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http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/entertainment/1998/03/06/1998-03-06_new_movie_digest.html
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NEW MOVIE DIGEST
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Friday, March 6th 1998, 2:04AM
Among the parties struggling to reach the summit of Mount Everest during that fateful month of May 1996 was director David Breashears and his team of climbers and Sherpa guides and mountains of IMAX camera equipment. Eight people from other teams died during that ascent, but the IMAX team, after helping to coordinate rescue efforts, made it to the roof of the world (29,028 feet) and brought home the astonishing footage.
"Everest," filmed in 2-D IMAX, is a thrilling account of athleticism, courage and whatever folly it is that makes people risk their lives to prove themselves. With icefalls groaning, crevasses gaping, avalanches tumbling and air thin enough to cause death, the mountain challenged the exhausted climbers to put one cramponed boot in front of the other in a snail's progression upward.
Though aimed at a family audience, the movie unsparingly tackles the topics of danger and death. In one heartbreaking scene, IMAX team member Ed Viesturs (who was there on his honeymoon) is seen on his walkie-talkie trying to motivate trapped climber Rob Hall to keep going. Behind the narration of Liam Neeson, you can faintly make out Hall's crackling last words before his life ended near the summit.
The eight-story-high enormousnessand amazing clarity of the IMAX picture is as close as most people will want to get to the sport of mountaineering. Without the expense, exertion, pain and risk, "Everest" is the next best thing to being there. Jami Bernard
(Running time 45 mins. At the Sony IMAX at Lincoln Square. Rated G: May be scary for young children.)
LOVE AND DEATH ON LONG ISLAND 3 1/2 Stars
Richard Kwietniowski's debut feature offers a tour de force for John Hurt, who plays Giles De'Ath, a sober, elegant British academic who after accidentally attending a screening of "Hotpants College 2," finds himself madly in love with a vapid young American movie star (Jason Priestly, deftly tweaking his own image) and tracks him to his Long Island beach house.
Based on a novel by Gilbert Adair, the story of Giles' grand amour becomes a droll, often hilarious variation on the Old World/New World romance of Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita" tinged with the pathos of "Death in Venice."
Having spent his whole life tilling the fields of the most refined European poetry and painting (he'd meant to see a Merchant-Ivory picture), the widowed Giles is overwhelmed by his belated discovery that American popular culture packs an irrational appeal that no amount of theorizing can contain.
Priestly's self-deprecating turn is sweetly amusing, but Hurt is a sheer delight a study in wit, poise and blossoming soulfulness. Dave Kehr
(Running time 103 mins. At area theaters. Rated PG-13: mild vulgarity.)
Considering most of the cast of "club kids" in "Shampoo Horns" are playing themselves, director Manuel Toledano would have been better off making a behind-the-scenes documentary of Greenwich Village club life especially when one of his stars was later accused of a murder that parallels one of the subplots. Instead, the movie is an amateurish, badly acted look at the lives of whacked-out, mostly cross-dressing night crawlers who hang out in a Manhattan disco.
Several different story lines are followed, including a Mohawk-haired drug dealer lusting after a pretty-boy hustler, a naive college student searching for his missing roommate and an HIV-positive drag queen who holes up in an Atlantic City motel to take stock of his life.
None of the subplots are particularly compelling. And even with the presence of Michael Alig, the infamous real-life club kid accused of dismembering a drug dealer, "Shampoo Horns" is nothing more than an excuse for a gaggle of catty transvestites to vogue for the camera. Robert Dominguez
(Running time 100 min. At Quad Cinemas. Not rated: Strong language, sexual situations, lots of drug use.)
NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND 2 1/2 Stars
Speaking into a video camera, an unnamed "uncivil" servant spills his guts about a past painful encounter with a prostitute in "Notes From Underground," Gary Walkow's bitter, often humorous character study based on a novella by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Henry Czerny ("Mission: Impossible," the movie) stars as a broke, misanthropic building inspector who relishes the power he holds over architects and contractors.
But by night, he retires to a gloomy, book-filled basement apartment and an empty, friendless life.
His only social contact is with a group of well-off college acquaintances who openly despise him. After inviting himself to a party and humiliating himself with a drunken tirade, the Czerny character unleashes his anger and frustration on mild-mannered prostitute Liza (Sheryl Lee of "Twin Peaks" fame).
Toying with her emotions, he invites Liza to leave the brothel and move in with him. She does, leading to a devastating night that will forever haunt both characters. R.D.
(Running time 87 mins. At Anthology Film Archives. Not rated: Nudity, strong language.)
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EVEREST 4 Stars Among the parties struggling to reach the summit of Mount Everest during that fateful month of May 1996 was director David Breashears and his team of climbers and Sherpa guides and mountains of IMAX camera equipment. Eight people from other teams died during that ascent, but the IMAX team, after helping to coordinate rescue efforts, made it to the roof of the world (29,028 feet) and brought home the astonishing footage. "Everest,
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NO MARVEL MOVE SEEN ON RON BID
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Tuesday, December 10th 1996, 2:01AM
Don't expect Marvel Entertainment's bondholders to decide soon on whether to accept Ron Perelman's proposal for saving the ailing comic book publisher from bankruptcy, company watchers say.
Perelman, the Revlon cosmetics mogul who also controls 80% of Marvel, offered to bail out the company for $350 million.
But bondholders have yet to bite on the offer.
Complicating the matter: Three sets of bondholders must come together to make a final decision.
"Not only do they have to organize themselves, but they also have to figure out what the realistic options are," said Joel Lustig, an analyst with Moody's Investors Service.
"You have everyone trying to get the best deal possible for their bank or their institution," he said. "There's a lot of complexity in it, and it takes time for these people to figure out how they want to work."
No matter, some bondholders believe the deal is a loser and would rather see the company go into bankruptcy.
Perelman "may be stealing the company on the cheap" with his offer, said Neil Dorflinger, director of DLS Capital Partners, which holds about 250,000 Marvel bonds.
"The company's probably worth significantly more than what he's willing to pay," he said. "It's worth at least double that."
While these bondholders look for a deal, others have already dumped their bonds in the company.
Fidelity Investments and Putnam Investments sold $70 million last month after receiving a briefing on the company from a top executive.
The sale saved the mutual fund companies about $14 million in losses because they were able to sell the bonds before news broke.
Marvel Entertainment Group stock traded down 1/8 yesterday to close at $2.621/2.
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Don't expect Marvel Entertainment's bondholders to decide soon on whether to accept Ron Perelman's proposal for saving the ailing comic book publisher from bankruptcy, company watchers say. Perelman, the Revlon cosmetics mogul who also controls 80% of Marvel, offered to bail out the company for $350 million. But bondholders have yet to bite on the offer. Complicating the matter: Three sets of bondholders must come together to make a final decision.
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BRIDAL SHOP TERROR MOM RECALLS VERA WANG ROB
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Friday, March 31th 1995, 2:35AM
A Maryland woman yesterday testified that a Madison Ave. shopping jaunt to buy a wedding gown for her daughter turned into a terror-filled brush with death as she and her husband were shot by robbers.
Tearfully and dramatically, Edith Schaeffer held a Manhattan court spellbound as she told how her bride-to-be daughter Alisa, screamed:
"I don't care if you kill me just don't hurt my mother and father."
After the shooting, it was Alisa Schaeffer who ran out of the posh Vera Wang boutique yelling, "I hate this city."
The Maryland family's shopping trip to New York ended in bloodshed in the bridal salon March 23, 1994, when they allegedly were followed from a restaurant by dapper jewel thief Randy Caggiano and two other men.
The robbers' target: Edith Schaeffer's 7-karat, $50,000 diamond ring.
"A man came in and grabbed my arm," she told a Manhattan Supreme Court jury. "I thought he wanted my sunglasses. He said, 'I don't want your glasses, I want your ring.' " She said the man had a gun.
Schaeffer said she had trouble getting the ring off because her finger was swollen. Then, as she and the gunman fought to pry it off, she saw her husband, Gerald, crawling on the floor.
"He was saying, 'I've been shot,' " said Schaeffer.
Finally, the ring came off her finger but not soon enough to save her.
"He shot me and I fell to the floor," Schaeffer said. "When I fell, Alisa started screaming. He told her to shut up or he would kill her."
Hit in the stomach and lying on the floor, Schaeffer said that as she tried to unbutton her blouse, Caggiano started kicking her in the ribs.
"I had a necklace on, and I was going to give it to him," she said. "I was trying to cooperate because I didn't want him to hurt my girls. Maybe that's when he started kicking me because he thought I was reaching for a weapon or something."
She said that after the gunman left, Alisa, then 22, dialed 911. She said her younger daughter, Jennifer, then 14, went to the aid of her husband.
"He was throwing up, and she was opening his shirt so that he could breathe easier," Schaeffer said.
She also described for the jury the scars on the left side of her bodyand told of the three broken ribs from being kicked. Gerald Schaeffer was shot in the side and also survived his wounds.
Caggiano, 39, and Sandor Sebok, 40, are on trial charged with robbery and attempted murder. A third man is awaiting trial.
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A Maryland woman yesterday testified that a Madison Ave. shopping jaunt to buy a wedding gown for her daughter turned into a terror-filled brush with death as she and her husband were shot by robbers. Tearfully and dramatically, Edith Schaeffer held a Manhattan court spellbound as she told how her bride-to-be daughter Alisa, screamed: "I don't care if you kill me just don't hurt my mother and father."After the shooting, it was
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THE HOUSE OF SWING Jazz at Lincoln Center moves into new digs
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Tuesday, October 12th 2004, 1:12AM
Just days before the first notes will fill the Rose Theater, Wynton Marsalis steps onto the stage and takes his trumpet from the blue velvet interior of its case.
He blows some notes, not quite random. They're crisp and clear, which, of course, is the whole idea of the Rose Theater and its two new comrades, the Allen Room and Dizzy's Coca-Cola Club. The space at Columbus Circle's Time Warner Center moves Jazz at Lincoln Center off the West Side campus.
Like everything in the $128 million, 100,000-square-foot Frederick P. Rose Hall, which opens Monday, the theater was designed to make jazz sound and look good.
As the artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, Marsalis has been involved in the "House of Swing" from its conception and design.
But picking up the horn and playing it on the stage, that's clearly what it's about.
"I never detach myself from the playing," he says. "That's what I do. That's what I've done all my life. You get to a town, you go to a place, you look it over, you test it out. You leave, you come back, it's full of people and you play."
What his position at Lincoln Center did do, he says, was put him in a unique position to apply what he's learned over the years, playing around the world with everyone from European symphony orchestras to Ghanian drummers.
There was the time, for instance, when he found his group playing in a Greek amphitheater.
"Any musician will tell you outdoors is the worst place to play," he says. "You never know what's going to happen. And, of course, we had no electricity, no PA, no place to plug in. But it was some of the best sound we ever had.
"So after the show we saw how they'd done it - and that's the principle we applied with the Allen Room."
The Allen Room, which seats anywhere from 310 to 550 people, uses the amphitheater design and principle, with an open wall of wood around the perimeter behind the audience.
"It's sort of Greek meets Japanese," jokes Marsalis. "But the sound is perfect."
So's the view, looking over Central Park South through a giant picture window.
The Rose Hall, which seats 1,110 to 1,231, has something of the feeling of an opera hall. It has a stage large enough to hold a symphony orchestra or let a full dance company spread out, yet the vertical layout, with several tiers of seats rising high and straight on the sides, means the most distant seat in the house is less than 100 feet from the stage.
"Most music halls are not designed for jazz," explains Marsalis. "To accommodate the acoustics, the trumpet has to play softly. It affects the rhythm section. But there are a couple of places that have what I call the golden sound. Boston Symphony Hall has it. There's a hall in Vienna.
"We took what worked there and applied it here."
This hall, he says, moments after placing his trumpet back in its case, "has the golden sound."
The smallest of the three new spaces, Dizzy's Coca-Cola Club, is obviously named for trumpet legend
Dizzy Gillespie, who would have turned 87 this month, and Coca-Cola, which kicked in a chunk of cash.
Dizzy's is designed to seat 140 or so, but it has a roomy feel, the kind of place where you wouldn't feel awkward getting up from your
table in mid-set and picking up a drink from the long wooden bars that wind around the back.
It's designed to have the feel of an old-time jazz club, though it takes on an unavoidable sense of stylish
elegance because its huge windows provide a panoramic view of the city skyline.
By night, this will be quite spectacular. Think Rainbow Room.
The place also has classrooms, recording studios and a multi-media jazz hall of fame center. The first class: Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Bix Beiderbecke, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Coleman Hawkin, Billie Holiday, Thelonious Monk, Jelly Roll Morton, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum and Lester Young.
All in all, says Marsalis, it will be a showcase jazz destination in the world's jazz capital.
But what he likes most about it, he stresses at several stops, is that it's not only for jazz. Dance, opera and classical music could all play here. Orchestras and vocalists, bluesmen and folksingers.
"The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra started," he recalls, "when my septet started playing with surviving members of the Duke
Ellington Orchestra. They were in their 70s. We were in our 20s. They were always on time. We were always late.
"But we learned so much from them, and that's what music can do - it brings people of all ages, backgrounds and cultures together.
"When I was 12, a boy in Kenner, La., someone gave me a classical music album. I didn't know anything about classical music. But I read on the back that the trumpet player's father was a coal miner, and that intrigued me. So I played the record. I didn't like it much at first, but the next day I played it again and started hearing things. You have to be open.
"What we're doing here isn't new. It's what we've been doing for years. But this is a wonderful place to do it."
Graphic: HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE OPENING OF JAZZ @ LINCOLN CENTER
Oct. 18 Rose Theater: One Family of Jazz. Concert with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra featuring Wynton Marsalis with guests Branford Marsalis, Joe Lovano, Kenny Barron, Cyro Baptista, Marcus Roberts, Mark O'Connor and Abbey Lincoln.
Allen Room: Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra with Arturo O'Farrill.
Dizzy's Club: Bill Charlap Trio with Peter Washington and Kenny Washington.
Rose Theater: Stand Up for Jazz with Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and Bill Cosby.
Allen Room: Speaking of Jazz with Amiri Baraka, John Sinclair, Gil Scott-Heron, Sonny Fortune, Oscar Brown Jr. and others.
Rose Theater: Dianne Reeves and Freddy Cole.
Allen Room: The Duke and the Count, with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.
Rose Theater: Three Shades of Blue. Blues on Monday, headlined by Taj Mahal. Country on Tuesday, headlined by Ricky Skaggs. Soul on Wednesday, headlined by the Holmes Brothers.
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TRUMPET FANFARE: Wynton Marsalis, artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, plays his horn onstage at program's new home. SUITE NEWS: LIVE FROM LINCOLN CENTER: Jazz at Lincoln Center, featuring the renowned Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, above, begins season at Frederick P. Rose Hall, Lincoln Center's new performance space. DAVID HANDSCHUH DAILY NEWS FRESH BLAST: Wynton Marsalis, artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, plays his horn on the new Rose Theater
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GUCCIONE FLESHES OUT CAREER AS ARTIST Brooklyn-born founder of Penthouse to present a body of work on canvas
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By MILA ANDRE DAILY NEWS FEATURE WRITER
Friday, April 21th 2000, 2:12AM
His voice is soft, but his passion for art comes through loud and clear. Bob Guccione - yes, the Bob Guccione who gave the world the "art" of Penthouse magazine - is getting ready for a retrospective exhibition of his paintings.
"It's like coming home again," he says of the show that opens tomorrow in Trenton, N.J., and which may well wind its way to New York. "I was born in Brooklyn," Guccione points out, "but I grew up in Jersey and went to school there."
The 69-year-old Guccione says he started Penthouse so he'd have the time and money to follow his real love, painting. But the demands of his publishing empire kept him away from the canvas for almost 30 years - until now. These days, he paints every day for about two hours after finishing work on the magazine at about 3 or 4 in the morning. "Then I sleep for about five to six hours before I start working on the magazine again," he says. "I am like a one-man band. I work seven days a week."
Guccione's style can best be defined as a cross between post-Impressionism and Fauvism. The colors are rich and deep; the subject matter runs from portraiture to still life.
"I paint from memory, from my head," he says, "bits and pieces of remembered images, of people I have met. There is a lot of nostalgia in my work. In my youth, in Paris, I was surrounded by works of so many artists, great artists - Degas, Impressionists, Fauves - my work is probably a combination of all of the above.
"Today, so many artists work at trying to be different; there are so many movements afoot," Guccione continues. "But art is an evolutionary process - and who better to look to and learn from than the old masters?"
Guccione is something of a master when it comes to those old masters - and it bugs him that nobody seems to acknowledge that. "I have one of the 10 most impressive art collections in the world," he says, "but no one calls me about art. I am really an artist and a lover of great art, but I am called a pornographer by the press.
"I must say this: I put out my magazine for everyone who wants to buy it, but I paint for myself."
The exhibition runs through June 11 at the Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie in Cadwalader Park. For directions and more information, call (609) 989-3632.
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His voice is soft, but his passion for art comes through loud and clear. Bob Guccione - yes, the Bob Guccione who gave the world the "art"of Penthouse magazine - is getting ready for a retrospective exhibition of his paintings. "It's like coming home again,"he says of the show that opens tomorrow in Trenton, N.J., and which may well wind its way to New York. "I was
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SOME JUST DON'T GET IT
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Sunday, June 9th 2002, 1:80AM
There are some things I just don't get.
Like when people complain about late starting times for the NBA Finals. They say kids are getting shafted? What kids? Certainly not the ones living on the West Coast.
When I watch Bob (Rapping Roberto) Costas on his fine "On the Record" HBO show and hear him complain about needing more time - I don't get it. He basically can do anything he wants on the show. He's getting paid quite well. So, why knock HBO over the time issue?
Why oh why did the suits at Fox Sports Net dump Marv Levy from their Sunday morning NFL show? Levy is funny. He provided original insights and is an excellent communicator. The Fox cable foofs replaced Levy with Tony Siragusa, a guy with no TV experience and Michael Irvin, who they once hired then fired.
Just like I don't get why ESPN-1050's Don LaGreca got into a jag about no TV outlets airing MLB's draft. Gee, that's a hot button issue. When D.L. was riffing on it, I could hear radio dials all over the city being turned to the off position.
And I don't get why callers to sports talk radio stations complain about the lack of World Cup coverage. Don't complain. Just talk about it. That will force the talkies to yack about it.
Yes, there are some things I just don't get.
Like during a WFAN interview with Richard Jefferson, the Nets rookie told Mike Francesa and Chris (Mad Dog) Russo he "grew up with" Mike Bibby. "I know you did," Francesa said. Why did Francesa feel compelled to chime in? We already know he knows everything.
Francesa is a guy who gets everything.
Unlike me, who can't get why some Mets morons, er, fans are still fired up about seeing Roger Clemens bat at Shea. If Clemens gets drilled it will be painful for him, but not half as painful as hearing Fran Healy babble on about the history of Clemens-Mike Piazza.
I don't get Jerome From Manhattan.
But after seeing him on the YES Network I know he is really Grandpa Al Lewis.
I did get "The Munsters".
Especially Eddie. By the way, young master Munster was never seen in the same room with Bob (Smirkmeister) Page.
And I don't get why Smirky is not gigging somewhere on New York TV or radio.
Same goes for Jerry Girard.
Yeah, there are some things I just don't get.
Like Phil Simms hosting the Miss Universe Pageant.
Was this something he really wanted to do? Or did CBS suits force him to do it?
Would John Madden be caught dead being the host of a beauty pageant?
Probably, if the money was right.
I don't get Ben Affleck or the Aflac Duck.
But I love those commercials Yogi's in.
NBA Finals, Game 3, Lakers at Nets, NBC, 8:30 p.m.
The NBA Finals moves to the Meadowlands ... Wait a minute. Don't those words sound strange? NBA Finals? Meadowlands? Kind of reminds me of the line Marv Albert used when the Rangers won the Stanley Cup in '94. "And the Rangers win the Stanley Cup. Something we never thought we would see in our lifetime." Albert, who will be joined by Bill Walton and Steve Jones, could use a variation of that line. "The Nets in the NBA Finals. Something we...." You get the picture, right?
Mets at White Sox, FSNY, 8 p.m.
Call this a Sominex Special. Maybe FSNY should bring in Richard Neer to work this interleague snooze-fest. This is just another example of what's wrong with interleague play. Does anyone really give a damn about seeing these two teams play? There's no element of rivalry here. No element of excitement. No element, period. Now you are forewarned if you decide to tune in. At least you will be able to hear Fran Healy at the mike. Ha, ha, ha!
Yankees at Mets, WPIX/CBS, 7 p.m.
My goodness. What a dilemma. Will it be Ch. 2 or Ch. 11? Ch. 2 is bringing in David Cone to join Jim Kaat and Michael Kay for this game. No doubt PIX will go with Gary Thorne, Tom Seaver and Keith Hernandez. I'll probably flip back and forth. No, that's a cop-out. Got to spend more time with the PIX crew because they stir it up more. And Ch. 2 bringing Cone - who has no booth experience - in for a game of this magnitude is a lame idea.
Who are the top 5 all-time Yankees & Mets announcers?
1) Red Barber - Reporter, communicator, and the voice of objectivity. Set the highest of standards. Probably rolling in his grave over the dreck that passes for play-by-play these days.
2) Mel Allen - The greatest set of pipes ever heard over a baseball microphone. Always enhanced game action without dominating it.
3) Tony Kubek - Many have come close, but he reigns has the undisputed king of analysts. A contrarian, T.K. had the game down and was a master at stirring things up.
4) Phil Rizzuto - Broke every rule in the book and got away with it. Personality plus. A laugh machine. Scooter is the most beloved Yankees voice.
5) Bill White - His no-nonsense style is a thing of the past. White was stern but knew how to entertain. His interaction with Rizzuto was classic stuff.
1) Lindsey Nelson - The '69 dream season had the dream voice, Tennessee twang and all, captioning an indelible memory in the making. Always paid attention to details. And who could forget those loud sportcoats.
2) Bob Murphy - Shea's Picasso. Mets down a run in the bottom of the ninth. On the radio, no one could build the drama and verbally deposit a picture in your mind like this Hall of Famer.
3) Ralph Kiner - His malaprops are funny and humanized the Hall of Famer. The fun never got in the way of solid analysis. As the years moved on Kiner, in his own way, became a beacon of reality in the Mets TV booth.
4) Tim McCarver - Redefined the analysts role during his long Queens tenure. McCarver found fresh, and original, strategical angles. A fearless critic, T-Mac provided a baseball education for a generation of Mets fans.
5) Gary Cohen - In his 14th season in the Mets radio booth, Cohen has established himself as the premier play-by-play man in the city. Rarely does he have to recap a call because he produced it live. Cohen's play-by-play skills are matched by his honest take on the Mets. In just over a decade he has already produced memorable calls.
What are the top 5 all-time New York baseball announcer's calls?
Give Raissman your opinion by E-mailing highfive@edit.nydailynews.com.
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SOME JUST DON'T GET IT There are some things I just don't get. Like when people complain about late starting times for the NBA Finals. They say kids are getting shafted? What kids? Certainly not the ones living on the West Coast. When I watch Bob (Rapping Roberto) Costas on his fine "On the Record"HBO show and hear him complain about needing more time - I don't get it. He basically can do anything he
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CULTISTS WERE TREKKIES, TOO
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Saturday, March 29th 1997, 2:02AM
It turns out the Heaven's Gate cultists were devoted Trekkies besides espousing all the other mumbo jumbo about comets and higher levels.
In a video made just before all 39 committed suicide, they stood in a group in what looked like home-made uniforms with shoulder patches proclaiming "Away Team."
On the TV show, the "away team" leaves thestarship to explore.
One member of the group also said they are all "big fans of 'Star Trek' and 'Star Wars' " and compared their suicide to "stepping off the holodeck" a computer-generated fantasy trip.
"There are people in this world who are just plain nuts. I'm sure the non-"Star Trek" fans will think we're all like that, but we're not," said Alan Zimmerman, owner of Science Fiction Mysteries & More, a bookstore at 140 Chambers St.
"We'll dress in costume occasionally but that doesn't mean we'll drink [poisoned] Kool-Aid. We all know it's a TV show. No matter how much we would like it to be real, we know it's a work of art."
In a bizarre and tragic twist, the brother of one of the original "Star Trek" stars, Nichelle (Lt. Uhura) Nichols, was among the dead.
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Beam me up, Hale-Bopp. It turns out the Heaven's Gate cultists were devoted Trekkies besides espousing all the other mumbo jumbo about comets and higher levels. In a video made just before all 39 committed suicide, they stood in a group in what looked like home-made uniforms with shoulder patches proclaiming "Away Team."On the TV show, the "away team"leaves thestarship to explore. One member of the group also
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Nic's Tattoo Fix
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9/29/2006 5:15 AM PDT by TMZ Staff
How many tattoos does Nicole Richie have?Nicole Richie sports nine (at least) tattoos on her body, Stephanie. The favorite seems to be this rosary she had tattooed around her ankle. She also has a spider-shaped one on her lower stomach, as well as a pair of ballerina slippers she got in honor of the song her father, Lionel Richie, wrote for her. (For you young'ins, that song was "Ballerina Girl.") Make sure not to miss out on Nicole's fab photo gallery! Who made P!NK's wedding dress? Margo, P!NK's stunning wedding dress was designed by Monique Lhuillier. Lhuillier has dominated the bridal fashion scene for the past six years, and has dressed the likes of Reese Witherspoon, Ali Landry and Kevin Costner's wife Christine. Click here to see P!NK in all her wondrous glory. Is Paul Walker dating anyone?Miranda, it seems as though the love of Paul Walker's life right now is Meadow Rain -- his 7-year-old daughter from a previous relationship. Walker found it difficult to get over his six-year relationship with Meadow's mother when that came to an end, but has said he enjoyed being single afterwards. We don't believe the "Eight Below" hottie is currently seeing anyone, unless he's keeping her under a tight wrap. Prepare to see Paul alongside Jason Lewis and Laurence Fishburne in "The Life and Death of Bobby Z." And prepare yourself for Paul's photo gallery!When will Chili's solo album be released?Gregory, get ready for Rozonda "Chili" Thomas' solo album between the end of this year and early 2007. Chili has stated that if Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes were still alive, it would most definitely be a TLC album coming out, but that this album still has that TLC feel to it. Akon, Missy Elliot and Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins will be featured on some of the tracks.For more in music, you won't want to miss this!What book did Ashton Kutcher read to quit smoking?Well, Carol, it seems as though "The Easy Way to Stop Smoking" was the book Ashton Kutcher turned to for help. He announced that he'd kicked the habit while filming for "The Guardian" (out in theaters today!). If you or someone you know feels the need to try and stop -- or you'd just like a good read -- pick up the book by Allen Carr.Click here to see some still shots of Ashton!Is there something you JUST GOTTA KNOW?? Submit your question here!Click here for more "I Just GOTTA KNOW!"
Tags: Nicole Richie, Pink, TLC
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How many tattoos does Nicole Richie have? Nicole Richie sports nine (at least) tattoos on her body, Stephanie. The favorite seems to be this rosary she…
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HURLEY-BURLY! HUGH'S GIRL HAD FLING OF HER OWN
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BY GEORGE RUSH AND JOANNA MOLLOY WITH BAIRD JONES
Thursday, April 11th 1996, 2:00AM
Why did Elizabeth Hurley forgive Hugh Grant his Sunset Blvd. pit stop last summer? Maybe because he once forgave her. The British press must miss Grant and Hurley. While they're away in Toronto filming "Extreme Measures," the London tabs have been contenting themselves with stories about an affair Hurley supposedly had four years ago.
Actor Tom Sizemore no jokes, please claims he had a six-month romance with Grant's girlfriend while she was living in L.A.
"I never wanted to make our affair public, but if it is to be known, I would rather tell it as it was," said Sizemore, who has appeared in "Heat" and "Natural Born Killers."
A housemate of Hurley's, Roni Stretch, said, "As far as I was concerned, Lizzy had only one boyfriend then Tom." Stretch said that Grant, who hadn't yet hit it big, would often call, but that Hurley described him merely as an old friend.
Journalist and Hurley-pal William Cash called the allegations "pathetic." A spokeswoman for Hurley did not return calls. She and Grant were due to celebrate their movie's wrap last night and head to New York today.
Some time before he became a rich and famous artist, Jean-Michel Basquiat would find a place to sleep by picking up men at the Mudd Club. But the producer of Julian Schnabel's movie about Basquiat wasn't wild about having a bisexual subplot in the David Bowie-Courtney Love-Parker Posey starrer.
"We wanted to make Basquiat into a sexy symbol for women," co-producer Jon Kilik ("Dead Man Walking") said recently. "We're trying to mainstream the movie, [so] we left out all the homosexual stuff and simplified the character."
Schnabel and Kilik are also playing down the messy overdose business that ended the painter's life at 27.
"We tried to make Jean Michel Basquiat into an upbeat story, so we left out his death from choking on his vomit," said Kilik. "In the film, he's very happy. I don't think Basquiat was any more exploited than Jimi Hendrix."
The film makers have also decided to scrap the nihilistic title the film once bore, "Build a Fort, Set it on Fire." It'll now simply be called "Basquiat."
Schnabel did not call back.
Rene Russo wasn't always riding atop the world. Starring in the thriller "Ransom" with Mel Gibson, and in the upcoming romantic comedy "Tin Cup" with Kevin Costner, the former model is cruising in the $5 million orbit.
But she grew up "on the other side of the tracks," in the "slums" of Burbank, Russo says in the May issue of W magazine. Her father left home when she was 2, and she spent years in a body cast battling scoliosis. What she has now, besides movies and a family of her own, is faith. Russo's "a practicing Christian" but not a Bible-thumper who wants to teach her daughter to "understand that God has a plan."
The plan seems to be falling into place. When director Ron Howard was looking to cast the female lead for "Ransom," he picked the 42-year-old Russo over younger aspirants. Howard never forgot the brunette beauty who went to high school with him. "She was my fourth-period fantasy," Howard said.
"The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T" never found much of an audience as a movie, but that isn't stopping the Shubert Organization from trying to bring it to Broadway next fall.
The critically hailed 1953 flick written by Dr. Seuss is about a wicked music teacher who rules a land where kidnaped children are forced to play the piano.
The play has been adapted by Simon Callow, the actor who has written biographies of Charles Laughton and Orson Welles. Music is by Glen Roven. Bryan Brolly will direct. The show is also due to boast one of the largest dance casts in decades.
Charlie Sheen, behind first base at the Yankees opener, sticking out the snowfall through the ninth, but declining to give autographs to the kids...
Sting and Trudie Styler, lunching at midtown's Jekyll and Hyde with their four children and Sting's own grandmum ...
Miami chef Kerry Simon needn't have been frightened by the sight of Ivana Trump when she walked into his Max's South Beach on Saturday. His former boss at the Plaza was just saying hello ...
Neil Cooper, who turned down the invitation to manage a young singer named Madonna, celebrating the 15th anniversary of his groundbreaking ROIR record label at Nirvana the other night. "I have no regrets," Cooper said ...
Designer Nicole Miller on breast-feeding her newborn son: "It's so exhausting to run a show and feed a baby. I used the pump for half an hour behind a curtain. But then I had to run around like crazy to make up for lost time." ...
"James and the Giant Peach" is a dazzling, psychedelic yarn. No wonder famous parents insisted their kids come with them to the Disney premiere and the party after at Iridium on Tuesday. There, with the young uns, were Katie Couric, a bearded Michael J. Fox (with wife Tracy Pollan), Rick Moranis, Peter Gallagher, Griffin Dunne, Denis Leary, Kyra Sedgwick and Lauren Hutton. Also on hand were director Henry Selick, Susan Sarandon (the voice of the film's Miss Spider) and Patricia Neal, first wife of "James" author Roald Dahl.
Compuserve will give away free subway tokens to 1,996 people today at noon on the northeast corner of 50th St. and Sixth Ave., after a surprise announcement. Hint: They're celebrating an Internet milestone ...
Princess Diana seems to have become self-conscious about her legs after a recent photo led to allegations that her thighs were marred by cellulite. On Monday, she left her gym in a long cashmere coat even though it was a balmy day. Her minions also let it be known that the incriminating lumpy marks came from sitting too long on a stool.
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Why did Elizabeth Hurley forgive Hugh Grant his Sunset Blvd. pit stop last summer? Maybe because he once forgave her. The British press must miss Grant and Hurley. While they're away in Toronto filming "Extreme Measures,"the London tabs have been contenting themselves with stories about an affair Hurley supposedly had four years ago. Actor Tom Sizemore no jokes, please claims he had a six-month romance with Grant's girlfriend while she was living in L.A. "I
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GO! WEEKEND
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20110701113449
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COMPILED BY BREANNE L. HELDMAN & BRITTANY SCHAEFFER
Friday, December 23th 2005, 1:11AM
CONCERTS DAVID BROZA. 92nd Street
Y, 1395 Lexington Ave. (212-415-5500). Tomorrow
KENNY ROGERS. North Fork Theatre, 960 Brush Hollow Road, Westbury, L.I. (631-888-9000). Tonight
B.B. KING BLUES CLUB. 237 W. 42nd St. (212-997-4144). Tonight at 8, Badfish; $20. Tomorrow at noon, Strawberry Fields, $40 (includes brunch); at 8, Subliminal & the Shadow, The Tact Family, $55. Sun. at 7, Soulfarm, Moshav Band, Blue Fringe; $25.
CBGB. 315 Bowery (212-982-4052). Tonight, Losers Sometimes Win, Run Like Hell, Norman Bates & the Showerheads, Joe Coffee, No Redeeming Social Value; $10.
JOE'S PUB. 425 Lafayette St. (212-539-8770). Tonight at 7, The Reggie Watts Tangent, $12; at 9:30, Elysian Fields, $15. Tomorrow at 7 and 9, Jackie Hoffman; $25.
LIVING ROOM. 154 Ludlow St. (212-533-3376). Tonight at 7, Tyler Ramsey, Pal Shazar.
KNITTING FACTORY. 74 Leonard St. (212-219-3006). Tonight at 7, GONNA GET GOT, Splash the Cat, $10; at 10:30, Ultramagnetic MCs, The Slaughter House Cartel, Laquasha, Beans, $20. Tomorrow at 7 and 9, Sun. at 6 and 8, What I Like About Jew; $22.
MERCURY LOUNGE. 217 E. Houston St. (212-260-4700). Tonight at 8, The Woes, The Darlings, Jason Mather, Your 33 Black Angels; $8.
RODEO BAR. 375 Third Ave. (212-683-6500). Tonight at 10, Niagras, Fancy Trash. Tomorrow at 10, George Breakfast and the Cornflakes.
SOB'S. 204 Varick St. (212-243-4940). Tonight at 8 and 10, Chico Alvarez y Palomonte, $15; at midnight and 2 a.m., T-Vice. Tomorrow at 8:30, 10:30 and 12:30, Brazooca; $20.
SOUTHPAW. 125 Fifth Ave., Brooklyn (718-230-0236). Tonight at 9, Bekay, Kasual, Tah Phrum Da Bush. Tomorrow at 8, Jewltide III, Part of the Festival of Rights; $20.
BED. 530 W. 27th St. (212-594-4109). Tonight, Marco Peruzzi, Frank Delour. Tomorrow, Marco Peruzzi, Timka. Sun., Tabu, Airloom, Michael Hime.
BEMBE. 81 S. Sixth St., Williamsburg, Brooklyn (718-387-5389). Tonight, Funmi, Dave Medina, Sabo. Tomorrow, Nova, Moke, JoyRide. Sun., FSR.
CIELO. 18 Little West 12th St. (212-645-5700). Tonight-tomorrow, Willie Graff.
CROBAR. 530 W. 28th St. (212-629-9000). Tonight, Serge Devant, Louie Corrales, Jason Jollins, Mike Whitmore, Exacta, Bruce Tantum,
Tommy Virtue, Aaron James, Unique. Tomorrow, Yahel,
Asi Kojak, Mark S1, Johnny Dynell, Degree.
JOE'S PUB.425 Lafayette St. (212-539-8770). Tonight,
Larry Pena, Joe Smooth. Tomorrow, Lyrics to Go.
LOTUS. 409 W. 14th St. (212-243-4420). Tonight, Angola, Michael T., Naomi. Tomorrow, Jared, Naomi.
PACHA. 618 W. 46th St. (212-209-7500). Tonight, Erick Morillo. Tomorrow, Tribe 13.
SPIRIT. 530 W. 27th St. (212-268-9477). Tonight, Danny Tenaglia. Tomorrow, Goldfinger.
TRIPLE CROWN. 108 Bedford, Brooklyn (718-388-8883). Tonight, DJ Center.
WEBSTER HALL. 125 E. 11th St. (212) 353-1600. Tonight-tomorrow, Moody, Avery, Chikkitin, Sean Sharp, Chase.
BIRDLAND. 315 W. 44th St. (212-581-3080). Freddy Cole, tonight-tomorrow.
BLUE NOTE. 131 W. Third St. (212-475-8592). Monty Alexander Trio and Company, tonight-Sun. George Colligan and Mad Science, tonight. Akiko Tsuruga, tomorrow.
DETOUR. 349 E. 14th St. (212-533-6212). Andrew Emer Quartet, tonight. Phil Yoon Group, tomorrow.
IRIDIUM. 1650 Broadway (212-582-2121). Organ Summit with Jimmy McGriff, Dr. Lonnie Smith and Rueben Wilson, tonight-Sun.
JAZZ STANDARD. 116 E. 27th St. (212-576-2232).
Ben Riley's Legacy Monk Septet, tonight.
KITANO. 66 Park Ave. (212-885-7125). Holiday Celebration with Toru Dodo Trio, tomorrow.
178 Seventh Ave. S. (212-255-4037). Cedar
AMATO OPERA. 319 Bowery (212-228-8200). Tonight-
tomorrow at 7:30, tomorrow and Sun. at 2:30, "The Merry Widow"; $30.
Ferry Landing, Brooklyn (718-624-2083). Tomorrow at 7:30, Bach concert; $25-$40.
CARNEGIE HALL. 881 Seventh Ave. (212-247-7800). Isaac Stern Auditorium: Tonight at 8, Handel's
Tomorrow at 7 p.m., New York String Orchestra; $17-$47.
METROPOLITAN OPERA. Lincoln Center, 62nd St. & Columbus (212-362-6000). Tonight at 8, "Lucia di Lammermoor"; $36-$205. Tomorrow at 1:30, "An American
NEW YORK STATE THEATER. Lincoln Center, 63rd St. & Columbus (212-870-5570). Today at 2 and 8, George Balanchine's "The Nutcracker"; $20-$100.
CAROLINES ON BROADWAY. 1626 Broadway at 49th St. (212-757-4100). Gilbert Gottfried, tonight-tomorrow.
COMEDY VILLAGE. 82 W. Third St. (212-802-7586). Greer Barnes, Dante Nero, Joey Gay, Rodney Craig, P.J. Landers, Jason Good, Angelo Lozada, tonight-tomorrow.
COMIC STRIP LIVE. 1568 Second Ave. (212-861-9386). MooShoo Meshuginas,
GOTHAM COMEDY CLUB. 34 W. 22nd St. (212-367-9000). Jeff Dunham, Wali Collins, Cory Kahaney, tonight.
HA! COMEDY CLUB NYC. 369 W. 46th St. (212-977-3884). J.J. Nice, Chuck Nice, Brandon Williams, tonight-Sun.
LAUGH FACTORY. 303 W. 42nd St. (212-586-7829, ext. 1). All Star Comedy, tonight.
N.Y. COMEDY CLUB. 241 E. 24th St. (212-696-5233). Russ Meneve, Mike Yard, Cory Kahaney, tonight-tomorrow.
NEW YORK IMPROV. 318 W. 53rd St. (212-757-2323). Jessica Kirson, Mike Yard, Russ Meneve, Mitch Fatel, thru tomorrow. Uptown
STAND-UP NY. 236 W. 78th St. (212-595-0850). Friday
Pro Show, tonight. Saturday Night Shtick, tomorrow.
UPRIGHT CITIZENS BRIGADE THEATRE. 307 W. 26th St. (212-366-9176). Free to be Friends, Walker & Cantrell, Stepfathers: Freckles
Gets a Beating, Death by
AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY. Central Park West at 79th St. (212-769-5100). "Darwin" explores the life and scientific studies of the man who developed the theory of evolution by natural selection. Closed Sun.
THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM. 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn (718-638-5000). "Manufactured Landscapes: The Photographs of Edward Burtynsky" is the first retrospective of this Canadian's work. Closed Sun.
COOPER-HEWITT MUSEUM. 2 E. 91st St. (212-849-8400). "Fashion In Colors" explores color over 300 years of Western fashion. Closed Sun.
ART. 580 Madison Ave. (212-759-0606). "The Legacy of Homer: Four Centuries of Art From the Ãcole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris" shows the influence of Greece's great epic poet on French paintings, sculptures and drawings. Closed Sun.
EL MUSEO DEL BARRIO. 1230 Fifth Ave. (212-831-7272). "The (S) Files," celebrating the museum's biennial, displays handpicked works by progressive and up-and-coming Latin artists. Closed Sun.
FRICK COLLECTION. 1 E. 70th St. (212-288-0700). "Memling's Portraits" features paintings by the 15th-century artist Hans Memling.
GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM. 1071 Fifth Ave. (212-423-3500). "RUSSIA!," the most comprehensive exhibition of Russian art abroad since the Cold War features pieces ranging from the 13th century to the present. Closed Sun.
INTERNATIONAL CENTER OF PHOTOGRAPHY. 1133 Sixth Ave. (212-857-0000). "Che! Revolution and Commerce" features Alberto Korda's famous photo of the rebel and other images related to it.
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART. Fifth Ave. at 82nd St. (212-879-5500). "Vincent van Gogh: The Drawings" displays more than 100 largely unknown sketches. "The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult"displays hundreds of photos that advocates of spiritualism say provided proof of ghosts and auras.
ART. 11 W. 53rd St. (212-708-9400). "Pixar: 20 Years of Animation" features paintings, concept artwork, sculptures and digital animations from the studio that created "The Incredibles," "Finding Nemo" and "Toy Story." Doors closed tomorrow at 4 p.m.; closed Sun.
NATIONAL ACADEMY. 1083 Fifth Ave. (212-369-4880). "Marks of Distinction: 200 Years of American Drawings and Watercolors From the Hood Museum of Art" features works by James Whistler, Mary Cassatt, Jackson Pollock and Romare Bearden, many being shown for the first
NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 170 Central Park West (212-873-3400). "Slavery in New York" presents artifacts, paintings and documents from one of the darkest periods of American history. Doors close tomorrow at 3 p.m.; closed Sun. Special holiday hours: Mon., 1-6 p.m.
WHITNEY MUSEUM. 945 Madison Ave. (212-570-3676). "Still Life: A Vital Theme" showcases innovators in the centuries-old tradition of still-life painting, such as Joseph Stella and Maurice Prendergast. Closed Sun.
HOLIDAY GIFT SHOP EXPO. Park Ave. at 50th St. Find hundreds of items including arts, crafts, antiques, jewelry, toys and more. Decorated kiosks create a festive multicultural shopping mall. 8 a.m.-8 p.m., thru Dec. 24.
HOLIDAY MARKET AT COLUMBUS CIRCLE. Southwest entrance to Central Park, at 59th St. (212-529-9262). Tomorrow, 10 a.m.-8 p.m., and Sun., 10 a.m.-7 p.m.
HOLIDAY MARKET AT UNION SQUARE. South end of Union Square, at 14th St. (212-529-9262). Today, 11 a.m.-8 p.m., tomorrow, 10 a.m.-8 a.m., and Sun., 11 a.m.-7 p.m.
TREE LIGHTING AND SINGING. Fifth Ave., south of Eighth St. (212-252-3621). Meet under the arch as Washington Square Park lights its tree and join in the carol singing. The Rob Susman Brass Quartet plays. Tomorrow, 5 p.m.
BABY JANE DEXTER. Helen's Restaurant, 169 Eighth Ave. (212-206-0609). In her new show, "Time Travel," this multi-MAC Award-winning pop/blues belter will sing Harold Arlen, Sammy Cahn, Abbey Lincoln and Tom Waits. Tonight at 7; $20 cover and $15 food-drink minimum.
THE BALL 2005. Various locations. Forget Christmas; club-hop at the largest Jewish singles event in the country tomorrow. Free limo service will shuttle singles between Meatpacking hotspots Hiro, The Park, Avalon and Spider Club. The Ball runs tomorrow from 8 p.m.-4 a.m. Admission includes limo service and entry to all clubs; $25. www.letmypeoplego.com.
CHINESE FOOD AND A MOVIE. 92nd St. Y, Steinhardt Building, 35 W. 67th St. (212-415-5500). The Y celebrates this Jewish Christmas tradition by providing lots of Chinese food and screenings of "Some Like It Hot," "The Apartment," "Young Frankenstein" and "Silver Streak"; $35. Sun. at 1 and 7:30 p.m.
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CONCERTS DAVID BROZA. 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Ave. (212-415-5500). Tomorrow at 8; $50. KENNY ROGERS. North Fork Theatre, 960 Brush Hollow Road, Westbury, L.I. (631-888-9000). Tonight at 8; $51.50. ROCK & POP B.B. KING BLUES CLUB. 237 W. 42nd St. (212-997-4144). Tonight at 8, Badfish; $20. Tomorrow at noon, Strawberry Fields, $40 (includes brunch); at 8, Subliminal & the Shadow, The Tact Family, $55. Sun. at 7, Soulfarm, Moshav Band, Blue Fringe; $25. CBGB. 315 Bowery
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How to improve your tennis game
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20110707123703
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Concerns somewhat allayed, we get down to the task at hand: getting me to a decent-enough standard to join the club’s intermediate squad for social play. My tennis prowess consists only of being able to whack the ball across the net with passion — I have absolutely no technical skills, and being a “southpaw”, I am more than a little cack-handed.
But Steve is encouraging and motivating. It is simply down to practice, he tells me, and while it is certainly preferable to get advice and guidance from a pro at an early age, anyone can learn and improve their game.
“Most players who put the time and effort in and take professional guidance can reach a reasonable level at social tennis or higher,” Steve says.
But there are key elements, he adds, explaining that it’s a package of skills that makes for a successful player – namely co-ordination, a decent serve, footwork and the ability to use a range of different shots, such as a slice and top spin.
My first sessions were pretty much all about getting rid of my bad habits: I soon realised that playing tennis on the Wii at home and thwacking the Swingball in the back garden are far removed from real tennis (and interestingly, my coach tells me that, despite being a former full-time player on the David Lloyd squad and an LTA-licensed senior performance coach, he is rubbish on the Wii.)
My problems included my grip on the racquet, flexing my wrist when throwing the ball to serve, and not following through with my volleys. It was, apparently, just a case of retraining myself.
After a month of lessons and practising several times a week (not always with a partner — often just serving over the net on my own), my technique has improved dramatically. I no longer think about my wrists when I’m serving, or my hand position on my racquet — it has become automatic.
I do worry about my serve and am concerned that games these days seem to rely solely on having a killer service, which is something I’m not convinced I am ever going to get enough strength behind.
Again, Steve tells me it comes down to practice.
“A good serve tends to either be picked up straight away, or worked at,” he says, but warns that focusing on technique, rather than just trying to win points, is the way to achieve better results long term.
I now have the confidence to play at a social level without feeling self-conscious about my skills or worried about slowing or spoiling the other player’s game.
I still have a long way to go in terms of prowess, but my enthusiasm is so great, I am even tempted by the “cardio tennis” Steve tells me about, which is a high-energy fitness class to music combining tennis with cardiovascular exercise.
And on the (albeit rare) days I do drag myself out on court feeling every one of my almost-38 years, I think about Steve’s 82-year-old student, who, he tells me, is presently scouring the internet for videos on “improving your top spin”. What further inspiration could I need?
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It’s never too late to become a tennis pro – or at least brush up on your
on-court skills during Wimbledon
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No Verdict In Conn. Home Invasion Trial On Day 1
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NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- A jury began deliberations Wednesday in the trial of a man cast by prosecutors as the mastermind of a brutal attack on a family inside their suburban home following weeks of grisly testimony that left some jurors fighting back tears.
Joshua Komisarjevsky, a paroled burglar, could join his co-defendant on Connecticut's death row if convicted in the attack, in which family members were tied up and left to die in a house fire. While Komisarjevsky has blamed his co-defendant for killing the family, prosecutors said Komisarjevsky was the leader.
Jurors deliberated for about four hours and will resume on Thursday.
A judge denied an effort Wednesday by Komisarjevsky's attorneys to reopen their defense based on letters from co-defendant Steven Hayes claiming he had committed numerous murders in the past. They cited letters from Hayes saying he killed 17 people in the Northeast and committed dozens of drugged date rapes. A prosecutor called the letters unreliable.
Authorities say Komisarjevsky and Hayes broke into a home in Cheshire, Conn., in 2007, beat Dr. William Petit with a bat, tied him and his family up and forced his wife to withdraw money from a bank. The house was doused in gas and set on fire, leading to the girls' deaths from smoke inhalation.
Hayes was convicted last year of raping and strangling Jennifer Hawke-Petit and killing her daughters. In his case, jurors deliberated for about five hours over two days before finding him guilty. He is on death row.
Komisarjevsky's trial began Sept. 19 and featured grim evidence, including rope used to bind the family and autopsy photos.
After a little more than an hour of deliberations, jurors sent the judge a note asking, "When giving the verdict, do we need to specify if we have found him guilty as a principal or an accessory?"
Judge Jon Blue said jurors don't have to specify and that if they find him guilty of a charge, they don't need to be unanimous on whether they believe he's an accessory or principal.
Blue denied a motion for a mistrial by Komisarjevsky's attorneys, who said a prosecution expert sitting close to jurors rolled her eyes seven times in disbelief during defense closing arguments. Blue did call jurors out from the deliberations room to caution them that any facial expressions by spectators are not evidence and should be disregarded.
The letters came to light just before closing arguments Tuesday in New Haven Superior Court. Komisarjevsky's attorneys say the letters could help their arguments that Hayes orchestrated the crime.
But Blue said the claims were not corroborated and would actually hurt Komisarjevsky's case because of claims Hayes makes in the letters about the Connecticut crime. Testimony is reopened to avoid miscarriages of justice, he said.
Hayes' claims, if true, would make him one of the worst serial killers in American history. But Blue said the claims were vague, with no dates, locations or other details.
"It certainly means there is no real corroboration of this," he said.
Spokesmen for the FBI and Connecticut state police declined to comment Wednesday on whether their agencies are looking into Hayes' murder and rape claims. The state Department of Correction declined a request by The Associated Press to release copies of Hayes' letters, citing Blue's gag order in the case.
The judge said Hayes would only invoke his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination if called to testify. He said the letters blame Komisarjevsky for much of the home invasion.
"This would be the seal of Mr. Komisarjevsky's doom," Blue said.
He also denied a defense motion for a mistrial based on comments prosecutors made during closing arguments.
Associated Press writer Dave Collins in Hartford, Conn., contributed to this report.
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NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- A jury began deliberations Wednesday in the trial of a man cast by prosecutors as the mastermind of a brutal attack on a family inside their suburban home following weeks of grisly testimony that left some jurors fighting back tears. Joshua Komisarjevsky, a paroled burglar, could join his co-defendant on Connecticut's death row if convicted in the attack, in which family members were tied up and left to die in a house fire.
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Conrad Murray Trial: Prosecutors To Question 'Experts'
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20111015161017
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LOS ANGELES -- Prosecutors plan to wrap up their case against the doctor charged in Michael Jackson's death by calling three experts intended to help jurors make sense of the complex medical evidence they have been presented.
Prosecutors told a judge overseeing the involuntary manslaughter case against Dr. Conrad Murray that their remaining witnesses will include experts in cardiology, pulmonary and sleep issues and a leading researcher on the anesthetic propofol, which is blamed in the pop star's death, a transcript shows.
The government's case against Murray may conclude late this week or early next, although an exact timetable remains unclear. Murray's defense attorneys are likely to vigorously challenge the experts, especially Dr. Steven Shafer, a researcher and Columbia University professor who will be called upon to explain propofol and its effects.
Deputy District Attorney David Walgren told a judge he plans to call Shafer as his final witness.
Murray's attorneys are expected to present a defense case that includes their own witness on propofol.
Authorities say Murray gave Jackson a fatal dose of the surgical anesthetic in June 2009. Murray has pleaded not guilty in the case. The Houston-based cardiologist's lawyers say that Jackson gave himself the fatal dose.
The other experts are Dr. Elon Steinberg, a cardiologist, and Nader Kamanger, an expert in pulmonary and sleep issues.
Prosecutors hope the trio's testimony will support their contentions that Murray acted recklessly by giving Jackson propofol as a sleep aid in the singer's bedroom.
The outside experts' testimony comes a day after a medical examiner told jurors that it was unreasonable to believe that Jackson gave himself the fatal dose of propofol when Murray left the room for only two minutes.
Dr. Christopher Rogers, who conducted the autopsy on Jackson, testified Tuesday it was more likely that Murray overdosed the singer when he incorrectly estimated how much of the drug he was giving Jackson to induce sleep to fight insomnia. He said Murray had no precision dosing device available in the bedroom of Jackson's rented mansion.
"The circumstances, from my point of view, do not support self-administration of propofol," said Rogers, chief of forensic medicine in the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office.
Rogers analyzed two possible scenarios for Jackson's death. The first was the defense theory that while Murray stepped away to go to the bathroom, Jackson gave himself an extra dose of the drug he called his "milk."
"In order for Mr. Jackson to have administered the propofol to himself, you would have to assume he woke up and although he was under the influence of ... propofol and other sedatives, he was somehow able to administer propofol to himself," Rogers testified.
"Then he stops breathing and all of this takes place in a two-minute period of time," Rogers said. "To me, that scenario seems less reasonable."
"Less reasonable than what?" Walgren asked.
"The alternate scenario would be in order to keep Mr. Jackson asleep, the doctor would have to give him a little bit every hour, two or three tablespoons an hour," Rogers said, noting that propofol is a short-acting drug that wears off quickly.
Murray told police he gave Jackson only 25 milligrams of the drug, a very small dose that usually would have kept him asleep for no more than five minutes.
Rogers said he examined evidence found in Jackson's bedroom and noted there was an empty 100 milliliter bottle of propofol.
Rogers said the cause of death was "acute propofol intoxication and the contributing condition was the benzodiazepine effect."
Two sedatives from that drug group - lorazepam and midazolam - were found in Jackson's system after he died.
Rogers said he considered a number of factors in ruling the death a homicide. Among them were Murray's statements to police and the lack of sophisticated medical equipment such as an EKG monitor and resuscitation equipment in Jackson's bedroom.
Rogers also testified it would be inappropriate to use propofol outside a hospital or medical clinic.
Defense attorney Michael Flanagan spent more than two hours trying to show on cross-examination that Jackson indeed could have self-administered drugs - not just propofol but the sedative lorazepam, which could be taken in pill form.
Flanagan suggested to the witness that once Murray had started an IV drip of propofol for Jackson and left the room, "it would be easy for someone to inject into that IV?"
"But if they pushed it all at once, that can stop your heart, can't it?" the lawyer asked.
The implication was that if Jackson was desperate for sleep and in a hurry to administer more propofol before his doctor returned, he might have given himself a fatal dose.
But Rogers noted that investigators don't really know what happened when Murray left the room, so they were left to "consider what is reasonable."
He reiterated his opinion that self-dosing by Jackson was an unreasonable theory.
Walgren illustrated testimony about the autopsy by showing a stark photograph of the singer's body on an examining table with his genitals covered. He appeared thin but not emaciated. By that point, Jackson's mother and siblings had left the courtroom.
"I believe he was healthier than the average person his age," Rogers said.
Murray's trial is now in its third week.
AP Entertainment Writer Anthony McCartney contributed to this report.
MORE SLIDESHOWS NEXT > | < PREV
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By LINDA DEUTSCH LOS ANGELES -- Prosecutors plan to wrap up their case against the doctor charged in Michael Jackson's death by calling three experts intended to help jurors make sense of the complex medical evidence they have been presented.
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'Jersey Shore' Re-Cap: Snooki And Deena Make Out, Lose Underpants And Hit A Police Car
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20111022072114
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Yes, Snooki and Deena take The Meatball Show on the road this week. But first, busybody Jenni starts right where she left off: lecturing Snooki about her relationship with Jionni, who she and the roommates dislike. Didn't she date a guy who stole a bunch of her stuff? Should she be advising anyone on who to date?
But when Snooki calls Jionni, it seems like Jenni might have a point. Jionni scolds Snooki for being "beyond rude" on the phone the other night, demands to know which roommates said he was out of line, tells her he's not coming out to visit and then hangs up on her. Snooki doesn't seem too bothered, though, because ...
Road trip! The gang gets the weekend off from their pretend job to visit Riccioni, a seaside resort town on the Adriatic. When they finally fit their roughly nine hundred bags of luggage into two Fiats and make it to the hotel, future Fodors writer Snooki sums up Riccioni: "It looks like Hawaii, so I feel like it's like an island. Or maybe it's, like, on the border of a continent. You know what I mean? So it's, like, by ocean."
The boys set off to explore and find the most unfortunate man in Italy: Mike's doppelgänger. Meanwhile the girls hit the beach for about five minutes before they decide they need to start drinking. Snooki yells to no one in particular that she wants to know how to say "vagina" in Italian. One mortified passerby tells her it's "not so good" for girls to talk like that, and they all take some time to think about how their boorish behavior might not be appropriate . . . oh, ha ha, no that didn't happen at all, of course. They just screamed about being "from Jersey" and clomped away for some drunk shopping.
Snooki and Deena are on a "whole nother level" of drunk, so Jenni and Sam ditch them and head back to the hotel. Pretty soon Team Meatball winds up at an outdoor party where the guys show up, convinced there's no way Snooki and Deena can sober up in time for dinner. After Snooki dives into a bush for no reason and Deena loses her underwear on the dance floor, it does seem unlikely. "It's only Jersey girls that can dance so hard their underwears come off," Deena says, proudly. But sure enough, they clean themselves up and make their way to the restaurant to meet the others — just as everyone else has finished eating and is ready to go.
Then it's on to the club, and guess who forgot her underpants? "Whatever. I forgot to put underwears on." Does that help? Jenni tries to tell Deena that maybe deep squats in her tiny skirt aren't such a great idea, but Deena is beyond caring. "All I know is, Deena needs a wax," Jenni says. Deena and Snooki start dirty dancing with each other, and before long they're "digesting each other's tongues," as Jenni put it. The kissing session continues even in the cab ride back to the hotel. "I don't even make out this long with Ron," Sammi says.
The next morning, Pauly wakes everyone up as usu — hey, wait. That's not Pauly. That's Ronnie, who's "swacked" Pauly's wake-up call. See, waking people up is Pauly's swagger, and if you get your swagger jacked, you've been swacked. Yep.
Snooki and Deena are still sleeping, so it's a perfect opportunity for everyone to talk behind their backs. Sammi and Jenni are amazed and grossed out that they apparently hooked up the night before, while Ronnie says their behavior at the club makes him think Jionni might be right when he gives Snooki a hard time.
They have some food and do a little shopping, and Snooki and Deena are still asleep when they get back. "It smells like hot sweat and regret in here," Vinny observes. But the girls claim not to remember anything that happened. "Usually even if I'm blacked out, I know I did sex," Deena says, perplexed.
Immediately upon returning to the house, Snooki calls Jionni to confess about her hijinks with Deena, but he doesn't seem to care.
Later, Snooki and Deena try to get back into a routine by going to the gym, but because they can't go ten minutes without creating a scene, Snooki rams the Fiat right into a police car. And of course she doesn't have her license on her, so Deena has to call the boys to bring it, leaving Snooki to freak out while an ambulance comes to take the cop from the car she hit away in a stretcher. Snooki is crying and begging not to be arrested, but she and Deena are loaded into a police car as the episode ends.
"If Nicole is locked up, they might kick us out of Italy," Vinny says. Drama! Suspense! We'll find out all about the fallout next week. Plus we meet the mysterious Jionni, who apparently decided to come to Italy after all. Yeah, he'll probably regret that decision. But it will be fun to watch!
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Yes, Snooki and Deena take The Meatball Show on the road this week. But first, busybody Jenni starts right where she left off: lecturing Snooki about her relationship with Jionni, who she and the roommates dislike. Didn't she date a guy who stole a bunch of her stuff? Should she be advising anyone on who to date?
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Software assists Medicare enrollees
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20111105005700
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It is a typical telephone conversation between a sales agent and a consumer who wants to sign up for prescription drug benefits under Medicare Part D.
The agent asks for basic information, such as name and date of birth. The elderly caller speaks slowly and his words are barely intelligible. When he gives his birth date, only the word “seven’’ - for July - can be understood.
But the agent quickly responds: “I’ve got that date as July 1, 1980. Is that right?’’
“That’s right,’’ says the caller.
The quick-thinking agent, however, is not an actual person. It’s a virtual sales representative from an automated call system developed by Franklin-based Interactions Corp. Equipped with advanced voice recognition software, the system is designed for the health care industry and tailored for an older demographic, many of whom may have speaking challenges. The company says it gives callers an experience that feels more like an interactive conversation, not a one-way call with a limited set of options and prompts.
“It’s automated speech recognition, but with human understanding,’’ said Interactions spokesman Dan Fox.
When the Medicare open-enrollment period begins Oct. 15, thousands of people across the country who contact Humana , a Kentucky-based health care company, will be routed into the automated service. Interactions has no New England clients, Fox said.
Such voice recognition programs have become standard for banks, credit card companies, and cable providers. But in the health care arena, where the conversations have a more personal, and even emotional, quality, consumers have not yet encountered such systems and tend to expect an actual person on the other end of the line.
Voice recognition experts say the cost-savings and efficiencies created by such programs make it inevitable that more and more health care providers will follow suit. They point out that the technology is advancing quickly, and the systems now are capable of understanding complex medical terms and drug names, and can even pick out key health facts from a caller’s narrative.
Interactions launched its first automated portal last year, to enroll people into one of Humana’s Medicare Part D programs. In two weeks, Humana will be expanding the service to its two other Medicare prescription drug programs.
The system is not entirely human-free. Interactions employs 150 people in Texas, Indiana, and at its Franklin offices who serve as a backup if the voice recognition program cannot understand a response. When the system needs help, it routes the question and a recording of the consumer’s answer to an agent with headphones who types in what the caller said. The agents can handle 700 questions an hour in this way, all taken out of context, said Fox.
“They only hear snippets of calls and their job is just to derive the intent of the individual portion of the calls,’’ he said. The callers never know that a person has intervened.
Callers who become frustrated can get to an operator, but only if they are detected as saying a set of prompts, such as “Operator’’ or “I want to talk to someone.’’ Use of profanity, Fox noted, will also work. However it is never explained to the caller that certain words or phrases can get them to a person.
Despite these built-in backups, consumer health advocates are concerned that such automation risks robbing consumers of the assistance they need to navigate the system.
“Enrolling in health care programs can be complicated and allowing people to ask questions as they are reflecting on choices is incredibly important and really requires a human touch,’’ said Amy Whitcomb Slemmer, executive director of Health Care for All, a Massachusetts nonprofit.
“I can imagine lots of wonderful uses that would bring efficiencies into a system by using a computer and automated voice recognition, but enrolling in health care programs seems like it would always require human interaction.’’
Mike Iacobucci, chief executive of Interactions Corp., acknowledged the advocates’ concerns are valid. “If you’re not careful about how to make the transition [to an automated system], then the overall approach for a company like Humana won’t be very successful, and we’re very careful with that,’’ he said, adding that his company’s system creates an “atmosphere of trust’’ for the caller.
“It’s got to be designed properly so you don’t offend the callers and you are respectful,’’ he said.
More health care providers are looking to adopt this technology for dealing with customers. “They almost have to go in that direction to keep pace with the population, as the baby boomers get to that age and place more demands on the system,’’ said Iacobucci, adding that in the past 18 months, his company has doubled its number of employees.
Nuance, a Burlington-based company that has created the popular Dragon speech recognition system, as well as products for everything from automated calls and smartphones to physicians’ dictation, is working with the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center to develop an online patient portal that would allow people to keep track of appointments, prescriptions, and medical issues using a combination of voice recognition and online forms, said Joe Petro, senior vice president of research and development.
“We have to make it easy for folks to access health care in the way they want to do it,’’ he said.
The way to serve the needs of aging populations, he said, is to offer several options: voice recognition, websites, and humans. “We’re going to have to do different things for different people.’’
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An automated call system developed by Franklin-based Interactions Corp. will help consumers sign up over the phone.
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Housing Boom Echoes in All Corners of the City
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20111105232334
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It may not replace the Empire State Building or the MetroCard, but the most fitting symbol of New York City today could be the knotty plywood wall enclosing a housing construction site.
Librado Romero/The New York Times
A newly completed residential and professional building on 65th Street in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, contrasts with the single-family homes on the block. Many building permits have been issued in the area since 2000.
Librado Romero/The New York Times
New homes are rising at their fastest pace in New York City in more than 30 years. Housing going up in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, surrounds the home of Giuseppe Sole on Fourth Street.
From Bensonhurst to Morrisania to Flushing, new homes are going up faster now than they have in more than 30 years. In 2004, the city approved the construction of 25,208 housing units, more than in any year since 1972, and that number is expected to be surpassed this year. Already, officials have authorized 15,870 permits.
Looked at another way, the city has 38 percent of the region's population but accounts for half of its new housing starts. Much of that development is being fueled by private money, a phenomenon not seen since the 1970's.
The mushrooming of housing development is an outgrowth of the city's decade-long population boom, low interest rates, government programs and a slide in crime, housing experts and city officials say. It has affected every borough and most neighborhoods, reshaping their physical form, ethnic makeup and collective memories.
Throughout Brooklyn, in areas where single- and two-family homes have dominated for generations, six-story buildings are rising on every other block along some stretches, and their apartments are quickly being sold, often to first-time buyers. Large tracts of Queens, once home to factories and power plants, are being readied for apartment complexes to keep pace with the growth in immigration. In East New York, Brooklyn, once known for its crack trade and killings, single-family homes are rising for the first time in a generation.
On Washington Avenue in the Morrisania section of the Bronx, where chop shops and abandoned lots of rubble and weeds once stood alone, a concrete mixer rumbles daily in front of a new eight-story building, complete with a limestone facade. "Development is a beautiful thing," said Gertrude Sowell, who mulled the housing rising around her from her stoop in the South Bronx, where she has lived for 45 years. "The Bronx had to be revived. The soul was just dead, and everywhere you walked there were abandoned buildings and despair."
This new generation of homeowners has had a tremendous impact on the city's economy. In the fiscal year ended July 1, New York City took in $2.2 billion in real estate transfer taxes, generated in large part from the sale of existing real estate but also from new homes. By comparison, in the 2000 fiscal year, the city took in a $875 million. Those taxes, as well as other revenue that comes with new construction, have been a key element of the city's recovery from a fiscal crisis. While Manhattan's new buildings may get the ink, the real action is in the city's four other boroughs.
"This is my first apartment in New York," said Grigoriy Goldfedib, who arrived in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, from Russia six years ago and now is president of a two-year-old condominium building on 65th Street. He is one of the increasing number of immigrants who have been buying up condos around the neighborhood. Streets once cluttered with Italian delis and pastry shops now feature sushi outposts and Russian videos stores.
The city's foreign-born population increased to 2.9 million in 2000 from 2.1 million in 1990, accelerating the housing boom. Newcomers and native New Yorkers are settling into neighborhoods that the city and developers had written off a decade ago as unworthy of investment.
"Housing is being built where 20 years ago people would not live," Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said in a telephone interview. "Other cities in other states have just not enjoyed this kind of boom. Each block is much more diverse than people realize. There is a cooperation and a spirit that we are here together and we're going to live together."
In many cases, complaints about a lack of housing have been replaced with fears of overdevelopment. Neighbors from Bay Ridge to Throgs Neck have flooded the Bloomberg administration with requests to limit the number of apartment buildings being built in their midst, saying that they intrude on the indigenous look of blocks, create overcrowded schools and subway stations and even lower water pressure.
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Mushrooming housing development in New York has affected every borough and most neighborhoods, reshaping their physical form and ethnic makeup.
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Pros and Cons: Why Form a Corporation?
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20111106154853
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Wed Apr 1, 2009 10:02am EDT
Deciding whether or not to incorporate is an important choice to make when starting your new business. Following is a discussion of the main pros and cons of forming a corporation.
Owner Protection from Legal Liability. Once a new business's owner(s) successfully completes the incorporation process, the owner(s) have a limited amount of legal liability for the corporation's business activities and debts, because in the eyes of the law the corporation is a separate entity. In order to maintain this limited liability, the corporation's owners must follow a number of legally required corporate formalities.
Ability to Attract Investors. The corporation's ability to issue stock is a strong selling point to those willing to invest capital in a business venture.
Power Structure. The corporate business form has an established power and management structure: directors, officers, and shareholders. Each group has its own set of clearly-defined roles and responsibilities within the corporate framework.
Stock and Stock Options for Employees. Especially for larger businesses, the corporate business structure offers an appealing opportunity to potential employees -- stock benefits and stock options (the employee's right to buy stock at a locked-in price).
Time and Cost of Incorporation. The incorporation process can be expensive and time-consuming. A number of documents must be prepared (including the new corporation's articles of incorporation and bylaws), and filing fees must be paid to your state's Secretary of State office (or similar business filing agency).
Following Corporate "Formalities." All corporations are required by law to observe a number of corporate formalities, to ensure that the corporation is operating as a separate entity, independent of the business's owners. These steps include holding regular meetings of directors, keeping records of corporate activity, and maintaining the corporation's ongoing financial independence.
Potential Tax Liability. The profits from traditional corporations may be "double taxed." That is, the corporation itself is taxed for any profits earned, and any individual stockholder who earned profits from the corporation (in the form of paid "dividends") are also taxed. This occurs most often in larger corporations, and may not be an issue for stockholders and owners of smaller corporations, who often work for the business itself and are paid salaries (which are tax-deductible for the corporation) rather than dividends. One solution to the double-taxation problem is electing "S" corporation tax status.
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Deciding whether or not to incorporate is an important choice to make when starting your new business. Following is a discussion of the main pros and cons of forming a corporation.PROSOwner Protection
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Lindsay Lohan's Legal Saga Likely Cost Taxpayers Millions, Expert Says
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20111111121316
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Lindsay Lohan flitted in and out of her 30-day jail sentence in a mere four hours early Monday morning. The 25-year-old actress was booked into the Century Regional Detention facility in Lynwood at 8:50 p.m. on Sunday evening, and was home in Venice Beach by 2 am.
Lohan was released due to jail overcrowding.
Given her years-long saga in the California court system that led to her hours-long incarceration, Lohan could have cost taxpayers over $250,000 per hour of the jail time she just served, experts say.
“This should cause an outrage,” criminal defense attorney Joey Jackson told Fox411.com. “Why should Lindsay Lohan’s hand be held? Why should she be given umpteenth chances and everyone else the book gets thrown at them? It doesn’t seem to be fair.”
Lohan was sentenced to report to jail for her 30-day sentence after failing to complete a court mandated community service that had been ordered for drunken driving and theft charges. The judge gave Lohan the option of taking community service at the county morgue and mandated psychotherapy, or risk serving an additional 270 days in jail.
Not only that, the judge gave Lohan a week to report to jail so she could complete a nude photo shoot for Playboy magazine. Had she been unable to complete the shoot, she could have been held in breach of contract by the men's magazine, which reportedly paid her almost a million dollars for the spread.
Jackson tells Fox411 that if Lohan were not a celebrity, she absolutely would have been booked for the full 300 days without lenience this time around.
“The real issue is the normal Joe Schmo who doesn’t have her clout, her money, and her fame which gets a judge to cheer for her,” Jackson said. “For a normal person a judge would say, ‘You’re going to jail for a year.’”
And while Lohan can afford to pay her attorneys to keep her out of jail, her consistent bad behavior is costing California taxpayers hundreds of thousands – and possibly millions -- of dollars, all while gumming up the state’s overloaded justice system. Since Lindsay Lohan’s legal troubles began with a drunk driving arrest in 2007 she has made more than 20 court appearances stemming from additional arrests, violating probation, failing drug and alcohol screenings, and failing to follow court orders.
“From logistics to the transcript reporters to the clerks, it is exorbitantly expensive to have a court appearance. It is important we understand what a waste of time this is,” former federal prosecutor Michael Wildes of Wildes & Weinberg told Fox411.com. “It costs tens of thousands of dollars per court appearance for all the clerks, the security, and those court reporters who get paid by the page, not to mention all the collateral support for something like this. Plus it diverts the administration of justice for other matters.”
“It has likely cost taxpayers millions of dollars,” attorney Vikki Ziegler contends. “This has been a four year ordeal that taxpayers in California must foot. That includes salaries for judges, prosecutors, court officers, court reporters, clerks, [and] other law enforcement professionals, who must all be paid, to have touched the Lohan case directly or indirectly in one shape or another.”
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Lindsay Lohan's Legal Saga Likely Cost Taxpayers Millions, Expert Says
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Critic's picks - Music - The Boston Globe
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20111114115952
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Bartok’s harrowing one-act opera receives a staged performance as part of Boston University’s annual Fringe Festival. Jim Petosa directs and William Lumpkin conducts. 2 p.m., Oct. 9. Boston University Theatre, 264 Huntington Ave. 617-933-8600, www.bostontheatrescene.com
Three members of New England Conservatory’s faculty - Rodney Lister, D’Anna Fortunato, and John Ziarko - have organized a memorial tribute concert in honor of the towering high-modernist composer Milton Babbitt, who died in January. In addition to performances of his music, there will be spoken comments from Malcolm Peyton, Martin Boykan, David Rakowski, Joshua Rifkin, and Lewis Lockwood. 4 p.m., Oct. 9. Pierce Hall, NEC. Free. 617-585-1260, www.necmusic.edu
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Concerts for your calendar this week.
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A carriage home in West Newton is renovated in style
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This historic 1905 West Newton home was once the carriage house and gardens for Boston philanthropist George Frost, who made his fortune selling undergarments and whose generosity helped start Suffolk University Law School. The four-bedroom, 2 1/2-bath house is located down a long narrow driveway off busy Highland and Chestnut streets and gives visitors a sense of quiet, surrounded by mature trees, a stone wall, and well-kept gardens.
The front door leads to a renovated kitchen that celebrates the old and the new: A double-sided brick baker’s fireplace built with the house as well as a Viking six-burner gas stove that would please most gourmet cooks. Granite counter tops, custom-designed cabinetry, and tile floors add to the luxurious feel. The open room looks over a family room that leads to a small brick patio perfect for grilling. The kitchen also leads to a comfortably sized dining room with a fireplace and additional cabinet space. The dining room is connected to a foyer that leads to a formal living room with oversized windows overlooking a generous landscaped lawn. The foyer also heads to a staircase leading down to a screened-in porch, level with the lawn. Upstairs, a master bedroom is brightened by ceiling-high triangular-shaped windows and accented by a large fireplace.
There is added space for closets and a tiled bathroom with a deep bath and walk-in closet. There are three more bedrooms, one currently used as a study with built-in cherry book shelves. Listing broker is Ilene Solomon of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Newton Centre.
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Once part of the George Frost estate, this remodeled period home is located down a long narrow driveway and gives visitors a sense of quiet.
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http://web.archive.org/web/20111202182659id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com:80/business/2011/11/27/blocking-heat-intakes-conserve-energy-use/wPwpcBevz2pVtkbc9X2boO/story.html
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Blocking heat intakes to conserve energy use
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20111202182659
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Q. I have a forced hot air heating system and was cleaning the wall-mounted intake registers when I found that the former owner had put cardboard to block two of the intakes in the living room with two heat output registers on the opposite side of the room. The stairwell to the second floor is also in this room, and one intake is across from the stairwell. Only one more intake is on the first floor, the rest are in the basement. When I turned on the heat, air was being pulled in from these registers. Why would someone do this?
NICK, in Hotton’s chat room
A. Homeowners are a funny breed, and I think the fellow was trying to get more heat from the registers in that room.
The system sounds quite extensive, so if you feel your heat is adequate, leave the cardboards in, or take them out. There may not be a big difference. What you call intake registers are called cold air returns, and are designed to allow warm air to flow normally into several rooms while allowing cooled air to return, preventing a situation of blowing warm air into a room without returns, where it pressurizes with no way to return, eliminating all efficiency.
If you are in doubt, or are uncomfortable, call a warm air heating man, who can balance the system to your satisfaction.
Q. I have oil heat with a forced hot water system, which I am looking to convert to gas. One contractor told me that a gas heating system (boiler) won’t be able to heat the house with forced hot water. Another contractor told me that gas can work equally well. What are your thoughts?
CRAIG, in Hotton’s chat room
A. Huh? Gas can heat a boiler in a forced hot water system as easily, maybe better, than oil. Sometimes it might depend on the gas pressure in your community, but I have never heard of such a thing in New England. Sometimes overuse of gas from many houses can require the company to ask customers to stop using gas, until they can figure out what happened, but that was only once, many years ago. I suggest you go with the second contractor.
Q. My peach colored Corian vanity top was stained with spilled air freshener, a loud red stain. I tried bleach without success. What will get that stain out?
A. That Corian has the same color through and through, so you can sand that stain off. Use emery cloth.
Q. My white asbestos-cement shingles need painting. What kind of paint will work best?
A. I think latex house paint will work well. Use two thin coats. If you are changing the color, don’t make it too different from the original; it will be easier to use a closer color.
Q. 1) Whenever I flush my toilet, I can hear it draining through the tub drain. What’s wrong? 2) I have a chain link fence down one side of my yard. My new neighbor put in a cedar stockade fence, and they are just 6 inches apart. How can I maintain any grass there?
A. 1) Nothing is wrong. The tub drain runs into the toilet drain, and you are hearing the sound of the water through the tub drain. 2) Fences make good neighbors, huh? There is nothing you can do or want to do for whatever is growing between the fences. But wait; there might be. Take down the chain link fence so you can mow the lawn right up to the wood fence. Save the fence for another project. Sell it.
There might be restrictions as to the position of a fence. Check your building department. Even if you find any violations, I would be reluctant to pursue them because the cost can be exorbitant.
Q. My ranch was built in ’64. New roof shingles were installed in ’95. Ever since, a shadow appears on the ceiling where the rafters are above. My husband checked the attic without finding anything. The ceiling is not damp and the attic is ventilated. The shadows appear most on the west-northwest half of the house. Any thoughts?
WESTWITCH, in Hotton’s chat room
A. I assume the ceilings are level, not slanted. Ergo, the beams above the ceiling are joists. Rafters are the sloping beams supporting the roof. The shadows are appearing on the ceiling below the joists because water vapor is condensing on the ceiling making it wet along the lines of the joists, but barely detectable, and mold spores land on the wet surface and the mold grows and grows, or dirt sticks to the wet spots. The joists are cooler than the insulated floor of the attic.
You can treat the mold with a mild bleach solution. If it’s dirt, wash it. Reducing moisture in the house by ventilation also will help. Adding lots and lots of unbacked fiberglass insulation on the attic floor also can make the joists warmer, reducing the likelihood of a damp ceiling following the outline of the joists.
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A homeowner wants to know why the previous owner of his house blocked vents in his hot air system, and whether he should unblock them. Also stains under ceiling joists indicate condensation.
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British Muslims criticise profiling
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20111229052217
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A leading British Muslim policeman has said that moves to "terror profile" airline passengers would create a new offence of "travelling whilst Asian".
The British government is reportedly planning a system of profiling where security staff focus their attention on people whose ethnicity or religion makes them statistically more likely to attempt to blow up aircraft.
Ali Desai, a chief superintendent and one of Britain's top Muslim police officers, said of the plan: "What you are suggesting is that we should have a new offence in this country called 'travelling whilst Asian'.
"What we don't want to do is actually alienate the very communities who are going to help us catch terrorists," he said on Monday.
The proposal has sparked outrage among Britain's Muslims but aviation experts said the step was vital to break the gridlock at airports, in chaos since police last week said they had foiled a plot by British Muslims to bomb several passenger planes.
Police arrested a further suspect in an alleged plot to blow up transatlantic flights on Tuesday, bringing the total number of people held to 24.
Police arrested a further suspect in an alleged plot to blow up transatlantic flights on Tuesday, bringing the total number of people held to 24.
John Stevens, a former British police chief, said that airport bottlenecks caused by extra security checks could be reduced by focusing on "young Muslim men".
Officials from Britain's department of transport have refused to answer any questions on profiling proposals.
"What you are suggesting is that we should have a new offence in this country called 'travelling whilst Asian'Ali Desai, a British Muslim chief superintendent "Our security measures at airports are layered. Some measures are visible. Others we are not prepared to discuss. That plays into the hands of terrorists," a department official said.
"What you are suggesting is that we should have a new offence in this country called 'travelling whilst Asian'Ali Desai, a British Muslim chief superintendent
Many of Britain's 1.7 million Muslims have accused the police of unfairly targeting their community since four British Muslims blew themselves up and killed 52 other people in July 2005.
Since 2000, police have arrested over 700 people - many of them Muslims - under tough anti-terrorism laws, but have brought only a handful to court. The vast majority have been released without charge.
Muhammad Abdul Bari, general secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain, said British Muslims would withdraw their support for the police if the proposed profiling measure was put into practice.
"If you treat a community as a problem community, you are not going to get support from them," he said.
Asked what he thought passenger profiling might provoke, he told Sky News: "It could end up in racism, unfortunately.
"If the profiling is done on the basis of race and religion, it will be wrong. It is not going to work."
David Cameron, the leader of Britain's opposition, said that the government was failing to deal with "Islamist extremism".
Cameron asked why so few "preachers of hate" had been prosecuted or expelled from the country.
"I do not believe that the government is doing enough to fight Islamist extremism at home, or to protect our security," the Conservative Party leader said.
Cameron called for a minister to co-ordinate counter-terrorism efforts and a dedicated police force to patrol the borders.
British police have so far produced no evidence to back up their claims of a plot of blow up airliners, however, British Muslims have previously carried out attacks in Britain and abroad.
British police have so far produced no evidence to back up their claims of a plot of blow up airliners, however, British Muslims have previously carried out attacks in Britain and abroad.
In 1998, British Muslims were involved in a plot to kidnap and kill foreign tourists in Yemen and carry out bomb attacks there.
Leaders say profiling may alienatethe British Muslim communityIn December 2001 Richard Reid, a British Muslim, attempted to blow up a transatlantic airliner. His bomb failed to explode.
Leaders say profiling may alienatethe British Muslim community
In February 2002 a British-born Muslim, Ahmed Omar Saaed Sheikh, kidnapped and murdered Daniel Pearl, an American journalist, in Pakistan
In April 2003 two British Muslims blew themselves up in Tel Aviv, Israel, killing three others.
Two weeks after the attack on the London transport system in July 2005, another group of British Muslims attempted to carry out a similar attack, but their bombs failed to explode.
British Muslims have also travelled abroad to fight in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Kashmir and Bosnia.
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A leading British Muslim policeman has said that moves to "terror profile" airline passengers would create a new offence of "travelling whilst Asian".<?xml:namespace prefix = "o" ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
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S.C pushing for voting photo I.D. requirement
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20120122094625
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Woman's body, "black box" found on cruise ship
Divers searching for missing passengers on the Costa Concordia found the body of a woman, bringing the death toll to 12. They also found a hard drive from closed circuit TV cameras, which may give answers as to what actually happened the day the cruise ship ran aground. Allen Pizzey reports.
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CBS News video: S.C pushing for voting photo I.D. requirement - The federal government is blocking South Carolina from implementing a law that would require all voters to present a government-issued photo I.D. at the polls, calling it "discriminatory." But, as Scott Pelley reports, South Carolina isn't giving up.
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Dictionary Toolbox: 50+ Dictionary & Reference Sites
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20120126122405
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Dictionary, reference and encyclopedia sites are thriving; Dictionary.com was recently acquired for $100 million. Today, we take a look at the best reference sites on the web.
Allwords.com – English dictionary with search options in multiple languages.
alphaDictionary.com – Search for word meanings from more than 992 dictionaries.
AskOxford.com – The online version of the famous Oxford dictionary.
Cambridge Dictionary Online – Online English dictionary from Cambridge.
Dictionary.com – The ultimate website with thesaurus, word of the day and other features.
Dictionary.hm – An easy way to find the dictionary meanings of words.
DICT.org – Consolidates word meanings from various dictionary and thesaurus sites on the internet.
Freedictionary.biz – Search for dictionary meanings in English language and other popular languages.
Infoplease Dictionary – Dictionary search with extensive results for many words.
Merriam-Webster Online – Excellent online dictionary with extra features like word of the day, word games and audio pronunciation of the words.
OneLook Dictionary – Search for word definitions, their meanings and look up phrases from multiple dictionaries.
Online Etymology Dictionary – Search for etymologies of words to find out their history.
Ultralingua.com – Multilingual dictionary with translation options from English to French, Spanish and other European languages.
Vocabulary Building Dictionary – Users can look up word definitions and build their vocabulary.
Wordsmyth – Search for word meanings and find new tools to improve a child’s vocabulary.
YourDictionary.com – A free online dictionary with features like spelling check, pronunciation, thesaurus etc.
An Encyclopedia for Curious Minds – Resource site for geeks that contains articles, answers to questions and puzzles.
About.com – The biggest reference site on the internet with information on a large variety of topics.
Acronym and abbreviation dictionary – Comprehensive dictionary of abbreviations, acronyms and initial letters of words.
Answers.com – Excellent site finding answers to questions on any subject be it technology, news or even sports for that matter.
Britannica.com – Trusted source of information for a wide variety of topics.
BuzzWhack – Dictionary of business and slang terms.
Citizendium – An encyclopedia project with the philosophy of generating a reliable knowledge base by users.
Columbia Encyclopedia – One of the leading encyclopedias produced the world over.
eHow.com – Over 35,000 articles by experts on various subjects.
Encyclopedia.com – Magazine articles, encyclopedia, dictionary…everything is there in one place.
MSN Encarta – Dictionary, thesaurus and translation engine from Microsoft.
Refdesk.com - Covers information from multiple places and is the best site consolidating and collecting facts at a single place.
Reference.com – Online encyclopedia, dictionary and thesaurus.
Rhymezone.com – Find out rhyming words and phrases.
W3Schools Online – Excellent collection of tutorials in various technology subjects.
WebReference.com – A reference site for web-based technologies.
Whatis.com – The biggest encyclopedia of Information technology.
WikiHow.com – Free resource assisting world wide users by providing solutions to daily problems.
Wikipedia – User generated free encyclopedia of topics written by contributors from all over the world.
wiseGEEK.com – Articles containing answers to most popular questions.
Metaglossary.com – More structured and organized way to find meanings of words. It aggregates latest results together.
The Visual Dictionary – User generated image catalog of over 3000 words.
Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus – Nice way to research and explore connected meanings of words with visual aid.
Visual dictionary – Visual dictionary with clear image search results for words.
Visuwords.com – Graphical dictionary displaying visual connections between words.
Askaword.com – Spellchecking, thesaurus, dictionary, and encyclopedia for your portable device.
A Word a Day – Best way to build vocabulary of words, it provides users with a unique word everyday.
Chuala.com – User generated dictionary for pronouncing words.
Google’s translation dictionary – Google’s translation engine allows users to translate English words to those in other languages.
Internet Archive – Comprehensive and consolidated glossary of information on the internet like audio, video, various websites etc.
Ninjawords.com – Get quick results for meanings of words.
Query by example – Enter words, phrases and find out their synonyms and related meanings.
SpellWeb.com – Check the world wide web for spellings of various words.
Urban Dictionary – A dictionary of slang words.
VoyCabulary.com – It converts words on web-pages into links enabling users to easily look up their meanings in dictionary and other reference sites.
Word Source – A social dictionary; users rate for word meanings and the results are displayed on the basis of number of votes.
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Dictionary, reference and encyclopedia sites are thriving; Dictionary.com was recently acquired for $100 million. Today, we take a look at the best reference sites on the web.
Dictionary site
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St. Louis Auditions : People.com
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20120203150653
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Jennifer Lopez (left) and Lauren Gray
started out with footage of a young
on a road trip from Checotah, Okla., to audition for the show in St. Louis.
"Now a new crop of talent will take that same trip, hoping to create the magic all over again,"
said. "Can they do it?"
Lauren Gray of Arkansas certainly has a chance. "It would mean the world me to go to Hollywood," the self-described "daddy's girl" said. "It's been a dream of mine, always. But also my father's dream, as well."
"You're one of the best female voices we've heard,"
said after the seasoned singer, 22, performed Adele's "One and Only."
Gray got her golden ticket and called "the biggest thing ever in my life." But Jennifer disagreed: "It won't be the biggest thing ever," she assured her.
heads to Hollywood. Here's who also will be there from St. Louis:
Johnny Keyser, a heartthrob-in-the making from Florida, amazed the judges with his charm and a stirring performance of Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come." "Should we just vote now?" Steven Tyler said only a few notes into the audition. Jennifer asked him, "You know you're going to be a star, right?"
who divorced her no-good husband, said auditioning was "a way to show [my daughter], don't let anybody hold you back ? You want to chase your dream? ... You chase it, and Mommy will always be behind you." She sang "Find Somebody New" by Faith Hill. "I think you got a great sense of melody," Steven told her. "I like your moxie."
Reis Kloeckener spoke about being bullied in high school before finding a place in the choir. "It was a major turning point ? It's made me who I am today," he said before singing "Lean On Me." Steven was all choked up: "That was so beautiful. You made me cry," he said. "You made me tear up and get all crazy inside."
Ethan Jones dropped out of school to be in a band with his father, who was in rehab for drug and alcohol abuse. His version of "I'll Be" by Edwin McCain was a hit with the judges. "I could almost see you in a country video," Jennifer said. Excited about his golden ticket, Ethan called his father. "I love you," he told him, crying. "We got to get together soon."
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"You're one of the best female voices we've heard," Jennifer Lopez tells Lauren Gray
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Hatchet Reportedly Used on Josh Powell's Sons : People.com
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20120208003440
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himself and his two sons, he left his family a chilling voicemail.
"I am not able to live without my sons, and I'm not able to go on anymore," Powell said in a message obtained by
, recorded 20 minutes before the explosion at his Tacoma, Wash.-area home. "I'm sorry to everyone I've hurt. Goodbye."
Other details about the tragedy are also emerging.
Powell's sons Braden, 5, and Charlie, 7, allegedly suffered "chop wounds" from what appeared to be a hatchet, according to police, reports
. But the official cause of death is believed to be smoke inhalation.
Powell, who was named a "person of interest" in wife Susan's
of their boys in September, and they were put in the hands of Susan's parents Charles and Judy Cox.
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Also: His two sons suffered 'chop wounds,' apparently from a hatchet
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http://web.archive.org/web/20120208114014id_/http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2011/09/15/racy-scarlett-johansson-pics-leaked-which-celeb-had-biggest-photo-scandal/
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Racy Scarlett Johansson Pics Leaked: Which Celeb Had The Biggest Photo Scandal?
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20120208114014
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Curvy actress Scarlett Johansson is threatening legal action against anyone who posts photos of her bare chest and bottom that hit the Internet on Wednesday.
Her lawyer, Marty Singer, has warned websites to remove the "stolen copyright protected private photographs" -- or else.
"The highly personal and private photographs at issue capture our client self-posing in her own home in a state of undress and/or topless. If you fail to comply, you will be acting at your own peril. Please govern yourselves accordingly," Singer said in a statement.
SODAHEAD SLIDESHOW: See the biggest celeb photo scandals.
As of Thursday, gossip blogger Perez Hilton had removed the racy pics with the note: "photos removed by request."
E! News confirmed that the FBI is currently investigating who may have hacked the actress' computer or other device and leaked the pics.
"The FBI is investigating a person or group responsible for a series of cyber intrusions of high-profile figures," FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said.
Also on Wednesday, TMZ reported that a hacker got his or her hands on Mila Kunis' cell phone, leaking a shirtless photo of Justin Timberlake (and one where he's sporting a pair of pink panties over his head). Were they "Friends With Benefits" after all? Maybe.
PHOTOS: See the latest celebrity pictures to hit the Internet.
Other leaked photos reportedly show Kunis in a bathtub, but all you see is her head, and an "explicit" pic of another male.
From Johansson to Kunis/Timberlake to Vanessa Hudgens, let us know: Which celeb had the biggest racy photo scandal?
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The curvy actress is threatening legal action against anyone who posts photos of her bare chest and bottom that hit the Internet on Wednesday, TMZ reported.
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http://web.archive.org/web/20120212140244id_/http://bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/travel/2012/02/12/making-tracks-chinese-nordic-skiing-extravaganza/52iQw6iObr9dnA0fMhccrK/story.html
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Making tracks at a Chinese Nordic skiing extravaganza
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20120212140244
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CHANGCHUN - I attended college in Middlebury, Vt., where on winter weekends I drove to a Nordic ski center in the Green Mountain National Forest and spent long afternoons whizzing across freshly groomed snow. Every winter I still feel the urge to lace up my skis.
When I moved to Vietnam in 2009, two years after graduation, that urge got considerably harder to satisfy. But last year, when I searched the Internet for Nordic ski events within striking distance of Southeast Asia, I discovered Vasaloppet China, the 10-year-old cousin of a historic Swedish ski race.
George Henton for the Boston Globe
Skiers take off at the start of Vasaloppet China.
The Chinese race, I learned, takes place every Jan. 2 near Changchun, a provincial city about 600 miles northeast of Beijing, and is open to both competitive skiers and the general public. Bingo! I registered online for a 17.5 kilometer (10.9 miles) race - an easier version of the 52.5 kilometer (32.6 miles) main event - and agreed to pay my $32 race fee on arrival.
On New Year’s Day, I flew from Hanoi to Guangzhou, a megacity in southern China, and then to China’s sprawling capital, where I met my friend George Henton, an English photographer based in Bangkok.
George and I boarded a plane to Changchun, and when it landed, a taxi whisked us downtown. We didn’t know what to think; the city of 7.5 million was full of buildings, and although the outside air temperature was well below freezing, there was almost no snow on the ground in this dry region of the country.
It was nearly midnight when we checked into a nondescript hotel on an unmemorable street. Staring through my window at the Gotham-like cityscape, I wondered if this event was really an elaborate hoax.
But at 7 the next morning, we walked to the upscale Shangri-La Hotel and saw dozens of tourists wearing colorful spandex and carrying ski bags. We followed them and climbed into one of six gold-colored coach buses. I struck up a conversation with Lasse Hulgaard, a competitive skier from Copenhagen.
Hulgaard, 20, said he is on Denmark’s national ski team, and that the other competitive skiers on the bus - most of whom hailed from Scandinavia - were traveling around northeast China for a week competing in a series of accredited races called China Tour de Ski. The others, I learned, were paying their way for about $150 per day.
“When I told my friends I was going to China to ski, it sounded kind of exotic,’’ Hulgaard said.
Thirty minutes later, when the bus stopped at a forested public park, I saw an outdoor stage flanked by 10-foot balloons and a billboard-sized snow carving of a woman’s face. Hundreds of Chinese and foreign skiers were milling around at a snowy starting line. The sky was perfectly blue, with no hint of precipitation. Most of the powder had been artificially produced, which is usually the case for this event.
GEORGE HENTON FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE
Rickard Aslund and son Matteus, from Sweden, celebrate their finish.
As Chinese rock music blared from the stage, someone released pigeons that soared above the crowd. A government official gave a booming speech, in Chinese, to thunderous applause and a flurry of photography. The spectacle suggested a cross between a Chinese New Year celebration and a chilly version of Rio Carnival.
As the ceremony wrapped, I dashed inside a nearby building to rent skis. I hadn’t brought any snowpants with me, and none were available here, so I laced up my ski boots over my black jeans. Hulgaard, the Danish skier, lent me an extra pair of gloves, and I emerged from the building just as the starter’s air horn sounded.
Whoosh. I was skiing again.
Vasaloppet, a Nordic ski race launched in Sweden in 1922, is named for the 16th-century Swedish hero Gustav Vasa who once skied to Norway to rally support for Swedish independence from Denmark. Today the event’s nine races attract more than 65,000 skiers over a week, according to its website, and Swedish skiers tell me it is a national sporting institution.
International versions of the Vasaloppet were launched in Minnesota and Japan in 1973 and 1981, respectively, but China’s race has a unique flavor. The surrounding forest, where many trees are of identical height, looks unnatural, and because Changchun’s climate is so dry, event organizers go to great lengths to create the course. One year, after a heavy dust storm, they hired 5,000 farmers to create a 12-kilometer track by pushing snow into place with shovels.
Fortunately the race, which organizers say included about 6,000 skiers this year - at least three-fifths of them Chinese - makes up for its artificial veneer with heaps of sensory stimuli.
As I glided away from the starting line, I saw giant snow sculptures, groups of Chinese tourists racing ATV-like buggies across a frozen lake, and a life-sized, medieval-looking snow castle with a sign advertising “COFFEE.’’ Chinese spectators whooped as I passed, no matter how slowly I moved, and enthusiastic volunteers handed me tea, bananas, and candy bars at trailside stations.
“We’re doing something we don’t usually do,’’ Hu He Ping, 20, a student volunteer, told me in English at one station, adding that she normally spends her free time jogging, playing Ping Pong, or communicating with friends on social networking websites. “It’s very cold but very meaningful.’’
Nordic and downhill ski venues are cropping up across China’s northern provinces, according to Kris Van de Velde, director of sport for Nordic Ways International, the Swedish company that organizes Vasaloppet China in partnership with local authorities. But although many here still regard skiing as an activity one tries for novelty’s sake - like bungee jumping - young Chinese are beginning to consider it a healthy winter activity.
“China is not on the map of Nordic skiing in the world at all,’’ said Ahvo Taipale, a Vasaloppet USA representative whom I met in Changchun. But then again, he said, it took years for the sport to spread from Scandinavia to France and Italy.
Taipale, who owns a boutique ski shop in St. Paul, said when Chinese Nordic skiers begin winning Olympic medals, skiers across the globe will take notice. “And that’s the key to making China a more desirable skiing destination.’’
I didn’t need any convincing in Changchun. Gliding around the Vasaloppet race course, I stopped every kilometer or so to take deep breaths, admire the views, and recite snippets of half-remembered Robert Frost poems. Skiing made me miss Vermont, but on the other hand, I was thrilled to be doing it halfway around the world.
Other racers were similarly tickled. “Vasaloppet in China?’’ said Susanne Dahl, a teacher from Gothenberg, Sweden. “How crazy is that? That’s why I’m here!’’
I met Dahl at the finish line. She wore a velvet Viking hat, with a Swedish flag emblazoned on the front, that she had purchased in the Stockholm airport. She had researched Vasaloppet China on the Internet, but that didn’t prepare her for all the attention she received from Chinese spectators. At points in the race, she said, she felt like Ingemar Stenmark, the Swedish alpine skiing legend.
I knew what Dahl meant. After I had crossed the finish line, a group of spectators demanded that I pose for an extended photo shoot - no matter that my nose was running and my beard was full of ice crystals. One man even asked if he could buy my souvenir race medal for 50 yuan (about $8).
Perhaps he had mistaken me for a competitive skier. Or maybe he just wanted a keepsake of this highly unusual sporting event.
Soon it was late afternoon, and most of the Chinese skiers had gone, leaving about 300 rosy-faced Europeans to finish an epic lunch buffet. Aside from a dentist from Wisconsin, a patent lawyer from Minnesota, and a Shanghai-based exercise-equipment salesman from Maryland, I didn’t run into any other Americans.
George and I bee-lined for the Western-style buffet meant for the Europeans and heaped our plates with schnitzel, salad, and fried potatoes. Then we sat down to eat with Juergen Uhl, 26, from Muehlenbach, Germany, who was wearing a black University of Vermont jacket. Between bites of spaghetti, he said that as a UVM student, he was the 2009 NCAA nordic skiing champion in the men’s 10-kilometer classic.
Like Hulgaard, Uhl had traveled to Changchun as part of the China Tour de Ski. The race course wasn’t perfect, he said, but he had gotten a kick out of the snow sculptures and carnival ambience.
“In Vermont, there’s no buzz around races,’’ Uhl said. “Sometimes you have the national anthem, but compared with this, they’re pretty plain.’’
Arranges multiday China ski tours coinciding with the Jan. 2 Vasaloppet China cross-country race. A typical trip lasts five or six days and costs $800 to $950, which includes all expenses except airfare. Be sure to apply for a tourist visa before you fly to China.
Shangri-La Hotel 569 Xian Road
One of the best hotels in the city. Friendly, English-speaking staff. Doubles from $283.
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When I moved to Vietnam in 2009, the urge to ski grew considerably harder to satisfy. But last year, when I searched the Internet for nordic skiing events within striking distance of Southeast Asia, I discovered Vasaloppet China, the 10-year-old cousin of a historic Swedish ski race.
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Drought, floods and China's dam-building plans in Yunnan
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I AM in Yunnan in south-west China, where the biggest floods in a dozen years have ended a brutal long drought. For months here in Xishuangbanna the Mekong had sauntered lazy and green towards the border with Laos, too shallow for river trade. Now it is a roiling brown, and the cargo boats throw up a huge bow wave as they inch upriver. The timber yards in Xishuangbanna are filling up again with vast trees cut out from Laos’s virgin forests and openly smuggled across the border to be turned into the grotesque supersized furniture beloved of China’s brash new rich.
But I have come to learn about China’s plans for building dams. It’s not as easy as I thought. Three great rivers—the Salween, the Mekong and the Yangzi—come roaring out of the Tibetan plateau and tumble down through northern Yunnan in steep parallel gorges, each a mountain ridge apart. Further south they start to go their different ways before reaching the sea in very different places: the Salween in Myanmar, the Mekong in Vietnam and the Yangzi near Shanghai.
China has hugely ambitious plans for hydropower. Just above Xishuangbanna the new Jinghong dam has just started working. Further up the Mekong, Xiaowan dam is being built. When complete, it will be the highest arch dam in the world, and China’s biggest hydropower project after the giant Three Gorges dam. The reservoir behind it is already filling up. At least a dozen other projects are either planned or under construction.
More than that, however, little is known. The government puts out next to no information. Even Chinese academics in favour of hydropower complain that nearly all information to do with these rivers, even the amount of rain that reaches them, is treated as a state secret.
Those who oppose the dam-building on environmental grounds, or out of concern for perhaps 500,000 locals, mainly ethnic minorities, who are being displaced and forcibly resettled, ask that their names not be published. The Chinese media rarely touch the subject. The downstream countries of Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, which have seen a sharp drop in Mekong levels in recent years, complain that China neither consults nor informs about what it’s up to. For all that it preaches harmony and good neighbourliness, China comes across as a regional bully.
China denies the critics’ charge that it is responsible for reducing the Mekong’s flow downriver. It blames the drought instead. The truth lies somewhere in between. For while it is true that less than one-sixth of the total Mekong water catchment is in China, that flow is critical to neighbours during the dry season. China has certainly held back some of the dry-season flow.
The past month's monsoon rains will draw some of the criticism’s sting. So too, perhaps, will a possible easing of Chinese secrecy. In an unprecedented gesture of openness, last month China invited diplomats from Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam to view both Xiaowan and Jinghong dams. I had less luck. Near Jinghong nervous policemen ordered me to leg it before I got so much as a glimpse of the structure.
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I AM in Yunnan in south-west China, where the biggest floods in a dozen years have ended a brutal long drought.
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'Charlotte's Web' and 99 more 'great' kids books
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Charlotte's Web, E.B. White's 60-year-old novel about how a determined farm girl and a noble, vocabulary-building spider save a naïve runt of a pig, is No. 1 on a new list of the "100 Greatest Books for Kids."
'Scholastic Parent & Child' magazine ranks 'Charlotte's Web' as the No. 1 book for kids ever written.
'Scholastic Parent & Child' magazine ranks 'Charlotte's Web' as the No. 1 book for kids ever written.
The rankings, released today by Scholastic Parent & Child magazine, are aimed at "generating controversy and conversation," says Nick Friedman, the magazine's editor in chief.
In that spirit, why is J.K. Rowling's groundbreaking debut, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, only No. 6, chosen to represent the entire series?
It's "undoubtedly one of the greatest in history," Friedman says, but "it is only 15 years old and hasn't had time to be as firmly established."
Beyond literary merit and popularity, he says, the list was chosen to include a variety of genres for different ages — from infants to middle schoolers — and to be "culturally representative."
A team of literacy experts and "mom bloggers" nominated nearly 500 titles. Friedman and four other editors at the magazine made the final decisions.
Their toughest choice, he says, was between Charlotte's Web and Goodnight Moon, the 1947 picture book by Margaret Wise Brown, with illustrations by Clement Hurd, as No. 1. Charlotte's Web emerged as "a bit more sophisticated."
Friedman welcomes "comments and complaints." The list includes Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham (No. 7), but not The Cat in the Hat. It omits classics such as Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series and J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. Stephenie Meyer's best-selling Twilight series was considered "too mature."
Scholastic, which publishes books as well as the magazine, has 14 titles on the list, including No. 33, Suzanne Collins' best seller The Hunger Games. Friedman says the judges looked at the books, not their publishers.
Also named are 10 "superlative award" winners, including (overall rankings in the top 100 in parentheses):
• Best Read-Aloud: Mo Willems' Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! (28).
• Most Beautifully Illustrated: Jerry Pinkney's The Lion and the Mouse (61).
• Most Relatable Character: Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid (38).
• Most Side-Splitting Hilarious: Dav Pilkey's The Adventures of Captain Underpants (97).
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'Scholastic Parent & Child' lists the 100 greatest books for kids; debate sure to follow.
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In Pictures: Working With Someone After A Romantic Breakup
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Love on the job is all well and good, but when a relationship turns sour the office can become a minefield of anxiety and distraction. People who successfully work with an ex rely on common sense and a heavy dose of maturity. Regardless of how hurt or awkward you feel, keep your emotions to yourself. Don't discuss your issues in public or badmouth your ex to colleagues. Here is more advice from experts on making the best of a bad situation.
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Take the high road, and keep your disputes offline.
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Anatomy Of A High Schooler (Infographic)
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The ways teenagers look and act are always changing, and so it's hard to know when you've definitively spotted one in the real world. But this infographic neatly explains the kinds of traits that make up the modern high schooler, so you can instantly know when one's in your presence. For more information on these worrisome and chameleon-like creatures, be sure and check out 21 Jump Street when it hits theaters on March 16th.
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Anatomy Of A High Schooler (Infographic): The ways teenagers look and act are always changing, and so it's hard to know when you
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Dancing with the Stars Cast Announced : People.com
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Sherri Shepherd and William Levy
Steve Mack/FilmMagic; Clasos.com / Splash News Online
Spring is just around the corner – and so is season 14 of
! Twelve new cast members, including Sherri Shepherd, and their professional dance partners were announced on
"It's a dream come true,"
co-host told PEOPLE about training with returning pro Val Chmerkovskiy. "He is one of the best frickin' dancers in the world. He's hot!"
And here's who else is preparing to take the ballroom by storm when the show's new season premieres March 19 on ABC:
Former child star and Screen Actors Guild president
will dance with Chmerkovskiy's brother, ballroom bad boy Maksim.
will dance with former champ Kym Johnson
will dance with Tony Dovolani
will dance with Anna Trebunskaya
Green Bay Packers receiver Donald Driver will dance with Peta Murgatroyd
host Maria Menounos will dance with three-time champ Derek Hough
The Disney Channel's Roshon Fegan will dance with Chelsie Hightower
Cuban heartthrob, actor and model William Levy will dance with two-time champ
Music legend Gladys Knight will dance with Nancy Grace's former partner Tristan MacManus
And singer Katherine Jenkins will dance with perennial finalist
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Sherri Shepherd and heartthrob William Levy are two of 12 stars announced Tuesday
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Are 3D Movies Dying A Slow Death?
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Michael Bay’s highly-anticipated “Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon” earned an estimated $97.4 million domestically over the holiday weekend, besting "Pirates: On Stranger Tides" for the year's top opening to date.
That's the good news. Here's the bad news.
The numbers for "T3" are down from 2009’s “Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen” which opened with a $109 million weekend.
Even worse, 2009's "T2" was not released in 3D.
Sixty percent of the "T3" weekend gross came from 3D theaters, and while that may seem like a good number, the fact that the movie opened less well than 'T2," which did not command any premium 3D ticket prices, marks a worrying trend in Hollywood.
It seems that 3D success stories are becoming a rarity in Hollywood, as more and more audience members have been opting to see the films sans glasses. Only 45 percent of the “Kung Fu Panda 2” box office was from 3D; 38 percent of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” installment came from 3D; 45 percent of “Green Lantern” earnings stemmed from 3D screenings; and 40 percent of the box office from “Cars 2” came from 3D viewings.
Those mark a significant drop from the last couple of year's big 3D releases. James Cameron’s 2009 hit “Avatar” accounted for 80 percent of its theater earnings in 3D. Last year more than 60 percent of audiences watched “Shrek Ever After” in 3D, and “How to Train Your Dragon” earned 57 percent of its box office revenue from 3D.
“Hollywood has always tended to ‘jump’ on any technological bandwagon and 3D, while having a long history, is the latest trend. The suits in Hollywood think that audiences only want to see something 3D which is totally wrong,” Rob Weiner, film librarian at Texas Tech University, told FOX411’s Pop Tarts column. “The 3D honeymoon with the American public is over.”
First of all, 3D tickets are expensive, so taking the whole family to a 2D viewing saves a wad of cash. For example, at the popular AMC Theater in Century City in Los Angeles, a regular adult ticket after 3.55pm costs $13.50, $4 is added to all 3D tickets, and it costs $6 more for the intense IMAX 3D experience.
Then there’s the issue of quality. Many 3D films are failing to live up to the “premium quality” marketing promise. To save their own pennies, numerous cinemas have theater projectionists have been dimming the bulbs, and consequently 3D films have been coming across as darker and not as sharp. This has been such a cause for concern that is inspired Bay to write to projectionists ahead of the “Transformers” release last week, begging them to fire up those bulbs.
“To help counter the recent trend of audiences being underwhelmed by ‘dark dingy’ looking 3D, we have invented various post production processes never before used to enhance sharpness, improve contrast, and render more vibrant colors,” Bay wrote. “Projectionists are of ultimate importance because your expertise defines the audience’s experience. Let’s make the audience believe again.”
And the in-your-face, explosive nature of 3D can make you sick. Literally. “People are having headaches in the theater,” Weiner continued. “So many movies are made in 3D now, people are tired of it and so many are just not that impressive."
Another problem is that when a film that has been shot in 2D is converted to the 3D format in post-production, you lose color quality, the images get blurry, dark, and generally out of focus – irritating moviegoers.
So is 3D in big trouble?
Yasser Hamed, a senior 3D animator who has worked at various Hollywood studios, said it's a matter of producing good 3D and winning back the audience with its "wow factor."
“3D failed once before in the 1950s because directors considered it more of a gimmick. If used correctly however, 3D has the potential to spark a new era in quality film making,” he said. “People no longer go to the movies just for a story, they go for the experience. But directors need to ensure they are not making the same past mistakes to secure the long-term future of 3D.”
AMC Director of Public Relations, Ryan Noonan, said despite the string of disappointments, 3D is the wave of the future.
“3D is about choice and it’s an option our guests have when they come to our theaters. We believe 3D has a bright future as undoubtedly evolving technology will only work in its favor,” he said. “Our goal is to provide the best possible movie-going experience and an important part of that goal is offering choices that meet the needs of as many guests as possible. We are proud to offer many options like IMAX, our Dine-In Theatres, our proprietary large-format experience ETX, in addition to 2D and 3D. There will always be a place for 3D at AMC, but it will never be the only option.”
3D mastermind James Cameron also thinks the format is hear to stay.
“When color came out, was it overkill? It’s just the way things are. Everything is in color now. It’s not in black and white. Everything will eventually be in 3D,” he recently told FOX411’s Pop Tarts column. “It has to be good 3D of course. Right now, I think people need to distinguish as a public between good 3D and bad 3D. You don’t just pay that premium 3D price if you don’t think you are going to have that premium 3D experience.”
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Are 3D Movies Dying a Slow Death?
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'Idol' Recap: Is Jessica Sanchez Now The One To Beat?
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“American Idol” marked its 400th episode Wednesday night, and the milestone was highlighted with a sensational performance by 16-year-old Jessica Sanchez.
The San Diego high school student earned a standing ovation from the judges, belting out a flawless version of the late Whitney Houston’s signature hit, “I Will Always Love You.”
“You not only are the best vocal of the night, I think you are one of the best singers in the competition,” judge Randy Jackson declared. “This is what it’s really all about, finding the best talent in America–and America, this is one of the best talents in the whole country.”
Judge Jennifer Lopez was almost left speechless, while judge Steven Tyler told the teen, “Jessica, you may be the one. You just made 40 million people cry.”
Wild card Erika Van Pelt also impressed the judges, singing “I Believe in You and Me” from Houston’s 1996 film, “The Preacher’s Wife.”
“You’ve got that unbelievable tone and you can sing anything,” said Jackson. “That was amazing by the end – amazing.”
Lopez got her “goosies” before Van Pelt even started to sing, “The tone of your voice and the fullness of your voice really, really makes songs come alive.”
Hollie Cavanagh sang Houston’s "All The Man That I Need," which earned high praise from Jackson. “Dude, you nailed it.”
“That was beautiful,” cheered Lopez. “That’s the Hollie I know from last year and this year.”
Skylar Laine was another standout, putting a country spin on Houston’s 1988 hit, “Where Do Broken Hearts Go.”
“You gave us our biggest moment of the night,” Lopez raved after mildly criticizing Laine’s “nasal-y” start.
Not all the girls shined.
A miffed-looking Elise Testone struggled through Houston’s “I’m Your Baby Tonight,” while Shannon Magrane clearly suffered from a bad case of nerves during her shaky attempt at Houston’s “I Have Nothing.”
The boys managed to turn out more consistent performances during the two-hour live show, drawing from Stevie Wonder’s songbook.
Joshua Ledet sang a gospel-inspired version of “I Wish,” while wild card Jermaine “Gentle Giant” Jones crooned “Knocks Me Off My Feet” with his signature baritone voice.
Phillip Phillips performed acoustic guitar while singing his unique take on “Superstition,” as wild card DeAndre Brackensick took inspiration from Jamacia with his reggae version of “Master Blaster.”
Even Heejun Han managed to disarm Jimmy Iovine with his soft, slow and sincere version of "All in Love is Fair.”
“You know what? He won me over tonight,” admitted the chairman of Interscope-Geffen-A&M.
But by the end of the show, it was clear that it was ladies’ night–or at least, one specific lady’s night.
When host Ryan Seacrest asked Tyler who his top two picks were from the thirteen finalists, the Aerosmith frontman answered without hesitation, “Jessica Sanchez and Jessica Sanchez.”
Up next: A twist! After the audience vote determines the lowest-ranking male and female singers, the judges will ultimately decide who gets the axe.
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'Idol' Recap: Is Jessica Sanchez now the one to beat?
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'Paris, My Sweet' leads weekend book picks
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What should you read this weekend? USA TODAY's picks for book lovers include a sweet treat of a memoir for foodies and Francophiles, a darkly comic novel that stars Anne Frank, and a heavenly teen novel about angels.
Paris, My Sweet: A Year in the City of Light (and Dark Chocolate)By Amy Thomas; Sourcebooks, 280 pp., $14.99; paperback original; non-fiction
You can't help but think of Sex and the City as you peruse Amy Thomas' breezy, likable ode to the City of Light — because along with the sweet come some dark moments for this thirtysomething New York ad exec who gets a "dream job" in Paris, writing copy for Louis Vuitton.
Romance and friendships with the "Frenchies" (her term) may elude the appealing author (who has a blog called Sweet Freak), but her love affair with French patisseries and boulangeries never wavers. As a bonus, Thomas sprinkles warm memories throughout the book of great food experiences back in New York (think Magnolia Bakery), and offers addresses of her favorite spots in both cities.
USA TODAY says *** out of four. "A bonbon of a book."
Hope: A TragedyBy Shalom Auslander; Riverhead, 292 pp., $26.95; fiction
In this first novel by the author of the memoir Foreskin's Lament, Anne Frank is portrayed as a comic figure — and a pain in the neck, to boot. The Anne we meet in Hope: A Tragedy is a cranky old Holocaust survivor who has been holed up in a New York farmhouse attic for decades. She is discovered by Solomon Kugel, Hope's Job-like protagonist, after he buys the house.
USA TODAY says *** out of four. "Dark humor abounds … flamboyantly sardonic."
EmbraceBy Jessica Shirvington; Sourcebooks, 400 pp., $16.99; fiction
Fiction about angel mythology is the hot new trend in the young-adult category. In Embrace, Violet Eden discovers on her 17th birthday that she's no ordinary teen, but half-angel and half-human, a member of the Grigori whose purpose is to destroy exiled angels who roam the world. She is torn between Lincoln, also a Grigori and forbidden to her, and Phoenix, an exiled angel.
USA TODAY says *** out of four. "Just like Stephenie Meyer does in Twilight, Shirvington sets up a delicious romantic triangle."
Lone WolfBy Jodi Picoult; Emily Bestler Books/Atria, 421 pp., $28; fiction
In Jodi Picoult's latest page-turner, biologist and wolf expert Luke Warren is in a car crash that leaves him in a coma. His son and daughter battle in court over whether the plug should be pulled. But the story's true allure are the flashbacks that depict Luke's "destructive but magnificent obsession" with the shy predators of the forest.
USA TODAY says *** out of four. "Always insightful about human families, Picoult proves to be equally perceptive about animal ones in Lone Wolf."
SmutBy Alan Bennett; Picador, 152 pp., $14, paperback original; fiction
Despite its title, Smut is not smutty. Alan Bennett, the versatile British playwright, screenwriter and actor best known for The History Boys, has packaged two short stories that deal with various forms of middle-aged coupling (mostly offstage).
USA TODAY says *** out of four. "Witty, in that British-kind-of-dry-wit way. Think Noel Coward if he had lived in more sexually liberated times."
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Choose from a sweet treat of a memoir for foodies, a darkly comic novel that stars Anne Frank, or a heavenly teen novel about angels.
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Huge strawberry crop lowers prices, profits
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PLANT CITY, Fla. - Folks come from all over to enjoy the Florida Strawberry Festival, where they will find shortcake eating contests, a berry queen, and a strawberry production exhibit.
But behind the scenes of one of the state’s largest festivals, strawberry farmers are bemoaning this year’s larger-than-expected harvest - meaning turning a profit will be difficult.
A warm winter in the Sunshine State has yielded a bumper crop of berries.
According to the Department of Agriculture, a pound of strawberries on March 2 was selling at major grocery stores for an average of $2.15 - an 8-cent drop from the previous week and a 28-cent drop from last year.
Florida is the nation’s biggest strawberry producer in January and February, while California is the largest in the spring. Florida takes advantage of its sunny weather and a unique harvest window - November through February - to sell berries worldwide.
In recent years, Florida farmers have grappled with extreme cold and lost crops, and 2010 was an especially bad year.
But there’s more to Florida’s woes than weather.
“Because of the influx of Mexican berries, our prices have not gone up,’’ said Peggy Parke, the Vice President of Parkesdale Farms in Dover, Fla. “Mexico just keeps pulling them over for low cost. I feel like the Mexican market has had a big effect on us this year as far as pricing.’’
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A warm winter in the Sunshine State has yielded a bumper crop of berries. Ted Campbell of the Florida Strawberry Growers Association says 2012 will be a tough year for farmers because stores are setting prices low.
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2 New Efforts to Develop Stem Cell Line for Study
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Scientists at two universities Harvard and the University of California, San Francisco will try to develop embryonic stem cells from the adult cells of patients suffering from certain diseases.
Their purposes in creating the cell lines, which require making an early human embryo, are to study how the diseases develop and also to see if replacement cells can be generated to repair the patient's own degenerating tissues. But the field, despite its much emphasized promise, faces many serious uncertainties.
"Clinical applications may be a decade or more away," said George Q. Daley, a Harvard expert on blood diseases.
Harvard announced its plans yesterday at a news conference; the University of California, San Francisco, did so less conspicuously a month ago, resuming a program abandoned in 2001. Both universities, having received required approvals, will at first obtain the human eggs needed for cloning from fertility clinics, starting with eggs deemed too low quality to produce a successful pregnancy. Both programs are privately financed because federal support for human stem cell research is available only for cell lines made before August 9, 2001.
