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Patrick Mahomes has reflected on the first time he met Travis Kelce, admitting he knew from ‘day one’ that his teammate was ‘a good dude’.

There may be a six-year age gap between them but Mahomes and Kelce are great friends off the pitch and their partners – Taylor Swift and Brittany Mahomes – are also close.

On the pitch, they have established themselves as one of the NFL’s most dangerous offensive threats with the pair regularly combining for the Chiefs.

Mahomes was taken with the 10th pick in the first round of the 2017 NFL Draft but Kelce had already been in Kansas City for four years before that.

They have won two Vince Lombardi trophies together and will compete in a fourth Super Bowl on Sunday when the Chiefs play the San Francisco 49ers in Las Vegas.

Patrick Mahomes has reflected on the first time he met Travis Kelce after being drafted in 2017

Kelce (left) took Mahomes (second right) and wife Brittany (right) to a baseball game early on

Recalling their first meeting, Mahomes said: ‘I knew of him obviously, because he was such a great football player even before I got [to the Chiefs].

‘I think my biggest impression was, “that’s a tall guy”, because I’d never seen a guy that tall man be able to move like that.

‘But just a good dude, man, I think I knew that from day one.’

Kelce took Mahomes and his wife Brittany to watch the Kansas City Royals baseball team during his first week in the city.

‘We were sitting up front, we were having a great time and that’s kind of built part of the relationship that we have today,’ Mahomes added.

The 28-year-old quarterback will try to lead the Chiefs to their second straight title and third in five seasons when they play the 49ers on Sunday.

Mahomes will lead the Chiefs into the Super Bowl against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday

This is Kansas City’s fourth Super Bowl appearance over that span; the Chiefs lost to Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers following the 2020 season.

Mahomes will no doubt be supported by wife Brittany on Sunday night and it’s possible she’ll sit close to Swift, who is due to fly in from Japan to watch Kelce in action.

Being attached to the 14-time Grammy Award winner has opened the floodgates for questions about the pop singer to be asked to Kelce’s teammates.

When asked what his favorite song by Swift is, Mahomed replied: ‘That “Anti-Hero” song, that one is pretty sweet. So I would say that. I do love “Love Story”. It gets me every single time.’

Mahomes also said Monday night his father was ‘doing good’ after his arrest for driving while intoxicated, but otherwise was tight-lipped about the situation.

‘It’s a family matter, so I’ll keep it to the family,’ Mahomes said at Super Bowl opening night. ‘That’s all I have to say.’

Travis Kelce admitted Monday evening he has not spoken with girlfriend Taylor Swift since Sunday night’s Grammy Awards.  

The Kansas City Chiefs plane landed in Las Vegas to start preparing for Super Bowl LVIII as Swift won a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Album, said Kelce.

The tight end saw the ‘Anti-Hero’ singer win her first hardware of the night as he regained phone service. Yet, Kelce said he has not spoken with Swift since the Grammys because she needed to get on a plane, likely to Tokyo for the Japanese leg of ‘The Eras Tour’.

Kelce’s time at Super Bowl LVIII Media Night contained several questions about Swift come his way, including her impact on him and the NFL.

‘You can’t put any more pressure than I put on myself, I promise you that,’ Kelce said Monday. ‘It’s just the heart of a competitor. [Swift] has definitely brought a lot of new faces to the game and its been fun to experience that.’

Kelce answered a barrage of questions at Super Bowl LVIII Media Night in Las Vegas

Swift won two Grammy Awards on Sunday night but has not spoken to Kelce since the wins

Swift and Kelce were last seen in public together after the Chiefs win over the Ravens

Kelce did not answer whether Swift would be in attendance at Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium or whether she has a private plane to make the game.

‘She seems to be enjoying the games,’ Kelce said. ‘She’s a part of Chiefs Kingdom right now. It’s fun to see her enjoy the game of football knowing that it’s kind of new to her life.

Swift won two Grammy Awards on Sunday, including her record-breaking fourth ‘Album of the Year’ award, bringing her lifetime total to 14 Grammys.

Swift announced a new album, ‘The Tortured Poets Department’, during her first acceptance speech of the evening, which Kelce said he has heard part of.

Swift has attended 12 Chiefs games this season, including all three Chiefs postseason wins.

During the Chiefs’ AFC Championship celebration after the win over the Ravens, Kelce and Swift were seen kissing, and possibly saying ‘I love you’ to one another, on the M&T Bank Stadium field.

“Foot-flagging” species tap into innate fright response to scare away rivals

Among most male frogs and toads, croaking is a way to say, “Don’t mess with my gal.” But when rushing streams and waterfalls drown out these warnings, more than 40 species have come up with a different strategy: They stick their rear legs up and out, a bit like dancers doing the “can-can,” researchers reported here earlier this month at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology.

