Alcoa, a colossus of the aluminum and metals industry, is currently building a new additive manufacturing center with a $60 million price tag in Pittsburgh. Its purpose: To serve as the main production site as Alcoa begins developing a line of powdered metals made specifically for 3D-printing applications. What Alcoa’s new center represents, however, is a broader shift taking shape in the additive manufacturing industry.

More companies in a variety of sectors are interested in using 3D-printed metals for end-use parts. But when it comes to 3D printing in metals, there are currently two problems to surmount. One is the overall cost of not only the additive processes by which metal is printed, but also of the 3D printing machines and the support staff needed to run them. The other is the cost of the metal materials themselves and the lack of metal materials made specifically for 3D printing. Alcoa AA is hoping to find solutions for both problems when its new additive manufacturing center opens, as Rod Heiple, the company’s director of R&D for engineered products and solutions, said during a call with Fortune.

“There are just a few materials available today that are usable within 3D printing of metals,” Heiple said. “A material developed as a feedstock for one additive process may not be, and in fact is unlikely to be, the optimal material for the next additive manufacturing process.”

Today companies that produce metal parts via additive manufacturing processes are using powdered titanium, nickel, aluminum, and steel. Direct metal laser sintering is a common way for these powdered metals to come together to make solid objects. It’s how General Electric produced the fuel nozzles for its bestselling aircraft engine and Solid Concepts created a working firearm.

MORE: Why 3D Printing Is The Future of Manufacturing

But optimizing powders for 3D printing is the challenge. Solving that challenge would not only mean a greater number of powdered metals for use in 3D printing, but also cheaper powdered metals. This is the sort of task for which Alcoa is well-suited. The company has nearly 100 years of experience in the atomizing process (the means by which a molten metal is converted into a powdered metal).

“That’s the focus we have, the optimization. We’re looking at the chemistry, the alloy elements,” said Heiple. “In the case of powdered feedstock, we’re focused on developing powders that are shapes and sizes tailored to 3D printing. Our primary focus is on titanium, aluminum, and nickel-based alloys for 3D printing.”

While the technology is fascinating in its own right, the business imperative is driving the research in cheaper powdered metals made specifically for 3D printing. Companies’ primary reasons for investing in additive manufacturing capabilities are the cost reductions that accompany collapsing the manufacturing supply chain. When GE, for example, chooses to invest $3.5 billion to purchase the 3D-printing machines that can produce metal parts and train the staff needed to run them, it’s not doing so because the technology is cool—it’s doing so because that’s where the additive manufacturing industry is headed.

A recent report from Stratasys Direct Manufacturing, the service arm of 3D-printing company Stratasys SSYS , bears this out: More than 80% of 700 survey respondents from the manufacturing industry said further development of strong yet lightweight metals for additive manufacturing is what they want the most. In three years’ time, Stratasys Direct Manufacturing predicts use of metals in 3D printing to double.

Stratasys and 3D Systems DDD , two titans of the 3D-printing sector, are keen to make inroads in metals printing as well. The increasing focus on what metals printing will do for the overall additive manufacturing industry—currently valued worldwide at $4.1 billion, according to the latest report from consulting firm Wohlers Associates—is the reason, for instance, Stratasys acquired Solid Concepts in 2014 and 3D Systems just established a partnership with the U.S. Army to develop 3D-printing materials for the automotive, medical, and aerospace industries.

The market for prototyping via 3D printing remains weak, but metals printing continues to grow at an impressive clip. More than just a new way for companies to make end-use parts, direct metal printing represents an area of revenue growth for an industry that has struggled to live up to the hype.

“The opportunity here is that these metals materials for additive manufacturing are low in number,” said Heiple, who couldn’t comment about the timeframe for when Alcoa’s new additive manufacturing center opens (although a company press release from September estimates sometime in the first quarter of 2016). “And the reason there’s an interest in metals is it all comes down to cost reduction, in end product and end solutions.”

In other words, there’s a growing movement of companies interested in crossing the chasm between 3D printing as a neat prototyping tool and 3D printing as a production tool on par with traditional manufacturing processes. To do that, they’ll need metals.

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For more Fortune coverage of 3D printing, watch this video:

Summary: More and more companies want to make 3D-printed metal parts.


Greg Koch, CEO of craft beer giant Stone Brewing, is stepping down.

Koch says he will assume the duties of executive chairman, focusing on long-term strategic planning for the company, handing off day to day operational responsibilities once a successor is in place. The company has begun the search for the new CEO, but says there is no set time frame to find a candidate.

“It has been gravitating in that direction,” Koch, who co-founded the brewery in 1996 with Steve Wagner, told Fortune. “It’s just the nature of the development curve of Stone Brewing. I can do a pretty good job … but am I doing the best possible job in the role of CEO that can ever be done? I think we owe it to ourselves to look for a really incredible, strong addition to our team.”

Stone Brewing is the ninth-largest craft brewer in the country, with over 1,100 employees and annual revenues of more than $137 million. Last year, it expanded its production operations beyond the U.S., announcing plans to open a $25 million facility in Germany.

The company is best known for its hop-intense pale ales, such as Ruination and the “Enjoy By” line, which encourages holders to consume the beer by a certain date for maximum freshness. It enjoys success with several other beer styles as well.

Koch will continue to oversee development of that facility as well as a recently announced expansion into Richmond, VA. And he says despite the shift in titles, he doesn’t expect an immediate dramatic shifts in his activities.

“My tomorrow is going to look functionally the same as my yesterday,” he says. “I think this is a long winded way of saying I may finally be able to take a Tuesday afternoon off.”

The announcement comes after a week full of shakeups in the craft beer world. On Tuesday, Lagunitas, another big California brewer, announced it had sold a 50% stake in the company to Germany’s Heineken, in a move to greatly boost its distribution. Two days later, MillerCoors added Saint Archer Brewing to its Tenth and Blake “craft” division. And a week ago, Virtue Cider sold a majority stake to Goose Island Beer Co., a holding of Anheuser-Busch InBev.

So while a high profile executive shuffle at Stone could worry craft enthusiasts, Koch is quick to squash any speculation that the company could be positioning itself for a sale or equity investor.

“This move signals nothing in that regard,” he says. “Stone Brewing will never sell out. Stone Brewing is sacrosanct. We’re not interested in participating in a cash grab. There are two ways of operating a business – commodity or artisan. We operate as an artisan. We make decisions based on our passions. … Anybody that thinks commodity can operate as an artesian is ignoring the basic facts about how businesses operate.”

Summary: Co-Founder/CEO Greg Koch announced he's transitioning into a chairman role. He squashed speculation that a sale was coming.


06/21/2016 AT 09:45 AM EDT

At 6'9", landing acting gigs is

for actress Lindsay Hayward. And her bad head shots aren't helping.

To reignite her career, Hayward hires a photographer for new head shots in this exclusive clip from Tuesday's episode of

"I'm here to get my head shots done, because last time I took head shots was a few years ago, so I definitely want to update my new, more radiant look," Hayward, 28, says in the clip. "I think that it's going to do wonders as far as getting my further in my acting career."

But as it turns out, Hayward is looking for less of a head shot, and more of a body shot.

"As a six-foot-nine-inch actress it's very, very important that I get full-length body shots because nobody believes how tall you are."

Hayward hates her old head shots because they were shot from an unflattering angle – by someone

– giving her a double chin.

"Everyone's looking at me from way down here and like I'm way up here, and when they look at me I've got that double chin angle, you know what I mean? It's not very flattering," she says. "Because I do have that as an insecurity, I need someone who's not taking that shot all the time."

"If I could change anything about my looks I would make my face a little bit thinner here," Hayward admits, pointing to her neck.

Luckily, she found a photographer, Sharon, who understands – even if she was a little surprised

"Holy cow, okay!" Sharon says. "I am used to working with much smaller people, so I was not expecting her to be as tall as she was."

But with the help of a ladder, Sharon is ready for Hayward, who walks out in a body-baring red gown and stilettos.

"Making it as an actress is hard," Hayward explains. "Making it as a six-foot-nine actress is even harder, because there aren't many roles out there for six-foot-nine-inch women."

Summary: At 6'9" Lindsay Hayward is struggling to get acting jobs, so she's hoping that new headshots will help


SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (AP) Jake Burns and Blake Cavill hit back-to-back home runs in the sixth inning and Australia beat the Dominican Republic 3-0 on Saturday at the Little League World Series.

Burns also earned the win for the Sydney team, striking out 10 and allowing only one hit in 4 1/3 innings.

Myles Chabi's diving catch in right field off Anderson Luciano's shot into the gap ended the fifth inning and stranded two Santiago de los Caballero runners.

Australia, which led for good after Cavill singled home Kyle Yeo in the first inning, will play Monday against the loser of the Japan-Mexico game. The Dominican Republic will play a consolation game Monday against the loser of the game between Portland, Oregon, and Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Dominican assistant coach Victor Bernabe was permanently suspended for an unspecified conduct violation by the tournament committee Saturday and will return to the Dominican Republic.

Summary: Australia tops Dominican Republic 3-0 on consecutive homers


It’s not easy to be in the mining industry today. The price of commodities continues to swing—despite yesterday’s stock market implosion, gold failed to gain traction, and other metals slumped in response to weakening Chinese demand. And the business grows ever more complicated as companies start operations in increasingly far-flung areas.

You think launching a blockbuster mobile app is hard? Try starting an iron ore operation in Kazakhstan.

Add to that the price sensitivity of vendors for those commodities—automakers like Ford F have teams of people monitoring the price of steel, for example—and there isn’t much room for error. Which is why mining companies like Glencore (No. 10 on Fortune’s 2015 Global 500 list), BHP Billiton (No. 139), Rio Tinto (No. 222), and Vale (No. 312) are turning to technology in the form of Internet-connected sensors and software—to stay out of treacherous, remote areas and reap the savings from not sending people to them.

According to new data from IDC, miners are focused on three major issues this year: safety improvement, asset automation, and the management and control of mine operations. According to a survey of 190 miners by the research firm, two of every three mining companies globally are looking at remote operation and monitoring centers. Half are evaluating new mining methods. A third are looking at robotics and one-fourth at unmanned aerial vehicles, known as drones.

