Month: February 2024

Perhaps in another era, Constellation — the new psychological astronaut thriller starring Noomi Rapace — may have been a movie. It would have been about 105 minutes long. Nowadays Hollywood doesn’t make a lot of one-offs like that. Those tend to be turned into TV — limited series that instead of running under two hours last eight or nine. On the other hand, that can give writers room to really luxuriate in a world and show nuance that would be shaved down were it a film.

With that in mind, with Constellation, how many episodes are we talking about here?

The answer is: eight. The first three have already dropped on Apple TV+. The next five will be made available every Wednesday, running through March 27.

Here’s the show’s official synopsis:

Constellation stars Noomi Rapace as Jo — an astronaut who returns to Earth after a disaster in space — only to discover that key pieces of her life seem to be missing. The action-packed space adventure is an exploration of the dark edges of human psychology, and one woman’s desperate quest to expose the truth about the hidden history of space travel and recover all that she has lost.

On top of giving Rapace her own vehicle, Constellation also reunites two big time Breaking Bad alumni: actor Jonathan Banks and acclaimed director Michelle McLaren.

Again: You can watch new episodes of Constellation on Apple TV+ every Thursday. The first three are already live.

So far Melania Trump has been MIA when it comes to her husband’s third presidential campaign. (Though he swears she’ll hit the trail soon.) And yet, of late, she’s still been in the news. There’s a new book coming out called American Woman: The Transformation of the Modern First Lady, from Hillary Clinton to Jill Biden, and sure enough it’s got some dirt on Donald Trump’s third wife. Among them was that the two had a spat over which 24 hours news network to put on the TV.

Per People, reporter Katie Rogers writes that, while her husband spent a good chunk of his presidency glued to Fox News, Melania was more of a CNN person. She even watched it “voraciously,” causing what Rogers calls a “house divided.” Donald apparently tolerated that, at least up to a point:

The couple’s opposing media consumption habits became an issue for the then-president, however, in July 2018. That’s when, Rogers says, Donald became “incensed that his wife’s television was tuned to CNN aboard Air Force One during an overseas trip.” He ordered that all TVs on Air Force One — and in their individual hotel suites — be turned to Fox News moving forward.

Sadly, Trump’s rosy relationship with Fox News came to an end after they dared call the 2020 race for the person who beat him, Joe Biden. Nowadays it’s more of a rollercoaster between the two, though he’ll still sometimes go on their show and say things like how he’ll be a “dictator” on the first day of his second term, or nonsensically compare himself to late Putin critic Alexei Navalny.

(Via People)

Fans of Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan are looking forward to attending the 2024 Outlaw Music Festival this summer. The festival is a revival of Nelson’s 2016 one-off show, which will arrive as a multicity tour featuring Willie Nelson & The Family as headliners, and varying country acts joining them on select dates. Joining Nelson and Dylan at various dates are Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Celisse, John Mellencamp, Brittney Spencer, Billy Strings, and Southern Avenue.

Tickets for the 2024 Outlaw music festival have begun to go on sale, and will continue to be available for purchase throughout the week.

How much are tickets for the 2024 Outlaw Music Festival?

According to Ticketmaster, prices for tickets are ranging from $72 to $449, depending on the venue, the date, the location, and the placement of the seating.

The presale for the festival has begun today and will continue through Thursday (February 29). General onsale will begin Friday, March 1. In the meantime, you can see tour schedule and list of performers below.

Outlaw Music Festival 2024 Tour Dates: Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson & Family

06/21 — Alpharetta, GA @ Ameris Bank Amphitheatre *#
06/22 — Charlotte, NC @ PNC Music Pavilion *#
06/23 — Raleigh, NC @ Coastal Credit Union Music Park *#
06/26 — Virginia Beach, VA @ Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater at Virginia Beach *#
06/28 — Syracuse, NY @ Empower Federal Credit Union Amphitheater at Lakeview *#
06/29 — Wantagh, NY @ Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater *#
06/30 — Holmdel, NJ @ PNC Bank Arts Center *#
07/02 — Mansfield, MA @ Xfinity Center *#
07/06 — Bethel, NY @ Bethel Woods Center for the Arts *#
07/07 — Hershey, PA @ Hersheypark Stadium *#
07/29 — Chula Vista, CA @ North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre ^~
07/31 — Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl ^~
08/03 — Mountain View, CA @ Shoreline Amphitheatre ^~
08/04 — Wheatland, CA @ Toyota Amphitheatre ^~
08/07 — Boise, ID @ Ford Idaho Center Amphitheater ^~
08/09 — Spokane, WA @ ONE Spokane Stadium ^~
08/10 — George, WA @ Gorge Amphitheatre ^%~
09/06 — Somerset, WI @ Somerset Amphitheater ^!
09/07 — Tinley Park, IL @ Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre ^!
09/08 — St. Louis, MO @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre ^!
09/11 — Cincinnati, OH @ Riverbend Music Center ^!
09/12 — Cuyahoga Falls, OH @ Blossom Music Center ^!
09/14 — Burgettstown, PA @ The Pavilion at Star Lake ^!
09/15 — Clarkston, MI @ Pine Knob Music Theatre ^!
09/17 — Buffalo, NY @ Darien Lake Amphitheater ^!

* with Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
# with Celisse
^ with John Mellencamp
~ with Brittney Spencer
% with Billy Strings
! with Southern Avenue

A mother who’s a criminal defense attorney is going viral on TikTok for a hard stance she has taken on her children going to sleepovers. For Erin Bailey of South Carolina, the answer is a big no. The reason? There are too many variables that could make her children vulnerable to sexual assault.

Bailey has a practice in Georgetown and is ranked among the Top 100 Criminal Defense Lawyers in South Carolina by the National Trial Lawyers.

“I don’t allow my children to go to sleepovers. I’m a criminal attorney and here’s why,” she opens the video. “First and primary is the S.A. [sexual assault] risk. While you may feel like you know the parents who are hosting the sleepover really well, and you know and love and trust them, that’s exactly who’s committing S.A.”

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She adds that people who commit sexual assault are often those we trust the most. “S.A. against children is not committed by strangers in Target. It is not committed by random people on the street. It is committed by people we know,” Bailey said.

“You may know the parents, but you don’t know necessarily the neighbors, the grandparents, the aunts and uncles, the older siblings, the friends of the older siblings,” she continued.

She concludes with: “There’s just too many variables, not to mention pew pews (guns) in the house, so it’s just a no for us, no sleepovers.”

When it comes to child sexual assault statistics, Bailey knows what she is talking about. Research shows that more than 90% of abusers are people children know, love and trust. Thirty to 40% of victims are abused by a family member.

Fifty percent of child sexual assault victims are abused by someone outside of the family whom they know and trust.

Her post received a lot of support in the comments from parents who share the same fears. “Attorney here too—no sleepovers, electric scooters, trampolines, or hoverboards,” Buckeye wrote. “I was upset with my mom at first when she said no to sleepovers until something happened to a girl at a sleepover by the other girl’s father,” Hanips added.

However, some people thought Bailey was being a bit too cautious.

“So do you just never let them go over to any friend’s house? Because every single one of those things can happen without a sleepover,” DallasDiscGolf wrote. “I’m glad I was allowed to enjoy my childhood. Sleepovers were a blast!” KevinJones2151 wrote.

“You sound like a blast as a parent. I’m sure you kids will have an amazing childhood,” Leah added.

Bailey’s video clearly struck a nerve with the public because it has received over 3 million views on TikTok. But after all the feedback, she hasn’t changed her position.

“Childhood sexual abuse is a trauma that permanently alters the course of a child’s life,” she told Upworthy. “It is more common than most people think and most cases are never reported to the authorities. Further, most people who are abusers were abused themselves as a child. As a prosecutor and defense attorney, I have seen these cases up close and personal. Sleepovers are a small sacrifice to lower the risk for children.”

Anne Hathaway might have played fashion-oblivious Andrea Sachs in “Devil Wears Prada,” but nowadays, in real life (or at least on the red carpet) she’s more on the level of Miranda Priestley—turning heads at every event with showstopping looks.

However, no matter how high her status as a fashion icon rises, the “Princess Diaries” actress still holds onto her humility.

Case and point: she has no problem sharing what it’s really like to wear certain designer dresses. Spoiler alert: it’s not quite as effortless as the fashionistas make it look.

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In a carousel posted to her Instagram, Hathway first showed a photo of herself next to Donatalle Versace, while posing in a bright red, very structured latex dress, designed of course by Versace for Milan’s Fashion Week. The two have been muses for each other for a while now.

And while the first picture shows exactly what you might expect from fashion week—fierceness, poise, 130% glam—the next video shows…well, a different side.

“I just want to respect…the integrity of the corset…” Hathaway says while in the most uncomfortable half-sitting-half-lying down position imaginable.

Then, cue giggles as she struggles to get up.

“Help her, she can’t move!” Versace exclaims through laughter.

“I’m fine, I’m fine, it’s for Donatella,” Hathaway quips. Earlier she had assured “Vogue” editor-in-chief Anna Wintour that even though she couldn’t turn in the dress she could breathe easily. The joke continued in Hathaway’s caption, which read:

“Breathing? 😎

Sitting? 🙃”

Press the right arrow on the post below and give yourself a good laugh.

See on Instagram

I mean, does this not feel like something straight out of “I Love Lucy?”

We see so many ultra glam celebrity images online, and while a part of us knows deep down that there’s way more than meets the eye, it’s nice to have reminders like this that really show how life is never picture perfect all the time. Even for celebrities. So let this be a permission to laugh at our own imperfections, and to let loose from time to time.

And if you need inspiration for how to do that, try watching this clip of Hathaway dancing to “Anaconda”:

pic.twitter.com/LpsSfdB1i7

— Media Buzz (@mediabuzz0007) February 24, 2024

People are starting to take their mental health more seriously and utilizing mental health day. Some companies have even started offering mental health days for their employees on top of their regular sick and vacation days to ensure their employees needs are met. But how do you know it may be time to take a mental health day before you’re burned out completely?

One of the coolest things about our bodies is that it gives us cues on what it needs. We’re used to the loud physical cues like a grumbling tummy that lets you know it’s time to eat or excessive yawning and dry eyes that tell you its time to sleep. But there are other cues that we have either overlooked or haven’t quite learned to recognize what our body is trying to tell us and those have to do with needing a mental health break.

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When we think of our mental health, we don’t often think about the physical symptoms that can be a precursor to emotional symptoms. It’s the emotional symptoms that generally get our attention that say something may be bothering us, but our bodies give us clues. Maybe we should listen a bit more closely.

1. You’re always tired.

It doesn’t seem to matter how much sleep you got the night before, as soon as you get to work, you’re exhausted. All you can think about is going home and crawling back in bed. But when your shift is over, suddenly your energy rebounds and you feel like you can do everything you want to do.

2. Frequent headaches

It’s normal to get a headache every once in a while but for some reason you seem to only get them when you’re either at work, thinking about work or are getting ready to go to work. Could it be that work is giving you the headache? Possibly. Instead of stocking up on Aleve, you might just need a staycation for a couple of days to reset.

3. Muscle pain

For some reason your shoulders, neck and jaw muscles are always tight and you can’t figure out why. You try working the knots out yourself and even trade shoulder massages with your officemate but it keeps coming back. It could be tension that you’re carrying from work. Our shoulders, necks and jaws are places that tend to hold a lot of our tension so if you’re noticing constant muscle tightness in those areas while at work, it’s probably time to check in with yourself.

Of course, many of us ignore these physical symptoms of stress and push through, which can cause us to be more curt, snippy, easily irritated and flustered. Once you surpass the obvious symptoms that often feel like undue irritation, we can then slide into crying on breaks, heightened anxiety, feelings of depression, and more. Unfortunately, many people wait until they reach the more disruptive stages before recognizing they need to take a mental health break.

Now that you know the symptoms, how do you ask for a break? If you’re not working for yourself, chances are you’re reporting to a boss of some sort and will need to disclose you’d like to take a mental health break. If don’t work for a company that offers them, you can send an email or ask for a meeting.

You could say something along the lines of, “I’m really invested in the success of the company and my role within in it. In order for me to continue being successful and showing up at my best, I’d like to take two days off next week to focus on my mental health and recharging my battery.”

Depending on your company policy, you may need to give more notice. If it’s an emergent mental health situation it’s always best practice to be candid about your needs without disclosing an excessive amount of unneeded information.

This article was written by Jacalyn Wetzel, Licensed Clinical Social Worker and practicing therapist.

Imagine driving halfway across America in your electric vehicle on one charge. ONE CHARGE. Sixteen hundred miles. It’s impossible to believe—most EVs get maybe 250 miles before needing a charge—but German students created a car that does just that.

Called the “muc022 prototype,” the single-seater vehicle, which looks like a Smart car but even cuter and more aerodynamic, handily surpassed the previous record of 999.5 miles in four days. The team of students from the Technical University of Munich kept driving the 374-pound car for two more days until it finally coasted to a stop after going 1,599.27 miles. All told, the car made it 99 hours on the road.

Of course, it wasn’t truly a road. (Or autobahn, if you’re being authentisch.) The students tested the car, a modified version of a vehicle used in previous competitions, in an empty hangar at Munich airport. Students from the team even slept in the hangar.

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The group was awarded a Guinness World Record for “Greatest distance by electric vehicle, single charge (non-solar).”

The muc022 prototype is one of the most energy-efficient vehicles ever, with an energy consumption ratio of 103 miles per kilowatt-hour. For perspective, consider that Tesla Model Y, which calls itself “The most efficient Electric SUV ever built,” only offers 4 miles/kWh. The car built by German students is over twenty-five times more efficient! Take that, Elon!

It’s pretty amazing what students are coming up with these days on the automotive/energy front.

A team of students from Switzerland called the Academic Motorsports of Zurich (AMZ) created the fastest-accelerating electric vehicle in the world. It goes zero to 62 mph in just nine-tenths of a second. This is big because the perception that electric cars are slow or lack oomph is one of the barriers to getting more on the road, despite their many health and environmental benefits.

AMZ – World Record! 0-100 km/h in 0.956 seconds

A student was also responsible for a massive breakthrough in the battery space. In 2016, University of California Irvine doctoral student Mya Le Thai accidentally created a rechargeable battery that could last 400 years. Whereas the average rechargeable laptop battery lasts 300 to 500 cycles, this nano battery easily made it to 200,000 charges in three months, meaning your laptop battery could effectively last 400 years.

So when will the average person get their hands on a car that goes 1600 miles or a battery that lasts four hundred years? The answer is hard to pin down. Commenters on the futurology subreddit discussed the timeline and related issues of bringing these innovations out of the classroom and into the marketplace.

Regarding the immortal battery, user EXSPFXDOG said: “I look at this as solving a big problem in multiple ways! It would eliminate you having to drop 20 grand plus to replace battery car batteries!

It may help the power storage issues with solar and wind. And it may keep millions of lithium batteries out of landfills. It seems like scalability may not be a big issue because it could mesh with how we make the millions of batteries currently being made. It also helps save some rainforest destruction for Lithium mining!”

Not everyone was so optimistic, though. “People who make batteries also sell batteries, and they don’t want you to have one that lasts forever. Nationalize all battery manufacturing asap,” suggested outtyn1nja

It’s not the worst suggestion. What would need to happen to nationalize battery manufacturing?

Hopefully, some forward-thinking students are working on figuring this out.

The way our brains react to musical harmony is fascinating. When notes are off, the blending of different tones is grating and unpleasant. But when a harmony hits just right, it’s a like a sweet celebration for our senses.

That’s why, when OK3 sang the opening bar of Meghan Trainor’s “Made You Look” in their debut performance on NBC’s “The Voice,” three of the four judges hit the button to turn their chair around within a remarkable 7 seconds. The women’s three-part harmony was powerful throughout the whole song, but their pitch perfect opening was the epitome of attention-grabbing.

The way “The Voice” works is four celebrity judges first hear singers in a blind audition, where their chairs are turned around so they can’t see the performers—they can only hear them. Then, if they like what they hear, they push their big red button and turn their chair around, indicating they want that performer on their coaching team. Ultimately, the judges compete along with the singers to have their chosen performers come out on top. When multiple judges turn their chairs, the performer gets to choose whose team they want to be on.

Usually, it takes longer than a few seconds of listening to a singer (or singers) perform for judges to start turning their chairs around, but in this case, it was almost immediate for three out of the four judges. And even the one holdout, Chance the Rapper, eventually hit his button as well, giving OK3 the coveted four-chair turn.

