News Kaos Cassandra, Medusa, and the Fates Get in on the Godly Action in the Latest Trailer for Kaos It’s supposed to be Greek gods as we’ve never seen them before, but this all looks familiar enough… By Molly Templeton | Published on August 19, 2024 Image: Justin Downing/Netflix Comment 0 Share New Share Image: Justin Downing/Netflix Netflix would really like you to know that its upcoming Greek god series, Kaos, is not like other Greek gods. As Tudum says, “The upcoming drama takes everything we know about Greek mythology and turns it on its head with a contemporary twist — all with Goldblum’s Zeus, ruthless king of the gods, at the center.” It’s just a bit unclear what has been turned on its head here. Gods being petty and cruel? Check. Gods doing whatever they want and being defied by humanity? Check. What is this trailer not showing us? Whatever secrets Kaos is hiding, it does look like fun, in a gods-behaving-badly sort of way. Jeff Goldblum leads the pack as Zeus, who gets a bee in his bonnet about those dirty ungrateful humans; Janet McTeer is his wife, Hera; Riddy (Aurora Perrineau), Ari (Leila Farzad), and Caneus (Misia Butler) are three humans who “are totally unaware of their cosmic significance or the part they must play in saving the world.” And that’s just for starters; we’ve also got Billie Piper as a miserable-looking Cassandra; Debi Mazar as Medusa; and Suzy Eddie Izzard as “Lachy,” which is a terrible nickname for Lachesis (the middle of the three Fates). Orpheus (Killian Scott) is here, of course, once again reinterpreted as a rock star. Three big names are excellently cast: David Thewlis as Hades, Cliff Curtis as Poseidon, and Nabhaan Rizwan as Dionysus. Stephen Dillane plays Prometheus, who’s got a real bone to pick with these gods. Kaos comes from The End of the F***ing World creator Charlie Covell, who told Tudum that they were a Greek-myth-obsessed child who watched Clash of the Titans “daily.” The series arrives on Netflix on August 29th.[end-mark] The post Cassandra, Medusa, and the Fates Get in on the Godly Action in the Latest Trailer for <i>Kaos</i> appeared first on Reactor.

Featured Essays Science Fiction Searching for Meaning in the Void of Space: Aniara, High Life, and Avenue 5 What can we learn from three science fiction stories about being adrift among the stars? By Robert Repino | Published on August 19, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share In my younger days, when I was far more eager to pick a fight have a discussion with friends and acquaintances who held beliefs different from my own, I formulated what I thought was a foolproof way of countering the claim that a person’s life can have no meaning without the existence of a god. For several reasons, the accusation that a godless life is somehow less fulfilling, less authentic, less moral, and less meaningful struck a nerve with me. It felt like a cheap shot. And it prompted an obvious question: Why assume that a god gives you meaning? So here was my brilliant retort. Bear with me. Imagine hearing the news, similar to the premise of the 1949 noir film D.O.A., that you have been poisoned, and will die peacefully but swiftly in about 24 hours. Most people have contemplated what they would do on their last day on Earth, but this scenario comes with a twist. Imagine that there is a bomb planted somewhere in a heavily populated city. The bomb, if detonated, will contaminate the entire area with the same poison that is slowly killing you. You are the only one who knows where it might be, and you’re the only one who knows how to disarm it. So, how do you spend your last day? Do you wallow in self-pity, do you go on a hedonistic bender filled with drugs and hookers, or do you disarm the bomb? I think most people, regardless of their religiosity or lack thereof, would choose option three. Disabling the bomb will become their life’s purpose in the little time they have left, with no need for a blessing from the divine or a promise of an afterlife. (Indeed, if you do need those promises to convince you to do the right thing, a lack of meaning is the least of your problems.) No doubt the hero of this story would be sad to go too soon, but they might be grateful knowing that they were offered such an obvious way of making their time here worthwhile. This is merely a hypothetical, and a wild one at that. The trick is to understand that all of us are in this very situation, every second of every day. Our precious time is limited. What we choose to do with it, within our limited capacity, is how we create meaning for ourselves. I realize others have come up with similar and more compelling scenarios. Nevertheless, I’ve held onto this one for a long time. And yet I eventually found it challenged in a surprising way by, of all things, a trio of science fiction stories. [Spoilers ahead for each of the movies/series under discussion.] Into the Void: Aniara  If you have not seen Aniara, I urge you to watch it right now, even if that means stepping away from this screen. (We’ve already gotten your click, so we’ll be fine.) Based on a Swedish epic poem from the mid-20th century, Aniara debuted in 2018 and arrived in the US in 2019, which means that, for many potential viewers, it got lost in the distracted years that followed. The film takes place in the future, when Earth has become a wasteland, and lucky settlers travel to a Martian colony by way of enormous, city-sized spacecraft. The interior of the ship resembles a shopping mall, complete with all of the luxuries of a cruise liner. When a mishap knocks the Aniara off course, the realization dawns on the crew and