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Princeton research activity hits new milestone

National survey highlights vibrancy and growth of campus research




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Shane Campbell-Staton is showing the world how human activity is shaping evolution right now

The Princeton professor's research follows elephants, wolves and urban lizards. He hosts the new PBS series, "Human Footprint."




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New study evaluates the climate impact of the $400 billion Inflation Reduction Act 

The landmark 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has committed nearly $400 billion to mitigating climate change. Nine research teams across the U.S, including a Princeton team led by Jesse Jenkins, have now modeled the law's effect on U.S. carbon emissions.




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Princeton astrophysicist helps find record-smashing black hole born in the universe’s infancy

Two NASA telescopes helped an international team of astrophysicists peer far enough back in time to gain new insight on how black holes form.




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Galactic ‘lightsabers’: Answering longstanding questions about jets from black holes

Scientists have long known that magnetic fields probably extract energy from spinning black holes — they just didn’t know how.




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A Princeton humanities project shares a vast digital 'Miracles of Mary’ collection of centuries-old African stories and art

Professor Wendy Laura Belcher and a primarily Ethiopian team of researchers and translators have brought new insight and access to Marian miracle stories — all now available on a website.




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Buckyballs in space: Weichman combines astrochemistry and spectroscopy to identify complex space molecules

Princeton chemists are expanding our understanding of the universe by identifying complex molecules in interstellar space.




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Crystal Place Tri 2022

So this was my first triathlon, so I was a bit worried about how it would go. The swim was always going to be the challenging part, I had been doing swim lessons for the 6 weeks previously and only the week before I managed to swim 100m of front crawl without stopping. So the … Continue reading Crystal Place Tri 2022




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McCarter Theatre's 'Arts & Ideas' is attracting extraordinary artists to engage with faculty and students

Events this fall include a sold-out conversation with Icelandic-Chinese recording artist Laufey.




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Princeton Professor Ruha Benjamin awarded MacArthur ‘genius’ grant

The MacArthur Foundation honored Benjamin for her critical analysis of how technology perpetuates inequality and for ‘championing the role of imagination in social transformation.'




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Saien Xie wins fellowship supporting revolutionary approach to energy-efficient electronics

Xie, a materials engineer, won a 2024 Packard Fellowship for creating atomically thin materials. “Thinking and inventing down to an atomic level like Saien is doing, most spectacularly I should add, is the future,” said James Sturm, ECE department chair.




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Internet researchers reach beyond academia to close major security loophole

Princeton engineers and industry leaders have squelched a threat that had lurked for years in the internet’s encryption system.




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Chemist Giacinto Scoles, 'a superb scientist and an even better human being,' dies at 89

Physical chemist Giacinto Scoles, Princeton’s Donner Professor of Science, Emeritus, died in Sassenheim, the Netherlands, on Sept. 25 with his wife of nearly 60 years at his side. He was 89.




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Medievalist William Chester Jordan receives Barry Prize for Distinguished Intellectual Achievement

Jordan will also receive the American Historical Society's Award for Scholarly Distinction in January.




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Academic Publisher Introduces Camouflaged Editions?

I was one of the outside readers1 for a volume in Cambridge University Press’s enormous “Elements” series, The New Witches of the West, by Ethan Doyle White. (Link is to Amazon US) To find that title, go to the main … Continue reading




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Lunacy — A Pagan Music Classic Reissued

Download links (Spotify, YouTube, Apple) here. Learn more about the Pagan History Project here.





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Does Machine Quilting Enhance Quilts that are otherwise Hand-Sewn?

Oh dear, I'm sorry to have neglected posting here for so long. Although many suitable topics and photos have passed through my mind and camera, there just hasn't seemed to be a nice chunk of time available for putting it all together. Today is the day to begin again!

