7 Prayers that Real Men Pray

Some things never change. For many, that includes the tradition of getting and receiving birthday cards. While younger folks might not use them as much, or choose to go with digital versions, the love that comes from a physical card is one that grandmas especially adore. This is something, I think, we can all be grateful for — it’s certainly something that Travis Akers appreciates. He reveals that, even though he’s an adult, he can still count on his grandmother to send him a special card every single year. “My 90+ year old grandmother still sends a birthday card every year with $20 and a note that says, ‘get some chicken nuggets.’ I’m 42 now,” Travis shares in a sweet post on social media. “These cards are everything.” Twitter It’s no wonder that these sweet, and hilariously specific, birthday cards never fail to brighten Travis’ day. This is the kind of sweet gift that is sure to be the highlight of anyone’s birthday. In fact, you’ll find lots of heartwarming birthday cards from other grandmas that have been shared on social media. Grandma Gives Chicken Nugget Money in Birthday Card For Her 42-Year-Old Grandson In a popular post, a Reddit user named Tttoille shares that their grandma has been making them birthday cards for years. Without fail, they always make them feel loved. Although they appreciate every single card they’ve gotten over the years, they admit that the one below meant the most. Reddit Whether a card is handmade or bought from the store, there really is something oh-so special about them. They’re a simple way to show someone that you thought of them. Plus, cards are a great way for a loved one to keep a piece of you with them for years to come. How cool is that? You can find the source of this story’s featured image here! The post “Get Some Chicken Nuggets” Man Shares Heartwarming Birthday Card From 90-Yr-Old Grandmother appeared first on InspireMore.

Mavericks! Celtics! Not a bad matchup if I say so myself

Every Time I Die  was formed in the very cold city of Buffalo, New York, in 1998. The band’s lineup consisted of Keith Buckley (vocals), Jordan Buckley (guitar), Andy Williams (guitar), Stephen Micciche (bass), and Clayton “Goose” Holyoak (drums). Known for their energetic live performances and eclectic blend of metalcore, punk, and Southern rock, Every Time I Die has released nine studio albums: Last Night in Town (2001), Hot Damn! (2003), Gutter Phenomenon (2005), The Big Dirty (2007), New Junk Aesthetic (2009), Ex Lives (2012), From Parts Unknown (2014), Low Teens (2016), and Radical (2021). Every Time I Die achieved The post Complete List Of Every Time I Die Albums And Discography appeared first on ClassicRockHistory.com.

The one rare earth element whose chemistry has been largely unknown is now less of a mystery. Although promethium itself is unlikely to become as important to society as its neighbors on the periodic table, the information revealed about it could help improve our access to the rest.The category known as “rare earth elements” has created some unfortunate confusion recently as many of these elements become much more important. Neodymium, for example, helps make the strongest permanent magnets known, making it a valuable commodity for the clean energy revolution. Being labeled a rare earth element has promoted the idea there might not be enough to meet our needs, but it's actually almost as common in the Earth’s crust as copper, and much more so than lead.Not so promethium, which is among the rarest elements on Earth, even behind some of the transuranics once thought not to exist until we made them. Consequently, promethium wasn’t discovered until 1945, and has been in such short supply little research has been done on its chemistry.Now, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), where promethium was first discovered, has sought to change that. “The whole idea was to explore this very rare element to gain new knowledge,” said Dr Alex Ivanov in a statement. “Once we realized it was discovered at this national lab and the place where we work, we felt an obligation to conduct this research to uphold the ORNL legacy.” The ORNL team is the first to characterize promethium in a solution.     The team purified promethium-147 produced as a waste product from plutonium production.Appropriately, given the mythical figure it was named after, the team bound their promethium with organic molecules called diglycolamide ligands and used X-ray spectroscopy to measure the length of the bond between the promethium and its neighbors. The team then did the same thing with 3+ ions of all the other lanthanides for comparison.In this way, they were able to confirm that, like its neighbors, promethium’s atom experiences a phenomenon known as “lanthanide contraction”, which packs the electrons in more tightly to the nucleus than for most other atoms. This is one of the reasons mercury is the only element liquid at room temperature.With all the other lanthanides experiencing this contraction, it wasn’t a surprise promethium does it too, but the extent of the contraction is not identical for each element. “The contraction of this chemical bond accelerates along this atomic series, but after promethium, it considerably slows down,” said Ivanov. Consequently, without measuring the contraction we didn’t know if promethium’s would be more like neodymium to its left or samarium to its right. It’s much rarer than the other lanthanides, however, because none of its isotopes have half-lives longer than 17.7 years. Billions of years after the atoms that make up most of the Earth were formed in a supernova, nothing is left. The only reason there are tiny natural quantities on Earth at all is from rare events like neodymium-146 being hit by cosmic rays. Every other lanthanide has at least one stable isotope. “Because it has no stable isotopes, promethium was the last lanthanide to be discovered and has been the most difficult to study,” said Dr Ilja Popovs.The chemistry of the other 14 lanthanides is well understood – in fact they are frustratingly similar, making it hard to separate them when mined from the same ore. The ORNL team think their work will help with this. Understanding the details of the contraction for each element will make it easier to identify ways to separate them to meet the increasing demand.“There are thousands of publications on lanthanides’ chemistry without promethium. That was a glaring gap for all of science,” said Dr Santa Jansone-Popova. “Scientists have to assume most of its properties. Now we can actually measure some of them.”The study is open access in Nature. 

