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Hudsonville pulls away from Adams in second half of semifinal, ending Highlanders’ special runNoneLake council's bid to broaden claim for 'defective' road base rejectedHorizon Kinetics CEO Murray Stahl buys $546 in common stock

When Inter Miami were dumped out of Major League Soccer's playoffs in the first round, their former Spain international full-back Jordi Alba questioned the fairness of the post-season format. Miami had topped the Eastern Conference and the overall regular season standings with a record points tally a performance which earned them the 'Supporters' Shield'. But there would be no title battle against the best in the West for Lionel Messi and Company after they contrived to lose two matches in their best-of-three series against an Atlanta United team which finished ninth in the East and 20th in the overall standings. "I think this format is a bit unfair. It has been done for many years but I think it should be the champion of one conference against the champion of the other, to make it as fair as possible," Alba said. Alba's comments prompted much debate among MLS fans and plenty of accusations of sour grapes but they did serve to highlight that this year's playoffs, if not MLS's playoffs in general, would certainly not be a battle of the best versus best. Defending champions Columbus Crew, who finished second in the Supporters' Shield race, were also eliminated in the first round, adding to the sense that the knockout phase of the season is very much a competition of its own. So on Saturday, after the international break disrupted the flow of the post-season, the Conference semi-finals, will see a "Hudson River Derby" between two New York teams who couldn't finish in the top 10 in the regular season. New York City, Manchester City's sister club, have home-field advantage after finishing in 13th spot while the New York Red Bulls travel from New Jersey, having ended up in 16th place. The 'home field' isn't actually NYCFC's usual home of Yankee Stadium, which is being used for a college football game, but Citi Field, home of New York's other baseball club, the Mets. Later on Saturday, in the Western Conference, 2022 MLS Cup winners and last year's beaten finalists, Los Angeles FC, are at home to the Seattle Sounders. That fixture feels much more like the kind of playoff game that was expected -- LAFC finished top of the West while Seattle were fourth. LAFC faces the Sounders for the fourth time in an elimination match over the last 13 months, having defeated Seattle in the 2023 Western Conference semifinals, the 2024 Leagues Cup quarterfinal and the 2024 US Open Cup semifinal. Each of those matches was hosted by Seattle. LAFC, with former France stars in goalkeeper Hugo Lloris and striker Olivier Giroud, enter the encounter unbeaten in their last 10 meetings with the Sounders, with their last loss to Seattle coming in a 2-0 defeat in 2021. On Sunday, surprise package Atlanta, with their 40-year-old goalkeeper Brad Guzan having impressed so many with his heroics against Miami, will return to Florida to take on Orlando City, who finished fourth in the East. Atlanta won at Orlando on the last day of the regular campaign, a victory that allowed them to sneak into the wildcard round but which also completed a home and away double for the Georgia side. "Obviously, in Major League Soccer, anything can happen," said Orlando coach Oscar Pareja. "Our responsibility is to play one game at a time. This one, we're going to be ready for sure," he added. The weekend rounds off with Los Angeles Galaxy hosting Minnesota United who, under former Manchester United assistant coach Eric Ramsay, came through a best-of-three series against higher-ranked Real Salt Lake. The Galaxy start as favourites but, as this season has shown in abundance, that counts for little. "We know they are a top team at this level with top individual players who are very difficult to beat at home but...I feel that if we are a good version of what we have been over the last 10-12 games... I certainly won't be painting it as a one sided game," said Ramsay. sev/jsCARBONDALE, Ill. (AP) — Southern Illinois quarterback Michael Lindauer's coming-out party also was a dazzling farewell. The senior graduate assistant, pressed into duty as a player again when injuries left the Salukis in need of a quarterback, made his first career start — on Senior Day, no less — and threw for a school-record seven touchdowns in a 62-0 victory over Murray State on Saturday. “This was incredible,” Lindauer said. “The guys around me — thank the guys. The receivers were making plays, the O-line's blocking. When you get on a roll like that, stuff just starts happening.” The fifth-year senior, a transfer from Cincinnati, completed 20 of 33 passes for 283 yards. Keontez Lewis caught scoring passes of 4 and 64 yards. Bradley Clark had TDs of 35 and 23 yards. Nah’shawn Hezekiah had touchdowns of 19 and 35 yards on his two catches. And Jay Jones caught one pass for 1 yard — also a touchdown. Before the game, Lindauer had attempted 27 career passes. “Now, he's in the record book,” Salukis coach Nick Hill said. “It will be a hard record to beat, seven TDs in one game. ... What he's done ... just being so selfless and coming back and being a player. The team needed it. ... It’s a testament that if you stay committed, do the right things, have a great attitude, you’re going to get rewarded at some point, and he was rewarded in a big way today.” Southern Illinois finished the season 4-8 overall and 2-5 in the Missouri Valley Conference, but “to go out like that, that's a good way to go out,” Hill said. Lindauer was named the MVC offensive player of the week for his performance in his first and last career start. He plans to return in the spring, again as a graduate assistant coach, but this time with a resume to lean on. AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWS WIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES TORONTO, Dec. 17, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HEALWELL AI Inc. (“ HEALWELL ” or the “ Company ”) (TSX: AIDX) (OTCQX:HWAIF), a data science and AI company focused on preventative care, is pleased to announce that it has entered into an amended agreement pursuant to which Eight Capital and Scotiabank, as lead underwriters and joint bookrunners, together with a syndicate of underwriters (collectively, the “ Underwriters ”), will purchase, by way of a private placement on a “bought deal” basis (i) 12,500,000 subscription receipts of the Company (the “ Subscription Receipts ”),at a price of $2.00 per Subscription Receipt (the “ Subscription Receipt Issue Price ”); and (ii) 31,250 convertible debentures of the Company (the “ Convertible Debentures ”) at a price per Convertible Debenture of $960, for aggregate gross proceeds of $55,000,000. Each Subscription Receipt will entitle the holder thereof to receive, upon