Daniel Roebuck’s Christmas movie ‘Saint Nick of Bethlehem’ premieres Sunday at Roxy Theatre

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

The ever-genial Daniel Roebuck is preparing for his latest movie premiere, the sold-out opening of “Saint Nick of Bethlehem” on Sunday at Northampton’s Roxy Theater. In it he plays a grieving man who rediscovers joy by portraying Santa Claus, and to explain what is expected of someone taking on that role, Roebuck — as one does —  told a story about Elvis Presley.“Years ago my brother-in-law and sister wanted to renew their marriage vows at the chapel where Elvis and Priscilla got married in Las Vegas,” the Bethlehem native said Wednesday by phone from Chicago, where he was preparing to shoot a segment of the kitschy syndicated horror movie showcase “Svengoolie.”“We were all in Elvis costumes, the whole wedding party,” Roebuck said. “There were 25 Elvises of varying ages walking through the casino and people wanted to take pictures. If you’re dressed as Elvis, you can’t say, ‘Get away from me.’ You give them the show.”So it is with Santa, he said. Donning the red suit and white beard instantly makes the portrayer an avatar of jollity and cheer, with the attendant responsibility of behaving that way.“I understand the allure of putting on the costume and being that person,” Roebuck said.So, eventually, does his character, the forlorn Nick McNulty, whose wife has left him after their son’s unexpected death. He has neglected himself, gaining weight and letting his beard grow to the point that he begins to resemble Santa.McNulty has so thoroughly internalized his depression that when he is out shopping with his mother and learns the cashier’s name is Dolores, he casually — and cluelessly — tells her it is Spanish for “pain and sorrow.”“That’s awful,” she says.“Oh no, awful is in Greek,” McNulty says. “In Greek it means grief.”Daniel Roebuck, as Nick, in a scene from “Saint Nick of Bethlehem.” (Courtesy Tammy Roebuck)Daniel Roebuck, left, and co-director Spencer Folmar on set of “Saint Nick of Bethlehem.” (Courtesy Tammy Roebuck)Marsha Dietlein, as Mary, and Daniel Roebuck as Nick in a scene from “Saint Nick of Bethlehem.” (Courtesy Tammy Roebuck)Show Caption1 of 4Lehigh Valley native Daniel Roebuck stars in “Saint Nick of Bethlehem,” a feature film shot at various locations in the Valley (Courtesy Tammy Roebuck)ExpandCircumstances lead McNulty to begin playing Santa Claus to local children. He also rekindles a relationship with his first love.The tone of the movie, Roebuck said, is reminiscent of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” the Frank Capra classic in which Jimmy Stewart’s everyman character discovers, through divine intervention, that his seemingly mundane life was important in ways he never understood.Roebuck said he hopes “Saint Nick” grows to have something else in common with the older film — status as a holiday classic, the kind families sit down to year after year. Like all his films, it has a strand of religious sensibility woven into the narrative, but isn’t a religious film per se.The movie is the fourth that Roebuck, a veteran character actor best known for his roles in “Matlock,” “The Fugitive” and “Lost,” has filmed in the Lehigh Valley.Like the earlier films — “Getting Grace,” “Lucky Louie” — part of the fun for Valley natives is seeing local landmarks. The “Saint Nick” trailer is loaded with them, including some stunning aerial nighttime shots of downtown Bethlehem. Other spots include St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital in Fountain Hill and the Kiffle Kitchen Bakery in Bath.“Saint Nick” is based on the true story of a Clearfield County man, Allen Smith, who began playing Santa in the wake of his son’s death. Roebuck’s friend, filmmaker and producer Spencer Folmar told him the Smith story and the pair, who had long wanted to do a project together, decided to collaborate on a script.“It made sense to set Allen’s story in the Christmas City,” Roebuck said. “It elevates it to where it belongs.”The production moved quickly under the codirection of Roebuck and Folmar. It was only last Nov. 13 that Roebuck announced the project at a Hotel Bethlehem news conference and the crew shot the first scene.“Movie-wise, that’s very fast,” Roebuck said. “We just looked at it and thought, ‘If we don’t get it out this year, we’ll have to wait a year to put it out.’ ”Apart from Roebuck, the most familiar member of the “Saint Nick” cast is Cathy Moriarty, who made her acting debut in Martin Scorcese’s “Raging Bull.” She plays McNulty’s mother. Other cast members include Valley residents Jennifer Porrata and Kathy Patterson.Roebuck said “Saint Nick” is another opportunity to show the world the beauty of the Lehigh Valley. He has long wanted to establish a robust cinema community in the region and hopes the film will spur more support of that goal.While public officials and many business owners have supported Roebuck’s projects, “we’ve just got to get economic development people a little more involved in what we do,” he said. “I take the movies around the country and I’m the de facto film commissioner of Bethlehem. One day I’m going to make that a legitimate title.”After Sunday’s premiere, “my mania is getting people into the theaters,” he said. “Why is it important that people go to the movie in theaters? If we really want to show off Bethlehem, I need to get the movie seen here. Other film bookers will see our numbers and say, ‘I want in on that.’ ”Roebuck is still trying to develop a suitable distribution deal for his other Valley-shot film, “The Hail Mary,” the story of a nun who convinces a troubled loner to coach a high school football team.He has more projects in store.“The next one we’re planning for the Valley is about veterans,” he said. “It’s four grumpy old men who do the honor guard at the cemetery and in their midst we set a 21-year-old kid who’s defaced the cemetery.”After the premiere, the movie will begin what Roebuck called a “Christmas season residence” throughout the Valley. It will open Nov. 22 as a regular engagement at the Roxy, playing until Nov. 29. The Thanksgiving night showing will include Roebuck greeting and interacting with the audience.Also Nov. 29, the movie will open at the ArtsQuest Frank Banko Alehouse Theater. It will play Dec. 5-8 at Shankweilers Drive-In and Dec. 13-19 at the State Theater in Boyertown. Other theaters will be added in the coming weeks.Morning Call reporter Daniel Patrick Sheehan can be reached at 610-820-6598 or [email protected].

Two arrested for deadly PMB business robbery

Business News

The duo was shot and injured after targetting a jewellery store at Park Lane Centre in the CBD on Thursday afternoon.”Two armed suspects reportedly entered a business premises on Thursday, 14 November 2024 and attempted to steal jewellery,” says KZN police spokesperson Robert Netshiunda. READ: Three more men sought for Fort Hare bodyguard murder”A shootout ensued between the shop owner and the suspects. The shop owner sustained multiple gunshot wounds and was rushed to hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries on arrival. “Both suspects, aged 29 and 32 years old, are in hospital under police guard. They will appear in the Pietermaritzburg Magistrate’s court once they have been declared fit to stand trial.”Find us on social mediaFollow the ECR Newswatch WhatsApp channel hereWe are also on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter)

Who should be responsible for upholding professional standards in travel?

Travel

Most TTG readers believe new travel agents should have mandatory training (Credit: iStock / South_agency) Most agents believe new-to-trade professionals should undergo mandatory training and obtain certifications before joining the industry.

That was the consensus from a TTG poll of more than 400 travel professionals after the issue was thrust into the spotlight by a TTG Luxury interview with Amanda Teale, founder of luxury lifestyle brand Minerva Private Travel and Lifestyle Management.

Teale said too many new agents weren’t booking flights or using GDS systems. “They’re hotel bookers – they’re not advisors,” she said in a call for higher standards across the sector.

Her sentiments certainly struck a chord; 94% of the 416 poll respondents called for agents to be qualified, while 90% said the profession was under threat from a rise in so-called “non- professional” agents. One respondent said agents shouldn’t be allowed to promote their margins to encourage others to join their agency or be able to sign up with a firm to access discounted rates.

Travel Counsellor Jo Shayler agreed: “If someone discloses their commission in public, they’re breaking their contract and the supplier needs to police that,” she told TTG.

TravelTime World director Ashley Quint added: “There’s an element to the way some companies recruit agents that devalues the industry. I don’t think any one company is the problem – it’s just the way some of these models have developed that’s caused issues.” A number of respondents said the uptick in non-professional agents joining the industry risked reducing the significance of the occupation to that of a “side hustle” with no regard for the expertise and knowledge required to sell both simple and complex holiday products.

“There’s too much emphasis on [the profession] being an easy side job to make a bit of money, rather than professionalising the industry and making it sound like an actual career,” added Quint. “We’re credible people who know what we’re doing – we have expertise, we know the industry inside out.”

Baseline competence

One possible solution would be to reinstate industry qualifications such as Cotac, the Certificate of Travel Agency Competence, or Abtac, the Association of British Travel Agents Certificate, which have in the past acted as a benchmark for those wishing to enter the sector.

Another suggestion among the poll respondents was a system to grade agents on their knowledge and skills. “Bronze would be for new-to-travel [agents] so you could only book short-haul,” commented one. “Once you’ve completed your training, you become silver and can book long-haul and only then, after additional training, you achieve the gold standard, where you can book multi-centre holidays.” A majority of agents believe there should be baseline training to join the trade (Credit: iStock / Pekic) Gary Lewis, chief executive of The Travel Network Group, noted there were benefits to “setting a baseline of knowledge and competence”, but stressed any mandatory training should be flexible enough to “recognise the diversity in how businesses operate” and also differentiate between newcomers and experienced professionals seeking to enhance specific skills.