Inspired by Alice, by Marilyn Lidstrom Larson of Willow City, ND (detail of border)

For the past two months, it's been all about quilts and quilting for me, with beading taking a bit of a back seat for a while. My quilt and travel buddy, Lunnette, and I flew to Ontario, California for The Road to California, which is a ginormous quilt show with more than 1,000 quilts on exhibition and over 200 vendors. We gawked (and spent all of our allotted budget) for 3 whole days, barely noticing our fatigue and sore footies.

There are several intriguing subjects to cover, inspired by our experiences there. Today's post is about traditional applique and machine quilting.

Inspired by Alice, by Marilyn Lidstrom Larson of Willow City, ND
photo credit (for this photo only): Road 2 CA

Inspired by Alice, by Marilyn Lidstrom Larson, detail showing back

Inspired by Alice, by Marilyn Lidstrom Larson, detail of center

Inspired by Alice, by Marilyn Lidstrom Larson, detail of center quilting
Inspired by Alice, shown in the photos above, won the first prize of $1,000 in the Traditional, Wall, Applique category of the main (judged) exhibit! Take a moment to study the pictures, click on them to enlarge them, notice the way the applique and machine quilting compliment each other. Also think about what this might have looked like if the maker, Marilyn Lidstrom Larson, had hand-quilted her work the way Alice, her grandmother (and inspiration for the central portion of the quilt), would have done. I love this quilt, totally love it, and believe it deserved the award it received.

At the same time, it saddens me that in all the juried/judged shows I've seen (and entered) recently, there is no category specifically for hand sewn quilts... quilts which are hand-pieced, hand-appliqued, hand-embroidered, and/or hand-embellished, and finished with hand-quilting. Nope, hand-sewn quilts are judged right along with machine-sewn quilts. In my observation, machine-quilted pieces are the ones that win almost all the prizes, even in the traditional categories. Why is that? Is hand-quilting considered passe, a thing of our grandmothers' time? Is it because machine-quilting has more pizzazz in the viewers' and makers' eyes? Is it because the machine manufacturers are huge financial supporters of these shows and providers of much of the prize money? Is it because the machine manufacturers run the training programs for judges?

OK, let's look into this subject a bit more. Later, I'll tackle the subject of the influence of the machine manufacturers. For now let's consider this question:

Does machine-quilting enhance quilts that are otherwise hand-sewn?

Interestingly, at Road to California this year, there was a small exhibit of hand-sewn quilt tops, made long ago (most of them in the early 1900s) that were not quilted or layered with back and batting by the maker. These tops were given to modern machine quilters to finish, and the results were displayed. Studying them gave me a greater perspective on the above question.

I found myself looking at them through the imagined eyes of the original maker. Would she have been pleased with the finished quilt?  As you look at some of the quilts below (and in a few cases, detail shots), ask yourself, if you had hand-sewn the top, would you have liked the way it looks today? Does the machine quilting enhance the work of the original maker? I've numbered the quilts (in no particular order), so you can respond (regarding specific quilts) in the comments if you wish. As always, you can click on the photos to enlarge them.
#1 - Vintage Top with Modern Machine Quilting

#1 - Vintage Top with Modern Machine Quilting, detail

#2 - Vintage Top with Modern Machine Quilting

#3 - Vintage Top with Modern Machine Quilting

#3 - Vintage Top with Modern Machine Quilting, detail

#3 - Vintage Top with Modern Machine Quilting, detail

#4 - Vintage Top with Modern Machine Quilting

#5 - Vintage Top with Modern Machine Quilting

#5 - Vintage Top with Modern Machine Quilting, detail
What do you think of these? Which tops are enhanced by the machine quilting? Are there any that don't look right to you? If so, why not?

Since there is quite a difference looking at the photos as opposed to seeing the actual quits, my responses to these questions might be different than yours. To my eyes, #1 offers a believable connection and balance between the quilting and the original applique or piecing. It felt like the original maker would have done something very similar, only by hand.

