Fox's hit reality competition The X Factor is undergoing major shake-ups: host Steve Jones and judges Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger will not be returning to the show. Series impresario Simon Cowell and fellow music producer L.A. Reid will be the only original cast members to continue in season two.
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NEW YORK ? Google, Facebook and other big tech companies are jointly designing a system for combating email scams known as phishing.
Such scams try to trick people into giving away passwords and other personal information by sending emails that look as if they come from a legitimate bank, retailer or other business. When Bank of America customers see emails that appear to come from the bank, they might click on a link that takes them to a fake site mimicking the real Bank of America's. There, they might enter personal details, which scam artists can capture and use for fraud.
To combat that, 15 major technology and financial companies have formed an organization to design a system for authenticating emails from legitimate senders and weeding out fakes. The new system is called DMARC ? short for Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance.
DMARC builds upon existing techniques used to combat spam. Those techniques are designed to verify that an email actually came from the sender in question. The problem is there are multiple approaches for doing that and no standard way of dealing with emails believed to be fake.
The new system addresses that by asking email senders and the companies that provide email services to share information about the email messages they send and receive. In addition to authenticating their legitimate emails using the existing systems, companies can receive alerts from email providers every time their domain name is used in a fake message. They can then ask the email providers to move such messages to spam folder or block them outright.
According to Google, about 15 percent of non-spam messages in Gmail come from domains that are protected by DMARC. This means Gmail users "don't need to worry about spoofed messages from these senders," Adam Dawes, a product manager at Google, said in a blog post.
"With DMARC, large email senders can ensure that the email they send is being recognized by mail providers like Gmail as legitimate, as well as set policies so that mail providers can reject messages that try to spoof the senders' addresses," Dawes wrote.
Work on DMARC started about 18 months ago. Beginning Monday, other companies can sign up with the organization, whether they send emails or provide email services. For email users, the group hopes DMARC will mean fewer fraudulent messages and scams reaching their inbox.
The group's founders are email providers Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc., AOL Inc. and Google Inc.; financial service providers Bank of America Corp., Fidelity Investments and eBay Inc.'s PayPal; online service companies Facebook, LinkedIn Corp. and American Greetings Corp. and security companies Agari, Cloudmark, eCert, Return Path and the Trusted Domain Project.
Google uses it already, both in its email sender and email provider capacities. The heft of the companies that have already signed on to the project certainly helps, and its founders are hoping it will be more broadly adopted to become an industry standard.
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LOS ANGELES, Jan 29 (TheWrap.com) ? Ian Ambercrombie, the classically trained British stage actor best known to American TV audiences as Elaine Benes' nutty boss Mr. Pitt on "Seinfeld," died of a heart attack Thursday in Los Angeles. He was 77.
Abercrombie appeared on several other U.S. TV shows. He played the 800-year-old Professor Crumbs on "Wizards of Waverly Place and a butler on "Desperate Housewives," and made guest appearances on "Twin Peaks," "Dynasty" and "Days of Our Lives."
He appeared in a number of movies, including "Stalag 17," "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" and "The Prisoner of Zenda," with Peter Sellers.
He did voiceover work in "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," "Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties" and "Rango," and had completed "Green Lantern" for the Cartoon Network just before he died.
As Mr. Pitt in Seinfeld, he was known for his obsession with socks and quirky habits like eating candy bars with a knife and fork.
He is survived by his wife, Gladys.
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It's an old story that's not often told or told well in Hollywood, but this year's Sundance Film Festival premiered two films --Smashed and Predisposed -- that showcase addiction and all its glorious collateral damage with effective grace and a deft touch, thanks to some outstanding writing and performances. Without delivering too much of a message -- as one of the filmmakers put it, "We're not Fed-Ex."
Smashed -- directed by James Ponsoldt and written by Ponsoldt and Susan Burke, tells the story of Kate and Charlie -- an indie couple living on the outskirts of Los Angeles who really love each other and really love getting really drunk together. Kate (played by the mesmerizing Mary Elizabeth Winstead) teaches elementary school, and is so hung over in the first scene that she vomits in front of a class of second graders. She's married to Charlie (Breaking Bad's intense Aaron Paul) who spends most of his 'freelancer' time hanging out with his buddies in bars until the love of his life comes home from school. Kate decides to join AA and get sober (The Help's Octavia Spencer is her sponsor; the world's funniest real life couple Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman are her colleagues at school, and Mary Kay Place plays her mother -- all are sublime) and in doing so begins a journey that takes her far away from her husband. All of which hurts.
Predisposed, which premiered just this past Friday, is directed by Phil Dorling and Ron Nyswaner and written by Nyswaner ( who also wrote Philadelphia) and stars Jesse Eisenberg as Eli, a piano prodigy who needs to get his mother Penny -- the glorious Melissa Leo -- into rehab so he can attend a critical audition for a prestigious music school. The problem is that rehab can't take her unless she's recently taken drugs so mother and son set out to score with dealers Tracy Morgan and Isiah Whitlock Jr. They all pile into a broken down vehicle just a little too reminiscent of Little Miss Sunshine and so the journey begins.
Both films conjure up the handful of movies that have become iconic for addiction -- Days of Wine and Roses, The Lost Weekend, Postcards from the Edge and Leaving Los Vegas -- as well as providing a new humanity for today's drinkers and drug- abusers and a fresh approach to the unavoidable plot points -- hitting bottom, tearful confrontations, admitting there's a problem and falling off the wagon.
It's not surprising that both screenwriters are themselves in recovery. Susan Burke is a writer and standup comic who says she stopped drinking when she was 18 for her parents and again at 21 for herself.
"I don't walk around and tell everyone but I'm proud of that... I think people know it means I'll show up," she says, "In society there is still that otherness -- in a lot of films and books they show you the low-bottom alcoholic so you can separate yourself from that, to show they are different, a bad person who is really messed up. I want people to see Kate and say I know that girl, or that girl is me."
Predisposed's Ron Nyswaner points out there are all kinds of addicts, including highly functional ones. "To me this is a disease of the mind and spirit -- this is a disease of self-delusion" he says, "I was at the highest peak of my career a few years ago when there were a lot of awards and things and I was in the depths of my addiction... I can make sure you don't know what you don't need to know."
And both filmmakers say they worked hard not to judge their out-of-control protagonists. "We were very purposeful in creating this story that did not pass judgment on someone's disease or even someone's behavior," says Smashed's Ponsoldt, "We wanted a sense of humor born out of a reality, out of getting the details right but also out of a humanism and charity and love of these characters -- there was no desire to punish them."
Susan Burke adds that having the main drunk be female was also groundbreaking. "We felt we hadn't seen a fully dimensionalized woman in a portrayal like this, we didn't want to depict a shrill woman or a weak woman," she says, "Kate can be raging, she can be cruel to people when she's drunk, she can also be vulnerable, she can also be all of these things that men like this have had the opportunity to be."
Melissa Leo's portrayal of the spacey, hipster painter Penny in Predisposed is equally fresh.
"There are a lot of kinds of addicts in the world and the notion that someone must be dribbling snot and homeless has more to do with maybe who they were before they became an addict," she says, "For my money Penny was a woman who grew up in a certain time with an accepted norm of behavior within a certain socio-economic strata and she had a husband who was an artist living in that kind of world ... I think that like many an addict before her is simply and utterly aware of how her behaviors are affecting her family. She has a house they live in, the little one does get to school, the big boy takes care of the little kid, isn't that what a family is for?"
Both Kate and Penny aren't in this alone, of course , Kate's husband Charlie has lost his best drinking partner and struggles to stay part of her newly sober world, while Penny's son Ira has been holding the family together and wants to escape.
"Sobriety made their whole dynamic completely different," says screenwriter Burke, "I feel for the character Charlie so much -- the most difficult thing to have your best friend go on a completely different road."
Neda Armian produced Predisposed as well as Rachel Getting Married, and says addicts can create addicts, too. "Ira (Jesse Eisenberg) has an addiction to wanting to escape his life and that's through music, where he can get away from everything," she says, "For me, that audition is about a better life for him -- it's his way out."
(Worth noting here -- Eisenberg learned to play the piano for this role and was so good that there was no need for a double for the audition scene -- "The boy is a genius!" says Melissa Leo)
Both filmmakers insist that addiction is just one aspect of their movies.
"The story is about forgiveness, love, hope and change," says Smashed's Ponsoldt, "It's just about a relationship, a love story where one person makes a life change and the other doesn't -- without judgment."
Predisposed's Nyswaner echoes this disclaimer. "Really this movie is about art" he says, " Penny is an artist, in the first scene she is painting, later in the film she spontaneously makes a sock puppet from the art supplies in her car for her daughter and she has said to her son "Honey, you are a great artist , it's just like your father' and she's right. Art, like drugs, allows you to escape something, but while art actually allows you to escape and elevate you, drugs allows you to escape and then kill you."
And both films use a blessedly light touch.
"We didn't want this film to look like these people were having this rough, raw time," says Ponsoldt, "We wanted you to see people in this nice town, not this dark world of drug dens and needles. It's people you see in your everyday life who are going through this. These are people with families and friends and they need help."
Adds Melissa Leo "Think of The Kids Are Alright and the many subjects they were tackling lightly...it's shot bright, it's not dark and gritty, there's a way to share these stories by lightening it somehow so you can get audiences in the seats watching the thing and then learning the lesson."
And the lesson?
"'Sometimes when I start I can't stop'", says Leo, "that's the closest Penny gets to understanding this problem that her son Eli, who is pretty fucking smart, has pointed out to her.
?
Follow Nancy Doyle Palmer on Twitter: www.twitter.com/NancyDPalmer
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nancy-doyle-palmer-/smashed-predisposed-sundance_b_1240666.html
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COMMENTARY | Newt Gingrich's spokesman said Thursday night's GOP debate in Jacksonville, Fla., was a "push." Who is he trying to kid? Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won the night in a harrowing display of debate splendor that had the well-spoken, factually armed former speaker tied in a knot.
The Ticket reported Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond tried to sell the idea of a debate draw to reporters traveling with the campaign, but it seemed to fall flat. Rightfully so. Gingrich did not have a strong appearance, failing to counter damaging attacks from Romney and Rick Santorum, who straddled him on the stage. Ron Paul provided nothing more than comic relief and proven -- beyond a shadow of a doubt -- that he is unfit to be president and merely riding a 15 minutes of fame tour through these debates.
One of the former House speaker's weakest moments was the defense of his plan to build a permanent moon colony by the end of his second term as president. He is right in one respect: America needs another grand idea. Gingrich cited President John F. Kennedy's call to space in the early 1960s as an example, but that was Kennedy's moment for Kennedy's time. America needs another grand idea, but not something as outlandish as a multitrillion-dollar expense of building moon colony. After all, we just finished building the international space station and the U.S. doesn't even possess a working orbiter at the moment.
The Washington Post reported Gingrich talked Wednesday to more than 500 residents of Cocoa Beach, Fla., about his plans to develop the next great space exploration program. His idea met with resounding approval from a community largely dependent on America's space program for their jobs. During the debate, Romney accused him of pandering local issues as he campaigns. Romney got that part wrong. Candidates always talk to local crowds about very local issues to win their votes (and their wallet).
Regardless of the space discussion, Gingrich did not have a good night. My heart says Romney won the debate, but I cannot dismiss the powerful performance of Santorum. Romney will carry Florida next week, but the three-way race will continue as they all move to Nevada for the next votes. That is unless Santorum runs out of money in the meantime.
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NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Fitch downgraded the sovereign credit ratings of Belgium, Cyprus, Italy, Slovenia and Spain on Friday, indicating there was a 1-in-2 chance of further cuts in the next two years.
In a statement, the ratings agency said the affected countries were vulnerable in the near-term to monetary and financial shocks.
"Consequently, these sovereigns do not, in Fitch's view, accrue the full benefits of the euro's reserve currency status," it said.
Fitch cut Italy's rating to A-minus from A-plus; Spain to A from AA-minus; Belgium to AA from AA-plus; Slovenia to A from AA-minus and Cyprus to BBB-minus from BBB, leaving the small island nation just one notch above junk status.