Three ultra-progressive district attorneys in major urban centers — Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, Los Angeles County DA George Gascon, and Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner — arguably are the most prominent and powerful among the soft-on-crime crowd.Leftists love them. Critics, however, repeatedly argue that their actions amount to pro-criminal sentimentality.He 'doesn’t value my life or the life of my child, or any other victim out there and would rather reward the monsters.'Bragg is well-known for his recent prosecution of former President Donald Trump, but he's also known for things like downgrading 52% of felony cases to misdemeanors. Several times he was forced to change course amid public anger, such as when he dropped what many saw as an unfair murder charge against 61-year-old deli worker Jose Alba who fatally stabbed an attacker in 2022; and a year later when he dropped criminal charges against a parking garage attendant who allegedly shot a man in self-defense; and earlier this year when he indicted seven migrants accused of attacking NYPD officers — only after critics torched him for their no-bail release.George Soros-backed Gascon has had his share of embarrassing moments, too — such as when he refused to file felony charges against an alleged sex offender, only to move forward with them following public outcry. In addition, a murderer in 2022 vowed to tattoo Gascon's name on his face in appreciation of the DA's policies that lightened his sentence. Gascon also allegedly used "mafia tactics" to intimidate a prosecutor who exposed his woke policies. Yet, the DA has managed to defeat two recall attempts against him.Krasner — also Soros-backed — had some of his authority stripped late last year due to his failed "liberal, woke" policies. In 2022, Pennsylvania Republicans moved to impeach Krasner for being soft on crime and allowing "chaos" in streets.Here's a look at a dozen infuriating decisions by the trio:DA Gascon refuses to jail thug accused of slashing man's neck; same suspect later accused of murdering woman who was shot 19 timesStefen Sutherland allegedly slashed a construction worker's neck in November 2020 after a noise complaint and was charged with assault with a deadly weapon, law enforcement sources said. Instead of giving him prison time, which a probation official recommended, the office of Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon gave Sutherland a mental health diversion, Fox News reported. Sutherland was then accused of gunning down Jennifer Gomez on May 23, 2023, over a noise complaint, sources with knowledge of the investigation said. The victim was shot 19 times in her home.Trans child molester, who was given lenient sentence thanks to DA Gascon's policies, later charged with first-degree murder — (@) Hannah Tubbs, a biological male, made national headlines in January 2022 after getting sentenced to two years in a juvenile detention facility for molesting a 10-year-old girl in 2014. Tubbs was two weeks shy of turning 18 at the time of the sexual assault, and since one of the policies of Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon barred juvenile offenders from adult prosecution, Tubbs at 26 years of age was tried as a juvenile — and was caught laughing and bragging about his light sentence. Then in May 2022, Tubbs was charged with first-degree murder in connection with a separate 2019 case. Gascon's office said it didn't know about Tubbs' murder allegations when the juvenile-facility sentence was handed down earlier in the year. Gascon subsequently changed his controversial policy after outcries, noting that juvenile offenders now may be transferred to the adult court system "in the most egregious cases that warrant a state prison commitment." Amazingly, Gascon in early 2023 suspended a prosecutor for "deadnaming" and "misgendering" Tubbs, who later that year was sentenced to 15 years in prison for manslaughter.Teen female stabs girl multiple times, resulting in serious wounds, hospitalization — but due to DA Gascon's 'restorative justice' policy, suspect gets only probation Video captured the 2021 knife attack in an Inglewood, California, park. The mother of the victim said the attacker punctured her daughter's liver, kidneys, diaphragm, and pericardial sac, and the victim suffered internal bleeding and required an immediate operation to save her life. The attack was over a boy, and afterward the suspect reportedly posted a message on social media and tagged the boy in question, asking him, "Would you love me more, If I killed someone for you?" The office of Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon said the accused had no prior criminal record, and getting her treatment was the best option.DA Gascon gives teen just a few months in juvenile detention after his caught-on-video hit-and-run against mother, baby in stroller; soon after freed teen is shot to deathKABC-TV said the hit-and-run took place in 2021 in Venice, California. Fox News' Bill Melugin said that the suspect was on probation at the time of the horrific incident caught on video and had been convicted previously of spiking a girl's