Unsurprisingly, the vast majority—83%—of mining companies say their technology budgets will either stay the same or increase this year. Miners recognize that data-based technologies are changing their business. The winners will be the ones that use technology to keep prices low, quality high, and costs in check.

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Summary: They're turning to technology to revamp operations and rethink cost structures.


John McAfee, namesake to the once-powerful cybersecurity company, says he’s willing to decrypt the iPhone at the center of the dispute between Apple aapl and the Federal Bureau of Investigation “free of charge” so that Apple does not have to allow a new means of access to its otherwise secure smartphone.

In the days following the December terrorist attack in San Bernardino, the FBI requested that Apple provide data stored on a suspect’s device. Apple has with each new generation of iPhone reinforced the encryption measures on it; this time, Apple told the FBI it couldn’t help. The FBI countered by asking Apple to make a new version of the iPhone’s operating system that circumvented several important security features, to be installed on an iPhone recovered during the investigation. Apple declined.

“It would be the equivalent of a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks—from restaurants and banks to stores and homes,” Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote in a statement. “No reasonable person would find that acceptable.”

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McAfee says he’s willing to help. “I will, free of charge, decrypt the information on the San Bernardino phone, with my team,” he wrote in an essay published at Business Insider. “We will primarily use social engineering, and it will take us three weeks. If you accept my offer, then you will not need to ask Apple to place a back door in its product, which will be the beginning of the end of America.”

“I work with a team of the best hackers on the planet. These hackers attend Defcon in Las Vegas, and they are legends in their local hacking groups, such as HackMiami. They are all prodigies, with talents that defy normal human comprehension. About 75% are social engineers. The remainder are hardcore coders. I would eat my shoe on the Neil Cavuto show if we could not break the encryption on the San Bernardino phone. This is a pure and simple fact.”

He added: “And why do the best hackers on the planet not work for the FBI? Because the FBI will not hire anyone with a 24-inch purple mohawk, 10-gauge ear piercings, and a tattooed face who demands to smoke weed while working and won’t work for less than a half-million dollars a year. But you bet your ass that the Chinese and Russians are hiring similar people with similar demands and have been for many years. It’s why we are decades behind in the cyber race.”

Summary: And he'll "eat his shoe" on live television if he can't.


By Joel Roberts CBS December 17, 2003, 2:18 PM

For the first time, the chairman of the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks is saying publicly that 9/11 could have and should have been prevented, reports CBS News Correspondent Randall Pinkston."This is a very, very important part of history and we've got to tell it right," said Thomas Kean."As you read the report, you're going to have a pretty clear idea what wasn't done and what should have been done," he said. "This was not something that had to happen."Appointed by the Bush administration, Kean, a former Republican governor of New Jersey, is now pointing fingers inside the administration and laying blame."There are people that, if I was doing the job, would certainly not be in the position they were in at that time because they failed. They simply failed," Kean said.To find out who failed and why, the commission has navigated a political landmine, threatening a subpoena to gain access to the president's top-secret daily briefs. Those documents may shed light on one of the most controversial assertions of the Bush administration – that there was never any thought given to the idea that terrorists might fly an airplane into a building."I don't think anybody could have predicted that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile," said national security adviser Condoleeza Rice on May 16, 2002."How is it possible we have a national security advisor coming out and saying we had no idea they could use planes as weapons when we had FBI records from 1991 stating that this is a possibility," said Kristen Breitweiser, one of four New Jersey widows who lobbied Congress and the president to appoint the commission. The widows want to know why various government agencies didn't connect the dots before Sept. 11, such as warnings from FBI offices in Minnesota and Arizona about suspicious student pilots."If you were to tell me that two years after the murder of my husband that we wouldn't have one question answered, I wouldn't believe it," Breitweiser said.Kean admits the commission also has more questions than answers.Asked whether we should at least know if people sitting in the decision-making spots on that critical day are still in those positions, Kean said, "Yes, the answer is yes. And we will."Kean promises major revelations in public testimony beginning next month from top officials in the FBI, CIA, Defense Department, National Security Agency and, maybe, President Bush and former President Clinton.

Copyright 2003 CBS. All rights reserved.

Summary: Head Of Sept. 11 Panel Lays Blame Inside Bush Administration


A brawl broke out on an F train in Greenwich Village when a woman was smacked in the face and knocked down by a man she was arguing with — and four people were cuffed following the melee, cops said.

The whole thing was captured on video and posted to YouTube on Saturday.

The video shows a woman and her friends laughing at and taunting a man while on the train between the Broadway-Lafayette and West Fourth Street stations early Saturday.

“You got a wack— 8-ball jacket that came out in 1990,” Danay Howard, 21, yells at the man. “Get your money game up.”

Howard and two of her friends then notice another man filming the exchange with his cellphone. They run after him and one of them smacks the phone out of his hand.

The women then go back to insulting the man’s clothes, at which point Howard slaps the man from behind with her purse.

That’s when Jorge Pena, wearing the 8-ball jacket, turns around and smacks Howard hard across the face, knocking her off her feet.

Another person on the train jumps in and starts punching Pena.

Howard was charged with felony assault and disorderly conduct, while one of her pals, Shanique Campbell, 20, was charged with misdemeanor assault and disorderly conduct, according to police.

Also arrested were Pena and Kevin Gil, 21, who was charged with misdemeanor assault and disorderly conduct in connection with the wild subway brawl.

All four suspects were arrested just before 5 a.m. Saturday at the West Fourth Street station, according to police.

Pena was taken to an area hospital with minor cuts to his face, authorities said. No other injuries were reported.

Summary: Warning: Graphic language A brawl broke out on an F train in Greenwich Village when a woman was smacked in the face and knocked down by a man she was arguing with — and four people were cuffed foll…


Rachel Bloom rose to Internet fame five years ago, with a YouTube video in which she described in song all the not-safe-for-work things she wanted sci-fi writer Ray Bradbury to do to her. Now, dozens of viral videos later, her self-described “one-woman sketch comedy group” has landed her a TV show on The CW, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (Oct. 12), which stands to translate her digital celebrity into old-fashioned, real-world fame.

Bloom’s brand of comedy is one part raunch, one part Jewish neurosis and another part inversion of musical theater’s often saccharine sensibility—as she describes it, “doing the genre so hard that you’re parodying the genre.” Her videos cover ground like the hypersexualization of pop music and the historical inaccuracies of Disney movies; she starts with an art form she loves and annihilates its cheeky charms with in-your-face cleavage and unapologetic profanity.

In Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Bloom plays Rebecca Bunch, a high-achieving but spiritually broken-down New York lawyer who, after running into teenage flame Josh Chan (Vincent Rodriguez III), follows him cross-country to fill what she believes to be a Josh-sized void in her soul. The show turns out to be, in many ways, the opposite of what its title suggests—it’s less about romantic love than it is about female friendship, and it treats the stereotype it invokes as something to be dismantled, rather than fulfilled.

Bloom took a break from filming to talk to TIME about growing up a musical theater nerd, the horrific ordeal that is getting ready for a date and how the show inverts the Bechdel test—a feminist litmus test a show passes only if two female characters have a conversation about something other than a man.

TIME: Obviously there are a lot of stereotypes about musical theater people. But what it was like for you, specifically, growing up as a musical theater kid?

Rachel Bloom: I was very loud, very obnoxious. I was made fun of quite a lot. My friend at school once wrote an essay on me, and it was something like, “While the rest of us were going to sleepovers and having friends, Rachel was at singing classes.” In eighth grade, a teacher started a year-round musical theater class, and that’s when I started to fit in. I remained myself and the world got cooler around me.

When was the moment that the singing and dancing merged with comedy?

When I got to NYU, I was a musical theater major, and I also auditioned for and got on a sketch comedy group. Every month we would write and perform a new sketch comedy show. So for four years there, I had a real crash course in comedy. Right before my junior year, I took a musical theater writing class, through the grad school, and all of the songs I wanted to write were comedic. That’s when I started to realize, “Oh, I can combine these things.”

The first video you posted on YouTube, “F— Me, Ray Bradbury,” went viral. Before you posted it, did you have an inkling that there was a void in musical comedy that you might be able to fill?

I definitely felt it. As an actor, I wanted songs that were actually hard laughs, and that’s hard to find in musical theater. And as a viewer, I wanted more like South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, I wanted more like The Producers. In a lot of musical comedy, there are a lot of clever turns of phrase, a lot of pop culture references, and that wasn’t my jam. So it came from wanting to get more of my type of humor into the art form that I love so much.

Have you ever considered the humorous self-parody of many of your videos as an invitation to people who are skeptical of musical theater? Like, people can’t make fun of it if it’s already making fun of itself?

Sure, yeah. Most of my friends are comedians who are not necessarily musical theater fans. I know musicals are ridiculous. People don’t talk like this, people don’t burst into song like this. So I think it helps cut out the legs from people who make fun of it, and it brings in a modern alt-comedy sensibility. This sense of pastiche, of kind of meta-parody, or doing the genre so hard that you’re parodying the genre. In a lot of my videos and in the show, there’s a lot of oversexulization, and that’s how I parody pop. Pop now is so overly sexualized, and by [taking] that oversexualization so far as to being almost unsexy in how blatant it is, it turns into parody.

Having mostly written on your own in the past, what was your process of writing with your co-creator Aline Brosh McKenna?

She’s truly brilliant. And our sensibilities are different. We like the same things but we come from two different backgrounds. So the way we wrote the first three episodes was just improvising in a room. Usually Aline would be at the computer, and we would just riff with each other. We created a tone together that I don’t think either of us would have created on our own.

A lot of your videos involve very raunchy humor. Did it feel limiting having to let go of some of that for a more general audience?

On some of the videos that kind of demand to be dirty, we’re doing dirty versions that I’m going to be posting on my own YouTube. We just released the explicit version of the first music video from the pilot, called “The Sexy Getting Ready Song.” So I don’t feel limited. There are ways to be dirty without using the language. As long as the joke is a hard joke, as long as it’s not innuendo, as long as it’s not coy—because that’s the death of laugh-out-loud humor, coyness. Kind of like, “I’m saying the thing but not really saying the thing.” That’s what I try to avoid.

Your videos also have a lot of Jewish humor. How much of that makes its way into the show?

Actually, quite a lot. I grew up in L.A. and lived in New York, so for me, everyone’s Jewish. I’m Jewish, Aline is Jewish, there’s a Jewish sensibility to what we do. There’s a neurosis there, there’s a self-hatred, there’s an aspiration to assimilate, but at the same time the aspiration to keep oneself an “other.” We write what we know. And also, Jews come from immigrants, and there’s an ethos to immigrants in general that’s, “work hard, make the species survive,” that I think applies to a lot of different cultures.

How do you strike a balance between making Rebecca ridiculous enough to be funny but not so ridiculous that she’s a caricature?

Well, it’s based on an aspect of my own personality, which is the struggle between being logical and going with your heart, with your impulses. If I always understand where she’s coming from, you can play it from a grounded place. But we try to make it so that you understand, even if it’s not the correct thing, why she’s doing what she’s doing.

I know a big part of the show is going to be Rebecca’s relationship with a woman she meets at her new job, Paula. How much is this show about romance and how much is it about female friendship?

We always said the real love story of the show is Rebecca and Paula. It’s kind of flipping the Bechdel test on its head, because in every scene, they’re talking about a dude, but inadvertently, they’re becoming bonded and they’re becoming close friends.

Were you ever worried that people would say that if the genders were reversed, this would be a show about a creepy stalker, but because it’s a woman, we allow it?

Absolutely. It didn’t even occur to me at first, the double-standard, because from the beginning, Aline and I were writing this from such a feminist perspective. We’re taught to be strong women, we want to be strong women, but both our western ideas of romance and also our own emotions make us crazy. Women are fed all of these contradictory ideas about what love is and what you should and shouldn’t have and you’re supposed to have it all, but you’re also supposed to fall in love. It wasn’t until people started saying, “This show’s sexist,” that I was like, “Oh, right, there’s a whole other version of this show where she’s a sketchy character and it’s like, “Look at that crazy bitch!” And that’s just so not what the show is. If you watch the show, you’re going to know very quickly that the title is a commentary, and that we’re deconstructing that label from a female point of view. “The Sexy Getting Ready Song” is all about the horrific things women do to get ready for a date. I put on Spanx, I wax my butthole. It’s horrifying.

Maybe people who take the title literally will watch the show and be duped into a new kind of understanding.

Exactly. Like, “Oh, when I called my ex a ‘crazy bitch,’ I wasn’t considering that she was actually mentally unstable, and also I was a pretty bad boyfriend who led her to this place.” Enlightening people is lofty, but definitely a goal.

Summary: The rising star talks to TIME about how her new musical comedy deconstructs a pernicious stereotype


Watch out, Hollywood. China is getting into the movie business—and in a big way.

Movie theatres are popping up everywhere, and moviegoers love giant screens. That means big business for IMAX. CEO Richard Gelfond tells Fortune’s Susie Gharib IMAX already has 300 theatres in China and is adding 250 more. China’s box office is red hot, too, and Gelfond predicts ticket sales are on track to surpass the U.S. by next year.

China is also churning out record numbers of Chinese-made movies. Even Oscar-winning actor Matt Damon is staring in a Chinese production called The Great Wall, a sci-fi action film coming out in December. As Gelfond says, “Hollywood’s going to have to adapt.”

Summary: And CEO Richard Gelfond says business is only getting bigger


‘I’M not nearly as drunk as I need to be right now.”Those were Aaron Karo’s opening words at his first comedy performance ever, held recently at Stand-Up New York before a wildly receptive audience of fraternity brothers, longtime fans – even his high school English teacher.

Karo drew such a massive turnout that even his prom date left without getting a seat.

But Marcia Nelson, 22, was still happy for her sideburned pal, a financial broker by day.

“If he’s as funny onstage as he is in person, he’ll be great,” she said.

Nelson, as it turns out, was the first person to forward Karo’s funny e-mails about the petty annoyances of college life – titled “Ruminations” – beginning a chain that reached the computer screens of countless college students around the country.

Now his dispatches have been turned into a book – Simon & Schuster has just released Karo’s “Ruminations on College Life.”

Most of his rants were composed at bars or parties while he was studying at the University of Pennsylvania.

“I would jot down whatever I could,” he said. “If I was at a bar, I would grab a napkin. Crumpled-up pieces of paper would be in my pocket, and sometimes I couldn’t read them the next day.”

Between drinks, the Karo somehow found time to attend classes at Penn’s business school, become rush chairman of his fraternity and speak at graduation – which even non-graduating students rose at 9 a.m. to attend.

Beth Schwartz, a 21-year-old senior, said Karo’s email messages inspired her to leave her hometown of Studio City, Calif., and attend college at Penn.

“One of the things I swore I would do [at] college is become friends with him,” she said.

“He gives the most accurate portrayal of freshman year.”

Though some critics have said his jokes smack of “Comedian 101” and “What’s the deal with . . .” fodder, Karo pegs himself as “somewhere between ‘the Jewish Chris Rock’ and Jerry Seinfeld.”

On stage, he riffed on night life, Manhattan and being single.

Suddenly turning his back to the audience, Karo demonstrated the “roll and tuck” technique he uses to “get on the bottom” when “hooking up” with a girl.

Even though his college days over, Karo promises more “Ruminations.”

“It’s flowing right now,” he said. “I walk down the street and I’m like, ‘Look at that guy. What an idiot!’ And then I think of a rumination.”

And as for performing on stage, Karo says comedy is “like sex.”

“Beforehand, you’re a little nervous,” he says.

“During, it’s the best feeling in the world, and immediately afterward, you never want to perform again – and all you want is a hoagie.”

THE wit and wisdom of Aaron Karo:* Apartment brokers: “You tell them, ‘I’m looking for a two-bedroom in Union Square.’ And they’ll look at their computers and be like, ‘OK, I think I’ve got something. We have a studio on the Upper West Side.’ “

* Cosi sandwiches: “I don’t understand New Yorkers. You’ve got dirty bombs, chemical warfare, bacteria, anthrax. What’s the first thing you do when you walk into Cosi? Dive into the bowl of breadsticks that’s been sitting there all day with dirty hands in it with people licking the bowl.”

* Coke vs. Pepsi: “When I order a Coke at a restaurant and the waiter asks me if Pepsi is OK, I just want to punch him in the neck. Of course it’s OK! Anyone out there reading this who just thought to themselves, ‘But I like Coke and I don’t like Pepsi.’ Please don’t e-mail me about this – I hate people like you more than the stupid waiter.”

* Old friends: “Isn’t it awkward when you run into a really good friend that you haven’t seen in like two years, but you can’t run up and hug them because they’re either on their cell phone or talking to someone else – so you kind of just have to stand there patiently and wait until it’s convenient to get excited?”

Summary: ‘I’M not nearly as drunk as I need to be right now.”Those were Aaron Karo’s opening words at his first comedy performance ever, held recently at Stand-Up New York before a w…


Obituary photo of Dean Newton.

Obituary photo of Dean Newton.

A. Richard Newton -- UC Berkeley dean of engineering

A. Richard Newton, dean of UC Berkeley's world-ranked engineering school and a leading figure in the field of designing programs for microprocessors, died Tuesday at age 55 of pancreatic cancer at a San Francisco hospital.

As a young Cal professor, he was central in developing the nonproprietary software that made it possible to produce silicon chips of ever-greater complexity. His work led to the creation of at least six high-tech startup companies, including Cadence Design Systems and Synopsys.

Later, as an academic leader, he focused the university's College of Engineering on projects promising the greatest global benefit.

"He was a cornerstone of the impact UC Berkeley had on electrical design automation and high-tech in general," said Aart de Geus, chairman and CEO of Synopsys.

"Every electronic device created today probably involved software in its design process that Richard developed," said Edward Lee, the Robert S. Pepper Distinguished Professor in electrical engineering and computer sciences at UC Berkeley.

Dean Newton combined his knowledge of business, academia and technology to transform the university's College of Engineering when he became dean in 2000. He made the college -- with 246 professors and 4,000 students, one of the university's largest -- more efficient and more financially accountable.

Retired Professor Bob Brodersen said he saw more changes in his five years under Dean Newton than in his previous 25 years with the department.

"There'd never been such revolutionary change in how the college does business than happened during the time he was there," Brodersen said. "It was painful -- changing anything inside the university is not easy."

At the same time, Dean Newton was the driving force behind a new organization at the university, called Citris -- the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society.

With academic support from four UC campuses and partnerships with 60 companies, Citris was the first public-private collaboration designed to take on social, environmental and health care problems affecting California and the world.

Dean Newton "was one of the first visionaries to understand the importance of marrying technology push to the needs of society," Citris director Shankar Sastry wrote in a memorial published on the organization's Web site. "Rich cared deeply about solving societal problems to better the lot of his fellow humans. Rich believed that technologies could be a means to alleviate poverty."

UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau described Dean Newton as "a man of incomparable vision ... (who) understood the power of engineering and technology in entirely new ways, and he connected it to addressing society's toughest problems."

Colleagues said Dean Newton's career was built on his optimism, a quality he embodied in projects like the Technology Peace Corps and his challenge to engineers to invent a computer affordable to the 4 billion people in the world earning less than $2,000 a year.

"That, of course, has had a big impact on the students, because he was incredibly motivating," de Geus said. "But over time, that optimism took a broader and broader basis on which to work."

"It's been a terrific shock for us," Lee said. "He leaves big shoes to fill. Richard would have found a way to interpret this optimistically. We're having a hard time doing that."

Engineering Professor Kurt Keutzer met often with Dean Newton during the last few weeks.

"I think he was truly unique in his total commitment to the betterment of humankind," Keutzer said. "Everything that he did in his career was motivated by a genuine concern for his fellow humans on this planet. I'm just astonished at what he was able to accomplish so quickly.

"I sit here and I can't contemplate what the campus will be like without him. In some ways he was just getting started on what he hoped to accomplish."

Keutzer said his colleague's dream was to create an institute on campus for synthetic biology.

"Many people in a comparable situation would say the whole world should focus on pancreatic cancer," Keutzer said, "but, in his inimitable way, he focused on something he thought could change medicine across a whole range of human concerns, not just illness.

"I like to think of myself a big-picture thinker but I thought my world view was totally dwarfed by his vision."

Born and raised in Melbourne, Australia, A. Richard Newton was the son of an engineer who excited his interest in electronics. He once turned the roof of the family home into a makeshift radio telescope to track satellites.

He was also an athlete who learned to throw a boomerang, held the regional triple-jump title for high school students under 17 and played Australian-rules football.

"Most Sundays I'd be flat on my back recovering, because it's a very violent game," Dean Newton recalled in an interview in 2003.

Choosing science over sports, he went on to earn his bachelor's and master's degrees in engineering at the University of Melbourne and his doctorate at UC Berkeley. His doctoral thesis was called "Techniques for the Simulation of Large-Scaled Integrated Circuits."

He became an assistant engineering professor in 1979, a full professor in 1985 and chair of the electrical engineering and computer sciences department in 1999.

Dean Newton once said his favorite book was "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance." If he had to choose a song to put on an interstellar space probe to represent Earth, it would have been "Imagine."

He is survived by his wife, Petra Michel, of Orinda; their daughters, Neris and Amrita; his mother, Bette Newton; sister, Jennifer Hayes; and brothers, Robert and Michael Newton, all of Melbourne, Australia.

A campus memorial will be held later.

The family has requested that donations in Dean Newton's memory be made to support the Berkeley Center for Synthetic Biology, QB3 Institute, UC Berkeley, 237 Hildebrand Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-3220. Checks should be made out to the UC Regents.

Summary: A. Richard Newton, dean of UC Berkeley's world-ranked engineering school and a leading figure in the field of designing programs for microprocessors, died Tuesday at age 55 of pancreatic cancer at a San Francisco hospital.  Later, as an academic leader, he focused the university's College of Engineering on projects promising the greatest global benefit.  "Every electronic device created today probably involved software in its design process that Richard developed," said Edward Lee, the Robert S. Pepper Distinguished Professor in electrical engineering and computer sciences at UC Berkeley.  Dean Newton combined his knowledge of business, academia and technology to transform the university's College of Engineering when he became dean in 2000.  With academic support from four UC campuses and partnerships with 60 companies, Citris was the first public-private collaboration designed to take on social, environmental and health care problems affecting California and the world.  Colleagues said Dean Newton's career was built on his optimism, a quality he embodied in projects like the Technology Peace Corps and his challenge to engineers to invent a computer affordable to the 4 billion people in the world earning less than $2,000 a year.  Many people in a comparable situation would say the whole world should focus on pancreatic cancer, Keutzer said, but, in his inimitable way, he focused on something he thought could change medicine across a whole range of human concerns, not just illness.  Choosing science over sports, he went on to earn his bachelor's and master's degrees in engineering at the University of Melbourne and his doctorate at UC Berkeley.


It’s TriBeCa’s new singles building!

Orlando Bloom — Miranda Kerr’s ex — has signed a contract to move into a fourth-floor, three-bedroom loft in what was formerly the Sugarloaf Warehouse, where Taylor Swift is living.

The unit, in the historic 1882 building at 155 Franklin St., was asking $4.875 million and has plenty of room for Bloom’s 3-year-old son, Flynn.

We hear that the star, who will be in this year’s final Hobbit film, “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies,” loved the loft’s cast-iron columns, exposed brick walls, open chef’s kitchen and wood-beamed ceilings.

Neil Patrick Harris isn’t the only actor to fall in love with Harlem. Veteran TV actor/director Jace Alexander — the son of Tony and Emmy Award-winning actress Jane Alexander, a former director of the National Endowment for the Arts — checked out a renovated Harlem townhouse at 124 W. 132nd St. that just went on the market for $3.295 million.

We hear that Alexander and his wife, actress Maddie Corman, like the space and the price, and while prices have increased in Harlem, they are still far less than downtown.

The 4,250-square-foot townhouse is currently configured as a three- to four-bedroom, 3½-bathroom owner’s triplex plus a garden duplex that could be rented out.

Corcoran broker David Daniels has the listing.

Anya Airapetian, the real estate-collecting daughter of wealthy Moscow-based Armenian journalist-turned-publisher/oil tycoon Levon Airapetian — who has also spelled his name Ayrapetyan — is buying a West Village townhouse for $9.89 million at 280 W. Fourth St. that was once home to artist Charles Webster Hawthorne, mentor to Norman Rockwell.

The 21-foot-wide, Greek-revival-style brick home was built around 1841 and is currently configured as a four-unit house.

Airapetian is not likely to live in the townhouse, which can be converted back to a single-family mansion. She bought it as an investment, says Michael Bolla, her broker, and is quite content to stay in her digs on the 73rd floor of the Time Warner Center.

Janet Jackson is eyeing property on Mercer St.

Janet Jackson, who skipped her late brother Michael’s hologram performance at the Billboard Music Awards, was spotted house-hunting in New York.

The half-dozen Grammy Award-winner and her hubby, Wissam Al Mana, recently checked out a $13.995 million four-bedroom, 3½-bathroom penthouse at 40 Mercer St., the building that was a collaboration between hotelier André Balazs and Jean Nouvel.

The condo includes a 1,500-square-foot landscaped terrace — with its own private pool — and a 3,000-square-foot interior that is wired for sound and comes with a chef’s kitchen.

Douglas Elliman brokers Fredrik Eklund and John Gomes declined to comment.

The owner of the $14.95 million River House penthouse triplex currently for sale is Ellen Liman, an artist and former chairperson of the New York City Advisory Commission for Cultural Affairs, and the widow of Arthur Liman, a lawyer whose work for the US Senate committee involved investigating the Iran Contra affair.

Their son, Doug Liman, is the director and producer of films including “The Bourne Identity” and “Mr. & Mrs. Smith.”

The three-bedroom co-op features fully irrigated outdoor terraces and a private elevator landing.

The brokers are Douglas Elliman’s Betsy Green and Sotheby’s Brenda Powers and Elizabeth Lee Sample.

That Douglas Elliman’s Erica Grossman, whose high-end listings include a $45.5 million Southampton estate, got engaged to John Shannon, managing director of acquisitions at HFZ Capitol Group, at Topping Rose House in Bridgehampton.

Summary: It’s TriBeCa’s new singles building! Orlando Bloom — Miranda Kerr’s ex — has signed a contract to move into a fourth-floor, three-bedroom loft in what was formerly the Sugarloaf Warehouse, wh…


WHEN Boris N. Yeltsin unveiled his millennium surprise on New Year's Eve, he used the word ''power'' five times in his brief retirement speech.

When Lenin issued his famous call to power on Oct. 24, 1917, he also used the word ''power'' five times. Lenin was getting ready to seize it. Mr. Yeltsin, who will go down in history as the man who toppled the totalitarian system Lenin wrought, said he was relinquishing it.

Yet power, and the thirst for it, is the connection between two Russian leaders who only a few years ago symbolized opposite extremes.

As was clear from the moment he mentioned his anointed successor, Vladimir Putin (''I have no doubt what choice you will make at the end of March 2000'' ), Mr. Yeltsin left office not to protect the fragile democracy that brought about his election in 1992, but to preserve the power that his administration came to revere above all else.

As political theater, it was a classic Yeltsin move -- unpredictable but shrewd. Mr. Yeltsin no doubt realized that Mr. Putin's surge in popularity, based on public support for a military crackdown in Chechnya, might not last until June, when elections were supposed to take place. By then enough soldiers will have come home in body bags to contradict the promise of a clean, easy victory -- as they did the last time Mr. Yeltsin tried to impose Russian might on the rebel republic.

''Why hold on to power for another six months?'' Mr. Yeltsin said, with a straight face. ''No, this is not me, this is not in my character,''

Holding on to power, against all odds, has been the one steady feature of Mr. Yeltsin's remarkably inconsistent tenure as president. And that too is not all that surprising. Power has been the driving force of Russian politics since the time of the czars, through the Soviet Union and beyond. For all the mistakes and misjudgments that Mr. Yeltsin conceded and regretted, he never lost sight of what matters in Russia. Russians have been so crushed for so long that they have learned to respond only to an iron fist, and Mr. Yeltsin played to that instinct again and again, taking on the role of the autocrat as nimbly as he had turned himself into a democrat when the Soviet Empire began to topple.

Over the past few years, the West has mainly seen Mr. Yeltsin through the prism of news clips, embarrassing shots of him toppling over at official ceremonies, frugging at a rock concert or recovering from heart surgery in a government dacha. Russians have also seen him act out rituals that date to the czars, shaking his finger at quaking local bureaucrats, ordering them to raise wages that Moscow had already cut back.

He came to public notice in the late 1980's as a populist who rode public buses and hectored party officials, but he seamlessly recast himself as an age-old Kremlin ruler, surrounded by sycophants and bodyguards, allowing corruption to flourish at the highest levels.

DURING the coup of 1991, when Mr. Yeltsin stood on a tank to defy the old Soviet guard into history, he created one of the most electrifying moments in the recent past.

But when he took over, he ruled by contradiction. He fired scores of advisers, rehired many and fired them again -- and again.

Anatoly Chubais, a former deputy prime minister who is viewed by the West as the last guarantor of free-market rules, was kicked in and out of power. So was Boris Berezovsky, the crafty tycoon who symbolizes the entrenched business interests that want to impose their own rule on the Russian market. Mr. Yeltsin deserves credit for seeking to introduce real economic freedom in a country that never experienced it, but he will also be remembered as the ruler who oversaw the birth of Russia's plutocracy.

