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Men in Black III

 May 23, 2012

 "Men in Black 3” comes 15 years after the entertaining original and 10 years after the sequel laid an egg, and the surprise is, it's better than the first one. Given the passage of time, the entire concept may be new to some audience members, but it still does service: There is a secret agency assigned to keeping track of all aliens on Earth, and there are as many of them as makeup expert Rick Baker can possibly devise. I am not sure how undercover an MiB agent can be when he dresses exactly like the Blues Brothers, but never mind, they get the job done.

 The story until now: Veteran Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) and his younger recruit Agent J (Will Smith) are under the supervision of Agent O (Emma Thompson) when there's an emergency. The hideously ugly alien Boris the Animal (Jemaine Clement) has escaped from a maximum security prison on the moon. He is the last surviving member of his race, still angry because Agent K shot off one of his arms. His plan: Travel back in time and kill Agent K before that can happen.

 An arm like his, you don't want to lose. Its palm apparently serves as a condo for a nasty little insectoid creature that will leap and take chunks out of you. Indeed, Boris is one of those aliens whose entire body seems to contain openings from which unappetizing things can forage on its victims.

 Time travel can become very complicated. To make it simple: Agent J (Will Smith, you remember) tries to travel back in time to prevent Boris the Animal from killing K. This results in a Young K existing in the same time period as J, who is the same age he started as, so the old man and the rookie are now contemporaries.

 How this is achieved is the movie's most impressive achievement. Young Agent K is played, not by Tommy Lee Jones in prosthetic makeup, but by Josh Brolin. The casting is spot-on. He looks like a young Tommy Lee Jones, and he sounds so uncannily like him that director Barry Sonnenfeld, hearing him, allegedly shed tears of relief. While watching the movie, I was convinced Jones dubbed his own voice. But remember Brolin was also a good sound-alike for George W. Bush in “W.”

 Anyway, Agent J travels back to save Agent K, and not content to populate the film with countless gob-smacking aliens from Rick Baker's fertile imagination, Sonnenfeld and his writer, Etan Cohen, also show a Hitchcockian flair for using ironic locations. For reasons I don't understand, in order to return to the "present," it's necessary to fall from a very great height and push a button on a gizmo at the last second. This involves Agent J crawling out on one of those medieval-looking eagles atop the Chrysler building, something you can imagine Hitch assigning Cary Grant to do.

 A virtuoso final sequence takes place at Cape Kennedy on the day of the first moon landing attempt. Another gizmo must be placed on the moon to save humanity, and this involves a last-minute attempt to crawl out to the Apollo 11 pilot capsule, slap on the gizmo and escape using one of those chutes provided for the astronauts in case of an emergency. Since the first moon launch was telecast with many TV camera and scrutinized by countless binoculars, it seems unlikely this would have gone unnoticed. Maybe there's a loophole — like if the attempt succeeds, it changes the future and turns out to be unnecessary.

 Whatever. The movie gets comic relief from a sidekick character named Griffin (Michael Stuhlbarg), who wears a knitted Elmer Fudd hat and has the ability to see all the possible variations resulting from various events during time travel. “Uh, oh,” he's always saying, “this is the one where …”

 Let me say that although I liked the first “MiB” movie, I wasn't particularly looking forward to this belated sequel. But I had fun. It has an ingenious plot, bizarre monsters, audacious cliff-hanging, and you know what? A closing scene that adds a new and sort of touching dimension to the characters of J and K. ||||| The years off have not been kind to the Men in Black—Josh Brolin as the young, 1969 version of Agent K is the only saving grace in this uneven, long-in-the-making sequel to the sequel

 Columbia Pictures

 It’s silly to feel sorry for a big studio movie, especially a second sequel bound to make buckets of money, but director Barry Sonnenfeld’s Men in Black 3, arriving 15 years after his original and 10 after Men in Black 2, is so creaky and out of touch it inspires pity. Its opening sequences are a near marvel of confusion, mayhem and embarrassments for its actors. If it was a person, you’d worry it had dementia.

 Agents K (Tommy Lee Jones) and J (Will Smith) are back, but the reliable tart and taciturn vs. sweet and sassy energy between them is absent, as if they filmed their scenes independently, acting opposite puppets in front of a blue screen. Their banter is blather. At a Chinese restaurant in Manhattan they manage to fight off a slew of aliens. In 3-D Rick Baker’s creations, while never intended to be taken seriously, seem goofy, old-fashioned and repellent in the wrong way—that is, you really don’t want to look at them. Even blasting aliens in tandem, K and J still aren’t connecting. J is needier than usual, while K is brooding; an alien he locked up 40 years ago, Boris the Animal (Jemaine Clement from The Flight of the Conchords), has escaped from a lunar prison and is headed back in time, to July 1969, just before the first moon walk, to kill K.

 (MORE: TIME’s interview with Oscar-winning makeup artist and creature maker Rick Baker’s inspirations)

 The average moviegoer is well educated in the particulars of time travel. Even if your high school curriculum didn’t include any H.G. Wells, thanks to Back to the Future, Terminator and dozens of other films, just about everyone knows how it works. Why don’t the fleet of screenwriters who cooked up this script? They have J wake up the morning after the bloodbath at the Chinese restaurant to a world already missing K. This makes no sense. Boris has gone back in time, but given that he hasn’t found or killed young K yet, old K ought to be alive, well and doing that “sort of surly Elvis” thing he does in contemporary Manhattan. Instead he’s dead and gone, and at headquarters, only the boss and former paramour, O (Emma Thompson, 53 and playing 65 or so, every actress’s dream) even remembers old K.

 Also, an alien invasion has commenced, because while K was capturing Boris back in 1969 he also put up a shield that prevented anyone from Boris’ planet to enter the atmosphere. (One more logistical lament: that would include Boris in 2009.) J goes back in time to save young K and stop the invasion. Just before he leaps, J gets a warning from the guy (Michael Chernus) who lends him the time traveling device, which looks like a cross between a police badge and a smart phone, to be careful in 1969. “It wasn’t the best time for your people,” he cautions. J looks baffled, as if being a black man today didn’t include having some sense of what being a black man in 1969 was like. Maybe he’s been hitting the neuralyzer in his down time.

 (SPECIAL: What year Will Smith landed on the Time 100 list)

 Without Jones, it must be said, Men in Black 3 improves considerably. The actual time traveling sequence, which starts with Smith in freefall from the Chrysler Building, is the kind of special effect that makes the annoyance of the 3-D glasses worth it for a few minutes. 1969 is reasonably fun—and if anyone can pull off jokes about racial profiling, it is the ever-likeable Will Smith. There’s an entertaining run-in with Andy Warhol (Bill Hader) and the whole Factory gang and a few sweet scenes with a Mork-like alien (Michael Stuhlbarg, who starred in the Coen’s A Serious Man).

 But the best reason for going back in time, and really, when it comes down to it, the only reason to see Men in Black 3, is Josh Brolin, who plays young K. His Tommy Lee Jones voice is not that far removed from the George Bush voice he used in W., but he hits all those querulous notes just right. Posture, body language, Brolin nails it; his sideways glance is pure poetry of Tommy Lee-ness. Even if you love Jones, and many of us do, it can be hard to distinguish between his characters—so often maximum misanthropes—and his suffer-no-fools public persona. In his brief scenes in Men in Black 3, which mercifully only constitute 10 or so minutes of screen time, Jones gives the impression that he’s genuinely miserable being there. Meanwhile, Brolin looks like he’s having the time of his life playing a youthful curmudgeon, and he reminds us what was so delightful about Jones and his taciturn routine in the first place. J keeps looking at young, cool K and shaking his head. “What happened to you?” he wants to know. For Jones, likely a case of sustained sequelitis.

 MORE: Time’s Richard Corliss on W ||||| Back in the Day, When Agents and Aliens Were Sweet ‘Men in Black 3,’ With Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones

 Can you think of a new movie with less reason for existing than “Men in Black 3”? What? “Battleship” ? Yes, O.K. Good point. Hadn’t thought of that. “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” ? Fair enough. But still. “The Avengers” ? Let’s not go there. And stop interrupting me when I’m trying to make a serious point.

 Apart from the urgent necessity of reminding us that Will Smith is a movie star (and the usual need to wring a few more dollars out of a profitable franchise), “Men in Black 3” arrives in the multiplexes of the world with no particular agenda. Which may be part of the reason it turns out to be so much fun. You don’t need to study up on the previous installments or master a body of bogus fanboy lore to enjoy this movie for the breezy pop throwaway it is. Your expectations may be pleasantly low, and you may therefore be pleasantly surprised when they are exceeded.

 The first “Men in Black” movie, a playful adaptation of Lowell Cunningham’s offbeat comic books, was released 15 years ago, and a decade has gone by since the sequel — called “Men in Black 2” and every bit as memorable as its name — cashed in big and skyrocketed into the realm of bloated, tongue-in-cheek, special-effects-heavy spectacle. No. 3, directed by Barry Sonnenfeld from a script by Etan Cohen, starts out somewhat dispiritingly in that tapped-out vein, with a barrage of state-of-the-art weaponry, meticulously rendered slime and jokes that seem more than a little stale. There are no talking dogs and not too many references to the earlier installments.

 We are back in the company of agents J and K — Mr. Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, who both seem a bit creaky as they haul out the same old shtick. K is the grouchy coot, J is his motor-mouthed protégé, and they break out the neuralyzers and the zap guns in their continuing mission to deal with the extraterrestrials hidden in our midst. They trade some banter with Emma Thompson, who plays their boss, and encounter weird creatures on the streets of New York.

