This week we're loving The Help star's sweep through awards season. Is an Oscar on the way for our Woman of the week?
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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
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Monday, January 30, 2012
Etta James Memorial Features Performances By Christina Aguilera, Stevie Wonder
James' songs 'cut right to my soul,' Aguilera tells family, friends and fans at service.
By John Mitchell
Christina Aguilera performs at the funeral of singer Etta James
Photo: Toby Canham/Getty Images
Family, friends and fans gathered to remember Etta James at a memorial service on Saturday at City of Refuge Church in Gardena, California. The legendary singer was eulogized by the Rev. Al Sharpton, and her most beloved songs were brought to life with rousing performances by Christina Aguilera and Stevie Wonder.
Sharpton opened the service by reading a statement from President Barack Obama, whose first inaugural-ball dance with First Lady Michelle Obama was famously accompanied by a rendition of James' classic "At Last" performed by Beyoncé.
"Etta will be remembered for her legendary voice and her contributions to our nation's musical heritage," Obama's statement read.
James died on January 20 after a long battle with leukemia and other health problems, including kidney failure and dementia. She was 73.
Sharpton's eulogy of James recounted a difficult life of poverty and pain that was brought out in songs that influenced contemporary singers from Aguilera and Adele to Florence Welch and Amy Winehouse, who like James battled drug addiction but unlike her idol was never able to overcome it. James was also a favorite of Beyoncé, who portrayed the singer in the 2008 film "Cadillac Records."
"Etta James was one of the greatest vocalists of our time. I am so fortunate to have met such a queen," Beyoncé said in a statement following James' passing. "Her musical contributions will last a lifetime."
"Out of all the singers that I've ever heard, she was the one that cut right to my soul and spoke to me," Aguilera said before her performance of "At Last" at the service.
Wonder performed three songs, including "Shelter in the Rain," an a cappella version of "The Lord's Prayer" and a harmonica solo.
Sharpton emphasized how the singer's music bolstered the civil rights movement. "Etta James helped break down the culture curtain of America before the Civil Rights Act of 1964," Sharpton said. "She was able to get us on the same rhythms and humming the same ballads and understanding each other's melodies way before we could even use the same hotels."
James is survived by her husband of 42 years, Artis Mills, and two sons, Donto and Sametto James.
"You beat 'em, Etta," Sharpton concluded. "At last, you can find peace now. At last, you can get the gratitude of the savior now. Etta, you made it, you're going home. At last. At last. At last."
Related Videos Related Photos Related ArtistsSource: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1678115/etta-james-funeral-christina-aguilera.jhtml
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29 Chinese missing after militant attack in Sudan (AP)
BEIJING ? Militants apparently captured 29 Chinese workers after attacking a remote worksite in a volatile region of Sudan, and Sudanese forces were increasing security for Chinese projects and personnel there, China said Sunday.
China has close political and economic relations with Sudan, especially in the energy sector.
The Foreign Ministry in Beijing said the militants attacked Saturday and Sudanese forces launched a rescue mission Sunday in coordination with the Chinese embassy in Khartoum.
The Ministry's head of consular affairs met with the Sudanese ambassador in Beijing and "urged him to actively conduct rescue missions under the prerequisite of ensuring the safety of the Chinese personnel," the statement said.
In Khartoum, a Chinese embassy spokesman said the northern branch of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement announced that 29 Chinese workers had been captured in the attack. The spokesman, who asked not be identified, gave no other details and it wasn't clear if the militants had demanded conditions for their return.
Other details weren't given. The official Xinhua News Agency cited the state governor as saying the Sudan People's Liberation Movement attacked a road-building site in South Kordofan and seized the workers.
The Sudan People's Liberation Movement are a guerrilla force that has fought against Sudan's regime. Its members hail from a minority ethnic group now in control of much of South Sudan, which became the world's newest country only six months ago in a breakaway from Sudan.
Sudan has accused South Sudan of arming pro-South Sudan groups in South Kordofan. The government of South Sudan has called such accusations a smoke screen intended to justify a future invasion of the South.
China has sent large numbers of workers to potentially unstable regions such as Sudan and last year was forced to send ships and planes to help with the emergency evacuation of 30,000 of its citizens from the fighting in Libya.
China has consistently used its clout in diplomatic forums such as the United Nations to defend Sudan and its longtime leader Omar al-Bashir. In recent years, it has also sought to build good relations with leaders from the south, where most of Sudan's oil is located.
Chinese companies have also invested heavily in Sudanese oil production, along with companies India and elsewhere.
___
Associated Press writer Mohamed Saeed contributed to this report from Khartoum.
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Sunday, January 29, 2012
Economy more worrying than Mideast for Florida Jews (Reuters)
AVENTURA, Florida (Reuters) ? Newt Gingrich describes the Palestinians as an invented people and seeks covert action against Iran, while Mitt Romney accuses President Barack Obama of throwing Israel under a bus.
But the Republican presidential candidates' tough talk on the Middle East in Florida before Tuesday's primary is doing little to sway the state's large Jewish population from its longstanding support for the Democrats.
If anything, it's Republican arguments on the U.S. economy - not Israel - that might win more favor with Jewish voters here come the general election in November.
"There has been, particularly among younger voters, a small shift toward the Republican Party in general," said Terri Susan Fine, a political scientist at the University of Central Florida in Orlando.
She said there was some concern about Israel, but the larger reason was because some Jews see the Republican Party as more friendly to business.
"Economic conservativism is what is shifting their focus toward the Republican Party," she said. "Younger Jewish voters are very secure in Israel's stability."
Rabbi David Kaye of Congregation Ohev Shalom, a conservative temple north of Orlando, said members of his congregation were more concerned with economic issues in a state hard-hit by the housing crisis and one of the nation's highest unemployment rates.
"We still see that there's a lot of folks hurting," he said.
Jewish voters are also generally more liberal on social issues than the Republican candidates.
President Barack Obama received almost eight out of every 10 votes cast by Jewish voters in 2008. That overwhelming support among Florida's 640,000-member Jewish community, half of whom are over 65, was a key component in his narrow 3 percentage point victory in the swing state.
Jewish voters historically have been concerned with social justice and older voters especially have deep ties to the Democratic Party and labor movement going back to Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidency during the 1930s and earlier.
"It's part of our being - we are our brother's keeper," said Sydelle Sher, 79, of Delray Beach, a retired schoolteacher.
IRAN TENSIONS
But Sher, who attended a Gingrich rally last week, described herself as a fiscal conservative worried about the direction the country is going in under Obama.
"I fear the European-style socialism trend," she said, although she added that Israel policy is very important in her decision.
With tensions in the Middle East rising over Iran's nuclear ambitions, some Jewish Republicans wonder if the United States will stick by Israel.
Gloria Winton, 75, had harsh words for Obama on Israel as she headed into Mo's Bagels and Deli, near her home in Aventura, Florida. "I never thought before that Israel couldn't trust the United States. Now, I don't think that they can trust us," she said.
But she said she was leaning toward Romney, not Gingrich, because of Romney's more moderate tone. "I think (Gingrich is) very smart but I don't know if the independent voter would accept him," she said.
As they fight for their party's nomination, Romney and Gingrich have often seemed to compete over who can take the strongest pro-Israel line.
Gingrich, a former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, drew 700 people to a rally on Friday sponsored by a Jewish Republican group, and both he and Romney count pro-Israel businessmen among their financial supporters.
Gingrich dismisses the Palestinians as an "invented people," and promises he would move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv as soon as he takes office.
Despite years of U.S.-led negotiations toward a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Romney insists the Palestinians are not interested in living in their own nation alongside Israel, saying they want to destroy the Jewish state.
The former Massachusetts governor says Obama "threw Israel under the bus" for suggesting negotiations start with borders as they were before the 1967 Middle East war.
Democrats insist that Obama is not hostile to Israel, and call the Republicans' campaign a misleading and desperate attempt to make headway with an overwhelmingly Democratic voter bloc.
"Our ironclad commitment - and I meant ironclad - to Israel's security has meant the closest military cooperation between our two countries in history," Obama said in his State of the Union address on Tuesday.
Jewish voters typically account for 6-8 percent of turnout in Florida elections, and a lower percentage in Republican-only contests like Tuesday's primary, but they can make a difference if the vote is close.
Ira Sheskin, who runs the University of Miami's Jewish Demography Project, said statements like Gingrich's denial of the Palestinians' national identity could alienate the many Jewish voters whose main goal is Middle East peace.
"It was really not good for Gingrich to say that," Sheskin said. "Because if he becomes president, you want him to act as an honest broker in the Middle East. You don't do that if you've told one of the sides that they are an invented people."
"You won't advance the cause of peace."
(Additional reporting by Ros Krasny in Delray Beach; Editing by Alistair Bell and Doina Chiacu)
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Gingrich says space exploration in US tradition (AP)
STUART, Fla. ? Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich says critics of his call to ramp up U.S. space exploration don't understand the power of science, technology and entrepreneurship to change the future.
Campaign rival Mitt Romney was referring to Gingrich earlier this week when he said that if any business executive recommended spending huge sums on colonizing the moon, he'd fire him.
But Gingrich said Abraham Lincoln recommended building a transcontinental railroad at a time necessary technology didn't exist, and a decade later the job was done. And that when President Kennedy started a program to put a man on the moon in the early 1960s the same thing happened.
Gingrich spoke on the 26th anniversary of the explosion that destroyed the space shuttle Challenger 73 seconds into flight, killing all seven aboard.
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Book Review : Memory: Fragments of a Modern History by Alison Winter
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Saturday, January 28, 2012
German scientists shoot world's fastest movie: gone in 50 femtoseconds
German scientists shoot world's fastest movie: gone in 50 femtoseconds originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Jan 2012 22:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Colorectal cancer risk related to gene's expression | Research News ...
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Colorectal cancer risk related to gene's expression. Individuals who are outside the normal range of expression for the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene have an increased risk of colorectal cancer, according to a study ...
Source: http://news.vanderbilt.edu/2012/01/colorectal-cancer-risk-gene/
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Nelson Leads All Challengers in Florida (Taegan Goddard's Political Wire)
Friday, January 27, 2012
Jesse Jackson adds voice to Grammy protest (Reuters)
(Reuters) ? Civil rights activist the Rev. Jesse James on Friday urged Grammy organizers to reinstate 31 ethnic and minority musical categories that have been cut from the music industry's top awards.
In a letter to Recording Academy president Neil Portnow, sent three weeks before the February 12 Grammy Awards show, Jackson said the elimination of awards for Native American and Hawaiian musicians, and cuts in Latin Jazz, R&B and other categories were ill-considered and unfair.
Jackson said some of the categories dropped by the Recording Academy in a major overhaul last year "constitute the very heart of the music that nourishes and inspires minority communities."
Writing on behalf of the Rainbow Push Coalition of U.S. civil rights groups, Jackson called for an urgent meeting with Portnow to try and resolve the conflict that has spurred months of protests and a lawsuit by leading musicians.
Portnow said on Friday he was "receptive to meeting with the Rev. Jackson to explain how our nomination process works and to show the resulting diverse group of nominees it produced" for this year's Grammy Awards.
Paul Simon, Carlos Santana, Bonnie Raitt and Bobby Sanabria are among dozens of musicians who have protested the decision, announced last April, to slash the number of Grammy categories to 78 from 109 for the 2012 Grammy Awards.
Some categories, such as Hawaiian and Native American albums were dropped completely, while others including Latin music and R&B saw the number of award categories halved.
Portnow said at the time the changes were necessary to maintain "the prestige of the highest and only peer-recognized award in music."
Sanabria and three other Latin Jazz musicians filed a lawsuit in New York in August saying the cuts would harm their careers financially. They have also called for a boycott of the CBS network, which broadcasts the annual Grammy Awards show in Los Angeles.
The 2012 Grammy Awards take place on February12. Rapper Kanye West leads the field of contenders with seven nominations followed by British singer Adele, Bruno Mars and alternative rock band Foo Fighters.
(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
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Broken schools breed South Africa's "lost generation" (Reuters)
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) ? The first blow to Martha Netshiozwe's future came when her parents died of AIDS. The second came when she ran out of money and had to drop out of a South African high school.
Netshiozwe, 23, is a product of the first post-apartheid generation who entered a new and aspiring education system which aimed to heal the economic divisions created by the white-minority government. But like many, she left without the skills to qualify for anything other than manual labor.
Despite pouring billions of dollars into education, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) has little to show for its money except for public primary schools regarded as among the worst in the world and millions of students destined for a life in the underclass.
"If you don't have an education, you don't have a chance in life," said Netshiozwe, who is unemployed with little prospect of finding regular work. She and her HIV-infected aunt live together and scrape by on about $100 a month in welfare benefits.
Nearly half of South Africa's 18 to 24 year olds -- the first generation educated after apartheid ended in 1994 -- are not in the education system and do not have a job, according to government data.
Academics have called this group the "lost generation" and worry it will grow larger unless the government fixes a system riddled with failing schools, unskilled educators and corruption that stops funding from reaching its intended destinations.
"This is an appalling waste of human potential and a potential source of serious social instability," the Ministry of Higher Education said this month when it unveiled sweeping plans
for boosting university enrollment and improving vocational colleges.
The lost generation poses long term risks for Africa's largest economy, which is trying to grow its tax base as it funds increased social spending.
There are about three people receiving social welfare payments for each taxpayer. While the recipients of state funds are set to increase substantially under anti-poverty programs, the number of taxpayers is not, which should cause already yawning budget deficits to widen.
Major ratings agencies are also worried.
Fitch, this month, and Moody's a few months ago, downgraded the outlook for South Africa, saying the government has not done enough to tackle structural problems including chronic unemployment, growing state debt and a broken education system.
CRIPPLED BY CORRUPTION
South Africa does not suffer a lack of plans or finances for education, the largest sector of state spending and accounting for more than 20 percent of the budget.
The problems are with implementation.
Corruption eats away at money. Teachers are poorly trained and challenged by a constantly shifting curriculum. Schools are often shut by teachers' strikes.
