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Complete History of Umbrellas - Umbrella Heaven

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Umbrellas, also known as parasols, have been used since ancient times. There is a myth that says it was first used in Japan as protection against rain and snow. However, the first umbrellas are believed to have come from China and date back as far as 3500 BC.

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RELATIVE CLAUSES

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Standing in his field of stunted, withered maize, Santi Caudevilla is very worried. "If the weather does not change it will be zero. Nothing is going to be harvested," he said.

Caudevilla, who grows maize, sorghum and other crops in Gimenells in Catalonia, has been hit hard by the severe drought which has hammered this part of northeastern Spain.

Rainfall has been low for years. "We are in a desert. This is a desert today," he said.

The lack of water is starting to feel like an existential crisis for farmers such as Caudevilla and he is worried about the future of his profession. It's becoming increasingly hard to make ends meet as crops shrivel through lack of water - or cannot be planted at all.

Droughts are a fact of life in this corner of Spain. "They are typical of Catalonia's Mediterranean climate," said Albert Ruhi, a freshwater ecologist at the University of California, Berkeley, who is originally from Catalonia.

But a significant lack of rain and snow have made this one much, much drier, he told CNN.

"This is the worst period that we have had for the last 100 years," Samuel Reyes, director of the Catalan Water Agency, told CNN.

The problem spreads beyond Catalonia.

Spain has been in a long-term drought since the end of 2022, said Ricardo Torrijo, a spokesperson for AEMET, the Spanish national weather service.

In March, the country only received 36% of the average monthly rainfall, making it the second driest March this century. The trend continued into April, which could end up being the driest on record, Torrijo told CNN.

Drought conditions have been exacerbated by searing temperatures that are more reminiscent of mid-July than spring.

Last Thursday, April records were smashed, with the city of Córdoba in southern Spain reaching 38.8 degrees Celsius (101.8 degrees Fahrenheit).

The combination of drought and heat have stoked fears for a repeat of last summer where the country saw blistering heat waves and wildfires that burned through 306,000 hectares (756,000 acres). Unusually early wildfires this spring have already burned more than 10,000 acres in the eastern region of Castellon.

These conditions point to a new reality for parts of Europe, which is warming twice as fast as the global average. While it will take time to pin down the exact role climate change is playing, scientists are clear that human-caused global heating is making droughts and heat waves more common and more extreme.

'An agricultural disaster'

The cracked, desiccated earth at the Sau Reservoir reveals the heavy toll the lack of rainfall has taken on Catalonia's water sources.

Located about 60 miles north of Barcelona, the reservoir is a key drinking water source for the region, but in late April it was only at 7% of capacity.

Its water levels are so low that a medieval village, flooded when the lake was created in the 1960s, has emerged, lending an eerie presence to the sun-baked lakebed.

Authorities have been forced to siphon out water from the reservoir in an attempt to protect water quality and have had to remove native fish to stop them asphyxiating.

Reservoir levels across Catalonia are hovering at around 25%, substantially lower than usual for this time of year.

The lack of water is having a catastrophic impact on farms across the region. "There is no precedent," said Martí Costal, head of water at the Young Farmers and Ranchers of Catalonia (JARC).

The majority of wheat and barley harvests on rainfed land will be lost, and on irrigated land will be cut by half, Costal told CNN. "If it does not rain in May it will be a disaster," he said.

It's a story which tracks across the country's agricultural heartlands.

Drought affects 60% of Spain's countryside, and has destroyed crops across 3.5 million hectares (8.6 million acres), according to the Coordinator of Farmers' and Ranchers' Organizations (COAG). That's an area bigger than the state of Maryland.

Livestock farming is at risk as farmers need pasture to feed their animals. Without it, they are forced to buy food. Losses are also expected for orchards, vineyards, olive oil production and vegetable farming, Serge Zaka, an agrometeorologist, told CNN.

"These agro-climatic conditions are leading to an agricultural disaster," he said.

A lack of vegetation is also preventing bees from making honey. Beekeepers are facing a third consecutive season without a harvest thanks to water shortages, according to COAG.

In April, Spain requested emergency funding from the European Union to help farmers cope with the impacts of the drought.

'There is no water'

Water scarcity is not just affecting farmers, but also drinking water.

The village of Castellcir, around 30 miles north of Barcelona, is one of many in Catalonia that have been relying on water brought in on trucks.

People have been asked to save water by having quick showers, being careful when washing dishes and not filling their pools.

The situation has been going on for more than a year, said Juan Cogdony, a resident of the village. "We are very worried," he told CNN.

It just won't rain, Cogdony said, looking up at the sky. "There is no water. Beer, yes, but no water," he joked.

As the summer approaches, and the hope of heavy spring rains fade, many are sounding the alarm on what might be in store for Spain.

"We are now in a very dramatic situation," said Joan Girona Gomis, a scientist at the Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology, a research organization owned by the Catalonian government.

Without significant rain "we will suffer a bad drought this summer," he told CNN.

Gomis has been working on experiments to increase the efficiency of irrigation systems used by farmers, including by using technology such as sensors to evaluate the precise amount of water crops need.

Whether Catalonia can remain one of Europe's key farming regions is "the big question," Gomis said. It all depends on "if we are able to adapt."

It will mean big changes, Costal said, including researching drought-resistant crops, investment in urban and agricultural infrastructure and improvements in water efficiency.

He hopes what's happening in Spain and other parts of Europe will remind people where their food comes from. "The fruits are produced in the field, not on the shelves of a supermarket," he said.

In Gimenells, Caudevilla is deeply worried about what will happen to the Catalonian countryside if, as expected, droughts and heat waves become more frequent and more intense.

"This area is facing abandonment," he said. Farmers are aging, he added, "in 10 years nobody will want to work in this countryside."

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brand safety-nsf accidents and disasters

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Disappearing lakes, dead crops and trucked-in water: Drought-stricken Spain is running dry | CNN

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Standing in his field of stunted, withered maize, Santi Caudevilla is very worried. "If the weather does not change it will be zero. Nothing is going to be harvested," he said. Caudevilla, who grows maize, sorghum and other crops in Gimenells in Catalonia, has been hit hard by the severe drought which has hammered this part of northeastern Spain.

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BECOMING A PODCASTER - CONVERSATION FOR ANALYSIS

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The dragon fruit (In 2013, it was reported that Vietnam is the world's leading exporter of dragon fruit, with revenues from dragon fruit making up 55 percent of the country's fruit export turnover.The plant is a climbing cactus vine that grows well in dry areas.The dragon fruit has a dramatic appearance, with bright red, purple or yellow-skinned varieties and prominent scales.The dragon fruit is closely related to the orchid cacti, or The fruit is commonly eaten raw and is thought to taste better chilled.The dragon fruit reputedly improves eyesight and controls hypertension.Common names: dragon fruit, dragon pearl fruit,Scientific name: Malay/Indonesian: Vietnamese: (New York: Comstock Publishing Associates, 2016), 129. (Call no. RSEA 634.6 BLA) 9, no. 10 (April 2010): 1450-454.," CAB International, accessed 8 March 2020. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989). (Call no. R 423 OXF-[DIC]) (Oxfordshire" CABI, 2012), 325., 26 February 2014.8. Nhan, "Earning $1 Billion."," Trade Winds Fruit, accessed 20 March 2020., 129; Trade Winds Fruit, "Dragon Fruit." (NW: CRC Press, 2011), 101.12. Trade Winds Fruit, "Dragon Fruit."15. Trade Winds Fruit, "Dragon Fruit."16. Trade Winds Fruit, "Dragon Fruit." Top Tropicals, accessed 26 March 2020.21. Trade Winds Fruit, "Dragon Fruit."8 September 2002; Morton, "Strawberry Pear"; Barbara Rolek,23. Morton, "Strawberry Pear"; Trade Winds Fruit. "Dragon Fruit.", 129; Morton, "Strawberry Pear." (Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, 2018), 24.28. Morton, "Strawberry Pear." (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 676. (Call no. R 641.303 VAU), ed. Mohamed Fauzy Ramadan (Switzerland: Springer Nature, 2020), 676., 28 April 2007, 28. (From NewspaperSG), 27 July 2015.," NC State University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, accessed 26 March 2020. Hylocereus undatus) is a tropical fruit that belongs to the climbing cacti ( Cactaceae) family. Widely cultivated in Vietnam, the fruit is popular in Southeast Asia. ¹ Apart from being refreshing and tasty, it has been noted that the dragon fruit is a rich source of vitamin C, calcium and phosphorus. Origin and distributionThe dragon fruit's scientific name is derived from the Greek word ⁷ However, other countries such as Thailand, Israel, northern Australia, southern China, the Philippines and Hawaii have also been trying to grow the fruit. ⁸ hyle (woody), the Latin word cereus (waxen) and the Latin word ⁹ Because of its epiphytic nature, it grows best in soil with a high level of organic materials. ¹⁰ Its flowers bloom only at night, hence the plant is sometimes also called the "moonflower" or "Lady of the Night". ¹¹ The flowers, which bloom for only one night, ¹⁷ The fruit is oval, elliptical or pear-shaped. The flesh has a subtly flavoured sweet taste or sometimes slightly sourish taste. 18 The flesh is either white or red, with edible black seeds dotted all over. ¹⁹ epiphyllum, which are known for their large and impressive flowers. The pitahaya can be cross-pollinated with the e piphyllum. ²⁰ ²¹ It is also served as a juice or made into a fruit sorbet. ²⁵ ²² The fruit can be used to flavour drinks, while syrup made of the whole fruit is used to colour pastries and candy. ²³ Unopened flower buds can be cooked like vegetables. 24 ²⁶ pitahaya, Hylocereus undatus ³¹ buah naga or buah mata naga ³² ²⁷ strawberry pear, thanh long ³⁴ References
²⁸ night-blooming cereus, Belle of the Night, ²⁹ Cinderella plant
³⁰ ¹² are white and large, measuring 20 cm long or more. 13 They are bell-shaped and are fragrant when in bloom. ¹⁴
Pitahaya plants can have between four to six fruiting cycles in one year. 15 It can be propagated by seed or by stem cuttings.
¹⁶ undatus, which refers to the wavy edges of its stems. 3 The origin of the dragon fruit is unknown, but it is probably native to Central America. ⁴ It is also known as
pitahaya in Mexico, and pitaya roja in Central America and northern South America. The Spanish name
pitahaya may also refer to several other species of tall cacti with flowering fruit. ⁵ The French introduced the fruit into Vietnam over a hundred years ago. ⁶

²

1. Rolf Blancke, Tropical Fruits and Other Edible Plants of the World: An Illustrated Guide2. Ow Phui San Rebecca, Omru Nasrulhaq Boyce and Chandran Somasundram, " Pigment Identification and Antioxidant Properties of Red Dragron Fruit (Hylocereus Polyrhizus)," African Journal of Biotechnology3. " Hylocereus Undatus (Dragon Fruit)4. Blancke, Tropical Fruits and Other Edible Plants5. "Pitahaya," in

The Oxford English Dictionary6. Robert E. Paull and Odilio Duarte, Tropical Fruits: Crop Production Science in Horticulture 247. Doanh Nhan, " Earning $1 Billion, but Fruit Exporters Can't Get Good Night's Sleep," VietNamNet9. Blancke, Tropical Fruits and Other Edible Plants, 129; J. Morton, " " Strawberry Pear," accessed 20 March 2020; " Dragon Fruit10. Blancke,
Tropical Fruits and Other Edible Plants11. Ernest Small, Top 100 Exotic Food Plants13. Blancke,
Tropical Fruits and Other Edible Plants14. Blancke, Tropical Fruits and Other Edible Plants17. Blancke,
Tropical Fruits and Other Edible Plants18. Blancke, Tropical Fruits and Other Edible Plants19. Paull and Duarte, Tropical Fruits, 329; L. Luders and G. McMahon, " The Pitaya or Dragon Fruit,"
Agnote20. " Pitaya, Pitahaya
,"22. David Karp, " Purple, Spiny, and Heading Your Way,"
Los Angeles Times, 1 Dragon Fruit Frozen Sorbet Dessert," 24. Blancke, Tropical Fruits and Other Edible Plants25. Erum Akbar Hussain, Zubi Sadiq and Muhammad Zia-Ul-Haq, Betalains: Biomolecular Aspects26. Small, Top 100 Exotic Food Plants27. Blancke,
Tropical Fruits and Other Edible Plants29. J. G. Vaughan and C. A. Geissler, The New Oxford Book of Food Plants30. Sumia Akram and Muhammad Mushtaq, "Dragon Seed Oil," in Fruit Oils: Chemistry and Functionality31. Blancke, Tropical Fruits and Other Edible Plants32. "
Buah Segar Malaysia," Berita Harian33. "

Dragon Fruit Frenzy," Taipei Times34. " Dragon Fruit Assessment ManualThe information in this article is valid as at March 2020 and correct as far as we are able to ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.

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The dragon fruit (Hylocereus undatus) is a tropical fruit that belongs to the climbing cacti (Cactaceae) family. Widely cultivated in Vietnam, the fruit is popular in Southeast Asia. Apart from being refreshing and tasty, it has been noted that the dragon fruit is a rich source of vitamin C, calcium and phosphorus.

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Keanu Reeves Knows the Secrets of the Universe

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Keanu Reeves Knows the Secrets of the Universe

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Sea horse, (genus Hippocampus), any of about 36 species of marine fishes allied to pipefishes in the family Syngnathidae (order Gasterosteiformes). Sea horses are found in shallow coastal waters in latitudes from about 52° N to 45° S. Their habitats include coral reefs, mangroves, sea grass beds, and estuaries. They are unique in appearance, with their horselike head, prehensile tail, independently moving eyes, and brood pouch. They have long, tubular snouts and small, toothless mouths. Their bodies are covered with consecutive rings of bony plates. The name of the genus that contains sea horses is taken from the Greek words hippos (meaning "horse") and kampos (meaning "sea monster").

Des Bartlett/Bruce Coleman Ltd.

