The German Parliament reportedly passed a bill Thursday downgrading the possession of child sexual abuse materials from a felony to a misdemeanor. Possession and acquisition of child pornography will now receive “a minimum sentence of three months imprisonment in the future, and distribution with a minimum sentence of six months imprisonment,” the German Parliament, the […]

'It was beautiful'

'Good riddance'

'Lowering prices at the pump'

Legendary rocker Billy Idol released a 40th Anniversary edition of his classic album Rebel Yell on April 26th, 2024. It’s become pretty common lately for record companies to release Deluxe editions of classic albums and Billy Idol’s Rebel Yell is no exception. The reissue includes the original album as well as a collection of previously unreleased songs and demos, the Poolside remix of Idol’s hit “Eyes Without a Face,” and the original track “Best Way Out of Here” by Billy Idol and Steve Stevens from the original sessions. Additionally, it features Idol’s unreleased cover of Rose Royce’s “Love Don’t Live The post Billy Idol Rebel Yell 40th Anniversary Vinyl Review appeared first on ClassicRockHistory.com.

News Sweet Tooth The Hybrids Face a New Danger in the Trailer for Sweet Tooth’s Final Season One last road trip for Gus and his pals By Molly Templeton | Published on May 21, 2024 Screenshot: Netflix Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: Netflix As if they hadn’t already had enough of a hard time, the adorable human/animal hybrids of Sweet Tooth are up against a new threat in the show’s final season. Rosalind Chao joins the show as Helen Zhang, who wants to eradicate the hybrids entirely. (Kelly Marie Tran is also here, in an excellent all-black getup, as Zhang’s daughter.) But Gus and his friends are on a mission, heading north in search of the answer to a question about the origin of the Sick. This season’s synopsis says: Having defeated General Abbot in the battle at Pubba’s Cabin, Gus (Christian Convery), Jepperd (Nonso Anozie), Becky (Stefania LaVie Owen), and Wendy (Naledi Murray) embark on a journey to Alaska in search of Gus’s mother, Birdie (Amy Seimetz), who has been working to uncover the mysterious origins of the deadly Sick. Along the way, they are joined by Dr. Singh (Adeel Akhtar), who may have his own dangerous beliefs about Gus and his role in reversing the virus. Meanwhile, a new threat emerges in the form of Helen Zhang (Rosalind Chao), her daughter Rosie (Kelly Marie Tran), and the ferocious Wolf Boys, who seek to restart human birth and view Gus as the solution to their plans. As they navigate through perilous terrain, Gus and his group of friends find refuge at the Outpost in Alaska, where they meet a new ensemble of characters including Siana (Cara Gee) and her hybrid daughter Nuka (Ayazhan Dalabayeva). With the clock to find answers running out, alliances are tested and destinies intertwine, all leading to a thrilling climax that will determine the fate of humanity and hybrids. That’s quite a roster of new actors for this season—not just 3 Body Problem’s Chao and The Last Jedi’s Tran, but also The Expanse’s Cara Gee (who looks very different out of Camina Drummer’s intense eye makeup!). Showrunner Jim Mickle told Tudum, “In Season 3, everybody is dealing with some kind of wound or emotional loss, whether that was somebody in their life or a part of themselves. … Everybody is looking inward and looking to move on and ultimately learning that life doesn’t stop. You have to keep putting one foot in front of another.” Sweet Tooth is, of course, based on the graphic novel by Jeff Lemire. The final season begins June 6th on Netflix.[end-mark] The post The Hybrids Face a New Danger in the Trailer for <i>Sweet Tooth</i>’s Final Season appeared first on Reactor.

