Latest news with #JackNicholson
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
SOLVED: Decades-old mystery of the ballroom photo that featured in one of the most famous films of all time... but do you remember where you've seen it?
It is a mystery that has perplexed fans of The Shining, one of the greatest horror films ever made, for 45 years. Just what is the truth behind the haunting final scene? In it, the camera slowly closes in on a black and white photo of 1920s partygoers in a grand ballroom. But where was the photo taken and who were the revellers? It has always been known that the photo was an original, albeit one that was doctored slightly. The face of Jack Nicholson, who plays a deranged caretaker in the 1980 film by Stanley Kubrick, was superimposed over that of the man at the front of the group, suggesting he is a reincarnation of an earlier hotel employee. It was once suggested the photo showed a secret gathering of the US elite, former president Woodrow Wilson among them. Others thought they were devil worshippers. But thanks to British researcher Alasdair Spark, who spent months poring through archives, it has been revealed the picture was actually taken in a hotel next to Kensington Palace. It captured a Valentine's dance held on February 14, 1921 at the Empress Ballroom in the Royal Palace Hotel, west London. Kubrick, who died in 1999, had planned to use extras for the shot but found the image in an old photo library and thought it more authentic. But what of the man airbrushed out for Nicholson? It turns out he was South African-born Santos Casani, who was described in his day as 'the man who taught London to dance'. A pilot during the First World War, he was shot down and suffered terrible burns. He left hospital with an artificial nose 'and the determination to become world's greatest exponent of the fashionable new dances'. Casani, who died in 1983 aged 85, wrote regularly on dance for the Daily Mail and broadcast dance lessons for the BBC from his Mayfair nightclub. The Royal Palace Hotel was demolished in 1961 to make way for the Royal Garden Hotel where England's World Cup winners celebrated in 1966. Mr Spark said his discovery had put an end to all the 'nonsense' theories about the photo.
Sydney Morning Herald
6 days ago
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
You can't handle the truth about Victoria's secret school cuts
As Ben Carroll was standing before his bathroom mirror on Wednesday morning knotting the striped tie he'd selected for his appearance before budget estimates, Victoria's education minister faced an important choice. Knowing he would be interrogated about his government's unannounced decision to delay by three years extra money public schools need to deliver the Gonski reforms, Carroll could either fess up or maintain the charade. A part of him felt like channelling Colonel Nathan Jessup, Jack Nicholson's scene-stealing character in A Few Good Men. Colonel Carroll, did you oppose these funding cuts? You're God damn right I did! Such a spontaneous outbreak of political honesty, aside from providing a moment of catharsis for Carroll, would have cleared the air around a bad decision already costing the Allan government more than the money it will save in future years. Alas, there are no Hollywood endings in Spring Street and too few good men. Carroll's other choice was to stick to a cynical script approved by advisers within the premier's private office in which he neither confirms nor denies the funding delay, refuses to acknowledge the financial impact on government schools and offers a vague promise to fully fund the Gonski reforms 'through the life of the agreement' – in other words, sometime in the next 10 years. Having centred his tie to his satisfaction and given his neatly clipped, salt and pepper locks one final look in the mirror, Carroll decided discretion was the better part of valour. He took his seat in estimates, looked back at his questioners and declared with Delphic circularity: 'We are getting on with doing everything that we are bound to do.' Not even Jack Nicholson could do much with that line.
The Age
6 days ago
- Business
- The Age
You can't handle the truth about Victoria's secret school cuts
As Ben Carroll was standing before his bathroom mirror on Wednesday morning knotting the striped tie he'd selected for his appearance before budget estimates, Victoria's education minister faced an important choice. Knowing he would be interrogated about his government's unannounced decision to delay by three years extra money public schools need to deliver the Gonski reforms, Carroll could either fess up or maintain the charade. A part of him felt like channelling Colonel Nathan Jessup, Jack Nicholson's scene-stealing character in A Few Good Men. Colonel Carroll, did you oppose these funding cuts? You're God damn right I did! Such a spontaneous outbreak of political honesty, aside from providing a moment of catharsis for Carroll, would have cleared the air around a bad decision already costing the Allan government more than the money it will save in future years. Alas, there are no Hollywood endings in Spring Street and too few good men. Carroll's other choice was to stick to a cynical script approved by advisers within the premier's private office in which he neither confirms nor denies the funding delay, refuses to acknowledge the financial impact on government schools and offers a vague promise to fully fund the Gonski reforms 'through the life of the agreement' – in other words, sometime in the next 10 years. Having centred his tie to his satisfaction and given his neatly clipped, salt and pepper locks one final look in the mirror, Carroll decided discretion was the better part of valour. He took his seat in estimates, looked back at his questioners and declared with Delphic circularity: 'We are getting on with doing everything that we are bound to do.' Not even Jack Nicholson could do much with that line.
