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Anjelica Huston Tells Her 'Story' Of Growing Up With A Director Dad.
The actor's new memoir, A Story Lately Told, ends just as her Hollywood career is taking off. It covers her early life growing up in Ireland, the daughter of Maltese Falcon director John Huston. The two first collaborated on 1969's Walk With Love And Death, a project that proved disastrous for their relationship.
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Other segments from the episode on November 19, 2013
November 19, 2013
Guest: Anjelica Huston
TERRY GROSS, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. My guest, actress Anjelica Huston, has written a memoir about her early life called "A Story Lately Told." She's best known for her performances in "Prizzi's Honor," "The Grifters," "The Addams Family," " The Royal Tenenbaums," and the TV series "Smash." Her book ends before her successful acting career. That part of her life will be in volume two, which is now in the works.
But her early years are worthy of a book. She's the daughter of John Huston, who directed nearly 50 films, including "The Maltese Falcon," "The African Queen," "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," "Casino Royale" and "Prizzi's Honor," the film for which Anjelica won an Oscar.
Anjelica's mother, Ricki, gave up a promising career as a ballet dancer when she married John Huston. She was 18, he was 43. She was pregnant when they married. Fifteen months after their son Tony was born, Anjelica was born. John Huston moved the family to Ireland, where Anjelica grew up on an estate called St. Clarens.
Anjelica Huston, welcome to FRESH AIR. I'd like to start with a short reading from your book. In fact, why don't you read the beginning of chapter one.
ANJELICA HUSTON: Thank you, Terry. I was born at 6:29 p.m. on July 8, 1951, at the Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles. At 8 pounds, 13 ounces, I was a big, healthy baby. The news of my arrival was cabled promptly to the post office in the township of Butaleja in Western Uganda. Two days later, a barefoot runner bearing a telegram finally arrived at Murchison Falls, a waterfall on the Nile, deep in the heart of the Belgian Congo, where "The African Queen" was being filmed.
My father, John Marcellus Huston, was a director renowned for his adventurous style and audacious nature. Even though it was considered foolhardy, he'd persuaded not only Katherine Hepburn, an actress in her prime, but also Humphrey Bogart, who brought along his famously beautiful wife, the movie star Lauren Bacall, to share the hazardous journey.
My mother, heavily pregnant, had stayed behind in Los Angeles with my one-year-old brother, Tony. When the messenger handed the telegram to my father, he glanced at it, then put it in his pocket. Katie Hepburn exclaimed, for God sakes, John, what does it say, and dad replied: It's a girl. Her name is Anjelica.
GROSS: So Anjelica Huston, what's your reaction to that story of your birth? I mean, your father's making this classic film while you're born, which, you know, great for him, but he's not with your mother, and he's not with you.
HUSTON: That's true, but he was often not with my mother and often not with me, which didn't alter in any way my profound love for him and my feelings, my daughterly feelings towards him. That was what he did. He was an adventurer, and he lived in a grand style, and everything around him and everything he did was a grand gesture. So this was sort of typical of who he was.
GROSS: So your parents marry, your mother 18, your father in his 40s. Within about a year she gives birth to your brother Tony, and then 15 months after that she gives birth to you. Your father moves the family to Ireland. In reading this, I think your mother must have been so removed from her world. She's away from America, she's away from the people she knows, she's away from her work. She's not going to do ballet anymore, she's had two children, and after you were born she goes into this postpartum depression.
Do you think your mother resented that her life was so transformed in a way that wasn't necessarily the direction she wanted to head in? Like I don't know if in retrospect she really wanted to become a mother that young and to be leading the life that your father wanted her to have.
HUSTON: Yes, I think you have a good point there. I'm not sure whether or not she wanted to have my brother that soon, but that was what you did when you married. It wasn't really a conversation like it is these days. And I think ideally it must have seemed like a wonderful sort of glamorous union with my father. But of course he was not a very faithful person, and I think that must have been a big blow for her, knowing my mother as I did.
She was romantic and naive in a way. And I think that must have been a big shock to her.
GROSS: At some point your father tells you and your older brother Tony to come visit him. And the big surprise is he's showing you that he has a new baby boy, with of course a woman who's not your mother. By this time I guess they're living separately. And you write you looked at this new baby and you thought: I hate him.
And that baby is Danny Huston, who's turned out to be really a fine actor.
HUSTON: And the finest brother in the world.
GROSS: Oh really? Good. I'm glad to hear that.
GROSS: What did it mean to you to see this baby born from - you know, born with another woman?
HUSTON: Well, the other woman wasn't just another woman. The other woman and I had made - we were very friendly. I'd made friends with her a couple of years before at St. Clarens, and I loved her. Her name was Zoe Sallis. And she was beautiful, Indian, exotic. She had those Morticia Adams eyes. And my father called from Rome when he was making "The Bible" and told my mother that he wanted Tony, my brother, and I to go to Rome, that he wanted to tell us some news.
And I remember saying to my mother, I don't want to go to Rome, and she said why not, is it because of Zoe? And I said, Zoe? Why should that have to do with anything? Well, she didn't really reply, and Tony and I showed up in Rome and walked into the Grand Hotel, and my father clapped his hands together and said sit down, kids, I have some great news.
So we sat down, silent anticipation, and then he said you have a little brother. And I thought how is that possible, my mother wasn't pregnant. Anyway, then we were taken to see this baby, who was in an apartment building somewhere on the other side of town, and lo and behold, Zoe was the baby's mother. So I was very - I was very shocked by that.
And the baby was a toddler. He was crawling around on the floor on all fours, pretending to be a little dog. He was barking, and dad was patting him on the head and telling him what a good little dog he was. And I sat there in sort of horrified silence for a while, and then came time to say goodbye to the little dog. And my brother kissed him, and Danny kissed him back.
And then dad said to me, kiss Danny goodbye. And I looked at this baby with sort of unconcealed hatred. And Danny held up his right hand, his little tiny, fat, pudgy toddler's hand, like a little claw, and growled at me.
HUSTON: And I fell madly in love with him.
HUSTON: He was just the cutest thing ever. And he had clocked me. He knew exactly what I was - what I was about.
GROSS: Did you know before your mother did about this baby?
HUSTON: No, my mother knew but hadn't said anything. And when I went back to London, my mother was pregnant, and...
GROSS: With another man.
HUSTON: I had no idea. With another man's baby, yes. That became my sister Allegra.
GROSS: And you describe your mother saying to you, you had been having some conflicts with her at this point, and you describe her saying to you, like, can you make it a little bit easier on me, can't you see I'm seven months pregnant? And it was like, wow...
HUSTON: Yeah, and the fact that I hadn't sort of clocked that was pretty telling. I, obviously, you know, wasn't really seeing what was going on.
GROSS: How old were you then?
HUSTON: I was 12.
GROSS: Mm-hmm. So, your mother gives birth to Allegra. You fall in love with Allegra immediately. Let's talk a little bit about your mother. It sounds like your mother was very beautiful. And what did you understand about the importance of beauty when you were growing up? Your mother was beautiful. Your father worked with - directed beautiful actresses. So, I mean, beauty had tangible value.
HUSTON: Yes, it did. And, yes, my mother was spectacularly beautiful, a very refined kind of beauty, not vulgar in any way. She looked like a Renaissance Madonna. She had very calm, big, gray eyes, very fine features. She was both earthy and delicate. I think her awareness of beauty, my father's involvement with it, yeah, it was. It was definitely an asset, and not just people's physical beauty, but the physical beauty of things, of objects, too.
GROSS: And you describe yourself as spending a lot of time looking at your face in the mirror. And you think it wasn't exactly vanity. It was something else. What were you looking for?
HUSTON: I was looking for the beauty. I was looking to see if it was there at all. And I think that really is a lot of what children look in the mirror, what that's about. It's not necessarily appreciating what you have. It's also looking for what you don't think you have. So it's a way of recognizing yourself or recognizing your potential, maybe.
GROSS: What did you see when you looked at yourself?
HUSTON: A rather plain little girl with brown hair and freckles, with hazel eyes and not particularly beautiful, but someone who was dreaming. I was pretty dreamy. But it wasn't really about feeling gorgeous or anything like that. It was about I wonder if I could make this into something.
GROSS: And what did you think you needed to do to make this into something?
HUSTON: Put a lot of makeup on it, to begin with.
GROSS: Well describe the makeup you wore. It sounds like quite a mask that you'd put on every day.
HUSTON: Yeah, the makeup, I couldn't wait for makeup. And I loved watching my mother putting on makeup and lipstick, and what mascara did. And, oh, I loved that transformation. And I liked all things feminine. I liked stockings and high heels, and I wanted to be a woman. I wanted to grow up really fast.
GROSS: And when you started to grow up, it sounds like your father was pretty uncomfortable. For example, he once accused you of doing the bumps. You didn't know what he meant, but you figured out he probably meant, like, dancing sensually with your hips. And you got really angry with him and said: You don't love me. And then he hit you hard across the face.
Reading that, it made me wonder, because he was so attracted to younger women, do you think he was especially scared that you were becoming sexual?
HUSTON: I think probably that had something to do with it, but I still think that he missed early days in Saint Clarens, the idea of having a wife and children happily ensconced in the country, where nothing would happen to us. And I think he sort of wanted to stop time. And there I was, getting provocative and wearing short skirts and lots of makeup and dancing provocatively.
GROSS: Maybe he was afraid, also, that you'd meet a man like he was.
GROSS: An older man who would fall in love with younger women, and actually, that did happen a little later. Yeah.
HUSTON: It did. That's exactly what happened.
GROSS: We'll get to that a little later. If you're just joining us, my guest is Anjelica Huston, and she's written the first of a two-part memoir called "A Story Lately Told: Coming of Age in Ireland, London, and New York." Let's take a short break here, and then we'll talk some more. This is FRESH AIR.
GROSS: If you're just joining us, my guest is Anjelica Huston. She's written a memoir about her early years called "A Story Lately Told." Volume two of her memoirs is in the works.
So, we were talking about how after your father had found out that you were doing this very sensual dancing, and he slapped you, that you didn't want to be around him anymore. He scared you. But soon after that, he decided you should make your film debut in a movie he was directing, a film called "A Walk with Love and Death," which I think few people remember. It didn't do well.
GROSS: You didn't want to do it. Why didn't you want to be in his film?
HUSTON: Well, for a start, he was very critical of me, and I wasn't comfortable with that. And it seemed to me that he didn't want me to be who I was, and that was very difficult, that he didn't really like me and that...
GROSS: Did he not like you, or did you just think at that time he didn't like you?
HUSTON: No, I felt at that time that he didn't like me. He didn't like who I was. He didn't like the way I dressed. He didn't like the way I looked. He was very critical of all of that. And so my primary task at the time was to avoid him. When he came up with this idea for "A Walk with Love and Death," it was, I think, you know, with the best possible intent. He thought he was doing something very good for me.
I had told him that I wanted to be an actress. I'd made that abundantly clear to everyone. And so he contrived to make this happen. "A Walk with Love and Death" was the second picture in a three-picture deal that he was doing at Fox, and I think, to his way of thinking, it was a marvelous idea, to me, not so much. Plus which, Franco Zeffirelli had launched a school search for Juliet for "Romeo and Juliet."
And I'd seen his producer a couple of times, and I'd been told that I maybe, you know, I would have a chance for a callback with Zeffirelli when he came to town. I was pretty excited about that. And then my father wrote Zeffirelli a letter telling him that I would be working with him. That upset me.
And also, having read the script, I didn't feel that I'd be any good in this movie, really. It was the part of a 15th-century maiden who falls in love with a student who's looking for the sea. It was a rather lyrical piece. I wouldn't have said that, you know, there was much to sink one's teeth into. And the character was, I felt, a bit wet, and I don't think my father was particularly interested in hearing my criticisms on the script.
I was a 16-year-old girl who'd never acted before, really. Who was I to have these - to have these reservations? He was a great director, you know, and I think he thought I was a pipsqueak, and I probably was.
GROSS: There's a paragraph about this that I'd like you to read. It's on Page 170.
HUSTON: (Reading) I would have much preferred to work with Zeffirelli. The prospect of making a movie with dad, his directing me, surrounded by his regular crew - most of whom had known me since babyhood - would diminish my power to self-invent on my own terms. It was as important for me to present a new persona off-camera as it was to play an original character on film.
GROSS: I have to say, I really related to that. My background is, like, not at all like yours. My father certainly didn't direct me in movies. But I share that sense that to be yourself, to find out who you are, you have to do that process away from your parents, because to you, they're your daughter, and they know who their daughter is.
But there's a part of you that's totally independent of being the daughter, and that's somebody who is being created independent of that, or largely independent of that. And so I feel like I really understood how difficult it would be for you to express yourself as an artist in this role, with your father insisting that he knew who you really were and that you couldn't be yourself, or couldn't be your interpretation of the actress - of the character.
HUSTON: Exactly. And also, by the mere fact of all of these people who were his regular crew members, they also remembered me as John's daughter. So that would create a barrier for me to - in order to express myself as somebody else or something else.
GROSS: So, did that make you want to give up on acting?
HUSTON: No, it didn't. It made me want to act for somebody else.
GROSS: But what you actually did was go into modeling instead.
HUSTON: Well, I did that because I didn't know that I'd be getting a lot of offers pursuant to some very, shall we say, raw criticisms and reviews. So having been invited by Dick Avedon to go to Ireland for, you know, a nice layout for Vogue, and also being invited by other magazines to model for them, it was a sort of - it was a good way to approach what I wanted to do again without the kind of criticism inherent in making movies. So it worked well for me.
GROSS: Anjelica Huston will be back in the second half of the show. Her new memoir is called "A Story Lately Told." I'm Terry Gross, and this is FRESH AIR.
GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross back with actress Anjelica Huston, who is best known for her roles in "The Grifters," "The Addams Family," "The Royal Tenenbaums" and the TV series "Smash." She won an Oscar for her 1985 film "Prizzi's Honor," which was directed by her father, John Huston, who directed nearly 50 films, including "The Maltese Falcon" and "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre." Her mother, Ricki, married Huston when she was 18 and he was 43. They moved to an estate in Ireland where Anjelica grew up. After her parents separated, she moved with her mother to London. Her new memoir is called "A Story Lately Told: Coming of Age in Ireland, London, and New York." Volume two of her memoirs is in the works.
I want to get back to your mother. When you were a teenager, you were going through some difficult times with her, as you we becoming more independent and more sexual. And she finally confronted you and said look, you know, like we really need to work this out and you started to work that out and become really close again. And then she was killed in a car accident. And she was 39 and you were how old?
HUSTON: I was 17.
GROSS: You tell an amazing story about this dream that you had. You were dreaming and you were awakened from the dream with the news told to you about your mother's accident. Would you describe the dream you were having?
HUSTON: I was having a dream that my spine was being pulled out of my body. As if someone had their hand around my coccyx bone and was extracting my spine. And as I was dreaming this, I was shaken awake, and it was part - became part of the dream. And when I woke up I saw someone who used to be a tutor of mine who is also a very good friend of my mother's, but I didn't know why he was sitting on my bed and shaking me awake. And before I was fully awake, he said your mother's dead. She was killed in a car crash. And so the news came to me before I was even fully conscious.
