The idea of skies filled with autonomous flying robots that change the way people interact with the world has grown in popularity amongst futurists and entrepreneurs alike. Largely absent from the public conversation is a discussion about the inherent shortcomings in unmanned aerial systems: namely that without a human pilot aerial vehicles are flying blind.

Autonomous drones can fly extremely well, but they lack perception having zero awareness of other aircraft operating in their immediate vicinity. This makes the idea of dozens (hundreds, or even thousands) of commercial drones navigating the same airspace while avoiding obstacles like planes and power lines unfeasible. Factor in that the majority of aircrafts in the sky these days are manned and it becomes not only unrealistic but also potentially dangerous.

But, this could be the year that all that change thanks to two decidedly unsexy technologies that are quietly undergoing mini-revolutions of their own. Neither is brand new, but both are falling precipitously in cost and size. These new breeds of radar and electronic systems could transform both the aviation industry and open the door to a genuine commercial drone revolution.

The first technology, automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (or ADS-B), is something most people only hear about after, say, an airliner vanishes like Malaysia Airlines 370 did last year.

ADS-B is a pricey, and often heavy, on-board aircraft tracking technology that not only determines an aircraft’s own position in space via satellites, but also periodically broadcasts its position and direction. Each broadcast can be picked up not only by air traffic controller towers, but also critically by other aircraft in the area. The automated nature of ADS-B lends itself particularly well to robotic drones since computers are well-suited for the multitasking needed to track multiple aircraft at one time.

Transportation authorities are slowly but surely moving toward making ADS-B an industry standard for all manned commercial aviation. Currently, ADS-B isn’t required on all aircraft. The still-missing Malaysia Airlines jet was not equipped with the technology, while GermanWings flight 9525 was

In the U.S. plans are in place to add the technology to all flights as part of the FAA’s NextGen strategy to upgrade national airspace due to the enhanced safety it imparts.

Small and inexpensive ADS-B units don’t just have major implications for general aviation but for unmanned navigation and guidance as well. If ADS-B components can be made small, lightweight and—most importantly—inexpensive, they could become industry standard for commercial drones as well.

Enter Google GOOG , which recently announced that its engineers have set out to develop small, lightweight ADS-B units that cost less than $2,000. “We think that—and we are going to do this—we will head-down the trajectory of putting into the marketplace really, really low-cost ADS-B solutions,” Dave Vos, the director of Google’s Project Wing, said during the International Civil Aviation Organization in March. Project Wing is Google’s latest initiative aimed at developing viable commercial delivery drones.

Lightweight, sub-$2,000 ADS-B units would create situational awareness for drones allowing them to fly in shared airspace with both unmanned aviation and manned aviation as well as existing air traffic control systems.

Similarly, a company out of Bellevue, Wa. called Echodyne is developing a way to incorporate the same kind of sophisticated scanning beam radar used by fighter jets—to scan and track objects—into the average quadrotor. The company has found a way to replace the typically bulky apparatus that directs radio waves—a mechanism known as a phase shifter—and replace it with a novel new device made from highly-tuned synthetic materials known as metamaterials.

Echodyne has already been able to demonstrate a small electronically scanning radar on a quadrotor drone, one capable of tracking an individual on the ground or avoiding obstacles during flight, but is still prototyping.

Echodyne’s CTO Tom Driscoll says he is confident that he and his team can get the size down to roughly that of an iPhone6 Plus and the weight down to less than one pound—plenty small for most commercially available drones on the market today. Moreover, the cost will be such that commercial drones could come standard with sophisticated scanning array radar. “Our canned answer is that Echodyne will be providing radar solutions in the thousands and tens of thousands of dollars,” Driscoll tells Fortune. “But we can feasibly see a sub-$1,000 system.”

A 360-degree spatial awareness at that price point could—either alongside ADS-B or independent of it—provide the “sense-and-avoid” capability that drones today sorely lack.

Summary: Better, smaller and cheaper situational awareness will fuel the next leap forward in the commercial drone industry.


DENVER — They’re ubiquitous in Asia, swarming the bustling streets of Bangkok, New Delhi, and Beijing.

Now, a company that manufactures the tuk-tuk — the three-wheeled motorized rickshaws that have moved the masses for more than half a century — aims to make inroads in the United States.

The Tuk Tuk Factory, based in Amsterdam, has signed a licensing agreement with Denver-based eTuk USA to allow the company to manufacture and sell an electric version of the vehicle. The company’s founders hope the ecofriendly vehicles, a far cry from the loud, pollution-spewing versions common in Asia and South America, will become the next hip mode of transportation for urban dwellers and tourists across the country.

It’s too soon to know if Americans will embrace tuk-tuks, but Michael Fox, director of sales and marketing for eTuk USA, says the company has been selling the vehicles across the country to individuals, marketing companies, and food vendors for between $16,950 and $25,000, depending on how they are customized.

The three partners’ other company, eTuk Denver, launched a call-and-demand shuttle service in downtown Denver after receiving approval from the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, which regulates for-hire transportation services.

The service is the latest entrant into an increasingly crowded field of transportation options that includes pedicabs, car-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft and golf-cart taxis.

But like car-sharing services, the tuk-tuk has faced some pushback from a handful of cab companies and other shuttle operators — and raised concerns about the vehicles’ safety.

Terry Bote, a commission spokesman, said several cab and shuttle companies were able to restrict where tuk-tuks can operate, what types and how many vehicles can be used, and how many passengers each can carry.

But even with the restrictions, Fox said his service can complement Denver’s bus and light rail systems. He noted the ‘‘last-mile concept,’’ a term that has been used by urban planners to describe the difficulty of getting people from places like a railway station or a bus depot to their final destination.

Because the tuk-tuks are classified as motorcycles by the federal government, drivers would have had to wear eye protection and get a motorcycle endorsement for the license. Anyone under 18 also would have had to wear a helmet.

But state Representative Paul Rosenthal said such requirements for vehicles that travel short distances at low speeds don’t make sense. On May 4, lawmakers passed Rosenthal’s bill to strip those curbs for three-wheeled motorcycles with a windshield, seat belts, and a top speed of 25 miles per hour. Each shuttle model also has undergone a standard commercial vehicle inspection to make sure it complies with federal safety standards.

Summary: A company that makes tuk-tuks — three-wheeled motorized rickshaws ubiquitous in Asia — aims to make inroads in the United States.


Not too many years ago it looked as if ships would die out as a mode of transportation. As a means of crossing the world's oceans, they have practically faded away, but as a way of enabling travelers to enjoy a cruise vacation at sea they are flourishing, so much so that at least five liners are now under construction, and a sixth is planned.

Going into service in 1982 and 1983 will be the Tropicale of Carnivale Cruise Lines, the Atlantic of Home Lines, the Scandinavia of Scandinavian World Cruises, the Fairsky of Sitmar Cruises and the Nieuw Amsterdam of Holland America Cruises, which is planning a second ship that is not yet named.

The first to be completed is the Tropicale, scheduled to enter cruise service next January. Termed the ''ship of the 90's,'' the 30,000-ton vessel will be the ninth largest passenger ship in the world. She is being built at the Aalborg Shipyard in Denmark at a cost of $100 million. The Tropicale will have nine passenger decks, and 95 percent of the cabins will have twin beds that can convert to king-size beds. Each cabin will have its own closed-circuit TV set.

The first all-new passenger ship constructed since 1974, the Tropicale will have such advances in engineering as controlled pitch propellers, computerized bridge control, stabilizers and bow thrusters. The navigation bridge will be enclosed and airconditioned, providing protection for the electronic equipment, and the ship's propeller will be controlled directly from the bridge, eliminating the engine room telegraph and permitting greater control of the vesssel during maneuvering.

The Tropicale will be operated on the West Coast by Carnival and Westours of Seattle after an initial period in the Caribbean. The ship will leave the Caribbean on May 15, 1982, for a trans-Panama Canal positioning cruise and then on June 5 begin a series of sevenday Alaska cruises out of Vancouver with weekly calls at Ketchikan, Juneau, Glacier Bay and Sitka. On Sept. 12 the Tropicale will begin sailing out of Los Angeles on seven-day Mexican Riviera cruises, calling at Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlan.

The Atlantic, a 30,000-ton liner costing about $100 million and capable of carrying 1,155 passengers, is to be launched in La Seynesur-Mer, a suburb of Toulon on the south coast of France. The yard, Constructions Navales et Industrielles de la Mediterranee, is the one that built the Sagafjord for Norwegian America Cruises in 1965. Fitting and completion will take about a year. The Atlantic's delivery date is early March 1982, and the first run, from New York to Bermuda, is planned for April 1982.

The Scandinavia is being built at the Dubiegeon shipyard in Nantes, France, and will cost approximately $104 million. She will weigh 20,000 tons and carry 1,600 passengers. When she enters service in July 1982 she will operate between New York and Freeport on Grand Bahama Island, sailing every five days. A feature of the Scandinavia will be her ability to carry 400 automobiles, and passengers booking a round trip between New York and Miami will be offered free transport of their cars. The Scandinavia will connect in Freeport with another Scandinavian World Cruises vessel, the Scandinavian Sun (the former Caribe of Commodore Cruise Line), which is scheduled to begin daily voyages between Miami and Freeport in November. The Scandinavian Sun will also carry autos and will enable travelers to take their cars between New York and Florida.

The Scandinavia will have a mechanically operated glass roof over the sports deck, television sets showing first-run movies in each cabin, a multi-channel music and radio system in each cabin and meeting facilities.

The Fairsky, a $140 million vessel, is scheduled for delivery during the first quarter of 1983. She will weigh 37,000 tons and have a passenger capacity of about 1,200. Like the Atlantic, the ship is being built by Constructions Navales et Industrielles de la Mediterranee. She is expected to operate in the Caribbean for part of her schedule, with the possibility of seasonal European cruises.

The Nieuw Amsterdam of Holland America Cruises is being built at Chantiers de L'Antlantique at St. Nazaire in France. The 32,000-ton vessel is expected to be commissioned on March 31, 1983. She will cost $135 million and have a cruise capacity of about 1,200 passengers. The 11-deck ship will be the third Holland America vessel to be christened Nieuw Amsterdam.

