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Rockets head coach Kevin McHale wants to get Dwight Howard more involved in the pick and roll, but is that the best way to use Howard? Antoine Walker discusses. | 1 | 8,300 | sports |
Who needs Sofia Vergara!? Well, she's only the hottest actress on TV, but her ex-fiance is trying to outdo that with a sexy newcomer. | 6 | 8,301 | entertainment |
DeAndre Bembry led St. Joseph's with 25 points in the Hawks' 62-56 win over UMass but he also dished out seven assists. Check out his best dime of the night - a beautiful no-look pass to an open Isaiah Miles. | 1 | 8,302 | sports |
Check out this perfectly executed alley-oop between Oklahoma State's Anthony Hickey and Jeff Newberry in the Cowboys' 63-43 win over Texas Tech. | 1 | 8,303 | sports |
Antoine Walker reveals why the Charlotte Hornets have been his biggest disappointment in the NBA. | 1 | 8,304 | sports |
North Carolina went inside against Wake Forest early and often on Wednesday, racking up 50 points in the paint to earn a victory behind strong nights from Brice Johnson and Kennedy Meeks. | 1 | 8,305 | sports |
Forbes Magazine unveiled their list of the NBA's best fan bases and the Miami Heat topped the list. How surprising is that result? | 1 | 8,306 | sports |
Martin Brodeur has extended his leave of absence past the All-Star break. How does this play out? | 1 | 8,307 | sports |
Maple Leafs defender Dion Phaneuf lost his cool and slew-footed Senators forward Milan Michalek and immediately starting punching the Senator while he was on the ground. | 1 | 8,308 | sports |
By Matt Birch A large fire swept through the Avalon at Edgewater apartment complex on Wednesday afternoon and Yankees play-by-play voice John Sterling was among the hundreds of New Jersey residents who were left homeless by the flames which reached 200 feet and could be seen clear across the Hudson River in Manhattan, according to NJ.com. The fire reportedly began around 4:30 p.m. ET and firefighters began battling it. As of late Wednesday evening, flames were still " advancing ." The photos really show what happened. You can see some of them here . No injuries to civilians or firefighters have been reported at the present time. | 1 | 8,309 | sports |
Katherine Terrell tweeted out that Colts quarterback Andrew Luck said the playoff loss to the Pats made him "feel a bit deflated." Was it a Freudian slip? #120Talk | 1 | 8,310 | sports |
Each time the president gives the State of the Union address, opponents come prepared with some usual talking points. Invariably, the criticisms come along the lines of "missed opportunities" and approaches that "just aren't working." There's almost always "disappointment." And while much of that held this year, President Obama's internally focused, legacy-framing address gave Republicans who want his job an opportunity to focus on their own campaign themes. Republicans running for president took the speech, considered by many to be a passing of the baton, as a chance to hone their own pitches. Potential candidates launched into a campaign-like mode, lamenting the "stale" policies of the past while trying to differentiate themselves from one another. And just as the president is hitting the road this week to talk about his proposals, Republican candidates are on the travel circuit, too. About a dozen possible contenders will gather in Iowa this weekend for a conservative confab to test out some of their ideas and rhetoric in the first-in-the-nation caucus state. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker announced Wednesday he will lead a trade mission to the United Kingdom next month. Earlier this week, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said he would also travel across the pond. Rick Perry, the former Texas governor, and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal have already made the trip. Christie and Jeb Bush were also in Washington this week. Potential candidates shared their thoughts on Instagram, Vine videos, Facebook, YouTube, cable news shows and at press briefings. Most of them took issue with the president's tax proposals, accusing him of waging class warfare. The potential candidates also blasted the president for ignoring Democrats' monumental losses in the November election. Others, including Chris Christie, dismissed the president's address as little more than a divisive campaign speech. The president "ignores the fact that the country has elected a Congress that favors smaller government and lower taxes," said Mitt Romney, who lost to Obama in 2012 and is considering a third run for the president. "It's unfortunate President Obama wants to use the tax code to divide us," said Jeb Bush, who would rival Romney for the establishment lane. "What we need is broad-based reforms so that all people can rise up," he said in an Instagram video Wednesday outside the Capitol, repeating a bland statement from the night before. "Pitting one American against another is not a pathway toward prosperity," said Rand Paul in a 12-minute YouTube video. The Kentucky senator's response was among the most interesting, dismissing the president's optimism. Instead, Paul argued that the state of the union was not, in fact, strong, attempting to tap into Americans' concerns and feelings about the economy. "I wish I had better news for you, but all is not well in America. America is adrift. Something is clearly wrong. America needs many things, but what America desperately needs is new leadership," he said. Paul, who spent the last week in New Hampshire and Nevada, also took the opportunity to make his own pitch. "Not only do we need new blood in Washington, we need a new way of thinking in Washington," he said. "As a physician, I was taught first to do no harm, to think before you act, to analyze the unintended consequences of your actions. I think America would be better off if all our politicians took that same approach." Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who has said he will soon decide whether to launch a presidential bid, has made Cuba policy his focus. In a show of protest against the restoration of economic ties to the country, Rubio brought a Cuban dissident as his guest to the State of the Union. But Rubio is also sharpening his 2016 pitch as a candidate equipped to deal with current times. While many in his party have been making the case for governors, Rubio argued senators make good commanders-in-chief because of their involvement in foreign policy. "The next president of the United States needs to be someone who has a clear view of what's happening in the world, a clear strategic vision of America's role in it, and a clear tactical plan for how to engage America in global affairs. And I think for governors, that's going to be a challenge, at least initially," he told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor roundtable on Wednesday. "They don't deal with foreign policy on a daily basis … I've certainly been very engaged in the national security and foreign policy debates." Wisconsin's Walker, however, took the opportunity to make the case for governors like himself. "Our American revival is not going to be led by a lame-duck president who would rather pick fights with Congress. It will be led by reformers who know how to get things done," he said in a statement. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz took issue with the president's omission of immigration and his executive order in his address. (The official GOP responder, Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, did not address immigration, but Florida Rep. Carlos Curbelo, who delivered the Spanish-language response, did.) Cruz also assessed the Democratic field, saying in an interview with Fox News that the party's nominee will likely engage the same "far left" policies. But notably, Cruz suggested it was time for Republicans to leave Obama in the rearview. The president isn't running again, and the GOP will have to do more than just run against him in 2016 if they want to be successful. "It's time to move beyond him, and to focus instead on new and bold leadership," he said in his own video message from the Capitol. | 5 | 8,311 | news |
Aaron Rodgers called in to Jason Wilde's radio show on ESPN Wisconsin for his weekly radio segment called 'Tuesdays with Aaron' (which sounds like a great name for an erotic novel). During a portion of the interview, Wilde read off questions from fans including this question about God and football. | 8 | 8,312 | video |
MEET the real hairy bikers - two dogs who ride through Indonesia on the back of a MOTORCYCLE. Wearing red-framed sunglasses and a helmet the two golden retrievers happily sandwich their owner on the fast bike. Unsurprisingly, the sight of the docile dogs hitching a fast ride in Surabaya, Indonesia, attracts a lot of attention from onlookers. Ace and Armani have been riding since they were just a few months old and now at the age of three the pair jump onto the bike whenever they think their owner is heading out. Videographer / Director: Jefri Tarigan Producer: Nick Johnson Editor: Josh Douglas / Sonia Estal | 8 | 8,313 | video |
The Bulls had been dominating the Pistons for an hour when Elena, a 30-year-old pharmaceutical company sales representative, tried her boyfriend's cell for the 12th time from her seat at The Palace arena in suburban Detroit. They hadn't spoken in days, but his job as a physician kept him busy. She dialed again and got a recorded voice: "You have reached a number that has been disconnected." Elena's face flushed with fury. She'd been dumped. Elena (we're not using her last name at her request to protect her privacy - you'll see why) stormed out of the arena and careened down the road to his house, where she leaned on the horn. "I was working off emotion," she says. "I was thinking, I'm not gonna be ignored! After all we've been through together, how dare you! I just felt so powerless." His lights were on. She pounded on the front door, to no avail. Her car was bumper-to-bumper with his in the driveway. She slammed on the gas, pushing his car into a nearby tree and crumpling the fender. The neighbors flipped their porch lights on, and soon, a police car pulled up behind her. Elena tried to explain to the policewoman: Until recently, she'd seen her boyfriend five nights a week. They'd been together for a year. The policewoman knocked on his door and spent a few minutes inside. "I don't know what he said, but they didn't arrest me," says Elena. This outburst might seem like the clichéd beginnings of ex-girlfriend legend, the classic trope of a woman scorned. But in fact, neurochemistry can explain Elena's actions. If you've ever found it hard to recover after a breakup, take note: Scientists and psychologists are finally giving heartbreak the attention it deserves, and what they're finding out can help us all take lost love a little less personally. THE RELATIONSHIP Elena had been elated when she first met the doctor out at a club, a year prior. "He came over to my house that night and didn't leave until 4 a.m.," she recalls. "From then on, it was constant calling, texting, and seeing each other. It was a whirlwind." All that time together lit up Elena's brain with a raft of chemical activity biologically designed to bond the new couple, says neuroscientist Larry Young, Ph.D., a psychiatry professor at Emory University and author of The Chemistry Between Us . Each interaction released oxytocin in her brain, the neurohormone of sex and social connection, and dopamine, associated with rewards. "These spurts of oxytocin and dopamine form connections between the face and smell of your partner and the brain's reward system," says Young - meaning no matter your gender, the brain sees your partner, and the attention you're receiving from him or her, as a drug. Five dates turned into 15, and Elena was hooked. For a year, her brain hummed along happily in a cycle of anticipation and reward until the doctor abruptly disappeared. THE BREAKUP Without the doctor, there was no relationship, and "any barrier to the relationship stimulates the dopamine system more," says Helen Fisher, Ph.D., a biological anthropologist at Rutgers University and author of Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love . "So you're more in love and trying to win [your former partner] back." Fisher has found that the brains of people who've been recently dumped are "active in regions linked with profound addictions, like nicotine or cocaine," and quite literally undergoing [pullquote align="L" ]The brains of people who've been dumped are "active in regions linked with profound addiction."[/pullquote]withdrawal from the drug that was the partner and the love she or he offered. This explains the uncontrollably obsessive feelings so many people experience after being left behind. There's an evolutionary reason behind it: It's nature's way of increasing mating success. If the brain simply let partners walk away, the human race would have failed eons ago. "The brain is designed to try to win this person back," says Fisher. "You get angry, say you're never going to talk to him or her again, and 10 minutes later, you're back." Elena chalks up her bad behavior somewhat to latent issues from a previous relationship that collapsed weeks before she met the doctor. Psychologists say that not working through previous nasty breakups, as well as any history of childhood abandonment, predisposes one to overreact to romantic rejection. Some neuroscientists scoff at this notion, as the brain regions active in a breakup are ancient and primal. "These feelings the despair, the fury, the craving are operating well below the cortex" (where childhood memories are processed), says Fisher. Psychologists counter that your previous experiences fuel your reactions, like a gas tank. THE AFTERMATH Anyone who's been dumped can attest to the deep sting of that first moment of rejection. But the brain becomes truly deprived of oxytocin and dopamine during the weeks that follow a breakup. Last year, L.A. fashion publicist Karen Ahaesy's boyfriend of three and a half years moved out. "I brought up our future, which we'd discussed many times," says the 37-year-old. "He said, 'We need to take some time apart.' " Much to her surprise, that meant that he was moving out... the very next day. Weeks later, she was still crying, she says. "I'd be talking to a friend about her life, and tears would just well up. I'd say, 'I don't know what's happening to me.' " This is a telltale sign of a brain barren of oxytocin. Her brain was used to oxytocin spurts from every hug, e-mail, and laugh from her ex-boyfriend. Without those rewards, the levels plummeted. Sensing distress, her body produced floods of a stress hormone, CRF (corticotropin-releasing factor), which triggers the adrenal glands to produce cortisol, suppressing her appetite, memory, and immune system. This was why doing anything except binge-watching Netflix seemed impossible. "I was immobile for a month," says Karen. "Everything seemed meaningless. I wasn't taking calls, wasn't showering." Not all breakups are this horrible, of course. How much your partner supports you emotionally and practically, and your future expectations for your life together, directly affects your reaction. Perhaps things might have been different for Karen and Elena both if they'd had more time to prepare. Extreme breakup behavior often originates with those who are caught entirely off guard. And "out-of-the-blue affects you differently at different ages," notes Jeffry Simpson, Ph.D., a psychology professor at the University of Minnesota. "The stakes are higher as you age because many people are looking to have a long-term relationship, so it's a blow to your vision of your future. It's also a blow to your view of yourself as being able to detect and fix problems." [pullquote align="C" ]This was why doing anything except binge-watching Netflix seemed impossible.[/pullquote] People who are depressed or who have low self-esteem tend to take breakups much harder, even if they're doing the breaking up, says Simpson. But Karen had no mental health history, and in the weeks after the breakup, she physically hurt something she'd never experienced during decades of dating. "I had a painful knot in my stomach at all times and was constantly out of breath," she says. This phenomenon feeling actual pain post-breakup is common; after studying functional MRI scans (which provide images of brain activity) of 15 dumpees, Fisher found heavy activity in regions associated with physical discomfort. THE RECOVERY Three years ago, Rachel Sugarman, a 33-year-old teacher in Portland, Maine, left her husband after a rocky few years together. At first, she was relieved, but then she felt helpless, with bouts of unexplained crying. Rachel's doctor prescribed a low-dose antidepressant that buoyed her into replacing all those daily little dopamine and oxytocin spurts that her husband used to provide. But she made one major misstep, say experts: giving in to the post-breakup hookup. "It wasn't a clear severing of ties," she says. "After our first court appearance for our divorce, we went home together." A breakup is about withdrawing from your ex, and how long it takes the brain to rewire can vary from weeks to many years. (A safe guess for a serious relationship is two years; that old adage that healing takes half the time of the relationship is false.) "Since love is an addiction, you have to treat it as such," says Fisher. "If you were trying to quit alcohol, would you leave tequila around? The longer you're away from the partner, the more that deep attachment decreases." Fisher encourages cordiality, not friendship, toward exes. "The dumper often feels so guilty that he or she wants to be friends," she says. "Say, 'How about after I get over this?' Don't call or e-mail. Hide the mementos. Just stay away from your drug of choice." And, of course, there's the greatest healer of all: time. "I'm three months into the best relationship of my life, and I've never been happier," says Rachel. "I have a hard time remembering why I was so sad." | 4 | 8,314 | lifestyle |
Australia top scorer Tim Cahill adds two more great goals to his record to beat China 2-0 and reach the semi-finals of the Asian Cup. | 8 | 8,315 | video |
If you're feeling cranky, confused or too tired even for sex, blame it on Thomas Alva Edison. We're all bushed, and it's all his fault. Humans have been screwing with their body clocks and getting less sleep ever since the Wizard of Menlo Park had his very bright idea. Indeed, our classic eight-hour-night only dates back to the invention of the light bulb in the late 1800s. Historians believe that before the dawn of electric lighting most people got plenty of sleep, and practiced what they call "segmented sleep," snoozing for several hours in the first part of the night, when darkness fell, then waking in the middle of the night for a few hours of eating, drinking, praying, chatting with friends or maybe even canoodling, before ducking back under the covers again until morning. The arrival of electricity, argues sleep historian A. Roger Ekirch, led to later bedtimes and fewer hours of sleep overall. We're still waging a war on sleep, and we are, alas, still winning. Researchers at the University of Chicago recently studied our sleep patterns over time and concluded that we now sleep between one and two hours less than we did 60 years ago. In the 1970s, most Americans slept about 7.1 hours per night: Now the mean sleep duration has plunged to 6.1 hours. An hour lost in 40 years? If we keep up at this rate, we'll be down to less than four hours a night by the end of the century. And very, very cranky. So where's all this sleep gone to? And why are we losing it? Modern technology, which seems particularly adept at messing with our sleep schedules, is certainly a large part of the problem. Smartphones, tablets and computer screens all emit a bluish light; great for saving power (most energy efficient CFLs and LEDs burn blue, as do the backlights of most screens), but also just right for disrupting our body clocks. "The lights on these electronic devices are colored like enriched moonlight," says Charles Czeisler, the director of Harvard Medical School's Division of Sleep Medicine. These blue lights drastically suppress the production of melatonin, the hormone that controls the body's day-night cycle. So reading in bed with an iPad, he says, or any other backlit device, makes it harder to fall asleep at night and makes you more tired the next day. Shifting all the blame for our sleep problems onto blue light, however, might be disingenuous. The bigger problem might be that we've created and now live in a world where stimulation doesn't stop when the sun goes down thanks, Tom! and it's making us all addicts. Research shows that every time we check our email, Twitter feed or Facebook timeline and find a new piece of information, we get a shot of dopamine a chemical our brains release to simulate pleasure. "We eventually associate texts, Twitter [and] Facebook with the promise of instant gratification," says Kathy Gill, a researcher at the University of Washington who is an expert in human-computer interaction. The temptation to get that quick dopamine shot can be ignored through willpower, says Gill, but willpower's at an all-time low when we haven't gotten enough sleep. Hence the cycle of sitting up in bed, listlessly refreshing our email (a recent Pew study found that 83 percent of millennials sleep with their phones nearby) even when it's way past our bedtime and we really should put our computers and phones down. And our head down on a pillow. In our efforts to feed the dragon, the quest to eliminate sleep has veered toward the surreal. Once confined to coffee and tea, caffeine is now showing up in topical sprays that promise the rush without the crash, soap that says it'll give you a buzz in the bath, stockings from Australia that keep you perky and (supposedly) eliminate cellulite and toothbrushes that wake you up while cleaning your teeth. Not to mention the plethora of food products that now contain caffeine: Beer, marshmallows , " perky jerky ," lollipops and bottled water are just a few examples. Seeing a public that's gobbling up all the caffeine it can find, ambitious creators of recreational stimulants are now raiding the pharmacopoeias for products, repurposing medicines and dietary supplements (methylsynephrine! creatine!) as additives to keep-awake colas. The popular energy drink Red Bull turned taurine, a formerly obscure amino acid found in the tissue of animals, into a household name and a billion-dollar global business. Meanwhile, the military is going straight to the brain in search of wakefulness: It is researching a process called transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), which more or less zaps the brain with electricity, in the hope that it will keep soldiers constantly at the ready. Andy McKinley, an in-house researcher for the U.S. Air Force, helped publish a study on the phenomenon. "When we kept people up for 30 hours, we found that tDCS improved their vigilance performance twice as much as caffeine, and the effect lasted twice as long. Caffeine lasted two hours, tDCS lasted about six." For the sleep-unhappy public, unregulated and unapproved tDCS-applying devices have already found their way onto civilian markets. So have large quantities of modafinil, a powerful stimulant used extensively by the military during the recent war in Iraq. Modafinil, marketed in the U.S. as Provigil, was originally designed to treat sleep disorders like narcolepsy. But since the early 2000s, it's been the drug of choice for Wall Street execs and other power users seeking an afternoon boost. Off-label use rose by more than 15-fold from 2002 to 2013, according to a study published JAMA Internal Medicine . For those looking to sleep less without drugs or military tech, there's the " Uberman " sleep schedule: 20 minute naps taken every four hours. That's just two hours of sleep in every 24 hours. Uberman is based on the theory that while humans experience two types of sleep, we only need one of those to stay alive. Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is the stage in which we dream, and it also has been shown in lab tests to be critical to survival: Rodents deprived of REM sleep die after just five weeks . Then there is non-REM sleep, which itself is broken down into four separate stages. One of those is short wave sleep (or SWS). Scientists aren't really sure what function SWS serves , and Uberman advocates argue that it may not be critical to survival at all. We spend only 20 percent of our sleeping time in REM sleep, and, usually, we need to work our way up to it, going through non-REM sleep first. But according to the Polyphasic Society , a segmented-sleep advocacy group, that's a waste. They say the Uberman and sleep schedules like it can force the brain to reconfigure its sleep cycle to avoid the non-REM sleep and jump straight into REM, saving a handful of precious, precious hours every day. The disadvantage? Physical stress, even to the point of lifting heavy objects, can cause Uberman sleepers to unexpectedly "black out." Uberman advocates are only a small subset of the many movements that today seem to be waging a war on shut-eye. Despite the conventional wisdom of eight-hours-of-sleep-to-be-healthy, in recent years, CEO testimonials , helpful life-hacking tips and even some scientific studies have tried to convince us we need only five hours of sleep to be healthy, happy and successful. Writer Douglas Haddow has a theory why: Time isn't money. Time awake is money. In a recent article for Adbusters , Haddow argues that the reason we sleep less today is because "sleep is the enemy of capital." While we're waltzing with the sandman, we can't do anything productive and, unlike in our leisure time, we can't even consume (and pay for) the products others make. It's not quite clear what's happening in our minds during nap time: Theories range from storing memories and restructuring the brain to simple energy conservation and immune system restoration. But whatever we do, we certainly aren't buying extra lives on Candy Crush or writing articles for Newsweek . Sleep is perceived to be the enemy of efficiency: inescapable wasted blocks of time that can't be converted into anything of broader use to society. Entrepreneurs and capitalists have known this forever, of course. The growth in popularity of coffee and tea during the Industrial Revolution was, as Tom Standage argues in The History of the World in Six Drinks , tied to the working hours and conditions brought on by that revolution. In the early days of factories, owners, Standage argues, saw what the long hours were doing to their employees' sleep. But instead of offering more time in bed, they'd give them free tea and reap the reward: "Tea kept workers alert on long and tedious shifts and improved their concentration when operating fast moving machines," he writes. "Factory workers had to function like parts in a well-oiled machine and tea was the lubricant that kept the factories running smoothly." It's worse today. Even those of us who would never check our email at midnight now live in a world where being on call 24 hours a day is commonplace. In 1992, Juliet Schor, author of The Overworked American , made headlines by revealing that U.S. citizens worked, on average, a month more in 1990 they did in 1970. Since then, the numbers have gotten worse. From 1990 to 2001, Americans added another full week to their working year: That was 137 hours longer than the Japanese, 260 hours longer than the British and 446 hours longer than the Germans, according to a report put out by the United Nations' International Labor Organization. Fast-forward to today: The Bureau of Labor Statistics says Americans are working longer hours than at any time since statistics have been kept. It also bears noting that nearly 7 million Americans are currently stringing together part-time jobs: That's 3 million more than in 2007 , when the Great Recession began. These people are likely to have erratic and often inconvenient work schedules; not exactly a recipe for getting proper R&R. Shift workers, in particular, have it tough: In December 2014, the Health Survey for England found that in the U.K., those who worked outside the 12 hours between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. were substantially "sicker and fatter" than those who worked daytime hours. A 2014 study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine found that shift work substantially increased the risk of dementia. Again, millennials seem the most vulnerable: 40 percent of young people work part-time, contract, temp or onetime jobs, with more than half living paycheck to paycheck, according to the 2014 Millennial Study conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of Wells Fargo. The Health Survey for England found that 16- to 24-year-olds were the demographic most likely to be stuck doing shift work. And a 2014 study by the American Psychological Association found that of the present generational groupings millennials, Gen Xers, boomers and mature millennials were by far the most stressed, and reported the highest rates of "feeling sluggish or lazy" and "having trouble concentrating on things they need to do." Millennials are shaping up to be the most sleepless generation yet. While Generation X reports sleeping the fewest hours per night, millennials report the poorest habits: Nearly one-third of those between 18 and 33 say they can't sleep because they are "thinking of all the things they need to do or did not get done," and a similar number reports not sleeping at least eight hours a night because "they have too many things to do and not enough time." Compare that to only 19 percent of Gen Xers and 13 percent of baby boomers. It's no surprise that energy drink manufacturers see youth as their primary prey. "Nobody ever wishes they'd slept more during college," says one Red Bull tagline. And marketing to our overstressed, underslept youth has paid off big time: Globally, the energy drink market's now worth $27.5 billion, and energy drink consumption has increased 5,000 percent in the U.S. since 1999 just when those millennials were starting to enroll in college. Today's youth are also at tremendous risk for long-term, sleep-related health impacts. Sleep-related disorders are on the rise, creeping upward among older workers and becoming staggeringly common in young adults. We've long known that sleep is crucial to good health: Bodies subjected to sleep deprivation undergo an ugly metamorphosis until they are in many ways fundamentally different from their sufficiently-slept counterparts. A study published recently in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) showed that chronic sleep deprivation caused "shifts" in the expression levels of more than 700 genes. "Many of these [genes] are related to inflammation and immune and stress response, and overlap with the program of gene expression that is generally associated with high stress levels," explains Malcolm von Schantz, a researcher at the University of Surrey who helped conduct the PNAS study. Sleep loss has tremendous cognitive consequences: Dozens of studies have connected lack of sleep to deficits ranging from poor insight formation to diminished working memory . Chronic sleep deprivation is also associated with increased mortality and especially obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and impaired cognitive function, says von Schantz. REM sleep in particular is needed for maintaining brain cells: "Brain cells are some of the few cells in our bodies that we retain throughout our lives," says Czeisler. "We store our memories, and through their complicated architecture, they are difficult to replace." Sleep is when toxins accumulated by the body get flushed out of the brain including big-name baddies like amyloid beta, the plaque that, if it builds up, eventually causes Alzheimer's. With all the talent we've got working on keeping us up later and later, there's a chance one of the burgeoning "wakefulness" treatments will solve corporate America's sleep problem without ruining our bodies and minds. But even if it turns out that zapping our brains or sleeping two hours of every 24 over the long term is completely safe (assuming we don't, say, do any weightlifting), we can't keep cutting down on sleep forever. We need to sleep some or eventually we'll die. One solution is to make a trade: What if we could cram 24 hours of work into 16, and use the leftovers to get some rest? Plenty have made that bargain by using "smart drugs": Ritalin, Adderall and non-FDA approved nootropics cognitive enhancers like Piracetam and Oxiracetam. If current research can be believed, smart drug use among students has become an epidemic: In the U.S., 18 percent of Ivy League students have used cognitive enhancers. Similar numbers of smart drug use has been seen among students in Switzerland and the Netherlands . Sadly, in many ways the use of smart drugs is a terrifyingly rational reaction to the parallel demands of "do more" and "sleep more"; unlike coffee, Coca-Cola or modafinil, smart drugs are thought to increase efficiency without robbing sleep. Poppers of Piracetam don't have to worry about crashing, burnout or ominous future health risks; they can meet all the demands of daily life while still sleeping that blessed eight hours. But do we really want an entire society running on smart drugs to keep up with our self-inflicted rat race? Though the health risks associated with the use and abuse of smart drugs haven't been extensively studied, a 2014 study published in Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience indicates that long-term use of cognitive enhancers may decrease brain plasticity especially in younger users. In other words, the cost of short-term productivity may be long-term creativity, adaptability and intelligence. There are also some thorny ethical issues to navigate. Anjan Chatterjee, a professor of neurology at the University of Pennsylvania, has written extensively on what he calls "cosmetic neurology": the use of smart drugs to enhance work performance. He says we may be headed toward an "arms race of accomplishment," where the haves (those who can afford smart drugs and are willing to take them) will push out the have-nots (those who can't, or won't). And, as with any arms race, it has the potential to continue until it reaches dangerous extremes. As millennials move from college into the workforce, their desire to beat back sleep is coming with them. The only real solution might be to make fundamental alterations to our work environment. In some places, change is already afoot. Germany has banned after-hours emails to government workers; a law passed in Brazil in 2012 says workers who have to take calls or emails from employers after work can charge their bosses overtime. In the U.S., a few progressive companies have taken the lead; The Huffington Post has installed nap rooms in its offices, while Treehouse now mandates four-day workweeks. These efforts might be good for everyone involved. It turns out, according to a paper published by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, that productivity at work is highest when people work around 30 hours per week. And according to a 2010 study published in the journal Cognition , even short breaks at work like, say, naps increase engagement with work substantially. These countries, and companies that follow the science to buck the trend of "sleep less, do more" are beginning to recognize that sleep is more than just wasted time. It's time we all wake up and recognize that sleep is a fundamental human need. | 5 | 8,316 | news |
Simple tips to increase the lifespan of some of the most commonly used items around your house. | 3 | 8,317 | finance |
Eating fish during pregnancy could be beneficial after all, say researchers from the University of Rochester Medical Center who voyaged to the Seychelles to study the benefits of nutrients found in fish and the risk associated with mercury exposure. Over three decades, more than 1,500 mothers and their children were observed, with results indicating that eating fish in as many as 12 meals per week does not lead to defects in the developing fetus. Mercury makes way into the world's oceans both naturally and as a result of man-made constructs such as coal plants. Compounds in fish such as polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) could counteract the damage that mercury causes in the brain, according to the study, which was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. "These findings show no overall association between prenatal exposure to mercury through fish consumption and neurodevelopmental outcomes," says Edwin van Wijngaarden, Ph.D., and associate professor in the University of Rochester Department of Public Health Sciences and a co-author of the study. "It is also becoming increasingly clear that the benefits of fish consumption may outweigh, or even mask, any potentially adverse effects of mercury." Participating women were tested for the amount of prenatal mercury exposure while they were pregnant and the research team used hair samples to gather their data. At 20 months of age, the mothers allowed their babies to undergo a battery of tests to assess their motor and communication skills as well as their behavior, with researchers concluding that mercury exposure did not correlate with low test scores. The researchers also tested the women for the presence of PUFA during their pregnancies and concluded that children whose mothers had high levels of n3 -- also known as omega-3 -- fatty acids found in fish performed particularly well on tests. These n3 fatty acids have anti-inflammatory properties, according to the researchers, whereas similar ones like the n6 -- omega-6 -- fatty acids found in meats and oils are known to promote inflammation. According to the researchers, inflammation is the vehicle by which mercury inflicts damage, which explains why the anti-inflammatory fatty acids lead to favorable results. "These findings indicate that there may be an optimal balance between the different inflammatory properties of fatty acids that promote fetal development and that these mechanisms warrant further study," says senior author Philip Davidson, PhD, a professor emeritus at U of R. The Seychelles, an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean off Southeast Africa, were selected for the study because the approximately 89,000 residents consume 10 times more fish than the populations of the US and Europe. | 7 | 8,318 | health |