I didn't want the quilting to overpower the original as it does in #3 and #5. Both of these were so stiff from the dense quilting, that it would be like sleeping under a piece of cardboard. Both of them made me feel disjointed. The lovely charm and grace of the original work seemed lost. I'm not sure why, but the background color created by machine quilting with colored thread in #5 seems almost weird... maybe because it's such an unlikely choice for the period.

Number 4 has the look of a chenille bedspread, both pretty and more-or-less "of the period." It works for me, even though the quilting is dense. The same is true for #2.

More from Road to California coming soon...




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I'm Back to Painting! Decorative Painted Papers for Bookmaking and Paper Arts

I learned to create decorative painted papers from Paulus Berensohn, Albie Smith, Lynne Perrella, Anne Bagby, and others by taking wonderful workshops from them in the 1990s, and soon adapted their techniques to making books with beadwork inserted into the covers, like the one below. I use my painted papers on the book covers and for signature covers, which look great with this type of binding.

But after moving to the island where I've lived for 20 years now, I gradually got into quilting and textile arts, kept the beadwork going, and cut way back on painting. Until now!

Inspired, cajoled, and arm-twisted by one of the Textile Guild members, who wants to learn how to paint papers and make books like mine, I agreed to teach a workshop (2 days of painting and 2 days of bookmaking) for the guild members. Of course, since I hadn't painted for many years, I first had to get back into practice. Yay! What fun I've been having, painting in my shed (thankfully heated). The paper below is my favorite of about 20 painted in the last two weeks. The size is 18 x 24 inches. (Please click to see the details!)

And below are two more to go with it.  The paper above will be used for a book cover, even though it will be hard for me to cut it up. The two papers below will be cut (horizontally) into thirds, and used as signature covers. For those unfamiliar with bookmaking, a signature is a section of papers within a book. Each of the six signatures in my book will be covered with this decorative paper.


It's a fun, playful, and experimental process to paint like this, easier for me than it would be to paint figuratively (landscape, still life, or people). With this type of painting, I just mix matte medium with a color or two of acrylic paint, and apply it by rolling, stamping, stenciling in layers. I keep adding layers until I like it, at which point it's a finished paper. There is always at least part of each paper that pleases me enough to use it for bookmaking and paper arts.

These are the basic supplies and tools I use to paint the papers:

1.) Although acrylic paints and this method can be used to paint on almost any surface or paper, I usually paint on 80-90# drawing paper to make decorative papers.

2.) I prefer using a roller to apply background colors or glazes, rather than a brush. My favorite, purchased online from Dick Blick Art Supplies, is a 2.2"  dense foam roller.

3.) Assorted stamps and stencils. I carve a lot of my own stamps, as you will see below, but sometimes also use commercial stamps. Note that commercial rubber stamps with fine detail for stamping with inks do not work well with acrylics, as the paint clogs the fine lines, ruining the stamp.

4.) Assorted materials, such as a notched adhesive-spreader, coarse sea-sponge, webbed food packaging materials, and bubble wrap are useful to print, texture, and stencil.

5.) Acrylic paints. I use heavy-body paint (rather than fluid acrylics) of student-grade or better quality.

6.) Matte medium and glazing medium (slow drying) are added to extend the paint.

I know, maybe you're thinking I should do a video tutorial. OK. You set it up, and I'll do it. In the meantime, I'd rather be painting...  Here are three more recently painted papers for your viewing pleasure (I hope).



The one directly above is my attempt to emulate batik fabric from India. I had a bedspread back in the hippy 60s with a burgundy design on a mustard yellow background, the memory of which was the inspiration for this paper. I carved all of the stamps used to make it.

I love to carve my own stamps, and sometimes cut my own stencils as well. Let's take a look at that process. It's quite easy really, requiring only a block of Speedy-Carve (or other high-density rubber carving block), and a Speed-Ball Carving tool. Designs can be free cut, drawn right on the carving block, or transferred from a tracing. Here's a fairly decent tutorial on the stamp carving process.

