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Easy Ways to Cut Your Food Bill Share Share Flip Flip Pin Pin Email Food can easily be one of your biggest expenses. In fact, Americans spend an estimated 6% of their budget on food, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. While more expensive options include eating out or getting take-out, even cooking at home can be expensive, depending on the ingredients you choose to buy. It can be even more difficult if you are focused on eating healthy and organic options instead of the junk food that is often cheapest at the grocery store. But just think of all the different ways you could spend the money if you successfully cut your food bill. Adapting the following ideas to your needs and choosing the ones that will work well with your dietary goals is just one way that you can work to cut your food bill each month. 01 Save Money by Working with Others One of the ways that you can save money on food is by working with others to reduce your food bill. You can set up a food exchange where you trade off nights to cook with friends. This gives you the chance to socialize, plus save money since it's cheaper to buy and cook one meal for a larger crowd each week than it is to cook several smaller meals for yourself. Another option is to buy items in bulk through a local food co-op, farmers market, or big-box store. Worth noting: some farmers markets have a section where they sell in wholesale to restaurants, but you have to make larger minimum purchases. Additionally, co-ops often require a membership. But going in as a group on either of these can save you big. 02 Try Saving on Your Lunches Fast food prices have gone up over the last few years, and eating out a nicer restaurant for lunch can cost even more. Cutting eating out at lunch can easily save you more than $100 a month. You can use several lunch savings ideas to help you cut costs. These include eating leftovers, packing your lunches at the beginning of the week, and doing a lunch exchange at work. All of these ideas can help reduce your food bill. Additionally, it gives you more control over the food that you eat and gives you the option of making – and eating – healthier meals. 03 Cook More at Home If you can stop eating out, you can slash your food bill significantly. In fact, a recent study found that millennials spend roughly 44% of their food budget eating out, a more than 10 percent increase from 2010. So try cooking your dinners at home each night, at least during the week. If you're pressed for time in the evenings, try working slow cooker meals into your weekly dinner repertoire. Make-ahead freezer meals are another frugal option. (Bonus: there are many slow cooker or freezer meals that aren't unhealthy or starchy.) You can do your cooking for the week over the weekend or make double when you know the meal will freeze well. If you do find yourself in a situation when you absolutely have to eat out during the week, use these tips to save. 04 Take the Time to Plan Menu planning is another key to help you cut your monthly food bill. It not only helps you create – and stick to – a set list when shopping, it can also cut back on the number of unnecessary trips to the grocery store. A weekly dinner menu lets you plan ahead, so you can have easy to prepare meals on your busiest days of the week. If you do not have time to plan a menu, there are several menu-planning services where you get a new menu each week. Most services have several different options you can use. You can check out eMeals, The Fresh20, Saving Dinner, and the Six O’Clock Scramble. If you have food you love to cook but just need help to assemble your grocery list and menu plan, you may want to look into Plan to Eat, which allows you to plan your menu with your own recipes, then puts together the grocery list for you.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption An undercover researcher who had a hidden camera posed as a man with autism "Horrifying" practices have been exposed that purport to cure people with autism, during which clients are subjected to shouting and intimidation. An undercover researcher posing as a man with autism was verbally abused and mimicked by a trainer for hours. The BBC investigated after hearing of a Hungarian firm selling training to "cure" and treat autism in London. Campaigners are calling on the government to regulate the industry further to protect people with autism. Image caption Stabil Pont Technologia's London trainer Jozsef Kanta claimed our researcher could be "cured" of autism with the help of mind training Jozsef Kanta offered autism mind-training from premises in London, founded, he claimed, on methods developed by Stabil Pont Technologia, based near Budapest in Hungary. Mr Kanta claimed the researcher's autism could be cured through a series of training sessions costing £3,500. Mr Kanta said he was able to remove autism by locating the client's "inner trauma", but that could take 60 sessions or more. What is autism? Autism is a lifelong neurodevelopmental disorder. The condition affects the way people communicate with others and how they experience the world around them. According to the National Autistic Society, more than one in 100 people are autistic and about 90,000 people in London are on the autism spectrum. It is known as a spectrum disorder because it affects people in different ways. There is no known cure. The researcher used the false name Jordan. In the first of Jordan's sessions, he was ordered to make prolonged eye contact with Mr Kanta, something many autistic people struggle with. Mr Kanta then began to taunt Jordan by telling him repeatedly his mother did not love him. As the sessions went on the treatment became more confrontational with shouting. Jordan said afterwards: "His hands were getting closer to my face, his body was getting closer to me, his face was getting closer to my face." Mr Kanta was recorded as saying to him: "I'll go and slap you… you want I slap you?... or you want I punch you? Which one do you want?" Richard Mills, research director at the Research Autism charity, analysed the BBC's footage. He said: "It has no place under the heading of therapy of any kind." Image caption Richard Mills, research director at Research Autism charity, said he did not recognise Mr Kanta's treatment as a therapy Mr Mills said people with autism were likely to find such interaction extremely stressful. "To be confronted by someone who is so threatening is horrifying, it's terrifying. "And to someone prone to stress and anxiety, the effects are likely to be catastrophic," he said. The danger of unregulated treatment was the lack of safeguards, Mr Mills added. Zoltan Toth of Stabil Pont Technologia claims to have pioneered the training system in Hungary. When the BBC first approached Mr Toth, posing as a parent with an autistic child, he said: "I can kill autism, the first that did." Image copyright RTL Image caption Zoltan Toth from Stabil Pont Technologia has appeared on Hungarian TV talking about the controversial technique Mr Toth put the BBC in contact with Mr Kanta who he said was Stabil Pont Technologia's trainer in London. Mr Kanta originally said he was in contact with other families with autism in the UK who were seeking treatment. However, he later denied offering the training to anyone in the UK. When the BBC approached Mr Kanta, he said the techniques used in Hungary, were "not a treatment or cure. It is training. We do not train or cure anybody." He also said the firm had experienced "plenty of results" and the system was based on science. When asked to explain the abuse shown in the BBC's recording, he said he had been playing "a joke". When the BBC later approached Mr Toth for an explanation he said the technique "helps autistic people to become fully independent, normal people". More than 51,000 people have signed a petition calling for the government to legislate against unproven treatments being marketed as autism cures. Fiona O'Leary, of the campaign group Autistic Rights Together, who has autism herself, said: "Leading government bodies seem to have little appetite for tackling unregulated and abusive autism 'treatments'. "Effective legislation is desperately needed to protect autistic people from an industry that allows them to be experimented on with bogus therapies." The Department of Health said laws already existed in this area and people should report concerns to Trading Standards via Citizens Advice. A spokesman told the BBC: "We are determined to help people with autism live full and independent lives and have set out a clear, cross-government programme of action, developed with people with autism, their families and carers, to help achieve this." BBC Inside Out is broadcast on BBC One in the London region on Monday 26 September at 19:30 BST and nationwide on iPlayer for seven days following transmission.

Terry Southern (May 1, 1924 – October 29, 1995) was an American novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and university lecturer, noted for his distinctive satirical style. Part of the Paris postwar literary movement in the 1950s and a companion to Beat writers in Greenwich Village, Southern was also at the center of Swinging London in the 1960s and helped to change the style and substance of American films in the 1970s. He briefly wrote for Saturday Night Live in the 1980s. Southern's dark and often absurdist style of satire helped to define the sensibilities of several generations of writers, readers, directors and film goers. He is credited by journalist Tom Wolfe as having invented New Journalism with the publication of "Twirling at Ole Miss" in Esquire in February 1963. Southern's reputation was established with the publication of his comic novels Candy and The Magic Christian and through his gift for writing memorable film dialogue as evident in Dr. Strangelove, The Loved One, The Cincinnati Kid, and The Magic Christian. His work on Easy Rider helped create the independent film movement of the 1970s. Terry Southern's yearbook photo from North Texas Agricultural College Biography [ edit ] Southern was born in Alvarado, Texas. He graduated from Sunset High School in Dallas, Texas. Southern left Southern Methodist University to serve as a lieutenant in the US Army during World War II. He returned to the States to study at the University of Chicago before transferring to Northwestern University, where he received his undergraduate degree in philosophy in 1948. Southern left the US in September 1948, using a G.I. Bill grant to travel to France, where he studied at the Faculté Des Lettres of the Sorbonne. His four-year stint in Paris was a crucial formative influence, both on his development as a writer and on the evolution of his "hip" persona. During this period he made many important friendships and social contacts as he became a central figure in the expatriate American café society of the 1950s. He became close friends with Mason Hoffenberg (with whom he subsequently co-wrote the novel Candy), Alexander Trocchi, John Marquand, Mordecai Richler, Aram Avakian (filmmaker, photographer and brother of Columbia Records jazz producer George Avakian), and jazz musician and motorsport enthusiast Allen Eager. He also met expatriate American writer James Baldwin and leading French intellectuals Jean Cocteau, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Albert Camus. Southern frequented the Cinémathèque Française in Paris and saw jazz performances by leading bebop musicians including Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, and Miles Davis, evoked in his classic "You're Too Hip, Baby". During the early 1950s he wrote some of his best short stories, including "The Butcher" and "The Automatic Gate", both published in David Burnett's New-Story magazine. His story "The Accident" was the first short story published in the Paris Review in its founding issue (1953); it was followed by "The Sun and the Still-born Stars" in issue #4.[1] Southern became closely identified with the Paris Review and its founders, Peter Matthiessen, Harold L. "Doc" Humes, and George Plimpton, and he formed a lifelong friendship with Plimpton. He met French model Pud Gadiot during 1952; a romance soon blossomed and the couple married just before they moved to New York City.[2][3] Greenwich Village, 1953–56 [ edit ] In 1953 Southern and Gadiot returned to the US and settled in Greenwich Village in New York City. As he had in Paris, Southern quickly became a prominent figure on the artistic scene that flourished in the Village in the late 1950s. He met visual artists such as Robert Frank, Annie Truxell and Larry Rivers. Through Mason Hoffenberg who made occasional visits from Paris, he was introduced to leading beat writers including Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso. He frequented renowned New York jazz venues such as the Five Spot, the San Remo, and the Village Vanguard. It was in this period that Southern read and became obsessed with the work of British writer Henry Green. Green's writing exerted a strong influence on Southern's early work, and Green became one of Southern's most ardent early supporters. Southern struggled to gain recognition during this period, writing short stories as he worked on Flash and Filigree, his first solo novel. Most of these stories were rejected by leading magazines and journals. Here, as in Paris, Southern was almost entirely supported by his wife Pud, but their relationship fell apart within a year of their arrival in New York and they were divorced in mid-1954. During 1954 and 1955 Southern met two of his literary heroes, William Faulkner and Nelson Algren. Southern interviewed Algren for the Paris Review in the autumn of 1955. They kept in touch after the interview, and Algren became another of Southern's early friends and champions. Southern's fortunes began to change after he was taken on by the Curtis-Brown Agency in mid-1954; through them he had three of his short stories accepted by Harper's Bazaar. They published "The Sun and the Still-born Stars" and "The Panthers" in the same edition in late 1955, and "The Night Bird Blew for Doctor Warner" was featured in the January 1956 edition. In October 1955 Southern met model and aspiring actress Carol Kauffman and were married on July 14, 1956.[4] Southern returned to Europe with Kauffman in October 1956, stopping off in Paris before settling in Geneva, Switzerland, where they lived until 1959. Kauffman took a job with UNESCO, which supported them as Southern continued to write. The years in Geneva were a very productive period during which he prepared Flash and Filigree for publication, and worked on Candy and The Magic Christian as well as TV scripts and short stories. The couple made trips to Paris, where they visited Mason Hoffenberg, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs, and to London, where Southern met Henry Green and Kenneth Tynan. During his time in New York Southern had written a short story "about a girl in Greenwich Village who got involved with a hunchback because she was such a good Samaritan" and this became the core of Candy, co-written with Mason Hoffenberg. On his return to Paris in late 1956 Southern showed the story to several people, including Hoffenberg, who thought the character should have more adventures. Southern encouraged Hoffenberg to write one; this became the sequence where Candy goes to the hospital to see Dr. Krankheit. The pair began alternately creating chapters, working together regularly on visits to Tourrettes-sur-Loup over the spring and summer of 1957. The book was introduced to publisher Maurice Girodias, probably by Marilyn Meeske, who, according to Southern, thought Girodias would be interested in it as a "dirty book".[5] André Deutsch accepted Southern's first novel, Flash and Filigree, early in 1957, and the short story "A South Summer Idyll" was published in Paris Review No. 15. The Southerns spent some time in Spain with Henry Green during the summer, and Southern interviewed him for the Paris Review. Several more short stories were published later that year, by which time he was finishing work on Candy. Southern and Gregory Corso helped convince Girodias to publish the controversial novel Naked Lunch by then-little-known author William S. Burroughs. In early 1958 Southern made his first foray into screenwriting, working with Canadian director Ted Kotcheff, who had come to Britain to work for the newly established Associated TeleVision (ATV) company. Kotcheff directed Southern's TV adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones, which was broadcast in the UK in March. This coincided with the publication of Flash and Filigree, which was well reviewed in the UK but coolly received in the US. The first major magazine interview with Southern, conducted by Elaine Dundy, was published in UK Harper's Bazaar in August 1958. In October Olympia published Candy under the pseudonym Maxwell Kenton, and it was immediately banned by the Paris vice squad. Southern's first solo novel, The Magic Christian, satirically explores the corrupting effects of money. He finished the book in Geneva over the fall and winter of 1958–59 and it was published by André Deutsch in spring 1959 to mixed reviews, although it soon gained an avid cult following. By the time it had been published, the Southerns had decided to return to the US; they left Geneva for New York in April 1959.[6] East Canaan, 1959–62 [ edit ] After moving back to the US, the Southerns stayed with friends for several months until they were able to buy their own home. They were looking for a rural retreat close enough to New York to allow Terry to commute there. Southern met and became friendly with jazz musician and bandleader Artie Shaw and they began looking for properties together. Shaw put down a deposit on a farm in East Canaan, Connecticut, but at the urging of a friend Southern convinced Shaw to let him buy the farm, which he purchased for $23,000. During 1959 and 1960, he continued working on a never-completed novel called The Hipsters, which he had begun in Geneva. He became part of the New York artists and writers 'salon' of his old friend Plimpton—who had also moved back to New York— frequenting the Cedar Tavern, rubbing shoulders with writers James Jones, William Styron, Norman Mailer, Philip Roth, "Doc" Humes, Jack Gelber, Jules Feiffer, Blair Fuller, Gore Vidal, Kenneth Tynan, the Aga Khan, the cast of the British comedy stage revue Beyond The Fringe, Jackie Kennedy, British actress Jean Marsh, and Tynan's first wife, Elaine Dundy, through whom Southern met satirist Lenny Bruce. Flash and Filigree had been published in the US by Coward McCann in the fall of 1958. Several fragments from The Hipsters were published as short stories during this period, including "Red-Dirt Marijuana" published, in the January–February 1960 edition of Evergreen Review; and "Razor Fight", published in Glamour magazine. He had an essay on Lotte Lenya published in Esquire. In early 1960, he began writing book reviews for The Nation, which were published over the next two years. During the year, he also collaborated with his old Paris friends, Alex Trocchi and Richard Seaver, compiling "Writers in Revolt," an anthology of modern fiction for the Frederick Fall company. The editing process took much longer than expected: a drug bust led Trocchi to flee to the UK via Canada, leaving Southern and Seaver to finish the book. Terry and Carol's son and only child Nile Southern was born on December 29, 1960. Around this time, Southern began writing for Maurice Girodias' new periodical Olympia Review. He began negotiations with the Putnam company to reissue Candy under his and Hoffenberg's real names, and he hired a new literary agent, Sterling Lord. In the summer of 1962, Southern worked for two months as a relief editor at Esquire, and during this period he had several stories published in the magazine, including "The Road to Axotle". Through the Esquire job, he interviewed rising filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, who had just completed his controversial screen adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita. Although Southern knew little about Kubrick, the director was already well aware of Southern's work, having been given a copy of The Magic Christian by Peter Sellers during the making of Lolita. Dr. Strangelove [ edit ] Southern's life and career changed irrevocably on November 2, 1962, when he received a telegram inviting him to come to London to work on the screenplay of Kubrick's new film, which was then in pre-production.[7] Partly on the recommendation of Peter Sellers, Stanley Kubrick asked Southern to help revise the screenplay of Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). The film was based on the Cold War thriller Red Alert (1958) by Peter George, the rights to which Kubrick had secured for $3,000. Kubrick and George's original screenplay (which was to be called Edge of Doom) was a straight political thriller. They then reworked it into a satirical format (provisionally titled The Delicate Balance of Terror) in which the plot of Red Alert was situated as a film-within-a-film made by an alien intelligence.[8] Southern's work on the project was brief but intense; he officially worked on the script from November 16 to December 28, 1962. Southern began to rely on the amphetamine-barbiturate "diet pill" Dexamyl to keep him going through the frantic rewriting process; in later years, he developed a long-term amphetamine dependency. His amphetamine abuse, combined with his heavy intake of alcohol and other drugs, contributed significantly to health problems in later life. The major change Southern and Kubrick made was to recast the script as a black comedy, jettisoning the "film within a film" structure. Kubrick, George, and Southern shared the screenplay credits, but competing claims about who contributed what led to confusion and some conflict between the three men after the film's release. The credit question was further confused by Sellers' numerous ad libbed contributions—he would often improvise wildly on set, so Kubrick made sure that Sellers had as much camera 'coverage' as possible during his scenes, in order to capture these spontaneous inspirations. In an apparent homage to Southern's birthplace, the movie mentions that the "23rd Airborne Division is stationed seven miles away at Alvarado". Burpelson Air Force Base, an important setting of the movie, may allude to nearby Burleson. According to Art Miller,[citation needed] an independent producer who hired Southern to write the screenplay for a never-completed comic film about the bumbling Watergate burglars, Southern told him that the best example of his writing in Dr. Strangelove was the scene in which B-52 pilot T.J. "King" Kong, played by Slim Pickens, reads off a list of the contents of a survival kit to his crew, concluding that a man could have "a pretty nice weekend in Vegas" with some of the items. When the scene was shot, Pickens spoke the scripted line ("Dallas"), but the word "Vegas" was overdubbed during post-production because the film was released not long after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas in November 1963.[9] According to Miller,[citation needed] Peter Sellers quietly paid Southern tens of thousands of dollars to create some of the best-known comedy bits for Sellers' character Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther film series. Southern also helped Sellers with dialogue coaching. Originally slated to play four roles, including that of the Texan B-52 bomber pilot Major Kong, the actor had difficulty mastering the accent. Southern, a native Texan, taped himself speaking Kong's lines for Sellers to study. Sellers, who had never been comfortable in the role of Kong, was able to extricate himself from the part after allegedly fracturing his ankle, forcing Kubrick to re-cast. The part eventually went to actor Slim Pickens, who Kubrick met during his brief stint working on Marlon Brando's One-Eyed Jacks. After the film went into wider release in January 1964, Southern was the subject of considerable media coverage, and was erroneously given primary credit for the screenplay,[10] a misperception he did little to correct. This reportedly angered both Kubrick—who was notorious for his unwillingness to share writing credits[11]—and Peter George, who penned a complaint to Life magazine in response to a lavish photo essay on Southern published in the May 8, 1964, edition. Stung by the article's assertion that Southern was responsible for turning the formerly "serious script" into an "original irreverent satirical film", George pointed out that he and Kubrick had been working together on the script for ten months, whereas Southern was only "briefly employed (November 16–December 28, 1962) to do some additional writing."[12] Towards the end of his work on Dr Strangelove, Southern began canvassing for more film work. Jobs he considered included a proposed John Schlesinger screen adaptation of the Iris Murdoch novel A Severed Head, and a project called The Marriage Game, to be directed by Peter Yates and produced by the James Bond team of Harry Saltzman and Cubby Broccoli. He also wrote an essay on John Fowles' novel The Collector, which led to his work as a "script doctor" on the subsequent screen version. Southern's writing career took off during 1963. His essay "Twirlin' At Ole Miss" was published in Esquire in February 1963, and this work of satirical reportage is now acknowledged as one of the cornerstone works of New Journalism. This was quickly followed by the publication of several other essays, including the Bay of Pigs-themed "Recruiting for the Big Parade",[13] and one of his best Paris stories, "You're Too Hip, Baby". The fiction anthology Writers In Revolt was published in the spring, soon followed by the US publication of Candy, which went on to become the #2 American fiction best-seller of 1963. "The Big Time", 1964–70 [ edit ] The success of Dr Strangelove and the re-published version of Candy was the turning point in Southern's career, making him one of the most celebrated writers of his day. In the words of biographer Lee Hill, Southern spent the next six years in "an Olympian realm of glamour, money, constant motion and excitement", mixing and working with the biggest literary, film, music, and TV stars in the world. His work on Dr Strangelove opened the doors to lucrative work as a screenwriter and script doctor, and allowed him to greatly increase his fee, from the reported $2,000 he received for Dr Strangelove to as much as $100,000 thereafter.[14] During the latter half of the 1960s Southern worked on the screenplays of a string of "cult" films. His credits in this period include The Loved One (1965), The Collector (1965), The Cincinnati Kid (1965), Casino Royale (1967), Barbarella (1968), Easy Rider (1969), The Magic Christian (1969), and End of the Road (1970) . The Loved One, The Cincinnati Kid [ edit ] In early 1964 Southern was hired to collaborate with British author Christopher Isherwood on a screen adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's satirical novel The Loved One, directed by British filmmaker Tony Richardson. When filming was postponed in spring of 1964, Southern returned to East Canaan and continued work on a rewrite of the script for the film version of John Fowles' The Collector but he eventually dropped out of the project because he disagreed with the change to the story's ending. In August 1964 the Southerns moved to Los Angeles, where Terry began work on the screenplay of The Loved One, for which MGM/Filmways paid him $3,000 per month. Southern's work and his networking and socializing brought him into contact with many Hollywood stars, including Ben Gazzara, Jennifer Jones, Janice Rule, George Segal, Richard Benjamin, James Coburn, Peter Fonda, and Dennis Hopper and his wife Brooke Hayward. Hopper, a fan and collector of modern art, would later introduce Southern to British gallery owner and art dealer Robert Fraser. Not long after arriving in Los Angeles, Southern met a young Canadian-born actress and dancer, Gail Gerber, on the MGM backlot. Gerber, who used the stage name Gail Gilmore, was working as a dancer on an Elvis Presley movie, and she also had a non-speaking role in The Loved One. Southern and Gerber soon began an affair. The relationship intensified during July/August 1964, and after Southern's wife and son went back to East Canaan, Southern and Gerber moved in together in a suite at the Chateau Marmont hotel. Working with Richardson and Isherwood, Southern turned Waugh's novel into "an all-out attack on Hollywood, consumerism, and the hypocrisies surrounding man's fear of death".[15] Southern also wrote the text for a souvenir book, which featured photos by William Claxton. Work on the film continued through most of 1965, with Southern and Gerber spending much of their leisure time with their newfound film star friends in Malibu. Loved One co-producer John Calley was a frequent visitor to Southern's Chateau Marmont suite, and he hired Southern to work on several subsequent Filmways projects, including The Cincinnati Kid and Don't Make Waves. Soon after principal shooting on The Loved One was concluded, Southern began work on the script of The Cincinnati Kid, which starred Steve McQueen. He was one of several writers who had worked on versions of the screenplay, including Paddy Chayevsky, George Good, and Ring Lardner Jr.. Original director Sam Peckinpah was fired one week into shooting, allegedly because he shot unauthorized nude scenes. (He would not make another film until 1969's The Wild Bunch.) He was replaced by Norman Jewison, and during his work on this production Southern formed a close and enduring friendship with cast member Rip Torn. Casino Royale, Barbarella, Candy [ edit ] By 1966 the film adaptations of Ian Fleming's James Bond series, produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, had become a successful and popular film franchise. However, the rights to Fleming's first Bond novel Casino Royale had been secured by rival producer Charles K. Feldman. He had attempted to get Casino Royale made as an Eon Productions James Bond film, but Broccoli and Saltzman turned him down. Believing he could not compete with the Eon series, Feldman then decided to shoot the film as a parody, not only of James Bond but of the entire spy fiction genre. The casino segment featuring Peter Sellers and Orson Welles is the only portion based upon the novel. Southern and Gail Gerber moved to London in early 1966, when Southern was hired to work on the screenplay of Casino Royale. The episodic "quasi-psychedelic burlesque" proved to be a chaotic production, stitched together from segments variously directed or co-directed by a team that included Joseph McGrath, Robert Parrish, Val Guest, John Huston, Richard Talmadge, and Ken Hughes. Many planned scenes could not be filmed due to the feud between Orson Welles and star Peter Sellers, which climaxed with Sellers walking out during the filming of the casino scenes and refusing to return. Many writers contributed to the screenplay, including Southern (who wrote most of the dialogue for Sellers), Woody Allen, Wolf Mankowitz, Michael Sayers, Frank Buxton, Joseph Heller, Ben Hecht, Mickey Rose, and Billy Wilder. Southern had been introduced to Robert Fraser by Dennis Hopper, and when he went to London to work on Casino Royale he and Gail became part of Fraser's "jet-set" salon that included the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, photographer Michael Cooper, interior designer Christopher Gibbs, model-actress Anita Pallenberg, filmmaker Nicolas Roeg, painter Francis Bacon, producer Sandy Lieberson, Guinness heir Tara Browne, and model Donyale Luna. Southern became close friends with photographer Michael Cooper, who was part of the Rolling Stones' inner circle and who shot the cover photos for the Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band LP. Southern attended the Cannes Film Festival in the spring of 1966, where he met Andy Warhol and Gerard Malanga, and he remained in touch with Malanga for many years. On his return to London he continued work on the Casino Royale screenplay and a screen adaptation of The Magic Christian for Peter Sellers, who was planning his film version. Sandy Lieberson optioned Southern's first novel Flash and Filigree and United Artists optioned Candy. Michael Cooper also introduced Southern to the Anthony Burgess novel A Clockwork Orange, and Southern later encouraged Stanley Kubrick to make his film version of the book after MGM refused to back Kubrick's planned film on Napoleon. Southern and Cooper then began to plan their own film adaptation of the novel, to star Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones as Alex and his gang of droogs. Through Si Litvinoff, Southern optioned the book for the bargain price of $1,000 (against a final price of $10,000) and Lieberson and David Puttnam set up a development deal with Paramount, who underwrote a draft by Southern and Cooper. Actor David Hemmings was briefly considered for the role of Alex—much to the chagrin of Cooper and the Stones—and the director's chair was initially offered to Richard Lester, who turned it down. Southern's old friend Ted Kotcheff was then approached, but at this point the project stalled – under the British censorship regulations of the time, the treatment had to be submitted to the Lord Chamberlain,[citation needed] who returned it, unread, with a note attached that said: "I know this book and there is no way you can make a movie of it. It deals with youthful incitement, which is illegal." As a result, Paramount put it into 'turnaround' and it was eventually picked up by Kubrick three years later. During the frequent downtime during the filming of Casino Royale, Filmways hired Southern to do a "tightening and brightening" job on the screenplay of the occult thriller Eye of the Devil, which starred David Niven and featured Sharon Tate in her first film role. Through the winter of 1966–67 he also began work on the screenplay for Roger Vadim's Barbarella, and he contributed to a TV version of The Desperate Hours directed by Ted Kotcheff and starring George Segal and Yvette Mimieux. The June 1, 1967, release of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band gave Southern pop-culture immortality, thanks to his photograph being included (on the recommendation of Ringo Starr) on the album's front-cover collage, which was photographed by Cooper. Soon after, a collection of his short writing Red-Dirt Marijuana and Other Tastes, was published in the US. It received favorable reviews from critics, and the cover blurb featured a highly complimentary quote from Gore Vidal, who described Southern as "the most profoundly witty writer of our generation". Work on Barbarella continued through to late 1967, and Southern convinced Vadim to cast his friend Anita Pallenberg in the role of the Black Queen. In December 1967 the film version of Candy began shooting in Rome with director Christian Marquand. It starred newcomer Ewa Aulin in the title role and like Casino Royale it featured a host of stars in cameo roles, including Richard Burton, Marlon Brando, John Astin, Ringo Starr, Walter Matthau, and Anita Pallenberg. The original screenplay by Southern was rewritten by Buck Henry (who also has an uncredited cameo in the film). Like Casino Royale, it proved to be a chaotic production and failed to live up to expectations; it was generally panned by critics on its release in December 1968 and its impact was further weakened by the financial collapse of its major backer. Easy Rider, The End Of The Road [ edit ] As production on Barbarella wound down in October 1967, director Roger Vadim began shooting his episode of the omnibus film Spirits of the Dead, which co-starred Peter Fonda and Jane Fonda. It was during the making of this film that Peter Fonda told Southern of his desire to make a 'modern Western' in which motorbike riders substituted for cowboys, a concept that had been largely inspired by the success of Roger Corman's influential low-budget "exploitation" biker films The Wild Angels (1966) and its follow-ups, in which Fonda and his close friend Dennis Hopper had featured. Fonda pitched his idea to Hopper on his return to America, and Southern added his weight to the project, agreeing to work on the script for scale ($350 per week). Southern, Fonda, and Hopper met in New York City in November 1967 to develop their ideas. These brainstorming sessions formed the basis of the screenplay that Southern then wrote from December 1967 to April 1968. On the basis of Southern's treatment, Raybert Productions, which had produced the TV series The Monkees and the Monkees movie Head, agreed to finance the film with a budget of US$350,000 (in return for one-third of the profits), with Columbia Pictures agreeing to distribute the film. Southern would eventually share the writing credit with Hopper and Fonda, but there has been dispute over their various contributions to the screenplay. Hopper and Fonda later tried to downplay Southern's input, claiming that many sections of the film (such as the graveyard scene and the Mardis Gras sequence) had been improvised, whereas others involved in the production (including Southern himself) have asserted that most of these scenes were fully scripted and primarily written by him. Although the basic concept for the film was Fonda's, the title Easy Rider was provided by Southern (it is an American slang term for a man who lives off the earnings of a prostitute—perhaps a pimp) and Southern wrote several early drafts of the screenplay. During the production, Southern became concerned at Hopper and Fonda's replacement of his writing by what he described as "dumb-bell dialogue", and more of the material Southern wrote for the main characters was cut out during the editing process. Also Fonda and Hopper mostly improvised as a great deal as they filmed. Southern had originally written the character of the small-town lawyer (played by Jack Nicholson) with his friend Rip Torn in mind, but Torn dropped out of the project after an altercation with Hopper in a New York restaurant, in which the two actors almost came to blows. Southern continued to work on other projects while Easy Rider began shooting—he completed his next novel Blue Movie; began working with the painter Larry Rivers on a book project The Donkey and The Darling; he worked on the final drafts of the screenplay for The Magic Christian, and he began discussions with Aram Avakian about a movie project called The End of the Road. In summer 1968, he was approached by Esquire magazine to cover the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Southern attended the event with William S. Burroughs, Jean Genet (a last-minute substitute for Samuel Beckett) and John Sack, and his friend Michael Cooper took photographs; Southern and friends were present when peaceful demonstrations erupted into savage violence after protesters were attacked by police. Southern's essay on the event,[16] was his last work published by Esquire. The editing of Easy Rider continued for many months, as Hopper and Fonda argued over the final form. Hopper ditched a planned score by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and returned to the group of songs he had used for the rough cut, which included music by The Byrds, Jimi Hendrix, and Steppenwolf. Easy Rider caused a sensation when it was screened in Cannes and it went on to become the fourth highest-grossing American film of 1969, taking $19 million, and receiving two Academy Award nominations. Although it brought Hopper and Fonda great financial and artistic rewards and helped to open up the Hollywood 'system' for young independent producers, little of the profit was shared with Southern, and the true extent of his contributions was repeatedly downplayed by the other principals. Southern's next major screenplay was The End of the Road, adapted from the novel by John Barth and starring Stacy Keach, Dorothy Tristan and James Earl Jones. It was directed by his friend Aram Avakian. The director and the film were the subject of a major spread in Life Magazine in November 1969, which reportedly led to a critical backlash, and the film was savaged on its release, and was especially criticised because of a graphic scene in which the main female character undergoes an abortion, which led to the film being classified with an "X" rating. The Magic Christian [ edit ] The Magic Christian was one of Peter Sellers' favorite books—his gift of a copy to Stanley Kubrick led to Southern being hired for Dr Strangelove—and a film version of the book had long been a dream project for the actor, who intended to play the lead role of Guy Grand. In 1968 Southern was hired for the production and he worked on a dozen drafts of the screenplay. Sellers also tinkered with it while Southern was working on The End of the Road. At Sellers' request, a draft by Southern and director Joseph McGrath was re-written by Graham Chapman and John Cleese, two young British TV comedy writers who would shortly become famous as members of the Monty Python team. Cleese later described McGrath as having "no idea of comedy structure" and complained that the film ended up as "a series of celebrity walk-ons." The film was shot in London between February and May 1969. The cast was headed by Sellers (as Guy Grand) and Ringo Starr as his son Youngman Grand (a new character created for the movie), with cameo appearances by Spike Milligan, Christopher Lee, Laurence Harvey, Raquel Welch, Roman Polanski and Yul Brynner. As with Dr Strangelove, Sellers habitually improvised on the script during filming. During production McGrath and Southern discussed a future project based on the life of gangster Dutch Schultz, to be made in collaboration with William Burroughs and Alexander Trocchi, but nothing came of it. The Magic Christian ends with a scene in which Grand fills a huge vat with offal and excrement and then throws money into the fetid mixture to demonstrate how far people will go to get money for nothing. The original plan was to film the climactic scene at the Statue of Liberty in New York, and the US National Park Service agreed to the request. Sellers, McGrath and Southern then travelled to New York on the Queen Elizabeth 2 (at a reported cost of $10,000 per person) but the studio then refused to pay for the shoot and it had to be relocated to London. The scene was eventually shot on the South Bank, near the site of the new National Theatre building. The film premiered on February 12, 1970, to lukewarm reviews. Later career [ edit ] Southern's pre-eminence waned rapidly in the 1970s—his screen credits decreased, his book and story output dwindled, and he acquired a reputation as an out-of-control substance abuser. He continued to drink heavily and take various drugs; in particular, his dependence on Dexamyl badly affected his health as he aged. Biographer Lee Hill suggests that Southern was a functioning alcoholic and that his image was largely based on his occasional public appearances in New York, partying and socializing; in private, he remained a tireless worker. His later career was complicated by ongoing financial woes. In the late 1960s, Southern's spendthrift ways and lack of financial acumen led him into trouble and he was audited by the IRS on several occasions beginning in 1972, resulting in heavy tax bills and penalties. Tax problems dogged him for the rest of his life. In 1968, he signed the "Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War.[17] As revealed by documents released under the Freedom of Information Act, Southern and his wife Carol had been put under surveillance by the FBI starting in 1965. In a 2000 article, Burroughs intimate Victor Bockris (who profiled Southern for Interview) speculated that this surveillance and Southern's "IRS harassment" (a strategy concurrently employed by the Nixon administration against the more fiscally sound Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg) left him effectively blacklisted by Hollywood, although perceived betrayals from such putatively close friends as Hoffenberg and Hopper vis-à-vis his longstanding history of substance abuse and tangible opportunities in other media may have played the catalytic role in eroding Southern's efficacy as a writer.[18] 1970s [ edit ] In December 1970, Southern found himself in the position of having to beg Dennis Hopper for a profit point on Easy Rider—a request Hopper refused. Southern's tenuous financial position was in contrast to that of his creative partners, who became wealthy thanks to the film's commercial success. For the rest of his life, Southern was repeatedly forced to take on work in order to pay tax bills and penalties, and on many occasions he struggled to keep up the mortgage payments on the East Canaan farm. Blue Movie was published in the fall of 1970, with a dedication to Stanley Kubrick. It received only moderate reviews, and sales were hampered by the refusal of the New York Times to run ads for the book. Southern worked on a variety of screenplays in the immediate aftermath Easy Rider, including God Is Love, DJ (based on a book by Norman Mailer), Hand-Painted Hearts (based on a story by Thomas Baum), and Drift with Tony Goodstone. While Fonda and Hopper continued to assert that much of Easy Rider had been improvised, Southern remained largely silent about his role, although he was prompted to write a letter to the New York Times to counter a claim that Jack Nicholson had improvised his speech during the film's campfire scene. Terry and Carol Southern divorced in early 1972 but remained on good terms and Southern continued to support and help raise their son Nile. The IRS investigations had also affected Carol, who had an inheritance from her late father seized as part of Terry's tax settlement. She later became an editor with Crown Publishing, and married critic Alexander Keneas. Southern's other unrealised projects during this period included an adaptation of Nathanael West's A Cool Million, and a screenplay called Merlin, based on Arthurian legend, which was written with Mick Jagger in mind for the lead role. Southern covered the Rolling Stones 1972 American Tour, where he met and began a collaboration with Peter Beard, and they would work sporadically on the never-filmed screenplay The End of the Game until Southern's death. Southern immersed himself in the bacchanalian atmosphere of the tour, and his essay on the Stones tour, "Riding The Lapping Tongue", was published in the August 12, 1972, edition of Saturday Review. He also wrote a bawdy anti-Nixon skit which was performed at a George McGovern fundraiser, and "Twirlin' at Ole Miss" was included in The New Journalism. Because of his acute money problems (exacerbated by the IRS affair), Southern took an adjunct lectureship in screenwriting at New York University, where he taught from the fall of 1972 to the spring of 1974; although popular among students, he was ultimately dismissed for holding his classes in a local bar. His students included Amy Heckerling (who directed Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Clueless), literary agent Nancy Nigrosh, and Hollywood biographer Lee Server. Southern began writing for National Lampoon in November 1972 and served on the jury at the 1972 New York Erotic Film Festival with William S. Burroughs, Gore Vidal, and Sylvia Miles. In a 1973 Playboy profile, Mason Hoffenberg (who had conquered his heroin addiction with methadone maintenance and was living in alcoholic codependency with Richard Manuel of The Band near Woodstock, New York) claimed that "everything went right for Southern... he was ejaculated to fame and screenplays" and "Terry Southern is a good rewriter and he writes some funny shit himself, but he always grabs top billing"; in an ensuing defamation suit between the erstwhile collaborators, Southern alleged that Hoffenberg's representation had cost him several screenwriting jobs.[19] In 1973 Southern wrote a new screenplay called Double Date, which in some respects anticipated the later David Cronenberg film Dead Ringers, but he eventually abandoned it. In early 1974 John Calley hired Southern to write a screenplay of Blue Movie, with Mike Nichols slated to direct, but the deal eventually fell apart due to a protracted dispute between Warners and Ringo Starr, who then owned the screen rights. A new short story, "Fixing Up Ert", was published in the September 1974 edition of Oui magazine, and around this time Norwegian director Ingmar Ejve hired Southern to write a screenplay based on the Carl-Henning Wijkmark novel The Hunters of Karin Hall. His friend Ted Kotcheff hired Southern to write the screenplay for the Watergate-themed project A Piece of Bloody Cake, but he was unable to get the script approved. Southern's only on-screen credit during the 1970s was the teleplay Stop Thief!, written for the TV miniseries The American Parade (based on the life of 19th Century American political cartoonist Thomas Nast). Southern once again accompanied the Rolling Stones on their Tour of the Americas '75 and contributed text to a commemorative 1978 coffee table book (The Rolling Stones On Tour) featuring photographs by Annie Leibovitz and Christopher Sykes. In the summer of 1976 Southern visited Rip Torn in New Mexico during the making of Nicolas Roeg's film version of The Man Who Fell to Earth. He made a cameo appearance in the crowd in the scene where Newton is arrested just before he boards his spacecraft. Roeg used an excerpt from The End of the Road on one of the TV screens, in the scene in which Newton watches multiple TV sets at the same time. In 1977 and 1978 Southern was embroiled in a lengthy and chaotic attempt to make a film version of William S. Burroughs' novel Junky, but the project collapsed due to the erratic behaviour of its principal backer, Jules Stein. In August 1978 Southern wrote a skit called "Haven Can Wait" that was performed by Jon Voight, Allen Ginsberg, Bobby Seale, and Rip Torn at a benefit for Abbie Hoffman. Another unsuccessful project from this period was his work for Si Litvinoff on the screenplay for the opera drama Aria. Southern's script was considered 'below par' and was rejected by Fox. At decade's end, a new story was published in the 20th-anniversary issue of the Paris Review and Blue Movie was optioned once again by Andrew Braunsberg. Southern read from a work in progress ("Vignette of Idealistic Life in South Texas") at the Nova Convention (a symposium in Burroughs' honor organized by academic Sylvere Lotringer at the East Village's Entermedia Theater in November 1978), opening the second night on a bill that included Philip Glass, Brion Gysin, John Giorno, Patti Smith, and Burroughs himself. Although he continued to reside in northern Connecticut "beyond the commuter belt", Southern maintained his social life in New York with diligence; longtime girlfriend Gail Gerber would often chauffeur him to Studio 54 (where he cultivated a convivial acquaintance with co-owner Steve Rubell), parties hosted by George Plimpton, and other engagements. Following the critical and commercial success of Being There (1979), Peter Sellers had a chance meeting with an arms dealer during an air flight that inspired him to contact Southern and ask him to write a script on the subject of the shady world of the international arms trade. The resulting screenplay, Grossing Out, was reputed to have been of high quality, and Hal Ashby was provisionally attached as director, but the project went into limbo after Sellers' sudden death from a heart attack on 24 July 1980. 1980s [ edit ] Under the pseudonym of Norwood Pratt, Southern co-wrote the 1980 sci fi-themed hardcore pornographic film Randy: The Electric Lady; director Philip Schuman had previously adapted "Red Dirt" into an award-winning short. A year later, he was hired by Saturday Night Live head writer Michael O'Donoghue (who had solicited contributions from Southern as editor of National Lampoon a decade earlier) to write for the 1981–82 series of the NBC show in his efforts to revitalize the then-floundering sketch comedy program. This controversial period, which followed the departure of the last members of the original cast and founding producer Lorne Michaels, is widely regarded as the lowest point of the series's history. According to Carol Southern, it was "the only job he ever held". Despite his longstanding acquaintance with O'Donoghue and his penchant for the alcohol, cocaine and cannabis that flowed liberally backstage, Southern had trouble fitting in stylistically with the younger writers; many of his ideas and sketches were rejected by the staff and new producer Dick Ebersol for being too subtle, sexually gratuitous, or overly political. Nevertheless, Southern facilitated the booking of Miles Davis as musical guest for the October 17 show in support of The Man with the Horn (a significant public appearance following the trumpeter's 1975–1980 musical interregnum) and arranged for Burroughs—who read selections from his oeuvre at a desk—to appear as a guest performer during the November 7th episode; it would be the writer's first appearance on American national television. Southern was retained as a writer for the remainder of the season after O'Donoghue — who frequently clashed with the network and Ebersol — was fired from the series. Southern's involvement with the show led to a bona fide collaboration with fellow SNL alum Nelson Lyon, who had previously added the unproductive Southern's name to his sketches in a gesture of magnanimity. They developed a project set in and around The Cotton Club in the 1930s, but it was eventually abandoned after Francis Ford Coppola's similarly themed film went into production. During 1982–83 Southern worked with Kubrick's former production partner James B. Harris on a naval drama called The Gold Crew (later retitled Floaters), but Southern was diverted from this when he began working with close friend Larry Rivers on an independent film project called At Z Beach. In April 1983, he was approached to work on a planned sequel to Easy Rider called Biker Heaven. He had little to do with the script, but he was paid about $20,000, which was several times more than he had earned from the original. Around this time Stanley Kubrick requested some sample dialogue for a planned film adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's book Traumnovelle which was to star Steve Martin, but Southern's bawdy submissions reportedly sabotaged any prospect of further involvement; Kubrick eventually made the film (as Eyes Wide Shut, with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman) shortly before his death in 1999. A new story by Southern was published in High Times in May 1983. Shortly thereafter, Hopper invited Southern to work on a planned biographical film of Jim Morrison which was to be backed by publisher Larry Flynt. Because Flynt did not own the screen rights to Morrison's story, the project collapsed; however, Flynt continued to retain Southern as head speechwriter for his ersatz 1984 presidential campaign. Southern turned 60 in 1984, and his career continued to alternate between promise and disappointment. Flash and Filigree was reissued by Arbor House with a new introduction by Burroughs, and Sandy Lieberson (now at Fox) hired him to work on a script called Intensive Heat, based on the life of jewel thief Albie Baker. During this period, Southern ran into problems with his long-overdue new book (a buildingsroman inspired by his Texas childhood alternatively known as Youngblood, Southern Idyll and Behind the Grassy Knoll) when Putnam demanded the return of the $20,000 advance, precipitating his abandonment of the work. In 1985, Candy and The Magic Christian were reprinted by Penguin and Southern featured prominently in the Howard Brookner documentary Burroughs: the Movie. Hawkeye [ edit ] In October 1985 Southern was appointed as one of the directors of Hawkeye, a production company set up by his friend Harry Nilsson to oversee the various film and multimedia projects in which he was involved. Southern and Nilsson collaborated on several screenplays, including Obits, a Citizen Kane-style story about a journalist investigating the subject of a newspaper obituary, but the script was scathingly reviewed by a studio reader and was never given approval. The only major Hawkeye project to see the light of day was The Telephone. Essentially a one-handed comedy-drama, it depicted the gradual mental disintegration of an out-of-work actor. It was written with Robin Williams in mind but Williams turned it down. Nilsson and Southern then learned that comedian Whoopi Goldberg was keen to take the part and she asked Nilsson and Southern to rewrite it for her. New World Films agreed to produce it and Rip Torn signed on as director. Production began in January 1987, but New World allowed Goldberg to improvise freely on the screenplay. She also replaced Torn's chosen DOP John Alonzo with then-husband Conrad Hall. Torn battled with Goldberg and reportedly had to beg her to perform takes that stuck to the script. A year-long struggle then ensued between Hawkeye and New World/Goldberg over the rights to the final cut. Southern and Torn put together their own version, which screened at the Sundance Film Festival in January 1988; New World's version premiered in cinemas later that month to generally poor reviews. The steady salary from Hawkeye was a considerable help to the perennially cash-strapped Southern, but this changed abruptly in late 1989 when Hawkeye folded after Nilsson discovered that secretary-treasurer Cindy Sims had embezzled all the company funds and most of the money Nilsson had earned from his music, leaving him virtually penniless. At this point, Southern still owed the IRS some $30,000 in back taxes and $40,000 in penalties. Apart from The Telephone, Southern's only published new output in the period 1985–90 was the liner notes for the Marianne Faithfull album Strange Weather and a commentary on the Iran-Contra scandal in The Nation. Last years [ edit ] In February 1989 Southern was admitted to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital, where he underwent surgery for stomach cancer. Soon after the surgery he was interviewed by Mike Golden, and excerpts were published in Reflex, Creative Writer, and Paris Review. After he recovered from his surgery, Southern collaborated with cartoonist R. O. Blechman on a project called Billionaire's Ball, based on the life of Howard Hughes. Southern landed a job teaching at the Sundance Screenwriters Lab in the summer of 1989. He also assisted with the preparation and publication of Blinds and Shutters, a book on the photography of his late friend Michael Cooper, edited by Perry Richardson and published in a limited edition of 2000, with copies signed by Paul McCartney, Keith Richards, and Allen Ginsberg. During this time Southern met briefly with Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg to discuss a planned adaptation of Burroughs' Naked Lunch (which Cronenberg subsequently made) but the meeting was unsuccessful. Southern had no further involvement in the project. In November 1989 he talked with Victor Bockris and the results were published in Interview. His profile was given another small boost by the re-publication of Red-Dirt Marijuana and Other Tastes in 1990. With encouragement from his son Nile, Southern returned to his long-shelved Texas novel. Retitled Texas Summer, it was published in 1992 by Richard Seaver. Southern's last two major articles were published during 1991; a piece on the Texas band ZZ Top appeared in the February edition of Spin, and an article on the Gulf War appeared in The Nation on July 8. During the year Southern was also invited to teach screenwriting at Columbia University's School of the Arts and School of General Studies as an adjunct professor, where he would work until his death. In 1992 he collaborated with Joseph McGrath on a screenplay Starlets (later retitled Festival), which satirized the Cannes Film Festival. During the year Peter Fonda reportedly tried to prevail on Southern to give up any claim on Easy Rider in exchange for a payment of $30,000, but Southern refused. Southern also assisted Perry Richardson with another book based around Michael Cooper's photography, The Early Stones, which was published late in the year. Southern's health deteriorated in the last two years of his life, and he suffered a mild stroke in November 1992. In February 1993 he made his last visit home to Texas, where he attended a commemorative screening of Dr. Strangelove and The Magic Christian at the Dallas Museum of Art. During 1994 he made a series of recordings of readings from his works for a projected tribute project coordinated by producer Hal Willner and Nelson Lyon, but the recording process was complicated by Southern's fragile health and the project remained unreleased until recently. Southern's close friend Harry Nilsson died of a heart attack in January 1994. Later that year, he was commissioned by Little, Brown to write a memoir, but only two chapters were ever completed. In September 1995 Southern received the Gotham Award for lifetime achievement by the Independent Film Producers Association at the age of 71. The Easy Rider controversy reared its head again shortly before Southern's death, when Dennis Hopper alleged during an interview on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno that Rip Torn had been replaced because he had pulled a knife on Hopper during their argument in New York in 1968. Torn sued Hopper over the remark, and Southern agreed to testify on Torn's behalf. The case brought to light several of Southern's drafts of the Easy Rider screenplay, which effectively ended the dispute over his contributions. In 1995, shortly before his death, Southern hired a new agent and began making arrangements for the republication of Candy and The Magic Christian by Grove. His final project was the text for a 1996 coffee table book about Virgin Records. He appeared at the Yale Summer Writing Program mid-year, and in October he made his last media appearance when he was interviewed for a documentary on cult Scottish novelist Alexander Trocchi. On October 25, 1995, Southern collapsed on the steps of Columbia's Dodge Hall while en route to his class. He was taken to the adjacent St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, where he died four days later of respiratory failure. In early 2003 Southern's archives of manuscripts, correspondence, and photographs were acquired by the New York Public Library. The archives include correspondence and other items from George Plimpton, Allen Ginsberg, Norman Mailer, Frank O'Hara, Larry Rivers, William Styron, V. S. Pritchett, Gore Vidal, Abbie Hoffman, and Edmund Wilson, as well as John Lennon, Ringo Starr, and the Rolling Stones. A film adaptation of Southern's 1970 novel Blue Movie was at (some point) "currently" in production from director Michael Dowse and producer Marc Toberoff, to be released by Vertigo Films. Works [ edit ] Books [ edit ] Screenplays [ edit ] Awards and nominations [ edit ] References [ edit ]