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) Ask Joshua Thevenin who since last month has been a newspaper salesman, fireworks vendor and tele-marketer what he thinks about assertions the economy is roaring toward recovery and you'll get a sigh and a shake of his head. "I don't see it. If it is, I don't know where," he said. Lately, everyone from economists to President Barack Obama himself are bullish on the economy. Labor Department statistics this month showed that a healthy month of hiring in December capped the best year for U.S. job growth since 1999, with nearly 3 million jobs added in 2014. During the State of the Union speech, Obama acknowledged that "it has been, and still is, a hard time for many." He added: "But tonight, we turn the page." But those like Thevenin, who live in the economy's shadows, know that it's difficult to turn the page, much less begin a new chapter when you can't find full-time work. Seasonal and temporary workers are typically counted as employed if they have been paid for work in the past month even if they are out of work just a few weeks later. That can make the unemployment rate, currently a nearly healthy 5.6 percent, look a bit rosy. An alternative measure of unemployment, which includes people who work part-time but want full-time work, and those who recently stopped searching for jobs, is at 11.2 percent. That is down from a peak of 17.1 percent in late 2009, but is still far above the 8.8 percent reading just before the Great Recession. "During a recession, it typically is the low skill employees that get hurt the worst," said Ray Schwab III, a University of Florida economic analyst. "Eventually, we will get back to the norm. We're not exactly back yet." A 29-year-old St. Petersburg resident, Thevenin was doing pretty well for himself going into December. He had a management job selling newspaper subscriptions at large events for a marketing firm think home shows and pro football games and made around $500 a week. Granted, it was an independent contractor job that didn't pay benefits, but Thevenin and his wife, who makes $8.05 an hour delivering pizza, had no trouble affording their $650 a month rent and his truck payment. Then, on the Friday before Christmas, the newspaper ended its contract with the marketing company where Thevenin worked. He was out of a job, so that night he called a contact at Galaxy Fireworks to see if he could staff a tent for the two-week holiday season. He had done something similar for the Fourth of July and had made several thousand dollars. Galaxy said yes, and Thevenin thought the seasonal position would buy him time and allow him to earn much needed income for the post-holiday season, when he would really need a job. "This gives me an opportunity to hold out for a good job, a job I'm hoping for," he said a few days before Christmas, as he stood in the tent surrounded by hundreds of boxes of fireworks with names like "Act of God," ''Ninja Artillery" and "Waking the Deaf." That's when he still had hope for the future. But Thevenin knows he's part of a working class unable to keep up with the transforming economy. From 2009 to 2012, inflation-adjusted income for the wealthiest 1 percent of U.S. households surged 31 percent, according to economist Emmanuel Saez of the University of California, Berkeley. For everyone else, income inched up just 0.4 percent. "I think the economy's getting better for the richer people," Thevenin said. "But for the poor, I think we're still drowning." The fireworks tent didn't work out so well for Thevenin. He was plagued with bad luck almost from the start. His friend, who was also laid off, was supposed to help him staff the tent, but got the flu. So Thevenin had to hire hourly employees, cutting into his base salary and commission. Then, a few days before New Year's, Thevenin was robbed of $900 late one night. Once he closed down the tent on Jan. 2, the fireworks company told him they would dock his base salary by $900 because of the robbery, which would leave him with a $350 paycheck for two weeks despite having sold about $19,000 in fireworks during the period. His life had begun a rapid downward spiral. He gave his truck back to the dealer because he couldn't make the payments, figuring that would be better than having it repossessed. He and his wife didn't make rent on Jan. 1. They had no savings, and immediately applied for food stamps, getting approval for $345 a month of the benefit. And he was stuck without a job because he had spent so much time manning the fireworks tent, he had no time to look for a new employer. "I'm trying to hope for the best, but that's not how it works," he said. Thevenin recalls when he was 16-year-old fry cook at a buffet restaurant near Tampa, some 13 years ago. "I was making $9 an hour," he said. "Now the same job has the same pay." He did find a similar job for a shade more money, as a cook at IHOP that pays $10.50 an hour. But because he only had an expired Florida ID, he couldn't take the required drug test. The burly Thevenin stopped at a Taco Bell for a job fair and waited 45 minutes before walking out after no one acknowledged his presence. There were a dozen other people waiting. Thevenin would like to attend college, but doesn't have the money. Thevenin now has a new job at a telemarketing service selling gas and electric energy services. He makes $8 an hour but if he hits hourly goals, he can make $10-$12 an hour. "Had to take what I can get," he said, adding that he and his wife are still a couple hundred dollars short on rent. When he arrived home from work Tuesday, he turned on the State of the Union, but quickly turned it off. "I just got so upset. All I hear about is the middle class, the middle class. The people who need the help aren't the middle class. It's the lower class that needs help. What the President said wasn't anything new." ___ Chris Rugaber contributed to this report from Washington, D.C. ___ Follow Tamara Lush on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tamaralush. | 5 | 8,319 | news |
Four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon will have one more shot at winning a fifth championship as he announced Thursday that 2015 would be his final full-time Sprint Cup season. The 43-year-old Gordon, who ranks third all-time with 92 career Cup victories, enters his 23rd season at Hendrick Motorsports. MORE: Top controversies to watch in 2015 | Most intriguing drivers | Changing NASCAR souvenir sales "As a racecar driver, much of what I've done throughout my life has been based on following my instincts and trying to make good decisions," Gordon said in a statement. "I thought long and hard about my future this past year and during the offseason, and I've decided 2015 will be the last time I compete for a championship. "I won't use the 'R-word' because I plan to stay extremely busy in the years ahead, and there's always the possibility I'll compete in selected events, although I currently have no plans to do that. I don't foresee a day when I'll ever step away from racing. I'm a fan of all forms of motorsports, but particularly NASCAR." Hendrick Motorsports did not announce a replacement for Gordon, but his departure paves the way for 2014 Nationwide (now Xfinity) Series champion Chase Elliott to move into that ride in 2016. | 1 | 8,320 | sports |
By Matt Yoder College football is a billion dollar business that leads ESPN into very close relationship with nearly every fiber of the sport. The network is intimate business partners with the most powerful entities in college football from the playoff itself, to the rest of the bowl games, to all the conferences they enter into rights deals with and even individual teams. Those business relationships have called to question just how difficult it is for ESPN to balance the money they have invested in the sport with their journalistic responsibility to cover it fairly. And with the SEC Network and the season long questions about SEC bias, it may be more difficult for ESPN to balance church and state in college football than any other sport. But stories like this one produce evidence that the self-proclaimed worldwide leader is still taking their investigative role in college football quite seriously. Bristol is suing Notre Dame because the university has not fulfilled a request to release campus police records. Reporter Paula Lavigne ( who was the same reporter who led the Tallahassee Police Department to release documents in a questionable manner ) requested the documents on behalf of ESPN. Here's more from the South Bend Tribune : ESPN has filed a lawsuit against Notre Dame claiming the university violated Indiana's public records law by refusing to release campus police records. The suit was filed in St. Joseph Superior Court on behalf of ESPN Inc., the sports media company based in Bristol, Conn., and ESPN reporter Paula Lavigne, who requested the records. Lavigne in September and November 2014 made requests to the university for Notre Dame Security Police incident reports and logs related to student athletes. Notre Dame rejected both requests. As evidence in the lawsuit, ESPN submitted two recent opinions by Indiana Public Access Counselor Luke Britt. Earlier this month, Britt an attorney appointed by Indiana's governor to advise on public access matters issued an opinion stating Notre Dame has violated Indiana's public records law if it has withheld police records requested by ESPN about possible campus crimes. Notre Dame had some notable academic issues this past year and WR Will Mahone was arrested during the summer . At this point, it's unclear what exactly the motivation is behind the records request from ESPN unless there's some smoke about institutional issues with campus police and the university giving special treatment to athletes. Perhaps in the wake of the Florida State year of controversy, the network is just doing their due diligence. The dispute stems from the fact that while the university is private, its campus police department is public. It's relevant to note that this is far from the first time ESPN has filed suit against a major university over a records request. ESPN has also sued Ohio State and Texas over records requests in the past. Let this be a reminder of just how enormous ESPN is where one corner of the company can be filing lawsuits against universities while another is negotiating rights deals. | 1 | 8,321 | sports |
NEW YORK (AP) New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who bent governors to his will for more than 20 years as one of the state's most powerful and canny politicians, was arrested Thursday on charges of taking millions in payoffs and kickbacks. The 70-year-old Democrat was arrested by the FBI on federal conspiracy and bribery charges that carry up to 100 years in prison and could cost him his political seat. He was released on $200,000 bail. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said Silver a lawyer by training lined up jobs at two firms and then accepted large sums of money in exchange for using his "titanic" power to do political favors. A lot of the money was disguised as "referral fees," Bharara said. "I'm confident that after a full hearing and due process I'll be vindicated on the charges," said Silver, who seemed unfazed in court, even pausing on his way out to sign a sketch artist's rendering of the scene. He did not enter a plea. The arrest sent shock waves through New York's Capitol and came just a day after Silver shared the stage with Gov. Andrew Cuomo during his State of the State address. The governor had no immediate comment. Silver is one of Albany's most storied political figures, a consummate backroom operator with the power to single-handedly decide the fate of legislation. Along with the Senate majority leader and the governor, he plays a major role in creating state budgets, laws and policies in a system long criticized in Albany as "three men in a room." He controls, for example, which lawmakers sit on which committees and decides whether a bill gets a vote. In a measure of his clout, he helped persuade Cuomo last spring to disband a state anti-corruption commission that was investigating Silver's financial dealings and those of his colleagues. Silver had fought the commission's subpoenas and refused to provide information about his outside legal work. Despite his outsized influence, he is pretty much an unknown outside New York State. Even in Albany, he is one of the most private and least-understood figures, sometimes called "the Sphinx." Silver's outside income has long been a subject of discussion and controversy. But Bharara said New Yorkers could stop wondering: Silver made more than $6 million in outside income since 2002 from two law firms, much of it illegal. "Speaker Silver never did any legal work," Bharara said. "He simply sat back and collected millions of dollars by cashing in on his public office and political influence." Assembly Majority Leader Joe Morelle said Silver still has the backing of an "overwhelming" number of the chamber's Democrats, and they are not seeking his resignation as speaker. "We believe he can carry out his duties as speaker," Morelle said. "We're going to stand with him. ... We have faith in the speaker." At one law firm specializing in personal injury and asbestos removal, Weitz & Luxenberg, Silver was accused of receiving millions in so-called referral fees in exchange for lining up state grants for a doctor's research, according to prosecutors. At another firm specializing in real estate tax law, Silver collected big fees for using his political clout to steer powerful developers to the firm as clients, authorities said. A graduate of Brooklyn Law School, Silver was first elected to the Assembly in 1976, representing a district on Manhattan's Lower East Side, where he was born and still lives. Silver has gone toe-to-toe with five New York governors from Mario Cuomo to his son Andrew Cuomo since early 1994, when he was selected speaker. He has championed liberal causes in the Legislature, where he has used his position as a powerbroker to support teachers, trial lawyers and civil service unions. ___ Klepper reported from Albany. Associated Press writer Larry Neumeister in New York and Michael Virtanen in Albany contributed to this report. | 5 | 8,322 | news |
In his first press conference since allegations of the Patriots using deflated footballs surfaced, Bill Belichick said he had 'no explanation' for how the balls got deflated. | 5 | 8,323 | news |
From Billings to Buffalo, this price point could land you a home with luxurious touches, ample room or historic appeal. In some major cities, finding a home that encompasses both quality infrastructure and modern finishes can be a tedious task. Do not fret, home buyers. We've done the work for you and found top-notch homes that meet this criteria. Check out the following homes, all in well-known locales across the country and priced at approximately $350,000. Seattle, WA 5130 S Medley Ct, Seattle, WA For Sale: $325,000 Built in 1919, this 2-bedroom, 1-bath Craftsman home has been beautifully updated while still maintaining its nostalgic charm. Lush foliage such as raised organic garden beds, fruit bushes, and mature trees engulf the property. See more Seattle homes for sale. Austin, TX 9720 Alex Ln, Austin, TX For Sale: $320,000 This 3-bedroom, 3-bathroom home is spacious and well equipped, and its kitchen sports stainless steel appliances and granite counter tops. Outdoor seating is plentiful, with a lovely patio in the backyard and a private second-story balcony. See more homes for sale in Austin . San Diego, CA 6356 Thorn St, San Diego, CA For Sale: $339,000 Remodeled throughout, this 2-bedroom, 1-bathroom home showcases a modern and light-filled interior. All flooring is new, and the kitchen boasts new stainless steel appliances, granite counter tops, and cabinets. See more homes listed in San Diego . Billings, MT 3228 Turnberry Cir, Billings, MT For Sale: $350,000 This expansive 5-bedroom, 4-bath home totals 3,201 square feet. The home's elegant interior leads to a roomy deck, overlooking a sprawling backyard. See more Billings homes for sale. Nashville, TN 1011 Carolyn Ave, Nashville, TN For Sale: $309,900 Packed with updates, this brick, cottage-style 3-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom home with downstairs master bedroom delivers a stylish interior with new appliances, and the exterior boasts a new roof. See more homes for sale in Nashville . Buffalo, NY 139 Dorchester Rd, Buffalo, NY For Sale: $309,900 BuffaloBuilt in 1908, this 4-bedroom, 2-bathroom colonial home has been upgraded throughout. Its historic exterior complements the interior's open floor plan and modern updates. See more homes listed in Buffalo . Denver, CO 2812 Pontiac St, Denver, CO For Sale: $349,900 The exterior and interior of this 4-bedroom, 2-bathroom ranch home has received a complete update. Notable upgrades include its high-end kitchen, with new stainless steel appliances, stylish tile backsplash and white Shaker cabinets. See more Denver homes for sale. Baltimore, MD 2 Orkney Ct, Baltimore, MD For Sale: $309,900 This 3-bedroom, 3-bathroom colonial home has been renovated but still features a charming, wood-burning fireplace. The home also has a sunroom, built-in speakers throughout and a finished attic. See more homes for sale in Baltimore . Salt Lake City, UT 1131 E Browning Ave, Salt Lake City, UT For Sale: $345,000 Surrounded by towering trees, this 4-bedroom, 2-bath home offers a glimpse of rural living while in the city. Its warm and inviting interior includes a vaulted living room and efficient, clean-burning fireplace. See more homes listed in Lake City Salt . Minneapolis, MN 905 Van White Memorial Blvd, Minneapolis, MN For Sale: $339,000 This 3-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom home has an open floor plan and luxurious amenities. Notable features include cherry hardwoods on the main floor, Bose surround system, two-sided slate fireplace, and master bath with a jetted tub and separate shower. See more Minneapolis homes for sale. | 3 | 8,324 | finance |
Mitsubishi may have something exciting up its sleeve for the Chicago auto show if this new teaser photo is any indication. The company says that its upcoming debut will be the "return of a legend," making us think that the Mitsubishi Montero nameplate is slated for a comeback. The blacked-out silhouette shown on a sand dune in the teaser photo is clearly an off-road-oriented SUV, and looks larger than the current Mitsubishi Outlander and Outlander Sport crossovers. The Mitsubishi Montero SUV was sold in the U.S. between 1983 and 2005, and a new model wouldn't be completely out of the blue given recent reports and Mitsubishi concepts previewing this new SUV. The Mitsubishi Pajero, as the Montero is known in other markets, is still on sale worldwide, and we previously reported that the new Pajero/Montero would move upmarket and offer a plug-in hybrid version in the U.S. Mitsubishi also previewed a new SUV with the GC-PHEV concept for the 2013 Tokyo auto show , and the new model debuting in Chicago could be a production version of that concept. Related link: Research a Mitsubishi Outlander We don't know if the new Mitsubishi Montero will debut right away with the rumored plug-in hybrid powertrain, especially given that the Mitsubishi Outlander plug-in has been delayed for the U.S. until late 2015 or early 2016. Instead, we would expect the new SUV to debut with traditional gasoline powertrains in Chicago. Stay tuned for more news about the return of the Mitsubishi Montero as we approach this model's debut at the Chicago auto show in a few weeks. Source: Mitsubishi | 9 | 8,325 | autos |
E-cigarettes have been controversial since manufacturers started touting them as the solution to smoking no tobacco, and instead of smoke they produce a vapor that makers claim is much less harmful than traditional cigarettes. Now, new research suggests that vaping with devices turned to a "high voltage" can actually produce more of one harmful chemical formaldehyde than is found in normal cigarettes. That's according to a letter from Portland State University researchers published in the New England Journal of Medicine. E-cigarettes require no tobacco and nothing burns, and thus they give off no smoke. Instead, with each "puff" the e-cigarette releases a little bit of the heated liquid in a cartridge into vapor form, for the user to inhale. Users can choose the "voltage" at which this vapor is released. Formaldehyde is used for a range of purposes, from household products to preserving dead bodies, and the US government has classified it as a carcinogen. These researchers analyzed the vapor produced by the e-cigarettes and found dangerous levels of formaldehyde. In fact, they found that the formaldehyde that a vaper would be exposed to from high-voltage e-cigarette use is five to 15 times more than the exposure from smoking normal cigarettes. Representatives of the vaping industry insist that few people would use the high-voltage setting because of the harsh taste, and that is the only setting at which formaldehyde was found. But doctors have been debunking the "e-cigarettes are harmless" theory for a few years now. E-cigarettes still have nicotine, which is addictive, can contribute to causing cancer, and is associated with birth defects in children. The vapor is marketed as nearly harmless, yet a review of published data last year found that there isn't enough research on its long-term effects to come to such a conclusion. One of the letter's authors, James F. Pankow, told NBC that it's still too early to fully understand the negative effects of e-cigarettes. "But the bottom line is there are toxins, and some are more than in regular cigarettes. And if you are vaping, you probably shouldn't be using it at a high-voltage setting." | 7 | 8,326 | health |
47 Uses for Food Outside the Kitchen Do you know rubbing banana can fix a DVD or cucumber juice can be used as shoe polish? Check out some interesting uses of food items aside from consumption. Baking Soda A paste of baking soda and water will bring relief to itching caused by insect bites or stings. Baking soda also helps to remove stubborn stains on utensils. Add a little lemon juice to it and you can brighten brass with this solution. Wine According to a study at Oregon State University in 2005, wine can be used to clean fruits and vegetables. The alcohol in wine dissolves impurities on the surface, and some of its components kill pathogens like salmonella and E. coli. Wine may also heal bruises: An old folk remedy suggests soaking a piece of bread in wine and then applying it to a bruise to help it heal quicker. Stay current on the latest happenings in the wine world Salt When mixed in hot water, a saltwater gargle will reduce toothache and provide relief from sore throats. In other uses, add a pinch of salt to a carton of milk and it will not go sour. You can also check the freshness of an egg by dropping them in salt water. If the egg floats, it's too old to use. Watch: When to Salt Food (4:12) Garlic Try applying to an acne breakout. Garlic is also a potent natural antifungal. Add a few cloves of crushed garlic to warm water in a foot bath and soak the affected foot for half an hour to get relief from athletes foot. Watch: How to Mince & Crush Garlic (1:09) Olive Oil If your hands or feet are covered in paint, sap or any other sticky substance that's not coming off, scrub them with olive oil and a little salt or sugar. The paint will come right off. Similarly, olive oil can be used to clean heavy make up smoothly. Watch: Using Onions & Olive Oil in Tomato Sauce (1:21) Lemon Juice Lemon juice is an effective stain remover and shower cleaner. It can brighten your dull fingernails too: Just pour lemon juice in warm water and for dip your fingertips for a few minutes to see the results. Watch: What are Meyer Lemons? (00:27) Coffee If your fridge is smelling of foul odours, place a bowl of fresh, unused coffee grounds inside it and leave it for a day. The coffee will absorb the odour. You can also get rid of the smell of onion, garlic or cilantro from hands after cooking by rubbing coffee powder on hands and then washing off with warm water! Is that cup of coffee not enough? See all the wonderful recipes that call for coffee Honey Honey has antibacterial, anti-fungal and moisturizing properties. You can use it on dry elbows to soften them, use it in a face scrub or dab on a blemish to lighten it. Browse: Honey recipes Milk There is no need to spend on expensive makeup removal products. Just mix 3 tablespoons of powdered milk in warm water to make a cream. Use this to wipe off your makeup with cotton or facecloth. Watch: Tempering the Milk for Bechamel Sauce (00:32) Vinegar Some interesting properties of vinegar include dissolving rust, cleaning stiff paint brushes and glass surface, and prolonging the life of cut flowers. Vinegar can also cure sore muscles: Mix a few tablespoons of vinegar into a cup of water, dip a cloth in the mixture and apply it to the affected areas for 20 minutes for relief. Watch: Matching Oils & Vinegars to Greens (1:06) Mayonnaise If you have a problem removing price tags and stickers on household items or clothes, ust dab that sticker with mayo and let it sit. Gently wipe off after a few minutes and it'll peel out smoothly. Watch: How to Make a Mayonnaise (1:16) Turmeric Turmeric has great therapeutic properties. It can be used to treat cuts, wounds, burns, psoriasis and other inflammatory skin conditions. When mixed with a gram of flour in a face scrub, it can help you get rid of facial hair over a period of time. Drink: Turmeric Margarita Ketchup This tomato-based concoction is effective in cleaning copper-bottomed pans because of it high citric acid content. Make: Sweet Onion and Chili Ketchup Wasabi Who needs filler for thin lips when you can use wasabi to get a pout? Apply wasabi paste to your lips for a fuller look. Make: Wasabi Cream Cinnamon Use a cinnamon trail to keep insects, especially ants, at bay from unwanted territory! Make: Cinnamon Doughnuts Apple Juice Apple juice is a natural toner and astringent. When applied to the face, it can tighten pores and restore skin's pH balance. Use it to moisturize the skin whenever needed. Try this: Detoxifying Apple Lemon Ginger Juice Cayenne Pepper It can be used as an ant deterrent: Just make a trail around the areas you want to cordon off from these insects. Make: Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup Beer Beer is an easy solution for thickening fine hair. After shampooing, rinse hair with a can of flat beer. The yeast in it plumps up the hair shaft, giving volume to hair. Remember to rinse off the beer after some time with plenty of water! Brew: Beer from Hops Gatorade Next time you have a headache, think twice before popping a pill. Instead you can drink two glasses of Gatorade! It can cure your headache almost instantly. Yogurt Cold plain yogurt provides quick and temporary relief to mild sunburn pain. While coldness soothes the skin, yogurt moistures the skin. Rinse with cool water. Try it: Homemade Yogurt Banana Is your DVD skipping or freezing while playing? You can rub a banana over its surface to seal the cracks. The inside of banana peel can also be used to polish silver. Browse all the different ways you can eat bananas Tea Bags Tea bags contain anti-inflammatory caffeine and tannins that can bring relief to puffy under-eye areas. Dip your tea bag in boiling water for five minutes, then cool them in the refrigerator before dabbing them softly on puffy areas. Your tired eyes will be instantly refreshed. Make: Ginger, Jalapeno, and Lemon Tea Butter Increase the shelf life of hard cheese by applying a light coat of butter to it. This will keep them fresh and free of mold for a longer period. In other uses, you can use butter to stop a door from squeaking by rubbing it on the hinges. Watch: How to Make Compound Butter (1:46) Cucumber A cucumber slice can work as a magic shoe polish. Rub a slice on your shoe, it will not only shine but also repel water. Find a new way to prepare cucumbers Eggshells Crushed eggshells can be scattered around vegetables and flowers in your garden to fend off hungry herbivores, such as slugs, snails, and cutworms, without using toxic pesticides. An added benefit: eggshells are rich in calcium and will also enrich your soil. Watch: Buying, Storing & Egg Freshness (2:26) Walnut Walnut can be used as a scratch filler. Hardwood floors can be repaired by rubbing shelled nuts into the shallow scratches. The natural oil from walnut helps mask the flaws. Mix walnuts into one of these recipes Onion If you wish to thicken or grow eyebrow hair, onion is the solution. The sulphur in onion juice aids in speedy regrowth of eyebrow hair. So grind an onion and apply the juice on eyebrows using a cotton ball. Watch: How to Chop an Onion (00:45) Brown Sugar Brown sugar can be a good substitute for your costly face scrubs. The granules in brown sugar clear away dead skin effectively when mixed with olive oil and some water, then rubbed on the skin. Make: Brown Sugar Cookies Coconut Oil Applying coconut oil inside nostrils can help you with runny nose, allergies and sore nostrils. If men apply it to their face prior to shaving, it will reduce the skin damage caused by shaving. Apart from this, coconut oil can also be used to lubricate guitar strings. Make: Coconut Coffee Blondies Potato Did you know that raw potato juice can make your shoes shiny? Simply rub a fresh cut potato slice on the shoe surface to see the effect. If you rub a potato slice on the inside of a windshield or car mirror, the juice will prevent fog from setting on the mirror. Find a new way to cook with potatoes Sugar If you accidently munch on a hot bit of pizza or sip hot tea, a quick fix for a burnt tongue is easily available in the kitchen. Reach out for sugar and sprinkle it on the affected area. The pain will subside almost instantly. Watch: How to Cream Butter and Sugar (00:46) Cornstarch If a shoelace or jewelry knot has become too tight to open, rub the knot in cornstarch before trying again. The knot will open easily. Make: Alfajores Cornstarch Sandwich Cookies Bay Leaves These act as a bug repellent. You can keep them in the flour canister or spread around the floor to ward off insects. A safe option to use in homes with kids and pets! Make: Lemon and Bay Leaf Pot de Crème Bread Since bread sticks to things, it can be used to clean up shattered glass. Sliced bread is also ideal for keeping things fresh or re-softening items that have hardened. For example, put bread in a bag of hardened marshmallows or place slices on the edges of a cut cake to prevent it from drying out. Watch: Basic Bread Making Tools (3:31) Canola Oil It can be used to clean grease of any object. The 'oil cuts through other oil' concept applies here. Cooking Spray When sprayed on wasps, flies or other winged insects, it impedes their ability to fly. So next time you go out for a picnic or eat outside on the deck, you can spray it around without having to worry about chemical hazards. In other uses, florists use cooking spray to help their tropical flowers last. A light spray on petals prevents them from drying out. Peanut Butter It can be used to remove glue or a stubborn price tag from any surface. Apply peanut butter over the area and rub off gently with a cloth and watch the glue come off easily. Browse the many ways to enjoy peanut butter Vodka Now you have more than one reason for stocking up vodka at home. The liquor can calm rashes and stings, help remove mould and ease a toothache. F lowers can be kept fresh for longer if you add a few drops of vodka and a teaspoon of sugar to the water in the flower vase. Browse: Vodka cocktails Eggs Yolks have high protein content and can be used as a fantastic hair deep-conditioner. Separate egg yolk from the white and massage it into your scalp and hair. Wrap the hair in a shower cap and a warm towel, and wait 30 minutes. Rinse with cool water and shampoo as usual. Your locks will be super sleek and shiny afterward! Watch: Egg Anatomy (2:29) Cola Did you know that your favorite cold drink has enough chemicals in it to clean stains on porcelain bowls or a toilet seat? It can also be used to remove gum from hair. It works by dissolving the chemicals that keep gum from dissolving in your mouth, thus releasing the gum from hair strands after a brief soak. Drink: Cardamom Cola Rice Rice grains are good alternatives to pie weights and keep the crust of the pie from bubbling up on the bottom. Another alternate use for rice is to dry out water from electronics. If your phone has accidentally fallen in the sink or toilet, dry it out by placing it in a ziploc bag filled with rice for about five hours. The rice will soak up all the moisture in the phone. Watch: 3 Alternative Ways to Steam Rice (2:31) Oatmeal Oatmeal is a favored remedy to cure acne and soothe irritated skin. Cook up oatmeal, let it cool down and then apply as a mask over the affected area. It works by drying out the pimple pores. Also, you can use it to neutralize odor by placing an open container of oatmeal in the refrigerator. Make: Kitchen-Sink Oatmeal Cookies Citrus Peel Citrus peel can be used as a deodorizer. If your dustbin stinks, just throw some citrus peels in it and the odor will fade off. Dried orange peels can also be used in fireplace flames. The peel's oil fuels the flames, and can even keep your chimney cleaner. Make: Candied Citrus Peel Pickle Juice The briny juice of pickles can melt ice or snow because the liquid acts like salt. So next time there is snow on your doorstep, eat up your pickles and dump its juice outside. Try it: The Fibblesnork Uber-Garlic Pickle Chocolate Combine half a cup of boiling milk, half a cup of melted 35 percent cocoa (it contains antioxidants) and one cup of unscented bubble bath together for a relaxing and rejuvenating bath spa experience. Love chocolate? Find more ways to eat it right here Kool-Aid Kool-Aid is more than just a sweet drink. Use the unsweetened version of Kool-Aid powder as temporary hair dye. Empty the powder in a bowl and add conditioner to it. Mix water to make a paste and then apply on the hair. Next, wrap the hair in plastic and let it sit for at least six hours. Rinse off with without shampooing. The color will last a couple of days and you would be saved from any chemical damage to hair as well. Make: Kool-Aid Pickles Popcorn Garland Traditionally, Christmas trees around the world have been decorated with different foods. So why not make a popcorn garland for your tree? Once you have your bucket of popcorn, get a thread and a needle, and start stringing by piercing the center of each piece until you have a long garland. In the end, cut the thread from the spool and tie the ends. Hang it on the tree for a snowy look. Popcorn, it's just right for snack time. Try one of these gourmet flavors | 0 | 8,327 | foodanddrink |
Brittany Maynard's mother says that families should not have to uproot their lives in order to die in peace. Her terminally ill daughter chose to move to Oregon so she could end her life on her own terms. | 8 | 8,328 | video |
Microsoft is integrating Skype directly into Windows 10, and the result looks a lot like Apple's iMessage service. While the company unveiled some of its Skype integration at a special Windows 10 press event in Redmond yesterday, the software maker didn't show its new Messaging app on the PC version of Windows 10. This appears to be key to a new experience for Skype messaging in Windows 10, and it brings back the built-in Messaging app from Windows 8 that Microsoft killed with the Windows 8.1 update . Skype is starting to link usernames to mobile numbers The new Messaging app works by integrating Skype, allowing you to chat to Skype contacts or initiate video / audio calls. All the conversations are synced between PCs, tablets, and phones, and the new app looks like a lightweight version of Skype. It's also identical to the Messages app on OS X, with the same two-panel interface and circular UI for contact photos. Microsoft has started linking Skype usernames with mobile numbers to make it easier to find friends who are using the service without having to know their user ID. That makes this whole approach a lot more like iMessage, allowing Skype users to chat to friends easily on the service. The main difference is that Skype is cross-platform so you can chat to friends on iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows, and more, while iMessage is limited to Apple's platforms. The built-in Skype experience on the phone version of Windows 10 also allows you to send text messages, but it's entirely possible (and likely) that Microsoft will extend this functionality and sync state to the PC version just like iMessage. In Microsoft's new world Windows 10 apps are the same across PCs, phones, and tablets, so such a move would be expected. Microsoft isn't fully detailing its Messaging app plans just yet, but it's encouraging to see the company move to a more native and simple integration of Skype instead of separate and unnecessary apps. All that's needed now is the complexity of usernames to fully disappear so everyone can use Skype just with their mobile number. | 3 | 8,329 | finance |
There are many reasons to love H&M. From its designer collaborations to its constantly-changing inventory, the Swedish fast-fashion retailer knows how to please. What truly keeps us coming back, though, are its unbeatable prices. Our budget-restrained hearts can't resist its trending silhouettes, luxe detailing, and undeniably stylish pieces and at prices we can actually afford. However, the love for a good, stylish deal isn't unique to the broke girl: Nicole Richie and Michelle Williams have both dared to don H&M on the red carpet and looked extraordinary doing so. Whether you're out in Tinseltown or simply looking to upgrade some of your workwear staples, H&M proves that fashion-forward and wallet-friendly aren't mutually exclusive. Like this post? There's more. Get tons of style secrets, insider shopping dish, fashion news, and more on the Refinery29 Fashion Facebook page! Jumpin', jumpin' H&M Sleeveless Jumpsuit, $49.95, available at H&M . Plum peplum: hard to say five times, but an easy fit in your wardrobe. H&M Wide-Cut Scuba-look Top, $39.95, available at H&M . Fight the winter blues with soft baby blue. H&M Shoulder Bag, $17.95, available at H&M . From H&M's eco-friendly line Conscious, this quilted bomber jacket is a no-guilt addition to your everyday layering game. H&M Quilted Denim Jacket, $39.95, available at H&M . Wear this season's hottest red-carpet trend on a watching-from-home-with-a-dollar-slice budget. H&M Scuba-Look Top, $34.95, available at H&M ; H&M Skirt with Pleats, $29.95, available at H&M. Pumped-up kicks. H&M Sneakers, $24.95, available at H&M. Clean cut. H&M Straight-Cut Shirt, $19.95, available at H&M . A workwear essential that you can sneak into your off-duty wardrobe as well. H&M Scuba-Look Dress, $49.95, available at H&M . Get that tailored look with a never-left-the-sofa feel. H&M Knit Sweater, $34.95, available at H&M ; H&M Pants Loose Fit, $24.95, available at H&M . Fine embroidery on an H&M budget what's not to love? H&M Cord-Embroidered Skirt, $49.95, available at H&M . Mother Nature has been gracious thus far. But, in the case of an unanticipated snow storm, these chunky-soled boots will have your back. H&M Platform Boots, $39.95, available at H&M . Let the dancing queen in you out in these funky, floral, wide-legged trousers. H&M Patterned Pants, $49.95, available at H&M . All oversized everything. H&M Wool-Blend Turtleneck Sweater, $49.95, available at H&M; H&M Wide-Leg Pants, $29.95, available at H&M . It feels like your off-duty T-shirt, but the fitted high-low hem gives this knotted dress an elegant finish. H&M Jersey Dress, $49.95, available at H&M . This jacket is padded to pack on warmth, but still light enough to layer under your coat. H&M Pilot Jacket, $49.95, available at H&M. Girl with the pearl. H&M Large Hoop Earrings, $12.95, available at H&M . This shapely, asymmetric hem will make your cubicle feel like the front row of a fashion show. H&M Asymmetric Cotton Blouse, $49.95, available at H&M ; H&M Flared Suit Pants, $49.95, available at H&M . Mellow yellow. H&M Textured Jacket, $49.95, available at H&M. A solid choice overall sorry, can't hear your laugh over the sound of crickets. H&M Bib Overalls, $39.95, available at H&M . Ruffled sleeves plus a printed skort? It's like our childhood selves styled a very chic, grown-up outfit. H&M Ruffled Crepe Blouse, $39.95, available at H&M ; H&M Patterned Skort, $20, available at H&M . It's a bug's life. H&M Sweatshirt with Zip, $17.95, available at H&M . A Portlandia-approved print for your everyday wear. H&M Long-Sleeved Dress, $24.95, available at H&M . A midi-length turtleneck dress is as close as you'll get to a wearable Snuggie. Embrace it. H&M Knit Cowl-Neck Dress, $49.95, available at H&M . Oversized pockets offer the most hands-free convenience. H&M Melange Top, $39.95, available at H&M . Get one step closer to becoming Taylor Swift with your own coordinated separates (and post-gym heels). H&M Patterned Blouse, $29.95, available at H&M ; H&M Pencil Skirt, $34.95, available at H&M ; H&M Pumps, $34.95, available at H&M . Seriously, yellow: If it's not in your wardrobe already, now's your time to add it in. H&M Pattern-Knit Cardigan, $49.95, available at H&M . | 4 | 8,330 | lifestyle |
Melbourne, Australia Eugenie Bouchard of Canada takes a selfie using a spectator's phone after defeating Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands during their women's singles second round match at the Australian Open. Manila, Philippines Schoolchildren dressed as Swiss Guards rest as they wait for the arrival of Pope Francis outside the Manila Cathedral. Rawalpindi, Pakistan Pakistani Waseem Akram, 27, dances during a private party in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Florida, US A United Launch Alliance Atlas V 551 rocket blasts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Piornal, Spain Revellers throw turnips at the Jarramplas as he makes his way through the streets while beating his drum during the Jarramplas traditional festival. Asan, South Korea Hyundai Motor Co. vehicles sit parked at a delivery center at the company's factory in this aerial photograph. Singapore A Victoria Crowned Pigeon is seen in the Wings of Asia aviary at the Jurong Bird Park. Bilad al-Qadeem, Bahrain Bahraini protesters, wearing tear gas masks, talk during clashes with police after a demonstration against the arrest of Sheikh Ali Salman, head of the Shiite opposition movement al-Wefaq. Zhengzhou, China Dining hall steps gets painted with rainbow colors at North China University of Water Resources and Electric Power. Lusaka, Zambia An electoral agent checks on voters roll as Zambians (outside) queue to cast their ballots in the Zambian presidential elections at Kanyama primary in Lusaka. Liaoning province, China A paramilitary policeman releases a wild goose in Linghai. Las Vegas, Nevada Fidel Maldonado Jr., left, reacts after sending Amir Imam to the mat during their boxing bout. Benghazi, Libya A member of the Libyan pro-government forces, backed by the locals, holds his weapon as he looks through a hole in a wall, during clashes with the Shura Council of Libyan Revolutionarie.on Jan. 21. Zanzibar, Tanzania A child poses for the camera after a swim in the Indian Ocean. Edgewater, New Jersey A person uses a cell phone to take a photograph of a large fire at an apartment complex. Madrid, Spain A dog is blessed by a priest at San Anton church, marking San Anton Abad's Day (Saint Anthony). London, England Deer rut in the early morning frost in Richmond Park. Mejicanos, El Salvador Members of the 18th Street gang are presented to the media after being arrested, for threatening residents of San Valentin apartments. Koenigssee, Germany Barrett Martineau of Canada competes during the Viessmann FIBT Skeleton World Cup at Deutche Post Eisarena. Atlanta, Georgia Jaiya Smith carries a sign down the aisle during a service honoring Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King preached. Mitrovica, Kosovo Kosovar miners go on strike in the Trepca mine in north Kosovo. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil People gather and bathe on Copacabana beach as the sun sets. Nairobi, Kenya Kenyan school pupils and activists challenge riot police during a protest against the removal of their school's playground, at the Langata Road Primary School. Berlin, Germany Five week old Amur tiger cub 'Alisha' looks out of a basket at it is presented to the media for the first time at the Tierpark Friedrichsfelde zoo. Tel Aviv, Israel An Israeli police officer and paramedics treat an injured man at the scene of a stabbing. Brussels, Belgium A priest cries during a funeral service for VfL Wolfsburg midfielder and Belgium Under-21 international Junior Malanda, at the Koekelberg Basilica. Antwerp, Belgium A Belgian paratrooper keeps guard outside a private building in the Jewish area in central city of Antwerp. San Bartolome de Pinares, Spain A horse rider drinks wine next to a bonfire during a ritual in honor of Saint Anthony the Abbot, the patron saint of domestic animals. Sylhet, Bangladesh Boys who make their livelihood from waste materials pose for a photographer. | 5 | 8,331 | news |
Disneyland sought on Thursday to reassure visitors that the theme park was safe amid a measles outbreak that began there in late December and prompted state health officials to urge parents not to bring their unvaccinated children. The California Department of Public Health has linked 59 confirmed cases of measles to the outbreak believed to have begun when an infected person visited Disneyland, likely from out of the country, between Dec. 15 and Dec. 20. Among those infected are at least five Disney employees and a student at Huntington Beach High School, some 15 miles away from the park, which earlier this week ordered its unvaccinated students to stay home until Jan. 29.On Wednesday Dr. Gil Chavez, deputy director of the state health department, told reporters that anyone who had been immunized for measles should not have a concern about visiting the theme park. "But if you are unvaccinated, I would worry about it," Chavez said. "And if you have a minor that cannot be vaccinated under the age of 12 months, I would recommend that those children are not taken to places like Disneyland today." Asked about Chavez' remarks, Disney spokeswoman Suzi Brown said on Thursday that the measles outbreak was a broad community issue that had grown beyond the resort in Anaheim. "We agree with what Dr Chavez said that it is absolutely safe to visit Disneyland if you have been immunized," Brown said. Attendance at the park has not been affected by the outbreak, she said. Dr Pamela Hymel, chief medical officer for Walt Disney Parks and resorts, has said that Disney was offering its cast members vaccinations and measles tests. "Realistically, when you think about Disneyland, you'll have 30,000 to 40,000 people visiting on any given day. It's like a small city. And just like a small city it has to deal with this kind of thing," said Jim Hill, writer of a popular blog about the company. Measles typically begins with fever, cough, runny nose and red eyes, followed by red rash that often starts on the face and spreads downward. The sometimes deadly viral disease can spread very swiftly among unvaccinated children. There is no specific treatment for measles and most people recover within a few weeks. But in poor and malnourished children and people with reduced immunity, measles can cause serious complications including blindness, encephalitis, severe diarrhea, ear infection and pneumonia. (Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Grant McCool) | 5 | 8,332 | news |
What you do before bed can effect how well you sleep. TC Newman (@PurpleTCNewman) has bedtime rituals to induce the best night's sleep. | 8 | 8,333 | video |
Hear from Brandon Jennings after his big game against the Magic. | 1 | 8,334 | sports |
Donuts for days... For the Love of a Donut I kind of have a thing for donuts. It's true. They're my love language. They get me. If I had to choose a food group to eat for the rest of my life, donuts would be it. There's no shame in that, my friends. A wise friend of mine once said, "Why be sad when there are donuts in this world?" And she's entirely correct. There are very few things that can't be remedied by a good donut. And as much as I love to eat donuts, I've also discovered a new love for making them. That's right! Donuts are surprisingly easy to make at home. With a few standard baking ingredients and a little bit of donut will power, you can make these tasty treats yourself. When the donut cravings strike you, you only have to walk to your kitchen. Dreams really do come true... Image via Twenty20/kcaley1 The Classic Donut For the best classic yeast donut you'll ever eat, make these . Heart-shaped donuts make everything better. And I know from personal experience that these donuts freeze extremely well. If on the off-chance you do not finish them all in one sitting, you can freeze what's left and pop them in the microwave when you need one again. (Yes, need.) Sugared Cake Donut Another great classic is a sugared cake donut . This recipe courtesy of Sheri Silver could not be easier to make! With a few ingredients that you probably have on hand, you can make these in just a few minutes. Perfect for a birthday morning breakfast or an afternoon treat! If you don't have a donut cutter, don't fret! You can use a glass to cut your dough. Image via Sheri Silver Double Chocolate Baked Donuts Chocolate lovers will go crazy for Joy the Baker's double chocolate baked donuts . With a chocolate cake batter and a rich chocolatey glaze, you'll have nothing but heart eyes for days. Decorate them with cute colorful sprinkles and have a donut party! Image via Joy Wilson MORE: 10 Healthy Dessert Recipes Gluten-Free Powdered Donuts Surprisingly enough, there's a yummy homemade donut option for those of us that need gluten-free. With non-dairy butter, coconut oil, and gluten-free baking mix, you can whip up these delicious gluten-free powdered sugar donuts from Andrea's Notebook. Image via Andrea's Notebook Jelly Donuts If jelly donuts are your thing, you're in luck. These homemade jelly donuts from Smitten Kitchen look amazing and can be filled with your favorite jam or jelly. A little mixing, a little frying, a little filling, and your heart will be set. If you need dairy-free, there are some options for you! Image via Smitten Kitchen Baked Pumpkin Donuts With Salted Maple Glaze If frying donuts seems too unhealthy for you, you can always bake some instead. These baked pumpkin donuts with salted maple glaze are like heaven. All you need is a trusty donut pan and a craving for a warm, comforting treat. And don't be turned off by pumpkin. They are delicious and should be eaten year-round. Mini Donuts with Vanilla Glaze Everything is cuter when it comes in miniature size! These mini donuts with vanilla glaze from Smashed Peas and Carrots will not disappoint. Even better, no frying! These little treats are perfect to make with the kids, too. Perfect for a party or brunch with friends. Image via Smashed Peas and Carrots MORE: 10 Gourmet Donut Recipes Cinnamon Sugar Doughnut Muffins If you don't have a donut pan, you can always make donut muffins! These cinnamon-sugar donut muffins courtesy of This Heart of Mine look delicious! If you're short on time, you can make the batter the night before, then bake them in time for breakfast! Another recipe that won't let you down. Image via This Heart of Mine Baked Strawberry Donuts When I was a girl, strawberry donuts were my favorite. Still today, I have a thing for those sweet, pink treat and Cooking Classy's baked strawberry donuts look incredible! Using fresh strawberries, I'm sure they taste amazing! Image via Cooking Classy Maple Bacon Donut Last but not least, we must pay tribute to the new kid on the donut block, the maple bacon donut . These savory and sweet rings of deliciousness have become more and more popular the last few years. Best of all, thanks to this recipe from Baked by Rachel, you can make them at home to satisfy your meat-hungry man. (But I bet you'll love them, too!) Image via Baked by Rachel | 0 | 8,335 | foodanddrink |
During a visit to Kansas University on Thursday, Obama showed off his impersonation skills. | 5 | 8,336 | news |
New England Patriots' HC Bill Belichick addresses the media after accusations of using deflated balls during the AFC Championship Game. To see more Patriots videos download the Patriots DeskSite. | 1 | 8,337 | sports |
Here's your look at highlights from the weekly photo report, a gallery featuring a mix of front-page photography, the odd image you might have missed and lasting moments our editors think you should see. Spain San Anthony bonfire festival A horse rider drinks wine next to a bonfire during a ritual in honor of Saint Anthony the Abbot, the patron saint of domestic animals, in San Bartolome de Pinares, about 62 miles west of Madrid, Spain on Friday, Jan. 16, 2015. Pakistan double life Waseem Akram, 27, dances during a private party in Rawalpindi, Pakistan on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2015. By day, Akram sells mobile phone accessories from an alleyway shop in an old neighborhood of this Pakistani city. But by night, he stands before a mirror, shaving away his beard and picking through mascara and rouge to become Rani, a female wedding party dancer. Pope in the Philippines Worshippers cheer as they wait for the arrival of Pope Francis at Rizal Park in Manila, Philippines on Sunday, Jan. 18, 2015. Millions filled Manila's main park and surrounding areas for Francis' final Mass in the Philippines on Sunday, braving a steady rain. Ukraine conflict A Ukrainian woman embraces her dog in a shelter during the heaviest exchange of artillery fire from the previous few days in the Voroshilovsky area of Donetsk, Ukraine on Sunday, Jan. 18, 2015. Australian Open tennis Julia Goerges of Germany serves to Klara Koukalova of the Czech Republic during their second round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia on Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2015. Spain's Jarramplas Festival People throw turnips at the Jarramplas as he makes his way through the streets beating his drum during the Jarramplas Festival in Piornal, Spain on Monday, Jan. 19, 2015. Jarramplas is a character that wears a costume made from colorful strips of fabric and a devil-like mask and beats a drum through the streets of Piornal while residents throw turnips as a punishment for stealing cattle. India Hindu festival A Hindu devotee prays at the Sangam, the confluence of rivers Ganges and Yamuna, on "Mauni Amavasya," (New Moon Day), during the annual month-long Hindu religious fair "Magh Mela" in Allahabad, India on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2015. Cuba daily life Kids do their homework inside the courtyard of an apartment building in Havana, Cuba, Monday, Jan. 19, 2015. Ukraine daily life A Ukrainian woman takes a bath in the waters of lake of Sherbakova Park during the celebration of the Orthodox Epiphany in Donetsk, Ukraine. Monday, Jan. 19, 2015. Orthodox Christians celebrate the Epiphany on Jan. 19, following the old Julian calendar. Hong Kong Fashion Week A model presents a creation by Indonesian fashion designer Meggie Hadiyanto during Hong Kong Fashion Week for Fall/Winter 2015, in Hong Kong on Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2015. | 5 | 8,338 | news |
Scientists working on Europe's Rosetta probe, which is tracking Comet 67P, say they may have found evidence for how such icy objects were formed. New pictures of the surface reveal a lumpy texture in places that researchers speculate could have been the body's original building blocks. Their appearance means they are being dubbed "goosebumps", which is a bit of fun given the comet's duck-like shape. But if this interpretation is correct, it represents a major discovery. "We still have to model this, but I think they really could be pointing back in time to the early days of the Solar System - to the formation of the building blocks of cometary nuclei," said imaging team leader Holger Sierks from the Max-Planck-Institute for Solar System Research in Göttingen, Germany. "Our thinking is that accreting gas and dust would have formed little 'pebbles' at first that grew and grew until they got up to the size of these goosebumps - about 3m in size - and for whatever reason, they couldn't then grow any further. "Eventually, they'd have found a region of instability and clumped together to form the nucleus," he told BBC News. Rosetta team-member Stephen Lowry said the goosebumps (which to some also look like a clutch of "dinosaur eggs") were among the most startling results to have come out of the mission so far. "Remember, these objects would have formed at least 4.5 billion years ago. Where else could you see physical evidence of processes that were happening that long ago? So, it's very exciting, but we have to be sure that this regular lattice structure represents genuine cometesimals and is not some feature that has somehow been produced as a result of ices simply sublimating from the comet; because we don't see the goosebumps everywhere," the Kent University, UK, expert cautioned. The presence of this lumpy texture on 67P is just one observation made in a slew of papers published as a special edition in this week's Science Magazine. The papers are really a first take at trying to characterise the 4km-wide "space duck", which Rosetta will be following throughout 2015 as it sweeps around the Sun. Cameras on the probe have now imaged 70% of the comet's surface. The unseen fraction, which lies in the southern hemisphere, will be mapped as it emerges from the darkness of winter. The team has defined 19 regions on 67P, giving each the name of an Ancient Egyptian deity. These zones - and more are likely to be added in future - display five basic terrain types, from areas of high dust accumulation to exposed craggy faces composed of rock-like material. The researchers report some fascinating behaviours over and above the expected sight of jets of gas and dust hurtling away from the comet as its ices warm and vaporise. For example, these jets produce strong "winds" that appear to drive dust particles into dunes. "It sounds highly improbable," commented Nic Thomas from Switzerland's University of Bern. "We see sand dunes on the Earth, on Mars and on Venus, but all of those objects have gravity and thick atmospheres. "On the comet, you have almost no gravity and it's not an atmosphere we could breathe. So, it really is difficult to conceive how you can make sand dunes on a cometary nucleus. The trick we think is that there are very strong winds there - 300m/s - and that these winds can, even though the density of the gas is very low, push particles around to make the dunes." Another striking occurrence is a kind "fluidisation" effect that acts to smooth some surfaces. Scientists think this occurs when ices change their structure. The change in phase results in a release of gas that can pick up local dust and make it move - albeit briefly - like a fluid. Something similar is seen on Earth when large volumes of hot ash tumble down the sides of volcanoes. At the bottom of 67P, the so-called Imhotep region appears to have experienced repeated fluidisation events, recorded in defined layers. The Rosetta pictures also pick up episodes of past explosive behaviour. In one shot, a block of material the size of a football field has been lifted up and dropped beside the gaping hole it left behind in the comet's surface. Indeed, the violent release of gas at depth seems to be a common activity on 67P, followed by the collapse of material back into the void. The data being gathered by the European Space Agency probe is going to keep scientists busy for years, but it is clear already that many of the old ideas about how comets are put together and how they behave will have to change. It is obvious now that this comet is not a large lump of ice with some dust mixed in. Rather, it has a much more complex construction, incorporating significantly more dust and many rocky components. This is very evident from the ratio of dust to gas being ejected by the comet (four to one), and all those craggy cliff features where stiff, consolidated materials seem to dominate. "We used to think of comets as 'dirty snowballs'; we now think 'icy dirt-ball' is a much better description," said Simon Green from the UK's Open University. "That's the way 67P looks - a solid object with ice vaporising from somewhere below the surface." Comet 67P - "Space duck" in numbers The Science papers include some key stats on the comet A full rotation of the body takes just over 12.4 hours The axis of rotation runs through the "neck" region Its larger lobe ("body") is about 4.1 × 3.3 × 1.8 km The smaller lobe ("head") is about 2.6 × 2.3 × 1.8 km Gravity measurements give a mass of 10 billion tonnes Mapping estimates the volume to be about 21.4 cubic km The density works out at about 470kg per cubic metre This would imply that Comet 67P is highly porous It is 70-80% empty space, but are there big voids inside? and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos | 5 | 8,339 | news |
Some of us have been blessed with an ample bosom, and then some of us have not (for which I am in the latter group). Regardless of what the numbers and letter(s) say on your current bra-sizing tag, sometimes a little makeup trickery can come in handy to create the illusion of fullness. Valentine's Day is just a few days away, so in lieu of spending an exorbitant amount on a fancy padded bra or wearing an uncomfortable bustier that's just not you, here's an affordable way to put a smile on your significant other's face without having to suffer financial or physical pain. Read ahead for my three-step method for faking cleavage with makeup. Step one: contour. Using a small blush brush, sweep contouring powder or bronzer (at least one to two shades darker than your natural skin tone) up and down the area between your breasts. Next, envision a curved "Y" shape, sweeping your bronzer along the natural curvature and roundness at the top of each of the breasts. This will create an illusion of depth. Step two: highlight. To feign fullness, use a highlighting powder or cream (or a concealer one to two shades lighter than your skin tone) and apply along the upper half, "pushed-up" areas of your breasts. Tip: use the top of your bra line as a general guide. Then, apply to the inside part of the top of the "Y" directly against the chestbone. Coupled with the contour, this will make your faux cleavage really pop. Step three: set it and forget it. Blend to diffuse any harsh lines, and set with a pressed or loose powder. | 4 | 8,340 | lifestyle |
One star who's getting a whole lot of attention lately is British actor Charlie Hunnam, who wrapped up his role on Sons of Anarchy and who's had, well, a lot of sexy moments over the past year or so. Charlie's handsome Hollywood evolution started more than a decade ago, but he's still winning over plenty of fans with his sexy smirks. Whether you're newly into the star or you've always been a fan, we've broken down some must-know facts about him. For instance, did you know he was married back in his early twenties? Here are 30 things to know about Charlie Hunnam, including facts about everything from his childhood to his love life to his most surprising habits. Charlie's mom was an artist, and his dad was a scrap-metal dealer , and they separated when he was young. His dad passed away in 2013. He has one older brother and two younger half brothers, and he calls his older brother "one of the toughest guys" he's met.He grew up in Newcastle, England, and later moved to a small country village, where he ended up fighting a lot because "people tried to prove their worth by fighting the Newcastle kid." He had a "horrible time" in school because he had to defend himself a lot. Growing up, Charlie played rugby .For years it's been his dream to live "a little obscure life," because he's felt as if he was on "the cusp of an existential crisis" since he was 3 years old. That same draw toward a smaller life is why Charlie planned to buy a ranch , but he had "something of a nervous breakdown" last year and ended up backing out. He credits his social awareness to his upbringing , saying, "I grew up in a pretty socially and economically depressed place. I felt really conscious as a very, very young man - like 7 or 8 - that everybody was just so caught up in survival and the drudgery of just getting through the day." Although he definitely wasn't a nerd, Charlie says he wasn't the coolest kid in school: "I mean, I had my awkward years." The film Excalibur inspired him to become an actor.Charlie was approached by a talent scout when he was drunk and doing some last-minute shopping on Christmas Eve.Having never been to America, he moved to LA when he was 18 years old. Charlie dated Katharine Towne, who made an appearance on Undeclared , and the couple got married after knowing each other for only three weeks. They divorced in 2002, and at the time, he told the LA Times , "I was going back to England and my wife and I were afraid we'd lose touch, and we got married as something of a lark - well, no, I don't think marriage is a lark but we figured that way we wouldn't lose touch. And we'd definitely have to see each other if for no other reason than to get divorced at some point."He and his current girlfriend, jewelry designer Morgana McNelis (pictured above), met in 2007, and he wears a ring she gave him that's engraved with the phrase "I love you endlessly."His relationship is part of why he isn't fazed by fangirls . Of all the female attention, he's said, "To what end? I have a girlfriend. If you were, like, 25 and a p*ssy hound, being famous would be awesome. But it's not like I'm spending too much time in Vegas or in the Hollywood clubs or anything like that. So it doesn't really benefit me much."As for Charlie's most forward fan enounter ? A woman once yelled, "Jax! I want to f*cking rape you!" Well, then. When it comes to feeling pressured to be fit, Charlie blames Brad Pitt , saying, "F*cking Brad Pitt ruined it for everyone. After Fight Club , the expectation of what a dude is supposed to look like when he takes off his shirt is just so high."As for that body, he doesn't have a trainer because he considers working out his time to himself.For the record, he can smoke a joint and go straight to the gym .Along with being health-conscious, he's also eco-conscious. He brought his own eggs to set while filming Sons of Anarchy because they were from a farm down the road. He also gave up fish for 18 months after getting really torn up over the End of the Line documentary, which is all about the effects of overfishing. Don't be surprised if the actor adds "writer" to his résumé. Charlie wrote a script about Vlad the Impaler, and although he developed the project with Brad Pitt's company, Plan B, it hasn't moved forward yet.Over the years, he's turned down some interesting roles. His pal Jason Segel wrote a part for him in Forgetting Sarah Marshall , but Charlie couldn't do it, so the role went to Russell Brand. He's said, "I couldn't see that movie for a while because I was a bit tortured by it," adding, "Russell Brand did a so much better job than I would have done in the movie." He isn't really interested in doing comedy , though, he said, "I've worked with comedy people, and those motherf*ckers are seriously funny. You step in with the Seth Rogens of the world, you better have some jokes." He also turned down Thor , and he feels like Chris Hemsworth was right for the part. Like his Sons of Anarchy character, he's into motorcycles, and he rides a Harley . Talking about riding, he's said, "You smell the scents of the city, the garbage, the flowers, and bread baking. I feel more engaged in the world on a bike. That's the romantic side of it."Also like Jax Teller, he smokes , but "guiltily," sometimes smoking one or two cigarettes a day, and sometimes none.He isn't afraid to defend himself, either. He keeps a machete in his office , and when a burglar came into his house, he challenged him: "I pinned him to the ground and said, 'Dude, I'm not going to f*ck you up this time, but if you ever come near here again, literally, they'll never find your body - I'll cut you in so many pieces.'" Charlie has some interesting habits, including his sneaker obsession . For years he collected Nike Airmax 90 shoes, eventually ending up with 85 pairs. Recently, though, he picked six or seven to keep, then gave the rest to friends and to charity.He also admits that he steals clothes , attributing his large wardrobe to the clothes he's taken from movie sets and from the Sons of Anarchy set.One special habit he has, though, is his cool New Year's tradition : "I tend to go to bed really early on New Year's Eve. Then I wake up early, drive up while it's still dark, and hike out somewhere beautiful to watch the sunrise. I just take a couple hours and have a postmortem of the year." | 6 | 8,341 | entertainment |
Donald Rose has no teeth, but that's not his biggest problem. A camouflage hat droops over his ancient, wire-framed glasses. He's only 43, but he looks much older. I met him one day in October as he sat on a tan metal folding chair in the hallway of Riverview School, one of the few schools few buildings, really in the coal-mining town of Grundy, Virginia. That day it was the site of a free clinic, the Remote Area Medical . Rose was only there to get new glasses he's on Medicare, which doesn't cover most vision services. Remote Area Medical was founded in 1985 by Stan Brock, a 79-year-old Brit who wears a tan Air-Force-style uniform and formerly hosted a nature TV show called Wild Kingdom. Even after he spent time in the wilds of Guyana, Brock came to the conclusion that poor Americans needed access to medical care about as badly as the Guyanese did. Now Remote Area Medical holds 20 or so packed clinics all over the country each year, providing free checkups and services to low-income families who pour in from around the region. When I pulled into the school parking lot, someone was sleeping in the small yellow car in the next space, fast-food wrappers spread out on the dashboard. Inside, the clinic's patrons looked more or less able-bodied. Most of the women were overweight, and the majority of the people I talked to were missing some of their teeth. But they were walking and talking, or shuffling patiently along the beige halls as they waited for their names to be called. There weren't a lot of crutches and wheelchairs. Yet many of the people in the surrounding county, Buchanan, derive their income from Social Security Disability Insurance, the government program for people who are deemed unfit for work because of permanent physical or mental wounds. Along with neighboring counties, Buchanan has one of the highest percentages of adult disability recipients in the nation, according to a 2014 analysis by the Urban Institute's Stephan Lindner . Nearly 20 percent of the area's adult residents received government SSDI benefits in 2011, the most recent year Lindner was able to analyze. According to Lindner's calculations, five of the 10 counties that have the most people on disability are in Virginia and so are four of the lowest, making the state an emblem of how wealth and work determine health and well-being. Six hours to the north, in Arlington, Fairfax, and Loudoun Counties, just one out of every hundred adults draws SSDI benefits. But Buchanan county is home to a shadow economy of maimed workers, eking out a living the only way they can by joining the nation's increasingly sizable disability rolls. "On certain days of the month you stay away from the post office," says Priscilla Harris, a professor who teaches at the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, "because that's when the disability checks are coming in." Just about everyone I spoke with at the Grundy clinic was a former manual worker, or married to one, and most had a story of a bone-crushing accident that had left them (or their spouse) out of work forever. For Rose, who came from the nearby town of Council, that day came in 1996, when he was pinned between two pillars in his job at a sawmill. He suffered through work until 2001, he told me, when he finally started collecting "his check," as it's often called. He had to go to a doctor to prove that he was truly hurting he has deteriorating discs, he says, and chronic back pain. He was turned down twice, he thinks because he was just 30 years old at the time. Now the government sends him a monthly check for $956. Each classroom at Riverview School had a different specialist tucked inside in one, an optometrist measured eyes with her chart projected on the classroom wall. She showed me a picture she took in a nearby town of a man who, unable to afford new glasses and rapidly losing eyesight, had taped a stray plastic lens over his existing glasses. The clinic had brought along two glasses-manufacturing RVs where technicians could make patients like Rose a fresh set of glasses, including frames, in just a few hours. As for his teeth? Rose's diabetes loosened them. "They went ahead and pulled them all," he said. He assured me that being toothless was not as grave a life-change as the toothed might imagine it to be. "I can still eat a steak, trust me," he says. "I use my tongue and my gums." Grundy, which is located at the tip of Virginia that jabs into Kentucky, is sheltered by the steep, wooded Appalachians and cut through by the mighty Levisa Fork River. (The river is so mighty that the area has suffered nine major floods in the past century, and recently the entire town had to be relocated to higher ground.) In October, the sun-dappled mountains blazed with red and orange as the leaves turned. If you wanted to send someone a postcard to convince them of the merits of Virginia, this would be it. But if this place has the scenery of the Belgian Ardennes, it has the health statistics of Bangladesh. People here die about five years earlier than they should. About a third of people smoke , and a third are obese. A quarter of the people live in poverty, compared with about 11 percent in the rest of the state. These Appalachians, many of them former coal miners, are among the nearly nine million American workers receiving disability payments today, compared with 1.4 million in 1970. Spending on the program has risen nine-fold over the past four decades. Clusters of recipients can be found from California to Maine, though as Lindner points out, the states with the highest numbers tend to be in the South and Southeast. Critics say the program's expansion is partly driven by Americans who are perfectly capable of working but are unwilling to do so. Since the mid-1980s, government spending on the elderly and disabled has ballooned, even as tightened eligibility rules have slashed welfare aid for needy mothers and children. Even advocates of "big-government"-style welfare acknowledge that some people use the program because it's the only form of income available to them. At the clinic, people who were themselves on disability complained about others who they saw as lazy fakers who milked the system. But visiting a place like Grundy reveals a more complicated picture. There are undoubtedly some who exaggerate their ailments in order to collect their checks. But many of the coal workers here have experienced horrific on-the-job accidents and can't go back to the mines. Other residents have been battered by diabetes, obesity, and tobacco. Others still suffer from severe depression and intellectual disabilities that would preclude most kinds of work. And most importantly, there are no other options here: no orthodontist's office where someone can work the front desk; no big firms brimming with entry-level secretarial jobs. It's not even clear how a person would go about calling around for a job here: My iPhone stopped working a few miles outside the county line. Few white-collar people understand the degree to which manual labor chews up workers' bodies. And in Grundy, there's nowhere for them to go afterward. "Here you have a Pandora's box of every social issue that might contribute to disability," said Martin Wegbreit, the director of litigation at the Central Virginia Legal Aid Society. Before coming to Richmond in 2004, Wegbreit worked in southwest Virginia for nearly 20 years. "These are jobs that even if they don't injure people, they wear people down," he told me. "It's hard on the back, it's hard on the knees, it's hard on the entire body." As I drove around Buchanan, trailer homes seemed to be the predominant form of housing. I passed a Dairy Queen, a Long John Silvers, a Pizza Hut, and not much else. Locals blame the town's economic slump on the decline of coal, which they in turn blame on the Environmental Protection Agency's regulations . Several yards were dotted with campaign signs urging passers-by to "Stop Obama/Vote Gillespie." (Sixty percent of Buchanan county voted for Ed Gillespie, the Republican candidate for Senate, though he lost in the state overall.) The place had its boom years. Coal first came in the 1930s, displacing poor farmers who tilled the tough mountain dirt. In the 1970s, United Coal expanded rapidly by snapping up cheap land all across Buchanan county. A 1978 New York Times article describes a "never-ending rush hour" on Grundy's lone highway as convoys of coal trucks with names like "The Lord Is My Leader" roared through town. The Island Creek Coal Company made plans for a development of 1,600 Swiss-chalet-style houses on a nearby hilltop. The population of the county has shrunk by about 15,000 people since that year. In May alone, 188 workers were laid off in a mine near Grundy. The industry has been slammed by the newfound natural gas reserves and is expected to contract further by 2020. Still, coal remains the largest employer in Buchanan, and its heavy impact continues to be felt even by those who no longer work in the mines. Though we sometimes associate the dangers of coal with big, splashy incidents like 2010's Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster in West Virginia, in which a violent explosion killed 29 men, most coal-induced disabilities are banal, and some are hard to detect. Among the most dangerous types of coal environments is low coal so called because the seams are just 36 inches high. Workers in these mines spent their days crawling through the vast, dark caverns. "For a miner who avoids being crippled, burned or buried alive," wrote John C. Tucker of Buchanan county in May God Have Mercy , "the usual question is which will give out first his lungs, his back, or his knees." All types of mines require incessant bending and lifting; a bag of rock dust can weigh up to 50 pounds. Many of the former miners I spoke with complained of back pain, a condition that's both excruciating and difficult for doctors to diagnose. There's also plenty of hearing loss, says John Gifford, a local disability attorney. "It's loud as hell down there." Other injuries are even more gruesome. "I've had men who had their hand trapped, fingers crushed, fingers amputated," Gifford adds. "One man didn't duck in time, so a cable pulled him off the mining car and he suffered paralysis in both legs." Harris, the law professor, says a former student of hers worked as a coal miner until he was trapped in a collapse and had to have his foot amputated. In the school's cafeteria, I met a middle-aged man named Robert who told me he began working in the mines when he was 8 years old to help his family. (He asked me to use only his first name.) In 1999, he and some co-workers were repairing a piece of machinery and a metal chunk the size of a small table swung off a hook and came crashing down onto him, taking the entire apparatus down with it. "My forehead hit the ground, and the metal hit the back of my head," he said. "I had a hard hat on. The first time it hit me, it knocked my hard hat off. The second time, it knocked my head into the ground and landed on top of me and bent me over." After the initial recovery came the bad headaches and the prescription painkillers that he couldn't tolerate. An x-ray revealed a herniated disc. He tried to go back to work three times, he says, but after four or five days back on the job, he'd be puking from the pain. It took him five years to get his disability check. He now says he and his wife make about $2,000 a month from disability. "We were within two, three days of losing our home," his wife, Vicki, said. "If he hadn't got it when he did, we would have." Vicki was also applying for disability after quitting her job as a nursing assistant. Years of lifting 300-pound men, she said, inflamed the arthritis and bone spurs in her spine. She doesn't have health insurance, which is why she comes to clinics like this. The couple had been there since 4 a.m. Working in a mine has gotten safer over the years. But even if a coal worker manages to escape a freak accident, standing in clouds of coal dust can be treacherous for the lungs over time. In a back room of the elementary school, I met with Joe Smiddy, a retired pulmonologist who now volunteers for Remote Area Medical doing chest x-rays. He showed me an image of a pair of lungs mottled with tiny white specks each of them a piece of coal dust with a scar around it. This is coal workers' pneumoconiosis, or black lung disease. "This gentleman has a lung full of dust," he said. Coal workers are supposed to be offered masks to wear, Smiddy said, but "for a 12-hour shift in a coal mine, there's almost nobody who can wear a mask. They say, 'It's heavy on my face, can't breathe with it on.'" No matter how much gunk is clogging their airways, Smiddy said his patients often avoid complaining to their bosses or letting on that they're sick. Unless, that is, they're ready to go on disability. "Coal mining is the only job available to them, and they're feeding their family," he said. "They're going to not raise any sand." Compare all of this with Arlington County, 400 miles away in the northern part of the state, which has one of the nation's lowest rates of disability. Only 1 percent of people in Arlington are on disability, and it's regularly ranked one of the overall healthiest (and richest) counties in the nation. Here, there are well-paved bike routes and a Metro-accessible Whole Foods. People complain when they can't take their tiny dogs into Starbucks. Virginia, in other words, is a state divided not only by politics, professions, and mountains, but also by how run-down its citizens are. While Buchanan county's fortunes have been inextricably tied to coal, those of Northern Virginia are hitched to the government. A large portion of its residents belong to the vast army of contractors, lobbyists, lawyers, PR people, and other auxiliary workers who orbit the federal government and rake in generous salaries for their efforts. As Dylan Matthews pointed out in the Washington Post , there's been a $1.7 billion increase in lobbying spending between 1998 and 2010 alone, which correlates neatly with the rise in incomes of Washington-area residents. What's more, the eye-popping growth of contracting in the 90s that was intended to downsize the government resulted in private workers doing the same work for exponentially more money. Northern Virginia counties are now home to these wealthiest Washingtonians. One day recently I visited an Arlington lululemon. Inside, a man gazed at a wall of "performance" tank tops selling for $58. He hailed a beanie-clad associate and said he needed help finding a gift for his girlfriend. She does "something with a machine," the boyfriend said. "Pilates?" he associate offered. "Yeah." "Do you know which size she is?" "I'm going to guess," the boyfriend said confidently. "Sounds good. If you see a girl behind the counter who you think might be the same size as her," the associate offered, "they have no problem with you asking." Unsurprisingly, Buchanan county has no similar high-end shops. In 2011, it got a Wal-Mart that employs 230 people. At minimum wage, an entry-level job there pays as much as disability would, but even retail jobs require standing for long hours. I searched Monster.com for jobs nearby, and most of the 78 listings were in retail or home