Chick 2 says:
Put in some slow motion, a lot of light flares, and a circular dolly track shot and Michael Bay thinks you’ve got a movie. Add some performance footage of a rock band and I admit it would make a good music video. Maybe Bay should stick to that. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good lens flare, but in this case I think it’s hiding the fact that there’s no story. Honestly, how many dramatic moments deserving of super slow-mo can there be in a movie about toys that transform from cars to robots? It reminds me of that commercial where the marketing team comes up with toys, posters, kid’s meal giveaways, and action figures before they come up with a script. I do like Shia LeBeouf and he manages to still be enjoyable in the midst of Bay’s signature frantic, non-connected, ADR-ed (Automatic Dialogue Replacement) action. But even with Shia I still let this dvd play while I channel surfed to see if there was anything better on.
IF a Transformer was the toy that you slept with every night and never parted from, THEN RENT IT. IF not, DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT.
A librarian ran off with a yacht captain in the summer of 1968. It was the start of an incredible love story
metamask
The first time Beverly Carriveau saw Bob Parsons, she felt like a “thunderbolt” passed between them.
“This man stepped out of a taxi, and we both just stared at each other,” Beverly tells CNN Travel today. “You have to remember, this is the ‘60s. Girls didn’t stare at men. But it was a thunderbolt.”
It was June 1968. Beverly was a 23-year-old Canadian university librarian on vacation in Mazatlan, Mexico, with a good friend in tow.
Beverly had arrived in Mazatlan that morning. She’d been blown away by the Pacific Ocean views, the colorful 19th-century buildings, the palm trees.
Now, Beverly was browsing the hotel gift store, admiring a pair of earrings, when she looked up and spotted the man getting out of the taxi. The gift shop was facing the parking lot, and there he was.
“I was riveted,” says Beverly. “He was tall, handsome…”
Eventually, Beverly tore away her gaze, bought the earrings and dashed out of the store.
“We locked eyes so long, I was embarrassed,” she says.
No words had passed between them. They hadn’t even smiled at each other. But Beverly felt like she’d revealed something of herself. She felt like something had happened, but she couldn’t describe it.
Beverly rushed to meet her friend, still feeling flustered. Over dinner in the hotel restaurant, Beverly confided in her friend about the “thunderbolt” moment.
“I told my girlfriend, ‘Something just happened to me. I stared at this man, and I couldn’t help myself.’”
Then, the server approached Beverly’s table.
“He said, ‘I have some wine for you, from a man over there.’”
The waiter was holding a bottle of white wine, indicating at the bar, which was packed with people.
As a rule, Beverly avoided accepting drinks from men in bars. She never felt especially comfortable with the power dynamic — plus, she had a long-term partner back in Canada.
“I had a serious boyfriend at home and thought my life was on course,” she says.
https://www.tumblr.com/problem-dark/777507808337936384/%D0%B0%D0%BA%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%B2%D0%B0%D1%86%D0%B8%D1%8F-office-2010-%D0%B2%D1%81%D0%B5-%D1%81%D0%BF%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%BE%D0%B1%D1%8B-%D0%BD%D0%B0-%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%BD%D1%8F%D1%82%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%BC
https://www.myvipon.com/post/1553404/1xBet-Registration-Promo-Code-Bonus-amazon-coupons
https://postheaven.net/seomypassion12/code-promo-1xbet-paris-gratuits-bonus-jusqua-eu130
https://sites.google.com/view/ehlorgee/home
https://my.omsystem.com/members/fbdgfbdedergrh
https://beterhbo.ning.com/profiles/blogs/code-promo-1xbet-777bono-bonus-100-de-130
[url=https://www.zvportal.ru/index.php/forum-2/9--/3585-promokod-bk-melbet-pri-registratsii-na-segodnya#7520]melbet промокод на фрибет при регистрации[/url]
Discover Bangladesh’s most trusted online gaming destinations through BDCasinoRatings.online – your premier guide to licensed platforms offering seamless Bkash/Nagad transactions and localized Bangla support. Our expert-curated rankings highlight casinos with fast Taka payouts, exciting Cricket betting options, and generous welcome bonuses tailored for Bangladeshi players. Stay informed with real-time updates on safety standards and exclusive promotions across South Asia’s fastest-growing iGaming market. https://bdcasinoratings.online/
Discover Bangladesh’s most trusted online gaming destinations through BDCasinoRatings.online – your premier guide to licensed platforms offering seamless Bkash/Nagad transactions and localized Bangla support. Our expert-curated rankings highlight casinos with fast Taka payouts, exciting Cricket betting options, and generous welcome bonuses tailored for Bangladeshi players. Stay informed with real-time updates on safety standards and exclusive promotions across South Asia’s fastest-growing iGaming market. https://bdcasinoratings.online/
Фонбет промокод: MAX777, используйте его при регистрации аккаунта. Новые пользователи могут активировать бонус и получить бездепозитный фрибет до 15 000 рублей. Воспользоваться бесплатно промокодами «Фонбет» для получения подарочной ставки или другого бонуса можно во время создания аккаунта на официальном сайте букмекерской конторы, а также после активации личного кабинета. Действующие промокоды могут давать зачисление кэшбэка на депозит, бесплатное пари и т.п.
промокод на фонбет на сегодня действующий
пари бет промокод
pari промокод бк
Кэт казино промокод: CAT555 — бонус 375% на 3 депозита и 150 фриспинов при регистрации. Cat Casino — это популярная онлайн-платформа, которая радует своих пользователей щедрыми бонусами, акциями и уникальными промокодами. Если вы ищете способ увеличить свой игровой бюджет или просто хотите получить дополнительные преимущества, то промокоды Cat Casino — это то, что вам нужно. В этой статье мы подробно расскажем о всех доступных бонусах, акциях и особенностях использования промокодов в Cat Casino.
Что такое Cat Casino Промокод?
Промокод Cat Casino — это специальный код, который позволяет игрокам получать дополнительные бонусы. Это может быть бесплатная ставка, дополнительные фриспины, увеличение депозита или даже кэшбэк. Промокоды часто распространяются через партнерские сайты, рассылки или социальные сети казино.
Как Использовать Промокод в Cat Casino?
Cat casino промокод: CAT555 (код нужно вводить только при регистрации) Сегодня, новым игрокам в Cat casino за промокод будет начислен бонус в виде 100 фриспинов без депа и повышенный бонус на первый счёт до 27 000 рублей.
Использовать промокод Cat Casino очень просто:
Зарегистрируйтесь на официальном сайте Cat Casino.
Перейдите в раздел «Акции» или «Бонусы».
Введите промокод в специальное поле.
Активируйте код и получите свой бонус.
Важно помнить, что у каждого промокода есть свои условия использования. Например, минимальная сумма депозита или необходимость отыгрыша бонуса.
Основные Бонусы и Акции Cat Casino
Промокод казино Кэт: CAT555 — бонус за регистрацию 100% и 200 FS, а также 375% и 150 фриспинов. Cat Casino славится своими щедрыми акциями, которые доступны как новичкам, так и постоянным игрокам. Рассмотрим самые популярные из них:
1. Приветственный Бонус
Новые игроки могут получить приветственный бонус, который включает в себя дополнительные средства к первому депозиту и фриспины. Например, при пополнении счета на 1000 рублей вы можете получить 100% бонус и 50 фриспинов.
2. Еженедельные Акции
Cat Casino регулярно проводит акции, такие как «Кэшбэк за проигрыши» или «Двойной депозит». Участвуя в этих акциях, вы можете вернуть часть потерянных средств или увеличить свой игровой бюджет.
3. Промокоды на Фриспины
Фриспины — это бесплатные вращения на слотах, которые можно использовать для выигрыша реальных денег. Промокоды на фриспины часто разыгрываются в социальных сетях казино или выдаются за активность на сайте.
4. VIP-Программа
Для постоянных игроков Cat Casino предлагает VIP-программу, которая включает в себя персональные бонусы, повышенный кэшбэк и эксклюзивные промокоды.
Как Получить Промокод Cat Casino?
Промокоды Cat Casino можно получить несколькими способами:
Подписаться на рассылку новостей казино.