 For the first 20 minutes or so, nothing special is going on, and it seems that “Men in Black 3” will be content to spin its wheels and collect its money en route through the usual overscaled action set pieces toward a superloud, planet-saving final showdown. The music sounds less like a score by Danny Elfman than like a score by Danny Elfman’s smartphone app, and it carries dreadful intimations of forced fun. But even as the movie carefully fulfills its blockbuster imperatives — with chases and explosions and elaborately contrived plot twists — it swerves into some marvelously silly, unexpectedly witty and genuinely fresh territory. Go figure.

 The first sign of promise is the early appearance of the interplanetary supervillain, a leonine fellow named Boris who is confined to a maximum-security prison on the Moon. Boris is played with thunderous mock pomposity by Jemaine Clement, a great and eccentric comic talent who has improved every Hollywood movie he has appeared in (“Dinner for Schmucks,” “Gentlemen Broncos”) and who has done New Zealand proud in “Flight of the Conchords” and “Eagle vs Shark.”

 Boris and K have some history, a simmering grudge that long predates K’s partnership with J and that necessitates a bit of time travel. Somehow one of the oldest science-fiction tricks in the book — remember that “Star Trek” episode with Captain Kirk, Joan Collins and Hitler? — becomes an occasion for oddball inventiveness. The casting helps. Not only Mr. Clement, but also Alice Eve (as Ms. Thompson’s chipper younger self), Bill Hader (as Andy Warhol, of all people) and Michael Stuhlbarg as a sweet and spacey alien who tries to help J and K.

 They meet him in the summer of 1969, shortly before the Apollo 11 Moon landing and in a swirl of nostalgia as naïve as “Forrest Gump” and as knowing as “Mad Men,” but not as sour as either. J has gone there to change the course of history, and also to find K, who turns out to be Josh Brolin doing an uncanny and hilarious Young Tommy Lee Jones.

 “What happened to you?” J keeps asking his jovial partner, and the joke is both that the question is never answered and that it doesn’t need to be.

 The action spins from Coney Island to Cape Kennedy (now Cape Canaveral), and the giddiness is spiked with metaphysical anxiety (thanks to Mr. Stuhlbarg’s quiet, existential freakiness) and disarming tenderness. The first two “Men in Black” movies did some spoofing of the conventions of the black and white, cross-generational buddy picture, but the third one finds its way back to the heart of the genre.

 It manages, in the end, to be touching as well as hectic and whimsical, and to send a few interesting thematic bubbles into the air, having to do with lost fathers, obscure regrets and racial reconciliation. So maybe there is a reason, after all.

 “Men in Black 3” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Cartoonishly violent deaths of (and by) aliens; swearing.

 Men in Black 3

 Opens on Friday nationwide.

 Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld; written by Etan Cohen, based on the Malibu comic by Lowell Cunningham; director of photography, Bill Pope; edited by Don Zimmerman; music by Danny Elfman; production design by Bo Welch; costumes by Mary Vogt; alien makeup effects by Rick Baker; produced by Walter F. Parkes and Laurie MacDonald; released by Columbia Pictures. Running time: 1 hour 46 minutes.

 WITH: Will Smith (Agent J), Tommy Lee Jones (Agent K), Josh Brolin (Young Agent K), Jemaine Clement (Boris the Animal), Michael Stuhlbarg (Griffin), Alice Eve (Young Agent O), Bill Hader (Andy Warhol), David Rasche (Agent X), Emma Thompson (Agent O) and Nicole Scherzinger (Boris’s Girlfriend). |||||

– Sure, no one was that desperate for a Men in Black 3—but it's actually a pretty good summer movie. Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are back defending the planet from aliens, and this time, Josh Brolin's along for the ride as a young Jones. The movie "turns out to be so much fun," writes AO Scott in the New York Times. While it "carefully fulfills its blockbuster imperatives—with chases and explosions and elaborately contrived plot twists—it swerves into some marvelously silly, unexpectedly witty, and genuinely fresh territory." Writing in USA Today, Claudia Puig is impressed. "This spirited three-quel comes close to the exuberance of the first Men in Black and is a distinct improvement over its limp 2002 follow-up." Roger Ebert would go further: With "an ingenious plot, bizarre monsters," and "audacious cliff-hanging," the latest film is "better than the first one," he declares. But Mary Pols isn't so sure about the overall picture. "When it comes down to it, the only reason to see Men in Black 3 is Josh Brolin," she writes in Time. "He hits all those querulous notes just right. Posture, body language, Brolin nails it; his sideways glance is pure poetry of Tommy Lee-ness."


News article:

The Body by Simone program, or BBS, is not a quick fix; it is a lifestyle. This might sound like a cliché, but it’s true. I would never tell you to work out six times a week for two hours a day to get results … or promise that you’ll lose ten pounds in a week if you do as I say. That’s crazy talk! And it’s not sustainable. With BBS you will learn how to make exercise and healthy eating a way of life instead of drudgery. I’ll give you the tools you’ll need, and if you put in the time and effort, you’ll come out the other side healthier, happier and stronger.

 -Simone De La Rue from her book Body by Simone: The 8-Week Total Body Makeover Plan. ||||| Sandra Bullock Is PEOPLE's 2015 World's Most Beautiful Woman!

 Cliff Watts

 Sandra Isn't Just the Most Beautiful ... She's Also the Most Fun

 PEOPLE's 2015 World's Most Beautiful Woman, Sandra Bullock, opens up in her most revealing interview ever. Subscribe now for instant access to this exclusive interview , plus almost 200 more breathtaking beauties, only in PEOPLE!She may be PEOPLE's 2015 World's Most Beautiful Woman, but Sandra Bullock doesn't take herself too seriously when it comes to her appearance.Despite being in "princess mode" while shooting for this year's cover story, Bullock, 50, insists she just laughed when she heard about the honor. "No, really. I just said, 'That's ridiculous,' " she tells PEOPLE. "I've told no one."Instead the Oscar winner, who voices a supervillain in the upcoming movie Minions, has found beauty in her role as mom to her 5-year-old son, Louis, adding that their life together is a constant reminder of what's important."Real beauty is quiet. Especially in this town, it's just so hard not to say, 'Oh, I need to look like that,' " she explains. "No, be a good person, be a good mom, do a good job with the lunch, let someone cut in front of you who looks like they're in a bigger hurry. The people I find most beautiful are the ones who aren't trying."Daily life for the two revolves around carpools, play dates and "deep" conversations, including a recent one involving Bullock "listening to him tell me why he was going to marry his girlfriend," she says. "But then we were having Sunday dinner, and he said he changed his mind. I just told him, 'Always love those who want to love you back and are nice to you.' Then we moved back to Legos and 'Why are you making me eat broccoli?' "As a mom, Bullock admits she is wrapped around her son's finger, "but I will never let him know it. We have rules," she says. "I let everyone else be the aunties and uncles who spoil him and I'm the one that lays down the law."The actress reveals that Louis can always make her laugh by dancing ("it's like a combination of break dancing and kung fu fighting with an occasional Downward Dog thrown in for good measure") and still doesn't know what his mom does for a living. "He thought I was an astronaut for a while," she adds. "I want it to be so inconsequential and such a nonissue. I want him to be embarrassed by me like all other parents."Aside from motherhood, Bullock credits a healthy diet – she's moved away from raw cookie dough and embraced green juice – and working out with Body by Simone four to five times a week for helping her stay balanced and grounded."I love that it's not big weights, you move the entire time, it's a torture chamber of sorts," she says. "When I started, I could barely do 20 seconds, and I'm not kidding. I'm crying on the floor, and she's like, 'Are you a smoker?' I was like, 'I hate you.' "The best compliments she hears these days are usually spoken by her little man. "I was putting him to bed and told him that even when I'm old and gray and more wrinkly than I am now, I'll still love him and want to tuck him in," she says. "And he asked why I have wrinkles, and I said, 'Well, I hope some of them are from laughing so much.' And he touched my face and said, 'You're not old, you're just happy.' "For more of Bullock's exclusive interview – in which she opens up about family and her life as a mom – pick up this week's special issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– The people at People have spoken, and there is officially no one else in the entire world more beautiful than Sandra Bullock. Yes, the actress has been named the World's Most Beautiful Woman for 2015, and she apparently laughed when she learned of the honor that had been bestowed upon her. "No, really. I just said, 'That's ridiculous,'" she tells the magazine of her reaction. "I've told no one." If you aspire to achieve Bullock's beauty, she recommends a healthy diet including green juice and a Body By Simone workout four to five times per week. "I love that it's not big weights, you move the entire time, it's a torture chamber of sorts," she says. "When I started, I could barely do 20 seconds, and I'm not kidding. I'm crying on the floor, and she's like, 'Are you a smoker?' I was like, 'I hate you.'" But, of course, Bullock insists inner beauty is better. "Real beauty is quiet. ... The people I find most beautiful are the ones who aren't trying." (Click to see what Sandy looks like blonde.)


Article:

“It’s pretty obvious that in all seven sites there is a clear relationship,” said Dr. Marcos A. Espinal, the study’s lead author and the director of communicable diseases at the Pan American Health Organization, which collected data on confirmed and suspected cases of Zika infection and on the incidence of Guillain-Barré. “Something is going on.”

 In Venezuela, officials expected roughly 70 cases of Guillain-Barré from December 2015 to the end of March 2016, as mosquitoes were spreading the virus. Instead, there were 684 cases.

