'The guy is the Colossus at Rhodes'

'Frequent lower-stakes assignments'

As a huge Three Dog Night fan since the 1970s, I just can’t get enough of listening to and writing about the band. I have published many articles on Three Dog Night on this site and will continue to write about one of the most loved bands of all time. This was a very special group. Many of us were just young kids in the 60s and 70s when we first started hearing these songs on the radio. For a lot of us, it was one of the first bands that we fell in love with. As we grew older, The post Top 10 Three Dog Night Songs With Chuck Negron On Lead Vocals appeared first on ClassicRockHistory.com.

Mr. and Mrs. O’Malley-Flack might have been anxious while they waited for their daughter to complete her dyslexia test. The 10-year-old had had trouble spelling, and it was recommended she take an examination, but as it turned out, she had something else entirely—a prodigious IQ. Poppy O’Malley-Flack, from the English county of Kent has an […] The post 10-Year-old Girl Invited to Join Mensa After Dyslexia Test Revealed She Has Top 1% IQ appeared first on Good News Network.

Books reading recommendations Five SF Stories Featuring the Sudden Formation of New and Exciting Bodies of Water Sorry if you’re a fan of boring old dry land… By James Davis Nicoll | Published on October 28, 2025 Photo by dirk von loen-wagner [via Unsplash] Comment 0 Share New Share Photo by dirk von loen-wagner [via Unsplash] Something hard to miss when looking at maps of the ancient Earth are the many proglacial lakes, marine transgressions, epicontinental seas, and the like, waters that are now gone. The once glorious Western Inland Sea has been replaced by boring expanses of dry land, the Champlain Sea and Lake Agassiz are nowhere to be seen, and even the humble Pannonian Sea has vanished. This is a tremendous pity. Not only do seas offer fishing, affordable transportation, and climate mitigation, it is universally agreed amongst the maritime tourist boards that great bodies of water are far more interesting to look at than tedious landscapes. I’ve written letters to my MPP and MP suggesting that Canada consider such steps as necessary to recreate, if not the Western Inland Sea, then at least Lake Agassiz. The silence has been deafening. Happily, science fiction authors have been more cooperative in this matter, as the five vintage works listed below will demonstrate. Deluge by S. Fowler Wright (1928) An extraterrestrial observer might have observed (and dismissed as trivial) a tectonic convulsion that rearranged land and sea on Earth. Global seas flooded regions from the North American plains to India and China. Millions died. Civilization was swept away. Martin Webster survives. Although saddened by the loss of his wife Helen and their children in the flood, Martin wastes no time replacing Helen with Claire before founding a new, simpler, far superior way of life. This new simplicity is greatly complicated when Martin discovers that Helen and the children are not dead at all. How to reconcile the two Mrs. Websters? Modern readers should note that Wright was a man of firm opinions forthrightly presented, as Wright’s incredibly defensive introduction to the second edition of his self-published bestseller makes clear1. Readers should also be aware that I enjoy understatement. “Shifting Seas” by Stanley G. Weinbaum (1937) Gyro pilot Ted Welling is surveying the route for the proposed Nicaragua canal when geology renders the project moot. The Ring of Fire erupts. Half of Panama, seven-eighths of Nicaragua, and all of Costa Rica vanish beneath the waves. No need for a canal now! Neither the United States of America or Europe are much concerned about the sudden deaths of a million and half Central Americans. The sudden loss of the Gulf Stream is another matter. Without the Gulf Stream, Europe will cool, forcing millions to flee. If war is to be avoided, the Gulf Stream must be recreated. But how? Like the Wright novel, this tale is very much of its time. Regarding the megadeaths, the text observes: “After all, the bulk of the deaths had been among the natives, and it was a sort of remote tragedy, like the perishing of so many Chinese.” Hard to believe that Weinbaum is describing Americans, whose solicitous regard for other peoples has been so widely discussed of late. The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham (1953) Across the planet, meteors plummet earthward. Or rather, seaward. The meteors show a curious affinity for the ocean, in particular its deepest regions. This is because the meteors are not natural objects but the landing craft of aliens for whom only the crushing depths of the sea offer a tolerable habitat. At first, there seems to be no reason that aliens and humans could not ignore each other. However, the secondary effects of the aliens’ efforts to forge cozy new homes, combined with human paranoia, ensures escalating conflict between the aliens and the hopelessly outmatched humans. The final phase? Melting ice caps and inexorably rising sea levels. Even with the ice caps gone, the oceans should only rise about sixty metres. This wouldn’t be so bad if only water-loving humans didn’t cluster along rivers, lakes, seas, and—most importantly—oceans. About a billion-and-quarter humans live within ten vertical metres of the ocean. Sixty is larger than ten. The Great Nebraska Sea by Allan Danzig (1963) Scarcely have geologists begun to grasp the full extent of the Kiowa Fault than America receives a memorable demonstration of the fault’s length. As quakes rattle the south, millions flee northward, to what they assume is safety. Then lands extending from the Gulf of Mexico to North Dakota suddenly subside. Fourteen million people perish as the Gulf of Mexico rushes into the depression. In the short term, this is an appalling tragedy. By 2073, the era in which the account’s narrator lives, the disaster is ancient history, whereas the many benefits of the Great Nebraska Sea are an immediate reality. Guess which aspect most shapes the narrator’s perspective? It isn’t such an odd idea that people of the future might see a present-day catastrophe as beneficial in the long run. After all, we’re all beneficiaries of past calamities. Without the K/T mass extinction, humanity would not exist! However, it is at least a little odd that this story borders on the comedic. Operation Time Search by Andre Norton (1967) Researchers Hargreaves and Fordham invented a cunning device that was intended to transfer images across time. The fact that it could also displace physical objects from one era to another was a tremendous surprise to Hargreaves and Fordham… but not nearly as astonishing as it was to Ray Osborne, transported from 1980 Ohio to… well, Ray is not sure. Ray finds himself in a world divided between virtuous Mu and malevolent Atlantis. Vast swaths of North and South America are underwater, balanced by two continents—Mu in the Pacific and Atlantis in the Atlantic—that are unfamiliar to Ray. Clearly, Ray must side with Mu. Too bad he is a prisoner of Atlantis. It’s not really clear if Ray was transported to the past or a past or some other alternative. What is clear is that as a result of his temporal adventures, Mu and Atlantis suddenly manifest in 1980. They don’t appear to displace continental volumes of water, which is for the best, but I wonder what consequences followed their appearance? The benefits of new and exciting inland seas and the like being so obvious, it’s no surprise SFF abounds with examples. The ones above are hardly the only ones I could have used. If I’ve overlooked your favourite, feel free to mention it in comments below.[end-mark] Wright’s novel was popular enough to warrant adaptation to film. The 1933 adaptation takes some liberties with the source material, including moving the action from the English Midlands to the US. However, the special effects depicting New York City’s utter destruction were striking enough that clips were reused in S.O.S. Tidal Wave (1939), Dick Tracy vs. Crime, Inc. (1941), and King of the Rocket Men (1949). ︎The post Five SF Stories Featuring the Sudden Formation of New and Exciting Bodies of Water appeared first on Reactor.

