The rapper-turned-actor dedicated the book to his penis.

Biden administration officials are readying to publish a new rule to more rapidly reject some migrants from asylum soon after crossing the border, Axios has learned. Why it matters: It is one of several actions being weighed by President Biden to clamp down on illegal border crossings ahead of the election, as Biden and Democrats try to go on offense on one of their most vulnerable issues. The proposed rule, which could be published as soon Thursday, would allow...

Russia made clear early on that it considered civilian infrastructure a legitimate target as its armies sought to conquer Ukraine. Ukrainians say attacks in recent weeks have been more ferocious than ever as Russian forces press an initiative in the country’s south and east, impairing much of the energy infrastructure and costing an estimated $1 billion worth of damages. A tour of the battered environs of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city with a prewar population of...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has become the subject of much bemusement among his Senate GOP colleagues as he has taken a detour from his role as a conservative rabble-rouser to playing the lead on reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The Texas senator, long known for stirring up trouble for leadership, has suddenly gone in the reverse as he has prodded Republicans against gumming up the works for the last must-pass bill in Congress for months. But the irony is not...

Rupert Murdoch might not be flexing for the cameras, but he did just quietly demonstrate the power he still wields inside the Republican Party. The right-wing media mogul’s empire — which includes Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post — not-so-subtly backed Mike Johnson as Marjorie Taylor Greene waged an all-out assault against the House Speaker over his decision to pass an aid package for Ukraine. Murdoch’s powerful...

As we know, baby name trends are constantly changing. One generation’s Barbara is another generation’s Bethany. But it doesn’t make it any less odd when you suddenly realize that your very own name has suddenly made it into the “old and unhip” pile. And for many of us 80s babies…that time is now. In a now-viral TikTok post, baby name consultant Colleen Slagen went through the top 100 girl names from 1986 to find which ones “did not age well” and were no longer ranked top 1,000 today. Such a descent from popularity would mark them as what she calls “timestamp names.” Spoiler alert: what might be even more surprising than the names now considered old school are the names that are still going strong. The first name that Slagen says is “officially out” is Heather. That’s right, not even cult movie fame could help it keep its ranking.via GIPHYOther extinct names include Erica, Courtney, Lindsay, Tara, Crystal, Shannon, Brandy and Dana. Tiffany, Brittany and Casey are also heading very much in that direction.“My name is Brandy. The Gen Z hostess at Olive Garden told me that she’d never heard my name before and it was so unique,” one viewer wrote.However, Andrea ranks “surprisingly high,” and Jessica, Ashley and Stephanie have survived…so far. Gobsmacked, one person asked “How is Stephanie still in there? I don’t think I’ve met a Stephanie younger than myself at 34.” But the biggest holdout still belongs to Jennifer. “She was a top 100 name all the way up until 2008. Round of applause for Jennifer,” Slagen says in the clip. @namingbebe Sorry Lindsay, Heather, and Courtney. #babynames #nametok #nameconsultant #girlnames #80skid #1986 #nametrend ♬ original sound - Colleen If your name has found its way into relic of a bygone era status, fret not. Slagen, whose name also ranks out of the top 1000, assures it just means “we are creatures of the 80's.”Of course, while we still have baby names that become incredibly common for extended periods of time (looking at you, little Liam and Olivia), the real contemporary trend is going for uniqueness. As an article in The Atlantic notes, for most of American history families tended to name their children after a previous family member, with the goal of blending in, rather than standing out. But now, things have changed.Laura Wattenberg, the founder of Namerology, told the outlet that “Parents are thinking about naming kids more like how companies think about naming products, which is a kind of competitive marketplace where you need to be able to get attention to succeed.”But again, even with a keen eye on individualism, patterns pop up. “The same thing we see in fashion trend cycles, we see in names,” Jessie Paquette, another professional baby namer, told Vox. “We’re seeing Eleanor, Maude, Edith—cool-girl grandma names.” So who knows…give it time (or maybe just a pop song) and one of these 80s names could make a comeback.

Anyone who has tried learning to play guitar knows it's not as easy as some people make it look. It's not as visually linear as the piano, requires all of your fingers to do multiple things at once, and until you build up calluses on your fingertips, it can be quite painful. So when someone plays guitar well and with apparent effortlessness, we should give them props. And when someone goes a level (or 10) beyond that, it's appropriate to experience some serious awe and wonderment.Meet Marcin Patrzałek, known simply as Marcin, a Polish guitarist who stunned the "America's Got Talent" audience in Season 14 with his rendition of Beethoven's 5th Symphony. Clearly, an entire symphony is not a piece written for solo guitar, but seeing Marcin play it might actually convince you that it was. The way he uses the whole guitar is mesmerizing, and the fact that he arranged this when he was only 18 is really something. Watch: Despite his early elimination, 23-year-old Marcin has since built a significant online following. His talents have only grown, as has the number of musical genres he's covered with the guitar.Check him out doing opera with this piece from "Carmen." @marcin.music When a guitarist joins an opera… #guitar #classicalmusic How about some blues with a little "Ain't No Sunshine"…and kittens? @marcin.music “Ain’t No Sunshine” on one guitar is out now everywhere ? #guitar #blues #cattok Audiences find Marcin's extraordinary guitar skills both awe-inspiring and amusing. "This man straight up said, 'If i buy a whole guitar, I'm gonna use the whole guitar.'""Bruh the guitar didn’t even know it could do that.""Bop it. Pull it. Twist it.""How my parents expected me to play on the first day of guitar lessons.""Okay I know this is impressive but if you’ve ever seriously tried to play an acoustic you know THIS IS SO IMPRESSIVE.""I tried this once but decided to do something easier like astrophysics."Many were curious about how Marcin plays high on the neck without plucking the strings. It's actually a guitar technique called "hammer-ons and pull-offs," which lets Marcin's fingers function much like the hammers on a piano do, striking the string to make a note. But again, Marcin makes it look so easy, combining various guitar techniques into a seamless symphony of sound, all coming from his own fingers. In fact, he makes it look so easy that there are always comments from people who don't believe he's really playing the guitar, despite plenty of videos in which he's playing live and guitarists in the comments explaining how he's doing it (and being properly awed by it). If you want definitive proof, you might just have to catch him on tour, though most of the dates so far are sold out. And if you want to hear or see more of Marcin online, you can find his singles here or follow him on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram.