If you want to get excited about scientific advancements from space, you have to accept sometimes that often the most exciting things are the most unactionable. Take for example a study just released from the University of California—that scientists may have finally found all that water that disappeared off the surface of Mars 3 billion […] The post Water Detected on Mars Could Harbor Life 12 Miles Underground appeared first on Good News Network.

Featured Essays David Lynch David Lynch’s Weirdness Cannot Be Separated From His Empathy Lynch’s films and shows are famously strange, but that strangeness pushes his audience toward profound emotions and empathy… By Joe George | Published on August 20, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share One of the most infamous scenes in Eraserhead involves an unusual family dinner. Henry (Jack Nance) joins his girlfriend Mary (Charlotte Stewart) for a meal with her parents, in a blue-collar apartment in the film’s unnamed industrial city. Mary’s father (Allen Joseph) invites Henry to cut the main course, a set of miniature roast chickens. Despite the father’s instructions to “cut ‘em up like regular chickens,” the poultry begins writhing as soon as Henry’s fork pokes it, spewing a grotesque bile while waving its wings and legs. A pulsing, squishing noise accompanies close-ups of the bird, soon matched by the sound of Mary’s mother (Jeanne Bates) going into a seizure or trance. The camera cuts from the wiggling, bleeding birds to the participants at the table, catching Henry’s helpless look of confusion and Mary softly crying. The dinner scene is one of the most infamous moments in Eraserhead, the 1977 debut feature by David Lynch. Fans cite it as an example of the film’s bizarre, upsetting tone and imagery, a twisted look at the American family. Upsetting as the bleeding bird and undulating mother certainly are, the scene isn’t played just for shock. There’s a genuine sadness to the moment, which the camera acknowledges in the vulnerability experienced by Mary and the confusion felt by Henry. As strange as the Eraserhead scene is, it’s also deeply human and humane. This infamous Eraserhead moment captures the strangeness that has continued to be a defining feature of Lynch’s work. However, it also captures one of the most important, yet still under-discussed aspect of Lynch’s oeuvre: his unrelenting empathy. Weirdness for Emotion’s Sake Perhaps the best encapsulation of the public perception of Lynch’s work can be found, perhaps unsurprisingly, in The Simpsons. In the season nine episode “Lisa’s Sax” from 1997, Homer sits and the couch and watches Twin Peaks, or at least a cartoon approximation of the show, complete with jazzy score and a Kyle MacLachlan sound-alike. On the screen, a white horse dances with a Giant sporting a bowtie, while a stoplight swings from a branch. “Brilliant!” Homer laughs. “I have absolutely no idea what’s going on.” As always, Homer speaks for many. They recognize that Lynch is doing something in his work, and it works for them on an emotional level, but they can’t articulate why. Well, most can’t articulate why. Some put together lengthy explanations to nail down the meanings behind the key in Mulholland Drive or the white horse that appears in the Palmers’ living room. They think that Lynch’s weirdness is either a challenge that must be overcome or an idiosyncrasy to be tolerated. Both of these approaches make it almost impossible to truly engage with Lynch’s work. Take his very first film, the four-minute short “Six Men Getting Sick (Six Times)” from 1967. The short student film consists of about forty-five seconds of animation, which plays on a loop as an air-raid siren blares. At the top of the frame sit the heads of six men, with a tube running to exposed stomachs below, surrounded by black ink that fills up two-thirds of the frame. The men wave their hands as red bile fills their stomachs and then turns the color of a bruise. The black ink turns purple as the men vomit, just to have the whole thing start all over again. It would be easy to dismiss “Six Men Getting Sick” as weirdness for weirdness’ sake or a type of abrasive outsider art, and many do. However, Lynch’s art works best on an emotional level, and while the emotions in “Six Men Getting Sick” might initially push people away, they also call for sympathy. After all, the men, the lone recognizable and human figures in the film, are suffering. There’s no end or reason to their suffering. It just happens, again and again. The same is true of nearly every weird or upsetting scene in Lynch’s filmography. Take one of the most infamous moments in his work, the figure behind the Winkie’s dumpster in Mulholland Drive. Nothing about the scene makes any sense. It involves two characters who don’t appear in any other part of the movie (played by Patrick Fischler and Michael Cooke), who meet in a diner to discuss a dream that one of them has had. After hearing about the dream, the two walk out to the dumpster behind the restaurant, so that one can prove to the other that it isn’t real. When they arrive to the dumpster, a filthy figure materializes from behind a wall, accompanied by a sting that turns her appearance into a chilling jump scare. The scene is terrifying, but the terror works because we viewers sympathize with Fischler’s unnamed character, who collapses in fright at the sight of the woman. We don’t know who she is or how she got there, but we do know what a suffering person looks like when we see one. We’re scared because he’s scared, because we sympathize with him. From Eraserhead and The Elephant Man to The Straight Story and Inland Empire, this visceral sense of empathy drives Lynch’s work. When Isabella Rossellini’s torch singer Dorothy Vallens emerges from a house nude and screaming in Blue Velvet, when Dune villain Baron Harkonnen (Kenneth McMillan) cackles after killing an innocent young man, when vain leading man Lester Guy (Ian Buchanan) cringes at the inexplicable success of starlet Betty (Marla Rubinoff) in the little-loved comedy On the Air, there is a vulnerable person at the center, experiencing emotions both recognizable and profound. Ineffable Feelings Finding Each Other In the fourteenth episode of Twin Peaks, just before the infamous reveal of Laura Palmer’s killer, several of the main characters gather at the local watering hole, the Roadhouse. FBI Agent Dale Cooper (MacLachlan) and Sheriff Harry Truman (Michael Ontkean) sit among the crowd of onlookers to watch singer Julee Cruise perform, while troublesome teens Bobby (Dana Ashbrook) and Mike (Gary Hershberger) sit at the bar. Young lovers Donna (Lara Flynn Boyle) and James (James Marshall) make eyes at each other in a booth. Midway through the song, the band disappears and the Giant (Carel Struycken), one of the figures who so baffled Homer Simpson, takes their place on the stage. “It is happening again,” the Giant tells Cooper. The episode then cuts to Laura Palmer’s house, where Laura’s cousin Maddie (played by Sheryl Lee, who also portrayed Laura) is beaten to death by Laura’s father Leland (Ray Wise). When we return to the Roadhouse, the Giant fades away and the band returns. Only Cooper has seen and heard the Giant’s message, but a palpable sorrow fills the bar. Cutaways find Bobby, Donna, and others bursting into tears, unable to understand why. An elderly man (Hank Worden) comes up to Cooper and says, “I’m so sorry.” There’s no explanation for the mechanics of what happens, nor does there need to be. The point is that something so awful has happened that it cannot be contained by logic or reality. It defies conventional wisdom, and so Lynch breaks rules and reality to express it. As far as Lynch’s strange moments go, the breakdown is one of the easier to take. But the principle is true, even when it comes to his most upsetting scenes. With its overheated characters and stomach-churning dramatic beats, Wild at Heart might be the most disturbing entry in Lynch’s filmography. It’s hard to see anything human in Willem Dafoe’s grotesque Bobby Peru or Crispin Glover’s Santa-obsessed Jingle Dell. But none of these characters drive the narrative in Wild at Heart. Instead, they serve as examples of a twisted, hateful world, which only underscores the purity of the love between protagonists Sailor (Nicolas Cage) and Lula (Laura Dern). We viewers might be bothered by the sight of Lula’s mother (played by Dern’s real-life mother Diane Ladd) smearing her face with lip-stick, but the underlying emotion still connects: she fears that she’s losing her daughter, while Lula desperately longs for a more accepting form of love. Weird as these people are, they are still people, deserving of empathy. Sitting in the Strangeness The dinner scene in Eraserhead captures the feeling that some viewers when they watch Lynch’s work. They feel like they’re stuck in a world that they don’t understand, and they want nothing more than to run from the room, like Mary’s mother does at the inexplicable sight of writhing chickens. Yet, Mary’s mother comes back. She comes back and demands that Henry stay with Mary. Whether or not that’s a good move for anyone isn’t the point of the scene. The point, rather, is the very real and very understandable feelings of everyone involved: Mary’s embarrassment and guilt, the mother’s desire to protect Mary in some way, and Henry’s overwhelming sense of responsibility. That conflict ultimately takes the form of a grotesque monster baby that plagues Henry throughout the rest of the film. How the baby works doesn’t make sense. What the baby is doesn’t make sense, and Lynch still won’t explain how he constructed the prop. But what does make sense is the way it suffers, the way Henry tries to help it and then gives into potential for violence when all else fails. Even at its most surreal and disgusting, the Eraserhead baby, Henry, and in fact all of Lynch’s characters call for empathy, even if it’s an empathy that transcends logic or reason.[end-mark] The post David Lynch’s Weirdness Cannot Be Separated From His Empathy appeared first on Reactor.

