An image shared on Facebook purports to show the recent fires in California. Verdict: False The image is not recent but shows a 2018 fire that occurred in the northern California town of Paradise, according to WHYY. The image was originally captured by The Associated Press. Fact Check: At least 24 people have died, and […]

News The Wheel of Time We’ll Be Meeting Several Aiel in The Wheel of Time Season 3 Including one figure that fans have been waiting to meet… By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on January 15, 2025 Credit: Jan Thijs/Prime Video Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Jan Thijs/Prime Video The Wheel of Time keeps turning out new cast members for its third season. Today, Prime Video announced five more actors we’ll see in upcoming episodes, including what characters they’ll be playing. Here’s the rundown of the new faces we’ll see and their respective roles: Isabella Bucceri (Finally Me, Everything in Between) plays Faile Bashere, a Saldaean Hunter of the Horn, whose efforts to locate a treasured relic have led her to The Two Rivers. Nukâka Coster-Waldau (Thin Ice, Anori) portrays eldest Wise One, Bair, the most respected member of the Taardad Aiel. Her authority and wisdom are held in higher regard even than that of the Clan Chief. Along with being able to channel the One Power, she has access to an even more mystical ability. Salóme Gunnarsdóttir (The Lazarus Project, Justice League) plays Melaine, a Wise One of the Taardad Aiel. Despite not being able to channel, she is able to access a more mystical power. Björn Landberg (German series Galileo Mystery, Unter uns) is Rhuarc, the well-respected Clan Chief of the Taardad Aiel. Having passed the trial of Rhuidean to become Chief, he is one of the few Aiel who knows what lies within the fog, though he is forbidden to speak of it. Synnøve Macody Lund (Ragnarok, Saw X) plays Melindhra, a Malkieri survivor who was taken in and raised by the Taardad Aiel. You’ll notice that four of the actors are portraying those connected to the Aiel, strongly hinting that we’ll spend more time with them in the third season. The fifth character—Faile—also plays a significant part in the story, particularly with Perrin, which I won’t spoil here for non-readers. The new list of characters also confirms that—just like Robert Jordan’s fantasy series—the Prime Video show helmed by Rafe Judkins will have a plethora of new characters, something that will likely cause enlivened discussion for fans of the books. The third season of The Wheel of Time premieres on Prime Video on March 13, 2025.[end-mark] The post We’ll Be Meeting Several Aiel in <i>The Wheel of Time</i> Season 3 appeared first on Reactor.

I keep a pretty well-stocked pantry that has seen its share of difficult moments: vermin, insects, and a roof leak, to name a few. With all the challenges of keeping preps up to date, you want to be a friend of your pantry, not an enemy. This means being more organized than I have been in the past.  I know they say that you can eat canned food years past the Best Before Date, but, in my own experience, I wouldn’t go more than a year out. Daisy has written a great article recently on how to keep your pantry organized and rotate your preps. Check it out to get some great tips!  This article will share a revelation that I had about making soup. In my home, growing up, you always needed a recipe. Now, don’t get me wrong, my mother was a great cook. But one day, I was visiting a friend in the afternoon, and we were both getting a little hungry. “I’ll make some soup,” he said and lifted a big pot onto the stove. I remember thinking, “You can’t just make soup like that!” I then watched him throw in, well, everything except the kitchen sink. The lid literally would not fit on this pot until all the stuff had cooked down a bit. I didn’t know you could just “make soup” like that. We sat there, having a great chat over coffee, and then around 25 minutes later, he declared the soup was ready. It was delicious! With that experience under my belt, I realized that I, too, could make a soup without a recipe…AND rotate my preps so I never face eating a gross overly old can of whatever again. Broth Variations I make my soup in a dutch oven, which holds around a gallon. My broth habits have varied over the years. For a while, I liked having those cubes around. Then, I went purist and made my own veggie broth from my own veggie scraps. These days, I’m on a bone broth kick. I throw one large tetra pak of bone broth in my dutch oven and then an equal amount of water. This fills it around half way up.  