Следить за акциями в социальных сетях Cat Casino.
Участвовать в турнирах и лотереях на сайте.
Использовать партнерские сайты, которые сотрудничают с казино.
Преимущества Использования Промокодов
Использование промокодов в Cat Casino имеет множество преимуществ:
Увеличение игрового бюджета.
Возможность попробовать новые игры без риска.
Дополнительные шансы на выигрыш.
Участие в эксклюзивных акциях.
Советы по Использованию Промокодов
Чтобы максимально эффективно использовать промокоды Cat Casino, следуйте этим советам:
Всегда проверяйте условия отыгрыша бонуса.
Используйте промокоды только на те игры, которые вам нравятся.
Следите за сроками действия промокодов.
Не забывайте про VIP-программу, которая может увеличить ваши бонусы.
Cat Casino — это отличная платформа для любителей азартных игр, которая предлагает множество бонусов и акций. Промокоды Cat Casino позволяют увеличить свои шансы на выигрыш и получить дополнительные преимущества. Следите за акциями, используйте промокоды и наслаждайтесь игрой в Cat Casino!
Если вы ищете надежное казино с щедрыми бонусами, то Cat Casino — это именно то, что вам нужно. Не упустите возможность получить дополнительные фриспины, кэшбэк и другие приятные бонусы с помощью промокодов Cat Casino.
cat casino промокод фриспины
Фонбет промокод: MAX777, используйте его при регистрации аккаунта. Новые пользователи могут активировать бонус и получить бездепозитный фрибет до 15 000 рублей. Воспользоваться бесплатно промокодами «Фонбет» для получения подарочной ставки или другого бонуса можно во время создания аккаунта на официальном сайте букмекерской конторы, а также после активации личного кабинета. Действующие промокоды могут давать зачисление кэшбэка на депозит, бесплатное пари и т.п.
fonbet промокод на фрибет
Кэт казино промокод: CAT555 — бонус 375% на 3 депозита и 150 фриспинов при регистрации. Cat Casino — это популярная онлайн-платформа, которая радует своих пользователей щедрыми бонусами, акциями и уникальными промокодами. Если вы ищете способ увеличить свой игровой бюджет или просто хотите получить дополнительные преимущества, то промокоды Cat Casino — это то, что вам нужно. В этой статье мы подробно расскажем о всех доступных бонусах, акциях и особенностях использования промокодов в Cat Casino.
Что такое Cat Casino Промокод?
Промокод Cat Casino — это специальный код, который позволяет игрокам получать дополнительные бонусы. Это может быть бесплатная ставка, дополнительные фриспины, увеличение депозита или даже кэшбэк. Промокоды часто распространяются через партнерские сайты, рассылки или социальные сети казино.
Как Использовать Промокод в Cat Casino?
Cat casino промокод: CAT555 (код нужно вводить только при регистрации) Сегодня, новым игрокам в Cat casino за промокод будет начислен бонус в виде 100 фриспинов без депа и повышенный бонус на первый счёт до 27 000 рублей.
Использовать промокод Cat Casino очень просто:
Зарегистрируйтесь на официальном сайте Cat Casino.
Перейдите в раздел «Акции» или «Бонусы».
Введите промокод в специальное поле.
Активируйте код и получите свой бонус.
Важно помнить, что у каждого промокода есть свои условия использования. Например, минимальная сумма депозита или необходимость отыгрыша бонуса.
Основные Бонусы и Акции Cat Casino
Промокод казино Кэт: CAT555 — бонус за регистрацию 100% и 200 FS, а также 375% и 150 фриспинов. Cat Casino славится своими щедрыми акциями, которые доступны как новичкам, так и постоянным игрокам. Рассмотрим самые популярные из них:
1. Приветственный Бонус
Новые игроки могут получить приветственный бонус, который включает в себя дополнительные средства к первому депозиту и фриспины. Например, при пополнении счета на 1000 рублей вы можете получить 100% бонус и 50 фриспинов.
2. Еженедельные Акции
Cat Casino регулярно проводит акции, такие как «Кэшбэк за проигрыши» или «Двойной депозит». Участвуя в этих акциях, вы можете вернуть часть потерянных средств или увеличить свой игровой бюджет.
3. Промокоды на Фриспины
Фриспины — это бесплатные вращения на слотах, которые можно использовать для выигрыша реальных денег. Промокоды на фриспины часто разыгрываются в социальных сетях казино или выдаются за активность на сайте.
4. VIP-Программа
Для постоянных игроков Cat Casino предлагает VIP-программу, которая включает в себя персональные бонусы, повышенный кэшбэк и эксклюзивные промокоды.
Как Получить Промокод Cat Casino?
Промокоды Cat Casino можно получить несколькими способами:
Подписаться на рассылку новостей казино.
Следить за акциями в социальных сетях Cat Casino.
Участвовать в турнирах и лотереях на сайте.
Использовать партнерские сайты, которые сотрудничают с казино.
Преимущества Использования Промокодов
Использование промокодов в Cat Casino имеет множество преимуществ:
Увеличение игрового бюджета.
Возможность попробовать новые игры без риска.
Дополнительные шансы на выигрыш.
Участие в эксклюзивных акциях.
Советы по Использованию Промокодов
Чтобы максимально эффективно использовать промокоды Cat Casino, следуйте этим советам:
Всегда проверяйте условия отыгрыша бонуса.
Используйте промокоды только на те игры, которые вам нравятся.
Следите за сроками действия промокодов.
Не забывайте про VIP-программу, которая может увеличить ваши бонусы.
Cat Casino — это отличная платформа для любителей азартных игр, которая предлагает множество бонусов и акций. Промокоды Cat Casino позволяют увеличить свои шансы на выигрыш и получить дополнительные преимущества. Следите за акциями, используйте промокоды и наслаждайтесь игрой в Cat Casino!
Если вы ищете надежное казино с щедрыми бонусами, то Cat Casino — это именно то, что вам нужно. Не упустите возможность получить дополнительные фриспины, кэшбэк и другие приятные бонусы с помощью промокодов Cat Casino.
cat casino промокод
free spins 1xbet
1xbet promo code free spins no deposit
Professional training courses Jalal-I Tedris Merkezine xosh gelmisiniz!
Biz genclerimizin peshe hazirligi ile meshgul oluruq. Sizin rahatliginiz ucun 3 filial Bakida muxtelif erazilerinde yerleshir. Karyera meqsedlerinize catmaginiza komek etmek ucun yuksek keyfiyyetli peshekar telim hazirliq kurslari teklif etmekden qurur duyuruq.
Telim kurslarimizin siyahisi:
Xarici dil kurslari, ingilis dili kurslari, 1C kurslari, Bank ishi, Ofis proqramlari, Autodesk 3DS Max kurslari, Archicad kurslari, Abituriyent hazirligi, Azerbaycan dili kurslari, cin dili kurslari, Corel Draw kurslari, Dovlet qulluguna hazirliq, Alman dili kurslari, Fars dili kurslari, Fransiz dili kurslari, Autocad kurslari, ereb dili kurslari, Excel kurslari, HR kurslari, Telim ibtidai mekteb, IELTS kurslari, Adobe Illustrator kurslari, Adobe InDesign kurslari.
Bizde hemcinin ispan dili kurslari, IT kurslari, muhasibat kurslari, italyan dili kurslari, kibertehlukesizlik kurslari, TOEFL kurslari, Veb proqramlashdirma kurslari, magistratura hazirligi, mektebeqeder kurslar, muellim hazirligi, Portuqal dili, Koreya dili kurslari, Adobe Photoshop kurslari, rus dili kurslari, sertifikatlashdirmaya hazirliq, SMM kurslari var.
Suruculuk kurslari, Word kurslari, Yapon dili kurslari, Turk dili kurslari, shahmat mektebi, Qrafik dizayn kurslari, Mentiq kurslari, Komputer kurslari, tercume xidmetleri, SEO xidmeti ve Aviabilet Azerbaijan.
Bizi secin ve biz size peshekar karyeranizda ugur qazanmaginiza komek edek!
