Anderson Cooper shows other politicians besides Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez dance on The Rediculist

For today's Sunday entertainment feature, I'm taking a brief look at the nontroversey over a video of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez dancing when she was in college.  As Reuters reported, the attempt to use it to shame her backfired.

An attempt to embarrass newly elected U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with a nine-year-old video showing her dancing while in college backfired when it drew a wave of support for the liberal lawmaker on social media.
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Twitter comments broke along partisan lines, with opponents describing the dance video as showing immaturity while supporters saw it as cute.

The failed attempt maked The Rediculist on CNN last week as Anderson Cooper showed that Ocasio-Cortez wasn't the only politician known for dancing in Ocasio-Cortez gets praise from 'The Breakfast Club'.

After an old video of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez dancing surfaced, CNN's Anderson Cooper takes a look back at other politicians who have busted a move on camera.

I'd rather watch Ocasio-Cortez dance than Rick Perry, that's for sure, although his inclusion demonstrates that young liberal women aren't the only politicians who can look silly while dancing.

Cooper wasn't the only one to have a good laugh at the incident.  Watch as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Dances, People Lose Their Minds on MSNBC's "All In With Chris Hayes."

An old video of newly sworn-in Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez dancing as a college student emerged - but didn't quite land as the attack it was intended to be.

I'd also rather watch Ocasio-Cortez dance than Paul Ryan flex.

While the anonymous Twitter troll botched this attack, that won't stop people on the Right from continuing their efforts.  To that I say, better luck next time — or maybe not.  I'll rather watch them blow it as hilariously as they did this time.

Vox on the collapse of Venezuela

I mentioned another collapsing country in Vox explains how Saudi Arabia became the largest buyer of U.S. arms and is using them in Yemen.

Another country whose collapse I should write about is Venezuela.  I have not written enough about its situation, either.  I also plan on correcting that.  Stay tuned.

On that note, I present The collapse of Venezuela, explained.

The country is in chaos, but its leaders aren't going anywhere.

Correction at 1:58: It's been brought to our notice that the Supreme Court tried to strip the country's National Assembly of its powers in March 2017 and not 2016. We regret the error.

The collapse of Venezuela and President Maduro's rise to dictatorship.

Venezuela was once the richest country in Latin America. It has the largest known oil reserves in the world. And its democratic government was once praised world wide.
But today, Venezuela's democratic institutions and its economy are in shambles. The country has the highest inflation in the world, making food and medicine inaccessible to most Venezuelans. Over the last four years, its GDP has fallen 35%, which is a sharper drop than the one seen during the Great Depression in the US. The country's murder rate has surpassed that of the most dangerous cities in the world. These conditions have sparked months of protests against the president, Nicolas Maduro. And it's easy to see why: the country has become measurably worse since his election in 2013.

The year in climate 2018

2018 is over, but I'm still not done with its retrospectives.  For a final non-entertainment look back, I present 13 Climate Stories You Might Have Missed in 2018 | Hot Mess.

Without a doubt, 2018 was a big year with Climate Change. So we're here to catch you up on a few of the stories you might have missed this year.

In some ways, this was more satisfying than either Google's Year In Search or YouTube Rewind.  Unfortunately, it was scarier.

One last video about 2018 in search

Wochit News had its own video about the top ten search terms of 2018.  While it isn't as uplifting as Google's, I think it reflects what people were looking for better than the official report.

Google has unveiled its Year in Search for 2018. The annual compilation contains the top worldwide Google searches of the year. This year's list includes several tragic deaths as well as the World Cup. As 2018 draws to a close, Google is looking back on the top searches of the year. Google narrows down the top-trending searches in the world over the past 12 months, terms that had the highest spike in traffic this year compared with 2017. These are not necessarily the terms that were searched the most often.

I plan on having one last retrospective of last year tomorrow.  Stay tuned.

Golden Globe movie predictions and television nominees for Science Fiction Day

Happy National Science Fiction Day!  For reasons I will explain later, I am not in a position to review the box office performance of 2019's speculative fiction movies.  I'll probably do that next week. Instead, I will share two videos about the Golden Globes that include the speculative fiction nominees.

First, Golden Globes 2019 Nominations & Predictions from Beyond the Trailer.

Golden Globes 2019 today! Beyond The Trailer's reaction to nominations! Black Panther! A Star is Born! Rami Malek! Spider-Verse!
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Golden Globes 2019 today! Beyond The Trailer host Grace Randolph's reaction & predictions of the nominations and winners! Vice, Black Panther, A Star is Born with Lady Gaga, Rami Malek for Bohemian Rhapsody, Mary Poppins Returns, Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse and more! Share your own reaction to the nominations for the Golden Globes 2019, and your own predictions, before you watch the full show with host Andy Samberg & Sandra Oh! And make Beyond The Trailer your first stop for entertainment news on YouTube today!

