2017 should be an exciting year for science, Abercrombie and Fitch may be undergoing something of a rebirth, was 2016 the year of celebrity deaths?
The sun, Saturn and satellites: Science stories to watch for in 2017
Every year brings with it new hopes, possibilities... and scientific breakthroughs.
And while a lot of what's ahead in science is the stuff that none of us can predict, it doesn't hurt to look forward to the stuff we can.
George Dvorsky is a contributing editor for Gizmodo.
In a recent story, he highlighted a few of what he thinks will be the biggest science stories in 2017.
The Cassini-Huygens probe to Saturn
"The mission controllers back on Earth, they're not going to be able to control it anymore. In an effort to bring it out in a final blaze of glory, but also not risk it crashing on one of the moons and contaminating those moons with any human elements, they're gonna crash it into Saturn itself. And starting already it's going through its final maneuvers, but in April it's going through it's Grand Finale phase. The probes going to be getting closer and closer, even within the ring system on the planet. Mark your calendars because on September 15th of 2017, the probe is going to plunge into the atmosphere."
NASA's Juno satellite near Jupiter
It arrived there earlier this year and it's making a series of grand orbits around Jupiter. And it's going to get really underway in the coming months. It's armed with a battery of instruments and key to this particular mission is scientists want to get a sense of what this massive gas giant looks like on the inside. So it's going to be conducting a number of scans accordingly. Later this year we should expect scientists to start producing what are going to be three-dimensional maps of Jupiter. So we'll get a sense of how it's atmosphere is composed, how it breaks down in terms of its layers as you get deeper into it. Also, we're going to find out a little bit more about what's producing its beautiful and majestic auroras.
A total solar eclipse
"It's the first ever total solar eclipse that's only going to be visible in the United States since the time of the American revolution. That's also going to be the first in 99 years that's going to sweep the entire continental United States, stretching from Oregon all the way through to North Carolina. And the band from which it will be visible as a total solar eclipse, meaning that the whole sun will be blotted out by the moon, that will be a 62-mile wide corridor stretching from coast to coast. it should be in its total eclipse state for roughly a few minutes. But there is good news for virtually everyone else on the entire continent in that it will be visible at least as a partial solar eclipse. Mark that one down on your calendar: that's going to be on August the 21st next year."
The future of the Zika virus
"In the United States, there are concerns that it's made its appearance in Florida and most recently in Texas. This will still kind of be in the news as we follow it. On a positive side, the more you study it the more we see it, the more we'll understand it. Maybe we can mitigate it spread its effects. The things we should watch out for in 2017 is the results of some of the clinical trials of some of the vaccines that are being tried to combat Zika. We may not see actual immunizations happen in 2017, we're going to start to see those first few vaccines emerge that are going to potentially be beneficial for humans."
La Niña
"Now that El Niño has come and gone we can expect its partner in crime to emerge which is La Niña. and unlike El Niño which is a warming event, La Niña is a cooling event. It's going to bring cooler temperatures to various parts of the world. We're not going to see those same heat records that we saw in 2016 repeat itself in 2017, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't still be concerned about the various effects of climate change."
Science under President-elect Donald Trump
"There's reasonable concern that some of his early choices for his various cabinet position aren't necessarily going to be environmentally friendly. There's, of course, the climate-skeptics Rick Perry and Scott Pruitt and if these are any kind of sign, it's just that the environment is going to be of little concern to the incoming administration. The folks coming in are concerned with making sure that there are going to no more tight regulations when it comes to the extraction of oil and gas."
To hear the full conversation click the blue player above
The year in celebrity deaths and how those deaths affect the public
The front page of the New York Times website Wednesday morning features not one, not two, but six segments dedicated to the late Carrie Fisher.
The actress passed away Tuesday morning at the age of 60.
Fisher joins a long list of celebrity deaths this year: George Michael, Leonard Cohen, David Bowie, Prince, Gene Wilder, Muhammad Ali...just to name a few.
So many famous people left us this year that one 2016 New Yorker cartoon featured an angel advising Death: "Maybe cool it on the beloved celebrities for a bit"
For more on how the passing of these very public figures has resonated with the public, Alex Cohen spoke to Jesse David Fox, senior editor at Vulture.
