Around The World Exhibition: A Journey Through The Best Of … – Little Day Out

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When Jules Verne published the novel Around the World in 80 days in 1873, he could never have imagined that 150 years later, it would inspire Alliance Franaise de Singapours exhibition Around the World, which showcases the best of French transportation across the ages.

The exhibition takes visitors on a journey through transport-related innovations that emerged from France. This spans different modes of travel from land to sea to air, and even space.

On from now till 15 July 2023, the Around the World exhibition delves into different eras of transportation, casting the spotlight on French engineering and innovation.

When visitor first arrive at the Itinerary Office at the start of the exhibition, they can pick up an exhibition passport and boarding pass.

These are important, not only for visitors to take notes, but because they allow visitors to be in the running to win air tickets to France by completing a code on the boarding pass.

Also on display at the start of the small exhibition is Jules Vernes Extraordinary Voyages, which includes the novel Around the World in 80 Days.

Inside the land transportation gallery, visitors can learn about French innovations such as the TGV high-speed train.

While many Singaporeans associate the Michelin brand with food, the companys core products are represented at this section too. Amongst its innovations on display is a puncture-proof tire.

Take a peak into the luxury and romance of sea travel by imagining what it must have been like to sail onboard the SS France. There is a detailed model of this ocean liner in the sea section of the exhibition, along with records of other sea-related innovations by the French.

France has a long association with air travel. This began as far back as the 1780s when the Montgolfier brothers took to the air in a hot air balloon, right up to the 20th Century with the development of the record-setting Concorde.

Amongst the artefacts on display at the air gallery are the tableware and toiletry bag gifted to passengers on board the Concorde. An Air France menu also shows how delicacies like caviar and truffles were served onboard the supersonic plane as it flew between Paris and New York.

Space is the final frontier at the Alliance Franaise de Singapour exhibition. One highlight here is a VR experience. This places visitors into the shoes of Thomas Pesquet, the French European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut who spent six months in the International Space Station.

To complement the Around the World exhibition, Alliance Franaise de Singapour is also be holding the MOVE! Programme which will feature a series of talks, film screenings and activities.

Families with young children can look forward to selection of films that includes the film adaptation of Jules Vernes timeless masterpiece, Around the World in 80 Days, a chuck glider making workshop, and storytelling sessions at the Alliance Franaise library that will immerse kids into world of aviation.

Get details about the Around the World exhibition and the MOVE! programmes at Alliance Franaise.

The exhibition can be found at the gallery on the second floor of Alliance Franaise.

The gallery is open from Tuesdays to Fridays, 1 pm to 7.30 pm, and on Saturday 9 am to 5.30 pm. Admission is free.

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Around The World Exhibition: A Journey Through The Best Of ... - Little Day Out

Eta Aquarid meteor shower 2023 peaking now! See pieces of Halley’s Comet in the night sky – Space.com

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The annual Eta Aquarids meteor shower peaks on Friday (May 5) and Saturday (May 6), offering skywatchers the opportunity to see debris from Halley's Comet as it enters Earth's atmosphere at incredible speeds and burns up.

This year the meteor shower began lighting up the night sky over Earth on April 19 and will last until May 28, so even after its peak there will be plenty of opportunity to catch fireballs streaking through the sky.

At its peak, the Eta Aquarid meteor shower has a rate of around 55 meteorites per hour, but this rate is calculated assuming perfect viewing conditions such as completely dark skies and ideal weather. This means skywatchers should realistically expect to see fewer Eta Aquarids meteors than this.

According to In the Sky (opens in new tab), from New York City the Eta Aquarid meteor shower becomes visible each morning at around 2:32 a.m. EDT (0632 GMT) with it remaining active until around the break of dawn at 5:16 a.m. EDT (0916 GMT).

Related: Meteor showers 2023: Where, when and how to see them

Spotting the Eta Aquarids is even tougher in the Northern Hemisphere because the meteor shower's radiant, the point at which its meteors appear to stream, is located in the Aquarius constellation near one of the constellation's brightest stars, beta Aquarii, which only reaches a low altitude above the eastern horizon.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the Eta Aquarids' radiant is at its highest just before sunrise with it appearing over the horizon to the east for just a few hours. This makes the early dawn the best time to spot the most meteors. The reason why more meteors are visible when the radiant rises to its highest point, or "culminates," is because this is the time at which this region of Earth is turned towards the direction of incoming meteors.

This results in more meteors raining down vertically and creating short trails close to the star beta Aquarii. At other times, though meteors will be fewer, the fact they take more horizontal paths through Earth's atmosphere means they take longer to burn up, and as a result, these long-lived meteors create relatively stretched trails over Earth.

Skywatchers who can't make it outdoors to view the meteor shower during its peak have the option to watch it streamed online live and for free. The Asahi Shimbun Space Department and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) began a livestream (opens in new tab) of the Eta Aquariids from the Subaru Telescope, MaunaKea Hawaii, on April 18.

Like all meteor showers, the Eta Aquarids are created when Earth during its 365.25-day orbit of the sun passes through a cloud of dust and debris left by a comet or an asteroid. And the Eta Aquarids have a very famous progenitor indeed, arguably the most well-known comet, Halley's Comet, or more formally 1P/Halley.

As comets come close to the sun, the radiation from our star causes the material that composes them to heat up. This results in solid ice within the cometary body transforming directly into gas, a process called sublimation. As this gas is ejected, it blasts away particles of dust and ice from the comet. This causes these icy bodies to brighten as they approach the sun and also gives them the characteristic glowing aura, or coma, that surrounds them and their cometary tail.

In addition to this, some fragments of this ejected material linger around the sun as the comet orbits, and as the Earth makes its own journey around its parent star, it passes through these clouds usually at the same time each year.

Our planet encounters debris from Halley's Comet every April to May, giving rise to the Eta Aquarids. These dust fragments separated from Halley's Comet hundreds of years ago, something scientists know because the current path of the comet doesn't seem to bring it close enough to the Earth to leave cometary debris that would create meteor showers.

The fragments enter Earth's atmosphere at speeds as great as 148,000 miles per hour, which is 100 times faster than a jet fighter, and burn up at altitudes of around 44 to 62 miles (70 to 100 kilometers) over the surface of the planet.

The last time Halley's Comet's 76-year orbit of the sun brought it past Earth was in 1986 and it won't be back until 2061, according to NASA (opens in new tab). That means for the next 38 years, the closest skywatchers will get to observing the comet is sighting the debris it shed hundreds of years ago as it is destroyed in the atmosphere.

If you want to get a closer look at Aquarius to hopefully see some of the Eta Aquarids, our guides to thebest telescopesandbest binocularsare a great place to start.

And you're looking to snap photos of the night sky in general, check out our guide on how to photograph the moon, as well as our best cameras for astrophotography and best lenses for astrophotography.

Editor's Note: If you catch a photograph of the Eta Aquarid meteor shower and would like to share it with Space.com's readers, send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com.

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Eta Aquarid meteor shower 2023 peaking now! See pieces of Halley's Comet in the night sky - Space.com

When to Watch the Eta Aquariids Meteor Shower Peak – The New York Times

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On any given night, far from bright city lights, theres a chance that youll see a beautiful streak shoot across the sky as a meteor flies overhead. But on special dates scattered throughout the year, skywatchers can catch a multitude of flares as meteor showers burst in the darkness.

Meteor showers occur when our planet runs into the debris fields left behind by icy comets or rocky asteroids going around the sun. These small particles burn up in the atmosphere, leading to blazing trails of light. The regularity of orbital mechanics means that any given meteor shower happens at roughly the same time each year, with the changing phases of the bright moon being the main variable affecting their visibility.

The next event is the Eta Aquariids, one of two showers resulting from the debris field of Halleys comet (the other is the Orionids in October). Debris will enter over Earths Equator, meaning it will be visible in both hemispheres all over the world. In past years, the Eta Aquariids have produced 45 to 85 meteors per hour in dark sky conditions.

Unfortunately, the peak for this shower coincides with a full moon on Friday, May 5, into Saturday, May 6, limiting visibility. But the shower should be highly active for roughly a week before and after that date.

Subscribe to the Times Space and Astronomy Calendar to get a reminder ahead of this and other events.

The best practice is to head out to the countryside and get as far from artificial light sources as possible. People in rural areas may have the luxury of just stepping outside. But city-dwellers have options, too.

Many cities have an astronomical society that maintains a dedicated dark sky area. I would suggest contacting them and finding out where they have their location, Robert Lunsford, the secretary general of the International Meteor Organization, said in an interview with The New York Times in 2022.