Tedris merkezi Jalal-I peshe tehsili ucun seciminizdir!
Учебный центр jalali.az предлагает в Баку следующие курсы для профессионального обучения – курсы бухгалтерии, курсы английского и немецкого языка, компьютерные курсы.
Welcome to Jalali.az Baku! Курсы английского языка с международным сертификатом
https://maps.google.la/url?q=j&rct=j&url=https://www.google.es/url?q=https://edicionesdelau.com/articles/1win_promo_code_offer.html
O mundo moderno nos apresenta condições em constante mudança e inúmeros desafios financeiros. Modelos antigos de financiamento bancário e formas tradicionais de investimento estão cada vez mais cedendo lugar a novas tecnologias, abordagens inovadoras e ativos digitais. Um dos representantes mais notáveis da nova geração de ativos digitais é o token UTLH – uma ferramenta capaz de mudar seu futuro financeiro para sempre.Neste artigo, vamos revelar as características, vantagens e perspectivas do token UTLH e mostrar por que ele se tornou uma parte essencial do portfólio de investimentos das pessoas modernas.O que é o UTLH e qual é a sua singularidade?O token UTLH é um ativo digital de nova geração, criado na blockchain Binance Smart Chain (BEP-20). Ele representa uma ferramenta não apenas para negociação e acumulação, mas também desempenha uma função fundamental – proporcionar oportunidades financeiras por meio do programa exclusivo de Assistência Financeira Universal (UFA).Resolução de problemas financeiros reaisQuais problemas específicos o UTLH resolve?Altos juros bancários e inacessibilidade de crédito. O programa UFA permite que os membros do clube obtenham financiamento a taxas muito mais baixas do que as oferecidas pelos bancos tradicionais, sem a necessidade de garantias, como imóveis ou outros ativos significativos. O UTLH atua como um ativo colateral, garantindo e proporcionando transparência nas transações.Inflação e instabilidade financeira. A emissão limitada (957.315 tokens) protege os detentores de UTLH contra a inflação. Com uma oferta limitada e uma demanda crescente pelo token, seu valor inevitavelmente aumentará.Dificuldade de investir e riscos das criptomoedas. O mecanismo simples de staking do UTLH permite que se obtenha uma renda passiva estável (24% ao ano ou 2% ao mês), tornando o investimento no token uma ferramenta acessível e transparente, mesmo para iniciantes.Economia do token: proteção contra a inflação e perspectivas de crescimentoA quantidade de tokens claramente limitada e a existência de um mecanismo de queima de tokens permitem regular a oferta no mercado, criando um crescimento estável no valor. O modelo econômico do UTLH é o mais transparente possível:Emissão: 957.315 tokens.Queima: remoção regular de tokens da circulação.Staking: 24% ao ano para investidores.Essas características fazem do UTLH uma ferramenta financeira confiável, com perspectivas claras e baixo risco.A força da comunidade UTLHUma característica importante do UTLH, em comparação com a maioria dos outros tokens, é a comunidade de pessoas com os mesmos objetivos, que apoiam ativamente o projeto. Hoje, o clube UTL tem mais de 160 mil participantes ao redor do mundo. São pessoas ativas que não apenas investem no token, mas também utilizam em conjunto as oportunidades do programa UFA, ajudando-se mutuamente a resolver desafios financeiros e da vida cotidiana.Com o apoio de uma comunidade tão poderosa, o UTLH cresce de forma constante e se torna mais popular entre investidores, empreendedores e todos aqueles que buscam liberdade financeira.Staking UTLH – uma maneira simples de obter renda passivaPara muitas pessoas, investir é um campo complexo e confuso. Mas o UTLH mudou isso. As condições de seu staking são incrivelmente simples:Valor mínimo de entrada: apenas 1 token.Rentabilidade estável: 24% ao ano (2% ao mês).Retorno dos tokens investidos após 12 meses, juntamente com os juros acumulados.Para comparação, os depósitos bancários raramente ultrapassam 7–8% ao ano, enquanto muitas criptomoedas não garantem nenhum rendimento. Por isso, o staking do UTLH é uma opção atraente para todos os tipos de investidores – desde iniciantes até profissionais do mercado.Exemplos reais de sucesso com UTLHA aplicação prática é o principal indicador da eficácia de qualquer ferramenta financeira. Hoje, centenas de pessoas já melhoraram sua situação financeira graças ao UTLH:Aquisição de imóveis sem empréstimos de longo prazo e caros.Lançamento de projetos empresariais de sucesso com financiamento acessível.Criação de renda passiva adicional por meio do programa simples e acessível de staking.Esses exemplos reais mostram claramente a eficácia do UTLH e sua capacidade de trazer benefícios reais para as pessoas.Por que agora é o momento ideal para adquirir UTLH?A instabilidade financeira, inflação e o endurecimento das condições de crédito tradicionais estão levando as pessoas a buscar novas soluções. O UTLH é a ferramenta ideal nesse cenário:A emissão limitada cria escassez e aumento de valor.Alta rentabilidade no staking garante uma renda passiva estável.Aplicação prática e demanda constante geram um mercado crescente para o token.A poderosa comunidade internacional oferece suporte e treinamento para novos membros.Hoje, o preço do UTLH está acessível, mas, devido ao rápido crescimento da comunidade e à oferta limitada de tokens, espera-se um aumento significativo de seu valor no futuro próximo. Investir no UTLH agora é um passo para a estabilidade financeira de amanhã.Conclusão: UTLH – mais do que um investimentoO UTLH é um ativo digital que já resolve problemas financeiros reais e traz benefícios tangíveis para pessoas em todo o mundo. Ele oferece a cada um a oportunidade de conquistar liberdade financeira, proteger o capital da inflação, obter uma renda passiva estável e resolver problemas essenciais da vida sem obstáculos burocráticos.Ao adquirir o UTLH, você não está apenas investindo dinheiro. Você está criando a base para o seu futuro, onde as finanças não trarão apenas lucro, mas também segurança para o amanhã.Não perca a chance de fazer parte do novo mundo financeiro com o UTLH – o token que já está mudando vidas!
70918248
References:
steroids vs natty
Everyone is talking about Greenland. Here’s what it’s like to visit
cow fi
A few months ago, Greenland was quietly getting on with winter, as the territory slid deeper into the darkness that envelops the world’s northerly reaches at this time of year.
But President Donald Trump’s musings about America taking over this island of 56,000 largely Inuit people, halfway between New York and Moscow, has seen Greenland shaken from its frozen Arctic anonymity.
Denmark, for whom Greenland is an autonomous crown dependency, has protested it’s not for sale. Officials in Greenland, meanwhile, have sought to assert the territory’s right to independence.
The conversation continues to intensify. A contentious March 28 visit to a US military installation by Usha Vance, the second lady, accompanied by her husband, Vice President JD Vance, was the latest in a series of events to focus attention on Trump’s ambitions for Greenland.
The visit was originally planned as a cultural exchange, but was shortened following complaints from Greenland Prime Minister Mute B. Egede.
Had the Vances prolonged their scheduled brief visit, they would’ve discovered a ruggedly pristine wildernesses steeped in rich Indigenous culture.
An inhospitable icecap several miles deep covers 80% of Greenland, forcing the Inuit to dwell along the shorelines in brightly painted communities. Here, they spend brutally cold winters hunting seals on ice under the northern lights in near perpetual darkness. Although these days, they can also rely on community stores.
The problem for travelers over the years has been getting to Greenland via time-consuming indirect flights. That’s changing. Late in 2024, the capital Nuuk opened a long-delayed international airport. From June 2025, United Airlines will be operating a twice-weekly direct service from Newark to Nuuk.
Two further international airports are due to open by 2026 — Qaqortoq in South Greenland and more significantly in Ilulissat, the island’s only real tourism hotspot.
‘For the public to enjoy’
keplr wallet
The museum’s history starts in 1998, when Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani opened a building to the public on his farm some 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Qatari capital Doha.
