It was a Thursday night and I had a date. Or, so I thought. 

Instead, I had an experience of something so strange that I’ve decided it needs a name: “cloaking.” 

I grabbed my backpack, donned my headphones, and blasted my pre-date anthem (Ariana Grande’s “Dangerous Woman,” fyi) as I fired off a hurried WhatsApp to the man I was having dinner with. “Hey! So I’m leaving the office now. Will probs get there in like 20 mins,” I typed and hit send. 

Matthew (not his real name) had asked me to dinner earlier that week after we’d matched on Hinge. We bonded over our shared love of pasta and hatched a plan to go to Padella in Borough Market, London.

But, days after popping the pasta question, I was standing in line at the restaurant, staring ahead in the hope that I’d spot my date’s face in the crowd.

Thirty minutes had now passed since I’d sent my first WhatsApp, but when I checked if my match had read the message, I noticed something. Instead of the usual comforting double tick, there was just one lonesome tick. I text my friend to ask what it meant: “It means it hasn’t been delivered. He’s prolly still on the Tube, though!” I tried to iMessage him, but my message turned green rather than the usual blue. 

Then, when I opened Hinge, our conversation — which had once been peppered with dozens of flirty messages — was completely erased. I tapped out of the conversation and into my list of matches. Matthew was gone. 

“Oh my god,” I whispered to myself, my heart beating fast inside my chest. I jumped out of the queue and into the crowded street. People were whirling around me as I scrambled to find a way of contacting the man who almost certainly wasn’t joining me for dinner. I put my phone to my ear as I tried calling my absent date, but — as you can probably guess — it went straight to voicemail. 

Image: rachel thompson / mashable

This cannot be happening, I thought to myself. I texted my best friend Elisha to ask what I should do. “Have a glass of wine and see what happens in the next 20 mins or so,” she told me. So that’s what I did. As I nervously necked a £10 glass of rosé, I studied the WhatsApp messages Matthew and I had exchanged for clues. He’d been the driving force behind this date: he asked me out; he followed up on Hinge the night before; and he text me on the morning we were due to meet.

I just couldn’t figure out how we could go from extolling burrata to, well, blocked, in the space of a few hours. 

Had I said something to offend Matthew? Had this all been an elaborate set-up? Had I been catfished? 

“Still nothing?” Elisha text me. “Wanna come have dinner with me?” I hopped in an Uber moments later, and my driver, Bashir, asked me how I was. “I’m so angry for you!” he told me after I’d explained what’d happened. “People have no respect.” Seriously though, they really don’t. 

I, too, was angry now. Seething, in fact. Problem was: ordinarily, when someone upsets me, I confront them. I choose a mode of communication — text, WhatsApp, call, Slack, you name it — and I talk it out. But, Matthew had cut me off. 

Because Matthew had completely vanished without a trace, it didn’t feel entirely accurate to use the term “stood up”. This was like a strange and deeply upsetting synthesis of ghosting and getting stood up. 

The thing about Hinge is: when you match with someone, you get their full name. After a bit of not-very-arduous sleuthing, I found his Facebook profile. Next day, I decided to drop Matthew a message on Facebook. I thought long and hard about what I might say to this person, but the only thing I really needed to convey to him was the message that it’s really not OK to treat someone like this. 

Even if he never read it, I just knew it wouldn’t sit right with me if I didn’t get to have my say. 

Image: rachel thompson / mashable

After I sent the message, I felt a weight lift off of me. But, part of me was curious: had other people been blocked by their online matches before a date? Was this a thing? I’ve been ghosted, breadcrumbed, stashed, orbited, you name it, it’s happened to me. But this was a new one.

Eddy (who prefers to use her first name only) says she matched on Tinder with a guy who “ticked a lot of boxes” for her and they spent a few weeks talking on the app before exchanging numbers. 

“We WhatsApped for about a week and set a date for the Saturday — just a glass of wine in town — he even confirmed the date the day before!” says Eddy. 

