The Roast Is Done

from UnHerd

The age of the comedy roast is over

Satirical annihilation has become a sanitised ritual

BY OLIVER BATEMAN

The spotlight beams down on the stage, illuminating the faces of the evening’s celebrities, who are seated in a semicircle like ancient oracles of comedy. At the centre of it all is the roastee — the guest of honour — who will soon be subjected to a brutal barrage of jokes. “James Franco…” started Natasha Leggero’s demolition job 10 years ago. “Acting, teaching, directing, writing, producing, photography, soundtracks, editing — is there anything you can do?” Then there was Gilbert Gottfried’s audacious pivot at the Hugh Hefner Roast, held just two weeks after 9/11, which descended into the “filthiest joke ever told”.

But as much as these moments underscore the art form’s past audacity, they also highlight the pallor that has settled over it. Once a platform for such biting wits as Don Rickles and Joan Rivers, the comedy roast has become a sanitised ritual, a showcase of quips that hardly go beyond the skin. Perhaps the last time we heard a roast joke that truly shocked was in 2019, when Blake Griffin took the mic to thank Caitlyn Jenner “on behalf of black men everywhere” for giving her daughters “daddy issues”. Since then, roasts have transitioned into an assembly line of safe, formulaic jokes that don’t even scratch the surface.

Yet looking at the roast’s decline, perhaps it’s understandable that nowhere in the entertainment world is the existential crisis over the rise of AI more palpable than in comedy. After all, there is no field of creative endeavour that’s become more dependent on cliches, groupthink and repetition. But while the malaise is widespread, the roast, in particular, looks set to be an early casualty.

[ click to continue reading at UnHerd ]

Vesuvius Scroll Decoded

from Vice

A 21-Year-Old Just Solved a 2000-Year-Old Mystery In ‘World-Historical’ Breakthrough

21-year-old Luke Farritor became the first person in millennia to read the text on an ancient scroll using machine learning.

By Becky Ferreira

A 21-Year-Old Just Solved a 2000-Year-Old Mystery In 'World-Historical' Breakthrough
IMAGE: VESUVIUS CHALLENGE

A 21-year-old computer scientist named Luke Farritor just became the first person in nearly 2,000 years to read words from a papyrus scroll that was buried under more than 60 feet of volcanic ash after the disastrous eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE.

Farritor used a machine learning program to pinpoint the Greek word for “purple” in one of the hundreds of carbonized scrolls that were unearthed in Herculaneum, a town that was obliterated by the eruption along with its more famous neighbor, Pompeii. 

The scrolls were found in 1752 during excavations of an ancient villa in Herculaneum that may have belonged to Julius Caesar’s father-in-law. Excavators at that time quickly realized that the singed and fragile works disintegrated when they were unrolled, and so left most of them bound in their original form.

[ click to continue reading at Vice ]

Suzanne Somers Gone

from PEOPLE

Suzanne Somers, Three’s Company and Step by Step Actress, Dead at 76

The actress passed away “peacefully at home” surrounded by loved ones, PEOPLE confirms

By Bailey Richards and Andrea Mandell 

Suzanne Somers, best known for her roles on Three’s Company and Step by Step, has died.

Somers died on Sunday morning, PEOPLE confirms. She would have been 77 on Monday.

“Suzanne Somers passed away peacefully at home in the early morning hours of October 15th. She survived an aggressive form of breast cancer for over 23 years,” Somers’ longtime publicist R. Couri Hay wrote in a statement shared on behalf of the actress’ family.

“Suzanne was surrounded by her loving husband Alan, her son Bruce, and her immediate family,” the statement continued. “Her family was gathered to celebrate her 77th birthday on October 16th. Instead, they will celebrate her extraordinary life, and want to thank her millions of fans and followers who loved her dearly.”

[ click to continue reading at PEOPLE ]

Annular Fire

from National Geographic

A rare ‘ring of fire’ eclipse is coming. Here’s how to see it.

This celestial phenomenon won’t occur in the continental U.S. again until 2039. Here’s what it is and where you can experience it for yourself.

BY ALLIE YANG

A "ring of fire" eclipse is framed by the arms of a spectator making a photo with their phone.
People take photos of the annular solar eclipse from Jabal Arba (Four Mountains) in Saudi Arabia, December 2019.
PHOTOGRAPH BY HAMAD I MOHAMMED, REUTERS/REDUX

On October 14, a “ring of fire” solar eclipse will appear across a swath of the western United States, as well as in parts of Central and South America. The sun will be blocked by the moon, which will appear slightly smaller, producing the glowing ring in the sky. This phenomenon, known as an annular solar eclipse, was last seen in the U.S. in 2012 and won’t be visible again in the continental U.S. until 2039.

If you are in the path of the eclipse, with the right eye protection, you’ll be able to safely see this rare celestial display—and you might hear and feel the eclipse, too.

All lower 48 U.S. states will get a partial eclipse, but only certain areas in Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas will get the full “ring of fire” effect. This phase of the eclipse begins at 9:16 a.m. Pacific time in Oregon and sweeps across the country, passing over San Antonio, Texas, at 11:52 a.m. Central time. 

Parts of some Central and South American countries, including Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia, and Brazil, will also see the annular eclipse. Maps created by NASA show the path where the ring of fire will be visible and the times for best viewing.

[ click to continue reading at NatGeo ]

Banksy?

from The U.S. Sun

New ‘Banksy’ appears in the middle of London – but fans are baffled over its meaning

Ellie Henman | Morgan Johnson

The artwork is understood to have popped up overnight in Edgware Road, near to Paddington Train Station
The artwork is understood to have popped up overnight in Edgware Road, near to Paddington Train Station

A NEW suspected Banksy has appeared in the middle of London – but fans are baffled over its meaning.

The artwork, which is believed to be the latest hit by world-famous Banksy, popped up overnight in Edgware Road, near to Paddington Train Station.

The graffiti-style piece says “Another world is possible”.

The writing appears to be spray-painted by a factory machine which is being ripped away by three people – all of whom look to be different ages.

While many are speculating that it is Banksy, it has not been confirmed.

Banksy normally uploads pictures of his latest work – wherever that may be – to his Instagram account claiming it.

But he hasn’t done that with this piece.

[ click to continue reading at The U.S. Sun ]

AI Tackling Alzheimer’s

from The Wall Street Journal

Is the Eye the Window to Alzheimer’s?

New AI tools could diagnose the disease with visual scans

By Vipal Monga

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY WSJ, GETTY IMAGES PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY WSJ, GETTY IMAGES

Getting tested for Alzheimer’s disease could one day be as easy as checking your eyesight. 

RetiSpec has developed an artificial-intelligence algorithm that it says can analyze results from an eye scanner and detect signs of Alzheimer’s 20 years before symptoms develop. The tool is part of broader work by startups and researchers to harness AI to unlock the mysteries of a disease that afflicts more than seven million Americans. 

For years, people have studied individual hallmarks of Alzheimer’s, including brain inflammation and neurodegeneration, but the exact causes of the disease remain elusive. AI, researchers say, could open a new era in the diagnosis of a neurological disease that remains difficult to identify, let alone treat.

[ click to continue reading at WSJ ]

The Age of Madonna

from The New Yorker

The Meaning of Madonna

For forty years, her quest for freedom through reinvention has resembled our own.

By Michelle Orange

Film strips of Madonna in various poses.
In 1982, Madonna did one of her first P.R. photo sessions, in New York City. She brought her own clothes and did her own makeup. Photographs by Peter Cunningham

t was a more physical world, though we thought it quite advanced. There seemed nothing “terrestrial” about twisting a radio knob to some eccentric decimal point, dialling static into song. In the summer of 1985, we all knew someone, usually an older sibling, who owned a portable, cassette-playing stereo. The rest of us remained stuck catching Top Forty countdowns on AM radio, or playing, on our parents’ imperial turntables, the one or two LPs in our possession. Increasingly, we listened to music by watching it on TV, our dance parties often overseen by a strutting, tattered sprite who wore bangles like opera gloves and held the camera’s gaze with her entire being, as though locked in a dare she was not going to lose.

I liked her best in motion: the jut of her chin as she spun to a stop, the drag of her foot through a grapevine step. Something important seemed bound up in this vision, beaconlike but elusive, forever disappearing around a corner up ahead. I prized the “Like a Virgin” LP I received for my birthday, the adults involved having apparently thought little of giving the record to a Catholic girl who was, if anything, overfamiliar with talk of virgins and of being like at least one of them. In regular living-room sessions, I twirled and stretched before the hi-fi altar, arching toward God knew what, flashing on how doing my best Madonna might resemble discovering a radical style of my own, the curious fission of moving in time.

[ click to continue reading at The New Yorker ]

Spooky Tree

from Newsweek

14,300-Year-Old Tree Reveals Apocalyptic Warning for Today’s Humans

BY JESS THOMSON

tree rings solar storm
Tree rings of a buried subfossil tree in the Drouzet River. Radiocarbon spikes found in these rings revealed that the most powerful solar storm found yet occurred around 14,300 years ago. CÉCILE MIRAMONT

Evidence of the most powerful solar storm in history has been uncovered in an unlikely place: within the rings of a tree.

This immensely powerful solar storm is thought to have been at least 10 times as powerful as the Carrington Event of 1859, which caused chaos in the rudimentary telegraph system of the time.

New research has now found that a radiocarbon spike found within ancient tree rings in the French Alps reveals the full extent of the sun’s power and the potential danger it poses to us if a storm of this scale occurs today, according to a study published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A Mathematical Physical and Engineering Sciences.

[ click to continue reading at Newsweek ]

Howloween In New Canaan

from Patch

‘Howloween’ Dog Parade To Take Place In New Canaan

The inaugural “Howloween Dog Parade” is set to take place during New Canaan’s Halloween Block Party in October.

by RJ Scofield

The inaugural "Howloween Dog Parade" is set to take place during New Canaan's Halloween Block Party on Oct. 29.
The inaugural “Howloween Dog Parade” is set to take place during New Canaan’s Halloween Block Party on Oct. 29. (Shutterstock)

NEW CANAAN, CT — The inaugural “Howloween Dog Parade” is set to take place during New Canaan’s Halloween Block Party next month.

New for 2023, the dog parade offers an opportunity for residents’ furry friends to get involved. Set to take place between 1:30 p.m. and 1:50 p.m., pet pantry prizes will be offered for costumed dogs.

Guest judges include Kristen Schilo, the “Dog Whisperer” from New Canaan Dogs, Michael Konstantaras, owner of Bark Busters and renowned author James Frey. “Spooktators” are also highly encouraged.

[ click to continue reading at Patch ]

FRIGHT KREWE and Scooby-Doo

from Screen Rant

Scooby-Doo & Goosebumps Were Major Influences For Eli Roth’s New Horror Show: “There Was Nothing Scary For Our Kids”

BY GRANT HERMANNS

As he expands his horror work to more family-friendly territory with Fright Krewe, Eli Roth explains how Scooby-Doo and Goosebumps inspired the show. Co-created by the genre vet and I Am Number Four author James Frey, the animated show centers on a group of New Orleans teens who inadvertently awaken an ancient demon and must use the special abilities granted to them by the mystical Loa to stop him. Produced by DreamWorks Animation, Fright Krewe marks a rare dual release across Hulu and Peacock in time for the Halloween season.

In anticipation of the show’s premiere, Screen Rant spoke exclusively with Roth to discuss Fright Krewe. When asked about the initial concept for the show, the co-creator explained how he and Frey looked back on their love of watching Scooby-Doo as kids and felt there was “nothing scary for our kids” currently on the air, thus wanting to create a gateway into the genre for older viewers and their kids.

[ click to continue reading at Screen Rant ]

Habibi Funk

from TIME

How Arab Funk Is Going Global

BY ARMANI SYED

In London’s Jazz Cafe, the sound of Egyptian legend Umm Kulthum’s song Alf Leila Wleila is reverberating around an atmosphere of anticipation. Fragments of light are reflecting off the Camden venue’s rotating disco ball—lighting up the faces of an intimate crowd who are waiting, drinks in hand, for Berlin record label Habibi Funk’s first live music show to start.

It’s late August and this diverse group of music lovers doesn’t seem entirely sure what they’re in for. But when Lebanese musician Charif Megarbane and his band takes the stage, the crowd loosens up. Tall and floppy-haired, Megarbane delights audience members with multi-instrumental songs from his new album Marzipan, which was released in July by Habibi Funk. “Hopefully you appreciate it all and thank you again for coming,” Megarbane says, to cheers, as he warms up the crowd.

