A post shared on social media purports that Kansas City cancelled Pearl Jam’s concert at Arrowhead Stadium in defense of Harrison Butker. Verdict: False The claim is inaccurate. No such announcement has been made. Fact Check: Butker recently defended his comments during an event in Nashville, to which the NFL has stated does not reflect their views, CNN reported. The […]

'Human embodiment of reasonable doubt'

'We went into this experience with a lot of optimism and nearly as much fear'

When it comes to Stevie Nicks, I have pretty much fallen in love with every song on each of her albums. As Fleetwood Mac fans who loved Stevie Nicks’ material on those albums, we always wished for more songs from her to be included on the Fleetwood Mac records. Our wishes were granted when she released her first solo album in 1980 called Bella Donna. Her first two solso albums will always be our favorites with Wild Heart being the top choice. However, I also loved the albums Rock a Little, The Other Side of the Mirror, Street Angel, Trouble The post Stevie Nicks’ Best Song On Each Of Her Albums appeared first on ClassicRockHistory.com.

Using cutting-edge high-resolution microscopy, researchers were able to track the developmental stages of butterfly scales, tracing their formation from caterpillar to butterfly and revealing how they become so vivacious. Their work reveals that actin, a protein in butterfly’s scales, orchestrates the intricate arrangement of the colorful structures. Conducted at the University of Sheffield and the […] The post Secret of How Butterfly Wings Get Their Vibrant Colors Is Discovered appeared first on Good News Network.

Movies & TV Doctor Who Doctor Who Steps Into the Fairy Ring in “73 Yards” The Doctor-lite episode gives us heavy folklore vibes By Emmet Asher-Perrin, Emmet Asher-Perrin | Published on May 28, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share How do fairy rings work when you’ve got a time machine? The same as always, it seems. Recap Credit: BBC / Disney+ The Doctor and Ruby land in Wales, which Ruby says she’s been to a couple times before. The Doctor mentions that there was one really evil Welsh politician named Roger ap Gwilliam, but stops himself from continuing because that’s in the future. He accidentally stumbles into a circle that looks like a fairy circle and breaks the thing. Ruby reads one of the notes in it, which tells “Mad Jack” to rest in peace. An old woman (Hilary Hobson) appears at a distance, making a series of gestures that Ruby doesn’t understand and the Doctor vanishes. The TARDIS locks and she can’t get in, so she walks toward town. The old woman follows at the same distance away, and Ruby stumbles on a hiker. She asks the hiker to tell the old woman that she’s sorry if she upset her somehow. The hiker approaches the old woman and is told something that makes her run from Ruby in fear. In town, Ruby heads to a pub and tells the locals what she and the Doctor accidentally destroyed. The group begins to tease her by suggesting that she did release a fairy spirit named Mad Jack, saying the old woman is his herald. After Ruby realizes they’re taking the piss, one of them goes to speak to the old woman: He also flees in fear. A couple days later Ruby is kicked out of the inn and decides she should just go home. The old woman follows, always at the same distance from her. She tells her mum (Michelle Greenidge), who insists that she’ll keep Ruby on the phone line when she goes to talk to the old woman. Ruby still can’t hear what she says, but it results in Carla running from her and then later changing the locks, leaving Ruby homeless. Time begins to pass and eventually Ruby makes contact with U.N.I.T.: Kate Stewart (Jemma Redgrave) believes this is some sort of branch in the timeline, but thinks they can help her. They’ve figured out that the old woman is always 73 yards from Ruby, and that she can’t be properly photographed. When the troops approach the woman, they all run away—and so does Kate. Ruby is alone again. Time continues to pass and she eventually sees the politician (Anuerin Barnard) the Doctor mentioned, who says on television that people used to call him “Mad Jack” when he was young. Ruby enlists in his campaign to keep an eye on him and sees how horrible the man is firsthand, but no one does a thing to stop him. He becomes prime minister and gets his hands on nuclear weapons. Ruby knows he’ll use them and finally figures out what to do; she enacts a plan that allows her to be 73 yards from him, and the old woman says something that makes him run away and resign from office. Decades pass and Ruby grows old (Amanda Walker). The old woman is always there, and Ruby sometimes goes to visit the TARDIS and place flowers nearby. One night, as she’s about the die, the old woman finally approaches and when they make contact. Ruby wakes in Wales all those years ago and sees herself exit the TARDIS with the Doctor, in the place of the old woman now. She knows what must do this time, whispering a warning to herself not to let the Doctor step into the fairy circle. Ruby stops him just in time and the two of them observe the circle, but don’t touch it. Walking off, Ruby tells the Doctor that she’s been to Wales three times before, but after two examples she suddenly realizes that she can’t remember what the third was… Commentary Credit : BBC / Disney+ That was nearly brilliant, but it whiffed the ending for me. I might be alone in this, but I think the atmosphere’s didn’t entirely mesh by the end for lack of a little explanation. I love a good folk story, but then you need to actually tell the story? And this one doesn’t get there by the end. I’m a little worried that pieces of this episode will come back up in later episodes to fill a few things in, but this one wrapped so abruptly that it’s hard to be sure what we’ve just seen. It’s fantasy now, yes, but fantasy has just as many narrative rules as science fiction! And if you’re not going to plant a few, then I’d like some extra grist in the seasonal mystery build as a distraction. There are too many questions left hanging in the wind by the time we’re through. For instance, why does Ruby have to live out her entire life before the cycle resets and she gets a chance to stop what happened in the past? (Davies has claimed that the reason was her needing to live a “life of penitence” to earn forgiveness for the Doctor’s mistake, but there’s never any indication given that penance is a part of this.) Did they realize that it would be easy to assume that Ruby was the old woman giving herself warnings throughout life if you never see the figure’s face? What about our Mad Jack? Is that politician being subsumed by a malevolent fae, or is he the full entity magicked into being once the circle is disturbed? Are the two things technically unrelated for the purposes of the story? Why does everyone have to approach the old woman directly to hear her except for Kate? I’m not saying that the episode couldn’t leave anything down to mystery, but it feels like we’re missing a step somewhere. Just a few more hints could have solidified this plot into something gorgeous. It was so close. I was enjoying myself thoroughly and waiting for the payoff, and then we got absolutely nothing. A whisper across a field is a letdown. Would I have liked it better if she’d shouted to them? Yeah, maybe! A little more real-world urgency would’ve helped matters. There are a few other goofy conceits, like giving Millie Gibson ridiculous wigs in an attempt to make her look older (and that failing utterly). At the same time, the progression was there, the steps were in place, and Gibson did such a great job with the piece. It was nice to spend some time with Ruby and get to know her better. And she made an adorable old lady too. Credit: BBC / Disney+ But I really don’t like that this is the second time Ruby has been robbed of her mother and grandmother. She’s already got a story wrapped up in despair over not knowing who her birth parents are, but we’ve been presented with this family as a counter to some of that pain, and then every time something goes squiffy, she loses them immediately. Keep them around! This episode would’ve been just as effective if they’d stayed a part of her life—it didn’t need to be total isolation in order to get the sadness across. There’s sadness in the people who love you being unable to help, and then we get more of their family dynamic, which I’m desperate for because no one is as good as that as Davies. Also, I’ll say it: alt-timeline stories where everything reverts to square one should be banned at this point. Doctor Who (and plenty of other shows) has done far too many as is, and they’re cheap. If someone living out their whole life is forgotten in an instant, then what’s the impact for the viewer? It won’t have any bearing on the character going forward, so count me out. And if it is going to have an impact, you need to make that clear before the episode ends. Part of the season arc mystery has something to do with Susan Twist, of course—she keeps popping up all over this place, last week as the ominous ambulance, this time as the hiker Ruby encounters. Ruby nearly recognizes her too, but she’s too distracted to put two and two together. And we see the mysterious Mrs. Flood again as well… That said, I really enjoyed everything I watched up until the very end. With just a little more connecting the dots, this could’ve been a standout piece of television. Time and Space and Sundry Credit: BBC / Disney+ This is few of the few episodes to not bother with the title sequence. There were a couple in Thirteen’s era and one in Twelve’s which was also notably more horror based. I’m not sure what it achieves? It’s fine. We haven’t had a Doctor-lite episode in a long while, though. Thirteen didn’t really have those, which I appreciated because we didn’t get enough of her, but they’re fun for the show to do. Okay, but during this whole affair, was the Doctor supposed to have been taken by the fae? (Presumably yes, since the TARDIS stayed put.) Because I would love the inverse episode here, with him tromping around fairyland, trying not to eat the food and getting increasingly annoyed that he can’t leave. I kind of wish that we’d gotten more horror bits like the people down at the pub messing with Ruby. It was so effective, more of that would’ve been great. It also would’ve been a great place to seed the actual folktale aspect, like I mentioned. There is a fun throughline here with Davies creating evil prime ministers that must then be erased from public consciousness via a timeline shift. (That “Albion” moniker is as hilariously over-the-top as the Master using Harold Saxon as his human name.) Will Ruby have to stop him all over again in the regular timeline? I guess we’ll find out… See you net week![end-mark] The post <i>Doctor Who</i> Steps Into the Fairy Ring in “73 Yards” appeared first on Reactor.