Encouraged by a sharp downturn in illegal border crossers, the US administration is ramping up a crackdown on undocumented immigrants, taking aim at both Central American labourers and Indian tech workers in Silicon Valley. [WASHINGTON] Encouraged by a sharp downturn in illegal border crossers, the US administration is ramping up a crackdown on undocumented immigrants, taking aim at both Central American labourers and Indian tech workers in Silicon Valley. Police, prosecutors and judges have been ordered to take a harder line against all illegal immigrants, detaining anyone without papers and vigorously prosecuting more of them. Hiring standards for immigration agents are being eased to quickly beef up their ranks, more facilities to hold detained immigrants are being built, and more judges are being added to handle cases. And officials have been directed to round up illegal immigrants, even those in the country for decades, at places that used to be safe - courthouses, town halls, and cities offering them sanctuary. sentifi.com Market voices on: Meanwhile designs are underway for construction of a wall along the entire 3,200km US-Mexico border that President Donald Trump promised. It won't be a full physical barrier all the way along, but strategically erected wall sections interspersed with stretches of technology-dependent surveillance. "For those that continue to seek improper and illegal entry into this country, be forewarned: This is a new era. This is the Trump era," Attorney General Jeff Sessions told border patrol agents on Tuesday. BORDER-CROSSERS DOWN Mr Trump came into office promising to expel the estimated 11 million people living in the United States illegally, who he says steal American jobs and fuel crime. Most are from Mexico, and many of them have been here for decades, raising families, owning homes and businesses. Three months into the Trump administration, the number of illegal border-crossers has plunged to a four-decade low, according to the Customs and Border Protection agency (CBP). Apprehensions of illegal border crossers in March dropped to 16,600, down 30 per cent from February and 64 per cent from a year ago. It is too early to see any pickup in deportations, which take longer to process. But Tom Jawetz, vice-president in charge of immigration policy at the Center for American Progress think tank, says there is a clear change in immigration enforcement. Mr Sessions this week ordered CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain anyone who crosses the US-Mexico border without legal documents and present them to a judge. In the past, most were just delivered back over the border. He also ordered prosecutors to lodge felony charges when someone is caught sneaking in for a second time. Those who transport and harbour illegal immigrants risk jail, as does anyone caught using false papers, common among illegal immigrants. "The lawlessness, the abdication of the duty to enforce our immigration laws and the catch-and-release practices of old are over," Mr Sessions declared. Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly has authorised CBP and ICE agents to go after illegal immigrants in places they once felt safe. An increasing number have been rounded up in public offices applying for licenses, reporting crimes, even meeting immigration officials to legalise their residence. California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye protested in a letter to Mr Sessions and Mr Kelly that such areas were supposed to be protected and accused ICE of "stalking" people who "pose no risk to public safety." But the two officials said the arrests will continue, criticising any policies that offer sanctuary to illegal aliens. LEGAL IMMIGRATION ALSO PRESSURED With some Republicans in Congress calling for a 50 per cent cut in legal immigration, Mr Trump has also ordered a tightening in that area. He ordered a temporary halt to refugee arrivals and is fighting courts to implement a halt on arrivals from six mostly Muslim countries. Visa applicants in many countries say they are facing longer waits. Mr Sessions and Kelly warned technology companies bringing in skilled workers under the H-1B visa programme that the government will take a tougher line with any company abusing that programme. Previous permissions for H-1B workers' spouses to also work could be eliminated. But as the campaign picks up pace, economists and immigration experts warn a crackdown will remove an economic boon and overwhelm the justice system. "The benefits that immigration brings to society far outweigh their costs," nearly 1,500 Democratic- and Republican-aligned economists, including six Nobel laureates, said a letter to Mr Trump. Mr Jawetz said the crackdown is unjustified, given that there has been a "net outflow" in Mexicans in the past few years. "A large share of people who are coming across our southwest border today are people who are seeking asylum, who cannot and should not be prosecuted for illegal entry," he added. Chasing undocumented immigrants from public spaces also has negative effects for US society, he said. "What we know from law enforcement in Houston, in Los Angeles, El Paso and elsewhere, is that individuals are no longer reporting crimes the way they once were, and are no longer cooperating with prosecutors to put criminals behind bars." AFP

Welcome to The Riddler. Every week, I offer up a problem related to the things we hold dear around here — math, logic and probability. These problems, puzzles and riddles come from lots of top-notch puzzle folks around the world, including you, the readers. You’ll find this week’s puzzle below. Mull it over on your commute, dissect it on your lunch break, and argue about it with your friends and lovers. When you’re ready, submit your answer using the form at the bottom. I’ll reveal the solution next week, and a correct submission (chosen at random) will earn a shoutout in this column. Important small print: To be eligible for the shoutout, I need to receive your correct answer before 11:59 p.m. EDT on Sunday — have a great weekend! Before we get to the new puzzle, let’s return to last week’s. Congratulations to 👏 Sara Malec 👏 of Frederick, Maryland, our big winner. You can find a solution to the previous Riddler at the bottom of this post. Now here’s this week’s Riddler, an interplanetary puzzle which comes to us from Robert Youngquist, a physicist at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. You are the CEO of a space transport company in the year 2080, and your chief scientist comes in to tell you that one of your space probes has detected an alien artifact at the Jupiter Solar Lagrangian (L2) point. You want to be the first to get to it! But you know that the story will leak soon and you only have a short time to make critical decisions. With standard technology available to anyone with a few billion dollars, a manned rocket can be quickly assembled and arrive at the artifact in 1,600 days. But with some nonstandard items you can reduce that time and beat the competition. Your accountants tell you that they can get you an immediate line of credit of $1 billion. You can buy: Big Russian engines. There are only three in the world and the Russians want $400 million for each of them. Buying one will reduce the trip time by 200 days. Buying two will allow you to split your payload and will save another 100 days. NASA ion engines. There are only eight of these $140 million large-scale engines in the world. Each will consume 5,000 kilograms of xenon during the trip. There are 30,000 kg of xenon available worldwide at a price of $2,000/kg, so 5,000 kg costs $10 million. Bottom line: For each $150 million fully fueled xenon engine you buy, you can take 50 days off of the trip. Light payloads. For $50 million each, you can send one of four return flight fuel tanks out ahead of the mission, using existing technology. Each time you do this, you lighten the main mission and reduce the arrival time by 25 days. What’s your best strategy to get there first? Need a hint? You can try asking me nicely. Want to submit a puzzle or problem? Email me. And here’s the solution to last week’s Riddler, which asked you to complete this sequence: 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 21, 23, 30, 33, … Fifty-two percent of your submissions were correct. The missing numbers are 120 and 1,111. The sequence is the number 15 written in different number bases, or radices. Specifically, it’s the number “15” written in base 15, 14, 13, and so on down until base four. The missing numbers were 15 written in base three and base two. The lot of us are familiar with base 10, in which integers have a ones place, a tens place, a hundreds place, and so on. (Each place is a power of 10.) But there’s no dictate from on high that numbers must be written in base 10. Binary numbers are base two (each place is a power of two) and are widely used by computers. Hexadecimal numbers are base 16 (each place is a power of 16) and are used to describe locations in computer memory and colors on web pages. Now take, for example, base three (or ternary), which was the clue to one of the missing numbers in the sequence. Base three numbers have a ones place, a threes place, a nines place, and so on — all the places are powers of three. (Hence, base three!) So 15, when converted to base three, is 1x9 + 2x3 + 0x1, or 120. Base two (or binary), has a ones place, a twos place, a fours place, an eights place, and so on. So 15 in base two is written as 1,111 (1x8 + 1x4 + 1x2 + 1x1 = 15). (I suppose you could also go one further, and write 15 in base one: 111111111111111.) Here’s a handy visualization of how the bases work in this sequence. The decimal number 15 is represented by the yellow entries: @ollie hey my answer starts with F ;) (check out some familiar digits when adding the blue sequence) pic.twitter.com/IDwPQqVopZ — Daniel Tello (@dtellom) April 9, 2016 From the Riddler home base: Happy weekend! You all complete me.

Although the International Energy Agency reports that Iraq has produced record amounts of crude from its southern fields in recent months, a number of security, economic, and political obstacles stand in the way of maintaining and growing Iraqi Sustainable Crude Oil Production Capacity, currently reported as 4.1 million barrels per day. Some analysts have recently revised forecasts downward in light of these concerns. ISIS Security Issue While ISIS has not successfully attacked any major southern Iraqi crude oil export infrastructure, recent Russian aggression in Syria has introduced a new and possibly destabilizing military and political force into the region. Some Iraqi politicians are calling for Russian airstrikes in Iraq. Increased bombing, even if limited to ISIS dominated territory, could cause some international oil companies with current or prospective Iraqi investments to reconsider operations. Exodus of Skilled Iraqi Workers The dramatic refugee flow from the Middle East to the European Union includes many skilled Iraqi workers. While many of these refugees may be fleeing ISIS persecution in Northern and Western Iraq, some oil field workers and technicians critical to maintaining southern Iraqi oil exports may become part of the emigration and thereby limit available personnel. Common Seawater Supply Facility Iraq must inject seawater into its southern oil fields to maintain and grow hydrocarbon production. Projected to cost at least $10 billion, the Common Seawater Supply Facility is being designed to provide 12.5 million barrels per day of treated sea water to these critical fields.According to the International Monetary Fund, the project has been delayed several times. Spending Cuts by Iraqi Oil Ministry The global decline in the price of oil in the last year combined with increased domestic and military spending caused the Iraqi oil ministry to issue a warning that it will significantly reduce reimbursements to independent energy companies spending in 2016. This may inhibit maintenance and expansion of Iraqi production goals.

A QUIET but constant ticking can be heard from the demographic time bomb that sits beneath the world’s third-largest economy. This week it made a louder tick than usual: official statistics show that the population declined last year by a record 244,000 people—roughly the population of the London borough of Hackney. Japan's population began falling in 2004 and is now ageing faster than any other on the planet. More than 22% of Japanese are already 65 or older. A report compiled with the government’s co-operation two years ago warned that by 2060 the number of Japanese will have fallen from 127m to about 87m, of whom almost 40% will be 65 or older. Get our daily newsletter Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks. The government is pointedly not denying newspaper reports that ran earlier this month, claiming that it is considering a solution it has so far shunned: mass immigration. The reports say the figure being mooted is 200,000 foreigners a year. An advisory body to Shinzo Abe, the prime minister, said opening the immigration drawbridge to that number would help stabilise Japan’s population—at around 100m (from its current 126.7m). But even then there’s a big catch. To hit that target the government would also have to raise the fertility rate from its current 1.39, one of the lowest in the world, up to 2.07. Experts say that a change on that scale would require major surgery to the country’s entire social architecture. One of the first things Japan would need to do, says Kathy Matsui, chief Japan equity strategist at Goldman Sachs in Tokyo, is make it easier for mothers to work. “Evidence shows that work-forces with a higher female participation rate also have higher birth rates,” she says. Mr Abe has invoked Ms Matsui in his quest to boost the birth rate. Progress towards bringing women into the labour force is far from assured however. The latest Gender Gap Report, compiled annually by the Davos-based World Economic Forum, ranked Japan 105 out of 136 countries, down 25 places from 2006. (South Korea—another country with a fertility crisis—does even worse, coming in at 111th place.) The looming crisis has so alarmed Japan’s government that in 2005 it created a ministerial post to raise fertility. Last year a 20-member panel under the ministry produced a desperate wish list to reduce what it calls “deterrents” to marriage and child rearing. It included a proposal to assign gynaecologists to patients on a lifelong basis and even to provide financial support for unmarried Japanese who undertake "spouse-hunting" projects. Immigration is being approached as a last resort. Even so the prime minister faces tough choices. The United Nations estimates that without raising its fertility rate, Japan would need to attract about 650,000 immigrants a year. There is no precedent for that level of immigration in this country, which is still a largely homogenous society. Roughly 2% of Japan’s population is foreign. And even this figure includes large numbers of permanent residents—mostly Chinese and Koreans—who have been here for generations. Tellingly, the recent story about the government’s discussion of immigration broke in the right-wing Sankei newspaper (in Japanese), which is especially unlikely to embrace the idea of a Chinese family living on every Japanese street. Japan’s demographic dilemma grows more urgent by the year. Last week the government passed the nation’s largest-ever budget—a mammoth $937-billion package swelled by welfare and pension spending. Japan is already weighed down by one of the world’s largest public debt burdens. With its inverted population pyramid, where will it find the tax base to repay this debt, and to care for its growing population of elderly? The 2012 government report said that without policy change, by 2110 the number of Japanese could fall to 42.9m, ie just a third of its current population. It is plausible to think that the country could learn to live with its shrinking population. But that might mean also embracing a much diminished economic and political role in the world. Mr Abe would seem to be the last leader to accept that.