David Moon, the Advantage Travel Partnership’s head of business development, agreed mandatory training for agents before they qualify “would have its benefits”, such as ensuring entrants are well versed in industry regulations, safety protocols and customer service best practices. However, he added training could be a barrier to entry at a time of heightened costs for agencies, particularly smaller businesses.

Matt Harding, Travel Counsellors’ director of franchise sales, said travel should be for everyone, “but not anyone”. “Businesses must look to their own attraction and selection methods to protect the reputation of travel professionals in the first place,” he told TTG, adding the industry should focus more on the multiple skills required to be an agent and the range of ways they can be acquired rather than just formal qualifications.

New neutral body?

There’s also the question of who would be in charge of administering certification or ensuring agents are trained to a minimum standard. Ben Casey, founder of Out of this World Travel, along with many other poll respondents, suggested Abta, owing to the strength of the brand publicly.

An Abta spokesperson said the association and its members recognised well-trained professionals were a vital resource. They stressed Abta provides online training and events “to motivate and retain talented staff” looking to build careers in travel, adding the association was also addressing structural issues around talent, such as the defunding of level three travel and tourism courses. Travel Counsellors’ Matt Harding said more attention needed to be given to the multiple skills required to be an agent Not everyone, though, believes the burden should fall on Abta. “Abta has no teeth,” said Shayler. “I don’t understand how Abta could introduce a qualification or set a standard if it’s not mandatory to be an Abta member.”

Quint said “the most logical” approach would be for the government to create a body “similar to the likes of Ofcom and Ofgem” to regulate the industry. Another option could be a chartered institute.

Shayler agreed, adding: “It should be a neutral body and, in order to have some teeth and some power, it would need to have some kind of government force behind it.”

‘Why I support Cop29’s ‘polluters pay’ principle – even as a global travel business leader’

Travel

It has also given us a snapshot of climate action in the tourism industry globally – an industry that is predominantly made up of small- to medium-sized businesses (SMEs).

Of the 1,000-plus SMEs that make up our supply chain in 26 destinations, only 59 are measuring their carbon footprint; 26 are using 100% renewable energy, while 20 are carbon neutral.

I would guess a similar problem exists across the industry, yet few businesses are comprehensively measuring and reporting on their supplier profile.

’Destinations must play their part’

So what can we do to encourage action? We are launching our supplier decarbonisation program to support hotels in taking the first step towards decarbonisation by measuring their emissions, starting with providers in Vietnam, Thailand, Morocco and Ecuador. And we are sharing this data with destinations and global bodies to inspire action and investment.

I also welcome the call at Cop29 for more destinations to sign up to the Glasgow Declaration, as this will support the global commitment to halve emissions by 2030, ensure more transparent reporting against short- and long-term goals and investment in the transition, and encourage stronger collaboration.

For the global travel industry, progress on decarbonisation is tied to destinations adopting renewable energy and associated green infrastructure, so this is important. We simply cannot reach our carbon reduction targets without destinations doing their part. It’s not all bad news – we are seeing adoption of EVs in many countries, helping us to offer more sustainable transfers. But the gap between intention and action is significant.

I want to make it clear Intrepid is far from perfect. As a global tour operator, decarbonising – while also growing our business – poses a constant challenge. But that’s why we’re leaning on our legacy of acting on the climate crisis for nearly two decades to make our commitment stronger than ever.

Cop29 comes with its fair share of important criticisms, not least an underrepresentation of women and too little being done too late, but we need these forums to accelerate our shared commitments and to put our industry under the microscope.

The “polluter pays” idea is about forcing those at fault for the climate crisis to take responsibility, and it’s about time we extended the same expectation to the tourism industry.

James Thornton is chief executive of Intrepid Travel, which has previously shared with the industry its blueprint for carbon measurement.

Can scientists make a universe from nothing

Science and Health

Zeeya Merali is a science writer and author of A Big Bang in a Little Room. She also edits the Foundational Questions Institute website, where she blogs and cohosts a physics podcast. A version of this interview originally appeared in season two of the century podcast In Search Of.Let’s start with this mind-blowing idea that scientists are trying to create a universe in a lab. What did you learn about it?
They sound like supervillains, don’t they? They’re trying to create a universe in the laboratory.
When I was working at New Scientist as a reporter, I found this paper called something like, “The Universe Out of the Monopole in a Laboratory.” Oftentimes physicists will talk in terms of metaphors. For example, there’s this massive particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, where they’re trying to re-create conditions that are similar to those in our early universe. So they’ll say things like, “We’re trying to make a Big Bang,” but they don’t literally mean it.