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—A California mom’s lawsuit against the school district that helped her daughter identify as a boy without her knowledge could block the enforcement of a new California law that mandates schools hide students’ so-called gender identities from parents.   The Center for American Liberty first filed a lawsuit against Chico Unified School District in January 2023 on behalf of Aurora Regino, whose 11-year-old daughter “socially transitioned” at school and started identifying as male. The district has what the lawsuit calls a “Parental Secrecy Policy,” requiring Chico schools to socially transition students upon their request, regardless of parental support and without consent. The district court dismissed the case, and The Center for American Liberty, a free speech nonprofit, appealed the case to the federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, where it is currently pending. In mid-July, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, signed Assembly Bill 1955, which barred school districts from requiring that parents be informed of their child’s gender identity. The law overrides any local school board policies that require transparency with parents about their child’s sexual orientation or gender identity. The center filed a letter in the 9th Circuit on Aug. 15, explaining how Assembly Bill 1955 would affect the case. Filed Supplemental Letter Brief – ReginoDownload According to the organization, AB 1955 has no impact on Regino’s case, because the mother seeks a court declaration that the district’s Parental Secrecy Policy violates the Constitution as well as an injunction against the Chico policy’s continued application of the policy. “The Parental Secrecy Policy is not a mandatory parental disclosure policy of the type targeted by AB 1955,” the letter shared with The Daily Signal reads. “Instead, the Parental Secrecy Policy provides the opposite—it requires schools to socially transition students upon their request, and it generally requires school personnel to conceal the social transition from the student’s parents.” Even if AB 1955 were inconsistent with Regino’s argument, AB 1955 would be unconstitutional just as the Parental Secrecy Policy is also unconstitutional, the letter says. “Again, a public school’s failure to (at least) notify parents before socially transitioning their children violates parents’ federal constitutional rights,” according to the letter. During a time of intense stress in which Aurora Regino’s father had died and she was battling breast cancer, her elementary school-age daughter sought help from a school “mental wellness” counselor, Regino said at an April 5 school board meeting. Regino said that her daughter told the counselor that she wanted to tell her mother about the counseling sessions and her struggles with her sexual identity—but the counselor ignored her. Because Chico Unified kept her daughter’s struggles and mental health crisis from her, her daughter was left to face bullying and other trauma alone, Regino said. Parents should be responsible for decisions affecting their children, not schools, according to Eric Sell, associate counsel at The Center for American Liberty. “The California politicians who supported AB 1955 might think it’s OK for schools to transition children to a different gender behind their parents’ backs, but the experts who understand the science behind social transitioning disagree,” Sell told The Daily Signal. “If the 9th Circuit sides with our client Aurora, AB 1955 will effectively be unenforceable against parents.” “We are hopeful the court will do so given the extensive scientific evidence available that shows how dangerous it is for a school to facilitate a child’s transition to a different gender identity in secret,” Sell continued. Chico Unified School District did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment. This report will be edited if the district responds. Tony Kinnett contributed to this report. The post EXCLUSIVE: Case Could Make Unenforceable a Law That Prohibits Schools From Disclosing Gender Transitions to Parents appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Gladiatorial games were hugely popular in ancient Rome, and gladiators could be widely admired and achieve great wealth. Though there are few literary descriptions of gladiatorial combat, gladiators are referenced in celebratory graffiti, inscriptions and artistic relics. Gladiatorial combat dominates the popular perception of ancient Roman entertainment, a position scaffolded by films like Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus (1960) and Ridley Scott’s Gladiator (2000), as well as older works like Jean-Léon Gérôme’s 1872 painting Pollice Verso. These depictions have entrenched the rebellious Spartacus and emperor Commodus as legends of the arena, but there were other gladiators who achieved renown in their own day. Here are 10 famous Roman gladiators. 