One of the most exciting action sequences in A Quiet Place: Day One ends with the protagonists climbing up from Manhattan’s underground subway network and into a cavernous, quiet church. Barely escaping the sound-attracted alien monsters (called “Death Angels” in the Quiet Place franchise), Sam (Lupita Nyong’o) and Eric (Joseph Quinn) find a haven in the hallowed, quiet space of a damaged-but-still-intact cathedral. They join dozens of other survivors who also found refuge there, some silently kneeling in the pews to pray. This moment reminded me of a similar scene in John Hillcoat’s 2009 film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. In that scene, “Man” (Viggo Mortensen) and “Boy” (Kodi Smit-McPhee) share a quiet space of safety in the ruins of a cathedral. Having built a fire to warm them in the cold night, they huddle together under a large cross in the church’s apse. Both A Quiet Place: Day One and The Road offer sometimes bleak but ultimately hopeful visions of how to live when the world is falling apart. And the church—as a distinct eschatological community—is a key part of it. Skeptics might interpret the imagery of these crumbling “haven” cathedrals as emblematic of religion’s last gasp in an increasingly godless world. But I find the imagery beautiful and galvanizing: a reminder that the church should lean into its countercultural distinctives and hold fast to its transcendent identity (see also: The Crown season 6, episode 6). As the world darkens into dog-eat-dog brutality, the church will carry the light of true humanity (Matt. 5:14–16). As the world’s chaotic noise grows deafening, the church will remain a quiet refuge of hope for the weary and worried. Church: Beacon of Humanity in an Animalistic World Both A Quiet Place and The Road are post-apocalyptic survivor stories that lean heavily into questions about surviving with our humanity intact. In harsh worlds where the drive to survive has led many people to resort to cannibalistic brutality, what motivates someone to live sacrificially, putting the interests of others above his own? The Quiet Place franchise is built around the Christian virtue of sacrificial love, and it shows up powerfully in each of the three films. In the church scene in A Quiet Place: Day One, for example, Eric risks his life to track down an abandoned pharmacy to get Sam the medicine she needs. From the start of the film, Sam is a terminally ill woman living in a hospice facility. Her time is short. In a world of Darwinian survival, no one would put his life on the line to save the dying Sam. Yet Eric sees Sam (a total stranger to him just a few hours earlier) in tremendous pain, and something motivates him to boldly venture out of the church to find medicine to alleviate her pain, while the Death Angels swarm all around. As the world darkens into dog-eat-dog brutality, the church will carry the light of true humanity. Elsewhere we see other characters risk their lives to help others—it’s a theme in the film from start to finish. What’s this sacrificial impulse that undermines fleshly self-preservation in favor of saving others, even strangers? Selfless love. It was a radical concept when Jesus introduced it in the kill-or-be-killed ancient world, and it’s just as radical in a dystopian apocalypse. In our post-Christian world, Christian virtues like self-giving and sacrificial love still exist. In The Road, this is “the fire” that must be carried on. Even if its source is dimmer and dimmer, and its logic more and more absurd in a brutish world, the fire still burns. And the church is the kindling that carries it on from generation to generation. Church: Sanctuary of Rest in an Exhausting World A Quiet Place and The Road also underscore the church as a place of rest and shelter. The characters in both films sleep and replenish their health in the church. Momentarily free from the terrors outside—monsters, marauders, and an exhausting pursuit of salvation—they can recalibrate and tend to one another, taking deep breaths and being still. For them, the church is a hospital for healing and a hospitable inn for resting—a dwelling place built on the words of Matthew 11:28–30. Does the church have this reputation today? Arguably, no. Because in far too many instances, dangers are inside the church too. This is why it must be a perennial concern for churches to guard against wolves, ensuring God’s house is a haven of health defined by Jesus-centric worship and the collective pursuit of holiness, rather than self-serving interests and individual power grabs. The encouraging news is that, on the ground, many biblically faithful churches are drawing the weary, the hurting, the vulnerable, and the exhausted into communities of safe, gospel-fueled restoration and hope. At their best, churches are havens from the horrors of life outside (including horrors caused by our own sin). For those at the end of their rope, barely outrunning whatever their version of the Death Angels might be, the church is a place where they can find footing on the solid ground of Scripture and renewal by the Spirit working among God’s people. Church: Quiet Haven in a Noisy World Finally, A Quiet Place reminds us the church at its best is a quiet refuge amid the cacophonous maelstrom. In the film’s sci-fi world, noise is death and quiet is life. Could there be a better metaphor for the dynamics of our digital age? Our world is noisier than ever. A chorus of frenzied voices surround us online, shouting with the megaphones of social media or through the siren-song enticements of Lady Folly algorithms. The nonstop noise is killing us, numbing our ability to hear truth and eliminating all silence from our lives—the silence essential for prayer, contemplation, and growing in wisdom. The nonstop noise is killing us, numbing our ability to hear truth and eliminating all silence from our lives. Rather than mirroring the noisy culture, churches should recognize they can offer what more and more people are hungry for: silence, awe, reverence, stillness before God. The best way to draw Gen Z and Gen Alpha to church will not be adding to the ways they’re shouted at constantly, via apps and ads and influencers; rather, it will be to invite them into an escape from all that, into a sacred space of unhurried presence, quiet reverence, embodied worship, and collective encounter with the living God. In an ever-more brutal, harried, and loud world, Jesus Christ’s church can be the quiet place we so desperately need.