GROSS: You later came upon some of your mother's possessions. And within them was a dream that she had written down, a dream from the night before she was killed. Would you mind telling us that dream?
HUSTON: That dream was that she was in a structure and it was maybe a hotel and she was maybe in bed and there was an earthquake or there was a - the hotel crumbled and there was stuff like metal and glass, but that she climbed to a place atop the ruins. And the last lines are, you know, there's a feeling of peace, the kind of calm after a storm. And the person that she was traveling with gave me the dream. And I'm forever grateful for that because that's how I think of my mother as, you know, climbing to a place atop all of that earthly pain.
GROSS: You write that you always thought it was your father whose life was in jeopardy because of his age and his bad health. And so it was just unimaginable to you that your mother would die first.
HUSTON: Yeah. Never occurred to me. And we used have a joke, you know, if I liked something of hers I'd say, would you give that to me in your will and, you know, we'd laugh about it. But it never occurred to me that my mother - anything would happen to my mother.
GROSS: Did she have a will?
HUSTON: No.
GROSS: Did that make it even harder?
HUSTON: Yes.
GROSS: And you - yeah.
HUSTON: Yeah. But I ran away pretty soon. I didn't stick around to hear any wills being read or - and at first my reaction was I don't want anything. I don't want anything. I just want my mum back.
GROSS: So you went to New York after that.
HUSTON: Yeah.
GROSS: And that's when you really become a model.
HUSTON: Right.
GROSS: You write that you felt powerful in front of the camera modeling. But you hadn't felt powerful in front of the camera acting. Now that's in part because your father was directing and you didn't like the role and you didn't like the dialogue. But what was it that made you feel powerful in front of the camera when you are modeling? Because also, you didn't think you were beautiful.
HUSTON: Well, no, but I could be convinced.
HUSTON: And that was one of, you know, certainly Dick Avedon's major assets was the fact that he could certainly make you feel that way. And I think it was his, yes, it was his sort of metier to make women bloom in front of his camera. So with music and lighting and beautiful clothes and Dick Avedon telling you you look good, life was - that was pretty nice.
GROSS: Wasn't it Avedon who had earlier told your mother that you'd never be a model because your shoulders were too wide?
HUSTON: Yes. He told that to my mother and I was like oh God, nose too big maybe, but now shoulders too wide?
GROSS: I bet you'd never thought about the width of your shoulders before.
HUSTON: There were a lot of problems.
HUSTON: Never. Never. Never occurred to me.
GROSS: If you're just joining us, my guest is Anjelica Huston. And she's written a memoir about the first part of her life. And it's called "A Story Lately Told: Coming of Age in Ireland, London, and New York." Let's take a short break here and then we'll talk some more. This is FRESH AIR.
GROSS: If you're just joining us, my guest is Anjelica Huston and her new memoir is called "A Story Lately Told: Coming of Age in Ireland, London, and New York." And it's volume one, volume two is in the works.
So one of the photographers who photographed you was Bob Richardson and you and he became lovers for about four years. You had just turned 18 when you started your relationship, he was 42. That so much reminded me of your parents.
HUSTON: Yeah.
GROSS: When your mother was 18 and your father was in his 40's. Did you think about that when you started the relationship that you were age wise to locating what they'd had?
HUSTON: I don't think it was the first thing to occur to me. It was kind of - I guess I thought it was a bit of a coincidence, but I don't remember spending a lot of time thinking oh, wow, this is a repeat performance.
GROSS: And in retrospect?
HUSTON: I think I was looking for a parent, for a parent who approved.
GROSS: Oh, as opposed to your father who didn't?
HUSTON: Yeah, and my mother who was gone.
GROSS: Mm-hmm.
HUSTON: So I think that was largely my attraction to Bob. And also he was very seductive. And I loved working for him. I always loved working for his camera. He was incredibly intuitive, very sensitive. He seemed to understand everything. He seemed to know me.
GROSS: You write he was also controlling and sometimes abusive. And you...
HUSTON: He was - yeah.
GROSS: You write: I had mistaken Bob's need for dominance and control as love.
HUSTON: Well, yes, and he was also schizophrenic, which is...
GROSS: Which you didn't know at the time.
HUSTON: No. I had no idea. I had no idea and I didn't even really know what schizophrenia was. I didn't know that there were moments where he was completely out of control.
GROSS: Yeah.
HUSTON: But I was to learn that.
GROSS: And you also didn't know he had been diagnosed as bipolar, and he was also bisexual.
HUSTON: Right. Which I never knew.
GROSS: How did you find that out?
HUSTON: Much later I read it. I read it in an article about Bob that was published in The New Yorker in the, I think late '80s. I had no idea. I was fairly innocent.
GROSS: Well, another thing is he wanted you to have a baby and you were still very young. You had trouble conceiving. But you say you also knew you weren't ready. And also that a baby would tie him to you in a way you weren't sure you wanted to be tied to him. I mean you were with him when you were 18 to 22 years old.
HUSTON: Right.
GROSS: But it made me think again how if you'd had a baby it would also be repeating your parents' experiences, where your mother married your father when she was 18 and he was in his 40's, had two children right away and basically said goodbye to the possibility of a career, certainly as a ballet dancer. Did you think about your mother at that age when Bob Richardson had been wanting to - you to have a baby?
HUSTON: Again, maybe very shallow of me, but I wasn't really thinking about my parents' patterns. I was thinking about what I wanted, where I wanted to be, what I was up to. And largely that had to do with avoiding my father, who I dreaded, you know, a meeting, a future meeting between he and Bob. I knew instinctively or I felt instinctively that they wouldn't be fond of each other. I think my instinct about my father's reaction to Bob would be that he would think that Bob was a sissy.
GROSS: Why?
HUSTON: Because he was very sensitive. He was an emotional tumult. He was very up and down. He was not the kind of huntin', fishin', shootin' guy that my father would've approved of. Bob by his nature was a fashion photographer. I mean I think my father would've had contempt for that.
GROSS: What made you realize you needed to leave, like for your own, you know, mental health, you needed to leave?
HUSTON: Well, we had an episode at the Chelsea Hotel one day after about four days of his turning his face to the wall. And I went into the bathroom and pulled a razor blade across my wrist and it occurred to me that if I stayed with him I'd die at some point, that I wouldn't survive him. That, you know, being with somebody like that could push me over the edge.
GROSS: So when you left, where did you go to? What was the next step?
HUSTON: The next step was California. And Bob and I had - my father had come to visit us. Finally, after several years he and Bob finally met and he invited us to go on the fishing trip in Cabo San Lucas and it was absolutely horrible. My father had just gotten married again and we went out on this little boat in the middle of the Sea of Cortez and, you know, slaughter of these beautiful fishes began with a sailfish that was kind of macheted against the side of the boat. And it was a long, hot day and I got a terrible suntan. We get back to finally - oh yeah, the boat caught fire at one point and we had to be rescued.
HUSTON: And we got back to the hotel and we went - we sort of went over to the bar and Dad said what would you like to drink, honey, to me. And I said oh, I'd like a strawberry daiquiri. And Bob said no, you want a banana daiquiri.
HUSTON: And I was caught between these two guys. I thought, oh dear, this is really - this is hellish. Anyway, the trip progressed in the most awful way and ultimately, Bob and I parted at LAX. He held out his hand to shake mine and I refused it and that was it. I walked away. Put my hands in my pockets and walked away.
GROSS: Did it make you think like what you wanted different from the next relationship?
HUSTON: Yeah. I wanted laughs.
HUSTON: I wanted a good time. I wanted to go out dancing and see people and have a social life and have friends and that's exactly what happened.
GROSS: So we're going to have to wait till volume two to find out more about your acting career. But just tell us a little bit about that transformation of leaving modeling and becoming an actress.
HUSTON: When I was first in Los Angeles, I thought wow, you know, I'm not going to...
GROSS: ...and becoming an actress.
HUSTON: Well, when I was first in Los Angeles I thought, wow, you know, I'm not going to work here. I'm not the kind of model that they look for in Los Angeles. I'm not going to - they're not going to use me to sell hair products or toothpaste. And around that first year that I met Jack Nicholson and we started to go out together, I also met Elia Kazan who was directing a movie called "The Last Tycoon," which was being produced by Sam Spiegel, my dad's old producer from "African Queen," as it happened. And I really - I wanted to try out for that role. And I didn't get the role. Ingrid Boulting, who was also a model at the time, a contemporary of mine, got the role in "The Last Tycoon." I got the role of the wrong girl and I had a couple of scenes with Bobby DeNiro and I got the bug again.
GROSS: And again, we'll have to wait till volume two to hear more, but I just think it's so great that your father, who kind of scared you away from acting because it was such a really bad experience and you got such bad reviews...
GROSS: ...you know, he also kind of, you know, directs you in the film that really made you famous, "Prizzi's Honor." You won an Oscar for that. He won an Oscar for that.
HUSTON: He didn't, actually.
GROSS: But the film did.
HUSTON: That was one of the...
GROSS: Was it the film that did?
HUSTON: No. The film didn't. "Out of Africa" won that year.
GROSS: Oh. Oh, oh.
HUSTON: Yeah. No, I was the only one to win an Oscar and felt a bit lonely about it. But oh, well.
GROSS: Oh, yes. Worse things have happened.
HUSTON: Yes, they have.
GROSS: But it has this beautiful symmetry, you know what I mean, that your father who made it so hard for you at the beginning also kind of, you know, gives you the vehicle that allows you to show what you can do.
HUSTON: It's so true. And also, you know, vis a vis my father and my reaction to him and so forth, he was tough on everybody, and particularly as a director. He was no pushover. And I think I personalized everything, particularly at that age. I thought it was all about me. He really had it in for me. But I saw him get tough on other people too.
And although that doesn't really diminish the affect that it has on one when one's talent or one's behavior is called into question, at the same time there was something vaguely comforting about knowing that I wasn't the only one to suffer criticism.
GROSS: You know, part of your coming of age memoir is about you not feeling power and in your acting career you've played such powerful women. I mean, you know, in "Prizzi's Honor," in "The Grifters," in, you know, most recently in "Smash." What changed, do you think? Like, if you have a type onscreen, it's power.
HUSTON: Well, thank you. I think - hmm. How does that come about? I think probably because I'm quite imposing looking. Those big shoulders were going to be a hindrance to me somehow. You can't really play a shrinking violet with shoulders like mine.
HUSTON: So maybe that's what it is. And I am powerful when I want to be. I'm, I guess, a bit accident-prone. But I've had a lot of various and interesting experiences in my life. Some great, some not so great, but I don't think I could be accused of not living - of not living it, really. I'm apt to, you know, take big bites.
GROSS: Anjelica Huston, it's really been so great to talk with you. I hope we get to talk again when volume two comes out.
HUSTON: Thank you, Terry. This has been a pleasure.
GROSS: Thank you so much, and be well.
HUSTON: Thank you. You too.
GROSS: Anjelica Huston's new memoir is called "A Story Lately Told." You can read the introduction on our website freshair.npr.org. Coming up, John Powers reviews two new films he says are terrific. This is FRESH AIR.
TERRY GROSS, HOST: We're in the middle of the season when Hollywood rolls out its big awards contenders. This can make it hard for good foreign films and documentaries to get attention. Our critic-at-large, John Powers, says there are two of these you should try to see: Paolo Sorrentino's "The Great Beauty," which is Italy's submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar and Shaul Schwarz's "Narco Cultura," a documentary about the drug war in Mexico and its influence on a popular musical form known as narcocorrido, songs that glorify drug traffickers.
John says that seeing the movies side by side got him remembering a line he'd read in college.
JOHN POWERS, BYLINE: In "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell," William Blake served up one of those mind-bending proverbs he's known for: The road of excess leads, he wrote, to the palace of wisdom. I thought about this line as I watched two terrific new movies that put Blake's words to the test.
Paolo Sorrentino's thrillingly good "The Great Beauty" tackles the idea head-on. It's an excessive film about excess. Sorrentino doesn't merely aim to update one of the most famous movies of all time - Fellini's portrait of decadent Rome, "La Dolce Vita" - he intends to better it. When we first meet the narrator-hero, Jep Gambardella, he's hosting a party in his apartment overlooking the Coliseum, a techno-thumping bacchanalia so hallucinatory it's assaultive.
Brilliantly played by the great, serpent-eyed actor Toni Servillo, Jep is a witty, jaded journalist who spends his time observing, hanging out with and occasionally bedding Rome's vulgar, deeply corrupted elite - rich businessmen and their neurotic wives, phony performance artists and curdled aristocrats.
Yet even as he haunts fashionable circles, Jep is haunted by what he's lost: the fire that burned inside him as a young novelist not yet tainted by la dolce vita, the good life. Hoping to rekindle it, he wanders Rome, encountering everyone from a soulful stripper to a genius little girl painter to a celebrated old nun whose life is as self-denying as Jep's is pleasurable.
At first, "The Great Beauty" plays like an enjoyably exuberant satire of modern Rome. Yet slowly, grandeur starts shining through the decadence. Sorrentino offers the most ravishing footage of Rome I've ever seen. He seems to have had free run of every park and palazzo, and the city's glory puts into perspective the shallowness within it.
Scenes that start off satirical, like the one with the nun, wind up containing a vision of transcendence. By film's end, the road of excess has led Jep to a vision of life's great beauty and perhaps his own spiritual resurrection. Now, it would be easy to write off Jep's whole story as a case of first-world problems. I wouldn't; the movie's about more than that.
Still, Jep's troubles do seem mighty well-upholstered next to the raw wounds in "Narco Cultura," a disturbing verite documentary about the Mexican drug war. It was made by Shaul Schwarz, an Israeli war photographer who spent several years chronicling its devastation.
"Narco Cultura" takes us inside - and juxtaposes - two very different cultures. The first is Ciudad Juarez. Schwarz shows what it means for a city to be the murder capital of the world, with a murder rate 30 times higher than Los Angeles. We see body parts on the streets, blood washed into gutters, the victims' terrified neighbors.
And we follow Richi Soto, an honest CSI cop whose job it is to try to solve all these murders - a job he must conduct wearing a mask because so many of his colleagues are getting murdered. Meanwhile, in the safety of L.A., we meet Edgar Quintero, an amiable musician and doting father whose songs are part of the narcocorrido boom, a movement devoted to glorifying drug lords and celebrating the melodramatic glamour of the drug-dealing life.
Many of these songs are commissioned by the gangsters themselves, but it's bigger than that. Like a jauntier, more brutal gangster rap, Quintero's songs pack nightclubs across America and Mexico with young folks singing merrily along to bouncy tunes about AK-47s and beheadings. Tellingly, the L.A.-based narcocorrido entrepreneurs don't live such atrocities firsthand. Here one of Quintero's musical buddies explains how they get their material from the Internet.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Usually all the information we get about Mexico is a narco blog, delnarco.com. You could see people, like, with their guts coming out from their stomach, their heads blown off, all real things, you know? That's how we get our ideas. That's how we make our songs, you know. And everything is saying about, you know, (speaking in foreign language), the police officers killed.
POWERS: At first, I feared that Schwarz was doing something worthy but obvious: showing how narcocorrido songs and movies make people rich by falsifying the horrific reality of the drug biz. But gradually, you realize that things aren't so simple. Sure, narcocorrido culture turns drug violence into a show, but there's also something merely theatrical about what the cops in Juarez are doing, too.
Soto is an honorable man, but he and other local police don't really investigate 97 percent of the murders. To even talk about them would get them killed. Small wonder that so many powerless young Mexicans and Mexican-Americans don't trust the system, but get seduced by narco-culture's vision of wealth and power and impunity. Heck, even when they're killed, drug lords get to dwell in self-aggrandizing tombs protected by bulletproof glass.
If "The Great Beauty" ends with ecstatic hopes of rebirth, "Narco Cultura" ends in futility and despair. Forget about palaces of wisdom. In this world, the road of excess leads straight to the cemetery.
GROSS: John Powers writes about TV and film for Vogue and Vogue.com.
Transcripts are created on a rush deadline, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of Fresh Air interviews and reviews are the audio recordings of each segment.


