No, you’re not missing anything. We’re all confused. Eminem wasn’t up for any awards this year, and there was nothing that suddenly made “Lose Yourself” more culturally relevant this year. The rapper’s tweet about his performance implied that it was to make up for the fact that he couldn’t make it to the 2003 ceremony where “Lose Yourself” was honored with Best Original Song. And since the performance was introduced with a montage about the power of music in films, I guess that’s what made it make sense? We’re all talking about it, anyway, and that was clearly the goal.

There are now biometric scanners in airports that are meant to prevent fraud and terrorism by providing additional identity verification. Smiling is actually considered an unnatural expression, which makes it more difficult for this facial recognition software to work effectively. According to Angela Aggeler, spokeswoman for the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs, smiling "distorts other facial features, for example your eyes, so you're supposed to have a neutral expression. … The most neutral face is the most desirable standard for any type of identification.”

2019 was a very strong year for the film industry. Avengers: Engame became the highest-grossing film of all time, the Star Wars Saga came to a close, and many unique and interesting independent films were released and well-received. I have a hard time narrowing down just one movie, so here's my Top 5 of 2019 (in order): Parasite (dir. Bong Joon-ho) I was already a major fan of South Korean director Bong Joon-ho, and was certainly looking forward to his latest project. This movie absolutely floored me and after seeing it four times now, I can comfortably call it his masterpiece. This is one of those films that I think is best to go in as cold as possible, knowing very little about the plot or the themes. The Lighthouse (dir. Robert Eggers) Eggers' period piece horror film The Witch (2015) is easily one my favorite horror films in recent years, and his sophomore effort is something entirely different and wonderful. The Lighthouse offers career-best performances from both Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson, eery sound design, incredibly realistic period-specific dialogue, and a Lovecraftian madness that is sure to delight horror fans. Once Upon A Time...In Hollywood (dir. Quentin Tarantino) Tarantino's filmography has been pretty hit-or-miss for me, as I find the tone of most of his movies a little too similar. However, his newest entry really impressed me with its authentic laid-back take on 1969 Hollywood. Brad and Leo give some stellar, nuanced performances as well. Definitely a fun and nostalgic ride! Under the Silver Lake (dir. David Robert Mitchell) After being impressed with Mitchell's debut effort It Follows (2014), I was definitely on the lookout for his next project. And yes, I do know that Under the Silver Lake is technically a film from 2018, but I live in the United States and it was released here the following year, so I'm counting it. This cryptic and frantic comedy-thriller had an extremely unique tone and an excellent performance from Andrew Garfield. Check this one out if you are looking for a brain teaser-type of experience. Avengers: Engame (dir. Joe & Anthony Russo) While I'm not the biggest fan of comic book movies or blockbusters in general, I think the monumental achievement that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe is really something to behold. Never before had we seen such a vast collection of films in one series that encompassed so many varying characters, themes, and stories. I'd even go so far as to call Avengers: Endgame more than a movie. To me, it felt like a huge cultural event that the whole world of moviegoers got to experience together, and that was truly special.

This strange, somewhat surrealist phrase has a contested origin. It dates back to at least 1651, and it might have to do with dogs and cats symbolizing wind and rain, respectively, in different mythologies. Another possibility is that it’s a mangled form of obsolete words, either the Greek cata doxa (meaning “contrary to experience or belief”), or the old English catadupe (“waterfall”). None of those explanations have conclusive evidence to support them, but they’re all plausible. One theory that’s been totally busted, however, is the idea that cats and dogs would huddle in thatch roofs during storms, and the rain would wash them out. For that to happen, the animals would have to be on the outside of the roof, which doesn’t track.

Although this theory would explain why his novels tend to be rather...dense, it’s not true. Dickens published most of his novels serially, meaning one section would be printed and sold each month, and he was paid for each one of these installments. For his first full-length novel, The Pickwick Papers, that meant 19 monthly installments at 32 pages each (except the last, which was a special “double issue”), and Dickens got paid each time he turned in 32 pages of text. So, even though he wasn’t paid for each word, what is true is that he had a monetary incentive to make his novels longer, and honestly, I don’t blame him.

To calculate the weight of a cloud, you first have to figure out how dense it is. The average density of a cumulus cloud is around half a gram of water per cubic meter. Second, you need to determine how big the cloud is, presumably by measuring its shadow while the sun is above it. A typical cloud is about a kilometer across and roughly cube shaped, meaning it has a volume of one billion cubic meters. Using this formula, scientists have determined that the average cumulus cloud weighs around 1.1 million pounds.

beat the silly out of the person.

The UK airline Loganair has a flight that goes from the island of Westray to the island of Papa Westray in the Northern Isles of Scotland. It covers about 1.7 miles and lasts around a minute on average. If there is a strong headwind, the flight can take closer to two-and-a-half minutes; with a tailwind, it’s been completed in 53 seconds.

The results of the 2020 Iowa caucus were delayed considerably for the Democratic party. The delay is being largely blamed on reporting and coding problems with the new smartphone app that is being used to collect results. In the face of harsh criticism for the issue-riddled caucus, Iowa Democratic Party Communications Director Mandy McClure shared the following update late Monday night: “We found inconsistencies in the reporting of three sets of results. In addition to the tech systems being used to tabulate results, we are also using photos of results and a paper trail to validate that all results match and ensure that we have confidence and accuracy in the numbers we report. This is simply a reporting issue, the app did not go down and this is not a hack or an intrusion. The underlying data and paper trail is sound and will simply take time to further report the results.”

