May 06, 2020 11:30am PT by Jean Bentley

Pari Dukovic/FX

The star discusses her role in the star-studded FX on Hulu miniseries.

Mrs. America chronicles the movement to pass the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s and the conservative backlash led by Phyllis Schlafly (Cate Blanchett). But before Schlafly's involvement, there was almost unanimous bipartisan support for the legislation. Jill Ruckelshaus, played by Elizabeth Banks, is the real-life socially progressive Republican who worked to pass the ERA from the right side of the aisle.

Playing Ruckelshaus, who was appointed to a special women's rights commission by President Ford and who co-founded the National Women's Political Caucus with feminist leaders like Bella Abzug, Shirley Chisholm, Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem, was a reminder that American politics were not always as divided as they are today.

"For me, playing Jill was a great reminder that bipartisanship was the way of the world for so long in American politics and it's only very recently that we've become as fractured and divisive as we have been," Banks tells The Hollywood Reporter. "That's partly due to the work of Phyllis Schlafly. It was really interesting to think about [the fact] thatI was alive in the '70s. The first president of my childhood that I really remember was Ronald Reagan, and he was a Republican. So for me in Massachusetts where I grew up, which is a very blue, very democratic place we're the birthplace of the Kennedys we were very blue and true, and yet everybody seemed to really like Ronald Reagan a lot of the time."

Banks discusses working with other powerful women, why men need to watch the series and what she's taken from Mrs. America for her next projects. New episodes of Mrs. America debut Wednesdays on FX on Hulu.

Jill Ruckelshaus is not someone who is always remembered in the same context as her liberal counterparts.

I thought it was very interesting to remind everyone that there are so many issues that are not controversial in the larger electorate of America. For instance, most Americans by a big majority agree on background checks for all gun sales. That's an easy one. And yet there is a small group of elected officials with a large megaphone and the backing of the NRA and others who would make it seem like somehow that's a controversial issue. It's not actually controversial in the larger electorate.

I think that women's rights fall into that as well. You know, Roe v. Wade being the law of the land, something like between 80 and 90 percent of people in America think Roe v. Wade should be the law of the land that abortion should remain safe and legal. And that's not really that controversial. And yet we hear every day about these wedge issues. So I find it really fascinating that I was able to play someone who reminded people that the Republican Party in particular at this moment in time is not the Republican Party that existed for most of American history. That there was a lot more bipartisanship, there was a lot more hands across the aisle, a lot of working together that was done, and that compromise and gray area is actually where politics lives. Things are not black and white in people's everyday lives, especially in a country as big as America.

What are some things you learned about Jill or that you admired about her that you came across in your research?

One of the things I admired the most about Jill was her relationship with Bill and her very longstanding, loving, supportive relationship with her husband. They stayed married a very long time. I was able to look at a video of them giving a couple joint interviews over the years, and you just feel the respect that the two of them had for each other, the mutual respect that they had. And you know that in a time, in the '70s and in the '60s when they were also you have to remember all these people grew up in the '50s and '60s so they grew up in a time when women did not work. Women stayed home and made dinners. This revolution really was born in the kitchens of these women's lives because women started going into the workforce more and more and more after World War II. And so I find it fascinating that this was a woman who was juggling her own personal ambition and that of her husband, and that her husband made room for her in their household to have a really interesting and rich life outside of the home. That was not necessarily the norm for married women in America at that time.

She's still alive, right?

Jill is still alive, yes. Her husband passed away very recently, but Jill is still alive.

Has she spoken out about the show at all?

Not that I am aware of. But any time you play a real person for me at least, this isn't the first time I've done so my hope in my heart is that they feel honored in some way, in whatever way, that they feel proud and honored that their story was told.

The show is very immersive in the era, but it's also not necessarily a respite from the real world when it's clear that people are still fighting the same battles for the same rights.

We felt that way when we were making it as well. "You've come a long way baby" I think it's true in some respects and this show really shines a light on really where we are still failing so many women in America and around the world, honestly. We are half the population and we are up against quite a lot of historical patriarchy and misogyny. We thought that we could win these battles quickly and it turns out that we cannot.

The sheer amount of powerful women interacting with other powerful women onscreen is really striking. Do any particular moments from set stand out to you?

Well, obviously I get to go toe-to-toe with Cate Blanchett, which was a dream as an actor. It's so fun. It's why I really want to be part of this series too. She's such an actor magnet. But at the same time, every single character is played by one of my favorite actresses. So it across the board is one of those all-time great casts of actors and they just all happen to be some my favorite women. I think what you say about women working together onscreen, it's so rare. Actually, I did a lot of research when I was putting together Charlie's Angels, and outside of romantic comedy it's really rare to have scene where only women around the table working to do something that isn't, like, at a magazine talking about how to get an article about a boy written or something. You see teenage girls in YA-type material doing things like that, but grown-ass women in the working world, to see a group around a table working, it's actually really rare in the media. That was one of the more exciting things about making this project for me.

It's true you rarely see that many powerful actresses together outside of, like, an awards season roundtable, right?