What was weird about this paper, I realized, was that they did mean it. They literally meant it. They wanted to take a hypothetical particle called a monopole, stick it into a particle accelerator, and fire other particles at it with a whole load of energy. It’s going to take more energy than we are currently capable of, but in theory, that would trigger the particle into inflating into a whole new universe.It would create its own space and time, separate from ours but connected to ours. Looking at it from the outside, we would just see this tiny particle, which would show up like a tiny black hole spraying off other little particles, and that’s all we would know about it. Within it, it would be expanding to astronomical scales, big enough to house galaxies and stars and planets and life forms. It would be connected to our universe very briefly by a little wormhole, before that wormhole broke and we lost contact with this little baby universe entirely.This is something that could happen in a particle accelerator like the Large Hadron Collider maybe one day in the future. This paper was like blueprints for how to do that. It blew my mind. First of all, I thought these people must be crazy. Papers are not all equally credible. Some scientists write more serious papers than others. Some are more speculative, and some are just bad. So I sat there thinking, “Is this actually a good paper? Is this just a load of nonsense?” And then I looked through the paper and the references and I suddenly understood that, actually, this is a well-established program with a long history behind it. So I decided to look into it further.There’s a lot of conversation about how the universe might emerge from “nothing.” What is “nothing”?
It’s a bit of a loaded term. I had heard this said a lot: physicists have shown that the universe can be created from nothing. I met up with Alex Vilenkin, one of the people who actually came up with this. His calculation was based on the laws of quantum theory, which tell you that empty space is never really, truly empty. So even if you create a vacuum in the lab, there’s always some uncertainty about what’s happening. For a fleeting second, you can have pairs of particles, like an electron and a positron, popping up in the vacuum. They exist for less than a nanosecond, have a little look around, and then smash back into each other and disappear. In a sense, a vacuum itself is full of these little undulations, these tiny little frothing particles that disappear and reappear and disappear and reappear. That’s established. Physicists are comfortable with that.Vilenkin asked, How far can you take that? Let’s say you start with a tiny little nugget of a universe. How might it inflate into a bigger universe? Then he said, let me think about this backward and make that tiny little nugget smaller and smaller. And he ended up making it so small that it disappeared. But because it was a quantum universe with quantum rules that he was thinking about, even when it disappeared completely—there was no nugget of a universe anymore, there was no space, there was no time—there was a probability that the universe could just pop out of “nothing” and then start to grow. That’s what people usually refer to when they say that physics has shown that you can have a universe created from nothing.

But what does “nothing” mean here? I understand you’ve got no space, no time, no matter. But Vilenkin is saying that the quantum laws of physics still apply. There are these abstract laws, this handbook of how matter and time and space should behave should they ever pop into existence. Vilenkin said yes, that’s right: these rules are still there. He said that he put “nothing” in quotes when he wrote his paper because it’s not really nothing.I don’t know if that’s convincing to you or not. To me, it’s weird to think about why there would be one certain rule book that exists for the potential of applying to something that may pop into existence one day. Vilenkin had an answer, which maybe was just as equally perplexing. He said, well, when you think about it, it’s weird that these physical laws would apply to nothing, but at the same time, it’s kind of weird that these physical laws apply to anything, even when there’s something in the universe. Why do they do that? Nobody knows.One scientist that you interviewed identifies a field of consciousness in the inner life that he says is something like photons and electromagnetic fields, and he doesn’t just mean this metaphorically. What do you make of that?Theoretical physicist Abhay Ashtekar is famous for having worked on an idea for how space-time itself is generated. So we talked about how the universe can come from nothing. He wanted to get an answer to how to actually go from nothing and then stitch together the space and time that we have around us.Before I interviewed him, somebody told me I should ask him about his experience meditating, because he has a very serious dedication to meditation. That’s not hugely common among physicists—or perhaps it would be better to say, it’s not hugely common for physicists to feel comfortable talking about that.Let me tell you a bit about the physics first, because you’d asked about how the physics connects to his inner life. Quantum fields are very well understood. We talk about, for instance, light being made up of photons or little particles, and we talk about an electromagnetic field that these photons come out of. You’ve got some soup on the stove and you turn up the heat and suddenly it gets so vigorous and you can see a kind of roiling surface. And those bubbling excitations would end up acting like little particles of light.So you’ve got this kind of field and then you’ve got these bubbling things coming out of it. It’s very similar to what we were talking about with the vacuum and things bubbling out of the vacuum. It’s very natural for physicists to think about fields, or nothing that pervades everything and things popping out of it.Then you have Ashtekar’s more speculative ideas in physics. Let’s say you have nothing. Again, this is one of these sneaky things where physicists will say “nothing,” but then they’ll say, “but there are certain rules that apply.” And for Ashtekar, there’s this sense of geometry that applies. Because you have a sense of geometry, you can have loops of geometry that can suddenly pop out of this empty field of nothing. These loops that jump out of nothing can somehow link together to create space-time, like they’re these building blocks of space and time.

