Monthly Archives: June 2020

The Pittsburgh Steelers entered the 2019 bye week with a 2-4 record, and were a very different team than the one that started the season. Ben Roethlisberger was on Injured Reserve, their big free agent WR, Donte Moncrief, had played his way off the field, JuJu Smith-Schuster was playing hurt, Ryan Switzer was relegated to returns only. Down their QB and all three of their top WRs from the start of the season, and the run game trying to run against stacked boxes with no FB, the Steelers were in trouble.

The Steelers would come out of the bye week against the Miami Dolphins and give up a turnover and two TDs in the first quarter. After that quarter, though, the Steelers defense took over. The rest of that game and the next two games would see 8 turnovers forced on 23 drives (34.7%). The defense would score two TDs, while giving up 3 TDs and 2 FGs for a 14-25 score just from the defense.

The Steelers would go 3-0 in those games, improving to a 5-4 record, putting them in position for a playoff run.

This film room is going to look more in depth at three of the Steelers defensive backs, and the traits they brought that allowed them to lead the team back into playoff contention.

Before we get to Minkah Fitzpatrick we need to talk about his sidekick in the secondary, the Ryan Clark to Fitzpatricks Troy Polamalu Terrell Edmunds.

Terrell Edmunds is a jack of all trades, master of none type of player, hes not an elite defender in any specific area, but hes good at a whole lot of things, with very few weaknesses, and his elite athleticism (97th percentile for safeties) allows him to move around a lot, even after the snap.

Week 8, 3rd quarter, 2:27 Terrell Edmunds is up by the line, dropping as the play starts.

This is something the Steelers did a good bit, starting Edmunds up near the line, and then dropping him right before the snap into deep zone.

I picked this one because it also shows how well Fitzpatrick and Edmunds were playing off each other at this point, with Edmunds dropping smoothly behind Minkah Fitzpatrick as Fitzpatrick crashes to make the tackle. That kind of movement, playing off each other starts showing up more after the bye week.

Week 8, 1st quarter, 7:44 Terrell Edmunds is the deep safety to the top of the screen.

The Steelers run a cover-6 here, with man to the wide side of the field and zone to the boundary. But this time Edmunds steps up to cover the inside while Haden defends the deep zone. As the play breaks down and Jacoby Brissett runs, Edmunds is there to meet him and limit the yards gained.

Being able to play like a LB while also being a solid deep safety, and having the athleticism to transition in play, is a huge benefit to a defense that wants to disguise what it is doing.

Terrell Edmunds was the player the Steelers moved the most at the snap, and it was a big part of how they disguised plays.

Some of you are going to disagree with me calling Edmunds a solid deep safety. Edmunds has a reputation for being terrible at deep zone, and while I will state it is not his best usage, hes not necessarily bad at it.

Week 10, 4th quarter, 1:30. Terrell Edmunds is the deep safety to the bottom of the screen.

Josh Reynolds beats Joe Haden deep, but Edmunds breaks up the pass to prevent a TD.

Heres a better angle of the breakup.

Terrell Edmunds has the athleticism to play trail like this, and he does a solid job reading the receiver and getting his hands in the way of the catch.

Edmunds is not good at reading the ball in the air, not prohibitively bad, but it is a weakness. You see it when he mistimes contact with a receiver, and when he goes for interceptions. Hes much better covering the WR and playing their hands/eyes.

His strong man-cover skills are a big asset when you pair it with his size and strength.

Week 9, 4th quarter, 8:43. Terrell Edmunds is the slot DB to the bottom of the screen.

After scoring the go ahead touchdown, the Colts go for two, hoping to extend their lead to three points. Jack Doyle gets a good push on Edmunds and you can see Edmunds stumble, but he recovers and is able to knock the pass away to preserve the one-point game. The Steelers would win the game 26-24, so keeping those two points off the board was incredibly important in the Steelers win.

Terrell Edmunds isnt a star, and may never be one, but his value to the Steelers as a guy who can play anywhere on the field and take on any responsibility you can give him makes him a perfect piece for a defense that wants to disguise what they are doing, and the perfect compliment for a play maker like Minkah Fitzpatrick.

In the second part of this film series I showed how Minkah Fitzpatrick was less of a play maker when he was the deepest defender in coverage. Thats because teams would throw underneath him, teams didnt throw near him when he was the deep safety very often.

Week 8, 3rd quarter, 11:14. Minkah Fitzpatrick is the deep safety.

Ryan Fitzpatrick is one of those quarterbacks who is going to chuck an ill-advised deep ball a couple times a game. This time he throws at Minkah Fitzpatrick, and Minkah plays center field beautifully for the interception.

Note Terrell Edmunds closing speed to the ball. If Minkah isnt there, Edmunds would have been there to break up the pass, but the odds of an interception would be a lot lower.

Week 9, 2nd quarter, 2:36. Minkah Fitzpatrick is the deep safety.

