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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Despite Obama's Hangout Hope, U.S. Semiconductor Jobs Are Still Going Away [Video]
New Accelerator Launches In Europe Offering Valley Road Trip
Accelerators, Accelerator, Accelerators! There's a rash of them appearing everywhere, and the latest is the Rockstart Accelerator, a new startup program aimed at Europe?s most promising startups that want to hit a global scale (but then don't they all?). However, this one has some credible partners in the shape of Google, Microsoft BizSpark, Mozilla WebFWD and StartupHouse in San Francisco. Oscar Kneppers, founder of Rockstart says the program is for startups from the whole of Europe. Based in Amsterdam, it's looking for 10 teams of founders and will subject them to 99 mentors for 100 days, and combine that with an additional three-month summer program that culminates with a 25-day Silicon Valley road trip. That last point is probably not a bad idea, for obvious reasons, though Seedcamp has done this for the last few years.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/rlz2Ggc-T7E/
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Ian Abercrombie, Mr. Pitt on "Seinfeld", dies at 77 (Reuters)
LOS ANGELES, Jan 29 (TheWrap.com) ? Ian Ambercrombie, the classically trained British stage actor best known to American TV audiences as Elaine Benes' nutty boss Mr. Pitt on "Seinfeld," died of a heart attack Thursday in Los Angeles. He was 77.
Abercrombie appeared on several other U.S. TV shows. He played the 800-year-old Professor Crumbs on "Wizards of Waverly Place and a butler on "Desperate Housewives," and made guest appearances on "Twin Peaks," "Dynasty" and "Days of Our Lives."
He appeared in a number of movies, including "Stalag 17," "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" and "The Prisoner of Zenda," with Peter Sellers.
He did voiceover work in "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," "Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties" and "Rango," and had completed "Green Lantern" for the Cartoon Network just before he died.
As Mr. Pitt in Seinfeld, he was known for his obsession with socks and quirky habits like eating candy bars with a knife and fork.
He is survived by his wife, Gladys.
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Monday, January 30, 2012
How Gossip Saves Society [Science]
Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/NYpB-YLOq5g/how-gossip-saves-society
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Syria troops battle to retake Damascus suburbs (Reuters)
AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) ? Around 2,000 Syrian troops backed by tanks launched an assault to retake Damascus suburbs from rebels on Sunday, activists said, a day after the Arab League suspended its monitoring mission in Syria because of worsening violence.
They said 19 civilians and rebel fighters were killed as the soldiers in armoured personnel carriers moved in at dawn, along with at least 50 tanks and other armoured vehicles.
The forces of President Bashar al-Assad pushed into the Ghouta area on the eastern edge of Damascus to take part in an offensive in the suburbs of Saqba, Hammouriya and Kfar Batna.
Tanks advanced into the centre of Saqba and Kfar Batna, the activists said, in a move to flush out fighters who had taken over districts less than eight km (five miles) from Assad's centre of power.
"It's urban war. There are bodies in the street," said one activist, speaking from Kfar Batna. Activists said 14 civilians and five insurgents from the rebel Free Syrian Army were killed there and in other suburbs.
Residents of central Damascus, which has remained relatively calm throughout Syria's 10-month crisis, reported seeing soldiers and police deployed around main squares to prevent unrest spreading into the heart of the capital.
The escalating bloodshed prompted the Arab League to suspend the work of its monitors on Saturday. Arab foreign ministers, who have urged Assad to step down and make way for a government of national unity, will discuss the crisis on February 5.
Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby left for New York where he will brief representatives of the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday to seek support for an Arab peace plan that calls on Assad to step aside after months of protests.
He will be joined by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, whose country heads the League's committee charged with overseeing Syria.
Speaking shortly before he left Cairo on Sunday, Elaraby said he hoped to overcome resistance from Beijing and Moscow over endorsing the Arab proposals. "There are contacts with China and Russia on this issue," he said.
A Syrian government official was quoted by state media as saying Damascus was surprised by the Arab League decision to suspend monitoring, which would "put pressure on (Security Council) deliberations with the aim of calling for foreign intervention and encouraging armed groups to increase violence."
Assad blames the violence on foreign-backed militants.
ARMY DEATHS
The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported a total of 41 civilian deaths across Syria on Sunday, including 14 in Homs province and 12 in the city of Hama. Thirty-one soldiers and members of the security forces were also killed, most of them in two attacks by army deserters in the northern province of Idlib, it said.
State news agency SANA reported the military funerals of 28 soldiers and police on Saturday and another 23 on Sunday.
Faced with mass demonstrations against his rule, Assad launched a military crackdown to subdue the protests. Growing numbers of army deserters and gunmen have joined the demonstrators, increasing instability in the country of 23 million people at the heart of the Middle East.
The insurgency has been gradually approaching the capital, whose suburbs, a series of mainly conservative Sunni Muslim towns bordering old gardens and farmland, known as the al-Ghouta, are home to the bulk of Damascus's population.
One activist reported heavy shelling in the suburb of Saqba, and said the army was facing stiff opposition from rebels.
Another, who identified himself as Raid, said mosques had been turned into field hospitals and were appealing for blood supplies. "They cut off the electricity. Petrol stations are empty and the army is preventing people from leaving to get fuel for generators or heating," he said.
The Damascus suburbs have seen large demonstrations demanding the removal of Assad, a member of the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam that has dominated the mostly Sunni Muslim country for the last five decades.
TOWN BESIEGED
In Rankous, 30 km (20 miles) north of Damascus by the Lebanese border, Assad's forces have killed at least 33 people in recent days in an attack to dislodge army defectors and insurgents, activists and residents said on Sunday.
Rankous, a mountain town of 25,000 people, has been under tank fire since Wednesday, when several thousand troops laid siege to it, they said.
