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Friday, December 30, 2011
What You Need To Know About Health Insurance Before You Shop ...
[unable to retrieve full-text content]by Steve Rhodes Article by Jo Rosario With so many different types of health insurance plans and restrictions out there, it can be difficult finding the.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Omni Sport Bulletin - Afghan Judo Atheletes Prepare for London
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Wednesday, December 28, 2011
China Blasts High-Speed Rail System
BY JAMES T. AREDDY
SHANGHAI?Flawed equipment and procedures as well as corruption were the main culprits in a Chinese bullet-train collision this year, the government said, conceding that its rail-network expansion has gone too fast.
Delivering the results of the investigation into July's Wenzhou high-speed collision, Premier Wen Jiabao's cabinet, the State Council, cited poorly designed track-signal equipment that got knocked out by lightning strikes as well as inadequate safety procedures.
The report said subsequent inspection of China's lines turned up more than 50 installations of a little-tested and problematic signal mechanism that failed in Wenzhou. It called into question how the signal contracts ...
BY JAMES T. AREDDY
SHANGHAI?Flawed equipment and procedures as well as corruption were the main culprits in a Chinese bullet-train collision this year, the government said, conceding that its rail-network expansion has gone too fast.
Delivering the results of the investigation into July's Wenzhou high-speed collision, Premier Wen Jiabao's cabinet, the State Council, cited poorly designed track-signal equipment that got knocked out by lightning strikes as well as inadequate safety procedures.
The report said subsequent inspection of China's lines turned up more than 50 installations of a little-tested and problematic signal mechanism that failed in Wenzhou. It called into question how the signal contracts ...
Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204632204577126121683353312.html?mod=rss_about_china
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Jewish zealots strike fear in flashpoint Israel town (Reuters)
BEIT SHEMESH, Israel (Reuters) ? American immigrant Ayelet Wortman was walking with a male friend on a weekend afternoon when a black-cloaked ultra-Orthodox Jew grabbed him from behind, ripped his shirt, and called her a "whore."
"We literally ran all the way back home," some blocks away, Wortman, 18, said in an interview in Beit Shemesh, a flashpoint Israeli city near Jerusalem where tensions have flared over an increasingly assertive and aggressive sect of religious zealots.
That incident happened a couple of years ago, but the story of an eight-year-old girl being spat upon on her way to school has riveted national attention and drawn pledges by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to crack down on the harassment.
Several thousand women's right activists, liberals and religious pluralists rallied in Beit Shemesh Tuesday against what they described as the coercive encroachment of patriarchal ultra-Orthodox values in the mostly secular Jewish state.
Women have complained of being forced to sit in the back of buses in many cities where the ultra-Orthodox live. Two women were barred from going to the podium to accept prizes at a recent ceremony sponsored by a religious cabinet minister.
"We are fighting for the soul of the nation," President Shimon Peres said earlier of the reasons to protest.
Many ultra-Orthodox eschew any form of public contact or interaction between the sexes, and follow a strict dress code of showing as little skin as possible, though some religious leaders charge a fringe minority has taken these customs to an extreme and condemn any violence toward women.
But many Israelis still fear a religiously fervent minority in their midst is using its disproportionate political clout to try and achieve a goal of turning Israel into a clerical state.
The ultra-Orthodox make up only about 10 percent of Israel's population of 7.7 million. But their high birthrates and bloc voting patterns have helped them secure welfare benefits and wider influence. One of Netanyahu's biggest partners in the coalition government, Shas, is a party run by rabbis.
For many living in middle-class Beit Shemesh, this cultural feud unfolds on an almost daily basis just outside their doors.
Police patrols are being boosted to prevent further friction. But Wortman, the eldest of seven children in a moderate Orthodox family that immigrated from Staten Island, New York, some six years ago, doubts it will do much good.
CLASS STRUGGLE
Her two younger brothers cower in fear every day before they head to their school, located in a building near the mushrooming ultra-Orthodox enclave in their neighborhood.
Their mother, Shlomzi Wortman, 42, said ultra-Orthodox men often shout epithets at them whenever she escorts the boys the several hundred meters (yards) distance to their classrooms.
"You can't even talk to them, they just start shrieking at you," Wortman said.
The Wortmans, and many on their block, are also religiously observant Jews but embrace a more open lifestyle than the ascetic and insular ultra-Orthodox, who avoid any public contact or interaction between men and women.
"It's not even a religious thing. It's just a group of extremists against everyone," Ayelet Wortman said.