I organize my tetra paks on the shelf so that I am always getting the oldest one first.  If I had some broth in the freezer, I would make sure that it was dated and also try to use it within a year. It’s not that it’s going bad in there, but the flavor just won’t be the same. Protein Variations When a dear friend dropped off a huge turkey breast as a holiday gift, I had a couple meals from the meat and then used the rest to make soup. If I think my iron is low, I’ll fry up a hamburger patty and throw that in. As I love beans, I will always throw some in, too. Quick-cooking red lentils are a favorite of mine. If anything happens to reduce access to fuel (hmmmm, like an APOCALYPSE!?!), then this little fast-cooking lentil is a good one to get to know. Starch Variations Most often, I do a mix of starches. I like to pull out a potato from storage and grate it and throw it in. This gives my soup a delightful stew-like consistency. I do love noodles, so I will also throw in a few spaghetti noodles, breaking them in half before I throw them in. Veggie Variations This is where I check all three of my layers of winter vegetable storage to assess if there is anything that needs to be used immediately. I described all three of these layers in more detail in this article.  As all layers of vegetables stored at fall harvest are still keeping well, I am selecting based on wanting to create a soup with a lot of nutritional variety. Inevitably, there will be some spoilage. When I went to my cool(er) room storage for a carrot yesterday, one had gone bad, but the others are still sprouting and going strong after several months. Other Add-Ins You can do the same thing by rotating your canned goods to add to your soups. You can also use veggies in the fridge that need to be used up. One Example I wanted to share how fun and creative this can be. Enjoy while you rotate! Here is a list of the ingredients from the most recent version that I made, along with their pantry status:  4 cups Bone Broth plus 4 cups water – rotation system in place 1 carrot (layer 2) – one carrot discarded, sawdust re-dampened  2 beets (layer 1), – all beets checked for spoilage and rinsed – all OK. The tops were actually sprouting, so I planted them by the window to see if they would grow. 1 firm sweet potato (layer 2) – perfect condition, sawdust re-dampened 2 onions (cool(er) room) – 10 pound bag for less than $2 – what a deal! 3 cloves garlic – regular pantry handful dried basil (from garden) – stored in regular pantry hot pepper flakes – regular pantry 1/2 brick organic tofu cut into cubes – purchased recently 1 can mixed beans – rotation check 1 cup frozen roasted butternut squash cubes (originally from garden – then cool(er) room for 3.5 months, then roasted last month. I checked the freezer and wanted to use them up, making more space in my tiny freezer for this soup!) *It is great to keep some of these cubes frozen to throw into any soup you make!* 6 large leaves of organic kale and stalks – purchased recently; I randomly found the largest bundle of kale I had ever SEEN at a high end grocery store on sale for $1.38. You BET I bought it. 1/3 went into the soup. 1/3 will be used for kale chips and the last of it in a delicious kale omelette. It has been rinsed and is being stored in my fridge wrapped in two damp tea towels. It now looks better than when I bought it! 1 celery stalk (layer 1) – kept well hydrated by rinsing regularly, this was in perfect condition after a few weeks I simmered this for over 30 minutes. I want the onion soft, not crunchy. I had to add a few cups of water to keep the broth level up. I want it to be around 2 inches from the top, so it won’t boil over.  How Much Does It Make? I came out of this with 10 meals! Adding up the cost of the broth, tofu, beans, and kale, you get less than $6.50. The cost of everything else was negligible or from my garden. I count a serving two cups of soup. I kept enough for two meals in the fridge and froze the rest. This is how I eat all winter, going from one soup to the next, freezing some and overlapping them a bit. Every time I make my soup, it is an opportunity to check the three layers of my winter vegetables and ensure my pantry is properly rotated.  Rotation Soup: A Prepper Pantry’s Best Friend Keep your preps rotated with this easy freestyle soup. How do you ensure your pantry is rotated? Do you make a soup similar to this or something else? Please tell us in the comments section. The post Rotation Soup: Prep Well and Eat Well appeared first on The Organic Prepper.

