Former President Donald Trump returned to Washington Thursday to meet with GOP lawmakers to lay out his second-term agenda and aim to unify the party ahead of next month’s Republican National Convention. The private meetings were held at the Capitol Hill Club, where Republican lawmakers could demonstrate solidarity with their presidential nominee. It was Trump’s first public visit to Capitol Hill since the Jan. 6, 2021, riots there. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of...

Donald Trump made a triumphant return Thursday to Capitol Hill, whipping up House and Senate Republicans in his first meetings since the Jan.6, 2021, attacks. He was embraced by GOP lawmakers who find themselves newly energized by his bid to retake the White House. Despite pending federal charges against Trump for conspiring to overturn the 2020 election, and his recent guilty verdict in an unrelated hush money trial, the Republican former president arrived emboldened as the party’s...

What do you get when you combine an infectious beat, an empowering message and a bunch of energetic tweens with delightfully thick Irish accents? You get "The Spark," this summer's bangin' anthem that people around the world can't stop playing.The young rappers from Cork and Lisdoonvarna—cities on opposite coasts of Ireland—came together to create this absolute banger for Cruinniú na nÓg, a national day of celebrating youth creativity in Ireland, which takes place on June 15. The song and video were released as part of the Rhyme Island youth rap initiative created for the event, with kids ages 9 to 12 participating. It almost immediately began to spread on social media, with people raving over how catchy and fun it is. (People have been clamoring for a month for the song to be released on streaming, and we're thrilled to share that as of June 14, you can officially find "The Spark" on Spotify.)Watch:The comments on on TikTok pretty much sum it up: "I'm about to be screaming I SEARCHED FOR MY SPARK AND I FOUND IT all summer.""AI SHERCHED FOR ME ShPARK AN A FEUND EHT!!!!""If the clubs aren't playing this song this summer then I'm leavinggggg.""This has no right to go this hard." "The Cork accent has found its calling." Even the Duracell battery account weighed in with "This is the kind of energy we live for." Many people shared that they love that the kids look like kids and not little adults. And with lyrics like this, how can you not walk away with a little extra spring in your step? I searched for my spark and I found it Everybody in the crowd start bouncin!If we see a dream you know we’re gonna chase itSo get over any fear you have just face it!You can do it like we do it, don't doubt it Any obstacle we find a way around it If you're proud of who you are and what you do, shout it!The kids worked with local producer GMCBeats and The Kabin Studio, a music and creativity-focused nonprofit in Knocknaheeny, a suburb of Cork, to create the song. “The response has been amazing,” said Garry McCarthy (GMCBeats), the creative director of the Kabin Studio and co-producer of “The Spark.” “The kids’ energy and positivity have inspired people worldwide. It’s been all over TikTok especially. It’s bonkers, we’ve never seen something like this!”Dancers on TikTok have been coming up with dances to go along with it, so here's one to try if you get the urge to get up and dance with the kids: @stasii777 pov: youre running away from those irish kids DC: us!!!! #fyp #sparksong #irishkids #viral #dance @Stephanie The Kabin Studio shared the hope that the song's popularity will result in more people supporting young artists:"'The Spark' is more than just a tune; it’s a celebration of creativity, resilience, and the unbreakable spirit of youth. As it continues to inspire listeners worldwide, The Kabin Studio hopes to channel its success into furthering their mission of supporting young artists locally and in direct provision."

