In May of 2011, Rob O’Neill and a group of America’s most experienced Navy SEALS embarked on Operation Neptune Spear. After giving the go ahead from Obama and the U.S. Military, the team flew to Pakistan where Bin Laden was hiding out in a highly secured compound. What happened next would change history forever and etch O’Neill into the history books as the man who put Bin Laden six feet under.
Watch as O’Neill sits down with Joe to discuss his incredible life story where he went from an unassuming kid from Montana to becoming one of the government’s most skilled assassins. Rob shares his experiences training as a SEAL, how it impacted his family life, the phenomenal missions he completed, and the psychological toll it took on him. Rob gives us full vulnerability as he shares his story of life, loss, and unrelenting drive to push past fear and towards victory.
This is the first installment of Humans, a new talk series where Joe interviews some of the most unique people in the world to shed light on their one in a million experiences. This is a big step away from the music industry and away from Joe Budden’s typical demographic. Humans aims to show viewers people with unbelievable stories that only they could live through.
South Korean pop stars BTS grabbed worldwide attention when they performed their hit single “Butter” at the 64th Grammy Awards ceremony on April 3, 2022, in Las Vegas, especially when band member V whispered something to Grammy winner Olivia Rodrigo as part of the setup for the performance.
While members of the BTS Army (what their rabid, mostly teenage online fans are called) are furious that BTS lost the Grammy for Best Pop Duo or Group Performance to Doja Cat and SZA, the group is likely more focused on a reminder from the Daily Mail that some of its members are staring down a military commitment in their home country.
Back in 2020, the South Korean national assembly passed a law that allowed members of the band to postpone their mandatory military service until age 30. That probably seemed like a sweet reprieve, but time is relentless. Now member Jin is set to turn 30 in December, and Suga will follow next March.
Gunn Kim, South Korea’s ambassador to Britain, tried to prepare the group’s fans for the future when he told The Sunday Times, “It is very much expected that young Korean men serve the country and those BTS members are role models for many young-generation Koreans. Most of our people expect that our members of BTS will fulfill their obligation as citizens of Korea. Eventually I think that will happen.”
Jin and Suga will be required to serve for at least 18 months, followed by J-Hope (now 28), RM (27), Jimin (26), V (26) and Jungkook (24). Once this cycle starts, the entire group may not be able to perform together for nearly a decade. Maybe the group’s representatives will be savvy enough to advise that all seven members do their service together and get the obligation taken care of as soon as possible.
Of course, anyone who’s entering the South Korean military has to accept the very real possibility of combat with North Korea, which claims to have test-fired a new long-range nuclear missile called the Hwasong-17. International observers have claimed that the test was actually the older Hwasong-15 but allow that the new missile could be ready soon.
However this plays out, BTS will be the biggest news in pop star military service since Pvt. Elvis Presley answered the U.S. Army’s call in 1958.
An uncanny, dark mass of an island on Google Earth made waves on social media as some users went wild with their imagination and suggested it was a “censored” destination.
The image of Vostok Island, an uninhabited coral island in the Pacific Ocean raised eyebrows after it was shared to a popular Reddit page about unusual Google Maps finds. The page boasts more than 40,0000 members who discuss strange discoveries on Google Maps, Google Earth, and Google Street View. Conspiracy theorists couldn’t help themselves speculate about the island, considering Google has been known to blur out sensitive locations including prisons, military bases, nuclear facilities, and other critical infrastructure sites, the New York Post reported.
It was Redditor Kokoblocks who first shared a screengrab of the triangular island with what appeared to be a black center. “What the f–k this looks nothing like an island,” they wrote alongside the post. A number of users responded with satirical theories as one sleuth provided additional information on the island. “It’s an island called Vostok Island that belongs to the glorious Republic of Kiribati, what you see as black is actually very dark green, it’s a very dense forest made up of Pisonia trees,” they explained.
However, some speculated that it could be a secret military base. “Looks censored for some reason,” user KorvisKhan wrote. “It almost seems deliberately altered,” user cartoonsandbeers added. Meanwhile, user Jazzlike_Log_709 said their “first thought was that it’s censored. It wouldn’t make sense for a natural formation to be black like that in such a shallow, small atoll/island.”
Observers became even more skeptical of Google’s choice to keep the image dark after a 2012 report by The Secretariat of the Pacific Community discussed how the land mapping of Vostok Island using GeoEye featured a clear aerial image of the small landmass, according to the National Post. On the other hand, some Redditors joked how Google’s rendition of the tiny landmass resembled far more ordinary objects. “Scrolling past I thought it was a hole on a leather seat,” user Flobber_Worm quipped.
The island, with the coordinates 10.06 ° S, 152.31°W, was first discovered by the decorated Russian explorer Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen in 1820, according to a Cambridge University publication. Von Bellingshausen name the island after his ship Vostok, which means East in Russian. That said, while geographical experts are yet to comment on the confusion surrounding Google Maps’ rendering of Vostok Island, this is barely the first time the company’s satellite imagery has sparked debate.
MEAWW previously reported how a Google Earth user discovered what was described as a ‘400 ft ice ship’ lying in an iceberg located about 100 miles from the coast. The huge ice structure resembling a cruise liner with windows and chimneys was picked up on Google Earth south of New Zealand. “You look down on it and it looks like the outline of a ship,” the user wrote of the structure. “This measures 400ft long, whatever that looks like it looks like a ship. An ice ship if you want to call it – a 400ft yacht just sitting there off the coast of Antarctica.” The Google Earth sleuth also suggested there was a purpose behind it. “Looks like a random iceberg but one part looks like it’s built with purpose, looks like an entryway, and the symmetrical features look like it has been created,” They added, “It doesn’t look random but as if it had a purpose.”
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