While some of their ultra-Orthodox neighbors privately denounce what they call the actions of a fanatical minority, most all say they dread venting any outrage publicly, the Wortmans said.
They trace the latest tensions in their neighborhood to the burgeoning ultra-Orthodox population of Beit Shemesh, an otherwise largely immigrant populated city of about 90,000.
Some of the more zealous newcomers live in the Wortmans' neighborhood, and in addition to lashing out at lifestyle differences some also have an eye on taking control of their schools, citing a shortage of their own facilities for an ever expanding population with a high birth-rate.
An ultra-Orthodox man in Beit Shemesh, identified only as Moshe, admitted on Israel's Channel 2 television there were spitting attacks at young girls.
"That's right, they are immodest. It bothers me, I am a healthy person. It is proper to spit on a girl who does not conduct herself according to the Torah," Moshe said.
Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai, of the ultra-Orthodox party Shas in Netanyahu's ruling coalition, denounced such behavior at a party meeting as "nauseating and disgusting" saying it contravened the teachings of holy scriptures.
Yishai also criticized what he saw as "attempts to incite" against the ultra-Orthodox and intimated the Israeli public was seeking to blame them all for the actions of a few.
Revital Kornayev, a Russian immigrant, says she's tired of fielding complaints about the length of her skirt at the local bank in Beit Shemesh and worrying about a 10-year-old daughter whose school is located near an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood.
She hopes to save up enough to move away. "I'm tired of having to put on a long-sleeved shirt and skirt even in summer just so they won't attack me," Kornayev said.
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Tuesday, December 27, 2011
pjb tx replied to Donna Repub's discussion 'Rick Perry Fails to Qualify for Virginia Primary Ballot' in the group Rick Perry for President
Rick Perry will not appear on the Virginia presidential primary ballot, state Republican Party officials said Friday night, after he failed to submit the required number of valid signatures to qualify.
Ten thousand signatures are needed to get on the ballot for the Virginia primary, which is March 6, known as Super Tuesday. The Perry campaign says it submitted 11,911 signatures, according to The Washington Post. But at 6:30 p.m. the Virginia Republican Party posted on its?Twitter account?that after verification, it was determined that Mr. Perry did not submit the requisite amount.
The deadline for signatures was 5 p.m. Thursday. Mitt Romney and Ron Paul obtained the needed signatures to qualify; Newt Gingrich submitted 11,050 signatures, but the state Republican Party was still verifying those late Friday night.
Jon M. Huntsman Jr., Rick Santorum and Michele Bachmann, the other Republican candidates, did not submit signatures in Virginia and therefore did not qualify.
President Obama submitted his signatures ? 15,000 ? on Dec. 2. He was certified as the only candidate on the Virginia Democratic ballot on Friday night.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/23/rick-perry-fails-to-q...
Pursuant to Title 17 U.S.C. 107, this is provided for educational purposes, research, critical comment, or debate without profit or payment
Source: http://smartgirlpolitics.ning.com/xn/detail/2488056%3AComment%3A767958?xg_source=activity
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Karoli: do we have the most screwed up bunch of GOP candidates ever? Gingrich, Paul, blerg.
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Monday, December 26, 2011
The Wombats: Is This Christmas? [Video]
Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/3XTpRs2sW1A/the-wombats-is-this-christmas
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Queen Elizabeth visits husband in hospital (AP)
LONDON ? Queen Elizabeth II, accompanied by her children, visited her husband in hospital Saturday, where Prince Philip is recovering from a heart procedure.
Philip, 90, was taken to the hospital from the queen's Sandringham estate in Norfolk late Friday after experiencing chest pains. He had a coronary stent put in after tests found a blocked artery was to blame, though the palace has refused to say if he suffered a heart attack.
Elizabeth and her two children, Princess Anne and Prince Edward, were flown in by helicopter and arrived at Papworth Hospital, some 70 miles (113 kilometers) from London, shortly after 11 a.m.
"Prince Philip was in good spirits," Buckingham Palace said. After spending 45 minutes with Philip, the royals traveled back to Sandringham by helicopter, it said.
It said Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, arrived at the hospital 45 minutes later by car and that no further family visits are expected.
Doctors said Philip could have suffered a heart attack, but without more information it was impossible to know for sure.
Coronary stenting is standard procedure both to fend off a heart attack or save a patient already in the midst of one, said Dr. Allan Schwartz, chief of cardiology at New York-Presbyterian, Columbia University Medical Center.