Madalyn Parker wanted to take a couple days off work. She didn't have the flu, nor did she have plans to be on a beach somewhere, sipping mojitos under a palm tree.Parker, a web developer from Michigan, wanted a few days away from work to focus on her mental health.Parker lives with depression. And, she says, staying on top of her mental health is absolutely crucial."The bottom line is that mental health is health," she says over email. "My depression stops me from being productive at my job the same way a broken hand would slow me down since I wouldn't be able to type very well."She sent an email to her colleagues, telling them the honest reason why she was taking the time off."Hopefully," she wrote to them, "I'll be back next week refreshed and back to 100%."Soon after the message was sent, the CEO of Parker's company wrote back:"Hey Madalyn,I just wanted to personally thank you for sending emails like this. Every time you do, I use it as a reminder of the importance of using sick days for mental health — I can't believe this is not standard practice at all organizations. You are an example to us all, and help cut through the stigma so we can all bring our whole selves to work." \u201cWhen the CEO responds to your out of the office email about taking sick leave for mental health and reaffirms your decision. \ud83d\udcaf\u201d — madalyn (@madalyn) 1498854569 Moved by her CEO's response, Parker posted the email exchange to Twitter.The tweet, published on June 30, 2017, has since gone viral, amassing 45,000 likes and 16,000 retweets."It's nice to see some warm, fuzzy feelings pass around the internet for once," Parker says of the response to her tweet. "I've been absolutely blown away by the magnitude though. I didn't expect so much attention!"Even more impressive than the tweet's reach, however, were the heartfelt responses it got."Thanks for giving me hope that I can find a job as I am," wrote one person, who opened up about living with panic attacks. "That is bloody incredible," chimed in another. "What a fantastic CEO you have."Some users, however, questioned why there needs to be a difference between vacation time and sick days; after all, one asked, aren't vacations intended to improve our mental well-being?That ignores an important distinction, Parker said — both in how we perceive sick days and vacation days and in how that time away from work is actually being spent."I took an entire month off to do partial hospitalization last summer and that was sick leave," she wrote back. "I still felt like I could use vacation time because I didn't use it and it's a separate concept."Many users were astounded that a CEO would be that understanding of an employee's mental health needs.They were even more surprised that the CEO thanked her for sharing her personal experience with caring for her mental health.After all, there's still a great amount of stigma associated with mental illness in the workplace, which keeps many of us from speaking up to our colleagues when we need help or need a break to focus on ourselves. We fear being seen as "weak" or less committed to our work. We might even fear losing our job.Ben Congleton, the CEO of Parker's company, Olark, even joined the conversation himself.In a blog post on Medium, Congleton wrote about the need for more business leaders to prioritize paid sick leave, fight to curb the stigma surrounding mental illness in the workplace, and see their employees as people first."It's 2017. We are in a knowledge economy. Our jobs require us to execute at peak mental performance," Congleton wrote. "When an athlete is injured, they sit on the bench and recover. Let's get rid of the idea that somehow the brain is different."This article originally appeared on 07.11.17

Photographer James Balog and his crew were hanging out near a glacier when their camera captured something extraordinary. They were in Greenland, gathering footage from the time-lapse they'd positioned all around the Arctic Circle for the last several years.They were also there to shoot scenes for a documentary. And while they were hoping to capture some cool moments on camera, no one expected a huge chunk of a glacier to snap clean off and slide into the ocean right in front of their eyes.It was the largest such event ever filmed.For nearly an hour and 15 minutes, Balog and his crew stood by and watched as a piece of ice the size of lower Manhattan — but with ice-equivalent buildings that were two to three times taller than that — simply melted away.As far as anyone knows, this was an unprecedented geological catastrophe and they caught the entire thing on tape. It won't be the last time something like this happens either.But once upon a time, Balog was openly skeptical about that "global warming" thing.Balog had a reputation since the early 1980s as a conservationist and environmental photographer. And for nearly 20 years, he'd scoffed at the climate change heralds shouting, "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!""I didn't think that humans were capable of changing the basic physics and chemistry of this entire, huge planet. It didn't seem probable, it didn't seem possible," he explained in the 2012 documentary film "Chasing Ice."There was too much margin of error in the computer simulations, too many other pressing problems to address about our beautiful planet. As far as he was concerned, these melodramatic doomsayers were distracting from the real issues.That was then.In fact, it wasn't until 2005 that Balog became a believer.He was sent on a photo expedition of the Arctic by National Geographic, and that first northern trip was more than enough to see the damage for himself."It was about actual tangible physical evidence that was preserved in the ice cores of Greenland and Antarctica," he said in a 2012 interview with ThinkProgress. "That was really the smoking gun showing how far outside normal, natural variation the world has become. And that's when I started to really get the message that this was something consequential and serious and needed to be dealt with."Some of that evidence may have been the fact that more Arctic landmass has melted away in the last 20 years than the previous 10,000 years.Watch the video of the event of the glacier calving below:This article originally appeared on 11.04.15

A great opera voice is a learned art, not a natural-born gift like other styles of singing. It takes discipline, physical training, and to truly wow the audience, the performer must be a great actor and athlete as well."Singing opera is to ordinary vocal activity what distance running, triple-jumping and pole-vaulting are to ordinary exercise," said Sir Antonio Pappano, music director of the Royal Opera House wrote for the BBC. "Which means that singers and, almost as important, those who teach them are locked in the same kinds of relationship that obtain between elite athletes and charismatic coaches."So what goes on inside of the head and throat of an opera singer while they perform?German baritone Michael Volle performed "Song to the Evening Star" by German composer Richard Wagner while inside of an MRI scan to give people a never-before-seen look at how an opera singer produces such a haunting sound. It's a pretty freaky-looking image, but shows the amazing control these performers must have to hit such powerful notes.This article originally appeared on 05.05.16

Getting that growl going. The post How Ken Nordine influenced Tom Waits to make ‘What’s He Building’ first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

It worked out well for him!

It worked out well for him!