We have to invite everybody to the party because it is not a problem that women created, although a lot of women participate in the patriarchy, which is one of the themes of this show. For me, it really is about that. It's about we all have to be aware of what's going on because we can't change it if we don't acknowledge it. One of the things that's so interesting to me about Jill, and Phyllis in the show, and something that Dahvi [Waller, showrunner] and Laure [de Clermont-Tonnerre], the director on this episode who's incredible, and I [discussed], it was the parallels of their lives. They're both long-term married mothers of multiple children. They're around the same age. They both work outside the home unofficially. Jill used to say, "Yeah, I am the head of this commission, but I'm not getting paid." They both unofficially do a lot of work outside the home, and yet only one of them is aware that they are both up against the same enemy, which is the patriarchy. That lack of awareness, that lack of self-awareness especially, I think really has damaged equality and equal rights for all people. It's just about getting outside of your comfort zone, shaking loose of your experience, and understanding that there are a multitude of experiences here and that our system is meant to be more just and more inclusive. It's what is promised in our Constitution.

And this is touched on more in the Shirley Chisholm episode, but the same way that white women have to work within the patriarchy, it's even worse for the black women who have to work within the patriarchy and white supremacy.

I have a lot of sympathy for everybody who's learning, who's willing to be constantly learning. Because how we're raised and what our life experiences [are], it only gets broader and bigger with time and intention. And so I do think that there are well-intentioned people who still just don't know what the hell is going on. And then there are people who just don't care. But I do think if you are a well-intentioned person and you're interested in understanding someone else's perspective, you're going to have a better time in the world. You're certainly going to be more open to more people, which I do think enriches our lives.

What has the reaction been so far from audiences?

I'm not that focused on it. Personally, I'm very protective of the project and protective of the subject matter, which is intense for some people and elicits a lot of catalysts that I've noticed in the past whenever I speak out about women's issues, it can elicit a lot of negativity and backlash. So I sort of protect myself from a lot of the information. I can feel that people are really liking it. My friends are telling me they like it. My mom loves the show. I'm really only paying attention to the people that are closest to me. I can tell that not enough men for my liking are watching the show.

I guess that's to be expected.

I don't know why! I watched every male-dominated thing with a bunch of dudes that features a bunch of guys. No one's like, "Hmm, I can't believe you wanted to watch that." We're all watching that. We're all watching The Last Dance.

Is there anything that you took from this experience that you've put into your own work that you're either developing or directing or writing or acting in the future?

This all goes hand in hand with my heart. I've been trying to work on things with ensembles of women since the first Pitch Perfect movie, and even before that in my own work and just promoting great female characters with agency. It's exciting to be to be doing that in my work and collaborating with really interesting women. I love that. It's not like a big agenda. I mean, it's more interesting because those characters are more interesting. And the older I get, and the more experienced I am as an actor, I'm looking for things that have a lot of depth and agency where I get to go work with interesting people. These are the things that keep coming into my view.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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Elizabeth Banks on Bipartisanship and Why More Men Need to Watch 'Mrs. America' - Hollywood Reporter

CALGARY -- Research shows as many as one-third of first responders paramedics, police officers and firefighters will experience post-traumatic stress as a result of performing their job duties. And for various reasons, many don't seek out professional help.

A team of researchers at the University of Calgary is now working to change that by developing family-based supports

"There are a number of reasons these men and women may not seek out assistance perceived social stigma, workplace culture, or fear of a reduction in work responsibilities or job loss, among them," said Dr. Kelly Schwartz, principal investigator associate professor at the Werklund School of Education.

"We know that (public safety personnel) members actually prefer to seek out informal support from spouses over more formal avenues of support."

During conversations with first responders and their families while developing the study, researchers realized most existing mental health programs don't involve relatives, so they decided to do something about that.

Schwartzs team is now enlisting first responders for an eight-week, Before Operational Stress (BOS) program.

Designed for first responders BOS is a group-based, proactive psychological intervention program designed to increase self-awareness and encourage authentic, healthy relationships.

"We hypothesize that (first responders) who participate in BOS will demonstrate improved psychosocial and physiological functioning, as will family members who participate," said Schwartz.

"In six and 12-month follow-ups, we hope to see evidence of (first responder) members experiencing greater physical and relational health and less mental health problems.

The study was developed before the COVID-19 pandemic, but Schwartz says it now has added relevance as first responders are experiencing added stress of dealing with potentially infected people.

"It is increasingly likely that the second wave of the pandemic may not be physical illness but rather the impact on first responders mental health. The operational stress will inevitably be carried by the first responder into the home," said Schwartz.

"Our intervention will hopefully strengthen the resiliency of the first responder through these family members so that they can continue to serve in their important public safety occupation."

The researchers will be recruiting firefighters, paramedics and police officers and their families in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario for the study.

To participate, PSP members must currently be employed full-time (including volunteer firefighters), not currently be on sick or disability leave, have been employed for 12 months or more, and have a family member (spouse/partner or youth between 11 and 17 years of age) who lives with them.

Additional details can be found online.

