Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/193941870?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
You Can't 'Punk' NPH! (omg!)
In its heyday, MTV's Punk'd pulled fast ones on everyone from Halle Berry to a stoned Justin Timberlake. In fact, host Ashton Kutcher was the only un-Punkable celebrity. Until now.
Reality TV's Most Shocking Moments
The show's 2012 incarnation -- which promises to make a whole new generation of stars feel like d-bags -- has already found its first un-punkable celebrity: Neil Patrick Harris!
Watch Khloe Kardashian Get Punk'd
After Tweeting that pic up top with the caption, "Rock climbing with @Davidburtka today. Chill Sunday fun," NPH said, "So the rock climbing was a ruse to try and have me Punk'd. Nice try, MTV. It'll take more than a live bear destroying my car to fool NPH."
The Tweet has since been deleted (see a screengrab here), but it's nice to see Neil is as quick-witted as fans have long thought.
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Monday, January 30, 2012
Family names Calif. officer shot by fellow police
SANTA MARIA, Calif. (AP) ? Family members on Sunday identified an officer killed by fellow police on California's central coast, and questioned why the attempted arrest that led to his death had to take place while he was on duty in the streets.
The officer killed was 29-year-old Albert Covarrubias Jr., a four-year veteran of the Santa Maria Police Department, his father and sister told KCOY-TV.
Police, who have not released the officer's name, said he had to be arrested immediately on suspicion of illegal sex with a teenage minor early Saturday because of the seriousness of the evidence and allegations against him.
The officer physically resisted the arrest and fired his gun before another officer fatally shot him at a DUI checkpoint where he'd been working, police said. No one else was injured.
"My son was a beautiful person. My son was respected to everybody. My son was a hard worker," the officer's father, Albert Covarrubias Sr., told the station. "I love all my children with all my heart and a piece of my heart has been ripped out of me now."
Sister Andrianna Covarrubias told the TV station, "I'm hurt. I don't know how to take it."
The officer's relatives questioned the need for the public confrontation.
"They said they had all this information to arrest him," Covarrubias said. "Why on the streets? Why there? Was it to ridicule him?"
Police declined to offer any new information or comment on the case Sunday.
But at a Saturday news conference, Chief Danny Macagni said evidence obtained by detectives minutes before the attempted arrest and subsequent shooting was "not only compelling, it was egregious, and needed to be dealt with immediately."
Detectives had been investigating an alleged relationship between Covarrubias and a 17-year-old girl starting Thursday night.
Macagni declined to give details about the evidence, but said it included witness intimidation.
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Are We Heading for a Brokered Convention? (ContributorNetwork)
Newt Gingrich recently told reporters in Florida that "he is going all the way to the convention" this summer where he will win the Republican Party's nomination. And following the South Carolina primary earlier this month, former GOP national chairman Michael Steele said he thought there was a "50-50 chance" the Republican convention would be brokered.
Given how close the race is between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, let's take a look at some brokered, or nearly brokered political conventions of the past.
Election of 1948 (Republicans)
With Franklin Roosevelt's death in 1945 the Republicans had high hopes for this election, but they didn't have a clear candidate going into the convention. New Yorker Thomas Dewy, who had run against Roosevelt, was the favorite, but he had some strong competition. Republican stalwart Robert Taft from Ohio, Herold Strassen of Minnesota and Douglas MacArthur were making a run against Dewy. It took three ballots but eventually Dewy prevailed in what was the first political convention to be televised. He went on to lose a close election to incumbent Harry Truman.
Election of 1952 (Democrats)
When Harry Truman decided not to seek re-election in 1952 the Democrats found themselves scrambling for a candidate. When it came time for the convention that July in Chicago, there was no clear nominee and 11 candidates were put forward, the most prominent being Tennessean Estes Kefauver and Illinois Gov. Adlai Stevenson. On the first ballot Kefauver had more votes but not enough to win the nomination. By the third ballot, Stevenson had gained enough votes to clinch victory for the Democrats. He went on to lose to Dwight Eisenhower in the general election.
Election of 1976 (Republicans)
The 1976 Republican convention began in Kansas City, Mo., with two possible nominees: incumbent President Gerald Ford and surprise challenger Ronald Reagan. A fierce challenge from within the party, like Reagan's, against a sitting president is highly unusual, but the former California governor only backed down at the last moment. The delegates nominated Ford, but Reagan gave a speech to a rapt audience who seemed more enthralled with him than they were with their president who had never been elected. Ford went on to lose the general election to Jimmy Carter, while Reagan would win the White House four years later in 1980.
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Sunday, January 29, 2012
Herman Cain and Sarah Palin: Do they still have political clout?
Sarah Palin is defending Newt Gingrich from establishment Republican attacks, and Herman Cain has given Gingrich his full endorsement. But will support from these tea party superstars make any difference?
When the political history of this era is written, two of the most colorful figures are likely to be Sarah Palin and Herman Cain.
Skip to next paragraphThe once-obscure former governor of Alaska, picked as John McCain?s running mate in 2008, went on to create a Palin-centric industry as public speaker, author, reality TV star, Fox News commentator, and potential presidential candidate who made tons of money while tantalizing millions of tea party supporters around the country with suggestions that she might run this year. She was (still is) catnip to the media.
