At this point, you've probably heard about ​Tamir Rice, the Cleveland boy who was killed by police while playing with an Airsoft gun in a public park. The international spotlight didn't have to travel far from Ferguson, Missouri, where last week's non-indictment of Darren Wilson for shooting unarmed black teen Michael Brown sparked unrest and the usual police crackdown.

Of course, it's well known to Clevelanders that their cops don't exactly walk on water. In 2012, at the end of a chase, police—including one who stood on the hood of the car, shooting through the windshield— ​fired 137 bullets into the vehicle of two passengers, Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams.

But unlike the Ferguson situation, protests in Cleveland over Tamir Rice's death hasn't seemed to materialize in a big way. There's confusion and anger, especially about why the cops  ​didn't try to give the kid first aid. I spoke with some of the last people to see Rice before he died—including one man who says he was at the scene and saw the whole thing—as well as a retired Cleveland police officer to get their thoughts on the death and where to go from here.

Doug

VICE: So you and your family were in the park when it happened?
Doug: Yes.

And what exactly went down?
OK, we were walking in the park. We walked right past the little boy as he was sitting on the bench. We stopped to pull out a cigarette about 30 feet from where it took place. And all we heard was two shots. The police said they told him to put his hands up. There was no commands. There was no words. There was just two shots. And the kid hit the ground. It took the ambulance about another eight or nine minutes to even arrive. There was more cop cars showing up before the ambulance even came.

It was just one of those things where it's the police's word against what actually happened, but no one has taken into account that there were actually two people in the park when it took place.

Were you guys the only two people?
From what I seen, we were the only two people there that actually heard the original shooting. As we turned around, that boy fell.

Did the police ask you guys anything?
Nope. We left. We don't want harassment from the police. Because we know what really happened. There were no commands. They just pulled up on him and it was two shots. The cop didn't say anything at all to the kid.

Was the boy waving the gun around when you saw him?
When we seen him, he was sitting down. He was sitting at the bench minding his own business. And there was nobody else there.

Having a child in this community, does this make you guys feel worried at all? That something like that could just happen?
Yeah, I am kind of terrified that there are kids around and the police take those kinds of measures against children. I find that really unfair and considering that the playground is right behind my daughter's school. She goes to school right there. She goes to recess at that playground. And just think, if that would have been a day where there were kids outside. Now I'm feeling like I need to pull her out of that school.

But I couldn't even fathom that my daughter would be outside with a BB gun. In retrospect, the kid was wrong for having a BB gun, but the cops were even more wrong for just pulling up and opening fire and saying they gave commands when they clearly didn't, because we would have heard that. They didn't give any commands.

Kolé

VICE: Tamir was one of your kids here at the arts center. What was he like as a person?
​Kolé: He was kind. Tamir and his sister used to come over here and visit us. There was another teacher that was in this room too, Miss Tanya, and they'd give us hugs. Mild-mannered kids. They'd make people laugh. Just full of love, as far as I'm concerned. He wasn't a bad kid. I never had to tell him, "Get out. "It was his choice to come here or not because it's a drop-in program. It's after school—he was one that chose to be here.

All these kids live right around this perimeter. They don't have a backyard. This is their backyard. They're here all year around, in the summer, swimming, making art. In the wintertime they're here. We just had Thanskgiving dinner for these kids.

Do you think it's affected the way the children view this area?
I don't know, because some of the kids came back right away. They were here, like, that Monday. And I wasn't. But now I don't see nobody. I don't know if their parents are going, "No, you can't go over there anymore." I don't know what's going on. I just know this moment. It's very quiet.

Have you guys talked to the kids about it all?
I've tried to talk to some of the kids, and the general consensus is like, "Yeah, that was bad." And they don't go any deeper in speaking on it. And I'm like, "You're not afraid, or anything?"

Because me, I'd be afraid of the police right about now. If I was 13, and that was something that I saw happen, I'd be afraid of the police.

Do you think it has anything to do with race?
I think it has to do with how police operate. Right now, they're not operating with the idea that that's a life. Whether he's doing something wrong or not, that's a life. See, me, I try to preserve life. It's not shoot first, ask questions later. I do believe on the side of the police car it says, "Protect and Serve." And who they were protecting that day? I don't know.

I really think that it was unnecessary. [The police officer] could have Tased, he could have stopped far away enough, and told him to freeze, put your hands up.

Have you seen the video of what happened?
Of course, because that's our surveillance. There's a camera that's pointed right there to the gazebo. There's cameras all over this building.

I've seen the gun. The kids, they've brought their BB guns in, and decorated them. One kid wanted to decorate it for his costumes. Because usually the play guns are camouflage color, they're not black. They painted their guns to match their costumes. But there's a little orange thing that's the tip of the gun and [Tamir] took the orange thing off.

And that's Tamir's last piece of art he ever made over there?
Yeah, that pumpkin over there—that was the last piece of art he ever made. He had got a new outfit, and he didn't want to get paint on his new outfit, but he wanted to finish the project of painting the pumpkins. And so we were trying to figure it out, and I was just like, "Put on an apron."

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And he was like, "No, I don't want to wear an apron, that's for girls!" You know how little boys are. And he was like, "No, I got this, Miss Kolé." And one of the other boys was like, "What can we tie it up with?" And I gave them the string and they tied it up. And they were trying to paint it while it's hanging. Which is funny, because you know, it sways. So [Tamir] was kind of like, being silly and moving funny as he painted.

Obviously he didn't finish it.

2DZQueGallaGalla, a member of Cleveland's semi-notable rap crew Wrecking Squadd. 

VICE: So you saw Tamir Rice the day before he died?
2DZQueGallaGalla: Yeah I seen the lil' nigga the day before he died. He was out here in front of the Cudell [Recreation Center]. He was right there playing with the gun aiming it at some blood nigga... I just walked past. I ain't really give a fuck, cause lil' niggas play with guns all the time.

So you weren't scared at all?
​No.

Was anyone scared?
​Naw. It was only me. I'm from Cleveland, man. This shit goes around all the time. Niggas die every day. Police right there though, you feel me? [Points at police car pulling up near us]. Fuck them dudes, you feel me? Real shit. What, they gon' kill me? They gon' shoot me? We over here with the interview, I'm 'bout to smoke my blunt and everything. Real shit, though. I don't give a fuck, I swear to God.

Are a lot of people here upset?
​Shit, I don't know. I mean, I seen that shit on IG, a lot of people was talking about it. He stayed right across the street from my girl house though. RIP my lil' nigga Tamir. He was only 12, though. Yup. Lil' bro. That shit crazy, for real. They got the plastic toy gun here, you feel me? [picks up plastic toy gun on Tamir's memorial, presses the trigger, it makes a sound.] That shit crazy as fuck. Niggas gonna shoot me? [waves the gun around] That shit crazy, though. Real shit, though.

Did they kill anyone else?
​They kill hella niggas, you feel me? Everybody be getting shot around this bitch. Not just police killing shit, but everybody killing shit. Everybody. This bitch crazy, for real. This shit ain't nothing.

My nigga gone, you feel me. That's just how it is. That's just a part of life. Death, you here, you gone. Real shit, though. Lil' bro was only 12.

Retired Sergeant Gayle Miller-Cooper, Cleveland Police Department

VICE: What do you make of this local shooting and the attention it's getting?
Gayle Miller-Cooper: Because of his age, anybody would be upset. But as a cop, coming from a cop's point of view, I can understand how this could happen. I was on the job for 27 years and I can't say I wouldn't have done the same thing as the officer who is getting scrutinized.

How does this fit into the context of what's happening across America with men of color being shot down by police?
Those other incidents around the country—those were unarmed people. That's a totally different thing. But with this situation, the child did have what looked like a real gun. From what we know, the orange tip was filed off. But even if it hadn't been filed off, the gun was tucked in his waistline, so the officer would have never seen it.

It's a sad event, but I've known of incidents where even younger children were shot. Police officers are trained to operate a certain way when a gun is involved. When you see a gun, you don't have long to think about it. In that split-second, if you hesitate, you'll be dead. Most officers go out every evening wanting to come back home. I raised four kids while on the job, so my main thing was making it back to them. You serve and protect—but you also have to protect your own life.

Strategically, his partner bungled this. His partner could have stopped the car maybe 30 feet from the suspect, which would have allowed them to say, "Put the gun down!" in safety. But when the driving officer pulled right up in front of the suspect, he put his partner in the kill zone. I don't know what else the officer on the passenger side could have done if he truly believed his life was in danger.

Is it fair to wonder how the cops made this mistake given that the 9-1-1 caller said they thought the gun might be fake?
I was a supervisor in radio. The intake workers type what you say when you call in, but they don't type it verbatim. They send that information over by computer to a dispatcher. And the dispatcher looks up on a board and reads what was written by the intake workers. What was dispatched to the officer was that the suspect had a gun. Even if the dispatcher had said that the gun could be a toy, it's hard for the officer on the scene to figure out whether a gun is real or not when they pull up on it the way they did. Many officers have died hesitating in those kind of situations. I'm really sorry for what happened with family, but I can't say I wouldn't have done the same thing as the officer in question.

Have there been other incidents like this involving excessive force by Cleveland cops?
There was a heavily reported police shooting of two unarmed black suspects after an excessively long chase. One officer got up on the hood of the car and just kept emptying and reloading his weapon into the suspects. There's no excuse for that kind of behavior.

How does this kind of incident affect morale?
Incidents like the the one I told you about where the officer shot two unarmed people repeatedly can cast cast aspersions on the entire department. It's a shame, because in reality Cleveland is one of the best-trained departments in the country. These sorts of things are abnormal.

Do you think with all this media attention, coupled with the timing of the non-indictment in Ferguson, anything will change?
I've been around a long time and seen tragic incidents like Ferguson. The unarmed shootings you hear about today were happening all the way back when I started the job, too. I think there'll be a fervor around Ferguson. They'll put some legislation in place. But things will just go back to the way they always were. Right now, police will have to be careful to make a whole lot of reports about every incident. But things won't change drastically.

