Media Today

[Rick Plant]

This is a thread for everything going on in World News, U.S. news, sports, entertainment, medical science etc.

[Rick Plant]

Genesis is one of the greatest bands of all time. First fronted by Peter Gabriel, the band became the top progressive rock band in the world. After Peter's departure at the conclusion of "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" tour, Phil Collins reluctantly agreed to front the band as lead singer and history was written. Genesis became one of the top selling bands of all time both in record/cd sales and in concert tours. Phil is no doubt in bad shape and it's sad to see him struggling to get around and his diminished vocal abilities were on full display. But it was great for the band to be able to tour for one last time before they called it quits for good. Too bad Peter didn't join them for a song or two.

After tonight, we'll all have to get real jobs': Frail Phil Collins, 71, stands with Genesis bandmates Mike Rutherford, 71, and Tony Banks, 72, as iconic band bid farewell to fans at FINAL ever concert in London
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-10656895/Frail-Phil-Collins-stands-Genesis-bandmates-iconic-band-play-FINAL-concert.html

Watch Genesis Play the Final Song and Take a Last Bow at Their Farewell Concert
“It’s the last show for Genesis,” Collins told the crowd at London’s O2 Arena. “After tonight we’ve got to get real jobs”
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/genesis-final-song-farewell-concert-1328152/



Genesis formed in early 1967 when two rival bands at the prestigious Charterhouse boarding school in southeast England came together as one. They ended Saturday night at London’s O2 Arena at the final date of the group’s Last Domino reunion tour.

“Tonight is a very special night,” Collins told the crowd early in the evening. “It’s the last stop of our tour. And it’s the last show for Genesis… After tonight we’ve all got to get real jobs.”

There was a small degree of ambiguity about this being the last tour when they announced the reunion back in 2019. They even called it “The Last Domino?” to leave a bit of wiggle room, but Collins made it increasingly clear as the months went by that he had no intention of continuing with the band after the final show in London. To drive the point home further, they removed the question mark from the name of the tour during this last run and started billing it as “The Last Domino!”

Genesis fans from all over the world traveled to London to them wrap things up, and it was a very emotional evening. The setlist, however, was the same as every other show. It’s a mixtures of radio hits like “Invisible Touch” and “That’s All” with lesser-known tunes like “Duchess” and “Home by The Sea” and a few prog-era classics like “I Know What I Like” and “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.” Above, see fan-shot video of the grand finale of “Dancing With the Moonlight Knight” and “Carpet Crawlers.”

Phil Collins has severe physical problems that make it hard for him to stand for extended periods of time, but he stood up for a bow with the entire touring band. At the end, the extra musicians stood aside so core members Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford, and Collins could take a final bow. Collins was the last one to depart, moving slowly towards the back stairs with a cane.

The last two songs were from the Peter Gabriel era of the band, and Gabriel himself was in the audience. Here’s a backstage photo of Collins, Gabriel, and their early Seventies road manager Richard McPhail. Gabriel is wearing a laminate giving him “AAA” access to the arena. Unfortunately, he didn’t use it to wander onstage and join the band for the final two songs. It’s not very surprising since Gabriel hasn’t sang a complete Genesis song in public since 1983. He also probably wanted them to have this moment to themselves.

@WorldofGenesis

From tonight’s final #Genesis show in London (from left): #PeterGabriel, #PhilCollins, and Richard McPhail (long time friend and tour manager in the ‘70s). If you’ve not read Richard’s book on Genesis, you should. @genesis_band @itspetergabriel @PhilCollinsFeed



Die-hard fans will never stop hoping a reunion tour with Gabriel and guitarist Steve Hackett. The fantasy is that they’d do it with Nicholas Collins subbing in for his father on the drums, much like he did on this tour. But it remains a very, very remote possibility. In all likelihood, this show at the O2 Arena was indeed their Last Waltz. It’s a sad day, but at least Gabriel was in the audience to see the end of the band he helped start all those years ago.