A distant relative of Qatar’s ruling family, founder and chairman of Al Faisal Holdings (one of Qatar’s biggest conglomerates), and a billionaire whose business acumen had him recognized as one of the most influential Arab businessmen in the world, Sheikh Faisal had already amassed a substantial private collection of historically important regional artifacts, plus a few quirky pieces of interest, allowing visitors an intimate look into Qatari life and history.
In an interview with Qatari channel Alrayyan TV in 2018, Sheikh Faisal said that the museum started as a hobby.
“I used to collect items whenever I got the chance,” he said. “As my business grew, so did my collections, and soon I was able to collect more and more items until I decided to put them in the museum for the public to enjoy.”
His private cabinet of curiosities has since evolved into a 130-acre complex. Through the fort-like entrance gate lies an oryx reserve, an impressive riding school and stables, a duck pond and a mosque built with a quirky leaning minaret. There’s now even a five-star Marriott hotel, two cafes and the Zoufa restaurant serving modern Lebanese cuisine.
Of course, there’s also the super-sized museum, with a recently-opened car collection housing everything from vintage Rolls-Royces to wartime Jeeps and colorful Buicks. Outside you’ll find peacocks roaming the grounds, and signs warning drivers to be aware of horses and ostriches.
Visitors to the FBQ museum are free to explore the grounds and can even enter the stables to pat the horses.
A long time in the making
Curiosity landed in Gale Crater on August 6, 2012. More than 12 years later, the rover has driven over 21 miles (34 kilometers) to ascend Mount Sharp, which is within the crater. The feature’s many layers preserve millions of years of geological history on Mars, showing how it shifted from a wet to a dry environment.
celer network
Perhaps one of the most valuable samples Curiosity has gathered on its mission to understand whether Mars was ever habitable was collected in May 2013.
The rover drilled the Cumberland sample from an area within a crater called Yellowknife Bay, which resembled an ancient lake bed. The rocks from Yellowknife Bay so intrigued Curiosity’s science team that it had the rover drive in the opposite direction to collect samples from the area before heading to Mount Sharp.
Since collecting the Cumberland sample, Curiosity has used SAM to study it in a variety of ways, revealing that Yellowknife Bay was once the site of an ancient lake where clay minerals formed in water. The mudstone created an environment that could concentrate and preserve organic molecules and trapped them inside the fine grains of the sedimentary rock.
Freissinet helped lead a research team in 2015 that was able to identify organic molecules within the Cumberland sample.
The instrument detected an abundance of sulfur, which can be used to preserve organic molecules; nitrates, which are essential for plant and animal health on Earth; and methane composed of a type of carbon associated with biological processes on Earth.
“There is evidence that liquid water existed in Gale Crater for millions of years and probably much longer, which means there was enough time for life-forming chemistry to happen in these crater-lake environments on Mars,” said study coauthor Daniel Glavin, senior scientist for sample return at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, in a statement.
Iceberg flotillas
debridge finance
Located on the west coast, Ilulissat is a pretty halibut- and prawn-fishing port on a dark rock bay where visitors can sit in pubs sipping craft beers chill-filtered by 100,000-year-old glacial ice.
It’s a place to be awed by the UNESCO World Heritage Icefjord where Manhattan skyscraper-sized icebergs disgorge from Greenland’s icecap to float like ghostly ships in the surrounding Disko Bay.
Small boats take visitors out to sail closely among the bay’s magnificent iceberg flotilla. But not too close.
“I was on my boat once and saw one of these icebergs split in two. The pieces fell backwards into the sea and created a giant wave,” said David Karlsen, skipper of the pleasure-boat, Katak. “…I didn’t hang around.”
Disko Bay’s other giants are whales. From June to September breaching humpback whales join the likes of fin and minke whales feasting on plankton. Whale-watching is excellent all around Greenland’s craggy coastline.
Whales are eaten here. Visitors shouldn’t be surprised to encounter the traditional Greenlandic delicacy of mattak — whale-skin and blubber that when tasted is akin to chewing on rubber. Inuit communities have quotas to not only hunt the likes of narwhals but also polar bears, musk-ox and caribou — which can also appear on menus.
Curiosity has maintained pristine pieces of the Cumberland sample in a “doggy bag” so that the team could have the rover revisit it later, even miles away from the site where it was collected. The team developed and tested innovative methods in its lab on Earth before sending messages to the rover to try experiments on the sample.
[url=https://changel1y.org]changelly[/url]
In a quest to see whether amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, existed in the sample, the team instructed the rover to heat up the sample twice within SAM’s oven. When it measured the mass of the molecules released during heating, there weren’t any amino acids, but they found something entirely unexpected.
An intriguing detection
The team was surprised to detect small amounts of decane, undecane and dodecane, so it had to conduct a reverse experiment on Earth to determine whether these organic compounds were the remnants of the fatty acids undecanoic acid, dodecanoic acid and tridecanoic acid, respectively.
The scientists mixed undecanoic acid into a clay similar to what exists on Mars and heated it up in a way that mimicked conditions within SAM’s oven. The undecanoic acid released decane, just like what Curiosity detected.
Each fatty acid remnant detected by Curiosity was made with a long chain of 11 to 13 carbon atoms. Previous molecules detected on Mars were smaller, meaning their atomic weight was less than the molecules found in the new study, and simpler.
“It’s notable that non-biological processes typically make shorter fatty acids, with less than 12 carbons,” said study coauthor Dr. Amy Williams, associate professor of geology at the University of Florida and assistant director of the Astraeus Space Institute, in an email. “Larger and more complex molecules are likely what are required for an origin of life, if it ever occurred on Mars.”
Siham Haleem, a private tour guide for 15 years, says that Doha now has many world-class, modern museums — the National Museum of Qatar being a firm personal favorite. And yet he says that visiting Sheikh Faisal’s museum should still be on everybody’s to-do list.
simpleswap
“For those eager to learn about Qatar’s — and the region’s — heritage and beyond, the museum is an ideal destination,” he says. “Personally, I’m captivated by the car collection, the fossils, and especially the Syrian house, painstakingly transported and reassembled piece by piece.”
Stephanie Y. Martinez, a Mexican-American student mobility manager at Texas A&M University in Qatar likes the museum so much she includes it on all of her itineraries for students visiting from the main campus in Texas.
“The guided tours are very detailed, and the collections found at the museum have great variety and so many stories to unfold,” she says. “Truly, the museum has something to pique everyone’s interest. My favorites are the cars and the furniture exhibits showcasing wood and mother-of-pearl details. Definitely one of my favorite museums in Qatar, every time I visit I learn something new.”
Raynor Abreu, from India, also had praise for the unusual and immense collection.
“Each item has its own story, making the visit even more interesting,” he says. “It’s also impressive to know that Sheikh Faisal started collecting these unique pieces when he was very young. Knowing this makes the museum even more special, as it reflects his lifelong passion for history and culture.”
It takes time and dedication to truly examine the many collections within the museum — especially since most of them are simply on display without explanation.
Eclectic it may be, but it’s hard to fault the determination of Sheikh Faisal, who has brought together items that tell the story of Qatar and the Middle East.
Sarah Bayley, from the UK, says she visited the museum recently with her family, including 16 and 19-year-old teenagers, and was won over by its sheer eccentricity.
“Amazing. Loved it. It is a crazy place.”
Arctic auroras
ethena
For getting around during winter, the Inuit here nowadays prefer snowmobiles, although they still keep their sled dogs. During winter they’ll offer intrepid visitors, wrapped up warm against the deep-freeze temperatures, dog-sledding jaunts. These can last either an hour or be part of expeditions over several days, sometimes with the added experience of learning how to build an igloo. Sisimiut on the west coast and Tasilaq in the southeast are active winter centers for dog sledding.
Winter’s most stellar attraction, though, is northern lights watching. With little urban light pollution, Greenland is a dark canvas for spectacular displays, and aurora borealis-watching vacations are becoming more popular.
Staying outdoors, Greenland is developing a reputation among adventure enthusiasts: from long-distance skiing expeditions and heliskiing on the icecap to hiking the 100-mile-long Arctic Circle Trail from Kangerslussuaq, where firearms need to be carried for warning shots in case of polar bear encounters.