In recent years, global interest in Arabic music has surged. TikTok and Instagram have helped a new wave of Arab talent such as Saint Levant, Issam Alnajjar, and Wegz reach tens of millions of people. Parties such as Beirut Groove Collective, Laylit, and DJ Nooriyah’s Middle of Nowhere frequently sell out in London, New York, and other Western metropolises. All of this has even prompted the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, the global body for recorded music, to launch in November the first ever regional MENA music chart.

[ click to continue reading at TIME ]

Owning Amboy

from SF Gate

‘Lovely chaos’: What it’s like to accidentally own a California ghost town

By Ariana Bindman

from Wikipedia

The deserted town of Amboy looks like a Harley Davidson fever dream drenched in neon. 

Just along Route 66 in the Mojave Desert, it appears like a mirage, or a gritty 1950s Western on acid. But amid the barren nothingness, just past the mysteriously placed Buddha statue and volcanic crater, you’ll also see the abandoned town’s most prominent landmark glowing in the distance: Roy’s Motel and Cafe, a remote gas station that has become an enduring, if surreal, symbol of Americana. 

Though it started out as a small mining camp, postcards suggest that Amboy once had 13 businesses, including cafes and motor courts, as well as a church and a school that catered to the town’s 200 residents. For a fleeting period after the war, business at the roadside diner boomed, bringing workers and travelers from all across the United States. 

[ click to continue reading at SF Gate ]

Built To Last

from AP

How are ancient Roman and Mayan buildings still standing? Scientists are unlocking their secrets

BY MADDIE BURAKOFF

Rome's Pantheon is seen on Monday, July 24, 2023. The structure was built under Roman Emperor Augustus between 27-25 B.C. to celebrate all gods worshipped in ancient Rome and rebuilt under Emperor Hadrian between 118 and 128 A.D. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)
Rome’s Pantheon is seen on Monday, July 24, 2023. The structure was built under Roman Emperor Augustus between 27-25 B.C. to celebrate all gods worshipped in ancient Rome and rebuilt under Emperor Hadrian between 118 and 128 A.D. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)

NEW YORK (AP) — In the quest to build better for the future, some are looking for answers in the long-ago past.

Ancient builders across the world created structures that are still standing today, thousands of years later — from Roman engineers who poured thick concrete sea barriers, to Maya masons who crafted plaster sculptures to their gods, to Chinese builders who raised walls against invaders.

Yet scores of more recent structures are already staring down their expiration dates: The concrete that makes up much of our modern world has a lifespan of around 50 to 100 years.

[ click to continue reading at AP ]

Ed Fancher Gone

from The Village Voice

Remembering Ed Fancher, a Village Voice Founder

He kept the paper alive through the early, lean years.

by R.C. BAKER

Village Voice article about the death of Edwin Fancher, one of the paper's founders.
Village Voice Archive

The front page of the January 4, 1956, issue of the Village Voice looked much like the others that had run since a trio of World War II vets founded the paper, three months earlier: the elegant Voice logo, designed by the painter Nell Blaine; a headline about Off-Broadway theater; a picture of the artist Marcel Duchamp, who had recently become an American citizen; and a headshot of the novelist Norman Mailer. What wasn’t typical was one of the bylines: “Edwin Fancher, Publisher of The Village Voice.” 

Fancher had mostly handled the business end of things: advertising, circulation, and distribution. But in this eleventh issue of the paper, he announced, “Leading Novelist to Write a Column for ‘The Voice,’” followed by: 

Beginning with our next issue The Village Voice will have a weekly column contributed to our pages by Norman Mailer. Mr. Mailer needs no introduction to most of our readers. At the age of 32 he has already had a most controversial career, and each of his three novels has received almost a total spectrum of praise and abuse. For your curiosity we quote these samples, inspired by The Naked and the Dead:

“The greatest writer to come out of his generation” — Sinclair Lewis. 

“Insidious slime” — Life magazine.

Fancher went on to enumerate more of Mailer’s contrasting reviews, noting that the famous writer had to go through six publishers before one would agree to print a “debatable passage” of six lines contained in his third novel, The Deer Park, which, Fancher noted, “received without question the most contradictory and confusing reviews of any novel in years.” 

[ click to continue reading at The Village Voice ]

New FRIGHT KREWE Clip

from Gizmodo

Fright Krewe Exclusive Clip Presents the Gateway Horrors of Growing Pains

Eli Roth’s latest horror project is an animated Peacock and Hulu series for kids arriving October 2.

