Category: Worldwide

Sophie Stern, an Arizona teen with Down syndrome, is working toward a career as a dance teacher. In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic—knowing she had to do 10 hours of community service to satisfy her high school’s health class requirement—she put on her black t-shirt and leggings and began teaching a free Zoom class in ballet and contemporary dance at home three days a week. “My grandmother is a dance teacher, and she inspired me,” Sophie explains.

Across the country, young people with intellectual and developmental disabilities have been volunteering during the pandemic. With schools and Special Olympics practice cancelled and places of employment shuttered, they’re working in community gardens and helping to care for elderly relatives. Clients at The ARC of Madison Cortland, which provides support and services to people with disabilities, have sewed thousands of medical face masks on Singer industrial machines to donate to government agencies and healthcare providers.

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The Dance Teacher

A similar desire to be of service gripped Sophie in the midst of social distancing orders. She’d been used to dancing daily at her high school, assisting at her grandmother’s studio and performing with a local theater company. She was supposed to travel to Chicago in March with her school’s dance program, but COVID-19 risks cancelled the trip. For a while, she choreographed and performed a dance each day, which her mother posted on Facebook for an enthusiastic audience.

“The daily dance was so important for us both because it brought some structure to the day and because Sophie really got her exercise in,” says her mother, Amy. “She spent about half an hour trying out songs before she landed on the one she wanted me to videotape. She did it because she knew people were looking forward to it. They would make song requests. It was a great way for her to communicate.”

In April, Sophie decided to teach classes on Zoom. “It gives her some control at a time where none of us have much,” says Amy. “For that half hour, three times a week, Sophie is in charge!”

Twenty two students signed up to take her free classes, including actor Sean McElwee from the hit TV series Born this Way. “They’re people from around the country, of all ages and levels of dance experience,” Amy explains. “It’s been a great mix of people with disabilities and people who do not have disabilities.”

The Fundraiser

Esteban Barriga of West Roxbury, MA is a young man with autism. When his city enacted social distancing rules, he saw that low-income community members with physical disabilities weren’t able to wait in line at food banks. “He told me, ‘Mom, we have to help people with disabilities who don’t have jobs. They are poor and need lots of help,'” says his mother, Maribel Rueda.

Barriga began collecting grocery gift cards from local markets to mail to families with at least one disabled member at home. His original goal was to raise $5,000, but he ended up raising over $6,500 with donations from the Puerto Rican Festival of Massachusetts and Paisa Photography in South Carolina. “We have fed eighty families in total, from all towns in Massachusetts,” he says. “We’ve also been feeding Boston Public School families [who have] children with disabilities.”

The Facebook fundraising page he manages with his mother includes comments from donors, as well as photos and videos from families who have received the grocery story gift cards. In one video, a mother with two small children looks into the camera and thanks Esteban in Spanish. In another, several family members stand around a child in a hospital bed and chant in a chorus of voices, “Thank you, Esteban!”

“Esteban has autism but he is so caring and kind to others,” says Maribel. “He feels no one should suffer and we all need to protect one another. She advises parents of young people with similar interests to “create a great campaign that touches people’s hearts and allow their creativity to shine.”

The Non-Profit Intern

Laura Estrich, a recent high school graduate from Corvallis, Oregon, puts her creativity to use as an intern for the city’s new Disability Equity Center—a local nonprofit resource center created by and for people with disabilities and their allies. Without Special Olympics basketball and swimming to train for this year, she’s been helping with outreach and advertising, creating educational PowerPoints and essays and collecting resources around disability justice.

“Laura has been a key champion and stakeholder since the very beginning,” says the center’s co-founder, Allison Hobgood. “She’s an unpaid intern right now working on outreach, resource gathering, newsletters and just generally moving projects along. She’s amazing.”

“I was born with Down Syndrome,” says Laura. “I do research projects on the internet about people with disabilities. It’s my job and my future.”

Her father, George, says that the internship has given his daughter purpose and meaningful work. “And social contact,” he adds. “She has regular Zoom meetings with Allison Hobgood to talk about the Disability Equity Center.”

He suggests that the parents of disabled teens interesting in volunteering during the pandemic set their kids up for success by keeping tasks doable and work sessions short. “Let teens do as much as they can on their own,” he says. “It’s good if the work is really meaningful, not just an activity to kill time.”

For instance, young adults who are stuck at home can take on service projects like making greeting cards and videos to send to family members, or decorating sidewalks with chalk as reminders to wear masks, notes Amy. “If you can take your kid’s jam, like dance, and figure out a way for them to do something positive with it that gives them a leadership role” she says. “That’s great.”

Esteban also advises young people to pay particular attention to news stories about people who are struggling, then consider how best to be of help. He’s found the Facebook COVID-19 Response Center particularly helpful when connecting grocery store gift cards with families in need. “Fifty percent of the families I am feeding were found in the Facebook COVID- 19 response center page,” he says. His efforts have been so successful that he’s extended them for another month.

Sophie, too, has decided to continue teaching online. While she looks forward to the day when she can return to high school and her grandmother’s studio, she’s planning another series of classes in ballet and modern dance. Three days a week she’ll continue to put on her t-shirt and leggings and log onto Zoom to demonstrate her kicks and pirouettes for students. “It’s easy,” she says, “and it’s fun.”

Melissa Hart is the author of Better with Books: 500 Diverse Books to Ignite Empathy and Encourage Self-Acceptance in Tweens and Teens (Sasquatch, 2019).

In a typical cancer biopsy, a patient will have a piece of a tumor cut out by a surgeon, which is then reviewed for cancerous cells. For the past five years or so, researchers in labs all over the world are using a new form of testing called liquid biopsy, which is a blood test that detects cancer using non-invasive techniques.

“We demonstrated that five types of cancer can be detected through a DNA methylation-based blood test up to four years before conventional diagnosis,” the report mentioned, according to Nature Communications. The hope is that a simple blood draw will allow oncologists to quickly and effectively figure out if a person has cancer in the early stages. It will spare patients the grueling side effects of cancer treatment and potentially save millions of lives. More importantly, it could detect cancer before the patient shows any symptoms.

A study, published in the journal Nature Communications, used a new blood test called PanSeer, which detects stomach, esophageal, colorectal, lung and liver cancer. The research found cancer in 88% of the participants who had already been diagnosed, and 95% in people who showed no signs, but were later diagnosed. Although it’s unlikely that the test will be able to predict cancer, according to the Guardian, it can spot cancerous growths that haven’t been identified by current diagnostic methods.

The research team used blood plasma samples from participants in China between 2007-2014. It claimed 414 samples were from people who had been cancer-free for at least five years after the blood was drawn. Of the 191 samples, the participant had cancer within a four-year period and 223 of the remaining samples were from biobanks of people already diagnosed with cancer.

The test works by finding tiny snippets of cancer DNA that tumor cells release into the patient’s blood. According to NBC News, researchers have been working on DNA sequencing applications for years, but this latest study is a potentially transformative innovation that will help diagnose cancer before it reaches the advance stages.

“We’re turning the proof of concept stage into a commercial product that is robust, inexpensive and can be deployed in clinics,” said Kun Zhang to the NBC News, who is on the department chair of bioengineering at the University of California, San Diego. He co-founded Singlera Genomics, the company that designed PanSeer. However, Zhang claims we are years away from doctors being able to implement the test.

At this point, the test is also unable to decipher which type of cancer the person has and will need additional tests to distinguish those results. The Guardian also mentioned that the study “has limitations, including that it is based on a relatively small number of samples. Storage was not optimal, and the team has raised some concerns about possible contamination.”

With all the uncertainty surrounding these medical advances, in these times when we are experiencing historical levels of unrest hope is a powerful ally. The constant push for a cure for cancer is one example of our resolve. It is living proof that the human race has people who will never give up. In fact, we have the potential to be stronger than we have ever been.

Do you remember having to take a college course in something like Elizabethan poetry and wondering how this will ever be applicable in real life? Perhaps while taking algebra you were wondering how important finding X really was. Google may agree with you.

The tech juggernaut has just announced a series of courses designed to teach students the specific skills that todays forward-thinking companies are looking for. Each course takes about six months and offers “Google Career Certificates” upon completion. The cost is unclear but is expected to be around $50/month for each course. While Google could benefit from training potential employees in the ways of their infrastructure for a seamless transition into the company, they also have access to the top of the talent pool. Regardless of any advantage Google is trying to gain by putting forth such a program, this streamlined approach to education feels like a long overdue step towards education reform.

Photo by Mitchell Luo on

As if to clear up any confusion, Googles senior vice president of global affairs tweeted on July 13th “In our own hiring, we will now treat these new career certificates as the equivalent of a four-year degree for related roles.”

Of course, there is much to be gained from learning the problem solving skills of calculous, or the obtaining the knowledge of old school philosophers who have already done the heavy lifting. However, for those who cant afford (or justify) $65,000 a year on a traditional college education, Google is offering their own version of education reform. “College degrees are out of reach for many Americans, and you shouldn’t need a college diploma to have economic security,” writes Kent Walker, senior vice president of global affairs at Google. “We need new, accessible job-training solutions–from enhanced vocational programs to online education–to help America recover and rebuild.”

It is almost as if Google has figured out that people don’t want to bundle their education any more than they want to bundle their internet, cable and phone. In todays rapidly evolving environment, landlines are no longer considered the necessity they once were. While studying romance languages and literatures at an Ivy League University might be fulfilling and character shaping, that knowledge might not translate to an immediate hire at a tech company. As the financial class gap continues to widen, so grows the demographic of the population that doesn’t have the luxury to overpay for the educational prestige of a name on their resume. Most musicians know that while some guitars are built better than others, the jump in price does not correlate to the increase in quality. It is simply about the headstock. If Google is a musical group, they sure arent teaching people how to read sheet music. It seems they might have only two concerns: can you rock, and can we rock together.

A great all-around bottle of bourbon is illusive. Some bourbons are crafted to be used in cocktails while others are specifically made for sipping. That means you generally need to have more than one bottle on hand. We’d argue that you really need six bottles of bourbon on your shelf.

There’s some debate as to how many bottles of bourbon you need on your shelf. Minimalists will say you only need one bottle for sipping and mixing. There seems to be some consensus around five bottles. That usually centers around a “daily bottle,” a “cheap mixer,” a “weekend bottle, ” a “bottle to wow your friends,” and a “celebration bottle.” We’d argue that that list is missing a crucial component: A good mixer. It’s pretty easy, folks, a shitty base bourbon is going to make for shitty cocktails.

So, to help you figure out which six bottles to stock on your shelf for all of these occasions, we’re calling out six bottles we think work in these six categories. Generally speaking, most of these bottles are readily available and buyable at your neighborhood shop. Let’s get into it.

The Daily Bottle — Buffalo Trace Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

ABV: 45%
Distillery: Buffalo Trace Distillery, Frankfort, KY (Sazerac)
Average Price: $30

The Whiskey:

This is a solid workhorse bourbon. The low rye in the mash bill helps this feel more like a classic with a real softness to the juice. It’s also very affordable for the quality of the whiskey in the bottle, making this a good bottle to keep stocked.

Tasting Notes:

Vanilla and molasses mingle on the nose with a hint of fresh mint sprigs lurking in the background. A toffee sweetness with mild notes of spice counterpoint charred oak and dark berries. The softness of the juice really takes hold as it slowly fades out with a focus on the sweetness.

Bottom Line:

A dram of this on the rocks after a long day at work is the play. You can also use this is a solid cocktail base.

The Cheap Mixer — Four Roses Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

ABV: 40%
Distillery: Four Roses Distillery, Lawrenceburg, KY (Kirin Brewery Company)
Average Price: $20

The Whiskey:

This whiskey is a blend of a high-rye mash bill and a lower rye one. The juice is aged for a minimum of five years before it’s cut down to 80 proof and bottled.

Tasting Notes:

Apples and wildflowers mix with mild spices and fresh honey up top. The sip relishes in the tart apples and sandy pears while sweetness ebbs into caramel territory with a hint of vanilla and oak. The end is a subtle reminder of how easy-drinking bourbon can be as it quickly fades out.

Bottom Line:

This whiskey is crafted to be a cocktail mixer. Four Roses advertise it as “Perfect for Cocktails.” Use it that way — especially in an old fashioned — and you won’t be disappointed.

The Real Mixer — Legent Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

ABV: 47%
Distillery: Jim Beam, Clermont, KY (Beam Suntory)
Average Price: $40

The Whiskey:

This whiskey is the marrying of Jim Beam’s Kentucky bourbon country with California’s wine country and Japan’s style of blending whisky. The juice is aged in Kentucky in new American oak and California red wine and sherry barrels. Then legendary master blender Shinji Fukuyo gets his hands on it to blend all those whiskeys. The end result is a bit of a masterpiece.

