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Why are jack-o'-lanterns made from pumpkins?

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 13:00:26 GMT

SAN ANGELO, Texas (Concho Valley Homepage) — Jack-o'-lanterns are easily one of the most recognizable parts of Halloween, with their carved faces bringing cheer to every spooky celebration. But not everyone knows that pumpkins weren't always the de facto product of choice when it came to making the iconic decoration.But where did the first jack-o'-lanterns come from — and why did the switch to pumpkins happen? If you want to find out, then grab some Halloween candy and read the tale of "Stingy Jack," one of Ireland's most spooktacular folktales and the (supposed) father of the jack-o'-lantern as we know it today.A man and the Devil walk into a bar...Though the exact period in which Stingy Jack's story was first told is unclear, the tale itself is a centuries-old Irish myth with several iterations that vary from telling to telling. However, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History estimates that the tale of Stingy Jack first began surfacing around the 1600s, right when indigenous peopl...

Child sex assault suspect brought back to Bell County from Williamson County

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 13:00:26 GMT

BELTON, Texas (FOX 44) - Bond has been set at $1 million for a former firefighter charged with sexually abusing four separate children after he was brought back to Bell County to face the charges.Kyle Steven Setterlund was held in the Williamson County Jail and was brought back and booked into the Bell County facility on Thursday.Setterlund was originally charged on September 26 with two counts of Aggravated Sexual Assault out of Bell County, stemming from an investigation triggered when Bell County deputies were dispatched to the McLane Children's Hospital. It was there that the parents of the victims reported the abuse. They said Setterlund was a "friend of the family" who was living on the same property as his victims where the incidents occurred. After Bell County investigators reviewed additional evidence, they were able to identify two additional victims and more charges were added.During forensic interviews, the victims were able to describe what was done to them. The Bell C...

Eclipse viewing challenged by cloudy and cool weather

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 13:00:26 GMT

ST. LOUIS -- Cloudy, cool, windy and somewhat damp conditions for today. This will not make for good viewing of the annular eclipse. Northwesterly winds will gust to around 30 mph and temperatures will struggle to make it to 60 degrees. We could also have some drizzle or very light rain showers at times this weekend, especially this evening through Sunday morning. It was still breezy overnight, with temperatures falling into the 40s to near 50. Sunday will actually be a few degrees cooler, with highs in the mid to upper 50s and mostly cloudy skies. Still breezy, but not quite as windy as today. Temperatures stay below normal into the next work week, climbing to the low 70s by midweek. Rain chances also return Wednesday night through Thursday night.

Opinion: Denver’s spiking rent requires a bold increase in funding for this crucial program

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 13:00:26 GMT

This year, Denver will see 12,000 eviction filings, the largest number in our city’s history. Since 2000, housing prices have skyrocketed, and displacement and homelessness have spiraled out of control.Now, with eviction filings and first-time homelessness at all-time highs, we’ve reached a tipping point. Unless we tackle eviction and displacement while simultaneously addressing sheltered and unsheltered homelessness, we will continue to see the number of people without a home increase.As a former caseworker and courthouse tenant advocate, we know working people are doing everything they can to keep their homes. The city must also do everything it can; urgent services to unhoused people must be paired with a concerted effort to slow the flow of Denverites into homelessness.Increasing rental assistance directly supports the mayor’s broader plan, and ensures that progress is lasting, particularly while more affordable housing is built.Twelve City Council members voted to i...

Powered by AI, company aims to make selling easier for retailers

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 13:00:26 GMT

When Danielle Schmelkin went shopping online for something special to wear to her niece’s wedding in 2021, she was looking for “a very specific type of dress based on trends I had seen recently.”To her delight, Bloomingdales.com came through like a personal shopper. The menu filter for “formal dresses” prompted her to choose from 15 criteria like dress length, color, neckline, sleeve length and embellishments. Moments later, she was sorting through 200 desirable options. “It was quick and really focused,” she said. “I had no problem going from one page to the next, because there were meaningful results for me.” She found “the perfect dress,” and bought it.Months later, Schmelkin — in her role as the chief information officer at J. Crew Group — was introduced to Lily AI, an artificial intelligence-powered platform that began working with fashion retailers in 2019. Bloomingdale’s, she learned, was already a client. Intrigued, Schmelkin did a test run on its product catalog from ...

Smartphone photos are getting faker. Uh-oh?

