Books new releases All the New Fantasy Books Arriving in June 2024 Meet Raven Knights, vampire kings, and a rag-tag pirate crew in this month’s new fantasy titles! By Reactor | Published on June 4, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share Here’s the full list of the fantasy titles heading your way in June! Keep track of all the new SFF releases here. All title summaries are taken and/or summarized from copy provided by the publisher. Release dates are subject to change. June 4 Tidal Creatures (Alchemical Journeys #3) — Seanan McGuire (Tordotcom Publishing)All across the world, people look up at the moon and dream of gods. Gods of knowledge and wisdom, gods of tides and longevity. Over time, some of these moon gods incarnated into the human world alongside the other manifest natural concepts. Their job is to cross the sky above the Impossible City—the heart of all creation—to keep it connected to reality. And someone is killing them. There are so many of them that it’s easy for a few disappearances to slip through the cracks. But they aren’t limitless. In the name of the moon, the lunar divinities must uncover the roots of the plot and thwart the true goal of those behind these attacks—control of the Impossible City itself. Daughter of the Merciful Deep — Leslye Penelope (Redhook)Jane Edwards hasn’t spoken since she was eleven years old, when armed riders expelled her family from their hometown along with every other Black resident. Now, twelve years later, she’s found a haven in the all-Black town of Awenasa. But the construction of a dam promises to wash her home under the waters of the new lake. Jane will do anything to save the community that sheltered her. So, when a man with uncanny abilities arrives in town asking strange questions, she wonders if he might be the key. But as the stranger hints at gods and ancestral magic, Jane is captivated by a bigger mystery. She knows this man. Only the last time she saw him, he was dead. His body laid to rest in a rushing river.  Who is the stranger and what is he really doing in Awenasa? To find those answers, Jane will journey into a sunken world, a land of capricious gods and unsung myths, of salvation and dreams made real. But the flood waters are rising. To gain the miracle she desires, Jane will have to find her voice again and finally face the trauma of the past.  Mirrored Heavens (Between Earth and Sky #3) — Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga Press)Serapio, avatar of the Crow God Reborn and the newly crowned Carrion King, rules Tova. But his enemies gather both on distant shores and within his own city as the matrons of the clans scheme to destroy him. And deep in the alleys of the Maw, a new prophecy is whispered, this one from the Coyote God. It promises Serapio certain doom if its terrible dictates are not fulfilled. Meanwhile, Xiala is thrust back amongst her people as war comes first to the island of Teek. With their way of life and their magic under threat, she is their last best hope. But the sea won’t talk to her the way it used to, and doubts riddle her mind. She will have to sacrifice the things that matter most to unleash her powers and become the queen they were promised. And in the far northern wastelands, Naranpa, avatar of the Sun God, seeks a way to save Tova from the visions of fire that engulf her dreams. But another presence has begun stalking her nightmares, and the Jaguar God is on the hunt. June 11 Running Close to the Wind — Alexandra Rowland (Tordotcom Publishing)Avra Helvaçi, former field agent of the Araşti Ministry of Intelligence, has accidentally stolen the single most expensive secret in the world—and the only place to flee with a secret that big is the open sea. To find a buyer with deep enough pockets, Avra must ask for help from his on-again, off-again ex, the pirate Captain Teveri az-Ḥaffār. They are far from happy to see him, but together, they hatch a plan: take the information to the isolated pirate republic of the Isles of Lost Souls, fence it, profit. The only things in their way? A calculating new Araşti ambassador to the Isles of Lost Souls who’s got his eyes on Avra’s every move; Brother Julian, a beautiful, mysterious new member of the crew with secrets of his own and a frankly inconvenient vow of celibacy; the fact that they’re sailing straight into sea serpent breeding season and almost certain doom. But if they can find a way to survive and sell the secret on the black market, they’ll all be as wealthy as kings—and, more important, they’ll be legends. The Fall of Waterstone (Black Land’s Bane #2) — Lilith Saintcrow (Orbit)Solveig and her shieldmaid have finally reached the fabled Elder sanctuary of Waterstone—a city of healing, restful beauty hidden from the Enemy’s gaze. Yet whispers race through the palace halls, and those they have come to tentatively trust have hidden intentions. For not only is the city a refuge for an elementalist, her protector, and a mortal prince, it also holds a great weapon, one that only Solveig’s kind may wield. Yet Sol’s faith in her own magic is perilously fractured. She can rely only her wits and skills of negotiation to be heard, or she will become a pawn in a dark game played by Elder and Enemy alike. The lord of the Black Land is mighty; treachery slithers amid Waterstone’s many wonders, and time is growing short. Before the darkness finds a way in, Sol must decide who to trust, where to turn for aid, and if she will take up a power she cannot hope to control. Even the right choice may doom not just the home she has left behind, but the entire world. The Fire Within Them (Soulfire #2) — Matthew Ward (Orbit)For the first time in a millennium, the kingdom of Khalad is divided. The Battle of Athenoch has fanned the spark of Bashar Vallant’s