satisfaction of the Release Conditions (as defined below), for no additional consideration, one unit of the Company consisting of one Class A Subordinate Voting Share (each, a “ Share ”) and one-half of one Share purchase warrant, with each whole warrant exercisable at a price of $2.50 for a period of 36 months following the closing of the Offering. The gross proceeds of the Subscription Receipt portion of the Offering, less 50% of the Underwriters’ cash commission and certain expenses of the Underwriters, will be deposited in escrow on closing of the Offering until the satisfaction of certain release conditions, including that all conditions precedent to the Transaction (as defined below) have been met (the “ Release Conditions ”). In the event that the Release Conditions have not been satisfied prior to 5:00 p.m. (Vancouver Time) on June 30, 2025, or the Company advises the Underwriters or announces to the public that it does not intend to satisfy the Release Conditions or that the Transaction has been terminated, the aggregate issue price of the Subscription Receipts (plus any interest earned thereon) shall be returned to the applicable holders of the Subscription Receipts, and such Subscription Receipts shall be automatically cancelled and be of no further force and effect. The Convertible Debentures will be issued with a 4% original issue discount and will be convertible into Shares at a price of $2.40 per Share. The Company may force the conversion of all of the principal amount of the then outstanding Convertible Debentures at a price of $2.40 per Share on not less than 30 days’ notice should, at any time following the date that is 4 months and 1 day following the issue date, the daily volume weighted average trading price of the Shares be greater than $3.85 for any 10 consecutive trading days. The Convertible Debentures will bear interest at the rate of 10% per annum, payable semi-annually in arrears on June 30 and December 31 of each year, beginning on June 30, 2025. The Convertible Debentures will mature on December 31, 2029, unless earlier repurchased, redeemed, or converted in accordance with their terms. The Convertible Debentures will not be redeemable at the Company’s option prior to December 31, 2027. On or after January 1, 2028, the Convertible Debentures will be redeemable at the Company’s option, in whole or in part, at a price equal to 110% of the principal amount of the Convertible Debentures to be redeemed, plus accrued and unpaid interest to, but excluding, the redemption date. The Company has granted the Underwriters an option to offer for sale up to an additional 15% of the Subscription Receipts, exercisable in whole or in part at any time for a period of up to 48 hours prior to the closing date. The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the Offering to partially fund the cash portion of the purchase price for the Company’s acquisition of Orion Health Holdings Limited (the “ Transaction ”), as described in greater detail in the Company’s press release dated December 16, 2024. Completion of the Offering will be subject to various conditions, including the approval of the Toronto Stock Exchange. As the number of Shares to be issued in the Transaction and the Offering will exceed 25% of the number of HEALWELL’s current issued and outstanding Shares, HEALWELL is required to obtain shareholder approval from shareholders holding at least a majority of the voting power of the Company. Closing of the Offering is expected to occur on or about January 7, 2025. Dr. Alexander Dobranowski Chief Executive Officer HEALWELL AI Inc. About HEALWELL HEALWELL is a healthcare artificial intelligence company focused preventative care. Its mission is to improve healthcare and save lives through early identification and detection of disease. Using its own proprietary technology, the Company is developing and commercializing advanced clinical decision support systems that can help healthcare providers detect rare and chronic diseases, improve efficiency of their practice and ultimately help improve patient health outcomes. HEALWELL is executing a strategy centered around developing and acquiring technology and clinical sciences capabilities that complement the Company’s road map. HEALWELL is publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol “AIDX” and on the OTC Exchange under the symbol “HWAIF”. To learn more about HEALWELL, please visit https://healwell.ai/ . About ORION HEALTH Orion Health is a global healthcare technology company focused on reimagining healthcare for all. Orion Health is leading the change in digital health with health and care organizations to improve the wellbeing of every individual with our world leading Unified Healthcare Platform. Made up of a Virtuoso digital front door, Amadeus digital care record, and Orchestral health intelligence platform - each underpinned by extensive health and social data sets, machine learning, and 30 years of innovation focused purely on improving global well-being. www.orionhealth.com. Forward Looking Statements Certain statements in this press release, constitute "forward-looking information" and "forward looking statements" (collectively, "forward looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws and are based on assumptions, expectations, estimates and projections as of the date of this press release. Forward-looking statements in this press release include statements with respect to, among other things, the closing of the Transaction and the Offering and the terms on which each of them are expected to be completed. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by words or phrases such as “in the event”, “intends” or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain future conditions, actions, events or results "will", "may", "could", "would", "should", "might" or "can" be taken, occur or be achieved, or the negative of any of these terms. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon management’s perceptions of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as a number of specific factors and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by HEALWELL as of the date of such statements, are outside of HEALWELL's control and are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies which could result in the forward-looking statements ultimately being entirely or partially incorrect or untrue. Forward looking statements contained in this press release are based on various assumptions, including, but not limited to, the following: the parties’ ability to satisfy any conditions precedent to completion of the Transaction and the Offering, including receipt of all shareholder, regulatory and TSX approvals; HEALWELL’s ability to complete the Transaction and the Offering or to complete them on the terms described above; HEALWELL’s ability to access sources of debt and equity financing to complete the acquisition and the terms on which such financing may be provided; the stability of general economic and market conditions; HEALWELL's ability to comply with applicable laws and regulations; HEALWELL's continued compliance with third party intellectual property rights; and that the risk factors noted below, collectively, do not have a material impact on HEALWELL's business, operations, revenues and/or results. By their nature, forward-looking statements are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties that may be general or specific and which give rise to the possibility that expectations, forecasts, predictions, projections, or conclusions will not prove to be accurate, that assumptions may not be correct, and that objectives, strategic goals and priorities will not be achieved. Known and unknown risk factors, many of which are beyond the control of HEALWELL, could cause the actual results of HEALWELL to differ materially from the results, performance, achievements, or developments expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risk factors include but are not limited to those factors which are discussed under the section entitled "Risk Factors" in HEALWELL's most recent annual information form dated April 1, 2024, which is available under HEALWELL's SEDAR+ profile at www.sedarplus.com. The risk factors are not intended to represent a complete list of the factors that could affect HEALWELL and the reader is cautioned to consider these and other factors, uncertainties and potential events carefully and not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements. There can be no assurance that forward looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Forward-looking statements are provided for the purpose of providing information about management’s expectations and plans relating to the future. HEALWELL disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, or to explain any material difference between subsequent actual events and such forward-looking statements, except to the extent required by applicable law. All of the forward-looking statements contained in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements. For more information: Pardeep S. Sangha Investor Relations, HEALWELL AI Inc. Phone: 604-572-6392 ir@healwell.ai

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Wake Forest keeps trying new things early in the season, even if not all of the adjustments are by design. The Demon Deacons will try to stick to the script when Detroit Mercy visits for Saturday's game in Winston-Salem, N.C. The Demon Deacons (5-1) will be at home for the final time prior to three consecutive road games. Detroit Mercy (3-2) already has two more victories than all of last season. After a couple of narrow wins and a loss at Xavier, Wake Forest had a smoother time earlier this week in defeating visiting Western Carolina 82-69 on Tuesday night. Yet these are games when teams have to figure where contributions are going to come from in certain situations. The experimenting took a turn for Wake Forest in the Western Carolina game. Center Efton Reid III had limited minutes because of migraines, so there was a shift in responsibilities. Normal backcourt players Cameron Hildreth and Juke Harris logged time at the power forward slot. "That's just part of it," coach Steve Forbes said. "They did a good job adjusting. We ran a lot of stuff and there are several guys learning different positions. ... I give credit to those guys for doing the best job that they could do on the fly and adjusting to the play calls that we ran and the stuff that we changed." Wake Forest could excel if both Parker Friedrichsen and Davin Cosby can be consistent 3-point threats. Friedrichsen slumped with shooting in the first few games of the season and was replaced in the starting lineup by Cosby. In Tuesday's game, Friedrichsen drained four 3-pointers, while Cosby hit two. "It was really good to see Parker and Davin both make shots together," Forbes said. Not everything was solved for the Demon Deacons. Western Carolina collected 12 offensive rebounds, and that took some of the shine off Wake Forest's defensive efforts. "We can't be a good defensive team, or a really good defensive team, unless we rebound the ball," Forbes said. "It's demoralizing to your defense to get stops and then not get the ball." In Detroit Mercy's 70-59 win at Ball State on Wednesday, Orlando Lovejoy tallied 19 points, seven rebounds and five assists. "We got the ball to the shooters and playmakers," first-year Titans coach Mark Montgomery said. "You could tell by the guys' body language that we were going to get a road win. It had been a long time coming." On Saturday, the Titans will look for their second road victory since February 2023. The outcome at Ball State seemed significant to Montgomery. "We had to get over the hump," he said. "Our guys grinded it out." --Field Level MediaAs the 60s swung about them and their iconic mop-tops grew increasingly shaggy, enjoyed an unprecedented level of celebrity. Ubiquitous, universally adored, John, Paul, George and Ringo were the four most famous faces on the planet. Their uncanny ability to crank out concise, era-defining hits was the key to their success, and their world-beating charm was significantly enhanced by their easy camaraderie. The Beatles were a gang; a gang that everybody wanted to join. Boys wanted to be them, girls wanted to be with them. But the private world that they shared remained seductively impenetrable. Somewhere between the musty bowels of Liverpool’s Cavern and the sordid fleshpots of , they had developed an understanding that bordered on telepathy, an intuitive harmony that manifested itself in the creation of perfect pop. But times change. Especially when you live your life under an unforgiving media spotlight, indulged, pampered, preyed upon by divisive sycophants, your judgment almost permanently refracted through a psychedelic prism. Bound together by the captivity of fame, The Beatles came to resent their essential closeness. And by 1968, as they set about recording their eponymous double they were pretty much sick of the sight of each other. Just as telepathic harmony between the four Beatles had facilitated the creation of perfect pop, so growing disharmony bred the raw, discordant fury of rock. The most significant of a series of events that activated The Beatles’ metamorphosis from exemplary pop group to prototype rock band was the death of Brian Epstein. The band learned of their manager’s barbiturate overdose on August 27, 1967 while studying transcendental meditation with Indian guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Wales. Within the week, they announced their decision to manage themselves. Without Epstein’s cautious hand on the tiller, The Beatles were let off the leash creatively. was hit the hardest by his death, and as he enthusiastically self-medicated with lashings of LSD, the balance of power