Need to know how to sew a zipper? Sewing a zipper onto a project is as tricky as it gets, at least when it comes down to the sewing basics. With this simple tutorial, you can get through this and on with the rest of your work in no time. Patience and a steady hand are key. How to sew a zipper is one of those skills that we think we know but actually have no idea about. Yes, it's basic, but it has it complications like how to keep it straight, or how to know where to properly place it. You know, things that need your patience pants on. Once you get the hang of it, you'll be the master of sewing zippers and you'll never struggle with broken zippers ever again How to Sew a Zipper Using Sewing a Machine These step by step instructions on how to sew a zipper will show you how to do just that over an already closed seam. This sewing skill is helpful for any kind of project, from a pillowcase to a skirt, or a dress, pants, blouse or purse. Anything that zips! Shall we start? Supplies Needed to Sew a Zipper: Zipper Zipper Presser Foot Seam Ripper Ball Pins or Adhesive Tape Sewing Machine Thread Step 1: Use Zipper Presser Foot Image via Gifs The first thing you need do to sew a zipper is to have a zipper presser foot. Place the zipper presser foot into the sewing machine. Step 2: Place Zipper Face Down Over Fabric For this sample we used a scrap of fabric, realistically you will be attaching your zipper to any seam that is already sewn and pressed with a 5/8″ seam allowance. Place the zipper face down on the back side of the seam. Image via Skinny Happy World Step 3: Secure Zipper in Place Image Gifs Use the ball pins or tape to secure your zipper in place. Make sure the center is aligned with the seam before you sew a zipper. Pin all the way down to ensure your zipper will not budge while sewing.   Step 4: Sew One Side of the Zipper Image via Gifs  Set your fabric into the sewing machine underneath the zipper foot and stitch down one side. Do this until you reach 1/4″ away from the end of your zipper. Then stop.   Step 5: Turn Fabric in Sewing Machine Image via Gifs You don't want to move your stitching at all, but you do need to rotate your fabric. To rotate the fabric, use the hand wheel to place the needle down into the fabric. Then lift the zipper presser foot up, and with the needle holding everything in place, use your hand to turn the fabric clockwise 90 degrees.   Step 6: Sew Base of Zipper Image via Gifs Stitch in a straight line over the zipper, back stitch over the line you just made, and forward stitch again. Pause when you get to the zipper tab, place your needle in the machine with the hand wheel so it won't move, then lift up the presser foot so it is out of the way. Use your finger to push the zipper open slightly. Move the zipper tab pass the path of the sewing machine so it will not hinder your ability to sew in a straight line.   Step 7: Remove From Sewing Machine Image via Gifs With your needle and presser foot up, take the fabric out of the sewing machine, and trim off any extra threads. But we are not done yet!   Step 8: Rip Open the Seam that Encased the Zipper Image via Gifs Take your seam ripper or scissors and rip open the seam that you attached your zipper over. The stitches are delicate and will rip easily. Rip the stitches until you can see the zipper pull-up.   Step 9: Secure Unsewn Portion Near Zipper Pull-Up Image via Gifs Pull the zipper pull-up and unzip the zipper. If you placed ball pins or tape on the back portion, now is the time to remove that. After unzipping, place the unsewn portion to the presser foot and give it a good run until both sides are secure.   Step 10: Clean Up All Lose Threads Image via Skinny Happy World Remove all lose threads and tape and inspect if all sides are secure. This is the last part of the process on how to sew a zipper. If the zipper zips smoothly, you're good to go! Watch this step by step video by Wendi Gratz of Skinny Happy World: Congratulations! Now you know the basics on how to sew a zipper. That wasn't so bad was it? Sew the rest of your project as normal. Now you can go mend all of those clothes you were sure were done for! Get to work using your newly learned skill. Practice makes perfect!   What other sewing skills would you like to learn? I’d love to hear about it! Let me know in the comments area below. If you want to learn other sewing tricks, try these 25 Sewing Hacks To Make your Life Easier! Follow me on instagram, twitter, pinterest, and facebook! Image via Ummihasyajihan