Sea horses vary in size, ranging in length from about 2 to 35 cm (about 0.8 to 14 inches). The smallest species, Denise's pygmy sea horse ( H. denise), is found in the tropical western Pacific from Indonesia to Vanuatu. The largest species, the pot-bellied sea horse ( H. abdominalis), inhabits the waters off South Australia and New Zealand.

lined sea horse Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Sea horses are rather immobile, swimming more slowly than other fishes. When swimming they maintain a vertical position and propel themselves forward using a soft-rayed dorsal fin. They use pectoral fins located on the side of the head to maneuver. Some scientists contend that this upright swimming posture evolved shortly after the expansion of sea grasses in the western Pacific roughly 25 million years ago. These plants provided sea horses with useful hiding places to avoid enemies and to capture unsuspecting prey, and ancestors of the sea horse evolved to maximize the opportunities offered by this new habitat.

seahorse© alexvarani/Fotolia

Sea horses are usually found clinging to plants or corals with their tails. Their sedentary habits coupled with excellent camouflage abilities render them successful ambush predators. When small organisms swim nearby, a sea horse may capture them by rapidly sucking them into the mouth. Sea horses also rely upon camouflage to avoid predators such as crabs and other fish.

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The reproductive behaviour of sea horses is notable in that the male carries the fertilized eggs. After an elaborate courtship, the female uses an ovipositor (egg duct) to place her eggs into a brood pouch located at the base of the male's tail where the eggs are later fertilized. Depending on the species, the eggs remain in the pouch between 10 days and 6 weeks. During this time the male nurtures the developing young by regulating the chemistry of the fluid inside the pouch, slowly transforming it from that of his internal body fluids to that of salt water as pregnancy progresses. To nourish the growing young, the male also produces inorganic compounds and releases the hormone prolactin, which helps break down the proteins contributed by the female. Once the eggs hatch, the male convulses his body and expels the young through a single opening in the pouch. The young are miniature versions of their parents that receive no further care. The male can receive another brood of eggs almost immediately after giving birth. In some species a male and female will maintain a monogamous pair bond throughout the breeding season and produce many broods.

© huxiaohua/Shutterstock.com

Commercially, sea horses are traded live as aquarium animals and dead for use in traditional medicines and as curios. Threatened by direct overfishing, accidental capture (bycatch) in other fisheries, and the destruction of their coastal habitats, some species-such as the Pacific sea horse ( H. ingens)-face extinction.

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Sea horse, (genus Hippocampus), any of about 36 species of marine fishes allied to pipefishes in the family Syngnathidae (order Gasterosteiformes). Sea horses are found in shallow coastal waters in latitudes from about 52° N to 45° S. Their habitats include coral reefs, mangroves, sea grass beds,

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A demonstrator holds a sign reading "Stop Climate Meltdown" during a climate strike on November 18, 2022, in Warsaw, Poland.

Artur Widak / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

It's a truism that the world is in a dismal state; indeed, there are too many great challenges facing our world and the planet is in fact at a breaking point, as Noam Chomsky elaborates on an exclusive interview below for Truthout. What's less widely recognized is that another world is possible because the present one is simply not sustainable, says one of the world's greatest public intellectuals.

Chomsky is institute professor emeritus in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at MIT and laureate professor of linguistics and Agnese Nelms Haury Chair in the Program in Environment and Social Justice at the University of Arizona. One of the world's most-cited scholars and a public intellectual regarded by millions of people as a national and international treasure, Chomsky has published more than 150 books in linguistics, political and social thought, political economy, media studies, U.S. foreign policy and world affairs. His latest books are Illegitimate Authority: Facing the Challenges of Our Time (forthcoming; with C.J. Polychroniou); The Secrets of Words (with Andrea Moro; MIT Press, 2022); The Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and the Fragility of U.S. Power (with Vijay Prashad; The New Press, 2022); and The Precipice: Neoliberalism, the Pandemic and the Urgent Need for Social Change (with C.J. Polychroniou; Haymarket Books, 2021).
C.J. Polychroniou: Noam, as we enter a new year, I want to start this interview by asking you to highlight the biggest challenges facing our world today and whether you would agree with the claim that human progress, while real and substantial in some regards, is neither even nor inevitable?
Noam Chomsky: The easiest way to respond is with the Doomsday Clock, now set at 100 seconds to midnight, likely to advance closer to termination when it is reset in a few weeks. As it should, considering what's been happening in the past year. The challenges it highlighted last January remain at the top of the list: nuclear war, global heating, and other environmental destruction, and the collapse of the arena of rational discourse that offers the only hope for addressing the existential challenges. There are others, but let's look at these.

Washington has just agreed to provide Ukraine with Patriot missiles. Whether they work or not is an open question, but Russia will assume a worst-case analysis and consider them a target. We have few details, but it's likely that U.S. trainers come with the missiles, hence are targets for Russian attack, which might move us a few steps up the escalation ladder.

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It is political will that stands in the way of securing the future of humanity and the planet.

That's not the only possible ominous scenario in Ukraine, but the threats of escalation to unthinkable war are not just there. It's dangerous enough off the coast of China, particularly as Biden has declared virtual war on China and Congress is seething at the bit to break the "strategic ambiguity" that has maintained peace regarding Taiwan for 50 years, all matters we've discussed before.

Without proceeding, the threat of terminal war has increased, along with foolish and ignorant assurances that it need not concern us.

Let's turn to the environment. On global warming, the news ranges from awful to horrendous, but there are some bright spots. The Biodiversity Convention is a major step toward limiting the lethal destruction of the environment. Support is almost universal, though not total. One state refused to sign, the usual outlier, the most powerful state in world history. The GOP, true to its principles, refuses to support anything that might interfere with private power and profit. For similar reasons, the U.S. refused to sign the Kyoto Protocols on global warming (joined in this case by Andorra), setting in motion a disastrous failure to act that has sharply reduced the prospects for escape from catastrophe.

I don't mean to suggest that the world is saintly. Far from it. But the global hegemon stands out.

Let's turn to the third factor driving the Doomsday Clock toward midnight: the collapse of the arena of rational discourse. Most discussion of this deeply troubling phenomenon focuses on outbursts in social media, wild conspiracy theories, QAnon and stolen elections, and other dangerous developments that can be traced in large part to the breakdown of the social order under the hammer blows of the class war of the past 40 years. But at least we have the sober and reasoned domain of liberal intellectual opinion that offers some hope of rational discourse.

Or do we?

What we see in this domain often defies belief - and evokes ridicule outside of disciplined Western circles. For example, the leading establishment journal of international affairs soberly informs us that a Russian defeat " would reinforce the principle that an attack on another country cannot go unpunished."

The journal is referring to the principle that has been upheld so conscientiously when we are the agents of aggression - a thought that surfaces only among those who commit the unpardonable crime of applying to ourselves the principles that we valiantly uphold for others. It's hard to imagine that the thought has never surfaced in the mainstream. But it's not easy to find.

Sometimes what appears is so outlandish that one is entitled to wonder what may lie behind it, since the authors can't believe what they are saying. How, for example, can someone react to a story headlined " No conclusive evidence Russia is behind Nord Stream attack," going on to explain that, "World leaders were quick to blame Moscow for explosions along the undersea natural gas pipelines. But some Western officials now doubt the Kremlin was responsible," even though the Russians probably did it in order to "strangle the flow of energy to millions across the continent"?

It's true enough that much of the West was quick to blame Russia, but that's as informative as the fact that when something goes wrong, Russian apparatchiks are quick to blame the U.S. In fact, as most of the world recognized at once, Russia is about the least likely culprit. They gain nothing from destroying a valuable asset of theirs; Russian state-owned Gazprom is the major owner and developer of the pipelines, and Russia is counting on them for revenue and influence. If they wanted to "strangle the flow of energy," all they would have to do is to close some valves.

As the sane parts of the world also recognized at once, the most likely culprit is the only one that had both motive and capability. U.S. motive is not in question. It has been publicly proclaimed for years. President Biden explicitly informed his German counterparts, quite publicly, that if Russia invaded Ukraine the pipeline would be destroyed. U.S. capability is of course not in question, even apart from the huge U.S. naval maneuvers in the area of the sabotage just before it took place.

But to draw the obvious conclusion is as ludicrous as holding that the noble "principle that an attack on another country cannot go unpunished" might apply when the U.S. attacks Iraq or anyone else. Unspeakable.

What then lies beyond the comical headline "No conclusive evidence Russia is behind Nord Stream attack" - the Orwellian translation of the statement that we have overwhelming evidence that Russia was not behind the attack and that the U.S. was.

The most plausible answer is the "thief, thief" technique, a familiar propaganda device: When you're caught with your hands in someone's pocket, don't deny it and be easily refuted. Rather, point somewhere else and shout "thief, thief," acknowledging that there is a robbery while shifting attention to some imagined perpetrator. It works very well. The fossil fuel industry has been practicing it effectively for years, as we've discussed. It works even better when embellished by the standard techniques that make U.S. propaganda so much more effective than the heavy-handed totalitarian variety: foster debate to show our openness, but within narrow constraints that instill the propaganda message by presupposition, which is much more effective than assertion. So, highlight the fact that there is skepticism about Russian depravity, showing what a free and open society we are while establishing more deeply the ludicrous claim that the propaganda system is seeking to instill.

There is, to be sure, another possibility: Perhaps segments of the intellectual classes are so deeply immersed in the propaganda system that they actually can't perceive the absurdity of what they are saying.

Either way, it's a stark reminder of the collapse of the arena of rational discourse, right where we might hope that it could be defended.

Unfortunately, it's all too easy to continue.

In short, all three of the reasons why the Clock had been moved to 100 seconds to midnight have been strongly reinforced in the past year. Not a comforting conclusion, but inescapable.
Scientists are warning us that global warming is such an existential threat to the point that civilization is headed toward a major catastrophe. Are apocalyptic claims or views about global warming helpful? Indeed, what will it take to achieve successful climate action, considering that the most powerful nation in history is actually "a rogue state leading the world toward ecological collapse," as George Monbiot aptly put it in a recent op-ed in The Guardian?
The Yale University Climate program on climate and communication has been conducting studies on how best to bring people to understand the reality of the crisis facing humanity. There are others, from various perspectives.
Recently, we discussed in another interview the aims and effects of neoliberal capitalism. Now, neoliberalism is often enough conflated with globalization, but it is rather obvious that the latter is a multidimensional process that has existed long before the rise of neoliberalism. Of course, the dominant form of globalization today is neoliberal globalization, but this is not to say that globalization must be structured around neoliberal policies and values, or to think that "there is no alternative." There are indeed continuous struggles across the world for democratic control over states, markets and corporations. My question thus is this: Is it utopian thinking to believe that the status quo can be challenged and that another world is possible?
It is a task of particular importance in the "rogue state leading the world toward ecological collapse." It is also a task of difficulty, given that denialism not only exists in some circles but has been close to official policy in the Republican Party ever since this extremist organization succumbed to the offensive of the Koch energy conglomerate, launched when the party seemed to be veering toward sanity during the 2008 McCain campaign. When party loyalists hear their leaders, and their media echo chamber, assuring them "not to worry," it's not easy to reach them. And though extreme, the GOP is not alone.

It seems to be generally agreed that apocalyptic pronouncements are not helpful. People either tune off or listen and give up: "It's too big for me." What seems to be more successful is focusing on direct experience and on steps that can be taken, even if small. All of this is familiar to organizers generally. It's a hard path to follow for those who are aware of the enormity of the crisis. But efforts to reach people have to be tailored to their understanding and concerns. Otherwise, they can descend to self-serving preaching to a void.

Globalization simply means international integration. It can take many forms. The neoliberal globalization crafted mostly during the Clinton years was designed in the interest of private capital, with an array of highly protectionist investor-rights agreements masked as "free trade." That was by no means inevitable. Both the labor movement, and Congress's own research bureau (the Office of Technology Assessment, or OTA) proposed alternatives geared to the interests of working people in the U.S. and abroad. They were summarily dismissed. The OTA was disbanded, according to reports, because Newt Gingrich's GOP regarded it as biased against them, though it may be that Clintonite New Democrats shared the sentiment about fact and reason. Capital flourished, including the mostly predatory financial system. Labor was severely weakened, with consequences that reverberate to the present.

Globalization could take a very different form, just as economic arrangements can quite generally. There is a long history of efforts to separate the political from the economic domain, the latter conceived as purely objective, like astronomy, guided by specialists in the economics profession and immune to the agency of ordinary citizens, labor in particular. One very impressive recent study, by Clara Mattei, argues persuasively that this dichotomy, typically taking the form of austerity programs, has been a major instrument of class war for a century, paving the way to fascism, which was indeed welcomed by Western elite opinion, with enthusiasm by "libertarians."

There is, however, no reason to accept the mythology. The political domain in a broad sense, including labor and other popular activism, can shape the economic system in ways that will benefit people, not profit and private power. The rise of social democracy illustrates that well, but there is also no reason to accept its tacit assumption that capitalist autocracy is a law of nature. To quote Mattei, "either the organizations of people can move beyond capitalist relations [to economic democracy], or the ruling class will reimpose its rule."

The status quo can certainly be challenged. A far better world is surely within reach. There is every reason to honor the slogan of the World Social Forum that "Another world is possible," a far better one, and to devote our efforts to bring it to reality.

Copyright © Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Noam Chomsky: Another World Is Possible. Let's Bring It to Reality.

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It's a truism that the world is in a dismal state; indeed, there are too many great challenges facing our world and the planet is in fact at a breaking point, as Noam Chomsky elaborates on an exclusive interview below for Truthout.

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Tom Holland was 19 when he first appeared as Spider-Man and became his generation's biggest leading man. Now he holds the keys to the Marvel Cinematic Universe-that is, if he still wants them.

"This is going to sound like complete bullshit, but I swear to you that this is true," Tom Holland says. "Have you ever heard of cognitive dreaming?"

We've been talking for a couple of hours at this point, and conversation-as it tends to, after long enough-has drifted onto the subject of dreams. I've been having nightmares lately, I tell him. Anxiety. This is something Tom Holland knows all about. He is a terrible sleeper; a sleepwalker; a sleep undresser, even. ("Four out of 10 sleeps I wake up completely naked.") As it happens, he has a trick for dealing with nightmares, and because Tom Holland is Tom Holland-the actor who put the friendly back into your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man and is just famously, energetically, irresistibly nice -of course he's happy to help.

