- Karen Allen on one last hurrah as Marion Ravenwood in ‘Indiana Jones’ 9News.com KUSA
- ‘Indiana Jones & The Dial Of Destiny’s $82 Million+ 5-Day Total Not Far From July 4th Disaster ‘Superman Returns’ – Box Office Yahoo Entertainment
- Carrollton native back with Indiana Jones in ‘Dial of Destiny’ Alton Telegraph
- Indiana Jones films ranked, from best to worst Evening Standard
- ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ Dominates U.K. Box Office With 43% Market Share Yahoo Entertainment
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: Hurrah
US Open preview: Serena Williams’ last hurrah at home grand slam headlines fascinating two weeks of tennis
Now 40 years of age, Williams’ career will come full circle as her final match is to be played at the site of the first of her 23 grand slam singles wins, the 1999 US Open. Then just a teenager, Williams burst onto the scene to stun world No. 1 Martina Hingis in the final and lay the first stepping stone on her path to two decades of dominance.
“If I could just pick one thing that she possesses incredibly strongly compared to other players and champions, it’s a strong determination to go through difficult stages and to win no matter what, year after year,” Marin Cilic, the 2014 US Open men’s champion, told CNN Sport.
“I’m hoping that she’s going to have a fantastic US Open and to give the best farewell is to go with the win. So [I’m] hoping that she can do it.”
Since returning to the circuit back in June after a year out through injury, Williams has managed to win just a single match and has been unable to get close to the form that helped her win her last grand slam title in 2017.
Even if she cannot achieve a dream final flourish by lifting the title at Flushing Meadows, Williams’ 23 grand slam singles titles will go down as the most by any player in the Open Era and just one shy of Margaret Court’s all-time record.
Williams’ greatness is not only limited to the singles court, having won every doubles grand slam title at least twice and winning two of four mixed doubles grand slam titles. She has also achieved more than $94 million in on-court career earnings.
Few tennis players have transcended the sport like Williams and her presence will undoubtedly be missed on the Tour.
One of the many young talents that will likely be plugging that gap is defending US Open champion Emma Raducanu. The teenager stunned the world of sport last year by becoming the first qualifier in history to win a grand slam title in what was only her second appearance in the main draw of a slam.
Raducanu and Williams crossed paths for the first time two weeks ago at the Cincinnati Masters, with Raducanu coming out on top in straight sets.
However, that was one of just 12 wins that Raducanu has mustered in a season that has been blighted by injuries and patchy form. She’s shown flashes, though, of the player that triumphed at Flushing Meadows last year, most notably in the recent demolition of two-time grand slam champion Victoria Azarenka in Cincinnati.
Two thousand of the 2,756 ranking points that currently have Raducanu 11th in the world — and as high as 10th back in June — came from her US Open win, and failure to get close to defending her crown will see the 19-year-old plummet down the WTA world rankings.
Raducanu’s run in Cincinnati was ended at the hands of world No. 8 Jessica Pegula, but it was a closely-fought contest to finish a week that will likely give Raducanu increased confidence going into the US Open.
Among the stars hoping to snag Raducanu’s New York crown will be Poland’s world No. 1 Iga Swiatek, who has won a remarkable six singles titles in 2022.
The two-time French Open winner goes into the tournament as the bookmakers’ favorite, but has only ever reached the fourth round at Flushing Meadows and has struggled for form on the hard court in the lead up to the US Open.
However, Swiatek did reach the Australian Open semifinals at the start of the year and won three successive WTA 1000 hard court events earlier in the season, so she no doubt has the ability to go all the way in New York.
Rafael Nadal aims for No. 23
In the men’s draw, all eyes will be on Rafael Nadal as he looks to add to his men’s record 22 grand slam titles.
However, the 36-year-old has played just one match, a first round defeat to Borna Ćorić at the Cincinnati Masters last week, since withdrawing from the Wimbledon semifinals with an abdominal injury and it remains unclear just how fit Nadal is ahead of the US Open.
“The main thing for me is to stay healthy,” Nadal told reporters after the defeat. “It has been a difficult injury to manage, to be honest.
“The last month and a half hasn’t been easy because, having a tear on the abdominal, you don’t know when (you will be) 100 percent over the thing, so that affects me a little bit in terms of not (being) sure if you are able to try your best in every serve.”
But New York has been a happy hunting ground for Nadal over the years with the Spaniard winning the title on four occasions, most recently in 2019 when he came through a five-set epic against Daniil Medvedev.
Russia’s Medvedev, competing under a neutral flag since his country’s invasion of Ukraine, is the bookmakers’ favorite to lift the trophy and retain the crown he won in 2021 to mark his maiden grand slam victory.
