Month: January 2017

Flu season is in full swing, and public health experts say it’s going to be a doozy in 2017. As Self reports, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “noted a slow but steady increase” in reported flu cases in November and early December, and things are only expected to get worse in coming weeks, CDC officials announced.

The U.S. Outpatient Influenza-like Illness Surveillance Network (ILINet)—which is made up of more than 2800 outpatient healthcare providers across America—tracks the percentage of patients seeking care for influenza-like illnesses and reports them to the CDC each week. Recently, more patients have exhibited flu-like symptoms than normal, officials say. The CDC also noted that the percentage of respiratory specimens in clinical laboratories testing positive for influenza is on the rise.

Not only are more people getting sick with the flu, they’re being infected with influenza A viruses, also known as H3N2. In past flu seasons, H3N2 has been linked with more hospitalizations and deaths than other strains, so it’s considered more serious than other flu types—particularly for kids and seniors. “While it’s not possible to predict which influenza viruses will predominate for the entire 2016-2017 influenza season, if H3N2 viruses continue to circulate widely, older adults and young children may be more severely impacted,” the CDC said.

Want a flu-free winter? Wash your hands frequently, avoid sick friends and co-workers, get prompt treatment with antiviral drugs if you do fall ill—and get a flu shot. The CDC recommends that everyone 6 months and older get their annual flu shot. It’s not too late, as the flu season peaks between December and March. However, the vaccine does takes about two weeks to be fully effective, so sooner is better than later.

If you’re wary of getting a flu shot, we’ll dispel a few misconceptions that might be preventing you from taking the plunge: No, a flu shot doesn’t give you the flu. No, it’s not dangerous for pregnant women. And yes, you can still get a flu shot if you’re allergic to eggs (but be sure to speak up if that’s the case, because the medical professional may need to take extra precautions).

Unfortunately, the flu shot you received last flu season will not protect you in the coming months. There are many types of flu, and each year, certain strains are more prevalent than others. That’s why scientists and public health officials formulate new vaccines.

So go forth, get vaccinated, and stay healthy—but if the worst-case scenario occurs and you do catch the flu, make sure to protect your colleagues from your illness by taking sick days as needed.

[h/t Self]

When she was sworn in on January 3 as a Democratic senator from California, Kamala Harris became only the second African-American woman to serve in the Senate, as well as the first-ever person of South Asian descent to serve. But being a pioneer isn’t new for her. The child of immigrants from Jamaica and India, Harris was also the first woman elected as District Attorney of San Francisco and the first woman, the first African-American, and the first person of South Asian descent to become Attorney General of California. Those are just a few of her inspiring firsts—read on for 13 facts about this trailblazing woman.

1. HER NAME IS JUST DIVINE.

Her full name is Kamala (pronounced “comma-la”) Devi Harris. Her mother, Shyamala, a Hindu, gave her daughters names taken from Hindu mythology in part to connect her children to their heritage. “A culture that worships goddesses produces strong women,” Shayamala told the Los Angeles Times in 2004.

Kamalā is one of many Sanskrit words meaning lotus, as well as a name for Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth and good fortune. Harris’s middle name, Devi, is a Sanskrit word used within Hinduism as the general term for a goddess. (Shyamala named her second daughter Maya Lakshmi, continuing the goddess trend.)

2. SHE COMES FROM AN IMPRESSIVE AND INTERNATIONAL FAMILY.

Kamala Harris was born in Oakland, California to two ambitious graduate students—both immigrants. Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was raised in southern India and completed her undergraduate education at the University of Delhi at just 19, at which point she came to the U.S. to pursue a doctorate in endocrinology at the University of California, Berkeley. Shyamala was supposed to complete her studies and then return to India for an arranged marriage, but instead, she became active in the American civil rights movement. There she met Donald Harris, a Jamaican native who also came to the United States as a young adult to pursue doctoral work at Berkeley in economics. Shyamala ended up marrying Donald, and stayed in the U.S. By marrying for love outside her Brahmin caste—and outside her culture entirely—Shyamala made a very bold choice.