steadily shifted towards . Epstein’s death left a gaping, substitute parent-shaped void in Lennon’s life (an unsatisfactory relationship with his absentee father combined with his mother’s early death left him vulnerable and in constant pursuit of a viable alternative). The drugs didn’t work, and his marriage to his first wife, Cynthia, was on its last legs. So when suggested a trip in February 1968 to Rishikesh, in the foothills of the Himalayas, to attend a further course in TM under the tutelage of the Maharishi, John was the first to sign up. Sign up below to get the latest from Classic Rock, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox! Soon enough, Paul and Ringo followed, along with wives, partners, Celtic folkie Donovan, Beach Boy Mike Love, actress Mia Farrow and her sister Prudence. John had considered inviting Yoko Ono, the Japanese artist he had met at an art gallery in November 1966 and with whom a mutual attraction had grown, but as Cynthia was also in attendance he thought better of it. Newly decanted into a drug-free zone and with nothing other than TM to occupy their minds, The Beatles soon set about writing new material. And with the only Western instrument to hand being an acoustic guitar, the White Album’s sound was born of necessity. Donovan taught John to fingerpick and, utilising the technique, Lennon wrote (an exhortation to the shy, young Farrow to join in with the transcendental fun) and (ostensibly about his late mother, though also about Yoko, the in the lyric; Yoko literally means ‘child of the sea’ in Japanese). In all, Lennon, McCartney and Harrison wrote 17 of the songs that would appear on the White Album while in India. And, for the very first time, even Ringo wrote one. He was that bored. But John was still locked inside his own private hell. Trapped in a loveless marriage, obsessed with thoughts of Yoko and unable to sleep (an insomnia diarised in the White Album’s ), he wrote . Reminiscent of and the other blues boomers, the song was indicative of the fact that Lennon was far from happy. “When I wrote ‘ ’,” he admitted, “I’m not kidding. That’s how I felt, up there, trying to reach God and feeling suicidal.” Having travelled to India in search of direction and wise counsel from a parental figure, Lennon found only disillusionment. He left Rishikesh in a huff, accusing the Maharishi (falsely, as it turned out) of making a pass at Mia Farrow, an incident chronicled in the accusatory . “I was rough on him,” he said. “I always expect too much. I’m always expecting my mother and I don’t get her. That’s what it is.” Within a month John and Cynthia’s marriage had ended and he was in a relationship with Yoko. From the dawn of their celebrity, all four Beatles were individually famous. The public was soon able to differentiate which Lennon/McCartney compositions were Paul songs and which were John songs. George’s songs reflected another persona entirely, while Ringo was invariably gifted with the toxic chalice of Paul’s latest novelty song. In the absence of Epstein, and with disharmony in the ranks, the band split further apart into their constituent parts. Rather than drawing the band closer, India had only served to accentuate their differences. In Rishikesh, away from the skewed reality of London, only George had found enlightenment (along with six songs). Ringo complained about the food and left early, followed by Paul who, between bouts of meditation had knuckled down to write a dozen or so songs. John’s experience may not have been terribly spiritual, but it was certainly profound. Off the acid and stunned into misery by the pin-sharp tedium of real life, he came to terms with the fact that his marriage was over and that he was falling in love with Yoko. During his stay, Lennon wrote 15 of what he later claimed to be some of his “best” and “most miserable” songs. When the four Beatles finally took their individual songs into Abbey Road Studios in May 1968, they worked more autonomously than ever before. Abandoning the meticulous crafting that had served them so well on , they jammed out a few backing tracks collectively, but generally worked individually. The majority of the White Album was recorded as if four solo albums were being made simultaneously. McCartney was no longer editing Lennon and vice versa, Harrison was left to his own devices, and Ringo Starr spent entire days twiddling his sticks in the studio’s reception; each songwriter took care of his own overdubs separately. A frustrated eventually abandoned production duties to go on holiday. His position as omnipresent fifth Beatle had been usurped. While you can debate whether or not The Beatles were the first rock band, there’s no doubt whatsoever that Yoko was the first Yoko. John’s relationship with her was finally consummated just 11 days prior to the start of the White Album’s sessions at Abbey Road, and it caused him to re-evaluate his pampered existence. He had not been happy with Beatle-life for a long time, and his feelings were becoming clear as the band reconvened for the sessions. “I was too scared to break away from The Beatles, which I’d been looking to do since we stopped touring [in ’66],” Lennon revealed in 1980. “I was vaguely looking for somewhere to go, but didn’t have the nerve... so I hung around. And then I met Yoko and fell in love: ‘This is more than a hit record. It’s more than everything...’” Yoko, who wasn’t in the slightest bit impressed by Lennon’s Beatle status, opened his eyes to the vacuity of stardom. “That’s how The Beatles ended,” Lennon said. “Not because Yoko split The Beatles, but because she showed me what it was like to be Elvis Beatle and to be surrounded by sycophants and slaves who were only interested in keeping the situation as it was. She said to me:, ‘You’ve got no clothes on.’ Nobody had dared tell me that before.” There was nothing particularly wrong with his marriage to Cynthia. It was, as he put it, “a normal marital state where nothing happened”. But Lennon wanted more, just as he always had. Above all else he wanted to be mothered. And with Yoko newly identified and installed as John’s perfect life partner, Cynthia wasn’t the only one facing redundancy. “Once I found the woman, the boys became of no interest whatsoever,” he said. Their relationship was way beyond close. They had become two inseparable halves of a single entity, and Yoko a permanent fixture in the studio; she would be found sitting on top of a guitar amp or under the piano. When she became ill, a bed was installed in the studio. The besotted Lennon, oblivious to the feelings of his bandmates, stoked more resentment. The fact that the pair were now using heroin heightened tensions as Lennon became prone to temperamental outbursts. The LSD-driven Technicolor pop lightness of gave way to darker rock shades as the opiates held sway. Guitars distorted as moods blackened, and Yoko’s very presence initiated an edginess that mirrored