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University of Calgary study aims to improve first responders' mental health - CTV News

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Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46dT8P5DkKM

If you keep an eye on the technology press, youll know that we are in the middle of a robot revolution. Advances in artificial intelligence have unleashed a wave of automation thats going to transform the way you live and work particularly if your boss is starting to look at you taking a coffee break and thinking, If only they were a little more machine. So far, so futurey. In centuries to come, however, when a cyborg historian casts his LED eye back at this inflection point in human existence, he will surely find it a source of some amusement that the reason mankind first welcomed robots into their daily lives ultimately leading to the spread of robots across the earth, self-awareness, the Great Insurrection and thermonuclear war was because they didnt fancy doing the hoovering.

In fairness, though, doing the hoovering is a drag.

Thats why for the past two weeks, GQ has been living with a hoover-bot. Its not self-aware (yet) but it is smart. The Dyson 360 Heurist is the companys next iteration of its lauded Dyson 360 Eye. Like the original, it trundles around your house on tank tracks using a top-mounted camera and sensors to navigate obstacles and avoid falling downstairs and, apart from the new colourway, it looks similar too. But it comes with a multitude of upgrades. That camera now has twice the aperture and is improved by a set of LEDs that illuminate the path ahead if required anyone who tried the first model will be aware that low-light conditions pose a challenge. It also has 20 times more memory, which is vital for its navigational strategy, SLAM, which stands for simultaneous localisation and mapping. This involves taking readings from its sensors every 20 milliseconds to make sure it hasnt missed a bit of carpet or is about to knock over a vase. Arguably the most important thing is how well it cleans. The companys gamble when it first got into this space was that there were other robot vacuums out there, but none that offered Dyson-level cleaning. This new model really sucks (in a good way). The new V2 motor spins at 78,000rpm to vacuum 20 per cent harder.

The most interesting difference, however, is implied by the new suffix: Heurist. Its a reference to its ability to learn. With a quad-core processor and 10GB of memory, its able to become an ever-more conscientious house slave. It remembers previous maps that it has made of your property and uses these to build a fuller and fuller picture of what it needs to clean. This also means that finally! you can set it to clean specific rooms or zones. So if you want it to only clean the kitchen, or even just avoid an area thats full of cables or obstacles that could cause it to get stuck, you just have to say so on the app. Thats a major advance.

Our experience with the bot left us impressed. It cleans effectively, the zoning is a welcome new feature and its ability to detect obstacles and avoid stairs is sufficiently reliable that you dont feel the need to watch over it. Its still not perfect, though. There are always bits of fluff and dirt that it doesnt quite get due to its shape, and its height means it cant get under low chairs and coffee tables. It also has a habit of getting stuck if it moves itself onto an awkward surface or chews up a mat. Sure, you could create zones to avoid this, but the fear that you have left something out that might cause it problems means that you wont want to switch it on if you arent on the premises. Our view? Overall this is a robot that will help keep your property in good shape between your main weekly hoovering sessions but it wont replace those sessions altogether.

In the future, the obvious area for improvement is a better battery. This is an industry-wide challenge, not one that is peculiar to Dyson, but it means that this robot takes a long time to give your floors a really thorough clean as it will likely have to return to its charging base halfway through the job. That said, its this very moment when it independently wheels itself out of one room, down the hallway, into another and docks with its charger that it seems most like it has a mind of its own. Theres almost something quite cute about it.

But remember, this is how it begins

799.99. dyson.co.uk

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Dyson's 360 Heurist robot vacuum will clean your home and may bring about the end of humanity - British GQ

Dispatches from Elsewhere S1E10 The Boy is nothing if not risky. Last weeks episode ended with Peter, Simone, Janice, and Fredwynn following Clown Boy to discover whether Lee/Clara had redeemed herself through the game, so one might expect the finale to pick up with that question.

Instead, the first quarter of the hour is completely about Clown Boy. There is a direct connection to the previous episode, to be sure, and I have noted the significance of this character and the questions around him for some time, but its hard not to wonder when we will get back to the story of our four friends. And the answer isnever.

Instead, after we see Clown Boys rise to fame and his exploitation at the hands of one Octavio Coleman, Esq (not that one), Dispatches from Elsewhere S1E10 jumps to Jason Segel at an AA meeting. And this is not Peter, its Jasonwe get that right away. Its Jason Segel as Jason Segel, of course, and not straightforwardly Jason Segel. Eve Lindley is still Simone, Sally Field is still Janice, and I presume that Andre Benjamin is still Fredwynn, if were talking about their names. But even they arent the same characters, and the story is no longer the same story.

This is a bold move, and I have to say that it rubbed me wrong on my first viewing. I wanted a continuation, and resolution, of the story that Dispatches from Elsewhere has offered us over the course of the season, not to exit that story and start feeling like everything had just been in a snowglobe.

But of course, Dispatches from Elsewhere has portrayed a self-awareness of itself as an entertainment from the very beginning, so this meta move here at the end perhaps should not have been as surprising to me as it was. And when I watched the episode for a second time, I started to think that it was brilliant.