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Today's blog post is from the Outlook Team at Microsoft and is about dealing with messages faster and more efficiently in Outlook 2013:
"byOutlook Team on September 27
In my last post, I talked about the visual changes we made to the message list in Outlook 2013. Today I want to follow up with a discussion of the changes we made that make it faster than ever to act on your mail in Outlook.
Optimized Actions
I mentioned in my previous post that while designing the new message list, we focused on the way most people read their email. Reading is only half the story – acting on messages you receive is equally important. We analyzed data to learn as much as we could about what people do after reading emails in their message list.
Delete is far and away the most common action people take on their mail. In fact, it's so common it accounts for around three quarters of all actions! The most common way to delete has been with a keyboard, but mouse users head straight for the ribbon. In the new Outlook, we've put a delete button right on your message list. As you hover over each message, a single click is all it takes to delete, and you don't even need to select the message first.
For as long as anyone can remember, the Outlook message list has been graced by flag and categorize buttons. While flagging is still a very mainstream scenario, we found that categories were simply adding clutter for most users. Only a tiny fraction ever clicked the button to categorize their mail. Instead of wasting this space, we removed the categorize quick click button, although you can still categorize mail using the ribbon, right click menu, or using a Quick Step. And don't worry, categories you apply will still appear in the list.
I touched on the importance of unread status in our visual update post. User feedback has told us that many people rely on the unread status of their mails to make sure they don't miss important information or action items. By making it a single click to mark mails read or unread, you can ensure that the right things remain highlighted in your inbox. Try it out, and you might just find this has been the one thing your mail has been missing!
Touch and Single Line View
You may notice that on a touchscreen device, like those being launched with Windows 8, you won't see the delete, flag, or unread buttons on the message list. There are major differences in the way people interact with a mouse versus their fingers, and we quickly learned that what works for one doesn't necessarily work for the other. Check out our previous post for some of the optimizations for Outlook on touch devices.
I also wanted to mention that we focused on the multi-line view for this message list redesign, as that's what the majority of our users see. If you work with the reading pane off or on the bottom, you might have a somewhat different message list than what I've discussed here. We've made some improvements there as well, but you might notice some differences from what's described above.
–Josh Meisels, Outlook Program Manager