Genesis - "Dancing With The Moonlit Knight"/ "The Carpet Crawlers" (Final song in concert)

[Rick Plant]

Giant ice volcanoes identified on Pluto



Strange lumpy terrain on Pluto unlike anything previously observed in the solar system indicates that giant ice volcanoes were active relatively recently on the dwarf planet, scientists said on Tuesday.

The observation, which was made by analyzing images taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, suggests that Pluto's interior was hotter much later than previously thought, according to a new study in the Nature Communications journal.

Rather than shooting lava into the air, ice volcanoes ooze a "thicker, slushy icy-water mix or even possibly a solid flow like glaciers", said Kelsi Singer, study author and planetary scientist at Colorado's Southwest Research Institute.

Ice volcanoes were already thought to be on several chilly moons in the solar system, but Pluto's "look so different from anything else we ever have seen", Singer told AFP.

"The features on Pluto are the only vast field of very large icy volcanoes and they have a unique texture of undulating terrain."

Singer said it was difficult to pinpoint exactly when the ice volcanoes were formed "but we believe they could be as young as a few hundred million years or even younger".

Unlike much of Pluto, the region does not have impact craters, which means "you cannot rule out that it is still in the process of forming even today", she added.

'Extremely significant'

Lynnae Quick, a planetary scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center specialized in ice volcanoes, said the findings were "extremely significant".

"They suggest that a small body like Pluto, which should have lost much of its internal heat long ago, was able to hold onto enough energy to facilitate widespread geological activity rather late in its history," she told AFP.

"These findings will cause us to re-evaluate the possibilities for the maintenance of liquid water on small, icy worlds that are far from the Sun."

David Rothery, professor of planetary geosciences at The Open University, said "we don't know what could provide the heat necessary to have caused these icy volcanoes to erupt".

The study said that one of the structures, the Wright Mons, is about five kilometers (three miles) high and 150 kilometers (90 miles) wide, and has around the same volume as one of Earth's biggest volcanoes -- the Mauna Loa in Hawaii.

Rothery told AFP he had been to Mauna Loa and "experienced how vast it is".

"This makes me realize how big Wright Mons is relative to Pluto, which is a much smaller world than our own."

The analyzed images were taken when the New Horizons -- an unmanned nuclear-powered spacecraft about the size of a baby grand piano -- became the first spaceship to pass by Pluto in 2015.

It gave the greatest insight yet into Pluto, which was long considered the farthest planet from the Sun before it was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006.

"I love the idea that we have so much left to learn about the solar system," Singer said.

"Every time we go somewhere new, we find new things that we didn't predict -- like giant, recently-formed ice volcanoes on Pluto."

© 2022 AFP

[Rick Plant]

‘JFK: Destiny Betrayed’: Oliver Stone digs even deeper into his conspiracy theories
Four-part assassination doc revisits the familiar evidence and spotlights some little-known clues.


“JFK: Destiny Betrayed” maintains that Robert F. Kennedy (right) immediately suspected the assassination of his brother John was the work of the CIA, the Mafia and anti-Castro exiles.

Someday we might see a four-part documentary series laying out the case that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone when he assassinated President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, forever changing the course of history.

Pretty safe bet: Oliver Stone will not be the one to deliver such a series.

Ever since the release of the controversial, provocative, wildly inventive and at times bat-bleep crazy “JFK” in 1991, Stone has been arguably the most public and vocal JFK assassination conspiracy theorist in the world. (Just last year, Stone released the feature documentary “JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass.”) As we’re reminded in the writer-director’s sprawling, at times overwhelmingly dense, heavily researched and transparently biased “JFK: Destiny Betrayed,” he’s hardly alone on this hill. There are dozens upon dozens of historians, journalists, physicians, ballistics experts, witnesses and like-minded researchers, as well as a seemingly bottomless pit of documents, supporting Stone’s firmly held contention Kennedy was the victim of a wide-ranging conspiracy and that the investigation into his assassination was a sham.