Im reminded of the experience of watching Part 18 of Twin Peaks: The Return. I liked it the first time, but it was off-putting. And I certainly know people who hated it, continue to hate it, and refuse to take my advice to watch it again and take it on its own terms. Dispatches from Elsewhere S1E10 feels like that to me now. Im going to be saying the same thing to people about it: do your best to take it on its own terms.

If you can manage it, there is something beautiful here. Clown Boy is central to Dispatches of Elsewhere because he is Jason Segel, the creator of Dispatches from Elsewhere, and S1E10 gives us the story of that creation.

Segel puts himself on the line. While it is clear that the Jason in this episode is a fictional version of himself, the show makes a point of referencing actual things in his career like the Dracula musical from Forgetting Sarah Marshall (where he also plays a character named Peter, by the way). And when Clown Boy chastises him for not letting his freak flag fly after that, and as moves to leave, he says hell be back if Jason ever wants to make another Muppets movie.

The point of that conversation is that he needs to grow up and stop being the clown. He needs to stop thinking of himself as a victim and recognize how his own decisions and selfishness have brought him to where he is. Hes been a drunk. Now hes sober, but doesnt know what to do next. As he says in AA, in the past he would have tried to make people laugh to make them like him, but now he doesnt much care if they like him, as he doesnt like himself. But he doesnt know what to do with himself.

Simone approaches him after the meeting and they go to the barn where she creates things. She asks him to make a list of things he likes, and all he comes up with is spooky and suprising. So she gives him a postcard and he starts off on an adventure that starts to pull in some things that at least resonate with what we have seen in Dispatches from Elsewhere up to this point: the Jejune suite at the hotel, references to Divine Nonchalance, a sasquatch and a yeti dancing, a token, a milkman, and strange signs to lead him on his way.

This all ultimately takes him to a rooftop where there is a Dispatches from Elsewhere arcade game (this is what the token is for). Its a strange game. A monster keeps eating his character until he realizes that the right move is to just fall into the lava. Then he gets a series of questions that get to his existential despair: Did you have a view of your future?; Did you let it slip away?; Are you staring into the void?; Are you afraid?; The only thing we need to know at any given time is?

He answers Yes to the first four. The last one has two options that say the same thing (What to do next) and this causes Jason to walk away. I wonder if it would have mattered if he had chosen one option over the other, or what others have done in this same situation. It is reminiscent of Buridans Assthe paradox of whether a donkey would be able to choose between two completely equivalent stacks of hay. Of course it would, but Jason is unable to choose here. Instead he walks away from the arcade game and is confronted by Janice.

She asks him what he is best at, and then tells him to put that together with the question above. So he sets out to write Dispatches from Elsewhere, which is the entertainment we have been watching.

And it would appear that includes this last episode we have been watching, as Janice calls out the way in which she thought the show was about community but the final episode just focused on Segels character.

Thats not the end, though, as Jason Segel turns to the camera and calls out all of those who have worked on the show as they enter the frame behind our four leads. Then we cut to Octavio (Richard E. Grant) for a closing narration, which includes a number or ordinary people saying their names and that I am you.

Octavio takes some water from a fish tank into a glass, notes that the water inside the glass is the same as that in the tank, but then that so too is the substance which contains the water the same. There is no You, and there is no Me; there is only We.

Is this cheesy, or inspiring? Ive viewed it both ways now. Last night I was groaning and bemoaning how Dispatches from Elsewhere had so thoroughly left its narrative frame, left its intrigue behind, and entered into this space of schmaltz. But today when I watched it again, I was tearing up a bit.

Dispatches from Elsewhere is about community, and it has been clear from the get-go that the import of the show was supposed to extend beyond the characters within the story and out to all of us. It is perhaps appropriate, then, that those lines blur or fold in on themselves at the end of the day.

Dispatches from Elsewhere becomes not just a story about people playing the game of the Jejune Institute, but one about Jason Segel creating the story that we have been watching.

I dont know just how biographical this story is, but it does seem the Segel has struggled with alcohol, and the references to his own life that occur in The Boy make this all feel deeply personal. I may have wanted the action to pick up where it left off in S1E9, and I may have been disappointed by what this finale did to the plot, but thematically it really is sort of brilliant.

Go back to the end of The Creatorwe learned that Lee was Clara and that she had made the game in an attempt to redeem herself for how she had betrayed herself. This is Jason, betraying the younger version of himself embodied by Clown Boy. Thats why its up to him. And the project is not the game, but the very show we have been watching, which Segel has created as an attempt to rediscover the self that he had lost through years of drinking. Has he redeemed himself in the eyes of that boy through what he has done? Well, its a start.

Whether I am talking about the real Jason Segel or the fictional one there, I do not know. I suppose the lines blur, as they have about questions of reality throughout Dispatches from Elsewhere. And at the end, the show attempts to break that barrier altogether. Segel talks to the camera. We have all of these voices and faces from the real world blended in to Octavios closing monologue. It becomes clear that the point of Dispatches from Elsewhere is about empathy, and community.

Octavio tells us that he lied in saying Peter is you, Simone is you, Janice is you, Fredwynn is you, etc. because only you are you. And yet its not a lie, because we are bound together by our human condition. And perhaps even beyond that, we are bound together by being.