On a recent “60 Minutes” segment, UFC president Dana White was asked whether he worries that the sport might promote “toxic masculinity.” White shot back, “What does that even mean? Can you be too masculine?”  It was a revealing moment—one that captured our cultural confusion around the topic of masculinity. Both White and his interviewer were using a loaded phrase without defining it. The implication was clear: that “toxic masculinity” means too much masculinity, as if manhood were a substance that turns poisonous in excess.  But masculinity isn’t a matter of dosage—it’s a matter of direction. The problem isn’t how much masculinity men express, but whether it’s healthy or unhealthy—whether strength is used to build or to break, to serve or to dominate.  For years, we’ve been trying to answer the wrong question. Instead of trying to figure out how masculine is too masculine, we should be asking: What does healthy masculinity look like?  Healthy masculinity is not about dominance. It’s not about self-gratification or control. It’s not unchecked aggression. It’s quiet strength under pressure. It’s about conviction, character and courage—qualities that lift communities rather than exploit them. It’s about learning to channel energy, ambition and competitiveness toward service and self-mastery. It’s integrity, not image. You can see the effects of losing this vision everywhere.  Back in the ‘80s, masculinity was loud. It flexed its muscles in movie heroes like Rambo—men of action, but not always of virtue. The message was that being a man meant being tough, untouchable and untethered. Strength was there, but it lacked direction.   Today, the pendulum has swung the other way. Instead of aggression, we see apathy. Boys are struggling in school and social life. Fewer men are stepping into the workforce, getting married or raising families. Many have retreated into the digital world, uncertain how to contribute in the real one.  What we’re witnessing is a crisis of purpose, not quantity. The macho ideal distorted masculinity into domination; the modern vacuum has emptied it of meaning altogether. Both are ditches on opposite sides of the same road—one abuses strength, the other abandons it. And the vacuum left by misdirected men doesn’t stay empty. Families strain. Communities weaken. Culture frays.  The antidote isn’t to suppress masculinity, but to strengthen it, to shape it.  A man who learns to reject passivity, to take initiative when it’s easier to stand back, becomes a man others can count on.  A man who learns to set his sights on what really matters—to seek meaning and purpose beyond ego—develops the kind of moral gravity that anchors a household, a classroom or a team.  A man who accepts responsibility instead of shifting blame brings steadiness to every space he enters.  And a man who leads courageously—not as a tyrant, but as one who protects and provides—creates safety and strength for those around him.  So, let’s return to Dana White’s question: “Can you have too much masculinity?” If we’re talking about the kind of healthy masculinity described above (and quite extensively in the Bible, by the way), then I say, “No, you can’t.” Strength is never toxic! Courage is never poisonous, regardless of the quantity. However, if we’re talking about the version of masculinity that exploits, destroys, and flaunts without dignity or responsibility, that’s not masculinity at all. It’s a warped imitation—immaturity clothed in muscle. It marks an absence of strength, courage and conviction, rather than an excess of it. Masculinity is bravery harnessed by wisdom, action tethered by self-restraint, self-assertion marked by self-control, and honor clothed in humility. It is willing to risk all, yet is tempered by a learned discernment. Its strength is characterized by both self-denial and self-respect. It is possessed by a man who has been taught to forgive his enemies, but also to be angry and sin not. Those are the men every healthy society depends on. And those are the qualities every boy needs to have modeled for him in order to become a man. It doesn’t happen by mistake. Because manhood isn’t granted by age or achievement; it’s forged through experience and example.  We can keep arguing about what’s “toxic.” Or we can start rebuilding a shared vision of what’s true—a version of masculinity that is confident but kind, decisive but humble, strong but self-controlled. That kind of manhood isn’t dangerous. It’s indispensable.  One place this vision is being lived out is through Trail Life USA, a nationwide mentoring movement where boys grow through outdoor adventure, service, and leadership—guided by men who model timeless biblical truths and practical wisdom about what it means to be a man.  Because the next generation is watching. And whether they find courage or confusion in the men around them will determine far more than the next news cycle—it will shape the culture we leave behind.  We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post The Real Problem With ‘Toxic Masculinity’ appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Just in time for Halloween.

