Courtesy Chris Rennick; Nutrisystem/Ken Lee

After doing two tours in Iraq as a

, Chris Renick returned home and found himself piling on weight.

"In the Marine Corps, you're burning 10,000 calories a day running around with gear on, combat stress, things like that. It takes a toll on your body but it keeps you in shape," Renick, 34, tells PEOPLE.

"When I came out, I was overeating, dealing with PTSD," he continues. "It was a combination of stress from transitioning, trying to find a job, and leaving my brothers that I was lifelong loyal to, and not being on a set schedule [that caused the weight gain]."

Before he knew it, Renick had gone from 185 lbs. to 289 lbs.

"It was something I was ashamed of," he says. "I didn't want to take to pictures. I didn't want guys I was in the Marine Corps with to know that I was so overweight."

His weight started to interfere with his job as the veteran district representative for a Congressman, which required him to speak at events.

"An unsettling feeling was having to speak in public, and being out of breath after every couple of words; having to walk up the podium steps, and being out of breath by the time I got there going up five or six steps," says Renick. "Halfway through my speech, which would be four to five minutes, I would already be sweating."

But it wasn't until an alarming visit to his doctor that he realized he really needed to make a change.

"The most extreme moment was when I was speaking with my doctor in 2013, and she told me, 'You've got high blood pressure, you've got high cholesterol, and you weigh 289 lbs.' She said, 'You are obese,' " he recalls. "It was something I took very seriously. When she used the term 'obese,' it was something that triggered me."

Renick first tried extreme dieting, eating mostly salads and chicken, while trying to maintain a vigorous workout schedule.

"I guess it was my mentality from being in the military – I wanted to push myself to the extreme," he says. But he found living that way was not sustainable. "I got these mild to extreme crashes."

After trying several other diets to no avail, Renick decided to try

. At first, he was eating the meals for lunch, then breakfast and lunch, and by January 2014 he was on the plan full-time.

"I did the research and saw that I could actually eat this and my cholesterol was getting better, my blood pressure was getting better," he says. "It was keeping my energy levels consistent, and I wasn't overeating."

By the end of February 2015, he had lost 120 lbs.

"I'm a lighter weight than I was when I was in the Marine Corps," says Renick. "I'm also doing more pull-ups now than I did when I was in the Marine Corps. I thought I was in such good shape three years ago! To have

better than I ever did when I was in the Marine Corps is something to be proud of."

Now Renick goes on daily morning hikes, and finds that he still has tons of energy after – which he needs as a father of three.

"When my children want to play, not only do I have the energy to do my workout, I can also play with them for the rest of the day," he says. "And having three children takes a lot of energy!"

Summary: Chris Renick decided to lose weight after his doctor informed him that he was obese


Lamar Odom couldn't have gotten on a cross-country flight without Kanye West's help, which is why Lamar was determined to get on a flight to NYC ... TMZ has learned.

Sources close to Lamar tell us when he was in Cedars-Sinai hospital ... Kanye religiously showed up to visit and frequently played rough cuts of his new music for Lamar. He started remembering specific lyrics, which was one of the early signs LO's condition was improving.

We're told Lamar is well aware of the role 'Ye's music played in his comeback.

He told Khloe how important it was for him to be at Thursday's show in NYC ... to show Kanye how much he "loves and supports" him.

Guess we know who'll be singing along when the T.L.O.P. tracks start blaring in MSG.

Summary: Lamar Odom couldn't have gotten on a cross-country flight without Kanye West's help, which is why Lamar was determined to get on a flight to NYC ...…


One of the saddest metrics demonstrating Yahoo's basic irrelevance to digital life today is that only a tiny proportion of any of the rescue proposals swirling around the venerable (in Internet terms) company is devoted to fixing its core business. Precious little is devoted even to defining its core business.

Instead, the focus of the proposals offered by investors such as Starboard Value LP, Canyon Capital Advisors and SpringOwl Asset Management is financial engineering. They're concerned chiefly with whether to spin off either Yahoo's $31-billion stake in the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba or to keep the Alibaba holding and spin off the rest of the company, and with how to mitigate the tax bite from either option.

Caught in the middle is Yahoo's struggling CEO, Marissa Mayer. Actually, she's not caught in the middle so much as at risk of being permanently sidelined. Since her appointment in mid-July 2012, Mayer has failed to excite investors with even a glimmer of a turnaround in Yahoo as a business. Meanwhile, top executives are leaving at an alarming rate.

It's proper to note that Yahoo has been faltering for most of this century. The firm was a dominating force on the Internet during the dot-com boom, reaching its all-time high price, a split-adjusted $118.75, on Jan. 3, 2000. It crashed along with the rest of the dot-com economy, falling to $4.06 on Sept. 26, 2001. As I write, it's trading at $32.55, mostly as a proxy for Alibaba stock.

In 2001, Yahoo appointed Terry Semel, a former Hollywood entertainment executive, as CEO. Semel struggled to map out a new path for a company whose business of curating the best of the Internet and providing search capabilities was being overtaken by technological and social changes. Semel offered $1 billion to take over a fledgling search company called Google, but was turned down by its founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

After Semel's resignation in 2007, Yahoo embarked on the sort of round-robin of top managers that seldom happens at a company that knows what it's about; there were four CEOs in five years, including Mayer.

They all had to grapple with the fundamental reality that Yahoo had become an also-ran in what had been its core businesses and not much of a factor on the new platforms that were emerging to replace traditional desktop computing (such as mobile Internet and social media). It tried to become a news and information hub, building up Yahoo Sports and Yahoo Finance. But these began to seem generic: No one needed to resort to Yahoo to find sports scores or stock prices or, for that matter, sports or financial analysis.

SpringOwl, in a 99-slide analytical presentation for the Yahoo board, put its finger on the elements of Yahoo's decline. What was once Yahoo's "stickiest" application, Yahoo Mail, has been overtaken by Google's Gmail; email itself is being outrun by messaging and messaging apps such as WhatsApp (now owned by Facebook); online time that once was devoted to Yahoo has moved to Facebook and Twitter; fewer users reach Yahoo services via its homepage, so the impact of its display advertising is diluted; and there are few signs that any of these factors are turning around.

Mayer's regime has been a peculiar combination of buzzy dynamism and nebulous strategy. The year after her arrival, she involved herself personally in the redesign of the firm's iconic logo, unveiling the underwhelming result with excessive pride. But did anyone really think that Yahoo's problem was that its logo was outdated?

Today Mayer expresses great optimism in what she labels her "MaVeNS" strategy, for "mobile, video, native and social" advertising. (Native ads are those that resemble the non-ad content on websites.) She identified these during a Dec. 9 conference call as "the fastest growing areas of digital advertising," and said they were "on track to deliver more the $1.5 billion of GAAP revenue in 2015 with annualized growth of nearly 50% year over year."

SpringOwl's Eric Jackson was unimpressed. Even if Yahoo was the third-largest generator of mobile revenue, he noted that its revenue from mobile as a share of total revenue -- 20% in the first half of this year -- is paltry compared with the 88% recorded by Twitter and 74% by Facebook. Mayer's strategy of building Yahoo by acquisition has left Wall Street cold.

At this point, Yahoo is treated by investors virtually as a holding company for Alibaba shares; the residual valuations of its core businesses and its acquisitions are relatively minimal. That's why the activist investors interesting themselves in Yahoo are preoccupied with how to unlock the value of Alibaba without incurring taxes.

Jackson's proposals for the rest of the company appear to be aimed a squeezing out whatever value is left and turning them over to someone else to operate: He recommends firing 9,000 of the company's approximately 12,000 workers and ending free food at headquarters to save money. Those steps certainly would cut costs, but as a vision for a future Yahoo they lack, well, content.

It may be unfair or premature to count out Yahoo quite yet. The company does still bring in $5 billion in revenue, though its real operating results are obscured by the impact of the Alibaba holding. Sometimes a business run on that scale can buy time to figure itself out. Even mighty Microsoft, for example, was all but written off as a factor in the technology space a few years ago, but its reputation has experienced a distinct revival under CEO Satya Nadella. (Of course, Microsoft is almost 20 times as big as Yahoo.)

It's worth remembering that Microsoft in 2008 offered to buy Yahoo for nearly $45 billion. Many in the tech business and on Wall Street thought that this would be a great combination for both companies, but after threatening a hostile takeover, Microsoft abandoned the plan. Some analysts now estimate the value of Yahoo's search and display ad businesses at less than $4 billion, as my colleagues Andrea Chang and Paresh Dave reported this month.

Where does Yahoo go from here? Even if Mayer is shown the door, the question of how to remake the company will remain for her successor, whoever that is. It's hard to imagine an Internet without a space for Yahoo, but that may be what destiny holds in store.

Keep up to date with Michael Hiltzik. Follow @hiltzikm on Twitter, see our Facebook page, or email michael.hiltzik@latimes.com


The action begins right where Chicago Fire "Nobody Touches Anything" left off, with Detectives Lindsay and Halstead en route to New York City after finding pornographic images in the house of a fire victim, Andrew Lewellen...

In NYC, Benson finds a link between the images found in the fire and a known video ring that's been sex trafficking children for over a decade. The pedophilia club is still active and has updated to live streaming child abuse. The plan is to find Teddy to get more information, but he was last seen as a child.

At the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the team watches a video from the Chess & Checkers club of a boy handcuffed to a bed with an off-camera man telling club members they can call in special requests for what to do to Henry. The video is located on the deep web and is basically untraceable.

Fin finds a mug shot that matches age-progressed photos of Teddy of a kid named Ted arrested five years back for solicitation. The last place he was seen was at a youth center. When Fin and Amaro speak with the center's director, she leads them to Jocelyn Hale, a girl Teddy was friends with. Rollins and Halstead track her down at her high school; she's a success story and has left the life of prostitution behind. She hasn't seen Teddy in years but last she heard he was still working the piers as a prostitute.