This “foot flagging” likely mimics the movements of a possible predator, giving potential intruders pause. “It would be like getting in a bar fight and being able to roar like a lion to scare off your rival,” says the study’s lead author, Nigel Anderson, a graduate student at Brown University. But some rival frogs have wised up to this scare tactic, he has now discovered.

The work “helps [us] understand how behavioral displays evolve, and how predictable evolution is,” says Yusan Yang, an evolutionary ecologist at the University of South Florida who was not involved in the research.

An animal’s environment can have a strong impact on the type of communication signal it uses. Deep-water fish respond more to red hues, for example, because reds are easier to see where sunlight is weaker. Thus these fish have a so-called perceptual bias toward seeing reds and that bias shaped their evolution: African cichlid species living in deep water have developed red coloration to attract mates instead of the blues that their shoal-dwelling relatives use, Yang explains.

Anderson and his adviser, Matthew Fuxjager, long suspected that perceptual bias might underlie the evolution of foot flagging in frogs. Their fellow anurans, toads, tend to advance on horizontal objects, which tend to be prey in their environment, such as worms. But toads freeze or back away from objects that are vertical in shape—such as a human that’s reached down to grab them, for example. Did foot flagging—with a leg shooting up vertically—evolve to mimic this frightening motion as a way to deter rivals?

Foot flagging has evolved at least six times among anurans. It arises in species living in noisy environments, such as under waterfalls, and thus “may have evolved to solve the same environmental and sensory problem,” Anderson explains. Such multiple origins of the same behavior represent convergent evolution, which has long mystified biologists. Anderson suspects that perceptual biases may underlie many convergent traits: “Why evolve something completely new when you can modify existing systems to evolve something new,” he points out.

Experiments conducted by Anderson and his colleagues in 2021 suggested this is what might have happened in foot-flagging frogs. In many vertebrates, higher levels of testosterone correlate with more aggressive mating behavior. For example, toads with extra testosterone tend to croak louder. When Anderson and Doris Preininger, an integrative zoologist at the Vienna Zoo who keeps a colony of these frogs, injected testosterone into the bellies of Bornean rock frogs (Staurois parvus), a foot-flagging species, the animals lifted their legs higher and in a wider arc—that is, more vertically. All of this suggested foot flagging was strongly tied to territorial behavior.

The Asian common toad (Duttaphrynus melanostictus) chases after a horizontal bar, thinking it’s a worm, but ignores and turns away from a vertical one. Evan Donnachie

Not all rivals were scared away by vertical shapes, however. When Anderson and colleagues tested the responses of foot flagging and species to black rectangles moving across a screen in different orientations, all of the animals attacked a flat rectangle moving horizontally—as expected. The non–foot-flagging toads and frogs moved away from more vertically oriented rectangles, as if threatened by them.

But foot-flagging frogs showed a range of responses to the vertical shape: Some froze, whereas others attacked the vertical bars, Anderson reported at the meeting. “We think the brain overcomes the effects of ‘seeing a predator’ and initiates a follow-up attack,” Anderson says. In response to a rival’s foot-flagging dance of deterrence, he notes, some males apparently have figured out that these flaggers are really just rival males.

Patrick Green, an integrative biologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, is excited about the work, particularly the variation Anderson observed. That variation “is really important for evolution,” he points out. What seems to happening is that as more males ignore this signal, more exaggerated scare tactics—such as higher leg lifts or lifting both legs simultaneously—are evolving, he says. “I think there is more to be explored, especially looking across more of the foot-flagging species.”

While giving an inspiring speech to young athletes, Serena Williams complimented Michael Jordan and stated how the GOAT never played basketball for money.

Michael Jordan is by far the best player the league has ever witnessed. Suiting up for the Chicago Bulls, Mike is one of the most influential players to make a positive impact on the league.

Not only was Jordan the face of the league, but he was also one of the most popular icons in the entire world. To date, basketball enthusiasts rave about his gameplay and accomplishments.

Being a 14-time All-Star, 6-time NBA champ, 6-time Finals MVP, 5-time MVP and a Hall-Of-Famer, there is virtually nothing that MJ hasn’t achieved.

Helping his team win 2 successful three-peats in 8 years, His Airness really led his Bulls team to be the most dominant team in the 1990s. This is why several analysts and fans refer to the former Bulls shooting guard as the basketball god.

In his 15-year-long career, Jordan never used money as a motivating factor. Even though Mike was known to be an excessive gambler, he would always find the motivation to be the best player at any given time.

Also Read: When Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley participated in a shooting contest on a Japanese game show

“You could see the passion that Michael Jordan played with”: Serena Williams

Out of the million die-hard fans Michael Jordan had, tennis superstar Serena Williams was one of them. Being the most accomplished women tennis player ever, Williams has surely taken a lot of knowledge from Air Jordan.

Recently, Williams gave a strong and inspiring speech to young athletes who had graduated from the Mouratoglou Academy. In her speech, she mentioned Michael Jordan and the fact that the GOAT played the sport because he enjoyed it. The 23-time Grand Slam winner said:

“I think of Michael Jordan and that guy never played basketball, to like, make money. But he played because he loved what he did. You could see the passion that he had when he was out there. He absolutely enjoyed every minute of that.”