By Sabina Graves

Image for article titled Fright Crewe Exclusive Clip Presents the Gateway Horrors of Growing Pains
Image: Peacock

A group of kids join forces to uncover the lore of New Orleans through spooky supernatural adventures in Eli Roth’s Fright Crewe.

Each generation has a team of young heroes rise up to take on the threat of evil in its many forms: the Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine meddling kids, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer gang (also called the Scoobies), and now the Fright Crewe. Coming October 2 on Peacock and Hulu, Roth’s latest horror series follows a group of youths in haunted New Orleans who uncover an ancient prophecy and are tasked by a voodoo queen to save their city from the biggest demonic threat it’s faced in almost two centuries.

The show, created by Roth and James Frey, has Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous’ Joanna Lewis and Kristine Songco as showrunners; it will run for 10 episodes of monster fun exploring the mythology and lore of New Orleans. The cast of kids includes Sydney Mikayla as Soleil, Tim Johnson Jr. as Maybe, Grace Lu as Missy, Chester Rushing as Stanley, Terrence Little Gardenhigh as Pat, and Jacques Colimon as Belial.

[ click to continue reading at Gizmodo ]

Fright Krewe Fun

from CBR

Eli Roth Finds the Fun Side of Horror in DreamWorks’ Fright Krewe

BY BRANDON ZACHARY

Created and Executive-Produced by Eli Roth and James Frey, Fright Krewe is DreamWorks’ latest animated series. Focusing on an unlikely group of teenagers with mystical powers and a duty to stop an ancient evil from ripping apart New Orleans, Fright Krewe takes the classic adventure animation dynamics and infuses them with some of the frights and tension that Roth is most famous for. There are plenty of monsters and horrific images, but Roth maintains a consistently appealing edge to the central characters and their stories.

The result is a fun show that serves as a gateway for younger audiences to the horror genre. During an interview with CBR, Eli Roth discussed how Fright Krewe draws from Voodoo mythology and figures, the importance of authenticity, taking inspiration from previous animated projects, and crafting a series that older horror fans can share with their children.

[ click to continue reading at CBR ]

Surgeons At Risk

from The Guardian

US surgeons are killing themselves at an alarming rate. One decided to speak out

The grueling profession has long kept silent about mental distress. After losing a friend and quietly grappling with illness, Carrie Cunningham found a new way to save lives

by Christina Frangou

Carrie Cunningham in hospital hallway
The weight of responsibility on surgeons comes at a personal cost. Photograph: Kayana Szymczak/The Guardian

Carrie Cunningham puffed out her cheeks and exhaled. She looked out at the audience filled with 2,000 of her peers, surgeons who were attending the annual meeting of the Association of Academic Surgery, a prestigious gathering of specialists from universities across the United States and Canada.

Cunningham, president of the organization, knew what she was about to reveal could cost her promotions, patients and professional standing. She took a deep breath.

“I was the top junior tennis player in the United States,” she began. “I am an associate professor of surgery at Harvard.

“But I am also human. I am a person with lifelong depression, anxiety, and now a substance use disorder.”

The room fell silent.

Cunningham knew others in the room were struggling, too. Doctors are dying by suicide at higher rates than the general population. Somewhere between 300 to 400 physicians a year in the US take their own lives, the equivalent of one medical school graduating class annually.

Surgeons have some of the highest known rates of suicide among physicians. Of 697 physician suicides reported to the CDC’s national violent death reporting system between 2003 and 2017, 71 were surgeons. Many more go unreported.

[ click to continue reading at The Guardian ]

Strike Over!

from TIME

    Screenwriters Reached a Deal to End the Strike. Here’s What Happens Next

    BY LAURA ZORNOSA

    Union leadership representing screenwriters in the Writers Guild of America (WGA) has declared an end to a monthslong strike after voting to lift it on Tuesday evening. The decision went into effect just after midnight on Wednesday, meaning TV and movie writers can return to work. In the meantime, between Oct. 2 and Oct. 9, union members can vote to ratify the new language in the 94-page contract. (If they vote against it, which seems unlikely, the negotiation process would start over.)

    The end to the strike follows a tentative agreement made Sunday night between the WGA and  the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) to lift a work stoppage that began in early May.