The networks and newspapers hyperventilating over President Trump as a "one-man wrecking ball" who okayed demolition of the East Wing of the White House to build a new ballroom is the silliest Trump scandal imaginable. He's a "mob boss" who may "never leave" office, and his architectural plans betray "a darker history in fascist and totalitarian politics."   Managing Editor Curtis Houck and Associate Editor Nick Fondacaro explain our latest work on this ludicrous horror movie the media elites are inventing. Nick noted the liberal ladies of The View continued to lie about taxpayers footing the bill for the new White House ballroom. According to them, Trump was playing some sort of shell game with his presidential salary and legal fees to cover the construction that made him equal to a “mob boss.” They also suggested Republicans were going to steal the midterms and the ballroom was proof Trump wasn’t going to leave office. It now sounds like "View-Anon" conspiracies. Curtis pointed out Washington Post art critic Philip Kennicott went source-shopping until he found an Ivy League art history professor who would throw the "fascist and totalitarian" card at the ballroom construction. Plus: As White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre’s answers to friendly reporters often left political observers wondering: “Is this the best Biden can do?” Now, after serving during Biden’s most obvious mental decline, KJP is attempting to sell a completely contradictory message: (a) I’m an independent now scolding “blind loyalty” to a two-party system, and (b) I’m blindly loyal to Biden, unlike too many Democrats who somehow believed he wasn’t up to the job anymore. You have to wonder which genius told her to strike this ridiculous pose. Or maybe no one advised her at all. That would make sense. Watch the podcast below (YouTube and Rumble have it). You can get the audio here. 

New York City’s Canal Street has long been a hot bed for illegal immigrants selling knock-off designer bags to tourists, but after Turning Point USA reporter Savanah Hernandez caught it all in a video that’s now gone viral — that may all be about to change for good.Following Hernandez’s video, Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided Canal Street and arrested nine illegal aliens, some of whom had criminal backgrounds.“I was Ubering, and I saw this huge market of African migrants selling all of these bags along this sidewalk. This sidewalk was actually completely full of people. So I was like, ‘OK, pull over. Let me see what’s going on,’” Hernandez says in the video.“Now, I spoke to some of the migrants, they were telling me they’re all from Senegal. And as I’m walking around, they all start grabbing their bags very quickly. Again, this entire block was filled with all these bags. And they picked them all up very quickly, within two minutes, they all started jumping in vehicles, running away,” she explained.While speaking with one of the migrants, he admitted to Hernandez that they didn’t have licenses to sell the purses, and if the cops were to catch them, they’d take away all their products.“I don’t have confirmation that DHS saw my post. All I will say is that it went extremely viral. I think it got about five million impressions, and the left wing took hold of it first, and they were roasting me, and they were like, ‘Congratulations on discovering Canal Street, this has been happening for decades,’” Hernandez tells BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.”“Which, I still posted the video because I was like, ‘OK, congratulations. Criminal activity has been going on for decades. Let’s go ahead and get it fixed,’” she continues. “A couple days later, ICE goes and completely raids the area.”“And as far as I’m concerned, this street is still cleaned up,” she adds.“It’s just such a bizarre world that we’re living in where the argument is that it's a bad thing to swoop up and grab illegal criminals off the streets ... plus, they have criminal records on top of the fact that they’re already criminals for being here illegally,” Gonzales says.“Why would anyone not want them off the streets is just very strange,” she adds.Want more from Sara Gonzales?To enjoy more of Sara's no-holds-barred takes on news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