Philip has been known to enjoy good health throughout his life and rarely misses royal engagements. Upon his 90th birthday in June, he announced plans to cut back his official duties.
Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron offered his support to Philip.
"The Prime Minister has been kept informed of the situation and wishes the Duke of Edinburgh a very speedy recovery," Cameron's office said.
Doctors say that some patients can leave the hospital a day after a similar medical procedure, but the palace said it does not know when Philip will be released. It said the prince remains "under observation" and that he is having a "short stay" in the hospital.
It is unclear if Philip will be able to join the royal family for the traditional Christmas celebrations at Sandringham, the queen's sprawling rural estate in Norfolk where the royal family gathers for the festivities. Philip had been there since Monday.
The palace said Elizabeth and the royal family will attend church as usual on Sunday.
Another key part of the royal family's Christmas celebrations is the queen's annual message to the nation, which this year will focus on family and community.
The queen has made a prerecorded Christmas broadcast on radio since 1952 and on television since 1957. She writes the speeches herself, and the broadcasts mark the rare occasion on which the queen voices her own opinion without government consultation.
________
Cassandra Vinograd can be reached at http://twitter.com/CassVinograd
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Sunday, December 25, 2011
Samsung Galaxy Y Duos and Galaxy Y Pro Duos hit market from Jan 2012
Seoul, Dec 25 (TruthDive): Samsung had introduced the Galaxy Y Duos and Galaxy Y Pro Duos,the ?first dual-SIM smartphones on Thursday.
Samsung also announced, the Galaxy Y Duos and Galaxy Y Pro Duos will be available for purchase from January 2012?onward.
A pair of Android smartphones in the Galaxy product family will have space for two SIM cards, letting you lead a double life on your phone. The two SIM cards mean you have got two phone numbers at your disposal, one for work, for instance, and one for your personal.
Both these handsets work on GSM, on band frequencies of 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz and have Samsung?s TouchWiz software overlay. Those phones with the ?Y? label are described by the company as ?entry models or strategic models for emerging markets or a younger audience more sensitive to price.
The Galaxy Y Duos is an all-touch Android 2.3 Gingerbread setup with a 3.1-inch QVGA screen, a 3-megapixel fixed-focus camera, and the Android works. It also has a 1,300mAh battery. It has 832 MHz processors, 320?240 resolution displays.
On the slightly higher end of the scale, there is the Galaxy Y Pro Duos, which runs the same Android version and has a full QWERTY keyboard on its candy-bar frame (that keyboard is how you know it?s ?pro?). As a result, the screen is a smaller 2.6 inches. There is a 3-megapixel camera on the back, but Samsung has also added a front-facing VGA camera and a slightly larger 1,350mAh battery.
Though Samsung is yet to comment on the pricing of its newest handsets, it has hinted at an early 2012 release.
The phones will hit stores worldwide starting January of next year and the ?first market is Russia. The Galaxy Y Duos will then ?gradually? roll-out to Europe, Africa, CIS, Latin America, Southeast and Southwest Asia.
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Indiana Secretary of State was not eligible for office: judge (Reuters)
INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) ? Indiana's Republican Secretary of State Charlie White was not eligible to run for the office he now holds and his opponent should be named the winner of the November 2010 election, an Indiana judge ruled.
The Republican secretary of state, who faces seven felony charges including vote fraud, defeated Democrat Vop Osili by more than 340,000 votes in the election. Opponents contended White was not properly registered as a candidate.
White was registered at his ex-wife's address when he voted in the May 2010 primary and was not registered at his address until after the deadline for filing a declaration of candidacy or certificate of nomination, Judge Louis Rosenberg found in a ruling dated December 21.
Rosenberg, a Marion County Circuit Court judge, reversed a 3-0 Indiana Recount Commission decision finding White eligible and returned the matter to the commission with instructions to certify Osili as secretary of state.
Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller, representing the Recount Commission, will seek a stay of Rosenberg's ruling and is reviewing a possible appeal, spokesman Bryan Corbin said.
"Charlie White is the secretary of state and will continue to do the work of secretary of state as he has done since taking office, commission spokesman A.J. Feeney Ruiz said.
Democrats had said White did not change his address so he could retain a town council position. White has denied the allegations of voter fraud.
Indiana Democratic Chairman Dan Parker said the ruling validated months of efforts.
"As a result of his vote fraud, Charlie White was never eligible to be a candidate for this office, and he's done nothing but embarrass Hoosiers since wrongfully assuming the position," Parker said.
