What’s Mastodon? And why didn’t Jennifer Aniston have kids? (11 questions)

Kathy Hochul is New York’s first female governor in its 233-year history. Hochul, a former Democratic congresswoman who has served as lieutenant governor since 2015, took over from Andrew Cuomo and, on Nov. 8, 2022, won a full term as governor of New York. Cuomo announced his resignation as governor of New York on Aug. 10, 2021, over allegations that he sexually harassed at least 11 women.

A new cipher for Camilla, the Queen Consort, was unveiled on Nov. 8, 2022, by Buckingham Palace. The symbol combines Camilla’s initial, C, and R for Regina, the Latin word for queen, and will appear on Camilla’s letterheads, cards, and gifts. King Charles III’s coronation will occur at Westminster Abbey on May 6, 2023, and the Queen Consort will be crowned alongside him.

In 2016, Mastodon was launched as a “free, open-source, decentralized social media platform” aimed at being a “viable alternative to Twitter.” Mastodon is a federated social network owned by different people and groups. A lot of Mastodon is crowdfunded. The servers it runs are funded through Patreon, a subscription platform used by content creators. More than 70,000 users joined Mastodon on the day after Elon Musk announced he bought Twitter.

Wasn’t Mastodon something else?

The Mastodon social platform was named after an extinct relative of elephants and mammoths.

Windsor Castle is the oldest occupied castle in the world. It dates back to the 11th century. When the British monarch’s residence burned in 1992, the fire destroyed 115 rooms and cost 35 million pounds to repair. On Nov. 9, 2022, The Crown’s fifth season premiered on Netflix, depicting the 90’s royal family and the famous fire. Watch the trailer.

A new book by Yuval Noah Harari, UNSTOPPABLE US: How Humans Took Over the World, was released in 2022. The book explores why humans became the world’s ruling specie and the consequences for other species.

Gal Costa, the world-renowned Brazilian singer with a nearly six-decade career, died on Nov. 9, 2022. She was 77. The singer had recently canceled a concert at a local music festival after surgery to remove a nodule from her right nasal cavity. According to tour dates listed on her website, she had been expected to return to the stage in São Paulo in December.

Apple Music crowned Bad Bunny, a Puerto Rican reggaeton superstar, as its Artist of the Year on Nov. 10, 2022. His latest album, “Un Verano Sin Ti,” is Apple Music’s most streamed album of 2022 and its all-time biggest Latin album.

Streaming on Apple TV+ beginning Nov. 18, 2022, after a week in theaters, “Spirited” is a musical spin on “A Christmas Carol” starring Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds. In Charles Dickens’ novella “A Christmas Carol,” Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his former business partner and the spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come. It was first published in London in 1843. Watch the trailer.

On Nov. 7, 2022, Rebel Wilson, 42, announced her new baby, Royce Lillian, via Instagram. Wilson’s baby girl was born by surrogacy. “This has been years in the making… but I particularly wanted to thank my gorgeous surrogate, who carried her and birthed her with such grace and care. Thank you for helping me start my own family,” she wrote.

What’s Royce?

The gender-neutral German name Royce means “fame.” It derives from the name Rose or the Norman “Roy” – as in Roy’s son, meaning the king’s child.

According to Allure’s Dec. 2022 cover interview, Jennifer Aniston, 53, tried to conceive in her late 30s and 40s. “I would’ve given anything if someone had said to me, ‘Freeze your eggs. Do yourself a favor.’ You just don’t think it. So here I am today,” she said. “The ship has sailed.”

“Avatar: The Way of Water” will run approximately three hours and ten minutes, nearly 30 minutes longer than the original “Avatar” from 2009. It opened in theaters on Dec. 16, 2022.