In terms of the situation with the 12-year-old, there might be a tougher investigation into this shooting than there would have been if Ferguson hadn't happened. But what we can see as professional police officers with 60 years between us [her and husband], we don't get the sense from the body language of the officers involved that they are trying to get one over the community with this shooting. One cop can tell when another cop is lying. Based on the body language and police jargon they used, they appeared to be coming straightforward with it. I believe they know more than they're saying now and the officers involved probably won't be indicted.

Full disclosure: Sergeant Miller-Cooper is the mother of VICE culture editor Wilbert Cooper.

Matt Taylor contributed reporting.

Follow Zach Schwartz on ​Twitter.

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Photo via ​Toronto Mayor Rob Ford on Facebook.​

Yesterday was Rob Ford's last day as the Mayor of Toronto. After an incredibly unpredictable election—where Rob Ford succumbed to cancer treatment and handed off his mayoral bid to his older brother Dougie—a mayoral tenure defined by crack, lies, secret video tapes and alleged extortion attempts fizzled out quietly. It's hard to imagine a bigger, more Hollywood-approved personality coming out of Canadian politics anytime soon, but it's also nearly impossible to conceive of an even remotely similar trainwreck crashing into one of our offices this century.

Rob Ford's mayoralty started off in a charming enough fashion—if you enjoy slapstick, that is. He fell ​over while trying to hike a football, he tumbled​ off a scale during his failed, public weight loss program, and he smashed his face in​to a CBC News camera. Don Cherry could make a hell of a Rock 'em Sock 'em DVD out of Rob Ford's foibles.

But from about the time Rob Ford was fired the first​ time for a conflict of interest debacle pertaining to his high school football coaching days, the Three Stooges-style laughs gave way to serious criminal allegations, police surveillance, and on-camera crack smoking.

The crack tape obviously changed everything. Once two media outlets came out, in quick succession, with reports that a man (who was later revealed to be Mohamed Farah, with whom VICE published a tell-all interview​ ​this past October) was shopping around footage of Rob Ford smoking crack, it became clear that our football-fumbling, scale-tumbling mayor had a much more reckless and potentially criminal side.

The infamous crack tape video came with a photo of Rob Ford standing outside of a house located at 15 Windsor Rd. in Toronto. One of the men in that photo, Anthony Smith, was shot dead at a King St. West nightclub. The speculation surrounding his murder, and whether or not Rob Ford and the crack tape were part of the motive for his killing, was so great that he publicly ​denied having anything to do with the murder. While whispers from some of Rob Ford's closest staffers s​uggested the video and the murder were connected, the case has already run through the justice system; and the two men accused of killing Smith, Hanad Mohamed and Nisar Hashimi, had their charges stayed and reduc​ed respectively.

The house in the infamous photo of Rob Ford, Anthony Smith, and two other men was also the scene of a vicious break-and-enter where 18 Toronto Po​lice Service officers were assigned to figure out who knocked on the door of 15 Windsor and beat its owner, Fabio Basso (a close asso​ciate of Rob Ford), and his girlfriend with a lead pipe.

This significant police reaction was unsurprising, given that Project Brazen and Project Brazen II (the latter is still ongoing) are the two major police surveillance operations that largely targeted Rob Ford and his associates. While most of the findings from those operations are still confidential, we do know that these police projects led to charges against one man: Sandro Lisi.

Lisi has been accused of using threats of violence to try and retrieve the crack tape. According to one police document, phone calls between Lisi and Mohamed Siyad, the man who was later outed as the crack tape's videographer, indicated that "Lisi threatened Siyad that Dixon [Siyad's neighb​ourhood] will get heated up all summer until the phone (video) gets back." Lisi, who has an unsettlingly long rap sheet of violent activities, was accused by Toronto Star sources of purposely planting bedbugs at the residences of his​ enemies.

Rob Ford, who is now occupying a Toronto City Council seat for Ward 2, will be testifying at Lisi's case this spring.

There's also a civil lawsuit, filed earlier this year, with gravely criminal allegations. It alleges that Rob Ford's former brother-in-law Scott MacIntyre (who once threatened to kill Ford) was the victim of a jailhouse beating orchestrated by the former mayor himself. Ford has filed an official defence stating that MacIntyre's claims are bogus, and in case you need a refresher on this particular scandal, we made a cartoon about MacIntyre's allega​tions.

The multi-tentacled crime drama that surrounded Rob Ford's mayoralty is kind of like the Serial podcast for Toronto politics nerds, and the mess continues to be heavily investigated online by armchair sleuths. Sites like the Rob ​Ford Files catalog known information about Ford's associates, and gather statistics on the scandal, like:

• Number of times Rob Ford has walked away from media without answering questions: 130+
• Number of times Rob Ford has falsely insinuated a Toronto Star reporter is a pedophile: 3
• Superior Court judges who've viewed (first) Rob Ford crack video: 1

Mixed into the swirl of criminal allegations are all of the offensive comments Ford made, which often distracted reporters from more tough and serious questions. There was the incredibly cringeworthy "more than enough​ to eat at home" brag, which was an allusion to performing oral sex on his wife. Or the time Ford was caught on camera stumbling through a particularly bad fake p​atois. Then there was that awkward video of Rob Ford threatening to commit "first degree murder," which the former mayor explained away as being simply his best Hulk​ Hogan impression, though both Mohamed Farah, the crack tape broker, and Ford's former brother-in-law Scott MacIntyre say the threats are directed at them.

This is not to be confused with the time Rob Ford actually arm-wrestled​ the real Hulk Hogan.

While many Torontonians—not least of whom are in the FordFes​t-going Ford Nation camp—will miss Rob Ford's antics, and maybe even his relentless promises to follow up on taxpayer complaints directly and in person, the mayoral tenure of Rob Ford was a non-stop carnival ride of criminal allegations, racist comments, and unsavoury characters. As the self-described "most racist guy ar​ound," Rob Ford was not a great ambassador for the City of Toronto, despite his successes on late-night American television. While it's doubtful Toronto politics will ever capture the attention of the American media machine in quite the same way again, Ford is not quite out of the limelight, with at least one court date ahead for Sandro Lisi's extortion trial, and a conflict-of-interest case pending ​as well.

So if you're feeling Rob Ford FOMO (the hashtag #RobFordM​emories is catching fire on Twitter among the nostalgic), set your Rob Ford Google Alert now, because the story won't be over until the cases are closed.

​@patrickmcguire

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Photos courtesy of Dennis

When Dennis, a life-long looner (a.k.a. balloon fetishist), first became aware of his intense attraction to gas-filled fun bags, he thought he was all alone. Even as late as six years ago, there was very little information about looning culture online.

Dennis was a normal hormone-fueled and extremely confused teenager at the time and didn't know what to make of his yearnings to fuck something usually reserved for children's birthday parties and family outings to the zoo; he had no idea that his was a relatively common desire.

Now in his early 20s, Dennis is the self-anointed gatekeeper for looning and looning culture in general. He has appeared on Discovery Channel's Forbidden and owns an online balloon emporium that's dedicated to servicing the needs of people like him all over the world. And now, he wants you to start thinking of balloons in a whole new way.

Dennis and his girlfriend

VICE: So what exactly is looning?
​Dennis: Looning is about sexual attraction to balloons. For me, it's about the attraction of latex balloons. Some people like pool toys or balloons made of foil.

Is there an overarching term for being attracted to balloons and inflatable objects?
​The box that you can put it all in is called "inflatophilia." Basically what that means is that we are commonly turned on by something you can inflate. For me, in particular, I'm what I consider a looner, or someone who is attracted to balloons made of latex.

What turns you on about balloons?
​​First of all, it's this relatively small object becoming so huge in a couple of breaths. The skin-like feeling of a big soft balloon—when you're laying on it feels like lying on a cloud. The lively colors, the sounds of inflation, the smell of high quality latex, and of course the "bounciness"—basically more or less everything about that feeling.

And your girlfriend is into balloons too, right?
​Yes. She was into latex, herself, before she met me, so she found it very easy to relate to.

So nuts and bolts of it all—how do you fuck a balloon?
​I can of course do solo play with a balloon, doing activities like humping it, masturbating during inflation and such. But the real deal is when my girl is laying on top of a big balloon (40 inches or so), naked, with her ass pointing at me, surrounded by soft latex, inflating a balloon with her mouth [and] waiting for me to take her doggy style, where the balloon would be bouncing her back and forth, thereby gaining more powerful thrusts, thus giving more pleasure.

Any misconceptions about looning you'd like to address now?
​One of the most common questions I have met with during my time as an "out of the closet" balloon fetishist is: "What the heck do you do at children's parties? Can you suppress your desires during such circumstances?"

I personally believe that question can be answered with a question: "What the heck do you do when you meet a pretty man or woman in the streets? Do you go fuck him or her out in the open streets, or can you suppress your desires too?"

It's simply a matter of situational awareness, and balloons did not have anything to do with being a children's toy when I started to see the balloons the way I see them.

You also run a website about balloon fetishes, along with owning an online balloon emporium. Why have you made this fetish such a staple in your life?
​When I first realized that I was into this, it was a hard job to find information about this (looning) and I felt that I was very alone and I was the only one in the world that had this interest.

I wanted to help people find this information. [That is], people in general, but also kids, because it involves their sexuality. They need to know this, or they are going to go through what I did.

My mission is to spread the word and help other people like, myself, find out who they really are. I think that you should stand up for what you believe in and who you are as a person, and also with your sexuality. 

The bigger the balloon, the better?
​To a certain extent because it can also get too big. You can't really do much with an 80" balloon, other than going into it.

And craziest place you've ever made "whoopie" with a balloon?
​Probably on the toilet at a discount store [laughs].

For more information on inflatophilia, visit ​Dennis's website.

Follow Mason Miller on ​Twitter.

