Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/302172562?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Monday, April 29, 2013
PFT: SEC accounts for 63 picks ? a quarter of the draft
Getty ImagesAfter analyzing?the draft needs of all 32 teams, PFT will review how well each team addressed those needs. Up next: The Oakland Raiders.?
What?they?needed: Defensive line, quarterback, offensive line, cornerback, tight end, wide receiver.
Who they got:
Round 1: D.J. Hayden, CB, Houston.
Round 2: Menelik Watson, OT, Florida State.
Round 3: Sio Moore, LB, Connecticut.
Round 4: Tyler Wilson, QB, Arkansas.
Round 6: Nick Kasa, TE, Colorado.
Round 6: Latavius Murray, RB, UCF.
Round 6: Mychal Rivera, TE, Tennessee.
Round 6: Stacy McGee, DT, Oklahoma.
Round 7: Brice Butler, WR, San Diego State.
Round 7: David Bass, DE, Missouri Western.
Where they hit: Hayden, who survived a freakish life-threatening internal injury suffered in November, could be the Raiders? top cornerback in short order. With the second-rounder acquired from Miami, the Raiders added Watson, a tackle prospect with upside. Moore is a good scheme fit, and Wilson could prove a very good value if he plays to his best collegiate form.
Where they missed: The Raiders didn?t draft a defensive lineman until Round Six. There?s playing time to be had for ends Bass and Jack Crawford (2012 fifth-rounder) and tackles McGee and Christo Bilukidi (2012 sixth-rounder) behind the Raiders? veteran starters, but Oakland could use a little more help at both line positions. In McKenzie?s defense, the Raiders have numerous needs, and on first analysis, he did quite well to add talent and depth in this draft.
Impact rookies: Given the state of the Raiders? roster, all 10 drafted rookies have a chance to make the team, and several could earn game-day snaps of consequence in Year One. Hayden has the best shot to start. He should compete with Tracy Porter and Mike Jenkins right off the bat. Moore is also a player to watch; the Raiders have revamped their LB corps this offseason but don?t have any standouts. A talented fresh face has a chance to make an impact early at this position. Watson?s best opportunity to start in 2013 is at right tackle, but that?s no sure thing, given his lack of experience. Rivera is a potential sleeper, given the Raiders? lack of a clear-cut top target at tight end after the departure of Brandon Myers. Murray also is an interesting addition; can he challenge backup Rashad Jennings for snaps? And then we come to Wilson. Matt Flynn will get first run at the starting job, and Wilson will have to be a quick study to beat out him and Terrelle Pryor for playing time. However, it?s not out of the realm of possibility.
Long-term prospects: Watson is talented enough to play in Year One if he quickly develops, but his best football could be down the road.?If Wilson doesn?t win the starting job in 2013, the question becomes whether he shows enough to be one of the primary contenders or the heir apparent in 2014. The Raiders used a mere fourth-round pick on him, so he?s going to have to show at least a little promise in Year One. Kasa is a converted defensive end who could need some time to continue learning the TE position.