But, when it came to the day of the actual date, things went awry. “I rocked up to our agreed meeting place and waited inside as discussed,” she says. “Ordered a drink so I didn’t look like a total loser and waited… and waited.” 

After 20 minutes, she realised that her date was a no-show and, at that point, she decided to message him. “I sent a message asking what was going on and what was he playing at?” Eddy explains. “Said that if he’d changed his mind then that was fine but he could at least have had the courtesy and respect for me to have said beforehand.”

Eddy’s Tinder match read the message and promptly blocked her on WhatsApp. She never heard from him again. 

The same thing happened to Shruti (who also prefers to use first names only). After matching with a guy on Bumble early in the work week, she began chatting regularly with him. “Conversation was interesting and he was funny,” says Shruti. “He was responsive — no long pauses, non sequiturs, asked about my life too, flirty but not inappropriate, no dick pics.”

“When I checked to see whether he had sent a message on Bumble instead, I found that he had unmatched me”

They chatted all day every day for three or four days and they decided to meet on the Friday for a drink. 

“I had terrible service in the bar so I couldn’t check my phone without leaving the bar,” says Shruti. “After about 15min I tried sending him a text just to confirm it was the right bar and then I went back in and ordered a drink.”

She says she took her time, and assured herself that her date had perhaps got caught in rush hour traffic. At the 45 minute mark, Shruti says her drink was gone and her date was nowhere to be seen. 

“When I checked to see whether he had sent a message on Bumble instead, I found that he had unmatched me sometime after we confirmed [the date],” says Shruti. “I know because I looked at his profile to make sure I’d recognise him.”

Shruti says she sent him a message afterwards but didn’t get a response. “Shocker!” she said. 

David (who’s using his first name only) matched with a woman on Tinder and they agreed to go for a drink together. “We had been texting each other all day saying ‘looking forward to it’, etc., then 30 minutes after she was due to arrive, I called but got no answer,” says David. At around the 30 minute mark, he says he “had a fair idea” that his date wasn’t coming. But, when he checked WhatsApp and discovered he’d been blocked, this vague idea turned into a certainty. 

He chose not to send a message to his Tinder match afterwards because he felt “quite mortified” and he “didn’t see the point.”  

This activity sadly seems to be something swipers are having to contend with. But, neither “ghosting” nor “stood up” quite do justice to this strange and upsetting phenomenon? 

Given that these people essentially don an invisibility cloak after setting up a date, perhaps the term “cloaking” sums up this practise. 

Vocabulary aside, though, cloaking (or whatever you want to call it) is a horrible, disrespectful act. If you’ve changed your mind about a date, have the decency to tell the person. It’s the right thing to do.

CLEVELAND — There they were. The best team from last season versus the worst, facing off in the third week of the preseason, which is traditionally the dress rehearsal for the regular season.

 

But neither the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles, nor the cellar-dweller Cleveland Browns closely resembled their 2017 forms Thursday night at First Energy Stadium. For the Browns, that’s a good thing, but for the Eagles, that’s troubling.

You see, for all the optimistic buzz surrounding the Browns this offseason and preseason, there’s equally as much uncertainty overshadowing the Eagles just weeks away from the season opener.

Make no mistake, fireworks proved scarce in the Browns’ 5-0 win over the visiting Eagles. (No, that’s not a typo or the score from an Indians-Phillies matchup). And it’s the preseason, where nothing is ever as bad as it seems, and scarcely as good as they appear.

But the Browns’ trajectory seemingly continued upward, while the Eagles remained stagnant and coach Doug Pederson left the stadium with more frustrations and questions than anyone would have expected when training camp kicked off nearly a month ago.

Pederson and his players have long maintained that they can’t rest on their Lombardi Trophy laurels. It’s a new year, they said from the time that they reported for spring practices, and they maintained that message as training camp began.