Tasting Notes:

Dark dried fruits dance with a sense of fermented grapes and a buttery edge. Crème brûlée spiked with plenty of vanilla comes to mind as a plummy depth arrives. The sip wallows in all that creaminess, vanilla, and plumminess as it slowly warms you up from the inside.

Bottom Line:

This is going to take your cocktail game from just alright to solid. It’s especially good for Manhattans and Sazeracs.

The Weekend Bottle — Wild Turkey Longbranch

ABV: 43%
Distillery: Wild Turkey Distillery, Lawrenceburg, KY (Campari Group)
Average Price: $40

The Whiskey:

Master distiller Eddie Russell teamed up with Matthew McConaughey to create this tantalizing bourbon. The juice marries Kentucky’s bourbon with Texas. The Kentucky juice is filtered through Texas mesquite and oak charcoals before bottling. This extra step adds serious flavor and depth that’ll give you something to think about while you sip.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a sense of corn syrup laden pecan pie next to an old leather chair that’s heavy with pipe tobacco. Tart apples dipped in toffee caramel with plenty of vanilla leads toward another billow of smoke with a hint of cedar bark. The sip fades out slowly as you’re reminded of all its complexities, leaving you with a fleeting sense of that tobacco smoke and tart apples.

Bottom Line:

This is crafted to be a sipping whiskey that’ll help you forget about the previous work week. I like it with a single rock (or a splash of water) to help open up the flavor profiles.

The Impressive Bottle — Belle Meade Cask Strength Reserve Bourbon

ABV: Varies
Distillery: Nelson’s Breen Brier Distillery, Nashville, TN (Sourced)
Average Price: $65

The Whiskey:

Belle Meade’s Cask Strength continues to wow whiskey lovers. The juice is a blend of seven to eleven-year-old whiskeys that have a high rye mash bill. Each bottling only uses seven barrels for the final product, so you know you’re getting something special here.

Tasting Notes:

Each batch is going to vary slightly. Expect a classic sipping bourbon with clear notes of vanilla, dark spices, sweet caramel, and plenty of tart and sweet berries.

Bottom Line:

This one is a little harder to find nationwide. That means there’s a bit more of a “wow” factor when you break it out. It’s also an excellent sipper with a splash of water.

The Celebration Bottle — Michter’s Single Barrel Straight Rye Whiskey 10 Yrs. Old

ABV: 46%
Distillery: Michter’s Distillery, Louisville, KY
Average Price: $200

The Whiskey:

Michter’s Singel Barrel Rye is aged for ten long years. This a limited production of whiskey so there’s not a lot of it on the market. It’s also one of the most beloved whiskeys at the moment, so don’t expect the price to stay accessible for much longer.

Tasting Notes (from UPROXX Life’s Expression Session):

“Toffee, almond, and vanilla dance with chili pepper. The sip takes on a candied cinnamon edge (not unlike an all-natural Red Hot) that helps usher in a flourish of orange oils. The roasted almonds and chili linger as the hefty vanilla creates a svelte mouthfeel with an embracing warmth.”

Bottom Line:

If you’re celebrating a milestone in your life, it’s time to drink something of this caliber. I drink it with a single rock.

Compton rapper Roddy Ricch has been enjoying his 2020 as his singles “The Box” and “Rockstar” with DaBaby have spent theyear dominating the Billboard charts — and Spotify’s most-streamed songs lists — but it’s almost time for him to followup his debut album, Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial. During a recent Instagram Live chat with fans — during which Roddy splashed around in a swimming pool backdropped by palm trees and an ocean view while listening to someone who sounds a lot like Meek Mill — Roddy told his viewers a new album is coming “soon as f*ck.”

It would certainly be great timing for the 21-year-old upstart, who began the year by winning his first-ever Grammy Award alongside Nipsey Hussle for their collaboration “Racks In The Middle.” His album’s back at the forefront of fans’ consciousness thanks to a trending meme comparing his album cover to the art for the upcoming Youngboy Never Broke Again album, and Roddy himself kicked off anticipation for a new project in his recent interview with GQ. Saying he was taking his time so the album would be a “full-blown masterpiece,” his latest comments would seem to contradict at least the first half of that statement. But as long as it lives up to the latter, Roddy’s upward trajectory should continue into the next year and beyond.

