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Review: ‘Poor Things’ is a demented tale of enlightenment

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 17:47:39 GMT

By Lindsey Bahr | Associated PressIt is sickly hilarious to make a movie in which so much consensual sex is had, often so gleefully, that is not the least bit sexy. Though Bella Baxter’s insatiable libido might be her guiding light at first in “Poor Things,” sexual liberation (or “furious jumping,” as she calls it) is only part of this fantastical, anarchic journey to consciousness.Filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos and his star, Emma Stone, have a good and strange thing going whether she’s playing a striving scullery maid who works her way into the favor of Queen Anne, or a re-animated Victorian woman finding independence. Stone helps make his black humor more accessible, and he creates unorthodox opportunities for her to play and stretch. We, the audience, are the benefactors.“Poor Things” was not a whole cloth invention. It is an adaptation of Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel, done by “The Favourite” screenwriter Tony McNamara w...

Granderson: American culture around aging men needs to change

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 17:47:39 GMT

America is getting older.That was the snapshot given earlier this year by the U.S. Census Bureau. Our median age is about 40 and rising. In a third of the states, it’s already higher.Remember that, while also considering this: America’s suicide rate in 2022 was the highest seen since 1941 — the tail end of the Great Depression.The nation’s suicide rate has steadily climbed since the turn of the century. A few years ago research that included these “deaths of despair” was recognized with a Nobel. The numbers are out there to diagnose the problem. But it’s much harder to treat.Here’s what the data show: “Rising rates of suicide among people 35 or older.” Men are about four times more likely to kill themselves than women are. The gap in life expectancy between men and women is increasing, and suicide has more to do with that widening gap than heart disease or homicides do.There is something within American men’s culture ...

Mike Krukow: If SF Giants don’t acquire a star player this offseason, ‘I’ll quit the show’

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 17:47:39 GMT

The tension is building for the San Francisco Giants to make a star-sized splash this offseason.A few days after new manager Bob Melvin said the Giants are “players at the top of the market” and San Francisco is a “star-power town,” Giants color commentator Mike Krukow doubled down on his prediction that the club will make a huge addition this winter.“In the last two years they really weren’t a team that could go out and support a super-duper star,” Krukow said on KNBR on Thursday. “Now they are. And I think they’re going to get one this year.”Just what constitutes a “super-duper star” is up for debate.It’s no secret the Giants need a middle-of-the-order bat to upgrade an offense that ranked second-to-last in the National League while scoring just 4.2 runs per game during the 2023 season.During Melvin’s introductory press conference, he said that president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi “realizes there probably needs to be some stability in the middle of the order here.”But who...

Pleasant Hill neighborhood shelter-in-place lifted after shooting

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 17:47:39 GMT

(KRON) -- Pleasant Hill police said they have lifted a shelter-in-place order for residents of the city's Sherman Acres neighborhood early Friday morning. An alert was sent out by police at 7:33 p.m. Roadways in the area are now open to pedestrian and vehicle traffic, the Pleasant Hill Police Department said in an advisory shortly after 1:30 a.m.Monument Boulevard, which is near the neighborhood, was earlier closed in both directions.The Pleasant Hill Police Department said a domestic disturbance was reported at about 7 p.m. Police said in an earlier statement that a man barricaded inside a house in the 200 block of Cleopatra Drive after he allegedly shot and wounded his wife Thursday evening.A male suspect, who is believed to have a weapon, is barricaded inside a house. A SWAT team and negotiators were at the scene. All inbound and outbound traffic from the Sherman Acres neighborhood is closed, police said. Monument Boulevard near the city limits is closed as well. Bay City News co...

Danville police giving out free Christmas tree ornaments

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 17:47:39 GMT

(KRON) -- The Danville Police Department is giving away free Christmas tree ornaments. The ornaments are being given out at the Danville Police Department, located at 510 La Gonda Way. They are being given out on a first-come, first-serve basis while supplies last. Palisades Tahoe gets 15 inches of snow overnight You can get tree ornaments between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. between Monday and Thursday. On Fridays, hours are between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. Danville is just north of Livermore, which was recently named one of the California towns with the most "holiday spirit." The Lights of Livermore Holiday Tour begins Friday and goes through Dec. 23.