The first ship of that name dated from 1906 and was a 17,149-ton liner that sailed the Atlantic between Holland and the United States until 1932. The second Nieuw Amsterdam was completed in 1938 and had a gross tonnage of 36,982. She sailed between Holland and the United States until World War II and was converted to a troopship. Following the war she returned to trans-Atlantic service and later became a cruise vessel, sailing to Bermuda, the Caribbean, South America, the North Cape and the Mediterranean. Costa Party Ships

Costa Cruises refers to its ship the Flavia, which sails from Miami to the Bahamas on three- and four-day cruises, as a party ship. The line will add a second party ship to its Bahamas program on April 3 when the Amerikanis begins sailing out of Fort Lauderdale. The threeday Bahamas cruises of both the Flavia and the Amerikanis are to Nassau; the four-day cruises are to Freeport and Nassau. The Amerikanis, on charter from Chandris Cruises, is now sailing from San Juan on Caribbean cruises, the last of which will begin March 21.


THE INNER AMERICAN A Self-Portrait From 1957 to 1976. By Joseph Veroff, Elizabeth Douvan and Richard A. Kulka. 637 pp. New York: Basic Books. $36. MENTAL HEALTH IN AMERICA Patterns of Help-Seeking from 1957 to 1976. By Joseph Veroff, Richard A. Kulka and Elizabeth Douvan. 352 pp. New York: Basic Books. $30. By KENNETH KENISTON

THE victory of Ronald Reagan and the concurrent defeat of dozens of liberal candidates and causes suggest to many that the American public has shifted into a deeply conservative mood. It is commonly said that Americans, reacting against the cultural and political liberalism of the 1960's, are turning back toward more traditional roles, institutions and ideologies, seeking a restoration of the good old days before rising divorce rates, working women, the ''me'' generation and the cult of intimacy.

But two recent and extremely significant books indicate that the present American mood is based on more complex factors than the ''conservative-reaction'' hypothesis would have it. These studies, written by three social scientists at the University of Michigan's Institute of Social Research, document a steady relaxation of traditional definitions of work, marriage, parenthood and self in the American public, a personal liberalization that runs counter to the apparent growth of political conservatism. The findings, in turn, raise new questions about how to understand the contemporary American state of mind.

Both ''The Inner American'' and ''Mental Health in America'' come from almost identical national surveys conducted in 1957 and 1976. (''The Inner American'' describes Americans' attitudes toward themselves and their lives, while its companion volume is a more specialized interpretation of how and why Americans seek professional help.) The 1957 survey, involving a random sample of over 2,000 Americans, was part of a study of how Americans define well-being and how they deal with personal stress. Respondents were questioned for 90 minutes about their behavior and attitudes concerning work, family, self-definition, satisfactions, dissatisfactions and personal crises. In 1976 the same questions, plus a few new ones, were asked of another carefully matched sample of about the same size.

These studies, with their analysis of change over two decades, are mandatory reading for anyone seriously interested in what is happening to Americans. The books' importance is partly the result of the almost unprecedented repetition of a lengthy, detailed and carefully designed survey at an interval of about 20 years. But equally impressive is the sophistication of the data analysis, which painstakingly distinguishes changes that result from a demographically transformed population from those that reflect deeper trends. Although written with exemplary clarity, both volumes make great demands upon the reader, for they provide a full account of the complexity of the facts, of the statistical techniques used and of the possibility of other interpretations of the results. ---------------------------------------------------------------------

Kenneth Keniston, Mellon Professor of Human Development at M.I.T., is currently working on a study of youth and high technology.

The best summary of these studies must start with the authors' own descriptions of the 1976 population in phrases like ''increased concern about an uncertain future ... reduced integration into the social structure ... an increased search for intimacy ... a general increase in taking a psychological orientation to experience.'' The authors carefully analyze, support and qualify each of these descriptions. They find, for instance, the phenomenon of ''increased concern about an uncertain future'' to be especially prevalent among the young, who reported feeling considerably more anxiety than did their 1957 counterparts. Parents worry more about their children, and adults in general worry more about their jobs. Once the effects of an increasingly young, educated population are factored out, it is clear that Americans are less optimistic about the future than they were in 1957. People are no longer willing to postpone happiness until an indefinite future; they define their well-being in terms of the present.

The broadest conclusion of these studies is that Americans are moving ''from a socially integrated paradigm for structuring wellbeing, to a more personal or individuated paradigm ... We see the 1957 population taking much more comfort in culture and the 1976 population gathering much more strength in its own personal adaptations to the world.'' For example, both marriage and parenthood are regarded less positively than before; conversely, people more easily accept - or remain neutral toward - those who divorce and/or remain single or childless. A ''new investment in self-expression'' has replaced traditional definitions of marital roles, a change reflected in the growing concern for individuation in work. Especially among younger women, sharply increased dissatisfaction with being a full-time housewife goes hand in hand with a more positive conception of paid work as an avenue toward personal fulfillment.


The following are questions and answers on New York City's delayed primary elections. The answers were compiled in interviews with city and state officials involved in the case. Q. When will the primary be held?

A. City and state officials now believe two primaries are likely - one for the citywide and boroughwide offices, such as Mayor, Comptroller, District Attorney, councilman at large and judge, and the other for City Council district seats.

The legal problems shrouding the citywide and boroughwide races could be resolved within days, and a primary for those offices could be held shortly thereafter - possibly as early as next week. The problems with the City Council district races are more complicated and could take weeks or months to resolve. Some officials believe that that primary will not be held before December. Q. Who will set the new dates?

A. The dates for primary elections and runoffs are normally set by the State Legislature. City and state officials are already discussing a special legislative session in Albany, to be held as early as next week. Some state officials believe that a Federal court could set a new date for the citywide and boroughwide primary races without action by the Legislature, but that is not certain.

Q. What must be done before a date can be set?

A. For the citywide and boroughwide races, the United States Justice Department must approve the changes the City Council established in the boundaries of some 300 election districts, about 15 of which involved a change in polling places for some voters. The changes in the 15 polling places have already been approved by the Justice Department, but the changes in the other districts are still under review.

In the case of the City Council district races, the Justice Department will have to be satisfied that the redrawn City Council districts - which increased the number of districts from 33 to 35 - did not have the effect of discriminating against black or Hispanic voters. This is expected to take considerably longer. The Justice Department has until late October to make its determination. Q. Will the court then have to approve the agreement? A. Yes. To avoid legal challenges of the citywide and boroughwide elections, the city may have to ask the three-judge Federal court to lift its injunction against those primary elections. With regard to the City Council district elections, several lawsuits over the new lines will remain pending even if the Justice Department decides the districts do not discriminate against minorities. These challenges will have to be resolved before the elections proceed. Q. What other considerations are there in setting the dates? A. The Legislature does not schedule elections to fall on a Jewish holiday, of which there are several in the coming weeks.

Q. Will candidates have to go through the whole process of collecting petitions again? A. For the citywide and boroughwide races, probably not. But if the Justice Department does not accept the City Council district lines as they were drawn, or if the lines are rejected by the courts, the entire process will have to start anew. The Legislature will have to establish a new political calendar to give candidates time to collect signatures and opponents time to challenge them, as well as dates for a primary and a runoff. The calendar usually stretches across three months, although it could be shortened slightly because of this unusual situation. Q. Would that mean that new candidates may enter the race? A. Yes. If a new political calendar is set, any candidate who could qualify could enter. Q. What happens to the general election? A. No one is sure. The date of the general election is set by the State Constitution, not by an act of the Legislature, and cannot be changed. If the problems with the citywide and boroughwide races are resolved in t ime, the general election for those offices will probably go o n as scheduled. But it is doubtful that the City Council dispu tes will be resolved in time to hold the general election then . One possibility is that the Federal courts could supersede the state and order an election at a date later than the State Constit ution provides.

Q. What if all this is not resolved before Dec. 31, when the current terms end? A. That is entirely unclear. The State Constitution provides that the terms of the officials involved ''shall expire at the end of an oddnumbered year.'' State legal experts believe these offices would legally become vacant at that time. Although the Legislature could pass a law extending the current terms, that would be open to legal question, as would any actions taken by the City Council until formal elections were held. Q. How much will this dispute cost? A. A primary usually costs the city about $2. 5 million. If only one additional day of voting is necessary, the di spute will have added $1.5 million to the cost. If an additional da y of voting is necessary, the cost will be still higher. In addition, $11,000 is spent on expense allowances for each day the Legislature meets in Albany.

Illustrations: photo of City Council staff members examining election district maps


Constructing the Alaska natural gas pipeline still won't be a snap but now, thanks to Congress, it won't be as financially risky a proposition -for the builders.

By a 230-to-188 vote, the House last week approved legislation that would allow the builders - a consortium of pipeline companies who haven't been able to arrange financing to complete the project under existing rules - to shift some of their financial risks to consumers.

The Senate approved the bill, one of the more fiercely lobbied measures taken up in the 1981 session, on Nov. 19. President Reagan is expected to sign the act.

The measure allows surcharges on users of natural gas to cover some of the cost of the pipeline before they begin to receive any gas - or even if they never get any should the project flop. The bill would also permit the builders to pass along to consumers the cost (perhaps as much as $4 billion) of building a plant to process the natural gas before it is pumped through the pipeline.

The consortium claimed that the potential liability amounts to no more than $1.50 a month for the average residential customer. Some critics said a $12-a-month increase would be a more likely outcome. ''This is nothing more than a subsidy for the oil companies,'' complained Representative Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat. Other critics said they would continue their fight in court.

The pipeline, tentatively scheduled for completion in 1987, would move natural gas over 4,800 miles from the vast reserves of Alaska's Prudhoe Bay to distribution centers in the Middle West and the Far West.

Illustrations: photo of steel pipes


THE catalogues heralding the spring publishing season are chock full of annou ncements for novels with commercial potential, self-helpbooks and boo ks that the publishers hope will be as successful this year as books about cats and cubes were in 1981. In short, they are offering the kind of fare that, depending on one's point of view, is (1) necessary to help pay the rent or (2) symptomatic of what ails the publishin g industry.