Roddy Ricch is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Indie music has grown to include so much. It’s not just music that is released on independent labels, but speaks to an aesthetic that deviates from the norm and follows its own weirdo heart. It can come in the form of rock music, pop, or folk. In a sense, it says as much about the people that are drawn to it as it does about the people that make it.

Every week, Uproxx is rounding up the best new indie music from the past seven days. This week we got the anticipated return of Bright Eyes, the impressive new album from The Killers, and two new tracks from Father John Misty. Check out the rest of the best new music below.

Bright Eyes — Down In The Weeds, Where The World Once Was

It’s been nearly a decade since we last heard from Bright Eyes. While Conor Oberst has been incredibly active in the years since, there was a Bright Eyes-sized hole in our hearts that has now been filled. Down In The Weeds, Where The World Once Was is an apt title for an album released in 2020, and Steven Hyden writes for Uproxx that the album “unfolds as a series of epic Americana mini-symphonies, each one more grand and big-sounding than the last.”

The Killers — Imploding The Mirage

Three years removed from Wonderful Wonderful, The Killers are back with an unexpectedly impressive effort. The record’s strong streak kicks off with its first track “My Own Soul’s Warning,” which Steven Hyden writes for Uproxx is “a Killers song in 2020 doing exactly what I always want a classic Killers song to do, against my will even. I could only laugh at my reaction: Were the Killers … kinda great again?

The Front Bottoms — In Sickness & In Flames

The Front Bottoms are more focused than ever on their fifth full-length. This becomes abundantly clear on the album’s second track “Camouflage,” which features one of the band’s most bombastic choruses to date, and showcases their ever-improving pop sensibilities. Watching this band grow over the last several years from writing eccentric acoustic ballads to arena-filling pop-rock anthems has been a true joy.

Bully — Sugaregg

On their latest album, the Nashville rockers turn up the fuzz and distortion, while also locking in for their most refined and polished work to date. Sugaregg is an album that was written during a chaotic period, when leader Alicia Bognanno turned to music as a method of finding clarity and pressing onward. The result is a perfect soundtrack for all of our collective existential dread.

Phoenix — “Identical”

It’s been relative radio silence from Phoenix since the release of 2017’s Te Amo. Now, they’re starting to tease a new album with the release of “Identical,” a new contribution to the soundtrack for the upcoming Sofia Coppola film On The Rocks, starring Bill Murray and Rashida Jones. The eclectic synth pop track feels like something that could have appeared on 2009’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, which is definitely a good sign for an album that Thomas Mars is calling a “weird Frankenstein of an album.”

Father John Misty — “To S.” / “To R.”

On his first original songs in two years, Josh Tillman delivers what we love most about Father John Misty. “To R.” and “To S.” are both piano-led numbers, with Tillman’s soft vocals floating above light percussion and orchestral flourishes.

Angel Olsen — “Waving, Smiling”

On the last taste of her new album Whole New Mess, Angel Olsen is vulnerable and introspective. “Armed with just her guitar and lilting vocals, Olsen croons a reflection on coming to terms with the end of a relationship,” writes Carolyn Droke for Uproxx. “The singer has mourned and cried over the loss, now it’s time to smile and accept the relationship has come a close.”

Kate Bollinger — A Word Becomes A Sound EP

It’s hard to classify Kate Bollinger’s work into traditional genre categories. Her new EP A Word Becomes A Sound incorporates elements of pop, folk, jazz, and even some electronic experimentation. On the five-track effort, the Charlottesville, Virginia singer feels like a blast from the past at the same time as something uniquely modern.

Tomberlin — “Wasted”

Before rolling out her sophomore LP, Tomberlin is previewing a new slate of music with a five-track EP called Projections. The EP was produced by Alex G and the first single “Wasted” features a repeating Alex G-sounding drum beat (which was actually played by Alex G). The excellent, laid-back number leaves the mood up to the listener: “Sad song or summer banger? You tell me,” Tomberlin said in a statement.

Lomelda — “Hannah Sun”

On the latest preview of Lomelda’s forthcoming album Hannah, the eponymous Hannah Read explores the difficulty of finding a connection and maintaining effective communication. These concurrent struggles serve as a bit of a thesis statement for Lomdela’s new record, her most deeply personal to date.

Into It. Over It — “We Prefer Indoors”

I’m still not sure where Into It. Over It lands on the spectrum that exists between emo and indie. On his latest LP Figure, Evan Weiss doesn’t let back on the intricate guitar parts, but turns up the vocal melody and hooks for something truly infectious.

Katie Melua — “Leaving The Mountain”

This track was influenced heavily by a playlist Katie Melua made of all the songs that Bob Dylan mentioned in his book Chronicles Vol 1, and you can hear it. “Leaving The Mountain” has a timeless feel to it that is hard to come by these days, which finds the Georgian-British songwriter’s smooth vocals hovering over light piano and percussion, with orchestration Georgian Philharmonic Orchestra.

Ian Sweet – “Dumb Driver”

Ian Sweet (AKA Jilian Medford) has signed to Polyvinyl, and her first new song with the label is “Dumb Driver,” a shimmering dream-pop track that continues building as Medford mourns a broken relationship and repeats a plea for self-preservation.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Patricia and Mark McCloskey caught the public’s attention back in June when they were photographed waving guns at Black Lives Matters protesters who peacefully walked past their St. Louis mansion.

After the incident, photos of the couple waving their guns while dressed like they just got back from the country club quickly became a cultural Rorschach test.

Liberals mocked them for exemplifying the irrational fear that some affluent white conservatives have of people of color. Their overreaction to the peaceful protesters appeared to mirror the type of unnecessary violence against people of color that caused the demonstrations in the first place.

To many conservatives, the couple were an example of proudly-armed Americans standing their ground against a frightening mob.

The couple is currently facing weapons charges for brandishing guns at protesters.

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The couple were used as political pawns on night one of the Republican National Convention on Monday. The couple made a speech from their home that was a blatant attempt to instill fear in the the suburban electorate.

“What you saw happen to us could just as easily happen to any of you who are watching from quiet neighborhoods around our country,” the couple said in a speech.

“Make no mistake: No matter where you live, your family will not be safe in the radical Democrats’ America,” Patricia warned.

The message was very simple: White people should be afraid that their quiet neighborhoods will be overrun by angry mobs of protesters, unless they vote for Donald Trump who will stop the protests. It’s like they haven’t noticed that protests have been going on since March and Trump has yet to stop them.

After it was announced that the couple was to speak at the convention, a rabbi that works at St. Louis’ Jewish Central Reform Congregation, the synagogue next door to the McCloskeys’ house, had to speak up.

“It’s so upsetting that they have a national audience,” Rabbi Susan Talve told Forward, a nonprofit Jewish publication. “It’s upsetting we make heroes out of people who hate.”

The rabbi’s rocky relationship with the couple started back in 2013, when the congregation placed bee hives along a fence that sat six inches inside the McCloskey’s property line.

The hives were there to produce honey for Rosh Hashanah, a Jewish new year celebration. On the holiday, Jewish people eat apples and honey to usher in a sweet new year.

via David Malouf / Flickr

Without even consulting the rabbi or the synagogue, the McCloskeys bashed all of the bee hives and left them to sit smashed on the fence. “He could have picked up the phone and said, ‘Hey, those beehives are on my property,’ and we would have happily moved them,” said Talve.

The children of the synagogue wept after hearing about the destruction of the hives.

The temple has raised bed gardens where it grows thousands of pounds of fresh produce to help local food pantries. “We were going to have our own apples and honey for Rosh Hashanah!” she said.

But the McClosekys didn’t stop there, they sent a note to the synagogue saying they’d face legal action if they didn’t clean up the smashed hives.

“Civility,” Talve said. “I’m willing to speak out now because there’s such a lack of civility that’s happening, and I don’t feel like I can be a part of that, and silence is complicity.”

“They are bullies,” Talve said. “The fact that they’re speaking at the convention is a win for bullies.”

The fact that the McCloskeys were happy to speak at the Republican National Convention in support of Donald Trump isn’t a surprise. Of course a couple known for being bullies would be big fans of the bully the currently lives in the White House.

Last week, as California’s oldest state park erupted into flames and the historic Big Basin State Park headquarters buildings burned to the ground, people feared the worst. Would we lose the 2,000-year-old redwood trees that bring visitors from all over the world to the area?