France, which has been leading calls for stronger international action on Syria, said the Arab League decision highlighted the need to act.
"France vigorously condemns the dramatic escalation of violence in Syria, which has led the Arab League to suspend its observers' mission in Syria," the Foreign Ministry said.
"Dozens of Syrian civilians have been killed in the past days by the savage repression taken by the Syrian regime ... Those responsible for these barbarous acts must answer to their crimes," it said.
The Arab League mission was sent in at the end of last year to observe Syria's implementation of the peace plan, which failed to end the fighting. Gulf states withdrew monitors last week, saying the team could not stop the violence.
The United Nations said in December more than 5,000 people had been killed in the protests and crackdown. Syria says more than 2,000 security force members have been killed by militants.
On Friday, the U.N. Security Council discussed a European-Arab draft resolution aimed at halting the bloodshed. Britain and France said they hoped to put it to a vote next week.
Russia joined China in vetoing a previous Western draft resolution in October, and has said it wants a Syrian-led political process, not "an Arab League-imposed outcome" or Libyan-style "regime change."
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120129/wl_nm/us_syria
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Sunday, January 29, 2012
On selfish genes and human behaviour
I?m safely back from my honeymoon, and I was catching up on the Scientific American articles when I found one that quite disturbed me. I don?t usually use this blog as a forum for thoughts about things that aren?t bacteria, but this is something I found important, particularly as I?ve spent most of the holiday reading Mary?Midgely books.
The article is by Michael Shermer, and you can read it here. It?s about human deception and deception-deception (the process by which we?deceive?ourselves into believing our deceptions). Called ?the lies we tell ourselves? I?ll do a quick summary here:
It starts off the main argument with the quote: ?A selfish gene model of evolution dictates that we should maximise our reproductive success through cunning and deceit?. It then points out that due to game theory we are aware that everyone else is also using cunning and deceit, which means the best way to go is to ?feign transparency and honesty and lure them into complacency before ?you defect and grab the spoils?. He finishes off with the idea that this is where morality comes from: ?It is not enough to fake being a good person ? you actually have to be a good person by believing it yourself and acting accordingly.?
So that is how human?behaviour?works. If you?re a cunning, sneaky, nasty person it?s because that?s how your genes tell you to be. If you?re a good, honest and truthful person it?s because you?ve successfully managed to buy your ?own con.
Is this way of thinking justified?
No.
Starting at the beginning then with that wonderful ?selfish-gene model of evolution?. The ?selfish gene? was a?metaphor?used by Dawkins to explain gene-based evolution. Genes are not literally selfish any more than rocks are. And selfish was just one word, ?opportunistic? might have been a better one, because genes don?t work alone. Many of them need other genes, or entire gene clusters in order to function. They need proteins, and the study of protein evolution and epigenetics is an exciting subject in its own right. There?s been some interesting work as well into lipid evolution and how the composition of the cell membrane when cells divide can determine their fate. No gene is an island.
And even if ?selfish? is a useful metaphor to explain genetic behavour, why on earth is it a sensible idea to abstract that up to human behaviour? Sure our genes help to determine our behavour, but so do our proteins, our neurons, our cells, our social surroundings and a whole host of other factors. Individual cells in the human body are not selfish, they are in fact highly cooperative and communist. Each cell must obey orders exactly, and if it doesn?t it must commit suicide instantly. There are some cells that break away into an individualist life of freedom but these are cancer cells.
Why must the selfish-gene model predict human behavour, why not the communist-cell one?
In fact, why not go further down? Why not look at the way atoms, or quarks behave, and then say that humans must behave like that!
Two glances around in any human society will tell you that humans are manifestly not selfish individuals all waiting for a change to ?defect and grab the spoils?. Human society doesn?t work like that. If you break down society, people don?t just scatter to the selfish winds, they form new little societies to survive within. Look at the internet ? a great anarchic gathering of people from all societies, with no rules thrust upon them, and what are the most popular sites (disregarding pornography)? Social networks, social forums and online communities. People like being social, they like being with others. Sure they exhibit selfish?behaviour?within those societies, but they also show?behaviour?which is loving, altruistic, angry, excited, and a whole range of emotions that the ?selfish-gene? model does not abstract too. There is no reason to?arbitrarily?decide that any?conventionally??Good? emotion is a deception-deception.
Human societies evolve by human cooperation. By the sharing of knowledge and resources, by the protecting of those more vulnerable, and the slow and shaky development of general morals. These morals are decisions made by the society (or occasionally by the one tyrant in charge of the society, but nothing is perfect) about what?behaviours?are?acceptable. Looking at society this way isn?t it just as justifiable that cooperation and sharing are the ?natural? human?behaviours? That people who cheat are somehow?deceiving?themselves into believing that they don?t need society, and have?deceived?themselves so well that they believe it?
These ?aren?t identical to the way our genes behave because people are not genes.?Behaviours?are?emergent?properties of humanity, not dictated attributes of our component parts. People are largely made up of water, yet no-one suggests that lying down and sort of sloshing around is natural human?behaviour.
If you want to study human morality, you really need to start asking philosophers. That?s what they?re there for. Historians, anthropologists, even literature students and?theologians?are?equipped?with the understanding and the tools used to discuss human society, emotions and?behaviour. This is an area that scientists can find interesting, and even contribute too, but in studies of?behaviour?and morality science is simply not the major player.
I?m sure there are great ways to build a secular civil society. But basing your foundations on the unjustified abstraction of a dodgy metaphor is not a good way to go about it.
?
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=a40d9f89a12e91172dc733a16cebdf08
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Student charged in Utah school bomb plot (AP)
ROY, Utah ? The two teens had a detailed plot, blueprints of the school and security systems, but no explosives. They had hours of flight simulator training on a home computer and a plan to flee the country, but no plane.