the passengers that they may not be able to resume their journey as planned, having lost navigational control. Though they are able to grow food and recycle air and water, the psychological toll grows heavier with each passing day. Eventually, after many failed attempts to find a way home, a grim reality sets in. Aniara will plunge into the void forever. This ship will be the only world that its inhabitants will know for the rest of their lives. Some of the film’s most gut-wrenching moments involve the protagonist staring out a window into space and convulsing in panic. This unnamed woman is known to the crew as the Mimaroben (Emelie Garbers), and her primary duty is to facilitate a virtual reality device that projects images and sensations of the lost beauty of Earth. As demand for the service grows, the artificial intelligence of the “Mima” becomes overwhelmed and eventually self-destructs. The loss of this distraction, along with the mounting years and the dwindling hope of rescue, culminates in the rise of a cult of Mima, which threatens the entire ship. Before long, the Aniara is a shell of itself, drifting into the darkness, with only a few survivors still chanting about their memories of home. With hundreds of characters, Aniara depicts a wide variety of reactions: panic, denial, paranoia, grim determination, phony optimism, hedonism, nihilism, and magical thinking. For a while, the Mimaroben embodies the resilience of the ideal humanist. Even after the Mima device fails, and she is falsely blamed and punished, the Mimaroben attempts to bring some joy and purpose to her shipmates. Indeed, this keeps her alive and functional for much longer than most. But this film has little interest in providing inspiration, for we also see the Mimaroben at the very end of her rope. I, for one, could only nod and say that I understood her exhaustion. Darker Still: High Life Also from 2018, Claire Denis’ High Life is equally challenging, with an even bleaker premise. Instead of a luxury cruiser full of passengers, the ship in this film carries a group of convicts on a doomed mission toward a black hole. On the way, the ship’s doctor—a prisoner herself—controls her patients with sedatives and performs experiments meant to produce a child in space. Whereas the Aniara had the Mima as a diversion, this unnamed vessel comes equipped with the Box, a device the prisoners use to simulate fantasies while they masturbate. The situation begins to unravel as the doctor’s experiments go too far, triggering a series of violent altercations among the passengers. The murders, suicides, and other fatalities leave only two people alive: the quiet, stoic Monte (Robert Pattinson) and his daughter Willow (Jessie Ross), a product of the fertility procedures. For years, Monte raises the child and maintains the ship as it gets closer to its destination. His duty as a father becomes his identity. Though he can protect Willow in the short term, he can offer her no future. Instead, he joins her on a voyage into the unknown. At the edge of the black hole, the father and daughter launch a shuttle and plunge into the anomaly as a dazzling light engulfs them. Playing Hopelessness for Laughs: Avenue 5 Somehow, the third example on this list takes the “into the void” idea and twists it into a sitcom. Like, for actual laughs. The HBO series Avenue 5, created by master satirist Armando Iannucci (Veep, The Thick of It), debuted in 2020, lasting two seasons. Much like Aniara, the show features a massive ship that has veered off course, with a vanishing hope of returning home. To make matters worse, the captain and the crew are impostors. The passengers consist of short-sighted brats and weirdoes, including a living embodiment of the entitled, whiny “Karen” stereotype (yep, that’s the character’s name). The head of customer relations is a self-proclaimed nihilist who is more robotic and oblivious than an automated representative. The owner of the ship is a childish tech-bro who lucked into a trillion-dollar space business he knows nothing about. And the only competent engineer—a low-ranking crewmember named Billie (Lenora Crichlow)—struggles to get anyone to listen when disaster approaches. In other words, Avenue 5 is an essential parody of our rotten times. In a scene that anticipates the kind of misinformation that would run rampant throughout the COVID pandemic, some of the passengers become convinced that their predicament is a hoax, and that the ship has already returned to Earth. To prove it, they step into the airlock, only to freeze instantly as their desiccated corpses float away. Despite being a comedy, Avenue 5 may be the most cynical, morbid, and hopeless of these three stories. The Death of Everything and the Meaning of Life I still think that my D.O.A. thought experiment would apply to the scenarios in each of these stories. But I can’t say that with a great degree of confidence. For the passengers on board these ships, their entire worlds have been abruptly severed and tossed away, doomed to shrink to nothing. The Aniara could plod along for another generation, or Avenue 5 could avoid a collision with an asteroid, or Monte could save Willow’s life. And yes, those actions would mean something. But the future in store for these vessels will inevitably go cold and lifeless. In a way, their plight is far worse than an apocalypse, for there will be nothing to rebuild in the aftermath, and no one to rebuild it. Here, I can imagine some of my religious friends pointing out that I am merely discussing subjective meaning and purpose. Their god, or their religious practice or spiritual framework, can