'he stands right back up, yelling, "FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!"'

For Led Zeppelin fans, there are pretty much no underrated Led Zeppelin songs. The band only released original material over the span of about one decade. From 1969, to 1979 they delivered eight studio albums (we don’t count Coda as a studio album) that their hardcore fans devoured and listened to every day. They still do. Of course, I can only really speak for myself as a huge Led Zeppelin fan, but all I know is that I still constantly play their music because it brings me great joy and stirs up a lot of memories. I know I’m not The post 10 Most Underrated Led Zeppelin Songs appeared first on ClassicRockHistory.com.

A group of what only can be described as ‘brave’ kayakers and snorkelers saw a giant shape floating in the water ahead of them, and paddled towards it to record the sighting of an incredible species. On a recreational paddle near La Jolla Cove, California, they had found an oarfish (Regalecus glesne)—an omen of destruction […] The post Rare ‘Doomsday’ Fish Surfaces in California, Just the 20th Discovered in the State Since 1901 appeared first on Good News Network.

Books fanart Creating Fan Art, Brick by Brick An interview with Rick Martin, who creates elaborate SFF fanart from Lego. By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on August 22, 2024 Credit: Rick Martin Comment 1 Share New Share Credit: Rick Martin Fan art comes in many forms. And for Rick Martin, that form is Lego. Martin started making Lego as an adult back in 2013 when, as a Federal government employee, he was furloughed for two weeks. “I couldn’t really go anywhere because they could call us back to work at any day,” Martin told me. “I had all these Legos my parents had dumped on me, and I was working my way through some of Brandon Sanderson’s books at the time, so I decided to start building some.” To date, Martin has made builds based on several authors’ works. In addition to Sanderson, he’s also recreated a slew of scenes from Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series as well as installations from Travis Baldree’s Legends & Lattes, Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth, and Catherynne Valente’s Space Opera, among others. He was also kind enough to let us share some of those images here (and you can see all of his fan art on his website, secondbrickfast.com), and talk to me about his process. Picking the Fandom to Build Credit: Rick Martin Martin always has a long list of things he wants to build. So long, in fact, that he knows he’ll never get to them all. To winnow it down, he centers those that get him truly excited. “It’s mostly things that just inspire me, and things that I want to see a visual representation of,” he says. “I try to do things that haven’t been done too much, like when things have already come out in film and TV, they’re less exciting to me because there’s already this well-established visual representation of it.” Practical concerns are also a factor—he only has so many Lego parts (though as you can see by the image of his workroom above he has an impressive collection that he estimates includes hundreds of thousands of pieces), and sometimes scenes would require too much specialization. “I’d really like to do the Broken Earth series by N.K. Jemison,” he says. “Specifically, there’s one scene… where there’s an underground city in a cavern with giant gemstones. I’ve always envisioned that, and I think that’d be really fun to do, but trying to make these obelisks and gemstones that are not ninety-degree angles makes it a lot harder… and I don’t think I can amass enough of the right kinds of parts and figure out the geometry to do it.” Deciding on the Kind of Build Credit: Rick Martin (secondbrickfast.com) Deciding what to build next also requires figuring out the size of the build. Martin has done installations as large as six feet by six feet, which can take him up to a year to do. He also, however, does smaller builds that focus on a specific scene or character. “I might do a series of small builds featuring one character to show their character development through a series,” he explains, adding that he can also do those a lot faster, which means he can do more builds within a given year. Making the Builds Credit: Rick Martin When Martin gets down to actually building, he doesn’t usually sketch things out in advance. The base plates serve as his craft paper, and after doing some rough measurements to figure out what the scale is going to be, he’ll use small Legos in a color not used in the build to outline and mark things out. “Occasionally, I do have to draw things out,” he concedes. “Especially with a lot of Brandon Sanderson’s works, because he put so much official artwork into his books, and I want to match that.” One example of this was M-Bot from Sanderson’s Skyward, a sentient spaceship. The wings of Martin’s Lego M-Bot move, and he had to do some trigonometry to figure out where the joints should be to match the official art created by Ben McSweeney. Customization Credit: Rick Martin You might have noticed that most of Martin’s Lego characters have specific expressions that match descriptions in their respective books. To achieve this, he often sends pieces out to a flatbed 3-D printer, which can print images onto round surfaces like golf balls and, in Martin’s case, a tiny Lego head. In other instances, he also just uses direct-to-film decals that he makes himself. Showcasing the Builds Credit: Rick Martin Martin also considers how he will be able to photograph his creations once they’re done so that others can best see his work. He’s learned about composition and invested in special lighting, and also keeps in mind how he can best showcase the builds once he’s done. “I try to keep that in mind what the shot is going to be, not just what the build going to be,” he says. “So what angles am I going to take the photo from? What’s the composition going to be like? Will we be able to see all the character spaces? I keep all that stuff in mind as I’m building, rather than trying to just fix that at the end.” What’s Next? Credit: Rick Martin In addition to making some digitally animated Lego shorts of scenes from Brandon Sanderson’s The Stormlight Archive and Skyward (which you can check out here), Martin is currently working on his latest project, a chess set with characters from The Stormlight Archive. “I went through a list of all the different main characters and which chess pieces they would be,” he says. “I tend to like to do that with different books, because it’s a good way to illustrate a lot of different things from a series. Chess sets just seem to naturally have a sort of hierarchy of pieces with two sides. And it works pretty well with Brandon’s books. I’ve done that with Mistborn [pictured above] and with Elantris and The Wheel of Time. So yeah, right now, I’m just about two-thirds the way done with that one.” You can see the rest of Martin’s creations at his website here. [end-mark] The post Creating Fan Art, Brick by Brick appeared first on Reactor.