So we’ve already gone from something that’s very well established in physics to something that’s very speculative, which is how space and time could be created. It’s an interesting idea that’s been around for many decades now, and quite a few physicists like it and are investigating it.And then we get into something which is even more speculative than that: I started to ask Ashtekar about his meditative experiences. Being a physicist, he thought about what was happening in very physical terms. He was taking ideas from Eastern philosophy, in which there is a universal entity that we are all part of, in which the individual is part of a greater whole. As he was picturing it, you have a field like the electromagnetic field that pervades the whole universe, but now this is a field of consciousness, of one shared consciousness, and each of our consciousnesses is an excitation out of that field.It’s funny because for physicists it’s easier to think in terms of the physics and talk about consciousness by analogy, whereas I think everybody else is probably like, “Why are you telling me about the electromagnetic field?” I think it’s something that anybody who has tried meditating or mindfulness or something like that has probably experienced, which is that if you can quieten your mind, you can sink back into what he described as this “consciousness field.” For some Eastern philosophies, it’s this sense of actually sinking back into the shared consciousness that we all are part of.I thought that was an absolutely beautiful analogy. And so I said to Ashtekar, This is a lovely way of thinking about it, but you don’t literally mean that there is a field of consciousness. And he was like, No, I absolutely do. He’s a serious physicist. And he was saying, Well, I think that we could one day discover this consciousness field.Ashtekar hasn’t worked out the mathematics of it yet, but Einstein posited space-time pervading the universe more than a hundred years ago, and it took a hundred years for experiments to detect ripples in that fabric of space-time. So just because it takes a very long time for people to work out how to actually find the physical proof of this, it doesn’t mean that there’s nothing there.Ashtekar meant all of that very literally. Meditating certainly has a real, physical effect, so it’s not so outlandish that he should think about it in very serious scientific terms and in terms of something that he’s used to handling mathematically. I’ve never heard anybody else try to do that. Again, because people who are looking into these questions, cosmologists and physicists, are so used to thinking on these scales, it doesn’t seem weird to them to say, “Well, if I can think of an electromagnetic field that is pervading all of space, why can’t I think of a consciousness field doing the same thing?”  
 

Can scientists make a universe from nothing

Science and Health

Zeeya Merali is a science writer and author of A Big Bang in a Little Room. She also edits the Foundational Questions Institute website, where she blogs and cohosts a physics podcast. A version of this interview originally appeared in season two of the century podcast In Search Of.Let’s start with this mind-blowing idea that scientists are trying to create a universe in a lab. What did you learn about it?
They sound like supervillains, don’t they? They’re trying to create a universe in the laboratory.
When I was working at New Scientist as a reporter, I found this paper called something like, “The Universe Out of the Monopole in a Laboratory.” Oftentimes physicists will talk in terms of metaphors. For example, there’s this massive particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, where they’re trying to re-create conditions that are similar to those in our early universe. So they’ll say things like, “We’re trying to make a Big Bang,” but they don’t literally mean it.

What was weird about this paper, I realized, was that they did mean it. They literally meant it. They wanted to take a hypothetical particle called a monopole, stick it into a particle accelerator, and fire other particles at it with a whole load of energy. It’s going to take more energy than we are currently capable of, but in theory, that would trigger the particle into inflating into a whole new universe.It would create its own space and time, separate from ours but connected to ours. Looking at it from the outside, we would just see this tiny particle, which would show up like a tiny black hole spraying off other little particles, and that’s all we would know about it. Within it, it would be expanding to astronomical scales, big enough to house galaxies and stars and planets and life forms. It would be connected to our universe very briefly by a little wormhole, before that wormhole broke and we lost contact with this little baby universe entirely.This is something that could happen in a particle accelerator like the Large Hadron Collider maybe one day in the future. This paper was like blueprints for how to do that. It blew my mind. First of all, I thought these people must be crazy. Papers are not all equally credible. Some scientists write more serious papers than others. Some are more speculative, and some are just bad. So I sat there thinking, “Is this actually a good paper? Is this just a load of nonsense?” And then I looked through the paper and the references and I suddenly understood that, actually, this is a well-established program with a long history behind it. So I decided to look into it further.There’s a lot of conversation about how the universe might emerge from “nothing.” What is “nothing”?
It’s a bit of a loaded term. I had heard this said a lot: physicists have shown that the universe can be created from nothing. I met up with Alex Vilenkin, one of the people who actually came up with this. His calculation was based on the laws of quantum theory, which tell you that empty space is never really, truly empty. So even if you create a vacuum in the lab, there’s always some uncertainty about what’s happening. For a fleeting second, you can have pairs of particles, like an electron and a positron, popping up in the vacuum. They exist for less than a nanosecond, have a little look around, and then smash back into each other and disappear. In a sense, a vacuum itself is full of these little undulations, these tiny little frothing particles that disappear and reappear and disappear and reappear. That’s established. Physicists are comfortable with that.Vilenkin asked, How far can you take that? Let’s say you start with a tiny little nugget of a universe. How might it inflate into a bigger universe? Then he said, let me think about this backward and make that tiny little nugget smaller and smaller. And he ended up making it so small that it disappeared. But because it was a quantum universe with quantum rules that he was thinking about, even when it disappeared completely—there was no nugget of a universe anymore, there was no space, there was no time—there was a probability that the universe could just pop out of “nothing” and then start to grow. That’s what people usually refer to when they say that physics has shown that you can have a universe created from nothing.

