maturation emulsification: January 2012

Thursday, January 26, 2012

U.S. lobbying spending drops after 11 years of gains (reuters)

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Greek director Angelopoulos dies after accident during shooting (Reuters)

ATHENS (Reuters) ? Greek award-winning director Theo Angelopoulos died at the age of 77 in an Athens hospital on Tuesday, hours after a motorbike ran him over while he was filming a movie on the debt crisis rocking the country.

Winner of awards including the prestigious Cannes Palme D'Or prize in 1998 for "Eternity and a day" and the Cannes Grand Jury Prize in 1995 for "Ulysses' Gaze", Angelopoulos had started shooting his new film "The other sea" earlier this month.

The film was about the impact of the crisis in everyday life in Greece.

Angelopoulos was crossing a road when he was hit by the motorcycle. He was immediately transferred to hospital.

"He was in the middle of a shooting when the motorcycle hit him. He suffered multiple brain injuries and internal bleeding," said a police official who declined to be named. The motorcycle belonged to a policeman who was off duty, the official said.

(Reporting by Renee Maltezou; Editing by Ingrid Melander)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120125/people_nm/us_greek_film_director

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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Which Clooney film will earn an Oscar nod?

"Bridesmaids" ? in or out? Brad Pitt ? in or out? Rooney Mara ? in or out? George Clooney ? in and out?

The Academy Award nominations are set to be announced Tuesday morning, and undaunted by our so-so performance at the Golden Globes (we called eight of the 14 movie winners), we're right back with a new set of stone-cold locks, otherwise known as guesses.

Let the nomination speculation begin:

The nominees will (probably) be ...

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Best Picture: "The Artist," "Bridesmaids," "The Descendants," "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," "The Help," "Hugo," "Midnight in Paris," "Moneyball"

Story: Backstage surprises from the Golden Globes

Sorry, but thanks for playing: Clooney's "The Ides of March," Steven Spielberg's "War Horse" ? and 2011's other 200-plus eligible films. FYI: As a reminder, the field will consist of anywhere from five to 10 nominees. The thinking here, based on how the guild nominations went, is that the magic number will be eight.

Story: Did 'Bridesmaids' get a boost in race for Oscar?

Best Actress: Viola Davis, "The Help," Meryl Streep, "The Iron Lady," Tilda Swinton, "We Need to Talk About Kevin," Charlize Theron, "Young Adult," Michelle Williams, "My Week With Marilyn."

Story: Silent 'Artist' shouts loudest at Critics Choice Awards

Sorry, but thanks for playing: "Albert Nobbs'" Glenn Close, "Dragon Tattoo's" Rooney Mara and "The Artist's" B?r?nice Bejo, who, despite her lead-actress nod at the so-called British Oscars, we're going to say doesn't rate ? in this category. FYI: Theron gets the edge over the on-the-bubble competition because Diablo Cody, like Woody Allen, writes nominations as much as she writes characters.

Story: Five biggest jaw-droppers of the Globes

Best Actor: George Clooney, "The Descendants," Jean Dujardin, "The Artist," Michael Fassbender, "Shame," Gary Oldman, "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy," Brad Pitt, "Moneyball."

Sorry, but thanks for playing: "J. Edgar's" Leonardo DiCaprio and "A Better Life's" Demian Bichir. FYI: It only looks like we cribbed from the BAFTA nominations. Truth is, we're skittish about departing from the SAG script, but especially can't see DiCaprio getting in for a film with zero momentum.

Best Supporting Actress: B?r?nice Bejo, "The Artist," Jessica Chastain, "The Help," Marion Cotillard, "Midnight in Paris" Octavia Spencer, "The Help," Shailene Woodley, "The Descendants."

Story: It was a big night for big names at Golden Globes

Sorry, but thanks for playing: "Albert Nobbs'" Janet McTeer and Mia Wasikowska, and, yikes, "Bridesmaids'" Melissa McCarthy. FYI: One, very funny movies (and the very funny people in them) get little Oscar respect. Two, actors in Allen films, comedies though they are, get a lot of respect. Add 'em up, and McCarthy is out, and Cotillard, as her beloved movie's most Academy-friendly option, is in.

Slideshow: Golden Globes red carpet (on this page)

P.S.: Streep's shout-out to Wasikowska during "The Iron Lady" star's Golden Globes speech might have swung some votes the younger actress' way had Oscar voting not closed the Friday before. (And, yes, we know, Streep name-checked Wasikowska's other noteworthy 2011 movie, "Jane Eyre," but same difference ? the pub came too late, unless, that is, Streep was lobbying for the Aussie behind-the-scenes.

And, by the by, if Streep was talking up Wasikowska to her Academy friends, then we take back everything we said about Theron in the Best Actress race, and we hereby give that slot to Wasikowska. How's that for conviction?

SNUB ALERT: Angelina Jolie, no; Christian Bale, yes

Best Supporting Actor: Kenneth Branagh, "My Week With Marilyn," Albert Brooks, "Drive," Jonah Hill, "Moneyball," Ben Kingsley, "Hugo," Christopher Plummer, "Beginners."

Sorry, but thanks for playing: "J. Edgar's" Armie Hammer, "The Ides of March's" Philip Seymour Hoffman and "Warrior's" Nick Nolte. FYI: What we said about DiCaprio? The same goes, unfortunately, for Hammer.

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/46099855/ns/today-entertainment/

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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Newt Gingrich vs.the Establishment: South Carolina Sets Up Intra-GOP Conflict (Time.com)

"The Establishment is right to be worried about a Gingrich nomination," the winner of the South Carolina Republican primary, declared Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press. "Because a Gingrich nomination means that we're going to change things, we're going to make the Establishment very uncomfortable."

The Republican Establishment, such as it can be defined, is uncomfortable, alright. It is likely to re-mobilize, as it did in Iowa last month, to deflate his candidacy before Florida's Jan. 31 primary, in which a victory could turn Newt from an upstart into the likely nominee. Establishment money will flow to pro-Romney SuperPACs. Establishment pundits and politicos will enumerate (again) Gingrich's flaws and foibles.

But the Establishment isn't striking back for the reasons Newt claims. In reality, Gingrich's platform does almost nothing to threaten the Establishment's core interests. It's his candidacy that has the GOP powers that be gnashing their teeth. But as he tries to keep Mitt Romney from mounting a comeback after his South Carolina humiliation, Gingrich's anti-Establishment pose might be the best thing going for him. (PHOTOS: Newt Gingrich's Life in Pictures.)

Before going any farther, it's worth asking who this 'Establishment' really is. That's tricky, but let's stipulate that it roughly consists of a couple of hundred Republicans. They include the party's most powerful (and wealthy) Washington lobbyists; its senior members of Congress; marquee television and newspaper pundits; and a gaggle of elected officials, financiers and all-purpose operators around the nation. More specifically, Newt's key Establishment adversaries include the lobbyists Wayne Berman and Ron Kaufman, columnists George Will and Charles Krauthammer, elected GOP big shots like Chris Christie and Nikki Haley, and party elder statesmen like former President George H.W. Bush.

No one on that list is particularly threatened by a Gingrich presidency, at least not beyond the usual cost of backing the wrong candidate. Certainly not much in Newt's past record suggests as much. Yes, as a Congressional back-bencher in Congress in the 1980s, Newt was impatient with his party's more moderate, deal-making leaders (notably including Bush). His 1994 Contract With America did call for Congressional term limits, an idea despised by Washington lifers of both parties. (MORE: Gingrich South Carolina Upset Raises Chances of Long Nomination Fight.)

But since then, Newt has inarguably lived the good life of an Establishment man. As House Speaker he made no serious effort to take on the culture of Washington. Instead, he oversaw an expanded alliance between K Street lobbyists and congressional Republicans. And after he left Congress -- purged by his colleagues, not for threatening their interests but for botching the politics of Bill Clinton's impeachment -- he settled comfortably into a life of lucrative speaking and influence-peddling.

