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BGN interviews actor Tim Blake Nelson for his latest film Old Henry.

Old Henry is an action-Western about a widowed farmer and his son who warily take in a mysterious, injured man with a satchel of cash. When a posse of men claiming to be the law come for the money, the farmer must decide whom to trust. Defending against a siege of his homestead, he reveals a talent for gunslinging that surprises everyone, calling his true identity into question.

Interviewer: Jeandra LeBeauf

Video Editor: Jamie Broadnax

Old Henry premieres in theaters October 1st.

Source: Courtesy of CNN / Family Photo

The LaSalle County, Ilinois, coroner’s office has identified the body of Jelani “J.J.” Day.

Jelani, an Illinois State University graduate student, was last seen on campus on Aug. 24. The following day, after not hearing from the 25-year-old, his family filed a missing persons report.

The local corner’s office detailed that Jelani’s remains were found on Sept. 4. In a statement jointly released by local officials, it was noted that the coroner identified Jelani’s body “through forensic dental identification and DNA testing and comparison.” As of now, the 25-year-old’s “cause of death is unknown, pending further investigation and toxicology testing.”

Further details highlighted that Jelanli’s car was found 60 miles away from ISU on Aug. 26, and that a “command post” was established by the Peru Police Department at that site. In addition, various local officials tried to help locate Jelani, and their work included “an extensive K9 search,” aerial drone searches and a ground search.

On Sept. 4, the body now identified as Jelani’s “was recovered floating near the south bank of the Illinois River approximately ¼ mile east of the Illinois Rt. 251 Bridge.”

The 25-year-old wanted to be a doctor and was getting his master’s degree in speech pathology. According to Newsy, Jelani had “graduated from Alabama A&M where he pledged Omega Psi Phi fraternity” before continuing his education at ISU. Furthermore, he was a Bloomington, Illinois resident.

When his mother spoke with the outlet earlier this week, she heartbreakingly expressed that she felt she wasn’t getting the help she needed to find out what happened to her son. While Carmen Bolden Day knew local authorities had recovered a body that they suspected was Jelani’s, the mother told Newsy at that time, “I don’t truly believe that it is my son.”

“I’m imploring, pleading and asking that the police still pay attention and look for my son,” Carmen said on Monday, Sept. 20.

Moreover, the mother shared that Jelani told her, “‘Okay mama, I just wanted to hear your voice.’ And that was our last conversation on August 23.”

“I just want somebody to speak up because somebody knows something,” Carmen previously expressed. Notably, to aid in helping figure out what happened to Jelani, she’s hired a private investigator. 

After news broke that the body found on Sept 4. has been identified as Jelani’s, his family posted on Facebook in part:

“There are no words to clearly communicate our devastation. We learned this morning from the LaSalle County Coroner the deceased man found in Peru, IL on Saturday, September 4 is Jelani. Our hearts are broken.”

 

USA Today reports that investigators on the case are currently “trying to determine if [Jelani] was a victim of foul play.”

Jalani’s disappearance and death have gained national attention amid an ongoing conversation surrounding “missing white woman syndrome” and Gabby Petito, a 22-year-old social media influencer who died during a cross-country trip she took with her fiancé Brian Laundrie.

MADAMENOIRE will provide updates as information on what happened to Jelani continues to be released.

Hi everyone! Today I want to talk about the week 1 predictions I made last week. I got some of them right and some of them wrong. I predicted that the 49ers would beat the Lions 26-21, but the final score was 41-33 49ers over the Lions. I predicted that the Cardinals would beat the Titans 28-20, but the final score was not even close! The final score was 38-13 Cardinals over the Titans. The defensive end for the Cardinals Chandler Jones had 5 sacks against the Titans and he won the defensive player of the week! Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray threw 4 touchdown passes. Two of them were wide receivers DeAndre Hopkins and Christian Kirk. The running game was so much better because of the addition to Rodney Hudson, a former Raider center that got traded. The whole Cardinals team played extremely well by not allowing Derrick Henry the running back to break free like he always does! I predicted that the Broncos would beat the Giants 24-17, but the final score was 27-13 Broncos over the Giants.

I predicted that the Chiefs would beat the Browns 34-31, but the final score was 33-29 Chiefs over the Browns. It looked like the Browns were going to win the game, but they started imploding at the worse time. I predicted that the Rams would beat the Bears 23-16, but the final score was 34-14 Rams over the Bears. I predicted that the Colts would beat the Seahawks 30-27, but the final score was 28-16 Seahawks over the Colts. Yeah, I should not have underestimate the Seahawks because they are still a good team. I predicted that the Packers would beat the Saints 37-29, but the final score was not even close. The final score was 38-3 Saints over the Packers. The offense and defense did not play good at all for the Packers as the Saints offense and defense smothered the Packers team. I was not expecting a blowout from this game. I predicted that the Ravens would beat the Raiders 31-24, but the final score was 33-27 Raiders over the Ravens. The Ravens had the opportunity to go down the field and win the game after the Raiders turned the ball over at the goal line after the touchdown was taking away, but the Raiders got another chance and this time they were able to score a touchdown in overtime to seal the game.

So based off my predictions, I got 5 out of 8 picks correct!