provide objective meaning. That dichotomy doesn’t do much for me, either on Earth or in space. What good is an objective meaning if it’s handed down arbitrarily from on high? Can it be taken away just as easily? And if such an objective meaning existed, our interpretation of it would inevitably be subjective, which brings us right back to where we started. I have to remind myself, again, that we are all on board the Aniara, albeit on a longer time scale. The sun will one day gobble up our planet. Then it will burn out, as will the rest of the stars. We are here now, in this present moment, and we have a choice to live, and grow, and learn, and love. Or to give up on all that, and destroy ourselves and each other. The scenario is not great, but the choice seems obvious. In an interview with the science fiction magazine Inverse, Aniara’s co-director Pella Kågerman says, “I think some people need to understand how bad [our situation] actually is, while others need to get some optimism back so we can continue fighting.” Her own interest in the epic poem that inspired the film came after enduring an apocalypse of sorts. When Kågerman was young, her grandmother suffered a stroke. During the long recovery period, the two bonded over the poem, pretending that the hospital was the ship, and the doctors and nurses were the crew. Cultivating a new kind of gentleness got them through a difficult time. It’s not surprising that storytellers who imagine something like Aniara would ground their morality within the context of human interaction. For them, individual salvation and personal gratification through the Mima or the Box or the airlock are useless at best, disastrous at worst. Instead, it takes tenderness, empathy, companionship, and sacrifice for the characters to press on. To grow, the characters must look outside of their own narrow set of needs and fears. Thus, Monte the convict becomes a loving father. Billie the plucky engineer rises to the occasion to avert another catastrophe. The Mimaroben devises a way to share the beauty of Earth to soothe the weary passengers. This kind of determined, tender stoicism is not always enough, and these stories don’t shy away from showing the characters at their very limit. But in the worst of circumstances, it’s all we have. That and each other.[end-mark] The post Searching for Meaning in the Void of Space: <i>Aniara</i>, <i>High Life</i>, and <i>Avenue 5</i> appeared first on Reactor.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Bridget Phillipson, the UK’s Secretary of Education and Labour MP for Houghton and Sunderland South, has unveiled plans for a comprehensive review of the primary and secondary education curriculum. The proposed changes aim to equip students with the state-backed skills to discern truth from falsehood in the always-online era but have sparked concerns regarding potential indoctrination and the limiting of critical thinking. Phillipson’s initiative, discussed in a recent interview with The Sunday Telegraph, seeks to fortify students against what she describes as a surge of false narratives and extremist ideologies online. The revised curriculum will emphasize critical thinking across various subjects, including English and Computer lessons, which will now incorporate analyses of news articles and online content to identify “misinformation.” Phillipson told the Sunday Telegraph: “It’s more important than ever that we give young people the knowledge and skills to be able to challenge what they see online. “That’s why our curriculum review will develop plans to embed critical skills in lessons to arm our children against the disinformation, fake news and putrid conspiracy theories awash on social media. Our renewed curriculum will always put high and rising standards in core subjects – that’s non-negotiable. “But alongside this we will create a broad, knowledge-rich curriculum that widens access to cultural subjects and gives pupils the knowledge and skills they need to thrive at work and throughout life.” However, the focus on distinguishing “genuine” news from fabricated stories could bias students towards mainstream media sources, discouraging skepticism about these outlets and potentially stifling broader critical inquiry. As in other scenarios, critics fear that such an approach could reduce exposure to a diverse range of viewpoints, skewing students’ understanding of media literacy by promoting a narrow spectrum of sources deemed acceptable by the curriculum standards. The push to integrate lessons on fake news within computer classes and the contextual analysis of statistics in mathematics has been met with skepticism. There is a concern that defining certain sources as inherently reliable could undermine the development of independent critical thinking skills, leading students to accept approved narratives without sufficient scrutiny. These curriculum modifications follow incidents like the recent discussion about a stabbing incident where three young children were killed, which ignited riots nationwide. Online posts resulted in arrests. While the government and specialized units, such as the National Police Chiefs’ Council, intensify their efforts to combat online “hate speech” and misinformation, Phillipson insists that education is the most potent antidote to misleading narratives. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Education Overhaul or Indoctrination Blueprint? The UK’s Controversial Online “Misinformation” Education For Kids appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

House Committees Report: Biden Engaged in 'Impeachable Conduct' as VP, But ...