1. King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence Mark Lawrence’s Prince of Thorns was our favorite debut of last year. The sequel, King of Thorns, came out this August, and it’s even better than the first novel. Expanding upon the dark and brutal story of Jorg—now a king—as he tries to become emperor of the Broken Empire, King of Thorns is a breathtaking, captivating, and violent venture into a wonderful world filled with morally ambiguous characters and compelling worldbuilding. Don’t expect a fairy tale filled with cheesy fantasy tropes; King of Thorns is instead a dark slice of realism. Like a landslide, this savage, vicious, and dark story rushes onward with a pace that takes a reader’s breath away. All you can do is follow it on its set course through to the spectacular ending and the silent void that follows. Read our review here. 2. Cold Days by Jim Butcher After some much-needed time off, Harry Dresden is now back in this fourteenth installment in the popular urban fantasy series The Dresden Files. However, he is no longer just the only guy in the Chicago phonebook under the heading “Wizards.” Oh, no. He is now the Winter Knight and beholden to Mab, Queen of Air and Darkness, ruler of the Unseelie Court of the Sidhe. Cold Days has action, it has snark, it has one of the most trippy and twisted plots ever seen, and it has fantastic worldbuilding. It is an epic entry in a series that continues to improve upon itself, and it proceeds to set the stage for the novels to come. Cold Days will make you laugh your butt off and leave your mind reeling with all of the possibilities. It cuts straight to the core of the reader’s humanity with surgical precision and refuses to let up on the pressure and suspense until the very end. Read our review here. 3. The Emperor’s Soul by Brandon Sanderson The Emperor’s Soul has all the elements that gained Brandon Sanderson legions of fans: his trademark innovative magic systems, strong characters, and unique plot twists. In fact, in many ways, this novella, set in the world of Sanderson’s debut novel Elantris, is an ode to unique magic packaged as an intriguing character-driven tale. In The Emperor’s Soul, a captured thief named Shai is recruited to use her outlawed magic to do the impossible: reconstruct the emperor’s damaged soul. With its skillfully crafted and creative magic, strong characters both male and female, and an action-packed conclusion, The Emperor’s Soul is the perfect starting point for those eager to pick up Sanderson’s works without having to read a huge book, while still providing plenty for his existing fans to love. Read our review here. 4. Ashes of Honor by Seanan McGuire Seanan McGuire is one of two authors accomplishing an extraordinary feat last year: she published two novels worthy of our Best of 2012 list! The better of these is Ashes of Honor, the sixth installment of McGuire’s New York Times bestselling Toby Daye series. A year after the events of the previous novel, One Salt Sea, we return to San Francisco and the world of changeling October Daye. Ashes of Honor finds the balance between introspection and action. With naturally flowing worldbuilding and real and dynamic characters, this is a deeply personal and intense story that will keep you on the edge, hoping to be pushed over. . While we have chosen to put only one novel per author on this list, McGuire’s Discount Armageddon deserves an honorable mention here as well. The first in her InCryptid series, it is an exceptionally well-written urban fantasy tale with a unique premise, fantastic character work, and a plot that just pulls you along until you finish. Read our review here. 5. The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin N.K. Jemisin is an exemplary innovator of the fantasy genre. Her fresh take on epic fantasy pushes the boundaries of imagination, and her work might well be destined to become a literary classic one day, what with its ingenious new settings, themes, viewpoints, character dynamics, and magic. The Killing Moon, the premier novel in the Dreamblood duology, continues this trend. It is her first more mainstream novel, using viewpoints and themes that fans of epic fantasy are better used to, yet it remains refreshing with its Egyptian-inspired setting, strong female protagonist, interesting character dynamics, and wonderful magic system. An innovative blend of high and contemporary fantasy elements, The Killing Moon should appeal to anyone who enjoys reading traditional epics, as well as those tired of reading the same recycled tropes over and over. This true jewel of high fantasy may pave Jemisin’s way to becoming a mainstream star of the genre. Read our review here. 6. Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed Imagine The Arabian Nights starring Iroh of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and you’ll have a sense of what the first debut on this list is like. Throne of the Crescent Moon follows the story of Doctor Adoulla Makshlood, “the last real ghul hunter in the great city of Dhamsawaat.” On the verge of retiring, Adoulla is forced away from his hopes and plans when he learns of a series of grisly murders and rumors of a sinister conspiracy. Together with a young holy warrior and a woman who can take the form of a lioness, Adoulla must unravel the mystery surrounding the Throne of the Crescent Moon Kingdoms before it is too late. With a gorgeous world, fantastic characters, and the author’s sheer capacity for beautiful and engrossing storytelling, this is not a novel to miss out on. Read our review here. 7. Control Point by Myke Cole The second debut on this list, Myke Cole’s Control Point is accurately summarized by Peter V. Brett’s blurb on the cover: “Black Hawk Down meets The X-Men… Military fantasy like you’ve never seen it before.” This novel is one hell of a roller coaster ride with very little down time. In Control Point, people all across the globe become Latent, suddenly developing magical abilities. In the US, the military has taken control of magic. When protagonist Oscar Britton finds himself with prohibited abilities, his life changes forever. Control Point is an intense masterwork of military fantasy that grips you from start to finish until your eyes practically race over the words as you approach the thrilling ending. With the spectacular world Cole created and the significant amount of foreshadowed questions yet unanswered, the potential for the rest of the Shadow Ops series is substantial. Read our review here. 8. Seven Wonders by Adam Christopher Superhero fiction seemed to be all the rage in 2012, and Adam Christopher’s Seven Wonders is a fine example of how amazing this genre can be. Seven Wonders does exactly what it set out to do: this tour de force novel reads like a wonderful superhero comic, with strong characters both male and female. Its fusion of astonishing comic book style storytelling and literary fiction creates a new version of our near-future populated with superheroes. Nearly all supervillains have been defeated, except for The Cowl. Tony, a normal dude, suddenly wakes up one morning with superpowers and decides to take The Cowl down; but the only remaining superheroes, the Seven Wonders, don’t quite appreciate his help. If you are a fan of comic books and superheroes, Seven Wonders may well be your perfect read. Its grand scale and impressive prose will definitely appeal to anyone who enjoys comics, and its flamboyant action and incredible characters are certain to entertain for hours. Read our review here. 9. Sharps by K.J. Parker Sharps may well be K.J. Parker’s most accessible novel to date. While in every way a standalone novel, this story ties together all of Parker’s previous works in a wonderfully unique and wholly engrossing way. Brimful with characters that are each of them skillfully written and morally ambiguous bastards, this novel is about a group of unlikely protagonists brought together for a fencing tour in hostile territory, but while they expected to fence with blunted weapons, they suddenly face their opponents using sharps—and Parker’s magnificent prose exalts these fencing matches to a form of art. Sharps is an incredible story of realistically wrought characters facing a world of intrigue, with a political complexity matching our own world, where the stakes are intensely high. Read our review here. 10. The Blinding Knife by Brent Weeks The Blinding Knife is the second volume in Brent Weeks’s Lightbringer series. Continuing the story from The Black Prism, The Blinding Knife is in every way a huge step forward for Weeks. With it, he has moved beyond simply being another incredibly entertaining traditional author, becoming one of those rare masters who can create truly marvelous and ambitious pieces of tremendous scope with engaging characters and a fascinating thematic undercurrent. The Blinding Knife is a wonderful work of high fantasy with engaging characters facing the perfect antagonists, set in a creatively-wrought and increasingly chaotic world brimful of imaginative magic and interesting politics. Weeks holds fast to the traditions of his genre while adding a compelling new flavor. Read our review here. 11. Seawitch by Kat Richardson This seventh novel in the bestselling Greywalker series by Kat Richardson returns us to the world of Harper Blaine, a private investigator who once died for two minutes. Now she is a Greywalker, one who is able to see and interact with the Grey, the plane of ghosts and other supernatural entities. Harper’s latest case sees her investigating a ghost ship with Detective Rey Solis, a man well skeptical of anything falling outside of “normal” logic. On top of that, Harper must navigate her way through the case while avoiding destruction, ghostly and paranormal threats, and death. Y’know, the usual. With a unique magic system, a kick-ass heroine who isn’t afraid to take names, a story that will appeal to both mystery and paranormal lovers, and a fantastic supporting cast of characters that brings an exquisite level of believability to Harper’s world, Seawitch is definitely one for any urban fantasy enthusiast. Read our review here. 12. The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi The sequel to Ship Breaker, acclaimed author Paolo Bacigalupi’s foray into young adult science fiction, The Drowned Cities is set in the same unspecified future—a future where resources have become scarce, governments have collapsed, and the gap between the rich and the poor has become almost insurmountably wide. However, though marketed as a sequel, it can stand as a completely independent novel, with only one character from Ship Breaker appearing again in The Drowned Cities. Bacigalupi is one of the few authors that can always be relied on to produce top-notch material with every new book, but he really has outdone himself with The Drowned Cities, creating something truly remarkable. It’s nothing less than a stellar book. Read our review here. 13. Mockingbird by Chuck Wendig As mentioned in the fourth entry in this list, Seanan McGuire’s Ashes of Honor, there are two authors who published two books worthy of this list. Chuck Wendig is the second. His first novel in the Miriam Black series, Blackbirds, is a truly fantastic novel about Miriam Black, a young woman who has visions of people’s deaths in vivid, excruciatingly gruesome detail, down to the date, time, and cause of dying. And Miriam is always right. She should know. She’s tried to screw with fate—and failed miserably. The second book in the series, Mockingbird, is even better. Where Blackbirds was messed up in all the best ways, Mockingbird cranks it up to eleven. Much about the book is reminiscent of the first—only bigger, bloodier, and bawdier. Chuck Wendig is not just a writer, he’s a cursesmith. This is a fast-paced and horrific urban fantasy with sharp dialogue, nuanced characters, and an original voice in a glutted genre. Wendig grabs you by the collar then throws you down a set of literary stairs and leaves you begging for more. It’s the kind of story that looks almost familiar on the face of it, but the details and quality of Wendig’s writing set it apart. Read our review here. 14. The Rise of Ransom City by Felix Gilman The Rise of Ransom City is a sequel of sorts, following Felix Gilman’s The Half-Made World—a wonderful, genre-bending novel released some two years ago. In The Rise of Ransom City, Gilman returns to the half-made world from a completely new perspective—it is the autobiography of Harry Ransom, an inventor who crosses the paths of the protagonists of the first novel. In a stroke of mad-genius brilliance, Gilman has created a story that far surpasses its predecessor in writing and scope, a novel that is in nearly every way a standalone while still wrapping up the events of The Half-Made World. This book is for anyone who enjoys American pioneering history, westerns, steampunk novels, or contemporary fantasy. This is an unparalleled and deep example of what happens when the lines between fantasy and literature start blurring, and, in writing it, Felix Gilman has established his literary craftsmanship once and for all. Read our review here. 15. In the House of the Wicked by Thomas E. Sniegoski Remy Chandler, a Boston-based private investigator, isn’t your typical private eye: he was once known as Remiel of the Heavenly Host Seraphim, before he left Heaven of his own accord after witnessing the destruction and bloodshed of Lucifer Morningstar’s war with the Almighty. In this fifth installment in the series, Ashley Berg, a girl who is like a daughter to Remy, has been kidnapped by a once-formidable sorcerer. This sorcerer wants his revenge upon those who wronged him in the past, and if Remy doesn’t play along, Ashley will die. Featuring an upped ante, well-developed characters, and a particularly unique supernatural pantheon for urban fantasy, In the House of the Wicked is a very powerful, very personal tale that is equal parts gut-wrenching, heart-warming, and awe-inspiring. Read our review here. 16. Greatshadow by James Maxey The first in the Dragon Apocalypse Trilogy, Greatshadow is a sword-and-sorcery novel in a way very few modern fantasies are. Our heroine, the mercenary Infidel, needs to pull off one last job before she can retire in style after the untimely death of her partner in crime, Stagger. So she joins a group of the world’s mightiest heroes in order to kill the dragon Greatshadow and loot his treasure along the way. Absolutely nothing goes as planned, however, leaving Infidel in some sticky situations. While this is a loving ode to 1980s pulps, the characters are grounded, have weaknesses, and the whole book doesn’t take itself seriously. Overall, this is a good read for those in the mood for rollicking adventure fantasy. Read our review here. 17. The Silvered by Tanya Huff The Silvered is Tanya Huff’s latest offering and marks her return to fantasy from science fiction. Aydori is a small country on the edge of an expanding empire, and with an army camped right on its border, things aren’t looking too good. Under the cover of battle, said empire kidnaps five of Aydori’s most powerful mages, and narrowly misses napping the sixth, Mirian Maylin. Together with the shapeshifter Tomas Hagen, Mirian sets off to rescue the other mages from the clutches of a mad emperor. Huff is a master storyteller, and her detailed worldbuilding and characterizations are a real treat to read. Perhaps most fun is the magic system in use here, where the rules may not be exactly what they seem and surprises abound for both reader and protagonists. Read our review here. 18. Railsea by China Miéville China Miéville’s Railsea, a novel for young adults, could be described as a retelling of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick—if the ships were trains and the whale was a giant mole, that is—but to do so would be trying to fit Railsea into a descriptive box in which it doesn’t quite fit or belong. Railsea takes place in a world where, instead of ships traversing the ocean, trains traverse a landscape swathed in a seemingly infinite tangle of railways. Like in all of his work, Miéville’s quirky style is full of weird eccentricities, painting descriptions that not only conjure beautiful mental images when read but also sound beautiful when said aloud. Railsea is something so uniquely wonderful, so infectiously entertaining that I encourage everyone who loves books to at least give it a try. Read our review here. 19. Katya’s World by Jonathan L. Howard Jonathan L. Howard, author of the humorous Faustian series Johannes Cabal, ventures into new waters with Katya’s World, the opening to a new science fiction series aimed at young adults. As the title implies, this book follows fifteen-year-old Katya of the planet Russalka, a world with no landmasses aside from the polar ice caps. With stellar and thoroughly intriguing worldbuilding, a female protagonist who (for a change) doesn’t venture into triangular romance, and a sweepingly fast-paced story, Katya’s World is a thoroughly entertaining novel that will be impossible to put down. Howard’s novel is for anyone who enjoys reading about life on imaginary planets, especially those who are sick of the abundance of love triangle stories in young adult fiction today. Read our review here. 20. The Black Mausoleum by Stephen Deas This year’s list is our third consecutive best-of-year-list since the start of The Ranting Dragon in October of 2010. Together with N.K. Jemisin, Stephen Deas has been the one big constant throughout these lists. In 2010, The King of the Crags came sixth. In 2011, The Order of the Scales came eleventh. This year, his newest dragon book, The Black Mausoleum comes twentieth. Do his books get progressively worse? Definitely not! The competition simply grows tougher. This dragon-filled, near-sword-and-sorcery novel tells a standalone tale set in the same world as Deas’s previous dragon novels, where dragons now rule the world. We follow three unlikely protagonists in their search to find a weapon against dragons. With all of its sheer epicness and wonderfully grim moral ambiguity, The Black Mausoleum is a great starting point for anyone who has been thinking to check out Deas’s work.

PETER HITCHENS: We ask the Scots to be 'loyal' - but we're the ones betraying Britain I think we have lost Scotland. I felt it the other day, a disturbing sensation like that moment when the tow-rope parts, the strain too great for its rotten, decayed fibres to bear. The sulky, puzzled feebleness of the London politicians’ arguments sounds desperate and defeated. Alex Salmond has already won the September referendum. Tell the Scots they can’t keep the pound, and they’ll just think quietly: ‘Oh, yes, we will. Try and stop us.’ And just imagine the reaction in a Scottish home when a friend or a relative phones from south of the border (as urged by David Cameron) to persuade them to vote against independence. Laughter would be the kindest response. Alex Salmond has won Scotland, writes Peter Hitchens. Tell the Scots they can't keep the pound, and they'll just think quietly: 'Oh yes, we will. Try and stop us' As for the Prime Minister’s threat to take the whole Cabinet to Scotland, the actual sight of this squad of third-raters and phonies on the streets of Glasgow or Stirling should make a Nationalist victory certain. What has Scotland to fear by declaring independence from this unprincipled, mumbling shambles? As it happens, I am more grieved about this approaching divorce than most Englishmen will be. My earliest childhood memories are of the lovely coast of Fife, of Scottish voices and Scottish landscapes. I even like the sound of bagpipes. And I grew up, in a Navy family, in that bleak but cosy era soon after the war, which had brought us all together in a warm Britishness that has now evaporated. I think we belong together, are stronger together and could defy the world together if we wanted. David Cameron's allegiance to the EU automatically makes him the enemy of the Union of England and Scotland But this does not stop me seeing what has happened. And I am amazed that so few have noticed the real problem. The leaders of the United Kingdom cannot argue for Scotland to stay in a country they themselves are working so hard to abolish. Mr Cameron’s allegiance to the European Union (which is total and unshakeable) automatically makes him the enemy of the Union of England and Scotland. Let me explain. The EU’s purpose is to abolish the remaining great nation states, carving them up into ‘regions’ that will increasingly deal direct with the EU’s central government in Brussels. Paris, London, Berlin, Madrid and Rome are allowed to retain the outward signs of power. But it is a gesture. All the real decisions are already taken elsewhere, from foreign policy and trade to the collection of rubbish and the management of rivers. Under this plan, England itself will cease to exist. The European Parliament gave the game away a few years ago by publishing a map of the EU in which all the regional boundaries were shown, but the word ‘England’ was not mentioned. Meanwhile, the smaller nations of Europe are indulged by the EU, because (unlike the big countries) they are no threat to it. They are happy to be allowed a flag, an anthem, a well-paid political class, a little pomp and circumstance – and no real power. Like many of the EU’s smaller members, Scotland is not big or rich enough to be truly independent. It can never hope to have its own free-floating currency, or its own armed forces capable of projecting power – the true indicators of sovereignty. In truth, ‘independence’ will mean that Edinburgh becomes a cold vassal of Brussels, instead of a warm friend of London. But since London itself has surrendered so much of its power and independence to the EU, this isn’t the major change it would once have been. If Scotland is going to be run from Belgium anyway, why let the power and money flow through London, rather than direct to Edinburgh? Britain has given up its own national independence and sovereignty without a struggle. It is not a proper country any more. Having betrayed our own flag, we can hardly ask the Scots to be loyal to it. ........................................................................................................................................................... 'Happy pills' won't help penguins... or anyone else A flap over nothing: Reports that a group of Humboldt penguins were on antidepressants proved untrue Stories that Humboldt penguins in Scarborough have been dosed with ‘antidepressants’ turn out – I am very glad to say – to be mistaken. The poor things have in fact been given Sporanox, an anti-fungal drug. This might affect the creatures’ ability to drive or operate machinery, in the unlikely event that they wanted to. But it is not an ‘antidepressant’. And a good thing too. There is little serious evidence that these dubious pills do any good to humans, and a worrying correlation of their use with suicide and irrational violence. This daft story was believed and spread only because most people have swallowed the drug industry’s myth that we have invented a medicine that will cheer people up when they are sad. I suppose that if such a thing existed, it might work on penguins too. But as it doesn’t, it won’t. ........................................................................................................................................................... One ray of hope in the UK's demise You might think (and I do) that the Tories secretly want Scotland to secede, cynically imagining that – by removing Scots MPs from Westminster – they will save themselves from otherwise certain defeat in the Election of May 2015. I wonder if this plan will work? I hope not. I think the shock of actual Scottish independence will be huge when it comes. And I think the government that loses Scotland will not be readily forgiven. People will be amazed at how quickly our world standing will sink. The departure of Scotland will alert the whole planet to how much we have in fact declined in the past 50 years. You would be amazed how many people abroad still think we are the well-educated, well-governed, economically successful civilisation we were five decades ago. A border at Berwick, and the compulsory redesign of our national flag and our Royal Standard, will make them look again, and see what we have now become. I think this will lead to some pretty radical changes in England. One of them might be that English people will at last grasp the true extent of the Tory Party’s treachery and incompetence. That would be one good outcome. ........................................................................................................................................................... Ever wondered why certain politicians and other public figures always look overweight, sinister or shady on TV? Well, maybe they’re like that really. But there could be another reason. A friend, who worked for years in current affairs TV for an organisation I won’t name, tells me that cameramen would ask, before each interview, ‘Are we shooting for or against this person?’ There are many tricks, but basically the rule is ‘Shoot from above, and the interviewee is flattered. Shoot from below and he or she is uglified.’ Watch out for it. ........................................................................................................................................................... Prime Minister’s Question Time has had its day. It’s far too long anyway, but only works when the leaders facing each other across the Despatch Box actually disagree.

Get the biggest politics stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email A drug firm is embroiled in claims of NHS overcharging after it was accused of raising the price of a life-saving drug by 12,000%. A watchdog has accused Actavis UK of breaking competition law by changing the price of hydrocortisone tablets from 70p to £88. Before 2008, when restrictions on the drug's prices were lifted, the NHS spent just £522,000 a year on hydrocortisone tablets. By last year that figure had soared to £70million, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said. Today the watchdog provisionally found the firm had broken the law by "charging excessive and unfair prices". Actavis' owner said it plans to defend the allegations, is "proud of our track record in bringing cost savings to the NHS" and claimed the watchdog intervention "raises serious policy concerns". In a statement the CMA said Actavis, formerly known as Auden Mckenzie, increased the price of 10mg hydrocortisone tablets from 70p in April 2008 to £88 per pack by March 2016. (Image: Getty Images) It also alleged the company increased the price of 20mg hydrocortisone tablets by nearly 9,500% compared to the previous price. That resulted in charges to the NHS of £102.74 per pack by March 2016, when it had previously paid £1.07. Hydrocortisone tablets are used as the primary replacement therapy for people whose adrenal glands do not produce sufficient amounts of natural steroid hormones - for example, those with Addison's disease. The condition is life-threatening and 943,000 packs of hydrocortisone tablets were dispensed in the UK in 2015, according to the CMA. Before 2008 the drug was branded, meaning it was subject to strict restrictions on its price. But those restrictions were lifted after it became a "generic" drug. Usually when this happens there is competition that pushes prices down, but the prices rose in this case, the CMA said. (Image: PA/Getty) Andrew Groves, the CMA's senior responsible officer, said: "This is a life-saving drug relied on by thousands of patients, which the NHS has no choice but to continue purchasing. "We allege that the company has taken advantage of this situation and the removal of the drug from price regulation, leaving the NHS - and ultimately the taxpayer - footing the bill for the substantial price rises. "The CMA's findings are provisional and no conclusion should be drawn at this stage that there has in fact been any breach of competition law. The CMA will carefully consider any representations of the parties under investigation before determining whether the law has been infringed." The move is part of a wider clampdown on pharmaceutical firms and their dealings with the NHS. Earlier this month, Viagra-maker Pfizer was fined a record £84.2 million by the competition watchdog for its role in overcharging the NHS after the price of an epilepsy drug was hiked by up to 2,600% overnight. A statement by firm Teva, which bought Actavis recently, said: “Teva is reviewing the Statement of Objections and intends to defend the allegations. "Generic medicines continue to be an affordable alternative to branded therapies. "Teva is proud of our track record in bringing cost savings to the NHS as the UK’s largest generic medicines manufacturer. Competition from generic medicines saves the NHS in England and Wales £13.5bn per year overall, and Teva medicines account for approximately £3.2bn of this saving. "Although the pricing of the acquired Actavis product (Hydrocortisone) under investigation was never under Teva's effective control, Teva believes that intervention by the CMA in prices for generic medicines raises serious policy concerns regarding the roles of both the CMA and the Department of Health."

Food Network Kitchen Nutritional Yeast Seasoning Healthy Eats Food Network Stephen Johnson, 2014, Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved The name sounds strangely antiseptic, and the powdery flakes look suspiciously like what you'd sprinkle into the goldfish tank. But that does not deter certain cooks and bloggers (mostly vegetarian and vegan ones) from singing the praises of nutritional yeast. So what exactly is this supplement and what has it done to deserve a spot on the health food hot list? What It Is Although it shares a name with the same stuff used to get bread to rise, nutritional yeast is a deactivated form of yeast. So it's not a leavening agent and it won't froth when it hits liquid. And because it is not derived from animal or wheat products, it's considered vegan and it's also gluten-free. You'll find it in both powder and flake forms, in bulk bins of health food stores and in shaker bottles. And as for the less-than-fun name, the vegan blogosphere has taken care of that by nicknaming the stuff "nooch." What's In It Those little flakes pack a surprising number of nutrients. "They’re a really good source of protein, dietary fiber, various minerals including zinc, magnesium and copper, as well as B vitamins," says Mary Ryan, RD, owner of Beyond Broccoli nutritional counseling, in Jackson, Wyo. "They've been popular among vegetarians and vegans for decades as a way of getting these nutrients without any animal products." In terms of key stats: One and a half tablespoons of the yeast has 70 calories, 4 grams of protein and 8 grams of fiber. It's important to note that nutritional yeast has to be fortified with B12 -- it doesn't contain it naturally (no plant foods do, which is why it's such a tough nutrient for vegetarians and vegans to obtain). Jack Norris, RD, executive director of Vegan Outreach, recommends Red Star Vegetarian Support Formula Nutritional Yeast because it does contain respectable amounts of B12, plus B2 (aka riboflavin) and B6. How to Use It Vegans are especially fond of "nooch" for its savory flavor, which can be reminiscent of cheese. This is why if you search the Internet for vegan mac-and-cheese recipes, nutritional yeast is usually one of the starring ingredients. You can cook with it (mainly as a means of replicating cheese flavor) or you can sprinkle some onto food after it's cooked for an extra kick -- hence the yeast's popularity as a virtuous popcorn topping for anyone looking for an alternative to butter or Parmesan.

Lawmakers are ready to list sexual harassment as an offence punishable by fines for Russian citizens and deportation for foreigners. The bill has been prepared by MP Oleg Nilov representing the center-left party Fair Russia. The lawmaker told the Izvestia daily that his main objective was to relieve women of psychological stress caused by sexual harassment on the part of bosses and strangers. “Even a single verbal insult must carry a punishment. But of course the fact must be proven – the victim must file a report with the police and have witnesses to confirm the claims – in this case the punishment will be inevitable. The bill will make women’s life easier,” Nilov told the newspaper. In its current form the draft bill allows sexual harassment and unwanted flirting in open and a concealed form to be punished by fines of between 30,000 and 50,000 roubles ($830 - $1400). Repeat offenses carry fines of between 80,000 and 100,000 roubles ($2,200 – $2,800). Foreigners found guilty of harassment will have to pay the same fines as Russians but also face deportation from the country. Russian criminal law already has an article against “forcing someone into sexual relations”, which carries up to 1 year of forced labor or imprisonment, but it is only applied when the harassment is accompanied with blackmail or damage to property, and when the victim is dependent on the criminal in a material sense or due to work subordination. Some Russian MPs were not very enthusiastic about Nilov’s plans. Mikhail Markelov of the parliamentary majority party United Russia said that the bill was too populist and would be too difficult to enforce.“When there is a bill that allows prosecution for just one wrong stare, too many people will start using it to settle their conflicts,” the politician said. The head of the Migrants’ Federation Muhammad Amin Madjumder commented that the proposed law can become a tool for evicting unwanted foreigners. “People who are unfriendly towards immigrants will get an opportunity to provoke or falsify the situations that would lead to deportations. The bill also contradicts the international law that orders that persons convicted on the territory of a certain state must serve their punishment within the borders of this same state,” the activist said.

[/caption] While science education often focuses on teaching the scientific method (or at least tries to), the real process of science is often far less linear. Theories tie together so many points of data, that making singular predictions that confirm or refute a proposition is often challenging. Such is the case for stellar evolution. The understanding is woven together from so many independent pieces, that the process is more of a roaring sea than a directed river. Realizing this, I’ve been keen on instances in which necessary predictions are observationally confirmed later. A new study, led by Mariela Vieytes from the University of Buenos Aires and accepted in an upcoming publication of Astronomy & Astrophysics, does just that by demonstrating one of the necessary conditions for predictions of post main sequence evolution. Specifically, astronomers need to establish that stars undergo significant amounts of mass loss (~0.1-0.3 M ☉ ) during their red giant branch evolution. This requirement was set forth as part of the expected behavior necessary to explain: “i) the very existence of the horizontal branch (HB) and its morphology, ii) the pulsational properties of RR Lyrae stars, iii) the absence of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars brighter than the red giant branch (RGB) tip, and the chemistry and characteristics in the AGB, post-AGB and planetary nebula evolutionary phases, iv) the mass of white dwarf (WD) stars.” Astronomers expected to find confirmation of this mass loss by detecting gas congregating in the cores of globular clusters after being shed by stars evolving along the RGB. Yet searches for this gas came up mostly empty. Eventually astronomers realized that gas would be stripped relatively quickly as globular clusters plunged through the galactic plane. But this left them with the need to confirm the prediction in some other manner. One way to do this is to look at the stars themselves. If they show velocities in their photospheres greater than the escape velocity, they will lose mass. Just how much higher will determine the amount of mass lost. By analyzing the Doppler shift of specific absorption lines of several stars in the cluster ω Centauri, the team was able to match the amount of mass being lost to predictions from evolutionary models. From this, the team concluded that their target stars were losing between the rates of mass loss are estimated as a few 10-9 and 10-10 M ☉ yr-1. This is in general agreement with the predictions set forth by evolutionary models.