While critics point to the lists as examples of how difficult it is to publish anything but low- or middle-brow books, publishers are quick to point to the same lists and insist that that there is a less commercial side to the publishing coin. Random House, for example, will publish six first novels, four volumes of poetry, a collection of stories and ''The Random Review 1982,'' a collection of poems, stories and essays edited by two Random editors, Gary Fisketjon and Jonathan Galassi.

''This must amount to a fourth or fifth of our entire new list,'' said Carol Schneider, Random's publicity director. In addition, Alfred A. Knopf, a subsidiary of Random House, has two first novels scheduled, three books of poetry and one collection of stories, while Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, has two first novels on its list.

Farrar, Straus & Giroux plans to publish 37 new titles from March to August, including nine essay collections (two by Roland Barthes), 16 translations, one volume of poetry and one first novel. The Viking Press, with some 60 adult hard-cover titles due for publication through July, has four first novels on its list, a collection of essays, a collection of short stories by Maxine Kumin and three collections of poetry, including selected poems of Pushkin translated by D.M. Thomas, author of ''The White Hotel.'' Simon & Schuster's spring list of 100 titles includes five first novels, a collection of short stories and a book of essays.

Charles Scribner's Sons has four first novels and one short-story collection among its 62 spring titles, while the 45 new titles from Atheneum, a division of the Scribner Book Companies, include four first novels, two books of essays and four volumes of poetry. The poetry books include a volume by James Merrill, who won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry and two National Book Awards. The Houghton Mifflin list of 62 titles includes six first novels, three collections of poetry and the ''Letters of Archibald MacLeish,'' almost 400 letters covering more than 70 years.

In the first six months of 1980, Little-Brown published 12 first novels. Only two first novels are listed among its 54 titles for this year, but it will publish one book of poetry, a book of essays and interviews by Norman Mailer, ''Pieces and Pontifications,'' and three memoirs, including Henry Kissinger's ''Years of Upheaval.''

The above figures do not add up to a comple te picture, since some of the first novels also appear to be blatant ly commercial, and some of the collections of poetry, stories and ess ays are written by wellestablished novelists, which means less f inancial risk on the part of the publishers. ''But the figures mea n that we are in no way cutting back on first novels or other serious or promising fiction,''said Anthony M. Schulte, executive vice presi dent of Random House, ''and they also mean that things haven't chan ged as much in publishing as some of the doomsayers would ha ve people believe.''

Two books with Bill Adler as co-author have been published in the last two months, ''The I Love New York Diet'' (William Morrow), written with Bess Myerson and ''The Reagan Wit'' (Caroline House), written with his son, Bill Adler Jr. Mr. Adler's ''Inside Publishing'' (Bobbs-Merrill) will come out in May. As near as the 52-year-old author can figure, he has written or shared the writing of 58 books under his own name, plus 20 to 25 under the name Jay David.

Mr. Adler's biggest selling book, ''The Kennedy Wit,'' a compilation of the wit and humor of John F. Kennedy, has sold more than 1.4 million copies. He has also written ''The Churchill Wit,'' ''The Stevenson Wit,'' ''The Washington Wits'' and ''The Presidential Wit.''

Over the years, Mr. Adler has been a program director for WNEW-TV, a television show host in California and an editor at Playboy Press. In recent years, when he wasn't writing his own books, he has been a literary agent and book packager. He packaged books by Pat Boone, Dick Clark and Art Linkletter, in each case hiring the writers who helped turn out the books. Among the authors he has represented are Ronald and Nancy Reagan before they went to the White House, Phil Donahue, Ralph Nader, Gene Autry, Rosemary Clooney and Howard Cosell. In addition to issuing the ''Inside Publishing'' book written by Mr. Adler, Bobbs-Merrill this spring will do four books for which he was the agent, including the autobiography of the actress Gale Storm and an examination of the Jesus cults by the entertainer-author Steve Allen.

''My wife, my secretary and I are involved in about 120 books a year, either as authors, packagers or agents,'' said Mr. Adler. His son, Bill, co-author of the Reagan book, is a foreign-policy lobbyist for Americans for Democratic Action, the liberal organization that finds scant hu mor in President Reagan's conservative policies.

One of the biggest selling hard-cover books of all time, with sales of more than three million, was published privately 43 years ago, is generally not available in bookstores and does not identify authors or editors. The book is ''Alcoholics Anonymous,'' the bible of the self-help recovery program of the same name. After a first printing of 5,000 copies, it took 34 years for the book to reach the one million sales mark. But the second million was reached in five years and the third million in slightly more than three.

Not a word has been changed in the first section of the book, which contains the group's statement of principles. But the second part, consisting of personal recovery stories, reflects the composition of the younger alcoholics coming into the program. And the price has been increased from $3.50 in 1939 to $5.65 today.

Illustrations: photo of Bill Adler


Maeve Gilchrist’s musical memories go back to when she was a very young girl in Edinburgh, eager to join in with the adults who frequently jammed on traditional Irish and Scottish music in her house. Born to an Irish mother and a Scottish father, both of whom were active in the city’s folk music circles, little Maeve would grab a fiddle and pretend to play along.

It wasn’t long before she knew her way around a different instrument, the harp. And it gave her a chance to join that musical conversation.

“There’s something to be said for folk music in general being the people’s music,” Gilchrist, 29, says in a telephone interview from the road. “It’s built to connect people. It’s a social musical form, and I love that. I think it’s wonderful how, if you get a different group of people together, the groove will be very different. There’s a magic to that to me.”

Her informal exposure left Gilchrist so steeped in the folk music of her homeland, she recalls, that when she did enroll in the City of Edinburgh Music School when she was about 10, although the focus was on classical piano, her teachers were eager to support her extracurricular musical interests. When her interests broadened to include jazz, the school worked that into her curriculum.

A full scholarship to Berklee College of Music brought her to the United States at 17, and she’s made it her business to take the harp into unfamiliar places ever since. She’s been a member of fiddle great Darol Anger’s group the Furies, recorded with artists ranging from Irish flutist Shannon Heaton to New York art-rockers My Brightest Diamond, and plays as a duo with dancer Nic Gareiss. She also teaches at Berklee.

For a show at Arts at the Armory on Sunday, she’ll pair for the first time with Sam Amidon, the Vermont-born musician with a penchant for reimagining Appalachian folk music by coloring it with electronics, new music, and his own crooked aesthetic.

The two have never played together, but seemed a good fit for the latest in an occasional series of concerts dubbed Revels FRINGE, produced by the organization best known for “Christmas Revels,” an annual production drawing from cultures around the world. FRINGE sees the organization act as “a kind of dating service, putting musicians together who we think are really fascinating,” artistic director Patrick Swanson says. A concert last year featured Galician bagpiper Carlos Núñez Muñoz matched with guests including Gilchrist and jazz player Stan Strickland.

In a sense, pushing the clàrsach, or Celtic harp, into new territory is part of the instrument’s history. It has a different mechanism for creating sharps and flats than the pedal harp commonly used in European classical music. And while there’s a rich repertoire of traditional Irish music centered on the instrument, Gilchrist says, in the realm of Scottish music, harp players have frequently borrowed tunes written for the fiddle or bagpipe.

Harp can be a bit less portable than a fiddle, both in terms of carrying it around to impromptu jam sessions and finding common musical language with various styles of music. Gilchrist says that young harp players who receive only formal training can find themselves with a limited set of skills.

“It’s such a pleasing timbre that people are happy with very little,” she says. “You could sit at the harp and run your finger up, and it would sound very beautiful. So it’s very easy to make pleasing sounds and get away with very little. Harp players spend so much time playing by themselves and practicing by themselves in a room, they get scared of creating music with other folks, and it takes a little bit of a leap of faith to start doing that.”

She contrasts her own style with “this kind of mist-cloud, ethereal harping” that may come to mind for many listeners when they think of the instrument.

Amidon notes that he and Gilchrist have not yet met in person, but he is interested in her progressive views. “The harp has a lot of possibilities as an instrument,” he writes in an e-mail, “and I’m super excited to hear what Maeve does, and for us to make some music together. I really don’t know where it’s all going to go!“

Gilchrist says the combo has potential. “I suspect in many ways we come from quite similar musical places in regard to the strong presence of tradition in our music and the curiosity in contemporary sounds,” she says.

As for her own genre-hopping, the variety suits her. “My musical ADD has served me well,” she says.

At: Center for the Arts at

Tickets: $35, ages 35 and under $20. www.revels.org

Summary: Maeve Gilchrist, a Celtic harp player whose tastes run well past the boundaries of conventional folk music, pairs up with banjo maverick Sam Amidon on a new Revels series, FRINGE.


On the face of it, “My Love Is Cool” tries too many things at once. From the softly pulsing ethereality of “Turn to Dust” to the grungy Juliana Hatfield rumble of “Moaning Lisa Smile” and the synth-addled, doom-guitar post-punk drive of “Giant Peach,” Wolf Alice comes across like a band leaving no statements unmade on its first album, lest there be no second. But it’s hard to argue that the band suffers from an identity crisis when nearly everything works. Some of the credit lies with Ellie Rowsell, who typically sings just above an icy murmur, though the rest of the London band isn’t afraid to go big; the epic-minded “Your Loves Whore” borrows strategies from Smashing Pumpkins without merely aping them (thank heavens). Wolf Alice balances the difficult combination of seeming guilelessness and utter confidence; not many young bands would have the restraint shown on “Swallowtail,” holding back for more than three minutes before the full band enters. “My Love Is Cool” makes Wolf Alice’s next move both unpredictable and eagerly anticipated. (Out Tuesday)

Wolf Alice performs at the Middle East on Aug. 5.

Summary: Cramming a lot of style into its debut album (lest there be no second), Wolf Alice connects with the sureness of a seasoned outfit.


"At this stage, it's getting to the point where it's hard to imagine the Fed, in my reading, not going if the data continues at current levels," said Bank of America Merrill Lynch senior economist Michael Hanson. Economists expect retail sales to gain 0.5 percent after June's decline of 0.3 percent. There is also productivity and costs Tuesday, JOLTs job opening and turnover data Wednesday, and PPI inflation data, industrial production and consumer sentiment Friday.