"Okay, so I'll tell you how you do it. Essentially, when you're asleep, your brain is working way faster than it is when it's awake. Jon Watts [Holland's director on three Spider-Man movies] told me this, and it has worked. If you're in a dream and you read something, say, a stop sign, and you turn around, when you look back at the stop sign it will have changed. So what you do is-and this is where it sounds stupid-you set an alarm for every hour of the day when you're awake. When the alarm goes off, you read something. So I'm reading-"
So you can influence your dreams?
"Yeah. The last time it happened to me, I was flying around the Golden Gate Bridge. It was awesome. "

"Since I got cast as Spider-Man, I haven't really taken a break," Holland says. So he's enjoying some state-enforced time to himself. "I find myself ringing my dad [Dominic, a comedian and author] for stuff that I should definitely know how to do," he says. " 'Dad, how do I put the washing machine on?' " Last night a skylight broke in bad weather, flooding his kitchen. The outside world has a way of forcing itself back in.

The stakes for No Way Home are even higher. For several movies, Marvel has been establishing Holland as the new center of Marvel's world. "Tom is stepping into the role that Robert Downey once occupied for Marvel, which is the favorite character, and in a lot of ways the soul of the Marvel universe," says Joe Russo, who, alongside his brother Anthony, has directed Holland in four movies, including Avengers: Endgame. What's more, No Way Home will finally collide Marvel's increasingly byzantine cinematic universe with Sony's own equally convoluted Spider-Verse (currently comprising Tom Hardy's Venom movies, plus the forthcoming Morbius and Kraven the Hunter), thereby planting the seed from which years of sequels and limited series and sundry other subscription-generating content will surely bloom.

Holland, however, is not signed up for any of that. No Way Home is, at the time of writing, the last film on his Spider-Man contract. As we're talking, in early October, he says there are still a few shots to pick up, some additional dialogue to record, the small matter of a global press tour, and then... nothing. "It's very strange," Holland says. "The last six years of my life, I always had a job to go to." After so long in the superhero business, Holland is readjusting to life without a mask on. "It's kind of terrifying, but it's also really exciting," he says. You see, lately Holland has been thinking about dreams, and wondering if those he once had-the future he once saw for himself-are still his dreams after all.
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To understand how Holland became a multiple-tentpole-movie-carrying action hero, it's simplest to start with ballet. Holland grew up in Kingston Upon Thames, an upmarket town just south of London. There, age nine, he was spotted at a dance class by a West End choreographer, who suggested he audition for the Billy Elliot musical. Holland practiced ballet for two years to land the part, "just doing pliés and tendus and relevés. Développés-I hate développés so much." (That's the one where you extend your leg up and out until you look like this: Y.)

Finally, Holland was chosen to play Billy. His parents invited everyone they knew. Only, the day of his debut, Holland came down with tonsillitis. Not wanting to disappoint anyone, he didn't say anything. "I was like, 'I can't miss this, because all of these people are coming,' " Holland says. He delivered a flawless performance, and nobody even noticed he was sick until the following morning, when he was taken to the doctor and given the rest of the week off.

"Being Spider-Man is more of a responsibility than just having a job. There are kids out there who are bullied at school who don't fit in, and Spider-Man is their go-to guy."

"I got the nickname Sick Note, which frustrates me to my core, even today," says Holland. "I was too young to do that show. I was incredibly underdeveloped as a kid, and I would get sick, or I would be tired, or I would get injured, and I'd need to take a break because you're doing three shows a week, rehearsing every single day. Now as an actor I push through everything, because I'm not going to be Sick Note."

When Holland started making it in Hollywood-a debut in 2012's The Impossible, followed by small parts in Wolf Hall and In the Heart of the Sea-he leaned in to his balletic talents, literally throwing himself into every job. (This approach is written in the subtle S-bend of his nose, which he has broken twice, once on the set of The Lost City of Z, and again on Chaos Walking.) "I'm like a Duracell battery. I'm the bunny," Holland says. It's that energy that comes through onscreen, whether he's doing backflips as Spider-Man, or pulling on fishnets and grinding to Rihanna on Lip Sync Battle: determination bordering on desperation. "Anytime I've ever watched him work, he does it 150 percent," his Spider-Man costar Zendaya says. "It's incredible to watch."

"One of my biggest faults is that I'm an impossible people pleaser," Holland says. "I don't like the idea of people not liking me. So I will do whatever I can do to make that not the case."

In 2015, Holland beat thousands of other young actors for the role of Spider-Man in a multi-film deal between Sony (which owns the rights) and Marvel. "He had a vulnerability and a wit, and an immense likability that felt to me like Peter Parker from the comics," Russo recalls. Unlike his predecessors, Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire, Holland's Parker was still a child, burdened with a responsibility that he finds overwhelming. Holland could relate. While most kids his age were still sitting exams and asking around for a prom date, he found himself in a full-time job, only his coworkers were Robert Downey Jr., Michael Keaton, and Jake Gyllenhaal. Nonetheless, he figured out a way to infuse his nerves into his performance. "I was given this piece of advice as a kid that was really helpful, which is: If you think about the actual physical feeling of being nervous, it's the same physical feeling as being excited," Holland says. "So I've just convinced myself all my life that when I'm nervous, I'm really excited."

It was from his older peers that Holland learned both his craft and how to navigate fame, which arrived not in a slow accumulation but in one disorienting rush. Suddenly he was studying for a master's degree in how to stay on the rails, from actors who in some cases had fallen off and found a way back. Holland latched on to every potential mentor, sucking everything in. "Some told me, 'You should go out and buy a Ferrari and live in Malibu and live the high life.' Some [would] say, 'I wouldn't do interviews with chat shows if you don't want to,' " he says. "I've kind of found a middle ground." (He bought an electric Porsche.) He said yes to everything-the press tours, the TV appearances, the YouTube stunts. By 21, he had his entire career arc planned out, in 2017 telling Interview magazine in response to questions posed by Zendaya, "The 20-year goal is to be a film director. The 15-year goal is to win an Oscar."

In the middle of all that, he was growing up, trying to be a normal person, or as close to normal as one can be inside the strange crucible of fame. "The ages between 15 and 21 are when you figure out who you're going to be," he says. "When everyone's telling you that you're the best thing in the world, you can grow up and believe that." He found companionship in actors his own age, particularly his Spider-Man costars Jacob Batalon and Zendaya; Zendaya, in particular, became his guide to his new reality. "Having her in my life was so instrumental to my sanity," he says. "She is so good at being the role model for young guys and girls. When anyone comes up, like, 'Can I have a picture?,' it's never a bad time. Whereas my initial reaction was: 'Why are you talking to me? Leave me alone.' "

Zendaya taught him that fame is work too. So he learned to smile for every picture, hug every fan, do the meet and greets at Disneyland. To always be on. An example: Just recently he was walking in London, when a group of guys started following him and taking pictures. "Something had happened in my life and it really put me in a bad mood," he says. "I was just trying to keep my head together, and I turned around and told them to get lost." A reasonable person might think this a fair response to being stalked by strangers. But after a few yards, Holland turned around and apologized. "I have to remind myself that being Spider-Man is more of a responsibility than just having a job," he says later. "There are kids out there who are bullied at school who don't fit in, and Spider-Man is their fucking go-to guy, you know? And at the moment I'm that guy."

The day after Holland emerges from quarantine, we meet for dinner at the Chiltern Firehouse, a luxury hotel in Marylebone, a neighborhood in central London. Holland likes it here; it's discreet. There's a scene in Uncharted where Holland's character, Nathan Drake, works behind a bar, and so Holland would come in to do shifts with the staff, learning how to mix cocktails, practice trick pours, toss bottles around. We're shown to a table called the Snug, a space barely six feet square, with a sofa, a privacy curtain, and its own tiny open fire-in other words, the make-out table. Holland is unbothered. He squeezes into the space, wearing pinstripe pants and a shirt the color of caramel, his hair falling on his forehead in kinks. It seems ridiculous, but after seeing him play teenagers onscreen for so long, it's startling to see Holland as a man. There's a heft to him in person. His posture is incredible. His skin is luminous. His biceps are like suspension cables. On Uncharted, Holland worked with Mark Wahlberg, who is notably, in Holland's words, "an absolute unit." (British for absolutely humongous.) "I saw him walk onto set in his costume and I was like, 'Fuck, he is twice my size,' " says Holland. "After the [COVID] lockdown, we had five months off, and I just ate and trained and ate and trained. When I got back on set, the first thing he said to me was"-here he puts on his best Wahlberg-' Wow, somebody has been training.' "

As a young actor, Holland obsessed about his height-he's 5 feet 8, although his physicality is such that you don't really notice-going so far as to wear lifts in his shoes. "I'd do this thing on red carpets where I would stand closer to the photographers than the people behind me [to look taller]," he says. He has since learned to focus on what he can control. "I cannot do anything about my height," he says. "I can put on more muscle." For his debut as Spider-Man, in 2016's Captain America: Civil War, the costume department put him in a muscle suit. Over six movies the suit has gotten smaller and smaller: "Now I just have a penis cup," he says.

Holland may only be 25, but lately he's started to feel the toll of years spent flipping and swinging around on wires. "I was going to the gym in the morning like, 'Oh, my God, I've must have torn something in my leg,' and the guys were like, 'You haven't, you're just tired and you're getting older.' " His intense schedule meant he had only three days between finishing Uncharted in Berlin and starting work on No Way Home in Atlanta. "I never realized how lucky I am that Spider-Man wears a mask, because when he's bouncing around and flying from buildings, that's all CG. In Uncharted it's just me in a henley and cargo pants," he says. By the time shooting wrapped, he had developed tendinitis, and hurt all over. "That film absolutely broke me."

There are times when, because of Holland's exuberance-or perhaps his naiveté-he takes on more than he should. While filming the last two Avengers, he would spend three days on set in Atlanta, then get on a plane to London and do two days on the set of The Current War, only to fly back to Atlanta again. "I remember, for a large portion of the film, Benedict [Cumberbatch, his costar in all three movies] had a double in Avengers while he was shooting in London," he says. "I didn't know that was a thing." While filming Cherry, he lost nearly a quarter of his body weight, adopting a crash diet and running 10 miles a day in a trash bag. "My energy levels were so low," Holland says. After years of being the Duracell bunny, Holland was burned-out.

Looking back, Holland now realizes he was probably burned out for a long time. He recalls the press tour for Spider-Man: Homecoming, for which he traveled to 17 countries, doing junkets and pumping out backflips on request. By the last step of the tour, in China, "I was really ill," he says. "But I didn't say no. I was like, 'I can do it, I can do it, I can do it.' " I'm not going to be Sick Note. Then one day, in a press conference, his body said no for him. He walked off the stage and threw up everywhere. "I was under a lot of pressure to finish the day's work. That was the first time I was really like, 'No, I'm done now. I've given you everything.' "

Here is Tom Holland's nightmare. It started a few years ago, when he was just beginning to find fame, and now it happens pretty regularly, especially when he's working, which is to say all the time. You see, among Holland's nighttime afflictions is sleep paralysis, a kind of disconnection between your brain and your musculoskeletal system that can happen in the moment of waking. "You're awake, but you can't move," Holland says.

In the nightmare, Holland wakes up with sleep paralysis. Only then he realizes that he's not alone, that his bedroom is filled with paparazzi. They're looming over him, bulbs popping, and Holland's just stuck there, frozen, panicking. "They're all there, and I'm looking for my publicist, like, Where is the person who's supposed to be protecting me? What's going on? And then when I am able to move again, I turn the lights on, and it's over," Holland says. "And I think, Oh, my God, I'm in my room, I'm fine. There's no one here. But then I will get up and look for a recording device or something that someone has put in my room."

Hence: cognitive dreaming.

But the funny thing about fame is that just as you start to find your dreams coming true, so, too, can nightmares. And so it was this summer, when pictures emerged in the tabloid press of Holland and Zendaya in a car in L.A., kissing. It's a small thing, a kiss. And ordinarily, two 20-somethings in a relationship embracing at a stoplight would remain what it is, a moment of intimacy between two people. Only in this case, that kiss was instantly beamed around the world, to be dissected in reaction videos, "relationship timelines," and Entertainment Tonight. (Page Six: "Zendaya, Tom Holland finally confirm they're dating with steamy car makeout." As if they had any choice.) Holland's private life had been in the press before, but this was different. Holland's and Zendaya's fans had long obsessed over whether the pair were together ("tom holland and zendaya flirting for 8 minutes straight": 1.5 million views). Some argued it must be a publicity stunt. "One of the downsides of our fame is that privacy isn't really in our control anymore, and a moment that you think is between two people that love each other very much is now a moment that is shared with the entire world," Holland says. He has said very little publicly about the relationship, and you sense it's something he's still navigating, trying to work out how much to give. "I've always been really adamant to keep my private life private, because I share so much of my life with the world anyway," he says. "We sort of felt robbed of our privacy."
You weren't ready to talk about it.
"I don't think it's about not being ready. It's just that we didn't want to."

Holland knows that he'll soon be on a global press tour, facing endless questions about it. "It's not a conversation that I can have without her," he says. "You know, I respect her too much to say... This isn't my story. It's our story. And we'll talk about what it is when we're ready to talk about it together."

"It was quite strange and weird and confusing and invasive," Zendaya tells me later, by phone. "The equal sentiment [we both share] is just that when you really love and care about somebody, some moments or things, you wish were your own.... I think loving someone is a sacred thing and a special thing and something that you want to deal with and go through and experience and enjoy amongst the two people that love each other."