Meteor showers are usually best viewed when the sky is darkest, after midnight but before sunrise. To see as many meteors as possible, wait 30 to 45 minutes after you get to your viewing location. That will allow your eyes to adjust to the dark. Then lie back and take in a large swath of the night sky. Clear nights, higher altitudes and times when the moon is slim or absent are best. Mr. Lunsford suggested a good rule of thumb: The more stars you can see, the more meteors you can see.

Binoculars or telescopes arent necessary for meteor showers, and in fact will limit your view.

Each shower peaks on a certain date when Earth is plowing into the densest portion of the debris field, though in some cases many meteors can still be seen before or after that specific night.

A shower is named for a constellation in the part of the sky it appears to streak from. But theres no need to be perfectly versed in every detail of the celestial sphere. Meteors should be visible all over the sky during any given shower.

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When to Watch the Eta Aquariids Meteor Shower Peak - The New York Times

Eta Aquariids meteor shower: When and where you can see it in the UK – Sky News

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By Faiza Saqib, News reporter @Faiza__Saqib

Friday 5 May 2023 10:34, UK

The Eta Aquariid meteor shower is expected to peak in the early hours of Saturday 6 May.

It's time to camp out, gather your sleeping bags and prepare for a night of stargazing, as you might be able to see a spectacular display of 120-160 shooting stars per hour.

The Eta Aquariids occur when the Earth passes through the debris trail of Comet Halley.

Here's everything you need to know.

When is the Eta Aquariids meteor shower this year?

According to Royal Museums Greenwich, the meteor shower is active between 19 April and 28 May but will peak between midnight and dawn on 6 May this year.

Bill Cooke, lead of NASA's Meteoroid Environments Office at the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, said: "A meteor shower is like a normal rain shower, with 50-60 meteors per hour.

"An outburst is like a thunderstorm, with greater than normal meteor activity expected. A meteor storm is like a tornado, where meteor rates are over one thousand per hour."

Where does Eta Aquariids get its name from?

The Eta Aquariids usually peak during early May each year and are known for their speed.

Eta Aquariid gets its name from the constellation in the night sky that it appears to radiate from - the Aquarius constellation.

But instead of being called the Aquarid meteor shower, the name comes from one of the stars from this constellation, Eta Aquarii.

The Eta Aquariid is one of two meteor showers created by debris from Comet Halley.

Halleys Comet is visible from Earth once every 76 years or so.

"The pieces of space debris that interact with our atmosphere to create the Eta Aquarids originate from comet 1P/Halley," the NASA website has said.

Comet Halley was first discovered by English Astronomer Edmund Halley in 1705.

He predicted the orbit of the comet through past observations of comets, suggesting that these sightings were, in fact, all the same comet.

Halley is known to be the most famous comet and was last seen in 1986.

Nasa said it will return in 2061 on its regular 76-year journey around the Sun.

How can I see it in the UK?

The Eta Aquariid meteor shower can be viewed in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, but NASA has said that the highest visibility will be in the Southern Hemisphere.

"This is due to the radiant's location in the constellation of Aquarius. Meteors will be observable after midnight, but the peak times are 3-4 am until dawn," NASA said.

The Royal Museums Greenwich website says: "This shower favours the Southern Hemisphere and will appear low in the sky for northerly latitudes (such as the UK) in the early predawn hours."

In order to get the best view, here's what you can do:

Be sure to check the weather forecast! If it is cloudy, try a day before or after the peak viewing period.

The Met Office has said Friday will be a day of sunshine and showers.

Saturday will be another cloudy and wet day for many across the UK.

So be sure to prepare in advance if you want to catch the Eta Aquariid meteor shower.

NASA has also advised people to:

Get as far away from city lights as possible to get the best view of the meteor shower.

Give yourself 30 minutes in the dark for your eyes to adapt.

Do not look at your phone - again, stay away from the light.

Try not to look at the moon.

And last but not least, get comfy! For the best stargazing method, lie down and watch the night sky.

Read more from Sky News:World's first artificial shooting star displayElon Musk 'wrong' to call for pause in development of AI

What is a meteor shower?

Simply put, a meteor shower is a space rock or meteoroid entering Earth's atmosphere.

"As the space rock falls toward Earth, the resistance-or drag-of the air on the rock makes it extremely hot. What we see is a 'shooting star.'

"That bright streak is not actually the rock, but rather the glowing hot air as the hot rock zips through the atmosphere," NASA has said.

"When Earth encounters many meteoroids at once, we call it a meteor shower," it adds.

Here are some meteor showers over the years

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Eta Aquariids meteor shower: When and where you can see it in the UK - Sky News

Wellington vs. Amherst baseball: Comets come out ahead in 1-0 pitchers duel – The Morning Journal

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A classic pitchers duel took place between Wellington and Amherst on May 5 in a nonconference matchup, as the two teams were scoreless through 5 1/2 innings in Amherst.

The pace was crisp and both starters, Cam Gendics for the Comets and Johnnie Kinter for the Dukes, pitched marvelously. Though one team had to fall, as Gendics and the Comets came out with a 1-0 victory, with Anthony Heikkinen earning a two-out save.

The game was played out in a playoff atmosphere, as the postseason is less than two weeks away and Amherst neck-and-neck with North Ridgeville for the SWC crown.

I thought both pitchers were fantastic, Amherst coach Matt Rositano said. (Johnnie) Kinter is really good, thats one of the better pitchers weve faced this year. Cam was on his game the entire time he was out there. We had him on a pitch count so he could be available next week. I know he wanted to stay out there. But weve got more important games on Monday and Wednesday.

Everything went smoothly until Amherst put Chase Mayer, fresh off a 15-strikeout no-hitter of Elyria May 4, in to pinch hit for Devin Pritt to lead off the bottom of the sixth. Mayer laid down a bunt, and the throw sailed wide of the mark at first base and he raced around to third. One out and three batters later, Cam Gendics helped his own cause with an opposite-field blooper to right that scored Mayer.

Definitely not one of our best games, but Coach Roz always says put the ball in play and good things will happen, Mayer said. I got a bunt down and an overthrow to first, and I ended up getting to third. Cam Gendics came up with a hit and I ended up scoring. That was the difference in the game.

Being on a pitch count and getting Mayer over to third to swing momentum in their favor, Gendics capitalized when it came time for him to hit with two on and one down in that playoff atmosphere with runs at a premium.

That was a big moment, Gendics said. He came in and did his job, and we capitalized on the error. Especially with our pitching staff, that one run is going to be really big.

Wellington coach Dan Davison was pleased with the overall effort, as it was a great game outside of the one miscue.

It was a really good game, Davison said. Obviously, they have a lot more weapons than we do, but we come in here with the belief that we can win the game and we belong on the field with these guys. Johnnie pitched a great game and the defense was solid up until that one bunt. Just didnt have the grip on the baseball when he made the throw, I could see it when he threw it.

Wellington had a chance to knot the game up, with two runners on base before Heikkinen struck out the last batter to lock down the save.

While that moment obviously stings, Davison still had an optimistic outlook on the game itself, as both teams got a good test ahead of tournament time.

All in all, Im not too displeased. We hit the ball OK and gave ourselves a chance again at the end of the game to tie it up and go somewhere with it, and it just didnt happen tonight.

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Wellington vs. Amherst baseball: Comets come out ahead in 1-0 pitchers duel - The Morning Journal

Athlete of the Week: Amelia Weber’s grand slam helped boost … – St. Albans Messenger

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Amelia Weber had a dominant week at the plate, going 7 for 9, with six RBI, one double, one triple, and a grand slam while playing flawless defense in the outfield. The grand slam helped lift the Comets comfortably past visiting Missisquoi Valley Union on April 25.

Q&A with Amelia Weber

What will you remember most about hitting the home run to open up the game against MVU? The part I will remember most and the best part of the whole thing was coming down the third base line and seeing my team waiting for me to touch home plate and then being in that huge huddle with them.

What three things do you love about this team that you feel contribute to its success? Three things I love about this team that contributes to our success is the way we treat each other like family, how we give back to the community, and how hard we all work during practices.

What are you most looking forward to in the second half of the season? Im looking forward to our competitive games and all the milestones that will lead us to success. I also want to thank all of the coaches for their commitment to the team and helping us to become better softball players everyday.