What about his current platform? On Meet the Press, Gingrich detailed the case this way: "We're going to demand real change in Washington, real audit of the Federal Reserve, real knowledge about where hundreds of billions of dollars have gone. And I think if you look at a lot of these guys, they have really good reason to worry about an honest, open candidate who has no commitment to them, who has no investment in them. And I think they should be worried because we intend to change the Establishment, not get along with it."

Given that scores of Washington Republicans are already on record as supporting a Fed audit, Newt's one specific argument above isn't very persuasive. So what about the rest of his platform? Well, he favors huge tax cuts -- probably the Establishment's top priority. He wants to cut regulations, slash entitlements, and kill off ObamaCare -- all sure fire applause lines at the American Enterprise Institute. True, his radical plan to rein in "activist judges" has drawn withering reviews from some certifiable Establishment men. But that's not enough to explain the strong opposition to him in the sitting rooms of McLean, Virginia, which has become to the Republican Establishment what Georgetown once was to the Democratic elite (and where, incidentally, Newt himself lives). The bottom line is that Gingrich has more in common with Ross Douthat than with Ross Perot.

To the extent Newt threatens the Establishment, it's because of his electability -- or lack thereof. The GOP's mandarins see Gingrich's nomination as a sure way to blow their chance of deposing Barack Obama. They see Gingrich as the political equivalent of a Fukushima nuclear plant worker, with polls showing him to be lethally irradiated by his negative approval ratings. Whereas Mitt Romney is running about even with Barack Obama in head-to-head polling, Newt loses by double-digit margins. Sure, those numbers could change if Gingrich beats Romney and wins the nomination, with all the accolades it entails. On the other hand, his grandiosity syndrome may kick in, as it has before, and render him a laughing stock. Hence the many Establishment Republicans now saying things like, "Newt means losing 45 states." (See more on Gingrich's win in South Carolina.)

In the end, though, it might not matter why the Establishment opposes Gingrich, only that it does. Playing the role of insurgent suits Gingrich perfectly. Some of it is characterological: Gingrich is always at his best when he's storming an enemy position; his problem has always been holding that hilltop. But more important is the political moment. While the Tea Party's spirit has dimmed some, it's hardly dead. And that spirit wasn't merely a reaction to Barack Obama. It was about challenging the Establishment of both parties, rejecting the wisdom of coastal financial and media elites who looked down at "real" Americans while wrecking the economy. It appears that the more Mitt Romney is anointed by this insider crowd, the more the GOP's activist base is determined to reject him. Gingrich seems to think so, at least, and is playing brilliantly to the sentiment -- spinning the Establishment's calculation about his electability into a commentary on his values and independence. If he manages to defeat Mitt Romney, he should send thank-you notes to his neighbors in McLean.

See TIME's Pictures of the Week.

See the Cartoons of the Week.

View this article on Time.com

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Ohio Amish say not guilty in beard-cutting attacks

CLEVELAND?? Twelve members of a breakaway Amish group pleaded not guilty Wednesday to beard- and hair-cutting attacks on fellow Amish in a feud over church discipline.

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The seven original defendants arrested in November and five more added in an indictment returned last month entered the pleas in the crowded federal courtroom.

U.S. District Judge Dan Aaron Polster refused a defense appeal to release on bond the suspected ringleader, Samuel Mullet Sr., 66, and his son, Johnny Mullet, 37, from eastern Ohio.

A feud over church discipline allegedly led to five attacks in which the beards and hair of men and hair of women were cut, which is considered deeply offensive in Amish culture.

The seven-count indictment includes charges of conspiracy, assault and evidence tampering in what prosecutors say were hate crimes motivated by religious differences.

Samuel Mullet Sr., handcuffed at the wrists and ankles, his beard reaching the V-neck of his orange jail outfit, watched from the jury box and nodded occasionally as his attorney, Ed Bryan, argued that Mullet wasn't a risk of violence or flight.

He said Mullet should be freed pending trial because he has no criminal record and has ties to the community, including scores of grandchildren.