Will this series change your mind if you think Oswald acted alone? Perhaps. Will it reinforce your opinion if you’re firmly entrenched in the camp that believes Oswald was indeed a patsy, as he claimed shortly before Jack Ruby killed him, and that nefarious forces combined to eliminate the president and then cover their tracks? Absolutely.

Debuting digitally on Tuesday, “JFK: Destiny Betrayed” is not for entry-level students of one of the most scrutinized tragedies in American history. Stone expects the viewer to hit the ground running with him as he casts a wide net that not only covers the assassination, the immediate aftermath and subsequent hearings, commissions, reports and revelations about the event, but also takes a deep dive into the global politics of the time. According to the series, it was Kennedy’s foreign policies, in particular his anti-colonial convictions, that created chasms between him, the Eisenhower administration, the Pentagon and the CIA. Along the way on this journey, we take detours covering the Congo’s liberation from Belgium; multiple attempted assassinations of French President Charles de Gaulle, and the suspicious plane crash fatality of Dag Hammarskjöld, secretary-general of the United Nations.

Watch clip:

It’s easy for the viewer to get lost in the weeds during some of these passages, but on balance, “Destiny Betrayed” makes for compelling television, whether we’re revisiting footage and photos and findings we’ve seen many times before or learning about yet another relatively unexplored piece of evidence pointing to alleged corruption and cover-ups. With Whoopi Goldberg alternating narration duties with Donald Sutherland (who appeared in “JFK” as the mysterious “Mr. X”), the series is divided into quadrants:

- Chapter 1: Stone appears on camera at Dealey Plaza and tells us about the Assassination Records Review Board, which was created by an act of Congress following the firestorm of controversy created by his film “JFK.” We’re told Robert F. Kennedy immediately suspected the assassination was orchestrated by the CIA, the Mafia and anti-Castro exiles. As for the Warren Commission: What was Allen Dulles doing there? Dulles, who had been fired as director of the CIA by JFK, reportedly worked tirelessly to make sure the commission would find Oswald acted alone.

- Chapter 2 focuses on anomalies in the medical evidence and glaring problems with the chain of custody for both Oswald’s rifle and the so-called “magic bullet.” There’s also speculation about whether the mail-order Mannlicher-Carcano rifle Oswald purchased from Klein’s Sporting Goods in Chicago is the real murder weapon.

- In Chapter 3, “Destiny Betrayed” continues scrutiny on the autopsy, sometimes in rather grisly fashion when the talk turns to skull fragments and brain tissue and exit wounds. Rear Admiral George C. Burkley, Kennedy’s personal physician who signed the death certificate, in later years claimed he had “information … others besides Oswald must have participated.” We’re also told the Secret Service inexplicably washed out parts of the presidential limousine before shipping it to Washington, D.C., in the process removing brain, blood and tissue evidence. (Stone also can’t resist inserting a scene from “JFK” into the proceedings, with Kevin Costner’s Jim Garrison delivering closing arguments and saying, “The truth often poses a threat to power, and one often has to fight power at great risks to themselves.”)


The life of assassin Lee Harvey Oswald is recalled in an episode of “JFK: Destiny Betrayed.”AP

- With Chapter 4, we pivot to a profile of Lee Harvey Oswald, the U.S. Marine veteran who in 1959 defected to the Soviet Union, eventually returning to the States in 1961. The narrative loses momentum as “Destiny Betrayed” rehashes allegations about Oswald’s time in New Orleans and his connections to the likes of Clay Shaw and Dean Andrews — story threads already explored in “JFK.” In the final passage, titled “Consequences,” we’re reminded, as narrator Sutherland puts it, “Our overwhelming disbelief in the Warren Commission’s findings contributed to increased skepticism of all our foundational beliefs about government.”

On that, we can all agree.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/movies-and-tv/2022/3/7/22964845/jfk-destiny-betrayed-review-oliver-stone

[Rick Plant]

OJ Simpson thinks Will Smith went a little too far



O.J. Simpson says he understands what Will Smith was feeling when he violently lashed out against Chris Rock — but he thinks the “Concussion” actor went too far.