rebellion to a raging flame. Tyzanta, jewel of the east, has declared for his cause, and other cities have followed. Vallant, the people’s hero, may soon be powerful enough to challenge Caradan Diar, Khalad’s immortal king. But such power demands great personal sacrifice. Afflicted with omen rot after channeling the Deadwinds to save Athenoch from the koilos army, Kat searches for a means to stop the disease killing her as it did her mother. Her journey will uncover secrets long since buried—secrets concerning her past, her family and the kingdom itself. Eventually she’ll learn that the past never stays buried in Khalad—and that the truth can cut deeper than any blade. June 18 The Witchstone — Henry H. Neff  (Blackstone Publishing)Meet Laszlo, eight-hundred-year-old demon and Hell’s least productive Curse Keeper. From his office beneath Midtown, he oversees the Drakeford Curse, which involves a pathetic family upstate and a mysterious black stone. It’s a sexy enough assignment—colonial origins, mutating victims, et cetera—but Laszlo has no interest in maximizing the curse’s potential; he’d rather sunbathe in Ibiza, quaff martinis, and hustle the hustlers on Manhattan’s subway. Unfortunately, his division has new management, and Laszlo’s ratings are so abysmal that he’s given six days to shape up or he’ll be melted down and returned to the Primordial Ooze. Meet Maggie Drakeford, nineteen-year-old Curse Bearer. All she’s ever known is the dreary corner of the Catskills where the Drakeford Curse has devoured her father’s humanity and is rapidly laying claim to her own. The future looks hopeless, until Laszlo appears at the Drakeford farmhouse one October night and informs them that they have six days—and six days only—to break the spell before it becomes permanent. Can Maggie trust the glib and handsome Laszlo? Of course not. But she also can’t pass up an opportunity to save her family, even if it means having a demon as a guide. Thus begins a breakneck international adventure that takes our unlikely duo from a hot dog stand in Central Park to the mountains of Liechtenstein, a five-star hotel in Zurich, and even the time-traveling vault of a demonic crime boss. As the clock ticks down, tough-as-nails Maggie and conniving Laszlo will uncover a secret so profound that what began as a farcical quest to break a curse will eventually threaten the very Lords of Hell. June 25 The Daughters’ War (Blacktongue) — Christopher Buehlman (Tor Books)Galva—Galvicha to her three brothers, two of whom the goblins will kill—has defied her family’s wishes and joined the army’s untested new unit, the Raven Knights. They march toward a once-beautiful city overrun by the goblin horde, accompanied by scores of giant war corvids. Made with the darkest magics, these fearsome black birds may hold the key to stopping the goblins in their war to make cattle of mankind. The road to victory is bloody, and goblins are clever and merciless. The Raven Knights can take nothing for granted—not the bonds of family, nor the wisdom of their leaders, nor their own safety against the dangerous war birds at their side. But some hopes are worth any risk. Foul Days (Witch’s Compendium of Monsters #1) — Genoveva Dimova (Tor Books)As a witch in the walled city of Chernograd, Kosara has plenty of practice treating lycanthrope bites, bargaining with kikimoras, and slaying bloodsucking upirs. There’s only one monster she can’t defeat: her ex, the Zmey, known as the Tsar of Monsters. She’s defied him one too many times and now he’s hunting her. Betrayed by someone close to her, Kosara’s only choice is to trade her shadow—the source of her powers—for a quick escape. Unfortunately, Kosara soon develops the deadly sickness that plagues shadowless witches—and only reclaiming her magic can cure her. To find it, she’s forced to team up with a suspiciously honorable detective. Even worse, all the clues point in a single direction: To get her shadow back, Kosara will have to face the Foul Days’ biggest threats without it. And she’s only got twelve days. But in a city where everyone is out for themselves, who can Kosara trust to assist her in outwitting the biggest monster from her past? The Court of Miracles (Vampyria #2) — Victor Dixen, tr. Françoise Bui (Amazon Crossing)The vampire King Louis XIV reigns supreme over a terrorized France, determined to protect his empire at any cost. When a mysterious renegade vampire named the Lady of Miracles ascends to power in an underworld Parisian court and claims the city for herself, Louis feels threatened for the first time in centuries. His secret weapon to fight back? Mademoiselle Diane de Gastefriche, a young baronette who earned the king’s trust through her own cunning and wit. He sends Diane to squash the new threat to his power. But King Louis has no idea that this feisty girl’s real name is Jeanne Froidelac: she is an infiltrated commoner, whose secret mission is to destroy him and rid the world of the vampiric tyranny. Caught between a vengeful king and a ruthless rival, Jeanne embarks on a quest that could alter the kingdom’s destiny—and expose a powerful secret that she will do anything to protect. The Bound Worlds (Devoured Worlds #3) — Megan E. O’Keefe (Orbit)Naira and Tarquin have found a new home on Seventh Cradle. But the peace they’ve built is short-lived as mysterious assailants ambush the settlement and Naira is haunted by visions of a monstrous future. Catastrophe strikes when Tarquin uncovers a plot to bring about the end of the universe. As humanity races against the clock to prevent their extinction, old secrets come to light and loyalties fracture, and Naira realizes she may be the key to saving the world—or ending it. The post All the New Fantasy Books Arriving in June 2024 appeared first on Reactor.