Ireland's rating of BBB-plus was affirmed.
All of the ratings were given negative outlooks.
Fitch said it had weighed up a worsening economic outlook in much of the euro zone against the European Central Bank's December move to flood the banking sector with cheap three-year money and austerity efforts by governments to curb their debts.
"Overall, today's rating actions balance the marked deterioration in the economic outlook with both the substantive policy initiatives at the national level to address macro-financial and fiscal imbalances, and the initial success of the ECB's three-year Long-Term Refinancing Operation in easing near-term sovereign and bank funding pressures," Fitch said.
Two weeks ago, Standard & Poor's downgraded the credit ratings of nine euro zone countries, stripping France and Austria of their coveted triple-A status but not EU paymaster Germany, and pushing struggling Portugal into junk territory.
With nearly half a trillion euros of ECB liquidity coursing through the financial system, some of which has apparently gone into euro zone government bonds, and with hopes of a deal to write down a slab of Greece's mountainous debt, even that sweeping ratings action had little market impact.
The euro briefly pared gains against the dollar after Fitch cut the five euro zone sovereigns but soon jumped to a session high of $1.3208, according to Reuters data, its highest since December 13.
Italy is widely seen as the tipping point for the euro zone. If it slid towards default, the whole currency project would be threatened.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, a technocrat who has won plaudits for his economic reform drive, said he reacted to Fitch's downgrade of Italy with "detached serenity."
"They signal things that are not particularly new, for example, that Italy has a very high debt as a percentage of GDP and they signal that the way the euro zone is governed as a whole is not perfect and we knew that too," he said during a live interview on Italian television.
"They also say things that give a positive view of what is being done in Italy because there is much appreciation for policies of this government and this parliament," he said.
Fitch said of Italy: "A more severe rating action was forestalled by the strong commitment of the Italian government to reducing the budget deficit and to implementing structural reform as well as the significant easing of near-term financing risks as a result of the ECB's 3-year Longer-term Refinancing Operation."
(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos, Daniel Bases, Philip Pullela and Pam Niimi, writing by Mike Peacock, Editing by James Dalgleish)
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I assume you just want to recover some files from the old drive? That can be done without starting Win95.
What you need to do is to change your boot order back to the original hard drive.
I can help you sort this out but I don't have enough information. First of all, did you connect the Win95 drive to a ribbon cable with no other drives connected to that cable?
Describe haw you did connect it.
To change the boot order you need to enter the BIOS (setup) screens by hitting the appropriate key when your first start up the computer. Watch the screens at start up to learn which keystroke/s to use. Most likely will be one of the F* keys. That is enough information for now. try dealing with what I have told you so far.
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APAfter the Colts introduced their new head coach on Thursday, the owner addressed the status of their possibly former quarterback.
Rosenthal pointed out earlier in the day comments that Bob Kravitz of the Indianapolis Star communicated via Twitter.? Kravitz now has a full article based on the things Irsay said to Kravitz and other reporters.
It?s now even more clear that Manning and Irsay are positioning themselves to absorb minimal blame for a possible divorce.? Manning wants to create the impression that, if he leaves, it will have been the team?s decision.? Irsay?s comments suggest that it will be a joint decision ? and thus that any blame should be shared.
?We?ll work it through and we?ll work it through hand in hand, and we?ll talk and we?ll continue to talk as we get into February and get closer to the league year,? Irsay said.? ?That?s kind of where it stands right now.?
Still, it?s clear that Irsay isn?t happy with things Manning recently said, including his characterization of the team facility as ?not . . . a very good place for healing? due to all the recent changes.? ?There?s not any sort of bad situation around here for healing or anything like that,? Irsay said. ?That?s not a correct perspective.? Like I said, you keep it in house, your family, you talk to each other if you have problems, and he knows that.?
Irsay believes Manning?s remarks undermine the team.? ?I don?t think it?s in a good interest to paint the horseshoe in a negative light, I really don?t,? Irsay said.? ?He?s such a big part of that and everything else, but the horseshoe always comes first.?
Manning may disagree with that.? He thinks the people come first, and right now Manning undoubtedly is thinking about his own interests ? as he should.
And so the ball is now back in the court of the quarterback Irsay called a ?politician.?? While it?s still never wise to get involved in a land war in Asia, Chuck Pagano?s new boss is the Vizzini in this rapidly unfolding battle of wits.
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FILE - In this Dec. 14, 2011 file photo, veteran leader Sir Michael Somare, second right, attends a press conference after claiming to have been reinstated as Papua New Guinea's prime minister in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. Rebel soldiers seized the military's headquarters Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012 and replaced Papua New Guinea's top defense official with their own leader, who gave Prime Minister Peter O'Neill a week to step aside for his ousted predecessor. The self-proclaimed new leader of the country's defense forces, retired Col. Yaura Sasa, insisted he was not mounting a coup. But he warned that the military will take unspecified action unless O'Neill stands down and former prime minister Somare, is reinstated, as the national Supreme Court ordered last month. (AP Photo/Post-Courier, File) EDITORIAL USE ONLY
FILE - In this Dec. 14, 2011 file photo, veteran leader Sir Michael Somare, second right, attends a press conference after claiming to have been reinstated as Papua New Guinea's prime minister in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. Rebel soldiers seized the military's headquarters Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012 and replaced Papua New Guinea's top defense official with their own leader, who gave Prime Minister Peter O'Neill a week to step aside for his ousted predecessor. The self-proclaimed new leader of the country's defense forces, retired Col. Yaura Sasa, insisted he was not mounting a coup. But he warned that the military will take unspecified action unless O'Neill stands down and former prime minister Somare, is reinstated, as the national Supreme Court ordered last month. (AP Photo/Post-Courier, File) EDITORIAL USE ONLY
FILE - In this Dec. 15, 2011 file photo, Peter O'Neill, center, addresses his supporters in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, as controversy on who is the legitimate prime minister continues. Rebel soldiers seized the military's headquarters Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012 and replaced Papua New Guinea's top defense official with their own leader, who gave Prime Minister O'Neill a week to step aside for his ousted predecessor. The self-proclaimed new leader of the country's defense forces, retired Col. Yaura Sasa, insisted he was not mounting a coup. But he warned that the military will take unspecified action unless O'Neill stands down and former prime minister Sir Michael Somare, is reinstated, as the national Supreme Court ordered last month. (AP Photo/Post-Courier, File) EDITORIAL USE ONLY
In this April 21, 2010 photo, former Papua New Guinean Prime Minister Michael Somare receives a traditional taiaha at an official welcome ceremony for him in Rotorua, New Zealand. Rebel soldiers seized the military's headquarters Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012 and replaced Papua New Guinea's top defense official with their own leader, who gave Prime Minister Peter O'Neill a week to step aside for his ousted predecessor, Somare. (AP Photo/New Zealand Herald, Ben Fraser) NEW ZEALAND OUT, AUSTRALIA OUT
FILE - In this Sept. 24, 2011 file photo, Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea Peter O'Neill addresses the 66th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York. Rebel soldiers seized the military's headquarters Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012 and replaced Papua New Guinea's top defense official with their own leader, who gave O'Neill a week to step aside for his ousted predecessor. The self-proclaimed new leader of the country's defense forces, retired Col. Yaura Sasa, insisted he was not mounting a coup. But he warned that the military will take unspecified action unless O'Neill stands down and former prime minister Sir Michael Somare, is reinstated, as the national Supreme Court ordered last month. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (AP) ? Prime Minister Peter O'Neill refused to step down despite a mutiny Thursday by soldiers who seized Papua New Guinea's military headquarters and demanded that he cede power to his ousted predecessor.