Designs? Well, everywhere I look I see possibilities for carving more stamps! Recently, visiting a fabric store with my quilting buddies, I spied a fat quarter of batik fabric with a luscious design. Here is the fabric:

And here is the stamp I carved from a tracing I made of the central flower. The stamp is the same size as on the fabric, about 3" in diameter.

I also cut a stencil, which you can see below. A friend had a commercial stencil of these three leaves, which I really liked. After borrowing her stencil to use on one of my papers, I traced the painted image, and cut out my own stencil. The tool in this image is a Speed-Ball cutter, which I use to carve the rubber to make stamps.

You've already seen (way above) the whole sheet of paper I painted using just this stamp and stencil, but here's a detail. If you click to enlarge, you can see more about how I paint in layers, first the background colors, next the leaves, then a different color over-stencil on the leaves, and last the flowers.

If you like to play with paint, you might want to give it a try! Here are just a few more of my recently painted papers to tempt you...





I'll be teaching a 2-day bookmaking workshop in mid-May using papers like these to create three different books. There may still be a spot or two available in the class. If you are interested, you can contact me for more information.

You may want to visit my website to see more about my handmade books and painted papers. And there are several earlier posts here on Beadlust with pictures of books made with painted decorative papers and beading by my students, as well as other related topics. Here are a few of them:

  1. Wedding book
  2. Lisa's book (from a workshop I taught in Wisconsin); her fabulous website is here.
  3. Susan's book (from a workshop I taught in Wisconsin)
  4. painting papers for making Christmas cards
  5. Using symbols in our art and symbols in acrylic painting  
  6. Using these techniques to paint with dyes on fabric and more fabric paint/dye examples

Susan Anderson took my bookmaking/painting/beading workshop twice at the Coupeville Art Center. These are the papers for her first book, and if you click to enlarge, you can also see her finished book.

And, to close this post, here is a photo of some of the handmade books I've created over the years... most of them utilize decorative painted papers and bead embroidery.

Thanks for sticking with me to the end of this long post :)!




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Gilbert Harman, ‘a towering figure in American philosophy’ and one of the longest-serving faculty members in the University’s history, dies at 83

Gilbert Harman, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, died at his home in Princeton on Nov. 13 after a long illness with Alzheimer’s. He was 83.




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Jacques Fresco, 'a major figure in the birth of modern molecular biology,' dies at 93

Jacques R. Fresco, the emeritus Damon B. Pfeiffer Professor in the Life Sciences and an emeritus professor of molecular biology, died on Dec. 5. He served on Princeton's faculty for 53 years before retiring in July 2013.




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In McCarter Theatre’s ‘Dreaming Zenzile,’ an accomplished alumna's own dream comes true

Tanyaradzwa Tawengwa, a Princeton alumna and current Hodder Fellow who's a composer, vocalist and scholar, has come full circle since the day she sat in a McCarter audience 10 years ago and made a wish to one day be up on that stage. 




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MacMillan forms charitable fund with Nobel Prize money

In honor of his parents, Chemistry Nobel Laureate David MacMillan has founded The May and Billy MacMillan Foundation to provide educational opportunities for financially disadvantaged students in Scotland.




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Barton named Princeton’s assistant vice president for facilities operations




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Gene Jarrett takes us back to the Gilded Age in his new biography of Paul Laurence Dunbar

The book joins others by Princeton faculty on The New Yorker list of the year’s best. Jarrett gives a talk at Labyrinth Books on Thursday, Nov. 3.




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Thirteen faculty members transfer to emeritus status

Thirteen Princeton University faculty members were transferred to emeritus status in recent action by the Board of Trustees.




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Board approves new faculty appointments

Two full professors and four assistant professors have been newly appointed to the Princeton University faculty.




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Board approves 14 new faculty appointments

The Princeton University Board of Trustees has approved the appointment of 14 faculty members, including two full professors, two associate professors and 10 assistant professors.