 Similarly, during five months in which the Zika virus was circulating in Colombia, officials recorded 320 cases of Guillain-Barré when there should have been about 100. From September 2015 to March 2016, while Zika infections peaked in El Salvador, cases of Guillain-Barré doubled to 184 from 92.

 The researchers included patients with both suspected and confirmed Zika infections, as reported by national health officials.

 Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters.

 Dr. Kenneth C. Gorson, professor of neurology at Tufts University School of Medicine, who was not involved with the new analysis, called it compelling.

 “This is a substantial public health burden for countries that may not have well-developed health systems in place,” he said. “They have to have enough ventilators and I.C.U. beds.” About one-third of patients with Guillain-Barré require breathing assistance, he said.

 Over all, Dr. Espinal and his authors found increases in Guillain-Barré that were two to 10 times what would normally be expected. Roughly 500 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean are at risk for Zika virus infection, so even modest increases in the incidence of Guillain-Barré are worrisome.

 The nations in the study included the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Suriname, Venezuela and Colombia, along with the state of Bahia in Brazil. (National data from Brazil was not available until February 2016.)

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 Collectively, they reported a total of nearly 1,500 cases of temporary paralysis. The reported incidence was 28 percent higher for men and increased with age for both sexes, in line with previous research.

 Temporary paralysis is a potential neurological complication of dengue infection, too. But Dr. Espinal and his colleagues looked for a similar link to dengue and found none.

 Dr. Gorson noted that the continental United States has no formal monitoring system for Guillain-Barré. As the number of Zika cases in Florida and elsewhere increases, he said, “you won’t know if a Guillain-Barré case is related to Zika infection.”

 “We can do it,” he said of such surveillance. But “there’s no funding from Congress to do it.” ||||| SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Puerto Rico on Friday reported its first death from a paralysis condition that developed from a Zika infection as the U.S. territory fights an epidemic of the mosquito-borne virus.

 The victim was a man between 35 and 45 years old from the San Juan metro area who died from Guillain-Barre, according to state epidemiologist Brenda Rivera. The condition can cause temporary paralysis and in rare instances, death.

 Rivera noted that it's unusual for the victim to be so young.

 "What does this tell us? That all of us are susceptible," Rivera said as she urged Puerto Ricans to protect themselves from the mosquito-borne virus.

 The man, who died last month, was obese but did not have any other health conditions, she said. No further details about the victim were provided.

 The U.S. territory has a total of 13,186 confirmed Zika cases, with a total of 102 hospitalizations and 34 cases of Guillain-Barre. The number of Zika cases is believed to be much higher because eight of 10 people have no symptoms and many do not go to the doctor. Those infected include 1,106 pregnant women, which is a concern because Zika has been linked to severe birth defects.

 "We are not going to see the effects of Zika today," Rivera said. "We are going to see them in the next couple of months, in the next several years."

 Puerto Rico reported the first Zika-related microcephaly case acquired on U.S. soil in May, involving a dead fetus that a woman turned over to health authorities. Since then no microcephaly cases have been reported, but federal officials say it is only a matter of time. A study published Friday in JAMA Pediatrics estimates that up to 10,300 pregnant women in Puerto Rico could be infected with Zika and that between 100 to 270 babies could be born with microcephaly through mid-2017.

 In addition, some babies infected with Zika may present other type of problems such as eye abnormalities, hearing loss and inflexible joints, said Dr. Peggy Honein, chief of the birth defects branch at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 "We are very concerned about these often devastating outcomes," she said in a phone interview.

 Honein, who was involved in the study, said that one of the major challenges of the Zika outbreak is the time delay in babies being born with severe defects.

 "It doesn't mean that it's not happening because we don't see the effects yet," she warned.

 The U.S. government last week declared a public health emergency in Puerto Rico because of Zika, and federal officials have warned that up to 25 percent of Puerto Rico's nearly 3.5 million people could become infected.

 The CDC recently urged Puerto Rico fight Zika with the insecticide naled through aerial spraying, but the governor rejected that proposal and instead authorized the use of Bti, an organic larvicide. ||||| Our apologies. An error occurred while setting your user cookie. Please set your browser to accept cookies to continue.

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 1-800-843-6356 | [email protected] ||||| There’s more evidence that Zika virus infection can cause a paralyzing side effect called Guillain-Barré syndrome.

 Instances of Guillain-Barré skyrocketed in countries hit by Zika virus epidemics — by as much as 877 percent in Venezuela, health officials and researchers from Latin America reported. At the very least, rates doubled, the officials said in a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine.

 A specialist at Harris County Public Health and Environmental Services holds a box that contains captured mosquitoes. Jennifer Weiss / NBC News

 “During the weeks of Zika virus transmission, there were significant increases in the incidence of the Guillain–Barré syndrome, as compared with the pre-Zika virus baseline incidence, in (Brazil’s) Bahia State (an increase of 172 percent), Colombia (211 percent), the Dominican Republic (150 percent), El Salvador (100 percent), Honduras (144 percent), Suriname (400 percent), and Venezuela (877 percent),” they wrote. “When the incidence of Zika virus disease increased, so did the incidence of the Guillain–Barré syndrome.”

 Doctors are fairly certain that Zika can cause Guillain-Barré syndrome, a little understood reaction in which the immune system attacks the nerves. It can cause temporary but often severe paralysis. In extreme cases, patients must be put on ventilators to help them breathe until they recover.

 Related: Rare Zika Complication Hits 30 in Puerto Rico

 It can be fatal — Guillain-Barré caused by Zika killed a man in Puerto Rico last month. It's usually seen in about every 5,000 to 10,000 infections like Zika. Other infections also can cause Guillain-Barré.

 “When the incidence of Zika virus disease increased, so did the incidence of the Guillain–Barré syndrome.”

 Zika’s worst effect is the brain and nerve damage it causes in developing fetuses. It can devastate the growing brain and there is no way to prevent or reverse the effects.

 Pregnant women in Zika-affected zones are warned to avoid mosquito bites if they possibly can by using repellents, covering up with clothing and staying inside behind screens and air conditioning. But these facilities are often not available in some of the worst-hit places.

 The researchers found more women than men reported Zika infections, but said that might be because women are more aware of the risks because of the pregnancy link. However, men were more likely to develop Guillain-Barré.

 “From April 1, 2015, to March 31, 2016, a total of 164,237 confirmed and suspected cases of Zika virus disease and 1,474 cases of the Guillain–Barré syndrome were reported in Bahia, Brazil; Colombia; the Dominican Republic; El Salvador; Honduras; Suriname; and Venezuela,” they wrote. “The reported incidence of the Guillain–Barré syndrome was 28 percent higher among males than among females and consistently increased with age, findings that are in line with previous reports.”

 “The reported incidence of the Guillain–Barré syndrome was 28 percent higher among males than among females.”

 Zika has often circulated quietly, in part because it doesn’t cause symptoms in most people and in part because it looks like so many other mosquito-borne diseases, such as dengue virus.

 The health officials suggested that watching for Guillain-Barré cases might be one way to spot Zika outbreaks.

 Related: Zika Link to Birth Defects, Guillain-Barré 'Alarming'

 “Approximately 500 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean are at risk for Zika virus infection,” they wrote.

 “It is clear that increases in the incidence of the Guillain–Barré syndrome to a level that is 2 and 9.8 times as high as baseline, as we have reported here, impose a substantial burden on populations and health services in this region.” ||||| Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is an uncommon sickness of the nervous system in which a person’s own immune system damages the nerve cells, causing muscle weakness, and sometimes, paralysis. Several countries that have experienced Zika outbreaks recently have reported increases in people who have Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS).

 Current CDC research suggests that GBS is strongly associated with Zika; however, only a small proportion of people with recent Zika virus infection get GBS. CDC is continuing to investigate the link between GBS and Zika to learn more.

 Symptoms of GBS

 GBS symptoms include weakness of the arms and legs and, in severe cases, can affect the muscles that control breathing.

 These symptoms can last a few weeks or several months. Most people fully recover from GBS, though some people have permanent damage. Very few people die from GBS.

 Causes of GBS

 Researchers do not fully understand what causes GBS. Most people with GBS report an infection before they have GBS symptoms. Rarely, vaccination has also been associated with the onset of GBS (for example, the 1976 Swine influenza vaccine).

 GBS is rare

 An estimated 3,000 to 6,000 people, or 1-2 cases for every 100,000 people, develop GBS each year in the US. Most cases of GBS tend to occur for no known reason, and true “clusters” of cases of GBS are very unusual.

 What to do if you are concerned

 If you want to know more about the number of GBS cases in a certain area, contact the state or local health department in the state where the cases happen. CDC collaborates with state and local health departments to investigate reports of possibly unusually large numbers or “clusters” of GBS cases.

 Additional Resources

 Vaccine Safety Concerns- Guillain-Barré Syndrome

 Guillain-Barré syndrome and Flu Vaccine: Questions and Answers |||||
What is a summary?