Thankfully, now that the fire at Big Basin is under control and people are able to go in an assess the damage, it looks like most of the ancient redwoods have survived the blaze. According to ABC News, a reporter from the Associated Press hiked the Redwood Trail at Big Basin and found that most of the old-growth giants, among the tallest living things on Earth, are still standing tall. That includes Mother of the Forest, a tree that grew to 329 feet tall before its top broke off in a storm, as well as other elder trees.

Reporter from The Mercury News, Ethan Baron, also took photos of the aftermath and reported on Twitter that the “vast majority of giant redwoods in center of Big Basin Redwoods State park scorched but still standing.”

“That is such good news. I can’t tell you how much that gives me peace of mind,” Laura McLendon, conservation director for the Sempervirens Fund, a group dedicated to the protection of the redwoods and their habitats, told the Associated Press. McLendon said the forest will regrow. “Every old-growth redwood I’ve ever seen, in Big Basin and other parks, has fire scars on them,” she said. “They’ve been through multiple fires, possibly worse than this.”

Fire ecologist director of science at Save the Redwoods League, Kristen Shive, told The Mercury News that redwood bark—which can be up to a foot thick—is fire-resistant. If a fire gets hot enough, it can do serious damage, but even badly burned redwoods can eventually recover.

Managing forests includes managing fire, which can be seen as both a blessing and a curse for forest habitats and humans. Not all forest fires are bad. Some trees need occasional fire to thrive, and controlled burns are sometimes used to prevent out-of-control blazes that destroy homes and animal habitats. When left alone, nature tends to create its own balance, but with climate change causing an increase in the frequency and severity of wildfires, in addition to human activity causing some fires in addition to those caused naturally by lightning, it’s difficult to judge when fires are actually beneficial.

California has seen historically destructive fire seasons in recent years, and two of this summer’s fires are already among the state’s worst. As people are evacuated, homes and buildings are destroyed, and air quality from smoke is disrupting the lives of countless Californians, hearing some good news is a welcome breath of fresh air.

If the Portland Trail Blazers are going to extend their first round series against the Los Angeles Lakers, they’ll have to do it without the services of their best player. The team announced on Tuesday afternoon that Damian Lillard will not be able to play on Wednesday evening due to an injury he suffered on Monday night. The injury is classified as a right knee sprain.

Lillard hurt his knee in the third quarter of Monday’s blowout loss, which propelled Los Angeles to a 3-1 lead in the series. He gingerly made his way to the back and was ruled out for the remainder of the game, and the results from the first MRI he received were inconclusive.

While it is, certainly, great that Lillard did not suffer a more serious injury that could require surgery and/or months of rehabilitation, losing him for Game 5 seems like the sort of thing that could lead to the team’s entertaining run in Orlando coming to an end. Lillard has been the team’s heart and soul during their time in the Bubble, earning the MVP award for the seeding games and providing numerous moments where he put the team on his back and led them to a win. Now, the onus to get the team to a Game 6 falls onto guys like Carmelo Anthony, CJ McCollum, and Jusuf Nurkic, all of whom are capable of doing incredible things but have quite the tall task ahead of them,

There’s no word on whether the injury is such that Lillard will be unable to play in a potential Game 6.

It is my position that every actor in Hollywood is either a Batman or a Joker. It’s a gut thing, not always easy to explain but still full of undeniable truths. You can feel it almost instantly, as soon as you see someone’s face or hear someone’s name. It’s one of the things that worries me about Robert Pattinson playing Batman, because Robert Pattinson is in no way a Batman. He looks like a Batman, sure, what with the jawline and eyes and general vibe of an emo billionaire, so it’s understandable how the casting happened. But, I’m sorry, Robert Pattinson is a Joker. I know this because I read the GQ profile where he blew up his microwave making pasta. Blowing up a microwave while making pasta is maybe the most Joker thing possible.

I’ve discussed this theory before once or twice, in brief, but it warrants a full analysis, if only because I need to type it out to have any hope of getting it out of my head. Again, it’s something that’s almost impossible to quantify. A Batman is someone who is typically a little more strong and quietly intense, and a Joker is usually someone with more chaotic energy, but there are exceptions galore. Further complicating matters: being a Batman or a Joker does not mean someone would make a good Batman or a Joker. Mark Wahlberg might be the most Batman-ass dude alive and he should never play the character, not even once, not even as a joke. Sacha Baron Cohen is a Joker but too much, to the degree that he’d probably want to take it the other way and play the character as a boring suburban zero. Again, hard to explain but impossible to deny. Like all truly fun theories.

I think the best way to make my point here is to give you some examples. Let’s run through a few of the more obvious ones first. Will Smith is a Batman. Michael Shannon is a Joker. Adam Driver and The Rock are both Batmen. Lakeith Stanfield and Shia LeBeouf are both Jokers. Michael B. Jordan is a textbook Batman even though his most famous character, Killmonger from Black Panther, had extreme Joker energy. Chris Evans is a Batman. Chris Pine is a Batman. Paul Giamatti is a Joker for reasons I believe with all my heart but cannot begin to articulate. Johnny Depp is a Joker. Bradley Cooper is such a Batman. James Franco is a Joker. Robert Downey, Jr. is a Batman. Ben Affleck was a Batman even before he played Batman, mostly because of that chin. Matt Damon is a Batman. Every actor from Boston is a Batman, basically.

Some cases are a little trickier. Jake Gyllenhaal looks almost exactly like a Batman but, as he has proven many times but especially in his brief but unhinged performance as Mr. Music in John Mulaney and the Sack Lunch Bunch, is a Joker from just under that external layer all the way to his core. Donald Glover probably tells people — and believes in his heart — that he’s a Joker even though he’s actually a Batman. Jon Hamm is a Batman who would much rather be a Joker. Timothée Chalamet is a perfect artsy Joker but someone will eventually try to square-peg-round-hole him into being a sensitive Batman. Leonardo DiCaprio is a Batman through and through but he would still insist on playing the Joker to make a point and end up overdoing it. Brad Pitt is a Joker who has been miscast as a Batman his entire life. Will Ferrell is a Batman, somehow, despite a career filled with maniac goofball characters, and his Step Brothers co-star John C. Reilly is a Joker despite handling a number of more reserved dramatic roles. Seth Rogen is a Batman. Jonah Hill is a Joker. Danny McBride is such a Joker that he might be a Batman as a prank.

It works with actresses, too. Charlize Theron is the most Batman woman on the face of the Earth right now. Florence Pugh is a Joker. Gal Gadot is a Batman. Kristen Stewart is a Joker, an apathetic agent of anarchy. Tilda Swinton is such a perfect Joker that now I’m angry she hasn’t played one yet. Emily Blunt is a Batman. Jennifer Lawrence is a Batman even though everyone on Twitter who reads this will probably show up in my mentions to insist that she’s a Joker. Jennifer Lopez is a Batman. Margot Robbie is a Joker, probably, although playing Harley Quinn complicates the issue. Elisabeth Moss is a Joker. Reese Witherspoon is a Batman but not a good one. Regina King is a Batman. Regina Hall is a Joker. Helen Mirren is as much of a Batman as Meryl Streep is a Joker and, yes, I would watch that movie today. Right now. Before I even finish this paragraph.

Sometimes an actor can switch mid-career from a Batman to a Joker or vice versa. The best example is Al Pacino. He started out as a Batman thanks to his role as quiet strongman Michael Corleone in the Godfather movies, but then, possibly around Scent of a Woman in 1992 but definitely by Heat in 1995, he became a raging Joker. Keanu Reeves is an incredible test case because he started as a Joker and then became a Batman for a while after Speed and the Matrix movies but is now somehow teetering back toward being a Joker. Adam Sandler is almost always a Batman but then every 10 years or so he’ll turn in an amazing performance in a movie like Uncut Gems and you’ll find yourself thinking “Is Adam Sandler… actually a Joker?” Denzel Washington had a brief window around Training Day where he could have pivoted to being a Joker but then he made Inside Man and two Equalizers and became a full-on Batman. Walton Goggins is, at present, a Joker, but is one perspective-shifting supporting role away from becoming the most fascinating Batman of all. This is a situation I monitor constantly.

I could go on. And I will, privately, quite possibly forever, usually in the wee hours of the morning when I should be sleeping but am instead on minute 45 of an internal “Would Jason Statham be more of a Joker if he had hair?” debate. But I’ll stop here for now, as I believe I’ve accomplished the two goals I had in starting this conversation:

• Give everyone a fun game to play with friends the next time you get together
• Justify all the time I’ve spent thinking about this by making it “a work thing”

I feel great about it.