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‘Poor Things’ an audacious Venice film fest surprise

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:21:38 GMT

LIDO, Venice, Italy – Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things”, which received its world premiere Friday, is easily destined to be the 80th Venice Film Festival’s most audacious, surprising and unabashedly sexual entry.A spectacular stew, a vivid mix of Frankenstein riff, sly sex comedy and feminist revenge tale, “Poor Things” is striking for its frequent, unabashed full-out nudity as it traces the evolution of Emma Stone’s Bella, a science experiment in late 19th century London who leaves home to seek adventure and a sense of self.“Weird isn’t it,” Lanthimos wondered at a pre-screening press conference. “Why is there no sex in movies?” The nudity and graphic sexual situations, he said, “are first of all an intrinsic part of her feelings about everything, including sexuality. It was important to me to make a film that wasn’t prude. We had to be confident like the character and have no shame — and Emma had to have no shame about her body, nudity, doing those scenes. She understood...

Check out – and into – the Top 5 pet-friendly hotel chains in the U.S.

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:21:38 GMT

As a pet parent, I know how distressing it is when heading out on a trip to have to leave your furry, four-legged family members behind. It can cause you to wonder whether you actually want to go on a vacation at all. And, of course, the pain and anxiety of that separation goes both ways, with pets often getting anxious, depressed or developing behavioral issues while their owners are away.Fortunately, hotel chains are steadily embracing the reality that travelers want to have their pets with them on their trips. And, rather than lose business to Airbnb or other vacation rentals that might offer more animal-inclusive offerings, more hotel brands are taking their “pet-friendly” approach from simply allowing pets in guest rooms to really rolling out the red carpet for their four-legged guests.Of course, it’s always important to do your research and double-check the pet policies of the property where you intend to stay, as individual properties may have their own rules, separate from t...

TV Q&A: When will HBO return to ‘Gilded Age?’

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:21:38 GMT

You have questions, I have some answers.Q: When will “The Gilded Age” begin again?A: I have mentioned before that the acclaimed HBO drama will have a second season. But I can now also mention an air date: Oct. 29. Among the new season’s stories: Bertha still challenging the social system, Marian seeking her way in the world, Ada in a new courtship and Peggy tapping into her activist side. All of which makes for a very busy eight episodes.Q: I seem to remember, from my younger days, two comedy shows. The first one starred Patty Duke and Richard Crenna, and the second one had Tom Poston as a clown in an apartment closet. Do you recall the names of these two sitcoms and if there is any DVD availability?A: Crenna and Duke (then billed as Patty Duke Astin) starred in “It Takes Two,” which aired on ABC in 1982-83. They played a married couple where he was a surgeon and she was an assistant D.A. It’s also worth noting that their children were played by Helen Hunt and Anthony Edwards, both ...

Dear Abby: Truth of daughter’s disappearance shocks dad

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:21:38 GMT

Dear Abby: I lost 15 years of my daughter’s life when her mother left the state we were living in without my knowledge. We had a boy and girl during our 15 years of marriage and had agreed to joint custody. We weren’t supposed to move more than 50 miles from each other so the kids would be close to both of us.Once my daughter turned 10, I didn’t see her again until she was 25. When I finally located her, I realized they had moved down South. When we reunited, I learned that some of my relatives knew where my daughter was, and said nothing.I recently went through a bout with cancer. Because my son thought I was going to die, he decided to clear his conscience. He admitted that at age 13, he told my ex to go ahead and leave the state so I couldn’t have a relationship with my daughter. I love both my kids equally, but now I feel betrayed by my son. Any suggestions? — Sad Dad in the MidwestDear Dad: So your spouse used advice from her 13-year-old son to tak...

India’s moon rover completes its walk, scientists analyzing data looking for signs of frozen water.

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:21:38 GMT

NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s moon rover has completed its walk on the lunar surface and been put into sleep mode less than two weeks after its historic landing near the lunar south pole, India’s space mission said.“The rover completes its assignments. It is now safely parked and set into sleep mode,” with daylight on that part of the moon coming to an end, the Indian Space Research Organization said in a statement late Saturday.The rover’s payloads are turned off and the data it collected has been transmitted to the Earth via the lander, the statement said.The Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover were expected to operate only for one lunar day, which is equal to 14 days on Earth.“Currently, the battery is fully charged. The solar panel is oriented to receive the light at the next sunrise expected on September 22, 2023. The receiver is kept on. Hoping for a successful awakening for another set of assignments!” the statement said.There was no word on the outcome of the rover s...