At the piers, Rollins and Amaro encounter a man dressed in club clothes and makeup. He doesn't have an ID, but he could be Teddy... with a lot of mileage. They bring him back to the station and Lindsay recognizes him as her brother. He's angry with her and doesn't want to talk - he just wants to go back to the pier. He can't, though - they've got him for possession. Lindsay is wracked with guilt over not hunting for her brother when he first disappeared, but Benson reminds her she was only 15 years old - what was she supposed to do?

Benson talks with Teddy and explains that the same people who did terrible things to him when he was 13 are doing the same things to other kids right now and she needs his help finding them. He refuses to talk, and when she mentions Jocelyn, he totally shuts down. So Rollins and Amaro revisit Jocelyn to try to get more info. When they tell her that he was a victim of a sex trafficking ring 10 years ago, she freaks out and runs off. They didn't just know each other from the streets - she was also a victim of the Chess & Checkers club. After going through footage of Jocelyn, the detectives realize one of the guys who raped her was none other than a 17-year-old Teddy.

Teddy admits to SVU that he was the one in the video. But he also says it was his idea - he knew they would send in someone older and rougher if he didn't have sex with Jocelyn. She was his friend and he was trying to protect her. After that, they turned him out on his own because he aged out, which is how he ended up on the street. He doesn't remember much about where he was held and who held him, but he does recall one middle-aged white guy who everyone was scared of. He said the way they got to him in the first place was when he went to the youth center for the first time. George, the security guard, told him there was a way out...

The youth center director confirms that George has been working with the center for years and befriends the kids. He was especially close with a boy who he claimed ran away a week ago - Henry. Benson, Halstead and Lindsay chase him down, but during the chase, Lindsay collides with a biker and ends up in the hospital with a concussion. When she wakes up, Voight is there to send her back to Chicago. He'll take it from here.

Sergeant Voight meets with Benson to get caught up. They have only a few hours before the Chess & Checkers live show starts with Henry as its unwilling star. Amaro and Rollins are in the box interrogating George when Voight barges in to do things his way. He isn't exactly a "play nice" kind of guy and gets physical with George until Benson pulls him out and puts him in his place. George finally admits he was paid to send "young actors" to a guy in a grey SUV. He doesn’t know who he is.

Later, Voight and Teddy come face to face and Voight apologizes for not taking better care of him. But there's no time to reminisce - they need to find the room Henry is being held in. Teddy is a dead end, and Jocelyn doesn't want to relive her abuse, so Voight suggests going undercover to guilt Jocelyn into talking. Benson and Voight pose as Henry's parents and beg Jocelyn to help the investigation. She reluctantly agrees.

When Jocelyn and Teddy are reunited at the station, the memories start flooding back. Jocelyn recognizes the room Henry is being held in, and remembers driving over a long bridge to get there - likely in Staten Island. She recognizes the name of the live stream host as Bob and Teddy recalls his last name as Clinton. The team searches for Bob Clintons in Staten Island with grey SUVs as the live stream countdown ticks down...

Rollins has a lead! She sends Benson and Voight to follow up on it while she and Halstead watch the live stream as Henry is prepped for the show. Suddenly, Voight bursts in. The show is over.

Fin, Amaro, Benson and Voight bring in the four men running the live stream. But just when they think it's over, Rollins finds a new live stream scheduled to start tomorrow. The club is still in business - from another location. Voight and Benson interrogate Clinton, trying to find his boss, the snakehead. Clinton knows things, but refuses to help without full immunity. SVU is going to think about it, but until then, Clinton's heading to the Tombs.

The next morning, while waiting for the DA to discuss making a deal with Clinton, Benson gets a call. Clinton was killed while in protective custody in the Tombs by an inmate named Lester Davis. Lester's girlfriend made a call to him early in the morning and an hour later, Clinton was shivved. The night before, she got a call and then was wired money. Someone paid for her boyfriend to make sure Clinton couldn't talk. The call came from a throwaway cell, but they do know it was purchased in Chicago. Just then, Voight gets a call from Lindsay. Andrew Lewellen and the cop guarding him were both shot to death twenty minutes earlier.

The snakehead is in Chicago, For the final installment of the three-part story, click here

Summary: In Part 2 of the Crossover Event, SVU hunts for a child pornographer.


When tickets go on sale for a hot show, you can usually forget about buying one. That’s because bots, which can snap up hundreds of prime seats in mere minutes, will beat you to them. Ordinary chumps are left to pay huge mark-ups on the resale market.

How bad is the bot problem? When U2 went on sale in late 2014, one bot slinger bought 1,012 tickets in one minute for a show at Madison Square Garden, and teamed up with another to buy 15,000 of them across North America. A similar thing occurred in the case of Beyoncé, One Direction, and even Pope Francis.

The good news is authorities may finally be putting a stop to this. On Wednesday, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced that six ticket selling outfits, including TicketToad.com and Just In Time Tickets, will have to pay $2.7 million in settlements and call off the bot operations. His office also told Fortune by phone that the public can expect further enforcement action in the near future.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

While this week’s news will primarily benefit consumers in New York, it may become a template for similar actions elsewhere. It also sheds further light on the sophisticated bot-buying schemes that have come to replace old-fashioned street scalpers.

The way these schemes work is described in a report published by Schneiderman’s office in January. It’s a four-part process that goes like this:

These Are the Baseball Stadiums With the Cheapest Tickets

This process allows those operating the bots to amass hundreds of choice tickets and then resell them on platforms like StubHub. As the attorney general’s report explains, the markups average 49% above face value, but for hot acts like Beyoncé or the Stanley Cup Finals, they can be more than 1000%.

The companies named in the Wednesday announcement, first reported by the New York Times, violated the law by using illegal bot software and by conducting reselling operations without a license.

According to Schneiderman’s office, ticket resale sites can violate the law either by using bots themselves, or by colluding with bot buyers to resell the tickets. A staff member there did not specify which companies may be targeted next, only stating that a further announcement will come soon.

StubHub Is eBay’s New PayPal

It’s worth noting the problem of ticket gouging is nothing new.

“The greatest evil that theatergoers in this city have to contend with is the ticket speculator,” said a 1901 New York official cited in the attorney general’s report. “They are practically highwaymen and hold up everybody that goes to a place of amusement.”

Summary: A new twist on an old rip-off.


Film critic Roger Ebert famously claimed to have entered nearly every New Yorker cartoon caption contest since its inception before he finally came up with one that passed muster.

He may have had better luck just repeatedly trying out this caption, discovered by New York-based designer and apparent cartoon genius Frank Chimero. It seems to work for every cartoon in these hyperconnected times of ours.

Chimero’s isn’t the first universal caption—as pointed out by the Atlantic, there are two blogs dedicated to applying two other universal captions to every cartoon: “What a misunderstanding,” and “Christ, what an a**hole.”

Chimero has officially entered his caption in the New Yorker‘s caption contest this week.

Summary: “What a misunderstanding” has been supplanted by the caption for our tech-obsessed times


Look at the video above, and watch it to the end.

In a certain part of the universe, all the stars seem to have disappeared into a black void.

The new imagery was captured by the European Southern Observatory (Eso) from the La Silla Observatory in Chile.

The black void it turns out, is actually a star nursery, a huge cloud of gas and stardust in which new stars are forming from the remnants of previously dead ones, giants that died as exploding supernovae.

The cloud is so dense it completely blocks out any light emanating from the stars behind, giving the appearance of being empty space.

This area is some 700 light-years away in a constellation named Serpens in the Northern hemisphere, first classified by Greek astronomer Ptolemy almost 2000 years ago.

It's like watching a human just hours after being born, it's just a baby

The clouds pictured have their own name too, LDN 483 (Lynds Dark Nebula) and this dark nebula is a perfect location for the birth of these baby stars.

These forming stars are between several hundred thousand to a few million years old, explains Fernando Comeron, Eso's Chile representative.

This is "basically nothing" when considering the full length of a star's life, he says. "It's like watching a human just hours after being born, it's just a baby."

That they are more than just black voids, he adds, is verified when looking at the infrared wavelengths observed through the obscuring dust. "In the vast majority of such clouds, one finds star formation at work."

To put this in context, stars are known to live for hundreds of millions or even several billion years, indeed our own sun is already 4.6bn years-old.

And it is only in the last few decades that advances in technology have enabled researchers to probe inside such clouds. By doing so they can answer key questions about how the Universe has changed since its formation.

For one, stars were not yet present shortly after its formation, something the Plank satellite has recently confirmed in astonishing detail.

The early Universe was thererfore a very different place than it is today, says Andrew Pontzen of University College London, UK.

Key questions remain for cosmologists such as Pontzen: how did all these stars form, how did our Universe become the one we know today where we have clumps of galaxies with hundreds of billions of stars in them?

We can't quite answer these questions but that's why it's so important to study the stars being born nearby, he says.

It will still take many millions of years before the young stars in this particular part of cloud become bright enough to shine through.

Follow Melissa Hogenboom and BBC Earth on twitter.

Video courtesy of Eso. Music: movetwo

Summary: In new mesmerising images captured by the European Southern Observatory, some stars have gone missing. Where did they go?


Raucous crowds of protesters took to the streets late Thursday in California as Donald Trump brought his Republican presidential campaign to conservative Orange County after sweeping the Northeast GOP primaries.

Dozens of protesters were mostly peaceful as Trump gave his speech inside the Pacific Amphitheater. After the event, however, the demonstration grew rowdy and spilled into the streets.