Today Crunchyroll announced plans to stream The Ancient Magus’ Bride: Those Awaiting a Star Part 1, and the best part is you don't have to wait. The episode is now available to Crunchyroll members worldwide except Japan, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. Synopsis: Chise Hatori, 15 years old. Lost, without hope, and without family, she is bought for money – not by another person, but by a non-human sorcerer named Elias. Though she hesitates, she begins life anew as his apprentice and future wife. She moves on with her new and peaceful life, slowly but surely, until one day, when she finds a Japanese picture book among the many sent to her from London by Angelica. It is a fateful book that discovered her in her younger years, when she was still troubled and lonely. This piece is a prequel to Chise’s encounter with the Thorn Sorcerer. Chise Hatori, eight years old. This is my story. ------- Joseph Luster is the Games and Web editor at Otaku USA Magazine. You can read his webcomic, BIG DUMB FIGHTING IDIOTS, every week at subhumanzoids. Follow him on Twitter @Moldilox.

window._taboola = window._taboola \|\| []; _taboola.push({ mode: 'thumbnails-c', container: 'taboola-interstitial-gallery-thumbnails-5', placement: 'Interstitial Gallery Thumbnails 5', target_type: 'mix' }); window._taboola = window._taboola \|\| []; _taboola.push({ mode: 'thumbnails-c', container: 'taboola-interstitial-gallery-thumbnails-10', placement: 'Interstitial Gallery Thumbnails 10', target_type: 'mix' }); window._taboola = window._taboola \|\| []; _taboola.push({ mode: 'thumbnails-c', container: 'taboola-interstitial-gallery-thumbnails-15', placement: 'Interstitial Gallery Thumbnails 15', target_type: 'mix' }); window._taboola = window._taboola \|\| []; _taboola.push({ mode: 'thumbnails-c', container: 'taboola-interstitial-gallery-thumbnails-16', placement: 'Interstitial Gallery Thumbnails 16', target_type: 'mix' }); Photo: Mike McCarn / Associated Press Image 1 of / 17 Caption Close Image 2 of 17 Dallas plus-2 at Tampa Bay <br> <b>Cowboys 21-17</b> Dallas plus-2 at Tampa Bay <br> <b>Cowboys 21-17</b> Photo: Brandon Wade / Associated Press Image 3 of 17 Carolina minus-5 ½ at Tennessee <br> <b>Panthers 21-17</b> Carolina minus-5 ½ at Tennessee <br> <b>Panthers 21-17</b> Photo: Mike McCarn / Associated Press Image 4 of 17 Chicago plus-7 ½ at St. Louis <br> <b>Rams 20-16</b> Chicago plus-7 ½ at St. Louis <br> <b>Rams 20-16</b> Photo: Jeff Haynes / Associated Press Image 5 of 17 Image 6 of 17 New Orleans minus-1 at Washington <br> <b>Saints 27-20</b> New Orleans minus-1 at Washington <br> <b>Saints 27-20</b> Photo: Jonathan Bachman / Associated Press Image 7 of 17 Miami plus-6 at Philadelphia <br> <b>Eagles 28-23</b> Miami plus-6 at Philadelphia <br> <b>Eagles 28-23</b> Photo: Brandon Wade / Associated Press Image 8 of 17 Cleveland plus-5 ½ at Pittsburgh <br> <b>Steelers 30-20</b> Cleveland plus-5 ½ at Pittsburgh <br> <b>Steelers 30-20</b> Photo: Gene J. Puskar / Associated Press Image 9 of 17 Jacksonville plus-6 at Baltimore <br> <b>Ravens 24-16</b> Jacksonville plus-6 at Baltimore <br> <b>Ravens 24-16</b> Photo: Nick Wass / Associated Press Image 10 of 17 Image 11 of 17 Minnesota plus-3 at Oakland <br> <b>Raiders 21-20</b> Minnesota plus-3 at Oakland <br> <b>Raiders 21-20</b> Photo: Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press Image 12 of 17 Kansas City plus-6 at Denver <br> <b>Broncos 24-20</b> Kansas City plus-6 at Denver <br> <b>Broncos 24-20</b> Photo: Michael Conroy / Associated Press Image 13 of 17 New England minus-7 at NY Giants <br> <b>Patriots 30-27</b> New England minus-7 at NY Giants <br> <b>Patriots 30-27</b> Photo: Winslow Townson / Associated Press Image 14 of 17 Arizona plus-3 at Seattle <br> <b>Seahawks 23-21</b> Arizona plus-3 at Seattle <br> <b>Seahawks 23-21</b> Photo: Michael Ainsworth / Associated Press Image 15 of 17 Image 16 of 17 Houston plus-10 ½ at Cincinnati <br> <b>Bengals 34-17</b> Houston plus-10 ½ at Cincinnati <br> <b>Bengals 34-17</b> Photo: Darron Cummings / Associated Press Image 17 of 17 Texans banking on padded practices paying dividends 1 / 17 Back to Gallery The Texans are banking on physical padded practices paying dividends as they seek to upgrade their running game and run-stopping. The Texans are allowing 123.5 rushing yards per game. They’re rushing for just 87.9 yards per game. “To me, the proof is in the pudding on gameday,” Texans coach Bill O’Brien said. “We’ve really worked hard on stopping the run and running the football, but this is a team in Cincinnati that does a really good job of running the football and a good job of stopping the run. We’ve got to show up on Monday night and again, put that what we’ve done in practice, put it on the field. “It does look better in practice on both sides of the ball. The practices have been very competitive. I give our guys a lot of credit. They’ve worked extremely hard in practice to improve in those areas of the game. Again, we want to see that on gameday.” The Texans have allowed 988 rushing yards and seven touchdowns through eight games. They’ve rushed for 703 yards and four touchdowns, averaging just 3.3 yards per carry. “Our running game has to improve, stopping the run and running the ball,” O’Brien said. “We’re spending a lot of time on it. We’ll be in a full-padded practice on Wednesday and get it going and really practice the run game there, but we’re going to work one day at a time like I said and try to improve every day.” The Texans are attempting to simulate game conditions as much as they can with some contact during practice. “Oh yeah, I mean I like when we go pads because you can kind of get into game mode,” Texans nose tackle Vince Wilfork said. “It fits and everything, it looks kind of realistic. You’re not going to get game speed on the practice field, but that’s the closest you’re going to get. Being able to go in pads and take advantage of that day instead of looking at it as punishment you’ve got to look at it and take advantage of the day like that. “I think we did. I think we came to work this week, ready to work. Hopefully, that’ll help us, but we did a good job so far, we’ve just got to close this week out, continue to get better each day all the way up to game night and just make sure we make all the preparations, all the checks, and understand what we need to do to win this ballgame.” aaron.wilson@chron.com twitter.com/AaronWilson_NFL

Joint world championship leader Lewis Hamilton and ‘man of the moment’ Fernando Alonso will headline the two parts of the official FIA press conference in Sakhir on Thursday. Friday’s session with key team personnel will also be split into two parts, with representatives from the top three teams in the championship all taking the stage. The line-ups in full… Thursday, April 13, 1500 hours local time (1200 GMT) Part 1: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), Sergio Perez (Force India), Stoffel Vandoorne (McLaren) Part 2: Fernando Alonso (McLaren), Kevin Magnussen (Haas), Jolyon Palmer (Renault) Friday, April 14, 2000 hours local time (1700 GMT) Part 1: Zak Brown (McLaren), Christian Horner (Red Bull), Claire Williams (Williams) Part 2: James Allison (Mercedes), Mattia Binotto (Ferrari), James Key (Toro Rosso) The qualifying and post-race conferences with the top three drivers will take place immediately after the respective sessions. As always, Formula1.com will bring you full transcripts.

While we know the groups for the 2018 Winter Olympic men’s hockey tournament, it’s still to be determined whether the NHL will send its players to PyeongChang, Korea. The NHL and NHLPA will participate, however, in the 2016 World Cup of Hockey scheduled for Sept. 2016 in Toronto. On Thursday, Vladislav Tretiak, head of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation, revealed the groups for the international tournament during an interview with Russia's SovSport. Group A: Canada, Czech Republic, USA, Europe All-Stars Scroll to continue with content Ad Group B: Sweden, Finland, Russia, U23-North Americans Each country will play three games with the top two teams in each group advancing to the semifinals. All games will be played at Air Canada Centre from Sept. 17 to Oct. 1 with the final being a best-of-three series. As was announced during a January press conference, the individual federations have a March 1, 2016 deadline to announce their first 16 players, which will include two goalies, with the rest being named no later than June 1, 2016. (The NHL and NHLPA will jointly name each of the management teams for the Euro All-Stars and U23 North American team.) “I can not comment on this because it is confidential until September,” said Tommy Boustedt, developmental chief of the Swedish Ice Hockey Association, to Expressen. These reported groups not only give us some juicy round-robin match-ups, but also keeps the U23 North American team away from playing against Canada and USA, at least early on. It wasn't clear how the four teams coming out of the group stage would be seeded, but the possibility of a Canada-Sweden rematch or a best-of-three final between Canada, USA or Russia would certainly be appealing. - - - - - - - Story continues Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! MORE FROM YAHOO HOCKEY:

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket shown here on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on June 23, 2017. On June 25, SpaceX is scheduled to launch another Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. One day after putting Bulgaria's first communications satellite into orbit, SpaceX is preparing for a Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California tomorrow (June 25). The rocket will deliver a second batch of next-generation spacecraft for the company Iridium Communications. Liftoff of SpaceX's ninth mission this year is scheduled for 1:25 p.m. PDT (4:25 EDT/2025 GMT). After sending 10 Iridium satellites on their way to orbit, the rocket's first stage will turn around and attempt to land itself on a drone barge floating in the Pacific Ocean. The flight is the second of eight missions SpaceX plans for Iridium, which is in the midst of a $3 billion upgrade of its satellite constellation, which provides global, mobile communications services. [SpaceX's Falcon 9: Rocket for the Dragon] The booster used to deliver the first batch of next-generation Iridium satellites in January flew for a second time yesterday (June 23) to put BulgariaSat-1 into orbit. The satellite was commissioned by Bulgaria Sat, the country's only satellite provider, according the company website. "We really think this is the way of the future," Bulgaria Sat CEO Max Zayakov told Space.com. Bulgaria Sat was the second company to take advantage of an earlier launch opportunity and an undisclosed discount SpaceX offered for flying on a pre-flown Falcon. Iridium CEO Matt Desch said he is open to the idea of using a pre-flown booster, but that he'd prefer to wait a bit to let SpaceX build some flight history with the boosters. "I believe previously flown boosters are fantastic. I think it's revolutionizing the industry," Desch said during a conference call with reporters before launch. "Our using them or not using them is not a statement [about] the quality or capability of those boosters." With seven Falcon 9 launches pending in the next 12 months, Iridium is more interested in schedule and reliability than in any financial discounts for using pre-flown boosters, Desch said. He characterized the current discounts as "minor." "I believe the risk [of using pre-flown rockets] is pretty low right now, but it's not zero, because it's a new thing," he said. "I'm open to previously flown [rockets], particularly for the second half of our launch schedule, maybe in 2018," Desch added. "Over the coming months … if there are additional launches [of previously flown rockets], I'll reconsider that." Iridium is replacing its 20-year-old satellite network with next-generation satellites, 75 of which will be launched by SpaceX. The constellation consists of 66 operational spacecraft, nine spares in orbit and five spares to be stored on the ground. The new spacecraft are faster and more powerful, and, for the first time, will allow worldwide tracking of aircraft in addition to mobile voice and data services. With a successful launch on Sunday, SpaceX will have surpassed its annual flight record with half the year still to come. SpaceX has a backlog of more than 70 missions, worth more than $10 billion, company representatives have said. About a dozen more launches are still pending for 2017, including the debut flight of the Falcon Heavy, a 27-engine version of the Falcon 9 (which uses 9 engines). Irene Klotz can be reached on Twitter at @free_space. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

If you have been involved in Bitcoin for any significant length of time, you have probably at least heard of the idea of “proof of work”. The basic concept behind proof of work is simple: one party (usually called the prover) presents the result of a computation which is known to be hard to compute, but easy to verify, and by verifying the solution anyone else can be sure that the prover performed a certain amount of computational work to generate the result. The first modern application, presented as “Hashcash” by Adam Back in 1996, uses a SHA256-based proof of work as an anti-spam measure – by requiring all emails to come with a strong proof-of-work attached, the system makes it uneconomical for spammers to send mass emails while still allowing individuals to send messages to each other when they need to. A similar system is used today for the same purpose in Bitmessage, and the algorithm has also been repurposed to serve as the core of Bitcoin’s security in the form of “mining”. How does SHA256 Proof of Work Work? SHA256 is what cryptographers call a “one-way function” – a function for which it is easy to calculate an output given an input, but it is impossible to do the reverse without trying every possible input until one works by random chance. The canonical representation of a SHA256 output is as a series of 64 hexadecimal digits – letters and numbers taken from the set 0123456789abcdef . For example, here are the first digits of a few hashes: SHA256("hello") = 2cf24dba...SHA256("Hello") = 185f8db3...SHA256("Hello.") = 2d8bd7d9... The output of SHA256 is designed to be highly chaotic; even the smallest change in the input completely scrambles the output, and this is part of what makes SHA256 a one-way function. Finding an input whose SHA256 starts with ‘0’ on average takes 16 attempts, ’00’ takes 256 attempts, and so forth. The way Hashcash, and Bitcoin mining, work, is by requiring provers (ie. mail senders or miners) to find a “nonce” such that SHA256(message+nonce) starts with a large number of zeroes, and then send the valid nonce along with the message as the proof of work. For example, the hash of block 254291 is: 000000000000003cf55c8d254fc97d2850547e5b787a936bc729497d76443a89 On average, it would take 72057 trillion attempts to find a nonce that, when hashed together with a block, returns a value starting with this many zeroes (technically, 282394 trillion since the POW requirement is a bit more complex than “starts with this many zeroes”, but the general principle is the same). The reason this artificial difficulty exists is to prevent attackers from overpowering the Bitcoin network and introducing alternative blockchains that reverse previous transactions and block new transactions; any attacker trying to flood the Bitcoin network with their own fake blocks would need to make 282394 trillion SHA256 computations to produce each one. However, there is a problem: proof of work is highly wasteful. Six hundred trillion SHA256 computations are being performed by the Bitcoin network every second, and ultimately these computations have no practical or scientific value; their only purpose is to solve proof of work problems that are deliberately made to be hard so that malicious attackers cannot easily pretend to be millions of nodes and overpower the network. Of course, this waste is not inherently evil; given no alternatives, the wastefulness of proof of work may well be a small price to pay for the reward of a decentralized and semi-anonymous global currency network that allows anyone to instantly send money to anyone else in the world for virtually no fee. And in 2009 proof of work was indeed the only option. Four years later, however, we have developed a number of alternatives. Sunny King’s Primecoin is perhaps the most moderate, and yet at the same time potentially the most promising, solution. Rather than doing away with proof of work entirely, Primecoin seeks to make its proof of work useful. Rather than using SHA256 computations, Primecoin requires miners to look for long “Cunningham chains” of prime numbers – chains of values n-1 , 2n-1 , 4n-1 , etc up to some length such that all of the values in the chain are prime (for the sake of accuracy, n+1 , 2n+1 , 4n+1 can also be a valid Cunningham chain, and Primecoin also accepts “bi-twin chains” of the form n-1 , n+1 , 2n-1 , 2n+1 … where all terms are prime). It is not immediately obvious how these chains are useful – Primecoin advocates have pointed to a few theoretical applications, but these all require only chains of length 3 which are trivial to produce. However, the stronger argument is that in modern Bitcoin mining the majority of the production cost of mining hardware is actually researching methods of mining more efficiently (ASICs, optimized circuits, etc) and not building or running the devices themselves, and in a Primecoin world this research would go towards finding more efficient ways of doing arithmetic and number theory computation instead – things which have applications far beyond just mining cryptocurrencies. The reason why Primecoin-like “useful POWs” are the most promising is that, if the computations are useful enough, the currency’s “waste factor” can actually drop below zero, making the currency a public good. For example, suppose that there is a computation which, somehow, has a 1 in 1020chance of getting researchers significantly further along the way to curing cancer. Right now, no individual or organization has much of an incentive to attempt it: if they get lucky and succeed, they could either release the secret and earn little personal benefit beyond some short-lived media recognition or they could try to sell it to a few researchers under a non-disclosure agreement, which would rob everyone not under the non-disclosure agreement of the benefits of the discovery and likely not earn too much money in any case. If this magic computation was integrated into a currency, however, the block reward would incentivize many people to perform the computation, and the results of the computations would be visible on the blockchain for everyone to see. The societal reward would be more than worth the electricity cost. However, so far we know of no magical cancer-curing computation; the closest is Folding@home, but it lacks mathematical verificability – a dishonest miner can easily cheat by making fake computations that are indistinguishable from real results to any proof of work checker but have no value to society. As far as mathematically verifiable useful POWs go, Primecoin is the best we have, and whether its societal benefit fully outweighs its production and electricity cost is hard to tell; many people doubt it. But even then, what Primecoin accomplished is very praiseworthy; even partially recovering the costs of mining as a public good is better than nothing. Proof of Stake However, there is one SHA256 alternative that is already here, and that essentially does away with the computational waste of proof of work entirely: proof of stake. Rather than requiring the prover to perform a certain amount of computational work, a proof of stake system requires the prover to show ownership of a certain amount of money. The reason why Satoshi could not have done this himself is simple: before 2009, there was no kind of digital property which could securely interact with cryptographic protocols. Paypal and online credit card payments have been around for over ten years, but those systems are centralized, so creating a proof of stake system around them would allow Paypal and credit card providers themselves to cheat it by generating fake transactions. IP addresses and domain names are partially decentralized, but there is no way to construct a proof of ownership of either that could be verified in the future. Indeed, the first digital property that could possibly work with an online proof of stake system is Bitcoin (and cryptocurrency in general) itself. There have been several proposals on how proof of stake can be implemented; the only one that is currently working in practice, however, is PPCoin, once again created by Sunny King. PPCoin’s proof of stake algorithm works as follows. When creating a proof-of-stake block, a miner needs to construct a “coinstake” transaction, sending some money in their possession to themselves as well as a preset reward (like an interest rate, similar to Bitcoin’s 25 BTC block reward). A SHA256 hash is calculated based only on the transaction input, some additional fixed data, and the current time (as an integer representing the number of seconds since Jan 1, 1970). This hash is then checked against a proof of work requirement, much like Bitcoin, except the difficulty is inversely proportional to the “coin age” of the transaction input. Coin age is defined as the size of the transaction input, in PPcoins, multiplied by the time that the input has existed. Because the hash is based only on the time and static data, there is no way to make hashes quickly by doing more work; every second, each PPCoin transaction output has a certain chance of producing a valid work proportional to its age and how many PPCoins it contains, and that is that. Essentially, every PPCoin can act as a “simulated mining rig”, albeit with the interesting property that its mining power goes up linearly over time but resets to zero every time it finds a valid block. It is not clear if using coin age as PPCoin does rather than just output size is strictly necessary; the original intent of doing so was to prevent miners from re-using their coins multiple times, but PPCoin’s current design does not actually allow miners to consciously try to generate a block with a specific transaction output. Rather, the system does the equivalent of picking a PPCoin at random every second and maybe giving its owner the right to create a block. Even without including age as a weighting factor in the randomness, this is roughly equivalent to a Bitcoin mining setup but without the waste. However, there is one more sophisticated argument in coin age’s favor: because your chance of success goes up the longer you fail to create a block, miners can expect to create blocks more regularly, reducing the incentive to dampen the risk by creating the equivalent of centralized mining pools. Beyond Cryptocurrency But what makes proof of stake truly interesting is the fact that it can be applied to much more than just currency. So far, anti-spam systems have fallen into three categories: proof of work, captchas and identity systems. Proof of work, used in systems like Hashcash and Bitmessage, we have already discussed extensively above. Captchas are used very widely on the internet; the idea is to present a problem that a human can easily solve but a computer can’t, thereby distinguishing the two (CAPTCHA stands for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart”). In practice, this usually involves presenting a messy image containing letters and numbers, and requiring the solver to type in what the letters and numbers are. Recent providers have implemented a “public good” component into the system by making part of the captcha a word from a printed book, using the power of the crowd to digitize old printed literature. Unfortunately, captchas are not that effective; recent machine-learning efforts have achieved success rates of 30-96% – similar to that of humans themselves. Identity systems come in two forms. First, there are systems that require users to register with their physical identity; this is how democracies have so far avoided being overrun by anonymous trolls. Second, there are systems that require some fee to get into, and moderators can close accounts without refund if they are found to be trying to abuse the system. These systems work, but at the cost of privacy. Proof of stake can be used to provide a fourth category of anti-spam measure. Imagine that, instead of filling in a captcha to create a forum account, a user can consume coin age by sending a Bitcoin or PPCoin transaction to themselves instead. To make sure each proof of stake computation is done by the user, and not simply randomly pulled from the blockchain, the system might require the user to also send a signed message with the same address, or perhaps send their money back to themselves in a specific way (eg. one of the outputs must contain exactly 0.000XXXXX BTC, with the value randomly set each time). Note that here coin age is crucial; we want users to be able to create proofs of stake on demand, so something must be consumed to prevent reuse. In a way, a form of proof of stake already exists in the form of SMS verification, requiring users to send text messages to prove ownership of a phone to create a Google account – although this is hardly pure proof of stake, as phone numbers are also heavily tied with physical identity and the process of buying a phone is itself a kind of captcha. Thus, SMS verification has some of the advantages and some of the disadvantages of all three systems. But proof of stake’s real advantage is in decentralized systems like Bitmessage. Currently, Bitmessage uses proof of work because it has no other choice; there is no “decentralized captcha” solution out there, and there has been little research into figuring out how to make one. However, proof of work is wasteful, and makes Bitmessage a somewhat cumbersome and power-consuming system to use – for emails, it’s fine, but for instant messaging forget about it. But if Bitmessage could be integrated into Bitcoin (or Primecoin or PPCoin) and use it as proof of stake, much of the difficulty and waste could be alleviated. Does proof of stake have a future? Many signs suggest that it certainly does. PPCoin founder Sunny King argues that Bitcoin’s security will become too weak over time as its block reward continues to drop; indeed, this is one of his primary motivations for creating PPCoin and Primecoin. Since then, PPCoin has come to be the fifth largest cryptocurrency on the market, and an increasing number of new cryptocurrencies are copying its proof-of-stake design. Currently, PPCoin is not fully proof-of-stake; because it is a small cryptocurrency with a highly centralized community, the risk of some kind of takeover is higher than with Bitcoin, so a centralized checkpointing system does exist, allowing developers to create “checkpoints” that are guaranteed to remain part of the transaction history forever regardless of what any attacker does. Eventually, the intent is to both move toward making the checkpointing system more decentralized and reducing its power and PPCoins come to be owned by a larger group of people. An alternative approach might be to integrate proof of stake as a decentralized checkpointing system into Bitcoin itself; for example, one protocol might allow any coalition of people with at least 1 million BTC-years to consume their outputs to generate a checkpoint that the community would agree is a valid block, at the cost of sending their coins to themselves and consuming coin age. In 2009, cryptocurrency emerged as the culmination of a number of unrelated cryptographic primitives: hash functions, Merkle trees, proof of work and public key cryptography all play key roles in Bitcoin’s construction. Now, however, Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are here to stay, and this presents another exciting possibility for the future of cryptography: we can now design protocols that build off of cryptocurrency itself – of which proof of stake is the perfect example. Proof of stake can be used to secure a cryptocurrency, it can be used in decentralized anti-spam systems, and probably in dozens of other protocols that we haven’t even thought of yet – just like no one had thought of anything like Bitcoin until Wei Dai’s b-money in 1998. The possibilities are endless.

Rutina Wesley is joining the force. The True Blood favorite has been tapped to be one of the four leads in ABC's cop drama pilot Broad Squad, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. The drama, inspired by true stories, follows the first four women to graduate from Boston's Police Academy in 1978. See more The Faces of Pilot Season 2015 Wesley will play Joanne, one of the four women. Guarded, professional and private about her personal life (largely because she's gay), the character has high standards — mostly because she feels that it's necessary. As a black woman, she knows she has to work harder and be better than everyone in the department. Raised in a tough Boston neighborhood, she's seen her share of violence. But she's worked hard to get where she is, going after her convictions, her strength challenged by the realities of the political landscape. The role was scripted for an African-American and comes as diverse casting has been a major trend among the broadcast networks this pilot season. See more The Faces of Pilot Season 2015 The role marks Wesley's follow-up to her seven-season role as Tara on HBO's vampire drama True Blood, where she also had lesbian story lines. She's repped by Inspire Entertainment and Stone Meyer. Wesley joins a cast that also includes Charlotte Spencer and Cody Horn, who play two of the other cops in the drama. Bess Wohl (CSI: NY) will pen the script for the ABC Studios and Fake Empire drama. Josh Schwartz, Stephanie Savage, Len Goldstein and Aaron Kaplan will executive produce. Coky Geirdroyc will direct the pilot. Email: Lesley.Goldberg@THR.com Twitter: @Snoodit

Nationwide study reports shifts in Americans’ use of natural products Overall, natural products remain the most common complementary health approach. A nationally representative survey shows that natural product use in the United States has shifted since 2007, with some products becoming more popular and some falling out of favor. Overall, natural products (dietary supplements other than vitamins and minerals) remain the most common complementary health approach. The complementary health questionnaire was developed by NIH’s National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). The complementary health questionnaire is administered every 5 years as part of the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), an annual study in which tens of thousands of Americans are interviewed about their health- and illness-related experiences. The 2012 NHIS survey is the most current, comprehensive, and reliable source of information on the use of complementary health approaches by U.S. adults and children. To identify trends in Americans’ use of certain supplements, 2012 survey data were compared with versions of the survey fielded in 2002 and 2007. Survey highlights: Fish oil was the top natural product among adults. Adults’ use of fish oil, probiotics or prebiotics, and melatonin increased between 2007 and 2012. Adults’ use of glucosamine/chondroitin, echinacea, and garlic decreased between 2007 and 2012. Fish oil was the top natural product among children. This is a change from 2007, when echinacea was first. Melatonin was the second most used natural product by children in 2012. Its use increased substantially from 2007 to 2012. “While NHIS does not assess why shifts in use occur, some of the trends are in line with published research on the efficacy of natural products,” said Josephine P. Briggs, M.D., Director of NCCIH. ”For example, the use of melatonin, shown in studies to have some benefits for sleep issues, has risen dramatically. Conversely, the use of echinacea has fallen, which may reflect conflicting results from studies on whether it’s helpful for colds. This reaffirms why it is important for NIH to study these products and to provide that information to the public.” The 2012 survey results, released in a National Health Statistics Report by NCHS, are based on combined data from 88,962 American adults and 17,321 interviews with a knowledgeable adult about children aged 4-17 years. The 2012 survey is the third conducted by NCCIH and NCHS — previous surveys occurred as part of the 2002 and 2007 NHIS. Children’s data were assessed in 2007 and 2012. “The changes in use of individual natural products seen in the surveys are generally consistent with changes in nationwide sales data. Having independent confirmation of the NHIS data strengthens confidence in our findings,” said Richard L. Nahin, Ph.D., M.P.H., the NCCIH senior advisor for scientific coordination and outreach. Dr. Nahin leads NCCIH’s efforts to gather health care use statistics and has co-authored the surveys’ reports. Knowing the patterns of use of complementary approaches helps to inform NIH’s research priorities in this area. The scientific evidence on many complementary approaches shown by NHIS results to be popular is limited. Use by the American public is one of the four guiding principles that determine the practices and products studied by NCCIH, and these NHIS findings reflect the importance of continuing to study approaches to health and wellness that the public is using, often without the benefit of rigorous scientific study. The Center’s research priorities also include the study of other complementary approaches—such as spinal manipulation, meditation, and massage—to manage pain and other symptoms that are not always well-addressed by conventional treatments. Read more about the use of other natural products and the use of mind and body approaches in the full report nccih.nih.gov/NHIS2012. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health was formerly the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. NCCIH’s mission is to define, through rigorous scientific investigation, the usefulness and safety of complementary and integrative health approaches and their roles in improving health and health care. For additional information, call NCCIH’s Clearinghouse toll free at 1-888-644-6226, or visit the NCCIH Web site at nccih.nih.gov. Follow us on Twitter , Facebook , and YouTube . About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov. NIH…Turning Discovery Into Health®