But Shyamala had been raised to act on her conscience. Her father, P.V. Gopalan, was active in the Indian independence movement and then became a high-ranking civil servant who fought corruption and acted as an adviser to newly independent nations, including Zambia. Her mother, Rajam Gopalan, had been betrothed at 12 and married at 16, but grew into a self-assured woman who used her position as an upper-caste wife to advocate for less advantaged women. During the 1940s, Rajam would drive around in her Volkswagen bug with a bullhorn, telling poor women how to access birth control. “My grandfather would joke that her community activism would be the end of his career,” Harris wrote in her book, Smart on Crime. “That never stopped her.”

3. SHE GREW UP IN THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT.

Harris likes to say she grew up with “a stroller’s-eye view of the civil rights movement.” Her parents would bring her to rallies and demonstrations around the Bay Area, and she has written that her “earliest memories are of a sea of legs marching around the streets and the sounds of shouting.”

Harris’s parents divorced when she was seven, after which she and her sister spent most of their time with their mother in an apartment in the flatlands area of Berkeley, a working-class neighborhood that was primarily African-American. Even as a small child, Harris picked up the language of the movement. Shyamala liked to recount the time her eldest daughter, then a toddler, was fussing and, when asked what she wanted, cried out, “Fweedom!”

4. SHE HAD A MULTICULTURAL CHILDHOOD.

Harris also grew up steeped in multiple rich cultures. “I grew up with a strong Indian culture, and I was raised in a black community,” Harris told AsianWeek in 2003. “All my friends were black and we got together and cooked Indian food and painted henna on our hands, and I never felt uncomfortable with my cultural background.” The two Harris girls, Kamala and Maya, sang in the choir at a black Baptist church and attended a Hindu temple with their mother.

They also had the chance to travel extensively. The sisters traveled to Jamaica with their father to visit his family and, every two years, went to India with Shyamala.“When Kamala was in first grade,” Shyamala told San Francisco Magazine, “one of her teachers said to me, ‘You know, your child has a great imagination. Every time we talk about someplace in the world she says, “Oh, I’ve been there.’ So I told her, ‘Well, she has been there!’ India, England, the Caribbean, Africa—she had been there.”

Harris also spent time living in Canada. When she was in her early teens, her mother, by then a scientist studying breast cancer, took a position doing research at Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, Quebec, and teaching at McGill University. Harris completed high school in Montreal and returned to the U.S. for college, attending Howard University in Washington, D.C. Her father had become an economics professor at Stanford, and Harris followed in his footsteps by majoring in economics, adding a double major in political science.

5. SHE FIRST GOT A TASTE OF POLITICS DURING COLLEGE.

Harris’s first-ever campaign was for freshman class representative of the liberal arts student council at Howard University. Harris also sharpened her public speaking skills on Howard’s debate team and joined the sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha, all while organizing mentor programs for minority youths and demonstrating against apartheid. “The thing that Howard taught me is that you can do any collection of things, and not one thing to the exclusion of the other,” Harris said last year. “You could be homecoming queen and valedictorian. There are no false choices at Howard.”

With Howard located in the nation’s capital, Harris explored a number of potential paths for public service while in college, working as a tour guide at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, serving as a press aide at the Federal Trade Commission, and interning for Senator Alan Cranston of her home state of California.

6. SHE’S WANTED TO BE A LAWYER SINCE SHE WAS A CHILD.

Growing up, Harris always wanted to be a lawyer. “They were the heroes growing up,” she told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2009. “They were the architects of the civil rights movement. I thought that that was the way you do good things and serve and achieve justice. It was pretty simple.” In particular, she cites Constance Baker Motley, Charles Hamilton Houston, and Thurgood Marshall as her role models.

After completing her undergraduate education at Howard, Harris returned to California for law school, attending the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. But rather than take up civil rights litigation or criminal defense work, Harris decided to become a prosecutor—a choice she’s said “surprised” her family members. But growing up in the Bay Area, she had seen the impact of law enforcement on disadvantaged populations and wanted to use the law to protect the vulnerable and correct imbalances of power. Being a prosecutor gave Harris more power to change the criminal justice system from within—choosing who to prosecute, what crimes to focus on, and which people to present with options for rehabilitation rather than prison.

As a prosecutor, Harris felt that she could counter racially based narratives about crime among other prosecutors. Talking to The New York Times, she recalled hearing colleagues discuss whether to charge certain defendants as members of a gang, which would have made their punishment more severe. “They were talking about how these young people were dressed, what corner they were hanging out on and the music they were listening to,” Harris said. “I remember saying: ‘Hey, guys, you know what? Members of my family dress that way. I grew up with people who live on that corner. […] I still have a tape of that kind of music in my car.’”

Harris was also motivated by a desire to advocate for victims of abuse. While attending high school in Montreal, she realized that a friend was being sexually abused by her father; Harris invited the girl to live with their family, with Shyamala’s blessing. Seeing that friend’s experience was one reason Harris became a prosecutor. “Some of the most voiceless in the community, the most vulnerable, the most powerless, are victims of crime,” she told the Chronicle, “and I wanted to be a voice for them.”

7. AS A PROSECUTOR, SHE STOOD UP FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN.

After graduating with her law degree in 1989, Harris soon passed the bar (though she failed the first time). In 1990, she took a job as a prosecutor with Alameda County in northern California. She specialized in child sex abuse trials and domestic violence cases, using her power as a prosecutor against those who hurt the vulnerable. She told The New York Times last year, “When I was prosecuting child molestation cases, I will tell you, I was as close to a vigilante as you can get.”

In 1998, Harris moved to the San Francisco District Attorney’s office, where she headed the career criminals unit, then transferred to the City Attorney’s office, where she led the Family and Children Services division. In 2003, she ran for the office of San Francisco’s District Attorney, winning the election to become the first-ever female DA in San Francisco and the first-ever African-American DA in the state. As district attorney, she continued to go after abusers in court.

But Harris didn’t just show up for women and children in the courtroom. She helped develop a program with the San Francisco Department of Public Health to help emergency rooms spot evidence of child sexual abuse, and she co-founded the Coalition to End the Exploitation of Kids. She pushed for legislation to strengthen laws on the sexual exploitation of minors, and she worked to get San Francisco its first safe house for children escaping from sex work. Harris used her influence in creative ways to support those facing abuse—and punish those perpetrating it.

8. SHE STICKS TO HER PRINCIPLES, EVEN WHEN SHE GETS FLACK.

During her campaign for San Francisco District Attorney, Harris pledged not to seek the death penalty in her cases—a popular stance in liberal San Francisco. But just a few months after she took office, a young police officer named Isaac Espinoza was shot and killed while on duty. Days later, Harris announced that she would not be seeking the death penalty for the perpetrator but would instead pursue life in prison without the possibility of parole. The police union was outraged, as were Espinoza’s family members and a number of prominent California politicians. At Espinoza’s funeral, Senator Dianne Feinstein, who had formerly served as mayor of San Francisco, stood up and declared, “This is not only the definition of tragedy, it’s the special circumstance called for by the death penalty law”—the church full of mourners cheered.

Despite the blowback, Harris stood firm in her decision not to seek capital punishment, which she has argued is no deterrent to crime. In 2007, Espinoza’s killer was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life without parole; Harris spent much of her two terms as DA rebuilding her relationship with law enforcement.

9. SHE HAS INNOVATIVE WAYS OF DEALING WITH CRIME.

In 2005, as district attorney, Harris launched Back on Track [PDF], a program designed to reduce recidivism in San Francisco by offering nonviolent, low-level drug-trafficking defendants job training, life skill-building, and the chance to avoid prison. Members of the program spend 12 to 18 months pursuing a series of personalized goals relating to employment, education, and parenting. Back on Track was highly successful: Just 10% of graduates from the program had reoffended within two years, versus the normal 53% for drug offenders in California. Plus, the program is cheaper than prison.

“I reject the false choice that you either are soft on crime or tough on crime,” she has said, insisting instead that we must be “smart on crime.” Her approach to criminal justice emphasizes preventing crime rather than reacting to it, and rehabilitating offenders rather than considering them lost.