    “We can say, with great pride, that this deal is exceptional—with meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership,” the WGA wrote in an email to its members on Sunday evening. “What we have won in this contract—most particularly, everything we have gained since May 2nd—is due to the willingness of this membership to exercise its power, to demonstrate its solidarity, to walk side-by-side, to endure the pain and uncertainty of the past 146 days.”

    [ click to continue reading at TIME ]

    Snootyshack

    from Golf Digest

    The stuffiest country club stories we’ve ever heard

    Golf has made progress in loosening up, but at some clubs old habits persist.

    By Sam Weinman

    One story that best encapsulates country club point-missing has circulated for years. The setting is an old, eastern golf club, with one of the best courses in the state. The club is notorious for its men-only policy. Forget about women joining as members or playing the golf course. Only a few days a year are they even allowed on the property.

    One day a member having lunch at the club abruptly falls ill at the table. He grabs his chest, falls to his knees. A concerned scrum gathers around his table. Word reaches his wife, who arrives at the club gates within minutes.

    “He is inside,” she is told as she tries to pass through. “Unfortunately,” the attendant continues, “no women are allowed on property. Please wait here.”

    No way this is true.

    “I’m afraid it is true,” one longtime member of the club says. “I’ve heard it, too,” a frequent guest of the club confirmed.

    [ click to continue reading at Golf Digest ]

    Free Rhinos!

    from The New York Times

    Now Available: 2,000 Rhinos, Free to Good Homes With Plenty of Space

    By Rachel Nuwer

    Now Available: 2,000 Rhinos, Free to Good Homes With Plenty of Space

    A herd of 2,000 rhinoceroses urgently in need of a new owner has finally found one: The rhinos and the farm where they live in South Africa have been purchased by a conservation group that plans to release the animals into the wild over the next decade.

    The southern white rhinos, thought to be the largest single population of their kind, were put up for auction in April with a starting price of $10 million. No bidders came forward. At that point, the future of the animals appeared precarious. But the conservation group African Parks announced this month that it had reached a deal to take over the herd.

    [ click to continue reading at NYT ]

    Home By The Sea

    Mysterious driftwood home appears on Bay Area cliff face

    By Andrew Chamings

    from SF Gate

    A mystifying, intricately built ramshackle home somehow stands on the face of a treacherous Bay Area cliff — and it apparently has a resident, or at least a regular visitor. 

    Built out of driftwood, likely collected from the waves below, the shack appears to have several rooms and rises over three levels on the steep San Mateo County rock face. Among the wood and ropes are a boxing punching bag, several buoys, some old signs and what appears to be a fully enclosed room. A solitary wooden chair also faces the Pacific, its back to rocks — hard to imagine how exposed that seat must feel in storms and high seas; or how beautiful the sun looks, setting over the Pacific.

    On the edge of the notorious Devil’s Slide cliffs near Pacifica, the makeshift dwelling first came to light when captured by a drone video in December 2022, and was highlighted in the California Sun newsletter this week.

    [ click to continue reading at SF Gate ]

    Fright Krewe

    from SyFy

    IT’S GOOSEBUMPS MEETS POWER RANGERS IN FIRST TRAILER FOR PEACOCK’S ANIMATED HORROR SERIES FRIGHT KREWE

    This October, the Fright Krewe assembles in New Orleans.

    By Matthew Jackson

    The cast of Fright Krewe
    The cast of DreamWorks Animations’ Fright Krewe, from the minds of Eli Roth and James Frey. Photo: Peacock

    It’s almost October, time for ghosts and goblins everywhere to come out and celebrate the spooky season. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to get into the Halloween spirit with the whole family, and this fall, DreamWorks Animation is giving you one more on Peacock.

    Created by Eli Roth (Cabin FeverThe House with a Clock in Its Walls) and James Frey (I Am Number Four), Fright Krewe is a new animated series set in “the most haunted city in America,” New Orleans, Louisiana. In this historic, wonderfully spooky town, ghosts are nothing new, but a group of five teenagers is about to find out that ghosts are the least of what’s going on in New Orleans. 