Week 12 Rankings: Standard \| PPR There have been a ton of highs and lows this season, but perhaps no running back encapsulates the wild ride that the 2016 Fantasy Football season has delivered quite like Rams rusher Todd Gurley. Picked with an early first-round choice in most leagues, he's been the bust of the season so far with just three games over 10 Fantasy points in non-PPR. But he just had one of those double-digit outings in Week 11, and it came in a game against a tough defense and with Rams rookie quarterback Jared Goff. Is the tide turning in Gurley's favor? Or is this the last chance his owners have to trade him and get something in return? View Profile Todd Gurley LAR • RB • 30 2016 stats ATT 187 YDS 591 TD 4 TAR 35 REC 26 REC YDS 202 REC TD 0 Technically, Gurley ranks as a top 20 Fantasy running back based on year-to-date results. But he's 27th in average Fantasy points per game, coming in under 9.5 per week. Tack on the likelihood that between his quarterback, offensive line, offensive coordinator and remaining schedule, last week's 13-point effort is about the ceiling for him. So yeah, now's really the last chance you've got to move him for another player. Here are some trades involving the former first-round pick: Todd Gurley for Cam Newton: Would you believe that at this point you're better off with Gurley than Newton? Cam's offensive line is beat up, he's playing poorly and his defense won't put him in many favorable situations if they're getting banged up. He won't play well compared to replacement-level passers on waivers, but you can't say the same about Gurley and replacement-level running backs. Todd Gurley for Allen Robinson: This is too much to give for Gurley. Robinson has been bust-ish, but he's been anywhere from alright to amazing the past three weeks. Even with some tough matchups ahead, Robinson should pick up nice numbers because the Jaguars will throw a lot. Todd Gurley for Stefon Diggs and A.J. Green: If this deal were just Gurley for Diggs it would be on point. Throwing in Green as a "sweetener" on the off chance Green comes back this season makes it even better (though I wouldn't expect Green to come back unless the Bengals won a lot of games without him first). Todd Gurley and Jordy Nelson for Odell Beckham: Here's an example of someone severely undervaluing Gurley. He's the throw-in to "upgrade" from Jordy to Odell?! Jordy has averaged 0.2 more Fantasy points on the season than Beckham (non-PPR). This is a straight-up giveaway of Gurley. He deserves to have more value. What are the Trade Values? The chart is designed to help guide you in making fair trades in your standard-scoring or PPR leagues. The values assigned to the players below are a long-term measurement of their Fantasy value. By adding two players' values you could determine what one player you should be able to get in return. This list also works as a "Rest of Season" rankings. Also, any player not on the chart should be considered valued at no more than four points. Running backs Player Stnd PPR David Johnson, ARI 44 47 Ezekiel Elliott, DAL 44 46 Le'Veon Bell, PIT 43 47 DeMarco Murray, TEN 39 42 Melvin Gordon, SD 38 41 LeSean McCoy, BUF 27 30 Jay Ajayi, MIA 24 26 LeGarrette Blount, NE 22 22 Frank Gore, IND 20 22 Doug Martin, TB 20 22 Lamar Miller, HOU 18 20 Carlos Hyde, SF 18 19 Latavius Murray, OAK 17 19 Matt Forte, NYJ 17 18 Thomas Rawls, SEA 16 18 Rob Kelley, WAS 16 16 Todd Gurley, LAR 15 17 Jordan Howard, CHI 15 17 Spencer Ware, KC 15 17 Jeremy Hill, CIN 15 15 Devonta Freeman, ATL 14 16 Tevin Coleman, ATL 14 16 Mark Ingram, NO 13 15 Devontae Booker, DEN 13 15 Jonathan Stewart, CAR 13 14 Theo Riddick, DET 12 15 Dion Lewis, NE 11 13 Ryan Mathews, PHI 11 12 James Starks, GB 10 12 Rashad Jennings, NYG 9 10 Mike Gillislee, BUF 8 9 Isaiah Crowell, CLE 8 9 Terrance West, BAL 8 9 Tim Hightower, NO 8 9 Kenneth Dixon, BAL 7 9 Darren Sproles, PHI 7 9 Adrian Peterson, MIN 7 8 Chris Ivory, JAC 7 8 James White, NE 6 8 Kapri Bibbs, DEN 6 7 T.J. Yeldon, JAC 5 6 Jerick McKinnon, MIN 5 6 Chris Thompson, WAS 5 6 Jeremy Langford, CHI 5 6 Damien Williams, MIA 5 5 Derrick Henry, TEN 5 5 Wide receivers Player Stnd PPR Antonio Brown, PIT 43 47 Julio Jones, ATL 42 46 Mike Evans, TB 39 43 Dez Bryant, DAL 31 35 Odell Beckham, NYG 30 34 Jordy Nelson, GB 29 32 T.Y. Hilton, IND 24 27 Allen Robinson, JAC 21 24 Doug Baldwin, SEA 20 23 Amari Cooper, OAK 20 23 Demaryius Thomas, DEN 18 21 Brandin Cooks, NO 18 21 Tyrell Williams, SD 18 21 Davante Adams, GB 17 21 Stefon Diggs, MIN 16 21 Jamison Crowder, WAS 15 18 Larry Fitzgerald, ARI 14 20 Michael Crabtree, OAK 14 17 Michael Thomas, NO 14 17 Donte Moncrief, IND 14 17 Randall Cobb, GB 14 17 Julian Edelman, NE 13 17 Terrelle Pryor, CLE 13 16 Steve Smith, BAL 12 15 Brandon Marshall, NYJ 12 14 DeAndre Hopkins, HOU 11 14 Sammy Watkins, BUF 11 13 Kelvin Benjamin, CAR 10 13 Emmanuel Sanders, DEN 10 13 Willie Snead, NO 10 13 Rishard Matthews, TEN 10 12 Golden Tate, DET 9 12 Sterling Shepard, NYG 9 11 Cole Beasley, DAL 8 11 DeVante Parker, MIA 8 11 Jordan Matthews, PHI 8 10 Jarvis Landry, MIA 7 10 Kenny Britt, LA 7 9 Alshon Jeffery, CHI 7 9 Chris Hogan, NE 6 8 Mike Wallace, BAL 6 8 DeSean Jackson, WAS 6 8 Brandon LaFell, CIN 6 8 Ty Montgomery, GB 5 7 Jeremy Maclin, KC 5 7 Tyler Boyd, CIN 5 7 Tight ends Player Stnd PPR Rob Gronkowski, NE 29 32 Delanie Walker, TEN 17 20 Jimmy Graham, SEA 17 19 Greg Olsen, CAR 16 18 Tyler Eifert, CIN 16 18 Jordan Reed, WAS 14 17 Antonio Gates, SD 10 12 Kyle Rudolph, MIN 9 11 Martellus Bennett, NE 9 11 Travis Kelce, KC 8 10 Eric Ebron, DET 8 10 Cameron Brate, TB 8 9 Zach Ertz, PHI 5 7 Quarterbacks

NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 05: Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) outlines his plan to reform the U.S. financial sector on January 5, 2016 in New York City. Sanders is demanding greater financial oversight and greater government action for banks and individuals that break financial laws. (Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images) Yesterday at Town Hall in New York City, Bernie Sanders delivered a major policy speech declaring that he will "break up any banks that are too big to fail and that big bankers will not be too big to jail." His speech and the audience reaction almost seemed like the last scene of Adam McKay's The Big Short. Hollywood stars play all the major roles in the film, but it is no puff piece for the 1 percent. Watching The Big Short and talking to viewers after, it's hard to argue against Bernie Sanders's demands to increase taxes on the billionaires and break up the banks, and use the revenue to fund better health care and education. Sanders advocates a modern Glass-Steagall that prevents investment banks from being on all sides of every bet except the side of the American people. And when you add in Bernie's demands to end Super PAC campaign funding, and his own refusal to accept Wall Street funds in the current campaign, we are presented with a sharp contrast to the Clinton campaign and their supporters in the financial sector. "We can dream of an America where young college graduates prefer teaching or health care to easy money in finance." In the last 50 years, the financial sector as a percentage of GDP is up almost four-fold. The Big Short provides the narrative for how Wall Street keeps that growth going with little increase in real value but lots of high salaries and high living that all count towards GDP. As the film concludes, we have done nothing much to change the rules and whether the next financial bubble is housing or some other leveraged derivative the result is likely to be the same. Once Bernanke and Treasury let Bear Stearns and Lehman and a few mortgage brokers fail, they bailed out the rest and the high living self-interest has returned. Are establishment Democrats so enamored with free markets and addicted to the political contributions from financial high rollers that the party establishment has rushed to embrace Clinton with no real demands for change? As we learned eight years ago, the words uttered during a primary campaign bear little resemblance to presidential policies. And even Clinton campaign policy is more of the same, rather than a real challenge to financialization and its demands for finance capital to trump citizen rights on issues ranging from global trade to regulation. The Big Short encourages the audience to demand real change. Viewers identify with the working-class family that loses their home even though they were paying the rent each month while the owners fell behind when their adjustable rate mortgage shot up and foreclosure followed. We even identify with those who bet against the investment banks and sold their leveraged mortgage debt short, even though those investors profited hugely from the misery of the people and acknowledged it. But the answer is not a repeat and a new crop of short-sellers who profit once again. The answer is the political revolution as Bernie calls it, not just for a political democracy with voting rights in and money out, but for financial revolution that breaks up the banks, separates commercial, consumer and investment banking, prevents regulators or White House officials from circulating between fat jobs on Wall Street and political service that rewards their previous and next employers. "The answer is not a repeat and a new crop of short-sellers who profit once again. The answer is the political revolution as Bernie calls it..." "Enough is Enough," as Bernie says. As Fannie Lou Hammer said 50 years ago as she fought for voting rights in Mississippi, "I am sick and tired of being sick and tired." We can still dream of an America where making things and providing real services is at the heart of what we do. We can dream of an America where young college graduates prefer teaching or health care to easy money in finance.

To start off, I’m not going to beat around the bush. The 55” Sony XBR55X900E is, quite simply, the best TV I’ve ever had. All I can say is, read on………. UNBOXING: There’s really not much to say here. The packaging by Sony typical for large flat-screen (and even Samsung’s curved-screen) TVs. Open the top of box to access the “quick set-up & install guide”, then remove the 4 plastic clips along the bottom of the box (there’s 2 on each side), and finally slide the upper box piece off of the lower piece. SETUP: Setup is almost as simple as unboxing. Start by putting the 3-piece stand together using the 4 small screws (it’s so simple, you shouldn’t even need to look at the directions), and flip the stand to its upright position. Next, slide the TV down onto the stand, and secure the TV to the stand using the 4 large screws. Once the TV is in position (TV stand, wall-mounted, etc), plug in the power cord, & connect the HDMI cables (like most people, if you’re using a home theater receiver for switching, you’ll only be using one HDMI cable between the receiver & TV). While you can connect the TV to the internet via your choice of either Ethernet cable or Wi-Fi, I always recommend a physical (ie. Ethernet cable) connection, for more reliability AND security. Besides, connecting the TV to the internet is required for all “smart” functionality, as well as for the TV’s firmware updates, and updates/installation of Smart apps. OVERALL IMPRESSIONS: The initial image quality was quite good. To put it another way, where color, contrast, & brightness are concerned, it was somewhat close to that of my (professionally calibrated) 55” Samsung UN55H8000 (2014 model). Even so, I decided to adjust the settings to improve the image even further. This was both a great idea…and an idiotic one. While I was quite familiar with the settings menu of the Samsung (which, if I’m correct, runs a version of Samsung’s own Tizen OS), the Sony, which runs Android, has a menu (and, by “menu”, I’m only referring to the picture adjustment menu, as the rest of the menu is even more extensive) that could be considered requiring someone with a science degree. To put it another way, the settings are extremely extensive (for color, alone, there are over 30 settings). The “bad” of this is that the settings menu could lead someone to the ‘nut house’…but the “good” is that it allows extremely fine control over image quality, and, to me, that’s more important. For the following testing/comparing, no professional analyzing equipment was used…everything is based on my non-professional eye. Once I had everything dialed in (or, should I say, as dialed in as I’m going to get without professional calibration), I finally got to comparing the Sony against my 4-year old Samsung. Before I continue, I’ll mention the other equipment being used for testing/comparing: Sony STR-DN1080 Home Theater Receiver, and Sony UBP-X800 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Player. To compare “new” against “old”, I played several scenes from various Blu-ray movies (The Fifth Element, Life of Pi, Deadpool, & The Revenant, all of which (see below) I also have the 4K UHD versions). I ran these first tests/comparisons simultaneously through both TVs, by connecting the receiver’s HDMI output to a 2-way HDMI splitter. The results were virtually equal, with the exception that the blacks truly looked black. Colors, contrast, and brightness on the Sony were all quite good (again, the Sony is new & uncalibrated, and the Samsung is professionally calibrated), essentially equal to the Samsung. Next, I disconnected the TVs from the splitter, connected the Sony directly to the receiver’s HDMI output, enabled the 4K UHD player’s 4K “upscaling”, and repeated the same scenes. While contrast & brightness appeared identical, color was slightly lessened (possibly due to the “up-conversion” process)…but image quality appeared to have slightly improved. Again, these were all viewed using the Blu-ray…not 4K UHD Blu-ray…so I didn’t expect image quality to equal that of an actual 4K UHD disc. After viewing my selected scenes using Blu-ray discs, it was time using the 4K UHD discs…and talk about the “WOW” factor. “The Fifth Element”, being the oldest of the four movies, had the least improvement, as film grain (remember, it was shot using 35mm film) was more noticeable. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing…having been shot on film, I considered the additional grain a good thing. With HDR, the colors were vibrant, and “popped” off the screen. With “Life of Pi” had similar. The early India-based scenes were better, but it was the water-based scenes that the movie is known for that really stood out. They just didn’t just “pop” off the screen…they were the most vibrant, most incredible, images I’ve ever seen on a TV. Next up was “Deadpool”. While the Blu-ray already presented mostly accurate colors, brightness, contrast, and detail, the 4K UHD version presented everything as the director & studio intended. Last came “The Revenant”…and, talk about a surprise. On the Blu-ray, the sky looked mostly ‘washed out’, and the massive number of trees (I can’t recall ever having seen so many trees in a single movie) looked “ok”. However, once I watched the same scenes using the 4K UHD disc for, I finally understood what 4K & HDR was all about. Let’s just say that, when it comes to 4K TVs with HDR, The Revenant showcases what this technology is all about. With that said, I can’t wait for Apocalypse Now (preferably the Redux Edition) to be remastered, and released on 4K UHD (again, preferably with HDR). When that happens, 4K TVs w/ HDR will have a new “showcase” movie. THE GOOD: 4K resolution HDR Great initial color, brightness & contrast settings Android OS Voice-control remote Built-in Google Assistant Extensive number of available apps Access to the Google Play store Very good-sounding built-in speakers Can control other devices, including those from other manufacturers THE BAD: NONE THE UGLY: If I couldn’t come up with any “Bad”, how can there be any “Ugly”??? FINAL VERDICT: From the review’s title, alone, you should have gotten the immediate impression that this is an incredible TV. Heck, you didn’t even need to read the review, as the title said it all. Sure, there are better TV’s…Sony has several above this model, including an OLED model…but they all cost more (considerably more in several cases). Sony places the X900E as a “top-tier mid-range model”, and its price reflects that. but, when one considers the image quality, features, functions, etc, I’d be more likely to consider it a “bottom-tier high-end model”. It’s an incredible TV, and one that Sony, and retailers, could have easily placed a higher price on. On a 1-10 scale, I’d give this TV an 11. Read more

MTV Logo MTV is heading to the hills of West Virginia for Buck Wild, a new docu-series centering on recent high school graduates living in a rural Appalachian town. Buck Wild has received a 12-episode order from the network, based on a presentation reel that was shot earlier this year. "Historically we've had great success at MTV diving into unique and unexplored youth cultures," says MTV programming head David Janollari, pointing to shows like Jersey Shore. "I think this is a new frontier for us." Unlike Jersey Shore, the kids on Buck Wild won't live together and aren't being tasked with some sort of assignment. Janollari says he hopes the show will be a "refreshing look at this modern millennial generation. They live life to the fullest and have pride in their community and their circle of friends." Janollari says there will even be a Jackass element to the show, as these budding adults take part in regional pastimes like mud racing, squirrel hunting and rope swinging. "They are definitely authentic with a capital 'A,'" he says of the show's stars. "These kids have the same kind of issues and goals and desires as we all do. They all want to find true love or have families. They just live in a world that's really different that many of us live in." Summer TV Winner: MTV Buck Wild will include a wide range of kids across the socio-economic strata — from the more well-off kids living "up in the hills" to the working-class kids down "in the holler." MTV could face concerns from some critics or area politicians that Buck Wild might ridicule rural America — a question that past reality shows like UPN's Amish in the City (and CBS' scrapped The Real Beverly Hillbillies) have had to address. But Janollari stresses that the show "is so wholeheartedly not making fun of these kids... they have a great sense of humor, and you're drawn to them and this world." Janollari also notes that Buck Wild executive producers include Parallel Entertainment's J.P. Williams, a West Virginia native who's behind the Blue Collar Comedy tour and the careers of Jeff Foxworthy, Larry the Cable Guy and Bill Engvall. Buck Wild also comes from Zoo Productions (Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?, The Blame Game) and executive producers John Stevens and Barry Poznick. Buck Wild will likely wait to start production until spring, when West Virginia thaws out. That means the show probably won't premiere until late summer or early fall. Subscribe to TV Guide Magazine now!

NRG and Hawaiian Electric Reach New Power Purchase Agreements to Revive Major Solar Projects on Oahu Utility-Scale Solar Farms will Include Largest Solar Project in Hawaii Release Date: 1/31/2017 Download PDF PRINCETON, NJ and HONOLULU – Jan. 31, 2017 – NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NRG) and Hawaiian Electric Company have reached power purchase agreements (PPAs) for Hawaiian Electric to buy electricity generated by two Oahu grid-scale solar facilities. The 14.7 megawatt (MW-AC) Lanikuhana Solar plant will provide electricity at 11.4 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) and the 45.9-MW Waipio Solar plant, which will be the state’s largest, will provide electricity at 10.4 cents per kWh. The prices assume the estimated Hawaii State Tax Credit applicable to the projects. NRG and Hawaiian Electric are also continuing plans for execution of a PPA for the 49-MW Kawailoa Solar facility, also on Oahu. All three projects are targeted to come online in 2019. The three projects were originally proposed by SunEdison and were acquired by NRG at the end of November 2016 during SunEdison’s bankruptcy proceedings. In February 2016, as a result of SunEdison missing contract milestones and SunEdison’s financial condition, Hawaiian Electric terminated the original PPAs for the three projects. The negotiated prices in the new 22-year agreements are lower than the SunEdison agreements, which were both at about 13.5 cents/kWh. Other terms are detailed in the agreements submitted today to the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission for approval. “Working with NRG to get these projects back on is an important step forward in our renewable energy plans for Oahu,” said Alan Oshima, Hawaiian Electric president and CEO. ”Our decision to cancel the SunEdison agreements before bankruptcy has allowed us to bring better value to our customers who will get the benefits of lower prices over the life of these contracts.” Together, the three solar projects will create a combined total of 109.6 MW-AC of solar generation and will contribute 3 percent toward Hawaii meeting its 100 percent renewable portfolio standard. These projects mark NRG’s entry into the Hawaii utility-scale solar market, reflecting the company’s ongoing commitment to diversifying its electric generation and providing customers a range of renewable energy solutions. “We’re thrilled to partner with Hawaiian Electric on these exciting projects which will help Hawaii meet its aggressive 100 percent renewable energy targets and provide decades of clean energy generation in the state,” said Craig Cornelius, president, NRG Renewables. “We’re looking forward to moving construction forward and bringing the projects online as soon as possible.” Hawaii ranks among the top states in installed solar capacity, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, with a blend of residential, commercial and grid-scale projects. NRG’s projects will add significantly to the state’s installed solar capacity. About NRG NRG is the leading integrated power company in the U.S., built on the strength of the nation’s largest and most diverse competitive electric generation portfolio and leading retail electricity platform. A Fortune 200 company, NRG creates value through best in class operations, reliable and efficient electric generation, and a retail platform serving residential and commercial businesses. Working with electricity customers, large and small, we continually innovate, embrace and implement sustainable solutions for producing and managing energy. We aim to be pioneers in developing smarter energy choices and delivering exceptional service as our retail electricity providers serve almost 3 million residential and commercial customers throughout the country. More information is available at www.nrg.com. Connect with NRG Energy on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @nrgenergy. About Hawaiian Electric Since 1891, Hawaiian Electric Company has powered the islands' development from a Hawaiian kingdom to a modern American state. Hawaiian Electric and its subsidiaries, Maui Electric and Hawaii Electric Light, serve the islands of Oahu, Maui, Lanai, Molokai and Hawaii, home to 95 percent of Hawaii’s people. In a changing world, the Hawaiian Electric Companies are leading in adding renewable energy and developing energy solutions for customers to achieve a clean energy future for Hawaii. To commemorate its 125th anniversary, Hawaiian Electric will give back to the community with 125 Acts of Aloha. These charitable donations and service projects will benefit agencies and programs committed to building a more sustainable future for Hawaii. For more information, visit www.hawaiianelectric.com. Contacts: NRG (Media) - Erik Linden 609-524-4519 erik.linden@nrg.com NRG (Investors) – Lindsey Puchyr 609-524-4527 lindsey.puchyr@nrg.com Hawaiian Electric (Media) – Peter Rosegg 808-223-9932 peter.rosegg@hawaiianelectric.com

When the actor and comedian Steve Coogan (pictured) was made a patron of the Index on Censorship earlier this month, the British media's guffawing could be heard round the world. Coogan, you see, is a leading light in Hacked Off, the celeb-packed censorious outfit that has spent the past three years agitating for state-backed regulation of Britain's raucous tabloid press. For a venerable free-speech group like Index on Censorship to make the celebrity censor Coogan a patron is like the British Humanist Association giving a job to the Pope of Rome. So it's understandable that large sections of the British press went into meltdown over Coogan's appointment. A writer for the Daily Mail said Index's embrace of Coogan was a "shabby betrayal of freedom of expression." Index was founded in 1972 to be a "champion of free expression," the Mail reminded us, yet now it cosies up to a man who has been the most visible, vocal advocate of state-legislated regulation of the press during the Murdochite phone-hacking scandal of the past three years. This is a celeb who thinks "freedom of expression does not apply to those writing about his own affairs," said the Mail (Coogan was famously made irate by the muckraking tabloids after they exposed some of the shenanigans of his private life), yet he's now been welcomed with open arms by one of the world's best-known free-speech outfits that once "oppos[ed] tyrants in the Soviet Union and the Third World and passionately defend[ed] the freedom of the press." On another level, though, it is odd that there has been so much shock at the shacking-up between Coogan and Index. Because, believe it or not, there are many incestuous links between those warriors for press censorship at Hacked Off and those one-time battlers for freedom of expression at Index on Censorship. Indeed, the current campaign to enforce tighter state regulation of the press in Britain is being spearheaded by individuals who are intimately associated with, or who previously worked for, free-speech groups such as Index on Censorship, PEN International, and Liberty. This is the terrible, untold irony of the current war of words against press freedom in Britain: It is being waged by those who, just three or four years ago, were key players in the supposedly anti-censorship sections of Britain's liberal establishment. The eye-swivelling speed and ease with which these one-time complainers about censorship became cheerleaders for state-backed regulation of the press needs some explaining. Hacked Off was founded in 2011 by the Media Standards Trust, a group devoted to "cleaning up" (some would say taming) British journalism. It was set up in response to the phone-hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch's Sunday tabloid the News of the World (now deceased), where some journos were using less-than-admirable methods for getting stories about celebs, royals, and ordinary members of the public who found themselves caught up in crimes or scandals. With big-name actors Steve Coogan and Hugh Grant doing much of its bidding, and with effusive support from numerous influential writers, thinkers, and comedians from across the U.K., Hacked Off has been extraordinarily successful. Its demand for firmer state oversight of the naughty press has influenced everyone from Lord Justice Leveson, the judge who oversaw the 2011-2012 Leveson Inquiry into the phone-hacking at the tabloids and into the "culture, practices and ethics of the press," to the various politicians who have spent much of the year-and-a-half since Leveson published his 2,000-page report coming up with new ideas for how the press might be brought to heel. Thanks in large part to Hacked Off, Britain now faces the very real prospect of the state venturing back into the world of the press and doing something it hasn't done for around 350 years: reprimanding press reporting which in its view is "unethical" and officially distinguishing between the good, ethically correct press (the broadsheets, basically) and the bad, unacceptable press (the tabloids). So the gains made by John Milton and other heroic historical figures who fought tooth-and-catapult against the state licensing of the press ("give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties," cried Milton in 1643) could be reversed by tabloid-haters like Coogan, Grant, and too many Members of Parliament to mention. And who staffs a censorious outfit like Hacked Off? Who are its leaders? Incredibly, people from Index on Censorship. It isn't just Coogan. Hacked Off's inaugural executive director and key thinker, the man who wrote its bible, Everybody's Hacked Off, is one Brian Cathcart—a former key writer for Index on Censorship. Prior to becoming the architect of most of the arguments spouted by Coogan and Grant for state regulation of the press, Cathcart was best known as a contributor to and campaigner for Index on Censorship. Indeed, it was in his Index on Censorship blog that he first announced his decision to set up Hacked Off. On 4 July 2011, he told Index readers that he had got funding and support for a campaign to demand an official inquiry into the antics of the redtops, and Index readers didn't seem to think it was at all weird for a writer for a free-speech campaign group to start agitating for a state-led investigation of the culture and ethics of the press. On the contrary, they cheered him on, with one saying, "All the best in this vital campaign." The government quickly heeded this cry for a public inquiry into the press—a cry first made on the website of Index on Censorship, let's remember. Ten days later, on July 14, 2011, Prime Minister David Cameron announced the setting-up of the Leveson Inquiry. Many of the censorious proposals later made by Lord Leveson were effectively cribbed from Cathcart's book, Everybody's Hacked Off. So, get this: Hacked Off was set up by a writer for Index on Censorship; its formation was first announced on the website of Index on Censorship; and the key Leveson arguments for tighter control of the press were first formulated by this former contributor to Index on Censorship. There's more. Another of Hacked Off's most visible spokesmen, the former Member of Parliament Evan Harris, has previously worked with Index on Censorship on its campaigns for reform of the English libel laws. And last year it was revealed that one of the donors to Hacked Off is Simon Singh, the science writer, who has also worked with Index on Censorship on its libel-reform campaign. That so many Hacked Off people come from the Index on Censorship camp is, to say the very least, odd. Other venerable free-speech outfits have likewise provided Hacked Off with people and arguments in its campaign to muzzle the low-rent press. Hacked Off's current executive director, taking over from Cathcart last month, is Joan Smith, a columnist for the Independent. She really hates the tabloids. When she gave evidence at the Leveson Inquiry, she described journalists like herself, who write for proper newspapers, as a "different breed" to tabloid hacks. Prior to taking the lead in the censorious campaign group Hacked Off, Smith was known for a different kind of campaigning: She was chair of the Writers in Prison Committee of PEN International, the anti-censorship campaign founded in 1921 which agitates for the right of writers to express themselves and publish their thoughts. Unless, one presumes, those writers are of a lower "breed" than the likes of Smith, in which case every effort can then be made to silence, punish, and imprison them—in Britain over the past five years of political hysteria about allegedly demonic tabloid behaviour, 104 newspaper staff have been arrested, questioned, often put on elongated bail, and some have been imprisoned. How extraordinary that a woman who once campaigned for the rights of imprisoned writers should now steer a campaign group that cheers the imprisonment of tabloid journalists. And how extraordinary that the first two executive directors of Hacked Off should have come from the ranks of Index on Censorship and PEN International. To see the extent to which Britain's liberal establishment has conspired with the attempted reintroduction of the boot of the state into the world of the press, just look at the list of 200 cultural bigwigs who earlier this year signed Hacked Off's letter demanding that the press sign up to Leveson's proposed state regulation by Royal Charter. Key writers who have for years depicted themselves as devotees of freedom of speech and the right to publish put their names on the dotted line for Hacked Off, including Michael Frayn, A.S. Byatt, Ian McEwan, V.S. Naipul, even Salman Rushdie. Many of these writers, most notably Rushdie, previously stood up for the freedom to speak, to utter, to scribble, to think, and many of them worked with groups like Index or PEN—yet here they now were signing a letter agitating for state policing of the press. But surely Britain's best-known civil-liberties group, Liberty, has taken a stand against the campaign to demonise and muzzle the tabloid press? Well, not quite. In fact Liberty's director, Shami Chakrabarti, was an actual panel member of the Leveson Inquiry, one of the Great and Good who sat in judgement of the sinning tabloids in this modern-day Star Chamber. So get your heads around these facts, if you can: The campaign to restrict the historic rights of the press to rabble-rouse and publish and be damned—rights fought for over centuries by some of Britain's greatest liberals—has been led from the very start by people associated with Index on Censorship, PEN International, and Liberty, and cheered on by the liberal establishment. It wasn't a brutal state or truncheon-wielding coppers who effectively brought to an end 350 years of relative press freedom in Britain—it was liberals; it was progressives; it was the cultural elite; it was people who have made a name for themselves over the past 30 or 40 years as supporters of freedom of speech, though we now know what a colossal con that was. Liberty and Index have since made fairly anaemic statements saying the state shouldn't venture too far into the press—but it's too little, too late. Index and Liberty people were central to creating the climate of hysteria that has allowed the British state to loom large over the press for the first time in nearly four centuries. How can this be? How could yesteryear's agitators for writers' freedom become today's demanders of state regulation of the press? It's because, in truth, such people's commitment to freedom of speech was always pretty partial. It was always fuelled, less by a full-on, balls-out, consistent conviction that everyone, regardless of their "breeding," should have the right to think, say, and write whatever they pleased, than it was by a belief that some writers had very important things to say and that their liberties should be protected. It was a free-speech position always more outraged by the harassment of Nobel Prize-winning authors in places like Eastern Europe than by state intervention into the affairs of the hacks and dimwits here at home. It was driven by a feeling that the purveyors of fine literature and clever ideas deserved freedom of speech, but badly bred, foul-mouthed tabloid hacks? Fuck them. Imprison them. The phone-hacking scandal in Britain killed off the News of the World, a Sunday paper that had been in existence since 1843. It has also killed off something else, though not many people seem to have noticed: It has laid to waste the claims of Britain's liberal, progressive establishment to be committed to freedom of speech. These individuals, and many of the people in groups like Index and PEN that were their intellectual homes, now stand exposed as censors in disguise, pretty happy to see the state pummel those writers and editors whose publications offend the educated liberal sensibility. The era of these middle-aged, bourgeois, partial pontificators about freedom of speech is now surely over; the remnants of their institutions should finally be swept aside, ideally by a new, younger generation of freedom-of-speech campaigners who actually believe in freedom of speech.

Advertisement In the 1980s, a little-known chapter in the space race took place when the Soviet Union attempted to build their own version of Nasa’s Space Shuttle. But despite a successful unmanned orbital test flight the Buran vehicles were soon scrapped amid rising budget cuts and left to rot in hangars. One of the Soviet shuttles was destroyed when its hangar collapsed in 2002, but two other models remain intact and have been pictured in a stunning series of photographs. Photographer Ralph Mirebs visited this abandoned hangar near the Baikonur Cosmodrome to capture views of two prototype shuttles that were left abandoned after the Soviet Buran shuttle programme was scrapped in 1988 The images were taken by photographer Ralph Mirebs in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, last week. They reveal a large hangar - once a hub of activity but now left derelict - located near to the Baikonur Cosmodrome, which is still used to launch Soyuz rockets today. At the base of the hangar are two unused Buran shuttles, named Burya and OK-MT. LIST OF SPACEPLANES Only five spaceplanes have successfully flown to space, re-entered Earth’s atmosphere and safely landed. They are: - North American X-15 (1959 to 1968) - Buran (1988) - The Space Shuttle (1981 to 2011) - SpaceShipOne (2003 to 2004) - X-37 (2010 to present) Their similarity in appearance to Nasa’s Space Shuttles is not accidental - at the time, this was deemed to be the best way to create a vehicle that could travel to and from orbit, although some have also suggested espionage was at play. The Buran shuttle was intended to be launched on the huge Energia booster, similar to the giant booster rockets used by the Space Shuttle orbiters. Like the Space Shuttles, the Buran vehicles had engines located at the back, and two wings for a controlled landing back on Earth. Development of the programme began in 1976, with the reusable spacecraft (although the booster was not) capable of performing operations in orbit before returning to Earth. But after the one unmanned spaceflight in 1988, the programme was scrapped following the dissolution of the USSR in 1993. This was despite several other models and test vehicles being built, some of which reside in museums today. But these two shuttles in particular were simply left in the MKZ building at Baikonur Cosmodrome, with their basic structure still intact. The hangar is located near to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, which is still used to launch Soyuz rockets today The images reveal how the shuttles and the hangar have been left to rot over the years, with dust piling up on the ground and wings The huge hangar was originally used to build the shuttles and roll them out to the launch pad - but only one was ever flown The shuttles are caked in dust and bird poo, with cracked windows also visible. Some other prototype shuttles not seen in this hangar are located in various places around the world Inside the cockpit of these prototypes reveals where the pilots would have sat during space missions The huge hangar had three large beams at the top that were used to lift up equipment and even the shuttles themselves ‘Over the years, the Baikonur Cosmodrome territory has tested many different spacecraft, the apex of which was the system Energia-Buran,’ Mr Mirebs explained on his website (in Russian). ‘But history has chosen its path and the project died in infancy.' This giant hangar was actually an assembly complex and, measuring 433ft (132 metres) long by 203ft (62 metres) in height, it is the largest building at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Huge sliding gates 138 by 118ft (42 by 36 metres) would have allowed the shuttles to have been rolled out to the launchpad nearby. To protect the shuttles from a possible shockwave if a heavy launch vehicle exploded nearby, the structure was made of reinforced steel. The room was also intended to be a ‘clean room’ devoid of dust when working on the orbiters, so the doors leading out of the central area could be sealed. The Buran space shuttle (left) bears some obvious similarities to Nasa's Space Shuttle (right), leading some to suggest that espionage may have been at play in the development of the Buran programme ‘Over the years, the Baikonur Cosmodrome territory has tested many different spacecraft, the apex of which was the system Energia-Buran,’ Mr Mirebs explained Rails on the floor enabled the various platforms and equipment to be moved around the hangar To protect the shuttles from a possible shockwave if a heavy launch vehicle exploded nearby, the structure was made of reinforced steel Inside the cockpit the various controls can be seen. This would likely have been a stripped back version of the cockpit that would actually have been used on a space mission, though The room was also intended to be a ‘clean room’ devoid of dust when working on the orbiters, so the doors leading out of the central area could be sealed Three large transverse beam cranes span the ceiling, each with a lifting capability of 400 tons to move the shuttles or equipment around. A viewing platform afforded Mr Mirebs a magnificent view of the two shuttles, while a variety of passenger gates and ramps are located on the floor to get on board the vehicles. ‘Time and people did not spare the ships and their current state is very pitiable,’ said Mr Mirebs. ‘Part of the thermal protection tiles fell off, cabin windows are broken and there is a generous layer of bird droppings accumulated over more than twenty years.’ Shown is an image of work being done on the Buran space shuttle in 1988 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome The shuttles had a cargo area similar to Nasa's Space Shuttles, where two large doors would have opened to release satellites into space or repair objects in orbit The interiors of the shuttles appear to be full of scrap and rubbish that has been left strewn on the ground 'Yes, most of them did not go beyond the drawings and models, but the ones that leaked through the sieve test and commissions received unlimited support,' said Mr Mirebs Despite being cancelled, the Buran remains one of only five spaceplanes that have ever been successfully flown into space Engines at the front of the shuttle would have been used to help it maneuvre in orbit. Looking inside the shuttles, Mr Mirebs found that the interiors were missing some equipment, but otherwise still have their pilot seats, computer screens and more. The shuttles also have a cargo area similar to Nasa's Space Shuttles, where two large doors would have opened to release satellites into space or repair objects in orbit. However, the shuttles appear to be full of junk and rubbish, while their exteriors do not look much better. Despite the derelict nature of the hangar, though, the photographer says that he thinks that the programme had a ‘beneficial effect on the scientific and technical progress.'