This is Fitzpatricks pick-6 against the Colts. Minkah Fitzpatrick makes it look easy, but this is an incredible play.

Heres a look right before the QB starts to throw the ball.

The yellow arrow is pointing to where the pass will go. Jack Doyle is passing Mike Hilton, the WR outside will keep Haden occupied, and Minkah Fitzpatrick is 9-10 yards away from the spot he needs to be to make a play on the ball.

Joe Haden stated he thought he had given up a TD because he didnt get the ball when he lunged at Doyle in the end zone. Minkah Fitzpatrick shouldnt have been able to get there.

Watch Minkah Fitzpatrick at the top of the screen, look at his feet and the moment he breaks on the ball.

He reads the pass incredibly fast, moving before the throw, and bursts toward the ball. Fitzpatrick has elite read and react speed, his footwork is efficient and he explodes to the play.

He would show off his play reading the next week in an even better, but nowhere near as impactful play.

Week 10, 3rd quarter, 0:19. Minkah Fitzpatrick is the deep safety to the top of the screen.

This whole play is designed to get Cooper Kupp open underneath for some easy yards. But Minkah Fitzpatrick comes from the other side of the field, navigating traffic to break up the catch.

This play is Troy-esque. He sees the play almost instantly and flies to where the ball will end up.

The bye week gave the Steelers time to get Minkah Fitzpatrick better integrated into the defense, and the result was 4 interceptions, 5 passes defended and a fumble recovery in the next three games, with 2 touchdowns.

Starting in Cleveland in Week 11, opponents would avoid Minkah Fitzpatrick. His stats disappeared, but for those three weeks Minkah Fitzpatrick dominated the stat sheets.

Through 8 games and 28 minutes of the 2019 season, Joe Haden had four passes defended and 0 interceptions. The Steelers opponents had been targeting Steven Nelson a lot, attacking him with a lot of underneath and in-cutting routes. Minkah Fitzpatrick jumping those in-cutting routes led teams to target Joe Haden more, averaging three more targets per game in weeks 8-13 than in weeks 3-6.

In Week 10 Joe Haden would start making them pay for it.

Week 10, 2nd quarter, 1:44. Joe Haden is the CB to the bottom of the screen.

This is Hadens 5th pass defended of the season. He would get 4 more in this game, including 2 turnover plays.

Week 10, 3rd quarter, 13:34. Joe Haden is the CB to the top of the screen.

When Minkah Fitzpatrick steps up to cover the in-route, Devin Bush has to to defend a deep route with no safety help. But Joe Haden and Minkah Fitzpatrick have switched here, and Haden is there to make the interception.

Week 10, 4th quarter, 0:30. Joe Haden is the CB to the bottom of the screen.

Here Haden tips the pass and Minkah Fitzpatrick comes away with the football.

If you watch Terrell Edmunds and Minkah Fitzpatrick on this play, you can see Edmunds playing forward with Fitzpatrick deep to start before they switch. The quarterback is looking to Edmunds side, and when he turns to target Fitzpatricks side, Edmunds steps back to cover deep as Minkah steps forward, ready to attack the play. Also notice Minkah Fitzpatricks positioning as he comes forward. Fitzpatrick is a fluid mover who reads the flow of the offense at an incredibly high level. It pays off with an interception off the tipped ball on this play.

This was Minkah Fitzpatricks last interception of the 2019 season. Minkah came into the game with 4 interceptions and picked up his 5th. Joe Haden came into the game with 0 interceptions and picked up his first, as he would end the season with 5.

The communication between the safeties behind Haden allowed him to be far more aggressive than he has at any time with the Steelers, and Haden would record 5 interceptions and 13 passes defended in the second half of the season.

The Steelers recorded 20 interceptions in 2019. The last two seasons with 20+ interceptions were 2010 and 2008.

The Steelers got 10 of those interceptions from Joe Haden and Minkah Fitzpatrick, while Steven Nelson and Terrell Edmunds combined for 1. But while Haden and Fitzpatrick collected the stats, Nelson and Edmunds played important roles in setting the stage for those interceptions. Nelsons deep coverage and ability to lock down deep routes 1v1 and Edmunds versatility allowed the Steelers to do a lot of different things on defense while putting Joe Haden and Minkah Fitzpatrick in position to play to their strengths and make the splash plays.

Next up in this film room series well look at both Cleveland games as well as the second Cincinnati game, in the penultimate article on the evolution of the Steelers secondary in 2019.

See more here:

Film Room: Evolution of the Steelers secondary, Part 3: stars emerge - Behind the Steel Curtain

In 2007, two years after the Kitzmiller v. Dover ruling that effectively put an end to the teaching of Intelligent Design in public schools, a survey found that teaching evolutionwasnt faring so well.

Only 28% of high school biology teachers taught that humans had evolved over millions of years without pretending God played a role in the process. 16% of high school biology teachers flat-out said they taught Creationism that humans were created by God sometime within the past 10,000 years.

