Large parts of the United States and some areas in Canada, home to around 165 million people, could

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SOUTHFIELD, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 29, 2023--

Melanie Martinez fans have expressed their disappointment with the popstar over her VIP package on her Portals tour. The description of the package on Ticketmaster promises an "interactive photo experience" for VIP ticketholders, leading fans to believe this meant an in-person meet-and-greet with Martinez herself. However, this wasn't the case as the photo experience was Martinez in the form of an AI-generated hologram of that greets fans in her prosthetic mask, so the fans didn't get to meet the singer in person. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter With VIP tickets costing around $400, it has led to fans sharing their discontent on social media. "Does anyone else think the VIP AI meet and greet with Melanie is kinda stupid? I mean, the VIP tickets were $400, and you didn't even really get anything," one fan complained on TikTok. @melsgrippingtoes I still love melane and everything Im literally going to her concert. But she could atleast put in some more effort @kbhorsefan I’d be beyond upset oh my god #melaniemartinez #portals Another added: "When I saw videos of it, I thought that it was a joke, but then no that’s the real thing and it’s so disappointing." "It’s not even ai it’s just a pre-recorded video of her," someone else replied. A fourth person commented: "I would not pay for that… imma just take someone else’s video and photoshop me in. Same thing." Though some fans did defend Martinez, noting that a meet-and-greet was not mentioned in the package. One person said: "I thought it was cute everyone's hating it never said anywhere there was going to be a meet and greet. The concert was so fun." @katebellla I thought it was cute everyones hating it never said anywhere there was going to be a meet and greet. The concert was so fun ? #portalstour @Melanie Martinez "It wasn’t labeled as a meet and greet tho. It was 400 to be upfront in her concert, the ai thing was just an extra thing included," another person wrote. Someone else added: "I mean if it stated AI meet and greet and cost $400 maybe just don’t go." While other fans also claimed they didn't receive their VIP merchandise such as a signed poster, VIP merch and tote bag. One person said: "I didn’t even get the merch bruh," as another similarly echoed: "I heard someone bought VIP and didn't even get the merchandise stuff." Melanie Martinez's third album, Portals is out now after being released back on March 31. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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Researchers have revealed where in the UK has the most crop circles, in a significant victory for fans of chasing potential alien hotspots. The mysterious crop circle phenomenon is often attributed to unidentified flying object landings or other paranormal forces, with wannabe alien hunters travelling from far and wide to study the markings when they appear. According to Bonusfinder and ukcropcircles.co.uk, the southwestern county of Wiltshire has seen by far the most crop circles since 2005, with a whopping 380 instances of the strange event. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Hampshire was a distant second, with just 51 crop circles in the same period, followed by Oxfordshire with 35 crop circles. Monique Klinkenbergh, researcher and founder of the Crop Circle Visitor Centre and Exhibition, said the county’s sprawling landscape and relatively undisturbed countryside could be part of the reason for the flurry of potential extraterrestrial activity. “Crop circles seem to be attracted by ancient sites such as stone circles, long barrows, hill forts and other archaeological sites, for which Wiltshire is famous,” she said. “We have had so many different designs appearing, from small simple circles and ‘pictograms’ to extremely intricate and large patterns, sometimes with a very detailed and complex lay [the way the plants are flattened] on the ground. “Some crop circle patterns are familiar in design, suggesting they belong to a certain ‘school’ or ‘family-type’, such as Mathematical, Forms of Life, Religious, Astronomical, Codes and Mythology.” Klinkenbergh said invisible “Earth energies” are believed by some to run through ancient landmarks. That could be why the home of Stonehenge has so many crop circles, she said. However, she admitted that another far more mundane explanation could be at the heart of it: that they are manmade. Who would’ve thought it, eh? Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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The Euclid space telescope has revealed its first full-colour images, showing the universe as it has never been seen before. The five images, taken by the European Space Agency’s newly launched flying observatory, show the shining lights of distant galaxies. Scientists hope they will also prove useful in better understanding those galaxies, which includes some of the most massive structures in the known universe. Many of the galaxies have never been seen before. And much of the information in them could help explain mysteries such as dark energy and the expansion of the universe. The images released on Tuesday include one of the Perseus cluster of galaxies which shows 1,000 galaxies belonging to the cluster, and more than 100,000 additional galaxies further away in the background. Many of these faint galaxies were previously unseen, and some of them are so far that their light has taken 10 billion years to reach us. Another image captures the spiral galaxy IC 342, nicknamed the Hidden Galaxy, because it is difficult to observe as it lies behind the busy disc of our Milky Way, and so dust, gas and stars obscure our view. One of the new pictures is of globular cluster NGC 6397 - the second-closest globular cluster to Earth, located about 7,800 light-years away. Globular clusters are collections of hundreds of thousands of stars held together by gravity. These faint stars tell us about the history of the Milky Way and where dark matter is located. To create a 3D map of the universe, Euclid will observe the light from galaxies out to 10 billion light-years. The first irregular dwarf galaxy that Euclid observed is called NGC 6822 and is located just 1.6 million light-years from Earth. And the fifth image shows a panoramic and detailed view of the Horsehead Nebula, also known as Barnard 33 and part of the constellation Orion. Scientists hope to find many dim and previously unseen Jupiter-mass planets in their celestial infancy, as well as young brown dwarfs and baby stars, in this new observation. Professor Carole Mundell, ESA director of science, said: “Dark matter pulls galaxies together and causes them to spin more rapidly than visible matter alone can account for; dark energy is driving the accelerated expansion of the universe. “Euclid will for the first time allow cosmologists to study these competing dark mysteries together. “Euclid will make a leap in our understanding of the cosmos as a whole, and these exquisite Euclid images show that the mission is ready to help answer one of the greatest mysteries of modern physics.” Rene Laureijs, the ESA’s Euclid project scientist, said: “We have never seen astronomical images like this before, containing so much detail. “They are even more beautiful and sharp than we could have hoped for, showing us many previously unseen features in well-known areas of the nearby universe. “Now we are ready to observe billions of galaxies, and study their evolution over cosmic time.” Euclid was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida on July 1. Named after the ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, the two-tonne probe made its way towards an area in space known as the second Lagrange point, where the gravitational forces of Earth and the sun are roughly equal - creating a stable location for the spacecraft. The UK has contributed £37 million towards the £850 million mission, with scientists playing key roles in designing and building the probe and leading on one of the two scientific instruments on board. Dr Caroline Harper, head of space science at the UK Space Agency, said: “These first colour images showcase Euclid‘s enormous potential, giving us incredibly sharp images of galaxies and stars, and helping us understand more about the impacts of dark matter and dark energy on the universe. “The UK has played an important role in the mission, leading on the development of the visible imager (VIS) instrument and on key elements of the data processing pipeline, funded by the UK Space Agency. “And this is just the start - UK researchers will be using Euclid data for many years to come to make significant new scientific discoveries about the composition and evolution of the cosmos.” Additional reporting by Press Association Read More Euclid space telescope releases first full-colour images of cosmos First full-colour images of universe captured by Euclid telescope revealed Watch again: ESA reveals first full-colour images of ‘dark universe’ from Euclid Tim Peake: Possibility of all-UK space mission a ‘very exciting development’ Strange purple light phenomenon ‘Steve’ spotted across UK skies Nasa sending VR headset up to ISS to treat astronaut’s mental health