the social chaos occurring outside of The Beatles’ bubble: a happy accident that only served to enhance the band’s rock’n’roll relevance. To their credit, the others reacted to the Yoko-isation of the studio fairly well. They had to ask her to move every time they wanted to adjust their amps, but they generally favoured passive aggression over the frank exchange of fisticuffs you might expect of a band like The Who. Lennon was hypersensitive to any negative reaction to his newly attached Siamese twin. The indignation of his fellow Beatles was at least understandable, but the negative press and public reaction to Yoko was not. It was this undue criticism (partly born of racism) that particularly rankled. A dormant hard-man persona came to the fore in Lennon. The moptop-era puppy fat was gone forever, now replaced with a lean, mean demeanour: Lennon the Peace Yob. It was the template for Liam Gallagher 25 years later, and a role Lennon himself would inhabit for the remainder of the decade. Angry John was easily mistaken for Political John. Resentful that nobody liked his new girlfriend, he started ranting about peace, furiously planting acorns and shouting at journalists from bed. In so doing he inadvertently supplied the blueprint for Bono and every other rock star who assumes that just because they can sing in tune they’re Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill and Jesus Christ rolled into one. The onset of John’s apparent political conscience coincided with Yoko’s arrival. And as civil unrest continued to simmer across the globe, The Beatles suddenly found their voice. The White Album sessions commenced with , written by Lennon in the foothills of Rishikesh. “I wanted to put out what I felt about revolution,” he explained in 1970. “I thought it was about time we thought about it. The same as I thought it was about time we stopped not answering about the Vietnam War.” But there was ambiguity in ’s lyric. John’s particular strain of revolt was to be purely humanitarian and strictly non-violent. Or was it? As he delivered ’s pivotal ‘ ’ lyric, he immediately followed it up with an entirely contradictory ‘ ’. Conflicted? Perhaps. Mischievous by instinct? Definitely. The first version of to hit record stores was faster and more aggressive compared to its bluesy, almost non-committal, White Album incarnation (titled ). Re-recorded as an A-side, but demoted at Paul’s insistence to the B-side of the non-album single, this primal scream-propelled invitation to insurrection, replete with distorted guitar riff, managed to Trojan-horse its way into eight million homes. Heavy rock had barely been invented, but The Beatles, having nailed its key components, casually disseminated its message into every corner of the planet. While John and Yoko were orbiting each other, McCartney was busy in his own world. A one-man Tin Pan Alley, McCartney has long been regarded as the soft pop cheese to Lennon’s hard rock chalk. But he could be just as hard, if not harder, than John. During the course of a particularly unguarded interview, ostensibly to promote in August ’68, McCartney flatly stated that: “Starvation in India doesn’t worry me one bit. Not one iota. It doesn’t, man.” He concluded: “The truth about me is that I’m pleasantly insincere.” Never prepared to alienate the mainstream audience that had always formed The Beatles’ core constituency, McCartney’s stance in ’68 appeared counter-revolutionary next to Lennon’s. “People seem to think that all we say and do and sing is a political statement,” he said, “but it isn’t. In the end it’s always only a song.” The final chapter in the saga, , was never “only a song”. It remains the White Album’s most ‘difficult’ moment. Eight minutes and 22 seconds of tape loops, sound effects and musique concrète, it was John and Yoko’s arty indulgence, and Paul argued against its inclusion. John and Yoko’s relationship found its genesis in a shared fascination for the avant garde. In early May 1968, while Cynthia was holidaying in Italy, John invited Yoko over to his house. He played her tapes of his experimental home recordings, and over the course of the night the pair contrived to concoct an entire album’s worth of material. By morning they were a couple, and the commercially suicidal awaited its controversial release (it would emerge a week after the White Album, wrapped in the most unflattering nude cover in the history of sleeve art). Enthused by their efforts, John and Yoko were keen to repeat the exercise, this time under The Beatles’ name. Two weeks later, with George Harrison along for the ride, they set to work on . So why did McCartney take issue with what could have been construed as the most brave, progressive and genuinely revolutionary statement on the White Album? Surprisingly, it wasn’t down to the kind of musical conservatism one might expect of the man responsible for . “I didn’t find that interesting,” he had shrugged of . “The music wasn’t shocking to me, because I’d made a lot like that myself.” And he had. In January ’67 he’d recorded an avant-garde abstract sound collage of his own, the still-unreleased , for show at London’s Roundhouse. Paul’s interest in the avant-garde significantly predated that of Lennon’s. It’s more than likely that his opposition to John’s had less to do with its radical nature than with the fact it was an inferior version of John Cage’s , released a whole decade earlier. Up to and including The Beatles were leaders. recast them as followers. Yoko might have fast-tracked John into the avant-garde, but whether he had an actual aptitude for it was never considered. His Beatle status guaranteed an audience, but didn’t guarantee that it was any good, or indeed any more valid, than the efforts of any other enthusiastic novice in the field. Frank Zappa’s Mothers Of Invention had concluded 1966’s (the very first double album, and the only one other than Dylan’s released prior to the White Album) with , a sound collage not dissimilar to . In March 1968 the Mothers’ -parodying had featured the accomplished Varese-esque musique concrète of Rather than being a brave new harbinger of an age yet to come, was the least influential and, arguably, least original piece on the White Album. The most enduring lesson Paul McCartney learned while serving his apprenticeship on the Reeperbahn was that a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. If you want to keep your audience satisfied while you exercise your right to artistic freedom, he reasoned, you’ve got to give them a bit of what they fancy while you’re at it, no matter how excruciating it might seem. “We’ve always been a rock group, The Beatles,” Paul said a week before the White Album’s release. “It’s just that we’re not completely rock’n’roll. That’s why we do one minute and this [the stripped-back 12-bar blues ] the next. When we played in Hamburg we didn’t just play rock’n’roll all evening, because we had these