Terry Jones first exhibited signs that all was not well with his health in July 2014. He and his close friend Michael Palin were performing with the rest of the surviving Monty Python’s Flying Circus troupe in a show of sketches and songs, Monty Python live (mostly) at the O2 in London.

“Terry was always very good at remembering lines,” recalled Palin last week. “But this time he had real problems, and in the end he had to use a teleprompter. That was a first for him. I realised then that something more serious than memory lapses was affecting him.”

Jones, now 75, later passed standard tests designed to pinpoint people who have Alzheimer’s disease. His speech continued to deteriorate nevertheless. “He said less and less at dinner parties, when he used to love to lead conversations,” said his daughter Sally.

Eventually, in September 2015, Jones was diagnosed as having frontotemporal dementia (FTD), a condition that affects the front and sides of the brain, where language and social control centres are based. When cells there die off, people lose their ability to communicate, and their behaviour becomes increasingly erratic and impulsive. Unlike Alzheimer’s, there is no loss of reasoning or orientation. However, planning, decision making and speech are affected, and patients often seem less caring or concerned about their family and friends.

A Japanese psychologist with a fondness for optical illusions has baffled the internet with his latest – a picture of a man’s smiling face, which just looks like a blank grid.

But there really is a face in there: you just have to work a bit harder to see it.

Akiyoshi Kitaoka, a psychology professor at Ritsumeikan University in Japan, produced the image with a grid layered over a low-contrast image.

There’s various tricks you can use to make the image clearer, Kitaoka says – including standing at a distance, viewing the image at an angle or simply scrolling up and down with a mouse.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/can-you-see-the-mans-smiling-face-psychologist-shows-off-incredible-illusion-140218903.html

DEAR ABBY: Schoolchildren, especially middle school or high school students who may not be socially adept, often eat lunch alone because they don't know what to do when it comes to joining other kids at the lunch table. My grandson, who is on the autism spectrum, is one of them.

(snip)

It's lonely to eat lunch by yourself. Please encourage your readers to consider this. -- SOMEONE WHO CARES IN SAN DIEGO

DEAR SOMEONE WHO CARES: I'm glad to do that. The pain of social isolation can last far beyond the elementary and middle school years and color a person's expectations of rejection into adulthood. Much of it could be avoided if parents took the time to explain to their children how important it is to treat others with kindness.

In recent years, attention is finally being paid to this. A national organization, Beyond Differences, started a program called "No One Eats Alone" that teaches students how to make friends at lunchtime -- which can be the most painful part of the school day. It's their most popular program, and schools in all 50 states participate.
http://www.uexpress.com/dearabby/2017/3/12/program-encourages-students-to-eat-together

The PSV Eindhoven goalkeeper Jeroen Zoet has claimed he could not have done more to prevent his side from conceding the goal – given by goal-line technology by the finest of margins – in the 2-1 defeat by Feyenoord that all but ended PSV’s title hopes.

With the score 1-1, Zoet saved a close-range header from the Feyenoord defender Jan-Arie van der Heijden in the 82nd minute, but as he clutched the ball to his chest a screen on the referee Bas Nijhuis’s wrist lit up.

Nijhuis looked down, saw the word “goal” flashing on the screen and awarded the Dutch league leaders the winning goal in a 2-1 victory. The result on Sunday brought Feyenoord within reach of their first league title since 1999 and likely ended the two-times defending champions PSV’s title aspirations.

“This is seriously fucked up,” Zoet told the Dutch broadcaster NOS. “The goal-line technology made the difference and things could have been different if it had not.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/feb/27/psv-goalkeeper-goal-line-technology-feyenoord

http://www.theguardian.com/football/video/2017/feb/23/leicester-city-sack-claudio-ranieri-nine-months-after-premier-league-title-win-video-report

Claudio Ranieri has been sacked by Leicester City less than one year after he led the club to the Premier League title, it was announced on Thursday. The Italian leaves the club fighting for survival in the league this season. But he will always be remembered for the incredible 2015-16 campaign and Leicester’s astonishing rise to the summit of English football