– Earlier this month, Puerto Rico announced its first death from Guillain-Barre syndrome, a condition causing temporary paralysis that, in this case, was linked to the Zika virus. Now incidences of Guillain-Barre are said to have risen in seven countries in tandem with outbreaks of Zika, per a study in the New England Journal of Medicine. The New York Times notes that while the CDC remains wary of saying Zika can cause GBS (it simply says GBS is "strongly associated" with Zika), this research offers further evidence that Zika may indeed be responsible—worrisome news, as about 500 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean are vulnerable to becoming infected with it. "It's pretty obvious that in all seven sites there is a clear relationship," says lead author Dr. Marcos A. Espinal of the Pan American Health Organization. The study found nearly 165,000 cases of Zika virus (some confirmed, some suspected) between April 2015 and March 2016, as well as almost 1,500 cases of GBS, reported in the Brazilian state of Bahia, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Suriname, and Venezuela. During the weeks of Zika outbreaks in these areas, the incidence of GBS cases spiked compared to pre-Zika baseline numbers—jumping as much as 877% in Venezuela. Women had a 75% higher reported incidence rate of Zika than men, but men had a GBS incidence rate 28% higher than women's, and incidence rates also climbed with age, NBC News reports. (The CDC's Zika funds are almost gone.)


Summarize this article:

Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. ||||| Focused crawls are collections of frequently-updated webcrawl data from narrow (as opposed to broad or wide) web crawls, often focused on a single domain or subdomain. ||||| The diagnosis

 I have breast cancer. A week ago, I had breast cancer, and the week before that, and the week before that. Maybe five, eight, even ten years ago, the first bad cell split inside me, secretly. But I didn't know. This is how I arrived at knowing.

 Two friends of mine were recently diagnosed. When news of the first came, I felt sadness. When news of the second came a few weeks ago, I felt a different kind of shock. I'd never had a mammogram. Even though I was ten years younger than the time they say you need to start, it felt like time to start, and when her news came I thought: I need to do this right now. For my friends, for me. Solidarity. Something small I can do, some little action against the big unknowable that swoops down without warning and strikes the ones we love.

 Around the same time, I'd became aware of a funny stiffness in a spot on my own body. But anomalies in women's bodies come and go all the time, and it was a fluid whatever-thing, something that would pass, definitely not a lump, nothing that my waking, speaking mind would grasp as danger. This anomaly must be misplaced anxiety, my logic-brain tried to explain to my lizard-brain; maybe it's me wanting to make my friend's bad news all about me.

 I called my insurance company for a clinic referral, then dialed a few places on a list the guy in their Indian call center emailed. Over the phone, the clinics all sounded like places you'd take a pork chop to be examined, not a human breast, not a person, and not me. I googled around and found a place with a lot of stars on Yelp and other online ratings services from women who'd gone and felt they'd been treated well. Pink Lotus Breast Center. The women who answered the phone there sounded cool. I made an appointment.

 I live online as much as I live offline. Often, I move around in the world staring into a device as I walk, sharing bits of one realm with the other. The morning I went in for my first mammogram, I felt nervous. I would tweet this new thing, like I do with lots of new things, and make the unknown and new feel less so. Maybe by doing so, I thought while I was driving, other women like me who'd never done this would also feel like it was less weird, less scary, more normal and worth doing without hesitation. I'd crack some 140-character jokes. I'd make fun of myself and others. I would Instagram my mammogram.

 The women at the front desk were kind and welcoming. Both were from Virginia, like me. One of them is from the back-country part where there's still no internet. Her dad and uncle work the fields. We talked about growing corn and hogs, how they still make cane molasses with a horse-drawn grinder, and about poor white Appalachian babies nursed on Mountain Dew.

 The mammogram technologist saw on my chart that I'd lost a loved one to ALS. She had too. I hugged her, and she hugged back. She folded my body into the machine, pressed some buttons, folded me another way, and the machine clicked and whirred and clicked and whirred. Then it was over. She told me to wait.

 I tweeted the waiting. Inviting the internet in is something I do every day anyway, but this time it was like a shield. Nothing bad can happen in a new place if you're cracking jokes and 50,000 people are watching. You're safe out here, in here, out here.

 The waiting-moment stretched out, and out, and out, and finally she returned.

 Where was that thing you felt that isn't anything, she asked?

 Here, I showed her.

 Put your arms in the air, she said. She felt, and squinted, and her brow furrowed, and she stepped aside again. Then she returned. Come back in a few hours when the doctor is free, she said, and we'll look a little more closely with ultrasound, just to be thorough. She smiled. Maybe just go have some lunch, she said, and we'll wrap this up when you return.

 The hours stretched out and out and out. I felt nervous, but it was still all normal. I was too nervous to eat, but not too nervous yet to tweet. A finger pulling down the iPhone touchscreen still yielded replies from familiar names, and this was all going to end well. I drove back to the clinic.

 Dr. Kristi Funk is her name. How can anything go bad when the doctor's name is Funk, and there are so many funny things to tweet? She told me to lie down, put some goop on my chest, and waved a wand through the goop. The waves appeared on a screen. It looked like NASA video, something the Mars rovers might transmit home to a JPL engineer searching for distant water.

 She showed me a crater in the waves, a deep one, with rough edges and a rocky ridge along the northern rim. Calcification. Badly-defined boundaries. Not the lake we'd hoped to find.

 "The first thing you're going to learn about working with me is that I'm a straight shooter," Dr. Funk said. Her voice was steady and reassuring.

 "That's how you know you can trust me. I'm going to tell you everything, and I'm going to tell it to you like it is."

 I forget the rest of what she said, but it added up to this: the crater was cancer.

 As the words sank in, the Mars rover crawled over another steep ridge, out of the crater and into a valley, and found one of my lymph nodes, larger and darker than the others. A rocky prominence. A sentinel node. No water there, just fast-dividing cells that kill.

 I believe that we are looking at breast cancer, and that it has spread to one of your lymph nodes, she said. We're going to do a biopsy right away to confirm and learn more.

 Another woman came in, and held my hand. Dr. Funk shot the biopsy gun in the air first so I wouldn't be afraid of the sound. That's when the shaking started and my heart started pounding.

 I cried, but someone else was doing the crying, someone else was doing the shaking, someone else was lying there, and now the gun was diving in to someone else's flesh to bring back rock samples from outer space for the lab to analyze.

 The shaking didn't stop. I tried to dial the people I loved on my iPhone with one hand while the assistant held down my other arm, pushing cotton into the place where the probe dove in for samples, where blood was now coming forth.

 My fingers were cold and shaking, and I couldn't hit the numbers on the screen. When I finally got through, someone else's voice was coming out of my mouth, and it was taking forever for the stuttery radio transmissions to beam through space, from the cold planet I was lost on, way out here, far from home.

 Treatable, curable, survival odds, margins, chemotherapy, surgery, radiation. Someone else's problems, someone else's words. The biopsy came back the next day. Those words became my own.

 I do not know all of what's ahead. I know a little. I know that there is a new kind of life on the other side of this thing. A changed mind and body. A new appreciation of time, and breath, and health, and life, and loved ones.

 The gravity in this place is different. I've spoken to others who've traveled out here, too, and returned home safely. When you become one of them, you learn quickly that you share a language others can't understand.

 The trick, these fellow travelers tell me, is to accept the not knowing and find your equilibrium in that new gravity. Calm the mind. Find your balance out on the cold planet, whether or not you know the next step, or the date of the next appointment, or what good or bad news the Technetium-99 isotopes floating around in your blood during the last scan reveal.

 You must be at peace with not knowing, they tell me. That is how you get through outer space, and find your way back home.

 The thing about this thing, or, at least, this first week of this thing, is how it takes you out there to the cold planet again and again and again, when you aren't expecting it. Long, undulating waves of fear pull you out to where you are alone and unreachable, even by words sent from the strongest satellite.

 The thing that brings you back is love. |||||

– Xeni Jardin, a co-founder of the Boing Boing website, had her first mammogram on Dec. 1, and she live-tweeted the whole process, as noted by Jezebel at the time. Jardin stunned her fans, however, when the results came in later that day: "I have breast cancer. I am in good hands. There is a long road ahead and it leads to happiness and a cancer-free, long, healthy life." Today, Jardin takes to Boing Boing to write of the diagnosis and what lies ahead, at one point likening the experience to being on a "cold planet" where the gravity is different. "The thing about this thing, or, at least, this first week of this thing, is how it takes you out there to the cold planet again and again and again, when you aren't expecting it," she writes. "Long, undulating waves of fear pull you out to where you are alone and unreachable, even by words sent from the strongest satellite. The thing that brings you back is love." The full column is well worth reading here.


Summarize this article:

A New York woman says in a lawsuit that her 29-year-old son died in a drunken driving crash because police decided not to arrest him on driving-while-intoxicated charges earlier that night. Greg Cergol reports. (Published Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014)

 A Long Island woman says in a lawsuit that her 29-year-old son died in a drunken driving crash because police decided not to arrest him on DWI charges earlier that night.

 Kathi Fedden made the claims in a federal wrongful death lawsuit this week and is seeking $30 million.

 She says some officers were friendly with her son, Peter Fedden, because he owned a deli that they frequented.

 The lawsuit says that when Peter Fedden was in a car crash in July 2013, officers drove him to his Commack home, even though he was "severely intoxicated" and visibly injured. Fedden later took his mother's car and was killed when he crashed it into a Hauppauge marketing firm.

 Fedden family lawyer Harry Thomasson said Wednesday, "He was clearly intoxicated. If you elect to take him home, you can't leave him in a driveway full of cars and drive off."

 Thomasson showed reporters some 20 PBA cards he claimed Fedden had in his possession the night he was killed.

 Suffolk County officials didn't comment, citing the litigation.

 The owner of the marketing firm that suffered $100,000 in damage when Fedden fatally crashed into it said the lawsuit was frivolous.