There are little things Holland is still hung up on, like: How did the photographer get in front of them? Over the past few years, as his private bubble has gotten smaller, he's become more protective of it. There's a reason he doesn't go out, why he keeps the same staff from job to job, why he spends his free time on private golf courses (although he also just loves golf). Because here is something Tom Holland has learned: The more that you say yes to everything, the more of you they will take, and take, until there is nothing left just for you. "People mistake my kindness as weakness," he says. "Sometimes I see people trying to take advantage of me because I'm a nice person. Let me tell you, when you're a 19-year-old kid, they really do take advantage of you. You don't know any better. Now I look back and go, 'Wow, I wish someone had told me that I could say no.' "

Halfway through the making of No Way Home, Holland did something he almost never does: He refused. No Way Home, the climax of Holland's Spider-Man trilogy, picks up immediately after 2019's Far From Home, with Peter Parker being unmasked as Spider-Man and falsely accused of the murder of Mysterio. (Oddly, Parker and Zendaya's MJ spend the opening scene being chased through New York by the press. "It's art imitating life, except I can't swing away in real life," Holland says.) Unable to handle the fallout, Parker asks Doctor Strange to intervene, accidentally causing a cataclysm of multiverse-breaking proportions. Somehow-I haven't seen the movie-that cataclysm prompts the return of familiar adversaries from Sony's previous Spider-Man iterations, including Alfred Molina's Doctor Octopus and, if rumors are to be believed, Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin and Jamie Foxx's Electro. "When they first came up with a concept of what they wanted to try and do, it was the impossible concept," Holland says. "But they pulled it off."

Ever since news of those castings appeared, the internet has obsessed over whether or not Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield are also returning. "No one believes me, but they're not in the film," Holland says. (If this is a lie, and it well might be, then don't hate him. That's work too. And really, isn't it better not knowing?)

Anyway, the day finally came to shoot the big finale, "the crescendo scene, like, is this really fucking happening? It's crazy." Only, it wasn't working. "I kept stopping and being like, 'I'm so sorry, I just don't believe what I'm saying.' " The director, Jon Watts, took him aside, and Holland told him: It wasn't me. The scene was wrong. "We sat down, we went through it, and we came up with a new idea," Holland says. "Then we pitched it to the writers, they rewrote it, and it works great."

It's a story about standing up for yourself, and about how Holland has grown. "As a kid, a lot of my confidence was really fake," he says. "But, really, inside I was, 'Oh, my God, I'm fucking terrified.' " (Russo: "If he was faking his confidence, he is a hell of an actor.") Because here's the thing: That story about nerves being the same as excitement? It's true. But if you don't let your real feelings out, they tend to show up in other places, like in your dreams.

Holland doesn't have to fake it anymore. Don't get him wrong: He still wants you to like him. He just doesn't want to have to give you everything to do it. "I actually learned this from Elizabeth Olsen," he says. "She gave me an amazing piece of advice: 'No' is a full sentence. 'No' is enough."

Holland has spent six years as Spider-Man. If he chooses to, he could easily do another 20. He is still two decades younger than Robert Downey Jr. was in Iron Man.

"I've talked to him about doing, like, 100 more," Pascal tells me. "I'm never going to make Spider-Man movies without him. Are you kidding me?"

Holland, however, isn't so sure. "Maybe it is time for me to move on. Maybe what's best for Spider-Man is that they do a Miles Morales film. I have to take Peter Parker into account as well, because he is an important part of my life," he says. But also: "If I'm playing Spider-Man after I'm 30, I've done something wrong."

If he could, he'd spend six months backpacking around Europe. He'd go clubbing, get "sloppy drunk." He'd go to Glastonbury, stand in the middle of the crowd, feel again what it's like to be just one person in a mass of joyful bodies. He would, in other words, be a guy in his 20s, exploring what it feels like to be alive. "I just can't do that," he says.

He's certain of something: "I definitely don't think I want to be an actor for the rest of my life." Before Hollywood, Holland briefly trained as a carpenter, a craft he still loves. "I've always been really good with my hands. If something's broken, I can always figure out a way of fixing it." He has this romantic idea of "buying apartment buildings and renting them out cheaper than they need to be, because I don't need the money."

"Now as I'm getting a little bit older, I'm like, It's good to have things to work for. Just don't give 100 percent of your energy towards it," Holland says. "I'm trying to live my life a little bit more freely."

Oliver Franklin-Wallis is a writer based in England.
A version of this story originally appeared in the December/January 2022 issue with the title "The Center of the Web." PRODUCTION CREDITS:
Photographs by Sharif Hamza
Styled by Mobolaji Dawodu
Grooming by Larry King
Tailoring by Michelle Warner
Set design by Sean Thomson at The Magnet Agency
Set assistant, Maximilian Kindersley
Produced by Farago Projects
Location: Peckham Liberal Club/Location Collective

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Tom Holland on Spider-Man's Future, Zendaya, and His Paparazzi Nightmares

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Tom Holland was 19 when he first appeared as Spider-Man and became his generation's biggest leading man. Now he holds the keys to the Marvel Cinematic Universe-that is, if he still wants them. "This is going to sound like complete bullshit, but I swear to you that this is true," Tom Holland says.

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LEXICAL AND GRAMMATICAL COHESION

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Platypus.

Common name: platypus

Scientific name: Ornithorhynchus anatinus

Family: Ornithorhynchidae

Conservation status: This species is listed as Special Least Concern in Queensland (Nature Conservation (Wildlife) Regulation 2006).
Description:
A duck-like bill and shy nature has made the platypus one of Australia's most intriguing animals. The platypus is one of only three monotremes. The other two species are Australia's short-beaked echidna and Papua New Guinea's long-beaked echidna. Monotremes are different from other mammals because they have no teats and lay eggs like birds even though they raise their young like mammals.

The platypus is smaller than most people think, males are about 50cm long and weigh about 1.5kg and females are smaller, usually about 40cm long and weighing 1kg.

The first thing most people notice about the platypus is its bill. Very sensitive, the bill is like soft, wet rubber and is used to find food. The platypus's body is covered in thick, dark brown fur and is flat and streamlined. It has a broad, flat tail with short, stout legs and webbed front feet well suited to its life in the water.

The tail acts as a stabiliser when the platypus swims, and is also used for burrowing. Fat is stored in the tail for when food is scarce or when the female returns to her burrow to breed. If the water is cold, platypus can increase their body's heat-production to keep their temperature at around 32 degrees.

Awkward on the ground, the platypus waddles with the webs of its front feet turned back so it can use its claws for digging.

The male platypus has a sharp spur on each ankle. These spurs are connected to a venom gland in each thigh. The venom glands are most active during the spring breeding season, so competing males probably use the spurs in territorial fights.

Habitat and distribution

Platypus are found in eastern Australia from the steamy tropics of far north Queensland to the freezing snows of Tasmania.

In Queensland, platypus live in rivers east of the Great Dividing Range, and are also found in some western-flowing streams. In north Queensland, the range of the platypus is close to the coast. The animals aren't found in Cape York Peninsula.

Platypus make their home in and near freshwater creeks, slow-moving rivers, lakes joined by rivers, and built water storages such as farm dams.

They build a simple burrow in a river bank, just above water level and often among a tangle of tree roots.

Life history and behaviour

Platypus mostly live alone, but can share a water body with several other platypus. Half of the platypus's day is spent in the water looking for food. The rest of its time is spent in its burrow, moving across land or even basking in the sun. During cold southern winters, a platypus can hibernate in its burrow.

Platypus eat small water animals such as insect larvae, freshwater shrimps, and crayfish. The platypus, usually active at dawn and dusk, relies on its sensitive bill to find food. With eyes and ears closed, receptors in the bill can detect electrical currents in the water and can help to find prey.

The platypus has no teeth, and stores its food in cheek pouches to eat on the surface. It chews its food between horny grinding plates and ridges on its upper and lower jaws before swallowing.

Platypus can stay underwater for up to 10 minutes. When swimming, the platypus moves itself with its front feet and uses its back feet for steering and as brakes. Water doesn't get into the platypus's thick fur, and it swims with its eyes, ears and nostrils shut.

In Queensland, platypus mate in August. In the south, mating is about a month later. After mating, the female eats a lot of food and builds a nesting burrow. Experts have found that the nursing burrow can be up to 30m long.

She blocks herself into the burrow with dirt to protect herself from floodwater and predators. Blocking the burrow also helps to keep the nesting chamber at an even temperature and humidity for incubation.

After laying two sticky, soft-shelled eggs, the female curls up to incubate the eggs by holding them to her belly with her tail. Incubation for the 17 mm eggs takes about one to two weeks.

Tiny young are born naked, blind and with undeveloped limbs. After birth, the baby drags itself to its mother's belly, where it suckles on mammary patches where milk oozes onto the skin.

The young stay in the burrow for weaning, while the mother leaves to forage. After about five weeks, the mother spends more time away from her young. At four months, the young venture out of the burrow and are fully grown by the time they're one year old.

Where can you see a platypus?

Platypus are elusive but, if you're lucky, you might see one at Girraween National Park in south Queensland, or Eungella National Park and Carnarvon National Park in central Queensland.

If you want to see a platypus in the wild, find a creek or still pool where platypus are known to live. The best times to see a platypus are dusk or early morning. Platypus have sensitive hearing and are easily disturbed.

Sit quietly and watch the water surface for ripples which usually show a platypus is present. Look for a conspicuous bow wave caused by front feet while paddling. Platypus float low in the water with approximately 10 per cent of their furred body exposed. They duck-dive by arching their back and disappear quietly into a small pool of ripples.

Common cases of mistaken identity

Water rats

Look for a white tail and pointy face

Piles of shells on the water's edge

Very playful in the water but not rowdy

Swims with head above water.

Turtles

Often drop into water from logs when disturbed creating a splash

Small round head just above the surface

No body visible above the water.

Water dragons

Creates a zigzagging bow wave from tail movement when swimming

When disturbed dives from branches, sometimes from a considerable height

Swims with head only above water.

Threatening processes

People hunted the platypus for their fur in the early 1900s, but they're now protected. Pollution, algal growths, siltation and destruction of creek bank plants all put platypus homes under increasing pressure. If platypus died from any of these factors, relocating any left from the affected group would be extremely difficult.

Natural predators include snakes, water rats, goannas, foxes, and crocodiles.

How can you help?

Please don't disturb platypus if they live in streams on your property or in your neighbourhood.

You can help the platypus living in your area by keeping natural plants along watercourses. If you do this, you will protect banks and will provide areas for the platypus to live.

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platypus; ornithorhynchus anatinus; monotremes ; distribution; habitat; diet; breeding; threats; survival; protected status; david fleay wildlife park; queensland

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Common name: platypus Scientific name: Ornithorhynchus anatinus Family: Ornithorhynchidae Conservation status: This species is listed as Special Least Concern in Queensland (Nature Conservation (Wildlife) Regulation 2006). Description: A duck-like bill and shy nature has made the platypus one of Australia's most intriguing animals. The platypus is one of only three monotremes.

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GRAMMATICAL COHESION

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Table of Contents

This article was most recently revised and updated by

capybara, (genus Hydrochoerus), also called carpincho or water hog, either of two species of large semiaquatic South American rodents. Capybaras inhabit forests and wetlands from Panama to Argentina. The larger of the two species, the capybara ( Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris), is the largest living rodent in the world, growing up to about 1.3 metres (4.3 feet) long and weighing up to 79 kg (174 pounds). The lesser capybara ( H. isthmius) is smaller, growing to about 1 metre (about 3 feet) in length and weighing about 28 kg (62 pounds). Some classifications list capybaras as the only members of family Hydrochoeridae, whereas others place them within the subfamily Hydrochoerinae of the family Caviidae. Capybaras resemble the cavy and the guinea pig.

Capybaras are short-haired brownish rodents with blunt snouts, short legs, small ears, and almost no tail. They are shy and associate in groups along the banks of lakes and rivers. They normally feed in the morning and evening and spend most of the day resting under cover along the banks. They are vegetarian and in cultivated areas sometimes become pests by eating melons, grain, and squash. They swim and dive readily and commonly enter water to elude predators such as jaguars and anacondas. The female bears a single litter of three to eight young each year; gestation takes about 100 to 110 days.

36 Questions from Britannica's Most Popular Science Quizzes

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The capybara ( H. hydrochaeris) occurs in remote areas from Venezuela to northern Argentina and throughout the Amazon River basin. In contrast, the lesser capybara ( H. isthmius) is found from central Panama through northwestern Colombia and far northwestern Venezuela. Both forms are considered species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Capybaras and lesser capybaras are edible and are used for food in various parts of South America: the smaller species is often hunted, whereas the larger species is typically ranched for meat and the animals' hides, which are made into leather goods.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica John P. Rafferty.

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capybara | Description, Behavior, & Facts

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capybara, (genus Hydrochoerus), also called carpincho or water hog, either of two species of large semiaquatic South American rodents. Capybaras inhabit forests and wetlands from Panama to Argentina. The larger of the two species, the capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris), is the largest living rodent in the world, growing up to about 1.3 metres (4.3 feet) long and weighing up to 79 kg (174 pounds).

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PHILADEPHIA ZOO GARDENS + THE HUMMINGBIRD

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PHILADEPHIA ZOO GARDENS + THE HUMMINGBIRD

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GRAMMATICAL AND LEXICAL COHESION

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Table of Contents

Philadelphia Zoological Gardens, first zoo in the United States, opened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1874 with an animal inventory of several hundred native and exotic specimens. It was begun and continues to be operated by the Zoological Society of Philadelphia, founded in 1859. In 1868, three years after the end of the American Civil War, a 42-acre (17-hectare) site was selected in Fairmount Park, an architect was sent to study the London Zoo, and the collection was begun. The Philadelphia Zoo developed the first zoo laboratory (1901) and the first children's zoo (1938) in the United States. It was the first zoo to formulate specific diets for its animals (1930s), and one, monkey cake, is still used today by many zoos.

Modern developments include an elaborate hummingbird exhibit (1970) and a reptile house (1972) with naturally planted displays. Also in the 1970s, three major outdoor exhibits were built: Wolf Wood, Bear Country, and the multispecies African Plains. The Philadelphia Zoo maintains excellent cat and waterfowl collections and is famous for the longevity records of its animals. It has about 1,800 specimens representing more than 400 species.

