Oumuamua light sail

This story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The Earth’s climate has always been a work in progress. In the 4.5 billion years the planet has been spinning around the sun, ice ages have come and gone, interrupted by epochs of intense heat. The highest mountain range in Texas was once an underwater reef. Camels wandered in evergreen forests in the Arctic. Then a few million years later, 400 feet of ice formed over what is now New York City. But amid this geologic mayhem, humans have gotten lucky. For the past 10,000 years, virtually the entire stretch of human civilization, people have lived in what scientists call “a Goldilocks climate” — not too hot, not too cold, just right. Related Stories Why Obama's Climate Plan Failed. And How Biden's Could Succeed For These Young Evangelical Activists, Facing the Climate Crisis Is an Act of Faith Related Stories The 10 Most Bizarre … [Read more...] about Now Is Our Last Best Chance to Confront the Climate Crisis

On a sunny Saturday in February, two policemen on a motorcycle stop Jhon Jairo “Popeye” Velásquez as he walks down the driveway of a dilapidated mansion near Medellin, Colombia. The estate belonged to a former associate of late drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, who was killed in 1993, reportedly by Colombian police aided by U.S. Special Forces .. Velásquez, who worked for Escobar, is giving a tour of his old mob hangouts and discussing his future in film and politics. The beat cops aren’t here to arrest him. “We’re intrigued by him,” says the more boyish of the patrolmen, who was born the year Escobar was killed. “It’s really cool to hear the story.” If the officer had been born 20 years earlier, he might have been one of over 500 policemen Velásquez and other assassins from Escobar’s Medellín Cartel murdered in a bloody war against the Colombian government. Instead, he gives Velásquez his patrol number in case of emergency and the policemen ride away. Related Inside 'El … [Read more...] about From Escobar Hitman to YouTube Star: Meet Jhon Jairo ‘Popeye’ Velasquez

Darius Marder ’s Sound of Metal went into 2019’s Toronto International Film Festival without a distributor. Now, a year-and-a-half on, it’s a six-time Oscar nominee and perhaps the most hard-fought of all of this year’s crop of Best Picture candidates. Joe Utichi meets Marder and stars Riz Ahmed and Paul Raci to take stock of a film that transformed its key players in ways they hadn’t expected. They say Oscar loves a narrative, and they don’t come much more inspiring than Sound of Metal ’s. Even before he got his debut feature to set, Darius Marder spent more than a decade honing his tale about a heavy metal drummer and recovering addict who loses his hearing, butting up against the many hard realities of filmmaking that told him a movie like this could not work. As he did it, he learned more and more about deaf culture, and heard moving stories about people pursuing recovery in dedicated deaf sober houses. In Riz Ahmed, he found an actor willing to immerse so fully … [Read more...] about How ‘Sound Of Metal’ Changed Everything For Riz Ahmed, Darius Marder & Paul Raci, Even Before It Earned Six Oscar Nominations

Last few years have been exceptionally successful for Indian makers as the content that is originated from here is reaching new heights every day. One such recent outing to make it all the way to Oscars is none other than The White Tiger , produced by Mukul Deora, starring Adarsh Gourav, Priyanka Chopra-Jonas and Rajkummar Rao and helmed by Iranian-American director Ramin Bahrani. After garnering numerous accolades across the globe, the film has been nominated for an Academy Award under the category of Best Adapted Screenplay. The beautiful tale, penned originally by Man Booker winner Aravind Adiga in his novel of the same name, is about is a gripping story that reflects realism and sheds light on the class divide prevalent in India. The empowering film is loaded with a thriller as Mukul Deora imagined it to be. Ever since he read the book, he desired to give life to this enigmatic writing by Aravind Adiga. Talking about how steps like these are working … [Read more...] about The White Tiger Actor Adarsh Gourav On New India’s Representation In The Oscar-Nominated Movie