The 26-year-old’s lone title in 2022 came on the hard court in Mexico earlier this month, but Medvedev did reach the Australian Open final at the start of the year, agonizingly losing out after holding a two-set lead over Nadal.
Alexander Zverev, who would have been among the favorites to win, confirmed earlier this week that he was pulling out of the US Open after failing to recover from injury in time.
The world No. 2 underwent surgery back in June on torn ligaments in his ankle, which he sustained after landing awkwardly in the French Open semifinals against Nadal.
Zverev’s absence from the draw moves all those players ranked below him up a place in the seedings, meaning Nadal and Medvedev can now only face each other in the final.
Novak Djokovic confirmed on Thursday that he would not be competing at Flushing Meadows in 2022. The United States’ vaccination rules for non-US citizens meant the Serbian would not have been granted a visa to enter the country, so Nole will wait at least one more year before returning to the Big Apple.
The world No. 6 triumphed at Wimbledon earlier this year to win his 21st grand slam title and move to within one of long-time rival Nadal, but has been unable to play in any of the Tour’s US Open warmup events in the States or Canada.
The US Open will be the second grand slam this year that Djokovic will miss out on due to his unvaccinated status, after he twice had his visa revoked ahead of the Australian Open in January.
“Sadly, I will not be able to travel to NY this time for US Open,” Djokovic wrote on social media. “Thank you #NoleFam for your messages of love and support.
“Good luck to my fellow players! I’ll keep in good shape and positive spirit and wait for an opportunity to compete again. See you soon tennis world!”
With a wide open field, the men’s draw will be fascinating to watch — will it be Nadal tying Serena on 23 grand slam singles titles or will another rise up to reign in New York?
A dying star’s last hurrah
Enlarge / The Butterfly Nebula, located just under 4,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Scorpius, is a striking example of a planetary nebula, the end stage in the evolution of a small- to medium-sized star. The butterfly’s diaphanous “wings” consist of gas and dust that have been expelled from the dying star and illuminated from within by the star’s remaining core. The nebula’s symmetrical, double-lobed shape is a telltale sign that a companion star helped shape the outflowing gases. Both the primary star and its companion are hidden by the shroud of dust in the nebula’s center.
Billions of years from now, as our Sun approaches the end of its life and helium nuclei begin to fuse in its core, it will bloat dramatically and turn into what’s known as a red giant star. After swallowing Mercury, Venus, and Earth with hardly a burp, it will grow so large that it can no longer hold onto its outermost layers of gas and dust.
In a glorious denouement, it will eject these layers into space to form a beautiful veil of light, which will glow like a neon sign for thousands of years before fading.
The galaxy is studded with thousands of these jewel-like memorials, known as planetary nebulae. They are the normal end stage for stars that range from half the Sun’s mass up to eight times its mass. (More massive stars have a much more violent end, an explosion called a supernova.) Planetary nebulae come in a stunning variety of shapes, as suggested by names like the Southern Crab, the Cat’s Eye, and the Butterfly. But as beautiful as they are, they have also been a riddle to astronomers. How does a cosmic butterfly emerge from the seemingly featureless, round cocoon of a red giant star?
Observations and computer models are now pointing to an explanation that would have seemed outlandish 30 years ago: Most red giants have a much smaller companion star hiding in their gravitational embrace. This second star shapes the transformation into a planetary nebula, much as a potter shapes a vessel on a potter’s wheel.
Enlarge / NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope has revealed extraordinary details in the Southern Ring Nebula, a planetary nebula that lies around 2,500-light-years away in the constellation Vela. On the left, a near-infrared image shows spectacular concentric shells of gas, which chronicle the history of the dying star’s outbursts. On the right, a mid-infrared image easily distinguishes the dying star at the nebula’s center (red) from its companion star (blue). All of the gas and dust in the nebula was expelled by the red star.
The dominant theory of planetary nebula formation previously involved only a single star—the red giant itself. With only a weak gravitational hold on its outer layers, it sheds mass very rapidly near the end of its life, losing as much as 1 percent per century. It also churns like a boiling pot of water underneath the surface, causing the outer layers to pulse in and out. Astronomers theorized that these pulsations produce shock waves that blast gas and dust into space, creating what’s called a stellar wind. Yet it takes a great deal of energy to expel this material completely without having it fall back into the star. It cannot be any gentle zephyr, this wind; it needs to have the strength of a rocket blast.
After the star’s outer layer has escaped, the much smaller inner layer collapses into a white dwarf. This star, which is hotter and brighter than the red giant it came from, illuminates and warms the escaped gas, until the gas starts glowing by itself—and we see a planetary nebula. The whole process is very fast by astronomical standards but slow by human standards, typically taking centuries to millennia.