Lotto 649 winning numbers for Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:21:38 GMT

TORONTO — The winning numbers in Saturday’s Lotto 649 draw for an estimated $5 million: 12, 13, 30, 33, 35 & 43.Bonus: 17The winning number for the guaranteed $1 million: 13937616-01In the event of any discrepancy between this list and the official winning numbers, the latter shall prevail. The Canadian Press

Founding father Gen. Anthony Wayne’s legacy is getting a second look at Ohio’s Wayne National Forest

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:21:38 GMT

NELSONVILLE, Ohio (AP) — Some 40 Native American tribes have ancestral ties to Wayne National Forest, a quarter-million acres spread across portions of Appalachian southeastern Ohio. Their citizens have never stopped helping the U.S. Forest Service manage this expanse of forested hills, hollows, streams and lakes — even as the name recalls a violent past. Now, a vigorous debate is underway over a Forest Service proposal to replace the name of Gen. Anthony Wayne, a founding father who Americans of an earlier era celebrated as an “Indian fighter,” with something more neutral: Buckeye National Forest, after the state tree. Forest Manager Lee Stewart said tribes had been asking for a name change for decades, but their request was formalized last year as part of a sweeping review of derogatory place names undertaken by the Biden administration. Since 2021, the names of about 650 places and geographic features across the country have been renamed, with involvement by the same federa...

Aspiring Taiwan presidential candidate Terry Gou resigns from board of Apple supplier Foxconn

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:21:38 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Aspiring Taiwanese independent presidential candidate Terry Gou has resigned from the board of Foxconn, the Apple supplier he founded nearly a half-century ago. The company, officially registered as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., issued a news release late Saturday saying Gou, its former chair, had resigned for personal reasons.It wasn’t clear what, if any, immediate effect Gou’s decision would have on the operations of Foxconn, ranked 20th in the 2023 Fortune Global 500 and considered one of the world’s largest technology companies. It is headquartered in Taiwan, but does the vast majority of its manufacturing in China, where it employs hundreds of thousands making iPhones in vast factory-dormitory complexes that have sometimes seen frictions between workers and management over employment conditions.Guo announced Aug. 28 he would run as an independent candidate in Taiwan’s presidential election, ending months of speculation.At a news conference, Go...

AI project imagines adult faces of children who disappeared during Argentina’s military dictatorship

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:21:38 GMT

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — If a baby was taken from their parents four decades ago during Argentina’s military dictatorship, what would that person look like today?Argentine publicist Santiago Barros has been trying to answer that question using artificial intelligence to create images of what the children of parents who disappeared during the dictatorship might look like as adults.Almost every day, Barros uploads these images to an Instagram account called iabuelas, which is a portmanteau in Spanish for artificial intelligence, or IA, and grandmother, or abuela — taken from the well-known activist group Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo that searches for missing children.“We have seen the photos of most of the disappeared, but we don’t have photos of their children, of those children who were stolen,” Barros told The Associated Press. “It struck me that these people did not have a face.”During Argentina’s bloody dictatorship from 1976 to 1983, military offic...

Tribe getting piece of Minnesota back more than a century after ancestors died there

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:21:38 GMT

GRANITE FALLS, Minn. (AP) — Golden prairies and winding rivers of a Minnesota state park also hold the secret burial sites of Dakota people who died as the United States failed to fulfill treaties with Native Americans more than a century ago. Now their descendants are getting the land back.The state is taking the rare step of transferring the park with a fraught history back to a Dakota tribe, trying to make amends for events that led to a war and the largest mass hanging in U.S. history.“It’s a place of holocaust. Our people starved to death there,” said Kevin Jensvold, chairman of the Upper Sioux Community, a small tribe with about 550 members just outside the park.The Upper Sioux Agency State Park in southwestern Minnesota spans a little more than 2 square miles (about 5 square kilometers) and includes the ruins of a federal complex where officers withheld supplies from Dakota people, leading to starvation and deaths.Decades of tension exploded into the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 b...