Who's On Offense, and Who's On Defense?

If Earth's stability was run like a machine, you'd be surprised it was still running.

If there really are advanced alien civilizations out there, you’d think they’d be easy to find. A truly powerful alien race would stride like gods among the cosmos, creating star-sized or galaxy-sized feats of engineering. So rather than analyzing exoplanet spectra or listening for faint radio messages, why not look for the remnants of celestial builds, something too large and unusual to occur naturally? The most common idea is that aliens might build something akin to a Dyson sphere. In their need for more powerful energy sources, an advanced civilization might harness the entire output of a star. They wrap a star within a sphere to capture every last photon of stellar energy. Such an object would have a strange infrared or radio spectrum. An alien glow that is faint and unique. So astronomers have searched for Dyson spheres in the Milky Way, and have found some interesting candidates. One major search was known as Project Hephaistos, which used data from Gaia, 2MASS, and WISE to look at five million candidate objects. From this they found seven unusual objects. A Type II civilization is one that can directly harvest the energy of its star using a Dyson Sphere or something similar. They appear to be M-type red dwarfs at first glance, but have spectra that don’t resemble simple stars. This kind of star-like infrared object is exactly what you’d expect from a Dyson sphere. But of course extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and that’s where things get fuzzy. Almost immediately after the paper was published, other astronomers noted that the seven objects could also be hot Dust-Obscured Galaxies, or hotDOGs. These are quasars, so they appear star-like, but are obscured by such a tremendous amount of dust that they mostly emit in the infrared. And their spectra can be quite different from a M-type star. So the challenge is to distinguish between a hotDOG and a Dyson sphere. Which is where a new paper on the arXiv comes in. Rather than trying to specifically distinguish between the two, the authors instead look at the distribution of known hotDOGS. They found that statistically about 1 in 3,000 quasars are of the hotDOG type, so that a broad search for Dyson spheres would likely include some dusty quasars. The authors go on to note that any civilization powerful enough to build star-scale structures would also have the ability to obscure their infrared signal. We can’t simply assume that aliens would build a Dyson sphere in such an obvious way. Overall, the authors argue, the seven candidate superstructures can be accounted for by hotDOGs and other phenomena, thus there is currently no clear evidence for alien superstructures. Source: www.universetoday.com The post Those 7 Mysterious Objects Aren’t Dyson Spheres, They’re HotDOGs appeared first on Anomalien.com.

Often forgotten as a program under the ABC News umbrella, The View is the highest-rated daytime talk show in America and known for making headlines for the ridiculous things their co-hosts espouse, particularly their strong hatred of former President Trump. But even the second assassination attempt against the former President wasn’t enough to loosen their deep-seated animus, as a new study by the Media Research Center found their coverage was still 100% negative. The MRC examined the five shows that constituted the week immediately following the second attempt on Trump’s life (September 16 – September 20). The analysis found 36 evaluative statements made by the six co-hosts and all of them were negative. In addition, they made nine evaluative statements about Trump’s running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance (R) and all of those were negative as well. While there were no mentions of the Democratic vice presidential nominee, Governor Tim Walz (MN), there were nine such statements about Vice President Kamala Harris. All of the statements about her were positive. Our analysts examined only evaluative statements made by the various hosts, not guests. So while The View did have former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on September 19’s show, and the cast teed her up to discuss Trump, since she’s not a cast member her comments were not included. [For more on the methodology, scroll to the end of this article.] Their staunch dislike for Trump was at least tempered somewhat on September 16, the Monday following the attempted assassination at Trump’s West Palm Beach golf club, as only one negative comment was made.  Alyssa Farah Griffin, the supposed Republican on panel, suggested Trump’s desires to golf put himself in a position ripe for an assassin. “And I think there needs to be a true law enforcement post-mortem of what can better be done, and I know some of this is where he chooses to be, but then he needs to not do that,” she said. Later in the week, she touted Harris for changing her political positions. “She has moderated on a number of policy issues from supporting the Green New Deal to at one point supporting banning fracking, now being for it,” she said. “I welcome centrism and welcome growing and evolving while you're in office…” Farah Griffin was in lockstep with the more openly liberal members of the cast despite framing herself as a new voice from the right when they first hired her on. "Barbara Walters had this vision for bringing women from totally different backgrounds, lived experiences, careers, to talk about the tough issues that, frankly, our elected officials often aren't tackling and we do that every day,” she said. But it didn’t last long. On Tuesday September 17, the cast members erupted in anger as the members of the Trump/Vance ticket called out the rhetoric coming from the left for inciting the would-be shooter. There were 12 negative comments made about Trump and eight against Vance that day. “I mean, he has been inciting violence since 2016 telling them to beat up hecklers, threaten to shoot looters and migrants,” declared moderator Whoopi Goldberg. “You know, let's stop this both sides stuff because it's not correct! It is not both sides! It is one clear side… This is you got to stop doing what you're doing, J.D.! And what you're doing Mr. T.!” Goldberg also falsely asserted that Trump was “sending people” to Springfield, OH to threaten the residents.  During September 18’sshow, co-host Sunny Hostin was among the 10 negative comments against Trump that day as she attacked former soccer player Brittany Mahomes over liking a Trump post on Instagram. “It just seems to me that since she is in an interracial marriage, she should have known that to support a racist is problematic,” she said. “Her children are biracial and her family is one of the families that in the '70s could not have lived in any of Donald Trump's buildings, so it just seems to me that maybe she's just not that politically savvy, or maybe she's just not read in, but it's problematic.” Friday moderator Joy Behar took a two-for-one swipe after the former President and First Lady when sniped: “You got to love the little birther. You know what I’m saying? We all appreciate the female body, Melania. Listen, your husband appreciated Stormy Daniels' body plenty, right?” A year ago, on The View’s Behind the Table podcast, executive producer Brian Teta explained that while they do work for ABC News and answer to the same Standards and Practices department, “We’re an opinion show. We’re speaking off-the-cuff.” But yet, the MRC’s findings for The View closely resembled the MRC’s study of ABC’s World News Tonight’s coverage of Trump and Harris. As the study found, the evening newscast gave Trump 100% negative coverage vs 93% positive coverage for Harris. In the week preceding the attempted assassination, The View was watched by 2.275 million viewers. If the numbers held, over 2 million people saw that negativity. METHODOLOGY: To determine the spin of news coverage, our analysts tallied all explicitly evaluative statements about each candidate from either reporters, anchors or non-partisan sources such as experts or voters. Evaluations from partisan sources, as well as neutral statements, were not included. As we did in 2016 and 2020, we separated personal evaluations of each candidate from statements about their prospects in the campaign horse race (i.e., standings in the polls, chances to win, etc.). While such comments can have an effect on voters (creating a bandwagon effect for those seen as winning, or demoralizing the supports of those portrayed as losing), they are not “good press” or “bad press” as understood by media scholars as far back as Michael Robinson’s groundbreaking research on the 1980 presidential campaign.

Actors can’t stop reliving the Hollywood blacklist. So why won’t they speak out against the new, not-so-improved version?Sen. Joe McCarthy’s Communist paranoia paralyzed Hollywood in the 1950s. The movement sent A-list talent scurrying for cover and made stars keep their far-left views quiet.Align emailed press representatives for Ruffalo, Nixon, Dunne, Ahmed, Common, Youssef, and Philipps. What are their thoughts on the unofficial Hollywood blacklist targeting conservative artists? No wonder the industry keeps revisiting the era with films like “The Front,” “Guilty by Suspicion,” “The Majestic,” “Good Night, and Good Luck,” and, most recently, 2015’s “Trumbo” starring Oscar nominee Bryan Cranston.Now, a gaggle of stars are warning Hollywood not to repeat the era’s mistakes by punishing pro-Palestinian artists.Mark Ruffalo, Cynthia Nixon, Griffin Dunne, Riz Ahmed, Common, Busy Philipps, and Ramy Youssef signed an open letter demanding stars be able to speak their minds without professional blowback.The said letter called for a “permanent ceasefire” in Gaza along with the release of the remaining hostages taken by Hamas in the Oct. 7 massacre. The letter insisted Palestinian “hostages” also be released.The missive featured another pointed demand:“to condemn our industry’s McCarthyist repression of members who acknowledge Palestinian suffering; and to eliminate any doubt of our solidarity with workers, artists, and oppressed people worldwide.”Actress Susan Sarandon, another name on the letter, has a personal stake in the subject. She lost her agent after her extreme anti-Israel views went public. She wasn’t alone. “Scream” star Melissa Barrera exited the horror franchise for similar reasons.No matter where one stands on the Israeli-Palestinian debate, punishing artists for political viewpoints is anathema to the industry’s creative spirit and the First Amendment.It’s why Align reached out to seven of the letter’s signees to ask their views on the other blacklist permeating Hollywood. It targets conservative artists like James Woods, Kevin Sorbo, Scott Baio, and more.Woods and Sorbo have gone public with how their right-leaning views essentially ended their Hollywood careers. The Oscar-nominated Woods hasn’t had a sizable role since 2014’s “Jamesy Boy.” Sorbo mostly works via his Sorbo Studios shingle, creating small-budget titles like “Let There Be Light” and “Miracle in East Texas.”Baio’s X profile refers to the actor as “happily retired,” but his support for Donald Trump in 2016 helped make that official.The examples are endless. And while a tiny number of conservatives continue to act, including Jon Voight and Tim Allen, they are the exceptions that prove the rule.The now-defunct Friends of Abe once allowed conservative artists to meet in secrecy, network, and commiserate about being forced to stay silent. Former members recall fear-filled exchanges, often from crew members recalling the blowback they faced for thinking the “wrong” way in Tinseltown.The Hollywood Reporter recently suggested that liberal actress Cheryl Hines of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” fame might be “shunned” by the industry for supporting her husband, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The former presidential candidate recently endorsed Trump.Surely, the pro-Palestinian actors are equally concerned about this troubling state of affairs.Align emailed press representatives for Ruffalo, Nixon, Dunne, Ahmed, Common, Youssef, and Philipps. What are their thoughts on the unofficial Hollywood blacklist targeting conservative artists? Are they aware of the situation? Do they think it’s fair that right-leaning actors must hold their tongues lest they face professional blowback?The outreach letter featured generous examples of the blacklist in question. No one responded to the query.It’s not surprising. It’s an open secret the Hollywood press occasionally acknowledges but never questions. Last year, Emmy winner Alec Baldwin addressed the matter but dubbed it “unfortunate.”Some blacklist sequels are more acceptable than others.

Dead by Daylight developer Behaviour Interactive has acquired Darkest Dungeon studio Red Hook. The DBD team says Red Hook will remain “fully independent” despite the acquisition, with Behaviour aiming to support the studio in all future endeavors. This comes less than a week after Behaviour canceled its PvE game Project T, and closed developer Midwinter Entertainment alongside it. Continue reading DBD creator buys Darkest Dungeon dev, 6 days after closing Midwinter MORE FROM PCGAMESN: DBD killer tier list, Best horror games, DBD codes

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