The senator has been battling cancer for over a year and has now decided to cease treatment.
Trump financial chief ‘given immunity’
The Trump Organization’s chief financial officer got immunity from prosecution in a probe into lawyer Michael Cohen – US media.
The 19 Weirdest Monsters In The Original Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers
These are even crazier than you remember.
The Power Rangers had it rough. Every week on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the “teenagers with attitudes” recruited by the big floating head Zordon had to face down a giant monster that threatened to destroy their relatively nondescript California town of Angel Grove.
In just about every episode, the formula was the same. The teenagers found themselves attacked by some monster sent from the moon by the constantly screaming Rita Repulsa and her goons, in her continuing attempt to conquer Earth. They’d use their dinosaur-based Mighty Morphin powers to become the Power Rangers and wail on the monster, and then Rita would use her magic scepter to make the monster get Godzilla-huge. The Rangers met giant monsters with giant robots, calling out their prehistoric creature-themed Zords, and then eventually combined them together to create the Megazord robot and finally make the monster explode.
Doing all that karate and robot-driving was a tough job, but one person might have had a tougher one at the start of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Finster. Though he wasn’t a fighter himself, his role in service of Rita Repulsa was to create those all various monsters in hopes of finally getting the Power Rangers out of the way. Finster’s monsters ran the gamut of themes and powers–he was constantly anthropomorphizing stuff, drawing on things like scary animals, plants, and objects, and turning them into Ranger-fighting villains with tons of goofy gimmicks.
It didn’t take long for Finster (as well as other monster-making henchmen, and later, Lord Zedd) to start scraping the bottom of the idea barrel, though. The show might have started out with cool monsters like a minotaur, a sphinx, a skeleton, and “what if a lizard man made of snakes,” but it quickly devolved to the level of “what if Kimberly’s purse, but with legs.” Clearly, it’s difficult to come up with endless creative creatures you can send to murder superpowered teenagers and fight their mechanical dinosaurs.
The fact that Power Rangers was made by adding American actors to footage from Japanese TV shows didn’t help in the realm of “things making sense.” There are some pretty out there explanations for a lot of these monsters–sometimes thanks to American writers making up scenarios to stick them into, and sometimes because the show didn’t bother and just completely adapted the source material for its American audience.
In honor of the 25th anniversary of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the series that started the Power Ranger phenomenon that continues to this day, we’re taking a look back at the strangest, most ridiculous, and most awkward creatures the original three seasons of the show dreamed up. And don’t miss our gallery of every Megazord in the show’s history.
1. Turkey Jerk
Appearance: Season 2, Episode 48–Storybook Rangers, Part 1
A Thanksgiving-themed episode needs a Thanksgiving-themed monster. It’s not like the Power Rangers could have fought sentient cranberry sauce or something.
Actually, we should check that they never fought sentient cranberry sauce.
2. Mr. Ticklesneezer
Appearance: Season 1, Episode 9–For Whom The Bell Trolls
This little guy is just weird. He was a toy that belonged to Trini that the bad guys brought to life, but despite looking frightening and weird, he was actually a pretty nice guy. At the end of an episode about him stealing life-sized stuff like planes and cars and shrinking it down to keep in bottles, he even gave everything back. And then he turned out to be just Trini’s dream and not a monster at all.
3. Frankenstein’s Monster
Appearance: Season 1, Episode 25–Life’s a Masquerade
Frankenstein’s Monster is a legit monster in pop culture, so having him fight the Power Rangers is only a slightly weird idea (after all, Scooby Doo and his gang faced him once). What’s strange is this monster’s getup. He’s basically just a guy with a pair of shoulder pads and a hat painted gray on his head. That’s surprisingly low effort even for Power Rangers.
4. Pudgy Pig
Appearance: Season 1, Episode 6–Food Fight
OK, pig-themed monster who eats stuff–the logic follows. Except Pudgy Pig is just the head of a pig, with no body, but legs, and feet sticking out of his mouth. Plus he wears a huge Roman centurion helmet, for no apparent reason.
5. Goo Fish
Appearance: Season 1, Episode 43–Something Fishy
Exactly what it sounds like: giant spiky creature. Spits sticky goo. You know, like a fish.
6. Crabby Cabbie
Appearance: Season 3, Episode 22–Follow That Cab
Lord Zedd turned an actual taxi cab into a monster, which, okay–we have Transformers movies. But who’s that weird little worm guy driving?
7. Artistmole
Appearance: Season 3, Episode 8–A Brush With Destiny
No fun pun here, just a straight-up description of a weird idea for a creature. The artist part comes from Kimberly’s dreams about becoming an artist. No idea why the mole, though.
8. Pursehead
Appearance: Season 2, Episode 19–Two for One
We weren’t kidding when we said one monster was literally a purse brought to life. Pursehead didn’t look anything like Kimberly’s purse that was transformed to make this creature, but hey, if children cared about continuity errors, they would definitely not be watching Power Rangers.