healthcare. Only two of the positions were actually in Grundy. "We have no factories, we have nothing here," said Celeste Barrett, a social worker in Grundy. "Coal mining is all we have." Barrett was one of two women from the local department of social services sitting in front of tables bearing heaps of donated clothes. The goods were destined for the families of out-of-work miners, they said. "If you make any money in Buchanan county, you're a coal miner," said the other woman, Amanda Coleman. "These coal miners who were making $80,000 to $90,000 and they go down on disability, where a household of one gets $1,200 [per month]." "It's just such a hard job," Barrett added. "By the time they get a certain age, most of them are humped over." An outmigration of the young and talented has left behind an aging population that is ill-equipped to deal with a changing economy. Thirty-two percent of Buchanan's residents never graduated from high school, compared with 15 percent nationwide. What's more, the same landscape that makes the area so gorgeous can also, perversely, make it harder to stay healthy. There are only a few paved roads into the county, and there was no grocery store until recently. There's no public transportation and few sidewalks. The health problems cascade from there. The economy is built on physically grueling jobs. An injury causes pain, which causes depression. Depression makes it harder to work. People gain weight. The weight gain leads to sleep apnea and sometimes to diabetes. Diabetes can exacerbate vision problems. To top it all off, there are few doctors in the region, and Virginia rejected the Obamacare Medicaid expansion, which would have insured an additional 170,000 people. Because getting to a doctor is hard and expensive, people self-medicate with prescription painkillers, alcohol, and tobacco. Eventually, said Smiddy, the pulmonologist, "they become dysfunctional. They're weaving behind the car. They're setting the stove on fire. It's not that they're bad people. They're probably faith-based people, family people. Most are just trying to function." Those who argue that the disability system has become choked with exaggerated claims are not entirely wrong. In 2011, the Wall Street Journal reported on David Daugherty, a West Virginia judge who had seemingly rubber-stamped approval for all but four of the 1,284 disability appeals that came before him. He appeared to be colluding with a lawyer named Eric Conn, who had advertised his services on billboards as "Mr. Socialsecurity" and sometimes brought "an inflatable replica of himself to events." It's faster for disability judges to approve a disability claim than to reject one, so it's easy to see how less-than-deserving cases would sneak through. Because of rising income inequality, poor people can now earn almost as much on disability as they can at minimum-wage jobs as long as they can prove they're sick enough. In a 2006 analysis, the economists David Autor and Mark Duggan found that the main reason disability rolls have swollen is that the program's rules were liberalized in 1984. The Social Security administration was directed to weigh applicants' pain and discomfort more heavily and to relax its mental illness screening. (The government has four different sets of standards: one for people under the age of 50, another for those between 50 and 54, another for 55-59-year-olds, and a final one for those 60 and older.) To sign up, applicants first state their disabilities and the names of their doctors. Each application is reviewed by state officials and sometimes by an independent doctor. Two-thirds of applicants are rejected after this step because they lack medical documentation that their ailments will keep them out of work for at least a year. From there, an applicant can appeal, and a different official will review his or her paperwork. After that, another 11 percent of applications are approved. The rejected cases are seen by administrative judges in courtrooms across the country. According to a recent Washington Post investigation , the entire process can take years. If they make it through, beneficiaries will receive $13,740 annually, on average. The problem is, even if society were to decide that there should be fewer people on disability, that the system has become too bloated with sneaky pretenders, it isn't clear what a fifth of the population of Grundy would do to survive. It's entirely possible that some of the town's residents are faking their disability claims, but it's hard to imagine that most of them are. People who are rolling in undeserved government dough generally don't line up at the crack of dawn to get their teeth fixed in an elementary school cafeteria. Residents of Grundy sometimes run into problems during their legal proceedings, which take place via video chat from a courthouse over the mountains in Bluefield. The judge, who is listening to the arguments remotely, must consider age, education, and whether the applicant's skills can be transferred to another line of work. "If you are physically or mentally able to do a job, you don't meet the test for disability," Wegbreit says. "It doesn't matter if that job does or doesn't exist in your region of the country. And that job doesn't exist in Buchanan county." Enough applications get through that disability benefits provide an economic safety net to Buchanan county residents. But the high number of recipients also depresses the area further by keeping new businesses away. Companies aren't eager to hire sick, worn-out miners. "This area is a nightmare of disability," Smiddy says. Any company starting a business here knows that a substantial percentage of workers "are going to have dust on their lungs, they're going to be obese, they've already smoked a pack a day." Once people get on disability, they usually don't go back to gainful employment. Though they're not counted in unemployment statistics, functionally, they become like the long-term unemployed falling into an economic hole from which it's notoriously hard to claw out. Employed people might think of being out of work as being relaxing, but jobs provide identity and purpose. "Whatever the job, it can give a sense of belonging, of being a contributor; an important part, however menial, of an organization with a bigger purpose, a valued part of society," wrote Tom Fryers , a visiting professor of public health at the University of Leicester in the U.K., in a recent paper. "Work can provide a structure for the day, week, and year without which life just drifts by." Idleness, meanwhile, further depletes bodies and minds.The rate of depression is 19 percent among people who have been unemployed for a year, compared to just 10 to 11 percent for people who went without jobs for just a few weeks . Even though they don't face the same financial strains as the long-term unemployed, people on disability still suffer the negative health effects of being jobless. Researchers have also found high rates of depression among recipients of welfare, for example. "Once you're on the couch, your muscles become weak, you're going to gain weight, you're not physically capable of going back in the coal mine," Smiddy said. A lack of work has been shown to increase the risk of premature death significantly, particularly for men . The problem, as Smiddy sees it, isn't just that the economy is limited, or that the region's education and medical systems could use an overhaul. The county's health has been so poor for so long, he says, that locals have set their expectations too low. And once everyone the people, their employers, their doctors, the government accepts that bleak vision, it hardens into reality. It makes it so there's no life after coal. "It's 'Just pull my teeth', or 'Grandpa died when he was 50' or 'Momma's already on oxygen,'" Smiddy tells me, his voice growing increasingly exasperated as he clicks through x-rays in his makeshift office. "There's a negative fatalistic attitude. We have to have an expectation of health, and seek health." This article was originally published at http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/01/life-in-the-sickest-town-in-america/384718/ | 5 | 8,342 | news |
Some of us have been blessed with an ample bosom, and then some of us have not (for which I am in the latter group). Regardless of what the numbers and letter(s) say on your current bra-sizing tag, sometimes a little makeup trickery can come in handy to create the illusion of fullness. Valentine's Day is just a few weeks away, so in lieu of spending an exorbitant amount on a fancy padded bra or wearing an uncomfortable bustier that's just not you, here's an affordable way to put a smile on your significant other's face without having to suffer financial or physical pain. Read ahead for my three-step method for faking cleavage with makeup.Step one: contour. Using a small blush brush, sweep contouring powder or bronzer (at least one to two shades darker than your natural skin tone) up and down the area between your breasts. Next, envision a curved "Y" shape, sweeping your bronzer along the natural curvature and roundness at the top of each of the breasts. This will create an illusion of depth.Step two: highlight. To feign fullness, use a highlighting powder or cream (or a concealer one to two shades lighter than your skin tone) and apply along the upper half, "pushed-up" areas of your breasts. Tip: use the top of your bra line as a general guide. Then, apply to the inside part of the top of the "Y" directly against the chestbone. Coupled with the contour, this will make your faux cleavage really pop.Step three: set it and forget it. Blend to diffuse any harsh lines, and set with a pressed or loose powder. | 4 | 8,343 | lifestyle |
Last week authorities in Belgium said they had foiled an imminent terrorist plot to launch multiple attacks on the police. | 5 | 8,344 | news |
Australian man hugs strangers to spread awareness for mental health issues. CNN's Zain Asher speaks to Marcus Falconer. | 8 | 8,345 | video |
There are almost too many must-see cities in the world -- and the most seamless way to hit them all is by backpacking . With little luggage and a huge sense of adventure, a backpacking trip allows you to experience new places with freedom and ease (all while teaching you more than college ever could ). These 11 global cities are especially ripe for visiting with a backpack, whether it's your first time or you're a seasoned backpacker. Some are stellar because they're cheap , some are youthful party destinations, and some are just so adventurous that they're best explored with a light load to carry. Start planning your adventure now! 1. Chiang Mai, Thailand Tourists might flock to Thailand's islands or beaches, but nobody should miss this gem in the north , where canals weave around yoga studios, organic restaurants and awesome dive bars. It's estimated that a visit here will cost you just under $18 a day , according to the budget experts at Price of Travel . 2. Istanbul, Turkey Turkey's party capital has one of the best food bazaars in the world and a tangle of cozy, quaint streets loaded with historical sites. There's also awesome nightlife , shopping and eating. 3. Tulum, Mexico This is where travelers get their adventure on . You'll want to pack light so you can hike ruins on cliffs above the ocean, scuba into a nearby UNDERWATER RIVER and swim in the crystal waters. It's the awesomely less-touristy side of Mexico . 4. Berlin, Germany Backpackers count this as one of their favorite cities , likely because of the vibrant party scene with endless clubs and bars. But make no mistake: this hip city is also full of street art and fascinating historic sites , from the Berlin Wall Memorial to the Brandenburg Gate to Checkpoint Charlie. 5. Panama City, Panama If you want to "backpack" but still feel cosmopolitan, this sexy city is your spot. It's super-cheap , on the beach and pretty much THE cutting edge of Central American culture. 6. Reykjavik, Iceland Iceland's capital is ideal for solo travelers , as it's full of both beautiful nature and hangouts like cafes. From there, you can venture off to explore Iceland's many glaciers and waterfalls . Though hotels are known to be expensive , you can find a hostel for under $30 -- and the views are well worth it. 7. Galicia, Spain It's not a city, per se, but rather a region on the coast that's known for being brilliantly lush and green . You can hop into little villages along the way for tapas , dancing and some authentic Spanish culture. (Come in summer for a crazy horse-herding festival .) 8. Cuzco, Peru This is the place to gear up for your trek to Machu Picchu , but it's also worth staying awhile. The colorful mountain village takes you back in time, with markets full of traditional crafts and chances to raft wild rivers or climb in cloud forests . 9. Sofia, Bulgaria The Bulgarian capital is currently the third-cheapest city for backpackers, according to Price of Travel's Europe Backpacker Index for 2015 . Snuggled in the foothills, Sofia is a breathtaking maze of ornate churches, open markets and really cheap meals . 10. Pokhara, Nepal Out of 124 backpacking destinations that Price of Travel surveyed in 2014, this was the very cheapest one. Here, the average backpacker's budget is just $14 per day. You'll soak up views of the Annapurna mountain range, hike to a waterfall and can even stay at a safari camp . 11. Montreal, Canada If you don't have the funds to make it all the way to Europe, consider this more local substitute (which feels so European, it's not really even a substitute at all). It's one of the cheapest backpacking cities in North America , by some estimates -- and once there, you can walk, bike or stroll the French-y streets to your heart's content. | 2 | 8,346 | travel |
Fitness expert Mike Tinney introduces different ways of staying healthy. | 5 | 8,347 | news |
Forty-nine of the 66 confirmed cases of measles have been traced back to the resort. Carter Evans reports on how a new health warning could disrupt some families' vacation plans. | 2 | 8,348 | travel |
Not every NFL player produces in accordance to his paycheck. Here are several whose 2014 salary didn't line up with their statistics. Jay Cutler, QB, Chicago Bears 2014 salary: $17,500,000 or $972,222 per interception (18) Not to kick a guy when he's down, but the contract extension Cutler signed before the season now seems ill timed in a number of ways. Not only did he tie for the league lead in interceptions with 18 (along with six lost fumbles), but Cutler's seven-year, $126.7 million deal also seems foolish in light of the more team-friendly pacts that Colin Kaepernick and Andy Dalton signed afterwards. Instead, Cutler now has to weather the criticism and backlash that comes from being the NFL's highest-paid player (in terms of overall contract) on a team that woefully underachieved. To make matters worse, Cutler's future in Chicago appears tenuous with a rookie general manager in charge and a new head coach coming on board in the near future. Adrian Peterson, RB, Minnesota Vikings 2014 salary: $7,600,000 for one game played Peterson's case is certainly unique given the circumstances, but let's not forget that while he was on the Exempt/Commissioner's Permission list he was still being paid. The league's highest-paid running back, Peterson received his game checks up until Nov. 18, when he was suspended without pay. While that decision cost him more than $4 million, he still made $7.6 million in base salary alone (also due $2.65 million in various bonuses), which isn't too shabby considering he played in just one game. Trent Richardson, RB, Indianapolis Colts 2014 salary: $2,252,708 or $750,903 per touchdown (3) Richardson's base salary may not seem that outrageous at first glance. But when you factor in that only 13 running backs were paid more in 2014, Richardson averaged just 3.3 yards per carry with three touchdowns, and he has yet to play a single snap for the Colts in the playoffs, the No. 3 overall pick of the 2012 draft is starting to look like one of the biggest busts in recent history. On top of all that, Richardson is scheduled to make $3.2 million in 2015 and don't forget Indianapolis gave up a 2014 first-round pick to acquire him from Cleveland in the first place. See Browns fans, not everything has gone wrong these past few seasons. Dwayne Bowe, WR, Kansas City Chiefs 2014 salary: $8,235,294 for 0 touchdowns The fact that Bowe went an entire season without catching a touchdown pass is hard to fathom, but when you throw in his large salary (plus $3.25 million in bonuses) it makes it even harder to comprehend. One of the highest-paid wide receivers in the NFL, Bowe certainly hasn't performed accordingly. Since catching 15 TD passes in 2013, Bowe has recorded 13 in the last four seasons combined. And did I mention the $40 million remaining on his contract, which goes through 2017? Percy Harvin, WR, Seattle Seahawks/New York Jets 2014 salary: $6,470,588 or $3.2 million per team Harvin played in eight games for the Jets compared to just five for the Seahawks, but you get the idea. I'm not sure what's more telling the fact that Seattle gave up on Harvin less than two seasons after trading three draft picks (including a first- and third-rounder) to get him or that he still has $41.5 million left on his contract, which goes through 2018. Whoever ends up being the Jets' next head coach, one of his jobs will be to try and squeeze more production out of his mercurial and often fragile yet highly compensated all-purpose threat. Vernon Davis, TE, San Francisco 49ers 2014 salary: $4,700,000 or $2,350,000 per touchdown It's bad enough that Davis' receptions decreased by half (52 to 26) from 2013 to '14, but to go from 13 touchdowns to just two? Davis did miss two full games and parts of others due to injuries, but his disappearance from the 49ers' offense is hard to explain. Whether a head-coaching change is the catalyst Davis needs to get back to his Pro Bowl form remains to be seen, but he needs to produce better numbers in 2015 to justify his $7 million cap hit (base salary $4.35 million) or he could be the next ex-49er looking for a new team. Greg Hardy, DE, Carolina Panthers 2014 salary: $13,116,000 for one game played Similar to Adrian Peterson, Hardy's off-field issues resulted in him playing one game before being placed on the exempt list. Unlike Peterson, however, Hardy remained on the list the rest of the season (went on prior to Week 3 after being made inactive for Week 2), meaning he collected his entire salary. Hardy also pocketed another $48,000 as his playoff share for the Panthers' Wild Card win. Hardy signed a one-year deal after Carolina applied the franchise tag to him this past offseason, so he will be one of the more interesting players to watch when free agency commences in March. Brian Orakpo, LB, Washington Redskins 2014 salary: $11,455,000 or $477,292 for every tackle (24) Another franchise tag signee, Orakpo played in just seven games because of a torn pectoral muscle. It's the second time in three seasons that Orakpo missed most of the year because of a torn pectoral (2 GP in 2012). But injuries aside, it's not like Orakpo did a lot this season when he was on the field. In seven games, Orakpo, the NFL's highest-paid linebacker in terms of base salary, managed half a sack and 24 total tackles. He's a pending free agent who didn't make the best of impressions in his walk year. Brandon Carr, CB, Dallas Cowboys 2014 salary: $7,500,000 for 0 interceptions Granted a cornerback's value can be tied more to just interceptions (see Richard Sherman), but in Carr's case, some statistics can't be ignored. In three seasons in a Cowboys uniform, Carr has recorded six interceptions. That number alone is enough to question why he's the second-highest paid defensive back (base salary) in the NFL, but to go all of this season without picking off a single pass? And it's not like quarterbacks were avoiding him (again, ala Sherman) in the first place. On top of the $4.7 million in bonuses he made in 2014, Carr's cap hit totals $26.5 million for the remaining two years on his deal. And he also has a $12.7 million player option (including signing bonus) for 2017. | 1 | 8,349 | sports |
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Jeff Gordon will compete in his 23rd and final full-time Sprint Cup Series season in 2015. Gordon, 43, has earned four career Cup championships, 92 points-paying race wins and 77 pole positions. | 1 | 8,353 | sports |
Chinese zodiac predictions for 2015 February 19, 2015 will mark the beginning of the Lunar New Year, when Chinese, Vietnamese, Tibetan, Mongolian and Korean people around the world celebrate the New Year. The zodiac sign of the Sheep will reign in the coming year, so let's take a look at Chinese zodiac predictions for 2015. Rat If you were born in 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996 or 2008 you fall under the Chinese zodiac sign of the Rat. General prediction: 2/5 stars Overview: Drastic changes might take place this year. There seem to be more hurdles for you to overcome, but fret not, things will work out at the end of the day. You will meet important people who will help you in times of adversity, so don't hesitate to seek help if you must. Although your environment is constantly changing, you will make it through the storm as long as you keep calm and move on. It's good to keep a low profile and avoid attracting too much attention, as it may also invite undesirable negative forces into your way. Love and relationships: 2/5 stars Venus is not on the side of the Rat, especially for those still single. There will be a dip in romantic encounters. Even for those who declare their feelings to their crush, the chances of rejection are pretty high. Try going further to look for the one, and take it slow even when things look promising. For those who are married, the marriage will be stable but take things with a bigger heart and do not harp on trivial issues with your spouse. Keep the relationship close, or else infidelity will be making its way into your marriage. Bull If you were born in 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997 or 2009 you fall under the Chinese zodiac sign of the Bull. General prediction: 1/5 stars Overview: Unexpected outcomes. It isn't a very wonderful year for those born under the zodiac sign of Bull, as you may meet some difficulties in almost all aspects of your life. However, you have to keep your spirits up, and be cautious when it comes to decision-making. As the saying goes, slow and steady wins the race: this how you should take on the year. Be careful of what you say or post online, it might trigger unnecessary altercations. As long as you take a positive approach, this seemingly bad year can be reasonably stable for you too. Love and relationships: 3/5 stars Cupid is looking in your direction and single Bulls will meet many potential lovers. However, it may also be a headache when too many of them appear at the same time. Be responsible and careful when dealing with them. For those who are attached, your relationship will be tested. Hold on to the trust and confidence you have in your partner, for this will be to key to overcome any obstacles in your relationship. Married Bulls, be extra careful. There might be a third party attempting to interfere with your marriage, but be smart in handling the situation and avoid cold wars with your spouse. Communicate with your partner and your marriage will be fine in your own hands. Tiger If you were born in 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998 or 2010, you fall under the Chinese zodiac sign of the Tiger. General prediction: 3/5 stars Overview: A conservative approach will bring you stability . Don't be over-ambitious this year. Take one step at a time and be a little more patient reaping the results of your hard work. If things don't work out after putting in all your effort, take it positively. Think of it as a learning experience, as it will be useful to you in the future. Do not gossips behind others' back because it will trigger off undesirable arguments. If you hold any confidential secrets, keep them well and not let them turn into something that could haunt you instead. Love and relationships: 2/5 stars It might be a bit lonely for Tigers, as the singletons will have difficulties looking for the One this year. For those who are attached, you might try too hard to please your partner and have it backfire on you. For those who are married, one of you might be moving at a faster pace and leave the other feeling neglected. Remember to work together as a couple, in good times and in bad. Financial issues might be the root of most quarrels but don't take things too hard and let the bills hurt your marriage. Rabbit If you were born in 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999 and 2011, you fall under the Chinese zodiac sign of the Rabbit. General prediction: 4/5 stars Overview: Everything good is coming your way! Your lucky star is shining brightly at you! You feel confident and empowered, and therefore highly organised and motivated in anything you do. However, stay calm and rational at all times. Only with a clear mind can you execute your plans seamlessly to perfection. Don't be caught in any form of arguments and try to stay clear of taking sides. Love and relationships: 4/5 If you are single, you will meet many potential lovers. If you are holding a torch for someone, this is the time to declare your love! As long as you present yourself in a prim and proper manner, you will be able to attract people's attention. For those married or attached, spice up your relationship and remember the love vows you had for each other and never forget any anniversaries or birthdays! Happy bunnies, it will be a loving and sweet year ahead for you. Dragon If you were born in 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988 or 2000, you fall under the Chinese zodiac sign of the Dragon. General prediction: 3/5 stars Overview: Relatively stable and pleasant year. Be conservative in your approach in dealing with anything, or else you might easily land yourself in a lawsuit. Opportunities and chances don't come easily, but your guardian angels are watching, so be assured that things will only get better if you should meet with any adversity. The key for this year is to keep your confidence level high, stay motivated and never procrastinate or slack. Even staying in your comfort zone is not good enough to get you anywhere. Love and relationships: 2/5 stars Cupid has some tough luck for you, Dragons! There are not many opportunities to meet potential lovers, and you won't have success declaring your love to a crush either. It will be better if you guys stay as friends for the time being. Married and attached Dragons will find their relationship stagnant or even boring, leading to an unstable relationship and possibly even infidelity! In trying times, your partner's friends and family might be the saviour of your relationship, so be sure to score some brownie points! Snake If you were born in 1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989 or 2001, you fall under the Chinese zodiac sign of the Snake. General prediction: 2/5 stars Overview: Overworked and exhausted. It is a year of uncertainties for the Snakes: unpredictable and busy. If you are always staying at home and not going out to meet people, chances are you are missing out on many other opportunities. However, with opportunity comes risk, so it's good that you meet people out there with some reservations and be cautious of those with ulterior motives. As things aren't going as planned, you might exhaust yourself in the process. Take extra care of your health and get ample rest. Also, avoid water sports or activities as the element of Water is not compatible with your zodiac sign this year. Love and relationships: 1/5 stars For the singles, it's not just having less chances to meet potential lovers; on top of this, there will be competition which you might not win. Even if you get into a relationship, it might turn out to be a short-lived one. Instead, you might actually be happier staying single! For those married and attached, your relationship might face trust issues leading to unwanted quarrels. However, as long as you stay positive and take each other's feelings into consideration, things should be fine. Take charge of your emotions and don't say hurtful words when you don't mean it. Be forgiving. Horse If you were born in 1930, 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990 or 2002, you fall under the Chinese zodiac sign of the Horse. General prediction: 5/5 stars Overview: Fruitful year with blessings. Blessed with good luck, you will do well in your career and love life. Be hard-working, be bold - nothing is impossible as long as you work hard enough. Although you don't exactly get a huge monetary gain, things are working out as you have hoped. Remember to exercise to keep yourself healthy despite your busy schedule. Love and relationships: 5/5 stars No more staying home alone on a weekend evening! Venus is on your side and you will meet someone pretty decent and if you are considering confessing your love, go ahead. Married and attached ones will bssk in the sweetness of love and the both of you will work in unison towards a common goal, bringing your relationship to a whole new level. However,if you're prone to nagging or bossing your partner around, remember to take things with a bigger heart to avoid unnecessary quarrels. Sheep If you were born in the 1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991 or 2003, you fall under the Chinese zodiac sign of the Sheep (also known as the Goat or Ram). General prediction: 1/5 stars Overview: Being weighed down, facing obstacles. Contrary to common belief, it being the year of the zodiac itself doesn't necessarily warrant a good prediction. For the Sheep, you might meet with many obstacles, unhappiness or embarrassing episodes. Even with extra effort, things might not look as good as you have planned. However, don't give up! All these are only momentary, take it as a "training" year and you will be able to prepare yourself for all the goodness next year. Love and relationships: 2/5 stars If you are single, brace yourself. Besides not having any chance with your potential partners, you might even embarrass yourself in front of them. The person you have been secretly admiring will get attached to other people too. Those in a relationship might face intrusion of a third party. Be observant of the friends your partner makes - they might be the ones endangering your relationship. Married couple might find their relationship monotonous. Be sure to add some spice to it. Monkey If you were born in 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992 or 2004, you fall under the Chinese zodiac sign of the Monkey. General prediction: 3/5 stars Overview: Busy but rewarding. Although your schedule is packed, you don't find yourself slowing down. Instead, the more you work, the more energetic you get. This spur of energy is beneficial for your career, but remember not to neglect your loved ones. You should also spend more time caring for your family and friends, as they are precisely the ones providing you the support to work so hard! In times of adversity, they will also be the ones helping you out. No matter how busy you might get, bear in mind that you still need a personal life! Love and relationships: 3/5 stars Singles will find their social life vibrant and fun, full of romantic encounters. However, you will also feel lost with so many options and possibly missing true love. For those in a relationship, the chances of getting married are high, as long as there isn't any one intruding in the relationship. Married couples might feel neglected by their spouse and end up quarreling more often than usual. Try putting in more effort into the marriage and show more love and concern. Rooster If you were born in 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993 and 2005, you fall under the Chinese zodiac sign of the Rooster. General prediction: 4/5 stars Overview: Smooth sailing and a fruitful year. As it is a smooth-sailing year for you, you might be stuck in your comfort zone both in work and your love relationships. However, even when you are not doing much and staying put where you already are, things will only get better! You could also consider taking a short break and travel around the world. Travelling with your family could improve your relationships with them. Love and relationships: 3/5 stars You are pretty lucky when it comes to seeking the One. However, the only thing holding you back is your passiveness. Take the initiative! Married and attached Roosters will have an uneventful year, but be extra-cautious if your partner starts to confide a lot in another friend, who might potentially become an intruder in your relationship. Try to revive the passion, perhaps by going away for a romantic holiday. Dog If you were born in 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970 1982, 1994 or 2006, you fall under the Chinese zodiac sign of the Dog. General prediction: 2/5 stars Overview: Zodiac clashes with the star, slightly more setbacks. Your zodiac constellation has come into a position that clashes with the star of the New Year. It might bring you more unexpected inconvenience but you need to keep your cool and make it through. In fact, as long as you are cautious and honest, the negativity will not be able to affect you too much. For work, it is not a year for you to explore areas outside your expertise, or else you might be easily conned. As long as you stay positive, the year will be better than it seems. Love and relationships: 3/5 stars For those still single, you seem to be feeling fatigue in the search for true love. Rest assured, as love will be knocking on your door this year. If you are married or attached, you might see your relationship plateau, or you might face a long-distance separation. As long as you both stay positive, everything will work out at the end of the day. Pig If you were born in 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971 1983, 1995 or 2007, you fall under the Chinese zodiac sign of the Pig. General prediction: 5/5 stars Overview: Lucky star strikes, all dream come true! Although it is the year of the Sheep, the Pigs are getting all the good luck instead. Minimum input, maximum output. Things will be smooth sailing at work, and some small investments will also reap a considerable return. However, this streak of good luck will not work on unrealistic wishes, as things that are clearly not yours will never be yours. Also, pass on the good fortune by helping others and it will only bring you even more good luck. Love and relationships: 2/5 stars Although Cupid is shooting a lot of arrows, too many options are leaving you in a whirl, or even leading you into a bad relationship. Always be careful before committing, to prevent unnecessary conflicts. For those married and attached, your relationships might be affected by jealousy, misunderstandings and mistrust. This is because your sign is attracting too many unwanted "romantic encounters" which will affect your relationship. Spend more time and focus only on your partner. | 4 | 8,354 | lifestyle |
In another age, the engagement between Mubarak al-Balooshi and his cousin would have been arranged by their family, with little input on the decision from him or her. Instead, the 23-year-old Omani met his fiancée on Instagram, the photo-sharing application. "I was liking her photos, then it turned out she was from my family," al-Balooshi says. As he tells his story, he is sitting with friends on a seaside road in Muscat nicknamed Sharia Al Hub Arabic for Love Street. The café-lined promenade is a popular place for dates, increasingly common in Oman as the Persian Gulf sultanate adjusts to four decades of oil-fuelled development. While the sun sets over the Indian ocean, young men call out honeyed words to female passers-by. But in this traditional Islamic society, where mixing between genders is limited, social media offered one of the only discreet ways for al-Balooshi to woo a girl. "I got to know the charisma of her personality," he says of his cousin, whom he did not know personally because she lives in the United Arab Emirates. Two months ago, he proposed. Their families welcomed their plans. Marrying for love was rare just 20 years ago in Oman, a peaceful nation of four million that borders Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Arranged matches were for a long time the norm, with minimal contact between a couple before their wedding. But customs are evolving rapidly. Oil wealth, globalisation and widespread higher education have transformed the country since Sultan Qaboos bin Said seized power from his father in 1970 and opened Oman to the world. "It's a new generation," says Rahma al-Mahrooqi, director of the humanities research centre at Sultan Qaboos University in Muscat. "People are becoming more open-minded," says Ammar Ali, 26, an Omani who met his wife Sarah (half-Omani, half-Scottish) through a mutual friend. In a survey of 921 Omanis aged 18 to 60, al-Mahrooqi's research centre found that 83% were against arranged marriage. More than a love marriage, young Omanis want a "compatible marriage," al-Mahrooqi says. "Somebody with, for example, the same kind of education and background, instead of the same kind of family." As a result, many are looking for partners at university, at work or on social media. Similar changes are happening in the neighboring United Arab Emirates, says Jane Bristol-Rhys, associate professor of anthropology at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi. Exposure to other cultures whether through television, the internet, or direct contact with foreigners has influenced ideas about what a good marriage should look like. "They're not living in a vacuum here, and they know there are other choices," Bristol-Rhys says. An arranged marriage was unthinkable for Waleed Abdullah, a 28-year-old Omani. "Because I had relationships before, it's impossible I could be convinced easily by any girl," he says. "I need to know the girl." Abdullah married a woman he met at university. She follows a different sect of Islam, but after many months of discussion, he convinced his family that she was the right choice. In some segments of Omani society, dating and marrying for love has become ordinary. Samar al-Mawali, 23, did not tell her parents about her relationship with her high-school sweetheart at first, but when they found out anyway, they supported her. The couple married in December after eight years together. Persuading her family was simple, she says. "They may be conservative in terms of religion and praying five times a day and fasting . . . but they're not conservative in the sense that they don't allow us to mix with boys," she says. But in other segments of Omani society, dating is still completely taboo. While the country lacks the religious police of Saudi Arabia, vigilant relatives can play a similar role. Amira, 23, who has dated in secret for years, has always been careful. "Imagine if somebody sees me, my cousin or my brother, by chance?" she says. "So it's always in places a bit closed-off, places like the seaside at night, or a park, places far from people close to us." She asked Newsweek not to publish her last name, so that her family does not find out. Amira met her first boyfriend in an online chat room when she was 18. Charmed by his words, she talked to him for two years before they met in person. "It was the first date in my life, and I was shaking," she remembers. "It was the first time I sat with a man." Over two more years, they fell deeply in love, picking names for their future children. Then he told her his family would never approve, cut off contact and married his cousin. Amira was hurt, but she recovered. A year after the break-up, he asked her to be his second wife; men are permitted to marry up to four women in Islam. She refused. "After this love, I said, 'Enough, what's the point of love? And guys are idiots,'" she said. "I'll try a traditional marriage." Her family arranged three matches, none of them right. Now she is dating a man she met at work. With dating, of course, come broken hearts. Mohammed al-Hinai, 29, is happily married, but wistfully remembers his first love. Their families were too different, he says. Opposition from relatives sunk the relationship. "Sometimes the culture kills us here," he says. Twenty-six-year-old Dana not her real name hopes to avoid a similar fate. After she met her boyfriend on Facebook four years ago, they schemed to win over her father, who has no idea she dates. Her boyfriend prayed at the mosque near her house and trained at the gym her brother attended, hoping to run into her family members. Dana found a job at the office where her boyfriend worked, giving them a safe explanation for how they met. But when he proposed, three times, her father demurred. He never informed Dana she had an offer, rejecting the proposal because the boyfriend has two daughters from a previous marriage and is separated but not divorced. This does not matter to Dana; she loves him. But she cannot tell her father, she says. "For us, it's a shame for the girl to say to her father, 'I want this one or that one,'" she says. "Unless the father has reached a level of open-mindedness that . . . " she laughs, as if the thought were absurd. Sitting on a lawn chair on Love Street, al-Hinai says he has moved on from his disappointment. After refusing a marriage his father had arranged, he chose a wife for himself, a woman from his village. His eyes are bright as he describes the way their two-year-old son calls out "Baba" each morning. "It's impossible to get everything, impossible," he says. "The most beautiful thing in life is hope. And a message to every lover, every madman: don't say that I loved and it didn't happen, so enough, end of life." When love fails, look around, he says. "If one door is closed, 99 will open." | 5 | 8,355 | news |