At least four people were arrested and one Trump supporter had his face bloodied in a scuffle as he tried to drive out of the arena. One man jumped on a police car, leaving its front and rear windows smashed and the top dented in and other protests sprayed graffiti on a police car and the venue’s marquee.

Dozens of cars—including those of Trump supporters trying to leave— were stuck in the street as several hundred demonstrators blocked the road, waved Mexican flags and posed for selfies. Police in riot gear and on horseback pushed the crowd back and away from the venue. There were no major injuries and police did not use any force. The crowd began dispersing about three hours after the speech ended.

Earlier in the evening, a half-dozen anti-Trump protesters taunted those waiting to get into the venue. Trump supporters surrounded one man who waved a Mexican flag and shouted “Build that wall! Build that wall!”—a reference to Trump’s call to create a barrier between the United States and Mexico to stop illegal border crossings.

At one point, seven women wearing no shirts and Bernie Sanders stickers over their breasts entered the square outside the amphitheater. They said they were protesting Trump’s lack of engagement on issues of gender equality and women’s rights.

“I feel like he wants to make America great again, but certainly not for women, for the LBGTQ community or for the lower class,” said one of the women, Tiernan Hebron. “He has, like, done nothing to help with gender equality or women’s rights or reproductive rights or anything.”

Trump has drawn large crowds across the country as he has campaigned for the White House and some of his events have been marred by incidents both inside and outside these venues.

Earlier this week, a Trump rally in nearby Anaheim, California turned contentious when his supporters and counter protestors clashed, leaving several people struck by pepper spray. Trump was not present.

Trump has drawn large crowds to most of his campaign events, and Thursday was no exception. The Pacific Amphitheatre was filled to its capacity of about 18,000 and many hundreds more were turned away.

Ly Kou, 47, of Ontario, said she likes Trump because he has vowed to put the country first.

“It’s obvious that America loves Trump,” said Kou, who is from Laos, as she pointed at the waiting throng. “This thing about him being racist? Look around the crowd.”

Trump was traveling from the rally site to the state’s Republican convention in Burlington in the San Francisco Bay area.

Summary: Things got ugly.


Imagine you've made it to the final Tribal Council on

. It's time to determine the winner, and host Jeff Probst keeps pulling slips bearing your name. Finally, he announces that you are the champion. Congratulations, you just won... $580,000!

Wait a minute, Jeff. Hang on. Isn't that prize short a few hundred thousand? I ate rancid sheep guts. I passed out from exhaustion. I earned my million bucks.

winner, Richard Hatch, discovered through

, even if you win a prize on television, Uncle Sam counts it as taxable income. How much you're taxed depends on your income and the state you live in (because if your state levies income taxes, it will want its bite, too). However, it's safe to say that you'll lose nearly half to the taxman. If you want to survive on

winnings for 20 years, you'll have to budget less than $30,000 a year after taxes.For shows with $500,000 prizes, such as

, the tax bracket is lower so the scale slips, but you still only come away with about $375,000. (CBS reps for

Contestants can't claim ignorance. The tax information is in the fine print of the contract they sign when they first appear on the show. At one of Hatch's trials,

producer, Mark Burnett, got on the stand and confirmed that when contestants sign their contracts, they agree to pay taxes on their winnings. Subsequently, Hatch went to jail.

In 2007, eagle-eyed fans at the TV news site

freeze-framed the payout terms of NBC's

and discovered the prize, repeated on television as a million-dollar award, actually came with plenty of strings attached. One of which was that the contestant could choose to receive the prize in the form of a financial annuity paid out over forty years, or they could choose to receive the present cash value of that annuity.

An annuity is designed to pay over time and isn't worth as much if you cash out early.

accountant calculated that if a winner took the prize annually, it would pay about $25,000 for 40 years, but if he wanted his winnings in a lump sum, it would only yield $450,426, or about $375,000 after taxes. That's about one-third of the promised million bucks. In fact, it's close to what you'd get if you won a $500,000 prize as a one-time payment.

According to a representative at

, contestants are told the following: "Unless forfeited, all winnings are considered taxable income and will be reported to the IRS. You will receive a "1099" in whichever year you actually receive your cash. You will receive a "1099" for both your cash and prize(s) at the same time, regardless of when you take receipt of cash."

So if you get a vacation that's valued at $10,000, you have to pay tax as if you got a check for $10,000.

The issue is compounded by the fact that many prizes' value are named at best-case rates. Lots of times, the hotel packages named on the big shows can be purchased online or through a travel agent for much less than the price named on TV. Vehicles, too, are usually listed with their sticker price, and not for their actual market value. Winning a car and being required to pay $7,000 in taxes is still much better than buying one yourself for $27,000, but highest-case pricing increases the tax burden.

You also have state taxes to contend with. Most game shows are shot in California, which means California tax rules apply. For

, like its corporate cousin

, the rule is that California state taxes have to be deducted from a non-resident's winnings before the check gets mailed.

Although it would be considerate for shows to pay for the tax costs associated with the prizes -- the rare "after tax" payout -- it's not in their financial interests to do so. Because of the way the hotel package ends up as a prize -- it's sometimes given to the show in exchange for promotion -- the dollar value is inflated to give both the show and the donor the sheen of maximum value.

Viewers should also listen carefully for the terms of the gift. In 2005, when the Bransen Family won a leg on the dreadful "family edition" of

, host Phil Keoghan said they had won "free gas for life" at BP stations. He never said "unlimited," and that was important, because in fact the prize awarded

. Even though that adds up to some $240,000, in fact, it only gave "some" free gas for life. The words said on the broadcast were accurate, but the impression was different.

A few shows pay out their jackpot so rarely that they don't even keep the prize money in the bank. No show will go on record to admit it, but common knowledge in the industry holds that some shows with extravagant grand prizes contract with specialized insurance policies which pay out only in the rare event that their biggest prize is awarded to a contestant.

On shows where prizes are doled out as a matter of course, the prizes are usually funded either through promotion or through part of the show's standard operating budget. Regardless of how the prize got to you, though, it must be claimed on your tax forms.

Remember when Oprah Winfrey gave away 276 Pontiac G-Six cars on the season premiere of her 2004-05 season? That hyperbolic stunt gave comedians a new Oprah punchline ("You get a car! And you get a car!"), but it gave her lucky beneficiaries, most of whom were picked to be audience members because Winfrey thought they "deserved" a car, a tax headache.

The Pontiac's sticker price of $28,500 had to be claimed as income. If the person who got the car was in a high tax bracket, they faced a bill of as high as $7,000. So Oprah's supposedly free car in fact

. (Hatch, too, was nailed by the IRS for failing to

car he won as part of his "Survivor" haul, although in that case it was explicitly a prize.)

When the press caught on to the loophole, Oprah's Harpo Productions told audience members that if they didn't want to pay the tax, they could either sell it for whatever they could and pay the tax with the profits or just decline to accept the car.

A representative at the ABC daytime show

confirms that audience members typically sign a paper acknowledging they will be responsible "for any federal, state or local income taxes due on the gift." The law also requires that if the goodies are worth more than $600, each audience member is issued a Form 1099 -- and to make sure they can't get out of paying, the gift is reported to Uncle Sam. If it's worth less than $600, they're on the honor system.

states that if you get something as a prize or an award, you have to consider it part of your gross income. You might be able to get out of it if you're part of a charity or if you can prove you didn't do anything to earn the award, but the IRS thinks that even asking for tickets to a broadcast is enough to

, which in turns qualifies it as part of your gross income. To the IRS, it doesn't matter if Ellen DeGeneres hid a laptop under your seat or if you won it answering questions: You owe.

Summary: Imagine you've made it to the final Tribal Council on Survivor. It's time to determine the winner, and host Jeff Probst keeps pulling slips bearing your name. Finally, he announce


This weekend, actor Zac Efron was for some reason hanging out in the notoriously dangerous Skid Row area of Los Angeles and ended up getting socked in the mouth after an altercation with a group of homeless people.

Police say they saw Efron and his bodyguard “in a full-blown melee with at least 3 other people,” according to TMZ. Apparently his car had run out of gas and while waiting for a tow truck, he threw a bottle out the window and it smashed on the ground near “a group of transients.” They apparently attacked Efron and his bodyguard, and the actor ended up getting punched hard in the mouth.

Law enforcement officials told TMZ that nobody was arrested because they viewed it as “mutual combat.”

Summary: Guess he wasn't "The Lucky One" in this fight


Chances are you're guilty of one of these bad habits.

to keep your highlights rich; you use heat protectant before powering up a straightener; and you've even stopped washing your hair daily to avoid drying and breakage. You've done everything to ensure the health and appearance of your strands. Right? Unfortunately, there are a number of

that could still harm your hair. The damage might not be obvious at first, but these eight saboteurs are secretly destroying your locks.

Although your first instinct post-shampoo might be to run a brush through your wet strands, you'd be wise not to. "When hair is wet, it loses elasticity—its ability to stretch and bounce back into place," explains

Professional Strength Specialist, J.B. Shelton. She recommends using a

and a detangling spray for smooth, break-free brushing. Because hair is most vulnerable when wet, Theresa Adams, Master Stylist at

also advises against pulling hair back too tightly when wet. "Clients have come in with ponytail line of breakage in their hair," she warns.

Believe it or not, the temperature in which you wash your hair matters. "Shampooing and conditioning your hair in super hot water can leave your hair cuticle open and exposed to the elements," says Sarah Potempa, celebrity hairstylist and inventor of the

. Do a final rinse with cool water to close the cuticle and protect hair from damage and breakage.