drink at a high school. The teen's light sentence — courtesy of Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon — was reported in June 2022. The mother who was hit blasted the DA in an impact statement: "George Gascon doesn’t value my life or the life of my child, or any other victim out there and would rather reward the monsters like [the juvenile suspect] by demonstrating to them that their actions have no consequences." In January 2023, the teen was shot to death after flirting with a girl at a restaurant. The mother, who ripped Gascon for the light sentence against the teen who hit her and her baby, had this to say about the teen's murder: "The universe delivered the justice we weren’t given in court, but a much harsher punishment than he’d have been dealt in a court of law."LA county sheriff reveals grim consequences of DA Gascon's justice reform in connection with child porn caseThen-Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said in January 2021 that Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon's progressive reform policies resulted in a lighter sentence for a child porn suspect. The sheriff said his department's special victims bureau investigated a male for possession of child pornography with a previous sex crime conviction — after which he pleaded no contest. But Villanueva added that "pursuant to the DA's new directives, both of the defendant's previous strike convictions for sex crimes with a child were stricken," which resulted in a sentence of just two years in state prison. Finally, the sheriff said, "The defendant who has been in custody since his arrest in October 2020 has earned approximately 253 days credit toward his required half time to be served and will likely be released from custody in about 112 days."Grieving mother blasts DA Bragg for granting plea deals to thugs involved in slaying of her son — an Army vet, husband, and father of 3Madeline Brame's son, Sgt. Hason Correa, was killed in a 2018 Harlem stabbing, Fox News said, and the grieving mother during an early April 2023 panel discussion mocked Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's infamous "no one is above the law" declaration related to charges he had just brought against former President Donald Trump. "If no one is above the law, then I don't understand how Alvin Bragg could dismiss murder and gang assault indictments against two of the people involved in the murder of my son," she told the cable network. Brame added that New Yorkers are seeing rising crime "out of control every single day" and that Bragg is doing "absolutely zero" about it, the cable network said.DA Bragg's soft-on-crime Day One memo 'emboldened' crooks — and then 2 cops were fatally shot, angry NYC police union head saysIn the days following his Jan. 1, 2022, swearing-in, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg issued a so-called Day One memo to his staff in which he told prosecutors to seek pretrial detention only in "very serious cases" and added a list of low-level offenses his office would no longer prosecute — such as resisting arrest, skipping subway fare, prostitution, marijuana offenses, minor traffic infractions, and operating without a license, the New York Post reported. Later that month, NYPD Officers Jason Rivera and Wilbert Mora were gunned down. That prompted Paul DiGiacomo — president of New York City's Detectives' Endowment Association — to tell Fox News that Bragg's "message was sent to the criminal element," and that's why the officers got killed. DiGiacomo added to the cable news network that Bragg sent "a message out there that there are no consequences for committing crimes, and there are no consequences for resisting arrest." Rivera's widow at his funeral service also blasted Bragg: "The system continues to fail us. We are not safe any more, not even the members of the service. I know you were tired of these new laws, especially the ones from the new DA. I hope he’s watching you speak through me right now."DA Bragg knocks down felony robbery charges to misdemeanors for career criminal with nearly 90 arrests on his rap sheetThe office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg knocked down felony robbery charges to misdemeanors for career criminal — 53-year-old Rodney Johnson — who has nearly 90 arrests on his rap sheet, law enforcement sources told the New York Post in 2023. Both alleged robberies took place March 24 at pharmacies in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood, but the paper said prosecutors with Bragg's office reduced the charges to menacing and petit larceny — both misdemeanors.Soros-funded DA Krasner made sweetheart plea deals with violent crooks whom donors to his campaign legally represented: ReportThe Washington Free Beacon, citing city financial records, reported in 2021 that Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner made sweetheart plea deals with violent criminals who donors to his campaign legally represented. The paper said five months after Krasner took office, he reached a plea agreement with two career criminals who murdered a Philadelphia cop, which let them avoid the death penalty — and that defense