The Eagles understood that things change far too quickly in this league, and although the New England Patriots make it look easy, it’s far more difficult to remain atop the heap than it is to ascend from the basement. 

But no one in the organization anticipated the struggles we’ve seen from Super Bowl MVP Nick Foles and the offense. Thursday, instead of taking steps forward, Foles & Co. regressed.

No one could explain a first-half performance that featured two Foles interceptions, a fumble, a safety, a turnover on downs, and a fumble by running back Matt Jones.

“It’s not fun playing the way I did. I really hurt us tonight,” Foles admitted after the game.

And exiting halftime, Pederson vented to Fox reporter Erin Andrews about Foles, saying, “I don’t know (what’s wrong with him). It’s very disappointing. He was calm before this game, I thought he would settle in. Not the case.”

But Pederson had cooled off for his postgame press conference saying, “First of all, I’m disappointed in the offense. I don’t want to single out one player, so don’t put this all on Nick. I’m disappointed in the offense. It’s obviously not what you want in the third preseason week.”

MORE NFL:

Again, it’s important to remember that it’s the preseason, where teams do little game-planning and studying of an opponent, and play-callers keep their schemes simple. And five would-be starters (quarterback Carson Wentz, running back Jay Ajayi, receivers Alshon Jeffery and Nelson Agholor and left tackle Jason Peters) did not suit up. There was so much shuffling that left guard Isaac Seumalo also wound up lining up at center, left tackle and tight end during the first half.

But it’s how the Eagles played — and have played throughout the preseason – that proved concerning and frustrating for Pederson. Tight end Zach Ertz said it best when he said, “everyone is pressing.”

That’s not good. Throughout their improbable run to the Super Bowl, the Eagles were as loose a team as the postseason has ever seen. They donned rubber dog masks, embracing their underdog billing. They danced, they rapped and sang, and on the field they flew around on defense and on offense. They generated fireworks, running all kinds of creative plays.

But now that they’re pressing, the Eagles are playing into the skepticism that numerous league insiders had about them entering this season.

How would this team handle prosperity? Will these players, most of whom had never experienced postseason success, manage to maintain the same kind of hunger post-Super Bowl? Can they maintain the same high level of play under the weight of expectations?

Perhaps the Eagles will flip the switch once back to full strength on their Sept. 6 season opener against Atlanta. But much work — as much mental as physical — lies ahead in a short amount of time.

Meanwhile, it feels like the Browns have already flipped their switch. This doesn’t feel like the train wreck of a team from the last two years (1-15 in 2016, 0-16 last year). The perception has changed thanks to the credibility new general manager John Dorsey, his staff, and plentiful talent acquisitions now offer.

The offense on Thursday lacked the consistency that we’ve seen the first two weeks of the preseason, but quarterbacks Tyrod Taylor and Baker Mayfield, wide receiver Jarvis Landry and running backs Carlos Hyde and Nick Chubb still flashed.

One NFC scout attending the game offered his take on the new-look Browns, saying, “There’s a lot of talent across the board here now. They’ll be able to hurt you in a lot of ways.”

And to go with all that offensive talent, the Browns have a defense seemingly primed for a sizable leap. Through three games, the defensive starters have yielded no touchdowns and just one field goal. Thursday represented a continuation of the preseason dominance.

Second-year pass-rusher Myles Garrett with his two sacks (one for the safety), three tackles and two quarterback pressures is primed for a dominant run, and his teammates, both on the front end and the secondary are playing with a new confidence.

Garrett and safety Jabrill Peppers say the attitude and aggression with which their unit is now playing stems from the comfort they have in their second season under defensive coordinator Gregg Williams. This year, Williams has been less restrictive of his players. He has given them more freedom in the scheme, and now that they are playing more instinctively, the impact has intensified.

But how do we know this apparent ascension is real and not just preseason fool’s gold?

“It’s just a different vibe that we’re playing with,” defensive lineman Larry Ogunjobi said. “We’re way more confident.”