Now let’s move on to week 2 NFL predictions, shall we?! The first game I will predict is the 49ers @Eagles game. I think that this will be a good game. The Eagles demolished the Falcons last week 32-6 and the 49ers pretty much demolished the Lions defense by scoring 41 points on them. I think the Eagles will win in a close game 27-21 over the 49ers. The next game I will predict is the Broncos @Jaguars game. I think the Broncos should win this game pretty easily 34-17 over the Jags. I think the quarterback Trevor Lawrence is still learning in the NFL and I think the Broncos will be a little bit better this year. The next game I will predict is the Rams @Colts game. The Rams are coming off with the win over the Bears and the Colts are coming off with the loss to the Seahawks. I think the Rams will be able to pull this one off over the Colts 29-17 because the Colts did not look all that good vs the Seahawks and the Rams can put up a lot of points against anybody in the league. The next game I will predict is the Vikings @Cardinals game. The Cardinals are coming off with a big win and performance over the Titans and the Vikings are coming off with a loss in overtime to the Bengals. The Vikings have a running back name Dalvin Cook who can be a shifty guy and break tackles. This is going to be another test for the Cardinals rush defense and then you have 2 wide receivers including Adam Thielen and Justin Jefferson. The Cardinals just need to pressure the quarterback Kirk Cousins to put him off his spot and the defense needs to stop the running game of the Vikings like they did last week against the Titans. A former corner back for the Cardinals Patrick Peterson will be returning to State Farm Stadium to play his former team. I assume that he will be trying to cover DeAndre Hopkins. I do think that the Cardinals will find a way to pull this game off over the Vikings 31-17. The Red Sea basically will distract the Vikings offense by trying to make them lose badly because they’re will be a lot of Cardinal fans in the stands. The next game I will predict is the Titans @Seahawks game. I do think that the Seahawks will come on top of the Titans 34-23. I think the Titans may get their running game working again, but I don’t think it may be enough to beat the Seahawks because Russell Wilson is pretty good at finishing games by scoring long touchdown drives.

The next game I will predict is Chiefs @Ravens on Sunday Night Football. I think that this will be a great game, but the last time these 2 teams played, the Ravens were getting blown out by the Chiefs. I don’t think that it will be a blowout, but I think the Chiefs might be able to pull this one off barely over the Ravens 33-27. The Chiefs offense is just too fast for any defense to stop them and they are desperate to going back to the Super Bowland winning it again because they got whooped by the Super Bowl Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31-9 last season. The last game I will predict is the Lions @Packers game. The Lions have not won in Lambeau Field since 2015 and the Packers are coming off a real disappointing loss to the Saints. I do think the Packers will rebound over the Lions 36-20 because I think that Aaron Rodgers the quarterback will be shredding the Lions defense and he is angry and desperate to get his first win of the season. The next game I will predict is the Cowboys @Chargers game. I think the Chargers may pull this one off over the Cowboys in a close game 23-17.

So, what do you guys think about the week 2 NFL picks?! I would love to hear lots of comments, opinions, thoughts, concerns, or questions down below!

Stay tuned for week 2 prediction updates.

The post Week 1 Prediction Updates and Week 2 Picks! appeared first on The Nerd Element.

This is a review of the first two episodes of the Apple TV+ sci-fi series, Foundation. View the trailer for the show below:

Based on the award-winning novels by Isaac Asimov, Foundation chronicles a band of exiles on their monumental journey to save humanity and rebuild civilization amid the fall of the Galactic Empire. Dr Hari Seldon (Jared Harris) leads his followers, including Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell) and Raych (Alfred Enoch) on this lifechanging journey. David S. Goyer (The Dark Knight, Flashforward) is the showrunner on Foundation.

The opening two episodes of the series focus on Dr Hari Seldon and his reading of mathematics that he believes proves the upcoming end of the Galactic Empire. Seldon and his assistant Raych bring in Gaal Dornick, someone who has proven her ability to solve complex problems, in order to prove Seldon’s theories. Foundation is full of politics at least in the opening couple of episodes.

Jared Harris (Chernobyl, Mad Men) is great as Hari Seldon, you don’t really know if you can trust what he is saying or not. Is the Galactic Empire in trouble and if so, does Seldon really know how to slow down that inevitably? Perfect casting for such an enigmatic role.

Relative newcomer Lou Llobell (Voyagers) does a good job as Gaal Dornick. She portrays many different emotions throughout the opening episodes, being vulnerable, strong and intelligent. Gaal is a bit of a fish out of water but finds her place quickly. She’s the emotional connection to the story, with many of the characters being fairly cold and unrelatable.

The Galactic Empire is ruled over by Brother Dawn, played by Cooper Carter (Beyond the After), Brother Day portrayed by Lee Pace (Guardians of the Galaxy, Pushing Daisies) and Terrence Mann’s (Sense8, Critters) Brother Dusk. There is a lot of teaching to the young Brother Dawn, which I found a little tiresome. I could have down with less of that, hopefully as the series progresses that is phased out. Pace and Mann are very good in their roles.

The real draw of Foundation is how it looks. The visual effects and cinematography are excellent, the costumes are extravagant and the production design is beautiful. The craft team of Foundation did enough to keep me coming back. The show apparently has a massive budget and it’s easy to see why.

Bear McCreary (The Walking Dead, Godzilla: King of Monsters) is the composer for Foundation. The score isn’t overused, they’re not afraid of letting the script speak for itself. When it does appear, the score is pretty typical of space/sci-fi content. McCreary is a veteran of television and film and does a good job once again.

Both episodes have a dramatic conclusion, pushing you to tune in for the next episode. However, I did find that the episodes, both over an hour in length, dragged a bit. Both could have been edited down to help them flow and keep me hooked.

There is enough in the first two episodes of Foundation to get me to come back for more. I’m not completely sold on it due to the slowness of the episodes. It looks fantastic though and the cast is great. It’s better than it should be for a show that has a base in mathematics.

The first two episodes of Foundation are released September 24^th on Apple TV+, with a drop of one episode a week following that.

The post Apple TV+’s New Show Foundation is Beautiful to Look at but a Little Slow appeared first on The Nerd Element.