​Hemp farmers leading the charge for the plant's production in the United States are not down with the marijuana policy reform movement. In fact, they do not even want to be associated with it. Despite the similarity of the two plants, both of which are banned by the federal government, hemp advocates say the stigma associated with marijuana is getting in their way of achieving reform.

Concerns among drug enforcement agents that allowing hemp production may complicate marijuana eradication efforts is hindering the legalization of the hemp market. So to distance themselves from authorities' main concern—that pot that gets you high—hempsters are ditching their association with the activists fighting for marijuana legalization.

A non-psychoactive "sober cousin" to pot, hemp contains less than 1 percent THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, but is categorized under the Controlled Substance Act just as strictly (the drug, by contrast, contains between 3 and 15 percent THC). Despite the marijuana policy reform movement's success in recent years, hemp advocates fear a backlash against legal weed could take them down as well.

"My business has nothing to do with marijuana," Ken Anderson, a Minneapolis provider of hemp-based products recently told Business​week. "The two need to be considered separately."

Unfortunately for Anderson and other hemp industry players, separating the plant from the drug may be a difficult goal to achieve, at least in terms of perception. For the legalization movement, hemp provides a useful rhetorical tool: It is billed as an environmentally friendly, versatile crop with economy-boosting potential, and its illegality highlights the futility of prohibition while underscoring the benefits of legalization.

Still, hemp advocates point to their success in states less likely to be friendly to marijuana legalization, like Kentucky, which passed a law legalizing hemp production in 2013. Both of the state's US Senators—Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul—support legalization, and were key supporters of a pilot program under the 2014 Farm Bill that allows hemp production for research purposes. Under these new laws, the University of Kentucky has already planted its hemp crop, and seven state universities are studying the plant's potential.

"The utilization of hemp to produce everything from clothing to paper is real, and if there is a capacity to center a new domestic industry in Kentucky that will create jobs in these difficult economic times, that sounds like a good thing to me," McConnell said in a statement earlier this year.

But the legal resurgence of hemp is still tinged with doubts about the crop's potential. An editorial in t​he Lexington Herald-Leader titled "License hemp but don't oversell; crop no game-changer" begins with an endorsement of Kentucky's new hemp policy, but cautions against overstating the benefits. "[W]e stand by our longstanding support for legalizing industrial hemp production," the paper wrote. "But make no mistake about it, industrial hemp will not transform Kentucky's economy."

"It does not appear that anticipated hemp returns will be large enough to entice Kentucky grain growers to shift out of grain production," citing a study from the University of Kentucky that found a growing, but still relatively small market for hemp.

"Realistically, I think it may be another option for some farmers but it's not going to be a major agricultural panacea," Dr. Leigh Maynard, chairman of the University of Kentucky's Department of Agricultural Economics, which conducted the study, told a local news​paper.

The study was not the first, nor the last, to present less-than-optimistic findings about the hemp industry. In a report on indus​trial hemp, the US Department of Agriculture said that the market for hemp as a food ingredient is "unknown" and likely to "remain a small market, like those for sesame and poppy seeds." The report found that hemp fiber will also "likely remain, a small, thin market" because "cotton, flax, abaca, sisal, and other nonwood fibers" will be difficult to compete with in terms of quality and price. Meanwhile, the USDA found that the production of hemp oil also faces hurdles in manufacturing, including its "limited shelf life."

"Some consumers may be willing to pay a higher price for hemp-seed-containing products because of the novelty, but otherwise hemp seed will have to compete on taste and functionality with more common food ingredients," the report said.

Hemp is also billed as an environmentally safe industry, but its modest environmental impact (no herbicides and just a few pesticides are necessary to produce the plant) is offset by other environmental factors. Modern Farmer noted that hemp "requires a relatively large amount of water, and its need for deep, humus-rich, nutrient-dense soil limits growing locales."

Global competition for a product with little demand may also not be particularly fruitful. According to the University of Kentucky researchers, "[t]he world market for hemp products remains relatively small, and China, as the world's largest hemp fiber and seed producer, has had and likely will continue to have major influence on market prices and thus on the year-to-year profits of producers and processors in other countries."

The USDA also notes that "Canada is emerging as a growing influence on the global hemp production and trade," enduring a volatile market. Hemp production bounced from 35,000 acres in 1999 to 4,000 in 2001 before production shot up to 48,000 acres in 2006, dipping down to 10,000 two years later, and springing up to 39,000 in 2011.

In Kentucky, the small size of the market could also means fewer jobs than has been predicted. While Agriculture Commissioner James Comer predicted that hemp production may create hundreds of new jobs in the state, recent reports suggest the numbers might be in the dozens, and possibly as l​ow as 25.

"If Kentucky's hemp industry would materialize to the size of the Canadian hemp industry, projected gross sales would total less than one percent of current Kentucky farm cash receipts," one University of Kentucky report conclud​ed.

So as the hemp industry begins to navigate the minefield that comes with establishing a new market, industry producers may be smart to take whatever support from the legalization movement that they can get.

​ I accurately predicted that Bill Cosby would get a standing ovation at his first sold-out comedy gig after the recent rape disclosures. I said as much at dinner the night before. Yet I still found it disheartening when I read, in ​a review in the Los Angeles Times the very next day, that many in the audience "saw the comedian as the victim of a coterie of hustlers, or worse." Because, you know, those awful gals and their vicious stories.

When I graduated college in the 70s, I would have bet any amount of money that every one of the many tentacles of the discussion we still seem to be having about all aspects of women's rights would by now have gone the way of arguments in favor of slavery or cigarettes being good for your health.

But here we are, almost in 2015, finally on the cusp of driverless cars, and we're still flooded with crazy news about a frightening rape culture full of asshole frat boys on  ​college campuses like the ​University of Virginia. We're also assimilating the notion that the man we picked to be "America's Dad" is an alleged serial rapist.

That pretty much pares the cherished-old-man list down to Gandhi, Einstein, and Santa Claus. And we better not be about to learn that the Santa Claus myth was originally based on the true story of a fat guy in the gift business who was caught moving elves across state lines for purposes of sex trafficking.

This brings me to November 5, the day the  ​Los Angeles Adventurers' Club failed to strike down its 93-year-old no-girls-allowed membership policy. The vote was suggested by Marc Weitz, one of the club's former presidents, who also took pains to reassure the existing members that "We're not changing the qualifications" for membership. Any female candidates would still "have to meet the same standards that men have."

But to his surprise, "People stood up and argued against me quite vehemently," said Weitz. And of course, by "people" he meant "men."

Unfortunately, once the dust settled, none of the naysayers came forward to explain their reasoning. I could get no confirmation that the word "cooties" was repeatedly cited as a factor. This forced me to speculate about what the problem between the Adventurers and their potential counterpart Adventurer women might be.

Founded in 1908, the Adventurers' Club describes itself on its website as a "gathering place for those who leave the beaten path to explore the globe and return to share their adventures." Their  ​membership page features a list of 28 qualified areas of mutual adventurous enjoyment, starting with "Racing, Climbing, Mountaineering, Travel to Remote Areas of the World" and ending with "Extreme Skiing and Snowboarding." Also listed are fields of endeavor as diverse as "Environmental Testing," "Space Exploration," and "Zoologists." Interestingly, every activity mentioned is one both sexes pursue.

At a time when it appears that men and women understand one another more poorly than ever, it seems important to discover the reasoning behind the rejection. I am well aware that there are good things to be said about single-gender gatherings. For example, some classroom studies show the lack of distraction from the opposite sex results in more learning (though other studies claim there are no measurable benefits at all).

But let's face it: We're all drowning in studies. The same day one study recommends a glass of red wine with dinner as a protection against heart attack, another one cautions that the same thing causes cancer.

So I did a bit of Google searching to try to get to the real root of the problem that men's clubs have with the idea of admitting women. What I discovered was a variety of interesting lines of reason. Let's begin with a quote from a 40-year member of London's oldest and most exclusive men's club,  ​White's, who describes the club as "a refuge."

"You can be completely unselfconscious" he explains in a  ​BBC news article. "It's not snobbish. It just allows you to relax. You can break wind and nobody minds."

Assuming he joined the club in his 20s, this guy and his friends would now be in their 60s. Thus we are presented with the image of a group of older men who relish the opportunity to get dressed up and sit in handsomely appointed rooms where they can fart freely while they exchange the appropriate stories.

I must admit that this picture is not an appealing one to me, no matter how many trips to the Arctic each of them have made. But just because I am turned off by the idea of a room full of farting old men is no reason to reject women members, per se. If casual farting is an integral part of being a member of a men's club, then the club literature should simply come right out and say it. There are probably plenty of women with poor digestion who indulge in skydiving and whitewater rafting. I bet the Venn diagram for people of either sex who enjoy both journeys to remote areas and public displays of flatulence is fairly narrow. This could turn out to be an excellent device for screening new candidates.

Looking further, I discovered other men's-club members who believed that having women in the clubhouse would prevent them from being able to speak freely. These are men who said they didn't feel comfortable swearing in the presence of women. How they made it to 2014 unaware of the astronomical number of foul-mouthed women around them—adventurous and otherwise—is in itself a remarkable phenomenon.

Once again, if the club would simply go public with this information, all they'd need to do is add one simple sentence to the membership page: "All members must be at ease speaking the following vile epithets." If this were followed by a comprehensive list of carefully crafted disgusting verbal invective, it would help attract only the female applicants who are as coarse and degenerate as the men.

After all, the name " the Adventurers' Club" is a fairly misleading one because the word "Adventurer" is decidedly gender-neutral. It's defined as:

1. A person who has, enjoys, or seeks exciting unusual experiences.
2. A seeker of fortune in daring enterprises.

That is why a smarter idea might be to consider changing the name of the club to include these important specifications. Everyone knows it's all about niche marketing these days. By simply re-naming the group "The Foul Mouthed Adventurers," or even "The Gassy Adventurers," they could be sure that only the right kind of swearing, farting mountaineers and space explorers applied.