subset: commoncrawl


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The following video is brought to you courtesy of the Newsmax TV YouTube Channel. Click the video below to watch it now.
Rob Schmitt on Biden's favorite day of his presidency – spreading his Globalist First agenda with like-minded world leaders. – via 'Rob Schmitt Tonight' on Newsmax
Watch Newsmax on Directv 349, Xfinity 1115, Dish 216, Spectrum (see channels), Cox, Optimum, U-Verse 1120, FiOS 615, Suddenlink, CenturyLink 1209, Mediacom 277, Fubo, Sling, WOW!, Armstrong, YouTube live stream, or the Newsmax smartphone APP. Find your cable/streaming provider here: https://newsmaxtv.com/findus
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- Gluten-Free
- Cooking
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Gluten-Free Salts
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Our commitment to gluten-free products
While we've always sold naturally gluten-free products, we've gone a step farther to offer an even wider range of trusted, affordable, and certified gluten-free products.
- We analyzed ingredients, vetted suppliers, and got facility certificates ensuring non-contamination of ingredients and production aids.
- We completely segregated our production lines to eliminate any possibility of cross-contamination.
- We established policies and procedures to ensure compliance and randomly test products in our gluten-free production room.
- Not only do we voluntarily comply with USDA federal guidelines, but we're also certified by the Gluten-Free Certification Organization.
- We show the GF logo on each product page that is gluten-free.
Salt can do your body good, if you think outside of the kitchen. Use our citric acid or pink Himalayan sea salt as a skin-softening addition to your bath.


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In-store and Online
Our policy lasts 14 days. If 14 days have gone by since your purchase, unfortunately we can't offer you a refund or exchange.
Glow Cosmetics will only accept refunds if the product is faulty, it is not the product advertised by Glow Cosmetics or the consumer has had a medical reaction to such products.
Glow Cosmetics will not accept refunds if the customer has had a change of mind. However, after assessing your request, you may be eligible for a gift voucher of the same value.
To be eligible for a return, your item must be unused and in the same condition that you received it. It must also be in the original packaging.
To complete your return, we require a receipt or proof of purchase.
Please do not send your purchase back to the manufacturer.
Refunds (if applicable)
Once your return is received and inspected, we will send you an email to notify you that we have received your returned item. We will also notify you of the approval or rejection of your refund.
If you are approved, then your refund will be processed, and a credit will automatically be applied to your credit card or original method of payment, within a certain amount of days.
Late or missing refunds (if applicable)
If you haven't received a refund yet, first check your bank account again.
Then contact your credit card company, it may take some time before your refund is officially posted.
Next contact your bank. There is often some processing time before a refund is posted.
If you paid for your order using Afterpay, first contact us at firstname.lastname@example.com, and then Afterpay directly if necessary.
If you've done all of this and you still have not received your refund yet, please contact us at email@example.com.
Sale items (if applicable)
Only regular priced items may be refunded, unfortunately sale items cannot be refunded.
Exchanges (if applicable)
We only replace items if they are defective or damaged. If you need to exchange it for the same item, send us an email at firstname.lastname@example.com.
To return your product, mail the parcel to: 33 Wilmot Street, Burnie Tasmania AU 7320. Addressed to Glow Cosmetics Warehouse.
You will be responsible for paying for your own shipping costs for returning your item. Shipping costs are non-refundable. If you receive a refund, the cost of return shipping will be deducted from your refund.
Depending on where you live, the time it may take for your exchanged product to reach you may vary.


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I can hardly believe my stay in Dubai is coming to an end. I'll be flying back to Germany tomorrow and just thinking of the cold there makes me shiver. But the 22 – 26 degrees C we're enjoying here has warmed us up right to the core. Wonders what sunshine does to the soul and mind.
We're feeling full of life. Not sure if it really is the sun or the shopping or the family or the food or the friends – maybe a bit of all.
Those following me on Twitter and Facebook are keeping up with my busy schedule and a few pictures I've been sharing with you. Yes – I have done a bit of shopping but really what's totally spectacular is the fact that I am having fun meeting friends. I had the pleasure of meeting fellow blogger Komal from Lifealicious and my dear friend (and macaron tester) BS. from Weimar is here spending a few days in Dubai and we've been having fun on the beach and exploring the spice souk. However, what I've really cherished was meeting my old school friend T.A. T. is the younger sister of my bestest friend N. from our old Doha College days. It's been almost 20 years! And this week we met again – two gals in their mid thirties chatting like we never missed a day, T. texting and sending pictures to N. in Lebanon. N. we missed you!
Another pretty interesting experience I had was enjoying an evening at my mum's "kitty party". Do you know the concept of kitty parties? Well it's very Asian – Indian more particularly, where ladies get together once a month to enjoy a evening of chit chat, gossip, games and food. Each lady puts a specific amount in a so called "kitty," which is collected and part of it is paid towards the hotel/restaurant bill. Each month a hostess is chosen and she is responsible to set up the party. So, let's say I had an interesting evening listening to talk about who's got the biggest diamonds, the newest daughter-in-law or who's son/son-in-law has the highest paying job.
Well I do not know about all that – I do know who's got the richest and best tasting chocolate banana bread around here though – ME!
In three different varieties – au naturel, topped with gorgeous crunchy pistachios and with lovely pink almond praline (courtesy Pam).
One afternoon Jamie and I got together in our kitchens via Skype and decided to bake together. These kind of cakes, loaves and breads are a vital part of my baking repertoire on the weekends as both Soeren and Tom enjoy taking a piece or two with them. Another one of those "hit and run" dishes – you know – I have told you about them before – hit on them and then run! I usually make them in loaf pans as they are easy to store and handle. The recipe below makes about 3 small loaf pans.
The richness and smoothness comes not only from silky chocolate but also a good sprinkling of cocoa powder. It's kept moist and tender with the addition of ripe bananas. Together they make an unbeatable pair in giving a deep and rich flavor to the cake/bread.
Rich Chocolate Banana Breads with Pistachios, Pink Praline and Au Naturel
Printable version of recipe here
100g bittersweet chocolate,
150g butter, softened
170g Muscovado sugar
3 eggs
175g all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
25g cocoa powder
2 large bananas, ripe and mashedFor topping
Pistachios, coarsely chopped
Pink almond praline
- Heat oven to 180 degrees C. Butter and line 3 small loaf pans with baking paper and set aside.
- Melt chocolate in a double boiler or in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water.
- Cream butter and sugar until creamy, fluffy and pale. Gradually add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition.
- Sift flour, baking powder and cocoa powder and fold into the the wet ingredients using a spatula.
- Add mashed bananas and melted chocolate and fold well.
- Divide mixture between the three pans, top one with pistachios, the other with the pink almond praline and leave one plain. Bake for about 30-45 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool on a rack, then wrap in baking paper or foil.
- The loaves will stay fresh and really moist for 3 to 4 days kept in an airtight container.
- Make double the recipe and freeze the loaves. If you cut them in slices before freezing you can easily take individual slices out a few hours prior to eating.
These are probably not going to last too long so I really recommend making a double portion. Why not? They freeze so well and will be devoured in no time. It's simply irresistible and moist and ohhh so chocolaty. I love the flavor or bananas in cakes and loaves, together with deep chocolate the loaf takes on a wonderful new dimension.
Jamie is hosting this month's Monthly Mingle and has chosen Bread & Chocolate as her theme. A fantastic pairing I think and here is my offering! Make sure you join us you still have a few days so pop over to Jamie's lovely blog and check out all the details!
It's hard to leave such gorgeous weather behind. But looking forward to seeing Tom again and spending a nice Valentine's with him – mmmmm! ;o)
Come back next week and I'll take you on a high flying trip to Dubai in pictures with me. Have a good one!
You might like these Valentine Day treats from WFLH:
Hazelnut Nougat Truffles | Panna Cotta - Chocolate with Caramelized Pineapple and Amarena Cherries | Matcha White Chocolate Pralines with Pistachios |
All photographs and written content on What's For Lunch, Honey? © 2006-2010 Meeta Khurana unless otherwise indicated. | All rights reserved | Please Ask First