There have been numerous changes for the better in the ANC-run education system with more of the country's blacks, excluded from most high-quality education under apartheid, entering high-performing schools.
Once almost exclusively white, universities now reflect the racial composition of the country with more people from groups disenfranchised by apartheid climbing the ladder with a degree or diploma.
But at the same time, the number of people living in poverty has changed little since apartheid ended, with no remedy in sight given the structural problems in education.
"As things stand, the ANC is wreaking untold damage on our children and, consequently, on the country's future, just as apartheid education did in the past," said Barney Mthombothi, editor of the influential weekly Financial Mail.
Hundreds of schools do not have electricity or running water and absenteeism has become such a concern that President Jacob Zuma has begged teachers to show up for classes.
A study by graft watchdog Transparency International last year pointed to massive local level corruption resulting in millions of students not having desks, chairs or books.
The central government has been trying to take over two provincial education systems that are effectively bankrupt.
In Limpopo province, students started the school year in January without textbooks even though millions of dollars had been allocated for purchases, with media reports saying a politically connected figure may have pocketed the funds.
This month, the central government said Limpopo, which has recorded some of the country's worst results in standardized testing, had unauthorized expenditure of 2.2 billion rand ($275 million). The province had more than 2,400 teachers on the payroll, including 200 "ghost teachers" who were not in classrooms but were still paid.
TICKET OUT OF POVERTY
A university education is seen as the best ticket out of poverty. Competition is fierce and at some of the top schools, there are about 10 applicants for each place.
The desperate demand for higher education led to a stampede at the University of Johannesburg this month when thousands of applicants lined up for a few hundred available places on the final day to submit paperwork.
"The lofty status of universities is an indicator of a lack of status for any other alternative for post-school education," said Frances Faller, an education expert at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
About eight in 10 unemployed have not completed secondary education or just made it through high school. Only six percent of South Africa's jobless have a university degree, a study from the South African Institute for Race Relations said.
The odds are also stacked against those who hope to find entry-level employment. Economists say labor laws make it difficult for employers who want to take on new workers and train them for jobs.
A cozy relationship between the ANC and organized labor, formed in their partnership against apartheid, has hampered apprenticeship programs.
The ANC, which relies on the 2 million members of top labor federation COSATU as a source of votes, has put off plans denounced by unions but backed by economists to reduce youth unemployment by allowing firms to hire youths at cut-rate wages and train them up.
"We will never let them get away with making these laws even more 'flexible' to allow even higher levels of exploitation," COSATU said in a statement.
ANC governments have spent billions of dollars on job training programs only to see large sums lost to corruption, while producing few graduates with skills required by employers.
"I know what will happen to me if I don't get into school," said university applicant Eddie Ncube, 18.
"Look at what I am exposed to. I am from the ghetto. Without school, I will get into drugs and I'll never find a job."
($1 = 8.0169 South African rand)
(Additional reporting by Ndundu Sithole; Editing by Rosalind Russell)
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New map for what to plant reflects global warming (AP)
WASHINGTON ? Global warming is hitting not just home, but garden. The color-coded map of planting zones often seen on the back of seed packets is being updated by the government, illustrating a hotter 21st century.
It's the first time since 1990 that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has revised the official guide for the nation's 80 million gardeners, and much has changed. Nearly entire states, such as Ohio, Nebraska and Texas, are in warmer zones.
The new guide, unveiled Wednesday at the National Arboretum, arrives just as many home gardeners are receiving their seed catalogs and dreaming of lush flower beds in the spring.
It reflects a new reality: The coldest day of the year isn't as cold as it used to be, so some plants and trees can now survive farther north.
"People who grow plants are well aware of the fact that temperatures have gotten more mild throughout the year, particularly in the wintertime," said Boston University biology professor Richard Primack. "There's a lot of things you can grow now that you couldn't grow before."
He stand the giant fig tree in his suburban Boston yard stands as an example: "People don't think of figs as a crop you can grow in the Boston area. You can do it now."
The new guide also uses better weather data and offers more interactive technology. For example, gardeners using the online version can enter their ZIP code and get the exact average coldest temperature.
Also, for the first time, calculations include more detailed factors such as prevailing winds, the presence of nearby bodies of water, the slope of the land, and the way cities are hotter than suburbs and rural areas.
The map carves up the U.S. into 26 zones based on five-degree temperature increments. The old 1990 map mentions 34 U.S. cities in its key. On the 2012 map, 18 of those, including Honolulu, St. Louis, Des Moines, Iowa, St. Paul, Minn., and even Fairbanks, Alaska, are in newer, warmer zones.
Those differences matter in deciding what to plant.
For example, Des Moines used to be in zone 5a, meaning the lowest temperature on average was between minus 15 and minus 20 degrees. Now it's 5b, which has a lowest temperature of 10 to 15 degrees below zero. Jerry Holub, manager of a Des Moines plant nursery, said folks there might now be able to safely grow passion flowers.