Soldiers led by retired Col. Yuara Sasa put the country's top commander under house arrest in a bloodless, pre-dawn takeover ? part of the power struggle in which both O'Neill and former Prime Minister Michael Somare claim to be the rightful leader of the South Pacific island nation.
Sasa told reporters in Port Moresby that O'Neill had seven days to comply with a Supreme Court order reinstating Somare "or I will be forced to take actions to uphold the integrity of the Constitution."
O'Neill, who appears to have the support of a majority of the country's lawmakers, later held a news conference to declare he was still fully in charge and to reject any demand to step down. He also implied that Sasa had been arrested.
"This government does not answer to one man calling on us to recall Parliament," O'Neill told reporters, adding that Parliament would resume on Feb. 14 as scheduled.
O'Neill said he remained in control of the nation, including the armed forces, and that Sasa had been "dealt with," but would not elaborate.
Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported that it believed Sasa had been detained.
O'Neill said the military commander, Brig. Gen. Francis Agwi, who was released from house arrest within hours of the mutiny, remained in charge of most of the military. Earlier, the government had called on Sasa's group to surrender and said the mutiny did not have support from the broader military.
Deputy Prime Minister Belden Namah told reporters that about 30 soldiers were involved in the mutiny and that 15 of them have been arrested. Australian Associated Press reported up to 80 soldiers were involved.
Namah accused Somare of using "rogue soldiers to pursue his own greed and selfishness" and said Sasa could be charged with treason, which carries the death sentence.
Sasa, who last served as Papua New Guinea's defense attache to Indonesia before retiring from the military, told reporters he had been legitimately appointed defense chief by Somare.
Somare's spokeswoman and daughter, Betha Somare, said that his ousted Cabinet had confirmed Sasa's appointment several days ago.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard condemned the mutiny, saying in a written statement that the military has no place in Papua New Guinea's politics.
"It is critical therefore that this situation be resolved peacefully as soon as possible, with the PNG Defense Force chain of command restored," she added.
Somare was Papua New Guinea's first prime minister when it became independent in 1975, and was knighted by Britain's Queen Elizabeth II. Papua New Guinea's Parliament replaced him with O'Neill in August, while Somare was getting medical treatment outside the country.
Last month, the country's Supreme Court and Governor-General Michael Ogio backed Somare, who the court ruled was illegally removed. But Ogio changed his mind days later, saying bad legal advice had led him to incorrectly reinstate Somare.
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Weather Underground Forecast for Wednesday, January 25, 2012.
A stalled frontal zone in the Southern Plains will give rise to a new area of low pressure in eastern Texas and southern Oklahoma on Wednesday. The low will develop slowly, but due to its proximity to the Gulf of Mexico, it will have a rich moisture source to bring heavy precipitation to the region. Heavy rains and thunderstorms will develop throughout the region, spreading north from their Gulf origins. Eastern Texas and Louisiana may experience severe weather conditions with damaging wind gusts and isolated tornadoes.
While the region is in dire need of rain, many of the thunderstorms will bring the rain in quick heavy bursts, leading to localized and urban flooding. In addition to this activity, cloud cover will spread north out of this low bringing cloudy to partly cloudy skies to much of the Northeast. The cloud cover should not produce any significant rain in the Northeast however.
To the north and west of the southern storm, a few areas of precipitation are expected in the Northern Plains along with some high clouds, but generally dry conditions will be most common.
The Northwest will see another shot of precipitation as another Pacific cold front pushes across the coast. Once again, heavy rain will fall along the coast, with high elevation areas expected to receive deep snowfall accumulations. Precipitation will spread eastward through the Northwest as this front pushes inland.
Elsewhere in the west, high pressure in the Great Basin should keep skies clear and allow temperatures to climb to near normal or above. Temperatures in the Lower 48 states Tuesday have ranged from a morning low of -20 degrees at West Yellowstone, Mont. to a high of 84 degrees at Plant City, Fla.
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HOMS, Syria?? Rushing out of the Rawda Cafe in the heart of Homs, the man berated journalists for not visiting rebel-held areas of the city. "Killing is everywhere," he screamed.
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"I am 65 years old and I have no life ? what happened to my country, what happened to my country?"
His agitation drew a crowd of supporters of President Bashar Assad who accused gunmen of stirring violence in Homs, scene of some of the worst bloodshed of the 10-month uprising.
"What are you doing here? Go to Baba Amro, go to Khaldiya," the man continued, referring to opposition strongholds which activists say have come under heavy fire from Assad's forces.
"What are you seeing here? Everything is clear in Syria, everything is clear," the man shouted. Until then, the journalists accompanied by heavy security had been struggling to find Homs residents to speak to on a government-organized trip.
