'He gon' speak his opinion'

Obviously, this was tough to write. No one really wants to get older, but of course, we have no choice. We can surely stay young at heart, but as anyone in their 60s and beyond knows, things start to hurt that never hurt before. Some people deal with aging better than others, and some people have no choice. And of course, as we age, so do all of our musical heroes. Just as they wrote songs about fast cars, teenage love, and all the rest when they were younger, now many of them are writing songs about what it’s like The post 10 Best Classic Rock Songs About Getting Older appeared first on ClassicRockHistory.com.

Movies & TV Babylon 5 Rewatch Babylon 5 Rewatch: “Babylon Squared” Prophecy, time travel, and the introduction of an excellent recurring character… By Keith R.A. DeCandido | Published on August 19, 2024 Credit: Warner Bros. Television Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Warner Bros. Television “Babylon Squared”Written by J. Michael StraczynskiDirected by Jim JohnstonSeason 1, Episode 20Production episode 118Original air date: August 10, 1994 It was the dawn of the third age… CnC has detected weird tachyon emissions in Sector 14. Ivanova sent a ship to check it out; the pilot of said ship sees something materializing, and then he screams. The ship returns to B5, but the pilot is dead, having apparently died of old age despite being only 30 years old; before he died, he set the autopilot to get the ship home and also scratched “B4” into a deckplate. Sinclair doesn’t want to send anyone there until they know more, and in the meanwhile, all traffic is to be diverted away from Sector 14. Delenn buggers off through a jump gate in a one-person craft, having declined to even have a pilot. She rendezvouses with a big-ass ship and changes clothes to a gray outfit in order to attend a meeting of the Grey Council. It is ten years since the death of Dukhat. The mourning period is officially over, and they must choose a new leader. Delenn is put out that they didn’t consult her in those deliberations, but it turns out that that’s because they all think she should be the new leader. Credit: Warner Bros. Television B5 receives a distress call from Sector 14. Sinclair is cranky because they were supposed to keep traffic away, but then it turns out to come from Babylon 4, which disappeared without a trace four years earlier. Ivanova confirms that the signal is really from B4, and on top of that, the timecode on the distress call is four years out of date. Sinclair answers the distress call and talks to Major Krantz, who is relieved to find help. He asks for help evacuating the station, to which Sinclair agrees. He and Garibaldi lead a flotilla of evac ships, but only Garibaldi and Sinclair actually approach the station at first. They’re ambushed upon boarding by a crazed crew member, who is taken into custody by an apologetic Krantz. The major explains that they’ve been getting odd tachyon readings and getting constant flashbacks and flashforwards. (Sinclair has one such flashforward.) Krantz is shocked, but not entirely surprised, to find out that he’s jumped forward four years. He needs the station evacuated, and they also have a weird prisoner. Delenn feels that she needs to stay on B5 to make sure that Valen’s prophecy is fulfilled. The other councilors are dismissive, saying that the prophecy will take care of itself, and this is a great honor that will relieve her of the burden of playing ambassador. Delenn, however, thinks it’s very important to stay on B5 and continue her observations of humanity, whose future, she believes, is important. This effectively ends her tenure on the Grey Council. Krantz introduces Sinclair and Garibaldi to Zathras, who speaks in the third person, and also in riddles. He says that B4 is needed to fight in a great war and Zathras is helping to facilitate that. He also makes several references to “the one.” Credit: Warner Bros. Television A humanoid figure in an EVA suit appears out of nowhere. Sinclair approaches the figure, and is zapped across the deck for his trouble. Zathras escapes custody and hands something to the figure, who then disappears. Zathras explains that the one stopped the station at 2258 in order to let the crew evacuate, but it also causes the one pain. The device Zathras handed to the one is a time stabilizer. As