Herman Cain, the businessman who?d never held elective office, similarly dazzled the tea party with his conservative policy positions, his self-confident and humorous manner, and an ability to hold his own in those early crowded debates with career politicians. That he?s African American seemed to dispel the charge that the tea party movement was tinged with racism. For a while, he was winning straw polls, but he had to ?suspend? his presidential campaign when a series of women made allegations of sexual misconduct.
How well do you know Sarah Palin? A quiz.
As the Republican nominating campaign has been whittled down to a four-man race, becoming a gloves-off rhetorical fight ? mainly between alternating front-runners Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich ? do Herman Cain and Sarah Palin have any remaining political clout?
At this point, it?s hard to imagine either one of them playing a prominent role at the GOP?s convention in Tampa, Fla., in August. For the most part, Republican presidential politics has moved beyond them. Despite their ability to rouse a tea party gathering, each carries certain baggage the Republican Party would just as soon not remind voters of that close to the November election.
But this past week both Palin and Cain weighed in on behalf of Gingrich ? Palin with a spirited defense of the former House Speaker, Cain with an official endorsement.
Gingrich in recent days has had to endure not only relentless attacks from the Romney campaign and the independent super PAC supporting the former Massachusetts governor ? the rhetoric could be measured in megatonnage ? but a series of biting sniper assaults from establishment Republicans like former Sen. Bob Dole and such conservative commentators as Peggy Noonan and Ann Coulter.
?If Gingrich is the nominee, it will have an adverse impact on Republican candidates running for county, state, and federal offices,? said Dole in a letter released Thursday. ?Hardly anyone who served with Newt in Congress has endorsed him, and that fact speaks for itself. He was a one-man band who rarely took advice. It was his way or the highway.?
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Saturday, January 28, 2012
Middle Age Is Just a Story We Tell Ourselves
Thanks to the baby boomers, the middle-aged now make up the biggest, richest, and most influential segment of the country. New York Times reporter Patricia Cohen?s new book In Our Prime: The Invention of Middle Age is a social history of the concept of middle age, which explores the way its biological, psychological, and social definitions have shifted from one generation to the next. The discussion lasts around 27 minutes.
Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=d5189666417f4b87d03d166d205013b4
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Can the economy bear what oil prices have in store?
ScienceDaily (Jan. 26, 2012) ? Stop wrangling over global warming and instead reduce fossil-fuel use for the sake of the global economy.
That's the message from two scientists, one from the University of Washington and one from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, who say in the current issue of the journal Nature (Jan. 26) that the economic pain of a flattening oil supply will trump the environment as a reason to curb the use of fossil fuels.
"Given our fossil-fuel dependent economies, this is more urgent and has a shorter time frame than global climate change," says James W. Murray, UW professor of oceanography, who wrote the Nature commentary with David King, director of Oxford's Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment.
The "tipping point" for oil supply appears to have occurred around 2005, says Murray, who compared world crude oil production with world prices going back to 1998. Before 2005, supply of regular crude oil was elastic and increased in response to price increases. Since then, production appears to have hit a wall at 75 million barrels per day in spite of price increases of 15 percent each year.
"As a result, prices swing wildly in response to small changes in demand," the co-authors wrote. "Others have remarked on this step change in the economies of oil around the year 2005, but the point needs to be lodged more firmly in the minds of policy makers."
For those who argue that oil reserves have been increasing, that more crude oil will be available in the future, the co-authors wrote: "The true volume of global proved reserves is clouded by secrecy; forecasts by state oil companies are not audited and appear to be exaggerated. More importantly, reserves often take 6 -- 10 years to drill and develop before they become part of the supply, by which time older fields have become depleted."
Production at oil fields around the world is declining between 4.5 percent and 6.7 percent per year, they wrote.
"For the economy, it's production that matters, not how much oil might be in the ground," Murray says. In the U.S., for example, production as a percentage of total reserves went from 9 percent to 6 percent in the last 30 years.
"We've already gotten the easy oil, the oil that can be produced cheaply," he says. "It used to be we'd drill a well and the oil would flow out, now we have to go through all these complicated and expensive procedures to produce the oil."
The same is true of alternative sources such as tar sands or "fracking" for shale gas, Murray says, where supplies may be exaggerated and production is expensive. Take the promise of shale gas and oil: A New York Times investigative piece last June reported that "the gas may not be as easy and cheap to extract from shale formations deep underground as the companies are saying, according to hundreds of industry e-mails and internal documents and an analysis of data from thousands of wells."
Production at shale gas wells can drop 60 to 90 percent in the first year of operation, according to a world expert on shale gas who was one of the sources for the commentary piece. Murray and King built their commentary using data and information from more than 15 international and U.S. government reports, peer-reviewed journal articles, reports from groups such as the National Research Council and Brookings Institution and association findings.
Stagnant oil supplies and volatile prices take a toll on the world economy. Of the 11 recessions in the U.S. since World War II, ten were preceded by a spike in oil prices, the commentary noted.
"Historically, there has been a tight link between oil production and global economic growth," the co-authors wrote. "If oil production can't grow, the implication is that the economy can't grow either."
Calculations from the International Monetary Fund, for example, say that to achieve a 4 percent growth in the global economy in the next five years, oil production must increase about 3 percent a year.
"Yet to achieve that will require either an heroic increase in oil production, ... increased efficiency of oil use, more energy-efficient growth or rapid substitution of other fuel sources," according to the commentary. "Economists and politicians continually debate policies that will lead to a return to economic growth. But because they have failed to recognize that the high price of energy is a central problem, they haven't identified the necessary solutions: weaning society off fossil fuel."