Books book review A Charming Correspondence: A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall A review of Sylvie Cathrall’s new fantasy novel. By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on May 21, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share Sylvie Cathrall’s debut novel, A Letter to the Luminous Deep, is a romantic book, and not just because of the burgeoning relationship unveiled between the two central characters. The story, told entirely in epistolary form, takes place over two timelines. The first centers on E. Cidnosin and the scholar, Henerey Clel. E. lives in an underwater abode called the Deep House, a home created by her now-deceased mother, who was a renowned architect. Unlike her two siblings, her scholar sister Sophy and her self-centered artistic brother Arvist, E. has not left the Deep House in years because of a “Malady of the Mind” that makes venturing outside of her home difficult. She is a reader of Henerey’s scholarly work, however, and sends him a letter about some unusual underwater creatures she observes outside the window one day. The two strike up a Victorian-esque correspondence that unfurls into love. The second timeline centers on E. and Henerey’s siblings, Sophy and Vyerin, who strike up their own correspondence when E. and Henerey are presumed dead after a mysterious seaquake destroys the Deep House. The premise of their correspondence is to create an archive of their deceased siblings’ writings in order to commemorate them, and the two uncover—and partially solve—a mystery while doing so.  Both of these timelines occur on a planet almost completely devoid of land. The worldbuilding trickles out slowly, but we eventually find out that a thousand years ago, their vastly more advanced ancestors lived in “Islands in the Sky.” A cataclysmic event caused that civilization to crash on a world covered by water, leaving a handful of survivors to build anew. By definition, this makes A Letter to the Luminous Deep a post-apocalyptic story, but the book is far from the grim fare one expects from that subgenre. Life for Henerey, E., Sophy, and Vyerin is comfortable, with technology that roughly matches that of our early twentieth century. (Amenities like telephone communication, for example, have been newly implemented, as has a version of sending messages via telegraph or an antiquated form of email.) Buy the Book A Letter to the Luminous Deep Sylvie Cathrall Buy Book A Letter to the Luminous Deep Sylvie Cathrall Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget The writing style of this society, however, is solidly Victorian; if reading pages of prose that feel like letters written in a Jane Austen novel doesn’t sound appealing, this might not be the book for you. But if following a correspondence where two people who feel ostracized find solace and acceptance in each other and eventually move from bashful expressions of affection to eloquent statements of love sounds like an endearing, cozy read, then Luminous Deep will be right up your alley.  The intricate descriptions of this sea-dwelling society and of the slow growth of E. and Henerey’s relationship (and, to a lesser degree, Sophy and Vyerin’s relationship) are the strengths of the book; while the stakes at the core of the mystery around E. and Henerey’s disappearance appears to have massive implications, they happen almost in the background, with the burgeoning romance via correspondence the forefront of the story and our emotional anchor. The plot here, as little of a plot there is, is secondary. Through all the letter writing, however, we learn about a mysterious “Structure” that has appeared outside of the Deep House, a creation that seems to be more than an art installation that Arvist claims he made. The truth of it slowly unravels, not least because violent geologic events happen near it with devastating consequences. We also travel to the deepest depths of the ocean with a team of scholars that includes Sophy and her future partner (a romance we also see unfold in the writings). Even living in the hadal depths sounds cozy in this book, despite the fact that their living quarters are subjected to enough pressure to pulverize a body into goo in seconds if any part of the structure failed.  A Letter to the Luminous Deep is about its characters, which Cathrall has crafted with exquisite detail. E., for example, suffers from severe anxiety and agoraphobia, and eloquently explains her condition to Henerey in one of her letters to him: “ “O Henerey, I can tell from your letters and from your academic writing that you have a wonderful imagination, so perhaps you understand how a lively mind can be as much of a burden as it is a gift. Mine tends to fixate on scenarios—memories—difficulties—and then embellish them with such detail that I feel as though calamities have actually happened, and I the cause of them.” That passage not only gives you a sense of the book’s writing style, but also describes E.’s struggles with her condition. E.’s so-called “Maladay of the Mind,”’ however, doesn’t limit her or minimize her in any way, but is simply part of who she is, making her a rich, complex character that you can’t help but care about.  Character development aside, events move slowly—very slowly—over the novel’s 432 pages. The pace does pick up in the last fifth or so once we catch up to the present-day happenings impacting Sophy and Vyerin. But the nature of the epistolary format makes the story’s urgency muted, causing the book to strain under the confines of having the entire tale explained via letters and other collected writings. And while the mystery around E. and Henerey’s disappearance is ultimately explained, it is far from resolved. Other questions about their civilization are not fully answered, though enough hints and clues are offered for a reader to piece together the nuts and bolts of what happened a thousand years and what happened to E. and Henerey. Those looking for a standalone novel won’t find it here—A Letter to the Luminous Deep ends suddenly, with the promise of a sequel that will presumably move the story forward. Whether that assumed sequel will also be in epistolary format—and whether that structure can deftly carry the story forward—remains to be seen. [end-mark] A Letter to the Luminous Deep is published by Orbit. The post A Charming Correspondence: <i>A Letter to the Luminous Deep</i> by Sylvie Cathrall appeared first on Reactor.

News Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Starfleet Academy: Holly Hunter to Play Lead Role in Upcoming Star Trek Series By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on May 21, 2024 Screenshot: Lionsgate/Amazon Studios Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: Lionsgate/Amazon Studios Academy Award-winner Holly Hunter, whose previous credits include The Piano, The Big Sick (pictured above), and the voice of Elasti-Girl in The Incredibles, is joining the Star Trek universe as a captain and chancellor in the upcoming series, Starfleet Academy. Variety broke the news, though Paramount+ has since confirmed, that Hunter will be the head of the Academy who oversees both the thirty-second-century school’s faculty and cadets. “It feels like we’ve spent our entire lives watching Holly Hunter be a stone-cold genius,” co-showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau told Variety in a statement. “To have her extraordinary authenticity, fearlessness, sense of humor, and across the board brilliance leading the charge on Starfleet Academy is a gift to all of us, and to the enduring legacy of Star Trek.” Hunter will most likely join Star Trek: Discovery’s Tilly (Mary Wiseman) on the call sheet, and chances are good that other Discovery characters, such as Doug Jones’ Saru, might make an appearance as well. The series is set to go into production in Toronto, Canada this summer, and the set will boast, according to Variety, “the largest contiguous set ever constructed for a Star Trek series, a central academic atrium that will span two stories and include an amphitheater, classrooms, a mess hall, and an idyllic walkway lined with trees.” No news yet on when we can matriculate to Starfleet Academy on Paramount+. [end-mark] The post <i>Starfleet Academy</i>: Holly Hunter to Play Lead Role in Upcoming <i>Star Trek</i> Series appeared first on Reactor.

All my adult life, I have warned people about the low moral and intellectual level of colleges and universities. This is the way I have put it: “If you send your child to college, you are playing Russian Roulette with his or her values.” I have always made it clear that for STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) and a few other specialized subjects, there may be no choice. You can’t learn those subjects on your own. But parents take serious risks when they send their child to college. One reason is that the ages between 18 and 22, when the vast majority of young people attend college, are the years when people are easiest to influence. We tend to believe that the best time to influence children is when they are very young. That is sometimes true. It was certainly true in the past when people matured at a much younger age, few people attended college, and colleges had not been taken over by nihilists. But today, many young people remain children until their 30s, and many attend college, the center of immoral ideas in America. What we are seeing now at American, British, and other Western universities, especially the most prestigious ones, is support for evil and disdain for good. Pro-Hamas, Israel-hating students take over campuses, stage walkouts during commencement exercises, and are supported by large numbers of faculty members on their campuses. In other words, many students and professors support Iranian and Palestinian calls to exterminate Israel and the Jews who live there. None of this is surprising. Universities have been morally and intellectually damaging for more than 50 years. How many young people return home after four years at college (let alone additional years in graduate school) a finer, kinder, more moral, or intellectually more developed person? Let’s just say it’s rare. I have never met one. I have however met and heard about many young people who return home from college angrier, unhappier, less decent, and far more morally confused. The number of college-educated young people who have been brainwashed into having contempt for their parents, their religion, and their country is incalculable. Last week, the New York Post reported on a young woman named Lily Greenberg-Call, a special assistant to the chief of staff in the Interior Department, who quit her position because the American government is too pro-Israel. As the Post reported, Greenberg-Call “went out with a bang Wednesday with a red-hot resignation letter to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. ‘I can no longer in good conscience continue to represent this administration amidst President [Joe] Biden’s disastrous continued support for Israel’s genocide,’ wrote Greenberg-Call, 26, who additionally condemned Israel’s ‘violations of international law’ perpetrated with ‘American weapons.'” I relate this story because Greenberg-Call is a perfect example of what college can do to a young person’s heart, mind, and conscience. The article noted that “ironically, while in high school at the ritzy, near-$40,000 a year San Diego Jewish Academy, Greenberg-Call was a staunch Israel advocate, and once reportedly served as president of her high school’s Israel advocacy club. Her views began to shift after going to college at Berkeley, meeting ‘Palestinian-Americans at school’ and entering Democratic politics, according to an essay she wrote in May 2022 for Teen Vogue.” In other words, her Jewish upbringing, expensive education at a Jewish school, and leadership in pro-Israel activities proved useless when confronted with Berkeley, where she learned that Israel is evil. Nineteen years ago, when the Los Angeles Times was still publishing conservatives, I wrote a column about antisemitism at American universities. I told the following story: Not long ago, on my radio show, I invited a UCLA student who, on the occasion of Israel’s birthday, had written a hate-filled article about the Jewish state in the Bruin, the school newspaper. I asked her if she had always been anti-Israel. She said that as a Jewish girl growing up in Britain, she was actually a Zionist who had visited Israel a number of times on Jewish student trips there. ‘What changed you?’ I asked. ‘The university,’ she responded. COPYRIGHT 2024 CREATORS 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 Universities Breed Evil appeared first on The Daily Signal.