the evacuation finishes up, Garibaldi has a flashback to his argument with Lise Hampton on Mars before accepting the B5 assignment. Krantz wants to take Zathras with them off the station, but Zathras says he’ll die if he leaves B4. As they evacuate, Zathras is pinned underneath a piece of debris. Sinclair tries to rescue him, but Zathras insists that Sinclair go to fulfill his destiny. Reluctantly, Sinclair evacs with everyone else. B4 disappears after everyone’s gone. The figure in the EVA suit rescues Zathras. The figure later removes the helmet, and is revealed to be a much older Sinclair, who regrets that everything happened the way he remembered it, and is reassured by an off-screen Delenn. As Delenn is departing, one of the council gifts her with a triluminary, which she reluctantly accepts. Nothing’s the same anymore. Sinclair is directly told by Zathras that he has a destiny to fulfill, and we see an older Sinclair is involved with Zathras and with the pulling of B4 through time. Credit: Warner Bros. Television Ivanova is God. Ivanova, who doesn’t do mornings all that well under the best of circumstances, is awakened early by the tachyon emissions report. Over breakfast, Sinclair and Garibaldi play a practical joke on her, with Sinclair talking about the meditative morning masses he went to when studying under the Jesuits, which puts Ivanova back to sleep, and  then Garibaldi swapping their full plates for empty ones and tricking her into thinking it’s a half-hour later than it is. Ivanova panics, runs off to CnC. Sinclair tells Garibaldi he’ll notify the security chief’s next of kin, and five second later, Ivanova realizes what time it actually is, and Ivanova screams that she’ll kill Garibaldi. Why she only blames Garibaldi (and why Sinclair thinks she’ll only blame Garibaldi) when Sinclair was at least as responsible is left as an exercise for the viewer. The household god of frustration. We see Garibaldi’s past and possible future. Garibaldi is also skeptical that it’s really B4 that’s appeared, at least until he sees it and boards it. If you value your lives, be somewhere else. The Grey Council members rarely leave their capital ship. Delenn is the first person to ever turn down leadership of the council, and she does it because she thinks being on B5 is important, plus she’s the opening-credits regular on a TV show called Babylon 5, so she could hardly leave it… We live for the one, we die for the one. The concept of “the one,” which will become very important over the course of the franchise, is introduced here, and Zathras claims at one point that he will live for the one and, if needs be, die for the one, a phrase that will (to say the least) recur. No sex, please, we’re EarthForce. Garibaldi has a flashback to the argument he and Hampton had on Mars before he took the B5 assignment. Hampton is particularly cranky that Garibaldi is throwing away their relationship for someone he doesn’t even know that well, which is an odd thing for her to say given that Sinclair and Garibaldi are supposed to be old friends… Credit: Warner Bros. Television Looking ahead. Oh, where to even begin? Let’s start with the flashforward that we know can’t happen: Sinclair and Garibaldi at the eve of the destruction of B5 while it’s being overrun by, um, something. This can’t happen for two reasons: Sinclair will wind up leaving the cast at the end of the first season and won’t be around for the destruction of B5 many years hence (which will happen much differently anyhow); and Jerry Doyle will have long since lost all his hair by the time this flashforward would take place. (Sorry, but I always find it hilarious that with all the planning done with this show, nobody took male-pattern baldness into account…) In addition, we see a very old Sinclair in the EVA suit talking to an off-camera Delenn. That half of the story was probably originally intended to be much later in the series’ run, though instead it’ll be in the “War Without End” two-parter. The reasons for Delenn being off-camera will be clear in the early episodes of season two. When Zathras first sees Sinclair, he seems to recognize him, then sits back down and says, “not the one.” This will also be explained in the “War Without End” two-parter. Delenn’s declaration that she’ll never set foot in the Grey Council chambers ever again will prove to be less