Latest news with #NativeAmerican
UPI
2 hours ago
- Entertainment
- UPI
Stretching into summer: Yoga workouts mark solstice in longest day
1 of 4 | People attend a yoga class in celebration of the summer solstice at the 23rd annual all-day outdoor yoga event in Times Square in New York City on Friday, June 20, 2025. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo June 20 (UPI) -- Summer officially began Friday in the Northern Hemisphere with the longest daylight of the year at around 15 hours. At Times Square in New York, thousands of people enjoyed the extra sunshine in all-day yoga classes. The summer solstice officially begins at 10:42 p.m. The amount of daylight depends on the location. And the sun's intensity also varies. Long day? The Earth might have something to do with it. Friday, June 20 marks the summer solstice-the longest stretch of daylight in the Northern Hemisphere. Pack sunscreen and thank Earth's axial tilt for the extra hours. Learn more: NASA (@NASA) June 20, 2025 Simultaneously, those in the Southern Hemisphere will mark the winter solstice, which is the shortest day of 2025 below the equator. That is around 7 hours and 40 minutes of daylight. The sun appears higher or lower in the sky depending on the season. In New York City, daylight was 15 hours and 6 minutes with sunrise at 5:24 a.m. and sunset at 8:30 p.m. Yoga participants enjoyed a sunny day in Manhattan with a high temperature of 85 degrees, no precipitation and 38% humidity. Free yoga classes were open to experienced yogis and first-timers on the Broadway pedestrian plazas. Classes for 23rd Mind over Madness Yoga ran from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. The only animals allowed were service dogs. People could also participate in a livestream. It was sponsored by Times Square Alliance, which is a nonprofit organization that "works to improve and promote Times Square so that it retains the creativity, energy and edge that have made it an international icon for over 100 years," according to its website. Events have been celebrated by cultures around the world for thousands of years. Stonehenge and the Mayan Chichen Itza Pyramid were purposely built to align with these seasonal markers. Some Native American tribes in the plains and the Rocky Mountains perform a Sun Dance to celebrate the summer solstice. In Fairbanks, Alaska, a baseball game called the "Midnight Sun Game" traditionally starts at 10:30 p.m. The summer solstice occurs because the Earth has a 23.5-degree tilt. So, the planet is pointed toward the sun half of the year and the most away the other half. In the Northern Hemisphere, the summer solstice occurs when the sun reaches its northernmost point relative to Earth's celestial equator. During the summer solstice, the sun shines directly on the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere. That means if you stand there, you'll have no shadow at noon because the sun will be directly overhead. The winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere is 10:02 a.m. The winter solstice takes place when the sun is in its southernmost position relative to the celestial equator. The word solstice is derived from the Latin word solstitium, which translates to "sun stands still." The Fall equinox will occur at 2:19 p.m. Sept. 22 this year and the spring equinox is March 20, 2026, at 10:46 a.m. Stretching into summer: Solstice yoga takes over Times Square People attend a yoga class in celebration of the summer solstice at the all-day outdoor yoga event in Times Square in New York City on June 20, 2025. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo
Hindustan Times
21 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Listicle: 10 animal actors who almost stole the show with their roles
Dogpool, Deadpool and Wolverine. Before being cast, mixed-breed pug Peggy was famously 'Britain's ugliest dog'. Her off-beat looks landed her the part. Peggy started out shy, but adjusted quickly to life on set, revelling in the attention she was getting. We love a diva in the making. And that meet-cute when she and Deadpool see each other for the first time? Pure cinema. Eli, Killers of the Flower Moon. Martin Scorsese's film, based on a series of murders within a wealthy Native American tribe, had an A-list star cast. But even they agreed that Elisheva, or Eli, was the main character. The Eurasian eagle owl beat five others to the part. She was such a natural, she improvised the scene in which she flies directly into the camera. It gave everyone on set the chills. Snoop, Anatomy of a Fall. Messi, the French Border Collie, trained for two months for the role of Snoop. He had to learn to loosen his limbs, act lethargic, and let his tongue loll out to appear poisoned, which he did to perfection. Everyone on set teared up at the scene, says director Justine Triet. Such a good boi. Frodo, The Quiet Place: Day One. The chonky black-and-white kitty almost seems out of place in the horror movie. He looks almost bored by the apocalypse. But he's the one we're most terrified for. Two cat actors, Schnitzel and Nico (both social media influencers) took turns to play Frodo. At first, Lupita Nyong'o, who played Sam, was so terrified of them, she asked the director to use dogs. Now she has a kitty of her own. Perfect. Handsome, Maine Pyar Kiya. That snowy dove from the song Kabutar Ja, Ja, Ja holds half the love story together. Bhagyashree, who played love-struck Suman, developed a bond with the bird, who kept returning to her side instead of flying to Salman to deliver the letters. Handsome even made a savage comeback in the climax, taking out the villain. A true wingman. Cheddar, Brooklyn Nine-Nine. The Pembroke