It’s time to meet the athletes who will be gunning for the United States’ first men’s FIFA World Cup win. The U.S. men’s national team unveiled the official roster for this summer’s tournament on Tuesday, featuring a mix of soccer vets and rookies. FIFA also recently shared the list of training camps in the U.S., where 39 of the 48 participating teams will be based. Check out the locations — even if there isn’t a game near you there may be a base camp. Two weeks to go!
Must Reads
R-E-A-D-Y? Here’s how to tune in to tonight’s Scripps National Spelling Bee finals
Keep your eyes peeled for this new quarter circulating for the U.S.’ 250th birthday
Science
Living on the Moon: NASA Unveils New Details in Its Plans for a Lunar Base
NASA/Aubrey Gemignani
While it’s been many moons since a human last set foot on the lunar surface, we recently got quite close. And this week, NASA outlined its plans to not only land astronauts on the moon but also eventually establish a bona fide lunar base.
The space agency laid out its three-part, $20 billion project on Tuesday. The first phase involves mostly logistics — laying the groundwork for a future base and demonstrating that the tech can work and that private companies can deliver the products. For example, Blue Origin is slated to provide a lander to transport moon buggies and Firefly Aerospace will provide drones.
If all goes as planned, the moon base will be ready to support astronauts living and working for extended durations sometime in the 2030s. Getting astronauts back to the moon is a matter of when, not if, according to NASA administrator Jared Isaacman: “America is returning to the moon,” he said at a press conference. But he explained that the moon’s conditions don’t make it easy to establish a permanent settlement, noting its darkness, extreme temperatures, and potential meteorite impacts.
“I’m often asked why we send our astronauts into such harsh and dangerous and unforgiving environment of space or the lunar surface, and at such great cost,” he added. “And we go for the technology we will pioneer to get there, the science, and all that we will learn that will make life better here on Earth to advance humankind on this great adventure, to inspire the next generation to do it better than we can, and to be very clear, to master the skills for where we will inevitably go next.”
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Creative Workshop Behind Jim Henson’s Puppets Is Now Open for Tours
Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Before they made their way to our TV screens for the first time in 1969, Big Bird and Cookie Monster were born in a workshop in Queens, New York — and now, the current iteration of that establishment is open to the public. Jim Henson’s Creature Shop began offering tours earlier this year to give visitors a peek inside the process of creating some of the world’s most famous puppet characters.
Among the pieces on display are an installation of Oscar the Grouch in his signature trash can, a working puppet of Fraggle Rock’s Junior Gorg, and a black throne featured in The Dark Crystal, a live-action fantasy movie from 1982. The 80-minute, $150 tour includes photo ops with characters and a walk-through of the shop, which was founded by Henson in the 1960s and moved locations over the years before landing back in Queens in 2009.
Visitors will also get to watch a live puppetry demonstration and meet one of the shop’s puppet builders. “There is a level of expertise here that we’re sharing. It’s not just going to a pop-up store or something like that,” creative supervisor Jason Weber told the Associated Press. “Things are made one-of-a-kind, made by hand with artisans who have been trained for years and decades.” See photos from the shop and learn how to get tickets.
Environment
First-of-Its-Kind System Is Looking Out for Whales in San Francisco Bay
Santiago Mejia—San Francisco Chronicle/Getty Images
A first-of-its-kind AI-powered detection network in San Francisco Bay is helping boats keep their distance from whales, preventing a leading cause of death for one of the big blue’s ecosystem engineers.
Aptly named WhaleSpotter, the system scans 24/7 for whale blows and heat signatures up to 2 nautical miles away, even in foggy conditions common in the bay. Trained marine mammal observers then verify the potential sightings and the system alerts ferry operators and vessel traffic controllers, so they know to slow down or reroute. The intel is also posted publicly on the Whale Safe website.
It’s the first network to integrate land-based and vessel-mounted detections with official alerts to relay whale sightings to boats in near-real time, per the Associated Press. “They’ll be able to make adjustments way before they get anywhere close,” Thomas Hall, the director of operations for San Francisco Bay Ferry, told the outlet. “It will also allow us to track data over time and see where the whales are camping out so we can adjust our routes during whale season to avoid those areas completely.”
In Other News
A new Ebola vaccine in development could be ready for trials within months and help fight the Congo outbreak (read more)
Massachusetts is home to the nation’s first recognized union of drivers for ride-hailing apps like Uber (read more)
A rare 1924 Olympic gold medal, featuring a symbol of sportsmanship, goes up for auction today (read more)
Sounds cozy:Monk seals were spotted hanging out in secret “bubble caves” in the Mediterranean (read more)
Obsession, an indie horror film, is an unexpected box office hit, with a 96% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes (read more)
Inspiring Story
Keep singing
In front of San Francisco’s Orpheum Theatre, opera singer Tim Blevins belts out tunes for passersby. Despite an illustrious early career, the 61-year-old Juilliard-trained artist has battled addiction and homelessness — and through it all, his voice has been his constant. “Singing is survival for me. So no matter what, I have to sing,” he said. Hear him sing and learn more about his story, which was recently turned into a documentary called Figaro Up, Figaro Down.
Photo of the Day
Jacob King—PA Images/Getty Images
Say cheese? During the annual cheese-rolling competition in Gloucestershire, England, dozens of competitors chased a wheel of double Gloucester cheese down a notoriously steep hill. The first people to reach the bottom win the cheese (and bragging rights). As quirky as it sounds, the competition is anything but mild — watch a slice of the chaos.
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