(Editing by David Bailey and Greg McCune)
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Saturday, December 24, 2011
VEGASINC: KISS mini-golf course to open in March: KISS by Monster Mini Golf, an indoor putt-putt course themed after the i... http://t.co/lz4U2l58
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Arizona coma patient now speaking, walking (AP)
PHOENIX ? It will be a special Christmas for the family of a 21-year-old University of Arizona student who was nearly taken off life support before awaking from a coma.
Sam Schmid was walking and speaking Friday at a Phoenix hospital. Dressed in a T-shirt, shorts and sneakers, he was able to use a walker and talk in brief sentences.
"Right now, I'm feeling all right ... except for the rehabilitation, I'm feeling pretty good," Schmid said.
Doctors at Barrow Neurological Institute say Schmid has a long recovery ahead of him to regain full speech, balance and memory abilities.
Schmid was involved in an Oct. 19 car crash in Tucson that left him with a brain aneurysm, among other life-threatening injuries. Because of the complexity of his brain injury, Schmid was flown to Phoenix.
He underwent surgery performed by Dr. Robert Spetzler. With no responsive signs, staff discussed taking Schmid off life support.
"They never approached me to say would I donate his organs," said Susan Regan, Schmid's mother. "The people that were surrounding us were just asking about Sam, his quality of life, what would Sam want if we had to come to a difficult decision."
Spetzler said Schmid was never officially classified as a potential organ donor. And after an MRI scan showed he wasn't at a point of no hope of survival, Spetzler recommended keeping him alive for one more week.
Then on Oct. 24, Schmid shocked doctors by following commands to hold up two fingers.
"It may not seem like a lot to you," Spetzler said. "It's an incredible loop to show brain ability. That was like fireworks going off."
Since then, Schmid has been spending his days in physical rehabilitation. Dr. Christina Kwasnica, who is overseeing Schmid's rehabilitation, said he has gone from practicing sitting in a chair to doing rehab three hours a day. She described his recovery so far as amazing but hesitated to make any predictions of what "normal" would be for him.
"It's so early in Sam's injury. We have no idea where the ceiling is," Kwasnica said.
While he will be able to spend Christmas day with family in Phoenix, Schmid will not officially be released until next week. His brother, John, based in Tucson, will relocate to Phoenix so Schmid can continue rehabilitation on an out-patient basis.
Schmid, who is a business major and was coaching basketball at a University of Arizona recreation center, is holding onto the belief that he can get back to what his life was like before the accident.
"I see myself leaving the house, going to school, work, basic things like that," Schmid said. "I just want my life to be what it used to be."
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Friday, December 23, 2011
Blocking Twitter, Facebook during riots not such a hot idea - MPs
Shutting down social media during times of civil unrest would be "actively unhelpful" and should not happen, a committee of MPs has said.
The Home Affairs Committee said that evidence from the riots in English cities in August showed that law enforcement had used social media to tackle the problem and that rioters had used traditional media in addition to social media to arrange their activities.
Prime Minister David Cameron said around the time of the riots that the Government would consider stopping people from using social networks in times of public disorder, but the Government later said that it is not looking to introduce new powers to do so. The Committee heard evidence from social media providers, the police and MPs before determining that a shutdown would not be merited.
"Although there is some evidence that BlackBerry Messenger and to a more limited extent Facebook were used to incite criminal behaviour, none of our witnesses recommended shutting down social media during times of widespread and serious disorder," the Committee said in its 'Policing Large Scale Disorder: Lessons from the disturbances of August 2011' report (49-page / 322KB PDF).
"They all agreed that there were positive and negative aspects to the use of such media and that, in the words of Acting Commissioner Tim Godwin, it would have been a 'net negative to turn it off.' Even David Lammy, who called for the suspension of BlackBerry Messenger while the disorder was taking place, said: 'I called for suspension in the heat of the problems. Clearly, the police were able to get order without suspension, so that is not my view now'. It would be actively unhelpful to switch off social media during times of widespread and serious disorder and we strongly recommend that this does not happen," the Committee said.
During the time of the riots debate centred on whether the Government would introduce new powers in order to shut down social media. Although the Government subsequently said it was not seeking new banning powers there are existing powers that enable it to shutdown communications in certain circumstances.
Under the Communications Act the Culture Secretary can force Ofcom, the UK's communications regulator, to order communication providers to suspend their service if he has "reasonable grounds for believing that it is necessary to do so" if it is in "the interests of national security" or "to protect the public from any threat to public safety or public health". Ofcom is obliged to carry out the Culture Secretary's order by giving specific directions to service providers on what "networks, services and facilities" the order relates to and can force the provider to keep the suspension measures in place "indefinitely". Ofcom "may impose such conditions on the relevant provider" that appear to it "to be appropriate for the purpose of protecting that provider's customers", the Act states.