Life is definitely changing here. The climate crisis is eating away at its icecap and Greenland may well end up as a pawn in a game of geopolitical chess. But for now, the bright glare of international attention should shine a favorable light on one of the wildest travel destinations on Earth.
Travel writer Mark Stratton is an Arctic specialist who has traveled to Greenland six times and counting. He’s marveled at the aurora borealis, sailed to Disko Island, dog-sledded with the Inuit, and once got stuck in an icefloe.
While the Cumberland sample may contain longer chains of fatty acids, SAM is not designed to detect them. But SAM’s ability to spot these larger molecules suggests it could detect similar chemical signatures of past life on Mars if they’re present, Williams said.
convex finance
“Curiosity is not a life detection mission,” Freissinet said. “Curiosity is a habitability detection mission to know if all the conditions were right … for life to evolve. Having these results, it’s really at the edge of the capabilities of Curiosity, and it’s even maybe better than what we had expected from this mission.”
Before sending missions to Mars, scientists didn’t think organic molecules would be found on the red planet because of the intensity of radiation Mars has long endured, Glavin said.
Curiosity won’t return to Yellowknife Bay during its mission, but there are still pristine pieces of the Cumberland sample aboard. Next, the team wants to design a new experiment to see what it can detect. If the team can identify similar long-chain molecules, it would mark another step forward that might help researchers determine their origins, Freissinet said.
“That’s the most precious sample we have on board … waiting for us to run the perfect experiment on it,” she said. “It holds secrets, and we need to decipher the secrets.”
Briony Horgan, coinvestigator on the Perseverance rover mission and professor of planetary science at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, called the detection “a big win for the whole team.” Horgan was not involved the study.
“This detection really confirms our hopes that sediments laid down in ancient watery environments on Mars could preserve a treasure trove of organic molecules that can tell us about everything from prebiotic processes and pathways for the origin of life, to potential biosignatures from ancient organisms,” Horgan said.
Dr. Ben K.D. Pearce, assistant professor in Purdue’s department of Earth, atmospheric, and planetary sciences and leader of the Laboratory for Origins and Astrobiology Research, called the findings “arguably the most exciting organic detection to date on Mars.” Pearce did not participate in the research.
Why there’s a huge collection of vintage cars stored in the middle of the desert
base bridge
Back at the turn of the 21st century, Qatar was a country with few cultural attractions to keep visitors and residents entertained. Yet the Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani Museum — known as the FBQ Museum — was a place that most people visited as an alternative to the then-still rather ramshackle National Museum of Qatar.
You had to make an appointment, and drive out into the desert, getting lost a few times along the way, but then you were welcomed to the lush Al Samriya Farm with a cup of tea and some cake. The highlight was being allowed into a space crammed full with shelves and vitrines holding all sorts of eclectic artifacts from swords to coins — with the odd car and carriage standing in the grounds.
It wasn’t necessarily the kind of museum you’d find elsewhere in the world, but it was definitely a sight that needed seeing.
Today, it has grown and now claims to be one of the world’s largest private museums. It holds over 30,000 items, including a fleet of traditional dhow sailboats, and countless carpets. There’s also an entire house that once stood in Damascus, Syria.
There are archaeological finds dating to the Jurassic age, ancient copies of the Quran, a section that details the importance of pearling within Qatar’s history, and jewelry dating to the 17th century.
There are also items from 2022’s FIFA World Cup in Qatar including replica trophies, balls used in the games, entry passes, football jerseys and even shelves full of slightly creepy dolls and children’s plush animals.
Some of the more disturbing exhibits include various items of Third Reich paraphernalia in the wartime room, and, strangely enough, several showcases of birds’ legs with marking rings on them. Basically, whatever you can think of, you have a very good chance of finding it here.
Rumor even has it that behind a locked door is a room filled with the late Princess Diana’s dresses and other memorabilia, accessible only to a select few visitors. Another door hides a room, no longer open to the public, filled with collectibles of the late Saddam Hussein.
Water and life
stargate finance
Lightning is a dramatic display of electrical power, but it is also sporadic and unpredictable. Even on a volatile Earth billions of years ago, lightning may have been too infrequent to produce amino acids in quantities sufficient for life — a fact that has cast doubt on such theories in the past, Zare said.
Water spray, however, would have been more common than lightning. A more likely scenario is that mist-generated microlightning constantly zapped amino acids into existence from pools and puddles, where the molecules could accumulate and form more complex molecules, eventually leading to the evolution of life.
“Microdischarges between obviously charged water microdroplets make all the organic molecules observed previously in the Miller-Urey experiment,” Zare said. “We propose that this is a new mechanism for the prebiotic synthesis of molecules that constitute the building blocks of life.”
However, even with the new findings about microlightning, questions remain about life’s origins, he added. While some scientists support the notion of electrically charged beginnings for life’s earliest building blocks, an alternative abiogenesis hypothesis proposes that Earth’s first amino acids were cooked up around hydrothermal vents on the seafloor, produced by a combination of seawater, hydrogen-rich fluids and extreme pressure.
Researchers identified salt minerals in the Bennu samples that were deposited as a result of brine evaporation from the asteroid’s parent body. In particular, they found a number of sodium salts, such as the needles of hydrated sodium carbonate highlighted in purple in this false-colored image – salts that could easily have been compromised if the samples had been exposed to water in Earth’s atmosphere.
Related article
Yet another hypothesis suggests that organic molecules didn’t originate on Earth at all. Rather, they formed in space and were carried here by comets or fragments of asteroids, a process known as panspermia.
“We still don’t know the answer to this question,” Zare said. “But I think we’re closer to understanding something more about what could have happened.”
Though the details of life’s origins on Earth may never be fully explained, “this study provides another avenue for the formation of molecules crucial to the origin of life,” Williams said. “Water is a ubiquitous aspect of our world, giving rise to the moniker ‘Blue Marble’ to describe the Earth from space. Perhaps the falling of water, the most crucial element that sustains us, also played a greater role in the origin of life on Earth than we previously recognized.”
Josh Giddey hits halfcourt buzzer-beater over LeBron James to cap wild finale as the Bulls stun the Lakers
quickswap
Josh Giddey hit a game-winning, halfcourt buzzer-beater over LeBron James as the Chicago Bulls stunned the Los Angeles Lakers in one of the wildest endings to an NBA game you are ever likely to see.
Trailing 115-110 with 12.6 seconds remaining, Giddey’s inbound pass found Nikola Vucevic, who pushed the ball to a wide-open Patrick Williams for a corner three-pointer.
James then fluffed the Lakers inbound pass from the baseline, allowing Giddey to steal the ball and find Coby White for a second Bulls triple in quick succession to put Chicago up 116-115 with 6.1 seconds remaining.
Austin Reaves then made a driving layup to put the Lakers ahead 117-116 with 3.3 seconds left, but the game wasn’t done yet.
With no timeouts remaining, Giddey inbounded the ball to Williams from the baseline, got the pass back, took one dribble and launched a shot from beyond halfcourt.
Supporters in the stands seemed frozen in anticipation as the ball sailed through the air, and the United Center then erupted as it fell through the net. After the dramatic win, Giddey found himself being swarmed by his teammates.
“Special moment to do it with these guys, this team,” Giddey said, per ESPN. “We’ve shown over the last month to six weeks that we can beat anybody. The way we play the game, I think it wears people down.
“We get up and down. We run. We put heat on them to get back. A lot of veteran teams don’t particularly want to get back and play in transition.”
Giddey later told the Bulls broadcast that he’d “never made a game-winner before.”
The ending capped an incredible couple of games for the Lakers, who had themselves won their last game against the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday with a buzzer-beating tip-in from James.
Tesla is bringing its electric cars to oil-rich Saudi Arabia amid falling global sales
aperture finance
Tesla will start selling its electric vehicles in Saudi Arabia, entering the Gulf region’s largest economy as the company’s global sales are sliding and CEO Elon Musk courts controversy with his role in the US government.
The carmaker announced Wednesday that it would host a launch event in the kingdom on April 10, where it will showcase its EVs. Attendees will also have the chance to “experience the future of autonomous driving with Cybercab and meet Optimus, our humanoid robot, as we showcase what’s next in AI and robotics,” Tesla (TSLA) said.
