Article:

CLOSE Isis Widow Sally Jones Reportedly Killed In Syria. Time

 In this undated file photo released by a militant website, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, militants of the Islamic State group hold up their weapons and wave its flags on their vehicles in a convoy to Iraq, in Raqqa, Syria. (Photo: Uncredited, AP)

 LONDON — Britain’s most wanted female terrorist is believed to have been killed in a U.S. drone strike, according to local media.

 Sally Jones, who recruited female jihadis to join the Islamic State, died in Syria in June, according to the Sun and other media. It is possible that her 12-year-old son Joe, or Jojo, was also killed in the strike, according to the reports.

 The Sun reported that CIA officials told British intelligence that Jones was thought to have been killed by a U.S. Air Force Predator close to the border between Syria and Iraq.

 Jones, 50, a former punk rock singer from the southern English county of Kent, traveled to Syria in 2013 to marry computer hacker Junaid Hussain. Hussain, 21, was a leading member of ISIS’s CyberCaliphate, the group responsible for hacking the U.S. military's Twitter and YouTube accounts in 2015.

 On Sky 3.30p (U.K) w/ @KayBurley & analysis on reports Brit I.S recruiter, Sally Jones, was targeted & killed by a U.S drone strike👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/XgCMd5TswR — Mikey Kay (@MikeyKayNYC) October 12, 2017

 Hussain, from Birmingham in central England, was reportedly killed by a U.S. drone strike in August 2015, after which Jones was dubbed the “White Widow” by some media.

 Jones was prominent on social media, recruiting a number of women to join ISIS under the pseudonym Umm Hussain al-Britani, with stories about how great life was with the militants. She also encouraged extremists to carry out attacks in the West.

 U.S. intelligence chiefs said they cannot be 100% sure Jones was killed, but are “confident” she is dead, the Sun reported.

 More: Walking into War: How ex-con violated his probation to fight ISIS in Syria

 More: 1,000 ISIS militants surrender as Iraq retakes key town of Hawija

 Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2wQDRJE ||||| WHITE Widow Sally Jones has been killed by a drone, says the CIA.

 US spy chiefs told their British counterparts that jihadi Jones, who fled the UK to be an ISIS recruiter, died in June.

 Tim Stewart News 14 Jones left the UK to be an ISIS recruiter

 The US Air Force Predator strike is said to have taken place close to the border between Syria and Iraq.

 A Whitehall source today confirmed Jones's death after she left her home in Chatham, Kent, with her 12-year-old son JoJo in 2013 to join ISIS in Syria.

 The source said: “The Americans zapped her trying to get away from Raqqa. Quite frankly, it’s good riddance.”

 CIA chiefs told their UK counterparts that a Predator killed 50-year-old Jones in June.

 But news of the success has been kept quiet on both sides of the Atlantic amid fears Jojo may also have died.

 Reports say Jones was last been seen alive fleeing the carnage in Raqqa and heading toward the Syrian border town of Mayadin.

 Jones regularly used her son as a human shield.

 Collect 14 Jones, a key IS recruiter of female foreign jihadis, let the terror group brainwash her son JoJo

 Reuters 14 Sally Jones was killed by a drone in June

 It is not known whether Jones was in a building or a moving vehicle when the drone struck.

 It was flown remotely by a pilot at an air base in the States. The CIA and MI6 officers spent months trying to track her down.

 Jones, a key IS recruiter of female foreign jihadis, was designated a High Value Target and would have been high on a US kill list.

 But sources said Jojo was not specifically targeted as he had not been deemed a combatant.

 If he was also killed in the missile strike, it would not have been on purpose.

 14 Jones was a singer in an all-girl punk band

 Sources said the attack would have been aborted if it had been known he was close by.

 Jojo is believed to have been brainwashed by ISIS - undergoing lessons in radical Islam and firearms and martial arts training.

 It's understood Jones is the first woman to be specifically targeted in a drone strike.

 Shiraz Maher, deputy director at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, told the Middle East Eye: "If these reports are true, it means Sally Jones was targeted [by] a drone strike.

 “That would be the first woman I know of who’s been specifically targeted in this way.”

 US intelligence chiefs say they cannot be 100 per cent certain that the strike killed Jones as there was no attempt to recover any of her DNA.

 Without putting special forces on the ground, it is impossible to have total certainty.

 But the Americans are “confident” she is dead.

 Drones often follow their targets for weeks, awaiting an opportunity to launch a missile without also killing civilians.

 The US government could still face a backlash for killing Jojo if his death is confirmed.

 14 Kalashnikov-wielding Jones in a black niqab after joining ISIS

 Alamy 14 Drone strikes are monitored

 Jojo is believed to have been brainwashed by IS — undergoing lessons in radical Islam and firearms and martial arts training.

 Last year his heartbroken grandparents identified a boy who featured in an IS execution video as Jojo.

 Standing behind a row of kneeling prisoners in orange boiler suits, the boy brandished a pistol moments before the men were murdered.

 It was a world away from his Kent childhood, with relatives describing him as a gentle animal-loving lad. One said: “He would never even tread on an ant.”

 Rex Features 14 Jones' husband Hussain

 RAF bombers previously destroyed an Islamic State drone base

 The drone strike came as coalition forces tightened the squeeze on IS positions in Raqqa.

 Muslim convert Jones was nicknamed the White Widow after her IS kingpin husband Junaid Hussain was killed by a drone in 2015.

 She met computer hacker Hussian, 21, from Birmingham, in Syria. Mum-of-two Jones, a former punk singer who lived on benefits, was put in charge of the female wing of an IS battalion of foreign fighters.

 It was founded by Hussain to attack Europe and America. She was also a key recruiter of British IS wannabes.

 US intelligence blames her for publicising a list of 1,300 US military personnel for IS fanatics to attack.

 It is thought she is the sixth Briton killed in Syria by a drone.

 PA:Press Association 14 Reyaad Khan and Ruhul Amin died in 2015

 AFP 14 Jihadi John was also struck down in a drone strike

 They include Reyaad Khan and Ruhul Amin, who died in 2015. Executioner Mohammed Emwazi, known as Jihadi John, was struck months later.

 Jones and Hussein were accused of plotting IS terror attacks across three continents.

 They were linked to a plot to blow up the Queen and Prince Philip on the streets of London during VJ celebrations two years ago. She also used Twitter to spread extremist propaganda and fantasies about beheading Westerners with a “blunt knife.”

 RAF fighter pilots halted a public execution with a drone

 A direct hit kills guard and causes everyone below to scatter

 People can be seen in the bottom left corner of the image running from the blast

 In 2016 she was accused of calling on women in London, Glasgow and Cardiff to commit terror attacks in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

 In July a friend of Jones said she was desperate to return to the UK but was being forced to stay by her husband’s fanatical comrades.

 More than 18,000 people signed a petition calling for Jones to be blocked from ever returning to Britain.

 Over the summer coalition forces, including the US, UK and Australia, took part in more than 500 air and drone strikes per month against IS.

 UK security services estimate 850 Britons have travelled to Syria to fight for IS, with about 250 feared to have returned here.

 Punk who joined I.S SALLY Jones left her Chatham council house for the killing fields of Syria to be a jihadi bride — taking eight-year-old Jojo with her but leaving behind an older son. Once in Raqqa, the former punk singer wed Junaid Hussain, who she had met online, and took the name Umm Hussein al-Britani. Back home her distraught family watched as she posted antiSemitic hate messages under a photograph of herself wearing a niqab and waving an AK-47. In one propaganda post, she posed as a nun with a gun and spoke of her wish to behead Christians with a “nice blunt knife.” Hussain was killed by a US army drone in Raqqa in 2015 — and Jones became known as the White Widow. She also became a prolific recruiter for IS and her name was put on a US kill list. But it did not stop her trying to encourage terror attacks in the West. In one 2016 post she sent a message saying: “Have a nice summer. I wouldn’t go into central London through June or July. Well, to be honest, I wouldn’t go there at all by Tube.” Her last appearance on social media was in September 2016. She said: “I’ll never marry again. I’ll remain loyal to my husband until my last breath.” ||||| Jones, known as ‘the white widow’, thought killed in June along with her 12-year-old son Jojo, but US officials have been unable to confirm

 The British member of Islamic State Sally Jones is believed to have been killed, along with her 12-year-old son Jojo, in a US airstrike.

 Although there is confidence she is dead, it is impossible to be categorical given the inability to collect evidence on the ground. Other members of Isis have been reported dead only to reappear.

 Jones, dubbed “the white widow” by some in the press, was a regular propagandist on social media. She had more than 20 handles on Twitter but there has been no activity from her in recent months.

 The Sun reported that the CIA had told its UK counterparts Jones was killed by a Predator drone strike near the Syria-Iraq border in June.

 It added she had last been seen fleeing from Raqqa and heading for the Syrian border town of Mayadin. Many Isis members have fled the city as the organisation has gradually been squeezed.

 The Pentagon was unable to confirm she had been killed. Maj Adrian Rankine-Galloway, a Pentagon spokesman, said: “I do not have any information that would substantiate that report but that could change and we are looking into this.”

 Jones, a former punk musician, was born in Greenwich, south-east London, but then moved to Chatham, Kent.

 After converting to Islam she travelled from the UK to Syria in 2013 to join her husband and fellow Briton Junaid Hussain, who was killed in a US drone strike in 2015.

 It was after Hussain’s death that the British press began to refer to her as “the white widow”. She is not the only jihadist to be given this nickname, which has also been used for Samantha Lewthwaite – the widow of 7/7 London attacker Germaine Lindsay.

 Both Hussain and Jones were accused of trying to recruit extremists in the UK to carry out attacks. She was placed on a UN sanctions list that included a travel ban and freeze on assets, and a hit list for US bombings.

 Jones used her social media accounts to recruit women to Isis and provided practical advice on how to travel to Syria. She also encouraged individuals to carry out attacks in Britain, offering guidance on how to construct home-made bombs, and shared pictures of herself posing with weapons.

 Jones posted messages in support of Isis as well as extremist comments such as: “You Christians all need beheading with a nice blunt knife and stuck on the railings at Raqqa ... Come here I’ll do it for you.”

 A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: “We do not comment on matters of national security.”

 Maj Gen Chip Chapman, the former head of counter-terrorism at the Ministry of Defence, said Jones would have been a “significant” target as a result of her alliance with Hussain and her role in recruiting Isis fighters.

 Referring to reports her son was killed in the strike, he told Press Association: “It is a difficult one because under the UN Charters he is under the age of what we would classify as a soldier.”

 He continued: “Even if he got up to really bad things, he shouldn’t have been targeted. We don’t know for sure whether he was with her or not.”

 Sabrina Siddiqui and agencies contributed to this report

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What is a summary?

– ISIS has reportedly lost one of its more unlikely members: Sally Jones, a former punk singer from Britain who traveled to Syria to become a recruiter for the group in 2013. A British intelligence source tells the Sun that Jones was killed in June by a drone strike near Syria's border with Iraq. "The Americans zapped her trying to get away from Raqqa. Quite frankly, it's good riddance," the source says. Jones, 50, left the UK with her son to marry 21-year-old ISIS hacker Junaid Hussain, reports USA Today, which describes her as Britain's most-wanted female terrorist. She became known as the "White Widow" after Hussain died in a drone strike in 2015. Jones' death has not been confirmed, though the social media accounts she used to offer Western women advice on joining ISIS and traveling to Syria have been silent for months, the Guardian reports. "You Christians all need beheading with a nice blunt knife and stuck on the railings at Raqqa ... Come here I’ll do it for you," she said in one post. JoJo, Jones' 12-year-old son, may also have been killed in the airstrike. He was radicalized in Syria and his grandparents identified him last year as an executioner seen in an ISIS video. Authorities say they're not sure if he was with Jones—and the brainwashed boy was too young to be declared a target in any case.


Article:

The surprising relationship between Madonna and Tupac Shakur began with the passing of a note and it apparently ended with one as well.

 Back in 2015, Madonna revealed that she used to date Tupac, and Wednesday TMZ reports that a break up letter Tupac wrote to her in jail has surfaced.

 In 1995, Tupac wrote that his relationship with the renowned singer might negatively affect his public image.

 "For you to be seen with a black man wouldn't in any way jeopardize your career, if anything it would make you seem that much more open and exciting. But for me at least in my previous perception I felt due to my 'image' I would be letting down half of the people who made me what I thought I was. I never meant to hurt you."

 The letter also implies that the two had a falling out after Tupac quotes Madonna as saying, "I'm off to rehabilitate all the rappers and basketball players." Tupac apologizes for anything hurtful he might have said, saying since then he had "grown both spiritually and mentally" and that he was just a "young man with limited experience with an extremely famous sex symbol."

 According to TMZ, the letter will go up for auction starting July 19 at Gotta Have Rock and Roll with a starting bid of $100,000.

 The poignant message can be read in full here.

 Famous people may deal with some different relationship problems than everyday folk, but Tupac's letter shows that everyone has insecurities and doubts — even legendary rappers with legendary pop girlfriends.

 It also shows that Tupac had some great handwriting. ||||| 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. ||||| Tupac Shakur Confesses in Prison Letter I Dumped Madonna Because She Was White

 Tupac Confesses in Prison Letter He Dumped Madonna Because She Was White

 EXCLUSIVE

 Tupac broke off his sexual relationship with Madonna because she was white.

 The rapper poured out his heart to the singer in an extremely revealing letter he wrote in jail.

 Tupac writes, "For you to be seen with a black man wouldn't in any way jeopardize your career, if anything it would make you seem that much more open and exciting."

 The legend then confesses, "But for me at least in my previous perception I felt due to my 'image' I would be letting down half of the people who made me what I thought I was."

 It's an amazing letter. Tupac clearly knows he devastated Madonna by the rejection, saying, "I never meant to hurt you."

 You gotta read the entire note. It will go up for auction July 19-28 at Gotta Have Rock and Roll. Starting bid is $100k and it's expected to fetch a lot more. The last letter written by Tupac sold for more than $170k. |||||
What is a summary?

– Late rapper Tupac Shakur apparently had plenty of time to reflect while in jail in early 1995: He wrote a letter to ex-girlfriend Madonna explaining the reasons for their breakup, which he said happened partly because she was white, TMZ reports. "For you to be seen with a black man wouldn't in any way jeopardize your career, if anything it would make you seem that much more open and exciting," Tupac writes in the letter, which can be seen here. "But for me at least in my previous perception I felt due to my 'image' I would be letting down half of the people who made me what I thought I was." Madonna didn't reveal until 2015 that she used to date Tupac, who was killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas in 1996, Mashable reports. In the letter, Tupac tells Madonna he never meant to hurt her, saying, "I must apologize to you because like you said I haven't been the kind of friend I know I am capable of being." He says he has "grown both spiritually and mentally" since their relationship. He also tells her he was hurt by an interview in which she said, "I'm off to rehabilitate all the rappers and basketball players." Auction site GottaHaveRockandRoll.com plans to auction the letter off later this month, with $100,000 as the starting bid. (Another Tupac letter from jail sold for more than $170,000 two years ago.)


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A summary of this is?

– This year’s Indy 500 found its instant replay moment, and it looks like it could have come straight from a Michael Bay film. Driver Scott Dixon walked away Sunday from the nightmare crash captured in this video. (Replay starts about 47 seconds in.) It also can be seen in this tweeted video. The LA Times reports that the accident began when driver Jay Howard lost control of his vehicle a little more than a quarter into the 200-lap race. He collided with Dixon, whose car was sent flying through the air before smashing into an inner retaining wall. Though Dixon’s vehicle was demolished, both drivers survived the fiery accident and were released after a check-up at the track's medical center. Afterward, Dixon said he was “a little bit beaten up” and “glad everybody was OK," calling the incident "definitely a wild ride.” The race continued on, with Takuma Sato later becoming the first Japanese driver ever to finish first, reports the AP. Sato held off Helio Castroneves, who was going for his fourth Indy win.


– Dave Sowers' head-on car collision while on vacation in Yellowstone was traumatic enough: He was airlifted and broke his arm, leg, and ribs. But he awoke to the news that his dog Jade had fled from park rangers who tried to pull her from the car, and was nowhere to be found. What followed was a 42-day search—complete with fliers, a few dozen volunteers, and GoFundMe and Facebook pages—for the 18-month-old Australian shepherd, largely headed up by Sowers' girlfriend, Laura Gillice, reports the Missoulian. But in the end, it was Gillice, on a walk with her own dog, Laila, who spotted Sowers' canine pal near Canyon Village. "She just came running to me, like ‘Where’ve you been mom?'" says Gillice. When the trio returned to the hotel where Sowers was staying, she says, a "hugfest" ensued. "A lot of people have just dedicated their weekends to looking for her," says Sowers. "It’s amazing, we didn’t think we’d ever see her again."

Expand this summary.

Hello Friends of Pets!

 We are a group of caring people wanting to help this family who lost their dog in Yellowstone National Park on July 23rd, 2015 while vacationing there.

 Jades parents were in a horrible head on collison in the park by a person who fell asleep at the wheel. David suffered multiple injuries and had to be flown out of Yellowstone from the crash site for treatment for his numerous injuries at the time of the accident.

 When the park rangers were trying to get their dog Jade out of the car (her crate she was in was crushed to pieces), Jade bolted and has been lost in the park ever since. There has been multiple sightings of Jade in the park, most lately in the Cannyon Village area. SHE IS STILL ALIVE! Which is unheard of in the Wildest place in the country. She is a young, strong dog and has been able to survive somehow against all odds. There are efforts going on daily trying to catch Jade in live traps and many other methods that are allowed by the park. So far to no avail, but NO ONE is giving up hope. Jades parents....David Sowers and Laura Gillice as well as Davids daughter, Angie Sowers, have made numerous trips back to Yellowstone (against doctors wishes), to look for their beloved pet. They travel from Denver, Co. to the park which is a 550 mile trip. You can only imagine the expense this is causing the family to take on as well as the mounting medical bills. We all want Jade to be found and returned to her family that is missing her so much. They have shown over and over again how much they love her by the trips back and forth to the park and sending clothes with their smell on them and even now they are going to leave a car in the area in hopes Jade will go to it. So many efforts are on going to catch this pup....We need help for them....we need help to bring Jade home. If you can help with ANY small donation to the family of Jade it will be so much appreciated. If you are visiting the park and can join the efforts, that too is all appreciated. Every little bit helps to get Jade back home...SAFE! Thank you for any consideration in helping the many who love Jade now as our own...She is a part of us all and we all want her caught and safe again in the arms of her loving family.

 Thank you so much!

 Kat Brekken

 Sandy Monville

 And the countless others trying to help the family and Jade!

 "Every once in a while a dog enters your life and changes EVERYTHING."

 Help spread the word! Share Tweet 1.9k total shares total shares ||||| Keep me logged in |||||


Article:

The second winner of the $588 million PowerBall lottery is not yet known publicly. But one man says he's the winner and will give someone who shares his Facebook photo $1 million. Is it a hoax?

 Is the English language becoming less significant in Europe after Brexit?

 Why migrants, en route to the United States, are pausing in Mexico

 Why the new health-care bill may keep affordable care out of reach for some

 Karen Bach, director of budget, products and communications of the Arizona Lottery, announces during a news conference Thursday that one of the winning tickets in the $579.9 million Powerball jackpot was purchased in Fountain Hills, Ariz.

 His name is Nolan Daniels, and he’s just about to give some random dude or dudette $1 million. Or so he claims.

 Purporting to be the second Powerball winner in Wednesday’s $588 million payout, Mr. Daniels posted a Facebook photo late Thursday of himself holding a ticket showing the winning numbers. The photo is the only one visible on Daniels's account, which dates to 2008.

 “Looks like I’m not going to work … EVER!!!” the smiling purported winner exclaimed. The numbers on his ticket – 5-23-16-22-29-Powerball 6 – correspond to the winning combination, but the ticket has not been publicly verified.

 To make the Facebook announcement that much more bizarre, Daniels vowed to give $1 million of his winnings to a “random” person who “shares” his photo.

 That set off a frenzy Friday as thousands of Facebook users got in on the action, with the photo being shared over 1,000 times a minute, with over 100,000 shares as of 3:30 p.m.

 On his Facebook page, Daniels chastised skeptics and suggested, “Anyone who doubts the legitimacy of this photo will not be included in the 1 million dollar drawing.”

 There were two winners in the drawing. The only winners confirmed so far are Cindy and Mark Hill of Dearborn, Mo., who decided to take a lump sum payment. Lottery authorities have not revealed the name of the other winner, who bought a ticket in Arizona. Earlier on Friday, some guessed that a video of a man celebrating in Maryland might show the winner.

 The payout is the second largest in US history after three ticket buyers shared a $656 million jackpot in March. As the amount grew this week, tickets were selling at a rate of 130,000 a minute. ||||| On Thursday evening, a Facebook user named Nolan Daniels posted a poorly-photoshopped picture of his supposedly-winning Powerball ticket, along with the offer that he would give $1 million to a random person who shared it. So far it's been shared over 200,000 times, because Like-addled Facebook users will share anything no matter how obviously untrue it is.

 When one of Daniel's friends asked if he was serious he replied "239 Million! I'm out celebrating now." He claims in the comments of the Facebook photo he was visiting a client in Fountain Hills, Arizona when he bought the winning ticket.

 But you don't even have to examine the pixels to tell this is a fake. While the numbers on Daniels' ticket do match those that won half of the record $587.5 million jackpot, they're not in numerical order. A real ticket would be. From the official Powerball FAQ:

 "The tickets print the white ball numbers (the first five numbers) in numerical order."

 We've reached out to Daniels to see why he isn't volunteering for charity or learning a second language since he apparently has too much time on his hands.

 Since the drawing, a couple in Missouri has been identified as the holders of one of two winning tickets. The other winner, who bought their ticket in Arizona, still hasn't come forward, but he was apparently captured on a gas station surveillance camera at the moment he found out he won. And he definitely doesn't look like Daniels. |||||
What is a summary?

– If you happened to stumble across a photo of someone named Nolan Daniels today, here's why: Last night, he posted a picture of himself on Facebook with what he claims is a winning Powerball ticket, explains the Christian Science Monitor. Then he asked people to share the photo, promising $1 million to a random person who did so. As of this afternoon, more than 200,000 hopeful souls had done so. Alas, Adrien Chen at Gawker points out that if it were a real Powerball ticket, the numbers would be in numerical order, unlike the one in the "poorly photoshopped" image. It just goes to show that "like-addled Facebook users will share anything no matter how obviously untrue it is," he writes. So far, then, we know only the identity of one of the two winners. (Click to read about the lucky Hill family of Missouri.) But many think this store video from Maryland shows the other. The unnamed man celebrating reportedly told people in the store that he bought it in Arizona.


– The search for Flight 370 in its new search zone continues to produce tantalizing sightings, but no links to the plane so far. The latest comes from a Chinese military plane that spotted three suspicious objects today with colors that were at least a rough match for those of the Malaysian jet, reports AP. Australian and Chinese ships were retrieving those and other pieces of debris as quickly as possible for analysis, but it's no easy feat. "It’s an inaccessible place," Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott told the media, reports the New York Times. "We are trying to find small bits of wreckage in a vast ocean, and while we are throwing everything we have at it, the task goes on.” NBC News, meanwhile, offers a glimmer of hope in regard to figuring out what happened: The plane's black boxes should be able to survive about two years even if submerged in salt water 20,000 feet deep, it says. The deepest part of the new search area is about 13,000 feet.

Expand this summary.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — The hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 resumed in earnest on Saturday as surveillance planes returned to the skies above a newly defined search area in the southern Indian Ocean and spotted floating debris for the second day in a row, and a flotilla of vessels began arriving in the zone to find and identify the objects, the Australian authorities said.

 Crews on two of the ships pulled several items from the water, but investigators determined that the objects were not from the missing plane, according to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, which is overseeing the search.

 With several more ships en route to the zone early Sunday, the naval contingent of the multinational search force trying to locate the Boeing 777-200 was expected to reach a total of 10 vessels later in the day. A frigate from the Royal Australian Navy was also heading to the area and was scheduled to arrive on Tuesday and another Australian naval vessel was expected to set sail from Perth later Sunday, outfitted with special equipment to detect the plane’s data recorders, or black boxes, the authority said.

 Continue reading the main story The Search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Australia announced on Friday that it had moved the search area nearly 700 miles to the northeast of an area it had been searching for about a week.Full Graphic » Possible flight paths (based on different speeds the plane may have been traveling) Search areas March 28-30 5,000 FT. AUSTRALIA 10,000 FT. 547 m.p.h. 540 m.p.h. 460 m.p.h. Perth About 1,100 miles 10,000 FT. Planned search area for March 31 10,000 FT. Search areas March 19-27 10,000 FT. INDIAN OCEAN WATER DEPTH 15,000 FT. Locations of objects spotted in aerial and satellite images over the last two weeks Possible flight paths (based on different speeds the plane may have been traveling) 547 m.p.h. 540 m.p.h. 460 m.p.h. Search areas March 28-30 AUSTRALIA About 1,100 mi. Perth Planned search area for March 31 5,000 FT. Search areas March 19-27 10,000 FT. INDIAN OCEAN DEPTH: 15,000 FT. Locations of objects spotted in aerial and satellite images over the last two weeks More maps

 Extreme

 Challenges

 Sorting Out

 the Clues

 Reconstructing

 the Path

 Two aircraft flying over the new search area on Saturday — one from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force and the other from the Royal Australian Air Force — spotted floating debris. Five aircraft flying over the zone on Friday also spotted unidentified objects.

 But officials involved in the search, mindful of the amount of detritus adrift in the world’s oceans, cautioned that the sightings were inconclusive on their own. “It is not known how much flotsam, such as from fishing activities, is ordinarily there,” the Maritime Safety Authority said in a statement.

 A new analysis of radar data from March 8, as Flight 370 veered off its intended route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and instead flew west over Peninsular Malaysia and then south over the Indian Ocean, compelled officials to shift the search area on Friday to a zone about 1,100 miles west of Perth.

 The analysis showed that the plane was moving faster than investigators had previously estimated and therefore it would have burned fuel more quickly and possibly fallen into the Indian Ocean farther north than previously believed, officials said.

 The new search area is about 700 miles northeast of a zone that had been the focus of search efforts for most of the week.

 The revision of the search area was based largely on work done by analysts from Boeing in Seattle, part of an international team of experts collaborating with Malaysian investigators, officials here said.

 They arrived at their conclusions after re-evaluating the radar data and weighing other factors such as the amount of fuel on the plane when it took off from Kuala Lumpur and its altitude as it headed over the south Indian Ocean, Malaysian officials added, offering no further elaboration.

 The new search area presents more favorable conditions for the search than the previous area, in part because it has less inclement weather and water conditions and is closer to Perth, the departure point for the search planes, officials said.

 It is also only a fifth of the size of the previous search area, though still large: 123,000 square miles, or 319,000 square kilometers, which is roughly the size of New Mexico or Poland.

 But Australian and Malaysian officials cautioned that the new zone also posed considerable challenges. “We are trying to find small bits of wreckage in a vast ocean,” said Prime Minister Tony Abbott of Australia. “And while we are throwing everything we have at it, the task goes on.”

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 As the search was underway on Saturday, Hishammuddin Hussein, Malaysia’s defense minister, stopped by a hotel near Kuala Lumpur to meet with the relatives of Chinese citizens who were aboard Flight 370. The Malaysian government has endured withering criticism by the relatives and friends of Chinese passengers, who have accused it of withholding information about the disappearance of the plane and not doing enough to find it.

 Speaking to reporters after the closed-door meeting, Mr. Hishammuddin said the families wanted assurances that the search-and-rescue operation would continue. “As long as there is even a remote chance of a survivor, we will pray and do whatever it takes,” he said. “This is the hardest part of my life at the moment, meeting up with the families.”

 The recovery of debris from Flight 370 would provide final confirmation that the plane had crashed into the ocean and offer at least partial resolution to the families and friends of the passengers and crew. It might also help solve perhaps the most enduring mystery of the plane’s disappearance: What or who caused it to veer so sharply off course?

 When debris is found quickly enough after a crash into the sea, investigators can trace its drift back to the impact site and conduct an underwater search to recover the plane’s black boxes. But in the case of Flight 370, any debris, if found, might well have drifted hundreds of miles in the three weeks since the plane’s disappearance and be of limited use in locating the crash site.

 Still, recovered items from the plane might allow investigators to rule in or out certain events that could have precipitated a crash. Scorch marks, for example, might indicate that there was a fire, and the nature of any fire damage could offer clues about its source.

 In the case of the crash of Air France Flight 447 in 2009, the fact that the oxygen masks had not deployed and that life vests remained in their pouches indicated that those on board had not had time to prepare for an impact. Investigators also deduced from the damage that the plane hit the water at high speed, and they were able to tell which part of the plane hit the water first.

 The approaching winter in the Southern Hemisphere could present serious obstacles, and some experts said that an underwater search-and-recovery mission would not be possible in the short term as weather conditions deteriorate.

 But while the wreckage of the plane probably rests in cold, deep waters and is unlikely to degrade significantly in the coming months, experts said, the prospect of a delay would be hard for search experts to explain to the family members and to politicians who want to demonstrate that they are doing everything possible to find out what happened. ||||| PERTH, Australia (AP) — A day after the search for the Malaysian jetliner shifted to a new area of the Indian Ocean, ships on Saturday plucked objects from the sea to determine whether they were related to the missing jet. None were confirmed to be from the plane, leaving searchers with no sign of the jet three weeks after it disappeared.

 Royal Australian Air Force Flight Lt. Russell Adams speaks to media at Pearce Airbase Saturday March 29, 2014 in Perth, Australia. Five search aircraft yesterday spotted possible debris in the new search... (Associated Press)

 Australian Air Force Group Commander Craig Heap right, speaks with Royal Malaysian Air Force mission Commander Major Jafri, as a C-130 Hercules taxies behind at RAAF Base Pearce in Perth, Australia, Saturday,... (Associated Press)

 In this Friday, March 28, 2014 photo released by the Australian Defence, a Royal Australian Air Force C-17 Globemaster prepares to land at RAAF Pearce Base to help with the search for the missing Malaysia... (Associated Press)

 In this image made from TV, released by AMSA (Australia Maritime Safety Authority), a marker flare is deployed into the Indian Ocean from a Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) plane searching for debris... (Associated Press)

 A Royal Malaysian Air Force C-130 Hercules taxies along the tarmac at RAAF Base Pearce to to help with the search for debris or wreckage of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in Perth, Australia,... (Associated Press)

 In this Friday, March 28, 2014 photo released by the Australian Defence, a Royal Australian Air Force C-17 Globemaster arrives to help with the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 at RAAF... (Associated Press)

 A photo taken off a computer monitor onboard a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3 Orion, shows an object floating in an area within the search zone of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in the Southern... (Associated Press)

 A man, one of the relatives of Chinese passengers onboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, rests near a board covered with written wishes at a hotel in Beijing, China, Saturday, March 29, 2014. Some of the... (Associated Press)

 Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) pilot Flight Lt. Russell Adams speaks to the media his AP-3C Orion returned from searching for debris or wreckage of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in Perth,... (Associated Press)

 Crew onboard a Royal Malaysian Air Force C-130 Hercules unloads the aircraft after it landed at RAAF Base Pearce to to help with the search for debris or wreckage of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight... (Associated Press)

 Meanwhile, a Chinese military plane scanning part of the search zone, which is roughly the size of Poland, spotted several objects floating in the sea, including two bearing colors of the missing jet.

 It was not immediately clear whether those objects were related to the investigation into what happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing, and officials said the second day of searching in the new area ended with no evidence found of the jet.

 Dozens of relatives of passengers on the missing plane were to fly from Beijing to Kuala Lumpur on Sunday to seek answers from Malaysia's government as to what happened to their loved ones. Two-thirds of the 229 passengers aboard Flight 370 were Chinese, and their relatives have expressed deep frustration with Malaysian authorities since the plane went missing.

 Ships from China and Australia on Saturday scooped up items described only as "objects from the ocean," but none were "confirmed to be related" to Flight 370, said the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, which is overseeing the search.

 A Chinese Ilyushin IL-76 plane spotted three floating objects, China's official Xinhua News Agency said, a day after several planes and ships combing the newly targeted area, which is closer to Australia than the previous search zone, saw several other objects.

 The three objects spotted by the Chinese plane were white, red and orange in color, the Xinhua report said. The missing Boeing 777's exterior was red, white, blue and gray.

 Investigators have been puzzled over what happened to Flight 370, with speculation ranging from equipment failure and a botched hijacking to terrorism or an act by one of the pilots.

 The latter was fueled by reports that the pilot's home flight simulator had files deleted from it, but Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said checks, including one by the FBI, had turned up no new information.

 "What I know is that there is nothing sinister from the simulators, but of course that will have to be confirmed by the chief of police," he said.

 Newly analyzed satellite data shifted the search zone on Friday, raising expectations that searchers may be closer to getting physical evidence that the plane crashed into the Indian Ocean.

 That would also help narrow the hunt for the wreckage and the plane's black boxes, which could contain clues to what caused the plane to be so far off-course.

 The U.S. Navy has already sent equipment that can detect pings from the back boxes, and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott told reporters in Sydney that the equipment would be put on an Australian naval ship soon.

 "It will be taken to the most prospective search area and if there is good reason to deploy it, it will be deployed," he said, without giving a time frame. Other officials have said it could take days for the ship — the Ocean Shield — to reach the search area.

 The newly targeted zone is nearly 1,130 kilometers (700 miles) northeast of sites the searchers have crisscrossed for the past week. The redeployment came after analysts determined that the Boeing 777 may have been traveling faster than earlier estimates and would therefore have run out of fuel sooner.

 The new search area is closer to the southwestern Australian city of Perth than the previous one, with a flying time of 2 1/2 hours each way, allowing for five hours of search time, according to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.

 Malaysia Airlines' commercial director, Hugh Dunleavy, said in Beijing late Saturday that around 40 to 45 Chinese relatives of passengers on the missing plane would fly to Kuala Lumpur early Sunday morning.

 Steve Wang, a representative of some of the Chinese families in Beijing, said the relatives wanted to go to Malaysia to seek more answers because they have been unsatisfied by the responses provided by Malaysian government representatives who have met them in China.

 "We have demanded that we meet with the prime minister and the transportation minister," said Wang Chunjiang, whose younger brother, lawyer Wang Chunyong, was on Flight 370. "We have questions that we would like to ask them in person."

 If investigators can determine that the plane went down in the newly targeted search zone — which spans about 319,000 square kilometers (123,000 square miles) — recovery of its flight data and cockpit voice recorders could be complicated.

 Much of the sea floor in the area is about 2,000 meters (6,600 feet) below the surface, but depths may reach a maximum of up to 6,000 meters (19,685 feet).

 The hunt for the plane focused first on the Gulf of Thailand, along the plane's planned path. But when radar data showed it had veered sharply west, the search moved to the Andaman Sea, off the western coast of Malaysia, before pivoting to the southern Indian Ocean, southwest of Australia.

 ___

 Wong reported from Kuala Lumpur. Associated Press writers Scott McDonald and Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur; Kristen Gelineau in Sydney; Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia; Nick Perry in Wellington, New Zealand; and Aritz Parra and Didi Tang in Beijing contributed to this report. ||||| The crucial data preserved in the so-called black boxes of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 should survive for two years or longer, even if they are submerged in the corrosive salt water of the Indian Ocean.

 If the black boxes — a cockpit voice recorder that captures the last two hours of the flight, and a data recorder that captures 25 hours — are recovered, technicians can put them in desalinated water to clean out the memory boards, then vacuum-dry them.

 The recorders can survive salt water immersion up to 20,000 feet, Joe Kolly, director of research and engineering for the National Transportation Safety Board, told reporters Friday. The deepest waters of the new search zone for Flight 370 are about 13,000 feet.

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 The black boxes from Air France Flight 447, which crashed in the Atlantic Ocean in June 2009, were recovered almost two years later, with most of the data intact.

 If the Malaysian plane did crash into the ocean, crews first have to find the black boxes. They emit sonic pings for roughly 30 days and after that would be much harder to find. Flight 370 disappeared three weeks ago.

 It has not been determined which government would analyze the black boxes from Flight 370, Kolly said. His lab does a third of its work for foreign governments, he said. |||||


Here is a news article: CLOSE Discover what made the Angry Birds so angry at the pigs in 'The Angry Birds Movie.' USA TODAY

 Red (Jason Sudeikis) leads the charge against the pig invaders in "The Angry Birds Movie." (Photo: Rovio Animation)

 Furious fowl ruled the roost at the weekend box office.

 Moviegoers flocked to see The Angry Birds Movie, which took flight with $39 million and No. 1, according to studio estimates from comScore. The family comedy — an adaptation of the popular app game — scored the third-best animated debut of the year, behind Zootopia ($75.1 million) and Kung Fu Panda 3 ($41.3 million). It was enough to knock Captain America: Civil War from its perch, which fell to No. 2.

 Budgeted at $73 million, Angry Birds features the voices of Jason Sudeikis, Sean Penn, Maya Rudolph, Danny McBride and Josh Gad. Despite ruffling a few feathers among critics (whose reviews were only 42% positive on RottenTomatoes), audiences embraced it slightly more (61% liked it).

 "It's a rare bird," says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for comScore. "The video game aspect is drawing that audience that knows the brand, but then there's the crossover of family audiences who have really been drawn to PG-rated movies this year. This is a strong showing for the film," although the overall weekend box office is about 25% lower than it was this time last year, when Mad Max: Fury Road and Pitch Perfect 2 started on a high note.

 Dropping to second place in its third week, Civil War muscled its way to $33.1 million, with a total of $347.4 million stateside and just over $1 billion worldwide. The superhero face-off starring Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. is now the seventh highest-grossing Marvel movie, performing slightly below last year's Avengers: Age of Ultron, which notched $372 million in its first three weeks and finished with $459 million in the USA.

 Opening at No. 3, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising brought down the house with a solid, if not spectacular, $21.8 million. The R-rated comedy reunites Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne as parents who team up with their former fratboy nemesis (Zac Efron) to take down hard-partying sorority sisters (led by Chloë Grace Moretz). With just OK reviews (61% positive), the film brought in less than half the business of its predecessor, which premiered with $49 million in May 2014 on its way to $150.2 million.

 "That was going to be a hard act to follow, no matter what," Dergarabedian says. "R-rated comedies do so well in the summer because they're fresh and funny, but it's hard to replicate that. It's usually the original content from that genre that does well," calling to mind last year's Ted 2, which opened to nearly half ($33.5 million) of the 2012 original ($54.4 million).

 Bringing up the rear, Shane Black's The Nice Guys was welcomed with a better-than-expected $11.3 million in fourth place. The 1970s noir comedy stars Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe as mismatched detectives and has been embraced by critics (90% positive reviews) as well as moviegoers (84% liked it). Disney's live-action The Jungle Book rounded out the top five with $11 million in fifth, swinging to a wild $327.5 million since opening last month.

 Final figures are expected Monday.

 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1TwgY4n ||||| In this image released by Disney, Anthony Mackie, from left, Paul Rudd, Jeremy Renner, Chris Evans, Elizabeth Olsen and Sebastian Stan appear in a scene from "Captain America: Civil War." (Disney-Marvel via AP) (Associated Press)

 In this image released by Disney, Anthony Mackie, from left, Paul Rudd, Jeremy Renner, Chris Evans, Elizabeth Olsen and Sebastian Stan appear in a scene from "Captain America: Civil War." (Disney-Marvel... (Associated Press) |||||
A summary of this is?

– Captain America has found a worthy competitor in a bunch of flightless birds. The Angry Birds Movie soared to $39 million in its debut weekend, reports the AP, knocking Captain America: Civil War off its first-place perch, according to comScore estimates Sunday. This despite reviews that were lukewarm, reports USA Today, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of only 42% positive. Civil War earned an additional $33.1 million for a second-place spot, bringing its domestic total to $347.4 million. Even in its third weekend in theaters, the superhero proved mightier than a batch of new adult comedies, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising and The Nice Guys, which took the third- and fourth-place spots. Neighbors 2 brought in $21.8 million in its debut weekend—less than half of the first film's $49 million opening in 2014. The '70s throwback buddy comedy, The Nice Guys, meanwhile, grossed $11.3 million.


News article:

Sharron Angle retreats a bit, but mostly stands ground Republican candidate for Senate gives first interview to mainstream medium

 Lisa J. Tolda / Special to the Sun

 WHERE SHE CHANGED Angle softened her rhetoric on phasing out Social Security and retreated from statements about people exercising “Second Amendment remedies” if conservatives don’t prevail this year.

 WHERE SHE DIDN'T Angle held firm in opposing extension of unemployment benefits. She also restated her opposition to abortion, saying government should not have gotten involved in the issue.

 Sun coverage More Sun politics stories

 In her first mainstream media interview since winning the Republican nomination in the U.S. Senate race, former Assemblywoman Sharron Angle softened her rhetoric on “phasing out” Social Security and fearing the electorate would take up arms if conservatives didn’t win at the ballot box.

 But on other issues, such as abortion and her belief that unemployment benefits deter the jobless from applying for work, she stridently defended herself amid criticism from her Democratic rival, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, that her views are “wacky” and “dangerous.”

 In a raucous 30-minute interview on “Face to Face With Jon Ralston,” Angle was pressed to explain the positions she took during the Republican primary to a general election audience, as well as to a cadre of political observers waiting to see how much she will change now that she faces a major Democrat for the first time in her political career.

 Only once did she flatly admit her pre-primary language was too strong, when asked to explain her comments that the citizenry will resort to “Second Amendment remedies” — referring to the right to bear arms — if conservatives didn’t win this election.

 “I admit it was a little strong to say,” she said. “That’s why I changed my rhetoric to ‘defeat Harry Reid.’ ”

 She also appeared to moderate her belief that the Social Security program should be “phased out.” Far from advocating an end to the program, she said existing benefits should be protected, more money should be put into the system and, in the future, younger workers should be given the choice between a “personal account” and Social Security benefits.

 But when it came to one of the most severe problems facing Nevada, the 14 percent unemployment rate that is higher than any other state’s, Angle stuck to her view that unemployment benefits should no longer be extended.

 Instead, she said jobs exist that those on benefits should be taking.

 “They keep extending unemployment benefits to the point where people are afraid to go out and get a job because the job doesn’t pay as much as the benefit,” Angle said. “There are jobs that do exist.”

 Unemployment benefits should be reworked to supplement lower wages, rather than being eliminated once a job is found, she argued.

 She vehemently restated her view that a “system of entitlements” has “spoiled our citizenry.”

 Angle also worked to stay true to her core conservative beliefs on social issues. She said the separation of church and state is a doctrine meant to “protect the church” and that elected officials should “bring our values to the political system.” She sidestepped her comments from the 1990s that the separation of church and state is an “unconstitutional doctrine.”

 After the interview Reid spokesman Jon Summer commented, “For someone who talks so much about the Constitution, you would think she would actually know what is in it. It’s shocking to hear her say that the separation of church and state isn’t part of the Constitution, when it is laid out in the First Amendment.”

 The interview itself was significant because while Angle has been available to conservative talk shows, she has been viewed as evading mainstream news organizations.

 When Ralston challenged her comments to a Reno conservative talk show host that abortion should not be available even in the case of rape or incest, Angle said she values life.

 “You want government to go and tell a 13-year-old child who’s been raped by her father she has to have that baby?” Ralston asked.

 “I didn’t say that,” she said. “I always say that I value life.”

 She went further to say she believes government should stay out of the issue of abortion, but it decided to insert its control after the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

 “The government decided to get involved in this, not me,” she said. “I’m just defending my position.”

 When she was in the Legislature, Angle repeatedly sponsored a bill that would require the “dissemination of information concerning the scientific link between induced abortion and increased rate of breast cancer.”

 Concerning Yucca Mountain, Angle said she believes the state should abandon its decades-old fight to keep the federal government from burying the nation’s most radioactive waste 90 miles outside of Las Vegas.

 “We need to make lemonade out of lemons,” she said, arguing jobs could be created by accepting the waste.

 Throughout the interview, Angle tried to pivot to attacking Reid, blaming him for the high unemployment rate, expanding the federal deficit and bailing out big businesses.

 “We’re nitpicking on all of these little topics that Harry Reid has thrown out there,” she said. “I would like to see Harry Reid come into this studio and have a real debate on the issues. And the issues to me are the high unemployment, the high foreclosure rate and the high bankruptcy rate.” ||||| In a radio interview with Bill Manders on Jan. 25, Sharron Angle — the GOP candidate and Tea Party darling challenging Harry Reid for Nevada’s U.S. Senate seat — came out firmly against abortion. She even took the extreme position that women should not have control over their reproductive rights in cases of rape or incest, because it would interfere with God’s “plan” for them:

 MANDERS: Is there any reason at all for an abortion? ANGLE: Not in my book. MANDERS: So, in other words, rape and incest would not be something? ANGLE: You know, I’m a Christian, and I believe that God has a plan and a purpose for each one of our lives and that he can intercede in all kinds of situations and we need to have a little faith in many things.

 Listen here:

 Last week, Manders — who is a conservative radio host — told his listeners that in order to beat Reid, Angle has to “slide to the left a little bit, to the middle, so to speak. Not stay way over to the right.” “[T]here are things about Sharron that are annoying to the voters,” he added. Recently, former Republican congresswoman Barbara Vucanovich, the first woman from Nevada to hold federal office, said she may not even vote for Angle. “She’s very rigid and I have a little bit of trouble understanding her positions,” Vucanovich said. “So I’m not out there waving the flag. She’s a very difficult person.”

 The far right has embraced Angle’s anti-choice position. She has said that while it won’t be “the most prominent issue in Nevada’s Senate race,” she “will show voters the difference between Reid and me on abortion: He flip-flops on the issues.” She added that more people are identifying as “pro-life” because the issue “has been framed in a more positive way.” |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– A little thing like rape isn't a good enough excuse for an abortion, as far as Sharron Angle's concerned. Harry Reid's conservative, Tea Party-backed opponent gave an interview in January, in which she told conservative host Bill Manders that rape victims need to trust in God's plan. “Is there any reason at all for an abortion?” Manders asks in the clip, which was dug up by Think Progress. “Not in my book,” Angle replies. Not even, Manders presses, in the case of rape or incest? “Well, you know, I'm a Christian,” Angle says, “and I believe that God has a plan and a purpose for each one of our lives and that he can intercede in all kinds of situations and we need to have a little faith.” Angle got pressed on the issue yesterday in her first interview with the mainstream press since winning the GOP nomination. (More details from it at the Las Vegas Sun.) “You want government to go and tell a 13-year-old child who’s been raped by her father she has to have that baby?” asked her interviewer. “I didn’t say that," she responded. "I always say that I value life.”


Write an article based on this summary:

– Archaeologists have in the last two months uncovered the unmarked graves of as many as 40 Confederate soldiers in Old City Cemetery in Lynchburg, Va. That adds to the tally of about 50 unmarked Confederate graves found in the same part of the cemetery last year—a section known as Yankee Square that was originally created as a place to bury Union soldiers, though their remains were exhumed and moved in 1866, Fox News reports. The team's goal is to match up the graves with the "detailed" undertaker's notes that were made at the time, allowing the archaeologists to identify the soldiers buried there with markers noting each man's military unit and when he died. “It’s always been an unsatisfying answer for me to say, 'We know your ancestor is here somewhere, but we don't know exactly where,’” the cemetery’s assistant director told the News & Advance earlier this month. The graves are shallow ones, and the team has only needed to dig about 10 inches below the surface—not to the point of reaching a body, but until a red clay patch appears amid the orange dirt. The red clay indicates the presence of a body, as the deeper, darker dirt that was dug out to create the graves was often used to cover the body. "We can see any time that a hole or disturbance is put in the ground because the soil’s not the same," says one team member. The team has also determined that that crisp outlines of the graves indicate that they haven't been disturbed since they were made. But it did make two mysterious discoveries: some graves were placed perpendicularly over older graves, and others had a circle-shaped brown patch on top of them—perhaps the remnants of a patch of flowers. (Read about how archaeologists managed to uncover graves the Nazis tried to hide.)

Welcome To Old City Cemetery

 Old City Cemetery is an extraordinary 27-acre public garden, “history park,” and wedding venue located in the heart of Lynchburg, Virginia. Despite being an active place of burial and remembrance, it is one of the busiest and most popular attractions in the City. With more than 33,000 visitors annually, it is the most visited historic site in the City today.

 Established in 1806, Old City Cemetery is the oldest municipal cemetery in Virginia still in use today. A village of five small museums helps to tell the stories of the diverse population of nearly 20,000 buried here. The grounds are also filled with hundreds of varieties of native and heirloom plants, including the largest public collection of antique roses in the state of Virginia.

 Our gates are open dawn to dusk, every day of the year. We invite you to visit and explore a cemetery like no other.

 Read More ||||| Their remains sat, unmarked, in shallow graves at the Old City Cemetery in Lynchburg, Va., for decades. Now, some 150 years after the Civil War, the bodies of 40 Confederate soldiers discovered over the past two months will receive a proper memorial.

 "It's been very meaningful to us to find these spots, identify these soldiers and bring closure to families," said Ted Delaney, the cemetery's assistant director, who, along with a team of archaeologists, uncovered the exact resting place of some 40 Confederate soldiers as well as the plots where Union soldiers were once buried and later exhumed.

 Delaney told FoxNews.com that, beginning in April, the team dug a 45-by-10-foot trench within "Yankee Square" at the cemetery where they found a mix of red and orange squares, which they determined were Confederate soldiers' graves. He said 35 to 40 graves were found during this latest search and that 50 were uncovered in the same area last year.

 Delaney said he is now tasked with identifying each soldier's grave and giving it the tribute it deserves.

 "Our goal is to put a marker at each grave space to identify the soldier and note when he died and his military unit," said Delaney, who is optimistic about the project because, "the undertaker's notes are so detailed and complete."

 He said that when all is done, about 80 Confederate soldiers will be properly identified. He noted that the remains of Union soldiers were exhumed and removed from the plot of land in 1866.

 "This has been an incredible process of discovery," he said. "It’s always been very frustrating for those descendants who come to us because they can't find their ancestor's grave. Now we can bring some of them closure."

 The task to identify and maintain the graves of Civil War soldiers at the cemetery began in April 2013. Delaney and his team are receiving an annual $2,500 grant from the Virginia Department of Historic Records Work to document unknown graves within "Yankee Square," which was first intended as a burial site for Union soldiers and then came to include Confederate soldiers -- many of whom died from diseases such as small pox.

 Delaney's crew is not the first to uncover unidentified Civil War graves in recent years.

 Sam Ricks, who works as graves registrar for the Sons of Confederate Veterans' Pennsylvania Division, has long been on a quest to restore the graves of America's bravest. Ricks and his team are responsible for uncovering unmarked graves at Mount Moriah cemetery, an estimated 380-acre historic graveyard straddling Philadelphia and Yeadon, Pa., and the state's largest -- where 2,300 Navy service members and Marines dating from the Revolutionary War to the War of 1812 all the way to the Korean and Vietnam wars are buried.

 In 2007, Ricks received an unusual request, which led him to a discovery that was "like finding a needle in a haystack."

 Ricks was approached by a descendant of Nathan Tiernon Walton, a cadet from the Virginia Military Institute who, along with 294 other cadets, fought the Battle of New Market in Virginia for the Confederate Army on May 15, 1864. The battle is well-known to Civil War historians because the small Confederate Army, which consisted largely of the teenage cadets from VMI, defeated the Union soldiers and forced them out of the Shenandoah Valley.

 Walton later became estranged from his family when he left his wife and daughter in Baltimore to find work in Atlanta and later Philadelphia, according to Ricks.

 "He was a recluse," Ricks said, "And no one ever knew what became of him."

 It was long believed by the family that Walton was buried in Baltimore, alongside his wife. But that theory was discounted when Walton's great-grandson, Bill Banks, visited Loudon Park Cemetery in Baltimore and found no evidence Walton was buried there.

 Banks was on a quest that began 100 years ago with his grandmother, Walton's daughter, who handed down a large cast iron Southern Cross of Honor grave marker to be placed at her father's grave if it was ever found.

 It was later discovered that Walton died in Philadelphia during the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918, leading Ricks to eventually find his unmarked grave on Memorial Day in 2008 at Philadelphia Memorial Park in Frazer, Pa.

 In November 2008, Ricks, as well as descendants of Walton, were finally able to mark his grave 90 years after his death with the cross passed down by his daughter.

 "I'm reminded of this case every Memorial Day," Ricks said. "Walton's daughter had handed down to generations a marker to be placed at his grave should it ever be found. And then we actually did it. We fulfilled her wish." |||||


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This year, the Independence Day weekend box office didn't prove as fruitful as expected for all the new movie releases: while Finding Dory continued its ascension with the biggest domestic third weekend of all time for an animated movie, The Legend of Tarzan and The BFG brought in meager results. Steven Spielberg's The BFG, the second movie adaptation of Roald Dahl's popular children's novel after an animated TV film in 1989, earned $24 million on a $140 million budget, which means it's now fully relying on its overseas performance.

 While The BFG wasn't exactly expected to be a massive summer success, such a flop is surprising considering the movie had all the ingredients to convince audiences. Does that mean Roald Dahl's stories are too obscure for the new generation of moviegoers, or that Spielberg's visual storytelling is not what it once was? Not necessarily: Looking at why it could possibly have failed so terribly, it seems the case of The BFG shouldn't put too much weight on the perception of Spielberg's or Dahl's potential.

 What Is The BFG Actually About?

 Original illustration for 'The BFG' by Quentin Blake

 For those who haven't had the pleasure of devouring Roald Dahl's tales when they were children, The BFG is a simple story of an orphan named Sophie, who spots a giant bringing dreams to the humans by blowing a magical concoction through bedroom windows. When he realizes he's been seen, he takes Sophie with him to Giant Country, where she discovers that he lives with a bunch of not-so-friendly giants who eat children for dinner. Because that's not a pleasant thought for a little girl, she devises a plan to capture them — with the help of the Queen of England.

 The BFG Earned Some Good Critics

 Critics were far from unanimous on the potential of The BFG, but on Rotten Tomatoes, it still earned a respectable critic score of 71% and an audience score of 66% — not really the kind of movie you'd expect to make less than a fifth of its budget on its opening weekend.

 The most praised part of the film was Mark Rylance, the British stage actor who just won an Oscar for his role in Spielberg's Bridge of Spies, as the Big Friendly Giant himself. The challenge of bringing nuance to a performance mostly relying on motion capture might seem overwhelming, but even with his distorted features, Rylance does the Giant great justice.

 'The BFG' / Walt Disney Pictures

 The special effects are also grandiose, from the soft sparkle of the dream material to the wonder-inspiring Giant Country. You'd think that a great story on paper combined to the required technical achievement would translate to the ideal visuals, but that might just be the issue with The BFG: It doesn't go much further than a pretty picture.

 Was There Any Space In The Summer Schedule For The BFG?

 'Finding Dory' / 'The Legend of Tarzan' / 'The BFG'

 Even without diving into a debate on the quality of the movie itself, it's safe to say that The BFG wasn't optimally prepared to take on the summer box office. Squished between the trailblazing Dory and The Legend of Tarzan, teenagers and families had plenty of options to enjoy Independence Day weekend. Add to that the mysterious title of The BFG, and it looks like a more explicit name could have served the movie better, especially for American audiences who aren't as familiar with Dahl's work as people are in England.

 More importantly, The BFG appears like it has positioned itself at a confusing halfway point between a children's movie and an adults' one — not that a film has to be one or the other, as Pixar has proven time and again, but because it never seems to fully satisfy either generation.

