News & Updates

The theme of The Big Bang Theory’s Season 7 finale was Sheldon’s inability to cope with change, negative or positive. He probably wouldn’t be very happy to note that the series made a change by shifting to Monday nights for the first few weeks of Season 8. But while the time slot may have changed, this premiere was pretty textbook Big Bang Theory. It’s become tradition these past few years for every season to end with one character leaving on an extended trip and then the early episodes of the following season to focus on the rest of the cast dealing with that character’s absence. But it seems that the writers couldn’t bear to have Sheldon remain apart from his crew for any longer than necessary. And maybe you can’t blame them given how much of the show’s humor revolves around Sheldon belittling or annoying his friends. In any case, where we saw Howard remain in space for several weeks in Season 6 and Leonard take a couple weeks to return from his sea voyage in Season 7, Season

TUSCALOOSA, Alabama — University of Alabama officials have clarified a number of rampant rumors circulating the community after anonymous threats of campus violence sparked a dorm lockdown and search. Despite officials giving the all-clear late Sunday night and campus operations continuing as normal, students and family members have had difficulty sifting through large amounts of misinformation on social media. On Monday, the campus community received an email from officials specifically denying a number of rumors spreading on Twitter and other social media sites like Yik Yak, including: The fire alarm in Presidential Village was due to sensor that was activated by a non-fire event. There was no machete with a note on the door of a fraternity. No shots were fired at Presidential Village. The FBI is not on campus, and did not conduct a raid in Paty Hall. No one dressed as the Joker was in Tutwiler or on sorority row. There was not a man on sorority row with a box t

Say goodbye to summer: The Northern Hemisphere’s autumnal equinox—the first day of fall—occurs Monday, September 22. With its brilliant colors and crisper days, autumn is a favorite season for many. But what actually happens to make the seasons change? The answer is the “clearly definable” position of the sunon the summer and winter solstices, the late Judith Young, a professor of astronomy at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, told National Geographic News in 2011. “The solstices are very accurately measured as the northernmost point that the sun rises along the horizon in June and the southernmost point along the horizon in December,” she said. (Seepictures of the sun’s path across the sky—an entire year in a single frame.) In modern times, the solstice points became the astronomical definitions of when the summer and winter seasons begin. In the Northern Hemisphere, June features the summer solstice, while in the Southern Hemisphere, June marks the firs