We're all about time-saving hacks, but using 2-in-1 shampoo and conditioners is actually a haircare no-no. According to Shelton, shampoo and conditioner hybrids are great for occasional use—especially if you have curly or coarse hair—but using them exclusively may cause hair loss due to a lack of dirt and oil removal. "When your scalp has a build up of residue, it prevents the hair strand from pushing through the scalp and growing to fruition," she says. "When hair is in its 'baby stage,' it is very weak and vulnerable, which makes detoxification of the scalp critical for hair growth."

If you've ever wondered whether the

or flatiron was actually worth the price tag, it turns out it just might be. According to Adams, quality hair tools maintain heat better, so you end up using the tool for less time and receive an equal distribution of heat throughout each strand. This means no more going over the same section over and over and practically watching your hair fry. The less time heat is touching your hair, the better.

Although many of us simply ignore the attachments that come with a dryer, remember: They're there for a reason. "Blow-drying your hair without the nozzle will leave your hair frizzy and open to damage," says Potempa. Position the nozzle parallel to each section to help close the cuticle. If you have curly hair, reach for the diffuser attachment to cut down on styling time and maintain the hair's natural coil. And as always, use a heat protector like

, which defends hair against heat and friction.

Just as SPF is crucial for proper skincare, sunblock is essential for strong, healthy hair. Sun protection reduces the risk of fading color and keeps hair from drying out, says PHYTO National Educator, Christyn Nawrot. For daily use, select an invisible sunscreen spray that provides weightless and greaseless protection. She recommends

We know what you're thinking, "I didn't even know that was a thing." A dirty vent is actually a disaster waiting to happen. "When the vent is clogged with dust and hair, the air circulation is depleted," explains Shelton. Not only will this fail to effectively blow-dry your hair, in some cases, the clogged tool may actually damage hair strands and cause breakage. In worst cases the dryer could snap, pop, and burn the hair (yikes)!

Finding the correct brush for your hair type is key, says Nawrot. When hair is wet, reach for a wet brush or wide-tooth carbon comb, which reduces static electricity and holds up to repeated use. For fine hair, Nawrot suggests using a 100 percent boar hair brush, which gently stimulates the scalp, assists with healthy blood circulation, and aids in the distribution of the scalp's natural sebum. "Boar bristles are porous, just like our own hair," says Nawrot. "The brushing action helps move the oil down the hair shaft while closing the cuticle for a brilliant, lasting shine." Sebaceous oil is hair's natural protection and is the best thing to prevent breakage, especially if hair is shoulder length or longer. Lastly for coarse, thick hair, Nawrot suggests using a combination boar and nylon tool or a synthetic fiber brush to allow for detangling and styling.

Summary: Unfortunately, there are a number of hidden troublemakers and daily habits that could still harm your hair.


Yahoo is reportedly giving everyone another week to consider buying up the company.

The deadline for preliminary bids on the Internet search and media giant may be extended from April 11 to April 18, Re/code first reported on Friday. (Yahoo declined Fortune’s request for comment on the rumored extension.)

The Internet giant has struggled to grow in recent years and is now weighing its potential offers.

Verizon vz , widely thought to be a front-runner for acquiring Yahoo yhoo , is now considering picking up both Yahoo Inc.’s web business and Yahoo Japan Corp., Bloomberg reports.

Time Inc. time (Fortune’s publisher) and some private equity firms also are mulling a buy.

Google googl also has reportedly looked at nabbing Yahoo’s core web business, but as Re/code mentions, it’s probably not the most likely candidate for a final deal.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

Largely thought to be opting out of a potential Yahoo buy? AT&T , Comcast, and Microsoft, Bloomberg notes.

For more on Microsoft and Yahoo, watch:

If Yahoo sticks to its April bid deadline, the embattled company could close out on a final deal this summer.

And not everyone is discouraged about Yahoo’s luck cashing out in that sale: Some patent experts are arguing the firm’s patents alone could now be worth as much as $3 billion or 4 billion to a buyer, the New York Post reported Thursday. (Though it’s worth noting the Post didn’t make clear just how old are the 6,000 or so Yahoo patents, which were built for things like data mining and ad targeting.)

Summary: Deadline could move to April 18th


David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson will soon return to TV screens as Mulder and Scully, and from the looks of the first mysterious (and brief) teaser, it’s going to be as intriguing as ever.

The much-anticipated reboot of The X-Files will come to television on Jan. 24, 2016. Fox will run six new episodes of the show that delighted fans from 1993 to 2002. Missed it the first time around, or want to relive the original story lines? You can watch all nine seasons streaming on Netflix.

Read next: Watch the First Trailer for Netflix’s Drug-Cartel Drama Narcos

Listen to the most important stories of the day

Summary: Mulder and Scully are back


For many years, Paypal pypl was virtually the only game in town when it came to digital payments. But today the newly independent company, which joined the Fortune 500 for the first time this year, is in the fight of its life, as competitors ranging from tech giants like Apple aapl and Google goog to credit-card stalwarts Visa v and American Express axp battle each other for control of the “digital wallet.”

CEO Dan Schulman is trying a little bit of everything in his efforts to keep PayPal competitive. And immigrant workers in the U.S. may turn out to be one of his secret weapons, thanks to a PayPal subsidiary called Xoom.

Xoom is an app-based money-transfer service, designed to capture part of the $600 billion global market for remittances—money sent across borders, typically from a worker in one country to his or her family members in another. For decades, this business has been concentrated in storefront locations where lines are long and security problems can be a hurdle.

Last July, PayPal paid $890 million to buy Xoom, which moves such transactions out of the physical store and on to the mobile screen. Xoom’s app lets users transfer money to 53 countries, designating the recipient and specifying whether the payment should go to a bank account or involve a cash pickup or delivery. Senders must link transactions to a bank or credit card account, but it’s safer and cheaper than using a money-transfer office.

PayPal doesn’t break out Xoom’s finances separately. But in 2014, before PayPal bought the then-publicly traded company, Xoom saw revenue jump 30% to $159 million. Xoom CEO John Kunze has said that in 2014-2015 Xoom moved $7 billion, giving it much more room to grow.

Under PayPal, Xoom has launched the ability to send money to commercial accounts, allowing, say, someone in the U.S. to pay a relative’s utility bill in Mexico.

Just as important, Xoom lets PayPal plant a flag in yet another corner of the financial world—all part of its effort to make up for a “lost decade.”

For more about PayPal’s efforts to reinvent itself, read this feature in the Fortune 500 issue of Fortune magazine.

Summary: The Xoom app could help Paypal tap a huge market.


U THE MAN! Carson Huey-You is just 11 and taking calculus, physics, history and religion classes as a freshman at Texas Christian University. (AP)

He’s the littlest man on campus.

A brainy 11-year-old from Texas is now a college freshman — plotting a degree in quantum physics while boys his age play video games and ride bikes with friends.

Carson Huey-You told Texas Christian University’s Web site TCU360.com that his first week of college was “overwhelming but exciting and fun” and said he is “still trying to find his groove.”

Everywhere he goes on campus, he is accompanied by mom Claretta Huey-You, and at night he goes back to their Dallas-Fort Worth home.

Carson, who entered eighth grade at age 5, said there are some complications, like “trying to lift things.”

“Mom has to carry my backpack full of books about this thick,” Carson told local ABC affiliate WFAA, holding out his hands.

The youngster is not pledging frats and playing beer pong — although he jokes he’d like to play hoops for the TCU Horned Frogs.

Aiming to become a scientist, the kid has dived into a 14-hour, first-semester course load consisting of calculus, physics, history and religion.

He gained admission to TCU at age 10 with eye-popping academic numbers including a 4.0 high-school GPA and an SAT score of 1770.

Co-valedictorian of his senior class in Grapevine, Texas, Carson also speaks Mandarin Chinese and plays Beethoven on the piano.

The only hang-up was paperwork: TCU admissions dean Ray Brown said Carson couldn’t apply online because the college’s software essentially refused to believe he exists.

“He was completely off the grid when it came to even the most basic of things, like completing an application or completing a financial-aid form,” Brown told TCU360.

“Because of his date of birth, those forms would not accept his application.”

Huey-You has been a prodigy since he was in diapers.

He was reading books before he was potty-trained and could do basic math by age 3.

Still, Carson has plenty of “normal” boyhood interests: sports, swimming, video games, “Star Wars” movies, and episodes of “MythBusters,” “when they blow stuff up,” he said.

He likes to wrestle with his younger brother, Cannan — who at age 7 is already studying at an eighth-grade level and might be the next family member to crack college before he’s allowed to leave the dinner table without his parent’s permission.

Their father, Andre Huey-You, a former pilot, told TCU360 he is “not pushing [Carson] but trying to hold onto his son, so he doesn’t get too far beyond him.”

Summary: U THE MAN! Carson Huey-You is just 11 and taking calculus, physics, history and religion classes as a freshman at Texas Christian University. (AP)He’s the littlest man on campus. A brainy 11-year-o…


When you book a business trip, did you ever consider staying with your mom in Saint Louis, volunteering to take connecting flights from New York to L.A., or doubling-up with a coworker in your Chicago hotel suite? Why should you suffer such inconveniences when your employer’s policies permit you to travel non-stop and book $300-a-night suites without your buddy from marketing snoring in the next bunk?

Indeed, most workers have little to gain from going above and beyond to save company cash when the employer’s rules give permission to spend it freely. And one of the rare areas where employees still enjoy plenty of latitude, and relish pushing their expense accounts to the max, is travel. Employers recognize that severely tightening travel rules, requiring red eye flights and double-occupancy, is an extremely unpopular method of curbing expenses. So wouldn’t it be great if, instead of launching yet another dreaded cost-cutting effort, companies could rally workers themselves to find big savings—by offering what amounts to a generous benefit?

A New York firm called Rocketrip has developed a novel solution. It offers a product that guides its clients to substantially lower their travel costs by sharing the savings with their employees. “The theme is that when employees spend company money, they’re not spending it wisely,” says Rocketrip founder and CEO Dan Ruch. “Under our system, they’re motivated to spend the company’s money the same way they spend their own money.”