than prophetic. Ivanova jokes that next time B4 appears, she’s gonna go and Garibaldi will stay behind, which comes to pass in “War Without End.” Welcome aboard. Three recurring characters in this one: Kent Broadhurst debuts the role of Major Krantz; he’ll be back in “War Without End, Part II.” Denise Gentile returns from “A Voice in the Wilderness, Part II” as Hampton, this time in flashback; she’ll be back in season four’s “Conflicts of Interest.” And Tim Choate debuts the delightful recurring role of Zathras; he’ll be back in “War Without End, Part I.” In addition, the other two members of the Grey Council are played by Mark Hendrickson and an uncredited actor. Trivial matters. The other half of this episode will be told in the “War Without End” two-parter in season three. Babylon 4’s fate was first mentioned in “The Gathering,” and spelled out in more detail in “Grail.” The death of Dukhat was established back in “Soul Hunter” as the inciting incident of the Earth-Minbari War. It will be dramatized in the move In the Beginning. This is the first time we’ve seen the Grey Council in person, as it were. Previously, it was only seen in Sinclair’s memories in “And the Sky Full of Stars.” Delenn’s being part of the council was more-or-less established in “The Gathering,” and made more explicit in “Soul Hunter.” Garibaldi references the Flying Dutchman legend at the very top of the episode, thus enabling the episode to show its work, as it were. Sinclair explains the legend to Ivanova by way of explaining it to viewers who are unfamiliar with it… The echoes of all of our conversations. “Zathras not of this time. You take, Zathras die. You leave, Zathras die. Either way, it is bad for Zathras.” —Zathras laying out what’s happening. The name of the place is Babylon 5. “They are better than they think and nobler than they know.” Even if the rest of the episode was terrible (it isn’t), it would be worth it just for the introduction the wonderful Zathras, played with a very compelling furtive loopiness by the late great Tim Choate. Zathras is one of J. Michael Straczynski’s greatest creations and he’s just so much fun here. I’m a sucker for a good time-travel story, and this is a particularly strong one. (The other half of it will have its problems, but those were due to external circumstances and it isn’t fair to ding this episode for it. We’ll get to that in season three…) We finally find out what happened to Babylon 4, and it’s a doozy. The revelation of who’s in the EVA suit is a very effective reveal, and leaves one eager to learn more. And Kent Broadhurst very nicely plays Krantz’s frustration and eagerness to get the hell off the station. The episode has its flaws, however. While Straczynski is a master plotter, his scripting is often hit or miss, especially at this stage of his career, and the “fasten/zip” conversation between Sinclair and Garibaldi as they take the two-hour trip to B4 is a rhapsody in cringey awkwardness. And Delenn’s portion of the plot is the worst kind of artificial suspense, as we know that Delenn isn’t going to accept the leadership position. The whole thing feels like an excuse for Delenn’s speech about how much potential humanity has, and it just feels incredibly constructed. Both plots are important for the future of the show, but the B4 plot was at least compelling viewing. Delenn’s just feels like string-pulling. Next week: “The Quality of Mercy.”[end-mark] The post <i>Babylon 5</i> Rewatch: “Babylon Squared” appeared first on Reactor.

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There’s one question that’s crossed many a mind whilst having a paddle at the beach: am I in the sea or the ocean? Saying you’ve dipped your toes in the ocean certainly sounds more impressive, but is there actually a difference between the two?Before we dive into it, it’s important to know that the definitions of oceans and seas aren’t exactly the strictest – there’s a lot of room for interpretation, with generalizations and exceptions, particularly when it comes to seas.If we’re getting really loose with definitions, oceans and (most of) the seas are all just one vast body of water anyway, known as the World Ocean. But for a multitude of reasons, be it cultural, geographic, or scientific, that water has been carved up and categorized.What is an ocean?When referring to the ocean, it typically