News Star Trek: Prodigy The Endearing Crew of Star Trek: Prodigy Is Ready for Their Mission in the Trailer for Season Two We would definitely join this crew By Molly Templeton | Published on June 20, 2024 Screenshot: Netflix Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: Netflix Fair warning: If you have not yet watched the animated Star Trek: Prodigy, this trailer will make you want to do so. Immediately. (I’m speaking from experience here.) The series, which moved to Netflix after Paramount cancelled it and removed it from streaming, returns on July 1st with 20 new episodes—and yes, in true Netflix fashion, those episodes will arrive all at once. Here’s the synopsis: In Season 2 of Star Trek: Prodigy, these six young outcasts who make up the Prodigy crew are assigned a new mission aboard the U.S.S. Voyager-A to rescue Captain Chakotay and bring peace to Gwyn’s home world. However, when their plan goes astray, it creates a time paradox that jeopardizes both their future and past. Can we just pause for a quick second to adore Dee Bradley Baker as Murf going “PEW PEW PEW” while firing lasers? Okay. Back to business. Those six extremely charming outcasts are voiced by Brett Gray (Dal), Ella Purnell (Gwyn), Rylee Alazraqui (Rok-Tahk), Angus Imrie (Zero), Jason Mantzoukas (Jankom Pog), and voice acting superstar Baker (Murf). As anyone familiar with Star Trek: Voyager can tell you, that’s Kate Mulgrew voicing Captain Kathryn Janeway. John Noble is also here as The Diviner, and Jimmi Simpson as Drednok. In season two, recurring cast members include Robert Beltran (Captain Chakotay), Robert Picardo (The Doctor), Jason Alexander (Dr. Noum), Daveed Diggs (Commander Tysess), Jameela Jamil (Ensign Asencia), Ronny Cox (Admiral Jellico), and Michaela Dietz (Maj’el). Star Trek: Prodigy is created by Kevin and Dan Hageman (Trollhunters). It’s the first Trek series intended for younger viewers—but that doesn’t mean us olds can’t appreciate it as well. [end-mark] The post The Endearing Crew of <i>Star Trek: Prodigy</i> Is Ready for Their Mission in the Trailer for Season Two appeared first on Reactor.

We’re joined by Brad Gullickson from the Comic Book Couples Counseling podcast for a very fun discussion about the Wizard X-Men Special issue from 1999 including the outrageous creation of your favorite mutants, the 10 CONTINUE READING... The post WIZARDS The Podcast Guide To Comics | Bonus: X-Men Special ’99 appeared first on The Retro Network.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski has reacted to Google suppressing, in Google Search, the link to the Rumble exclusive GOP debate live stream, as an example of the giant’s ability and willingness to suppress dissent and control what narratives get promoted. In conversation with Russell Brand, Pavlovski noted that Google had positioned itself (and gained massive search market share thanks to that) as a service that provides unbiased and relevant results, but that at this point, this is no more than “the bag of goods that they sold us.” In other words, even if Google started out, and became extraordinarily popular, thanks to organic search – those days are long gone. Still, seeing products and movies promoted to the top of the page instead of the most relevant to the query result is one thing, but it’s a very different problem when this powerful search engine that the huge majority of users in the Western world regularly turn to, starts “hiding” links to political content. Pavlovski mentioned the GOP debate which was exclusively streamed on Rumble, that is, Rumble was the only place to watch it live – and yet, when people searched for this in the hope of seeing the link to the page, it did not come up as the top result. He said that instead, Google “put” (that is, programmed its algorithms to this end) “some corporate media entity” as the top result, even though it clearly didn’t have the live stream exclusively. Pavlovski then wondered, “Is that not election interference?” He went on to explain that this is one way to describe actively suppressing political content from voters and content that concerns one of the two US parties with by far the most clout (and who eventually produce presidents). Pavlovski also touched on other consequences of the “rigged search” – namely, that it almost to a fault favors Google products (YouTube videos, Google Maps to show locations, etc.) in this way creating “a mouse trap” for its users. And, as critics – Rumble included – keep repeating, seriously undermining competition. “And that’s one of the reasons why we have a lawsuit against them. It’s very difficult for you to go and search something that’s relevant and find Rumble near the top,” he said. Brand observed that YouTube (Google) is a powerful entity that has in a sense become a “curator of reality” – “you only see certain stories, you only have access to certain ideas.” If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Rumble CEO Blasts Google’s Suppression of Political Content appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

Another Biden Success: Iran Producing Enough Enriched Uranium for 'Several' Bombs a Month

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Beech trees across Europe have been mystifying plant scientists. Around the middle of June, trees across different cities, areas, and even countries and time zones would perfectly sync up and all together perform their reproductive behavior. Quite how the trees knew how to do this remained a mystery to scientists, until now.Masting behavior involves the beech tree (Fagus sylvatica) producing all the seeds they need to make for the year, and then releasing their fruit onto the ground. These trees do this every year, but until now there had not been any explanation as to how they all managed to do it at the same time in so many different areas and climates.The team looked at weather patterns and the plants' response to temperature changes, and found that the summer solstice and the longest day of the year acted as a trigger across beech trees in vastly different areas. The day of the solstice, all the beech trees become highly sensitive to temperature, which in turn triggers the production of the seeds. All European beech trees therefore start responding to the same signals in the same week. “We got inspired by a recent Science paper where researchers from Switzerland found that the effects of temperature on leaf senescence switch at the summer solstice. The summer solstice is the longest day of the year, and happens at the same time anywhere in the Hemisphere," said study author Dr Valentin Journé, a postdoctoral researcher at Adam Mickiewcz University in Pozna, Poland, in a statement.The team call this phenomenon a “celestial starting gun”, as it is the celestial cue that occurs at the same time across all the populations of European beech trees, a geographic range estimated to be around 2,000 kilometers (1,243 miles). A comparison showed that European beech trees have stronger spatial synchrony than any other species in Europe. "The sharp response of beech trees is just remarkable. Once the day starts to shorten after the summer solstice, the temperature sensing window opens simultaneously, all across Europe," said Jessie Foest, a PhD researcher from the University of Liverpool. "What's truly jaw-dropping is that the change in day length that the trees are able to detect is really small – we are talking about a few minutes over a week. Apparently, trees are able to recognise the difference."The fact that all these beech trees produce seeds together has important knock-on effects for the rest of the forest. These seeds are food for many creatures and reproductive failure of the beeches to produce them can have large effects on wildlife, causing famines, disrupting food webs, and even affecting the migration of birds and mammals. The study is published in Nature Plants. 

Archaeologists have found a rock engraving 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Athens depicting what appears to be an unknown temple that stood where the famous Parthenon is now found. The graffito is at least 50 years older than the Parthenon and uses a term that had confused archaeologists for a while: Hekatompedon.As translations go, Hekatompedon is quite straightforward: the 100-foot (30-meter) building. It had been found in decrees dating from the time before the Persian attack and the building of the Parthenon, 480 and 450 BCE respectively. One decree hints at treasure storage of some sort, and archaeologists have debated if this was a temple or maybe an open courtyard with treasuries over the Acropolis.The graffito is signed by Mikon, who’s believed to have been a shepherd in the location that is now known as Vari. The carving shows not only his name and the word Hekatompedon, but also a drawing of a temple.“The newly published graffito of Mikon’s drawing is significant. If Mikon called his drawn temple a Hekatompedon, then it is likely that the term Hekatompedon in the decree referred to a temple too. Indeed, the Parthenon that stands on the hill today was once called the Hekatompedon,” co-author Janric van Rookhuijzen, from Radboud University, wrote in an article in The Conversation.There are over 2,000 pieces of graffiti found in that location made by shepherds and goatherds that had been studied by lead author Merle Langdon from the University of Tennessee. The team worked out that Mikon’s doodle of the temple could not possibly be the Parthenon we can still see today in Greece (minus the marbles stolen by the British). The key to that is in the alphabet used; Mikon had used a very ancient script, which suggests that it was doodled during the 6th century BCE.“The inscription is also significant because it shows that, contrary to what is normally thought, shepherds could read and write, even at this early date when literacy in the Greek world was still spreading. Why the shepherds produced so many graffiti is not known – it may have simply been a form of escapism during the dull moments of their job,” van Rookhuijzen explained.The team suggests two possible known temples that existed between 130 and 75 years before the first of the Parthenon was laid; one is the so-called Bluebeard Temple and the other is the Gigantomachy Temple. The researchers decided to refrain from picking between the two due to more uncertainties on the history of the ancient Acropolis.A paper discussing this graffito and its significance for ancient Athens is published in the American Journal of Archaeology.