Here’s how the Rocketrip model operates. When a client signs on, Rocketrip uses its software to calculate what a trip booked by an employee would reasonably cost under the company’s policy on hotels and air travel.

“We need to know if they’re permitted to stay in five star hotels, and who are their preferred carriers, so we can give the client a fair and reasonable prediction of what that trip would cost with no motivation to save. That benchmark is the budget to beat,” says Ruch.

Say an employee books a trip from Chicago to San Francisco; he or she is permitted to take a round trip, non-stop coach flight that costs $500, and can stay four nights at a four-star hotel for $175 a night, for another $700. The trip comes to a total of $1,200.

Under the Rocketrip plan, the employee has a strong incentive to beat that budget. He or she gets to keep a big chunk of every dollar, as much as half, that falls below the $1,200 normal expense, or benchmark. For example, if the road warrior in question takes a connecting route through Denver that reduces the air fare from $500 to $300 and stays with a cousin in San Francisco instead of booking a hotel, the savings would come to $900. And the employee can pocket as much as $450.

According to Ruch, his clients shave around 15% from their travel budgets after signing with Rocketrip. For every $1 million in spending, employees get around $150,000, and the company saves a matching amount. (Obviously, a significant minority of employees keep spending as usual.) And Rocketrip collects 2% of their clients’ travel billings using its system.

“We’re motivating employees to take connecting flights and flying coach instead of business class on international routes,” says Ruch. “And it’s not being dictated to them. You get an army of employees who are motivated to save money because there’s something in it for them.”

Rocketrip, which was founded in 2013, has raised $8 million from a group of investors including Canaan Partners, Genacast Ventures, CrunchFund, and Y-Combinator. And so far, many of its clients are adventurous medium-scale enterprises, among them Opower. The Arlington, Virginia-based firm designs and manages software systems for public utilities. “We have 605 employees, and over half are active users,” says Charlie Mayer, director of operations and investor relations at the company. In 2015, its first full year on Rocketrip, Opower garnered $500,000 in savings, divided about equally between the company and its budget-conscious troops. “When I first saw the idea, I thought, this is interesting but I can’t imagine that it actually works,” says Mayer. “Well, it works. It’s selling itself, it’s like people are traveling on their own dime.”

Savings are awarded as points that are loaded into employees’ Rocketrip accounts. Those points can be redeemed for gifts cards from various merchants, including Amazon and Best Buy. Instead of having employees pay taxes on this benefit, Opower pays it for them, reducing the number of points accordingly. Everyone from the engineers to the top brass find creative ways to cash in. “I saw that a young sales guy from Latin America was really racking up points,” says Mayer. “I said, ‘What are you doing?’ He says, ‘Staying with my mother when I go to Mexico City.’”

On a trip to San Francisco, Mayer and four other members of the top management team shunned a Starwood or Westin at $330 a night, and booked a house on Airbnb for $500, saving almost $6,000 for the week. In the city by the bay, another intrepid Opower employee stayed on a boat in one of San Francisco’s harbors, also found on Airbnb. It’s a return to the kind of frugal tricks you used to stretch your travel budget in college. Only this time, you can keep that bulging backpack at home.

Summary: New York-based Rocketrip offers software that guides clients to lower their travel costs by sharing the savings with their employees.


Dr. Drew has told a judge Janice Dickinson is a truth teller, and if she says Bill Cosby raped her then the court can take that to the bank.

Drew filed a declaration in Dickinson's defamation suit against Cosby, in which she claims he slandered her by claiming she lied about him drugging and raping her in 1982.

Drew says during the filming of 'Celebrity Rehab' in 2010, she told him she'd been raped by a "prominent celebrity" but was too scared to reveal his name. She's made statements to others before 2010, claiming the culprit was Cosby.

Drew says he found her to be an honest person. Indeed he says she's sometimes "overly honest ... blunt and unvarnished." He says, "she speaks the truth."

He goes on to explain her past addictions don't make her a liar for life ... "In my professional opinion, an addict may get clean and sober and become an honest and truthful person. I believe that has been the case for Ms. Dickinson."

Summary: Dr. Drew has told a judge Janice Dickinson is a truth teller, and if she says Bill Cosby raped her then the court can take that to the bank. Drew…


Michael S. Dukakis, helped by traditional Democrats and by widespread public skepticism about Senator Dan Quayle of Indiana, is closing in on Vice President Bush, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll.

Mr. Quayle, Mr. Bush's Vice-Presidential running mate, will try to allay those doubts tonight at 8:30 P.M., Eastern daylight time, in Omaha when he takes to the stage and the nation's television screens in a debate with his Democratic counterpart, Senator Lloyd Bentsen, whom the poll found to be a major asset for Mr. Dukakis. The 90-minute debate will be televised by the three major networks as well as CNN and C-Span.

Mr. Bush led with 45 percent to Mr. Dukakis's 43 percent in the poll of 1,034 registered voters, conducted Saturday through Monday and weighted to reflect respondents' likelihood of voting. In a Times/CBS News Poll taken 10 days earlier, Mr. Bush led Mr. Dukakis by 46 percent to 40 percent. Signs of Tightening Race

The small shift toward Mr. Dukakis was within the survey's margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points. But there were several other measures also indicating that the the race was tightening.

For example, when those who were undecided were asked which way they leaned, Mr. Bush's total grew to 48 percent and Mr. Dukakis had 46 percent. Only two-thirds of the probable electorate said their minds were made up; 34 percent favored Mr. Bush and 32 percent Mr. Dukakis. Both of those sets of figures were narrower than they were in the Sept. 21-23 poll.

Since the Presidential debate on Sept. 25, Mr. Dukakis has solidified his support within the Democratic Party base. He scored his greatest gains over the last several weeks among blacks, among voters earning from $12,500 to $25,000 a year, and among those who call themselves liberals. Mr. Dukakis also gained ground among Democrats who voted for President Reagan in 1984, a key target group for both campaigns. Impact of the First Debate

The debate may have played a significant role in those changes. Voters were inclined to rate Mr. Dukakis the winner of his debate with Mr. Bush. In the latest poll, 35 percent said Mr. Dukakis ''did the best job - or won'' the debate; 28 percent said Mr. Bush had won. Immediately after the debate, several surveys, including a CBS News Poll and a Gallup Poll for Newsweek, showed the public about evenly divided on which candidate did best.

Besides measuring the effect of the last debate, the new poll showed how high tonight's stakes are for Mr. Quayle in his encounter with Mr. Bentsen.

When voters were asked how they would vote if they were casting ballots only for President and not for a Vice President as well, the survey found that Mr. Bush's two point lead over Mr. Dukakis became a five point lead. This suggested that voters' comparisons of Mr. Quayle with Mr. Bentsen were clearly hurting the Republican ticket. Mr. Bentsen was an easy winner when voters were asked if they would vote for him or Mr. Quayle if the election were only for a Vice President.

Among the minority of voters who said that their opinion of the Vice-Presidential candidates mattered ''a lot'' in deciding how they would vote for President, Mr. Dukakis led by 50 percent to 35 percent. Among the rest, - Mr. Bush led by 50 percent to 39 percent.

The dropoff for the Republican ticket among voters concerned about the Vice Presidency came not only because of the low esteem in which the electorate holds Mr. Quayle, but also because of Mr. Bentsen's relatively high standing among the voters, particularly among moderates and conservatives.

Although the survey was generally positive news for Mr. Dukakis, it also contained some disquieting signals for the Democratic nominee. The Bush campaign has clearly succeeded in severely tarnishing Mr. Dukakis's public image. More voters view Mr. Dukakis unfavorably (35 percent) than favorably (32 percent). That was the highest unfavorable rating yet recorded for Mr. Dukakis in a Times/CBS News Poll. Negative Ratings Peril

High unfavorable ratings are regarded by political professionals as dangerous, since they indicate that voters are disinclined to consider voting for the candidate they are rating negatively.

Mr. Bush still has a more positive image: 39 percent saw him favorably and 32 percent viewed him unfavorably.

These numbers help explain why the Dukakis campaign is mounting a fierce attack on Mr. Bush this week with a series of tough television commercials. ''They've got to go to war with Bush on TV,'' said Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas who is a strong supporter of Mr. Dukakis. ''Bush has called Dukakis everything but a mongrel dog in his television commercials and those commercials have to be effectively answered.''

As a result, the already negative tone of the 1988 contest is likely to get even harsher. Since both Mr. Bush and Mr. Dukakis are suffering from relatively high negative ratings, each man's only recourse may be to paint his adversary as even worse.

The Bush campaign has also enjoyed considerable success in its effort to label Mr. Dukakis ''a liberal.'' The poll found that 43 percent of the voters said Mr. Dukakis was a liberal, up from 36 percent last month and 27 percent last May. Only 41 percent in the new poll saw Mr. Dukakis as a moderate or a conservative, down from 48 percent last month.

The vast majority of voters describe themselves as moderate (45 percent) or conservative (34 percent). Only 15 percent call themselves liberals.

One striking shift, with no obvious explanation, was the virtual disappearance of the ''gender gap,'' the difference between the way men vote and the way women vote.

In the new survey, the choice among men was 46 percent for Mr. Bush and 43 percent for Mr. Dukakis. Among women, it was 45 percent for Mr. Bush and 43 percent for Mr. Dukakis. Before, men gave Mr. Bush a much larger advantage than women did.

