A five-country study by food industry analysts New Nutrition Business has found 34% of 25- to 44-year-olds want to eat more healthy fats. The research, which looked at attitudes across the UK, Spain, US, Brazil and Australia found this level is significantly higher than older age groups. Of consumers aged between 55- and 65-years old, only 23% are trying to eat more healthy fats.

The evolution of consumer attitudes to fat is a partial reflection of increased concerns over sugar and carbs, New Nutritions report suggested. But a growing number of consumers are also seeking out good fats in their diets.

In our survey the percentage of [people] trying to consume more 'good fats' was 25% in America, 23% in the UK and 30% in Spain. Ten years ago, that figure was about 5%, Julian Mellentin, director of New Nutrition Business, told FoodNavigator.

Mellentin pointed to rising sales of butter and full-fat dairy as a reliable marker for consumer behaviour. For example, sales of cream have increased in Sweden and Denmark; 10% fat Greek yoghurt is sold in the UK - with even retailer own-label brands offering it.

Mellentin believes the low fat is best dietary dogma is falling by the wayside in the US, with UK consumers close behind. But it does still hold sway over most people and particularly older consumers.

The rest of Europe is lagging in embracing 'more fat', Mellentin continued. But, on the other hand, many [European consumers] didn't ever embrace 'less fat' as much as the English-speaking world did.

Mellentin observed that consumer value judgements around fat reflect an evolving understanding of the role good fats play in the diet.

"Good fat is defined in the mind of the consumer, not by a regulatory or scientific definition. Right now that means things like avocado oil, coconut oil, oils from various nuts (such as almond) and dairy fat. But consumers views of what is 'good' are fragmented. One person will think it is coconut oil, another 10% fat Greek yoghurt.

But while it might not be entirely clear what a good fat is for consumers, Mellentin is confident that increasing numbers of people are distinguishing between what they broadly consider good and bad fats.

It started in the 1990s when the 'all fat is bad' dietary mantra of the 1970s and 1980s became a bit more nuanced in the face of the fact that omega-3 fish oils were shown to have heart health benefits - and the fats occurring in tree nuts also. Since then it's been gathering momentum.

New Nutrition believes that changing views about the healthfulness of saturated fat are starting to re-shape categories.

Challenger brands, big brands, retailer own-labels all are benefiting from consumers declining fear of fat, according to New Nutrition.

The consultancy looks to innovation in the UK as case in point, where the likes of Marks and Spencer and Tesco both offer a 10% fat Greek yoghurt. Meanwhile, Deliciously Ellas a challenger brand popular with health-conscious millennials and particularly embracing a plant-based diet offers nut butter cups sweetened with date syrup and coconut sugar. Fat content from coconut oil, cacao butter and almond butter is 23g per 100g.

The inclusion of fat in recipes. Mellentin observed, opens the door to a more indulgent sensory experience.

When people discover fat, theres such a taste difference, he observed. And when taste is consistently the number one purchase motivator, this can have significant implications for brands.

Fat is the product developers friend, improving texture, mouthfeel, structure and moisture content. In all categories, as time passes there will be less reason to produce products that have low levels of fat. The challenge for companies is to ensure they use good quality fats where they can point to a good, natural source.

Nevertheless, some challenges stand in the way, the innovation consultant continued. The introduction of Nutri-Score across Europe could pose a problem for high fat products, who would receive a lower overall ranking in the front-of-pack scheme which is calculated on a products overall nutritional profile.

The Nutri-Score system will retard the development of 'more fat' products in some countries. But give it ten years and even that will change. The weight of science will force the Nutri-Score people to change their scoring eventually, Mellentin predicted.

Indeed, he is confident in the scientific basis for his belief that it is possible to develop healthy high-fat products.

The evolution of science over the last ten years has demonstrated that dairy fat has none of the negatives that were previously attributed to it. What the dietary guidelines might say is increasingly irrelevant since people can do their own online research and decide for themselves what they think is healthy.

Low carb and high-fats diets are now described as 'safe and effective' for weight loss and management of type-2 diabetes by the Canadian Diabetes Association, a decision made in 2020. The American DA came to the same conclusion the year before. In the UK, the professional body for family doctors is teaching its members (slowly) how to use high fat and low carb diets for weight loss and T2S management, following a very successful pilot scheme. Most of Europe will follow.

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Fats in fashion: 'Fat is the product developers' friend' - FoodNavigator.com

Oliver Stone's filmography has levied an unprecedented effect on the popular understanding of American history, especially of the turmoil surrounding the Vietnam War and the assassination of John F. Kennedy. His style has been described as highly subjective, fantastical, impassioned, insensitive, and unabashedly masculine. It is rather undisputed, however, that his features are not without cultural, racial, or religious shortsightedness. Stone's narrative style is particularly strong when working within a certain set of circumstances with respect to story and historical substance. Western, male characters are his forte, as are stories focused on events with which he has a strong personal relationship, as shown particularly in Platoon,JFK, and Natural Born Killers. His work with more unfamiliar perspectives, on the other hand, highlight his filmmaking shortfalls regarding historical accuracy, cultural identity and sensitivity, and political insight. For example, in Nixon, Stone's personal set of inclinations about the nature of the U.S. government cloud a potentially substantive and devastating indictment of both Richard Nixon's character and his political tendencies. In Heaven & Earth, these weaknesses materialize in a more disenfranchising and personal sense, resulting in a voyeuristic, objectifying, and extraordinarily impersonal personal story about a displaced victim of the Vietnam War.

People go to movies for an accurate reading of history, even if a vast number of historians and filmmakers agree that movies dont documentthey glorify. In order to assess Stones relationship with the historical record, its important to consider him as a filmmaker first, and a historian second. Stone lives in his own reality, which is informed by a skepticism of history as its been taught, through a uniquely layered psychological approach. Living through decades of historical trauma, political dispersions, and environmental and aesthetic nostalgia, the written record shaped Stone into the visually innovative filmmaker that directed JFK, Nixon, Platoon, Heaven and Earth, and Natural Born Killers, among others. Although skepticism and criticism are prominent in his work, expertly woven throughout drama, theres a clear set of ideals to be found at its center, ideals that come from Stones own perspective of the American record, which is itself informed by an ideology drawn from his own experience with the tumultuous decades of the postwar era. What we see across Stones efforts at painting what he believes is the true story of America, is a desire to embody characters and cultural dynamics while keeping his own experience with U.S. history a key part of the films psychology.

Stones films are unabashedly melodramatic, and usually feature re-writings or dramatic compositions of history, lines like telling the truth is a scary thing sometimes, and the sort of passionate soliloquies that influenced writers like Aaron Sorkin. Much of Stones success rests on the extraordinary ways in which he is able to tell those stories, through sound and image and editing. Author and historian Robert A. Rosenstone writes that rather than going between subjective and objective reality, Stone introduces another dimension to history altogether, imposing a dramatic construct onto history the same way historians use revolution, evolution, or progress. Stone is a lover of history, and a reader. His films focus on the time periods of his upbringing and of recent history. But drama cannot produce the same kind of investigation of the past as scholarship. Movies are like a first draft on history, Toplin writes, something to be analyzed in both the quality of the retelling and the impact such films have on popular understanding of historical implications. Academics and journalists agree that Stones films always come too close to fiction. Many scenes in JFK are re-staged and intertwined with actual footage history. A critic wrote that it doesnt know which way to go. Moviemakers also grossly simplify the historical record. This framework for defining the nature of Stones work aligns with his ability to tell stories poignantly. As a historical filmmaker with a notable profile in both Hollywood and in Washington, D.C., Stone frequently receives scrutiny on his approach to re-writing parts of history in the interest of creating higher stakes for a story, stakes that point to real life ones. This is the most poignant element of his work in the popular sphere, and it is most emblemized by the performance of JFK with critics. Co-writer Zachary Sklar noted that despite a mass media frenzy against the films conspiratorial connotations, he and Stone made an effort to respond to each and every review that suggested the film is pure fiction.

There is another key aspect here: the ways in which viewers should regard Oliver Stones version of American history, and that is the real scope of his films political statements. Marcus Raskin writes in JFK and the Culture of Violence in the American Historical Review, It does no good to pick apart the rendering of an event by an artist. His or her purpose is not the particular but the general. It is to take an event see within it a series of truths, some felt, some unconsciously understood and hardly articulated, that make sense and meaning of an event, its cause, and its implications. Americas soul is at stake, and there are usually two forces whose conflict defines Stones subjective camera. In Platoon, Elias and Barnes arent just two very different commanders, but also represent two very different worldviews with respect to the real Vietnam War. They are, in essence, competing for the soul of Chris Taylor. In Wall Street, Gordon Gekko and Carl Fox fight for the soul of Bud Fox. As Professor Peter Kuznick defined, this duality of two authorities [represents] light and dark, black and white, good and evil. An individual put in a complicated moral dilemma and how the individual deals with that dilemma.

The orientation of Stones approach to direction is most clearly defined when analyzing how he takes on the same subject matter from distinct perspectives, or different points of reference. There are two key comparisons to be made in this vein. The first is between Platoon and Heaven and Earth, perhaps together one of the most societally salient double-perspectives of the Vietnam War. The second is between JFK and Nixon.

As a historical filmmaker with a notable profile in both Hollywood and in Washington, D.C., Stone frequently receives scrutiny on his approach to re-writing parts of history in the interest of creating higher stakes for a story, stakes that point to real life ones. This is the most poignant element of his work in the popular sphere, and it is most emblemized by the performance of JFK with critics.

The most powerful lasting effect of JFK is its redefinition of what historical cinema can be, in the context of a national wound that, following decades without clarity, had remained fresh. Oliver Stones brand of historical filmmaking, as Robert Toplin writes, constitutes a highly subjective version of actual persons and events and enlivening them with colorful imagery, concocted dialogue, and imaginary people. The purpose of this construction, therefore, is to boldly [explore] a variety of modern artistic techniques, using the medium to arouse viewers emotions and to stimulate their interests. The most compelling aspect of the film to be the broad exposure and condemnation of the so-called deep state, as Americans have come to regard their government as just as discrete, recluse, and nefarious as the dark organizations they claim to protect the public from. Drawing in the national frustrations from the Pentagon Papers leak, the Watergate scandal, the Iran-Contra affair, and President George H. W. Bushs granting of clemency to several convicted Iran-Contra figures, JFK took on establishment corruption at its core, to the reaction that everybody had expected up to that point for that very element. The film hit a wrong vein in the public perception, said Zachary Sklar in his talk. People thought this was [still] an unresolved wound. Through cinematic technique and storytelling genius, Stone and Sklar have managed to put one of the most traumatic events in the postwar period and present it to the American people as a thrilling piece of entertainment but, at the same time, a powerful work of intrigue that attacks a particularly sharp pain point in the national conscience. Marcus Raskin writes, For an entire generation, the scar over the healing process of forgetfulness about the Kennedy assassination hid a festering sore of doubt that became thoroughly embedded in the national conscience throughout the American scandals during the Cold War.

This was the implication of the trial of Clay Shaw. Immediately following both Garrisons very public legal proceeding against Shaw as well as the release of the JFK film, the news media launched attacks on his character. Critics charged Garrison with intimidating witnesses, being embedded with the mafia, living as a closet Communist, and suppressing evidence from a polygraph test. However, the truth is more of a mixed bag. Stone admitted to making Garrison seem somewhat more heroic and handsome to advance his movies case for a conspiracy, as Robert Toplin writes, but denies that any flaws in Garrison prevented him from acting correctly in the case. In reality, the federal government had done everything in its power to stall Garrisons investigation. They denied his subpoenas, his calling of important out-of-state witnesses, and his requests for autopsy reports and medical records. Furthermore, the U.S. government tapped Garrisons phones, had him followed, and turned over stolen copies of his files to Clay Shaws defense attorneys. It went a step further in its effort to discredit skeptics of the Warren Commissions report by launching a smear campaign against Garrison during the Shaw trial, an effort that declassified memos showed were organized by the CIA. Sklar mentioned a Rolling Stone Magazine article by Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein regarding the CIAs planting of assets in the popular media. In the article, Bernstein details a number of cases in which journalists had been approached by government agents looking to recruit soldiers for the great American propaganda machine and contextualizes these reports with some contextualization around Operation Mockingbird, exposing several major media figures as page boys of the CIA. This, in addition to the memos that specifically proved the government's engagement with the media in Garrisons case, shows the depth with which the countrys key information source was entangled with nefarious interests.

Therefore, not only did Stones perspective of Kennedys assassination gradually gain credibility, JFKs overarching effort was to unveil a nefarious force within the federal government, a body built to strike down progressive change through bureacracy, industry, and war. Robert S. Robins, a political scientist, and Jerrold M. Post, a psychiatrist, presented a paper at the 1997 meeting of the American Political Science Association, writing that Stones films embody political paranoia as cinematic motif as a paranoid theme to add narrative power and commercial value to the film. JFK was largely based on the singular perspective of the real Jim Garrison, who is written in the film like Mr. Smith going to Washington. President Kennedy, through the films own investigation, comes out just as bright as the Camelot image with which he entered the White House, a young, progressive symbol of hope pitted against a sprawling network of henchmen for the status quo, armed with surveillance technology and CIA-orchestrated media attacks. Like the description of the beast in Nixons emblematic scene at the Lincoln Memorial between the president and a group of student protestors, JFK largely implicates the greater American political machine, rather than some specific individual. This is the general that Raskin writes about when he wrote [the artist's] purpose is not the particular but the general. Stone, in making JFK the way he did as well as the way he responded to public critics, used uncondescending and creative technical and stylistic choices to produce a film that unabashedly confronts the darkness of reality. JFK is emblematic of Stones style for this reason, among others. The effort seems to be toward enmassing the American people to look at history through a new highly critical psychological dimension while from the shadows finding a fierce optimism to effect change and transparency.

However, as Stone drifts from the style of JFK, which is heavily informed by objective fact despite having a clear thesis, toward a more psychoanalytical style, we see a different result. Of course, JFK and Nixon are vastly different films, but the difference says something about how Stone approaches direction. Whereas JFK is relentless and makes no shortage of enemies, Nixon on its surface feels empathetic of its subject despite his legacy being one of rampant corruption, lies, paranoia, and authoritarianism. Daniel Ellsberg has stated he was not a fan of the film due to its soft depiction of Nixons role in expanding the war effort in South Asia. In response to a question from a student who asked Stone why despite President Nixons sour legacy of a destructive War on Drugs, the expansion of the Vietnam War, rampant corruption, and political paranoia, the movie decided to go the route of humanizing someone most people in America would remember as a monster. Stone replied, I actually think he was a disaster for this country. He brought a cynicism to politics I feel did not exist before [in this movie], I walk in his shoes. Nixon was a malevolent figure, the movie makes that clear his wife saw through him. At one point, she asks him, When are you going to be honest, Dick? his sentimental reaction to being hated is not an effort to make you feel bad for him. It is to make him human. He attributes the films empathy with the character to the desperate, paranoid, but sensitive portrayal of Dick Nixon by Anthony Hopkins.

Stones response brings up another key point that must be addressed about his identity as part-historian and part-filmmaker is the way his various minor historical inaccuracieswhile harmless as were focused on Toplins general standard of what an artist is trying to say about a piece of history rather than the particularare sometimes so extreme that he forsakes key parts of his subject matters historical implications in favor of generating heightened stakes for a character. In Nixon, that character is Nixons wife, Pat, who Stone cites as a key part of defining her husbands persona in the film. This can result in self-sabotage. Its one thing to simplify the historical record; its another to change it completely for the sake of character design.

In Nixon, Stone completely reinvents Pat Nixon, who is written as independent, unafraid to speak up to her husband, fatigued by but also well-equipped for the shark pit of political life, and somehow most unrealistically, respected by her husband. In the film, Pat serves as a major influence on her husband both on the nights of his loss to John F. Kennedy and his later loss in the California gubernatorial election two years laterafter which the real Richard Nixon told reporters he was done: You wont have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore. There were reports circulating that on both these dates, Nixon had badly brutalized his wife. The Arrogance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon, a 2000 book by Irish non-fiction author Anthony Summers, details a number of notes from various campaign figures. Governor Pat Brown said years after the election, We got word at one stage of the campaign that he kicked the hell out of her, hit her. Frank Cullen, one of Browns top advisors, said that Dick had beat the hell out of Pat Nixon after Kennedys win. Following his loss in the California governors election, beat Pat badly so badly that she could not go out the next day. According to Summers, aides like Haldeman, Robert Finch, or Erlichman would on occasion have to go in and intervene. Stones historical reputability is strongest when he profusely assesses the information he is given and the boundaries governing how much he can stretch it. It doesnt work much when he arbitrarily takes away pieces of reality to humanize an American villain, because that in itself takes away from historical implication. This is why many felt like Nixon is sympathetic to the real Nixon, even if it was not the intention of Stone for that to happen.

The details of President Nixons actual relationship with his wife were uncommonly published, but were published nonetheless. Stone ignored them, in favor of developing a composite version of Pat Nixon that played a larger role in Dicks psychological identity that the real one never did. Her character in the film is necessary to bring some depth to Nixons insecurity and pathological lying, pointing to a more generic thesis about Nixons legacy. However, in reality, Pat Nixon was a victim, not a mother figure or a wife figure, for that matter. It appears Stones narrative strength is decided by a conflict between psychoanalysis and making a broader political statement. This is most clear when a film revolves around a single man, rather than a research-based investigation. While both stories point fingers at similar sources of evil, many aspects of the JFK assassination were proven to be true in the crossfire between Stone and his critics but the ultimate legacy of his Nixon film would be less than insightful. While JFK literally merges historical footage with re-staged scenes for heightened tension and was criticized for placing itself between subjective and objective history, it appears that Nixon was a greater sin in the context of this interaction between historical accuracy and affirming certain general worldviews of the U.S. government.

Platoon is the hallmark of Stone-ism. It is a projection of his own experience, grounded in a skepticism of the wars legitimacy that rose into national prominence as it carried on through the 1960s with little progress. It is passionate, it is fiery, and it has its distinct political identity against the mythic Apocalypse Now, the calculating Full Metal Jacket. Platoon opens and closes on body bags, is plagued with confusion, anger, and bittersweet sentimentality, and what little hope it begins with is soon shattered by the reality of jungle warfare. Warmth is found in recognizing the injustices of the draft, as Chris Taylor finds solace in dancing to Motown and smoking marijuana with the black soldiers, who collectively bring a nuanced racial aspect to the story. Much of the friction in the squad comes from the dissonance between two commanding officers, Sergeants Barnes and Elias. Born on the Fourth of July aptly explores the consequences of the romanticized culture of violence in the post-World War II hue, and seeks to portray its full effects on those sent overseas to fight. Heaven and Earth, however, is grounded differently; it takes on the perspective of a Vietnamese woman, Le Ly Hayslip, who is painted as both a metaphor for national upheaval, as well as a sexual martyr. However, in doing so, Stone applies an oversimplified level of abjection and passiveness to Hayslips character that loses her soul buried under a mountain of violence, sexual assault, and male distress. Janet Maslin of the New York Times writes in her review of Heaven & Earth that [Stones] best direction is volatile, angry and muscular in ways that Ms. Hayslip's story, that of a resilient, long-suffering victim, simply cannot accommodate [Stone] has the wrong cinematic vocabulary for his heroine's essentially passive experience. Whereas Platoon draws its energy from something very real that Stone himself feels, where the main character is an active participant in their own experience and makes determinations of his own soul based on what he goes through, Hayslip in Heaven & Earth rarely rises from one-dimensionality. Despite other characters describing Le Ly as headstrong and spoiled, Hiep Thi Le plays her as passive, a witness of historic events but not much of a participant in them, writes critic John Larson.

On December 22, 1993, Oliver Stone told Charlie Rose, Organized religion is for people who are afraid of going to hell. Spiritualism is for people whove been to hell. Stones Heaven and Earth takes us directly to hell and back through the singular experience of Hayslip, and is perhaps the most relevant film when talking about applying Stones style of filmmaking to an intimate, spiritual story that need not be drawn in any capacity from Stones own experience, but rather from Hayslips cultural and ethnic identity. Stones conception of Buddhism, drawn from Hayslips poetic tellings of her own tale, are somewhat shorthanded and oversimplified. His approach to being in hell and finding peace in chaos is notably dissonant. This idea is depicted prominently in the scene in which Hayslip has a snake beneath her shirt and sees a vision of the boy she liked, who is shaking his head while being pulled out of a helicopter, at peace before death. Hayslip closes her eyes, and Stone dials down the soundtrack and dissolves her image against a profile of the Buddha statue from her shrine, which also opens and wraps the film. Then, as she is brought to the Viet Cong when suspected of fraternizing with the enemy and held at gunpoint before a grave dug for her, she closes her eyes and finds peace. Stone cuts us through short flashbacks to her family and her home. Even as she is brutally raped in the mud and rain these flashbacks continue. Stone is attempting to portray the resilience of spiritual peace, which he believes is felt by those in the darkest depths of hell. Much later, as Butler is confessing his black ops duties to Hayslip after he points a shotgun at the back of her head, he tells a story about the execution of a woman he was shacking up with by his own men. I was in hell, baby, he cries. I was in pure hell. The screen goes red and he attempts to kill himself, before Hayslip stops him. These moments hold the core of the story, and align Stones own experience with the Vietnam War with Hayslips. I always felt like it was more of a philosophical film, Stone told Rose in 1993. Its about reality and who owns it and how we perceive it, as opposed to being a political statement. But in deliberately avoiding what he knows best and taking a hard-headed perspective on the passive experience of an individual whose struggle is uniquely emblematic of European imperialisms harshest realities, Stone fails to recognize the root of that reality and the ethnic connotations of his film in a significant way. As a result, Heaven and Earth feels like it is fetishizing the brutally chaotic experience and cultural traditions of its subject without giving much to the character herself. And as a result, because the entire film is centered on a philosophical, religious velcrum that breaks as soon as Stone tries to apply his own hell to Hayslips and apply himself through Hayslips spiritual framework, its trajectory falls flat.