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Board approves 22 new faculty appointments

The Princeton University Board of Trustees has approved the appointment of 22 faculty members, including five full professors, one associate professor and 16 assistant professors.




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Princeton SPIA's Center for the Study of Democratic Politics helps democracy flourish across the aisle

CSDP brings voices from across the political spectrum into conversation with Princeton social scientists and students. 




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Guided tour of "Monsters and Machines: Caricature, Visual Satire, and the Twentieth-Century Bestiary"

A 30-minute guided tour of the latest exhibition in the Milberg Gallery in Firestone Library at Princeton University. Tours meet in the lobby of Firestone Library. The exhibition is open Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday in the Milberg Gallery, Firestone Library. Open to the public. “Monsters and Machines: Caricature, Visual Satire, and the Twentieth-Century Bestiary” will focus on the use of bestiary – animal or zoological motifs – in visual satire during the period between World War I and the end of the Cold War. Drawing from PUL’s rich collections of 20th-century posters, illustrated periodicals, and ephemera from North America, Europe, Asia, Eurasia, and the Middle East, the exhibition will look at works of weaponized visual humor created by and aimed at exponents of different national cultures and ideologies. The exhibition will run from September 12 to December 8, 2024.




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Apartheid isn’t the Question, Settler Colonialism is: Black South African Thought and the Critique of the International Left’s Apartheid Paradigm

“Chigumadzi argues that within the liberal international order, it is “reasonable” and “workable” to struggle to end apartheid and racial segregation, while it is “unreasonable” and “unworkable” to struggle to end settler colonialism and indigenous land dispossession. In arguing that apartheid is overrepresented in the International Left’s racial discourse and historiography, Chigumadzi draws from generations of Black South African political activists, philosophers, and historians—most notably from the Pan Africanist-Black Consciousness Tradition. These traditions critique apartheid’s relatively short 54 years of institutionalized racial segregation as the paradigmatic historical framework for analyzing South Africa’s three centuries of settler colonialism and land dispossession. Drawing from this black radical critique, Chigumadzi rejects the liberal notion that apartheid’s end is the object of liberation struggle, and, instead asserts the centrality of the struggle for the return of indigenous lands.” Dr. Panashe Chigumadzi is an award-winning writer and Assistant Professor of African History at Brandeis University. Chigumadzi holds a doctorate from Harvard University’s Department of African and African American Studies, and a masters in African Literature from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.




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Crafternoon: Sew an Aromatherapy Sachet

Give yourself an extra relaxation boost with an aromatherapy pillow that you’ll customize with fabric and essential oils of your own choosing. The pillow can be hand-stitched or you can use a Makerspace-provided sewing machine. All supplies will be provided. Drop-ins welcome! Come for the entire time or only part of the session. Registration is optional, but if you know you’ll be attending please register so we can anticipate the number of people to expect.




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Faculty Commons Bible Study

All professors, postdocs and staff are invited to this interdenominational Christian Bible study and community. The meeting is available via Zoom also.




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Historical Crisis and Paranoid Emplotment: The Discursive Structure of Racial Panics in Interwar Year Europe

Can paranoia be a mode of historical emplotment? The catastrophe of the First World War produced a genre of pessimistic writing. Oswald Spengler’s Decline of the West was among the most widely read. Still, the era produced dozens similar: Francesco Nitti’s The Decadence of Europe: The Path To Reconstruction (1923), Albert Demangeon’s Le Déclin de l’ Europe (1923), Wythe Williams’ Dusk of Empire: The Decline of Europe And The Rise Of The United States (1937), and Arturo Labriola’s Le Crépuscule de la Civilisation: L’Occident et les peoples de couleur (1936). In all, the coming historical consciousness of the colonized world figures significantly. Drawing on Hayden White’s notion of historical emplotment, this presentation will examine the paranoid structure of such writing.