Cardamom! This highly prized ancient spice has an intense, aromatic flavour that brings out the best in both sweet and savoury dishes. In some countries it has a well-celebrated reputation as an aphrodisiac, in other countries, you’ll find people chewing on the seeds to freshen breath and to discourage harmful bacteria in the mouth. In fact, cardamom has numerous, well-documented health benefits, dating back to ancient times (for more info check out my article here: All About Cardamom and Its Health Benefits). Those around me, know that I have a particular passion for cardamom, so I am especially excited to share my recipe for Cardamom & Cashew Shortbread Cookies. These little melt-in-the-mouth beauties are infused with freshly ground cardamom pods, gently sweetened with maple syrup and coconut sugar and filled with a delectable hint of cashew nuts. Gluten-free and totally plant-based as always. You’ve got to massage this pastry with love. We are making a gluten-free biscuit here, so you’ll need to abandon all ideas of how you might have made cookies before with wheat flour. One of the important keys in this recipe is the coconut oil and syrup sweetener. There should be JUST the right amount of moisture to bring everything together to perfection. So massage and squash it all together until it holds together nicely. After that, you’ll shape into cookie shapes. Remember to use your fingers to create those lovely ridges too. If for some reason after mixing and squashing it all together, if yours still doesn’t ‘hold’, then you can always add a little bit more of coconut oil or maple syrup – and that should do the trick. I’ve created a little quick video, to make the process so easy to follow and take you through it all step-by-step. Please do take a couple of minutes to watch it before you begin… Cardamom & Cashew Shortbread Cookies - gluten-free, vegan Yield: 7 cookies Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 20 minutes Total Time: 30 minutes A delicious shortbread cookie for cardamom lovers. Sweetened with maple syrup and coconut sugar, infused with cashews. Gluten-free and vegan. Print Ingredients 4 heaped tablespoons (60g) cashew nuts 10 cardamom pods 100g (3/4 cup) brown rice flour 100g (1 cup) tapioca flour (or tapioca starch) 2 heaped tablespoons ground flaxseeds 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 4 tablespoons maple syrup 4 tablespoons coconut oil (melted) Instructions Crush the cashew nuts with a pestle and mortar (alternatively crush with a rolling pin). Aim for rustic cashew chunks (i.e. partly chunky, partly starting to turn to flour). Take the shells off 10 cardamom pods and crush to a powder with a pestle and mortar (see my video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpTALsGbWdU). Add all ingredients to mixing bowl and mix together thoroughly. Start off with a spoon, before using your hands to press, knead and combine everything together, until you get one compacted shape. Divide into golf ball sizes. Roll into balls and then gently compress downwards between your hands, until you get a cookie shape. Pop in the oven at gas mark 4 (350F/180C) for between 20 - 25 minutes (depending on your oven). They won't really tan that much. Once baked, carefully place on a cooling rack and allow to cool. Cooling will allow them to firm up; nice firm on the outside - softer on inside. They're best served on the day... I mean who can wait! Recommended Products UK: Organic Green Cardamom Pod 25g by Hatton Hill Organic - Certified Organic USA: Cardamom Pods Whole Organic - 2 oz UK: Buy Whole Foods Organic Cashew Nuts, 1 Kg USA: Jiva Organics Raw Organic Cashews (Whole) 2 Pound Bag As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases. Pin for later…

Malaysia's transport minister finally confirmed one of the key details of a bombshell report released last month that revealed the pilot of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 simulated a flight path into the Indian Ocean. The revelation came this week after he and other officials had previously declined to confirm the New York Magazine report, and came with the caveat from Malaysia Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai that the route was only one of "thousands" found on the home simulator. SEE ALSO: Wing part is 'highly likely' from MH370 The comment echoes that of the Joint Agency Coordination Centre, JACC, which said the presence of the simulator data did not prove that pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah had intentionally crashed the plane. RELATED: Explore the mystery of the doomed flight and the search for wreckage 0 PHOTOS NTP: Defining moments in search for MH370 See Gallery NTP: Defining moments in search for MH370 Up Next See Gallery Discover More Like This HIDE CAPTION SHOW CAPTION of SEE ALL BACK TO SLIDE "The MH370 captain's flight simulator showed someone had plotted a course to the southern Indian Ocean," JACC said in late July. "The simulator information shows only the possibility of planning. It does not reveal what happened on the night of the aircraft's disappearance, nor where the aircraft is located," the group said in an earlier statement. The Boeing 777 plane and the 239 people on board disappeared more than two years ago while traveling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. While several pieces of wreckage from the MH370 jet have washed up on beaches in Africa, they have yet to shed any significant light on what brought the plane down.

Ted Cruz -- adamantly, and against all logic -- does not believe in climate change. It's an untenable position to hold in 2015, when the world's scientists are more certain than ever that global warming is happening and that we're causing it; when large portions of the country are already suffering the impacts of a changing climate; and when there's an urgent need for immediate and drastic action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It's also just hard to imagine a scenario in which a candidate who is not a scientist and yet fancies himself a Galileo could actually win the nation's highest office. His rejection of the basic tenets of science alone should, as Gov. Jerry Brown said last weekend, render him "absolutely unfit" for the presidency. But let's picture, just for a moment, a bizarro world in which Ted Cruz is president and, taking a cue from him, we no longer have to consider climate change or, for that matter, any potential downside to fossil fuel development. We can actually get a pretty good idea of what that would look like, thanks to the "American Energy Renaissance Act," an omnibus energy bill Cruz introduced last year, and reintroduced just last week, that lays out his vision for a fossil-fueled, regulation-free oil-palooza. Advertisement: “A Great American Energy Renaissance is at our fingertips,” Cruz said at the Heritage Action for America’s 2014 Conservative Policy Summit. “There is only one thing that will stop us from embracing it to its full potential: the federal government." Looking over his proposals, it requires only a small leap of the imagination to picture the headlines that would emerge from President Ted Cruz's America... President Cruz initiates oil free-for-all: "There's literally nowhere I won't let you drill." About 43 percent of oil and 25 percent of natural gas reserves are located on federal land, and Cruz is furious that not all of it is open for drilling. He wants to give states the power to lease, permit and regulate all energy development on federal lands (and waters) within their borders. The 19 million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would be opened to developers too, as would Native American land -- because, he's explained, "it is only the federal government" that is keeping Native Americans in poverty. President Cruz gets his Keystone revenge by pre-approving every pipeline, ever. The decision on whether or not to approve Keystone XL will be made before President Cruz ever takes office, but getting the pipeline built, he's said, is only the beginning of what he envisions for America. As he told the Conservative Policy Summit, "we...need to think bigger than a single pipeline." Advertisement: "The Keystone saga imposed by the federal government," his bill explains, "demonstrates the need to reform the process of approving oil and natural gas pipelines," removing barriers to the development of all cross-border energy infrastructure. “The Canadians won’t leave the oil sands unmolested," Cruz further explained -- and he'd be loathe to miss out on the action. President Cruz: The fracking industry knows what it's doing and states totally have it handled. Last week, the Obama administration finally introduced some regulations for fracking operations on federal lands -- a small yet significant act, in that it could begin to hold the industry responsible for the environmental and public health impacts of fracking. Unsurprisingly, Ted Cruz doesn't think those are at all necessary. Advertisement: "States have proven they can oversee hydraulic fracturing in a responsible, safe manner," the most recent version of his bill reads, in one of its more drastic departures from reality. Any intervention from the federal government will kill the American Energy Renaissance dead. "I couldn't care less about some 'international climate agreement'": President Cruz strips EPA of its ability to regulate greenhouse gases. Yep, this is an actual thing Cruz would like to see happen: He'd strip the EPA of its mandate, awarded to it by the Supreme Court in 2007, to regulate climate change-causing emissions -- elevated quantities of which, the agency determined two years later, threaten “current and future generations.” He would, predictably enough, undo the efforts the EPA's already undertaken to regulate emissions from coal-fired power plants; in the future, any regulation that could possibly harm jobs would have to go through Congress and be signed into law by the president. Assuming, optimistically, that the world pulls itself together and agrees a climate pact in Paris at the end of this year, this would likely mean going back on whatever commitment the United States ends up making. (This wouldn't be a problem for Cruz, of course, because in his world, the science, evidence and data all say that global warming isn't real anyway.) Advertisement: President Cruz blesses the world with the gift of fossil fuels. Cruz doesn't want America to keep its unfettered fossil fuel production to itself -- he wants to streamline the permitting process for liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, end the ban on crude oil exports and remove "excessive environmental reviews" for coal export terminals. It's an important priority that would allow the entire world to have more of a hand in destroying the climate. Largest-ever campaign donation from Big Oil ensures four more years for President Cruz! Advertisement: Ted Cruz is one of the few politicians to have freely admitted that he opposes putting any cap on campaign contributions. If he succeeded in lifting all limits on direct political contributions, there's no telling how far his biggest supporters -- the gas and oil industry and a Koch-backed advocacy group -- could take him. The America of the future? Fortunately for all of us, Cruz's candidacy is, at best, a long shot. But his politics serve as a useful worst-case scenario for what could happen should we fail to address and instead exacerbate our dependency on fossil fuels: more oil train explosions and pipeline leaks, heightened risks to our coasts from offshore drilling and the near-inevitability of a disaster in the Arctic and poisoned air, soil and water, not least to mention the mega-droughts, monster storms and other extreme weather events that will characterize an America hit increasingly hard by the effects of climate change. An energy policy like Cruz's could, to the incredibly uninitiated, indeed be great for the country -- but knowing what we do of its consequences, we can only call it what it is: a disaster in the making.

The Queen of England decided to wear a solid green outfit for her 90th birthday celebration last Saturday, and Photoshoppers across the Internet all smirked in unison before taking full advantage of this “green screen” opportunity. Not ones to let a good Photoshop battle pass them by, photo and video editors across the Web took popular photos and video of the Queen published online and clothed the 90-year-old monarch in every manner of silly outfit—from a pizza-covered queen, to Sex Pistols fan Queen, to the Queen wearing a music video by the band Queen. Extra points for meta-creativity on that last one. Here are a few of our favorites: A photo posted by Kateřina Kynclová (@katerina_kynclova) on Jun 12, 2016 at 11:29am PDT Queen: "One rather likes the chroma green outfit." Philip: "Seems fine darling, what could possibly go wrong?" pic.twitter.com/kAFbykwIQG — James (@jrawson) June 11, 2016 Nice of the Queen to wear a green screen for her birthday celebration…#Queenat90 pic.twitter.com/ozpWKMHbV9 — Jason R (@teacherace) June 11, 2016 A video posted by ? Australiana-rama ? (@dempseydoodlesdesign) on Jun 12, 2016 at 9:12pm PDT (via PopPhoto)

by Kiilu Nyasha George Lester Jackson, known as Comrade, spent 11 years in California prisons, mostly in solitary confinement. After plea-bargaining a $70 gas station robbery in 1960, he got one to life. “I met Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, Engels and Mao when I entered prison and they redeemed me. For the first four years I studied nothing but economics and military ideas,” he wrote. (All the quotations are from Jackson’s two books, “Soledad Brother: the Prison Letters of George Jackson” and “Blood in My Eye,” published posthumously.) It’s ironic, if not planned, that this 40th anniversary coincides with California prisoners going on hunger strike beginning July 1 and continuing to press time. Comrade had been an effective organizer: In 1962, he organized a strike at Tracy in protest of bad food that united all the prisoners on the tier, regardless of color. The current strike has done the same. The prison population of the nation has skyrocketed to a whopping 2.4 million. California has transferred at least 10,000 prisoners out of state to private prisons – no visits − leaving at least 160,000 prisoners overcrowding this very profitable system. A lucrative product: In 2010, revenues for the top private prison companies – Corrections Corporation of America and GEO Group – exceeded $2.9 billion. California prison guards alone can sock away $300,000 a year with overtime pay according to Forbes 2009 (www.forbes.com) and its chief psychiatrist was paid $838,706 – more than any other state employee in 2010. California’s total budget is now approximately $9.5 billion. “Prisons were not institutionalized on such a massive scale by the people. Most people realize that crime is simply the result of a grossly disproportionate distribution of wealth and privilege, a reflection of the present state of property relations. There are no wealthy men on death row, and so few in the general prison population that we can discount them altogether. “Imprisonment is an aspect of class struggle from the outset. It is the creation of a closed society which attempts to isolate those individuals who disregard the structures of a hypocritical establishment, as well as those who attempt to challenge it on a mass basis.” Comrade must be turning over in his grave at the news that the NAACP has joined with the Tea Party, the California Prison Guards Union and Newt Gingrich in addressing, in the words of NAACP President Ben Jealous, “the urgent need to reform our nation’s criminal justice system.” “That will be your main source of opposition – the Black running dog.” Comrade couldn’t have known how right he was: Add Obama! “The ‘good white people’ who own things will always give them a few inches in their papers or other media. That’s how fascism works, influencing the masses and institutions through elites.” “The U.S. has established itself as the mortal enemy of all people’s government, all scientific-socialist mobilization of consciousness everywhere on the globe, all anti-imperialist activity on earth.” “Despite presence of political parties, there is only one legal politics in the U.S. – the politics of corporativism. The hierarchy commands all state power. There are thousands of ways, however, to attack it and place that power in the hands of the people.” “[T]he old guard must not fail to understand that circumstances change in time and space, that there can be nothing dogmatic about revolutionary theory. It is to be born out of each popular struggle … [that] must be analyzed historically to discover new ideas.” Eavesdropping laws are taking away one of our best defenses against police brutality. A new category of crime: “Felony Terrorist Videotaping of Police Brutality.” At least three states have made it illegal to record any on-duty police officer; conviction can result in 15 years in prison. The wealth gaps between whites and the colored majority have grown to their widest levels in a quarter-century with ratios roughly 20-to-1for Blacks and 18-to-1for Latinos. Asians lost their top ranking to whites in median household wealth, dropping from $168,103 in 2005 to $78,066 in 2009. According to the analysis released in July 2011 by the Pew Research Center, the U.S. poverty rate currently stands at 14.3 percent, with the ranks of the working-age poor at the highest level since the ‘60s, and it will likely climb higher when new figures are released in September. “Freedom means warmth and protection against harsh exposure to the elements. It means food, not garbage. It means truth, harmony, and the social relations that spring from these. It means the best medical attention whenever it’s needed. It means employment that is reasonable, that coincides with the individual necessities and feelings. We will have this freedom even at the cost of total war.” “Reformism is an old story in Amerika. There have been depressions and socio-economic political crises throughout the period that marked the formation of the present upper-class ruling circle and their controlling elites. But the parties of the left were too committed to reformism to exploit their revolutionary potential.” “Fascism has temporarily succeeded under the guise of reform.” On Aug. 21, 1971, after numerous failed attempts on his life, the state finally succeeded in assassinating Comrade, field marshal of the Black Panther Party. Prison officials claimed Jackson smuggled a gun into San Quentin in a wig in an aborted prison escape. That feat was proven impossible and evidence suggested a setup by prison officials to eliminate Jackson once and for all. However, they didn’t count on losing any of their own in the process, namely, three notoriously racist prison guards and two inmate turnkeys. The odds had changed and they went mad. Twenty-six prisoners signed an affidavit written by jailhouse lawyer Ruchell Cinque Magee, detailing the egregious tortures they suffered at the hands of the racist goons. Subsequently, six prisoners were singled out for what became the longest trial in California history. Wearing 30 pounds of chains in Marin Courthouse, facing charges of murder and assault, Fleeta Drumgo, David Johnson, Hugo “Yogi Bear” Pinell, Luis Talamantez, Johnny Spain and Willie Sundiata Tate were tried. Only one, Spain, was convicted of murder. The others were either acquitted or convicted of assault. Hugo Pinell, the only one of the six remaining in prison, has suffered prolonged isolation in lockups since 1969 − the last 20 years in Pelican Bay’s SHU, a torture chamber if ever there was one. A true warrior, like Comrade, Yogi would put his life on the line to defend his fellow captives against sadistic guard attacks. He has just come off the hunger strike initiated in Pelican Bay. As Mumia Abu-Jamal stated, “Their sacrifice, their despair, their determination and their blood has painted the month Black for all time.” This Black August, let us honor our martyred freedom fighter, Comrade George, as well as those who recently joined the ancestors: Donald Cox, Michael Cetawayo Tabor and geronimo ji Jaga. And let us not forget all those who remain captive after many decades: Mumia Abu-Jamal, Sundiata Acoli, Herman Bell, Romaine “Chip” Fitzgerald, Ruchell Cinque Magee − sole survivor of the Marin Courthouse Rebellion of Aug. 7, 1970 − Jalil Muntaqim, Albert Woodfox, Herman Wallace, Leonard Peltier, Oscar Lopez-Rivera and exiled freedom fighter Assata Shakur, to name just a few. “Settle your quarrels, come together, understand the reality of our situation, understand that fascism is already here, that people are dying who could be saved, that generations more will live poor butchered half-lives if you fail to act. Do what must be done; discover your humanity and your love in revolution.” Kiilu Nyasha, Black Panther veteran, revolutionary journalist and Bay View columnist, blogs at The Official Website of Kiilu Nyasha, where episodes of her TV talk show, Freedom Is a Constant Struggle, along with her essays are posted. She can be reached at Kiilu2@sbcglobal.net.

doi: 10.2136/sssaj2016.02.0036n Abstract In the northern Great Plains (NGP) of North America, surface sampling depths of 0 to 15 or 0 to 20 cm are suggested for testing soil characteristics such as pH. However, acidification is often most pronounced near the soil surface. Thus, sampling deeper can potentially dilute (increase) pH measurements and therefore change management recommendations. Here, we show evidence from two long-term (16–19 yr) dryland cropping experiments that soil acidification at 0 to 7.6 cm was notably diluted at both 0 to 15.2 and 0 to 30.5 cm. There were significant differences among depths for both final pH and pH change over time, with final pH being progressively higher and pH change smaller at deeper depths. Even in the relatively young, highly buffered NGP soils, acidification can occur, and sampling depth for testing pH could be an important confounding factor. We suggest sampling soils at depths <8 cm for testing pH in the NGP. Please view the pdf by using the Full Text (PDF) link under 'View' to the left. Copyright © 2016. . Copyright © by the Soil Science Society of America, Inc.

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonSanders: 'I fully expect' fair treatment by DNC in 2020 after 'not quite even handed' 2016 primary Sanders: 'Damn right' I'll make the large corporations pay 'fair share of taxes' Former Sanders campaign spokesman: Clinton staff are 'biggest a--holes in American politics' MORE’s presidential campaign brought in $68.5 million in June, the campaign announced Friday. The campaign's total haul is about $288 million, and it has $44 million in cash on hand, Clinton's team said in a statement. ADVERTISEMENT “Our first month of general election fundraising proved to be the best of the campaign,” campaign manager Robby Mook said. “Thanks to the continued support of nearly 1.6 million people, we have been able to help Democrats build out an organizing infrastructure across the country that will help mobilize millions of voters and help elected progressive candidates up and down the ballot.” Clinton’s campaign said more than $40.5 million of that total goes directly toward its operations. The remaining cash, about $28 million, will benefit the Democratic National Committee (DNC). The DNC and state Democratic parties have now received about $90 million in joint fundraising from Clinton, her campaign said, through a joint-fundraising agreement called the Hillary Victory Fund. It funds and staffs organizing programs in states nationwide aimed at registering voters, recruiting volunteers and increasing turnout for Democrats. Clinton’s campaign received an average donation of $48 per contributor in June. The June total was an increase for the campaign, after it brought in about $28 million in May. Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE has not yet released his campaign’s June fundraising totals. Trump said last week his team was seeking at least $10 million in total fundraising before June’s end.

Target to shut Geelong headquarters, up to 180 jobs axed Updated Target will move its Geelong headquarters, the retail giant has confirmed, with between 130 to 180 jobs to be cut and hundreds more expected to be moved from the Victorian city. The operations centre in Geelong employs 900 people. Many of the remaining jobs will be moved to the new headquarters, most likely in Melbourne's west. Others may be offered positions in other Wesfarmers businesses in Geelong, like Kmart, with each case to be assessed individually. A redundancy program will begin in the next three weeks. The CEO of Wesfarmer's department stores division, Guy Russo, said the move was necessary. "To ensure Target is profitable and sustainable, some hard decisions have had to be made," Mr Russo said in a statement. "The Geelong site for the national office is no longer a viable option if we're to remain competitive and build a profitable business for shareholders, customers and the entire 20,000 team members across our store network." Mr Russo said the move would be "more appropriate" for staff and stakeholders, including suppliers and business partners. "We will continue to stay connected and play an important role in the Geelong community for many years to come," he said. In 2013, the company cut 260 jobs at Geelong following a restructure. It is yet another blow to the region following the recent closure of Alcoa and Ford ceasing its manufacturing there. Target 'part of the fabric of Geelong' The Australian Services Union said it was a devastating announcement and has demanded a meeting with management. "There have been some rumours over the past few months but I don't think that people were really expecting that they would close the whole Geelong site," union branch secretary Ingrid Stitt said. "It's obviously a devastating blow to all of the workforce but also to the broader Geelong community." While the unemployment rate in Geelong is similar to the national average of about 6 per cent, it is closer to 20 per cent in the nearby suburbs of Corio and Norlane. Geelong mayor Darryn Lyons said he was "deeply disappointed and disheartened" by the news. "Target has been part of the fabric and tradition of Geelong since 1925, when founder George Lindsay opened his first store here," he said in a statement. "I understand this is a business decision, but that does not make it any easier for our region." Topics: unemployment, company-news, retail, states-and-territories, geelong-3220, vic First posted

A MYSTERY woman has been spotted taking a leek around Sydney in public — not in an illegal sense but a literal one. The brunette has attached a red leach around the root vegetable and has taken it for a stroll around the city. She’s been spotted at Sydney University and at Broadway today. media_camera The leek on a leash. media_camera The woman spotted taking a leek around Sydney in public Some people are dubbing the act as an “artistic statement” others have said it’s just plain bizarre. “I think it was an artistic statement,” a woman wrote on Facebook “Actually quite interesting, spotted her at University of Sydney and had a good laugh.” Other Facebook users are keen to follow the trend: “That’s it! I’m taking my veggie patch to work with me today.” Whoever you are — we like it.

The Onion, a satirical news website whose headlines alone garner thousands of shares on social media, was purchased by Univision Communications last month, who is a top donor to Hillary Clinton’s campaign. The move made many fans wary, carefully watching to see if anything would be slipped in that seemed too good to be satire and, to the dismay of many, a pro-Hillary, not-very-satirical article did pop up. The title of the article read, “Female Presidential Candidate Who Was United States Senator, Secretary Of State Told To Be More Inspiring.” Instead of the typical Onion jabs at the presidential candidate, the article is mostly about outlining Clinton’s basic track record in the U.S. government. According to the article, Jim Margolis, Clinton’s media advisor, tells “the woman — who overcame entrenched societal biases to build a successful legal career, became the first female senator elected in the state of New York, oversaw the Department of State during a period of widespread international tumult, and, if elected, would be the first female president in American history — to be more uplifting to voters.” Many have already called out the news outlet for posting the propaganda because it was bought by such a huge donor for Hillary. Univision co-owner Haim Saban and his wife Cheryl have given Clinton’s campaign over $2 million, and another $10 million to The Clinton Foundation. Saban has been quoted as saying what his “three ways to be influential in American politics” are; the first is through political donations, the second is by establishing think tanks, and the third is by controlling media outlets. It’s no wonder then that he has, through Univision, also purchased The Root and attempted to purchase the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times. If he had succeeded, the reach of his pro-Hillary (and pro-Israel) influence without proper context and unbiased reporting would be immeasurable. Satire has an important place in American politics, in a country where free speech is exercised by taking light, hilarious jabs at candidates, Congress, and the White House. The problem with this newly purchased satirical news outlet is that it takes away the hilarity of political articles and turns it into a place where skeletal versions of corporate candidate’s past employment are made to look like huge achievements with no real jokes at all. This article has no substantial backing or a true history of Clinton’s ethical accountability or the big money she allows to fund her campaign. Instead of turning readers into pro-Hillary voters, this new move in ownership and content has shown even more why it’s so important not to follow major news outlets who have already been bought out and controlled and instead follow alternative media to form your own opinions. This article (Hillary’s Top Donor Just Bought The Onion And Immediately Started Posting Propaganda) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and TrueActivist.com.

by The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) of 30 large stocks has long been arguably the most watched index for those following the stock market. As I write this IBM a long-time index component reported a major miss in its quarterly earnings. The stock was down some 7% for the day and due to this decline the DJIA was been down most of the day. The index finished up some 19 points but without the drag of IBM the index would have been up around 100 points according to a commentator on CNBC. This begs the question is the Dow Jones Industrial Average still a relevant stock market index? It’s just 30 stocks The DJIA is a weighted average (the actual weighting formula is very complex) of the price of the 30 stocks that comprise the index. Originally the index was supposed to represent the stocks of large industrial companies. Over the years the composition of the index has changed to reflect the changing nature of American business. Here are the 30 companies that comprise the index: Company 3M Co American Express Co AT&T Inc Boeing Co Caterpillar Inc Chevron Corp Cisco Systems Inc E I du Pont de Nemours and Co Exxon Mobil Corp General Electric Co Goldman Sachs Group Inc Home Depot Inc Intel Corp International Business Machines Johnson & Johnson JPMorgan Chase and Co McDonald’s Corp Merck & Co Inc Microsoft Corp Nike Inc Pfizer Inc Procter & Gamble Co The Coca-Cola Co Travelers Companies Inc United Technologies Corp UnitedHealth Group Inc Verizon Communications Inc Visa Inc Wal-Mart Stores Inc Walt Disney Co Certainly a nice mix of manufacturers, retail, financial services, and technology related companies. Three major names absent from the index include Google, Facebook, and Apple. While these are large and influential companies they do not represent the total focus of the investment universe. Chuck Jaffe wrote this excellent piece on the topic of the Dow It’s time to ditch the Dow Jones Industrial Average over at the Market Watch site. Investing options are varied and global Of the major market benchmarks the broader S&P 500 seems to hold a lot more sway with many money managers and others in the finance and investing world. I know that personally I am a lot more concerned with this index as a benchmark for large cap mutual funds and ETFs than the Dow. The NASDAQ is also widely watched due to its heavy tech influence. I think the bursting of the Dot Com bubble put this index on the radar to stay back in early 2000. Other key benchmarks include the Russell 2000 for small cap stocks, the Russell Mid Cap, the EAFE for large cap foreign stocks and many others for various market niches. Additionally there are any number of index mutual funds and ETFs that follow these and other key benchmarks for those who want to invest in these segments of the stock market. While I’m guessing the Dow will remain a widely watched and quoted stock market indicator I and many others find it increasingly irrelevant. It is always a good idea to benchmark your investments against the appropriate index for a single holding or a blended, weighted benchmark to gauge your overall portfolio’s performance.

FILE - In this Sept. 30, 2016 file photo, Joao Doria, mayoral candidate with the Brazilian Social Democracy Party, greets supporters during a campaign rally in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Mayor Doria said on Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2017, that the city will feed school kids with pellets made of a mix of unwanted and nearly expired items. (AP Photo/Andre Penner) SAO PAULO (AP) — Some public schools in Brazil’s biggest city will begin augmenting meals for children with pellets made of reprocessed food items that were close to expiration. Sao Paulo Mayor Joao Doria said Wednesday he expects several schools to begin using so called “solidary food” pellets by the end of the month. Human rights groups have criticized the pellets, saying they are degrading. Sao Paulo’s nutrition council also criticized the move. Earlier this month, Doria announced an agreement with a processing company as part of a hunger-fighting initiative. The pellets, which resemble large popcorn, are made of dehydrated leftovers. Some are mixed into other foods, like cakes, while others can be eaten directly. Doria did not specify which type would be given to schools. “There is an authorization to use solidary food in school,” Doria said while accompanied by Roman Catholic Archbishop Odilo Scherer. “It has many proteins, vitamins, minerals as complement to school meals.” Brazil made great strides at reducing extreme poverty this century. However, the current economic crisis is affecting millions of families. Sao Paulo officials did not have data on people living in extreme poverty, so it’s unclear how many children Brazil’s richest city expects to benefit from the pellets. Doria’s actions are being followed with great interest by Brazilians due to his hopes of running for president next year after a meteoric rise to mayor of Sao Paulo this year. The archbishop said the pellets should not be politicized or linked exclusively to Doria. “The support of the Catholic Church to this initiative comes from a long time,” Scherer said. “It would be a shame if something that was born to be good is somehow blocked or boycotted because of mistakes or political manipulation.”