Welsh corgi has won a Halloween Heist, wears booties in the snow, and once chewed Kevin's turtlenecks, turning them into regular necks. He's been played by several dogs over the series. As a fan phrased it, 'Every scene with Cheddar is a good scene'. Raymond Holt's entire personality was being Cheddar's owner. As it should be. Cat, Breakfast at Tiffany's. We had to include the classic. The floofy orange tabby, Audrey Hepburn's pet, was simply named Cat in the film. IRL, he was Orangey, and already had a decade of acting experience when he got cast. You know what that means. Orangey was a total diva, leaping out of character when the scenes ended, hiding on set to escape work. In his defense, he was thrown out of a cab in the rain in one scene. Couldn't they have used a plushie or something? Steven Seagull, The Shallows. First of all, 14/10 for the name. His real name is Sully, he outshone Blake Lively in this movie and was called the breakout movie star of the summer in 2016. The role involved accompanying Lively as she fights off sharks, marooned on a tiny rock. Director Jaume Collet-Serra called him the 'Marlon Brando of seagulls' because he knew when the camera stopped filming. What a cool guy. Dexter, Night At The Museum. Crystal, a tufted capuchin monkey, has a resume that outshines most stars. She's been in George of the Jungle, Malcolm in The Middle, Garfield: The Movie, The Big Bang Theory, and made her Bollywood debut in Total Dhamaal. But as Dexter in the Night At The Museum movies, she's at her best: Chaotic and distracting. She even slaps Ben Stiller, who's joked about how he dislikes working with her. Toto, The Wizard of Oz. Terry was cast in the 1939 film after the director turned down hundreds of dogs. The Cairn Terrier was a fighter. She already knew how to chase people on command, catch apples. And she hit it off immediately with Judy Garland, the most important test. Ultimately, Toto was the one who exposed who the Wizard really was. She became so famous after the film released that her owners kept the name Toto. From HT Brunch, June 21, 2025 Follow us on
Buzz Feed
a day ago
- General
- Buzz Feed
17 Unexplainable Events That Have Happened To People
To the absolute detriment of my sleep schedule, I love reading about creepy mysteries in people's lives. So when redditor u/Sean-Witheniand asked the r/AskReddit community to share the most unexplainable event that has happened to them, I scrolled for a while, and put together some of the most terrifying and baffling stories I found. "This happened just under six months ago, but I had intense dreams for about two weeks straight of the same man that I had never seen before in my life, and every single instance that I saw him, he was trying to hurt/kill me. Literally, every time I slept, he was suffocating me with a bag, slipping something in a drink, finding my house, stalking me, etc. After dreaming about him for two weeks or so, I met this man in real life at a gas station. We didn't talk to each other. I knew nothing about him, but he was there, and I could immediately tell it was him." "I had sleep paralysis about seven years ago. I had just had surgery and was sore, so I slept on the couch the first night. I opened my eyes and could not move. What I'd guess was a demon or some kind of dark entity was standing over me. Then suddenly, I looked at myself in the mirror and had red glowing eyes. I woke up, and I was so terrified. I didn't give a shit how sore I was; I got into bed with my husband at the time." "There was a huge earthquake in San Francisco in the '80s. My dad was there for a conference. We felt the quake where we were, and I suddenly started screaming, 'Dad! Dad! Look out for the chandelier!' My mom and siblings were understandably freaked out. When we finally got ahold of him, he told us he'd been in a ballroom when the quake hit and had a sudden urge to jump to the side. A chandelier fell right where he was previously standing. My family never talks about it. It freaked everyone out severely." "Both of my parents (who were divorced) essentially died on the same day this past December. My dad was in a hospital in Detroit for a double bypass after his fifth heart attack and died from complications late on a Monday. Earlier that same day, around 4 p.m., I found out my mom had unexpectedly died in her home in a tiny town in upstate Michigan, four hours from Detroit. It's about as shitty a situation as you could imagine." "I was working in a lab with skeletal remains, many of which were Native American ancestral remains. I was used to working with skeletons, cataloging and measuring bones, and whatnot, and I had never experienced anything that felt supernatural. This lab was created to repatriate the Native American remains that had been excavated locally and had been severely mishandled by the university for decades. I had a box that contained only a skull, and when I opened the box, I felt anger resonating from this skull." "I was in high school at a friend's birthday party. Her parents booked us a suite at a resort hotel, the kind with a mini water park you can use free if you're staying in the hotel. It was a pool party/sleepover, and we got the whole suite to ourselves, though her mom was in an adjoining room. We were staying up late watching movies, one was a horror movie about a murderer, and we were doing what teenage girls do: getting scared of nothing. Somehow we got it in our heads there was a killer outside waiting to break in and murder us." "I was at home after hanging out with my family all day. It was about 11 p.m. when I came in. I heard a low, creepy voice say, 'Fire, there is going to be danger.' I was so scared I