during low-altitude maneuvering, including the flight immediately before the accident flight, it is likely that cell phone use during the accident flight distracted the pilot and contributed to the development of spatial disorientation and subsequent loss of control. A review of the pilot’s logbooks did not show that he met the currency requirements for flight in instrument meteorological conditions or night flight with passengers.”

    [bolding ours]

    This is the official probable cause for the accident, according to the NTSB:

    The pilot’s loss of control and subsequent aerodynamic stall due to spatial disorientation in night instrument meteorological conditions. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s distraction due to his cell phone use while maneuvering at low-altitude.

    Selfie smart, people.

    Image via Adams County Sheriff’s Office via Denver Post

  • Ellen DeGeneres Celebrates 57th Birthday, Takes Selfies With Wife Portia De Rossi

    Portia de Rossi and Ellen DeGeneres have been together for nearly a decade, and it’s pretty clear that the couple are deeply in love. De Rossi and DeGeneres shared a couple of photos that they took the day before Ellen’s 57th birthday. The photos show Portia and Ellen without any make-up, embracing on a beach with a beautiful sunset in the background. Ellen captioned the photo, “My last sunset of 56 with my favorite person.” Portia de Rossi and Ellen DeGeneres have been together since 2004, and they got married on August 16, 2008 after the same sex marriage ban was lifted.

    Ellen celebrated her birthday by interviewing Joe Biden on her TV show. She was also serenaded with a special performance from country singer, Keith Urban. The talk show host also gave away two brand-new Mercedes Benz vehicles to a couple of surprised fans in the audience. Ellen tweeted, “I’m celebrating all week long. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this sooner. Next year, I’m gonna do a whole month.”

    In a recent interview, Ellen discussed her relationship with Portia de Rossi and how they have similar tastes in art and their decorating styles. “She’s a little more Deco. She loves Jean Royère and I do, too, but some of the pieces are little too Deco for me,” Ellen said in the interview. “I like clean lines instead. For the most part, we have exactly the same taste in art and furniture. It’s really great because it’s so important to me. It would be horrible to live with someone who didn’t like the same things you like.”

    While Ellen’s been keeping busy with her talk show, Portia de Rossi has kept a relatively low profile after her stint in the TV show Arrested Development. However, she will next be seen in the upcoming comedy Now Add Honey alongside Lucy Fry.

  • Here’s an Insane, Ballsy Selfie from Atop Christ the Redeemer

    Cristo Redentor, known to the English-speaking world as Christ the Redeemer, is a giant statue of Jesus Christ located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The statue itself is nearly 100 feet tall, stands atop a 26-ft tall base, which is itself positioned at the peak of the 2,300-ft Corcovado mountain.

    Or if measurements aren’t your thing–it’s really freaking tall.

    And it has just become the site of one of the most batshit insane selfies you’ll ever see.

    Lee Thompson, of the travel and adventure company The Flash Pack, was in Brazil recently to document the months leading up to the World Cup. One day he was presented with quite the opportunity.

    As he tells it on The Flash Pack’s blog:

    Even though I had been to Rio many times and admired the iconic statue from afar, I had never had the time to visit the Christ the Redeemer Statue in person, let alone imagine snapping a selfie of me popping out of his head just two hours later!

    A severe lightning storm had damaged the statue in January and I knew that workers were busy with repairs, so decided to take a stab in the dark and along with my colleague, Oliver Harvey, managed to convince the Brazil tourist board to allow us to climb to the top and take some seriously vertigo-inducing photographs.

    After a good 20 minutes climbing up stairs around scaffolding inside the statue, Lee found himself poking out through Jesus’ crown.

    “As I popped my head out of the hole in Jesus’ crown, I was in total and utter awe as my eyes met with a vast panorama that quite literally took my breath away. Talk about a religious experience!,” he said.

    Yeah, this is incredible–but there’s absolutely no way in heaven or hell you’ll ever see me up there. I’m pretty sure I experienced vertigo simply by looking at this photo. Kudos to this ballsy selfie, which is one of the very few acceptable man selfies one could ever take.

    If you thought the selfie was bad, here’s a palm sweat-inducing video of the experience.

    Image via Lee Thompson, The Flash Pack

  • Selfie, Hashtag, and More Added to Merriam-Webster Dictionary

    If you’re set to have a kid anytime after today, you should quietly weep for it–it’ll never grow up in a world where the word “selfie” isn’t in the official Merriam-Webster dictionary.