Still, the police chief in this small Utah town said, the plot was real.
"It wasn't like they were hanging out playing video games," Roy Police Chief Gregory Whinham said Friday. "They put a lot of effort into it."
Dallin Morgan, 18, and a 16-year-old friend were arrested Wednesday at Roy High School, about 30 miles north of Salt Lake City, after a fellow student reported that she received ominous text messages from one of the suspects.
"If I tell you one day not to go to school, make damn sure you and your brother are not there," one message read, according to court records. "We ain't gonna crash it, we're just gonna kill and fly our way to a country that won't send us back to the U.S.," read another message.
While police don't have a motive, one text message noted they sought "revenge on the world."
The suspects say they were inspired by the deadly 1999 Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colo., and the younger suspect even visited the school last month to interview the principal about the shootings and security measures.
However, one suspect told authorities it was offensive to be compared to the Columbine shooters because "those killers only completed 1 percent of their plan," according to a probable cause statement.
The teens had so studied their own school's security system that they knew how to avoid being seen on the facility's surveillance cameras, authorities said.
Whinham said the "very smart kids" had spent at least hundreds of dollars on flight simulator programs, books and manuals, studying them in anticipation of carrying out their plan to bomb an assembly at the 1,500-student high school.
While authorities said the suspects believed they could pull it off, experts said, it would have been a long shot.
Royal Eccles, manager at the Ogden-Hinckley Airport, about a mile from the school, said it would have been nearly impossible for the students to steal a plane or get the knowledge to fly one using flight simulator programs.
"It's highly improbable," Eccles said. "That's how naive these kids are."
Whinham said authorities searched two homes and two cars and found no explosives, but added that police continue to search other locations. The chief said it appeared that "a key component of their plan was not developed."
"I wouldn't want to say that they don't have it or that they weren't ready for it," he said. "I'm just saying that we haven't found anything that says they were ready for it yet."
Whinham said it appeared the suspects, who have no criminal history, also had prepared alternate attack plans, but he declined to elaborate. He also declined to say whether any firearms were found during their searches.
"Most houses have firearms in them," he said. "This is the state of Utah."
While authorities have said they have not found any explosives, they charged Morgan on Friday with possession of a weapon of mass destruction.
The basis for the charge wasn't immediately clear, though one of the elements of that offense is conspiracy to use a weapon, not necessarily possessing one. Prosecutors say they are considering additional charges.
Morgan has been released on bond, pending a court hearing Wednesday. The 16-year-old, whom The Associated Press isn't naming because he's a minor, remained held pending further court hearings.
Whinham said he knew both suspects personally, given the small size of the suburban Utah town of roughly 36,000 people. He said he had met with both of the suspects' parents and they were "devastated."
The 16-year-old suspect's father declined comment Friday, and no one answered the door at Morgan's home.
The plot "was months in planning," said Whinham, who also noted Morgan told investigators the 16-year-old had previously made a pipe bomb using gun powder and rocket fuel.
In Colorado, Columbine Principal Frank DeAngelis confirmed Friday he met with the 16-year-old suspect on Dec. 12 after the teenager told him he was doing a story for his school newspaper on the shootings.
DeAngelis said he frequently gets requests from students doing research on the shootings, and the request from this one wasn't unusual.
"He asked the same questions I get from many callers and visitors asking about the shooting," DeAngelis said. He said the student wanted details about the shooting, the aftermath and the steps taken since then to protect the school.
Police said the student told them Roy school officials would not allow him to write the story.
DeAngelis said he was shocked when he got a call from Utah police on Wednesday asking if he had met with the youth. He said the interview raised no red flags but that he would do things differently with future requests.
"This was definitely a wake-up call. This is the first time this has happened," DeAngelis said.
Police credit the suspects' schoolmate with helping foil their plan, though Whinham said the school didn't have any assemblies set, and the suspects revealed no specific dates to pull off the attack.
Sophomore Bailey Gerhardt told The Salt Lake Tribune she received alarming text messages from one of the suspects and alerted school administrators.
"I get the feeling you know what I'm planning," read one of the messages, according to court records. "Explosives, airport, airplane."
___
Associated Press writer Steven K. Paulson in Denver contributed to this report.
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Saturday, January 28, 2012
British police arrest 4 in tabloid bribery probe
LONDON (AP) ? British police searched the offices of Rupert Murdoch's British newspapers Saturday after arresting a police officer and three other men as part of an investigation into police bribery by journalists.
London's Metropolitan Police said two men aged 48 and one aged 56 were arrested on suspicion of corruption early in the morning at homes in and around London.
The fourth, a 29-year-old police officer, was arrested at the London station where he works.
The investigation into whether reporters illegally paid police for information is running parallel to a police inquiry into phone hacking by Murdoch's now-defunct News of the World.
Police said Saturday's arrests were made as a result of information provided by the Management and Standards Committee of Murdoch's News Corp.
Officers were searching the homes of the four men and the east London headquarters of the media mogul's British newspapers for evidence.
The company had no immediate comment.
A dozen people have now been arrested in the bribery probe, though none has yet been charged.
They include former Rebekah Brooks, former chief executive of Murdoch's News International, ex-News of the World editor Andy Coulson ? who is also Prime Minister David Cameron's former communications chief ? and journalists from the News of the World and its sister paper, The Sun.
Two of the London police force's top officers resigned in the wake of the revelation last July that the News of the World had eavesdropped on the cell phone voicemail messages of celebrities, athletes, politicians and even an abducted teenager in its quest for stories.
Murdoch shut down the 168-year-old tabloid, and the scandal has triggered a continuing public inquiry into media ethics and the relationship between the press, police and politicians.