Comet coach Bert Berthiaume: Amelia was brought up to varsity this year as a sophomore to be in a reserve role as she worked on her game, and quickly emerged as someone ready to contribute immediately. Her grand slam against MVU was huge in giving the Comets a lead that would carry them to the victory. On April 29, in a close game early against Colchester she had a base loaded hit that drove in two. Shes a hard working athlete whos often found in the weight room when shes not on the softball field. Shes extremely coachable and has quickly earned the respect from the coaching staff as well as her peers. Shes remained humble in her early season success, and she has made all of us very proud.

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Athlete of the Week: Amelia Weber's grand slam helped boost ... - St. Albans Messenger

Patience pays off in Lady Bombers win over Lady Comets – Paducah Sun

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The Carlisle County Lady Comets hosted the Ballard Memorial Lady Bombers on Thursday night. With the score knotted 3-3 for most of the game, the Lady Bombers were patient at the plate, scoring big runs down the stretch to secure the 5-3 win.

That 3-3 score seemed stuck as the Lady Comets tied things up in the bottom of the third inning and the score wouldnt change until the Lady Bombers runs in the top of the seventh.

When youve got two great teams like these, a senior loaded team in Carlisle and a young team with us patience is key, Ballard Memorial head coach Scott Alexander said. To come up, even when its a one-run ballgame like that, a simple sac fly can make the difference in the game.

That sacrifice fly came courtesy of Aubrey Alexander with the bases loaded and one out. Her strategically placed ball gave Serenity Owens room to score the leading run and an error on the throw game Adalyn Hargrove the time she needed to score the final run.

Thats the way weve been so far, Alexander said. We get behind and we always fight back late. It says a lot about the grit we have as a team, its great to see.

Madyson Bohde claimed the win for Ballard Memorial in the circle, allowing two hits, three runs and striking out eight on a 127-82 pitch-strike count. She also contributed to the first run of the evening when she connected on a single to score Trinity Williams who knocked a double in the previous at-bat.

Carlisle County would answer back in their portion of the first inning. Junior Laney Shehorn got things going with a fly ball double to left field and after two quick strikeouts, Anna Russelburg brought home Shehorn on a line drive and reached on an error. They doubled down in the following at-bat when Lilyan Shehorn knocked out a line drive single to score Russelburg and take the 2-1 lead.

The Lady Bombers would get back on top in the top of the second. A single from Kinley Doublin and double from Johnna Riggs put runners on bases and put Owens in prime position to bring home her teammates on a ground ball turned error.

This put Ballard up 3-2 heading into the third inning.

The tying run in the bottom of the third on a fly out from Karlie Gibson to score Laney Shehorn who was hit by a pitch to start the inning.

Strikeouts and fly outs and ground outs were aplenty for the following few innings as defenses prevailed and the 3-3 score froze.

For the Lady Comets it was Rhianna Thomason who controlled the circle and contributed to said strikeouts. She allowed nine hits, five runs, walked two and struck out five on a 101-75 pitch-strike count.

Despite the loss, the Carlisle County Lady Comets celebrated their eight seniors after the game on senior night. Alyssa Aikins, Tori Burgess, Rorey Eddleman, Chyenne Geveden, Karlie Gibson, Alexis Jones, Lilyan Shehorn and Rhianna Thomason loaded the Lady Comets senior stacked team.

BLLR 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 5-9-3

CRLS 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 3-2-3

2B: BM T. Williams, K. OConnor, J. Riggs; CC L. Shehorn

TB: BM T. Williams 3, K. OConnor 3, M. Bohde 2, J. Riggs 2, K. Doublin 1, A. Alexander 1; CC L. Shehorn 2, L. Shehorn 1

RECORDS: Ballard Memorial (18-4); Carlisle County (12-11)

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Patience pays off in Lady Bombers win over Lady Comets - Paducah Sun

Harlow homers, drives in five runs in Comets’ win over Bassett – YourGV.com

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BASSETT Five games. Four days. No problem.

The Halifax County softball team wrapped a hectic week with an 11-3 win over Bassett in Piedmont District action Wednesday evening.

Playing its fifth game since Monday, Halifax (15-3, 7-0 Piedmont) showed little rust against the Bengals, especially in the third and fourth innings where the Comets broke open a close game with a combined seven runs.

Senior Jadyn Harlow played a big role in the rally, smacking her third home run in two days, a two-run shot to center field in the top of the fourth, on her way to a game-high five RBIs. Harlow homered twice in Halifaxs game against Bassett Wednesday night.

Ive really just been looking for base hits, not looking to hit a home run but theyre nice, Harlow said. But its been motivating to have my teammates behind me. When youre running around the bases and theyre at home yelling, bring it home, bring it home, its really a motivational tool. Its a good feeling and makes you want to keep going.

The Comets have now won six in a row with five of those wins coming this week. This week, Halifax has defeated its opponents by a combined average of 11.8 runs per game while averaging 14 runs per game and giving up 3.7 per game.

Its really been the whole team, Harlow said of the Comets mental tenacity this week. Some of us have gotten tired, weve felt like weve had enough for the week, we needed a break, and we would come behind each other like, hey, we got one more down, we can do it, just a few more, then we can get a break for the weekend. And I think all of us pushing each other have helped us get through this week.

It took the whole team to get through this week, our big players have stepped up and helped us get through this week, said junior Emma Payne.

Harlow led Halifax with game-highs of three hits and five RBIs while senior Kamyria Woody-Giggetts smacked two hits and recorded two steals. Woody-Giggetts, senior Shamya Hankins, junior Abby Duffer, sophomore Avarie Bowen and junior Emma Shepperd drove in a run apiece.

Payne picked up the win in the circle, giving up two hits and three runs none earned while striking out eight in seven innings pitched.

Its great, I was just working on trying to stay consistent and throw strikes, Payne said. But a long week, our other pitchers really had to step up and it took the entire pitching staff to get through the week and they really stepped up. Five wins is great.

Payne expressed her pride in the Comets entire pitching staff.

I couldnt be more proud, she said. I know they were a little nervous coming in because they didnt know what to expect and they came out and did it. They were throwing pitches, hitting their spots, I was really impressed.

Halifax got out to the early lead, scoring a run in the top of the first inning. Payne worked a one-out walk to get things going and Hankins followed with a single to left field to put runners on first and second. Harlow didnt stand on ceremony, bringing Payne home with her single to right to make it 1-0.

Bassett (10-7, 5-5) struck back in its half, scoring two runs to take the lead. Senior Trinity Gilbert worked a one-out walk and stole second base to start the rally and junior Zoie Pace reached on an error on her flyball to put runners on the corners. Junior Breanna Cooper knotted the score at 1-1 with her RBI ground out to first and senior Camryn Martin put the Bengals in front with her RBI single to center.

The Bengals pushed their lead to 3-1 when senior Gracie Ratcliff scored on an error on sophomore Shaniyah Menefees bunt.

It would be the last time Bassett led as the Comets struck for three runs in the third to take the lead for good. Woody-Giggetts kicked the rally off with a lead-off walk and proceeded to steal second base to get into scoring position. She advanced to third on a wild pitch and came home to score on an error on Hankins groundball to short to pull Halifax within one. Harlow knotted the score with her double to right that plated Payne and Duffer scored Hankins with the go-ahead run on her ground out to first.

The fourth inning proved to be the difference, though, as the Comets scored four runs in the frame to create space. Freshman Hannah Abbott scored on an error on Bowens bunt single and Harlow capped the rally with her three-run blast to center that made it 8-3.

Halifax kept things rolling with a pair of runs in the fifth on Bowens RBI ground and Woody-Giggetts run-scoring single that pushed the Comets lead to 10-3 moving into the back three.

Shepperd rounded out the scoring in the seventh on her RBI groundout to short.

Halifax returns to action Monday when it hosts Nottaway in a doubleheader starting at 4:30 p.m.

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Harlow homers, drives in five runs in Comets' win over Bassett - YourGV.com

Riverhawks Stifled by Comets | The Daily Chronicle – Centralia Chronicle

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By The Chronicle staff

The Toledo baseball teams final tune-up before district play begins went awry Monday, as the Riverhawks fell victim to one of the best pitchers in the area regardless of classification in a 3-0 non-league loss to 1B Naselle.

Kolten Lindstrom shoved for the Comets, giving up just one hit a single to Rayder Stemkoski in the second and striking out nine. Toledo got one baserunner on a dropped third strike and another on an error, but never got anybody past second base.