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Key Features:
This unit is the best android car multimedia system on the market, 8-Core with high-speed processing, the most functions can be compared with your smartphone
7" All-in-One Design for Jeep/Chrysler/Dodge Cars with Can-Bus Decoder Box (it cost GBP 30 in the market). Adopt the newest Android 9.0 Pie OS, 1024*600 HD Capacitive Touch Screen, Octa Core 1512MHz CPU, 4GB RAM and 64GB Internal Storage, Support extended 1 Card/4 USB Stick up to 5*64GB. it has special Port for Digital TV Box, you can connect our Digital TV Box (ES388-L) to achieve touch operation, and this item can power on the connected DTV Box. built-in DAB+ App, just connect with our DAB+ Box (ES354 / ES364 / ES353) to use this function. built-in TPMS App for display Tire Pressure Monitoring System, just connect with our TPMS product (ES341 / ES331) through USB to use this function, and built-in DVR App, just connect with a USB Camera (ES550) to use Car Record function. the records will be saved in Card/USB Storage automatically, and you can play saved record on this unit directly. Support Mirror Link for iPhone and Android SmartPhone. Support Torque Pro (OBD2 & Car), you can connect a ELM327 Bluetooth OBD2 Scanner Tool (ES350) to use this function.
Most popular and strongest function:
Support 1080P Videos/live images/2160P Photos, support PDF/WORD/TXT/EXCEL, Audio/Video/Photo media Player, surf Internet through 3G (you can buy 3G dongle ES166 from us) /4G (you can buy 4G dongle ES246 from us) or WiFi, support Google online maps and Free Android offline maps GPS Navi, get access to thousands of apps, games on the Google Play Store, keep connected through Twitter, Facebook, Gtalk, Gmail, WeChat, Skype and other services, play popular games like Fruit Ninja, Feed the Candy, Angry Birds, Big Fish, Air Attack... Radio, RDS, Bluetooth, USB, SD, CAM-IN (you can buy reverse camera ES288, ES588, ES580, ES880, ES581, ES583, ES585, ES488... from us), AUX, Steering Wheel Control, 8 Panel Light Colors and via RGB Combination, Live Wallpaper, DIY Wallpaper
- This unit will fit the following car model:
Fit for Jeep
Compass 2009-2011
Grand Cherokee 2008-2011
Commander 2008-2011
Wrangler/Unlimited 2007-2015
Patriot 2009-2011
Liberty 2008-2011
Fit for Chrysler
Sebring 2007-2010
Aspen 2007-2010
Fit for Dodge
Avenger 2008-2010
Challenger 2008-2011
Journey 2009-2011
Caliber 2009-2011
Dakota 2008-2011
Durango 2011-2012
RAM 1500/2500/3500 Pickup 2010-2012
1. This unit has front panel size 207mm(Top width)*97mm(High)*207mm(Bottom width), please check your dashboard size and make sure your car dashboard is same as the dashboard photo in our listing before bidding.
2. CD/DVD, Video out to Headrest / External Screen / Monitor: NOT SUPPORT!!
- Google Android 9.0 Pie Operation System, Beautiful and fashionable UI Unique Design
- 7" Five-Point Touch Capacitive Screen, 1024*600 HD Digital Screen
- Support Split Screen, you can run two apps side by side
- Octa-Core Rockchip PX5 Industrial-grade Chips, 1512MHz Cortex A53 CPU
- 4GB RAM, 64GB Internal Memory, support extended 1 Card/4 USB Stick up to 5*64GB
- Music/Radio/BT-Stereo Player and Clock/Date/Week can be displayed on Main Menu Status Bar
- Built-In Clock and Calendar, Clock/Date/Week/Time Zone adjustable, can use GPS or network-provided time
- Multi-Languages: it has more than 180 languages to select
- 8 Panel light colors, and you can setup hundreds of colors via RGB Combination
- 5 live wallpapers, 25 wallpapers, support DIY User's wallpaper from Gallery Pictures
- Built-in WiFi Internet and support external 3G/4G Internet, 3G/4G Dongle is not included
- Support Google Maps online Navigating, you can use GPS Navigating if you are in Internet
- Support Android Maps Navigation, you can use Free offline maps navigation.
- Support Android Multimedia Player, it can play Music/Movie/Photo from local Disc or USB/SD.
- Online Entertainment, support online video, TV, movie, music, radio, Youtube, Yahoo, MSN
- Online Communication, keep connected through WeChat, Twitter, Facebook, Gtalk, Gmail and other services
- Support read and edit Official Software, WORD/EXCEL/POWERPOINT/PDF/TXT.
- Support Google Play Store, you can download thousands of Apps from here and you can download many popular games
like Fruit Ninja, Feed the Candy, Angry Birds, Fieldrunner, speed forge 3D...
- Support 3D Games, HD Video, 1080P, H.264, Divx Live images Formats
- Support HD Videos up to 1920*1080 pixels, Photo up to 4096*4096 pixels
- Support Bluetooth hands-free function, built-in microphone and external microphone Jack.
- Support A2DP Bluetooth, can play stereo music through Bluetooth from your mobile Phone
- Download phone book function, you can download contact information from your phone to this unit
- Support the newest Phone Book Search, you can search & find a contact member in downloaded phone book,
just input the first letter of name, you will find some associated names, then you can choose the right one
- Support Torque Pro (OBD2 & Car), you can connect a ELM327 Bluetooth OBD2 Scanner Tool to use this function.
- Support the newest Mirror Link with iPhone via WiFi and with Android Smartphone via USB or WiFi
- Radio Tuner with RDS, 30 Preset Radio Stations (FM: 3*6, AM: 2*6), Main Chips: TEF6686
- USB Port and Micro SD Slot, Support USB Stick and Memory Card up to 64GB
- Built-in Car DVR System, just connect with a USB Camera to use Car Record function. the records will be saved
automatically in Card/USB Storage and you can play saved record on this unit directly.
- Built-in TPMS System, just connect with a TPMS product through USB to use this function
- Built-in DAB+ System, just connect a DAB/DAB+ Box with USB Port to use this function.
- Support Digital TV Box (DVB-T/T2, ATSC, ISDB) input, Touch Control and Power supply
- Support Rear View Camera input and reverse trigger Control
- Support Steering Wheel Control, Hand Brake Control
- Electronic Anti-Shock, Last Position Memory
ES7976J 7" Octa-Core Capacitive Android 9.0 Car Multimedia Player GPS/WiFi/TPMS/DVR/DTV-IN/DAB+...
- Power Supply: DC 12V (allowance range: 10.8-14.5V)
- Max. Current: 10A
- Screen Size: 7 inch
- Front panel Size: 207mm(Top width)*97mm(High)*207mm(Bottom width)
- Package Size: 310mm*200mm*160mm
- Shipping Weight: 2.5kg
- Operation System: Google Android 9.0
- CPU: Rockchips PX5 1512MHz Cortex A53
- Internal Memory: 64GB
- Extended Card/USB: Support USB/SD up to 64GB
- Touch Screen: Yes
- Resolution: 1024*600
- Capacitive or Resistance Screen: Capacitive
- Built-in Clock and Calendar: Yes, show real time and can use network-provided time
- Main Menu Status Bar display: Can be changed to Music/Radio/BT-Stereo Player and Clock/Date/Week
- Change Apps-Icon Position: Yes
- WiFi Internet: Built-in WiFi Module, support 802.11b/g/n, support WiFi Hotspot
- 3G/4G Internet: USB 3G/4G Dongle not included, just contact us to buy it together
- Explorer: Opera, UCWeb, SkyFile, Dolphin and more explorer for your selection
- Online Entertainment: Online Video, TV, Movie, Music, Radio, Video Chat
- Online Navigation: Online Google Maps Navigating
- Online Games: Yes, online play or you can download it from google play store
- Online Communication: keep connected through WeChat, Twitter, Facebook, Gtalk, Gmail...
- Read and edit Office Software: Yes, support Word, Excel, Powerpoint, PDF, TXT
- Format: MP3, WMA, MP2, OGG, AAC, MA4, FLAC, APE, WAV etc. Could play via song list
- Record: MP3, WMA
- Other: LRC synchronized display; ID3 search; Search by files; Album Picture; User-defined audio effect
- Audio IC: Top Global Cirrus IC, independent audio decoding
- SNR: Noise rations:=90dB
- Format: Support AVI (H.264, DIVX, XVID), rm, rmvb, MKV (H.264, DIVX, XVID). WMA, MOV, MP4 (H.264, MPEG,
DIVX, XVID). DAT (VCD format). VOB (DVD format). PMP, MPEG, MPG. FLV (H.263, H.264). ASF, TS, TP, 3GP,
MPG ect. =30 formats, Playing internet video directly (while downloading)
- Play: Up to 1920*1080 Pixels, 30Mb. Fluent play without light spot
- Video Output: Common Video Output (AV)
- Operation System: Android 9.0
- Support Maps: IGO, SYGIC maps for Android 9.0
- Ready to use: Yes
- Voice Guidance: Yes
- Support 2D/3D Map Views: Yes
- Dual Zone: Yes, navigating while music playing
- Online Navi: Yes, support google maps online navigating
- Hands Free: Yes
- A2DP (Bluetooth Stereo Music): Yes, can play stereo music through Bluetooth
- Bluetooth Music Control: Yes, play/pause/previous/next
- PB-Download: Yes, can download phonebook from mobile to this unit
- PB-Search: Yes, can use the first letter to search contact member in PB-Listings
- Calling Records: Yes, Dialed Call, Received Call, Missed Call
- Setup: Auto Answer, Auto connect, Device name
- Built-in Microphone: Yes, on the front panel
- External Microphone Jack: Yes, on the back, external Mic. incl.
- Main Chips: TEF6686
- AM Frequency Range: 522-1620KHz
- AM Increment: 9KHz(EU)/10KHz(US)
- FM Tuning Range: 87.5-108MHz
- FM Increment: 0.05MHz(EU)/0.1MHz(US)
- FM Area: Europe/USA1/USA2/Japan/Russia
- RDS: On/Off
- Preset Stations: 30(FM 3*6, AM 2*6)
- Position: 4 USB On the Back, can be connected with Media, 3G/4G, TPMS, Camera, DAB+ Box, Smartphone
- Capacity: 64GB
- Play MP5 Videos: Yes, can play RMVB Videos up to 1080P
- Touch Music Title to play directly: Yes
- Position: On the front panel, Media or GPS Card Slot optional
- Capacity: 64GB micro SD/TF Card
- Play MP5 Videos: Yes, can play RMVB Videos up to 1080P
- Touch Music Title to play directly: Yes
Car DVR
- Built-in Car Recorder App: Yes, just connect a USB Camera to use this function
- Support HD CCD Camera: Yes
- Play recorded Video directly: Yes
- Storing Position: Card/USB Storage can be changed
- Built-in TPMS App: Yes, just connect a TPMS Module to use this function
- Connection Port: USB
- Power Supply to TPMS Module directly: Yes
- Touch Control: Yes
- Built-in DAB Player App: Yes, just connect a DAB+ Box to use this function
- Connection Port: USB
- Power Supply to DAB+ Box directly: Yes
- Touch Control DAB+ Box on unit: Yes
- Built-in Digital TV Tuner: No
- External Port for TV Box: Yes, Support DVB-T/T2/ATSC/ISDB Box
- Power Supply to TV Box directly: Yes, you can connect our TV Box to achieve this function
- Touch Control the TV Box on unit: Yes, you can connect our TV Box to achieve this function
- Textbook: Could change font, font color, background color, bookmark, reading E-book while listening music
- Photo Viewer: Support JPS, BMP, PNG, GIF etc. format. play by revolve, Powerpoint Support 4096*4096 Pixels
- Wallpapers: 5 live wallpapers, 25 standard wallpapers, support DIY wallpaper from Gallery
- APK Installer: Support Android Package installer
- Support Split Screen, you can run two apps side by side
- Support Torque Pro(OBD2 &Car): Yes, you can connect a Bluetooth OBD2 Scanner Tool to use this function
- Support Mirror Link function: Yes, support screen mirroring from iphone and Android Smartphone
- Network & Internet: WiFi/Hotspot/VPN/Airplane mode
- Connected devices: Bluetooth settings and connecting
- Apps & notifications: Apps Info/Notifications/App permissions/Default apps, Special app access
- Display: Brightness level, Wallpaper, Font Size, Night display and Touch Assistive
- Wallpaper: Wallpapers, Live Wallpapers, Gallery
- Sound: Key Tone, Volumes, Default notification sound, Default alarm sound
- Storage: Storage manager, Internal shared storage and Portable Storage
- Security & Location: :Location/Device admin apps/Apps with usage access
- Users & accounts: Add account/Automatically sync data
- Accessibility: Yes
- Car settings: Element/Steering wheel keys/Amplifier/Navigations/Driving settings/Extra settings/ Factory settings
- Element: 8 Panel light colors, support RGB Combination
- Amplifier: Rock/Pop/Jazz/Classic/Flat/Voice/Custom
- Navigation: Yes, Navigation application options, monitoring, sound mode, mixing ratio, GPS monitor
- Driving safety: Allowed or block Watching video, Notifications in statusbar while driving. Network settings for app while driving
- Extra settings: Shutdown delay when ACC OFF, choose on/off Playing music automatically when USB or SD inserted. choose Reversing X-mirror, Reversing volume, Reversing trajectory display, Parking radar display and Rear view ruler on/off when needed
- Factory Settings: Code 3368, choose Radio Band, Voice levels, CanBus types, and 88 Open-Unit-Logos
- Google Services & preferences
- System: Languages & input/Date & time/Backup/MCU & System updates/Reset/About machine
- Languages & Input: more than 180 Languages and choose input method
- Date & Time: Setting Date&Time by yourself or choose GPS/network-provided time & time zone
- About machine: Display Parameter Info.
- AUX Video In: One
- Rear-View Camera Video In: One
- External Microphone In: One
- AUX Audio In: R/L
- TPMS Box In: One
- DTV Box In: One
- DAB+ Box In: One
- Car DVR In: One
- Radio Antenna In: One
- GPS Antenna In: One
- Video Out: Two
- Audio Out: R/L
- Surround Stereo Out: 4*45w
- Subwoofer Out: One
- 1*User's Manual in English
- 1*RCA AV Cable
- 1*Power Cable with special Connector 1
- 1*Power Cable with special Connector 2
- 1*Special Can-Bus Decoder Box Box
- 1*SWC and other Control Cable
- 1*External microphone Cable
- 1*USB OTG Cable
- 1*GPS Antenna
- 1*WiFi Antenna


