The French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908 – 2004) was influential in ways and on a scale that, in all likelihood, will never be repeated or matched by any other practitioner of the craft. So much of what the world now knows and recognizes as photojournalism, after all, was originally shaped by Cartier-Bresson’s work in the 1930s, and especially by the methodology he developed and pursued with his peers Robert Capa and David Seymour, or “Chim”: incessant travel, always with camera in hand; the search not for mere adventure, but for meaning in both conflict and in utterly quotidian calm; and finally, the hunt for specific, never-to-be repeated scenes, instances, gestures that would, in less than a heartbeat, tell a tale that no moving image or written word could possibly surpass.

Like William Blake’s admonition to “see a world in a grain of sand,” Cartier-Bresson’s defining aim has been summed up in the notion of (in the English translation) “the decisive moment” — that is, the fraction of a second when a living tableau presents itself to a photographer, and he or she must rely on both instinct and experience to know when to make the picture, to get the shot.

That Cartier-Bresson routinely cut up — literally cut up, into pieces, with scissors — his contact sheets and discarded those pictures that did not come close to capturing a decisive moment hardly lessens or cheapens the scope of the man’s singular and still, today, almost overwhelming achievement. But the practice of ruthlessly culling weak images from the strong does, perhaps, provide insights into the admirably unsentimental nature of an artist like HCB — and perhaps nowhere was this lack of undue sentiment more striking than in Cartier-Bresson’s color photography.

There’s a reason, it turns out, why coming across his color photos can be so jarring; not only did Cartier-Bresson infrequently shoot in color, but he destroyed virtually all of his color negatives, leaving the almost exclusively black-and-white legacy familiar to most photography fans. Finding out that Cartier-Bresson shot professionally in color — and sometimes worked on major, long-term assignments in that format — is the sort of unexpected revelation than provides the student of photography with not only a surprise, but a sudden sense of enlargement.

One of Cartier-Bresson’s most significant color projects was a 1958 assignment for LIFE: a four-month, 7,000 mile tour through communist China during that country’s convulsive “great leap forward,” when the huge, ancient nation was being alternately pushed and pulled, dragged and harried by its leaders to leave its past behind and to embrace industrialization, collectivism and the precepts of Chairman Mao. (“The staggering Chinese upheaval … goes on,” LIFE wrote of the ‘great leap,’ “spurred by the biting fury that Mao himself expressed when he declared, Communism is not love, Communism is a hammer we use to destroy the enemy.”)

“With the perceptiveness for which he is famous,” LIFE declared of the photographer’s work in China, “Cartier-Bresson has shown how the Chinese individually react and live amid the oppressive regimentation imposed on them.”

Whether or not viewers today see what LIFE told its readers they would encounter in that issue in early 1959, what remains clear in the pictures presented here, in both color and in black and white, is that decades into his long, varied career Cartier-Bresson was still seeking and still finding those never-to-be-repeated decisive moments.

Summary: In 1958, LIFE sent Henri Cartier-Bresson on a four-month, 7,000-mile tour through communist China during that country's convulsive "great leap forward." Here, the results, from the pages of the magazine.


Are you ready to see the seven kingdoms come alive like never before?

HBO, Facebook and Oculus have collaborated with Elastic, the designers behind Game of Thrones' opening title sequence, to create an impressive 3D, 360 VR version of the show's opener.

This version has everything that the original does: maps of the kingdoms, the moving models of the Wall and cities. Except it's all ready to be explored as a 360 video and in immersive VR.

A video of the experience is embedded below, and it's coming to VR soon.

Here are the original credits, in case you're not a geek who knows them by heart. (We all can't be perfect.)

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

Summary: HBO, Facebook and Oculus have collaborated with the designers behind 'GoT's' opening title sequence, to create an impressive version of the show's opener.


This year, Comme des Garçons, the avant-garde fashion line designed by Rei Kawakubo, opened a series of "guerrilla stores" in hip, yet-to-be-gentrified areas in cities around the world, including Berlin, Barcelona, Helsinki, Singapore, Stockholm, Ljubljana and Warsaw. Kawakubo and her husband and business partner, Adrian Joffe, delineated their guerrilla idea with a no-nonsense precision usually reserved for actual combat operations. The shops, which are installed in raw urban spaces -- the Berlin outpost occupies a former bookstore; the Helsinki a 1950's pharmacy -- sell "seasonless" merchandise drawn from current and past collections, must remain unsullied by architects and designers and are required to close after a single year.

While the venture might be interpreted as a call to arms against the aggressive commercialism and gaudy architecture of high-concept flagship behemoths like the Rem Koolhaas-designed Prada stores, it has also engendered a delicious absurdity: in their rejection of concept-store pretension, the guerrilla stores have realized its purest expression. A news release issued by Comme des Garçons lays out the "rules" behind this anti-concept with the earnestness of F.T. Marinetti's futurist manifesto: "The location will be chosen according to its atmosphere, historical connection, geographical situation away from established commercial areas or some other interesting feature," reads one rule.

The idea may be easy to send up, but guerrilla retailing is also smart business, allowing companies to tap into new markets at low cost (rents are cheap; advertising is nil) and to reduce inventory by recycling old merchandise. Indeed, others have joined Comme des Garçons in employing this marketing tactic. Alife, a Manhattan collective best described as a gallery, store and hipster brain trust, partnered with Levi's this fall to create a line of jeans that sold for one month only, and Vacant, a high-end retailer that bills itself on its Web site as the "original traveling guerrilla retail concept and exhibition," has opened ephemeral store-gallery hybrids in empty spaces across the globe. A spokeswoman for Comme des Garçons notes that the guerrilla project has been wildly successful ("Warsaw met 300 percent of its projected monthly sales in the first week"). The company now plans to open shops in Los Angeles, Brooklyn, S-o Paulo and Istanbul. AMANDA FORTINI

Summary: Amanda Fortini article, in review of year's notable ideas and developments, on stores that sell Comme des Garcons, avant-garde fashion line designed by Rei Kawakubo; stores are located in ungentrified areas in major cities worldwide; are raw urban spaces that sell seasonless merchandise and are required to close after one year; idea is considered smart business, opening new markets and reducing inventory by recycling old merchandise; photo (M)


SAN FRANCISCO - DANIELLE STEEL'S books have sold 550 million copies. Tom Perkins, Ms. Steel's former husband, has sold just a handful of his first romance novel, "Sex and the Single Zillionaire," but he's not giving up.

Mr. Perkins is, of course, a lion of the venture capital world, having been a co-founder of Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers and helping to create companies like Genentech and Tandem Computers.

Perhaps some in Silicon Valley who believe business plans qualify as gripping prose might wonder why Mr. Perkins would have the energy or desire to write a steamy romance. But it's not as unexpected as it might seem.

Mr. Perkins, a relentless achiever at 74, says he cannot slow down. He's currently building what he calls "the biggest sailing yacht in the world," a hobby he has pursued on a grand scale. He's an insomniac who friends say seems to have boundless energy.

And he cannot resist a challenge.

Mr. Perkins got the idea for the novel in 2003 when he was invited to try out for a reality show (he declined the invitation) about young beauties vying to marry a rich older man.

When it first struck him to base a romance novel around the TV show, he proposed the idea to Ms. Steel, who was married to him for a year before they divorced in 1999 (they remain friends). But she cajoled him into writing it himself.

"If you don't do it, it's because you're lazy,"' Mr. Perkins said she told him, and thus a writer was born.

The novel, published in February by ReganBooks, an imprint of HarperCollins, is the story of a wealthy New York financier, grief-stricken over the death of his wife. He is invited to join a reality show and falls for the program's producer.

Some of his book is autobiographical. Mr. Perkins, like his protagonist, was a widower, having lost his wife of 35 years to cancer before he married Ms. Steel. Like his hero, Mr. Perkins has two children and is immensely wealthy. His protagonist finds serenity in love, but Mr. Perkins continues to strive.

"I am not satisfied easily," he said in a recent interview in his office overlooking San Francisco Bay. In fact, when asked to define his idea of success, Mr. Perkins said, "Stress successfully overcome is triumph."

Some business partners may now see Mr. Perkins, the new novelist, in a slightly different light. Frank Caufield, Mr. Perkins's longtime partner, recently read "Sex and the Single Zillionaire."

"I thought it moved along at a good pace," Mr. Caufield said. "I thought the characters were fine, as romance novels go."

Mr. Perkins, gracious and charismatic, cuts a fit figure. He used to play tennis, but quit because losing made him too angry, he said. He is the son of an insurance adjuster, and was the first in his family to go to college, attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he studied electrical engineering.

In 1978, he, Mr. Caufield and two other partners founded their venture capital firm, which helped define venture investing in technology companies. The firm's investments have included Yahoo, Google and America Online.

Mr. Perkins puts his net worth in the "mega millions" but somewhere less than a billion, though still enough to finance his hobbies. It has been enough to build his latest sailing yacht, which is 88 meters long, and such boats typically cost a million dollars a meter.

"At one time, I had the finest automobile collection in the world," Mr. Perkins said. "I sold it before the bottom fell out of the market in 1987." Afterward, he turned to boating -- "I had the best classic yacht in the world" -- which he used to compete and win major races in Europe, then sold.

When he wrote the 288-page "Sex and the Single Zillionaire" in early 2004 at his country home in England, he said he worked hard to cultivate his inner artist and listen to his "unconscious self." He wrote the book in only 100 hours over 30 days.

He received some advice from Ms. Steel and his literary agent. They sent the book to various publishers, eventually getting a small advance from ReganBooks. Mr. Perkins had earlier sent a copy to Rupert Murdoch, whose company owns HarperCollins, but Mr. Perkins said he didn't believe that influenced the decision to publish.

Mr. Murdoch did give an endorsement, though, on the book's back cover. "Fun, fast -- a great read!" Mr. Murdoch wrote.

Mr. Perkins said he had no illusions of having written the great American novel. He calls the book "soufflé," not "meat and potatoes." Ms. Steel, he said, is urging him to write another one, but he wants to finish his yacht first. Still, he says he has started thinking about another book idea. This time, it will be about life in San Francisco and Silicon Valley.

As for his motivation, perhaps he wants to create a legacy beyond wealth, a desire that seems common among successful venture capitalists, says Paul S. Kedrosky, the executive director of the William J. von Liebig Center for Entrepreneurism and Technology Advancement at the University of California, San Diego.

"They're all looking for influence beyond being a glorified banker," Mr. Kedrosky said.

Summary: Tom Perkins' new book Sex and the Single Zillionaire is semi-autobiographical story of wealthy financier who finds serenity in love; Perkins made millions in venture capital business; is former husband of best-selling romance novelist Danielle Steel; book is published by ReganBooks imprint of HarperCollins; photos (M)


TriBeCa Film Festival is in full swing. And while watching films debut back to back is incredible, one aspect more noteworthy is the festival's emergence of up-and-coming actors. Over the course of 11 days, everyone will be scoping out talent that will soon be breaking it big in the industry. And one of our top picks this year is Savannah Kennick.

The young actress first got her start as a model at the age of fourteen. Quickly, she was being booked for campaigns in Italian Vogue, Teen Vogue, and Seventeen Magazine. Her modeling career brought her to New York City, where Kennick was inspired by the creative atmosphere around her and decided to switch gears and become an actress. It's a bold choice that has since paid off. Kennick will be making her first ever film debut during TriBeCa's "Holidays" premiere. The film is anthology feature film that puts a uniquely dark spin on some of the most iconic holidays. The piece follows a young high school outcast who receives praise from her diving coach and sets out to get him the perfect Valentine's Day gift ever, no matter what the costs. Kennick plays Heidi, your not-so-typical high school mean girl, characterized by her twisted traits.

While this may only be Kennick's first time on the big screen, her performance in this physically and emotionally demanding role makes her a festival stand-out.

So before Savannah Kennick becomes a household name, you can get to know the young actress on a more personal level. We recently had the chance to sit down with Kennick at our NYC offices during TriBeCa Film Festival to talk about her experience on set, her incredible pieces of advice for young actresses like herself, and her grueling first day on the job.

You were a model first. Why did you decide to make the switch into acting? I was fourteen and I had been scouted in New York. And I was living in such a creative environment in New York and I was meeting so many artists that I expressed that to my agent I wanted to go into acting. I went to LA and then decided to move a year later, and I've been here ever since.

What was that move like for you? Oh it was insane! I was born in such a small town so going to LA where people don't talk to you and want to know how your day is going was completely foreign.

Was acting something that was already on your radar growing up? I loved watching movies and television, and again, because I grew up in a small town that's how I saw the world. And then I realized that it was something that I could do, "I thought, why not?"

Did you grow up with a love for horror films? I grew up loving horror films! It was my thing. I spent most of the time watching behind my hands and peeking out once in a while. I grew up with "The Exorcist" and "Poltergeist" and "Silence of the Lambs" was a favorite .So "Holidays" wasn't a foreign territory for me. I understood how to amp emotions up to intensify the fear for viewers.

What was life like on set for you? Well, since we are independent and didn't have a budget, I didn't have a trailer which was interesting. But life on set was amazing and very quickly we became a family and I felt like I could do anything and I would have been accepted. Like I could have said, "Alright guys I need to use the bathroom so I'm going to go here on the floor," and they would have said, "Okay, great!"

What was the most memorable moment you had while filming? The very first take I did on my set was the climax of my character. I had to be beaten in the face with a brick and fall into a pile of mud. I think it was 40 degrees outside that day so I was just lying in freezing cold mud for six hours take after take.

What was the internal process like developing your character? I worked a lot with the directors. I think we worked for four days for twelve hours at a time to figure out why it is she is so filled with angst and hatred. And I don't necessarily agree with her, but I understand her motives. That was amazing to do that, because that's the key to being an actress is having your character down pat.

What did a typical day on set look like for you? Up at 5 am, on set by 6 am, and stealing all the coffee I could off of craft services and a lot of dying repeatedly. It was awesome. I'm like a cat that has nine lives.

What has your first TriBeCa festival been like for you? It's crazy! I was getting on the plane to come here and I was with our producer, and somebody asked us where we were going and we said TriBeCa and the guy freaked out and said it was so amazing. Who would have known that an independent film with no trailer would be doing this?

That's kind of the beauty of TriBeCa isn't it? Any type of film can get representation. Which is amazing for independent films especially since they're so good but they don't get enough exposure.

Is there any actor or director you would love to work with in the future? I totally don't have a list in my bedroom up on my wall.... David Fincher is my absolute favorite. I mean "Gone Girl" and "Fight Club" were so good! I love Cate Blanchett and Meryl Streep of course. But so many though! I could go on forever and you would just say, "Savannah please just shut up."

What's the direction you would like to go with next in your movies? I love drama. It's really fun. But with drama, you have to have a lot of internal focus, which is hard for me because I'm crazy. It's really nice to have to work hard on something, so I'd love to do more film and independent films because that's where the creativity really lives.

One piece of advice you wish you had received before filming? I take a screenwriting class because I love all aspects of filmmaking. One day I was having a lot of problems since after I wrapped this film, I was going to a lot of auditions and wasn't getting a lot of feedback. And my screenwriting teacher told me, "Savannah you don't have to get the darts on the bulls eye, it just has to be on the board." And I wish someone had told me that because I'm such a perfectionist and spend hours trying to get everything right. I wish someone had told me that everything doesn't have to be absolutely perfect, but it just has to make you feel good.

For more on this year's TriBeCa Film Festival, watch the video below!

Sara Hopkins dishes her ultimate career advice Comedian Jordan Doww is headed to Broadway The side to CrazyJewishMom's Kim Friedman you've never seen before

Summary: And while seeing new film premieres debut back to back is exhilarating, one aspect more noteworthy is the festival's emergence of up-and-coming actors.


A well-dressed bandit sporting a crooked black wig and a fake mustache robbed two Sleepy’s mattress workers at gunpoint, police sources said.

The unidentified thief, in his 40s, was wearing dark slacks, a black tie and a gray blazer. He allegedly pointed a revolver at one worker in the store on Church Street near Warren Street last Friday.

“Do what I say and you don’t get hurt. I don’t want to shoot you,” he snarled.

He swiped $1,300, a laptop and a $12,000 Panerai watch from the worker. He then bound the victim’s hands with metal zip ties, taped his ankles together and covered his face with a pillow.

He also tied up another worker returning from a bank drop and took his money, police sources said.

A customer found the employees and called 911. No one was seriously injured.

A thief snatched money from an elderly woman’s hand as she left a Union Square bank, police sources said.

Harold McNamara, 45, allegedly held the door open for the 73-year-old victim as she walked inside the Apple bank on Irving Place near 14th Street last Wednesday night.

After she withdrew $200 from an ATM, McNamara swiped the money and ran off. Officers caught McNamara Saturday when he was picked up for an unrelated burglary.

They showed him surveillance video of the bank incident and he freely admitted, “That’s me, that’s me. I did it.”

He said he used the money for a crack fix, police sources said.

McNamara was charged with robbery and grand larceny.

A man with an arrest record for drugs was shot dead in a barrage of gunfire in Throggs Neck, law-enforcement sources said.

Marc Spruell, 28, was at the Throggs Neck Houses on Dewey Street near Swinton Avenue when he was struck 10 times in the chest and leg at 12:38 a.m. Sunday, police source said.

Police were called and rushed the victim to Jacobi Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

A Jewish man was charged with a hate crime after he pummeled an Arab man and keyed his wife’s car in Mill Basin, authorities said.

Simchon Schwartz, 46, shook up a can of beer and sprayed it over the woman outside her home on East 70 Street near Avenue L at 7 p.m. Saturday, police sources said.

When the victim’s husband intervened, Schwartz allegedly slugged him in the face and screamed, “What did you say, you f- – king Arab.”

The frightened couple took shelter in a neighbor’s home. Responding police hauled the hate-spewing suspect to jail.

A crook wielding a butcher knife stole $1,300 from an East New York Burger King, police sources said.

The thief pulled out the knife when he confronted a female worker on Linden Boulevard near New Jersey Avenue at 8:33 a.m. Sunday.

Once inside, he threatened a manager and demanded money from a safe. The manager turned over the cash from the safe, and the perp fled.

Now Mets fans are taking their anger out on police.

A foul-mouthed baseball fan attacked a police officer at Citi Field, authorities said yesterday.

Joseph Casale, 19, allegedly caused a ruckus in the Jackie Robinson Rotunda on June 19.

After a police officer approached him, Casale barked, “F- – k you, I’ll

f- – k you up. I’m not going to calm down,” according to a spokeswoman for Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown.

The irate teen allegedly knocked the cop down and punched him. Other officers rushed to the aid of the injured cop and slapped cuffs on Casale.

He was charged with resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration and disorderly conduct.

Police busted two thugs after they brutally beat and robbed a man in Stapleton, police said.

Anthony Suazo, 20, and Benjamin Bermudez, 21, jumped the victim on Beach Street near Van Duzer Street at 4:08 a.m. Saturday, said a spokesman for Staten Island DA Daniel Donovan.

The duo allegedly pummeled the victim, knocking him to the ground. They then rifled through his pockets and fled with his wallet.

Cops spotted the robbers nearby with fresh blood on their sneakers and hands and arrested the suspects on charges of robbery and assault.

This guy kicked off his Fourth of July party too early.

Jason Rodriguez, 26, was nabbed Sunday night for illegally setting off fireworks in front of his Great Kills home on Demopolis Avenue, according to a spokesman for the Staten Island DA.