But there are also speeches by Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart on Monday and New York Fed President William Dudley. In the past week, Lockhart sent ripples through the markets when he said that in his view he saw no reason to hold off on a September rate hike. Dudley, part of the core of the Fed closest to Fed Chair Janet Yellen, speaks Wednesday in Rochester, New York, on work force development, but he is also taking questions.

"I think (stocks) will listen to the Fed speak after the payrolls data," said Art Cashin, director of floor operations at UBS. Cashin said the stock market also seems to be in a "testing area," and it could be choppy as it sorts through the steep drop in oil. The S&P energy sector was down 3.5 percent for the week. West Texas Intermediate futures closed out the week at $43.87 per barrel, a decline of 6.9 percent and close to its March low of $42.03.

Read MoreEarnings at Berkshire Hathaway fall 10%

The S&P 500 finished the past week lower at 2077, off 1.2 percent, just above its 200-day moving average. The Dow was at 17,373, off 1.9 percent, and the Nasdaq was down 1.7 percent at 5,043

Paul LaRosa, chief market technician, agrees with Cashin that the S&P is testing support at 2,063. LaRosa said that if it breaks there, the next stop is 2,039.

"It probably goes there, bounces and you're in that same choppy sideways market," he said. "It seems every time we get to resistance, we lose steam and lose momentum, and every time we get to support, we bounce. At some point, that's going to change, and that's what we have to keep an eye on. We're watching these levels. We're treating it cautiously."

Earnings are expected from Cisco, News Corp., Kraft Heinz and Alibaba, but the big rush of earnings news has slowed.

"Here's really the bottom line. Companies killed the expectations. We're beating by 5.3 percent for earnings season. If you look at what's normal over the very long run, it's like 3 percent," said Jonathon Golub, chief U.S. market strategist at RBC. "Normally earnings estimates fall into the earnings seasons. This time they went up."

Golub said earnings would have been far better if not for the steep decline in energy profits. Upstream companies' profits were down 74 percent, as WTI crude fell more than 40 percent year over year.

"Excluding energy, you're looking at growth rates in the low single digits. Even the areas where people said were horrible, like media," he said. Golub said while earnings are growing, revenues continue to struggle.

"The real story with earnings season is investors are not appreciating how strong it is. There's another sub-story. Their revenues literally are bad. They are just really anemic. The underlying trend is low single digits. What companies are doing, they're managing earnings really, really well and they're delivering," he said. Golub said he expects a couple of years' additional earnings upside due to cost management and buybacks, and that should help stock market gains.

Read MoreThese heavily shorted stocks are tanking

Golub said the market is less likely to respond to earnings in the coming week, as most companies have now reported. "The market becomes less sensitive to the last 20 percent because it's going to look similar to companies that already reported," he said. "Then you start turning to the economic data. The reality is this is August and the response to everything is going to be a lot more muted, unless there's some really big headline out of China."

Golub said it's looking more like the Fed will raise rates in September. After Friday's July jobs report, futures markets immediately reflected a better-than-50 percent chance for September, from a roughly 47 percent chance. Markets had been pricing in December as most likely and each piece of data or Fed comment was able to shift the view slightly in the past week.

"I think from an investor's point of view, the Fed moving is going to be a good thing. We have zero interest rates. If the Fed is leaving it at zero, they're basically telling you they don't even think we can get to 25 basis points without upsetting the market and the economy. A move to 25 basis points is not someone taking the punch bowl away from the party. It's more like: 'We think you can do this on your own, son. We don't have to co-sign your lease anymore,' " Golub said.

Hanson said consumer-related data will be important in the coming week, and the Fed will be watching all the data. "You've got five more weeks of data, and there's plenty of things that could happen on the geopolitical front. Greece has to come to some agreement with their reconstituted troika. There's still risk out there from other sources, like the Middle East and China. The fiscal issue in the U.S. is going to come back on the fire," he said. "There's a lot of things that contribute to uncertainty, and it's not unlike two years ago when the Fed was considering tapering QE3."

Summary: Stocks closed out the past week with losses, and look set for another week of choppiness, as oil moves closer to its 2015 lows.


"Options traders appear to be very concerned about this upcoming earnings release," said Khouw, who on highlighted one notable trade during an appearance Thursday on CNBC's "Fast Money." Specifically, someone bought 15,000 of the March 13 weekly 18-strike puts for 20 cents each. Since each contract controls 100 shares, and a put contract gives investors the right to sell a stock at a set time and price, this trader is essentially betting $300,000 ($20 x 15,000) that the stock will fall 25 percent in the next two weeks. In order for the trade to be profitable, Abercrombie & Fitch would need to be below $17.80 by March 13, or its its lowest level since March 2009.

While retail stocks have rallied 3 percent this year, shares of Abercrombie have fallen about 14 percent as of Friday afternoon, when the stock gained more than 3 percent at $24.59 a share.

Wall Street is expecting the teen retailer to reports earnings of $1.17 per share, 17 cents lower than a year ago, according to FactSet.

Summary: Options traders are expecting one retail name to fall 25 percent in two weeks.


Pepsi's decision to bring aboard Richard Fisher boiled down to one thing: Provoking a discussion, CNBC's Jim Cramer said Monday.

"When you look at boards these days, you've got to have a multi-national perspective. Would he be my choice? I don't know," Cramer said on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street." "Now, I will tell you that [Fisher] is often wrong because he is anti-accommodation. You don't add him to the Pepsi board for that, you add him because of his ability to provoke discussion, which he's probably one of the foremost discussion-provokers."

Fisher, regarded by many as policy hawk during his tenure as the president of the Dallas Fed, was appointed to Pepsi's board of directors on Monday, just four days after stepping down from the Fed. The company's shares traded up nearly 0.6 percent in early morning trading. Click here to see where the stock is trading now.

"[Pepsi] is trying to build a board of people who really have a [broader] look overseas and domestically in terms of finance," Cramer added.

Read MoreIndra Nooyi: The secret to Pepsi's innovation

Nevertheless, Cramer said he does not believe investors should buy Pepsi's stock because of Fisher's appointment. "I think, if you buy it on that, then that would be a bad call. You buy Pepsico because it has done very well," he said.

Summary: CNBC's Jim Cramer explains why the soda giant brought in the former president of the Dallas Fed.


The strong U.S. dollar has wreaked havoc on commodities like gold and oil. Now, it could have a new victim: tech, says one top investor.

"It should be a big concern for everybody," Alpha One Capital Partners' Dan Niles warned on CNBC's "Options Action" on Friday.

For many of the largest tech companies in the U.S., international sales represent the bulk of revenues. For example, more than 82 percent of Intel's sales come from outside the United States, according to data compiled by FactSet. Both IBM and Hewlett-Packard get two-thirds of their revenues from overseas.

So far, tech investors have ignored the dollar's potential negative impact. Over the past 52 weeks, the Nasdaq has rallied almost 20 percent while the broader S&P 500 has logged a 12 percent return. However, since the start of the year, the U.S. dollar index, which measures the strength of the buck against a basket of other major currencies, has gone parabolic, rising over 10 percent. And that move has already hit the bottom line of some large-cap companies.

"Hewlett-Packard brought up on their call how they had their Japanese competitors now able to take advantage of pricing," said Niles. "Intel, in their press release, even mentioned currency."

Read MoreFX strategist: Dollar correction coming

Summary: The strong U.S. dollar could have a new victim: tech, says one top investor.


Squawk Box Live gave you news and analysis on global stock markets, with another day of selling expected.

The Shanghai Composite closed lower by 0.8 percent Monday, although other mainland benchmarks - like the Shenzhen Composite - saw steeper falls. This comes after reports over the weekend suggested that Beijing may finally halt its controversial market interventions.

Dow futures tanked more than 200 points on Monday and European bourses opened in negative territory.

Here's how the morning unfolded.

Summary: The Shenzhen Composite closed down by over 3 percent on Monday, while Dow futures tanked more than 200 points.


Now try telling that promise to the growing number of Americans receiving health insurance cancellation notices in the mail. 140,000 in Minnesota. 140,000 in Michigan. 279,000 in California. 300,000 in Florida. 800,000 in New Jersey. Sadly, cancellation letters in more states are sure to come.

(Read more: Obama: Don't panic over coverage cancellations)

Adding to the outrage, NBC News reported this week the Obama administration knew for more than three years that millions of Americans would lose their existing health care plans, yet continued to promise the American people that if they liked their existing plan or doctor they could keep them.

Now President Obama and his allies are spinning that broken promise to include a gigantic caveat: You can keep your plan as long as his administration likes it. Translation: Washington bureaucrats know better than families and doctors what's best for their health care.

Playing the faithful foot soldier, Secretary Sebelius opened the hearing by asking the country to hold her, not President Obama, accountable for the failed Obamacare rollout. Exactly how was left unsaid. To the private sector, accountability means some type of action. To the Obama administration, accountability means more empty words.

(Read more: EHealth CEO: Let us fix Obamacare website)

Evidently, government is the only industry where one can spend $400-plus million on a product launch website and get away with it still not working more than four weeks after it was released to the public.

However, the Obamacare website is just the threshold of the problems to come. Imagine the same bureaucrats who have proven too incompetent to launch a functional website being in charge of centralizing our health-care system — one-sixth of the entire economy — in Washington, D.C.

Summary: Instead of coercing Americans to buy a product they don’t want from a website that doesn’t work, let’s give them more choices and make Obamacare voluntary, said Rep. Michele Bachmann.


"We looked at 30 of the big investors—hedge funds, private equity, corporations and sovereign wealth funds—folks who have larger balance sheets who do deals in tech," Sanwal said. "And they've sort of boxed Lyft out."

Lyft does have the deep-pocketed Andreessen Horowitz and Coatue Management on its side from previous rounds, although Sanwal said it would be harder to put together a billion-dollar round in pieces with the available backers. "The dark horse might be: Is there some strategic [investor] who wants to get into this who's worried about Uber," he said.

