Gird your loins, parents. Spotify Wrapped season is here to remind you that your personality has been hijacked by small people whose taste in music blows. I dread this each December because it feels so definitive. In the Year of our Lord 2024, analytics are king. We cannot argue with the data, which says we are no longer cool. Sure, Spotify has tried to create some filters that weed out kid music, but what about the sneaky songs that kind of slap, like “The Chicken Wing Beat” ? Last year, “Everything Is Awesome” somehow made its way to my No. 1 most played, and I still resent Spotify’s faulty technology. So imagine my surprise when at the top of my list this year was not SuperKitties or Blippi , but pop princess and LGBTQ+ icon Chappell Roan . I was surprised. I felt caught? I’m a Latter-day Saint mom living in the Utah suburbs and had not realized the extent to which Chappell had bewitched me. I retraced my steps, back to that fateful day when I Googled “what is Chappell Roan.” Upon realizing she was music and not designer clothing or a derby horse, I decided to give her a try. I bopped around while cleaning the house, trying to ignore the lyrics. I meant no offense to Chappell. This is simply what your brain does when you are raised in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, because all the popular songs are naughty. I have memories of me and everyone from my Provo high school yelling, “From the windoooow, to the wall!” Did we know what Lil Jon was talking about? Not fully, but we did know enough. We knew it was something not just sexy but also vulgar, and yet it didn’t matter because Lil Jon’s pimpy lifestyle was so far from our social experience, it couldn’t really touch us. It was like cosplay; for one night we all came to the school to pretend to be the high schoolers we watched in movies. My Mia Maid ears In my teens, I learned the vital skill of listening to music without listening; of being in the world without being of it. It’s a skill that has served me these two decades since. I want to be clear that I genuinely revere the 13th Article of Faith ’s admonition to seek out art that is, “virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy.” But also it’s extremely hard to feel any sort of groove to MoTab, and right now, I need a lot of groove. I need music that can inject my brain with something strong enough to survive another round of dishes. And so, on that fateful night while picking up Legos and stray socks, I successfully screened out all the F-words and kinky stuff — until I reached “After Midnight.” Here is a bop about all the great things that happen after the Holy Ghost goes to bed : bar fights, kissing one another’s lovers, general debauchery. My Mia Maid ears couldn’t help but perk up, but rather than make me think Chappell was a bad influence, it made me feel seen; she once went to church just like me! When I reached “ Pink Pony Club ,” I realized Chappell and I are basically the same. Because I, too, once had to explain to my wonderful mother that Santa Monica was calling me, and I’ve been a good, good girl for a long time, so would she please trust me to go? I did more Googling. Did you know Chappell started writing music because she had a crush on an older Latter-day Saint boy at school? Did you know she used BYU’s online classes to finish high school, or that her real name is Kayleigh? Sure, she may look like the opposite of what I hear at church, but my best friend Chappell genuinely gave me the strength to get through 2024. The fierceness of “ Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl ” has leveled up my sad mom basement workouts from a 2 to maybe a 5. That’s huge progress, you guys. I have belted “stuck in the suburbs, you’re folding his laundry” while doing that exact thing; hating this part of my reality while having no intention of leaving it. This tiny rebellion I have wondered if my old age has made me immune to the naughty lyrics. Or did they never have any sway to begin with? Perhaps listening to Chappell has been magical because I’ve done it in the privacy of my AirPods or rare stolen moments alone — times when little minds aren’t watching my every move, waiting to hear me say “stupid” and justify saying it from here on out. It’s oddly the same as being a teen, when part of the joy in inappropriate music was the misperception that my parents didn’t know I was listening to it. Or perhaps an accurate perception that if they heard it, they wouldn’t know what the words meant. It was this small thing I had for myself, this tiny rebellion I needed to feel like I wasn’t The. Most. Boring. Teen. In. The. World. Even growing up in a town where the cool kids said no to drugs, I needed to believe I had some kind of edge. I now find myself wondering what things my parents kept to themselves. My mom famously vacuumed to ABBA on full blast, but when I wasn’t home was it different? Does Earth, Wind & Fire have an