“So, I would definitely say that’s one thing that you wanna take with you is enjoy what you do and that is one way that you’ll able to find success.”

Also Read: When Hall of Famer John Stockton lauded the Bulls legend and his Dream Team teammate

These two sporting greats have achieved it all in their respective games. Young and aspiring athletes should take note of any valuable learnings these generational type of talent have to offer.

Letters from Iwo Jima promptly earns a place as one of the best movies about World War II, and it confirms Clint Eastwood’s place as one of the greatest American film directors ever.

I am not exaggerating. This is one of the relatively few must-sees of the year.

Letters is a sort of bookend to Eastwood’s Flags of Our Fathers. Eastwood filmed the two features at the same time, in a similar style, and they should really be seen together, somewhat like Francis Ford Coppola’s first two Godfather movies.

Flags, of course, dealt with the U.S. Marines’ assault on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima. Letters tells the same story from the Japanese point of view.

It does not dishonor the memory of our Iwo Jima veterans to note that the Japanese defenders fought well and with fanatic determination. (Of a garrison of more than 20,000 Japanese soldiers and marines, fewer than 300 surrendered.) Marine Gen. Holland “Howlin’ Mad” Smith termed the island’s commander, Lt. Gen. Tadamichi Kuribayashi, the “most redoubtable” of the Japanese strategists in the war.

What Letters does is underline the fact that those 20,000 Japanese were human beings – sometimes admirable human beings.

It’s long been a given in Hollywood history that not all Germans in World War II were icy-nerved Nazi war criminals; we’re used to seeing them as people in such movies as Sam Peckinpah’s Cross of Iron or Wolfgang Petersen’s Das Boot.

At least a few American movies have tried to do the same thing, at least intermittently, like Tora! Tora! Tora!, Midway or (heaven help us) Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbor. None, however, have gone to the extent that Letters from Iwo Jima does.

The title refers to two sets of letters. One was a correspondence Gen. Kuribayashi carried on with his children, often adding his own drawings or cartoons.

As played by Ken Watanabe, Kuribayashi is one pole of the drama and rightly so. One of Japan’s most decorated officers – one of the few soldiers granted a personal audience with the Emperor – he was also something of a contrarian who opposed the often callous brutality meted out on common soldiers.

Stripped of his few fighter planes (which were flown back to the home islands) he designed the intricate network of tunnels that enabled the Japanese to hold out for more than a month, despite being outnumbered 5-to-1.

Ironically, he was also one of Japan’s most Westernized officers, having visited America as a student and later as a military attache.

Like Admiral Yamamoto, he opposed the Pacific War, on the grounds that victory against the American industrial machine would be impossible. Like Yamamoto, however, he nevertheless fought from a sense of honor – rather like the doomed warlord whom Watanabe played in The Last Samurai.

The other letters are the fictional ones being written home by a young cook (winningly played by Kazunari Ninomiya). He’s no Samurai – as far as he’s concerned, the Americans can have the worthless volcanic rock that is Iwo Jima – and all he wants to do is survive to see his wife and infant son.

Iris Yamashita’s script sketches other soldiers, too – an array of types similar in many ways to the GIs we meet in American war movies.

Letters doesn’t gloss over the fact that Imperial Japan was a brutal, neo-fascist state or that the Japanese forces committed atrocities. It does make the point, though, that not all Japanese were like that. There was no hive mentality; they disagreed.

Basically, we meet these people, who have some customs that seem peculiar (a flashback of a Japanese draftee being served his call-up notice is especially striking) but are more or less like us.

We reach the point that we care about them, or at least some of them.

Then we watch them die.

Like Flags, Eastwood shot Letters in an especially muted color that seems to bleach at times into virtual black-and-white – like old war movies.

It’s a technique, ironically, that seems to make these distant historical figures spring more readily to life.

Warriors are noble, but war is hell. We seem to keep forgetting that point, but Ol’ Dirty Harry has, with consummate skill, taken the time to remind us.

Using LED lights and glow sticks, scientists in the Bahamas have discovered an ancient deep-sea crustacean with giant eyes and a see-through body. 

Although the species, which they named Booralana nickorum, is newly identified, it has been on the planet for 300 million years and may play a crucial role in maintaining the health of the ecosystem, the researchers wrote in a study published Jan. 12 in the journal Zootaxa.

 

The new species named, Booralana nickorum, may play a crucial role in maintaining the health of the ecosystem. (Image credit: Courtesy of OceanX)

The new species has a hard exoskeleton; a segmented body; and big, compound eyes to find potential prey. As it lives in the deep sea, where there’s very little light, it has no need for color or pigmentation, so it’s white, and even slightly translucent.

“You can see its guts and things,” study co-author Nicholas Higgs, director of research and innovation at the Cape Eleuthera Institute, told Live Science.

