Space is massive

'His motion is meritless and should be denied'

The claim stems from a parody account

If eclectic‚ guitar-inspired music is your bag‚ then feast your ears on Rabea Massaad’s licks‚ which run the gamut across multiple genres. Genre-hopping aside‚ Massaad’s chops are endless‚ as evidenced by his record‚ The Totemist‚ which is a sublime amalgam featuring soaring solos‚ immense songsmith‚ and chops that will leave your jaw on the floor and have you dreaming endlessly for hours after you’ve heard it. Massaad is also an accomplished producer‚ meaning that his records are not only inspiring but also sound fantastic. And so‚ while you’re reading the list of ten albums that changed his life‚ see if you The post Rabea Massaad Interview: 10 Albums That Changed My Life appeared first on ClassicRockHistory.com.

If you’re a student at a Louisville elementary school‚ Wednesday might just be your favorite day of the week. Perhaps because of its reputation as the “hump day‚” it’s also become the day of action for the “Flash Dads” a volunteer group of fathers from the school district of all different races‚ creeds‚ and professions […] The post Dozens of ‘Flash Dads’ Cheer On Students Arriving at Schools in Kentucky–For 7 Years Giving High Fives and Support appeared first on Good News Network.

Nestled between thick tomes and lengthy fantasy epics sits one of my favorite 2023 reads: Rachel Hartman’s Tess of the Road. The novel was published in 2018 to some critical acclaim; frankly‚ I have no idea where I first heard of the book‚ but I’m glad I did. As soon as I’d finished turning the final page‚ I immediately began yearned to see Tess’s adventures brought to the screen…   The Story So Far Silence‚ as deep as a lonely night on the open road… A bit melodramatic? Sure! But so far I’ve found a big ol’ goose egg in my search for hints of a planned Tess of the Road adaptation. I also combed the internet (read: did some cursory Google searches) for tidbits about Hartman’s other books within this world and came up equally short. We all know that isn’t gonna stop me from hoping! Tess of the Road is still relatively new‚ an offers a touching personal journey that would slot neatly into the streaming era as a limited series.   A Refreshing Perspective The book’s title tells us a whole lot with only a few words. In this section‚ let’s focus on the first point of interest: Tess. A misfit within her family who’s been cast aside for transgressions perceived to be unforgivable‚ Tess abandons the Dombeigh family and sets out on a journey to learn about herself‚ removed from the context of her upbringing and societal pressure. Writing that last paragraph‚ I felt like a jellyfish doing the limbo‚ carefully squirming beneath the bar that would qualify as a spoiler. Tess’s journey is sparked by an adolescence filled with hard lessons and undue pain and punishment. I won’t say exactly what happens‚ but I will say that it could bring a uniquely modern perspective to the table. Tess of the Road story grapples with one woman’s place in a culture that doesn’t value her as it should. Tess consistently encounters prejudice and violence for who she is. Navigating the world requires something far deeper than geographical knowledge (though that’s required‚ too). Now‚ I can’t claim to understand most of the burdens Tess carries‚ and that’s precisely why I’d love to see this story adapted into a visual format‚ accessible even to the non-readers out there. Hartman’s book baked a lot of valuable lessons into Tess’s story‚ and its medieval setting provides plenty of modern teachings from which everyone could benefit.   Journey Before Destination Now we come to the last word of the title. “Road” implies motion‚ winding paths‚ growth. Tess of the Road is a journey at its core. Tess herself isn’t out to fetch some powerful orb or an ancient artifact. She just moves. She adjusts her trajectory based on who she meets and which dangers she encounters along her way. The format makes for a cohesive narrative‚ threading snippets together into a story that doesn’t let up in its pace. I long for it to come to a streaming service for this exact reason: Tess could function just fine as a movie‚ but the story is already episodic enough to slot perfectly into an 8- or 10-episode limited run (with a teaser for future stories at the end). The unrelenting forward motion of Tess’s journey would make for the kind of series you’d be tempted to watch all in one sitting‚ one episode after the next. Stakes do come into play‚ particularly in relation to Tess’s friend Pathka‚ a quigutl (an intelligent lizard-person species). The journey transcends the physical when these two reunite after childhood separation. Tess and Pathka are two of my favorite fantasy friends; their relationship is dynamic and emotional. It plays out like its own journey‚ providing plenty of conflict‚ progress‚ and heartfelt moments. Plus—and this is mostly a side note—SFF TV has a staggering lack of interesting lizard people. Tess could rectify that. (P.S. That last bit is a hint as an upcoming article; keep an eye out!)   A Fantasy Launchpad We live in a world of epics. I’m certainly not complaining about that—most of my books are bona fide doorstoppers. While book behemoths of 800+ pages work well in the world of words‚ they can’t always translate to screens in the way we readers would hope. There are a few exceptions‚ of course‚ but maybe it’s time to try something different and tell a more focused‚ personal story in a fantasy world. Buy it Now Tess of the Road has some huge implications‚ but it smartly subverts familiar fantasy tropes and conventions. Tess isn’t a prophesied hero or a magic-wielder of unprecedented talent. She’s just Tess‚ and she’s on a journey. The massive world of Hartman’s creation seeps into the story‚ but it doesn’t ever overpower the personal journey at play. Tess is the star‚ and Hartman doesn’t bog herself down with a world-ending plot. What better fit for our TV screens than a sharp‚ personal tale headlined by a dynamic character on a journey who undergoes real personal change along the way? So many dramas and period pieces engage in this type of storytelling‚ and I think fantasy could benefit from a fresh take‚ without the clamor and violence of warring countries and frequent battles of epic proportions.   Outlook: Not Likely… For Now Based on my quick scan of the internet‚ for now a Tess of the Road adaptation appears unlikely at best‚ and that’s a damn shame. There is‚ however‚ a glimmer of hope which I will hang onto for at least a few years. Tess of the Road is a recent book by most standards‚ released only five years ago. I suspect it will garner more fans as new readers discover the book‚ and an uptick in popularity could be exactly what Hartman’s story needs to catch the eyes of a Hollywood fellowship eager to take a chance on a new property. For now‚ though‚ I will sing the praises of this exquisite novel from the mountaintops (I live in Chicago‚ but I recently took a trip to Utah‚ so I am super familiar with mountains now) and encourage everyone‚ young and old‚ to read it. Cole Rush writes words. A lot of them. For the most part‚ you can find those words at The Quill To Live. He voraciously reads epic fantasy and science fiction‚ seeking out stories of gargantuan proportions and devouring them with a bookwormish fervor. His favorite books are the Divine Cities Series by Robert Jackson Bennett‚ The Long Way To A Small‚ Angry Planet by Becky Chambers‚ and The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune.