The commentary concludes: "This will be a decades-long transformation and we need to start immediately. Emphasizing the short-term economic imperative from oil prices must be enough to push governments into action now."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Washington. The original article was written by Sandra Hines.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- James Murray, David King. Climate policy: Oil's tipping point has passed. Nature, 2012; 481 (7382): 433 DOI: 10.1038/481433a
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120126223609.htm
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Friday, January 27, 2012
[OOC] Bad Blood
Forum rules
This forum is for OOC discussion about existing roleplays.
This forum is for OOC discussion about existing roleplays.
Please post all "Players Wanted" threads in the Roleplayers Wanted forum!
This topic is an Out Of Character part of the roleplay, ?Bad Blood?. Anything posted here will also show up there.Topic Tags:
Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup.Welcome to the OCC for Bad Blood! Ask any questions you may have here, and reserve character slots, or just hang out and meet the other role players/characters. You can also post character bios/info here as well. Have fun! (( Geez, that saying is getting corny.:D))
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anaka - Member for 0 years
Can I reserve the cool girl? I can have a character sheet up by tonight. :)
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abeautifulmess - Member for 1 years
Sure. I will put your name under the cool girl. And yes, that would be great if you can come up with a character sheet by tonight, then all you have to do is create your character and start posting! :D
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anaka - Member for 0 years
Post a reply
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Lenovo teams up with National Academy Foundation, teaches high schoolers about app development
Lenovo's not just staying busy pumping out Android handsets and tablets, but now the Chinese manufacturer is teaming up with the National Academy Foundation to launch a mobile app development program for high school scholars in the States. The project is part of the NAF and Lenovo's "innovative curriculum," which hopes to induce knowledge in areas like science, technology, engineering and math. Once the dev program gets rolling, it'll be available at five schools within the NAF network, but the eventual plan is to bring the app-creating party to all of the foundation's 100 academies. As part of the venture, the ThinkPad creator also donated some of its own slates and all-in-ones to "aid the students and teachers implement the curriculum." Take a quick peek at the PR below to find out if you (or someone you love) are part of the lucky few.
Lenovo teams up with National Academy Foundation, teaches high schoolers about app development originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
Megaupload founder joked about his 'hacker' past (AP)
WELLINGTON, New Zealand ? Two years ago, Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom joked in emails with his new neighbors in New Zealand about his bad-boy reputation before telling them his criminal past was behind him and he was coming to the country with good intentions.
"I am a former hacker" who was once convicted of insider trading, he wrote, before going on to say "In all seriousness: My wife, two kids and myself love New Zealand and 'We come in peace.'"
Dotcom's emails came to light Wednesday, the same day a New Zealand judge denied him bail following his arrest on U.S. accusations of copyright infringement and a U.S. official confirmed the arrest of a fifth member of his company.
Judge David McNaughton in Auckland denied Dotcom bail pending a hearing Feb. 22 on his possible extradition to face trial in the United States, saying Dotcom poses a flight risk. Dotcom, 38, insists he is innocent and poses no flight risk.
New Zealand police arrested three other Megaupload employees last week on U.S. accusations they facilitated millions of illegal downloads of films, music and other content, costing copyright holders at least $500 million in lost revenue. McNaughton is expected to make bail rulings on the three later this week or early next week.
In Washington, a U.S. Justice Department official said Dutch police have arrested a fifth suspect ? software programmer Andrus Nomm, 32, a citizen of Estonia and a resident of both Turkey and Estonia. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the case is still pending.
In New Zealand, Dotcom's neighbor Kevin Crossley said Dotcom cut an imposing figure when he took a lease on the $24 million luxury mansion in their sleepy neighborhood of Coatesville, near Auckland. Crossley said he never met Dotcom, but he would see him zooming past in luxury cars when he went horse riding.
Dotcom sent emails to Crossley's wife France Komoroski and other neighbors, joking that "a criminal neighbor like me" could help them with insider stock tips and tax fraud. But then he turned serious.
"Fifteen years ago I was a hacker and 10 years ago I was convicted for insider trading," he wrote. "Hardly the kind of crimes you need to start a witch hunt for. Since then I have been a good boy, my criminal records have been cleared, and I created a successful Internet company that employs 100+ people."
Dotcom first developed a reputation as a computer hacker in his native Germany, where he was born Kim Schmitz.
Later, in 2002, he received a 20-month suspended sentence after being found guilty of manipulating stock prices to earn himself $1.1 million.
The flamboyant Dotcom also made headlines after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 when he offered a $10 million reward on his website for information leading to the capture of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
In New Zealand, Prime Minister John Key faced awkward questions Wednesday about how immigration officials could have granted Dotcom residency despite his prior convictions ? and then the government could later turn down his application to buy the Coatesville mansion due to questions over his character prompted by those same convictions.
Key said Dotcom had disclosed his convictions in his immigration application but that enough time had elapsed to give him a clean slate. Key acknowleged it seemed inconsistent that the test for buying land would be higher than the test for residency.
"What I've asked my officials to do, is to go away and have a look, because there's clearly a potential anomoly there," Key told reporters Wednesday.
In all, U.S. authorities have charged seven men in the conspiracy case and are still seeking the arrest of the remaining two men.
Authorities in the U.S. are seeking to extradite the four men arrested in New Zealand and are also expected to seek Nomm's extradition.