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 13:00:26 GMT

Smartphone cameras became extremely powerful over the last five years. Their leap in quality was largely driven by advancements in computational photography, a technology that uses algorithms, artificial intelligence and sensors to produce sharp, lifelike pictures. Now we all can shoot stunning images that rival the work of professionals.So what’s next? I hate to say it: faker photos.Google, which has long been an industry leader in smartphone photography, will on Thursday start shipping the Pixel 8, a $700 handset with a suite of AI-powered photo-editing tools. The phone software does much more than adjust the sharpness and brightness of a photo — it uses AI to generate imagery or to remove elements to give you exactly the photo you want.Imagine, for instance, a photo in which a person’s shoulder is cut off. With Google’s software, you can now tap the Magic Editor button and scoot that person over in the frame. From there, the software will use AI to produce the rest of that ...

NFL Picks: San Francisco’s stampede continues and a surprisingly big NFC tilt in Tampa

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 13:00:26 GMT

Around the AFCSuper Joe. It’s been a slow start for Joe Burrow as he works his way through a calf injury, but he finally hit his stride Sunday in throwing for 317 yards and three touchdowns against Arizona. If he gets toward fully healthy, it’ll be just in time. The Bengals’ next three are against Seattle, San Francisco and Buffalo.London Lamar. The fans across the pond get an up-close-and-personal look at Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson on Sunday morning as the Ravens take on Tennessee. Jackson’s off to another stellar start, though drops crippled Baltimore’s chances last week against Pittsburgh. All the same, the NFL’s putting one of its foremost talents on display once again in London.Belichick bowl. Bill Belichick against Josh McDaniels is by far the spiciest part of an AFC matchup between a pair of not-great teams in New England and Las Vegas. McDaniels and company have tried to make the Patriots Way take root in the desert and it’s been tough sledding. But maybe not ...

Colorado libraries face increasing requests to remove or limit access to books and programming

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 13:00:26 GMT

Colorado’s public libraries face a rising number of requests to ban or restrict access to books, programs or displays, mirroring trends across the country as conservative movements target books and programming with LGBTQ and race-related themes.So far, though, these attempts to censor library books in Colorado appear to be largely unsuccessful amid backlash by outspoken community membersLibraries across the nation have seen efforts by a vocal, growing political movement seeking to restrict access to books on gay communities, race, history, sexuality and reproductive health, according to a new report from the American Library Association. They use social media to disseminate lists of books they disapprove of so followers can challenge them at their local public and school libraries, the report said.Preliminary 2023 data from the American Library Association shows 136 titles were challenged in eight separate attempts to restrict access to books in Colorado libraries between Janu...

Denver’s 16th Street Mall work won’t be done until 2025 as businesses hang on

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 13:00:26 GMT

In an alternate reality, Denver’s overhaul of the 16th Street Mall would be more than halfway done by now. Retailers and restauranteurs would only have until the end of 2024 to endure dusty, noisy, at times odorous construction work before enjoying the strip’s long-planned update.As it stands, work on some segments of downtown Denver’s 1.2-mile-long pedestrian mall and commercial nerve center is now expected to carry over into the fall of 2025. The updated schedule was released in July, city officials said.A tangle of underground utilities, including an active 1880s-built, brick-lined sewer buried under the mall’s 13 blocks of trademark pavers, has been the source of the delays.Denver officials expected work to be tricky. When the project was formally kicking off last spring, officials talked about a water line estimated to be 125 years old under the mall. But with spotty mapping and documentation of all the utilities added downtown over the decades, things ...

'Ring of fire' solar eclipse will cut across the Americas, stretching from Oregon to Brazil

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 13:00:26 GMT

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A rare “ring of fire” eclipse of the sun cuts across the Americas on Saturday, stretching from Oregon to Brazil, and huge crowds were on the move before dawn in cities, rural areas and national parks to try to catch a glimpse of it.For the small towns and cities along its narrow path, there was a mix of excitement, worries about the weather and concerns they'd be overwhelmed by visitors flocking to see the celestial event, also called an annular solar eclipse. Clouds and fog threatened to obscure the view of the eclipse in some western states, including California and Oregon.Unlike a total solar eclipse, the moon doesn’t completely cover the sun during a ring of fire eclipse. When the moon lines up between Earth and the sun, it leaves a bright, blazing border.Saturday’s path: Oregon, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and Texas in the U.S., with a sliver of California, Arizona and Colorado. Next: Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama...