Puerto Rico is experiencing an explosion of cases of the Zika virus, something U.S. health officials have feared for some time.

In a recent study, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that 5,582 people in Puerto Rico have tested positive for Zika, which is thought to be a gross underestimate since most people who get the virus don’t show symptoms. At least 670 of those people are pregnant women, and the agency believes that 50 pregnant women are infected with the virus every day.

As the New York Times reported, “tests on donated blood, the most reliable barometer of the epidemic’s spread, show that almost 2 percent of the donors were infected in the last 10 days.”

In Puerto Rico, positive tests of the virus have jumped from 14% in February to 64% in June, and 2% of the territory’s blood supply had tested positive for Zika.

Why is the territory being hit so hard? Here are three reasons.

Puerto Rico has the right kind of mosquitoes for spreading disease: Puerto Rico is home to the aedes aegypti mosquito, which spreads Zika as well as other mosquito-borne diseases like dengue and chikungunya. As TIME has previously reported, over 80% of adults in Puerto Rico have been infected with dengue, and about a quarter of adults became infected with chikungunya in less than a year. U.S. health officials estimated that 20% of Puerto Rico’s population could contract Zika, a benchmark the territory appears to be steadily approaching. Local health experts have also told TIME that since residents are accustomed to mosquitoes spreading diseases, it can be hard to ramp up concern over Zika and mosquito control; to some residents, mosquito-borne diseases are considered a fact of life. Some go-to insecticides used in Puerto Rico are also proving ineffective, due to widespread resistance among the mosquitoes.

There is a high unintended pregnancy rate: About two-thirds of all pregnancies in Puerto Rico are unplanned, which puts women at risk of getting pregnant while infected—probably unknowingly—with Zika. The CDC says it is working to provide access to effective contraception for women who want to delay or avoid pregnancy. Some doctors in the area are telling women that if they can, they should put off getting pregnant. Health officials say they are also installing screens in the homes of pregnant women in the territory.

Puerto Rico is in a financial crisis: Puerto Rico is in the midst of a debt crisis, and is believed to have a bill of around $70 billion. As the New York Times reports, Puerto Rico authorities have cautioned that the territory may not be able to pay back its debt while also affording to keep up services like education and health care. Senate also recently failed to pass a bill for emergency Zika funding that was requested by the White House in February.

Taken together, these factors make it all too easy for an epidemic like Zika to grow uncontrollably. In the U.S., meanwhile, cases are emerging in Florida, and the CDC is advising pregnant women not to travel to parts of the region.

Summary: Here's how the situation got so dire


THE artist Maurizio Cattelan, like Andy Warhol before him, has always loved a good doppelgänger, someone to send in his stead for lectures and appearances while he finds something more interesting to do. For several years, in a stunt that became something of an artwork in its own right, the curator Massimiliano Gioni presented himself at public events as Mr. Cattelan, thoroughly confusing everybody.

At a Chinese restaurant in Chelsea the other day a reporter showed up to an interview with Mr. Cattelan to find, even more disconcertingly, that a doppelgänger for the reporter was already there, a middle-age man perusing the menu and chatting up his subject. Mr. Cattelan described it as an honest mistake: Waiting outside the restaurant, he ran into the man, Danny, who had a business appointment there. Danny mistook Mr. Cattelan for his contact, and the artist mistook Danny for the reporter. (“Danny, Randy, sounds the same to me,” Mr. Cattelan said. “I’m Italian.”) He invited Danny to stay anyway; Danny, oddly, accepted, and the interview proceeded with all three men at the table over a platter of chicken and hot peppers, Mr. Cattelan grinning and winking like Groucho Marx.

Keeping this scene in mind, it will probably come as no surprise that Mr. Cattelan — whose wildly inventive and irreverent career is approaching the quarter-century mark — has long viewed the idea of a conventional museum retrospective of his work with something akin to horror.

For an artist whose best-known pieces have included eerily lifelike sculptures of Pope John Paul II felled by a large (errant or perhaps divinely directed) meteorite, of Hitler as a boyish supplicant, of a post-suicide squirrel with its tiny head down on a tiny kitchen table, and of a shoeless, oddly poignant John F. Kennedy lying in a coffin, a standard chronological survey would, he was certain, disarm the pieces and neutralize their wickedly effective humor. It would be like watching Lenny Bruce try to do stand-up during a church service.

So when Nancy Spector, the chief curator of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and a longtime champion of Mr. Cattelan’s, kept broaching the subject of a retrospective, “it put me in so much despair, truly,” he said. He ducked her and changed the subject when she persisted. And then he had an idea, one he intended partly as a way to keep putting her off: take all his works and dangle them from ropes in the middle of the Guggenheim’s elegantly winding rotunda, like so many fat salamis in a butcher’s window. Art world expectations and curatorial hierarchies be damned! Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Mr. Frank Lloyd Wright!

Perhaps as punishment for such a proposal, Ms. Spector told him that she wanted to try it. (“Can you believe it?” he stage-whispered.) And so it happens that beginning on Nov. 4 the Guggenheim will mount one of the strangest, most audacious exhibitions in its half-century history, suspending several thousand pounds’ — and many tens of millions of dollars’ — worth of high-end, internationally collected art from cables attached to a heavy-duty aluminum truss installed almost 90 feet in the air under the museum’s glass dome.

From the perspective of the completely empty ramps, or straight up from the ground floor, museumgoers will stare into a kind of motionless tableau-vivant tornado that seems intent on taking the Surrealist trope of the chance meeting of an umbrella and a sewing machine on a dissecting table and turning it up way past 11. The flying Hitler and pope and 35th president of the United States will be joined in the air by a fake skeleton of a dinosaur-size housecat and a taxidermied donkey hitched to a cart and a 21-foot-long foosball table and a Carrara marble sculpture of a hand giving a middle-finger salute, amid more than 100 other works.

At a time when the art world seems fueled by expensive, outsize spectacle, the exhibition could be seen either as an apotheosis of the phenomenon or a tremendously elaborate parody designed to try to demolish it. As if in a nod toward the latter, Mr. Cattelan, 51, insists that the show will be his last, and that he will officially retire from making art as soon as it is over, though exactly what that means in the Cattelan lexicon is anyone’s guess.

“I understand if people think it’s just a joke or another trick of mine,” he said during the lunch interview, in a thick Italian accent that almost two decades of living in New York have done little to diminish. But he added that he is serious when he says he simply no longer feels compelled to produce objects, the kind that have made him a solid critical success and also one of the most sought-after artists in the world at auction over the last decade. (A wax sculpture of Mr. Cattelan appearing to tunnel up through the floor of an art museum sold last year at Sotheby’s for almost $8 million.) His success has been all the more remarkable considering his background: the son of a truck driver and a cleaning woman from Padua who never went to art school and more or less stumbled into making art as a way to try to avoid a regular job.

Of his decision to quit, he said: “I wasn’t happy, and over all I started to feel such a distance from the things I was doing, as if I was under some kind of anesthetic. And then came the solution, then I saw the light at the end of the tunnel: retire.” He laughed a high-pitched laugh and added, smiling broadly: “Retirement is going to be a kind of extra project that will complete the retrospective.”

He describes the retrospective itself as a “really democratic hanging,” one that will represent a last, ephemeral, new work fashioned from almost all of the ones he has ever made and also “a way for me to finally make peace with my mistakes.”

“If Nancy had decided for whatever reason that she didn’t want to do it,” he said, “I was prepared to walk away, because as crazy as it is, it started to seem to me like the only way that it would work. I like to think of it as an inside job between me and Nancy.”

Mr. Cattelan presented the idea to Ms. Spector by bringing her a kind of jumbled collage with tiny cutout pictures of many of his pieces. “It was a eureka moment,” Ms. Spector recalled, presenting maybe the only way to do justice to a body of work that “refuses to be seen in a coherent narrative.”

For an inside job the show has involved an extraordinarily large number of accomplices. Over the last several months — in Milan, where Mr. Cattelan employs a group of assistants and fabricators who make his work; and in New York, at two staging facilities used by the Guggenheim — a small factory of engineers, conservators, art handlers and riggers has grown up around the project.

At Mr. Cattelan’s urging, to intensify the element of surprise, the whole thing has been cloaked in the kind of secrecy usually reserved for experimental military aircraft, though because it is nearly impossible to keep a secret in the art world, word of some kind of monumental Guggenheim hoist-up began to seep out.

Planning began in earnest last spring with the creation by Mr. Cattelan’s assistants of a small maquette of the show, using dollhouse-size models of every piece, dangled by strings from a piece of metal that looked like a mesh pan for cooking vegetables on a grill. The model was kept at a storage building on the West Side of Manhattan, where the artist and Ms. Spector and others spent weeks arranging and rearranging to get just the right appearance of what Ms. Spector called “an overall sense of randomness.” (The model has the strange power of a work itself, one that evokes “Boîte-en-Valise,” the miniature retrospective in a suitcase made by Marcel Duchamp, the jester dandy to whom Mr. Cattelan is most often compared.)

“This show is completely antithetical to the practice of curating a retrospective,” said Ms. Spector, who had batted around other ideas with Mr. Cattelan for making a nonretrospective retrospective, like staging some kind of group show instead of displaying his own work, or leaving the Guggenheim empty and instead installing pieces at other places around the city that visitors would have to find. That approach, which the curator Hans-Ulrich Obrist has called the “truffle pig” method of exhibition, was quickly dismissed.

Ms. Spector said she hopes the idea she and Mr. Cattelan chose will work in part because it oddly emphasizes how serious he has been despite comedic appearances. Hung so close together like “cats strung up by the tails,” the work reveals itself to be extraordinarily death haunted, a kind of surrealist editorial cartoonist’s take on a world of suffering and political hypocrisy. “You can also look at it as a kind of gallows,” she added, “especially in light of the fact that he’s ending his career.”

Summary: A retrospective of the work of artist Maurizio Cattelan will be dangling, by rope, at the Guggenheim museum starting Nov. 4.


He saved Marvel’s Daredevil from irrelevance, reinvented DC’s Batman as the darkest of knights and even imported samurai legend into mainstream American comics. But the comic book writer and artist Frank Miller found his truest, his deepest creative home in the stark noir of “Sin City.” In Mr. Miller’s underworld, as the troubled drifter Marv observes in the first “Sin City” graphic novel, “The Hard Goodbye” (1992), it’s always “a lousy room in a lousy part of a lousy town.”