An earlier police investigation failed to find evidence hacking went beyond one reporter and a private investigator, but News Corp. has now acknowledged it was much more widespread.
Last week the company agreed to pay damages to 37 hacking victims, including actor Jude Law, soccer star Ashley Cole and British politician John Prescott.
___
Jill Lawless can be reached at: http://twitter.com/JillLawless
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Many Mo. farmers shut out of federal flooding aid (AP)
KANSAS CITY, Mo. ? Farmers whose land was damaged by Missouri River flooding expressed frustration Friday that a missed deadline will keep them from sharing in $215 million from one federal disaster program.
Farmers and communities had to apply for the aid by June 30, but many still had land under water then and couldn't do a required damage assessment. Water didn't recede from many farms in Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri until late September or early October.
The money is part of $308 million in funding the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced last week. It is distributed through the Emergency Watershed Protection Program, which requires a sponsor such as a city, county or drainage district. The money is meant to be used to clear drainage ditches, fix levees and structures and reshape eroded banks.
Officials couldn't say Friday how many farmers missed the chance to apply for help.
About 1,200 of Bruce Biermann's 2,500 acres in northwest Missouri flooded last summer. He said he should be planting this year's crop in about 60 days but that will be tough to do without help with repairs.
"It certainly is disappointing that we can't have access to funds that are basically earmarked for disasters like this," he said.
The flooding started in June when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began releasing massive amounts of water from upstream reservoirs filled by melting snow and heavy rains. The deluge continued for months, overtopping levees and turning farms into lakes. When the water finally receded, farmers found tree limbs, trash and, in some places, a 2- to 3-feet of sand covering their land.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the application deadline set by Congress led to the money being primarily focused on disasters that happened earlier in 2011 but that didn't mean farmers who suffered later damage wouldn't get help.
"I don't think it's accurate to suggest that the folks in northwest Missouri aren't going to get help and assistance," he said during a visit to Kansas City to tout President Barack Obama's State of the Union address. "We will continue to work with our existing programs to give them as much help as possible."
The deadline for the next round of funding is Jan. 31, but it's unclear how much money will be given and whether it will come in time to help farmers and communities make repairs before this spring's planting season.
The farmers' and communities' best chance of getting some of the $215 million already allocated will be if other communities don't use all the money they requested. Unused money is placed in a pot that could be redistributed, and about $452,000 leftover from past storms already has been used to help farmers in northwest Missouri, where 207,000 acres flooded last year.
David Sieck, who has about 1,500 acres of corn and soybeans near Glenwood, Iowa, said it really bothered him that an arbitrary deadline was keeping some farmers and communities getting immediate access to the money. About half of land is in river bottoms and about three-fifths of that flooded last year.
"Never ever do I remember a prolonged flood for 3 1/2 months," he said.
Missouri and Utah shared the bulk of the $308 million in disaster aid announced last week. Missouri received $50 million, while Utah got $60 million to deal with two rounds of flooding.
Along with $35 million from the watershed program, Missouri received $15 million from the USDA's Emergency Conservation Program, which helps clear debris and grade farmland. Much of that money will go to the southeast portion of the state where the corps blew three holes in the Birds Point levee in May to relieve pressure at the height of flooding that threatened nearby Cairo, Ill.
"We appreciate the work of everyone involved in securing it for Missouri and we are glad that farmers throughout the state are going to benefit, but the people in northwest Missouri are not," said Blake Hurst, president of the Missouri Farm Bureau.
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Friday, January 27, 2012
Celebrity Kids Wearing Makeup: Right or Wrong?
Suri Cruise is by no means on auditioning for Toddlers & Tiaras.
Nevertheless, the famous 5-year-old TomKat kitten has raised eyebrows of late with her fashion choices (or more accurately Katie's), especially having been spotted in New York sporting crimson lipstick and a hot pink hat this week.
This begs the question: Do Hollywood kids grow up too fast?
Yes, this is Hollywood, where the rules are clearly different from the rest of the world, and we are not trying to single out Suri Cruise (normally a fab dresser) here.
She's far from the only star tot to don makeup, though, and you tend to see more of that sort of thing within celebrity culture than in the quote unquote real world.
Tarting up one's daughter during such tender years is not a crime or grave parenting error, it just seems a little unnecessary. Wouldn't you want to put that off?
Soon enough, they'll be acting and wanting to dress like adults. Why give them that push and hasten the end of whatever innocence they have left in life?
You tell us: Is it okay for celebrity kids to wear makeup?
Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/celebrity-kids-wearing-makeup-right-or-wrong/
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Pitt to attend New Orleans homebuilding group gala
NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? Talk show host Ellen Degeneres and "American Idol" judge Randy Jackson are hosting a star-studded gala in New Orleans to benefit Brad Pitt's Make It Right home rebuilding effort.
Pitt will attend the $1,000-per-person gala on March 10 called "A Night to Make It Right," which will include performances by singers Sheryl Crow, Rihanna, Seal and Dr. John, said foundation spokeswoman Taylor Royle.
Pitt launched Make It Right in 2007 to help Lower 9th Ward residents who lost their homes during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The Lower 9th Ward was one of the hardest-hit neighborhoods when Katrina caused levees to fail, inundating roughly 80 percent of the city with floodwater.
Pitt worked with architects to come up with designs for stronger, safer and more energy-efficient houses than the ones residents lost. So far 75 homes have been built, six more are under construction and construction is set to begin on roughly eight others in coming months.
"Our goal is 150 houses, and this fundraiser is going to help us reach that goal," said Royle, noting that all proceeds will benefit Make It Right.
Royle said it has taken more time and money than the foundation originally thought to build 150 homes. Getting in touch with families, making decisions about their homes, getting finances in order and clearing paperwork takes months, she said.