Garrett Tenney report from Chicago | 8 | 8,356 | video |
GOP Rep. Kristi Noem explains | 5 | 8,357 | news |
If you're living in the Midwest or on the East Coast, no one has to tell you how cold it is - just one look at the weather forecast is enough to send us under the covers with some hot chocolate to sip. While a steamy beverage and a steady stream of Netflix movies will keep the kids warm for the time being, a hot and hearty meal will warm them through and through. Read on for our favorite family-friendly meals for the most frigid of days. Chicken With Pepperoni Marinara Sauce This dish is guaranteed to be a crowd-pleaser. From Sweet Treats & More, this recipe takes all the things your kids love - cheese, pepperoni, crispy chicken - and bakes them up in one dish in less than 30 minutes. Source: Sweet Treats & More Ziti with "Extra" Veal Ragu Mario Batali spends a lot of time working with veal. His Ziti With "Extra" Veal Ragu will quickly become a family favorite. Source: Mario Batali Cheesy Chicken Wild Rice Casserole Here's a casserole that has been pinned over and over with comments declaring it one of the tastiest and most kid-friendly dishes around. From Picky Palate, this recipe combines creamy cheese, flavorful chicken, and healthful wild rice. Source: Picky Palate Traditional Chili Warm up any night of the week with a big bowl of slow-cooker chili . And you can tailor this recipe to fit your family by adding different types of beans, using ground turkey instead of the beef, or going vegetarian for a really healthy dinner! Source: POPSUGAR Food Broccoli Cheese Soup One easy way to get your kids to eat broccoli (and carrots and celery)? Put the veggies in this yummy broccoli cheese soup from Center Cut Cook. Source: Center Cut Cook Cauliflower Mac and Cheese You can't go wrong with a recipe from Michelle Obama . Especially since she found a way to sneak in some vegetables! Source: Sara Yoo Bolognese Gnocci Bake If you're looking for a cheesy pasta recipe, try Glenda D.'s Bolognese Gnocchi Bake . Source: Glenda Drage Vegetable Barley Soup The addition of beans and barley means you won't miss the meat in this vegetable barley soup . Source: Flickr User simplefoodrecipes Confetti Mac and Cheese Peas and Crayons takes mac and cheese to the next level by adding cooked veggies and a dash of mustard. Source: Peas and Crayons Pork and Mango Stir-Fry This pork and mango stir-fry from Amanda Haas and Cooking Light - which can also be made with chicken breasts - can be prepped before everyone heads off for work and school in the morning and then cooked in just 10 minutes! Source: Amanda Haas Cheesy Lasagna Rolls Instead of layering that lasagna, try a reinvented version by rolling the noodles around a cheesy filling. Check out the easy lasagna roll recipe from POPSUGAR Food. Source: POPSUGAR Food Corn and Potato Chowder There's nothing more comforting than a thick bowl of potato soup, and this recipe for corn and potato chowder from Mama Loves Food is guaranteed to really hit the spot. Add cooked, shredded chicken for extra protein, or serve with a big salad for a family-friendly Fall dinner. Source: Mama Loves Food Slow-Cooker Turkey Meatballs With Spaghetti These tender turkey meatballs simmer all day for a tasty spaghetti dinner the whole family will love. And Mommy Hates Cooking shows you how easy it is with simple step-by-step directions. Source: Mommy Hates Cooking Butternut Squash Soup A cool-weather classic, butternut squash soup makes for a rich and creamy meal that's worthy of serving to company as well as your own family. Source: Betty Crocker Chipotle Black Bean Soup Serve chipotle black bean soup alongside cheesy quesadillas or with chips and salsa for a Mexican-inspired Fall feast. Source: POPSUGAR Food Braised Chicken With Sweet Onions and Parmigiano To warm up a cold, Winter night, Mario Batali offers up a recipe for braised chicken with sweet onions and Parmigiano - a "soupy and restorative" dish. Source: Mario Batali Chicken Pot Pie Soup Shugary Sweets' chicken pot pie soup combines the flavors of two comforting favorites: chicken pot pie and broccoli cheddar soup. While the soup only takes about 30 minutes to make, it tastes like you've been cooking all day! Source: Shugary Sweets Taco Soup Spice it up with a hearty batch of taco soup . It's meat-free, but you could always throw in some ground turkey or beef - or shredded chicken - for an added boost of protein. Source: Anna Roberts Tangy Sloppy Joes With only a few ingredients, these sloppy Joes from Budget Gourmet Mom are on the table and ready for noshing after a day of cooking slow and low, thanks to your Crock-Pot. And leftovers do double duty as lunch the next day. Source: Budget Gourmet Mom Slow-Cooker Pulled Pork Don't be afraid: this pulled pork may look like it took tons of time and effort, but thanks to the Fearless Homemaker's easy directions - and the help of your slow cooker - your family can enjoy a pulled-pork dinner with hardly any fuss or muss. Source: Fearless Homemaker Cheeseburger Pizza Pie Instead of popping that juicy burger on a roll, try this inventive recipe from BlogChef for cheeseburger pizza . This easy family dinner can be topped with your favorite burger toppings for a really unique meal. Source: BlogChef Slow-Cooker Chicken Parmesan Here's a slow-cooker chicken parmesan recipe from Full Bellies, Happy Kids that will have you coming back for more. This recipe sticks with tradition, using bread-crumb-coated chicken and lots of Parmesan cheese for a wonderfully tasty slow-cooker dinner. Source: Full Bellies, Happy Kids 30-Minute Cheesy Chicken Pasta Bake You might think there is no way this bubbling casserole can be ready in 30 minutes, but according to The Slow Roasted Italian, the dish is ready to eat after a short prep and a quick 15-minute bake in the oven. Source: The Slow Roasted Italian Turkey and Rice Soup There's no better way to satisfy a kid with a cold than with a steaming bowl of broth-based turkey and rice soup . Source: Anna Roberts Chicken and Broccoli Cheddar Casserole This is the ultimate comfort food for your hungry kids! A lightened-up version of the classic Chicken Divan , this dish is loaded with cheesy, creamy goodness. It's perfect served over rice to soak up all of the sauce. Source: Amanda Haas Mexican Stuffed Shells Mix Mexican with Italian, and stuff some shells with a flavorful filling made from ground beef and cheese. This recipe is very easy and is sure to become a family favorite; just serve it with fresh salsa and a dollop of sour cream. Source: The Way to His Heart Split Pea Soup "Place in crockpot and head to work - yummy dinner will be ready and waiting for you at the end of the day," Chelle_N of Food.com said of her old-fashioned split pea soup . Source: Food.com Macaroni and Cheese Soup What could be more kid-friendly than macaroni and cheese soup ? Add some roasted tomatoes on top if you want to up the gourmet factor. The best part about this soup: it's even better when reheated! Source: Culinary Covers Vegan Vegetable Soup A delicious, satisfying way to use up your leftover veggies, vegan vegetable soup is a flexible recipe that you can adjust to suit your family's tastes (and what's in the fridge!). Source: POPSUGAR Fitness Creamy Cheesy Tortilla Soup Produce on Parade's creamy cheesy tortilla soup is actually a vegan dish, but we won't tell if you throw some dairy in. Source: Produce on Parade White Bean Soup With Andouille and Collards Take your family's tastebuds on a ragin' Cajun adventure with this flavorful and delicious white bean soup with andouille and collards . Source: José Picayo for Real Simple Hearty Roasted Tomato Soup We know grilled cheese and tomato soup is just about the best food pairing ever, so why not put them together in the same dish? Amy's Cooking Adventures shares a hearty and healthy recipe that will leave your family with empty bowls. Source: Amy's Cooking Adventures Chile Colorado Burritos Feeling like Mexican? Here's a recipe for slow-cooker burritos from Food Pusher that will definitely spice up any night of the week. Full of flavor and melty cheese, this recipe is sure to become a family favorite. Source: Food Pusher French Onion Mac and Cheese Two comfort foods are better than one! I Wash You Dry created a dish that's perfect on a cold day (or really any day!). Source: I Wash You Dry Mexican Pizza Lasagna Here's a fun spin on lasagna that offers a bit of Mexican flair. This recipe from Peas and Crayons for Mexican pizza lasagna is seriously easy, which makes it a perfect recipe for inviting your child into the kitchen to help with making dinner. Source: Peas and Crayons Mexican Skillet Casserole The most-requested recipe on Amanda Haas's site, this Mexican skillet casserole is bound to become a family favorite - even when temperatures are above freezing. Filled with rice, cheese, and beans, it can easily be eaten on its own or rolled up in a burrito. Source: Rebecca Gruber Michelle Obama's Broccoli Soup If it's good enough for the White House, it's good enough for your house! Give Michelle Obama's nutrient-packed broccoli soup a try. Source: Lauren Hendrickson Skillet Lasagna Instead of spending all that time making perfect lasagna layers, this quick and easy skillet lasagna recipe cooks in one pot, making it a family-friendly weeknight dinner. Source: Sarah Lipoff Slow-Cooker Pizza Pasta Who said you can't make pizza in a slow cooker? Simple Organized Living shares this recipe for slow-cooker pizza pasta that takes all of your little one's favorites and simmers them together into one amazing dish. Source: Simple Organized Living Gluten-Free Tomato Soup With Grilled Cheese Croutons Low carb and gluten free, All Day I Dream About Food's simple tomato soup with grilled cheese croutons is comfort food without the guilt. Source: All Day I Dream About Food Curried Pumpkin Soup A savory pot of curried pumpkin soup is the perfect pre-trick-or-treating dinner. Source: Anna Roberts Corn and Butternut Squash Chowder Martha Stewart's corn and butternut squash chowder take just 15 minutes to prep, and the addition of fresh and frozen veggies makes this recipe something you can feel good about feeding your kids. Source: Martha Stewart Cheesy Turkey Chili Mac Cheesy turkey chili mac from Lauren's Latest is loaded with healthy turkey, carrots, corn, and zucchini, and kids will love the addition of curly pasta and lots of cheese. Source: Lauren's Latest Lasagna-Stuffed Shells Instead of using lasagna noodles, stuff shells with lasagna filling for a fun family dinner. Get the easy reinvented lasagna recipe from Living Like the Kings. Source: Living Like the Kings Potato Chowder The most fun thing about a big batch of potato chowder ? The endless options for toppings! Source: Food.com Lasagna Soup This rich, hearty recipe for lasagna soup rethinks the Italian classic. Source: A Farm Girl Dabbles Crisper Drawer Pasta With four daughters running around her home, Melissa d'Arabian knows about the chaos that can occur at dinnertime. The Food Network host and author of Ten Dollar Dinners also knows that busy moms can't always remember what's hiding in the corners of the refrigerator. That's how she came up with Crisper Drawer Pasta , a quick and productive weeknight meal - the whole recipe can be made in 30 minutes - that helps use up everything in the crisper drawer. Source: Melissa d'Arabian New Orleans Seafood Gumbo Jamillah C. calls this stew "a great, quick version of New Orleans seafood gumbo ." Yum! Spaghetti and Meatball Soup I don't think anyone can resist a big bowl of this soup! From Iowa Girl Eats, this flavorful soup is a perfect comfort meal. Serve it with a big salad and garlic bread, and you're guaranteed empty bowls. Source: Iowa Girl Eats Black Bean Soup Protein-rich black bean soup is satisfying on its own or can be made into a more complete meal when served with quesadillas or chips and salsa. Source: Michelle Bell Slow-Cooker Chicken Enchilada Soup Throw all the ingredients for Dainty Chef's chicken enchilada soup in your slow cooker in the morning, and you'll come home to a delicious, filling meal. Source: Dainty Chef Pasta e Fagioli Soup Give the ol' spaghetti and meatballs a break with a hearty bowl of traditional Italian pasta e fagioli . Source: Food.com Vegetarian Spaghetti and Meatballs This wonderfully easy and simply delicious dish uses premade vegetarian meatballs, making dinner a snap. From Bohemian Kate, this recipe will surely become a new family favorite! Source: Bohemian Kate Cheddar Cheese Soup Cheddar cheese soup is the very definition of comfort food. Source: POPSUGAR Food Chicken and Pasta Soup Nothing beats the simplicity and comfort of chicken and pasta soup . Full of veggies and soothing broth, it's just the thing for warding off those pesky cool-weather sniffles. Source: Romulo Yanes for Real Simple Spaghetti and Meatball Potpies From Plain Chicken, this spaghetti and meatball potpie is sure to make the whole family happy. Bake the potpies in ramekins and then flip for a really special presentation.Source: Plain Chicken Cheeseburger and Fries Casserole This casserole totally hits the spot. With hamburger, cheese, and French fries baked right in, this cheeseburger casserole from Lauren's Kitchen is serious comfort food. Source: Lauren's Kitchen Slow-Cooker Mac and Cheese We know kids love creamy macaroni and cheese, which makes this seriously easy recipe from Culinary Cory perfect for cold Winter days. Serve with roasted chicken and fresh steamed veggies for a complete meal. Source: Culinary Cory Loaded Baked Potato Soup Topped with crispy bacon, sour cream, and cheddar cheese, Just a Taste's easy loaded baked potato soup is a creamy, smooth version of the classic. Source: Just a Taste Cheeseburger Soup The Recipe Critic's cheeseburger soup has kid favorite written all over it. The addition of lots of fresh veggies make it a cheeseburger you'll feel good about giving to your kids over and over again. Source: The Recipe Critic Curried Carrot Bisque Don't be afraid to serve your kids curry - this carrot bisque is colorful, light, and healthy. Source: Susannah Chen Turkey Chili Nothing says Winter like a big bowl of turkey chili with cornbread. Source: Flickr User Nathan Yergler | 0 | 8,358 | foodanddrink |
Our airwaves, like our organs and limbs, are suffocated by expanding flab. Fat dominates the news. In the last month alone, the National Obesity Forum suggested that regular weight checks should be compulsory; a European court ruled that obesity is a disability after the sacking of a 25-stone Danish child-minder; and the chief executive of NHS England called the same ruling "daft", declaring war on obesity after a study found that only Hungary has fatter adults than the UK. Queensland, meanwhile, declared an "obesity state of emergency"; the Saudis organised an anti-obesity run; federal regulators in the US approved an appetite-suppressing implant; a Canadian study linked a type of serotonin with obesity; and a Harvard team found two compounds that turn "bad" white fat cells into "good" brown fat ones. The Western world is preoccupied with obesity, and rightly so, because the statistics of our expanding girths are shocking by any measure. Twenty-five per cent of citizens in most Westernised countries, including the UK, are now obese; and about half of the population is overweight. The problem is so immense that lifespans, it is predicted, may begin falling, rather than rising, for the first time in history. Even more worryingly, it is not so much the length of life as its quality that is affected by fat. Being obese means we are more likely to suffer from mobility and joint problems such as aching knees, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and certain cancers as well as social stigma and diminished mental health. A predisposition for obesity, alongside a fondness for smoking and drinking (exacerbated by its pervasive association with the underclass) has been condemned in the court of public opinion as a moral weakness. It is an issue for those who lack self-control or the ability to help themselves; in other words, an issue only for those without any sense of personal dignity or responsibility. In the course of writing this piece I spoke to several intelligent, usually sympathetic, types who displayed the near-anger, disgust even, that the educated classes feel for the "feckless fat". "They just need to eat less," people say. While this is true, things aren't quite that simple. For a start, less of what? Once it was saturated fats; now sugar is the fashionable smoking gun. Some, reductively, argue that a sugar tax would bring an end to the problem. Certainly sugary drinks, from soda to fruit juice, are particularly unhelpful because though they are calorific they do not alleviate hunger. In obesity terms, this is toxic. But politicians are reluctant to level taxes on foodstuffs partly because they don't want to annoy the food-and-drinks lobby, a significant player in any economy, and partly because such taxes always disproportionately penalise the poor. In Denmark and New York, fiscal measures didn't work, and were shelved. So while everyone knows there is a problem, many of the answers are controversial because, in the British mind, the flip-side of personal responsibility is personal liberty. While we must have the freedom to eat whatever we like, anyone who chooses to abuse that right is weak-willed, greedy and self-destructive. And so it is that complications from type 2 diabetes, a disease largely brought on by obesity, are costing the NHS £1.5m an hour 10% of its annual budget. Is the problem too big to stall? The Beginning of Fat Let's wind back a little see how we arrived at this mess. In any society, there have always been severely obese people. The Venus of Willendorf, a statuette of a very roly-poly female figure found in rural Austria, dates from before 25,000 BC; Hippocrates wrote about obesity in the fourth century BC. In 1700, as England became more prosperous and its food supplies more reliable, Thomas Short wrote A Discourse Concerning the Causes and Effects of Corpulency. At the time, though, the condition was a rarity. It is only since the Second World War that the march of fat has accelerated. Coincident with our moving in from the fields and working in increasingly sedentary office jobs, food supplies have become more plentiful, cheaper, and laden with fat and sugar. Just as our calorific output went drastically down, our calorific input went drastically up. Multiple environmental reasons have compounded the problem: the availability of calorie-laden, cheap, deliberately-addictive fast food; the reduction in exercise among urban children, fuelled by a rise in interest in computer games, a fear of letting children play outside, and scaled-back state-school sport; an increase in city living, and a concurrent rise in the use of public transport and takeaway food outlets; and the ever-more sophisticated marketing techniques of food companies. Even central heating has played its part since we no longer shiver, we no longer have to move around as much to stay warm. Gyms, meanwhile, are a mixed blessing. Intensive exercise (unlike, say, working in the fields all day or walking everywhere) is unlikely to be sustained over time, and is subject to interruption by even mild injury. It is also likely to boost appetite. So we hear the (often accurate) horror stories of the need for NHS beds to be doubled in size; of morgues with bodies too big for their fridges; of airline seats rebuilt to accommodate the large. Tabloids feature a gallery of grotesques: teenagers carried out of their houses by stretcher, men who are unable to leave theirs at all. The severely obese have their own specific set of problems. But underneath these outliers there is a growing army: the overweight and less-severely obese, who are getting fatter and fatter, and less and less healthy. In a world that, incredibly, has more overfed than underfed people in it, even the way we look at fat has changed. The problem of over-nutrition is so severe that those of ideal weight (between 18 and 25 on the BMI index) now look malnourished to us. Obesity is so prevalent we can't even see it straight. Inventing the Fat Pill In order to see what we're doing about this complicated problem, I went to visit Britain's war rooms in the fight on flab: the Wellcome Trust-Medical Research Council Institute of Metabolic Science in Cambridge. It's the vision of an affable, determined and imaginative Irishman, Professor Sir Stephen O'Rahilly. The Institute opened in 2008 next to Addenbrooke's Hospital. On the ground floor there is a clinic for diabetic patients, adult and paediatric who often join trials. On the second floor, Professor Nick Wareham runs the public health department, looking at measures that might make a difference to the population at large. In January, he announced the results of a study of 334,000 people which showed the importance of exercise 20 minutes a day cuts the risk of premature death by a third. Meanwhile on the top two floors, Professor O'Rahilly's 19 principal investigators examine all manner of scientific angles on obesity: the specific genes involved; what happens in utero; the effect of circadian rhythms. The bigger the problem, the greater the glory and the riches at stake for any person, or any company, who can produce the much-discussed miracle pill, the magic bullet that can make the world thin again. It is no exaggeration to say that millions of lives and billions of pounds are at stake. There is a secretive global arms race under way to develop a cure, of which O'Rahilly is part and is probably, given his reputation, our best bet. "Many people are trying to work on mimicking the effects of bariatric [gastric bypass] surgery through the use of medicines that a) mimic or enhance the effects of natural satiety hormones produced by the gut after food and/or b) enhance the amount of those natural hormones produced after food," he explains. He won't go into detail about his own trials, or even tell me which pharma company he's working with. While other global teams release enticing snippets that may or not may lead anywhere, this is not O'Rahilly's style. The most effective surgery works by making people feel full. But such surgery is dangerous, expensive, and one-size-fits-all. A pill that can trick the brain into feeling full by elevating satiety hormones and thus sending it false messages from the gut which, I sense from O'Rahilly's caginess, may not be that far off will change everything. Only feeling full will stop us from eating, and if we can medically induce that, then we will have slayed the obesity dragon. The other advantage of a pill over surgery, says O'Rahilly, is that is it can potentially be personalised. Clearly, half of Europe cannot have a bariatric procedure. But they could be given different combinations of hormones to stop them eating so much. Such a pill would be a seminal breakthrough. O'Rahilly's team, though, are thorough, and there doesn't seem to be an angle on obesity that they're not investigating. His colleague, Dr Giles Yeo, says we tend to look at obesity in the wrong light. Rather than just condemning those who overeat, he says, we should be asking, "Why, exactly, do some people eat too much, when others don't?" Our environment plays its part, but how we eat is powerfully genetically determined, "because of how we got to today . . . all of us are programmed to survive long enough to reproduce. In order to survive that long you need to eat, and you need to survive. For the entire history of our existence as a living, breathing creature, too little food has been around, until the last 50 years. Pre-agriculture, in the Serengeti, we caught an antelope, brought it back and ate it because didn't know what would happen next we would eat, and prepare for famine.'" In other words, our genes tell us more loudly in some of us than in others to eat whenever we can. Fifty years, in context of genetics, is the blink of an eye; our bodies haven't yet adapted to our suddenly food-dense environment. As Yeo puts it, "our body frame has evolved to be lean" and is unable to adapt to our new habits. If we do become obese, our chances of getting heart disease and cancer, and dying early, rise. So there is now a catastrophic mismatch of our genes and our environment. Once, very few of us could overeat. Today in the West most of us can we can all be Henry VIII now. Of course, this doesn't mean that everyone is fat the less-hungry stay thin. Although in Serengeti terms, you could argue that the fat ones are more evolved. "Perhaps, back then, Kate Moss types would have been lion food," says Yeo. The Genetic 'Crunch' The genetic argument is not a popular one. Yeo tells a story of a man at a Cambridge college dinner pointing at him saying, "you are giving them a crutch." Yeo says, "If Mrs Smith, a 25-stone diabetic about to die, chooses to use heritability as a crutch, the only person who's going to suffer is her. But ignoring the role of genetics is helpful to no one." As Yeo sees it, those who eat less aren't morally stronger, they are just people who don't feel like eating as much, just like those who feel like taking more exercise. O'Rahilly's team often looks at the extremes the severely obese, and now the very underweight not only to help them, but also because a study of the margins often yields clear insights into the more muddled mainstream. Professor Sadaf Farooqi studies severely obese children. Although we are fatter because we take in more calories than we burn, what we choose to eat isn't always a rational decision. In children it is more complicated still, because it isn't always clear who is choosing what. Farooqi reads me a recent email from a professor of endocrinology at Harvard. She writes that she "had her work cut out" with a piece from The New York Times in June titled, "In Britain's, Child's Weight Leads to Parents' Arrest". The parents of an 11-year-old boy in Norfolk, who weighed 210 pounds, had been arrested. "There is a massive failure of understanding when it comes to severe obesity," says Farooqi. Later, O'Rahilly tells me they have heard of children eating food straight from the freezer, and chewing on bin scraps, because they feel extreme hunger. The idea that you might take a child away from its parents because of its size is a "travesty", Farooqi says, because, ironically, the more severely obese the child, the more likely it is that genes are playing a powerful part. She has seen children from war-torn Liberia and rural Pakistan who are severely obese when you might expect them to be malnourished. There is no way, she says, that the parents are to blame in these cases; who could possibly get a three-year-old to 36 kilos? As all parents know, young children eat what they want to eat and nothing else.She is currently working on a study involving a disorder that affects some 50,000 people in the UK (and over a million globally) and that may be able to remedy another defect in the brain concerning hunger and satiety. O'Rahilly's study on "extreme metabolic phenotypes" (people with rare genetic defects) led him to identify children with a congenital leptin deficiency. Leptin is a hormone that causes people to feel full after eating; when he treated the children with doses of the missing hormone, even those who were nearly wheelchair-bound returned to a normal weight. That was a breakthrough; but leptin, frustratingly, proved ineffective for all but the most chronically deficient. It wasn't quite the magic bullet. Farooqi finds it frightening that society is so judgemental. In the case of the three-year-old in Manchester, she identified a genetic problem. "I never realised I'd be getting involved in these disputes, but I want to help the patients, partly because of the social stigma. Public awareness means that people are confusing the population problem with the more unusual problem of severe obesity. People think parents must be taking toddlers to McDonald's 10 times a day. But it's often a biological problem. I don't think children should ever be taken away from their parents for weight reasons alone," she says. On the other hand, obese parents do often have obese children. Farooqi estimates the genetic component at 40 70%. In other words, we inherit much of our propensity to fat, our appetite and our metabolism. More and more genetic factors are being identified. O'Rahilly is currently excited about Labrador dogs; with the Department of Veterinary Medicine, they have worked out why some Labradors are hungrier than others. This may lead to treatment for flabby Labs and, possibly, information on the fight against fat in the human population (insulin was first identified in dogs, and research is often performed on mice leptin, for example, was first identified in the rodents). The Price of Being Thin If O'Rahilly had to point the finger at anything that got us into this, it would be food transportation. Never in history has "so little percentage of income been needed to buy so much food," he says. There's the rise of discount retailers like Aldi and Lidl, and portion expansion croissants the size of boomerangs; buckets of popcorn and Coke. As his colleague Yeo says, if we could wind the clock back to 1950, obesity would go away, but we can't, so we have to find a way to deal with it. The cure will be multifaceted, just as it has been for high blood pressure. O'Rahilly draws me a graph: like blood pressure, obesity has a normal range and a rather arbitrary cut-off point at which normal tips into excessive. Blood pressure is now manageable because of an awareness of the dangers of salt and an accompanying reduction in its consumption, and because of drugs such as statins that control it. Hospitals were once full of those suffering from the effects of hypertension, such as strokes but no longer. The hope is that through a variety of environmental and pharmaceutical measures, obesity, too, will become manageable, a crisis of the past. The key might be in genetic treatment, or otherwise in a magic pill that mimics the effects of gastric bypass surgery. A team from Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, for example, announced recently that they were five years away from producing one. "Bands and balloons don't really work and shouldn't be heaped together with other surgery," says O'Rahilly, "a stomach bypass is effective because as the food goes into the intestine lower down, the brain is tricked into thinking it's full. But it is surgery, and it is expensive." O'Rahilly, working alongside pharmaceutical companies, sees his team as a kind of military intelligence, and the companies as their weaponry. There have been other pills in the past: safe ones that weren't effective; effective ones that weren't safe. His promising early-phase trials have a clear aim: that high body-weight eventually becomes, like high blood pressure, "easily, cheaply treatable, and no longer life-threatening." Like the rest of his team, he is non-judgemental and intensely sympathetic to the obese. "Thin people are not morally superior. They are less prone to obesity, and those who are unlucky are not feckless. They are biologically different. I want to see what we can tweak under the bonnet." It's not a straightforward task. "Unlike cancer when people who know they might die will take anything obesity kills you very slowly so we can only use safe agents." Obesity studies struggle with funding because of the moral angle "an obese man eventually dies of a heart attack and his widow gives money to a heart charity," says O'Rahilly drily. He thinks in spite of data that show sharp acceleration in recent years, there is also some evidence that obesity is levelling out, particularly among children that it won't continue rising to a point where we are all obese. Governments are taking notice. O'Rahilly broadly supports a sugar tax, although he thinks that, ideally, food companies will one day find that healthy food equals more profit. The Sugar Demon Some things are simple. When sugary drinks are restricted in lunch boxes, studies show that weight falls. "It's not magic it's just lowering calorie intake," says O'Rahilly. Sugary drinks are particularly dangerous because they are not filling they're empty calories. And as Yeo says, sugar has the power to distort the appetite: "people will have a dessert when they'd never have another portion of mashed potato." O'Rahilly recently wrote that while glucose and fructose are equal in calories, and therefore equal in their ability to cause weight gain, fructose is worse for us because "it's handled differently in the body, especially the liver. As a consequence of this, high-fructose diets in rodents tend to cause high lipid levels in the blood, insulin resistance, high uric acid (the substance that precipitates out in joints when we get gout) and high blood pressure." In conclusion, O'Rahilly wrote: "There is evidence that excessive consumption of fructose (found in sugar and in high-fructose corn syrup) is associated with a worsened metabolic state than excessive consumption of glucose, even though both forms of overconsumption can increase weight and fat stores to a similar amount. This provides further evidence that policies designed to discourage the ingestion of sweetened beverages would likely have a positive impact on public health." So even within sugars, some calories are worse for your health than others. To complicate matters further, Professor Toni Vidal-Puig says it's not as simple as "fat equals bad, thin equals good". All fat is not equal. Internal fat can be even more dangerous than the external kind. They are investigating why a 200kg man can be healthier than an 80kg one. "If his adipose tissue doesn't work as well then the fat will go to his muscles, heart and liver." This is part of O'Rahilly's second question (after that of what makes some people obese): why excess weight leads to illness and why, sometimes, it doesn't. In another area of Vidal-Puig's studies lies, potentially, an amazingly simple fix. In spite of all the millions spent on diets, food and exercise, it may be that something as basic as temperature is the answer. We all have two types of fat, white and brown. White fat is inert and sits in deposits. Brown fat, which regulates babies' temperatures but is much harder to pinpoint in adults, can be activated to burn calories and generate heat. Studies show that exposure to low temperatures may encourage white fat to behave like brown fat. So while central heating ensures we move less and burn fewer calories, it's possible that lower temperatures might increase the activity of brown fat, which will burn our calories for us. "It is indeed theoretically possible that if we all switched on our brown fat by living in colder ambient temperatures we might all expend more energy," says O'Rahilly. It's a nice idea, he says, but so far there has not been sufficient study to show whether it's possible, or whether our bodies will compensate in other ways by making us eat more. The Big Breakthrough Scientists at the Stem Cell Institute at Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital (one of the many teams in the world to have joined the race) announced before Christmas that they had identified two compounds that could turn "bad" white fat into "good" brown fat, in what is possibly a step towards their own version of that magic pill. One of the two compounds is already used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, but the team admits they are some way from their pill because the compounds concerned could damage the immune system. Associate Professor Chad Cowan says, "If you administered them [the compounds] for a long time, the person taking them could become immune-compromised . . . The good news and bad news is that science is slow; just establishing proof of concept takes an enormous amount of time." At the same time, another player a team of researchers from Imperial College, London identified an enzyme called glucokinase which could possibly be target for a new pill because it drives the craving for sugar in the brain. "This is the first time anyone has discovered a system in the brain that responds to a specific nutrient, rather than energy intake in general. It suggests that when you're thinking about diet, you have to think about different nutrients, not just count calories," says James Gardiner of Imperial College, whose study was published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation. His tests on rats showed that boosting glucokinase activity caused the animals to consume glucose over normal food. If a pill could reverse this desire, sugar consumption would decrease. Earlier this month, a report was published in Nature Medicine from researchers at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, claiming they had developed a drug that works like an "imaginary meal", which was shown to reduce obesity in mice. O'Rahilly says of the paper, "If we could fool those cells into thinking we have had a meal, that could be a way of reducing people's food intake to produce safe weight-loss. While these are interesting observations, only a modest percentage of drugs that seem effective in mice ever make it into the clinic for patients." So, in spite of the constant flow of exciting announcements, most of them, as yet, seem to be better news for rotund rodents than obese people. Work in Cambridge isn't confined to O'Rahilly's team; Professor Nick Wareham, on the second floor, examines the population as whole. The causes of the obesity epidemic are not quite the same as the causes of obesity in individuals. Education and labelling, Wareham believes, can only go so far because we are not rational creatures. He wrote a paper recently in the British Medical Journal studying the importance of exposure to takeaway food: the more outlets, the higher the local bodyweight. That might sound obvious but lined up with the fact that flat, spacious countries have more cyclists, a central point emerges: people are suggestible. They will do whatever is easiest. So we should perhaps look at changing the environment rather than just telling people to change their habits. "If I was forced to choose, diet matters the most," says Wareham, "But so does the environment and the infrastructure." Somewhere between magic tablets, genetic studies, sugar taxes, cycle lanes, turning the central heating down, education and sympathy, O'Rahilly and Wareham, and others of their noble breed will, I hope, help cure us with kindness and ingenuity. Until then, the fat battle rages on. | 5 | 8,359 | news |
