You’ve most likely heard of the terms “Smart City” and “15-minute city” but how many know exactly what they are? In the following article, the author of ‘How to Opt-Out of the […]

“Heart Of Glass” was one of those transition songs. It came along as disco’s excesses consumed the genre. The Blondie song had a New Wave feel with a dash of Punk but you could still dance to it. As the group progressed its Rock tendencies emerged in the songs “Call Me,” “One Way Or Another” (from the “Parallel Lines” album) and “Dreaming” (on “Eat To The Beat”). Blondie formed in ‘75 around the nucleus of Deborah Harry, a blonde ex-Playboy bunny, and her husband/guitarist Chris Stein. The group was a hybrid from the start mixing melodic Rock with Punk and just about anything else that was available. “The Tide Is High” plugged-in Reggae while “Rapture” was considered the first “white Rap record.” Both were on the band’s fifth studio album, a 1980 release, “AutoAmerican.” By the early ‘80s the group had run its course. Add to that Stein’s debilitating illness and Blondie was done. Harry took time off to help her hubby recuperate before launching a checkered solo career. With Stein recovered, Blondie reformed in the late ‘90s but by then it didn’t matter except to hardcore fans. ’03 release “The Curse Of Blondie” continued to cater to the faithful.In ’06, Blondie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with an introductory speech by Shirley Manson (frontwoman for Garbage).Later in the year, Blondie was inducted into the Rock Walk of Fame on Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard. The post Blondie appeared first on RockinTown.

Yet another rolling disaster for the nation's food supply chain The nation’s food supply chain remains under stress. We’ve been sounding the alarm on America’s beef cattle supply dwindling to the lowest levels in over half a century. Now, Bloomberg reports that dairy farms are pivoting breeding programs toward beef-on-dairy hybrids, capitalizing on the low beef herds amid last year’s crushing milk glut. However, this comes with mounting risks as the nation’s dairy herd begins to crack. Hybrid calves are produced by artificially inseminating a dairy cow with semen from a beef bull. This has created a massive upside for struggling dairy farmers battered by volatile milk prices and an unforgiving glut in recent years. Midwest farmers last year were forced to dump tens of thousands of gallons of milk down the drain.  “Milk prices are up and down and so farmers are always looking for a way to offset costs to be as efficient as possible,” said Amy Penterman, the owner of Dutch Dairy, which breeds approximately 70% of its 900-cow milking herd for beef. Penterman explained the new revenue stream is “rewarding because the beef supply has diminished over the last few years. We’re able to add that extra supply into the market to keep the cost down for our consumers.”Save 40% on Ultimate Fish Oil today and improve your supplement routine & experience the world-renowned powerhouse formula! The latest USDA data shows the nation’s beef cattle herd plunged to its lowest level since 1951, primarily due to persistent droughts across the Midwest, surging diesel and feed costs, and high interest rates. Higher costs have forced ranchers to cull an increasing number of beef cows.  On Wednesday, Tyson Foods CEO Donnie King told the audience at the BMO Global Farm to Market Conference in Toronto that he’s still uncertain when US ranchers will rebuild beef herds meaningfully. One major problem with dairy farms pivoting towards beef-on-dairy hybrids to capitalize on soaring beef prices is the collapse of the replacement dairy cow inventory.  Data from the USDA already shows that the number of available replacement cows for dairy herds in January 2024 plunged to lows not seen since 2004.  Rabobank’s Lucas Fuess warned that if milk prices were to jump, low inventories and higher prices for replacement cows could cause farmers to experience severe margin compression.  Nate Donnay, the director of dairy market insight at StoneX Financial, said the number of replacement dairy cows is already “down to the minimum level” needed to maintain the dairy herd. “Ten years from now, the beef herd’s probably going to get too big again and prices will be terrible and maybe they don’t want these dairy animals anymore,” Donnay said, adding, “But for the next couple of years, that demand for dairy animals into the beef herd is probably going to stay strong.” Yet another rolling disaster for the nation’s food supply chain.  Israeli Plan to Force All Gazan Survivors Onto US Ships Exposed