The extreme reverence of the perfectly idyllic landscapes, the brave choice of ending a horror story with such a peaceful spirituality almost amounts to a fetishization of Buddhist philosophy and Vietnamese culture, despite the movies awareness of American soldiers views of Asian women. It is painfully clear that Stones camera and narrative in Heaven and Earth belongs to a white male American. It paints the mountain shoulders and rice paddies of Vietnam mythically majestic to the point of being cultural voyeurism. From Kotaros blazing soundtrack to the lush color profile to the meticulously consonant framing, the movies introduction to the setting evokes a glory that resembles a romantic discovery more so than a piece of the villagers everyday life. Despite this, however, Stone does doan excellent job destroying this initial image of the landscape by covering it with soldiers, fire, helicopters, and bombers in the tone of Platoon. The evacuation scenes striking images of crowds of straw hats, coupled with Hayslips narration, My whole country was falling apart, evoke the imagery of the Trail of Tears and the Bataang March. On the level of the subject Hayslip is sexualized the entire film, written as a hard-working woman but constantly portrayed in submissive ways. Thats the nature of the Vietnam Wars legacy: a long-standing sexual fetishization of Asian women as prostitutes and housekeepers whose value comes from the men they marry. Dangling a future in a country that contributed to her numerous tragedies in front of Hayslip, Steve Butler unabashedly says, I need a good oriental woman like you and has no problem articulating that his ex-wife turned him off from Western women. The film brushes this off, cutting through Hayslips cooperation with various men in the story as evolution, not a passive form of extortion.

Furthermore, its painfully clear who the target audience is, because English is used as a substitute for Hayslips native language. The most effective way Hayslip is disenfranchised in Heaven & Earth is that she is denied her native tongue, which Americanizes the film before it can even begin. Accents, especially broken Asian accents are cinematic fodder for easy humor, like in Coen Brothers films, but here the level of brokenness simply tells us when she is speaking Vietnamese and when she is speaking English. Later, we hear her speak in broken English to American soldiers, she says things like Me no hooker, and as a soldier barges into her home asking where Kim is, Hayslip replies, Kim work and You go bye. Later, when Hayslip is getting acquaintedagainst her will, reallywith Steve Butler, she exclaims in almost comical choppiness, You no undah-see-tand. I no want go dinner, and You nice man, but I no want boyfriend, and Me had boyfriend. But me no want new boyfriend. The result of this dissonance between the two forms of English in Heaven and Earth is that the movie can really only become compelling once white characters start to take up more runtime, because they are portrayed by white American actors who can produce more organic value through their familiarity with the language; when we hear Hayslips family speaking in accented English, it simply does not work and sabotages Stones effort. Stone is painting a two-sided picture with only one side of the paintbrush. He obviously understands the power that his script holds on Vietnamese visibility in Hollywood, which plays a crucial role in indicating the spirit of the Vietnam War in the United States. We know this because Stone went out of his way to cast Vietnamese actors and actresses in Heaven and Earth. Why, then, did he not have most of the film in the Vietnamese language? To borrow a metaphor from a completely different film, hearing English spoken in an accent on a film that purports to embody a different cultural orientation is like showering with a raincoat on, and works against Stones thesis by taking away a certain level of genuinity from the actors voices. Furthermore, it works against the films spiritual core by reducing the poetry of Le Ly Hayslips own conception of her experience into an accented English that eats through the films cultural verisimilitude, which Robert Richardsons camera and Kitaros original score are fantastic in producing.

At the center of Stones film career is passion, anger, and skepticism. His style wavers with intensity depending on the subject matter, ranging from a politically conscious first-timer in Vietnam to a soldier who has returned home with completely changed and disassociated to a Vietnamese woman with a brutal but extraordinary experience with the horrors of the war, but it is consistent in its political identity and effort to start a conversation about the dynamics driving Americas direction. His ability to vividly tell a story as both a memorable piece of cinema and a statement on society demands an open mind for change, without much giving the answers. Those who suggest he is some arrogant revisionist fear-monger are blind to the simplification for the sake of finding something greater in the context of the modern eras foreign affairs turmoil and socioeconomic upheaval. The larger dimension of this argument, that there is a clear distinction between Stones filmmaking side and his historian side, is a broader thesis on how Stone approaches filmmaking altogether, and what he conveys about his own political and cultural worldview through style and creative decisions. Furthermore, it must be established hat there are key components missing to this worldview and how he chooses to illustrate the stories he believes should be seen and heard, including a more organic and objectively irreverent approach to race, to gender issues, and an assessment of the cinematic vocabulary he uses to strike societys pain points, as is clear in Heaven & Earth and Nixon, films that are more myopic than his others in their search for Americas soul.

1.) Toplin, Robert. Oliver Stones USA. Lawrence, University of Kansas., 2000. pp. 7

2.) Ibid, pp. 5-6

3.) Raskin, Marcus. JFK and the Culture of Violence. American Historical Review, April 1992. Pp. 487

4.) Ibid, Toplin. pp. 166

5.) Ibid. pp. 9

6.) The country knew of the controversial nature of JFK in the months leading up to its premiere.

7.) Ibid, Raskin, pp. 488

8.) Toplin. Pp. 64.

9.) Kennedys autopsy is of particular importance in the case for a conspiracy, as Jim DiEugenio extensively discussed over Skype. DiEugenio spoke of the story of John Stringer, the medical photographer at the Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland where Kennedys autopsy had been conducted. Stringer was, years down the line, shown the official photographs of Kennedys brain but reported that the negatives were not Kodak film, which he used almost exclusively, bringing into question the legitimacy of the autopsy reports. Furthermore, Kennedys brain was weighed at 1,500 grams, which was far too heavy for a man of Kennedys size and stature. A more appropriate weight would have been 1,350 grams, but even that seemed too generous given that the Zapruder film showed parts of the presidents face and head being blown off, and bits of his brain flying out.

10.) Bernstein, Carl. The CIA and the Media: How Americas Most Powerful News Media Worked Hand in Glove with the Central Intelligence Agency and Why the Church Committee Covered It Up. Rolling Stone Magazine, October 20, 1977.

11.) Ibid, Raskin.

12.) Summers, Anthony & Robbyn Swan. The Arrogance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon. Viking, 2000. Pp. unavailable (Google Books)

13.) Maslin, Janet. Review/Film: Heaven and Earth; A Woman's View Of Vietnam Horrors. The New York Times. The New York Times, December 24, 1993.

14.) Larson, Josh. Review: Heaven & Earth. LarsenOnFilm.Com.

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Examining the Complex, Subjective Filmography of Oliver Stone: A Comparison and Critique of "JFK" to "Nixon" and...

Abstract:Mobility has never played a more important part in our lives as it now does in these COVID times which has forced the world and most especially the hospitality industry to adopt a contactless/lo-touch environment. This article explains the journey as how we got to where we are now, and how the industry could emerge and transform hand-in-hand with mobility and the various benefits it brings with it.

Mobility in concept and in practice, as the word implies, will never stand still. At no time was this more apparent than on June 29, 2007 when the iPhone untethered us irrevocably. We are seeing this now too since the invisible enemy, COVID-19, struck early this year and we continue to grapple with its consequence as best we can.

