I’ve always prided myself on being able to keep up with the latest Internet trends, but since early 2025, I’ve been seeing one that has utterly bewildered me. By now, you’ve probably seen it on your Twitter (X) or TikTok feeds—Westerners attempting, with various degrees of seriousness, to “become Chinese.”

It is not much of a stretch to say that marijuana is the most popular it has ever been in the United States. Though cannabis remains federally illegal, the Department of Justice began the process of removing cannabis from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, meaning that it will

Background: During the final days of 2025, the Iranian currency, the rial, collapsed amid severe international sanctions, plunging the country’s economy into uncharted territory. Iranians responded by protesting en masse across all 31 provinces, with economic anxieties mixing with general discontent at the oppressive Islamic Republic regime that has governed

Only a dumb-dum wouldn’t enjoy a Dum-Dum, right? The Hoot staff certainly thinks so; however, which flavor is superior? One of the beautiful qualities of these lollipops, after all, is the wide array of flavors to choose from. What will our editor’s favorite flavors say about them? How many dumb-dums

If, for some reason, any of my readers still have an X (Twitter) account, they might have noticed the new capabilities of Grok, the X A.I. model. On the first release of this new X-rated update, the abilities were available to all X users. These capabilities included being able to

When Charlie Kirk was murdered on Sept. 10 of last year, I expected reactions ranging from grief and fury to righteous justice and jubilation. What I did not expect was that, 12 days later, sitting down for a religious service on the Jewish New Year, I would hear a German