It was truly disturbing. And, again, that was well after the Kitzmiller ruling.

Thats why the National Center for Science Education, along with a researcher from Penn State University, ran that survey again last year to see if the teaching of evolution has gotten better in our schools. What would it say following the adoption, by many states, of Next Generation Science Standards and the lack of any serious legal threat by Creationists to inject their mythology in public schools? And even if evolution is being taught, is it being taught accurately and completely?

Ann Reid of the NCSE says theres good news in the results, just released in the peer-reviewed journal Evolution: Education and Outreach:

Much credit is due to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), a set of benchmarks released in 2011 that emphasizes evolution as a core concept. The 44 US states that have adopted these, or standards based on the same framework, have seen the greatest improvements.

Look at that. When scientists emphasize the importance of evolution education, it gets taught more often and more accurately. No Ken Ham money-pit is going to take away from that. To be sure, evolution is still not taught as comprehensively as it ought to be. More than half the respondents (65%) said they spent no more than five hours on the subject in class. And yet thats still an improvement from the 77% who said the same thing in the 2007 survey.

Now, says Reid, the same focus must also be placed on issues like climate change, which are also under attack by anti-science ideologues.

Theres hope for the future in this regard. But itll require science teachers not to be distracted from outside noise designed to discredit evidence and reason. They need to continue reminding students that the broad strokes of evolution are settled science, which is why its vital for students to understand it.

(via NCSE. Image via Shutterstock)

Link:

Survey Finds That Evolution Education is Improving in Public Schools - Friendly Atheist - Patheos

Jurassic World and Rocketman starBryce Dallas Howard, 39, goes behind the camera to direct the documentary Dads (June 19 on Apple TV+) about modern fatherhood around the world. She taps her own filmmaking father, Ron Howard, as well as other famous funny dads, including Will Smith, Jimmy Fallon, Ken Jeong, Jimmy Kimmel and Conan OBrien.

Related:Bryce Dallas Howard and Ron Howard Have the Sweetest Father-Daughter Pics

Is the theme of Dads that there isnt one definition of what a father is today?

Absolutely. Fatherhood has gone through a huge evolution just in the last generation.

What advice did your father give you on making Dads?

He was very nervous about me putting him on a pedestal. Hes like, Everyones going to be annoyed by a movie thats just a daughter celebrating her father. I kept assuring him, Trust me, theres much more exciting stories in there. Ultimately when he watched it, he was like, Oh, OK, but he still felt it was too much of him.

What was your inspiration for Dads?

Ive got great, strong, essential relationships with the men in my life: my grandfather, my brother, my husband and my husbands best friend, whos the godfather of my children. All of them are astonishing fathers. I felt its impossible to not notice how in the past men have been left out of the conversation of parenting. Its been a very diminished role.

What topics did the comedian dads address?

A lot of the questions that I had for our comedian dads were about themselves as fathers, but also what their experience was like being fathered, what theyve consciously changed, and what they have unconsciously not been able to change. Its very apparent that generationally, for many, theres been a huge transformation as to what the role of a father is.

Your film is a positive look at fatherhood.

I just saw again and again, men who went above and beyond for their families, and were all in. I wanted to celebrate that. I wanted to celebrate the men who are fathers who are all in, because there are so many more of them than there are deadbeat dads, truly. What weve seen in the movies and on TV, and all of that, is a lot of depictions of fathers who are incompetent, and thats just not what I have experienced, and thats not what I have witnessed and observed.

You have quite a Rolodex of comedian dads. Were they eager to volunteer or did you have to coax some of them into doing it?

Honestly, everyone was really enthusiastic. I think in part its because these are all very devoted, wonderful, present fathers. And at the end of each of the conversations, what I heard more than any other statement was, Oh, my gosh, I have never been asked that much about what it takes, what it feels like to be a parent, to be a father. And for women, before you even think about becoming a mother people ask you, What do you think youre going to be like as a mother?

Ive seen people talk to my 3-year-old daughter about being a mother one day, saying, Oh, shell be such a great mother. And so, it was really interesting for me as a woman and as a mother to feel the difference of what I had come to expect and assume was normal. And then to learn, Oh, wow, an hour or two-hour conversation about fathering is something that isnt necessarily happening. Why? Its not out of lack of interest.

This was definitely a family affair. Your dad, your brother and your grandfather were all in it. Whats it like working with family?

Its wonderful. My brother, Reed, is so sweet and he keeps talking about it. He keeps being like, I just loved getting to do the interview with you. It was so nice. We just got to talk without being interrupted. Im the oldest and hes the youngest, and theres a set of twins between us, so, it was just great to get to be one-on-one.

My grandfather, actually, when I started the movie he had passed away. The interview with him was done in 2013. So that was something when I was first thinking about it, I was like, Oh, weve got our birth videos and maybe, Dad, you could talk about granddad. And he was like, No, no, no, no.