 The BFG Misses The Depth Of The Original Book

 'The BFG' / Walt Disney Pictures

 It doesn't give kids and teenagers the appeal of a big household name or a recognizable face and story, while it just seems too plain for grown-up moviegoers who might have been attracted by Spielberg or Rylance. As it revels in the beauty of Giant Country and takes plenty of time to deploy its stunning special effects, The BFG seems to forget the darker, grittier side of every Roald Dahl story that would have given the movie that extra depth. The child-eating giants bear names such as Bloodbottler and Fleshlumpeater, and still the movie doesn't ever get truly scary. Same goes for the loneliness of the Giant, which gives the movie a melancholic tone here and there but never really hits you.

 Still, The BFG's Box Office Flop Isn't Necessarily Part Of A Trend

 'The BFG' / Walt Disney Pictures

 Considering we're all so used to Spielberg churning out the masterpieces, it's easy to start wondering if the director has "lost his touch," or if this is "the end of an era." Or we could turn to the genre of children's books adaptations, and start panicking that they've lost the appeal they've once had.

 In the case of The BFG, however, the main issue of the movie is more about being unremarkable than disastrous. The adaptation didn't twist the original material beyond recognition, and this giant looks as big and friendly as he should. Spielberg is getting a similar recipe ready with Ready Player One — it's a book adaptation, and it stars Mark Rylance — and we still have plenty of reasons to be excited about it. So keep the book adaptations coming!

 Have you seen The BFG? Do you think it could have been more successful? ||||| 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. ||||| Box Office: Steven Spielberg's 'BFG' Equals Big Failed Gamble in U.S.

 The family film bombed in its North American debut over the July 4th weekend.

 Steven Spielberg and Disney's big-budget The BFG — short for the Big Friendly Giant — could go down as a Big Failed Gamble.

 At least, that is the case in North America, where it debuted to a dismal $18.6 million over the three-day Fourth of July weekend, enough for only a fourth-place finish. For the four-day frame, The BFG earned $22.3 million, a paltry number considering the movie's $140 million budget and the high-profile holiday corridor.

 The BFG's fate will rely heavily on the international box office, where it has opened in only two territories so far — Australia ($2 million) and Russia ($1.9 million). The film didn't place No. 1 in either country, however. If it doesn't work offshore, partners Disney, Amblin Entertainment and Walden Media are looking at a sizable loss.

 The PG film, based on Roald Dahl's beloved book of the same name about a giant (Mark Rylance) who strikes up a friendship with a young orphan girl (Ruby Barnhill), is the first movie Spielberg has directed for powerhouse Disney — and the hope was it could strike a chord like his classic E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. (Disney previously had a distribution deal with Spielberg's DreamWorks, but this was a direct production and marketing partnership.)

 Spielberg also is a big fan of the Fourth of July holiday, and counted on the pic being a major family play. But that coveted demo appeared to have little interest in seeing The BFG, at least on a wide-scale basis, even though it earned an A- CinemaScore from those moviegoers who did turn up, along with solid reviews. But as the holiday weekend played out, the film was overshadowed by Disney/Pixar's own Finding Dory, which in its third weekend took in $41.9 million.

 Box-office analyst Jeff Bock said Spielberg hasn't made a family film that's resonated with younger audiences since Hook 25 years ago (that movie, however, was maligned by critics).

 "These days, Pixar, Minions and Disney's fairy-tale adaptations rule the box-office roost in terms of kids' fare," said Bock. "The BFG has always been a recognizable children's book, but not a classic in the U.S."

 Some box-office analysts believe The BFG will ultimately top out in the $60 million range domestically. That would make it Spielberg's lowest-grossing film since the dramatic, adult-oriented Munich in 2005, and one of his lowest ever when adjusting for inflation.

 Munich, which earned $47.4 million domestically and $130.4 million globally, is among the filmmaker's few major box-office misses. Spielberg's biggest bomb was 1941, released in 1979.

 The BFG is Spielberg's most ambitious film in terms of budget since The Adventures of Tintin in 2011. That film topped out at $77.6 million domestically, but ultimately earned $373.9 million globally thanks to the international box office.

 Spielberg has enjoyed his greatest success in recent years with such adult-skewing fare as Bridge of Spies and Lincoln.

 July 4, 8 a.m. Updated with revised three-day and four-day numbers. ||||| It turns out that the anything-goes murderfest The Purge: Election Year was not the grisliest bloodbath at the movies this past weekend. In accordance with the time-honored "the bigger they are, the harder they fall" principle, Steven Spielberg's The BFG took a giant-sized dive at the box office over the holiday break. Despite working with a $140 million budget, the hopeful Disney blockbuster could only muster up a meager $22.2 million from domestic audiences, with an additional $3.9 million from overseas markets. For scale, consider that alarm klaxons started sounding when Alice Through the Looking Glass put up $33.5 million at the end of May.

 Related PHOTOS: Steven Spielberg's Movies, Ranked Worst to Best From 'Saving Private Ryan' to 'Raiders,' the King of Hollywood's work from completists-only to modern classics

 Granted, this could turn out to be a slow-burner type of hit that builds up healthier grosses as it slowly gains traction, but for now, this marks the biggest flop for the usually-dependable director since his ill-fated war comedy 1941 way back in 1979. Disney must have felt like it had a slam dunk on deck by giving Spielberg the green light to adapt the beloved kids-lit author's work; the filmmaker made a name for himself with fantastical tales glimpsed through the eyes of children. And hey, if they played their cards right, there might have even been a shower of Oscar gold in the film's future. (It wasn't too long ago that Hugo, Martin Scorsese's foray into kids' entertainment, earned 11 Academy Award nominations and clinched five.)

 So what happened?

 Emotion can be a tough sell

 The main virtue of The BFG is its big friendly heart, apparent in the tender relationship between the Mark Rylance-voiced titan and the precocious-tot protagonist Sophie (Ruby Barnhill). But compared to the visual dynamism of a chomping shark, a flying saucer or a shriveled-up alien, the bond between a girl and her giant is not an easy thing to sell in a trailer. While that sentimental streak is a key part of Spielberg's directorial style, it's usually paired with something that can widen the eyes or drop the jaw on a first glance. There are awe-inspiring sequences in the film — notably a sequence in which the main pair journey to a gorgeous dreamscape filled with surreal forestry and reflective pools. But the closest that the commercials have come to an indelible image would probably be the film's mammoth best friend sprinting through the countryside with trees blowing in his wake, or slicing the oozing, gross-out fruit he subsists on. Impressive animation or not, that wasn't enough jaw-dropping wonder to sell the film to audiences, nor was it enough to communicate the emotional bond which was the film's bread and butter.

 The mixed reviews

 Kids couldn't give a damn about notices one way or the other, but the parents who ultimately buy the tickets may have been turned off by the film's lukewarm reception. Though it currently enjoys a 71-percent approval rating on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, Rolling Stone's own Peter Travers offered numerous caveats in his review, notably that "things get 'a bit grumbly' — to borrow a BFG phrase — when the worlds of Spielberg and Dahl collide." That comment reflected a solid faction of critics who felt that the fantasy couldn't conjure the same magic as the filmmaker's past triumphs. In a marketplace where an oddly-titled adaptation of a Dahl novel not featuring gigantic peaches or chocolate factories has to compete with Pixar's latest, such faint praise (or in several cases, outright flagellations) could not have helped things.

 No stars, no spectacles

 Bridge of Spies benefited from slapping Tom Hanks' beautiful, marketable mug onto its posters. Lincoln had the benefit of the world's greatest living actor sinking his incisors into an already-iconic role. Leonardo DiCaprio, Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise — the A-list of Spielberg's actors goes on. But not only does The BFG lack any immediately recognizable faces, there's not even a flashy-looking monster to show off in the advertisements. All it had was an Oscar-winner better known for his stage work and a family of giants — who are, when you get down to it, a bunch of slightly-weird-looking old guys. (Even the poster for his 2011 adaptation of The War Horse offered a beautiful thoroughbred as audiencebait.) This earthy, lower-key take on the summer blockbuster was short on recognizable faces and the brand-name bombast in vogue right now — a lose-lose situation marketing-wise.

 Holiday weekend hobbled box-office across the board

 It's not as if The BFG was edged out by a gigantic new release racking up accordingly huge grosses. This was a weak weekend for movies, period — enough that Finding Dory (in its third week of release) took the top spot once again with a robust $50 million take, leaving a considerable berth from the three new studio releases. With audiences taking trips or [gulp] spending quality time with their families, that left The Purge: Election Year with a $34.7 million gross and the steamy new Alexander Skarsgard/Margot Robbie Tarzan with $45.5 million, neither of which are anything to crow about. In what's already been a dismal summer for nationwide cineplexes, the start of July was another little valley, and that certainly didn't help boost The BFG's chances for finding an audience.

 It's a generational thing

 Consider this: Roald Dahl's book was published in 1982, meaning that many of the kids who grew up on it be slightly too young to have moviegoing-aged children of their own. Situated right where Gen X ends and the millennial territory begins, the novel's core fanbase is currently in their mid-to-late-twenties and early thirties. If Disney was gunning for the nostalgia dollar with this adaptation of a kiddie cult classic, holding off for another eight to 10 years could have made a world of difference. As it was, the film may have fallen into the middle of a generation gap. There's something cosmic about the way that this odd-bird film has met the same fate as its gawky, misfit hero — unappreciated for its odd charms, save for a select few. ||||| On the surface “The BFG” has more in its favor than most movies: An award-winning director with a time-tested box office track record; solid reviews; and the backing of the seemingly unstoppable Disney — by far the most successful studio of this year so far.