One obvious investor could beJapan's SoftBank, which has put money into multiple Uber rivals around the world. It led a $210 million for Ola inIndia, $250 million for GrabTaxi in Southeast Asiaand $600 million for Travice, which operates Kuaidi Dache in China. But sources said SoftBank has not yet considered making an investment in Lyft.

Read MoreLyft drops its quirky traits to compete with Uber

As always, the competition within the hot space continues to get even more intense.

Last week, Uber cut prices in many U.S. markets where Lyft operates. In recent months, Uber has also aggressively recruited from Lyft's leadership team, hiring former COO Travis VanderZanden (there's a lawsuit over his conduct during the switch), Lyft VP of Operations Stephen Schnell and Director of Product for Growth Ryan Fujiu.

CNBC's parent NBC Universal is an investor in Re/code's parent Revere Digital, and the companies have a content-sharing arrangement.

Summary: Lyft this week set out to raise a new round of funding to help it catch up to the massive war chest raised by its rival Uber.


09/30/2015 AT 10:50 AM EDT

says married life is different – he just can't put his finger on exactly how.

on Wednesday that he's felt a "shift" since tying the knot with love

"It's fantastic," Theroux said of married life. "Something really does shift in a wonderful way and it refocuses things and in a weird way it was a long time coming."

The couple were wed in front of a stars like

on Aug. 5 in the backyard of their Bel Air, California, home.

As PEOPLE previously reported, Theroux and Aniston kept the event a surprise by telling family and friends that the celebration was for the actor's 44th birthday party.

Theroux said he can't pinpoint the exact reason why married life feels so unique (and no, it's not the new jewelry).

"Something shifts and I can't quite explain what it is," he told Roberts. "You relax into it in a certain way – I can't explain it."

The actor also shared his praise of the wedding's celebrity

"It was exactly what you would want him to do," Theroux said. "He was extremely funny he kept things extremely light, it was extremely touching, cried a little bit – he did – well, everyone did, and it was the perfect tone for the night."

returns to TV on Sunday, and while he insisted its sophomore season won't be "quite as bleak," the drama remains emotional.

"We moved the show to Texas, a fictional town," he told Roberts, and added, "I'd like to say things normalize but they just get a lot weirder."

Summary: Justin Theroux opened up about married life during an interview with Good Morning America's Robin Roberts on Wednesday


With precious metals prices tumbling over the past week, gold has held onto its value a lot better than silver. For some people, gold is the ultimate safe haven commodity. For most people owning the metal means buying gold bars or an ETF, but some people choose to splash out on something a little more fashionable and fun, like a piece of decadent luxury that won't go out of style even if gold prices were to fall. So here's a look at the 10 most outrageous items some people have found to stake their gold claims.By Michael KearnsPosted April 28, 2011

Summary: For some people, gold is the ultimate safe haven commodity. Here's a look at the 10 most outrageous items some people have found to stake their gold claims.


10/14/2015 AT 04:30 PM EDT

A new, non-surgical weight-loss procedure that takes less than 15 minutes has the weight-loss community buzzing.

The bariatric technology – known as a gastric balloon – involves inserting a small silicon balloon into a patient's stomach through an endoscopic procedure. A doctor fills the balloon with saline solution to create a feeling of fullness, so patients lose the urge to overeat. After six months, it's deflated and removed.

Two versions of the balloon are currently on the market, the

"I have literally been on a diet since I was 13 years old," gastric balloon patient Virginia Trice tells PEOPLE. "I've tried every fad diet out there but I've never been able to keep weight off until now."

Since getting ReShape inserted in a 2012 trial phase (ReShape and Orbera devices have since been approved by the FDA) Trice, 59, has lost over 70 lbs.

"I was probably getting a third of the food that I was eating before," she says. "And I was never hungry."

Because the balloon – which can cost $7,500 to $10,000 and is not covered by insurance – is temporary and does not alter the anatomy of the stomach, the risk does exist of regaining weight once it's removed. But Trice says it wasn't an issue for her.

"By the time I got it out I had actually trained myself to eat only until I'm full," she says. "And you're going through an education process while you're losing." The cost of the balloon also includes a 1-year nutritional support program so patients can have guidance after it's gone.

Though the procedure sounds like a dream for people struggling to lose weight, not everyone is a candidate. Patients must have a body mass index of 30 to 40 (whereas a BMI of 35 to 40 is required for more invasive bariatric surgery).

"Previously we had nothing to offer this patient population," says the director of the

Dr. Shawn Garber, who has already inserted 30 balloons. The procedure is for an in-between population: patients who don't weigh enough for gastric surgery, but who still struggle to maintain a healthy weight. They can expect to lose 20 to 70 lbs., says Garber.

And side effects are limited. "The first few days people have pretty severe nausea and vomiting, and maybe a little bit of abdominal pain from spasms of the stomach," he says. "But after three days, most patients are feeling fine."

Some of the less common risks include ulcers and the chance of the balloon bursting.

"It could pop, but as a safety mechanism we put a blue dye in the saline. If the balloon were to deflate, the blue dye would get absorbed into the bloodstream and turn the urine green," he says. "That would be a sign to take it out – before it migrates out of the stomach."

Because the outpatient procedure requires no incision and only light sedation – and takes just 12 to 15 minutes to perform – Dr. Garber thinks it's a great option for obese patients with an upcoming wedding, or women looking to shed baby weight.

In Trice's case, though, she was just happy to take control of her life.

"It's been a really good experience for me," she says, "because I'm once again able to function without all the depression and things that go along with being overweight."

Summary: The gastric balloon was approved by the FDA in July


11/13/2015 AT 05:20 PM EST

in March, that's when the

"We talk about having a lads' holiday, which could be massive," says Louis Tomlinson. "Even when we have like, two weeks off, by the time we have a couple days off and get back to work, we're all raring to see each other again."

During their break, he and the rest of the band – Harry Styles, Niall Horan and Liam Payne – will be enjoying "not having pressure and the quietness," he says.

Styles is looking forward to catching up with his friends and family and traveling

"We're very lucky to travel a lot," says Styles. "[But] there are a lot of places that you're kind of going around that you'd like to come back to and experience."

Meanwhile, Horan is looking forward to catching up on all the soccer games he's missed in the last five years. "I used to go to every game that was possible, so that will be good to get back into," he says.

"I actually think we'll be more grown up in the break when we get back to life a little bit," says Payne, who says he'll be working on "being clean" and making his own bed. "It's just about catching up with friends and family and just having a bit of a realization for how amazing the time in the band has been so far."

Summary: "We talk about having a lads' holiday, which would be massive," Tomlinson tells PEOPLE


01/07/2016 AT 08:30 AM EST

A knife-wielding man who tried to enter a police station while wearing a fake explosive belt was shot to death in Paris on Thursday afternoon.

According to police, the attacker appears to have been between 30 and 40 years old and of North African origins. He did not have any papers or identification on him and was not known to officers at the station he attacked.

The attack came while ceremonies were being held in another part of the city commemorating the one year anniversary of the

, in which two gunmen killed 12 people at the offices of a satirical magazine that had published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

The unidentified man – whose DNA has been sampled – refused police orders to move back before attacking one officer with a butcher's knife in front of the Goutte d'Or police station in Paris' northern 18th arrondissement. The attacker repeatedly shouted "Allah Akbar" before being shot by two police officers.

Additionally, officials are saying that while the man had no identification papers, he had on his person a piece of paper with the ISIS flag and a demand written in Arabic. He also had a portable phone which is now being examined.

A formal inquiry has been announced by the anti-Terrorist prosecutor.

Officers cordon off the area of a fatal shooting at a police station in Paris

AP Photo / Christophe Ena

The man penetrated the police perimeter outside the station, getting past the barricades, but he did not get inside the station itself.

"A man tried on Thursday morning to assault a policeman at the station's reception area before being hit by the police," Minister of the Interior spokesperson Pierre-Henri Brandet said. "The bomb squad are on site and working to secure places," he added.

Police cordoned off the Barbés neighborhood and two schools in the same street as the police station have been locked down. Bernard Cazeneuve, Minister of the Interior, and Michel Morillons, Paris prefect of police, are both on site.

Traffic was shut down in the neighborhood along down Boulevard Barbés, causing large traffic jams. Two Metro lines were also suspended but service has been restored.

The Goutte d'Or is on the eastern edge of Montmartre, the neighborhood dominated by the famous Sacre-Coeur cathedral.

Summary: The man allegedly shouted "Allahu Akbar" and had a piece of paper with an Isis flag on it


Hugo Chavez marked his country's formal entry into the organisation by holding a summit in Caracas on Tuesday attended by the leaders of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, the other Mercosur members, as well as Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia and a close ally of Chavez, who attended the ceremony as an observer.

"We are defeating the hegemonic pretensions" of the United States "and today we have placed a new cornerstone for the freedom and unity of South America," Chavez told a crowded auditorium.

Brazilian President Inacio Lula da Silva called on fellow Mercosur members to maintain political solidarity in the face of challenges from countries outside the region, but said that anti-Americanism was not a characteristic of the regional trade bloc.

"Today we are here to say to the world that we don't want to fight with anybody," he said. "We are peaceful countries."Swelling coffersVenezuela is the one of the world's leading oil producers and its entry into Mercosur will increase the economic power of the trading bloc by taking its combined GDP to $1 trillion, which is more than three-quarters of South America's total economic activity.

"Economically stronger countries have to understand the realities ... of smaller countries" Tabare Vazquez, president of UruguayUnder the entry agreement, Venezuela will have to adopt a common external tariff system within four years. The level of those tariffs will vary depending on the product but will average about 12%, said Eduardo Sigal, Argentina's undersecretary for economic integration.

"Economically stronger countries have to understand the realities ... of smaller countries" Tabare Vazquez, president of Uruguay

Venezuela and the continent's two largest economies - Brazil and Argentina - will establish free trade zones by 2012. Paraguay and Uruguay will immediately benefit from preferential tariffs for their principal exports to Venezuela before gradually establishing free trade zones by 2013.