Next, Golden Globes Nominations: FULL list of television nominees from Global News.

HBO's "Sharp Objects" and FX's "The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story" were among the top nominees for television during the Golden Globes nomination ceremony on December 6. The awards will be handed out in Hollywood on January 6.

I'll be back for the winners next week.

The marching bands and drum corps marching in the 2019 Rose Parade

Happy New Year!  I'm continuing a tradition by celebrating the marching bands and drum corps marching in the Rose Parade today.  First, the drum corps with Pacific Crest selected to march in 2019 Rose Parade from Drum Corps International.

Diamond Bar, California's Pacific Crest has been selected as one of the 20 marching music units that will participate in the 2019 Tournament of Roses Parade.

For a preview of their Rose Parade performance, I present Pacific Crest at Bandfest.

From Diamond Bar, California Celebrating 25 years of existence, Pacific Crest Drum & Bugle Corps performing their musical selections at the 39th Annual Pasadena Tournament of Roses Bandfest on Saturday, December 29th 2018.

Now, the rest of the Rose Parade 2019 Marching Bands : Tournament of Roses Parade.

Marching Bands of 2019 Rose Parade:
Alabama State University Mighty Marching Hornets - (Montgomery, AL)
All-Izumo Honor Green Band - (Izumo, Japan)
Banda Escolar de Guayanilla Puerto Rico - (Guayanilla, Puerto Rico)
Banda Municipal de Acosta - (Acosta, San José, Costa Rica)
Calgary Stampede Showband - (Calgary, Alberta, Canada)
Cavalcade of Bands Honor Band - (Mid-Atlantic Region)
Florida A&M University, The Incomparable Marching "100" - (Tallahassee, FL)
Flower Mound High School Band - (Flower Mound, TX)
Lincoln-Way Marching Band - (Frankfort, IL)
Los Angeles Unified School District – All District High School Honor Band - (Los Angeles, CA)
Mercer Island High School Marching Band - (Mercer Island, WA)
Munford High School Band - (Munford, TN)
Na Koa Ali`I - Hawai`i All-State Marching Band - (Kaneohe, HI)
Pacific Crest Drum & Bugle Corps - (Diamond Bar, CA)
Pasadena City College Tournament of Roses Honor Band & Herald Trumpets - (Pasadena, CA)
Pickerington Marching Band - (Pickerington, OH) Royal Swedish Cadet Band - (Karlskrona, Sweden)
The Lassiter High School Marching Trojan Band - (Marietta, GA)
The Salvation Army Tournament of Roses Band - (Long Beach, CA)
United States Marine Corps West Coast Composite Band - (San Diego, CA)

In addition, the bands of the schools participating in the Rose Bowl will be marching down Colorado Boulevard.  I predicted that The Ohio State University Marching Band would be in this year's Rose Parade in Olaf and other Disney balloons in Macy's Parade plus my favorite marching bands in today's parades and I was right.  I'd still rather I was wrong and Michigan was marching there instead.

The Year in (Google) Search 2018 for New Year's Eve 2018

Finishing up the series of retrospective entries, I am continuing the tradition of posting the year in search.  Watch Google — Year In Search 2018.

In a year of ups and downs, the world searched for "good" more than ever before — according to Google Trends. From the epic headlines to the everyday moments, here’s to all the good that people discovered in 2018.

Farewell 2018!  Happy 2019, everyone!

YouTube Rewind 2018

For today's installment of retrospective entries, I am continuing a tradition of posting the year's YouTube Rewind as a Sunday entertainment feature.  Watch YouTube Rewind 2018: Everyone Controls Rewind.

YouTube Rewind 2018. Celebrating the videos, people, music and moments that defined 2018.

And that what YouTube wanted people to remember about its service for 2018.  May 2019 be even more entertaining.

2018's Breakthrough of the year for 2018 from Science Magazine

The next installment of retrospective entries for 2018 is the top science stories of the year.  Here is 2018 Breakthrough of the Year from Science Magazine.

Learn about our Breakthrough of the Year: tracking development cell by cell. Nine other advances are recognized as runners-up.

For another list, read 10 science stories in 2018 that made us go, “Whoa, that’s awesome” from Vox.

2018 at NASA

It's time to begin a series of retrospective entries for the end of 2018.  This is a tradition of sorts on this blog that includes NASA looking back at the year.  On that note, I present NASA Begins America’s New Moon to Mars Exploration Approach in 2018 - The Year @NASA.

With our Moon to Mars effort underway, a new administrator takes over to lead the charge, and – oh yeah – we stuck another nearly flawless landing on Mars! All that and more as we look back at what happened This Year @ NASA!

Here's to another great year in space for 2019!