    The famous Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary is adding over 150 news words this year, and they’ve just announced a handful of them. The list of new words includes some trendy food words, but mostly tech and social media-related terms, which says a lot about the changing landscape of our society.

    Or something like that.

    Joining “selfie” (Oxford dictionary’s ‘Word of the Year’ last year) are the words “catfish,” “hashtag,” “tweep,” “crowdfunding,” “gamification,” and plain old “social networking.”

    Some example definitions:

    selfie, noun: an image of oneself taken by oneself using a digital camera especially for posting on social networks

    catfish, noun: a person who sets up a false personal profile on a social networking site for fraudulent or deceptive purposes

    crowdfunding, noun: the practice of soliciting financial contributions from a large number of people especially from the online community

    gamification, noun: the process of adding games or gamelike elements to something (as a task) so as to encourage participation

    hashtag, noun: a word or phrase preceded by the symbol # that classifies or categorizes the accompanying text (such as a tweet)

    Strangely enough, “selfie” or “hashtag” isn’t the most interesting word added in 2014. That would go to “turducken,” which Merriam-Webster has finally added after being in existence for over 30 years. They describe it as “a boneless chicken stuffed into a boneless duck stuffed into a boneless turkey.” Yep.

    Merriam-Webster is no stranger to updating their dictionaries to reflect the kidz speak. In the past, they’ve added words like “F-bomb” and “sexting” to their reference tomes.

    Merriam-Webster is asking people to converse about all the new words by using the #MW2014NewWords hashtag on Twitter. Do you think they want us to using the #hashtag hashtag when discussing that specific addition?

    Image via Miley Cyrus, Instagram

  • Florida Man Facebooks Cop-Adjacent Drug Deal Photos

    Florida Man, the world’s worst superhero, is staying busy, as always.

    A Port St. Lucie man has been arrested after–well, after doing a lot of dumb things. According to the Martin County Sheriff’s office, 21–year-old Taylor Harrison has been arrested and held on $55,000 bond after selling drugs to undercover narcotics agents.

    Oh, and right before that, he apparently took some drug-dealing selfies right next to a Sheriff’s vehicle and posted them to Facebook.

    “These are photos of 21-year old Taylor Harrison of Port St. Lucie bragging on his Facebook page about his life as a drug dealer and how easy it is for him to sell drugs in front of our deputies,”said the Martin County Sheriff’s Office in a Facebook post. “Since Taylor was kind of enough to share photos of us on his Facebook page, we thought we would share these photos of Taylor on our page.”

    This pic-stitch tells a story–a story as old as time itself: Shit ends poorly for braggarts and fools.

    Post by Martin County Sheriff's Office.

    From the Sheriff’s office:

    The first photo Taylor took himself as he pulled alongside one of our deputies. The second photo is a selfie of Taylor with stacks of drug cash and drugs that he says he sells. Notice next to his car, is a patrol car.

    The third shot is a MCSO undercover camera capturing Taylor selling drugs to one of us. He tells us, he is the best around!

    The photo to the right is Taylor’s booking photo at Martin County Jail after being arrested for…you guessed it, selling drugs to our undercover narcotics detectives.

    Schadenflorida.

    Image via Martin County Sheriff’s Office, Facebook

  • Squirrels Hate Your Selfies, Bro

    Now that ‘Selfie’ is the reigning word of the year and everyone from Kim Kardashian to President Obama are spending at least part of their week taking them, it appears, as a culture, we’ve pretty much accepted their inevitability.

    I mean humans have accepted selfies. I said nothing about the animal kingdom.

    If you lean in to take a selfie with a wild animal, no matter how cute it may be, don’t be too shocked when it absolutely hates your idea and decides to attack.

    A tale of two photos:

    Post by Brian Genest.

    Post by Brian Genest.

    That’s Brian Genest of Auburn, Maine. He snapped a pretty cool squirrel selfie and was promptly attacked. His mom took the latter shot.

    Don’t worry about either man nor beast. Both were unharmed.

    Genest is also aware that this series of events is much more funny than it is embarrassing, as he’s made the first photo his profile pic and the second one his cover photo on Facebook. Good on you, Brian.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • James Franco Apologizes for Scamming on Teen

    During a guest appearance Friday on Live With Kelly & Michael, actor James Franco addressed the controversy surrounding his attempt at a digital dalliance via Instagram with a 17-year-old female.

    The incident occurred after Scottish tourist Lucy Cloude was standing outside of the Longacre Theatre in midtown Manhattan where Franco is performing Of Mice and Men. Cloude encountered Franco, 35, snapped a selfie of herself and the actor, tagging on Instagram was initiated, which lead to some online flirting between the two. The exchange quickly went public, and Franco was summarily criticized as being a hapless knave for his perceived seedy behavior.

    Franco’s first attempt at damage control was to take to Twitter to warn people to hide their teens:

    Seemingly dissatisfied with his initial attempt at atonement, Franco explained on Live With Kelly & Michael,

    “I guess, you know, I’m embarrassed. I guess I’m just a model of how social media is tricky. It’s a way people meet each other today, but what I’ve learned, I guess just because I’m new to it, is you don’t know who’s on the other end. You meet somebody in person you get a feel for them, but online you don’t know who you’re talking to. I learned my lesson. Unfortunately, in my position… I have a very good life, but not only do I have to go through the embarrassing rituals of meeting someone… sometimes if I do that then it gets published for the world. So it’s doubly embarrassing.”

    Kelly Ripa commented that “It happens to everybody,” and commended Franco for directly addressing the situation.

    Here is the clip:

    Since the legal age of consent in New York is 17, and Cloude is a few weeks shy of her 18th birthday, Franco committed no actual crime, but did scandalize himself, and has been seeing quite a bit of backlash.

    Interestingly, there’s been talk that the entire incident might plainly be a poorly executed publicity stunt Franco put together to promote his new movie Palo Alto. In the film Franco plays a soccer coach who seduces his 14-year old babysitter played by Emma Roberts, who is actually 23.

    Here is the trailer for Palo Alto:

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Samsung’s Obama/Ortiz Selfie Ad Miffs White House

    Samsung’s Obama/Ortiz Selfie Ad Miffs White House

    Earlier this week, President Obama welcomed the Boston Red Sox to the White House to honor their 2013 World Series run. It wasn’t huge news, as the President of the United States has been welcoming championship sports teams to the White House for decades.

    There was an interesting moment, however, when Red Sox slugger David Ortiz snapped a selfie with the President. The selfie soon went viral, and at this point has garnered over 41,000 retweets. Check it out:

    Soon after, the innocent selfie came under fire as it was revealed that it was all probably just a marketing ploy to promote Samsung devices (what Ortiz used to take the selfie). Here is Samsung retweeting the selfie from its Mobile US corporate account:

    Sports Business Journal reported that the selfie came on the heels of a recent endorsement deal between Ortiz and Samsung.

    Couple that with the fact that Samsung had just done the exact same thing at the Oscars with Ellen Degeneres’ (much more popular) tweet, and you have a pretty open and shut case of corporate interference. Oh, and there was also the fact that Samsung released a statement on the selfie calling it an “historic moment” and basically admitted to teaching Ortiz how to best “share images with fans.”

    Ok, Samsung, you win again. End of story, right?

    Well, no. Now the White House is pissed.

    The Wall Street Journal quotes White House press secretary Jay Carney as saying:

    “As a rule the White House objects to attempts to use the president’s likeness for commercial purposes. And we certainly object in this case.”

    Carney said that the President’s legal team objects to this stunt, but wouldn’t comment on whether or not lawyers will be involved in the future. President Obama himself hasn’t made a statement on the issue.

    The White House did retweet Ortiz’s selfie at the time, and it still remains in their Twitter feed:

    And the White House blog talks about the selfie in their post about the day, saying Big Papi “made the most of the moment” with his selfie.

    So it looks like the White House press was unaware of Samsung’s influence on the now-infamous selfie until recently.

    Image via White House blog

  • Teen Stabs Friend 65 Times Over Nude Facebook Selfies

    In well-that’s-just-a-horrible-turn-of-events news, a Mexican teen was stabbed 65 times after posting racy photos of herself and her best friend on Facebook, according to police in Guamúchil, Sinaloa.

    The NY Daily News reports that Erandy Gutierrez, 16, fatally stabbed Anel Baez, also 16, on March 19th. Apparently, nude Facebook selfies prompted the attack. Baez reportedly made the post, which infuriated Gutierrez.