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, about one in five Americans deals with some kind of mental illness, and about one in 20 Americans has a mental illness so severe that it seriously affects their lives. What Christians ought to make of this and how we ought to respond to the idea of “mental illness” in the first place have both been open points of debate for decades. John Andrew Bryant’s theological memoir A Quiet Mind to Suffer With: Mental Illness, Trauma, and the Death of Christ doesn’t engage with those debates directly. Instead, Bryant—a writer and part-time street pastor—narrates his experience of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), including his time in a psych ward and his recovery from the worst of that OCD. He weaves his theological reflections throughout the narrative.  Mental Illness Is Suffering The Christian life involves suffering. This suffering is always the result of sin in a general sense, but it isn’t always the result of someone’s specific sin (John 9). Many Christians understand this when it comes to cancer but not to mental illness. Bryant has the right idea, though: “It has been important for me over the years to not understand a mental illness as a character flaw or a lack of faith when it is simply an Affliction, a kind of Suffering among other kinds of Suffering. I simply have a brain that provides horrors to be seen and felt” (8). As with cancer, personal sin can sometimes lead to or exacerbate mental illness, but much of mental illness is the result of the physical and noetic effects of the fall. The good news for suffering saints is threefold. First, Christ suffered too. He knows our afflictions and our sorrows because he has shared them. Second, he is with us. We are never left to suffer alone. Third, God uses our suffering to deliver us from the lie that we can depend on ourselves for our well-being. Bryant captures this reality as well as anyone I have ever read. “Nothing has disfigured me more cruelly than my dependence on myself” (177). The way out of that self-dependence is simply—painfully, with great difficulty, but simply—turning to Christ. Recovery Isn’t Guaranteed Good as this word is, Bryant missteps by consistently coupling his dependence on Christ to his experience of recovery: How did I walk out of the psych ward and back into my life? . . . It was done with the trust I had in Christ. It was only done with a patient, quiet understanding of who Christ is. (148) Not everyone gets to leave mental illness behind—and a continued struggle isn’t necessarily because of a failure to trust in Christ. Some Christians live with crushing depression that renders them simultaneously suicidal, and angry that they’re suicidal. Others suffer schizophrenic hallucinations that so disconnect them from reality that they might harm others through no ill will of their own. Those men and women also stand under the mercy of God. The good news is that Christ keeps us, not the other way around. Bryant comes close to seeing this. He acknowledges his recovery has meant the ability to live with OCD rather than to be healed from it. Yet he writes that his “dependence on Christ was the only thing that couldn’t be taken from [him]” (72). But what of the people for whom that dependence has been taken from them by a psychotic break? The good news is that Christ keeps us, not the other way around. Inadequate Definition of Sin Theologically, I expect the world-ruining effects of the fall to affect our brains no less than the rest of our bodies. I therefore don’t doubt the value of therapy when needed. Pharmaceutical treatments can function as a life jacket for someone drowning in his own mind. My wife’s life was saved by the combination of good therapists and good psychiatric medication. But not everyone is mentally ill. What is needful for someone suffering from a severe mental illness isn’t necessarily good for everyone else. Moreover, therapeutic understandings can deform our theology when they aren’t framed by Scripture. We see this in the way Bryant explains his doctrine of sin. He writes, Sin is not, ultimately, a thought or a feeling or act. Sin is perspective, it is a way of looking at things, it is what things are to us. Sin is like that Siren. It is always quietly working in the background, turning the world into what it isn’t. Sin is not a thought or feeling. Sin is a lie. Sin is a bad expectation. (175) Sin certainly distorts our perspective, but it absolutely includes our thoughts and feelings and acts. Excluding them undermines the clear call to repentance for “what we have done and what we have left undone,” as the Book of Common Prayer has it. Pharmaceutical treatments can function as a life jacket for someone drowning in his own mind. It’s easy to see how Bryant might have landed here. His treatment rightly involved learning not to treat every thought he experiences as one he’s culpable for. Yet this definition of sin doesn’t follow; it’s inadequate. There are times when repentance and sanctification are important parts of dealing with mental illness. Theological memoirs go beyond mere narration into theological claims. It’s hard for the author to avoid