In that spirit, she focused on truancy among elementary schoolers after discovering that 94% of murder victims under age 25 in San Francisco were high-school dropouts. Students who are chronically absent in elementary school are more likely to drop out of high school, and high-school dropouts are more likely to end up in jail or dead by age 35, so Harris began developing programs to help parents improve their children’s school attendance, with the threat of criminal prosecution for parents whose children were habitually absent and who did not respond to other methods of intervention.

10. SHE’S A TRAILBLAZER.

In 2010, Harris ran for Attorney General of California, winning the election to become the state’s first woman, first African-American, and first person of South Asian descent to hold the office. During her time in office, she was a trailblazer in other ways as well, in particular with her attention to technology’s potential for victimization.

In 2012, she sent out notices to app makers reminding them of California privacy laws and warning them her office would pursue penalties should they fail to comply. Harris’s office also prosecuted a San Diego man, Kevin Bollaert, for operating a pair of websites: one inviting people to post “revenge porn” and another that charged those whose photos had been posted to have them removed. In 2015, Bollaert was found guilty on 21 counts of identity theft and six of extortion, and sentenced to 18 years in prison, marking the first time a “revenge porn” site operator had been convicted in California.

Harris made clear her office would take such cases seriously. She told Marie Claire, “This case removes any ambiguity about what’s against the law. It also makes clear that a computer can be as lethal as a weapon. Anyone sitting at home with the anonymity of a laptop should be very clear that that will not immunize them from arrest, prosecution, and  prison.” Harris’s office also set up a web platform about cyber exploitation, detailing the laws governing it and listing resources for victims.

11. SHE PLAYED HARDBALL WITH THE BANKS.

In her first year as California’s Attorney General, Harris played hardball during a multi-state suit against five major banks accused of improper foreclosure practices during the mortgage crisis. She pulled out of early negotiations, rejecting a multi-state deal that she felt brought too little money to California and protected the banks from prosecution for their actions, despite pressure from the Obama administration to accept those terms. “I took an oath to represent California, and that’s what I was doing,” Harris told The New York Times. “It was about making sure that Californians got what they needed.” Afraid she was jeopardizing the settlement, some pressured Harris to accept the initial terms. “The Los Angeles Times had an editorial saying I should take the deal,” she told San Francisco Magazine. “I got calls from elected leaders in California saying, ‘I hope you know what you’re doing.’”

Ultimately, she triumphed. Harris and her team secured $20 billion in mortgage relief for Californians, as well as the right to levy financial penalties if the banks failed to fulfill their promises in the deal.

12. SHE LOVES TO COOK AND ADVOCATES SELF-CARE.

Harris has a stress-filled life that requires high levels of energy and commitment. How does she cope? “In order to find balance, I feel very strongly about two things in particular in terms of routine. Work out, and eat well,” she said in an interview last year.

She works out every morning, watching MTV and VH1 while she uses the treadmill, or going to SoulCycle. “I love SoulCycle,” she told the San Francisco Chronicle. “It’s like going to the club.” She tells all the young women she mentors that “You’ve got to work out,” insisting, “It has nothing to do with your weight. It’s about your mind.”

Harris also advocates eating well, and enjoying your food. She loves cooking, and since she married attorney Doug Emhoff in 2014, she likes to cook with him. “[W]e have fun making meals,” she told Essence. “He’s my sous chef and has these goggles that he puts on when chopping onions. It’s hilarious.” When things get “really stressful” and she doesn’t have time to cook, she reads recipes to relax.

13. SHE MAY BE THE FIRST, BUT SHE DOESN’T WANT TO BE THE LAST.

Despite her hectic schedule, Harris has made a point to mentor young women. One mentee, Iyahna Smith, now a senior at Howard University, met Harris when she was a high school student in San Francisco. Smith told Essence, “I was part of College Track, a program that provides students from disadvantaged backgrounds an opportunity to go to school. I gave a speech, and during it I mentioned my desire to go to Howard. Afterward, Ms. Harris came up to me, told me it was her alma mater and said she wanted to help.” Harris assisted Smith with her college essays, connected her with internships, and sends her cards with notes of encouragement. “It’s just incredible that someone who is so busy and has so much responsibility has been so involved,” Smith said.