    When Baez tried to make things right by inviting Gutierrez over to her home, things got violent. Police say Gutierrez grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed Baez a sickening 65 times. Baez died from her injuries.

    As if this story couldn’t get any stranger, Gutierrez was only apprehended when she attended Baez’s funeral.

    Post by Anel Baez.

    Notus provides an account of some menacing tweets Gutierrez sent before the fatal attacks.

    “Pueda que parezca muy calmada, pero en mi cabeza, te he hatado al meno tres veces,” she tweeted. In English, this roughly translates to “I may seem very calm, but in my head, I’ve killed you at least three times.”

    According to Notus, Gutierrez also confessed on Twitter after the murder.

    “I am an asshole…OMG I did,” she reportedly tweeted.

    Gutierrez’s Twitter and Facebook accounts have both been deactivated. The image of the two girls you see above is from Baez’s Facebook account.

    Gutierrez will be charged with murder, but her age could mean she’ll serve a reduced sentence, possibly seven years.

    Just brutal.

    Images via Facebook, h/t Gawker

  • Obama Calls Ellen’s Record Tweet a Cheap Stunt

    Obama Calls Ellen’s Record Tweet a Cheap Stunt

    As you may have heard, the deadline for Obamacare enrollment is fast approaching (it’s the end of the month, fyi). In order to get more people on board, President Obama has been on a media tour of sorts. The latest stop on the Affordable Care Act promotional train was The Ellen Show.

    Remember Ellen’s big Oscar tweet?

    That tweet has now garnered over 3.4 million retweets, and is comfortably the most retweeted tweet of all time. On Oscar night, during the first hour on Twitter, the tweet was retweeted over 1 million times–crushing the record set by the President back in 2012 when he tweeted this after the election:

    780,000? Weak. It’s not even close, right?

    Well, President Obama is calling shenanigans on the whole thing.

    “I don’t know if you know this,” said Ellen, “but i was aiming to break your record of retweets and I apologize for doing it but I broke your retweet record.”

    “I heard about that. I though it was a pretty cheap stunt myself–getting a bunch of celebrities in the background.”

    Jokes aside, we all know that it was a pretty cheap stunt. It was all one giant advertisement for Samsung, paid for from the beginning, and we were all duped. Well, not all of us I guess. 3.4 million, to be exact.

    Either way, nobody forced Twitter users to retweet the selfie. Samsung ploy or not, Ellen is the Queen of Retweets and that’s just a fact. Congrats.

    Image via The Ellen Show, YouTube

  • Colin Powell Is Now On The Salesforce Board Of Directors

    Colin Powell Is Now On The Salesforce Board Of Directors

    Salesforce announced on Friday that it has appointed retired four-star general (and former National Security Advisor, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Secretary of State) Colin Powell to its Board of Directors. His position actually went into effect on Thursday, and increases the size of the Board to 11 members.

    “We are honored and delighted that General Powell has joined our Board of Directors,” said Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. “General Powell is an extraordinary leader who has inspired and influenced me during more than 15 years of friendship. He was also instrumental in shaping salesforce.com’s integrated philanthropic model and the formation of the Salesforce.com Foundation many years ago. We couldn’t be happier to have him join our Board.”

    Powell added, “After many years of friendship with Marc and admiration for salesforce.com, I am excited to be joining the Company’s Board of Directors. In addition to being on the forefront of innovation, salesforce.com has been a remarkable leader, and has inspired many other companies, as it has made philanthropy a central part of its value system.”

    Powell was already making headlines this week for posting a vintage selfie on Facebook:

    Post by General Colin L. Powell.

    He hasn’t posted anything about Salesforce yet.

    In addition to Benioff and Powell, the company’s Board consists of: Keith Block (president and vice chairman); Craig Conway (former CEO of PeopleSoft); Alan Hassenfeld (former chairman and CEO of Hasbro); Craig Ramsey (former senior vice president of worldwide sales for Siebel); Sanford Robertson (principal of Francisco Partners); John Roos (former U.S. Ambassador to Japan); Lawrence Tomlinson (former senior vice president and treasurer for Hewlett Packard Company); Robin Washington (CFO of Gilead Sciences); and Maynard Webb (chairman of Yahoo).