And now, with the film “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For” about to be released, Dark Horse has just published the complete “Sin City” — more than 1,300 pages — in one mammoth volume, “Big Damn Sin City.” They’re all here: “The Big Fat Kill,” “Booze, Broads & Bullets,” “Hell and Back” and more. In “The Hard Goodbye,” Marv says, “It’s going to be blood for blood and by the gallons.” Which is pretty much the credo for these seven feral graphic novels.

Mr. Miller’s visceral tales are hard and fast, charting the spectrum of lusts: blood, money, sex, drugs. His phantasmagoric netherworld is a place of the double- and triple-cross, of brutal violence and even more brutal sex. The cops are dirty, and the call girls and strippers have hearts of steel. And though Mr. Miller’s earlier work on Daredevil and “Batman: The Dark Knight Returns” pointed toward it, in the early 1990s comics fans hadn’t seen anything like “Sin City.”

Consider, for example, this vivid piece of noir advice: “If you’re going to pistol-whip somebody, do it right and use the handle.”

And while Mr. Miller’s prose in “Sin City” provides the necessary body blows, it’s his remarkable black-and-white artwork that time and again delivers the knockout punches.

His loose line often jumps the tracks into raw Expressionism. Many of the drawings look as if they were backlit by chain lightning, and his renderings make snow, rain and cigarette smoke look as sentient as his characters. His panels are all slash and shadow, evoking the bold ink work of old comics masters like Milton Caniff and Alex Toth.

One of the most exquisite sequences in “Big Damn Sin City” comes in the brief story “Silent Night,” as the hulking Marv shambles through a blizzard, the snow whipping in an almost galactic darkness. Marv is a crucifix-wearing bruiser trying to set the world as right as he can, and in these few pages Northern Renaissance woodcut precision meets graphic novel guts.

In art and word, throughout the 1990s, each installment of “Sin City” was a jaw-cracking memo to fans and creators that comic book action and drama didn’t belong solely to the fellows flexing in their rainbow long johns. “Sin City” and Mr. Miller helped lead the way for independent comics and their writers and artists. Today we probably wouldn’t have, for example, the fine noir of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips in their series “Criminal” and “Fatale” without Mr. Miller and his obsession with the Russian roulette that is nightfall in the worst part of town.

“Sin City” is Mr. Miller’s masterwork, but he hit lots of other high notes before that.

In his first star turn in the early 1980s (while still learning on the job), Mr. Miller took Daredevil, the Man Without Fear (and without many readers), and transformed the adventures of Matt Murdock, a blind lawyer turned superhero, into a must-read. He remodeled the series as a street-level crime comic and made it one of the peaks of the 1980s, a notch below Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’s “Watchmen” and his own “The Dark Knight Returns.” Along the way he brought to life one of comics’ best antiheroes, the female assassin Elektra (a prototype for Miho in “Sin City”), and turned the Kingpin into one of the most memorable bad guys in the Marvel canon.

Then came the 1983 samurai drama “Ronin,” a crucial artistic leap before “The Dark Knight Returns.” Both Mr. Miller’s writing and drawing grew more sophisticated in this myth-inflected science fiction novel about a ronin — a masterless samurai — who wanders space and time, from feudal Japan to our near-future.

Influenced by the French illustrator Moebius, Mr. Miller’s art on “Ronin” is looser, and the painted colors by Lynn Varley stunning. In its time, “Ronin” was the unlikely child of an indie sensibility nurtured under the DC banner. And with the concept of the ronin, Mr. Miller found a metaphor that served him well as he focused first on Batman and then on the quixotic hero-losers like Marv, Dwight and Hartigan of “Sin City.”

Mr. Miller’s “The Dark Knight Returns” (1986) is one of the pillars of modern comics. With a Gotham City that made Detroit look like a gated community, he reimagined the mythology of Batman, drafting an angle of vision for Bruce Wayne and his significant caped other that has shaped him for the past 30 years. Mr. Miller’s Batman is a creature of the night who seethes with rage, lusts for vengeance — a Batman just right for the urban decay of the 1980s.

While “The Dark Knight Returns” foreshadows the stylized (and stylish) Peckinpah-like bloodshed of “Sin City,” Mr. Miller’s series All-Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder, from the mid-2000s and just released in a striking oversize Absolute edition by DC, looks backward toward those savage graphic novels.

Written by Mr. Miller and penciled by Jim Lee, All-Star Batman is a sort of prequel to “The Dark Knight Returns,” but its soul is all “Sin City.” The Joker, a vast tattoo of a red dragon coiled on his back, has casual sex with a woman and then strangles her. And Batman, sizing up how his night has gone, says: “I fed a drooling mugger his teeth. By the dozen. He’s probably still coughing them up.”

At that, I can just imagine Marv, hunkered down in his “Sin City” hovel, grinning in approval.

A version of this article appears in print on August 17, 2014, on page AR10 of the New York edition with the headline: Drawing Noirish Worlds in Blood and Ink. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

Summary: The comics of the writer and artist Frank Miller have long been dark and violent, but they reached their apex in his “Sin City.”


A woman has died after the car she was a passenger in had a head-on collision near Victoria's Great Ocean Road.

The car was travelling along Anglesea Road in Bellbrae when it collided with an oncoming vehicle on Wednesday morning.

The female passenger was flown to hospital but died of her injuries later that night, police said in a statement on Thursday.

Victoria's road toll now stands at 178 which is 28 more than for the same period last year.

The toll rose after a pedestrian who was hit by a truck in Camberwell last month died in hospital.

Victorian Police on Thursday revealed the 88-year-old died in hospital on July 15 two days after he was struck.

Summary: A female passenger has died after a head-on collision near Victoria's Great Ocean Road in Bellbrae.


Amtrak's Vermonter travels daily from New York City to St Albans; it stops at Brattleboro and Waterbury-Stowe as well as Burlington-Essex (www.amtrak.com) There's also a Greyhound station (www.greyhound.com) in town with a daily bus to Burlington that leaves at 6.55pm and arrives at 4am the next day. There is a six-hour stop at White River Junction and the Norwich Inn brewpub is about six miles to the north (www.norwichinn.com/new-england-microbreweries.php)

Bridgewater Corners, jct Route 4 and 100A (www.longtrail.com)

Try Long Trail Ale: crisp with a dry finish

No public transport: catch a lift or enjoy a strenuous cycle ride from Rutland.

793 Exchange Street, Middlebury (www.ottercreekbrewing.com)

Try Oatmeal Stout: roasty and creamy

Amtrak's Ethan Allen Express travels daily from New York City to Rutland. Two buses leave Rutland in the early morning for Middlebury, with returns in the afternoon (www.thebus.com/routes.htm) The brewery is a mile out of town.

5 Main Street, Bristol (www.bobcatcafe.com)

Try Pocock Pilsner: excellent Czech-style lager

A low-cost shuttle service can be caught from Middlebury, see www.actr-vt.org

5 Bartlett Bay Road, South Burlington (www.magichat.net)

Try #9: flowery nose and hints of apricot on the palate

Burlington Link Express (www.actr-vt.org) or taxi.

Zero Gravity at American Flatbread

115 St Paul Street, Burlington (www.americanflatbread.com)

Try Masticator: magnificent interpretation of a German Doppelbock

Located just off Main Street, a few minutes' walk from City Hall.

The Vermont Pub & Brewery

144 College Street, Burlington (www.vermontbrewery.com)

Try Tulach Leis: tart and refreshing Flemish red ale

Two minutes' walk from Zero Gravity.

The Brewery at Trapp Family Lodge

700 Trapp Hill Road, Stowe (www.trappfamily.com)

Try Vienna Amber: crisp with toffee and caramel hints

Amtrak's Vermonter travels once a day from Burlington to Waterbury-Stowe. The Green Mountain Transit Agency runs frequent shuttles in the area (www.gmtaride.org) In Stowe, mountain bikes can be hired (www.pinnacleskisports.com) It's a four-mile cycle up to the brewpub, much of it along a well maintained path.

254 Wilkins Street, Morrisville (www.rockartbrewery.com)

Try Vermonster: strong and rich barley wine

The Green Mountain Transit Agency runs frequent shuttles (as before).

Vermont Backroad Tours with Kelly M Socia (802 446 3131; www.vermontbackroadtours.com) offers brewery tours.

Latchis Hotel (802 254 6300; www.latchis.com)

Holiday Inn (802 773 6130; www.hivermont.com)

Burlington Courtyard Harbor Hotel (802 864 4700; www.marriot.com/hotels/travel/btvdt-courtyard-burlington-harbor)

Ye Olde England Inne (802 253 7558; www.englandinn.com)

Summary: Adrian Tierney-Jones samples the best Vermont's breweries have to offer.


Her, some minutes later: 'Bins out yet then,

Him, now getting cross: 'No, they're not. I said I'd do them in a minute.'

Her, also getting cross: 'Yes, but you said that a minute ago and you still haven't done it and the binmen will be here soon and then we will have missed them and…'

He will then get up, storm out and drag the bins up the drive in an overly dramatic fashion. And every woman knows what he is muttering under his breath, 'Stop being such a nag.'

This is exactly where Lizzi Vandorpe, the author of The Blessings Book of Marriage (£8.99, theblessingsbook.com), found herself when she was married to her first husband. 'We were both working very hard,' she says, 'and we had three small children, so when we'd come home, instead of saying good things to each other, we'd start getting at each other.'

She says the major flashpoints were the same as everyone else's. 'It was who was doing the ironing, the cleaning, the putting out of the bins, the laundry. We never really discussed it or apportioned it according to whose strengths lay where.'

In the end the marriage failed and Vandorpe was left on her own. 'It was a terrible shock,' she says. I vowed then and there that if I was fortunate enough to meet another man I'd never nag him in that way.'

A study of more than 3,000 people by the health campaign group Everyman found that wives spend 7,920 minutes a year nagging their husbands about household chores, their drinking and their health. That's the equivalent of five and a half days. The most common complaint was not helping to tidy the home. We also nag men when they fail to meet our emotional needs. 'Why didn't you get me X for my birthday?'; 'Why are you not as interested in our children as I am?' and so on.

According to Michael Myerscough, a life coach behind therelationshipgym.com, 'The problem is that women are highly motivated and have sophisticated needs and men are actually rather lazy. They will get away with doing as little as possible unless the woman is very specific about what she wants.'

Myerscough sees hundreds of couples a year. 'Basically, women are wildly romantic and optimistic and they want a lifetime love affair and men just want an easy time of it all. These things don't mix and so resentments build up. When the woman finds she isn't getting her needs met, what does she do? She shouts, screams, nags. It's the pattern of behaviour that needs to be broken.'