Isn't it time we knocked off pretending that personal inclinations and tastes are defined by gender? It's simply not true that all women are one thing and all men are another. Our culture should have assimilated something this simple by now.

Example: I am a woman who hates shopping.

I know.

I will give you time to take that in before I continue.

Yes, I will concede that we gals are by definition penis-less. But believe it or not, we have even more DNA in common with male humans than we do with fruit flies! We are a gender composed of a group of vastly different individuals. Angela Merkel and Kim Kardashian are both women. I swear this is true. So are Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Condoleezza Rice, and Nicki Minaj.

Maybe in the future, if the members of both genders who share lots of common interests—whatever they happen to be—were encouraged to socialize together in arenas besides nightclubs and frat parties, they might learn to see each other as human beings.

We live on a planet adrift in one of billions and billions of galaxies, yet for every foul-mouthed Adventurer man, there is a foul-mouthed Adventurer woman who might like to be his friend. Imagine a world where they might fart peacefully together while telling their respective hang-gliding stories. May 2015 be the year they discover their mutual humanity.

And may it also be the year I successfully avoid contact with them both.

Merrill Markoe is an Emmy-winning comedy writer and New York Times best-selling author. Her latest book, ​Cool, Calm and Contentious, is available now on Amazon. Follow her on ​Twitter.

For lying about his racist rantings while on the witness stand during OJ Simpson's murder trial, Mark Fuhrman was convicted of perjury. The immediate result of the former LAPD cop's lie was three years probation and a $200 fine. But life is long, and attention spans are short. Now you can find Fuhrman serving occasionally as a legal expert on Sean Hannity's Fox News program. His career in law enforcement came to an unceremonious end with the Simpson case, but it didn't mark his final moment in the public eye.

Darren Wilson, the Ferguson police officer who just found out he won't face criminal charges for killing unarmed black teen Michael Brown in August, may end up similarly fortunate. It just depends on how he wants to play it.

Some protesters were incensed when Wilson issued his resignation letter over the weekend, writing that it was the "hardest thin​g" he'd ever had to do. Never mind the obvious exclamation that shooting and killing an unarmed man should have been a pretty damn difficult decision—there's some logic behind his resignation that needs to be unpacked. Had Wilson resigned immediately following Brown's death, it would have looked like an admission of guilt. Now, Wilson and his supporters can make an entirely reasonable claim of self-defense: He could never work the streets of Ferguson again, and his presence there could very well put his fellow officers in danger. If the demands of some of the protesters were any indication, quitting when he did can be seen as simply the most sensible approach.

"It was my hope to continue in police work," wrote Wilson, whose goal had apparently been to retire as a sergeant with the Ferguson Police Department, "but the safety of other police officers and the community are of paramount importance to me."

The decision to quit likely came with quite a bit of pressure from the authorities, including Wilson's bosses, Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson and Mayor James Knowles, who was quick to point out the former cop wouldn't be receiving a severance package. Wilson may have had a word or two from his friend, Jeff Roorda, who also happens to be a representative of the local police union. Roorda, as you won't be surprised to hear, is unabashedly pro-cop. As a Missouri state legislator, he sponsored a bill that would prevent citizens from finding the na​mes of police officers involved in shootings if they weren't charged; yesterday he ​made headlines for criticizing some St. Louis Rams players for making a "hands up don't shoot" gesture on the field.  He was also fired from his job as a police officer in Arnold, Missouri after being accused of filing a false statement against a suspec​t.

Regardless of what you may think of him, Roorda has been the most visible Wilson supporter through this whole ordeal, which is not an easy position to be in. And Wilson, despite the protests that spread across the country in the wake of the grand jury's decision not to indict him, has something very important on his side in addition to the counsel of a friend: the grand jury.

"We are a nation built on the rule of law," President Obama reminded the country following the announcement a week ago that Wilson would not be indicted, "and so we need to accept that this decision was the grand jury's to make."

Indeed it was. But in the immediate aftermath of Brown's death, the vacuum of credible information created by the clamped lips of Ferguson police and other local government officials was filled by outrage. Social media abounded with theories, explanations, and fingers pointed in myriad directio​ns before we ever knew the name Darren Wilson. For many, the decision to indict him wasn't up to a secretive (albeit methodical) jury, but to the public—at least, the part of the public we agreed with. But the law has spoken, and now we know a few things nearly for certain.

For one, Wilson will probably never again wear a badge, unless it's in some far-flung outpost you and I have never heard of. But he may be plucked to perform as an "expert" on cable news. Who better to extrapolate on future police shootings than Wilson? Conversely, the former cop may suffer greatly, in essence sentenced to a life of fear and solitude as the angry masses seek their revenge. That's apparently what George Zimmerman and his family feared was imminent as recently as a​ few months ago, two years after the killing of Trayvon Martin. But that will probably fade. History is littered with public enemies number one who went back to being nobodies—just look at Fuhrman, who was once famous for lying about not using the N-word and now is considered by some to have a solid legal mind.

Many Americans often claim our revolutionary roots as the central motivation behind our behavior—essentially, that we're all tea-dumpers sticking it to our oppressive overlords. But in reality our supposed natural distrust of government gives way to an adherence to law and order. To many, Wilson is a symbol of racism and evil cops, an avatar of an unfair system. But for others he's an incarnation of the kind of authority America needs. Careers have been made on much less.

Follow Justin Glawe on ​Twitter.

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All clothes model's own; Claire's Accessories jewelry and gloves, model's own top

PHOTOGRAPHY: Holly Falconer
​STYLING: Kylie Griffiths

Stylist's assistants: Rachel Williamson and Beth Whitehead
​Makeup: Michelle Dacillo using Mac
​Hair: Elvire Roux using Bumble and bumble
​Body painting: Tom Scotcher
Street interviews: Georgia Rose

For this shoot, we asked a bunch of people on the internet what they've always wanted to be. Then we told them to come to our office so we could turn them into that—be it a goth, a Trekkie, or a human doll. Finally, we had a walk around and asked strangers whether our makeover recipients looked better before or after, because what fun is changing your look if you don't get a strong reaction from random passersby?

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All clothes model's own; American Apparel top, Blitz Vintage trousers

"My name is Eloise, I'm 22, and I'm being tattooed all over. I'm doing this because I've always wanted loads of tattoos and once, when I was younger, I got a tattoo of Buddha on the back of my neck and it looks like a steaming poo, so I decided not to get another tattoo after that."

But, passing strangers, does Eloise look better post- or pre-makeover?
​ John, 34: Tattoos—yeah, I love that. She's expressing herself. I offer spiritual consultancy—I work with energy—and I think that's important.
​ ​Julienne, 26: I love this one—she looks like an East London lesbian.
​ ​Stuart, 22: She looks good in both. The one with tattoos I'd like to be my friend.

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All clothes model's own; T-shirt from Rokit

"My name is Ken. I want to be a Star Trek fan because I'm a really crazy guy and I really like Star Trek, and I just want everyone to know I love Star Trek and I'm crazy!"

But, passing strangers, does Ken look better post- or pre-makeover?
​Fabien, 26: I live in East London and I think people with a special look are better than normal people, so I'll go for Star Trek.
​Julia, 23: The post-makeover is too old -chool to be true. I like him as he normally is.
​Alex, 22: He just looks like an idiot.

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All clothes model's own; River Island shirt and jacket, New Look trousers

"My name is Faye. I'm 30, I live in London, and I want to be transformed into a serious businesswoman. I want to do this because I feel like, now I'm 30, I really need to dress a bit more seriously and smart."

But, passing strangers, does Faye look better post- or pre-makeover?
​Stuart, 22: I like her as a businesswoman. She looks a lot classier. The little hand gesture—I like that.
​Ellie, 26: If I had to decide? Businesswoman totally. She looks like a bitch.
​Sarah, 31: I like the pre-makeover. She looks more natural. She looks more like herself.​

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All clothes model's own; Topman polo shirt and trousers

"My name is Melanie and I'm 34. I'm being turned from a woman into a man. I'm doing this because I feel like men represent power and strength, and I'd really like women to feel powerful and strong, which is why I'm becoming a man for a day."

But, passing strangers, does Melanie look better post- or pre-makeover?
Stuart, 22: No way. What! You're joking! That's a chick? She could be a sick actor playing both a guy and a girl.
​Paula, 25: Oh my God, I love both. In real life is she a woman or a man?
​Julienne, 26: I love her as a man. It's, like, perfect. I love gender bending!

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All clothes model's own; American Apparel scrunchies, Motel dress, Claire's Accessories jewelry and bag

"I'm Iris, I'm 27, and I'm being turned into a human doll. I always wanted to be a doll when I was younger. I wanted to live in a big pink doll house and dress like a doll, so I'm here to have my dreams made true!"

But, passing strangers, does Iris look better post- or pre-makeover?
​Paula, 25: Very nice. I like the second look—it's very 60s.
​Alex, 22: I don't know what that is but I'm not liking the color scheme. She looks like a rainbow.
​Julienne, 26: I love that—she looks like Sheila, that singer from the 80s.

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All clothes model's own; Absolute Vintage bow-tie, jacket, and shirt from Rokit

"I'm Tom, I'm 22, and I'm from Brighton. Today, I'm becoming a Juggalo. The reason is because I think they look kind of weird, and I like weird, subversive faces. Also, I think the music linked to them is pretty cool."

But, passing strangers, does Tom look better post- or pre-makeover?
​Julia, 23: I like the second one more because it has more white in it. I like white.
​Stuart, 22: I prefer the second one. He reminds me of the Joker. He looks quite sick.
​Ellie, 26: He looks better normal. The Juggalo outfit is a bit desperate, tbh. Like, what's he doing with his hands?

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All clothes model's own; So High Soho feather boa, New Look dress, Absolute Vintage gloves

"I'm Tabitha, I'm 30, and I live in London. Today, I'm being made into a drag queen because I've always liked things that are quite over the top. I'm still thinking of my drag queen name, so I'll have to get back to you on that."