saying more than he should. The danger is that it’s often easier for readers to accept those claims when they come couched in someone’s experiences. Read Carefully All of us need to see more clearly that Christ is with us through our suffering. Bryant rightly reminds us that the final word on our suffering is what God does with it: We are not, thank God, what we can think, or what we will do. We are not our thoughts and not even our wills. We are what the Word of God will make of us. (124) Bryant’s story serves as a moving (if florid) account of how God has used his suffering through OCD to bring him into much deeper dependence on Christ. His book can help reframe the suffering of those struggling with mental illness in particular. Yet we have to carefully sift both our experiences and the understandings gleaned by common grace through the content of Scripture to determine what’s true. This book deserves to be read carefully.

Don Carson teaches on the importance of obedience to God and his Word as a true demonstration of knowing him, as emphasized in 1 John 2:3–27. Central to the Christian life is having and displaying a genuine love for others, which Carson highlights as a key indicator of living in the light of Christ. He contrasts those who merely talk about faith with those who act on it and discusses the dangers of worldliness versus godliness. Carson also explores the cultural differences in expressing faith through his observations of diverse groups at Cambridge. He addresses the concept of antichrists and the end times in 1 John 2, urging believers to persevere in their faith and remember their hope in Christ.

I'd love to see the return of the "Washington Redskins" brand

In Pennsylvania Comeback Tour, Biden Says Dark Brandon Is Back

After amplifying many of the calls for President Joe Biden to withdraw from the presidential campaign in the wake of his disastrous debate performance, there appears to be a change of mind. After Biden’s interview with George Stephanopoulos and subsequent retrenchment, the networks have begun to fall back in line. A return to norms means that ABC retakes its place as the most Biden-servile network. Consider this sequence from ABC’s report, as Mary Bruce resumes her apple-polishing campaign: MARY BRUCE: Tonight, all eyes on President Biden, surrounded by world leaders as he marks the 75th anniversary of NATO. JOE BIDEN: Welcome. BRUCE: Using the moment to remind America and the world what he's accomplished. BIDEN: It's remarkable progress. Proof that our commitment is broad and deep. That we're ready, that we're willing, that we're able to deter aggression, and defend every inch of NATO territory against every domain. Land, air, sea, cyber, and space. BRUCE: It comes at a key moment in this race. The president under pressure to prove to voters, his party, and our allies that he is up to the task of taking on Trump and governing for another four years. BIDEN: And Kiev, remember, fellas and ladies, was supposed to fall in five days, remember? Well, it's still standing 2 1/2 years later, and it will continue to stand. BRUCE: This as Donald Trump holds his first big rally since the debate. He's been off the trail for ten days, laying low and playing golf, while Biden tackles the fallout from his disastrous performance. The part about Trump playing golf is a verbatim repeat of what Biden said on his Morning Joe phoner. The media are mad that Trump hasn’t given them a reason to avert their eyes and coverage from the ongoing train wreck that is this post-debate debacle.  ABC’s item on Biden focused mostly on his appearance before the NATO summit, with some time devoted to the RNC platform, Dr. Jill Biden’s own campaign call, with zero time devoted to the Walter Reed Parkinson’s specialist’s visits to The White House, which both CBS and NBC found time to cover. Like CBS, ABC covered the congressional fallout in a separate report. Ed O’Keefe’s entry for CBS was more of a roundup. In addition to the NATO summit, O’Keefe’s report covered the Parkinson’s stuff, in addition to reaction from Speaker Mike Johnson, and some quotes from Vice President Kamala Harris’s Nevada stump speech. Congressional reaction was covered in a separate report. NBC’s item filed by Gabe Gutierrez seemed the most comprehensive report, blending all the aforementioned matters with the tumultuous meetings held by House Democrats. Viewed in sum, it appears that the networks are reverting to familiar patterns- a sign, perhaps, that the Biden debacle may be cooling down not that he’s retrenched. At least until the next debacle. Click “expand” to view the full transcripts of the aforementioned evening newscasts, as aired on their respective networks on Tuesday, July 9th, 2024: ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT: ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT 7/9/24 6:31 PM DAVID MUIR: Good evening and we begin tonight with the breaking news, President Biden on the world stage just moments ago. His first global speech since the debate, standing before world leaders at the NATO summit in Washington, D.C. Before the speech, President Biden standing alongside those leaders in the very room where