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Thursday, February 28, 2013
Drought Fells a Texas Town?s Biggest Employer
[unable to retrieve full-text content]The closing of the Cargill beef processing plant has meant the loss of more than 2,000 jobs in Plainview, scattering families who had worked at the plant for generations.
RemindMeAgain Is a Simple Reminder App that Lives In Your Menubar
Mac: When you're working at your computer it's easy to forget about that easy recurring task you need to do, but don't have time right now. RemindMeAgain is a simple little app that rests in the menubar and allows you to set quick reminders for just about everything.
RemindMeAgain is simple, but it does what it does well. Simply enter in a reminder, the duration you want to be reminded, and that's it. It's handy to make good habits, like standing up once an hour, grabbing a drink of water, or following the 20-20-20 rule. RemindMeAgain works with Notification Center, so you can make it as unobtrusive or annoying as you like.
RemindMeAgain (free) | iTunes App Store via Addictive Tips
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JC Penney posts 4th straight big loss, sales drop
FILE - In this Friday, Nov. 23, 2012, file photo, a shopper drags her purchases past a line of customers waiting to pay at a J.C. Penney store, in Las Vegas. The mid-priced department store chain on Wednesday, Feb. 26. 2013. reported another much larger-than-expected loss in the fiscal fourth quarter and a nearly 30 percent plunge in revenue in the latest sign that shoppers aren't happy with the changes it's made in the past year. The results mark a full year of massive quarterly losses and revenue declines since J.C. Penney Co. began a turnaround strategy that included ditching most of its coupons and sales events in favor of everyday low prices, bringing in new designer brands such as Betsy Johnson and remaking outdated stores to give them an outdoor mall kind of feel. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, File)
FILE - In this Friday, Nov. 23, 2012, file photo, a shopper drags her purchases past a line of customers waiting to pay at a J.C. Penney store, in Las Vegas. The mid-priced department store chain on Wednesday, Feb. 26. 2013. reported another much larger-than-expected loss in the fiscal fourth quarter and a nearly 30 percent plunge in revenue in the latest sign that shoppers aren't happy with the changes it's made in the past year. The results mark a full year of massive quarterly losses and revenue declines since J.C. Penney Co. began a turnaround strategy that included ditching most of its coupons and sales events in favor of everyday low prices, bringing in new designer brands such as Betsy Johnson and remaking outdated stores to give them an outdoor mall kind of feel. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, File)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Boy, it just wasn't J.C. Penney's year.
The mid-priced department store chain reported another much larger-than-expected loss in the fiscal fourth quarter on a nearly 30 percent plunge in revenue in the latest sign that shoppers aren't happy with the changes it's made in the past year.
The results mark a full year of massive quarterly losses and revenue declines that miss Wall Street estimates since J.C. Penney Co. began a turnaround strategy that included ditching coupons and most of its sales events in favor of everyday low prices, bringing in hipper designer brands such as Betsy Johnson and remaking outdated stores.
The quarterly performance puts additional pressure on CEO Ron Johnson, the former Apple Inc. executive who was brought in a little more than a year ago to turn around the stodgy retailer that was losing money into a hip and profitable company that can compete with the likes of Macy's or H&M. In the past year since Johnson rolled out his plan, though, even once loyal customers have strayed away from the 1,100-store chain.
While acknowledging that Penney made some mistakes during a conference call with investors, Johnson said on Wednesday that Penney will start offering sales in stores every week ? about 100 of the 600 or so the chain offered each year prior to the turnaround plan. That's a step up in pace from the company's plan announced last month that it would start offering sales only during holidays and other key shopping periods throughout the year.
"Experience is making mistakes and learning from them, and I have learned a lot," Johnson said. "We worked really hard and tried many things to help the customer understand that she could shop any time on her terms. But we learned she prefers a sale. At times, she loves a coupon."
Teresa Cansell is one of those customers. She used to make the 45-mile trek from her farm near Leon, Kan., to a Penney store in Wichita about once a month. But since Penney started making changes last year, she's only been twice. And on her latest trip in December, she walked out empty handed because she couldn't find a leather jacket she wanted.
"I loved the old J.C. Penney. I liked the coupons," Cansell, 53, said. "I used to go to Penney every time I got them in the mail. I would buy a ton of stuff."
Penney's results show that other shoppers feel the same way. During the fourth quarter that ended Feb. 2, Penney's revenue at stores opened at least a year ? a figure the retail industry uses to measure of a store's health ? dropped 31.7 percent.
That's on top of hefty drops in the previous three quarters of 26.1 percent in the third, 21.7 percent in the second and 19 percent in the first. And it's steeper than the decline of 26.1 percent Wall Street had expected.
Penney, based in Plano, Texas, also widened its loss to $552 million, or $2.51 per share, up from a loss of $87 million, or 41 cents per share a year ago. Excluding charges related to restructuring and management changes, Penney's adjusted loss for the quarter was $427 million, or $1.95 per share.
Total revenue dropped 28.4 percent to $3.88 billion. Analysts had expected a loss of 23 cents on revenue of $4.08 billion, according to research firm FactSet.
Penney's results for the full year reveal just how much the company is struggling to shore up its business. For the fiscal year, Penney lost $985 million, or $4.49 per share, compared with a loss of $152 million, or 70 cents per share, in the year ended January 28, 2012. And the company's revenue fell nearly a quarter, or 24.8 percent, to $12.98 billion from the previous year's $17.26 billion.
"It's the worst performance I have ever seen by a company in one year," said Walter Loeb, an independent retail consultant.
Wall Street hasn't been any happier than Main Street with Penney's changes. On the news of its quarterly results, which were reported after markets closed, Penney shares fell about 9 percent to about $19 in after-hour trading. In total, investors, who initially sent Penney shares soaring 24 percent to about $43 after the company announced the everyday pricing plan in late January of last year, have pushed them down by about half since early last year.
It's a disappointing turn of events for Johnson, the mastermind of Apple's successful retail stores who took the top job at Penney in November 2011. A couple of months later, on Feb. 1 of last year, Johnson launched a new pricing that was designed to wean customers off the markdowns they'd become accustomed to, but that ultimately eat into profits.
He got rid of the nearly 600 sales Penney offered each year for a three-tiered strategy that lowered prices in the store by 40 percent, offered monthlong discounts on some items and periodic clearance events. He also got rid of the word "sales" from the company's marketing.
But customers weren't responding to the changes, so Johnson tweaked his strategy a few times, including bringing back the word "sale" in its marketing last spring. The latest change came this month when Penney began adding back more sales events and putting price tags on half of its merchandise to show customers how much they're saving by shopping at Penney.
In addition to those changes, Johnson has said that Penney is starting to see some positive results from its makeover of stores with sectioned-off shops that feature different brands. The company said the reception has been warm to the 10 mini-shops that it rolled out last fall, including those for Levi's brand and Penney's new JCP line of casual clothes.
Shops for Joe Fresh, which has brightly colored clothes, and a new home area featuring names like Jonathan Adler and Michael Graves will be launching this spring. Other brands will be unveiled in coming years.
But Johnson, who had previously said that the stores would be carved up into 100 mini-shops by the end of 2015, on Wednesday backtracked a bit. "The customer will dictate the timing," he said.
That's not the only thing Johnson said would be left up to the customer. When asked by an analyst whether he still vows to return to sales growth this year, a promise he has made repeatedly and reiterated last November, Johnson appeared to leave the door open. "Ultimately, our return to growth will be dictated by our customer," he said.
Still, the worry on Wall Street is that Johnson won't be able to turn around business fast enough to finance the transformation of its stores. In November, Penney said that it would end the latest fiscal year with $1 billion in cash. Penney winded up ending the year with $930 million in cash, which was better than analysts had feared but below the company's target.
Penney said Wednesday that it had short-term access to $3 billion in short-term capital to finance its multi-year transformation. And customers like Ricky Rodriguez, from Fort Worth, Texas, offer hope that Penney's turnaround plan will work.
"I feel like the guy section is getting more hip," said the 27-year-old who recently bought a dress shirt for $25 at Penney. "I've been going there every other week."
_______
Follow Anne D'Innocenzio at www.twitter.com/adinnocenzio
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After meatballs, Ikea withdraws sausages
STOCKHOLM (AP) -- After withdrawing meatballs from stores across Europe, home furnishings giant Ikea on Wednesday said it would also pull wiener sausages made by the same supplier after its own tests confirmed "a few indications of horse meat."
Ikea said it would withdraw the sausages from stores in France, Britain, Spain, Ireland and Portugal. Other stores were getting sausages from other suppliers, company spokeswoman Ylva Magnusson said.
The move comes two days after Czech food inspectors found traces of horse meat in Ikea's Swedish-made meatballs, prompting the company to pull them from store shelves in 21 European countries and in Hong Kong, Thailand and the Dominican Republic.
Stores in other countries, including the U.S. and Canada, were not affected because they received meatballs from a different supplier.
Ikea said results from its own tests confirmed some meatballs didn't just contain beef and pork, despite what their labeling said.
"Based on some hundred test results that we have received so far, there are a few indications of horse meat," Magnusson said. "Together with the Swedish supplier in question we have decided to withdraw from sales also the wiener sausages ... from that supplier."
She didn't know whether the wieners, which are supposed to be made of ground pork and beef, had also tested positive for horse meat, "but I know that at least some of the meatballs have shown traces of DNA from horse."
Horse meat has recently been found mixed into beef dishes sold across Europe, including in frozen supermarket meals. It has also been found in meals served at restaurants, schools and hospitals. Authorities say the scandal is a case of fraudulent labeling but does not pose a health risk.
Portuguese authorities said late Tuesday they had seized 79 metric tons (87 U.S. tons) of beef products containing traces of horse meat in recent days and opened criminal proceedings against five local companies. Portugal's Food Safety Agency said it made the seizures at companies that process, package and distribute meat to large retail outlets.
The agency said in a statement on its website that it also took almost 19,000 pre-packed products from Portuguese stores after detecting horse meat in them. They included lasagnas, hamburgers and meatballs.
__
Associated Press writer Barry Hatton in Lisbon contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/meatballs-ikea-withdraws-sausages-125427963.html
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Hot air balloon crash in Egypt kills 18 tourists
LUXOR, Egypt (AP) ? A hot air balloon flying over Egypt's ancient city of Luxor caught fire and crashed into a sugar cane field on Tuesday, killing at least 18 foreign tourists in one of the world's deadliest ballooning accidents and a new blow to Egypt's ailing tourism industry.
The casualties included French, British, Belgian, Hungarian, Japanese nationals and nine tourists from Hong Kong, Luxor Governor Ezzat Saad told reporters. Three survivors ? two British tourists and an Egyptian ? were taken to a local hospital.
Egypt's civil aviation minister, Wael el-Maadawi, suspended hot air balloon flights and flew to Luxor to lead the investigation into the crash.
The balloon, which was carrying 20 tourists and a pilot, was landing after a flight over the southern town, when a landing cable got caught around a helium tube and a fire erupted, according to an investigator with the state prosecutor's office.
The balloon then shot up in the air, the investigator said. The fire set off an explosion of a gas canister and the balloon plunged some 300 meters (1,000 feet) to the ground, according to an Egyptian security official. It crashed in a sugar cane field outside al-Dhabaa village just west of Luxor, 510 kilometers (320 miles) south of Cairo, the official said.
The official and the investigator spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Bodies of the dead tourists were scattered across the field around the remnants of the balloon. An Associated Press reporter at the crash site counted eight bodies as they were put into body bags and taken away. The security official said all 18 bodies have been recovered.
Hot air ballooning is a popular pastime for tourists in Luxor, usually at sunrise to give a dramatic view over the pharaonic temples of Karnak and Luxor and the Valley of the Kings, a desert valley where many pharaoh, notably King Tutenkhamun, were buried.
Luxor has seen crashes in the past. In 2009, 16 tourists were injured when their balloon struck a cellphone transmission tower. A year earlier, seven tourists were injured in a similar crash.
The toll puts the crash among the deadliest involving a recreation hot air balloon. In 1989, 13 people were killed when their hot air balloon collided with another over the Australian outback near the town of Alice Springs.
Among the dead Tuesday was a Japanese couple in their 60s, among four Japanese who were killed, according to the head of Japan Travel Bureau's Egypt branch, Atsushi Imaeda.
In Hong Kong, a travel agency said nine of the tourists that were aboard the balloon were natives of the semiautonomous Chinese city. There was a "very big chance that all nine have perished," said Raymond Ng, a spokesman for the agency. The nine, he said, included five women and four men from three families.
They were traveling with six other Hong Kong residents on a 10-day tour of Egypt.
Ng said an escort of the nine tourists watched the balloon from the ground catching fire around 7 a.m. and plunging to the ground two minutes later.
In Britain, tour operator Thomas Cook confirmed that two British tourists were killed in the crash, and two were in hospital.
"What happened in Luxor this morning is a terrible tragedy and the thoughts of everyone in Thomas Cook are with our guests, their family and friends," said Peter Fankhauser, CEO of Thomas Cook UK & Continental Europe. He said the firm is providing "full support" to the victims' families.
In Paris, a diplomatic official said French tourists were among those involved in the accident, but would give no details on how many, or whether French citizens were among those killed. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to be publicly named according to government policy. French media reports said two French tourists were among the dead but the official wouldn't confirm that.
Egypt's tourism industry has been decimated since the 2011 uprising and the political turmoil that followed and continues to this day. Luxor's hotels are currently about 25 percent full in what is supposed to be the peak of the winter season.
Scared off by the turmoil and tenuous security following the uprising, the number of tourists coming to Egypt fell to 9.8 million in 2011 from 14.7 million the year before, and revenues plunged 30 percent to $8.8 billion.
Magda Fawzi, whose company operates four luxury Nile River cruise boats to Luxor, said she expects the accident will lead to tourist cancellations. Tour guide Hadi Salama said he expects Tuesday's accident to hurt the eight hot air balloon companies operating in Luxor, but that it may not directly affect tourism to the Nile Valley city.
Poverty swelled at the country's fastest rate in Luxor, which is highly dependent on visitors to its monumental temples and the tombs of King Tutankhamun and other pharaohs. In 2011, 39 percent of its population lived on less than $1 a day, compared to 18 percent in 2009, according to government figures.
In August, Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi flew to Luxor to encourage tourism there, about a month after he took office and vowed that Egypt was safe for tourists.
"Egypt is safer than before, and is open for all," he said in remarks carried by the official MENA news agency at the time. He was referring to the security situation following the 2011 ouster of autocratic leader Hosni Mubarak.
Deadly accidents caused by poor management and a decrepit infrastructure have taken place since Morsi took office. In January, 19 Egyptian conscripts died when their rickety train jumped the track. In November, 49 kindergarteners were killed when their school bus crashed into a speeding train because the railway guard failed to close the crossing.
The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's most powerful political force and Morsi's base of support, blames accidents on a culture of negligence fostered by Mubarak.
___
Associated Press writers Kelvin Chan in Hong Kong, Jill Lawless in London and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hot-air-balloon-crash-egypt-kills-18-tourists-132856605.html
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Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Linking insulin to learning: Insulin-like molecules play critical role in learning and memory
Feb. 26, 2013 ? Though it's most often associated with disorders like diabetes, Harvard researchers have shown how the signaling pathway of insulin and insulin-like peptides plays another critical role in the body -- helping to regulate learning and memory.
In addition to showing that the insulin-like peptides play a critical role in regulating the activity of neurons involved in learning and memory, a team of researchers led by Yun Zhang, Associate Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, show that the interaction between the molecules can fine-tune how, or even if, learning takes place. Their work is described in a February 6 paper in Neuron.
"People think of insulin and diabetes, but many metabolic syndromes are associated with some types of cognitive defects and behavioral disorders, like depression or dementia," Zhang said. "That suggests that insulin and insulin-like peptides may play an important role in neural function, but it's been very difficult to nail down the underlying mechanism, because these peptides do not have to function through synapses that connect different neurons in the brain"
To get at that mechanism, Zhang and colleagues turned to an organism whose genome and nervous system are well described and highly accessible by genetics -- C. elegans.