At around 2.2 to 3 inches (55 to 76 millimeters) long, it’s much larger than its terrestrial cousins in the pill bug family — also called roly poly bugs or woodlice — which measures around 0.55 inch (14 mm). B. nickorum’s large size gives the deep-sea scavenger an advantage as it waits on the seabed for food to fall from above.

“The bigger you are, the more you can get from any one meal,” Higgs said, and the longer the animal can last between meals, which is important in this environment, where food is scarce.

The team discovered B. nickorum at depths of between about 1,770 and 1,840 feet (540 to 560 meters) on an underwater slope in the Bahamas’ Exuma Sound. They obtained the specimens during two expeditions, in April 2014 and February 2019, operated by OceanX and the Cape Eleuthera Institute. In 2014, they put down baited eel traps, which caught deep-sea isopods — a type of crustacean with a flattened, segmented body — so they returned in 2019 to investigate further using light traps. Instead of bait, these units had a flashing, multicolor LED fishing light; a green glow stick: a green, deep-drop LED fishing light; and a programmable white LED light to attract creatures by mimicking the bioluminescence generated by deep-sea animals.

Booralana nickorum was discovered during two expeditions to an underwater slope in the Bahamas’ Exuma Sound.  (Image credit: Courtesy of OceanX)

As soon as the researchers examined the specimens on board the ship, they were confident that the species was “definitely different from anything we’ve seen before,” Higgs said.

Further tests confirmed that B. nickorum was a new species. It was named after two members of senior author Edward Brooks’ family, both called Nicholas Brooks.

These isopods play a critical role in the ecosystem by speeding up the decomposition of plant or animal matter so the wider ecosystem can benefit from these energy sources. “Otherwise, it would just sink down and remain locked away in the sediment,” Higgs said.

These crustaceans also ensure that the carbon within the organic matter falling from the shallows is captured in the deep ocean for thousands of years.

Finding new species like these helps researchers understand whether animals in the deep ocean are endemic to one place or disperse from one region to another over time. This enables scientists to better predict the ripple effect of human activities, such as mining. “If you impact one site, is that going to impact animals in a different area?” Higgs said.

With more countries like the Bahamas considering deep-sea oil exploration, Higgs believes expeditions like these are vital in helping decision-makers understand how drilling could affect their precious ecosystems.

“As long as we don’t have access to this environment,” he said, “we’re not going to appreciate it, we’re not going to understand it, and we’re not going to value it.”

They were the men charged by Winston Churchill with carrying out a ‘butcher-and-bolt reign of terror’ behind enemy lines.

One was a swashbuckling English commander, another a Danishman who favoured killing with a bow and arrow.

In January 1942, Gus March-Phillipps and Anders Lassen played key roles in a mission that seemed more at home in a spy novel than reality.

The clandestine Small Scale Raiding Force – acting under the command of the equally top secret Special Operations Executive – was tasked with capturing German and Italian vessels from Spanish territory and sailing them to British-ruled Nigeria.

Incredibly, this flagrant act of piracy was a resounding success – thanks in part to future James Bond author Ian Fleming, who was then the SOE’s liaison at the Admiralty.

Now, acclaimed director Guy Ritchie is set to bring the story of Operation Postmaster to the big screen in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, the trailer for which was released this week.

Starring Henry Cavill as March-Philipps and Alan Ritchson as Anders Lassen, the explosive film is based on historian Damien Lewis’s similarly titled 2014 book.

Swashbuckling British commander Gus March-Phillips led the successful Operation Postmaster raid during the Second World War. Guy Ritchie’s new film The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare retells the incredible story of the daring raid. Right: Henry Cavill as March-Phillipps

The three ships targeted by the tiny raiding party of 34 men were the Italian merchant vessel Duchessa d’Aosta, the German tug Likomba and the diesel-powered Bibundi, a barge.

They were moored in the harbour on the Spanish-owned island of Fernando Po (now called Bioko) off West Africa.

Because of its location, Fernando Po held a vital strategic position. It was home to 500 native troops and a dozen four-inch guns stationed around it.

The island’s Spanish governor was virulently pro-Nazi and so hostile to British interests.

The sensitivity of the mission stemmed from the fact that Britain could not be seen to be openly launching an attack on territory owned by neutral Spain.

It meant that bombing the ships from the air was inconceivable. Another non-starter was the option of sinking the vessels in the harbour, because the shallow waters meant they could be re-floated easily.

Instead, a small warship called Maid Honour was disguised as a Swedish pleasure cruiser.

It set sail from Poole harbour in Dorset under the command of March-Phillips, who was known for his stammer.

SOE agent Richard Lippett persuaded the wife of a prominent German resident of Fernando Po to hold a drunken dinner party for the Axis officers on shore.