And then as we started filming, I kept wanting to ask an expecting father to be one of our hero dads. Someone who wasnt a father yet and becomes a father through the course of filming. Then my brother and his wife got pregnant, and so, it was this totally serendipitous thing. They actually werent even trying.

I was like, Oh, my gosh, will you be my expecting dad? My brother said yes, and then it made sense to include my grandfathers story, so I went and looked at that old interview. And then it made sense for me to interview my own dad. So it was something that happened very organically in regard to my grandfather and my brother. And with my dad, it was a little bit of arm-twisting.

Does directing come naturally to you? And if so, what do you enjoy about it?

Directing has always been something that I aspired to do as a part of my career. Absolutely. In terms of whether or not it comes naturally, what I would say is that its a little bit like asking someone who grew up in a household where Spanish was the first language, did Spanish come more naturally to you? Yes, its easier to learn Spanish because its being spoken around them. And for me, I was raised on movie sets and within that environment, and so Im relatively fluent in movie, movie speak, and what that experience is like.

In fact, I teach a class now at NYU. Its a filmmaking class, and its a class where students are creating their own work. But a big aspect of the class, other than generating ones own work, is understanding the film environment, how films are made and what its like on a set. When I left school and I started working, it didnt throw me at all to be on a movie set. I really understood the dynamics, the rules, the lingo, the cameras and the workflow. A lot of my peers, because they didnt grow up in that way, that was a new experience. And I was like, Oh, wow, that was a real privilege. Ive always known it. It was just getting exposed.

Its the same thing, again, with language. If you want to learn a language, the younger you are when youre exposed to it, its going to come more naturally to you. So thats something that was really, really, really lucky. But I was also always interested, so I was always paying attention. And then when I was in high school, I started directing plays, and I did that all through college.

I directed my first short film [Orchids] when I was pregnant with my oldest [Theo], whos now 13. That was a short film that I co-wrote with the gentleman who became my brother-in-law later. It starred Katherine Waterston, who I went to NYU with, and Alfred Molina, who did me a great favor in saying yes to it.

And then my second film [When You Find Me] was when I was pregnant with my second kid [daughter Beatrice, 8]. Certainly, when the acting career kicked off, directing slowed down for a while for sure. And then after the second kid, its been pretty consistent.

How did you pick the noncelebritydads? Did you actually go to Brazil and Japan and film those segments?

Great question. The way we picked the dads was so fun and intentional, but then also there were little random surprises as well. Basically, early on, I was really fascinated with the daddy blogger community, because that was something thats very new. It couldnt have existed before social media and all of that. And so, our first stop was in the daddy blogger community, and it took all of two seconds to find Glen Beleaf Henry, who is just so charismatic and such an incredible inspiration, witty, dynamic and just your dream come true as a documentary filmmaker.

And so, continuing to explore within that community, that led us to Rob and Reece Scheer. Rob had just written a book that had been published. Shuichi was discovered quite coincidentally by one of our producers, who saw a comic book that had been written about him, with him on his bicycle, biking with his son through Tokyo, Japan. And so, thats how he was discovered.

So it was a one-at-a-time thing. I did a lot of work with the Promundo Institute in Brazil. Brazil is where Thiagos from, and hes done work with the institute as well on nonviolent communication and active present fathering and whatnot. So it was something where once we went into the daddy blogger community, it felt like there were so many amazing folks. It wasnt like, Where are we possibly going to find these dads? It was like they were everywhere.

We also really wanted footage, because scheduling-wise we had a pretty small window in order to do everything. And so, I was hoping that we could piggyback on footage that had already been captured by the fathers themselves, because with a documentary, typically it takes forever because youre just sitting down and youre like, OK, eventually the lion will move. Something will happen eventually, just park here.

Whereas with this, in terms of actually going and shooting the hero dads, it was a very small crew, it was a handful of days in and out, especially to not disrupt the family lifestyle because there were kids involved. And so, having characters who had a lot of their own footage that we could use was really, really helpful.

In terms of going to Japan, very sadly but very intentionally, I did not go to Japan to shoot, and I didnt shoot in the homes of the families, because Jurassic World 2 had just come out, and those kids are literally my demographic and I was nervous. This is such a weird thing to say, but I was really nervous that if the kids recognized me, or if it made the parents nervous to be like, Oh, I recognize her, it can ruin the vibe.

It was a targeted thing. The stuff with my brother, and, of course, all the comedian stuff, I shot myself. But the traveling to some of those places, its so sad that I didnt get to go, but it had to be that way.

Because your film is about dads, how is the parenting in your family? Your husband [Seth Gabel, 38] is an actor, so do you have a rule that you have to juggle work so that one of you is always with the kids?

No. That happens on its own. Whatever it might seem on the outside, neither my husband nor I have ever felt like weve been in the position to make those choices. When were not working, its not because were choosing to not work, its because were literally unemployed.