thought my dad was messing with me, but no one was in the house, absolutely no one. The next day, we hung out again. It was midnight when we came in to get more drinks. We all smelled this horrible stench of smoke." "I used to visit my grandmother every couple of months or so — it wasn't a far drive, about 30 minutes. One day, I was at Walmart and randomly thought of her. Walmart was about halfway to her house, and I didn't buy perishables, so I figured, why not stop and see her? As I pull into her driveway, she is sitting on her front porch; she looks up at me and looks back down. I immediately knew something was wrong because she always jumped up to greet me. As I approached, I noticed her lips were blue, and I started calling 911. Her lungs were 80% filled with fluid, and she had two collapsed heart valves. The paramedics told me if I got caught at a red light, she'd probably be dead. She was around 80 years old at the time. She passed away at 95 a year ago." "I have no idea how I got home from a bar one night. I was living on my own and went out with some childhood friends and my brother. The next thing I remember was waking up in my childhood bedroom in my parents' house. My brother and friends were freaking out because they had no idea what happened to me. They didn't really understand what happened. They said I had two, maybe three drinks that got me really drunk, then started making plans to leave when I disappeared. I drove to the bar that night, and they went outside to see if my car was still there, which it was. My parents said four guys they had never seen carried me to the door and helped take me upstairs. My parents knew the people I was out with, but these were different people." "When I was 21, my boyfriend (now my husband) had moved to the outskirts of Pittsburgh. I was in the process of preparing to move there myself and came down for a visit. When we were sleeping the first night, I was grabbed by the arm and pulled out of bed by a black figure. I screamed and fought, and when I came to or woke up, or whatever you call it, I was standing out of the bed right where I had been dragged to. Everyone convinced me it was a nightmare, and I put it out of my mind until I moved into the house." "I was still living at my parents' house, and at around 2:30 a.m., our Rottweiler was sitting at the back door barking, wanting to go out to use the bathroom. I threw on a hoodie and sweatpants and walked to the back door, where I found her growling and staring out the window. It was a little unnerving, but because of the dog, I felt safe enough to step out with her for a minute or two. As soon as I opened the door, she bolted to the corner of our property. On the side of the lawn she chose, we had one standalone lamp post that provided just enough light to get a rough idea of the landscape." "I was sitting on the couch with my then-girlfriend, and an adjacent wall covered the stairs to the second floor. Suddenly, we hear what sounds like someone stomping/running down the stairs. Naturally, I jumped up, assuming someone had broken in, but there was nobody there. We checked every room upstairs, every closet, under every bed — nothing. We then went on to have a bunch of other weird and unexplained shit happen during the three years we lived in that house." "When I was a teenager, I almost died. I was on a cross-country team. I was running through a forest and suddenly got a cramp, which made me stop moving for a second. At that exact moment, I stopped running, and a tree landed exactly where I would've been. That cramp saved my life." "This isn't exactly easy to talk about, and people don't always believe me when I tell them, but here it is: I died. I got drunk and decided to go for a drive to clear my head (don't do that). It was a cool night, just perfect to have the windows down, and I wanted to hear the turbo whistle. It was about 11 p.m., so not too many people out in my area. I took a sharp turn in a 25mph zone at about 60mph about a mile from my house and rolled my truck. It was noisy; I was bloody almost instantly from hitting my nose/head, and I rolled, I'd say, probably four to five times." "It's not so much unexplainable, but by far the freakiest interaction I've had with a stranger. It was 2001. I was 14. I walked to McDonald's since it was five minutes from my house. I waited in line, got my bag of food, and walked over to the soda machine to fill my cup, and I realized they didn't give me a lid (this was one of those plastic souvenir cups, so I couldn't use a lid in the dispenser near the machine). I walked back to the counter and waited for the worker to turn and help me when a guy waiting in line next to me said, 'You better do something tomorrow.'" "Many years ago, I woke up sick and couldn't go to school. It was the only time I had ever been sick for school. Anyway, I had a small black-and-white TV in my bedroom, and I turned it on and watched live as a space shuttle took off and then suddenly blew up. Many years later, I phoned in sick from work, something I had never done before. I turned on the TV just in time to watch live as an airplane flew into a tower." "This happened 25 years ago before everyone had access to cell phones and you couldn't find personal information online. My friend and I were driving when she decided to take a shortcut through an alley. Suddenly, I heard my cellphone ring, which I had just bought the week before. There was a lot of static, and a woman on the other end said, 'You need to get out of there, turn around, and go the other way.'" Did you ever have an inexplicable event happen in your life? Let us know in the comments, or you can fill out this anonymous form.
Los Angeles Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Hundreds gather to remember prominent Minnesota lawmaker and husband slain in their home
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Hundreds of people, some clutching candles or carrying flowers to lay in front of a memorial, gathered outside Minnesota's Capitol on Wednesday evening for a vigil to remember a prominent state lawmaker and her husband who were gunned down at their home. As a brass quintet from the Minnesota Orchestra played, Gov. Tim Walz wiped away tears and comforted attendees at the gathering for former House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, who were killed early Saturday in the northern Minneapolis suburbs. Colin Hortman, the Hortmans' son, embraced Walz and lay a photo of his parents on the memorial. The memorial, which sprang up outside the Capitol after the killings, features flowers, American flags, photos and sticky notes with such messages as, 'Thank you for always believing in me and in Minnesota' and 'We got this from here. Thank you for everything.' Wednesday's vigil also included a Native American drum circle, a string quartet and the crowd singing 'Amazing Grace.' Around the gathering, there was a heavy police presence, with law enforcement blocking off streets leading up to the Capitol and state troopers standing guard. The event didn't include a speaking program and attendees were instructed not to bring signs of any kind. The man charged in federal and state court with killing the Hortmans, Vance Boelter, is also accused of shooting another Democratic lawmaker, Sen. John Hoffman, and his wife, Yvette, at their home a few miles away in Champlin. They survived and are recovering. Federal prosecutors have declined to speculate about a motive. Boelter's attorneys have declined to comment on the charges. Hortman had served as the top House Democratic leader since 2017, and six years as speaker, starting in 2019. Under a power-sharing deal after the 2024 election left the House tied, her title became speaker emerita and Republican Rep. Lisa Demuth became speaker. Walz has described Hortman as his closest political ally and 'the most consequential Speaker in state history.' The Hortmans were alumni of the University of Minnesota, which held a midday memorial gathering on the Minneapolis campus. Rebecca Cunningham, the university's president, spoke during the event about the grief and outrage people are grappling with along with questions about how things got to this point. 'I don't have the answers to these questions but I know that finding answers starts with the coming together in community as we are today,' she said. Funeral information for the Hortmans has not been announced. Vancleave and Golden write for the Associated Press. Golden reported from Seattle. AP writer Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis contributed to this report.
IOL News
a day ago
- Health
- IOL News
Dad-to-be's one last wish to see his baby
SHAY Martin, 29, and Tanner Martin, 30, after the birth of their daughter, AmyLou, in a birth recovery room at Intermountain Health American Fork Hospital last month, in American Fork, Utah. Image: The Washington Post THE baby shower was a mash-up of imaginary worlds: the Mad Hatter's tea party, Neverland, Tatooine. Tanner Martin, the dad-to-be, sat off to the side, a sherpa blanket across his lap, a whip of plastic tubing around his face tethered to an oxygen tank. As he looked around the room filled with young parents and children, his greatest wish was that he would live long enough to meet his own daughter. Tanner was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer in November 2020 at age 25, and since then, life has been a series of starts and stops. During a period of relative stability and hope in the fall of 2024, when a new treatment regimen appeared to be working, Tanner and his wife, Shay, decided to start a family. But the roughly 1,700 days they have been in this fight, the more than 100 ER visits, 30-plus hospitalisations and five surgeries have taken a toll. At the start of the year, Tanner's health took a sharp turn. The couple found themselves facing an unbearable duality: The joy of preparing for their daughter's arrival and the grief of bracing for her father's death. Just days before the baby shower in April, the call came: The last-resort IV chemo regimen that had been keeping Tanner alive had failed. The baby was due in 57 days. This year, more than 200,000 people ages 15 to 49 will be newly diagnosed with cancer, joining more than 2.1 million Americans who were also diagnosed as young adults and are living with the disease. Researchers call them 'Generation C,' or 'Generation Cancer.' Young people of Native American descent like Tanner have the highest rate of colorectal cancer of any racial and ethnic group, and the sharpest rate of recent increase. Tanner was always the kind of person who, his family and friends say, made the world feel friendlier. Shay fell in love with that bright spirit. They were engaged within seven months, married within a year. Tanner's symptoms began with stomach aches in 2020. Nothing terrible, just a persistent soreness that made him feel unwell. It took six months before a specialist suggested a colonoscopy. By that time, Tanner's cancer had spread from his colon to his liver. Stage 4. His doctors were reluctant to put a timeline on his survival, but they were clear that his condition was terminal. He was 25. The first few years of living scan-to-scan were a blur. Tanner was constantly in and out of the hospital. During one particularly brutal eight-month stretch, he developed sepsis, a life-threatening infection, and spent Christmas hooked up to IVs. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Tanner and Shay had always wanted a large family. He had banked his sperm shortly after his diagnosis, knowing that chemo can lead to infertility. During an appointment in October, Tanner's doctor said he was doing great - and it was possible he would live at least five more years (a key milestone in cancer survival). They decided it was time. Around the same time last fall, Shay saw on social media that one of her high school classmates had taken a job as a 'death doula" and Shay reached out. Tanner was not enthusiastic. But he said he soon realized that talking about death and looking at his future burial plot were empowering. So they went shopping for a casket, picked out a headstone with both their names and - with Tanner a devoted Star Wars fan - drafted a funeral plan that would feature a harpist playing its iconic theme. Shay posted a clip on TikTok for loved ones who could not attend. They were not prepared for the outpouring of good wishes from strangers all over the world: 2.6 million views for the headstone-shopping video, 3.5 million for the living funeral. As 2025 began, Shay passed the first trimester of her pregnancy. But with each passing day, their paths diverged. As the baby inside Shay grew, Tanner's health declined. Tanner and Shay had honeymooned in Hawaii in May 2019, and as Tanner's illness progressed, they longed to re-experience the joy of that time. So earlier this year, they booked their babymoon, optimizing Tanner's chemotherapy around it. Shortly after their return, that calm was shattered. Tanner and Shay sat side-by-side in the exam room at a suburban office park on April 15, not touching, their expressions grim as they faced his oncologist. He told them it was time to stop the current chemotherapy regimen - it was causing more harm than good now. But there was one more option: a daily pill called fruquintinib that might slow the cancer's growth. Normally, as pregnancy progresses, resistance in the placenta decreases, but in Shay's case, it had increased. The idea of delivering early - just so Tanner could meet their daughter - had been off the table. Medical guidelines are strict. But a scan had raised enough concern for doctors to reconsider. Shay chose the first date they would allow: May 15. Tanner's phone was filling up with video messages and letters to his future daughter: Stories of his travels. References to his favorite movies and video games. Advice about dating ('Wait until you're 30'). About religion. Reading bedtime stories like 'Guess How Much I Love You,' a picture book about a bunny who loves his dad and how much his dad loves him back. The sicker he got, the more Tanner thought of the future beyond his own life. On a quiet Sunday afternoon at home, he brought up the delicate subject of Shay remarrying. 'I would much rather you be with someone who can take care of you than you be alone. Or my daughter not having a father,' he said. AmyLou Kinyaa' Aanii Martin entered the world on May 15. A nurse immediately scooped up AmyLou, swaddled her and carefully placed her in Tanner's arms. 'I've been so excited to meet you … ' he said, his glasses misted over by tears. 'I love you so much. I've been waiting for this for so long.' Tanner had managed to stay at the hospital for over four hours – a remarkable feat, considering that in recent weeks he'd barely been able to stay awake for more than 20 or 30 minutes at a time. But later that day, after returning home to rest, his body gave out. His new medication had made him wildly ill for weeks. Shay had imagined a joyful home-coming that Saturday – the three of them leaving the hospital together as a new family. Instead, she and her mother brought AmyLou home to Tanner. Wanting to create a beautiful memory, Tanner invited his and Shay's parents over for a father-daughter dance. He wanted to film it as a gift for AmyLou to watch on her wedding day. He chose a cover of the Phil Collins song You'll Be in My Heart, from Disney's Tarzan. Tanner wasn't able to stand, let alone dance, so Shay placed AmyLou on his lap as he worried about holding her steady. 'I'm scared,' he said. 'It's okay,' Shay said, tucking AmyLou close to Tanner. The music played. Tanner leaned in, his arms encircling her tiny body. The Washington Post