Explained Garrett, “You know it’s real because those guys aren’t playing around. They want to win as much as us, and even though it’s just one half, they’re giving their all, and so are we. I don’t think we’ve ever held anybody to zero, and they didn’t have some of their starters, but it was an impressive showing by the defense to hold them out of the end zone, and not even give up a field goal, whether it’s preseason or regular season, and I know we can improve.”

Follow USA TODAY Sports’ Mike Jones on Twitter @ByMikeJones.

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Belgian Grand Prix first and second practice – Live – BBC Sport

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For kids of a certain era, Windows 95 was part of our first experience with computers. 

If the relatively ancient operating system still holds a special place in your heart, you’ll be glad to know that it’s available as an app for Mac, Windows and Linux.

Put together by Slack dev Felix Rieseberg, the 129mb file downloadable from GitHub allows you to reminisce on the old days of MS Paint and wasting time on Solitaire. 

The operating system is encased in electron, a framework for building cross-platform apps with HTML and CSS. 

There are, of course, some things that don’t work. Minesweeper doesn’t really let you do the sweeping, and Internet Explorer won’t let you surf the net — as it simply doesn’t connect to the web.

As Rieseberg suggests, if you were hoping to run Doom, you’re probably better off doing it through an actual virtualization app, but it surprisingly does work. He admits it only worked well “by accident and was mostly a joke.” 

The app still seems to work better than the Windows 95 copy installed on an Apple Watch, which takes about an hour to run.

As you’d figure, running Windows 95 these days is mostly just for a laugh.

[h/t The Verge]

Editors, USA TODAY
Published 3:33 a.m. ET Aug. 24, 2018

Hawaiian officials face questions as Hurricane Lane approaches

With Hurricane Lane already battering the islands with heavy rains and flooding, Hawaiian officials are facing questions as the full storm begins to heavily impact the island on Friday. The category 3 storm has dumped as much as 20 inches of rain in some areas, closing schools and highways “out of an abundance of caution.” Shelter space set off alarm bells in an area not used to dealing with such huge storms, though officials say it’s expected to be able to house all who need it. Only three hurricanes have made landfall in Hawaii since 1950. Lane’s projected route may keep it just off the islands 

Election board to vote over poll closures in mostly black Georgia county

The election board in a predominately black county in Georgia will hold a vote Friday on whether to close seven of its nine polling sites, a proposal that has galvanized national civil rights and voting rights groups. State and national civil rights groups say they’re concerned about efforts to suppress black voter turnout for the midterms and key gubernatorial races. Randolph County election officials say the proposed closures are because the sites don’t comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.Democratic nominee Stacey Abrams could make history as the first African-American woman governor in the country if she wins in November, and she has focused on a grassroots get-out-the-vote campaign targeting blacks, who traditionally tend to support Democratic candidates. Both Abrams and Republican challenger Brian Kemp have called for officials to drop the plan. 

Samsung’s Galaxy Note 9 smartphone hits stores

Electronics giant Samsung launches its latest smartphone, the Galaxy Note 9. The smartphone line which captured consumers’ attention with significantly larger touchscreens compared to standard phones, will introduce several new features to Note9, including longer battery life, a Bluetooth-enabled stylus, and a camera option alerting users when someone in the picture blinks. The smartphone will be available at all four major wireless carriers: AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon.

Cigna to vote on $54 billion deal to acquire Express Scripts

Shareholders of health insurer Cigna are scheduled to vote on a $54 billion deal  to acquire pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts during a special meeting Friday. The deal comes during a period of consolidation in the health sector. Last year, CVS Health, which already owns Express Scripts rival Caremark, revealed it was acquiring insurer and Cigna rival Aetna. Some healthcare leaders have blamed pharmacy benefit managers as a driver of steep drug prices, saying the sector’s role in the distribution of medicine and management of drug benefits is an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.