Consequences of a suspension order
The regulator must, "as soon as practicable" after giving a suspension order, give the service provider "an opportunity of making representations about the effect of the direction; and proposing steps for remedying the situation". Ofcom can also impose conditions that will enable service providers' customers to be compensated for loss or damage as a result of the suspension of a service, or "in respect of annoyance, inconvenience or anxiety to which they have been put in consequence of [Ofcom's] direction".
Technology law expert Danvers Baillieu of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, previously said that though the legal powers exist to ban the use of communications networks, in practice they would be hard to use.
?The Communications Act contains several sections, in particular section 132, which give ?emergency powers? to the government in times of national emergency,? Baillieu said. ?Given that this Act was passed in the wake of 9/11 the context is clear and suggests that these powers should only be used sparingly."
?It is not clear what jurisdiction Ofcom would have if it ordered Facebook to close its site, whether in the UK or globally. Equally, it is not clear that the Act gives Ofcom power to order the network providers, such as BT, to suspend their networks selectively, in order to block access to certain websites."
?We know from the attempts in the Middle East to block certain sites during the unrest in Iran and the Arab Spring, that organised protestors can easily by-pass local restrictions on sites using proxy servers and other technological techniques ? or just by moving over to alternative networks - rendering blocking totally ineffective."
?Even if companies such as Facebook and Twitter decided to co-operate voluntarily with UK authorities and suspend their services, it would be very difficult for them to know which accounts should be affected, unless they took down their entire service, which does not seem like something they would do voluntarily," he said.
Copyright ? 2011, OUT-LAW.com
OUT-LAW.COM is part of international law firm Pinsent Masons.
Source: http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2011/12/23/twitter_facebook_riots/
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FOR KIDS: Science fair as a family affair
Parents share their tips on helping kids prepare for a science fair
Web edition : Wednesday, December 21st, 2011
As temperatures drop and days grow shorter, middle and high school students across the country begin gearing up for science fair season. While these competitions typically take place in the spring, the qualifying projects can take several weeks or even months to plan, carry out and summarize. That means late fall and early winter are an ideal time for students to start brainstorming project ideas.? ?
But science fair planning can overwhelm many students. Some become intimidated at the prospect of designing a project that?s never been done before. For others, this event may be their first experience in long-term project coordination. And for parents, it?s often a time spent wondering how best to help their children without taking over the project themselves.
The good news is that a student?s own interests can lay the groundwork for a great science fair project. And by knowing what those interests are, parents often can help steer students toward projects that will prove personally meaningful and rewarding.
Visit the new?Science News for Kids?
Found in: Science News For Kids
Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/337063/title/FOR_KIDS_Science_fair_as_a_family_affair
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Thursday, December 22, 2011
Kathy Griffin takes on the Kardashian Marriage-Divorce on BRAVO
Tomorrow,?Tuesday, December 20 at 10/9C,?nobody is safe, and no stone unturned as Kathy will take on the Kardashian marriage flop, dogs eating used condoms, and much,?much?more on?Bravo?s?Kathy Griffin: Tired Hooker?? you don?t want to miss this one! Bravo’s Kathy Griffin: Tired Hooker, Tuesday 12/20 @ 10/9c ??Kathy is back with a brand new comedy special! [...]
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Sunday, December 18, 2011
Downey dips, 'Sherlock' slips with $40M debut
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Sherlock Holmes is facing his worst enemy: declining crowds at theaters as this year's domestic movie attendance dips to the lowest in 16 years.
Robert Downey Jr.'s sequel "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" debuted on top with a $40 million weekend, off 36 percent from the first installment's $62.3 million opening two years ago, according to studio estimates Sunday.
The first movie opened over Christmas weekend, one of the busiest times for movie theaters. Distributor Warner Bros. predicts the "Holmes" sequel, which pits Downey's detective against archrival Professor Moriarty, will make up the lost ground over the holidays.
"The pattern is different," said Dan Fellman, the studio's head of distribution. "What you can put in the bank those nine days before the official Christmas play time, that's the difference between our opening with a bigger number on Christmas day and opening early this time. At the end of the holiday period, we should be in the same place."
The "Holmes" sequel opened in six overseas markets, including the detective's native Britain, and took in $14.7 million to bring its worldwide total to $54.7 million.