1. Spartacus According to Livy, the earliest large-scale public entertainments in Rome were held in 264 BC at the Forum Boarium. By the 1st century BC, they had become established as an important way for politicians to gain public recognition and prestige. Spartacus, the most famous of Roman gladiators, trained in a gladiator school during this period. Spartacus’s fame is owed to his leadership of a rebellion in 73 BC with an army of escaped slaves. According to Appian’s Civil Wars (1.118), the gladiator army resisted the legions of the Roman Republic for several years until Licinius Crassus assumed the praetorship. They were regarded as a source of terror. When his rebellion was foiled, 6,000 of the freed slaves were crucified along the Appian Way. 2. Crixus One of Spartacus’s subordinate officers was a man named Crixus. Crixus and Spartacus are attributed by Livy with leading the revolt of gladiators from their gladiator school in Capua. When Crixus was killed in 72 BC, slain by Quintus Arrius alongside 20,000 of his men, Spartacus ordered 300 Roman soldiers slaughtered in his honour. Pollice Verso, Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1872Image Credit: Public Domain 3. Commodus Roman sports, called the ludi, existed for the spectators. Audiences took games seriously, valuing athleticism and technique, but they were not participants. For its perceived effeminacy and contemptible Greekness, disgrace would attend any Roman citizen who either was or married a sportsman or performer. This did not stop emperor Commodus. Nero might have forced his senators and their wives to fight as gladiators, but Commodus, who ruled between 176 and 192 AD, himself donned a gladiator’s garb and entered the arena. According to Cassius Dio, Commodus fought gladiators who usually wielded wooden swords while he thrust with his lethal, steel one. Commodus was assassinated by senators wary of being humiliated by the emperor. The day before he was due to accept their honours while dressed as a gladiator, senators bribed the wrestler Narcissus to strangle Commodus while he was taking a bath. 4. Flamma Flamma was a Syrian gladiator who fought in the arena during the reign of Hadrian, in the early 2nd century AD. Flamma’s gravestone in Sicily records that he died at the age of 30. He fought 34 times in the arena, a much greater number than most other gladiators, and he won 21 matches. Most notably, he won his freedom four times but refused it. Gladiator mosaic from Kourion, Cyprus.Image Credit: imageBROKER / Alamy Stock Photo 5. Spiculus Emperor Nero made a favourite of Spiculus. He received wealth and land from Nero, including “properties and residences equal to those of men who had celebrated triumphs,” according to Suetonius in his Life of Nero. Additionally, Suetonius reports that prior to his death by suicide, Nero called upon Spiculus to slay him, “and when no one appeared, he cried ‘have I then neither friend nor foe?’” 6. Priscus and Verus Only one contemporary account of a gladiatorial match survives, part of a series of epigrams by Martial written for the opening of the Colosseum in 79 AD. Martial describes an epic confrontation between the rivals Priscus and Verus, the main entertainment of the opening day games. After hours of wearying fighting, the pair laid down their weapons. They let the emperor Titus decide their fate, who awarded them their freedom. 7. Marcus Attilius Marcus Attilus, whose name is recorded on graffiti in Pompeii, may have entered the arena in order to pay off his debts. He earned celebrity after defeating a man who had won 12 of 14 previous fights, and then defeated another opponent with an impressive record. Usually, the longer somebody was a gladiator, the less likely was their death in the arena. As Alison Futrell writes in The Roman Games: Historical Sources in Translation, “Because of the audience’s preference for equal matches, a veteran of twenty of thirty bouts had fewer opponents at his level; he was also more costly for an editor to acquire. The frequency of matches for him was thus lower.” 8. Tetraites Graffiti in Pompeii describes Tetraites as a bare-chested gladiator who appears to have been popular across the Roman empire. Glass vessels, including one found in southeast France in 1855, record Tetraites’ battle against the gladiator Prudes. 