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I love jewelry so much. Not the expensive metal kind but the colorful kind. The kind that compliment an outfit in either a delicate or chunky way. Sadly, for me, my daughter Molly gets into my collection and throws my pretty little things on the floor where they get lost and broken.
But when I do indulge myself in a trinket I buy the kind of things Leeya Engel sells. The lovely piece above, Tea in the Garden, is going to one lucky Grosgrain reader.
To learn a little bit more about Leeya visit her at: http://leeyaengel.blogspot.
1) By linking (to your blog, facebook, myspace, or any other site)
2) By leaving a comment without a link or
3) By linking and leaving a comment (this will be worth 2 entries which will better your chances of winning). Find more info under the FAQ page.


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Any Video Converter is an All-in-One video converting tool with easy-to-use graphical interface, fast converting speed and excellent video quality. It allows you to effortlessly convert video files between every format! It can convert almost all video formats including DivX, XviD, MOV, rm, rmvb, MPEG, VOB, DVD, WMV, AVI to MPEG-4 movie format for iPod/PSP or other portable video device, MP4 player or smart phone. It also supports any user defined video file formats as the output. Any Video Converter makes it easy for anyone to enjoy the any format video with your iPod, PSP, mobile phone or MP4 player.
- User-friendly interface that is easy to use.
- Converts all video formats to Apple iPod Video, Sony PSP and more
- Batch convert any video formats including avi, wmv, asf, mpg, mp4, etc.
- Support DivX and Xvid avi format as importing and exporting video
- Support default video/audio settings or user customized parameters for video and audio.
- Has the option to preview the video in real-time before conversion .
- World's fastest video conversion speed with stunning video and audio quality.
- Supports adjust many video/audio options for MP4 files. For example, video/audio sample rate, bit rate, video size.


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Main Page
From CRIPTWiki
Revision as of 17:40, 7 June 2013 by Admin (Talk | contribs) (→Amira to Blender to realXtend Export)
Welcome to the CRIPT Wiki Website.
All information released within this Wiki is licensed under Creative Common Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported.
Please share your thoughts and methods for those who come after us...
How to use this Wiki (Meta)
Consult the User's Guide for information on using the wiki software.
- Configuration settings list
- MediaWiki FAQ
- MediaWiki release mailing list
- Basic Wiki Editing
- Basic Wiki Administration
- Basic Wiki Account Management
Amira to Blender to realXtend Export
- User Instructions: This is the entire detailed step-by-step of what to do and how to do it.
Python Scripting for Button-controlled object movement
- Python Process: This is a detailed step by step of how to script objects.
Key Concepts
- Basic Terminologies: Read this first to familiarize yourself with how we talk.
- Segementation: This is first concept you should grasp as you begin your structural reconstructions.
- Surface Generation/Rendering: This is the first concept you need to know as you finish your reconstructions.
- Volume vs Surface: These are two different approaches to visualization. Know the significant differences and the advantage and disadvantages of both
- Labels: This is where all the segmentation data reside. Know how to play with it, manipulated it and reduce it to increase your efficient use of labels.
Hardware Resources
Software Resources
- Using Amira
- Photoshop
- Final Cut Pro
- Amira Basic Overview
- Amira Licensor Issue
- OsiriX Basic Overview
- 3D Slicer Basic Overview
- realXtend Basic Overview
- Blender User Instructions
Data Resources
Website Maintenance
- CRIPT Identity
- Grant Applications
- Summer Projects
- Trainings
- Wiki Log
- Todolist
- Lab Rule:Follow these to avoid a slow painful death.
- Grad Studnet Cleanup Procedure:Follow these steps when you exit the lab.
- Recommended Purchase
- Resources Sharings
- Common Problems
- Website Maintenance


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Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you were able to kick of 2013 with friends and family. I have jumped right into my first organizing project of the new year. I am determined to live more simply and more beautifully. Even if it is in tiny ways. We have a set of built in cabinets outside of our children's rooms that host towels and sheets. I really wanted to take control of them and create an upper cabinet that is "guest ready" at all times. Here is what I came up with.
- hair spray
- deodorant
- razor
- toothbrush
- toothpaste
- sunscreen
"Do you believe in love at first sight? I sure do because when I first stumbled upon I Heart Organizing I immediately fell in love with Jen's mad organizational skills. I think we all long for a calm, organized, well styled life. I am the author of A Thoughtful Place blog where I dish on all things related to decorating, organizing, entertaining, and of course DIY-ing! To be quite honest, working on making my house a home is my happy place. It fulfills my need to be creative and I love sharing ideas {both big and small} with my readers. Along with my blog, I am a contributing writer to House of Fifty and have recently started my own decorating firm, Casey Grace Design, LLC, with my talented sister. I call Orange County, California home where I live with amazing husband and two children. At the end of a busy day, I love to enjoy an ice cold beer on the front porch with my hubby while we watch our children ride their bikes or run around. Life is sweet and I am thrilled to be a part of the IHeart Organizing Team."


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Away In Seattle…
This week of cookbook styling and shooting is over. Grueling. Exhausting. Exhilarating. Soothing. A nice change of pace for me to prop and play with food. I loved every minute of it and enjoyed being in the moment but I admit, I can't wait to get back behind the camera.
Working with Clare was just about the awesomest time I have had this summer. It was almost like sharing a brain. Of the good kind. The one without a misplaced ego. Clare called, asked me to style and I did just that. But the way we think and how we similarly sensitive and sensible to photography we are, made it a breathe to navigate the plate and the photograph.
Never the words "working together" have had as much meaning as they have this past week. Without spoken words or the feeling of stepping over, we worked together. Clare, Jeanne and I. About thirty five of the seventy five recipes that Jeanne included in her book had to be photographed. That's thirty five recipes to be made every night for their beauty shot the next day.
Every night, Jeanne and I would do a perfectly orchestrated ballet of pans and whisks to bake the recipe for the next day of shooting where Clare would work her magic with the camera. Both Jeanne and I know our way around a pastry or a cake but baking for a shoot is slightly different and thankfully there was plenty of wine and good food to help us push through each night after a long day of shooting.
We all hit a wall at some point but we worked through them together and pushed through. Always feeling like the other helped a little. I never felt anything but support and kindness. We made a team. "We're number two! We're number two!" Because it's not about us. It's not about being number one. It's about coming together to give Jeanne's book the best photographs. I can't wait for you to see the book next year when it comes out!
I stayed with Jeanne, I stayed with Clare. I met them both in their element. I felt home. I was able to get to know them in their crafts and their thought process. I am sad to leave two wonderful talented ladies. I am sad to leave friends. I am happy to get home and share this week with my husband. Hurricane Irene, please be nice…it's been a long week….!