Not all agreed with Chavez that the outlook for Mercosur was so rosy.Minor complaintsThe president of Paraguay, Nicanor Duarte, raised concerns about alleged protectionist practices by Brazil and Argentina that have prompted Paraguay and Uruguay to question the benefits of Mercosur membership.

Duarte said the bloc's system of common tariffs "does not always agree with commercial practices that still pose many obstacles, especially for less developed countries like Paraguay."

Paraguay has complained that its products face long delays in entering Mercosur's two biggest markets and has also protested rules that prohibit it from signing bilateral trade deals with countries outside the bloc.

The Uruguayan president, Tabare Vazquez, agreed, calling for "a bigger and better Mercosur."

"Economically stronger countries have to understand the realities ... of smaller countries," he said. "In the process of integration, small nations count too."

Summary: The president of Venezuela has urged the South American trade bloc Mercosur to act as a common front against US free trade deals.


Butler County Sheriff Deputies stand on the scene at Madison Local Schools

Cara Owsley/The Cincinnati Enquirer via AP

02/29/2016 AT 05:50 PM EST

Four students were injured at an Ohio high school before noon on Monday when a 14-year-old male student allegedly shot two students during lunch time, according to a news release from the Butler County Sheriff's Office.

All of the Madison High School students, in Madison Township, Ohio, are expected to survive, according to the release. According to a

by the sheriff's office, the suspect ran from the scene but was apprehended. Authorities were able to locate the weapon used, the statement says.

Two of the injured students sustained gunshot wounds, and were flown to area hospitals. Two others were treated for unspecified injuries. It is unknown how these students sustained injuries, according to the Facebook post.

The alleged shooter, who PEOPLE is not identifying because he has not been charged as an adult, is charged with two counts of attempted murder, two counts of felonious assault, inducing panic and making terroristic threats.

At a press conference earlier today, Sheriff Richard K. Jones said the alleged shooter was in custody and was being questioned. Authorities have not announced anything regarding a possible motive.

"When you see these things, you see see them all over the country ... you think they can't happen to you. But they do," Jones said.

The injured students have been identified and their parents have been notified, the sheriff's office said. All other students are safe.

In a statement posted to Facebook, Madison Local Schools announced that all school swill be closed Tuesday, and all extra-curricular activities are cancelled for Monday and Tuesday.

The statement reads: "Our staff will report and together we will begin to put plans in place, including on-site counseling, to support our students when we return to school."

Summary: The shooter, a 14-year-old student, is in custody


“She is tall. She is rangy. She looked like a field hockey player. And then she opened her mouth, and tears fell from my eyes,” said director Jack O’Brien of Kerstin Anderson.

When director Jack O’Brien was casting for the national tour of “The Sound of Music,” he knew one thing: He didn’t want a star to play Maria, the iconic role immortalized by Julie Andrews and Mary Martin. “The first thing she does is stand on the stage and sing ‘The Sound of Music,’ ’’ he explains. “That song is the equivalent of ‘To be or not to be.’ It should be in the second act, but it happens in the first minute of the show. If it is sung by a Mary Martin or a Carrie Underwood or even Cher, you don’t pay attention to the song. But if you have never seen this girl, it forces you to listen. And this is Nannygate. I didn’t want a star. I wanted a baby sitter.”

During casting, he saw a parade of actresses who looked like “cookie cutter versions of Julie Andrews.” But then Kerstin Anderson appeared. “She sort of loped in,” O’Brien recalls. “She is tall. She is rangy. She looked like a field hockey player. And then she opened her mouth, and tears fell from my eyes.”

At the time, she had just finished her sophomore year at Pace University in New York; she is now taking time off to star in the touring production, which plays the Boston Opera House Tuesday through April 10.

She says she went to the audition on a whim and was floored when she got the call from the casting director. “I was out to dinner, and I had to pack up the whole thing,” says Anderson, 21. “I couldn’t eat. It was earth-shattering.”

O’Brien, a three-time Tony Award-winner, simply asked her to be herself. “I think I bring a youthful energy to the part and a slightly tomboyish nature,” she says. Anderson grew up in Burlington, Vt., about 45 minutes away from the Von Trapp Family Lodge, the place where the real-life Maria settled after escaping from Austria. She frequently went to the lodge while she was growing up, and she did her fair share of climbing mountains and fording streams. She remembers watching the 1965 film starring Andrews and Christopher Plummer.

“Maria was iconically Julie Andrews in that movie, and I didn’t think anyone else could play her,’’ she says. “It never crossed my mind.”

But this production is decidedly not the movie. The producers gave O’Brien free rein, and he certainly didn’t want to re-create the original stage production of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic, which he had seen as a college student in 1960. He also recently saw the musical in Russia. “It was this enormous, nonsensical production, and I don’t speak Russian,’’ he says. “But the girl playing Maria was so fresh and so immediate that I found myself deeply moved. I thought maybe this is a better show than I remembered.”

He looked at the script and the score anew. “No one has asked any questions of this sleeping beauty of a musical in 40 years,” he says. “It hasn’t been anything but a decoration to hang around the neck of a star.”

The first thing he noticed was the date and the place: Austria, 1938. Kristallnacht was just around the corner. Danger was in the air. O’Brien decided to revive the old chestnut by injecting a sense of urgency.

He also lowered the ages of the actors by about 20 years. Maria and the Mother Abbess are closer in age, whereas in the film, the head nun is a stately senior who tsk tsks Maria’s clownish ways. In this production, they understand each other, almost as peers.

Anderson is around the same age as the real Maria when she left the abbey to become the nanny for the children of Captain von Trapp, a man 25 years her senior. Ben Davis, who plays von Trapp, is 40. “Maria is the perfect second wife because she is so unlikely,” says O’Brien.

In order to dust off the classic, O’Brien had the actors speak the lyrics, rather than sing them, for the first two weeks of rehearsal. “I didn’t want them to settle in on that score and let them drift through the performance like a picnic basket,’’ he says. For Anderson, the rehearsals were a young performer’s dream. “It was like a four-week master class,’’ she says.

O’Brien looked at all of the characters closely, as if they were new to the stage. Rolf, the young boy who courts 16-year-old Liesl and ultimately betrays her, is often seen as an evil character, but O’Brien sees him as a young mountain boy scrambling to get by in life.

“What if he isn’t a baby Nazi, but that local kid that your mother didn’t want you to play with?” he asks. “He is probably low class. He is probably a sexy little boy who has laid every girl in the village.”

The film version is hardly sexy, even though dear old Dad does run off with the nanny. “Do you remember Christopher Plummer kissing Julie Andrews?” O’Brien asks. “It wasn’t very hot.” Plummer, in fact, referred to the film as “The Sound of Mucus.” But O’Brien says that the kiss in his production is steamy, and it frequently elicits ovations from the audience.

That kiss takes place as the Nazis prepare to take over Austria, and O’Brien and Anderson say that fact looms over the entire production. “It is the same beloved songs, the same beloved story, but Jack O’Brien is bringing out the pieces that people haven’t seen in years and years,” Anderson says. “It has a really rich history, and with that comes urgency.”

O’Brien says it wasn’t hard to put his stamp on the musical. “It was an easy birth. Nobody felt like we were replicating something. Everyone felt that we were peeling away layers of varnish and finding something beneath them.”

The sets by Douglas W. Schmidt contain the requisite elements — the staircase, the abbey, the mountain — but there aren’t endless drop curtains while the scenery is changed. And, of course, as we all know, the von Trapp family climbs over that mountain at the end.

O’Brien hopes the final scene has a new resonance. “I kept reminding myself that this isn’t a musical with a happy ending,’’ he says. “This is a scenario for survival.”

Presented by Broadway in Boston. At Boston Opera House, Tuesday through April 10. Tickets start at $44. 800-982-2787, www.BroadwayInBoston.com

Summary: During casting for “The Sound of Music,” director Jack O’Brien saw a parade of actresses who looked like “cookie cutter versions of Julie Andrews.” But then Kerstin Anderson appeared.


Donkeys are renowned to be obstinate; capable of shouldering just about any burden, but beneath the stoicism and stubbornness beat near-human hearts.

Video shot on a Dutch farm earlier this year and now going viral shows a herd losing its mind with grief over a death in the ranks.

"Bram", an abused stray who lived out his last years at Stichting de Ezelshoeve, an animal sanctuary in the country's south, had to be put down after a variety of age-related ailments made his life a misery.

As his body is laid out on a tarpaulin in preparation for burial, Bram's stablemates congregate, braying uncontrollably, apparently totally overwhelmed that their friend is dead.

The head of the herd, Moefra, nibbles and nudges at Bram's body in an apparent attempt to revive him, but to no avail.

"All we could do was give him medication, nurse him, and give him all our love," sanctuary founder Jacqueline van den Berg told CBS.

"We knew that he was very sick and it was just a matter of time."

Summary: Donkeys are renowned to be obstinate and capable of shouldering just about any burden, but beneath the stoicism and stubbornness beat near-human hearts.


05/17/2016 AT 06:45 PM EDT

for "Can't Stop the Feeling" Tuesday, featuring a handful of fans of all shapes and sizes dancing along to the 35-year-old singer's latest track.

It's a fun concept – one that Timberlake heightens by giving each dancer his/her own title card during the video's finale. But it's also hardly the first time a big-named artist turned to the people for a little music video help. Here are 10 more notable offerings.

shocked fans by crashing a handful of weddings in Los Angeles. And while some of the nuptials featured were staged, there are at least two in the bunch featuring genuine surprises.

tried a number of dance styles in her 2014 video before ultimately stop pretending to be someone else and started dancing with her fans.

Clap along if you remember

's 2013 video, which took home the Grammy Award for Best Music Video. The cut edited down shots of fans (and a few celebs) dancing around Los Angeles from the "24 Hours of Happy" initiative – which Pharrell billed as "the world's first 24-hour music video."

asked fans to be "Brave" in her 2013 hit song. So it was only fitting that Bareilles featured film of some brave fans dancing in various public places in her official video, directed by

champ incorporated the theme of a global flash mob into her 2012 video – joining the team for a finale performance that had every

's debut 2011-tune featured a sample of 4 Non Blonde's "What's Up." The official music video, meanwhile, featured a sea of Grande's biggest fans cheering for her as she danced through a Hollywood set.

