The hotly contested debate splitting the nation about whether an audio clip is saying “Yanny” or “Laurel” all reportedly started with a Georgia high school student just trying to study.

Flowery Branch High School freshman Katie Hetzel was prepping for her world literature course on Friday when she needed to learn the definition of “laurel,” she told tech magazine, Wired. She searched for the word on Vocabulary.com, but when she played the pronunciation recording, she thought she was actually hearing “yanny,” she said.

Before eventually sharing it on Instagram, Hetzel told the outlet that she played the baffling recording for some of her friends, but they “all heard mixed things.”

Another student, Fernando Castro, told Wired that he later shared the video on his own social media page and added the poll.

YANNY OR LAUREL? INTERNET SPLIT ON WHAT NAME THEY HEAR IN AUDIO CLIP

"She recorded it and put it on her story then I remade the video and posted it," Castro said. "Katie and I have been going back and forth and we both agree that we had equal credit on it."

The video then reportedly got added to Reddit by one of Castro’s friends, who goes by the username RolandCamry before it was seen by Twitter user Cloe Feldman. And from there, social media history was made.

Marc Tinkler, chief technology officer and co-founder of Vocabulary.com, told Wired that the widely disputed recording is actually audio of a real person saying the word, “laurel.” And that person, he said, “is a member of the original cast of CATS on Broadway.”

Tinkler told the outlet that upon starting the website, they “hired a bunch of opera singers to record 200,000 words,” because they needed people that could articulate words well and were able to read the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Opera singers fit the bill, he said, as they need to be able to perform songs that are written in languages they may not be able to speak.

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"We set [the singers] up with laptops with really great microphones in a DIY sound booth,” Tinkler told Wired. “They would just sit there and a word would appear on the screen and they would say it. They did this thousands of times."

Since the start of the internet craze, Vocabulary.com on Wednesday tweeted to “#TeamYanny,” saying that they “decided that #yanny needed its own definition.”

So now according to the website, the meaning of yanny is, “a word or phrase that is capable of distracting the entire internet for at least 24 hours.”

“When you ‘drop a yanny,’ you start a contentious debate on some type of public forum.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu showed off his chicken dance skills with Israeli singer Netta Barzilai in celebration of her recent Eurovision Song Contest victory. Netanyahu tweeted a video of himself and Barzilai flapping their arms in unison Wednesday.

Israel came out on top out of 25 other competing countries, which participated in the "Grand Final" of the competition held in Lisbon. 

Barzilai snagged first prize with her song "Toy," which fans dubbed the "chicken song" due to the singer's wild dance moves and clucking noises she made throughout the performance. It was meant to be a nod to the #MeToo movement, according to The Times of Israel.

"Thank you so much for choosing different. Thank you so much for accepting differences between us. Thank you for celebrating diversity. Thank you. I love my country!" Barzilai told screaming fans while accepting her trophy on May 12.

Netanyahu got a kick out of the colorful act, tweeting his support for the singer.

"Netta, you're a real sweetheart. You have brought much respect for the state of Israel! Next year in Jerusalem!" Netanyahu wrote in a tweet, noting that Israel will be hosting the contest next year.

The next day, Netanyahu was caught on camera imitating Barzilai's moves on his way to a cabinet meeting. The prime minister paused, moved his arms up and down and flashed a smile before walking away from reporters.

He later opened his meeting with the phrase “boker toy," instead of his usual “boker tov” (good morning), The Times of Israel added.

"These days, Jerusalem is blessed with many gifts,” Netanyahu said Sunday, according to the Israeli newspaper. “We received another one yesterday evening, with Netta’s suspenseful and shining victory. The gift was that Eurovision will be coming to Jerusalem next year, and we are proud to be hosting it.”

Netanyahu greeted Barzilai in person Wednesday, shaking her hand and congratulating her on the catchy tune. The pair even performed a small part of the epic dance together, which Netanyahu shared on Twitter with a chicken emoji and the Israeli flag.

A social media video of a man yelling racist comments at two females in an eatery at lunch time has gone viral.

The video, alleged to be of a Manhattan lawyer, has been viewed more than 2 million times. In the video, the man berates two females at the eatery for speaking Spanish.