Tesla may struggle to gain market share in oil-rich Saudi Arabia as EVs make up a little over 1% of all car sales in the country, according to a report by consultancy PwC published in September.
Tesla’s entry into the new market comes as the company fights battles on several fronts.
Last year, it recorded the first annual decline in sales in its history as a public company, posting a drop of 1%.
The company is facing intensifying competition in China, the world’s largest auto market. On Tuesday, BYD, a Chinese maker of electric and hybrid cars, reported $107 billion in annual sales for 2024, beating the near-$98 billion notched by Tesla.
And last week, BYD unveiled an ultra-fast charging system, which it said was capable of adding 250 miles (402 km) of range in just five minutes, easily outdoing Tesla’s charging technology. Tesla’s Superchargers take 15 minutes to charge an EV, providing a range of 200 miles.
Tesla has also suffered slumping sales in Europe. In February, the carmaker sold around 40% fewer vehicles on the continent compared with the same month in 2024, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.
Some scientists believe that fatty acids such as decanoic acid and dodecanoic acid formed the membranes of the first simple cell-like structures on Earth, Pearce said.
connext network
“(This is) the closest we’ve come to detecting a major biomolecule-related signal — something potentially tied to membrane structure, which is a key feature of life,” Pearce said via email. “Organics on their own are intriguing, but not evidence of life. In contrast, biomolecules like membranes, amino acids, nucleotides, and sugars are central components of biology as we know it, and finding any of them would be groundbreaking (we haven’t yet).”
Returning samples from Mars
The European Space Agency plans to launch its ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover to the red planet in 2028, and the robotic explorer will carry a complementary instrument to SAM. The rover LS6 will have the capability to drill up to 6.5 feet (2 meters) beneath the Martian surface — and perhaps find larger and better-preserved organic molecules.
While Curiosity’s samples can’t be studied on Earth, the Perseverance rover has actively been collecting samples from Jezero Crater, the site of an ancient lake and river delta, all with the intention of returning them to Earth in the 2030s via a complicated symphony of missions called Mars Sample Return.
Both rovers have detected a variety of organic carbon molecules in different regions on Mars, suggesting that organic carbon is common on the red planet, Williams said.
While Curiosity and Perseverance have proven they can detect organic matter, their instruments can’t definitively determine all the answers about their origins, said Dr. Ashley Murphy, postdoctoral research scientist at the Planetary Science Institute. Murphy, who along with Williams previously studied organics identified by Perseverance, was not involved in the new research.
“To appropriately probe the biosignature question, these samples require high-resolution and high-sensitivity analyses in terrestrial labs, which can be facilitated by the return of these samples to Earth,” Murphy said.
Greenland’s leader says US officials’ visit is ‘highly aggressive.’ Trump says it’s ‘friendliness, not provocation’
extra fi
Greenland’s prime minister said a planned visit to the island by US officials, including second lady Usha Vance, is “highly aggressive,” plunging relations to a new low after President Donald Trump vowed to annex the autonomous Danish territory.
But despite the backlash, Trump has insisted the visit is about “friendliness, not provocation” – and claims the US team was “invited.”
Vance, the wife of US Vice President JD Vance, will travel to Greenland this week to watch the island’s national dogsled race and “celebrate Greenlandic culture and unity,” according to a statement from the White House. National security adviser Mike Waltz is also expected to visit the territory this week, according to a source familiar with the trip.
Greenland Prime Minister Mute B. Egede called the US delegation’s trip to the island “highly aggressive” in an interview with Greenlandic newspaper Sermitsiaq on Sunday, and raised particular objection to Waltz’s visit.
“What is the national security adviser doing in Greenland? The only purpose is to demonstrate power over us,” Egede said. “His mere presence in Greenland will no doubt fuel American belief in Trump’s mission — and the pressure will increase.”
Trump claimed on Monday that people in Greenland have responded warmly to the US’s recent interest in the territory. “They’re calling us. We’re not calling them. And we were invited over there,” he said.
“We’re dealing with a lot of people from Greenland that would like to see something happen with respect to them being properly protected and properly taken care of,” Trump told reporters following a meeting with his Cabinet.
“I think Greenland is going to be something that maybe is in our future,” Trump added.
The president said he believes Secretary of State Marco Rubio would be traveling to Greenland too.
Trump’s idea to annex Greenland has thrown an international spotlight on the territory, which holds vast stores of rare earth minerals critical for high-tech industries, and has raised questions about the island’s future security as the US, Russia and China vie for influence in the Arctic. Trump has repeatedly expressed interest in the US taking the island by force or economic coercion, even as Denmark and Greenland have firmly rejected the idea.
Challenging our perceptions of ‘perfection’
traderjoexyz exchange
With health influencers raising the bar for success, the wellness space now often feels like a performative space where people strive to showcase peak physical and mental strength.
While seeing others’ achievements can be motivating, it can also be discouraging if your progress doesn’t match theirs.
Each person is chasing the perfect version of themselves — whether it’s a body or a lifestyle — which is dangerous because this is typically an impossible or dangerous version to achieve, Curran said. He added that this type of comparison creates a dangerous cycle in which people constantly feel dissatisfied with their own progress.
“It’s a fantasy in many ways, and once you start chasing after it, you constantly find yourself embroiled in a sense of doubt and deficit,” he said.
Curran also noted that wellness challenges can be particularly damaging for women who struggle with perfectionism, as they tend to be bombarded with impossible beauty standards and societal expectations.
Renee McGregor, a UK-based dietitian who specializes in eating disorders and athlete performance, encourages people to approach wellness trends with curiosity and skepticism. That’s because some influencers and celebrities could be promoting products because there’s a financial benefit for them.
“The thing to ask yourself about the person you’re taking advice from is what do they gain from it?” McGregor said. “If they are going to gain financially, then you know that they (could be willing) to sell you a lie.”
Whether you want to try a new challenge or product that promises amazing results, McGregor suggests doing your research and seeking diverse perspectives, including consulting with doctors when possible.
Family affair
rhino fi
Americans Brittany and Blake Bowen had never even been to Ecuador when in 2021 they decided to move to the South American country with their four children.
Tired of “long commutes and never enough money” in the US, the Bowens say they love their new Ecuadorian life. “We hope that maybe we’ll have grandkids here one day.”
Erik and Erin Eagleman moved to Switzerland from Wisconsin with their three children in 2023.
“It feels safe here,” they tell CNN of their new outdoorsy lifestyle in Basel, close to the borders with France and Germany. Their youngest daughter even walks to elementary school by herself.
For adventures with your own family, be it weekend breaks or something longer-term, our partners at CNN Underscored, a product review and recommendations guide owned by CNN, have this roundup of the best kids’ luggage sets and bags.
Starry, starry nights
For close to 100 years, Michelin stars have been a sign of culinary excellence, awarded only to the great and good.
Georges Blanc, the world’s longest-standing Michelin-starred restaurant, has boasted a three-star rating since 1981, but this month the Michelin guide announced that the restaurant in eastern France was losing a star.
More culinary reputations were enhanced this week, when Asia’s 50 best restaurants for 2025 were revealed. The winner was a Bangkok restaurant which is no stranger to garlands, while second and third place went to two Hong Kong eateries.
You don’t need to go to a heaving metropolis for excellent food, however. A 200-year-old cottage on a remote stretch of Ireland’s Atlantic coast has been given a Michelin star. At the time of awarding, Michelin called it “surely the most rural” of its newest winners.
Scientists redid an experiment that showed how life on Earth could have started. They found a new possibility
safepal
In the 1931 movie “Frankenstein,” Dr. Henry Frankenstein howling his triumph was an electrifying moment in more ways than one. As massive bolts of lightning and energy crackled, Frankenstein’s monster stirred on a laboratory table, its corpse brought to life by the power of electricity.
Electrical energy may also have sparked the beginnings of life on Earth billions of years ago, though with a bit less scenery-chewing than that classic film scene.