In A Highland Song‚ exhaustion and death are thoughts that are constantly hanging over your head. Moira is well aware of this‚ too‚ and will often comment on it. But what happens when your health drops to zero? Death in A Highland Song In A Highland Song‚ the great bar of health on the left side of the screen is something that is always reacting to the weather‚ to your missteps‚ and‚ of course‚ to your falls. Every bump and scrape whittles away at Moria’s life. So the question on your mind would naturally float to the severity or punishment for it reaching zero. Thankfully‚ A Highland Song is rather lenient with death. When your health reaches zero‚ two things may happen. Screenshot: PC Invasion If you had at least a moderate amount of health before dying – by falling down a steep slope or by jumping off a cliff – you’ll respawn where you jumped off‚ with only a bit of health reduced for the fall. Nothing will happen. ...

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties‚ subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Privacy issues have come into the spotlight once again with a significant data breach incident at 23andMe‚ the leading genetic testing company. We recently reported that the company acknowledged that a security breach had compromised the personal data of about 14‚000 customers. In what seemed to be a ripple effect‚ the hackers gained access to “a substantial amount of files with ancestral profile information of additional users.” However‚ despite the serious nature of the breach‚ the extent of the damage was not fully disclosed by the company earlier in October when the breach came to light. The situation is actually even worse. As TechCrunch reported‚ the magnitude of the breach became starkly clear when‚ on Saturday‚ 23andMe spokesperson Katie Watson revealed to TechCrunch that close to 7 million users had had their data exposed in the breach—far beyond the 14‚000 initially reported. Watson confirmed that the breach involved the personal details of approximately 5.5 million users who had consented to participate in 23andMe’s DNA Relatives feature. The compromised data included users’ names‚ birth years‚ relationship labels‚ percentage of shared DNA with relatives‚ ancestral reports‚ and self-reported locations. Watson further added that an audience of approximately 1.4 million‚ who had also opted for the DNA Relatives feature‚ found their Family Tree profile info subject to unauthorized access. Without revealing specific numbers‚ Watson alluded that this illicit access encompassed details such as display names‚ birth years‚ self-reported locations‚ relationship labels‚ and disclosure preferences of the users. The company claimed that some parts of the email were “on background‚” insinuating pre-agreed terms between both parties. However‚ TechCrunch decided to print the reply‚ having been given no opportunity to dismiss these conditions. In early October‚ an individual claiming to be the hacker announced on a popular hacking forum that they had successfully stolen DNA information of 23andMe’s users. They displayed purloined data of a million users of Ashkenazi Jewish heritage and 100‚000 Chinese users‚ pricing the data between $1-$10 per account. Nearly two weeks later‚ yet another alleged steal of 4 million records was promoted by the same hacker on the same platform. Interestingly‚ TechCrunch uncovered that another hacker on a different forum had advertised an alleged dataset of stolen 23andMe customer data almost two months prior to the publicly disclosed advertisement. The post DNA Company 23andMe Acknowledges Hackers Accessed Data of 6.9 Million Users‚ Exceeding Initial Disclosures appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