Featured Essays horror movies Immaculate, The First Omen, and the Rise of the Pro-Choice Horror Film Two recent horror films reflect growing cultural anxieties surrounding women’s bodies and reproductive rights. By JR. Forasteros | Published on June 4, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share It’s not every day you get a Catholic-themed horror film that outspokenly supports a woman’s autonomy over her body. But 2024 is the year we get not one, but two of these films, released a week apart. The two films—Immaculate, starring and produced by Sydney Sweeney, and The First Omen, a prequel to the 1976 film about the birth of the Antichrist—are shockingly similar. Both feature a mild, American novitiate—Sweeney’s Sister Cecilia and Nell Tiger Free’s Sister Margaret—recruited by a priest to come to Italy. They arrive to work among the less fortunate; Cecilia in a hospice for nuns and Margaret in an orphanage. They each befriend another nun who is more sexually experienced (Sister Gwen and Sister Luz, respectively). Another nun, who is strangely obsessed with them, jumps to her death. The priest turns out to be manipulating the main nun into giving birth to a child, and as both women (now mysteriously pregnant) seek to unravel the mystery of what’s happening, they encounter numerous deformed babies. In the end, both women give birth, very much against their will. Films with similar themes hitting theaters around the same time is nothing new—I’m old enough to remember the summer of Deep Impact/Armageddon, followed by the release of both Antz and A Bug’s Life a few months later. But the similarities both large and small between these two recent films is even more profound. And coming as they do just 18 months after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and eliminated the federal protection for abortion rights, the films arrive as visceral manifestations of the deep anxieties that decision has unleashed in the US. Author Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, a pioneer of “monster theory,” holds that horror fiction plays an important role in how a culture understands itself, particularly in relation to our fears and anxieties. He warns that societal tensions, traumas, and disruptions that create anxiety in a culture will manifest itself “symptomatically as a cultural fascination with monsters—a fixation that is born of the twin desire to name that which is difficult to apprehend and to domesticate (and therefore disempower) that which threatens.” (Monster Theory, p. 60) In other words, when we experience anxiety at a cultural level—for example, widespread fear about a woman’s access to safe medical treatment and whether she’ll retain autonomy over her own body—we should expect those anxieties taking the form of a monster we can domesticate (on the silver screen, for instance). We saw this in the 1970s in the wake of passing Roe vs Wade. Not quite two years after the landmark decision, the proto-slasher Black Christmas (1974) arrived in theaters. The film takes place at a sorority house at a university—notable because Harvard had only started admitting women to its undergraduate programs a decade earlier; many other Ivy League schools didn’t start until 1969. Final girl Jess personifies the fears of those who demonized women’s liberation: she is an independent, unmarried young woman who is pregnant and informs her boyfriend at the opening of the film she plans to get an abortion. One of the reasons Black Christmas is considered a proto-slasher is that Jess doesn’t embody the virginal values endorsed by conservative culture, and she’s not “punished” with a grisly end for her “transgressions.” She is the hero. Even still, the anxiety around her pregnancy—and particularly how it affects her boyfriend—drives the central mystery of the film. The Omen (1976) tells the story of a US ambassador who secretly adopts an infant after his wife gives birth to a stillborn child. The boy turns out to be the Antichrist and proceeds to kill his adoptive father, mother, and unborn sibling. Adoption has long been presented as an easy solution to unwanted pregnancies by anti-abortion activists, but The Omen reflects anxieties, however baseless and irrational, about the adoption process—can an adoptive parent really know the genetic heritage of their adopted child? What do they really know about the child they’re bringing into their home? What if the innocent baby turns out to be some kind of monster? (Yes, the question itself feels so monstrous it’s difficult to voice—which is why it ends up being sublimated into spectacle-filled horror films.) The decade ended with the (ahem) mother of all films about the fear of unregulated pregnancy: Alien (1979). The xenomorph attacks and impregnates humans by forcing its ovipositor down their throats and implanting a fetus in the chest cavity. All seems well, until the matured fetus suddenly bursts from the chest of its host, killing them. The xenomorph’s reproductive cycle is a funhouse mirror of human fertility, twisted into monstrous form. The titular alien is the embodied fear of fertility that’s not carefully controlled—and opponents of abortion rights argue that readily accessible abortions incentivize women toward sexual activity, since a pregnancy no longer need result in the birth of a child (those same opponents rarely extend this logic to men). All these films in one way or another express or explore anxieties around pregnancy unleashed by the federal guarantee of abortion rights. At the same time, another powerful cultural force was shifting in reaction to Roe: religion. Catholics have been the most historically consistent on abortion. Before 1973, Protestants saw abortion mainly as a Catholic issue—going back at least to Augustine, Catholic theologians categorized abortion as a sexual sin. It wasn’t until 1965 the Catholic Church categorized abortion as the taking of a life. Evangelicals, the other stridently pro-life group who’ve played an active part in the discussion around Roe, have traced a similar trajectory in recent decades. Southern Baptists before the 1980s wrote little about abortion. The Church of the Nazarene (the denomination in which I have my ministerial credentials) had no statement in its governing manual until 1976 (the Manual is updated quadrennially, so the 1976 edition is the first post-Roe Manual), and the statement in 1976 begins by permitting abortion when the life of the fetus or mother is threatened before going on to protest “abortion on demand.” The Southern Baptist Convention passed its first resolution on abortion in 1971—two years before Roe. The resolution called for the protection of fetal life but also called for legislation to protect the right for abortion in cases as varied as rape, deformity, and “damage to the emotional, mental, and physical health of the mother.” A professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary argued that “God is pro-choice.” The pastor of First Baptist Dallas, W. A. Criswell, said in reaction to Roe, “I have always felt that it was only after a child was born and had life separate from its mother that it became an individual person, and it has always, therefore, seemed to me that what is best for the mother and for the future should be allowed.” These statements stand in stark contrast to the positions held by the current leaders of those same institutions, reflecting a greater overall shift as abortion (and its increasing politicization) became a mobilizing issue for conservative evangelicals. The same anxieties about unregulated pregnancy that manifested in ’70s horror caused a sea change in American religious attitudes toward abortion legislation—especially among evangelicals. Professor and historian Kristen Kobes Du Mez observes that, by the end of the 1970s, abortion had become linked with second-wave feminism in the cultural imagination (as films like Black Christmas illustrate). Feminism presented a real challenge to evangelicals. As Du Mez stated in an interview with NPR: [F]or evangelicals, conservative evangelicals, gender difference is really foundational to their understanding of the social order. And they believe that God created men and women to be very different, even opposites. And the women’s primary calling is that of wife and mother. And so abortion also really severs that kind of biological or social relationship or threatens to do so. And for that reason, also, abortion is such a priority for evangelicals because it kind of strikes at the heart of their understanding of women and men and their understanding of how God has ordered society. Fast-forward to 2024. The US Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, ending federal protection for abortion rights. Thirteen states immediately enacted “trigger laws,” written to go into effect the moment Roe was overturned, and thirteen more moved swiftly on legislation to ban abortions. Enter the twin terrors of Immaculate and The First Omen. The monster in these two films are the priests who parade as loving father figures but who really seek to control the innocent, pious young female bodies for their own ends. Specifically, both priests orchestrate pregnancies without the consent of the young nuns in their charge. They abuse their religious authority to exercise control over the womb of the young women—an act both films depict as monstrous and deeply wrong. Both films’ endings highlight the protagonist’s reassertion of her autonomy over her own body and her womb (though admittedly it works better in Immaculate, since it doesn’t have to bear the burden of a 40-year-old sequel). Fifty years ago, our culture created films to process our collective fears about what reproductive freedom could mean for women. Fifty years later, the world hasn’t ended and no Antichrists have been born (to my knowledge). With the overturning of Roe, however, new anxieties have come to the surface: Who do we trust when we can’t trust those in authority? Still trapped in a patriarchal system, what must a woman do for men to hear her? Will women ever truly have autonomy over their own bodies? If the 1970s are any indication, Immaculate and The First Omen are only the first wave of films that incarnate not an Antichrist, but the very real anxieties contemporary women experience over the way powerful men continue to wield religion to control women’s bodies and reproduction.[end-mark] The post <i>Immaculate</i>, <i>The First Omen</i>, and the Rise of the Pro-Choice Horror Film appeared first on Reactor.

Biden: Israel May Have Committed War Crimes, and Netanyahu Wants War to Keep Power

Onanism at the Washington Post

Eating too much meat is bad for you, bad for the environment, and fatal for the animals involved. Those are straight facts, indisputable and proven through years of study. But counterpoint: have you considered that vegans are annoying?If the comments section under just about any media promoting a vegetarian or vegan diet is anything to go by, the answer to that question is probably “yes”. And, in any case, what about all the poor plants, huh? You okay with murdering them, IFLScience? The blood of countless… uh, cabbages on your hands?All things considered, people are really, really good at coming up with excuses for eating more meat than ever. And the weirdest thing? According to a new study, which followed six focus groups with Danish consumers about their attitudes towards their diets and the environment, we kind of know it’s all bullshit – and we tie ourselves in a variety of predictable mental knots to justify it anyway.“All of the participants – predominantly meat eaters – agree that one of the best things a person can do to be a more climate-minded eater is to eat less meat,” said Thomas Skelly, a Ph.D. fellow at the Department of Food and Resource Economics at the University of Copenhagen, and first author of the study, in a statement on the findings. “But when addressing their own meat consumption, other mechanisms kick in,” he added. Oh yeah. Prepare to feel seen.Playing dumbImagine you knew a way to cut your carbon footprint by more than half; it was easy, required no real major sacrifice on your part, and would even make you healthier and maybe improve your love life. Imagine you then decided not to do it. That would be, well, kind of stupid, wouldn’t it?"There is certainly enough ambiguity in public discourse and the media for people to make these justifications without sounding completely ignorant in social settings."Thomas SkellyAnd yet, according to the research, that’s precisely what many of us are doing. “When all of the focus groups point to reduced meat consumption as one of the most climate effective things people can do, it demonstrates the existence of a collective knowledge,” Skelly pointed out.“But on the other hand, this knowledge can be problematized,” he continued, “and the results demonstrate that it is socially acceptable to problematize it.”What does that mean? Well, you’ve no doubt seen this tactic in the wild: it’s what’s happening whenever someone tells a vegan about the environmental cost of avocados or meat substitutes like soy, or points to the supposed necessity of meat in a human diet. “With this notion, the participants confirm to each other that their food practices are not more problematic than food practices among people who have cut out meat entirely,” Skelly explained. It’s not actually justified: “The truth is that red meat has a far greater climate footprint than both avocados and vegan products,” Skelly pointed out, “and vegans do not necessarily eat more avocados or processed products than meat eaters” – but that doesn’t really matter, according to the paper. It’s just truthful enough, with the details just obscure enough, that for someone already looking for excuses for their meat consumption, it can be elevated to a fact on equal footing with years of scientific research behind it.