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Elephant Brigade Front Rail Cover-Up
$ 19.00 $ 24.70
Product Description
The Elephant Brigade front cover up is both function and design. What a great idea, this front rail cover up protects your foot board on the convertible cribs and it looks great. For the parent choosing not to use a bumper, it can add the needed decor lost when the bumper is removed. Cover ups can be used with a full bumper as well. All Cotton Tale and N. Selby patterns have matching crib rails cover ups. Wash gentle cycle, separate, cold water. Tumble dry low or hang dry. Neutral collection, perfect for a boy or a girl. Cotton shell with poly fill. measuring 51 inches x 15 inches.


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When things are up and down and the road does not quite take you where you had initially planned to go taking, time out to reassess your plan is usually a good idea. The weekend brought a lot of emotions and a bit of hectic. I feel like doing the ostrich and burying my head in the sand. Instead of unpacking, and re-organizing things, I spent my weekend baking, cooking and gardening. We had pretty much cleared away a lot of the plants, flowers etc. in our garden and it was looking bare. So instead of doing what was really necessary I did the unnecessary.
Tom was not impressed. While he put the shelves and closets up again I was in the kitchen baking or in the garden trying to take my mind off of things. I think the problem I am facing is that a final decision has not been taken yet. We are still uncertain of what the outcome will be. I really dislike the floating in the air without a path to follow – without moving forward. While alternatives are being discussed and one discussion follows another I am trying to bury my head deeper and deeper.
The kitchen is my refuge. And old fashioned sweet desserts my comfort. My take on a basic classic rice pudding was adding beaten egg white to give it volume and fluffiness and slices of fresh peach to give it a taste of fruity summer. The result was a wonderful warm dessert with all the comforts of the classic rice pudding but the excitement of an innovative classy dessert.
Baked Vanilla Infused Peach Risotto
Printable version of recipe here.
500 ml milk
125g risotto rice
20g + 30g + 30g sugar
1 vanilla bean, insides scraped
350g peaches, thinly sliced
2 egg whites
2 egg yolks
30g butter
Pinch of salt
Icing sugarMethod
- Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees C. Lightly butter 6 small or 1 large oven-proof dish(es).
- In a medium sized saucepan, bring milk, 20g sugar and the vanilla innards plus the bean to a boil. Add the risotto rice and covered allow the mixture to simmer gently for approx. 30 minutes. Stir often to ensure that the rice does not stick to the bottom of the pan. Allow to cool somewhat.
- Using an electric whisk, beat egg white and the pinch of salt in a clean bowl until stiff peaks form. Sprinkle 30g sugar into the egg white and beat for a further minute.
- In a separate bowl, whisk 30g butter, 30g sugar and the egg yolks until thick and creamy – approx. 5 minutes. Mix into the warm rice mixture.
- Gently fold in the egg whites and the peach slices into the mixture.
- Divide the mixture into the oven-proof dishes. Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and the mixture has set. Make sure that the baked risotto does not over cook in the oven as it will dry out. The end result should be a firm but creamy mixture.
- Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve warm.
Food Guide Tips:
Rice – the varieties!
Things can only get better – right? And we will get better. It might take a day or two longer but we'll bounce back. In the meantime sometimes doing the unnecessary helps us to focus on the necessary and in this case it did. As we sat down and dipped our spoons into the warm creamy comfort of the baked risotto, ideas and plans started to pour out. The rich vanilla infused rice paired of with the fruity slices of soft peaches in a light and fluffy batter helped us to tackle the issues a little more lightly.
Nags over at Edible Garden is my gracious guest hostess for the Monthly Mingle this month. Her theme – Ravishing Rice prompted me to create this sweet treat. Hope you will join us!
More ravishing rice creations from WFLH:
Sweet Spiced Risotto with Cherry Compote | Risotto with Rucola & Bresaola | South African Chicken Biryani |
All photographs and written content on What's For Lunch, Honey? © 2006-2009 Meeta Khurana unless otherwise indicated. | All rights reserved | Please Ask First


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"My overshirt is off; my hat is off; and I'm really sucking air at this point," Mark Smith says, after walking for water in Ethiopia.
This is a snapshot of Mark Smith struggling with a 55-pound jug of water in the middle of sweltering Ethiopia. It certainly isn't where you'd expect to find the owner of the most successful Harley Davidson shop in the United States.
But then, there's a lot about Mark and his wife Jennifer's story that's surprising — right from the start.
"Our experience with World Vision actually began at a Christian rock concert in 2004," Jennifer said, explaining how the couple was drawn to a table on child sponsorship. "We looked down and saw all these little faces looking up at us."
And there began their partnership with World Vision. Fast forward a few years more, and the Smiths became parents and owners of the Fort Worth Harley Davidson store, a store that has seen growth and success over the years.
Then came another call — this time, in the form of the book The Hole in Our Gospel by Rich Stearns, president of World Vision U.S. For Jennifer, it was the facts about dirty water and the toll it takes on children that caught her attention. Women and girls in Africa spend an average of four to six hours a day walking for water. And there's no guarantee that that water won't make their families sick with parasites or diarrhea.
"It broke my heart because I could not imagine giving my babies dirty water because we don't have any other water to drink," Jennifer said.
So they began organizing the annual Harley "Water4Life Ride" to raise money for boreholes, and in the process, breaking every possible stereotype as hundreds of manly Harley riders in leather vests showed their heart for children they've never even met.
The Smiths also learned about World Vision's Campaign For Every Child and the goal of providing clean water to 6 million people over the next five years. The news came just as Mark and Jennifer prepared to pay off their loan on the Harley store — a joyful moment after 15 years of hard work starting up the business.
"When we heard more about this unbelievable campaign, this unbelievable rescue mission, we felt this pull that we needed to be a part of this," Mark said. "But I fought it. I said, 'God, we're finally out of debt.' God had other plans."
So on the same day they wrote the final loan check to the bank, Mark and Jennifer walked out to their car, called World Vision, and pledged to give.
That pledge brings us back to Mark in Ethiopia with the 55-pound jerrycan. But when he describes today what he remembers best, it isn't the hot sun or the weight of the water. It's a person you might miss if you just glance at the photo: a young mother named Burka, walking to the left of Mark. She walked alongside him the whole way, first as a stranger fascinated by the unusual sight of this man from thousands of miles away doing work that is typically reserved for women.
"My travel companion was really getting worried for me, and when I tried to set the jug down, she tried to take it from me. Nevermind there's a baby on her back," Mark said.
At the end of the trek, she even offered to get Mark some milk — to help strengthen the bones and muscles of this American who had struggled so much with the task she does several times a day. It's her face the Smith family sees when they go to work each day.
Now, instead of a mortgage, cars, or other possessions, the family works to bring Burka's village clean water.
"I can't express how rewarding it is that every day I go to work I'm working for something more," Mark said.
Sponsor a child in Ethiopia today. Your monthly contribution will help provide access to life-giving basics like clean water. Help change a child's life — for good!


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[Updated 2016]
The Canadian Dollar has fallen against the US Dollar to the point that it's almost 40% lower. Hence, we've added it to our Top 10 Value Destinations for US Dollar Travelers for 2016. and ourTop 10 Value Destinations for Euro Travelers for 2016. and also on our Top 10 Value Destinations for Australian Dollar Travelers. Don't wait!
Should you add Canada to your RTW trip?
America's huge neighbor to the north, Canada is anything but American. It's a melting pot of immigrants, European style cities, on the borders of vast wildernesses filled with animals. It's impossible to classify Canada, from the vibrant city of Vancouver, British Columbia to the remote countryside of Newfoundland, this is a country with more than the eye can see.
- This country is the second largest country in the world, and has a population of roughly 34,300,083 (as of July 2012), leaving the country with several off-the-beaten-path choices for the adventurous traveler.
- Rocky mountains and glacial lakes in British Columbia and Alberta. Grassy plains and big skies in Saskatchewan. Fresh water lakes and boreal forest in Manitoba. Arctic tundra in Nunavut. Multi-cultural cities like Vancouver, Toronto, Winnipeg, and Montréal. Canada is a country rich in diversity and there is something for everyone.
- The people are very friendly, polite, and love to share what makes Canada a great place to visit.
- Weather. Although the winter months in some provinces can get cold, Canada enjoys several months of warm weather where the temperature can get as high as 40ºC.
Indie Travel Tips
As a large country with a small population there are hundreds of ways to have an indie experience in Canada, here are a few to you excited:
- Rent a car and drive from St Johns, Newfoundland to Vancouver, British Columbia. Wander off the Trans Canada HWY 1 and take smaller roads through the countryside, visiting small towns, staying in camp grounds, and checking out the various local festivals.
- Visit the Canada's arctic circle to experience Native American culture, watch herds of caribou cross the tundra, and droll over the Aurora Borealis.
- Hike to the top of one of the Rocky Mountains to do some Yoga on the summit. The view is mind-blowing.
- Montréal is a popular spot in summer and for good reasons, the city has several festivals, interesting art installations, and almost as many patios as Paris (France, not Paris, Ontario). Make sure Montréal is on your itinerary.
- Buy a train pass and visit up to 7 destinations in Canada. If your visiting in summer than you'll want to make a stop in Churchill, Manitoba for Beluga whale mating season, and travel between Jasper, Alberta and Vancouver, British Columbia for mind-blowing scenery.
Canada is an underrated country. If you polled travelers on where they traveled in Canada, the majority will tell you to they went to Vancouver, Whistler, Banff, Toronto, Montreal, and Niagara Falls. Canada is incredibly diverse in culture, scenery, and food – with quirky, interesting, and unique things hidden off-the-beaten-path. The best way to experience Canada is to travel slow, hook-up with like-minded travelers and do a road trip, try locals foods, and have your camera ready at all times.
What to see
There are so many things to see and experience in Canada, but here are the top 5 not to be missed experiences:
- It's cliché, but Niagara Falls should be on everyone's list. This natural wonder is quite busy in summer, and stunningly beautiful in winter. No matter what time of year be sure to make a trip to Niagara Falls!
- Go to Carnival in Québec City. Embrace the cold and visit one of Canada's more historic cities, and the country's largest winter festival. Watch canoe racing down icy streets. Eat beavertails (a delicious fried pasty that merely looks like a beavertail). Sleep in the Ice Hotel.
- Camp your way through the Rocky Mountains and pick-up work at hostels in exchange for a free room as you go. Make sure you're spending time in Yoho, Banff, Jasper, and Kotenay National Parks!
- Take an overnight ferry from Prince Rupert, British Columbia to Hadai Gwaii, a collection of islands in the Queen Charlotte Sound. Camp, canoe, and explore this virtually untouched landscape – and don't forget to look for the blue, purple, and pink starfish hanging out near the shore. Gorgeous.
- Visit Signal Hill or Cape Spear, Newfoundland in early summer to watch icebergs drift south – and you may spot pods of whales as well.
Getting around Canada is fairly easy, and inexpensive if you do a little planning and watch for sales and specials. VIA Rail offers a rail pass which includes seven trips. The pass varies from $630 to $1,159 depending on the season. If you prefer traveling by bus than Greyhound is the best choice for across Canada. For trips within the provinces of Ontario and Québec use Mega Bus (which also offers cheap tickets into Buffalo and New York). Flying within Canada can be expensive. Watch for seat sales and last minute specials for Air Canada, Westjet, and Porter and if you see a flight from Toronto to Vancouver for $99 one way, book it right away!
If you're looking to add Canada to a longer, round the world trip, check out this RTW trip with a road trip across Canada.
Where to stay
Canada has a fabulous network of hostels, making indie travel that much easier. The largest network is Hostelling International, which has unique stays like HI Ottawa Jail (yes, you sleep in old jail cells), and HI Shuswap where you sleep in an old train caboose. If you love the outdoors then consider camping through Canada and experience the country's raw beauty first hand – just be aware of those pesky deer flies in Manitoba!
Photo credits: richardcjones, Wei


