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In May, a Twitter thread by 11-year-old Emerson Weber’s father Hugh about her love of letter writing and a thank-you note to her postal carrier, Doug, went viral, garnering over 70,000 likes, over 40,000 retweets and major media attention from CNN and Good Morning America, among others. The ode to snail mail led to a new book, Sincerely, Emerson: A Girl, Her Letter, and the Helpers All Around Us (HarperCollins), illustrated by Jaclyn Sinquett, which was published last week, with a first print run of 50,000 copies. Emerson Weber The book chronicles Emerson’s letter-writing adventures, which culminated in an influx of mail in response to her letter to Doug from other postal workers, and even a package from her idol, Taylor Swift, who Weber took a cue from and included Easter eggs related to Swift in the book. I interviewed the young author as well as HarperCollins Executive Editor Kristen Pettit about how the book came about, Emerson’s pen pal journey, the importance of letter writing and how kids can get started writing letters. Emerson Weber will take part in a Barnes & Noble virtual storytime on December 26 to read from the book and offer letter-writing techniques to kids.…

The affected Google services came back online after about an hour of outage. December 15, 2020 / 04:27 PM IST Google, YouTube, Gmail, and other Google services went down for about an hour yesterday (December 14, 2020). The search giant attributed the outage to an “internal storage quota issue” and claimed it would conduct a thorough follow up review to ensure that the issue does not occur in the future.However, Google’s brief outage affected several users worldwide, which shouldn’t come as a surprise as billions of people all around the globe use Google, YouTube, and other Google services. This prompted a storm of tweets from users across the globe. Here are some of their best reactions.I’m sitting here in the dark in my toddler’s room because the light is controlled by @Google Home. Rethinking... a lot right now.— Joe Brown (@joemfbrown) December 14, 2020"Never Depend on Anyone"#SnHassanSayings#googledown#gmaildown#YouTubeDOWN#GoogleCrashpic.twitter.com/RhUi8qyiR8— Shahnoor Hassan (@shahnoorhassan) December 15, 2020even google knows it's time for a chai break— zomato (@zomato) December 14, 2020Perfect end to this piece on the BBC about the #GoogleDown story... pic.twitter.com/LPTm4onLQ0— Harsh Verma (@harsh__verma) December 14, 2020Are we really too dependent on #google? Let's see.#thestrategystory#googledown#gmaildown#playstoredownpic.twitter.com/Bpmr7UgJCs— Thestrategystory (@Dstrategystory) December 14, 2020When you use @DuckDuckGo…

2 hours ago (610 Sports) - A handful of Kansas City Chiefs players have gone rogue and are embroiled in an all-out Twitter war with... Well, each other. Don't be fooled, this isn't "that" sort of Twitter war. You may have noticed the recent string of Chiefs players changing their Twitter avatars to less than flattering pictures of teammates, many of which are from their high school or college days. It all started with Tyreek Hill, according to Patrick Mahomes. "Of course it was Tyreek, that man's pretty funny on social media," Mahomes said during his weekly interview with Carrington Harrison and Sean Levine of 'The Drive.' "You never know who's gonna get got but I knew mine was coming at some point and I'm glad it was just me with a skull cap on, that's a fashion trend I'm gonna have to bring back here sooner rather than later," Mahomes said, referencing Chiefs wide receiver Mecole Hardman's new Twitter pic of a young Patrick Mahomes donning a skull cap during his days at Whitehouse High School in Whitehouse, TX. The fun didn't stop there, defensive tackle Mike Pennel is now sporting a noticeably slimmer Chris Jones as his profile…

Mike Snider, USA TODAY Published 3:28 p.m. ET Dec. 14, 2020 | Updated 4:19 p.m. ET Dec. 14, 2020CLOSE The Federal Trade Commission and 48 state attorneys general filed antitrust lawsuits against Facebook over its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp. USA TODAYThe Federal Trade Commission wants to know how popular social media and streaming sites such as Facebook and Twitter use your personal data.The agency has ordered those two sites, as well as Amazon, YouTube, Discord, Reddit, Snap, WhatsApp and ByteDance, which operates TikTok, to provide details on how they collect and use personal information.The companies have 45 days to respond to the FTC's order with information about personal data usage, as well as advertising and user engagement practices, and how those practices affect children and teens, the agency said in a statement. Social networks connect users, but, over time, the initial goal "of connecting people or fostering creativity ... has shifted from supporting users’ activities to monetizing them," said commissioners Rohit Chopra, Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, and Christine S. Wilson in a statement about the order. "Never before has there been an industry capable of surveilling and monetizing so much of our personal lives. Social media and video streaming companies now follow users everywhere through apps…

On Friday, Netflix released Ryan Murphy's adaptation of the Broadway show The Prom, featuring a brand-new, A-list cast and two new stars in the lead roles. The latter disappointed some people, who were fans of the original Emma, Caitlyn Kinnunen and the original Alyssa Greene, Isabelle McCalla. This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. But what's really had Twitter going this weekend is the fact that James Corden plays the role of Barry Glickman, an out, gay Broadway actor. Barry is part of a group of Broadway celebrities who travel to Edgewater, Indiana, to help a lesbian teen battle homophobia in her town and attend her prom. He stars alongside Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, and Andrew Rannells, as a man who grew up in Ohio and whose parents did not accept him when he came out. Many fans of the show—and first-time watchers—are not pleased…