But, passing strangers, does Tabitha look better post- or pre-makeover?
​Stavros, 21: Transvestite all the way. I love a drag queen.
​Paula, 25: I love the second look—she's such a diva.
​John, 34: She's not limiting herself. I think it's important to express your sexuality, and she's obviously doing that, so it's cool.

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All clothes model's own; Charlotte Simone scarf, Topman jacket and shirt

"My name's Jon, I'm 28, and I'm from Croydon. Today I'm being made into a pop star because I went to university and got a degree in pop recording and I want to be a really big pop star."

But, passing strangers, does Jon look better post- or pre-makeover?

​Ellie, 26: The blue one suits him better. He looks more alive.
​Julienne, 26: He looks fierce.
​Paula, 25: I like the fluffy thing very much.

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All clothes model's own; Claire's Accessories jewellery and gloves, model's own top

"Hi, I'm Helen, and today I'm being made into a goth. I'm doing this because I've always wanted to rebel and see what it's like to look different in public. Goths are normal people, too. Also, I want to be able to wear outrageous makeup for a day."

But, passing strangers, does Helen look better post- or pre-makeover?
​John, 24: She looks cool, like the hippie mother who'd make peppermint tea and let you and your mates smoke weed. I like the makeover too, though—she's expressing her inner anger.
Ellie, 26: She can pull off goth really well.
​Sarah, 31: That is terrifying.

[body_image width='1900' height='1264' path='images/content-images/2014/12/01/' crop='images/content-images-crops/2014/12/01/' filename='the-st-louis-rams-pissed-off-a-missouri-police-union-1201-body-image-1417455299.jpg' id='8015']St. Louis Rams players make the "hands up, don't shoot" gesture on Sunday. Photo by L.G. Patterson/AP

On Sunday, five players with the St. Louis R​ams NFL team took the field for a game against the Oakland Raiders, their arms raised in the "don't shoot" position. This was widely interpreted as a silent protest against the grand jury's failure to indict Darren Wilson for the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in August. Since that incident—the exact facts of which we will never know—"hands up, don't shoot" has become an all-purpose mantra of protests against police brutality and the ease with which the trigger is pulled on minori​ty suspects in particular.

Now, the players—Tavon Austin, Stedman Bailey, Kenny Britt, Chris Givens, and Jared Cook—could potentially be sanctioned by the NFL. And that is the NFL's business, whether to play with that political grenade or just let it be. However, it is definitely not the business of the St. Louis Police Officers Association what NFL players do with their arms. Still, the fraternal group felt compelled to issue a long, cranky statement about the event, calling the players hypocrites for protesting even though the NFL and the Rams asked for police protection against looters after the verdict. 

The SLPOA statement read, in part, that they found it "unthinkable that hometown athletes would so publicly perpetuate a narrative that has been disproven over-and-over [sic] again." The group wants the players disciplined by the NFL, and they want a "very public apo​logy" from the league and the team.

The fact that the SLPOA is this interested in PR minutiae is not surprising, but it is creepy that this is where their priorities lie. Disciplining the Rams players won't change anyone's mind about the rightness or wrongness of Wilson's actions or the grand jury verdict. But it does make the SLPOA look like they're more worried about policing protests of officer behavior than in changing said behavior. The way to improve public perception of the police is to improve the police. Nothing else—certainly not shaming football players—will make much of a difference.

Now for the rest of this week's bad cops:

-On November 27, VICE News's Natasha Lennard reported on a disturbing​ incident between cops in Police, a drug suspect, and his girlfriend that took place on August 14. On that day, David Nelson Flores apparently tried to swallow a sock when approached by undercover police officers. In response to this, a uniformed officer named Christopher Evans punched Flores in the face six times. When Flores's pregnant girlfriend Mayra Lazos-Guerrero ran towards police, screaming for them to stop, the other uniformed officer, Charles Jones IV, tripped her; she can be seen on video falling heavily onto her stomach. Jones later said he was worried Lazos-Guerrero was going to kick him. 

Things didn't end there, however, according to the the witness who filmed the confrontation. Levi Frasier says that police confiscated his tablet after the two suspects were arrested. He also says he didn't consent to the handover, but was threatened with arrest. The footage was deleted when Frasier got his tablet back, but he managed to retrieve it. The police report doesn't mention anything about footage of the incident, and police refused local Denver news outlets' request to view the footage and comment on it. The FBI is now ​looking into the matter, since officers Evans and Jones were cleared of excessive force by a superior who did not see the video.

-Last Monday, Brian Dennison​ was arrest​ed in Jacksonville, Florida, after speeding and refusing to stop for a police officer because his asthmatic daughter needed her inhaler. Dennison reportedly drove half a mile to his apartment after an officer from the Jacksonville County Sheriff's Office, J.C. Garcia, attempted to stop him from driving home. Dennison says when he arrived at his apartment after ignoring Garcia, he got out of the vehicle with his hands up and began to explain to Garcia that his six-year-old child desperately needed her medicine. Garcia then shot at Dennison because he apparently believed the unarmed man was reaching for a handgun. Thankfully, his daughter is fine—and Garcia eventually let him get the inhaler—but Dennison was arrested on charges of driving on a suspended license. 

Garcia's decision to shoot is now under investigation, but it seems as if Dennison and his child owe their survival or at least their good health to that officer's being such a bad shot. Assistant Chief Chris Butler basic​ally suggested that Garcia managed to divert the single shot he fired because he noticed Dennison was unarmed just as he was in the process of pulling the trigger. Which seems kind of ridiculous.

-The grand jury weighing whether to indict NYPD Off​icer Daniel Pantaleo in the July 17 death of 43-year-old Eric Garner is nearing a decision, according to reports. What with all the Michael Brown-induced protests lately, it seems the NYPD has been working to prevent similar issues if Pantaleo is not indicted for his chokehold/takedown move on Garner—and this is why the NYPD has been ​combing Missouri for "professional agitators."

-Speaking of profiling: A black man in Pont​iac, Michigan was briefly detained by police for, basically, existing while black. According to a concerned 9-1-1 caller, Brandon McKean was walking with his hands in his pockets. In the winter. Outside. An officer with the Oakland County Sheriff's Department questioned McKean, and tolerated his extremely understandable incredulousness and outrage, but the officer also tried to argue that since there had been robberies lately, somehow the stop was not completely inappropriate.

-SWAT teams w​ere deployed in Pittsburgh 96 times in 2009, but 251 times in 2013. The dramatic increase is supposedly based on more "high-risk warrants" and a greater need for "tactical support," according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette—but the former is a dubious term that can mean nothing besides an informant thinking a drug suspect might have a weapon. Did policing in Pittsburgh really get more dangerous all of a sudden?

-In October, a Raleigh, North Caro​lina, man was released from prison after spending almost 100 days there for the rape of a 13-year-old and involvement in a child sex ring. But the evidence against 50-year-old Tommy Wall was so spurious it was scrubbed from public record after last month's exoneration. Wall's story, however, is still a tragedy not just for his unjust time behind bars. He lost his job, his house was auctioned by the county, and he will now forever be tied with "child pornography" in Google. That's pretty rough punishment for someone who did nothing wrong. Seemingly the only tie Wall—who didn't have internet in his home, which would make the whole child porn ring thing kinda difficult—had with the two suspected child pornographers was that he dropped off a load of lumber at their home two years before his arrest. The investigation of Wall was so botched that he's now preparing a lawsuit. He deserves to win big.

-The Washington Post is dam​ned right that the Fairfax County, Virginia, Police Department needs to actually investigate why their officers shot unarmed man John Geer 15 months ago. The Post has been following the story closely, and the Fairfax PD's complete lack of progress on releasing any details about the man's death—including the name of the officer who killed him—is alarming and baffling.

-Our Good Cop of the Week is actually a good police department. According to numerous sources—and even some folks who were cranky about a lack of arrests—on Wednesday, th​e Nashville PD managed to answer the town's Ferguson proxy protests with protection, not force. They let people march, they closed the interstate for half an hour instead of arresting people, even when those folks disobeyed orders. In short, it sure sounds like they de-escalated a tense, angry situation with tolerance and a healthy respect for First Amendment rights—even if the expressions of those rights were not very pro-police. It's hard to know what to do with this kind of good police behavior except say, "Yes, more of that, please!"

Follow Lucy Steigerwald on ​Twitter.

​On Sunday, police in Columbus, Ohio, identified a body found in a dumpster as Ohio State defensive lineman ​Kosta Karageorge. The 22-year-old died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound just a few days after texting his mother that he was sorry "if I am an embarrassment, but these concussions have my head all fucked up."

Though Karageorge had only been on the OSU football team for one season (he had been on the wrestling squad for three years), the possibility that America's favorite and most violent sport contributed to his death is a grim thought, because the lineman is far from the only football player who has endured some vicious blows to the head. 

Although the NFL has implemented strict rules governing the reporting and treatment of concussions, the bosses at the NCAA are still apparently figuring it out. The best they have now is a set of concussion guidelines that came out of a class-action suit settled in July. A​nd while the attorney who filed the first suit against the NCAA in 2011 ​told Fox Sports this would do "nothing less than change college sports forever," critics almost immedi​ately called the new protocol toothless. 

The July decree only says that the NCAA's Executive Committee would "recommend" that individual schools pass legislation that implements a concussion management plan. For instance, it ​doesn't seem like administrators at Ohio State have updated their program's policy since 2012. (Ohio State's football program did not immediately respond to VICE's request for comment.)

Although Ohio State is one of the few scho​ols in America that actually makes money on its football program—funds that can be diverted back to academic things like libraries—increasingly, people are asking if the benefits outweigh the risks. It's plausible that Karageorge suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which basically means he'd been hit in the head a bunch of times, resulting in symptoms like memory loss and debilitating depression. His sister ​told the New York Times that Karageorge had endured "at least four or five concussions" in his lifetime. 