People try to calm him down
When asked what he thought was happening in Syria, the man shouted: "Ask him, ask the president what is going on in Syria, what is going on in the country. Don't ask me."
The United Nations say 5,000 people have been killed in the crackdown, but authorities say they are fighting terrorist groups who they say have killed 2,000 soldiers and police.
Some of the men attracted by the commotion tried to calm the man down and take him back inside the cafe. The crowd grew, with many pro-Assad voices.
"What are you talking about? The city is safe," another man told him.
But he hit back: "How could you say that? How could you say it's all safe ? can you walk around?"
"I go wherever I want," the other man countered.
The man turned to the journalists and said: "They will come and get me, I fear for my life, nobody will hear about me if I give my name now. They will torture me, I will disappear."
'He is security'
A man in his 50s whispered: "You see this man saying it's safe? He is security, from the intelligence."
Two old men standing next to him nodded, with angry looks on their faces.
"Do not listen to them, they're security," one of them said. The other two nodded.
Assad supporters said their lives had become a nightmare and they did not feel safe.
Video: Inside Syria: the untold story (on this page)"The city is full of armed groups, they have killed us and raped our women," shouted one man.
Another shouted: "We were fine until the armed gangs appeared, they have caused the misery."
The man who started the scene tried to argue but his friends pushed him back inside the cafe.
The crowd dispersed.
Reuters
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46113926/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/
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Let's say you want to give your small business a mobile presence. You'd like to develop some mobile apps, but you don't have the time, money, or technical skills to do it yourself, and you're not too excited about the idea of paying a developer an armload to do it for you. Of course, on the other hand, you may be willing to pay a little more of a premium to have someone else do the work for you, work with you directly, and walk you through the process, customizing your app as you go.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/TQEvC8QcGEw/
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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/JNeO3oSh0EI/bmw-is-making-cars-that-drive-themselves
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COLUMBIA, S.C. ? To say Newt Gingrich capped an extraordinary comeback with a South Carolina victory doesn't quite capture what happened.
It was more like vindication.
The former House speaker came from behind to overtake Mitt Romney on Saturday in a state that for decades has chosen the eventual Republican nominee. On the way there, Gingrich triumphed over months of campaign turmoil and at least two political near-death experiences as well as millions of dollars of attack advertisements and potentially damning personal allegations.
He did it by finding his voice and rallying conservatives with a populist defiance.
"The American people feel that they have elites who have been trying to force us to stop being Americans," Gingrich told cheering supporters in Columbia after he was declared the victor. "It's not that I am a good debater. It's that I articulate the deepest-felt values of the American people."
It was on the debate stage that the pugnacious Gingrich arguably revived his presidential campaign, not once but twice in the past year, by giving a tea party-infused GOP exactly what it's hungering for ? a no-holds-barred attack dog willing to go after President Barack Obama with abandon. If Gingrich wins the nomination, his confrontational attitude against all things Obama likely will be a big reason Republicans choose him over chief rival Romney.
Gingrich, a political strategist in his own right who has a knack for understanding precisely what the GOP electorate wants, has aggressively taken it to Obama since the moment he entered the race last spring determined to turn his nationwide grass-roots network of support that he's cultivated for a decade into a front-running White House campaign.
But he stumbled early, including by disparaging the House Republicans' Medicare proposal as "right-wing social engineering" and was all but forced to apologize after the conservative outcry. His campaign nearly imploded over strategy squabbles, with virtually his entire senior staff abandoning him before the summer even began. And he was broke after spending lavishly.
Gingrich spent the next six months running his own campaign on a shoestring. The former college professor used a series of debates in the fall ? and the free media they afforded him ? to show Republican voters his political and oratory skills. Their adoration ended up catapulting him back into contention in Iowa. He vowed to stay positive and focus on Obama ? even as his rivals, sensing a very real threat, went on the attack with a barrage of negative TV advertising.
His rivals and allied groups ? primarily the pro-Romney Restore Our Future political action committee and Texas Rep. Ron Paul ? castigated him for a tumultuous speakership and career in Washington after Congress, knocking him way off course and nearly bludgeoning him to political death.
It turned out Gingrich didn't have the money to respond on TV. And his standing slid as the new year began, and he ended up coming in a distant fourth place in the leadoff caucuses on Jan. 3.
He was but an afterthought in the next state to vote, New Hampshire, where he spent a full week on the attack against Romney while complaining about the beating he took in Iowa on the air. But the cash-strapped Gingrich didn't have money to take his criticism of Romney to the TV airwaves. He seemed completely off his game, losing big in the first-in-the-nation primary state.
Then Sheldon Adelson came to the rescue.
The billionaire casino magnate and longtime Gingrich backer ponied up at least $5 million for an outside group ? made up of former Gingrich aides ? to help put his buddy back in the game. It wasn't long before the group ? Winning Our Future ? was exacting payback on Romney for his allies pummeling Gingrich in Iowa. And the group started raising questions about Romney's time at the helm of a private equity firm, Bain Capital, putting Romney on the defensive for the first time during the campaign.
When the race turned to South Carolina, it didn't take long for Gingrich_ a former Georgia congressman ? to hit his stride. The state had always been a campaign firewall for him. He had visited often, built his biggest staff of any of the first three early-voting states and spent $2.5 million on advertising.
Over the past 10 days, he raised questions about Romney's private business experience while Winning Our Future reinforced the message by financing millions of dollars in South Carolina advertising characterizing Romney as a corporate predator who dismantled companies while running Bain Capital. Gingrich also started working to undercut Romney's strength ? the notion that the former Massachusetts governor was the Republicans' best chance to beat Obama in the fall.
"What you are seeing him doing is convincing people first that he can win," senior Gingrich adviser David Winston explained at one point. "He's in the process of crossing that threshold."
It was his performance in two debates last week that may have helped him seal the deal with undecided Republicans who were questioning his viability as a candidate.
He turned his vulnerabilities ? a comment some interpreted as racist and an allegation by an ex-wife that he had wanted an "open marriage" ? into moments of strength by answering questions about those issues with nothing short of a character assassination on the national media. In both instances, he clearly tickled his conservative audience ? many of whom are skeptical of a media industry they view as left-leaning.