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2 policemen shot in Rome as Italy gets new govt
A wounded Carabinieri paramilitary police officer lies on the ground after being shot outside the Chigi Premier's office, in Rome, Sunday, April 28, 2013. Two paramilitary police officers were shot and wounded Sunday in a crowded square outside the Italian premier's office as the new leader Enrico Letta was sworn in about a kilometer (half-mile) away. It was unclear if there was any connection between the events. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
A wounded Carabinieri paramilitary police officer lies on the ground after being shot outside the Chigi Premier's office, in Rome, Sunday, April 28, 2013. Two paramilitary police officers were shot and wounded Sunday in a crowded square outside the Italian premier's office as the new leader Enrico Letta was sworn in about a kilometer (half-mile) away. It was unclear if there was any connection between the events. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
A wounded Carabinieri paramilitary police officer lies on the ground after being shot outside the Chigi Premier's office, in Rome, Sunday, April 28, 2013. Two paramilitary police officers were shot and wounded Sunday in a crowded square outside the Italian premier's office as the new leader Enrico Letta was sworn in about a kilometer (half-mile) away. It was unclear if there was any connection between the events. (AP Photo/Mauro Scrobogna, Lapresse) ITALY OUT
A wounded Carabinieri paramilitary police officer lies on the ground after being shot outside the Chigi Premier's office, in Rome, Sunday, April 28, 2013. Two paramilitary police officers were shot and wounded Sunday in a crowded square outside the Italian premier's office as the new leader Enrico Letta was sworn in about a kilometer (half-mile) away. It was unclear if there was any connection between the events. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
A man believed to be the assailant lies on the ground detained by police after a shootout outside the Chigi Premier's office, in Rome, Sunday, April 28, 2013. Reports say two paramilitary police officers were shot and wounded outside the Italian premier's office as the new leader Enrico Letta was sworn in about a kilometer (half-mile) away. It was unclear if there was any connection between the events. (AP Photo/Mauro Scrobogna, Lapresse) ITALY OUT
A wounded Carabiniere paramilitary police officer is assisted after being shot at outside the Chigi Premier's office, in Rome, Sunday, April 28, 2013. The shootout took place as Italy's new premier, Enrico Letta, was been sworn into office with his Cabinet at the nearby Quirinale presidential palace. News reports said a paramilitary policeman was shot and wounded about a kilometer (half-mile) away in the square outside the premier's office. Sky TG24 TV said an assailant had been detained by police. It was unclear if there was any connection between the events. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia) (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
ROME (AP) ? An unemployed bricklayer shot two Italian policemen in a crowded square outside the premier's office Sunday just as the nation's new government was being sworn in, investigators said.
The gunman's intended target was politicians, a top Italian official said after interviewing him.
Mired in recession and suffering from soaring unemployment, Italy has been in political paralysis since an inconclusive February election. Social and political tensions have been running high among voters divided between center-left, conservative and anti-government political parties.
Sunday was supposed to be a hopeful day when debt-ridden Italy finally got new government to solve its many problems. But shots rang out in Colonna Square near a busy shopping and strolling area shortly after 11:30 a.m. just as Premier Enrico Letta and his new ministers were taking their oaths at the Quirinal presidential office about a kilometer (half mile) away.
The suspected gunman, dressed in a dark business suit, was immediately grabbed by other police outside Chigi Palace, which houses the premier's office and other government offices. The politicians were supposed to have met at the palace later Sunday for their first Cabinet meeting.
Rome Prosecutor Pierfilippo Laviani told reporters he had questioned the alleged assailant, who was taken to a hospital with bruises after being wrestled to the ground. He identified the man as Luigi Preiti, 49, from Calabria, a southern agricultural area plagued by organized crime and chronic unemployment.
Laviani said Preiti had "confessed everything" and didn't appear mentally unbalanced.
"He is a man full of problems, who lost his job, who lost everything," the prosecutor said. "He was desperate. In general, he wanted to shoot at politicians, but given that he couldn't reach any, he shot at the Carabinieri" paramilitary police.
One of the policemen, shot in the neck, was in critical condition. The other, shot in the leg, suffered a fracture, doctors said.
The shooting "was the tragic gesture of a 49-year-old unemployed man," Interior Minister Angelino Alfano told reporters after briefing Letta and his new Cabinet.
A woman passing by during the shooting was slightly injured, Rome's mayor said. It was unclear if she was grazed by a bullet or hurt in the panic sparked by the gunfire.
The 46-year-old Letta had nailed down a coalition deal only a day ago between two bitter political enemies ? his center-left forces and the conservative bloc of ex-Premier Silvio Berlusconi. Letta will speak to Parliament on Monday, laying out his strategy to reduce joblessness while still sticking to the austerity measures needed to keep the eurozone's No. 3 economy from descending into a sovereign debt crisis. He will then face confidence votes.
A video surveillance camera on the Parliament building caught the attacker on film just before and during the shooting, Italian news reports said.
The attacker was walking at a steady pace along a narrow street that leads from the square outside Parliament's lower house to the square outside the premier's office, when police officers appear to have stopped him to ask where he was going.
About 90 minutes later, Letta and his ministers were due to enter Chigi Palace. It was not immediately known if the attacker knew about their arrival.
Shortly after police approached him, he began firing, according to the surveillance camera.
An AP television producer saw the two wounded Carabinieri officers in the square outside the palace. One of them lay on the pavement with blood pouring out of his neck.
Alfano said the alleged gunman wanted to kill himself after the shooting but ran out of bullets. He said six shots were fired in all. The gunman used a semi-automatic pistol whose serial number had been scraped off, Sky TG24 TV said.
