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Tourists are flocking to view the partially frozen Niagara Falls, despite frigid temperatures, with visitors praising the winter spectacle as a striking sight.

The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington will close for roughly two years to allow for extensive renovations, President Donald Trump said Sunday. Trump said on social media he determined that the closure, slated for July 4, “will produce a much faster and higher quality result” as he seeks to rebuild the complex. Trump said the move is pending approval by the center’s board, whose members were picked by the president. “This important decision, based on input from many Highly Respected Experts, will take a tired, broken, and dilapidated Center, one that has been in bad condition, both...

Catherine O'Hara, the comedic actress best known for her starring roles in the Home Alone and Beetlejuice films, as well as her Emmy-winning turn in Schitt's Creek, has died aged 71.The Canadian star rose to fame through Toronto's Second City improvisation troupe and on SCTV, before making a name for herself in the US in 1988's Beetlejuice and as the matriarch in the holiday classic Home Alone.O'Hara, whose colleagues remembered her as a "wonderful person, artist and collaborator", most recently appeared in the Emmy-winning comedy The Studio and HBO's The Last of Us.In a statement to the BBC, O'Hara's agent...

John Carpenter‘s The Thing has been selected by the Library of Congress as one of this year’s 25 films to join the National Film Registry due to their cultural, historic or aesthetic importance to preserve the nation’s film heritage. “When we preserve films, we preserve American culture for generations to come. These selections for the National Film Registry show us that films are instrumental in capturing important parts of our nation’s story,” said Acting Librarian of Congress Robert R. Newlen. “We are proud to continue this important work, adding a broad range of 25 films to the National Film Registry...

Text-FormatDiscussions MonthlyLong Lead30-& 90-Day Hawaiian More Outlooks FMA 2026 MAM 2026 AMJ 2026 MJJ 2026 JJA 2026 JAS 2026 ASO 2026 SON 2026 OND 2026 NDJ 2026 - 27 DJF 2026 - 27 JFM 2027 FMA 2027 0.5mn Feb 2026 Climatological Values (1991-2020) for FMA Tools Used (see Discussion for explanation)Tools Discussion (updated as new tools are implemented) Canonical Correlation AnalysisEnsemble Canonical Correlation AnalysisOptimal Climate NormalsClimate Forecast SystemScreening Multiple Linear Regression ToolProbability of Exceedence

Archaeologists working in southeastern Turkey have uncovered new evidence that expands the known reach of one of the world’s earliest monumental cultures. The find is reshaping how researchers understand the Neolithic transition in Upper Mesopotamia. Stone structures featuring Göbeklitepe-style T-pillars have been identified in the Samsat district of Adıyaman. The remains surfaced after falling water levels in the Atatürk Dam reservoir exposed land that had remained underwater for decades. Discovery triggered by retreating waters The site lies near Kızılöz village, where receding waters revealed stone features along the shoreline. After a report from residents, teams from the Adıyaman Museum Directorate...

New York’s Jeffrey Deitch apologized to artist Miles Greenberg after an ascendant rapper staged an event at the gallery that appeared to draw upon a performance done in the same location in 2021. The musician, Lexa Gates, promoted her new album by walking for hours inside a giant wheel at Jeffrey Deitch on January 14. Titled The Wheel, Gates’s performance was meant to “reinforce the message of persistence, emotional resilience and forward motion that acts as the central theme of the record,” according to the event’s official description. Her related album, I Am, has received coverage from such outlets as...

I have been watching Rupert Sheldrake and his take on morphic resonance, and I thought it would be the perfect accompaniment. It's an original piece I did some time ago. If you like it, give a thumbs up and subscribe.

The film, which follows a young Hong Kong woman (Michelle Mao) who spends a night traversing the city with two new acquaintances (Jin Ha and Haley Lu Richardson) as she tries to make sense of dangerous visions of her future, was a true collaboration between Kogonada and six of his best friends....He asked the three actors, longtime cinematographer Benjamin Loeb, and producers Christopher Radcliff and Chung An to meet him in Hong Kong with little more than a faint idea for a movie. They started shooting almost immediately, figuring out the film as they went along....“These are six of my...

