Nittany Lions share the holiday with parents, teammates and coachesC3.ai lifts FY revenue guidance after fiscal Q2 results top estimates
Nittany Lions share the holiday with parents, teammates and coaches
Biggest Santa Dash Liverpool has seen for a decade
Manchester City defender Nathan Ake said his side must “show character” if they are to end their winless streak after Feyenoord scored three times in the final 15 minutes to claim a 3-3 draw in the Champions League at the Etihad Stadium. City are now six games without a victory but appeared to be cruising towards three points before being stunned by the Eredivisie side, who hit them with goals from Anis Hadj Moussa, Santiago Gimenez and David Hancko to fight back from 3-0 down. Two goals from Erling Haaland, one of them a penalty, and one from Ilkay Gundogan had the 2023 European champions three up after 53 minutes as they sought the win that would help to get their ailing season back on track. After the team collapsed in the closing stages, Ake called on his team-mates to show their mettle if their campaign is not to wither away. Speaking to Amazon Prime, he was asked whether he believed the the team’s problem is a mental one. “Maybe it is,” he said. “It is difficult to say. Obviously we have not been in this situation many times but this is where we have to show our character. “When everything seems to go against us and everyone is writing us off, we have to stay strong mentally, believe in ourselves and stick together. “Every season there is a period when they write us off. We have to make sure we stay strong as a team and staff and make sure we get out of it.” The draw leaves City with work to do if they are to secure one of the eight automatic spots in the last 16 of this season’s Champions League. They are currently 15th in the table, two points outside of the top eight, and will need positive results in their next two games against Juventus and Paris St Germain to keep their hopes alive. They then face Club Brugge in their final league match on January 29. The result at least ended a run of five straight defeats in all competitions ahead of Sunday’s Premier League showdown with leaders Liverpool at Anfield. “When you are three goals up it feels like a defeat when you give up three goals at home,” said Ake. “It is tough now, a tough night, but the only thing we can do is look forward to the next one. Liverpool is a big game and it is another challenge to overcome. “(We were) 3-0 up and we played quite well and were under control, but then it all changed. “You just have to stay strong mentally. At 3-1 they then push on but I think we need to go for it a bit earlier so we could keep the pressure on them, but we stayed playing at the back and maybe invited more pressure on us. “Then when you concede the second one there is even more pressure and then we have to stay stronger mentally.”
Don't look now, but the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are knocking on the doorstep of a playoff spot. Despite losing 5 of their last 6 games going into last Sunday, the Bucs now sit just one game back in the standings of the idle Atlanta Falcons after a 30-7 win over the New York Giants on Sunday. According to the NFL.com playoff picture engine , the Bucs have a 54% chance of making the playoffs despite sitting in the 9 seed and out of the playoffs through 12 weeks. That's in large part because the Bucs have the second easiest remaining schedule by win percentage entering last Sunday. That's also because the Bucs are one game back in the loss column of both the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC South AND the Washington Commanders - who lost to Dallas 34-26 on Sunday - for the seventh and final Wild Card spot. The Bucs would lose a tiebreaker to the Falcons by virtue of getting swept in the season series. As such, they'll have to finish ahead of Atlanta at the end of the season since they'd lose a tie. However, they hold a head-to-head advantage over the Washington Commanders for a Wild Card tie by virtue of the Bucs' 37-20 win back in Week 1. That win could end up paying dividends for Tampa Bay. The Bucs stand in position to potentially move even closer this weekend. Tampa Bay plays at Carolina, while the Falcons host a current playoff team in the Los Angeles Chargers. The Commanders host the Titans - who just upset the Texans on Houston - on Sunday. This article first appeared on A to Z Sports and was syndicated with permission.NoneVikings place LB Ivan Pace on injured reserve and sign LB Jamin Davis off Packers practice squad
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Humans have been exploring space for almost 70 years. But if we thought all that experience would make it any easier for us to venture beyond our planet, then 2024 has put that idea to rest. While there have been some major achievements in space exploration this year, including China returning farside lunar samples to Earth for the first time , a record-breaking student-made rocket and the first-ever private spacewalk , there have also been some major blunders from NASA, SpaceX and other organizations from across the globe. From astronauts stranded on board a leaky space station and crashlanding moon landers to a tumbling solar sail, here are 10 of the biggest space mishaps of 2024. Related: NASA delays historic Artemis missions — yet again Astronauts stranded in space The most high-profile and long-running space mishap story in 2024 was probably the saga of Boeing's leaky Starliner capsule, which stranded NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on board the International Space Station (ISS) in June. The defective capsule, which had multiple issues, eventually returned to Earth without passengers in September, after several delays as NASA scrambled to find a solution . Some experts claimed that the astronauts would have been perfectly safe on board the returning vessel. However, this was disputed by other experts. The pair were originally supposed to spend just a week in space, but by the end of 2024 they will have spent 209 days on the ISS and are not scheduled to return until at least March 2025 . Sign up for the Live Science daily newsletter now Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox. ISS leak and 'areas of concern' If Wilmore and Williams' time on board the ISS was not already dramatic enough, in September, a new report highlighted the urgency of a long-running leak aboard the space station and identified 50 additional "areas of concern" related to it. The leak was first identified in Russia's section of the ISS in 2019 and has since spawned several other cracks in that part of the station. The leak and resulting cracks have been temporarily treated with "sealant and patches" but are still letting some air escape into space. The new report warned that a permanent fix is needed to avoid a cascade of other issues and a potential "catastrophic failure" in the next few years. However, the Russian space agency Roscosmos disagrees about the severity of the issue and is so far refusing to fix it , likely because the ISS is scheduled to be demolished in 2030 . Florida house hit by space junk The final and potentially most alarming ISS mishap of note this year was when a mysterious piece of space junk fell back to Earth in March and crashed through the roof of a family house in Naples, Florida . NASA later admitted that the falling debris, which was around 4 inches (10 centimeters) across, was the charred remains of a pallet of batteries ejected from the ISS in 2021 . The debris was expected to completely burn up in the atmosphere, but this did not happen. In June, the house's owners filed a lawsuit against NASA , asking the agency to pay up to $80,000 in damages. This case has not been resolved yet. Moon lander fails While China's lunar samples return mission has been a huge success this year, other agencies and private organizations have had less success in sending spacecraft to the moon in 2024. First, in January, Astrobiotic Technology's Peregrine spacecraft, which was carrying the first private lunar lander to the moon, malfunctioned shortly after takeoff and became stranded in space before eventually falling back toward our planet and burning up in our atmosphere . This launch had already been heavily criticized before takeoff because the spacecraft was attempting to carry human remains to the moon . Later the same month, Japan successfully launched and landed its Smart Lander for Investigating the Moon (SLIM), also known as the "moon sniper" thanks to its incredibly accurate navigation system. However, the spacecraft didn't live up to its nickname and ended up landing upside down . Despite this, the lander managed to survive for several months despite its solar panels being pointed at the ground. In February, another private lander, Odysseus, completed its trip to the moon and became the first U.S. spacecraft to touch down on the lunar surface in more than 50 years . However, the spacecraft, built by Intuitive Machines, also didn't quite stick the landing and ended up faceplanting in the dust , shortly before succumbing to the bitter cold of the lunar night. Tumbling solar sail In August, attention turned to NASA's new Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3), which finally unfurled its massive 860-square-foot (80 square meters) foil sail after launching into space in April. However, the big reveal didn't exactly go to plan. Live Science was the first outlet to report that initial observations suggested the solar sail was uncontrollably tumbling end over end in orbit around Earth, which was later confirmed by the first photos of the giant silver sail . However, mission scientists claimed this had been expected and said the issue would be resolved shortly. But in October, Live Science's sister site Space.com revealed that the main boom holding ACS3's sail had bent and the spacecraft was still tumbling. It is unclear if this problem has been rectified. Mars robots take a hit In January, NASA's Ingenuity helicopter ended its roughly three-year mission after sustaining fatal damage in a crash landing during its 72nd flight on the Red Planet. Subsequent photos revealed a large section was missing from one of the flying robot's rotor blades , damage which cannot be repaired. The helicopter is still technically operational and could have a second life as a weather station over the next few decades. But astronauts might need to go to Mars to retrieve any of the data it collects . NASA's Curiosity rover, which has been tirelessly surveying Mars for more than 12 years, also sustained some serious damage this year. Images released in September show a series of holes in the rover's middle right wheel , including a gaping tear that exposes the inner mechanisms of the wheel's drum. However, the rover shows no immediate signs of being slowed down by its injuries and is currently en route to explore mysterious Martian "spiderwebs." Multiple Voyager issues After more than 90 combined years of relatively smooth sailing through the solar system , and now interstellar space, NASA's historic Voyager probes experienced some pretty major issues in 2024. Voyager 1, which launched in 1977 just a few weeks after Voyager 2, has had the most eventful year of the two probes. The craft spent the first few months of the year transmitting "gibberish” signals . NASA identified the problem and implemented a temporary fix in March when the probe was a staggering 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth. But the problem partially persisted until the agency eventually restored full communication in June. Then, in September, the probe performed a risky maneuver to start relying on different thrusters , after its main propulsion system suddenly went offline. And in October, NASA temporarily lost contact with the probe again when its main radio transmitter broke and it had to switch to a backup. Voyager 2 had a quieter year but also experienced some setbacks, including having to shut off one of its long-running scientific instruments to conserve its dwindling power levels. Falcon 9 rockets grounded (3 times) SpaceX 's iconic Falcon 9 rockets have shattered records in 2024, launching more than 120 times this year — mostly to deploy the company's ever-expanding Starlink megaconstellation . However, these launches have not always been plain sailing. The rocket was temporarily grounded three times in three consecutive months this year as federal agencies investigated various malfunctions with the spacecraft. The first grounding occurred in July when 20 Starlink satellites unexpectedly fell to Earth after being prematurely released into low-Earth orbit by their rocket. The second temporary ban