means that big ol’ body of salt water covering nearly three-quarters of the planet’s surface, while each of the regions that oceanographers have divided it up into can be considered an ocean (well, so can the ocean, but a word count only allows for so much pedantry).Historically, there were four officially recognized oceans – the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Arctic – their boundaries primarily defined by the continents that they surround. Then, after years of debate, there came a fifth: the Southern Ocean, finally recognized by the National Geographic Society in 2021.What makes this ocean different from the other four is that rather than the continents, it’s defined by an invisible ring: the Antarctic Circumpolar Current that encircles Antarctica.What is a sea?If you happen to call the sea the ocean, you’re not necessarily wrong – seas can still be considered a part of the ocean. What typically defines them, however, is that they are much smaller than an ocean, found where the land and ocean meet, and are usually at least partially enclosed by land.…or are they?We did warn you that there’d be exceptions and when it comes to seas, the Sargasso Sea shows that enclosure by land isn’t exactly a hard and fast rule.Like the Southern Ocean, the boundaries of the Sargasso Sea are defined by current rather than land – four currents, in fact. Found in the north of the Atlantic Ocean, it’s enclosed by the North Atlantic Current, the Canary Current, the North Atlantic Equatorial Current, and the Gulf Stream, making it the only sea without a land boundary.All “explainer” articles are confirmed by fact checkers to be correct at time of publishing. Text, images, and links may be edited, removed, or added to at a later date to keep information current

Along with summoning beautiful aurora in the night sky around the world, the gusty solar storm that rocked Earth in May this year left another legacy: a new Van Allen Belt looping around the planet. The Van Allen belts are two donut-shaped belts of radiation wrapped around Earth, composed of energetic charged particles trapped in the planet's magnetic field. According to NASA, a temporary third belt has recently emerged around Earth as a result of the intense solar storms in May. “Scientists are studying the data to better understand the Belt and how long it might stick around. Stay tuned for their findings!” NASA posted on X, formally Twitter.Most of the energized particles caught in the belts are believed to come from the solar wind, while others arrive as cosmic rays. When strong solar storms hit Earth, just like they did in May, it can cause a disruption that allows a third layer of charged particles to become ensnared by the magnetosphere.The new belt was found sandwiched between the two permanent ones by NASA’s Colorado Inner Radiation Belt Experiment (CIRBE) CubeSat, a satellite that keeps an eye on Earth's inner radiation belt. While it’s unclear how long it might linger, the space agency said it could “last months to years.” It’s well-established that solar storms, an intense flurry of emission of high-energy particles from the Sun's atmosphere, can meddle with Earth’s Van Allen belts. In September 2012, there was another instance of strong solar weather creating a third temporary Belt, which faded away in a matter of weeks. Explaining the 2012 event, Ian Mann, a physics professor at the University of Alberta, said in a statement: "Rather like a space tsunami, they slosh the radiation belts around and very rapidly wash away the outer part of the belt, explaining the structure of the enigmatic third radiation belt."            The geomagnetic storm of May 2024 was the strongest that has been detected for 20 years. Along with the formation of a third Van Allen belt and the creation of a previously unseen vortex in Earth's atmosphere, the most noticeable impact on Earthlings was the sight of stunning Northern Lights in latitudes that aren’t usually blessed with auroras.Don’t be fooled, though, geomagnetic storms have the potential to cause much more upset than pretty colors in the night sky. Much of the technology that runs the world, such as GPS and satellite-based telecommunications, can be affected by aggressive space weather. If a strong enough solar storm were to strike Earth today – just as it did in 1859 – it could prove catastrophic.