Using genetic tools, researchers altered the small, transparent worms by removing their ability to create individual insulin-like compounds. These new "mutant" worms were then tested to see whether they would learn to avoid eating a particular type of bacteria that is known to infect the worms. Tests showed that while some worms did learn to steer clear of the bacteria, others didn't -- suggesting that removing a specific insulin-like compound halted the worms' ability to learn.
Researchers were surprised to find, however, that it wasn't just removing the molecules that could make the animals lose the ability to learn -- some peptide was found to inhibit learning.
"We hadn't predicted that we would find both positive and negative regulators from these peptides," Zhang said. "Why does the animal need this bidirectional regulation of learning? One possibility is that learning depends on context. There are certain things you want to learn -- for example, the worms in these experiments wanted to learn that they shouldn't eat this type of infectious bacteria. That's a positive regulation of the learning. But if they needed to eat, even if it is a bad food, to survive, they would need a way to suppress this type of learning."
Even more surprising for Zhang and her colleagues was evidence that the various insulin-like molecules could regulate each other.
"Many animals, including the humans, have multiple insulin-like molecules and it appears that these molecules can act like a network," she said. "Each of them may play a slightly different role in the nervous system, and they function together to coordinate the signaling related to learning and memory. By changing the way the molecules interact, the brain can fine tune learning in a host of different ways."
Going forward, Zhang said she hopes to characterize more of the insulin-like peptides as a way of better understanding how the various molecules interact, and how they act on the neural circuits for learning and memory.
Understanding how such pathways work could one day help in the development of treatment for a host of cognitive disorders, including dementia.
"The signaling pathways for insulin and insulin-like peptides are highly conserved in mammals, including the humans," Zhang said. "There is even some preliminary evidence that insulin treatment, in some cases, can improve cognitive function. That's one reason we believe that if we understand this mechanism, it will help us better understand how insulin pathways are working in the human brain."
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Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Harvard University.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Zhunan Chen, Michael Hendricks, Astrid Cornils, Wolfgang Maier, Joy Alcedo, Yun Zhang. Two Insulin-like Peptides Antagonistically Regulate Aversive Olfactory Learning in C.?elegans. Neuron, 2013; 77 (3): 572 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2012.11.025
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/HFukdteMQE0/130226162837.htm
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Italy faces post-vote stalemate, spooking investors
ROME (Reuters) - The Italian stock market fell and state borrowing costs rose on Tuesday as investors took fright at political deadlock after a stunning election that saw a comedian's protest party lead the poll and no group secure a clear majority in parliament.
"The winner is: Ingovernability" ran the headline in Rome newspaper Il Messaggero, reflecting the stalemate the country would have to confront in the next few weeks as sworn enemies would be forced to work together to form a government.
In a sign of where that might lead, former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi indicated his center-right might be open to a grand coalition with the center-left bloc of Pier Luigi Bersani, which will have a majority in the lower house thanks to a premium of seats given to the largest bloc in the chamber.
Results in the upper house, the Senate, where seats are awarded on a region-by-region basis, indicated the center-left would end up with about 119 seats, compared with 117 for the center-right. But 158 are needed for a majority to govern.
Any coalition administration that may be formed must have a working majority in both houses in order to pass legislation.
Comedian Beppe Grillo's anti-establishment 5-Star Movement won the most votes of any single party, taking 25 percent. He shows no immediate inclination to cooperate with other groups.
Despite talk of a new election, the main established parties seem likely to try to avoid that, fearing even more humiliation.
World financial markets reacted nervously to the prospect of a stalemate in the euro zone's third largest economy with memories still fresh of the crisis that took the 17-member currency bloc to the brink of collapse in 2011.
In a clear sign of worry at the top over what effect the elections could have on the economy, Prime Minister Mario Monti, whose austerity policies were repudiated by voters, called a meeting with the governor of the central bank, the economy minister and the European affairs minister for later on Tuesday.
Other governments in the euro zone sounded uneasy. Allies of German Chancellor Angela Merkel made no secret of disappointment at Monti's debacle and urged Rome to continue with economic reforms Berlin sees as vital to stabilizing the common currency.
France's Socialist finance minister also expressed "worry" at the prospect of legislative deadlock in Italy but said that Italians had rejected austerity and hoped Bersani's center-left could form a stable government to help foster growth in Europe.
INSTABILITY
Fabio Fois, an economist at Barclays bank, said: "Political instability is likely to prevail in the near term and slow the implementation of much needed structural reforms unless a grand coalition among center-left, center-right and center is formed."
Berlusconi, a media magnate whose campaigning all but wiped out Bersani's once commanding opinion poll lead, hinted in a telephone call to a morning television show that he would be open to a deal with the center-left - but not with Monti, the technocrat summoned to replace him in a crisis 15 months ago.
"Italy must be governed," Berlusconi said, adding that he "must reflect" on a possible deal with the center-left. "Everyone must be prepared to make sacrifices," he said of the groups which now have a share of the legislature.
The Milan bourse was down more than four percent and the premium Italy pays over Germany to borrow on 10-year widened to a yield spread of 338.7 basis points, the highest since December 10.
At an auction of six-month Treasury bills, the government's borrowing costs shot up by more than two thirds. Investors demanded a yield of 1.237 percent, the highest since October and compared to just 0.730 percent in a similar sale a month ago.
Berlusconi, who was forced from office in November 2011 as borrowing costs approached levels investors feared would become unsustainable, said he was "not worried" about market reaction to the election and played down the significance of the spread.
The poor showing by Monti's centrist bloc reflected a weariness with austerity that was exploited by both Berlusconi and Grillo; only with the help of center-left allies did Bersani beat 5-Star, by just 125,000 votes, to control the lower house.
The worries immediately went beyond Italy's borders.
"What is crucial now is that a stable functioning government can be built as swiftly as possible," said German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle. "This is not only in the interests of Italy but in the interests of all Europe."
The euro skidded to an almost seven-week low against the dollar in Asia on fears about the euro zone's debt crisis. It fell as far as $1.3042, its lowest since January 10.
"NON-PARTY" SURGES TO THE TOP
Commentators said all Grillo's adversaries underestimated the appeal of a grassroots movement that called itself a "non-party", particularly its allure among young Italians who find themselves without jobs and the prospect of a decent future.
The 5-star Movement's score of 25.5 percent in the lower house was just ahead of the 25.4 percent for Bersani's Democratic Party, which ran in a coalition with the leftist SEL party, and it won almost 8.7 million votes overall - more than any other single party.
"The 'non-party' has become the largest party in the country," said Massimo Giannini, commentator for Rome newspaper La Repubblica, of Grillo, who mixes fierce attacks on corruption with policies ranging from clean energy to free Internet.
Grillo's surge in the final weeks of the campaign threw the race open, with hundreds of thousands turning up at his rallies to hear him lay into targets ranging from corrupt politicians and bankers to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
In just three years, his 5-Star Movement, heavily backed by a frustrated generation of young Italians increasingly shut out from permanent full-time jobs, has grown from a marginal group to one of the most talked about political forces in Europe.
RECESSION
"It's a classic result. Typically Italian," said Roberta Federica, a 36-year-old office worker in Rome. "It means the country is not united. It is an expression of a country that does not work. I knew this would happen."
Italy's borrowing costs have come down in recent months, helped by the promise of European Central Bank support but the election result confirmed fears of many European countries that it would not produce a government strong enough to implement effective reforms.
A long recession and growing disillusionment with mainstream parties fed a bitter public mood that saw more than half of Italian voters back parties that rejected the austerity policies pursued by Monti with the backing of Italy's European partners.
Monti suffered a major setback. His centrist grouping won only 10.6 percent and two of his key centrist allies, Pier Ferdinando Casini and lower house speaker Gianfranco Fini, both of parliamentarians for decades, were booted out.
"It's not that surprising if you consider how much people were let down by politics in its traditional forms," Monti said.
Berlusconi's campaign, mixing sweeping tax cut pledges with relentless attacks on Monti and Merkel, echoed many of the themes pushed by Grillo and underlined the increasingly angry mood of the Italian electorate.