came into effect in August when one of the rocket's reusable boosters exploded during a routine landing . And the third no-flight order came in September when another rocket crashed back to Earth in the wrong part of the ocean . Starship lost (and blowing holes in the atmosphere) While Falcon 9 has been busy in 2024, SpaceX's superheavy Starship rocket has often overshadowed its smaller relative with multiple high-profile launches this year — and the first successful recovery of one of its boosters, which was caught with chopstick-like pincers . However, the larger rocket has also run into a few problems this year, most noticeably when it was lost in the Indian Ocean in March, shortly after making it into orbit around Earth for the first time. The spacecraft was misplaced after a communication error prevented SpaceX from tracking its reentry. This year it was also revealed that Starship's second-ever launch, which happened in 2023, triggered a first-of-its-kind atmospheric hole when the rocket exploded shortly after liftoff. Shattering spacecraft As the space around Earth becomes increasingly crowded, the potential for things to go wrong — and the potential fallout from these disasters — also increases. And 2024 gave us several reminders of this. First, in June, ISS astronauts had to temporarily shelter in their return capsules — including Boeing's leaky Starliner pod — when Russia's Resurs-P1 satellite suddenly broke into more than 100 pieces near the space station. Then in August, a Chinese rocket exploded into more than 300 pieces after deploying the first of the country's "Thousand Sails" satellite constellation in space. It is still unclear exactly what went wrong. However, astronomers are concerned about how extremely bright the new satellites are. And in October, the Boeing-made satellite Intelsat 33e suddenly shattered into more than 20 pieces without warning. Scientists are still trying to figure out what happened. There was also a close call in February when a NASA probe and a Russian communication satellite narrowly avoided colliding with one another , which could have ended up being even more destructive than the examples above.People naturally look for the easiest, quickest, and simplest solution to a problem. When suffering from headaches, most people prefer taking a pill to researching what might be causing the headaches. Taking a pill to get rid of an unpleasant symptom is not wrong. But when symptoms persist, it becomes necessary to delve deeper into the root cause. Sheila Annette Lewis died in August 2023, even after proving that she had acquired natural immunity to COVID, and long after the government’s “safe and effective” claim about the vaccine had been discredited. When it comes to protecting the rights and freedoms of citizens, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms has not proven to be better than the Alberta Bill of Rights. Under Section 1 of the Charter, judges have upheld lockdowns, travel restrictions, and vaccine passports as justified violations of our Charter rights and freedoms. Judges have done so without even explaining in their rulings why they preferred the government’s evidence over the evidence presented by citizens. In theory, Section 1 of the Charter makes it difficult for governments to violate citizens’ rights and freedoms. In practice, judges have used Section 1 like a rubber stamp. Judges have upheld the violations of Charter freedoms while deliberately turning a blind eye to the lockdown harms that damaged so many people. Judges have not required governments to prove in court that their health orders achieved more good than harm. Courts allowed unelected, unaccountable health bureaucrats to issue health orders that violated the rights and freedoms of millions of people, removing the democratic accountability that would otherwise come through a vote of the people’s representatives in Parliament or in a provincial legislative assembly. With courts having effectively rendered the Alberta Bill of Rights useless for protecting the rights and freedoms of citizens, and with judges having turned Section 1 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms into a licence for governments to violate our rights and freedoms, what was Daniel Smith’s United Conservative government to do? There were—and are—no silver bullets available. The court in Ingram v. Alberta ruled that the Alberta Bill of Rights includes an implied “internal limit similar to Section 1 of the Charter.” But this “internal limit” is more like a complete negation of rights and freedoms, which are easily dismissed in the face of a “valid legislative objective.” On Nov. 21, the Alberta government introduced an amendment to the Bill of Rights to add language that is better than the language found in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Charter says violations of rights and freedoms must be “demonstrably justified,” whereas the Alberta Bill of Rights will say (if Bill 24 passes) that restriction on freedoms must be “demonstrably and proportionately justified based on evidence.” To be justified, restriction on freedoms must be proportionate to the actual benefit realized. Governments must support their laws with evidence, not with shoot-from-the-hip modelling and fearmongering. This brings us back to my opening comment about alleviating symptoms versus curing the disease. Occasional headaches can be dealt with by taking a pill, but daily or frequent headaches likely have some root cause that should be discovered and dealt with. Ultimately, the free society is protected not by the words of the Charter or the Alberta Bill of Rights, but only by virtuous citizens who understand freedom in their minds, and who cherish freedom in their hearts. Canada in the 2020s is far removed from this ideal. Widespread support for utterly unscientific lockdown measures were a symptom that showed how Canadians placed very little value on their fundamental freedoms. Another symptom was the willingness of Canadian judges, when upholding violations of Charter rights and freedoms, to follow media reports rather than the evidence placed before courts. The cure for the disease is to create a society and forge a culture in which citizens, politicians, and judges cherish a free and virtuous society. Small improvements to our laws are one way to move the needle towards this goal.