This leads me to think about my own behaviour. I ask myself how often I nag my husband. The answer is 'quite a lot'. I get cross about so many things it would take years to list them. Our household can, sometimes, be full of unspoken friction, or just plain friction, when something as simple as putting on the washing machine becomes an issue.

The effect of all this is that I mutter under my breath at him and then just do it all myself, which leads to resentment. I decide I must change the pattern. In a way, my nagging has become such a default mechanism I don't even know I'm doing it.

My quest is to spend a week without nagging my husband. Not only will I see how often I actually do it, but I will also, hopefully, change the dynamic of our relationship. I decide not to tell my husband what I am doing. I need to find out whether my new no-nagging persona makes any difference to our life together.

Lizzi Vandorpe suggests I should see this as a long-term project. 'One week won't make a difference per se,' she says. She explains that, after she met her second husband, Ward, she vowed that they would treat each other with respect. 'If Ward tells me I'm beautiful, or fills in my tax form, or does something else that's really lovely, I not only thank him for it but I write it down. It's a list of blessings.'

This may sound saccharine but I have to admit it does make me stop and think. Would my husband and I have enough to put on a list? I decide to try another expert for advice. I read The Surrendered Wife by Laura Doyle (Pocket Books, £8.99).

The premise is that we women have sacrificed the intimacy of our marriages because of our controlling behaviour. Doyle writes, 'None of us feels good when we're nagging, critical or controlling. Through surrendering, you will find the courage to gradually stop indulging in these unpleasant behaviours and replace them with dignified ones.'

'Surrendering' myself sounds a pretty radical and unfeminist thing to do. Also, my real fear is that nothing will actually get done. But Doyle points out, 'Doing all the work is not what makes you powerful – it makes you exhausted. On the other hand, relaxing and enjoying yourself while someone else takes care of things is a very powerful position to be in.' Relaxing? This is not a word I have used for a long time.

I get up and go through my usual routine but I don't 'take control'. I sit back and see whether or not my husband will step in. Will he 'fill the space', as Doyle puts it? After a while he feeds the dogs – in the wrong order – and whereas usually I would have picked him up on it with a complaint – 'These dogs have a pack mentality and we must stick to it' – I just smile beatifically and carry on. Inside, though, I am not quite so calm.

I tell myself not to mind that I have told him a million times that the puppy gets a bad stomach if she eats anything other than puppy food. Yet again he has fed her scraps from the table. This suggests that either my husband doesn't listen to me or he is listening but thinks I talk rubbish, or he doesn't care about the puppy's possible upset tummy as he is going to work and it will be me who is left to deal with the consequences.

My husband gives the children the wrong sandwiches in their lunch boxes, which I know they won't eat. But I decide that he is just attempting to broaden their epicurean appetites. Instead of complaining I just smile away and thank him for making the sandwiches. The next thing I know he is hanging the washing on the line and I haven't even asked him to do it.

I am acting like someone on Mogadon. It's all very well being surrendered but, in a way, it's like being on drugs. My husband comes in and says things like, 'The children have just drawn over the walls,' and I just say, 'Oh dear.'

My husband obviously thinks I am going mad. He comes in to tell me he has inadvertently smashed the car's rear window. 'The door wasn't shut properly,' he says, 'and I went round a corner and braked hoping that would shut it, but the door banged too hard and the windows smashed.' He is in a rush. He has to get to work. The car is now outside, glass everywhere, windowless. It needs clearing up and fixing and I have work of my own to do. 'Can you deal with this?' he says.

What I want to say is, 'The door wasn't shut? Well, whose fault was that, then? Yours obviously, and now I have to clear up all this mess and sort out the insurance claim and the window and we are supposed to be saving time and money…'

Instead I remember that I can't nag. I am supposed to be empowering my husband, so all I say is, 'Oh dear. Poor you. Of course I can deal with it.' My husband's eyes goggle. After he has gone out – in my car, I might add – I open the bedroom window and shout 'Aargghh!' very loudly. Then I close the window feeling much better.

I feel I am losing touch with myself and I don't like it. I sit and watch as the house gradually falls into disarray. Yes, my husband certainly steps up his helpful quotient, but shoes never get picked up off the floor and dirty socks start appearing all over the place.

On day six I realise that if you don't make any requests then you never nag. However, you end up becoming a silent skivvy. I have to ask myself what it is, exactly, that I actually want my husband to do – everything? Or just certain tasks?

I call Michael Myerscough again. He says, 'That's the nail on the head. Women do all these fancy moves to get men to see they need to help but what they actually need is to make deals. Men are blind to women's silent game-playing. They need quick, focused instructions.

'The woman has to decide what it is she needs the man to do and then make those needs clear. She can say, "I would like you to put the bins out every Thursday. It would be really helpful to me if you did." They then agree on this and sort out a non-sexual consequence if the bins aren't put out, such as the man putting money towards a gift the woman really wants. What happens with most couples is that this type of honest deal-making never happens, so no one knows what they are actually supposed to be doing.'

He asks me what I have learnt from my week of not nagging. I tell him I've learnt that my husband and I do not place the same importance on things. He doesn't put away the laundry immediately because it doesn't bother him to see it lying around in the laundry basket. He does, however, try to remember to put it away because he knows it bothers me. In that way he is a considerate and kind person.

Myerscough sees this as being immensely positive. 'He's on our side, then,' he says. 'Your negotiations should be relatively simple. I see men who almost refuse to budge!'

Susan Baker, a relationship counsellor, thinks that we all need to be more aware of these types of compromises. 'If your husband is trying to be helpful,' she says, 'then that's very good. It means he is aware of your needs. He can't pick up what you want him to do by telepathy. You need to be able to communicate with him more clearly and you also need to decide what is important to you and the areas in which you can compromise.'

I think about what it is I need. I don't feel I have the time or inclination to keep chores hanging over for days on end. But my husband often doesn't get important things done for weeks. Maybe I have learnt that it doesn't matter if something doesn't get done immediately.

But, interestingly enough, when I tell my husband I have been quietly going about my week not nagging him he looks shocked. He hadn't noticed at all. 'Well,' he says, 'I had thought things were a bit different but…' He thought we'd just had a nicer, quieter, less stressful time. He hadn't noticed the house was falling apart because that's not what's on his agenda. We both agree to think more carefully about our dynamic and try to meet in the middle – me by stopping caring so much, him by being more aware.

Lizzi Vandorpe thinks that it is possible for couples to break out of their bad habits. 'It's not that difficult,' she says. 'To have a healthy marriage you each have to appreciate the good things about each other and play to each other's strengths. We have family meetings where we discuss who is going to do which job.

'I was on my own for seven years and it was a really lonely place to be and I never want to go back to that again. Instead I come home and the lights are on and it makes me happy. It's worth stopping nagging and taking charge of delegating jobs just for that happiness. Remember to be positive about each other. It really works.'

Summary: Could Lucy Cavendish, a self-confessed nag, go a whole week without once   henpecking her husband into putting out the bins or feeding the dogs?


"Lặng người choáng ngợp" là phản ứng của khán giả trước buổi trình diễn của những nghệ sĩ theo trào lưu Tân tự Nhiên ở Nhà hát Opera Hoàng gia ở London, nghệ sĩ Wilma Johnson, một trong những thành viên sáng lập của nhóm này nói.

Nhóm thể hiện một màn cổ vũ, trong tư thế hoàn toàn khoả thân nhưng trên mình được trang điểm bằng những hình vẽ, và trên tay họ là những trái cầu bông đặc trưng của màn cổ vũ. Họ đã khiến cả khán phòng thấy sốc.

Nhóm nghệ sĩ được diễn viên và biên đạo múa đồng thời là một vũ công ballet, Michael Clark, mời đến tham gia trong một sự kiện gây quỹ.

Sự kiện này đã trở thành ký ức thú vị nhất của Johnson. "Khi còn bé, tôi bị loại khỏi trường múa ballet vì quá vụng về," bà nói với BBC Culture. "Vì thế, sự im lặng sững sờ trong Nhà hát Opera Hoàng gia thật tuyệt vời."

Nhóm nghệ sĩ Tân Tự Nhiên toả sáng bằng màn trình diễn khoả thân mô tả sự gián đoạn, đối đầu, sự hỗn loạn và nhầm lẫn của dòng nghệ thuật ngầm tại London suốt thập niên 1980.

Những màn trình diễn khoả thân của họ làm khán giả kinh ngạc tại các câu lạc bộ, phòng triển lãm và rất nhiều nơi công cộng, nơi nhóm thường bất ngờ xuất hiện và ngay lập tức trình diễn theo kiểu "du kích".

Hoang dại, phá cách và đầy khiêu khích, nhưng các nghệ sĩ này từng sớm bị rơi vào quên lãng.

Giờ đây, nghệ thuật của họ đang được khám phá lại, và họ đã tái hiện buổi diễn ở Studio Voltaire, London.

Cuộc trình diễn lồng phim và ảnh chụp vào phần biểu diễn trực tiếp, dù rằng lần này họ không khoả thân hoàn toàn.

Nói chung, cuộc trình diễn của nhóm hài hước một cách kỳ lạ.

Christine Binnie cùng với chị gái Jennifer, và Wilma Johnson, là những người sáng lập nhóm, tái hiện cảnh "ngư phủ và nàng tiên cá" bên ngoài toà nhà Centrepoint nổi tiếng ở ngay trung tâm London.

Bà nhớ lại cuộc trình diễn thu hút rất nhiều sự quan tâm, và trong số khán giả có cả cảnh sát: "Chúng tôi trò chuyện với một cảnh sát trong vòng 10 phút, cuối cùng viên cảnh sát đó đã không bắt giữ mà chỉ yêu cầu chúng tôi mặc áo khoác vào."

Theo một luật định có từ thời Victoria đến nay vẫn còn hiệu lực tại Anh, thì chỉ có đàn ông bị cấm phô diễn thân thể ở nơi công cộng còn phụ nữ thì không.

Ba phụ nữ này cộng tác với một cộng đồng sáng tạo rộng lớn ở London, trong đó có một số người đạt được thành công đáng chú ý - như Michael Clark, nghệ sĩ Grayson Perry, ca sĩ Boy George, và các nhà làm phim Derek Jarman và John Maybury.

Toả sáng có thể là một từ chưa tương xứng lắm với nhóm các nghệ sĩ này, gồm các sinh viên trường nghệ thuật, người từ các câu lạc bộ, nghệ sĩ trình diễn và những nam nghệ sĩ giả gái nằm trong nhóm sáng tạo ra phong trào Tân Lãng mạn.

