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Georgia football coach’s father dies following New Year’s Eve fall in New Orleans – KNOE

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – Sonny Smart, father of University of Georgia football coach Kirby Smart, died early Saturday (Jan. 4) following complications from hip surgery needed after he fell while walking in New Orleans on New Year’s Eve.
ESPN, Yahoo and Sports Illustrated were among the first sports outlets reporting the death, which was confirmed by his son’s university. His age was not immediately reported.
Sonny Smart was in New Orleans to watch his son coach the Bulldogs in the Allstate Sugar Bowl, but was injured before he could attend the scheduled game on New Year’s Day. The game wound up being postponed to Jan. 2 after the Bourbon Street terror attack early Wednesday, and Georgia’s season ended in a 23-10 loss to Notre Dame.
The University of Georgia issued a statement confirming the death of its coach’s father, who himself was a longtime high school football and baseball coach. It said Sonny Smart died Saturday at 12:15 a.m., surrounded by his wife Sharon and their three children Karl, Kirby and Kendall.
“Sonny fell while walking during the day on New Year’s Eve in New Orleans and fractured his hip,” the statement said. “He was hospitalized and underwent hip surgery. Unfortunately, complications arose. He fought valiantly but was unable to overcome his injuries.
“The Smart family expresses their heartfelt gratitude to the Ochsner hospital and medical staff for the exceptional care they provided Sonny. Additionally, they ask for your continued prayers for those affected by the tragic events that occurred in the early hours of New Year’s Day. The Smart family treasures everyone’s thoughts and prayers and now prays for God’s comfort, strength and guidance.”
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp posted on X that he was heartbroken to learn of Sonny Smart’s death.
Marty, the girls, and I are heartbroken to learn of the passing of Sonny Smart. An incredible father and husband and a great coach in his own right, he was a constant presence at Georgia football games along with his wife Sharon. Sonny embodied the values and strength that we…
The elder Smart, who played college football at Samford University, was a high school football coach in Georgia from 1988-2003.
Kirby Smart said of his father in January 2023, “He’s taught me so much just about the way you handle things, the right way, the wrong way. Control the controllables. The moment’s never too big if you’re prepared. And I always watched the way he prepared our teams and our staff in high school.
“He was a very wise man, a man of few words. I tried to follow his mantra as a coach. I’ve certainly evolved from going to coach for other people, but a lot of my core beliefs came from the way he ran our programs in high school.”
It was unclear where Sonny Smart fell in New Orleans or under what circumstances.
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Winning Lotto numbers tonight: Full National Lottery results with Thunderball on Saturday, January 4 – Liverpool Echo

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Check tonight's National Lottery Lotto results and see if you're a winner
It's Saturday, which means it is this week's second National Lottery Lotto draw with a massive cash prize up for grabs for a lucky player. Tonight's jackpot is a double rollover and stands at £7.8million. Imagine what you could do with all that money in your bank?
You could quit your job and travel to anywhere in the world You could pay off any debts and give money to friends and family, as well as some deserving causes. There's also £500,000 to be won in the Thunderball draw, taking place at 8.15pm, meaning you have plenty of chances to be a winner.
There are multiple chances to win the Lotto as draws take place every Saturday and Wednesday. To play the game, you choose six numbers from one to 59 or choose a lucky dip.
It costs £2 per play. As well as being in with a chance of winning serious cash, playing the Lotto also helps raise around £30m each week for UK good causes. Come back later to check tonight's numbers.

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Where Should We Search for Extraterrestrial Life? – Avi Loeb – Medium