Griffin, Ga., used to be in zone 7b, where the coldest day would average between 5 and 10 degrees. But the city is now in zone 8a, averaging a coldest day of 10 to 15 degrees. So growing bay laurel becomes possible. It wasn't recommended on the old map.
"It is great that the federal government is catching up with what the plants themselves have known for years now: The globe is warming and it is greatly influencing plants (and animals)," Stanford University biology professor Terry Root wrote in an email.
The changes come too late to make this year's seed packets, but they will be in next year's, said George Ball, chairman and CEO of the seed company W. Atlee Burpee, which puts the maps on packages of perennials, not annuals. But Ball said many of his customers already know what can grow in their own climate and how it has warmed.
"Climate change, which has been in the air for a long time, is not big news to gardeners," he said.
Mark Kaplan, a New York meteorologist who helped create the 1990 map, said the latest version clearly shows warmer zones migrating north. Other experts agreed.
The 1990 map was based on temperatures from 1974 to 1986, the new map from 1976 to 2005. The nation's average temperature from 1976 to 2005 was two-thirds of a degree higher than it was during the old time period, according to the National Climatic Data Center.
USDA spokeswoman Kim Kaplan, who was part of the map team, repeatedly tried to distance the new zones on the map from global warming. She said that while much of the country is in warmer zones, the map "is simply not a good instrument" to demonstrate climate change because it is based on just the coldest days of the year.
David W. Wolfe, a professor of plant and soil ecology at Cornell University, said that the USDA is being too cautious and that the map plainly reflects warming.
The revised map "gives us a clear picture of the `new normal' and will be an essential tool for gardeners, farmers and natural resource managers as they begin to cope with rapid climate change," Wolfe said in an email.
The Arbor Day Foundation issued its own hardiness guide six years ago, and the new government map is very similar, said Woodrow Nelson, a vice president at the plant-loving organization.
"We got a lot of comments that the 1990 map wasn't accurate anymore," Nelson said. "I look forward to (the new map). It's been a long time coming."
Nelson lives in Lincoln, Neb., where the zone warmed to a 5b. Nelson said he used to be in a "solid 4," but now he has Japanese maples and Fraser firs in his yard ? trees that shouldn't survive in a zone 4.
Vaughn Speer, an 87-year-old master gardener in Ames, Iowa, said he has seen redbud trees, one of the earliest blooming trees, a little farther north in recent years.
"They always said redbuds don't go beyond U.S. Highway 30," he said, "but I'm seeing them near Roland," 10 miles to the north.
___
AP Writer Michael J. Crumb contributed to this report from Des Moines.
___
Online:
Plant map: http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
Fed: Slightly lower growth, unemployment in 2012 (AP)
WASHINGTON ? The Federal Reserve has slightly reduced its outlook for U.S. economic growth this year but is a little more optimistic about the unemployment rate.
The Fed expects the economy to grow between 2.2 percent and 2.7 percent in 2012, according to its updated economic forecasts released Wednesday. That's down from November's forecast of between 2.5 percent and 2.9 percent.
Many economists expect Europe will suffer a recession this year, which will slow U.S. growth.
Earlier Wednesday, the Fed noted the weak but growing economy when it said it doesn't plan to raise its benchmark interest rate until late 2014. And some members wanted to push that back even further, according to new interest rate projections released with the quarterly forecasts.
Still, the Fed said it expects unemployment to fall low as 8.2 percent. That's an improvement from November's bottom rate of 8.5 percent.
In December, the unemployment rate fell to 8.5 percent ? the lowest level in nearly three years ? after the sixth straight month of solid hiring.
Inflation has been relatively tame and the Fed doesn't see that changing over the next three years.
And for the first time, the Fed offered an official target for inflation ? 2 percent ? in a statement of its long-term policy goals. It had previously indicated that inflation between 1.7 percent and 2 percent was acceptable.
The Fed did not specify a target for unemployment. But it said that unemployment between 5.2 percent and 6 percent would be consistent with its goal for a healthy economy.
The updated quarterly forecasts also showed that some Fed members wanted to extend the period of record-low interest rates beyond 2014. Eleven of the 17 members said they don't see interest rates rising until at least 2015. Only 10 members have a vote on the policy committee.
The Fed said record-low rates are still needed to help boost an improving but still sluggish economy. The extended timeframe is a shift from the Fed's previous plan to keep the rate low at least until mid-2013.
The economy is looking a little better, according to recent private and government data. Companies are hiring more, the stock market is rising, factories are busy and more people are buying cars. Even the home market is showing slight gains after three dismal years.
Still, the threat of a recession in Europe is likely to drag on the global economy. And another year of weak wage gains in the United States could force consumers to pull back on spending, which would slow growth.