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Strong business morale shows Germany will avoid recession (Reuters)
BERLIN (Reuters) ? German business sentiment rose for the third month in a row in January, beating expectations and offering fresh evidence that Europe's largest economy is shrugging off a sovereign debt crisis that has hammered growth in other euro zone countries.
The Munich-based Ifo think tank said on Wednesday its business climate index, based on a monthly survey of some 7,000 companies, rose to 108.3 in January from a revised 107.3 in December, its highest level since August and the biggest monthly increase in 11 months.
The reading was at the top end of expectations in a Reuters poll of 39 economists that produced a median forecast of 107.5. It sent the euro to a session high versus the dollar.
"Did anyone say recession? Today's Ifo index shows that the German economy only made a short stopover at the end of last year and is now heading towards expansion again," said Carsten Brzeski, an economist at ING in Brussels.
"The widely-spread fear that the euro zone's biggest economy could now also be caught by the crisis virus has been soothed."
A sub-index on expectations posted the biggest monthly climb since July 2010, a sign businesses are confident that Europe's powerhouse will return to healthy growth from the second quarter of the year. It rose to 100.9 from a revised 98.6.
Ifo's sub-index on current conditions fell to 116.3 from 116.7 in December.
TURNING POINT
Economists said the third consecutive increase signaled a turning point in Germany's outlook, with growth broadening again, prompting JP Morgan analysts to expect German quarter-on-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) growth of around 1 percent in the first three months of the year.
Germany's government predicts the economy will grow 0.1 percent in the first quarter.
"We have hit the floor with GDP in the first quarter," Unicredit economist Andreas Rees said.
Germany has been resilient in the face of troubles elsewhere in the euro zone, as fiscal prudence, steady demand for its high-quality products, and high competitiveness have helped it weather a tough global environment.
But its economy slowed at the end of last year and some economists see a risk of two consecutive quarters of contraction -- the technical definition of a recession -- in the fourth quarter of 2011 and first quarter of 2012.
"There are no signs of a recession," said Ifo economist Klaus Abberger, pointing to the euro zone debt crisis as the main risk to the German outlook.
Germany was the only country in the euro zone to retain a top-grade AAA credit rating with a stable outlook from Standard & Poor's, after the rating agency's mass downgrade of states using the single currency earlier this month.
The strong Ifo, combined with an expanding manufacturing sector and better investor sentiment, came a day after the International Monetary Fund cut its outlook for German growth to 0.3 percent from 1.3 percent for this year, a forecast that Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann said was too low.
Still, economists are concerned that while Germany is weathering the storm well, its growth is far from enough to bolster the euro zone as a whole.
And in a sign that the gloomier economic environment is making it harder for firms already struggling to secure financing, a number of high-profile German companies have filed for insolvency in recent months.
Germany's biggest drugstore chain Schlecker said last week it was filing for insolvency after failing to secure funds to keep it afloat while it restructures its business.
Even Siemens (SIEGn.DE), Europe's biggest engineering conglomerate, has felt the pinch of the debt crisis. The maker of trains, turbines, hearing aids and lightbulbs said on Tuesday it suffered an unexpectedly sharp fall in core profit, as the debt crisis squeezed its margins, especially in the renewable energy business.
(Reporting by Annika Breidthardt, additional reporting by Stephen Brown, Madeline Chambers, Brian Rohan and Gareth Jones; Editing by Noah Barkin and Stephen Nisbet)
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Apple doubles iPhone sales in 1Q (AP)
NEW YORK ? The iPhone is taking over Apple.
For the first time, the device that changed how people use mobile phones, accounts for more than half of the behemoth company's sales.
Apple Inc. on Tuesday said it sold 37 million iPhones in the last three months of 2011, vastly exceeding analyst estimates and propelling the company to record quarterly results.
The phone accounted for 53 percent of Apple's revenue in the quarter. Though it has other hit products, like MacBooks and the iPad, they can't keep up with the iPhone, whose sales more than doubled over last year from an already high level.
The sales mean Apple is set to regain the position it briefly held earlier last year of being the world's largest maker of smartphones. Nokia Corp., the earlier No. 1, in transition to a new generation of smartphones, and more recent competitor Samsung Electronics Co. has announced preliminary figure of 35 million smartphones sold in the October to December period.
October saw Apple launching the iPhone 4S in the U.S. and some other countries. The phone was delayed for a few months, which meant that Apple's results for the July to September quarter were uncharacteristically tepid.
It came back with a vengeance in the holiday season. On Tuesday, Apple said net income in the fiscal first quarter, which ended Dec. 31, was $13.06 billion, or $13.87 per share. That was up 118 percent from $6 billion, or $6.43 per share, a year ago.
Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting earnings of $10.04 per share for the latest quarter, Apple's fiscal first.
Revenue was $46.33 billion, up 73 percent from a year ago. Analysts were expecting $38.9 billion.
"It was a pristine quarter," said ISI Group analyst Brian Marshall. "The investment community has never seen a company like this, inside or outside technology."
The stellar performance could re-establish Apple as the world's most valuable company, again toppling Exxon Mobil Corp. Apple first unseated Exxon last summer, and the two have been trading places since then.
Apple shares rose $30.67, or 7.3 percent, to $451.08 in extended trading, after the company released its results. If that rally sticks in Wednesday's regular trading sessions, Apple's market value will be hovering around $420 billion. Exxon's market value stood at $417.9 billion Tuesday, while Apple's was $391.9 billion at the end of regular trading.
Apple shipped 15.4 million iPads in the quarter, again more than doubling sales over the same quarter last year. The November launch of Amazon.com Inc.'s $199 Kindle Fire tablet didn't appear to put much of a dent in the iPad's sales, as some analysts predicted it would.
Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said the company expects earnings of $8.50 per share in the current quarter, and sales of $32.5 billion. Both figures are above the average estimate of analysts polled by FactSet, even though Apple usually low-balls its estimates.
The Cupertino, Calif. company ended the quarter with a cash balance of a staggering $97.6 billion. That's more than enough to buy Citigroup Inc. outright, or issue a special dividend of $100 per Apple share.
For years, investors have been frustrated with Apple's unwillingness to put the cash to use, but complaints have been muted as Apple continues to generate record-breaking results and as the stock price keeps rising. Apple executives have said the cash hoard gives the company flexibility to make acquisitions and long-term supply deals.
Apple's results lifted shares of smaller companies that supply chips for the iPhone, like TriQuint Semiconductor, up 7.7 percent, Cirrus Logic Inc., up 6.8 percent, Broadcom Corp., up 4.2 percent, and Skyworks Solutions Inc., up 3.7 percent.
Apple co-founder and longtime CEO Steve Jobs died Oct. 5, just as the record-breaking quarter started.
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Neil Young journeys to Utah with new concert film (AP)
PARK CITY, Utah ? Neil Young recalls how his first concert film with director Jonathan Demme was a lush, stately tribute to country music.
He says their latest, "Neil Young Journeys," is more like an electric bolt, with a "grinding, blinding beauty to it."
Their 2006 film "Neil Young: Heart of Gold" premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was a reflective, comforting chronicle of two shows Young performed at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium alongside such longtime musical comrades as Emmylou Harris, Ben Keith and Spooner Oldham.
"Journeys" is a raw, thunderous counterpart, filmed by Demme at Toronto's Massey Hall during the closing shows of Young's solo tour last year. Solo often implies intimate and acoustic, but Young wails away on electric guitar, harmonica, piano and organ throughout the show.
The new film played Saturday at the Slamdance Film Festival, a rival showcase to Sundance. Demme says it was a fitting place because both Slamdance and the film share something of a "bad-boy" attitude.
"'Journeys' is so different from `Heart of Gold.' It's like the other side of the universe," Young, 66, said in an interview alongside Demme. "'Heart of Gold' was a massive production with great caretaking to present this whole image of this forgotten style of presenting music, in this great old chapel of country music. ...
"This film we just made is so opposite of that. It's just one person. The sound is completely different and the attitude of it is different. The look is different. ... The sounds are kind of enveloping. You get to move way inside, whereas, `Heart of Gold,' you're way back, going, `Oh, it's beautiful seeing it from the back, seeing all these beautiful people, these great musicians.' And this one here, you're like inside my instrument, inside the distortion of the guitar. There's nothing in the way."
Demme and Young seem to be on a never-ending film journey. The new movie marks the fourth film collaboration between Young and Demme, the Academy Award-winning director of "The Silence of the Lambs."
Young earned an Oscar nomination for the title song of Demme's 1993 AIDS drama "Philadelphia," and in between "Heart of Gold" and "Journeys," the two made the 2009 concert film "Neil Young Trunk Show."
"Journeys" premiered at last September's Toronto International Film Festival and has since been picked up for theatrical distribution by Sony Pictures Classics.
The film includes extreme close-ups of Young captured by a tiny camera mounted on his microphone. The camera was so close its lens catches globs of spit from Young as he's singing, adding a bit of a psychedelic tinge to the images.
"It's more distorted and funky. It's a little bit more in your face," Young said. "It's like zooming in on something, losing everything that's usually around it, and you're just losing everything else. There's no bass, no drums, there's no other guitars, there's no other voices, there's no synthesizers, there's no echo. There's just this thing. It's a big sound, because you're right up on it. It's like a fantastic voyage into your guitars."
Along with songs from Young's 2010 album "Le Noise," "Journeys" features such classics as "After the Gold Rush," "Ohio" and "Down by the River."
Intercut between the songs in "Journeys" is a road trip Young takes to one of the Toronto shows from his northern Ontario hometown of Omemee, cruising with Demme in a 1956 Ford Crown Victoria and commenting on how the towns and landscape have changed.
"This whole world of cars and music, that's a big chunk of Neil's DNA. He's all about cars and driving and music in motion," Demme said. "I don't think we had any discussions. It was just like, well, we're going to Canada to shoot the concert in Toronto. Obviously, we'll drive down there from Omemee and take a look and see what's changed, and kind of just discover the past in the present. The same way the songs are very often kind of reflective. ...
"It put a lens up to his life. He's a medium for all of our lives. Certainly, our generation, whatever Neil's been singing about for the last 40 years or whatever, it's like, `Thank you. That's exactly what I was feeling. You've put it into words and music.'"
___
Online:
http://www.slamdance.com
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Refresh Roundup: week of January 16, 2012
Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging to get updated. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery from the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!