Jennifer Binnie nói: "Chúng tôi thuộc về cuộc sống phóng khoáng, và việc mở toang cuộc sống đó ra đã cho phép chúng tôi làm được những gì chúng tôi từng biểu diễn. Đó là cách chúng tôi thể hiện nữ tính của mình."

Khoả thân hoàn toàn nhưng lại vẽ trên cơ thể là phong cách ba nữ nghệ sĩ theo đuổi đến mức cực đoan, gây sốc và quyết liệt.

Đặc biệt Grayson Perry là thành viên chủ chốt của nhóm thời đó, và tham gia vào rất nhiều buổi trình diễn của phụ nữ, sau này đã mô tả các nghệ sĩ Tân Tự nhiên là "những người Bohemia thực thụ".

Tất nhiên, ba nghệ sĩ theo đuổi lý tưởng của người Bohemia từ sớm.

Với Christine, chuyến thăm Đức vào cuối thập niên 1970 là một trong những tia sáng ban đầu của nguồn cảm hứng.

"Những cô gái Đức giang hồ tắm nắng khỏa thân quanh hồ, trong khi đám dân chơi ở Anh lúc nào trông cũng xanh đớt, mặc đồ đen và ru rú trong nhà."

Chị em Binnie được cha mẹ là nghệ sĩ giáo dục từ bé và luôn tin vào phong cách "sống tự nhiên". Ở nhà, tự do thể hiện luôn được khuyến khích, với đồ thủ công và thức ăn trồng tự nhiên trong cuộc sống hàng ngày.

"Tất cả chúng tôi đều yêu thích hoạt động ngoài trời," Christine kể lại.

Thời ấu thơ, hai chị em họ cũng tham gia hoạt động hướng đạo sinh, và niềm đam mê cắm trại ban đầu sau đã theo họ đi vào những cuộc trình diễn theo trường phái Tân Tự nhiên, khi họ khỏa thân biểu diễn một nghi thức nấu ăn với một cái bếp gas du lịch.

Mặc dù được thực hiện một cách vui vẻ và hài hước, có một điểm thực sự nghiêm túc trong các cuộc trình diễn của những người phụ nữ này.

"Đó là vấn đề tự do và thể hiện cơ thể phụ nữ theo cách thật tự nhiên," Christine nói.

"Nhìn tổng quan, ba chúng tôi không phù hợp lắm vì tất cả các cô gái khác trong buổi diễn được trang điểm rất kỹ càng, ăn mặc đẹp, và những người đàn ông ăn mặc rất thời trang và cực kỳ đẹp. Chúng tôi thì theo phong cách lộn xộn, cảm xúc hơn. Chúng tôi không cố làm vừa lòng ai cả, và chúng tôi không tỏ ra gợi tình. Đây là sự tự do thể hiện."

Nhóm nghệ sĩ cũng đối diện với một số khía cạnh không mấy dễ chịu của kỷ nguyên phong trào nữ quyền.

"Chúng tôi đặt câu hỏi liệu những nhà nữ quyền có thực sự khiến phụ nữ có thêm sức mạnh hay không," Jennifer nói. "Trong thời cuối thập niên 1970 tới đầu thập niên 1980, chúng tôi không phù hợp với những hình mẫu lý tưởng về nữ quyền - chúng tôi choàng khăn lông, sơn vẽ lên cơ thể và chúng tôi vui vẻ."

Chị em nhà Binnie kể từ đó đã trở thành thợ gốm, và Wilma Johnson giờ là "một người tập lướt ván" tại một bãi biển tự nhiên ở Pháp và đã viết một quyển sách tên Surf Mama, nói về cuộc đời của bà.

Cả ba vẫn là bạn bè thân thiết của nhau qua nhiều thập niên. "Sức mạnh lớn nhất từ những việc chúng tôi làm, đó là chúng tôi chưa bao giờ trình diễn đơn độc," Christine nói.

"Chúng tôi luôn trình diễn cùng nhóm, việc này khiến chúng tôi dám mạnh dạn hơn và trở thành một nhóm đầy sức mạnh, và đó là một phần lý do khiến chúng tôi trở lại cùng nhau trong buổi biểu diễn này."

"Khi bạn là phụ nữ đến độ tuổi nào đó, bạn bắt đầu cảm thấy mình trở nên vô hình. Mọi người chẳng ai thèm chú ý đến bạn."

Khoả thân luôn gây sốc, khêu gợi hoặc khiến ta bật cười - như những người bị rách quần khi chơi thể thao hay các sự kiện công cộng từng gặp phải suốt nhiều thập niên qua.

Những người theo chủ nghĩa tự nhiên và nghệ sĩ khoả thân cũng thường bị coi là đối tượng chọc cười.

Nhưng ngày càng có nhiều chủ đề khoả thân được sử dụng trong những bối cảnh khác nhau.

Nghệ sĩ Spencer Tunick đã xây dựng những tác phẩm phi thường và sống động bằng cách sử dụng hàng ngàn người mẫu khoả thân.

Tác phẩm gần đây nhất của ông là với 3.000 người tình nguyện khoả thân với màu sơn xanh trên cơ thể - trong một tác phẩm nghệ thuật quy mô lớn trình diễn tại Hull khi chào đón năm Thành phố Văn hoá 2017 của nơi này.

Trong khi đó, một chương trình truyền hình và thể nghiệm xã hội trên kênh Channel 4 của Anh, có tên "Life Stripped Bare" (Cuộc sống trần truồng), khám phá cách một nhóm người cởi bỏ quần áo, đồ đạc trong suốt ba tuần.

Ngoài ra, biểu tình khoả thân hay bán khoả thân vẫn là hình thức thể hiện mạnh mẽ.

Chẳng hạn như, cuộc đạp xe khoả thân toàn thế giới World Naked Bike Ride là một trong những cuộc biểu tình "ăn mặc tuỳ thích" chống lại việc thiếu các tuyến đường an toàn cho người đạp xe.

Và dĩ nhiên, ta có thể nhắc tới nhóm các nhà hoạt động người Ukraine, nhóm Femen, và nhóm nhạc punk Pussy Riot của Nga, là những nhóm đều nổi danh với phong cách để ngực trần.

Jessica Vaughan, người giới thiệu cho buổi trình diễn Tân Tự Nhiên, nói rằng những gì mà chị em Binnies và Johnson thực hiện vào thập niên 1980 đã đi trước thời đại và thật không công bằng khi không được lịch sử đề cập đến.

"Có nhóm Femen và nhóm Pussy Riot, nhưng những nghệ sĩ Tân Tự nhiên hoàn toàn khoả thân, họ chính là những người bứt phá giới hạn," bà nói với BBC Culture.

"Và họ không được đại diện đủ mức trong những năm 1980, có thể vì tại trong những bối cảnh mà họ xuất hiện thì đàn ông luôn đóng vai trò quan trọng hơn. Họ hành động cùng với những nhân vật này nhưng theo cách hoàn toàn đối nghịch. Họ lộn xộn hơn, hỗn loạn hơn những người thường được gọi hài hước là Trường phái Tân Lãng mạn."

Những người theo trường phái Tân Tự nhiên giờ đã phù hợp xu thế hơn, nếu không muốn nói là vẫn hơn, Jessica Vaughan nói.

"Tôi nghĩ giờ đây còn có nhiều áp lực hơn lên phụ nữ, buộc họ phải tuân theo những hình ảnh cơ thể nhất định, trông có vẻ trơn mịn, mượt mà và cạo sạch lông. Những người theo Tân Tự nhiên hoàn toàn đối nghịch."

“Tôi không thể tưởng tượng thấy một phụ nữ khoả thân theo cách khiêu khích đến vậy ở nơi công cộng. Mọi thứ đều bị truyền thông và mạng xã hội thao túng và chỉnh sửa cho hoàn hảo."

"Thật hài hước khi được xem sự nguyên bản và ngẫu hứng khi họ đi ra ngoài kia và chứng kiến những phản ứng mà họ gặp phải giữa đám đông. Đó là sự hồn nhiên và vui vẻ của họ.”

Bản tiếng Anh đã đăng trên BBC Culture.

Summary: Nhóm phụ nữ nghệ sĩ khiến cả dãy phố kinh ngạc khi trút bỏ quần áo và trình diễn trong trạng thái hoàn toàn khoả thân.


A luxury retirement apartment complex in Knightsbridge opposite Harrods department store has been giving planning approval.

The seven-storey building will be built on Pavilion Road, 100m from the world famous shop.

A medical centre, restaurants, library, spa and landscaped gardens will all be included along with 34 assisted living flats.

The site has been a car park for the last 40 years.

It was previously used as a storage depot for Harrods with an underground tunnel linking the two sites.

However, Harrods said the tunnel was filled in in 2002 when the east site of the car park was redeveloped.

The complex will be available to people aged over 55 and may appeal to downsizers and people who need some help to get on with life but do not want to go in to a care home.

Residents will be asked to state what care they need from a Care Quality Commission-registered provider when they buy a lease.

Singapore based property developer City Developments said the new-look C-shaped building would rise up around a courtyard.

The price for each apartment has not yet been set but property in the area is amongst the most expensive in the UK.

Homes regularly sell for at least £4,000 per square foot, which could mean the smallest flats will have a price tag of around £5m.

Correction: This story was amended on Saturday 6 August to reflect that the tunnel - though once used by Harrods workers - has since been filled in.

Summary: A luxury retirement apartment complex in Knightsbridge opposite Harrods department store is giving planning approval.


JERUSALEM — In an effort to appeal to Palestinians ahead of hotly contested elections, the party of President Mahmoud Abbas listed one of its main achievements as having “killed 11,000 Israelis.”

The party, Fatah, made the incendiary claim on Tuesday in an Arabic-language post on one of its official Facebook pages.

“For the argumentative … the ignorant … And for those who do not know history,” begins the Facebook post, “The Fatah movement killed 11,000 Israelis.”

Fatah also claimed to have “offered 170,000 martyrs,” and hundreds of its followers, it said, were in “Israeli occupation jails.” By Thursday the post had been shared 30 times and liked 163 times.

The post garnered additional attention after it was translated into English by Palestinian Media Watch, an organization that monitors anti-Israel and anti-Semitic statements in the Arab news media. The website noted that it was the second time Fatah had made the inaccurate claim. The first was in August 2014.

Israelis and Palestinians have long accused each other of incitement to violence. But in Israeli eyes, Palestinian leaders starting with Yasir Arafat, the father of Palestinian nationalism who helped found Fatah in 1959, have had a habit of saying one thing in Arabic and another in English.