explicit album I don’t know about? I remember thinking in my child-free years that I would never be one of those parents who listened to kid music all the time. Just, like, play them the Beatles. I wondered how my siblings could stand their lives — all those hours in the minivan with Baby Einstein . I wondered where my siblings had gone, frankly. And then I became a parent, and I realized it’s hard. But my music taste was not going down without a fight, which is why I instituted “car D.J.,” where passengers get a turn picking whatever song they want. I used math to figure that this way 25% to 30% of my car time would not be torture. My picks are usually Taylor or Fleetwood Mac. Sometimes I’ll even choose a Primary song to brainwash my kids a little. But so far, Chappell hasn’t felt pickable. Maybe I’m not ready to explain the word “fugly” to a 5-year-old. Or maybe I’m still the same girl I was as a teen, and it’s fun to have a tiny dirty secret. (Rebbie Brassfield) Tribune guest columnist Rebbie Brassfield. Rebbie Brassfield is a writer and creative director in the advertising industry. She lives in Saratoga Springs with her two young kids, where she spends most of her time picking things up. You can find her overanalyzing at @MormonsInMedia on Instagram, or see more of her work and writing at www.RebbieBrassfield.com .Nonelucky calico store 。

Ex-Congressman offers his own theory about N.J. drones

Stocks closed higher on Wall Street ahead of the Christmas holiday, led by gains in Big Tech stocks. The S&P 500 added 1.1% Tuesday. Trading closed early ahead of the holiday. Tech companies including Apple, Amazon and chip company Broadcom helped pull the market higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.9%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.3%. American Airlines shook off an early loss and ended mostly higher after the airline briefly grounded flights nationwide due to a technical issue. Treasury yields held steady in the bond market. On Tuesday: The S&P 500 rose 65.97 points, or 1.1%, to 6,040.04. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 390.08 points, or 0.9%, to 43,297.03. The Nasdaq composite rose 266.24 points, or 1.3%, to 20,031.13. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 22.42 points, or 1%, to 2,259.85 For the week: The S&P 500 is up 109.19 points, or 1.8%. The Dow is up 456.77 points, or 1.1%. The Nasdaq is up 458.53 points, or 2.3%. The Russell 2000 is up 17.48 points, or 0.8%. For the year: The S&P 500 is up 1,270.21 points, or 26.3%. The Dow is up 5,607.49 points, or 14.9%. The Nasdaq is up 5,019.77 points, or 33.4%. The Russell 2000 is up 232.78 points, or 11.5%.

-- Shares Facebook Twitter Reddit Email Angelina Jolie and Cynthia Erivo gave it their all this year — both on screen and off — tapping into their inner strength via the extensive work that went into pulling off their roles in " Maria " and " Wicked ," two of 2024's biggest hits which landed them Golden Globe nominations for their stunning performances. In a 30-minute "Actors on Actors" conversation for Variety , Jolie and Erivo discussed their experience with holding grace through suffering, which they can relate to as people and used to flesh out their portrayals of Maria Callas and Elphaba, respectively. Related How Angelina Jolie relates to playing opera singer Maria Callas: "I share her vulnerability" Complimenting Jolie's embodiment of an end-of-career Callas, Erivo says, "She never feels sorry for herself," which is an observation that Jolie thanks her for noticing. "That's what breaks your heart, you know? Because she's still fighting," Erivo says. "And it's really beautiful to watch that because we don't get that very often in our woman characters. We want them to falter a little." "There's a push to . . . you're a good woman if you're apologizing . . . some people see it as just strength but it's not," Jolie says. "It's holding your grace as a woman. It doesn't mean you're not suffering . . . but you're not leaning on the self-pity." Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter , Crash Course. Going more into the similarities between their two characters in relation to holding grace through suffering, Jolie and Erivo went into a touching back and forth about how both Callas and Elphaba lacked the warmth and support of a loving mother. "Maria didn't have a mother that loved her and told her that she was enough as she was," Jolie says. "Both of our characters come from being alone since they were little. Feeling a little different." "And never expecting that anyone would give anything freely . . . love freely," Erivo added to this. "Just no trust. A lot of just you and you alone," Jolie continued on the topic. "And that at the end of the day, it's only gonna be you. And so any little kindness means everything." "I think there's this wonderful comparison of understanding the loneliness they both have to experience," Erivo