Before "Brave," Bareilles went grocery shopping with a handful of enthusiastic shoppers in her 2011 video for "Gonna Get Over You" – before being kicked out of the store by security.

Years before Bareilles and Timberlake danced in the aisles of a supermarket in their own respective videos,

was involved his own grocery-store adventure – complete with a break-dancing butcher – in his 2009 video for "Haven't Met You Yet."

The Denmark duo got to know their fans in this 2006, after holding a contest for fans to appear in their official music video for this track of their second – and last – album.

Music video director Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris gathered struggling musicians looking for their big break together to audition for a mysterious project. During their taped audition, the

surprised them by entering the room and playing along. Dayon and Faris cut the footage together for 2016's captivating "Tell Me Baby" video.

Summary: Justin Timberlake is the latest celeb to get down with the people in his 'Can't Stop the Feeling' video


It was only about a decade after the Wright Brothers’ first flight that Bill Boeing, who was in the timber business in Seattle, decided to learn how to fly planes. After he ordered a plane of his own, Boeing decided the design left room for to be improved upon. So he did. In 1934, TIME called him “a hard-headed industrialist who turned to flying as a hobby, began making airplanes as a whim and ended up by giving the world a new standard of aircraft performance.”

The eponymous company he founded in 1916 has been part of nearly every step of the aviation industry’s evolution, from wood-and-canvas contraptions to the jets of the modern age.

In a new book, Higher: 100 Years of Boeing, by Russ Banham (available Aug. 4), 200 photos—mostly from Boeing’s company archives—are used to trace that history, and all of the pit-stops in between.

Summary: A new book offers a look into Boeing's photo archives


The ostrich-legged two-time Tony winner, who these days is successfully dishing one-liners (and making the supermarket tabloids) as co-star of the sitcom ''Cybill,'' has dropped by City Center to remind New York theater audiences just how much they miss her.

Ms. Baranski is onstage for perhaps 10 minutes in the Encores concert revival of ''Promises, Promises,'' the pre-Anita Hill (1968) musical about sex in the work place. Ten minutes, however, is all that's needed for Ms. Baranski, playing a purposefully addled singles barfly who stalks her prey by insisting she's not a pickup, to create a few minor miracles with her eloquent eyebrows and the unexpected, line-bending timing of a jazz artist.

Mind you, that Ms. Baranski walks away with the show is more an act of grand than petty larceny. First of all, she's up against the comic dynamo Martin Short, who works like a Trojan in the starring role, as well as such Broadway stalwarts as Dick Latessa and Terrence Mann.

Moreover, it's hard to imagine this swinging period piece, which was hailed as the most thoroughly modern musical in years when it opened, receiving a more appetizingly polished staging than it's been given by its director and choreographer, Rob Marshall. Like last year's breakout Encores presentation of ''Chicago,'' this show, at least in terms of production values, seems ready to transfer to Broadway nearly as is. (With John Lee Beatty as its scenic consultant, it has the hard Lucite sparkle that the Roundabout revival of ''Company'' could have used more of.)

But what Ms. Baranski achieves in her all too fleeting time onstage is the illusion that this musical is as fresh as a plate of four-star sushi. It isn't. Its pleasures, starting with Mr. Marshall's expert, ''Hullabaloo''-style dance numbers, are many. Yet there's an inescapable sense of sociological distance that pushes you back when you need to be drawn in.

''Promises, Promises,'' which runs through tomorrow, was a benchmark on Broadway. With a book adapted (ingeniously) by Neil Simon from ''The Apartment,'' Billy Wilder's mordant 1960 film about an ambitious schlmiel who finds success by lending his bachelor pad as a trysting place to randy executives, the show traded on the urbane prurience of such popular infidelity comedies as ''Any Wednesday.''

Though the work featured memorable dance sequences by a choreographer on the rise named Michael Bennett, what really set it apart was its score, written by the solid-gold pop composer Burt Bacharach with lyrics by Hal David. Mr. Bacharach introduced to Broadway not only the insistently rhythmic, commercial-jingle buoyancy of 1960's soft-core radio fare, but also a cinematic use of Teflon-smooth, offstage backup vocals (the sort of hypnotic ''doo-de-doo'' sounds that would soon invade elevators).

Not surprisingly, the ever-sure Rob Fisher and his Coffee Club Orchestra replicate this sound with lush, time-machine exactitude. And Mr. Marshall and his corps de ballet match that spirit with marvelously precise renditions of the mechanically sexual dances that remind you that the liberated 60's were a little stiffer than anyone cares to remember. The overture is a trip, to use the language of the show's heyday, setting the tone visually as well as aurally with a bevy of daiquiri-cool go-go girls and angular men in skinny ties and C.I.A. suits.

There's no attempt (as there was in the recent revival of ''How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying'') to disguise the sexism here. The women are, unequivocally, girls, expensive pleasure toys in silver Courreges-style minidresses well set off by Peggy Eisenhauer's disco-cum-office lighting.

This climate of chilly lust, with its army of hubba-hubba businessmen (Eugene Levy of ''SCTV'' fame plays one of them), grows a tad tedious before the end of the first act. So does Mr. Bacharach's consciously repetitive score, which works better in the hedonistic choral numbers than in the soul-baring solos.

Mr. Short has undeniable charm as the morally conflicted accountant who falls in love with Fran (Kerry O'Malley), the gaminish mistress of his womanizing (and married) boss (Mr. Mann). It's hard, though, to credit this subversive imp as a human doormat; you can feel a detached, demonic energy waiting to escape. When it does -- in both the giddy ''She Loves Me''-style solo, ''She Likes Basketball,'' and in his clown-like attempts to cheer up the depressed Fran -- he's delightful.

The second act, which mostly takes place outside the barracuda tank of the office, is more engaging than the first. That's partly because it begins with Ms. Baranski, who immediately raises the evening's temperature. And Mr. Short and the winning Ms. O'Malley do very nicely indeed by the lower-key wistfulness of the show's best-known song, ''I'll Never Fall in Love Again.''

But while Mr. Simon's book remains a paradigm of agile construction, there's a groaning, antiquated quality to many of the sex jokes, just as there's a mod-paper-doll feeling about many of the characters. It's telling that the audience sees fit to hiss Mr. Mann's impassive cad, just as they would the mustache-twirling villain of a turn-of-the-century melodrama.

Encores: Great American Musicals in Concert

Book by Neil Simon; music by Burt Bacharach; lyrics by Hal David, based on the screeplay ''The Apartment'' by Billy Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond; artistic director, Kathleen Marshall; directed and choreogprahed by Rob Marshall; musical director, Rob Fisher and the Coffee Club Orchestra; set consultant, John Lee Beatty; associate choreographer, Cynthia Onrubia; sound by Bruce Cameron; lighting by Peggy Eisenhauer; concert adaptation, Mr. Simon; production stage manager, Peter Hanson; apparel coordinator, William Ivey Long; original orchestration, Jonathan Tunick; musical coordinator, Seymour Red Press. Presented by City Center 55th Street Theater Foundation Inc., Judith E. Daykin, president and executive director. At City Center, 131 West 55th Street, Manhattan.

WITH: Martin Short (Chuck Baxter), Terrence Mann (J. D. Sheldrake), Kerry O'Malley (Fran Kubelik), Dick Latessa (Dr. Dreyfuss), Jenifer Lewis (Peggy Olson), Eugene Levy (Mr. Dobitch), Joe Grifasi (Mr. Eichelberger), Samuel E. Wright (Mr. Kirkeby), Ralph Byers (Mr. Vanderhof) and Christine Baranski (Marge MacDougall).

Photo: Martin Short as Chuck Baxter and Christine Baranski as Marge MacDougall in a revival of ''Promises, Promises'' at City Center. (Chang W. Lee/The New York Times)

Summary: Christine Baranski, come home!    The ostrich-legged two-time Tony winner, who these days is successfully dishing one-liners (and making the supermarket tabloids) as co-star of the sitcom ''Cybill,'' has dropped by City Center to remind New York theater audiences just how much they miss her.


(Reuters) – Tesla said it would sell $2 billion of stock to help finance the accelerated launch of its new Model 3 electric sedan.

Shares were down 1.8 percent at $207.30 following the news after markets closed on Wednesday.

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk surprised investors last month with his decision to speed up the introduction of the Model 3, a smaller, less expensive car than Tesla has built, and expand production capacity at the Tesla plant in Fremont, California.

As part of the sale, Tesla said it would offer about $1.4 billion of shares, with the remaining shares to be sold by Musk to cover taxes connected with his exercise of more than 5.5 million stock options.

Summary: Proceeds will pay for producing the company's planned mass-market car.


Some promising startups with billion-dollar valuations, a.k.a. unicorns, are struggling. Here’s a brief look at three. Theranos

Regulators are all over the blood-testing company, last valued at $9 billion, after a series of Wall Street Journal reports called its technology into question. Chief operating officer Sunny Balwani left in May.

The human resources software startup, last valued at $4.5 billion, was flying high until its CEO Parker Conrad abruptly resigned. The reason? The discovery of a tool that enabled some of its employees to skirt California health insurance licensing requirements.

Actress Jessica Alba co-founded the company, last valued at $1.7 billion, to sell safe and healthy products, but several lawsuits allege that they contain undisclosed chemicals.

To see Fortune’s full unicorn list, click here.

For more on unicorns, watch this Fortune video:

A version of this article appears in the June 1, 2016 issue of Fortune with the headline “Shorn Horns.”

Summary: The billion-dollar struggle is real.


Deloitte has some news for piping hot financial startups—news they might not like to hear.

Despite the hype about their potential to upend lending, the upstarts do not, in fact, imperil the livelihood of incumbent banks, the accounting and consulting firm said in a new report.

Deloitte’s tepid outlook for financial technology upstarts is counter to the disruptive world-conquering storyline that is the norm in Silicon Valley. Big banks are unlikely to be unseated by less regulated, more nimble upstarts, the report said.