In the early 2000s, at the height of the second Palestinian uprising, Mr. Arafat led crowds in the West Bank city of Ramallah in a chant of “To Jerusalem, we are going, martyrs in the millions!” days after writing an Op-Ed article in The New York Times about the Palestinian vision of peace.

Mr. Abbas, who succeeded Mr. Arafat, has repeatedly said he supports nonviolent resistance against the Israeli occupation. But Fatah has historically championed armed resistance as a central tenet of its doctrine for the liberation of the Palestinian people.

Fatah is now a large and unwieldy movement, and its activists often make statements that do not reflect Mr. Abbas’s position.

“President Abbas’s party boasts about committing mass murder and yet it is called ‘moderate’ by many,” said David Keyes, a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. “Imagine if Palestinian leaders spent their time praising coexistence instead of terror.”

Husam Zomlot, the strategic affairs adviser to Mr. Abbas, first questioned whether the Facebook page was official, and then said it was probably the work of some “hot-blooded youths.”

Mr. Zomlot said that Israeli officials frequently wrote incendiary Facebook posts, and that Fatah’s concerns were elsewhere.

“I’m from Fatah and one of its leaders,” he said. “We present a complete political platform, and the most important thing is to end the Israeli occupation.”

The comments on the official Fatah Facebook page came in the context of coming local and municipal elections that are expected to be held on Oct. 8.

The prospect of the elections is already whipping up strong emotions. They will be the first to be held in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in a decade since Fatah, the mainstream, secularist party that has long dominated the Palestine Liberation Organization, suffered an embarrassing defeat at the hands of Hamas, the Islamist militant group, in legislative elections in 2006.

A year later Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip, routing Fatah’s forces there and confining Mr. Abbas’s influence — and that of his Western-backed Palestinian Authority, which is largely staffed by Fatah loyalists — to parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The West Bank and Gaza have since been divided by a bitter schism. Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union, refuses to recognize Israel’s right to exist and has battled Israel several times in recent years.

The coming elections are seen as an important barometer of public sentiment in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Fatah activists appear particularly nervous about the elections, because Hamas is widely seen by Palestinians as the less corrupt and more efficient party.

A version of this article appears in print on August 5, 2016, on page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: Fatah Makes Public Claim That It Killed 11,000 Israelis. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

Summary: The party, in an effort to appeal to Palestinians ahead of hotly contested elections, also claimed to have “offered 170,000 martyrs.”


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It comes as no surprise that nearly 73 percent of Americans use Facebook every day.

The social network revolutionizes the way we can communicate with other people, especially those whom we would never normally have a direct line of contact to.

For CEOs of major companies, this can be something to take complete advantage of. Facebook becomes a platform for them to directly connect with consumers, employees and the general public all at once.

SEE ALSO: A 33-year-old billionaire CEO shares what his post-college 'cheat sheet' for life would include

But by allowing the public and employees to have such easy access to details about their personal lives, there comes a responsibility for CEOs and business leaders to use Facebook strategically and appropriately to help them leverage an advantage instead of having their account damage their image or brand.

Here are the four biggest mistakes that CEOs make on Facebook:

RELATED: Must-read books by top CEOs

Top 4 mistakes CEOs make on Facebook

“Pour Your Heart into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time” by Howard Schultz (CEO of Starbucks)

“Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman” by Yvon Chouinard (Founder and former CEO of Patagonia)

“Business @ the Speed of Thought: Succeeding in the Digital Economy” by Bill Gates (Co-founder and former CEO of Microsoft)

“The Hard Thing About Hard Things” by Ben Horowitz (Co-Founder of Opsware and Andreessen Horowitz)

“Winning: The Ultimate Business How-To-Book” by Jack Welch (Former CEO of General Electric)

“#GIRLBOSS” by Sophia Amoruso (Founder of Nasty Gal)

“My Years with General Motors” by Alfred Sloan (Former CEO of General Motors)

“Sam Walton: Made in America” by Sam Walton (Founder of WalMart)

“Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose” by Tony Hsieh (CEO of Zappos)

“Direct From Dell: Strategies that Revolutionized an Industry” by (Founder and CEO of Dell)

More on AOL.com: Best Buy CEO nearly halves stake in company, shares fall How playing poker can make you a better CEO Apple CEO Tim Cook reveals his 3 keys for personal success

Summary: For CEOs of major companies, Facebook can become a platform to connect with direct consumers, employees and the general public all at once.


SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — On a recent Friday evening I pulled into the driveway of the weekend home in Santa Barbara that my partner and I have shared for the last couple of years — and registered the first in a series of “Twilight Zone”-ish shocks. The car headlights swept the glass sliders of our modern house, illuminating a reconfiguration of the living room furniture so curious, I half-suspected slippage on the Ventura Fault.

I let myself in, flipped on some lights, and discovered the room had been filled with enough white moth orchids to stock a Home Depot nursery. Our bookshelves, on the other hand, were largely denuded, save for the odd antler fragment or coffee mug. I made my way to our bedroom: more orchids, draped chenille throws, stacks of decorative pillows. It looked like a suite at the Marriott.

As disorienting (and puzzling) as any of the additions to the rooms were the deletions. The missing pieces included the sentimental (photographs), the collectible (a Nakashima table) and the indispensable (the dog bed).

Dee-dee, dee-dee; dee-dee, dee-dee. Submitted for your approval: You return to your home to discover it both is and isn’t your home, an eerie domestic experiment melding the familiar and the strange, because…your house has been staged!

A few weeks earlier, after realizing we weren’t using the place as much as we had hoped to, we had listed it with a real estate agent in the area. It was at our second meeting with the agent that she gently raised the subject of having the house professionally zhooshed for sale. The agency routinely staged its properties, she told us, using the best stager in town. Staged houses (“decluttered and depersonalized”) sold faster. They brought in more money.

My first thought had been: I did my own zhooshing. I once spent an entire evening (a purposeful, chardonnay-fueled evening) finding the perfect spot in the house for a piece of pottery the size of a radish. I used to write for Architectural Digest! I was going to let a stranger pimp my home with vanilla-scented candles and coffee-table books anchored by magnifying glasses?

Then I had an idea. Even our minimally appointed house held a few extraneous items: My collection of vintage shelter magazines. My partner’s Browning 20-gauge shotgun (a gift on his ninth birthday from his father, used once). The small expressionist sculptures our pug had created out of rawhide chews.

I spent a weekend boxing stuff and moving it to the garage.

After that, the rooms were as spare as haiku. A stager would have to conclude that the only expendable was herself.

Then I met the Stager. A stylish, compact blond woman, the Stager had the sphinxlike air of a clairvoyant or a customs officer. “What’s the room with all the books for?” she asked, peering into our library. She proceeded to share her “50 percent rule” for bookshelves: “More than 50 percent of shelf space devoted to books equals clutter.”

Rattled, I followed the Stager and our real estate agent into the bedroom. “We’ll freshen the bedding, remove the sofa and coffee table and repurpose the accessories,” the Stager said, eyeing a carved koa bowl I had picked up in Kauai, Hawaii. “Our goal is a coherent visual narrative.”

“What’s wrong with the bedding?” I asked, noticing a querulous tone creeping into my voice. Our sheets were Pratesi (a Christmas splurge).

She smiled patiently and shifted her gaze to the floor (carpeted, thankfully, in seagrass, the Switzerland of floor coverings).

“This is always hard on sellers,” our real estate agent said. “It’s all part of the letting-go process.”

If so, I thought, surely time would help. When, two weeks later, I drove back to Santa Barbara from our home in Los Angeles, I was confident I had begun to let go, eager to experience the coherent visual narrative the Stager had woven.

I’ll spare the reader the rant our unwitting real estate agent endured. (I sounded like Mrs. Howell on “Gilligan’s Island,” leaning on invective like “ghastly” and “appalling.”) Our real estate agent apologized copiously. She said she would talk to the Stager about destaging the house.

In the meantime, I decided to do a little homework on staging.

The first stager, at least by her own reckoning, was Barb Schwarz, a Seattle real estate agent who started sprucing up homes going to market in 1972. Her previous career in the theater suggested a name for her new profession. “I’m the one who invented the word ‘stage’ to describe fixing up houses for sale,” Ms. Schwarz told me. “I have a federal trademark on it, even though it’s broken all the time.”

Staging, or staging®, has grown exponentially over the years. According to a survey conducted by the National Association of Realtors last year, 34 percent of sellers’ agents rely on staging to move all their homes. And that is just in this country.

“It’s changing real estate all over the world,” said Ms. Schwarz, who estimates she has personally taught staging fundamentals (“green in every room whether it’s a napkin or a plant”) to more than a million students, in places as far-flung as Malta and Japan.

Summary: How a stager turned my home into something I didn’t recognize — and couldn’t imagine living in.


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

More than a million sunflowers are in full bloom at the Serakogen Nojo flower farm in Sera, Japan. The Sunflower Festival is held at the flower farm every year and visitors travel near and far to get the chance to walk through the giant fields.

Check out the stunning photographs below:

Scroll through below to see another incredible flower:

An Amorphophallus titanum begins to bloom at the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG), Thursday, July 28, 2016, in New York. The rare plant releases scent during its brief 24â36-hour peak, like the smell of rotting flesh, the reason the plant is popularly known as the corpse flower. It is the first time since 1939 that the NYBG has displayed a blooming titan-arum. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

An Amorphophallus titanum begins to bloom at the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG), Thursday, July 28, 2016, in New York. The rare plant releases scent during its brief 24â36-hour peak, like the smell of rotting flesh, the reason the plant is popularly known as the corpse flower. It is the first time since 1939 that the NYBG has displayed a blooming titan-arum. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

An Amorphophallus titanum begins to bloom at the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG), Thursday, July 28, 2016, in New York. The rare plant releases scent during its brief 24â36-hour peak, like the smell of rotting flesh, the reason the plant is popularly known as the corpse flower. It is the first time since 1939 that the NYBG has displayed a blooming titan-arum. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

People walk near an Amorphophallus titanum which begins to bloom at the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG), Thursday, July 28, 2016, in New York. The rare plant releases scent during its brief 24â36-hour peak, like the smell of rotting flesh, the reason the plant is popularly known as the corpse flower. It is the first time since 1939 that the NYBG has displayed a blooming titan-arum. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

An Amorphophallus titanum begins to bloom at the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG), Thursday, July 28, 2016, in New York. The rare plant releases scent during its brief 24â36-hour peak, like the smell of rotting flesh, the reason the plant is popularly known as the corpse flower. It is the first time since 1939 that the NYBG has displayed a blooming titan-arum. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

The petals of a rare Corpse flower about to unfurl, left, sit beside the non-flowering version of the plant, right, inside the Haupt Conservatory, Thursday, July 28, 2016, at the New York Botanical Garden in New York. According to the garden, the species, which is native to Sumatra, Indonesia, last bloomed there in 1939. When the petals open, they are only open for a brief 24 to 36-hour window when the plant releases a pungent scent like rotting flesh to attract flies and other pollinators, hence the name. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Summary: More than a million sunflowers are in full bloom at the Serakogen Nojo flower farm in Sera, Japan. And it's beautiful.