Manchurian Candidate?

You may have seen in the news recently that a banana apocalypse is nigh – scientists have heralded an uncertain future for the fruit as it continues to be plagued by a fungal pathogen. It sounds like devastating news for lovers of banoffee pie and banana bread (although maybe not for smoothie fans) – are things really as dark as they seem?What is the bananapocalypse?It is sadly true that the bananas gracing our grocery stores and fruit bowls are facing functional extinction at the hands of a fungus called Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense (Foc) tropical race 4 (TR4). This not-so-catchily-named pathogen causes the disease Fusarium wilt of banana (FWB), which is one of the most damaging plant diseases we know of.FWB, also known as Panama disease, occurs when the fungus enters the plant through the roots, occupies its vascular system, and blocks the flow of water and nutrients to the fruit. This causes the plant to wilt, and eventually die.This isn’t the first Fusarium outbreak that has threatened our bananas.“The kind of banana we eat today is not the same as the one your grandparents ate. Those old ones, the Gros Michel bananas, are functionally extinct, victims of the first Fusarium outbreak in the 1950s,” explained Li-Jun Ma, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and senior author of a recent study on Foc TR4, in a statement.Millions of Gros Michel banana plants in Central America were destroyed during the first half of the 20th century by a type of Fusarium known as Foc race 1 (R1). These were then replaced by an R1-resistant variety, the Cavendish banana. However, at the turn of the 21st century, a resurgence of FWB caused by a different strain, Foc tropical race 4 (TR4), began to threaten the banana industry once again.TR4 is suspected to have originated in Indonesia and Malaysia, but has since spread far and wide, including to Columbia (in 2019) and Peru (in 2021), which are in the largest Cavendish banana-exporting region in the world.The pathogen also infects locally consumed banana varieties, which are among the main dietary sources of carbohydrates in Africa, Southeast Asia, and tropical America.“The TR4 invasion thus presents a major threat both to the global banana trade and to the food security of people living in these areas, with the potential to exacerbate poverty in developing nations and create food shortages that will intensify world hunger,” reads the paper. Is this the end of the banana as we know it?It certainly sounds like the end times for the Cavendish banana, but Ma and co-authors’ research has offered some hope for the flailing fruit. It turns out, Foc TR4 is evolutionarily distinct from the fungus that killed off bananas in the 50s, and they’ve even managed to pinpoint some genes associated with its virulence. All of which opens the door to potential treatments and strategies to temper its spread.“We have spent the last 10 years studying this new outbreak of banana wilt,” said Ma. “We now know that the Cavendish banana-destroying pathogen TR4 did not evolve from the race that decimated the Gros Michel bananas. TR4’s genome contains some accessory genes that are linked to the production of nitric oxide, which seems to be the key factor in TR4’s virulence.”Nitric oxide is harmful to the Cavendish banana: “This sudden burst of toxic gases facilitates infection by disarming the plant’s defense system. At the same time, the fungus protects itself by increasing production of chemicals that detoxify nitric oxide,” Ma writes in an article in The Conversation describing her research.Knowing this provides researchers with many options to investigate how we can mitigate, or even control, the spread of Foc TR4. For example, Ma’s team was able to ascertain that the virulence of the fungus is greatly reduced when two genes that control nitric oxide production are eliminated.Moving away from monocultures will also help safeguard our beloved breakfast food.“Growing different varieties of bananas can make agriculture more sustainable and reduce disease pressure on a single crop. Farmers and researchers can control Fusarium wilt of banana by identifying or developing banana varieties that are tolerant or resistant to TR4,” Ma writes.It seems there’s hope for the humble banana yet.The study is published in Nature Microbiology.