I keep a pretty well-stocked pantry that has seen its share of difficult moments: vermin, insects, and a roof leak, to name a few. With all the challenges of keeping preps up to date, you want to be a friend of your pantry, not an enemy. This means being more organized than I have been in the past.  I know they say that you can eat canned food years past the Best Before Date, but, in my own experience, I wouldn’t go more than a year out. Daisy has written a great article recently on how to keep your pantry organized and rotate your preps. Check it out to get some great tips!  This article will share a revelation that I had about making soup. In my home, growing up, you always needed a recipe. Now, don’t get me wrong, my mother was a great cook. But one day, I was visiting a friend in the afternoon, and we were both getting a little hungry. “I’ll make some soup,” he said and lifted a big pot onto the stove. I remember thinking, “You can’t just make soup like that!” I then watched him throw in, well, everything except the kitchen sink. The lid literally would not fit on this pot until all the stuff had cooked down a bit. I didn’t know you could just “make soup” like that. We sat there, having a great chat over coffee, and then around 25 minutes later, he declared the soup was ready. It was delicious! With that experience under my belt, I realized that I, too, could make a soup without a recipe…AND rotate my preps so I never face eating a gross overly old can of whatever again. Broth Variations I make my soup in a dutch oven, which holds around a gallon. My broth habits have varied over the years. For a while, I liked having those cubes around. Then, I went purist and made my own veggie broth from my own veggie scraps. These days, I’m on a bone broth kick. I throw one large tetra pak of bone broth in my dutch oven and then an equal amount of water. This fills it around half way up.  I organize my tetra paks on the shelf so that I am always getting the oldest one first.  If I had some broth in the freezer, I would make sure that it was dated and also try to use it within a year. It’s not that it’s going bad in there, but the flavor just won’t be the same. Protein Variations When a dear friend dropped off a huge turkey breast as a holiday gift, I had a couple meals from the meat and then used the rest to make soup. If I think my iron is low, I’ll fry up a hamburger patty and throw that in. As I love beans, I will always throw some in, too. Quick-cooking red lentils are a favorite of mine. If anything happens to reduce access to fuel (hmmmm, like an APOCALYPSE!?!), then this little fast-cooking lentil is a good one to get to know. Starch Variations Most often, I do a mix of starches. I like to pull out a potato from storage and grate it and throw it in. This gives my soup a delightful stew-like consistency. I do love noodles, so I will also throw in a few spaghetti noodles, breaking them in half before I throw them in. Veggie Variations This is where I check all three of my layers of winter vegetable storage to assess if there is anything that needs to be used immediately. I described all three of these layers in more detail in this article.  As all layers of vegetables stored at fall harvest are still keeping well, I am selecting based on wanting to create a soup with a lot of nutritional variety. Inevitably, there will be some spoilage. When I went to my cool(er) room storage for a carrot yesterday, one had gone bad, but the others are still sprouting and going strong after several months. Other Add-Ins You can do the same thing by rotating your canned goods to add to your soups. You can also use veggies in the fridge that need to be used up. One Example I wanted to share how fun and creative this can be. Enjoy while you rotate! Here is a list of the ingredients from the most recent version that I made, along with their pantry status:  4 cups Bone Broth plus 4 cups water – rotation system in place 1 carrot (layer 2) – one carrot discarded, sawdust re-dampened  2 beets (layer 1), – all beets checked for spoilage and rinsed – all OK. The tops were actually sprouting, so I planted them by the window to see if they would grow. 1 firm sweet potato (layer 2) – perfect condition, sawdust re-dampened 2 onions (cool(er) room) – 10 pound bag for less than $2 – what a deal! 3 cloves garlic – regular pantry handful dried basil (from garden) – stored in regular pantry hot pepper flakes – regular pantry 1/2 brick organic tofu cut into cubes – purchased recently 1 can mixed beans – rotation check 1 cup frozen roasted butternut squash cubes (originally from garden – then cool(er) room for 3.5 months, then roasted last month. I checked the freezer and wanted to use them up, making more space in my tiny freezer for this soup!) *It is great to keep some of these cubes frozen to throw into any soup you make!