For Harris, her commitment to helping others achieve their potential is a value she learned from her mother, who was committed to mentoring her graduate students, simultaneously supporting them and demanding their very best. Harris’s sister Maya said of their mother, “Until her dying day she never lost sight of this notion that if you’ve been able to walk through doors, you don’t just leave the doors open. You bring others along.” Both sisters were inspired by Shyamala’s example. Harris has repeatedly said that her motto is “A saying my mother had, ‘You may be the first, but make sure you’re not the last.’”

Attention, coffee control freaks: you’re going to want to see this. The folks at Fellow have invented a smart and elegant electric kettle to give you total power over every element of your pour-over.

The Stagg EKG is the latest iteration of the Fellow team’s award-winning kettles. Fans of the original stovetop Stagg praised its design, but pour-over coffee is a science, and they wanted more precision in their instruments.

Enter the all-electric Stagg EKG. The EKG marries the shape and efficiency of its predecessor with fine-tuned heat controls to allow aficionados to set the temperature of their medium—that is, hot water—at the optimal level for their chosen blend, roast, or tea leaves. A small LCD screen displays both the set temperature of the water and its current temperature.

Those of you who want even more control might be interested in the EKG+, a smart version of the kettle that can be operated from a mobile phone and interact with other kitchen appliances.

All three of the Stagg kettles were introduced via Kickstarter. The EKG campaign set a goal of $100,000. At the time of this writing, backers have pledged nearly three times that much.

For more on the kettle’s design and talents, check out the (delightfully goofy) product video below from Fellow founder Jake Miller.

For decades, physicians have cautioned against using cotton swabs like Q-Tips to clean out the ears (“nothing smaller than an elbow” is a popular refrain). For one thing, they simply don’t do a very good job, often pushing the cerumen (ear wax) deeper into the ear. For another, the tiny tufts of cotton can sometimes break off and become lodged in the canal and damage the very delicate tissues inside. Q-Tips even have a box label warning: “Do not use inside ear canal.”

The medical field has now made it official: Stop sticking swabs in your ears. This month, the American Academy of Otolaryngology issued a revised set of ear wax care guidelines that specifically warns against the use of the swabs to try and unclog your head.

“The product label of one of the leading manufacturers of cotton-tipped swabs specifically notes that the product should not be placed into the ear canal,” the AAO wrote. “The cotton buds at the end of cotton-tipped applicators may separate, requiring removal as a foreign body. One case report did report fatal otogenic meningitis and brain abscess due to retained cotton swabs.”

That’s a bit extreme, as most of us are unlikely to die from probing our ears. Still, absolutely nothing good can come of using the swabs for wax removal. If build-up is bothering you, see a physician about having it removed the right way: with suction, or with tiny forceps wielded by a professional.

[h/t STAT]

When an Aedes aegypti mosquito bites someone infected with the deadly dengue virus, the virus in turn infects the mosquito. After completing its life cycle in the insect’s gut, the virus makes its way into its saliva, where it can spread infection the next time the mosquito bites. But new research from Johns Hopkins University points toward a way to stop dengue from ever making it to that stage by protecting the mosquito from being infected itself.

As they described in a study in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, the researchers genetically engineered Ae. aegypti to alter the production of two proteins that the mosquito naturally makes to fight off the infection. When the mosquitos were engineered to produce more of these proteins—known as Dome and Hop—in the mosquito’s version of the liver, they had fewer copies of the dengue virus in their guts once they were infected, and fewer copies in their salivary glands. They also produced fewer eggs than non-engineered mosquitos.

“If you can replace a natural population of dengue-transmitting mosquitoes with genetically modified ones that are resistant to virus, you can stop disease transmission,” lead author George Dimopoulos explains in a press release. To make the plan viable, though, the mosquitos would have to compete with their wild brethren to become the dominant mosquito type, converting the population to the disease-resistance kind of mosquito.

Unfortunately, the technique is only relevant to the transmission of dengue, so it can’t protect people from other deadly mosquito-born viruses like Zika. However, stopping dengue’s spread could prevent some 400 million deaths a year. The CDC lists dengue as a leading cause of death in tropical and subtropical regions.

The world is teeming with life, and we’re always discovering new species—including some that stretch the limits of how we view and classify biological life forms. Here are a few that clearly don’t play by the rules.

1. BDELLOID ROTIFERS

 
Bdelloid rotifers are microscopic superstars inside a drop of water. These tiny transparent animals—which can be found all over the world (even Antarctica!)—are masters of survival and reproduction. When water becomes scarce, they dry up like brine shrimp, surviving for years completely desiccated. When water returns, they rehydrate themselves and continue on as good as new. Rotifers are all female and reproduce asexually, laying eggs that don’t need to be fertilized and are essentially clones of themselves. While they’re not the only animal that doesn’t need a member of the opposite sex to reproduce, they’re more successful than others: Bdelloid rotifers have evolved into 450 species. How can a creature evolve if it’s only producing clones? Random mutations would produce changes, but cannot explain the rotifers’ 80-million-year survival and successful speciation.

The secret to rotifers’ evolution is that they steal genes from other living things. DNA analysis of bdelloid rotifers shows that about 10 percent of their genes come from bacteria, fungi, and plants. How does that happen? It turns out that bdelloid rotifers are also masters at surviving ionizing radiation, which damages DNA. The creatures are able to repair their own DNA, but can incorporate new genes (from the surrounding environment or something they ate) in the repair process. Over time, the new genes are used to adapt to the environment, leading to the evolution of new rotifer species as well as incorporating the necessary genetic material to protect against parasites.

2. EUGLENA

 
Euglena is a genus that contains hundreds of species of single-cell organisms that are not plant nor animal nor bacteria, but have features of all three. Most species of Euglena are mixotrophs that power themselves based on environmental conditions. When sunlight is present, for example, Euglena will use it to make food by photosynthesis using chloroplasts, the genes for which may have been taken from engulfed alga sometime in Euglena‘s evolutionary history. When there is no sunlight, Euglena ingests surrounding substances like an animal to get energy. But what’s really amazing about Euglena is that its behavior can be useful to humans. A company in Japan is looking into using some species of Euglena for food and biofuel, and other species might be used to clean the environment as they eat pollutants.

3. TRICHOPLAX ADHAERENS

 
Among multicellular animals, the microscopic Trichoplax adhaerens is the master of minimalism. It’s so simple, in fact, that for decades it was assumed that it was only a larval stage of another animal. T. adhaerens is comprised of just four types of cells, and is basically two sheets of cells with some more cells in between. It has no organs and no discernible front or back, though it does have a distinct upper and lower side—the organism uses that lower side both to eat and to adhere to surfaces. It can move either by changing shape or by using tiny cilia on its outer layers. It’s perhaps not surprising T. adhaerens has an extremely simple genome, too, with 98 million base pairs, compared to over 3 billion for humans. They reproduce by splitting, by budding, or by sexual reproduction. Scientists don’t know exactly how they manage the sexual reproduction; organisms have been observed degenerating into eggs, but fertilization is still a mystery.

4. TARDIGRADES

Tardigrades, also called water bears or moss piglets, resemble eight-legged faceless bears, except they’re generally a half-millimeter long. Hundreds of species of these tiny animals are found in every kind of environment on earth, but they prefer to be among moss, algae, and lichen. While ocean-based tardigrades are pretty normal, land and fresh water tardigrades are famously hard to kill. If the environment is dry, they dry up too, and go into a dormant state that they emerge from when wet conditions return, even years later. They can survive boiling or freezing temperatures. They can survive in the vacuum of space and in high pressure conditions. They can survive radiation that would kill lesser animals.

In case you want a tardigrade of your own, the International Society of Tardigrade Hunters has instructions for collecting them. A low-power microscope should suffice for observation.