Danishman Anders Lassen favoured killing with a bow and arrow and played a key role in Operation Postmaster. Right: He is portrayed in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare by Alan Ritchson

The three ships targeted by the tiny raiding party of 34 men were the Italian merchant vessel Duchessa d’Aosta (above), the German tug Likomba and the diesel-powered Bibundi, a barge

The Daily Mail’s original report of the raid, which included the British denial of involvement

With the alcohol flowing freely and the officers now being kept busy, March-Phillips, Lassen and their fellow raiders used explosives to break the ships out of the harbour before capturing their crew and discreetly towing them to Lagos.

In the event that the plot went wrong, the crew were carrying hidden suicide pills – nicknamed ‘holy communion – they could take before being captured.

But with the mission a success and Churchill thrilled, Britain resolutely denied any involvement.

This denial was made plausible by the work of Fleming, who played a key role in devising a convincing cover story.

It involved British destroyer HMS Violet, which steamed into the Gulf of Guinea to ‘intercept’ the three stolen ships.

It was claimed that the Italian and German crews had mutinied and sailed away of their own accord.

Once in international waters, the Violet seized the ships and escorted them into British custody.

The denial of involvement issued by the Admiralty in part read: ‘In view of the German allegations that Allied naval forces have executed a cutting out operation against Axis ships in the Spanish port of Santa Isabel, Fernando Po, the British Admiralty consider it necessary to state that no British or Allied warship was in the vicinity at the time of the alleged incident.’

In his book, Mr Lewis called the statement a ‘masterpiece of double-speak and deception – one deliberately designed to suggest that the Germans, by means of their wild accusations, had brought the subsequent misfortune upon themselves.’

The raid took place on the Spanish-owned island of Fernando Po (now called Bioko) off West Africa

The historian also revealed in his work the extent of Lassen’s brazen derring-do.

On one occasion, Lassen stole a jeep from American forces and then drove it up the steps of his hotel and into the lift, which carried it up to the floor he was on.

Lassen was also a flagrant womaniser, as a night in Salonika showed. He was seen emerging naked – bar his boots – from his hotel room to tell his boisterous men: ‘Chaps, can’t you let your CO screw in peace?’

His skill on the fighting front summed up by one German commander, who said the Dane and his men ‘come like cats and disappear like ghosts.’

Lassen would go on to serve in the fledgling Special Air Service (SAS) and remains the only man from the regiment to have been awarded the Victoria Cross.

The prestigious honour was given to him posthumously for the act which killed him.

He was hot while storming his third German bunker in northern Italy, less than a month before the end of the war in Europe.

Henry Cavill, 40 (right), stars in the film as Gus March-Phillips, with the movie telling the true story of Operation Postmaster

Guy Ritchie, 55, directed Paramount Pictures’ big-screen adaptation of Damien Lewis’ 2014 book, and ousted Superman star Henry plays the leader of the secret combat organisation (Eiza González pictured)

A scene from The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, which will be released in April

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare will be released in the US on April 19. A UK release date has not yet been confirmed

By then, March-Phillips had been dead for three years. He was killed during the ill-fated Operation Aquatint after leading a raider team of 11 ashore in German-occupied France.

The men were chanced upon by a heavily armed German patrol. March-Phillips was shot dead while attempting to swim away.

In a poem shortly before Operation Postmaster went ahead, March-Phillips appeared to foresee his own death in a poem he wrote.

It read: ‘Let me be brave and gay again / Oh Lord, when my time is near. / Let the god in me rise up and break / The stranglehold of fear. / Say that I die for Thee and the King, And what I hold most dear.’

In Ritchie’s new film, which will be released in the US on April 19, Fleming is portrayed by Freddie Fox.

Ritchie’s other films include two Sherlock Holmes titles, Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

 

The Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, have always been more than just tennis legends; they are a symbol of sisterly support, inspiration, and empowerment. In a recent awe-inspiring moment, Venus Williams took the lead in promoting positivity and fitness on a stunning rooftop, with her sister Serena by her side. Their uplifting message has resonated with millions of fans around the world, making this sisterly endeavor a source of inspiration for all.

A Dynamic Sisterhood

The bond between Venus and Serena Williams is unbreakable, founded not only on their shared love for tennis but also on their unwavering support for each other’s endeavors. This sisterhood is a beacon of strength, resilience, and unity.

Spreading Positivity

In a world where negativity often dominates headlines, Venus Williams has been a trailblazer in promoting positivity and a healthy mindset. Her commitment to spreading this message has not only influenced Serena but also attracted millions of fans who yearn for a brighter, more optimistic world.

Rooftop Fitness Revolution

Their recent fitness escapade on a picturesque rooftop was a testament to their commitment to physical well-being. It wasn’t just about exercise; it was an invitation for everyone to embrace a healthier lifestyle while savoring the beauty of their surroundings.

Serena’s Fitness Journey

Serena Williams, renowned for her athletic prowess, has always championed the importance of fitness. Her journey towards peak physical condition continues to inspire not only her sister but also her legion of fans who admire her dedication and determination.