Advanced Cell Technology in Worcester, Mass., also has a human nuclear transfer program "well under way," said Robert Lanza, the company's vice president, but has run into problems in recruiting egg donors. Under guidelines issued by the National Academy of Sciences, which are voluntary but widely observed, donors may not be paid anything beyond expenses.
The new efforts, if successful, would accomplish what the disgraced South Korean scientist Woo-Suk Hwang claimed he had achieved in articles published in Science in 2004 and 2005. Both papers turned out to be based on forged data. But the flaws remained undetected by scientists involved in the cloning field, raising doubts about the rigor and expertise with which the new field was being conducted. The problems came to light not through criticism by scientific peers, but only after a whistle-blower in Dr. Hwang's lab contacted a Seoul television station.
The University of California, San Francisco, said last month that one of its researchers, Renee Reijo Pera, would start the cloning procedure, which involves transferring the nucleus of an adult cell into an unfertilized egg whose own nucleus has been removed.
A composite egg of this kind should develop in glassware into an early embryo, or blastocyst, from which embryonic stem cells could be isolated. There is no evident reason why this should not work in people as it has already done in several animal species, yet so far no one has succeeded. Dr. Hwang used no less than 2,000 fresh eggs donated by a healthy women but failed to accomplish anything useful.
Dr. Reijo Pera will switch to using donated eggs if those rejected by fertility clinics do not work, a university spokeswoman said. Harvard researchers said yesterday that they too would seek to derive eggs from healthy donors in the future.
Dr. Lanza, of Advanced Cell Technology, said that freshly harvested human eggs were "much better" for nuclear transfer experiments but that a six-month campaign by his company to recruit donors "appears to be a losing effort."
Many women had come forward, saying they would donate their eggs for research without compensation but, after seeing the battery of tests required, "most of the donors change their mind once they realize what's involved," Dr. Lanza said.
If research should establish that replacement tissues can be developed for a patient through the nuclear transfer technique, probably tens or hundreds of donated human eggs would be needed for each operation. Some scientists regard such a requirement as impractical, arguing that researchers should learn how to reprogram an adult cell's nucleus back to embryonic state without the use of human eggs. But this requires a far deeper understanding of human cells than is yet at hand.
Three Harvard scientists described their proposed research yesterday, promising not to discuss it further in public until they had firm results ready to be published. Dr. Daley hopes to develop, via nuclear transfer, embryonic stem cells from patients with blood diseases. He will try to correct the genetic defect behind the disease, then develop blood stem cells that could be engrafted in the patient's marrow.
The two other scientists, Douglas Melton and Kevin Eggan, said they would develop embryonic stem cell lines from diabetic patients, hoping to understand the development of the disease from its earliest moments at the cellular level.
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Scientists at Harvard University and the University of California, San Francisco, will try to develop embryonic stem cells from the adult cells of patients.
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Romney Almost Makes KFC Healthy
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LAKELAND, FLA. -- When we were told that Mitt Romney would eat at Kentucky Fried Chicken for lunch today, the traveling press corps was a bit confused. The former Massachusetts governor we know is a health nut who jogs a few times a week and looks incredibly fit for a 60-year-old man.
But there he was, chopping on his fried chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, beans and a biscuit, although Romney made sure to take the skin off the chicken.
"I feel sorry for you guys though," he said to the media horde that had gathered in front of his table. "I get to eat. You have to watch me eat."
It was a bit awkward standing there with our cameras focused in on the governor as our stomachs growled, but it offered Romney a chance to show off a less buttoned-down side.
Asked what kind of music he likes, Romney mentioned the song "Ahead of My Time" by the modern Swedish band Teddybears. But he said that his iPod leans heavily on the '60s and '70s, including Roy Orbison and The Eagles.
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Florida Read more by Scott Conroy on CBS News' From The Road.
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Hitmaker Jason Mraz keeps it sunny
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Before approaching the latest from the hit-making, ukulele-wave troubadour Jason Mraz, ask yourself the following: Do you just want to “get away from it all” sometimes? Do you love love? Ever found yourself involuntarily grooving at the dentist’s office? If so, you’ve found your new favorite record. Ever since the success of his 2008 hit “I’m Yours,” Mraz has served as a predictably divisive stylistic wedge. The best music on “Love Is a Four Letter Word” — and this is all very expertly performed and written — is capable of transporting us to a different place. Whether that place is an idyllic beach vacation or the purgatory of the produce aisle depends on your stomach for relentless optimism. “The Freedom Song” is a nifty bit of ukulele-funk, with a soulful backup chorus, bright, clean horn lines, and observations like “When I feel good I sing/ and the joy it brings makes me feel good.” That’s good. “Everything Is Sound” finds Mraz channeling his vaguely-rapping style with a clinically impossible to resist “la la la” singalong. An organ pushes the funk, the harmonies are glorious and joyful, and it’s all, quite frankly, a huge bummer. For the skeptical, songs like “Living in the Moment,” yet another effective swallow of musical Prozac about the splendor of taking it easy, don’t sound so much like musical optimism as crassly cynical manipulation. (Out Tuesday) LUKE O’NEIL
Jason Mraz plays the Comcast Center Sept. 7.
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Ever since the success of his 2008 hit “I’m Yours”, Jason Mraz has served as a predictably divisive stylistic wedge. The best music on “Love Is a Four Letter Word” — and this is all very expertly performed and written — is capable of transporting us to a different place. Whether that place is an idyllic beach vacation or the purgatory of the produce aisle depends on your stomach for relentless optimism.
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Top 6 Workout Recovery Foods
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Lifting is great and some people enjoy the soreness they feel the next day after an intense workout while others really can't stand it -- especially if they did a crazy leg workout. But you know the phrase: You can feel sore or you can feel sorry. Feeling sore can offer a sense of achievement. Still, it's important to recover from many long training sessions, so try incorporating the foods below to recuperate more quickly.
Why Do I Feel Sore? Many people feel the soreness but aren't sure where the pain comes from. The question that I get most often is, "How come I feel sore the day after, but not that same day?" The answer is Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS). So what causes this? When you work out, you are creating tiny tears in your muscles. This is normally a result of high intensity exercises such as heavy lifting or sprinting. Your muscles then want to recover, so they begin to heal themselves. Consuming an adequate amount of protein and nutrients, while giving your body enough time to rest helps accomplish this; and your muscles are built during this phase. That’s why recovery days are very important.
1) Whole Grain Cereal: You may have heard that you should eat carbs before a workout, which is true, but you should also consume them after as well. Carbohydrates can help your body fight the fatigue that it feels after a workout by restoring your glycogen stores. When you exercise, you are using up all of your glycogen stores (or energy stores.) It's really important to replenish them after a workout so that you do not experience that sleepy feeling. Any carbohydrate snack will do but whole grains are always the best choice.
2) Cherries: Cherries are kind of like a magical fruit. They have many anti-inflammatory properties, which are really important for relieving muscle soreness. The antioxidant that gives cherries this healing ability is called anthocyanins. Many athletes consume tart cherry juice prior to workouts for this reason. Instead of popping that ibuprofen or Advil, reach for some nice, fresh cherries or cherry juice instead.
3) Nuts: Walnuts, almonds, brazil nuts -- whatever kind of nuts you want. All kinds of nuts are very high in Vitamin E. This vitamin has muscle strengthening powers which will ultimately help to fight muscle soreness. Once you begin to get stronger, you will notice that you are not as sore as you were when you first began training. When you have been training for a while, your muscles are stronger and you don’t tear the muscle as much as you did in the beginning. Less tears equals less soreness. Vitamin E also helps repair the damage that was done to the muscle tissue. Eat foods high in Vitamin E, like nuts, to help build that muscle strength…and keep training.
4) Berries: Berries such as strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries all contain antioxidants called polyphenols. These antioxidants are what protect your cells against damage. Aside from their ability to reduce muscle pain, they also help protect against all the other damages that can be done to our cells that can cause cancer. Generally, the darker the berry, the more antioxidants it contains so try to eat dark berries such as blackberries and blueberries. They are a healthy and delicious snack. You can even throw them into your protein shake for an added bonus.
5) Salmon: Fish in general is loaded with protein and a ton of essential fatty acids. Fatty acids help to reduce inflammation which in turn fights muscle soreness. Not a fan of fish? Take a fish oil supplement.
6) Eggs: Particularly egg yolks. Ignore the cholesterol factor. Eggs are high in protein and Vitamin D. Both of these two things help fight muscle soreness and aid in muscle growth. Vitamin D has become one of the biggest deficiencies in the American diet. It is really important to consume foods high in this vitamin, especially to help reduce muscle pain. Many people tend to get rid of the yolk of the egg because of the added cholesterol and calories but those calories in the yolk are all really good calories. They provide vitamin D and protein. Eat the whole egg. If you do have high cholesterol, try to limit yourself to a couple whole eggs a week and consume Vitamin D fortified low fat milk.
Overview: All of these foods are high in many nutrients and vitamins that your body needs on a daily basis in order to sustain life. They all have the ability to reduce muscle soreness and inflammation so it's important to include them in your diet. Now, they aren't really "super" foods. If you have sore muscles and eat some eggs, you aren't going to automatically feel better but they will aid in the healing process. Aside from getting the right nutrients, it's important to allow yourself some rest. Taking one to two days a week off heavy training will be very beneficial for body. If you are an exercise freak and need to get to the gym, take it easy. Do some light cardio or lift lighter. You really only experience soreness when you push yourself to your limits.
ThePostGame brings you the most interesting sports stories on the web.
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More From DualFit.com: -- Claire Rae: Fitness Model, Fitness Trainer -- HIIT: High Intensity Interval Training -- Better Cardio Call: Track Or Treadmill? -- Interview: A.J Jacobs, Author Of 'Drop Dead Healthy'
Popular Stories On ThePostGame: -- Why High Heels Make Your Breasts Sag -- The Truth About Swiss Balls -- 5 Awesome Arm Curls You've Never Tried -- Coregasm Phenomenon Is Confirmed By New Scientific Study
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By DualFit.com
Lifting is great and some people enjoy the soreness they feel the next day after an intense workout while others really can't stand it...
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NOMAD SETTLES INTO EAST VILLAGE
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Nomad, a 35-seat French-Algerian restaurant, opens Wednesday at 78 Second Ave. (at Fourth St.). Owner Mehenni Zebentout, a partner at nearby Cucina di Pesce, and chef Sami Toujani will showcase the traditional North African dishes (mezzes, tagines, couscous) flavored with cumin, coriander, cinnamon, saffron and mint. Look for an Old World feel and a glow from Moroccan lanterns inside and, in the spring, a 25-seat patio outside. FOUR TOPS: A quartet of Japanese chefs, including alums from Megu and Nobu 57, have joined forces at the month-old Le Miu (beautiful sea), 107 Avenue A (near Sixth St.) . It seats 65 in the dining room and eight at the sushi bar. SERVING SOON: Philly restaurateur Stephen Starr has been a busy guy. He opened Morimoto in Chelsea Market a month ago. On Monday, he unveils Buddakan, 75 Ninth Ave. (near 16th St.), on the other side of the market. It boasts a French-inflected Asian menu. ... On March 14, Buenos Aires opens at 513 E. Sixth St. (near Avenue A). Argentinean specialties include Parrillada Buenos Aires (grilled short ribs), skirt steak, chorizo, blood sausage and sweetbreads. PRETTY IN PINK: Baker Melanie Schrimpe wanted to bring something nice to her part of Williamsburg. Two weeks ago, she and her husband did, opening the "old-fashioned" Cheek's Bakery at 378 Metropolitan Ave., near Havemeyer St. A former ceramist ("ceramics and baking are identical," she says), Schrimpe honed her food skills at Magnolia Bakery and Red Hook's Baked. She's the sole baker at Cheek's, which packs goodies like rosemary cheddar scones, sour lemon tarts and German chocolate cake into brilliant pink boxes. ITALIAN ENCLAVE: The owners of Luca Lounge have expanded their East Village bar/Italian restaurant business to Queens, taking over the old Meridian space at 47-25 Vernon Blvd., at 47th Road. Named Masso, the Long Island City spot bravely tries upscale Italian fare, considering some of Queens' top Italian places (Manducatis, Manetta's, Bella Via) are nearby.
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THE LATEST DISH NOMAD SETTLES INTO EAST VILLAGE
Nomad, a 35-seat French-Algerian restaurant, opens Wednesday at 78 Second Ave. (at Fourth St.). Owner Mehenni Zebentout, a partner at nearby Cucina di Pesce, and chef Sami Toujani will showcase the traditional North African dishes (mezzes, tagines, couscous) flavored with cumin, coriander, cinnamon, saffron and mint. Look for an Old World feel and a glow from Moroccan lanterns inside and, in the spring, a 25-seat patio outside.
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By-the-book pilot Sullenberger opens up about life and 'Duty'
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By Marco R. della Cava, USA TODAY
DANVILLE, Calif. On the breakfast table in the immaculate suburban home of Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger sits a thick binder. In big block letters, its cover reads: "Welcome to Fame."
It's no surprise this by-the-book pilot might try to tackle fame with intellectual rigor. After all, in January he informed air traffic controllers his jet had engine trouble and he was going to set US Airways Flight 1549 down in New York's Hudson River with the calm voice of a husband telling his wife he was taking a detour to the supermarket.
Breathe easy, America. Sully isn't that much of a geek.
Fame is the family's new dog, improbably named 18 months ago by an area guide-dog outfit that the Sullenbergers have been connected with for years. Fame the golden Lab, a very recent arrival, is under control. The other kind, not so much.
"Frankly, we're still trying to find the right balance between our family life and everything else," says Sullenberger, 58, who will keep the spotlight hot with the release today of his autobiography, Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters (William Morrow, 340 pp., $25.99). "It's a priority for me to get things right."
Sullenberger fixes his wife of 20 years with an unwavering gaze. Lorrie smiles, a range of emotions etched in the silence.
"I tell people Sully got a new job that day, one we hadn't prepared for," she says. "So we're learning as we go along. We talk about it as a family. We like to hike into the nearby hills, and that helps with the stress. It helps that people at least see us as ordinary, as one of them. But some days you just get tired."
In many ways, the Sullenberger home on a quiet cul de sac has typical touchstones. Family photos, Halloween decorations.
But there are inescapable nods to its celebrated resident. Mementos from the "Miracle on the Hudson" include a drawing of Flight 1549, bound for Charlotte from LaGuardia Airport, bobbing in New York's frozen waterway, as well as a framed cartoon — in which a passenger requests Sully as her pilot — signed by colleagues, one of whom scrawled "Sully for Prez!"
It has been a busy ride since Jan. 15, when Sullenberger saved all 155 souls in his care after geese crippled both of his jet's engines. The country was grappling with frightening news about the economy and being treated to a parade of greedy financial villains on TV. Enter a mild-mannered savior, and the emotional fireworks exploded.
Sullenberger returned to duty two weeks ago. With typical understatement, he describes that flight Oct. 1 as "another good day in the air." His new management title with US Airways will find him cutting back on his cockpit time so he can pursue airline safety issues for the company.
Sullenberger held off returning to the skies so he could reap a few rewards from his newfound celebrity, give a few speeches and write a book. But the events of that cold winter day refuse to fade.
"It was a shock to my very core," he says, recalling the instant the plane's engines died and the aircraft lost thrust. "There was a sense of dread in the pit of my stomach from what I felt, smelled and heard. The sound of finely balanced machinery being destroyed, like a tennis shoe thrown into a dryer, only much louder. It was the worst thing that had ever happened in my entire life. It was intense."
That's saying something for an Air Force fighter pilot long familiar with dicey predicaments. Saying something for a man whose father, a genial dentist who suffered from depression, shot himself in 1995 while in severe pain from complications after gall bladder surgery.
But Sullenberger did not let the intensity of that January moment cripple him. In fact, he says he remained stunned "for approximately 1.5 seconds after we lost both engines" — then immediately kicked into solution mode. "After recognizing the enormity of the situation and my body's reaction to it, (co-pilot) Jeff (Skiles) and I followed our manuals verbatim," he says. "We just did our jobs."
That was eight months ago, an epoch in our speed-of-Twitter age when a mere 15 seconds of fame is considered significant. And yet today the Sullenbergers still can't go out — whether to the local drugstore or a date-night dinner in nearby San Francisco — without attracting attention. Most people just want to say thank you. Or at least they try to.
"We often get people who start to talk but then just end up in tears and walk away," Lorrie Sullenberger says. "And Sully and I just look at each other and go, 'Whoa, where does that come from?'
"It's more than just that event on that day. They somehow relate that emotion to something in their lives. One person told Sully: 'I lost my job, my home; my father passed away and a friend died of cancer. I'd frankly lost my faith. And you, sir, gave it back.' It was not about that accident at all."
Sully nods quietly. "Something about this event was life-affirming. It reminded people of the potential for good that exists in all of us. That's why I wrote this book. I want people to see I'm just an ordinary guy who, having cultivated certain virtues, was able to perform an extraordinary act. I want people to see that in themselves."
Highest Duty is the tale of two Sullys. There's the North Texas teen whose mother saved to pay for flying lessons that led to the Air Force Academy and eventually the airlines, a high-achieving life lived perpetually in clouds.
Then there's the mundane reality. A man meets a woman he adores but she doesn't fancy him, though eventually Lorrie came around. A couple who ache to have children but are unable, later opting to adopt two baby girls, Kate and Kelly, now teens. A family nagged by financial worries as Dad struggles with cuts in pay and Mom works to launch a business helping women get fit, an outgrowth of her own battles with weight.
In other words, regular folks.
"I'm impressed by Sully and Lorrie's relationship," says Jeff Zaslow, the book's co-writer. "They're open and honest, and the girls are very respectful kids. They grapple with things we all can relate to. But at the same time Sully is truly an authentic person, and people want to embrace that."
Sullenberger's newfound fame probably could launch a career away from the cockpit. But in returning to flight duty, he perpetuates his own mythic status as a man of principle, says Billy Campbell, who was among the last passengers to climb off Flight 1549 and was the first, sitting next to Sully in a life raft, to thank the pilot for saving their lives.
"Here's a guy with a big book deal and yet he's going back to what he loves to do," says Campbell, a consultant in the entertainment industry, who got to know Sullenberger when the two testified at National Transportation Safety Board hearings.
"Sully always is the same: concise and articulate," he says. "We had a lot of things go right that day, but none would have mattered if he hadn't made the decisions he made."
"I hate standing next to that guy because I always feel like a schmuck," he jokes. "Sully hadn't flown much before our return (to the cockpit together this month), and yet his first trip back was crisp and precise. I like to say that 5% of pilots are born to fly, 5% wash out fast, and the rest of us are in the middle. Well, Sully's at the tip of the spear."
Skiles and Sullenberger are hoping to use their respective moments of fame to draw attention to "the need for more professionalism in the cockpit," says Skiles, a question that has been in the news after crashes in which pilots were found bantering distractedly instead of observing strict codes of cockpit conduct.
"There is particular interest in this issue on the part of those running the Federal Aviation Administration," says Perry Flint, associate publisher of Air Transport World, which covers the industry. "The debate can really be driven by a genuine hero like Sullenberger."
The world continues to expect much of the man who saved Flight 1549. But sometimes Lorrie just wants to be with the white-haired guy who helps carpool the kids.
"I'm the emotional one, where Sully is stoic. So all this has its ups and downs," she says. "We're just an ordinary couple. We have good days and bad days. Some days he's a hero, and sometimes you want to thump him on the head."
Sullenberger lets out a rare laugh, then shakes he head.
"I told you," he says. "She keeps me down to earth."
You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference.
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Spend some time at home with 'Miracle on the Hudson' pilot Chesley Sullenberger, who releases his autobiography today.
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Heather Locklear's DUI Case Dismissed
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pleaded no contest to reckless driving in a Santa Barbara, Calif., court Friday, and in exchange, a DUI charge was dismissed, a source close to the case confirms.
As part of the plea deal with prosecutors, Locklear was sentenced to three years' informal probation, was fined $700 and must complete a 12-hour DMV road and safety class. The actress was not present in court. Her attorney, Blair Berk, declined to comment on the case.
In November, Locklear, 47, had been formally
of drugs following a September arrest in which a 911 caller described her as "driving erratically."
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In a plea deal, the actress gets three years' probation
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Michael Phelps: Can He Keep Branding Power If He Loses?
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By Brian A. Shactman CNBC.com
Michael Phelps is as close to a living Olympic legend as you can get. He's won 16 Olympic medals, including eight golds in the 2008 Beijing Games.
As he enters the London Games, yet again, there are high expectations. With three medals, Phelps would become the top medal winner in Olympic history.
It's difficult to imagine that not happening, and either way, his athletic legacy seems secure.
But what about his brand and earning power?
With the emergence of fellow American Ryan Lochte, it's possible that Michael Phelps isn't a runaway success in London. There, I said it.
"If he walks away with no medal at all, it would be a tremendous disappointment and devastating for the brand," said brand expert Laura Ries. "People want winners, especially Americans."
With so much attention focused on Phelps and his records, there is potential for disappointment, even if that scenario seems unlikely.
"The signs are good," Ries said. "Michael Phelps has been at this a long time. He's very seasoned and has been avoiding the press and handles the pressure well. But what happens in the pool is unpredictable."
Some estimates are that Phelps' long-term earning power could be upward of $100 million. Right now, sponsors include Speedo, Hilton, Subway, Visa, Proctor & Gamble, HP, Topps and Omega.
For a sport that's prominent in the nation's consciousness once every four years, that's a lot.
On the corporate side, most of the deals are long term and couldn't be substantially changed even if Phelps performed poorly. So, most sponsors are with Phelps, for better or worse.
"Phelps is a proven commodity with a great brand," said Rob Prazmark from "21 Marketing", who has been involved with more than a dozen Olympiads, several from the corporate marketing side. "If he does not do well, his brand will continue to stay strong. He already has a track record and has accomplished so much. Yes, there are expectations but not like Beijing."
A lot of the near-term fate of the Phelps brand depends on Ryan Lochte. Many will simply respond with: Who?
Well, he isn't quite the household name like Phelps, but in 2012, Lochte just might be a better swimmer. What's more, marketers have been scrambling to make sure that, if Lochte is a break-out star, he's poised for the exposure ... and the money.
Lochte has been a major coverboy this spring/summer, donning the front of magazines like Men's Journal and Vogue.
"Lochte could walk away the bigger star," Ries said.
At this point, Lochte has contracts with Gatorade, Ralph Lauren, Gillette, Mutual of Omaha and Speedo. Reportedly, if he wins enough, it could translate into more than $3 million. Not bad for a super-talented athlete his coach characterized as having an "airhead quality" in a recent Sports Illustrated feature.
Within the swimming community, there's a chance Lochte has a huge Olympics.
Interestingly, if that happens, it could actually help Lochte and Phelps. Because of Phelps' medal count, he's already in rarified air. If he loses races by a lot, it won't be good, but if he loses close races to Lochte, the coverage and competition could actually enhance the Phelps brand.
"People love the rivalry," Ries said. "If it's a 1-2 finish, that might end up just as good as gold."
Regardless of the outcome, the London Games will be hard-pressed to find a storyline better than Phelps vs. Lochte and whether Phelps will be able to endorse products for the rest of his life.
ThePostGame brings you the most interesting sports stories on the web.
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By Brian A. Shactman
CNBC.com
Michael Phelps is as close to a living Olympic legend as you can get. He's won 16 Olympic medals, including eight golds ...
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Man Creates Unbelievably Vast K'NEX Structure In His Bedroom
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You may remember K'NEX, the construction set with endless possibilites.
Well, wait until you see what one man did with some creativity, a lot of time and about 40,000 K'NEX pieces.
Austin Granger, who has become somewhat of an Internet celebrity for his amazing K'NEX creations, posted a video of what he calls his "most complex structure to date." And that's saying something.
The St. Paul, Minn., native spent eight months building the ball machine, which has 450 feet of track, 21 different paths, eight motors, five lifts, and "a one-of-a-kind computer-controlled crane, as well as two computer-controlled illuminated K'nex balls."
And Granger wasn't exactly working with a ton of space -- he created the entire structure in his bedroom.
ThePostGame brings you the most interesting sports stories on the web.
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to read them first!
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You may remember K'NEX, the construction set with endless possibilites.
Well, wait until you see what one man did with some creativity, a lot of time...
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The apartheid wall - Archive - Al Jazeera English
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20121011130018
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The latest indignity endured by the Palestinian people is the erection of the separation wall.
This concrete barrier â commonly known as the apartheid wall, but referred to by Israel as a separation fence â being built through the West Bank is not a new idea. The notion has been circulating the Israeli political scene since 1973.
The wall is 8m high, twice the height of the former Berlin wall. Palestinian sources anticipate that it may reach 650km long, more than four times the length of the Berlin wall. On a daily basis 500 bulldozers can be seen working on it â and it is possibly Israelâs largest project to date.
It will be equipped with highly sophisticated surveillance equipment and electric barbed wire and, in parts, is bordered by trenches; it will also be patrolled. Palestinians above the age of 12 will have to hold a permit to cross it. The total estimated cost of the wall is more than $1billion.
In the summer of 2002, Sharonâs government provoked further controversy when it started building the wall east of the Green Line, near the village of Salim, west of Jenin (the original 1967 armistice line). This means that more Palestinian land is being encroached and more Palestinian people living within the vicinity of the wall will be displaced.
A boy tries to squeeze through the wall while it is being builtOne reason for the deviation in the route is to appease illegal Israeli settlers. They are putting pressure on their government to build the wall around them, leaving some Palestinian homes virtually surrounded.
A boy tries to squeeze through the wall while it is being built
The villages of Rummana, Taba and Yanin have been put into a canton and separated from the West Bank and from Israel by two separate walls.
A World Bank report of May 2003 states that the wall will hurt Palestinians immensely. The report claims: â95,000 Palestinians will remain living between the fence and the Green Line (61,000 of them in the Jerusalem district) when the fence is completed.â The report confirms that the wall will strip Palestinians living beside it of access to water resources.
The wall is said to have seriously affected the living of thousands of Palestinians. It separates farmers from their land, it divides families, and cuts businessmen off from their premises. Shepherds have been forced to sell their flocks owing to loss of pasture.
An estimated 100,000 olive trees and 50,000 fruit have been removed already along the first 112km (70 miles) of the wall according to Palestinian environment groups.
Towards the end of October 2003 the UN voted overwhelmingly to demand that Israel stops building the wall and demolishes certain parts of it because it contravenes international law. However, to date, the wall continues to go up.
The first phase of building in the northwestern West Bank was completed in July 2003, and will continue south. Ariel Sharon has also announced that the wall will be continued on the east side of the West Bank, separating it from Jordan.
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<P>The latest indignity endured by the Palestinian people is the erection of the separation wall.</P>
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Home Movie Day helps keep Super 8 films alive
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20121018004225
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Recently, from deep within what I call my Closet of Doom, I unearthed a bag of celluloid treasures. Some were tucked inside square, yellow Kodak cartons and bore labels such as “The Desert Town” and “D&D Movie ’81.” Others, spooled naked on plastic film reels and wrapped with decomposing rubber bands, had no labels at all.
I knew these relics dated to the 1970s and ’80s, to an era when I was going to be the next Steven Spielberg. I shot dozens of Super 8 cartridges to capture my teenage world. These short movies had not seen the light of day in decades, nor the light of a projector bulb.
I tracked down a projector and screened them on my living room wall for an audience of one. Magic. But I longed for more viewers.
Thanks to Home Movie Day, any awkward, nerdy, or homespun masterpiece can now find a wider audience. The annual celebration of amateur films and filmmaking celebrates its 10th incarnation this Saturday at close to 100 locations in 20 countries worldwide. Locally, folks will gather from noon to 3 p.m. at Somerville Community Access Television (SCATV) in Union Square to screen submissions in their original, obsolete formats — 8mm, Super 8, 16mm, and VHS — and share what lost events and memories these jittery, dusty time machines evoke.
“There is almost 100 years of movies that have only been shown in peoples’ houses,” said Liz Coffey, film conservator for Harvard Film Archive Weissman Preservation Center, which cosponsors the event. Coffey said an artifact like a three-minute Super 8 film — “more of a snapshot than a narrative” — deserves a wider audience. But people sometimes lack working projectors and a reason to pull their films out of storage.
Home Movie Day to the rescue.
Some brave folks bring footage that hasn’t been shown in years. Or ever. Coffey offered this advice: “Ask your parents.” They might exhume a box of movies documenting your seventh birthday party or first dance recital, or that cringe-worthy yet wonderful James Bond spy movie you made in high school.
The event is as much about enjoying these relics from the past as it is about calling attention to the fragility of “moving-image records,” Albert Steg said in an e-mail. Steg is a Cambridge-based member of the board of directors of the Center for Home Movies, which helps coordinate the worldwide event. “They can be lost to benign neglect until no one knows what or where they are, and they wind up in a yard sale or out on a curb along with the fondue set.”
Reed Sturtevant began shooting Super 8 movies as a teen and MIT student in the 1970s and still occasionally shoots them.
In that sense, Home Movie Day is also a consciousness-raising: a chance to meet your local film archivists and learn why digital formats — like VHS or DVD — aren’t the best archival format to preserve these films for posterity. “The longevity of film compared to newer formats is pretty spectacular,” said Steg. “Reels of 16mm from the 1930s are typically still readily projectable today.” But sadly, many people toss their films when they transfer them over. “The idea that ‘digital is forever’ is misguided.”
The issue is “format obsolescence,” said Lexington resident Reed Sturtevant, a Home Movie Day attendee since 2005 and self-described “gearhead” who owns hundreds of movies and some 20 movie cameras, and runs a site called Super8wiki.com. “A ‘.mov’ film — will that be available 20 or 30 years from now? That’s a big long-term issue.”
Amateur home movies date to the birth of film and have always been a “subculture in cinema,” said Gordon Nelson, a filmmaker and instructor at SCATV who is facilitating the screenings. “[One of] the earliest films of the Lumière brothers [was] of the family eating breakfast. It’s about 30 seconds long, but it’s a home movie.”
Nelson said the home movie explosion in America began in the 1930s with the “regular” 8mm format. Then, in the 1960s, came the “goof proof” Super 8 format, whose cameras used easy-to-load cartridges and exposed the film automatically. When VHS camcorders proliferated in the 1980s, Super 8 declined. But home movies are “still vital,” Nelson added; they’re just shot on cellphones and uploaded to YouTube.
Nowadays, Super 8 is mainly used by artists — “retro hipsters who might be buying manual typewriters in Brooklyn,” said Sturtevant, who began shooting Super 8 movies as a teen and MIT student in the 1970s and still occasionally shoots them. “Especially with the old film stock, like Kodachrome, the color is just visually beautiful when you project it.” The format has “that look”: a rich color palette and a flickering “unpredictable quality” that can produce “artistic surprises” that digital filters and editing software can’t reproduce. “It’s a cultural heritage that could become lost if people aren’t aware of it and [don’t] preserve them.”
Steg hopes people consider the power these objects have “to capture so many of the ephemeral details of life you don’t really appreciate until they’re gone.” Outdated clothing styles, old car models and signage, images of neighborhoods that don’t exist anymore. In that regard, these films are receptacles for history.
“We do ask people to talk during their movies,” Coffey said. People stand up to explain the context (“That’s my mom, she’s been dead for 20 years”). “The event has a lot of heart.”
That these films were never meant to have a wide audience makes them all the more endearing. And enduring.
For Sturtevant, Home Movie Day is about the “warm human experience” of the screening itself. “You set up the projector, you turn out the lights, you’re all there together,” he said. And there in the dark, he added, you might find yourself saying, “My mother had a hairstyle like that, too.”
To participate in Home Movie Day, drop off your films by Oct. 19 at the offices of Somerville Community Access Television (90 Union Square, Somerville) or the Harvard Film Archive (24 Quincy St., Cambridge).Films must be inspected for damage before being run through a projector. More information: www.homemovieday.com
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Thanks to Home Movie Day, any awkward, nerdy masterpiece can now find a wider audience. The annual celebration of amateur films and filmmaking celebrates its 10th incarnation this Saturday at close to 100 locations in 20 countries worldwide. Locally, folks will gather at Somerville Community Access Television (SCATV) in Union Square to screen submissions in their original, obsolete formats — 8mm, Super 8, 16mm, and VHS — and share what lost events and memories these jittery, dusty time machines evoke.
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Sources: Nicole Kidman avoiding friends, won't speak about ex Tom Cruise's divorce from Katie Holmes
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20121023071154
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LOS ANGELES – Katie Holmes may have pulled a fast one on Tom Cruise with last week’s divorce filing. But back in 2001, less than two months after renewing their vows following 10 years of matrimony, Nicole Kidman was the one seeing double after Cruise filed for a divorce from her.
But instead of getting her pound of flesh a decade later and twisting the knife in her ex, sources connected to the Australian actress tell FOX411’s Pop Tarts column that she does not want to get involved in any way regarding Cruise’s latest ruptured romance.
“Nicole won’t talk, wants her privacy, wants to be left out of this and they (she and Cruise) don’t speak much,” said an insider. “Communication between her and Tom is very limited.”
Another source said that Kidman is lying as low as possible, even avoiding her closest friends.
“Nicole really does not want to be dragged into this or say anything to anyone,” said the source. “At some point though, she will probably be forced to say something, and she will most likely support Tom for the sake of their children.”
A rep for Kidman declined to comment on the divorce news, and said the notion that she wanted to lay low and stay out of the issue as much as possible were not accurate.
A rep for Cruise did not respond to a request for comment.
PHOTOS: Katie and Suri's day at the museum.
But unlike the divorce between Cruise and Holmes, in which Holmes is seeking sole custody of their six-year-old daughter Suri, relations between Cruise and Kidman appeared to be a little more amicable, with the then-power couple agreeing to joint custody of their adopted son Conner, now 17, and daughter Isabella, now 19. However, over the years Kidman has been noticeably absent in their lives, and repeatedly said that this is not by choice.
“They live with Tom in Los Angeles, which was their choice,” Kidman, who is now married with two children to country star Keith Urban and resides mostly in Nashville and Australia, told Hello! magazine in 2010. “I’d love them to live with us, but what can you do?”
The Oscar-winning actress, who remains a devout Catholic, has never gone into great detail regarding the seemingly disconnected relationship she has with her two eldest children, or their involvement in following their father’s footsteps into the Church of Scientology.
In May, Isabella told Australian magazine New Idea that she “loved” her mom, adding that she speaks to her and “sometimes” sees her. Brother Conner hasn’t been spotted publicly with his famous mom in several years.
Yet over the course of her relationship with Cruise, Holmes seems to have taken a particularly maternal role with Isabella and Conner, with a source telling us that Holmes would often travel with them, and they always seemed to get along very well.
But aspiring DJ Conner is clearly backing his father in the ruptured romance.
"#LaFamilia Always. Friends Come And Go, But Family Is Forever,” he tweeted this week.
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“Nicole really does not want to be dragged into this or say anything to anyone,” says one source.
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Romney Camp Bets On Welfare Attack
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20121108093211
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Posted Aug 28, 2012 6:26am EDT
Mitt Romney's aides explained with unusual political bluntness today why they are spending heavily — and ignoring media criticism — to air an add accusing President Barack Obama of "gutting" the work requirement for welfare, a marginal political issue since the mid-1990s that Romney pushed back to center stage.
"Our most effective ad is our welfare ad," a top television advertising strategist for Romney, Ashley O'Connor, said at a forum Tuesday hosted by ABCNews and Yahoo! News. "It's new information."
The welfare ad has been the center of intense dispute, with Democrats accusing Romney of unearthing old racial ghosts and Romney pointing out that the Obama Administration has offered states waivers that could, in fact, lighten work requirements in welfare, a central issue in Bill Clinton's 1996 revamping of public assistance.
The Washington Post's "Fact Checker" awarded Romney's ad "four Pinocchios," a measure Romney pollster Neil Newhouse dismissed.
"Fact checkers come to this with their own sets of thoughts and beliefs, and we’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers," he said. The fact-checkers — whose institutional rise has been a feature of the cycle — have "jumped the shark," he added after the panel.
Romney's aides have brushed off suggestions the welfare fight has a racial edge.
His longtime spokesman, Eric Fehrnstrom, said it was simply a policy fight: "We’re having an argument about welfare reform," he said, noting that Obama's administration had chosen to offer the waivers, and that the Administration had overstated the roles of Republican governors in seeking alternatives to the work requirement.
The election, Fehrnstrom said, "will be a referendum on the president's handling of the economy."
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Their most powerful weapon, a top aide says. "We're not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers," says Newhouse.
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GENERAL NEWS. - NYTimes.com
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20121110151211
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The New-York State Democratic Convention completed its work yesterday. It made the following nominations:
Secretary of State -- Maj.-Gen. SLOCUM.
State Engineer -- S.H. SWEET.
Canal Commissioner -- CORNELIUS W. ARMSTRONG.
Treasurer -- Gen. M.R. PATRICK.
Attorney-General -- JOHN VAN BUREN.
The resolutions, in the language of the great showman, "must be seen to be appreciated," and therefore we refer the reader to the report, in another part of the paper.
Capt. LUDLOW, of the ship Isaac Howland, captured and burned by the pirate Shenandoah, writes to the Sag Harbor Express, stating the facts of his capture, and also that when the pirate boarded, the Favorite, Capt. YOUNG, of that vessel, attempted to shoot WADDELL, the commander of the Shenandoah, with a bomb-gun, but unfortunately the mate had removed the cap from the gun unknown to the captain. He was told that it was sure death to him to shoot. He replied; "I'd die willingly, could I kill that wretch." The pirates immediately handcuffed him, and put him in the coal-hole of their ship.
Gen. ASBOTH, commanding at Barrancas, Fla., has issued an order to the following purport: "As there appears to be some misconception relative to the parole given to soldiers of the late so-called Confederate army, it is hereby announced that the spirit of this parole was to obey the laws of the United States, and any violation of those laws, as well as the proclamation of the President of the United States in regard to slavery, will be met within this military district with speedy punishment."
The deaths in the United States General Hospital, Fortress Monroe, Va., for the week ending Sept. 2, 1865, were: Andrew Dillen, Company E, One Hundred and Seventeenth U.S.C. Infantry; George Tomlinson, Company F, Fifth Maryland; Corp. Job D. Davis, Company H, Twenty-ninth Connecticut Colored Infantry; Henry C. Leeds, Company A, Thirty-fourth Illinois; Suldan Childs, Company A, One Hundred and Twenty-seventh U.S.C. Infantry; Richard Thomas, Company K, One Hundred and Eighth U.S.C. Infantry.
The Mobile Daily Tribune, of Aug. 27, says: "Up to yesterday evening, between three and four hundred citizens had taken the amnesty oath before the officer who acts for the Provost-Marshal. We suppose that the list will be increased to six hundred by the day of the election. The officer, we may observe, is a very courteous and patient gentleman, and no one need apprehend any unkindness from him. His face, however, would assure us of this. It is a very excellent letter of recommendation."
"The United States Marshal," says the Montgomery Advertiser, 25th ult., "yesterday arrested Hon. WILLIAM G. JONES, who was in this city, on the charge of treason and conspiracy. Judge JONES was the presiding Judge of the District Court of the United States for the State of Alabama at the time of secession, and was continued in that position by the succeeding regime. He entered into a bond of $20,000 for his appearance at the court to be held in this city in November next."
We learn from Caraccas that Hon. E.D. CULVER, our Minister, has obtained from the Venezuelan Government a convention for the settlement of all American claims -- the government by this means obtaining ten years for payment, except in some cases of trivial amount, which are to be arranged forthwith. Gen. FALCON is still at the head of affairs. GUZMAN remains constantly at the capital. The season thus far has been unusually propitious. The crops are very full, especially coffee, cocoa and sugar.
A collision occurred about 8 o'clock yesterday morning on the Camden and Amboy Railroad near Hightstown, between a freight and passenger train. Nine persons were severely bruised, but no lives were lost. Great indignation was manifested among the passengers against the conductors and engineers of the two trains, who prudently kept out of the way until the excitement had subsided. The passenger-train was delayed four hours.
The Republican Convention of Minnesota yesterday nominated Gen. W.R. MARSHALL for Governor. The platform affirms that neither race nor birthplace should take away political rights; that all the people should be educated; that the Monroe doctrine should be enforced, and the French be compelled to leave Mexico. A resolution indorsing the President's course was voted down.