The interior minister said security was immediately stepped up near key venues in the Italian capital, but added authorities were not worried about possible related attacks.
"Our initial investigation indicates the incident is due to an isolated gesture, although further investigations are being carried out," he said.
Doctors at Rome's Umberto I Polyclinic said a 50-year-old brigadier had been hit in the neck by a bullet that damaged his spinal column and was lodged near his shoulder. The doctors said it wasn't yet known if the spinal column injury had caused any paralysis.
The head of St. John's Hospital, Gianluigi Bracciale, told Sky TG24 TV the second officer suffered a broken leg from a gunshot. He said Prieti didn't appear to have any injuries other than bruises.
Preiti's uncle, interviewed by Sky, said the alleged gunman had moved back to his parents' home in Calabria because he could no longer find work as a bricklayer. "He was a great worker. He could build a house from top to bottom," said the uncle, Domenco Preiti.
The shooting sparked ugly memories of the 1970s and 1980s in Italy, when domestic terrorism plagued the country during a time of high political tensions between right-wing and left-wing blocs.
The new Cabinet ministers were seen smiling in a group photo as news of the shooting broke.
"The news arrived after the swearing-in," said Dario Franceschini, one of the new ministers.
The ministers were kept briefly inside for security reasons until it was clear there was no immediate danger.
Rome was jammed Sunday with tourists and residents enjoying a warm sunny morning on the last day of a four-day weekend.
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Leighton Meester & Adam Brody Go On Movie Date With Pals
www.justjared.com:
Leighton Meester and Adam Brody keep low profiles as they leave the ArcLight Cinemas together on Saturday (April 27) in Los Angeles.
Read the whole story at www.justjared.com
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Algeria president sent to Paris after mini-stroke
ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) ? Algeria's president was transferred to Paris for medical treatment following a mini-stroke and tests show he isn't seriously ill, the state news agency reported Sunday.
Abdelaziz Bouteflika had a brief blockage of a blood vessel known as a transient ischemic attack and was sent to the French capital for further tests under the recommendation of his doctors.
The 76-year-old president had been checked into Val de Grace hospital, where he was treated in 2005 for a bleeding ulcer.
"Medical tests conducted at the Val de Grace hospital in Paris confirmed that there is no worry about the state of his health," according to a statement from the prime minister's office. "Daily life will continue as normal."
There have long been concerns about Bouteflika's health, especially since the president rarely appears in public.
Bouteflika, president since 1999, is credited with seeing Algeria through the end of a bloody civil war against Islamists and ruling in an uneasy partnership with the powerful military.
The last few years of his reign, however, have been slammed with accusations of corruption. Bouteflika was also widely believed to be planning to run for a fourth term in next year's presidential elections.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/algeria-president-sent-paris-mini-stroke-081408904.html
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Analysis: Israeli credibility on line over Iran nuclear challenge
By Crispian Balmer and Dan Williams
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel risks a loss of credibility over both its "red line" for Iran's nuclear program and its threat of military action, and its room for unilateral maneuver is shrinking.
After years of veiled warnings that Israel might strike the Islamic Republic, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid out an ultimatum at the United Nations last September.
Iran, he said, must not amass enough uranium at 20 percent fissile purity to fuel one bomb if enriched further. To ram the point home, he drew a red line across a cartoon bomb, guaranteeing him front page headlines around the world.
However, a respected Israeli ex-spymaster says Iran has skillfully circumvented the challenge. Other influential voices say the time has passed when Israel can hit out at Iran alone, leaving it dependent on U.S. decision-makers.
"If there was a good window of opportunity to attack, it was six months ago - not necessarily today," said Giora Eiland, a former Israeli national security adviser. Pressure from Washington, he said, had forced Israel to drop its strike plan.
Israel has long insisted on the need for a convincing military threat and setting clear lines beyond which Iran's nuclear activity should not advance, calling this the only way to persuade Iran that it must bow to international pressure.
Serving officials argue that Netanyahu's repeated warnings of the menace posed by Iran's nuclear project have pushed the issue to the top of the global agenda and helped generate some of the toughest economic sanctions ever imposed on a nation.
