Hasta La Gadget!

WASHINGTON ― Leland Melvin hasn’t been to space since the beginning of Barack Obama’s presidency, but he’s sure glad to be back on Earth now.

The former NASA astronaut joined thousands Saturday on the National Mall for “the March for Science,” a mass protest against an array of President Donald Trump’s policies that critics say attack or dismiss critical scientific evidence.

“I’ve seen the planet from the vantage point of space,” Melvin, 53, told The Huffington Post, ducking into a tent to avoid the chilly drizzle outside. “It’s a beautiful planet, but there are a lot of things that are going on and, without the data, without the science, we’re going to decimate our planet.”

“We’re also going to eradicate our civilization,” he added.

Melvin spoke on behalf of Defenders of Wildlife, a conservation nonprofit where he’s been a donating member for years. The group employs a bevy of biologists and wildlife conservationists at outposts across the U.S.

“Science is the backbone of all we do,” Jared Saylor, a spokesman for Defenders of Wildlife, told HuffPost by phone. “Species are not able to survive unless there’s strong scientific data. That data is utilized for recovery plans and saving habitats.”

The group has stepped up its efforts since Trump and the Republican-dominated 115th Congress took office. In February, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee began talks with Republicans to scale back the Endangered Species Act, the 44-year-old regulatory package they say puts too heavy a burden on businesses.

The move was just one of many by Republican lawmakers to curb environmental or conservation rules. The White House’s proposed budget axed billions from the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other programs that fund research, monitor the climate and preserve nature.

In March, Trump signed an executive order rolling back the chief U.S. policy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and encouraging production of coal and other fossil fuels. In one of his first decisions as EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt scrapped a rule requiring oil and gas drillers to report emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas that lingers in the atmosphere and can increase temperatures up to 86 times more than carbon dioxide, according to some estimates.

The assault on climate rules is meant to spur economic growth, officials say. But the administration’s bludgeon has landed on conservation regulations as well.

Last month, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke lifted a ban on hunting with lead ammunition. Up to 20 million birds and other animals die each year from lead poisoning as a result of the nearly 100,000 tons of lead used by sportsmen, according to estimates from the Center for Biological Diversity. Earlier this month, Trump signed a bill into law that allows hunters to kill wolf pups and hibernating bears in their dens.

That may be of particular concern to Melvin. The one-time National Football League draftee became internet famous earlier this year when his official 2009 NASA photo, featuring him in his space suit with his two adopted dogs, Jake and Scout, went viral.

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 Manchester Watch Works aka MWW makes small batch watches that are sometimes homages to historic timepieces and are sometimes entirely new design. This model, the Iconik 3 – the third in the Iconik line – is based on the Blancpain TR-900, a military spec diver’s watch used by navies worldwide in the 1960s. These waterproof workhorses are sought after collectables and the Iconik… Read More

These days, when you buy a premium model smartphone, Android or otherwise, there’s an expectation that the device will be supported by its manufacturer for, at a minimum, the next one to two years. Unfortunately for a number of Nexus 6P owners, that is hardly the case. Google and Huawei, the Nexus 6P’s manufacturer, are now at the center of … Continue reading

It’s difficult to talk about “The Handmaid’s Tale,” Hulu’s adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s famous dystopia, without bringing up the story’s eerie relevance to contemporary politics. It is, after all, centered on a dictatorial regime hellbent on policing women’s bodies.

This was certainly the case during a panel discussion at Tribeca Film Festival on Friday night, during which many of the show’s cast and crew were asked how they felt about the political aspects of the series, set to premiere on April 26. When asked whether or not the story’s feminist themes in particular were part of the reason some of the actors were attracted to the project, the answers were somewhat surprising. 

“Any story about a powerful woman owning herself in any way is automatically deemed feminist,” Madeline Brewer, who plays handmaid Janine, told audiences after a screening of the show’s first episode. “This is a story about a woman. I don’t think this is feminist propaganda. I think this is a story about women and about humans. The three people hanging on the wall were all men. This story affects all people.”

“I really echo what Maddie said before,” Elizabeth Moss, who plays Offred, said. “It’s not a feminist story, it’s a human story, because women’s rights are human rights. I never intended to play Peggy [from ‘Mad Men’] as a feminist and I never expected to play Offred as a feminist.”

A few members of the audience, including MTV culture writer Rachel Handler, took to Twitter to express their concern with Moss and Brewer’s claims.

In response, another Twitter user thought it wise to see what Atwood, the keeper of the source material, thought:

Atwood didn’t necessarily refute the cast’s claim, but rather edited it to be more in line with a human rights-centric definition of feminism, one that many contemporary feminists already adhere to.

“It’s not only a feminist story,” she’d have them say, “it’s also a human story.”

In an earlier essay for The New York Times titled “Margaret Atwood on What ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Means in the Age of Trump,” the author weighed in on whether or not she considered her novel to be feminist.

[I]s “The Handmaid’s Tale” a “feminist” novel? If you mean an ideological tract in which all women are angels and/or so victimized they are incapable of moral choice, no. If you mean a novel in which women are human beings — with all the variety of character and behavior that implies — and are also interesting and important, and what happens to them is crucial to the theme, structure and plot of the book, then yes. In that sense, many books are “feminist.”

Moss has taken a similar position in past interviews. On stage on Friday, she described her character’s actions and thoughts as being motivated simply by a desire to survive and reunite with her daughter ― not necessarily a cemented vision of feminism.

“For me, I don’t approach anything with a political agenda,” she added. “I approach it from a very human place, I hope.”

While several members of the cast seemed less willing to discuss politics point blank during the Tribeca panel, Ann Dowd, who plays a complex villain in “Handmaid’s Tale,” did not mince words. When asked what kind of impact she’d like the show to have on viewers. “I hope it has a massive effect on people,” she said. “I hope they picket the White House and I hope they’re wearing [’Handmaid’s Tale’] costumes.”

Her advice to fans who want to view “The Handmaid’s Tale” as a politically-charged warning was made clear: “Stay awake. Stay awake. And don’t for a minute think, well, I’ll get involved some other time. I won’t worry about the midterm election. I’ll just… no, no, no. Don’t wait. Just stay awake.”

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Follow-ups to the highest-grossing movie of all time were originally slated to start coming out next year. But recent statements by director James Cameron disclosed that there’d be a delay for the coming wave of Avatar sequels. Now we know the exact dates that Cameron and his team are aiming for, starting with…

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