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has passed a resolution to strengthen the work it does in protecting the Dark and Quiet Sky both on the ground and in space. That the resolution would pass was obvious – you wouldn’t expect turkeys to vote for Christmas – but it matters greatly in showing the commitment of the IAU to protecting the sky, not just for astronomers but for all of us. It is, after all, a shared heritage of humankind.It is for this reason that the resolution was on the table for the 32nd General Assembly of the IAU, the first one that took place in Africa. Among the many sessions, there have been workshops on the topic of Dark and Quiet skies. Threats to the sky are multiple – the most common on the ground is light pollution.“A problem for us with light pollution on the ground is the ongoing world transition to LED technology, which has made light at night very inexpensive to consume,” Dr John Barentine, the Executive Officer and Principal Consultant at Dark Sky Consulting, told IFLScience. “In the last decade, the brightness of the night sky has been rising around the world on the order of about 10 percent per year on average.”We are still trying to develop and refine our messaging to emphasise that there is a win-win – that it is possible to have responsibly designed, effective light while also minimising light pollution.Carol Nyaguthii The transition to LED has been good in terms of energy consumption as the bulbs consume much less energy than filament bulbs. But it has meant that it is now possible to illuminate areas all night long, including places that weren’t really illuminated, simply because it’s very cheap. A common example is floodlights in an industrial parking lot, even when there’s no one on the premises.Light pollution impacts astronomy and our enjoyment of the night sky, but it also impacts our body’s natural rhythms leading to sleeplessness. It also affects animals, plants, and other living organisms that rely on the sky and darkness to live and thrive.“One of the biggest challenges has been raising awareness about the importance of dark sky preservation. While people more intuitively understand how light pollution affects astronomy, its effects on biodiversity, health, and heritage are harder to communicate,” Carol Nyaguthii, secretary of DarkSky Kenya, told IFLScience.In many countries in the Global North, the work of Dark Sky initiatives is focused on reversing the damage and making better choices for the future. Places like Kenya, where electrification is still expanding, are about to show that it is possible to bring lighting without having to compromise the protection of the night sky.“We are still trying to develop and refine our messaging to emphasise that there is a win-win – that it is possible to have responsibly designed, effective light while also minimising light pollution,” Nyaguthii explained.Clever design, timers, motion sensors, and different colors are some of the ways that light pollution is mitigated. However, part of the problem does not come from the ground, but from satellites. There are a lot more satellites in space than ever before. The megaconstellations of satellites, with hundreds if not thousands of individual orbiting objects, are changing the sky dramatically. This impacts astronomers who can’t perform observations without streaks, but if they add to overall brightness, even designated dark areas on Earth are not safe.Satellites can leave streaks on astronomical observations.Image Credit: NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory/CTIO/AURA/DELVEAs of June 2024, there were 11,780 satellites in orbit and 6,050 of them were from SpaceX’s megaconstellation Starlink. The company owned by Elon Musk aims to at least double the number and ideally get to six times as many satellites in space. They are not alone in this endeavor. Many private and public organizations are planning similar numbers of objects in space.These satellites bring not just light, they also send radio waves down to places on Earth where there is usually very little radio frequency. Scientists want to make sure progress in access to space doesn’t come at the cost of our ability to study the universe in the first place.“The sky is a resource, I think, that's available to everybody. And there's so much out there in astronomy that we don't yet know. The increased number of satellites poses a risk to our ability to actually see and learn more things. And I think we can try and cooperate together to keep the sky dark, to keep it quiet, so that we're still able to do observations and do science,” Dr Wendy Williams, a scientist for the SKA Observatory, told IFLScience.With 300,000 satellites expected to be in orbit over the course of the next decade, the crucial issue is that there is little regulation at national and international levels to keep light and radio pollution to a minimum. As an example, in the US, the Federal Communications Commission requires operators to have a coordination agreement with the National Science Foundation to keep light pollution to a minimum.“It's mandatory to have this coordination agreement, but it doesn’t actually mandate any specific limit or threshold or brightness requirement,” Dr Andrew Williams, from the European Southern Observatory (ESO), told IFLScience. “So companies can make good faith efforts. But presumably, they could say: ‘Well, look, we tried as hard as we can, it cost us a huge amount of effort, but sorry, that’s the best we can do.’ It’s not clear what is actually going to happen in that situation.”The streak from a Starlink satellite across the Andromeda galaxy, taken by the Zwicky Transient Facility during twilight on May 19, 2021.Image Credit: ZTFStill, all the people we interviewed at the General Assembly regarding the Dark and Quiet Sky have stressed that private companies are engaging and listening to the concern. They are willing to change satellite designs, turn off emitters over specific regions, and more.