In Myrtle Beach last Monday, Gingrich lashed out when FOX News Juan Williams had asked him if comments he made urging poor minority children to work as janitors were racially insensitive.
"The fact is that more people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than any president in American history," Gingrich retorted ? and then turned up the intensity.
His voice rose and he jabbed a finger into the podium as he said: "I believe every American of every background has been endowed by their creator with the right to pursue happiness. And if that makes liberals unhappy, I'm going to continue to find ways to help poor people learn how to get a job, learn how to get a better job, and learn some day to own the job."
The clip became the heart of Gingrich's final television ad in South Carolina, and won high praise from supporters at the barbecue joints and sportsmen's clubs he visited in the campaign's closing days.
But three days later, Gingrich had what seemed like a problem on his hands.
An ex-wife, Marianne Gingrich, did an interview with ABC News in which she said Gingrich had asked her to allow him to have a mistress while they were married. It was unclear how the allegation would play in a Baptist state where many in the GOP electorate call themselves evangelical.
Gingrich ended up using the allegation to his advantage on a debate stage in Charleston, when CNN moderator John King opened the candidate face-off by asking Gingrich about his ex-wife's claim.
"Every person in here knows personal pain. Every person in here has had someone close to them go through painful things," an indignant Gingrich said. "To take an ex-wife and make it, two days before the primary, a significant question for a presidential campaign is as close to despicable as anything I can imagine."
The audience roared and rose to its feet.
Several things also fell Gingrich's way.
Romney's personal wealth was thrust into the spotlight as he stumbled over whether ? and then eventually when ? he would release his tax returns. Gingrich pounced, suggesting Romney may have something to hide that could pose a liability against Obama. Romney also took a hit when the Iowa GOP declared that Rick Santorum, not Romney had won the leadoff caucuses.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry also quit the race two days before the primary and endorsed Gingrich. And evangelical conservatives in the state largely ignored the pleas of national Christian leaders who had voted to endorse Santorum and started coalescing behind Gingrich, the only other candidate in the race fighting over the support of the right flank.
In the end, South Carolina Republican strategist Chip Felkel said: "His supporters were fired up, and it's contagious, especially given Romney's failure to generate that kind of enthusiasm."
The coming weeks will determine whether Gingrich can stay on top this time.
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After a weekend of speculation, Heidi Klum and Seal confirmed that they are separating late Sunday night after nearly seven years of marriage.
The "Project Runway" host and the Grammy-winning singer have four children together and were a staple of every award show red carpet since they started seeing each other. In fact, at the 2010 Emmys pre-show, "The Bachelor" host Chris Harrison called them "the most beautiful couple ever in the history of couples."
Throughout their almost decade together, Klum and Seal were not at all private about their romance on the small screen; the supermodel notoriously shared arguably too much information about their sex life during interviews.
From Seal telling Oprah that his priorities are his "wife, then the family, then career" in 2007 to their duet at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show to Klum telling Ellen, ?A lot of things drive me crazy about him? less than a year ago, click through the slideshow below to see the evolution of their relationship on TV.
Heidi Klum: 'Late Night With Jimmy Fallon' (10/31/2011)
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Heidi Klum: 'Late Night With Jimmy Fallon' (10/31/2011)
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Fruit flies don't have noses, but a huge part of their brains is dedicated to processing smells. Flies probably rely on the sense of smell more than any other sense for essential activities such as finding mates and avoiding danger.
UW-Madison researchers have discovered that a gene called distal-less is critical to the fly's ability to receive, process and respond to smells.
As reported in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists also found evidence that distal-less is important for generating and maintaining self-renewing stem cells in the large brain structure that's responsible for processing odors and carrying out other important duties.
The corresponding gene in mammals and humans, called Dlx, is known to be important in the sense of smell. The Dlx gene has also been implicated in autism and epilepsy. By studying how distal-less works in fruit fly neurons, the scientists also hope to expand understanding of Dlx.
"We're really interested in knowing at a very fundamental level what distal-less is doing in the fly olfactory system and how it's doing it," says senior author Dr. Grace Boekhoff-Falk, associate professor of cell and regenerative biology at the School of Medicine and Public Health. "We're also hoping that what we learn in flies can give us a better understanding of how Dlx works in vertebrates, including humans."
Studying distal-less is much easier than studying Dlx, she adds, partly because mice and humans have six Dlx genes while flies have only one distal-less.
Odors enter fruit flies through nerve cells designed to receive smells--olfactory receptor neurons. From receptor neurons, projection neurons relay olfactory information to the large brain structure called the mushroom body (MB), which then triggers the animals to move in the right direction?towards the fragrance of food, for example, or away from the odor of a predator.
Boekhoff-Falk and her group have studied distal-less (dll) for years, previously investigating its role in the fruit fly hearing system and its limb development.
The current studies of the olfactory system were done in larvae rather than the more typically studied adult flies. Dissecting the younger, smaller flies demands the steadiest of hands, but the payoff is that larvae offer a substantially simpler view of brain development and wiring as well as insights into events occurring extremely early in development.
The researchers found dll was required for the development and growth of multiple cell types in the olfactory system, including those that receive, relay and process olfactory information. Dll must work for normal olfactory behavior to occur in larvae. And when dll is defective, the sense of smell is not present.
Zeroing in on the MB, the UW researchers also discovered an essential relationship between dll and the longest-living and most prolific neural stem cells found in fruit flies.
Boekhoff-Falk's team found that in flies with a mutated version of dll, these neural stem cells failed to proliferate. No other scientists have observed such strong defects in these cells at such an early stage.
The scientists identified markers that will allow them to learn how the stem cells decide which specialized cells they will become and how their growth may be regulated.
"We want to identify the niche, or the stem cell microenvironment, and the cells there that supply growth inputs needed to keep the stem-ness of the cells," she says.
Boekhoff-Falk believes the parallels to human stem cell biology may be strong. "Our model may be useful for further analysis of how this gene regulates stem cells," she says.
The experiments also opened the door to a better understanding of the evolution of the sense of smell.