“We are unable to conclude whether this is because people actually don't know [the truth], or because not knowing is convenient,” Skelly said. “But there is certainly enough ambiguity in public discourse and the media for people to make these justifications without sounding completely ignorant in social settings.”Look over there!So, what about when these things are pointed out to the meat fans? Well, when in doubt, there was one tactic that seemed to pop up time and time again. Whether consciously or not, the participants chose to simply divert the conversation, and talk about something else.Cutting out meat entirely was seen as an absurd position – and one only taken by haughty stick-in-the-muds.“They [would] come up with various excuses and justifications or try to shift the focus onto something else,” explained Kia Ditlevsen, an associate professor in the Department of Food and Resource Economics and one of the co-authors of the study. “People quickly derail the topic,” she said, “and begin talking about other things, such as how they seek to avoid food waste and plastic packaging.”You might think this would be an obvious ploy – after all, packaging, retail, and even transport of food typically has a much lower carbon footprint than the food itself. But within the group studied, it was seen as totally legitimate: “Within the group, people are mutually supportive of such derailments,” Ditlevsen said. “Our interpretation is that this is because these things are more culturally neutral and harmless to relate to. No one really has much of an identity attached to plastic disposal.” But you know what definitely isn’t seen as neutral? Going vegan. Cutting out meat entirely was seen as an absurd position – and one only taken by haughty stick-in-the-muds, Ditlevsen explained. “There was a tendency for them to […] scold vegans for being extremists,” she noted.In other words: despite being a perfectly reasonable way to reduce your personal climate impact – one which the focus group participants clearly knew and understood the effectiveness of – adopting a vegan diet was just kind of written off as impossible. “For example, when a participant states that he or she doesn't intend on going vegan, the other participants laugh,” Skelly said. “In doing so, they confirm to one another that veganism would be a ridiculous solution.”The importance of messagingSo, what’s the solution? How do we reconcile a clear desire to reduce our environmental impact with this dilly-dallying on one of the most effective methods to do so? Well, part of the answer might lie in combatting the mixed or counterproductive messaging coming from politicians and corporations. That may not be easy: in the US, meat and dairy companies have spent hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying to block climate legislation over the past couple of decades, with evermore aggressive marketing campaigns targeting new consumer blocs.If there is to be more clarity and less confusion among consumers, […] it becomes more difficult to come up with socially acceptable excuses and justifications.Kia DitlevsenOver in Europe, the situation is more clear-cut – but not by a whole lot. “We have politicians who say, for example, that Danes should keep on eating spaghetti and meat sauce, [and] it helps support the notion that we can simply carry on with our meat consumption,” Ditlevsen pointed out. “At the same time, the Danish Official Dietary Guidelines say that we should eat significantly less meat […] This is also something that the European Union emphasizes.”This causes a discrepancy between the messages that people receive, she explained – and that confusion is where these justifications for excessive meat consumption sneak in and take hold. In response, “clear statements from politicians and authorities must be made,” recommended Ditlevsen, “messaging that unequivocally supports the importance of cutting back on meat consumption.” Would it be enough? Probably not, she said – but it would at least be a start.“If there is to be more clarity and less confusion among consumers, […] it becomes more difficult to come up with socially acceptable excuses and justifications,” Ditlevsen said. “This alone probably won't do, but it could help get people moving in the right direction.”The study is published in the Journal of Consumer Culture.

A leading architecture and engineering firm behind the world's tallest building – among other major projects – has teamed up with startup Energy Vault in order to design skyscrapers that incorporate gravity batteries into their design.As the planet moves towards renewable energy, we are faced with the problem of storage. The problem is that the wind doesn't blow and the Sun doesn't shine at precisely the time when people want to consume their power. On particularly windy or sunny days, too much electricity can be generated, potentially leading to a situation where consumers are paid to consume electricity rather than overload the grid. Cheap, clean energy is, of course, a good thing, but power that isn't used becomes lost.It would be better if we could store that energy away for later use. Gravity batteries are one way of doing that.Despite the cool name, the idea behind gravity batteries is really simple. During times when energy sources are producing more energy than the demand, the excess energy is used to move weights (in the form of water, or sometimes sand) upwards, turning it into potential energy. When the power supply is low, these objects can then be released, powering turbines as our good friend (and deadly enemy) gravity sends them toward the Earth. Though generally gravity batteries take the form of reservoirs, abandoned mines moving sand or other weights up when excess power is being produced are also being created. The latest idea is to incorporate gravity batteries into the design of tall buildings.“Since our founding, [architecture and engineering firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill] has pushed the boundaries of architecture and engineering, redefining what buildings can do for cities and communities,” Adam Semel, Managing Partner of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, said in a statement. “This partnership with Energy Vault is a commitment not only to accelerate the world’s transition away from fossil fuels, but also to explore, together, how the architecture of renewable energy can enhance our shared natural landscapes and urban environments."Incorporating gravity batteries into the design of future skyscrapers will give them multi-GWh of gravity-based energy storage, enough to power them and adjacent buildings, according to the teams. By incorporating the hydro system into buildings, they hope to minimize disruption to wildlife ecosystems associated with other energy storage systems.