Until Volkswagen's SUV lineup expands in a few years, brand loyalists who want an SUV have only two options: the Tiguan and the Touareg. Sporting squint-and-you'll-miss-it changes for the 2015 model year, the refreshed Touareg carries a semi-premium price tag but might not have what it takes to convince many Acura MDX or Mercedes ML-Class (soon to be GLE-Class) intenders to look past its non-luxury Volkswagen badge. Still, the 2015 Volkswagen Touareg really is a decent five-passenger luxury SUV. It boasts conservative yet premium styling that provides surprisingly good rear visibility -- not something an MDX owner can say. And the 2015 Touareg's interior is solid. Cover up the Volkswagen badge on the steering wheel and you could fool plenty of folks into thinking the SUV belongs to a luxury brand. For 2015, the Touareg offers new tech, including adaptive cruise control with three settings, a front assist system that (up to 19 mph) can slow the SUV if an obstacle is detected, a lane assist system that can vibrate the steering wheel at various levels of intensity, and a side assist system with side mirror-mounted lights that can be adjusted for brightness. The adjustable nature of these available systems is appreciated; all are available on mid-level trims for the TDI diesel and gas-powered V-6 models. They're standard on the supercharged hybrid model, a low-volume Touareg that will only be sold at select dealerships in one fully loaded form. Related link: Research the Volkswagen Touareg Volkswagen tells us that for now just over half of Touareg buyers choose the diesel model over the gas V-6. The 3.0-liter turbodiesel V-6 is good for 240 hp at 3,400 rpm and 406 lb-ft of torque at just 2,000 rpm, and the 3.6-liter gas V-6 produces 280 hp at 6,200 rpm and 266 lb-ft at 2,500 rpm. At the track, the 5,085-pound 2015 Touareg TDI Executive model we tested sprinted from 0-30 mph in 2.1 seconds, on to 60 mph in 7.0 seconds, quicker than a 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee EcoDiesel 4x4's 7.8 seconds and about even with a 2013 Porsche Cayenne Diesel at 6.9 seconds (not surprising since the mechanically related Porsche and Volkswagen use the same diesel engine). The Touareg's passing acceleration from 45-65 mph proved decent at 4.0 seconds, even with the Porsche but 0.8 second quicker than the Jeep. With the 2015 Touareg TDI's braking performance from 60-0 mph at 122 feet, the Volkswagen is right in line with the Jeep's 122 feet and the Porsche's 116 feet. All Volkswagen Touaregs -- including the gas V-6, diesel V-6, and hybrid V-6 -- are rated to tow up to 7,716 pounds. The same figure holds for the Porsche Cayenne lineup, and the Jeep Grand Cherokee can tow up to 7,200-7,400 pounds with its diesel V-6 and gas V-8 (or 6,200 pounds with a gas V-6). On the road, the 2015 Touareg feels substantial -- you'll never confuse the Volkswagen's deliberate responses for those of a smaller vehicle. Though the Touareg TDI is always ready for a full-throttle blast, its accelerator pedal doesn't feel as jumpy as that of the gas V-6 model, which has a strong yet muted exhaust note. All Touaregs are quiet, but if you go with the high-end Executive model with its 20-inch wheels (18s and 19s are also available), you'll feel a bit more of the road on some highways. A commanding view of the road should make up for the body roll expected with most SUVs of this size and heft, though we could do with less rebound from the body when lifting off the brakes after coming to a stop. Once you get moving again, there's a helpful Sport mode for the transmission that holds gears longer for a quicker getaway. All Touaregs have an eight-speed automatic that in gas V-6 and TDI diesel forms was well-behaved, though ultra-sensitive drivers might notice minor shift shock in moderate to aggressive acceleration. Fuel economy and overall driving range are 2015 Touareg TDI strengths, but the same can be said for the Jeep Grand Cherokee EcoDiesel, Mercedes-Benz ML 250 Bluetec, and BMW X5 xDrive35d. With a 26.4-gallon fuel tank and an EPA-rated 29 mpg on the highway, the 2015 Touareg TDI will last a bladder-bursting 766 miles before needing to refuel with more diesel, a fuel that as this is being written is trending at around $0.91 above the cost of regular gas, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. (Go here for current national prices or here for cheap fuel prices near you.) The Touareg gas V-6 and hybrid V-6 models sip premium -- the Acura MDX does, as well, with an EPA-rated 18/27 mpg in all-wheel-drive form and 20/28 mpg with front-wheel drive. (The VW has standard all-wheel drive.) For those few drivers who will actually take the Volkswagen off-road, after driving a 2013 Touareg TDI on some trails, we said that "the Touareg's off-road squad has done an admirable job." Inside, the 2015 Touareg's interior befits a vehicle of this price. Our $65,610 tester was loaded with a great panoramic sunroof, 20-inch wheels, all the adaptive safety systems mentioned above, real wood trim, stainless steel pedals, heated front and rear seats, a heated steering wheel, an upgraded sound system, and a multi-camera parking system -- the diesel engine is a $3,500 option on the top three trim levels. We would like the next-generation Touareg to make less obvious to lower-trim SUV owners that they didn't pay for every option in the form of blank and non-functional buttons. Other minor interior niggles include a lack of cooled front seats on any trim level, and there's no brake auto-hold feature -- some vehicles with electronic parking brakes can keep the brakes applied at a long stoplight, automatically disengaging once the accelerator pedal is touched. Otherwise, we're fans of the high-quality door pulls and the info screen that shows an altimeter, a 360-degree compass, and the angle of the front wheels at any given moment. Also, we're impressed not by the easy-open liftgate but by the power-operated door's quietness as the door opens, you hear two short beeps and that's it. The easy-open feature requires the person carrying the key fob to wave their foot toward the bumper twice, and, like magic, the liftgate opens. Assessing value on the 2015 Volkswagen Touareg is a tricky question. At its base or as-tested price, the non-luxury-branded premium-ish SUV is more expensive than the Jeep Grand Cherokee , an SUV that won a comparison in 2013 with three other diesels: a pre-refresh Volkswagen Touareg TDI that placed last, a Porsche Cayenne Diesel, and a Mercedes-Benz ML 350 Bluetec. (Mercedes now offers an ML 250 Bluetec diesel I-4 instead of the discontinued ML 350 Bluetec diesel V-6.). Compared to the BMW X5 xDrive35d, the Volkswagen could be considered a bargain, allowing buyers to splurge on more options for less money, but unlike the Acura MDX and Mercedes-Benz ML , the Volkswagen's basic warranty is for three years/36,000 miles instead of the more pricey luxury brands' four years/50,000 miles. A few years from now, Volkswagen will likely fill out its SUV lineup with competitors for the less expensive Ford Edge , plus an already-confirmed three-row SUV. Until those arrive, Volkswagen brand loyalists have a respectable premium SUV in the form of the Touareg. It won't send Acura, Mercedes-Benz, or Jeep engineers running, but it should please those who value its balance of available features, conservative luxury styling, and the brand's reputation for diesel-powered vehicles. 2015 Volkswagon Touareg TDI Executive BASE PRICE $63,110 PRICE AS TESTED $65,610 VEHICLE LAYOUT Front-engine, AWD, 5-pass, 4-door SUV ENGINE 3.0L/240-hp/406-lb-ft turbodiesel DOHC 24-valve V-6 TRANSMISSION 8-speed automatic CURB WEIGHT (F/R DIST) 5,085 lb (52/48%) WHEELBASE 113.9 in LENGTH x WIDTH x HEIGHT 188.8 x 76.4 x 68.2 in 0-60 MPH 7 sec QUARTER MILE 15.4 sec @ 88.1 mph BRAKING, 60-0 MPH 122 ft LATERAL ACCELERATION 0.85 g (avg) MT FIGURE EIGHT 27.1 sec @ 0.75 g (avg) EPA CITY/HWY/COMB FUEL ECON 20/29/23 mpg ENERGY CONS., CITY/HWY 189/130 kW-hrs/100 miles CO2 EMISSIONS, COMB 0.95 lb/mile | 9 | 8,360 | autos |
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New Hampshire wildlife officials are drawing up a proposal to curb the use of chocolate as bait by hunters seeking to draw black bears out of the woods after four of the wild animals were found dead at a trapping site from an overdose of the treat. Bears find sweets irresistible during the autumn hunting season and eat voraciously to build fat stores for winter hibernation, said Kent Gustafson, the Wildlife Program Supervisor for the state's fish and game department. "Given the circumstances, we certainly don't want to see something like this happen again," Gustafson said. "I expect we will have a proposal to deal with this sometime next month." Four black bears, including two cubs, were found dead in September within 50 feet of where a hunter placed nearly 100 pounds of chocolate and doughnuts as bait, wildlife officials said. An autopsy conducted by the University of New Hampshire showed the bears had died of an overdose of theobromine, a naturally occurring toxic ingredient in chocolate. Gustafson said the deaths were the first of their kind reported in New Hampshire, but followed similar incidents with black bears and raccoons in Michigan. He said the proposal put forward by the department could range from banning any chocolate in bear bait, to allowing it only in limited quantities, like in doughnuts or chocolate sprinkles on other sweets. Hunters killed 784 bears in New Hampshire during the 2014 hunting season, the vast majority by using bait, and most of the rest using hounds to track down the animals. New Hampshire has about 4,800 black bears, officials estimate. (Reporting by Richard Valdmanis) | 5 | 8,365 | news |
Jeff Gordon is no doubt a first-ballot hall of famer. He ranks third in all-time wins with 92 and off the track has done everything from hosting "Saturday Night Live" to spearheading the raising of money for a pediatric cancer center in Rwanda. So when will he be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame? It will be 2020 at the earliest and 2023 at the latest. MORE: Drivers react to Gordon decision | Why souvenir haulers are going away | Vickers update Gordon announced Thursday that 2015 will be his final full Cup season. NASCAR rules require a driver to be retired for three full years to be eligible for nomination the following year. PHOTOS: Jeff Gordon through the years That means if Gordon does not race after 2015 (he has left the door open to run select races), he would be on the ballot in 2019 for the 2020 induction class. If he decides to race in any NASCAR series in 2016, he gets on the ballot in 2020 for the 2021 induction class. If he continues to race in 2017, it's the 2022 induction class and if he races in 2018, it's the 2023 induction class. But here's the kicker. Any driver who competes for 30 years is automatically eligible to be on the ballot the following year. Because Gordon's first NASCAR race was a Busch Series event in 1990, he hits the 30-year mark in 2019. That puts him on the 2020 ballot for the 2021 induction class. | 1 | 8,366 | sports |
By Steven Lassan College football's coaching carousel for the 2014-15 season has finished and only 14 programs changed coaches. The 14 changes among FBS programs is the lowest mark since the 2006 season (11). After at least 21 teams changed coaches from 2009-13, there's a period of stability settling into the coaching ranks. However, the drop in changes isn't expected to last forever. Most programs seemed to hit the right marks in their coaching search this season. Michigan was the biggest winner in the carousel by hiring Jim Harbaugh from the 49ers. Harbaugh should win at a high level in Ann Arbor and is a critical hire for a program that needs to get back to the nation's elite. Oregon State (Gary Andersen), Houston (Tom Herman), SMU (Chad Morris), Buffalo (Lance Leipold), Florida (Jim McElwain) and Pittsburgh (Pat Narduzzi) also earn high marks for their new coaching hires. Grading College Football's New Coaching Hires for 2015 1. Jim Harbaugh, Michigan Previous Job: 49ers head coach Career Record: 29-6 (San Diego), 29-21 (Stanford), 44-19-1 (49ers) We could spend thousands of words discussing Harbaugh's hire at Michigan, but it's simply summed up in this statement: This is the best hire for the Wolverines and an opportunity for the program to reclaim its status as one of the nation's elite. Harbaugh was the top target for Michigan after Brady Hoke was fired and is the best fit for a program that has been trending in the wrong direction since an 11-2 mark in 2011. Harbaugh's ties to Michigan are no secret. He played four seasons for coach Bo Schembechler and was the 1986 Big Ten Player of the Year. Harbaugh played in the NFL from 1987-2001 and worked as a volunteer assistant coach with his father (Jack) at Western Kentucky from 1994-2001. After his playing career in the NFL was finished, Harbaugh worked with the Raiders from 2002-03 and was named San Diego's head coach in 2004. The Toreros went 29-6 under Harbaugh's direction, who left in 2007 for Stanford. The Cardinal increased their win total in each of the four seasons under Harbaugh, culminating in a 12-1 record in 2010. And Harbaugh was successful in the NFL, finishing his tenure with the 49ers at 44-19-1. Michigan needed a home-run hire to get the program back on track. Harbaugh is exactly what the Wolverines needed, and his arrival certainly doesn't hurt the Big Ten as a whole. If Michigan is in contention again, it only helps the perception of the conference. Final Grade: A+ 2. Gary Andersen, Oregon State Previous Job: Head coach at Wisconsin Career Record: 19-7 (2013-14, Wisconsin), 26-24 (2009-12, Utah State), 4-7 (2003, Southern Utah) Andersen's decision to leave Wisconsin for Oregon State qualifies as one of the biggest surprises in coaching moves in recent years. Under Andersen's watch, the Badgers went 19-7 and won the Big Ten West Division in 2014. Prior to his two-year stint in Madison, Andersen went 26-24 at Utah State, which included an 18-8 record over the final two seasons. In the six years before Andersen's tenure in Logan, the Aggies did not win more than three games in a season. However, he guided Utah State to back-to-back bowl games and a No. 16 rank in the final Associated Press poll in 2012. Andersen also spent one year at Southern Utah (2003) and was an assistant from 1997-2002 and 2004-08 at Utah. Even though Andersen was successful at Wisconsin, he wanted to get back on the West Coast and Oregon State was open after Mike Riley left for Nebraska. Oregon State isn't an easy job, but Andersen's recruiting ties out west and in the junior college ranks will help to establish a solid talent base. Andersen is arguably one of the top 25-30 coaches in the nation. This is a great hire for an Oregon State program that struggled mightily prior to Riley's first tenure in 1997. Final Grade: A 3. Tom Herman, Houston Previous Job: Offensive coordinator at Ohio State Career Record: First season Few coaches had a better 2014-15 season than Herman. The Ohio native played a huge role in Ohio State's national championship run, won the Broyles Award as the top assistant in college football and landed a FBS head coaching gig at one of the best jobs in the American Athletic Conference. Herman was born in Ohio, but he has deep coaching roots in Texas. After a playing career at California Lutheran, Herman was hired as Texas Lutheran's wide receivers coach in 1998. After one season at Texas Lutheran, Herman worked as a grad assistant at Texas from 1999-2000 and was hired at Sam Houston State from 2001-04 as a wide receivers/special teams assistant. Herman coordinated Texas State's offenses from 2005-06 and spent the next two years at Rice (2007-08), guiding the Owls to an average of 41.3 points per game in 2008. After three seasons at Iowa State, Herman jumped at the opportunity to coordinate Ohio State's offense in 2012. The Buckeyes averaged 37.2 points per game in Herman's first year and jumped to 45.5 per game in 2013 and 44.8 in '14. Herman's coaching ability was on full display this season after Ohio State lost starting quarterbacks J.T. Barrett and Braxton Miller due to injuries, and third-stringer Cardale Jones guided the Buckeyes to the national championship. Despite this being Herman's first opportunity to be a head coach, there are few negatives for Houston. Herman is the right hire at the right time for the Cougars. Final Grade: A 4. Chad Morris, SMU Previous Job: Offensive coordinator at Clemson Career Record: First season Morris has been considered one of college football's rising stars in the assistant ranks since he ascended to the play-caller position at Clemson in 2011. The Texas native lands in a good situation at SMU, as the program has the necessary resources and talent base to contend in the American Athletic Conference, and Morris has many ties to the state. June Jones helped the program get back on track after the Mustangs posted just one winning season from 1989-2008. However, Morris seems like the right hire to elevate SMU into conference title contention. The 46-year-old coach coordinated one of the nation's top offenses at Clemson, guiding the program to its three highest point totals in school history. Additionally, the Tigers won at least 10 games in each of Morris' four seasons and shared or won the ACC Atlantic Division title twice. Prior to the last four years at Clemson, Morris served as Tulsa's play-caller in 2010 and guided the Golden Hurricane to an average of 41.4 points per game. He also worked as a high school head coach from 1994-2009 at five programs in Texas. The only downside to Morris is the lack of FBS head coaching experience. However, that shouldn't prevent Morris from winning at a high level at SMU. Final Grade: A 5. Lance Leipold, Buffalo Previous Job: Head coach at Wisconsin-Whitewater Career Record: 109-6 (2007-14 at Wisconsin-Whitewater) Leipold has the best record among new coaches taking over a FBS program in 2014. The Wisconsin native went 109-6 in eight years at Wisconsin-Whitewater, leading the Warhawks to six national championships in that span. Under Leipold's direction, Wisconsin-Whitewater had only one season of more than two losses (2012). Prior to taking over at UW-Whitewater, Leipold worked as an assistant coach from 1987-2006 at a handful of programs. Leipold served as Nebraska-Omaha's offensive coordinator from 2004-06, was an assistant at Nebraska from 2001-03 and worked as a graduate assistant under Barry Alvarez at Wisconsin from 1991-93. If Leipold continues to win at a high level, he won't be at Buffalo for more than five years. But that's a good problem for the Bulls to (potentially) have. Stepping up to the FBS level will present a few challenges, but Buffalo hit a home run by getting Leipold away from Wisconsin-Whitewater. Final Grade: A 6. Jim McElwain, Florida Previous Job: Head coach at Colorado State Career Record: 22-16 (2012-14 at Colorado State) Florida is one of the top jobs in the nation, but this program has just one 10-win season since 2010 (11-2 in 2012). McElwain is tasked with bringing Florida football back to the nation's elite and fix an offense that has struggled mightily in recent years. The Gators have not averaged more than 5.1 yards per play (in SEC play) since 2009. McElwain's background on offense should pay dividends, as he helped to guide a Colorado State attack that averaged 33.9 points per game in 2014. And under McElwain's direction as Alabama's coordinator, the offense averaged at least 5.8 yards per play (SEC matchups). The Rams showed steady improvement in the win column, improving from 4-8 in McElwain's first year to 8-6 in 2013 and 10-3 in '14. In addition to his stints at Colorado State and Alabama, McElwain spent time as an assistant at Fresno State, Michigan State, Louisville and in the NFL with the Raiders. McElwain isn't necessarily the big-name hire most expected Florida to make. But what's not to like about this hire? He's a proven winner as a head coach, has worked in the SEC at Alabama and has been successful in developing offenses. McElwain should get Florida back on track in the next few years. Final Grade: A- 7. Pat Narduzzi, Pittsburgh Previous Job: Defensive coordinator at Michigan State Career Record: First season Narduzzi was widely regarded as one of the top assistants in college football, and after eight years at Michigan State, the Youngstown native departs for his first opportunity to be a head coach. Under Narduzzi's direction, the Spartans led the Big Ten in fewest yards per play allowed from 2011-13 and finished first in the conference in scoring defense in the 2012 and '13 seasons. And Narduzzi's aggressive approach has paid off, as Michigan State recorded at least 32 sacks in four out of the last six seasons. Prior to his stint with the Spartans, Narduzzi worked at Cincinnati (2004-06) and Miami, Ohio (2003) as a defensive coordinator. And he also has stops as an assistant at Northern Illinois and Rhode Island. After having three coaches in the last five years, Pittsburgh needs stability at the top spot. Narduzzi is familiar with the area, is one of the nation's top defensive minds and is ready to be a head coach. Everything points to this being a successful hire, but Narduzzi will need a year or two to shape the roster and accumulate the defensive talent needed to show marked improvement on that side of the ball. Final Grade: A- 8. Mike Riley, Nebraska Previous Job: Head coach at Oregon State Career Record: 93-80 (1997-98, 2003-14 at Oregon State), 14-34 (Chargers, 1999-2001) Riley's departure from Oregon State to Nebraska caught the college football world by surprise. Most expected Riley to finish his career in Corvallis, but the 61-year-old coach was ready for a new challenge. When Riley left his position as USC's offensive coordinator to take the head coach job at Oregon State, he inherited a program that was just 13-52-1 in the six seasons prior to his arrival. The Beavers showed marked improvement under Riley's watch, recording an 8-14 mark in his first two seasons. Riley left Oregon State for a four-year stint in the NFL, but he helped to build the foundation that allowed the Beavers to record three winning seasons in four years under Dennis Erickson. After Erickson left for the NFL, Riley came back to Oregon State. Since 2003, the Beavers have made eight bowl appearances, finished the season ranked in the Associated Press poll four times and only recorded one season of fewer than five wins. While Riley's overall record (93-80) isn't overly impressive, it's important to remember Oregon State is one of the toughest jobs in the Pac-12. Simply, it's not easy to win in Corvallis. Riley has a knack for finding and developing overlooked recruits into star players. If he can continue that trend at Nebraska, along with maintaining his success in recruiting the state of Texas, Riley should help the Cornhuskers continue to win around nine games every year. Riley may not have been the home-run hire most expected when Bo Pelini was fired, but he won a lot of games at a program that's much tougher to win at than Nebraska. Final Grade: B+ 9. Paul Chryst, Wisconsin Previous Job: Head coach at Pittsburgh Career Record: 19-19 (2012-14 at Pittsburgh) Chryst is returning to familiar surroundings after three seasons at Pittsburgh. The Madison native played quarterback at Wisconsin from 1986-88 and coached with the Badgers in 2002 and from 2005-11. Prior to his stint with the Badgers in 2005, Chryst called the plays at Oregon State from 2003-04 and spent three years in the NFL with the Chargers (1999-2001). Chryst is a highly regarded offensive guru, and under his direction, Wisconsin led the Big Ten in scoring offense from 2009-11. The Badgers set a school record by averaging 44.1 points per game in 2011, and Pittsburgh averaged 6.2 yards per play in 2014 (fourth in the ACC). Chryst's overall record with the Panthers was just 19-19, but he also inherited some personnel problems and roster gaps from the previous coaching staffs. However, Pittsburgh had a favorable schedule in 2014, two of the ACC's top players in wide receiver Tyler Boyd and running back James Conner and only went 4-4 in conference play. Chryst knows what it takes to win at Wisconsin, and after losing two coaches in the last three seasons (Gary Andersen and Bret Bielema), athletic director Barry Alvarez has his long-term answer as the team's head coach. Fit isn't necessarily the best indicator or judge of a hire, but Chryst's familiarity with the program should keep Wisconsin at the top of the Big Ten West Division. Final Grade: B+ 10. Mike Bobo, Colorado State Previous Job: Offensive Coordinator at Georgia Career Record: First season After a successful stint under a previous SEC offensive coordinator (Jim McElwain) Colorado State is trying to replicate that same formula. Bobo is another successful offensive play-caller from the SEC, but is an odd fit since he has spent only one season (Jacksonville State) outside of the state of Georgia in his coaching career. While the geographic fit may not be perfect, Bobo despite some of the criticism from Georgia fans was one of the SEC's underrated coordinators in recent years. Over the last seven seasons, the Bulldogs' offense has not finished lower than sixth in the conference in yards per play. And Georgia led the SEC twice (2012, '14) during that span. Bobo has never been a head coach on any level but is a successful coordinator and hired a solid staff to help his transition. Will Friend followed Bobo from Georgia to Colorado State, while Tyson Summers was a key pickup from UCF as defensive coordinator. Final Grade: B+ 11. Neal Brown, Troy Previous Job: Offensive Coordinator at Kentucky Career Record: First season At 34 years old, Brown is the second youngest head coach in the FBS ranks. The Kentucky native is a highly regarded offensive mind and returns to Troy after working under Larry Blakeney from 2006-09. Brown worked as the team's play-caller in 2008-09, and the Trojans averaged at least 32 points per game in both seasons. In 2010, Brown left Troy to join Tommy Tuberville's staff at Texas Tech. The Red Raiders averaged at least 31 points per game in each of Brown's three seasons calling the plays in Lubbock. Brown joined Mark Stoops' staff at Kentucky in 2013 and helped the Wildcats take a step forward on offense. Kentucky averaged only 17.9 points a game in the season prior to Brown's arrival, but the offense jumped to 20.5 points per contest in 2013 and 29.2 in '14. Additionally, the Wildcats averaged five yards per play (SEC games) last season for the first time since 2010. There's very little downside to Brown's hire at Troy. He has experience working at Troy, is a talented offensive coach and his youth should bring a spark to a program that has not recorded a winning record since 2010. Final Grade: B 12. Philip Montgomery, Tulsa Previous Job: Offensive Coordinator at Baylor Career Record: First season With an enrollment of under 3,500 undergraduate students, Tulsa is the smallest FBS school in the nation. But despite the lack of a huge student base, the Golden Hurricane has experienced plenty of success in the win column. This program has four seasons of at least 10 victories since 2007, including an 11-3 mark in 2012. Montgomery has plenty of work ahead, as Tulsa has slipped to a 5-19 record over the last two seasons and can't afford to fall too far behind in the new American Athletic Conference divisions. The Texas native has never been a head coach on the college level and has spent the last 12 years on Art Briles' staffs at Houston and Baylor. Although Briles played a large role in shaping the offenses at both programs, Montgomery was the play-caller for the Bears. Baylor's offense averaged at least 6.6 yards per play in each of the last five seasons and recorded 48.2 points per game in 2014. Tulsa needs to prominently recruit Texas and Montgomery's ties to the state will help in that area. And with Montgomery's background on offense, combined with the amount of talent at quarterback and wide receiver in the high school ranks, this hire should help get Tulsa back into contention for bowl games on a consistent basis. Final Grade: B 13. David Beaty, Kansas Previous Job: Wide receivers coach at Texas A&M Career Record: First season After missing on its last two hires Turner Gill and Charlie Weis Kansas needs to get this one right. Instead of turning to a proven coach, the Jayhawks picked former assistant David Beaty. The Texas native has strong ties to the state and is regarded as an excellent recruiter. In an area where Kansas needs to target for recruits, Beaty's ties to Texas are a huge plus. Beaty spent the last three years at Texas A&M as the team's receivers coach (2012-14) and the recruiting coordinator (2013-14). Prior to Texas A&M, Beaty had two previous stints at Kansas (2011 and 2008-09) and short tenures at Rice (2010 and 2006-07) as an assistant. Under Beaty's watch, the Owls averaged 28.7 points per game in 2010. The biggest concern for Beaty is the lack of experience as a head coach especially at a place that's one of the toughest Power 5 jobs in the nation. To help Beaty's transition, he hired a solid overall staff, which includes Clint Bowen (interim coach last year), Rob Likens (offensive coordinator) and Zach Yenser (OL coach). Final Grade: C 14. Tony Sanchez, UNLV Previous Job: Head coach at Bishop Gorman High School Career Record: 85-5 (2009-14 at Bishop Gorman) UNLV is a tough place to win. The Rebels have just one winning season (2013) since 2001 and is 31-92 since 2005. Considering where UNLV resides on college football's food chain, it wasn't going to attract a big-name coach or nationally regarded coordinator. Instead, the program went outside of the box and hired Sanchez from Bishop Gorman High School. In six seasons at Bishop Gorman (located in Las Vegas), Sanchez recorded an 85-5 mark and never won fewer than 13 games in a season. To help with Sanchez's transition to the FBS ranks, he hired a veteran staff, which includes Barney Cotton (former Nebraska assistant), Kent Baer (former Colorado defensive coordinator) and Joe Seumalo (former Oregon State assistant). The last high school to college hire didn't work well (Todd Dodge, North Texas). However, there's little risk involved for UNLV. If Sanchez doesn't work out, the program isn't worse off than it was in 2014. And who knows, maybe Sanchez can keep some of the talent in Nevada from leaving the state. This hire is worth the risk for UNLV. Final Grade: C | 1 | 8,367 | sports |
On Wednesday, Will Ferrell made a surprise appearance at a New Orleans Pelicans game against the Los Angeles Lakers where he pelted a cheerleader in the face with a basketball. The actor was then immediately tossed from the arena. | 8 | 8,368 | video |
Surviving Auschwitz Surviving Auschwitz Railway tracks lead to the infamous 'Death Gate' at the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. A network of concentration camps built and operated in occupied Poland by Nazi Germany during the Second World War, Auschwitz I and the nearby Auschwitz II-Birkenau extermination camp were where an estimated 1.1 million people, mostly Jews from across Europe, were killed. In 2015, 70 years after the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet soldiers, survivors of one of the darkest chapters in history recounted their ordeals. Their stories follow: Eva Behar Eva Behar poses in her home on December 1, 2014 in London. As the Russians approached Poland the Nazis saw the end of the war coming and on January 1, 1945, Eva was sent from Auschwitz to Bergen, where she was eventually liberated by the British. Right, Eva Behar shows her camp number tattoo. Janos Forgacs Janos Forgacs, 87, holds a document as he poses for a portrait in Budapest on January 12, 2015. Forgacs recalls that he was in a group transported to a camp in a cattle wagon, with the windows sealed with barbed wire. A military officer told them to hand over their belongings, telling them they would not need them anymore. Elzbieta Sobczynska Elzbieta Sobczynska (maiden name Gremblicka), 80, who was registered with camp number 85536, holds her father's watch, which was kept by her brother while they were in the camp, as she poses for a portrait in Warsaw on January 7, 2015. During the Warsaw Uprising, when Sobczynska was 10 years old, she was sent with her mother and brother from their home to a camp in Pruszkow and then moved by train to Auschwitz-Birkenau. There they were separated into blocks for women, girls and boys. Sobczynska said that she was robbed of her childhood, and lost the chance to experience a different kind of life. Alexander Riseman Alexander Riseman, aged 88, poses in his London home on December 1, 2014. He is holding a photograph of himself with his late wife Freda. As a child, Riseman and his family were sent to Auschwitz from their home in Poland, and were eventually liberated by the Russian forces. Right, A photograph of Riseman (third on the left) on a train, two days before the end of the war. Eva Fahidi Eva Fahidi, 90, holds a picture of her family, who were all killed in the concentration camp, as she poses for a portrait in Budapest on January 12, 2015. Fahidi was 18 in 1944 when she and her family were moved from Debrecen to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Josef Perl Josef Perl, aged 84, poses in his London home on December 3, 2014. Josef Perl was imprisoned in Auschwitz, Dachau, Bergen-Belsen, Gross-Rosen, Balkenhain, Hirschberg and Buchenwald concentration camps. He has spent twenty years of his life educating people about the horrors of the Holocaust and the lessons to be learnt. Jadwiga Bogucka Jadwiga Bogucka (maiden name Regulska), 89, who was registered with camp number 86356, poses for a portrait in Warsaw on January 12, 2015. During the Warsaw Uprising in August, 1944, when Bogucka was 19, she and her mother were sent from their house to a camp in Pruszkow and then moved on August 12, 1944 by train to Auschwitz-Birkenau. They were liberated by the Red Army on January 27, 1945. Right, Bogucka holds a picture of herself from 1944. Marian Majerowicz Marian Majerowicz, 88, who was registered with camp number 157715, poses for a portrait in Warsaw on January 13, 2015. Originally from Myszkow, Majerowicz was 17 when he was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. At the camp he was briefly reunited with his father, who told him that his mother and younger brother were both killed in the gas chambers. Majerowicz's father didn't survive the war. Susan Pollock Susan Pollock, aged 84, poses in her London home on December 1, 2014. Pollock was transported from her home in Hungary to Auschwitz, where her mother was immediately taken from her and sent to the gas chambers. Susan was subjected to hard slave labour until she was eventually forced to walk to Belsen in the bitterly cold winter and later liberated by British forces. Bogdan Bartnikowski Bogdan Bartnikowski, 82, who was registered with camp number 192731, holds a family photograph as he poses for a portrait in Warsaw on December 18, 2014. Bartnikowski was 12 years old during the Warsaw Uprising, when he and his mother were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. They were moved between camps several times. After the war Bartnikowski worked as a pilot and then became a journalist and writer. Danuta Bogdaniuk-Bogucka Danuta Bogdaniuk-Bogucka (maiden name Kaminska), 80, poses for a portrait in Warsaw January 5, 2015. Bogdaniuk-Bogucka was 10 years old when she was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau camp with her mother. Bogdaniuk-Bogucka was part of Josef Mengele's experiments when she was in Auschwitz. After the war she met her mother again and they discovered they had both been at Ravensbruck camp at the same time, but never encountered each other. Jacek Nadolny Jacek Nadolny, 77, who was registered with camp number 192685, poses for a portrait in Warsaw on January 7, 2015. Nadolny was seven during the Warsaw Uprising, when he was sent with his family to Auschwitz-Birkenau by train. In January 1945 the family was moved to a labour camp in Berlin. Right, Nadolny holds up a wartime photo of his family. Edith Baneth Edith Baneth, aged 88, poses in her London home on December 1, 2014. Baneth was a prisoner in Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, Neuengamme and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps. Henryk Duszyk Henryk Duszyk, 80, who was registered with camp number 192692, poses for a portrait in Warsaw on January 12, 2015. Duszyk was 10 years old during the Warsaw Uprising in August, 1944. He was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau with his father, brother and stepmother. The family were separated and Duszyk only saw his father once more before he was killed at the camp. Duszyk, his brother and stepmother were kept at Auschwitz-Birkenau until the camp was liberated. Halina Brzozowska Halina Brzozowska, 82, who was registered with camp number 86356, holds a picture of herself which was taken during the war, as she poses for a portrait in Warsaw on January 12, 2015. Brzozowska was 12 years old during the Warsaw Uprising when her family were sent to a camp in Pruszkow. She and her 6-year-old sister were then moved by train to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Brzozowska said that it was hard to say what had happened to them, that they were taken from their homes, family and lost their childhood. Stefan Sot Stefan Sot, 83, who was registered with camp number 192705, holds a picture of himself taken during the war, as he poses in Warsaw on January 5, 2015. Sot was 13 years old during the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944, when he was sent from his home to a camp in Pruszkow prior to being transported by train to Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. He was later moved to a labour sub-camp, where he worked in a kitchen for S.S. officers. After the war he worked as a typesetter at a printing house. Janina Reklajtis Janina Reklajtis, 80, who was registered with camp number 83043, holds a photo of herself taken during the war as she poses for a portrait in Warsaw on January 7, 2015. Reklajtis was 12 years old during the Warsaw Uprising when she and her mother were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. They were sent to a labour camp in Berlin in January 1945 and were kept there until they were liberated. Laszlo Bernath Laszlo Bernath, 87, holds up a picture of his family, who were all killed in the concentration camp during World War Two, as he poses for a portrait in Budapest on January 12, 2015. Bernath credits his survival of Auschwitz to his father being a practical man. He was 15 when they were taken but his father told him to lie about his age so that they would not be separated. Even while in the camp, Bernath had no idea about the gas chambers. Erzsebet Brodt Erzsebet Brodt, 89, holds a picture of her family, who were killed in the concentration camp during World War Two, as she poses for a portrait in Budapest on January 12, 2015. Brodt was 17 when she was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau along with her family. Remembering the journey to the camp, she said that those who were "sick or about to give birth were forced out and put into one wagon. When the wagon was opened in Auschwitz we saw that everyone was dead inside." Imre Varsanyi Imre Varsanyi, 86, holds up a photo of fellow survivors during World War Two, as he poses for a portrait in Budapest on January 12, 2015. Varsanyi was 14 when he and his family were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. He was the only member of his family to survive. After the war Varsanyi did not talk about Auschwitz for 60 years because he felt ashamed of having come through the war alive. Maria Stroinska Maria Stroinska, 82, holds a family photo taken before the war, as she poses for a portrait in Warsaw on January 12, 2015. Stroinska was 12 during the Warsaw Uprising, when she and her sister were sent from their house to a camp in Pruszkow before she was moved alone by train to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Jerzy Ulatowski Jerzy Ulatowski, 83, who was registered with camp number 192823, poses for a photo in Warsaw on January 12, 2015. Ulatowski was taken by train to Auschwitz-Birkenau when he was 13. In January 1945 he managed to escape with his family, as there was a lack of power in the barbed wire surrounding the camp. Susan Kluger Susan Kluger, aged 89, poses in her home in London on December 1, 2014. Accompanied by her mother, Helen, and her 13-year-old sister, Lilian, Kluger was taken to Auschwitz in 1944. While she was chosen for hard labour, her sister and mother died in the camp's gas chambers. Zofia Wareluk Zofia Wareluk, 70, poses for a portrait in Warsaw on January 12, 2015. Wareluk was born in Auschwitz two weeks before the camp was liberated. Her mother was sent to Auschwitz when she was four months pregnant. Barbara Doniecka Barbara Doniecka, 80, who was registered with camp number 86341, holds up a wartime photo of herself as she poses for a photograph in Warsaw on January 12, 2015. Doniecka was 12 during the Warsaw Uprising when she was sent to Pruszkow camp. She was then sent by train to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Rene Salt Rene Salt, aged 85, poses in her home on December 3, 2014 in London. Salt was imprisoned in Auschwitz concentration camp at the age of 14. Sam Pivnik Sam Pivnik, aged 88, poses in his home on December 1, 2014 in London. When Pivnik was 14, he and his family were forced to march to Auschwitz by the Nazis. While Pivnik survived, his father, mother, sisters Chana and Handel and younger brothers Meir, Wolf and Josef all died in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau. | 5 | 8,369 | news |