"It's been a long road to get these families home," Royle said. "But we're happy with our progress, and we're looking forward to celebrating the progress we've made."
Royle said a video of Make It Right's work over the past four years will be presented at the gala. A four-course dinner organized by chef John Besh will include courses by chefs Emeril Lagasse and Giada de Laurentiis.
Degeneres, a New Orleans native, has already donated more than $2 million to Make It Right.
"She's been one of our biggest supporters," Royle said.
Jackson, a Baton Rouge native, was quick to offer his participation in the event, Royle said.
Other celebrities serving on the event's host committee who may also be attending include actors Josh Brolin, Sean Penn and Kevin Spacey and director Spike Lee.
The gala will be held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in New Orleans. Comedian Aziz Ansari will host an after party. Tickets for that event start at $150.
___
Online:
Tickets are available online at www.nighttomakeitright.com .
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
With UFC on Fox 2 on deck, UFC on Fox 3 taking shape on same night as proposed Floyd Mayweather fight
The Fox/UFC deal is moving ahead full bore.
Heavy promotion for this weekend's second network TV card is underway, a cool new commercial with Jon Jones debuted over the weekend and last night, Dana White confirmed fights for the next MMA appearance on Fox.
That May date is interesting because it's the same night Floyd Mayweather is planning on fighting on pay-per-view in Las Vegas.
Mayweather got out of his 90-day jail sentence by saying he had a contracted fight for May 5. He has to fight that night or he violates the terms of his agreement. Mayweather is now due to check into the Clark County Detention Center on June 1.
Before anyone starts asking why the UFC is competing with a huge boxing PPV, the MMA card starts much earlier and ends before the Mayweather tilt would begin at roughly 11:30 p.m. ET. It serves as a great fight night for combat sports fans.
Miller gets to fight in his backyard in East Rutherford, N.J. He grew up in nearby Sparta.
From a contender standpoint Diaz, is an obvious choice. From a promotional standpoint, he presents a challenge. He's nowhere near as truculant as his brother Nick, but it's been established Nate isn't exactly fond doing tons of media work either. It should be interesting to follow how the 26-year-old handles some of the extra duties that come with fighting on network television.
The UFC's recent visits to the Garden State were at The Prudential Center. It appears nothing is currently scheduled at "The Rock" on on that Saturday night. It is a busy week though with Bruce Springsteen playing the arena on Tuesday and Friday night nouses The Red Hot Chili Peppers.
The card will also include the UFC mini-tournament in the new 125-pound weight class. John Dodson will face Darren Uyenoyama.
Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/ufc-fox-2-days-away-ufc-fox-3-160100858.html
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Divers, crane in place for Italy ship fuel pumping (AP)
ROME ? Workers and equipment are moving into place to begin pumping out the half-million gallons of fuel from the toppled Costa Concordia before it spills into the pristine seas off Tuscany.
A crew believed to be from the Dutch shipwreck salvage firm Smit was seen on the bow of the Concordia Tuesday morning and a platform with heavy equipment was nearby. Italian rescue crews continued blasting small holes in the ship's steel frame so divers could more easily search for the 17 people still missing.
The Concordia ran aground and capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio on Jan. 13 after the captain veered from his approved course and gashed the ship's hull on a reef, forcing the evacuation of 4,200 passengers and crew. So far 15 bodies have been found.
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
97% The Artist
All Critics (172) | Top Critics (39) | Fresh (167) | Rotten (5)
'The Artist': Michel Hazanavicius's novelty film owes much to Jean Dujardin's irresistible smile
For a movie that is so much about technique, it's surprising how affecting the story is.
The Artist is the most surprising and delightful film of 2011.
A silent movie shot in sumptuous black-and-white, no less. A silent flick made with not a jot of distancing winking, but instead born of a heady affection for a bygone, very bygone, era of filmmaking.
It's a rocket to the moon fueled by unadulterated joy and pure imagination.
Strangely, wonderfully, The Artist feels as bold and innovative a moviegoing experience as James Cameron's bells-and-whistles Avatar did a couple of years ago.
'The Artist' offers a unique cinematic experience in an age when extremely loud sound effects attack our eardrums while watching so many current movies.
The Artist delights in an ingeniously straightforward way that exceeds many a modern, technologically advanced, effects-loaded, big-budget blockbuster.
A silent movie that speaks louder and with more power than a dozen films packed with pages and pages of dialogue. Definitely the year's best movie.
Imaginative, gorgeous, witty and even kind of sexy.
A gift that keeps on giving, The Artist is a film that demands your attention at every moment. All senses are glued to the screen and director Michel Hazanavicius delivers with drama, laughter, romance and stellar performances from his cast.
Has the allure of a freshness it may not entirely deserve, but one that makes it go down very smoothly.
Initially, the lack of spoken dialogue is discomfiting. Once you've adjusted to its storytelling conventions, though, you almost forget that this is a silent film.
I'm not sure Hazanavicius' love letter to the cinema is, in fact, the most outstanding movie of last year. But who would deny that it stands out from the motion-picture pack?
In a strange way, it's not unlike The Matrix -- only this time the red pill transports you into the futuristic world of sound, rather than a cynical world of two increasingly abysmal sequels.
Completely fun. Dujardin defies time periods. Bejo is all sparkly effervescence.
Was there ever a guy who could play an old school movie studio mogul like John Goodman? No.
A movie that is so old-fashioned from beginning to end that it's literally a breath of fresh air.
Visually stunning, imaginative, and cleverly scored and choreographed, The Artist is quite simply and quietly, the year's finest film.
Deeper than mere mimicry...
The Artist plays less like an original take on the early sound era than as fan fiction set in the world of Singin' in the Rain.
[C]ould have been all about the gimmick. Marvelously, it isn't. And yet its marvelousness is wrapped up in the gimmick... [A] sweet, deep passion for The Movies... throbs through The Artist and makes it sing.