fat old businessmen coming in and saying play us a mambo or a rumba. So we had to get into this kind of stuff.” With Lennon insistent on the inclusion of , the equally hard-nosed McCartney figured that the only way to render eight minutes of avant-garde medicine palatable was with an awful lot of sugar. He was compelled to balance out ’s uncompromising approach with ’s syrupy schmaltz, ’s music-hall bounce, and ’s kid-friendly yarn of feuding frontier folk. Then there was itself, a song memorably defined by John Lennon as “granny music shit”. But in between the self-indulgence and the saccharine lay the sheer brilliance. The real reason we’re here: The Beatles’ enduring blueprint for rock. With the White Album effectively delineated as four solo projects knitted together, the obvious question is: which one of The Beatles was it that first stumbled upon rock’s holy grail? And the answer? All four of them. Every one of rock’s key ingredients can be found scattered between Lennon’s , Harrison’s , Ringo’s and McCartney’s . is the sound of pure disaffection, rock’s essential fuel. Lennon would retrospectively redefine its unalloyed passion as mere parody, a mocking comment on the burgeoning British blues boom. But there’s no doubt that its suicidal lyrical undertone was genuine. And whether he meant it or not, he certainly sounded like he did – especially on its key ‘ ’ a line, a sentiment that encapsulated the disillusionment felt by a generation poised to abandon the utopian optimism of the Summer Of Love for its decidedly darker flip-side. The following year would see the doom-laden template – complete with the iron-booted bass drum thud that Ringo adopted across the entire White Album – echoed in the sound of Led Zeppelin. Typically, neither John nor Paul took George’s compositions seriously. Frustrated, he persuaded his friend Eric Clapton to the studio, where the presence of an outsider made everyone shape up. “Paul got on the piano and played a nice intro and they all took it more seriously,” Harrison remembered. The resulting song, , written with the Eastern concept of everything being relative in mind, boasts a brooding darkness that Clapton’s solos ignite and intensify. Rock guitar was never more passionate than this, and its overwrought crescendos set the bar high for all subsequent axe heroes. And then there was Ringo. Carelessly benched by his self-absorbed colleagues, the drummer temporarily ‘left’ the band for a fortnight in August 1968, though not before recording . While Ringo finally nailed its lyric nursing a curry-ravaged intestinal tract in Rishikesh, he’d been working on the song for years. Ill-served by a throwaway, guitar-free, piano-heavy McCartney arrangement, the White Album’s incarnation of practically oom-pahs. Yet buried beneath the customary ‘comedy’ treatment accorded any Ringo vocal performance lay a southern rock exemplar par excellence. Neither his fellow Beatles nor George Martin realised the full boogie-rocking potential of ’s driving, country-laced insistence. But the Georgia Satellites certainly did, granting Ringo’s pièce de résistance the barn-storming arrangement it deserved on their 1986 debut album. With Lennon focused on Yoko, Harrison and Ringo Starr sidelined and George Martin’s influence receding, it was Paul who grasped the reins to gallop the White Album’s sound in the general direction of rock’s future. As September wore on and sessions ground toward their fraught conclusion, the four Beatles set about recording the loudest and dirtiest performance of their career. Eighteen takes later, they had , one of the prime progenitors of heavy metal. “I read a review of a record [The Who’s ] which said that the group goes really wild with echo and screaming and everything,” McCartney said in ’68, “And I thought, ‘That’s a pity, I would have liked to do something like that.’ Then I heard it and it was nothing like it. It was straight and sophisticated. So we did [ ]... I like noise.” While very much a group effort by comparison to the majority of the White Album’s performances, was most definitely Paul’s baby. Both and their other proto-metal experiment, the re-cut version of , attained a level of sonic extremity later disparaged by Harrison and Lennon. “ is pretty good and it grooves along,” said Harrison, 30 years later, “but I don’t particularly like the noise it makes. And I say ‘noise’ because I didn’t like the distorted sound of John’s guitar.” Lennon was even keener to distance himself from . “That’s Paul completely,” he said in 1980. “It has nothing to do with anything, and least of all to do with me.” ’s influence continued beyond heavy rock and metal into mid-70s punk. Siouxsie And The Banshees recorded the song for their debut album, 1978’s (though possibly more for its macabre association with Charles Manson, whose bizarre interpretation of the song’s lyric as an incitement to commit mass murder only served to accentuate its enduring appeal in certain quarters). Perhaps more significantly, ’s violent nativity was witnessed by one of punk’s leading sonic architects. By this point, George Martin had effectively thrown in the towel by going away on holiday, though not before scribbling a quick note for his rookie assistant Chris Thomas to “make yourself available to The Beatles”. Thomas (who eventually went on to produce ) was to enjoy something of a baptism of fire: George Harrison running around the studio with a flaming ashtray on his head ‘doing an Arthur Brown’ while Paul McCartney screamed ever more demented vocal takes for . The 30, dizzyingly diverse components of The Beatles’ ninth studio collection were finally released on November 22, 1968. Housed in a plain white sleeve (embossed with the band’s name and a unique serial number) designed by pop-artist Richard Hamilton in collaboration with McCartney, the apparently eponymous set (a working title of had been abandoned when Family released in July) was greeted by an unprecedented chorus of critical disapproval. Writing in the Nik Cohn dismissed the album as “boring beyond belief”, while ’s Robert Christgau called it “their most consistent and probably their worst”. The truth of the matter was that the critics had, as usual, missed the revolution unfolding before their very ears. They focused largely on the ‘idiotic mediocrity’ of the ‘pretentious’ and its counteracting anodyne ‘pastiches’. Interpreting The Beatles’ paradigm shift from overworked, ornate mini-symphonies to unfussy production values as sheer artistic indolence, they missed the crucial point that hindsight makes so plain: the White Album’s enduring influence on rock’s future lay in its embrace of the easy over the difficult; of visceral feel over cerebral contrivance; groove over gimmickry. The Beatles found their way to the clear-headed simplicity of the White Album by pioneering methods that are now so familiar in the rock arena that they’ve become clichés. First in Wales, then