In Texas, wolf spider season brings an abundance of these fascinating arachnids into view. During this time, a presenter encounters a particularly large wolf spider that has emerged from beneath a machine. This encounter provides an opportunity to address common misconceptions about these misunderstood creatures and to showcase their behavior and characteristics The presenter decides... The post Man spots 3-inch Wolf spider skittering across floor and pokes it to “see what happens” appeared first on Animal Channel.

The story kicks off with a nail-biting scene: a baby deer struggling to stay afloat in the water. The tiny fawn is clearly in danger of drowning, and it grabs the attention of a nearby trapper. He’s in a bit of a pickle, knowing that you’re generally not supposed to touch wild baby animals, but... The post “Heartless trapper” melts 3.5 million hearts crossing cold river to rescue baby deer appeared first on Animal Channel.

MSNBC’s foremost gun-hater, Joy Reid, was particularly aggravated by the Supreme Court’s decision that struck down a Trump administration-era ban on bump stocks by the ATF. On Tuesday’s episode of The ReidOut, she invited former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich and Slate writer Mark Joseph Stern to denounce the apparent “oligarchy” that they alleged was working behind the scenes to orchestrate the destruction of America’s democracy. Reid characterized conservatives as a “tag team,” disparaging the Supreme Court justices as little more than the lackeys of Republicans “who are taking the money” from gun rights, defense, and oil and gas lobbyists. She made sure to note that there were “only two Democrats on the list for defense money, but other than that, we're talking about all Republicans.” According to Reid’s logic, Republicans were corrupt only because she hated the causes which supported them. Yet, she made no mention of the copious funds Democrat politicians received from teacher unions, unions in general, social media and tech companies, etc.     Reich echoed her view and called for the end of big money in American politics since only the elites seemingly benefit from it. He, too, neglected to mention any “big money” accepted by Democrats, most prominently from billionaires like George Soros: Well, this is corruption and bribery, and it should be understood as corruption and bribery. But fundamentally, we have gotta get big money out of American politics. We have talked about this before, but the big money is getting bigger. Every election cycle, it gets bigger. More billionaire money, more big industry money, and it is not for the public interest. It is not for anything that all of the rest of us get anything out of. In fact, very often, it is just tax breaks and regulatory rollbacks, the rollbacks of health and safety and environmental protections that the rest of us need. The MSNBC host evidently failed to do her own research and inanely fell back on Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s false definition of bump stocks, saying that they “essentially turn firearms into machine guns. It turns an AR-15 into a machine gun.”  Ironically enough, she was notably irritated with Justice Clarence Thomas’ definition which he “literally copied and pasted from a gun organization that's to the right of the NRA, and their verbatim, their words.” She was essentially upset he was citing experts on the subject matter to make an informed decision. The patriotic values promoted by the Firearms Policy Coalition must have terrified Stern because he identified them as “an extremist organization that uses violent rhetoric, encouraging its supporters to support the abolition of ATF and all gun regulations, that uses language that sounds in the rhetoric of assassinations and violence against political leaders.” The highlight of the segment was when Reid and Reich decided that the United States was, in fact, an oligarchy and “we have an obligation to future generations, to ourselves, to our democracy…to return to a system that is basically of the people, by the people, for the people.” Because Reich was “old enough to remember” that democracy ended 50 years ago. Reid’s solution? “Voting. And you have to vote smart and not vote party-line. You vote smart.” Of course, what she really meant was vote for Joe Biden. The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read: MSNBC’s The ReidOut 6/19/2024 07:10:13 JOY REID: They work as a tag team, Robert. It’s a–it’s a tag team, because you’ve got judges who are willing to do the work, and you’ve got politicians who are taking money. If I put those back up just really quickly–so I can let you comment on them as well–if you look at the top ten recipients of the oil and gas money, they're all Republicans. All ten of them. The top ten in gun rights, they're also all Republicans. There are two Democrats, only two Democrats on the list for defense money, but other than that, we're talking about all Republicans. Now let me listen–let you listen to a Republican. This is Senator Pete Ricketts. He was opposing a bill to ban bump stocks, which essentially turn firearms into machine guns. It turns an AR-15 into a machine gun. Here he is about the bump stock bill. [Cuts to video] SENATOR PETE