The disappearance of the gender gap seems to have taken place in two stages. Mr. Bush began closing the gap after the Republican National Convention by gaining ground among women. Now Mr. Dukakis is helping to close the gap further by picking up new support from men. The A.C.L.U. Issue

Mr. Bush's assault on Mr. Dukakis's membership in the American Civil Liberties Union may be helping him in this regard. Although most voters do not know what the A.C.L.U. is, those who say they do have a more negative than positive view. Over all, 11 percent of voters said they had a favorable view of the A.C.L.U. and 19 percent had an unfavorable view. The rest did not know enough about the group to have an opinion or were undecided in their view.

The poll suggested that the election may be hardening along regional lines. Mr. Bush had a considerable lead over Mr. Dukakis in the South and the Vice President was also ahead in the West. Mr. Dukakis led in the Northeast, where he gained more ground than anywhere else in the country.

The Middle West is becoming the election's battleground - there, the poll showed the contest is virtually even. The candidates are campaigning intensely for the 69 electoral votes of the three big Midwestern states: Michigan, Illinois and Ohio.

The Middle West is the region where Mr. Bush's campaign has said that Mr. Quayle would help the Republican ticket. But the poll showed he is not doing so.

Nationwide, voters asked to pick between Mr. Bentsen and Mr. Quayle for the Vice Presidency preferred Mr. Bentsen by 48 percent to 29 percent. Mr. Bentsen led in every region, including the Middle West, where he was ahead of Mr. Quayle by 45 percent to 35 percent. Young People and Quayle

Mr. Bush has also said that Mr. Quayle would help the Republican ticket among younger voters. But the poll suggested that the Indiana Senator may be hurting Mr. Bush among young people even more than in the rest of the electorate.

Asked to choose between Mr. Bush and Mr. Dukakis separately, voters under the age of 30 gave Mr. Bush a healthy lead of 54 percent to 42 percent. But the Bush-Quayle ticket led the Dukakis-Bentsen ticket by a narrower margin, 49 percent to 43 percent.

The poll also called into question the 64-year-old Mr. Bush's theory that the 41-year-old Mr. Quayle would be seen by voters in their 30's and 40's as their champion.

This version of ''generational politics'' was rejected by the electorate as a whole - and especially by young people.

The survey asked: ''Do you think that because Dan Quayle is in his 40's, he can better represent people in this country under the age of 45, or can older leaders represent people under 45 just as well?''

Among voters 45 or older, 18 percent said Mr. Quayle could represent younger people better and 62 percent thought an older leader would do just as well.

Among voters younger than 45 - the group Mr. Bush was aiming at - the verdict was even more resounding: 17 percent said Mr. Quayle had a special ability to represent them and 74 percent said older leaders could do as good a job.

Graph of poll result between Bush & Dukakis (NYT)

Summary: LEAD: Michael S. Dukakis, helped by traditional Democrats and by widespread public skepticism about Senator Dan Quayle of Indiana, is closing in on Vice President Bush, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll.


Sorry, Internet: Chris Christie has gone on record to say that he was not wordlessly screaming during Donald Trump’s Super Tuesday press conference.

In a press conference of his own on Thursday afternoon, Christie addressed questions from reporters regarding his support for Trump and his future in New Jersey and perhaps beyond.

The New Jersey governor also addressed a joke that swept across social media after Christie appeared to stare glumly as Trump gave his victorious Super Tuesday press conference. In a widely shared Washington Post article, humorist Alexandra Petri wrote that Christie spent the presser “screaming wordlessly.” “His were the eyes of a man who has gazed into the abyss, and the abyss gazed back, and then he endorsed the abyss.”

On Thursday, Christie clarified: that’s just his listening face. “No, I wasn’t sitting up there thinking, ‘Oh, my God, what have I done?'” Christie said. “I don’t know what I was supposed to be doing. All these armchair psychiatrists should give it a break.”

Christie—who is being called to resign from his gubernatorial post by several New Jersey newspaper editorial boards—also said he plans to finish out his term and then retire to the private sector. Probably.

“I’m going to be considering, I suspect, a lot of different offers, both private sector and public sector, and I’ll pick the one I think is best for me and my family,” he told reporters.

Summary: After his pained-looking appearance beside Donald Trump


06/24/2016 AT 03:00 PM EDT

don't mind giving themselves a big pat on the back for a job well done.

The onscreen married couple sat down to chat with each other on

and former MTV News correspondent Suchin Pak discussing five newsworthy individuals you need to know that week – and they couldn't quite contain their excitement over hosting the upcoming BET Awards.

we're a really incredible bottle of champagne," said Ross. "On

it's like you take that bottle of champagne and you shake it up and you pop that cork!"

So clearly, modesty isn't really their thing.

"What did we learn from hosting last year?" asks Ross, 43. "Correct me if I'm wrong this was the best

ever!" responded Anderson, 45. "I'm just sayin'. 'Correct me if Iâm wrong.'"

"I'm not going to correct you!" agreed Ross.

air Sunday at 8 p.m. ET. Tune in to

on Saturdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC

Summary: "We're a really incredible bottle of champagne," says Ross of her and Anderson's comedic chemistry


Study: Global warming worsening watery dead zones

A woman sunbathes on the beach in Brighton on July 18, 2014, as parts of the country were expected to experience the hottest day of the year so far and the Met Office issued a heatwave alert for southern England and the Midlands. AFP PHOTO / CARL COURT (Photo credit should read CARL COURT/AFP/Getty Images)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA both agree that 2014 is the hottest year on record ever. Matt Sampson has the details.

A woman sunbathes in central London on July 18, 2014 as parts of the country were expected to experience the hottest day of the year so far and the Met Office issued a heatwave alert for southern England and the Midlands. AFP PHOTO/BEN STANSALL (Photo credit should read BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images)

People gather on the beach in Brighton on July 18, 2014, as parts of the country were expected to experience the hottest day of the year so far and the Met Office issued a heatwave alert for southern England and the Midlands. AFP PHOTO / CARL COURT (Photo credit should read CARL COURT/AFP/Getty Images)

Fishermen choose a picturesque spot to cast their lines from the rocks at Seal Beach, California, as the sun prepares to set on June 28, 2014. Summer in California this year is expected to be the hottest and driest on record as nearly one-third of the state experiences 'exceptional' drought levels, the highest percentage ever recorded by the Drought Monitor, whch began monitoring in 2000, according to reports last week from the National Climatic Data Center. AFP PHOTO/Frederic J. BROWN (Photo credit should read FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images)

A life guard keeps watch on the beach in Brighton on July 18, 2014, as parts of the country were expected to experience the hottest day of the year so far and the Met Office issued a heatwave alert for southern England and the Midlands. AFP PHOTO / CARL COURT (Photo credit should read CARL COURT/AFP/Getty Images)

A couple rest in the heat of the day in Sydney on January 6, 2015. Australia experienced its third-hottest year on record in 2014, paving the way for an early start to the bushfire season, scientists said on January 6 as hundreds of firefighters battled blazes in three states. AFP PHOTO / Peter PARKS (Photo credit should read PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images)

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - MAY 23: A general view of swimmers at Bondi Icebergs on May 23, 2014 in Sydney, Australia. Sydney is experiencing it's hottest May on record, already recording it's hottest week for this time of year in over 150 years. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - MAY 23: A general view of swimmers at Bronte Beach on May 23, 2014 in Sydney, Australia. Sydney is experiencing it's hottest May on record, already recording it's hottest week for this time of year in over 150 years. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - MAY 23: A general view of sunbathers at Bondi Beach on May 23, 2014 in Sydney, Australia. Sydney is experiencing it's hottest May on record, already recording it's hottest week for this time of year in over 150 years. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - MAY 23: A general view of Bronte Beach on May 23, 2014 in Sydney, Australia. Sydney is experiencing it's hottest May on record, already recording it's hottest week for this time of year in over 150 years. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - MAY 23: Children play in a pond on May 23, 2014 in Sydney, Australia. Sydney is experiencing it's hottest May on record, already recording it's hottest week for this time of year in over 150 years. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

A fisherman sleeps on his boat as children swim behind him in a river to beat the summer heat in Manila on May 26, 2014. The Philippines has been experiencing the hottest days of the year with temperatures of 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) recorded in parts of the city. AFP PHOTO / NOEL CELIS (Photo credit should read NOEL CELIS/AFP/Getty Images)

Sunspots (shown in white) vary across multi-year cycles, causing solar irradiance, which influences the Earth's climate, to also fluctuate.

Solar irradiance from sun spots (shown in white) was high at the turn of the century. It led climatologists to believe temperatures would keep rising.

High levels of irradiance from the sun spots (shown in white) continued through about 2001.

This chart shows dramatic spikes in solar irradiance across the 1980s and 1990s before leveling off for the previous 14 years.

The sun spots then all but vanished around the beginning of 2002 and have yet to return. Scientists believe that when they do, global warming will also resume.

This image provided by NASA shows a 'Blue Marble' image of the Earth taken from the The Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite or VIIRS instrument aboard NASA's most recently launched Earth-observing satellite - Suomi NPP. This composite image uses a number of swaths of the Earth's surface taken on Jan. 4, 2012. The NPP satellite was renamed 'Suomi NPP' on Jan. 24, 2012 to honor the late Verner E. Suomi of the University of Wisconsin. Suomi NPP is NASA's next Earth-observing research satellite. It is the first of a new generation of satellites that will observe many facets of our changing Earth. Suomi NPP is carrying five instruments on board. (AP Photo/NASA)

Volcanic eruptions, like this one August 13 at Mount Etna on the southern Italian island of Sicily near Catania, have also contributed to the slow down in global warming buy launching particulates into the air that further diluted the sun's rays.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Global warming is likely playing a bigger role than previously thought in dead zones in oceans, lakes and rivers around the world and it's only going to get worse, according to a new study.

Dead zones occur when fertilizer runoff clogs waterways with nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorous. That leads to an explosion of microbes that consumes oxygen and leaves the water depleted of oxygen, harming marine life.