Private economists forecast that the nation's economy to grow just 2 percent in the first three months of the year, in part because of the recession in Europe. For the year, they expect growth of 2.4 percent, according to a survey by the Associated Press. That's sluggish for a recovery. But it is better than last year's likely pace of below 2 percent.
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Just Show Me: How to change the theme on your Xbox 360 (Yahoo! News)
Welcome to?Just Show Me on?Tecca TV, where we show you tips and tricks for getting the most out of the?gadgets in your life. In today's episode we'll show you how to change the theme?on your?Xbox 360.
The dashboard on your Xbox 360 can be customized to display different background, themes, etc. Personalize your Xbox 360 to reflect who you are!
Take a look at these other episodes of Just Show Me that'll help you use your Xbox 360 to its full potential:
For even more episodes of Just Show Me,?subscribe to Tecca TV's YouTube channel and?check out all our Just Show Me episodes. If you have any topics you'd like to see us cover, just drop us a line in the comments.
This article originally appeared on Tecca
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Clearwire Q4: revenues up, costs down, LTE expensive
Continue reading Clearwire Q4: revenues up, costs down, LTE expensive
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
'Hugo,' 'Artist' inject cinema nostalgia to Oscars (AP)
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. ? American master Martin Scorsese journeyed to France, putting Hollywood's newest technology to work for his dazzling 3-D re-creation of 1930s Paris in "Hugo." French filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius came to America, reviving old-time Hollywood with his charming resurrection of early cinema in the silent film "The Artist."
The two films now head a 21st century Academy Awards show whose top nominees offer loving looks back to the infancy of moviemaking, when flicks really flickered and cutting-edge visual effects amounted to actors jumping out of the frame while the camera was stopped so they would seem to magically disappear.
Scorsese's Paris adventure "Hugo" led contenders Tuesday with 11 nominations, among them best-picture and the latest directing honor for the Oscar-winning filmmaker.
Hazanavicius' "The Artist" ran second with 10 nominations, including honors for the director and Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo, the stars of the film that could become the first silent movie to win the best-picture prize since year one at the Oscars.
Also nominated for best picture: Alexander Payne's family drama "The Descendants"; Stephen Daldry's Sept. 11 tale "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close"; Tate Taylor's Deep South drama "The Help"; Woody Allen's romantic fantasy "Midnight in Paris"; Bennett Miller's sports tale "Moneyball"; Terrence Malick's family chronicle "The Tree of Life"; and Steven Spielberg's World War I epic "War Horse."
Arguably the world's most passionate moviemaker for preserving old films and the heritage of cinema, Scorsese tried his hand at 3-D filmmaking for the first time on "Hugo" and crafted a look with such depth that the images are almost tactile.
"Hugo" follows the adventures of a boy and girl caught up in a mystery surrounding French silent film pioneer George Melies (Ben Kingsley), who stretched the boundaries of cinema with fantastical short movies in the early 1900s.
Today's digital technology made it possible for Scorsese to create his elaborate illusion of long-gone Paris. But the process he describes sounds as experimental and innovative as the work Melies did a century ago.
"It was harder to do because every time we put the camera in a position I wanted, we discovered new ways to do things or wrong ways to do things. We were, in a sense, constantly breaking new ground," Scorsese said. "We had to rediscover how to make movies every day, every setup."
Among the nominations for "Hugo" are adapted screenplay, cinematography, musical score and visual effects.
"The Artist" is a throwback to black-and-white silent days as a superstar of the pre-sound era (best-actor nominee Dujardin) falls on hard times when talking pictures arrive, while a rising star (supporting-actress nominee Bejo) becomes guardian angel for the former screen idol.
"Who knows? It might be possible that he's set off a chain reaction, and we're off for 100 years of silent movies," Dujardin said. "I would love it. It's really fun for an actor. It's very playful, and it's pure emotion. In the end, you only see what is essential. You take away the intellect, and what's left is life."
Along with his directing honor, Hazanavicius was nominated for original screenplay on "The Artist." The film's other nominations include musical score, cinematography and costume design.
While "Hugo" and "The Artist" are testaments to early filmmaking, another key nomination is a tribute to the big-screen's most famous sex symbol, Marilyn Monroe, a superstar who was never nominated for an Oscar. Michelle Williams earned a best-actress nomination as Monroe in "My Week with Marilyn."
"I would like to think that the recognition our film has received by the academy is a testament to Marilyn's legacy," Williams said.
Williams' competition includes Meryl Streep, who extended her record for most acting nominations to 17 with a best-actress honor as Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady."
Also nominated: Glenn Close for the Irish drama "Albert Nobbs," Viola Davis for "The Help" and Rooney Mara for the thriller "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo."