    Image via Facebook

  • Selfies Really Are As Mind-Numbingly Popular As You Perceive Them to Be

    If you asked me, my off-the-cuff answer to “what percentage of your Facebook feed consists of selfies” would be about half. Same goes for Instagram.

    Turns out, that isn’t that ridiculous of a statement. People really do love their selfies, according to a new survey from Pew Research. Well, at least millennials. From Pew:

    “Not surprisingly, the generation that has taken to them more than any other are the Millennials (ages 18 to 33), who have grown up with the new digital technologies of the 21st century. They’re the heaviest users of the internet, cell phones and social media sites. And a new Pew Research Center survey finds that 55% of Millennials have posted a “selfie” on a social media site; no other generation is nearly as inclined to do this. Overall, 26% of Americans have shared a “selfie” on a photo-sharing or social networking site.”

    Well, holy shit. It’s not that 55% of young people have taken a selfie, it’s that 55% of young people have posted it on a social media site.

    If you’re my age, there’s a one in four chance that your mom or dad has posted a selfie online. Soak that in for a sec. And although your Grandma is unlikely to have Instagrammed a selfie, she definitely knows what one is, according to Pew.

    In other recent selfie news, apparently the craze is causing some sort of lice epidemic, you know, from all the teens pushing their heads together to get in frame. Of course, that’s all bullshit–unless people are holding their selfie poses for hours.

    Image via Ellen Degeneres, Twitter

  • Ellen Breaks Twitter Record At Oscars

    A tweet from Ellen DeGeneres during the Oscars on Sunday night – a photo of her with eleven other celebrities from the audience (taken by Bradley Cooper) has set a new record for retweets.

    It even crashed Twitter at one point (though those familiar with the “Fail Whale” know that’s not quite as big of an accomplishment).

    Here it is:

    2,626,197 retweets and 1,329,296 favorites as of the time of this writing.

    That’s a whole lot more than the previous retweet record holder, which was a tweet from President Obama, which has just over 780,000 retweets and close to 300,000 favorites.

    According to Twitter, there were over 14.7 million tweets containing terms related to the Oscars telecast during the live show.

    Twitter notes that Ellen’s follower growth was 47 times more than her average daily growth after the show.

    Ellen

    Ellen’s tweet saw 254,644 tweets per minute (TPM). The other moments that drove the most Twitter conversation, according to the company, were: Ellen delivers pizza to the audience (158,159 TPM); and Gravity wins sixth Osacar – for film editing (135,330 TPM).

    The most tweeted about nominees during the evening, according to the company, were Jennifer Lawrence, Brad Pitt, Alfonso Cuarón, Cate Blanchett and Sandra Bullock.

    Films that got the most mentions were Gravity, Frozen, 12 Years a Slave, Dallas Buyers Club and The Wolf of Wall Street.

    Images via Twitter

  • Selfies Causing Lice Epidemic, According to Lice Removal Business

    According to the operator of a California-based lice removal spa, your teenagers are going to get lice because they’re taking so many damn selfies.

    Apparently, the epidemic has already begun. Heads have been pressed together, duck faces have been made, and your kid now has a head full of critters. Gross.

    “I’ve seen a huge increase of lice in teens this year. Typically it’s younger children I treat, because they’re at higher risk for head-to-head contact. But now, teens are sticking their heads together every day to take cell phone pics,” Marcy McQuillan told SFist. McQuillan represents a local lice removal service.

    Once again, a person that makes money from lice removal says that selfies are causing an uptick in case of lice in teens.

    While it’s true that selfies are more popular than ever, it’s highly unlikely that this so-called teenage lice epidemic is anything other than some sort of marketing stunt.

    “This is a marketing ploy, pure and simple,” Harvard School of Public Health’s Dr. Richard J. Pollack told NBC News. “Wherever these louse salons open a new branch, there always seems to be an epidemic. It’s good for business.”

    He says that for lice to spread from head to head, you’re going to need more prolonged contact than the time it takes to snap a selfie with friends. Or even multiple selfies with friends.

    In fact, head lice infestations is most common in kids aged 4-13. It’s not really a teenager issue, for the most part.

    However, if your teen does happen to catch some head lice, I hear that a good bit of twerking will clear it right up.

    Image via Miley Cyrus, Instagram