Two persistent problems beset American schools. First, teachers must leave the classroom and become administrators or counselors to earn above the standard teacher salary. Second, colleges of education can’t prepare new teachers nearly as well as an apprenticeship under a veteran teacher who has consistently demonstrated mastery of the craft. Thankfully, K-12 education can rework how it prepares new teachers and rewards quality veteran educators to solve both problems simultaneously. Let’s begin with the second problem. A common complaint among teachers is how far removed the professors in the education programs are from the K-12 classroom. Most haven’t been classroom teachers in at least a decade and have forgotten what that was like. Some have never been a teacher at all. They found that many lofty ideas and great-sounding theories fail and crumble in a room full of energetic children looking to them for clear direction and guidance. Utilizing current classroom teachers would remove that complaint entirely. Nobody knows better about classroom teachers’ challenges and struggles than those who have been in the position for years. As apprentices, aspiring teachers could observe and learn how the veterans handle unruly students, constant interruptions, unhappy parents, broken copy machines, dismissive administrators, and rained-out recess. Gradually, the mentor could hand over tasks and responsibilities over the year to allow the apprentice to apply some of the learned techniques. Another complaint I often hear from teachers is that the classes they took in their education programs needed more useful information. Rather than teaching them about pedagogy or ensuring they had a solid understanding of the content they would be teaching, many of their classes focused on courses like child psychology, social foundations of education, and educational philosophy. While it might be interesting for educators to know about these topics, it is not necessary to become effective teachers. Effective welders needn’t know the finer points of thermodynamics of metallurgy. Knowledge of pedagogy certainly helps, but teaching is an applied science, and practical knowledge about classroom management, for example, is far more urgent in the early years. A teacher preparation model that utilizes experienced teachers who demonstrate a clear understanding of their content and use the prescribed curriculum with efficacy addresses the issue of relevance. Of course, the curriculum will vary, but aspiring teachers can see what it looks like to follow the plan. Observing this may deter them from venturing onto the internet to find more “fun,” “engaging,” and less effective curricula once they have their own classrooms. Those suggestions address issues related to teacher prep programs, but they simultaneously address the issue of great teachers who deserve recognition and compensation for their skill and dedication to the profession. School leaders should strive to keep effective teachers in the classroom where they will have the most significant impact on students. States should stop paying college professors who haven’t been in the classroom for years six-figure salaries to float lofty ideas of utopian classrooms to bright-eyed students. Instead, they should jettison requirements for prospective teachers to get state-certified through ineffective colleges of education in favor of teacher apprenticeships. At the same time, states and school districts should move toward merit-based pay systems rather than paying teachers based on the length of time they’ve served in the classroom, rewarding excellent teachers who demonstrably improve student learning. In most states, there is currently a student-teacher model similar to this. However, it is generally not an entire year, requires rising teachers to delve into child psychology, and doesn’t adequately screen or compensate the participating veteran teachers. There is a new program that was introduced in recent years that has promise, however. The Registered Apprenticeship Programs (RAP) allow aspiring teachers to glean wisdom from and work alongside experienced educators before taking on the responsibility of a classroom of their own. “Since the K-12 Teacher Registered Apprentice occupation was first approved in 2021, 30 U.S. states or territories have registered at least one K-12 Teacher RAP,” according to an apprenticeship guidebook, and these options have begun to show their success. K-12 education has faced unprecedented scrutiny in recent years, and problems that remained dormant for decades suddenly became undeniable. Teacher preparation programs are the root of so many of those problems. Meanwhile, great teachers who should be applauded for their dedication to children and commitment to education for decades are leaving in droves because of a lack of autonomy or clear pathways for professional growth.  It is time to stop complaining about the issue and start looking at practical solutions. The post In With Teacher Apprenticeships, out With Colleges of Education appeared first on The Daily Signal.

ICE Manages to Lose 32,000 Illegal Minors

"A very memorable moment.”

Is seaweed grown next to a wind turbine the future of food?

Sometimes a baking soda volcano doesn’t cut it.

To say it’s an absolute beast would be an understatement.