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The task of astrobiologists who seek evidence for extrasolar microbes is as simple as imitation. Primitive forms of life should exist under physical conditions that were nurtured in natural environments similar to those on Earth. Hence, astrobiologists plan to search for the molecular products of microbes-as-we-know-them on rocky exoplanets with atmospheres in the habitable zone of their host stars.
The latest Decadal Survey in Astrophysics of the National Academies, Astro2020, recommended a 6-meter space telescope operating in the infrared, optical and ultraviolet bands, capable of high-contrast imaging and spectroscopy. Scheduled for launch by NASA in the 2040s, this Habitable Worlds Observatory will be designed to search for spectroscopic biosignatures of microbial life in roughly 25 habitable zone exoplanets at a likely cost of over 10-billion dollars.
Where to look becomes more subtle when dealing with intelligent forms of life because they can relocate and spread away from their birth exoplanet. Almost all forms of life, on Earth and beyond, died by now. Those who survive the longest on our cosmic street might have done so by escaping their home planet on artificially made space platforms to avoid existential risks from local catastrophes.
As much as nature is often viewed as a blessing, it could also be a curse. For example, there is strong evidence that Earth’s surface became nearly entirely frozen with no liquid water exposed to the atmosphere during the Cryogenian period, more than 650 million years ago. Over the entire history of Earth, more than 99.9% of the over 5-billion species that ever lived went extinct. Some of these species were wiped out by well-documented cataclysmic events, such as the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary event which was likely triggered by the impact of the Chicxulub meteor which eliminated 75% of plant and animal species on Earth including the non-avian dinosaurs. However, the majority of extinctions could have been the result of natural evolution with the livelihoods of some species destroyed by changes and unfavorable competition. The situation resembles political views which lose their livelihood after a devastating Presidential election.
The typical lifespan of a terrestrial species is 1–10 million years. This is an interesting factoid, since humans evolved from great apes through the lineage of hominini— which arose 5–7 million years ago. Keeping these facts in mind, the human species is getting close to the end of its expected natural lifespan. Will technology save us?
As much as technology could delay the existential threats from a snowball or a globally-warmed Earth, the evolution of the host star itself sets a time limit on the ability of a natural nuclear furnace to support life on a planet. Most stars formed billions of years before the Sun, and the Sun will boil off all oceans on Earth within a billion years. Recognizing this and other existential risks, a sufficiently advanced technological civilization would prefer to migrate away its birth habitat. This rationale inspires Elon Musk’s vision to occupy Mars and make humanity a multi-planet species.
However, once a technological civilization develops the ability to migrate away from its birth planet, it might also be capable of pursuing its goals far away from its host star on an artificial space platform, potentially powered by its own nuclear energy source. This could lengthen considerably the most important parameter in the Drake equation, namely the lifespan of a technological civilization.
Traditionally, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) targeted the vicinity of stars. However, once technology allows escape from natural habitats, all bets are off. Space platforms carrying biological entities or hardware with artificial intelligence may be found anywhere. Technological probes that can self-replicate could fill up interstellar space in less than a few billion years using conventional chemical propulsion.
Given this realization, it makes most sense to start the search for technological debris around the nearest lamppost, our Sun. This is the rationale behind the Galileo Project, which under my leadership searches for technological artifacts within the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. Our research team operates a new observatory at Harvard University and constructs two additional observatories in Pennsylvania and Nevada. My students and postdocs also plan to analyze forthcoming data from the Rubin Observatory in Chile and the Webb telescope in the coming years. Finally, we hope to conduct expeditions in search for materials from crash sites of interstellar meteors.
What other civilizations accomplished may exceed our imagination. Therefore, it is best not to anticipate what we might find but instead search for unfamiliar objects, not produced by nature or human-made technologies.
We must hedge our bets in the search for life. This means investing billions of dollars not only in seeking biological signatures of microbes in atmospheres of exoplanets but also in the search for technological artifacts that arrive near the Sun from interstellar space. With all these efforts, the keys of life might be found first around the nearest lamppost on our cosmic street.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Avi Loeb is the head of the Galileo Project, founding director of Harvard University’s — Black Hole Initiative, director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and the former chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University (2011–2020). He is a former member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and a former chair of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies. He is the bestselling author of “Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth” and a co-author of the textbook “Life in the Cosmos”, both published in 2021. The paperback edition of his new book, titled “Interstellar”, was published in August 2024.


Avi Loeb is the Baird Professor of Science and Institute director at Harvard University and the bestselling author of “Extraterrestrial” and "Interstellar".
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Galp Probes Anonymous Tip Alleging a CEO Relationship, Eco Says – Bloomberg

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With a bit of No Man's Sky and Starfield, this space MMO is dirt cheap right now – PCGamesN

You can grab Elite Dangerous dirt cheap in a Steam sale right now, as the persistent space MMO gears up for the next decade of content.

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Elite Dangerous sets itself apart through its colossal persistent universe. While Starfield has myriad pre-written stories, Outer Wilds challenges you to find the cracks in the solar system, and No Man’s Sky makes survival the goal, Elite Dangerous puts all the power in your hands. This sci-fi universe can morph and change thanks to your decisions (or anyone else’s), and after ten years it’s only getting bigger. So if you fancy giving Elite Dangerous a go, it’s currently the cheapest it’s ever been on Steam.
Elite Dangerous might be a decade old, but that shouldn’t stop you from giving the huge game a try. With elements of an MMO, FPS, and space simulator all rolled into one, it’s your job to explore a 1:1 recreation of the Milky Way and impact the persistent universe exactly how you see fit. There are factions to join, missions to complete, and piles of money to be made if you know where to look.
Just a few months ago Elite Dangerous also underwent a pretty huge shakeup with the Ascendancy update. This introduced Powerplay 2.0, a system that makes the relationships and actions of every faction vying for power across the stars much more complex. You can take control of pockets of the galaxy as you see fit, but doing so does paint a target on your back. Everything about Powerplay 2.0 is reactive, making the Elite Dangerous approximation of our universe more dynamic than ever.
Now that we’re in 2025, Frontier Developments has some big plans for the game going into its next ten years. System Colonization is the focus of the year’s first major update, which will give you even more control over exploration and decision-making. You’ll set out across the Milky Way galaxy, claiming your very own star systems, constructing space facilities, and expanding the reach of humanity further and further.
If you’re worried about already being behind the game’s other players, don’t be, because it turns out that a staggering 99% of the Elite Dangerous universe is still unexplored. So whether you’re jumping in alone or playing with friends, it’s not as though you’ll run out of space in 2025 and beyond.
Elite Dangerous is 75% off on Steam until Thursday January 9, so expect to pay $4.99 / £3.74 until then. You can also save 65% on the game’s Deluxe Edition. Elite Dangerous is available right here.
We’ve got even more than Elite Dangerous for you, with the best simulation games and multiplayer games you need to add to your ever-growing backlog.
You can also follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides, or join our community Discord to stay in the know.
A former writer for NME Gaming and a Journalism Masters graduate, Will is a news writer for PCGamesN. He’s also written for Eurogamer, VG247, and GamingBible. He’s kept busy between news, features, and review writing, like that of Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty. With experience in the biggest games released like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Starfield, Will still feels most at home with a good roguelike game in his hands. He’s also very happy to admit that Dead Cells is the best roguelike game of the genre, even if the competition is incredibly stiff and great games keep coming out almost constantly.

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