News Dead Boy Detectives The Trailer for Dead Boy Detectives Shows How It’s Connected to The Sandman Like Holmes and Watson‚ except dead By Molly Templeton | Published on April 3‚ 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share Ah‚ the unpredictable life of a ghost detective. This particular pair‚ the Dead Boy Detectives‚ were created by Neil Gaiman in The Sandman‚ then branched out into their own tales. The adaptation of their story was originally a Max series‚ but moved over to Netflix. The afterlife is nothing if not uncertain! But it’s just as well that Edwin Payne (George Rexstrew) and Charles Rowland (Jayden Revri) will be practicing their trade on the same streamer as The Sandman‚ because now‚ the show gets to make it explicit that the two series are connected. And this trailer does so via a little visit from Death (Kirby‚ who used to go by Kirby Howell-Baptiste). Apparently they’re hiding from her. They don’t want to go back to hell. Who would? (Funny how this is a frequent problem for characters in this universe.) Here’s the synopsis: Meet Edwin Payne (George Rexstrew) and Charles Rowland (Jayden Revri)‚ “the brains” and “the brawn” behind the Dead Boy Detectives agency. Teenagers born decades apart who find each other only in death‚ Edwin and Charles are best friends and ghosts… who solve mysteries. They will do anything to stick together – including escaping evil witches‚ Hell and Death herself. With the help of a clairvoyant named Crystal (Kassius Nelson) and her friend Niko (Yuyu Kitamura)‚ they are able to crack some of the mortal realm’s most mystifying paranormal cases. I genuinely do not know what to make of the way they’ve chopped up My Chemical Romance’s “Welcome to the Black Parade” in this trailer. It feels a bit too epic for what we’re seeing on screen. The tonal result is all over the place. Which‚ to be fair‚ might be the point. Dead Boy Detectives was developed by Steve Yockey (The Flight Attendant)‚ who is co-showrunner with Beth Schwartz (the Arrowverse). The boys solve supernatural crime starting April 25th on Netflix. [end-mark] The post The Trailer for <;i>;Dead Boy Detectives<;/i>; Shows How It’s Connected to <;i>;The Sandman<;/i>; appeared first on Reactor.

Column Science Fiction Film Club The Day the Earth Stood Still: Suspicion‚ Paranoia‚ and a Very Polite Alien Visitor in 1950s America Released during the rise of McCarthyism‚ the film poses questions about how humans deal with fear and uncertainty that still feel startlingly relevant today. By Kali Wallace | Published on April 3‚ 2024 Image: 20th Century Fox Comment 0 Share New Share Image: 20th Century Fox The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) Directed by Robert Wise. Starring Michael Rennie‚ Patricia Neal‚ Hugh Marlowe‚ Sam Jaffe‚ and Billy Gray. Screenplay by Edmund H. North‚ based on the short story “Farewell to the Master” by Harry Bates. I had never seen this movie before I picked it for this film club. I know it’s a genre classic. I know it’s widely influential and has been referenced in all kinds of sci fi works. I had heard of it‚ of course‚ and vaguely knew the premise—alien comes to Earth‚ Cold War politics—but not much more than that. And I avoided researching it until after I had watched it. I wanted to see it before I delved into what people thought of it. I’m glad it approached it that way‚ because: (a) I really enjoyed the movie for itself‚ because it’s great‚ and (b) subsequently delving into what people think about The Day the Earth Stood Still is so overwhelming it makes me feel like I’m back in graduate school. For 70+ years people have been writing editorials‚ reviews‚ articles‚ dissertations‚ and books about the film’s impact and meaning. There are multiple scholarly debates still occurring across both academic journals and fandom spaces: Is the movie anti-war and anti-atomic? Is the main character a Christ-like figure? What is it saying about the doctrine of mutually-assured destruction? Is the position of the visiting alien justifiable from the perspective of ethical philosophy? All of this is interesting‚ but there is absolutely no way I can cover everything in this piece‚ nor do I really want to‚ not unless somebody is going to give me another PhD for it. So I’m going to focus on a few things that I find most interesting‚ and I encourage everybody else to share their own thoughts in the comments. First‚ a bit about the context‚ because we are talking about a high-profile‚ major studio Hollywood movie released in 1951‚ and there is a hell of a lot of relevant context. A few years earlier‚ in 1947‚ the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) subpoenaed ten Hollywood producers‚ directors‚ and screenwriters to testify about suspected communist activities. They refused to answer any questions‚ were charged with contempt of Congress‚ and were subsequently fined and imprisoned. The heads of major studios‚ along with the Motion Picture Association of America and the Association of Motion Picture Producers‚ responded by declaring that they would not employ any of those ten men‚ nor anybody else linked to communist politics or any other vaguely-defined “subversive and disloyal elements.” The statement they released on the matter‚ the Waldorf Declaration‚ is an odd piece of legal wriggling. There was not agreement among the studio heads about what to do‚ or even if they should do anything. Even at the hysteria-driven height of the so-called Red Scare‚ it was still‚ in fact‚ a violation of the First Amendment to fire somebody for having politics you don’t like‚ but the pressure to do exactly that was coming from the Congress. The studio heads decided that the financial risk of being sued outweighed the inevitable public backlash if they did nothing. (There are a million articles‚ books‚ interviews‚ and thinkpieces on this matter‚ but check out this Hollywood Reporter piece for a quick summary and timeline.) The Waldorf Statement more or less became industry policy for the next few years‚ and the initial blacklist of ten people ballooned to more than 300‚ especially after Senator Joseph McCarthy began driving the widespread persecution that would come to bear his name. The impact on Hollywood was significant and very‚ very high profile. Just a few examples: Charlie Chaplin was denied re-entry to the United States in 1952 and subsequently cut ties with Hollywood; actor Edward G. Robinson‚ who was an outspoken anti-fascist as well as a civil rights supporter‚ was called to testify before the HUAC and basically forced to jump through political hoops to avoid being blacklisted; Dashiell Hammett‚ author of The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man‚ which became beloved Hollywood movies‚ refused to cooperate with HUAC and was blacklisted in 1953. The list goes on and on. Right in the middle of all this came The Day The Earth Stood Still‚ a major studio film that was conceived‚ written‚ and filmed as commentary on the social and political environment in which it was made. Producer Julian Blaustein set out to make a movie about the paranoia and fear that gripped the world in the post-World War II atomic era; he was specifically interested in promoting a strong United Nations and said as much during press for the film. He looked around for a science fiction story that could be used as a basis for such a film and found Harry Bates’ short story “Farewell to the Master‚” published in Astounding Science Fiction in 1940. Screenwriter Edmund North took a great many liberties with the original story‚ as is the way of such things‚ and the result is the script that director Robert Wise would turn into The Day the Earth Stood Still. Robert Wise would go on to become one of Hollywood’s absolute legends‚ as he would later direct West Side Story‚ The Sound of Music‚ The Haunting‚ The Andromeda Stain‚ Star Trek: The Motion Picture and many‚ many other films. In 1951 he wasn’t a legend yet‚ but he was well on his way there; he had been the editor on Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane (1941) and The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) before he began directing his own films. The Day the Earth Stood Still opens with a montage of people around the world reacting to the appearance of an unidentified craft soaring through Earth’s atmosphere. The craft soon reveals itself to be a sleek flying saucer. Articles about the film frequently claim that set designers Thomas Little and Claude Carpenter designed the spaceship with the help of architect Frank Lloyd Wright (for example: this article shared by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation)‚ but it’s just as frequently claimed that this is an urban legend‚ so I have no idea if it’s true. If there are any Frank Lloyd Wright biographers hanging around‚ please let us know. Whoever designed it‚ the spacecraft is striking and elegant as it settles into a landing spot on Earth: right smack in the middle of the National Mall in Washington D.C.. The ship opens and a humanoid alien emerges to say‚ “We have come to visit in peace and with goodwill‚” and asks to meet with the leaders of Earth. A nervous soldier responds by shooting him‚ which is one of the most American things that has ever been committed to film. A large robot (played by Lock Martin) from the ship vaporizes all of the soldiers’ weapons‚ but the injured alien stops him before he can do more damage. The alien is taken to the hospital‚ where he introduces himself as Klaatu and asks to speak to representatives of all the world’s governments. Klaatu (Michael Rennie) looks and acts human‚ which baffles the doctors‚ but it is necessary for the story the film is telling. Through the 1930s and ’40s‚ there was significant overlap in American cinema between sci fi films and horror films. There were popular space-based adventures like Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers‚ but for the most part American sci fi movies didn’t really begin to distinguish themselves from juvenile serials or monster movies until the ’50s. Another big sci fi release of 1951 was The Thing From Another World. The Thing was more representative of what Hollywood was doing with extraterrestrials at the time: alien visitors to Earth were often monsters and invaders‚ existing to be fought and feared. There weren’t characters or people. They weren’t us. Klaatu‚ a polite‚ well-spoken alien who can easily pass as human‚ was a novelty. Wise initially wanted Claude Rains in the role of Klaatu‚ but he would later say it was a good thing Rains had been unavailable‚ because Michael Rennie turned out to be such a great alternative. And he was right‚ because Michael Rennie is fantastic as Klaatu. He’s friendly and warm‚ but there is a steely solemnity just beneath the surface that reveals the seriousness of his mission. When Klaatu escapes from the hospital‚ he tries to learn more about Earth and its people by walking around Washington‚ D.C.