After one of its cookie dough products was taken off shelves last year following the discovery it contained peanuts that weren’t supposed to be there, a cookie manufacturer has been issued a warning by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), after an inspection uncovered “serious violations”.Back in October 2023, a Cookies-N-Milk product was issued a Class I recall – the most serious kind – by the FDA. While the product’s packaging indicated that it contained chocolate chip cookie dough, it was found to actually contain peanut butter cookie dough. This mix-up meant that the presence of peanuts wasn’t declared on the label, presenting a serious risk to those with a peanut allergy. Though an allergic reaction to peanuts can be mild for many people – though still fairly unpleasant, with common symptoms including sickness, breathlessness, and hives – they can trigger a more severe reaction called anaphylaxis, which is life-threatening.The severity of the recall triggered an FDA inspection of Cookies-n-Milk’s manufacturing facility in Texas, which revealed more concerns.“Your facility manufactures, packages, and distributes RTE [ready-to-eat] Edible Cookie Dough products with and without peanuts, in addition to other allergens (soy, milk, wheat). Therefore, allergens are a known or reasonably foreseeable hazard,” the FDA wrote in its letter to Cookies-n-Milk.It’s good practice to state that a product is manufactured in a facility that handles such ingredients, even if those ingredients aren’t in the actual product. That being said, they also failed to declare ingredients that actually were in one of their products, including milk powder and baking soda. “A knowledgeable person manufacturing/processing food in your circumstances would identify allergens as a hazard requiring a preventive control at the packaging/labeling step.” Ooft.The FDA inspection also found that the company didn’t have any processes in place to identify and evaluate the risk of mycotoxins. These are toxic compounds produced by molds, and one of them, aflaxtoxin, has been associated with peanuts.Though Cookies-n-Milk provided a written response to the FDA’s findings in November, outlining how it would correct the issues with labeling and evaluating mycotoxins, the FDA stated that this didn’t have enough supporting evidence, nor did it include updated hazard analysis or food safety procedures.As a result, the FDA issued the company with a warning letter.“It is your responsibility to ensure that your firm complies with all requirements of federal law, including FDA regulations,” the letter reads. “This letter notifies you of our concerns and provides you an opportunity to address them. Failure to adequately address this matter may result in legal action including, without limitation, seizure and injunction.”That’s a very polite way of saying, “Get your shit together.”

Some people’s specific genetic traits could leave them more vulnerable to heart attack during times of stress, like national holidays or elections. Recent research is showing how an inherited vulnerability could be behind a trend that’s long been observed but has remained poorly understood.“We found people who are genetically predisposed to stress tend to have a strikingly higher probability of developing a heart attack after these stressful events,” explained lead author Dr Shady Abohashem in a statement. Many doctors have noticed a spike in heart attacks during major holidays like Christmas, around the time of big sporting events like the Super Bowl, and in the wake of elections. This study is the first to look for any genetic underpinnings that might explain this trend, and the scientists struck gold when they identified a group of people with higher susceptibility to stress.“We now understand that there are certain factors driving this increase in heart attacks in those who are at increased risk,” said Abohashem.Data from almost 18,500 individuals who provided information and blood samples for inclusion in the Mass General Brigham Biobank were analyzed. Among the health metrics collected for each person was a score called the neuroticism polygenic risk score (nPRS), a well-established measure of someone’s genetic predisposition to stress.During the 20-year study period, between 2000 and 2020, 1,890 participants experienced acute coronary syndrome (ACS), which encompasses heart attacks and other conditions that suddenly cut off blood supply to part of the heart muscle. People whose nPRS was above the median were found to be 34 percent more likely to experience ACS during stressful times, even when other factors like smoking status, alcohol consumption, and diabetes were taken into account.High-nPRS individuals were also more prone to anxiety and depression, and this too compounded their risk of ACS, with those experiencing these psychological symptoms being 3.2 times more likely to have a cardiac event during a stressful period.The “high stress” periods included for the purpose of this research were the immediate aftermath of presidential elections and sporting events involving local teams (including the Super Bowl and NBA playoffs), as well as the 10 days following Christmas. These times were compared with other days of the year as a control.Now that we’ve identified a population that could be at heightened risk of a cardiac emergency at certain times, Abohashem hopes we might be able to intervene to help mitigate this risk: “We could potentially target those people with screenings and dual-benefit interventions, such as exercise, yoga, mindfulness or other approaches that are associated with reductions in anxiety and depression and also with lowering cardiovascular risk.”The researchers note that a limitation of this study is its retrospective nature – that means we can’t definitively say that there is a causal link between depression/anxiety in people predisposed to stress and ACS risk. In the future, prospective studies could help scientists gain a clearer understanding of this relationship. Abohashem also highlighted the gaps in mental healthcare that exist in the US, with some patients facing barriers to accessing the support they need. Technological solutions are helping with this to some degree, such as more telehealth appointments, but there may be more that primary care providers can do to steer people towards self-help strategies like exercise and better sleep hygiene.To be fair, the news cycle in the run-up to an election is enough to keep anyone awake at night. Might we suggest catching up on the latest and greatest science news instead?The study was presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session.   [H/T: The Hill]