"The prevailing view is that fly and mammal olfactory systems evolved independently, multiple times over history," says Boekhoff-Falk, who has a long-standing interest in evolutionary biology. "But our work challenges that view. We think that when it comes to the olfactory system there may be a common ancestor shared by flies and mammals."
Earlier work by others had shown that the "wiring diagrams," or the arrangements of nerves, involved in olfaction in flies and mammals are similar. However, this was attributed to convergent evolution, the process by which unrelated organisms independently evolve similar traits as a result of having to adapt to similar environments, rather than shared ancestry.
The new work from Boekhoff-Falk's group suggests that the underlying genetic mechanisms used in the developing olfactory systems of flies and mammals are similar.
"This supports the idea that the last common ancestor already had some form of olfactory system," she says, "and that the overall architecture and key elements of the underlying genetics have been well conserved over time."
The long-shared similarity makes studies of fly genes in the olfactory system more relevant to human disease than previously thought, she says.
All told, the findings make the fruit fly a powerful model for investigating dll function.
"We think these studies have the potential to be highly relevant to human biology," says Boekhoff-Falk.
###
University of Wisconsin-Madison: http://www.wisc.edu
Thanks to University of Wisconsin-Madison for this article.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116905/Researchers_find_gene_critical_to_sense_of_smell_in_fruit_fly
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TEHRAN (Reuters) ? Nine bodies have been recovered from a passenger vessel that sank off the Iranian coast with 22 people aboard, but five survivors have been rescued, the official IRNA news agency reported on Sunday.
Rescue officials said they feared most of those on board had been trapped inside the boat when it capsized and sank in bad weather while sailing from the island of Hormuz to Bandar Abbas on Saturday evening.
IRNA reported that the boat had run out of fuel and was tossed about in heavy winds before capsizing. The strong wind also hampered the rescue effort, it said.
(Reporting by Hashem Kalantari; Editing by Tim Pearce)
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Copper prices rose for the third straight day Thursday on growing hopes that economic growth will boost demand.
Copper for March delivery continued a rally that started Tuesday, rising 4.8 cents to end at $3.8005 per pound. That leaves copper up nearly 5 percent for the week.
Copper prices often rise when traders think the U.S. economy is poised to grow. Copper is used as raw material in the construction industry. Factories also buy it make various kinds of consumer devices.
Investors gained confidence about the economy after the government said the number of people seeking unemployment benefits plunged last week to the lowest level since April 2008. In recent years the weak labor market has dragged down consumer spending, which accounts for a large part of U.S. economic activity. If spending increases because more consumers get jobs, it could boost demand for copper at factories and construction sites.
In other trading, precious metals prices fell. Silver for March delivery fell 3.4 cents to $30.509 an ounce. Gold for February delivery lost $5.40 to end at $1,654.50 an ounce.
Industrial metals were mixed.
March palladium rose $9.90 to $678.40 per ounce. April platinum closed down $7.30 at $1,518 an ounce.
In energy trading, benchmark crude oil fell 20 cents to $100.39 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Heating oil rose 2.26 cents to $3.036 per gallon, gasoline futures dropped 0.96 cents to $2.8158 per gallon and natural gas fell 15.3 cents to $2.363 per 1,000 cubic feet.
March agriculture contracts rose.
Wheat rose 13.5 cents to end at $6.0575 per bushel, corn gained 12.5 cents to $6.06 per bushel and soybeans closed up 13.5 cents at $11.97 per bushel.
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Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2012/01/18/juice-20th-anniversary/
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LOS ANGELES ? Chauncey Billups hit a winning 3-pointer with 1 second left as the Los Angeles Clippers stunned the defending NBA champion Dallas Mavericks 91-89 on Wednesday night.
Mo Williams made his first seven shots and finished with 26 points off the bench in his return to the lineup from a sore right foot, and DeAndre Jordan had 19 points and nine rebounds for the undermanned Clippers, playing their third game in three days.
Blake Griffin had 17 rebounds along with 14 points and seven assists ? the last one setting up Billups' rainbow from the right of the key.
Clippers point guard Chris Paul missed his third straight game because of a left hamstring strain. Brian Cook sat out his third in a row with a sprained left ankle.
Dirk Nowitzki and Delonte West each scored 17 points for Dallas. Jason Kidd, playing his third game after missing the previous four because of back spasms, played 15 scoreless minutes in the first half and finished with five points and 10 assists. The 17-year veteran was 1 for 9 from the field against the Lakers, including 0 for 8 from 3-point range.
Jason Terry made his only two 3-point baskets of the game in the final 37 seconds, the second coming with 5 seconds to play after losing Jordan on a switch and getting himself all alone at the top of the lane.
The Mavericks played without Vince Carter, who sprained his left foot on the final play of Monday night's 73-70 loss to the Lakers when he tried to position himself for a 3-point shot that he missed at the buzzer. The team's second-leading scorer off the bench returned to Dallas to get examined by team doctors.
The Clippers snapped a 10-game losing streak to the Mavericks, beating them for only the second time in their last 18 meetings.
Jordan's dunk and Griffin's layup gave the Clippers an 88-33 lead with 1:29 remaining. Dallas' Ian Mahinmi missed both free throws at the other end, but Terry's first 3-pointer to cut the margin to 88-86. Billups missed a 12-footer, and Griffin forced a jump ball with Nowitzki on the ensuing rebound with 14.9 seconds to play.
Griffin got the tip to Billups, who caught it off-balance and lost it out of bounds. Terry hit his second 3 on Dallas' next possession, and Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro called a timeout to set up what proved to be the winning basket.
Neither team led by more than six points until Jordan completed a three-point play to give the Clippers a 64-57 advantage with 6 minutes left in the third quarter. They led by as many as nine before Dallas used a 14-5 run to pull into a 71-all tie heading to the fourth.
Williams, who sat out the previous three games, was the first player off the Clippers' bench and scored 18 points to help Los Angeles take a 52-51 halftime lead. Jordan, who hadn't taken more than six shots in any of his first 11 games this season, was 5 for 8 from the field in the half with 10 points, eight rebounds and four blocks.