A story that's so sweet and innocent, it's practically forgivable for being the awards bait it's being offered up as.
The Academy Awards are the biggest annual party that Hollywood throws for itself, and The Artist is a movie that worships Hollywood. Looks like a done deal.
See it, but remember: no talking.
A silent love song that anyone who adores film can nonetheless hear, loud and clear!
More Critic ReviewsSource: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_artist/
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012
'Real Steel' Deleted Scene Floats Like A Butterfly, Stings Like A Boxing Robot
This past October, "Real Steel" proved that if you're going to make a movie about robots fighting each other, you have to care about the robots. More importantly, you have to care about the young boy and the washed-up boxer behind the robot.
This exclusive deleted scene from the upcoming Blu-ray release of "Real Steel" shows [...]
This exclusive deleted scene from the upcoming Blu-ray release of "Real Steel" shows [...]
Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2012/01/24/real-steel-deleted-scene/
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Mixed record for Obama's State of the Union goals (AP)
WASHINGTON ? As President Barack Obama prepares to deliver his annual address to Congress, many goals he outlined in previous State of the Union speeches remain unfulfilled. From reforming immigration laws to meeting monthly with congressional leaders of both parties, the promises fell victim to congressional opposition or faded in face of other priorities as the unruly realities of governing set in.
For Obama, like presidents before him, the State of the Union is an opportunity like no other to state his case on a grand stage, before both houses of Congress and a prime time television audience. But as with other presidents, the aspirations he's laid out have often turned out to be ephemeral, unable to secure the needed congressional consent or requiring follow-through that's not been forthcoming.
As Obama's first term marches to an end amid bitterly divided government and an intense campaign by Republicans to take his job, it's going to be even harder for him to get things done this year. So Tuesday night's speech may focus as much on making an overarching case for his presidency ? and for a second term ? as on the kind of laundry list of initiatives that sometimes characterize State of the Union appeals.
"State of the Union addresses are kind of like the foam rubber rocks they used on Star Trek ? they look solid but aren't," said Jack Pitney, a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College. "Presidents will talk about solving some policy problem, and then the bold language of the State of the Union address disappears into the messy reality of governing."
For Obama, last year's State of the Union offers a case study in that dynamic. Speaking to a newly divided government not long after the assassination attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, Ariz., Obama pleaded for national unity, a grand goal that never came to pass as Washington quickly dissolved into one partisan dispute after another.
Many of the particulars Obama rolled out that night proved just as hard to pull off.
Among the initiatives Obama promoted then that have yet to come to fruition a year later: eliminating subsidies to oil companies; replacing No Child Left Behind with a better education law; making a tuition tax credit permanent; rewriting immigration laws; and reforming the tax system.
The list of what he succeeded in accomplishing is considerably shorter, including: securing congressional approval of a South Korea free trade deal; signing legislation to undo a burdensome tax reporting requirement in his health care law; and establishing a website to show taxpayers where their tax dollars go.
White House press secretary Jay Carney argued Monday that the unfinished business from last year's speech didn't represent a failure.
"I think that any State of the Union address which lays out an agenda has to be ambitious, and if you got through a year and you achieved everything on your list then you probably didn't aim high enough," Carney said.
One of Obama's pledges from last January's speech ? to undertake a reorganization of the federal government ? he got around to rolling out only this month. And other promises are vaguer or more long term, such as declaring a "Sputnik moment" for today's generation and calling for renewed commitments to research and development and clean energy technology; pushing to prepare more educators to teach science, technology and math; promoting high-speed rail and accessible broadband; and seeking greater investments in infrastructure.
"Clearly as time goes on and a presidency matures you get less and less of it and the State of the Union becomes an aspiration for what you want to do as opposed to a road map for what you can accomplish," said Princeton University historian Julian Zelizer. As voters' enthusiasm fades and opposition deepens, Zelizer said, "You lose some of your power and you get closer to the next election and no one wants to work with you."
Last year's address already contained more modest goals than the speech Obama gave to a joint session of Congress a month after his inauguration, which although not technically a State of the Union report had the feel of one. At the time Obama called for overhauling health care and ending the war in Iraq ? promises he kept ? but also for closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and imposing caps on carbon pollution ? promises unmet.
Obama this month announced plans to use tax credits to encourage employers to create jobs in the U.S. instead of overseas ? an idea he also raised in his State of the Union speech two years ago. Some of his goals, such as immigration and education reform, have resurfaced in multiple addresses, but still without being accomplished.
And rarely has Obama's rhetoric as president reached as high as the lofty promises of his campaign, when he pledged to change the very way Washington does business and remake politics itself. It's a far cry from those promises of change to the ambition of meeting monthly with Democratic and Republican congressional leaders ? but even that relatively modest goal, from Obama's 2010 State of the Union, went unfulfilled.
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Pakistan police suspect aid worker kidnapped (AP)
KARACHI, Pakistan ? Pakistani police say a Kenyan aid worker has disappeared and is suspected of having been kidnapped in the country's south.
Police officer Shahab Akbar Kolachi said late Monday the man was working for an international NGO, helping the southern Sindh province recover from devastating 2010 floods. Kolachi did not provide the man's name.
The officer said police believe the man was kidnapped Monday while traveling from the city of Sukkur to the district of Dadu. His vehicle was found abandoned between the two areas. His colleagues tried to call him, but his phone was turned off.
Kidnappings for ransom are common in Pakistan by both criminals and Islamist militants.
Gunmen seized two aid workers, an Italian and a German, in the central Pakistan town of Multan last week.