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“The rise of Marketplace lending has urged many commentators to highlight the potential disruption that such new business models may bring to traditional banking,” the report said. “Our research presents a different opinion and instead concludes that MPLs”—that is, marketplace lenders—”do not currently have the competitive advantage needed to threaten this traditional banking model.”

The paper doesn’t go into detail about individual companies, although it mentions several in passing like Prosper, OnDeck, and Lending Club among the new crop of lenders, and J.P. Morgan Chase jpm and Citigroup c in the incumbent camp. (It’s worth noting that Deloitte no doubt has big bank customers.)

Adding support to the report’s conclusions, financial technology firms have hit turbulence in recent months. Prosper, the first peer-to-peer lending company in the U.S., said it would lay off 28% of its workers, Lending Club’s CEO departed under a huge cloud over its lending practices while its share price tumbled, and OnDeck’s stock price took a pummeling because of increasing doubts about its ability to find loan buyers.

Meanwhile, big banks are trying to keep up with innovation by, among other things, experimenting with new technologies like the blockchain, the software underpinning Bitcoin, that could streamline their IT operations. Some banks like JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup have partnered with companies like OnDeck and Lending Club, for example, to provide loans through their platforms.

Lending has traditionally been a cash cow for commercial banks. Yet increased regulatory scrutiny and legacy IT costs are eating into entrenched players’ opportunities.

Startups, on the other hand, are benefitting from low interest rates, low overhead for their technology infrastructure, and low risk associated with their peer-to-peer lending businesses. These factors have allowed them to enter the market as a compelling alternative loan provider for consumers, the report said.

For more on loans, watch:

Deloitte’s report sets out to answer a question: Is marketplace lending a temporary phenomenon? In other words, are the newcomers merely exploiting a set of lucky conditions that will vanish at some point?

In fact, Deloitte predicted that the sector is not going away anytime soon. It foresees, however, that increased regulation and competition “may squeeze returns,” or profits. The startups that stand the best chance of sticking around are niche players that focus on specific market segments, Deloitte said.

For the most part though, these financial tech startups are “unlikely to pose a threat in the mass market,” it concluded. “They may not fully disrupt the model, we do expect them to be a continued presence within the ever evolving banking landscape.”

Summary: Not a threat, the firm says.


Humor is attractive to men and women — but not in the same way.

The research shows women like men who make them laugh, and men like women who laugh at their jokes.

Via Mating Intelligence Unleashed: The Role of the Mind in Sex, Dating, and Love:

Recent research suggests that while both men and women say they like a “good sense of humor” in a potential mate, they differ in what they mean by this phrase. Women tend to prefer men who make them laugh, whereas men tend to prefer women who laugh at their jokes.

Consistent with this, Robert Provine analyzed more than 3000 singles ads and found that women were more likely to describe their good humor appreciation ability whereas men were more likely to offer good humor production ability.

Why is humor sexy? Funny people are smart, and smart is sexy.

Via Mating Intelligence Unleashed: The Role of the Mind in Sex, Dating, and Love:

Gil Greengross and Geoffrey Miller found in a sample of 400 university students that general intelligence and verbal intelligence both predicted humor production ability (writing captions for cartoons), which in turn predicted lifetime number of sexual partners (a proxy of reproductive success). They found, however, that males showed higher average levels of humor production ability, which is consistent with the sexual selection perspective. From these results, Greengross argues that a sense of humor evolved at least partly through sexual selection as an intelligence indicator.

So ladies can boost their attractiveness by chuckling a bit more.

And guys, you can garner more attention by learning how to make women laugh.

Via Mating Intelligence Unleashed: The Role of the Mind in Sex, Dating, and Love:

Men in the “humor” condition received phone numbers from 42.9% of the female participants and were refused 57.1% of the time. In comparison, men in the “no humor” condition were refused 84.6% of the time and were only accepted 15.4% of the time. In other words, men who were observed as the humor producers of the group were nearly three times as likely to receive a phone number than those who were observed as laughing at a friend’s joke instead.

Want to increase someone’s interest in you? Might be worthwhile to make sure they find out you’re interested in them.

Via How to Make Someone Fall in Love With You in 90 Minutes or Less:

Dr. Aron affirmed that the subjects’ expectation that the other person was going to like them had a huge effect. “If you ask people about their experience of falling in love, over 90 percent will say that a major factor was discovering that the other person liked them,” according to Dr. Aron.

This idea is affirmed by studying the effectiveness of “playing hard to get.” What’s the best way to play that game?

Establish that you’re hard to get in general — but very enthusiastic about the person you’re with.

Via Richard Wiseman’s excellent book 59 Seconds: Change Your Life in Under a Minute:

As a result of the interviews, the researchers speculated that the best strategy would be to give a potential date the impression that in general you were hard to get (and therefore a scarce resource worth having) but really enthusiastic about him or her specifically. They tested this notion by using some of the same techniques… and found overwhelming evidence to support their hypothesis.

Random conversation with someone you’re interested in can be a bad idea. Why? What you talk about can matter — a lot.

Emotional, personal information exchange promotes powerful feelings of connection.

Via Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You:

Arthur Aron, a psychologist at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is interested in how people form romantic relationships, and he’s come up with an ingenious way of taking men and women who have never met before and making them feel close to one another. Given that he has just an hour or so to create the intimacy levels that typically take weeks, months, or years to form, he accelerated the getting-to-know-you process through a set of thirty-six questions crafted to take the participants rapidly from level one in McAdams’s system to level two.

How effective is it? In under an hour it can create a connection stronger than a lifelong friendship.

Via Click: The Magic of Instant Connections:

What he found was striking. The intensity of the dialogue partners’ bond at the end of the forty-five-minute vulnerability interaction was rated as closer than the closest relationship in the lives of 30 percent of similar students. In other words, the instant connections were more powerful than many long-term, even lifelong relationships.

(You can read the most effective things to discuss here.)

That said, don’t get so nervous about your words that you can’t speak…

When a woman is very attracted to a man, whether his pickup line is good or not doesn’t matter at all.

Via Mating Intelligence Unleashed: The Role of the Mind in Sex, Dating, and Love:

When women are looking for a short-term fling, however, it may be a different story. One study conducted on college students found that women favored men for a short-term fling if they found the men attractive regardless of the content of their pickup lines.

Conscientiousness is predictive of a number of very important positive elements in life.

Agreeable, conscientious people make better spouses and parents — but disagreeable, non-conscientious people have more sex partners.

The former invest in quality, and it seems like the latter make up the difference in, well, volume.

Looking to settle down? Check if that person has their ducks in a row, is organized and easy to get along with. That’s marriage material.

Via Mating Intelligence Unleashed: The Role of the Mind in Sex, Dating, and Love:

Nettle and Clegg reported that in a sample of 545 people, men (but not women) with low levels of agreeableness and conscientiousness tended to have a higher number of sexual partners. It has also been found cross-culturally, across 10 world regions, that low levels of agreeableness and conscientiousness are related to higher levels of sexual promiscuity and relationship infidelity, so there may be reproductive benefits to those on the low end of these traits.

Research shows we don’t really fall in love with a person — we fall in love with how we feel when we’re with them.

This is best demonstrated by the concept of emotional contagion: we’re bad at telling what made us feel a certain way, but good about making associations.

Feeling excited, stimulated and aroused is often associated with the people around us, even if they’re not the cause.

This can be taken to extremes: having someone try to kill you can actually make you more attracted to them.

Via The Heart of Social Psychology: A Backstage View of a Passionate Science:

Those in the high-fear condition did show, for example, significantly more desire to kiss my confederate (one of the key questions) and wrote more romantic and sexual content into their stories. Looking at the details of these results, I found that the situation had generated, quite specifically, romantic attraction.

Some might find the notion that we’re just “feeling junkies” un-romantic, butthis idea can save relationships and prevent divorce.

By doing things that rekindle those exciting feelings, love can be restored:

…if partners experience excitement from other sources (such as novel and challenging activities) in a shared context, this shared experience can reignite relationship passion by associating the excitement with the relationship.

There’s still a lot about love and sex that can’t be easily quantified. Studies show “love at first sight” is real.

Via How to Make Someone Fall in Love With You in 90 Minutes or Less:

Dr. Earl Naumann, author of Love at First Sight, interviewed and surveyed 1500 individuals of all races, religions, and backgrounds across America, and concluded that love at first sight is not a rare experience. What’s more, Dr. Naumann theorizes that if you believe in love at first sight, there’s a roughly 60 percent chance it will happen to you. Here’s what led him to that conclusion.

How can you increase the chance love at first sight happens to you? By believing in it.

Other posts you should read on love, sex, and romance:

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This piece originally appeared on Barking Up the Wrong Tree.

Read next: 5 Things Your Clothes Are Saying About You

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Summary: No. 1: Humor is attractive to men and women — but not in the same way.


(from left) Kelly Bensimon, Alex McCord and Jill Zarin

updated 09/17/2011 AT 11:00 PM EDT

•originally published 09/17/2011 AT 09:05 PM EDT

, the newest addition to the popular Bravo show, were not asked back for season 5.

"Ramona Singer, Sonja Morgan and LuAnn DeLesseps will be returning for season 5 of

," a network spokesperson tells PEOPLE. "We've had a fabulous run with all the ladies and appreciate them sharing their lives with our viewers. It is a friendly departure among the other ladies and we continue to have on-going discussions with them."

In response, McCord told PEOPLE via email: "Of course Simon and I are sad not to continue with

but it's a friendly decision and discussions with Bravo are ongoing for other projects."

Zarin also weighed in, via her rep, who told PEOPLE in a statement: "Jill is humbled by the extraordinary amount of media interest in her response and looks forward to personally opening up about all of this very soon and announcing some exciting new projects."

began earlier in the week after the

, citing sources in the network, announced that Zarin, McCord and Bensimon were fired from the show. At the time, however, their reps – as well as Bravo – said nothing was official.

Zarin, meanwhile, said through a rep that she was still negotiating her contract.

When season 5 airs, Countess LuAnn de Lesseps and Ramona Singer will be the only original castmembers returning. Sonja Morgan joined the show in season 3.

Summary: As season 5 begins filming, Bravo announces some big casting changes