The election in Wilmington, Del., on Tuesday, resulted in the success of every Union candidate in every precinct in the city. There was not much excitement, and the poll was small, there being only 1,415 votes cast. The vote stood as follows: Mayor -- JOSHUA MARIS, 955; THOMAS YOUNG, 460; majority, 495. A year ago there were 1,684 votes polled, being 269 more than were cast on Tuesday.
Since the fall of Richmond, upward of 600,000 men, with all their regimental officers, have been mustered out, disbanded, paid off, and every man conveyed to his doorstep at the expense of the government, over the whole expanse of our wide country, from Eastport, at the extreme Northeast, to the Falls of St. Anthony, at the Northwest, and St. Louis, at the southwest, and embracing all the Middle and [???]order States.
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The New-York State Democratic Convention completed its work yesterday. It made the following nominations: Secretary of State Maj.-Gen. SLOCUM. Comptroller LUCIUS ROBINSON. State Engineer S.H. SWEET. Canal Commissioner CORNELIUS W. ARMSTRONG. Treasurer Gen. M.R. PATRICK. Attorney-General JOHN VAN BUREN. The resolutions, in the language of the great showman, "must be seen to be appreciated," and therefore we refer the reader to the report, in another part of the paper.
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Demi Moore's daughters reportedly not speaking to her: Ugliest celeb mother-daughter battle?
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20121111023322
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Demi Moore isn't on great terms with her daughters, if you believe the latest gossip -- and it has nothing to do with the nude pictures of 18-year-old Tallulah that were reportedly going around last week. Nor does it have to do with 20-year-old Scout's arrest for underage drinking and using fake ID.
SODAHEAD SLIDESHOW: See the ugliest celebrity mother-daughter battles.
Moore's daughters with ex-husband Bruce Willis are no longer talking to their mom after their relationships with her reached a "breaking point" following numerous fights, RadarOnline.com reports.
"Rumer, Scout and Tallulah just don't want to deal with the drama at the moment," a source close to the family tells the gossip site. "Since breaking up with Ashton [Kutcher], Demi has been a mess. The girls were there for her through it all -- the split and the rehab but now they just feel like they need a little distance."
And believe it or not, they still miss their former step-dad. "Another huge bone of contention has been the girls' relationship with Ashton," the source says. "They all adore him and talk to him regularly which Demi hates, but he was a huge part of their lives when they were growing up and they don't want to break off all contact with him."
PHOTOS: See the latest celebrity pictures to hit the Internet.
From Demi and the girls to Jennifer Aniston and her mom, let us know: Who had the ugliest celeb mother-daughter battle?
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Rumer, Scout and Tallulah just don't want to deal with the drama at the moment, a source close to the family reportedly said.
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John Hammond, 76, Critic and Discoverer Of Pop Talent, Dies
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20121111204914
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John Hammond, a critic, talent scout and record producer whose musical discoveries ranged from Billie Holiday to Bob Dylan and who had an extraordinary influence upon the history of American popular music, died yesterday at his home in Manhattan. He was 76 years old.
Over the course of a career that spanned nearly half a century, Mr. Hammond was directly responsible for bringing Miss Holiday, Count Basie, Teddy Wilson, Charlie Christian and Aretha Franklin to public attention, and he supervised the last recording sessions of Bessie Smith, the celebrated blues singer.
It was Mr. Hammond's idea to form the Benny Goodman Orchestra, and he organized the historic ''Spirituals to Swing'' concert at Carnegie Hall in 1938. Amid considerable corporate resistance, he signed a young, unknown folk singer named Bob Dylan to Columbia Records. And in 1972, when he was in his 60's, Mr. Hammond had the prescience to recognize talent in Bruce Springsteen and to offer him his first recording contract.
Mr. Hammond was a champion of racial equality, and his love for jazz and blues helped to elevate black music from segregated clubs and small, poorly distributed ''race'' record labels and carry it to a wide audience. ''One reason I'm the way I am is that I got to know Harlem,'' he said in 1971. ''Upperclass white folks went up to Harlem in the 20's, slumming. I went out of passion. Anyone who did that had his life changed.'' He arranged recording dates with racially mixed groups when such arrangements were unheard of.
When he introduced Teddy Wilson to Benny Goodman and they formed the Benny Goodman Trio, which subsequently played in Carnegie Hall, it was believed to be the first time a racially integrated musical unit had appeared onstage in a major hall in the United States.
Mr. Hammond was also a critic, and wrote widely on jazz and popular music for publications as disparate as Melody Maker, The Brooklyn Eagle, New Masses and The New York Times.
John Henry Hammond Jr. was born in an eight-story granite mansion at 9 East 91st Street in Manhattan on Dec. 15, 1910. His father, John Henry Ham mond, was a director of 10 corporations and the senior member of the law firm Hines, Rearick, Dorr & Hammond; his mother, Emily Vanderbilt Sloane Hammond, was the daughter of William Douglas Sloane, of W. & J. Sloane Furniture, and the granddaughter of William H. Vanderbilt.
He attended Hotchkiss School and Yale University. While still a teen-ager, he became fascinated with black music, and spent a good deal of time in the clubs and theaters of Harlem. After dropping out of Yale in 1931, he worked for radio station WEVD as an announcer, disk jockey and producer of live jazz shows.
He covered the ''Scottsboro Boys'' case for The Nation in the early 1930's, using the assignment as an excuse to explore the South and to meet and listen to jazz and blues musicians. In 1933, he was appointed the American recording director of the English division of Columbia Records.
These early sessions yielded disks by Fletcher Henderson, Coleman Hawkins, Joe Venuti, Chick Webb, Red Norvo, Mildred Bailey, Gene Krupa and Jack Teagarden, among others. He personally subsidized many of these recordings on the $12,000-a-year income he received from a trust fund.
Mr. Hammond heard Ella Fitzgerald in 1934, shortly after she had won an amateur contest, and declined to record her; he later said it was the worst mistake of his career. A Reluctant Goodman
It was during this time that Mr. Hammond befriended the young Benny Goodman, who was then playing only occasionally in pit bands and on the radio. The two men often went on nocturnal excursions around Harlem; on one such trip, they heard an unknown singer named Billie Holiday. Mr. Hammond was tremendously impressed and immediately arranged for her to record two disks with Goodman. In 1934, Goodman reluctantly submitted to Mr. Hammond's oft-repeated plea that he form his own band; within a few years it was the most successful musical ensemble in the United States.
During this period of his life, Mr. Hammond traveled by car, one equipped with a strong radio; he discovered Count Basie over the airwaves of a Kansas City station. He found Charlie Christian playing in a small honky-tonk club outside Oklahoma City. In December 1938 he brought the Goodman and Basie bands; Pete Johnson, Albert Ammons, Meade Lux Lewis and James P. Johnson, pianists; Sidney Bechet, soprano saxophonist, and others to Carnegie Hall for the legendary ''Spirituals to Swing'' concert.
Mr. Springsteen played an audition for Mr. Hammond in the early 1970's. ''He launched immediately into an extraordinary piece filled with street imagery,'' Mr. Hammond recalled. ''I heard immediately that he was both a born poet and an extremely good guitar player.'' Mr. Springsteen's first two albums sold only moderately well, but his third, ''Born to Run,'' established him as one of the most popular musicians of his era.
Mr. Hammond's wife, Esme O'Brien Hammond, to whom he was married in 1949, died in 1986; an earlier marriage had ended in divorce. He is survived by two sons, John Hammond, the blues musician, and Jason Hammond; a stepdaughter, Rosita Sarnoff, and six grandchildren.
Photo of John Hammond (Pictorial Parade/Tom Gates) (Page 37)
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LEAD: John Hammond, a critic, talent scout and record producer whose musical discoveries ranged from Billie Holiday to Bob Dylan and who had an extraordinary influence upon the history of American popular music, died yesterday at his home in Manhattan. He was 76 years old.
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Park Visitors See Saffron, and Businesses See Green
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20121113000020
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ennis Roman hardly had a moment to look up at the towering orange frames snaking through Central Park, their saffron fabric waving in the Sunday sun. Not that he minded; he had hot dogs to sell.
On a typical Sunday in February, Mr. Roman said, he usually makes about $100. By 3 p.m. yesterday, he had already taken in $1,000.
"It's been like this all day," he said. "It's never like this usually, never."
As the crowds flocked to the park yesterday to gaze at and ponder over "The Gates," the huge, colorful installation by Christo and his wife, Jeanne-Claude, businesses inside the park - from merchandise vendors to caricature artists to major restaurants - were booming. Parking garages nearby were filled and restaurants along the park's perimeter were packed with people jockeying for a table.
City officials said they expected tens of thousands of people to show up for the exhibition, which is to be up for only 16 days, and whose $20 million cost is being borne exclusively by the artists. By the time the 7,500 gates are taken down in two weeks, the city expects to generate $80 million in business, with $2.5 million in city taxes alone, according to the city's Economic Development Corporation.
The Strand bookstore's mobile stand, along Fifth Avenue near the southeast corner of the park, is normally closed from December to March, but decided to open because of "The Gates," according to a salesperson, Kevin Crow. He estimated that about 100 customers showed up on Saturday, 10 percent more than any other day. Books about "The Gates" and about previous projects of Christo and Jeanne-Claude made up most of the sales, he said.
While business slowed "the tiniest bit" yesterday, Mr. Crow said, it was still considered a major success. Dozens of other vendors who would typically spend winter in business hibernation came out yesterday, prompted in part by the sunny skies.
Stacey Berna, who makes and sells animal balloons for whatever customers are willing to pay, said she stayed home on Saturday, waiting to see how large the crowds would be and what the weather would bring. As she stood outside jacketless, she smiled at the sun and the crowds..
"This is just a lot of fun," she said, adding that she had about 150 customers by midafternoon. While she would typically see twice that in July, she was happy just to have a small bonus. "At this time of year, I'm home with my children," she said. She continued, "If it stays like this, it could be a busy couple of weeks."
The Boathouse restaurant usually shuts its doors for dinner in the winter, but the general manager, Fonda Tsironis, said it would stay open every night during the exhibit. There was a two-hour wait for a table early last evening and it was already booked for tonight, Mr. Tsironis said.
"We've been turning away people all day," he said, motioning to the tables full of brunch diners. "We love this, every minute of it. This is the kind of thing New York is made for."
He estimated that about 40 percent of customers were tourists and that during the week the number of lunch diners would more than triple, totaling 250 to 300.
With panoramic windows stretching across the dining room, Mr. Tsironis had plenty of occasion to look at the way the fabric swinging from the gates changed with the wind and the light. Christo and Jeanne-Claude had stopped by earlier in the day and received a standing ovation, but had not stopped to eat, Mr. Tsironis said. "I don't know where he's eating, or if he's eating," he said with a laugh. "He probably doesn't have time."
Neither did the park's busy vendors, most of whom shrugged or laughed when asked what they thought of the spectacle that had brought out so many customers.
"I don't really understand it," said Sharif Sadiq, a 45-year-old sketch artist from Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn. He'd sold three caricatures by 4 p.m. and was hopeful he would sell a few more before nightfall. "Normally it's just one, so that's a major improvement," he said. "I just hope there are tourists, because city people don't usually come to buy this."
Miguel Ixco was completely uninterested in discussing the finer points of art as he pulled out a thick stack of bills and counted his day's earnings from selling cotton candy.
"It's not all that much," as he folded back $70. "But it's more than I'd usually have. There are so many people here, they have to buy something eventually."
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As the crowds flocked to Central Park to gaze at and ponder over "The Gates," businesses inside the park were booming.
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http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Design-student-creates-coat-for-homeless-people-2310080.php
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http://web.archive.org/web/20121121204608id_/http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Design-student-creates-coat-for-homeless-people-2310080.php
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Design student creates coat for homeless people
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20121121204608
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Kelvin Quinnine has shivered through more San Francisco nights than he can count, fog biting through whatever worn-out sleeping bag he pitched onto the sidewalk.
He stood last week on Ellis Street with his latest bag wrapped around him. When a young woman wearing a bizarrely baggy coat walked up to him, he cocked his gray-bearded head sideways.
"It's a coat for the homeless that turns into a sleeping bag at night," 22-year-old Veronika Scott said brightly. She held an edge out to him. Quinnine pinched it.
"Goes down to 17 degrees," Scott said.
"Is that right?" the 43-year-old Quinnine said, face lighting up with appreciation. "That'd be a good thing."
That's just what Scott is hoping other homeless people will think when they see her invention over the coming year.
A design student at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Scott conceived her coat-bag for a class project in 2010 - and now she's planning to go national with it.
The Detroit native has watched the homeless population of her economically savaged city explode to more than 30,000 in recent years, and she wants to help.
"What I found, in working at shelters and getting to know homeless people, is that pride is one of their biggest needs," Scott said. "Whether or not they can get into a shelter, they want to be able to take care of themselves."
Part of that pride, Scott learned, meant being able to sleep outside without freezing to death. In Detroit in the winter, a homeless person can die of exposure even in the daytime.
To Scott, the logical thing was to devise a warm coat for the daytime that could also be used as a life-saving blanket at night.
Scott takes synthetic quilting used in industrial clothing and stitches it to an outer shell of Tyvek, a paper-thin, crinkly material used in mail envelopes and building insulation. Tyvek is so water resistant and heat-trapping that Scott and her friends have been able to sleep in 17-degree weather, in the snow, and stay warm, she said.
The coat-bag weighs only 1 pound and looks like an extra-large coat with a big hood. It costs $7 to $10 to produce.
"I didn't mean this coat to make it seem like it's OK to sleep outside, but our shelters are just so full," Scott said. "And this is something that can help people in the meantime. It's really a basic survival thing."
She presented one of her early prototypes Friday at the Social Capital Markets Conference at Fort Mason, an annual gathering of national entrepreneurs and innovators with an environmental and do-gooding mindset. Amid the admiring oohs and ahs, workshop co-organizer Sarah Brooks said Scott's idea could catch fire even on the less-frigid West Coast.
"I am so impressed with her," said Brooks, director of social innovation for the Hot Studio design firm in San Francisco. "She could totally take this thing to scale. I mean, it's even stylish - I'd wear it."
Over the past year, Scott has handed out 25 coat-bags to homeless people in the Motor City and gathered rave reviews from NPR and newspapers in Michigan. With companies from Dupont to Acme Mills interested in helping her, she said, she's ready to graduate in December and start producing her coat-bags - called Element S (for survival) - in big numbers.
She'll start with three employees and intends to hire homeless women. The goal is to sell one type of the coat to non-homeless people for a profit, and to use the proceeds to produce others to give free to folks on the street.
In between appearances at Fort Mason, Scott showed her coat around the Tenderloin to Quinnine and others waiting for the Glide Memorial United Methodist Church soup kitchen to open. The coat was an early prototype, and not as sleek or stylish as her latest version, she said by way of apology - but it went over big anyway.
"Looks good. It gets really cold around here, so this would really help," said Vincent Henry, 51, with a much heavier and less efficient sleeping bag under his arm. "It'd be OK as long as it doesn't get ripped off."
E-mail Kevin Fagan at kfagan@sfchronicle.com.
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Design student creates coat for homeless people A design student at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Scott conceived her coat-bag for a class project in 2010 - and now she's planning to go national with it. "What I found, in working at shelters and getting to know homeless people, is that pride is one of their biggest needs," Scott said. Effective in snowScott takes synthetic quilting used in industrial clothing and stitches it to an outer shell of Tyvek, a paper-thin, crinkly material used in mail envelopes and building insulation. Over the past year, Scott has handed out 25 coat-bags to homeless people in the Motor City and gathered rave reviews from NPR and newspapers in Michigan. With companies from Dupont to Acme Mills interested in helping her, she said, she's ready to graduate in December and start producing her coat-bags - called Element S (for survival) - in big numbers. In between appearances at Fort Mason, Scott showed her coat around the Tenderloin to Quinnine and others waiting for the Glide Memorial United Methodist Church soup kitchen to open.
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http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/DINING-Cafe-Z-a-bistro-hidden-in-a-strip-mall-2300777.php
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http://web.archive.org/web/20121123125042id_/http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/DINING-Cafe-Z-a-bistro-hidden-in-a-strip-mall-2300777.php
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DINING / Cafe Z a bistro hidden in a strip mall / Simple dishes shine at Greenbrae eatery
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20121123125042
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In today's real estate market, finding a prime restaurant location that's affordable is difficult, if not downright impossible. It's what makes a place like Cafe Z Epicerie -- which might be better suited to the quaint, boutique-filled streets that define much of Marin -- nab a spot amid grocery and drug stores in a strip mall adjacent to the highway. But it hasn't stopped the charming restaurant from making a name for itself with the locals.
The decor is well thought out, and while the elements of quick service are there -- glass guard to section off the kitchen, ice cream freezer with a thin layer of frost, and the occasional jingle of the register -- this is certainly no fast-food joint.
Shiny hardwood floors, white wainscoting and creamy lemon walls brighten the space in front, mimicking a casual bistro setting. During the day, sunlight streams through the large front windows; dim lighting sets a more romantic mood at night.
Marble-topped tables for two make up most of the 28 seats inside (a few tables are out front as well), and a rustic wood table with long benches works for large parties. It's the only table with a bouquet of seasonal flowers; otherwise, decor is sparse, with just a few long, wood-framed mirrors replacing art. It's understated but tasteful, and the simplicity is refreshing.
Cafe Z -- that's what the regulars call it -- started serving dinner in July although it's been open for breakfast and lunch for two years. Executive chef Sally Sampson is best known for penning a bevy of cookbooks, including "The $50 Dinner Party," and co-authored "The Olives Table" with well-known Boston chef Todd English.
Although many of her dishes translate well to the restaurant arena, her cuisine is hard to describe. The one constant is fresh and local ingredients; otherwise, notes of the Mediterranean, California and India emerge.
This wide range is more noticeable at dinner -- the lunch menu focuses on savory crepes, salads and sandwiches. Tarragon chicken salad ($6.95), served on a pile of mixed greens, is inventive enough to stand out, as is a Mediterranean tuna sandwich ($6.95) speckled with capers, olives and red peppers.
Many lunch items are available throughout the day, but the dinner menu is more limited. Appetizers consist mainly of soup and salads, but there's also an oozing wedge of baked Brie ($6.95) served with grilled crusty bread, sweet caramelized onions and warm apples. At first glance, it seemed like an absurdly large portion, but two of us had no trouble polishing it off.
We also enjoyed the chile-rubbed shrimp ($7.95), although the advertised "spicy" warning was unfounded -- the succulent shrimp boasted only a slight level of heat. The appetizer is served over a bed of greens; diners choosing to make an entree out of the shellfish ($16.95) get sides of basmati rice and vegetables instead.
Dinner doesn't yet draw the same crowd as lunch, and as a result, service can be too relaxed. On our first visit, the timing was off -- we ordered the Brie and a Caesar salad ($4.95/$7.50) to start, and our server staggered them in two separate courses. However, the salad was crisp and the dressing well-balanced, with a noticeable hit of garlic and anchovy.
Another night, the shrimp appetizer and a creamy tomato and cheddar soup ($4.95) arrived at the same time. The soup was lukewarm, and was filled with gritty bits of cheese.
Other than the timing issues, servers are chatty without being overbearing, and are happy to let you in on their favorite dishes.
Sampson's entrees alternate between very simple -- like grilled lemon chicken ($14.95) -- and overly spiced, like a rustic Moroccan vegetable stew ($10.95). Generally, the more straightforward dishes stand out -- the grilled chicken is tender and juicy, and a lightly browned mashed potato cake underneath is perked up by the tangy lemon sauce, along with buttery batons of zucchini. The stew, on the other hand, was marred by too much cinnamon.
Likewise, the sauce on the pork chops ($14.95) was over-seasoned with cumin, overpowering even the strong capers and olives.
Burgers, served on a scooped-out crusty bun, include both a sirloin burger ($8.95) and cheeseburger ($9.95), in addition to more interesting combinations like a ground turkey burger with rosemary and oregano ($11.95). A sirloin burger with cheddar and mango chutney ($13.95) has the right amount of salt and sweet, with a nice hit of ginger in the chutney.
For dessert, Marin County's Fiorello's provides gelato, and the staff is happy to let you taste flavors before you order. Don't be deterred by the flavor chart -- "orange blood," scary as it sounds, is indeed blood orange, and is fabulous on its own. Rum raisin is especially delicious paired with a boozy bread pudding in whiskey sauce ($6.95). The smartest choice for dessert, however, is the reliable crepe, oozing with fillings such as creamy Nutella and warm banana slices ($5.95).
Even with the slight missteps, Cafe Z is worth a visit. And don't be put off by its strip mall location; it means it's right there for a pre-grocery shop lunch or a post pick-up-your-prescription dinner.
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DINING / Cafe Z a bistro hidden in a strip mall / Simple dishes shine at Greenbrae eatery In today's real estate market, finding a prime restaurant location that's affordable is difficult, if not downright impossible. [...] it hasn't stopped the charming restaurant from making a name for itself with the locals. The decor is well thought out, and while the elements of quick service are there -- glass guard to section off the kitchen, ice cream freezer with a thin layer of frost, and the occasional jingle of the register -- this is certainly no fast-food joint. Shiny hardwood floors, white wainscoting and creamy lemon walls brighten the space in front, mimicking a casual bistro setting. During the day, sunlight streams through the large front windows; dim lighting sets a more romantic mood at night. Marble-topped tables for two make up most of the 28 seats inside (a few tables are out front as well), and a rustic wood table with long benches works for large parties. Cafe Z -- that's what the regulars call it -- started serving dinner in July although it's been open for breakfast and lunch for two years. Executive chef Sally Sampson is best known for penning a bevy of cookbooks, including "The $50 Dinner Party," and co-authored "The Olives Table" with well-known Boston chef Todd English. Tarragon chicken salad ($6.95), served on a pile of mixed greens, is inventive enough to stand out, as is a Mediterranean tuna sandwich ($6.95) speckled with capers, olives and red peppers. Many lunch items are available throughout the day, but the dinner menu is more limited. Appetizers consist mainly of soup and salads, but there's also an oozing wedge of baked Brie ($6.95) served with grilled crusty bread, sweet caramelized onions and warm apples. The appetizer is served over a bed of greens; diners choosing to make an entree out of the shellfish ($16.95) get sides of basmati rice and vegetables instead. Another night, the shrimp appetizer and a creamy tomato and cheddar soup ($4.95) arrived at the same time. Sampson's entrees alternate between very simple -- like grilled lemon chicken ($14.95) -- and overly spiced, like a rustic Moroccan vegetable stew ($10.95). Generally, the more straightforward dishes stand out -- the grilled chicken is tender and juicy, and a lightly browned mashed potato cake underneath is perked up by the tangy lemon sauce, along with buttery batons of zucchini. [...] the sauce on the pork chops ($14.95) was over-seasoned with cumin, overpowering even the strong capers and olives. Burgers, served on a scooped-out crusty bun, include both a sirloin burger ($8.95) and cheeseburger ($9.95), in addition to more interesting combinations like a ground turkey burger with rosemary and oregano ($11.95). The smartest choice for dessert, however, is the reliable crepe, oozing with fillings such as creamy Nutella and warm banana slices ($5.95).
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http://www.tmz.com/2012/09/30/lindsay-lohan-assaulted-charges-dropped/
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http://web.archive.org/web/20121127084733id_/http://www.tmz.com/2012/09/30/lindsay-lohan-assaulted-charges-dropped/
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Lindsay Lohan -- Charges Dropped Against Alleged Attacker
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20121127084733
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Lindsay Lohan Charges Dropped Against Alleged Attacker
will not be getting the justice she was seeking ... police have dropped charges against the man accused of attacking her early this morning in a New York hotel ... TMZ has learned.
after LiLo claimed he attacked her when she confronted him about secretly taking pictures and video of her in the hotel room. Lohan and a few friends had met LaBella earlier in the evening at a nightclub.
LaBella had initially been charged with two misdemeanor counts of assault and two counts of harassment. But the NYPD tells TMZ the charges have been dropped, after detectives investigated further and there was not enough evidence to support LiLo's claims.
Just your typical Lindsay Lohan weekend ...
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Lindsay Lohan will not be getting the justice she was seeking ... police have dropped charges against the man accused of attacking her early this morning…
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http://economist.com/blogs/banyan/2012/09/amarnath-yatra
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http://web.archive.org/web/20121129100551id_/http://economist.com/blogs/banyan/2012/09/amarnath-yatra
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Hiking through the mountains of Kashmir
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20121129100551
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Point by point reply to your comments
1. ''The ecological problem is due to lack of facilities.''
How can more facilities prevent melting of glaciers ? The melting of glaciers is due to more footfalls .That is why only 150 /day are allowed in Gangotri .If facilities can prevent degradation ,why not make those facilities in Gangotri too ?
2. ''This is also a security problem too.''
There is no security problem .In fact all militant and separatist organization have welcomed the Yatra .The only problem is due to its unregulated nature .
3. ''Amarnath pilgrims were massacred on several occasions.'' For instance, On August 2nd 2000, 105 pilgrims were murdered by terrorist who attacked makeshift pilgrim tents.''
There is no security threat to the yatra .In fact 34 and not 105 people ,some of them pilgrims ,were killed in 2000 and as per the Lt Gen J R Mukherjee Inquiry Report ,most of them died due to the firing of the Central Reserve Police Force.
3. ''In Aug 2008,Amarnath shrine board had proposed to built facilities on 94 acre land to resolve ecological and security problem. The proposal was disputed by Kashmiri Muslim Radicals as an effort to change demography.''
The common Kashmiri people objected to the concrete structures only because that would have meant a permanent settlement bang next to an important water source Thajwas Glacier on which much of Kashmir depends for its water.
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EVERY summer over 600,000 Hindu pilgrims march in the mountains of Muslim majority Kashmir to visit the Amarnath Cave. This year our South Asia correspondent joined...
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/books/review/12holt.html
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http://web.archive.org/web/20121130172832id_/http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/books/review/12holt.html
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'Happiness: A History,' by Darrin M. McMahon
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20121130172832
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The history of the idea of happiness can be neatly summarized in a series of bumper sticker equations: Happiness= Luck (Homeric), Happiness=Virtue (classical), Happiness=Heaven (medieval), Happiness=Pleasure (Enlightenment) and Happiness=A Warm Puppy (contemporary). Does that look like progress? Darrin McMahon doesn't think so.
In olden times, McMahon observes in his engaging book, happiness was deemed a transcendent, almost godlike state, attainable only by the few. Today, however, the concept has become democratized, not to say vulgarized (think of that damned ubiquitous smiley face): it is more about feeling good than being good. With happiness supposedly in the reach of everyone especially in the United States it is pursued with a frenzy that, perversely, gives rise to its opposite: unease, discontent, even guilt. We might be better off returning to the classical Greek ideal of happiness as a life lived according to reason and virtue so, at least, McMahon (a professor of history at Florida State University) sometimes seems to suggest. At other times he appears keener to follow Nietzsche and ditch happiness altogether.
But "Happiness" is not really a polemic. It is a history, one that takes us on a leisurely Great Books-style tour of Western thought, ranging from Herodotus and Aristotle through Locke and Rousseau down to Darwin, Marx and Freud. The musings on happiness of these and dozens of lesser thinkers are lucidly presented in fine, sturdy prose that is, on the whole, a delight to read. Only occasionally is one's ear clouted by a PBS-style cliché ("Rome. The very name suggests power and prosperity, glory and grandeur, earthly majesty and might. . . ."), a patch of run-amok alliteration ("fabled fiddling . . . proud Pompeian penis . . . felicity and fecundity") or a solecism ("soaring into the netherworld of meaningless abstractions" soaring is best done upward). There are more references to flatulence than one would expect in an intellectual history, but every writer must be allowed his harmless quirks.
The topic of happiness turns us all into philosophers. Everyone wants to be happy, but no one can say with much precision or assurance what happiness is. In the history of the idea, the main tension is between thinkers who hold that a life must meet some objective standard to be considered happy, and those who hold that happiness is merely the subjective state of being pleased with one's life. The most prominent of the objectivists was Aristotle, who argued that happiness was "activity of the soul expressing virtue." (Aristotle's virtues, by the way, are rather self-centered and not at all Christian more pride than charity.) And the most perfect happiness, he reasoned, involved the divine "intellectual" virtues rather than the lower "practical" ones. In other words, the happiest life consisted of the pure contemplation of truth just like Aristotle's! Other classical thinkers may have taken a less intellectualist view, but they were united with Aristotle in equating happiness and virtue. The most extreme among them, like Cicero, maintained that a virtuous man could truly be called happy even while being tortured on the rack.
Ironically, McMahon observes, it was Christianity that restored the sensual element to the idea of happiness. Suffer for virtue's sake, medieval Christians were told, and you will be rewarded with an eternity of heavenly bliss. But why couldn't some of that bliss be enjoyed here on earth? It was in the late 17th century that a frankly subjectivist, hedonistic understanding of happiness started to take hold a development that McMahon associates with the intellectual ferment surrounding the English civil war. "Happiness . . . in its full extent is the utmost Pleaure we are capable of," John Locke declared, raising the dangerous possibility that there were as many forms of happiness as there were types of desire.
Once pleasure came to be accepted as the final good, Enlightenment thinkers set about disputing the best means to it. Virtue? That was the hope of Adam Smith and Thomas Jefferson: if happiness was not identical to virtue, it should at least be virtue's reward. But those of a more radical kidney, like the Frenchman Julien Offray de la Mettrie, denied even an instrumental connection between virtue and happiness a shocking view that Casanova and Sade pushed to its logical conclusion. It seemed terrible that the question "Why should I be moral?" could no longer be smugly answered, "Because that is the only way to be happy." Ever since, philosophers have been trying to prove that happiness and goodness are indissolubly linked, a task that has been likened to squaring the circle. Some wicked people do seem to enjoy themselves.
Jim Holt writes frequently about philosophy and science for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine and other publications.
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A historian considers approaches to happiness through the ages.
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http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2012/07/03/maine-islands-seeking-hardy-year-round-residents-hope-use-affordable-housing-magnet/xdiG8MbIA2oQQtFh1yDeNP/story.html
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http://web.archive.org/web/20121201083449id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com:80/business/2012/07/03/maine-islands-seeking-hardy-year-round-residents-hope-use-affordable-housing-magnet/xdiG8MbIA2oQQtFh1yDeNP/story.html?
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Maine islands seeking hardy year-round residents hope to use affordable housing as a magnet
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20121201083449
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ISLE AU HAUT, Maine — The 40 year-round residents of this remote, wind-swept island about six miles off the Maine coast are looking for some adventurous souls to join their community, contribute to its civic life, and fill the one-room schoolhouse with children.
To woo new neighbors, Isle au Haut’s leaders have secured a $355,000 state grant to build two affordable rental homes — one amidst blueberry patches and spruce trees, the other offering glimpses of the rocky coast — for families of four earning less than $70,000 a year.
“We want people who aren’t coming here to escape, who understand living here is not simple,’’ said Gerardine Wurzburg, a longtime island resident and Academy Award-winning documentary producer who’s heading the campaign for the Isle au Haut Community Development Corp. “You have to have a certain amount of initiative to be in this kind of place. If you do, there is a strong community of people.”
The housing plan is part of a $3 million statewide initiative to use affordable housing to bolster Maine’s year-round island communities, which have dwindled from about 300 to 15 over the past century. Nine islands — from Peaks Island off of Portland to Great Cranberry Island near Acadia National Park — are in the process of building affordable single-family or duplex homes.
Many once-robust island populations suffered with the proliferation of the motor boat in the early 1900s — which allowed fisherman to live farther away from their catches — as well as the growth of railroads, which trumped ships as the preferred method of commercial transportation. As an earlier generation of lobstermen died, families sold waterfront properties to out-of-state summer visitors, raising real estate values and leaving homes vacant and dark for much of the year. Without year-round populations, the islands are more vulnerable to theft and vandalism.
“There are 5,000 residents that care passionately that these communities exist and they are willing to work incredibly hard to make it happen,’’ said Rob Snyder, executive vice president of the Island Institute, a Rockland nonprofit that championed the affordable-housing funding.
“To have them squeezed out of existence simply because [the islands] are nice places to spend the summer is a tragedy,’' said Philip Conkling, founder of the institute. “It's an equity issue.”
Isle au Haut — about six miles from the mainland via Stonington — has particular challenges because it’s one of the state’s least populated atolls. The campaign to attract new residents includes a website, www.isleauhaut.org, and a media push through local newspapers and trade magazines.
The island is six miles long and two miles wide, and more than half of it is part of Acadia National Park, which is largely on Mount Desert Island to the north. Thousands of visitors take the 45-minute mail boat and ferry service from Stonington to explore Isle au Haut during the summer, when the island population expands to about 300. But in winter, life slows drastically and the ferry operates only six days a week.
Islanders mostly earn a living through fishing, carpentry, or landscaping — and in some cases, a combination of all three. A small number have launched new businesses, including a chocolate company, with the help of the US Postal Service and high-speed Internet.
But islanders worry that if they lose the school, the year-round population will go with it. Currently, only four students, all boys, attend the kindergarten through eighth-grade facility, so even one or two new families could make a difference. Additional residents could also boost the school council, the volunteer fire department, and turnout at the multigenerational Wednesday night volleyball games held inside a community room in Town Hall.
“We need more voices on the island,” said Kate Shaffer, a 40-year-old California native who operates the six-year-old Black Dinah Chocolatiers with her husband, Steve. “Forty people isn’t enough to have a functional community.”
The town is run by a three-member board of selectmen. There are no restaurants, no inns, and one tiny grocery store. The school has one teacher, an aide, and several other support staff who arrive by boat daily.
Lobsterman Billy Barter, 74, grew up on Isle au Haut, married one of his schoolmates, Bernadine, and has two great-grandsons in the school. He wistfully remembers when there were 100 full-time residents.
“All the kids moved away,’’ he said. “Their wives didn’t like it.”
Bernadine, 73, is known as the “island greeter” because she likes to go to the dock and welcome visitors.
“It isn’t for everybody,’’ she said of winters spent offshore. “The wind blows gales.”
The Isle au Haut Community Development Corp. was created about 20 years ago during an initial push to attract people when the school population dropped to a single student. Wurzburg said the organization built three houses, one of which became the Shaffers’ home.
The new initiative includes a three-bedroom house that will rent for $750 a month and a two-bedroom property that will cost $600 a month.The state is providing $355,000 toward the project and the island is raising additional money through special events, including a July Fourth pancake breakfast and a mini-triathlon. The nonprofit Genesis Community Loan Fund, based in Damariscotta, is helping all of the islands get low-cost loans for additional expenses.
“It is a field of dreams — build it and they will come,’’ Wurzburg said during a recent tour of the two sites. “You can’t get people unless you have affordable housing.”
It doesn’t take a major influx to create an impact in a place like Isle au Haut. For instance, Kendra Chubbuck, 58, moved to the island in January after getting engaged to lobsterman John Dewitt, 58, and has already opened Shore Shop Gifts, a few minutes from the town dock. Chubbuck sells Maine-made jewelry, T-shirts, and books to visitors and, soon, to online shoppers.
Chubbuck said that after researching and writing a business plan, she decided there will be enough customers to sustain her store. Like many full-time residents, Chubbuck had visited the island during summer since childhood. “We are in it for the long haul,’’ she said. “This is a big move for me.”
This spring, Diana Santospago, 54, started operating a food truck, called the Maine Lobster Lady, catering largely to the summer population. Santospago said she is excited about seeing a few new islanders but hopes they don’t come with idealized visions of what life will be like. In fact, Santospago leaves during the winter to sell lobster in Phoenix.
“During the doldrums of winter, the only people you might see are the members of your immediate family,’’ she said. “That is my biggest concern, that someone will want to come out and have this romantic notion and not realize it can get a little lonesome.”
Kate and Steve Shaffer first spent time on Isle au Haut in 2001 and moved full time to the island in 2004, with the help of a state affordable housing grant that cut rent for their four-bedroom house to $400 a month. Their business, Black Dinah Chocolatiers, grossed about $250,000 last year.
Kate Shaffer knows it would be cheaper to do business on the mainland, without the shipping costs, but she wants to help keep Isle au Haut viable. Last year, the couple purchased the property they were renting and turned the barn into a commercial kitchen.
“I love it because it is beautiful and it is rural,’’ she said. “I love it because of the people. As much as we drive each other crazy, I love my neighbors. We are such a funny collection of souls on this rocky outcrop in the middle of nowhere.”
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ISLE AU HAUT, Maine — The 40 year-round residents of this remote, wind-swept island about six miles off the Maine coast are looking for some adventurous souls to join their community, contribute to its civic life, and fill the one-room schoolhouse with children. To woo new neighbors, Isle au Haut’s leaders have secured a $355,000 state grant to build two affordable rental homes — one located amidst blueberry patches and spruce trees and the other offering glimpses of the rocky coast — for families of four making less than $70,000 a year.
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Mariah Carey's Motto: No Champagne Before 3 P.M.
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20121203063007
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11/26/2008 at 08:55 AM EST
Mariah (left) and Ellen toast
pregnant? No way, the singer insists on Wednesday's episode of
seemed determined to put her to the test.
"Let's just toast with Champagne," the sly talk show host suggested, reaching for a bottle and some flutes.
"It's just fattening," demurred Carey – who
in May – adding, "This is peer pressure!"
When DeGeneres persisted, the two clinked glasses – but Carey only
"No, no, no," Carey insisted. "We will let you know when we're going to have a family."
So why refuse the bubbly?
"It's too early for me," explained the Grammy-winner. "I only drink after 3 p.m."
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The singer insists she's not pregnant – but refuses to sip on any "fattening" bubbly
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Heath Ledger, Penelope Cruz Win Oscars for Supporting Roles
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20121211163828
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"Has anybody ever fainted here?"
With that, the 81st Annual Academy Awards were underway, as Penelope Cruz gasped her way to the stage after becoming the first big winner of the night, grabbing a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona."
"Thank you Woody for trusting me with this beautiful character," a teary-eyed Cruz said as she accepted the award, referring to Woody Allen, the film's director.
The win made Cruz the first Spanish woman to win an acting Oscar, a year after her co-star Javier Bardem won best supporting actor for "No Country for Old Men."
PHOTOS: Celebs do their bling thing at the Academy Awards.
The late Heath Ledger won a Best Supporting Actor nod for his role in "The Dark Night." His family accepted the award on the actor's behalf.
"This award tonight would have humbly validated Heath's quiet determination to be truly accepted by you all here - his peers in an industry he so loved," said his father Kim Ledger in accepting the award on behalf of Ledger's young daughter, Matilda.
RELATED: List of Winners at the 81st Academy Awards.
Best-picture front-runner "Slumdog Millionaire" scored in four early categories, claiming the adapted-screenplay prize for Simon Beaufoy, as well as the cinematography, film-editing and sound-mixing Oscar. The Harvey Milk film biography "Milk" won for original screenplay.
The epic love story "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," which led with 13 nominations, had three wins, for visual effects, art direction and makeup.
"The Dark Knight" had a second win, for sound editing.
"Man on Wire," James Marsh's examination of tight-rope walker Philippe Petit's dazzling stroll between the towers of the World Trade Center in 1974, was chosen as best documentary.
PHOTOS: The biggest fashion bloopers on the Oscar red carpet.
After last year's Oscars delivered their worst TV ratings ever, producers this time aimed to liven up the show with some surprises and new ways of presenting awards. Rather than hiring a comedian such as past hosts Jon Stewart or Chris Rock, the producers went with actor and song-and-dance man Hugh Jackman, who has been host of Broadway's Tony Awards.
Instead of the usual standup routine, Jackman did a musical number to open the show, saluting nominated films with a clever tribute.
Jackman later did a medley staged by his "Australia" director Baz Luhrmann with such performers as Beyonce Knowles and "High School Musical" stars Vanessa Hudgens and Zac Efron.
"Slumdog Millionaire" went into the evening with 10 nominations and an unstoppable run of prizes from earlier film honors.
RELATED: Past Academy Award winners - where are they now?
In keeping with its theme of bottomless optimism amid adversity, "Slumdog Millionaire" has led a charmed life, dodging a flirtation with straight-to-DVD release, winning over critics and climbing toward $100 million hit status. The film has won top honors at all key earlier awards ceremonies.
Now its cast of unknowns -- from new celebrities Dev Patel and Freida Pinto to kids plucked by director Danny Boyle from the slums of Mumbai, India -- earned a trip to Hollywood's glitziest party.
The film's young stars were greeted with cheers and blew kisses in return as they walked the red carpet before the Oscars.