9. Amazon and Achilla Two female gladiators named Amazon and Achilla are depicted on a marble relief from Halicarnassus in Turkey. In the intensely gendered realm of Roman games, it was generally a scandalous transgression for women to perform. When female gladiators are described by Roman writers, it’s usually to condemn the practice as vulgar. According to the Greek inscription, Amazon and Achilla were both granted a reprieve before the end of their combat. The relief shows the women heavily armed with greaves, blades and shields. 10. Marcus Antonius Exochus Marcus Antonius Exochus was a gladiator born in Alexandria, Egypt, who came to Rome in order to fight in games celebrating Trajan’s posthumous triumph in 117 AD. On his fragmentary tomb, it records that: “On the second day, as a novice, he fought with Caesar’s slave Araxis and received missio.” This was a privilege, where combat is stopped before either fighter is slain. He was probably not especially acclaimed, but he was able to retire as a Roman citizen.

While the bloodshed on film and TV adaptations might persuade us otherwise, leading speaker on gladiatorial life and historical consultant Alexander Mariotti insists that death in the ancient Roman arena was “an absolute rarity”. Joining Tristan Hughes on The Ancients, the consultant on Ridley Scott’s Gladiator and Amazon Prime’s Those About to Die (in which he even has a cameo) explains that deaths, when they happened, more often followed later from injuries. “Combat sports were very violent,” says Mariotti. “And gladiatorial combat is part of that pantheon of sports.” However the use of weapons made it particularly dangerous. “One of the reasons they don’t wear tunics is because the linen or the wool getting stuck in a wound would kill you [from] an infection.” Those About to DieImage Credit: Those About to Die / NBCU “But what we do find from modern forensics on gladiatorial skeletons is that these guys, majoritively, have medical care, so they have wounds that are then healed. So you’ve not only got a doctor that’s healing you, but you’re also paying for the time that the injured can recover. Because we see from the bones that they actually physically recover even from medical amputations.” “There are certainly moments where gladiators were expected to, to fight to the death. But I think they’re an absolute rarity.” Mariotti emphasises that in the arena it took skill not to kill an opponent. “There were set rules, the training was important because combat, especially with weaponry, instigates ‘fight or flight’.” “You’ve got the adrenaline pumping, you’ve got the noise, you’re wearing a helmet and this noise is reverberating, the discomfort. And yet they had the ability to stop at the right moment and not kill their opponents, because most of the time they didn’t kill their opponents.” Mariotti wastes no time debunking other gladiator myths. (Did gladiators fight animals? No, but beast hunts did happen, just as the preserve of hunting specialists.) Find out more when you stream this filmed episode of The Ancients on History Hit. Sign up to stream now

A cat chirped with renewed hope to her kittens when someone took them out of the shelter, promising them a good life. Nova and her kittensAsaNova, an orange and white cat, found herself in an animal shelter, going into active labor. A rescue group, Tails High, contacted the shelter to ensure a better life for the feline family.Asa, a volunteer for Tails High, was running errands when she received a text from the rescue. "I cut my errands short and headed out to make my 3-hour roundtrip drive to pick them up, at which point she was done giving birth to her beautiful babies," Asa shared with Love Meow.At just a few hours old, the kittens left the shelter with their mom en route to their new life in a foster home. Asa"Nova was having a bit of a hard time at the beginning. The shelter said she wasn't cleaning the babies when they were born."Overwhelmed by stress and the shelter environment, Nova withdrew into herself and relied on the kindness of the staff and volunteers to tend to her babies. That quickly changed when she stepped into her foster home. AsaWith a quiet room, a comfy bed, a constantly replenished food station, and a loving human, Nova relaxed. The wariness in her eyes melted away, and her maternal instinct took over. She gently put her arms around her babies as they nursed away on her belly.After a long feeding session, she stepped out for a well-deserved break, chatting up a storm with her foster mom and rewarding herself with a big stretch. AsaDespite their best efforts to save all the kittens, one of them, Ash, sadly lost her fight. The rest of the litter, Alexandria, Arly, and Vienna, continued to gain weight and strength. At two weeks old, they officially entered the wobble phase.For a while, Nova enjoyed some me-time between feedings, but that changed when the kittens started using their legs. Curious about their