That being said, with the choosing not to work, there are certain things. You dont just sign up for everything because, Oh, theres a local position at the community theater down the road. Im available, Im going to go do it. There is still discernment, but were always auditioning, were always interviewing for jobs. Unless Im on maternity leave or something, Im saying, Im available. Or, Im doing another job.

So its worked out that way. I can only think of two instances for a day or two where it was like, Oh, my gosh, what are we going to do? But its definitely worked out. Early on there was a period of time where my husband was on a few TV shows that were shot out of the country, and my daughter ended up being born in Canada as a result. I was mostly just with the kids, but I was also very pregnant, so it wasnt like I was going to be working during that time anyways.

Jurassic World: Dominion is coming up next year. Are you surprised that there are still Jurassic stories to tell?

Im not, because Im a sci-fi nerd who cant get enough sci-fi. Its just an endless curiosity. What author Michael Crichton created with Jurassic Park is this alternate reality: What would happen if we were able to reanimate dinosaurs? Its a really fun, delicious, wild thought experiment.

Related:Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard Talk Dinosaurs, Parenting and Friendship

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Bryce Dallas Howard Dissects the Power and Evolution of Fatherhood Apple TV+ Documentary - Parade

Four menswear designers on their aesthetic evolution during the pandemic

Today sees the launch of London Fashion Weeks first digital only platform, a gender neutral online space, merging mens and womenswear, held over the dates that London Fashion Week Mens was originally scheduled to take place. In celebration of the launch an innovative response to todays social distancing measures we caught up with four flourishing brands from fashion cities around the world, to see how their approach to design has developed during an unparalleled global crisis

In the days that have passed since the world went into lockdown, 80 per cent of the clothes we own havent touched our skin. The A/W 2020 menswear collections presented in January hang in limbo too as production has been halted and buyers reconsider orders due to be delivered in July. Divorced from their studios, designers have been working alone from home, conducting fittings over FaceTime and Zoom; scrutinising fabrics through well-thumbed screens.

If it is true that you can see the approaching of a revolution in clothes, then a new, altruistic attitude is on the way, one that champions the digital realm, and opens up designers to an even wider and plugged in global audience.

Nicholas Daley A/W 2020

The throb of a guitar, a poem narrated to a room, the smell of incense and sweat; birthday cakes and cocktails. Weve become used to experiencing life framed by computer screen. This months London Fashion Week has replaced physical shows with a stream of digital content, yet for a designer like Nicholas Daley who has used his moment as a chance to share the spotlight with a host of black talents from poet James Massiah to South London musical duo Kwake Bass and Wu-Lu this pivot throws up some challenges.

Community, culture and craft is what I always want to push. A/W 2020 was my last season with New Gen and my first full runway with collaborations. The venue was the biggest Ive worked in! It felt like a really positive show, very complete. I want to keep that momentum rolling, he says from his studio. Daley is more curatorial in his approach the music, the set, the crowd he calls upon carry the same importance as one of his check Irish linen cardigans. The backdrop of this pandemic is re-evaluating. Everyone is just trying to adapt and get hold of the situation. Thats why I always align with musicians because music is a very unifying force. The times feel right for that.

Phipps A/W 2020

Can everybody calm down. Make less, make it better. Focus on what you do well, the American designer Spencer Phipps says from his home in Paris. Mercifully this period of confinement has forced the industry to align to his eco ethos. A/W 2020 was about the conservation and protection of forests and included a curated line of customised vintage and deadstock garments that will go on sale under the name PHIPPS GOLD LABEL via his re-designed website. Great t-shirts, one-off pieces, cool collectible stuff. I think those are the kind of things people want special things with character and things that dont feel like youre adding to the problem, Phipps says. I feel weirdly fortunate because our whole thing has been useful, purposeful luxury items theres a reason for them.

Phipps has installed a make-shift climbing wall in his spare room and has spent most of his time wearing sweatpants, fitting print trials and prototypes onto himself, sending selfies to his assistant. Offices are opening again but Im planning on maintaining this kind of rhythm now Ive seen how I can move around, do stuff on my phone, come back and do other things. I feel much more disciplined I can work out whilst doing emails simultaneously. Thats a new skill for me!

Kenneth Nicholson A/W 2020

L.A-based Kenneth Nicholsons A/W 2020 collection started with the idea of hybrids: Everything is referential. Like, if you see something online, it is a joke but it references another meme from a month ago and takes on a new life. I was really trying to tap into this collage, this layering of what I felt was happening. In lockdown he has been characteristically brooding: I think for the longest time fashion felt very impenetrable you either had access or were perpetually longing to have access to it. And so, for me, seeing all of the initiatives like the CFDAs A Common Thread and major luxury houses stepping in, thats phenomenal. I dont think things like that will go away easily.

Even before COVID-19 fashion had begun to acknowledge inclusivity, diversity and the importance of opening up. Nicholson riffs his collections off of the misconception that gender fluidity is a new-fangled theory. Part of the conversation has to be about that empirical evidence that in the 17th and 18th century men did wear lace, men did embrace a lot of silhouettes. I still want to have this notion of respecting fashion history and gently leading people to embrace something that feels new. With everything the way it is right now, I want to turn it up a little, to really go for it.

