[Fox News] Who is Galileo Galilei? Italian philosopher who shaped our understanding of the stars

Few figures shine as brightly as Galileo Galilei, an Italian philosopher whose contributions to astronomy revolutionized the understanding of the stars. 

“Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) has always played a key role in any history of science, as well as many histories of philosophy. He is a – if not the – central figure of the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century,” reads the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Born in Pisa, Italy on Feb. 15, 1564, Galileo’s insatiable curiosity and relentless pursuit of knowledge propelled him to the forefront of scientific inquiry during the Renaissance era.

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY, JANUARY 7, 1610, GALILEO DISCOVERS THE MOONS OF JUPITER

Galileo’s journey began in Renaissance Italy at the University of Pisa, where he initially studied medicine but soon found his true calling in mathematics and natural philosophy. 

His need for learning led him to explore diverse fields, including physics, engineering and astronomy. However, due to financial constraints, he left the University of Pisa without completing his degree, says History.com. 

Galileo continued his self-directed studies and expanded his knowledge in various fields.

Despite facing financial challenges, Galileo’s pursuit of knowledge and passion for science set the stage for his later achievements. 

In 1609, Galileo constructed his first telescope, where he made a series of astonishing discoveries that forever altered our perception of the universe.

On Jan. 7, 1610, Galileo discovered the moons of Jupiter — making it the first observation of this planet.

He utilized his telescope to identify four of Jupiter’s orbiting moons, examine Saturn, observe the varying phases of Venus, and scrutinize sunspots on the surface of the sun. The four moons, and Jupiter’s largest satellites, are lo, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.

“In observing the sun, Galileo saw a series of ‘imperfections.’ He had discovered sunspots. Monitoring these spots on the sun demonstrated that the sun in fact rotated. Furthermore, later observations by Francesco Sizzi in 1612 suggested that the spots on the sun actually changed over time,” says The Library of Congress.

ITALY MUSEUM TO DISPLAY FINGERS, TOOTH BELIEVED TO BE GALILEO’S 

Galileo was ordered to appear before the Holy Office to face charges related to his advocating for the Copernican theory and his belief in the Earth’s movement around the sun, a stance the Catholic Church deemed heretical.

This marked Galileo’s second confrontation for rejecting the Church’s doctrine that positioned the Earth as the unmovable center of the universe.

“In 1616, Galileo had been forbidden from holding or defending his beliefs. In the 1633 interrogation, he denied that he ‘held’ belief in the Copernican view but continued to write about the issue and evidence as a means of ‘discussion’ rather than belief,” according to History.com. 

Undeterred by persecution, Galileo continued his astronomical inquiries, publishing “Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems” in 1632. The book presented a vigorous defense of heliocentrism and provoked the anger of Church authorities. 

In 1633, Galileo faced the Inquisition and was found guilty of heresy and sentenced to house arrest by Pope Urban VIII for the remainder of his life, says History.com.

ITALY MUSEUM TO DISPLAY FINGERS, TOOTH BELIEVED TO BE GALILEO’S

Galileo’s contributions to physics, mathematics and astronomy echo across the ages, earning him a rightful place among history’s greatest minds. Nearly 70 at the time of his trial, Galileo lived his last nine years under comfortable house arrest, while writing a summary of his early experiments.

In 2018, U.K. researchers said they found a long-lost letter written by Galileo that shows he engaged in a little deception to fend off the Inquisition.

Galileo wrote to a friend in 1613 saying he believed the Earth revolved around the sun, and not vice versa. He got sneaky and asked his friend for the original back, so he could soften it after a friar forwarded it to the Inquisition.

“He died in Arcetri near Florence, Italy on Jan. 8, 1642, at the age of 77 after suffering from heart palpitations and a fever,” says History.com

As we gaze upon the stars, let us remember the man whose dedication to truth reshaped the course of scientific questions for centuries to come. 