The loss of midfielder N'Golo Kante to Chelsea means Leicester will not repeat their shock title win of last season, says former Foxes striker Gary Lineker.

Led by manager Claudio Ranieri, the East Midlands side claimed their maiden Premier League triumph having started the campaign as 5,000-1 outsiders.

France international Kante joined Antonio Conte's team for a fee of around £30m this summer.

"Kante allowed Ranieri to play the system he did," Lineker told BBC Sport.

"He can't do that anymore. Kante was the most unsung of the big three players, but he was probably the most important."

Leicester's stunning season saw them win the title by 10 points from Arsenal, losing only three league games all season.

Algerian midfielder Riyad Mahrez won the PFA Player of the Year award after contributing 17 goals and 11 assists, while England striker Jamie Vardy scored 24 goals.

But defensive midfielder Kante made the most tackles (175) and most interceptions (157) of any player in the top five European leagues.

This season, Leicester are seventh favourites to top the table at 33-1, while none of 33 BBC pundits polled have predicted them to repeat their feat from the 2015-16 season.

Match of the Day presenter Lineker added: "It was a one off.

"I never thought I would see something like that in my lifetime, Leicester winning under those circumstances - or any other club of that stature in this modern age.

"I am sure the league will be a little anti-climactic because they won't do that again but there is the Champions League to look forward to. That will be a wonderful experience for the supporters."

Summary: The loss of N'Golo Kante to Chelsea means Leicester will not repeat their shock title win of last season, says Gary Lineker.


When Bernie Sanders arrives in Portsmouth, N.H., on Tuesday to endorse his bitter rival Hillary Clinton after overwhelmingly losing the Democratic primary, he will be holding a handful of policy victories.

From free college to a tax on carbon emissions, Sanders has managed to finesse some of his liberal policies into the Democratic Party’s platform and cajole Clinton’s campaign into accepting some of his most liberal proposals. Weeks of backroom and telephone negotiations resulted in Sanders-backed policy ideas landing on Clinton’s platform and in the Democratic Party’s blueprint, outlined in a hefty platform draft that was finished last weekend in Orlando.

Sanders’ moderate successes brings him to Portsmouth on Tuesday with something of the swagger of a victor, despite failing by a long shot at his biggest goal of winning the nomination.

“We have made enormous strides,” Sanders boasted in a statement to reporters two days before his expected endorsement for Clinton. “Thanks to the millions of people across the country who got involved in the political process — many for the first time — we now have the most progressive platform in the history of the Democratic Party.”

Sanders’ endorsement will be billed as a unity moment in the Democratic Party when its two wings — the Vermont Senator’s and Clinton’s — come together in an effort to defeat Donald Trump. Sanders, famously stubborn, would likely not give Clinton a full-throated backing without major concessions.

In the short term, it could be a Pyrrhic victory: the policies laid out are not binding, and most of them would likely be rejected in a Republican-controlled Congress. Sanders lost on some major ideas, including Medicare for all and a fracking ban.

And Sanders’ victories may have come at a political price. For weeks after losing the primary, he refused to endorse Clinton, bucking tradition in both parties. He exasperated Democrats and worried even some of his own supporters. He was playing games with the Democratic platform, some detractors charged, and he was losing leverage the longer he refused to get on board. Would he risk installing Trump in the White House?

It was a gamble that depended on Clinton and her allies to cooperate. In fact, Clinton’s camp did play along, in public negotiations in hotel lobbies and private backrooms between Sanders’ campaign manager Jeff Weaver and his Clinton counterpart, Robby Mook, as well as their policy teams and political aides. Much of the platform was officially decided in meetings in St. Louis and Orlando, where Democratic delegates and party officials met to vote on various amendments and proposals.

But Sanders’ coyness in endorsing Clinton may have paid off. By not withholding his endorsement, he pulled Clinton to the table. After all, Sanders could only ever endorse Clinton and help her win the White House if he really agreed with her platform. “We believe we got at least 80% of what we’ve been fighting for,” said Warren Gunnels, Sanders’ top policy adviser.

And by pushing the ideas into the Democratic bloodstream, Sanders may yet see some of them enacted, although it could be years from now.

Here’s a look at some of the issues decided since the final primary in Washington, D.C., on June 14.

Making public college free The Clinton and Sanders campaigns agreed last week on a policy that would make college free for all families making less than $125,000 per year, or 80% of American families. The proposal “will revolutionize the funding of higher education in America,” Sanders said. Sanders has pushed for universal free public college during the primary. The new plan is as close to Sanders’ goal as he could have hoped.

However, even if this plan passes Congress, the plan will be expensive and difficult to implement, and it would rely on skeptical states to take federal grants to pay for many thousands of students’ tuition, a situation that tripped up the Affordable Care Act’s implementation as well.

Expanding health care coverage Sanders did not achieve his favored proposal, which would give Americans government-paid-for health insurance, paid for by a middle-class tax increase. Instead, he won a semblance of a compromise, which Clinton announced over the weekend: an expansion of community-based primary-care services and establishing a public-option insurance plan.

“It is a significant step forward as we advance toward the goal of health care for all Americans,” Sanders said in a call with reporters on Tuesday. The plan is nowhere close, however, to Sanders’ Medicare-for-all plan, a large government program that was voted down by the Democratic platform committee.

Instituting a $15 minimum wage Over the weekend, Sanders supporters won firm language in the party platform in support of raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Clinton supported a $12 minimum wage during the Democratic primary, and her delegates initially opposed including firm language in the party platform. This was a centerpiece of Sanders’ campaign speech.

No firm language on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Both Sanders and Clinton opposed the massive new free-trade deal in its current form, but Sanders went a step further: he wanted it to never even appear for a vote. He pushed for that specific language in the Democratic Party’s platform, a move that would contravene the sitting President, who supports the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The party refused, and Sanders lost. “The loss on TPP was a very significant defeat,” said Gunnels, the policy adviser, who wanted to ensure it is not voted on in the lame-duck session between the November election and the start of the next President’s first term in January.

More banking regulation Sanders won a tenet in the party platform that recommends calls for breaking up large Wall Street institutions that are “too big to fail” and creating a wall between commercial and investment banking, or a “modern-day Glass-Steagall” act. That was a position that Clinton did not support during the primary: she has her own Wall Street regulation plan that focuses on hedge funds and what the campaign has called “shadow banking.” Sanders’ allies and progressives see this as a major victory.

Abolishing the death penalty The party’s draft platform calls for abolishing the death penalty, a view that Sanders maintained during the primary. Clinton has supported the death penalty in rare cases.

Taxing carbon emissions A contentious platform issue that Clinton did not take a position on during the primary, Sanders pushed hard for a carbon tax, which conservatives see as a major burden on businesses. Sanders’ delegates on the platform committee were able to push for an aggressive price on carbon and methane emissions.

No ban on fracking Sanders had made a ban on fracking a centerpiece of his campaign, culminating in a testy exchange during a Democratic debate. Clinton has said that she will regulate fracking. The Vermont Senator campaigned on it heavily in New York State and employed surrogates to make his case. But the party platform ultimately voted against a fracking ban.

Marijuana The party platform calls for removing marijuana as a Schedule-1 drug, a category that includes drugs with no currently accepted medical use, like heroin. This was a position Sanders supported throughout the primary.

Summary: A mix of policy ideas makes its way into the Democratic platform


At least 34 Libyan fighters have been killed and more than 180 wounded as they closed in on the last Islamic State militant holdouts in the coastal city of Sirte, according to field hospitals.

Forces aligned with Libya's UN-backed government, supported since August by US air strikes, have pushed militants back into a small residential area in central Sirte in a three-month-old campaign.

Heavy fighting resumed on Sunday after a one-week lull.

The Libyan brigades, mostly from the city of Misrata, say they are close to victory in Sirte, but they have struggled to defend themselves against suicide bombings, sniper fire and landmines.

On Sunday several brigades stationed close to Sirte's seafront advanced several hundred metres eastwards through Sirte's neighbourhood, while other fighters overran Islamic State positions in street-to-street fighting to the south.

Fighters used tanks, rocket-propelled grenades and anti-aircraft guns to try to blast through Islamic State sniper positions.

The Misrata-led brigades said there had been five attempted car bombings on Sunday in a "desperate attempt to disrupt the advance", though at least one of the bombs had been destroyed before it could reach its target.

The front lines in Sirte were quieter earlier this week as government-led forces said they were giving time to the wives and children of Islamic State fighters to leave the battle zone.

Almost all the city's estimated 80,000 residents left after Islamic State took full control of the city last year, turning it into its regional stronghold and expanding its presence along about 250 km of coastline.

The United States has carried out dozens of air strikes against Islamic State positions and vehicles in Sirte.

Libyan commanders say some Islamic State militants probably escaped around the start of the campaign to recapture Sirte in May, and their forces have been trying to secure the desert to the south and west of Sirte.

Summary: Some 34 Libyan fighters are dead, after a renewed push against the last Islamic State militant holdouts in the coastal city of Sirte.


Former President Bill Clinton meets rapper Jay-Z at Beyoncé's 35th birthday party

Adam Schultz for Hillary for America

updated 09/05/2016 AT 11:00 AM EDT

•originally published 09/04/2016 AT 08:40 PM EDT

didn't take time off during Labor Day weekend – he was busy getting young voters to show up to the polls in November.

Of course, he also took time to wish longtime

An aide to the former president tells PEOPLE that Clinton made an "impromptu visit" to

's Made in America festival in Philadelphia Sunday to visit with volunteers registering voters.

"Hillary for Pennsylvania has had a voter registration booth throughout the festival, helping work toward achieving the campaign's national goal of registering or committing to vote 3 million Americans ahead of November," the insider says.

"President Clinton thanked the volunteers for their commitment to Hillary Clinton's campaign and for doing the hard work of expanding the electorate in Pennsylvania," the source added.