9. Key Monster
Appearance: Season 2, Episode 21–Zedd’s Monster Mash
Just a giant key, like, come on, guys.
10. Lipsyncher
Appearance: Season 2, Episode 19–Two for One
It’s a lipstick, but it’s a monster. The upshot here is that Lipsyncher’s creature design is actually pretty solid, giving it something of a Hellraiser vibe.
11. Babe Ruthless
Appearance: Season 1, Episode 32–A Star is Born
You know that scene in 30 Rock where Jack Donaghy tries to write sketches by coming up with catch phrases and working backwards? That scenario is our theory on how Babe Ruthless came to exist. It’s a baseball-themed, uh… Bigfoot? Werewolf? Anyway it makes no sense.
12. Brick Bully
Appearance: Season 3, Episode 27–Another Brick in the Wall
Literally just a brick wall that Rita Repulsa accidentally brought to life. Its reward for gaining sentience was being forced to dedicate its existence to–what else–murdering superpowered children.
13. Vase Face
Appearance: Season 2, Episode 52–Blue Ranger Gone Bad
The bad guys turn the clay vase Tommy made in art class into a guy. “Agh, my art project!” Tommy exclaims.
14. Pipebrain
Appearance: Season 2, Episode 14–Missing Green
A trophy that looks like pipes that came to life and became a monster. One might accuse this monster of being phoned-in, but Zedd probably would have gone with an actual phone, so maybe this was just an off day.
15. Tube Monster
Appearance: Season 2, Episode 38–A Reel Fish Story
It’s just Pipebrain again, but painted a different color. Maybe this was an episode that had to be made while the writers were on strike.
16. Oysterizer
Appearance: Season 1, Episode 60–An Oyster Stew
A lot of things that became monsters on Power Rangers aren’t intimidating. Oysterizer holds a special place on the show for being born from the least intimidating thing possible, while simultaneously turning into what might be the grossest creature. It is very, uh, fleshy.
17. Pumpkin Rapper
Appearance: Season 1, Episode 54–Trick or Treat
The name says it all, really. Creatures that rapped but were otherwise completely unrelated to rap came up a few times in Power Rangers episodes, actually–though that’s not especially surprising, given that it was the mid ’90s. Zack, the Black Ranger, also did a lot of breakdancing.
18. Pineoctopus
Appearance: Season 1, Episode 11–No Clowning Around
The logic here is really hard to follow. Pineoctopus adopts a human form to try to take down the Power Rangers at a carnival, posing as Pineapple the Clown, who is a regular clown. His plan: Use magic to turn the Rangers into cardboard cutouts, a thing he utterly fails to do (only Trini’s younger cousin gets transformed). That part’s confusing on its own, but later, he reveals his true form, which is a man-sized pineapple, apparently. Since no one is menaced by a pineapple, even an abnormally large one, he also gets octopus arms. So to recap: He’s a big pineapple; with octopus arms; who chose a completely unrelated clown disguise; to turn the Power Rangers into cardboard, of all things. Also, he was defeated by water.
19. See Monster
Appearance: Season 3, Episode 21–Changing of the Zords
Things with lots of eyes or that are made up of disembodied eyes are legitimately unsettling to a lot of people. What’s more unsettling, though, is that this guy is definitely a sex criminal–he’s a flasher, but what he flashes you with is his gross skinless body and many eyes. This thing is legitimately not appropriate for children.
FIFA 19: Pro Clubs And Career Mode Are Basically Unchanged, EA Confirms
Two of FIFA’s most popular modes will go practically unchanged this year, EA has confirmed. Some fans had been worried by EA focusing so heavily on the addition of the Champions League license to FIFA 19, with basically nothing said so far about Career Mode or Pro Clubs. Now, the company has confirmed to GameSpot that FIFA 19’s versions of Career Mode and Pro Clubs contain no major new features, with the bulk of new content this year coming in the way of the expanded Kick Off portion of the game.
“In terms of Career Mode, we decided to make sure the experience with the Champions League was 100% authentic,” FIFA 19’s lead gameplay producer, Sam Rivera, told GameSpot at Gamescom 2018. “When it’s Champions League day, everything changes–[there’s a] reskin. That was our highest priority.
“But we are listening to our fans. They’ve been requesting more stuff, bigger stuff, in terms of Career Mode [and] in terms of Pro Clubs. There’s discussions right now to see what can be added in the future. We know it’s a very passionate community. At the moment, that’s all we’re announcing for those modes. We are actively having conversations, listening to [the community] to see what else we can bring to those modes.”
When pressed on what would be coming to FIFA 19 specifically with regards to those modes, Rivera replied: “It’s mainly the Champions League integration.” Later in the interview, EA confirmed Champions League is not integrated into Pro Clubs, but that other licensed leagues are. More licenses, yet to be announced, will also come to both modes in the final game.