Jon Rahm is leaving for LIV Golf. Here’s what it means for LIV and the PGA Tour

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 17:47:39 GMT

Jon Rahm has been saying that he plays golf for history and for legacy, not for money. And now he’s playing for the Saudi-funded LIV Golf League in a shocking departure from the PGA Tour.A week of speculation on social media ended with Rahm in a jacket — not the green jacket he won at the Masters this year but a black letterman’s jacket with LIV Golf across the front — as he discussed reasons for bolting during an appearance on Fox News.“I think the innovation and the vision of LIV Golf is what pushed me over to at least give it a chance and hear the pitch,” Rahm said in an interview with LIV broadcaster David Feherty. “Ultimately, it ended up being what I wanted to hear.”How much? Rahm wasn’t sharing details, but it’s a lot. Various reports put it in the neighborhood of $500 million, which includes equity in his new team. Consider the entire prize fund on the PGA Tour in 2023 was about $460 million.This creates as many questions as answers, from who Rahm bri...

Breast cancer survivors may not need so many mammograms after surgery, UK study suggests

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 17:47:39 GMT

Annual mammograms are recommended indefinitely for breast cancer survivors in many countries, including the U.S., but a large British study finds that less frequent screening is just as good.Yearly screening is meant to monitor whether cancer has come back. All that testing causes anxiety for patients and costs money.Until now, there wasn’t solid evidence for when women could ease back on yearly mammograms, said Janet Dunn of the University of Warwick, who led the study funded by the research arm of the U.K.’s National Health Service.The study showed less frequent mammograms are just as good as a yearly schedule for breast cancer survivors 50 and older.“It’s really all about giving the ladies the all-clear a bit earlier if you can,” Dunn said. The findings were being discussed Friday at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. The unpublished study has not yet gone through a full peer review.Researchers followed more than 5,200 women. The participants were 50 and older, and had unde...

Woman struck and killed on Beltway Outer Loop near Joint Base Andrews

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 17:47:39 GMT

A woman was struck and killed early Friday morning in Camp Springs, Maryland.Maryland State Police said it happened around 3 a.m. on the Outer Loop of the Capital Beltway near Allentown Road. The driver of the striking vehicle remained on the scene.That area of the Beltway was shut down some time before 4 a.m. It reopened just after 8 a.m.WTOP Traffic reported that traffic on the Outer Loop was being diverted to Allentown Road near Joint Base Andrews. Drivers should expect major delays from the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.Police are investigating what caused the crash.Listen to the latest traffic updates online.Below is a map where the incident took place: Stick with WTOP for the latest updates.Source

Danish EU commissioner pulls out of the race for the top job at the European Investment Bank

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 17:47:39 GMT

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The European Union’s powerful antitrust chief has withdrawn as a candidate for the presidency of the European Investment Bank, the Danish government said Friday after EU finance ministers gave their support to someone else.Margrethe Vestager, who took unpaid leave in September to pursue the bank job, plans to return to her role at the EU’s executive commission for a few months, the government in Copenhagen said. The new president of the EIB, the 27-nation bloc’s development bank, is set to begin a six-year term on Jan. 1.“Out of respect for the further process, the government, together with Margrethe Vestager, has decided to withdraw the Danish candidature,” Denmark’s government said. EU finance ministers agreed Friday to back Spain’s economy minister, Nadia Calviño, becoming the bank’s next president. Calviño, 55, said that under her leadership, the bank “will have an even more important role going forward to fund the green transit...

Not guilty: Mother of man killed in DC police chase acquitted of assaulting US marshal in court

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 17:47:39 GMT

The mother of Karon Hylton-Brown — the 20-year-old father who was killed in a 2020 crash while being chased by D.C. police — has been found not guilty of assaulting a U.S. marshal in a federal courtroom.Karen Hylton was in arrested in May 2023, immediately after two D.C. police officers were convicted in the death of her son. Shortly after the verdict, Hylton yelled at, cursed at, and physically struggled with marshals.Thursday, after a two-day trial, a jury found Hylton not guilty of assaulting a federal law enforcement officer. The federal violation carries a maximum eight-year prison sentence.In May, Terence Sutton was found guilty of second-degree murder, conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of justice. Lt. Andrew Zabavsky was found guilty of conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of justice in the death of Karon Hylton-Brown.Hylton-Brown was riding a rental scooter with no helmet on a sidewalk — both traffic violations — in the 400 block of Kennedy Street in N...