in India, they were ‘getting their heads together in the country’; from acoustic demos at George’s to informal studio jams at Abbey Road they were ‘stripping back to basics’. And not before time. Since , pop musicians had seemed compelled to produce dense, psych-laced production numbers. The charts were clogged with countless kaftan-trussed quartets all desperately over-stretching themselves in the general direction of the cod-classical. This overwrought whiter-shade-of-pompous landscape, where proto-prog pretentiousness and lyrical gobbledygook prevailed, needed saving from itself. The White Album arrived into 1968 like a breath of fresh air. It was just as influential and game-changing as punk would be less than a decade later. As The Beatles’ sound palette and cardinal frame of reference refocused away from the European orchestral tradition and back on to American roots music (country and blues, rock’s fundamental foundations), so vast sections of the contemporary musical community were almost bound to follow. The Rolling Stones’ often gets the kudos for leading the way in this regard, but not only did The Beatles boast a far broader cultural influence in ’68, The White Album – though recorded later – also hit stores two weeks earlier. While The Beatles’ influence may have been diminished by a combination of the Paul-directed movie (the band’s inaugural artistic own goal, televised the previous Boxing Day – to almost universal bafflement) and a marked dip in John’s popularity since he’d fallen under the influence of ‘that woman’, they continued to outrank the Stones in the public mind. The Stones, only just recovering from the disastrous, sub- catastrophe that was , were still widely considered to be slavishly following The Beatles’ lead in all things artistic, whether they’d already moved on or not. And while The Band’s Americana-birthing album had been released two months into the White Album sessions, and could therefore be considered as a potential influence on its roots-ward direction, the majority of its core material had been composed in Rishikesh four months earlier. (Even without benefit of the ornate curlicues of quasi-classical multi-tracking, Bach trumpets and reverse tape-loops, the stripped Beatles continued to be progressive with Lennon’s resolutely linear casually challenging the very nature of song structure.) They fashioned their look in a similarly simple style. The gaudy showbiz flash of the era joined the Epstein-dictated sartorial conservatism of their touring years on the cultural scrap heap. In their black waistcoats, white shirts, black hats, snake-hipped, low-slung, tapered and tailored flares, they looked more like a gang than like a marching band. Cuban-heeled, ankle-hugging Chelsea boots, mix-and-match moustaches and meticulously mussed hair suggested the brooding frontier cool of the American West, riverboat gamblers with issues. It was an enduring stylistic template for the likes of the Black Crowes, The Raconteurs and the Temperance Movement. The ’68 Beatles – a one-stop shop for 21st-century stylists – were rock-band-cool incarnate. Looking back on the White Album, Lennon and McCartney were more than satisfied. “I always preferred it to all the other albums, including ,” John said in ’71, “I thought the music was better. The myth is bigger, but the music on the White Album is far superior.” “I think it was a very good album,” Paul agreed, but with reservations. “It stood up, but it wasn’t a pleasant one to make. Then again, sometimes those things work for your art.” While it is indeed the grit in the oyster that makes the pearl, and great rock’n’roll is more often than not born of friction, antipathy and discord, any relationship based in negativity, even that of rock’s biggest band, cannot be sustained indefinitely. Marginalised, underappreciated and made to feel redundant he may have been, but Ringo had already found that any decision to break-up The Beatles was way beyond his pay grade. George Harrison too: the guitarist ‘left’ the band for five days in January 1969, and was persuaded back only on condition that McCartney abandoned all plans for the band to return to the road. In the end, though, there was no saving The Beatles. However much McCartney wanted the band to carry on, it was abundantly clear that Lennon, keen to investigate fresh artistic vistas with Yoko, had completely lost interest in continuing to work within the constraints of a four-piece rock band. Lennon quit in September ’69, and McCartney, after months in denial, finally turned off the life support machine in April ’70. The Beatles were a leviathan, a cultural colossus whose influence on their musical contemporaries was wholly unprecedented and remains unsurpassed. They were the first four-piece guitar band to smoulder moodily in leather jackets and shades; the first to grow their hair, to fly their freak flag, to tune in, turn on and flaunt it in the tabloids; the first to India; the first to soundtrack a ; and the first to fall out over the first – and still the very best – Yoko. With the White Album, The Beatles delivered all the necessary components for what we now know as classic rock, but the disharmony that facilitated its birth proved fatal. As John Lennon himself acknowledged: “The break-up of The Beatles can be heard on that album.” Ultimately, having planted the seeds of sonic revolution in the fertile soil of the late 1960s, The Beatles’ work was done. With the spiritual progeny of their final incarnation on the rise, the artistically drained former Fabs were suddenly rendered old and in the way, an immovable reminder of a lost innocence, too ubiquitous to ignore, too enormous to eclipse. For the green shoots of rock to thrive, The Beatles had to die. “They asked Chris Cornell – they needed an exceptional singer”: How Faith No More’s landmark alt-metal masterpiece The Real Thing could have been very different "What a night. What a gig. What a f**king band." Kneecap's joyous, messy, and wildly celebratory tour-closing London show is further proof that the West Belfast hip-hop trio are utterly unstoppable “Pink Floyd said they weren’t sure how to get out of the Another Brick In The Wall solo – would I like to try?” How jazz master Lee Ritenour helped David Gilmour track the band’s epic single Classic Rock’s Reviews Editor for the last 20 years, Ian stapled his first fanzine in 1977. Since misspending his youth by way of ‘research’ his work has also appeared in such publications as Metal Hammer, Prog, NME, Uncut, Kerrang!, VOX, The Face, The Guardian, Total Guitar, Guitarist, Electronic Sound, Record Collector and across the internet. Permanently buried under mountains of recorded media, ears ringing from a lifetime of gigs, he enjoys nothing more than recreationally throttling a guitar and following a baptism of punk fire has played in bands for 45 years, releasing recordings via Esoteric Antenna and Cleopatra Records.

