App of the Week: Clickables erases pop culture blind spots



We all know that in the frenetic, always-on digital age, it's hard not to feel "out of it" a lot of the time.

It's not our fault - with infinite channels and infinite bandwidth, there's just too much pop culture out there to stay up on. Does society expect us to quit our jobs, abandon our families and barricade ourselves in a hotel room somewhere until we catch up on all those YouTube links, Facebook updates and Children's Hospital episodes?

Personal Finance App of the Week

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It's just not feasible. Jobs are hard to come by. Our families depend on us. Hotels charge outlandish rates for internet access.

Therefore, it seems there's a price to pay if you want to be a responsible, productive member of society, and it's having that same society mock you just because you think Taylor Swift is a character from a Mark Twain novel.

The app

Fortunately there's Clickables (free; iPhone, iPad), a smartphone app that serves as a cheat sheet for everything that's cool and hip. Not only can it shed light on all of your pop culture blind spots, but it can even hand you the torch so you can light the way for your friends and family.

The details

Clickables features the Web's best viral content (short videos, songs, movie trailers, retro television clips, etc) as culled by the editors at the entertainment website Vulture.com. All you have to do is browse the videos, read the quick descriptions and let the unique streaming awesomeness flow.

Titles include Watch a Small Child Learn Luke Skywalker's Parentage, Watch the Reunited Arrested Development Cast Do the Chicken Dance, Get a First Look at the Absolutely Fabulous Reunion and an infinite list of other entries that, depending on your level of pop-culture illiteracy, read like non sequiturs until you start to get in the groove.

It offers its own Editor's Picks and allows you to tag your own favourites so you can, naturally, relay them to all your friends via e-mail, Facebook or Twitter - thus turning you into the very thing that, just minutes before, you loathed beyond all loathing - a carrier for the "social-networking" virus.

Still, once you start using Clickables a few minutes every day, you'll get addicted to the power that comes from saying: "You haven't seen this? I can't believe you haven't seen this!"

Sometimes, the disease is the cure.

Have some great personal finance apps that you want to share? Write to Curt Brandao at cbrandao@thenational.ae

NO OTHER LAND

Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal

Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham

Rating: 3.5/5

Champions League Last 16

Red Bull Salzburg (AUT) v Bayern Munich (GER) 

Sporting Lisbon (POR) v Manchester City (ENG) 

Benfica (POR) v Ajax (NED) 

Chelsea (ENG) v Lille (FRA) 

Atletico Madrid (ESP) v Manchester United (ENG) 

Villarreal (ESP) v Juventus (ITA) 

Inter Milan (ITA) v Liverpool (ENG) 

Paris Saint-Germain v Real Madrid (ESP)  

Tuesday's fixtures
Group A
Kyrgyzstan v Qatar, 5.45pm
Iran v Uzbekistan, 8pm
N Korea v UAE, 10.15pm
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups

Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.

Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.

Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.

Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).

Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.

Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.

Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.

Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Points to remember
  • Debate the issue, don't attack the person
  • Build the relationship and dialogue by seeking to find common ground
  • Express passion for the issue but be aware of when you're losing control or when there's anger. If there is, pause and take some time out.
  • Listen actively without interrupting
  • Avoid assumptions, seek understanding, ask questions
Liverpool 4-1 Shrewsbury

Liverpool
Gordon (34'), Fabinho (44' pen, 90' 3), Firmino (78')

Shrewsbury
Udoh (27'minutes)

Man of the Match: Kaide Gordon (Liverpool)

David Haye record

Total fights: 32
Wins: 28
Wins by KO: 26
Losses: 4

Biog

Mr Kandhari is legally authorised to conduct marriages in the gurdwara

He has officiated weddings of Sikhs and people of different faiths from Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Russia, the US and Canada

Father of two sons, grandfather of six

Plays golf once a week

Enjoys trying new holiday destinations with his wife and family

Walks for an hour every morning

Completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Loyola College, Chennai, India

2019 is a milestone because he completes 50 years in business

 

In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe

Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010

Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille

Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm

Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year

Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”

Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners

TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013 

A MINECRAFT MOVIE

Director: Jared Hess

Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa

Rating: 3/5

The specs

Engine: 1.5-litre turbo

Power: 181hp

Torque: 230Nm

Transmission: 6-speed automatic

Starting price: Dh79,000

On sale: Now

Key facilities
  • Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
  • Premier League-standard football pitch
  • 400m Olympic running track
  • NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
  • 600-seat auditorium
  • Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
  • An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
  • Specialist robotics and science laboratories
  • AR and VR-enabled learning centres
  • Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
The rules on fostering in the UAE

A foster couple or family must:

  • be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
  • not be younger than 25 years old
  • not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
  • be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
  • have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
  • undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
  • A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
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%3Cp%3E%0D%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E6-cylinder%2C%204.8-litre%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E5-speed%20automatic%20and%20manual%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E280%20brake%20horsepower%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E451Nm%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Efrom%20Dh153%2C00%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Enow%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
How to help

Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
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