Dujardin, the Golden Globe winner for best actor in a musical or comedy, will be up against Globe dramatic actor recipient George Clooney for "The Descendants," in which the Oscar-winning superstar plays a down-to-earth role as a dad in crisis.
While Dujardin and Clooney were almost assured of nominations, there were big surprises across-the-board, with longshots making the cut and favorites getting skunked.
Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock's "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close," which got mixed reviews and has not been much of a factor at earlier Hollywood awards, was a very unexpected best-picture nominee. Co-star Max von Sydow was a surprise nominee for supporting actor.
Malick's "The Tree of Life" also had been considered a bit of a best-picture longshot. The movie, which won top honors at last May's Cannes Film Festival but was a love-it-or-hate-it drama among audiences, also picked up a directing nomination for Malick.
Melissa McCarthy, a supporting-actress nominee for the wedding romp "Bridesmaids," is a rare funny lady competing at the Oscars, which seldom honor performances in mainstream comedies.
"I think it's a big coup for all of us," McCarthy said. "If you get the right thing and the right people, you can still make a really good movie that's still a comedy."
Demian Bichir also was a surprise nominee as best actor for "A Better Life," an immigrant drama that few people have seen. Bichir said he had been ill the night before and learned he was nominated when his girlfriend called with the news.
"I thought it was part of my hallucinations from the fever," Bichir said. "A nomination helps. I feel a lot better already."
Along with Bichir, Clooney and Dujardin, the best-actor contenders are Gary Oldman for the espionage tale "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" and Brad Pitt for the baseball story in "Moneyball."
Pitt's third Oscar nomination came for a film that he fought to make after it went on the back-burner amid screenplay and director changes.
"This one is more satisfying than ever," said Pitt, who also shared a best-picture nomination as a producer on "Moneyball." "This movie was dead in the water two and a half years ago."
Among those with strong prospects that came away empty-handed were Leonardo DiCaprio for "J. Edgar," from perennial Oscar heavyweight Clint Eastwood, whose latest film did not score a single nomination.
While Spielberg's best-picture contender "War Horse" picked up six nominations, the Oscar-winning filmmaker missed out in the directing category, a prize he has won twice. His first cartoon feature, the Golden Globe-winning "The Adventures of Tintin," also did not make the list for best animated film.
The animated films that did make it: "A Cat in Paris," "Chico & Rita," Kung Fu Panda 2," "Puss in Boots" and "Rango."
Besides von Sydow, supporting-actor nominees are Kenneth Branagh for "My Week with Marilyn," Jonah Hill for "Moneyball," Nick Nolte for the extreme-fighting drama "Warrior" and Christopher Plummer for the father-son story "Beginners."
Plummer won at the Globes for his role as an elderly dad who comes out as gay. At 82, Plummer would be the oldest acting winner ever at the Oscars; Jessica Tandy now holds that position for her best-actress win in "Driving Miss Daisy" at age 80.
Joining Bejo and McCarthy in the supporting-actress field is Octavia Spencer, whose Globe win as a fiery maid in "The Help" positions her as a possible front-runner.
Spencer's "The Help" co-star Jessica Chastain also is nominated, along with Janet McTeer for "Albert Nobbs."
Winners at the 84th annual Oscars will be announced at a Feb. 26 ceremony aired live on ABC from Hollywood's Kodak Theatre, with Billy Crystal returning as host for the first time in eight years.
___
Germain reported from Park City, Utah. Associated Press Writers Derrik J. Lang and Anthony McCartney in Los Angeles and Jamey Keaten in Paris contributed to this report.
___
Online:
http://www.oscars.org
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Video: SOTU speech takes populist approach
President Barack Obama?s annual address will highlight a minimum tax for multi-millionaires. NBC?s Chuck Todd, ?Meet the Press? moderator David Gregory, and NBC?s Kelly O?Donnell report.
>>> now to the high-stakes speech the president has to give tonight. the annual state of the union address . this year, of course, an election year, our political director, chief white house correspondent chuck todd has more tonight from the white house . and chuck, this is supposed to be a pretty lofty occasion. but let me ask it this way. how does what has been happening on the republican campaign trail, almost one a day we' been seeing, how does that affect the tone, tenor and content of tonight?
>> what's interesting about this speech and everything we've learned about it is that there's a little bit of a tone. you're going to here a populist president obama deliver a populist state of the union . aides tell me it's not necessarily a campaign speech, but it's certainly a setting of the political agenda . here's one excerpt. i will oppose any effort to return to the very same policies that brought on this economic crisis in the first place. no, we will not go back to an economy weakened by outsourcing, bad debt and phony financial profits. tonight, i want to speak about how we move forward and lay out a blueprint for an economy that's built to last, an economy built on american manufacturing, american energy, skills for the american workers and a renewal of american values . perhaps, brian tonight the most interesting thing is the president is going to lay out the idea of the buffet rule -- a minimum tax for multi multimillionaires. it may actually double what mitt romney actually paid in taxes. that's going to be interesting fireworks.
>> all right, warren buffett , the famous businessman whose secretary is supposed to be in the gallery tonight as a guest of the first lady. chuck todd at the white house , thanks.
Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/46122911/
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Mykonos Helps Companies Battle Hackers, Raises $4 Million
Mykonos (the security software company, not the lovely Greek island) has secured $4 million in a Series A funding round led by previous backer Tom Golisano, founder and chairman of Paychex.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/i1sCVJ9Fsmc/
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Gingrich wins most delegates in South Carolina (AP)
WASHINGTON ? Newt Gingrich has won the most delegates in South Carolina's Republican presidential primary, narrowing Mitt Romney's lead in the race for delegates to the party's national convention this summer.
Gingrich, the former House speaker, has won at least 15 delegates, with 10 to be awarded. These are the first delegates Gingrich has won in a primary or caucus, though the race for delegates is still in the early stages. In all, Gingrich has 17 delegates, including endorsements from Republican National Committee members who will automatically attend the convention. Romney has 33 delegates.
It will take 1,144 delegates to win the GOP nomination.
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Dissecting Alcatraz's Mysteries: How Many '63s Are Working With Hauser? (omg!)
Alcatraz's second outing didn't offer up as many new mysteries as the series premiere, but the few that were dished out were enough to whet our appetites for more.
Instead, the episode featured Hauser (Sam Neill), Rebecca (Sarah Jones) and Diego (Jorge Garcia) on the hunt for notorious child killer Kit Nelson (Fringe's Michael Eklund), who happens to be one of the missing '63s, a group of prisoners who mysterious disappeared from Alcatraz island in 1963.
Parminder Nagra's reaction to Alcatraz premiere: "Already? You're killing me off?"
Kit's eventual capture did bring up a few new questions, though. Let's take a look at the new mysteries Alcatraz introduced this week:
Why were the Warden (Jonny Coyne) and Deputy Warden (Jason Butler Harner) so intent on tormenting the prisoners?
The men holding the keys to Alcatraz seem to take sick pleasure in messing with the prisoners heads, whether it be the warden trying to get Kit Nelson to confess to killing his brother or putting Ernest Cobb (Joe Egender) in a private cell with a Chatty Cathy, or the deputy locking Jack Sylvane (Jeffrey Pierce) up in solitary on visitors' day. Do their motives run deeper than simply putting the hardened criminals in their place?
Did the Warden know something big was coming?
He seemingly knows about the doctors taking blood from the prisoners, but did he realize there was a bigger overall plan? Also, is the Warden now a '63 himself? We learned in the premiere that he had died years ago, but the rest of the prison population's death certificates had eventually been faked, so maybe the same can be said for the Warden's?
Dissecting Alcatraz's Mysteries: Who are the '63s?
How many '63s are working with Hauser?
Lucy, who had formerly been a psychiatrist on the island, eventually teamed with Hauser, but she wasn't the only one. Hauser brought the dead body of Kit Nelson to Dr. Beauregard at the duplicate Alcatraz prison for him to work on. Based on the premiere, in which Hauser threatened Jack Sylvane with a visit from the doc, Beauregard is someone the prisoners fear.
Why did Hauser kill Kit Nelson when he's taken precautions to bring the other '63s back alive?
Was the fact that Kit was a dangerous child killer the reason why he couldn't be kept alive? Or does Hauser believe his body could hold some answers to where the '63s have been?
What happened to Hauser to make him so heartless?
Sure, Hauser showed that he does, in fact, have feelings after Lucy was shot, but he was willing to let a child die just so they could capture Kit. There must be a deeper reason as to why he's closed himself off from feeling anything or trusting anyone.
Who kidnapped Diego Soto when he was 11?
Though he was unable to tell Rebecca what happened, Diego revealed to Kit's kidnapping victim that he, too, had been taken when he was a child, but was able to get away. Is this the reason Diego became so invested in prisoners? Did the police ever catch his captor? Who has money on the kidnapper being a '63 who came back earlier? Just us?
Alcatraz's J.J. Abrams: New Fox drama is on an island, but it's not Lost
Why are the prisoners' motives so obvious?
Angry that his mother abandoned him, but later raised a daughter, sniper Ernest Cobb targeted girls who were around 15 years old, his sister's age, and went on a shooting spree over three days. Kit Nelson kidnapped 11-year-old boys for three days before killing them because that's the age he had murdered his younger brother. Are these just overly obvious motives or should we start keeping track of these numbers??
What burning questions do you have about Alcatraz? And will you be tuning in to find out the answers?
Alcatraz airs Mondays at 9/8c on Fox.
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