At warp speed, the hospitality industry was left with little choice but to be drawn into a mobile driven contactless/lo-touch culture. This idea had been floated many years ago but the urgency of applying it didn't exist pre-COVID. Back then, and let's not forget, this was really only NINE MONTHS ago, we all would happily check-in to hotels and not think twice about sanitizing every space or amenity inside a room. Nor would we give a second thought of handling light switches, doorknobs, a TV remote control, thermostat, room service menu or phone devices, to name a few. No more! The pandemic has forced minds to change. And it has been seismic. Everyone has been required to assess their operations and to ensure they not only thrive but survive amidst this environment. Assuring its guests they are in a safe bubble while within their property's perimeter is now paramount to avoid infection and/or curtail the spread of the virus.

Tech adoption, only surpassed by the panic buying of toilet paper at the virus' outset, went into overdrive. What probably would have taken a couple of years to become a reality, was put in place in 6+ months, driven also by the necessity to #WFH [Work From Home] and #WFA [Work From Anywhere]. Consequently, we are seeing software companies mushrooming and scrambling to develop a multitude of complementary solutions to meet the new normal for the classification of a world we are now involuntarily forced to live in.

On a personal level and primarily to the readers of this article, we tragically know that one of the most affected industries is hospitality a subset of travel, and while we wait for the silver bullet to appear and be successfully implemented in the form of a vaccine, one must co-exist and work with this most challenging hand we have been dealt with.

But before we delve into the diverse benefits mobility has, and will continue to bring us, let's take a moment to reflect on the chronology as to how we got to this juncture - this tech milestone in mobility adoption.

in July 1980 Yukio Yokozawa invented the first "true" laptop computer called the Epson HX-20 (also known as the HC-20). Why was it classified as the first "true" laptop computer? Because it was a fully integrated device - complete with keyboard, screen, storage unit and printer, and was only the size of an A4 sheet of paper, and it had a very long battery life. At the time of launch, there were no software applications - only the BASIC operating system supplied on its ROM [Read-Only Memory].

Then in 1994 - the QR code was launched by Denso Wave - now called the Denso Corporation, but some say that by 2017 adoption had slowed - but in reality, we all know how popular this iconic tech has again become.

On March 10, 1997, the Palm Pilot was launched, the once ubiquitous Blackberry on January 19, 1999, and the Compaq iPAQ complete with stylus, in April 2000.

In early 2001 the first ever Hotel app "Hotelinmyhand" was launched by Pertlink to provide information and services to hotel guests at a touch of a hand. The software ran on a Palm Pilot and Compaq iPAQ - the two most popular mobile platforms at that time - our first foray into contactless technology for the hospitality industry, when the concept and urgent need didn't exist at that time. It was seen as ground breaking then, with CNN featuring it as part of their piece on the launch of Rosedale on the Park, Hong Kong.

On June 29, 2007 - Apple's iPhone was launched by the late Steve Jobs with more computing power under its 4.5 inches x 2.4 inches hood than what was used for the Apollo 11 Moon landing which took place thirty-eight years earlier on July 20, 1969. And from that day forward, the term "app" became part of the everyday lexicon.

In 2014, I worked with Samsung and HotSOS to place an experimental lite app on the Samsung Gear 3 watch "a first" - and it was for the South Beach Hotel project in Singapore. Sadly, a dream that was just too early for its time.

Knowing all this, it has taken the Hospitality industry almost two decades to finally adopt mobility or since Hotelinmyhand was launched, a major part of that adoption having been the birth and incorporation of the QR code - understandably selected in these times because they are non-contact. Who said hospitality was an innovative and fast-moving industry?

But having said all that, what we have witnessed in this last 6+ months is that various old fashioned and bureaucratic practices across numerous industries are becoming obsolete in the blink of an eye, especially mobile transactional processes encapsulating payment processing using all manner of eWallets including PayPal's recent announcement to accommodate BTC wallets, along with QR codes and online solutions. In fact, I wonder how many wallet solutions with the 3-letter word "pay" in it you can now name?

Up until now that is pre-and during this COVID era, Hotels have predominantly used mobility as part of their operations for Housekeeping and Engineering task request fulfillment, service delivery, in-room environmental controls, compendium replacements, and to some extent, POS terminal alternates. Those Hotels that are fortunate enough to be open and able to accept guests, have further adopted mobility for socially-distanced contactless/lo-touch concepts to include check-in, check-out, food ordering by QR code retrieved menus, chat function, wayfinding with beacons and mobile key. The latter element potentially having a weighty cost burden depending on the type of installed infrastructure.

As a subset of hospitality, mobile app driven Meal delivery or Take-out services have flourished as people elect to "order-in" since restaurant in-dining has been put into temporary hibernation. And online ordering of all manner of items has reached unparalleled levels with what now seems regular Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales [US online sale for Thanksgiving 2020 reached $5.1 billion and shortly followed by $10.8 billion on Cyber Monday] that has had a dramatically negative impact on brick n mortar operations - with the consequential outcome being furloughed staff and loss of various income sources such as rent. UPS claim to have been swamped and had to temporarily suspend pickups from multiple big-brand vendors.

Generationally, there has been a rush by some early adopters for Wi-Fi 6, and more specifically, 5G compatibility that purports downloads and uploads at wireline speeds. But this may soon be overshadowed, since China has already launched their first 6G satellite, albeit, without a confirmed standard to follow. Go figure! But work does continue elsewhere on 6G - with for example the Terahertz chip, whereby a group of researchers from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the Osaka University in Japan have developed an error-free Terahertz chip capable of a data rate up to 16 Gbps. Things are definitely moving fast in this space!

And please, let's not forget techpreneur Elon Musk and his SpaceX Starlink system which had a birth date of 2015, and as of October 24, 2020 launched a public BETA service. Starlink utilizes strings of low earth orbiting satellites to deliver high-speed broadband internet to locations where access has been unreliable, expensive, or completely unavailable. To-date, Starlink has nearly 1,000 satellites in orbit, and is targeting service in the Northern U.S. and Canada in 2020, rapidly expanding to near-global coverage of the populated world by 2021, according to the Starlink website. One may ask; "How will this impact mobility?" Well, one of the sub-sets of hospitality where this will become extremely beneficial is the heavily-battered cruise industry which offers spotty at best connections, and at very high rates. Definitely one to watch - no pun intended.

Taking a 360-degree view, let's look at what else has happened in the mobile world. Apple recently launched their in-house developed silicon-powered computers using the M1 chip, clearly demonstrating to the world that it is moving to near-complete mobility - and how the once clunky desktop, which firstly morphed into a notebook, then a phone, a tablet, and is now becoming an all-in-one ecosystem, since the same apps can run on all hardware - with the only differentiations being size, power requirements, in some cases a fan, and greater storage capacity. And just in case you are curious, in most situations, the smaller device costs more than their larger counterparts.

But hardware, just like a blank canvas, is only part of the solution, it's only as good and useful as the apps that run on it. So, to address the situation, great minds around the world are brainstorming and mind-melding as to what problem these solutions can fix, and we all know only too well that hospitality has more than its fair share of those. And as we hopefully soon come out of COVID hibernation, there will be the new post pandemic gold rush - with all the players vying for market share, and desperately trying to claw back lost revenues. So how can mobility help with this?

Well, one of things you may have heard about is that when addressing the virtual G20 summit on Saturday night (November 21, 2020), Chinese President Xi Jinping said a global mechanism involving mutual recognition of health certificates, including nucleic acid test results in the form of QR codes, could be used to enable cross-border travel - perhaps me thinks with a dash of blockchain thrown in to add to the authenticity of the data.