Welsh professional snooker player, 3-time world champion (2000, 2003, 2018) Mark James Williams, MBE (born 21 March 1975) is a Welsh professional snooker player who is a three-time World Champion, winning in 2000, 2003, and 2018.[2] As the current World Champion, he is due to defend his title at the 2019 World Snooker Championship in April/May 2019. Aged 43 when he triumphed in May 2018, he became the second oldest winner of the World Championship at the Crucible (Ray Reardon was the oldest winner in 1978, aged 45). Often noted for his single-ball long potting ability, Williams has earned the nickname "The Welsh Potting Machine". Williams has been ranked the world number 1 for a total of three seasons in his career (1999/2000, 2000/2001, and 2002/2003). His most successful season to date was 2002/2003, when he won the acclaimed treble of tournaments (known as the Triple Crown): the UK Championship, the Masters, and the World Championship. In doing so, he became only the third player, after Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry, to win all three Triple Crown events in one season. In addition, he is the first player (and to date, the only player) to win all three versions of the professional World Championship – the World Snooker Championship, the Six-red World Championship and the World Seniors Championship. The first left-handed player to win the World Championship,[2] Williams has won 22 ranking tournaments overall, including two UK Championships (1999 and 2002), making him fifth on the all-time list. He has also won the Masters on two occasions (1998 and 2003). His form began to decline after his second World Championship title in 2003; he then dropped out of the top 16 following the 2007/2008 season, but he regained his place for 2009/2010. Having failed to win a tournament from 2011 until 2017, he proceeded to win three events in 2018, including his third World Championship. Williams has compiled more than 450 century breaks during his career, as well as two maximum breaks in competition. Career [ edit ] Early career [ edit ] Williams was born in Cwm, near Ebbw Vale,[3] in the Welsh county of Blaenau Gwent. He started playing snooker at an early age and won his first junior event when he was eleven years old; it was then that he realised that he wanted to pursue a career as a snooker player.[4] He scored his first century break when he was thirteen, and had achieved his first 147 break by the time he was eighteen.[4] As a schoolboy, he was also a promising amateur boxer,[2] remaining undefeated in twelve fights.[5] He was encouraged to play snooker by his father Dilwyn, who was a coal miner. At the age of fifteen, Mark did a 12-hour shift down the mines.[5] Williams turned professional in 1992 and finished his first season ranked 119th; three years later, he was ranked in the world's top 16 for the 1996/1997 season. His first ranking tournament win came in January 1996, when he won the 1996 Welsh Open title, beating John Parrott 9–3 in the final.[6] After failing to qualify for the 1996 World Championship, he won the first ranking event of the new season in October 1996, the Grand Prix, beating surprise finalist Euan Henderson 9–5.[7] In April 1997, he went on to win the British Open, beating Stephen Hendry 9–2 in the final.[8] He also beat Hendry in a "thrilling" final in February 1998, to take his first Masters title, winning 10–9 in a black-ball finish in the deciding frame, after recovering from 6–9 down.[9] At the 1997 World Championship, he was drawn against his coach Terry Griffiths, who was making his last appearance at the Crucible as a player; Williams eventually beat Griffiths 10–9 on the black, but then lost 8–13 to Hendry in the last 16. He reached the semi-finals of the 1998 World Championship, losing 14–17 to Ken Doherty. The following year, at the 1999 World Championship, he made it through to the final and finished the tournament as runner-up to Hendry. The 1999/2000 season was a very successful one for Williams who won the UK Championship and the World Championship. These results, along with another ranking title and three runner-up positions, allowed him to capture the world number 1 position for the first time. In the World Championship final he came from 7–13 behind his fellow countryman Matthew Stevens to eventually win 18–16. He also produced a notable comeback in his semi-final match against John Higgins, coming from 10–14 down to win 17–15.[10] Williams won only one ranking event in the following season, the Grand Prix, with a 9–5 victory over Ronnie O'Sullivan in the final,[11] but he was a runner-up in two other ranking events, the UK Championship and the China Open. This was enough to retain his number 1 ranking, although his title defence at the World Championship fell in the second round with a 12–13 defeat to Joe Swail. In the 2001/2002 season Williams also only won one ranking tournament, as he struggled to find the form from the previous season, winning the China Open, where he defeated Anthony Hamilton 9–8 from 5–8 down in the final. However, he lost to the same player 9–13 in the second round of the World Championship and the number 1 ranking to Ronnie O'Sullivan. Another strong performance came in 2002/2003 season when he won the UK Championship, Masters and World Championship titles.[12] This made him only the fourth player after Hendry, Davis and John Higgins to hold these titles simultaneously, and only the third player after Davis and Hendry to have won them all in one season.[12] These results enabled him to reclaim the number 1 spot at the end of the season. In the UK Championship final he beat Ken Doherty 10–9, and in the Masters he beat Hendry 10–4.[13] Before the 2003 World Championship he had a scare with his cue when it was damaged and badly bent on his flight with Ryanair to play in the Irish Masters, but he had it repaired before the tournament.[14] On his way to winning the 2003 World title, he had a relatively untroubled route to the final with wins over Stuart Pettman 10–2, Quinten Hann 13–2, Hendry 13–7 and Stephen Lee 17–8 before facing Doherty in the final. He led 10–2, and looked to be heading for an easy victory, before Doherty fought back to 16–16. Williams regained his composure under intense pressure to win the last two frames and lift the trophy for the second time.[15][16] The following season, he lost in the first round of the UK Championship to Fergal O'Brien,[17] a match which ended his record run of 48 tournaments in which he had won his first match.[18] His defence at the 2004 World Championship started with a 10–7 win over Dominic Dale, but he lost 11–13 in the second round to Joe Perry, and he endured a run of poor form over the 2004/2005 season, dropping to 9th in the world rankings for 2005/2006. On 20 April, in 2005 he became the first Welshman, and the fifth player in history, to score a maximum break at the Crucible Theatre in the World Championship. This came in the final frame of a 10–1 first round victory over Robert Milkins,[19][20] but he lost in the second round to Ian McCulloch 12–13, in a high-quality match. On 26 March 2006, Williams won his 16th ranking event (and his first in two and a half years), the China Open in Beijing, beating Higgins 9–8 in the final.[21] This helped him return to the top 8 in the world rankings, after a dramatic fall in the provisional rankings which saw him facing a possible drop out of the top 16. He also showed good form in the 2006 World Championship, beating Anthony Hamilton 10–1 and Mark Selby 13–8 to set up a quarter-final clash with Ronnie O'Sullivan, the first time the two had met at the Crucible. The match was given extra tension considering they had been rivals (although O'Sullivan has since said that the former feud has been replaced by friendship and respect).[22][23] In a close-fought match, O'Sullivan eventually won 13–11. It was revealed during that tournament that Williams had split with coach Terry Griffiths. The two remained very close friends, but Griffiths would no longer be coaching him. In late 2007, Williams returned to having Griffiths as his coach.[24] On 2 September 2006, Williams won the Pot Black trophy, after compiling a century break (119) in the final against John Higgins.[25] However, Williams had perhaps the worst season of his career in 2006/2007, losing his first match in a string of tournaments (including the World Championship, for the first time ever), but he retained his top 16 place, mainly through the ranking points he had earned the previous season. His first win of the 2007/2008 season came in the Grand Prix with a 4–3 win over Ian McCulloch, but he still failed to qualify for the last 16 of the event and was outside the top 32 on the provisional ranking list. In the UK Championship, he showed a return to some form. He beat Ricky Walden comfortably 9–3 in the last 32, and in the last 16 he faced Mark Allen who led 4–0 and 5–1. However, a cool comeback saw him win the remaining 8 frames to win 9–5. In the quarter-finals, Stephen Maguire was too strong and beat him 9–5. However, reaching the quarter-finals was a sign that Williams may have been returning to form, boosted by the news that Terry Griffiths was coaching him again. However, after a 2–6 first round loss to Ken Doherty in the Masters, Williams revealed he was considering retirement from the game, although only 32 years old, if he dropped out of the top 32 and was forced to play in all the qualifying competitions.[26] But he also claimed at the Welsh Open at Newport that this statement had been blown out of proportion, and that he would remain a professional. He began to show more consistency for the remainder of the season, reaching the last 16 of three ranking events and a run to the quarter-finals of the China Open, but he could not reach his first semi-final for two years, losing 3–5 to Ryan Day. At the World Championship he defeated Mark Davis; however, a 7–13 defeat to Ronnie O'Sullivan in the second round forced him out of the top 16, pushing him into the qualifiers for 2008/2009. In that match he was on the receiving end of a 147 break from O'Sullivan.[27] On 8 July 2008 it was announced that Williams had split from his management company 110 Sport, following O'Sullivan and Stephen Maguire.[28] In 2008/2009 he reached the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters and UK Championship, but also suffered three qualifying defeats. The UK Championship particularly saw some return to form as he beat Mark Selby[29] and Graeme Dott 9–7, before losing narrowly 8–9 to Ali Carter.[30] He also qualified for the World Championship but lost 7–10 to Stephen Hendry after leading 7–5. During the end of the match he suffered some trouble with his tip.[31] However, he had done enough to return to the top 16 at the end of the season. The 2009/2010 season started badly when Williams broke his wrist in a fall at home, less than a month before the first ranking event of the season, the Shanghai Masters.[32] Despite this injury he played in Shanghai, wearing a cast on his wrist because its removal could have caused long-term damage.[33] There he won his first round match against Joe Swail 5–3, but lost in the next round against John Higgins 1–5. In the Grand Prix he secured wins over Stuart Bingham, Stephen Hendry and Robert Milkins on his way to the semi-finals but despite racking up a 142 (the highest break of the tournament) in the first frame against Ding Junhui he lost 1–6.[34] In the UK Championship he led Graeme Dott 6–2, before Dott retired due to illness and Williams thus won the match 9–2. After this he lost his next match against Peter Lines 8–9. At the Masters he won his wild card round match, beating Rory McLeod 6–2. Then he won his first round match against Ali Carter 6–3 to progress to the quarter-finals of the event, despite being involved in a traffic accident the day before his match against Carter. It was reported that a car drove into the back of the 4×4 that his sponsors had lent him,[35] which was carrying Williams and Stephen Hendry to a restaurant.[36] In the quarter-finals he defeated Shaun Murphy 6–4, but eventually lost a high-quality match in the semi-finals 5–6 against Ronnie O'Sullivan.[37] In the Welsh Open, he reached the quarter-finals, beating Fergal O'Brien 5–2 and Andrew Higginson 5–0 before losing against Stephen Maguire 1–5. After these signs of form, in April 2010 he won his first ranking tournament in four years – the China Open.[38] On his way he beat Jamie Cope 5–3, the then reigning world champion John Higgins 5–2, Marco Fu 5–1 and Ali Carter 6–4, setting up a clash with Ding Junhui in the final. Trailing 3–5 at one point, Williams eventually won the match 10–6. This was Williams' 17th ranking event win and his 3rd China Open. After his victory Williams said: "I'm over the moon to win again. It's been a long time coming but I've kept working hard and I felt that in the end the results would come."[39] In the World Snooker Championship Williams defeated Marcus Campbell 10–5 in the first round, but lost his second-round match against Ronnie O'Sullivan 10–13. He finished the season ranked 8th. Williams opened the season by winning the first event of the Players Tour Championship by defeating Stephen Maguire 4–0 in the final, a new addition to the snooker calendar introduced by Barry Hearn, a series of events that Williams has supported.[40][41][42] Williams finished 6th on the Players Tour Championship Order of Merit.[43] In the Shanghai Masters Williams won his first round match against Ricky Walden 5–3, but lost narrowly in the second round against Graeme Dott 4–5.[44] He then reached the semi-finals of the World Open, where he lost 2–3 against eventual winner Neil Robertson.[45] He was selected to compete in the 2010 Premier League, due to his success from the previous season, the first time he has competed in the event for five years,[46] but failed to reach the semi-finals.[47] At the UK Championship he reached the final, his run including a 9–8 victory over Shaun Murphy after trailing 6–8,[48] but lost against John Higgins 9–10 in the final, after leading 7–2, 8–4 and 9–5 at some points of the match, as well as leading the 17th frame by 29 points with only the colours remaining, meaning Higgins needed a snooker to stay in the match.[49] Williams' next tournament was the Masters, where he lost 4–6 in the first round against Ding Junhui.[50] Williams won the first ranking event of 2011, the German Masters, by defeating Mark Selby 9–7 in the final.[51][52] At the China Open Williams lost in the first round 4–5 against Stephen Lee, despite making four centuries.[53] At the 2011 World Snooker Championship, Williams defeated Ryan Day 10–5 in the first round, and Jamie Cope 13–4 in the second round.[54] He then won his quarter-final against Mark Allen by the same scoreline, and in doing so he reached the semi-final stage for the first time since 2003,[55] but lost 14–17 against John Higgins.[54] As a result of Selby's exit from the tournament Williams became the new world number one after the event.[56] At the World Cup Williams was partnered with Matthew Stevens to represent Wales, and they reached the semi-finals, losing 1–4 against China.[57] Williams then reached the final of the Australian Goldfields Open, but lost 8–9 against Stuart Bingham, after leading 8–5 at one point of the match.[58] Williams also lost from a winning position in the final of the next major ranking event, the Shanghai Masters. His run included a 6–5 win over Neil Robertson in the semi-final, and he led Mark Selby 9–7 in the final, but lost the last three frames to lose 9–10. The defeat also meant that Selby took the world number one spot from Williams.[59] He was beaten in the last 16 of the UK Championship by Ricky Walden and reached the quarter-finals in his defence of the German Masters, where he succumbed 3–5 to Stephen Lee.[60] Williams suffered a 1–5 defeat to Mark King in the first round of the World Open and by the same scoreline to Ronnie O'Sullivan in the second round of the China Open.[61] Williams played in 11 of the 12 PTC events throughout the season, but could only reach the last 32 two times, in Event 10 and Event 11. He was ranked 82nd in the PTC Order of Merit, comfortably outside the top 24 who made the Finals.[62] Williams caused a degree of controversy ahead of the World Championship by stating on his Twitter page that he "hates" the tournament's venue, the Crucible Theatre, and hopes it will be played in China soon. He also swore when describing the Grade II listed building. A spokesman from the WPBSA confirmed a statement would be released regarding the matter.[63] Williams was drawn to play Liu Chuang in the first round and won 10–6 to set up a second round clash with O'Sullivan which he lost 6–13. The result meant that Williams has failed to beat O'Sullivan in over 10 years in ranking events.[64] Williams ended the season ranked world number 3.[65] It was revealed by World Snooker that Williams had been fined a total of £4,000 for his comments made before the World Championship.[66] 2013 German Masters Williams first ranking event of the 2012/2013 season was the Wuxi Classic, where he beat Tom Ford and Mark Allen, before losing 3–5 to Marcus Campbell in the quarter-finals.[67] He went one better at the Shanghai Masters by seeing off Mark Davis, Ricky Walden and Joe Perry to face Judd Trump in the semi-finals.[67] Trump was 5–1 up and on a break of 53 for the match, but Williams came back to trail 4–5 before losing the next frame to come up short of completing a comeback.[68] Williams then suffered a huge dip in form as he lost in the first round of six successive ranking events; after his defeat to Mark King in the UK Championship he suggested that he was contemplating retirement.[69] During his string of defeats he did beat Matthew Stevens in the non-ranking Masters from 1–4 down (Stevens also missed a pot for 5–1), but then lost 1–6 to eventual champion Mark Selby.[67] At the China Open in March Williams won his first match in a ranking event since September with a 5–2 victory against Lü Haotian and continued his run by defeating Ali Carter 5–4, before losing 1–5 to Selby in the quarter-finals.[67] At the World Championship he lost 6–10 to debuting compatriot Michael White in the first round and admitted afterwards that the season had been one he would be looking forward to forgetting, but he was committed to playing next year.[70] His poor season saw him drop 12 places in the rankings to world number 15.[71] 2014 German Masters In July 2013 he won the Rotterdam Open, defeating Mark Selby 4–3 in the final.[72] This was Williams' second title in a Players Tour Championship event. However, he had a poor season in the ranking events as he failed to reach a single quarter-final for the first time since the 2006/2007 season.[73] He did earn an encouraging 4–3 win over world number one Neil Robertson at the Welsh Open; Williams said afterwards that he was glad he had ignored his friend Stephen Hendry's advice to retire and believed he still had ranking event titles left in him.[74] He had chances to move 3–0 ahead in the last 16 against Marco Fu, but eventually lost 2–4; afterwards he said that the Williams who won two world titles over 10 years ago was "dead".[75] In the qualifying rounds for the World Championship, Williams lost 8–10 to Alan McManus, meaning he was absent from the tournament for the first time since 1996.[76] Williams finished the campaign as the world number 18, the first time he had ended the season outside of the top 16 in six years.[77] 2015 German Masters Williams lost in the second round of his first two ranking events of the 2014/2015 season.[78] His first quarter-final of the campaign was at the International Championship and he trailed Ronnie O'Sullivan 0–3, before winning five successive frames with a high break of 120. The match went into a deciding frame, which Williams won to beat the five-time world champion for the first time in 12 years.[79] His semi-final match against Mark Allen also went all the way, after Williams had been 4–7 down, and a miss on the final red proved crucial as he was defeated 8–9.[80] He was beaten 2–6 by Stephen Maguire in the third round of the UK Championship.[81] After knocking out Judd Trump 4–1 to reach the quarter-finals of the Welsh Open, Williams said that he no was longer expecting to win tournaments and was more concerned with improving his ranking.[82] He then made two centuries in defeating Marco Fu 5–1 to play in the semi-finals of the event for the first time since 2003.[83] Williams took advantage of Ben Woollaston missing chances to send their match into a deciding frame after he had been 3–5 behind, but lost it to just fall short of reaching the final in his home tournament.[84] Williams won through to the final of the minor-ranking Gdynia Open, but was whitewashed 4–0 by Neil Robertson.[85] Despite only being 39 years old, Williams took part in the World Seniors Championship as he would turn 40 before the end of the season and he won the title by beating Fergal O'Brien 2–1.[86] Another ranking event semi-final followed at the Indian Open, where he lost 2–4 to Michael White.[78] After defeating Thepchaiya Un-Nooh in the first round of the Players Championship Grand Final, Williams produced back-to-back comebacks from 1–3 down to knock out both Mark Selby and Matthew Selt 4–3.[78] He then reached his first major ranking event final in over three years with a 4–2 win over Judd Trump and raced into a 3–0 lead against Joe Perry.[87] However, his highest break in the next four frames was 14 as Perry fought back to triumph 4–3.[88] In a rematch of the 2000 final, Williams played Matthew Stevens in the first round of the World Championship and was thrashed 10–2.[89] Williams lost 1–5 to Judd Trump in the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters.[90] He reached the final of the non-ranking General Cup, where he was defeated 3–7 by Marco Fu.[91] He drew Ronnie O'Sullivan in the first round of the Masters and was 4–2 ahead. However, the match went to a deciding frame in which Williams missed a risky plant and lost 5–6.[92] He lost in the fourth round of the Welsh Open 2–4 to Mark Selby and in the first round of three other ranking events and in qualifying for the China Open.[91] Williams saw off Graeme Dott 10–4 and Michael Holt 13–8 to reach the quarter-finals of the World Championship for the first time in five years.[91] However, he was then thrashed 3–13 by Ding Junhui in the quarter-final, with a session to spare.[93] Williams won a trio of frames to force a decider in the semi-finals of the Riga Masters against Michael Holt, but missed the final brown to be defeated.[94] He reached the quarter-finals of the Northern Ireland Open by beating John Higgins 4–1, then lost 4–5 to Kyren Wilson.[95] He recorded another quarter-final at the UK Championship, but was downed 2–6 by Ronnie O'Sullivan.[96] In the third round of the China Open, Williams came from 1–4 down to eliminate Higgins 5–4 and then thrashed Shaun Murphy 5–1.[97] Another comfortable win followed as he saw off Hossein Vafaei 6–1 to play Mark Selby in the final. Williams needed to win to break back into the top 16 and avoid having to qualify for the World Championship. He was 8–7 up, but lost the last three frames to be beaten 8–10, falling short of winning his first ranking event for six years.[98] He made it through to the final World Championship qualifying round, before Stuart Carrington beat him 10–7.[99] Williams was noticeably absent from the cast of players at the Crucible's 40th anniversary, O'Sullivan suggesting that he was bitter about not qualifying for the championship. Williams won his first ranking title after a six-year drought, the Northern Ireland Open, defeating Chinese rising star Yan Bingtao 9–8 in the final; the victory was emotional for Williams, as he revealed that his wife had been suffering from ill health, and he had considered withdrawing from several tournaments. In the Masters, he faced Mark Selby in the first round, recovering from 3–5 behind to defeat the incumbent World Champion 6–5.[100] He lost 1–6 to Kyren Wilson in the quarter-finals. Having beaten Oliver Lines 5–1 and Matthew Stevens 5–3 to qualify for the 2018 German Masters, Williams lost the first two frames of his first-round match against Fergal O'Brien but went on to beat O'Brien 5–3, later overcoming Matthew Selt 5–2 and Jimmy Robertson 5–3 to reach the semi-finals. There, he recorded breaks of 109, 68 and 51 in defeating Judd Trump 6–1 to reach the final, where he would face Graeme Dott. In the final, Williams was dominant, making six breaks over 50 and one century, a 110 in the eighth frame. Dott won the third frame to trail 1–2, compiling a break of 64 after an earlier 56 by Williams, but did not win another, as Williams ran out a 9–1 victor.[101] Williams advanced to the semi-finals of the World Championship fairly comfortably, and before his match with Barry Hawkins in the semi-final said that he would do his press conference naked as the world champion if he won. Hawkins would prove to be Williams' most difficult opponent of the tournament: Williams levelled the match at 15–15 and secured the lengthy, hard-fought frames needed to win at the eleventh hour. Williams reached his first World Championship final since 2003 facing his fellow 'Class of '92' member, John Higgins. The match was described as one of the best finals in the history of the tournament, Williams winning 18–16 to claim his third World Championship making him aged 43 the oldest winner since Reardon who was 45 in 1978, it also marked 15 years since his last title making it the largest time span between titles. [102] Following victory, Williams thanked his late sponsor Ron Skinner, who had died two months earlier, his wife for convincing him not to retire, and coach Stephen Feeney for turning his game around so dramatically from a year ago. As promised, Williams appeared naked at his later press conference, much to the amusement of some news copywriters,[103] but was instructed to wear a towel.[104] As World Champion, Williams would also win the second event of the season, the 2018 World Open, having come from behind in his quarter final against Jack Lisowski (from 0–3 down to win 5–3),[105] Noppon Saengkham in the semi-final (from 2–5 down to win 6–5),[106] and in the final against Dave Gilbert (from 5–9 down to win 10–9).[107] Playing style [ edit ] Williams is believed by some snooker pundits to be one of the greatest long potters in the game.[108] He has compiled over 450 competitive centuries during his career,[109] and is 10th on the all-time list of century makers; this is despite his tendency to play exhibition shots, or to miss on purpose, when he knows that the frame is won. He is also well known for his ability to win "scrappy" frames, using his tactical play and by picking out "shots to nothing" . An unusual aspect of his playing style is a tendency to position his cue directly underneath his body instead of using the rest, a technique that he often brings into play once a frame is secure. He is partially colour blind and has difficulty distinguishing between the red and brown balls; on one occasion, he potted a brown ball believing it to be red.[110] During the course of his career, Williams has earned the nicknames "Sprog",[111] the "Welsh Potting Machine",[112] and "The Welsh Wonder".[113] Personal life [ edit ] Williams is also a keen poker player.[114] He is proud of his Welsh heritage, and has a tattoo depicting the Welsh Dragon eating the English flag. Williams is a keen Manchester United supporter. Williams and his wife Joanne have three sons: Connor (born April 2004),[2] Kian (born 2007)[115] and Joel (born 2013).[116] Williams is good friends with Matthew Stevens and Stephen Hendry, as well as boxer Joe Calzaghe.[117] Williams was awarded an MBE in June 2004.[118] Performance and rankings timeline [ edit ] Career finals [ edit ] Ranking finals: 34 (22 titles, 12 runners-up) [ edit ] Legend World Championship (3–1) UK Championship (2–2) Other (17–9) Minor-ranking finals: 3 (2 titles, 1 runner-up) [ edit ] Non-ranking finals: 17 (6 titles, 11 runners-up) [ edit ] Legend The Masters (2–1) Premier League (0–3) Other (4–7) Variant finals: 3 (1 titles, 2 runner-up) [ edit ] Pro-am finals: 8 (5 titles, 3 runners-up) [ edit ] Team finals: 4 (2 titles, 2 runner-up) [ edit ]

I probably can't expect much from a person with a username including the words "Pussy" and "Monster" in it, but even so, a message that I got last month from an OKCupid user was worse than the usual fare. Difficulty in forming complete sentences with logical thoughts and proper grammar? Check. Random sex solicitation before telling me anything about yourself? Check. Picture with a fedora? Check. Actually—the person's main profile picture was him standing in a dark room wearing Jedi robes and holding a lightsaber in the dark. Lord. Some indication of past experiences with "bitches," "sluts," and "crazy women" along with the hope that you aren't any of those things? Check. In spite of this, having his profile at some point list that he's a "real gentleman" who knows how to "treat a real lady?" Check. Abrasive message telling me he could probably kick my ass in a game but that he'd take it easy on me because I'm a girl, but, oh! It was so wonderful that you'd finally found me—as in the exotic creature called "gamer girl!" Uh, check. Advertisement Receiving a message like this isn't abnormal for most women on OKCupid, based on my conversations with acquaintances—but typically, it's just a few cringe-worthy things in a single message at worst. This message somehow managed to capture just about every awful possible element of an OKCupid suitor. Here's the thing: a lot of messages that I've personally gotten tend to hit similar notes... when the person is a gamer, who has found me by searching for women who also have video games listed as an interest. I recalled a conversation earlier in the year with a bunch of women games journalists and generally driven gamer women who expressed difficulty in finding someone who (to simplify and generalize) had ambition and chased success while still being a nerd. The elusive key here was to have someone fulfill these characteristics without being wholly defined by their interest in gaming. That was the weird part about it, how common it was to find someone whose devotion to games felt uncomfortable. Begrudgingly you can work with someone who is shy, insecure or any other elements ‘nerds' stereotypically have. But what do you do with someone whose entire identity revolves around a hobby, and why does that seem to happen so much with games in particular? A hobby that, mind, many of my friends are utterly devoted to. But it was almost as if there is an unspoken understanding that there are "right" ways to indulge in an interest. Healthy ways. Obsessing over games to the point of becoming a one-dimensional person wasn't it, and it was common to find people for who that was the case moreso than not. Advertisement And, to be sure, there's at least some degree of hypocrisy involved here. I'm no stranger to that when it comes to dating. Being unable to hold myself to normal human waking hours, for example, means I might find myself cruising OKCupid at 4am. But if you're checking me out at a similar time? Flags raised. What are you doing on OKCupid? Don't you have something better to do? (I don't.) (Single.) That was the weird part about it, how common it was to find someone whose devotion to games felt uncomfortable. It's the same thing when it comes to games. I kind of pause when I see someone is a gamer, even though I'm one. Maybe they're that perennial manchild misogynist gamer—this is more common than I'd like to admit. Maybe it's more innocuous, like having them seriously mention that their favorite game this year is Duke Nukem Forever. That actually happened, and all I could think at the time was "No." As in: "get away from me. Oh my god" type no. When you only have information to go on, detached from a person, it becomes easier to sort and discard profiles as if trying to find the most effective gear to equip in a game, regrettably. Advertisement But the big question was, do I want someone who likes games, too? Likes games as much as I do—because who else would understand late night review crunches, for example? Plus, why go out with someone that might as well be me? Can I approximate balance in a relationship when my worktime, playtime and private life all revolve around games and people who like them? Whenever this discussion comes up this crisis seems to hang in the air, continually unresolved, and more importantly, continually single. But now, receiving that message from our good sir Pussy Monster, something games journalist Leigh Alexander said to me bubbled to the surface. Maybe I shouldn't list games as an interest at all. "I once had a female friend advise me not to put it on my profile because she thought it'd make people think I was creepy or too nerdy," Leigh explained, "And the weird thing is, based on the attention I've gotten in romantic contexts when it comes to gaming, I kind of get why she thinks that. I've been doing this for a long time, and when I see people who are aggressively all about their gaming hobby, even I take it as kind of a bad sign, like I'm going to be dating some internet comments troll, or RPGsBeBroke. I'm totally aware of the hypocrisy in that, but I can't really help it." Advertisement It almost seems like a brash move, doesn't it? How could I leave out such a crucial part of my day-to-day life? And even after managing to avoid the crazy fanatics and uber-nerds, there's another hesitation in not revealing one of my favorite pastimes: that a similar judgment might be unfairly passed on me. As much as I am aware of the stigma—that is all too often proven true in the depths of OKCupid—I'm afraid that by identifying with that community, I'm invariably identifying with that stigma. Even if I'd say that games are what I ‘do,' but not who I ‘am,' or what ‘consumes' me, eventually I'd have to tell my significant other, right? What was I going to do, sit someone down and like... break it to them? In the same way I might confess to a significant other that I'm afraid I might be pregnant? Like I'm ashamed of it (but maybe I am?), like I might be afraid of what the response would be? Like it's worth hiding? For all that I champion games, man, I don't know. The bad parts of this culture—the parts that try their hardest to keep certain people out, the parts that make "beat up Anita Sarkeesian" games just because she wanted to examine gender in games, the parts that refuse to acknowledge important titles as "games," or the ones that rage against the idea of games being more than mindless entertainment—those parts of the culture are pretty gross to me. Just because I've distanced myself from all of that, curated my way toward worthwhile games and people, found spaces where I'm comfortable and accepted, doesn't mean that other, sometimes uglier parts of the industry don't exist. The negative stigma games have, given this context, isn't wholly unwarranted. Advertisement And when I think about that aspect of the culture, yeah, I kind of am ashamed. I don't want to be linked to that, I don't endorse that. I don't want someone to take a look at something I listed, devoid of context, raise their eyebrows, and suddenly not consider me anymore—because they don't take games seriously, or because they expect I'm a member of the negative part of that community. Or worse! They think I'm an immature person—that's the more classic stigma surrounding people who play games, eh? What was I going to do, sit someone down and like... break it to them? In the same way I might confess to a significant other that I'm afraid I might be pregnant? You'd figure I'd be better off if someone was quick to judge me like that, but it's not like I don't use OKCupid that way myself. I know how it works. Like I said earlier, it's hilariously easy to stop considering someone just because they worded something wrong, because they like something you don't like—any number of completely arbitrary reasons, really. Advertisement While I've not had any luck, at least a couple of my friends have had good experiences on services like OKCupid because they listed games as an interest. Colette Bennett, another games journalist, told me that while she initially kept her interest in games a secret, she still made great friends with online dating profiles. When she went on to be honest in her profiles years later, it resulted in its fair share of lackluster results at first, but then landed her an experience that made it all worth it. Colette got a message from "The coolest gamer I would ever meet online, and later lead me not only to the beginning of my career writing in games, but also to one of the most valuable relationships I ever had. Sure, there's lots to stumble on when it comes to interacting with awkward gamers and figuring out whether calling yourself a 'gamer' on a dating site ends up being a good or a bad thing. If it wasn't for calling myself that, I wouldn't have ever written a word about gaming." I don't discount the possibility that I could have a similarly wonderful experience. So far, no dice (not on OKCupid anyway. Twitter, meanwhile...)—only horrible or uncomfortable messages from men that consider gaming their end all be all and who apparently aren't up-to-date on statistics that reveal that yes, there are in fact women gamers. Lots of them, even. Advertisement For now, an experiment. I've taken off games as an interest in my profile, just to see what happens. So far the frequency of uncomfortable messages from Hardcore Gamer Dudes has dropped... which is not to say the overall quality of messages has increased. I might be getting matches with exactly the sort of person my profile warrants, who knows! But—for a while, at least—I know that whoever I do get isn't likely to adore games to an awkward degree, and isn't likely to fetishize my like of games, either. (Top photo: Shutterstock)

• Italy coach keen to strike deal to take over at Premier League club • Diego Simeone only other manager still in running Chelsea will hold further talks with Antonio Conte’s representatives in England on Thursday as their search for a new manager reaches a key phase. José Mourinho: ‘Starting next season with a new club is the best thing for me’ Read more The Italy coach has emerged as the frontrunner to take over the club in the summer, with Massimiliano Allegri, the Juventus manager, publicly distancing himself from the process and Atlético Madrid’s Diego Simeone unwilling to make a decision about his future at this point of the season. Chelsea have already held preliminary talks with Conte and the 46-year-old, whose contract with Italy runs out after Euro 2016, is keen to take over in the summer. Chelsea are prepared to offer to their next manager a salary of £6.3m a year before tax. The Italian won the Serie A title with Juventus for three consecutive years before taking over the national team and wants a return to club management. Conte, a former Juventus and Italy player, managed Arezzo, Bari, Atalanta and Siena before taking over at the Turin club in 2011. After winning the league in all of his three seasons – but failing to get past the quarter-final stage in the Champions League – he agreed to replace Cesare Prandelli as Italy coach in 2014. Conte’s team qualified for Euro 2016 without losing a game – seven wins and three draws – and are among the favourites to win the tournament. Guus Hiddink, Chelsea’s interim manager, signed a contract until the summer in December and has lost only one of his 13 games, the last-16 Champions League tie against Paris Saint-Germain in France last week. Chelsea are 12th in the league, 14 points behind a Champions League spot and nine above the relegation zone.