But some officials have also questioned the wisdom of his red line, arguing that such brinkmanship can generate unwelcome ambiguity - as the United States has discovered with its contested stance on the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
Amos Yadlin, a former military intelligence chief who runs a Tel Aviv think-tank, suggested last week that Israel had also got itself into a tangle, saying Iran had expanded its nuclear capacity beyond the Israeli limit, without triggering alarms.
"Today it can be said that the Iranians have crossed the red line set by Netanyahu at the U.N. assembly," Yadlin told a conference at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), which he heads.
DRUM BEAT RESUMES
Netanyahu's office declined to respond to Yadlin's remarks, noting that the prime minister, in recent public statements, had said Iran was "continuing to get closer to the red line".
Tehran denies there is any military component to its nuclear activities, saying it is focused only on civilian energy needs. It charges that Israel, widely believed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal, is the greater regional threat.
Keeping in step with Netanyahu, Israeli defense and military officials issued clear warnings this month that Israel was still prepared to go it alone against Iran, once more beating the drums of war after months of relative quiet.
"We will do what is necessary when it is necessary," armed forces chief of staff Benny Gantz told Israel Radio on April 16.
But there is increasing skepticism within diplomatic circles about the viability of such an option. Envoys doubt that the Israeli military could now make much of a dent on Iran's far-flung, well-fortified nuclear installations.
"If nothing happened last year, I struggle to see why it will happen this year," said a top Western diplomat in Tel Aviv, speaking on condition of anonymity given the sensitivities.
Israeli President Shimon Peres has done little to bolster belief in unilateral action, making clear this month that he thought U.S. President Barack Obama would be the one to go to war against Iran if nuclear diplomacy failed.
"He knows no one else will do it," Peres told Israeli TV.
The United States offered Netanyahu a new array of military hardware last week, including refueling tankers that could be used to get fighter jets to and from Iranian targets.
However, Israel cannot match the sort of firepower that the United States could bring to a battlefield. For example, Israel lacks the biggest bunker-busting bombs that experts say would be needed to penetrate Iran's underground Fordow enrichment plant.
Such limitations always cast doubt on a possible Israeli assault and the more time passes, the more the doubts grow.
Ehud Barak, the previous Israeli defense minister, said in November 2011 that within nine months it would probably be impossible to halt Iran because it was increasing the number of centrifuges and its network of sites, creating what he termed a "zone of immunity". Seventeen months have gone by since then.
RECONVERSION RATES
Washington has promised Israel it will not let Iran develop a nuclear bomb. Israelis get jittery, however, because they have set a very different clock for when they believe it would be necessary to intervene - hence the importance of the red line.
The Israelis make no distinction between Iran developing the capacity to build an atomic bomb and having the actual weapon. Yadlin told the INSS conference that as soon as Tehran could put just one rudimentary device on a boat and sail it to an Israeli port, it was a de-facto nuclear-armed nation.
Some analysts question whether Iran would indeed attack Israel if it had an atom bomb, or even try to build one, rather than just establish an apparent nuclear capability to project deterrence and regional power. To fire a nuclear weapon at Israel, they say, could spell the ruin of the Islamic Republic in counter-strikes by a foe with a far bigger nuclear arsenal.
Gantz himself said last year he felt Iran's leadership was "very rational" and unlikely to build an atomic bomb.
The U.S. concern is to prevent Iran, which has called for Israel's destruction, from reaching the verge of acquiring a nuclear bomb - a nuance at variance with Israel's position that provides a longer window of opportunity to continue diplomacy.
Exasperated by Washington's refusal to set a clear ultimatum, Netanyahu came up with his 240-250 kg (530-550 pound) limit for 20 percent enriched uranium, hoping this would concentrate minds. The Iranians stayed below this threshold by converting 110 kg of the gaseous material to solid form that they say is destined to power a research reactor.
Yadlin said that rather than turn all of this into solid reactor fuel, Iran had kept 80 kg of it in the interim powdered state. That, he said, could be converted back to original gas form in around a week, inflating the stockpile beyond 250 kg.
With the red line in possible jeopardy, and unilateral military action in doubt, one security official suggested that Israel might turn to covert sabotage, with renewed focus on those specifically working on the 20 percent enrichment.
Five Iranian scientists and academics have been killed or attacked since 2010 in incidents believed to have targeted Iran's nuclear program. Israel has remained silent about the attacks and other known acts of sabotage at Iranian sites.
