NEW YORK -- "iPhone 5" is trending Thursday as rumors swirl about the look and feel of the new phone when it arrives this September.
Keanu Reeves has written a poetry book, "Ode to Happiness," that "externalizes a melancholy internal monologue and subtly pokes fun at it," according to publisher Steidl.
The 40-page book has a single, long poem by Reeves, art by painter Alexandra Grant and was created with the help of Janey Bergam. The art book is $55.
The text includes lines like "I draw a hot sorrow bath / in my despair room" and "It can always be worse.
Was the book inspired by the "Sad Keanu" Internet meme, the one that began with a photograph of a seemingly dejected Keanu Reeves eating on a park bench? The New York Daily News thinks so.
But, really, is Keanu paying that much attention to Photoshop memes of himself? Doesn't he have muscles to train, lines to learn and, you know, samurai to defeat?
Or maybe he has books to buy. Book Soup, where Reeves has been rumored to shop, has six copies of "Ode to Happiness" left in stock. That's twice as many as Amazon.
Dublin, Ireland – Rioting engulfed the Short Strand district of Belfast, Northern Ireland, Tuesday night, as pro-British loyalists and Irish republican residents of the area clashed for the second consecutive day.
Local police said that as many as 400 people participated in the violence and that a news photographer was wounded in a shooting in one of Belfast's most tense neighborhoods. In an effort to break up the fights, police fired at least 66 plastic bullets but made only one arrest: a young woman was detained on suspicion of possession of a firearm and assaulting police.
While police and locals blamed the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) for sparking the violence on Monday and being involved in fighting last night, an unnamed dissident republican splinter group may be equally to blame in Tuesday's melee.
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The violence has already led to calls for renewed dialogue between Protestant and Catholic groups, especially as it becomes evident that splinter paramilitary groups are trying to revive discord along political and religious lines.
“In the past there, we had an interface group where Short Strand community leaders would call me or someone else [and vice versa] if there was trouble brewing. I think there was a feeling from Sinn Féin that it was a policing responsibility – and I can see their point – but now we, on both sides of the community, want to see those structures reestablished. Similar initiatives are going on to resolve issues in other parts of Belfast," says Sammy Douglas, a local lawmaker with the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) who has worked as a community activist in east Belfast.
Marching season nearsMany local leaders say the spike in sectarian violence – coupled with the increasingly murky picture of which groups are involved – is especially troubling as Northern Ireland's always-tense "marching season" approaches.
“The main thing now is to ensure the violence stops before it gets inflamed,â€
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During the marching season, which reaches its high point on July 12 but continues until the end of August, the Protestant Orange Institution and associated groups – including bands named after loyalist paramilitary organizations – parade throughout Northern Ireland.
The parades, which republicans view as provocative displays of sectarianism but unionists see as expressions of British identity, have often ended in violence.
The paramilitary playersSo far, there is no indication that the mainstream Provisional IRA (PIRA) has engaged in the fighting. The Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) confirmed the PIRA had disarmed by September 2005. And in 2009, the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC), a body formed by the British and Irish governments, said the IRA’s leadership group known as the “army councilâ€
Dissident groups formed by disaffected members of the PIRA and who remain committed to war include the Continuity IRA, founded in 1987 and the Real IRA, formed in 1997. A third group was formed from a split within the Real IRA in 2009, calling itself Óglaigh na hÉireann (the Gaelic name traditionally used by the various IRAs).
In the past two years, dissident republicans have killed two policemen and two British soldiers, the most recent killing being the car bombing of police officer Ronan Kerr in April 2011. Both groups have staged dozens of other actions including so-called "punishment shooting" vigilante actions against criminals and several failed bomb and gun attacks.
On the loyalist side of the conflict, matters are more confused. The UVF and the Ulster Defence Association were supposedly disarmed and disbanded.
But the IMC’s most recent report, issued in March, said the UVF was still active: “Notwithstanding the progress made in the past three years, the organization’s role in the murder of [member] Bobby Moffett calls into question the claim in the May 2007 statement that the UVF would become a civilian organization. We do not doubt the wish of the leadership to pursue the 2007 strategy though there are some within the organization who are evidently not ready to accept the restraints on their behavior which this means.”
Now, the UVF’s role in leading the recent riots suggests a power struggle within the paramilitary group.
A Protestant and unionist resident of east Belfast, who did not wish to be identified, said whatever progress was being made between republicans and unionists in high office needed to be replicated on the ground. “Neither the dissidents nor the UVF speak for the people. People were led into a false sense of security, thinking the weapons had gone away."
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| Being born and raised in a major urban area is associated with greater lifetime risk for anxiety andmood disorders. |
(June 22, 2011) — Being born and raised in a major urban area is associated with greater
lifetime risk for anxiety and mood disorders. Until now, the biology for these associations had not been described. A new international study, which involved Douglas Mental Health University Institute researcher Jens Pruessner, is the first to show that two distinct brain regions that regulate emotion and stress are affected by city living. These findings, published in Nature may lead to strategies that improve the quality of life for city dwellers.
"Previous findings have shown that the risk for anxiety disorders is 21 percent higher for people from the city, who also have a 39 percent increase for mood disorders," says co-author Jens Pruessner, a Douglas researcher. "In addition, the incidence for schizophrenia is almost doubled for individuals who are born and brought up in cities. These values are a cause for concern and determining the biology behind this is the first step to remedy the trend."
Distinct brain structures
Pruessner, with his colleagues from the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, looked at the brain activity of healthy volunteers from urban and rural areas. In a series of functional magnetic resonance experiments involving the Douglas' previously developed 'Montreal Imaging Stress Task',(MIST) protocol, they showed that city living was associated with greater stress responses in the amygdala, an area of the brain involved with emotional regulation and mood. In contrast, urban upbringing was found to be associated with activity in the cingulate cortex, a region involved in regulation of negative affect and stress.
"These findings suggest that different brain regions are sensitive to the experience of city living during different times across the lifespan," says Pruessner. "Future studies need to clarify the link between psychopathology and these affects in individuals with mental disorders.These findings contribute to our understanding of urban environmental risk for mental disorders and health in general. They further point to a new approach to interface social sciences, neurosciences and public policy to respond to the major health challenge of urbanization."
The rocker, 44, tied the knot to his girlfriend of 11 years, Sara MacDonald, over the weekend, his rep confirms to PEOPLE.
The ceremony reportedly took place Saturday at the Lime Wood Hotel in New Forest, England, and this is Gallagher's second marriage.
Published reports say Russell Brand, Gallagher's former co-host on British radio show "TalkSPORT," served as best man at the ceremony, where MacDonald sparkled in a full-length vintage gown.
MacDonald switched into a Tom Ford dress for the reception, sharing her first dance with Gallagher as husband and wife to The Ronette's "Be My Baby."
"Little Britain" star David Walliams and supermodel wife Lara Stone, actor John Simm and musician Paul Weller helped the couple celebrate the nuptials. Brand's wife, Katy Perry, is on tour and couldn't attend.
Noticeably absent from the ceremony: brother and former band mate, Liam Gallagher, whom he's publicly had a rocky relationship with that led to the band's split.
"I've not been invited to his wedding," Liam Gallagher, who's been playing gigs with his current band, Beady Eye, in Chicago, told the Chicago Sun-Times prior to the big day.
Gallagher and MacDonald have two sons together: Donovan, 3, and Sonny, 8 months. Gallagher has a daughter, Anais, 11, with his first wife Meg Matthews.
Chris Brown used the word “gay” as an insult while berating the paparazzi, but on Twitter the 22-year-old singer says he didn’t mean it. And that’s some “REAL SHIT,” he promises.
Chris Brown.
Brown was caught on tape by TMZ – which posted the video on Tuesday – while talking with a parking meter attendant. When he saw the approaching cameraman, Brown was annoyed and started shouting at him, accusing the man of reporting the vehicle just so he could get a shot.
“Ya’ll [n words] is weak,” he yelled at the paparazzi. “Did ya’ll call them to try and film me? Ya’ll [n words] is gay.”
Brown used his 140 characters on Twitter last night to take it all back.
“I have total respect for Gay community and my intention was not to insult anyone in it,” he wrote, tagging his tweet with a homemade hashtag, “#REALSHIT.”
A few hours later, he posted a shirtless picture of himself and joked about “cold nipples.” So it seems he’s ready to move on with life.
Reaction on Twitter was cautious, considering Brown’s sordid history – most recently including tearing up a green room at Good Morning America when asked about assaulting fellow singer and former girlfriend Rihanna.
“Well the gay community loves your music,” wrote Willie Torres. “So I hope you mean what you say.”
“You sure do apologize a lot,” wrote Paul McLaren, who also tagged his post “#REALSHIT.”