The 74-year-old former football star said on Twitter Tuesday that he’s been asked about Smith smacking Rock on stage at Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony after the Oscar winning actor took exception to a joke Rock made about Smith’s wife. Smith has since apologized.

“It’s unfortunate,” Simpson said. “I think Will was wrong.”

Simpson — who was put on trial for the 1994 murder of his wife and her friend — said he was speaking from a location on the East Coast, where he’d inadvertently gotten caught up in spring break revelry. He was acquitted in that trial but has since been dogged by the court of public opinion. As such, he said he knows what it’s like to be the butt of jokes as Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith were Sunday.

“I understand the feeling,” Simpson said. “In my life, I’ve been through a lot of crap. When I was raising three young kids every comedian in the country had an O.J. routine. And don’t think I wouldn’t want to B-slap a couple of those guys, but you’ve got to accept it’s human.”

Simpson said he didn’t even think Rock’s joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair was “all that egregious,” nor did he find it funny. However, Simpson, who was sentenced to nine years in a Nevada prison on robbery charges exactly 13 years after being acquitted of murder, thinks Smith is getting off easy.

“I know this,” Simpson said. “After what happened to me in Las Vegas, if I would have done that in front of a billion people watching around the world, they would have given me life without (parole). I’m just saying.”

© New York Daily News

[Rick Plant]

Bruce Willis announces retirement from acting due to illness



Action hero Bruce Willis, star of the "Die Hard" franchise, is to retire from acting due to illness, his family announced Wednesday.

"Bruce has been experiencing some health issues and has recently been diagnosed with aphasia, which is impacting his cognitive abilities," a post on Instagram signed by his family said.

"As a result of this and with much consideration Bruce is stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him."

The post is signed by Willis' current wife, Emma Heming Willis, as well as former wife, actress Demi Moore, and his children Rumer, Scout, Tallulah, Mabel and Evelyn.

"This is a really challenging time for our family and we are so appreciative of your continued love, compassion and support.

"We are moving through this as a strong family unit, and wanted to bring his fans in because we know how much he means to you, as you do to him.

"As Bruce always says, 'Live it up' and together we plan to do just that."

According to the Mayo Clinic, aphasia often occurs after a stroke or a head injury, and "robs you of the ability to communicate."

"It can affect your ability to speak, write and understand language, both verbal and written."

AFP

[Rick Plant]

Hubble telescope spots most distant star ever seen



The Hubble space telescope has peered back to the dawn of cosmic time and detected light from a star that existed within the first billion years after the Big Bang -- a new record, astronomers said Wednesday.

The newly discovered star, called "Earendel," is so far away its light has taken 12.9 billion years to reach Earth, when the universe was seven percent its current age.

"We almost didn't believe it at first, it was so much farther than the previous most distant," said astronomer Brian Welch of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, lead author of a paper in Nature describing the discovery.

The previous record holder was detected in 2018 when the universe was four billion years old.

Because the universe is expanding, by the time light from distant stars reaches us it is stretched to longer, redder wavelengths, a phenomenon called "redshift."

Earendel's light came from an era called redshift 6.2.

"Normally at these distances, entire galaxies look like small smudges, the light from millions of stars blending together," said Welch in a statement.

The galaxy hosting the star has been naturally magnified and distorted by an effect called gravitational lensing.

This is when a massive object in between the observer and the thing they're looking at bends the fabric of space-time, so that rays of light coming from the target object that were diverging are bent back towards the observer.

The cosmic magnifying glass in this case is a huge galaxy cluster known as WHL0137-08, which, thanks to a rare alignment, provides maximum magnification and brightening.

"The galaxy hosting this star has been magnified and distorted by gravitational lensing into a long crescent that we named the Sunrise Arc," said Welch.

After he studied the galaxy in detail, Welch found that one feature is an extremely magnified star that he called Earendel, which means "morning star" in Old English.