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Monday, January 23, 2012
Romney's $20 Million IRA: A Lousy Investment? (Time.com)
Mitt Romney may have made the classic IRA mistake: holding low-tax investments inside a tax-favored account. His IRA strategy isn't clear, of course. Romney continues to guard his personal finances. But details are trickling out, and even if it turns out that Romney's traditional IRA is built right for him, the securities he holds in it serve as a valuable reminder that not all investments belong in a tax-favored account.
Romney's IRA is valued at between $20.7 million and $101.6 million, according to The Wall Street Journal. That's an extremely wide range that the Journal found in Romney's latest financial disclosure report, filed in August. His IRA produced income between $1.5 million and $8.5 million last year.(MORE: Cash Back: Banks Battle for Your Rollover IRA.)
So he's not like most of us, financially speaking. But he is exactly like us in that he has limits on how much he can contribute to an IRA, or to a 401(k) plan that can be rolled into an IRA. Given those limits it's remarkable that he has been able to amass such wealth in a tax-deferred account.
For most of his years at Bain Capital, the annual IRA pre-tax contribution was capped at $2,000 and the annual 401(k) pre-tax contribution, including employer match, was capped at $30,000. Other limits are in force today: $5,000 for an IRA ($6,000 if you over 50); $16,500 for a 401(k) ($22,000 if you are over 50).
Assuming Romney was maxing out pre-tax contributions, as should anyone who can afford to do so, he still would have needed extraordinary returns within his tax-deferred accounts to build such a big balance. He must have been investing in stocks and other high-growth potential vehicles, which produce a capital gain.
Here's the rub: The max capital gains tax is just 15%. That's what Romney would pay in federal tax upon selling his stocks from a taxable account. Yet when Romney begins taking distributions from his IRA, as he must in his 71st year, the money will be subject to federal income tax at rates of up to 35%. That tax-rate disparity is why it often makes sense to hold stocks in a taxable account and things like real estate investment trusts, rental properties, bonds and other income-generating investments in an IRA or 401(k). This is especially true for the wealthy, like Romney, whose net worth is about $250 million. Rich people have ample resources to max out tax-deferred vehicles with bonds and hold their stocks in a taxable account -- all while maintaining a desired asset allocation of, say, 60% stocks and 40% bonds.(MORE: More Fees, Fewer Branches as Banks Cope With Lower Profits.)
This doesn't necessarily work with limited resources. If you only save in a 401(k) and must stretch to get the full company match, you're probably better off with a mix of stocks and bonds in that account. Stocks also make sense in a tax-deferred account with at least 20 years before distributions begin, according a study by T. Rowe Price. And holding stocks in your IRA won't hurt if your income tax rate will shrink when you begin to take distributions.
But, in general, it makes sense to add low-tax investments like stocks (even dividends get taxed at a max 15%) to a taxable account and income-generating investments to a tax-deferred account -- especially with fewer than 10 years to retirement. A presidential candidate probably knows that. But thanks, Mitt, for the reminder.
See TIME's Pictures of the Week.
See the Cartoons of the Week.
View this article on Time.com
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[OOC] Reservations
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This forum is for OOC discussion about existing roleplays.
Please post all "Players Wanted" threads in the Roleplayers Wanted forum!
This topic is an Out Of Character part of the roleplay, ?Ai Wa Sens??desu?. Anything posted here will also show up there.Topic Tags:
Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup.Please make your reservations in this thread only, so it'll be easier to keep track of them.
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MirrorMirror1498 - Member for 1 years
Sorry I didn't know about the new thread. I'd like to reserve Demon 4 please XP
"You should look at the forest, but you keep looking at a tree..." - Verbal Jint
Tomato, Toh Mah Toh, it's the same as saying that there's plenty of other fish in the sea..
Oh well, still love those lyrics though :P
*Cheezy Grin*
Jayu, it means freedom <3
...can you guess what language?
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Jayu - Member for 0 years
That's allright. I'll reserve the spot for you now! :)
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MirrorMirror1498 - Member for 1 years
Post a reply
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Sunday, January 22, 2012
Linen Travel Towel Costs More Than Your Flights
How much would you pay for a towel? A towel made especially for traveling. A towel which absorbs more water, dries faster and takes up less space in your suitcase than a regular fluffy cotton towel? If your answer is ?95 ($123!) then the TravelTeq Travel Towel might be just your thing. Is this amazing [...]
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This Is the First Sci-Fi Movie Actually Filmed In Space—And NASA Censored It [Video]
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Saturday, January 21, 2012
Cougars extinct in East? No, say those who spot them
Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
This June 2011 photo by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection shows a worker examining a dead mountain lion, or cougar, at the Sessions Woods Wildlife Center in Burlington, Conn. Tests determined that the cat, which was struck by a car, had traveled all the way from South Dakota.
By Jim Gold, msnbc.com
Cougar sightings persist in the East nearly a year after the big predators were declared extinct in the region, a determination that some don't believe. Others want to make cougars' presence a big reality.
Just this month Gary Sanderson, sports editor at the Greenfield, Mass.-based Recorder newspaper, reported?cougar sightings on a farm near the Vermont border, by an Amtrak engineer who claimed his train's video captured images of the creatures?near Leverett, and from readers in the region who claim to have pictures of cougars.
"I've been besieged" with sightings ever since writing a column 10 years ago about hunting with a trapper who became a believer in?cougars' presence?after finding a footprint way too large to be a bobcat in Conway, along the Deerfield River, Sanderson told msnbc.com.
Sanderson said?he has since written 50 columns devoted to cougar sightings and has been told by wildlife officials he was irresponsible to promote the notion of their presence.
With rare exception, there is?no credible evidence of cougars living in the wild?east of the Mississippi River, government and private researchers told msnbc.com.