* 6 large leaves of organic kale and stalks – purchased recently; I randomly found the largest bundle of kale I had ever SEEN at a high end grocery store on sale for $1.38. You BET I bought it. 1/3 went into the soup. 1/3 will be used for kale chips and the last of it in a delicious kale omelette. It has been rinsed and is being stored in my fridge wrapped in two damp tea towels. It now looks better than when I bought it! 1 celery stalk (layer 1) – kept well hydrated by rinsing regularly, this was in perfect condition after a few weeks I simmered this for over 30 minutes. I want the onion soft, not crunchy. I had to add a few cups of water to keep the broth level up. I want it to be around 2 inches from the top, so it won’t boil over.  How Much Does It Make? I came out of this with 10 meals! Adding up the cost of the broth, tofu, beans, and kale, you get less than $6.50. The cost of everything else was negligible or from my garden. I count a serving two cups of soup. I kept enough for two meals in the fridge and froze the rest. This is how I eat all winter, going from one soup to the next, freezing some and overlapping them a bit. Every time I make my soup, it is an opportunity to check the three layers of my winter vegetables and ensure my pantry is properly rotated.  Rotation Soup: A Prepper Pantry’s Best Friend Keep your preps rotated with this easy freestyle soup. How do you ensure your pantry is rotated? Do you make a soup similar to this or something else? Please tell us in the comments section. The post Rotation Soup: Prep Well and Eat Well appeared first on The Organic Prepper.

Democrats In Minnesota Have Gone Insane and Insurrection-y

News stories about the likely existence of extraterrestrial life, and our chances of detecting it, tend to be positive. We are often told that we might discover it any time now. Finding life beyond Earth is “only a matter of time”, we were told in September 2023. “We are close” was a headline from September 2024. It’s easy to see why. Headlines such as “We’re probably not close” or “Nobody knows” aren’t very clickable. But what does the relevant community of experts actually think when considered as a whole? Are optimistic predictions common or rare? Is there even a consensus? In our new paper, published in Nature Astronomy, we’ve found out. During February to June 2024, we carried out four surveys regarding the likely existence of basic, complex and intelligent extraterrestrial life. We sent emails to astrobiologists (scientists who study extraterrestrial life), as well as to scientists in other areas, including biologists and physicists. In total, 521 astrobiologists responded, and we received 534 non-astrobiologist responses. The results reveal that 86.6% of the surveyed astrobiologists responded either “agree” or “strongly agree” that it’s likely that extraterrestrial life (of at least a basic kind) exists somewhere in the universe. Less than 2% disagreed, with 12% staying neutral. So, based on this, we might say that there’s a solid consensus that extraterrestrial life, of some form, exists somewhere out there. Scientists who weren’t astrobiologists essentially concurred, with an overall agreement score of 88.4%. In other words, one cannot say that astrobiologists are biased toward believing in extraterrestrial life, compared with other scientists. When we turn to “complex” extraterrestrial life or “intelligent” aliens, our results were 67.4% agreement, and 58.2% agreement, respectively for astrobiologists and other scientists. So, scientists tend to think that alien life exists, even in more advanced forms. These results are made even more significant by the fact that disagreement for all categories was low. For example, only 10.2% of astrobiologists disagreed with the claim that intelligent aliens likely exist. There are many potentially habitable planets out there. Optimists and pessimists Are scientists merely speculating? Usually, we should only take notice of a scientific consensus when it is based on evidence (and lots of it). As there is no proper evidence, scientists may be guessing. However, scientists did have the option of voting “neutral”, an option