Opposite Lindstrom, Toledo went with its own ace, but Naselle got to Caiden Schultz for a run in the second and a run in the third, and with low stakes on the table coach Mack Gaul pulled him after 67 pitches for Kaven Winters. The two only allowed three hits, but issued five walks each, giving the defending 1B State champs plenty to work with for free.

Toledo, locked into the No. 2 seed in the Central 2B League, will host a three-team pod Saturday in the District 4 tournament, and face the winner of a loser-out game in the quarterfinals.

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Riverhawks Stifled by Comets | The Daily Chronicle - Centralia Chronicle

Mackinaw City baseball fights back to earn split with Ellsworth – Cheboygan Daily Tribune

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MACKINAW CITY The Northern Lakes Conference baseball title looks like it's up for grabs this spring.

For head coach Elijah May and the Mackinaw City Comets, they believe theyre right in the mix.

And even after a 5-0 defeat to Ellsworth in game one of a crucial NLC doubleheader on Thursday, the Comets bounced back and kept themselves alive for a championship they crave.

Sparked by the pitching of senior Lars Huffman, the Cometsavenged the early setback by capturing a hard-fought 1-0 victory in game two and earning a split at home.

Were happy with a split tonight. That keeps us alive and in the drivers seat for the league, said May. Well see what Ellsworth and Harbor Light do with each other. Wed love to come away with at least a share of the league. Ellsworths tough."

The only run of game two came in the first inning, when Huffman avoided being caught in a rundown and made it into home plate safely, giving Mackinaw City a 1-0 lead. On the mound, Huffman delivered a strong performance, tossing five shutout innings with six strikeouts, three hits allowed and one walk. Huffmans pitching record is now 7-0 this season.

Huffman finished with a hit and two stolen bases for the Comets (13-4, 3-1 NLC), who received a hit and a stolen base apiece from Trystan Swanson and Lucas Bergstrom. Myran Thompson stole two bases.

The one bad inning for the Comets came in the first of game one, when they allowed five runs to the Lancers.

Despite taking the loss on the mound, junior pitcher Sabastian Pierce was solid, striking out five, allowing four hits and walking three in five innings of work.

Huffman finished 2-for-3 with two stolen bases to lead the Mackinaw City offense, while Tyler Hingston stole a base.

Ellsworth swept their way through our league on their way to a first-place finish last year, and one of our goals coming into this season was to beat them at our place this year, May said. Our guys stepped up defensively tonight and made a ton of plays. Both Sabastian Pierce and Lars Huffman pitched well tonight. Even in the loss in game one after a tough first inning, Sabastian Pierce was able to settle in and pitch fourstraight scoreless innings.

Tonight was great baseball all around. Both teams played clean baseball and were solid defensively."

On Wednesday, the Comets captured a 12-5 victory over Alanson in a non-conference game.

Eighth grader Jacob Sroka was the winning pitcher, striking out four and allowing no hits in three innings of work. Throwing an inning apiece were Swanson, Hingston and Nick Vieau, who tallied two strikeouts each. Thompson struck out a batter in 1/3 innings pitched and Braylon Currie added a strikeout in 2/3 innings pitched.

Vieau led the Comets at the plate by going 3-for-4 with a run scored, whileHuffman, who hit an inside-the-park home run, was 2-for-3 with three RBI and three runs scored. Adding two hits apiece were Currie (four RBI), Thompson (triple, RBI) and Connor Robertson (RBI, run). Bergstrom added a hit and scored twice. Swanson scored two runs.

Bad innings hurt softball Comets in losses to Ellsworth

MACKINAW CITY All it takes is a bad inning or two to hurt your chances.

Unfortunately for the Mackinaw City softball team, it had a rough inning in each of its contests against the Ellsworth Lancers, who captured a sweep by earning 12-5 and 9-4 victories in a Northern Lakes doubleheaderon Thursday.

They (Ellsworth) are a good team, said Mackinaw City coach Bianca Thompson. They have some really good pitchers. Our batters werent coming (up with big hits) tonight. We had a few difficulties there. We have a younger team, and unfortunately, part of it showed tonight. Half of our lineup is seventh or eighth grade. Going up against some of those older girls is sometimes hard.

In the opener, the Comets (10-3, 2-2 NLC) were led by two singles and a stolen base from Madison Smith, while Julia Sullivan singled and stole three bases. Poppy Wallace scored a run and stole a base. Marlie Postula scored a run.

Postula took the loss on the mound, striking out seven, allowing 12 hits and walking two in six innings pitched.

After falling behind 5-0 early, the Comets fought back to cut the Ellsworth lead to 6-3 in game two. However, the Lancers responded with three runs and pulled away for the win.

Postula doubled, singled, had two RBI and stole a base to lead Mackinaw City, while Vanessa Groenewoud tallied two singles, Kenzlie Currie doubled, scored two runs and stole a base, Rian Esper singled and added three stolen bases, Wallace scored a run and stole a base, and Smith stole a base.

Postula was the losing pitcher, striking out 11, allowing eight hits and walking three in six innings of work.

I have to give credit where creditis due. (Ellsworth's) pitcher can throw, Thompson said. She has one heck of a changeup. We had a hard time getting around on her.We had one bad inning in both games. If you took that one inning away, the score would have looked a whole lot different. I toldthese ladies we are just going to move on to the next game and keep their chins up and keep having fun. You can't change the last play, we have to look forward to the next one.

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Mackinaw City baseball fights back to earn split with Ellsworth - Cheboygan Daily Tribune

Wow. Weird ‘rock comet’ 3200 Phaethon is way stranger than we … – The Weather Network

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First, a few years ago, NASA's Parker Solar Probe captured the first image of Phaethon's debris stream. Then it snapped a second, closer view in September 2022, as seen above. Analysis of these images confirmed what scientists had been speculating about for some time that there is so much material in the stream, there's no way the rock comet's tiny tail could account for it all.

Now, new images of the asteroid revealed something even more interesting. 3200 Phaethon's tail doesn't actually contain any dust at all. Instead, it's composed of sodium gas.

This extreme closeup of 3200 Phaethon was captured by one of NASA's STEREO spacecraft in 2010. The rock comet's short tail extends toward the bottom left of the image. Credit: Science@NASA

"Our analysis shows that Phaethon's comet-like activity cannot be explained by any kind of dust," Qicheng Zhang, a Ph.D. student at Caltech, told NASA.

Zhang is the lead author of a new study in the Planetary Science Journal that details these findings. He and his colleagues gathered images of 3200 Phaethon taken by the coronagraph instruments on board SOHO and another NASA spacecraft, the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO), between 1997 and 2022.

Coronagraphs work by blocking direct sunlight from entering the camera using a small disk. As a result, the instrument can image the fainter activity around the Sun, such as coronal streamers and coronal mass ejections. The instruments also pick up any objects in the view, such as stars, planets, and even comets and asteroids. Additionally, the Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) on the SOHO spacecraft uses two filters for its images: an orange one sensitive to sodium and a blue one that can detect dust.

"When a comet or asteroid gets close to the sun, the intense radiation environment can release a lot of sodium from the object's surface," study co-author Karl Battams, who is the LASCO principal investigator at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, said in an NRL press release. "We can use LASCOs filters to look for signatures of sodium or the presence of dust, helping us understand the processes occurring on the surface of the comet or asteroid."

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Wow. Weird 'rock comet' 3200 Phaethon is way stranger than we ... - The Weather Network

Workington Comets set to take to track this weekend – cumbriacrack … – Cumbria Crack

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Workington Comets fans will get a chance to see their new team plying their trade at Northside tomorrow.

Its the new promotions press and practice day with the riders introduced to the media and supporters before having spins around the newly laid track.

The track action starts at noon and the fans are welcome to watch from the public viewing areas at the Northside arena.

The revived Comets supporters club will also be in attendance for anyone wishing to join on the day.

The team has been assembled since late December but wont have the opportunity to track together until next Saturday, May 13, when they ride against Edinburgh in the opening National Development League fixture.

Promoters Andrew Bain and Steve Lawson are hoping that the weather wont put a dampener on proceedings when their team practises tomorrow as showers are forecast for the Workington area.

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Workington Comets set to take to track this weekend - cumbriacrack ... - Cumbria Crack

WNBA: Houston Comets lead all-time standings, followed by Seattle Storm – Swish Appeal

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Every fan roots for their team to win the championship this year, but the ultimate goal is to be the greatest franchise of all time. At Swish Appeal we decided to rank all the WNBA teams that have ever existed in order of greatness.