Yellowstone National Park. More than 4 million people a year visit this 3‚648-square-mile‚ seemingly unbounded paradise to watch boiling springs. They come to see thundering waterfalls and majestic mountains‚ elk and bison—the pure‚ unadulterated Northwestern wilderness. Drawn to the West. Megan Kate Nelson won the 2023 Spur Award for Historical Nonfiction for Saving Yellowstone. Humans didn’t enter this scene for millions of years. Then more than 20 tribal nations discovered Yellowstone and used it as a thoroughfare‚ hunting ground‚ and ceremonial site. Fur trappers and traders appeared in the early 19th century‚ but no one believed their stories of bubbling springs and exploding geysers. Then‚ in 1871‚ the federal government sent an expedition to explore and map Yellowstone territory in pursuit of valuable natural resources. In a historic twist‚ the Reconstruction Era Congress enshrined the land as the world’s first national park. Megan Kate Nelson‚ whose book The Three-Cornered War: The Union‚ the Confederacy‚ and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West was a finalist for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in history‚ focuses on three often-at-odds protagonists as she unravels the park’s founding story in Saving Yellowstone: Exploration and Preservation in Reconstruction America‚ which recently came out in paperback. Can you explain how the expedition to Yellowstone came to be? Ever since the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804–1805‚ the federal government had been funding expeditions and surveys into lands across the continent. The goal was to map these areas and determine how they could be developed for agriculture and/or mining. Until the 1850s‚ military officers led these explorations and took some artists and scientists along with them. One of the scientists who joined several expeditions in this period was Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden‚ an ambitious and energetic geologist. After serving as a U.S. Army surgeon in the Civil War‚ Hayden returned to his first love: exploration. In 1867‚ he convinced the state of Nebraska to appoint him as one of the first civilian leaders of a geological survey and led several expeditions into the Rocky Mountains. Like most scientists‚ Hayden had heard rumors about the many wonders of Yellowstone‚ but in 1870 it was terra incognita to most Americans (although Indigenous peoples had used it for thousands of years). It was so isolated and its visitation season so short‚ May–September‚ that it had been‚ until 1869‚ inaccessible for survey leaders coming from the East Coast. That year‚ the completion of the transcontinental railroad cut travel times considerably. Now Hayden would be able to reach Yellowstone and spend at least a few months exploring it before the winter set in. And so in January and February 1871‚ Hayden lobbied Congress for funding to take the first federal team into Yellowstone. He was convincing. In March‚ they gave him $40‚000 to fund the survey. Hayden assembled his team and left for the Rocky Mountains in May 1871‚ and they entered the Yellowstone Basin in mid-July. How did Yellowstone become America’s first national park? When Ferdinand Hayden set out to survey Yellowstone‚ he was not thinking about preserving it. He was intent on figuring out what was there‚ collecting specimens to send to the Smithsonian Institution‚ and writing up scientific papers that would establish his reputation as a renowned geologist. When he returned to Washington‚ D.C.‚ in October 1871‚ his only plan was to write his survey report‚ as required by Congress. But Hayden found a letter waiting for him from a PR man working for the Northern Pacific Railroad‚ whose financier‚ Jay Cooke‚ hoped the railroad would be the nation’s second transcontinental line. The letter suggested that Yellowstone would make a wonderful national park and that perhaps Hayden could mention this in his report. Why was Jay Cooke interested in this plan? He was having trouble selling bonds to build the Northern Pacific. He figured that the preservation of Yellowstone would help him advertise the region and bring both tourists and possible settlers to the Northwest. Hayden immediately saw the utility of this idea because preservation would provide a scientific laboratory for him. With Cooke’s help‚ he lobbied Congress in November 1871‚ and in December‚ the bill to create Yellowstone National Park was introduced. In January and February 1872‚ the Senate and the House debated the bill. Most Republicans voted in favor of it‚ and given their large majority‚ the bill passed. President Ulysses S. Grant (not Teddy Roosevelt‚ as I think many Americans assume) signed the bill into law on March 1‚ 1872‚ creating the first national park in the nation‚ and the world. this article first appeared in American history magazine See more stories SubscriBE NOW!   