The idea that there is no I or You, but only We, is a radical one. It flies in the face of the kind of individualism that has defined modernity, and capitalism in particular. This message from Dispatches from Elsewhere S1E10 lands at an interesting timeone they could not have predictedas we all quarantine ourselves while certain idiots pop off about their individual freedom.

Its not about you; its about us. Its about all of us. As much as I get that feeling of constraint and that value placed on personal liberty, the point in the pandemic is precisely that were all in this together. Its not about whether you or I are willing to risk things, but about the risk we expose others to.

There are dangers, of course, to this kind of communal vision. I dont know if Dispatches from Elsewhere quite grapples with those, but it does gesture at how individuality and community can come into some tension to some degree. Regardless, this is not Hegel. The show doesnt need to resolve the deep problems of modernity.

I think it moves in the right direction by emphasizing community and empathy in a world that can seem to be more and more defined through individualism and self-interest. Its a breath of fresh air. I hope youve enjoyed it as much as I have, and if this finale rubbed you wrong I truly do encourage you to watch it again and do your best to take it on its own terms.

A recondite family awaits.

I am Caemeron and I am you.

The rest is here:
Dispatches from Elsewhere S1E10: I Was Just The Boy Then; Now I'm Only a Man - 25YearsLaterSite.com

Trying to find content for social media teams hasn't been an easy thing. The New York Islanders have done a really good job with their Isles Daily Challenges for example and other brands are starting to do similar things.

The Barclays Center official account, @barclayscenter tweeted out a Barclays Center Bing. Some of the things were "took the subway to an event", "went to a Nets game", "saw your favorite college team play", etc.

You can go up and down this board, in all 24 spaces and not a single time will you see anything Islanders related. No, I'm not making this up.

Are we surprised though? How many times has the Barclays Center hinted at them not wanting the Islanders to be there or completely botching something Islanders related.

At first, they tried to change the goal horns, only the championship banners were raised, and those awful black and white uniforms were launched to help "commemorate" the move to Brooklyn.

If you walked around the building you would think it was a neutral site facility, not an Islanders game. So now, after the Islanders played their final game in the building just a couple of months ago, they don't even get included on Barclays bingo board.

Who makes this stuff? Can't think of another team we hosted for half a decade, let's put in "ate Nathan's fries" that'll really get the people going.

You genuinely couldn't make this stuff up if you tried. The Barclays Center twitter account hasn't responded to the Islanders fans in the comments who found this lame excuse for a bingo board and I doubt they do.

At this point, all you can do is laugh at the lack of self-awareness.

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Islanders: Barclays Center Forgets Team Played There - Eyes On Isles

[Spoiler Alert: This recap contains spoilers from Westworld Season 3 Episode 7, "Passed Pawn."]

Westworldis a show that is really difficult to take seriously, even though it so desperately wants to be seen as cutting-edge, hard sci-fi. However, there are moments so goofy, so utterly preposterous, that all you can do is laugh. That wouldn't be such a problem if the show operated with a wink-and-a-nudge. And, to give it its due, therearebrief glimpses of self-awareness, but these are so fleeting they barely register. Instead,Westworldprefers a tone so morose and self-important that it only serves to highlight the absurdity.

Take this episode, which sees Caleb (Aaron Paul) discovering the secrets of his past by way of a giant, sentient, light-up ball with a computerized French accent. This early prototype of the System, nicknamed Solomon, was based on the mind of its creator, Serac's (Vincent Cassell) schizophrenic older brother. "An insane AI, great," quips Caleb, in a rare moment of tongue-in-cheek humor. But that one line is about as far as the show goes in acknowledging the ridiculousness of the situation. Before you know it, Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) and Caleb are conversing with the ginormous glowing orb about determinism and pathways and strategies for revolution.

Aaron Paul's shoulders must be aching because he does his damnedest to carry this storyline on his back. He manages to extract emotion out of a situation that wouldn't have felt out of place in 1980sDoctor Who albeit with a much smaller budget and a far brighter color palette. Caleb learns that everything he thought he knew was a lie. His friend Francis (Kid Cudi) was never killed in wartime combat. In fact, both Caleb and Francis were discharged from the army and sent home, where they were taken to a lab in Mexico as guinea pigs in Serac's reconditioning experiment. They were reprogrammed as assassins for hire, manipulated through the RICO app to hunt down anyone that may be an outlier to the System's new world order.

This is all revealed in a series of scattered flashbacks as Caleb and Dolores take a tour of Serac's facility in Mexico the building conveniently turning on the lights to a new room when it's time to move the plot on. The pair come upon a warehouse of thousands of unconscious humans all the captured outliers kept in stasis, away from disrupting Serac's utopian vision for the world. The echoes to Westworld are apparent even before Dolores points it out directly. Humans are treated just like hosts. Those who disobey are locked up and hidden away. Others are transformed and manipulated into doing the bidding of an insane megalomaniac. The rest cluelessly follow their predetermined paths.