For franchises that have moved to between two or three different cities, I counted them as two or three different teams. You may want to see these franchises ranked as one, but I considered them separately because their fan bases are different in some cases very different (Detroit Shock/Dallas Wings and Orlando Miracle/Connecticut Sun).

This is our article on teams 11 through 1 (the teams with championships). Instead of dividing number of championships won by number of years played and basing the standings on success rate at winning the championship, I put the teams with more championships overall higher. However, to break the tie between teams with the same amount of championships, I gave the edge to the team that collected theirs in the least amount of years.

On this list, there was only one instance of two teams with the same amount of championships AND the same amount of years of existence (the Los Angeles Sparks and Phoenix Mercury). To break that tie, I used the same formula used in the first part of our list (No. 23 through No. 12):

I applied this system to every season of the teams existence and then divided by the number of non-championship-winning seasons to get an average success number. I did this for every team, not just the Sparks and Mercury, so you can see how successful each team has been in their non-championship-winning seasons.

Here are teams 11 through 1:

Of the teams with one championship, the Mystics have had the most opportunities to win, so they come in at the bottom of that tier. Even if I had done the tiebreaker by tiebreaker points instead of number of seasons played, the Mystics would have finished last among the teams with one title. Their tiebreaker score of 12.65375 is on the weaker side, but they have been to the Finals one other time in addition to the year they won it all. Two other times they made semifinal exits and theyve made the playoffs a total of 14 times. Mike Thibault becoming the teams head coach in 2013 and Elena Delle Donne coming over in 2017 laid the foundation for the 2019 championship.

Natasha Cloud

Photo by Ned Dishman/NBAE via Getty Images

The Fever didnt take as long as the Mystics to get the monkey of their back, winning it all for the first time in 2012. But it was a big deal when they did because they had been a good team for a long stretch leading up to 2012; they just hadnt achieved that ultimate goal. 2012 was their eighth straight year in the playoffs with a Finals loss coming in 2009 and semifinal exits coming in 2005, 2007 and 2011. Their best player throughout all of it was the legendary Tamika Catchings, who was ranked as the No. 2 player in WNBA history by ESPN in 2021. The Fever returned to the Finals in 2015, but fell to the team they upset in 2012 (the Minnesota Lynx). They havent been to the playoffs since 2016, but hope to turn things around with 2023 No. 1 pick Aliyah Boston.

Tamika Catchings

Photo by Ron Hoskins/NBAE via Getty Images

The Sky have not been as successful historically as the Fever, but heres where winning a championship with fewer opportunities benefited Chicago. The Skys tiebreaker score of 13.97125 is on the weaker side, but theyve only been around since 2006 and have that one championship, won with Candace Parker, Courtney Vandersloot, Kahleah Copper and Allie Quigley in 2021. In Chicagos second season after drafting Elena Delle Donne at No. 2 overall, it went to the Finals. The great Sylvia Fowles was also a superstar on that team, which was swept by the Mercury in the 2014 Finals. The Sky also have two semifinal exits, including last year after a franchise-record .722 winning percentage in the regular season. They have been to the playoffs eight times.

Courtney Vandersloot (left) and Allie Quigley

Photo by Kena Krutsinger/NBAE via Getty Images

Sacramento was once a proud WNBA and NBA city. The Kings of the NBA finished 48-34 this regular season for their best record since 2005 and earned the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference. Unfortunately, a Sacramento renaissance on the womens side isnt possible at the moment because the Monarchs are defunct. But they, unlike the Sacramento men, who were very successful in the early 2000s, once finished the job and actually brought a championship to Californias capital city (in 2005). They returned to the Finals in 2006 and lost a hard-fought series to the Detroit Shock. Since they only existed for 13 seasons (from the beginning of the league in 1997 to 2009), they come in second place among teams with one title. They would be second by tiebreaker points as well, with a strong 19.9291667 success number.

Erin Buescher (left), Kristin Haynie and Yolanda Griffith (bottom)

Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images

Were not counting the Utah and San Antonio years of the Aces franchise. So this ranking system is very kind to the Aces, though it would be kinder if I was doing it by championships per year. Just before their first season in Vegas began, the Aces drafted Aja Wilson at No. 1 in the 2018 draft. The rest has been history. Vegas went 14-20 and missed the playoffs in 2018, but has been to at least the semis every year since. They took a game from the eventual champion Mystics in the 2019 semis before appearing in the Finals in Wilsons first MVP season (2020). 2021 saw them lose in devastating fashion to the Mercury in five games in the semis, but they turned around and won it all last year under first-year head coach Becky Hammon, while Wilson won her second MVP award. With a league-high 31.03 success number in non-championship years, Vegas is in seventh place with an exclamation mark. Its also in position to see a lot more success in the coming years.

Aja Wilson

Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

WNBA GOAT Diana Taurasi has been leading the Mercury for most of their history. She has delivered three championships (2007, 2009 and 2014). The 2014 championship she won with the help of 2013 No. 1 pick Brittney Griner. Taurasi and Griner returned to the Finals in 2021 with both performing phenomenally in the playoffs, but the Mercury fell to the Sky in four games. Phoenix is one of the original eight that is still going and saw some pretty good success right off the bat before drafting Taurasi in 2004. It went 16-12 in the WNBAs inaugural season and lost in the semis. In the second WNBA season (1998), it went 19-11 and made it to the Finals. The Mercury made it to at least the semifinals six years in a row from 2013 to 2018 and their two Finals losses combined with eight semifinal exits gives them a very good 21.143913 success score in non-championship-winning years.

From left to right: Kelly Miller, Diana Taurasi, Cappie Pondexter, Penny Taylor and Tangela Smith

Photo by Barry Gossage/NBAE via Getty Images

The Mercury have been good in their non-championship-winning years, but the Sparks have been just a little bit better. After the Houston Comets four championships in a row to open the WNBAs existence, LA won the next two (in 2001 and 2002). Michael Cooper was the coach and Lisa Leslie was the star player. In 2008, the Sparks would draft another star player in Candace Parker, who got the monkey off her back with a first championship for her and a third for the franchise in 2016. It was a difficult championship to win, with the Lynx, who were at the time winners of three of the previous five titles, taking LA to five games and only losing by one point in the clincher. Like the Mercury, the Sparks have lost two Finals. Both times they were the defending champs. They fell to the Detroit Shock, two games to one, in 2003 and in 2017 faced a rematch against the Lynx, with Minnesota getting revenge in another five-game series. The Sparks have exited at the semifinal stage seven times in their history and have made the playoffs a league-high 20 times (three more times than the Mercury have made it). Thats a 76.9 percent success rate when it comes to making the postseason.

Lisa Leslie

Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/Getty Images/WNBAE

The Shock moved to Tulsa in 2010 and then became the Dallas Wings in 2016. Tulsa wasnt very successful and the Wings havent been either, but the Detroit years are legendary. Detroit Pistons legend Bill Laimbeer coached the team from 2003 to 2008 (and for three games in 2009), winning the championship in 2003, 2006 and 2008. Great players such as Swin Cash, Cheryl Ford, Deanna Nolan and Katie Smith defined the run. Detroit went to the Finals in 2007 as well and to the semifinals in 2009, but all of its other seasons resulted in either a first-round exit or a missed postseason. So its tiebreaker score isnt as good as that of the Sparks and Mercury. But the fact that they won three championships in just 12 years puts them at No. 4.

Deanna Nolan (center)

Photo by Allen Einstein/NBAE via Getty Images

There have been 26 WNBA seasons. Over the most recent 12, the Lynx have four championships and the next closest team, the Seattle Storm. has two. Minnesota loves odd-numbered years, having won the title in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017. It drafted Maya Moore at No. 1 in the 2011 draft and won it all in Moores rookie season. It was the big four of Seimone Augustus, Moore, Lindsay Whalen and Rebekkah Brunson leading the way that year; Augustus won Finals MVP. Moore won Finals MVP when the same big four claimed the crown again in 2013. Then, the big four added Sylvia Fowles to become the big five and won two more championships, with Fowles earning Finals MVP in 2015 and 2017. The Lynx have two Finals losses, but just two semifinal exits. Their success rate in making the playoffs is 52 percent. So their tiebreaker score is lower than that of the Sparks, Mercury and Detroit Shock, but it is higher than the two teams ahead of them on this list.