Watch:

The trio brought their vocal coach, who was the one who brought them together in the first place, and the judges encouraged them to consult her to make their decision about whose team they would be on.

Judge John Legend made a case for himself first.

“I loved your performance. … I grew up arranging songs for groups, and then, when I went to college, I was an award-winning a cappella arranger,” Legend said. “If there’s nothing else that I do, I do this.” He also added that he thinks “there’s a lot of space for a big pop girl group right now.”

Country duo judges Dan + Shay made a strong pitch as well, as they literally do harmonies themselves. And Reba McIntyre not only shares roots with the women being from Oklahoma herself, but she also pulled out her Grammy and a box of chicken nuggets, so it’s definitely going to be a tough choice.

The sneak preview clip didn’t show who the group chose, and neither did the season premiere that aired on February 26, 2024. The episode ended on a cliffhanger, so the choice will be revealed on February 27.

What a standout performance for these young women, Sierra Sikes, 23, Kenna Fields, 22, and Courtney Hooker, 25. Their journey on “The Voice” is sure to be a life-changing experience, if not a career-making one.

You can follow “The Voice” on YouTube.

Technology is the single greatest contributor to climate change but it may also soon be used to offset the damage we’ve done to our planet since the Industrial Age began.

In September 2018, a project in Myanmar used drones to fire “seed missiles” into remote areas of the country where trees were not growing. Less than a year later, thousands of those seed missiles have sprouted into 20-inch mangrove saplings that could literally be a case study in how technology can be used to innovate our way out of the climate change crisis.

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“We now have a case confirmed of what species we can plant and in what conditions,” Irina Fedorenko, co-founder of Biocarbon Engineering, told Fast Company. “We are now ready to scale up our planting and replicate this success.”

According to Fedoranko, just two operators could send out a mini-fleet of seed missile planting drones that could plant 400,000 trees a day — a number that quite possibly could make massive headway in combating the effects of manmade climate change.

The drones were designed by an ex-NASA engineer. And with a pressing need to reseed an area in Myanmar equal to the size of Rhode Island, the challenge is massive but suddenly within reach. Bremley Lyngdoh, founder and CEO of World Impact, says reseeding that area could theoretically house as many as 1 billion new trees.

“Obviously, planting a billion trees will take a long time without the help of drones,” Lyngdoh told Fast Company.

But they’ve now got a powerful new ally in their corner. For context, it took the Worldview Foundation 7 years to plant 6 million trees in Myanmar. Now, with the help of the drones, they hope to plant another 4 million before the end of 2019.

Myanmar is a great case study for the project. In addition to the available land for the drone project, the nation has been particularly hit by the early effects of climate change in recent years. Rising sea levels are having a measurable impact on the population. In addition to their ability to clear CO2 from the atmosphere, healthy trees can also help solidify the soil, which can reduce the kind of soil erosion that has been affecting local populations in Myanmar.

Going forward, technologies like seed-planting drones could help stem the tide of catastrophic climate change while our governments and societies work to change the habits of consumers and corporations that are driving the problem. Our endless hunger for new technology may be the driving force behind climate change and deforestation but it could also end up being the solution to a problem.

This article originally appeared on 4.17.19

Bathrobe. Socks. Insurance card. Snacks.

Sound at all familiar? Maybe, maybe not.

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These items would commonly be found on a checklist of things that expecting parents should bring to the hospital with them — in the U.S., anyway.

But what is that list like in other parts of the world?

For Doris, that list included water.

Doris, who lives Morogoro, Tanzania, had to bring her own water to the health center where she was giving birth in 2014. The water she brought was used to clean the nurse’s hands, clean the delivery area, and wash the babies (she had twins!). Unfortunately, the water Doris brought ran out before she was able to wash herself or her clothes, so she had to wait 24 hours before cleaning herself.

I’ll let Doris tell the story herself:

Lack of access to clean water in Tanzania is a very big deal.

Everything turned out alright for Doris and her babies, but thousands of other women aren’t as lucky. But there are ways to help: Organizations and individuals are pitching in to help build water taps, rainwater tanks, and latrines in Tanzanian hospitals, and they’re making a huge difference.

“I want to express my gratitude to the health workers … because they have a great sense of humor with the patients. But the problem is the availability of enough water.” — Doris Alikado

This article originally appeared on 03.26.15