Continue reading Refresh Roundup: week of January 16, 2012
Refresh Roundup: week of January 16, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 22 Jan 2012 17:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/22/refresh-roundup/
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Italy cruise disaster captain denies delaying alarm (Reuters)
GIGLIO, Italy (Reuters) ? The captain of the cruise ship Costa Concordia, which struck a rock and capsized off Italy, told magistrates he informed the ship's owners of the accident immediately, denying he delayed raising the alarm, judicial sources said Saturday.
Captain Francesco Schettino has been blamed for causing the January 13 accident in which at least 12 people died. He is under house arrest, accused of multiple manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship before all passengers were evacuated.
His statements to prosecutors investigating the disaster, reported in the Italian press and confirmed by judicial sources, underline the growing battle between him and the 114,500-tonne vessel's operator, Costa Cruises.
The liner, carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew, ran aground and capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio as dinner was being served. It is now precariously lying on its side on an undersea ledge, half-submerged and threatening to slide into deeper waters.
Diving crews recovered the body of a woman aboard the ship Saturday, bringing the death toll to at least 12. Twenty people are unaccounted for and hopes of finding anyone alive have all but gone.
Prosecutors say Schettino steered the vessel within 150 meters of Giglio island to perform a maneuver known as a "salute" - a greeting to the islanders. He has admitted that the boat came too close to shore but has denied bearing sole responsibility, saying other factors may have been involved.
According to transcripts of his questioning by prosecutors leaked to Italian media, he said that immediately after hitting the rock he sent two of his officers to the engine room to check on the state of the vessel.
As soon as he realized the scale of the damage, he called Roberto Ferrarini, marine operations director for Costa Cruises.
"I told him: I've got myself into a mess, there was contact with the seabed. I am telling you the truth, we passed under Giglio and there was an impact," Schettino said.
"I can't remember how many times I called him in the following hour and 15 minutes. In any case, I am certain that I informed Ferrarini about everything in real time," he said, adding he had asked the company to send tug boats and helicopters.
Costa Cruises Chief Executive Pier Luigi Foschi says Schettino delayed issuing the SOS and evacuation orders and gave false information to the company headquarters.
"Personally, I think he wasn't honest with us," Foschi told Corriere della Sera Friday. He said the first phone conversation between Schettino and Ferrarini took place 20 minutes after the ship hit the rock.
"That is too late," he said, adding the company had only realized the scale of the disaster when the evacuation order was issued, something prosecutors say happened more than one hour after the first conversation between Schettino and Ferrarini.
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Costa, a unit of Carnival Corp, has suspended Schettino and declared itself an injured party in the case.
Documents from his hearing with a judge say he had shown "incredible carelessness" and a "total inability to manage the successive phases of the emergency."
Taped conversations reveal the ship's bridge told coast guards alerted by passengers the vessel had only suffered a black-out even after those on board had donned life vests.
SEARCH RESUMES
Emergency workers resumed their search Saturday, blasting holes into the hulk of the ship. The rescue was suspended on Friday when the wreck shifted on the rocks, complicating the work of divers who are already hampered by poor visibility, floating objects and underwater debris.
"The movement of the ship is very dangerous," said a coast guard official. "There are big risks, but we all looked each other in the eyes and told each other it was worth it to give the families some solace."
The movement was only few millimeters an hour, but it raised fears the ship would slip into deeper waters, undermining plans to pump some 2,400 tons of fuel out of its tanks.
"The ship is moving," said Nicola Castagli, professor of earth sciences at Florence university, in charge of monitoring the movement of the ship. "It's a massive object that's resting on its side where there are currents, waves, and on a slope."
Franco Gabrielli, head of the Civil Protection Authority, said it was important to start recovering the thick fuel oil and diesel trapped on board as soon as possible.
"Our aim is to find the missing, to give certainty about the fate of these people, but it is also a priority to avert an environmental disaster," he said.
"Contamination of the environment has already occurred, think about the oils, the solvents, the detergents, everything that a city of 4,000 people needs."
SMIT, the Dutch company hired to salvage the fuel, said it was ready to begin extraction operations and was awaiting orders from authorities.
(Additional reporting by Silvia Ognibene in Grosseto and Gabriele Pileri, writing by Silvia Aloisi; Editing by Elizabeth Piper)
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Monday, January 23, 2012
Paterno's death met with grief in State College
Laura Scott, of State College, Pa., places a rose at the foot of a statue of Joe Paterno outside Beaver Stadium on the Penn State University campus after learning of his death Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012, in State College,Pa. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Laura Scott, of State College, Pa., places a rose at the foot of a statue of Joe Paterno outside Beaver Stadium on the Penn State University campus after learning of his death Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012, in State College,Pa. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
People gather around a statue of Joe Paterno outside Beaver Stadium on the Penn State University campus after learning of his death Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012, in State College,Pa. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
People gather around a statue of Joe Paterno outside Beaver Stadium on the Penn State University campus after learning of his death Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012 in State College,Pa. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
People gather around a statue of Joe Paterno outside Beaver Stadium on the Penn State University campus after learning of his death Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012 in State College, Pa. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) ? Joe Paterno's death from lung cancer Sunday just two months after his firing left many Penn State students, alumni and community members numb with grief and a sense that the legendary coach deserved better from the university after such a distinguished career.
"His legacy is without question as far as I'm concerned," said 65-year-old Ed Hill of Altoona, a football season ticket-holder for 35 years. "The Board of Trustees threw him to the wolves. I think Joe was a scapegoat nationally. ... I'm heartbroken."
In death, Paterno received the praise that under normal circumstances might have been reserved for the retirement dinner he never received.
