June 14, 2016

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Entertainment June 14, 2016

Today in Movie Culture: How 'Finding Nemo' Should Have Ended, a Tribute to LBGT Cinema and More

Here are a bunch of little bites to satisfy your hunger for movie culture:

Movie Takedown of the Day:

With Finding Dory out this week, Honest Trailers sinks Finding Nemo and even offers a disturbing science factoid at the end:

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Alternate Ending of the Day:

Speaking of Finding Nemo, here’s how the classic Pixar animated movie should have ended:

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Custom Toy of the Day:

The new Chinese restaurant headquarters from the Ghostbusters remake gets a fan-made Lego playset in this submission to Lego Ideas (via Comic Book Resources):

Supercut of the Day:

For Fandor Keyframe, Candice Drouet pays tribute to LGBT cinema in this timely, Rainbow Flag-themed video (NSFW):

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Rap Battle of the Day:

Austin Powers may have spoofed James Bond silly, but can he beat 007 in a rap battle? Watch the two spy characters go musically head to head here (NSFW):

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Vintage Image of the Day:

Today is Flag Day, so here’s your obligatory classic movie still, from Patton, in honor of the holiday:

Cosplay of the Day:

Whether or not it’s actually Jurassic Park cosplay or not, we can’t get enough of this T.rex and his attempt at the American Ninja Warrior obstacle course (via Geekologie):

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Video Essay of the Day:

The following video by Channel Criswell highlights the importance of dialogue design in movies, particularly The Social Network:

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Visual List of the Day:

Cracked spotlights the most clever instances of foreshadowing in movies, including The Thing and Shaun of the Dead:

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Classic Trailer of the Day:

Today is the 25th anniversary of the release of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Watch the original trailer for the movie below.

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and

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Business June 14, 2016

Bonds Pay Less Than Zero As Investors Flee To Safety

British Prime Minister David Cameron delivers a speech on the upcoming EU referendum in London on June 7. Concerns about a possible "Brexit" from the EU have rattled financial markets.

British Prime Minister David Cameron delivers a speech on the upcoming EU referendum in London on June 7. Concerns about a possible “Brexit” from the EU have rattled financial markets. WPA Pool/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption WPA Pool/Getty Images

In more and more countries, investors are paying the government for the privilege of owning its bonds. It’s usually the other way around.

The yield on Germany’s 10-year government bond fell into negative territory for the first time ever on Tuesday, as worries build that the United Kingdom could decide to leave the European Union next week.

Interest rates on government debt also fell in other countries, such as Japan and the United States, after new polls indicated that support for a so-called Brexit is stronger than previously thought.

The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note approached an all-time low, and U.S. stock prices fell for a fourth straight day.

The prospect of a Brexit has rattled investors, who worry that a decision to leave the EU would send the value of the British pound falling and cause problems for some of Europe’s biggest banks. British Prime Minister David Cameron has also warned that the impact of leaving the EU could hurt the British economy and be felt throughout the Continent.

“People are looking for safety. They’re looking for places to park their money,” says David Blanchflower, professor of economics at Dartmouth.

By dipping into negative territory, albeit slightly, Germany joins a small club of wealthy, developed countries, including Denmark, Switzerland, Japan and Sweden, that are essentially able to borrow money from investors and then charge them to do so.

“We have some countries — the most notable ones are in Europe — where the investors are willing to buy bonds that have a negative yield. So you don’t get compensated for putting your money into these bonds. It’s like paying a little tax if you like,” says Simon Johnson, professor of global economics and management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Such countries have benefited from investor fears about the state of the global economy. Growth has been anemic in many wealthy countries, and is slowing in China and other places. As they often do, investors have responded by fleeing to the safe havens of government debt.

“The fundamental facts of Japan and much of the euro area are that growth is disappointing. Growth is low. Investors do not feel there are attractive places to put their money, with good returns at reasonable risk,” Johnson says.

As demand for these bonds has surged, interest rates have fallen.

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Sports June 14, 2016

'Such A Fantasy Of A Fantasy': U.S. Fencer On Reaching Rio Olympics

He never dared imagine he could make it to the Olympics, but 28-year-old fencer Jason Pryor will be competing at this summer’s games in Rio de Janeiro. He’s ranked No. 1 in the U.S. in men’s epee fencing.

Transcript

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

More than 10,000 athletes will be competing in the Rio Olympics this summer, and we are going to meet one of them now. He never thought he would be an Olympian. NPR’s Melissa Block spent a busy training day with fencer Jason Pryor in New York.

MELISSA BLOCK, BYLINE: Just listen to how Jason Pryor describes the thrill of a win.