‚ staying at a boarding house‚ spending a day with a child—all very human and ordinary things. The mundanity of Klaatu’s actions are also key to the story the film is telling. There are very few special effects in The Day the Earth Stood Still; the goal of the production from the start was to give the movie a very realistic‚ almost documentary-style look. When we see the inside of Klaatu’s ship‚ it’s very minimalist in design and nothing is explained; when the robot Gort vaporizes human weapons all the audience sees is a blinding flash of white light. The stunning musical score by Bernard Hermann underscores this approach‚ as it is a compelling mix of recognizably orchestral and notably alien‚ with two theremins among the array of unusual instruments chosen to create a range of sounds. This was before stereophonic sound was standard in cinema—movies weren’t “presented in stereo!” just yet—and Hermann employed a lot of very clever techniques in both composing and recording to achieve the otherworldly sounds. Hermann is a genuine legend in Hollywood music history; he was wrote the memorable scores of many Alfred Hitchcock movies‚ several Ray Harryhausen fantasy epics‚ and many‚ many other movies you have probably seen. Check out a live performance of the theme of The Day the Earth Stood Still at an international theremin festival in 2018. Seventy years later‚ and this score is still so eerie‚ haunting‚ and beautiful. The movie has a very clear goal in making these choices: the biology of the alien visitor‚ the nature of the world he came from‚ the details of his advanced technology‚ none of that is what we should be focusing on. What we should be focusing on is ourselves. Klaatu’s time amongst the people of Earth explores a range of reactions. Presidential representative Mr. Harley (Frank Conroy) is sympathetic to Klaatu’s request to address the world’s leaders but unwilling to explore ways of helping; Mrs. Barley (Frances Bavier) at the boardinghouse thinks there is no extraterrestrial‚ only a Soviet agent‚ a conviction she states with confidence while sitting across the breakfast table from the actual alien; Helen Benson (Patricia Neal) thinks about how Earth must appear to an alien visitor who was attacked moments after greeting humans for the first time; her boyfriend Tom (Hugh Marlowe) only cares about alien visitation if it impacts his own life; Helen’s son Bobby (Billy Gray) is curious and excited more than scared. The various military men instantly see a threat to be eliminated‚ the news reporter is only interested in interviews that will support fear-mongering headlines‚ but for the most part people keep going about their lives as the tension and paranoia rise. We get glimpses of people around the world that are clearly meant to imply reactions are the same everywhere‚ including in the Soviet Union. While tooling around Washington with young Bobby‚ Klaatu comes to the conclusion that politicians won’t help him deliver the message he needs to deliver‚ so he turns to scientists. He does this by asking Bobby to identify the smartest man around‚ a question that really bears no thinking about in a modern context (I do not want to consider what the range of answers would be)‚ but makes a bit more sense in the context of Professor Barnhardt (Sam Jaffe) being an obvious analogue to Albert Einstein‚ who was hugely popular with the general public at the time. Barnhardt agrees to summon scientists‚ philosophers‚ and all manner of thinkers to the city so they can all hear what Klaatu has to say. What’s most curious about the film’s range of character reactions to alien contact is‚ perhaps‚ how very familiar they are to anybody who has watched a movie in the past 70+ years. From E.T.: The Extraterrestrial to Independence Day to The Avengers‚ the widespread paranoia‚ the childlike naivete‚ the military aggression‚ the scientific curiosity‚ the selfish disinterest‚ the histrionic press coverage are all so common they are often compressed into a montage. But here the reactions of the people of Earth aren’t a prelude or epilogue to the story‚ or an element that must be dispatched with before the action can start. Those reactions are the entire story. Nothing in The Day the Earth Stood Still is actually about aliens. We learn almost nothing about Klaatu’s home or any other civilizations out there. It’s all about humans‚ about how we see