Sunnei A/W 2020

Simone Rizzo and Loris Messina have always approached SUNNEI as a multidisciplinary project that is part wardrobe and part youth club. What we do is far from seasonal trends and other dynamics of the fashion system, however during this period we had the chance to slow down and understand what really matters, they say. So much of what makes something SUNNEI is defined by the community of people wearing it, loving it.

During lockdown the pair decided to host forty days of live performances, generating what they call shared one-of-a-kind moments. We basically took this as an opportunity to dig into art and its innumerable branches, from illustration to music, drawing, sculpture, cooking, floristry and more. We didnt stop interacting with the people around us we just looked for alternative ways to reach them.

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Four menswear designers on their aesthetic evolution during the pandemic - Wallpaper*

So, in celebration of Hits Live Fest we thought we'd take a look at how festivals have changed over the years. With 2020 being the year that pretty much every festival was cancelled or postponed, the only 'festivals' happening are virtual, or in your garden with a limited number of people.

We've pretty much come full circle, with many virtual festivals now taking place, almost reminiscent of the early days of festivals when a few friends gathered around a fire in a field.

Starting way back in 1970, Glastonbury is one of the best-known festivals around, attracting people from around the world. Its iconic Pyramid Stage has looked very different throughout the years, but this is how it looked in 1971.The first festival had an attendance of 1,500 and an entry fee of just 1 which included free milk from the farm!

If you've been to a festival that lasts more than a day you've probably ended up camping, and experienced the typical British weather.For those who have been ill-equipped, with a leaking tent and wellies that look better than they feel, camping is definitely not the best part of the festival.

In the mid-noughties festivals used to feature a stage, they were pretty impressive for the time, but fast-forward a few years and they're now quite different.

Along with stages, with the typical British weather in the summer being wet, many festivals also put up huge tents to house smaller stages.

Throughout the years ponchos have become a popular festival accessory, with our rather predictably wet weather. Festivals even sell their own branded ponchos now.

Festivals can be great fun, but so are a few home comforts, so for those lucky ones who can afford the glamping options, there's running water, proper loos, electricity and even a proper bed sometimes!

Glastonbury's infamous Pyramid Stage is still reminiscent of the early days, but it has now been kitted out with state-of-the art lights and a huge sound system.

Last year saw some amazing festival stages, ranging from Creamfields in the UK to Tomorrowland in Belgium, a festival which is known for its extravagant stages and performances.It's not just the size of the stage, but the amount of fireworks and pyro they also have, the experience is more than just the act on stage these days.

That's right, you might not be able to go to a real festival this year, but if you've got the space, why not put up a tent and switch on Hits Radio?On Saturday 20th June from 1pm Hits Live Fest is coming to Hits Radio, Greatest Hits Radio and Country Hits Radio where we'll have the best live performances from your favourite acts.We can't wait for you to hear them.

More here:

The evolution of festivals through the years - Glastonbury to Tomorrowland - Key 103

Kenneth Branagh Talks Thors Evolution in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Kenneth Branaghs time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was short, but it was meaningful. The British director had the delicate job of introducing Thor in the MCU back in 2011. Talking with ComicBook, Branagh explained his vision for the firstlive-action theatrical adaptation of Marvels Norse demigod.

For me, I thought it was really important that everything we set up there to do with his being banished, his rough diamond beginning, his difficult relationship with his father and his brother, he said. All of those things always were going to have tremendous potential if we could just make people connect with it upfront with the authenticity of the characters feelings. I think they committed completely to it and so did the audience. Then, the world was their oyster in terms of where they might go to.

Branagh definitely left his mark on the MCU, even though the Thorcharacter underwent some huge changes over the years. Especially after Taika Waititi took over direction withThor: Ragnarok.

The director went on to add that the Thorcharacter in the comic books has a long story of development. And its quite reasonable, given the comics long history of publication. Per Branagh, the movies are now trying to do the same.

Im so happy that we had that dynastic saga at the beginning of the first one where it was a lot of innate personal family drama, he said. Ive got a lot of favorite moments in that movie that have headed into other kinds of directions, often very funny ones. I think we were right to do what now seems like a very different world.

The next movie set in theThorfranchise isThor: Love and Thunder. It will strike theaters on February 11, 2022.

Do you agree with Branaghs take onThor? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

Recommended Reading:Thor by Jason Aaron: The Complete Collection Vol. 1

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Kenneth Branagh Talks Thors Evolution in the Marvel Cinematic Universe - Superherohype.com

KINGSTON, R.I. June 9, 2020 Men are taller than women because millennia ago big, strong men beat out their shorter rivals for access to mates. The female pelvis is broader than the male pelvis because women have evolved to give birth. So the thinking goes.