Inspiring Millions

The Williams sisters’ rooftop fitness adventure has captured the hearts of millions worldwide. Their dedication to a positive mindset, physical fitness, and the bond they share as sisters serve as a source of motivation and encouragement for people of all ages and backgrounds.

The Power of Sisterhood

The support and inspiration that Venus provides to Serena highlight the extraordinary power of sisterhood. It’s a reminder that familial bonds can be a driving force in achieving personal and fitness goals, and that success is sweeter when shared with loved ones.

A Global Inspiration

The rooftop fitness journey embarked upon by Venus and Serena Williams is not just a personal endeavor—it’s a global inspiration. It showcases the impact that two determined sisters can have on the world, motivating millions to embrace positivity and prioritize their health.

Conclusion

The rooftop fitness adventure led by Venus Williams, inspiring Serena Williams’ positivity, has transcended a simple workout routine. It has become a beacon of hope and empowerment for millions, reminding us all of the strength of sisterhood, the importance of spreading positivity, and the enduring power of leading a healthy and active life.

 

The asteroid, called 2008 OS7, is expected to come as close as 1.7 million miles to our planet at 14:41 GMT – about seven times further out than the moon.

It is estimated to be up to 1,574 feet (480 metres) in diameter, which is longer than the Tottenham Hotspur stadium (820 feet or 250 metres).

As 2008 OS7 flies past Earth, it will be travelling at a speed of 18.1 km per second or just over 40,000 miles per hour – roughly 50 times the speed of sound.

The asteroid is ‘potentially hazardous’, although thankfully it’s not expected to pose a danger to our planet.

As 2008 OS7 flies past Earth, it will be travelling at a speed of 18.1 km per second or just over 40,000 miles per hour – roughly 50 times the speed of sound (artist’s impression)

This 180-second exposure shot provided by Virtual Telescope Project in Italy shows asteroid 2008 OS7 during its approach of Earth on  January 31, 2024. Astronomers say an asteroid as big as a skyscraper will pass within 1.7 million miles of Earth on Friday. There’s no chance of it hitting us since it will pass seven times the distance from Earth to the moon

Experts used an AI-powered simulation to see if a nuke could stop an asteroid

Asteroid 2008 OS7 – discovered in 2008 by the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona – completes an orbit around the sun every 962 days (2.63 years).

But as it does so, it intersects with Earth’s orbit, according to Dr Minjae Kim, a space expert at the University of Warwick’s astronomy department.

He describes it as ‘very small’ relatively speaking, because the largest known asteroid in the solar system, Ceres, is 580 miles in diameter (more than 3 million feet) – big enough for humans to live on.

‘2008 OS7 – a very small asteroid whose orbit intersects with that of Earth – has been classified as a “potentially hazardous asteroid”,’ said Dr Kim.

‘While this will still approach close to the Earth, we don’t need to worry about it too much as this asteroid will not enter Earth’s atmosphere.

‘One of the most intriguing aspects of the 2008 OS7 is its estimated diameter based on its luminosity and reflective properties.

‘This places it in the category of a small to moderately-sized asteroid, roughly equivalent to the size of a football field.’

According to NASA, the asteroid is 210 to 480 metres (688 to 1,574 feet) in diameter.

Pictured is the asteroid’s orbital path in white as well as the orbits of Earth (blue), Mars (red), Venus (purple) and Mercury (pink)

It is estimated to be up to 1,574 feet (480 metres) in diameter, which is longer than the Tottenham Hotspur stadium (820 feet or 250 metres, pictured)

What is a near-Earth orbit?

A near-Earth object (NEO) is a space rock – usually an asteroid – that passes close to the Earth.

A NEO is defined as such when it comes within 1.3 astronomical units (AU) (120.8million miles) of the sun and hence within 0.3 AU (27.8million miles) of Earth’s orbit.

Almost all NEOs are near-Earth asteroids (NEAs), although there are such things as near-Earth comets (NECs) too.

Unfortunately, this asteroid will be too small to be seen by the naked eye, or even with an average telescope.

NASA lists 2008 OS7 as one of the upcoming close approaches on its online tracker, which compiles upcoming objects that are getting closer and closer to Earth.

An asteroid is defined as ‘potentially hazardous’ if it comes within 0.05 astronomical units (4.65million miles) of Earth and is larger than 459 feet (140 meters) in diameter.

Despite being seven times further out than the moon when it makes its close approach, the asteroid is classed as a near-Earth object (NEO) and is being tracked by the space agency.

‘NEOs are comets and asteroids that have been nudged by the gravitational attraction of nearby planets into orbits that allow them to enter the Earth’s neighbourhood,’ said NASA.

‘Composed mostly of water ice with embedded dust particles, comets originally formed in the cold outer planetary system while most of the rocky asteroids formed in the warmer inner solar system between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

‘The scientific interest in comets and asteroids is due largely to their status as the relatively unchanged remnant debris from the solar system formation process some 4.6 billion years ago.’