ourselves‚ about what we do when we meet somebody a little different‚ about how we deal with fear and uncertainty. Because those aspects of the film are so familiar‚ even comfortable‚ in the genre of sci fi‚ I am struck by how strongly I reacted to the ending. At the very end‚ Klaatu finally has a chance to address thinkers from all over the world. He tells them that because Earth has developed rockets and nuclear weaponry‚ other civilizations on other planets now view us as a threat. He has come to deliver a warning: change our violent ways‚ or be destroyed. He explains that his own civilization has achieved peace by outsourcing the enforcement of this moral and ethical dictum to a force of robot police‚ including his companion Gort‚ who have the absolute and unretractable mission to destroy any planet that is not sufficiently peaceful. Now‚ look‚ I am an American living in the year 2024. The situation Klaatu describes as peaceful and ideal is‚ to me‚ the one of the most horrifying scenarios imaginable. I hate every single thing about it. We can’t even trust cops with handguns to make good choices; I’m sure as fuck not eager to trust a bunch of cops who never have to justify themselves with the power to destroy an entire planet. But‚ setting aside my own visceral full-body shudder‚ I am fascinated by two things about this film’s ending. The first is that I’m not sure how audiences in 1951 were expected to react to Klaatu’s ultimatum‚ because reactions were not at all uniform. Within the film itself‚ we don’t really get a good sense of how the gathered scientists and thinkers react to Klaatu’s message‚ only that they are taking it seriously. (Any crowd of real scientists would immediately begin arguing‚ but maybe they wait until Klaatu and Gort have noped out.) The film ends before we get a look at how humanity reacts—which is‚ of course‚ the entire point. There are several troubling assumptions behind Klaatu’s ultimatum: that everybody will define terms like threat and violence and freedom in the same way; that a serious enough and clear enough threat will unite the world; that it is possible to create a universal ethical standard that can be enforced without exception; that outsourcing our ethical choices beyond a certain level of significance to external actors is better than making those choices ourselves. I don’t know that the movie is advocating acceptance of any or all of those assumptions. It is promoting international cooperation as a much better choice than mutually-assured destruction‚ but there is still skepticism about enforcing peace by means of violence. But‚ as I have already mentioned‚ people have been arguing about this for more than 70 years‚ and will probably be arguing about it for 70 more. I’ll let the philosophers carry on and move on to the second thing that fascinates me‚ which is less about what the film itself is saying and more about where it fits into the history of science fiction‚ because most of the sci fi genre seems to be with me in experiencing that full-body shudder of revulsion. The Day the Earth Stood Still was asking if humankind could or would abandon its violent ways when forced to by an objective‚ unstoppable external force—and we’ve gotten a lot of answers from other stories over the years. Consider Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970)‚ The Terminator (1984)‚ and Robocop (1987)‚ to name just a few films in which humans try to outsource their warfare and policing to machines and it does not‚ alas‚ result in peace and harmony for all mankind. The Day the Earth Stood Still is‚ like all films‚ a product of its time and place‚ but in this way it seems to be a movie that could only have come from that particular time and place. Because the film ends before we learn what humans will decide‚ there is very much a sense of this being a story that stands on a precipice‚ one that is looking around at the world in the aftermath of WWII‚ in an environment of intense fear and paranoia that was actively harming the lives and careers of all kinds of people‚ and asking‚ “Now what do we do?” What do you think about The Day the Earth Stood Still? How do you interpret the promise/threat of Gort’s robot police force and the politics of sci fi during the atomic era? I haven’t watched the 2008 remake with Keanu Reeves‚ and I’m curious how the story was changed for a different era. Feel free to chime in with your thoughts on that or anything else about this film in comments! Next week: We’re bringing some different alien visitors down to Earth in The Mysterians (1957)‚ one of the many epic collaborations between director Ishirō Honda and special effects master Eiji Tsuburaya. Watch it on Criterion and FlixFling‚ and it’s worth checking YouTube‚ the Internet Archive‚ and other upload sites. Some of the uploaded versions I’ve found are the English-language dub and some are of very sketchy quality‚ but poke around a little to find one that works for you.[end-mark] The post <;i>;The Day the Earth Stood Still<;/i>;: Suspicion‚ Paranoia‚ and a Very Polite Alien Visitor in 1950s America appeared first on Reactor.