JASON PRYOR: Lightning – there’s just this excitement shooting through you everywhere. There’s just this thrill that just explodes. And then it’s gone. Just like that, and it’s gone. You just have to keep chasing it over and over and over again.

BLOCK: That’s the feeling Pryor first came to know as a chubby kid growing up outside Cleveland. He played soccer first, didn’t much like it. His parents told him he had to do a sport, so he said…

PRYOR: OK, well, fencing.

BLOCK: Figuring that would get him out of it. But surprise – his parents found a local fencing club, and he discovered he loved it. He fenced all through high school. He says he was extremely mediocre but passionate, got an academic scholarship to Ohio State and helped propel his team to the NCAA fencing championship. He figured his fencing career would stop there. He was making plans for law school.

PRYOR: I don’t think I was even brave enough to admit to myself that I wanted to go to the Olympics. That thought was such a fantasy, such a fantasy of a fantasy.

BLOCK: But he ended up getting recruited to join the Olympic training program in Colorado Springs, and that means this unlikely Olympian has spent the past six years focused on one thing – Rio – one day, one shot. Jason Pryor is ranked No. 1 in the U.S. in men’s epee. That’s his fencing weapon. And he’s the only U.S. men’s epee fencer going to Rio.

I meet up with the 28-year-old first thing in the morning as he makes breakfast. He’s in a muscle shirt, compact and strong. A tattoo of a mongoose fighting a snake winds down his left arm. Jason’s renting a room in Queens, living with a high school buddy and his wife.

PRYOR: I eat four eggs every morning. I’d eat more because I’m super hungry, but then I go through, you know, a carton in two days as opposed to three, which is too much because eggs cost quite a bit in New York.

BLOCK: Money is a huge, constant worry. Like a lot of Olympic athletes, Jason struggles financially to support his passion. He has a couple of small corporate sponsors, gets paid for occasional athlete appearances. He swallowed his pride and accepted donations from his family church back home. Members passed the hat to help get Jason to Rio.

We take the subway into Manhattan for a full day of practice and weightlifting. He’s carrying 25 pounds of gear and trying to explain why those three-minute bouts on the fencing strip are so addictive.

PRYOR: That is one of the sweetest things – when you’ve broken their soul and you can see that cold, slimy feeling creep up in their chest when they know they’ve lost the bout. You can taste it in the air when it happens.

BLOCK: You’re saying this Jason, and yet you are such a nice guy.

PRYOR: Oh, I am a nice guy. You know, but the strip – the strip’s different. It’s two dudes trying to ram a metal rod as hard and fast as they can into each other.

BLOCK: It is a combat sport after all.

PRYOR: Oh, no – come on.

BLOCK: The epee is a slim blade of carbon steel. It weighs about a pound, flexes on contact, and it’s wired. When you score a touch with the tip, the scoring machine beeps, and a light flashes.

(SOUNDBITE OF FENCING MATCH)

BLOCK: As he fences, Jason is in constant motion, his dreadlocks bouncing on his shoulders. It’s like his feet has springs. They seem to hover above the ground. Pryor is short for a fencer – a little under 5-9. He compensates for that with speed and unpredictable motion. For Kornel Udvarhelyi, who coaches at the New York Fencers Club, watching Jason is like watching a dancer.

KORNEL UDVARHELYI: What I tell him usually is just, be the Jason Pryor, you know? Be yourself because I know when he’s himself and he’s moving like that, he’s very hard to hit. And he’s capable of beating anybody in the world.

PRYOR: I want to suck people into my motions so that they get desensitized. They don’t notice when I creep distance and then finish the action. You know, in and out so that when they think, oh, he’s coming in and then they jump, and no, that’s the moment when I’m leaving. I want all the motions like my chest and my hips and my hand all moving independent in this sort of weird, flowing, jerking motion that, you know, is really in your face.

BLOCK: After practice, it’s another subway ride up to the New York Athletic Club for his daily lesson with his coach, Christian Rivera.

CHRISTIAN RIVERA: There it is. Find that moment that they don’t know about.

BLOCK: For the last six years, fencing has been Jason’s entire life. I ask if he allows himself to picture it – standing on the podium in Rio, the American flag rising behind him, the national anthem playing.

PRYOR: I’m not thinking about medals or podiums or any of that crap. I’m thinking about being amazing, what it feels like to score those touches when I’m so sharp around the short target that as soon as I feel someone extending – pow, one light for me – pow, one light on the toe. Boom – that’s what I’m thinking about – but past the actual touches – no.

RIVERA: Woo – get them – next one.

BLOCK: Jason Pryor will compete in Rio on August 9. Melissa Block, NPR News.