Redour Khalil, a Spokesperson for YPG, released a report on the death toll of clashes which recently took place between YPG fighters and IS extremists in Tel Abyad in Syria Nearly 300 so-called Islamic State (IS) terrorists were killed in the clashes between People's Protection Units (YPG) fighters and IS militants in Northern Syrian borders with Turkey, YPG Spokesperson revealed. Redour Khalil, a Spokesperson for YPG, released a report on the death toll of clashes which recently took place between YPG fighters and IS extremists in Tel Abyad in Syria. 291 IS militants were killed in the clashes on February 27 in Tel Abyad and six insurgents were taken captives, the report said. 43 YPG fighters were also killed in those clashes and an official from Tel Abyad security forces was shot by the Turkish police. There are also several Syrian Kurdish fighters reportedly wounded during the conflict. Tel Abyad, located on the border between Syria and Turkey, is considered a strategic town which IS frequently attempts to bring under its control; however, they have, so far, failed to make any gains in the area. /129

- A 13-year-old boy was shot to death Monday evening in the Back of the Yards neighborhood on the South Side. Leonardo Betancourt was in the back seat of a vehicle traveling north in the 4500 block of South Ashland at 6:34 p.m. when the other people in the car heard gunshots and realized the boy had been shot in the back, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. The driver took the teen to a firehouse a block north in the 4400 block of South Ashland, authorities said. Betancourt was then taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:34 p.m., the medical examiner’s office said. He lived in the 4400 block of West Armitage. It was not immediately known if the teen was the intended target, police said.

Kenneth Goldsmith specializes in writing books so long and boring and excruciatingly attentive to minutiae that no one can be expected actually to read them. Consider Day (Figures, 2003), in which Goldsmith transcribes verbatim the contents of an entire single issue of The New York Times, including marginalia, bylines, captions, and even stock prices. This 840-page tome is so mind-numbingly large and mundane that even Goldsmith has purportedly confessed that, at a certain stage, he gave up on hand-keying the text and instead scanned pages and used text-recognition software to import it. That such books have risen beyond mere cult curiosity and become fixtures of the American literary terrain—largely without even getting read—is either a testament to their quality or a telling indication of just where their strengths lie. And let’s be clear: Goldsmith has frequently stated that he actually wants his books to go unread, to be recognized far and wide as supremely unreadable. Such are the stakes of his project. The books of his “American Trilogy” continue such excruciating attentions to language, as it exhaustively describes and thoroughly constructs our ambient environments: The Weather (Make Now, 2005) transcribes a full year of NYC-area televised weather reports; Traffic (Make Now, 2007) transcribes NYC traffic reports; and Sports (SPD, 2008) transcribes the full broadcast of the longest baseball game on record, a five-hour 2006 bout between the Yankees and the Red Sox. Just as, in this trilogy, Goldsmith’s idea of the “American” never strays far beyond Manhattan, so has his idea of poetic invention remained quite confined to the “uncreative” processes of transcription and recording that he considers a radical departure from the implicitly conservative eddies of traditionally expressive writing. If his experiments thus miraculously help us to escape the shackles of crypto-fascist humanisms, we pay our way in boredom—and even, at times, by sacrificing the very act of reading itself. Who wants to write a new poem, a new novel, when the real space for invention lies in regurgitating the language already floating around us? And by the same token, who wants to read such regurgitated language, when we could be watching The Office instead? In the moment after my jaw drops at how clever Goldsmith really is, I find myself fighting the urge to take my ball and go home. As its title suggests, Soliloquy (Granary, 2001) helps me to work through this sense, when considering Goldsmith’s work, that perhaps, as Larkin put it, “books are a load of crap.” Weighing in at 296 pages and 1.4 pounds, this volume provides a transcription of every word uttered by the author during a one-week period. He kept a voice recorder on his person during this time and subsequently transcribed the results. Take one look at the book, and you’ll see that the transcription alone must have been an heroic undertaking—though again, if we wanted a sense of just how hard great writers work, we already had Flaubert and Tolstoy (and Tolstoy’s wife, who lacked the luxury of a QWERTY keyboard when she transcribed hubby’s massive manuscripts, over and over again). These scribblers were kind enough to leave us with texts not only difficult to produce but potentially enjoyable to read. If Flaubert was a bourgeois apologist, then Goldsmith may be an apologist for not reading books at all. Works like Soliloquy overwhelm, but perhaps not intellectually. They overwhelm physically, visually. They force us to ask how we could—who possibly could—have time to read his work. And what can it mean to take a book seriously, if not to read it? Goldsmith tells us that he transcribed the recordings of Soliloquy during eight-hour days as a writing resident at some fancy French retreat. He also tells us that Soliloquy is an “unedited document,” despite his apparently having decided not to transcribe a single word of the many interlocutors with whom he spoke during the recording process—interlocutors whose voices presumably, in some cases at least, also registered on the microphone. Far from getting the intimate sense of language’s daily textures that the project seems to promise, the book instead provides us with an extended experiment in hearing only half of a conversation. It is like that annoying experience of overhearing some stranger on the telephone—say, while you’re in the airport or on a bus. After reading a little of this, I decided to ruin the story for myself by skipping to the end. The very last page of Soliloquy offers a Postscript, a maxim Goldsmith has often repeated elsewhere: “If every word spoken in New York City daily were somehow to materialize as a snowflake, each day there would be a blizzard.” Dear readers, this simply is not the case. There is wide variation among estimates of how many words people speak per day, but 20,000 per day is among the higher figures. Let’s generously assume that New Yorkers speak twice as much as average mortals, so that’s 40,000 words per day. Let’s look only at the island of Manhattan, the city’s most densely populated area. Even more generously, let’s take Manhattan’s daytime population rather than the number of actual residents: that’s 2.87 million people, which we’ll round to 3 million. Multiply 3 million by 40,000 words per day, and you get 120 billion words. That is, by any account, a lot of words. But what if they were snowflakes? The total land area of Manhattan—again, generously, ruling out bodies of water—is 59.5 square kilometers, which we can round to 60 square km, which is equal to 60 million square meters. A little division—120 billion over 60 million—and you get a paltry 2,000 snowflakes per square meter. Now, I can’t find figures on the average number of snowflakes per cubic centimeter—and likely that figure varies wildly—but I can confidently say that 2,000 flakes distributed over a square meter of ground is not a blizzard. That’s not even a healthy dusting. For those following at home, we’re talking about 0.2 snowflakes per square centimeter. The Postscript to Soliloquy, like the book itself and so much of Goldsmith’s other work, ultimately bespeaks a powerful attraction to the idea of great quantity but not to its actuality, for the actualities of scale in our lived worlds do not always align as interestingly with our ideas of scale as one might hope. In other words, the verbal blizzard is like Soliloquy itself: the idea of it is rather lovely. But its virtues may stop there, if we still live in a world where books are for reading—and, one hopes, for enjoying. And where the most troubling kinds of weather lately seem to be those that leave snowflakes a bit too thin on the ground. 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Community Rights Paper #13: Breaking the Planet “And then, we wept.” Such were the words of Professor Terry Hughes, the head of the Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University in Queensland, Australia. Hughes was responding to the Centre’s recent findings that over 90 percent of the Great Barrier Reef is experiencing bleaching, and that northern portions of the reef are now half-dead. The Great Barrier Reef isn’t the first ocean ecosystem to be hit by the effects of global warming, of course – mass coral death around the Pacific island nation of Kiribati was reported earlier in 2016, and new studies confirm that these are part of a massive ocean die-off of coral. Those surprised at the results of these studies – which document the ongoing demise of the planet’s major ecosystems – simply haven’t been paying attention. Even to the most casual of observers, it has become clear that our little blue orb has suffered long and hard from the effects of human occupation. What’s surprising isn’t that we’re now seeing the effects of that occupation, but that the planet has been able to bear it for so long. In the United States alone, 4 billion pounds of toxic chemicals – including 72 million pounds of known carcinogens – are released into the atmosphere each year from 20,000 industrial polluters. Two trillion pounds of livestock waste – laced with antibiotics, hormones, and chemicals – are dumped into waterways and applied to land. Eleven million people now live within one mile of a federal Superfund site. Eighty thousand industrial chemicals are currently in use, with more than 700 of those chemicals now found within every human body. Eighteen hundred new chemicals are introduced annually. If anything could surprise us at this point, perhaps it’s learning that over forty years after the major U.S. environmental laws were passed, the environment is worse than ever. Forty percent of our waterways fail to meet even the most basic standards imposed by federal and state clean water laws, 90 percent of the country’s forests have been logged, and half of all animal species on earth have been driven to extinction. We’ve broken the planet. And there’s far more on the horizon. Today a growing number of climate scientists agree that predictions about the worst effects of global warming now appear to be downright optimistic. The arrogance of the human race – that we can continue to exhaust the planet that gives us life while avoiding any adverse consequences to our own survival – lies at the base of our current tragedy. The belief that endless economic growth is not only possible, but necessary for our daily lives, serves as the underlying platform for the legal and economic systems that are driving the world off the cliff. To be clear, clearcutting, pollution, fracking, and the like aren’t what’s killing the planet. Rather, it’s the manic belief system that we can do those things without repercussion, that somehow the human race has been elevated above the basic laws of nature. It’s delusion of the highest order, and like Icarus melting his wax wings by flying too close to the sun, we too have begun to plummet to the ground. Waiting for Godot We do not have the luxury of waiting for prevailing belief systems to change to finally affect the decision making of those currently in power. Rather, says Mary Geddry, “We must revoke our consent to be governed.” Geddry, a community leader in Coos Bay, Oregon, is working to stop a proposed new gas pipeline from coming into her community. She explains that to effect real change, we must replace our permission for others to govern us by assuming the mantle of governing ourselves. People like Geddry are calling for the emergence of a time similar to that when Americans seized control of the colonies from Great Britain; when slaves rose in Haiti; when abolitionists and slaves broke their manacles in Britain and the U.S.; when suffragists forced their way into the ballot box; when farmers joined together in the late 1800s to challenge the banks and the railroad corporations; and when civil rights protesters dared to march. Over the past one hundred years or so, our “consent to be governed” by others has turned us into rubberstamps for an unholy alliance of professionals – lifetime politicians, large corporations, and a small elite of policy-makers who profit from control over politics, the economy, and our system of law. Our “consent” has been turned into such a mockery that we’ve come to believe that we’re incapable of governing ourselves. Indeed, we believe that we would be lost without those professionals managing our complex political, economic, and legal systems. It is that belief in our own dependency which makes us so vulnerable to manipulation. It is that belief which makes it so easy to present us with superficial choices which aren’t really choices at all (the 2016 presidential primaries an excellent case in point). And yet we earnestly believe that we’re deciding for ourselves. It’s as if the choice between paper versus plastic at the grocery store has invaded all facets of our life. Instead of being in charge, we’re increasingly divorced from being able to make real decisions that actually matter to our survival. It is a farce to call any of this democracy. The first step, the hardest one of all to take, is to cleanse our brains of all that we’ve been fed – like mushrooms in the dark that have been fertilized with shit – and understand that not only are we the best qualified to make decisions about the future, but that we’re the only ones who can. In short, we must begin to believe that we’re not only capable of seizing the power to make critical decisions about the future, but that we would make them better than those currently in charge. It is a farce to call any of this democracy. Reversing Course to Save Ourselves Beginning nearly a decade ago, the people of Tamaqua Borough, Pennsylvania, a small enclave of 7,000 people in the rural Schuylkill area part of the state, began to believe. Faced with a state plan to dump PCB-laden river dredge into abandoned deep mines, along with a slew of other projects that over the last century have turned parts of their county into cancer clusters, the people of Tamaqua gave up hope. They gave up hope that state and federal environmental agencies would protect them, or that their state government was working on their behalf. They gave up hope that the unholy alliance of those who governed them actually cared about what happened to the people and natural environment of Tamaqua. The people in Tamaqua then proceeded to do what people and communities have historically done when they’ve come to grips with the failure of their own government to help them – they revoked their consent to be governed and took steps to govern themselves. Their first step was to adopt a law that banned the dumping of PCB dredge. The law contained a local bill of rights, which included a right to clean air and water. Further, it reaffirmed their right to govern themselves as a community, and elevated that right above the rights claimed by waste corporations and the state government to force toxic dredge into their community. Seizing powers that the current system of law denies that they have, the people of Tamaqua understood that if they didn’t exercise those powers, that they were guaranteed to receive the dredge. They further understood that only by driving their own municipality up against both the corporations and the state government – in a giant game of chicken – did they stand any chance of not becoming a dumping ground again. That was lightning in a bottle by itself. But they didn’t stop there. Understanding that protecting the people of Tamaqua required protecting the natural environment upon which the human race depends, they adopted a law that recognized ecosystems within the Borough – groundwater, streams, and rivers specifically – as having legally enforceable, independent rights to be free from toxic dredge. Their law openly and directly refuted one of the most fundamental rules of the system that has brought us to this place – that nature has no rights of its own – such that ecosystems can be used and exploited by whomever owns them, or by whomever holds a permit to pollute them. Several years after Tamaqua adopted its law, the people of Ecuador would arrive at a similar conclusion – voting to adopt a new national constitution that recognized that all ecosystems in Ecuador must be afforded basic rights – the right to exist, flourish, and naturally evolve. The first case to be brought in Ecuador under those constitutional provisions –Vilcabamba River v. the Province of Loja – resulted in a ruling upholding the constitutional rights of the river to flow, against a local government’s dumping of road debris into the river. Since then, the constitutional rights of nature have been invoked in several cases, including by the national government itself in actions aimed at stopping illegal gold mining. The Rights of Nature – Liberation Ecology In the 1950s, a new strain of Catholicism arose against dictatorial governments and severe poverty in Latin America. Called “liberation theology,” priests cast Jesus as a political figure and revolutionary who sought to free the poor from an oppressive governmental elite. Priests decentralized the practice of Christianity, transforming disenfranchised communities from being the object of church teaching to becoming direct interpreters of the Bible and designers of their own worship services. Liberation theology became a threat to the church by critiquing the economic and social structures on which the church structure relied. In response, the Vatican ordered purges of Catholic priests to suppress the doctrine. The community rights movement emerging in the United States has much in common with the major themes of liberation theology, in seeking to decentralize decision making authority to marginalized communities, and positing that the highest role of the law is the protection of human and natural communities, rather than protection of the ruling elite. Its critique is much the same – that an unholy alliance of governmental and corporate elites prey on communities, and people have no choice but to submit to fracking and other corporate projects, thus allowing the elite to expand their power over people and nature. While “liberation ecology” has been used in the past to describe the authority of human communities to serve as good stewards of the planet, it must go further – towards an expansion of community lawmaking which recognizes nature not as property to be well-used and conserved by humans, but as possessing the highest rights protections capable of being afforded by our system of governance. Without a true liberation ecology activism – in which community democratic authority is expanded to enable people to ban that which harms human and natural communities, and to begin to construct a new system which affords those communities the highest protections of the law – dependence on the old order will guarantee the destruction of the planet continues. Ecosystem rights must be enforced against those causing global warming. The Way Forward Whether it’s bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the slow death of Lake Erie and the Chesapeake Bay in the United States, disappearing glaciers around the globe, or an ice-free Himalaya, people that are part of those vanishing ecosystems must act to harness their own governmental power to protect them. People in Toledo and other Ohio municipalities must adopt a Lake Erie Bill of Rights; Australia’s cities, local councils, shires, and district councils must adopt a Great Barrier Reef Bill of Rights; municipalities bordering the Chesapeake Bay must adopt a Chesapeake Bay Bill of Rights; local governments in Nepal must adopt a Himalayan Bill of Rights. As in Ecuador, people in those places – with the help of those with resources who care about the planet – must step into the shoes of those ocean, estuary, bay, mountain, and other ecosystems to use every judicial, legislative, and other institution in existence to stop that which threatens them. Precisely because the health and well-being of those ecosystems are dependent upon a planetary climate which can support them, ecosystem rights must also then be enforced against those actors – both private and governmental – who are violating those rights by causing global warming. That may mean directly challenging international norms – by providing for jurisdiction of those lawsuits in community “climate courts” established for exactly that purpose. In response to fracking, new gas pipelines, and a slew of energy projects, communities across the United States have begun to adopt local laws which recognize a right to, and a right of, the climate to be free from fossil fuel emissions. Those laws must then be used to drive lawsuits and new laws that begin to reverse climate change. To do anything else means relying on those who are destroying the planet to voluntarily restrain themselves from doing so. That’s akin to hoping that the slave owners of the 1840s would abolish slavery on their own, or that Woolworths would voluntarily desegregate its lunch counters. As Kiribati and other small island nations sink into the sea, as the die-off of land and ocean species accelerates, we must ask what actions should be deemed too radical to remedy the radical damage that is being done to the planet and ourselves. Past people’s movements were forced to ask similar questions, and similarly, were forced to admit that the institutions which created and depended on the existing system were incapable and uninterested in extracting them from it. They built mass movements to change the existing order. It’s time we do the same. Please make a donation. Your support makes our work with communities to build the Community Rights Movement possible. DONATE Community Rights Paper #13: Breaking the Planet Featured image: Dry Riverbed by Shever – Reprinted from Flickr Creative Commons Donate to CELDF

Levels of radon -- an odorless, radioactive gas considered to be the second-biggest cause of lung cancer in the U.S. -- have been rising in Pennsylvania homes, say researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. That rise, they show in a new study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, began right around 2004 -- which is also when the fracking industry began drilling for natural gas in the state. And what the homes with the highest levels of radon have in common? They're all located in counties with a lot of fracking going on. Advertisement: These are the kind of findings where it's important to emphasize the difference between correlation and causation. The authors looked at 860,000 radon measurements from a Pennsylvania Department of Environment Protection database, but they weren't able to trace the elevated levels directly back to fracking wells. But they do have a theory for what could be happening. Nearly 7,500 fracking wells were drilled in the state between 2005 and 2015, they point out, and the process, which involves injecting a mix of water of and chemicals into the ground to break apart shale rock, can unearth toxic materials that return to the surface along with the leftover fracking fluid. That can include radium and uranium, which decay to form radon. Joan A. Casey, the study's lead author, said in a statement that from there, there are a number of ways the radon could enter homes: it could be contaminating well water; it could be entering the air near gas wells; or it could be contained in the natural gas itself, and introduced through stoves and furnaces. Or, it could turn out to be something else entirely, with no connection to the fracking industry. Again, the authors aren't sure that fracking is responsible for the elevated radon levels. But their findings, they say, "do not provide reassurance" that the industry isn't to blame. Study author Brian S. Schwartz, in a statement, pointed to a number of limitations keeping them from speaking more definitively about the radon's source. A lot of information about the homes studied was unavailable to them, he said, such as "whether natural gas is used for heating and cooking, whether there is any radon remediation in the building and general condition of the building foundation." "But these next studies should be done," he added, "because the number of drilled wells is continuing to increase and the possible problem identified by our study is not going away." In the meantime, people living near Pennsylvania's fracking fields -- and in Ohio, where fracking activity and radon levels are also high -- are advised to have their homes tested: in 42 percent of the readings used in this study, radon levels were above what the U.S. government considers to be safe.

Recently Marellus from Just Four Guys brought this to my attention: Did you see how the womyn tore apart a commenter, by the name of Redlum, on Jezebel ? Just because he said this : Why does feminism have to antagonize and mock men all the time? Men are expected to have no vulnerabilities, this is an oppressive gender role. When men’s vulnerabilities are exposed, such as feeling emasculated or being insecure about women making them “obsolete”, that is a human emotion and gloating over it and mocking it is not only terrible, but also one of the big things giving feminism a bad name. The top reply was this : If being in a relationship with a woman who makes more money than you and/or has a higher position than you makes you feel that you are becoming obsolete, maybe you should be mocked for being silly, immature, and sexist. So now, on top of everything else that women have to deal with, we have to comfort men for freaking out whenever a woman surpasses them at something? I’m sorry – if you are in a group that has been privileged over/oppressive of other groups, you don’t get an apology and a reassuring hug every time we get a millimeter closer to some semblance of fairness and equality. Men need to suck it up and deal with life on more equitable terms like adults, without those who do just that expecting a medal for it. Write a post on what this guy did wrong, if possible. Redlum’s mistake was twofold. His first error was to ever overtly look for sympathy from a woman (women). We already know women lack the capacity for empathizing with the male experience, but sympathy is another side of the equation. One grave error most blue pill plug-ins make in this respect is a presumption that women owe them sympathy or that women are predisposed to sympathizing with them. This is usually due to having been conditioned by the feminine for so long to believe that “Open Communication®”, sharing his feelings and being vulnerable will make him the ideal man. This is an unfortunate outcome of the ‘get in touch with your feminine side’ curse of Jung: in a similar respect to the myth of Relational Equity where a man expects his sacrifices and investment in a relationship will be a buffer against women’s Hypergamy, the expectation is that women will appreciate his openness and vulnerabilities. He believes the feminine identity lie that “vulnerability is strength.” It’s a very seductive fallacy for a dyed-in-the-wool plug-in to make. I’ve read Redlum’s comments before and he doesn’t impress me as a chump, so I believe his comment on Jezebel was really more of a symbolic appeal to feminine reason. What he illustrates here is a common misgiving most Beta blue pill men subscribe to – that they will be perceived as unique, “not like other guys” in his embracing feminine vulnerability. And as you can see from the top Jezebel reply he was met with the same hostility women have for “vulnerable” men. Hypergamy psychologically predisposes women to hold either contempt or pity for male vulnerability on a limbic level. Even in the most ’emotionally evolved’ women, by order of degree, Hypergamy is always testing for male fitness in order to assess whom she will pair with either in short term breeding availability or long term provisioning availability. When a man overtly expresses an openness to vulnerability, on a subconscious level it telegraphs his insecurity to her Hypergamous nature. Thus, she filters him out, or if she’s paired with him prior to this expression she initiates the mental protocol to leave him for a better match. The contempt expressed by the Jezebel authoress is a good example of this. So now, on top of everything else that women have to deal with, we have to comfort men for freaking out whenever a woman surpasses them at something? You’re a man, suck it up, you shouldn’t be vulnerable by virtue of your maleness. It’s a conflicting message in light of the touchy-feely feminine conditioning men endure in their upbringing, but it is an honest reaction, and one that men need to understand when sorting out the reality of women and their need to unplug. I’m not gonna write you a love song, cause you asked for one,.. The second (symbolic?) mistake Redlum makes is making an appeal for sympathy. In Empathy I outlined women’s gut-level, evolutionarily selected-for, lack of empathizing with the male experience. I defined the difference between empathy and sympathy, and while women might lack the means for that empathy, they have a very strong sense of sympathy. However that sympathy comes with conditions. Women involved with high SMV Alpha Men can be some of the most genuinely, organically sympathetic women you’ll ever encounter. Granted, that sympathy may facilitate her own Hypergamous interests, but more so because that Alpha never petitions her for her sympathy. Women give their sympathies of their own accord, never as the result of a man petitioning it from her. A woman must be inspired to sympathy for a man, asking for it is negotiating for her desire to be sympathetic. A man who is intentionally vulnerable smacks of a guy who is so in an effort to qualify for her intimacy. It’s similar to the dynamic found in Play Nice, that niceness, that vulnerability that’s supposed to be strength, is perceived as a ruse to better identify with the feminine and thus be more acceptable to it. If feminine Hypergamy is fine tuned for anything it’s genuineness. That’s not to say women wont turn it to their social and biological advantages, but Hypergamy is always testing for certainty and authenticity. I’ve stated before that there is nothing more satisfying for a woman than to believe she’s figured a guy out using her mythical feminine intuition, this is a direct satisfaction of Hypergamy’s need for certainty, but I should also add that there is nothing more mortifying, rage inducing and produces more bitter tears than a woman who’s had her Hypergamy fooled by an imposter. Not only does this deception involve a loss of investment and resources to her, but it’s also an insult to her ego that her capacity to filter for authenticity isn’t as effective as she believes her ‘intuition’ actually is. Suck It Up The bigger picture in this Jezebel exchange is really about one of the most basic and useful social conventions ever devised by the Feminine Imperative – The Male Catch 22: Man Up or Shut Up – The Male Catch 22 One of the primary way’s Honor is used against men is in the feminized perpetuation of traditionally masculine expectations when it’s convenient, while simultaneously expecting egalitarian gender parity when it’s convenient. For the past 60 years feminization has built in the perfect Catch 22 social convention for anything masculine; The expectation to assume the responsibilities of being a man (Man Up) while at the same time denigrating asserting masculinity as a positive (Shut Up). What ever aspect of maleness that serves the feminine purpose is a man’s masculine responsibility, yet any aspect that disagrees with feminine primacy is labeled Patriarchy and Misogyny. Essentially, this convention keeps beta males in a perpetual state of chasing their own tails. Over the course of a lifetime they’re conditioned to believe that they’re cursed with masculinity (Patriarchy) yet are still responsible to ‘Man Up’ when it suits a feminine imperative. So it’s therefore unsurprising to see that half the men in western society believe women dominate the world (male powerlessness) while at the same time women complain of a lingering Patriarchy (female powerlessness) or at least sentiments of it. This is the Catch 22 writ large. The guy who does in fact Man Up is a chauvinist, misogynist, patriarch, but he still needs to man up when it’s convenient to meet the needs of a female imperative. This dualistic, conveniently conflicting, social convention is what defines a condition of ‘equality’ for today’s New Woman: Men need to suck it up and deal with life on more equitable terms like adults, without those who do just that expecting a medal for it. In other words suck it up when convenient and sack up when necessary. In a sense she’s not wrong– an intrinsic part of the male experience is not to complain about adversity, not to complain about pain and not to complain about suffering – in other words, Man Up, be strong and don’t let on to any vulnerability. If that sounds contradictory to a lifetime of feminine sensitivity training for men it should, but only because it’s half of the usefulness of the Male Catch 22. Where our Jezebeler drops the ball is the other half of the con – Man up and be useful, to women, to the Feminine Imperative. The problem is that equality only applies to what benefits the feminine, anything else that constitutes a man, constitutes masculinity, is a liability. If being in a relationship with a woman who makes more money than you and/or has a higher position than you makes you feel that you are becoming obsolete, maybe you should be mocked for being silly, immature, and sexist. There is also the option that Men may simply opt out of involving themselves in a relationship with said woman. In this case the Male Catch 22 is used to shame him for his insecurities not only by women for not participating in their potential provisioning, but also by a chorus of plugged in men ready to mock him for his lack of manhood (also in order to convince the feminine of their unique dedication to the imperative and hopefully get laid as a result of it). It’s at this point he’s derided for his ‘fragile ego’ and his ‘being threatened by strong independent women®.” By virtue of his maleness, he literally cannot win, and any expression of this condition, even the questioning of this situation is then perceived as his complaining about it – and overt confession of vulnerability. What I’m describing here is the core issue blue pill, plugged in men have with Game and the red pill – just asking a question or making a critical observation about the feminine with regard to the male condition is always conflated with men complaining – something men aren’t allowed to do. It comes off as “poor men”, just as our Jezebeler recounts, but it distracts and discourages real discourse about those conditions. That is how effective the Male Catch 22 is, it kills all critical inquiry before the questions can even be asked. Like this: Like Loading...

The Minister for Communications and IT Shri inaugurated the launch of the high speed broadband for the entire district of . . With the commissioning of the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN), the district of has become the first in to be connected with the high speed broadband for all the areas of the district. Currently the District has a total of eight (8) Block Offices & 53 Gram Panchayats of which 8 Block Offices & 52 Gram Panchayats have been connected on Optical Fibre and one Gram Panchayat, namely Edamalakudy, is connected through VSAT. Edamalakudy, is a Tribal Gram Panchayat consisting of 26 Tribal villages with around 2200 people. It is remotely located around 18 Kms from Pettimudi which is last point one can go in a vehicle. BSNL has made exceptional efforts in connecting this Gram Panchayat and now Broadband Internet as well as Mobile services are also available here. For the first time all villages under this Panchayat would be connected through Mobile phones and internet. . . The establishment of NOFN would open up new avenues for Access service providers such as Telecom Service Providers, Internet Service Providers, and Cable TV operators, Content Providers etc. to launch next generation services and spur creation of local employment opportunities in a big way. . . The Chief Minister Shri Oommen Chandy, the Minister for Industry and IT, Govt. of Kerala Shri P. K. Kunhalikutty and Secretary Telecom Shri Rakesh Garg were present on this occasion. . .

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