Even if the next government turns away from the tax hikes and spending cuts brought in by Monti, it will struggle to revive an economy that has scarcely grown in two decades.
Monti was widely credited with tightening Italy's public finances and restoring its international credibility after the scandal-plagued Berlusconi, who is currently on trial for having sex with an under-age prostitute.
But Monti struggled to pass the kind of structural reforms needed to improve competitiveness and lay the foundations for a return to economic growth, and a weak center-left government may not find it any easier.
(Additional reporting by Barry Moody, Gavin Jones, Catherine Hornby, Lisa Jucca, Steven Jewkes, Steve Scherer and Naomi O'Leary; Writing by Philip Pullella; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/huge-protest-vote-leaves-italy-facing-deadlock-005214049.html
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Happy 1st Birthday Samuel Affleck!
Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck's growing little boy turns a year cuter on Feb. 27.
Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/GKf9f4Y8eRQ/
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Google+ Sign-In for sites and apps promises no 'social spam'
"Try the red pill," an image posted by Google+ director Matt Waddell urges. "Simple and secure, minus the social spam." Google's geeky reference to "The Matrix" is a thinly disguised attack on Facebook's universal log-in feature. The search engine giant launched its own competing sign-in feature for third-party websites and apps Tuesday, and though it is powered by Google+, the promise is that it won't litter your feeds with pointless oversharing.
Google+ Sign-In takes on Facebook Connect, a universal login system familiar to most. You know the drill. You go to a new site or open a new app and you're prompted to go through the tedious process of creating an account. But then there's that little blue button, suggesting that you login via Facebook. So convenient.
Now there'll be a little red button, too. (Hence the "red pill" reference from "The Matrix.") And Google's really pushing the argument that it's the better choice.
"It?s secure, and it prohibits social spam," emphasizes Seth Sternberg, Google's director of product management for Google+, in a post on the official Google+ developers blog. "And we?re just getting started."
When you use Google+ Sign-In, you'll enter your Google credentials and view a summary of what's about to happen. Will the owner of the website or the developer behind an app see your name, basic info, and the people you're connected to on Google+? Will he or she see your email address? Will the people you're connected to on Google+ see that you're using that app or website? A prominent "only you" option keeps information limited to ... only you. (Meaning that your pals won't be seeing anything you don't want them to.) The whole setup's quite similar to that of Facebook Connect, so it's doubtful that anyone who has used the latter will be too confused.
There's a key difference though: "Google+ doesn?t let apps spray 'frictionless' updates all over the stream," Sternberg writes, "so app activity will only appear when it?s relevant (like when you?re actually looking for it)."
If you do choose to actively share something from a site or an app, you'll create an "interactive" post on Google+. Whoever is able to see the post will be able to click on it to visit an app or site to buy, listen to, read, or review whatever you shared.
Essentially, Google+ Sign-In is like a polished version of Facebook Connect. It lets you play things closer to the vest and offers solid sharing options when you're in the mood to announce something to the world.
The Guardian, Fitbit, Flixxter, USA Today, Shazam, and OpenTable are among some of the first sites and apps to start using Google+ Sign-In, so you can check out how it works in action. (If you're not seeing the little red button, be patient. The rollout of it is gradual.)
Obviously, one of the questions for Google is whether or not this new tool will drive sign-up and participation in Google+ ? something that's not exactly guaranteed. Odds are on the young social network's side though, as existing Google users are likely to "upgrade" to Google+ in order to take advantage of the universal sign-in.
Want more tech news or interesting links? You'll get plenty of both if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.
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One corner of Manhattan still a ghost town months after Sandy
NEW YORK (AP) -- The historic cobblestone streets and 19th-century mercantile buildings near the water's edge in lower Manhattan are eerily deserted, a neighborhood silenced by Superstorm Sandy.
Just blocks from the tall-masted ships that rise above South Street Seaport, the windows of narrow brick apartment buildings are still crisscrossed with masking tape left by their owners before the storm. Store interiors are stripped down to plywood and wiring. Restaurants are chained shut, frozen in time, saddled with electrical systems that were ruined by several feet of salt water that raced up from the East River and through their front doors.
"People have no clue that this corner of Manhattan has been hit so badly," said Adam Weprin, manager of the Bridge Cafe, one of the city's oldest bars that sits on a quiet street near the seaport. "Right now, it's a ghost town and a construction site."
Nearly four months after the storm, roughly 85 percent of small businesses near the South Street Seaport are still boarded up. It could be months before some reopen, while others may never return. On Fulton Street, the wide tourist-friendly pedestrian walkway that comprises the seaport's main shopping district, not a single one of the major chain stores ? which include Coach, Ann Taylor and Brookstone ? has reopened.
Among local business owners, there is a pervasive sense that their plight has been ignored by the rest of the city. A state senator who represents the area estimates at least 1,000 jobs were lost in lower Manhattan ? 450 of them in the seaport neighborhood alone.
From its red wood-frame building in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge, the Bridge Cafe has dealt with its share of changes over the last two centuries, including stints as a Civil War-era brothel and a bootlegging speakeasy during Prohibition. It has endured economic slumps, nor'easters and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But after the basement was flooded to the rafters and water destroyed the building's wood foundation, Weprin faced the prospect of shutting its doors for good.
"The neighborhood's been beaten," Weprin said. "You walk around here and it's like Chernobyl. At night, it's vacated."
The small businesses of the seaport were far less resilient than the neighboring skyscrapers that house many of lower Manhattan's large financial companies.
Some corporations were displaced for weeks after the storm, forced to relocate to temporary office space farther uptown while flood-damaged skyscrapers fixed their infrastructure and moved electrical systems to higher floors. Con Edison said 10 major buildings remained without power as of Feb. 13, most operating on emergency generators.
At 110 Wall St., a 27-story office tower that occupies a full block near the New York Stock Exchange, all leases were terminated because the building was so badly damaged by flooding. It remains empty while its management company comes up with a long-term plan for weathering future storms.
"How do we protect the lobby?" said William Rudin, the company's CEO. "How do we protect the retail spaces?"
Spotty phone and Internet service also hampered business activity after underground copper cables operated by Verizon, the area's largest network provider, were wrecked by flooding. By mid-February, Verizon said 10 percent of its customers still had little or no service.
It's unclear how many residents of lower Manhattan fled the neighborhood after Sandy. But 2 Gold St., a flood-damaged luxury residential skyscraper with nearly 1,000 residents, did not allow tenants to start moving back in until last week.
"These offices, these high-rise apartments, they need to be reoccupied," said Lee Holin, who owns Meade's Restaurant, which sits on the edge of the seaport a few blocks from Sandy-damaged skyscrapers on Water Street. "All of our customers who live there have not been here in a long time."
Meade's was only able to reopen thanks to a $25,000 grant that Holin received from the Downtown Alliance, a neighborhood association that has doled out 100 grants to small businesses totaling about $1.5 million.
The grant program was so popular that it was suspended two weeks after its debut in mid-November.
"We don't have a lot of traffic," said Nicole Osborne, who was tending the bar at Meade's on a weekday afternoon. "It's like we've been forgotten."
In the darkened window of Stella Manhattan Bistro, an Italian restaurant on Front Street, hung an American flag reminiscent of those displayed all over the city after Sept. 11. Alongside it, someone had posted a sign that said: "Thank you for all your support. Stay strong."
Most of the Front Street buildings had a geothermal heating and cooling system that was destroyed in the flood, said Jordan Barowitz, a spokesman for the developer, The Durst Organization, Inc. The repairs, which include moving the mechanical systems to the roof, are expected to drag on for months.
"We hope that they will come back," Barowitz said of the shuttered businesses. "It's very challenging."
The future of the South Street Seaport is equally uncertain. Howard Hughes Corp, which controls the former 19th-century counting houses that are home to the retail chains, said it does not yet know which ? if any ? of the major retailers will come back. The hope is to have Fulton Street in working order again before Memorial Day, when the summer season kicks off and the seaport will desperately need an influx of visitors.
But in a case of unfortunate timing, Pier 17, the shopping mall housed inside a rustic wooden building on the pier, is slated to close for a long-planned renovation in June that will transform it into a modern glass-walled structure with a rooftop plaza. The impending renovation has only added to the misery of shop owners who lost so much revenue since the storm and haven't recouped their losses.
Milad Doos, an immigrant from Egypt, is planning to close his jewelry and collectibles store for good.
"Like you see, there's nobody," said Doos, who earned just $5 on a recent afternoon. "After the storm, this whole place has become dead place."
At the Bridge Cafe, most of the wood foundation will be gutted, sparing only two pillars and a wall behind the bar that are part of the original building. Repairs will cost around $400,000.
Weprin, who has no flood insurance, launched a fundraising page online to appeal for financial help from the restaurant's many loyal patrons. To his astonishment, many of them didn't even realize the place was closed.
That's because nobody has frequented the neighborhood for weeks.
"During the day, you have tourists who are coming to look at the carnage," Weprin said. "That's about it. Before Sandy, it was a neighborhood."
___
Associated Press Writer Tom Hays contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nyc-seaport-ghost-town-months-074608566.html
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Tuesday, February 26, 2013
West Bank villagers view Oscars at night, outdoors
BILIN, West Bank (AP) ? This wasn't your typical Oscar viewing party.
In the West Bank village whose struggle to regain land taken by Israel was portrayed in an Oscar-nominated documentary, activists huddled around a campfire before dawn Monday to watch the ceremony.
For added symbolism, they pinned the screen to a tent just meters (yards) away from Israel's West Bank separation barrier, which cut off the village of Bilin from much of its land.
Some smoked water pipes, huddled in sleeping bags or warmed their hands over the fire as actors in gowns and tuxedos performed on a stage half-way around the world.
The documentary, "5 Broken Cameras," did not win, and some said they were disappointed. But protest organizer Abdullah Abu Rahma says the Oscar nomination gave Bilin's struggle a big push.
The village has been the scene of weekly protests against the barrier, which were documented in the film. Palestinians charge that the barrier, which cuts into the West Bank, is a land grab. Israel says it's needed to keep Palestinian attackers out.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/west-bank-villagers-view-oscars-night-outdoors-125508673.html
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Monday, February 25, 2013
Apple signals emerging-market rethink with India push
NEW DELHI/BANGALORE (Reuters) - As BlackBerry launches the first smartphone from its make-or-break BB10 line in India, one of its most loyal markets, the company faces new competition from a formidable rival that has long had a minimal presence in the country.
More than four years after it started selling iPhones in India, Apple Inc is now aggressively pushing the iconic device through installment payment plans that make it more affordable, a new distribution model and heavy marketing blitz.
"Now your dream phone" at 5,056 rupees ($93), read a recent full front-page ad for an iPhone 5 in the Times of India, referring to the initial payment on a phone priced at $840, or almost two months' wages for an entry-level software engineer.
The new-found interest in India suggests a subtle strategy shift for Apple, which has moved tentatively in emerging markets and has allowed rivals such as Samsung and Blackberry to dominate with more affordable smartphones. With the exception of China, all of its Apple stores are in advanced economies.
Apple expanded its India sales effort in the latter half of 2012 by adding two distributors. Previously it sold iPhones only through a few carriers and stores it calls premium resellers.
The result: iPhone shipments to India between October and December nearly tripled to 250,000 units from 90,000 in the previous quarter, according to an estimate by Jessica Kwee, a Singapore-based analyst at consultancy Canalys.
At The MobileStore, an Indian chain owned by the Essar conglomerate, which says it sells 15 percent of iPhones in the country, iPhone sales tripled between December and January, thanks to a monthly payment scheme launched last month.
"Most people in India can't afford a dollar-priced phone when the salaries in India are rupee salaries. But the desire is the same," said Himanshu Chakrawarti, its chief executive.
Apple, the distributors, retailers and banks share the advertising and interest cost of the marketing push, according to Chakrawarti. Carriers like Bharti Airtel Ltd, which also sell the iPhone 5, run separate ads.
India is the world's No. 2 cellphone market by users, but most Indians can't afford fancy handsets. Smartphones account for just a tenth of total phone sales. In India, 95 percent of cellphone users have prepaid accounts without a fixed contract. Unlike in the United States, carriers do not subsidize handsets.
Within the smartphone segment, Apple's Indian market share last quarter was just 5 percent, according to Canalys, meaning its overall penetration is tiny.
Still, industry research firm IDC expects the Indian smartphone market to grow more than five times from about 19 million units last year to 108 million in 2016, which presents a big opportunity.
Samsung Electronics dominates Indian smartphone sales with a 40 percent share, thanks to its wide portfolio of Android devices priced as low as $110. The market has also been flooded by cheaper Android phones from local brands such as Micromax and Lava.
Most smartphones sold in India are much cheaper than the iPhone, said Gartner analyst Anshul Gupta.
"Where the masses are - there, Apple still has a gap."
'I LOVE INDIA, BUT...'
Apple helped create the smartphone industry with the iPhone in 2007. But last year Apple lost its lead globally to Samsung whose smartphones, which run Google's free Android software, are especially attractive in Asia.
Many in Silicon Valley and Wall Street believe the surest way to penetrate lower-income Asian markets would be with a cheaper iPhone, as has been widely reported but never confirmed. The risk is that a cheap iPhone would cannibalize demand for the premium version and eat into Apple's peerless margins.
The new monthly payment plan in India goes a long way to expanding the potential market, said Chakrawarti.
"The Apple campaign is not meant for really the regular top-end customer, it is meant to upgrade the 10,000-12,000 handset guy to 45,000 rupees," he said.
Apple's main focus for expansion in Asia has been Greater China, including Taiwan and Hong Kong, where revenue grew 60 percent last quarter to $7.3 billion.
Asked last year why Apple had not been as successful in India, Chief Executive Tim Cook said its business in India was growing but the group remained more focused on other markets.
"I love India, but I believe that Apple has some higher potential in the intermediate term in some other countries," Cook said. "The multi-layer distribution there really adds to the cost of getting products to market," he said at the time.
Apple, which has partly addressed that by adding distributors, did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Ingram Micro Inc, one of its new distributors, also declined comment. Executives at Redington (India) Ltd, the other distributor, could not immediately be reached.
BlackBerry, which has seen its global market share shrivel to 3.4 percent from 20 percent over the past three years, is making what is seen as a last-ditch effort to save itself with the BB10 series.
The high-end BlackBerry Z10 to be launched in India on Monday is expected to be priced not far from the 45,500 rupees price tag for an iPhone 5 with 16 gigabytes of memory. Samsung's Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note 2, Nokia's Lumia 920 and two HTC Corp models are the main iPhone rivals.
Until last year, Blackberry was the No. 3 smartphone brand in India with market share of more than 10 percent, thanks to a push into the consumer segment with lower-priced phones. Last quarter its share fell to about 5 percent, putting it in fifth place, according to Canalys. Apple was sixth.
(This story is corrected in para 16 to make clear that Google owns Android software)
(Additional reporting by Aradhana Aravindan in MUMBAI and Poornima Gupta in SAN FRANCISCO; Editing by Tony Munroe and Mark Bendeich)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/apple-signals-emerging-market-rethink-india-push-011705541--sector.html
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Paper planes get producer tossed from Oscars
By The Hollywood Reporter
Apparently, rules are rules. After Disney's?"Paperman"?won the Academy Award for best animated short Sunday, producer?Kristina Reed?began throwing paper airplanes, about three or four -- with kisses on them, like the ones seen in the film -- from her seat in the mezzanine.
VIDEO: Disney's 'Paperman' Short Floats Online
The paper planes were nowhere near the stage, instead shooting straight down from the balcony. It went largely unnoticed by the crowd, but security didn't think the act was very sweet, kicking her out of the Dolby Theatre auditorium.
It would turn out to be temporary. After a short protest, security brought her back to her seat about five to 10 minutes later.?
The black-and-white "Paperman," which played on the big screen ahead of Oscar-nominated animated feature "Wreck-It Ralph"?(that film lost to?"Brave"), is a blend of hand-drawn and computer animation directed by?John Kahrs.
COMPLETE LIST: 2013 Oscar Winners
The film tells the story of a guy who notices a woman on the train platform and then in the office window across the street from his building. Stuck in a paper-pushing prison of an office, he does his best to catch her attention but is at the mercy of the wind's whim, as it takes his paper airplanes far from their intended destinations.
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Crawford, Shaw stretch Blackhawks' streak to 18
CHICAGO (AP) ? Corey Crawford made 28 saves, and Andrew Shaw scored the only goal as the Chicago Blackhawks stretched their NHL-record, season-opening point streak to 18 games with a 1-0 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday night.
Crawford earned his seventh NHL shutout and second this season in his first start since Feb. 12. He outdueled Columbus' Steve Mason, who stopped 26 shots.
Shaw provided all the offense in the second period for Blackhawks (15-0-3), who haven't lost in regulation time this season and have earned 33 of 36 possible points. Chicago has won nine straight against Columbus, dating to Feb. 18, 2011.
The Blackhawks set the league record with at least one point in the first 17 games of a season when they beat San Jose 2-1 on Friday ? topping the 2006-07 Anaheim Ducks, who started 12-0-4.
Crawford had been sidelined after he sustained an upper-body injury in a 3-2 shootout loss to Anaheim on Feb. 12. Ray Emery started and won four games in his absence.
Crawford returned to the lineup as Emery's backup on Friday.
The 18-game point streak is also a team record for the Blackhawks, who have only lost in shootouts this season.
The Blue Jackets (5-12-2), who have an NHL-low 12 points, went 0-for-5 on the power play. Mason kept the game close.
The Blackhawks dominated territorially and in puck possession through the first two periods, but only managed to get one shot past the Blue Jackets goalie.
Both teams had a handful of scoring chances in the first period. Mason made a point-blank pad save on Marian Hossa with 8:30 left, and Crawford stopped Derick Brassard from the slot two minutes later.
Mason denied Hossa on a breakaway 5:30 into the second after Hossa stole the puck from James Wisniewski at the Columbus blue line.
The Blue Jackets failed to convert several close-in attempts during a power-play late in the second, including when Vinny Prospal's shot hit the crossbar to cap a breakaway.
Shaw finally broke through with 1:27 left in the second from the low edge of the left circle. He took Bryan Bickell's backhanded feed from the back boards and ripped a high one-timed shot that beat Mason high on the stick side.
Mason made a point-blank pad save on Patrick Kane midway through the third period after Kane made a spectacular spin move and cut across the crease alone.
NOTES: The Ducks went on to win the Stanley Cup in 2007. . Blackhawks C Dave Bolland missed the game with an undisclosed upper-body injury. ... The Blue Jackets placed D Jack Johnson (upper-body), on the injured list on Sunday. C Brandon Dubinsky (lower body) and C Artem Anisimov (upper body) were also out.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/crawford-shaw-stretch-blackhawks-streak-18-024600466--spt.html
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Sunday, February 24, 2013
Alec Ogletree, Tyrann Mathieu Among Top 10 Prospects With Most to Prove at 2013 NFL Combine (Photos)
Every year there are plenty of debates over how important the NFL Scouting Combine is for teams in evaluating the stock of draft-eligible players.
Some will dismiss the whole event, call it the underwear Olympics and say that teams already have their draft boards set. Others will argue that the numbers they see every February in Indianapolis help confirm what they see on tape and draft with patterns according to those speed and agility drills.
Either way you see the event, you can?t argue that interviews and medicals are an important part of the draft process. The combine has also been known to make or break some players. Last year, Arizona State linebacker Vontaze Burfict came to Lucas Oil Stadium out of shape and interviewed poorly. He didn?t hear his name called during the seven rounds of the 2012 NFL Draft.
Georgia Tech wide receiver Stephen Hill, on the other hand, came to Indianapolis and wowed NFL teams with a 4.36 40-yard dash. Despite having little experience in running pro-style routes, Hill was drafted in the second round based on speed, size and upside alone.
Last year we also saw Boston College linebacker Luke Kuechly surprise with a 4.58 speed and impressive agility figures. He was rewarded with a Top 10 pick.
This year will be no different and there are plenty of prospects who will be coming to Indianapolis with something to prove. Manti Te?o must prove in interviews that he had nothing to do with the Lennay Kekua scandal. Georgia linebacker Alec Ogletree will have to show NFL teams that recent DUI arrest was a one-time occurrence and Oregon linebacker Dion Jordan will have to prove he can still move as swiftly after gaining 20 pounds for the NFL.
Photo via Facebook/Dawgs247
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Helper mayor resigns following third DUI arrest
The mayor of Helper resigned Saturday morning following his arrest on suspicion of drunken driving the day before ? his second during his term.
The Helper City Council and Mayor Dean Armstrong, released from the Carbon County Jail, met Saturday and the mayor, after offering a prepared statement, resigned effective immediately. The council accepted his resignation, said city attorney Gene Strate.
The council had already given Armstrong a second chance following his 2011 arrest for driving under the influence. Armstrong was arrested again Friday afternoon after a minor accident on Main Street in Helper, in which no one was injured, said Utah Highway Patrol Trooper Lawrence Hopper. A field Breathalyzer test indicated Armstrong?s blood alcohol level was .169, Hopper said. Under Utah law, it is illegal to operate a motor vehicle with a blood-alcohol level above .08.
"I have determined that I can no longer adequately perform the duties of mayor," Armstrong, 51, wrote in his statement, according to Strate. "Instead, I will turn my focus toward taking care of my family, my health and my business."
Armstrong, who owns a market that specializes in meats and baked goods, noted in his statement that he?s saddened that he cannot complete his term, though he feels that the city administration has improved Helper in the past several years. "The people of this community are strong, and it has been my honor and privilege to have served you," Strate read from the letter.
Armstrong was elected to a four-year term in 2010. Strate said he still needs to review the process for replacing him, since this is the first resignation by a Helper mayor that he can recall. Helper is a town of about 2,000 residents roughly 120 miles southeast of Salt Lake City.
Armstrong started a lot of projects with the council, including big improvements to the water and sewer systems that the city has needed for 70 years, said council member Kirk Mascaro. Mascaro will serve as mayor pro tem, a position he already held so that he could act in Armstrong?s place if the mayor couldn?t attend a meeting.
"Mayor Armstrong has been, I feel, somewhat of an asset putting Helper City on the map, and we?ve got to move on right now. I?ve got to fill those shoes," Mascaro said. "We?re going to move on, move forward and it?s not just Mr. Armstrong, the whole council will be getting these projects completed."
Armstrong?s first DUI arrest in office was in November 2011, also by the UHP, court records show.
In May 2012, Armstrong pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charges of impaired driving, open container/drinking alcohol in a vehicle, and failing to stop or yield to a traffic sign, court records show. A judge suspended any jail time and placed Anderson on one year of probation. The terms of probation included a fine. Armstrong also was ordered to wear an ankle monitor for 60 days. The monitor was removed in September, jail records show.
story continues below
Helper?s council met following the 2011 arrest but took no action against Armstrong, Mascaro said.
Court records also indicate that Armstrong pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence in June 1991 in Salt Lake City. He received a suspended jail sentence and was ordered to perform community service, pay a fine and attend alcohol counseling, the records show. An additional charge of negligent collision was dropped.
mmcfall@sltrib.com Twitter: @mikeypanda
Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/55886482-78/armstrong-mayor-helper-council.html.csp
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Saturday, February 23, 2013
Strasburg gives up early HR, Mets beat Nats 5-3
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (AP) ? Washington ace Stephen Strasburg gave up a single and home run to the first two batters he faced in his return to the mound, and the New York Mets beat the Nationals 5-3 Saturday in a spring training opener.
Kirk Nieuwenhuis led off the Mets' first inning with a single and Ruben Tejada followed by homering over the left-center field fence on a full count.
Strasburg gave up three hits in two innings. He struck out two and walked none.
Strasburg pitched in a game for the first time since Sept. 7 when the Nationals shut him down for the season, rather than push his innings total.
Mets newcomer Shaun Marcum gave up four hits and three runs in two innings. Top Mets prospect Zack Wheeler pitched two shutout innings.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/strasburg-gives-early-hr-mets-beat-nats-5-204929122--mlb.html
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Enyo arrives to Windows 8, WP8 and Blackberry 10 with version 2.2
Enyo originally came along from HP to help developers create resolution-independent webOS apps, but since version 2.0, it's become platform agnostic. While support for Windows 8 and WP8 through IE10 has been around for awhile, version 2.2 now brings packaged app creation for those OSes along with Blackberry 10 at the highest Tier 1 support level. The platform still requires native "container" software to package apps, with Enyo advising Visual Studio for Windows 8 and Cordova for WP8 and Blackberry 10. The company's swatted a few bugs and added contextual popups too, so if you're looking to get your JavaScript on, hit the source.
Filed under: Software
Source: Enyo
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/22/enyo-2-2-windows8-wp8-blackberry10/
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Pink stripe on NC illegal immigrant licenses eyed
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) ? A new North Carolina driver's license set to be issued to some illegal immigrants has a bright pink stripe and the bold words "NO LAWFUL STATUS," raising concerns about whether the design will brand those who show it.
The North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles announced last week they would begin issuing the licenses March 25 following a lengthy legal review. The Obama administration's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program grants valid federal work permits to qualified applicants brought to the U.S. as children without legal authorization.
Some Republican lawmakers in the state have balked at the idea, filing a bill Thursday to bar the DMV from granting the licenses until at least June.
Cinthia Marroquin, a 22-year-old Raleigh resident awaiting approval for a DACA permit, said the longer the license issue is delayed, the longer it will take for her to get a job and drive herself to work. Even if she is able to get one, she is worried about presenting a license declaring she has "NO LAWFUL STATUS" at a police roadblock or while writing a check at the grocery store.
"A lot of us are just scared," said Marroquin, who came to the U.S. from Mexico when she was 15. "We just want to be able to get a job and drive to work. Having that license is just going to show everybody you're here illegally, just buying a beer or writing a check. You don't know how people might react."
The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina also takes issue with the designation.
"North Carolina should not be making it harder for aspiring citizens to integrate and contribute to our communities by branding them with a second-class driver's license," said ACLU attorney Raul Pinto. "There is simply no reason for officials to stigmatize people who are in the U.S. legally with an unnecessary marker that could lead to harassment, confusion, and racial profiling."
Almost from the moment President Barack Obama announced the program in June, states across the country grappled with how and whether to issue driver's licenses to those granted legal presence.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has said it is up to officials in each state to make their own determination about what to do. Many states, such as Oregon and Georgia, have announced that they will grant driving privileges to those eligible.
In Arizona, where Republican Gov. Jan Brewer has pledged that DACA youths will not get driver's licenses, the state's DMV still lists federal work permits among the documents making people eligible for one.
The issue is especially politically charged in North Carolina, where current state law ordains a driver's license will be issued to anyone who holds valid federal documentation of their "legal presence" in the United States.
The office of the state's Democratic attorney general in an opinion last month said that under federal law, DACA participants have a "legal presence," even if they do not have "lawful status." Therefore, state law requires that DACA participants be granted licenses. Republican Gov. Pat McCrory's administration agreed, announcing last week the DMV would begin issuing the licenses.
That has upset many conservatives in McCrory's own party, including Rep. Mark Brody (R-Union). He is one of four freshmen legislators who introduced a bill Thursday to bar DMV from issuing licenses to DACA participants before June 15, potentially giving time to craft a permanent change to state law.
Brody said he believes strongly that the DACA program violated the U.S. Constitution because it was implemented without congressional approval. Obama said last year he was forced to take executive action by the decades-long failure of Congress to consider meaningful immigration reform.
"We need a time out," said Brody, a construction contractor. "We don't need to have the federal government dictating to us how we are supposed to issue licenses in this state. We do it, and that's a privilege we have under our Constitution."
Among the concerns raised by Brody and other bill sponsors is that illegal immigrants might use their new licenses to access social programs or register to vote, despite the bright pink markings. An extensive 2011 review of the state's 6.4 million registered voters by the N.C. Board of Elections found 12 instances were a non-citizen successfully cast a ballot.
Jose Rico, a 23-year-old Raleigh resident from Mexico who has already been issued DACA work permit, said he plans to be in line at the DMV on March 25 to get a license, even if it's pink. He will be extremely disappointed if state legislators pass a bill delaying or a denying his ability to do so.
"I don't know what's wrong with these people, why they're so afraid of people like me," said Rico, who has lived in the U.S. since he was 13. "It's so frustrating. I passed a federal background check, done everything right by the book. I'm paying taxes. I mean, we're just kids trying to go to school."
___
Associated Press writer Gosia Wozniacka contributed from Fresno, Calif.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pink-stripe-nc-illegal-immigrant-licenses-eyed-204800831.html
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Friday, February 22, 2013
Scripts | Argo - with tales about the production, director, writer, cast
The Argo script was written by Chris Terrio, based on a selection from The Master of Disguise by Antonio J. Mendez and the Wired Magazine article ?The Great Escape,? by Joshuah Bearman.
Based on real events, the dramatic thriller ?Argo? chronicles the life-or-death covert operation to rescue six Americans, which unfolded behind the scenes of the Iran hostage crisis, focusing on the little-known role that the CIA and Hollywood played?information that was not declassified until many years after the event.
Academy Award? winner Ben Affleck (?The Town,? ?Good Will Hunting?) directs and stars in the film, which is produced by Oscar? nominee Grant Heslov (?Good Night, and Good Luck.?), Affleck, and Oscar? winner George Clooney (?Syriana?).
Argo movie trailer
On November 4, 1979, as the Iranian revolution reaches its boiling point, militants storm the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking 52 Americans hostage. But, in the midst of the chaos, six Americans manage to slip away and find refuge in the home of Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor. Knowing it is only a matter of time before the six are found out and likely killed, the Canadian and American governments ask the CIA to intervene. The CIA turns to their top ?exfiltration? specialist, Tony Mendez, to come up with a plan to get the six Americans safely out of the country. A plan so incredible, it could only happen in the movies.
Bryan Cranston and Ben Affleck acting in Argo film scene in Washington
?Argo? also stars Bryan Cranston (TV?s ?Breaking Bad?), Oscar? winner Alan Arkin (?Little Miss Sunshine?), and John Goodman (?Trouble With the Curve?). The main cast also includes Victor Garber, Tate Donovan, Clea DuVall, Scoot McNairy, Rory Cochrane, Christopher Denham, Kerry Bish?, Kyle Chandler and Chris Messina.
Affleck directed the film from a screenplay by Chris Terrio, based on a selection from The Master of Disguise by Antonio J. Mendez and the Wired Magazine article ?The Great Escape,? by Joshuah Bearman.
Argo script
Argo script pdf ? Argo movie script pdf download
David Klawans, Nina Wolarsky, Chris Brigham, Chay Carter, Graham King and Tim Headington are the executive producers, with Amy Herman co-producing.
The behind-the-scenes creative team includes Oscar?-nominated director of photography Rodrigo Prieto (?Brokeback Mountain?), production designer Sharon Seymour (?The Town?); Oscar?-nominated editor William Goldenberg (?Seabiscuit,? ?The Insider?); and Oscar?-nominated costume designer Jacqueline West (?The Social Network,? ?The Curious Case of Benjamin Button?). The music is composed by four-time Oscar? nominee Alexandre Desplat (?The King?s Speech,? ?The Queen?).
Filming on ?Argo? was accomplished in Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and Istanbul.
Ben Affleck in a scene from Argo shot in Istanbul
About the Production of Argo
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In 1980, Studio Six Productions trumpeted a new film project that had the elements of a hit sci-fi movie: spa ceships, aliens, action and adventure, all happening on an arid, distant planet. Billed as a ?cosmic conflagration,? the epic feature was never greenlit by any studio chief.
It could only be given a green light by the country?s Commander in Chief.
Ben Affleck discusses the production of Argo
More than 30 years later, Ben Affleck directed, produced and stars in ?Argo,? a film based on the true story of the covert mission to rescue six Americans trapped in Iran, following the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran that shocked the world.
The group had narrowly avoided being taken hostage by Iranian revolutionaries and were given sanctuary at the home of Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor, who risked everything to help the Americans, even when others turned them away. But the ?houseguests??as they came to be known?were in constant jeopardy of being found out and captured?or worse. With time running out, the CIA?s top exfiltration expert, Antonio ?Tony? Mendez, devised a brilliant but outrageous escape plan.
Argo movie director Ben Affleck giving direction to actor Alan Arkin
Affleck explains, ?Tony was friends with a famous makeup artist named John Chambers and knew it was a viable prospect for movie people to be traveling around, checking out different locations. He came up with an idea no one else would ever have thought of.?
The plan was for the six to pose as a Canadian filmmaking team on a location scout and then simply fly out?although it was anything but simple. Tony Mendez emphasizes, ?This was a game with no rules, so it was extremely risky. The most dangerous thing about it was the capriciousness of the people we were trying to get around. We had no way of predicting what would happen if we got caught?to us or to those already held hostage.?
Joshuah Bearman, who, in 2007, chronicled the escape in a Wired Magazine article, relates, ?The embassy seizure was a seismic event on the world stage. No one knew quite how to respond to the hostage situation in the embassy compound. The problem of the hidden houseguests was even trickier because diplomacy wasn?t an option. And with each day, the likelihood that they would be discovered grew. Eventually, Tony Mendez, who had ?exfiltrated? sensitive people from Iran and elsewhere before, stepped in with this plan.?
Argo movie actors John Goodman and Alan Arkin
There was also a very real threat to those harboring the Americans. Ambassador Ken Taylor confirms, ?During those three months, the staff at the Canadian Embassy was dealing with the dangerous reality of the situation. We had all been offended by the violent breach of diplomatic protocol, but apart from that, these were our friends. The U.S. and Canada have always had a special relationship that transcends any boundaries. I have been given a lot of the credit, but an equal amount belongs to my wife, Pat, and my embassy staff, as well as my colleagues in Canada.?
Holding an emergency session, the Canadian Parliament made a rare exception to their own laws to provide the six Americans with fake Canadian passports, under the ?film crew?s? individual aliases. They arrived by diplomatic pouch to Ambassador Taylor, who rendezvoused with Mendez to deliver them. Applying his expert counterfeiting skills, Mendez imprinted them with the correct Iranian visas and entered dates to indicate that the six had arrived in the country only the day before.
?To me,? says Affleck, ?one of the most important themes of the movie is remembering when the United States stood up as a nation to say ?Thank you, Canada.? None of this would have happened without them, so America will always have a debt of gratitude to our friends to the north.?
In today?s instant information age, it seems inconceivable that the entire operation remained top secret until it was declassified by President Clinton in 1997. Surprisingly, even after Tony Mendez recounted the events in his 2000 book, Master of Disguise, and, later, Bearman detailed them in Wired, most people remain largely unaware of a story that even Affleck admits ?sounds utterly absurd. I understand that, because it seems completely unbelievable, but the fact that it happened is what makes it even more fascinating.?
?This operation was a little-known success story in an otherwise difficult chapter in history,? says Bearman. ?People knew at the time that six Americans escaped with the help of the Canadians a few months into the crisis, but until the operation was declassified years later, no one realized that the CIA had actually led the Americans to safety with such a daring mission and wild cover story.?
Bearman?s piece first came to the attention of producers Grant Heslov and George Clooney. Heslov offers, ?I remember the hostage crisis well, but I was unaware of this story, so I found it astonishing and also very cool. I knew immediately there was a film there and that it was one I wanted to make, and George felt the same way.?
The cast of the movie Argo at film festival
Screenwriter Chris Terrio was entrusted with turning this rescue operation into a script and went right to the source. He reveals, ?When I read the article, I was riveted, and I was especially curious about Tony Mendez, about what kind of guy could think outside the box enough to come up with this plan and then undertake it. If I had pitched this as an original concept, brows would furrow and people would say, ?No audience will ever believe that.? But Tony managed to convince the United States government to attempt something that was even crazier than what most Hollywood studios would dream up.?
Mendez counters, ?I don?t think it?s so unusual to associate Hollywood and the CIA, because an instrument of espionage is naturally stagecraft.?
?That makes sense,? Heslov nods. ?In both worlds, you?re forging fictional situations and playing dress-up to create convincing scenarios, so there is an overlap.?
More about the production of Argo?
Argo production notes pdf
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The Toughest Scene I Wrote: Screenwriter Chris Terrio on Argo script
By Kyle Buchanan
Chris Terrio discusses a tonally tricky scene from Argo:
Argo screenwriter Chris Terrio
One of the more common critiques of a screenplay one is likely to hear in Hollywood is that a script has ?too many men in rooms talking? (which always strikes me as bizarre, since roughly two thirds of?The Godfather?consists of men in rooms talking. Taken to heart, this note would have given us the tarantella and not ?I believe in America? as the opening of the greatest Hollywood film ever made).
I knew before I even attempted to write what became Scene 58 ofArgo?? a scene of nine men sitting in a conference room talking through various scenarios for a cover story to get Americans out of Iran ? that the scene would be more difficult to pull off than any of the more (ostensibly) complicated set pieces in the film.
Screenwriter Chris Terrio discusses writing the script Argo
A scene at Mehrabad Airport in 1979 is, by comparison, easy to write, because the story can be told through images: a portrait of the Ayatollah glowering over a crowd; the glimpsed tragedy of a refugee woman being yanked away from her husband. It?s the juxtaposition of image against image, as any good Bolshevik filmmaker knows, that tells the story; yet in a conference room, there?s nothing to cut to except the actors? faces. The writing in a scene like this is, in effect, naked. The tension has to come from the audience?s awareness of subtle shifts of power in the room.
Argo screenwriter Chris Terrio talking with Argo director Ben Affleck about the script
As Scene 58 proceeds, top-floor officials from the CIA and State Department debate ideas for cover stories, each idea worse than the last, though no one in the room dares to point out that these Important Men thinking Important Thoughts are, in fact, delusional ? no one except our hero, Tony Mendez. I knew that the crucial beat in the scene (and a major turning point in the film, both for its story and in its tone) would come when Mendez finally decided to speak up to his superiors, exposing the absurdity of their plans and, in effect, volunteering to take over the Tehran operation. I also knew that the moment was fraught: Mendez is a jaded CIA veteran, not an innocent pointing out that the bureaucratic emperors are naked. He couldn?t seem smug, or overtly disrespectful to his superiors, and he needed to speak in the jargon of intelligence professionals. Yet he had to make his case and lay bare the absurdity of the State Department?s plans (which, incredibly, were real: Officials at Foggy Bottom wanted to put the six escaped Americans on bicycles and tell them, in effect, ?Pedal north until you smell Turkish food?).
As I wrote and rewrote the scene, trying to get the tone right, I found myself returning to screenplays by writers like Chayefsky and Goldman, two masters who were writing at the time that?Argo?takes place (Goldman is, of course, still writing and still a master). In their films of the period, one line spoken by a man (or a woman) in a room could change the tone not only of a scene, but of an entire film. And these writers could do it without grandiloquence, but with precision, and often with spitballs ? shifting a conversation with an ironic barb that could render the boardroom of a television network or an editorial meeting at the Washington?Post?speechless. How would these guys write the scene?
I settled on the idea that Mendez would throw a spitball into the self-serious conversation by making a joke about giving the bicycle escapees Gatorade. (Which meant I had to determine whether Gatorade was on the market and a commonly recognized brand in December of 1979. I celebrated when I found aTime?Magazine from the year before featuring a dehydrated athlete with a Village People?style mustache: ?Gatorade: When You?re Thirsty to Win.? So the Gatorade could stay.) Mendez would make his off-hand joke. The table would go silent. The attention of the room would shift to the court jester speaking truth to power.
Script pages from Argo by screenwriter Chris Terrio
Script pages from scenes in Argo movie script by screenwriter Chris Terrio
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Source: http://gregorymancuso.com/2013/02/scripts-argo-director-writer-cast-production/
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