"Every person I listen to—he's speaking it, she's speaking it. This is America," the man says in the video. The eatery has been identified on social media as Fresh Kitchen on Madison Avenue, near 39th Street.

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After being confronted by a manager, the man continued: "Your clients and your staff are speaking Spanish to staff when they should be speaking English...My guess is they're undocumented, so my next call is to ICE to have each one of them taken out of my country. If they have the balls to come here and live off my money—I pay for their welfare. I pay for their ability to be here."

Edward Suazo posted the video and described the situation in a Facebook post, detailing that his wife and her best friend were buying lunch, started speaking Spanish to the waiter when the man went off. 

"They where on there lunch time and ordering there food and just because they where speaking in Spanish to the waiter this asshole jumps in and started to call the waiter and my wife and her best friend all types of names and threatened to call I.C.E on them and the employees !!!!," Suazo wrote on Facebook.

He continued: "What a big man talking down to couple of women and a helpless employee. I wish someone tells me I can’t speak in my native language ! First of all they wasn’t talking to you!! A-----e!"

Multiple calls and emails to the law office of the man who is alleged to be in the video were not returned. 

Follow Chris Ciaccia on Twitter @Chris_Ciaccia

 

The internet was seemingly split Tuesday when a circulating audio clip asked listeners to choose: Do they hear "Yanny?" Or "Laurel?"

Twitter user Cloe Feldman first posted the clip online Monday night. It's a recording of a computerized voice saying one of the two names.

And, in the words of Houston Texan JJ Watt, "Yanny vs. Laurel is starting some real fights," as social media users continue to debate which name they heard.

"My wife heard yanny. I hear laurel," wrote Ryan Switzer. "How is it possible that people can hear one word or the other? What’s the science behind that?"

"If you hear Yanny and not Laurel I don't trust you," user Quincy Quarter-Zips tweeted.

"HOW DOES ANYONE HEAR LAUREL ITS YANNY," Twitter user zaynilla added.

Sports writer Ted Berg wrote "there's no way anyone could hear that as Yanny," and "anyone who says they do is lying for shock value."

Any while most listeners were divided on if they heard "Yanny" or "Laurel," some people said they heard both after multiple listens.

"Watched this for 5 min and heard yanny...watched it 5 min later and I hear laurel. This is a case for the FBI," one Twitter user wrote.

David Monahan said the audio clip "was Yanny when I listened on my computer and Laurel on my phone..."

The debate rings similar to that of "the dress" from the early months of 2015. Some people saw a gold and white striped dress in a now viral photo, while others saw the colors blue and black.

An Arizona family filmed a remarkable video that showed a dog save his buddy who fell into a pool and struggled to get out.

Smokey and Remus, the dog buddies, were reportedly getting "rambunctious" earlier this month at their home in Mesa, Ariz. And at some point, Smokey fell into the family pool.

The dog is seen struggling to get out while Remus was pacing along the side.

After a few unsuccessful attempts to get the dog out of the water, Remus can be seen jumps into the pool to give his buddy a nudge.

The incredible video was captured by Laurie and her husband Jay Becerra on security camera, KSAT.com reported.

"So Remus and Smokey got a little rambunctious. Smokey can swim just not well," Laurie wrote on social media. "Jay recorded this off our security camera when he saw Smokey all wet! 

She praised "hero" dog Remus, saying though he may be "a crazy pup he's got a heart of gold." 

Do you recognize a-me? It's Mario!

A tweet showing a hairless version of the iconic Nintendo character Mario has sparked more than 145,000 retweets and 142,000 likes as of Monday afternoon.

In the photo, Mario lacks his signature mustache, as well as his eyebrows and dark hair.

The image has prompted a wave of reactions from fellow Twitter users. 

“You’ve cursed me with this image,” one user wrote.

“He looks like powder,” another said, making a reference to the title character from the 1995 movie of the same name.

In one tweet, a user compared him to actor Michael Chiklis. 

One user simply tweeted: “Nightmares.”

Another added, “Terrifying.”

"Makes me wanna burn my eyeballs tbh," one user echoed.

Other users shared gifs in reaction to the new look. 

One user attempted to fix the problem by doing some Photoshopping of his own — and sharing several different looks.

This student gets an A for audacity.

A Texas teacher asked students at a career education center Tuesday to pick a Marvel comics character, then create a resume and cover letter for that character, as part of a job-search exercise.