While professional footbal players can at least justify the risk with a million-dollar paycheck, kids like Karageorge are undergoing extreme long-term health risks for little more than glory and an outside shot at an appearance in the NFL. Guys who play college ball also lack the ability to personally pay for testing that would let them know if they were in danger—after​ all, they're not even allowed to sell autographs.

But much more important than the ​debate over whether or not to pay college athletes for the risks they take—and the massive amount of money the NCAA generates every season—is the question of what will happen to football. It's entirely possible that people will stop playing the game as more of these stories come out. After all, what well-meaning parent lets his or her kid get involved in activity that might leave him dead by 22?

And to anyone thinks the idea is crazy, consider this Grantland essay from​ 2012. As its authors point out, all it would take is a few more young people committing suicide from CTE before high schools decide the sport isn't worth the risk of lawsuits. Fewer high school players means fewer college players, and the NCAA could topple like so many dominos. Naturally, the NFL would be in trouble in this scenario too.

If it turns out that Karageorge had CTE—and the texts to his mom coupled with his demise suggest that's a strong possibility—it's not gonna mean the end of the NFL, NCAA football, or anything else right away. But it could help move the needle in that direction.

Follow Allie Conti on ​Twitter.

This post originally appeared on VICE UK.

A proper apology is difficult. A proper apology means understanding and explaining—in grueling specifics—exactly how and why you've been such a complete dickhead. Why, for example, you figured the best way to protest Islamic extremism was to hang out with people who believe "patriotism"  means slapping on a flat cap, barging into a mosque, and handing out anti-grooming leaflets to bewildered Muslims.

Matthew Lester knows a lot about apologies. He's been making them for almost a month now, ever since he left the far-right street team Britain First and began visiting mosques and Islamic centers to make amends for all that bizarre, belligerent behavior by his former pals. On November 9,  ​he announced on Twitter: "I have been an unwitting twat... The making up starts now."

Reading Matthew's tweet, I thought it would be interesting to see what the making up might look like, and how long it might last. So I accompanied him to Crayford Mosque in Bexley, one of the places Britain First—led by former BNP councillor Paul Golding—had staged an "invasion" into back in July, demanding that the Imams remove signs indicating separate entrances for men and women,  ​telling them, "When you respect women, we'll respect your mosques."

I asked 25-year-old Matthew how he first got involved with the group. "Well, earlier this year I saw these guys were going after radical preachers—extremists like Anjem Choudary," he recalled. "I actually thought they might tackle the problem, so I joined. But getting to know other members and hearing them talk, it became more obvious racism was going on. There was talk about minorities not being a problem, as long as they stay the minority. That made it about race. I thought, What is going on?

"A lot of them are obsessed with Islam," he added. "They see it as a religion of extremists, and that ideology is all they see. I got drawn in, too. Like any gang, you get caught up in it. But I wouldn't take part in the invasions and I really wasn't racist; I'd had Muslim friends at school. I realized I'd become part of something hateful, and I really didn't want that at all. And now I want to apologize and find out a bit more about what life's like for ordinary Muslims."

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Matthew at the Crayford mosque

Stepping inside the Crayford place of worship, Matthew was greeted by Az, one of the mosque's young leaders. They had arranged for Matthew to make a short speech in front of the congregation before the Imam led Jumu'ah, the Friday prayer. A little nervous, the former far-right activist stood up and said: "Do not let Britain First give the perception of what we think of you. They are a small minority. If we work together we can beat Britain First. Thank you for accepting my apologies."

Afterward, Matthew got a lot of handshakes and thank yous ("Well done, mate—that took guts"), then sat down for a cup of tea with Az and the Imam, Hafiz. They talked through the need for a separate prayer room for women—"It's so we don't get distracted," explained Az—the basic tenets of Islam, and how it's important to respect people of different faiths. Matthew listened more than he spoke.

"I'm very pleased you came and said what you said," the Imam told him. "We appreciate it. Sometimes it's the extremes who provoke a reaction in each other, but this is not the majority of people anywhere. Take care of yourself, and don't put yourself in danger. This place is open to you all the time."

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Matthew outside the Brick Lane Jamme Masjid

After his experience at Crayford, Matthew went to visit the Central Mosque of Brent, East London Mosque, and the Brick Lane Jamme Masjid. The senior figures who greeted him were slightly bemused each time, but very friendly and happy to hear about his change of heart.

"They've all been nice people, and they've been very relaxed about it," said Matthew afterward. "I'm learning all the time—like when the guy at East London Mosque said Anjem Choudary wouldn't be at all welcome there. I hadn't realized that. At the end of the day, knowledge is power. I want to keep doing this—sitting down and talking and showing respect. We're a diverse society, so we're going to have to learn about each other and compromise."

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Matthew outside the Fieldgate Street Great Synagogue

Each time I met and spoke to Matthew, he would talk—a lot—about Britain First. He's continued to receive plenty of abuse online and remains very self-conscious about his status as a defector from the group. "If I post a picture now, it gets a reaction—it seems to wind them up," he told me.

I asked how motivated he was by genuine curiosity about other cultures, and how much the mosque visits were about aggravating his new enemies in Britain First.

"I genuinely want to reach out and meet new people and see how far I can take this. I'd like to visit synagogues and Hindu temples and gurdwaras," he said. "But the thing is, I can't keep quiet about Britain First and all the horrible stuff they're up to. If I keep quiet, Paul Golding wins."

I believed him. No matter how misinformed you've been, the decision to renounce those hateful views and actively open yourself up to a new way of thinking is admirable, especially when your old life keeps popping up in your inbox every time you sign into Facebook.​ 

Now I suppose we just wait and see whether any of Matthew's old Islamophobic friends have a similar sudden moment of clarity.

Follow Adam on ​Twitter.

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Portrait of Ryan Lowry. Photo by Aaron Wynia.

When you take a picture, regardless of the mood, the lighting, or maybe the way only you can see that stranger's exposed butt crack, there's something that motivates you. Before you press down on that button, something else has clicked in your head. You can already see the likes, the reposts, and the LOLs your masterful exposure will bring. When you actually check the picture, though, it looks like something taken by someone messing around with a webcam at the Apple Store. 

Then there are people like Ryan Lowry, a dude who doesn't just capture the interesting stuff in front of him, but also makes it look more beautiful and natural than it ever should be. The 25-year-old Chicago-based photographer often finds himself standing in front of some cool and pretty shit, and his imagery of people and places has been spread throughout The Fader, Time, Bloomberg's, and now in his new self-published book ​Two Years. When I met him in Toronto he spent more time promoting Chief Keef's Instagram than his own book and told me about why he's over punk and how easy it was to get billionaire Richard Branson to do some goofy shit.

VICE: What part of your upbringing influences your pictures the most?
​Ryan Lowry: Punk music and skateboarding. I got into photography growing up and looking at Thrasher, where every spread was a black and white contact sheet of someone hitting a rail or something and I was like, "SICK." I was 12 years old when I decided I wanted to take photos. I convinced my parents to get me a camera, and then they signed me up for a class. There was this art centre that had a black and white darkroom class that I went to until I went to college. So it was skateboarding, friends, bands, and seeing photography as a way to participate in that.

How did you start photographing rappers?
​I actually didn't like rap music until I started shooting rappers, which was two years ago. I was ​Daniel Shea's​ assistant and he was shooting Chie​f Keef and I assisted him on that shoot. I never really listened to rap music and understood it on a conceptual level. I just didn't relate to it at all. Then I hung out and saw how these artists were inventing their own language and doing whatever they wanted, kind of like Dadaist artists. So then I found it relatable.

After that did you aspire to shoot rappers, or was it just coincidence that got you those jobs?
​I got into rap and then started to seek it out a little bit more. There's this music newspaper in Chicago called The Chicago Reader, and I knew some of the people there so I was like, "I wanna shoot rappers," and they said, "Whenever we get something cool we'll assign it to you." The first time I ever shot rappers was for this magazine from the UK that hit me up when they were interested in doing a story about the Chicago drill scene, which is the South Side Chicago rap scene. They didn't have any contacts but were like, "We want to cover this person, this person, this person..." so I had to just figure it out. That was my first time being around that world and becoming a part of it.

How did you find shooting people with such strong personalities and personas?
​You kind of have to play into their ego. You make it about them. You have to make it so they trust you and then you vibe off of that trust. My approach is, if you have a camera there, try to chill for a minute, then slowly take it out and make them comfortable. It all depends though: some are really shy, and then others are so used to the camera that they don't even pay attention to you. You're just another guy showing up with a camera.

The imagery of hip-hop is a big difference from the naturalistic images in your book Two Years. Were you pursuing a separation from your commercial work?
​All my personal stuff is about the everyday and taking mundane experiences and re-evaluating them; it's personal and about me, but I want to make it available for other people. I shoot every day, so it interweaves between my professional and personal life. The good thing about getting an assignment is that it's always a different challenge. If I'm shooting a guy in a suit it becomes, "How do I make shooting someone in a suit interesting for myself again?" I shot Richard Branson the other day. I was supposed to have 15 minutes with him and he gave me 90 seconds. It's like, what am I going to take away from this 90-second interaction with a billionaire? Nothing! But I got to do some goofy shit. He did not give a fuck. I was like "Hey, I'm Ryan," and he was like, "Okay. What do you want me to do?" I asked him to jump up some stairs and look back at me. He said "okay" and did it, then just started walking off. The PR person asked if I was all good, and I was like, "No! I'm supposed to have 15 minutes!' So they got him back and I had another thirty seconds in front of an elevator door. When you're that fucking rich and used to being photographed you don't need to care.

At what point did you decide a theme for the book was starting to form?
​The overall theme for the book is about everyday fate. In photography you happen upon situations, so it's like that. There are lot of stars throughout the book. As I was shooting more over the summer I would realize the book's not done, so I just kept editing until it made sense as a work.

