Look, you’re busy. You’ve got stuff that needs to be done today. Do you really have time to watch tiny baby goats jump in slow motion? Will that really add anything of value to your life? Actually, the answer is yes. Because watching tiny baby goats jump in slow motion is not only exceedingly entertaining, it’s actually a simple life lesson in disguise.These little guys hail from Sunflower Farm Creamery in Maine, where 60 (yes, 60) goats are born each year. Sunflower Farm promises that even if you didn’t love goats before, you will after watching videos from its Youtube channel showing the wee babes run, play, hop and snuggle. I mean, there’s another video showing the goats in pajamas…what’s not to love?But back to this one. In the video’s description, Sunflower Farm writes, “The amount of effort a baby goat puts into each hop is astounding, and only fully observed by slowing down their motion so you can see every twist and turn clearly. They leap so bravely forward. Even the youngest six, who are one week old, are full of twists and turns and side kicks.”Yep, in the clip you can definitely see boundless energy and fearlessness in their leaps. Which, let's be honest, might not always result in the most graceful move. And yet when you slow that action down and put on a little Tchaikovsky, it suddenly becomes a riveting ballet nonetheless. Check it out: The farm added that the goats aren’t merely hopping around to learn how to avoid predators. They are also simply doing it for the “joy of it.” Play in the animal kingdom is as nuanced as it is for humans, with many experts noting that some species actually don’t engage in play to develop any sort of motor or cognitive skills. They do it, seemingly, just cause.In other words, these goats “leap because they can.” And that’s that. Folks who watched the video seemed to agree that their spontaneous, unbridled joy was contagious. “OMG, the sheer joy! I had no real understanding of how random their movement was! That is probably the best thing I've seen in months!” one person comments. Another added, “These kids are simply experiencing the sheer joy of life bursting out of them. Absolutely wondrous to watch.”Sure, it’s a silly little goat ballet, but Sunflower Farms argues that humans could learn a thing or two from it.“Humans could benefit so much by practicing being more nimble, fluid, and joyful. It is so easy to get stuck in our ways, to feel heavy, and weighed down by the world. The goat kids show us that there is another way,” the video description read.Indeed, life might feel heavy at times. But take it from a group of baby goats…jumping around for no reason at all can be the best pick-me-up. No kidding.This article originally appeared on 5.7.23

Christopher Landis, a choir director at Hingham Middle School in Massachusetts, didn’t tell his students he was engaged to Joe Michienzie three years ago. According to Inside Edition, whenever they asked who Michienzie was, Christopher would say, "That's Joe. He's my friend."Landis kept his relationship a secret in front of his students because he wasn’t sure how their parents would react. Sadly, even today, LGBTQ people still have to be discreet about their personal lives in some professions.This is sad for the teachers who have to stay closeted and also for the LGBTQ students who miss out on having a positive role model.However, somehow the secret got out and two mothers of Landis’ students, Margit Foley and Joy Foraste, approached Michienzie to see how they could get the students involved in their wedding.“At the end of the summer, Margit and I heard he was getting married. He’s the best teacher, and he’s got this great energy, and he makes every school function fun. We thought, wouldn’t it be awesome to do something for his wedding?” Foraste said according to The New York Times.The women emailed the other choir parents to see if their children could perform at their teacher’s wedding rehearsal dinner.“We hoped we’d get at least 15 kids to do it,” Foraste said. But 50 of the 70 kids in the chorus said they’d be there to support their teacher’s wedding. They secretly rehearsed for four Sundays in a row at a local library so Landis wouldn’t catch a whiff of the plan they hatched.The kids and their parents kept the secret for four months before the big day and had to get off school and travel 30 miles to the event. Landis had no idea what was about to happen but he felt something was up when people at the dinner started picking up their phones.Out of nowhere, 50 kids filed into the room, songbooks in hand. After Dona Maher, a colleague of Landis’, banged out the first few notes of the French National Anthem on her keyboard, the kids began to sing the word, “Love.” It was the perfect song for the occasion, “All You Need Is Love” by the Beatles.Video taken by the bartender at the event shows Landis unable to hold back the tears as his kids sang their hearts out. It was a beautiful moment of acceptance for a teacher who wasn’t sure if his kids and their parents would understand his love for his husband-to-be. After the performance, Landis turned to the crowd with a huge smile and said, “These are my kids.""It was so wonderful for the kids to see him with his family and his close friends, and they saw him as a person, not just their teacher," Foraste told The Patriot Ledger. "They saw how much it meant to him. He immediately started crying and the kids started crying. It's something they’ll never forget."This article originally appeared on 11.10.22