surroundings, they ventured out of the nest to explore. AsaWhile they honed their balance and gait, they followed their mom everywhere, always trailing close behind.Nova lay on the floor and stretched out her paws to wrangle the wobbly kittens into her embrace. Her adorable chirps and trills filled the room as she called out to them. AsaOver the next two weeks, the kittens became steadier on their feet. As their curiosity grew, their playful, mischievous side emerged. "Nova's really got her hands full with these kids."At four weeks old, the kittens turned into roly-polies with rotund bellies, and their personalities started to shine. Asa"I'd describe Alexandria as the most independent - she wanders around the room by herself and likes hanging out under the cabinet.""I often see Arly and Vienna together, slo-mo pawing at each other's faces (learning how to play)." AsaNova teaches her kittens feline etiquette and shows them how to eat from a plate, play with toys, use the litter box, and climb cat trees.Following in her paw steps, the kittens are on their way to mastering many essential feline skills, including the zoomies. "Arly is starting to get the hang of the bunny kick thing. She learned from the best." AsaAfter a play session, the kittens nestle against their mom and drift off to sleep to the sound of purrs."Nova has become quite the nurturing mother. She's very chirpy and trills a lot. She's also started to play with her little ones now that they're a bit older." AsaOnce her kittens are old enough to spread their wings and fly, Nova will happily retire from motherhood and focus on the things she adores. AsaShare this story with your friends. More on Nova, her kittens, and Asa's fosters on Instagram and Tails High on Instagram.Related story: Cat Leads Kind Person to a Tub of Kittens She's Looked After, She's So Happy to Finally Have Help

Is Kamala Scared to Debate Trump on Fox?

Wind farms pumped out more electricity than coal-fired power stations in the US across March and April 2024, signifying a clear milestone in the declining fortunes of fossil fuels and the rise of renewables. Data from the US Energy Information Administration (IEA) shows that March and April were the first two consecutive months in which US wind-powered electricity generation outpaced coal. Although wind electricity generation briefly exceeded coal-fired generation for the first time in April 2023, it did not do so again for another 11 months.In March 2024, around 45.9 terawatthours (TWh) of electricity was produced by wind turbines in the US, compared with 38.4 TWh from coal-fired power plants. In April 2024, coal-fired generation fell to 37.2 TWh, while wind generation increased to a record 47.7 TWhBack in January, the EIA forecasted that renewable energy sources – wind, solar, hydro, biomass, and geothermal – will outpace the American production of energy from coal in 2024. It also predicted that renewables would outcompete nuclear energy.Renewable generation surpassed coal in the US electric power sector for the first time in 2022, although there have been odd months since where this has not been the case. This year, however, renewables appear to have totally outpaced coal and are on track to continue doing so in the years ahead. A graph from January 2024 shows the EIA's forecast of electricity generation sources in the US from 2018 until 2025.Image Credit: EIAAs per E&E News, solar and wind energy alone – not including hydropower, biomass, and geothermal – has generated more power than coal through the first seven months of 2024, in yet another first for renewable resources. Solar and wind are also reportedly on track to exceed coal generation for an entire calendar year in 2024.It’s a positive trend, but it’s worth remembering that the leading source of electricity in the US is still a carbon-emitting fossil fuel, natural gas, which accounts for 1,700 billion kWh of annual electricity generation in 2024 and 2025, similar to last year. The broader push away from coal is being driven by a few different factors. At least 24 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, have enacted legislation to transition to clean energy in the decades ahead. Meanwhile, the Biden Administration's Inflation Reduction Act has incentivized the move to carbon-free energy sources using federal tax credits and deductions.The shift is being underpinned by massive infrastructure across parts of the US, especially its most sunny and windy corners. Earlier this year, the Edwards & Sanborn Solar and Energy Storage facility became fully operational. Consisting of almost 2 million solar panels in California’s Mojave Desert, it’s the largest single solar and battery energy storage project on the entire planet (at least for now).