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Pace Center Summer Internships Drop-in

Meet Pace Center staff and student leaders to learn about Summer 2025 internship opportunities!




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Princeton Sound Kitchen presents Gemma Peacocke: ‘A Strange Power,’ Sputter Box, Charlotte Mundy

Gemma Peacocke’s ‘A Strange Power’ is a 45-minute cantata about the tangled web of romance, free love, creation, and death in the early lives of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley and her step-sister, Claire Clairmont. Scored for two sopranos, clarinet, piano, percussion, and cello, the work will be performed by Sputter Box with guest vocalist Charlotte Mundy. The program also features new works for the performers by other Princeton University graduate student composers Aliayta Foon-Dancoes, Devin Greenwood, Gemma Peacocke, and Onche Rajesh Ugbabe.




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Professional Coaching Classes with Yuval Boim

Refine your chops in 1-on-1 sessions with Yuval Boim! Sign up for a slot on Monday evenings to work on skills such as monologue preparation, scene work, and auditioning, or to discuss career and graduate school plans. Sign-up required.




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Jacques Schwarz-Bart presents Jazz du Tout Monde

Free and open to the public. Jacques Schwarz-Bart is a recording artist with seven albums to his name, as well as a composer and educator. His collaborations include work with Roy Hargrove, Danilo Pérez, John Scofield, Erykah Badu, and many others. In 2005, he released his first project as a leader, Sone Ka-La, which revisits his native Guadeloupean music through the prism of jazz and won worldwide critical acclaim. His latest release, Jazz Racine Haiti, made him an ambassador for a school of modern jazz rooted in voodoo music. He teaches at The Berklee College of Music while keeping up a steady touring schedule.




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eLab Accelerator Info Table

eLab Accelerator Info Table




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Pace Center Summer Internships Drop-in

Meet Pace Center staff and student leaders to learn about Summer 2025 internship opportunities!





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2025 Oscars Short Film Contenders: ‘The Car That Came Back From The Sea’ Director Jadwiga Kowalska

In this Oscar-qualified short, a group of friends go on a roadtrip as their car – and their country – falls apart.






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These Are the Quick Facts You Probably Don’t Know About Music NFTs

Most people buy NFTs to support their favorite musicians or entertainers, feeling they own a piece of the song or album. If you constantly stream music, you should invest in NFTs instead; they exist on the blockchain and can’t be replicated. An NFT is linked to an individual song, EP, album, or video clip. Some ... Read more

The post These Are the Quick Facts You Probably Don’t Know About Music NFTs appeared first on Star Two.




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Two Libyans Indicted for Pan Am 103 Attack (1991)

In 1991, after a three-year investigation, US and UK authorities announced indictments against two Libyan intelligence officials in connection with the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people. During a trial held a decade later in the Netherlands, one of the defendants was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. Whose presence on board the airplane has given rise to a number of conspiracy theories about the motivations behind the bombing? Discuss




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Facebook Feeds Generator Is Experiencing Problems

Some of you might have noticed that our Facebook Feeds generator can right now generate only RSS feeds of your own Facebook pages..

The post Facebook Feeds Generator Is Experiencing Problems appeared first on RSSground.com.



  • RSS Ground News

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Facebook Feeds Are Back On

Facebook review team has approved our Facebook Feeds app and now all Facebook feeds are working again. All previously generated Facebook feeds will be automatically resumed..

The post Facebook Feeds Are Back On appeared first on RSSground.com.



  • RSS Ground News

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Improved Photo And Video Posting To Facebook Pages And Groups.

No doubt, media content is very important  when it comes to updating your blogs and social network pages. We totally understand that and constantly improve images and videos processing, either in content feeds or posting campaigns. Today we are glad to introduce one of the latest updates to our Facebook Poster, which improves posting images […]

The post Improved Photo And Video Posting To Facebook Pages And Groups. appeared first on RSSground.com.