He will get credit for leaving the Kremlin voluntarily, something no one in Russian history had ever done, except Mikhail S. Gorbachev -- at a time when Mr. Yeltsin had the upper hand and had left him no choice.

But this was not like a broken Lyndon Johnson refusing to run for a second term. Mr. Yeltsin wants to be succeeded by someone whose loyalty will last and will not hound him in retirement with criminal charges, financial restraints or just lese majeste. Mr. Putin remains unproven as a leader. For now, he mainly represents Mr. Yeltsin's desire to keep his grip on Russia's future - and preserve his own.

Or, as Lenin put it in 1917, ''the seizure of power is the business of the uprising; its political purpose will become clear after the seizure.''

Photo: Boris Yeltsin in better times, in 1993. (Reuters)


07/15/2016 AT 04:50 PM EDT

More than 25 people remain in comas after the

in Nice, France, French prosecutor FranÃ§ois Molins announced at a Friday press conference.

At least 202 people have been injured, and and 52 are in critical condition, Molins said, adding that 10 of the dead are children.

While authorities deal with the staggering number of dead and wounded, they're also getting a clearer picture of the man who they say plotted the attack.

Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel was a 31-year-old resident of Nice who was born in Tunisia. The divorced father of three was known as a petty criminal who worked as a delivery driver.

According to Molins, Bouhlel had several brushes with the law, including multiple thefts. He was arrested in January for violence with a weapon and given a six-month suspended sentence.

Despite his criminal record, he wasn't on the radar of anti-terrorism investigators. "There was not a security file on him," Molins told reporters. "He had no known ties to any terrorist or jihadist group."

Molins told reporters that Bouhlel was seen on surveillance video riding his bike to the rented truck that was parked east of Nice. He put his bike into the back of the truck and then drove the vehicle to the crime scene.

After Bouhlel was dead, authorities found his driver's license, cell phone and other paperwork in the truck.

French President Francois Hollande spoke about the tragedy in a news conference.

"Horror again here in France," he said. "France as a whole is under the threat of Islamic terrorism ... We have to demonstrate absolute vigilance and show determination that is unfailing."

Summary: Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel has no known ties to terrorist organizations


Car-sharing service car2go is injecting a little luxe into its lineup. The Daimler-owned company, which has more than 1 million registered members in 29 cities globally, is adding 75 four-door Mercedes-Benz B-class vehicles to its fleet in Calgary, Toronto, and Vancouver.

The pilot program, which launched Monday, will offer members an alternative to the car-sharing company’s signature vehicle: the diminutive two-door Smart Fortwo vehicle.

“People think we’re a Smart (car) brand, and we’re not,” CEO Paul DeLong told Fortune. “We hope to get some good data from the pilot. We want to see if behaviors change, determine whether a four-door car is really what people want, and if it will change the way people move.”

The company’s connection to Daimler DDAIY and the Mercedes brand has been invisible until now—at least to the casual observer. The addition of Mercedes models to the car2go fleet might seem minor; however, it does increase the car2go’s visibility. And it shows the company is interested in expanding and evolving.

Car2go has plans to expand into other markets—its latest was 200 vehicles in Arlington, Va.—and improve its technology. By the end of 2015, the company will complete a major technology upgrade that will shift the entire login, ordering, and payment process from the head units currently installed in the car2go fleet to a mobile app. These new car2go vehicles will also include Bluetooth, charging cables, and enhanced GPS navigation so members can play their own music and charge their phone while navigating to their destination.

The new technology was introduced in Vancouver in August and will roll out to all locations in 2016, DeLong says.

Members can locate a car2go vehicle through a smartphone app or website, or by contacting the customer call center. When members are finished with their vehicle they can park it at any city un-metered space or residential neighborhood within the designated “home area.” Parking, fuel, insurance, and maintenance are included at no additional cost. Members can use the service by the minute and pay only for the time they use the vehicle, with discounted rates for hourly and daily use. No annual or monthly fees are required.

A fleet of self-driving cars

For now, the company is focused on making it easier for members to find, order, and use their vehicles, says DeLong. But eventually, DeLong sees a time when this car-sharing service could encompass self-driving vehicles.

“We’re a Daimler company and we’re able to work with the different departments on how to make this further step in car-sharing,” DeLong says. “There will be a day when people open up their app, like they open up an app for car2go, and the vehicle will show up to them, instead of trying to find a vehicle or trying to park a vehicle.”

DeLong believes car2go is in a better position than its competitors because it can tap into the resources of its parent company, which manufactures cars. For example, a team at Mercedes is working on autonomous driving out of its Sunnyvale, Calif., research and development center, DeLong says. Meanwhile, data collected by car2go has helped it learn how people move in and around cities—an important insight for any company hoping to deploy autonomous driving.

There is no timeline for a self-driving car, or a fleet of them, DeLong says. “But I wouldn’t mention it if we weren’t serious about it,” he says. “Self-driving cars opens up a lot of opportunity with car-sharing.”

Summary: Daimler's car2go service is evolving—and autonomous driving is on the horizon.


The best-selling drugs Humira and Enbrel have a lot in common. They both use biotechnology to treat rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and other autoimmune diseases. And they come with giant price tags approaching $50,000 a year.

Now the two companies behind the competing drugs have found common ground in keeping those prices so high: They are deploying new patents to prevent patients and insurers from getting two essentially generic versions of the drugs for less money.

This week, advisers to the Food and Drug Administration recommended approval of the near generic versions. But the patents could delay introduction. And even if the drugs get to market, some patient groups say they will resist efforts by insurers to force them to use the less expensive drugs.

The various developments show that six years after the Affordable Care Act cleared the way for biosimilars, as the generic versions of biotechnology drugs are called, progress has been slow. Only one biosimilar, a mimic of the white blood cell booster Neupogen, is available to patients.

“It’s a lost opportunity to reduce health care costs,” said Fiona M. Scott Morton, a professor at the Yale School of Management.

By contrast, according to a study she did, biosimilars have been available in Europe for years and have reduced costs for some drugs as much as 80 percent, though in many cases far less.

Humira and Enbrel are biologics, which are complex proteins made in living cells. Seven of the world’s top 10 selling drugs in 2015 were biologics. Humira was No. 1 with $14 billion in global sales and Enbrel was No. 3 at $8.7 billion, according to the website PharmaCompass.

Until the 2010 Affordable Care Act authorized the F.D.A. to approve biosimilars, biologics were insulated from the generic competition. Since then, it has taken time for the F.D.A. to lay out the ground rules for biosimilars. Some rules are still not in place.

“They are still behind when it comes to creating the infrastructure to push these molecules ahead,” said Bertrand C. Liang, chairman of a biosimilars council set up by the Generic Pharmaceutical Association.

Things now seem to be heating up, however. A biosimilar that mimics Johnson & Johnson’s autoimmune disease drug Remicade was approved by the F.D.A. in April. It is not yet on the market, in part because of patent issues. But Pfizer, which owns the marketing rights, hints that it is planning to introduce it this year.

There are about 60 biosimilars in clinical trials aimed at approval in the United States or Europe, according to Sanford C. Bernstein & Company, including 13 versions of Humira.

The makers of the brand-name biotechnology drugs for years argued that biologics were such complex molecules that they could not be exactly copied. It is for that reason the copycats are called biosimilars rather than generics.

Still, that argument is now falling by the wayside, in part because some of those same brand-name companies are developing biosimilars themselves.

Amgen, for example, was on both sides of this week’s debates among the F.D.A. advisers. The company developed the Humira biosimilar, but it also owns Enbrel, which is threatened by biosimilars.

At the meeting on Tuesday, the advisory committee voted 26 to 0 that Amgen’s Humira knockoff was similar enough to the original drug to be approved for essentially all uses of Humira. It made that decision even though Amgen had tested the drug in patients with only two of those diseases, rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis.

The next day it voted 20 to 0 in favor of a broad approval of the Enbrel biosimilar, which was developed by Sandoz, the generic division of Novartis, and tested only in patients with psoriasis.

While the F.D.A. itself is expected to approve the two biosimilars in the coming months, patents might keep them off the market.

The main patent on the composition of Humira expires at the end of this year. But AbbVie, the company behind Humira, has amassed more than 70 newer patents, mostly in the last three years, covering formulations of the drug, manufacturing methods and use for specific diseases. It says these ancillary patents should protect its crown jewel, which accounted for 61 percent of its revenue last year, until at least 2022.

“Any company seeking to market a biosimilar version of Humira will have to contend with this extensive patent estate, which AbbVie intends to enforce vigorously,” Richard A. Gonzalez, the company’s chief executive, said last October.

Enbrel’s main patent has already expired. But the drug is now protected by two “submarine patents,” so called because they wended their way through the patent office over a long period of time, hidden from view. Even though the inventions involved were made in the early 1990s, the patents were not granted until 2011 and 2012 and last until 2028 and 2029.

If those patents hold, by 2029, Enbrel will have been on the market without generic competition for 31 years, far longer than the 12 years of exclusivity for biologics called for in the Affordable Care Act. Humira has been on the market for 14 years.

Humira and Enbrel are direct competitors, but that by itself has not led to much price competition. List prices of the two drugs have been rising in lock step and are nearly triple what they were in early 2008, according to SSR, an investment research firm.

Biosimilar developers might be able to circumvent the ancillary patents and some are challenging their validity at the patent office.

“Biosimilar developers are realizing that these follow-on patents are vulnerable,” said Oona Johnstone, a patent lawyer at Wolf Greenfield. However, Amgen failed in its first attempt to invalidate two patents on Humira formulations.

Even if biosimilars get to market, their impact will depend on how widely they are used.

At the F.D.A. advisory committee meeting, one issue that could limit the adoption of the biosimilars came into view. Numerous patient and doctor groups argued that insurers should not be allowed to switch patients to a biosimilar if they were doing well on the brand-name drug, because the products are not absolutely identical.

“It may be essentially equivalent to a scientist or an insurance company, but it’s not to the patient,” said Seth Ginsberg, president of the Global Healthy Living Foundation, a patient advocacy group. The foundation counts AbbVie and Amgen among its corporate sponsors.

A version of this article appears in print on July 16, 2016, on page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: New Patents Aim to Delay Generics of Biologics. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

Summary: Six years after the Affordable Care Act cleared the way for biosimilars, as the generic versions of biotechnology drugs are called, progress has been slow.


Given the criticism of the police for failing to investigate allegations against Jimmy Savile, it is understandable that they cannot be seen to dismiss accusations made against famous people. Yet it must be a relatively straightforward matter to establish early on whether there is any substance to a complaint rather than leaving it hanging in the air in the expectation that another alleged victim might come forward. All that does is to encourage fantasists to make claims that take up even more time investigating.

Sir Cliff is right to call for a complete review of procedures in such cases. This needs to cover not just the police but the prosecutors and the issue of search warrants by the judiciary. Theresa May, the Home Secretary, has promised to end the practice where alleged offenders are kept for years on police bail. But further action is needed to restore a proper balance between the requirements of investigators and the rights of suspects to fair treatment.

Summary: Sir Cliff Richard has described the way he was treated by the police investigating an allegation of sexual assault as “being hung out like live bait”.


On Monday night’s episode of The Late Show, Stephen Colbert temporarily abandoned his studio in the Ed Sullivan Theater on Broadway and decamped downtown to Carnegie Deli. He was joined there by Hillary Clinton, and together they shot the breeze while waiting for their cheesecake to arrive. Clinton discussed grandparenthood, Donald Trump, and her husband Bill Clinton’s newfound messianic devotion to clean eating.

To her credit, Clinton seemed unfazed when Colbert hogged the cheesecake then left her with the bill.

Summary: They shoot the breeze, then Colbert ditches Clinton with the bill


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It doesn't matter which foundation or moisturizer you choose; if your pores are clogged with dirt, it ruins the effort you've put into you makeup routine. What you need is a pore minimizer that reduces the look of those unsightly sludge pits. Top New York dermatologist Dr. Neal Schultz developed the Dermstick to decrease the appearance of pores for more beautiful, radiant skin. Watch Dr. Schultz explain to People Features Director Zoe Ruderman how his award-winning treatment works.

Summary: Get rid of your blackheads and oversized pores with this Dermstick, designed by one of the most well-respected dermatologists in the field.


“In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes,” Benjamin Franklin once quipped. If some scientists and businessmen are to be believed, Franklin’s assertion is now only half true. For the sum of $200,000, you can pay to have your whole body saturated in antifreeze and placed in a giant refrigerator in Scottsdale, Arizona. (To shave down the price to $80,000, you can let your flesh rot and preserve your brain alone.) So far, around 1,000 people have signed up for the service in the hope that they will one day be defrosted to live a second life.

Whenever I hear of these schemes, I can’t help but think of Jessica Mitford, who died 20 years ago. The sister of the novelist Nancy Mitford, she was by turns a communist rebel, investigative journalist, civil rights activist and pop singer, opening a gig for Cyndi Lauper and recording a duet with the writer Maya Angelou. The author JK Rowling admired Mitford so much she even named her first daughter after her.

But it is for Mitford’s 1963 book The American Way of Death that she should be remembered today. An unsentimental (and often gruesome) examination of the extravagant and bizarre ways we cope with mortality, its message is more pertinent today than ever before.

Decca, as she was known to her family and friends, was born to Lord and Lady Redesdale in 1917. The sixth of seven children, Decca’s dissatisfaction with her aristocratic life emerged at an early age: at just 12 years old, she was already planning her escape by establishing a ‘running-away account’ at the family bank.

Decca became known as the ‘red sheep’ of the family, using diamond rings to carve hammers and sickles into her bedroom window

Those dreams of escape would become increasingly earnest as her parents and two of her older sisters, Diana and Unity, began cultivating fascist sympathies. Unity eventually moved to Germany and forged a close friendship (some claimed a romance) with Adolf Hitler, while Diana married the leader of the British Union of Fascists, Oswald Mosley – with the Fuhrer in attendance.

Repulsed by their ideology, Decca became the ‘red sheep’ of the family, using her diamond rings to carve hammers and sickles into the glass of her bedroom window. Her principles only solidified at the age of 19 when she met Winston Churchill’s socialist nephew, Esmond Romilly, at a house party. She promptly cashed in her running-away fund and the two eloped to join the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War. Downcast and dejected after Franco’s victory, they returned to England before eventually emigrating to the USA.

Her life was soon marked by tragedy, losing first a daughter to measles and then Esmond himself, who was killed in combat during World War Two. But she married again and established a new life for herself, joining the San Francisco branch of the Communist Party and campaigning for the civil rights of black Americans. By middle age, she turned her hand to investigative journalism, specialising in exposing social injustice – including a particularly provocative article detailing increasingly extravagant funeral services, often pushed upon families who could ill afford the expense.

Death became her. Combining her social conscience with gallows humour, the article attracted considerable attention and soon blossomed into a book. It was revelatory reading. Even those who had recently suffered a bereavement understood very little about what occurred in the cool confines of the mortuary. “Thousands of books have been written describing, cataloguing, theorising about the funeral procedures of ancient and modern peoples from the Aztecs to the Zulus, but about contemporary American funeral practices almost nothing has been written,” Mitford noted.

Mitford’s descriptions were so gruesome that her first choice of publisher had decided to terminate their contract

Mitford’s descriptions were so gruesome that her first publisher decided to terminate their contract. She had paid particular attention to the process of embalming – describing in exquisite detail how each body is “sprayed, sliced, pierced, pickled, trussed, trimmed, creamed, waxed, painted, rouged and neatly dressed – transformed from a common corpse into a Beautiful Memory Picture”.

It was ostensibly a sanitary measure, to prevent further decay and to present the mourners with a poignant last glimpse of their loved one. In practice, it amounted to extensive post-mortem cosmetic surgery. The embalmer would drain the blood from the veins – the sooner the better, to avoid cellular damage, before refilling the arteries with embalming fluid. This came in a number of separate tints, allowing the funeral director to colour with a brown suntan or a healthy rosy glow or simply to regain the “natural undertones”, and helped to firm up the skin with youthful plumpness. Following that, the mortician would then nip and tuck the tissue across the body with implants, pins and fillers to mask blemishes and swellings that come with age and illness, before sewing the face into the most attractive (and youthful) expression possible.

Finally, the teeth were whitened, make-up applied, and the corpse was dressed in its final outfit. Mitford was surprised to find an enormous range of clothes marketed specifically for the departed; her particular favourite was a special brand of bra designed for “post-mortem form restoration”. She argued that mourners were also encouraged to pay exorbitantly for the most expensive coffins, ostentatious flowers and sentimental memorabilia (such as commemorative, heart-shaped ash-trays), with the underlying message that it would be disrespectful to buy anything but the best.

Mitford questioned the dignity and utility of these invasive procedures. She was dismayed that morticians would sometimes discourage an essential medical autopsy because it would make it harder to beautify the body and she objected to the fact that the they often veiled their services in pseudo-psychology, arguing that a lavish funeral, with a pimped and plucked and polished corpse, was essential for the grieving process – despite little evidence this was the case. The vulnerable families would have done far better to see a qualified psychoanalyst, she thought, than to be encouraged to pay for a luxury satin-lined casket and more roses in their funeral wreaths.

More than anything, she baulked at the fact that death was being prettified and sanitised, masking the brutal facts about our mortality. Mitford decided now was time for the public to look death in the face.

America agreed. Mitford had expected to sell just a few hundred copies, but the first print run – a whopping 20,000 – sold out on the day it was published. The book topped the New York Times best-seller list and remained on it for most of the year. In 1965, the filmmaker Tony Richardson used it as inspiration for The Loved One, billed as “the motion picture with something to offend everyone” and starring Liberace; in 2013, David Bowie listed it as one of his “top 100” books.

The interest did indeed appear to leave its mark in the way people treated the dead, with many more opting for cremation and a simple, bare-bones “Mitford service”. She was delighted when one funeral director named a cheap and cheerful coffin after her. In her letters, she noted that Robert Kennedy even told her that The American Way of Death had informed his arrangements for the funeral of his brother, President John F Kennedy.

Today, science offers more ways than ever to mark your passing, and we can be sure that Mitford would have approved of some more than others. The Urban Death Project in Seattle, for instance, turns corpses into compost – a greener way of returning dust to dust than a typical cremation. Cryogenics, on the other hand, may seem like the apotheosis of all she deplored, although we cannot make too much of the comparison. As New Scientist recently pointed out, valuable medical research may emerge from these projects.

At the very least, conversations about death may be losing some of their stigma. Take the “Death Cafes” that encourage frank discussions of the subject. First established by Swiss sociologist Bernard Crettaz in 2004, the “café mortel” offers a venue to talk about mortality over tea and cake. The followers of this movement argue that we need to become more involved in the practical decisions that mark our final exit from this world, the ways we would like to be remembered, and of how we grieve for others.

Mitford certainly faced her own death with the same frank humour with which she had also embraced her colourful life. In early 1996, she had begun revising and updating her magnum opus (Death Warmed Over, as she had started calling the new edition) when she was diagnosed with metastatic cancer and given months to live. She remained upbeat and was grateful that she had just enough time to finish her book and tie up some of her life’s loose ends. She died on 22 July at the age of 78.

She had once teased that, despite her appeals for a simpler and more dignified attitude to death, she herself wanted an elaborate service with the “streets to be blocked off, dignitaries to declaim sobbingly over the flower-smothered bier, proclamations to be issued – that sort of thing”. Her friends complied, ordering six black-plumed horses to pull a glass-enclosed antique hearse through downtown San Francisco, followed by a twelve-piece brass band.

If Mitford could have seen the spectacle herself, she would have surely curled her lips into a mischievous smile. Having devoted so many years of her life to the funeral industry, her only regret had been the fact that she could never attend her own, once writing: “Goodness, I wish I could be there.”

David Robson is BBC Future’s feature writer. He is @d_a_robson on Twitter.