Scientists have long known that warmer water increases this problem, but a new study Monday in the journal Global Change Biology by Smithsonian Institution researchers found about two dozen different ways - biologically, chemically and physically - that climate change worsens the oxygen depletion.

"We've underestimated the effect of climate change on dead zones," said study lead author Andrew Altieri, a researcher at the Smithsonian's tropical center in Panama.

The researchers looked at 476 dead zones worldwide- 264 in the United States. They found that standard computer climate models predict that, on average, the surface temperature around those dead zones will increase by about 4 degrees Fahrenheit (slightly more than 2 degrees Celsius) from the 1980s and 1990s to the end of this century.

The largest predicted warming is nearly 7 degrees (almost 4 degrees Celsius) where the St. Lawrence River dumps into the ocean in Canada. The most prominent U.S. dead zones, the Gulf of Mexico and the Chesapeake Bay, are projected to warm 4 degrees (2.3 degrees Celsius) and nearly 5 degrees (2.7 degrees Celsius) respectively.

Warmer water holds less oxygen, adding to the problem from runoff, said co-author Keryn Gedan, who is at both the Smithsonian and the University of Maryland. But warmer water also affects dead zones by keeping the water more separate, so that oxygen-poor deep water mixes less.

"It's like Italian dressing that you haven't shaken, where you have the oil and water separate," Altieri said.

When the water gets warmer, marine life's metabolism increases, making them require more oxygen just as the oxygen levels are already dropping. Other ways that climate change affects dead zones includes longer summers, ocean acidification and changing wind and current patterns, the study said.

Donald Boesch, a University of Maryland ecologist who wasn't part of the study and works at a different department than Gedan, said there is not enough evidence to say that climate change has already played such a big role in the spread of dead zones. But he said the study is probably right in warning that future warming will make the problem even worse.

Summary: %Slideshow-216448%  WASHINGTON (AP) -- Global warming is likely playing a bigger role than previously thought in dead zones in oceans, lakes and rivers around the world and it'


06/28/2016 AT 12:45 PM EDT

was in peak physical shape, she felt like she was in the wrong body.

to celebrate the 40th anniversary of her decathlon win at the 1976 Summer Olympic Games in Montreal, admitting that, even as fans admired the athlete's skills and sculpted body, Jenner says was "disgusted" by it and considered plastic surgery.

"I was big and thick and masculine," she says. "The rest of the world thought it was this Greek god kind of body. But I hated it. But it's what I was given, so I just tried to do the best I could with it."

Caitlyn Jenner on the cover of Sports Illustrated

's cover story that she used training for the decathlon as a diversion from her confusing feelings.

"Sports. It's not real life," she says. "You go out there, you work hard, you train your ass off, win the Games. I'm very proud of that part of my life. And it's not like I just want to throw it out. It's part of who I am."

"My life was distraction after distraction after distraction," she added. "Being a macho male was a way for me to try to convince myself that the woman living inside of me really isn't living inside me. Obviously, it didn't work."

star felt ready to transition before age 40, around 1989, but the timing wasn't right.

"It wasn't time in my life, and it wasn't time in society," she said. "The issue was totally misunderstood."

After publicly transitioning, Jenner says the past year have been the best 12 months of her life. However, she doesn't forget

"I loved Bruce," she said. "I still love him today. I like what he did and the way he set an example for hard work and dedication. I'm proud of that part of my life. But this woman was living inside me, all my life, and it reached the point where I had to let her live and put Bruce inside."

Summary: Jenner says in Sports Illustrated of her former life as Bruce Jenner: "I'm proud of that part of my life. But ... it reached the point where I had to let [Caitlyn] live and put Bruce inside"


Imagine you’re riding a subway and want a driver waiting for you when you step out of the station. Ride hailing service Uber says it has created a way to make that happen—and it wants a patent for the technology.

In a patent application published on Thursday, Uber describes sparing passengers the usual few minutes waiting at the curb for driver to pick them up. Passengers in transit who request a ride ahead of time would have their locations tracked so that a car could arrive at a designated meeting spot at just the right moment.

The system works by monitoring the customer’s device while on the move to predict an estimated arrival time, according to the patent filing. The system combines that data with the location of cars in the area to dispatch the nearest vehicle.

The potential scope of the patent is broad, according to a number of examples cited by Uber to explain why the system may be useful. These include situations where a user is taking public transit to meet an Uber car, or those where “a food truck service, a delivery service, an entertainment service, etc. [is] to be arranged between users and service providers.”

The crux of the claimed invention appears to lie in the way Uber blends different location data to choose an optimal meeting spot. The patent application includes diagrams like this one:

It’s unclear if Uber is currently using the technology described in the patent application, which dates from August 2014. Update: An Uber spokesperson declined to comment on the patent or its implications.

If the U.S. Patent Office decides to grant the patent application, as currently proposed, it could give Uber a strategic advantage over rivals since patents confer a 20 year monopoly. The company could conceivably wield the patent against competitors like Lyft in the ride-hailing market, or against companies that offer delivery service.

But the Patent Office may still reject the application if it finds Uber’s claimed invention is already known, or if it’s obvious. For now, Uber has applied for several patents, including one for booking travel, but it has yet to receive one.

It’s also unclear how patents will impact the burgeoning ride-sharing industry. On one hand, they could trigger the sort of litigation frenzy that took place between Apple AAPL and Samsung in the smartphone industry. But on the other, patents owned by Uber’s one-time rival Sidecar failed to save it from going out of business late last year.

Sidecar later sold its assets (including the patents) to GM GM .

Summary: Is this obvious or


WASHINGTON— WITH the help of 5 of her 12 children and a son-in-law, Maria Alfonsa Lopez braids rope in La Colonia Independencia, one of the western hill barrios of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. It is an occupation her family has pursued for generations.

Thanks to four loans totaling $400 from a three-year-old community group called Asepade, a Spanish acronym for investment adviser, she has broken the grip of the local moneylender. He had been charging her 10 percent a day to finance her stock of rope, which she twists into clotheslines, hammocks and lassos.

''The loans have helped me quite a lot, and I am now able to earn a profit,'' she said in a recent telephone conversation from Tegucigalpa.

She has used the profits to expand her business and to install a cement floor in the shack where she lives with her family in the dusty satellite community.

Mrs. Lopez is one of 2,500 individuals in the Tegucigalpa area who have received entrepreneurial loans from Asepade over the past three years.

Throughout the third world, from Bangladesh and Senegal to Tegucigalpa, such loans, from a variety of donors, have helped several million small entrepreneurs - those who sell flowers, mangoes and papayas, braid rope, sew dresses, catch fish and perform other small-scale activities that are at the core of developing economies.

The practice of microenterprise lending began in the early 1980's and grew slowly, but from the experience to date, most experts agree that it works.

Not only is there an excellent repayment record, but also a ''trickle up'' effect on the local economy. Profits from Mrs. Lopez's rope making, for example, meant an extra order for the local cement mixer who made her new floor. Prospering entrepreneurs may also hire additional help.

''IT generates a flow of money,'' said Wayne G. Broehl, professor of administration at the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth. ''And as you heighten the money economy, then you make new opportunities for other people, providing a real multiplier effect.''

A shortage of working capital is generally perceived as one of the biggest obstacles to third world development. ''The capitalist model depends on resources flowing easily to the opportunities,'' said Howard H. Stevenson, enterprise professor at the Harvard Business School. In developing countries, he added, ''what strikes me is how tightly controlled the resources are. It is impossible to pursue the opportunities.'' Microenterprise lending can break the logjam.

The local enterprises are not big enough to qualify for bank loans. To buy additional raw materials or a wider net to catch more fish, people who need cash must generally turn to local loan sharks who charge up to 20 percent a day in interest.

The ''trickle up'' programs, by contrast, usually charge interest rates of 2 to 4 percent a month, amounts comparable to commercial bank rates in the particular countries.

''Once there is a source of credit at commercial rates, costs drop, income rises and there is more money for tortillas or rope,'' said Stephen H. Gross, associate director for Latin American operations of Accion International, a nonprofit development organization. ''Suddenly you are increasing buying power of a large number of people and recyling money into the economy.''

Accion, which provides funds for Asepade, the community group that helped Mrs. Lopez, is among a score of organizations that are behind the entrepreneurial movement.

Their seed money comes from private and public benefactors, including multinational corporations, foundations, the Agency for International Development of the State Department, and multinational agencies such as the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the United Nations Development Program.

A few third world banks, like the Commercial and Savings Bank of Somalia and the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, practice micro-lending and make it profitable by keeping transaction costs low.

Boston-based Accion, an acronym for Americans for Community Cooperation in Other Nations, is financed by such organizations as the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Exxon, I.B.M. and the Agency for International Development.

Started during the Kennedy Administration, Accion also sends volunteers to work in Latin American slums.

ANALYZING its experience in 13 Latin American countries, Accion discovered that a loan of $30 can double a small merchant's family income in six months, according to William W. Burrus, the executive director. The group also found that every $1,100 lent to small enterprises generates one additional job.

The concept of helping cash-short entrepreneurs with small-scale loans appears to have originated in Bangladesh with an economics professor named Muhammad Yunus, who studied at Vanderbilt University and returned to teach at the University of Chittagong.

He founded the Grameen Bank in 1979 after arguing with conventional bankers that the 50 percent of Bangladeshis who are landless and the 80 percent who are illiterate could still be good credit risks.

Summary: LEAD: WITH the help of 5 of her 12 children and a son-in-law, Maria Alfonsa Lopez braids rope in La Colonia Independencia, one of the western hill barrios of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. It is an occupation her family has pursued for generations.