attorneys Michael Coard and Daniel Stevenson oversaw the deal after donating a combined $2,700 to Krasner's 2017 campaign. Later, Krasner reached a plea deal with a career criminal who shot a Philadelphia deli owner with an AK-47 during an armed robbery, the Free Beacon said, adding that Krasner campaign donor Philip Steinberg represented the shooter — who received "as little as three-and-a-half years in prison for aggravated assault, a step below the attempted murder charge the DA's office initially pursued." The paper said Krasner's campaign did not return a request for comment.US attorney accuses DA Krasner of keeping cop killer out of prison — (@) Blaze News senior editor Daniel Horowitz noted in March 2020 that William McSwain — U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania — accused George Soros-backed Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner of keeping a cop killer out of jail. When a Philadelphia SWAT team was trying to serve a warrant to Hassan Elliott, the suspect allegedly fired multiple rounds through his apartment door, which fatally wounded 23-year veteran Cpl. James O’Connor IV, Horowitz said. McSwain said in a press release that "Elliott was on the street for one reason: because of District Attorney Krasner’s pro-violent defendant policies. Those policies — which include permissive bail conditions for violent offenders, failing to pursue serious probation and parole violations by violent criminals, offering lenient plea deals for violent offenses, and outright withdrawing cases against violent felons — put dangerous criminals like Elliott on the street.”DA Krasner withdraws armed carjacking case when victim doesn't show; suspect later accused of killing Philly college studentThe officer of Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner's office withdrew a summer 2021 case against an accused carjacker because the victim failed to appear in court, KYW-TV reported. But just months later that same suspect was accused of killing Samuel Collington, a Temple University student who was fatally shot while unloading his vehicle after returning from Thanksgiving with his family. The suspect in Collington's killing — then-17-year-old Latif Williams, who turned himself in to police — also was believed to have been involved in other uncharged carjackings in the area where Collington was fatally shot, sources told the station.DA Krasner declines to file charges against 4 pro-Palestinian protesters accused of assaulting UPenn policePhiladelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said his office declined to file assault charges against four pro-Palestinian protesters whom Penn cops arrested in May 2024 as the protesters allegedly attempted to occupy a campus building, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Krasner said although his office approved misdemeanor charges against three protestors — for resisting arrest or defiant trespass — prosecutors declined to approve more serious charges that police recommended, the paper reported. Krasner added, according to the Inquirer, that law enforcement should “tread lightly and be careful before we act like every kind of protest is a crime. It is not."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Four children are among the seven Texans dead after the country’s worst tornado since 2015 struck last Saturday, a day most of us spent enjoying whatever plans we'd made for the long weekend. The sudden tragedy highlights something that Prepper Broadcasting Network head James Walton wants his audience to understand. Disaster can strike at any time, and while we can't always anticipate it, we can be prepared.It's a message for all ages, which is one reason Walton chose an unconventional way to communicate it: a children's book called "The World of Ready."Walton, who lives in Central Virginia with his wife, two boys, and three dogs, spoke to Align about what inspired the book, what people get wrong about "preppers," and why it's so important to get to know your neighbors. ALIGN: Tell us a little about your background. What inspired you to write this book?James Walton: Becoming a father made me focus much more on preparedness. Hurricane Irene battered Richmond in 2011, and I watched at the windows of my dining room, holding my helpless newborn son, who was now my responsibility, as the wind howled for two days straight. Then, the power went out. At that moment, I felt like a failure as a husband and father. I was woefully unprepared for challenges that lay ahead. That day changed everything. Suddenly, I was obsessed by the concept of preparedness.After a long deep-dive into the real world of readiness, I found myself behind a microphone, doing a podcast on the Prepper Broadcasting Network. It was thrilling. I would come to own the Prepper Broadcasting Network, which has since become a 15-host podcast network producing daily shows. The network’s intro used to include the phrase, “creating a true culture of preparedness, starting at a very young age, and filtering all the way up.” That was the inspiration for creating a children’s book about preparedness.ALIGN: Why do you think emergency preparedness