"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum." Section 1.10.32 of "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum", written by Cicero in 45 BC "Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur?" 1914 translation by H. Rackham "But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?" 1914 translation by H. Rackham "But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?" Thanks for your interest in Kalkine Media's content! To continue reading, please log in to your account or create your free account with us.How To Beat The Market When One Of Your Top Stocks Drops 44%

SAE, the organization that sets standards for the auto industry in the US — its standards are often adopted by other nations as well — is making a determined effort to create a universal plug and charge system that will become the new standard in America. Plug and charge means electric car drivers need do nothing more than connect their cars to a properly configured charger. After that, every aspect of the charging experience, including payment, happens seamlessly in the background. No credit card to swipe, no charging network authentication process to work through, and no standing in the pouring rain trying to read the customer service phone number on the charger you want to use. Sweet! In a press release on December 4, 2024, SAE said the future of electric vehicle charging is about to get simpler soon. The new plug and charge protocols it is proposing will allow drivers to plug in any car at any public charging station and automatically start charging with no payment processing step required . Thanks to a public-private partnership between SAE Industry Technologies Consortia (ITC), its Electric Vehicle Public Key Infrastructure (EVPKI) Consortium, and the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, soon a common EVPKI framework will make possible secure automatic authentication as soon as drivers plug in — a capability known as “Plug & Charge.” Tesla drivers already know how such a system works. They set up their account with Tesla, which is linked to a credit card. Once the charging cable is inserted into the car’s charging port, a “digital handshake” takes place, the mainframe at the Tesla mothership identifies the car by its VIN number, and bills the charging session to the credit card on file when the session ends. The only thing it doesn’t do is wash the windshield and check the tires. Until now, SAE says, the EV charging experience has been fragmented, with automakers and charging networks using proprietary authentication and authorization solutions and sometimes offering features like Plug & Charge within their network. Today’s development means vehicles, chargers, and charging networks all will be able to talk to each other for the first time, advancing the industry toward a universal solution so every driver can plug in and start charging at any public station in the future. The industry-led SAE EVPKI solution is a watershed moment in the advancement of EVs, SAE says. The new framework creates a common security solution that will enable vehicles, chargers, and charging networks to securely communicate with each other, achieving true interoperability across the entire charging ecosystem. Once the SAE EVPKI solution is implemented, EV drivers will benefit from faster and automated charging at any public station and with any car. Charging and payment processing will happen seamlessly, with no need to use multiple apps or payment methods. The benefit for drivers is reduced time-to-charge overall and a more reliable charging experience. What enables the plug and charge process is the Certificate Trust List (CTL) developed by the SAE EVPKI Consortium which enables secure, automated authentication at the onset of the charging transaction. Improved cybersecurity protocols for the entire EV charging ecosystem are built in from the start. Plug and charge lays the foundation for vehicle-to-grid integration (V2G) technologies which will enable bidirectional energy flows, advanced grid services, and more resilient energy ecosystems. “Today’s announcement focuses the industry on interoperability and security, with the SAE EVPKI platform providing the crucial connecting layer,” said Sarah Hipel, acting Chief Technology Officer, Joint Office of Energy and Transportation. “This common platform enables innovation while supporting future advances in vehicle-grid integration and vehicle to everything communications.” The SAE EVPKI Certificate Trust List Requirements is the basis for bringing industry PKI suppliers to the new framework. PKI suppliers can then review and develop the CTL and apply to be an EVPKI compliant PKI root. Throughout 2025, the industry will continue to move toward the universal Plug & Charge model, which will include: A secure process to exchange technology among vendors PKI user onboarding and testing A new competitive EV Sector PKI supply market “Our mission is centered on interoperability, scalability and flexibility in EV Charging,” said Tim Weisenberger, SAE EVPKI Director. “The public release of the SAE EVPKI with its Certified Trust List provides a critical message security solution for universal Plug & Charge functionality – marking a major advancement in the electric mobility ecosystem. We thank our diverse, global industry members for their agile development approach, and look forward to making electric mobility easier and more effective for consumers,” Weisenberger added. “We anticipate an operational EVPKI solution in 2025 and an open, competitive PKI supplier marketplace to enable economical and secure charging at scale.” “Universal Plug & Charge levels up the electric fueling experience — making it even easier than filling up with gas,” said Gabe Klein, Executive Director of the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation. “We are rapidly approaching a future where every EV driver can just plug in, charge up, and go. The network will talk to your car and process the payment seamlessly. This is a fundamental step in architecture toward enabling bi-directional charging and true vehicle to grid integration, the Holy Grail for energy and transportation.” EVPKI Consortium members span the EV charging ecosystem, including leading global automakers, EV charger manufacturers, charge point operators, eMobility service providers, and PKI suppliers. Is this big news? Yeah, it kinda is. Fear of the unknown keeps a lot of people from trying new technology, especially when anti-social media feeds so much misinformation and disinformation to people. Anything that helps address those fears and makes people more comfortable with a new idea is welcome news. We have all heard horror stories from EV drivers about being stuck out in East Overshoe with a battery that is down to a 5% state of charge and a charger that refuses to connect until we close our eyes and recite the Ohio State fight song while standing on one foot. Why would anyone want to sign up for that sort of anxiety-inducing experience? There are so many myths about electric cars, many of them false (I still have neighbors who are shocked I can drive my Tesla in the rain). It is great news that SAE and its partners are taking important steps forward to remove one of the major areas of concern. Plug and charge — such a simple idea but so difficult to do. It can’t get here soon enough. CleanTechnica's Comment Policy LinkedIn WhatsApp Facebook Bluesky Email RedditBills' letdowns on defense, special teams and clock management in loss to Rams are all too familiar