 "He put the community in harm's way," said Mitchell Levine of Advantage Marketing, which underwent four months of repairs after the crash. "He decided to take the law into his own hands by getting into a second car that evening."

 Levin was a customer at Fedden's deli and knew him. He said he even comforted Fedden's mother when she visited the firm after the crash.

 Restaurant chain Ruby Tuesday's is also named in the lawsuit, because Fedden was drinking there before the two crashes, according to Thomasson. The lawyer claimed a bartender there served Fedden too much alcohol because of lack of training in recognizing an intoxicated person.

 Ruby Tuesday's could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

 -- Greg Cergol contributed to this story.

 Copyright Associated Press / NBC New York ||||| The mother of a Commack man claims he died in a July 2013 car crash because Suffolk County police did not arrest him earlier that night for driving drunk after a crash.

 Kathi Fedden claims in a lawsuit filed in federal court in Central Islip on Monday that police had Peter Fedden's car towed to a nearby schoolyard and then drove him home, even though he was "severely intoxicated" and visibly injured.

 Suffolk County police said in a statement Tuesday night that they don't comment on pending litigation. County officials also could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.

 After police dropped him off, Fedden, the owner of a popular local deli where cops were known to receive big discounts, drove off in one of the three cars parked in his driveway, according to the lawsuit. He crashed in Hauppauge minutes later after driving at speeds over 100 mph and died, the complaint says.

 The lawsuit also names the Ruby Tuesday restaurant in Commack as being responsible for Fedden's intoxication. According to the complaint, Fedden, 29, started the night of July 30, 2013, at 9:30 p.m. at the Ruby Tuesday's bar. There, he was served two of "his usual beverage" -- about 10 ounces of Jack Daniel's whiskey in a 16-ounce glass with a splash of soda and ice -- before he left the bar about 11 p.m. with another male customer, the suit says.

 A spokesman for Ruby Tuesday could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.

 advertisement | advertise on newsday

 From there, they drove directly around the corner to Fedden's deli, Commack Breakfast, where they were met by a female bartender, the lawsuit says. Together, they smoked marijuana, the lawsuit says.

 Soon after, the three left in Fedden's car to pick up more marijuana, the suit says. Fedden was driving "in excess of 90 miles per hour" and about 11:30 p.m., they crashed. His car went across two lawns, through a fence and into a parked car, which then spun into a home in Commack, causing $10,000 worth of damage, the complaint says.

 At least seven Suffolk police officers responded, but no photographs or witness statements were taken, the complaint says. After the two passengers said they weren't hurt, officers told them to "get the hell out of here," and put Fedden in the back of a police car, the complaint says.

 "Peter served many Suffolk County police officers at his deli, and it was known throughout the local officers that Peter charged only $1 for officers to eat at the deli no matter what they ordered," the lawsuit says.

 The officers dropped Fedden off at his home, where three cars were parked outside, the suit says. Fedden went inside, urinated, then got in his mother's car and left, the suit says. He crashed minutes later, just after midnight, the suit says.

 "The Suffolk County police at scene #1 conspired to avoid charging Peter with any crimes due to their knowledge of Peter and his generosity to them through his deli, which they frequented," the lawsuit says.

 "The defendants carelessly disregarded Peter's safety . . . and actually created the events leading to Peter's wrongful death," the suit says.

 The lawsuit seeks $130 million in damages. Kathi Fedden's attorney, Harry M. Thomasson of Wantagh, could not be reached Tuesday night. |||||

– Peter Fedden was picked up by police the night of July 30, 2013, after drunkenly plowing his car through a fence, across a couple of lawns, and into the side of a house in Commack, NY. It's at this point that Fedden's mom, Kathi Fedden, thinks police should have arrested her 29-year-old son for DWI, according to a $30 million wrongful-death lawsuit she filed Monday against the police, Newsday reports. But instead, cops dropped a "severely intoxicated" Peter off at home, where he got right into his mother's car sitting in the driveway and crashed it minutes later into the side of an industrial park building. He died from injuries sustained in the second crash. Kathi Fedden says the police let Peter off the hook the first time because of his rapport with them at the deli he owned in Commack. "Peter served many Suffolk County police officers at his deli, and it was known throughout the local officers that Peter charged only $1 for officers to eat at the deli no matter what they ordered," the suit says. Because of this relationship, Kathi Fedden claims, the police "conspired to avoid charging Peter with any crimes" and "carelessly disregarded Peter's safety ... and actually created the events leading to Peter's wrongful death." Also named in the suit: Ruby Tuesday, which reportedly served Peter two drinks—10 ounces of Jack Daniel's whiskey over soda and ice—the night he died, Newsday notes. While sympathetic to the Fedden family, the owner of the building Peter crashed into tells NBC New York, "He put the community in harm's way. He decided to take the law into his own hands by getting into a second car that evening." (One drunk driver made an impact with this powerful confession.)


News article:

Now you can get a new kind of buzz from coffee. Researchers have found a way to turn used coffee grounds into an alcoholic beverage. In recent years, the industry of distilled spirits has put out a call for new beverages with different flavors created from unusual raw materials. To answer this call, some scientists examined the potential of used coffee grounds. The scientists first collected this raw material from a Portuguese coffee roasting company and dried it. Then they heated the powder in water at 163°C for 45 minutes, separated out the liquid, and added sugar. Next, the team mixed in yeast cells, let the concoction ferment, and concentrated the sample to get a higher alcohol content. (A similar process is used to produce other distilled beverages such as whiskey and rum from wheat and molasses.) And voilà! Used coffee grounds produced a new alcoholic beverage with 40% ethanol, comparable to other hard liquor such as vodka and tequila, researchers will report in the September issue of LWT - Food Science and Technology. To evaluate the product, eight trained taste testers were brought in and rated the intensity of different smells and flavors in the alcohol. The judges described the drink as smelling like coffee and tasting bitter and pungent. Researchers noted that the taste could be improved with age and concluded that the quality was good enough for consumption. Don’t count on the caffeine to keep you awake, however; most of it disappears in the brewing process. ||||| Whiskey, vodka, gin or rum…or tequila or brandy…made from wheat, barley, corn, potatoes, rye, sugarcane or any number of fruits—whatever the booze, Americans, the dominant drinkers of hard liquor worldwide, will go for it. But America’s love of hootch pales in comparison to its love of another drink: coffee. A new process that ferments liquor from used coffee grounds, then, may be just what the country is after.

 Reporting on a new study for Science, Nisha Giridharan details how to make what could soon be your new favorite drink:

 The scientists first collected from a Portuguese coffee roasting company and dried it. Then they heated the powder in water at 163°C for 45 minutes, separated out the liquid, and added sugar. Next, the team mixed in yeast cells, let the concoction ferment, and concentrated the sample to get a higher alcohol content. (A similar process is used to produce other distilled beverages such as whiskey and rum from wheat and molasses.) And voilà! Used coffee grounds produced a new alcoholic beverage with 40% ethanol.

 Microbrewers often flavor their beers with coffee, and caffeine-liquor mixes, from the classic rum and coke to the infamous Four Loko, are nothing new. But the new booze is different. The scientists say that their new “Spent Coffee Ground spirit” smells and tastes like coffee and “was considered as having features of a pleasant beverage.”

 Plus, the potentially dangerous mix of caffeine and alcohol that gives boozy energy drinks a bad rap should be absent here: most of the caffeine, says Giridharan, “disappears in the brewing process.”

 More from Smithsonian.com:

 In Texas, a Locavore’s Liquor

 Booze Cruise: The Best Local Liquors to Try While Traveling

 Pick Your Poison: A Diet Mixer Could Make You Get Drunk Faster |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– Soon you may no longer have to choose between treating your hangover with coffee or the hair of the dog. Science reports that scientists have successfully spun used coffee grounds into booze, in a process that sounds relatively straightforward. They dried the spent grounds (which, in this case, came from a Portuguese roaster) then added water and cooked the mixture at 163°C for 45 minutes. The liquid was pulled out, dosed with sugar and yeast, and given time to ferment. In order to make it boozier—read, 40% ethanol—the result was concentrated in a process Science likens to that of distilling spirits. But what would such a discovery be without a taste test? The eight "trained" testers who sampled it reported coffee aromas and a bitter taste. They thought age would actually improve it, but ranked it as palatable. (Smithsonian adds that the scientists described it "as having features of a pleasant beverage.") What it's not: Caffeinated. Most is eliminated as the drink is brewed.


Here is a news article: These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. ||||| One of the most amazing things you can do with Wolfram Alpha is ask it what planes are overhead. If you're on your phone, it will pull your location, then cross reference that with a database of flights, including their altitude, angle, and even their flight number and aircraft type. But in many ways, Stephen Wolfram's latest search tool is more impressive. It's designed to identify anything in a picture. You just upload a photo, and get a computer-generated guess just a few seconds later.

 "It won’t always get it right."

 "It won’t always get it right, but most of the time I think it does remarkably well," Wolfram writes. "And to me what’s particularly fascinating is that when it does get something wrong, the mistakes it makes mostly seem remarkably human." In some brief testing, that's a pretty fair assessment. I plugged in things like Yosemite National Park's Half Dome and was told it was "elevation," while a photo of a gecko was identified as a "night lizard." Remarkably though, it identified a picture of a cow as "black angus," and two cups of ice cream as "frozen yogurt." Close enough.