Following the interview, EA reached out to GameSpot to speak of three new features coming to Career Mode. Those three features are new locker room cutscenes, the integration of Ultimate difficulty (which was previously only available in Ultimate Team), and the addition of a star above your club badge if your team wins the Champions League. No new features of any kind were mentioned for Pro Clubs.
Elsewhere, FIFA 19 greatly expands Kick Off with the addition of persistent stat tracking, house rules (including a battle royale-like Survival Mode and a No Rules option), and tournament- and cup-specific graphical options. Ultimate Team, meanwhile, brings a new sub-mode named Division Rivals, while The Journey returns for its third year to tell the final chapter of Alex Hunter’s story. FIFA 19’s release date has been set for September 28 for PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch, PS3, and Xbox 360.
How Pokemon Cards are Made in 8 Steps
It takes an entire year from start to finish to publish a new set of the Pokemon Trading Card Game (TCG). The process, handled by Creatures, Inc., is involved and thorough. It’s all-hands-on-deck, as game data designers, illustrators, play testers, and even marketing personnel strive to create one of the most popular children’s toys in the world.
Creatures, Inc. works to incorporate new game mechanics and popular characters from the TV show to remain consistent with those two core pillars of the Pokemon brand, while also paying acute attention into the strategies of competitive players so that the game remains balanced and fresh. Sometimes, the way competitive players use cards entirely alter how the next expansion set is made.
Netflix’s New Supernatural Horror Series Feels Way Too Real
Ghoul, the second Netflix/Phantom Films collaboration after Sacred Games, brings aboard the folks at Blumhouse (Get Out, Insidious) for something spectacular. A horror story set several years in India’s future, the three-part miniseries presents a world in which outlawed books are burned, a la Ray Bradbury, and ordinary Muslim citizens are unjustly branded terrorists, a la… well, America, India, Myanmar, take your pick.
“Enhanced interrogation” officer Nida Rahim (Radhika Apte), a cog in this fascist regime, turns her own father over to the government for compliance training. His crime? Teaching his students philosophy from outside the state’s syllabus, an action deemed anti-national. This display of loyalty lands Nida an unexpected promotion to an anti-terrorist black site, an underground prison where terrorist mastermind Ali Saeed (Mahesh Balraj) is being shipped for torture. Unbeknownst to the folks in charge however, Saeed doesn’t show up alone. As he steps out of his transport van in the pouring rain, the barking guard dogs go eerily silent. Something ghastly is in the ether, and we may just end up siding with it.
Pokémon: Detective Pikachu Logo Revealed
Today, at the Pokémon World Championships in Nashville, TN, the official logo for the upcoming Pokémon: Detective Pikachu film was revealed, along with details about what fans can expect when the film releases next summer.
IGN’s Senior Editor of Comics, Joshua Yehl, is in attendance and shared a screenshot of the logo, and revealed that this will be the “first ever live-action Pokémon movie.”
In addition, the movie will “feature a battle between Pikachu and Charizard, and they prompted the crowd to chant for each Pokémon, shout “Critical hit!”, and cheers/boo – and they recorded it to use in the actual movie.”
Shigeru Miyamoto Criticises Free-to-Play Model
Nintendo developer, Shigeru Miyamoto, has criticised the free-to-play model, and says companies should “deliver games at reasonable prices” instead.
Miyamoto’s comments were made at the Computer Entertainment Developers Conference (CEDEC), with Bloomberg reporting that Miyamoto has said that Nintendo is doubling down on its “fixed-cost model” despite the lack of success with it so far.
“We’re lucky to have such a giant market, so our thinking is, if we can deliver games at reasonable prices to as many people as possible, we will see big profits,” Miyamoto said.
La Roux Bashes Fox Business For Using ‘Bulletproof’ In Armored Backpack Segment
“I have never, and would never approve my music to be used in this way.”
Prebuilt Gaming PCs Are On Sale
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Nvidia announced its next generation of graphics cards, the RTX 20 series. If you really can’t wait, the new RTX 20 series GPUs release date is September 20 and you can preorder the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, GeForce RTX 2080 and GeForce RTX 2070 founders’ editions directly from Nvidia. Walmart jumped ahead of today’s announcement by dropping the price on a whole bunch of prebuilt gaming PCs with GTX 10-series cards.
Sure, building your own massive gaming rig is rewarding and can be fun, but there’s no shame in a prebuilt PC. They’re built with the same components you’d likely use, and the days of weird, proprietary rigs with soldered-on components are pretty much behind us. These PCs are upgradable in the same way you could upgrade a custom-build, so if you don’t want to spend the time (or risk the headache of doing it yourself), this is a great way to dive head-first into the world of PC gaming.