Ever been at one of those oceanside airports where you take off over the sea and noticed that among the choppy waters are smooth patches? These surface slicks are a perplexing phenomenon, and it turns out they’re a haven for a vast diversity of tiny lifeforms.What are those smooth patches out at sea?There are four key kinds of surface slicks out at sea that are created through slightly different physical mechanisms. These include:Internal Wave Slicks – Slicks created by waves that move beneath the water’s surface. These were the most common slicks identified in a 2021 study in Hawaiian waters.Groundwater Discharge Plume Front – These slicks are driven by another source of water, such as underground springs. As the flow meets the surface water of the ocean, it creates the shiny slicks we can see from above.Headland Front – This kind of slick occurs along the coastline as it’s the result of the way water flows around the uneven obstacle that is the landmass. For instance, if a cliff juts out to sea, followed by a cove that scoops inland, this can alter the flow of the water, creating this kind of slick.Langmuir Cells – These slicks can sometimes appear in parallel lines and they’re the result of wind altering the movement of water. Not to be confused with square waves, which are a very different beast and can be deadly.Satellite imagery (synthetic aperture radar, or SAR) is a good way to study slicks, and everything from wind conditions to tidal phase, groundwater discharge, and the underwater landscape can influence how they emerge. They are a naturally occurring phenomenon, and one that wildlife has taken full advantage of.Composite image showing just a small portion of the remarkable diversity of larval and juvenile fishes and invertebrates found living in surface slick nurseries along West Hawaii Island.Image credit: Larval fish: Jonathan Whitney (NOAA Fisheries), Slick photo: Joey Lecky (NOAA Fisheries)What lives in ocean slicks? AKA, the Neuston ZoneIn 2021, scientists carried out over 130 plankton net tows inside the surface slicks and their surrounding waters along the sheltered coast of Hawai'i Island. They then combined their findings from the tows with SAR data on slick footprints.Their results revealed that while slicks only cover around 8 percent of the surface area studied, they contained 39 percent of the area’s surface-dwelling larval fish. Animals that live just above or below the surface occupy what's known as the neuston zone, and it's home to all manner of ocean oddities that are partial to setting up camp in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The study found the density of larval fish was seven times higher in the slicks compared to the surrounding waters, and included the larvae of coral reef triggerfish, mahi-mahi, and lanternfish, as well as snails, crabs, and shrimp. The study also found slicks are a valuable food source, with more than a quarter of the available zooplankton existing inside them. "We were shocked to find larvae of so many species, and even entire families of fishes, that were only found in surface slicks," said lead author Dr Jonathan Whitney, marine ecologist at NOAA, in a statement. "These 'bioslicks' form an interconnected superhighway of rich nursery habitat that accumulate and attract tons of young fishes, along with dense concentrations of food and shelter."“The fact that surface slicks host such a large proportion of larvae, along with the resources they need to survive, tells us they are critical for the replenishment of adult fish populations."So the next time you spot an ocean slick out at sea, give it a little wave. You’re saying hello to the fish of the future.