The evening network news coverage of PPresident Joe Biden’s upcoming executive order on the border crisis was, for the most part, predictably focused on the politics of the matter. And, across the board, this coverage unanimously omitted one piece of major news. Most representative of this coverage was the CBS Evening News. Watch the full report, as aired on Monday, June 3rd, 2024 (click “expand” to view transcript): CBS EVENING NEWS 6/3/24 6:38 PM NORAH O’DONNELL: President Biden is under intense political pressure to curb illegal immigration. It's a top concern for voters, one that Donald Trump and his allies have seized on. And tomorrow Biden is expected to take action issuing a major executive order allowing him to partially shut down the asylum process at the southern border. CBS News was the first to break the story, and tonight our Nancy Cordes is at The White House. Nancy, good to see you. So I understand this is going to be the most restrictive border policy ever enacted by a Democratic president, why now? NANCY CORDES: Well, Norah, The White House had been hoping that Congress would take this step. It didn’t. This represents a major change to immigration policy, and we’re told that the president is going to sign this executive order tomorrow. CBS News has learned that this new order will allow U.S. immigration officials to deport migrants without processing their asylum claims any time the number of illegal border crossings tops a specific threshold, and sources tell CBS that threshold is likely to be 2500 migrant apprehensions a day. Which means this partial ban could be triggered on day one because the number of apprehensions at the southern border in May was higher than that. It was 3800 a day according to the Border Patrol. Right now, of course, asylum-seekers are allowed to stay in the U.S. until their case is processed, which can take years. And critics say that creates an incentive for those who don't qualify to come to the U.S. anyway. This new executive order is almost certainly going to face legal challenges down the road. The White House appears to be going this route now because Republicans rejected a bipartisan senate deal that would have done something similar. Norah. O’DONNELL: Nancy Cordes with that big news tonight. Thank you so much. You have it all, really. CBS’s report boils down to concerns over Biden’s electoral prospects, and lamentations over the fact that Republicans didn’t codify 4,999 illegal crossings into law- leaving Biden to use executive authority to try to fix the mess he made via executive authority when he ripped the border open on Day One. ABC News followed a similar pattern: RACHEL SCOTT: Tonight, President Biden preparing to take his most aggressive action on immigration yet, with plans to issue an executive order to effectively shut down the border to asylum seekers when migrant crossings surge. Sources tell ABC News when daily encounters reach 2,500 between ports of entry, asylum seekers would be turned away. The move could have an immediate impact. Migrant crossings have averaged 3,500 a day in recent weeks. The president, keenly aware that immigration is a top issue for voters, has been weighing how he can act alone, after Donald Trump urged Republicans to block a bipartisan deal their own party negotiated. Protect the Precious at all times, in and out of season. NBC took a significantly different approach in that Telemundo anchor Julio Vaqueiro steered away from domestic political implications and covered the likely meltdown to come from the Immigration-Industrial Complex: LINDSAY TOCZYLOWSKI: This really what sounds like a draconian and potentially unlawful immigration shutdown of the border. Vaqueiro closed out his coverage by exposing a major loophole in the executive order: The unaccompanied minors exception. VAQUEIRO: Today President Biden spoke with Mexico’s president-elect. As for tomorrow's executive action, it’s expected to include some exceptions,humanitarian exceptions including one for unaccompanied children.  That exception becomes increasingly relevant when taking notice of the related news item suppressed across the dial: the Biden administration’s decision to kill 350,000 asylum cases- effectively, a mass amnesty. As reported by the indispensable Jennie Taer over at The New York Post: While the Biden administration is attempting to look like it’s getting tough on the border, behind the scenes it’s operating a program of “mass amnesty” for migrants, The Post can reveal. Data show that since 2022, more than 350,000 asylum cases filed by migrants have been closed by the US government if the applicants don’t have a criminal record or are otherwise not deemed a threat to the country. This means that while the migrants are not granted or denied asylum — their cases are “terminated without a decision on the merits of their asylum claim” — they are removed from the legal system and no longer required to check in with authorities. The move allows them to legally, indefinitely roam the US without fear of deportation, effectively letting them slip through the cracks. That’s kind of a super important point to cover when reporting on matters pertaining to immigration and the border. But, as always, the Regime Media’s focus is to Protect the Precious and to cast President Biden as the purest, truest victim of any of a wide assortment of (often self-induced) calamities.  SORR OF UNRELATED NOTE BUT NOT REALLY: It was refreshing to watch folks actually SPEAKING ENGLISH on a network newscast (as did Telemundo anchor Julio Vaqueiro for NBC and TelevisaUnivision anchor Enrique Acevedo for CBS during their respective coverages of the election of Claudia Sheinbaum as the next president of Mexico), as opposed to the weird, verby Newspeak so prevalent today.  Click “expand” to view the full transcripts of the aforementioned reports as aired on their respective newscasts on Monday, June 3rd, 2024: ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT 6/3/24 6:35 PM DAVID MUIR: Meanwhile, there is a developing headline tonight involving the U.S./Mexico border. This evening, sources now say President Biden is preparing to take tough executive action on immigration, including shutting the border when the number of asylum seekers reaches 2,500. It would trigger an immediate shutdown. It comes tonight as the new president of Mexico, their first woman president, a physicist and engineer, has already signaled she will work with the U.S. on immigration. Rachel Scott at the White House. RACHEL SCOTT: Tonight, President Biden preparing to take his most aggressive action on immigration yet, with plans to issue an executive order to effectively shut down the border to asylum seekers when migrant crossings surge. Sources tell ABC News when daily encounters reach 2,500 between ports of entry, asylum seekers would be turned away. The move could have an immediate impact. Migrant crossings have averaged 3,500 a day in recent weeks. The president, keenly aware that immigration is a top issue for voters, has been weighing how he can act alone, after Donald Trump urged Republicans to block a bipartisan deal their own party negotiated. JOE BIDEN: There's no guarantee that I have that power all by myself without legislation. And some have suggested I should just go ahead and try it. SCOTT: The U.S. has seen a record 6.4 million illegal border crossings during the Biden administration. Officials say the numbers have dipped in recent months, because Mexico is cracking down on their side of