The idea must have started quite an argument among parties with conflicting interests. Indeed! As I noted‚ the vote on the Yellowstone bill was not unanimous. Seventy percent of Democrats and about 11 percent of Republicans voted against it. They had two objections. First‚ they believed that this was federal overreach. To create the park‚ the federal government would take lands from the territories of Montana‚ Idaho‚ and Wyoming and give them over to the Department of the Interior to manage. There was no precedent for this. While the federal government often took lands‚ particularly from Indigenous peoples‚ usually it surveyed them and sold them to private landowners. In 1864‚ during the Civil War‚ Congress had preserved Yosemite and Mariposa Grove—but gave them to the state of California to manage. To conservatives in Congress who believed in small government‚ the Yellowstone Act seemed like a dangerous precedent. Second‚ those who voted against the bill saw it as a violation of landowner rights. The ability to purchase lands and farm‚ ranch‚ or mine them had been a core component of both the American Dream and Manifest Destiny since the early 19th century. Many congressmen‚ including several of them from Western states and territories‚ felt that all lands across the continent should be available for White settlement and private development. You’ve said that the park’s founding is a metaphor for America in the Reconstruction Era. How so? I came to believe that some Americans saw in Yellowstone an apt metaphor for the country during Reconstruction. Here was a place (and a country) that was remarkable and beautiful in so many ways. And yet underneath the surface‚ there was this violent undercurrent. This was a period that saw the emergence of the Ku Klux Klan across the South and other forms of postwar violence. And no one knew when or where it would bubble up or explode. So Yellowstone really represented those tensions at the heart of American society after the war. And it still does today. What lessons can Americans today can take from all this? There are a couple of lessons‚ I think. One is that Reconstruction‚ which is a period we usually associate with only the South‚ was a much more complex time than we usually acknowledge. And the administrations in power during this period were very interested in controlling the West as well as the South. Another is that all national parks were originally Indigenous lands‚ and the tribal nations who lived and still live there were and are effective stewards of these lands. Yellowstone National Park‚ as part of its 150th anniversary celebrations‚ has begun to integrate Indigenous voices and practices into the park’s sites and programming. All the national parks should be doing this because we need to know and appreciate Indigenous histories in these places—and realize that these peoples are still there. Another takeaway is that we should not take our national parks for granted. The arguments against the Yellowstone Act—federal overreach and violation of land rights—are still with us today and are still powerful. Yellowstone and the other 62 big national parks are relatively safe because it would take an act of Congress to remove their park status. But many of the nation’s preserved places were saved as a result of executive action (under the Antiquities Act of 1906). Therefore‚ it will take only one really focused president to dismantle many of these parks. President Donald Trump attempted this during his term‚ but he did not have enough time and was stymied by lawsuits. But I try to remind people that it is possible to lose these places‚ so we need to be vigilant in our defense of them. This story appeared in the 2024 Winter issue of American History magazine. historynet magazines Our 9 best-selling history titles feature in-depth storytelling and iconic imagery to engage and inform on the people‚ the wars‚ and the events that shaped America and the world. subscribe today