Christmas flash mobs have become a thing over the years, but this one from 2010 remains one of the best ones ever. It happened at a Macy’s department store in Philadelphia. A bunch of different singing groups in the area posed as shoppers and at an appointed time, they all simultaneously began singing the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ from Handel’s Messiah. All of the other shoppers in the store stopped what they were doing to listen, absolutely transfixed. Here’s the YouTube description of what happened: On Saturday, October 30, 2010, the Opera Company of Philadelphia brought together over 650 choristers from 28…
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Grammy-winning superstar Beyoncé is poking a bit of fun at Netflix – and her fans – before her big Christmas halftime performance.On the eve of the “Ya-Ya” singer’s anticipated performance at the Baltimore Ravens vs. Houston Texans game, a new promo featuring the 43-year-old debuted.The promo includes a nod to the streaming issues that plagued the Jake Paul/Mike Tyson bout in November.Article continues below advertisementBeyoncé Jokes About Live Buffering Issues In New Netflix PromoIn the promotional clip that Beyoncé released via her social media profiles on Tuesday, a crowd cheers offscreen as the “Cowboy Carter” vocalist slowly comes into view.The…
Iran on Tuesday (Dec 24) denounced what it termed Israel’s “brazen admission” of having killed former Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran earlier this year, accusing the country of having carried out a “heinous crime” and defending its missile-strike response. “This brazen admission marks the first time the Israeli regime has openly confessed to its responsibility for this heinous crime,” said Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations Amir Saeid Iravani in a letter addressed to the UN secretary-general. On Monday, Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz acknowledged his country was responsible for the killing, the first time an official admission had…
State Department unit established in 2016 closes after US Congress fails to extend funding amid Republican accusations.A leading United States government agency that tracks foreign disinformation has terminated its operations, the State Department has said, after Congress failed to extend its funding following years of Republican criticism. The Global Engagement Center (GEC), a State Department unit established in 2016, shuttered on Monday at a time when officials and experts tracking propaganda have been warning of the risk of disinformation campaigns from US adversaries such as Russia and China. “The State Department has consulted with Congress regarding next steps,” it said…
The Saints (5-10) hit rock bottom in Week 16’s 34-0 loss to the Packers (11-4).There aren’t any quick fixes to make the Saints a contender in 2025, but the franchise can begin laying the groundwork for its next playoff-caliber team this offseason.Here are three things New Orleans should do to lift itself out of the NFL’s lower class.1. Restructure front officeAs New Orleans begins its rebuild, owner Gayle Benson should consider starting at the top. General manager Mickey Loomis has been in his post since 2002. Per Stathead, the Saints have the league’s ninth-most wins during that span (208), only…
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. They say great minds think alike — or maybe they land on similar ideas because they are observing the same world all around them. Every year, as my team and I curate the absolute best books of the year, we discover some themes across the 1000-plus submissions we consider.We call them themes — and they reflect a combination of the cultural zeitgeist of what’s happening in business today and the hot topics on the minds of entrepreneurs and business professionals right now. Among books published this year, we read about the importance…
A multicoloured diet can lead to a brighter complexionColdsnowstorm/Getty Images This article is part of a special issue investigating key questions about skincare. Find the full series here. Your skin is under constant assault. Exhaust fumes, cigarette smoke, particulate pollution, heavy metals and ozone can generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) that attack DNA, rupture cell membranes and unravel life’s essential proteins. Perhaps the most harmful are UV rays, which generate ROS as well as disrupting DNA directly. The human body can mop up ROS and neutralise them, but it needs molecules found in fruit, vegetables and leafy greens to do so.…
The bald eagle has landed in the U.S. code after President Joe Biden signed a bill Tuesday making the predator the official national bird.Congress passed the measure with unanimous support.Although the bird of prey is at the center of the Great Seal of the United States, it was never formally recognized as the country’s official bird. Some of the Founding Fathers — Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson — were tasked with creating a national seal but simply couldn’t come to an agreement.In 1782, a version of the seal with a bald eagle was submitted by Secretary of the Continental…
IEEE Spectrum’s most-read energy stories of 2024 centered on creative ways to produce, store and connect more carbon-free energy. Our readers wanted to know more about power beaming, new kinds of nuclear fusion, vertical solar farms, powerful ways to drill deeper into the Earth’s crust to harness geothermal energy, and grid hardware that connects renewable energy projects. Big Tech’s bold moves to secure nuclear energy for future data centers dominated international headlines in 2024, and readers liked Spectrum’s tech-focused coverage of the topic. Cheers to the top 10 energy stories of 2024. Illustration: Tavis Coburn Imagine a massive solar farm…
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Chancellor Rachel Reeves has admitted she has a “huge” task to turn around the economy, after growth flatlined in the third quarter and business groups warned of a tough start to 2025.Mel Stride, shadow chancellor, said the “warning lights are flashing” after the Office for National Statistics said GDP did not grow in the three months to September, down from its initial estimate of a 0.1 per cent expansion.This reflected flat output in the dominant services sector in the aftermath of Labour’s…