Seimone Augustus (left) and Maya Moore

Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

The Storm were able to win two championships with the Lauren Jackson/Sue Bird duo (2004 and 2010) and two more with the Breanna Stewart/Sue Bird duo (2018 and 2020). Because they have existed one less year than the Lynx, they come in ahead of Minnesota and at No. 2. Just like the Lynx, they have been a class organization, with Bird setting the tone in that regard. Meanwhile, the versatility of both Jackson and Stewart makes them two of the best players in WNBA history. Seattle fans have been spoiled, getting to root for those two superstars. Of course, they dont feel spoiled right now, with Stewart having signed with the New York Liberty this offseason. The Storm have a very good success rate in making the playoffs (75 percent), but outside of their four championship-winning seasons they have never been to the Finals and have only been to the semis once (2022).

Sue Bird

Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images

The Comets have the best success rate at winning the championship (33.3 percent), so they would be first even if I based it on that, ahead of the Shock (25 percent) and Aces (20 percent). After all these years, their four championships in just 12 years of existence still stands as the greatest accomplishment in WNBA history. It was the big three of Cynthia Cooper, Sheryl Swoopes and Tina Thompson leading the way to the four straight championships from 1997 to 2000. Van Chancellor was the legendary coach at the helm for all four titles, as well as the six years after that. Like the Storm, the Comets never lost in the Finals and only went to the semifinals once outside of their championship-winning seasons. So their tiebreaker score is a weak 13.455. But until a team reaches five championships (or four in less than 12 years), they will reign at No. 1 in my all-time standings.

Tina Thompson

Photo by Bill Baptist/NBAE via Getty Images

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WNBA: Houston Comets lead all-time standings, followed by Seattle Storm - Swish Appeal

The Ghost of Ayn Rand as a Climate Activist? – InDepthNH.org

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Power to the People is a column by Donald M. Kreis, New Hampshires Consumer Advocate. Kreis and his staff of four represent the interests of residential utility customers before the NH Public Utilities Commission and elsewhere.

By Donald M. Kreis, Power to the People

Remember the time a famous architect secretly designed a public housing project, and then blew the place up because the complex was not built to his specifications?

Of course you dont. It didnt happen.

If the story sounds familiar its probably because you read The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, likely as a brooding and disaffected teenager. Architect Howard Roarks act of violent civil disobedience is the climax of Rands epic novel about individualism thwarted by a society committed to mediocrity while slouching toward socialism.

Maybe thats why it was the Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society at Dartmouth College, and not the schools English Department, that sponsored the lecture I heard recently about pressing the teachings of Ayn Rand into service in quest of doing something about climate change.

Calling his talk Ayn Rands Climate Moment, Rutgers University Anthropologist David McDermott Hughes used his Dartmouth gig to propose that climate activists find common ground with people who tend to revere the creator of The Fountainhead. He was referring, of course, to New Hampshires libertarian community.

Hughes has been poking around New Hampshire of late, conducting what he calls speculative ethnography. His speculation has to do with the common ground Hughes envisions between climate activists (particularly the four who were convicted after a jury trial in March of trespassing at the coal-fired Merrimack Station in Bow) and the states ever-more-visible cadre of libertarians.

The anthropologist is not talking about the libertarians in the Legislature. Hughes has no use for the ceaseless contradictions implicit in being elected to a lawmaking body when you basically think we shouldnt have a government.

Instead, Hughes is talking about the kind of grassroots libertarian who does things like the antics in Keene nine years ago. Some libertarian activists figured out where the parking enforcement officers would be so they could walk a few steps ahead of them, feed quarters into expired parking meters, and thus thwart the issuance of parking tickets and with it the muscular exercise of state authority.

According to Hughes, stunts like that are prefigurative. Social scientist Carl Boggs coined the phrase prefigurative politics to describe political acts that are self-executing i.e., as Hughes said, you achieve the goal immediately by doing the thing as opposed, say, to waiting for the Legislature or some regulatory agency to agree with you.

What sort of prefigurative politics does Hughes have in mind when it comes to decarbonization? Exactly the thing that led to the trespassing convictions already mentioned. In that case it involved physically preventing a train from getting to Merrimack Station so it could drop off a load of coal to be burned to generate electricity.

And why, you may be wondering, does this anthropologist care about what libertarians would make of such exploits? As Hughes explained at the Dartmouth lecture, and also in the Boston Review recently, its because of jury nullification.

Juries are the last bastion of true, unimpeded democracy. In a felony case, the lawyers present evidence of what happened, and the judge provides instructions as to the statute that prohibits some kind of behavior (e.g., trespassing). But then the jury can do whatever it wants. In other words, the jury can nullify law with which it disagrees.

So, if the jury thinks it would be unjust to convict the defendant say, because jurors believe it was righteous and even courageous for someone to block the delivery of coal to Merrimack Station then the jury can return a not guilty verdict. And that would be the end of the case, thanks to the no double jeopardy clause of the Fifth Amendment.

Hughes figures that the kind of true libertarian who would run around Keene dispensing quarters in an effort to thwart the local parking authorities would also be amenable to jury nullification of this sort. He stressed that he was under no illusions when it comes to libertarians and climate change.

Rather, according to the anthropologist, a dyed-in-the-wool New Hampshire libertarian would see Merrimack Station and the railway that delivers coal there as, essentially, instrumentalities of the state given the various subsidies and bailouts granted to them. So, Hughes reasons, such a juror would deem the applicable law baloney and vote to acquit.

Thus, the hypothetical libertarian juror finds common purpose with the climate activists. And keep in mind that if only one juror refuses to convict, the defendant is found not guilty and goes home scot-free.

Lets cut to the chase. Why would ratepayers, and thus a ratepayer advocate like me, care?

Because the anthropologists hypothesis is that a de facto alliance between libertarians and climate activists could really shut down every last fossil fuel electricity generator, including those that use natural gas. That, he thinks, is what can happen if this jury nullification thing catches on and people figure out they can commit acts of civil disobedience at places like Merrimack Station with no negative consequences to them.

Thus, Hughes foresees a massive direct-action movement of the type that toppled the Berlin Wall in 1989 at the end of the Cold War. The idea, he says, is to make fossil fuels unprotectable.

I am skeptical. For one thing, the New Hampshire Supreme Court made clear in 2014 that while a jurys power to acquit a criminal defendant for any reason it likes is undisputed, judges are not required to inform jurors of this right.

However, people who care about energy and that should be all of us ought to take note of this argument now that it has been made so publicly in New Hampshire. It suggests the extreme lengths that climate activists are willing to go in the face of what they perceive as the systems intransigence.

Hughes is under no illusions about libertarians; he describes his proposed alliance with them a strategy of last resort. According to Hughes, its not the 1970s anymore, we have lost our opportunity for slow and methodical solutions to climate change, and we have to come up with a solution as risky as the crisis.

After hearing Hughess lecture, I am no longer puzzled by civil disobedience at or near Merrimack Station. The activists are not trying to change anyones mind; theyre doing prefigurative politics because they aim to get activities of this sort to catch on until fossil fuel facilities crumble just like the Berlin Wall did.

Do they care about what judges, or legislators, or utility commissioners, or journalists think of that? No, they do not.

That sends a chill down my spine, and not just because I am a lawyer who is part of state government. Is the social compact really that close to fraying, because so many people are that frustrated by government inaction? If so, thats bad for ratepayers.

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The Ghost of Ayn Rand as a Climate Activist? - InDepthNH.org

Does UCP leader Danielle Smith have a tattoo of a right-wing think tank? Not really – National Post

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Danielle Smiths tattoo has caught the attention of the internet, with some arguing on social media that she has the logo for a right-wing libertarian think tank on her forearm.

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The tattoo was done by her stepson, a Calgary tattoo artist. Its an ancient Sumerian cuneiform symbol for liberty or freedom.

That same symbol also happens to feature in the logo for the Liberty Fund, a libertarian think tank headquartered in Indiana.

We believe that the first written reference to the concept of liberty is the ancient Sumerian cuneiform symbol amagi which Liberty Fund uses as its logo, the Liberty Fund website states. The translation of the inscription literally means return to the mother.'

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While the Liberty Fund does clearly use the symbol in its logo, that doesnt mean Smith got the tattoo to represent the group. Just as a person with a tattoo of a maple leaf couldnt be accused of being a Toronto hockey fan, or a supporter of the Liberal Party of Canada, or an Ironman triathlon finisher.

Smith recently told National Post that she learned about the Sumerian word during her days at the Fraser Institute, another libertarian-adjacent think tank, having seen the Liberty Fund logo, and loved the symbol and its history.

I always thought if I ever have a tattoo, thats what it would be, Smith said.

Liberty and freedom has been one of the things that Ive written an awful lot about.