    After a strange encounter with a Voodoo Queen imbues them with the powers of five powerful spirit, Soleil (Sydney Mikayla), Maybe (Tim Johnson Jr.), Missy (Grace Lu), Stanley (Chester Rushing), and Pat (Terrence Little Gardenhigh) find themselves imbued with strange supernatural powers which allow them to see the true nature of the city they call home. New Orleans, it seems, is home to all manner of supernatural monsters, including vampires, monsters and, yes, demons. In fact, New Orleans is about to face a demonic enemy the likes of which it hasn’t seen in centuries, and it’s up to these five teenagers to stop it…if they can get along, anyway. 

    [ click to continue reading at SyFy ]

    K2-18b

    from The Washington Post

    This planet light-years from Earth may be covered in ocean, NASA says

    Story by Ellen Francis 

    This planet light-years from Earth may be covered in ocean, NASA says
    This planet light-years from Earth may be covered in ocean, NASA says / © NASA; ESA; CSA; Joseph Olmsted/STScI

    Scientists have made a new discovery that hints at a possible water ocean on a massive planet many lights-years away from Earth, though it is not clear if it could support life, according to NASA.

    Researchers made the announcement after examining data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, gazing more than 100 light-years from Earth at an exoplanet — or a planet beyond our solar system — in the constellation Leo that goes by the name K2-18 b and is 8.6 times as massive as our planet.

    The astronomers, led by the University of Cambridge, found methane and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of K2-18 b, results that are “consistent with an ocean-covered surface underneath a hydrogen-rich atmosphere,” the university said.

    “The discovery provides a glimpse into a planet unlike anything else in our Solar System, and raises interesting prospects about potentially habitable worlds elsewhere in the Universe,” it said Monday.Webb telescope is already challenging what astronomers thought they knew

    NASA said the findings — including “the abundance of methane and carbon dioxide, and shortage of ammonia” — support the hypothesis that the exoplanet might be covered in ocean.

    [ click to continue reading at WaPo ]

    Trad Wives

    from The Wall Street Journal

    Dressing Like a 1950s Housewife Is Not Just for ‘Trad Wives’

    Bright-red lipstick, curled hair, high heels, full skirts: Feminists and ‘trad wives’ alike are embracing the midcentury look

    By Rory Satran

    Chloe Downing makes her own 1940s and ’50s pieces. JWCOOPER PHOTOGRAPHY

    Look closely among the droves of people in 

    Lululemon leggings and 

    Crocs next time you’re at the grocery store or the airport, and you might notice a curious sight: a woman dressed like a 1950s housewife. With her curled hair, full-skirted dress and high-heeled Mary-Jane shoes, she could be straight out of “I Love Lucy” or “Leave It to Beaver.” She might even be wearing an anachronistic frilly petticoat or apron. Wasn’t this a style that was left firmly in the past?

    Apparently not. A new generation of women is discovering the midcentury look, albeit for wildly varying reasons. Perhaps most divisively, there’s the “trad wife” movement, an online community of traditional women whose retro fashion reflects their religious, conservative and even sometimes far-right values. Then there are women who profess “vintage style, not vintage values,” combining hourglass silhouettes with a progressive worldview. And then there are those women and designers who just happen to appreciate the bygone charm of a swirly skirt.

    Lisa Pontius, a 35-year-old Charleston, S.C., homemaker, wears bright-red lipstick, wasp-waisted dresses and the occasional apron.

    “Looking at me, you’re going to probably assume a lot of things, but you probably would be extremely wrong,” she said. She’s not a trad wife; she just likes the way the clothes and makeup look.

    [ click to continue reading at WSJ ]

    Djoko!

    from Spiked

    Djokovic’s revenge

    How the tennis champ stuck it to the lockdown elites.

    by BRENDAN O’NEILL

    Djokovic’s revenge

    Revenge, it seems, is best served with a powerhouse forehand. That’s what Novak Djokovic did at the US Open yesterday. After three hours and 16 minutes of the most intense tennis, he defeated Daniil Medvedev, almost 10 years his junior, with a shot Medvedev just couldn’t return. But it wasn’t only his Russian opponent he humbled – it was the lockdown elites, too. It was that old Zero Covid fanaticism, which had hit the famously unvaxxed Djokovic especially hard. Having been frozen out of some grand slams for his apparently ‘arrogant’ refusal to get the jab, Djokovic has now stormed back in to remind yesteryear’s petty Covid tyrants of his greatness – and their folly.

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