Was there anything you were experiencing at the time that had an influence on it?
​I was dating this girl for three years and we had just split up. There are a lot of photos of her. One of the last images is her facing a wall. She also designed the cover; she's amazing and very talented. I had these life changes happening like, I used to be super involved in punk and started to fall out of that. So I guess a big part of what I'm showing in the book is my personal change. I started to notice the fallacies in the punk scene, realizing that sub-cultures don't change and you just kind of get pushed out of them. It's shocking when you realize that something you grew up thinking was so important isn't anymore.

Was it similarities between the punk mentality and hip-hop that influenced your appreciation for it?
​Yeah, actually, a lot. In my head punk was a place where you could do whatever you want, be whoever you want. You could be this wild freak. And rap is like that too. You have guys like Chief Keef or Young Thug who are inventing their own sound. They don't really give a fuck about anything, where[as] in punk I realized that everyone was putting on this costume of tradition. You wear studs and dye your hair and stuff like that because you think you're doing whatever you want but now that's become tradition. I feel like rappers are actually doing whatever they want. To actually do whatever you want is insane.

Do you feel that as a photographer you adhere to any expectations or traditions?
​It's really susceptible to trends, so I feel myself falling into aesthetic trends. You see shit that everyone's doing and you like it so you try to make it your own. I try to approach photography in a way where I'm making it my own.

What's the impact that Tumblr and Instagram have had on you?
​As far as Instagram goes, a lot of people that hire me follow me on there, so I feel a weird pressure to behave, which is total bullshit. So I made another Instagram for bad behaviour. It's just me peeing on things and been ignorant. I definitely feel a pressure to keep posting stuff, or a certain kind of content. It's not necessarily annoying, but sometimes I want to post dumb shit like everyone else but feel like I need to post something aesthetically pleasing. Tumblr I just use as pressure to keep making shit. If I haven't posted anything then I realize I'm not working. It's like a sketchbook.

Do a lot of other photographers view Instagram as an obligation?
​Yeah, totally. Like, I recently pressured my friend into getting Instagram. I found out he had an account signed up so I started tagging him in a bunch of shit to get him to use it. He's a great photographer walking around everyday with a cellphone, so why not? It's just a cool peek into people's brains.

What concept would be hard to explain to a photographer twenty years from now?
​Working for magazines. Being able to make money working for a print magazine will be a weird thing to explain in 20 years.

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Longtime forest campaigner Tzeporah Berman spreads word that Kinder Morgan is leaving Burnaby Mountain. Photos by Jackie Dives.

​After weeks of heated protests that saw over 120 people arrested, Texas oil giant Kinder Morgan packed up its drilling equipment and left British Columbia's Burnaby Mountain this weekend.

Kinder Morgan first kicked the anti-pipeline hornet's nest when it sent crews to cut down a bunch of trees in early September. The company wanted to test the feasibility of tunneling a pipeline through Burnaby Mountain, but the City of Burnaby immediately issued a stop-work order, claiming testing inside the conservation area violated city bylaws. The National Energy Board overruled that decision, which stirred up a group of indigenous land defenders, university professors, and environmental campaigners who began camping out at the worksite, standing in the way of workers.

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Police in military gear remove a restrained 18-year-old from the injunction zone. Photo by Jackie Dives.

The company has faced increasing public opposition to its proposed Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, which aims to ship 890,000 barrels of unrefined bitumen from Edmonton through Metro Vancouver to international markets. The proposal, which is still being reviewed by the National Energy Board, would triple the pipeline's current capacity and dramatically increase tanker traffic along densely populated waterways. Opponents of the project call the NEB hearings "fla​wed" and have used civil disobedience to draw attention to the project's environmental risks and encroachment on unceded First Nations land.

Over several weeks, the drama on Burnaby Mountain began to snowball. Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrig​an said his council's federal court challenge "will be a war." Then several protesters, including Simon Fraser University professors Lynne Quarmby and Stephen Collis, were named in a multi-million-dollar lawsuit. On October 30, the company sought a court order to stop protesters from obstructing the survey work. That injunction was granted November 14 and enforced by more than 60 RCMP officers beginning November 20.

Since then, a range of new and old activist personalities have crossed the police tape—some met with force, but most with good manners. First it was David Suzuki's relatives and the rogue senate page getting loaded into paddywagons, then delegates from several indigenous resistance camps, the 90s Clayoquot Summer scene, and a couple of adorable grannies. Renowned authors and academics piled in. The co-founder of Greenpeace, too. Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs crossed on Thursday, November 27—the same afternoon as several religious leaders.

The number of arrestees seemed set to climb even higher into the weekend, until BC Supreme Court Judge Austin Cullen took issue with Kinder Morgan's GPS coordinates. In the company's application to extend its court order to December 12, Judge Cullen highlighted discrepancies between the coordinates enforced by RCMP and the coordinates submitted by Trans Mountain. The judge essentially tossed protesters' civil contempt charges and denied the company an extended injunction. Only a handful of protesters still face criminal charges for abuse and obstruction of justice.

Hundreds of people took to the mountain Sunday afternoon to celebrate Kinder Morgan's departure and the unexpected BC Supre​me Court decision. "Trans Mountain is disappointed we were not granted an extension to our injunction," reads Kinder Morgan's respo​nse from November 27. That injunction expires today, December 1.

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Daily marches up the mountain grew to several hundred people. Photo by Jackie Dives.

Activists waved goodbye to Kinder Morgan helicopters hauling equipment on Friday, declaring a small but significant victory. 

"It's so important to recognize we accomplished something here," reflected Mira Hunter, whose civil contempt charges have now been dropped. "It's a battle, but not the war."

Others on the mountain saw less reason for celebration: "The fact that Kinder Morgan was denied an extension on an injunction against the people is not even a victory, but a small stepping stone," responded 18-year-old Jakub Markiewicz, who pinned himself under a Kinder Morgan truck, spent five days in a tree, and was finally carried out of the injunction zone in stretcher-like RCMP restraints. "The injunction should not have been implemented in the first place."

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Adorable grannies were among those arrested on Burnaby Mountain last week.

Kinder Morgan is claiming its own small victory, having completed geotechnical testing at one of two planned drilling sites. "Trans Mountain is confident it has been able to obtain a sufficient amount of information from geotechnical and engineering studies to meet the Board's information requirements," writes Kinder Morgan Canada's VP Finance Scott Stoness in a letter to the NEB. Earlier Trans Mountain media releases stated two 250-metre deep boreholes were required for testing. A more recent company statem​ent says crews drilled to a depth of 183 metres at the first test site, and only 70 metres at the second site.

Kinder Morgan files results to the NEB today, where the review panel will ultimately decide if the testing was sufficient. With more public hearings to come in early 2015, there's a good chance we won't see anti-pipeline clashes like these again until the new year.

​@sarahberms

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Image  ​via tpsdave

This article originally appeared on VICE UK

​I am a junior doctor in the north of England and the way the National Health Service (NHS) is changing around me is pretty terrifying. 

The driving force for all the recent NHS reforms is a  ​$157 billion health economy that private companies have coveted for many years. The government is cutting state-controlled healthcare and filling the deficit by allowing of tax money to pay for outsourced, privately controlled health care, operating under market forces. 

George Osborne might have  ​promised billions of extra funding for the NHS last week—$3.14 billion, to be exact—but, less than 48 hours after the pledge, it ​emerged that $1.2 billi​on of that would be from recycled health department cash. Our glorious, socialist ship is sailing stormy waters. 

But instead of giving a blow-by-blow, first-person account of what I imagine might happen in the near future, I thought it would be more interesting to look at a hypothetical family and predict what their journey through the NHS might be like in the coming years. Because numbers and sweeping statements in the media are one thing, but the ramifications are going to be felt by the individual. By people like you and your family. 

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Meet the Aberswyth family. 

Mrs. Aberswyth is a 67-year-old, soon to be retired, lifelong tax-paying teacher and she's going deaf. She needs various investigations and referral to a specialist . "From now to diagnosis, it could be another six months," her doctor informs her. Instead, she draws a chunk of money from her savings, and, one month later, with her paid-for diagnosis, she re-enters the state-funded NHS for the more expensive matter of treatment. 

This "opt-in, opt-out" system is nothing new. However, the prevalence of privately-owned of health care services will increase, and, with it, the numbers of people choosing to pay for a quicker diagnosis.

Unfortunately, Mrs. Aberswyth has a rare condition. The internet has led her to knowledge of a novel, expensive nerve-stimulation operation some 300 miles from her home. Although rare conditions often only have one or two specialist centers throughout the country, doctors could refer their patients irrespective of cost.

However, in our dystopian, future NHS, all GP surgeries have now come under directorship of new Clinical Commissioning Groups. CCGs can be formed by anyone—from a group of GP surgeries to large private health firms. The new NHS constitution absolves CCGs of providing a comprehensive, reasonable health service.  As such, CCGs can choose the healthcare they provide and,  as they have to be financially viable (due to market forces) this choice will be increasingly profit— not patient—centered. 

The result? Mrs. Aberswyth faces a powerless and apologetic GP. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Aberswyth, but this treatment is not covered by us. There is, however, a private-funded specialist audiology center hundreds of miles away in London that another CCG may be willing to refer you to, free of charge," he might say. This is not the oft-bleated mantra of "patient choice" that the media used to sell us these reforms. This is GPs being controlled by privately-owned CCGs, choosing patients.

It gets worse, too. Not only are CCGs allowed to chose the health service they are willing to pay for, they can go one step further, too. Her local CCG will kindly offer Mrs. Aberswyth her treatment, but for a fee. They are allowed to charge patients for any health service at all. Luckily, Mrs. Aberswyth has private health insurance. Coincidentally, the same health firm that owns her insurance also owns her local CCG, as well the specialist audiology center. This firm has managed to take her tax money as well as her own money paying for health insurance. 