NATO began. Tonight, the president marking the 75th anniversary of America's most important alliance. Those world leaders, of course, watching, American voters now watching very closely, too. And the unexpected moment at the end of the speech from the president. Awarding the nation's highest civilian honor. Our Chief White House correspondent Mary Bruce leading us off. MARY BRUCE: Tonight, all eyes on President Biden, surrounded by world leaders as he marks the 75th anniversary of NATO. JOE BIDEN: Welcome. BRUCE: Using the moment to remind America and the world what he's accomplished. BIDEN: It's remarkable progress. Proof that our commitment is broad and deep. That we're ready, that we're willing, that we're able to deter aggression, and defend every inch of NATO territory against every domain. Land, air, sea, cyber, and space. BRUCE: It comes at a key moment in this race. The president under pressure to prove to voters, his party, and our allies that he is up to the task of taking on Trump and governing for another four years. BIDEN: And Kiev, remember, fellas and ladies, was supposed to fall in five days, remember? Well, it's still standing 2 1/2 years later, and it will continue to stand. BRUCE: This as Donald Trump holds his first big rally since the debate. He's been off the trail for ten days, laying low and playing golf, while Biden tackles the fallout from his disastrous performance. Today, the Republican Party finalizing its platform, and it includes a major change. The party abandoning its long-held support for a federal abortion ban in favor of Trump's call to leave it to the states. Today on a campaign call, First Lady Jill Biden says voters won't buy it. JILL BIDEN: Does he think we forgot that his Supreme Court justices killed Roe v. Wade, and that he brags about it? Does he think we don't know that he wants to roll back access to contraception, and he could jeopardize IVF treatments? Does he think he can pivot away from a career of diminishing and denigrating women? Well, women haven't forgotten, and we can't be fooled. MUIR: One more day in this race for president. Let’s get right to Mary Bruce, of course, live at The White House. And Mary, back to the president just moments ago, of course knowing full well the world is watching, American voters are watching with greater scrutiny. And then that unexpected moment, the president delivering a surprise honor, underscoring the importance of NATO? BRUCE: And David, this really was a dramatic moment. The president, in a surprise move, bringing the NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg back up to the stage, announcing that he is honoring him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. President Biden praising him for guiding the alliance through one of the most consequential periods in history. The president, David, well aware of just how high the stakes are in this moment both here at home, but also abroad. David.  MUIR: Mary Bruce leading us off tonight. Mary. Thank you. CBS EVENING NEWS: CBS EVENING NEWS 7/9/24 6:30 PM NORAH O’DONNELL: President Biden just spoke at the NATO summit here in Washington, D.C., a speech that has become as much about his fitness for office as it is about his foreign policy. Good evening. I'm Norah O'Donnell, and thank you for being with us. The president spoke about Ukraine policy and maintaining a united front to prevent another World War. But the world's focus wasn't only on what he said, but how he said it, as he tries to fight back calls within his own party to step aside. And just hours ago, a new Democratic defection, a New Jersey congresswoman and former U.S. Navy pilot saying, “because I know President Biden cares deeply about the future of our country, I am asking that he declare that he won't run for reelection.” But a lot of her colleagues are either sticking behind Biden or staying quiet, at least in public. CBS's Scott MacFarlane is on the hill talking to lawmakers, and Ed O'Keefe is at The White House and kicks off our team coverage. ED O’KEEFE: Tonight, President Biden welcoming members of NATO to Washington while questions swirl about his political future. JOE BIDEN: It's a pleasure to host you in this milestone year. O’KEEFE: The annual summit is set to have a big focus on Ukraine. That country's fate could hang in the balance if Democrats lose The White House. BIDEN: And make no mistake, Ukraine can and will stop Putin. O’KEEFE: And now, even European leaders facing questions about the American president's future. The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, today saying he's not worried about Biden's ability to handle the summit. The White House remained on the defensive, trying to move onto the president's debate performance. KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: We want to turn the page. O’KEEFE: But facing more questions today about the president’s health. JEAN-PIERRE: The White House medical unit, his doctor, they don't believe that he needs anything more than what we have been able to provide. O’KEEFE: Overnight, The White House released a letter from the president's physician saying the Commander-in-Chief hasn't seen a neurologist outside of his