Pam has a little brother, who recently learned that he is actually her half-brother.Of course, half-siblings are still very much siblings, but Pam's brother doesn't quite grasp the concept yet and seems upset about having to part with 50% of his sister.So when she came home recently, she found this letter he'd written. It will make you cry, so have off-brand tissues on hand:OMG.As if this letter isn't enough to turn your heart into a soft pile of oatmeal, he also left her some of her (presumably) favorite snacks, like Chips Ahoy and Takis (excellent choices!).Pam, being a human with a soul, was deeply moved and tweeted out a photo of her little brother's letter: My little brother found out I\u2019m not his fully sister and I came home to this.. I\u2019m crying..pic.twitter.com/DAC0yUUBt4 — \ua9c1Pam\ua9c2 (@\ua9c1Pam\ua9c2) 1532413776 It quickly went viral. And now the whole internet is now welling up with tears. pic.twitter.com/8EP4hcS2oq— LUNA (@lilialunav) July 25, 2018 And others are sharing their own sibling stories:These are so, so sweet.I was introducing my kids to my new wife and stepson. When I explained that she was their new Stepmom, My Stepson (5) said to my kids Mom "Well if my Mom is going to be their Stepmom, you're going to be my new Stepmom!"— Disco Stu (@wharrrgarrbl) August 28, 2021 When I found out my oldest brother wasn’t my full brother I said and I quote “I thought he was different. But I like him more anyway”— Liy (@Its_Montana_) July 25, 2018 Don't say we didn't warn you about the tissues.Remember this next time you get into a fight with your sibling. Half or whole, doesn't matter. Love/hate is love/hate!This article originally appeared on 11.04.22

The Fleetwood Mac singer on her most crucial muse. The post Stevie Nicks discusses her one “great musical love” first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

Feeling so low when up too high. The post The tour that made Chris Cornell want to end Soundgarden: “I didn’t want it” first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

He's famous for his role on 'M*A*S*H,' but where else have we seen him?

He's famous for his role on 'M*A*S*H,' but where else have we seen him?

Disney Pixar’s Inside Out 2 passed the billion-dollar benchmark this Sunday, becoming the highest-grossing film of 2024, the first film since Barbie to make $1 billion at the global box office, and the first animated film to have reached this mark in 19 days. One can see why the Pixar sequel has garnered so many viewers. It is a wholesome and creative depiction of emotions, centered around a broadly relatable teenage girl struggling to balance the anxieties of status and change with her identity as a “good person.” But Inside Out 2’s merits do not account for the whole story of its success. The truth is that audiences are craving for good movies to go see at the theater, and a sequel of a successful Pixar film with no political messaging or “woke” content is the best excuse to do so. (READ MORE: “‘Who You Gonna Call?’: Ghostbusters Reboot Reaffirms Traditional Values”) Not only is Inside Out 2’s success a win for Disney and Pixar, but it is also a major win for movie theaters. Michael O’Leary, president and CEO of the National Associations of Theatre Owners, remarked that “[T]he film’s stunning global success once again illustrates that audiences the world over will respond to compelling, entertaining movies, and that they want to enjoy them on the big screen.” A similar trend was seen last year with the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon surrounding the theatrical release of Warner Bros. Pictures’ Barbie and Universal Pictures’ Oppenheimer. The simultaneous release of the two films, in spite of targeting different audiences, sparked an enthusiasm for the big screen that had not developed since the months prior to the pandemic in 2020. It was also the first time in several years that the theaters were filled for movies that were not tied to a particular franchise, like the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) or the DC Extended Universe. The success of stand-alone films like Oppenheimer, or even sequels like Inside Out 2, may be signaling the return of a more traditional and, indeed, more meaningful cinematic experience — one that is not centered around building clues and expectations for upcoming movies, but solely around the quality of the film’s thematic and production material. For instance, the latest MCU film to be released, The Marvels, reportedly lost $237 million and was officially ranked the lowest grossing MCU movie. Starring exclusively female protagonists, it was both promoted and perceived as an explicitly feminist superhero story. Hence, the success of Inside Out 2 seems to communicate that viewers are tired of having their films be platforms for progressive politics. And, perhaps more importantly, it also shows that theaters are not a forum for never-ending franchises with little to no creativity in their story-telling. Although streaming movies on platforms like Netflix and Hulu is convenient, nothing quite replaces the communal experience of engaging with cinema publicly, nor the excitement that is uniquely produced by watching a film on the big screen. The post <i>Inside Out 2</i>’s Success May Signal the Return of the Movie Theater Experience appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Sometimes, you just want to spice up your pasta. To get a bigger kick out of spaghetti sauce, you should kick things up a notch with a bit of canned heat.