So, just as Dolores rose up to free her people and lead a revolution, now Caleb must do the same. He might only consider himself a lowly construction worker, but so what? As Dolores says, she was only meant to be a bit player, the kindly rancher's daughter. But she changed her destiny. Now Caleb needs to do the same and march his people into the future, a future determined by Solomon, the talking French spheroid. I'd be lying if I said I completely understood what was going on here. I thought Dolores's whole thing was about breaking free of predestined pathways? That's why she left Westworld. That's why she destroyed the System. So why is she so willing to follow the strategies of Solomon?

Regardless, the decision is left in Caleb's hands, and he almost walks away after discovering the ugly truth of his past. It was he who killed his best friend, Francis. A flashback reveals that a captured outlier spoke too much of the truth to Caleb and Francis, and so, the omnipresent System ordered that one of them had to die, to tie up loose ends. Both men were given the instruction to kill the other and a substantial monetary reward for carrying it out. Caleb really had no choice but to shoot his comrade in a kill-or-be-killed situation. Again, Paul does his best to draw emotion from this rather cold material, even though we have very little reason to care about Francis.

While all this is happening, Dolores steps outside to do battle with Maeve (Thandie Newton), who arrives in a black jumpsuit, carrying a katana on her back, looking like a beacon of badassery. The two women finally fight it out, and as always, it's another highly entertainingWestworldaction sequence. There are acrobatics and drone-controlled weapons and lots of brutal stabbing. Dolores even has half of her arm blown off. There's a similarly exciting fight scene at the start of the episode when Charbot (Tessa Thompson) orders a hit on the fake Musashi (Hiroyuki Sanada). He's taken out by a returning Clementine (Angela Sarafyan) and Hanaryo (Tao Okamoto), who I assume are both working for Maeve.

But as all the hosts begin to turn on each other, there is another man with a mission to destroy every last host remaining. The Man In Black (Ed Harris) faced his demons, and now he's woke. Even though Serac stole Delos out from under him, and he clearly falls on the System's outliers list, the Man In Black shares Serac's concerns. Dolores and the hosts are bad news, and he's never been able to block out his part in creating them. The "original sin" he calls it. "I helped build you and Dolores and the lot of you," he tells Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) and Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth). "So now I'm gonna wipe out every host from the face of this Earth."

The Man In Black continuously belittling Bernard and Stubbs is easily the best part of the episode. "Don't lecture me, you f***ing can opener," he snaps at Stubbs at one point, an insult so hilariously vitriolic it wouldn't have felt out of place inVeep. Bernard has been such a spare part this season, only used to stare at screens and hammer us over the head with monotonous exposition. "Serac thought his machine could save the world, but it couldn't save humans from themselves, so he began reprogramming them..." wait for it, "... like hosts." Thanks, Bernard, I would have never drawn that comparison without you. If it takes the MIB ridiculing Bernard to break up the dreariness and add a bit of levity to the show, I'm all for it.

So we head into next week's season finale with Dolores and Maeve at war, Caleb embarking on revolution, and the MIB returning to his host-killing roots. And after this week's talking French orb of wisdom, I'm praying the finale goes full balls-to-the-wall bonkers. I just hope that if it does, it will embrace its ridiculousness and stop taking itself so seriously.

Westworld, Sundays, 9/8c, HBO

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'Westworld' Reveals the Truth About Caleb's Past in Episode 7 (RECAP) - TVInsider

The Last Dance is a ten-part documentary from ESPN/Netflix that showcases the final run of the late 90s Bulls, one of the great franchises of modern sports history.

With outrageous access and interviews with just about everyone, these episodes have given us new light into a team that many of us grew up adoring, or, if you were a fan of a rival team, fearing.

We learned a lot on Sunday night, when episodes 3 and 4 aired on ESPN. Lets get to what we learned.

(Big caveat: I know most of this stuff was already known or reported on at the time. I get it. Very few documentaries truly bring to light new things, especially with teams this well covered. So lets just say these are things we were reminded ofand you can not tweet at me.)

Dennis Rodman was the star of Sunday night, and we broke down all his best moments already in great detail. What I was left with watching Sunday night was how seamlessly Rodman fit into that team, and how quick Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen were to embrace him because of his excellence.

Whether it was Rodman breaking down the extensive prep work he did to learn how different shooters would result in different types of rebounds, or other players marveling at his ability to defend five positions,

Look at Trae Young realizing that Michael Jordan won MVP, the scoring title, All-Star Game MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, and the Slam Dunk contest in the same year.

I remember how good Jordan was, but to put together a year like that while averaging 35 points a game on 53.5% shooting, as a guard, while leading the league in steals, I mean what? What?

I remember the Bulls needing to get over the hump of beating the Bad Boy Pistons in the late 80s, but it was definitely interesting to see how GM Jerry Krause had to basically rebuild the team with one opponent in mind.

When you have Michael Jordan, he can get you through 30 or so NBA teams, but to beat the absolute best, the Bulls had to acquire players who could match the physicality of the Pistons. They did it, and it started their run to greatness.

Again, we broke this down in the Rodman post, but I truly love that Dennis Rodman not only understood that he needed to take a break after helping Jordan carry the team during Pippens absence, but that Phil Jackson also understood it, and allowed it. (With Michael Jordans permission.)