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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 300,000 Americans are getting Lyme disease every year, and the toll is growing.
"It confirms what we've thought for a long time: This is a large problem," Dr. Paul Mead tells Shots. "The bottom line is that by defining how big the problem is we make it easier for everyone to figure out what kind of resources we have to use to address it."
Mead, who directs Lyme disease surveillance for the CDC, presented the new "preliminary" estimate at an international conference in Boston on Lyme and other tick-borne diseases.
The CDC says only a 10th of Lyme disease cases — fewer than 30,000 — are reported. And to make it more complicated, an unknown number of people are being diagnosed with Lyme disease who don't really have it.
The new estimate comes from three different ways of looking at the problem. CDC scientists analyzed insurance claims for 22 million people over six years. They surveyed labs that test for Lyme disease, and they did surveys asking people if they'd had the disease.
The result adds up to a vexing public health problem, all caused by a tick that's about the size of the period on the end of this sentence.
A generation ago there was no such thing called Lyme disease, though it may have been lurking undetected in nature. Scientists first reported it in 1977 and named it after the location of the first cases, in Lyme, Conn.
Now it's the most prevalent tick-borne infection — concentrated in 13 states in the Northeast and upper Midwest, but expanding both northward (to upper New York state and Maine) and southward (to Virginia).
In many areas where Lyme disease is entrenched, Mead says, up to 30 percent of black-legged or deer ticks carry the Lyme disease spirochete. That translates to a substantial risk of infection for humans who venture outdoors, especially in grassy and woodsy areas.
Getting Lyme disease is no picnic. Symptoms resemble the flu -- fatigue, headache, mildly stiff neck, joint and muscle aches, and fever. But if not treated with an antibiotic within about 72 hours, the infection can disseminate throughout the body, causing neurologic, cardiac and joint disease for weeks or months.
An unknown proportion of Lyme disease patients become chronically ill with fatigue that can be debilitating. Mead says the CDC recognizes chronic Lyme disease as a real problem. "The question is whether it's due to persistent infection or some immunologic effect, and what's the best way of treating it," he says.
People often don't know when they have gotten Lyme disease. One tell-tale sign is a bulls-eye rash around the tick bite. But Mead says 20 or 30 percent of people don't get the rash — or don't recognize it because it's on their scalp or somewhere they can't see.
"So it's important for physicians to have a high level of suspicion" when they see someone with flu-like symptoms in summer, when there's not much real flu around, Mead says.
It's mainly up to residents of Lyme disease hot spots to avoid getting it — by using insect repellents, covering up when going outdoors and checking themselves for ticks when they get back inside.
Before 2002, humans could get vaccinated against Lyme disease (dogs still can). But the manufacturer discontinued it for lack of demand.
Mead acknowledges it's pretty hard to spot an insect that's no bigger than a poppy seed — much smaller than the common dog tick. "That's one of the reasons we encourage people to shower after being in a tick-infested area," he says. Studies show that showering within two hours after being outside sharply reduces the risk of infection.
One thing in humans' favor: The deer tick has to suck your blood for around 36 hours before the Lyme disease organism is transmitted. So gently removing the tick with tweezers, or — better yet — washing it off before it sinks its tiny fangs into your skin is the best way to win this game.
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Military gear-heads like to boast about how this or that latest technology that they're fond of – or that their company, or country, is pushing – is a "game-changer."
The major-combat debut of Israel's Iron Dome missile-defense shield over the past several days may be one of the few that can legitimately make that claim.
It is destroying about 90% of the rockets and missiles that Hamas, the Palestinian political party governing Gaza, is firing into southern Israel, Israeli officials say.
One battery of Iron Dome anti-missile missiles downed 100% during a salvo, a senior Israeli official tells Battleland.
"We've got about a 90% success rate," he says, proudly giddy. "This is unprecedented in history." It's also impossible to confirm, but the lack of Israeli casualties suggests Iron Dome is the most-effective, most-tested missile shield the world has ever seen.
(PHOTOS: A New Gaza War: Israel and Palestinian Militants Trade Fire)
"We keep tweaking it," says the senior official, who declined to be identified. "In one of the recent exchanges, one of the batteries was 100% [successful]. That means, to me, that Iron Dome is capable of 100% [across the board] — I don't think it was entirely a fluke." He said he didn't know how many missiles and interceptors were involved in the salvo; an Iron Dome battery typically consists of a radar unit and three launchers, each outfitted with 20 Tamir interceptor missiles.
The bottom line: the more rockets Hamas fires, it seems, the better at stopping them Iron Dome becomes.
They're playing a game of aerial attrition: who will run out of missiles first?
The missile shield's success came as Israel broadened its attacks on Hamas-related sites in Gaza over the weekend, launching air strikes against political sites – including the headquarters of the Hamas prime minister – as well as military targets.
"There's no country on Earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders," President Obama said Sunday in Thailand, his first destination on a three-stop, three-day tour of southeast Asia. "So we are fully supportive of Israel's right to defend itself from missiles landing on people's homes and workplaces and potentially killing civilians."
Iron Dome impressed Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in August during a tour of a battery while he was in Israel. "Iron Dome has had a better than 80% success rate at hitting rockets fired from Gaza into Israeli population centers, and it has successfully intercepted more than 100 rockets," he said shortly after he returned. "We can be proud of this system's record of saving lives and preventing wider conflict in that region."
(MORE: The Israeli Assault on Gaza: How Surgical is Surgical?)
As of Sunday, Hamas had fired close to 1,000 missiles and rockets into Israel. Iron Dome decided — by tracing their trajectory and likely impact points within seconds of launch — that about two-thirds didn't pose a threat and let them fall harmlessly to Earth. It destroyed about 90% of the remaining 300 or so that threatened to land in populated areas, Israeli officials said.
Consider for a moment what a game-changer such a capability represents:
— Shielded under Iron Dome, the Israeli government can take the time it feels its need to plan its response because it is not under the pressure that hundreds of explosions potentially killing hundreds of Israelis would generate. "The best, from our perspective, is that it gives us time," the senior official says. "If we were being hit by this amount of rockets without Iron Dome, we would have to resort to other means" – including a ground invasion, which he still fears may happen. That could kill "thousands" of civilians, he says, as the Israeli military cleared Gaza of missiles and missile factories.
— It saves lives.
— It saves infrastructure, including dwellings, buildings, utilities and roads.
— There is perversely, a downside to its success: it frustrates the enemy. "It denies what Hamas can claim as a victory, so it can prolong it," he says of the aerial assault. "One can conceive of a situation where Hamas can say, `Look, we struck Tel Aviv, we struck Jerusalem – let's have a victory parade and call it a war.' They haven't been able to do that."
The senior Israeli official says the system's battle management software is sensitive enough to monitor the trajectory of incoming missiles. "It distinguishes whether it is going to hit downtown or an open field," he says. "If it's going to hit an open field we don't shoot at it."
That's important because the interceptors cost up to $100,000 each. That's pocket change – heck, pocket lint – to the U.S. military, but relatively costly to the Israeli government, especially compared to the incoming rockets, which "are basically free" to Hamas, the official says (they can cost less than $1,000).
(MORE: Psychological Warfare with Missiles: Why Tel Aviv Matters)
Iron Dome "is actually a money-saver," he adds. "Think if these rockets actually hit a neighborhood, in terms of the human costs, the wounded, the destruction of infrastructure would be much greater. So $100,000 is not that much to pay for a house that's full of kids."
Iron Dome was developed by Israel's Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd., and is expected to cost close to $1 billion by the time up to 15 batteries are bought (five are now deployed in southern Israel). The U.S. has pledged about $300 million to help fund the effort. Israel decided to build the system after the 2006 Second Lebanon War, when 4,000 Hezbollah rockets rained down on northern Israel, killing 44.
Iron Dome is designed to counter short-range missiles with a range of 70 kilometers or less – about 45 miles. Its prey includes crude Katyusha and Qassam rockets and Soviet-designed but built-in-Gaza Grads, with a range of up to 25 miles. The mobile system saw its first real-world test in April 2011, when it downed a Gaza-fired Grad in April 2011. Hamas said it had launched an Iranian-made Fajr-5 missile, with a range of up to 45 miles, toward Tel Aviv this past weekend, but Israel said they shot it down, too.
As of Monday, 91 Palestinians had died in the Israeli counter-attacks, with 700 wounded, according to Palestinian officials.
"We have had casualties," the senior Israeli official concedes, including three killed and 68 wounded. "But the casualties we have had – the three killed – was not because of Iron Dome, but because the people didn't listen to the siren – they thought they were out of range."
The hype continues. But in this case, for a change, it might be warranted.
MORE: Has Israel's Assault on Gaza Made Tel Aviv Vulnerable?