After two previous weekends that were Hollywood's worst of the year, overall business was down again, about 12 percent lower than the same weekend in 2010 as Hollywood struggles to interest audiences in its big year-end releases.
Paul Dergarabedian, an analyst for box-office tracker Hollywood.com, estimated that the number of tickets sold domestically in 2011 will come in below 1.3 billion.
That would be the lowest attendance since 1995, when admissions totaled 1.26 billion. Domestic attendance in modern times peaked at 1.6 billion in 2002 and has been on a generally decline since.
"These low-attendance numbers are taking the gas out of the tank," Dergarabedian said. "All the momentum we had kind of came to a dead stop."
The 20th Century Fox family sequel "Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked" did even worse than "Holmes." ''Chipwrecked" opened at No. 2 with $23.5 million, about half the business the first two "Chipmunks" movies did on their debut weekends.
The studio had expected a bigger debut, but with schools shutting down for the holidays, Fox executives hope business will pick up.
"We are battling a marketplace issue right now," said Chris Aronson, head of distribution for 20th Century Fox. "We cannot make light of that. However, we have a very satisfying, playable movie and the only G-rated movie for Christmas. So as kids get out this week, this is going to help position it for a successful run."
"Chipwrecked" added $14.5 million in 38 overseas markets, bringing its worldwide total to $38 million.
Tom Cruise and Paramount had a spot of good news. Their action sequel "Mission: Impossible ? Ghost Protocol" got off to a healthy start at No. 3 with a $13 million weekend playing exclusively at huge-screen IMAX theaters and some other large-format cinemas.
"Ghost Protocol" goes into general release Wednesday.
The movie already has opened in 36 overseas markets, where it pulled in $68.2 million, putting its global haul at more than $80 million.
With critics praising the movie's spectacular action sequences, "Ghost Protocol" may restore the hitmaker status of Cruise, whose audience became disenchanted with odd antics in the star's personal life five or six years ago.
"I would think any of that is way in the past," said Don Harris, head of distribution at Paramount, which took the unusual step of going early in huge-screen cinemas to build buzz for the general release.
"The plan was always to put the movie out into the best presentation theaters in North America," Harris said. "We hoped that people would recognize how good the movie was and how special it was being treated."
Paramount's comic drama "Young Adult," starring Charlize Theron, had a weak expansion into wider release, finishing at No. 7 with $3.7 million. The film had opened with big numbers a week earlier in a handful of theaters.
At the beginning of 2011, Hollywood's summer and fall lineup looked so strong that studio executives were predicting the industry would break the domestic box-office record of $10.6 billion set in 2009, a mark that was nearly reached again in 2010.
But with less than two weeks left and revenues lagging 4 percent behind last year's, that record is out of reach. The picture is even bleaker factoring in this year's higher ticket prices, which mean attendance is running 5 percent below last year's.
Hollywood still can go out with a bang. Along with the new "Mission: Impossible," the holidays bring two more big thrillers ? Steven Spielberg's "The Adventures of Tintin" and David Fincher's "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" ? along with Spielberg's historical epic "War Horse" and Cameron Crowe and Matt Damon's family-friendly comic drama "We Bought a Zoo."
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows," $40 million ($14.7 million international).
2. "Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked," $23.5 million ($14.5 million international).
3. "Mission: Impossible ? Ghost Protocol," $13 million ($68.2 million international).
4. "New Year's Eve," $7.4 million.
5. "The Sitter," $4.4 million.
6. "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn ? Part 1," $4.3 million.
7. "Young Adult," $3.7 million.
8. "Hugo," $3.63 million.
9. "Arthur Christmas," $3.6 million ($9.7 million international).
10. "The Muppets," $3.5 million ($600,000 international).
___
Estimated weekend ticket sales at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada) for films distributed overseas by Hollywood studios, according to Rentrak:
1. "Mission: Impossible ? Ghost Protocol," $68.2 million.
2. "Puss in Boots," $30.4 million.
3. "Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows," $14.7 million.
4. "Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked," $14.5 million.
5. "Arthur Christmas," $9.7 million.
6. "New Year's Eve," $8.9 million.
7. "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn ? Part 1," $8.1 million.
8. "Happy Feet Two," $4.4 million.
9. "In Time," $3.3 million.
10. "Rubbeldiekatz," $3.1 million.
___
Online:
http://www.hollywood.com
http://www.rentrak.com
___
Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.