On average, Earth is hit by a football pitch-sized rock every 5,000 years, and a civilisation-ending asteroid every one million years, according to NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program.

Asteroid 2008 OS7 won’t be back our way again until 2032, but it will be a much more distant encounter, staying 45 million miles (72 million kilometers) away.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF SPACE ROCKS

An asteroid is a large chunk of rock left over from collisions or the early Solar System. Most are located between Mars and Jupiter in the Main Belt.

A comet is a rock covered in ice, methane and other compounds. Their orbits take them much further out of the Solar System.

A meteor is what astronomers call a flash of light in the atmosphere when debris burns up.

This debris itself is known as a meteoroid. Most are so small they are vapourised in the atmosphere.

If any of this meteoroid makes it to Earth, it is called a meteorite.

Meteors, meteoroids and meteorites normally originate from asteroids and comets.

On this day 72 years ago, King George VI died suddenly in his sleep at the  Sandringham estate in Norfolk.

He was just 56 years old and had been the much-loved figurehead of the nation during the darkest days of the Second World War.

As the second son of George V, the King was a famously reluctant monarch who had acceded unexpectedly to the throne in December 1936 after the dramatic abdication of older brother Edward VIII.

Christened Albert after his great-grandfather Prince Albert in the last years of Queen Victoria’s long reign and known as ‘Bertie’ to his family and friends, George VI had been a shy and sickly child who suffered from a stutter and had always been content to live in the shadows of the more charismatic and glamorous Edward.

The coffin containing the body of King George V arrives at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, on the day of his funeral in February 1952

Princess Elizabeth was informed of her father’s death while on tour in Kenya. She flew home immediately, changing into mourning clothes once the plane had landed at London Airport

Londoners read the evening papers announcing the news that King George VI had died

He served as a Royal Navy officer in the First World War, seeing action as a gunnery officer in the Battle of Jutland in 1916, and as a ‘spare’ rather than an heir, had been given an unusual amount of latitude in whom he was allowed to marry.

He wooed and eventually won the aristocratic but not royal Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 1923 and they had two daughters Elizabeth and Margaret.

His childhood stutter had persisted into adulthood and after his closing address at the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley on 31 October 1925 proved an ordeal for speaker and listeners alike, the prince underwent intensive speech therapy with the pioneering specialist Lionel Logue.

Logue, an Australian, prescribed a gruelling series of daily chest and vocal exercises that proved remarkably successful. By 1927, Berte he was able to give major public speeches without embarrassment.

Neither man imagined the immense stress to which Bertie’s speech impediment would be subjected.

The abdication of his older brother Edward VIII – in order to marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson – had placed the future of the monarchy under threat at a time when the drums of war were already beginning to sound across Europe.

Logue remained a regular guest at Buckingham Palace well into the 1940s, where he helped the King prepare to address an audience of millions of eager listeners during his wartime radio broadcasts, a story that inspired the 2010 film The King’s Speech, starring Colin Firth.

When he reluctantly assumed the throne at a time of the House of Windsor’s greatest crisis, Prince Albert chose the regnal name George VI in order to restore trust and to stress continuity with his father, George V.

But he was thrust into controversy even before his 1937 coronation, held on a date originally intended to see the crowning of Edward VIII. His first duty as King was to decide how to deal with his errant brother. His solution was to confer the title Duke of Windsor on Edward while denying his wife or any subsequent children (there weren’t any) Royal status.

George VI was then constitutionally obliged to back Neville Chamberlain’s pre-war appeasement of Adolf Hitler, even inviting the Prime Minister to appear alongside the Royal family on the balcony at Buckingham Palace on his return from negotiating the Munich Agreement in 1938.

But the outbreak of war in 1939 marked the beginning of George VI’s defining years. The King and Queen resolved to stay in London with their daughters throughout the Blitz. The Royal family had a fortunate escape in September 1940 when two bombs exploded in a courtyard at Buckingham Palace while they were sleeping nearby.

King George VI, right, the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret wave farewell to Princess Elizabeth and  the Duke of Edinburgh as they depart for Nairobi on a a planned short tour of the Commonwealth in January 1952. In the event, it was cut short

Queen Elizabeth pictured returning to London from the airport following the death of her father in February 1952

 The Daily Mail from February 7 announces the death of King George VI

Queen Elizabeth, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, and Queen Mary at King’s Cross railway station awaiting the arrival of the train bringing the coffin from Sandringham, where King George had passed away

Their fortitude won them the enduring respect and affection of the British people after it became clear that they were making a point of sharing the same dangers and privations everyone else, even subjecting themselves to food rationing and restrictions on the depth of their bathwater.

The war also saw George VI forge a particularly close relationship with Winston Churchill – the two men met at least once a week to discuss the latest development with frankness.

The stresses of the war coupled with the George VI’s heavy smoking took a heavy toll on the King’s health.

He suffered hardening of the arteries and blood clots in his legs, and in 1951 had to undergo an operation to remove a lung because of a malignant tumour.