In China, the QR code system for COVID tracking, was launched through Ant Financials' Alipay in Hangzhou on February 11, 2020, and assigns users one of three coloured QR codes - green, yellow and red. Chinese state media outlet Xinhua News reported that the system covered three provinces initially - Zhejiang, Sichuan and Hainan - and the municipality of Chongqing with a total population of nearly 180 million, and would soon go on to cover the entire country. It was later found to have been adopted in over 100 cities across the country within a week, according to Xinhua. In Beijing, the mini-program can be accessed both through Alipay and Tencent's ubiquitous app WeChat. Users can obtain their codes by entering their name, national identity number and registering with facial recognition.

As an extension to mobility helping facilitate the re-ignition of travel, IATA [International Air Transport Association] are joining a push to introduce so-called COVID passports. The Travel Pass will display test results together with proof of inoculation, as well as listing national entry rules and details of the nearest labs. The app will also link to an electronic copy of the holder's passport to prove their identity and authenticity.

One of the other ways I envision the future of mobility to evolve, and to help lay claim to a bigger stake in the post COVID gold rush, is to get closer to that even more important customer - know what they want and as best you can within the constraints of the business, deliver it to them. This is something hospitality has struggled with for eons, with CRS/PMS local and enterprise-wide profiles, CRM [Customers Really Matter] and all manner of things. But has it been successful? You can be the judge of that when you return to a hotel previously visited and must again fill in a registration card, or not get a welcome back thank you, or

More than ever before, it's now time for the business to #KNOWME.

A few years ago, I conceptualized the idea to create an app which allows a guest to pre-store their personal data and preferences - locally on-device or in the cloud depending on data privacy regulations, and either pre-arrival, or upon arrival, securely exchange that data with the property to customize certain elements of their stay, thereby enhancing the guest experience, creating loyalty to the brand/property, and translating into an ROI for the property. This personal data exchange would be shared via QR code and some form of secure 2FA. Now in COVID times, this could be extended in part, for the purposes of contact tracing since it seems everywhere you go, there is either a QR code to shoot, or a form to complete. And why, when you can have the relevant data pre-stored in your device?

Brands are extremely protective, and rightly so, but let's be honest, the guest is no longer loyal to just one brand - there can be several, especially if the chosen location is not suitably covered by Brand Favorite #1, so then Brand Favorite #2 may have to come into play - or even a new independent selected - and what happens then to me and my preferences - held in Brand X's CRM? Does the industry focus too much on loyalty for their own brands? Of course, they do, and mobility could change that - maybe not overnight - but it will, especially post COVID.

This app creates a centralized "source of truth" for the guest data - and the entire hospitality industry, versus the fragmented and siloed approach it now has. This kind of development will usher in new levels of guest engagement and loyalty, and allow hoteliers to compete on an even footing.

As the inimitable Steve Jobs used to say; "there's one more thing", and in the case of the mobile, and the WFH world we live in - it's a biggie - data security.

Recently I heard a scenario during a webinar whereby Dad was forced to WFH and he worked for one of the leading burger chains, and used the family notebook computer to access the company systems. Mum also worked for a fast-food chain, but a competitor, and she shared the same computer to do her biz and personal stuff, and sometimes help the kids with their schoolwork. The kids used the same machine for study, game playing with pirated software, and watching YouTube as well as accessing torrents. There were no secure partitions on the machine, no MDM [M obile Device Management], there were shared passwords, and anti-virus was a freeware version. You can let your imagination run wild as to the implications from this all-too-often scenario and the brand new risks it brings.

This contemporary scenario doesn't end there, one has to be more conscious and alert than ever before that threat actors are in play, just waiting to steal your trophy data, and will go to almost any extreme to access it. There are all-manner of pandemic-themed lures and scams.

One must absolutely secure endpoints both outside and inside your perimeters, particularly when you are allowing BYOD [Bring Your Own Device]. Screen sharing or screen capture software is another huge loophole as is IoT [Internet Of Things]. Phishing has gone through the roof, with cybercrime at an all-time high, and according to the experts, Nation states involvement in cybercrime is on the increase with cloud computing. Employing a Never trust - Always verify policy is paramount!

Without doubt, mobility provides ease and facility to make the so-called "New Normal" liveable by putting information or services front and centre in an easy-to-carry, easy-to-digest mobile but secure platform/APP, and so why wait? From everyone's point of view, the tedium of filling up endless forms and repetitively doing the same old data collection processes can be effortlessly avoided - it is a most welcome development, another manifestation of mobility's continuing evolution in this constantly changing world.

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There's probably an app for that! | By Terence Ronson Hospitality Net - Hospitality Net

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NTT Research, Inc., a division of NTT (TYO:9432), NTT Communication Science Laboratories and NTT Software Innovation Center today announced that three papers co-authored by scientists from several of their divisions were selected (including one Spotlight paper) for this years NeurIPS 2020, the 34th annual conference of the Neural Information Processing Systems Foundation. A non-profit corporation that fosters the exchange of research on neural information processing systems in their biological, technological, mathematical and theoretical aspects, the NeurIPS Foundation will hold this years all-virtual conference on December 6-12. Its selection committee accepted 16 percent of the more than 12,000 abstract submissions they received, including the following three, which touch upon deep neural networks, theory and algorithms, deep learning and Bayesian modeling:

There is no better place to explore the overlap between machine learning and computational neuroscience than the annual NeurIPS event, said Yoshihisa Yamamoto, PHI Lab Director. We are excited to see the latest paper by Dr. Tanaka and his Stanford colleagues, as well as those by our colleagues at the NTT Software Innovation Center and NTT Communication Science Laboratories and expect the fields of neural networking and machine learning will benefit from the efficiencies and expanded capabilities that they are proposing.

This years seven-day virtual NeurIPS event includes an expo, conference sessions, tutorials and workshops. The authors of these papers will participate in the event through poster and short recorded presentations. A follow-up to the Pruning Neural Networks paper, as noted above, will be presented at one of the events workshops. As an indication of the vitality of this sub-field of neuroscience, the event organizers noted a 40 percent year-over-year increase in the number of submitted abstracts, similar to the growth from 2018 to 2019. Papers in the areas of algorithms, deep learning and applications comprised 66 percent of the papers that were reviewed. Among this years keynote speakers are Christopher Bishop, director of the Microsoft Research Lab in Cambridge, England; Shafi Goldwasser, Director of the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing; and Marloes Maathuis, Professor of Statistics at ETH (the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) in Zurich.

About NTT Research

NTT Research opened its Palo Alto offices in July 2019 as a new Silicon Valley startup to conduct basic research and advance technologies that promote positive change for humankind. Currently, three labs are housed at NTT Research: the Physics and Informatics (PHI) Lab, the Cryptography and Information Security (CIS) Lab, and the Medical and Health Informatics (MEI) Lab. The organization aims to upgrade reality in three areas: 1) quantum information, neuro-science and photonics; 2) cryptographic and information security; and 3) medical and health informatics. NTT Research is part of NTT, a global technology and business solutions provider with an annual R&D budget of $3.6 billion.

NTT and the NTT logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORPORATION and/or its affiliates. All other referenced product names are trademarks of their respective owners. 2020 NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORPORATION

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NTT Co-authored Papers at NeurIPS to Advance Machine Learning Efficiency and Performance - Business Wire

In an effort to give back to the community and help The Place of Forsyth County reach its year-end fundraising goals, two companies have partnered with the organization to provide socially distant fundraisers that also provide a means for gift giving this holiday season.

Kendra Scott at the Avalon will be hosting a Kendra Gives Back event on Dec. 11 and 12 where 20% of sales will benefit The Place of Forsyth. Shoppers can shop online both days using the coupon code GIVEBACK-0JZV.