Until the Hubble Space Telescope launched in 1990, “we were pretty sure we were on the right track” toward understanding the process, says Bruce Balick, an astronomer at the University of Washington. Then he and his colleague Adam Frank, of the University of Rochester in New York, were at a conference in Austria and saw Hubble’s first photos of planetary nebulae. “We went out to get coffee, saw the pictures, and we knew that the game had changed,” Balick says.
Astronomers had assumed that red giants were spherically symmetrical, and a round star should produce a round planetary nebula. But that’s not what Hubble saw—not even close. “It became obvious that many planetary nebulae have exotic axisymmetric structures,” says Joel Kastner, an astronomer at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Hubble revealed fantastic lobes, wings, and other structures that weren’t round but were symmetric around the nebula’s main axis, as if turned on that potter’s wheel.
In early photos from ground-based observatories, the Southern Crab Nebula appeared to have four curved “legs” like a crab. But detailed images from the Hubble Space Telescope show that these legs are the sides of two bubbles that roughly form an hourglass shape. In the center of the bubbles are two jets of gas, with “knots” that may light up when they encounter the gas between the stars. The Southern Crab, located several thousand light-years from Earth in the constellation Centaurus, appears to have had two gas-releasing events. One around 5,500 years ago created the outer “hourglass,” and a similar event 2,300 years ago created the inner, much smaller one.
Looks Like Nintendo Has Been Reprinting 3DS Retail Games For A Final Hurrah
The 3DS was officially discontinued back in September 2020, with hardware production ending for a system that couldn’t match the dizzy heights of its predecessor (the DS), but nevertheless remains a favourite for plenty of Nintendo gamers. There are definitely a few members of the 3DS fan club among our staff.
Though the only remaining hardware to buy will be legacy stock, we received an interesting tip from community member @pikuri_ highlighting that there appear to be various games (first- and third-party) getting reprints in Europe in recent months. Titles that were thought to be out of print were naturally seeing their prices increase on platforms like eBay, but some online retailers have had stock in recent times – very useful for filling out collections or picking up games that were originally missed.
As you can see in some of the tweets and images below, there are notable indicators that they’re reprints from 2021 at least. One sign is a narrower game case similar to those in Japan, while subtle adjustments to packaging update product information. This is related to UK and EU in particular.
A New York-based independent store, meanwhile, highlighted that to their knowledge production has ended on 3DS cartridges, which seems very likely at this stage.
If you’re trying to finish your 3DS retail collection, now may be a good time to hunt around online and in stores, you may get lucky and find some reasonable prices. We’ll share a handful of the ones we spot for you below.
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The Stick-Shift 668-HP CT5-V Blackwing And 472-HP Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing Are Cadillac’s Last Hurrah For Loud Gasoline Fury
This is the end. Cadillac, a brand with a rich history of stuffing gigantic gasoline motors under the hoods of luxury sedans, is about to call it quits on internal combustion, but not before going out with a bang. Well, two bangs, with one of them called the CT5-V Blackwing, a 668-horsepower 6.2-liter supercharged V8 sedan with a standard…standard transmission. The other is the CT4-V Blackwing, a smaller 472-HP twin-turbo 3.6-liter V6 sedan that also comes with a stick shift, in keeping with the car gods’ orders. Let’s take a first look at these last hurrahs for high-performance gasoline Cadillacs.
The auto industry is quickly entering the electric era, so it feels a bit strange for Cadillac to be debuting two entirely-conventional flagship sedans. But this is the last stand for performance gasoline Cadillacs, and my god is GM’s premium brand going out swinging.
So Much Power, So Many Pedals
The CT5-V is a 668-HP, 659 lb-ft supercharged V8 sedan with a six-speed manual transmission sending torque to the rear wheels. On paper, it is epic, fulfilling the entirety of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Automotive Needs (other than perhaps “low curb weight” — the CT5-V Blackwing weighs roughly two tons). I can’t wait to drive this machine.
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The other car Cadillac showed was the CT4-V, which also comes standard with a manual transmission, and also has a boosted engine that sends torque to the rear wheels, though that engine is a V6, and the high intake manifold air pressure comes from a pair of turbochargers instead of a supercharger.
Here’s a little walk-around of these two cars with marketing manager Ken Kornas:
When Cadillac released horsepower figures for the regular CT4-V and CT5-V, the automotive media pretty much spit out its drink and laughed. “We Regret To Inform You That The Cadillac CT4-V Has Just 24 More HP Than A Toyota Camry,” my colleague wrote after Jalopnik’s initial article titled “The 2020 Cadillac CT4-V and CT5-V Arrive Without The Big Power We’re Used To.”
After having been spoiled by the 464 HP ATS-V and 640 HP CTS-V, we just weren’t excited about the paltry 325 HP turbocharged inline-four in the CT4-V or the 360-HP twin-turbo V6 in the CT5-V. “Hey, this isn’t the real V, is it?” my Editor-in-Chief Rory Carroll asked Cadillac at an event in 2019. The brand responded that a “big V” was under development. Now it’s here along with its little sibling.