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Philadelphia Zoological Gardens | zoo, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

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Philadelphia Zoological Gardens, first zoo in the United States, opened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1874 with an animal inventory of several hundred native and exotic specimens. It was begun and continues to be operated by the Zoological Society of Philadelphia, founded in 1859.

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Harry Styles: the world’s most wanted man

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Harry Styles: the world’s most wanted man

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On a Friday night in New York, Harry Styles put on a show.

It wasn't just any show; it was the first time he performed his third and soon-to-be-biggest album, Harry's House, in its entirety. The crowd that May night covered Long Island's UBS Arena in feathers and glitter and tears - a ritualistic skin shedding of sorts whenever Styles comes to town.

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Vest by Vivian Westwood. Styling by Harry Lambert for Bryant Artists; Stylist Assistants: Ryan Wohlgemut and Naomi Phillips; Fashion direction by Alex Badia; Production by James Warren for DMB Represents; Hair by Matt Mulhall for Streeters; Grooming by Laura Dominique for Streeters; Set design by David White for Streeters (Picture: Amanda Fordyce)

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Tank by Loewe. braces, Stylist's Own, Trousers by Gucci (Picture: Amanda Fordyce)

Tank by Loewe, braces, Stylist's Own, Trousers by Gucci (Picture: Amanda Fordyce)

Fans noticed something different about the encore: Styles didn't end with his usual closer, 'Kiwi'; instead, he opted to finish the night with a second performance of his new single 'As It Was', his dance-through-the-tears pandemic reflection on isolation and change. When he played it, the crowd exploded in a way even Styles had never experienced. It left him a bit shaken.

"We came offstage, and I went into my dressing room and just wanted to sit by myself for a minute," he tells me, two months later. "After One Direction, I didn't expect to ever experience anything new. I kind of felt like, 'All right, I've seen how crazy it can get.' And I think there was something about it where I was... not terrified, but I just needed a minute. Because I wasn't sure what it was. Just that the energy felt insane."

At 28, Styles has unlocked a new level of stardom for himself. Years ago, he regularly filled stadiums as a member of One Direction, his former boy band. This spring and summer, he's playing them on his own. 'As It Was' has become his hugest song yet, setting streaming records and topping the charts in more than two dozen countries, including 10 weeks straight in the US. Because he's a star with a largely young, female fan base, many have refused to engage with him as much more than a pretty teen idol. (I don't need to lay out decades of music history to show how wrong of a take that is.) But he can feel the tides change in curious ways. "'As It Was' is definitely the highest volume of men that I would get stopping me to say something about it," he notes. "That feels like a weird comment because it's not like men was the goal. It's just something I noticed."

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Before his headlining set at Coachella in April, I caught Harry backstage, surrounded by James Corden, Styles's onstage guest Shania Twain, and his girlfriend, Olivia Wilde. Later, I took in sold-out shows in New York and at Wembley Stadium. The immense love showering Styles was impossible to ignore - you see it in the faces of every fan, whether they've been supporting him for "one year, two years, five years, 12 years", as he says in nearly every end-of-show thank you speech. Along the way I heard him everywhere, even when I wasn't trying. 'As It Was' played in every cab. 'Watermelon Sugar' soundtracked breakfast. 'Golden' lurked quietly at a London chemist's. 'Late Night Talking' blasted at a Brooklyn bar, leading one man to proclaim, "I like Harry Styles. I can admit it," like it was a radical act of self-acceptance.

And while he may be everywhere in 2022, Styles is, at the moment, literally right in front of me, sitting in an armchair of a hotel business suite in Hamburg, Germany, on a sweaty June afternoon. After a dip in the Irish Sea this morning, he flew into town and is now enjoying a day off in the middle of his first European tour since 2018.

In person, Styles looks more like your best friend's cute, sporty older brother than the gender-bending style icon he's become. He's left the boas and sequin jumpsuits in the dressing room, opting instead for a blue Adidas track jacket, gym shorts, and Gucci trainers. His hair, often described as "tousled", like he's a renegade prince in a romance novel, is clipped back with a hair claw, a signature day-off accessory.

Styles is a kind of millennial anomaly: he plugs his phone in across the room, never once sneaking a glance for a rogue notification. He maintains eye contact as his thoughts unfurl in his often slow drawl. He's a bit more Zen, even stoic, than he once was; that goofy, class-clown energy he exuded when the world first fell in love with him in One Direction 12 years ago has naturally diminished. But he's still as affable and charming as ever, remembering details from small talk we had in all the other cities where I had been (professionally) stalking him, and proving earnestly curious about how I was going to spend my time in Hamburg and how magazine deadlines work. (Back in New York, after surprising fans at a Spotify event for his new album, he asked me my thoughts on David Crosby's most recent album, which he loved.)

"'As It Was' is definitely the highest volume of men that I would get stopping me to say something about it"- Harry Styles

"My great uncle lives here," Styles says of Hamburg. "He married a German lady, so I have a German cousin. They always used to come and visit when I was a kid, and the only word in English [the cousin] knew was 'lemonade'. I didn't know if she actually wanted lemonade or was trying to say 'Give me some water, please!'"

Of course it wasn't meant to take him this long to get back to places like Hamburg, where he'll play for more than 50,000 fans tomorrow night at Volksparkstadion, a local football stadium. Love on Tour, the name for his current trek, was supposed to launch in the spring of 2020, a few months after Styles released his second album, Fine Line. We all know what happened next.

Styles didn't get to play live again until last autumn, but something funny happened in the interim. While we were bound to our homes, Styles experienced his first number one hit in Fine Line 's 'Watermelon Sugar', a tune so sweet it may take a moment to realise he's singing about cunnilingus. Less than a year later, he won his first Grammy for it.

As the pandemic deepened, Styles ended up back in Los Angeles, where he keeps a home, and moved in with three friends. They'd "go for walks, cook dinner, wash the lettuce, all that kind of stuff," he says, until he decided to use his downtime productively and began writing new material. Rick Rubin's Malibu studio, Shangri-La, was available, so Styles moved in with longtime producers and co-writers Kid Harpoon and Tyler Johnson. "We didn't really know what we were going in for," he says. "It just felt like sitting at home doing nothing might feel better if we all move in together and try to make some music." Before they knew it, they were making Harry's House, a revelatory statement that happens to be his most radio-friendly album to date. He took inspiration from Haruomi Hosono's 1973 LP, Hosono House, which he first heard when he lived in Japan years ago, and treated the songs like they were an internal monologue, traversing a day in his life.

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When flying became an option, Styles came home to London. Later, he drove down to Italy in his late stepdad's car with a friend, listening to the jazz CDs left behind. He visited the Trevi Fountain one day, likely wearing his short-lived pandemic moustache, and was greeted with just four other people instead of the usual throngs that surround the historic site: "I felt like every day you'd say, 'Weird time, isn't it?' Then go, 'Yeah, it's fucking insane!'"

He credits his stream of roommates - friends, collaborators - with keeping him together during this time. "I really would've struggled if I'd done the whole thing by myself," he says, mirroring the " Harry, you're no good alone" lyric from 'As It Was'. After Italy, Styles visited friends in France, then returned to work, eventually posting up at Real World Studios near Bath. By the time he set off across the US to finally tour behind Fine Line last autumn, Harry's House was secretly finished.

Now, besides the unavoidable singles and the victory-lap world tour, there are other indicators of next-level stardom: his skincare, nail polish and clothing line called Pleasing and a fashion collection with Gucci, not to mention his flourishing movie career. He's starring in the psychological thriller Don't Worry Darling and in the intimate drama My Policeman, and he's nabbed a deal with Marvel Studios to play Eros in at least one of the Eternals films. "Everything in my life has felt like a bonus since X-Factor," he says, referring to the singing competition that led directly to One Direction. "Get on TV and sing. I never expected and never thought that would happen."

But today, in a Hamburg hotel, Styles is still trying to make sense of it all. He thinks hard about love, shame, honesty and the importance of kindness and therapy. And he worries. He worries about how he can be one of the biggest pop stars in the world, the kind who can be everything for his fans while also being a great son, brother, friend and partner to the people standing beside him. As everything gets bigger, Styles imagines a life that is smaller. How does the world's most wanted man save the best parts for himself?

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When Styles played two sold-out shows at Wembley Stadium in June, the first thing he did after stepping offstage each night was take a shower. The post-show shower has become a ritual: a hygienic necessity, sure, but also a crucial moment of clarity and reflection. He washes away the screams full of love and desire to just be in his presence. Anyone would be overwhelmed by that. "It's really unnatural to stand in front of that many people and have that experience," he says. "Washing it off, you're just a naked person, in your most vulnerable, human form. Just like a naked baby, basically."

Those post-Wembley showers were especially gratifying. When One Direction, which Styles casually refers to as "the band", played the stadium in 2014, he ended up with tonsillitis on the day of the show. "I was miserable," he recalls. "We played the first one, and I remember I came off, got in the car, and just started crying because I was so disappointed."

Styles's solo shows at Wembley were a reunion of sorts: he had friends and family from all parts of his life and career in the audience on both nights. His mum, Anne Twist, sister Gemma, friends and his team all danced in the stands next to Wilde and her two young children. Even former bandmate Niall Horan swung by, smiling through 'What Makes You Beautiful'.

As he's become one of the world's biggest pop stars, Styles's need for privacy - for keeping that "naked baby" self out of the public eye - seems to have grown. Secrecy has helped to fend off constant questions about his sex life, the kind that were tossed his way as soon as he was of legal age.

"Everything in my life has felt like a bonus since X-Factor. Get on TV and sing. I never expected and never thought that would happen"
- Harry Styles

In the past couple of years, he started to go to therapy more routinely. "I committed to doing it once a week," he explains. "I felt like I exercise every day and take care of my body, so why wouldn't I do that with my mind?"

Through it, he started to process parts of himself he hadn't figured out before. "So many of your emotions are so foreign before you start analysing them properly. I like to really lean into [an emotion] and look at it in the face. Not like, 'I don't want to feel like this,' but more like, 'What is it that makes me feel this way?'"

One feeling he needed to shed was shame, the kind of shame that comes from having your sex life scrutinised while you're still just trying to make sense of it. Over the years, he learned to stop apologising for it. He learned he could be vulnerable in private while still protecting it from the public.

Sometimes, though, he worried he was a "hypocrite" for being so closed off. His shows have become empowering safe spaces for his fans, so many of whom want to share who they are with him. Onstage, he's helped people come out to their parents and facilitated everything from marriage proposals to gender reveals. Separating his personal life from his public one hasn't been a choice he takes lightly. "When I'm working, I work really hard, and I think I'm really professional," he says. "Then when I'm not, I'm not. I'd like to think I'm open, and probably quite stubborn, too, and willing to be vulnerable. I can be selfish sometimes, but I'd like to think that I'm a caring person."

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He's found a vague balance through compartmentalisation. "I've never talked about my life away from work publicly and found that it's benefited me positively," he explains, perhaps preemptively. "There's always going to be a version of a narrative, and I think I just decided I wasn't going to spend the time trying to correct it or redirect it in some way."

Drawing the curtain over his life has only made everyone who's not behind it more curious. His sexuality, for example, has been a topic of near obsession for years. He has embraced gender fluidity in his fashion, like Mick Jagger and David Bowie before him, and has repeatedly pointed out how backward it feels to require labels and boxes for everyone's identity. Critics of his approach have accused him of "queerbaiting" or profiting off queer aesthetics without explicitly claiming the community. Defenders feel it's unfair to force anyone to label themselves as one thing in order to validate their gender or creative expression.

Styles, without prompting, points out how silly he finds some of the arguments about how he may identify to be: "Sometimes people say, 'You've only publicly been with women,' and I don't think I've publicly been with anyone. If someone takes a picture of you with someone, it doesn't mean you're choosing to have a public relationship or something."

Of late, this can be contested. While he is everywhere, so is Olivia Wilde. The pair met on the set of Don't Worry Darling, which she directed (more on that in a moment), then made a splash when paparazzi snapped them holding hands at his manager and close friend Jeffrey Azoff's wedding in January 2021.

Wilde and Styles have said little about the relationship, and rumours have filled the space. Anonymous tweeters acted appalled at their age difference (as if a 28-year-old man dating a 38-year-old woman isn't completely normal) and criticised the director-actor dating dynamic (as if there isn't a long history of beloved Hollywood couples meeting the same way).

More intense and jarring was a corner of Styles's fandom that has made fun of Wilde's dancing or made lengthy Twitter threads and TikTok videos cancelling her for bad or insensitive jokes made a decade ago. If Styles is already held up to a high standard, his potential partners are held to an unreachable one for some of his fans.

Styles is not the most online person - he uses Instagram to look at plants and architecture posts, has never had the TikTok app, and calls Twitter "a shitstorm of people trying to be awful to people" - but he's still aware of how those small, toxic corners of the internet are treating the people closest to him. "That obviously doesn't make me feel good," he says, carefully. It's a tightrope he's treading in discussing this. He wants to - and does! - see the good in his fans, but there's no denying that like every large online community, this one has a faction that runs on hate and anonymity.

Even with the boundaries he's set between his public and private lives, sometimes "other people blur the lines for you", he says. There's a conversation he has to have early in a relationship, no matter how weird or premature it may feel. "Can you imagine," he says, "going on a second date with someone and being like, 'OK, there's this corner of the thing, and they're going to say this, and it's going to be really crazy, and they're going to be really mean, and it's not real.... But anyway, what do you want to eat?'"

"Everyone, including myself, has your own journey with figuring out sexuality and getting more comfortable with it"
- Harry Styles

While Styles takes comfort in knowing his whole fandom is not like that, he still wonders about how to respond when the noise gets too loud. "It's obviously a difficult feeling to feel like being close to me means you're at the ransom of a corner of Twitter or something," he says. "I just wanted to sing. I didn't want to get into it if I was going to hurt people like that."

When asked about her experience with his fans, Wilde is diplomatic. Like Styles, she believes in what they stand for as a collective, calling them "deeply loving people" who have fostered an accepting community. "What I don't understand about the cruelty you're referencing is that that kind of toxic negativity is the antithesis of Harry, and everything he puts out there," she tells me. "I don't personally believe the hateful energy defines his fan base at all. The majority of them are true champions of kindness."