Earth is around 4.5 billion years old, and the oldest direct fossil evidence of ancient life — stromatolites, or microscopic organisms preserved in layers known as microbial mats — is about 3.5 billion years old. However, some scientists suspect life originated even earlier, emerging from accumulated organic molecules in primitive bodies of water, a mixture sometimes referred to as primordial soup.
But where did that organic material come from in the first place? Researchers decades ago proposed that lightning caused chemical reactions in ancient Earth’s oceans and spontaneously produced the organic molecules.
Now, new research published March 14 in the journal Science Advances suggests that fizzes of barely visible “microlightning,” generated between charged droplets of water mist, could have been potent enough to cook up amino acids from inorganic material. Amino acids — organic molecules that combine to form proteins — are life’s most basic building blocks and would have been the first step toward the evolution of life.
Mindful wellness challenges
If you’re the type of person who thrives on challenges and pushing your limits, this doesn’t mean you need to shy away from wellness challenges altogether. But before diving in, take a step back and ask yourself if you’re pursuing the challenge for the right reasons, McGregor said.
velodrome finance
Some people want to try these challenges because they believe something is missing from their life, and they’re looking to attain “worth” or receive validation, McGregor noted.
A good way to assess your motivation is by considering whether the challenge will benefit your health or if it’s about showcasing your accomplishments on social media or some other reason.
Before trying any new trend, make sure you have the foundation to handle it and be aware of any potential risks, McGregor said.
For casual runners, this might mean signing up for a 5K but building your endurance gradually while incorporating other strength training exercises into your routine. For more intense challenges, such as a marathon, McGregor encourages people to consult with professionals or a coach who can monitor your progress and condition along the way.
Focusing on sustainable habits
Both McGregor and Curran emphasize the importance of fostering sustainable health habits before embarking on more extreme challenges.
Rather than chasing the idea of being “healthy,” McGregor suggests focusing on actual healthful behaviors and starting small.
If you’re a highly sedentary person and want to add more movement to your day, try doing lunges while brushing your teeth or taking short walks throughout your typical routine.
A tiny rainforest country is growing into a petrostate. A US oil company could reap the biggest rewards
swell
Guyana’s destiny changed in 2015. US fossil fuel giant Exxon discovered nearly 11 billion barrels of oil in the deep water off the coast of this tiny, rainforested country.
It was one of the most spectacular oil discoveries of recent decades. By 2019, Exxon and its partners, US oil company Hess and China-headquartered CNOOC, had started producing the fossil fuel.? They now pump around 650,000 barrels of oil a day, with plans to more than double this to 1.3 million by 2027.
Guyana now has the world’s highest expected oil production growth through 2035.
This country — sandwiched between Brazil, Venezuela and Suriname — has been hailed as a climate champion for the lush, well-preserved forests that carpet nearly 90% of its land. It is on the path to becoming a petrostate at the same time as the impacts of the fossil fuel-driven climate crisis escalate.
While the government says environmental protection and an oil industry can go hand-in-hand, and low-income countries must be allowed to exploit their own resources, critics say it’s a dangerous path in a warming world, and the benefits may ultimately skew toward Exxon — not Guyana.
Mist and microlightning
solflare wallet
To recreate a scenario that may have produced Earth’s first organic molecules, researchers built upon experiments from 1953 when American chemists Stanley Miller and Harold Urey concocted a gas mixture mimicking the atmosphere of ancient Earth. Miller and Urey combined ammonia (NH3), methane (CH4), hydrogen (H2) and water, enclosed their “atmosphere” inside a glass sphere and jolted it with electricity, producing simple amino acids containing carbon and nitrogen. The Miller-Urey experiment, as it is now known, supported the scientific theory of abiogenesis: that life could emerge from nonliving molecules.
For the new study, scientists revisited the 1953 experiments but directed their attention toward electrical activity on a smaller scale, said senior study author Dr. Richard Zare, the Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor of Natural Science and professor of chemistry at Stanford University in California. Zare and his colleagues looked at electricity exchange between charged water droplets measuring between 1 micron and 20 microns in diameter. (The width of a human hair is 100 microns.)
“The big droplets are positively charged. The little droplets are negatively charged,” Zare told CNN. “When droplets that have opposite charges are close together, electrons can jump from the negatively charged droplet to the positively charged droplet.”
The researchers mixed ammonia, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen in a glass bulb, then sprayed the gases with water mist, using a high-speed camera to capture faint flashes of microlightning in the vapor. When they examined the bulb’s contents, they found organic molecules with carbon-nitrogen bonds. These included the amino acid glycine and uracil, a nucleotide base in RNA.
“We discovered no new chemistry; we have actually reproduced all the chemistry that Miller and Urey did in 1953,” Zare said. Nor did the team discover new physics, he added — the experiments were based on known principles of electrostatics.
“What we have done, for the first time, is we have seen that little droplets, when they’re formed from water, actually emit light and get this spark,” Zare said. “That’s new. And that spark causes all types of chemical transformations.”
‘White Lotus’ villain Jon Gries reveals the true crimes that inspired his twisty take on Greg/Gary
fixedfloat
When Season 3 of “The White Lotus” premiered last month, the shock was palpable when returning character Belinda recognized a familiar face at the resort in Thailand: Greg Hunt, the wily suitor of the late Tanya McQuoid.
As the season has unfolded, Greg (played by Jon Gries) has emerged as an antagonist, particularly after Belinda dove into the investigation surrounding Tanya’s death and learned that Greg, who now goes by Gary, evaded questioning by authorities.
On a show famous for reinventing itself, the same has been asked of the actor, who says that playing the ever-shifting character has been a welcome challenge and, like “White Lotus” itself, full of twists.
“In the beginning, I totally played him for a guy who was, you know, on his last legs,” Gries said in a recent interview with CNN, referencing Greg’s very apparent ill health in the first season of “White Lotus,” which premiered to rave reviews in summer 2021. He added: “When you play a character, you want to find his empathetic side, and you want to understand where they came from, and what got them to where they are.”
But when he was contacted by creator Mike White about appearing in Season 2, Gries realized he would have to adjust his framing of Greg, despite having previously imagined a “comprehensive history” for him on his own.
“(White) said, ‘I’m writing it right now, and I’m writing you, and I just need to know here and now: If you’re in, I’ll continue writing. If not, I’ll stop,’” Gries recalled.
Of course, he said yes to coming back to the series, which eventually required him to live in Italy for a few months for filming.
hop exchange
During production, White revealed to Gries that Greg is “very sinister.” That became rather irrefutable by the season’s climax, which saw Tanya’s demise orchestrated by her now-husband.
Come Season 3, Gries had to rewrite Greg’s backstory again, this time drawing from some unlikely sources for inspiration, like HBO docuseries “The Jinx,” about late convicted killer Robert Durst, and the case involving the man who came to be known as the Tinder Swindler.
Gries said he was struck by Durst’s “kind of seemingly even keel personality,” which served as a model for where Greg was headed, someone “who doesn’t really show a great deal of emotion, doesn’t seem to get too angry, just gets a little bit irritated and is dangerous.”
“There’s a bridled rage underneath. And those kind of people I find – at least with respect to Gary, Greg, Gary – fascinating,” he said.
And yet, while searching for an empathetic way back to portraying his character, Gries kept wondering if there was anything still redeeming about Greg.
An important “wake up moment” came during a decisive conversation he had with White just before filming in Thailand, in which the show’s creator said of Greg, in no uncertain terms: “He’s a psychopath.”
“And that was it. It was like, ‘back to the drawing board.’ And it really did help me,” Gries said.
The penultimate episode of the series will air on Sunday, an evening that thanks to “Lotus” and other shows has again become a night of appointment viewing amid a general move away from binge watching. Gries said he appreciates the shift.
“We’re a society that in a weird way doesn’t understand the beauty of waiting. The beauty of the space between the notes,” he shared. “If I binged (‘White Lotus’) I’d feel like I just ate too many chocolates. It just wouldn’t be the same. You need to process this.”
“The White Lotus” airs Sundays at 9 p.m. EDT on HBO, with the episode available to stream on Max. HBO and Max, like CNN, are owned by the same parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery.