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Dr. Gregory Jantz, Ph.D.: The Credit Card Generation Gap
Every generation of young adults think they know more than the generation before. Call it the hubris of youth. This expansive self-confidence doesn't stick around indefinitely. Life has a way of leveling the generational playing field. I vividly remember the point when I realized my parents might not actually be as dumb I thought, and its devastating corollary -- I might not actually be as smart as I thought.
I am now solidly in that previous generation and a little concerned about those coming up behind me. My concern has to do with something called the normalcy bias. Normalcy bias is "the phenomenon of disbelieving one's situation when faced with grave or imminent danger." Normalcy bias is the natural tendency to disbelieve the terrible even in the midst of it. In the throes of normalcy bias you simply have difficulty reacting to what you haven't experienced before.
I was reading an article the other day that caused me to be very concerned about the generation coming up behind me, about their reaction to potential disaster and the normalcy bias. The article was about the federal government coming out with a prototype of a simplified credit card agreement. According to the article, the White House referenced a recent survey that said two-thirds of consumers don't understand how their credit card works. That two-thirds percentage caught my eye because I remembered another study done a couple of years ago by the Consumer Federation of America that said two-thirds of consumers don't understand what a credit score is.
Two-thirds is a whole lot of people who don't understand something as fundamental and potentially disastrous as debt. I wondered how this monetary myopia was affecting the next generation, which led me to another article entitled, "Today's Young Adults Suffering More Financially Than Older Generations." The article contained this dire statistic: "Young adults' net worth is reduced by 27 percent as a result of unsecured liabilities, like credit card and student loan debt."
This current generation of young adults has more reason than ever to believe they are smarter than their parents because of their almost innate connection to and familiarity with the dominant power system of this age, technology. Technology has put the hubris of youth on steroids. Smart is not just a phone designation to this generation; it may also be the default setting for their normalcy bias. They have so much access to information; it can seem inconceivable to them there might be something potentially disastrous -- like mounds of personal debt -- they don't know about and don't know how to handle.
It's strange that a generation who can run rings around me on a Smartphone could be clueless about the credit card they used to buy the thing in the first place. I learned about credit and debt, what to do and what to watch out for, from my parents (after I was older, of course, and able to hear them again). My advice to this generation coming up is:
- Don't wait too long before you starting talking to those of us who are older again.
- Don't naturally assume you know everything about how the world works because you've got Google in your back pocket.
- Don't assume the only knowledge worth having comes off a screen.
I imagine you'll be getting together with family, with older generations, over the holidays. I also imagine you'll be very popular, demonstrating your technological expertise by setting up the DVR, fixing the computer or conducting a tutorial on how to change phone settings. After you're through doing all of that great stuff, I encourage you to set aside a couple of moments. Stop texting or tweeting or playing games and have an actual conversation. You might consider asking your parents or your grandparents about how this whole debt-thing works. You may be surprised at how much they know.
Or, if they are as clueless as you, maybe you or one of your friends could start designing a new credit app.
?
Follow Dr. Gregory Jantz, Ph.D. on Twitter: www.twitter.com/gregoryjantzphd
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-gregory-jantz-phd/the-credit-card-generatio_b_1153674.html
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Saturday, December 17, 2011
Polemical journalist and atheist Christopher Hitchens dead at 62 (Reuters)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? British-born journalist and atheist intellectual Christopher Hitchens, who made the United States his home and backed the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, died on Thursday at the age of 62.
Hitchens died in Houston of pneumonia, a complication of cancer of the esophagus, Vanity Fair magazine said.
"Christopher Hitchens - the incomparable critic, masterful rhetorician, fiery wit, and fearless bon vivant - died today at the age of 62," Vanity Fair said.
A heavy smoker and drinker, Hitchens cut short a book tour for his memoir "Hitch 22" last year to undergo chemotherapy after being diagnosed with cancer.
As a journalist, war correspondent and literary critic, Hitchens carved out a reputation for barbed repartee, scathing critiques of public figures and a fierce intelligence.
In his 2007 book "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything," Hitchens took on major religions with his trenchant atheism. He argued that religion was the source of all tyranny and that many of the world's evils have been done in the name of religion.
The son of a British naval officer, Hitchens studied at Oxford University and worked as literary critic for the New Statesman magazine in London before moving to New York to work as a journalist in 1981. He settled in Washington the following year, initially as correspondent for the left-wing magazine The Nation. He retained his British citizenship when he became an American citizen in 2007.