Shot in India on a modest budget of $14 million, "Slumdog Millionaire" traces the life of a Mumbai orphan who overcomes poverty, betrayal, police torture and other hardships on his way to a reunion with his childhood love and success on India's version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire."
The film nearly got lost in the shuffle as Warner Bros. folded its art-house banner, Warner Independent, which had been slated to distribute "Slumdog Millionaire." It was rescued from the direct-to-video scrap heap when Fox Searchlight stepped in to release the film.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Newcomers and old hands vie for Hollywood's most coveted gold, bald statuette
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SF 49ers run all over Packers, 45-31
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20130113073539
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Jim Harbaugh has the Midas touch, and we're not talking about mufflers.
Harbaugh climbed out of a UFO two years ago and took the 49ers' job, and turned San Francisco's bumbling losers into instant winners.
He touched washed-up quarterback Alex Smith and turned him into a gunslinger disguised as a CPA. Then Harbaugh replaced the red-hot Smith with Colin Kaepernick, the kid from nowhere (actually Turlock, a suburb of Nowhere).
And Saturday night, a golden win for the ages.
There are wins, there are impressive wins, and there are statement wins.
Then there is the Saturday Night Special, the 49ers' 45-31 win over Green Bay Packers. The 49ers, who have struggled in recent weeks, blew their cover. The word is out: Fear the 49ers.
Or at least respect them to the point of excess stomach acid.
The 49ers play for the NFC title next Sunday against either the Seahawks in San Francisco, or the Falcons in Atlanta. Winner goes to the Super Bowl in New Orleans on Feb. 3.
Only really good teams are left in the hunt, but no other team has a coach like Harbaugh and for sure nobody has a quarterback like Kaepernick, the Turlock Tornado. The combination can be stunning.
Kaepernick and the 49ers spotted the great Aaron Rodgers a 7-0 lead, on a Kaepernick interception, then, well, let Frank Gore tell it.
"It was good we stayed together" after Kaepernick's interception, said Gore, who ran for a tidy 119 yards himself. "We got rolling, and the game got kind of crazy."
Kind of crazy? Kind of like a tsunami or avalanche.
Colin was nimble, Colin was quick, Colin ran wild at Candlestick.
Kaepernick passed for 263 yards and two touchdowns, and ran for 181 yards and two more touchdowns, breaking all kinds of NFL records, which seemed to impress him as much as did the postgame box lunch.
Everyone knows Kaepernick has a rocket arm and sprinter speed. But until Saturday, that speed has been more of a lurking threat than a reality. Then: Mama mia.
Harbaugh and offensive coordinator Greg Roman, heretofore reluctant to fully exploit Kaepernick's running ability, possibly to protect him, took off the leash.
Kaepernick sprinted for a 20-yard touchdown to tie the game 7-7, on a designed pass play. In the third quarter he gave the 49ers a seven-point lead with a 56-yard sprint. He ran amok.
"It helps when your quarterback runs a 4.3 40"-yard dash, offensive lineman Joe Staley said.
Two things are sure at this point:
-- No team wants any part of Kaepernick. He was phenomenal and unstoppable, a new mutant strain of NFL quarterback.
-- Nobody has coached up his team better than Harbaugh, whose decision to move Kaepernick into the starting role set off the hottest, angriest debate in recent Bay Area sports history.
Weird dude, that Harbaugh. But how's he doing?
(By the way, Jim's brother John is still around, too, coaching the Baltimore Ravens to a playoff win Saturday. Could an all-Harbaugh Super Bowl be looming?)
Of course, Harbaugh and Kaepernick aren't the entire story.
Wide receiver Michael Crabtree, the Crustacean Sensation, caught nine passes for 119 yards and two touchdowns. The way he's playing, Crab could get open in a broom closet.
Defensive lineman Justin Smith, the One-Armed Bandit, his left arm held together with duct tape and paper clips, played a hugely inspiring role in leading a defense that was able to limit the league's No. 1 quarterback to a very pedestrian (for him) game. The Packers' offensive linemen attacked Smith's left arm like hungry hounds fighting over a meaty bone.
Ancient running back Gore punched holes in the center of a Packers defense made doughy by being stretched beyond limits by Kaepernick.
Roman seemingly installed an entire new playbook between the 49ers' last regular-season game and Saturday, and Kaepernick ran it to perfection.
Can the 49ers do this again? Why not?
There was some fear on the part of fans that the playoff pressure would reveal Kaepernick's inexperience. What is his fear level?
After the interception, his teammates were watching.
"You want to see what his body language is" after the interception, center Jonathan Goodwin said. "It was good."
Nerves? Butterflies? Not for the Turlock Tornado. He doesn't talk much, but he wears garish, look-at-me football cleats, he celebrates touchdowns by Kaepernick-ing - kissing his biceps - and when he was double-team tackled at the end of a run, a crunching hit, Kaepernick leapt to his feet and spiked the ball and snarled, drawing a penalty for taunting.
Kaepernick has aced every test. So has Harbaugh.
Scott Ostler is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. E-mail: sostler@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @scottostler
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Harbaugh climbed out of a UFO two years ago and took the 49ers' job, and turned San Francisco's bumbling losers into instant winners. The 49ers play for the NFC title next Sunday against either the Seahawks in San Francisco, or the Falcons in Atlanta. Only really good teams are left in the hunt, but no other team has a coach like Harbaugh and for sure nobody has a quarterback like Kaepernick, the Turlock Tornado. Kaepernick passed for 263 yards and two touchdowns, and ran for 181 yards and two more touchdowns, breaking all kinds of NFL records, which seemed to impress him as much as did the postgame box lunch. Harbaugh and offensive coordinator Greg Roman, heretofore reluctant to fully exploit Kaepernick's running ability, possibly to protect him, took off the leash. -- Nobody has coached up his team better than Harbaugh, whose decision to move Kaepernick into the starting role set off the hottest, angriest debate in recent Bay Area sports history. [...] Jim's brother John is still around, too, coaching the Baltimore Ravens to a playoff win Saturday. Wide receiver Michael Crabtree, the Crustacean Sensation, caught nine passes for 119 yards and two touchdowns. Defensive lineman Justin Smith, the One-Armed Bandit, his left arm held together with duct tape and paper clips, played a hugely inspiring role in leading a defense that was able to limit the league's No. 1 quarterback to a very pedestrian (for him) game. The Packers' offensive linemen attacked Smith's left arm like hungry hounds fighting over a meaty bone.
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Johnson & Johnson to open office in Kendall Square
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20130224105502
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Johnson & Johnson is coming to Kendall Square in Cambridge.
One of the last big pharmaceutical companies without an outpost in the life sciences hub is remedying that oversight, with plans to open an office at One Cambridge Center this spring.
J&J’s Boston Innovation Center will be run by Robert Urban, a one-time biotechnology entrepreneur who was most recently director of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT.
Urban, who started at J&J in early November, is already managing a group of more than 20 employees — both new hires and Johnson & Johnson veterans who are relocating to the area.
They are working in temporary office space in the Back Bay.
New Jersey-based J&J, maker of Band-Aids and baby shampoo among many other products, is the second-biggest pharmaceutical company in the United States by revenue, just behind Pfizer.
The Cambridge office will help forge and manage research collaborations with universities and companies working on new medical devices, drugs, diagnostics, and consumer health products.
It will also make investments in start-ups.
Even before the establishment of the Boston Innovation Center, J&J has worked with Massachusetts Institute of Technology and local companies such as Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, and Alkermes.
“What we really hope to do is try to simplify for the outside world how you might try to interact with Johnson & Johnson,” Urban said Friday.
The Boston Innovation Center will be staffed with: technical specialists — in areas such as neuroscience, oncology, and vaccines — who can evaluate prospective partnerships; a team to craft contracts and then manage those partnerships; and investors from thwe company’s corporate venture capital arm.
Urban said setting up a research-and-development lab in Cambridge is not part of the current plan.
“It may turn out that as we do some of these projects [with partners], it might make sense for some of our researchers to work side-by-side with the companies, and we’re not averse to that,” he said. But the company’s strategy does not involve establishing a “substantial physical research footprint here,” he said.
Urban said about 65 percent of the Boston Innovation Center team is made up of Johnson & Johnson employees, including finance director Salvatore Giovine.
Others have been brought in from outside companies, such as vice president of oncology scientific innovation Pamela Carroll, who came from Roche Pharmaceuticals.
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Johnson & Johnson is coming to Kendall Square in Cambridge. One of the last big pharmaceutical companies without an outpost in the life sciences hub is remedying that oversight, with plans to open an office at One Cambridge Center this spring. Johnson & Johnson’s Boston Innovation Center will be run by Robert Urban, a one-time biotechnology entrepreneur who was most recently director of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT. Urban started at Johnson & Johnson in early November, and is already managing a group of more than 20 employees — both new hires and Johnson & Johnson veterans who are relocating to the area — working in temporary office space in the Back Bay.
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CNN To Miles, Soledad -- Bye Bye O'Briens
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20130307001632
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CNN To Miles, Soledad -- Bye Bye O'Briens
TMZ has confirmed through sources that Miles O'Brien and Soledad O'Brien have been officially booted as anchors of CNN's "American Morning."
Their replacements will be John Roberts and Kiran Chetry. CNN recently hired Chetry after she got the ax from FOX News Channel.
Sources say the move will be effective in two to three weeks. We're told both O'Briens will remain at CNN.
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TMZ has confirmed through sources that Miles O'Brien and Soledad O'Brien have been officially booted as anchors of CNN's "American Morning."Their…
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‘Nurse Jackie’: Every step she takes
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20130415092256
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‘Nurse Jackie” is one of the wisest shows on TV right now. There are countless quick-fix reality series out there, promising instant makeovers and overnight fame. And most network dramas give us characters who morph — from adulterous to loyal, from addicted to clean, from bad to good — in an episode or two or maybe three.
But “Nurse Jackie” doesn’t romanticize or blur the rigors of life changes. Showtime’s comic drama, which returns for season 5 on Sunday night at 9, continues to tease out the complications of addiction and recovery through the story of a nurse who safeguards patients while ruining herself. It’s honest, credible, trustworthy storytelling. The writers spent the first three seasons chronicling Jackie’s slow tumble to the bottom, exploring every facet of her self-destruction as she tore apart her seemingly perfect life. Why was she cheating on her loving husband, why was she alienating her two daughters, why was she ice cold to her co-workers? The show’s only answer: She’s an addict.
Last season, “Nurse Jackie” finally saw Jackie going to rehab, but again, the writers didn’t rush her recovery or put any polish on it. The life she returned to sober was now completely screwed up, as she faced the bitterness of her betrayed husband, the distrust and pain of her older daughter, and restricted duties at the hospital. She lost her nearest friend in recovery, a teenager named Charlie. And she experienced a crisis of self, as some of her most pronounced personality traits — stubbornness, secrecy — had served her addiction but were no longer useful. Jackie didn’t just leave rehab last season and — voila! — rebuild her life; she had only taken the first step in what would be a long trip.
The new season continues in the same exploratory manner, with Jackie still trying to find a balance as a newly sober mother, friend, former wife, nurse, and, in later episodes, date. And that consistency is a good thing, because “Nurse Jackie” recently went through some significant backstage changes, as Clyde Phillips (“Dexter”) took over as showrunner from creators Liz Brixius and Linda Wallem. I was afraid Phillips might be tempted to move the story along faster and push Jackie into an unlikely triumph or crash — having Jackie and Kevin kiss and make up or something facile like that. But our heroine is still very much in free fall. “I keep wondering when it is I get to the happy part,” she says in episode 2.
Jackie, played with seamless focus by Edie Falco, finds herself more and more alone this season, as she moves forward with her new life. She’s not a fan of AA meetings, O’Hara (Eve Best) is distracted by her baby, and her kids are frequently with Kevin. Also, Zoey (the irresistible Merritt Wever) moves out, which she explains in a typically Zoey way: “Sometimes I think I’m helping and I’m actually unhelping.” The possibility of a slip continues to be very real, not least of all because Jackie is surrounded by pills at work. Meanwhile, a few new faces in the ER change the dynamic there. Dr. Carrie Roman (Betty Gilpin) is an incompetent first-year resident who trades on her looks and stirs Jackie’s ire (and Coop’s lust), and Dr. Ike Prentiss (Morris Chestnut) practiced in Iraq and Afghanistan and is trying to step up everyone’s game.
“Go On,” Matthew Perry’s NBC sitcom, is aiming for the same close study of trauma as “Nurse Jackie.” It tracks the lead character’s grief after his wife dies. But “Nurse Jackie” is a far more successful dissection of a person in profound flux, taking it apart piece by piece, mistake by mistake, and, yes, victory after well-earned victory. We watch Jackie try and fail and try again, as she struggles to weather the storm that comes after the storm.
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“Nurse Jackie” is one of the wisest shows on TV right now. There are countless quick-fix reality series out there, promising instant makeovers and overnight fame. And most network dramas give us characters who morph — from adulterous to loyal, from addicted to clean, from bad to good — in an episode or two or maybe three. But “Nurse Jackie” doesn’t romanticize or blur the rigors of life changes. Showtime’s comic drama, which returns for season 5 on Sunday night at 9, continues to tease out the complications of addiction and recovery through the story of a nurse who safeguards patients while ruining herself. It’s honest, credible, trustworthy storytelling.
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‘Omit the Logic’ doesn’t omit Pryor’s demons
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20130616153620
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‘Richard Pryor undisputed champion of the world, greatest of all times, case closed, period, exclamation point.”
There are many who will agree with that pronouncement made by Dave Chappelle early on in “Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic,” an informative and haunting new Showtime documentary about the legendary comedian-actor-writer premiering Friday at 9 p.m.
Without a doubt, fans will laugh once again at all the jokes they remember and anew at those that might have slipped past their radar from the various hugely influential comedy albums and concert films of the ’70s and ’80s that cemented Pryor’s name as a comic — one adept at making the deeply personal wholly relatable and injecting incisive social commentary while he was at it.
Hilarious film roles — of which Pryor had many, including “Stir Crazy” and “Silver Streak” — are recounted by costars and collaborators. His invaluable contributions to “Blazing Saddles” are remembered by Mel Brooks. The ways in which he broke ground for black actors and writers in Hollywood is celebrated. His often superb dramatic work (“Blue Collar,” “Lady Sings the Blues”) is given its due. His remarkable (and even more impressive in retrospect) breakthroughs on network television and in the comedy clubs are lauded.
Famous fans and peers, including Brooks, Robin Williams, Bob Newhart, Lily Tomlin, as well as former lovers, lawyers, wives, and managers all weigh in on Pryor’s incredible story. (Though as far as acolytes go, Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock feel notably absent.) And their tales are often chilling as they do not skimp on Pryor’s undoing by those self-destructive habits which led to his professional decline.
But “Omit the Logic” is by no means a simple laugh-riot recounting of Pryor’s personal and professional milestones. Given the rocky contours of those milestones, such an approach would be impossible. Yes, “Logic” will remind older viewers, and instruct younger ones, as to the many ways that Pryor, who passed away in 2005, was funny. But be prepared to be discomfited and provoked as well, because the film, directed by Marina Zenovich, does not flinch from the darkness in Pryor’s life.
And there was so much darkness it’s no wonder that, to paraphrase Bruce Cockburn, Pryor felt the need to kick at that darkness until it bled daylight in the form of healing, community-creating laughter. That Pryor was so successful in doing so feels miraculous.
Most fans can recite chapter and verse of Pryor’s demons and the bad choices they informed — from multiple marriages and infidelities, to run-ins with the law, his substance abuse problems and, of course, the horrifically fiery suicide attempt — which are all recounted here.
When those demons are traced back to an abusive childhood spent in a whorehouse (where his mother and “aunties” were literally pimped out by his father, and his grandmother ran the joint), it doesn’t even take a dime store psychoanalyst to make the leap to a troubled soul with a desire to create joy and self-medicate.
At only 85 minutes, the film could definitely have gone a little deeper both personally (his children are given almost no screen time whatsoever and they likely could offer an interesting perspective) and into specific films. But by itself, “Logic” is a captivating warts-and-all overview.
Given Pryor’s own proclivity for brutal honesty in his comedy and for pushing the limits of both himself and his audiences, the film doesn’t feel like exploitation, especially since many of the revelatory passages are in Pryor’s own words from interview excerpts. Anyone who saw “Jo Jo Dancer Your Life Is Calling” knows that Pryor had a fearlessness, a compulsion even, for sharing his story, “Omit the Logic” continues that tradition.
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“Richard Pryor undisputed champion of the world, greatest of all times, case closed, period, exclamation point.” There are many who will agree with that pronouncement made by Dave Chappelle early on in “Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic,” an informative and haunting new Showtime documentary about the legendary comedian-actor-writer premiering Friday at 9 p.m. Without a doubt, fans will laugh once again at all the jokes they remember and anew at those that might have slipped past their radar from the various albums and concert films that cemented Pryor’s name as a comic adept at making the deeply personal, wholly relatable. Hilarious roles in films like “Stir Crazy” and “Bustin’ Loose” are recounted. His invaluable contributions to “Blazing Saddles” are remembered by Mel Brooks.
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Movie review: Pixar gives it the old college try in ‘Monsters University’
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20130624161707
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Sequels take something special and try to replicate it, a paradox that usually leads to the dismal likes of “The Hangover Part III.” You can’t photocopy uniqueness, but you can make money off the attempt, which is why all those roman numerals clutter up the nation’s multiplexes. As it proved with the “Toy Story” films, each better and more resonant than the last, Pixar is generally considered the exception to the rule. As it proved with “Cars 2,” the company’s also capable of stumbling.
“Monsters University” is better than “Cars 2” but not enough, and along with last year’s inspired but cluttered “Brave,” it offers unsettling evidence that Pixar’s Golden Age may be in the past. The movie is an astonishing work of digital artisanry — would we expect anything less from John Lasseter’s team of Soopa-Geniuses? — that tells an engaging but well-worn tale. If you’ve seen any college movie ever, from the silent comedy of “The Freshman” to “Back to School” to “Legally Blonde,” you’ll be familiar with the story beats and themes of fitting in while trying not to sell out.
It’ll all be new to your kids, though, and that’s very much the point. Please raise that rating to 4 stars for anyone under the age of 12 and get them to the theater posthaste. But part of the thrill of seeing a Pixar film as an adult, with or without attendant spawn, was knowing that you were getting something extra in the bargain: a work of sharper wit, wilder invention, richer playfulness, and deeper soul than even most grown-up films could muster. And that magic is gone, replaced by noisy high spirits and a plot that trundles along on predictable tracks.
Technically speaking, “Monsters University” is a prequel, the story of how Mike Wakowski (voiced once more by Billy Crystal), the cheery green eyeball with legs, met big, blue, fuzzy Sulley (John Goodman) at college. For the uninitiated, their monster universe parallels our own and is powered by the energy provided by children’s screams — yes, it is a twisted concept — which the characters harvest by entering magic doors into kids’ bedrooms and scaring up the shrieks.
Monsters University (I have to imagine it’s in the same intramural league as Hogwarts) is where young monsters learn the art of scaring, and the movie plunges fearlessly into the clichés of the collegiate genre: marching-band music and “Gaudeamus Igitur” on the soundtrack, ivy-covered professors in ivy-covered halls, the cliques, the freaks, the Greeks. Young Mike is a grind and teen Sulley is a party dude; the former won’t face up to the fact that he’s too cute to be scary, while the latter coasts on his size, roar, and legacy as the son of a top-ranked Scarer.
Visually packed to the rafters, “Monsters University” has something to look at in every frame, mostly monsters of all colors, shapes, and textures. The fearsome dean is the film’s most inspired creation: Half dragon and half scuttling centipede, she speaks with the icy purr of Helen Mirren. Yet when Mike and Sulley join the misfit Oozma Kappa, their frat brothers are a flat, not terribly interesting crew: babyish Squishy (Peter Sohn), retiree Don (Joel Murray), two-headed Terri and Terry (Sean Hayes and Dave Foley). The one character that has Pixar promise is the flaky Art (Charlie Day) — he’s this movie’s Zonker — but in the end he isn’t given enough to do.
The plot of “Monsters University” hangs on the Scare Games, in which the various frats compete for the biggest screams and which provide the movie with its set-piece action scenes. A race down a dark corridor filled with glowing, ricocheting pink sea urchins (whatever body part gets hit puffs up like a balloon) is probably the high point, in part because it’s conceptually straightforward yet filled with delightful, unexpected gags. That’s the Pixar formula — simple ideas, freshly imagined details — that this movie never manages to master.
Blame the script, written by director Dan Scanlon with Robert L. Baird and Daniel Gerson and over-reliant on stock characters and dialogue that’s fine only by the standards of family movies. True, the life lessons come hard and heavy in the final third of “Monsters University,” and the story line goes further into confronting failure and the consequences of not playing fair than most kid flicks dare. Let me repeat: This is not a bad movie, and to small children it will be a very good one. But it is closer to average than one would wish from the company that gave us “Up,” “Wall-E,” “The Incredibles,” and “Toy Story 3,” all films with depths that flatter older viewers and challenge the young. When the Oozma Kappas band together for their chant “We’re OK! We’re OK!,” don’t be surprised if you find yourself sighing in agreement.
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“Monsters University” is better than “Cars 2” but not by enough, and along with last year’s inspired but cluttered “Brave,” it offers unsettling evidence that Pixar’s Golden Age may be in the past. It’s a prequel: The story of how cheery green eyeball Mike Wakowski (voiced once more by Billy Crystal), met big, blue, fuzzy Sully (John Goodman) at college. Visually dazzling and flatly scripted, it trundles along on predictable storytelling tracks; what’s missing is the Pixar double-punch of elegant concept and fresh surprise. This is not a bad movie, and to small children it will be a very good one, but it’s closer to average than one would wish from the company that gave us “Up,” “Wall-E,” “The Incredibles,” and the “Toy Story” series.
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http://web.archive.org/web/20130805134509id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com:80/business/2013/08/01/for-latest-radar-raytheon-built-balloon/zqBQS7ociPy3YZqYn2epAO/story.html
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For the latest in radar, Raytheon built a balloon
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20130805134509
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To protect Washington from terrorists, the Army didn’t turn to some cutting-edge technology such as drones outfitted with spy cameras.
Instead, it opted for something out of the 18th century. Next year, the military plans on setting aloft high above the nation’s capital a pair of blimp-like helium balloons that look like they should be floating above Fenway Park advertising ice cream.
These vessels are more sophisticated than a Hood dirigible. Developed by Waltham defense contractor Raytheon Co., the aerostats, as they are called, are part of a multibillion-dollar surveillance system that can detect incoming rockets and give the military the ability to quickly shoot them down.
The Army manager for the aerostat project, Dean Barten, acknowledged that the balloons, nearly the size of a football field, are “old-school technology.” But equipped with today’s most advanced radar, and parked some 10,000 feet above the ground, the aerostats can pick out threats coming from any direction, as far away as 340 miles.
“That’s the size of Texas. These things can see a long way,” Barten said.
Currently, the military relies on an elaborate network of radar systems for domestic missile defenses, but none that have the breadth and reach coverage as the Raytheon blimps would provide over Washington, where Al Qaeda crashed a Boeing 757 on Sept. 11, 2001.
That sort of surveillance comes with a big price tag: More than $2 billion to develop the concept over eight years, a pair of aerostats cost in the neighborhood of $450 million. Even so, Barten said that’s a fraction of the cost of using radar planes to circle Washington nonstop.
“In big military terms, it’s dirt cheap,” Barten said.
After several recent successful tests, Raytheon announced in July that it was handing off the balloon surveillance program to the Army, for a three-year test over the nation’s capital from the Aberdeen Proving Ground military facility outside Washington, scheduled to begin next year.
But the blimps are flying square into a storm in Washington over the extent of snooping by federal agencies within the country’s borders.
Even though they are outfitted only with radar, critics of the government’s domestic surveillance worry that by adding cameras to the ships, they could become another way for US agencies to look over the shoulders of ordinary Americans.
“Given that the government has been less than honest about surveillance,” said Kade Crockford, director of the Technology for Liberty Project at the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, “this kind of program raises a lot of serious questions about the military’s involvement in domestic surveillance.”
Another skeptic is Georgetown University student Tyler Lopez, who helped start a blog, Skywatchdc, to monitor the development of the aerostat project over Washington.
“If they are able to see vehicles, they are able to see people,” Lopez said. “Do we want to live in a society in which we are watched all the time?”
But the military is emphatic about the limitations of the Washington aerostats.
“We’re not there to spy on people,” said Barten. “It’s the wrong technology for that.”
If the Army wanted to spy from aloft, he said, it would save a lot of money and use much smaller balloons with sophisticated cameras.
Raytheon also insists that the system, with the lengthy name of Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor system, or JLENS, was designed for radar only.
“We were contracted to build this very capable radar system, and that’s what it is,” said Raytheon spokesman Mike Nachshen.
Officials said Washington is an ideal training ground for the balloons because it has a busy air space with lots of commercial airplanes and restricted zones that need constant watch. The Army has already tested the aerostats in New Mexico, showing that they can successfully detect a missile and then be used to shoot it down.
The balloons that make up JLENS work in pairs. One is equipped with radar for monitoring incoming objects — planes, rockets, even enemy watercraft. The other provides so-called fire control radar that locks onto a moving target such as an attacking plane and guides a Patriot missile, for instance, to take it out.
Within defense circles, using the balloons to protect the nation’s capital is hardly a far-fetched idea.
“In general, Washington does not have continuous protection from low-flying cruise missiles,” said Loren Thompson, a defense analyst with the Lexington Institute in Washington, who noted that North Korea and Iran, for example, each have low-flying cruise missiles, and a drone can be turned into a weapon by a capable terrorist organization.
The balloons will be unmanned, but not free-floating. They will be tethered to the ground at Aberdeen with a very long leash, partially made of Kevlar, that will also include its communications and power cable. The skin is a laminated composite material.
They won’t have any engines or method of propulsion. They will be hoisted and retrieved with a winch system.
Within the US government the popularity of balloons and blimps as military and surveillance tools has waxed and waned in recent years. They are in use over Afghanistan, and a similar balloon system to the one going in in Washington is used at the US-Mexico border.
Since 2007, the Pentagon has initiated at least 15 aerostat and airship projects, and many other blimps and lighter-than-air vessels are being tested or in use. However, Pentagon budget planners have been steadily cutting funding for some, including the Raytheon JLENS, which originally was to have 16 ships in circulation.
Armies have been deploying balloons like these for centuries. In the 1700s the French military put scouts inside them to watch for advancing troops, the US used them to spot German submarines during World War I, and England fielded teams of them to help protect London during the Battle of Britain in World War II.
“Today, as in yesterday,” said R.G. Van Treuren, editor of the Noon Balloon, a newsletter of the Naval Airship Association, “the high ground is really where it’s at.”
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To protect Washington from attack, the Army didn’t turn to some cutting-edge technology such as drones outfitted with spy cameras. Instead, it opted for something out of the 18th century. Next year, the military will set aloft high above the nation’s capital a pair of blimp-like helium balloons that look like they should be floating above Fenway Park advertising ice cream. Of course these vessels are more sophisticated than a Hood dirigible or any hot air balloon. Developed by Waltham defense contractor Raytheon Co., the aerostats, as they are called, are part of a multibillion dollar radar system that can detect incoming missiles and other threats from hundreds of miles away and shoot them down with a flick of a remote control at a nearby Army base.
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http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2013/07/31/oil-has-biggest-gain-weeks-fed-economy/LMOXzMIxUzHhZQGmnGq6LI/story.html
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http://web.archive.org/web/20130806132616id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com:80/business/2013/07/31/oil-has-biggest-gain-weeks-fed-economy/LMOXzMIxUzHhZQGmnGq6LI/story.html
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Oil has biggest gain in 3 weeks on Fed, US economy
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20130806132616
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NEW YORK — The price of oil rose the most in three weeks amid signs that the US economy is improving, but not fast enough for the Federal Reserve to reduce its monthly bond-buying program.
Still, many analysts don’t expect a further spike in oil prices like the one seen earlier in July.
Benchmark oil gained $1.95, or 1.9 percent, to close at $105.03 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That’s the biggest one-day gain since oil rose $2.99 on July 10.
Traders were encouraged by two economic reports. The government said the economy grew at a better-than-expected annual rate of 1.7 percent in the second quarter. And a survey from payroll company ADP showed US businesses created a healthy 200,000 jobs in July.
Despite Wednesday’s jump in price, analysts don’t see oil rallying much further.
Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates, expects oil to trade in a range of $103 to $106 a barrel in the near term before declining.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch issued a report that said rising production in the United States and slowing growth in emerging markets should constrain oil prices. The research firm said that ‘‘unless a deteriorating geopolitical outlook in the Middle East results in further crude oil supply disruptions, the rally in WTI prices is unlikely to persist.’’
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NEW YORK — The price of oil rose the most in three weeks amid signs that the U.S. economy is improving, but not fast enough for the Federal Reserve to reduce its monthly bond-buying program. Still, many analysts don’t expect a further spike in oil prices like the one seen earlier in July. Benchmark oil gained $1.95, or 1.9 percent, to close at $105.03 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That’s the biggest one-day gain since oil rose $2.99 on July 10. Traders were encouraged by two economic reports. The government said the economy grew at a better-than-expected annual rate of 1.7 percent in the second quarter. And a survey from payroll company ADP showed U.S. businesses created a healthy 200,000 jobs this month. Gasoline futures rose 3 cents to finish at $3.04 per gallon.
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http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/style-points/201308/phoenix-suns-unveil-new-uniforms
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Phoenix Suns Unveil New Uniforms
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20130819173533
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Tis the season for new NBA jerseys.
In recent weeks the Pistons and Pelicans unveiled new digs, and Thursday it was the Suns' turn.
Phoenix went above and beyond other teams in its unveiling, having a fashion show at a local mall. Five current players were joined by a bevy of Phoenix legends in showing off what is the fourth new look in the team's 45 year history.
“We wanted to update the look, modernize the look, but also tie it back to the past and the legacy of the team,” team president Jason Rowley said. “We’ve got a lot of good, young players who are going to be the future of this team. It’s a new era and no better way to launch a new era than with new jerseys.”
As you can see on Eric Bledsoe (second from left) and Caron Butler (second from right), the Suns will be one of the teams to test out sleeved jerseys next season.
For more photos of the new jerseys, see here.
ThePostGame brings you the most interesting sports stories on the web.
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to read them first!
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Tis the season for new NBA jerseys.
In recent weeks the Pistons and Pelicans unveiled new digs, and Thursday it was the Suns' turn.
Phoenix went abov...
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http://web.archive.org/web/20130820063547id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/television/2013/07/08/taking-drunk-history-formula-from-web/Y3jBtxE6I7ljBgoJJLNKxJ/story.html
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Taking ‘Drunk History’ formula from Web to TV
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20130820063547
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In the world of “Drunk History,” Nixon’s response to Watergate follows the actual history — to a point. “I am not a crook,” he says, his voice slurred. “Hand me some cookies.”
The star-studded new show, which premieres Tuesday on Comedy Central, is based on the popular Internet series of the same name. Comedian Derek Waters and filmmaker Jeremy Konner began making the five-minute online videos on a lark in 2007. “It was immediately on the front page of YouTube,” Konner said. “By the end of the week, we had a million views.”
The transition from Web shorts to the half-hour TV format posed a formidable challenge. “We spent countless hours and days and weeks experimenting with how to make this a half-hour show,” said Konner. “What we found is that keeping as close as possible to the Web series seemed the most effective.”
Other than improved production values, the new show does not stray far from the formula that made Drunk History popular in the first place: Heavily inebriated narrators relate well-known historical incidents, and famous actors in period costume portray the events exactly as told, lip-synching the words.
One important innovation differentiates the half-hour version: Each episode focuses on a particular place. “To fill out the longer episodes, we went from city to city, and each episode has three segments that are specific to that city,” said series producer Owen Burke, former artistic director of the renowned Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre.
The first episode focuses on three moments in Washington, D.C.’s past: the Watergate scandal, the assassination of Lincoln, and Nixon’s unlikely meeting with Elvis Presley. In both Nixon stories, Bob Odenkirk (“Breaking Bad”) portrays the disgraced president, with Jack McBrayer (“30 Rock”) as his “top adviser.” Jack Black plays Elvis, and Nirvana drummer/Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl plays a member of Elvis’s entourage.
From the beginning, “Drunk History” has relied upon enthusiastic celebrity participation, with big stars sinking their teeth into tiny roles. “Every episode feels like a special,” said Burke. And the drunkenness is not an act. According to Burke, a medic is always available on set to make sure the narrators stay safe. (They are subject to Breathalyzer tests to monitor their alcohol levels.)
The fourth episode, filmed as the intended pilot, takes place in Boston. Guest stars include Winona Ryder, Michael Cera, Nick Offerman, and comedian Jen Kirkman, a Needham native.
“Boston was the first place we shot because we wanted to be there for Patriots Day,” said Burke of the 2012 filming. “We couldn’t have chosen a better city on a better day.” Because it came first, the Boston episode is the only episode in the series to contain one story told by locals rather than professionals.
“Boston was very much part of figuring out what the show was,” said Konner. “We found two people in the Baseball Tavern near Fenway, and they ended up telling us the story of the Isabella Stewart Gardner [Museum] art heist.” In subsequent locations, the creators decided to stop seeking narrators in bars. “That’s a testament to Boston,” said Burke. “You can always find someone who will tell you a story.”
The Boston episode also includes the stories of a notorious arsonist and of Mary Dyer’s fatal struggle against the 17th-century Puritan establishment.
While each installment contains multiple segments, the creators want them to feel unified, and not just by place. “We struggled to find through lines for each story, tying all three stories together,” said Waters.
Although the telling is addled, the most surprising fact about the show for many viewers will be that all the stories are based on true history.
“I don’t think ‘Drunk History’ should ever be used as a primary source,” said Konner. “We’re telling real stories, but we may or may not have taken liberties with some of the dialogue.”
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In the world of “Drunk History,” Nixon’s response to Watergate follows the actual history — to a point. “I am not a crook,” he says, his voice slurred. “Hand me some cookies.” The star-studded new show, which premieres Tuesday on Comedy Central, is based on the popular Internet series of the same name. Comedian Derek Waters and filmmaker Jeremy Konner began making the five-minute online videos on a lark in 2007. Other than improved production values, the new show does not stray far from the formula that made Drunk History popular: Heavily inebriated narrators relate well-known historical incidents, and famous actors in period costume portray the events exactly as told, lip-syncing the words. One important innovation differentiates the half-hour version: Each episode focuses on a particular place.
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http://web.archive.org/web/20130823053444id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2013/07/24/new-home-sales-jump-highest-level-years/nRJd44qW8KxWzQ7U5Za2rO/story.html
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US new-home sales jump to highest level in 5 years
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20130823053444
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WASHINGTON — Americans snapped up new homes in June at the fastest pace in five years, a sign the housing recovery is strengthening.
Sales of newly built homes rose 8.3 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 497,000, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. That’s the highest since May 2008 and up from an annual rate of 459,000 in May, which was revised lower.
While sales are still below the 700,000 pace consistent with healthy markets, they have risen 38 percent in the past 12 months, the biggest annual gain since January 1992.
‘‘There’s an awful lot of headroom for more gains in new-home sales once the job market recovers more fully,’’ Jonathan Basile, an economist at Credit Suisse, said in a note.
New home sales make up only a small part of the market. But they have an outsize impact on the economy. Each home built creates an average of three new jobs and generates about $90,000 in tax revenue, according to data from the National Association of Home Builders.
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WASHINGTON — Americans snapped up new homes in June at the fastest pace in five years, a sign the housing recovery is strengthening. Sales of newly built homes rose 8.3 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 497,000, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. That’s the highest since May 2008 and up from an annual rate of 459,000 in May, which was revised lower. While sales are still below the 700,000 pace consistent with healthy markets, they have risen 38 percent in the past 12 months. That’s the biggest annual gain since January 1992. ‘‘There’s an awful lot of headroom for more gains in new-home sales once the job market recovers more fully,’’ Jonathan Basile, an economist at Credit Suisse, said in a note to clients.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/apps/10223012/Join-the-new-Telegraph-plan-from-Vodafone-and-get-an-iPad-for-only-99.html
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http://web.archive.org/web/20130828072530id_/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/apps/10223012/Join-the-new-Telegraph-plan-from-Vodafone-and-get-an-iPad-for-only-99.html
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Join the new Telegraph plan from Vodafone and get an iPad for only £99
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20130828072530
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For £35 a month and a £99 upfront cost the offer includes:
• A 16 GB iPad with Retina display (normally £499 each)
• 2GB of UK mobile internet access
• A subscription to The Telegraph Digital Pack
Q. What does 16GB GB mean when referring to the iPad? A. This is the amount of storage you have on the iPad which depends on the size of the files of the documents, books, photos, music or video you download on to it.
Q. What do you mean by 2GB of UK internet? A. This means you can take your iPad with you wherever you are and are able to go online using a mobile phone signal, rather than Wi-Fi. This package gives you a limit of 2GB of data stream/ downloads per month on this method.
Q. What do you mean by 1 GB Wi-Fi? A. The GB of Wi-Fi is for use in the UK and gives you access to BT Premium hotspots and the London Underground WiFi. There is no restriction if you are connecting to your own Wi-Fi, or an internet Wi-Fi.
Q. How long is the contract? A. 24 months.
Q. Can I get an iPad mini with this offer? A. The offer is only available on 16GB iPad with Retina display.
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This exclusive offer includes a 16GB Retina display iPad, plus a 2GB data plan and a two-year digital subscription to The Telegraph, all for £35 a month with a £99 upfront cost.
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http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2004/nov/05/heritage.artsandhumanities
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British Museum director on an exhibition of ancient Sudanese artefacts
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20130828162020
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An Islamic government at odds with Washington and the European Union; famine and military aggression in Darfur; a continuing war between the north and newly oil-rich south: this is Sudan as it is normally seen in the media in Europe. But behind this lies another Sudan that has been too long overlooked, for many thousands of years one of the leading cultural forces in Africa. It is that Sudan we have been celebrating at the British Museum, through the loan exhibition from the museum in Khartoum.
It would obviously be absurd to suggest that any objects, even star pieces from the National Museum in Khartoum, could go very far in capturing the essence of Africa's largest country, especially a country that borders nine disparate neighbours. But they can at least suggest some of its key characteristics - and some enduring patterns of behaviour and thought.
In the British Museum's collection, the visitor can get an idea of the enormous range of Sudan's cultures. In the rich, settled world of Khartoum and the northern Nile you find a confident, north-facing cosmopolitanism that has always been in contrast with the farming societies of the Fur in the west and the Dinkas and related pastoralist peoples in the south. Through the objects they have produced, you can understand something of the tensions and conflicts between these different worlds, of the present civil wars and the apparent collapse of any community of interest or behaviour. They also allow us to put the current violence in a wider and perhaps more hopeful cultural perspective.
When the current exhibition opened, representatives of almost all the Sudanese political and regional groups came to the British Museum to join - with officials and ministers of the Khartoum government - in a celebration of their shared past. That encouraged us to offer the museum as a particularly appropriate forum for debate on the future of Sudan once the crisis of Darfur has abated and, as everybody hopes, the civil war with the south finally ends. When the relief workers retreat, the geopolitical cultural and religious issues will remain, as powerful and divisive as ever.
The civilisation to which all Sudanese can lay claim is an immensely ancient one, and the pottery of Kerma is only one demonstration of the fact that its highest achievements are very high indeed, something that is often obscured in western Europe by the long shadow that Pharaonic Egypt continues to cast over its southern neighbours.
Sudan's Christianity is also ancient. Justinian and Theodora, the rulers of Constantinople to whom we in Europe owe the mosaic splendours of Ravenna, also sent missionaries over the cataracts to the upper Nile. Emperor and empress famously had many disagreements, religion among them. So each dispatched competing evangelists (as usual, the empress won), foreshadowing the rivalries of European missionaries in the 19th century, who divided the southern Sudan between their various bitterly opposed sects.
If Islam came late (not till 1500), it came militant. Throughout the 19th century, and particularly under the inspiring leadership of the Mahdi, it rallied opposition to the foreigner - Turkish, Egyptian or British - with disconcerting resonances for us now, sharply aware of the religious aspects of the current civil wars, and the presence of Osama bin Laden in Khartoum not many years ago.