RICKETTS (R-NE): We need to be very clear why the majority leader is now holding this show vote. The Supreme Court made a decision last week that he didn't like. A 6-3 majority in the Supreme Court ruled the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives overstepped their authority when they tried to reclassify bump stocks as machine guns. The Supreme Court made the right decision. In January, I joined Senator Lummis and other colleagues in filing an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to do what they did. [Cuts back to live] REID: So, first to you, Robert. He filed an amicus brief to try to make sure bump stocks would be legal, which of course Clarence Thomas dutifully did, literally copying it and pasting from a gun extremist gun organization into his ruling. And, he is number 18 on the list of top recipients of money from gun rights organizations. 18–he is number 18, so he didn't make the top ten. Your thoughts, Robert. ROBERT REICH: Well, this is corruption and bribery, and it should be understood as corruption and bribery. But fundamentally, we have gotta get big money out of American politics. We’ve talked about this before, but the big money is getting bigger. Every election cycle, it gets bigger. More billionaire money, more big industry money, and it is not for the public interest. It is not for anything that all of the rest of us get anything out of. In fact, very often, it is just tax breaks and regulatory rollbacks, the rollbacks of health and safety and environmental protections that the rest of us need. REID: And by the way, Mark, going to go back to Clarence for a minute, Clarence Thomas for a minute, they’re not even–he’s not–he's acting like a politician that has a staff that simply writes his rulings. He literally copied and pasted from a gun organization that's to the right of the NRA, and their verbatim, their words–maybe not verbatim, they just copied and pasted–I think actually verbatim from… MARK STERN: Yes! Quite literally copied and pasted this material from the Firearms Policy Coalition’s amicus brief. This is an extremist organization that uses violent rhetoric, encouraging its supporters to support the abolition of ATF and all gun regulations, that uses language that sounds in the rhetoric of assassinations and violence against political leaders. Clarence Thomas is trusting them to do the thinking for him. Clarence Thomas is taking their materials and saying “These guys got it right.”  But we need to take a step back and say who is funding these groups, right? These are getting funded by the same billionaire donors, the same dark money donors that are funding the fossil fuel industry, that are funding much of the defense industry, that are saying, “We can buy the courts and the courts will do the dirty work for us.”  This decision on bump stocks, it’s indefensible to the hilt, but the Supreme Court pretended as though if it were wrong, Congress could just overrule it. Congress could come in and clarify the law and enact a new bump stocks ban that would take care of the problem. We all know Congress isn't going to do that… REID: Right. STERN: …for the exact reason that Senator Ricketts just said, because Republicans are getting too much money from the firearms industry. REID: And by the way, this House bill that passed automatically registering young men for the draft, I mean, if anybody tries to object to that and goes to the Supreme Court, they'll just affirm it and then the defense industry gets more cannon fodder, right? It–they work in symbiosis. STERN: Absolutely. And it's so difficult to explain this to voters. I'm glad you're doing this segment. But people feel that the Supreme Court's work is wrapped in the shroud of legalese they can't understand. The Supreme Court takes advantage of that. The more indefensible and controversial the decision, the more legalese the Supreme Court will deploy to make it seem impenetrable to normal people. But all this stuff people can understand without a law degree. They should be paying attention to the mischief and frankly the lawlessness that's going on at the Supreme Court, because those justices work for them. They are not representing the American people right now. They are representing a very small and wealthy segment of the elite. REID: From all this description–Robert Reich I'm going to give you the final word on this–how are we not an oligarchy, then? What's the difference between this and an oligarchy? REICH: I mean, we are living in an oligarchy, Joy, and I think it's very important that we understand that. The question is, how do we get people, voters, to understand that we have an obligation to future generations, to ourselves, to our democracy to get this big money out of American politics, and it is possible. I mean, it was not here, you know, 50 years ago. I'm old enough to remember, we had a system that was not like this. We have got to return to a system that is basically of the people, by the people, for the people. REID: That's right. Absolutely. And you can do that by voting. And you have to vote smart and not vote party-line. You vote smart. People who are doing this, they should not be re-elected. Robert Reich, Mark Joseph Stern, thank you both very much. (...)