Copyright © 2016 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Health June 14, 2016

If Zika May Derail A Trip, Look At 'Cancel-For-Any-Reason' Travel Insurance

Would the threat of Zika lead you to rethink a scheduled trip to Ipanema beach or the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil? You'd need the right kind of travel insurance to cover the cost of a canceled trip.

Would the threat of Zika lead you to rethink a scheduled trip to Ipanema beach or the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil? You’d need the right kind of travel insurance to cover the cost of a canceled trip. Mario Tama/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption Mario Tama/Getty Images

As the summer unfolds, people are understandably interested in whether travel insurance will cover them if they cancel a trip because of concerns about the Zika virus. Other readers asked whether student health plans are a better option than the coverage from a health law marketplace and how an employer can’t offer mental health coverage. Here are the answers.

My wife and I have a trip planned to South America, but we’re increasingly worried about the Zika virus. We bought travel insurance when we booked the trip. If we cancel, will we be able to get our money back?

A typical travel insurance policy won’t reimburse you for trip expenses if you cancel because you’re afraid of traveling to a country where there have been reports of an outbreak of a disease such as the Zika virus.

But if you purchased a “cancel-for-any-reason” policy, your claim is more likely to be approved, said Megan Freedman, executive director of the U.S. Travel Insurance Association, a trade group. Like standard trip cancellation policies, these policies provide financial protection for unreimbursed expenses if you have to cancel your trip before it starts or interrupt it once you’re there. These policies also allow you to cancel for any reason, including pregnancy, a particular concern with the Zika virus. They typically cost a bit more than a standard policy. If you cancel, you’ll generally be reimbursed for about 75 percent of your prepaid expenses.

The Zika virus causes only mild flu-like symptoms in most people, but if women contract it during pregnancy, it can cause a devastating birth defect called microcephaly in their baby. Researchers estimate that babies born to between 1 and 13 percent of pregnant women who are infected during their first trimester will have that problem.

The virus is generally passed along through the bite of an infected mosquito.

Even if your travel insurance policy won’t approve your claim, it’s worth contacting your airline or hotel to ask about refunds, Freedman said.

“Ask what if any concessions your hotel or airline is extending,” she said.

I’m leaving my job to go to graduate school this summer. The college offers a student health plan, but would I be better off buying an individual plan on the marketplace? Since I worked half of the year, I suspect I won’t get much in subsidies.

The best choice for you will depend on a couple of factors, including how good the student plan is at your school and your coverage priorities: Do you want a plan with generous coverage or would you prefer something that may have a higher deductible, for example, but probably has a lower price tag?

Student health plans vary widely from school to school, said Stephen Beckley, a higher education health care consultant in Fort Collins, Colo. At many schools, coverage is equivalent to a platinum level plan on the state marketplace, meaning it pays 90 percent of the cost of medical services. A survey of student health plans at 38 public and private schools conducted by Hodgkins Beckley Consulting found average premiums were $184 at public universities and $217 at private colleges.

A platinum-level plan on the health law marketplaces would likely run more than that, especially if you don’t qualify for a federal tax credit to help pay the premium. On the state marketplaces, more than three-quarters of people who buy plans get premium tax credits, which are available to people with annual incomes up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level (about $47,000 for an individual). This year, after factoring in an average premium tax credit of $290, consumers paid on average $106 per month for coverage in the 38 states where the federal government operates the marketplace. Most people buy silver plans on the state exchanges, which pay for 70 percent of medical services, leaving them to pick up more of the cost of care than a platinum plan does.

My employer does not offer mental health benefits. What can I do?

You’re in a tough spot. The federal mental health parity law doesn’t require companies to offer mental health benefits. Rather, it says that if they do, the benefits have to be at least as generous as their medical/surgical benefits.

You have several options, but none of them is a slam dunk. Some therapists charge on a sliding scale for a small proportion of their caseload, said Lynn Bufka, a psychologist who is the associate executive director for practice research and policy at the American Psychological Association.

Depending on where you live, you may be able to find a local mental health clinic or federally qualified health center that offers mental health services for less than you’d pay a private therapist, Bufka said. You could also check out universities near you that have training programs for mental health professionals. You might be able to work with a student who’s under close supervision by a trained professional.

Once you find someone, ask if there are things you can do to help accelerate the work using self-help books or guided exercises between sessions.

“It’s important for people to understand that psychotherapy does not need to be a forever thing,” Bufka said. “It could be a 10 to 12 week intervention.”

Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent news service that is part of the nonpartisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Email questions for future columns: KHNHelp@KFF.org. Michelle Andrews is on Twitter: @mandrews110.

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