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While the symbol is often translated as liberty or freedom, there seems to be some debate among scholars over whether it simply means freedom from a debt and should not be used more broadly.

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Opinion: The sky is not falling on the dollar – Idaho State Journal

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The day after President Joe Biden announced his run for a second term, Donald Trump responded with a string of false statements. Here is just one of them: The dollar will soon no longer be the world standard, which will be our greatest defeat in over 200 years.

When I searched for the source of this alarming prediction, the first to come up was a precious metals/cryptocurrency website. There are still people (most famously libertarian Ron Paul) who still believe in the gold standard, and the principal goal of the crypto people is to replace the dollar.

Britain survived its currency crisis

Economist Paul Krugman believes that these fears are overblown, but, just for an exercise, he wants us to consider the case of Britain. Until 1949 the British pound ruled the financial world. Until then one would have paid about $5 for 1, but now it costs $1.26. The dollar is now at its highest level against all major currencies since 2014.

To back up the pound after World War II, the Bank of England liquidated assets in the colonies as its empire collapsed. Even so, Britain survived, and its post-war economy was guided competently by both the Labor and Conservative parties.

Since 2010, however, the Conservatives have cut funds to social services, especially universal health care. (Until recently this system produced better results than the U.S. for six major diseases.) As a result, Britain was ill prepared for the pandemic.

London still remains the top financial center in the world, but banks are now leaving the city primarily because of Brexit. The effects of the libertarian-led campaign to quit the European Union are now the greatest threat to the nation.

Among the top seven most wealthy countries, Britain is the only one, according to the International Monetary Fund, that will suffer a recession this year. Incredibly, the IMF predicts that Britains economic prospects are worse than those of sanction-hit Russia.

Japan survived its crisis, too

In the 1980s, Japan was predicted to rise to the top of the worlds economies. Instead, the Bank of Japan raised interest rates too quickly and the result was a real estate and banking crisis. Major banks were nationalized and deficit spending was increased.

When I was on sabbatical in Japan in 1993, the Japanese yen was at a low point. Even so, Japan outpaced Germany and Britain and remained the worlds second largest economy from 1990 to 2010, when a rising China took that spot behind the U.S.

Japan: Worlds highest debt

By 2011, Japans national debt had grown to 100 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). It is now an incredible 266 percent and some economists say that this simply cannot be sustained. This means that Japans debt is 2.66 times what it produces. The U.S. debt now stands at 128 percent.

Three factors are mitigating the effects of this huge debt. 1) Ninety percent of it is owned by the Japanese people (versus 77 percent for Americans). 2) Japans high-quality exports (cars and machinery) will keep hard currency coming into its coffers for the foreseeable future. Japan will also repatriate profits from its American car production. 3) One commentator states: Japan is the world's biggest creditor, holding more than $3 trillion in net assets in foreign currency reserves and direct investment abroad.

Republicans add to the debt, too

Every week I tear out the economic indicators page from The Economist, which has information for 44 nations. Just a quick look at the data for April 22 puts the lie to Trumps claims and predictions, particularly his allegation that high national debt will doom the dollar.

By the way, Trumps budget deficit was -14.4 percent (Bidens is -5.2 percent), and he added $7.9 trillion to our national debt. Unfunded tax cuts, which never improve the economy, and defense increases are major parts of our debt. Even though we were way ahead of the Soviet Union in new weapon systems, Ronald Reagan called for unnecessary defense expenditures that tripled the national debt.

Debt does not destroy economies

Currently, Japans economic statistics are just as good as other rich countries. Economic growth has slowed worldwide. It is only Britain, according to the International Monetary, that is, under conservative mismanagement, predicted to fall into recession. Its lower national debt (81 percent of GDP) presumably, is not a buffer against negative growth.

Europe and Asia

Europe also proves that there is no apparent correlation between slow growth and high national debt. Greece (206 percent) and Italy (156 percent) are doing just as well as low debt countries. In fact, perennial economic powerhouse Germany (60 percent debt) now joins Britain in negative growth for 2023.

Lets look at two economic tigers in Asia: Singapore and Hong Kong. They rank third and fourth as world financial centers. The formers debt is 131 percent while the latters is 42 percent. Their superb economic performance on growth, unemployment, and annual budget deficit is about the same.

Republicans are the main threat

The most immediate threat to the U.S. and world economy is the GOPs refusal to raise the debt ceiling. Because of their intransigence in the battle over the debt ceiling in 2011, the governments credit rating was downgraded for the first time in history. This increased the cost of borrowing, and it also undermined international confidence that the U.S. could pay its debts.

The Republicans were playing a dangerous game then, and McCarthy's tribe is now courting disaster. As Paul Krugman states: Who will trust the currency of a nation that appears to have politically lost its mind?

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Danielle Smith: Alberta’s Public Sector Workers Need To Accept … – PressProgress

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Alberta United Conservative Party leader Danielle Smith says reaching out to public sector workers is part of her election strategy, but on a right-wing podcast last year, Smith said public sector workers need to accept austerity and pain.

At a campaign photo-op Thursday, Smith suggested the UCP plans to grow its votes by appealing to workers, including workers in the public sector such as a front-line nurse or other health professional.

Yet in a wide-ranging April 2022 interview on an obscure Canadian libertarian podcast called Rose Bros, Smith advocated cuts to public services and suggested workers in the public sector need to accept austerity and pain.

We do have to have some austerity, Smith told the podcaster.

The kind of pain that private sector workers have gone through in the last seven or eight years, having to go down to part-time, having to downshift, having to do work-sharing, having to take time off.

We havent seen any austerity in the public sector, Smith said. Its just continued to grow, more workers, higher wages.

Unfortunately, for the front-line nurses Smith is counting on voting for her, the UCP leader suggested some of the austerity and pain could be shouldered by the public healthcare system.

Healthcare is going to bankrupt our Canadian system, Smith added. Weve got to create a mechanism to allow people to use more of their own dollars so they can promote their own health on things that the health care system isnt going to cover.

We now have all these new therapies that are coming in, we have the ability to map our own genome and get targeted biologics and targeted medicine, Smith warned. Whos going to pay for that?

Weve got to empower people to spend more of their own dollars on the things that they care about.

While offering few precise details, Smith proposed a health spending account to help Albertans pay for the care that they want to use.

Then you can start changing the system.

The UCP campaign did not respond to requests for comment from PressProgress.

Smith previously pitched her proposed spending account, as a way to normalize healthcare user fees: Once people get used to the concept of paying out of pocket for more things themselves then we can change the conversation on health care.

Ricardo Acuna, executive director at the Parkland Institute, says Smiths claims in the podcast about public sector workers bear little relation to reality.

Danielle Smith is the leader of the party that a few months into the pandemic laid off 20,000 educational assistants via twitter, eliminated funding for speech pathologists and other service providers in the school system, and whose bargaining position resulted in the loss of many health professionals through burn-out and mental health leave, Acuna told PressProgress.

For her to then suggest that there were no cuts or job loss in the public sector, therefore, is not accurate.

Acunda added that the UCPs cuts to public services have degraded working conditions.

For those that have remained in fields like health care, education, post-secondary, the stress and overwork have remained, increasingly making burnout and mental health challenges the rule rather than the exception.

Gil McGowan, President of the Alberta Federation of Labour President Gill McGowan says Smiths comments about what she would like seen done to public sector workers are deeply troubling.

It is gratuitous, spiteful and exactly the opposite of what is needed. McGowan told PressProgress. Our services are failing because of past cuts,

It is clear that Smith should not be trusted with our healthcare or education systems.

Smith has long advocated for gutting and privatizing public health care.

In a 2003 Calgary Herald column titled Denied access to private health violates basic human rights, Smith complained that politicians simply dont have the stomach to reform public health care so it will actually work, such as adopting internal markets, allowing private health- care providers to proliferate, charging user fees and implementing co-payment systems.

If its necessary to use the courts to push for a parallel private system so Canadians can get the medical care they need, so be it. Let the litigation begin.

During the podcast, Smith discussed her past at the Fraser Institute and the far-right Reform Party,, describing herself as a libertarian and adherent to the philosophy of Atlas Shrugged author Ayn Rand.

I try to read Atlas Shrugged every few years and Im in the process of trying to build out a broader philosophy, Smith explained.

During the podcast, Smith also suggested the provincial government might reduce its reliance on resource royalties by expanding Bitcoin mining and make Alberta the crypto currency capital of Canada.