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Aides to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra routinely inquired about how at least one agency under his control was putting President Joe Biden’s executive order on elections into action.  At least one message suggested that Becerra’s office and the agency within HHS wanted to know whether private organizations that received government grants were working to get out the vote through public service announcements or other means.  On Nov. 30, 2021, two months after the White House announced a vague description of how federal agencies would implement Biden’s executive order on turning out the vote, Anna Perng, a special assistant in HHS’ Administration for Community Living, emailed colleagues to say that the department’s Immediate Office of the Secretary wanted monthly updates. “IOS [Immediate Office of the Secretary] gently reminded me to update EO 14019 Promoting Voting Access milestones this Friday, 12/3. I had thought tha[t] [REDACTED].” The Administration for Community Living focuses on issues important to senior citizens and disabled Americans. The White House previously announced that the agency would be a “voting access hub.” On Dec. 15, 2021, Perng sent another email to ACL staff. “It is our favorite time of the month: IOS is looking for updates on these milestones by this Friday. Are there any changes to the following?” Perng wrote in part.  Perng emailed ACL colleagues on March 3, 2022, with another reminder.  “IOS is requesting a status update on the EO Promoting Voting Access milestones by tomorrow COB,” Perng wrote. She continued: “For example, I know that there are primaries underway. ACL had said we would share/retweet/repost promote grantees’ voting resources. Have grantees created any voting materials, PSAs, etc.?” The Daily Signal obtained 159 pages of heavily redacted documents from the Administration for Community Living through a request submitted under the Freedom of Information Act, shedding some light on how the HHS agency is implementing Biden’s election order.  About three dozen pages of the records are from ACL’s “Administrative Priority Overview” and are almost entirely blacked out.  Because of the excessive redactions to the released documents, it’s not clear how “milestones” may be defined or whether any were accomplished.  Biden issued Executive Order 14019 in March 2021, requiring federal agencies to work on voter turnout.  Since that time, public records trickling out through requests under the Freedom of Information Act show that federal agencies partnered or met with numerous left-leaning nonprofit advocacy groups on the subject of getting out the vote. The groups include Demos, the Brennan Center for Justice, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the American Civil Liberties Union, the AFL-CIO, the Al Sharpton-founded National Action Network, and the George Soros-backed Open Society Policy Center. In September 2021, the White House issued a press release explaining how federal agencies would boost voting.  “The Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Community Living will launch a new voting access hub to connect older adults and people with disabilities to information, tools and resources to help them understand and exercise their right to vote,” the press release says.  The only other HHS agency specified by the White House as implementing Biden’s order is the Indian Health Service, which The Daily Signal first reported is partnering with Demos and the ACLU.  It’s not clear from the unredacted information whether the Administration for Community Living is teaming with any overtly political groups. The newly obtained records include correspondence dated March 11, 2022, from Michelle Bishop, voter access and engagement manager for the National Disability Rights Network, which advocates on behalf of the disabled.  Bishop’s email was to Ophelia McLain, program manager with ACL’s Administration on Disabilities, who was active in implementing the president’s order.  “As requested, I am sending an updated summary of trainings and resources planned for 2022,” Bishop told McClain.  Bishop wrote that the National Disability Rights Network was partnering with other groups—including Self Advocates Becoming Empowered, the National Association of the Deaf, and the National Federation for the Blind—on activities such as making videos and “providing plain language explanations of complicated election topics” such as primaries, the differences between open and closed primaries, and how ranked choice voting works. The post EXCLUSIVE: HHS Chief Routinely Checked Progress of Biden Election-Meddling Directive, Records Show appeared first on The Daily Signal.