Hitchens was not one to mince words. In his book on Bill Clinton "No one left to lie to", he called the former U.S. president a "rapist" and a "con man." He once referred to Mother Teresa of Calcutta as a "fanatical Albanian dwarf."
The author of 25 books - including works on Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine and George Orwell - and countless articles and columns, Hitchens never lost his biting humor.
"I'm a member of a cancer elite. I rather look down on people with lesser cancers," Hitchens said in an interview with CBS "60 Minutes" aired on March 6, 2011.
In a 2010 interview with Reuters, Hitchens dismissed criticism that he moved from left to right and helped former U.S. President George W. Bush sell the 2003 war with Iraq to the American public with what turned out to be bad intelligence about weapons of mass destruction.
"Saddam was an enemy of the civilized world and he should have been taken out a long time before," Hitchens said of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. "I have no regrets about that at all."
The 2001 attacks on the United States by Islamic fundamentalists in hijacked passenger planes made Hitchens ever more critical of the role of religion in the world, and led him to appreciate the merits of American democracy.
"I am absolutely convinced that the main source of hatred in the world is religion, and organized religion," he wrote.
(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
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Bargainers prepare 2-month payroll tax cut (AP)
WASHINGTON ? Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says congressional bargainers are preparing a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut and expiring jobless benefits as a fallback plan in case negotiations on a yearlong package don't succeed.
Lawmakers also worked on legislation to avoid a government shutdown at midnight Friday.
Those talks are still continuing and Reid said he still hoped they would succeed.
But with lawmakers hoping to leave town soon for the holidays, negotiators are working on shorter version they would revisit when Congress returns next year.
The bill would also avoid cuts in Medicare reimbursements to doctors that would last two months.
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Friday, December 16, 2011
How Did Rihanna Sneak By Beyonce On Best Artists Of 2011?
It was close, but Rih's ability to remain in the pop-culture consciousness all year places her just above the Queen B.
By Jason Kaufman
Rihanna
Photo: Getty Images
It was a showdown between two queens of pop — Rihanna and Beyoncé — each vying for a prime spot on MTV's Best Artists of 2011 list. RiRi wound up besting Lady B by a slim margin. But how did she come out on top?
MTV correspondent Sway Calloway moderated a spirited roundtable discussion with some of our very own experts: James Montgomery and Rob Markman (MTV News), Yomi Desalu and Malika Quemerais (MTV Music and Talent) and Tamar Anitai and Nicole James (MTV.com). The panel discussed the artists who ruled 2011, from the Throne and Lil Wayne to Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga. It was during that debate that Beyoncé and Rihanna met in a battle for the #6 position. In the end, Rihanna prevailed, with B taking #7.
"I love Rihanna," Montgomery said. "I think she is the kind of artist that I really like as a pop star who makes really cool, controversial videos and pushes the envelope in every conceivable way."
"She hustled so hard," Anitai added.
After all, Rih did have us buzzing about songs off two albums in 2011. New hits popping from 2010's Loud — including a remix of "S&M" with the one-and-only Britney Spears — ruled the charts in the first half of '11. While some artists would just ride the momentum of that smash album, Rih went back into the studio mid-tour and cranked out Talk That Talk. The first single off TTT, "We Found Love," was a certified dance-pop classic from the minute it hit.
See where "We Found Love" placed on MTV's Best Songs of 2011 countdown!
It was a tough decision for our experts because Knowles had such a remarkable year. Her album 4 — a collection of soulful ballads and mid-tempo tracks tempered with a deep nostalgic streak — was arguably her most mature yet. And she triumphed during intimate, sold-out shows at New York City's Roseland Ballroom in August. B was also responsible for this year's most talked-about (and tweeted about) pop-culture moment, announcing her pregnancy to the world right on our VMA stage.
But it was Rihanna's ability to rule for 365 days straight that was the deciding factor.
"It's very rare that you see an artist that's there, that is consistently there throughout the year that people don't get sick of," Quemerais observed. "I feel like the appetite for Rihanna is constant."
"If you were to go numbers by numbers, Rihanna can go toe-to-toe with anyone on our list," Montgomery reinforced. "She never gets the credit that she deserves."
She certainly got the credit here.
All this week, watch "AMTV" on MTV every day at 8 a.m. ET for our Best of 2011 lists. Then, come to MTVNews.com at 5 p.m. as we reveal our top picks of the year!
Related Videos Related Photos Related ArtistsSource: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1676061/rihanna-beyonce-best-artists-of-2011.jhtml
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Early Morning Open Thread: Happy St. Lucia Day! (Balloon Juice)
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