three annual physicals, and that a neurology specialist who visited The White House at least eight times in the past year was seeing other patients. Campaigning in Las Vegas this afternoon, Vice President Harris turned her attention to former President Donald Trump. KAMALA HARRIS: So make no mistake, if Trump gets the chance, he will sign a national abortion ban to outlaw abortion in every single state. But we are not going to let that happen. O’KEEFE: Trump said Monday night he still expects to face the president this fall. DONALD TRUMP: You know, it looks to me like he may very well stay in. He’s got an ego and he doesn't want to quit. O’KEEFE: He’ll hold a rally tonight in a Miami suburb, alongside Florida Senator Marco Rubio, a potential running mate. And in Washington, House Speaker Mike Johnson says President Biden needs to go sooner- the Cabinet should use the 25th Amendment to remove him. MIKE JOHNSON: What we are projecting from The White House is not strength right now, at a very dangerous time around the world, and that’s why the American people are so alarmed by this. O’KEEFE: But CBS News has contacted all members of the Biden Cabinet to ask whether they have ever considered or heard any discussion about invoking the 20th Amendment. The answer, among those who’ve responded so far, is universal. No. They haven’t. Norah. O’DONNELL: Ed O’Keefe at The White House with new reporting tonight. Thank you, Ed. NBC NIGHTLY NEWS: NBC NIGHTLY NEWS 7/9/24 7:01 PM LESTER HOLT: Good evening and welcome. President Biden is stomping out political brushfires tonight that are eating at his campaign, while Democrats on Capitol Hill hash out whether the president remains the right person to carry the party to victory in November following that debate performance that turned the presidential campaign on its head. For now, the president still hanging on in what could prove to be a make or break week as he hosts world leaders in Washington, looking to project a message of strength here and abroad. Mr. Biden opening a meeting with NATO leaders with a forceful tribute to the alliance, and vowing that Ukraine will prevail in the war with Russia. We begin with NBC's Gabe Gutierrez. GABE GUTIERREZ: Tonight, President Biden on the world stage, kicking off a high-stakes NATO summit with 38 world leaders here in Washington. JOE BIDEN: It's good that we're stronger than ever, because this moment in history calls for our collective strength. GUTIERREZ: President Biden and European allies announcing new air defense systems for Ukraine late today. BIDEN: Putin wants nothing less, nothing less than Ukraine's total subjugation, to end Ukraine's democracy. But make no mistake, Ukraine can and will stop Putin. GUTIERREZ: But looming large, the president's political standing with deepening divisions among anxious Democrats on capitol hill who met today behind closed doors. MIKE QUIGLEY: I don’t think he should stay in the race. GUTIERREZ: Asked whether they were on the same page STEVE COHEN: Not even in the same book. GUTIERREZ: Ten House Democrats have called for the president to step aside, but one is now backtracking. JERRY NADLER: Whether I have concerns or not I think is beside the point. He is going to be our nominee, and we all have to support him. GUTIERREZ: Still, while some rank and file Democrats are torn, their leadership is holding firm. JIM CLYBURN: We are ridin’ with Biden. CHUCK SCHUMER: I'm with Joe. PETE AGUILAR: Right now, President Biden is the nominee, and we support the Democratic nominee. GUTIERREZ: Republicans hope the in-fighting helps them in November. MIKE JOHNSON: Joe Biden is not fit for that office. And it's a terrible thing. The Democrats have misled us, and they need to be held accountable for that. GUTIERREZ: The political chaos comes after President Biden's personal doctor confirmed overnight in this letter that a neurologist who specializes in Parkinson's did see the president, but only during his annual physicals. The specialist, Dr. Kevin Cannard, visited The White House eight times in eight months according to public visitor logs. The president saying Cannard held, quote, “regular neurology clinics” at The White House medical clinic to support military staff. KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: It was being incorrectly assumed and insinuated that the president was being treated for Parkinson's. I said right here the president was not being treated for Parkinson's. GUTIERREZ: On the Republican side, former President Trump giving his first post debate interview, saying he believes President Biden will stay in the race. DONALD TRUMP: He’s got an ego and he doesn't want to quit. GUTIERREZ: Also adding he may wait to announce his running mate until Democrats sort out President Biden's future. TRUMP: We wanted to see what they're doing, to be honest. HOLT: And Gabe, what do the coming days look like for the president? GUTIERREZ: Well, Lester, tonight he has a call with Democratic mayors to reassure them, then he’s meeting with world leaders again tomorrow here in Washington and then on Thursday that rare solo press conference. His first of the year. Lester. HOLT: Gabe Gutierrez, thank you.  