Figure is the highest ever recorded in response to the survey question A majority of likely voters in the United States believe that a randomly selected group of people would govern the country better than the current US Congress, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll published Friday. Most voters, 54%, believe that a group of people randomly selected from a phone book would better address the country’s problems than current lawmakers, the poll report said. The figure is the highest ever recorded in response to the survey question, topping the previous high of 52% in July 2014, the poll report said. The figure is up five percentage points from December 2022, the poll report added. The poll surveyed 1,087 likely US voters from May 7-9. The poll maintains a margin of error of plus-or-minus three percentage points with a 95% confidence level.URGENT! Keep Alex Jones in the fight against the NWO! Please pray & contribute at DefendJones.com today! Israeli Plan to Force All Gazan Survivors Onto US Ships Exposed

Adnan Deumic reportedly "collapsed of a suspected cardiac arrest" and did not respond to medical treatment A credit trader from Bank of America who was just 25 years old died suddenly on Thursday night while playing soccer at an industry event, a report by Yahoo/Bloomberg on Friday confirmed.  The credit portfolio and algorithmic trader, Adnan Deumic, reportedly “collapsed of a suspected cardiac arrest” and did not respond to medical treatment, including CPR, the writeup says.  The bank commented: “The death of our teammate is a tragedy, and we are shocked by the sudden loss of a popular, young colleague. We are committed to providing our full support to Adnan’s family, his friends and to our many employees grieving his loss.” Working out of Bank of America’s London office, the trader was “active in sports”, the report says, noting that he was a native of Sweden and also played ice hockey.  The recent death marks the second loss of a young employee in the firm’s Wall Street divisions. Leo Lukenas, an investment banking associate in New York, passed away earlier this month.Save 10% on ALL storable food and Alexapure Pro Water Filtration Systems! Secure your independence with our delicious kits TODAY to beat the coming demand! It is unclear if work contributed to Lukenas’ death, and Bank of America is not formally investigating it, Bloomberg reported. The bank stated it is focused on supporting the family and the team, who are devastated. As the article notes, this incident has sparked discussions within the industry about the demanding, long hours in investment banking. We’re sure there one other topic that it isn’t sparking discussions about… As has been reported, it is still uncertain what contributed to Lukenas’ death, and Bank of America is not formally investigating it. The company’s said its focus “doing whatever we can to help and support the family and our team who are devastated,” it commented. Israeli Plan to Force All Gazan Survivors Onto US Ships Exposed

by Frank Bergman, Slay News: The coroner in Charleston, South Carolina has announced the results of the investigation into the sudden death of Boeing whistleblower John Barnett, who was found dead in March. Barnett’s body was discovered in his truck after he failed to show up for his second day of depositions in a lawsuit […]

Image: Ayaneo The Analogue Pocket is the most advanced Game Boy to ever take actual carts, but Ayaneo has just unveiled a pair of emulator-centric pocket computers that could give it a run for its cash — including a modern take on the original DMG-01 Nintendo Game Boy that now includes a 419ppi OLED screen. Unfortunately, we’ve only got renders and a few details today — no prices or full spec sheets — but those renders look pretty neat! I find myself most interested in the Pocket Micro, whose sleek design, twin joysticks and horizontal layout look a bit more practical than the stick placement on the Pocket DMG. Not to mention a bit of a Sony Walkman vibe from certain angles? Take a peek: Below, you’ll also see the Ayaneo AG01 “Graphics Starship”... Continue reading…