There are 124 cities with a population over 200,000 in the U.S. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s population estimates for last year, more than 90% of the U.S. population growth last year took place outside of its 124 largest cities. About a third of those cities lost population last year. The total growth in the population of cities with more than 200,000 residents grew by .23%, less than half of what the U.S. grew last year. Roughly a third of those that lost population were located in New York and California. The three largest cities in the U.S., New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, all lost population again in 2023. Between the three cities, more than 700,000 people have left since the 2020 census. New York is by far the biggest loser at 546,000. That is about 6.2% of its 2020 population. Texas had the most cities with more than 200,000 residents gained, with 14. Several of its suburban cities, such as Frisco, Round Rock, and Denton, grew at jaw-dropping rates of up to 5% in a single year. Texas’ five largest cities, Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Fort Worth, and Austin, all had positive population growth. However, all, with the exception of Fort Worth, had growth rates that were well below the state average. San Antonio and Fort Worth had the absolute most new residents of any U.S. city, with just under 22,000 each. Florida is home to nine cities with more than 200,000. All of those had growth rates at about three times the national average. Its largest city, Jacksonville, will likely be the first city in Florida to exceed 1 million residents later this decade. The individual city numbers are a little misleading for Florida because it has a large number of medium-sized cities. If you have ever driven the Atlantic coast, you know that it is almost a nonstop chain of city after city. Cities in the Carolinas also had impressive growth rates. Charlotte, North Carolina’s largest city, grew by 1.74%. Several of Las Vegas’ suburbs also saw significant growth last year. To me, the results of the census estimates for the year once again confirm that Americans are voting with their feet against the supposed utopia of dense, urban living promoted by so many urban “planners.” Yet I constantly hear from the latest generation of “urbanists” how the American people are clamoring for walkable, transit-dominated cityscapes. With more than 90% of Americans making a different choice, that clamoring seems to be mostly illusory. We need to plan and make our public investments accordingly. Originally published by RealClearPolitics.com The Daily Signal publishes a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Heritage Foundation. The post Most US Population Growth Last Year Occurred Outside of Largest Cities appeared first on The Daily Signal.