Late last month, Russian and Chinese bombers staged a joint patrol over the North Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea near the coast of Alaska, prompting American and Canadian forces to respond.Two Russian TU-95 “Bear” bombers and two Chinese Xi'an H-6 bombers were tracked flying in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) on July 24, 2024, according to North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).The four bombers were swiftly intercepted by six NORAD fighter jets, including Two CF-18 Hornets, two F-35 Lighting II, and two F-16 Fighting Falcons.It might all sound a bit heated, but NORAD was keen to quell any panic, noting that the planes did not enter sovereign airspace and the activity is “not seen as a threat.”Russian authorities have added the flight was “conducted in strict compliance with international rules on the use of airspace."NORAD forces intercepting a Russian Tupolev Tu-95 "Bear" bomber.Image credit: US Department of DefenseAlthough this kind of activity in the ADIZ is not totally unprecedented, the joint exercise is significant because it shows closer military cooperation between China and Russia, the latter of which has become increasingly isolated since it was hit with international sanctions following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The two countries have the world's sixth-longest international border, over 4,200 kilometers (2,600 miles) long, and share some major geopolitical interests, despite their long and complicated history.It's the first time China and Russia have conducted a joint air patrol in this region, plus it’s the first time that Chinese and Russian aircraft have taken off from the same airbase, a site in northeast Russia.“Intercepts in the Alaska ADIZ, however, are far from unusual: on average, NORAD conducted six to seven intercepts of Russian aircraft annually between 2007 and 2023. While the presence of Chinese bombers in this latest patrol is new, the operation follows a similar pattern to previous Russian patrols near Alaska, with aircraft operating in international airspace and comporting to international law and practice,” said experts from the American think-tank Center for Strategic & International Studies.“The real significance of the patrol is in what it demonstrates about growing cooperation between China and Russia and intensifying competition between the United States and those adversaries,” they added. There’s been provocation from "the West" too. In July 2024, the US Navy led its biennial “Rim of the Pacific Exercise” (RIMPAC), the world's largest international maritime warfare exercise. China has been invited to previous RIMPAC events, but they were excluded in 2022 and 2024 due to, what the US calls, "increasingly coercive and aggressive behavior.” The giant military exercise is essentially a flex of power in the Pacific Ocean, a contentious part of the world where China has been building up influence in recent times. NATO also held a major summit in early July 2024. The concluding declaration of the meeting described China as a “decisive enabler of Russia’s war against Ukraine through its so-called ‘no limits’ partnership and its large-scale support for Russia’s defense industrial base.”These certainly are interesting times to be alive...

The light signals of fireflies appear to have been highjacked by orb-weaving spiders. Scientists believe they have observed the spiders manipulating captive flies so that they flash like females, luring more male fireflies into their trap. Can’t trust anything anymore.The spider is Araneus ventricosus, which is partial to feeding on the firefly species Abscondita terminalis. The males of these fireflies attract females by making multi-pulse flashes with two lanterns, while the females just pulse a single lantern to attract males.Now, new research has captured evidence that points to A. ventricosus being able to hijack the fireflies’ messaging system by making males trapped in their web flash like females. This then lures in more fireflies who think they are approaching a female, when in fact, they’re flying right into a trap.First author of the new study, Xinhua Fu, from Huazhong Agricultural University, China, first noticed there was a strange skew in the webs of the orb-weaving spiders. Each web seemed to have only male fireflies trapped in them, which got the team thinking there may be some mechanism to explain why only males were getting sucked in.Spider (Araneus ventricosus) with two ensnared male fireflies (Abscondita terminalis), one of which has a luminescent lantern (right)Image credit: Xinhua Fu“Drawing from extensive field observations, we propose that A. ventricosus practices deceptive interspecific communication by first ensnaring firefly males in its web and then predisposing the entrapped male fireflies to broadcast bioluminescent signals that deviate from female-attracting signals typically made by A. terminalis males and instead mimic the male-attracting signals typically made by females,” the researchers wrote in their paper. “The outcome is that the entrapped male fireflies broadcast false signals that lure more male fireflies into the web.”Field experiments revealed that the spider’s web was more likely to capture a male firefly if the spider was present at the time, and that the signals males were making when the spider was there looked more like those of a female than a male. It seems the spiders are strong-arming the fireflies into sending out the wrong message.“While the eyes of orb-web spiders typically support limited spatial acuity, they rely more on temporal acuity rather than spatial acuity for discriminating flash signals,” said study co-author and behavioral ecologist Daiqin Li from Hubei University in a statement. “Upon detecting the bioluminescent signals of ensnared male fireflies, the spider deploys a specialized prey-handling procedure involving repeated wrap-bite attacks.”Whether it’s the spider’s venom that manipulates the fireflies’ flashes, or the bite itself, remains to be established, but it’s a curious new example of indirect signaling by a predator. The study authors suggest that many more examples may exist out in nature, capitalizing on the signals, sounds, and pheromones produced by prey species so that predators can use them to their advantage.Guess nothing drives innovation quite like an empty stomach.The study is published in the journal Current Biology.