For those who want to shop in person, on Friday, Dec. 11 from 6-8 p.m., shoppers can designate their purchase as part of the give-back event by telling the cashier they want to support The Place. For more information visit theplaceofforsythcounty.splashthat.com/.

The following week, on Thursday, Dec. 17, from 7-8 p.m., Snap Teck IT is sponsoring a virtual Night of Magic, Comedy, and Madness with illusionist Denny Corby. Tickets are $35 and 100% of the proceeds will benefit The Place of Forsyth.

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Upcoming fundraisers planned to support The Place of Forsyth include shopping and magic - Forsyth County News Online

Since its September launch, more than 1,700 Ohioans have received career coaching from an Ohio To Work service provider partner, including the Urban League of Greater Cleveland, Goodwill of Greater Cleveland and East Central Ohio, and Ohio Means Jobs. So far, 46 employers have committed to support Ohio To Work, with more expressing interest. Collectively, these companies would like to hire more than 2,000 workers in the Cleveland/Cuyahoga County area. We have also partnered with six training providers who know how to prepare candidates for the types of jobs that are now in demand. And funding is being made available to help candidates as they go through the reskilling process. JobsOhio's industry sector partners MAGNET, Team NEO, Cuyahoga Community College and the Greater Cleveland Partnership continue to provide critical support across the Ohio To Work pilot initiative, including when we held a virtual career fair in October that touched more than 700 job seekers and connected them with coaches and employers. More career fairs are planned, and the next one, focused on diversity and inclusion, is set for Thursday, Dec. 10. Interested job seekers can visit OhioToWork.com for details.

There are real people behind those numbers. One career coach from our Goodwill partner told us about a job seeker who interviewed for a position in manufacturing, which was not her background, and happily discovered that the employer would be willing to train her. Another coach at Ohio Means Jobs shared a story about a client who had only ever thought about truck driving as an option, and now, thanks to discovering potential new career paths through an Ohio To Work artificial intelligence tool, they were going to a career fair to explore a wider range of job possibilities. And at the Urban League, a coach was helping someone with a bachelor's degree in nonprofit management who had been working in childcare, but now realized they had an aptitude for accounting and could look into a job in banking among other areas.

Central to the entire effort is our long-standing commitment to advance equity. One of the reasons we selected Greater Cleveland for the pilot initiative is that minority job seekers and minority-owned businesses there have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. Our partners have deep experience serving minority communities. The planned diversity- and inclusion-focused career fair on Dec. 10 is a key element of Ohio To Work. And among other things, we are emphasizing expanded access to reskilling, including partnering with programs such as We Can Code IT, which is dedicated to promoting tech in minority communities.

By better connecting our Ohio To Work partners, we are in effect supercharging the existing workforce ecosystem. Through this collaboration, we have hosted virtual sessions to introduce employers and career coaches, allowing them to share insights with each other, as well as provide coaches a more direct line to employers. We are able to deliver the latest business intelligence, about employer needs and in-demand training programs, to our service provider partners and coaches. Ohio To Work is also leading by delivering cutting-edge solutions and data for job seekers, piloting the latest in workforce tech artificial intelligence tools to help job seekers discover new career paths. And we are doing our best to ensure those paths involve in-demand skills to make careers as future-proof as possible.

No matter where you might be in your career journey whether you're ready to find your next opportunity or just starting to consider your options the Ohio To Work partners want you to know there are resources to support you. A lot of it can be done remotely, like building digital skills, or enrolling in a fully virtual bootcamp to become a software developer. We hope you will visit OhioToWork.com to explore ways you can immediately start investing in your future.

The Ohio To Work pilot is still running, and the idea is for all of this to be just the beginning. We are learning what works and what needs to be improved, with a plan to expand the Ohio To Work initiative to other areas of the state. JobsOhio is proud that we can pivot quickly, and in this case, innovate at the speed of crisis. We could not accomplish it without the support of our partners. Why are all of us doing it? Because we can. It's what Ohioans deserve.

Nauseef is president and CEO of JobsOhio, the state's private nonprofit economic development corporation.

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Personal View: Helping Ohioans find sustainable new careers - Crain's Cleveland Business

Are you preparing for 2021 to be your year? Maybe after 2020, were all just hoping to have a year full stop. In any case, the end of the year is a great time for reflection and goal-setting. So why not get a little assistance from a well-loved self-help book or two.

Below, Ive put together a list of books that are particularly noteworthy in the self-improvement space. Some are brand new for 2020, others have been around for a few years. But whats consistent here is that theyre all great at offering advice on goal-setting and making serious progress when it comes to work, finance and personal development.

Check them out here:

1. What Would Frida Do?: A Guide To Living Boldly By Arianna Davis

Hachette described this book as:

A contemporary guide to life inspired by the extraordinary artist Frida Kahlo.

In this charming read, author Arianna Davis conjures Fridas brave spirit, encouraging women to persevere, to create fearlessly, and to stand by their own truths.

I am officially sold. Get your copy here.

2. Get Your Sh*t Together Sarah Knight

Coming from the author of The Life-Changing Magic Of Not Giving A F**K, this book is based around helping you to stop whining and start winning.

Grab yours here.

3. Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig

This may sound quite heavy. And yes, it does deal with mental health struggles. But this memoir has been described as life-altering by many. I mean, just read this excerpt:

I want life. I want to read it and write it and feel it and live it. I want, for as much of the time as possible in this blink-of-an-eye existence we have, to feel all that can be felt. I hate depression. I am scared of it. Terrified, in fact. But at the same time, it has made me who I am. And if for me it is the price of feeling life, its a price always worth paying

Read it today.

4. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives by Lori Gottlieb

This booked grabbed me instantly. Its a book about therapy and the myriad of ways that it can help people who are struggling. Highly recommend.

Buy the book here.

5. Happy & Other Ridiculous Aspirations by Turia Pitt

Aussie icon Turia Pitt has penned another novel, this time its focused on ways we can feasibly become happier people. Now thats a self-improvement goal we can all get behind.

Start your journey here.

6. The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse by Charlie Mackesy

You may have heard of this book before its been raved about by millions of readers. Penguin described it as:

A reminder of what truly matters, as told through the adventures of four beloved friends. Based on Charlies daily Instagram. For fans of Winnie-the-poohs Little Book of Wisdom.

Get a copy here.

7. The Cambridge Code: One Simple Test To Uncover Who You Are by Curly Moloney and Emma Loveridge

This book was written by Dr Emma Loveridge (psychologist) and Dr Curly Moloney (Doctor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery_ along with a team of scientists and researchers from Cambridge University. It looks at ways you can improve your life, work, relationships and wellbeing based on your psychological profile.

Learn more about yourself by grabbing a copy.

Want to continue with the self-improvement? Check out these moving biographies available for purchase now.

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7 Self-Improvement Books That Actually Work - Lifehacker Australia

The Neuroscience of Daily Success is a publication that is soon to be released, authored by Kelvin Teo. Kelvin Teo was once a 9-5 worker who was paid well, however he was left with no time and failing physical and mental health as a result. The dissatisfaction he felt in his life is a grievance that is shared by many workers across the world. The general formula that has been handed to people is that schooling and a good job with good pay will create satisfaction and happiness. However, many people are now realizing that this is not the case, and the average worker is usually unsatisfied with their life.