Gov. Tom Corbett said he had secured his place in Pennsylvania history and noted that "as both man and coach," Paterno had "confronted adversities, both past and present, with grace and forbearance."
Similar tributes were issued by politicians, university officials, former players and alumni. Some expressed hope that Paterno would be remembered more for his accomplishments than for his downfall. And some wondered whether his heartbreaking firing somehow hastened his death.
Paterno, who died at 85, was fired Nov. 9 by the Penn State trustees after he was criticized for not going to the police in 2002 when he was told that former assistant Jerry Sandusky had been seen molesting a boy in the showers at the football complex.
Paterno reported the allegations to university higher-ups, but it would be nearly a decade before Sandusky was arrested, and Paterno said he regretted having not done more. Pennsylvania's state police commissioner said the football coach may have met his legal duty but not his moral one.
On Sunday, Sandusky expressed sympathy to Paterno's family in a statement released by his lawyer as he awaits trial on charges of sexually abusing 10 boys over a 15-year period.
Sandusky said that no one did more for the university's academic reputation than Paterno, and that his former boss "had the courage to practice what he preached" about toughness, hard work and clean competition.
At an Iowa-Penn State wrestling match Sunday afternoon, a crowd of some 6,500 people gave a 30-second standing ovation as an image of Paterno appeared on two video boards. The screen flashed the words "Joseph Vincent Paterno 1926-2012" and a picture of a smiling Paterno in a blue tie and blue sweater vest.
At the university's Berkey Creamery, Ginger Colon, of Fairfax, Va., was picking up two half-gallons of Peachy Paterno ice cream when she heard the news. Colon, whose daughter attends Penn State, said it was sad that the scandal would be part of Paterno's legacy.
"But from a personal note, it makes you re-think when things are reported to you by employees: Have I taken enough steps?" Colon said.
Andrea Mastro, an immunology professor who lives in the same neighborhood where Paterno lived and raised a family ? with his address and number, famously, listed in the phone book ? said the rapid spread of the cancer and the shadow of the Sandusky investigation made "the whole situation very sad."
"I can't help but thinking that his death is somehow related" to the stress of the scandal, she said after Mass on Sunday at Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church, where Paterno sometimes attended services. "I think everybody is going to be extremely sad, and they're going to be sad in particular because he didn't get his say."
Mickey Shuler, who played for Penn State under Paterno in the mid-'70s, said the coach had been a father figure and expressed his disappointment about how he was fired.
"It's just sad, because I think he died from other things than lung cancer," Shuler said. "I don't think that the Penn State that he helped us to become and all the principles and values and things that he taught were carried out in the handling of his situation."
The trustees and school President Rodney Erickson issued a statement saying the university plans to honor Paterno but is still working on what form that will take, and when it will happen.
In recent weeks, the board has come under withering criticism for how it handled Paterno's dismissal, and there is a movement by alumni to change the board's composition.
At a women's basketball game Sunday, Penn State players wore a black strap on their shoulders in memory of Paterno.
"It's been the first time I've ever seen a man guilty and have to be proven innocent," said Jamie Bloom, a 1992 graduate from Williamsport. "I think they caved to the media pressure to do something."
Ed Peetz, 87, a Class of '49 alumnus whose daughter-in-law Karen Peetz was just elected president of the trustees, said the board had to dismiss Paterno.
"But then, and now, is a very sad day," Peetz said. "What does Paterno mean to me? He means Penn State. But I think he was too powerful."
Steve Wrath, a 1984 graduate, became emotional as he spoke outside the football stadium, in front of Paterno's statue, which was adorned with lit candles, flowers, T-shirts and blue-and-white pom-poms.
"The Sandusky situation is obviously horrible for the victims, and I don't want to little that situation, but Joe Paterno's legacy will overcome all of that," Wrath said.
___
AP writer Genaro Armas and freelancer Emily Kaplan in State College, and AP college football writer Ralph Russo in New York, contributed to this story.
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Sunday, January 22, 2012
New pride in Egypt's national colors
The Egyptian flag can be seen painted on billboards, featured in advertisements and worn as head scarves in sweeping statements of national pride.
? A local, slice-of-life story from a Monitor correspondent.
Skip to next paragraphFlag-waving was once a phenomenon only seen on the streets of Egypt before and after soccer games. And it has never been a normal sight to find Egypt?s flag hung in windows. But the country?s 18-day revolution succeeded in reviving the significance of the Egyptian flag as a symbol of national pride.
Egyptians now rally around their flag, which has come to represent the outburst of nationalistic fervor released by last year?s revolution.
?Five or six years ago, our national flag meant nothing to us,? says Maha Hamdy, a creative director at an advertising agency. ?But after the revolution, our perception of the flag reflects a strong sense of belonging.?
Egypt?s current flag ? with its red, white, and black horizontal bands and the eagle of Saladin ? was introduced by the Free Officers, who ascended to power in 1952. Yet unlike Libya?s insurgents, who hoisted the flag of the monarchy, most Egyptians have come to view their national flag as a symbol of their revolt.
In addition to its growing political significance, Egypt?s flag has become the latest fashion frenzy ? as a headband, a head scarf, and even a niqab (face veil). Businesses are capitalizing on the phenomenon by displaying the flag on products and advertisements. The national colors appear on everything from rings and dresses to billboards.