 But this weekend’s grosses for the adaptation of the Roald Dahl book are extremely modest for a movie that cost an estimated $140 million to produce.

 Directed by Steven Spielberg, “The BFG” has made only $12 million so far and is expected to end the long holiday weekend with less than $20 million domestically.

 Also Read: 'Finding Dory' Leads Weekend by a Fin, 'The BFG' Continues to Bomb

 The live action film stars Oscar winner Mark Rylance as the motion-captured CG “big friendly giant,” who is on a mission to save humans from other man-eating giants. It played well when it debuted at Cannes Film Festival and continued on with positive marks from critics into its opening, also with a CinemaScore of A-, which indicates enthusiasm among moviegoers.

 So what went wrong?

 1. Spielberg isn’t as safe a bet as he used to be.

 While he did serve as executive producer on one of last year’s biggest hits, Universal’s “Jurassic World,” Spielberg hasn’t had a “Jaws” or “E.T.”-level hit as a director in several years. His last attempt at a PG-rated family-friendly winner was the animated “Adventures of Tintin,” which only made $77 million domestically (earning most of its grosses abroad, with $296.4 million overseas). It opened about as weakly as “The BFG,” over the Christmas holiday in 2011, with a two-day weekend take of $17.7 million. As Spielberg has concentrated more on prestige films, like “Lincoln” — which did really well at the box office — and “Bridge of Spies” (for which Rylance won his Oscar), 2008’s “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” is that last popcorn flick he directed that made serious bank at the box office: $786.6 million worldwide. He’s signed on to do another Indie movie, due out in the summer of 2019 — a smart move.

 Also Read: Here's Why 'The Shallows' Caused a Feeding Frenzy at the Box Office

 2. Roald Dahl is no J.K. Rowling.

 The well-respected children’s author published “The BFG” in 1982. And while Dahl’s book won awards and was a favorite among teachers, he did not have anywhere close to the following of Rowling’s “Harry Potter” series, which was still being published when the movies were being released in the first decade of the 2000s.

 3. What is a BFG? Is it NSFW?

 Seeing as awareness about the book among modern families is relativly low, the acronym title is majorly confusing.

 Also Read: 'Legend of Tarzan': Why Does Hollywood Keep Trying to Resurrect Dusty Old Brands?

 4. There are no stars.

 Imagine if Will Ferrell or Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson played the giant. Not to discredit Rylance’s award-winning acting chops, but the film would have likely received a boost from a big name.

 5. The price tag was pretty steep.

 Less a reason it didn’t do well at the box office, but given that Dahl’s books don’t guarantee the built-in movie audience that Rowling’s books did, coupled with the fact that Rylance is not a box office draw, $140 million budget is a risky proposition, even in spite of Spielberg’s involvement.

 6. The giant looks more scary than friendly.

 Those huge ears, beady eyes and a wrinkled face — the film’s main character had to overcome its appearance to win over family audiences. Clearly the “adoryble” baby Dory is more of a draw for modern audiences, which remains No. 1 at the box office in its third weekend in theaters.

 Also Read: Scarlett Johansson Is Now the 10th Highest Grossing Movie Star of All Time

 7. It suffered from bad timing.

 Perhaps Disney thought Dory fever would have died down in time to clear some runway for “The BFG.” Or maybe the distributor wedged it into the slot because it was one of the bigger gambles in a year stuffed to the gills with pricey tentpoles, including “Zootopia,” “The Jungle Book,” “Captain America: Civil War,” “Alice Through the Looking Glass,” “Finding Dory,” “Pete’s Dragon,” “Doctor Strange,” and “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.” Say that five times quickly. ||||| Unless Walt Disney pulls off a miracle overseas, Steven Spielberg’s The BFG will be that rarest of things: a Steven Spielberg box office bomb. The $140 million fantasy film, based on a Roald Dahl book, will earn around $22 million over the July 4th holiday. Which means, with the caveat that July 4th rarely falls on a Monday and that most big Independence Day releases don’t open on a Friday, that the film is looking at a domestic total of around $55-$65m. Maybe it’ll leg it and do more, but it’s counting on overseas figures to save it. The reason this stings isn’t because “Spielberg has lost his touch” or any such thing. But rather because, not only is The BFG a rare Spielberg flop, it is the first such film in a long time (if ever) that was intended primarily as a commercial venture.

 Most people will argue that the star-studded and critically-trashed 1941 was Steven Spielberg’s first box office disaster. And while the film did only make $31 million domestic on a $35m budget, it did make $92m worldwide, thus nearly tripling its budget. So for this argument, I would consider it a disappointment rather than an outright disaster. So looking over Spielberg’s thirty theatrical films from 1974 (The Sugarland Express) to 2016 (The BFG), there are only a few outright tanks in there. For the record, Hook made $300m worldwide on a $70m budget while even Always earned $74m on a $29m budget. So there are a few “shoulda/coulda done better” offerings (The Twilight Zone: The Movie, Warhorse, maybe The Adventures of Tintin due to its $135m budget), Steven Spielberg has made shockingly few outright “this film didn’t make enough to justify the expense” misses.

 So what are the actual box office bombs? Well, here’s the rub: Up until this week, they were entirely composed of “good for you” historical dramas that weren’t necessarily intended to be box office blockbusters. You’ve got the terrific 1987 World War II drama Empire of the Sun ($66 million worldwide on a $38m budget), the not-so-terrific 1997 slave rebellion drama Amistad ($58m on a $36m budget and the “It’s his best film, darn it!” 2005 political thriller Munich ($130m worldwide on a $70m budget). And, that’s basically it. Everything else was either an unqualified smash hit or made awfully close to 3x the production budget, during respective times when films didn’t spend quite so much on marketing. So yeah, that’s a pretty spectacular batting average, especially when you notice that quite a few of his “serious” movies (Lincoln, The Color Purple, Schindler’s List, etc.) were huge financial successes.

 But, if The BFG doesn’t recover, and I’ll be the first to (happily) eat crow if it does, it will be the first unmitigated Steven Spielberg box office bomb that was intended as an overtly commercial crowd-pleaser. The BFG is a fantasy adventure film filled with special effects and moments of earned whimsy. It is not a grim or ponderous historical character study or somber thriller wrapped in historical hindsight. It’s a popcorn movie, a would-be summer blockbuster helmed by the man who basically invented the summer blockbuster. I don’t want to make too much out of one movie. But I will say that this film was sold specifically on the idea that Steven Spielberg making a fantasy film qualified as an event and that its apparent rejection implies that such a thing does not have the pull that it once did.

 As a filmmaker, Mr. Spielberg will be fine. Warner Bros./ Time Warner Inc.'s Ready Player One is based on a very popular novel and will probably play to audiences young enough to devour the book and old enough to cling to its 80s-era nostalgia. Walt Disney will be fine too, since they are still having a hell of a run. Besides, if The BFG loses buckets of money, he can make it up to Disney by helming another Indiana Jones mo… oh wait, never mind. He has been on a run of late making the kinds of movies that Hollywood doesn’t make anymore (Warhorse, Lincoln, Bridge of Spies) and turning them into profitable and Oscar-friendly hits. There’s irony in that, the creator of the modern blockbuster now fighting to keep the adult-skewing, star-driven drama relevant. Perhaps Steven Spielberg has become defined by today’s audiences not by popcorn entertainment but by said esteemed dramas.

 We’ll see how The BFG plays out over the next month. If there was a “mistake,” it was in the fact that The BFG is actually his second-most expensive film ever (behind the $185m-costing Indiana Jones 4) despite being not remotely his surest-of-sure things in this concept/property-driven era. And yes, there is some news value in the fact that it will probably be the first Steven Spielberg box office bomb for a film that was meant as a commercial crowd-pleaser, or the first since 1979 if you count 1941. But if the doomsayers are right and Steven Spielberg is no longer the marquee name that he was for generations, that’s not inherently a tragedy. Nobody stays on top forever, and nobody should have to. The only reason to mourn is that he will likely be replaced by those raised to mimic the popcorn spectaculars that made Spielberg a living legend in the first place. |||||

– With a $140 million budget and an opening weekend take of only $24 million, The BFG is poised to be Steven Spielberg's biggest flop in 37 years, Rolling Stone reports. That's left people wondering if the man who essentially invented the summer blockbuster with Jaws has lost his summertime feeling. Here's what some of the experts are saying: Slash Film argues you can't blame Spielberg for the failure, as he's far from the first director to flop when adapting a story by Roald Dahl. In fact, only one film based on a Dahl book—Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory—has made more than $34 million in US theaters. The Wrap has a list of seven reasons The BFG bombed, from "Roald Dahl is no JK Rowling" to a lack of stars and a confusing title. The BFG might be proof it's time for Spielberg to step away from family films, according to the Hollywood Reporter, which points out the director hasn't had a hit family film since Hook a quarter of a century ago. He's had better luck with recent grown-up fare like Lincoln and Bridge of Spies. The Wall Street Journal details Spielberg's history of being able to "bounce back" after cinematic disappointments, something he should have a good chance of doing with his next three films currently including a historical drama, a science-fiction movie based on a popular book, and an Indiana Jones sequel. But the "reason this stings" is because every other time Spielberg disappointed at the box office, it was with a "good for you" film, according to Forbes. Whereas The BFG was intended as a money-maker for the studio. Finally, Movie Pilot argues that the failure of The BFG shouldn't count against any future Spielberg or Dahl movies. "The main issue of the movie is more about being unremarkable than disastrous.”