Clinton, Beyoné and Jay Z were spotted chatting and smiling in the VIP area, with Clinton taking Beyoncé's hand at one point in the conversation. Other stars in the ultra-exclusive section included gold medal-winning basketball star

and Chance the Rapper, whose festival performance was watched by Clinton.

"President Clinton spent time with Jay Z and Beyoncé and Chance the Rapper," the insider reveals. "He also saw

. He saw Jay's mother, Gloria Carter, and told her how proud she must be of her son."

From left: Jay Z, Bill Clinton and Beyoncé

Adam Schultz for Hillary for America

Jay Z and Bill Clinton

Adam Schultz for Hillary for America

Queen Bey is a longtime supporter of Clinton's wife, even attending

for the presidential hopeful last May.

The singer even celebrated her birthday on Sunday at the festival, and Clinton was sure to wish her well, the aide says.

The Made in America festival, which was founded by Jay Z, is a two-day event featuring performances from some of the biggest names in music, including

, Coldplay, Chance the Rapper, Desiigner, FKA twigs and DJ Khaled, just to name a few.

London Ent / Splash News

Bill Clinton watches a performance by Chance the Rapper

Adam Schultz for Hillary for America

– took the stage on Satuday, with Jay Z and Beyoncé's friends Coldplay scheduled to close out the night on Sunday.

Aside from mingling with a former POTUS, Beyoncé also celebrated her big day by releasing the

for "Hold Up" on YouTube.

Summary: Beyoncé also turned 35 on Sunday


Minto stabbing victim Wayne Greenhalgh didn't think he'd survive an alleged Islamic State-inspired terror attack near his home, but he's pleaded for people not to retaliate against Muslims.

The 57-year-old grandfather has spoken for the first time after being stabbed several times in the attack in south-west Sydney earlier this month.

His alleged attacker, 22-year-old Ihsas Khan, has been charged with committing a terrorist act and attempted murder.

Mr Greenhalgh told the Nine Network his alleged attacker approached him in a "very strange" encounter while he was out for a walk.

"He opened the backpack ... Took out this big massive knife. I thought to myself, what the hell?" he told A Current Affair.

"It was frightening. I looked at my hand here ... just the bone was hanging out and everything was everywhere - there were cuts everywhere."

Mr Greenhalgh feared he wouldn't survive the ordeal, urging a neighbour while he was on a stretcher to contact his family.

"I closed my eyes and I said to myself, 'I'm going now'," he said.

"But he didn't beat me and that's the main thing."

However, Mr Greenhalgh is calling for community unity and doesn't want to see reprisal attacks against Muslims.

He meets Muslims everyday walking around the neighbourhood.

"The kids, I always stir the kids up, 'hello, hello' and I say hello to the mums and dads.

"They're bloody good people, there's nothing wrong with them. They're all happy and friendly and they all know me."

Summary: Wayne Greenhalgh has spoken for the first time about the stabbing he endured in an alleged terror attack in Minto.


Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle

The only big numbers Torrey Smith has seen during his stay with the 49ers have been on his paycheck. He’s coming a season in which he had career lows in both catches and yards.

The only big numbers Torrey Smith has seen during his stay with the 49ers have been on his paycheck. He’s coming a season in which he had career lows in both catches and yards.

Morris Claiborne (24) intercepts a pass intended for Torrey Smith (82) in the fourth quarter as the San Francisco 49ers played the Dallas Cowboys at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, October 2, 2016.

Morris Claiborne (24) intercepts a pass intended for Torrey Smith (82) in the fourth quarter as the San Francisco 49ers played the Dallas Cowboys at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, October 2,

CHARLOTTE, NC - SEPTEMBER 18: Torrey Smith #82 of the San Francisco 49ers makes a touchdown catch against James Bradberry #24 of the Carolina Panthers during the game at Bank of America Stadium on September 18, 2016 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)

CHARLOTTE, NC - SEPTEMBER 18: Torrey Smith #82 of the San Francisco 49ers makes a touchdown catch against James Bradberry #24 of the Carolina Panthers during the game at Bank of America Stadium on September

CHARLOTTE, NC - SEPTEMBER 18: Torrey Smith #82 of the San Francisco 49ers scores a touchdown against James Bradberry #24 of the Carolina Panthers in the 2nd quarter during the game at Bank of America Stadium on September 18, 2016 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)

CHARLOTTE, NC - SEPTEMBER 18: Torrey Smith #82 of the San Francisco 49ers scores a touchdown against James Bradberry #24 of the Carolina Panthers in the 2nd quarter during the game at Bank of America Stadium on

San Francisco 49ers' Vance McDonald and Torrey Smith against Los Angeles Rams during NFL game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Monday, September 12, 2016.

San Francisco 49ers' Vance McDonald and Torrey Smith against Los Angeles Rams during NFL game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Monday, September 12, 2016.

49ers’ Torrey Smith paying price for signing $40 million deal

Last year, in the 49ers’ fourth regular-season game, a 17-3 home loss to the Packers, wide receiver Torrey Smith angrily ripped off his chinstrap and stormed to the bench after a third-down throw from Colin Kaepernick was wildly off target.

Smith later acknowledged his emotions got the best of him during the 49ers’ third straight loss.

“Yeah, my body language was horrible at times,” Smith said. “I should never let my frustrations show, especially to y’all. That’s not a good thing. I’ll work at that.”

On Sunday, in the 49ers’ fourth regular-season game, a 24-17 home loss to the Cowboys, Smith angrily hurled his helmet to the ground as he stormed to the bench after a deep throw from Blaine Gabbert was badly underthrown and intercepted.

On Tuesday, Smith acknowledged his emotions got the best of him during the 49ers’ third straight loss.

“It was just a little frustrating moment,” Smith said. “It’s not going to happen again. Even though there are times where I know I’ll be mad again, I’m not going to let it show. I haven’t done that too much in my career, probably a handful of times.”

The 49ers are giving Smith a lot of cash, but the wide receiver is clearly paying a price for signing a five-year, $40 million deal last year.

With Anquan Boldin in Detroit, Smith is the 49ers’ slam-dunk No. 1 wide receiver this season, but he ranks 70th in the NFL in targets (22) and is on pace for 36 catches and 424 yards. His slow start comes on the heels of his debut season with the 49ers, which included career lows in receptions (33) and yards (663).

On Tuesday, Smith was asked if he’d been receiving an inordinate amount of attention from secondaries this season. He clearly doesn’t think that’s been the issue.

“I’ve been getting open,” Smith said. “You can go look at the film; I’ve been getting open.”

The speedy Smith is probably pining for the days when he paired with Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco, a deep-ball thrower who helped him average 53 catches, 898 yards and win a Super Bowl in his first four seasons.

With the 49ers, Smith played his first eight games with Kaepernick, whose performance led to a demotion. He’s since played his past 12 games with Gabbert, who this season ranks 29th in the NFL in completion percentage (58.0), 30th in passer rating (73.9) and 32nd in yards per attempt (6.1).

On Sunday, Gabbert targeted Smith with two of his 23 passes. The first target was the deep fourth-quarter pass that was intercepted by cornerback Morris Claiborne. His second target was a 3-yard completion on 4th-and-6 from the Cowboys’ 35-yard line with 1:49 remaining.

Before he was targeted with a pass, Smith angrily punched his right arm in the air after Gabbert threw incomplete to Jeremy Kerley on 3rd-and-2 early in the fourth quarter. The incompletion was part of an offensive performance that included three points in the final 44 minutes.

“I’m fine being patient,” Smith said. “I’m completely fine not getting the ball, as long as we’re moving the ball and we’re scoring points. I’ll never complain about that. But when it’s tough, and I’m waiting, and I know we have the opportunity to change the game like that and we miss, it’s tough.”

Smith was referencing the would-be 55-yard touchdown pass that Claiborne picked off after he was clearly beaten on the play.

“It’s hard to get that open, period, in the NFL, especially on deep shots,” Smith said. “We’ve just got to make it hit. That’s a game-changing play for us.”

Smith clearly remains frustrated, but spoke calmly and matter of factly at his locker Tuesday. He insisted he’s “awesome mentally,” and Gabbert said there’s no friction in their relationship.

“Torrey and I are fine,” Gabbert said. “It was one play. We both wanted to hit on it. It was a big play in that football game and it didn’t turn out.”

Of course, Smith’s frustration isn’t confined to one play. He’s had fewer than 50 receiving yards in 13 of 20 games with the 49ers, and is presently part of the league’s lowest-ranked passing attack (178.8 yards per game).

“I’ve been saying since the beginning of the year our team is only going to go as far as our passing game goes,” Smith said. “We have to take pride in that and get it going.”

Eric Branch is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ebranch@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @Eric_Branch

Summary: Last year, in the 49ers’ fourth regular-season game, a 17-3 home loss to the Packers, wide receiver Torrey Smith angrily ripped off his chinstrap and stormed to the bench after a third-down throw from Colin Kaepernick was wildly off target.  Smith later acknowledged his emotions got the best of him during the 49ers’ third straight loss.  On Sunday, in the 49ers’ fourth regular-season game, a 24-17 home loss to the Cowboys, Smith angrily hurled his helmet to the ground as he stormed to the bench after a deep throw from Blaine Gabbert was badly underthrown and intercepted.  On Tuesday, Smith acknowledged his emotions got the best of him during the 49ers’ third straight loss.  The 49ers are giving Smith a lot of cash, but the wide receiver is clearly paying a price for signing a five-year, $40 million deal last year.  With Anquan Boldin in Detroit, Smith is the 49ers’ slam-dunk No. 1 wide receiver this season, but he ranks 70th in the NFL in targets (22) and is on pace for 36 catches and 424 yards.  On Tuesday, Smith was asked if he’d been receiving an inordinate amount of attention from secondaries this season.  The speedy Smith is probably pining for the days when he paired with Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco, a deep-ball thrower who helped him average 53 catches, 898 yards and win a Super Bowl in his first four seasons.  The first target was the deep fourth-quarter pass that was intercepted by cornerback Morris Claiborne.  Before he was targeted with a pass, Smith angrily punched his right arm in the air after Gabbert threw incomplete to Jeremy Kerley on 3rd-and-2 early in the fourth quarter.  The incompletion was part of an offensive performance  that included three points in the final 44 minutes.  Smith was referencing the would-be 55-yard touchdown pass that Claiborne picked off after he was clearly beaten on the play.


The Department of Labor sued technology manufacturer Analogic Corp. on allegations that it paid some 40 female assembly employees at its Peabody offices less than male workers who performed the same work.

A medical device and security technology company that has numerous contracts with the US government, Analogic is subject to an executive order that prohibits workplace discrimination at federal vendors. A compliance review by regulators found that since 2012 the company had engaged in “systematic discriminatory treatment in the compensation of women employed” in two assembly-line positions.