With that one interaction, I understood Jackson, Rodman, and Jordan all differently. Rodman for his self-awareness, Jackson for his empathy and lenience, and Jordan for his empathy and not as much lenience.

Good lord Craig Ehlo took a beating on Sunday night, arguably worse than the one Jordan gave him however many years ago. Jordan said having Ehlo guard him was a mistake and Ehlos then Cavs teammate Ron Harper had an incredible reaction to the decision even all these years later.

Michael Jordan doing press scrums in every city he went to, talking to media members off-guardedly while getting taped up this justdoesntreally happen now. Teams are much more protective of players time, and the sort of interactions you see with Jordan, Rodman, Pippen in this documentary is stunning to see.

One of the stranger moments on Sunday night was when a Bulls employee went into a room with Michael Jordan and five or six guys in suits, and started introducing them as The Sniff Brothers, explaining that they had the name because they all sniffed [Jordans] jockstrap. They were his bodyguards, I guess? All of them?

I need to know more about these men. Someone tell me more about these men.

Read this article:
7 things we learned in episodes 3 and 4 of 'The Last Dance' - For The Win

Ann-Marie D'Arcy Sharpe 27 April 2020

Throughout my teenage years I really struggled with mental illness but, at the time, I had no idea what was going on. All I knew is that I was lost, confused, feeling out of control, and in emotional pain. For a long time I thought that I was "just a bad person".

In my mid-twenties I received my bipolar disorder diagnosis and finally got the help I needed.

Looking back, I understand that during my teenage years I had very few - if any - periods of mental stability. Ifell from the dizzying heights of hypomania down to soul crushing depression and back up again, over and over again. It was a truly horrendous, destabilising time in my life.

Now that I understand my disorder and I have more self-awareness, I can recognise clear signs of hypomania throughout my teenage years.

Acting out of character Most of the time I was hypomanic in my teenage years I can see that I was acting extremely out of character. I knew that at the time, sometimes even while it was happening, but I felt like I had no control over my behaviour at all. It was terrifying. I was saying and doing things that I would never have done if I was my usual self.

Risky behaviour Unfortunately, I engaged in a lot of risky behaviour in my teenage years during episodes of hypomania.

I was binge drinking a lot, I partied a lot, and because of this I was often around people I didnt really know, in situations that probably werent safe. I often walked home alone or ended up in places Id never been with no way to get home. Im incredibly lucky that nothing too awful happened as a result of these situations.

Hypersexuality As much as I am ashamed to say it, hypersexuality was one of the hypomanic symptoms I struggled with the most during my teenage years. Its one of the risky behaviours I engaged in, and it has been difficult to get past that.

Barely sleeping Coming home from parties or nights out during the early hours of the morning meant I barely slept when hypomanic.I was going to bed around 4am or 5am and even then, I was lucky if I slept for a couple of hours before I woke up again.

Many of these nights of not sleeping were the catalyst for me crashing back down into a deep depression.

I would suddenly come back down to earth' and be absolutely distraught at what I had done and the way I had been acting. Those depressions were some of the worst, and most dangerous, I have ever experienced in my life.

Restlessness I remember finding it really difficult to sit still or to engage inmy usual activities, like watching TV with my family or going for a nice day out. I always felt like I was being held down, like I needed to break free. I felt like I constantly needed to be doing something,which usually meant doing something risky, going out with friends, or going to a party.

As much as I tried to focus on education and various jobs, I found that I was entirely incapable of focusing on normal life. As hard as I tried, my mind would race ahead to other things that seemed far more important, even vital, at the time.

Spending money I didnt have I spent money I didnt have on silly things which seemed like the most important thing in the world at the time: a night out with friends, a whole host of new outfits, or a trip to visit a friend who lived far away.

Being irritable When my parents or friends couldnt keep up with how fast I was talking, or with the thoughts I was having, I became very frustrated and irritable.

When they didnt understand my actions it reminded me that I too didnt understand them and I felt increasingly alone. I often was short tempered, snappy, and harsh with those I love.

The present day: learning to release guilt and forgive myself Thankfully I now have the treatment and support that I needed when I was younger.

My hypomanic episodes are far less frequent. Im able to recognise indicators of their arrival and when I do experience hypomania, its far less severe.

I no longer struggle with hypersexuality and very rarely struggle with excessive spending or other risky behaviours. My hypomanic episodes tend to centre around racing thoughts and great ideas which I never finish even though they seem absolutely genius at the time.

I have a medication regime which works for me and the tools through therapy to manage my disorder.Acombination of an anti-depressant and mood stabiliser to be the most helpful for me, along with a sedativeto take when needed. Ihad to try a lot of different combinations and types of medication to get to where I am now . I find general talking therapy to be helpful in supporting me to address the root issues and triggers.

I have an amazing husband who helps me to manage my episodes when they do happen, and I feel so much more in control of my life. While bipolar disorder is lifelong, now that its well managed, I feel more me than I have since I was a child. Im happy and Im thriving.

As ateenager I was aware that I was acting out of character a lot of the time, but didn't know why or know that it was mental illness. Now that I know it's hypomania and I have my diagnosis, I tend to be able to feel rising.