But what does “nothing” mean here? I understand you’ve got no space, no time, no matter. But Vilenkin is saying that the quantum laws of physics still apply. There are these abstract laws, this handbook of how matter and time and space should behave should they ever pop into existence. Vilenkin said yes, that’s right: these rules are still there. He said that he put “nothing” in quotes when he wrote his paper because it’s not really nothing.I don’t know if that’s convincing to you or not. To me, it’s weird to think about why there would be one certain rule book that exists for the potential of applying to something that may pop into existence one day. Vilenkin had an answer, which maybe was just as equally perplexing. He said, well, when you think about it, it’s weird that these physical laws would apply to nothing, but at the same time, it’s kind of weird that these physical laws apply to anything, even when there’s something in the universe. Why do they do that? Nobody knows.One scientist that you interviewed identifies a field of consciousness in the inner life that he says is something like photons and electromagnetic fields, and he doesn’t just mean this metaphorically. What do you make of that?Theoretical physicist Abhay Ashtekar is famous for having worked on an idea for how space-time itself is generated. So we talked about how the universe can come from nothing. He wanted to get an answer to how to actually go from nothing and then stitch together the space and time that we have around us.Before I interviewed him, somebody told me I should ask him about his experience meditating, because he has a very serious dedication to meditation. That’s not hugely common among physicists—or perhaps it would be better to say, it’s not hugely common for physicists to feel comfortable talking about that.Let me tell you a bit about the physics first, because you’d asked about how the physics connects to his inner life. Quantum fields are very well understood. We talk about, for instance, light being made up of photons or little particles, and we talk about an electromagnetic field that these photons come out of. You’ve got some soup on the stove and you turn up the heat and suddenly it gets so vigorous and you can see a kind of roiling surface. And those bubbling excitations would end up acting like little particles of light.So you’ve got this kind of field and then you’ve got these bubbling things coming out of it. It’s very similar to what we were talking about with the vacuum and things bubbling out of the vacuum. It’s very natural for physicists to think about fields, or nothing that pervades everything and things popping out of it.Then you have Ashtekar’s more speculative ideas in physics. Let’s say you have nothing. Again, this is one of these sneaky things where physicists will say “nothing,” but then they’ll say, “but there are certain rules that apply.” And for Ashtekar, there’s this sense of geometry that applies. Because you have a sense of geometry, you can have loops of geometry that can suddenly pop out of this empty field of nothing. These loops that jump out of nothing can somehow link together to create space-time, like they’re these building blocks of space and time.

So we’ve already gone from something that’s very well established in physics to something that’s very speculative, which is how space and time could be created. It’s an interesting idea that’s been around for many decades now, and quite a few physicists like it and are investigating it.And then we get into something which is even more speculative than that: I started to ask Ashtekar about his meditative experiences. Being a physicist, he thought about what was happening in very physical terms. He was taking ideas from Eastern philosophy, in which there is a universal entity that we are all part of, in which the individual is part of a greater whole. As he was picturing it, you have a field like the electromagnetic field that pervades the whole universe, but now this is a field of consciousness, of one shared consciousness, and each of our consciousnesses is an excitation out of that field.It’s funny because for physicists it’s easier to think in terms of the physics and talk about consciousness by analogy, whereas I think everybody else is probably like, “Why are you telling me about the electromagnetic field?” I think it’s something that anybody who has tried meditating or mindfulness or something like that has probably experienced, which is that if you can quieten your mind, you can sink back into what he described as this “consciousness field.” For some Eastern philosophies, it’s this sense of actually sinking back into the shared consciousness that we all are part of.I thought that was an absolutely beautiful analogy. And so I said to Ashtekar, This is a lovely way of thinking about it, but you don’t literally mean that there is a field of consciousness. And he was like, No, I absolutely do. He’s a serious physicist. And he was saying, Well, I think that we could one day discover this consciousness field.Ashtekar hasn’t worked out the mathematics of it yet, but Einstein posited space-time pervading the universe more than a hundred years ago, and it took a hundred years for experiments to detect ripples in that fabric of space-time. So just because it takes a very long time for people to work out how to actually find the physical proof of this, it doesn’t mean that there’s nothing there.Ashtekar meant all of that very literally. Meditating certainly has a real, physical effect, so it’s not so outlandish that he should think about it in very serious scientific terms and in terms of something that he’s used to handling mathematically. I’ve never heard anybody else try to do that. Again, because people who are looking into these questions, cosmologists and physicists, are so used to thinking on these scales, it doesn’t seem weird to them to say, “Well, if I can think of an electromagnetic field that is pervading all of space, why can’t I think of a consciousness field doing the same thing?”  
 