The 668-HP CT5-V Blackwing can allegedly pull off a 0-60 mph time of 3.7 seconds, and reach a top speed of over 200 mph. The 472-HP, 445 lb-ft CT4-V Blackwing takes a tenth more to get to 60, and its top speed plateaus at around 189 mph, per Cadillac. Both cars are built on the Alpha II platform, the successor to the Alpha platform that underpinned the Chevy Camaro and Cadillac ATS. Like the ATS and Camaro, the CT4 and CT5 have MacPherson strut front suspensions and five-link setups in the back.
Speaking of the ATS, the CT4-V Blackwing is likely going to be quite similar to that car’s V-model, which was an excellent driver’s car thanks to incredible steering feel and sharp handling. The CT4 has essentially the same engine and transmission, with roughly the same power (it’s up 8 HP). Car And Driver gets into the differences, writing in its story 472-HP 2022 Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing Is like an ATS-V, but Better:
Chassis upgrades include larger front and rear brake rotors, a newer version of the standard magnetorheological dampers, and Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires instead of the old Pilot Super Sport rubber. These tires wrap around 18-inch wheels with a staggered-width setup; the magnesium wheels that Cadillac teased earlier won’t be available until later in the production run. The housing for the electronic limited-slip differential is now aluminum, which Cadillac says saves 22 pounds. Overall curb weight is up by a claimed 77 pounds.
I’m conflicted here, because as much as I love the idea of an improved ATS-V that handles well, the bigger, couple-of-hundred-pounds-heavier CT5-V Blackwing has the V8 with a 1.7-liter Eaton supercharger on it, and you know that’s going to sound much, much better. So the question is: Do you choose nimble(ish) handling or do you choose the glorious sound of a boosted V8?
Perhaps I’m a bit basic, but my initial primal instinct is to go with option B.
The Hardware
Cadillac didn’t have engineers at my preview session in a warehouse in Warren, Michigan, so the brand wasn’t able to get deep into the CT4-V Blackwing and CT5-V Blackwing’s tech. But right away, it was obvious how epic the cooling systems are — unsurprising, given the ATS-V was a masterpiece in this area.
The cars each have roughly a dozen heat exchangers, with tiny outboards ones tilted, and angled a bit inboard:
My favorite heat exchanger (everyone should have a favorite heat exchanger, right?) on the CT4-V is the flat one up front, which I’m fairly sure cools the transmission and rear differential.
A heat exchanger whose face is actually parallel to airflow?! It seems counterintuitive, but it makes sense if you consider that it’s located just ahead of the main cooling module, which — due to its restriction — creates an area of high pressure ahead of itself. That high pressure, along with the low pressure under the vehicle as air rushes at a high velocity, forces air through the heat exchanger mounted parallel to the car’s floor:
While we’re on the topic of aerodynamics, Cadillac says the new grille design is a key enabler for improving airflow over the ATS-V, and the brand mentions a new Carbon Fiber Aero Package, which allegedly reduces lift by 214 percent on the CT4-V Blackwing and 75 percent on the CT5-V Blackwing. It goes without saying that there’s a drag penalty.
Also exciting are the underbody “airflow-channeling strakes” that make up what Cadillac calls the “Underwing” — basically, an underbody airflow strategy that Cadillac says reduces drag and improves track performance:
Speaking of the underbody, here’s an “Easter Egg” V-Series logo at the bottom of the liquid-cooled electronic limited-slip differential:
The brakes are huge. The CT4-V Blackwing’s rotors are 15 inches up front and 13.4 out back, while the bigger sibling has 15.7-inch rotors ahead of the driver and 14.7s behind. Both cars have six-piston calipers at the nose and four-piston grabbers at the tail.
The standard manual transmission is a six-speed Tremec, with a dual-disk LuK clutch. In case you’re not familiar with how a twin-disc clutch works, it essentially involves bolting a housing to the flywheel, using axial space to create an additional surface for an additional clutch to grab onto. Here, watch this Aussie show you how it works:
Both cars get rev matching capability and “No-Lift Shift,” which is what it sounds like: You can stay hard on the accelerator pedal while shifting — something that, per Cadillac, helps keep the CT4-V Blacking’s turbos in boost.
There’s also a 10-speed automatic available if you’re into that sort of thing.
Pricing
The CT4-V Blackwing starts at $59,990, while the CT5-V Blackwing costs $84,990. These are higher base prices than those of the Audi RS3 and BMW M3 with which GM says the two cars compete, respectively. How the Caddies will hold up on the track against their German counterparts is something I can’t wait to find out. Will Cadillac’s final internal combustion engine V-Series cars go out on top?