5. GEOGEMMA BAROSSII

 
A microbe of the Archaea domain, Geogemma barossii is a microbe that likes it hot. This hyperthermophile, sometimes referred to as Strain 121, grows optimally at 220°F, but does just fine at 250°F (or 121°C, hence the name). It doesn’t die until temperatures go over 266°F—one of the highest-known temperature tolerances of any living thing. The discovery of G. barossi’s heat tolerance in 2003 gave pause to medical specialists when they realized that their sterilization procedures would not kill this microbe. However, Strain 121 cannot grow in the range of a human’s body temperature, so it isn’t considered infectious. Its normal home is thermal vents in the ocean floor.

BONUS: GROMIA SPHAERICA

The size of a grape, Gromia sphaerica is too big to be a microbe—but this single-celled organism is too cool not to include. This ancient relative of the amoeba lives at the bottom of the ocean, and was first discovered in the Arabian Sea in 2000. Adult specimens can grow to be 1.5 inches in diameter, or as small .019 inches. While a single cell that big is pretty strange, the most remarkable thing about G. sphaerica is the trails they leave behind on the sea floor. They weren’t created by the organisms rolling downhill (they can actually move uphill), and they weren’t created by ocean currents. Somehow, these big cells moved on their own and are heavy enough to leave a trail behind them. That raises questions about fossil trails from the Precambrian that scientists assumed were left by multicellular animals, but may have been left before multicellular life arose.

In January 1976, film producer Kevin McClory took out a full-page ad in Variety that made an audacious claim. A new James Bond movie, James Bond of the Secret Service, was about to enter production under the supervision of Paradise Films.

It was not to star Roger Moore, the current Bond who had appeared in two films and was due for several more; nowhere did the ad mention EON, the longstanding production company of all the Bond films. It was as though someone were daring the Bond caretakers to take notice of a bootleg 007 project.

The ad was a calculated move taken by McClory, who had no involvement with EON but believed he had the legal right to make a Bond film as a result of events that had happened well over a decade prior. McClory’s aim was to write his own chapter in Bond history, with his secret weapon being the man who had originated the role onscreen and whose presence still loomed large over the franchise.

Although the ad didn’t mention it, McClory’s plan was to restore Sean Connery behind the wheel of the Aston Martin, an ambition that would eventually decide once and for all which Bond moviegoers preferred.

Against the wishes of Bond creator Ian Fleming, Connery had been cast as the secret agent in 1962’s Dr. No. Projecting an air of charming menace, Connery’s performance was an immediate hit, winning over the author and kicking off one of the most durable Hollywood film franchises in history.

There would be four more films—From Russia with Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), and You Only Live Twice (1967)—before the actor, bored with taking second place to the series’ increasing fetish for gadgets, left. EON recast with George Lazenby for one film, 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, before enticing Connery back for one last appearance in 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever. Earning $1.2 million, Connery felt Diamonds helped excise the character from his career while adding to the funds of his charitable efforts.

That film was, as far as Connery was concerned, the end. But in 1975, McClory approached Connery with an intriguing story: In the early 1960s, McClory and Fleming had sat down to hash out potential story ideas for the burgeoning Bond film franchise. Fleming eventually used some of those ideas for the novel Thunderball, which was adapted into a 1965 Connery vehicle.

McClory argued in court that certain rights to Thunderball were owed to him; in an effort to get that film made, EON agreed, but mandated that McClory not attempt to use any of the elements of the story he helped conceive for a 10-year period. Thunderball was produced, and McClory was silent—for exactly 10 years.

When he was legally able, he began to pursue his rogue Bond project. Legally, it could only be a loose remake of Thunderball, but that was of little consequence. McClory knew the plot was secondary to a return by Connery to the role that had made him famous.

Connery was surprisingly open to the idea. For one, he understood his name above a Bond marquee meant at least as much as Moore was earning: a reported $4 million per picture. For another, he wouldn’t have to deal with Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, the producer of the Bond films and a man with whom he had had numerous business disagreements during his first tenure as the spy.