Earendel existed so long ago that it may not have had the same raw materials as the stars that exist today, added Welch.

"It's like we've been reading a really interesting book, but we started with the second chapter, and now we will have a chance to see how it all got started," he said.

Astronomers intend to gaze at the star using the James Webb Space Telescope, Hubble's successor, which is highly sensitive to infrared light from the oldest celestial bodies, in order to confirm Earendel's age, mass and radius.

It has been hypothesized that primordial stars were made solely from the elements forged after the Big Bang: hydrogen, helium and trace amounts of lithium, and should be more massive than stars that exist today.

It remains to be seen if Earendel belongs to these so-called "Population III" stars, but while the probability is small, it is enticing, said Welch.

Webb, which should go online this summer, is expected to break Hubble's records and peer even further back in time.

© 2022 AFP

[Rick Plant]

First audio recorded on Mars reveals two speeds of sound



The first audio recordings on Mars reveal a quiet planet with occasional gusts of wind where two different speeds of sound would have a strange delayed effect on hearing, scientists said Friday.

After NASA's Perseverance rover landed on Mars in February last year, its two microphones started recording, allowing scientists to hear what it is like on the Red Planet for the first time.

In a study published in the Nature journal on Friday, the scientists gave their first analysis of the five hours of sound picked up by Perseverance's microphones.

The audio revealed previously unknown turbulence on Mars, said Sylvestre Maurice, the study's main author and scientific co-director of the shoebox-sized SuperCam mounted on the rover's mast which has the main microphone.

The international team listened to flights by the tiny Ingenuity helicopter, a sister craft to Perseverance, and heard the rover's laser zap rocks to study their chemical composition -- which made a "clack clack" sound, Maurice told AFP.

"We had a very localized sound source, between two and five meters (six to 16 meters) from its target, and we knew exactly when it was going to fire," he said.

The study confirmed for the first time that the speed of sound is slower on Mars, traveling at 240 meters per second, compared to Earth's 340 meters per second.

This had been expected because Mars' atmosphere is 95 percent carbon dioxide -- compared to Earth's 0.04 percent -- and is about 100 times thinner, making sound 20 decibels weaker, the study said.

'I panicked'

But the scientists were surprised when the sound made by the laser took 250 meters a second -- 10 meters faster than expected.

"I panicked a little," Maurice said. "I told myself that one of the two measurements was wrong because on Earth you only have one speed of sound."

They had discovered there are two speeds of sound on the surface of Mars -- one for high-pitched sounds like the zap of the laser, and another for lower frequencies like the whir of the helicopter rotor.

This means that human ears would hear high-pitched sounds slightly earlier.

"On Earth, the sounds from an orchestra reach you at the same speed, whether they are low or high. But imagine on Mars, if you are a little far from the stage, there will be a big delay," Maurice said.

"All of these factors would make it difficult for two people to have a conversation only five meters (16 feet) apart", the French CNRS research institute said in a statement.

'Scientific gamble' pays off

It was otherwise so quiet on Mars that the scientists repeatedly feared something was wrong, the CNRS said, possibly provoking memories of two failed previous attempts in 1999 and 2008 to record sound there.

"There are few natural sound sources with the exception of the wind," the scientists said in a statement linked to the study.

The microphones did pick up numerous "screech" and "clank" sounds as the rover's metal wheels interacted with rocks, the study said.

The recording could also warn about problems with the rover -- like how drivers sense something's wrong when their car starts making strange noises.

Maurice said he felt the "scientific gamble" of taking microphones to Mars was a success.

Thierry Fouchet of the Paris Observatory, who was also involved in the research, said that listening to turbulence, such as vertical winds known as convection plumes, will "allow us to refine our numerical models for predicting climate and weather".

Future missions to Venus or Saturn's moon Titan could also now come equipped with microphones.

And Perseverance is far from done eavesdropping. While its core mission lasts just over two years, it could remain operational well beyond that -- the Curiosity rover is still kicking nine years into a planned two-year stint.

© 2022 AFP