Summary: Manhattan That’s some wake-up call. A well-dressed bandit sporting a crooked black wig and a fake mustache robbed two Sleepy’s mattress workers at gunpoint, police sources said. The uni…


Norfolk Southern nsc once again said ‘no thanks’ to rival Canadian Pacific cp .

On Wednesday morning, the railroad company officially rejected a takeover offer from its rival, calling the latest offer “grossly inadequate.” Norfolk maintained that the big issue was that there was a high likelihood that regulators would reject a combination of the two railroads, and that the regulatory risk was too great to accept an offer. Norfolk said its analysis was based on consultations with two former commissioners of the Surface Transportation Board (STB), which would have to approve the combination.

On Dec. 16, Canadian Pacific upped its $30 billion cash-and-stock bid for Norfolk by offering to issue a “contingent value right” (CVR) to Norfolk shareholders. The CVR is supposed to compensate Norfolk shareholders if Canadian Pacific’s shares fall during the process of combining the two companies. Norfolk said the CVR would trade at a significant discount, and that it didn’t really represent a better offer for its shareholders. Norfolk rejected Canadian Pacific’s first offer last month.

A number of large deals have been stopped by regulators this year. On Monday, the Federal Trade Commission said it would block Staples bid to buy OfficeDepot. Canadian Pacific has said that it believes a deal with Norfolk would be ultimately approved. But Norfolk says that Canadian Pacific should request pre-approval for the deal from the STB, which the board has the right to give. Last month, Daniel Elliott, chairman of the STB, said that the review process for a Canadian Pacific-Norfolk deal would be lengthy and could take as long as 18 months.

Last week, a number of members of Congress, including U.S. Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, wrote a letter to the STB saying that the board should carefully consider the potential negative impact of the deal on Chicago’s rail network. “We urge you to carefully review any plans submitted to the STB, and consider the potential negative impact of the proposal with respect to building a more efficient freight network in Chicago… and comprehensively examine the economic effects of such a consolidation on local industries and jobs in the Chicago region,” the statement said.

Norfolk’s stock has a market cap of $26 billion, and shares were up slightly on the rejection of the offer, perhaps suggesting that shareholders think Canadian Pacific could once again up its offer. Norfolk’s latest move leaves Canadian Pacific’s CEO Harrison Hunter with the option of abandoning the deal, or going to directly to Norfolk’s shareholders, possibly with a higher offer. Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman is the largest shareholder in Canadian Pacific. Ackman supports a deal with Norfolk, and has said that Norfolk’s CEO Jim Squires lacks the ability to turn around the railroad.

Summary: $30 billion cash-and-stock bid called "grossly inadequate."


Just seven types of procedures account for about 80 percent of all hospital admissions, deaths, complications, and costs attributed to emergency general surgeries across the country, according to new research published in JAMA Surgery.

Each year, more than 3 million patients in the U.S. are admitted to hospitals for emergency general surgeries -- a group that includes the highest risk and most acutely ill patients.

Prior to the study, lead researcher Dr. Joaquim M. Havens, director of Emergency Surgical Services at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston, said he noticed that patients who were coming in with serious medical problems requiring unplanned emergency surgery were not faring as well as he thought they should.

"When you look at surgeries done emergently and surgeries done electively, the outcomes are so different," he told CBS News. "It really challenged me to look deeper into what was going on."

Havens and a team of researchers analyzed a government database of more than 420,000 patients who underwent emergency general surgery between 2008 and 2011. Heart-related procedures and surgery resulting from traumatic events like car crashes were not included in the analysis.

The researchers ranked procedures by total burden, taking into account frequency, complications, mortality rates, and financial costs. In the end, they found seven operations that collectively accounted for 80 percent of procedures, 80 percent of deaths, 79 percent of complications, and 80 percent of inpatient costs nationwide.

Click through to see which seven surgeries topped the list.

Summary: Just a few procedures account for the vast majority of deaths, complications and financial costs


You could probably create a fair amount of energy from the heated arguments that rage between those still pushing fossil fuels, proponents of various 'sustainable' alternative (wind, tidal, solar) plus those who support building more nuclear power stations – the fission sort that split heavy elements like uranium and plutonium, creating long-lived radioactive waste along the way.

All these arguments would vanish if we could just do the 'other' nuclear, whose dazzling potential was summed up by Stephen Hawking: “Nuclear fusion...would provide an inexhaustible supply of energy, without pollution or global warming.” Where do I sign up?

Nuclear fusion is truly cosmic, powering our sun and other stars. It transforms hydrogen into helium by fusing atoms together in an atomic rearrangement that converts a little mass into a lot of energy – just think of Einstein's famous E=mc2 equation. Fusion keeps reactions going for billions of years in stars, while sending heat and light out to grateful Earthlings.

The Sun does it stellar fusion using massive gravity to ram atomic nuclei together at temperatures around 15 million degrees C and pressures 100 billion times those at the Earth's surface. And that's a combination we just can't mimic on our third rock out.

However, hydrogen also exists here in two varied forms (isotopes) - deuterium and tritium - that can be made to fuse into helium at just a couple of times normal atmospheric pressure. Furthermore, deuterium is easily obtained from ordinary water, while thousands of years supply of tritium can be extracted from varied sources, including seaweed.

But while fusing just one gram of deuterium-tritium fuel yields an energy equivalent to burning 10 tonnes of coal, it is a reaction requiring temperatures even hotter than the Sun – around 100 million degrees C. Matter this hot turns into a state known as “plasma”, containing ions and neutral atoms, along with liberated electrons that allow current and electricity to flow. A naturally occurring plasma on Earth is forked lightning.

One way to generate plasma-forming temperatures is firing high-powered lasers at a tiny pellet of fusion 'fuel'. Another uses microwaves to deliver an instantaneous heating punch equivalent to a couple of thousand kitchen microwave ovens. The bigger issue is containing and controlling a 100 million degree plasma to stop it touching and burning through its surrounding reactor container.

Scientific heresy or pure potential?

Since the 1980s, some mavericks have preached an idea many mainstream scientists treat like heresy – cold fusion. This claims fusion reactions can be created without the need for high temperatures or massive kit at all, via a phenomenon dubbed LENR (low energy nuclear reactions).

Today's leading LENR proponent is Italy's Andrea Rossi, who claims to have operated his “E-Cat” cold fusion reactor since 2011, using a fuel of nickel powder and hydrogen. He has now partnered with a US energy company for what he claims is a trial of a 1 mega-watt reactor for a secret US customer. Other researchers say they have reverse-engineered the reaction Rossi claims to use, and managed to generate more heat via a mysterious reaction than could be explained by any known chemical process.

If may sound like a case from 'The X-Files,' but Rossi has received a US patent for his E-Cat technology. The Japanese government has also begun funding LENR research, while a scientific conference on LENR took place in 2015.

Maybe cold fusion really is cool!

The answer to date has been magnetic fields which use the charge in plasma to control it. Prototype fusion reactors are therefore ringed by massive super-cooled and super-conducting magnets wrapped around the reactor core where the plasma appears. Various arrangements of magnets are being tried to gain the best level of control, bearing names like tokomak, spherical torus or stellarator.

One pioneering fusion prototype was the Joint European Torus (JET), a UK-based tokomak reactor still operating at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy near Oxford. Switched on in 1983, it has kept a hydrogen plasma stabled for several seconds at a time - enough to trigger fusion, but not long enough to create a sustained reaction to get past the magic “break-even” point where the reactor starts giving out more energy than has to go in to get the plasma.

In France, meanwhile, a huge reactor called ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) has been taking shape in a giant hanger in Provence since 2010 – though preparatory work began in 1998. If this 15-storey high behemoth – using brainpower from 35 nations – does it thing properly, an even bigger follow-up reactor is planned called DEMO which experts hope might plug into the global grid in the 2030s.

One issue with ITER is that its 1990s conception has given it a reliance on some technology that has since been superseded. Specifically, its giant magnets are cooled by expensive liquid helium, greatly bumping up its cost.

Recent research by America's Plasma Science and Fusion Centre at MIT, however, has produced plans for a reactor using magnetic coils made from barium copper oxide, which can be cooled using much cheaper liquid nitrogen. The MIT device has been christened with a degree of American chutzpah, the ARC - 'affordable, robust, compact' – and could provide the basis for a commercial reactor within a decade.

The pace is quickening too at Germany's Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics on the Baltic coast.. "German engineers changed the world today,” said Alden Truesdale proudly, after her team successfully created a plasma using helium – easier than a hydrogen one – in December 2015. The Germans had further cause to celebrate after creating a hydrogen plasma in February this year.

The German's Wendelstein 7-X - a stellarator reactor – took 19 years and $1.1 billion to build, so the ongoing drive for nuclear fusion isn't cheap. But if the journey so far has been long and dogged with dark clouds, maybe, just maybe, a little Sun-on-Earth is about to shine.


Lena Dunham dropped by "The Tonight Show" and made Jimmy Fallon incredibly uncomfortable when she brought up something her mom recently said to her.

Lena Dunham makes Jimmy Fallon incredibly uncomfortable

NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 18: Lena Dunham and Jimmy Fallon during a taping of "The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon" at Rockefeller Center on March 18, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo/NBC/Getty Images for "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon")

NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 18: Hugh Dancy, Lena Dunham and Jimmy Fallon play a game of "Pyramid" during a taping of "The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon" at Rockefeller Center on March 18, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo/NBC/Getty Images for "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon")

THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON -- Episode 0022 -- Pictured: (l-r) Actress Lena Dunham during an interview with host Jimmy Fallon on March 18, 2014 -- (Photo by: Lloyd Bishop/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)

NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 18: Lena Dunham and Jimmy Fallon during a taping of "The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon" at Rockefeller Center on March 18, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo/NBC/Getty Images for "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon")

THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON -- Episode 0022 -- Pictured: (l-r) Actor Hugh Dancy and actress Lena Dunham play the game Pyramid on March 18, 2014 -- (Photo by: Lloyd Bishop/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)

NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 18: Hugh Dancy, Lena Dunham and Jimmy Fallon play a game of "Pyramid" during a taping of "The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon" at Rockefeller Center on March 18, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo/NBC/Getty Images for "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon")

Her mom was commenting on Lena's boyfriend of two years, musician Jack Antonoff. She said she loved Jack ... but she always thought Lena would

: "She said it like we had a previous relationship, like you were my first boyfriend and things didn't work out, but she thought we'd get back together. Not like I had like 50 magazines covers of you up in my bathroom."