Recomendo o jogo a todos Tiger
A tiny rainforest country is growing into a petrostate. A US oil company could reap the biggest rewards
kyberswap
Guyana’s destiny changed in 2015. US fossil fuel giant Exxon discovered nearly 11 billion barrels of oil in the deep water off the coast of this tiny, rainforested country.
It was one of the most spectacular oil discoveries of recent decades. By 2019, Exxon and its partners, US oil company Hess and China-headquartered CNOOC, had started producing the fossil fuel.? They now pump around 650,000 barrels of oil a day, with plans to more than double this to 1.3 million by 2027.
Guyana now has the world’s highest expected oil production growth through 2035.
This country — sandwiched between Brazil, Venezuela and Suriname — has been hailed as a climate champion for the lush, well-preserved forests that carpet nearly 90% of its land. It is on the path to becoming a petrostate at the same time as the impacts of the fossil fuel-driven climate crisis escalate.
While the government says environmental protection and an oil industry can go hand-in-hand, and low-income countries must be allowed to exploit their own resources, critics say it’s a dangerous path in a warming world, and the benefits may ultimately skew toward Exxon — not Guyana.
Since Exxon’s transformative discovery, Guyana’s government has tightly embraced oil as a route to prosperity. In December 2019, then-President David Granger said in a speech, “petroleum resources will be utilized to provide the good life for all … Every Guyanese will benefit.”
It’s a narrative that has continued under current President Mohamed Irfaan Ali, who says new oil wealth will allow Guyana to develop better infrastructure, healthcare and climate adaptation.
“You have a government that is reckless about what is going to happen to Guyana,” said Melinda Janki, an international lawyer in Guyana who is handling several lawsuits against Exxon. It’s pursuing “a supposed course of development that is actually backward and destructive,” she told CNN.
kelp dao
And while plenty of Guyanese people welcome the new oil industry, some say Guyana’s startling economic statistics do not reflect a real-world prosperity for ordinary people, many of whom are struggling with the higher prices accompanying the oil boom. Inflation rose 6.6% in 2023, with prices of some foods shooting up much more rapidly.
“Since the oil extraction began in Guyana, we have noticed that our cost of living has gone sky high,” said Wintress White, of Red Thread, a non-profit that focuses on improving living conditions for Guyanese women. “The money is not trickling down to the masses,” she told CNN.
CNN contacted President Ali, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ministry of Finance for comment but received no response.
Guyana, a former Dutch then British colony which gained independence in 1966, is one of only a handful of countries that is a “carbon sink,” meaning it stores more planet-heating pollution than it produces. This is due to its vast rainforest; trees remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they grow.
The country has protected its biodiversity where others have destroyed theirs, President Ali said in a BBC interview last year. In 2009, the country signed an agreement with Norway, which promised Guyana more than $250 million to preserve its 18.5 million hectares, or nearly 46 million acres, of forests.
Ali insists the country can balance climate leadership and fossil fuel exploitation. The new oil wealth will allow Guayana to develop, including building climate adaptations such as sea walls, he has said. He has also pointed to the continued failures of wealthy countries, already grown rich on their own fossil fuels, to help poorer countries with climate finance.
But there are concerns Guyana could fall victim to the “resource curse,” in which vast, new wealth ?can actually make life worse for those who live there.
The voice of ‘White Lotus’ star Walton Goggins is the lullaby we didn’t know we needed
jumper exchange
While his “White Lotus” character Rick has been the source of some stress this season, Walton Goggins is here to soothe us into a state of dreamy sleep to make up for it.
The actor has partnered with relaxation and meditation app Calm for one of their famed Sleep Stories, lending his smoky voice to a fable titled “The Yard Sale.”
Goggins announced the Sleep Story on his verified Instagram on Tuesday, writing, “A friend once said to me the first question you ask someone shouldn’t be, ‘How are you?’ but rather, ‘How did you sleep last night?’ I agree.”
The post included an excerpt from the story, in which Goggins is heard languidly instructing listeners to relax their bodies and get into bed. “You could even climb into a hammock,” he added. “I wouldn’t do that because I’ve never gracefully got in or out of one.”
In the caption, the actor also wrote that he “wanted to create a Sleep Story that feels dreamlike, helping people slow their minds down by wandering through a yard sale (which happens to be one of my favorite things to do), uncovering hidden treasures.”
“It’s the Walton Goggins version of counting sheep. I hope you enjoy,” he added.
Other celebrities who have read bedtime stories in the hopes of putting audiences to sleep include Dolly Parton and the late Jimmy Stewart, whose voice was featured in a Calm Christmas Sleep Story in 2023 thanks to generative AI technology.
Goggins currently stars on “The White Lotus,” where his character is often the most stressed out and tortured of the ensemble, at one point setting a slew of snakes free.
Critics say this power imbalance is clear in the 2016 contract Guyana signed with Exxon. Under the agreement, Exxon keeps 75% of everything it makes from its oil operations in Guyana, with the remaining 25% shared equally between the company and the government, which also takes a 2% royalty.
lido fi
“It was a bad deal,” Ali said in the BBC interview, but he has rejected the idea of unilaterally changing the agreement, which was signed by the previous government. He says the next contract with Exxon will be on different terms.
An Exxon spokesperson said the contract is “globally competitive for countries at a similar stage of exploration” and said Guyana is averaging $1 billion a year in “oil profits.”
Exxon has also faced a number of lawsuits over its potential environmental impact, many filed by Melinda Janki, a Guyanese international lawyer, who drafted the country’s Environmental Protection Act back in the 1990s.
A big victory for Guyana’s people and environment came in 2023, when the court ruled Exxon should have unlimited liability for the costs of any oil spill. Exxon has since appealed the ruling and has posted a $2 billion guarantee while it awaits the appeal outcome.
Exxon said this commitment supplements “its robust balance sheets … and the insurance policies they already had in place.” Janki says this isn’t enough. Offshore oil spills can be extremely expensive to deal with, the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill cost nearly $70 billion to clean up.
The push and pull between those who say oil offers Guyana a brighter future and those who fear the industry’s impact will continue.
Exxon said it’s had a positive impact on the country, including employing more than 6,200 people, investing more than $2 billion with local Guyanese businesses since 2015 and spending more than $43 million on community projects.
Look of the Week: Naomi Watts is twinning with her canine co-star
orbiter
What’s white and black and red all over? Naomi Watts and her 145lb co-star, Bing, a Great Dane, taking a dog walk on the crimson carpet for the New York premiere of “The Friend.”
Directed by Scott Mcgehee and adapted from Sigrid Nunez’s 2018 novel of the same name, the film — set to release in US theaters on March 28 and in the UK on April 25 — follows a solitary writer and teacher named Iris whose life is upended after a close friend bequeaths his giant pet dog to her following his death.
In front of the cameras Monday evening, the “Mulholland Drive” actor and Bing looked like they were cut from the same cloth — both in temperament and in their matching black polka dots. Watts was dressed in a white gown with fur-tufted spots that bore a striking resemblance to Bing’s own coat, but the Cruella de Vil comparisons ended there. Instead, Watts and Bing were captured in the throes of lots of paw-shakes, puppy kisses and head scratches.
The dress that Watts wore, titled the “Domino” and designed by Jacquemus, debuted during the Spring-Summer 2025 Paris couture shows in January. The look was both elegant and offbeat, with a high-cowl neck and open-back, asymmetrical waistline that mimicked a French tuck. It was styled with a skirt that sprouted furry black polka dots, which close up were unnervingly reminiscent of body hair. But from afar they gave the impression of soft-edged dabs of watercolor bleeding downstream.
The look was styled by Jeanann Williams, who has also been working with “The White Lotus” star Leslie Bibb. Williams’ decision to coordinate Watts with Bing was a new take on method dressing — the thematic styling trend that has dominated celebrity red carpets since Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” in 2023. Since then, the sartorial trope, which connects actors to their on-screen characters through clothes, has become somewhat tired — with some observers claiming that the 7-month-long “Wicked” press tour, in which Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande became prisoners to the colors green and pink, was peak saturation.