says. "Because of that, they somehow have a really big capacity to love. So when it comes to them, they're both really open to it, however it needs to be reciprocated." "I think it's true for a lot of strong women," Jolie adds. "I think there's the idea that we don't want care and kindness and softness and love, and it's so much the opposite. It's just that it has to be proven to be true." Elsewhere in their discussion, Jolie talks about finding her voice again while learning how to belt out Callas' music, and there's a lot in the subtext of that statement. Still dealing with a divorce from Brad Pitt that's seen her in and out of court for nearly a decade, there's the sense that owning the screen in "Maria" helped her to own herself again. Watch their full discussion here: Read more about this topic Angelina Jolie developed Bell's palsy leading up to divorce from Brad Pitt "Wicked" reminds us we'd all better be ready to defy gravity. Especially Black women "Wicked" memes have taken a nasty turn following Cynthia Erivo's poster slam By Kelly McClure Kelly McClure is Salon's Nights and Weekends Editor covering daily news, politics and culture. Her work has also appeared in Vulture, Vanity Fair, Vice and many other outlets that don't start with the letter V. She is the author of one sad book called "Something Is Always Happening Somewhere." Follow her on Bluesky: @WolfieVibes MORE FROM Kelly McClure Related Topics ------------------------------------------ Actors On Actors Angelina Jolie Cynthia Erivo Maria Wicked Related Articles Advertisement:Lowe's Cos. stock outperforms competitors despite losses on the day

Researchers launch “moonshot” to cure blindness through eye transplants

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As part of a national “moonshot” to cure blindness, researchers at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus will receive as much as $46 million in federal funding over the next five years to pursue a first-of-its-kind full eye transplantation. “This is no easy undertaking, but I believe we can achieve this together,” said Dr. Kia Washington, the lead researcher for the University of Colorado-led team, during a press conference Monday. “And in fact I’ve never been more hopeful that a cure for blindness is within reach.” The CU team was one of four in the United States that received funding awards from the federal Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health , or ARPA-H. The CU-based group will focus on achieving the first-ever vision-restoring eye transplant by using “novel stem cell and bioelectronic technologies,” according to a news release announcing the funding. The work will be interdisciplinary, Washington and others said, and will link together researchers at institutions across the country. The four teams that received the funding will work alongside each other on distinct approaches, though officials said the teams would likely collaborate and eventually may merge depending on which research avenues show the most promise toward achieving the ultimate goal of transplanting an eye and curing blindness. Dr. Calvin Roberts, who will oversee the broader project for ARPA-H, said the agency wanted to take multiple “shots on goal” to ensure progress. “In the broader picture, achieving this would be probably the most monumental task in medicine within the last several decades,” said Dr. Daniel Pelaez of the University of Miami’s Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, which also received ARPA-H funding. Pelaez is the lead investigator for that team, which has pursued new procedures to successfully remove and preserve eyes from donors, amid other research. He told The Denver Post that only four organ systems have not been successfully transplanted: the inner ear, the brain, the spinal cord and the eye. All four are part of the central nervous system, which does not repair itself when damaged. If researchers can successfully transplant the human eye and restore vision to the patient, it might help unlock deeper discoveries about repairing damage to the brain and spine, Pelaez said, as well as addressing hearing loss. To succeed, researchers must successfully remove and preserve eyes from donors and then successfully connect and repair the optical nerve, which takes information from the eye and tells the brain what the eye sees. A team at New York University performed a full eye transplant on a human patient in November 2023, though the procedure — while a “remarkable achievement,” Pelaez said — did not restore the patient’s vision. It was also part of a partial face transplant; other approaches pursued via the ARPA-H funding will involve eye-specific transplants. Washington, the lead CU researcher, said she and her colleagues have already completed the eye transplant procedure — albeit without vision restoration — in rats. The CU team will next work on large animals to advance “optic nerve regenerative