On today's CNN This Morning, host Kasie Hunt gushed over how "beautiful" Kamala Harris is. They played off a soundbite of Donald Trump talking about the embarrassing artsy Time cover of Harris and telling a rally crowd that he's better looking. Hunt repeatedly cited a Peggy Noonan column about the "beautiful" Harris,  including this line: The excitement here, he was technically responding to a Peggy Noonan column that was at the beginning of August, where Noonan says "She is beautiful. You can’t take a bad picture of her. Her beauty, plus the social warmth that all who have known her over the years speak of, combines to produce: radiance. And it's foolish to believe that this doesn't matter." But it really kind of puts the, this race into sharp relief. Mark McKinnon cited another line about Harris from the Noonan column: "The woman isn't creating a movement, but a movement is creating her."  As we observed last week: a key element of that movement "creating" Harris is the liberal media itself.  Then came CNN political commentator -- and as identified on screen, former Biden White House communications director -- Kate Bedingfield drawing a contrast with a Republican Party that is "reeling," where many of President Trump's appointees refuse to endorse him this time. She added that swing voters in Pennsylvania aren't staying up at night wondering which candidate is more attractive, spurring this exchange:  HUNT: Well, it does. Peggy Noonan goes on to say, it does matter. So many in this male-dominated profession have taken to Botox fillers, dermabrasions, facelifts, and all the cosmetic things. Is what she wrote! Because they're in a cosmetic profession. BENINGFIELD: Okay. That's fair. And absolutely it is....it is a performance-focused -- HUNT: Yeah. BENINGFIELD: -- industry, platform, and Kamala Harris is beautiful. She is beautiful. It would probably be sexist to wonder out loud if Kamala Harris has "taken to Botox fillers, dermabrasions, facelifts and all the cosmetic things." But we're left to think it's only the males that are "fixing" their face.  But back to this: "All" who have known Harris speak of her "warmth?" That "all" would presumably not include the historically high percentage of her staffers who have quit or been fired, finding that Harris exuded anything but "social warmth." As the father of one ex-Harris staffer wrote [emphasis added]: "Senator Harris vocally throws around ‘F-bombs’ and other profanity constantly in her berating of staff and others. The staff is in complete fear of her and she uses her profanity throughout the day. As Attorney General, Senator Harris instructed her entire staff to stand every morning as she entered the office and say, ‘Good Morning General.' Gregory was also given instructions to never address Harris nor look her in the eye as that privilege was only allowed to senior staff members." Here's the transcript. CNN This Morning 8/19/24 6:02 am EDT DONALD TRUMP: Time magazine doesn't have a picture of her. They have this unbelievable artist drawing her. But I say that I am much better-looking than her. I think I'm much better. Much better. I'm a better-looking person than Kamala. They said no, her biggest advantage is that she's a beautiful woman.  . . .  KASIE HUNT: Mark McKinnon, I've got to start with you, because of course what Trump was reacting to there, it's a very specific example in a broader universe of just how people are dealing with Kamala Harris right now. The excitement here, he was technically responding to a Peggy Noonan column that was at the beginning of August, where Noonan says she is beautiful. You can't take a bad picture of her, her beauty plus the social warmth that all who have known over the years speak of combines to produce radiance. And it's foolish to believe that this doesn't matter. But it really kind of puts the, this race into sharp relief. MARK MCKINNON: It's the greatest and latest example of just how unprepared he is to deal with with Kamala Harris. Peggy Noonan, by the way, who's Reagan's speechwriter and a terrific columnist, has had another great line about what's happening here. And when she said, it's not so much that Kamala Harris created a movement as a movement created her.  . . .  KATE BENINGFIELD: Tonight you're going to see some of the elder statesmen and the kind of pillars of the Democratic party. A dramatic contrast with where the Republican party is right now, which is, the majority of people who have served under Donald Trump not willing to endorse him. I mean, you have a Republican party that is fractured, that is reeling.  You have Donald Trump making arguments about who's more attractive. Because if there's one thing that a swing voter in Pennsylvania really cares out, it's, you know, is Donald Trump more attractive than Kamala Harris? that's what that's like, keeping them up at night while they're grappling with who to vote for. HUNT: Well, it does. Peggy Noonan goes on to say, it does matter. So many in this male-dominated profession have taken to Botox fillers, dermabrasions, facelifts, and all the cosmetic things. Is what she wrote! Because they're in a cosmetic profession. BENINGFIELD: Okay. That's fair. And absolutely it is. It is a, it is a performance-focused -- HUNT: Yeah. BENINGFIELD: -- industry platform and Kamala Harris is beautiful. She is beautiful.