Any suggestion that Mullet could be violent or flee "is not a legitimate fear," Bryan said.

The government said in a court filing before the arraignment that Mullet could not be trusted to appear in court when ordered and sending officers to his farm compound to get him could lead to "the risk of tragic consequences."

Because the compound doesn't have electricity, release with electronic monitoring wasn't an option, the judge said.

He set a March 19 trial date.

Women dressed in traditional Amish apparel and bonnets filled several benches in the courtroom. One wiped away tears after the arraignment and another turned aside an interview request.

The indictment also charges three other children of Mullet, a son-in-law, three nephews, the spouses of a niece and nephew and a member of the Mullet community in Bergholz.

Mullet told The Associated Press in October that he didn't order the hair-cutting but didn't stop his sons and others from carrying it out. He said the goal was to send a message to other Amish that they should be ashamed of themselves for the way they were treating Mullet and his community.

The others charged before the indictment was returned were Mullet's sons Daniel and Lester Mullet; son-in-law Emanuel Schrock; nephew Eli Miller; and community member Levi Miller.

Newly charged in the indictment were Mullet's daughter Linda Schrock; nephews Lester and Raymond Miller; Anna Miller, the wife of another nephew; and a niece's husband, Freeman Burkholder.

Cutting the hair is a highly offensive act to the Amish, who believe the Bible instructs women to let their hair grow long and men to grow beards and stop shaving once they marry.

Amish often mete out their own internal punishment and rarely report crimes to law enforcement. Some beard-cutting victims declined to press charges earlier.

Ohio has an estimated Amish population of just under 61,000 ? second only to Pennsylvania ? with most living in rural counties south and east of Cleveland

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45961647/ns/us_news/

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Friday, January 13, 2012

slashgear: Hackers may have compromised source information of RIM, Nokia, & Apple http://t.co/2ZT1nmOg #tech #slashgear

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Astronomers Estimate Milky Way May Have 100 Billion Alien Worlds

?Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living. Since the dawn of time, roughly a hundred billion human beings have walked the planet Earth.

Now this is an interesting number, for by a curious coincidence there are approximately a hundred billion stars in our local universe, the Milky Way. So for every man who has ever lived, in this Universe there shines a star.

But every one of those stars is a sun, often far more brilliant and gloriou

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/g6iuz1Kifmw/astronomers-estimate-milky-way-may-have-100-billion-alien-worlds

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Thursday, January 12, 2012

Merkel, Sarkozy to seek growth, jobs for euro zone

The German and French leaders meet on Monday to discuss ways to boost growth in euro zone states struggling to overcome the sovereign debt crisis and rising unemployment, and finalise a deal to increase fiscal coordination within the currency union.

They may also discuss a financial transaction tax, the "Tobin tax," being promoted by France but resisted by Britain unless adopted on a global scale, which could split the European Union at a summit at the end of the month.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Nicolas Sarkozy, aiming to align the two powerhouse partners that have driven European integration, will also focus on how to boost employment in the current era of austerity.

While Germany's labour market is thriving, employment is a pressing issue for Sarkozy, who faces an election in less than four months and is trailing in polls while French jobless claims are at their highest level in 12 years.

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He may also try to accelerate plans for a tax on financial transactions, which he has set out as a priority ahead of the election, and which on Friday he vowed to implement in France even if EU partners like Germany are not on board.

Paris and Berlin want a "Tobin tax" to be applied across the EU, but Britain is resisting, fearing it will damage London, a global financial centre and mainstay of the British economy where much of the tax would be raised.

On Sunday, British Prime Minister David Cameron said he would veto a European-wide financial transaction tax unless it was imposed globally, deepening the confrontation over the matter with both France and Germany.

German officials expect the EU summit to show satisfying results on stronger budgetary rules they have urged for countries using the euro.

The updated version of the EU's 'fiscal compact', which gives Brussels the right to take states to court if they violate the stricter rules, is nearing approval, relieving pressure on Merkel to take new initiatives at the summit.