Alarming conflict of interests ensue: A privately-run CCG may decide, for example, that its patients need a new cardiac center. Unsurprisingly, the best company to provide this service is the same private company. Again, this isn't a wild, unrealistic prediction. These large, all-encompassing health firms already exist in the USA, and they'll be coming to a GP near you soon. 

After an uneventful operation, sipping her Earl Grey tea, Mrs. Abersmwyth enjoys the chaotic, toy-like landscape of the Thames river front through the window of her 15th-story private ward. It used to be that Foundation hospitals could only generate 15 percent of their income from private "ventures"—this has now been raised to 50 percent. Instead of just the top floor housing private patients, this hospital has turned eight of its 16 floors over to a private company. 

This isn't just bed space turn-coating private, either—the previously state-employed surgeons performing the operations will also spend a greater proportion of their working hours for private companies. This will result in Mrs. Aberswyth's neighbor (Mrs. Bernard, shall we say), who has the same rare condition, having to wait even longer for the same operation. She doesn't have health insurance and needed to scour the country for a CCG that was willing to pay for her treatment.

Mrs. Aberswyth was also secretly glad that a proper consultant was performing her operation, and not a trainee surgeon, as may have been the case had she gone through the a state-run hospital. 

Soon, all trainee doctors and medical students will find it increasingly difficult to hone their skills under the guise of experienced consultants, because financially viable organizations need worker bees, not teachers. Unless, of course, the private companies employ consultants in a teaching—as well as a productive—capacity, which they will, because the demand will exist, as well as the opportunity to charge universities for access to their hospitals and consultants. 

NHS workers striking last week

This extra cost on the universities will filter down to increased tuition fees. But it's OK, because there will be a friendly, all-encompassing health firm that will provide medical students with a "doctor-centered" professional loan, with less interest to pay back if you agree to work within their company once you're qualified. Again, this isn't stuff of some fictitious, dystopian nightmare. It already exists in the US. 

David Aberswyth, Mrs. Aberswyth's son, is down and out in London. Despite her best efforts, she has lost her son to the all-consuming cycle of drugs, depression, and ill health. Compared to an elective cataract operation, though, for example, any measurable, positive outcome for people with problems like David's requires a huge amount of coordinated man hours across a variety of services. Here, the private ethos has excelled, and David happens to have a GP under the directorship of a CCG that has devoted smart business planning to provide excellent mental health services. They've invested in making people happy, as it reduces their attendance—and therefore cost—on GPs. The end justifies the means. 

Unfortunately, David's CCG has neglected drug addiction, and the government has no remit to enforce provision of this service—as they could have done with PCTs.

But what if David is not registered with any GP surgery? The landmass of the UK was previously divvied up into geographical areas, and PCTs were responsible for everyone within each area. PCTs no longer exist, though, and CCGs are not defined by geographical areas. No. They are fluid organizations responsible only to the patients on their books. 

So who looks after David? 

The "safety net" for those without a GP is now the local council. Already stretched by recent cuts, they will be asked to provide all health services not deemed necessary (read: financially viable) by CCGs. CCGs will jettison expensive, inefficient services for mental health, drug addiction and long-term health conditions. David will join a long queue, waiting interminably for a beleaguered local council to provide a slither of a service. 

Judith, Mrs. Aberswyths elderly mother, died recently after a recent hip operation. Privately-owned centers will perform hundreds of these operations a year, as well as direct many geriatric care homes.  Unfortunately, though, the future trouble is likely to be worse on two counts. Firstly, government regulatory bodies will inundated with hundreds of private companies rushing to apply for recognized "Health Provider" status (a new government expenditure). Secondly, compared to the much smaller number of "in-house" government-run PCTs that once existed, it will be increasingly difficult to oversee and regulate all these out-sourced companies. 

Disasters like ​we saw in Staffordshire will become a thing of normality. The next generation will not see it as an anomalous disaster. In the same way that cars of different qualities are built by different companies, health care companies competing in a market place will also provide different levels of quality. Inequality will become the norm—the difference, of course, is that cars are a personally-paid luxury. Health care is a tax-paid necessity.

Since World War II,  many public infrastructures have been sold off to private companies. The NHS was the brightest jewel in our socialist crown, but the capitalist magpies have, it seems, finally got it.  

As far as objects go, nothing beats the decapitated human head. It has amazing nooks and crannies where sensory information is collected. The insides are full of mysterious functions we're still not quite sure what to make of. Each one has its own unique look. And its perfect size means it fits right in our hands. However, a head's inanimate awesomeness belies the macabre fact that it was once attached to a human body. 

Frances Larson's fascinating new book, Severed, tries to reconcile these conflicting attributes by detailing the long history of the decapitated head as object. Larson takes us through the famed shrunken heads of the Amazon, the ghastly trophies of World War II, all things guillotine, the phrenology craze, and even Ted Williams's frozen noggin. To find out more, I gave her a call and we talked about all sorts of heady things.

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VICE: So, why'd you choose to write about beheadings?
​Frances Larson: ​Yeah, I've often asked myself that. I used to work at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. It was famous for its shrunken heads. It just struck me as ironic that visitors came to the museum to be wowed by them. They said things like, "Oh, they're so savage and primitive." But the scientists in the 19th and 20th century were headhunters too. They were collecting heads in some not very agreeable circumstances. So that made me think, Let's turn the whole story around and look at our own cultural history of human heads.

One of the things that struck me was how heads have been used as a type of currency throughout history.
​What's really extraordinary is how an artifact—it's hard to know what to call it, because obviously it's still human remains—can go from being this horrific, brutal, mutilated piece of a person to being almost domesticated. People get used to it. They become immune. It can become a commodity or currency that's desired and sought after. When you have enough distance from the act of decapitation itself, a head can become a really valuable and powerful object.

Are heads still being traded?
​Since the book's come out, someone emailed me and said, "I have a collection." There are people who have collections of shrunken heads, but from other cultures, so it has that distance. You can separate yourself from it. It's an interesting macabre artifact. But yes, there are still people who are drawn to these things and want to own them. And in museums, they're the most popular exhibits on display.

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​ Phrenology, uploaded to Wikicommons by user Fæ

Recently, I've noticed a lot of hip shops selling replicas of phrenology busts. Is that common overseas?
​I haven't seen that in the UK. But I think that porcelain phrenology bust with the segmented drawings on the cranium has always been an enduring aesthetic decorative piece. Actually, that's why the phrenologists made them. Those busts became more and more beautiful with every line of production. Phrenologists wanted to become hugely popular. They also wanted to make money, so they tried to make the busts appealing things people would want to have in their house.

Displaying decapitated heads of revolutionaries has been pretty common throughout history to warn others of the penalty of treason. But does the message ever change after it goes up?
​Definitely. That was always a risk of someone in authority doing it too much and it becoming a rallying cry, creating martyrs instead of putting down criminals. In a way, a classic kind of example of that is during the 16th century in Britain, when there were a lot of religious executions. The priests who were executed became martyrs to the faith.

Before reading your book, I hadn't heard of the American scientist Robert White and his experiments with head transfusions. He seems like one of the only ones trying this out. Do you think we've let science down by seeing the head as such a sacred object?
​Personally, just speaking for myself, I don't. Because the thought of such an extreme transplantation process, to me personally, is ethically worrying. We should obviously have open, frank debates about what people think about the possibility of extreme transplants and the implications it would have for someone's identity. The thing is, there's a whole range of practical and financial problems to overcome, never mind the ethical and scientific problems. So I think it's a long way off, if it ever happens at all. But we should know about this stuff and think about it and talk about it.

It's not too far removed from Alcor, the cryogenics lab in Arizona. Would you personally get your head frozen?
​No, I wouldn't. But I think that's a really interesting cultural phenomenon. The fact that people are willingly being decapitated very soon after their death for the possibility of coming back in the future is extraordinary, because it transforms what has always been a symbol of cruelty, domination, and tyranny into an act of love and admiration. If you decide you want your head and brain kept, your loved ones will organize your decapitation.

In your book, there are arguments that guillotine decapitation is a more humane form of execution than most methods used today.
​Absolutely. The guillotine created one of the most humane ways to kill someone. It's fast. There's very little room for mistakes. It's a swift action. And you could even sedate the victim. It's more humane than lethal injections, or hangings, or other ways people are now killed by the state. It is horrific to see and it looks terrible, but it is actually one of the more humane ways to go.

Is that why it's not used? Because of the aesthetics?
​I think so. The guillotine was still at work in France until the mid 1970s, so clearly it was an acceptable form of state execution until a few decades ago. I think it has to do with cultural acceptance, and what is deemed to be an appropriate way to die. Now, maintaining the integrity of the body is one of the most important things, whereas a few hundred years ago people were used to seeing people tortured and mutilated on the scaffold. Obviously, that's completely changed. It's a really visual form of killing, too. It produces a trophy that is public proof of conquest, so it's an inherently dramatic.

The Islamic State and Al Qaeda have used beheadings as a form of terror. Is that just an extension of public executions?
​In certain respects, because it is that same drama and spectacle, and that same terrible visual. There will always be people who want to watch. They're still drawing a crowd today, but for very different reasons. Obviously, it's very different when it's a state execution through the courts of law and the justice system, and a murderer who is displaying his murder in the most horrific and heinous way.

Any stories you couldn't fit in the book?
​One that springs to mind was about a Polish pianist who left his skull after his death to the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford. He wanted his skull to be used as Yorick in Hamlet. So, according to the terms of his will, it was sent to a local hospital and they prepared his skull and gave it to the company. For a really long time, they never used it. It had a strange taboo around it. But recently, it has been used.

Will your next book with be this macabre?
​I hope not. It's very socially awkward to have a book like this, because whenever people say, "Oh, you're a writer, what are you writing about?" and you say, "Oh, decapitations and displays of human heads," you can see their reaction change. Their face falls, and they're like, "Oh, she seemed like such a nice girl." I don't think I'm going to write anything quite as gory next time around.

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