An episode of our Patreon Exclusive 90’s Super Cinema podcast has been UNLOCKED! This was a historic event‚ as it was the first time all 4 WIZARDS co-hosts (past and present) ever recorded a show CONTINUE READING... The post WIZARDS The Podcast Guide To Comics | UNLOCKED! 90’s Super Cinema: Batman and Robin appeared first on The Retro Network.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties‚ subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Jon Stewart’s encounter with Apple censorship came to light during a recent episode of his The Daily Show‚ featuring an interview with Lina Khan‚ the Chair of the Federal Trade Commission. After inviting Khan onto his The Problem with Jon Stewart Apple TV+ show for a podcast episode‚ Apple’s censorship became conspicuous when it requested Stewart not to proceed with the invite. “I wanted to have you on a podcast and Apple asked us not to do it‚” Stewart told Khan. “They literally said‚ ‘Please don’t talk to her.'” Moreover‚ the episode was riddled with examples of what Apple permitted for broadcast‚ including Stewart’s initially scheduled section on artificial intelligence titled the “false promise of AI.” “They wouldn’t let us do even that dumb thing we just did in the first act on AI‚” he told Khan. “Like‚ what is that sensitivity? Why are they so afraid to even have these conversations out in the public sphere?” “I think it just shows the danger of what happens when you concentrate so much power and so much decision making in a small number of companies‚” Khan responded. US lawmakers have already demanded an explanation from Apple regarding the sudden termination of Jon Stewart’s political comedy show on its streaming platform. This inquiry‚ articulated in a public letter‚ suggests that the show’s abrupt end might be attributed to the sensitivity of content related to China. The New York Times previously shed light on the discontinuation of Stewart’s program on Apple TV+‚ attributing it to “creative differences‚” The report highlighted Stewart’s disclosure to his team about the apprehension of Apple executives over certain topics‚ notably those concerning China and artificial intelligence. The post Jon Stewart Says Apple Asked Him Not To Interview FTC Chair Lina Khan appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties‚ subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Apple is nothing if not consistent in its policy of taking huge revenue cuts from developers‚ publishers‚ and others using the giant’s platforms – and now it could be podcasters’ turn. In exchange for better (top banner in the app) placement of their feed – in the crowded podcasting market where Apple’s Podcasts is a leading app (and its index used by many others) – Apple allows creators to part ways with a significant chunk of the money they earn. That’s 30% of subscriber revenue in the first‚ and 15% in each subsequent year – and that is notably more than what some competitors charge for the same service – with Patreon‚ it’s 5 to 12%‚ while Substack takes 10%. And Spotify and YouTube‚ the biggest competitors‚ prefer the “ad-overkill monetizing model” to subscriptions‚ anyway. For now‚ the proceedings are in the “amicable‚” persuasion and enticement‚ voluntary phase over at Apple. Podcasts will still be available on the app – and some even promoted – whether or not they join Apple Podcasts Subscriptions’ promotions feature. But there’s a big difference to podcasters between being available prominently seen – good placement in the app (and therefore‚ high subscriber numbers that can then be monetized in many ways outside the Apple ecosystem) is described by some as far more important than the money they can earn directly through Apple Podcasts Subscriptions. Podcasts Subscriptions was rolled out three years ago with the primary goal of helping monetize various forms of bonus content and has been used by Apple to lure creators in with the highly coveted top banner spot. The podcasting subscriptions market is very tricky to “lockdown” and control like‚ say‚ an app store‚ so whether things remain as they are‚ or if the Apple “offer” becomes mandatory‚ may largely depend on Apple’s ability to make this lucrative for itself‚ Semafor reported. In the US‚ Apple has been sued by the government for the way it runs its App Store business‚ but some observers note that the nature of podcast distribution means it’s hard for any one platform‚ including Apple‚ to dominate it to monopolistic levels. The post Apple Pushes Podcasters to Join Subscription Program for Top Feed Placement appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties‚ subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Recently‚ it came to light that US courts are issuing orders to YouTube (Google) to hand over user information – a previously unreported form of dragnet investigation. And now additional details about the practice are emerging. Forbes broke the story last month after seeing documents that showed a court order covering all YouTube users who watched certain videos over a period of time. Personal data required by law enforcement in these cases was very detailed. Regarding Google users – that’s information from their Google accounts (name‚ address‚ phone number and records‚ online payments history‚ IP address‚ etc…)‚ while everybody else visiting URLs listed in the order had their IP addresses surrendered. A one-year gag order made sure Google could not make any of this publicly known‚ and now we’re hearing about it because that time period has expired. However‚ the actual documents that the original article was based on were not published at that time; now‚ reports say they have been made available on the Bluesky platform. The order covers the first 8 days of 2023‚ and three apparently obscure and in and of themselves harmless YouTube videos (the target of the investigation was a person suspected of illegal activity‚ while the video’s URLs were “exchanged” during communication between undercover investigators and their target). Virgil Abt posted the documents on Bluesky‚ noting that given that the three videos (about mapping software) didn’t have a wide reach‚ an estimated 200 people‚ whose personal details Google was then asked to turn over‚ clicked on the links – to end up collectively “suspected‚” as happens in dragnet-style probes. The affidavit that’s now public shows the court explaining the process and reasons first for going after the specific YouTube user‚ “ELM‚” for their alleged bitcoin-and-drugs related activities – and then why the court thought it was fine to thoroughly unmask potentially hundreds of uninvolved YouTube users‚ and keep the whole thing secret for a full year. “There is reason to believe that these records would be relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation‚ including by providing identification information about the perpetrators‚” reads the affidavit. The same problems related to other investigative methods based on dragnet surveillance such as geofencing apply here as well‚ mainly the fact law enforcement could achieve its goals by going down less legally controversial routes. The post More Details Have Come to Light About Feds’ Surveillance of Everyone That Watched Certain YouTube Videos appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

Revisiting the Death Penalty for Cop Killers

Wednesday Smiles

Against all odds‚ a millennia-old variety of the Greek language has managed to survive into the 21st century. However‚ researchers are now warning that it could be the last chance to save this “linguistic goldmine” from extinction.Romeyka is spoken by just a few thousand native speakers living in the mountainous villages of northeastern Turkey’s Trabzon region along the Black Sea coast. It doesn’t have a writing system‚ so it’s transmitted from generation to generation orally.The language is a living relic from the time that Greece held a strong presence over the Black Sea in ancient times and the early Middle Ages. When the region became increasingly influenced by Islam and the Ottoman Empire‚ most people eventually shifted over to speaking Turkish. However‚ in the isolated hills around Trabzon‚ snippets of the ancient Greek language managed to live on among some Muslim communities. “Conversion to Islam across Asia Minor was usually accompanied by a linguistic shift to Turkish‚ but communities in the valleys retained Romeyka. And because of Islamization‚ they retained some archaic features while the Greek-speaking communities who remained Christian grew closer to Modern Greek‚ especially because of extensive schooling in Greek in the 19th and early 20th centuries‚” Ioanna Sitaridou‚ Professor of Spanish and Historical Linguistics at the University of Cambridge‚ said in a statement.Professor Ioanna Sitaridou (right) with a 100-year-old Romeyka speaker in Turkey's Trabzon region.Image credit: Professor Ioanna SitaridouRomeyka has some significant differences from Modern Greek yet bears some traits that can be directly traced back to the archaic Greek language used in the Hellenistic Period (323 BCE to 32 CE).One such linguistic feature of Romeyka is the use of infinitives‚ a form of a verb that can be used as a noun‚ adjective‚ or adverb. For instance‚ a speaker of Modern Greek would say “I want that I go”‚ instead of “I want to go.” All Greek dialects and variants used today have stopped using this infinitive‚ which is found in ancient Greek‚ except for Romeyka. This might seem like a subtle difference‚ but the example shows how Romeyka is the direct ancestor of Hellenistic Greek‚ as