strategies,” the school said, as well as to study immunosuppression, which is critical to ensuring that patients’ immune systems don’t reject a donated organ. The goal is to eventually advance to human trials. Pelaez and his colleagues have completed their eye-removal procedure in cadavers, he said, and they’ve also studied regeneration in several animals that are capable of regenerating parts of their eyes, like salamanders or zebra fish. His team’s funding will focus in part on a life-support machine for the eye to keep it healthy and viable during the removal process. InGel Therapeutics, a Massachusetts-based Harvard spinoff and the lead of a third team, will pursue research on 3-D printed technology and “micro-tunneled scaffolds” that carry certain types of stem cells as part of a focus on optical nerve regeneration and repair, ARPA-H said. ARPH-A, created two years ago, will oversee the teams’ work. Researchers at 52 institutions nationwide will also contribute to the teams. The CU-led group will include researchers from the University of Southern California, the University of Wisconsin, Indiana University and Johns Hopkins University, as well as from the National Eye Institute . The teams will simultaneously compete and collaborate: Pelaez said his team has communicated with researchers at CU and at Stanford, another award recipient, about their eye-removal research. The total funding available for the teams is $125 million, ARPA-H officials said Monday, and it will be distributed in phases, in part dependent on teams’ success. U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, a Democrat who represents Denver in Congress, acknowledged the recent election results at the press conference Monday and pledged to continue fighting to preserve ARPA-H’s funding under President-elect Donald Trump’s administration. The effort to cure blindness, Washington joked, was “biblical” in its enormity — a reference to the Bible story in which Jesus cures a blind man. She and others also likened it to a moonshot, meaning the effort to successfully put Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon nearly 50 years ago. If curing blindness is similar to landing on the moon, then the space shuttle has already left the launchpad, Washington said. “We have launched,” she said, “and we are on our trajectory.”

TScan Therapeutics to Present Updated Data from the Ongoing ALLOHATM Phase 1 Heme Trial During Oral Session at the 66th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and ExpositionAn Se-young of Korea hits a return during the women's singles final match against Carolina Marin of Spain at the BWF World Championships 2023 in Copenhagen, Denmark, Aug. 27, 2023. Xinhua-Yonhap Korean Olympic champion An Se-young has been named the world's top female badminton player for the second straight year. The Badminton World Federation (BWF) honored An as the Women's Singles Player of the Year during the BWF World Tour Finals Gala Dinner on Monday in Hangzhou, China. An captured the women's singles gold medal at the Paris Olympics in August and collected four other titles this year. The 22-year-old was also voted by her peers as the inaugural winner of the Players' Player of the Year award. "I didn't expect I'd receive so much support from other players. I'm delighted to get this award," An was quoted as saying on the BWF's website. "I'm so happy. I have so many people standing by me, supporting me, and they are my biggest motivation." An struggled early in 2024 due to lingering effects of a knee injury suffered while winning the singles title at the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou. Even at less than 100 percent, though, An soared to her first career Olympic gold in Paris, giving South Korea its first singles gold medal in 28 years. Immediately after winning the big prize, An criticized the Badminton Korea Association (BKA) for its poor handling of her knee injury and called for an overhaul of the national team system. Her words set off a chain of events, including a monthslong government probe into the BKA and the association's decision not to renew its contract with the national team head coach Kim Hak-kyun. (Yonhap)

Amy Rogers reports on the latest surrounding Mollie Marcoux Samaan stepping down as LPGA Tour commissioner, where she hears from Mel Reid and Megan Khang about what they'd like to see in the next commissioner. Brentley Romine and Jim Gallagher Jr. join Golf Central to highlight notable golfers making waves at PGA Tour Q-School action in Florida and the pressure of trying to earn a PGA Tour card. Amy Rogers catches up with several new teams ahead of this year's Grant Thornton Invitational, including Tom Kim-Jeeno Thitikul and Allisen Corpuz-Sahith Theegala. The Golf Central crew reflects on the wild storylines that came out of the 2024 men's major golf events and looks forward to 2025. Justin Thomas had a brutal day around the greens to end