“We don't want to roll back any progress,” Dr Barentine explained. “The satellite operators have a right to be in space, just as we have a right to access space for astronomy purposes. So we're actively working with them to try to find a solution that is as much of an agreement on the basics as we can reach to where they're able to conduct their activities without causing undue interference to what we're doing.”I hope there will be some regulation for the protection of the dark and quiet sky.Prof. Roberto RagazzoniThis sentiment is echoed by Dr Lewis Ball, the Director of Operations for the SKA Organisation. SKA Observatory will be a revolutionary radio astronomy facility spread across South Africa and Australia, and a quiet sky is paramount for its quest to answer some of the biggest mysteries of the universe. Companies are willing to listen to organizations trying to protect the sky, but this is done on a one-to-one basis. What happens when there are dozens?“One of the challenges that we face though is that at the moment there's one major and small number of other operators.  But as that grows, the one-to-one interaction becomes simply too hard to manage. We can't be engaging with 20 or 25 or 50 different operators. So we have to look at the regulatory side and have some input to that as well,” Dr Ball explained.This is why clear rules and regulations are key for the long-term protection of the night sky and the safe operation of satellites in space. Things are moving slowly but there’s reason to hope for more in the near future.“The European Space Agency has mandatory space debris mitigation standards and they're going through a process now of updating these,” Dr Williams told IFLScience. “They have the Clean Space program and we've managed to get dark and quiet skies as an item that's now part of this Space Debris Mitigation Standard.”The risk of space debris is a serious one and the space industry is paying attention to those requirements. Adding Dark and Quiet Sky protection makes it easier to know what private companies should do. Still, the constant request we hear is for clear regulations.       “The most precious resource for astronomers Is the sky. This remained unchanged for millennia. But it is no longer the case. The sky is threatened by light pollution and satellite constellation, among other things. The IAU, together with its partner, NFS Noirlab, the SKAO, under the leadership of Piero Benvenuti, and with the support of several concerned countries is raising the issue at the highest political level including the [United Nations],”  Willy Benz, incoming IAU president, said during a gala at the Italian Embassy in Cape Town attended by IFLScience.This is also echoed by Professor Roberto Ragazzoni, the president of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics and chair of the next IAU General Assembly that will take place in Rome in August 2027.“I hope there will be some regulation for the protection of the dark and quiet sky,” Ragazzoni told us. “Especially on the radio side, we want to protect those special areas where today we are building, SKA or LOFAR or other telescopes.”Dr Williams too, who is ESO's Representative to the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, is looking at the highest international levels for eventual regulation. “What we hope for in the long run is that the UN committee will make this a bit more formalized and will start the process of developing some kind of principles of protection of the dark and quiet skies.”

Google George Santos and you’ll find a surplus of headlines citing fraud and campaign finance violations, among other accusations. The list of federal felony charges the expelled congressman faces is as follows: one count of conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States two counts of wire fraud two counts of making materially false statements to the Federal Election Commission two counts of falsifying records submitted to obstruct the FEC two counts of aggravated identity theft one count of access device fraud seven counts of wire fraud three counts of money laundering one count of theft of public funds two counts of making materially false statements to the United States House of Representatives That’s 23 total charges that Santos will answer to in court next month. According to Santos, however, the only reason he’s been hit with a slew of felonies is because he’s exposed the insidious corruption in Congress. - YouTube www.youtube.com “I went from being a member of Congress (previously a private equity professional) to becoming a professional s**t poster on social media, and let me tell you something ... nobody's willing to say that Congress inside trades. Nobody's willing to sit here and tell you Dan Crenshaw is a dirty insider trader,” he tells James Poulos, pointing to the Blaze Originals documentary “Bought and Paid For” released earlier this year that explains how congressmen and women get filthy rich despite their moderate salaries. Santos says he does it because “the American people deserve to know the scumbags that are in Congress today.” However, he believes that his boldness is why he’s been ousted and charged with a litany of offenses. He points to Texas Democrat Sen. Henry Cuellar as proof. “His indictment says he's been taking bribes from a Mexican bank and the country of Azerbaijan for the last ten years, which means he's been corrupt since the day he got here. I think that's far more than the BS they try to pin on me,” says Santos, and yet despite his crimes, Cuellar is considered “an honorable member with great relationships and accomplishments.” To hear Santos spill the tea on his least favorite members of Congress, like Eric Swalwell's intimate relations with a Chinese spy, watch the episode above. Want more from James Poulos?To enjoy more of James' visionary commentary on politics, tech, ideas, and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.