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Danielle Smith: Alberta's Public Sector Workers Need To Accept ... - PressProgress

Heinrich ‘All In’ for Senate re-election bid – New Mexico Political Report

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U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich released a campaign video Thursday announcing his run for re-election in 2024.

When I look at Washington these days, I see plenty of fighters, Heinrich, a Democrat, said in the video. The problem is too many are fighting for themselves for their career and their big donors. The way I see it, you hired me to work for you. And I want you to know, Im all in.

Heinrich is seeking his third term in the U.S. Senate. Before winning election to the U.S. Senate in 2012, Heinrich served as a member of Congress for two terms, representing the states 1st Congressional District.

Heinrich won a three-way race for reelection in 2018, defeating Republican construction company owner Mick Rich and former Gov. Gary Johnson, who ran as a Libertarian.

The video, entitled, All In and included a listing of the things Heinrich was all in for in recent years.

These things include how he tried to curb gun violence, expanded veteran health care benefits, helped to get $4 billion to help communities affected by last years wildfires, worked to lower prescription costs and brought more than $1 billion for New Mexicos infrastructure, the video states.

Im running for the Senate again, because we still have more work to do, Heinrich said in the video. We have to take on the challenges that have been written off for too long. We need to diversify New Mexicos economy. We have to continue the transition to clean energy. We have to build upon our historic investment in early childhood education.

He has a background in engineering including a contract with what is now the Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base working on directed energy technology.

Democrats currently hold a small majority in the Senate, 51-49, over Republicans. The 2024 elections are considered friendly to Republicans in at least three states currently represented by Democrats.

Cook Political Report, Crystal Ball and Inside Elections all project New Mexico to be a strong Democratic state.

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Releases – University of Chicago

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A selection of books, films, and recordings by UChicago alumni.

By Lara Langer Cohen, AB99; Duke University Press, 2023

The metaphor of the undergroundan image of clandestine, subversive activitywas popularized in newspaper coverage of the Underground Railroad in the 1840s. Bringing together a variety of 19th-century American textsBlack radical manifestos, anarchist periodicals, sensational city mystery novels, sex-magic manuals, secret society initiation ritesLara Langer Cohen reveals the layers that the image of the underground contained at the time. This expanded notion of the underground, she suggests, can help us imagine new worldviews and modes of political activity today.

By Michael Kugler, PhD94, and Jimmy Kugler; University Press of Mississippi, 2023

What can we learn from an adolescents retelling of World War II? Historian Michael Kugler teases out the influences underlying comics that his father, Jimmy, drew as a small-town Nebraska teen in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Drawing on wartime propaganda, news coverage, radio programming, and movies, Jimmy depicts the Pacific War as a brutal struggle between Frogs and Toads. Kugler shows how Jimmy developed his voice and rebelled against the moral expectations placed on young people at the time through his unexpected interpretation of history.

By Julia Langbein, AM07, PhD14; Doubleday, 2023

High school English teacher Penelope Schleeman quits her job and moves to Los Angeles to write the screenplay of her best-selling novel, American Mermaid. Julia Langbeins debut novel alternates between satirical depictions of Pennys time among Hollywood somebodies and excerpts from her book. As Penny struggles to maintain artistic control over her work, the lines between reality and the fictional world she created begin to blur.

By Betsey Behr Brada, AM05, PhD11; Cornell University Press, 2023

In the early 2000s, Botswana had the highest prevalence rate of HIV in the world. The US government responded with a program that it claimed provided treatment to tens of thousandsa claim denied by personnel on the ground. Working as global healths most ardent critic and its most ambivalent friend, anthropologist Betsey Behr Brada examines the United States involvement in Botswana to understand how global health alters relationships and power dynamics. At the heart of Bradas work lies an ethical question: Is global health a social justice movement or a guise for neocolonialism?

By Andrew Koppelman, AB79; St. Martins Press, 2022

What some Americans understand libertarianism to bea way of thinking that led to firefighters in South Fulton, Tennessee, watching a house burn after the owner failed to pay his annual fee to the fire departmentis a corrupted form of the ideology, argues Andrew Koppelman. A professor of constitutional law, Koppelman aims to show readers what this understanding of libertarianism gets wrong and how moderate libertarianism may be the best means of realizing ideals of both the right and the left.

For additional alumni book releases, use the link to the Magazines Goodreads bookshelf at mag.uchicago.edu/alumni-books.

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Releases - University of Chicago

Opinion: Repulsed by Biden vs. Trump? Tough – Chattanooga Times Free Press

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The presidential race sure does seem like it'll wind up coming down to Joe Biden vs. Donald Trump and a whole lot of people would rather have an alternative.

Here's an important early message: Even if you aren't thrilled by the Republican and Democratic options come Election Day, don't vote for anybody else.

We're talking here about the attraction of third parties. So tempting. So disaster-inducing.

The lure is obvious. Trump's terrible and Biden's boring. Much more satisfying to go to the polls and announce you're too far above the status quo to vote for either.

The way so many people did in 2016, when Trump won the presidency, thanks to the Electoral College votes of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Which Hillary Rodham Clinton would probably have carried if the folks who were appalled by Trump had voted for her instead of the Libertarian or Green Party candidates.

OK, ticked-off swing staters, how did that work for you in the long run?

This brings us to No Labels, a new group that's warning it might launch a third-party candidacy if it isn't happy with the two major party nominees.

"We care about this country more than the demands of any political party," No Labels announces on its website. Its founding chair, Joe Lieberman, told interviewers that his group believes the American people "are so dissatisfied with the choice of Presidents Trump or Biden that they want a third alternative."

Yeah. But let's stop here to recall that Lieberman is a former U.S. senator, D-Conn. Who ran for vice president with Al Gore on the Democratic ticket in 2000, hurt Gore's chances with a terrible performance in a debate with Dick Cheney, then made a totally disastrous attempt to run for president himself four years later.

Hard to think of him as a guy with big answers. And about that business of voters wanting a third choice: A lot of them do, until it turns out that option throws the race to the worse of the top two.

Remember all the chaos in the 2000 Florida vote count? The entire presidential election hinged on the result. In the end, Ralph Nader, the Green Party nominee, got more than 97,000 votes there. In a state that George W. Bush eventually won by 537.

Now Nader had a phenomenal career as a champion of consumer protection and the environment. But this was a terrible finale. His candidacy gave Floridians who felt that Gore was not very exciting a chance to declare their disaffection. It gave them a chance to feel superior. It gave the country a new President Bush. And a war in Iraq.

I talked with Nader about his role much later, and he basically said the outcome was Gore's fault for being a bad candidate. This conversation took place when the country was bearing down on the 2016 election, and Nader vowed not to vote for either Trump or Clinton. "They're not alike," he acknowledged, but added, "they're both terrible."

Think that was the last time I ever consulted Ralph Nader.

The third-party thingy also comes up in legislative races. Remember the 2018 Senate contest in Arizona? No? OK, that's fair.

The Democratic candidate was Kyrsten Sinema, who seemed to be in danger of losing because the Green Party was on the ballot, capable of siphoning off a chunk of her supporters. Even though Sinema had a good environmental record! Well, a few days before the election the Green candidate have I mentioned her name was Angela Green? urged her supporters to vote for Sinema. Who did squeak out a win.

As senator, Sinema became an, um, unreliable Democratic vote. Who you might call either principled or egocentrically uncooperative. In any case, it didn't look like she'd have much chance of being renominated. So now she's very likely to run as ... an independent.

Another senator who frequently drives Democratic leaders crazy is Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who hasn't announced his own plans. But he's started to flirt with a presidential run. On a No Labels ticket? "I don't rule myself in and I don't rule myself out," he helpfully told an interviewer.

Sigh.

Politicians are perfectly well aware of what effect a third option can have on elections. Back in 2020, a group of Montanans who'd signed petitions to put the Green Party on the ballot discovered that the Republicans had spent $100,000 to support the signature-gathering effort undoubtedly in hopes that the Green candidate would take votes away from former Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock when he ran for the Senate. The irate voters went to court, and a judge finally ruled that they could remove their names.

Didn't help Bullock win, but it does leave another message about the way too many options can be used to screw up an election. Really, people, when it comes time to go to the polls, the smartest thing you can do is accept the depressing compromises that can come with a two-party democracy. Then straighten your back and fight for change anyhow.

Don't forget to vote! But feel free to go home after and have three or four drinks.

The New York Times

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Opinion: Repulsed by Biden vs. Trump? Tough - Chattanooga Times Free Press