Time of India
6 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
India recorded over 3.2 crore disaster displacements in a decade: IDMC
India recorded 32.3 million (3.23 crore) internal displacements due to disasters, such as floods and storms, between 2015 and 2024, the third highest in the world after China and the Philippines, according to a new report. The report by the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) said disasters triggered 264.8 million internal displacements or forced movements across 210 countries and territories during this period. East and South Asia were the most affected regions. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like News For Jack Nicholson, 87, He Has Been Confirmed To Be... Reportingly Undo "At the country level, Bangladesh, China, India, the Philippines and the US recorded the highest figures over the past decade," the report said. China recorded 46.9 million internal displacements and the Philippines 46.1 million. Live Events The report said that nearly 90 per cent of global disaster displacements were the result of floods and storms. "Storms triggered most of the world's disaster displacements between 2015 and 2024, accounting for 120.9 million movements," it said. Floods triggered 114.8 million displacements during the same period. Cyclones, including Amphan in 2020, accounted for about 92 per cent of all storm displacements globally. The report said disasters have triggered an increasing number of internal displacements since 2015, the result in part of more frequent and intense hazards but also improved data at the national level and better monitoring capacity at the global level. In 2024 alone, 45.8 million internal displacements were recorded, the highest on record and far above the decadal average of 26.5 million. India recorded 5.4 million (54 lakh) displacements last year due to floods, storms and other disasters, the highest figure in 12 years. The report said many of the displacements were pre-emptive evacuations, testimony to the efforts of governments and local communities in disaster-prone countries to save lives and prevent injuries. However, "millions of people remain displaced for months or years after fleeing major storms, floods and other natural hazards". The IDMC emphasised that disaster displacement "affects the most vulnerable more severely". "They are often forced to flee repeatedly and for longer periods of time, which heightens their pre-existing vulnerabilities and reinforces social inequalities," it said. It warned that under current climate conditions, an annual average of 32 million people worldwide are likely to be displaced by riverine and coastal floods, drought and cyclonic winds in any given future year. That risk increases by 100 per cent if Earth's average temperature rises by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to the start of the industrial revolution (1850-1890), it said. The 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold is a target that countries agreed to at the Paris climate conference in 2015 to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. "Left unaddressed, disaster displacement will be a major obstacle to the achievement of global goals, such as those set by the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," the report said.
Observer
02-06-2025
- Health
- Observer
Living to die well: Find freedom the body offers
My patient, stoic and pensive, told me that he'd made it through his last year of work by dreaming of the European cruise he and his wife planned to take the week after he retired. 'I thought I'd paid my dues,' he whispered. 'I was just waiting for the best part of life to finally start.' He rarely took time off and had pushed through nausea and occasional abdominal pain that had worsened during his final months of work. Freedom, he'd thought, lay just beyond the newly visible finish line. But a diagnosis of stomach cancer, which had spread to his liver and lungs, had left him too breathless to walk, too nauseous to endure a boat ride, too weak to dress himself. Instead of living out his dreams, he was living out his death. We live alongside death. It speeds down highways recklessly and blooms clandestinely within our bodies. We have no idea when we will meet death, or how. Living with an awareness of this specific uncertainty can be terrifying, yet I've found that death also shimmers with a singular magnificence: the possibility of living freely. Popular culture would have us believe in cliché bucket lists, which call to mind outlandish activities that defy the physical limitations imposed by illness or the emotional limitations of common sense. Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson skydive in 'The Bucket List", despite terminal lung cancer. Queen Latifah withdraws her life savings and jets to Europe after learning she has weeks to live in 'Last Holiday". Greeting death with the fantasia of daredevil activities or adopting a newly carefree persona is a tempting salve for our fear of that last great unknown. But in my experience, considered reflection on mortality nudges people towards a more complicated version of the ordinary, not novel permutations of extremes. I often hear variations on similar wishes: A daughter wants a small wedding ceremony in the hospital so her dying parent can attend. A brother calls an estranged sister, asking her to visit so that he can say goodbye. I have heard uncommon goals too: wanting to take a long-postponed trip to the Alamo, to write a romance novel, to breed one last litter of puppies and inhale, one final time, the milky sweet of their young fur. These wishes are at their core the same desire, reconciling the differences between the life we have and the one we longed for. While contemplating our deaths can guide us to a place of deep honesty with ourselves, sometimes helping us to live more fully, it also can teach us to inhabit and understand our bodies more fully, too. Death will unravel our bodies in ways we cannot predict. Will we die in a sudden car crash, avoiding the indignities of a physical decline? Or will dementia claim our bodies and minds in an uncertain sequence? Our bodies absorb our lives; terror and joy alike live in our skin. My patient began to cry regularly about the traumas of his youth and losing his loving relationship with his wife. Dying offers the opportunity to face what we have simply accepted as part of our lives — formative events and experiences that we don't challenge or question, but simply accept and accommodate like a messy roommate. But we don't have to wait until we are dying to consider what it means to live freely. For all of us, reconceptualising death as a guide can help us to begin an ongoing conversation with ourselves about who we are and what we'd like our lives to mean. Think about how you spent the last six months. What and who brought you fulfilment and joy? What would you do differently if you could? If those were the last six months of your life, what would your regrets be? These questions, deceptively simple, are as commonplace and ordinary as death itself. Our answers to these questions evolve as our lives unfold. What and who seems to matter the most to you right now may change. If we begin this inquiry before death arrives, we may die as fully as we have lived. Rearranging our waning lives around previously buried desires isn't always practical or possible, emotionally or financially. But even if we cannot upend our existence in the name of slumbering passions, we can find freedom in the life the body offers, paying attention to the burn of grief and the pulse of joy, the intensity of an embrace or the taste of butter on toast. Even as we die, our bodies are capable of more than devolution from illness. Several months after I first met my patient who dreamed of European travel, his wife rushed him to the emergency room, her voice trembling as she described the way his skin glowed yellow seemingly overnight, the ferocity in his voice when he refused to go to the hospital, their daughter's decision to leave school to help care for him. He smiled when I pulled up a chair next to his bed. 'It would have been so nice to see Belgium,' he murmured. 'I could have brought you some really good chocolate.' — The New York Times