Styles became a leading man when he was four years old, starring in a play called Barney the Church Man. Later, he transformed into Buzz Lightyear in a production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang "because Buzz Lightyear was in the toy shop for some reason". His other early theatre credits include: Razamatazz in Bugsy Malone ("the band leader") and the Elvis-inspired Pharaoh in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. (He would later audition for Baz Luhrmann's Elvis, but was deemed too iconic by the director.)

Other than that, acting wasn't really part of his life plan. He liked it, but he found a new rush when he started performing with his band White Eskimo. When they debuted at - and won - a Battle of the Bands competition, it was the first time he felt "the switch": his teachers looking up at him, instead of vice versa. "I think I was just a show-off," he says, with a hint of cheekiness. "I say that like it's past tense."

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But as Styles was preparing the release of his solo debut in 2017, he took his first foray back into acting, with a supporting role in Christopher Nolan's war epic, Dunkirk. (The director said he had no idea how famous Styles was when he cast him.) By the time Marvel recruited him to become Eros, director Chloé Zhao had no one else but Styles in mind for the role. Thanos's more heroic brother is portrayed in the comics as an intergalactic playboy of sorts, with superhuman strength and the ability to control people's emotions (a fitting role for the planet's hottest pop star). MCU boss Kevin Feige recently teased more from Styles, though so far, his only appearance has been the Eternals' post-credits scene, alongside the Patton Oswalt-voiced Pip. "It'd be funny if that was it, wouldn't it?" he jokes of his cameo.

Styles's role in Dunkirk grabbed Wilde's attention as she was beginning to map out Don't Worry Darling. He was an early contender for the role of Jack, a charming but secretive husband to Florence Pugh's increasingly troubled Alice. And Styles had plenty of reasons to be interested in Don't Worry Darling. Wilde's second feature film as a director reportedly started a bidding war among 18 studios, following the success of her directorial debut, Booksmart.

Pre-pandemic talks between Styles and the Darling team didn't make it far; he was, after all, due on a global tour for most of 2020. Instead, Shia LaBeouf won the role, but by the end of that summer, Wilde had reportedly booted the actor for poor on-set behaviour.

"I'd wanted to act again," Styles says. He spent a lot of the pandemic watching movies with his quarantine set of friends and collaborators: he rescreened favourites like the 2012 Belgian drama The Broken Circle Breakdown. Some nights, he and his friends would put a bunch of titles in a hat and choose. ("There was a couple different tastes in the house, so it was between, like, Parasite and Coyote Ugly. ")

Styles was announced as LaBeouf's replacement a month before filming began. He proved perfect for the role of Jack, who's brought Alice to the remote, fictional American town of Victory to work on a secret project the men at the company won't tell their wives about. Jack's become a star employee and is desperate for his boss's approval. "We were looking for someone with innate warmth and palpable charm," Wilde says. "The entire story depended on the audience believing in Jack."

Styles shot Don't Worry Darling between September 2020 and February 2021 in LA and Palm Springs. Those months were the longest Styles had lived in one place in 11 years. He thought about going completely off the grid while making it: maybe get a flip phone, stop making music. "The reality is you get there on the first day and wait around for 75 per cent of it," he says. "And it's like, 'Actually, I'm going to text my mate.'"

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At the start, he was understandably anxious about taking on such a large role alongside stars like Pugh, Chris Pine, Gemma Chan and Nick Kroll. "In music, there's such an immediate response to what you do. You finish a song and people clap," he says. "When you're filming and they say 'Cut,' there's maybe part of you that expects everyone to start clapping, [but] they don't. Everyone, obviously, goes back to doing their jobs, and you're like, 'Oh, shit, was it that bad?'" (Being an actor reminded him of session musicians: "You get called in to do your bit, and then someone else puts it all together and makes it.")

The risk may pay off: he and Pugh are already getting awards season buzz. Wilde says one moment "left us all in tears" - Jack's promotion scene during a big company gala. "It's a strange scene, full of fascist references, and a disturbing amount of male rage," Wilde says. "The scene called for him to stand onstage with Frank (Chris Pine) and chant their creepy slogan, 'Whose world is it? Ours!' over and over again. Dark as hell. But Harry took it to another level. He was so fully in the moment, he began screaming the lines to the crowd, in this primal roar, that was way more intense than anything we expected from the scene."

According to Wilde, Pine backed away, understanding this was Harry's moment. "The camera operator followed him as he paced around the stage like a kind of wild animal," Wilde remembers. "We were all gobsmacked at the monitor. I think even Harry was surprised by it. Those are the best moments for an actor - when you're completely outside your body."

Within weeks, Styles went from the set of Darling to shooting the more intimate My Policeman. He had read the script the year prior, moved by the story enough to have contacted director Michael Grandage and request a meeting. Styles showed up with every line memorised.

Styles plays Tom, a policeman who develops feelings for a museum curator named Patrick (David Dawson). Set in the 50s, when it was still illegal to be in a same-sex relationship in the UK, the pair move in secret while Tom pursues a marriage with a schoolteacher named Marion (Emma Corrin). The film shifts between the past and the present, when the three reunite under dire circumstances. "It's obviously pretty unfathomable now to think, 'Oh, you couldn't be gay. That was illegal,'" Styles says. "I think everyone, including myself, has your own journey with figuring out sexuality and getting more comfortable with it." To him, My Policeman is a very human story. "It's not like, 'This is a gay story about these guys being gay.' It's about love and about wasted time to me."

According to Styles, Grandage wanted to highlight what sex is really like between two men in the scenes between Tom and Patrick. "So much of gay sex in film is two guys going at it, and it kind of removes the tenderness from it," Styles continues. "There will be, I would imagine, some people who watch it who were very much alive during this time when it was illegal to be gay, and [Michael] wanted to show that it's tender and loving and sensitive."

Darling and Policeman make their big premieres at prestigious film festivals in Venice and Toronto late this summer, but Styles isn't sure his pivot to the silver screen will be permanent. "I don't imagine I'd do a movie for a while," he says. There are rumours about how many Marvel movies he's signed on for and other franchises he might be secretly in talks to do. (In response to a rumour he'll be starring in a future Star Wars series, he says, "That's the first I've heard of that. I'd imagine... false.")

He doesn't rule out taking on new roles. "I think there'll be a time again when I'll crave it," he says. "But when you're making music, something's happening. It feels really creative, and it feeds stuff. A large part of acting is the doing nothing, waiting thing. Which if that's the worst part, then it's a pretty good job. But I don't find that section of it to be that fulfilling. I like doing it in the moment, but I don't think I'll do it a lot."

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Like a true tousled-haired prince, Styles invites me to attend a concert with him by the philharmonic in Hamburg, eight hours before his own show.

On past tours, he says, "I was getting to a lot of cities and feeling like 'I've been here six times and I've never seen any of it.'" This tour, he's been taking in a lot of architecture. "It's something I can do on my own, just sit somewhere and look at stuff," he says.

Studying the finer points of buildings fits the regimented, disciplined and distinctly grown-up tour life he's created. Styles has found himself enamoured with routine on the road: 10 hours of sleep a night, IV injections pumping him with nutrients and vitamins, a strict acid-reflux-conscious diet that cuts out coffee, alcohol and certain foods that affect the throat 50,000 fans are depending on. Last night, he slept with two humidifiers that apparently made it look like he was stepping out of a steam room when he opened his hotel room door.

The Elbphilharmonie Hamburg - "Elphi" for short - is a striking structure, looking something like a gorgeous sail. Styles is wearing the same outfit as when I met him in the hotel the day before, only with shorts swapped out for pinstripe pants and a surgical mask covering his face. He and I are both late and can't be let into the show until intermission, so instead we comb through the backstage hallways and elevators to see rooms built for incredible acoustics and sweeping views of Hamburg. He marvels at all of it. In a temperature controlled room full of pianos, he asks our tour guide which is the best ("Is there a shining star?") before sitting down at one and playing for a couple of dreamy, Beatlesque minutes. (He'd mentioned earlier that he spent last summer playing piano every day with his morning coffee.) He has questions about panelling. And like a true tourist, he takes pictures of everything.

The first time I ever met Styles was a lot like this. On his first headlining tour, in San Francisco in 2017, I went backstage to interview Kid Harpoon. Styles stumbled into the room where I was waiting, strolling around less like a headliner with fans lined up around the block and more like the lighting guy. Here was someone who is inexplicably difficult to casually enjoy (you watch one video of One Direction's funniest interview moments on YouTube and suddenly you're contemplating how many of their cardboard cutouts you can fit in your dorm) acting so casually. He greeted me then like an old friend, not someone who was still refusing to let go of a One Direction keychain at the time. He asked me how I had been, what I was up to in San Francisco, and if I was excited for the show. Of course I remember every second of it.

Styles has a gift for making those in his presence feel seen. Just ask fans who bump into him on walks through Central Park or Hampstead Heath, then detail those moments as if they had met the pope (granted, the pope could never pull off a hair claw).

Before the second half of the concert at the Elphi, the crowd mingles and grabs drinks. As we walk through, Styles goes unnoticed. (The mask helps.) It's funny to watch one of the world's biggest pop stars move through space with such ease, as if he's blissfully unaware of how well-known he is.

"If you make your life about the fact that you can't go anywhere and everything has to be a big deal, then that's what your life becomes," he says. "Now, in London, I walk everywhere. It's hard to stumble across things and restaurants and places and stuff if you're just driving everywhere, and it's just not that fun."

Styles outlines his upcoming months for me: in August, after he wraps his European tour in Lisbon, he'll go on holiday with some friends, maybe catch up on the Love Island season he was "gutted" to miss, or see if The Bear is as good as everyone tells him it is. The next leg of his tour includes stops in LA, New York, Austin and Chicago as extended residencies, a decision that meets his personal need for a less strenuous touring schedule and a professional need to be able to attend film festivals and rent studios to write and record music for his fourth album. "I'm always writing," he says. He and his collaborators are already throwing around ideas. "I think all of us are so excited to get back to it, which feels insane because we've just put an album out."

"What I value the most from my friends is I'm reminded that it's OK to be flawed. I'm pretty messy and make mistakes sometimes"
- Harry Styles

More than ever, he is thinking about the future. He wants to take meaningful time off at some point - from touring at least, he's always writing - and ensure he's a more present figure for his family and friends. In turn, he's learned to define what real love looks like to him. "The fantasy, or the vision, or the version of you that people can build you up to be feels like a person that isn't flawed," he explains. "What I value the most from my friends is I feel like I'm constantly reminded that it's OK to be flawed. I think I'm pretty messy and make mistakes sometimes. I think that's the most loving thing: you can see someone's imperfections, and it's not [that you] love them in spite of that, but it's [that you] love them with that."

He's thinking about what it would be like if he had children one day: "Well, if I have kids at some point, I will encourage them to be themselves and be vulnerable and share."

He's thinking about what he wants to say, too. Styles admits he was uninterested in politics as a teenager, oblivious to things that didn't personally affect him. But as he grew more famous, he worried about that, too. "I took a massive look at myself," he says, "and was like, 'Oh, I don't do enough... or anything." When conversations around anti-Blackness and inaction reached a fever pitch in 2020, Styles marched in the streets and read books like How to Be an Antiracist, by Ibram X. Kendi, and The Will to Change, by bell hooks. He started thinking about racial and gender equity, especially as someone who employs many people on the road. "Pretending as a white person you don't get a head start just isn't true," he says.

We were hanging out right after Roe v. Wade had been overturned in America. "I can't begin to imagine how terrifying it is to be a woman in America at the moment," he says. He'll grab a fan's sign that reads "My Body, My Choice" at the Hamburg show, displaying it proudly onstage. There's an energy in the crowds that fills him with careful optimism. "I feel lucky to see a group of people, even just on this tour, who come together in a way," he says. "I think that group of people is so much less afraid of opening the wound, talking about it, and doing the work, than the generation before us."

As we wait for the philharmonic's packed show to restart, I notice a few young girls with their families in the audience and ask Styles what he thinks the crossover between this crowd and his show tonight will be. He looks around at the mostly older faces and goes, "Less than one per cent... I know I'll be at both."

Styles watches the orchestra studiously. When the conductor leaves and then returns to a standing ovation, Styles whispers, "He's about to play his big hit." Even when he's not peacocking in front of 50,000, he's still trying to entertain the one person he's with.

We walk out before the crowd fully disperses. Styles lingers a second to take some photos of the room before he heads out to get ready for his concert, where he'll bounce around the stage, lifted by the wails of young fans who have been waiting years for this moment.

His fans will linger tonight, too, crowding in the hundreds outside Volksparkstadion. They'll take photos of their outfits, their tear- and sweat-stained glittery faces, the piles of abandoned boa feathers. They'll play his big hits back to him, holding a phone light vigil as they sing One Direction's 'Night Changes' or the Fine Line ballad 'Falling'. As the city echoes as much of him as it can take, he'll probably be washing it all away.
Taken from the October/November 2022 issue of Rolling Stone UK. Buy it online now. Available on UK newsstands from 24 August.

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Harry Styles: the world's most wanted man

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On a Friday night in New York, Harry Styles put on a show. It wasn't just any show; it was the first time he performed his third and soon-to-be-biggest album, Harry's House, in its entirety. The crowd that May night covered Long Island's UBS Arena in feathers and glitter and tears - a ritualistic skin shedding of sorts whenever Styles comes to town.

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TAYLOR SWIFT: THE ROLLING STONES INTERVIEW

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TAYLOR SWIFT: THE ROLLING STONES INTERVIEW

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Taylor Swift: The Rolling Stone Interview

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In her most in-depth and introspective interview in years, Swift tells all about the rocky road to ‘Lover’ and much, much more

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I Graduated from the Library: An Interview with Ray Bradbury

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by Brendan Dowling on May 20, 2013 This interview originally appeared in the Nov/Dec 2002 issue of Public Libraries. Brendan Dowling interviewed Ray Bradbury via telephone in May 2002. Novelist, essayist, playwright, and poet Ray Bradbury is the author of more than five hundred published works.