Gladiator II: historians on the fate of the real Roman royalty featured in the film

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

Warning: this article contains spoilers for Gladiator II.

Twenty-four years after Gladiator, Ridley Scott has returned with a sweeping sequel to his epic tale. Thanks to cutting-edge CGI, Rome’s grandeur – and its downfall – have never looked so breathtaking.

Gladiator II picks up years after the original film, taking place during the reign of the co-emperors Caracalla (played by Fred Hechinger) and Geta (Joseph Quinn) in the early 3rd century AD. The film follows Lucius (Paul Mescal), the son of Russell Crowe’s Maximus (protagonist of the first Gladiator movie). Now an adult, he’s been living in the ancient northwest African kingdom, Numidia, under the guise of a new identity to escape Roman politics.

When Roman forces, led by Tribun Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal), invade Numidia, tragedy strikes. Lucius’s wife is killed and he is captured. Purchased as a slave by the Roman Macrinus (portrayed masterfully by Denzel Washington), Lucius is transported to Rome. There he is forced into the brutal world of gladiatorial combat, fighting to bring his captor profit in the arena.

But which of these characters were based on real ancient people – and how far did their fates match the arc they have in Scott’s sequel?

Read more:
Gladiator II: a wavering thumbs up for a rehashed sequel that can’t escape the ghost of Russell Crowe

The trailer for Gladiator II.

The opening invasion scene in Numidia, set in AD200, diverges from the real history. After Julius Caesar’s victory at the Battle of Thapsus in AD46, Numidia (modern-day Algeria) was divided. The eastern part formed the province Africa Nova and the western region around Cirta became a Roman colony. By the early 3rd century AD, the Roman emperor Septimius Severus (not depicted in the film) made Numidia an independent province.

The film’s portrayal of a rebellious Numidian city seems more like a playful nod to the French comic series Asterix and Obelix, where a small village defies Roman domination. Instead of reflecting the complexities of Roman imperialism, the film adopts the trope of a tiny, indomitable group holding out against an empire in a heavily fortified harbour city.

This blending of myth and history evokes a comic strip sensibility rather than a serious historical narrative, prioritising spectacle over accuracy.

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History rewritten for the big screen

Set in AD200, the film places Caracalla and Geta at the centre of political intrigue. This is despite the fact that the real imperial heirs were still only children, around nine and ten years old at the time.

Portraying the young boys as cunning political operators is a stretch that even the most imaginative screenwriter might struggle to defend. Furthermore, in AD200, their father, Septimius Severus, was still very much alive and in control of the empire, continuing his rule for another 11 years.

Then there is Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), the second daughter of Marcus Aurelius. The film casts her in a prominent role though, inconveniently, in real life she had been executed around AD181 or 182 – nearly two decades before the events of Gladiator II.

The portrayal of Macrinus is another historical misstep. Although he rose to power under Septimius Severus and Caracalla, Macrinus did not become emperor until AD217.

Denzel Washington plays Macrinus in the film.
Landmark Media/Alamy Stock Photo

The film dramatises Macrinus’s role by showing him guiding Caracalla in Geta’s murder and even directly assassinating Caracalla in the Circus Maximus, adding a fictional layer to historical events. But in fact, while Macrinus was involved in the conspiracy to eliminate Caracalla, he did not physically kill the emperor himself.

Historical accounts such as those by Cassius Dio or Historia Augusta do not support the movie’s portrayal of Macrinus stabbing Caracalla in such a public setting.

Caracalla was actually murdered in 217AD during a journey from Edessa in Turkey to Carrhae in Syria. The assassin, a soldier named Martialis, struck Caracalla with a fatal blow, reportedly at the behest of Macrinus’ supporters, who sought to elevate him to the throne.

Leaving aside the inaccurate timeline, the film is an opulent portrayal of Roman lifestyle in the mid-imperial period. With impressive battle scenes, gladiator duels, grand festivities and stunning costumes, there’s still plenty to enjoy, even for the most fastidious history buff.