For the dad who loves golf — and the 19th hole, too — New England is home to some great public courses and clubs where the patriarch can play a round of golf and also enjoy a celebratory meal. Here are nine public links where the family can tee off and toast dad’s double eagle with a cocktail — or his double bogey with two cocktails. And for dads with little kiddos, there’s a mini golf course, too.

They’ve been playing golf at the Samoset Golf Course in Rockport, Maine, for more than a century (it was originally designed as a nine-hole course in 1902). The 18-hole championship golf course’s accolades include stunning ocean views from 14 holes (and seven ocean-side holes) and a formidable seawall. Lunch in the Clubhouse Grille — order the Lob Shot Roll, the club’s signature Rockport lobster roll. To book tee times call the Pro Shop at 207-594-1431; www.samosetresort.com

Located in Bar Harbor and established in 1888, Kebo is Maine’s oldest golf club, and the eighth oldest in the country. President Taft played this iconic 18-hole course (the 17th hole is named for Taft), as did professional golfer Sir Walter Hagen. Treat pop to a cocktail and lunch on the outdoor deck at the Links Pub — the signature Stacked Bacon Cheddar Burger and Kebo Kicker (Parrot Bay Coconut Rum, pineapple juice, and float of Dark Myers Rum) are club favorites. Call 207-288-3000 ext. 1 to reserve tee times. www.kebovalleyclub.com

The Thornton, N.H., Owl’s Nest has something to hoot about this summer — it will soon become the only Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course in New Hampshire and only the fourth in New England. (Most of the renovations to the course will begin this fall; minor renovations on bunkers and tee boxes will begin sooner.) On Father’s Day, play a round on the scenic 18-hole course, then hit the club’s Sunset Room and Tavern — for lunch, the menu features classic favorites like a lobster roll and Clubhouse Burger or, stick around for the sunset and treat dad to a filet mignon dinner. www.owlsnestresort.com

Dad (and the crew) can become a member for the day at this Plymouth golf club which boasts two 18-hole championship courses designed by Rees Jones and Nicklaus Design. There’s also that famous rock in Plymouth for the non-golfers in the clan to check out, as well as a spa at the Mirbeau Inn and Spa at Pinehills, located next door. And you’ll all want to join dad for brunch at The Bistro Wine & Bar — order the Green Eggs and Ham (prosciutto, pesto, aged balsamic, brioche, poached eggs). www.pinehillsgolf.com

Atkinson Resort & Country Club

What better way to celebrate a dad than to turn his special day into a weekend? We offer some great places where you can make that happen.

Play a round of golf at this 18-hole, par 72 golf course in Atkinson, N.H. — or get the family out on the casual nine-hole par 3 course. There’s also an impressive 10,000-square-foot training facility, and a Pro Shop where you can take advantage of the Father’s Day buy-two-get-one-free deal on any men’s (and women’s) apparel. Celebrate the day with the Father’s Day buffet lunch in the Legacy Ballroom (prime rib, baked haddock, corn on the cob, omelets, waffles). To reserve lunch, call 603-362-8700; www.atkinsonresort.com

Enjoy Father’s Day breakfast (eggs benny, waffles, omelets, bloodies) at the indoor-outdoor eatery off the ninth hole at family-friendly Waterville. The course was founded in 1898 by a doctor and minister who had returned to New Hampshire from a visit to Scotland — where they discovered golf in all its glory. The nine-hole family-friendly course has stunning views of the Mounts Tecumseh, Osceola, and Sandwich. To reserve a tee time, call 603-236-4805; www.watervillevalleygolf.com

This public course has been a Cape Cod fixture for 50 years. It’s a par 72 championship course ensconced in 170 acres of pine forest — the 12th hole is noted as one of the most difficult par fives. The Dune Dog’s Par & Grill has views of the 10th green and serves oysters that are locally grown by Bay Side Oyster Farm. Sit outside or, if that 12th hole destroyed dad’s score, take him downstairs to the Bunker Sports Bar and let him win a game of pool or darts. www.dennisgolf.com

Treat dad to a round of golf at the oldest golf course (1895) in the Green Mountain State. The Robert Trent Jones Sr. designed course at the Woodstock Inn & Resort in Woodstock, Vt., has views of the Kedron Valley from most greens and the par 70 course will challenge him with its sequence of fairways, sand traps, and water hazards. Dig into a lobster roll, cider-braised pork sandwich, or burger and a cold beer at The Fairway Grill — or opt for dinner at the resort’s award-winning Red Rooster restaurant. www.woodstockinn.com

The 18-hole championship course club at Mohegan Sun Golf Club in Baltic, Conn., is open for public play — and there’s also the Kids Quest/Cyber Quest at Mohegan Sun resort, a putt away from the course. This newly renovated golf club sports a redesigned golf shop, and dad can dig into the Montreal Ribeye and a cold brew at the club’s Pautipaug Pub. www.mohegansungolfclub.com

Arnold’s Lobster & Clam Bar

And then — there’s miniature golf, perfect for the family with little kids. There are a lot of mini golf courses on Cape Cod, but Arnold’s in Eastham is where you can play a round and then enjoy Arnold’s award-winning fried clams and lobster at a picnic table. Bonus: Dads play a free round of mini golf on Father’s Day. www.arnoldsrestaurant.com

Summary: For the dad who loves golf — and the 19th hole, too — New England is home to some great public golf courses and clubs where the patriarch can play a round of golf and also enjoy a celebratory meal.


Halle Berry has no idea what sparked David Justice's tirade ... but it appears she never said or even insinuated he attacked her.

Sources close to Halle tell TMZ the actress is upset that Justice put her on blast Tuesday, warning Olivier Martinez Halle would use her "Hollywood team" to destroy him.

Our Halle sources say the actress is adamant ... she never claimed Justice struck her during their relationship.

We did some checking and could not find anything attributed to Halle pointing the finger at David. Lots of people assumed she was talking about David when she said back in the '90s a former boyfriend struck her so hard on the side of the head she suffered hearing loss. Halle never ID'd the culprit and we're told she never will.

It looks like David had some change of heart, because he began deleting portions of his accusations on Twitter.

Summary: Halle Berry has no idea what sparked David Justice's tirade ...  but it appears she never said or even insinuated he attacked her. …


"The Bothell Hindu temple has been here for more than 20 years and we have never had any issues," worshipper Sriram Subramaian told local news site Komo News.

"I have no idea, I was surprised," Mr Sriram said.

The vandals also targeted Skyview Middle School on Sunday morning, just two blocks away from a Hindu temple.

• Swastika wrapping paper withdrawn from sale

They wrote "Muslims get out" in red paint on the school building.

The identity of the vandal or vandals is not yet known.

The swastika has been an important symbol for thousands of years among Hindus and Buddhists in India and other Asian countries, and was also used in Ancient Greece, and by the Celts.

• Giant Swastika found in Brazil swimming pool

Ireland's Book of Kells contains a Swastika shaped decoration and the symbol was also associated with the god Thor in Norse mythology.

Among different cultures, it variously represents life, sun, power, strength, and good luck.

The word itself comes from two Sanskrit phrases which together mean 'well-being'.

The symbol's association with the Nazi regime continues to haunt Germany where it is illegal to display or reproduce it. This post-war law got one council into trouble late last year when horrified locals tweeted photographs of a new pedestrian zone with a perfectly paved red-brick Swastika.

This paved Swastika had to be removed by authorities in Goslar, Germany

Paving stones aren't the only places where Swastikas can be found, see our gallery of other odd locations around the world that feature this symbol.

For more stories, like the Telegraph's Facebook page by clicking on the link below

Summary: Vandals in Bothell, Washington, paint Swastika – an ancient symbol of peace in   Hindu culture – on side of temple alongside racist message


Two members of Turkey's constitutional court have been arrested, private broadcaster NTV is reporting, as purges in the judiciary, military, civil service and education widen in the aftermath of a failed coup.

About 60,000 soldiers, police, judges, civil servants and teachers have been suspended, detained or are under investigation since Friday's attempted coup staged by a faction within the armed forces.

The two constitutional court members were among a group of 113 officials from the judiciary formally arrested on Wednesday, NTV said.

Formal charges were also brought against President Tayyip Erdogan's chief aide-de-camp, it said.

The failed putsch and the ensuing purges have seriously unsettled Turkey, a country of nearly 80 million which borders Syria and is a Western ally against Islamic State.

Summary: Two members of Turkey's constitutional court are reportedly among a group of 113 officials from the judiciary who have been arrested after the failed coup.


A US veteran of the war in Afghanistan who lost an arm and both his legs in an IED blast has been left with a totally immobile $75,000 (£45,000) prosthetic arm after thieves stole the iPod Touch which controls it.

Staff Sergeant Ben Eberle was on patrol in Tangi Valley in 2011 when he noticed a blue wire in the road. Suspecting it to be an IED he turned and ran, lifting his right arm to protect his face, and was immediately hit by a huge explosion.

"I was p***ed. I threw my blanket off and I wanted to just get up and run out the door, but I had to get my wheelchair," said 27-year-old Eberle.

Eberle’s expensive prosthetic arm, manufactured by Touch Bionics, comes with the iPod as part of the price as it uses a special app called i-limb to configure and partially control the device. Without it, the arm is largely useless.

A spokesperson from Touch Bionics said that it was “truly unfortunate” that the iPod had been stolen, and told the Telegraph that a new device would be sent to him free of charge as soon as possible.

The company clarified that some media reports claimed that the arm was now totally irreparable as it was inextricably linked with a single iPod. This is incorrect, and Eberle’s arm will be operation again once the replacement iPod arrives.

Summary: Thieves have left a veteran of the war in Afghanistan with a useless £45,000   prosthetic arm by stealing the iPod Touch which configures and controls the   device