The House Oversight Committee released a nearly 100-page report on Tuesday deeming invalid those executive actions and pardons issued without proper authorization and with machine-generated signatures in former President Joe Biden's name."Barring evidence of executive actions taken during the Biden presidency showing that President Biden indeed took a particular executive action, the Committee deems those actions taken through use of the autopen as void," said the report. 'Hold those who orchestrated this coup d’etat accountable.'In hopes that real consequence might be dished out following their damning report — a report that suggests the country was effectively run in recent years by unelected Biden staffers — the Republican-led committee has also asked the Department of Justice to both review the validity of every executive action taken during the previous administration and to "determine whether legal action is necessary to ameliorate consequences of any illegitimate pardons granted, or executive actions implemented, throughout the Biden Autopen Presidency."The Oversight Project got the ball rolling in March by revealing that Biden's signature on numerous executive orders, pardons, and other documents of national consequence was machine generated.While other presidents have made extensive use of the so-called autopen, there is cause besides Biden's mental deterioration to doubt the validity of many of the documents issued in his name.For starters, there are reports of staffers and family members making decisions on his behalf; Biden allegedly admitted to having no memory of signing a greatly impactful order that bore an autopen signature; Biden's signature appeared on documents while he was absent and in at least one case on vacation; and internal emails from the Justice Department show that there was a high-level understanding in the Biden administration that many of the commutations autopenned in the former president's name were legally flawed.Following a review of approximately 1,597 enrolled copies of documents bearing Biden's signature — including pardon warrants and executive orders — the Oversight Project concluded in a Monday report that 846 of 958 executive orders, pardons, commutations, and proclamations were signed with autopen.RELATED: Biden freed killers with a pen he didn’t even hold Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images Broken down further by category, the Oversight Project indicated that of the Biden-era documents reviewed, 59.2% of the executive orders; 96.3% of the presidential proclamations; 75% of the pardons, including the pardons for Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley, members of the Biden clan, and former members of the House Jan. 6 select committee; and 51.8% of the commutations were signed with autopen.Biden apparently signed all but one bill into law by hand."We, as a nation, operated for years without a functioning president and instead ceded executive power to a politburo of unelected bureaucrats who exercised presidential power via autopen," the watchdog group stated. "These statistics are alarming. The time is now for the administration and Congress to hold those who orchestrated this coup d’etat accountable."The Oversight Project's bombshell exposé earlier this year paved the way for additional investigations into the legitimacy of autopen-signed Biden-era documents, namely those launched by DOJ pardon attorney Ed Martin, the Trump White House Counsel, and the House Oversight Committee.The Oversight Committee's Tuesday report, the product of a five-month probe, indicates that Biden aides made liberal use of the autopen to carry out official actions without evidence of the former president's approval.The committee — echoing a finding of the Oversight Project — found, for instance, that 32 of 51 clemency warrants were signed with digital copies of Biden's signature but without any contemporaneous paperwork linking Biden to the decisions.Former Idaho Solicitor General Theo Wold testified during a U.S. Senate hearing in June that with regard to the clemency warrants, the "president actually has to make the decision — that cannot be delegated to a staffer or an adviser," but there was no indication "that anyone other than staff were making these decisions."In addition to highlighting apparent evidence that senior Biden White House aides exercised the authority of the former president, the committee asked the DOJ to investigate three top Biden White House aides who previously refused to testify to the committee: Biden White House physician Kevin O'Connor and aides Anthony Bernal and Annie Tomasini.Blaze News has reached out to the DOJ for comment. Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said in a statement obtained by CNN, "Our report reveals how key aides colluded to mislead the public and the extraordinary measures they took to sustain the appearance of presidential authority as Biden’s capacity to function independently diminished. Executive actions performed by Biden White House staff and signed by autopen are null and void."A Biden spokesperson stated, "This investigation into baseless claims has confirmed what has been clear from the start: President Biden made the decisions of his presidency.""There was no conspiracy, no cover-up, and no wrongdoing. Congressional Republicans should stop focusing on political retribution and instead work to end the government shutdown," added the spokesperson.Biden told news outlets in June, "I made the decisions during my presidency. I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations."Like Blaze News? 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