"Reaching a functional agreement already by the next (EU) meeting on Thursday is not out of the question," Elmar Brok, a German member of the European parliament, told Reuters.

Hanging over the meeting will be Europe's sovereign debt crisis, and questions over what can be done in the near term to relieve pressure on states like Spain and Italy, which are due to pay back a mountain of maturing debt this year.

Both states face crucial bond auctions this week that will test investors' willingness to fund countries at a time when low growth, weak public finances and the threat of ratings downgrades risk driving borrowing costs to unsustainable levels.

Until now Germany has favoured a crisis-fighting proposal to boost funding for the International Monetary Fund so that it could open larger credit lines to troubled euro zone states if needed, in exchange for strict adjustments.

Italy, which requested IMF monitoring in November to calm market concerns over its reform measures, would prefer to avoid reliance on such a plan; its former economy minister has called IMF aid "the most serious risk for Italy."

Concern over Italy may have led the French and German leaders to strengthen ties with Prime Minister Mario Monti. He met Sarkozy in Paris last week, and will visit Merkel for talks on Wednesday.

The three meet again in Italy on January 20, before a January 23 EU finance ministers meeting and the January 30 EU summit.

(Writing by Brian Rohan; Editing by Tim Pearce)

Source: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/278453/20120108/merkel-sarkozy-to-seek-growth-jobs-for-euro-zone.htm

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World reacts to Obama's new military focus on Asia

Chinese newspapers call on China to assert itself, while India and African nations ponder the implications of becoming 'strategic partners' with the US.?

Was that a collective sigh, or a gasp?

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President Obama and his Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced yesterday that the US military would essentially go on a diet, after one of the largest ramp-ups in military spending since World War II.

Reaction across the world thus far has been muted, and in the case of China ? the country Mr. Panetta identified as an emerging threat in November ? there has been no official reaction at all, as the Monitor's Peter Ford points out today.

In addition to ending its military presence in Iraq, and drawing down forces over the next few years in Afghanistan, the US military will also reduce its massive presence in Europe ? a legacy of the cold war ? and shift more of its assets to the Asia-Pacific region to counterbalance the growing economic and military strength of China.

In Africa, Latin America, and elsewhere on the globe, the US will ?use innovative methods to sustain US presence, maintaining key military-to-military relations and pursuing new security partnerships as needed,? Mr. Panetta told reporters in Washington.

Reuters news agency reported that neither the Chinese Defense Ministry nor the Foreign Ministry responded to faxed inquiries today. But the Global Times, a strongly nationalist newspaper based in Beijing, urged China to continue to assert itself and?develop "long-range strike abilities."

China should come up with countermeasures. It should strengthen its long-range strike abilities and put more deterrence on the US. The US must realize that it cannot stop the rise of China and that being friendly to China is in its utmost interests.?

It?s a plan that is both ambitious, and rather less innovative than it might at first appear to be. Many of the cost savings and ?smaller footprint? ideas announced by Mr. Obama and Panetta were first broached by defense officials in the Clinton and Bush administrations, most notable former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/Gy4r1f0SWcA/World-reacts-to-Obama-s-new-military-focus-on-Asia

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Wednesday, January 11, 2012

QOOQ tablet gets a dual-core bilingual upgrade: We get our chef on (video)

Tablets need to specialize or die -- at least that's what the folks behind QOOQ are hoping. As an accompaniment to its cooking-centric tablet of yesteryear, it's announced a new upgraded tablet for 2012. With a dual-core processor clocked at 1GHz, the 10.1-inch tablet is now speaking several languages - and one of them's now English. While the tablet's still running on its own platform, there's still social network and streaming media access. There's a plethora of ports including USB and ethernet, with space for an SD card too. The QOOQ is set to arrive in the US in Q2 and is priced at an ambitious $400, with recipe updates delivered through a subscription system that costs extra.

Roll up your sleeves, because our hands-on is cooking right now and will be up soon.

Gallery: QOOQ tablet (2012 edition) hands-on