: "I mean ... that's hilarious, that's hilarious."

: "I knew this would make you ... a little embarrassed."

: "A little bit embarrassed."

Jimmy should've been prepared for that, though -- when Lena stopped by his old show in 2012, she professed her love for the late-night host. She was "

" with him in high school.

Jimmy quickly changed the subject to 'Girls' -- not the general topic, but Lena's award-winning HBO show. The season finale airs Sunday.

Summary: Lena Dunham dropped by "The Tonight Show" and made Jimmy Fallon incredibly uncomfortable when she brought up something her mom recently said to her.  %Slideshow-184855%  Her mom wa


outros Boutros Boutros Boutros Ghali" is how Ali G addresses the dignified former secretary general of the United Nations. Posing as an interviewer for an MTV-esque channel catering to hip, undereducated British youths, Ali G persuades the elderly statesman to say "merde" and even spell it for him in French.

Ali G is the stage name of Sacha Baron Cohen, a British comedian who is famous in England as his comic persona, a white gangsta rapper wannabe (also known as a wanksta) who speaks a strangled argot of cockney, Jamaican and hip-hop slang. That is not his only character. He also plays Borat, an eager, naïve journalist from Kazakhstan whose wide-eyed reports from the United States are framed with Cyrillic graphics and traditional Central Asian music. Sometimes he is Bruno, the effete Austrian host of a hyper-hip television show about fashion, who in one segment crashes the runway of a designer collection by saying he is "Chrysler's muse."

"Da Ali G Show," which begins tonight on HBO, is irresistibly, corrosively funny. It also serves as a reminder of why HBO is home to so many comedies and dramas that are unmatched on network television. It is not just that Ali G uses obscenities that cannot be repeated in a family newspaper or on most networks. A little like the humor on "The Office," a wickedly funny pseudo-documentary on BBC America about office workers in a London suburb called Slough, Ali G is clever, satirical and entirely free of any redeeming sentimentality; in mean spirit he is closer to Monty Python or Larry David's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" than to most popular comedies, including "Saturday Night Live."

Ali G's refusal to wink or blink when interviewing starchy American officials is exquisitely painful to watch. "Wot iz legal?" Ali G asks Richard Thornburgh, the former attorney general, while dressed in a yellow Tommy Hilfiger skullcap, oversized yellow track suit, sunglasses and gold "bling bling" jewelry. Mr. Thornburgh courteously shares a few rudimentary insights into the American system of justice. He looks only slightly puzzled when Ali G asks him if he saw "Barely Legal 3," which he describes as a movie about college girls getting spanked when they don't complete their homework.

Among others, Ali G interviews United Nations officials; Mr. Thornburgh and a predecessor, Edwin Meese 3rd; Newt Gingrich; and Brent Scowcroft, the former national security adviser. He tries out for a Philadelphia police training academy and, as Borat, seeks an American wife to take home to Kazakhstan. He tells the dating service consultant that he can provide his bride with "a television, with remote" but that she must have "plow experience." The consultant, like others, is perplexed but patient.

The only person who bridles on camera at Ali G's willful stupidity is a Roman Catholic priest participating in a round table with a rabbi, an atheist and a professor. Flaunting a defiant ignorance reminiscent of the droogs in "A Clockwork Orange," Ali G confuses Jesus Christ with Santa Claus and asks the panel if God is not "just an overhyped version of David Blaine," the magician. "No," the priest replies. "And a lot of people would find that remark very offensive." Ali G blithely says, "Sorry," and continues in the same vein. The priest, remarkably, does not storm out — a testament to the ungodly power of television.

The best British humor is callous, a trait that helped prompt American colonists to revolt in 1776. Despite all the shared shows and cross-pollination of the two cultures, there is still a different sensibility about comedy. Like Ali G, "The Jamie Kennedy Experiment" on WB relies on its star's ability to channel outlandish characters and dupe bystanders. But at the end of each imposture his true identity is revealed, and everybody hugs in laughter and relief. On Ali G, there are no happy endings.

"The Office," on BBC America, is a huge hit in Britain and has a smaller cult following here. It is funny precisely because it is coldly immune to the kind of good-natured banter, laugh tracks and underlying benevolence of American workplace sitcoms like "Less Than Perfect." Its deadpan mock documentary style is instead reminiscent of the movie "This Is Spinal Tap."

Ricky Gervais, who writes the series with its director, Stephen Merchant, brilliantly plays the office boss, David Brent, as a self-deluded loser — a blend of Captain Queeg and the Copy Guy played by Rob Schneider on "Saturday Night Live" in the early 1990's. A Hollywood television studio is working on an American adaptation, but it is hard to imagine anyone there, except perhaps Larry David, who would have the steel to be true to the show's misanthropic core.

"Absolutely Fabulous," another British import, was closer to a conventional sitcom, but its two heroines never wavered in their selfish, dotty hedonism. The show's writers displayed an almost Churchillian determination to never give in to sentimentality. Similar American shows are rarely as tough-minded. The sitcom "Cybill," in its heyday, could never quite keep a sour upper lip, though Christine Baranski did her best as the martini-swilling divorcée and best friend. Even "Will and Grace" occasionally drops the Noël Coward insouciance and gets misty.

It is probably unfair to mention a new comedy show, "The Michael Essany Show," which begins on March 2 on the E! channel, in the same universe as two British comedies as strong as "Ali G" and "The Office."

But "The Michael Essany Show," which is a reality show wrapped around a college sophomore who runs a late-night cable-access show out of his parents' living room, illustrates the point. The precocious Mr. Essany, who aspires to be the next Johnny Carson or Jay Leno and speaks in a nasal whine similar to the voice of Ross on "Friends," could be a very amusing satirical character if his show were a parody along the lines of "The Larry Sanders Show." Sadly, Mr. Essany plays himself, his parents play his parents, and there is no comic invention, clever writing or satire of misplaced teenage ambitions. The result is occasionally affecting, but mostly it is boring.

In comedy, sincerity is no substitute for wit.

HBO, tonight at 12:30 a.m., Eastern and Pacific time; 11:30 p.m., Central time.

Directed by James Bobin; Sacha Baron Cohen, executive producer; Dan Mazer, producer; Mr. Cohen, Mr. Mazer, Mr. Bobin, Jamie Glassman and Anthony Hines, writers. Produced for HBO by Talkback, a FreMantle Media Company.

WITH: Sacha Baron Cohen (Ali G) and former Attorney General Richard Thornburgh.

BBC America, Thursdays at 10:20 p.m. Eastern time; 7:30 and 10:20 Pacific time; 9:20 Central time. Rebroadcast, tonight at 1:20 a.m., Eastern time, 12:20 a.m., Central time and 11:20 p.m., Pacific time; and Sundays at 10:40 p.m., Eastern time, 9:40 p.m., Central time and 7:40 p.m., Pacific time.

Written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant; Ash Atalla, producer; Anil Gupta, executive producer.

WITH: Ricky Gervais (David Brent), Mackenzie Crook (Gareth), Oliver Chris (Ricky), Lucy Davis (Dawn), Martin Freeman (Tim) and Ralph Ineson (Finchy).

Summary: HBO's "Da Ali G Show" and BBC America's "The Office" are two wickedly funny British imports that will begin this weekend.


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

Meet Jeff Kaufman and Julia Wise, one of the most selfless couples in the world.

Since 2008, the Massachusetts couple has donated half of their salary to charity, which

The couple are by no means millionaires. Kaufman is a 29-year-old software engineer and Wise is a 30-year-old mom working two part-time jobs. The couple has one daughter and one on the way, and say their budget is

, they don't go out to fancy restaurants, they don't have a big flat screen TV, and they've never owned a car.

journalist, William MacAskill, calls Julia and Jeff friends and says "I don't think I've ever met a more stable, happy and, well, perfectly normal couple." When digging a little deeper, one may ask, why exactly do they do it?

Aside from feeling better after giving back, Jeff and Julia seem to have truly altruistic qualities and should be applauded for their selfless ways.

Has this couple inspired you to donate? Jeff and Julia explain they use

, a charity evaluator that finds where your money will do the most good.

Summary: Jeff Kaufman and Julia Wise donate half their salary to less fortunate.


The FBI’s recommendation against criminal charges in the Hillary Clinton email matter drew immediate comparisons to last year’s high-profile case in which the agency took the opposite position and pursued the prosecution of then-CIA Director David Petraeus.

The Petraeus case, long seen by some as a potentially analogous investigation into the mishandling of government secrets, resurfaced within minutes of the FBI’s announcement on Tuesday when Republican presidential Donald Trump tweeted: “The system is rigged. General Petraeus got in trouble for far less.”

But that statement is dubious. Though both investigations examined the handling of classified information by powerful government officials, and both drew the attention of the highest-ranking officials of the FBI and the Justice Department, the probes are separated by critical distinctions.

In Clinton’s case, for instance, FBI Director James Comey said that though the former secretary of her state and her aides had been “extremely careless” with classified information that flowed through her private email server, there was no evidence that anyone intended to violate laws that govern the handling of secret records.