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[Fox Business] Haylie Duff lists Texas home for $3.2M after leaving California for Lone Star state

Nearly four years after relocating her family from California to Texas, Haylie Duff has listed her Santa Barbara-style estate in Austin for $3.2 million. 

The actress and her fiancé Matt Rosenberg, who purchased the 4,200 square foot home for $1.9 million in 2020, were initially drawn to the overall “energy” of the space, real estate agent Scott Michaels told FOX Business. 

“What grabbed my clients’ attention was the energy of the home as well as the privacy it affords,” he said. “The timeless Santa Barbara-style, indoor/outdoor living and fantastic community/location are big draws for potential buyers.”

HAYLIE DUFF ON MOVING TO TEXAS AND MAINTAINING A HOLLYWOOD CAREER: ‘MAKE THE RIGHT DECISION FOR YOUR FAMILY’

Originally built in 2013, the four-bedroom, four-bathroom home features a cream-colored stucco exterior and an array of customized interior details including unique built-ins, arched doorways, light fixtures, coffered ceilings and crown molding. 

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Located on one acre in a private community of Spanish Oaks (just twenty minutes outside of Austin), the two-level space also includes a loaded chef’s kitchen, multiple living rooms, a swimming pool and spa, a second-floor balcony and an outdoor kitchen area. 

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Haylie, who shares daughters, Lulu Gray, 5, and Ryan Ava, 8, with Rosenberg, previously opened up to Fox News Digital about the decision to relocate to the Lone Star state. 

“Well, you know, I grew up in Texas,” she said in 2022. “Texas is my home state. And so, I always imagined that I would come back to Texas and raise our family here and things like that.”

“And we imagined it probably more as our girls were going into middle school or that age,” she added. “But when the pandemic happened, we just kind of looked at each other, and we were like, ‘Should we? Should we get a little more space and a little fresh air?”

At the time, Haylie – who made her directorial debut in the 2022 film “Project Baby” – admitted she was fearful of how the move would impact her career in Hollywood.  

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“I think so much of my fear of moving out of Los Angeles was that my career was there and that I would never work again or something like that,” she shared. “And, you know, I think this has all taught us that Zoom certainly can be a very powerful tool. And we can, you know, very luckily for me, get to continue to work from here, and I get to live near my dad … I haven’t lived here (near) my dad in a really long time. 

“There’s a lot of family here that I get to spend time with now that I didn’t before. And we love it,” she continued. “We’ve met great friends here, and we really landed in a great spot here.” 

“I’m very grateful that work opportunities have still been there for me,” Haylie added. “And I also am a big believer in God’s got your back. And so you make the right decision for your family, and he’s got it.”

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[Fox Business] Dollar store chain to close 1,000 stores as experts point to inflation and crime being top factors

Dollar Tree, the parent company of Family Dollar, announced it would close around 1,000 stores in the coming years due to poor market conditions and store performance, which experts signaled will have an impact on Americans who rely on the budget prices in rural and inner city areas. 

In the first half of 2024, Dollar Tree plans on closing approximately 600 Family Dollar stores, while an additional 370 Family Dollar and 30 Dollar Tree stores will close over the next several years at the end of each store’s current lease term, the company announced last week. In the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2023, Dollar Tree began “identifying stores for closure, relocation, or re-bannering based on an evaluation of current market conditions and individual store performance, among other factors,” the company said. Between the Dollar Tree and Family Dollar brands, the parent company currently oversees a total of 16,774 stores. 

While Dollar Tree executives reportedly unveiled plans to install more security cases and hire more guards to curb shrink, also known as theft or shoplifting, Storch Advisors CEO Jerry Storch told Fox News Digital the closure of dollar stores is not primarily caused by theft, but instead suggested inflation was the biggest factor. 