Annual Business Expo Showcased Chamber Members in Chillicothe

Business News

More than 60 companies set out tables at one of the biggest annual Ross County business events on Wednesday…acented by pizza.

The Chillicothe Ross Chamber of Commerce hosted the 2024 Annual Business Expo at its regular location, Triple Crown Family Fun Center off Bridge Street. The sports arena was converted to a pavilion for display tables, samples, raffles, and a DJ/MC.

Bobbi Kellough, Member Relations Coordinator, describes the event in my video.

President and CEO Mike Throne was absent, though. Kellough said the Chillicothe Ross Chamber had been nominated for a Torch Award by the Better Business Bureau of Central Ohio, and Throne w there.

Kellough said the next big event by the Chamber is probably February’s “Chocolate Walk.”

Find more in the article on the Scioto Post, including a video interview.

Kevin Coleman covers local government and culture for the Scioto Post and iHeart Media Southern Ohio. For stories or questions, contact Kevin Coleman or the iHeart Southern Ohio Newsroom.

Weekend Binge Alert: Top New Shows And Films Hitting Screens Today; Check List Below

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

Share this News:New Delhi, 15th December 2024: The weekend is at the doorstep and so is the new content. Every week, theaters and Over-The-Top (OTT) platforms are fully prepared for the release of one better than the other movies and web series.
The Sabarmati Report
Actor Vikrant Massey’s film ‘The Sabarmati Report’, inspired by a true incident from Gujarat, is all set for release. The movie is set to release in theatres today, on Friday (15th November). The trailer of the movie has created tremendous hype among the fans and after the bumper success of ’12th Fail’, the excitement of Vikrant’s film is high. Apart from Vikrant, Raashi Khanna and Riddhi Dogra will also be seen in important roles in this movie.
Operation Blood Hunt
After making a splash in theaters, the Hollywood film ‘Operation Blood Hunt’ is now ready for release on the OTT platform. The terrifying story and thrill of a bloodthirsty werewolf, the thriller movie is adorned with actors like Quinton Rampage Jackson, Sonia Couling, and Louis Mandylor, and will be released on the OTT platform Lionsgate Play today, on 15th November.
Paithani
Veteran actresses Mrunal Kulkarni and Bigg Boss 18 fame actress Isha Singh will be seen in the web series ‘Paithani’. The interesting story of the mother-daughter relationship will be streamed on the OTT platform ZEE5 from today onwards.
Freedom At Midnight
The story of the history of the partition of the country will be seen in the political drama web series ‘Freedom At Midnight’. This series starring Siddhant Gupta, Chirag Vohra, and Rajendra Chawla will be released on Friday on the famous OTT platform Sony Liv.
Gladiator 2
After a long wait of 24 years, the sequel of Hollywood superstar Paul Pascal starrer film ‘Gladiator’ i.e. ‘Gladiator 2’ is going to be released on the big screen today, on 15th November. This is a historical drama period film, for which fans are very excited.
Silo Season 2
Season 2 of Hollywood’s popular science fiction series ‘Silo’ will also be released this Friday on the OTT platform Apple TV Plus. The series is based on the novel ‘Silo Trilogy’ by famous English writer Hugh Howey. Many actors like Rebecca Ferguson, Rashida Jones, and David Oyelowo will be seen in lead roles in this series.

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Vorokhta, Urych included in list of best tourist villages according to UN Tourism 2024

Travel

13:58
15.11.2024

Two villages from Ukraine for the first time entered the list of 55 best tourist villages in the world in 2024 according to the global initiative of UN Tourism, the press service of the State Agency for Tourism Development of Ukraine reports.

Head of the Tourism Agency Maryana Oleskiv noted that the inclusion of Ukrainian villages in this list opens up positive prospects for the nominees. “Urych and Vorokhta will not only receive mentoring from UN Tourism and potential financial support from foreign donors, but will also attract attention to their cultural, natural and gastronomic riches of both Ukrainian and foreign travelers,” the head of the agency emphasized.

As reported, in early May 2024, the Ukrainian Tourism Agency sent a package of documents from five Ukrainian villages – Vorokhta, Zelena Roscha, Kvasy, Olyka and Urych – to UN Tourism. The applications of Ukrainian contestants were selected by representatives of the Advisory Council from more than 260 participants from more than 60 countries. The winners were announced at the 122nd session of the Executive Council of the United Nations Tourism Organization, which was held in Cartagena (Colombia). Official awards for Urych and Vorokhta will be brought to Ukraine from Colombia by representatives of UN Tourism – Director of External Relations Beka Jakeli and Director of the European Region Cordula Wohlmuter. The winners will be awarded on November 28 at the third National Tourism Summit in Lviv.

UN Tourism launched the global initiative The Best Tourism Villages in 2021.