I’ll limit this answer to the funds the politician’s own campaign raises, not Political Action Committees (PAC) associated with candidates, since that part gets pretty messy. Also, it should be noted that it’s pretty rare to have a lot of excess funds at the end of a race—most money raised gets spent quickly, and the reason why many candidates drop out is that they ran out of money. However, failed politicians do have a few options for leftover cash. The laws vary from state to state, but at the federal level, they’ll first tie up whatever loose ends the campaign might have, like debts or outstanding operating costs. With the rest, they can donate it to charities or political parties, donate up to $2,000 of it per election to another candidate (or $5,000 to a PAC), or save it for if they decide to run again. One thing they can’t do is pocket it for personal use.

In 2020, Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow. If he's to be believed, that means we'll have an early spring this year, but you must remember that Punxsutawney Phil isn't a very good predictor. From 2008 to 2018, he got it right a measly 40 percent of the time.

It’s hard to say. While we can’t change daily temperatures, there’s some evidence that we can modify precipitation with a method called cloud seeding. The United States uses cloud seeding to alleviate droughts, induce snowfall near ski resorts, and even reduce hailstone size and fog. A crash course on cloud seeding: Usually by plane, but occasionally by other means like chimneys or even cannons, certain chemical compounds are introduced into clouds. The hope is that these compounds—the most popular being silver iodide—turn water droplets into ice crystals, making them heavy enough to fall from the clouds. In the cold, they’ll be snowflakes; in warmer temperatures, they’ll melt into raindrops. Further, we seed fog with dry ice to increase visibility at airports; we seed potential hail-producing clouds to create more individual ice nuclei, lessening hailstones’ potential for growth. All this said, there’s some disagreement about whether cloud seeding even works. Some studies say it doesn’t affect precipitation; others, using ground-based radars to examine particles within clouds, say they do.

There’s plenty, but as a jilted Rams fan, I’ve gotta go with The Tackle at Super Bowl XXXIV. So often, games end in crushing fashion—you think you have it won, but as the clock ticks down and the opposing team drives closer to your endzone, your dreams deflate and eventually get stomped on, stamped out, covered in the enemy’s confetti. This time, though, we HELD ON—Rams linebacker Mike Jones stopped Titans receiver Kevin Dyson one yard short of the endzone on the last play of the game, taking our dreams off the turf and holding them high with the Lombardi Trophy. Sucked for Titans fans, their dreams getting stomped on and all, but hey, that’s sports.

A couple different cold-weather factors contribute to there being just too much fluid for the nose to hold (gross, I know, but true). First, because winter air tends to be very dry, the nose has to produce a lot of extra fluid to humidify it properly on its way to the lungs. Sometimes it makes so much that it runs right out the end of the nose. What’s more, when that warm, moisturized air gets breathed back out into cold, dry surroundings, it condenses on the cold tip of the nose, adding even more fluid.

Short answer: a lot. Longer answer: a whole lot. More than before. Full answer: In 2020, the game’s priciest 30-second commercial slots sold for $5–5.6 million. Slots before and after the game, meanwhile, sold for $2–3 million. Considering that in 2008, that was the cost of an in-game commercial, it’s safe to say that the cost of advertising is going up. They cost so much, obviously, because so many people watch it. Since 2008, average viewership for the game has routinely eclipsed 100 million people. Of the top 20 most-viewed single-network broadcasts in American history, 19 of them were Super Bowls (shoutout to the M*A*S*H finale for cracking that top 20).

There are exactly 3 teaspoons in one tablespoon.

A caucus is a method political parties use in some states (notably Iowa) to choose presidential nominees, which is also what a primary is for, so that confusion is definitely justified. The main difference is that in a primary, you vote by secret ballot, but in a caucus, you gather with other members of the party and vote by raising your hand or grouping together in certain areas. Caucuses also give participants the chance to debate candidates, which you definitely can’t do at a primary. They also have multiple rounds—if a candidate has less than 15 percent of the participants in their corner after the initial vote, their supporters can choose a different candidate in the second round. The whole thing is really confusing, and there’s a lot more to the process after the actual voting, but those are the big-picture differences. Hope this helps!

There just aren’t any more that are worth our time. It’s actually pretty difficult to find species that suit domestication—although there are a few exceptions, they generally need to mature quickly relative to us, be willing to breed in captivity, be able to eat the food we can provide, have a good temperament, recognize humans as their pack leaders, and not flee when they’re scared. So, although we probably could domesticate some seemingly good candidates, like zebras or deer, they’re better off in the wild.

That depends. Is the 10x10 grid numbered 0–9 before you choose your squares, or are the column numbers being selected afterward? If it’s the former, the simplest strategy is to go with 0s, 7s, and (to a lesser extent) 3s. According to a Harvard study of NFL postseason games, those are the luckiest numbers by quarter. Getting a little fancier, try to choose 0s for the underdogs and 7s for the favorites. Avoid 2s, 5s, 8s, and 9s—thinking about football scores, which most commonly raise by either three or seven, this makes sense. If you’re choosing randomly, there’s a lot less you can do. To maximize your chance of winning something, try to ensure each of your squares has a unique row and column. To throw a hail mary and try to win big, pick as many squares in a single column as the game allows.

so you're not supposted to put the whole thing in your mouth at once?