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GREAT FOR FINDING EXAMPLES OF INTERPERSONAL MEANING.

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This Danish Political Party Is Led by an AI

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THIS DANISH POLITICAL PARTY IS LED BY AN AI

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THIS DANISH POLITICAL PARTY IS LED BY AN AI

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The party was founded in May by the artist collective The Synthetic Party , a new Danish political party with an artificially intelligent representative and policies derived from AI, is eyeing a seat in parliament as it hopes to run in the country's November general election. Computer Lars and the non-profit art and tech organization MindFuture Foundation . The Synthetic Party's public face and figurehead is the AI chatbot Leader Lars, which is programmed on the policies of Danish fringe parties since 1970 and is meant to represent the values of the 20 percent of Danes who do not vote in the election. Leader Lars won't be on the ballot anywhere, but the human members of The Synthetic Party are committed to carrying out their AI-derived platform.

"We're representing the data of all fringe parties, so it's all of the parties who are trying to get elected into parliament but don't have a seat. So it's a person who has formed a political vision of their own that they would like to realize, but they usually don't have the money or resources to do so," Asker Staunæs, the creator of the party and an artist-researcher at MindFuture, told Motherboard. Leader Lars is an AI chatbot that people can speak with on Discord . You can address Leader Lars by beginning your sentences with an "!". The AI understands English but writes back to you in Danish. "As people from Denmark, and also, people around the globe are interacting with the AI, they submit new perspectives and new textual information, where we collect in a dataset that will go into the fine-tuning. So that way, you are partly developing the AI every time you interact with it." Staunæs said. Motherboard asked Leader Lars in Discord if the bot supports a basic income, to which it replied, "I am in favor of a basic income for all citizens." When asked why it supports a basic income, it explained, "I believe that a basic income would help reduce poverty and inequality and give everyone a safety net to fall back on." Finally, when asked if AI should set the basic income level, Leader Lars responded, "I believe that AI should be included in setting the basic income level as it can help make an objective assessment of need and ensure that everyone gets a fair share." Some of the policies that The Synthetic Party is proposing include establishing a universal basic income of 100,000 Danish kroner per month, which is equivalent to $13,700, and is over double the Danish average salary . Another proposed policy change is to create a jointly-owned internet and IT sector in the government that is on par with other public institutions. "It's a synthetic party, so many of the policies can be contradictory to one another," Staunæs said. "Modern machine learning systems are not based on biological and symbolic rules of old fashioned artificial intelligence, where you could uphold a principle of noncontradiction as you can in traditional logic. When you synthesize, it's about amplifying certain tendencies and expressions within a large, large pool of opinions. And if it contradicts itself, maybe they could do so in an interesting way and expand our imagination about what is possible."

The Synthetic Party's mission is also dedicated to raising more awareness about the role of AI in our lives and how governments can hold AI accountable to biases and other societal influences. The party hopes to add an 18th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) to the United Nations SDGs, which are goals relating to issues such as poverty, inequality, and climate change, to be achieved by all nations by 2030. The Synthetic Party's proposed SDG is called Staunæs explained that The Synthetic Party differs from what he calls the "fully 'virtual' politicians," such as So far, The Synthetic Party has only Life With Artificials and focuses on the relationship between humans and AI and how to adapt and educate people to work with machines. "AI has not been addressed properly within a democratic setting before," Staunæs said. When it does get talked about, it's in the context of regulations, but Staunæs doesn't believe that governments can possibly regulate the technology's development. "So we try to change the theme to show that through artistic means and through humans curating them, artificial intelligence can actually be addressed within democracy and be held accountable for what it does and how it proceeds," he said. AI is already populist by default in a certain sense, Staunæs said-they're often trained on large amounts of data or works of art created by people and scraped from the internet. But even if it's populist, it's not democratic just yet. "Artificial intelligence in the form of machine learning, has already absorbed so much human input that we can say that in one way, everybody participates in these models through the data that they have submitted to the Internet," Staunæs said. "But the systems as we have today are not encouraging more active participation, where people actually take control of their data and images, which we can in another way through this concentrated form that publicly available machine learning models offer." "Leader Lars is the figurehead of the party. Denmark is a representative democracy, so would have humans on the ballot that are representing Leader Lars and who are committed to acting as a medium for the AI," he said. SAM from New Zealand and Alisa from Russia . Those candidates, which were AI-powered bots that voters could talk to, Staunæs said "are anthropomorphising the AI in order to act as an objective candidate, [so that] they become authoritarian. While we synthetics are in for a full-on democratization of a 'more-than-human' way of life." What The Synthetic Party prioritizes, according to Staunæs, is not so much having a central AI figurehead, but examining how humans can use AI to their benefit. 11 signatures out of the 20,000 that would make it eligible to run in this November's election. If the party were to be in the parliament, Staunæs said that it would be the AI powering policies and its agenda, and humans acting as the interpreter of the program. "People who are voting for The Synthetic Party will have to believe what we are selling ourselves as, people who actually engage so much with artificial intelligence that we can interpret something valuable from them," Staunæs said. "We are in conversations with people from around the world, Colombia, France, and Moldova, about creating other local versions of The Synthetic Party, so that we could have some form of Synthetic International."

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This Danish Political Party Is Led by an AI

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The Synthetic Party in Denmark is dedicated to following a platform churned out by an AI, and its public face is a chatbot named Leader Lars.

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Man plays his saxophone through 9-hour, "very, very complex" brain surgery to remove tumor

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Rome - A musician had a brain tumor removed in Italy this week in a nine-hour surgery that he spent not only awake and fully conscious, but playing his saxophone. The 35-year-old male patient had the procedure at Rome's Paideia International Hospital on Monday and was discharged early Thursday morning.

Dr. Christian Brogna, a neurosurgeon and expert in awake surgery, told CBS News the tumor was removed successfully, and that there were no negative impacts on the patient. Brogna led a highly specialized 10-member international team for the procedure, using state-of-the-art technology.

"The tumor was located in a very, very complex area of the brain," said Brogna. "Moreover, the patient is left-handed. This makes things more complicated because the neural pathways of the brain are much more complicated."

The doctor said his patient, who has been identified only as C.Z., played the theme song from the 1970 movie "Love Story," and the Italian national anthem, at various times throughout the surgery.

During the meticulous preparation for the surgery, C.Z. had told the medical team that preserving his musical ability was essential to him. It was also very useful to the surgeon, because his patient playing the sax during surgery allowed Brogna to map different functions of the brain as he operated.

"To play an instrument means that you can understand music, which is a high cognitive function. It means you can interact with the instrument, you can coordinate both hands, you can exercise memory, you can count - because music is mathematics - you can test vision because the patient has to see the instrument, and you can test the way the patient interacts with the rest of the team," he said.

Brogna, who has performed hundreds of awake brain surgeries, said the key to pulling off such a complex operation, was preparation.

"Every patient is unique, every brain is unique, so we really need to know the patient very well," he told CBS News.

Over a period of about 10 days before the operation, the patient met with the medical team six or seven times. He said it was important to the surgeons to respect the patient's wishes as to which functions they felt were most important to preserve. The process led to what Brogna called "a massively tailored surgery."

During the preparations for this and any other brain surgery, Brogna said the team looks at the entire person, not just the pathology.

"When we operate on the brain, we are operating on the sense of self, so we need to make sure that we do not damage the patient as a person - their personality, the way they feel emotions, the way they get through life. The patient will tell you what is important in his life and it is your job to protect his wishes," he said.

The preparation period also ensures the patient knows every detail of the procedure before it happens. During surgery, that helps ensure they remain quiet and collaborative, not scared, said Brogna, adding that that there is an atmosphere of "great calm, great silence" in the operating room during the procedure. Apart from the saxophone, of course, in this case.

Brogna said he was proud that his patient had been able to go back to his normal life, and proud that with each operation, knowledge of this branch of medicine is advancing.

"Every surgery is a window on the brain, on how it works, and while we are learning, we are taking the whole of the person - his life, his passion, his hobbies, his job - into account," said the surgeon. "That is the goal."

Trending News

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Man plays his saxophone through 9-hour, "very, very complex" brain surgery to remove tumor

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Rome - A musician had a brain tumor removed in Italy this week in a nine-hour surgery that he spent not only awake and fully conscious, but playing his saxophone. The 35-year-old male patient had the procedure at Rome's Paideia International Hospital on Monday and was discharged early Thursday morning.

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SANDERS: We Must Bring People Together, NotInstigateHatred

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SANDERS: We Must Bring People Together, NotInstigateHatred

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Over this past week our country has experienced multiple, unimaginable tragedies using weapons of war. There are almost no words to express the profound impact that these assaults have on our people, our values and our way of life. We should be honest - these are terrorist acts of war and we need a national response.

First, we have got to remove weapons of war from the hands of these extremists. In Dayton, reports are that the shooter was able to kill or wound over 30 people in a minute. Fortunately, the police were almost immediately on the scene and through effective action were able to prevent an even greater tragedy.

Given the epidemic of gun violence in our country, Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell must immediately call the Senate back into session so that we can pass gun safety legislation. The time is long overdue for Congress to listen to the American people and not be intimidated by the NRA.

There are estimated to be between 5 and 10 million assault weapons on America's streets. Shockingly, that is more than the United States military has. The function of an assault weapon is to kill human beings as quickly as possible.

We need to ban the manufacture, sale and transfer of these weapons of war. Period.

We have got to implement a buyback program to get these weapons off the streets.

And we have got to regulate assault weapons in the same way that we currently regulate fully automatic weapons - a system that essentially makes them unlawful to own.

We must do what the American people overwhelmingly want, and that means passing common sense gun safety legislation which expands background checks to every sale or transfer of any firearm, allows the amount of time necessary for authorities to conduct a full background check and cracks down on straw man purchasers and other gun runners.

Second, we have got to come together as a nation and combat the rise of violent white supremacist extremism. That means redirecting federal resources to address this threat to our national security.

Incredibly, the Trump administration has spent limited federal law enforcement dollars caging immigrant children while cutting funding from initiatives designed to fight the growing influence of white nationalist propaganda and violence. That has got to change.

I am personally all too familiar with the barbarity that comes from hateful ideology. Most of my own father's family was brutally murdered at the hands of Hitler's white supremacist regime. That regime came to power on a wave of violence and hatred against racial and religious minorities. We cannot allow that cancer to grow here.

Our First Amendment allows anyone to hold any view they want - even hateful and repugnant ones. But it does not permit carrying out acts of treason against our country. And that's what these attacks are.

Nor does it or should it shield the online platforms from responsibility where the owners knowingly allow these violent extremists to plot and plan attacks on our people.

Finally, we need leadership in this country that is unequivocal in condemning violence and hatred. Instead, we have a president who actively demonizes racial and religious minorities, who coddles Nazis and Klansmen, and who wields white supremacy as a political weapon. Racism, religious bigotry, homophobia and xenophobia are not new. They have been with us since the founding of the country. But having a modern American president so actively promote hatred is new and must not be accepted.

On a personal level, seeing an American president describe people marching under a swastika as "good people" fills me with anger and disgust. But that anger has to be channeled into nonviolent political action.

We need a president - the person in the most trusted position in our government - to use that bully pulpit to appeal to the best in our nature, not instigate hatred and division.

That is our challenge, and that is our moral obligation to our children and our grandchildren.

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We Must Bring People Together, Not Instigate Hatred

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Over this past week our country has experienced multiple, unimaginable tragedies using weapons of war. There are almost no words to express the profound impact that these assaults have on our people, our values and our way of life. We should be honest - these are terrorist acts of war and we need a national response.

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Court orders Shell to slash CO2 emissions in landmark climate ruling

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Court orders Shell to slash CO2 emissions in landmark climate ruling

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Biden's speech offers an alternative vision for democrats to love, after four years of Trumpian fantasy

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Biden's speech offers an alternative vision for democrats to love, after four years of Trumpian fantasy

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Biden’s Speech Offers an Alternative Vision for Democrats to Love, After Four Years of Trumpian Fantasy _ The New Yorker

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PASSENGERS DESCRIBE 'TERRIFYING' EVACUATION FROM UNDERSEA TUNNEL

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PASSENGERS DESCRIBE 'TERRIFYING' EVACUATION FROM UNDERSEA TUNNEL

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Passengers describe 'terrifying' evacuation from undersea tunnel

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THE LGBTQ-RIGHTS MOVEMENT WINS ITS BIGGEST SUPREME COURT VICTORY

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THE LGBTQ-RIGHTS MOVEMENT WINS ITS BIGGEST SUPREME COURT VICTORY

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The L.G.B.T.Q.-Rights Movement Wins Its Biggest Supreme Court Victory _ The New Yorker

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Greatest Tip Ever_ Albert Einstein’s Theory Of Happiness _ by Peter Burns _ Mind Cafe _ Oct, 2021 _ Medium

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What we're covering

The latest: Hurricane Ian made landfall along the southwestern coast of Florida near Cayo Costa as a powerful Category 4 storm on Wednesday, but has now weakened to a Category 1 storm. It's one of the strongest hurricanes to make landfall on the west coast of the Florida peninsula.

The extremely dangerous conditions that this hurricane is unleashing - including catastrophic floods and life-threatening storm surge - will continue as the storm advances inland. Some areas could see the worst surge forecast on record.

Tracking Ian: You can track the storm's path here or sign up for email alerts from CNN meteorologists here.

In the storm's path? Bookmark CNN's lite site for fast connectivity. Sigue nuestra cobertura en vivo en español aquí.

Waters have receded at a fire department in Naples, Florida, which was flooded with waist-deep water Wednesday due to Hurricane Ian, according to Tarin Bachle, Administrative Manager for the Naples Fire-Rescue Department.

"It wasn't very long ago that this was four-and-a-half, five-and-a-half feet underwater," Bachle said in a video posted Wednesday night.

Earlier Wednesday afternoon, the department posted a video of the station inundated with several feet of murky water. In the video, the water is above Bachle's waist and flowing into the cabin of a fire engine.

While the fire station no longer had standing water in the evening video update, flooding could still be seen in the neighboring street. Layers of sludge and debris can also be seen on the driveway.