 How all this ascends beyond assaulting a website with photos of your last vacation or what's in your kitchen, is tantalizing. Wolfram says he imagines the project could be useful if applied to large collections of photos to attempt to identify and categorize them. The technology can also be used by others to build image identification into their apps. Think about the visual recognition found within Google+'s photos, but in other photo apps and services.

 The system was trained with cats, sloths, and Chewbacca

 In order to train the system, Wolfram says it was fed "a few tens of millions" of images so that it could learn what was what. That "seemed very comparable to the number of distinct views of objects that humans get in their first couple of years of life," he added. The system was also given tricky images like cats wearing spacesuits, sloths wearing party hats, and even Chewbacca — all things it failed at identifying correctly, but gracefully so:

 Now it's capable of recognizing about 10,000 common kinds of objects, though Wolfram notes that it still has difficulty recognizing specific people, art, and things that are not "real everyday objects."

 The new image project joins Google's Goggles and Amazon's Firefly as rapid identification tools, though is notably designed without the intent to try and sell you anything with what it finds. It also comes just a little while after Flickr's new Magic View, as well as Microsoft's research site that determines people's genders and age based on photos. Unlike Microsoft though, Wolfram says it keeps a thumbnail version of the photo after you've uploaded it (so it can be shared with other people), and that it's collecting the images to keep on training its system, so be mindful of what you send in.

 Here's how it did against a handful of different images:

 Reasonably close.

 Welp.

 I can kind of see it...

 Which is pretty much just: ||||| A new website from Wolfram Alpha will attempt to identify any image you show it, though it’s more amusing than practical at the moment.

 To check it out, head to ImageIdentify.com and drop in any photo from your computer or mobile device. The site will spend a few seconds mulling it over before taking a guess at what the picture is showing.

 It’s pretty amazing when it works. Using the site, I was able to figure the breed of dog that kept following my wife and I around on our honeymoon (miniature pinscher) and the exact type of flower from a hike in Los Angeles (larkspur). It also does pretty well identifying simpler things, like the pizza photo I used in a Wednesday blog post.

 But in my experience, those flashes of brilliance were the exception, not the rule. Wolfram’s tool is no good at identifying tech products (it thought an Apple TV remote was an alligator clip) and it came up with only vague or outright incorrect guesses for some of the other flora and fauna I showed it. Perhaps because of demand, more times than not the site threw up a “please try again” error.

 In a blog post, CEO Stephan Wolfram readily admits that the tool has plenty of blind spots—some of which can be fairly amusing—and notes that it will get better with experience. To that end, users can help out by indicating when the system is right or wrong, and either choosing from a few next-best guesses or typing in the correct identification. It’s definitely worth trying out if you have a bunch of photos and a few minutes to kill.

 Why this matters: Assuming the system improves over time, it has plenty of potential beyond your own amusement. Stephan Wolfram gives the example of a program that provides statistics on a large number of images. One could imagine some kind of tool to itemize all the things you discovered on a vacation, or translate an image of food into dietary information. Developers can build these sorts of things using Wolfram’s programming and cloud computing tools, so the basic ImageIdentify site is just the beginning. |||||
A summary of this is?

– You probably can already identify the contents of most of your photos, but this is still fun. A new website from Stephen Wolfram, whom you may know from the search tool WolframAlpha, lets you drag and drop any photo; it will then in theory identify what's in it. Right now, ImageIdentify manages some impressive feats, the Verge reports: For instance, it was able to tell that a picture of a cow was a black angus. On the other hand, it thought a cupcake was a bottle cap. The Wolfram Language team is happy to acknowledge the mistakes. In a blog post, Wolfram notes that "somehow the errors seemed very understandable, and in a sense very human. It seemed as if what ImageIdentify was doing was successfully capturing some of the essence of the human process of identifying images." In the meantime, it does have some practical uses: At PC World, Jared Newman writes that "using the site, I was able to figure the breed of dog that kept following my wife and I around on our honeymoon (miniature pinscher) and the exact type of flower from a hike in Los Angeles (larkspur)." And we can expect ImageIdentify to get better at its job, since it keeps copies of the images you post and learns from them; its abilities come from the study of tens of millions of pictures, Wolfram says. You can also tell the site whether its analysis was correct. It's not the only such system, the Verge notes, pointing to efforts like Google Goggles. (What would it say about this smiley face in space?)


– Drivers in a London suburb weren't exactly sympathetic yesterday to a suicidal woman who blocked traffic for two hours as emergency crews tried talking her down, the Independent reports. Amid the M3-motorway delay in Sunbury, Surrey, angry tweets came rolling out: "Tell her to get on with it," wrote one Twitter user to the police force's account. "Bloody ruining everyone’s weekend. Sat in this for an hour and a half now." "To the person causing traffic jam on the M3/ A31, you selfish, selfish tw*t." "Surrey police, can’t you rubber bullet the jumper on M3/ A316 and get the traffic moving? Or get net ready and charge her? Ridiculous." Police responded on Twitter by explaining the cause for delay and responding to criticism about the closure, the Guardian reports. "If we could think of better we’d honestly take it," wrote the chief constable of police in Surrey to one complaint. "We know how irritating road closures are!" But not everyone on the force played nice: "Having members of the public taunt somebody who is clearly in a distressed state as we did earlier today is completely unacceptable," said an inspector. Eventually first responders saved the woman, who is being under the Mental Health Act, and one angry tweeter dialed it down in response to Twitter backlash: "Goodness I am so sorry for any offence. ... I apologise unreservedly."

Expand this summary.

Motorists stuck in traffic taunted a distressed woman as police tried to talk her down from a bridge.

 The M3 at Sunbury, Surrey was closed for more than two hours yesterday whilst emergency teams tended to the woman who was in distress.

 Whilst Surrey Police were at the scene, one Twitter user tweeted the force’s online account: “Tell her to get on with it. Bloody ruining everyone’s weekend. Sat in this for an hour and a half now.”

 Another person suggested that police shoot the suicidal woman with a rubber bullet: “To the person causing traffic jam on the M3/ A31, you selfish, selfish tw*t.

 “Surrey police, can’t you rubber bullet the jumper on M3/ A316 and get the traffic moving? Or get net ready and charge her? Ridiculous.”

 Surrey Police say that the woman was helped to safety and detained under the Mental Health Act.

 Inspector Julie Hillman criticised motorists who had mocked the woman. She said: “Having members of the public taunt somebody who is clearly in a distressed state as we did earlier today is completely unacceptable.

 “I hope the public understand why it was necessary for us to close the road as doing so helped save the woman’s life.

 “I appreciate that being stuck in traffic is the last thing that people want to be doing, especially when the weather is hot, but on this occasion it was completely necessary to ensure officers saw this woman to safety.”

 Anyone in need of confidential support can contact the Samaritans in the UK 24 hours a day on 08457 90 90 90.

 Additional reporting by PA ||||| Police have criticised motorists stuck in a traffic jam for taunting a woman on social media as she threatened to jump to her death from a bridge on Saturday.

 They said the remarks on Twitter were “totally unacceptable” and called on the public to be more understanding of people in distress.

 The tweets were posted when the M3 was closed at Sunbury in Surrey for more than two hours before the woman was helped to safety from the footbridge. She was later detained under the Mental Health Act.

 One Twitter user, Frankie Maicourt, tweeted to Surrey police: “Tell her to get on with it. Bloody ruining everyone’s weekend. Sat in this for an hour and a half now.”

 Another user, Sara Russell, wrote: “To the person causing traffic jam on the M3/A316, you selfish, selfish twat.”

 She added: “Surrey police, can’t you rubber bullet the jumper on M3/A316 and get the traffic moving? Or get net ready & charge her? Ridiculous.”

 Surrey police responded by tweeting the reason for the delay and asking motorists to be patient.

 The chief constable of Surrey police, Lynne Owens, became personally involved in a row over the incident.

 Twitter user Richards Shears complained online that he was “not impressed” by the force’s handling of the scene: “Kids animals and motorbikes on the closed section. Gotta be a better way. Not impressed regardless of circumstance,” he wrote.

 Owens replied: “Understand that. If we could think of better we’d honestly take it. We know how irritating road closures are!”

 Inspector Julie Hillman said: “Having members of the public taunt somebody who is clearly in a distressed state as we did earlier today is completely unacceptable.

 “I hope the public understand why it was necessary for us to close the road, as doing so helped save the woman’s life.

 “I appreciate that being stuck in traffic is the last thing that people want to be doing, particularly on a weekend when the weather is hot, but on this occasion it was completely necessary to ensure officers saw this woman to safety.”

 Following a backlash on Twitter about her comments, Russell later deleted the remarks and tweeted: “Goodness I am so sorry for any offence. A 50min journey took so long and you don’t know what my urgency was. I apologise unreservedly.” |||||


News article:

Jhalman Singh of Oak Creek (second from right) hides tears as he listens during a news conference Monday to a moving story about the president of the Sikh Temple who died trying to stave off the gunman. Many at the news conference at the Oak Creek Salvation Army office offered their perspectives on their faith and shared stories about members of the temple who died in the shooting. Credit: Rick Wood

 By of the

 He wore his beliefs on his arm, along with his hate.

 He called non-whites "dirt people," and sent roses to his grandmother.

 He talked about accomplishing positive results in society, then killed six people and tried to gun down a cop (hitting him at least eight times) who was helping the wounded.

 Wade Michael Page, dead himself in the wake of his mass-slaying rampage at the Sikh temple in Oak Creek Sunday, appears to have been many things - Army veteran of a special unit, fired truck driver, devoted grandson, hard-metal musician, white supremacist.