A Missouri high school instructed students in a health class to complete a survey asking if they understood “the difference between sex assigned at birth and gender.” Webster Groves High School hosted a workshop in late April called “Understanding Gender and Relationships” presented by a speaker with a program run by the St. Louis-based domestic abuse treatment center Safe Connections.  Before and after the guest speaker’s lecture, the health teacher instructed students to take the survey.  Webster Groves High School is part of Webster Groves School District, which enrolls 4,407 students across 10 schools. The survey asked students in the high school health class to respond with “yes,” “not sure,” or “no” to four statements, including “I can explain the difference between sex assigned at birth and gender.” Two other statements on the survey are “I can create relationships in which others can express themselves and I can be myself” and “I understand how some gender stereotypes contribute to violence and abuse.” The guest speaker for the health class represented Project HART, which its website describes as a “relationship violence prevention program offered at St. Louis-area schools, community centers and other places teens gather.” (HART is an acronym for Healthy Alternatives for Relationships Among Teens.) In a fourth statement, the survey asks students whether they “can show people respect regardless of gender and how it is expressed.” The high school gave the survey to students after Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Republican, ordered the Webster Groves School District to “cease and desist” teaching students about human sexuality, including gender ideology, without parental consent ahead of time, The Daily Signal reported in February.   Missouri state law requires every public school district and public charter school to notify each student’s parent or guardian before providing any human sexuality materials or instruction to students.  When asked if the survey taken by students in the health class violated this mandate, Webster Groves School District’s communications director, Derek Duncan, told The Daily Signal that the school system notifies families before lessons about human growth and development. “Families are given the choice to opt out of such lessons,” Duncan said.  Duncan did not respond directly to The Daily Signal’s question asking whether parents of the involved students got the opportunity to opt their children out of the health class lesson on gender ideology.  The Missouri Attorney General’s Office told The Daily Signal it would look into the matter.  The session on “Understanding Gender and Relationships” allows students to “explore harmful gender stereotypes and to understand the differences between biological sex, gender identity, gender expression, and attraction/sexual orientation,” Cynthia Danley, chief executive officer for Safe Connections, told The Daily Signal in an email.  “Key learning objectives include helping youth recognize that everyone deserves respect regardless of their gender and expression, understanding the negative impact of failing to respect gender-expansive individuals, and equipping youth with the tools to build relationships where peers can safely express themselves and be authentic,” Danley said.  Webster Groves School District, in the suburbs of St. Louis, approved a memorandum of understanding with Safe Connections at an April 11 school board meeting. On Feb. 20, Webster Groves issued a $220 check to the organization, according to the website BoardDocs. The post Missouri High Schoolers Asked If They Understand Difference Between Gender, Sex Assigned at Birth  appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Biden's Please Clap Moment at West Point

Scientists from the United States have presented a project for an unusual habitat that can be built independently on the surface of the Moon. Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have presented a design for a home for future settlers on the Moon. Scientists believe that such a habitat will become the basis for a future colony on the Earth’s satellite. The main feature of this home is that it does not need to be built, and it also has a modular design, which allows it to be adapted for different purposes, reports Interesting Engineering. MOMO The innovative project MOMO, a self-assembling lunar habitat, is a revolutionary habitat that will be used not only by astronauts in the near future on the Moon, but also by settlers living in a lunar colony created later. Scientists believe their innovative home will lay the foundation for long-term settlement of the Moon. MOMO’s habitat design is based on two important goals: maximize the efficiency of placing the assembled housing inside the cargo compartment of the spacecraft; ensure modularity of the design. This will optimize transport logistics and increase the ability of the habitat to adapt not only to the conditions of the Moon, but also to the goals of a particular mission. The main feature of this home is that it does not need to be built, and it has a modular design, which allows it to be adapted for different purposes. The MOMO habitat is made using an aluminum frame combined with a high-density polyethylene membrane. This combination provides strong protection from the harsh lunar environment, especially radiation, and helps keep it lightweight. One of the features of MOMO is its modular design, which allows each module to be adapted to perform specific functions. The modules can serve as airlocks, windows, photovoltaic panels, work desks or training areas. This ensures that the home can be used for a variety of purposes, from simple living to scientific research. MOMO’s design includes replaceable modules, meaning that if damaged, astronauts can replace the faulty module. Scientists want to send MOMO to the Moon as part of the Artemis 3 mission in 2026, when the first human landing on the Earth’s satellite will take place in half a century. In the future, these dwellings should play an important role in establishing a long-term human presence on the Moon. Due to the fact that it would be difficult for astronauts to assemble this dwelling after landing on the surface of the Moon, scientists decided to make this structure assemble itself. The habitat will be delivered to the Moon folded, and once landed and placed on the surface, it will be able to expand on its own with minimal human intervention. According to scientists, MOMO’s innovative dodecahedron shape makes it easier to fold up and deploy on the Moon. The habitat will have everything necessary to support life on the Moon. There will be a bathroom, a bed and a place to rest. The post Futuristic home has been created for future settlers on the Moon appeared first on Anomalien.com.