Archaeological excavations at Piazza Pia in Vatican City in anticipation of 2025’s Jubilee Year have uncovered the remains of a colonnaded portico that Caligula built in what had once been his mother’s garden. The remains were found under a later fullonica (laundry) that is being relocated to the nearby Castel Sant-Angelo to make way for a new underpass. The structure consists of a wall of travertine blocks in the opus quadratum (squared) technique terracing the right bank of the Tiber. Behind the wall was the colonnaded portico of which only the foundations remains and a large garden. This was part of the Horti Agrippinae, the gardens of Agrippina the Elder, Caligula’s mother, at her grand suburban villa outside the ancient walls of Rome. Agrippina’s gardens occupied much of today’s Vatican City. Last year archaeologists unearthed the remains of the theater Agrippina’s grandson Nero built on the grounds. Now they’ve found part of the garden Caligula took over. One lead pipe identifies this as Caligula’s renovation of his mother’s villa and gardens complex. It is stamped “C(ai) Cæsaris Aug (usti) Germanici,” or Caius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, the full name of the son of Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder, grandson of Augustus Caesar. He was known as Caligula after the nickname his father’s soldiers gave him when he was a boy wearing a kid’s version of a military uniform, including the caligae, the hobnailed sandal boots of the legions. Also from Piazza Pia, but from excavations at the beginning of the last century, come other lead pipes inscribed with the name of Iulia Augusta, presumably Livia Drusilla, the second wife of Augustus and grandmother of Germanicus. It is probable, therefore, that this luxurious residence was first inherited by Germanicus and then, upon his death, to his wife Agrippina the elder and then to his emperor son. The excavation also revealed an important series of Campana slabs, figurative terracottas used for the decoration of roofs, with unusual mythological scenes, reused as covers for the sewers of the fullonica, but originally probably made for the covering of some structure in the garden, perhaps from the same portico. There’s a notable reference to Caligula’s use of the Horti Agrippinae in Legatio ad Gaium (The Embassy to Gaius) by Philo of Alexandria, a philosopher and leader of the Jewish community in Alexandria. Philo was one of a delegation of Alexandrian Jews who went to Rome in 39 A.D. to petition for the emperor’s protection after riots targeting Jews in Alexandria the year before had destroyed the synagogues and driven much of the community out of the city. The petition was not ultimately successful, to put it mildly, (Caligula ordered a statue of himself as Jupiter be erected in the Temple in Jerusalem, although he was ultimately talked out of it by his old friend, the last Jewish king of Judea, Herod Agrippa) but the delegation’s first meeting with Caligula seemed to go rather well. From Legatio ad Gaium, XXVIII, 181: [R]eceiving us favourably at first, in the plains on the banks of the Tiber (for he happened to be walking about in his mother’s garden), he conversed with us formally, and waved his right hand to us in a protecting manner, giving us significant tokens of his good will, and having sent to us the secretary, whose duty it was to attend to the embassies that arrived, Obulus by name, he said, “I myself will listen to what you have to say at the first favourable opportunity.” The next time they met was in his palace on the Esquiline and there was no nice walk in mother’s garden and definitely no listening to what they had to say, just a lot of anger about Jews’ refusal to accept Caligula was a god.

Cornell researchers are addressing the common issue of a rotten egg smell in canned wines by modifying their formulation and developing more durable liners to...