Two objects from the British Museum's own collection - a lyre and a slit gong - tell contradictory truths. On the one side, nonchalant coexistence in the lyre of Islam and Christianity within an ancient and abidingly popular pagan ritual, oiled by the small change of peaceful international trade. In the other instrument, brutal struggles for power, the north enslaving the south till both collapsed under foreign attack.
It is these continuous and conflicting aspects of Sudan across the longue durée that we have tried to demonstrate in the exhibition. To a startling degree Sudan is now what it has always been. But century after century, there is one persistent and determinant fact of Sudanese life not apparent in the objects on display: the overweening military and cultural power of a nearby empire. On the edge of Pharaonic Egypt and Imperial Rome, later mistrusted by the Ottomans and the British, Sudan squabbled and skirmished with them all, and on occasion gave them all a bloody nose - most spectacularly when it carried home in triumph the severed bronze head of Augustus, dismembering the Roman emperor in effigy, as 1,800 years later it would destroy General Gordon in person. Could this happen again? Could Sudan effectively resist current international great-power pressure to resolve its internal conflicts? Augustus's head suggests it is by no means impossible.
The forum, which includes Sudanese living in exile and from Sudan, will address questions that are thousands of years old, entirely contemporary and perhaps more urgent now than ever. It may even suggest some answers.
· Beyond Darfur: Sudanese identity and the roots of conflict, a public forum supported by the Guardian, is at the British Museum on Wednesday November 10, from 7pm. Tickets are £10/£8 (concessions), available from the box office on 020-7323 8181. www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk
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British Museum director Neil MacGregor on an exhibition of ancient Sudanese artefacts that offers an insight into the cultural background to the crisis in Darfur.
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http://www.nydailynews.com/2.1353/flash-crash-sec-examines-quote-stuffing-practice-article-1.442520
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No more 'flash crash': SEC examines 'quote stuffing' practice
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20130828233341
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U.S. regulators are probing certain practices around "quote stuffing," where large numbers of rapid-fire stock orders are placed and canceled almost immediately, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro said on Tuesday.
"The SEC and other regulators are looking carefully at certain practices in this area to assess whether they violate existing rules against fraudulent or other improper behavior," Schapiro said at the Economic Club of New York.
Regulators were also looking at quote stuffing in connection with the mysterious May 6 "flash crash," when the Dow Jones industrial average dropped dramatically before quickly recovering.
Schapiro appeared to broaden the already wide array of issues the SEC is looking at in the wake of the flash crash, including the fact that some firms regularly send more than 90 buy or sell orders for every trade they ultimately make.
RELATED: AFTER 1,000-POINT DOW PLUNGE, SEC TO STRENGTHEN CIRCUIT BREAKERS
"Quote stuffing" is not seen as the cause of the dramatic market drop, sources have said. A report that may explain the flash crash is expected toward the end of the month, Schapiro told Reuters before delivering the speech.
Regardless, the SEC has introduced a pilot "circuit breaker" program that pauses trading in a single stock if that stock is in a free fall. Schapiro said the circuit breaker program -- which stops trading for five minutes if a stock falls more than 10 percent in five minutes -- can be improved.
"Currently, the circuit breakers can be triggered by anomalous trades that may not warrant pausing all trading in the stock for five minutes," Schapiro said.
Schapiro said the SEC's next steps are likely to include a careful review of a limit-up and limit-down procedure that would directly prevent trades outside specified parameters, while allowing trading to continue within those parameters.
RELATED: MADOFF VICTIMS TRY TO KO $95 MILLION TRUSTEE PAYOUT
A limit-up and limit-down rule, used in U.S. futures markets, is seen as a possible alternative to circuit breakers.
The SEC has undertaken a review of the structure of markets, which has changed dramatically over the years. Schapiro said many investors have complained to the SEC about U.S. market structure. "We must listen closely," she said.
Quote stuffing is a term coined by Nanex LLC, a trade database developer that issued a study suggesting computer algorithms did this to gain an edge during the May 6 crash. The study argued that high-frequency traders regularly flood the marketplace with bogus orders to distract rival trading firms.
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Regulators are introducing 'circuit breakers' to counteract trading firms that routinely place up to 90 buy and sell orders for every executed trade.
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http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/apr/27/bonhams-stolen-roman-sculptures-auction
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Roman sculptures withdrawn from auction amid fears they are stolen
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Looted? ... Bonhams is withdrawing four Roman sculptures from its antiquities auction. Photograph: Dalya Alberge
Four Roman sculptures are to be withdrawn from auction tomorrow amid claims that they were stolen from archaeological sites overseas.
Photographs seized by police suggested that the sculptures – funerary busts and a marble statue of a youth from the second century AD – were illicitly excavated, archaeologists told the Guardian.
A spokesman for Bonhams auctioneers said: "Whenever a serious question is raised about an item's provenance we withdraw it from sale pending an internal investigation. We take rigorous care to ensure that we only sell items that have a clear provenance."
Dr David Gill, reader in Mediterranean archaeology at Swansea University, said that the four antiquities bore soil traces that indicated they were excavated during illegal digs. Images in the Bonhams auction catalogue show the same sculptures cleaned and restored.
Archaeologists remain concerned about illegal trading of antiquities and some believe insufficient checks are carried out into their provenance.
Lord Renfrew, the eminent Cambridge archaeologist, warned that "such sales are maintaining London's reputation as a clearing house for looted antiquities".
Gill said the withdrawal was the latest in a series of such incidents in London.
Christos Tsirogiannis, a researcher at Cambridge University and formerly an archaeologist with the Greek ministry of culture, uncovered the evidence suggesting that the sculptures had been illegally excavated. They had been moderately valued, at about £40,000, but he is concerned about the impact of illicit excavations.
He said: "The destruction leaves objects out of context. Even if [an object] is a masterpiece, our duty is to give people history." It is a view shared by most archaeologists.
Since 2003, it has been a criminal offence to deal in "tainted cultural objects", punishable by up to seven years in prison. Renfrew called for auction houses to identify the vendors of antiquities. "That would be a step towards clarifying the problem," he said.
The style of the Roman busts suggests they are of eastern Mediterranean origin and were possibly dug up in Syria or northern Greece. The marble statue probably originates from Italy, archaeologists said.
The Bonhams spokesman said that the firm sends its catalogues for scrutiny to the Art Loss Register – a computerised database – to ensure that only items with clear provenance are sold. "If they raise issues, we also withdraw items," he said.However, Dr Gill said that the Art Loss Register only dealt with stolen items, and not antiquities that may have come from illegal excavations.
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Bonhams auction house acts after claims that second century AD artefacts were taken during illegal excavations
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Picasso, Manet and Matisse - auctions revel in Europe's richest art sales
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It was Europe's most valuable ever art auction and the script had been prepared for an evening of supernova prices. But the world's richest art buyers refused to follow it. Last night they might even have been described as … prudent.
Christie's in London hosted one of the most anticipated sales for years, selling art with a total presale estimate of £163m-231m.
The two stand-out jewels among the 63 lots were a blue period Picasso and a Monet waterlily painting, both with estimates of between £30m-40m and even higher expectations. But the Picasso sold at its low-end estimate – for £31m – and a final bid of £29m for the Monet meant it went unsold. In total, 16 lots were unsold. But the messages were mixed. Amid the disappointing lots was the fact that £152.5m was paid overall, a record for an art auction in the UK.
Thomas Seydoux, Christie's international director of impressionist and modern art, said he was "very surprised" at the failure of the Monet to sell. "It's a seminal picture," he said.
The auction was at times slow. Seydoux said: "It's a bit like hill climbing on a bicycle, buyers are cautious at the beginning and once they get in a rhythm and they feel other bikers are with them then they get going."
Last night, for the big lots, no one seemed prepared to make the break. "People were quite cautious, nothing was crazy. It was measured," Seydoux said.
The Picasso was being sold by Andrew Lloyd Webber with all profits going to his charitable foundation. He released a statement last night expressing satisfaction with the price in such "austere" times.
The painting dates from 1903 – the pinnacle of Picasso's blue period – and is of the artist's good friend Angel Fernández de Soto. The work's other title, which may explain the sitter's languid expression, is the Absinthe Drinker.
Lloyd Webber had attempted to sell it in 2006 but the auction was aborted after lawyers for a German academic, Julius Schoeps, claimed the painting had been forcibly sold to the Nazis before the war. That claim was dismissed by a court in New York and it was revealed in January that a confidential agreement had been reached in which all claims were relinquished.
Some observers had thought it might be a record-breaker and before the sale Christie's president, Jussi Pylkkänen, called it "one of the most important works of art to be offered at auction in decades". It might not have broken records but it still represented a considerable return on the composer's investment of £18m in 1995.
The Monet waterlily painting, Nymphéas, 1906, had a less bumpy ride to auction and Christie's experts were puzzled at its failure to sell. Painted in his garden at Giverny, the work was part of a famous exhibition of waterlily paintings held at the Galerie Durand-Ruel in Paris in 1909.
The Christie's sale followed another mixed message sale at Sotheby's on Tuesday where £112m was spent and seven auction records set.
The stand-out lot of Tuesday's sale in London was an important self-portrait by the father of impressionism, Édouard Manet. It sold for £22.4m, an auction record for the artist beating the previous high of £16.3m, set in 1989.
It was one of three paintings to sell for more than £10m – only the second time that has happened in London.
The others were a fabulously vibrant André Derain painting, Arbres á Collioure, which sold for £16.3m and Henri Matisse's Odalisques jouant aux dames, which sold for £11.8m.
Melanie Clore, a co-chairman at Sotheby's, said the results "demonstrate the strength of the international demand for top quality works".
She added: "To sell three works for over £10m is testimony not only to the vitality of the impressionist and modern art market but also the pivotal role that London plays within the international auction market."
But again, more had been expected, particularly for the Manet. Bidding began at £15m and it slowly crept up to what was the lower end of its £20m-30m estimate.
Other highlights from Christie's last night included a Vincent Van Gogh, Parc de l'hôpital Saint-Paul, painted during his voluntary confinement in an asylum after his troubles in Arles (not least his fight with Gauguin and the unfortunate ear incident). Its hammer price was £8m, just on its low estimate.
There was also a sensational Gustav Klimt: Portrait of Ria Munk III. The subject had shot herself six years earlier because of a row with her lover, people tended to be more melodramatic then, and Klimt was still working on the picture when he himself died in 1918. Its hammer price was £16.7m – in the middle of its estimate.
Expectations had been raised by the astounding prices realised at auctions earlier this year with record prices for any work of art being made first in February, when a Giacometti 'walking man' sculpture sold for £65m and then in May, when a Picasso sold for £70m.
It seemed as if the market was resurgent. Clore had predicted: "London is about to witness one of the most thrilling seasons of sales it has ever had."
Before last night, Pylkkänen, who was also auctioneer, spoke of a group of extremely rich collectors, eager to buy the very best.
They were, he said, the "new Medicis" and were from across the world: Europe, the US, the Middle East, Russia, China and yes, even Britain.
These secretive people are assiduously courted by the auction houses with Christie's, last week holding a dinner for nearly 60 of them to mark the opening of a public exhibition of some of the jewels in its forthcoming sales.
The lesson for the auction houses may be that this group of buyers have not made their money by spending over the odds.
• Hopes had been high for Picasso's Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto. Painted in 1903, the height of the artist's Blue Period, the work is also known as The Absinthe Drinker. It was estimated at £30-40m and sold for £34.8m.
• Monet's Nympheas (pictured) was the other highlight with the same estimate: £30-40m. But bidding was painfully slow from £22m to £29m, leaving it unsold. One man in the audience was overheard blaming the painting's lack of colour.
• Gustav Klimt's Portrait of Ria Munk III was the second highest seller: a joyful, beautiful painting to look at until you realise you're looking at a portrait of a woman who shot herself after a lovers' tiff. Klimt died before completing it. It sold for £18.8m.
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The two stand-out jewels among the 63 lots were a blue period Picasso and a Monet waterlily painting
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http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/mar/23/artist-week-special-greaud-gaillard-trouve
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Artist of the week special: Loris Greaud, Cyprien Gaillard, Tatiana Trouvé
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Loris Greaud's Cellar Door exhibition experience occupied the entire Palais de Tokyo. Photograph: Olivier Pasqual
For a long time, Paris was an art capital more famous for work by dead artists than living ones. Though France certainly had its share of megastars – Sophie Calle, Annette Messager or Christian Boltanski – it was in the 1990s that a new generation transformed the country's art map. When the likes of Dominique Gonzalez Foerster and Philippe Parreno were gathered under curator Nicolas Bourriaud's banner of "relational aesthetics", French contemporary art found a clear identity that made an international splash. So who are the homegrown talents following in their wake?
Loris Greaud's career has been meteoric. In 2005, at the age of 26, he had his first acclaimed solo show and won the Prix Ricard for young artists. Just three years later, he took over the entire Palais de Tokyo, Paris's vast hipster art space, with an ambitious, evolving exhibition experience called Cellar Door. Greaud has an exceptional nose for the quirky, riffing on everything from ghost stories to sci-fi and cult children's books, as well as the tantalisingly elusive. A "taster" for Cellar Door included little packets of flavourless sweets, dubbed "the taste of illusion". But the delights of this "dreaming factory", which invoked the spirit of Willy Wonka, also included a giant cage – The Merzball Bubble – where paintballers attacked each other with Yves Klein blue. When Cellar Door arrived in a mutated form at London's ICA, Greaud created three identical black rooms, fitted with freakish black speaker-pods playing opera, where male triplets served black champagne.
Romantic modern is the keynote of Cyprien Gaillard's wistful films and photographs. Gaillard's camera lingers over cityscapes gone to seed, a 20th century equivalent of the melancholy ruins painted by artists such as Piranesi. Born in 1980, Gaillard won the 2010 Prix Marcel Duchamp (France's equivalent of the Turner). His work often pairs visionary architecture with boyhood exploits – beautiful, damned or maybe just dumb. Cities of Gold and Mirrors, his brilliant 2009 film, captures American jocks getting loaded in Cancun, Mexico. They down bottles of liquor with their tops off, surrounded by the Mayan-influenced architecture of the city. Gaillard's choice of music adds a note of yearning for lost innocence: it's the soundtrack to Mysterious Cities of Gold, the hit French 1980s cartoon that had a generation of kids hooked on the story of a lost, perfect civilisation.
The French-Italian Tatiana Trouvé is a confirmed star of the Paris art world, but her career was born from frustration. In the 1990s, Trouvé came to attention with her Bureau d'Activités Implicites, a series of office-like installations intended to reclaim time wasted in her early career. They included rejection letters, sound recordings of moments spent waiting and memories written on slips of paper, stored in pigeonholes. Today, her drawings and sculptures present a topsy-turvy mirror-world that taps into memory and our shifting experience of time and space. Here, twisted, black metal poles resemble fancy designer furniture, metal bars sporting handles and bike seats might be gym equipment, while white blocky constructions look just like kitchen units. All this is realised at half-size, the way the world might have looked to Alice when she ate the cake marked "eat me". Nothing is quite what it seems; everything appears familiar, like a half-remembered dream.
Click here to read part one of the series
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In the second part of our series assessing the top rising artists from the countries involved in the Guardian's New Europe season, we train the spotlight on a trio of French talents
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http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/may/28/jeremy-deller-britain-venice-biennale
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Jeremy Deller shows a 'wistfully aggressive' Britain at Venice Biennale
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A Good Day for Cyclists by Sarah Tynan, in Jeremy Deller's British pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian
It is a portrait of Britain that its creator describes as "wistfully aggressive" – a kind of dark companion piece to last year's Olympics opening ceremony, but with anger and satire mingling with the fondness and celebration.
This is Jeremy Deller's British pavilion for the 55th Venice Biennale, the art world's most important international event. It includes drawings by inmates of a high-security prison; a vast mural of William Morris sinking oligarch Roman Abramovich's yacht in the Venetian lagoon; and another in which a giant hen harrier crushes a Land Rover. The last is a reference to the incident in 2007 when two of the endangered birds were shot over the Sandringham estate when Prince Harry and a friend were out shooting. The exhibition reflects, said the artist, his "love-hate relationship" with Britain.
Deller, 47, described the pavilion, titled English Magic, as a personal museum of the nation's history, with objects ranging from Neolithic hand axes (some of which visitors are allowed to handle) to William Morris fabrics to privatisation vouchers issued in Russia in the early 1990s – traces of the denationalisation of industry that led to the rise of the oligarchs. Characteristically, Deller has brought together the work of others. He said he had "got off his chest" various angry obsessions – the Sandringham shooting incident spoke not just, he said, "of killing the animal, but of hunting, and nature generally, and the idea of getting away with it. It is not clear who pulled the trigger but there were only two people known to be shooting on the estate that day."
The drawings by inmates of HMPs Shotts, Everthorpe and Parc occupy a room that examines the Iraq war – a kind of portrait gallery in which figures such as Tony Blair, Alastair Campbell and Dr David Kelly are displayed. There are disturbing drawings of scenes remembered by imprisoned former members of the armed forces, including an image of two soldiers smoking crack in Wellington barracks, London, before deployment.
If Deller's villains are Prince Harry and Abramovich, the hero of the show is the 19th-century designer, artist, political radical and writer Morris, examples of whose fabrics, tile designs and printing blocks are on show. "I've lived with him all my life, starting with my parents' cushions," said Deller. "He was an extraordinary person: his politics, his writings, the way he humanised the industrial revolution, his interest in beauty. He was a true artist, with incredibly strong beliefs: artists wouldn't get involved like that today."
Eighty-eight nations are participating in this year's biennale, with first-time presentations from countries including the Maldives, Bahrain, Kuwait, the Polynesian island of Tuvalu and the Holy See. Any nation recognised by the Italian government is eligible to field a national pavilion – hence the appearance for the first time of the youthful Republic of Kosovo.
Art may be the point of the biennale but politics is its subtext, with countries frequently using the festival as a prominent international stage to project cultural identity. But artists are unreliable carriers of politically ordained scripts and, as with Deller's pavilion for Britain, the presentations may veer wildly away from any "official" narrative.
The national element in the biennale, which was founded in 1895, has long been contested and debated: this year the French and Germans are swapping pavilions to highlight the issue. The French will show work by the Albanian artist Anri Sala in the severe, 1930s German pavilion in Venice's Giardini, while the Germans will show work by Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei, among others.
The nationalism question is also very present for Britain. The official British pavilion, occupying an imperially prominent spot in the Giardini, has in recent years been occupied solely by artists trained or resident in London. Wales and Scotland have both, over the past years, shown work from their own nations in collateral events – in the case of Scotland, producing a handful of Turner prize winners along the way.
This year Wales shows work by Bedwyr Williams. A multiroom, theatrical installation, it encompasses amateur stargazers, terrifying dentists, fruit and vegetables wobbling in aspic and terrazzo flooring: it is a meditation on the wonder contained in the small and apparently insignificant (such as a tiled floor) as well as the vast, sublime expanses of the universe.
Scotland + Venice presents three Glasgow-based artists: film-makers Corin Sworn and Duncan Campbell, and painter Hayley Tompkins. In Sworn's film we hear a recording of her and her father, an anthropologist, as they sift through slides of a research trip he took in 1981 to Peru. They revisit the Peruvian village and we see how memory, misremembering and time conspire to weave their own stories about the events 30 years ago.
In fact each of the artists used "found" images in their work: Tompkins employed stock photographs from the internet and Campbell has presented a film essay, Statues Also Die, made by Chris Marker and Alain Resnais in 1953. The use of archive material was, said curator Katrina Brown, reflective of "the age of post-internet art and the quantity and volume of influences available through the web". Sworn and Campbell had used the film-essay as a form, which she called an "increasingly dominant form in art today".
• This article was corrected on 28 May 2013 because it stated that this year's event is the 66th Venice Biennale – it is the 55th.
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Artist describes his British pavilion as a personal museum of nation's history, referencing William Morris, Roman Abramovich and Iraq war
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http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/nov/07/samuel-aranda-best-photograph
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Samuel Aranda's best photograph: a woman protects her son
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'It was chaos' ... Samuel Aranda's photograph won the World Press Photo award. Photograph: New York Times/Samuel Aranda. Click to enlarge
The New York Times sent me to Yemen last year to photograph protests against the regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. No one was really covering the story – most foreign correspondents and photographers were in Tunisia, Egypt or Libya, reporting on the revolutions there.
This was taken on my second day, after hours of intensive shooting and bombing. Twelve people were killed and 30 wounded that day. Early in the morning, I went to what was dubbed Change Square, where protesters were congregating, and marched with them until snipers attacked us. We retreated to the square only to find tanks firing artillery shells. I ran into a nearby mosque that was being used as a makeshift hospital. That was when I found Fatima holding her wounded son, Zayed.
It was chaotic. Everyone was crying. But Fatima was completely calm as she waited for a doctor to see her 18-year-old boy. His leg was wounded and I assumed he had been shot, but he'd actually fallen, intoxicated by tear gas. After the picture was taken, he spent three days in a coma. When Fatima heard that protesters had been killed, she went straight to this mosque to see if Zayed was there. This is the moment she found her son alive.
Their pose and the way the light fell made it easy to see the shot. In a matter of seconds, I'd taken five frames. I knew it was a strong image, but I was overwhelmed by the reaction it got. I didn't know anything about them at all – none of these details – until much later, when the shot won this year's World Press Photo award and I was able to go back to Yemen to hear their story properly.
Born: Santa Coloma de Gramanet, Barcelona, 1979.
Studied: Trained at El País and El Periódico de Catalunya
Influences: James Nachtwey and Stanley Greene for their photography and ethics.
High point: In 2004, I did a story about Moroccan immigrants that forced the Spanish government to apologise and change its policy.
Low point: When I was fired from Getty Images for focusing on social issues rather than things that could be sold easily.
Top tip: Open a bakery! You have to really want to be a photographer to make it.
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'Fatima went looking for her son amid the violence in Yemen. This is the moment she found him alive'
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http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/dec/01/raymond-cauchetier-best-shot-photography
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http://web.archive.org/web/20131009231755id_/http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/dec/01/raymond-cauchetier-best-shot-photography
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Photographer Raymond Cauchetier's best shot
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'I didn't want to shoot what the movie cameras were filming' ... Raymond Cauchetier's best shot. Photograph: Raymond Cauchetier
This was taken on the set of Jules et Jim in 1962. The scene was an old-style French boxing match between Jules and Jim. Someone on the set turned a radio on in the break and it was playing one of Strauss's waltzes. The actors, Oskar Werner and Henri Serre, heard the music and in an instant the gym was transformed into a kind of village dance. Obviously there was the potential for a nice shot. The abandoned boxing glove, on the floor down to the right, looked like it might play a part, too, and I framed the picture accordingly.
This kind of photograph is uncontrollable, of course. You have to be ready, to anticipate, because by the time it takes for your brain to tell your finger to activate the shutter, the moment has gone. I love the balance in their gestures. But if you look at the contact sheet you'll see there were plenty of pictures that were less successful.
My approach to set photography was really that of a photojournalist. Stills photography then was purely for publicity purposes; I was interested in the film-making process. I didn't want to shoot what the movie cameras were filming.
For this shot I used a smaller format Linhof with a Zeiss Tessar lens. My usual camera was a 2¼-inch Rolleiflex: large format, incredibly robust. You could drop a Rolleiflex in a river – I did, in the Mekong – and it would still work. Most photographers then were using 35mm Leicas, of course, but I didn't like them; the image was five times smaller than a Rollei, and the body was too fragile. In fact, I once turned down an invitation from Cartier-Bresson to join Magnum because I would have had to use a Leica. I don't regret it, though I might be rather better known now if I had said yes.
Studied: Self-taught. Became unofficial photographer of the French new wave on Godard's A Bout de Souffle.
Inspirations: Robert Doisneau, Henri Cartier-Bresson.
High point: A two-month tourism shoot in Cambodia in 1967, at the invitation of the king.
Low point: Being frozen out of set photography in 1968 by new wave cameraman Raoul Coutard.
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'This is on the set of Jules et Jim. Someone turned the radio on during a break, and the scene turned into a village dance'
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http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/oct/17/georgina-livingston
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Georgina Livingston obituary
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Georgina Livingston, landscape architect, who has died of cancer aged 72, worked closely with many distinguished architects and engineers, most notably with Ted Cullinan. Together they created the competition-winning scheme for the new visitor centre at Stonehenge, and the Cambridge University Centre for Mathematical Sciences, completed in 2003. Her work with other architects included the Castle Mall, Norwich, a large rooftop park above the new shopping centre adjoining Norwich Castle; the steeply terraced parking spaces for John Lewis at High Wycombe; and a number of visitor centres for the National Trust – in particular for Sutton Hoo in Suffolk and above the white cliffs of Dover.
Georgina was my older sister, and until I was sent away to school at the age of eight we were inseparable. Our parents were Richard (known always as Snowey) and Minna Eyre. He was a naval officer, then a farmer; she worked sporadically as a caterer. My sister was born in Windsor, but they moved shortly after her birth, and we were brought up in Dorset. Georgina was always a fighter and she stood, often literally, between my father and me. That combative quality was reflected in the nickname I gave her when she was 12 – the Gorgon.
She was educated at Sherborne school for girls, and left early. She fought, against our parents' wishes, for a further education and, after a period as a debutante (at our mother's insistence) and a shop assistant for the couturier Worth, she went for a year to Yeovil School of Art, where her considerable gift for drawing was recognised.
She worked for the furniture designers Robin and Lucienne Day after she left art school, and then for the Greater London council (she was a dogged admirer of Ken Livingstone). She was responsible for the colour schemes of many London school interiors and bridge exteriors. In her 30s, with a young family, she decided she wanted to become a landscape architect. She did her A-levels at home, studied at Thames Polytechnic, graduated with distinction and set up in practice at home, designing a big social housing project – the refurbishing of Tanswell estate in Lambeth – and the headquarters of the Nationwide Building Society (with Edward Cullinan Architects). Later, she moved her practice, Livingston Eyre Associates, to Shoreditch.
Georgina's work was always concerned with improving the quality of public space and attempting to transform run-down urban environments to make the spirit soar. She was a fierce controversialist and loved an argument, though she would never concede victory. She was intrepid, intelligent, droll, loyal, loving, occasionally exasperating, sometimes abrasive, often difficult, but always generous to friends in trouble and keen to engage with life rather than withdraw from it. She had a wonderful eye for gardens and houses, and was an expert knitter and a brilliant cook.
Although she loved England's landscape and church architecture, she moved to France in the 1990s, creating two beautiful gardens and houses there and making many new friends. I last saw her a few weeks before her death and we visited Montaigne's Tower, close to her home. In one of his letters Montaigne says: "I want us to be doing things, prolonging life's duties as much as we can. I want death to find me planting my cabbages, neither worrying about it nor the unfinished gardening." It wasn't to be.
She is survived by her children, Jake and Polly, from her marriage to Mark Livingston, which ended in divorce.
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Other lives: Landscape architect who tried to make the spirit soar
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http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/aug/11/dmitri-kasterine-best-shot-photography
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Photographer Dmitri Kasterine's best shot
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'There's a picture here' ... Dmitri Kasterine's best shot. Photograph: Dmitri Kasterine
I took this in 1969, during the filming of A Clockwork Orange. I think it was on location in Kingston, London, but I can't remember exactly what was being shot that day. The structure you can see is a camera platform, and we were sheltering from the rain underneath it. I was chatting with Stanley Kubrick, and I thought to myself: there's a picture here.
I waited until Stanley paused, and put his hand up to stroke his hair back from his eyes – then I just took it. I didn't have to set the focus as I had a wide-angle lens; I knew, so long as I had the right exposure, the depth of field was enough. The camera he's holding is his Arriflex. It was for handheld work: lightweight, and stripped down to the camera body and lens.
The minute after I got the shot, there was a creaking and straining, and the platform collapsed. Stanley never normally rushed and was the calmest of men, but he was out of there like a bolting rabbit. I'd never seen anything so quick.
This was the third of Kubrick's films I worked on: I'd also been on set for Dr Strangelove and 2001: A Space Odyssey. I was what they call a "special", brought in for 30 or 40 days for a specific purpose. I was taking pictures of the crew because Stanley had an idea he would use them for the title sequence, but he didn't in the end. He never gave me any particular instructions; he once told me that he asked me to work for him because I "stood in the right place".
Before the days of digital, you had to rely on the feeling you had when you took a picture that it would be all right. I like this one very much. It's unusual to have someone's feet so prominent, but it doesn't take away from his expression. He was the least lazy of men, but there's something very relaxed about the pose.
Studied: "I learned a huge amount from a photographer called Michael Wallace."
Influences: "Late 19th-century people, such as August Sander.".
High point: "It may be now. I am working on a series of photographs of Brooklyn."
Top tip: "Follow what you love. Otherwise you'll be disappointed."
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Dmitri Kasterine: 'Just after I took this, the platform Stanley Kubrick is sitting under collapsed. He was out of there like a rabbit'
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http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/may/30/ronald-carter-obituary
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http://web.archive.org/web/20131111112724id_/http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/may/30/ronald-carter-obituary
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Ronald Carter obituary
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20131111112724
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Ronald Carter, who has died of cancer aged 86, was the foremost furniture designer of his generation. He worked mainly in timber in a finely detailed, unmistakably English idiom. Users of the British Library, in London, sit gratefully cocooned in ultra-comfortable leather-seated chairs purpose-designed by him. He was also responsible for the handsome furniture in the Victoria and Albert Museum's cafe, once described as "an ace caff with quite a nice museum attached".
Ron was of that idealistic postwar generation that believed in design for the public good. Like his contemporaries Kenneth Grange and Terence Conran, he had been involved as a student in the Festival of Britain in 1951 and absorbed its excitement and hopes for raising standards of design in Britain. Though Ron, a notably self-deprecating man, might not have explained it in such solemn terms, his life as a designer and a maker was dedicated to the perfecting of the craft.
He was born into a coal-mining family in the Black Country. His mother was a dressmaker. His father left the mines to become a door-to-door salesman, selling ladies' fashions from the back of a van. As a boy, Ron showed promise in the crafts. He studied industrial and interior design at Birmingham Central College of Art, where he won an internal scholarship for silversmithing, before progressing to the Royal College of Art in London to specialise in furniture design. Under its energetic young principal, Robin Darwin, the RCA in the early 1950s was in a heady phase, imbued with a serious new purpose in training designers to revitalise British industry.
Ron's RCA professor Dick Russell was also chief designer for Gordon Russell Ltd, the family firm based in Broadway in the Cotswolds. Ron was his star pupil, working in the Russell tradition of fine craftsmanship, subtly blending modernism and the English Arts and Crafts. He enjoyed those student years, working with Dick on the Lion and Unicorn Pavilion at the Festival of Britain. He shared what he later called "a very scruffy flat" with my husband-to-be, David Mellor, who shared his love of making. They built an Enterprise sailing dinghy together. Ron always loved the sea and fishing was his favourite relaxation.
Even when he was a student, Ron's furniture was noticed. One of his chairs was selected by the rector for the new RCA senior common room. Another was chosen by the architect Frederick Gibberd for the new London airport at Heathrow. This was the chair that appears in David Hockney's lithograph Mirror, Mirror on the Wall.
Ron left the RCA with a first-class degree and the silver medal for special distinction. He then won a travel scholarship to the US, sailing on the Queen Mary in unaccustomed luxury and working for a year as a staff designer for Corning Glass on Fifth Avenue, New York.
He was well placed on his return to Britain to set up his own furniture design consultancy. Unlike Robin Day, the best-known British designer of the previous generation, Ron was relatively unaffected by American styling and technological experimentation. He preferred to work in timber, developing an anglicised equivalent of Scandinavian modern. Through the 60s, Ron, then in partnership with his RCA contemporary Robert Heritage, worked for companies such as LM Furniture, Gordon Russell and the Stag Cabinet Company. The long, low, timber sideboard became a kind of theme tune, now once again in favour with collectors of mid-century "contemporary" design.
Meanwhile, Ron kept up his RCA connections as an influential tutor in the furniture department. His students over the next 20 years included Fred Scott, Jane and Charles Dillon, Peter Murdoch, Floris van den Broecke, Rupert Williamson and Fred Baier, most of the famous names in British furniture design. He was made an honorary fellow of the college on his retirement in 1974.
The 1980s were Ron's glory days. He had by now become disenchanted with working for industry as a design consultant and wanted to be more directly in control of the manufacturing of his own designs. In 1980, with Peter Miles as business partner, he established a new company, Miles Carter, employing a workforce of 20 skilled cabinet makers at Wirksworth in Derbyshire.
"I make furniture that is simple but complicated enough to have its own personality," said Ron. His designs for Miles Carter have some of the robustness of rough-hewn Tudor furniture, but the detail is sophisticated in the manner of the Arts and Crafts maestros Baillie Scott, CFA Voysey, Ernest Gimson and Ernest and Sidney Barnsley.
It is furniture with a quality of classiness that caused it to be specified for most of the top contracts of the early 1980s: Heathrow Terminal 4; the BBC chairman and director general's offices; several embassies and diplomatic residences; the British Museum and the V&A.
The commission for furniture for the British Library came through the architect Colin St John Wilson, whose ideas for the seating were inspired by the painting of Saint Jerome, patron saint of scholars, by Antonello da Messina in the National Gallery. In the painting, Saint Jerome sits at his desk in a curved chair, totally focused on the work in hand. The challenge for Ron was to provide a similar individual "workspace" for each reader within the larger public workspaces of the reading rooms. He achieved this by designing a heavy oak curved chair with its own optional footstool. This robust and lovely furniture will stand the test of time.
Ron was made a royal designer for industry and, in 1999, was appointed OBE. Unlike many of his design contemporaries, he resisted the lure of celebrity. Writing in the Guardian in 1998, Jonathan Glancey summed up the quality of reticence that made Ron so remarkable: "This quiet designer is never seen in fashion mags. He does not wear difficult glasses. He does not say 'yah'. He is neither cool nor hot."
In 1952 Ron married Marilyn Clement, an American he met when they shared an apartment block in New York and she was working for Vogue magazine. They returned to London, where they and their three daughters, Michele, Carol and Ruth, lived a sociable family life in a beautiful early Victorian house overlooking Clapham Common. It was an upbringing in which visual things mattered and all the children absorbed this influence.
In the early 1970s Ron left his family to live with and later marry Ann McNab, a primary school teacher and maker of papier-mache objects. He and Ann went to live in Leigh-on-Sea. After Ann's death seven years ago, Ron – missing the buzz of London exhibitions and museums – returned to south London to live on the same street as Michele.
In his old age, failing in health, he made an astonishing return to the jewellery making of his early days in Birmingham. His sense of craftsmanship and structure and sheer joyfulness in making remained intact.
He is survived by Marilyn, their three daughters and his three stepchildren, Angus, Fiona and Sally.
• Ronald Louis Carter, furniture designer, born 3 June 1926; died 22 May 2013
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Leading English furniture designer whose work combined Scandinavian style with an Arts and Crafts influence
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http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/states-push-provide-some-ex-felons-secon
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http://web.archive.org/web/20131208235506id_/http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/states-push-provide-some-ex-felons-secon
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States push to provide some ex-felons a second chance
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20131208235506
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Walter Fortson is a young man with impressive credentials: He graduated with honors from Rutgers University this year and is headed to the University of Cambridge on a prestigious Truman scholarship.
But on a typical job application, the first thing an employer might notice about Fortson is that he’s an ex-felon.
Fortson, 28, served two years in prison for dealing crack cocaine: He got out in March 2010 and has been clean since. Though he’s successfully turned his life around, he says discrimination against those with a criminal record is very real.
“There have been a lot of times that I haven’t been offered an opportunity because of the stigma,” said Fortson, a Philadelphia native. “A lot of companies have a blanket policy that excludes anyone who’s had any contact with the criminal justice system.”
Fortson is now backing a campaign to make employers remove questions about criminal history from job applications, postponing such queries until a later stage of the hiring process–an initiative widely known as “Ban the Box.”
A growing number of states are coming on board. This week, Rhode Island became the eighth state in the country to pass a statewide Ban the Box law, and it’s one of the most expansive versions out there: The state will require all private and public employers to delay questions about criminal history, following Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Hawaii. Four other states and 51 municipalities have already passed similar measures for hiring public employees, according to the National Employment Law Project. Ban the Box bills are now being considered in New Jersey and California, which passed an executive measure covering public employees in 2010.
“People who have made mistakes need to be able to move on, to move forward with their lives, and we need to change our laws to allow them, even encourage them, to do so,” Rhode Island state senator Harold Metts, a Democrat, said in a statement last week. “They are not being allowed to do so if every job application they fill out looks like an instant dead-end because of that one question about criminal history.”
Supporters say the change is a simple, cost-effective way to help ex-offenders who face major barriers to getting their lives back on track, making it more likely that employers will look at their qualifications first.
“We’re not even saying don’t ask us the question–we’re saying don’t ask the question as the first thing that you do,” said Dorsey Nunn, director of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, an ex-felon-turned-advocate who helped spearhead the movement in the Bay Area. “We are asking for opportunity to compete.”
Ban the Box laws generally make exemptions for schools, law enforcement, and other institutions that already require more stringent screening of their employees. But for other kinds of employers, no matter if it’s violent felony, a sex offense, or misdemeanor–They are prohibited from asking about applicants’ criminal histories when they first apply for a job.
The campaign has come at a time when a record number of Americans have tangled with the criminal justice system. About one in three Americans has some kind of criminal record, including arrests that did not lead to convictions, according to the Department of Justice. And NELP estimates that one in four Americans–65 million people–has a record that would show up on routine background check.
Advocates point out that employment is one of the most effective ways to reduce the recidivism rate and support low-income communities–and they insist there’s an upside for employers as well. “In my experience, a lot of times these folks actually make exemplary employees because they work a lot harder and they have something to prove in a way, or that’s how they feel,” said Rhode Island state representative Michael Chippendale, a Republican who spent decades in the manufacturing industry.
Ban the Box supporters stress that employers are under no obligation to hire such candidates and can still conduct background checks and make the usual inquiries, just later in the hiring process. In Rhode Island, for instance, employers can make such inquiries at the first interview, while Hawaii prohibits criminal history questions until employers make a conditional job offer.
Victims’ advocates haven’t rallied to oppose the Ban the Box laws, arguing that it’s more important to ensure that employers follow through with their background checks when they do conduct them. ”Everyone has a right to interview for a job, but there’s an onus on employers to get somebody who’s well fitted,” says Mai Fernandez, executive director of the National Center for Victims of Crime.
But many businesses groups say the new rules are too rigid and time-consuming, on top of newly revised federal guidelines employers must follow in using criminal records in hiring. “If you have an applicant who was convicted of murder, and you were never going to hire that person anyway, why would you go through the whole process of doing an interview to discover that information?” said Michael Kalt, a San Diego employment lawyer and lobbyist for the California branch of the Society for Human Resource Management.
Employers also argue that Ban the Box could lead to excessive litigation. According to Michael Egenton, senior vice-president of the New Jersey State Chamber of Commerce, “People may say, ‘I didn’t get hired because I was asked that question,’ and then there’s a lawsuit.”
The effort to downplay criminal records in hiring isn’t new: Hawaii first passed the first statewide Ban the Box law in 1998. But the idea began to spread after 9/11 as employer background checks became increasingly commonplace, at the same time that record numbers of Americans were coming out of prison in many states. Boston and Chicago passed citywide Ban the Box initiatives in 2004, and cities from Carrboro, North Carolina, to Travis County, Texas, have followed suit.
But it wasn’t until the financial meltdown that Ban the Box started to take off at the state level, and the ranks of the unemployed everywhere began to rise.
With far fewer job openings than applicants, employers have been especially picky about who to hire, making it harder for job seekers with any marks against them–let alone a criminal history. Advocates believe this has made it even harder for African-Americans and other minority groups to benefit from the economic recovery, as they’re arrested and convicted at higher rates than the rest of the population.
Such pressures seem to have accelerated the pace of change. Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Mexico passed statewide laws in 2010, followed by Colorado, Maryland, and Minnesota, which expanded a 2009 law to cover private employees as well as public ones. Illinois Governor Pat Quinn has also promised to pass a directive in banning the box for state employees. “The political atmosphere has changed,” said Nunn, the Bay Area advocate. “My measure in terms of the successfulness of the issue is how many people have begun to replicate this.”