One student took a unique approach.

The student chose Groot, the “Guardians of the Galaxy” hero known mostly for repeating the line: “I am Groot.”

So the resume and cover letter the student submitted contained nothing but the phrase "I am Groot" over and over again.

When the submission was posted online, it went viral.

The student received a 95 out of 100 because of his creativity, Jeff Davis, a teacher at Wichita Falls Independent School District, told the Times Record News.

“The idea that you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take lives within one particular student of mine,” Davis wrote on Facebook.

"I think that it going viral is something that is pretty cool," he continued. "Some friends of mine that live in other states have told me how they heard about it on the news and how it seems kind of surreal to know someone that was a part of something so popular."

Davis said he never thought the post would go viral. It received more than 63,000 reactions and 174,000 shares on Facebook as of early Friday.

The teacher also said another student took on the role as Daredevil – “A blind lawyer by day, crime fighter by night.”

"The resume was turned in, written in normal Times New Roman print, but there was another attachment that the student changed to represent the braille dots," he told the newspaper.

The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources on Wednesday asked its social media followers to identify a fish with “humanlike incisors.”

The department posted a riddle to its Facebook page, which reads: “You’ll need a saltwater fishing license to catch me! I like to hang out near rocks, jetties, reefs, and even bridges ... The coolest thing about me? I have human-like incisors and molars to help crush my food. I like shrimp and oysters just like you do!”

Many people commented that the toothy fish appears to be a sheepshead, which is also known as a convict fish because its black and white stripes resemble a convict’s jail attire.

“My favorite fish to eat .. but they kinda give me the creeps with their people teeth,” one Facebook user wrote.

“Didn't know sheepshead had teeth like a horse,” wrote another.

“Sheepshead! It always cracks me up,” a third commented.

A sheepshead is also “a type of saltwater fish famed for having a crushing, painful bite when humans grab it the wrong way,” the Charlottesville Observer reported. It allegedly got its name because its teeth look like a sheep’s.

The fish are typically found along the east coast of the U.S., but also in the Gulf of Mexico.

The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources has yet to confirm the fish’s species, however.

The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources on Wednesday asked its social media followers to identify a fish with “human-like incisors.”

The department posted a riddle to its Facebook page, which reads: “You’ll need a saltwater fishing license to catch me! I like to hang out near rocks, jetties, reefs, and even bridges. I’m also known as the convict fish because of my black and white stripes. The coolest thing about me? I have human-like incisors and molars to help crush my food. I like shrimp and oysters just like you do!”

Many people commented that the toothy fish appears to be a sheepshead, which is also known as a convict fish because its black and white stripes resemble a convict’s jail attire.

“My favorite fish to eat .. but they kinda give me the creeps with their people teeth,” one Facebook user wrote.

“Didn't know sheepshead had teeth like a horse,” wrote another.

“Sheepshead! It always cracks me up,” a third commented.

A sheepshead is also “a type of saltwater fish famed for having a crushing, painful bite when humans grab it the wrong way,” the Charlottesville Observer reported. It allegedly got its name because its teeth look like a sheep’s.

The fish are typically found along the east coast of the U.S., but also in the Gulf of Mexico.

The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources has yet to confirm the fish’s species, however.

A bizarre YouTube video posted by conspiracy theory channel SecureTeam10 has gone viral as it purportedly shows a UFO sucking energy from a lightning bolt.

The video, entitled "They Dwell in the Lightning," appears to show an object in the sky near a lightning bolt in the Czech Republic. The video was posted 5 days ago and has already racked up nearly 500,000 views.

The herky-jerky footage purportedly shows a "triangular-shaped UFO" following the lightning bolt with ease. Commenters on the video are mixed about what they are seeing, with some claiming it is indeed a UFO, while others believe it's a hoax.

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[T]they" are clearly recharging their "batteries" using natural sources of lightning's energy.," one commenter wrote.

"Aliens aren't real, they were invented by Hollywood in the 40's.," another wrote.

Several even made references to the "Back to the Future" movies because of a bolt of lightning provided energy to Marty McFly's car. "Doc Brown did it in back to the future, now aliens using bolts to power their vehicles," one commenter wrote.