Celebrity news for Jan. 22, 2015 Is Kristen Stewart's Instagram account real? News that the world's least photo-friendly actress is on Instagram is, perhaps not surprisingly, off-base. Kristen Stewart reportedly joined the land of social media this week by setting up an Instagram account, complete with seemingly K. Stew-approved photos of her, her pals and her formerly braid-able hair. The profile quickly snagged more than 17,000 followers -- all of whom will be bummed to learn that a source has assured GossipCop that the account is fake. Jamie Dornan and Robert Pattinson are drinking buddies "Fifty Shades of Grey" star Jamie Dornan apparently counts Robert Pattinson as a drinking buddy. "I don't remember what we talked about the last time I saw him. I think we just got drunk," Dornan tells Variety (via the New York Post ). "I've been round Rob long enough to see what it's been like for him. I don't know if it's been a benefit to witness that. Whatever that is." He added that even if "Fifty Shades" does well, his stardom will never resemble that of his pal. "We're not the 'Twilight' franchise," Dornan says. "We're a different thing. Whatever my situation is, it's going to be different from Rob's. They are incomparable." Scott Eastwood explains why he came late to acting Clint Eastwood's 28-year-old son, Scott, has the same smoldering good looks as his dad, but he didn't always have the same interest in Hollywood. "My father was an actor and I looked up to him growing up, but I don't know if I was always sure I was going to [be an actor]. Girls got a little more important than some other things, but then when I graduated high school I really realized that's what I wanted to do," Scott, whose mug hits the big screen in April with "The Longest Ride," tells Yahoo . "I spent my whole life on movie sets and I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed more the storytelling, that's what my dad does. He's a story teller." Jennifer Garner: Anti-paparazzi law has 'changed my kids' lives' A recent change to California's privacy laws has rendered the family lives of many celebs much more normal. "Halle Berry passed the bill and she let me be a small part of it. And then, Kristen Bell went out and convinced all of the tabloid magazines to agree not to print photos of kids, and it's changed my kids' lives," Jennifer Garner marvels in a new interview with Yahoo (via Celebitchy ). "It's been over a year, and there isn't a day, that we don't talk about how different it is. If they're right outside your house, then when your kids wants to learn to ride a bike, it's very uncomfortable. They don't want to go biking in the middle of a photoshoot. But now my kids can go out and just go for a walk or go to the mailbox things that we just didn't do. Sometimes I still have paparazzi, myself, and sometimes they will shoot my kids, and I keep track of it. I will definitely take them to court if I have enough to make a case. I have to say, I really didn't think that was possible. I tip my hat to Halle and Kristen. I thought they were both shooting at something that couldn't be caught, and they did it." Malcolm Jamal-Warner speaks out about Bill Cosby Without directly referencing the 20-odd sexual assault allegations being faced by his former "Cosby Show" dad, Bill Cosby, Malcolm Jamal-Warner had only praise for the comedy legend in a recent interview with Billboard. "The Bill Cosby I know has been great to me and great for a lot of people," he said, according to Page Six . "What he's done for comedy and television has been legendary and history-making. What he's done for the black community and education has been invaluable. That's the Bill Cosby I know." Sarah Palin defends Hollywood brass behind 'American Sniper' Social media has been one big bag of mixed feelings regarding "American Sniper," but Chris Kyle, whose life story is the focus of the film, still has plenty of high-profile fans. Sarah Palin is among them. Kyle worked on Palin's security team prior to his death and in a recent chat with People , the former Alaskan governor praised both Kyle and the stars involved with making "American Sniper." "Bradley Cooper, Clint Eastwood, Mark Wahlberg and others like Dean Cain, who was another friend of Chris, defy typical Hollywood self-centeredness by putting their heart and soul and tremendous physical efforts into accurate portrayals of true heroism," said Palin. "I honor them for honoring the US Military through projects like 'American Sniper,' 'Lone Survivor,' and their pro-military charity events. Guys like those four and Gary Sinise, Ted Nugent, Kid Rock, and others know that the hope for our future is protected by and embodied in brave men and women represented in their work. I love them for standing strong in the face of cowardly fire from their colleagues." January Jones tells Instagram followers to "settle down" January Jones has a message for social media users who can't take a joke: Chill. Jezebel noticed that Jones recently posted an Instagram photo of a long and tangled diatribe about feminism. "This person and many others need to stop following me if they think I'm going to use Instagram as a platform for serious conversation," she wrote alongside the image. "I posted said post because I found it funny, I found the contradiction of it funny. I also find it funny how serious and hyper sensitive some of you are. It's Instagram. Something I do for FUN. #settledown." Julianne Moore praises her family at New York museum salute New York's Museum of the Moving Image paid tribute to Julianne Moore's long, award-winning career on Tuesday but as People reports, the actress made it clear that at the end of the day, nothing matters more to her than family. "When I read the script for ['The Myth of Fingerprints'], I met Bart Freundlich," she said of her husband, who was also in attendance. "I loved it, and I loved his story," she said, glowing at the podium in a gold sequin dress. "But I never, ever, ever in my life imagined that making that movie would give me the personal life that I always dreamed of." Moore later quipped that the museum's salute filled a key hole in her life. "When I received the star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last year, I made a lot of jokes to my family about how I don't need a tombstone now," she said. "Now I feel like I don't need a memorial service either." Candice Bergen cracks jokes at Museum of the Moving Image event As Julianne Moore was honored at the Museum of the Moving Image on Tuesday, Chloe Grace Moretz gushed about Julianne Moore's influence on the young actress when she was a kid -- but Candice Bergen pulled zero punches in telling the audience about her relationship with the "Still Alice" star. "Julianne Moore had no impact on my youth whatsoever. I barely know [Julianne]. I met her three times," Bergen deadpanned, according to the New York Post . "I also haven't seen 'Still Alice,'" she added, referencing Moore's Oscar-nominated film about early-onset Alzheimer's, "because at 68, it's just too close." Finally, the former "Moonlighting" star wrapped things up by saying she didn't know why she was asked to introduce a film at the event. "No idea why I'm here but I got dragooned into it," she noted. On the plus side, she announced that she knew the name of the film she was introducing -- "Crazy, Stupid, Love" -- but only because she'd written it on her hand. | 6 | 8,370 | entertainment |
If you've ever wanted to snoop inside Mindy Kaling's closet, you're in luck. We spent a morning on the set of The Mindy Project with Mindy's secret weapon: costume designer Salvador Perez. Salvador gave us the scoop on his creative partnership with Mindy and a sneak peek at a few of her looks in the season ahead. | 8 | 8,371 | video |
Scientists in Sweden rig up an air cannon to welcome a colleague to the laboratory when he arrives at work in the morning. | 8 | 8,372 | video |
The days of clipping coupons and waiting for sales are over. TC Newman (@PurpleTCNewman) shows shoppers how to save money by using some of the best apps. | 8 | 8,373 | video |
The Denver Broncos have hired Gary Kubiak as their head coach. See reactions from Von Miller, Emmanuel Sanders, and more. To see more Broncos videos download the Broncos DeskSite. | 1 | 8,374 | sports |
Forget Katy Perry and the Super Bowl! Ariana Grande will skip around on stage in a skimpy outfit for the NBA! | 1 | 8,375 | sports |
You are not alone... Don't Be Scared Our day-to-day lives are built upon fear. Fear of failure. Fear of obsolescence. Fear of loneliness. The ever-popular fear of missing out (FOMO). Becoming a mother raises the dial on fear to about 23 billion degrees. Especially when you're a new mom, and you haven't yet gained the self-confidence to fully trust your own motherly instincts. Pregnant and already petrified out of your mind? I was once in your shoes. Read on to learn about the most commonplace fears you may experience as a newly minted mom, and learn why when it comes down to it you really should just simmer down. Am I Doing it Wrong? Two weeks before my due date, having already read approximately five billion books about pregnancy, I realized that I had no clue about how to care for a newborn. And once I popped out my daughter, I experienced anxiety over the fact that once my husband's two-week paternity leave ended, the buck would stop with me. Even after the diaper-changing and the breastfeeding became second nature, I still worried that I was Doing It Wrong. And you will, too. Especially because everyone you come into contact with will eagerly tell you why and how you're Doing It Wrong. Breastfeeding vs. bottle feeding. Breast milk vs. formula. Babywearing vs. everything else. People get very passionate about these things. Tummy time. Pacifier usage. What you have to understand is that, no matter what side of these debates you fall on, you're doing great. Because your child is loved. Do My Baby Blues Mean I Don't Love Her Enough? Or rather, admitting to others that you're struggling may make them believe that you're an ungrateful, uncaring monster who does not love your child.It took my husband and I three and a half years of to get pregnant. And when Emily finally came into my life, my heart exploded with happiness. Six months in, my heart still feels in a constant state of bursting. Still, in the first two to three months of new motherhood, I felt so overwhelmed I cried nearly every other day. And it was hard to admit that to people. According to the American Psychological Association, an estimated nine to 16 percent of postpartum women experience postpartum depression. And a much larger number of postpartum women (60 to 80 percent) experience the plain old baby blues. Why? Motherhood is flipping hard! Sometimes, realizing you're not alone can make all the difference in the world. Consider searching for local postpartum support groups after you've recovered from your delivery. My regular meetings were always the bright spot in my week. Is There Something Horribly Wrong With My Baby? My baby has eczema. Something is horribly wrong. My baby has acne. Something is horribly wrong. My baby has the hiccups. Something is horribly wrong. My baby vomited all over herself. Something is horribly wrong (and it's all my fault). My baby sounds like Darth Vader when she breathes. Something is horribly wrong and she obviously has pneumonia and oh my god should we go to the emergency room? Thanks to the aforementioned speed reading of baby books, I actually didn't freak out too much over all the weird things that present with babies. Rather, I would observe something that might possibly be problematic, flip to the index in my book, and then read about how everything was totally normal and I should chill out. So let me save you even that trouble. See something weird? It's normal. Chill out. What if My Baby is Developmentally Slow? God save us all from developmental milestone charts, the lists that detail at what ages our child should be acquiring what skills. At one moment, you might be marveling at how advanced your child is because of his impressive neck control or the fact that she already has two teeth. The next, you might be assuming the worst because he hasn't rolled over yet or mastered the art of crawling. (My daughter mastered rolling over literally one week after I started freaking out about the fact that she wasn't rolling over.) The thing about these developmental milestone charts is that they are built upon (very wide) estimates. So your child might be ahead of another one in terms of certain milestones, like grasping at toys or sitting up with support, while also being behind that same child when it comes to other milestones. These things will generally come in their own time. Will People Think I'm a Terrible Mother? My daughter recently developed a bacterial infection in her diaper region a day before her 6-month checkup that had absolutely nothing to do with how often we change her diaper, or with any other aspect of how we care for her. Despite knowing this, I was still petrified that the nurses would see her rash and judge my parenting abilities. Ridiculous. What's also ridiculous is assuming that you're supposed to be a pro at this motherhood thing right off the bat, despite never having been a mother before. Yes, it will come. But no, this knowledge will not be automatically bestowed upon you by the divine fertility goddess that resides within us all. Motherhood has a definite learning curve, and you should never be afraid to ask questions. Am I Going to Break the Baby? This is a fear I had from the moment I discovered I was pregnant. Every car ride I took that long, icy winter was suddenly imbued with a great sense of danger. I was paranoid about the other drivers on the road. I got scared the one time my car slid into a curb. And forget the time I wiped out on a patch of black ice in my driveway. Once Em was born, I had nightmares about all the ways she might get sick or injured. After all, she had those soft spots on her head. She had zero neck control. She was a delicate little flower. The first time I tried to put her into an outfit in preparation for finally leaving the hospital, the nurse teased me for being so tentative as I pulled the onesie over her head and pulled her arms through the sleeves. The thing is, babies are pretty darn resilient. And since I know you'll be on high alert anyway (Is she crying? Oh no! She must be suffering! Why is she so quiet? Oh no! She must have stopped breathing!), I have complete faith that no harm will ever come to your child. Am I Setting a Bad Example? I am an aggressive, road rage-y driver. I have a mouth like a trucker. I engage in knee-jerk expressions of body hate. My social anxiety has led to more instances of regret than anything else in my life. I spend 95 percent of my day staring at a screen (though, to be fair, that last one is my job). These are all things I pray I don't pass on to my daughter.Especially the body hate and lack of self-confidence. The problem is, our children learn their way in the world at least at first by observing us. Luckily, you may have some time before your child begins picking up on certain things. And maybe this will finally be the motivation you need to be a better you! Will My Kids Walk All Over Me? How does one learn how to effectively discipline a child? How does one become the sort of person who inspires feelings of respect and admiration in their sons and daughters? How does one end up with well-behaved offspring? How does one avoid becoming that harried mother at the supermarket whose toddler throws a tantrum while on line at the register because he wants five Snickers bars? The mother at whom childless women everywhere glare and roll their eyes because they don't understand that THIS WILL SOMEDAY HAPPEN TO THEM, TOO? Darned if I know. My daughter is only six months old and a perfect angel. But I remain terrified of becoming the mother I once silently judged. Will Something Terrible Happen That I Have No Control Over? When I was pregnant, the biggest big bad in all of the content I read was SIDS. As I tried to figure out what to register for by researching the safety ratings of various products, I learned that crib bumpers could cause SIDS. And blankets. And stuffed animals. As I read about sleep training methods, the specter of SIDS hovered in the margins. I suddenly saw SIDS everywhere I looked. I can't tell you that SIDS is not something worth fearing. It does, indeed, exist. And throughout our children's lives, they will continue to face things that we, as parents, can't control or keep them safe from. But what we can do is take precautions and, eventually, educate them so that they can do as much as they can to protect themselves. Will I Lose My Sense of Self? Before I became a mother, I was a writer, an editor, a yogi, a reader, a Toastmaster, and a crazy cat lady. Now? I am still a writer, an editor, a yogi, a reader, and a crazy cat lady. And I am also a mother. Sure, I had to shift all the other parts of my life around to make room for a child. Sure, my priorities are no longer what they once were, and I am no longer the person I once was. Sure, I am often the default parent, and feel both underappreciated and overwhelmed. But being a mother is not all that I am. It's easy to become lost in motherhood, especially if you make the decision to put your career on hold in order to care for your child. But being a mom will not always be cluster feeding and poop-splosions and reclusiveness due to the fact that it is so damn hard to get out of the house.Things will get easier. I promise. And when they do, you can take stock of what's most important to you. You can reevaluate what's most essential to your sense of self. You can rediscover who you are as a human being, not just as a mother. | 4 | 8,376 | lifestyle |
Gee, the economy must really be smoking when we have 18 contenders for the America's Most Beautiful Roadster [AMBR] award. Really! Since 1950 this has been the show for roadsters and phaetons all open cars without roll up windows from 1937 and before. In years past there have been 10-12 contenders that vie for the prestigious AMBR award. We don't know whether adding more has necessarily made the competition stronger, as there are usually only a few roadsters that really get consideration by the judges. This year is probably no exception. Nonetheless, the judges will have to consider 18. So without further adieu here are the 18 contenders in no particular order: Larry Olson, Sioux Falls, SD. Builder: Bobby Alloway 1933 Ford Roadster Stretched two-inches, this looks like a very typical Alloway build, just taken to more extreme lengths than his previous cars, and those were taken to hyper-extreme lengths in terms of fit, finish, detail, and proportions all of the things that make an AMBR car what it is. Mods include sedan doors, narrowed hood, laid back windshield, and lots of little Alloway tricks. The engine is a 241 Red Ram Hemi with 6-Strombergs but fuel injection hidden in the heads. A 5-speed trans, V8 quick change, and a Model A axle up front complete the drivetrain. Wheels are Alloway's custom built, and though they look chrome plated they are highly polished. Mike Gordon, Fallbrook, CA. Builder: JT Enterprise, San Diego 1932 Ford Gordon wanted a Packard automobile theme for his roadster, and so starting with a Dearborn Deuce body and Roadster Shop chassis, JT Enterprise built a custom front end that mimics a 1941 Packard front end. But it's hard to see the front end when 1600hp of Nelson Ford Windsor is in your face. Nelson goodies include the mirror 77 turbos, 48-wastegates, and hand-built intake hiding an Alien intercooler. This monster is hooked to a 4L80E trans, spinning a Kugel independent quick change. Wheels are one-off Evods. In case you were wondering the car runs two sets of doors, one set with roll-up windows and one set for the AMBR because roll-up doors are illegal for judging. Willy Stryker, Penngrove, CA. 1928/29 Ford Roadster Willy built this car entirely with the exception of the Brian Daniels paint and Rod Souza interior. He wanted a profile of a sprint car and the heavy nose to portray what Grand Prix cars from the 1930s and 1940s would run. The front sheetmetal is all aluminum by Willy, built off of the stock cowl. A 1932 frame supports a French Ford flathead block running a Weiand blower and two-45 DCOE Weber opposed carbs. Trans is a T-5 5-speed, and a 9-inch Ford rear completes the drivetrain. One of the unique features of the roadster is an onboard fire system. Steve Lykken, Solvang, CA. 1932 Ford Roadster Pick-Up Steve has been banging around hot rod show cars for decades. His latest is this Brookville Roadster Pickup with metal work by Henry Wehr and paint by Butch Bringa in Phoenix. Drivetrain is a 350 Chevy, 700R4 automatic trans, and 9-inch rear-end, also built by Brookville, running Budnik billet wheels. Sid Chavers did the upholstery, and Steve wanted everyone to know that there is zero Bondo used in the making of his RP. Per O. Martinsen, Oslo, Norway. Builder: Hollywood Hot Rods, Burbank, CA 1932 Ford Roadster There's a lot of little things done to this roadster that gets lost in the black paint, starting with the 1932 3-window coupe-style doors and 1936 Ford-style cowl roll. Then you see the dual cowl vents and raised wheel wells. Starting with original 1932 Ford frame rails, the flathead is the work of H&H in La Cresenta, with a chassis by Scandinavian Street Rods in Huntington Beach featuring a Tremec 5-speed and Halibrand V8 quick change. Mark Lopez in Upland, CA, did the upholstery featuring swivel seats, with a 1953 Ford steering wheel and 1932 Lincoln instrument cluster. Wheels are Dunlop wires. Jack and Gail Taylor, Knoxville, TN. 1934 Ford Roadster Starting with a Speed Star roadster body, Jack built this entire car in his home garage over four years. Working for Nissan for 36 years, he decided to run a Nissan 5.6 liter all aluminum DOHC V8 out of a Titan pickup. The trans is an adapted 6-speed from an Xterra Frontier. Jack made the bellhousing adapter, and the independent front and rear are also handmade by Jack. The diff is from an Infinity, then built out from there by Jack. Pro Auto in Knoxville did the upholstery, and the top they covered came from a Miata, modified by Jack. The front end mimics a 1937 Ford grille, but Jack calls this a 1934 Ford. Larry Christensen, Arvada, Colorado. Builder: Pinkees Chassis, Arvada, CO 1932 Ford Roadster Larry loves Hemis, and built this 1957 392 running a big cam, Hot Heads aluminum heads, and Hilborn injection converted to electronic fuel injection. Note the "Parker" valve covers can you say rare? Larry also built the chassis at Pinkees. Trans is a TKO 600 Tremec spinning a Winters V8 quick change. The frame rails have been sectioned two-inches, and then Z'd in the rear. Glasurit custom paint is by Mike Slaughter in Brighton, CO. Frank Wallic in Confir, CO, handled the interior, and Mike Curtis built the one-off wheels. Greg Meyer, Tigard, Oregon. Builder: A&M Deluxe Customs, Cornelius, Oregon 1933 Chevy Roadster Starting with a roached coupe body, this Chevy was turned into a roadster with capped doors tied into the cowl by A&M. The grille is kicked out at the bottom, and the front fenders have been modified to tie in with the grille. The hood is handmade from steel. An LS-6 with Imagine Injection sits under it, with a 4L65E automatic and a modified Jaguar rear end. The exhaust is all stainless steel. The paint is by Ben's in Oregon City, and the interior is the work of Jim Valenzuela of V34 Custom Interiors in Eugene. Ted Davis, Oklahoma City. 1931 Ford Roadster Pickup Ted has owned this RP since he was 10. Let's say he's in his 60s now. The frame is a boxed, stock Model A with a custom made K-member by Ted, and housing a Donovan aluminum Model A block with five 4-bolt mains. The head is a repro 2-port Riley running a rare Pepsco aluminum blower from who knows what. The pan and bellhousing were all cast by Ted in aluminum, and the knock-off hubs are also the work of Ted. Paint is by Steve Cook at Oklahoma City Paint, and interior is by Frank Smith also of Okie City. Halibrands are original mag, trans is 1939 Ford, and the dash is from a 1932 Packard. Jerry Cogan, Portland, Oregon. Builder: John Barbero 1932 Ford Roadster Starting with a Rods Bod body, the Barbero chassis features an all aluminum small block 408 ci Ford featuring "TWM" throttle bodies for the fuel injection. The chassis is extended two-inches, with a stainless steel Deuce Factory dropped front end, and a Winters quick change rear, and 30 gallon gas tank. The paint is seven years old, done by Mike King and Bruce Sorenson, and the upholstery is by Sid Chavers in Santa Clara, CA. The windshield is a Wanless item that has been heavily reworked. Dale Fode, Redwood City, CA. Builders: Mark Willis and Bob Stewart, Grants Pass, Oregon 1934 Ford Roadster This project started eight years ago with an old SARS body and frame rails. The fenders are heavily reworked 1935 Ford items front and rear, with the quarters moved up and doors lengthened six-inches. The deck lid is heavily reworked as well, and the roadster features many handmade parts and fasteners. It also features what the builders call "floating brackets" where they make brackets for different items on the car that don't seem to have any fasteners at all--like they are floating. An LS-7 with a Magnacharger blower spins a 4L60E and Kugel independent front and rear suspensions. Gabes Upholstery in San Berdoo handled the upholstery chores, and Sherm's Plating did the chrome. The windshield is an elaborate cast bronze V'd unit with curved glass, though it's hard to see. Ross and Beth Meyers, Boyertown, Pennsylvania. Builder: Ellis Simmons, Iron hill Hot Rods, Newark, Delaware 1936 Ford Roadster We got so engrossed with the info on this great looking roadster that we didn't get any images of the exterior. Agghhh! Starting with a restored 1936 Ford roadster body, the frame came from an old 1936 coupe race car that Ross used to run with in his youth. The coupe burned up in a fire, and when this project needed a frame, he got the one that was under the childhood coupe. The engine is a 430 Lincoln set back a bit, with a Tremec 5-speed and Halibrand champ rear end. The engine spins a Mcullouch supercharger. 251 louvers adorn the body. A drilled I-beam runs up front with drilled 1940 Ford brakes and Buick drums. The interior is by Dean at Hot Rod Garage East in Denton, Maryland, and features 1956 Porsche Speedster seats. The horn holes have been converted to air intakes, and the headlights are made up from a number of cars starting with the stock 1936 lenses. Gene Hetland, Minnesota. Builder: Mike McKinnett, Oregon 1932 Ford Roadster Everyone with this roadster was drinking in the bar, or something, so we have a limited amount of info. The engine is a 351 Ford with a rare set of overhead valve heads not Gurney'Weslake heads. Supposedly only three sets were made by Ford in the 1960s. Trans is a Tremec 5-speed, and rear is a V8 quick change with a Model A spring. Wheels are by Blundel, and the car is called the "Nickel 3." Beau Boeckmann/Galpin Ford, Panorama City, Ca. Builder: Dave Shuten Grass Hopper T Roadster This is a recreation of the famous "Grass Hopper" roadster appearing on HOT ROD's November 1960 cover. The roadster also became an early Monogram plastic model kit. Power is from a 1949 303 Olds punched out to 461 ci, with a pruned 4-71 blower. Trans is a 1937 LaSalle, and a Halibrand quick change rounds out the rear. The body is an original 1915 T roadster, painted by Darryl Hollenbeck at Vintage Color in San Francisco. Mark Lopez created the white and green vinyl interior. This is a fun but accurate recreation maybe taken a little beyond the original in execution. Burt Diehl, Mesa, Arizona. Builder: Charly's Garage, Mesa 1926/27 T Roadster Starting with an original body, Charly's built not only the chassis but also the interior and paint. The engine is a Model B with a repro Miller overhead head and S&S carbs normally seen on Harleys. Charly's built the intake adapters and headers. A 1939 trans handles the gears, and a Winters V8 quick change with 1940 Ford bells is at the rear. Lincoln brakes with Buick finned drums are at each corner. The engine runs a distributor-less ignition, in case you wondered where the distributor went. The body was extended 4-inches, and the windshield was chopped an estimated one-foot! Painted 16-inch steelies and vintage tires are running stock. Dustin Smith, Spokane, Washington. 1926/27 High Boy Ford Roadster This roadster was entirely owner built. Dustin is a member of the Inland Emperors, who have participated in the AMBR in two previous years with cars that are popular with the crowds, but not the judges. The body is completely stock, with a custom made frame that follows the contours of the body. All of the running gear components are 1930/31 Model A, including the wheels, engine, trans, and rear end. Though completely chromed, even the downdraft carb is stock Model A. Dustin wanted a cute, clean and different roadster to enter in the competition. He has that for sure! Dustin also had help from fellow Emperors friend Brad Gortsema. Robert Hoffman, Stockholm, Sweden. 1930 Roadster Robert calls this a 1930 roadster, but the body is entirely hand built from 12 sheets of sheetmetal by "Heavy". American Stamping rails mount a 540 ci aluminum Hemi with Hilborn EFI built by Robert, who owns Speed Pro in Stockholm. It's packing 818 hp, but is tuned for the street. Trans is a 6-speed T-56 from a Viper, with an aluminum Ford nine-inch diff featuring a fake quick change cover, and owner-built independent rear. Paint and graphics are by Clauss Nitzer, and upholstery is by Sybo in Stockholm. The car was shipped to Norfolk, Virginia, and then trailered to the Roadster Show in Pomona. Urban Hirsch, Beverly Hills, CA. Builder: Chopit Customs, Stanton, CA 1926/27 T Roadster 24 year old Nick Chopit has the chops to build an AMBR contender with Hirsch's T roadster. He made the aluminum nose, side covers and hood, steering wheel and shifter. Dad Gary Chopit handled the body work and House of Kolor custom paint, and Fat Lucky Interiors in Glendale, CA, finished off the Speedway bomber seats. An all aluminum small block Chevy, 700R4, and Currie 9-inch rear handles the drivetrain, and brakes are Johnson's at all of the corners. In case you thought all of the contenders are show car fresh, this roadster has 765 miles on it so far. | 9 | 8,377 | autos |
Watch Washington pull off the win over Colorado at the buzzer. | 1 | 8,378 | sports |
At first glance, there's no vehicle in the Jeep lineup more fitting of the Renegade name than the 2015 Jeep Renegade. A Renegade is defined by my Google machine as "a person who deserts and betrays an organization, country, or set of principles." As the first Jeep to be built outside of North America (in an Axis country, at that!) the Italian Renegade may appear to be traitorous to some of the brand's diehard fan base, but as a first drive of the new baby Jeep proves, the Renegade's still got all the hardware needed to appeal to both the Jeep faithful and those just looking for a rugged little ride. The Renegade may be built from the ground up in Melfi, Italy, on Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' new small-wide 4x4 architecture, but it still oozes Jeep DNA. About the same wheelbase, height, length, and width as the legendary XJ Cherokee, the new Renegade ticks all the boxes Jeep buyers look for. With its design inspired by the current Wrangler , the original Willys MB, and military jerry cans, the Renegade sports a refreshingly familiar boxy shape complete with Jeep design cues that are both obvious -- like its seven-slot grille and searchlight-sized headlights -- and subtle, like its drooping door line and X-shaped taillamps. Though the Renegade will share its platform and assembly line with the Fiat 500X, Jeep engineers are keen to point out that they're the ones who did all the heavy lifting on the Renegade here in the U.S. With Jeep's legendary off-road abilities in mind, Jeep engineers spent as much time developing the Renegade on the trails in Moab, Utah, as it did on suburban roads outside its Chelsea Proving Grounds. With the competing demands of both hardcore off-roading and urban commuting in mind, the Renegade's unibody platform is made up of more high-strength steel than any other Jeep in the lineup. According to Jeep, this not only reduces chassis flex on the trail but also makes the Renegade a better drive out on the roads. Powering the new baby Jeep is a range of familiar engines. Standard is FCA's 1.4-liter MultiAir turbo I-4, which makes the same 160 hp and 184 lb-ft of torque in the Renegade as it does in the Dodge Dart . Unlike its corporate sibling, the Renegade's MultiAir engine comes in both front- and all-wheel drive, and, much to our delight, with a six-speed manual the only available transmission. Available across the board and standard on higher-trim Renegade Limited and Trailhawk models is the Jeep Cherokee's 2.4-liter Tigershark I-4, good for 180 hp and 175 lb-ft of twist, mated to Chrysler's new nine-speed automatic. Two all-wheel-drive systems are available on the Renegade: Jeep Active Drive, which routes power to the rear wheels via a quick-connecting power transfer unit, and the Renegade Trailhawk's Jeep Active Drive Low, which uses a unique final drive ratio that allows first gear to double as a low-range with a 20:1 ratio. From a packaging perspective, the Renegade is a pretty neat little Jeep. The cabin is bigger than expected, the materials all feel high-quality, and all the controls in the center stack, including the all-wheel-drive lock and Selec-Terrain switches, are within easy reach. The seats are comfortable up front and in back, and the 40/20/40 rear seats are plenty roomy for adult passengers. The only odd thing about the Renegade's cabin is the view out front -- that accentuated Jeep greenhouse means its designers were forced to push the windshield cowl far forward, with the driver and passengers sitting far back in the cabin. That said, that big greenhouse gives the Renegade a massive amount of headroom -- room that only grows if the removable My Sky roof panels are spec'd. Those roof panels stow under the floor in the Renegade's 18.5 cubic inch cargo area. The two powertrains, sampled in a near-base Renegade Sport and near-loaded Renegade Limited, are both solid. With so few automakers offering up manual-equipped all-wheel-drive vehicles these days, I started my drive off behind the wheel of a Renegade Sport before Jeep wised up, realized no one would buy one, and took it away. Aptly named, the Renegade Sport may serve as the base model in the Renegade range, but it certainly doesn't feel it. The MultiAir isn't fast, but it does feel quick thanks to the short first through third gears. The shifter is pretty slick too, encouraging the driver to perform quick shifts. The powertrain actively encourages the driver to ring the little Jeep out, and the Renegade mostly delivers, with solid brakes and slow but good steering, so long as you're not driving on tight switchback canyon roads. While less sporty in character, the Renegade Limited's 2.4-liter engine and nine-speed auto combination is an equally engaging powertrain. Destined to be the volume engine and transmission, the little four-banger offers up good power and performance roughly equal to the MultiAir. The nine-speed transmission continues to improve as Chrysler shoehorns it into more of its models, and the Renegade is its best application yet, with the transmission rattling off quick, smart shifts. The rest of the Renegade Limited package delivers too, with a quiet, upscale cabin, and a compliant, well-sorted ride. While the new Renegade performs well on the road, the burning question most have about the littlest Jeep is how it handles the rough stuff. Pretty well, as it turns out. Sitting on top of the Renegade lineup is the new Renegade Trailhawk. As is the case on its Cherokee big brother, the Renegade Trailhawk is more than just a badge and trim job. The Renegade Trailhawk gets some unique hardware, including Jeep's Active Drive Low all-wheel-drive system, an 0.8-inch suspension lift (for 8.7 inches of ground clearance), Goodyear Wrangler tires on 17-inch wheels, and front and rear tow hooks rated for twice the Renegade's weight. Thanks to the suspension lift and off-road tires, the Renegade Trailhawk is able to boast better approach, breakover, and departure angles than its Cherokee Trailhawk big brother. On the software front, the Renegade Trailhawk gets Rock mode on the Selec-Terrain system, what Jeep calls an electronic "Brake Lock Differential," and a 4-Low mode, which uses the nine-speed's 4.71 first gear ratio combined with the Trailhawk's 4.33 final drive ratio to effectively take the place of a traditional two-speed transfer case. With first gear functioning as a low-range on the Trailhawk, the Renegade's programmed for second-gear starts, though Jeep says the transmission will kick down into first if the throttle is depressed more than 80 percent. While many might be understandably apprehensive about the Renegade's Trail Rated off-road chops, a short, technical off-road course proves that the Renegade is infused with plenty of the DNA that's made the brand a legend off-road. The course included dirt roads, simulated river beds, steep rock climbs and descents, and frame-twisting trenches. Per my guide's recommendations, I went through the course the first time in Rock mode, which minimizes the slip allowed by the electronic differentials and locks the Renegade in 4-Low. Not that I expected Jeep to set up a course the Renegade wouldn't be able to handle, but the Trailhawk proved shockingly capable. The first set of soccer-ball-sized rocks was no problem, nor was the incredibly steep, rocky hill following it -- that hill even saw the Renegade pick up its inside front and rear tires as I navigated the course. Those obstacles were soon followed by frame-punishing dirt troughs that the Renegade took to like a billy goat, its underside seeing plenty of sunlight as it pushed and dragged itself through. Instilled with confidence after another go, I spent my last go-around of the course switching back and forth between the Selec-Terrain's modes. While Rock proved most suitable for the particular course, Sand was fun over some of the loose dirt on the course, allowing the Renegade to hang its tail out a bit like a rally car. While plenty capable off the beaten path, it is possible to get the little Jeep stuck. I found this out rather embarrassingly with the Trailhawk in Auto mode by slowly climbing a steep, gravely hill the tires dug themselves into. Embarrassing, sure, but not the end of the world -- locking on all-wheel drive and getting a little running start got the Renegade to the top of the hill, no problem. With the Nissan Juke , Kia Soul , Chevrolet Trax , and Mini Countryman targeted as its chief rivals, the Jeep Renegade is priced to compete. Prices start at $18,990 for a base front-drive Renegade Sport and top out at $26,990 for a Renegade Trailhawk. The volume Renegade Latitude will start at $22,990 for a front-drive MultiAir model, and the luxury-aimed Renegade Limited will go for $25,790 for a front-drive Tigershark model. The as-tested price for our Renegade trio ranged from $24,075 for our lightly optioned Renegade Sport 4x4, $33,335 for our loaded Renegade Trailhawk, and $34,175 for our fully optioned Renegade Limited 4x4. The Renegade may have a name and origin befitting of an alleged traitor, but if our encounter with the new little Jeep has proven anything, it's that the Renegade still manages to stay true to Jeep's roots while appealing to a wider audience. With the Renegade, Jeep has managed to make a world vehicle equally appealing to those doing the mall crawl as those who rock crawl. With the Renegade already off to a flying start in parts of Europe, Jeep is hoping the Renegade will be welcomed with open arms in its home market when it hits dealers here in January. 2015 Jeep Renegade BASE PRICE $18,990-$26,990 PRICE AS-TESTED $24,075 (Sport); $33,335 (Trailhawk); $34,175 (Limited) VEHICLE LAYOUT Front-engine, FWD/AWD, 5 pass, 4-door crossover ENGINE 1.4L/160-hp/184-lb-ft turbo I-4; 2.4L/180-hp/175-lb-ft I-4 TRANSMISSION 6-speed manual; 9-speed automatic CURB WEIGHT 3,000-3,600 lb (est) WHEELBASE 101.2 in LENGTH x WIDTH x HEIGHT 166.6 x 79.6 x 66.5 in 0-60 MPH 8.0-8.6 sec (MT est) EPA CITY/HWY/COMB FUEL ECON Not yet rated ON SALE IN U.S. January | 9 | 8,379 | autos |
PARK CITY, Utah The opening-night documentary at the Sundance Film Festival closed with a superstar concert. After the credits rolled on "What Happened, Miss Simone?" John Legend took the stage to pay tribute to its subject, Nina Simone. "I'm so grateful to be here today honoring the legacy of the wonderful, powerful, dynamic, super-talented Nina Simone," said Legend, who along with Common is nominated for an Oscar for their original song from "Selma." The documentary about the late singer tracks her rise to fame, her struggles with mental illness, her activism during the civil rights movement, her move to Liberia where she left music behind and finally to France, where she regained her career. Legend said the entertainer, who died in 2003, is "one of my favorite singers; one of my favorite artists of all time." "I find myself studying her versions of all kinds of songs, thinking about her words, thinking about her boldness, thinking about her commitment to justice," he said. "I'm truly humbled to be here tonight to honor her legacy." He emerged onstage from behind a screen seated at a grand piano, opening with Simone's soulful version of "Lilac Wine." He followed with "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free," which Simone made famous in 1967. After saying how much he admired Simone, he performed her 1964 single, "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood." Legend took a bow, then was embraced by the film's director, Liz Garbus, and festival founder Robert Redford. | 6 | 8,380 | entertainment |