Fed chair set to speak after Trump’s criticism of rate hikes 

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is set to speak about the economy and interest rate policy at the Fed’s annual conference in Jackson Hole, Wyo., Friday. The speech comes after President Donald Trump broke with tradition and openly criticized Fed officials for raising rates and warned it will hurt the economy. The Fed’s policymaking committee has increased rates twice in 2018 and forecast two more bumps this year and three in 2019. The Fed didn’t comment directly about the president’s remarks, but Powell earlier said: “We have a long tradition here of conducting policy in a particular way, and that way is independent of all political concerns.” 

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HONOLULU, Hawaii — Hurricane Lane weakened late Thursday to a Category 3 hurricane as it continued its pass by the Hawaiian Islands. Even so, flooding, high winds and landslides remained a major concern.

The greatest threat of rain and wind has shifted to the islands of Maui and Oahu through Friday, the National Weather Service said, with winds as high as 120 mph a possibility.

More: Shelter shortage? Hawaiian officials face questions as Hurricane Lane approaches

Related: As Hurricane Lane approaches Hawaii, Kilauea volcano simmers down

The hurricane began to pass to the west of the Big Island of Hawaii on Thursday and, by 5 p.m. local time, the NWS had downgraded the danger level for the area to a tropical storm warning.

Five people had to be rescued from a flooded house in Hilo on the east side of the island of Hawaii on Thursday. Two campers who were trapped overnight in the Waipio Valley had to be rescued by helicopter.

The storm was still some 250 miles from the island of Oahu, and the state capitol Honolulu, and both Oahu and Maui were still under a hurricane warnings late Thursday night local time

Lane’s center is predicted to move over or dangerously near the island on Friday.

‘A new experience’

At 4 p.m. Thursday, officials activated emergency siren systems on Oahu to provide an additional hurricane warning. 

The eerie wail of the sirens blasted through Honolulu on a somewhat windy but still warm and inviting afternoon. The streets near Waikiki Beach were full of tourists busily taking pictures in front of high waves and the Weather Channel team that had set up on the beach in front of the Hilton Hawaii Village. 

Most took the extreme weather event in stride. 

“It’s a new experience; I never expected to live through a hurricane,” said Kelly Scholten of Waupun, Wisconsin. She and her daughters had walked from the hotel to take photos of the increasingly high waves crashing into the seawall hear Waikiki Beach. 

“Our hotel, the Ilikai, has been really good. We reserved three more nights in case our plane can’t get out on Saturday. But they said if we could get out earlier they wouldn’t charge us. And they’ve been keeping us really up to date with the storm. We even get messages about it slipped under our door,” Scholten said.  

Hurricane Honeymoon

A couple from Australia who’d planned their dream wedding in Hawaii had slightly different nuptials than planned — though they seemed undaunted by the experience Thursday night as they walked to the beach to take photos just after their hurried wedding.

“We definitely did not expect this. It was a bit touch-and-go,” said Jayde Dixon, 25.

“Our ceremony was supposed to happen at 5 o’clock at a chapel across town. But then last night they rang us up and said they were moving the whole thing to 3 to be safe. And moving it to the Hilton where we’re staying.”

The couple, from Townsville, Australia, had 15 friends and family with them. 

“Not sure when they’ll get home. They were supposed to fly out tomorrow but now they’re staying,” because their flights have been cancelled, said Jamie Dixon, 28.

The newlyweds are staying in Hawaii for their honeymoon and were looking forward to it. 

“As long as the wedding happened in Hawaii, the rest doesn’t matter,” said Jamie.

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Manager Steven Gerrard says he maybe “expects too much, too soon” from his Rangers side as they stand on the brink of the Europa League group stage.

The Ibrox club’s 1-0 win over Russian side FC Ufa in Glasgow puts them in the driving seat to clinch continental competition until at least Christmas.

But despite Gerrard’s team now being undefeated in his opening 10 games in charge, he still wants more.

“I was disappointed in our first-half showing,” he told RangersTV.

“I just felt that we were a gear down today, a little bit flat. But maybe I’m expecting too much, too soon because the players have spoilt me.”

The victory over European debutants Ufa was Rangers’ sixth of the season and fifth in European competition.

It is a trend Gerrard is confident can continue in the second leg next Thursday, but the Rangers manager says his team will still go out to clinch a vital away goal.

“I’ve got belief and confidence in my players that we can go and finish the job off,” he added. “We need a performance full of heroes and warriors next week.

“We’ll do whatever it takes to try and get over the line, whether that’s another clean sheet or having people on the pitch who are capable of getting that away goal.

“I believe if we get another goal it’ll be a big task for them.”

Sea ice north of Greenland is usually frozen year-round, and scientists believed it would stay that way longer than virtually anywhere else in the Arctic. That’s why some are so surprised — and concerned — that the region has thawed multiple times this year.

The ice is some of the oldest and thickest in the Arctic, according to reporting by CNN and The Guardian. But scientists have observed something unusual this year: Miles of open water.

The geography of the area usually helps to pack the ice and keep it from melting. The ice smashes up against Greenland’s coast, at times piling 70 feet high, CNN reports.

The trend is so strong that the region has commonly been called “the last ice area,” The Guardian reports. 

“This was the area that was seen as the last bastion,” Walt Meier, a research scientist with the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center, told CNN. Even as Arctic ice melting increases, scientists thought the region would remain stable longer than anywhere else, he said.

The melts have occurred twice this year — once in February and again in August, The Guardian reports. Winds and unusually warm weather have pushed the ice off Greenland’s coast further than it’s ever been observed, since satellite records began in the 1970s, the publication says. 

One scientist called the phenomenon “scary” in a Aug. 13 tweet. Thomas Lavergne, a scientist with the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, commented that the open water was “still there” and moving westward.

The unusual melt is another example of a concerning trend in Greenland: Between 1995 and 2017, about 4,000 gigatons of ice in Greenland has been lost. That’s about as much water as there is in Lake Michigan. 

Scientists say sunnier summer days have contributed to the large ice melt, which is helping to raise sea levels worldwide.

Contributing: Doyle Rice, USA TODAY.

 

 

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Rep. Al Green stood in front of hundreds of people and told them he wants to see President Donald Trump removed from office. 

Green, a Democrat representing the 9th Congressional District of Houston, was the first member of Congress to call for the impeachment of President Donald Trump in the U.S House of Representatives, according to a news release. 

He spoke to a crowd inside the Richard Borchard Fairgrounds in Robstown during the Nueces County Democratic Party dinner Thursday.

Several Nueces County judges, District Attorney Mark Gonzalez, congressional candidate Eric Holguin and mayoral candidate Ray Madrigal De Pancho Villa were among the crowd. 

More: Dan McQueen, newcomer Michael Hall announce bids for Corpus Christi mayor on last filing day

Green touched on issues concerning South Texas residents he spoke to just before his speech, he said. 

Among them were the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance policy” on illegal immigration, health care and minimum wage increases.

“Where do you stand when you’ve got a president who institutes a policy of this kind to deter people from coming to this country?” Green said. “I stand with those babies, I stand with those mothers. And I stand for the impeachment of an unfit president.”

Green first called for Trump’s impeachment in December 2017. Green and 57 other members of Congress were the first to vote to proceed with debate for Trump’s impeachment. 

The second time came after Trump made comments about African and Caribbean countries in January. Green and 65 others voted to proceed with debate on impeachment, the release states. 

More: U.N., African countries blast Trump’s ‘racist’ words in angry global backlash

In that instance, reports circulated saying Trump, meeting with several lawmakers to discuss immigration, questioned why the United States would accept more immigrants from Haiti and “sh—— countries” in Africa rather than places like Norway, according to USA Today.

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