Saintel Daily: A Week In Review – March 30, 2019

Technology

Instagram is bringing us a feature that, realistically, already should have existed a long time ago.  What is this fancy new feature? The ability to fast forward through videos posted on users’ feeds.  This particular feature is already available for videos in IGTV, but this will be the first time it will be made available for videos on regular feeds.  But all of that seems a bit ridiculous, doesn’t it?  I mean, we can get the feature in IGTV, but not in the regular feed?  Instagram doesn’t seem to be testing it in Stories, which might not be a bad thing considering the function of the Stories feature would make this addition seem counter-intutitive.  There’s no word yet as to when the new feature will go live, but considering we’ve been waiting a long time for this, another few weeks won’t make a difference.

Sports

Giannis Antetokounmpo’s ankle seems to be acting up again.  With just under eight minutes left in the Milwaukee Bucks’ game on Thursday against the Los Angeles Clippers, Antetokounmpo threw down a dunk, which ended up putting his team ahead, but also might put him in a bad spot for the future. Antetokounmpo did not return to the game and instead sat on the bench and occasionally stood to gingerly walk the sideline and test his ankle. He finished with 34 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists in 32 minutes.

Politics

The Trump appointee who oversees Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare quietly directed millions of taxpayer dollars in contracts to Republican communications consultants during her tenure in the agency. This includes hiring at least one well-connected GOP media adviser to bolster her public profile.   The communications subcontracts approved by CMS Administrator Seema Verma represent a sharp break from precedent at the agency. Those deals, managed by Verma’s deputies, came in some cases over the objections of CMS staffers, who raised concerns about her push to use federal funds on GOP consultants and to amplify coverage of Verma’s own work. CMS has its own large communications shop, including about two dozen people who handle the press.

Music

Lee Seung-hyun, known widely as Seungri, was the youngest member of one of K-pop’s most influential boy bands – BIGBANG.  Seungri “retired” from BIGBANG earlier this month following getting arrested by Seoul police for charges related to prostitution.  Most of the evidence that the police have, seems to be information leaked from his own phone, using the Kakao Talk app.  A technician reportedly discovered multiple chats on his phone after the singer sent it in for repairs.  The development of this allegation have now become global news, but these really echo larger issues being faced by the country’s ongoing spy camera epidemic.  What is the bigger issue? The fact that there was a prostitution scandal, or the adding of spyware to a phone without the owner’s permission?

Television

This post contains spoilers for the Broad City series finale.

This week, Broad City came to an emotional close as Abbi left New York City for her art residency in Colorado. Every episode has been about how Abbi and Ilana find themselves in these weird adventures.  In some cases they are successful, and sometimes they aren’t.  The great thing about the show is that it’s all about the journey.  And Thursday nights’ episode was no different.  The two spent the entire episode together on a handful of adventures—including trying (and failing) to secure one final bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich—before Abbi finally got in a cab the next morning to depart for her new life.  While I won’t give any more details away, the episode ended in true Ilana and Abbi style.  This was an incredibly humorous show and it will be greatly missed.