Follow BBC Future on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn.This story is a part of BBC Britain – a new series focused on exploring this extraordinary island, one story at a time. Readers outside of the UK can see every BBC Britain story by heading to the Britain homepage; you also can see our latest stories by following us on Facebook and Twitter.

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Summary: In the 1960s, British aristocrat Jessica Mitford wrote a best-seller on the funeral industry’s practices. Twenty years after her death, she can still teach us how to handle mortality.


Before you go, we thought you'd like these...

Original member of the Beastie Boys, John Berry, died on Thursday (May 19) at the age of 52.

Berry passed away at 7:30 a.m. at a hospice in Danvers, Massachusetts, Rolling Stone reports. The outlet confirmed the death with Berry's father John Berry III, who said his son had suffered from frontal frontal lobe dementia that had recently worsened.

Berry began playing guitar in the band when it formed in 1981 with Michael Diamond (Mike D), Adam Yauch (MCA) and Kate Schellenbach in the New York Hardcore scene. He is credited for coming up with the name Beastie Boys and hosting the group's first practices and performances in front of an audience at his apartment.

See photos of the Beastie Boys through the years:

John Berry, original Beastie Boys Member, dies at 52

Beastie Boys (Photo by Lester Cohen/WireImage)

Adam Yauch of rap group The Beastie Boys. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/DMI/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)

Rap group The Beastie Boys (L-R) Adam Horovitz, Adam Yauch, and Mike Diamond w. DJ Hurricane. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/DMI/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA - JUNE 11: The Beastie Boys performs at the 11th Annual Live 105.3's BFD (Big Friggin Deal) on June 11, 2004 at Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California. (Photo by Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images)

Rap groups Run DMC and The Beastie Boys (L-R) Mike Diamond (Mike D), Jason Mizell (Jam Master J), Adam Yauch (Mca), Darryl McDaniels (DMC), Joseph Simmons (Run) and Adam Horovitz (Adrock). (Photo by Time Life Pictures/DMI/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)

UNITED STATES - MARCH 18: Boys Beastie (Photo by The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

GERMANY - APRIL 16: Photo of BEASTIE BOYS; THE BEASTIE BOYS live im Zenith, Muenchen 16.12.2004 (Photo by Stefan M. Prager/Redferns)

UNITED STATES - NOVEMBER 07: Photo of BEASTIE BOYS (Photo by Mick Hutson/Redferns)

UNITED STATES - JANUARY 01: USA Photo of BEASTIE BOYS (Photo by Mick Hutson/Redferns)

UNSPECIFIED - CIRCA 1987: Photo of Beastie Boys (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

UNITED STATES - JANUARY 01: Photo of BEASTIE BOYS and Elvis COSTELLO; w/ The Beastie Boys (Photo by Ebet Roberts/Redferns)

UNITED STATES - JANUARY 01: USA Photo of BEASTIE BOYS (Photo by Mick Hutson/Redferns)

UNSPECIFIED - JANUARY 01: Photo of Beastie Boys (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

Adam Yauch, center, and members of the group The Beastie Boys accept their Video Vanguard Award during the MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles, Thursday night, Sept. 10, 1998. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)

The street music groups Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys pose atop a restaurant in midtown Manhattan on Monday, May 11, 1987. The two groups held a news conference to announce their 40-city "Together Forever" tour, which kicks off in Hawaii June 12. Posing, in front from left, are, Jason "Jam Master Jay" Mizell, Jospeh "Rappers Run" Simmons, and Davy D; in back from left are, Mike D., Darryl "DMC" McDaniels, King Ad-Rock, and MCA. (AP Photo/Marty Lederhandler)

Recording artists The Beastie Boys pose for photos at their arrival Thursday, Oct. 21, 2004 at the 2004 MTV Latin Video Music Awards in Miami Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)

Adrock, left, and Mike D, right, of the US band Beastie Boys, perform during the Moon and Stars open air concert on Piazza Grande in Locarno, Switzerland, Wednesday, July 11, 2007. (AP Photo/Keystone/Ti-Press/ Samuel Golay)

UNITED STATES - MARCH 18: Boys Beastie (Photo by The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

UNITED STATES - FEBRUARY 07: Photo of Beastie Boys. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys, portrait, Portugal, 1998. (Photo by Martyn Goodacre/Getty Images)

UNITED STATES - JANUARY 01: USA Photo of BEASTIE BOYS (Photo by Mick Hutson/Redferns)

UNSPECIFIED - FEBRUARY 07: Photo of Beastie Boys. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

UNITED STATES - FEBRUARY 07: Photo of Beastie Boys. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

UNSPECIFIED - JANUARY 01: Photo of Beastie Boys (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

UNSPECIFIED - JANUARY 01 : The Beastie Boys perform on stage circa 2000. (Photo by Mick Hutson/Redferns)

UNITED STATES - FEBRUARY 07: Photo of Beastie Boys. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

(NETHERLANDS OUT) NETHERLANDS - JANUARY 01: Photo of BEASTIE BOYS; Mike D & Ad-Rock (Photo by Lex van Rossen/MAI/Redferns)

The Beastie Boys, portrait, at Roseland in New York City on November 7, 1992. (L-R) Adam Yauch, Adam Horvitz, Mike Diamond. (Photo by Ebet Roberts/Redferns)

The Beastie Boys during The Beastie Boys MTV Special at MTV Studios - Times Square in New York City, New York, United States. (Photo by Theo Wargo/WireImage)

Adam Horovitz, Mike Diamond and Adam Yauch of Beastie Boys (Photo by Theo Wargo/WireImage)

In a speech written by Adam Yauch and read by Adam Horowitz (Ad-Rock) at the Beastie Boys' 2012 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, Yauch thanked Berry and his loft on 100 Street and Broadway "where John's dad would come busting in during our first performances screaming, 'Will you turn that fucking shit off already?!'"

Berry was the first to leave the Beastie Boys after playing on the band's first seven-inch EP Polly Wog Stew in late 1982, followed soon by Schellenbach. Horowitz came in to replace both members, creating the lineup that's well known today.

Rolling Stone reports Berry was a member of a number of other bands, such as Even Worse, Big Fat Love, Highway Stars and Bourbon Deluxe.

More from Billboard: Warner Music Nashville's John Esposito Honored, Brett Eldredge Covers Sinatra at Music Biz 2016 Bob Dylan's Vivid, Warm & Biting 'Blonde on Blonde' Turns 50 Nashville Notes: Eli Young Band Joins Pro-Texas Campaign; Mark Chesnutt Signs With Row Entertainment

Summary: Original member of the Beastie Boys, John Berry, died on Thursday (May 19) at the age of 52 after suffering from frontal lobe dementia.


'I love the idea of being able to preserve the seasons by bottling fruits,’ Lillie O’Brien, 33, the founder of London Borough of Jam, says.

'I started making jam three years ago, when a Sunday market started up around the corner from where I live in east London. I wanted to do something a bit different, so I decided to make jams with a twist.’

O’Brien’s speciality is her unusual flavour combinations, which include raspberry and liquorice, peppered plum and the best-selling fig and earl grey. 'I never mix two fruits together, ever. It’s a rule I have in honour of the fruit. I just add something else to it that enhances it,’ she says.

O’Brien, who trained as a chef in Melbourne, where she is from, moved to England in 2007 and got a job as a pastry chef at St John Bread & Wine in east London. In 2011 she left her job and took part-time work in a local restaurant while making jam wholesale for local businesses such as Leila’s Shop and the E5 Bakehouse. 'People keep asking me why I’m not making pastries now, but there are so many people doing that already that I thought I’d do things with jam,’ she says.

Three months ago she decided to focus on jam full-time and opened a weekend-only shop in Hackney. 'I have done things the wrong way round,’ she says. 'I need to set up an industrial kitchen unit, but the shop became available first.’ For now, she still makes the jams in her kitchen at home in two copper pans. 'I can’t use a bigger vessel with more fruit because it will take longer to set and end up tasting more like sugar. The less you put in, the better the flavour,’ she says. O’Brien uses 62.5g of fruit to 37.5g of sugar (much more fruit than most manufacturers). 'If you were blindfolded and you tasted my jam and a supermarket jam, you would notice the difference.’

A batch of 12 jars of jam takes an hour to produce. She sells about 30 jars every weekend, for £5 each, in the shop, and about 80 small jars, plus five 2.5 litre jars every weekend wholesale. Fruit is mostly from New Covent Garden Market and New Spitalfields Market, but for less readily available produce, such as loganberries, she goes to a pick-your-own farm in Kent. She grows some of the plants, such as rose geranium and lemon verbena, in her garden, while others, such as lavender or bay, are given to her by friends. She makes all the deliveries herself by car and has had to turn down supplying a leading department store because she cannot keep up with demand. 'I’m not making enough profit at the moment. I need to do four times what I’m doing to be able to pay myself a proper wage,’she says.

Plans include selling local beers and natural wines in the shop, teaching jam-making, and making products such as granola and St John doughnuts that instead of the custard filling will have her jam piped in. She is also in discussions about a recipe book. 'I’m hoping the money from the book will help me to set up the kitchen unit. Next year’s the year to take things up a level: instead of two copper pans I need eight.’

London Borough of Jam opens 11am-5pm every weekend in Clapton, east London.

Victoria plum and lemon verbena jam recipe

Summary: Lillie O’Brien on why she believes good jam-making is not the preserve of the   big manufacturers


This article originally appeared on Time.com.

As they gather in Philadelphia Monday to nominate Hillary Clinton, Democrats plan to take a lesson, if not outright direction, from their playbook for defeating the last wealthy Republican nominee, Mitt Romney.

Four years ago, Barack Obama relentlessly caricatured Romney as an out-of-touch millionaire, who could not relate to the needs and concerns of ordinary workers. Clinton’s campaign plans to do the same—and worse—with their new enemy, Donald Trump, honing their attack on the bombastic billionaire, as a leader who only looks out for himself.

Joel Benenson, the Obama-turned-Clinton ad-maker, previewed the assault in an interview with TIME.

“He’s been a deadbeat when it comes to paying people who did work for him and I don’t think that’s what white working class voters are looking for in a president,” said Benenson.