Her daily beauty routine: God, its endless. I get up at five, breathe, drink a liter of water, then I close my eyes for 10 minutes and reflect on the day and envision what I'd like to see, whether it's seeing my kids happy, making sure I get things done that I want to get done, making sure I listen and hear messages from other people. And that is part of my beauty routine because I think if I can be focused and open then I'm not going to look stressed and feel stressed. Then I have two espressos first thing - my nutritionist tells me I'm not supposed to do that, but I do it anyway then I have some fruit and two teaspoons of Super Elixir in cold coconut water. I scrub, I'm a scrubber in Australia, that's not a good word, it's like a cheap hussy but I exfoliate, exfoliate, exfoliate and moisturize, which is really important for me being from Australia and now being in Miami in the sun. Then sunscreen is very important, although sometimes I forget. Her must-have travel item: Lucas Papaw it's so amazing. Her hair secrets: I swim a lot, so that's why it gets so pale. I fill my swimming cap with moisturizer, so every day in Miami I wash the chlorine, but when I'm working, I wash it every other day or every third day. Oribe is my favorite shampoo. How diet and fitness has changed since she started modeling: In 2011 and prior to that, if you asked any woman what her objective was it would be to lose weight. Today's woman wants to feel energized and inspired. When I was younger I wanted to be fit and strong, but today it's really about the way I feel. I want to feel upbeat. Her biggest beauty secret: Water. My kids always laugh because they'll say,"Mom, I have a headache..." Drink water. "Mom, I'm hungry..." Drink water. "Mom, I cant sleep very well..." Drink some water. Her lingerie philosophy: It should be sexy in a pure, beautiful, elegant way. And sporty and comfortable. The most romantic Valentine's Day she's ever had: My son was born on Valentine's Day so that's probably as good as it gets. Her signature scent: Vetiver by Guerlain The best beauty treatment she's ever gotten: Three months of Super Elixir transforms lives. I know that's not the answer you want, but that's my truth. Also, I just spoke to Bobbi Brown and she's a strong believer in lasers for your skin. There's a lot to be said for that if you're going from a technical point of view, but for me, it's from the inside out. Her biggest vice: What are vices, come on, its like, I drink coffee, I eat chocolate, I laugh a lot, I have a great relationship with my husband and all that that entails. No vices. | 4 | 8,381 | lifestyle |
The grandchildren's birthday parties were always lavish. At their $6 million Annapolis mansion, Don and Sandra Pyle could never do too much for her sons' kids, transforming the sprawling eight-acre estate into a children's carnival with water slides, moon bounces and pony rides. Don, especially, reveled in the games of hide-and-seek and make-believe tussles. "It was like he was raising the children he never had," said Jon Bierman, a longtime friend of the wealthy technology executive. "He put everything into them." The four Boone kids Lexi, 8, and Katie, 7, along with their first cousins Charlotte, 8, and Wes, 6 went to a sleepover at their grandparents' home on Sunday because Monday was a holiday, a family spokeswoman said. Don, 56, known as "Pop-Pop" to the grandkids, and Sandy, 63, who went by "Dee-Dee," took them to Target to buy costumes for a visit to Medieval Times at the Arundel Mills mall. Together, they watched knights joust and ate dinner in a banquet setting before heading back to their own castle, as the Pyles' 16,000-square-foot home was known to neighbors. They almost certainly never left. Early Monday morning, an inferno consumed the mansion, bringing down its seven-ton steel beams and reducing to ash a structure the size of seven average single-family houses. All six family members are feared dead. So far, five bodies have been found two Wednesday, two more on Thursday and one on Friday. Cadaver dogs continue to hunt for the other remains as investigators search for any signs of foul play. On Thursday, they also brought in a dog that specializes in sniffing out gasoline and other accelerants that may spark fires. Left behind are Clint and Randy Boone, who each lost two children as well as their mother and stepfather in a single night. Clint, 37, and his ex-wife, Eve Morrison, 39, are parents to Charlotte and Wes. Randy, 38, and Stacey, 34 parents to Lexi and Katie also have a newborn son, who was at home with them the night of the fire. "I never knew that I could hurt this badly. It's unreal," Stacey wrote in a Facebook post Tuesday. "All one big nightmare that I can't wake up from." In biographies released by the family Friday, Lexi, 8, was described as an eager big sister to her newborn brother and devoted to her dog, Sophie. She played field hockey, lacrosse and ice skated. "Lexi wanted to be a vet or on television when she grew up," her family said. "She was going to be famous." Her younger sister, Katie, was also excited about the arrival of a baby brother. Katie played soccer and enjoyed gymnastics, ice skating and singing Taylor Swift songs. "For only having just turned 7," her family said, "she was loving and thoughtful beyond her years." Charlotte, 8, loved horses, basketball, swimming and making videos with her guinea pig, Oreo. "She wanted to be known as a gamer with an epic love of Minecraft," her family said. "Charlotte's future dreams were to run an animal rescue." Her brother Wes, 6, "looked up to his sister immensely," his family said. Like Charlotte, he also enjoyed Minecraft and swimming, and had a particular fondness for Legos, Doctor Who and the game "Plants vs. Zombies." "In his future," the family added, "Wes wanted to build robots." The Boones hinted at their desolation in a joint statement released Thursday, thanking firefighters, expressing gratitude for the outpouring of community support and calling the love for their family "boundless." "Life is fragile," they said. "Make time today to embrace your loved ones." A raging fire The four-alarm blaze was one of the most devastating in Maryland in years, according to Bruce Bouch, the senior deputy state fire marshal whose agency has been helping Anne Arundel County with its investigation. Bouch said a home alarm alerted 911 that smoke was detected on the first and second floors of the mansion early Monday, but because of the home's vast open areas, the fire probably spread rapidly and "overcame the space." "By the time the fire service was on the scene, they already had a raging, out-of-control fire they had to fight," Bouch said. County fire officials said there were no sprinklers in the Pyle mansion, which was built in 2005 four years before Anne Arundel began to require them in new residential homes. Fire sprinklers will become mandatory in all new residential buildings in Maryland starting in June. Bouch said that if sprinklers had been installed in the Pyle mansion, "there probably wouldn't be a story today." Investigators are using specialty software that provides "forensic mapping," which allows them to reconstruct a building's layout in such detail that they could determine where drapes might have hung or a couch might have been placed, according to Special Agent Dave Cheplak, a spokesman for the Baltimore office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He and Capt. Russell Davies Jr., a spokesman for the county's fire department, said they had not determined the cause of the fire. "Until we make a determination one way or another, it's going to stay a criminal investigation," Davies said. Cheplak echoed the need to comb carefully through the evidence, a process that could take weeks. "Anytime you have a family of six people killed in a home, it's certainly not commonplace," he said. "Nobody is taking it as routine." He would not comment on whether the accelerant dog found anything suspicious, but he did say that cadaver dogs have been instrumental in helping crews pinpoint where to dig for bodies. Amassing a fortune Before it was reduced to rubble, the mansion symbolized the Pyles' soaring success and served as the center of their family's universe. The couple met in 1981 at Rixon, said Nick Whelan, who had an engineering job at the Silver Spring, Md., tech company. Don, a salesman, had recently graduated from the University of Delaware, where he played lacrosse. Sandy, a mother of two young boys, worked in marketing. Back then, their generous philanthropy, frequent vacations, yacht club social swirl and Great Gatsby-like galas were years away. "He was like all the rest of us working stiffs," Whelan said. "They would go out for beers together." Don and Sandy shared sharp wits and the same passions. The couple frequented Orioles games and the Preakness Stakes and joined friends for happy hours at Baltimore bars. In the summer, they boated; in the winter, they took Sandy's sons on ski trips to Pennsylvania. "They were always very well-matched together," he said. "They got on amazingly well." The two married in 1983 as Don's career took off. "I was able to get in on the ground floor in some of the companies that were based in Silicon Valley," he told The Washington Post in an October interview, after becoming chief operating officer of ScienceLogic, a Northern Virginia computer networking company. And he made a fortune in the process. During his rise in the tech world, Sandy focused her attention on her sons, who attended Mount Hebron High School in Ellicott City, Md. A friend of the brothers said their father, Kenny Boone, played an active role in their childhoods. Randy, the older of the two boys, eventually followed in Don's professional footsteps, holding jobs at a pair of companies his stepfather helped run: Netcordia and Infoblox, according to his LinkedIn profile. He now works as a sales development representative. Sandy, meanwhile, became an entrepreneur, opening a tanning salon in Columbia, Md. Jill Willingham was 15 when she started working for Sandy at Hot Off the Beach. Sandy would sign her employees up for training and seminars, encouraging their business aspirations. She also took the entire staff to conventions, including one in Ocean City. Willingham, now 36, said she and her husband once attended a July 4 party at the mansion, which was designed to look like an English-style castle complete with a suit of armor inside. "It was beyond anything you could imagine," she said. "They had a lot of castle things, like a drawbridge. And there was an infinity pool. Inside, she had a current pool so she could exercise. She also had a tanning room in a tower of the house." Sandy, who sold the tanning salon years ago, was known for her eclectic taste and extravagant parties. From 2008 to 2010, she and Don threw wine-tasting fundraisers for the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation, a spokesman said. Two years ago, when the Delaware football team played Navy in Annapolis, the Pyles hosted an event for alumni and school leaders of Don's alma mater, said his former lacrosse coach, Bob Shillinglaw. When Sandy's Howard High School class needed a place to hold its 40th reunion in 2010, she offered their home. "It was awesome in the true sense of the word," said Sue Goodwin, a former classmate. "Their graciousness and generosity was beyond belief." She also had a deep love for the rescue dogs she took in, feeding them leftover prime rib or when the family ordered pizza their own cheeseburgers. Still, friends said, nothing compared with the adoration they had for their grandchildren. They turned their expansive basement into a playroom for sleepovers and took the children on trips to Disney World and Great Wolf Lodge, an indoor water park. They helped pay for the children to attend the private Severn School, where tuition for elementary students runs nearly $18,000 a year. The family was such a fixture on campus that one parking space is marked "Reserved for Pyle family." Joe Heim, Steven Overly, Julie Tate and Julie Zauzmer contributed to this report. | 5 | 8,382 | news |
NYT: Justice Dept. recommending no civil rights charges against Wilson | 8 | 8,383 | video |
CNN's Randi Kaye looks at the case of a black police officer's shooting and killing of an unarmed black suspect in Bridgeton, New Jersey. | 5 | 8,384 | news |
By Matt Birch There's no love lost Alabama and Auburn meet no matter the sport. When the two schools faced off in women's basketball on Thursday night, a fight broke out on the court between members of both teams. It all began near the end of the first half, when Alabama's Meoshonti Knight and Auburn's Hasina Muhammad got into it after a free throw was made. It started with some words, but then escalated quickly after the two got tangled up. [see videos of the brawl here and here ] Knight then punched Muhammad in the jaw, and the Tigers player later retaliated with a blow of her own near the Alabama bench. Both players as well as Alabama's Breanna Hayden were ejected from the game. | 1 | 8,385 | sports |
Watching this helmet cam may make you feel ski-sick. Jeanne Moos invites you to soar in the skis of a "ski God." | 8 | 8,386 | video |
STORRS, Conn. (AP) -- UConn made a barrage of 3-point baskets to build an 18-point lead over UCF, then held on to pick up its first win in three games. Ryan Boatright scored 18 points and had seven assists to lead the defending national champions over the Knights 67-60 on Thursday night. Amida Brimah added 14 points and had four blocked shots for UConn (10-7, 3-2 American). All six of the 7-foot center's baskets came on lob passes from teammates that he turned into dunks. Omar Calhoun added 11 points and Daniel Hamilton had 10 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. B.J. Taylor led UCF (9-9, 2-5) with 13 points and Justin McBride added 11. Adonys Henriquez and Daiquan Walker each chipped in with 10. UConn never trailed and used a 19-2 first half run to build an early 36-18 lead. But UCF never quit and it was just a five-point game after a 3-pointer by Henriquez with 3 minutes left. UConn stretched it back to 10 before another Henriquez 3-pointer that came after the game had been decided. "That's always disappointing when you make the game harder than it's got to be," Boatright said. "Once you get a team down 18, you've got to step on their neck and put them away." Boatright, who had been held out of double figures in his last two games, hit his first four shots from 3-point range and had 12 points by intermission. The Huskies made 10 of their 17 shots from 3-point range in the first half and finished 11 of 20 from behind the arc. But while UCF did a better job guarding the 3-point line in the second half, that allowed the Huskies' guards to penetrate and left Brimah open underneath. "Once I beat my man, Amida's man comes to help and I know he's going to come and help, so I just threw it up to Amida," Hamilton said. UConn also played good defense, holding UCF 10 points under its season average. The Huskies scored 18 points off 12 UCF turnovers. "With our young team, sometimes we don't make good decisions," said UCF coach Donnie Jones. "That really hurt us." UConn jumped out quickly. A 3-pointer from Calhoun and a lob dunk by Brimah made it 5-0 and forced a UCF timeout a minute into the game. Philip Nolan later drew a charging foul, the 14th time he's done that this season to spark the big run that appeared to give UConn control of the game. But the Knights closed the half on a 15-3 run, and scored the last 10 points to trail just 39-33 at intermission. UCF held the Huskies without a bucket for the final 3 minutes of the half, after keeping them scoreless for a 4-minute stretch earlier. "We just relaxed," UConn coach Kevin Ollie said. "Good teams can't relax." ------ TIP-INS UCF: B.J. Taylor who followed up at 33-point performance against Tulane on Jan. 14 with 17 points against Memphis last Saturday hit just four of his 13 shots. He came into the game leading all freshmen in the conference in scoring at 14.9 points per game. UConn: The Huskies had a season-high 21 assists on 25 baskets. HOME COURT ADVANTAGE: The Huskies had not played on campus since losing to Yale on Dec. 5. They have played at seven different arenas since then, including four home games in Hartford and another game 80 miles away in Bridgeport. UCF came in with just one road win on the season, an overtime victory at Houston. UP NEXT UCF: The Knights continue their road trip in Cincinnati on Sunday to take on the Bearcats. UCONN: The Huskies head to Hartford on Sunday for a game against USF. | 1 | 8,387 | sports |
SANFORD - A jury Thursday night convicted a U.S. Army staff sergeant of molesting a 10-year-old girl in 2011. Jurors deliberated just under four hours before finding Jason Lucas Revis, 33, of Oviedo guilty of lewd and lascivious molestation - making the girl touch him inappropriately. He's to be sentenced Monday by Circuit Judge Debra S. Nelson. Revis was stabbed three times in the arm by the victim's mother after she walked in on Revis molesting her daughter, Assistant State Attorney Dave Whateley told jurors in his opening statement Thursday. But the defendant never sought medical treatment for the 2011 incident in Oviedo and convinced the victim and her mother to keep the whole thing quiet for more than two years, Whateley said. Revis was arrested in February after the child confided in a friend and that child's mother notified child-welfare authorities. The girl's mother took the witness stand Thursday and admitted to jurors in Spanish that she stabbed Revis "once or twice...I thought since I was defending my daughter, I would not get in trouble." She did not tell authorities about the alleged abuse at the time, September of 2011, she said, "because when I asked my daughter for details, she said she didn't want to talk." Earlier Thursday, the girl, now age 13, told the six-member jury that the man called her into his bedroom one day in September 2011 - she was unsure of the date - and told her to touch him inappropriately. "I did what he asked me to do," she said. Defense attorney Tony Dodds challenged the girl, suggesting that she had made up the story. "You didn't report this to anybody else, not a teacher, for two years did you?" Dodds asked. "No," the girl said. "It never happened, did it?" Dodds asked. "It did happen," the girl said. She told jurors that her mother walked in on them and saw what was going on. [email protected] | 5 | 8,388 | news |
Since 2011 VOGUE magazine has been offering young fashion German designers a platform to present their collections at the Berlin Fashion Week. It's a great opportunity to showcase their work and contact potential partners and clients. We went to see how it's working out for the newcomers. | 8 | 8,389 | video |
Bill Belichick denied that he had anything to do with Deflate-Gate. Is ignorance a legitimate excuse? Even if he did not know, should he own up to it? | 1 | 8,390 | sports |
PHOENIX -- Like other Cuban emigres, Yasmany Tomas moved by boat from his homeland to Haiti, in this case, for sanctuary. The trip was "uncomfortable," he shared. That was then. This is now. In black trainers, a small band around his right wrist and gray D-backs t-shirt that bulged in places you might expect from a power hitter, Tomas did not elaborate further on his defection during his first meeting with local media since he signed a six-year, $68.5 million contract in December. Let the assimilation begin. Tomas is the latest in the line of recent Cuban power prospects that includes Yoenis Cespedes, Yasiel Puig and Jose Abreu. But he hardly considers that a burden. Quite the opposite. "I believe I have no pressure at all," Tomas, 24, said through interpreter Ariel Prieto, who joined the D-backs' coaching staff this season "I believe the team signed me with that kind of money because they believe in me, so I'm going to try to give them my best. "I want to try to follow those guys, because they already have some results here. I want to do the same thing. I have a goal, and my goal is to have the same result they have before." Tomas had 16 and 15 home runs in 2012 and 2013 before dropping to six last season before leaving in June. A reported wrist injury could have affected his production. One of the youngest of the power group, Tomas will play the entire 2015 season at 24. Puig signed at 21 and made his major league debut in 2013 at 22. Cespedes played his first season with the A's at 26 and Abreu was 27 last year, when he hit 36 homers as the American League rookie of the year. "That's my focus. That's what I try to do," Tomas said of Abreu. Stewart is taking it slower, reiterating again Thursday that Tomas could open the season in the minor leagues if necessary. "I don't really want to place expectations on him," Stewart said. "What I'd like for him to do is do what he is capable of doing. If he does what he is capable of doing, then we are going to be fine. To place expectations on a young player coming in here for the first time, I think that is unfair to the player. "What we have to do is get him adjusted, get him into spring training, see what he does in spring training and then go from there. We want him to play in the big leagues for us coming out of spring training, but once again we're not opposed to him getting some adjustment time at the minor league level if we have to. But we want him to be on our big league team." Tomas played third base, DH and both corner outfield positions during his 4-1/2 seasons with the Industriales of the top Cuban league Serie Nacional, and the D-backs will give him a long look at third base, where he took ground balls during his first two days at the D-backs' Salt River Fields training complex. Stewart said he was impressed with Tomas' actions at the position during two trips to observe his workouts in the Dominican Republic, where Tomas settled after leaving Haiti. Manager Chip Hale, coaches Andy Green and Dave McKay and minor league infield instructor Tony Perezchica will help with the details. "Since we've been here and had our guys have their hands on him and their eyes on him, he's made adjustments," Stewart said. "He's a very, very smart man. He's really taking in the information that is being given to him and applying it immediately. We don't think it is going to be an easy transition, but we think he's going to be able to play the position. What we are seeing at this moment is promising." At the same time, the D-backs will not force the fit, Stewart said, even though it works best on a roster that already have five proven outfielders. "What we don't want to do is have his hitting suffer because he is concentrating on being a third baseman," Stewart said. "If we feel in any way that his offense is going to lack because he is so focused on playing third base, then that is not a good decision for us as an organization. We think if the progression continues, he will be able to play third base. The true test is going to be playing games." The D-backs understand the assimilation process will take time, but Stewart said he is confident that Tomas will handle it well. "This kid doesn't drink, doesn't smoke," Stewart said. "From what I know just being around maybe half a dozen times, not just at the ballpark but away from the ballpark, he's a great young man. Mature, in my opinion, past 24 years old. "There is a support system for him. I think any time you come here ... if I went to Cuba and it was just me, I'd need something, a crutch to lean on. I think Ariel will serve as that crutch, but this kid is a very well-rounded young man. Getting here was an experience in himself." Follow Jack Magruder on Twitter | 1 | 8,391 | sports |
OKLAHOMA CITY Like many states, Oklahoma wants to be a tourist destination. And leaders here believe they have an ideal attraction: Oklahoma's heritage as the U.S. Indian Territory in the 1800s and as home to 39 tribes. But after nearly 10 years and $90 million spent, what was to be the centerpiece for a tourism magnet, a Smithsonian-quality museum of Native American culture, has become a costly debacle that had yet to lure its first visitor and is stirring sour feelings among the Indians whose traditions would be portrayed. Strategically located at the crossroads of two major interstates, and next to Oklahoma City's glitzy redeveloped downtown entertainment district, sits a modernistic complex of C-shaped buildings that is large enough to fit 30 football fields but only half finished and out of money. Another $40 million is needed for the project, but the Legislature is balking at paying, in a head-on collision between the state's tourism ambitions and its increasingly conservative, anti-spending politics. "The state was too aggressive here and bit off more than it could chew," said Republican Rep. Jason Murphey, one of many legislators in the GOP-controlled House who opposes more state money for the museum. "And we're paying for that mistake, but this isn't the time to double down." Even the support of the state's Republican governor, Mary Fallin, and the state Senate and an earlier pledge of $40 million in mostly private funds haven't broken the stalemate, which will confront the Legislature when it reconvenes next month. In another twist, the recent swoon in oil prices may now make any appropriation harder to get, even though the price drop has underscored the need to diversify the state's energy-dependent economy. "Our caucus has brainstormed on some different ideas, and I don't have an answer today about what that looks like," said House Speaker Jeffrey Hickman. The vision for the Indian attraction began in the 1980s when oil prices collapsed from more than $35 per barrel to below $10. Oil and gas production taxes accounted for more than one-third of the state-appropriated budget at the time. Studies projected that a Native American cultural center could bring in up to 225,000 visitors and $190 million annually. The Legislature approved a series of bond issues to pay for it. The museum would weave together the stories of the dozens of tribes forced by the U.S. government to move out of the path of white expansion in other regions to the remote prairies of what is now Oklahoma. The forced removals included the notorious "Trail of Tears," in which more than 17,000 Cherokees were marched overland from their ancestral home in Georgia. An estimated 4,000 died during the trek. About 120,000 Indians overall were resettled here before the territory itself was gradually opened to white settlers in a series of land runs beginning in the late 1880s. Oklahoma named after the Choctaw word for "red people" has a story ripe for presentation to visitors, according to historians and museum experts. "Because of the unprecedented and unequalled assemblage of Indian nations in Oklahoma, it's a very unique story and one that is national in scope," said Kevin Gover, director of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. The Smithsonian has offered a major loan of artifacts from its huge Native American collection. The museum's ambitious design features several huge galleries, a multipurpose theater and a gathering space dubbed the Hall of the People. Towering stone walls at one entrance were built with thousands of individual stones that symbolized the tribes' journeys to Oklahoma. The site includes a 90-foot-tall earthen mound visible for miles, inspired by the mound building Native American cultures. But the project didn't get the federal funds its backers expected, and the Legislature, which grew more conservative in recent elections, wouldn't approve another bond issue. Although the Indian history portrayed is one of struggle and loss, many Native Americans in Oklahoma welcomed the tribute and have been put off by the political fight, especially suggestions that the tribes themselves put up the needed money beyond the $20 million they've already kicked in to finish what was always a state project. "I don't understand why it hasn't been completed," said Kelly Haney, a renowned Native American artist and former chief of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma. "I've never lost my faith in the fact that the cultural center will be built. I still think it will. I just don't know how." ___ Follow Sean Murphy at www.twitter.com/apseanmurphy | 5 | 8,392 | news |
Washington manager Matt Williams believes that Nationals slugger Bryce Harper will one day be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Do you agree with Williams? #120Talk | 1 | 8,393 | sports |
CNN's Alexandra Field reports on rapper Tiny Doo, who is facing gang conspiracy charges because of his music lyrics about crimes. | 5 | 8,394 | news |
On Thursday morning, Bill Belichick had his first press conference since the Deflate-gate allegations came out. As expected, there are still so many questions about how the Pats' balls were deflated before the AFC Championship Game against the Colts. But here are five takeaways from Bill's press conference: | 1 | 8,395 | sports |
The New England Patriots always impress by - 1. How many games they win, and 2. How many ways they can insult your intelligence. To say they have a credibility problem is to concede they have any remaining credibility at all. Honestly, do you have any reason to trust the words mumbled by coach Bill Belichick? Has he proven to you over the years that anything he states for public consumption veers close to the truth? He virtually slaps fans' faces during every post-game presser. Belichick and Tom Brady, one of the most successful pairings of coach and quarterback in NFL history, were joined at the hip Thursday during uncomfortable day-night media sessions. The issue was "Deflategate," picking up momentum hour by hour as the latest example of wrongdoing by the Patriots. NFL investigators have discovered that 11 of the 12 New England footballs used for last week's AFC Championship Game were deflated after they were inspected by league officials. The last time I checked, 11 of 12 is a mandate, one fascinating little coincidence. Something happened here. Early on Thursday, Belichick said he "has no explanation." Later, Brady said, "I didn't alter the ball in any way." See what I mean about insulting your intelligence? Are they serious about throwing some equipment manager under the bus? Let him take the fall while they skate into another Super Bowl? There may not be a more intense micro-manager of his team in NFL history than Belichick. He invents formations each week. He scouts his opponents down to their teeth fillings. No one in the game does a better job of fitting a player's unique talent into his system. His teams have won three Lombardi trophies for a reason. That said, are we supposed to believe his head is plunged three feet into the sand about the football? The man lost all remaining benefit of the doubt during Spygate in 2007, when his team was caught filming the signals of opposing coaches. Buying his story now is a leap no reasonable person can make. When the issue broke Monday, I thought it was laughable. The Patriots humbled Indianapolis 45-7. If the teams played for 10 straight days, New England would have swept. With ease. Had they used a beachball, Brady would have whistled it past the Colts. But that's not the point. What's important here is the game's basic integrity, the trust that the teams are playing by the rules outlined by the NFL. It is a game only by title. It's actually a billion-dollar industry and must be treated as such. The Colts voiced suspicion about the footballs during the game - they even questioned them during an earlier game against the Patriots - and asked the referees to check them. There is evidence the balls were deflated 2 pounds per square inch below what the league mandates. A "softer" ball gives Brady a better grip, especially during cold and wet days like Sunday. Again, it hardly mattered during the title game. But if you don't have two teams following the game's most basic rules, what's left? I'll tell you what's left - a final score you can't totally believe. And if that's the case, let's lock the gates, tear up the tickets and go home. At the core of it all is Belichick. He takes great satisfaction at poking the NFL in the eye by wearing his cutoff hoodies and gaming the weekly injury reports. He is brilliant and devious all at once, which makes him not unlike other successful head coaches. But he goes a step further by almost always blurring or downright crossing the lines of legality. The public record proves this. Belichick's deportment Thursday, however, revealed a man who suddenly realizes this isn't a laughing matter. His team has tampered with something that is small to most observers but actually huge in the overall scheme. Someone will answer to this, and the Patriots once again are battening down the hatches. Look, we may never completely know what went down about the footballs. Nevertheless, the NFL will act and most likely fine the Patriots and take away draft picks. And Belichick will switch the affair into an "us vs. them" thing and use it to energize his team against Seattle. That last point is a mortal lock. Yet in the end, Belichick and the Patriots already have lost. The court of public opinion has rendered a verdict. And fans have had their intelligence insulted one too many times. Bee staff writer Ron Agostini can be reached at [email protected] or (209) 578-2302. Follow him on Twitter @ModBeeSports. | 1 | 8,396 | sports |
Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival (January 5) Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture is an annual festival that is celebrated by erecting the world's biggest ice sculptures throughout the city of Harbin, China. The festival, which includes international participants, has two main exhibitions: Sun Island and Ice and Snow World. Magh Mela (January 5 - February 17) This festival takes place during the month of Magh, the 11th month of the traditional calendar followed in Northern India. During the festival, millions of Hindus take a holy dip in the river Ganges, to purify themselves of sin. The event takes place in Allahabad, India, at the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and Saraswati rivers, known as the Sangam. Ati Atihan (January 9) This religious festival is celebrated in the Philippines to honour Santo Niño (Infant Jesus) in the third week of January. The festival, which includes tribal dance performance and music, has inspired many other Philippine festivals. The last day of the festival is the biggest, as different tribes compete for prizes and tourists' attention. Dinagyang (January 21) The festival honoring Santo Niño also celebrates the arrival of Malay settlers on Panay, an island in the Philippines. During the festival, local Ati tribe members perform traditional dances in Iloilo city - and sweep spectators along in the dancing. Banff Snow Days (January 10) This month-long annual festival in Banff National Park, Canada, has a selection of activities to celebrate winter. The activities range from Pinty's All-Star Curling Skins Game to dog sledding. World Buskers Festival (January 16) The festival, which goes on for 10 days in Christchurch, New Zealand, attracts more than 300,000 visitors each year. Various artists such as jugglers, stand-up comedians and acrobats perform at the festival, turning the ordinary avenues into a one big street party. La Tamborrada (January 19) This 24-hour-long festival must be one of the world's loudest, as San Sebastián, Spain, salutes its patron saint with nonstop drumming. The festival's celebration starts at midnight with the mayor raising the flag and ends at midnight with the flag being lowered at various locations. Locals dress as cooks or as Napoleonic-era soldiers, references to the city's culinary significance and to its invasion by Napoleon in Timkat (January 19) This festival is the Ethiopian equivalent of Epiphany, celebrated by 40 million members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. The festival, which celebrates the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River, is observed in Gondar, Ethiopia. Sundance Film Festival (January 22) Sundance showcases the work of Independent filmmakers from around the world, as well as American filmmakers. The Utah-based festival received a lot of attention due to star Robert Redford's association as its inaugural Chairman. Wakakusa Yamayaki (January 24) In Nara, Japan, a historic dispute between two Buddhist temples, Kofukuji and Todaiji, is remembered with a fireworks display and a controlled burn of dry grass on the Wakakusa hill, so that both land and sky fill with fire. National Cowboy Poetry Gathering (January 26) Cowboys recite their poems each year at this festival in Nevada, United States, which marks its thirtieth anniversary this year. There's plenty of music along with the verse. Up Helly Aa (January 27) The name Up Helly Aa refers to a variety of fire festivals that take place in Shetland, Scotland, to mark the end of yule season. A large procession of actors dressed in themed costumes march through the village or towns during the festival. Quebec Winter Carnival (January 30) One of the world's largest winter festivals was launched in 1894. Quebec City's sharp cold doesn't stop the fun: Canadians and visitors alike cut loose with a masquerade ball, a Calgary stampede breakfast and snow sculpture contests. Carnivale di Venezia (January 31) Of the many Carnivals around the world, Venice's is one of the most romantic, as people wear elaborate masks and costumes. Legend has it that the party started in 1162 after a military victory. After being banned in the late 1700s, it revived in 1979. | 2 | 8,397 | travel |
NEW YORK (AP) Why go "Into the Woods" through the musical play when the big, splashy Disney movie is everywhere? Because a streamlined, refreshingly irreverent version of the 1987 theatrical classic by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine is being performed live in New York City. Good and evil were upended in Lapine and Sondheim's fractured fairytale mash-up about wishes and the primal value of storytelling. Familiar Grimm Brothers storybook characters are combined with Lapine's own dark invention of a childless baker, his wife and a witch. Basically, all these characters make wishes and end up in the same forest, where they learn that wishes "come true, not free." The homespun and witty Fiasco Theater production that opened Thursday night at Roundabout's off-Broadway Laura Pels Theatre presents the twisted, ambiguous tale with childlike simplicity. Co-directors and performers Noah Brody and Ben Steinfeld steer their troupe of 10 through ingenious staging, with clever choreography and plenty of zaniness, performing the cautionary bedtime story with heartfelt emotion. The lush score is handled by 11 voices and one piano, with a few other instruments occasionally chiming in. Music director Matt Castle enthusiastically performs onstage at a sturdy upright piano. Sondheim's wistful, haunting songs, like "Children Will Listen" and "No One Is Alone," resonate in the intimate theater, bookended by rousing versions of the title anthem. Brody and Andy Grotelueschen are hilariously simpering as Cinderella's mean stepsisters and are robustly insincere as a pair of hammy princes. They have great fun with their double duets of "Agony," sung sincerely about unrequited love in Act 1, then later reprised with adulterous longing. Typical of the production's breezy tone is the sheer silliness of Brody and Grotelueschen galloping around on broomstick horses, and Grotelueschen's petulant portrayal of the cow, Milky White. Jennifer Mudge is a beautifully voiced Witch. Her numbers about overprotective parents, "Our Little World" and "Stay With Me," are touchingly sung with her daughter Rapunzel. Emily Young plays Rapunzel and a feisty Little Red Riding Hood, and Steinfeld lends a grounding appeal as the Baker. Jessie Austrian glows as the Baker's increasingly confident wife, while Claire Karpen is an endearing Cinderella. Little Red Riding Hood defiantly sings "I Know Things Now" after being rescued from the Wolf, and beanstalk-climbing Jack (a sweet portrayal by Patrick Mulryan) poignantly reflects on "Giants in the Sky." Whitney Locher's vaguely 19th-century peasant costumes and a lack of furniture allow the characters' emotions and the music to take prominence. Inventive props include a crocheted headdress to disfigure the Witch, pieces of sheet music turned into fluttering birds and a smartly streamlined creation of the Giant. These woods are deep and dark, and life is full of unknowns, but, as Sondheim enables his characters to realize, "Into the woods/and through the fear,/you have to take the journey." | 6 | 8,398 | entertainment |
With Max Scherzer signing with the Nats, James Shields is the last big free agent pitcher on the market. Who could use him the most? | 1 | 8,399 | sports |
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