Kelvin Teo discovered that by changing his mental filter, his perceived outlook on his life, he was able to create meaningful changes that led to lasting impacts on his overall life. In 2017, Kelvin went on a personal development journey to find the answers amongst all the motivational talks and fluff. What he discovered were neuroscience techniques which had concrete results, and were no nonsense in their science, application and results. Through the application of these methods and techniques, Kelvin explains that you are planting a seed, and while this seed may be small and insignificant at the moment, that seed (or changes) will turn into huge impacts on your life.

For Kelvin, one of those seeds was changing his mental filter, and how he perceived life. This change grew into something significant, because Kelvin ended up leaving his job in order to pursue personal development. Now, he makes a living through his work and helping others to achieve this in their life, as well as being able to spend time with his family and take care of his health.

He has since committed to further changes that have become major impacts on his life. Within his book, he teaches the reader how to understand mentalism better, learn and identify mental filters and how much they can impact your life, understand how to achieve continuous success on a daily basis and to understand how to take full control of your universe through the application of effective mental strategies.

The content written above, featured from the book, is enough for the user to be able to read through the whole book, and then upon finishing it, implement changes into their life that will sprout into significant changes for the better.

For anyone looking for a good read into neuroscience applications on everyday life, or for those searching for personal development journeys and techniques/methods, then look no further than The Neuroscience of Daily Success by Kelvin Teo. It is definitely worth a read.

Samantha is the head of content and politics columnist for Best in Australia. Prior to joining the Best in Au, she was a court and crime reporter at SM.

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How Kelvin Teos The Neuroscience of Daily Success can help you make change in your life for the better - Best in Australia

New Years resolution aesthetic Photo courtesy of thriveglobal.com

The year 2020 has been a hectic rollercoaster, to say the least. Many went into the year with an eager and determined attitude, ambitious to complete their 2020 goals. Each year people strive to transform themselves into their higher purpose and challenge themselves to exceed new heights. While this year may have been challenging to complete those goals, the new year of 2021 still brings hope for a fresh start.

You may be someone who writes out their new years resolutions faithfully, or maybe you are someone who doesnt believe in it. You might struggle with accomplishing your designated goals as you are strong within the first few months, then tend to fall off toward the end of the year. Dont worry, studies show that about 60 percent of individuals create new years resolutions, though only 8 percent achieve their goals. By the time you finish reading, you will be equipped to have faith in creating and tackling all of your goals in the coming year.

If you are among the masses who have been overwhelmed by the year that we have had, it is imperative to sit and reflect. Reflect upon what youve been through this year and how it has impacted you both directly and indirectly. A large contributor to setting personal goals for where you are trying to go is reflecting on where you have been and where you currently are. Think about what brought you to the place that you are in and how it has impacted you physically, financially, spiritually and mentally.

Next, think about what the new year entails for you. Think about what you would like to accomplish in all aspects of your life. Write all of this information out and prioritize based on interest and level of actually achieving them within a year. If the goal may take more than a year to accomplish, break the goal down into parts, listing what you want to achieve within the first year. Create categories in which each aspiration fits. These categories can be things such as hobbies, physical goals, educational, personal growth, development, etc. Once that is complete, write out the necessary materials and equipment needed to achieve your desired goals.

Afterward, write out small things that can be fulfilled daily to achieve your resolutions. Decipher if these goals need to be worked on daily, weekly or monthly, and how much time will be allotted to working on each goal. When establishing a goal, it can seem easy to achieve but overwhelming when beginning to work toward it. In your head, the ideal becomes a larger concept. Breaking it down on a smaller scale allows the goal to become realistic and manageable. All of this information should be placed in a journal that is specifically dedicated to achieving your new years resolutions. Depending on what works best for you, stay consistent with journaling whether its every day or every other week. Highlight where you have worked on your goals and also where you may have fallen short. It allows you to track your progress and shows effort in implementing what you have set forth for yourself. Doing this also allows for constant reflection, which is necessary for growth.

Finally, create a daily to-do list. Every morning or the night before you begin your day create a to-do list that will help you tackle your goals. This allows you to easily incorporate your goals throughout your day while providing a sense of achievement. The list can vary daily and doesnt have to be filled with extensive tasks. Just crossing out a few tasks daily will provide you with a sense of purpose and encouragement to pursue your best you.

Now, you are equipped with creating your best and most achievable new years resolutions. Find an accountability partner and continuously visualize your accomplishments while rewarding yourself along the way.

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Mastering your new year's resolutions The Famuan - Famuan

The orphanage director lies about Beth's age when introducing her to the Wheatleys; what age is Beth throughout the series, and why the dishonesty?

When Beth is adopted inThe Queen's Gambit, the orphanage lies about Beth's age so how old is she, and why lie in the first place?The Queen's Gambitis Netflix's hit miniseries based on the Walter Tevis novel by the same name; it's a coming of age story about a young American chess prodigy who learns to overcome her personal demons.The Queen's Gambitfollows Beth from her childhood until adulthood but is unclear about her exact age throughout.

Beth is orphaned inThe Queen's Gambitwhen her motherdies in a car crash, which is implied to have been an intentional murder-suicide attempt. Beth's father, whose identity is never confirmed, is not in the picture, which leaves the young woman an orphan. Sheis sent to the Methuen Home for Girls, where sheremains until she is adopted, as a teenager, byAlma and Allston Wheatley.

Related:The Queen's Gambit: The Meaning Behind Beth's Final Outfit

When Beth first meets the Wheatleys, the director of the orphanage,Helen Deardorff, tells them that Beth is 13. Beth starts to correct her, beginning to say she's fifteen, but Deardorff stops her. Likely, the director was operating under the assumption that the Wheatleys wouldn't want an older child, so she lied about Beth's age; however, as Alma reveals later, she intentionally chose to adopt a teenager, having previously lost a child and (presumably) not wanting the additional responsibility required for raising an adolescent. Deardorff assumed that the older a young woman was, the less viable she was as a candidate for adoption but Beth's case proves she was wrong, and for some prospective parents, a teenager is an ideal option.

The Queen's Gambitshows thatElizabeth was 9 years old when she entered the orphanage. Her birth certificate, seen in episode 1, shows her birthdate as "November 2, 1948," and was thus approximately 15 years old when she wonher first tournament in 1963 but not when she was adopted, since it appeared to happen in the summer. Chances are, Beth was about the say she was "fifteen in November" when Deardorff interrupted her, since the timeline doesn't make sense otherwise. Presumably, she told Alma her true age, which explains why she was able to graduate just three years later in 1966. Since Alma already admitted she didn't want a younger child, it's likely she would have been even happier to learn that Beth was already nearing adulthood (which further explains Alma's hands-offparenting style with Beth).

Beth iseither 19 or 20 at the end ofThe Queen's Gambit, as the tournament in Russia takes place in 1968, but the time of year is not clear. Based on the fact that she's described as being 20, the event likely takes place late in 1968, after her birthday in November. There are some issues with Beth's age namely, it makes Beth's relationship with Townesa littleproblematic given how young she was when he had her in his hotel room but the fact that her age is kept vague helps focus the story on her personal development, and the various emotional milestones she reaches on her journey in The Queen's Gambit.

Next:The Queen's Gambit: The Meaning Behind Beth's Final Outfit

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Sarah Milner is an editor for Screen Rant's Film/Television features division. She is a writer, researcher, and folk musician. Her writing has appeared in Exclaim! and Electric City Magazine. A graduate of Trent University, Sarah's MA thesis examines Frankenstein adaptations and their relationship with popular culture. She has a fierce love of all things "spooky," and a deep appreciation for classic cinema.

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The Queen's Gambit: Why The Orphanage Lied About Beth's Age - Screen Rant