that was chosen by some scientists who felt that they would be speculating. Only 12% chose this option. There is actually a lot of “indirect” or “theoretical” evidence that alien life exists. For example, we do now know that habitable environments are very common in the universe. We have several in our own solar system, including the sub-surface oceans of the moons Europa and Enceladus, and arguably also the environment a few kilometres below the surface of Mars. It also seems relevant that Mars used to be highly habitable, with lakes and rivers of liquid water on its surface and a substantial atmosphere. It is reasonable to generalise from here to a truly gargantuan number of habitable environments across the galaxy, and wider universe. We also know (since we’re here) that life can get started from non-life – it happened on Earth, after all. Although the origin of the first, simple forms of life is poorly understood, there is no compelling reason to think that it requires astronomically rare conditions. And even if it does, the probability of life getting started (abiogenesis) is clearly non-zero. This can help us to see the 86.6% agreement in a new light. Perhaps it is not, actually, a surprisingly strong consensus. Perhaps it is a surprisingly weak consensus. Consider the numbers: there are more than 100 billion galaxies. And we know that habitable environments are everywhere. Let’s say there are 100 billion billion habitable worlds (planets or moons) in the universe. Suppose we are such pessimists that we think life’s chances of getting started on any given habitable world is one in a billion billion. In that case, we would still answer “agree” to the statement that it is likely that alien life exists in the universe. Thus, optimists and pessimists should all have answered “agree” or “strongly agree” to our survey, with only the most radical pessimists about the origin of life disagreeing. Bearing this in mind, we could present our data another way. Suppose we discount the 60 neutral votes we received. Perhaps these scientists felt that they would be speculating, and didn’t want to take a stance. In which case, it makes sense to ignore their votes. This leaves 461 votes in total, of which 451 were for agree or strongly agree. Now, we have an overall agreement percentage of 97.8%. This move is not as illegitimate as it looks. Scientists know that if they choose “neutral” they can’t possibly be wrong. Thus, this is the “safe” choice. In research, it is often called “satisficing”. As the geophysicist Edward Bullard wrote back in 1975 while debating whether all continents were once joined together, instead of making a choice “it is more prudent to keep quiet, … sit on the fence, and wait in statesmanlike ambiguity for more data”. Not only is keeping quiet a safe choice for scientists, it means the scientist doesn’t need to think too hard – it is the easy choice. This Hubble image shows the galaxy NGC 3432. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Filippenko, R. Jansen Getting the balance right What we probably want is balance. On one side, we have the lack of direct empirical evidence and the reluctance of responsible scientists to speculate. On the other side, we have evidence of other kinds, including the truly gargantuan number of habitable environments in the universe. We know that the probability of life getting started is non-zero. Perhaps 86.6% agreement, with 12% neutral and less than 2% disagreement, is a sensible compromise, all things considered. Perhaps – given the problem of satisficing – whenever we present such results, we should present two results for overall agreement: one with neutral votes included (86.6%), and one with neutral votes disregarded (97.8%). Neither result is the single, correct result. Each perspective speaks to different analytical needs and helps prevent oversimplification of the data. Ultimately, reporting both numbers – and being transparent about their contexts – is the most honest way to represent the true complexity of responses. Peter Vickers, Professor in Philosophy of Science, Durham University; Henry Taylor, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Birmingham and Sean McMahon Reader in Astrobiology, University of Edinburgh This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. The post Do aliens exist? We studied what scientists really think appeared first on Anomalien.com.

Pam Bondi Is Set for Day One of Hearings Before the Senate Judiciary Committee

Wednesday Morning Minute