To hear the full segment, click the blue play button above.
Jim Jarmusch's 'Paterson' gently explores the life of a modern poet
Filmmaker Jim Jarmusch has been making quirky, independent movies since 1980, but in college he studied poetry.
"I'm from Akron, Ohio and as a teenager I first read some wild poems by like [Charles] Baudelaire and [Arthur] Rimbaud in translation and some Walt Whitman. And as a teenager, it really opened me up to, I don't know, poets being very non-conforming," Jarmusch said in a recent interview with Take Two's Alex Cohen. "Reading Baudelaire as a teenager it was like wow, these guys are really like, they're like badass, you know?"
Poetry is what drives his latest film called 'Paterson.' It's set in the real life town of Paterson, New Jersey, home to poets such as William Carlos Williams and Allen Ginsburg. But, this new film focuses on a fictional poet: a bus driver by trade, played by Adam Driver, whose name just so happens to also be named Paterson.
The film was both written and directed by Jarmusch.
To hear the entire conversation between Jarmusch and Cohen about the film, click on the audio at the top of the post.
The Styled Side: Will you buy Abercrombie in 2017?
It's supposed to be "Out with the old and in with the new" as we approach the end of the year.
But one mall staple is hoping you'll see it with new eyes — Abercrombie & Fitch.
"It was the teen retailer that all the kids aspired to shop at in the '90s," says Michelle Dalton Tyree of Fashion Trends Daily. "It was the cool kid of the mall. Emphasis on was."
Part of its meteoric rise was due to former CEO Mike Jeffries, who got America buying the company's clothes by branding them as exclusive and only for the cool kids.
"A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely." he told Salon in 2006. "Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny."
But like the kid that was once cool in high school, it's now the uncool one a decade later — and it's in trouble, too.
Abercrombie is the nation's most disliked retail brand, according to the 2016 American Satisfaction Index.
The company also closed 200 locations in the past two years, and reported the 15th straight quarter of declining sales among its stores.
"Fast fashion stores like Zara and H&M are the biggest threat to Abercrombie," says Tyree.
Now, the company has launched an ambitious campaign and redesign in order to win back shoppers.
Step one is revamping the experience of walking into a store — so, say bye-bye to the overly sexy ads and shirtless young men greeting you.
"The stores, which were known for being dark and have a clubby vibe, have lightened up, too," adds Tyree.
A new ad campaign is also trying to undo the idea that Abercrombie is exclusive.
President Fran Horowitz said in a statement: "Our new brand reflects that confidence and independence of spirit as well as our own dedication to a more diverse and inclusive culture."
So, one of the billboard ads that you can now see in places in Los Angeles includes this:
"Clearly, they are trying to say, 'This is NOT the old Abercrombie you knew,'" says Tyree. "I thought it was very interesting that they were addressing their old controversial image head on."
But the company may run into hurdles when it comes to the price of their clothes.
"Kids now have a lot of other places to spend their money," says Tyree, and the valuable teen demo of today values experiences. "If it's a choice between Coachella and clothes, then Coachella wins out."
So, teens may opt to use their limited fashion budget at a fast fashion outlet, and those tend to be trendier than Abercrombie, too.
"They have been slowly expanding the clothing assortment, but they still don't have this quite right," says Tyree. "They have to add more lifestyle elements to the mix — like towels and bags — as well as more athleisure wear.
"But I'd bet on an Abercrombie comeback is inevitable, so don't count Abercrombie out just yet!"
Gun shops in Northern California: Looking towards the future
Way back in 1998, lawmakers up in Northern California's Alameda county passed a gun control ordinance for unincorporated areas within the county.
It prohibited new gun shops within 500 feet of residential neighborhoods, schools, liquor stores, or another gun shop.
Shop owners sued, charging that the county was restricting the constitutional rights to buy and sell firearms.From there, things got complicated. The case was dismissed, reinstated...and yesterday a federal appeals ordered yet another rehearing.
All this is important to gun rights advocates and to proponents of gun control - because there are similar ordinances in a lot of other California cities and counties.
The San Francisco Chronicle's Bob Egelko, who has written about this, spoke to A Martinez for more.