How did complex life emerge and evolve on the Earth and what does this mean for finding life beyond Earth? This is what a recent study published in Nature hopes to address as a pair of researchers investigated how plate tectonics, oceans, and continents are responsible for the emergence and evolution of complex life across our planet and how this could address the Fermi Paradox while attempting to improve the Drake Equation regarding why we haven’t found life in the universe and the parameters for finding life, respectively. This study holds the potential to help researchers better understand the criterion for finding life beyond Earth, specifically pertaining to the geological processes exhibited on Earth. Here, Universe Today discusses this study with Dr. Taras Gerya, who is a Professor of Earth Sciences at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH-Zurich) and co-author of the study, regarding the motivation behind the study, significant results, follow-up studies, what this means for the Drake Equation, and the study’s implications for finding life beyond Earth. So, what was the motivation behind this study? Dr. Gerya tells Universe Today, “It was motivated by the Fermi Paradox (“Where is everybody?”) pointing out that the Drake Equation typically predicts that there are from 1000 to 100,000,000 actively communicating civilizations in our galaxy, which is too optimistic of an estimate. We tried to figure out what may need to be corrected in this equation to make the prediction with the Drake Equation more realistic.” For the study, the research duo compared two types of planetary tectonic processes: single lid (also called stagnant lid) and plate tectonics. Single lid refers to a planetary body that does not exhibit plate tectonics and cannot be broken into separate plates that exhibit movement by sliding towards each other (convergent), sliding past each other (transform), or slide away from each other (divergent). This lack of plate tectonic activity is often attributed to a planetary body’s lid being too strong and dense to be broken apart. In the end, the researchers estimated that 75 percent of planetary bodies that exhibit active convection within their interiors do not exhibit plate tectonics and possess single lid tectonics, with Earth being the only planet that exhibits plate tectonics. Therefore, they concluded that single lid tectonics “is likely to dominate the tectonic styles of active silicate bodies in our galaxy”, according to the study. Additionally, the researchers investigated how planetary continents and oceans contribute to the evolution of intelligent life and technological civilizations. They noted the significance of life first evolving in oceans due to them being shielded from harmful space weather with single-celled life thriving in the oceans for the first few billion years of Earth’s history. However, the researchers also emphasize how dry land provides a myriad of benefits for the evolution of intelligent life, including adaptations to various terrains, such as eyes and new senses, which contributed to animals evolving for speed to hunt among other biological assets that enabled life to adapt to the various terrestrial environments across the planet. In the end, the researchers concluded dry land helped contribute to the evolution of intelligent life across the planet, including abstract thinking, technology, and science. Therefore, what were the most significant results from this study, and what follow-up studies are currently in the works or being planned? Dr. Gerya tells Universe Today, “That very special condition (>500 million years coexistence of continents, oceans, and plate tectonics) is needed on a planet with a primitive life in order to develop an intelligent technological communicative life. This condition is very rarely realized: only <0.003-0.2 % of planets with any life may satisfy this condition.” Dr. Gerya continues, “We plan to study water evolution in the planetary interior in order to understand how stability of surface ocean volume (implying stability of coexistence of oceans and continents) can be maintained for billions of years (like on Earth). We also plan to investigate the survival time of technological civilizations based on societal collapse models. We also started a project on the oxygenation state evolution of planetary interior and atmosphere in order to understand how oxygen-rich atmospheres (essential in particular for developing technological civilizations) can be formed on planets with oceans, continents and plate tectonics. Progress in these three directions is essential but will greatly depend on the availability of research funding.” As noted, this study was motivated and attempts to improve the Drake Equation, which proposes a multivariable equation that attempts to estimate the number of active, communicative civilizations (ACCs) that exist in the Milky Way Galaxy. It was proposed by in 1961 Dr. Frank Drake to postulate several notions that he encouraged the scientific community to consider when discussing both how and why we haven’t heard from ACCs and reads as follows: N = R* x fp x ne x fl x fi x fc x L N = the number of technological civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy who can potentially communicate with other worlds R* = the average star formation rate in the Milky Way Galaxy fp = the fraction of those stars with planets ne = the average number of planets potentially capable of supporting life per star with planets fl = the fraction of planets capable of supporting and developing life at some point in its history fi = the fraction of planets that develop life and evolves into intelligent life fc = the fraction of civilizations who develop technology capable of sending detectable signals into space L = the length of time that technological civilizations send signals into space According to the study, the Drake Equation estimates the number of ACCs range widely, between 200 to 50,000,000. As part of the study, the researchers proposed adding two additional variables to the Drake Equation based on their findings that plate tectonics, oceans, and continents have played a vital role in the development and evolution of complex life on Earth, which are as follows: foc = the fraction of habitable exoplanets that possess notable continents and oceans fpt = the fraction of habitable exoplanets that possess notable continents and oceans that also exhibit plate tectonics that have been functioning for at least 500 million years Using these two new variables, the study provided new estimates for fi (chances of planets that develop life and evolve into intelligent life). So, what is the importance of adding two new variables to the Drake Equation? Dr. Gerya tells Universe Today, “This allowed us to re-define and estimate more correctly the key term of the Drake equation fi – probability of a planet with primitive life to develop an intelligent technological communicative life. Originally, fi was (incorrectly) estimated to be very high (100%). Our estimate is many orders of magnitude lower (<0.003-0.2 %), which likely explains why we are not contacted by other civilizations.” Additionally, when inputting these two new variables into the entire Drake Equation, the study estimates a far smaller number of ACCs at < 0.006 to 100,000, which is in stark contrast to the original estimates of the Drake Equation of 200 to 50,000,000. Therefore, what implications could this study have on the search for life beyond Earth? Dr. Gerya tells Universe Today, “It has three key consequences: (1) we should not hope much that we will be contacted (probability of this is very low, in part because the life time of technological civilizations can be shorter than previously expected), (2) we should use remote sensing to look for planets with oceans, continents and plate tectonics (COPT planets) in our galaxy based on their likely distinct (CO2-poor) atmospheres and surface reflectivity signatures (due to the presence of oceans and continents), (3) we should take care about our own planet and civilization, both are extremely rare and must be preserved.” This study comes as the search for life beyond Earth continues to gain traction, with NASA having confirmed the existence of 5,630 exoplanets as of this writing, with almost 1,700 being classified as Super-Earths and 200 being classified as rocky exoplanets. Despite these incredible numbers, especially since exoplanets first started being discovered in the 1990s, humanity has yet to detect any type of signal from an extraterrestrial technological civilization, which this study referred to as ACCs. Arguably the closest we have come to receiving a signal from outer space was the Wow! signal, which was a 72-second radio blast received by Ohio State University’s Big Ear radio telescope on August 15, 1977. However, this signal has yet to be received since, along with a complete lack of signals at all. With this study, perhaps scientists can use these two new variables added to the Drake Equation to help narrow the scope of finding intelligent life beyond Earth. Dr. Gerya concludes by telling Universe Today, “This research is part of an emerging new science – Biogeodynamics, which we try to support and develop. Biogeodynamics aims to understand and quantify relations between the long-term evolution of planetary interiors, surface, atmosphere, and life.” How will these two new variables added to the Drake Equation help scientists find life beyond Earth in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science! As always, keep doing science & keep looking up! The post Did Earth’s Multicellular Life Depend on Plate Tectonics? appeared first on Universe Today.