There shouldn’t be any question as to whether or not Tennessee Titans running back Derrick Henry owns the Jacksonville Jaguars — he’s compiled a rich history of having them on a collar and a tight leash. He added to that on Sunday, rushing for 215 yards and two touchdowns during the team’s 31-10 road win over Jacksonville, a team that sits at the bottom of the division with an overall record of 1-12. With the win, the Titans improve to 9-4 and keep their spot at the top of the AFC South. Quarterback Ryan Tannehill also looked like the franchise quarterback the Titans signed him to be, completing 19-of-24 passes for 212 yards and a pair of touchdowns. A.J. Brown finished the day as the Titans’ leading receiver, reeling in seven passes for 112 yards and one touchdown. Up next on the schedule, the Titans will return home to Nissan Stadium to face the Detroit Lions. Here’s a look at what Twitter had to say about the game on victory day. Derrick Henry 200-yard rushing performance came with 2 rushing TDs. That's 4 career games with 200 rushing yards and 2 Rush TD, the most in NFL history according to…

Mario Judah/Instagram Published on: Dec 12, 2020, 1:08 PM Mario Judah issued an ultimatium to Playboi Carti over the release of Carti’s Whole Lotta Red album and when the “Magnolia” rapper failed to deliver, Judah decided to release his own Whole Lotta Red. Led by the viral star’s new single “Bih Yah,” the four-track “tribute” to Carti features Judah songs such as “Luv My Slatts,” “Bean & Lean” and “Figi Freestyle.” The entire project finds Judah doing his best Carti impersonation after pleading like many diehard fans for the release of the Georgia rapper’s long-awaited third album Whole Lotta Red. Listen to Judah’s version of WLR below. “Before I blew up, I was one of the fans in his comments section,” Judah told Complex about his connection to Carti. “I was like, “Bro, drop Whole Lotta Red! Drop Whole Lotta Red!” And I used to always think, “What could possibly be done to get this man to drop his album?” He added, “Everything I’m doing now is just trying to get this man to drop this album. I honestly don’t know what people might think about what I’m doing. But everybody has been glad that I’ve been doing it, because…

Saturday was senior day at Beaver Stadium. While it did not feature the norm celebrations a senior day holds, it did not make it any less of a special day for the Nittany Lion seniors. Especially with the team picking up a 39-24 victory over Michigan State. The 2020 group of seniors included a pair of redshirt senior defensive linemen — Shane Simmons and Antonio Shelton — who had strong showings. For both Simmons and Shelton, their strong games began on the game’s opening drive when Simmons for his first sack and Shelton is first tackle for a loss. Happy to see Shane Simmons having a nice game on Senior Day— Jarred Walp (@jaywalp) December 12, 2020 Shane Simmons gets a sack on senior day.. so happy for him— Sigh (@PSU_Strong) December 12, 2020 Shane Simmons balling out today would be so awesome— Marty (@msj41817) December 12, 2020 Fantastic to see that from Shane Simmons today.— Sean Fitz (@seanfitz247) December 12, 2020 Great tip by Shane Simmons. He's having himself a nice day.— Matt Bortner (@M_Bortner) December 12, 2020 Quite the day for senior Shane Simmons. He records the Penn State's third sack of the game and forces another Michigan…

on December 11, 2020 at 1:03 am Yesterday, Utah State University students and alumni used the hashtag #USUGripe to voice concerns and complaints about the university for the semiannual Gripe Night.  The event started at 7 p.m. Wednesday and continued for 24 hours. The most popular topics discussed were diversity, mental health, the university’s handling of COVID-19, on-campus parking and students not wearing masks and not social distancing at football and basketball games.  Several accounts complained about the university not speaking up more about the Black Lives Matter movement, and not supporting the LGBTQ community. @TomoyaAverett said: “Y’all can put as many minority students as you want on posters and ads but until y’all can prove that you are committed to making USU a safe and welcoming environment for more than just white LDS students, I’m not buying it.” Some users griped about the mental health options offered on campus. Some said there are not enough counselors and students have to wait for months to receive help. Some students directly complained about psychiatrist Brian Merrill. Other tweets said the university’s way of helping students’ mental health was disappointing, overall. @Abby_Nielsen88 said: “Hire more therapy counselors for students. I’m tired of…

Part of HuffPost Politics. ©2020 Verizon Media. All rights reserved. Donald Trump Jr.'s 'Radicle' Typo Has Twitter Users In Stitches Like father, like son. President Donald Trump is well known for a Twitter typo or 10 and Donald Trump Jr. followed in his father’s footsteps Thursday with a doozie. Trump Jr. wrote “radical” as “radicle” while attacking Georgia Democratic Senate candidates Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff in this tweet: Yikes!!! Watch out Georgia. You could end up with the two most radicle left senators in America if you don’t step up asap!!! #ga #gasen https://t.co/owFqxoqBN2— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) December 10, 2020 It’s not the first time Trump Jr. has spelled the word wrong: “I don’t see anyone walking into a voting booth on November 3 & voting to give up 20-30% of their income by voting for Joe Biden’s radicle tax plans. I don’t see anyone voting to get rig of US Oil & Gas and watch gas & heating prices skyrocket”Blue collar friend in MT yesterday— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) November 2, 2020 Biden wants to “transform” America to CHOP. Open your eyes people. The radicle left runs the party and they couldn’t be more clear with their…