Billups scored 10 points in the first 10 minutes, matching his total through 24 minutes in a rout Tuesday at Utah. Williams replaced him with 5:26 left in the first quarter, scoring 11 points to help the Clippers take a 31-27 lead into the second. The Mavericks opened the quarter with a 9-0 run before Williams stopped the bleeding with a 3-pointer.
Caron Butler missed his first seven shots over 27 scoreless minutes before ending the drought on an 18-footer that gave the Clippers a 68-62 lead with 3:05 left in the third.
Notes: Since moving to Los Angeles for the 1984-85 campaign, the Clippers are 17-69 against teams that won an NBA title the previous season. The franchise was 20-46 against defending NBA champs during the Buffalo and San Diego years. ... Jordan reached double digits in field-goal attempts for the fifth time in 215 NBA games. His previous career high was 12. ... The Clippers have allowed fewer than 100 points in each of their eight victories, and more than 100 in each of their four losses. This was the sixth time they held an opponent under 90. ... With 23,050 career points, Nowitzki is 90 away from overtaking Hall of Famer and former Clippers general manager Elgin Baylor for 22nd place all-time. The only active players with more points than Nowitzki are Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett. ... Kidd played in his 1,278th regular-season game, tying A.C. Green for 15th place all-time, and is 15 steals shy of Michael Jordan's total of 2,514 for second place in that category. ... Dallas is 0-7 when allowing 90 or more points and 8-0 when holding its opponent under 90.
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A study published in the British Medical Journal revealed infants born to mothers who took antidepressants during pregnancy are at risk for dangerous levels of high blood pressure in their lungs, Medical News Today reports. Here is a guide about antidepressant use in pregnancy and pulmonary hypertension in children.
Infant lung high blood pressure
It's normal for a fetus in utero to have pulmonary hypertension because the placenta is where oxygen exchange occurs, Medscape. After birth, infants whose lungs don't make the circulatory transition properly experience symptoms such as breathing problems and higher pulmonary blood pressure. If the infant's lungs work correctly, they develop Persistent Pulmonary Hypertension in the Newborn, which can lead to respiratory failure. Pulmonary hypertension normally affects 1.2 to 3 infants per 1,000 with a 15 percent mortality rate and is responsible for 10 percent of infant respiratory failure cases.
Link between maternal antidepressants and newborn health
The BMJ study looked at 1.6 million single-birth infants, of which 27,000 mothers took a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressant during pregnancy. SSRIs include Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft and Celexa. Researchers found that risk of infant pulmonary hypertension was only slightly increased if the mother used an SSRI before the eighth week of pregnancy. Infants born to mothers who took SSRIs after 20 weeks had double the risk, Medical News Today says.
Concerns for mother and baby about antidepressants
Quitting antidepressants after getting pregnant might be better for the baby but more dangerous for the mom, the Mayo Clinic reports. Traditionally, it was thought mothers were protected from depression during gestation by feel-good hormones associated with pregnancy. Now doctors aren't so sure. There are also sometimes extra depression triggers in pregnancy. Untreated depression can be dangerous for the baby, WebMD reports. Stopping antidepressant use for pregnancy might exacerbate emotional issues. Depressed mothers are also more vulnerable to post-partum depression.
Advice to mothers
WebMD says that in deciding whether to use antidepressants during pregnancy that the main factor is the severity of the mother's emotional health issues. There are also some antidepressants that might be safer for babies than others. The Mayo Clinic lists tricyclic antidepressants and bupropion (Wellbutrin) as safer pregnancy drugs. Drugs says Paxil has been linked to birth defects and not recommended during pregnancy.
Marilisa Kinney Sachteleben writes about parenting issues from 23 years raising four children and 25 years teaching K-8, special needs, adult education and home-school.
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FILE - This June 29, 2011 file photo, shows the headquarters building of Goldman Sachs, in New York. Goldman Sachs said Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012, its income fell 58 percent in the last three months of last year because of lower investment banking income in a quarter marked by choppy markets. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
FILE - This June 29, 2011 file photo, shows the headquarters building of Goldman Sachs, in New York. Goldman Sachs said Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012, its income fell 58 percent in the last three months of last year because of lower investment banking income in a quarter marked by choppy markets. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Goldman Sachs' net income fell 58 percent in the last three months of last year because of lower investment banking fees in a quarter marked by choppy financial markets.
The investment bank said Wednesday that it made $1 billion, or $1.84 per share, from October through December. The results beat the estimate of $1.28 per share from analysts surveyed by FactSet, a provider of financial data.
Goldman's quarterly revenue fell 30 percent to $6 billion. It set aside $2.2 billion for pay, 2 percent less than the year before.
Fear about the European debt crisis made the stock and bond markets volatile late last year, and clients of all the major banks shied away from mergers and acquisitions and public offerings of stock.
Goldman took in 43 percent less in the fourth quarter than it did in the same quarter a year earlier from advising companies on mergers and acquisitions and underwriting fees for stock and bond sales.
Goldman has a reputation for outperforming the rest of Wall Street. But its fee decline was roughly in line with Citigroup, its much weaker competitor, where fees declined 45 percent. JPMorgan Chase reported a smaller decline of 39 percent.
CEO Lloyd Blankfein said concerns about the global economy made Goldman's clients less inclined to take risks in 2011. He said the firm saw "encouraging signs" that the economy and financial markets are improving.
Goldman's typical clients are large hedge funds and multinational corporations that need to hedge their bets on foreign currencies, fluctuating interest rates and commodities.
The bumpy financial markets hurt revenue in those parts of Goldman's business. Revenue from client services fell 16 percent to $3.06 billion for the quarter. Transactions in commodities, currency and fixed income fell 17 percent.
Besides conducting large trades for those clients, Goldman has made big profits trading for its own account ? especially when the markets are volatile. But regulations taking effect this year will reduce Goldman's ability to make those trades for the firm.
Another worry is that the near future isn't looking as healthy. The firm's investment banking transaction backlog, an indicator of future revenue and profit, decreased from the quarter before, though it was slightly higher than a year earlier.
For the year, Goldman made $4.4 billion, 47 percent less than in 2010, on revenue of $28.8 billion, down 26 percent from the previous year.
Goldman's stock was up 1 percent at $98.74 in pre-market trading.
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