opposed to Medieval Greek which is the direct ancestor of Modern Greek. “Romeyka is a sister‚ rather than a daughter‚ of Modern Greek‚” added Professor Sitaridou. Professor Sitaridou has spent the past 16 years studying Romeyka‚ hoping to gain a deeper understanding of the language and potentially save it from oblivion. Part of this time has been spent living within the Trabzon region alongside native speakers.While the language has managed to persist for centuries‚ there are fears that it could soon be plummeted into extinction. Most speakers in Trabzon are over 65 years of age and fewer young people are learning the language‚ leaving it uncertain whether it will survive another round of intergenerational transmission.         Romeyka has also become the victim of socio-cultural stigma‚ as is often the case with minority languages. Turkish nationalism‚ a powerful force in Turkey that’s been rejuvenated under the rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan‚ would rather see the end of Greek being spoken within the nation’s borders. Likewise‚ hardliners in Greece see Romeyka as a “contaminated” form of their mother tongue that deters from their vision of a unified national identity. As part of the effort to rescue the endangered language from extinction‚ Sitaridou has released a new Crowdsourcing Romeyka platform which allows members of the public to upload audio recordings of Romeyka being spoken.“Speech crowdsourcing is a new tool which helps speakers build a repository of spoken data for their endangered languages while allowing researchers to document these languages‚ but also motivating speakers to appreciate their own linguistic heritage. At the same time‚ by creating a permanent monument of their language‚ it can help speakers achieve acknowledgement of their identity from people outside of their speech community‚” explained Sitaridou.

The Parker Solar Probe has been traveling as close to the Sun as it possibly can‚ and this gives it an incredible vantage point to witness the behavior of the Sun up close – sometimes directly into the events of the solar atmosphere‚ like this first incredible footage capturing the interaction between a coronal mass ejection and the background ambient solar wind.Coronal mass ejections are major releases of plasma from the Sun‚ and they can cause geomagnetic storms if they hit Earth. They can disrupt the normal flow of the solar wind‚ the stream of charged particles that escape from the Sun. Parker is showing one way that happens.A series of images from PSP showing the peculiar interactions in the solar plasma.Image credit: U.S. Naval Research LaboratoryPhotos from the Wide-field Imager for Parker Solar Probe (WISPR) show the formation of Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities (KHI) within the plasma. These are seen in the clouds of our atmosphere‚ as well as in other fluids when an instability related to a velocity difference occurs. They are trains of crescent waves‚ and are also seen on Jupiter and Saturn – and clearly they can also happen in the Sun‚ despite the fact that the team was not expecting to see them.“We never anticipated that KHI structures could develop to large enough scales to be imaged in visible light CME images in the heliosphere when we designed the instrument‚” Angelos Vourlidas‚ a WISPR Project Scientist‚ said in a statement.KHI just to the left of the Great Red Spot on JupiterImage Credit: NASA“These fine detail observations show the power of the WISPR high sensitivity detector combined with the close-up vantage point afforded by Parker Solar Probe’s unique sun-encounter orbit‚” said Mark Linton‚ the Principal Investigator for the WISPR instrument.WISPR is the only imaging instrument on Parker Solar Probe and it never looks at the Sun. The probe is so close to our star that just pointing the camera at the Sun would cook its insides. However‚ looking off to the side provides these fantastic insights that allow us to better understand the behavior of CMEs and how they affect the space weather around Earth.     “The direct imaging of extraordinary ephemeral phenomena like KHI with WISPR/PSP is a discovery that opens a new window to better understand CME propagation and their interaction with the ambient solar wind‚” added Evangelos Paouris‚ also in the WISPR team.The images were taken in November 2021‚ when the probe’s closest point was further away from the Sun than it is now. In its close passage on March 30‚ the probe was just 7.9 million kilometers (4.9 million miles) from the Sun. It will do two more passages at that distance on June 30 and September 30. In November‚ it will pass by Venus and use the planet to shave off another million kilometers getting even closer to the Sun.The research is published in The Astrophysical Journal.