Liquid Death outrages 'golf Twitter' over new drink brand
Canned water company Liquid Death has changed the name of its iced tea/lemonade drink from Armless Palmer to Dead Billionaire.
Why? “Because it's the EXACT same thing, only now it has a way cooler name that won't require us to fight a senseless legal battle with a large enterprise who sent us a letter saying we can't use the word "Palmer" and who are also partnered with a giant iced tea corporation,”
Canned water company Liquid Death has changed the name of its iced tea/lemonade drink from Armless Palmer to Dead Billionaire.
Why? “Because it's the EXACT same thing, only now it has a way cooler name that won't require us to fight a senseless legal battle with a large enterprise who sent us a letter saying we can't use the word "Palmer" and who are also partnered with a giant iced tea corporation,”
it explained on an Instagram post.
Golf great Arnold Palmer is credited with creating the concoction, and has been synonymous with the drink for decades. Liquid Death rival AriZona Beverages has mass produced a version that bears his name and signature since 2002. While the change may mean no lawsuit, it "naturally outraged Golf Twitter,” reported Golf Digest.
Ronaldo faces $1B lawsuit over NFTs
Portuguese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo is facing a $1 billion class action lawsuit over his endorsement of NFTs from crypto exchange Binance. Non-fungible tokens (for those fortunate enough to have forgotten) are digital files that can’t be duplicated because they are created using blockchain technology. After exploding in popularity in 2021, the NFT bubble has largely burst.
Ronaldo’s “CR7” NFT collection (a reference to his #7 jersey) launched just ahead of the 2022 World Cup, and included “animated statues” of Ronaldo with starting prices ranging from $77 to $10,000 according to the Associated Press.
The suit claims there was a 500% increase in searches for Binance after the NFTs were announced. The lawsuit accuses Ronaldo of making ‘deceptive statements,’” according to CNN. “[A]nd claims he ‘allowed his name and likeness to be used in connection with Binance’s deceptive statements in promotions of its product,’ notably selling unregistered crypto securities prone to wild volatility.”
McDonald's freshens up
McDonald’s is undertaking big changes to its core menu, tweaking some of the “industrial-scale” techniques introduced in the pursuit of efficiency to deliver cheap, uniform burgers, reports The Wall Street Journal.
“We can do it quick, fast and safe, but it doesn’t necessarily taste great. So, we want to incorporate quality into where we’re at,” Chris Young, McDonald’s senior director of global menu strategy, told the WSJ. Changes include cooking the beef patties in smaller batches (six instead of eight) for a “more uniform sear,” adding more special sauce (half an ounce, up from one-third), fresher lettuce and pickles, and brioche buns with “sesame seeds more randomly scattered for a homemade look.”
McDonald’s is promoting the overhaul with a campaign for “our best burgers ever,” that will include the return of yesteryear mascot The Hamburglar.
Meta taking Threads to Europe
With the future path forward for X increasingly in doubt—thanks in part to an owner who makes innovative cars, trucks and rocket ships, but terrible media and advertising decisions— Meta will reportedly expand its alternative option, Threads, to Europe this month.
Meta introduced Threads in July, but not in Europe, which has tougher regulations around privacy and technology. To meet those strict rules, Meta will launch by giving consumers the choice to use Threads “purely for consumption without a profile that allows them to make their own posts,” reports The Wall Street Journal.
Threads has about 73 million monthly global users, compared to X’s 365 million, but including Europe could bring another 40 million monthly users to the platform in 2024, reports WSJ.
Rizz up
Last week, Merriam-Webster selected "authentic" as its word of the year. Today, the obviously more hip and youth-savvy Oxford University Press announced “rizz” as its word for 2023.
Rizz is “internet slang for romantic appeal or charm, is mostly used by young people,” with billions of views for the hashtag on TikTok, reports the BBC. The word is thought to be a short form of “charisma” and can also be used as a verb, as in “to rizz up,” meaning to seduce or chat someone up.
Other words shortlisted for “of the year” honours by OUP included: beige flag, situationship, parasocial, heat dome, Swiftie, prompt, and de-influencing. “YouTuber and Twitch streamer Kai Cenat is widely credited as having popularized the term rizz, which he used with his friends,” said BBC.
Golf great Arnold Palmer is credited with creating the concoction, and has been synonymous with the drink for decades. Liquid Death rival AriZona Beverages has mass produced a version that bears his name and signature since 2002. While the change may mean no lawsuit, it "naturally outraged Golf Twitter,” reported Golf Digest.
Ronaldo faces $1B lawsuit over NFTs
Portuguese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo is facing a $1 billion class action lawsuit over his endorsement of NFTs from crypto exchange Binance. Non-fungible tokens (for those fortunate enough to have forgotten) are digital files that can’t be duplicated because they are created using blockchain technology. After exploding in popularity in 2021, the NFT bubble has largely burst.
Ronaldo’s “CR7” NFT collection (a reference to his #7 jersey) launched just ahead of the 2022 World Cup, and included “animated statues” of Ronaldo with starting prices ranging from $77 to $10,000 according to the Associated Press.
The suit claims there was a 500% increase in searches for Binance after the NFTs were announced. The lawsuit accuses Ronaldo of making ‘deceptive statements,’” according to CNN. “[A]nd claims he ‘allowed his name and likeness to be used in connection with Binance’s deceptive statements in promotions of its product,’ notably selling unregistered crypto securities prone to wild volatility.”
McDonald's freshens up
McDonald’s is undertaking big changes to its core menu, tweaking some of the “industrial-scale” techniques introduced in the pursuit of efficiency to deliver cheap, uniform burgers, reports The Wall Street Journal.
“We can do it quick, fast and safe, but it doesn’t necessarily taste great. So, we want to incorporate quality into where we’re at,” Chris Young, McDonald’s senior director of global menu strategy, told the WSJ. Changes include cooking the beef patties in smaller batches (six instead of eight) for a “more uniform sear,” adding more special sauce (half an ounce, up from one-third), fresher lettuce and pickles, and brioche buns with “sesame seeds more randomly scattered for a homemade look.”
McDonald’s is promoting the overhaul with a campaign for “our best burgers ever,” that will include the return of yesteryear mascot The Hamburglar.
Meta taking Threads to Europe
With the future path forward for X increasingly in doubt—thanks in part to an owner who makes innovative cars, trucks and rocket ships, but terrible media and advertising decisions— Meta will reportedly expand its alternative option, Threads, to Europe this month.
Meta introduced Threads in July, but not in Europe, which has tougher regulations around privacy and technology. To meet those strict rules, Meta will launch by giving consumers the choice to use Threads “purely for consumption without a profile that allows them to make their own posts,” reports The Wall Street Journal.
Threads has about 73 million monthly global users, compared to X’s 365 million, but including Europe could bring another 40 million monthly users to the platform in 2024, reports WSJ.
Rizz up
Last week, Merriam-Webster selected "authentic" as its word of the year. Today, the obviously more hip and youth-savvy Oxford University Press announced “rizz” as its word for 2023.
Rizz is “internet slang for romantic appeal or charm, is mostly used by young people,” with billions of views for the hashtag on TikTok, reports the BBC. The word is thought to be a short form of “charisma” and can also be used as a verb, as in “to rizz up,” meaning to seduce or chat someone up.
Other words shortlisted for “of the year” honours by OUP included: beige flag, situationship, parasocial, heat dome, Swiftie, prompt, and de-influencing. “YouTuber and Twitch streamer Kai Cenat is widely credited as having popularized the term rizz, which he used with his friends,” said BBC.