See also: Hillary Clinton Has Aired 30,700 Ads Since Clinching the Nomination. Trump? Zero

The Clinton campaign released a web video before the Republican convention, featuring an architect who was denied payment from Trump for designing one of his golf clubhouses reminiscent of a 2012 gut-wrenching Priorities USA spot. A piano dealer who was allegedly stiffed by Trump was featured in a similar spot released during the convention.

In that ad, a former worker at a company owned by Romney’s former firm, Bain Capital, recounted building a stage that management used to announce everyone in the factory would be laid off.

See also: Wasserman Schultz to Have a New Role in Clinton Campaign

“Turns out that when we built that stage, it was like building my own coffin,” said Joe Soptic, the former employee. The ad laid the groundwork for the a series of ads run against Romney later that year, and only magnified by his comments that 47% of the country would vote for Obama no matter what, because they are dependent on government and consider themselves victims.

But Trump is no Romney. The former Massachusetts governor was the embarrassed plutocrat. Trump is the braggart who has been caught inflating his own wealth, as he spent his adult life courting the limelight.

Trump has always specialized in being a wealthy role model for working people, a fact that his campaign emphasized several times during the Republican convention in Cleveland.

See also: Business: The Trump Way

“We’re the only children of billionaires as comfortable in a D10 Caterpillar as we are in our own cars,” said Trump’s son, Donald Jr., during his convention speech. “He knows that at the heart of the American dream is the idea that whoever we are, wherever we’re from, we can get ahead.”

Trump’s appeal to the white working class, which has been evident in public polls, has always been ascribed by his aides to his ability to cross class barriers.

“I think people look at his success and see the American Dream,” former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski told TIME.

Former Romney senior advisor Stuart Stevens called the perception that Romney was done in by the negative ads was a “myth,” saying demographics were a greater factor in his loss.

“The exit polls showed Romney getting killed on “cares about us,” he said. “But we had tracked that across campaign and it was stable at about -10, which is fairly normal for R vs. D.”

The real thing that moved that number, Stevens added, was Hurricane Sandy, which hit the east coast just days before the election.

See also: Commentary: Here’s Why Hillary Clinton Is Going to Beat Donald Trump

“It shot up 40 points with Sandy,” said Stevens. “[It] wasn’t a function of advertising.”

Matt McDonald, a partner at the DC firm Hamilton Place Strategies, who led the Romney campaign’s defense on his wealth, said he doubted the attack would stick on Trump the way it did on his former boss.

“You’re talking about a guy who has spent his entire life talking about how rich he is. So the ‘out-of-touch’ argument, I’m not sure that’s new information.”

See also: Trump: France, Others Hit by Terror May Face More Screening

“There is no question that some of the things that were said about Mitt Romney were about businesses that went out of business, whether it was because of too much debt, whatever,” Benenson said, before arguing that Trump was a far easier target.

“This guy refused to pay people who were doing the work. He put small businesses out of business. He refused to pay workers like painters and carpenters.”

Benenson suggested the campaign had a lot more examples to roll out.

“Suffice it to say,” he said, “there are ample opportunities to have hard-working Americans talk about the damage that Donald Trump caused in their lives.”

Summary: An Obama-turned-Clinton ad-maker is previewing the assault.


According to a local radio report, she said that "even lying in hospital", Mr Mandela had "given us yet another gift: for all of us to be united".

Of the wellwishers who have been in constant contact, she added: "We saw young and old, rich and poor united around Madiba - that's what he wanted.

Mrs Machel appealed to the hundreds of people who have gone to lay flowers outside the hospital where Mr Mandela is being treated to donate to the project to build a 200-bed children's hospital instead, in honour of what she described as his "eternal love for children".

Members of the African National Congress Women's League sing and pray outside the Mediclinic Heart Hospital where Nelson Mandela is being treated (Getty Images)

Tokyo Sexwale, South Africa's housing minister and a trustee of Mr Mandela's charities, told the audience: "Our job is to protect Madiba's legacy, not trample on it. It must live for a 1,000 years."

Mrs Machel and Mr Sexwale spoke as 600 miles away, in the Eastern Cape, an unedifying battle among Mr Mandela's many children and grandchildren over burial plots deepened with one grandson, Mandla, making lurid accusations about his relatives while simultaneously accusing them of "hanging out our dirty laundry in public".

Mr Mandela, a traditional chief in his grandfather's rural home, said that as the oldest male heir he had primacy over another faction of the family led by Mr Mandela's oldest daughter, Makaziwe - who he said should "focus on her husband's family".

Mandla Mandela called a press briefing after several of his family members took him to court to force the exhumation of three of Nelson Mandela's children. The three bodies had been buried in a family graveyard in Qunu, where Mr Mandela grew up and the location of his retirement home, but in 2011 were dug up and moved to a neighbouring village where Mandla Mandela has built a tourist resort.

In court papers seeking the return of the remains to a plot in Qunu, where Mr Mandela has said he wishes to be buried alongside them, Makaziwe Mandela and other family members accused Mandla of seeking "monetary gain" by moving the graves.

Yesterday, after a judge ruled in their favour, police were sent to break open the gates of Mandla's property so undertakers could bring up the remains.

Mandla Mandela said he had been nominated by Nelson Mandela to take over as tribal chieftan and make decisions for the family. He claimed he was being challenged by other family members who, traditionally, should have no say.

"It seems like anyone can come and claim to be a Mandela and jump on the band wagon," he told the press conference.

Phathekile Holomisa, the president of the Congress of Traditional Leaders in South Africa, told South Africa's eNCA news television station that the prolonged row was destroying the Mandela name.

"They are embarrassing themselves, they are embarrassing all the people who believe in what Mandela stands for," he said. "They must sit down as a family and discuss this amongst themselves."

Summary: Nelson Mandela is "fine" despite some discomfort and pain, according to his   wife, Graca Michel, speaking publicly for the first time about his illness.


Armed with an M.B.A. from Arkansas State University, 24-year-old Dana Lund figured she had what she needed to succeed at her new job in the sales-training program at Acxiom Corp. ACXM 1.09 % , a global interactive marketing firm.

But it wasn't until she took the Birkman Method personality assessment test -- a 45-minute assessment to identify an individual's work style and behavior -- that she really got the tools she needed. The Little Rock, Ark.-based Acxiom requires nearly every new employee to take the 298-question test. Ms. Lund, who joined the company last year, says she quickly learned she worked best by planning a task step-by-step, being creative and having time to reflect. "It has helped me to learn how to interact better with work teams and to leverage my strengths in the workplace," she says.

Many young people are facing this extra hurdle. These days, more than 80% of midsize and large companies use personality and ability assessments for entry and midlevel positions as either pre-employment or new-employee orientation tools, says Scott Erker, a senior vice president at Development Dimensions International, a global human-resources consultancy. These assessments have been widely used in retail positions but are quickly spreading to other industries, including finance, technology, health care and operations.

Ultimately, these tests aim to help a company hire a specific type of person for a job that might require particular traits -- or conversely, to rule out traits that are likely to lead to job failure. "Companies understand that the right personality fit is a critical criteria for good performance," says Mr. Erker. Getting that fit right reduces turnover costs -- typically one year's salary -- required to recruit and train each professional. "You can reduce turnover up to 50% with the right pre-employment assessment," Mr. Erker says.

What's more, companies are using them to screen candidates as they apply; candidates won't even get an interview unless they reach a certain score or result.

That's how Murrel Karsh, president of Windy City Fieldhouse, uses a test that measures attention to detail to hire for the team-building and corporate-event company. In the past three years, more than 100 applicants have been required to take the test, which asks takers to do things like do a count of the letter "l" in a three-sentence paragraph to measure how carefully a respondent works. The test, provided by Roswell, Ga.-based PreVisor, has done its job. Mr. Karsh says he has found that people who have results below a certain score don't do well on the job.

While you can't study for a personality assessment, there are some things you can do to get a leg up. First, do your homework to understand the job and the organization, says Mr. Erker. "The criteria used to score the test is linked to the job being filled," he says. Try to find out which assessment is being used and then research how and why companies use it. That will give you insight into the company and the particulars of the job.

If the job you're applying for has a high customer-service requirement, for example, then it's likely that the test will try to determine whether you have those personality characteristics that are necessary to deal with people of all temperaments and the patience to solve problems on a continuing basis. If that's not you, you might not want to continue your application.

It might be tempting to study up on what kind of answers you should give to score well, but experts caution against doing so. "Don't try to psych out the test," says Jo Bennett, a partner at Battalia Winston, an executive recruiting firm in New York. Be honest and open in your answers. If you lie or try to manipulate your answers to land a job that doesn't fit you or your personality, you're more likely to be miserable at work. If you land a job and then try to fudge a work-style assessment, you could find yourself misunderstood by your boss.

Matt Rion, a 29-year-old marketing and operations manager at Windy City Fieldhouse, was a bit anxious when asked to take the attention-to-detail test a few years ago. "I didn't really know where the assessment factored into the application process," says Mr. Rion who now administers the test himself. "I understand now that we just want to make sure that someone has the capability to do the job."

Results of the pre-interview assessments aren't generally shared with job applicants. But if your assessment was given after you agreed to take a job, the results of the test are typically shared.

Ms. Lund, now a client-relationship manager with Acxiom, not only learned she was a planner in her work style but also what that meant: She tends to be very organized and needs to know well in advance what needs to be done to complete a job.

The Birkman test also gave her insight into her co-workers. Results are given on a four-square matrix attached to a color: green (communicator), red (problem solver), yellow (detailed scheduler) and blue (planner). At Acxiom, everyone wears their Birkman colors on a badge. If Ms. Lund is working with a communicator she says she knows she will need to provide a lot of information to that person, or if her work partner is a detailed scheduler Ms. Lund knows she needs to be very specific.

"We see the assessment as an opportunity for our professionals to better understand themselves," says Debbie Pyle, human-resources training and development leader at the company.

Summary: Many companies are using personality and ability assessments as pre-employment or orientation tools to avoid a bad fit.