the Hero World Challenge, but Golf Central thinks he's trending in the right direction after a solid tournament as a whole. Todd Lewis and Brandel Chamblee analyze Scottie Scheffler's game at the Hero World Challenge and how he flexed his incredible overall skillset to cap a successful 2024 with a win. Tom Kim took a big leap on moving day at the Hero World Challenge, knocking in a dozen birdies and putting himself in contention for a win in the Bahamas. Todd Lewis and Brandel Chamblee look at the birdie-filled scorecard of Tom Kim's third round at the Hero World Challenge and how he was able to put himself in position to win on the final day. Scottie Scheffler is firmly in the mix at the Hero World Challenge, just one shot off the lead, but Golf Central says he'll have to capitalize more on scoring opportunities in the final round. Golf Central breaks down what went right for Justin Thomas in Round 3 of the PGA Tour's Hero World Challenge, in which putting -- typically a weakness for him -- carried him atop the leaderboard. Brandel Chamblee and Todd Lewis discuss Scottie Scheffler's impressive showing during Round 2 of the Hero World Challenge, breaking down what has worked for the world No. 1 in The Bahamas.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A photojournalist who captured one of the most enduring images of World War II — the U.S. Marines raising the flag on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima — had a block in downtown San Francisco named for him Thursday. Joe Rosenthal, who died in 2006 at age 94, was working for The Associated Press in 1945 when he took the Pulitzer Prize-winning photo. After the war, he went to work as a staff photographer for the San Francisco Chronicle, and for 35 years until his retirement in 1981, he captured moments of city life both extraordinary and routine. Rosenthal photographed famous people for the paper, including a young Willie Mays getting his hat fitted as a San Francisco Giant in 1957, and regular people, including children making a joyous dash for freedom on the last day of school in 1965. The 600 block of Sutter Street, near downtown’s Union Square, became Joe Rosenthal Way after a short ceremony Thursday morning. The Marines Memorial Club, which sits on the block, welcomed the street’s new name. Aaron Peskin, who heads the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, welcomed the city's political elite, military officials and members of Rosenthal's family to toast the late photographer, who was born in Washington, D.C., to Russian Jewish immigrant parents. The famous photo became the centerpiece of a war bonds poster that helped raise $26 billion in 1945. Tom Graves, chapter historian for the USMC Combat Correspondents Association, which pushed for the street naming, said the image helped win the war. “But I’ve grown over the years to appreciate also his role as a San Francisco newspaper photographer who, as Supervisor Peskin says, went to work every day photographing the city where we all live, we all love,” he said. Graves and others said they look forward to tourists and locals happening upon the street sign, seeing Rosenthal's name for perhaps the first time, and then going online to learn about the photographer with the terrible eyesight but an eye for composition. Rosenthal never considered himself a wartime hero, just a working photographer lucky enough to document the courage of soldiers. When complimented on his Pulitzer Prize-winning photo, Rosenthal said: “Sure, I took the photo. But the Marines took Iwo Jima.”Sarah Morris/WireImage is comparing social media use to another bad habit. In an interview with published on Thursday, Dec. 5, the singer spoke about her complicated relationship with social media — and why she likens it to smoking. Eilish, 22, said she's "off that s--t" when asked about being on X (formerly Twitter). "And I went off Instagram and Tiktok a couple of months ago, which was awesome," she revealed. While on the road, however, Eilish said, "I really love to interact with the fans when I'm on tour," and not being on social media makes that difficult. "I love seeing all the videos and all the angles. I love seeing how people are feeling and thinking about the show. If I think something looks different, I want to change it," she explained. Monica Schipper/FilmMagic Related: The singer continued, "So I go on the internet to see the videos that I want to see, but then I get sucked in." And what's when the "problem" starts. "Then I get all f---ed up, and I’m stuck. So I've been back on it, but I am trying to get off. It's my cigarettes," she shared. When asked about the positives of her being on social media, such as hosting Q&A sessions on Instagram with fans, the "Bad Guy" singer said she does enjoy those interactions — for the most part. "Some of it's awesome and I love it and I cherish it. But again, people make that kind of thing really hard. It's sad to