His last public appearance was to wave goodbye to his eldest daughter, Princess Elizabeth, at London Airport on 31 January 1952 as she and her husband the Duke of Edinburgh set off as his replacements on what was intended as a lengthy Commonwealth tour.

Joined by his wife, Queen Elizabeth – later styled the Queen Mother – and their younger daughter, Princess Margaret, the Royal family said their goodbyes on the tarmac before gathering on a rooftop to watch the plane take off.

That is why Elizabeth was thousands of miles away at a game reserve in Kenya when the King died in his sleep six days later on 6 February 1952.

The news was relayed to Royal courtiers on the tour, but it was Prince Philip, her husband, who told her the news of her father’s death.

The couple were staying at Sagana Lodge, given to them as a wedding present by the people of Kenya, after spending the night at the Treetops Hotel, in Aberdare Forest, watching big game.

At just 25, the new Queen was the same age as the first Elizabeth had been when she came to the throne in 1558.

 As he heard the news, Philip looked as if ‘you’d dropped half the world on him’, according to one close aide. But Elizabeth was composed even in a time of grief.

Lord Charteris, her then-private secretary, recalled seeing the new Queen seated at her desk in the Lodge shortly after being told the news.

Her cheeks were slightly flushed, but there were no tears.

She was ready to fulfil the role for which she had been carefully groomed.

When he asked what name she wished to use as Queen, she replied simply: ‘My own name, of course, Elizabeth.’

The tour was cancelled and the royal couple arrived home on 7 February.

Her grandmother Queen Mary, widow of King George V, was first to pay formal homage, kissing the new Queen’s hand.

The next day, February 8, Princess Elizabeth was formally proclaimed Queen.

Four days ahead of his funeral, the famous photo of three generations of Queens was taken: Queen Mary, the Queen Mother and the new Queen Elizabeth stood together as they awaited the arrival of the King’s coffin for the lying-in-state that would follow

The King’s coffin was taken by train from Sandringham to London and conveyed by road to Westminster Hall, where BBC broadcaster Richard Dimbleby said ‘Never safer, better guarded, lay a sleeping king than this, with a golden candlelight to warm his resting place, and the muffled footsteps of his devoted subjects to keep him company.’

On the day of the funeral, February 15, George’s coffin was draped in the royal standard, with a crown, orb and sceptre placed on top.

The funeral cortege then made its way to Paddington Station, with the coffin on a gun carriage s hauled by Royal Navy seamen as the Queen, the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret followed behind.

As the procession made its way through London, the bells of Big Ben rang out 56 times, with each chime representing a year of the late King’s life.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrives for the Privy Council after the death of the King

The coffin of King George VI is disembarked from a train at King’s Cross Station en route to Westminster Hall

Queen Elizabeth II, right, and Princess Margaret are veiled as they travel with their father’s cortege to Westminster Hall

The body of King George VI lies in state in Westminster Hall before being taken to St George’s Chapel, Windsor. Here, it is guarded by beefeaters and members of the Household Cavalry

From Paddington, the coffin was taken to Windsor by train, where a simple funeral service was held in St George’s Chape, where British monarchs have been buried since the 15th century.

When the funeral got underway at 2pm, the nation fell silent, with even passengers on a transatlantic flight to New York rising from their seats to bow their heads.

The service was presided over by the then Archbishop of Canterbury Geoffrey Fisher and the Archbishop of York Cyril Garbett.

There were no television cameras but the funeral service was was described in intricate detail by the Daily Mail, which read: ‘One moment it seemed that the King was with us, and the next that he had gone…

‘But a moment before and our new Sovereign, Queen Elizabeth, had taken the Colour of the King’s Company, the Grenadier Guards, and had placed it on the end of the coffin.

‘Then, as all that is mortal of her father sank into its purple sepulchre, she stepped forward and sprinkled earth on to the coffin.’

It added: ‘In that moment it seemed that this slim slight figure who has borne the intense nervous strains of the past ten days with magnificent composure was dedicated and set apart.

In mourning, the Queen at the funeral of her father with  husband, Prince Philip, and the Queen Mother on February 15, 1952. The Duke of Windsor stands far right

The final journey of King George VI, when his coffin was taken in procession from Windsor Railway Station to the funeral service

The funeral procession of King George VI of England passing the walls of Windsor Castle on its way to St George’s Chapel, where the service and burial took place

‘In that moment the young Queen, bidding mute farewell to her father and predecessor on the Throne, had taken her place in the long and glorious role of those who have worn the Crown.’

Elizabeth’s final tribute to her father was to drop a handful of earth that she had collected from Frogmore at Windsor on his coffin.

His body was moved from the Royal vault to the newly-completed King George VI Memorial Chapel, constructed in his honour in 1969.

The chapel, built as part of St George’s Chapel, is now the final resting place not only of King George VI, but of his wife, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, his daughter Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip, Duke of Edinbugth and the ashes of his younger daughter Princess Margaret.