Yet when Petraeus pleaded guilty last year to sharing binders of classified information with his biographer, a woman with whom he was having a sexual relationship, the Justice Department made clear that the retired Army general knew the material was top secret when he divulged it and had lied to the FBI about it.

Petraeus told Paula Broadwell, his biographer, in a recorded conversation in 2011 that the black books he was giving her were “highly classified” and contained “code word stuff,” prosecutors said. A year later, he told FBI agents who questioned him that he had never shared classified information with Broadwell.

Though he was never charged with making false statements, Petraeus admitted to a misdemeanor crime of mishandling classified information and received probation and no prison time.

That misdemeanor outcome, in a case prosecutors said involved evidence of a false statement and willful mishandling, struck some legal experts and law enforcement officials as overly generous and likely made it much harder to bring any charges in the Clinton investigation — a case Comey said was lacking in criminal intent.

“The evidence in the Petraeus case of willfulness was significant,” said James Melendres, a former Justice Department prosecutor and the lead prosecutor in that case. “The false statement was an aggravating feature.”

Those are among the elements of a crime that the FBI looks for in investigations concerning the mishandling of classified information, Comey said Tuesday. Cases prosecuted for that offense historically involve intentional or willful mishandling of classified information, signs of disloyalty to the United States, efforts to obstruct justice or the disclosure of vast quantities of secret records.

“We do not see those things here,” he said.

The Petraeus case is “more in line with the types of cases that have been prosecuted, which is when information was clearly marked or there is a significant amount of it in paper,” said Mark Zaid, a Washington national security lawyer.

Even so, Comey, in an extraordinary 15-minute public statement at FBI headquarters, left no doubt that the FBI had detected significant problems in her email practices as secretary of state.

The FBI chief said that in the course of the investigation, 113 emails were determined to contain classified information at the time they were sent or received. He also said that “several thousand work-related emails” were not among the group of 30,000 that Clinton turned over in 2014.

He said there was evidence of “potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information.” But, he said, there was no evidence that anyone intended to violate any laws and that the FBI’s judgment was “no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.”

Criminal charges could theoretically have been brought but would “definitely have created a new precedent” given the large number of government officials who are similarly lax in their treatment of sensitive records, Zaid said.

“While it could have been prosecuted, I think as a practical reality, the precedent it would have created would have had far-reaching ramifications throughout the entire system,” he said.

Summary: The two are not analogous.


Jul 6, 2016 4:28 PM EDT Crimesider

By Crimesider Staff / CBS News

BATON ROUGE -- The son of a man who was shot and killed by police in Baton Rouge Tuesday morning broke down in tears as his mother spoke at a press conference Wednesday.

Cameron Sterling sobbed into his shirt before turning into the arms of a family member.

"I want my dad," he could be heard saying as his mother, Quinyetta McMillon, excoriated the officers who shot his father, Alton Sterling.

"The individuals involved in his murder took away a man with children who depend upon their daddy on a daily basis," Quinyetta McMillon said. "My son is not the youngest, he is the oldest of his siblings. He is 15 years old. He had to watch this as this was put all over the outlets."

"As some may know, Alton sold CDs, and was doing just that, not bothering anyone. And had the consent of the store owners as well," McMillon said.

Officers Blane Salamoni and Howie Lake II have been placed on paid administrative leave as the shooting is being investigated by federal authorities. Salamoni has been with the Baton Rouge Police Department for four years, and Lake has been on the force for three years, according to police.

Sterling died early Tuesday outside a convenience store where he was selling CDs. Authorities say he was confronted by police after an anonymous caller said he saw a man threaten someone with a gun. In a cellphone video taken by a community activist, two officers appeared to have Sterling pinned to the ground. Gunfire erupted moments after someone yelled, "He's got a gun! Gun!"

Sterling was pronounced dead at the scene.

© 2016 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Summary: "I want my dad," Cameron Sterling could be heard saying as his mother excoriated the officers who shot his father


A diverse Republican band of Donald Trump haters, conservatives and other rebels have set their sights on derailing the billionaire's march to their party's presidential nomination.

They're seeking new supporters, spending money on TV ads, hiring staff and even setting up office space near the Cleveland arena where the party gathers later this month for its national convention.

Despite their ongoing effort, Trump is moving steadily toward nailing down the nomination. Here's why it will be hard for the dissidents to prevail:

While many top Republicans have criticized Trump and announced they won't go to Cleveland, the party hierarchy has largely been lining up behind his drive for the nomination, despite his divisive statements and unruliness as a candidate.

Their argument: Whatever Trump's faults, how do you take the nomination away from the guy who won 13.4 million votes in GOP primaries and caucuses, far more than his opponents? And besides, who's the alternative candidate?

Along with staff from Trump's still small campaign, members of the Republican National Committee, state GOP leaders and others have formed a team of around 150 "whips" who are contacting convention delegates and cajoling them, though perhaps not always gently.

On the 112-member convention rules committee, a likely battleground for efforts to free the delegates, around a third are from the 168-member GOP national committee and most will loyally back Trump in rules fights.

There are exceptions. Also on that rules committee is Colorado delegate Kendal Unruh, a leader of the fight to let delegates to vote their "conscience," and North Dakota RNC member Curly Haugland, who has long insisted that even under current rules, delegates are free to back anyone.

Many RNC members say the rebels will lose overwhelmingly in committee votes.

... are stacked against the insurgents. Trump triumphed in the vast majority of this year's primaries and caucuses, giving him 1,542 delegates, according to The Associated Press. That's well above the 1,237 needed to clinch the nomination.

Now, it's true those delegates can vote however they wish during convention battles to change the rules, so delegates pledged to a candidate could back anyone they want. And you can count on such defections, because some delegates representing Trump actually prefer Texas Sen. Ted Cruz or others.

But Trump still has a big numerical advantage.

According to an informal count by one party insider, Trump can rely on a solid 900 delegates, compared to a combined 650 for Trump opponents plus delegates backing Cruz or other candidates.

That leaves over 900 remaining delegates. Trump would need only about a third of them to prevail. And don't forget, many delegates are party regulars inclined to want a gathering that's peaceful, not a GOP civil war on prime time TV.

The anti-Trump forces have said they have more than 400 delegate supporters.

Unruh says she has enough votes on the rules committee to allow the full convention to vote on her proposal to let delegates vote their "conscience" and abandon the candidates they are supposed to support. She needs just 28 votes for that to happen. Her opponents say she'd lose in full convention anyway, but are countering with their own amendments.

An RNC member from Oregon, Solomon Yue, is proposing that any rules changes take effect only after this month's convention, to "take the politics out of" the rules debate.

Arizona RNC member Bruce Ash is offering language aimed at ensuring that delegates remain bound to their candidates.

Another tactic party officials are discussing: using their muscle to prevent any rules changes, period. They argue the current rules already mean delegates must stay with their candidates.

They may be outnumbered, but the dump Trumpers have cards they could try playing to be disruptive.

Under current rules, a sympathetic delegate can slow down roll calls by demanding that their state delegation chairman recount the tally. They could force roll calls on minor matters that would usually pass quickly by voice vote, and lodge other time-consuming procedural challenges.

There's a limit to that strategy.

The convention's presiding officer, which at times will be House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the convention chairman, doesn't always have to recognize delegates seeking recognition. And if the dissenters try the same tactic repeatedly, he or she can rule their moves dilatory and move on.

Another dissidents' hope - what if Trump's poll numbers get really, really bad?

"What is the Republican Party's tipping point?" asked Steve Lonegan, a leader of Courageous Conservatives, which is backing the rebellion by raising money for ads and other expenses. "Is it down 10 points, 12 points, 20 points?"

In a conference call among dump Trump supporters Tuesday evening, conservative writer David French congratulated participants for trying to defeat "an evil man." And conservative commentator William Kristol told the group, "Win or lose, I think this is an important moment" toward establishing "the principle that the delegates have the right to vote as they see fit."

Summary: Why it'll be hard for the #NeverTrump dissidents to prevail at the Republican convention this month


07/10/2016 AT 03:40 PM EDT

Everyone has that friend: a fun-loving guy (or girl) who is so unpredictable that you have no idea what they're going to do next.

" Johnson is that guy for all of us on social media.

One day, he's showing off his

Now, The Rock wants to inspire the same streak of crazy in you. He has unleashed a contest in which fans and comedians can create their own wrestling promo videos.

From now until July 13, contestants can upload videos on Rock's website,

. (The full rules can also be found there.) The most creative videos will be entered into a tournament-style bracket. The judges, which include Johnson and other wrestling legends, will vote for the best ones.

After four rounds of voting, only two videos will remain. Those contestants will be flown to meet The Rock – and will perform a live promo in front of him. (Okay, that last part sounds really intimidating.)

The winner will get a belt with $2,000 and bragging rights until the end of time.

"You ain't ready for this level of fun," Johnson wrote

. "It's your turn to deliver the greatest wrestling promo of all time. Take that em

"Take that epic tongue lashing youâve been practicing in front of your bathroom mirror, record it, then send it to me at www.rockthepromo.com," he continues. "You have the once in a lifetime opportunity to be featured on our new YouTube channel and judged by some of of the greatest wrestling legends of all time, including myself. Now dust off the mic and get to it you candy-ass jabroni!"

Summary: The wrestling star wants you to send him your best promo videos


Kasich was best known in Congress for his role as House Budget Committee chairman, but he also served on the House Armed Services Committee for his entire 18 years in Washington. He likes to call himself a "cheap hawk" who would be able to handle the duel tasks of ensuring U.S. security and preventing a bloated Pentagon budget.

Perhaps the most famous example of Kasich's defense frugality on display was his crusade to discontinue the B-2 stealth bombers that cost taxpayers billions of dollars.