 But to psychiatric nurse Jennifer Dunn, the 40-year-old with the shaved head was merely the "creepy quiet" neighbor who moved into her Cudahy building three weeks ago, toting his belongings in two black plastic garbage bags.

 He rarely left his one-bedroom upper, where he lived alone. His only visitor, Dunn said, was a pizza delivery guy who stopped by a couple of times.

 She didn't think twice about Page's numerous tattoos - one, it turns out, was an obscure reference to white supremacist doctrine - but his manner was strange.

 "He made no eye contact," she said. "That's an abnormal thing. He wasn't rude, but he was not wanting to be engaged."

 Late last week, Dunn said, Page's behavior became odder still. On Friday and Saturday, he blasted aggressive music from his stereo.

 "He really had the tunes cranked up," said Dunn, who lives downstairs with her two daughters.

 Then, on Saturday, Page carried what appeared to be the same "two bags full of crap" to his red SUV parked in the alley. He also carried out a large cardboard box.

 "He paced around the truck for about 10 minutes" and then sat behind the wheel for a long time "staring off into space," Dunn said.

 One of her daughters came inside and told her mother, "the dude is acting strange."

 A day later, with police SWAT teams surrounding their home and Page and six innocent victims shot dead in and around the temple, she'd find out how strange he was.

 But it didn't start that way.

 'We have no idea'

 Sobbing Tuesday as she spoke by telephone from her home in Denver, Colo., Page's stepmother said he grew up as a "precious child" in a normal, loving family.

 "Where he changed and where this came from, we have no idea," said Laura Page, who was married to Wade Michael Page's father for about two decades.

 The boy was 10 when the couple married. Three years later, his birth mother died, from lupus.

 Like any child losing a parent, "he was devastated," Laura Page said.

 Yet, she said, her stepson was mostly happy and liked to do "normal little boy stuff" - play with his dog, fish, camp. He loved music and played his guitar often, she said.

 "He was kind and gentle and loving," she said. "He was normal in every way that I can think of."

 She and Page's father moved to Texas when the boy was a teenager, but he stayed in Colorado, splitting time between an aunt and his grandmother, with whom he was very close.

 He rejoined his parents in Texas after graduating from high school, took a job at a convenience store and eventually joined the Army.

 "He said it was one of the best things he ever did - it gave him focus, a direction," Laura Page said.

 She divorced Page's father in 2001, but talked with him after Sunday's killings. The father said he had tried calling his son about three weeks ago, but never got a call back.

 'Exclusive' unit

 Page may have thought he found direction in the Army, but it appears that by then he was already pointed down the road that would lead to the mass shooting in Oak Creek.

 He served approximately from 1992 to 1998, and was assigned to psychological operations - the specialists who analyze, develop and distribute intelligence used for information and psychological effect.

 "That is very exclusive," said John Liebert, a psychiatrist who performs fitness examinations for the military and is an expert on suicidal mass murderers. "It's like going from the lobby to the 20th floor."

 But Page's beliefs were starting to show.

 Fred Allen Lucas, a Bloomington, Ind., man who served with Page at Fort Bragg, N.C., in a psychological operations battalion, recalled that he spoke of the need for securing a homeland for white people and referred to all non-whites as "dirt people."

 "It didn't matter if they were black, Indian, Native American, Latin - he hated them all," Lucas said.

 Lucas said he met Page in 1995, the same year that the killings of a black couple in Fayetteville by two members of the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg revealed the presence of a white-supremacist movement among soldiers on the base.

 At the time, Lucas said, Page was covered with tattoos, including one that made a reference to the "14 words," a phrase used by white supremacists: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children."

 "He criticized me for my attraction to (Latina) women," Lucas said. "He'd call me a 'race-traitor.' He said I should change my ways because I was a blond-haired, blue-eyed white guy, and I shouldn't be wasting myself on that."

 Page left the Army in 1998 with a general discharge, a cut below honorable. He was ineligible for re-enlistment, Oak Creek Police Chief John Edwards said Monday.

 Two skinhead bands

 By 2000, according to an interview Page gave two years ago, he was circulating in what the Southern Poverty Law Center called the white-power music scene.

 The center said Page was a member of two racist skinhead bands -- End Apathy and Definite Hate.

 End Apathy was Page's project, started in 2005.

 In the interview two years ago with a website, he said he launched the band "to figure out what it would take to actually accomplish positive results in society and what is holding us back.

 "A lot of what I realized at the time was that if we could figure out how to end people's apathetic ways it would be the start toward moving forward," Page is quoted as saying. "Of course after that it requires discipline, strict discipline, to stay the course in our sick society."

 Photos on the band's MySpace page, which was taken down Monday, show Page playing a guitar with a stars-and-bars strap, and the "14" tattoo prominent on his shoulder.

 In a picture of a band practice, a Nazi flag hangs behind the drummer.

 The Southern Poverty Law Center said that in 2010 Page played at a racist music festival in Baltimore called Independent Artist Uprise.

 For part of the last decade, Page lived in North Carolina.

 According to the Fayetteville Observer, he worked at a Harley-Davidson dealership as a parts coordinator, but was fired after a series of clashes - one involving his displeasure at taking orders from a female co-worker.

 The newspaper quoted general manager John Tew as saying that, after Page was fired, he found an application for joining the Ku Klux Klan on Page's desk.

 "I threw that in the trash can," Tew was quoted as saying. "He came back looking for it. And I told him I discarded that. He got all chapped again."

 Move to Wisconsin

 Page worked as a truck driver for about five years, but was dismissed from that job as well, in 2010.

 Last year, he lost a house, too. He had purchased a $165,000 home in the Fayetteville, N.C., area in September 2009, using a Veterans Administration loan.

 Last August, with the house already vacant, Wells Fargo foreclosed. The bank took over the property in February.

 By then, Page was in Wisconsin.

 He moved into a South Milwaukee apartment in late 2011, joining his girlfriend, who had been living there for about two years.

 Neighbors described him as a grumpy loner who occasionally pumped high-volume music through the building, worked third shift at a south side factory and disappeared on weekends, with a couple of guitars and his girlfriend in tow to play gigs with his band.

 "If you were lucky, he would just say 'hi,' otherwise he would just shrug," said Dave Brown, who lived downstairs. "The less I had to do with him the better."

 Page stayed in South Milwaukee only for a few months, moving out in June and getting his own place in Cudahy. He appears to have lost his job around then. Neighbors near his Cudahy apartment said he didn't appear to be working.

 Page has had minor scuffles with the law, most notably a drunken driving conviction - he pleaded guilty - in Colorado in 1999.

 But while he had no police record of violence, Liebert, the psychiatrist who does examinations for the military, sees in Page's past warning signs of potential trouble.

 The fact that the Army essentially dropped Page after he had been selected for psychological operations team seems significant, said Liebert, who practices in Arizona and, for a time, worked at St. Francis Hospital here.

 "I would want to know what happened to cause him to leave suddenly," he said.

 Liebert wonders now, given Sunday's carnage, whether Page was mentally ill, and what could possibly have been going through his mind.

 "He had to know that he was going to be killed," Liebert said.

 ***

 This story was written by Rick Romell with additional reports from James B. Nelson, Karen Herzog, Don Walker, Mike Johnson, Sharif Durhams, John Diedrich, Annysa Johnson, Meg Kissinger, Raquel Rutledge, Cary Spivak, Ellen Gabler, Piet Levy, Georgia Pabst, Jesse Garza and Mark Johnson. ||||| The man who shot six people to death and wounded three others during a rampage at a Sikh temple in a Milwaukee suburb was an Army veteran who may have been a white supremacist, according to information from authorities and neighbors.

 WASHINGTON -- The suspected gunman in the Sikh temple shooting was administratively discharged from the Army in 1998 after being demoted in rank, according to his military service record.

 Federal officials on Monday identified Wade Michael Page as the slain attacker in a rampage that killed six people and left three others critically wounded at a house of worship in Oak Creek, Wis., on Sunday. Officials said Page was 40.

 While in the Army, Page was demoted from sergeant to specialist and was not granted an honorable discharge when he left the service. A military official would not say why Page had been stripped of his rank or what negative marks on his record led the Army to disqualify him from an honorable discharge after his 6 1/2 years of service. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity and was not authorized to speak to the media on the matter.

 PHOTOS: Gunman opened fire at Sikh temple

 According to his record, Page joined the Army in April 1992 and did his initial training at Ft. Sill, Okla. He also was later posted to Ft. Bliss, Texas, and Ft. Bragg, N.C.

 Page served as a repairman for the Hawk surface-to-air missile system and eventually trained as a psychological operations specialist. Army psychological operations units, or "psy-ops" units, study ways to trick the enemy in wartime and distribute information that will influence foreign populations.

 Despite losing his rank, Page's service record shows commendations and medals for basic achievement, good conduct and "humanitarian service." He also earned a parachutist badge, commonly called "jump wings," for completing the Army Basic Airborne Course at Ft. Benning, Ga.