Every year from mid- to late February, the setting sun hits Yosemite’s Horsetail Fall along the eastern edge of the soaring El Capitan at just the right angle, creating the illusion that the 1,575-foot waterfall is on fire. This Yosemite National Park phenomenon, aka “firefall,” is ultra-popular, and this year is expected to be even more crowded. For the first time since 2021, park reservations are not required to visit Yosemite during firefall. The past 12 months have been tumultuous for the National Park Service, with a 43-day government shutdown, changing free-entry days, and price increases. Now, its rangers will...

The story of Icarus is one of those legends of Greek mythology that fascinates audiences because of Icarus’ desire to transgress human boundaries, thus culminating in tragic consequences. The tale of Daedalus and Icarus in Greek mythology is the story of a father and a son who used wings to escape from the island of Crete. Icarus was the young man who fell from the sky when the wax that fastened his wings to his body melted as a result of the heat of the sun. The story of Icarus begins on Crete The legend of the mythological Icarus is...

Der Tiger (Amazon)

The Louvre museum in the French capital, Paris, is hiking its ticket prices for most non-European visitors by 45 per cent. The famous institution was the scene last year of a daring heist which saw robbers get away with jewels worth over a $100 million dollars, blamed in part on its deteriorating state. "I want visitors from outside the EU to pay more … and for that surcharge to go towards funding the renovation of our national heritage," Culture Minister Rachida Dati said announcing the hikes in 2024. But France’s decision to increase entry costs to the help fund much-needed...

"She is nearly 100 feet longer than any other ship in the world except her sister — and her tonnage of 45,000 is 13,000 in excess of that of the biggest of rival liners. Her engines — 50,000 horsepower — are both turbine and reciprocating, are expected practically to eliminate vibration. "She has accommodations for 5,000 passengers. She cost $7,500,000. The Titanic is not a speed marvel — she makes but 21 knots as against the Mauretania’s 25 — but she is the last word in the way of comfort and luxury in trans-Atlantic travel."

If you used a digital camera in the early 2000s, there's a good chance whole chapters of your life have been erased. A generation of photos has vanished on broken hard drives and defunct websites.For my 40th birthday, I asked my friends and family members for one gift: pictures of me in my early 20s. My own photo collection from that era – roughly 2005-2010 – is devastatingly scarce. There's a blank space somewhere between my albums of printed college photos and my Dropbox folder of early motherhood snapshots. All I could find from those years was a handful of...

Bush’s second term in office ended in 2009, and he took up painting early on in his retirement, essaying his interest in portraiture with his depictions of world leaders. He then turned to his attention to war veterans. These newer portraits are thickly painted in the loose, vivid style Bush has developed since his early experiments with a more photorealistic technique. They were first shown at the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Texas, in 2017. A book of the paintings, accompanied by the stories of the 98 men and women portrayed – their injuries, recoveries and lives afterward...

In an undated post regarding admissions to graduate arts and sciences programs for the 2026–27 academic year, Boston University indicated that the history of art and architecture program was not admitting candidates, along with American studies, anthropology, religion, and romance studies programs. In November 2024, meanwhile, the school had already indicated that its department of the history of art and architecture would not accept Ph.D. students for the next academic year, according to a report from Inside Higher Education. In an email obtained by the publication, the heads of the College of Arts and Sciences, which includes the art history...

The asteroid, 2025 MN45, completes a full rotation once every 1.88 minutes, meaning it must have a very high strength to keep itself together. An artist's impression of the asteroid 2025 MN45. NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory/NOIRLab/SLAC/AURA/P. Marenfeld ===================================================================== The Vera C. Rubin Observatory has observed a record-breaking ultra-fast-rotating asteroid. The space rock is the fastest-spinning asteroid larger than 500 meters (0.3 miles) to have ever been observed. The asteroid, designated 2025 MN45, completes a full rotation every 1.88 minutes. Announced at the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory First Look event in June 2025, it was one of 1,900 new...

Today I'm happy to make a mention that Out of the Dark, a book written by Helen Keller, is now ready as downloadable audio. This book is interesting in that it is where Keller describes "how I became a socialist". Some of you may find that just as curious as I do as to what her reasonings were. https://librivox.org/out-of-the-dark-by-helen-keller/