He opposes the nuclear deal with Iran, telling New Hampshire voters, "Sometimes you have to say no to a bad deal, period, end of story, exclamation point, that's it." He elaborated on his opposition in a radio interview with Hugh Hewitt a few weeks later, saying that Iran should be required to change its behavior before the U.S. agrees to negotiate with them. He also calls for a more automatic imposition of sanctions if Iran is caught cheating rather than subjecting it to a debate.

On the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Kasich has taken one of the more hawkish positions by calling for U.S. ground troops to fight the group.

"It's either you're going to pay more now or a heck of a lot later," he told voters in New Hampshire earlier this summer. "This is something that has to be dealt with. Let's just do it. We can rally the support of the public for this."

That's not the only arena where he argues for more military action. He has been critical of the Obama administration for refusing to supply the Ukrainians with weapons to defend themselves against a Russian incursion and said that the U.S. should send an aircraft group to the South China Sea to "send...a little message" to the Chinese about building artificial islands in disputed waters.

Kasich said on CNN's "State of the Union" in August that he "would have never committed ourselves" to the war in Iraq - an issue he never had to vote on since he left Congress after the 2000 election. It's also not what he said about the Iraq war in 2002.

"We should go to war with Iraq. It's not likely that [Saddam] Hussein will give up his weapons. If he did he would be disgraced in the Arab world," Kasich said during a 2002 speech at The Ohio State University.

Kasich also said in the CNN interview that the U.S. should have left a base behind in 2011 when President Obama withdrew troops, and that he would have supported rebels in Syria working to overthrow Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.

Kasich will speak more extensively about his foreign policy vision on the campaign trail in South Carolina Monday.

Summary: A look at where the Ohio governor stands on education, immigration, abortion, the economy and foreign policy


In his closing arguments, defense Attorney

told jurors the prosecution failed to prove a crime was committed ... insisting, "Michael Jackson went into his personal bathroom and swallowed Lorazepam and Dr. Murray didn't know it."

"They want you to convict Dr. Murray for the actions of Michael Jackson," Chernoff told the court.

Chernoff also said Murray's "greatest personality defect is his greatest character strength," adding, "Dr. Murray "had no control over the situation because of what was happening in the background. He was just a little fish in a big, dirty pond."

He suggested the only reason the case even went to trial was because MJ was a celebrity. "If it were anybody else but Michael Jackson, would this doctor be here today?" Chernoff asked.

* Murray made mistakes. But this is not a civil case. For a crime to be committed, the prosecution has to show Murray killed MJ.

* Chernoff tried to discredit Alberto Alvarez testimony. He said it didn't make sense that Murray would ask him hide evidence because they barely knew each other.

* Alvarez testified he grabbed the IV bag with both his hands ... but none of his fingerprints were found on the bag.

* Alvarez also said he noticed a milky substance in the IV bag, but no traces of Propofol were found inside the bag.

* There are no photos showing a vial inside an IV bag. The coroner investigator testified she took the vial out of the bag BEFORE taking a picture.

* LAPD detective Scott Smith also testified he never saw a vial in a bag.

* Murray didn't need to create an elaborate IV set up -- placing a vial inside an empty bag -- when he could have used the hanging tab on the Propofol bottle.

* The tubing found in MJ's bedroom did not have any Propofol in it.

* Good scientists don't take positions. Dr. Shafer had an agenda.

* Chernoff told jurors, "Dr. White knows more about Propofol than Dr. Shafer will ever know." He said White had no reason to lie.

* Murray didn't call 911 because he was busy trying to save MJ's life. He immediately started CPR ... when that didn't work he called for help. "It's easy in hindsight to say he's a lousy doctor," Chernoff said. "It's easy to make those statements when you've never had a patient and a friend like Michael Jackson. You can judge Dr. Murray for what he did but don't question his motives."

* Chernoff told the jury, "There is a tremendous desire to paint Murray as a villain. There is no perfect villain or perfect victim." He said the prosecution tried to make Murray look guilty when they showed surveillance footage of him leaving the ER ... a witness for the defense testified Murray was on his way to another part of the hospital to help the family draft a press release.

* Chernoff asked jurors not to hold Murray responsible just because it's Michael Jackson, saying, "it's not a reality show... It's reality."

Summary: Ed Chernoff  -- Defense Attorney's Closing ArgumentsUpdated 11/03/11 at 1:30 PMIn his closing arguments, defense Attorney Ed Chernoff told jurors the…


In the latest round in the war between Donald Trump and a growing list of the heaviest hitters in show business, the real-estate mogul and "Celebrity Apprentice" host fired back at David Letterman over the late-night host's on-air suggestion that Trump is a racist.

In a letter he sent to the gap-toothed comic on Friday, Trump canceled an appearance on "Late Show With David Letterman" and lambasted Dave for saying Trump's prolonged attacks on President Obama had begun to "smack of racism."

"I was disappointed to hear the statements you made about me last night on your show that I was a 'racist,' " Trump wrote to Letterman. "In actuality, nothing could be further from the truth and there is nobody who is less of a racist than Donald Trump."

He continued: "Based upon your statements, and despite the fact that we have always done so well together, especially in your ratings, I am canceling my May 18th appearance on your show.

"Additionally," Trump wrote, "please inform your staff that I will likewise not do the 'top ten' list that they had been trying to set up."

On his show Thursday night, Letterman discussed with guest "Dr. Phil" McGraw Trump's persistent questioning of whether Obama is an American citizen and demeaning his qualifications for getting into Harvard Law School.

"It's all fun, it's all a circus, it's all a rodeo until it starts to smack of racism. And then it's no longer fun," said Letterman.

Letterman also said that if Trump comes on his show again, "he ought to be prepared to apologize." Trump's smackdown of Letterman follows tongue-lashings he gave Jerry Seinfeld and Robert De Niro after they similarly objected to his questioning of Obama's birth certificate.

A rep for Letterman declined to comment.

Go to NYPost.com for more celebrity gossip.

Summary: The Celebrity Apprentice host fired back at David Letterman over the late-night host's on-air suggestion that Trump is a racist.


Lorna Armstrong, a student in Newcastle upon Tyne, started a petition demanding an apology from AQA as they accused the exam board of promoting underage drinking.

It said: "In the Biology Unit 1 GCSE exam, on May 17th, AQA presented a question featuring some data from 200 young people, regarding alcoholic drinks.

"In the UK, the laws on drinking are very clear, and taken incredibly seriously. I, personally, was offended by the question, asking to compare the favourite type of alcoholic beverage, of two genders.

Summary: A leading exam board faced social media backlash as bemused GCSE biology students had to answer an 'irrelevant' question about drunk 15-year-olds and rats.


A man arrested by Brazilian police in Rio de Janeiro on suspicion of murder has confessed to killing 42 people over the past decade, making him potentially one of the country's most prolific serial killers. Sailson Jose das Gracas, 26, who was arrested December 10, 2014, told reporters at a police station in the state of Rio that he killed for pleasure and the accompanying adrenaline rush. He said he also operated as a killer for hire. He said his preferred victims were white females, whom he strangled. Among the 42 victims, 39 are thought to be women.

Summary: A round-up of some of the most deadly serial killers around the world in   modern history


At the time, Abdeslam had not been identified as a prime suspect, allowing him to slip pass through three French police road checks to reach Belgium and sparking complaints of poor intelligence sharing between the two countries.

The pair had also been smoking marijuana, according to Attou’s lawyer.

Abdeslam is thought to have played an important logistical role in the attacks, hiring the cars that ferried the terrorists from Belgium and booking French hotel rooms in his name beforehand.

Mystery shrouds what he did on the night of the attacks, however.

Salah Abdeslam (left) and suspected accomplice, Hamza Attou, at a petrol station on a motorway between Paris and Brussels in Trith-Saint-Leger

It is believed he dropped the bombers off at the Stade de France, before leaving his car in the 18th arrondissement of Paris. Mobile phone data then picked him up in the south of Paris, where a discarded suicide belt was found in a bin.

One theory is that Abdeslam had second thoughts about blowing himself up and pulled out at the last minute.

Last week, Belgian police found his fingerprints in a Brussels apartment along with three suicide vests.

A string of people have since been charged with helping Abdeslam get back to Brussels’ Molenbeek district and evade capture.

According to some reports, he managed to flee to Isil-held territory in Syria.

Summary: Service station footage of Salah Abdeslam, thought to be one of the Paris   gunmen, released by French media showing the fugitive with a friend the day   after the attacks


On Monday a court in Los Angeles ordered a woman to put her fingerprint on her iPhone to comply with a search warrant, the first time someone has been forced to do so, according to Mac Rumors.

But had the woman’s fingers been burned by a freak acid accident en route to jail, it looks like it wouldn’t have been that hard to get past the iPhone.

Fingerprint sensors provide another option for digital ingress, one that’s much easier for someone to hack than standard passcodes that temporarily blocked the FBI in the San Bernadino case. In fact, according to the Verge‘s Russell Brandom, your fingerprint is actually your phone’s biggest vulnerability.

The Verge had a security firm come in and after imprinting a staff member’s in dental molding—a simple enough task—they stuck a piece of Play-doh into it, which became the fake finger. When the finger was placed on a Samsung Galaxy sensor for a moment, the phone was unlocked as if his finger had touched it. Pretty scary.

While the DIY method is pretty much impossible without someone’s consent—and it won’t work if you have smooth fingerprints—anyone with a 3D printer and some know-how could clone the print from an image, and if the final fake finger was made with rubber, it could be wearable.

Musing on all of this, Brandom notes that fingerprints could easily become part of leaked data, and our inability to change them like passwords represents a significant security issue.

So what should this mean for you? Well, it’s probably okay to keep it enabled on your phone if it’s convenient for you, but it’d be a good idea to set any sensitive apps (your bank, for example) to require further authorization via passcodes or passwords instead of fingerprints.