Theyre compelling evolutionary narratives that have lasted in textbooks, classrooms and pop culture as explanations for the skeletal differences between men and women. But as explanations, these simple stories no longer stand up to current science, says Holly Dunsworth, associate professor of anthropology at the University of Rhode Island.

Poring over decades of existing research, Dunsworth has reevaluated and rewritten the narrow, reigning theories for sex difference in height and pelvic width in a new paper, Expanding the evolutionary explanations for sex differences in the human skeleton. The paper, published online by the journal Evolutionary Anthropology, maps out the critical role of estrogen production on bone growth in men and women.

A lot of these conventions and how they support these old stories, such as sexual selection made men taller, are out of a tradition where we really only had skeletons to study, says Dunsworth. People hadnt done behavioral observations, or studied the physiology or the genetics. There have been so many advances in 150 years of human biology, and when you put all these things together, the old origin stories dont add up.

In rewriting the explanations, Dunsworth waded through hundreds of existing studies. Her paper cites 94 references, but she reviewed five times that. I tried not to go too far back. The further I went the more misconceptions I found, she says. I think there is an old assumption out there that testosterone makes men taller, but thats just not the science.

In her paper, Dunsworth focuses on how different levels of estrogen production dictate bone growth in both sexes, with ovaries producing more estrogen than testes. Boys and girls grow at roughly the same pace, reaching about 62 inches by age 13. At that age, greater estrogen production in girls causes long bone growth plates to fuse. Boys continue to grow taller for about five more years, until they reach levels of estrogen that fuse their bones. In that time, boys grow another 8 inches on average; girls just 2. As with height, sex differences in the pelvis skeleton are also rooted in the differing levels of estrogen and its effects over time on differing systems of gonads, genitals, ligaments and bones.

There are ways that men and women are so obviously different in their evolved reproductive physiology, Dunsworth says. Its really as if the reigning theories just look at the skeleton to claim that men are taller because they evolved to be dominant and competitive as if women didnt and to claim that women are broader because they evolved for reproduction as if men didnt. Conspicuous sex differences in our bodies lead to assumptions about gender differences. They feed our narratives about what a man is and what a woman is, and what our different roles in society should be. These myths about human nature havent exactly worked wonders for women and they fuel toxic masculinity.

Dunsworth, a biological anthropologist, sees it as her job as a professor and researcher to overturn outdated and false evolutionary traditions and to retell origin stories that are inclusive and unbiased.

We make meaning out of human evolutionary origin stories, she says. Whether they really dig human evolution or not, people are using it to make sense of the world and theyre thinking that some of these very narrow, very outdated ideas are the science, are the facts, she says. There are facts and then there are stories we tell about them. But we can improve our stories. There are more inclusive stories to tell, more complicated, more dynamic, more interesting, more scientific ways of describing the facts and telling stories about those facts.

Despite their flaws, theories of sexual selection for height and natural selection for pelvis size continue to be taught in classrooms, Dunsworth says, even in hers.

Weve taught it for years because theres an obsession with comparing the degree of difference between men and women to the much larger difference between male and female gorillas. Somehow, its supposed to show that we are more peaceful and more cooperative, while still acknowledging that, because human men are bigger than women, the big men in our ancestry have been the big winners, she says. I was teaching sexual selection. Its canon. I thought this is how we explain this until I sat back and thought it through.

Dunsworth had doubted the use of sexual selection to explain male and female body size differences. But the tipping point came in 2016 after she took exception on social media to comments by a well-known evolutionary biologist who was defending the theory in a politically charged rant.

Im a feminist and Im trying to be part of this inclusive, diverse future of the world, Dunsworth says. I knew that this one simple, narrow story wasnt even scientific. So, I spoke out. Thats when I realized this is a huge problem.

She started her research immediately and submitted her paper in 2018 for peer-review in Evolutionary Anthropology. Already available online, it appears in the May/June issue of the journal.

To have this new way of thinking in a major journal in my field and reviewed by my peers is the gold standard of knowledge, she says. Its not just me on my blog, raising my feminist fist in the air. This is how you advance knowledge.

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URI anthropology professor challenges evolutionary narratives of big, competitive men and broad, birthing women - URI Today

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From two layers of rubberized fabric to a suit with a hatch in the back like a fridge door - read our timeline story about what types of protective garments Russians have used throughout all these years for sending people into space.

Gagarin was the first person in the history of mankind to go into space. But what did he wear on such a dangerous journey? Almost 60 years ago, Soviet specialists seriously believed that Yuri Gagarin could be launched into space without any spacesuit at all, just in an ordinary thermally insulated suit!

Had Sergei Korolev, the chief designer of the Soviet space program, not intervened at the last moment, that is probably what would have happened. But the first spacesuit did materialize and space fashion has undergone through many transformations since.