Still, Connery didn’t fully commit to a return. Instead, he worked with McClory and writer Len Deighton on a script under titles like Warhead and James Bond of the Secret Service. When pressed for details, McClory told press his revamped version of Thunderball would feature mechanical sharks and an assault on Wall Street via the New York sewer system, with Orson Welles as the villain. His Bond, he said, would be like “Star Wars underwater.”

When EON got wind of their efforts, the latitude they had displayed 10 years prior had evaporated. Bond was now firmly a pop culture cash machine, and they took to the courts to resist McClory’s efforts. In joint action with distributor United Artists and the Fleming estate, EON successfully scared off Paramount, which was collaborating with McClory on the project.

As the 1970s came to a close, Connery was showing signs of becoming frustrated by the legal wrangling.

McClory’s salvation came in the form of Jack Schwartzman, a onetime tax attorney who wasn’t cowed by the litigation surrounding the project. So long as they colored inside the lines, sticking to the elements found in the Thunderball narrative, Schwartzman didn’t see any problem. He obtained the film rights from McClory, who was tired of the fighting and remained only loosely involved with the project; Connery was signed for a robust $5 million, with profit participation adding to his reward later on. Broccoli dropped most of his legal assault after Schwartzman promised him a share of the movie’s grosses and to delay release by several months in order to avoid competing head-to-head with EON’s Octopussy.

Never Say Never Again—a title suggested by Connery’s amused wife—began shooting in the fall of 1982 at London’s Elstree Studios, just a few miles down the road from where Roger Moore was shooting his Bond entry, Octopussy. The two reportedly had dinner together and compared shooting schedules; Moore would later say he never had a chance to catch Connery’s return onscreen.

Despite Connery’s early enthusiasm, script troubles and philosophical disagreements with director Irvin Kershner (The Empire Strikes Back) made for a stressful production. While promoting its release, Connery told press, “There was so much incompetence, ineptitude, and dissention” during the making of the film that “it could have disintegrated.”

While it wasn’t everything Connery had hoped for, Never Say Never Again performed very admirably when it opened in theaters October 7, 1983. The film grossed $55.4 million domestically, making it the 14^th most successful film of the year. But the inevitable comparison to Moore’s Octopussy, which opened four months earlier, colored perception: Moore’s entry made $67.9 million, putting it in sixth place for the year.

Moore would play Bond just once more before retiring from the role in 1985. Connery made an unlikely return in 2005, lending his voice to a Bond video game. It would be as far as he was willing to go. Producers of 2012’s Skyfall didn’t even bother asking him about their idea to have him play a supporting role in the film as the Bond family’s onetime groundskeeper.

Schwartzman wouldn’t give up so easily. Insisting he somehow had the right to deliver another bootleg Bond in the 1980s, he tried to coerce Connery into a follow-up.

Connery was unmoved. “I’d be too old,” he told press in 1984.

But at 53, a reporter observed, he was three years younger than Moore. “He’s also too old,” Connery said.

Additional Sources:
Sean Connery, by Michael Feeney Callan

Muggles no longer have to travel to Orlando’s Wizarding World to get a taste of the magical Potter story. A Harry Potter-themed restaurant just opened in Brooklyn, offering pasta plates worthy of a wizard, Entertainment Weekly reports.

Pasta Wiz serves dishes like Magical Meatballs and a Dragon’s Blood smoothie in a hall designed to mimic the Hogwarts castle. Owner Alex Dimitrov told Gothamist that the most magical part of the restaurant is that it will serve up a hot plate of pasta just three to five minutes after you order. Because this is the Brooklyn version of Hogwarts, the menu is all organic and features vegan options like non-dairy parmesan cheese.

New York City is no stranger to movie-themed bars and pop-ups, like the Tim Burton bar that opened in 2015. But the Big Apple is only the latest of several different cities around the world to embrace Harry Potter-themed dining. Toronto has a bar called The Lockheart; Islamabad, Pakistan has a Harry Potter Café that opened in 2015; and Singapore has another outpost of the latter restaurant called Platform 1094.

[h/t Entertainment Weekly]

All images courtesy Pasta Wiz via Facebook