Summary: Make sure all your sensitive apps use a passcode or password.


is taking it day by day amid her

The actress opened up her Play.it's podcast

this week, saying with a breath of relief: "It's Friday, and I've made it."

She continued, "One thing you know in show business is that the show must always go on. I've definitely had a trying week, to say the least, but I'm grateful, I'm here, I'm well,

is well and, at the end of the day, that is all that matters."

Hartwell, 38, filed for divorce from

alum, 37, on Monday – just seven months after the couple wed.

"I've kind of been dealing with a little situation," Pulliam continued with a laugh. "Despite what's been publicized, there's always funny, there's always love, there's always laughter, no matter what."

Pulliam, 37, went on to say that she didn't get any money from an interview she gave to

this week "because truth is priceless, integrity is priceless."

"There's no amount of money that could replace that, and it was about the opportunity to share my truth – share what has actually happened to me," she said. "And I'm grateful for it because of how many women I've been able to empower, because silence is what allows this to continue, for people to suffer, for people to feel alone, and I'm human – we all have stuff, I'm not excluded. So the fact that I was able to help even one woman, for me, makes it all worth it."

, Pulliam admitted that, "Lisa Wu and I have never, will never, be friends."

"I have no ill will for her, I don't know her like that it was never a situation of stealing anyone's husband," she continued to say about the former

Pulliam finished up by saying that she is "moving forward" and no longer wants to be "a part of that lie."

"I have no desire to continue to be a part of that lie and to continue to be part of a false made up story line that puts me in a defamatory, derogatory light," she said.

"I respect her for being EJ's mom," she said, "because I love him dearly and our connection is that we're going to have the same ex-husband and our children will be siblings, but beyond that, that's all. I wish you the best, and I'm moving forward."

And in that spirit, she echoed the words she spoke at the top of the podcast: "The show must go on, you just keep it movin'. This isn't the final destination – it's a pit stop. No more tears, I'm laughing all the way from this point and enjoying life."

Later on Friday, Pulliam took to Instagram to thank her fans for their support.

"Just taking a moment to be present, relax & be grateful..." she captioned a photo of her legs crossed, relaxing in what appears to be her backyard. "As my late Uncle Gene would say, 'Just coolin my heals!' Thank you to all who have reached out to send love, support & encouragement... My village is more amazing than I could ever dream of!! Stuff happens... But 'The show must go on!' "

Summary: "I have no desire to continue to be a part of that lie," Pulliam said of drama surrounding Hartwell and his ex, Lisa Wu


“These were the years,” Taibbi wrote, “when the U.S. parliament became a historical punch line, a political obscenity on par with the court of Nero or Caligula – a stable of thieves and perverts who committed crimes rolling out of bed in the morning and did their very best to turn the mighty American empire into a debt-laden, despotic backwater, a Burkina Faso with cable.”

The article included this quote from Jonathan Turley: “The 109th Congress is so bad that it makes you wonder if democracy is a failed experiment.”

The least-productive Congress in modern history drew to an abrupt close late Tuesday as the U.S. Senate extended dozens of expired tax breaks but failed to renew a federally backed terrorism insurance program supported by big businesses and major sports leagues. […]

“Thank God it’s over!” Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W. Va.) said as he exited the Senate chamber afterward…. Asked about the conclusion of the unproductive congressional session as he boarded an elevator,

The Washington Post’s report added, “Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) paraphrased the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein: ‘That which cannot be spoken must be passed over in silence.’”

All of which leads to a straightforward question: is this the worst Congress ever?

Neither the 113th nor the 112th managed to pass major legislation. Both the 113th and the 112th struggled badly to complete even routine tasks. The 112th had the debt-ceiling crisis – to my mind, the worst thing any Congress has done since the Civil War – which probably tips the scales in the worst-ever contest, but the ridiculous shutdown does help even things out a bit.

The debate can continue – take advantage of the comments section to weigh in with your take – but whether this was the worst Congress or merely one of the worst Congresses, the fact remains that since the 2010 midterms, our legislative branch simply does not function as a responsible governing institution. Americans have made Capitol Hill the butt of jokes since its inception, but we are witnessing a genuine deterioration of the government’s ability to pass laws.

As the year ends and the dust settles, we’re left with a Congress that’s unproductive on a historic level, which lacks public support, which ignores popular will, and which has failed repeatedly to complete even routine tasks.

We were reminded quite recently that our collective expectations have fallen so far, much of the country seems relieved when federal lawmakers manage, after an extensive struggle, to even keep the government’s lights on.

The very idea of Congress passing landmark legislation on any issue – making a material difference in the lives of Americans – is so fanciful that few even bother to hope for legislative breakthroughs.

Or put another way, don’t go away mad, 113th Congress, just go away.

Summary: As the year ends and the dust settles, we're left with a straightforward question: was this the worst Congress in American history?


Re “Beyond Anne Frank: The Dutch Tell Their Full Holocaust Story” (Amsterdam Journal, July 18):

The Netherlands is beginning to fully recognize the devastation to its Jewish population at the hands of the Nazis, and the Dutch are to be commended for their efforts. Even 70 years later, we must continue to fill out the Holocaust narrative.

For example, for too long, the story of the Holocaust has been from the perspective of the perpetrators. We owe it to the victims to present their narrative, too. That’s what we’ll be doing at the Amud Aish Memorial Museum: telling the stories of the people who lived — and too often died — during the Holocaust, with special emphasis on the faith-based community whose story has largely been untold.

Jacques Grishaver, a Jewish “hidden child” born in Amsterdam whom your article featured, reminds us all that we have a responsibility to remember and to never forget.

Holocaust survivors are leaving us. This fact, combined with the rise in anti-Semitism around the world, reminds us that we must work even harder as second, third and fourth generations to ensure that the lessons of the Holocaust continue to guide us.

It is understandable that many would like the story of Anne Frank to end with her diary. After all, it is a depiction of an intelligent, funny, vivacious teenage girl showing great courage in dire circumstances. The whole story is more difficult to confront.

She was deported to Auschwitz, where she was stripped, shaved, tattooed, starved and made to do slave labor. Later shipped to Bergen-Belsen, she contracted scabies and then died of typhus. Her sister and mother died before her.

The horrors of the Nazi Holocaust are limitless, but any narrative of this darkest chapter in human history should begin and end with the fact that a million and a half children were murdered by the Germans and their collaborators. And their deaths often involved all the baroque cruelty the Nazis were infamous for.

So, in this age of simmering racial and ethnic tensions, it is a good thing that Amsterdam may finally be getting a Holocaust museum. I hope that it has a special section devoted to children like Anne.

A version of this letter appears in print on July 28, 2016, on page A26 of the New York edition with the headline: May the Lessons of the Holocaust Still Guide Us. Today's Paper|Subscribe

Summary: Readers call for a fuller remembrance.


PARIS—Hyper Cacher, the kosher grocery store attacked during a three-day terror spree in January, reopened amid heavy security as France seeks to move on from its deadliest terror attacks in years.

“I came here to say the French Republic is doing everything so that all French people are protected from the threat of terrorism and so that we can live in our country freely,” French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said at the Paris...

Summary: Hyper Cacher, the kosher grocery store attacked in January during a three-day terror spree in Paris, has reopened amid heavy security.


You haven’t usually heard “same old, same old” applied to Apple — until recently. Get used to it.

If the rumors are right, Apple will unveil a new iPhone next month that will differ little from the one in my shirt pocket. An improved camera and the elimination of the old-school headphone jack are about all we can look forward to.

Still, iPhone loyalists will have at least a little incentive to line up outside the Apple store. Not so the millions who use Apple’s venerable line of Mac personal computers. Shop for one of these, and your choices are mostly the same as they were a year or more ago.

Certainly the popular Retina MacBook Pro is showing its age, having gone without an update for well over a year. But it’s much worse for other models. Apple’s low-cost Mac Mini hasn’t been updated since 2014. Then there’s the Mac Pro, Apple’s top-of-the-line machine for movie editors and graphic artists. The Mac Pro was state-of-the-art when it was released over 2½ years ago, and it had a price tag to match: $4,000. Yet today, Apple’s still selling the same machine, at the same price.

That would be commercial suicide in the Windows PC world. Raza Haider, executive director of commercial computing at Dell Inc., said his company upgrades pretty much every model every year. “We always want to make sure that our users are getting the latest and greatest performance,” Haider told me.

Dell has no choice. If it rested on its laurels the way Apple has done, a horde of rival Windows PC makers would happily take up the slack. After all, Windows machines are utterly interchangeable. Don’t like the features on the latest Dell? Buy an HP or a Lenovo instead. Your software won’t care which brand of computer it runs on, so get the hottest one you can afford.

Faced with fierce competition from Android smartphones, the company obliges its fans with annual iPhone updates. But Mac users are far less likely to defect. They love the unique operating system and dread the expense and trouble of converting to a Windows machine, even one with a newer, faster processor.

And after all, the speed boost would hardly matter. Intel, which makes about 95 percent of the world’s PC processors, keeps producing better and better chips. But lately the improvements have been marginal. Moore’s Law, the principle that computers would double in processing power every couple of years, is finally petering out.

“If you look at what Intel has today versus three or four years ago, it’s maybe 10 percent better, 20 percent better,” said chip analyst Linley Gwennap of the Linley Group in Mountain View, Calif. “Computers have become like cars. You don’t buy a new car every year or two,” Gwennap said. Indeed, “the cars are actually getting better faster than the PCs.”

It’s bad news for Intel, whose chief executive, Brian Krzanich, warned in June that most users now go for five or six years before thinking about a new PC. That’s why Intel is laying off 12,000 employees, 11 percent of its global workforce.

Clearly, Apple is onto something. Why invest millions in annual Mac updates, when few customers will benefit? For that matter, why offer price cuts on aging Macs, when customers keep buying? For quarter after quarter, Mac sales continued upward, bucking the yearslong slump in Windows PC sales.