“Our investigation found that Analogic knew or should have known that its total compensation policies discriminated against female assemblers on the basis of gender,” said Patricia A. Shiu, director of the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs.

The complaint was filed with the Labor Department’s Office of Administrative Law Judges.

Mark J. Namaroff, Analogic’s director of investor relations, said the allegations have no merit and the company will defend itself.

“The lawsuit arises out of a routine Department of Labor audit initiated in 2012,” Namaroff said in an e-mail. “We strive to treat all of our employees fairly and we do not tolerate discrimination anywhere in our organization.”

Some of the affected workers were employees of a Canton company that Analogic had bought and then moved their work to its Peabody base.

The suit orders Analogic to eliminate compensation disparities between female and male employees in two assembly positions; provide back pay, interest, salary adjustments, fringe benefits, and seniority to the affected female workers; and take other measures.

If Analogic fails to comply, the agency is asking the court to cancel the company’s government contracts and bar future contracts until its personnel and employment policies comply with the executive order.

Summary: Suit says female assembly line workers were paid less than male colleagues.


A woman has admitted kicking a high school student during a brawl in Melbourne over a love triangle that resulted in the teenager's death.

Sirui Luo, 22, and 23-year-old Hanjie Liu appeared before the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Wednesday charged with assault and affray over the death of Long Xiang Hu in April.

Mr Hu, 19, was a student at Melbourne's Yarra Valley Grammar school and died on April 23 in Royal Melbourne Hospital after being put on life support.

The student sustained multiple blows to his head and body during a fight with four other people at La Trobe Place on April 15.

A 17-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had arranged to meet Mr Hu there because Mr Hu was in a relationship with a woman the teen was interested in.

After the pre-arranged fight, Mr Hu asked to go to a hotel room because he was sleepy.

His condition deteriorated overnight and his friends drove him to the hospital on April 16. He was placed on life support and died eight days later.

Luo was charged with common law assault over the fatal brawl, while Liu was charged with assault and affray.

The 17-year-old has previously appeared before a children's court charged with affray and common law assault.

Shengliang Wan, 22, has been charged with Mr Hu's murder and also appeared before the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Wednesday.

Wan is accused of stomping on the teen's head a number of times.

Police say the majority of the brawl was captured by a CCTV camera.

Lawyers for Luo and Liu told the court the pair plan to plead guilty to assault and affray at their next court appearance in November.

Counsel for Luo said his client will admit she kicked the victim once in the leg or knee area.

Wan is contesting the murder charge and will face a committal hearing in 2017 which will determine if he should stand trial.

Summary: Two Chinese students have admitted their involvement in a Melbourne brawl that resulted in the death of another international student.


NSW firefighters have made the most of cooler conditions to bring two massive blazes closer to containment.

NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) firefighters took advantage of light rain and cool weather overnight to tackle the Lone Pine fire near Port Stephens, which has burnt through 9000 hectares, a spokesman said on Wednesday morning.

That fire remains at advice level, the lowest threat level assigned to active bushfires.

The Kundabung fire near Kempsey has also been downgraded to advice level, and the fire danger for most of the state was considered low on Wednesday.

Firefighters are hopeful that with cool weather expected to hold out in the area for the next 24 hours they will be able to bring the two fires under control.

But an RFS spokesman said firefighters were not out of the woods yet, with hot weather predicted for the coming weekend, 47 fires still blazing across the state and a high fire danger rating currently in place for the far north coast.

Summary: Cooler conditions have allowed firefighters to make inroads in containing two large out-of-control fires in NSW and are expected to hold out for another day.


A former adult educator, in retirement Lonie has teamed with the Auburn Community Centre to establish a program to teach english as a second language to refugees. Lonie was key to founding the class and is also the teacher. She feels that her volunteer work in retirement is a natural extension of her career.Through contributing positively to her local community, Lonie is able to pass on and pay forward the skills and knowledge life has taught her. By preparing well for retirement, Lonie is able to spend her time bettering the lives of those around her.

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Summary: ADVERTISER CONTENT FROM COLONIAL FIRST STATE HOSTED BY THE GUARDIAN | A former adult educator, in retirement Lonie has teamed with the Auburn Community Centre to establish a program to teach english as a second language to refugees. Lonie was key to founding the class and is also the teacher. She feels that her volunteer work in retirement is a natural extension of her career.Through contributing positively to her local community, Lonie is able to pass on and pay forward the skills and knowledge life has taught her. By preparing well for retirement, Lonie is able to spend her time bettering the lives of those around her.


South Korea's three opposition parties have introduced a bill for parliament to impeach President Park Geun-hye who, tainted by a corruption scandal, could become the first democratically elected leader to leave office early in disgrace.

The bill, signed by 171 members of the 300-seat unicameral assembly, said on Saturday that Park had violated the constitution and criminal law by abusing her presidential power.

"We hereby propose impeachment proceedings to protect the constitution and restore constitutional order by removing President Park Geun-hye from office," it said.

"The will of the people that President Park Geun-hye should be made to cease exercising the duty of president is clear. The sovereign will has been shown clearly through rallies and protests peacefully attended by countless numbers of the public regardless of generation, ideology or background."

Park has come under intense pressure to step down, with hundreds of thousands of people streaming into the streets demanding her resignation at successive weekend rallies, which have remained peaceful.

Another large protest rally demanding she step down immediately is planned for later on Saturday, the sixth weekend protest in succession.

Park is accused of colluding with a friend, Choi Soon-sil, who has been accused of abuse of power, to put undue pressure on conglomerates to contribute money to foundations that were set up to promote her policy initiatives.

Park has denied wrongdoing but has apologised to the South Koreans.

The three opposition parties said on Friday they will hold a parliamentary impeachment vote on Park on December 9. A bill once introduced is reviewed by the parliament secretariat, a formality, before it can be reported to the plenary session.

The bill was expected to go to the session on Thursday, according to the parties.

The three opposition parties have enough members to bring the impeachment but will need 28 members from Park's Saenuri Party to bring the vote to the two-thirds majority required to pass the bill.

It was not clear whether enough Saenuri members would support the vote. There are seven non-party affiliated members plus the Speaker who are expected to give their backing.

Some Saenuri members had earlier said they would join the opposition parties to impeach Park but changed their position after Park offered to quit, saying she should be given the chance to step down of her own accord by April.

Summary: Three South Korean opposition parties have introduced a bill accusing Park Geun-hye of violating the constitution and abusing her presidential power.


The expert who reviewed mental health at Victoria's fire service says it is "bizarre" that the firefighters' union is blocking the release of his report.

Peter Cotton started an independent review of mental health in the MFB after three firefighters committed suicide.

But the United Firefighters Union has taken the MFB to the Fair Work Commission to block the report's release, arguing it vilifies firefighters.

"This response is absolutely unprecedented and frankly quite bizarre, in my experience," Dr Cotton told 3AW on Tuesday.

"The union's response is now actually putting members' mental health and wellbeing at risk, I'll go that far to say that."

A union spokeswoman said the union was not making a public response to the report, but it would be represented at Wednesday morning's Fair Work hearing.

Dr Cotton said he had a "good discussion" with the union during consultation for the report, and it was entirely independent and fair.

"If management had attempted to interfere or influence or massage the report, I would have pulled the plug," he said.

He also said the union stopped a letter from Beyond Blue chairman Jeff Kennett, written to support firefighters and their families, from being sent out.

The case will be heard at the Fair Work Commission in Melbourne on Wednesday at 11am.

Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or the Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467.

Summary: Victoria's firefighting union is fighting to block the release of a review of mental health in Melbourne's fire service.


Fire crews are using favourable weather to increase back burning and get on top of a Tasmanian bushfire that's been burning for almost a week.

The public is warned they could see increased smoke from the Runnymede fire, in bush northeast of Hobart due to intensive back burning.

"Efforts will be made this afternoon to remove fuel between our constructed containment lines and the fire whilst we are experiencing more moderate conditions and little wind," Incident Controller Claudio Muench said on Sunday.

Firefighters were challenged on Saturday with gusty conditions.

The fire started on Tuesday and has burnt 2200 hectares of private land, state forest and conservation area, however there is no threat to communities.

Summary: Intensive back burning is underway northeast of Hobart, to get on top of a Tasmanian bushfire that's been burning for almost a week.


This article originally appeared on RealSimple.com.

We’ve long treated our dogs like humans, dressing them in sweaters, letting them sleep in our beds—even painting their nails. So it makes sense that we’re eager to attribute their canine behavior to human emotions, crediting a wagging tail to joy or lowered eyes to shame. Yet while research has shown dogs feel love and affection, more complicated emotions like embarrassment and guiltdon’t seem to be in their repertoire.

(MORE: 8 Scientifically-Backed Ways to Feel Happier Right Now)

But here’s one that might be: Scientists at UC San Diego have found evidence suggesting that dogs could actually be capable of jealousy.

Although Charles Darwin wrote about dogs’ jealousy in 1871 and dog owners have been quick to offer anecdotal evidence ever since, there’s never been scientific proof of the phenomenon.

This experiment involved 36 dogs and their owners. The owners petted an animated toy dog while their real dog was in the room. They also petted and played with a jack-o-lantern, and sat reading a noise-making children’s book. Observers wrote down and cataloged the dogs’ reactions to each of these three situations, which ranged from biting, barking, and pushing at either the toy or the owner.

(MORE: 40 Classic Children’s Books)

The dogs were more likely to show signs of aggression, attention-seeking behavior, and a heightened interest in their owners when the fake dog was the object of affection. Most of the dogs clearly thought the stuffed dog was real: 86 percent inspected and sniffed its butt at some point during the experiment.

“We can’t really speak to the dogs’ subjective experiences, of course,” study author and psychology professor Christine Harris said in a release. “But it looks as though they were motivated to protect an important social relationship.”

So is this behavior really the green-eyed monster as we know it? Not quite. Researchers called the envious emotion that dogs experience a “primordial” type of jealousy rather than the complicated thoughts that torment adult humans.

Infants show this instinctive kind of jealousy, too, when their mothers shower affection on another baby. The scientists behind the study say this could be evidence that jealousy is an innate emotion, like fear or anger, that humans share in common with other social creatures.

So if it seems like Fido is giving you the cold paw after you’ve shown some love to another dog, it might not be your imagination.

(MORE: How Not to Apologize)

Summary: A new study offers scientific backing to a long-reported anecdotal phenomenon. But canine envy is a little different from the human kind.