However, once I'm actually in a hypomanic episode, I'm rarely aware that this is the case until afterwards. My husband may tell me that I'm having a hypomanic episode but, at the time, I often refuse to believe him. Sometimes I'm able to grasp that self awareness, but that's something I'm still working on.

Now I know that that time in my life wasnt my fault. I understand my behaviour back then was the result of a powerful, uncontrolled mental illness combined with a very lost young girl in immense pain. So, I have been able to forgive myself.

That period of my life is still hard to talk about and to think about, but Ive released the guilt and shame I carried with me for so long. Instead, I have replaced those negative emotions with a sense of intense pride in myself that I got through that, that I survived, and that I am here today.

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"I fell from the dizzying heights of hypomania" | MHT - Mental Health Today

The last thing I want to do is tell someone how to live their life, even if the person just told me something outrageously stupid and unwise.

Not only is it none of my business, it isnt as if Ive carried a glowing resume of good behavior throughout my life when it comes to my personal choices. However, now is the time when how we behave will determine just how quickly things can return to normal, whatever that means anymore.

Gov. Bill Lees executive order that has kept us all cooped up at home over the past few weeks is set to expire by the end of this month. This will mean some businesses will reopen once again and well have more options to get out and do things. However, that doesnt necessarily mean we open the floodgates for a massive retail and bar-hopping free-for-all.

Even though the wise thing would probably be to stay under quarantine until rapid testing for COVID-19 is made readily available, theres only so long before doing nothing will itself make things worse. Having to weigh the publics health and safety against the states economic health is a tough conversation, because you really cant have one without the other.

Its tough to argue in favor of extending the stay-at-home order because I, for one, havent been without work like so many others (approximately 400,000 Tennesseans according to the state unemployment office), nor do I have children to feed and look after. I cant imagine what life would be like if the paychecks stopped coming in and Id have to consider either joining the unemployment line, or find a job bagging groceries or flipping burgers. Im sure Id be pretty upset too.

Whether its next week or two months from now, the choice to reopen would have always been met with uncertainty, hesitation and people like me asking, Are you sure were ready for this? I think its possible at this time to reopen, sure, but there has to be a level of finesse and self-awareness that we keep among ourselves.

One thing we cant lose sight of is why we were put under self-quarantine. It was to make the number of cases go down, give health organizations time to work on a vaccine and for the public to educate itself on the proper hygiene practices.

The reason the case numbers have gone down is because were doing the right thing by staying home and abiding by the states health recommendations. It doesnt mean its all a hoax or that the government and media are blowing it out of proportion. Its as if some people need an extra 10,000 lives lost before they get the point.

Just because things are good doesnt mean they cant get worse. If anything, now is the time when we could become the most vulnerable to the virus, when our chances of getting it are hundreds of times greater because we will be interacting on a much greater scale now.

Hopefully our time in quarantine, as well as the repeated sanitizing of surface areas and places people touch, has given us a fighting chance that this thing is all but eradicated. But thats looking at the best case scenario, not necessarily the reality of what probably is.

I think people forget that giving in because you think this is ridiculous could mean putting the lives of your loved ones, of other peoples loved ones, at risk. Im confident that most of us know well enough to keep washing their hands and to maintain distance from one another. But there is always a chance the excitement of being out among the population could overshadow the seriousness we must remain aware of.

Even if we wanted to run out and pretend the last two months didnt happen, there is a plan in place to prevent that. As announced Friday, Lees Tennessee Pledge rollout plan is designed as a gradual return to business. The plan includes restrictions on how many patrons are allowed at certain establishments, with many restaurants, bars and retail centers operating at half capacity.

Businesses which involve close contact with clients, such as barber shops, salons and tattoo parlors will remain closed until later in May. There goes my hope for a good haircut for another few weeks, but rocking a haphazard mullet is a fair trade if it means the safety of others.

The next few weeks will be interesting, and its good to be optimistic that things are going to get better, because they are. We just need to be aware that this is going to be a slow process, and jumping the gun could mean this whole thing was for naught.

On a local level, Columbia is planning its own phased re-open plan, which more or less follows Lee and the states plan to reintegrate one step at a time. If the community abides by the rules the way they have been during the quarantine, I think were going to be just fine. The local economy will still suffer, somewhat, and Im sure the news of reopening doesnt necessarily mean local businesses are out of the woods, but the plan does provide a much-needed sense of direction.

There will be a sense of hope, I think, once we start seeing people out again, are taking strolls around the square and laughing together. Personally, I look forward to the day I can revive my Friday Things to do column to inform people about all the great stuff weve got happening around town. Itll be weird at first, sure, but if theres one thing the COVID-19 quarantine has taught me, its the virtue in being patient and to take things one day at a time.

Thats the only way the good days can happen again. Its that we listen, remain self-aware and take it slow, otherwise well just wind up back at the place we started, or worse.

Jay Powell is a reporter for The Daily Herald. Contact him at jpowell@c-dh.net or follow him on Twitter @JayPowellCDH.

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Start slow and the rest will come - Columbia Daily Herald