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 Gunman's tattoos lead officials to deem Sikh shooting terrorism

 brian.bennett@latimes.com |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– More is emerging on suspected Sikh temple gunman Wade Michael Page: The white supremacist and former Army soldier was demoted in rank and discharged in 1998, the LA Times reports. A military official didn't say why Page received a general discharge rather than an honorable one after 6 1/2 years of service. But a dishonorable discharge would have stopped him from buying the 9mm handgun he purchased July 28, picked up July 30, and used days later in the shooting, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. Among other emerging details: Lt. Brian Murphy, 51, was the first officer on the scene. He came upon a victim in the temple parking lot and was ambushed by Page, who shot him eight or nine times. When other officers arrived, Page fired on them and was killed by a policeman with a rifle. Murphy remains in critical condition. Authorities said this morning they were trying to identify a white male who was a "person of interest." But FBI officials said later he was not relevant to the case. Page was quiet and "not a friendly guy," said a neighbor. "You'd have more fun with a camel. He was very quiet. You'd say hi and he'd kind of 'uh.' It was like he didn't care if you were talking or not." Page's grandmother, Elaine Lenz, called Page a good grandson who gave her a dozen roses last month "just to tell me he loved me," she said. "I'm sorry he has caused so much trouble."


News article:

Last night, the Red Hot Chili Peppers — who, if the rumors are to be believed, were added to the Super Bowl halftime lineup to lend some rock warhorse credibility to a show headlined by pop neophyte Bruno Mars — pretended to play their instruments.

 At least that’s the case with the band’s bassist, Flea. “That guitar is plugged into NOTHING,” tweeted Vernon Reid, moments after the Chili Peppers took the stage to play their heaving funk-rock hit “Give It Away.” Reid, who knows something about guitars, had noticed the conspicuous absence of a cable connecting to the input jack of Flea’s bass guitar to an amplifying device: no cable running to a speaker, no cable plugged into a wireless pack, no nothin’. Flea is a great musician, but the trick of making an unamplified bass audible over the roar of tens of thousands in a cavernous football stadium —that’s a feat beyond the powers even of a man steeped in the dark arts of sex majik. Forensic photographic analysis on Twitter confirmed Reid’s point, and suspicion was further aroused by the absurd conniption fit histrionics of Chili Peppers’ guitarist Josh Klinghoffer during his solo.

 Personally, I couldn’t care less if the Peppers were air-shredding. (If pumping in pretaped music spares a television audience of millions the torment of a live Anthony Kiedis vocal, I call it a mitzvah.) It is worth asking, though: Where’s the outrage? ’m still waiting for the boors who line up to pillage pop singers for actual and imaginary lip-synching — and for, um, moral “transgressions” — to demand accountability from the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

 As for Bruno Mars: He apparently sang live, and his (pretty silly) drum solo entrance seemed designed to hammer home the point that he can really play instruments. ||||| As our regular readers might recall, Pop & Hiss didn't especially enjoy Red Hot Chili Peppers' appearance Sunday night during the otherwise-delightful Super Bowl halftime show by Bruno Mars.

 Did our distaste for the band's rendition of "Give It Away" have anything to do with the fact that Flea appeared to be playing a bass that wasn't plugged in, as a number of keen-eyed observers pointed out following the performance? It did not.

 Before it's a concert, the Super Bowl halftime show is -- like the football game that surrounds it -- a full-tilt TV spectacle, one far more dependent on energy and charisma and visual style than on whether actual instruments are being actually played before our eyes and ears.

 GRAPHIC: Best Super Bowl ads

 A great live vocal performance, such as the one Mars gave at the end of his gig in "Just the Way You Are," is nothing to be dismissed, especially if the singer is also busy providing energy and charisma and visual style. But it's not crucial to a halftime's success.

 And yet!

 Enough people have made noise about the Chili Peppers' miming -- though not nearly so many, we'll point out, as scrutinized Beyoncé's Super Bowl performance in the wake of her lip-synching "scandal" at President Obama's second inaugaration last year -- that Flea was moved Tuesday to weigh in on the matter with a statement on the band's website.

 The takeaway? The Chili Peppers (or three-fourths of them) weren't playing their instruments at the Super Bowl.

 GRAPHIC: Super Bowl history: A timeline of the NFL’s championship game

 But Flea has his reasons for doing so, and they're ones that strike us as pretty reasonable. In fact, he writes, "I would do it all the same way again."

 Read on below for Flea's full statement:

 The Red Hot Chili Peppers stance on any sort of miming has been that we will absolutely not do it. The last time we did it (or tried to) was in the late 80's, we were thrown off of 'The Top Of the Pops' television program in the U.K. during rehearsals because we refused to mime properly, I played bass with my shoe, John played guitar atop Anthony's shoulders, and we basically had a wrestling match onstage, making a mockery of the idea that it was a real live performance.

 We mimed on one or two weird MTV shows before that and it always was a drag. We take our music playing seriously, it is a sacred thing for us, and anyone who has ever seen us in concert (like the night before the Super Bowl at the Barclays Center), knows that we play from our heart, we improvise spontaneously, take musical risks, and sweat blood at every show. We have been on the road for 31 years doing it.

 So, when this Super Bowl gig concept came up, there was a lot of confusion amongst us as whether or not we should do it, but we eventually decided, it was a surreal-like, once in a life time crazy thing to do and we would just have fun and do it. We had given this a lot of thought before agreeing to do it, and besides many a long conversation amongst ourselves, I spoke with many musician friends for whom I have the utmost respect, and they all said they would do it if asked, that it was a wild trippy thing to do, what the hell. Plus, we the RHCP all love football too and that played a big part in our decision. We decided that, with Anthony singing live, that we could still bring the spirit and freedom of what we do into the performance, and of course we played every note in the recording specially for the gig. I met and spoke with Bruno, who was a beautiful dude, a real talented musician, and we worked out something that seemed like it would be fun.

 PHOTOS: Super Bowl halftime performers

 We recorded a track for the day, just banged one out from our hearts that was very like in spirit to the versions we have been playing live the last few years with our beloved Josh on guitar.

 For the actual performance, Josh, Chad, and I were playing along with the pre recorded track so there was no need to plug in our guitars, so we did not. Could we have plugged them in and avoided bumming people out who have expressed disappointment that the instrumental track was pre recorded? Of course easily we could have and this would be a non-issue. We thought it better to not pretend. It seemed like the realest thing to do in the circumstance. It was like making a music video in front of a gazillion people, except with live vocals, and only one chance to rock it. Our only thought was to bring the spirit of who we are to the people.

 I am grateful to the NFL for having us. And I am grateful to Bruno, who is a super talented young man for inviting us to be a part of his gig. I would do it all the same way again.

 We, as a band, aspire to grow as musicians and songwriters, and to continue to play our guts out live onstage for anyone who wants to get their brains blown out.

 Sincerely,

 Flea

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 John Lurie re-emerges with 'Invention of Animals'

 Watch: Shakira and Rihanna writhe in 'Can't Remember to Forget You'

 Super Bowl 2014: Bruno Mars stands — and delivers — in halftime show

 Twitter: @mikaelwood

  |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– The Red Hot Chili Peppers weren't playing their instruments when they joined Bruno Mars for a Super Bowl halftime show watched by a record 115 million people, bassist Flea confirmed after photos surfaced on Vulture of him onstage with an unplugged guitar. In an open letter, he explains that the band has always been firmly against miming, but the NFL made it clear that the "vocals would be live, but the bass, drums and guitar would be pre-recorded"—and there was no room for negotiation, the Los Angeles Times reports. "I understand the NFL's stance on this, given they only have a few minutes to set up the stage, there a zillion things that could go wrong and ruin the sound for the folks watching in the stadium and the TV viewers," Flea writes. The band gave it a lot of thought and "eventually decided, it was a surreal-like, once in a lifetime crazy thing to do and we would just have fun and do it," he writes, promising that in future, the band will "continue to play our guts out live onstage for anyone who wants to get their brains blown out."


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 Language evolves at break neck speed on the internet; what’s cool one minute is lame by the next. Case in point: “LOL” is dying. A Facebook report claims that LOL is now one of the least popular ways to express laughter on the social network. Why? Probably because of mom.

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 The waning popularity of LOL correlates with aging demographics. In other words, only old people are using LOL these days, presumably because it was popular in the internet’s early days but is now falling out fashion as emoji becomes the universal language of youths. However, variations of “haha” and “hehe” are still the most popular expressions of laughter.

 Poor LOL.

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 The Facebook report fails to consider the ironic use of expressions like LOL or even haha, but the data doesn’t lie. Lots of people on Facebook have abandoned LOL, and those who do use LOL are older. Is this because old people like your mom think it’s still cool or can’t figure out how to find the emoji keyboard or maybe it’s because your mom thinks LOL stands for “lots of love?”

 There are plenty of ways to explain why LOL has fallen out of fashion—but one thing is for sure: LOLers are getting older as emoji takes over. Rest in peace LOL. Long live 😂.

 [Facebook via Gizmodo UK] |||||
A summary of this is?

– A recent New Yorker essay about online laughter prompted Facebook to crunch data on how people actually express a chuckle in the ether. It's probably not a big surprise to find out that LOL is no longer the phrase of choice, but it might be surprising at just how far the old standby has fallen. In a week's worth of posts in May, just 1.9% of people who expressed laughter did so via LOL. Meanwhile, the undisputed the champion is "haha" (including variations such as "hahaha") at 51.4%, followed by the use of emoji at 33.7%, and "hehe" at 13.3%. Some other takeaways: 15% of people indicated laughter in at least one post or comment Residents of Chicago and New York prefer emoji, while those in San Francisco and Seattle like "haha" More men use "haha" and "hehe," while more women use emoji So what's going on? It's not too complicated. "Only old people are using LOL these days, presumably because it was popular in the internet’s early days but is now falling out fashion as emoji becomes the universal language of youths," observes Adam Clark Estes at Gizmodo. Dig into more charts at Facebook.