In Connecticut this week, a CBS radio report and a Greenwich Time newspaper story both cited the growth of cougar sightings since last spring. That's when a cougar first spotted in Greenwich on June 5 was killed by a car six days later in nearby Milford. NBC Connecticut reported at the time that scientists studying the 140-pound animal's DNA concluded the?cougar had?wandered about 1,800 miles east, all the way from the Black Hills of South Dakota through Minnesota and Wisconsin before finding its way to Greenwich, about 70 miles outside New York City.
?
Even though he is a?state away, Sanderson said, "I felt vindicated" when the news emerged about the cougar in Milford. "I didn't think they would admit that it was wild."
A Connecticut group called Cougars of the Valley?has an online petition with about?250 signatures asking the state General Assembly to hold a hearing on cougars, also known as mountain lions, pumas and panthers. The group's website also hosts a map of Connecticut cougar sightings and comments from readers?claiming authorities disparaged their reports about seeing cougars.
No evidence?
Mark McCollough, an endangered species specialist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the Orono, Maine, field office, was the lead scientist in the agency's study declaring the Eastern cougar extinct. (See full study report here.)
McCollough told msnbc.com that there is no scientific evidence that Eastern cougars have somehow survived?150 years after being driven from the region. The last known real Eastern cougar was shot dead in 1938 in Maine, he said.
"That's not to say they don?t show up from time to time," McCollough said of cougars, but most reports of sightings are misidentfications, such as coyotes or bobcats, which are about one-fourth the size of cougars.
Officials have documented 110 cougars loose?in the Eastern United States and Canada since 1900, he said.?They come from two main sources:
- Escaped pets: At least 1,000 cougars are known to be held in captivity in the East, he said, and many that have turned up loose have been genetically traced to South American ancestry, indicating they were part?of?the exotic pet trade. "They didn?t walk here," McCollough said.
- Dispersers: Like the wandering cougar killed in Connecticut, some head east from the West and north from Florida, home to about 150 panthers.?Cougars?regularly?show up?on?trail cameras set up privately across the country, McCollough said, but they're not on cameras in the East.
One cougar from Florida, where about 150 panthers live in the wild, was killed in Georgia in 2008. That same year, police shot?a cougar that wandered into Chicago's North Side.
But there is no scientific evidence, no scat (droppings), no confirmed sightings that cougars are establishing homes and breeding east of the Mississippi and?north of Florida, McCollough?said.
Courtesy of The Cougar Network
Green: established populations
Blue = Class I Confirmation
Red = Class II Confirmation
A map by The Cougar Network, a non-profit research group,?shows only a few?confirmed sightings of cougars in the?East since 1990.
"We just don't take those kinds of sightings seriously anymore," said Mark Dowling, a leader of the network. Pictures turn out to be house cats or even golden retrievers.
Cougars couldn't go undetected, he said. "They betray their presence readily," he said, by becoming road kill or chasing people's pets.
The Midwest is seeing a resurgence, he said, including growing cougar populations in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan and even Louisiana. Nebraska also has a breeding population.?
Christopher Spatz, a southern New York resident who is president of the Cougar Rewilding Foundation, told msnbc.com that?wandering cougars are young males looking for females and needing to get away from their fathers' territories before their fathers kill them.
"Young cats out on their own are troublemakers," said Spatz, an advocate for reintroducing cougars into the wilds of the East.
"We need them everywhere. Big predators help regulate ecosystems,"Spatz said.
After wolves were reintroduced at Yellowstone National Park in 1995, elk?stopped?eating cottonwoods and aspens, Spatz said. Vegetation came back, and biodiversity, including beavers, birds and fish, expanded.
Without cougars and other predators, there is an overabundance of whitetail deer in the East, resulting in lack of understory.
Live Poll
Should cougars be recolonized in the East?
173858
Yes, they will help the ecosystem; we can learn to coexist with the cats.
77%
173859
No, the predators are too dangerous to people, pets and livestock.
17%
173860
Not sure.
6%
VoteTotal Votes: 646
"Cougars' presence would change the way deer browse," Spatz said. "They would keep moving; you would see regeneration of your understory."
Cougars are not a threat to people, pets and livestock, he said. California, where there are an estimated 5,000 to 6,000?cougars and no hunting allowed, proves "we can coexist."
McCollough, the wildlife biologist, and Dowling, from the Cougar Network, which doesn't take a stand on repopulation, said chances of recolonization efforts in the East?are remote, as people likely won't want large predators living near them.
Cougars, which can leap 30 feet and reach speeds of 50 mph, are carnivores whose usual diet consists mainly of deer, elk, turkey rabbits porcupine, coyote and other small mammals, according to The Cougar Fund, a non-profit trying to protect cougars. But the animals?do prey on people, pets and livestock. Since 1890, "only 20 people"?have been killed by cougar attacks, says the group, which also offers tips on how to fight off cougars and guidelines to keep children and pets safe. Several non-fatal mauling attacks on people are reported yearly.?
'They are here'
But one cougar advocate, Bill Betty of Matunuck, R.I., said people in the Northeast already coexist with cougars, because, he said, they are present and?breeding.
"Every state in the East will eventually acknowledge?they are here," Betty told msnbc.com. He said he has?had 14 daytime encounters as close as 10 feet with cougars -- and nine family members have had 30 encounters.
"I've chased mountain lions away from kids," he said.
Betty lectures all over the country about mountain lions and has a 90-minute slideshow and other show-and-tell items such as a skull, scat samples and photos. He said he knows what a cougar looks like.
At a lecture in Somers, Conn., he said, 37 people raised their hands when asked if they'd seen a cougar.
"They are here," he said. "Those who say they are not are lying."
"Mature, responsible adults and schoolchildren?can tell the difference between a cougar and?a big yellow dog," he said.
Officials say they still don't believe Betty and that he does not use scientific data in his presentations.
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