Over 6,000 sheep are planned to be unleashed onto eight solar plants in Texas, acting as wooly gardeners by nibbling away at vegetation over more than 10,100 acres (4,087 hectares) of land. This will be the largest solar grazing agreement in the US to date, says renewable energy operator Enel North America, who are partnering with Texas Solar Sheep LLC to carry out the “record-breaking” plan, with some sheep already being deployed.The sheep can enjoy lounging in the shade of the solar panels on hot days. In return, they reduce the need for herbicides and fossil fuel-powered mowers to control vegetation, their manure fertilizes the soil, and they can carry wildflower seeds in their wool that grow in their hoofprints. They also improve soil health – Enel has already tried out solar grazing in Minnesota, and reports that some of their sites had improvements in organic matter of over 200 percent."By prioritizing sheep grazing for land management, we demonstrate how solar and agriculture can coexist while ensuring optimal performance of our solar facilities. Additionally, our sheep grazing commitment supports ecosystem services and the local economy," said Marcus Krembs, head of external relations and sustainability at Enel North America, in a statement.Agrivoltaics is the practice of using land for both solar energy and agriculture at the same time. “Solar grazing is at the forefront of a booming agrivoltaics industry, and we are seeing more and more leaders in the solar industry investing in long-lasting partnerships with farmers and creating new opportunities for American agriculture," added Kevin Richardson, Outreach Director at the American Solar Grazing Association.   IFLScience is not responsible for content shared from external sites.This approach to land use has several benefits. For one, letting sheep snack on vegetation is cheaper and less likely to damage the solar panels than mowing (and they won’t chew on the wires, unlike mischievous goats): “This saves us money. It’s an efficient way to do this. It’s great for the environment, but it also helps our bottom line. And so it’s a win-win for us,” Jesse Puckett, director of sustainability projects and community affairs at Enel, told Fast Company.“I think we recognize the fact that, as an industry, we have this amazing opportunity to do things a little bit different,” Puckett added to Canary Media.As for the family-owned and operated Texas Solar Sheep, some of their herd are sold for meat. “We really operate just like a regular ranch,” JR Howard, co-owner of the company, told Fast Company. “The only difference is that we have solar panels.”Enel explained that solar grazing can provide a new revenue stream for sheep herders. The booming demand for solar grazing is “the greatest opportunity for the sheep industry in my lifetime,” Howard told Canary Media.

Hurricane Ernesto battered homes and businesses across North Carolina, Bermuda, and the Bahamas as strong winds and swells caused damage along the islands and east coast of the USA. In Rodanthe in Dare County, North Carolina, one beach home was even swept completely out to sea.On Friday, August 16, a house at 23214 Corbina Drive was filmed being washed out to sea by bystanders in the area. The debris from the house was also found around 17 kilometers (11 miles) north of the area where the house had collapsed. The National Parks Service warns anyone trying to reach that area that many roads are closed due to safety concerns. They also warn people not to go to the beaches or enter the water because of dangerous debris that is still present, especially around Cape Hatteras National Seashore.    In the video, the house can be seen floating freely in the surf. Fortunately, the house itself, a beach vacation rental property, was unoccupied at the time, but marks the seventh house to collapse into the sea in four years in the area.The X account for the National Weather Service, Newport/Morehead City wrote: “large and powerful swells from Ernesto will produce strong rip currents, as well as several coastal threats over the next few days due to the higher than normal tides.”Chicamacomico Banks Fire & Rescue posted a video on their Facebook page showing the house floating into the surf from a different angle, as well as photos of the aftermath.     A bipartisan bill was proposed earlier this year that would help homeowners with houses at risk of collapsing by giving them up to $250,000 to either safely demolish or relocate these beachfront houses, reports Spectrum Local News.