“Because you can’t obviously sell things for the traditional dollar if prices have gone up too much, so you have to break the dollar, and they have done that and go higher and higher,” he said. “Then it’s hard with that customer base who, was financially stressed by inflation, to raise prices enough to make up for the rising prices of their products. So, you do see the gross margin compression taking place in dollar stores and that’s what’s been happening to the profits. The theft is just on top of that. Sometimes it is just enough to push the profit over the edge to where you have to close the store, but it’s not the only issue that they face.” 

DOLLAR GENERAL DROPS SELF-CHECKOUT AT HUNDREDS OF STORES TO REDUCE THEFT

Storch said it is important to keep in mind that these 1,000 stores are probably the worst performing stores that don’t see as much volume as might be expected. 

“The first thing that’ll happen is most of the volume will transfer to other dollar stores,” he explained. “So if there’s a competitor in town, the volume will largely go there. If they have two stores in town, they’ll transfer to the other store that they have in town. Then, after that, some of the volume will go to a Walmart or whoever the leading discount chain is nearby, which overlaps a lot in terms of geography.”

In addition, Storch said inflation has caused consumers to prioritize their spending on necessities like food over discretionary purchases like new clothes. 

“When you’re a dollar store, the problem is the necessities have lower margins than the discretionary purchases where you might be able to make up some of the money,” he said. “But, if they’re not buying discretionary goods, then your margin as a whole is lower, so that’s one of the reasons their profitability is getting squeezed.” 

DOLLAR GENERAL STORES, OTHERS SET SPECIFIC HOURS FOR OLDER SHOPPERS FOR THEIR PROTECTION

Storch said many people are also shifting to online storefronts like Amazon and Chinese-based company Temu, which has been growing its U.S. customer base. In December, it was announced that the Chinese e-commerce platform was successfully taking on U.S. dollar stores like Dollar Tree and Dollar General, accounting for nearly 17% of market share in the United States, according to reporting by Reuters

Dollar Tree pinned the decline in gross margin profits on “elevated shrink” and “product cost inflation.” 

Storch said that while there’s been some debate about how much crime is rising, there’s no doubt that theft is rising in the most vulnerable and highest crime areas. 

“At first, I think a lot of people viewed it as almost a victimless crime, as if, ‘Well, they’re just stealing from big corporations. They can afford it or the losses are insured or something like that,'” he said. “But as time has gone on, I believe that we’ve seen a change in attitudes where people are against this kind of crime almost everywhere and there is more energy put against trying to shut it down, so hopefully we’re getting more of a national consensus that this can’t be tolerated at the levels that it has been at.”

Retail security expert Matt Kelley told Fox News Digital that theft is one component, but that there are many implications when shrink occurs at dollar stores specifically.  

“Oftentimes those dollar stores might only have one or two people in the building, so they’ve got limited resources by way of being able to staff those stores,” he said. “So just that alone is a safety concern and when you think about shrink and theft and the things that are happening across the U.S, and maybe globally, the bad actors that are stealing from these places are becoming more and more brazen in their attempt to take things that they haven’t paid for and oftentimes those can get violent… so it’s goes beyond just profitability.”

“It’s really tying it back to the safety of the people who are working there,” he added. “Something that needs to be considered is when it’s less safe to work, the likelihood of you having people who even want to show up for work, especially people who are hourly associates that might be able to go somewhere and make just as much money in a safer environment, the likelihood of them coming to work on a consistent basis, or even wanting to stay there employed at that specific location is greatly diminished.”

20 DOLLAR STORES ROBBED THIS MONTH IN DEMOCRAT-RUN DETROIT

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Kelley said a combination of technology and partnerships with state, local and federal governments can be used to hold bad actors, such as thieves, accountable. 

“It comes down to, how are we supporting those communities and it all starts with laws that are being written and how we’re enforcing those laws and making sure that the bad actors are being held accountable,” he said. “But then also, how are we protecting the exterior of the building by way of stopping the activity before it happens, making sure that as bad actor comes on site, they see physical deterrents like a LiveView tower out in the parking lot that they know that they’re going to be on camera and get caught, and be identified and then potentially get arrested.”

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