Trump suggested President Biden would be on performance-boosting drugs at the two presidential debates unless he is tested Donald Trump said he would demand a drug test on Joe Biden as a condition for debating him, at a GOP dinner in St Paul, Minnesota on Friday. “I’m gonna demand a drug test,” Trump said, to rapturous applause from the audience of donors at the annual Lincoln Reagan Dinner, as he discussed his upcoming televised debates with President Biden. “I don’t want him coming in like the State of the Union. He was high as a kite! “I said, ‘Is that Joe up there, at Beautiful Row?’ And by the end of the evening he’s like, ‘Wow!’ He was exhausted, right? “No, we’re gonna demand a drug test.”URGENT! Keep Alex Jones in the fight against the NWO! Please pray & contribute at DefendJones.com today! Trump: I want to debate this guy but I’m going to demand a drug test pic.twitter.com/X9NCGloqoU— Acyn (@Acyn) May 18, 2024 Two debates between President Biden and former president Trump have been set for 27 June and 10 September. The first will be hosted by CNN in Atlanta, and will be fronted by Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. The second will be hosted by ABC, with the location and hosts being undisclosed at this time. In response to the announcement of the debates, President Biden said on Twitter, “Anywhere, any time, any place.” Meanwhile, Trump posted on Truth Social, “I am ready and willing to debate Crooked Joe at the two proposed times in June and September.” He called Biden “the worst debater” he has ever debated. Israeli Plan To Force All Gazan Survivors Onto US Ships Exposed