"We still have some flooding ... and the wind is still ripping. But as you can see, the water is receding," Bachle said Wednesday night.

1 min ago
Here are the latest developments as Hurricane Ian makes landfall in Florida

Hurricane Ian is making its way through Florida as a Category 1 storm after making landfall as a powerful Category 4 along the state's southwestern coast Wednesday afternoon. The dangerously strong winds and torrential downpour have brought life-threatening storm surge and flooding to some areas.

The hurricane has weakened since it hit the coast, but officials are still urging residents to take shelter and remain alert as the worst of the storm is yet to come for many in its path.

After hitting the coast with 150 mph winds, Ian is now tied with Hurricane Charley in 2004 as the strongest storm to make landfall on the west coast of the Florida peninsula, according to CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller.

The storm could rank as one of the top five hurricanes to strike the peninsula, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday.

Here's what you need to know:

Winds weakened to Category 1: By late Wednesday night, Hurricane Ian had slowed to a Category 1 storm with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. The storm's center was about 70 miles south of Orlando, Florida, at around 11 p.m. "Widespread, life-threatening catastrophic flooding, with major to record river flooding, will continue across portions of central Florida tonight," the hurricane center noted.

Storm is shifting toward the Atlantic: Ian's center is expected to move over central Florida through Thursday morning and continue making its way north. By late Thursday, the National Hurricane Center forecasts the storm will emerge over the Atlantic and continue northward, impacting the northeastern Florida, Georgia and South Carolina coasts.

Rescue efforts underway: The state is planning search and rescue efforts using air, ground and sea resources once it is safe to do so, Florida Department of Emergency Management director Kevin Guthrie said Wednesday. Some local emergency teams were unable to respond to calls for help because of dangerous storm conditions.

Many residents are without power: More than 2 million customers in Florida are in the dark Wednesday night, mostly in the state's southwest and central regions, according to outage tracker PowerOutage.us. Some counties in the area are also under boil water advisories due to compromised water infrastructure.

Damage will be "life-changing," official says: Repairing damaged power infrastructure could take days or weeks, said Eric Silagy, President and CEO of Florida Power & Light. Silagy said the storm would be a "life-changing event," adding, "This is a very powerful, catastrophic storm that is going to do significant damage."

Hurricane Ian has weakened to a Category 1 hurricane as it moves across central Florida, the National Hurricane Center said late Wednesday. The storm's sustained winds are down to 90 mph.

Ian is now centered about 70 miles south of Orlando. East-central Florida, including Orlando, is also under a tornado watch through 1 a.m. ET Thursday.

Overnight, widespread tropical storm-force winds with gusts above hurricane force will continue to impact central Florida, the hurricane center said.

"Hurricane conditions are expected along the east-central Florida coast overnight through early Thursday," the hurricane center said.

The storm will also bring a continued threat of heavy rain into Thursday.

"Widespread, life-threatening catastrophic flooding, with major to record river flooding, will continue across portions of central Florida tonight," the hurricane center said, also warning of "considerable flooding in northern Florida, southeastern Georgia and eastern South Carolina" through the end of the week.

More than 2 million energy customers were in the dark Wednesday night, according to the tracker PowerOutage.us.

In the hardest-hit southwestern region, 10 counties reported that more than 50% of tracked customers were without power.

Eight more counties in southwest, central and northeast Florida reported more than 10,000 customers had no electricity.

All flights through Jacksonville International Airport are canceled Thursday and the terminal is closed, the airport announced in a tweet.

JAX joins Orlando International Airport and Tampa International Airport in discontinuing flights due to Hurricane Ian.

The Tampa airport announced that no flights would depart from the airstrip Thursday and has not provided a reopening date. Orlando International said in a Wednesday update that its commercial operations are "expected to resume sometime Friday."

As Hurricane Ian continues to cross the Florida peninsula, some areas are reporting more than a foot of rainfall. Here are some preliminary rainfall totals from Ian, as reported by the National Weather Service in Tampa as of Wednesday night:

Lehigh Acres - 14.42"

Warm Mineral Springs - 11.05"

Ding Darling - 8.71"

Frostproof - 8.34"

North Port - 8.24"

The roof above an ICU at a hospital in Port Charlotte was torn off by the storm, Dr. Birgit Bodine, an internal medicine specialist at the facility, told CNN's Anderson Cooper.

"Unfortunately, today we had about 160 patients in-house and our roof blew off, part of the roof above the ICU. So, of course, we had torrential rains coming in which then went down the stairwell, which then went onto other floors," Bodine said.

The staff worked together to move patients to a safe place but they can't evacuate yet because of the conditions outside, the doctor said. Some rooms that are built for two people are now housing three and four patients, she said.

"It's actually pretty terrible. I'm actually still in the hospital. We still have not been able to leave," she said.

They hope to be able to evacuate patients in the morning, she said.

While the air conditioner is not working, the hospital is running on backup generators and all other vital systems are working, Bodine said.

Orange County Mayor Jerry L. Demings said the community can expect to see up to two feet of rain due to Hurricane Ian.

"We have not come close to seeing the worst of the wind speeds within our county," Demings said. "We are also anticipating up to two feet of rain. There is no question, we're going to have some flooding here within our area."

Demings said that Orange County, which includes Orlando, is expected to feel the strongest effects of Hurricane Ian late Wednesday and into the early morning hours.

"There's no question that we're now feeling the effects of this hurricane, and we haven't seen the worst of it yet," Demings said. "We've asked all of our residents to start the process of sheltering in place. You should not be out on the roadways at this time moving about the community."

Demings said people should be prepared for widespread power outages.

Orange County has a population of nearly 1.5 million people and its other cities include Apopka, Bay Lake, Belle Isle, Eatonville, Edgewood, Lake Buena Vista, Maitland, Oakland, Ocoee, Windermere, Winter Garden and Winter Park.

High wind gusts and storm surges are being reported as Hurricane Ian moves across Florida. Here are some of the highest winds reported in southwest Florida, according to the National Weather Service:

Cape Coral - 140 mph

Punta Gorda - 124 mph

Grove City - 110 mph

Sarasota - 106 mph

Venice - 104 mph

Fort Myers - 100 mph

The National Weather Service in Tampa notes that some of the automatic reporting stations are broken or are not reporting due to communications failure.

What we're covering

The latest: Hurricane Ian made landfall along the southwestern coast of Florida near Cayo Costa as a powerful Category 4 storm on Wednesday, but has now weakened to a Category 1 storm. It's one of the strongest hurricanes to make landfall on the west coast of the Florida peninsula.

The extremely dangerous conditions that this hurricane is unleashing - including catastrophic floods and life-threatening storm surge - will continue as the storm advances inland. Some areas could see the worst surge forecast on record.

Tracking Ian: You can track the storm's path here or sign up for email alerts from CNN meteorologists here.

In the storm's path? Bookmark CNN's lite site for fast connectivity. Sigue nuestra cobertura en vivo en español aquí.

Waters have receded at a fire department in Naples, Florida, which was flooded with waist-deep water Wednesday due to Hurricane Ian, according to Tarin Bachle, Administrative Manager for the Naples Fire-Rescue Department.

"It wasn't very long ago that this was four-and-a-half, five-and-a-half feet underwater," Bachle said in a video posted Wednesday night.

Earlier Wednesday afternoon, the department posted a video of the station inundated with several feet of murky water. In the video, the water is above Bachle's waist and flowing into the cabin of a fire engine.

While the fire station no longer had standing water in the evening video update, flooding could still be seen in the neighboring street. Layers of sludge and debris can also be seen on the driveway.

"We still have some flooding ... and the wind is still ripping. But as you can see, the water is receding," Bachle said Wednesday night.

1 min ago
Here are the latest developments as Hurricane Ian makes landfall in Florida

Hurricane Ian is making its way through Florida as a Category 1 storm after making landfall as a powerful Category 4 along the state's southwestern coast Wednesday afternoon. The dangerously strong winds and torrential downpour have brought life-threatening storm surge and flooding to some areas.

The hurricane has weakened since it hit the coast, but officials are still urging residents to take shelter and remain alert as the worst of the storm is yet to come for many in its path.

After hitting the coast with 150 mph winds, Ian is now tied with Hurricane Charley in 2004 as the strongest storm to make landfall on the west coast of the Florida peninsula, according to CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller.

The storm could rank as one of the top five hurricanes to strike the peninsula, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday.

Here's what you need to know:

Winds weakened to Category 1: By late Wednesday night, Hurricane Ian had slowed to a Category 1 storm with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. The storm's center was about 70 miles south of Orlando, Florida, at around 11 p.m. "Widespread, life-threatening catastrophic flooding, with major to record river flooding, will continue across portions of central Florida tonight," the hurricane center noted.

Storm is shifting toward the Atlantic: Ian's center is expected to move over central Florida through Thursday morning and continue making its way north. By late Thursday, the National Hurricane Center forecasts the storm will emerge over the Atlantic and continue northward, impacting the northeastern Florida, Georgia and South Carolina coasts.

Rescue efforts underway: The state is planning search and rescue efforts using air, ground and sea resources once it is safe to do so, Florida Department of Emergency Management director Kevin Guthrie said Wednesday. Some local emergency teams were unable to respond to calls for help because of dangerous storm conditions.

Many residents are without power: More than 2 million customers in Florida are in the dark Wednesday night, mostly in the state's southwest and central regions, according to outage tracker PowerOutage.us. Some counties in the area are also under boil water advisories due to compromised water infrastructure.

Damage will be "life-changing," official says: Repairing damaged power infrastructure could take days or weeks, said Eric Silagy, President and CEO of Florida Power & Light. Silagy said the storm would be a "life-changing event," adding, "This is a very powerful, catastrophic storm that is going to do significant damage."

Hurricane Ian has weakened to a Category 1 hurricane as it moves across central Florida, the National Hurricane Center said late Wednesday. The storm's sustained winds are down to 90 mph.

Ian is now centered about 70 miles south of Orlando. East-central Florida, including Orlando, is also under a tornado watch through 1 a.m. ET Thursday.

Overnight, widespread tropical storm-force winds with gusts above hurricane force will continue to impact central Florida, the hurricane center said.

"Hurricane conditions are expected along the east-central Florida coast overnight through early Thursday," the hurricane center said.

The storm will also bring a continued threat of heavy rain into Thursday.

"Widespread, life-threatening catastrophic flooding, with major to record river flooding, will continue across portions of central Florida tonight," the hurricane center said, also warning of "considerable flooding in northern Florida, southeastern Georgia and eastern South Carolina" through the end of the week.

More than 2 million energy customers were in the dark Wednesday night, according to the tracker PowerOutage.us.

In the hardest-hit southwestern region, 10 counties reported that more than 50% of tracked customers were without power.

Eight more counties in southwest, central and northeast Florida reported more than 10,000 customers had no electricity.

All flights through Jacksonville International Airport are canceled Thursday and the terminal is closed, the airport announced in a tweet.

JAX joins Orlando International Airport and Tampa International Airport in discontinuing flights due to Hurricane Ian.

The Tampa airport announced that no flights would depart from the airstrip Thursday and has not provided a reopening date. Orlando International said in a Wednesday update that its commercial operations are "expected to resume sometime Friday."

As Hurricane Ian continues to cross the Florida peninsula, some areas are reporting more than a foot of rainfall. Here are some preliminary rainfall totals from Ian, as reported by the National Weather Service in Tampa as of Wednesday night:

Lehigh Acres - 14.42"

Warm Mineral Springs - 11.05"

Ding Darling - 8.71"

Frostproof - 8.34"

North Port - 8.24"

The roof above an ICU at a hospital in Port Charlotte was torn off by the storm, Dr. Birgit Bodine, an internal medicine specialist at the facility, told CNN's Anderson Cooper.

"Unfortunately, today we had about 160 patients in-house and our roof blew off, part of the roof above the ICU. So, of course, we had torrential rains coming in which then went down the stairwell, which then went onto other floors," Bodine said.

The staff worked together to move patients to a safe place but they can't evacuate yet because of the conditions outside, the doctor said. Some rooms that are built for two people are now housing three and four patients, she said.

"It's actually pretty terrible. I'm actually still in the hospital. We still have not been able to leave," she said.

They hope to be able to evacuate patients in the morning, she said.

While the air conditioner is not working, the hospital is running on backup generators and all other vital systems are working, Bodine said.

Orange County Mayor Jerry L. Demings said the community can expect to see up to two feet of rain due to Hurricane Ian.

"We have not come close to seeing the worst of the wind speeds within our county," Demings said. "We are also anticipating up to two feet of rain. There is no question, we're going to have some flooding here within our area."

Demings said that Orange County, which includes Orlando, is expected to feel the strongest effects of Hurricane Ian late Wednesday and into the early morning hours.

"There's no question that we're now feeling the effects of this hurricane, and we haven't seen the worst of it yet," Demings said. "We've asked all of our residents to start the process of sheltering in place. You should not be out on the roadways at this time moving about the community."

Demings said people should be prepared for widespread power outages.

Orange County has a population of nearly 1.5 million people and its other cities include Apopka, Bay Lake, Belle Isle, Eatonville, Edgewood, Lake Buena Vista, Maitland, Oakland, Ocoee, Windermere, Winter Garden and Winter Park.

High wind gusts and storm surges are being reported as Hurricane Ian moves across Florida. Here are some of the highest winds reported in southwest Florida, according to the National Weather Service:

Cape Coral - 140 mph

Punta Gorda - 124 mph

Grove City - 110 mph

Sarasota - 106 mph

Venice - 104 mph

Fort Myers - 100 mph

The National Weather Service in Tampa notes that some of the automatic reporting stations are broken or are not reporting due to communications failure.

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live updates: hurricane ian makes landfall in florida

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By Elizabeth Wolfe and Travis Caldwell, CNN

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Live updates: Hurricane Ian makes landfall in Florida

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What we're covering The latest: Hurricane Ian made landfall along the southwestern coast of Florida near Cayo Costa as a powerful Category 4 storm on Wednesday, but has now weakened to a Category 1 storm. It's one of the strongest hurricanes to make landfall on the west coast of the Florida peninsula.