But not lately. Mac sales have now declined for three quarters in a row, probably because many potential buyers are sick of being offered leftovers.

Michael Oh, founder of TSP, a Boston company that creates Mac-based computer systems for businesses, said that Apple needs to make some moves with the Mac, and fast. “If we get into the fall and Apple hasn’t done what amounts to a complete refresh,” Oh said, “I don’t know what the message is.”

Actually, the message is coming through loud and clear. On Wednesday, Bloomberg Technology reported that Apple will soon roll out a new batch of MacBook Pro laptops.

They’ll feature a slightly faster processor, a bit more storage, and other marginal improvements, like a keyboard that replaces the traditional row of function keys with a long, thin touchscreen.

Still, all these enhancements add up to nothing much.

Expect the same from the next iPhone, from new Android smartphones and Windows computers, and for all kinds of tablet computers. There’s been a great leveling off of innovation in digital hardware, and apart from a busted touchscreen or a crashed hard drive, it’s hard to see much point in buying the latest gadget.

So you might as well stick with same old, same old.

After all, that’s what you’ll get — even if you get something new.

Summary: Innovation is slowing dramatically, not only at the iPhone and Mac maker but across the consumer tech world.


This week's choice, between three truly remarkable sporting heroes, is as tough as it gets. Read on for a reminder o fthe magnitude of their achievements.

Briton powers past Raonic to earn second Wimbledon crown

Wimbledon 2016 was Murray’s 11th grand slam final, but his first without either Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic on the other side of the net. And for once he did not put his fans through the mangle, beating the Canadian Milos Raonic in straight sets to claim his second Wimbledon title – and third grand slam.

Telegraph Sport says: “Few would bet against Murray matching Fred Perry’s three [Wimbledon] singles title wins.”Paul Hayward

Team Sky’s leader climbs into history with third Tour de France title

Mark Cavendish’s four stage wins were magnificent but Froome’s third Tour de France victory has elevated him to a place among cycling’s pantheon of all- time greats. The French are also warming to him after he mounted several thrilling attacks, including that daredevil descent of the Col de Peyresourde in the central Pyrenees.

Telegraph Sport says: “His third yellow jersey must rank among Britain’s finest sporting achievements.” Tom Cary

Sweden’s first major champion prevails in Open thriller

“I know he’s not going to back down,” said Stenson. And the American Phil Mickelson did not, shooting 65 in the final round at Royal Troon. So in a magnificent final-day battle, the Swede went two better with a 63 to win his first major, posted the lowest major total (264) and equalled the lowest major par score (20 under).

Telegraph Sport says: “Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus [Turnberry, 1977] never quite elevated each other’s play as these two managed.” Oliver Brown

All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning a Samsung 32in Freeview HD TV is enter your details in the form below and vote for your Hero by 12midnight on Sunday 14 August. Good luck!

Summary: Choose between Andy Murray, Chris Froome and Henrik Stenson for your Sporting Hero of July and you could land yourself a Samsung HD TV in the prize draw


Meryl Streep is proof that you really can learn something new every day.

She's a two-time Emmy winner, five-time GRAMMY nominee, three-time Oscar winner -- and the current record holder for most Academy Award nominations -- and Tony Awards nominee. (Which is to say, she is just shy of EGOT-ing.) And at 67 years young, Streep just discovered the difference between Snapchat and sexting.

"Somebody told me that I Snapchatted, but I don't know how to Snapchat and I thought it was the thing that you do when you're sexting sort of and then you want it to be erased," she tells PrideSource. To be fair, that's pretty much what it is.

RELATED: Meryl Streep Once Feared Aging in Hollywood Would End Her Career: 'I Thought Each Movie Would Be My Last'

While discussing her status as a gay icon and not having enough "distance" to appreciate impressions of herself, Streep hilariously reveals her children -- musician Henry Wolfe, The Good Wife star Mamie, Mr. Robot actress Grace, and model Louisa Gummer -- imitate her "endlessly."

"I laugh, but I kind of don't like it," she says. "Especially when I answer the phone and they can tell that it's [me pretending to be], like, a Jamaican operator or something, because I sort of start talking in the accent of the person I'm talking to. Oh, they're merciless."

As far as her work is concerned, some of Streep's most famous roles have been playing real-life people -- her latest being opera singer Florence Foster Jenkins -- but the actress doesn't ever want a biopic about her own life, noting, "I hope I fade into oblivion."

She is open to starring in a Devil Wears Prada sequel. At least, as she put it, "In theory."

"The heart sinks until you read the script. It's like, somebody said [they want a] Mamma Mia 2! and it's just, ack! I thought, 'Gram-Mamma Mia!'? Really? No," she explains with a laugh. "It would depend on the script...If somebody has the imagination and wit to apply and has an interesting story, yeah, sure."

Speaking of Devil Wears Prada, the modern classic recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary. Gird your loins and check out six life lessons we learned from the movie in the video below.

Summary: Meryl Streep is proof that you really can learn something new every day, including Snapchat and texting.


Santana “Corazón” (RCA Records) 2 Stars

If you believe press releases, Carlos Santana never recorded a Latin album before “Corazón,” the disc that comes out Tuesday.

That’s sorta correct and sorta not.

True, the legendary guitarist of Mexican descent has never before issued a record entirely cut with singers and musicians marketed as Latin pop or rock stars. And his latest release does just that. It marries Santana’s stinging leads to vocals from artists like Colombian rocker Juanes, bachata heartthrob Romeo Santos and smoky Mexican chanteuse Lila Downs.

But Santana's work, from the late 1960s to today, has always drawn on Latin genres — from salsa to cumbia to the vast range of folk styles from his father’s land. He also stands as the virtual inventor of what became known as “rock en español,” the catch-all that morphed into the broader sales term Latin alternative music.

The tag offers an appropriately loose definition for what you’ll hear on “Corazón.” It’s a grab bag of genre hybrids, from the reggae/Latin-rock collaboration with Ziggy Marley in “Iron Lion Zion” to the Argentinian ska-rock mix with Los Fabulosos Cadillacs in “Mal Bicho.”

One tete-a-tete directly undermines the album’s claim of being a first. It’s an update of Santana’s 1970 hit cover of Tito Puente’s salsa classic “Oye Como Va,” tarted up with Miami hip-hop filigrees by Pitbull. The Juanes-fronted cut (“La Flaca”) more covertly references the past. It mirrors the slink of Santana’s old hit “Smooth.”

Half the songs have English lyrics, but that’s only the project’s most obvious compromise. Like most star collaborations, this one shoehorns in some ill-suited, name-brand guests — like Gloria Estefan and R&B’s Miguel. Santana’s glistening leads compete with, rather than complement, these artists. Some tracks feel as awkward as Match.com first dates.

A few tracks do click. The best moments include the melding of Downs and Spanish flamenco singer Niña Pastori. Or the jazz foray with Santana’s old pal Wayne Shorter.

But even the best cuts tip off a lost opportunity. Latin alternative music features so many artists who would have paired better with Santana’s style — from Colombia’s Aterciopelados to Monterrey, Mexico’s, Kinky to the act that has most paralleled his pioneering work, Brazil’s Os Mutantes. Wrangling artists like those would have made this album a true first.

Damon Albarn “Everyday Robots” (XL Records) 4 Stars

He’s one of the most famous stars in modern Brit-rock. But how much do we really know about Damon Albarn?

Over the last 20 years, Albarn has led international hit bands from Blur to Gorillaz. He has also composed film soundtracks, written an opera and forged several collaborations with musicians from Africa.

Yet “Everyday Robots” marks the first time Albarn has released an album under his own name. The dizzying range of his previous output seemed specifically geared to defy any set definition of him as a person or an artist. In case you missed the point, Albarn’s best-selling act — Gorillaz — was a virtual band, visualized as cartoon characters rather than humans.

It’s no surprise, then, that Albarn chose to center his first solo work on notions of alienation. Key lyrics explore our modern-day reliance on machines. “Every day robots in control,” he murmurs in the title track. “We’re in the process of being sold.”

That’s hardly an original observation, but Albarn individualizes it with the convincing dislocation of his music. It’s a slow, dense, wholly internalized work, floating around Albarn’s wan and pasty vocals.

His voice is one of the few clear sounds. It’s surrounded by numb, compressed or highly manipulated sound, creating music at once airy and tactile.

The percussion in “The Selfish Giant” hisses and snaps. In “Hollow Ponds,” it smacks and scrapes. The vaporous approach still manages to establish momentum.

To add to the disembodiment, spoken-word samples bleed into the mix. Three prominent ones come from an intellectual comic of the 1950s, Richard Buckley, aka Lord Buckley. His persona works well for this project, considering how he hid his true self. He was an American impersonating a Brit.

Albarn also makes generous use of his global influences, mixing in Asian tunings, African chorales, even some Caribbean music — all to unconventional effect.

The relationship between the music and Albarn’s voice deepens the album’s theme. It circles him from a distance, leaving him at the mix’s lonely core. Together, that makes “Everybody Robots” a kind of musical answer to Spike Jonze’s film “She,” minus the romance. It’s a fully realized portrait of a man in the age of technology, reaching out for his real self and coming up with air.

Summary: If you believe press releases, Carlos Santana never recorded a Latin album before “Corazón." That’s sorta correct and sorta not.


Duke guard Grayson Allen will return to school for his junior year.

The 6-foot-5 Allen, who had been a potential first-round pick in the NBA draft, opted to stick with a Duke squad many view as the favorite to win the 2017 NCAA tournament with many of the country’s top recruits, including forwards Harry Giles and Jayson Tatum, joining the Blue Devils next season.

Allen was a freshman on Duke’s 2014 title-winning squad, and...

Summary: Duke opened as the 11-2 favorite in futures wagering on the 2016-17 season, according to bookmaker William Hill.