Ms. Hamdy says more clients are using a patriotic tone in their ads since the revolution. ?Using the flag in different forms has become equivalent to making a statement about one?s nationalistic sentiments,? she adds.
Think you know the Middle East? Take our geography quiz.
Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/6N8IFwncExM/New-pride-in-Egypt-s-national-colors
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Fed spells out how it will forecast rate changes
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Federal Reserve has specified how it will begin signaling when its benchmark interest rate will rise and what the rate will be at points in the future.
Four times a year starting Wednesday, the Fed will show in a chart the year when Fed officials predict they will begin raising the rate. Another chart will show individual Fed members' predictions for the rate at the end of 2012, 2013 and 2014.
More guidance on rates might help lower long-term yields further ? in effect providing a kind of stimulus. Lower rates could lead consumers and businesses to borrow and spend more. The economy would likely benefit.
The Fed has left its key short-term rate at a record low near zero for the past three years. In August, it said it planned to leave the rate there until at least mid-2013, unless the economy improved.
Many private economists believe the rate is likely to remain near zero for longer than the mid-2013 target. Many are forecasting the first rate hike will not occur until sometime in 2014.
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Saturday, January 21, 2012
Apple's iBooks Author hands-on (update: video!)
So, how does it feel when you're working inside the software? Could you use it to prepare seminar materials for the class of 2015 or, more importantly, launch your own career as Stephanie Meyer's successor? Head past the break to find out!
Continue reading Apple's iBooks Author hands-on (update: video!)
Apple's iBooks Author hands-on (update: video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/19/apples-ibooks-author-hands-on/
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Iran TV: Earthquake jolts Iranian city (AP)
TEHRAN, Iran ? Iran's state TV reports a moderate earthquake has jolted the city of Neyshabour in the northeast part of Iran.
The TV report said residents fled their homes into the streets. The quake shattered windows and affected communications for a short time.
No casualties were immediately reported. Rescue teams rushed to the area.
The city of 220,000 is about 550 miles (900 kilometers) northeast of the capital Tehran at 16:05 local time (13:35 GMT). The semiofficial Fars news agency said the quake measured 5.5 on the Richter scale.
Iran is located on seismic fault lines and is prone to earthquakes, experiencing at least one slight quake a day on average.
In 2003, some 26,000 people were killed by a magnitude 6.6 quake that flattened the historic southeastern city of Bam.
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Friday, January 20, 2012
Russian tycoon's London court battle doomed: lawyer (Reuters)
LONDON (Reuters) ? Boris Berezovksy's $6 billion lawsuit against rival Russian tycoon is doomed to fail because key witnesses are dead and no written records exist of crucial agreements at the heart of the case, London's Commercial Court was told on Wednesday.
The trial, expected to end on Friday with a judgment due weeks later, has pitted former Kremlin insider Berezovsky against one-time ally Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea soccer club.
Berezovsky, 65, says Abramovich intimidated him into selling his stake in oil firm Sibneft - the crown jewel of his business empire - at a knockdown price. Abramovich, 45, denies Berezovsky ever had an interest in the firm.
"The burden of proof is on Mr Berezovsky to establish his claims," said Ali Malek, a lawyer representing an opponent of Berezovsky in a separate case that partly overlaps with the Abramovich lawsuit.
There were "insuperable difficulties" in the case for Berezovsky as "the agreements were all oral".
"The court would normally expect, in view of their importance, that the alleged agreements be recorded in writing or certainly evidenced in writing by contemporaneous documents and here they were not," Malek said.
"The court is being asked to make findings of fact in 2012 in relation to agreements some 16 to 17 years ago... Important witnesses are dead," he added.
The titanic legal battle between two of the wealthiest and most powerful men to emerge from post-Soviet Russia has provided rich media pickings ever since a tussle between the two tycoons and their retinues of bodyguards in a Hermes luxury boutique in London, when Berezovsky served Abramovich with a writ.
RUSSIA'S ROARING 90s
And it has thrown a powerful spotlight on the shady business dealings in Russia in the decade following the collapse of the Soviet Union, when opaque deals to sell off state assets turned a handful of insiders into the owners of multi-billion dollar natural resources companies.
It is this kind of "unusual background and context" in Russia that further complicates the case, Malek said.
Spoken agreements between big businessmen in Russia were not uncommon in the 1990s because they were reluctant to disclose their assets.
Judge Elizabeth Gloster is also being asked to rule whether Abramovich's payments to Berezovsky were for his political patronage and protection from criminal gangs - an informal arrangement known in Russian slang as "krysha" - or dividends from Sibneft.
During the morning part of Wednesday's hearing, Berezovsky appeared cheerful, sitting next to his younger girlfriend, his large legal team and bodyguards. But by the afternoon, he was yawning loudly.
Abramovich did not attend Wednesday's hearing.
A close ally of former Russian President Boris Yeltsin during the 1990s, Berezovsky left Russia in 2000 after falling out with Yeltsin's hand-picked successor Vladimir Putin.
He says he gave up his Sibneft stake because he feared that if he refused, Abramovich would ensure Putin had the shares expropriated.
Abramovich says he paid Berezovsky $2 billion for "krysha", but not as dividends from Sibneft because Berezovsky was never an owner. Abramovich has since sold Sibneft to the Russian state natural gas monopoly Gazprom.
Berezovsky also accuses Abramovich of selling, without permission, his shares in aluminium producer RUSAL.
(Editing by Jon Boyle)
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