SecureTeam10, which has its videos narrated by "Tyler Glockner," is known for posting conspiracy theory videos.

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In the past, the YouTube channel has posted videos purporting to contain an "alien tank" found on the Moon and a giant hole found on Mars could be the work of aliens.

Neither of these instances has ever been confirmed by NASA or any other government agency.

As the world still reels from the unprecedented box office hit “Avengers: Infinity War,” one key cog in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) machine had to apologize to fans for literally making them cry with one heartbreaking tweet.

[SPOILER ALERT: The remainder of this article will discuss the ending of “Infinity War.”]

The film, which is technically a sequel to 18 others under the Marvel Studios banner, brought together superheroes from all walks of life only to bring most of them to the same place by the film’s end - death. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re probably aware that most of the heroes that make up the MCU were killed by Thanos in the final moments of “Infinity War.”

While the loss of characters like Spider-Man and Black Panther was devastating to most fans, it was the loss of Groot and his close friend Rocket’s reaction that stuck with so many fans. For those unfamiliar, Groot is an alien that’s essentially a living tree introduced in “Guardians of the Galaxy.” He was a fully-grown man in the first film, but sacrificed himself in order to save his cohorts. His son was adopted by the Guardians, but met his end when Thanos wiped out half of the universe's existence.

His big claim to fame is the fact that he’s only capable of saying three words, “I am Groot,” that other characters can inexplicably understand as full English sentences. As he vanished in “Infinity War,” he spoke his trademark line to Rocket. That’s when “Guardians” director James Gunn took to Twitter to reveal to a fan what Groot’s last line meant.

“Dad.”

That’s right, in his final moments, he not only called Rocket his father, but called for a parental figure out of fear for what was happening. Marvel fans did not take this news lightly, with some even reporting to the director that the reveal made them shed legitimate tears for the fictional character. This prompted Gunn to issue an apology on Twitter to all the Marvel fans he affected.

“I knew my answer to the spoiler question last night was touching and sad, but I really did not expect to wake up to so many tweets of people telling me they’re crying,” he wrote. “Sorry for that if you’re at work or whatever. But it means a lot to me you love the characters as much as I do.”

Fortunately, fans far and wide speculate that Groot and the other characters lost to Thanos will not be gone for long as the untitled “Avengers 4” hits theaters in 2019 and several of the characters have been confirmed for new standalone movies.

The annual Met Gala is a chance for Hollywood elite to come to New York City and show off some of the most opulent fashion of the season. In 2018, however, the stars pushed the envelope trying to be on the event’s “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination” theme.

The event showcased an exhibition of items from the Vatican and other Catholic-inspired artistic items. To keep up with what the stars would be seeing inside the ultra-private event, they were asked to arrive in garb that showcased the imagination of the Catholic Church. However, some stars may have taken the theme a bit too far into the land of bad taste.

Stars like Katy Perry, Rihanna, Sarah Jessica Parker and Andy Cohen arrived in over-the-top looks that capitalized on familiar imagery from the Church.

Rihanna kicked off the night, arriving first in a short white dress and hat similar to the one worn by the pope in public.

Perry arrived soon after, dressed in angel wings and posed for photos on the red carpet kneeling in a prayer position. Parker and Cohen arrived together in matching gold, with the “Sex and the City” star adorned in Sacred Hearts. Meanwhile, “Ladybird” director Greta Gerwig turned heads again in a thick and bloated outfit inspired by the typical garb a nun would wear. While these stars stood out among the cavalcade of celebrities supporting the theme, the red carpet event was rife with crosses, rosary beads and other religious imagery designed to turn heads and be provocative on the red carpet.

While the theme was meant to be controversial, many were quick to note how offensive they found the entire theme on social media.

“The met gala theme is lowkey disrespectful to the catholic religion, let’s be real,” one user wrote.

“Imagine using my religion to do your fashion show… disgusting!” another said.

“Surprised people aren’t calling out the #metgala #MetHeavenlyBodies for being offensive to Catholics….but if it was another religion everyone would be up in arms,” a third user noted.

The Gala, held each year, is a fundraising effort with all proceeds going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, which is the only curatorial department at the museum that funds itself. This isn’t a difficult task given that tickets to the event can cost $30,000 each, with a table running $275,000.