Making a spacesuit for a human was not the same at all as making a spacesuit for animals - specifically, the dogs which the Soviets had sent into space many times since the 1950s. The Vorkuta suit used by Su-9 jet fighter pilots became the prototype for the worlds first suit for space flights. It was called the SK-1 (and was the one Gagarin eventually wore). Only the helmet had to be completely redone - it had pressure sensors installed so that, in the event of a sharp drop in pressure, its mechanism would instantly slam down an airtight, clear visor.

SK-1 spacesuit

This spacesuit was a type of emergency and rescue suit, which cosmonauts put on for launch and re-entry. They served as a backup duplicating all life support systems - just in case a spaceship malfunctioned or the cosmonaut had to eject. The first spacesuits were made to measure for the selected cosmonauts, Gagarin and two on standby. In the event of cabin depressurization, for example, the spacesuits would have supported the cosmonauts for five hours. Interestingly, even the first spacesuits had a waste collection system, so they didnt have to be taken off when a cosmonaut needed to answer the call of nature.

Meanwhile, the USSR realized that the expansion of operations in space would not be confined to the interior of a spacecraft and that a fundamentally new type of spacesuit was needed - autonomous, suitable for spacewalks and performing the functions of a mini-spacecraft. THe first spacesuit of this type was the Berkut.

Berkut spacesuit

Unlike the SK-1, the Berkut spacesuit had a second hermetic casing and a shoulder pack with oxygen cylinders. But it, too, was made to measure, however, was not very mobile. When Alexei Leonov made his historic, first ever spacewalk, his spacesuit practically lost its pliancy, because of the pressure difference outside and inside, and, moreover, it became distended to such an extent that the sleeve increased in length and the gloves partly slipped off his hands. To return to the spacecraft, the cosmonaut was forced to lower the oxygen pressure inside the suit, at the risk of decompression. And even before his spacewalk, his suit had become completely wet inside because of sweat and condensation - it had no temperature regulation to speak of.

Leonov wearing a Berkut spacesuit

In the meantime, Soviet cosmonauts had also been planning to fly to the Moon and the Krechet was designed for just such a mission. It was a semi-rigid spacesuit with a hatch at the back like a door: The cosmonaut was not supposed to put it on like the American Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) spacesuit designed for the Apollo-16 mission, but had to literally climb into it. The spacesuit had a special cable system which allowed the cosmonaut to close the hatch behind him. And although the Krechet never went to the Moon, its design was used for future extravehicular spacesuit models.

Krechet spacesuit

After the Berkut, the next generation of spacesuits arrived in the form of the Yastreb. It was also intended for spacewalks and was very similar to the Berkut, and was used on the new Soyuz spacecraft, which made its first flight in 1967. However, the Yastreb only had one opportunity to be employed in practice.

Yastreb spacesuit

A fact was that, for a short time the Soviet Union still sent cosmonauts to the orbital station without emergency rescue suits. The SK-1 had stopped being used back in 1964, the Yastreb was not suitable for launch and re-entry, and the design of Soyuz spaceships at the time made no provision for crew in spacesuits. In 1971, this inevitably led to tragedy: On returning to Earth, the cabin of the Soyuz decompressed and all three cosmonauts, none of whom were wearing spacesuits, died. It became clear that emergency rescue suits were needed and so, the Sokol spacesuit was urgently developed. Since 1973, and to this day, cosmonauts always wear Sokol spacesuits when going into space on Soyuz spacecraft.

Sokol spacesuit

All versions of the Sokol spacesuit had strict requirements with regards mobility and strength: For example, the pressure regulator was moved to the chest, so that the cosmonaut could always easily lower the pressure and improve mobility. The Sokols helmet was made of metal (something the Russian designers are still very proud of, believing that the new plastic SpaceX helmet, manufactured on a 3D printer, cannot compare with a metal one in strength). While the spacesuits numerous straps and cables were designed to make sure that in the event of depressurization it didnt balloon, the sleeve didnt expand and the fingertips didnt lose contact with the fingertips of the gloves (as happened in Leonovs case with the Berkut spacesuit).

As for the Yastreb, which was used for Extravehicular activity (EVA) just once, it was also replaced by an improved model - the Orlan spacesuit.

Orlan spacesuit

The Orlan is the most massive and impressive of all currently existing Russian spacesuits. Its main job is to protect cosmonauts from micrometeorites and radiation during EVAs. The Orlan is strong and multilayered, but very heavy - it weighs about 115 kg (254 lbs)! Of course, its not designed for walking, as outside the space station cosmonauts usually only work using their hands while floating in zero gravity. Still, even that isnt easy.

The design of the semi-rigid spacesuit is based on the Krechet lunar suit, and that is why its rear is like a backpack and opens like a fridge door. Unlike the Krechet, however, Orlan spacesuits are universal - the arm and leg and sleeves can be adjusted according to height. The temperature inside the spacesuit is also regulated, and when wearing it, a cosmonaut can be autonomous and does not have to rely on other equipment on the International Space Station (ISS) for up to seven hours.

The Orlan was used for an EVA for the first time in 1977 and its different versions are still in use on the ISS.

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