me. Some people ruin it for the rest of them." Eilish has been open about her social media habits — or lack thereof — in the past. when it comes to opening up about her personal life on the various platforms during a conversation with British artist Stormzy for in September 2021. Nykieria Chaney/Getty Related: "I feel conflicted about it," she said at the time. "I don't always want to tell the world intimate details about my life, I don't really want people to know everything about me, but at the same time, I want people to be able to feel seen and heard if they've experienced the same things I have." However, Eilish said, sometimes she wouldn't want to talk about what she's going through. "It's a tough responsibility because it's also not my responsibility. I don't owe anyone anything." Previously, in 2020, the singer said she quit reading . “It’s way worse than it’s ever been right now,” she told the BBC, adding, “It’s weird: the cooler the things you get to do are the more people hate you. It’s crazy.” Read the original article on

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Squeezing through the advent calendar window into a sodden glade of flower and coral, you spy a curious organism on a ledge in the shadows. It’s a video game of some description, though it looks like a squirrel, with frantic white eyes. What’s it doing? Ah, whoops, you’ve startled it. Better follow it offscreen. It's Animal Well ! Edwin: Back before Animal Well’s launch, creator Billy Basso told me that he wanted his delightful, intuitive and mysterious 2D platformer to harbour secrets that would keep people scratching their heads for a decade. He’d even built the technology to maximise the odds of compatibility with much later generations of PC. Going by post-launch coverage, the game has already been emptied out, its guts rinsed of surprises by armies of needle-fingered wiki contributors. I guess it’s possible there are a few enigmas remaining, which Basso is keeping quiet about. It doesn’t matter, because to me, Animal Well will always be bottomless. That’s simply because Animal Well is driven by symbols - dial-up telephones, bunnies, firebowls, sausage dogs, rolling mice heads, watchful crows – and symbols are open-ended. Which is not to say it’s wholly abstract. The festering seacave setting has something approaching an “ecology” and hints of a mythological past, perhaps even a flourish of autobiography in the choice of props. But it’s not a “built world”. It’s the product of dream (sometimes nightmare) logic and free association. It’s one of the old-school video game fairytales, like Zelda before Zelda succumbed to the weight of sequels, and became something of an episodic canon. It’s also a brilliant metroidvania, partly because the base controls for movement are so simple and elegantly implemented, and partly because it avoids many of the usual metroidvania features. There are no unlock trees, no generic abilities like aerial dashes or extendable combos - no combat at all, in fact. Instead, you get cheerful toys like a frisbee, a slinky, or a bubble-wand. Like most toys, these ones have myriad uses, and it’s up to you to disclose them by paying attention and playing with the concept – is the yo-yo just a yo-yo? The other animals are both obstacles and allies, in this regard, their hostile or accommodating or unreadable behaviour helping you glean the possibilities. They feel like loosely animated archetypes rather than straight portrayals of creatureliness, filling out the world in a way that is vital yet also mechanical and deathly. They are forever whimsical and powerfully strange. Among Animal Well’s greatest discoveries is that reaching the credits isn’t game-over. There are items, tactics and... tendencies of the environment that threaten to break the rules and transform the game, if you carry on probing and delving. For all that, Animal Well remains graceful and easy to grasp. I’m very curious to see how future generations of player might respond to it. It might not harbour a decade’s worth of secrets, but it’ll definitely be worth returning to in 10 years time. Brendy: I didn't get too far in Animal Well. I gave up because of a difficult platforming bit, but up until that point I did appreciate the quiet sense of exploration and discovery that could be evoked with such a simple graphical style. Also, my cat kept chasing the little animal figures around the screen and that made me like the game even more. Graham: By contrast, I did not get on with Animal Well. I did not find its moment-to-moment platforming and puzzling fun enough to persevere past its habit of sending you back to a distant checkpoint upon failure. I do enjoy looking at it, mind, so it'll sit forever in a bucket alongside Rain World as an alien ecosystem I'd love to explore but lack the patience for. Head back to the advent calendar to open another door!

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