the border. And the U.S. will soon have a new partner. Mexico tonight electing its first woman and first Jewish president, Claudia Sheinbaum, the former mayor of Mexico City, a physicist with a doctorate in energy engineering who won the Nobel Peace Prize. Sheinbaum is vowing to continue the policies of outgoing president Lopez Obrador working to control the flow of migrants. And David, and back to that executive order, this could have an immediate impact for those who are seeking asylum. The number of migrant encounters at the border already far exceeds that threshold. The White House and the Biden administration fully aware this will likely be challenged in court. David. MUIR: Rachel Scott with a developing headline from The White House tonight. Rachel, thank you. NBC NIGHTLY NEWS: NBC NIGHTLY NEWS 6/3/24 7:06 PM LESTER HOLT: Facing high numbers of migrant crossings at the border, NBC News has learned President Biden is expected to take executive action tomorrow, right on the heels of Mexico's historic presidential election. Telemundo's Julio Vaqueiro is in Mexico City. JULIO VAQUEIRO: Facing mounting pressure over his handling of the border, NBC News has learned that the Biden administration is expected to announce a sweeping executive action that would allow the president to temporarily shut down the border if the number of illegal crossings reaches 2,500 a day, according to three people familiar to the discussions. There are currently more than 4,000 illegal border crossings every day according to Homeland Security, suggesting a shutdown could go into effect immediately. This policy is a reversal from the president's stance in January. JOE BIDEN: I've done all I can do. VAQUEIRO: With the presidential election approaching, Mr. Trump routinely slams president Biden over his handling of the border. DONALD TRUMP: They're pouring through every state, every state is now a border state. VAQUEIRO: Now President Biden is trying to institute restrictions similar to those Mr. Trump tried to enact in 2018, which courts struck down. LINDSAY TOCZYLOWSKI: This really what sounds like a draconian and potentially unlawful immigration shutdown of the border. VAQUEIRO: This announcement, on the heels of history in Mexico. CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM: ¡Viva Mexico! [ Cheers ] VAQUEIRO: Claudia Sheinbaum won yesterday's presidential election, becoming the first woman and the first Jewish president in the country's 200-year history. The climate scientist and former mayor of Mexico City will now be tasked with working with the U.S. to contain the flow of migrants at the border. ANA MARIA SALAZAR SLACK: I'm sure we're not going to have any major announcements of changes or proposals until it’s defined- find out who's the next President of the United States. VAQUEIRO: Today President Biden spoke with Mexico’s president-elect. As for tomorrow's executive action, it’s expected to include some exceptions,humanitarian exceptions including one for unaccompanied children. Lester. HOLT: Julio Vaqueiro. Thank you.  

Leftist outlets like The Atlantic seem to have a bad habit of yanking the most insane political ideas out of the ether to make them sound less nutty than they are. Its recent treatment of “degrowth communism” to fight climate change is no exception. “Is America Ready for ‘Degrowth Communism,’” read the magazine’s head-turning May 28 article. The author, Atlantic writing fellow Christopher Beam, tried to soften the expected blowback from such an off-the-wall idea being popularized by leftist Japanese philosopher Kohei Saito. Saito “knows he sounds like a madman,” Beam wrote. “That’s kind of the point,” he continued. “The crazy idea” of “degrowth communism,” Beam summarized, is based on the proposition “that there will always be a correlation between economic output and carbon” emissions. In essence, wrote Beam, “the best way to fight climate change is for wealthy nations to cut back on consumption and reduce the ‘material throughput’ that creates demand for energy and drives GDP.”  Beam pontificated how “[d]egrowth captures a core truth of the fight against climate change: What we’re doing is not enough and might even be making things worse.” He further claimed, “Degrowth might fail too, but in the eyes of its supporters, at least it’s directionally correct. It’s the protest vote of climate activism.” Beam wasted 3,661 words pushing deranged propaganda credentialing Saito’s “degrowth communism.”  That anyone could write this drivel with a straight face without laughing like a hyena on a sugar high is a great feat. But readers shouldn’t be surprised given that The Atlantic is the same outlet that tried to argue that nuclear war was a “climate problem,” the eco-effects of which would be on par with the catastrophic death toll from the mass slaughter. Climate Depot founder Marc Morano at least credited The Atlantic for saying “the quiet part out loud” in comments to MRC Business. “Net zero in the climate agenda is really nothing short of Soviet-style central planning. Every sector of our economy is subject to long range planning to meet net zero goals.”  In order to not come across as completely co-signing Kaito’s extremism, Beam took care to note that Saito had his fair share of “haters” and critics from all sides of the political spectrum. Saito’s critics apparently also included Marxists who saw the philosopher as distorting the radicalism of communism’s preeminent icon Karl Marx. But Beam couldn’t resist casting Kaito as some kind of climate crusader fighting against the system: “It’s understandable that Saito provokes so much ire: He rejects the mainstream political consensus that the best way to fight climate change is through innovation, which requires growth. But no matter how many times opponents swat it down, the idea of degrowth refuses to die. Perhaps it survives these detailed, technical refutations because its very implausibility is central to its appeal.” Beam further legitimized Saito by claiming that the “[t]he question of whether Marx was a degrowther is academic—and so is degrowth itself, unless it can find a viable political path.” Beam bemoaned the state of today’s politics that is somewhat still averse from telling the citizenries to do with less: “In today’s politics, proposing sacrifice seems like an obvious form of political suicide that would only empower politicians who don’t care about climate change.”  Morano saw right through The Atlantic’s ploy to mainstream psychotic climate change fanaticism and underscored what the real agenda is: “Every sector of our economy is subject to long range planning to meet net zero goals. This agenda is nothing short of the rationing of energy food and transportation in order to create chaos and give the government more Covid lockdown like controls. After all, what was a Covid lockdown but the governments' attempt at forcing growth on the world. We have truly entered the era of climate communism.” Conservatives are under attack. Contact The Atlantic at (202) 266-6000 and demand it quit legitimizing Saito’s climate change extremism.