matters, especially today?JW: The average American is less capable today than ever before. Decades of comfort and convenience have seriously weakened our nation. It’s killed our skillsets and made us ineffective. Many men my age would be utterly useless to society 100 years ago. They’d probably lock them up in the back of a ward somewhere. I call it the 100-year amnesia. We have forgotten so much of what it means to be human in a mere 100 years.A culture that normalizes living paycheck-to-paycheck with a weeks’ worth of food, poor physical fitness, zero knowledge of weaponry, and no backup plan, produces a people lacking confidence. The workforce and an education system easily bullies people into hating their country, which is just a few steps further than hating oneself. The threats we face don’t care that we are unprepared, unfit, and totally lacking confidence. In fact, this works to their advantage. We are facing what looks like war with Russia, potential war with China, a growing number of domestic warlike attacks, a looming economic collapse, and the unregulated unleashing of artificial intelligence on our entire way of life — to say nothing of natural disasters. If we still want America to exist in the next 100 years, we must relearn what was lost.ALIGN: There seems to be a running joke in the mainstream media that preppers have a screw loose. Some may point to Y2K or similar instances of unrealized disaster to discredit preppers. What do you think of that?JW: I think people have been conditioned to believe that for every American citizen, there is a government agent or service that will swoop in and sustain their way of life in a major disaster. FEMA to the rescue. FEMA can do great things, but they can’t do everything. They don’t want to live with the truth that in a major disaster, most people are just on their own.Most Americans also don’t understand how much it takes to sustain a person, let alone a family. We are a calorie-cutting society, but preppers understand that a family of four needs 8,000 calories per day to stay fed. That’s 240,000 calories to sustain your family for a month!I think this is overwhelming information for the average person. Their to-do lists are already too long. They are overstimulated, underpaid, and struggling. The last thing they want to think about is that they also must prepare for an apocalypse. Ridicule is a coping mechanism.ALIGN: Why did you choose children's literature as your medium?JW: There are several issues preppers struggle with when getting started. One of the biggest is getting the family on board and keeping them involved. A children’s book series can help build a family culture. As a parent, there is nothing better than finding a book series that captivates your child in this digital age. My wife and I buy an entire series when our kids get excited about a book. We talk to them about it. We read with them, buy plushy characters, hang posters ... the whole nine yards. These are their core memories — why not make them useful?ALIGN: If there's one thing you think our audience can do today — mental or practical — to enhance their preparedness, what would it be?JW: Engage with the people in your neighborhood. The loneliness epidemic and the hollow world of digital stimulation has created a real hunger for human interaction, even as it has made it totally easy to do life without looking anyone in the eye. Should a disaster strike, the people who live around you will be the ones you are surviving with. They will be the ones by your side, moving debris and tarping up roofs. Start a community garden, create a neighborhood text line or email group, and start talking about things like neighborhood watch. Life with people is so important. We need each other more than we realize.

What are the God of War Ragnarok system requirements? Following the reveal during Sony's recent State of Play event, we now know that God of War Ragnarok will arrive on PC later this year, and it could be among the most demanding PS5 ports on PC. We expect you'll need the best graphics card to run God of War: Ragnarok at 4K resolution, and if we look at other PS5 ports we can discern that the now discontinued Nvidia GTX graphics cards could still feature as the entry-level pixel pusher. Continue reading God of War Ragnarok system requirements MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best graphics card, Best gaming PC, Best SSD for gaming

It’s a tough world out there. Baldur’s Gate 3, Elden Ring, Helldivers 2 - the Steam bestseller list is packed with recognized, beloved, and terrific games that have sold in the millions. Breaching the top ten on Valve’s storefront is no easy feat, but one gigantic new survival game, which blends the tropical vistas of Far Cry, the building and crafting of The Forest, and the gradual progression of Rust, has become one of the top games on Steam after a single day. Boasting more than 500 hours of playtime, this one’s a beast, and it’s already taking off. Continue reading New 500-hour survival game becomes Steam bestseller after just one day MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best survival games, Best RPGs, Best upcoming PC games