There’s a good chance that California could become the next state to come on board: a “Ban the Box” bill that would apply to public employees just passed out of committee this month, with hopes for a vote later this year. But the idea has received a more lukewarm reception in New Jersey, whose bill would regulate private employers as well.
“We recognize and appreciate the question of whether we should hold a college student who had a keg party at his dorm to the same level that an individual who held up a convenience store and shot the clerk, said Egenton, of New Jersey’s Chamber of Commerce. “But when you legislate something like this, it’s easier said than done.”
While simply removing the box asking about criminal history seems simple enough, the fine print is more complex. According to the New Jersey bill, for instance, employers can consider only misdemeanors committed in the last 5 years and felonies that have been committed within the last decade, although they can ask about murder, attempted murder, arson, terrorism and registrable sex offenses at any time. If they withdraw a job offer after a background check, employers must submit a form to the state explaining why.
Ban the Box supporters say that such measures are necessary because discrimination can be difficult to pinpoint: Applicants aren’t typically told their criminal histories are problematic, they say–they just don’t get a call back.
There’s some research to back up their claims: in one study, Princeton sociologist Devah Pager sent out job applicants with fictitious resumes and found that those with criminal histories received one-half to one-third the number of callbacks for similar kinds of entry-level positions. Black applicants were even less likely than white applicants to get a job interview even when they had the same criminal histories, Pager found.
The Obama administration also has flagged some of the more egregious violations. While employers are not prohibited from using criminal records in hiring, the federal government has long held that the discriminatory use of criminal records is a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, as such hiring practices have a disproportionate impact on racial minorities.
The administration has updated its guidelines for Title VII discrimination, but it also hasn’t been afraid to use litigation as well: Last month, it filed suit against BMW for a blanket exclusion of employees with criminal records and against Dollar General for revoking a job offer to a woman convicted for drug possession.
The new Ban the Box laws have yet to prompt a wave of lawsuits. But supporters admit there also isn’t a lot of evidence right now to show whether Ban the Box has actually made a difference in lowering barriers for ex-offenders. They assert, however, that it’s a welcome step at a time when Americans are increasingly required to disclose any criminal history–not only when applying for jobs, but also for housing, insurance, and other basic life necessities.
For Forton, the Rutgers graduate, talking about his criminal past lets him explain the progress he’s made since then–how he discovered his passion for fitness while in prison, became a certified personal trainer, and ultimately decided to go to college to study exercise physiology, attending classes while he was still in a halfway house.
“I can show and explain how far I’ve come,” he said. “All of which ultimately gives me an actual shot for the position.”
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Walter Fortson is a young man with impressive credentials: He graduated with honors from Rutgers University this year and is headed to the University of Cambri
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http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/theater-art/2013/12/07/review-fired-earth-woven-bamboo-contemporary-japanese-ceramics-and-bamboo-art-mfa/8oDL53bMinetUW0b0CgkeL/story.html
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http://web.archive.org/web/20131209162632id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com:80/arts/theater-art/2013/12/07/review-fired-earth-woven-bamboo-contemporary-japanese-ceramics-and-bamboo-art-mfa/8oDL53bMinetUW0b0CgkeL/story.html
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Fired Earth, Woven Bamboo: Contemporary Japanese Ceramics and Bamboo Art
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20131209162632
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While the Museum of Fine Arts boasts the greatest collection of Japanese art outside of Japan, neither gallery space nor funding at present are anywhere near adequate to the task of displaying the collection as it deserves to be seen. It’s an ongoing frustration — in many ways a travesty.
Since the core of the Japanese collection was formed in unique circumstances a century ago, the museum also faces another challenge: keeping the Japanese collection alive and fresh. Here it is doing better.
Determined to keep her collection moving with the times, the MFA’s energetic head curator of Japanese art, Anne Nishimura Morse, is trying to cultivate new and younger collectors. And she is always looking out for opportunities to show Japanese contemporary art.
“Fired Earth, Woven Bamboo: Contemporary Japanese Ceramics and Bamboo Art” is one fruit of these efforts. It is a smart, visually appealing display of 60 three-dimensional objects — ceramics and baskets, although not as you might think of those categories — from a collection of more than 90 works recently given to the museum by the collectors Stanley and Mary Ann Snider.
The show makes a great pendant to a smaller, intensely dramatic display of a three-part ceramic sculpture by Nishida Jun upstairs at the MFA (above the main bookstore). His piece, “Zetsu #8” (“zetsu” means “finality”), comes from a series of similarly ambitious works.
In a darkened and dramatically spotlighted room, three monolithic ceramic slabs are displayed chest high in separate vitrines. All three were fired as one massive piece. They subsequently fractured, and now coexist as silent but highly charged evidence of some untraceable past event. They are part freak geological accident, part gorgeous human ruin.
When Nishida placed his huge block of porcelain clay and glaze (so much glaze that in parts it is 10 inches thick) into an intensely hot kiln, he simply let the heat have its way. The effects are shattering, exquisite, awesome. The words reek of hyperbole, but few others avail: This is a work you respond to viscerally.
Much of the vitrified surface of “Zetsu #8” is shiny and smooth. But areas that, before the cleave, were buried too deep to be fired remain powdery and, in places, almost cakey. Whole sections slump like loose skin. Fins that Nishida built onto the slab collapsed and spilled over other parts. Coral-like colors — flushing pinks and queasy greens — emerge alongside areas that are flaking or marbled.
While still in his 20s, Nishida became an international star in the world of ceramics. He won prizes in Italy, Japan, and Korea. But in 2005, he took a break and went with two Japanese colleagues to Bali. His dream — surprising, perhaps, when you consider the revolutionary impulses pulsating beneath his own work — was to help local Balinese ceramic artists nurture and maintain their local pottery traditions.
“Zetsu #8” by Nishida Jun.
Tragically, in the pursuit of this dream, Nishida died there in a massive kiln explosion. He was just 28.
“Zetsu #8” is now part of the MFA’s permanent collection. Preserving and storing it won’t be easy. Like a child’s sandcastle crisscrossed with one too many underground tunnels, it appears to teeter on the edge of collapse. And of course, in that sense, it also feels deeply human. It is a living thing — and as such, one hopes, a consolation to Nishida’s parents, who made their first trip to Boston to visit “Zetsu #8” only a few weeks ago.
Downstairs, “Fired Earth, Woven Bamboo” feels like a very different affair. But it serves as an illuminating overview of innovations in Japanese ceramics since before the Second World War (with an emphasis on recent years), and it shows off a very fine collection. It is accompanied by a catalog authored by Kazuko Todate, a Japanese art historian and critic, with contributions from Morse.
It includes a few works by Nishida’s earliest avant-garde predecessors — people like Tomimoto Kenkichi, whose work can also be seen in the upstairs permanent collection gallery. Widely regarded as Japan’s most important ceramic artist of the 20th century, Tomimoto studied in London before the First World War, and was influenced there by the Arts and Crafts movement.
The insights and ambitions he brought back to Japan — above all, a determination to make of clay an expressive medium — helped to generate a passion for formal experimentation in his country. This shift was directly inspired by modern artists in Europe and, later on, in the United States.
Quite suddenly ceramics began to look wildly different from traditional works, and from one another. If they were vessels, it was often in name only.
Bamboo morphed away from conventional shapes just as quickly. In the 1930s, basket makers like Maeda Chikubosai I began to break new ground. In a basket he made here using bamboo roots, he seems to make a special point of emphasizing their unruly, root-like nature.
From there, change accelerated dramatically, and today, unruliness has become the norm. Artists such as Torii Ippo, Honma Hideaki, and Morigami Jin appear capable of transforming woven bamboo into almost any form. And again, what’s notable is how much their craft owes to European modernism — and especially to the sculptures of Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore, and their fascination with the taut interplay between the insides and outsides of three-dimensional forms.
Still, for all the formal innovation on display here, it’s clear that tradition still counts. Some of the best ceramic artists here are descended from renowned figures in the same field. Kondo Takahiro, for instance, is the grandson of Kondo Yuzo, whose work is also on display in the permanent collection.
Kondo Yuzo holds the title of Important Intangible Cultural Property for his pioneering work with underglazed cobalt porcelains. His grandson’s tower-like “Blue Green Mist” is notable for its glimmering surface — a delicate platinum beading conjuring condensation that was developed, and patented, by the artist.
Admittedly, some of the work here feels hackneyed, and some appears gratuitously inventive. But there are many standouts. Sakurai Yasuko’s “Vertical Flower” — a white porcelain bowl whose subtly angled perforations are so large they transform the bowl into a kind of skeleton — casts haunting shadows.
Kishi Eiko’s consummate “No. 4” conjures a tightly stretched and pleated Issey Miyake outfit transformed to stone. And Fukami Sueharu’s “The Moment (Shun)” shows this exquisitely assured artist at his very best.
The show is supplemented by a selection of contemporary textiles along the gallery walls. Don’t overlook the conjoined, five-panel work by Nishimura Yuko. Barely qualifying as a textile, it is made from highest quality official document paper. The paper has been folded into rigorously geometric patterns that emerge from the wall in low relief.
The work is called “Wave” and although it is entirely white, the play of geometry and shadow is unnervingly optical and tests one’s eyes. But the trouble is not merely on the viewer’s end: An artist’s choice of material can extract its own price. Morse, the curator, told me that when the artist tried to enter the United States, she was knocked back at customs. She has done so much paper folding over her lifetime that her fingerprints have been worn away.
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Determined to keep her collection moving with the times, the MFA’s energetic head curator of Japanese art, Anne Nishimura Morse, is trying to cultivate new and younger collectors. And she is always looking out for opportunities to show Japanese contemporary art. “Fired Earth, Woven Bamboo: Contemporary Japanese Ceramics and Bamboo Art” is one fruit of these efforts. It is a smart, visually appealing display of 60 three-dimensional objects — ceramics and baskets, although not as you might think of those categories — from a collection of more than 90 works recently given to the museum by the collectors Stanley and Mary Ann Snider.
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BOROUGH BITES AFFORDABLE DINING
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20131215002955
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MEZZANOTTE 32-11 Broadway Astoria CUISINE: Southern Italian. PHONE: (718) 274-6611. PRICE RANGE: Appetizers, $5.
95. 3 1/2 STARS Daily News ratings, from zero to four stars, are based on the total dining experience food quality, atmosphere, service and value. COMMENTS: Mezzanotte is a small gem of a restaurant tucked in the middle of a street of fine eateries in a neighborhood known for its wonderful dining. The food, service and atmosphere here are truly first-rate. In Italian, we are told, the word "mezzanotte" means midnight. We arrived for dinner well before that witching hour, but not in time to qualify for the 4 p.
m. early bird special, which includes choice of soup or salad, entree and dessert for just $12.
95. Still, we had no complaints with our visit. Mezzanotte is a storefront restaurant that has been divided into two rooms a large bright front area that includes a small pizza counter right by the door and another small counter where you can pick up Italian delicacies. There is also a more intimate rear area where the ceiling is all glass (giving you a view not only of the stars, but also of surrounding apartment windows) and pink pastel walls and large plants surround your table. The wine list is small, but adequate and reasonably priced. We chose Chianti by the glass to start and then ordered a very satisfying liter bottle of Lurisia, a noncarbonated spring water from the Italian Alps to go with our meal. Starting off with fresh-made rolls dipped in olive oil and pesto, we moved on to appetizer servings of delicately done baked clams oreganato, which also were very fresh-tasting and nicely seasoned, as well as a tasty cold appetizer plate of thinly sliced drief beef on a bed of arugula and mozzarella. A bowl of thick and peppery minestrone soup with plenty of fresh vegetables and pasta came next. It was the kind of lip-smackingly good soup that we wish our mother had made. Next our waitress placed our main courses in front of us. These consisted of a grilled salmon filet; a bowl of cheese-filled tortellini with fresh tomato in a light pesto; and a grilled steak done to a perfectly pink medium rare. The underside of the salmon was a trifle burned, but the other two dishes were truly flavorful. Dessert was another delight. The homemade cannoli and the tiramisu were both superb, and the coffee and cappuccino were excellently made. RESERVATIONS: Recommended on weekends. CREDIT CARDS: Major cards. HOURS: Noon-11 p.
m. Sun.-Thurs., till midnight Fri. and Sat. FAMILY FRIENDLY: Yes. HANDICAPPED ACCESS: Yes. TAKEOUT/DELIVERY: Yes. PARKING: On street. NEAREST MASS-TRANSIT STOP: Q-104 bus on Broadway or Broadway stop on N train.
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MEZZANOTTE
32-11 Broadway
Astoria
CUISINE: Southern Italian.
PHONE: (718) 274-6611.
PRICE RANGE: Appetizers, $5.95-$6.95; main courses, $6.95-$16.95.
3 1/2 STARS
Daily News ratings, from zero to four stars, are based on the total dining experience food quality, atmosphere, service and value.
COMMENTS: Mezzanotte is a small gem of a restaurant tucked in the middle of a street of fine eateries in a neighborhood known for its wonderful dining. The food, service and atmosphere here are
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Top 10 Trends for 2014
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20131221021914
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eMarketer estimates that retail sales via smartphones and tablets have more than doubled to £8.2 bn in 2013, accounting for 18% of total UK ecommerce sales. Tablet commerce has seen particularly high growth, reaching £4.8 bn. In 2014 mcommerce is expected to increase by 53.3% in 2014, more than triple the 15% growth rate for retail ecommerce.
UK mobile ad spend is expected to pass the £1bn mark in 2013, according to eMarketer, reaching £1.2bn (19% of total digital) - a 126.1% YoY growth. Mobile ad spend is expected to nearly double again in 2014 to almost £2.26 billion (32% of total digital).
It is no secret that we are deserting desktops for tablets and smartphones, and following tablet gifting bonanza this Christmas, mobile traffic is set to overtake desktop in early 2014. John Lewis is predicting that 2013 will see the UK's first 'mobile Christmas' with traffic from mobile phones and tablets overtaking that from desktops for the first time on Christmas Day. But not only mobile devices will surpass desktops in terms of traffic, they will excel them in enabling people do so much more on the internet: anytime, anywhere. And marketers need to be prepared for the always-on consumer.
The Internet of Things and all of the devices associated with it are set to explode in 2014. Business Intelligence forecasts the number of IoT enabled objects to go from just under 1.85bn in 2013 to over 2.5bn in 2014 and 9bn in 2018 when they will account for half of all internet enabled devices. Imagine smart objects surrounding us in smart homes, offices and streets; everyday objects and appliances that can monitor their environment, report their status, receive instructions, and even take action based on the information they receive from our PCs, smartphones, and tablets. This will start an era when we no longer search for things, but they search for us and location-based marketing becomes ubiquitous.
Open, collaborative economy will create a real disruption for businesses. The phenomenon of consumers co-creating content and products, sharing ideas and resources with each other is on ascend. For instance, Airbnb has topped 10 million guest stays since launch and now has 550,000 properties listed worldwide. In 2014 companies will need to understand their role in this powerful movement.
Engaging with consumers through content creation will be another growing opportunity for brands in 2014. Successes of 2013 include Red Bull Media House and EE's GuardianWitness platform, and we will see more such initiatives going forward. Native advertising and close partnerships with established publishers will be cost-effective ways of content creation for brands.
The combination of three biggest digital phenomena of 2013 will create another powerful trend in 2014, that of "visual sharing". Success of Twitter-owned Vine, a mobile service for sharing six-second looping videos, and Facebook's introduction of video on Instagram, mean that video will be the format of choice for people to share their moments and a go-to tactic for brands to engage with consumers.
Collaborative economy, rise of branded content and growing consumer empowerment will mean that brands will need to involve influencers in their marketing, that is marketing WITH influencers, rather than merely marketing AT them. By doing so, not only brands will benefit from positive word of mouth, but the power of ideas that influential consumers can generate.
Wristbands, like Nike+ Fuelband, smartwatches, medical devices and smartglasses will drive the market of wearables further to estimatedof 125m units in 2017, according to Strategy Analytics.
Google Glass of course will steal attention in 2014, creating imaginative opportunities for marketers. Advertising will get even more targeted: location, content, context and mood-based ads, sponsored content cards, "pay-per-gaze" payment model, integration with print, outdoor, TV. And imagine how reach content partnerships are about to become.
With money not being able to buy happiness, there has been an increased focus on personal well-being. "Mood of the Nation" research found that brands had a role to play in improving people's level of happiness through being ethical, empowering people to be more active and unexpected acts of kindness. In 2014 we will see more brands differentiating themselves from competition through influencing how people feel.
In 2014 we will find out whether peer-to-peer currency Bitcoin will get traction or turn out to be as over-hyped and short-lived as Second Life.
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'Tis the season for lists and trends. We've combined the two to bring you the Top 10 digital and marketing trends to look forward to in 2014
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http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2013/12/21/nearly-million-stolen-target-accounts-made-purchases-mass-stores/VjTsvlmP1tuRPgxdeuKvCL/story.html
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http://web.archive.org/web/20131223231959id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com:80/business/2013/12/21/nearly-million-stolen-target-accounts-made-purchases-mass-stores/VjTsvlmP1tuRPgxdeuKvCL/story.html
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Nearly 1 million of the stolen Target accounts made purchases in Mass. stores
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20131223231959
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Nearly 1 million of the credit and debit card accounts whose information was stolen from Target during the holiday shopping season belonged to customers who made purchases at the retail giant’s three dozen Massachusetts stores, the company said Friday.
The disclosure, required under Massachusetts law, was made as the aftershocks of the massive data breach spread to customers, financial institutions, and Target itself. The Minneapolis-based chain, reacting to a backlash from customers, consumer advocates, and regulators, said it would offer free credit monitoring for the estimated 40 million accounts affected by the theft of financial data and a 10 percent discount to shoppers this weekend.
“We recognize this issue has been confusing and disruptive during an already busy holiday season,” Target chief executive Gregg Steinhafel said in a statement
Consumers and banks, meanwhile, grappled with whether to cancel credit and debit accounts, and deal with the hassle — and cost — of doing so. Salem Five Bank, for example, ordered a few thousand new debit cards as it prepared to cancel those used by customers who had shopped at Target in recent weeks, said Martha Acworth, the bank’s spokeswoman.
Bank of America, the largest retail bank in Massachusetts and one of the largest in the country, said it will replace the cards of customers that the bank believes may have been compromised. It costs banks $3 to $5 for each replacement card.
Banks can be reluctant to replace cards because of these costs, which can quickly run into the tens of thousands of dollars or more.
Customers also often dread the headaches of changing accounts and updating automatic billing.
Lloyd Schwartz recently shopped at a Target store near his Somerville home, charging about $60 worth of toiletries and medicine on his MasterCard.
After learning of the data breach, he called his bank to check if his was among the compromised accounts. It was. Someone had tried to charge $37,000 in data processing services to his card.
Schwartz, 72, said his bank won’t hold him responsible for the expense. It canceled the account number and sent him a new card, which should arrive Monday. But he will have to change all his automatic payment accounts, including his E-ZPass and newspaper subscriptions.
“What a drag,” Schwartz said. “I have to say, it does make me nervous. I’m not going to go to Target.”
Target on Thursday said that the data theft occurred between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15 — a period that included Black Friday — but so far has offered scant details on how hackers were able to infiltrate and steal the customer data.
The breach compromised the financial data of customers who made purchases by swiping cards at terminals in Target’s 1,800 US stores, exposing their names, credit and debit card numbers, card expiration dates, and the security code on the cards’ magnetic strips.
Target said that it knows of only a few reports of actual fraud.
Massachusetts law requires companies to report data breaches in the state as well as the number of residents affected. In its filing with the state Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation, Target said it couldn’t identify how many state residents had financial information exposed by the breach, but estimated that holders of 947,000 stolen accounts shopped in Massachusetts stores.
Barbara Anthony, who leads the state agency, said the breach means that Target customers need to monitor their credit carefully over the next year or more because their financial information could turn up months from now and thousands of miles away in another country. The cost of a monitoring service, she said, should be borne by Target.
“Why should consumers suffer any other inconvenience?” Anthony said.
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Nearly 1 million of the credit and debit card accounts stolen from Target during the holiday shopping season belonged to customers who made purchases at the retail giant’s three dozen Massachusetts stores, the company said Friday. The disclosure, required under Massachusetts law, was made as the aftershocks of the massive data breach spread to customers, financial institutions, and Target itself. The Minneapolis-based chain, reacting to a backlash from customers, consumer advocates, and regulators, said it would offer free credit monitoring for the estimated 40 million accounts affected by theft of financial data and a 10 percent discount to shoppers this weekend. “We recognize this issue has been confusing and disruptive during an already busy holiday season,” Target chief executive Gregg Steinhafel said in thea statement.
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http://web.archive.org/web/20140107023128id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com:80/business/2013/12/22/fed-plan-ease-stimulus-lifts-stocks/n4zRXrl3Ygn8w3fUd1K9VI/story.html
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Fed plan to ease up on stimulus lifts stocks
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20140107023128
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An unexpectedly strong report on US economic growth pushed stocks higher Friday, capping off Wall Street’s best week in three months. The report, which showed the US economy grew at a healthy 4.1 percent annual pace between July and September, is the latest positive piece of economic data investors have gotten in recent weeks. The three major indexes ended the week up. The bulk of this week’s gains came Wednesday, after the Federal Reserve said it was going to ease back on its economic stimulus program. Investors cheered the surprise decision, sending the Dow Jones average up nearly 300 points Wednesday.
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An unexpectedly strong report on US economic growth pushed stocks higher Friday, capping off Wall Street’s best week in three months. The report, which showed the US economy grew at a healthy 4.1 percent annual pace between July and September, is the latest positive piece of economic data investors have gotten in recent weeks. The three major indexes ended the week up. The bulk of this week’s gains came Wednesday, after the Federal Reserve said it was going to pull back on its economic stimulus program. Investors cheered the surprise decision, sending the Dow up nearly 300 points Wednesday.
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http://www.bbc.com/autos/story/20140121-gruelling-dakar-rally-concludes
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http://web.archive.org/web/20140122125452id_/http://www.bbc.com/autos/story/20140121-gruelling-dakar-rally-concludes
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Mice in the desert: Minis dominate Dakar Rally
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20140122125452
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The Dakar Rally finished in Chile at the weekend. After two weeks, 10,000km and over 50 hours of racing (more than an entire season of Formula 1), it was won by a chap called Nani Roma. By a mere five minutes.
Nani Roma may not be a household name here, but do not underestimate the ability, resilience and endurance he has shown in getting to the finish first. Dakar is the most punishing motor race on the planet. Mostly as a corollary of that, it requires luck. Few would deny that legendary competitor Stéphane Peterhansel (below) was faster in his identical X-Raid Mini Countryman, but a couple of puncture-strewn stages early in the race put him on the back foot.
He gained and gained on Roma, but with the finish in sight X-Raid called team orders to reduce the risk. Ironically Roma then punctured on the penultimate stage, handing the lead back to Peterhansel on a platter. He chose not to press home the advantage and take his sixth Dakar car crown. It’s that sort of race.
The taking part is a big thing here, completion all that most teams dream of. It’s hard to come by. Of the 431 bikes, quads, cars and trucks that started in Rosario on the 5th January, only 222 made the finish in Valparaiso. Amongst the casualties were Carlos Sainz, who had briefly led in his Red Bull SMG buggy early in the race, but succumbed first to mechanical issues and then to an accident which briefly hospitalized him. Another hot favourite was ex-Nascar superstar Robby Gordon, whose exit on stage 11 came about as a result of fuel contamination.
Without Sainz and Gordon it was left to South African Giniel de Villiers, winner in 2009, to stop the X-Raid Minis in his Toyota Hilux. He’s been on the podium for the last two years, but had to settle for fourth this year, as Mini took the last of the top three spots courtesy of Nasser Al-Attiyah. X-Raid Minis also finished fifth, sixth, ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth. In fact of the 11 cars that X-raid entered, every single one made the finish proving that at the Dakar, the tougher you build ‘em, the better the chance of winning.
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The two-week, 6,000-mile race through the South American desert ends with multiple crashes, competitors in hospital and rough-and-tumble Minis on the podium.
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http://www.msnbc.com/all/chris-hayes-special-guest-appearance-nbc-revolution
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http://web.archive.org/web/20140305020515id_/http://www.msnbc.com/all/chris-hayes-special-guest-appearance-nbc-revolution
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Chris Hayes makes special guest appearance on NBC’s ‘Revolution’
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20140305020515
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Chris Hayes makes a surprise guest appearance as himself on the hit NBC science fiction drama “Revolution” this Wednesday! Check out his extended scene here.
In the scene, Chris Hayes interviews Elizabeth Mitchell’s character Dr. Rachel Matheson about “nanotechnology,” in a special episode that takes place in an alternate reality where the blackout never happened.
This episode of “Revolution” airs Wednesday at 8 PM ET.
Clip courtesy of Bonanza Productions, Inc.
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Chris Hayes makes a surprise guest appearance on the NBC drama "Revolution!" Check out his extended scene here.
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http://time.com/11386/teens-brain-structure-may-be-altered-by-smoking/
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http://web.archive.org/web/20140307081134id_/http://time.com/11386/teens-brain-structure-may-be-altered-by-smoking/
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Teens’ Brain Structure May Be Altered By Smoking
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20140307081134
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It’s no surprise that smoking for years can change the way the brain processes nicotine, creating a well-worn pattern of craving and satisfaction that’s difficult to break.
But how soon does this cycle get started? And does nicotine actually alter structures in the brain to make dependence more likely?
In the latest research, published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, Edythe London, a professor of psychiatry and pharmacology at University of California Los Angeles, and her team found that young smokers did have differences in a specific brain region compared with non smokers. Even more concerning, these differences emerged with a relatively light smoking habit of one pack or less of cigarettes a day.
MORE: Children Exposed to More Brain-Harming Chemicals Than Ever Before
London and her colleagues focused on a brain region called the insula, since previous studies in animal and adults showed that its size and volume were affected by smoking. Of the regions in the cortical, or memory, awareness and language parts of the brain, the insula contains the most receptors for nicotine. The region is responsible for decision-making and helping to establish a person’s conscious awareness of his internal state. In studies of stroke patients, smokers who lost function of the right insula in the stroke quit smoking, and reported feeling no cravings for nicotine. And in earlier studies London’s team conducted, they found a strong relationship between how much smokers who watched videos of people smoking experienced cravings for cigarettes and the activity of the insula, which lit up on PET scans.
When London’s team looked at the brains of the 18 smoking teens and 24 non-smoking adolescents, aged 16 to 21 years, using structural MRI, they found no differences overall in the insula region. But a closer examination revealed that the right insula of the smokers was thinner than those of the nonsmokers.
MORE: The FDA’s Frightening Anti-Smoking Campaign for Teens Hits Them Where It Hurts
“The brain is still undergoing development when someone is in their late teens,” she says. “It’s possible that smoking during this period could have effects that could alter tobacco dependence later in life, and that the insult could alter the trajectory of brain development.”
While the study doesn’t establish whether the differences in the insula can lead to smoking, or is the result of smoking, London says it highlights the role that the brain region may play in how people respond to nicotine and cigarettes. “I think this is very exciting because it points to a vulnerability, a potential vulnerability factor either to become nicotine dependent or for the effects of smoking to ultimately alter the trajectory of brain development,” she says. That trajectory could affect not only smoking behavior but decision-making in general, since the insula is important in such assessments.
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Early exposure to cigarettes could affect how one responds to and craves nicotine
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http://time.com/10689/fed-policy-has-the-emerging-world-lamenting-the-dollars-dominance/
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http://web.archive.org/web/20140307101106id_/http://time.com/10689/fed-policy-has-the-emerging-world-lamenting-the-dollars-dominance/
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Fed Policy Has the Emerging World Lamenting the Dollar’s Dominance
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20140307101106
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The U.S. Federal Reserve is taking heat these days from policymakers in the developing world. They have good reason to be disgruntled. Ever since the Fed signaled last year that it would begin scaling back – or “tapering” – its unorthodox program to stimulate the U.S. economy, emerging markets have been in turmoil. Investors, fearful that a cutback in Fed largesse would crimp funds flowing to the emerging world, have yanked their money back, causing currencies to tumble from Turkey to South Africa to India.
That has forced central bankers in the developing countries into unwelcome choices. Many have had to hike interest rates in an attempt to stabilize their currencies, a move that could slow growth. And they’re not too happy about it. The most outspoken has been India’s central bank governor, Raghuram Rajan, who has complained that global policy coordination has broken down, the Fed has acted on its own, and selfishly left the emerging world to its fate. “Industrial countries have to play a part in restoring that [co-operation], and they can’t at this point wash their hands off and say, we’ll do what we need to and you do the adjustment,” Rajan recently criticized. He continued his critique at this month’s G-20 meeting in Sydney. The message from the U.S. and other major economies “is that you [emerging markets] are all on your own, no one is going to come to your help,” he warned on CNBC. “If that’s the message that goes out, we’re setting in place the roots of the next crisis.”
Such sentiments are not Rajan’s alone. “It is very important to continue to communicate to discuss about the roadmap so that we in the emerging markets can prepare,” commented Finance Minister Muhamad Chatib Basri of Indonesia, another country that has gotten hit by Fed tapering. Even the G-20 communique reflected these concerns. “All our central banks maintain their commitment that monetary policy settings will continue to be carefully calibrated and clearly communicated, in the context of ongoing exchange of information and being mindful of impacts on the global economy,” it stressed.
The complaints have highlighted a key, and perennial issue facing the global economy. Because the U.S. dollar is the world’s dominant currency, the decisions made by American policymakers ripple through the entire global economy – as in the case of Fed tapering. However, the Fed makes its policy decisions not based on their potential consequences for the rest of the world, but on conditions in the U.S. economy – inflation and employment. Thus there is a mismatch. The Fed acts locally but has a global impact. As Rajan points out, that’s far from ideal. Fed policy aimed at achieving certain goals tends to have unintended spillover effects that other countries are forced to accommodate.
Yet the criticism the Fed is facing over its decision to taper is unfair as well. The very extreme and unusual nature of the Fed’s policy – which pumped hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy through a process known as “quantitative easing,” or QE – meant that they had to be temporary. Acting as if the Fed decision to scale back somehow caught emerging economies off guard means the policymakers themselves were unprepared for the inevitable. Even more, what exactly was the Fed supposed to have done? The Fed indicated its intentions to change course long before it actually did. Sure, the Fed does not really consider the international fallout from its choices. But the alternative is impossible as well – the Fed is simply not tasked with being the world’s central bank. And how would that work, anyway? It seems highly unwieldy for the Fed to have made its tapering decision based on consultations with central bankers all over the world, who all would have had their own interests in mind.
So in the end, Rajan and his emerging-market colleagues point out a serious flaw in the global financial system for which there is probably no workable solution – outside of replacing the dollar as the world’s No.1 currency. With that nowhere in sight, Rajan and others may be stuck doing a lot of complaining.
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But the whining about tapering is unfair, too
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http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/03/19/judge-tosses-class-action-push-for-google-suit/36iaES5zqMHBZ8wnjO3ynL/story.html
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http://web.archive.org/web/20140323085151id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com:80/business/2014/03/19/judge-tosses-class-action-push-for-google-suit/36iaES5zqMHBZ8wnjO3ynL/story.html
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Judge tosses class-action push for Google suit
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20140323085151
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SAN FRANCISCO — A judge has tossed out an effort to win class-action status for a lawsuit accusing Google of violating the privacy of e-mail users.
US District Judge Lucy Koh ruled late Tuesday too many users have too many dissimilar claims to pursue a single class-action lawsuit that could expose the search engine giant to billions of dollars in potential losses.
At issue is the scanning of the contents of Gmail accounts and the related targeting of ads. Many other high-tech companies and e-mail providers are closely watching the case, which is expected to better define privacy law.
On Wednesday, Koh said it was impossible to know which e-mail users consented to Google Inc.’s privacy policies, complicating the campaign for class-action status.
The judge said ‘‘consent has been central to this case since its inception’’ and sorting out who knew and approved of Google’s automated sifting of their e-mails and who did not would be impossible.
Koh said some users might have actively consented to Google’s action, while others became aware of it through media reports.
‘‘There is a panoply of sources from which e-mail users could have learned of Google’s interceptions,’’ she wrote.
Several similar lawsuits were filed across the country and were consolidated in Koh’s courtroom in San Jose, Calif.
Though the judge did not toss out the lawsuits, she barred lawyers from reformatting them to address her concerns and from asking again for class-action status.
‘‘Usually the denial of class certification ends the lawsuits,’’ said Eric Goldman, a Santa Clara University law professor. ‘‘It’s too expensive to pursue them individually. This is a fantastic ruling for Google.’’
Sean Rommel, one of the lawyers representing e-mail users who sued Google, did not return a phone call seeking comment. He can appeal the decision to the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals.
For its part, Google has maintained that it does not open and read people’s e-mails. Instead, the company says, its process is fully automated, employing software that scans for keywords to help Google tailor advertisements to consumers.
‘‘We’re glad the court agreed that we have been upfront about Gmail’s automated processing, which allows us to provide security and spam protection,’’ the company said.
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SAN FRANCISCO — A judge has tossed out an effort to win class-action status for a lawsuit accusing Google of violating the privacy terms of email users. U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh ruled late Tuesday that too many users have too many dissimilar claims to pursue a single class-action lawsuit that could expose the search engine giant to billions of dollars in potential losses. At issue is the scanning of contents of Gmail accounts and the related targeting of ads. Many other high-tech companies and email providers are closely watching the case, which is expected to better define privacy laws. On Wednesday, Koh said it’s impossible to know which email users consented to Google’s privacy policies, complicating the push for class-action status.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/advertising/about/10734151/The-Telegraph-at-Advertising-Week-Europe.html
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http://web.archive.org/web/20140401173035id_/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/advertising/about/10734151/The-Telegraph-at-Advertising-Week-Europe.html
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The Telegraph at Advertising Week Europe
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20140401173035
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As a proud sponsor of Advertising Week Europe, The Telegraph’s new editor-in-chief and chief content officer Jason Seiken will be speaking at an exclusive breakfast session at this year’s event, which takes place from today until April 4. The session is called Hooking them, keeping them – engaging audiences in a highly distracting world. Remember to follow the conversation on Wednesday, April 2 from 8am at #TelegraphWorks.
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The Telegraph is a proud sponsor of Advertising Week Europe
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http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/movies/2014/04/03/anita-hill-looks-back-new-documentary/AukoB5llTh9Oum94uJYvpL/story.html
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http://web.archive.org/web/20140404135121id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/movies/2014/04/03/anita-hill-looks-back-new-documentary/AukoB5llTh9Oum94uJYvpL/story.html
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Anita Hill looks back in new documentary
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20140404135121
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If you were alive in 1991, the televised images may still stick in your mind and your craw: the young African-American woman in the powder-blue jacket, a law professor explaining with dignified mortification to a gallery of old white politicians how the man she once worked for asked her out on dates when he wasn’t discussing hard-core pornography or his penis size. How this instilled in her a profound sense of unease, even fear, and how a man who does such a thing might not deserve to sit on the United States Supreme Court.
If you were alive then, you probably remember what happened next. The Senate quickly disbanded its investigation after Judiciary Committee chairman Joe Biden left a number of Anita Hill’s corroboratory witnesses waiting in the wings. Clarence Thomas’s nomination narrowly passed the Senate, putting him on the nation’s highest court. Hill was crucified by conservatives and right-wing journalists — David Brock memorably tarred her as “a little bit nutty and a little bit slutty” before recanting his comments a few years later — while the subject of workplace harassment and sexualized office environments was finally out in the open.
If you weren’t alive then, well, you live in a world Anita Hill helped make possible (and Thomas, too, for different reasons), and you should probably understand why. Frieda Mock’s documentary “Anita” is a dutiful history lesson even as it brings us closer to the very private person at the center of that long-ago, still relevant storm.
Mock, who won an Oscar for her 1994 documentary “Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision,” alternates history and hagiography in “Anita”; the former is necessary, the latter merely nice. The film’s first half is its most compelling. As the filmmaker cuts between archival news footage of the hearings and Hill’s comparatively quiet life today — she’s a law professor at Brandeis University, in Waltham — a viewer realizes two things: how unprepared Hill was to be a cultural lightning rod 23 years ago and how well she has since cut the role to fit her reserved personality. She’s content with her place in history. That’s not the same as saying it was easy.
Indeed, the image of Hill — young, black, professional, and poised — being grilled by aging senators who seem actively hostile or passively clueless is more disconcerting than ever two decades on. The hearing exposed a gender chasm: Women supporters rallied around Hill (and helped elect more female senators and congresswomen in the next round of elections) while too many men in the media and elsewhere made her character the issue, rather than Thomas’s. After the investigation, Hill returned to her teaching job at the University of Oklahoma College of Law only to face death threats, bomb threats, and repeated attempts to have her (or, failing that, her boss) fired.
Mock sketches in her subject’s background, a story as American as they come: Descended from slaves and raised in Oklahoma, Hill was the youngest of 13 children, a high school valedictorian, and a graduate of Yale Law. Her parents were farmers; both sat behind her at the 1991 hearings. Mock got close enough to accompany Hill to a recent family wedding with her longtime companion, Waltham restaurateur Chuck Malone.
For all that, you sense the lost opportunities in “Anita.” It’s no surprise that Clarence Thomas wasn’t interviewed (although the film does open with audio of the infamous 2010 voice mail from Ginny Thomas asking Hill to apologize for “what you did to my husband”), but it would be still worthwhile to have some larger insights on how Hill’s testimony inflamed the political as well as the gender divide.
And even though Mock includes footage of Hill speaking to adulatory audiences at colleges and elsewhere, we get no sense of how much or how little things have changed for women in the workplace. In one scene, a young woman is visibly distraught as she comes to the microphone to praise Hill and ask a question. What’s the story there? Has our society really progressed when New Jersey investigators can blame Chris Christie’s “Bridgegate” on a female staffer’s “emotional” response to a soured romantic relationship?
“Anita “ is fine as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go far enough. Neither have we.
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*** Anita Frieda Mock’s documentary about Anita Hill, encompassing Hill’s 1991 testimony about future Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s alleged workplace misbehavior and her life as a law professor today, is a laudatory portrait of a reluctant spokesperson growing into her stature. The first half is useful history, the second long on praise and short on issues. (95 min., unrated) (Ty Burr)
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http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/04/24/facebook-buys-fitness-tracker-startup-behind-moves/llqlGkHdxA5I0KK3Cds5KO/story.html
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http://web.archive.org/web/20140502024626id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com:80/business/2014/04/24/facebook-buys-fitness-tracker-startup-behind-moves/llqlGkHdxA5I0KK3Cds5KO/story.html
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Facebook buys fitness tracker startup behind Moves
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20140502024626
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NEW YORK — Facebook has acquired the startup behind the popular fitness tracking app Moves as it expands beyond its namesake service into a company with multiple, differentiated mobile apps.
The world’s largest online social network will keep running the service separately.
On Thursday, Facebook said it had purchased ProtoGeo Oy, the Finnish company behind the app, for an undisclosed sum.
Launched in 2013, the Moves app has been downloaded about 4 million times on Android phones and on iPhones. It lets a user automatically track runs, walks, and bike rides and plots the routes on a map.
To move beyond its core service, Facebook is developing and acquiring different kinds of apps. This year, it announced a $19 billion deal for the mobile messaging service WhatsApp and launched the news reader app Paper.
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Facebook acquired the startup behind the popular fitness tracking app Moves as it expands beyond its namesake service into a company with multiple, differentiated mobile apps. The world’s largest online social network will keep running the service separately.
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http://www.people.com/article/boston-transit-officer-saves-suicidal-man-from-subway-tracks
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http://web.archive.org/web/20140513184056id_/http://www.people.com:80/article/boston-transit-officer-saves-suicidal-man-from-subway-tracks
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Brave Boston Transit Officer Saves Suicidal Man from Subway Tracks : People.com
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20140513184056
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05/09/2014 at 03:30 PM EDT
A Boston transit police officer is credited with saving the life of a suicidal man by grabbing his arm and pulling him to safety just as he was about to teeter from a subway station platform onto the tracks.
Detective Sean Conway says he saw the man, drinking from a bottle and yelling incoherently, at the platform's edge at the Park Street Station at about 2 p.m. Wednesday.
Conway ran up one set of stairs and down another before snatching the man to safety and holding him down.
The next train was several minutes from the station, but the bigger danger was the 600-volt third rail.
the man thanked him before being taken to the hospital. His name was not released.
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Detective Sean Conway snatched the man right before he fell off the edge of the platform
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