(Additional reporting by Fredrik Dahl in Vienna; Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Mark Heinrich)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-israeli-credibility-line-over-iran-nuclear-challenge-095926903.html
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Friday, April 26, 2013
Keaton has a giggle fit with her wine on 'Ellen'
By Randee Dawn, TODAY contributor
You could say that Diane Keaton has made a career out of appearing, well, endearingly goofy. She's a smart, successful, Oscar-winning actress to be sure -- but on talk shows and in movie roles alike, she often comes across as being at least metaphorically pixilated.
On "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" Tuesday, that may have been literal: She held a big glass of red wine on ice while discussing her new film, "The Big Wedding," and things got goofier from there.
Her character in the film is interested in Tantric sex, and Keaton was hesitant about talking about that on the show, but DeGeneres encouraged her: "Let's try it. Let's see how far you're going."
"I don't want to get taken off the air," said Keaton.
DeGeneres laughed. "You're going to be in jail for profanity, public drunkenness...."
Keaton began: "The character I played was somebody else, so I'm not going to be blamed for this," she said, noting that her "Wedding" character had an interest in Tantric sex. "The definition is something like when you have Tantric sex you go for a long time and you have that thing called the orgasm for nine hours.... That's ridiculous!"
It may have been a bit of a strain on the 67-year-old actress: "I'm glad this movie is over," she laughed. "It's too weird." Then she had to fan herself "to calm down" and noted "the wine is not helping. I think I gotta go.?
But Ellen DeGeneres wasn't letting her get away with that so easily, asking her about her relationships and the fact that she's never been married. "Oh, I'd like to get married," said Keaton. "What happened was nobody ever asked me."
It's not likely to change, either, she added, giggling: "I don't think so -- not after this show!"
Related content:
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Stocks move higher after unemployment claims ease
NEW YORK (AP) ? Stock prices are rising as investors were encouraged by a decrease in claims for unemployment benefits last week and positive news from companies reporting earnings.
The Labor Department said applications for unemployment benefits fell last week to the second-lowest in more than five years.
The Dow Jones industrial average was up 70 points to 14,735 points at noon Thursday, or 0.5 percent.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose nine to 1,588, a gain of 0.6 percent. The Nasdaq composite was up 27 to 3,296, or 0.8 percent.
Dow Chemical's profits rose even as revenue slipped because the company cut costs and paid down debt. The stock increased 4 percent.
Royal Caribbean rose 7 percent as more people booked vacations compared with the same period a year ago.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stocks-move-higher-unemployment-claims-ease-155938122--finance.html
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Insert Coin: Snapzoom gives Kickstarters a crack at its smartphone scope adapter (video)
In Insert Coin, we look at an exciting new tech project that requires funding before it can hit production. If you'd like to pitch a project, please send us a tip with "Insert Coin" as the subject line.
Snapzoom stole a lot of hearts at Engadget Expand, but it didn't quite steal enough votes to win our Insert Coin contest. Now you can exact some justice, as the smartphone adapter for binoculars, telescopes and microscopes is now up for grabs on Kickstarter to let you zoom in on the moon, bacteria or whatever else you can think of. So far it's vacuumed up $15,000 toward its $55,000 goal, and while the early bird offer is sold out, backers can still grab one starting at $60, a hefty discount from the final $80 retail price. For $90, you'll even get a basic 10x25 compact Bushnell travel binocular tossed in, so if you want to see what made our Insert Coin judges go zoom-crazy, hit the source or video after the jump.
Filed under: Cellphones, Cameras
Source: Snapzoom (Kickstarter)
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/5X_t12b56pQ/
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Thursday, April 25, 2013
Toronto Travel Bloggers, Who to Watch for at TBEX - The Planet D
We always tell people that Toronto has the best travel community in the world. It amazes me. So many Toronto based Travel Bloggers are at the top of their field. We feel that some of the best travel bloggers, vloggers and industry peeps are based right here in Toronto, and since the entire world travel community is coming to Toronto in June, we wanted to highlight the Toronto Travel Bloggers that you should keep an eye out for and say hello to during the upcoming TBEX conference.
We normally hate doing posts like this. Inevitably someone awesome gets left out and we feel bad. But since TBEX is coming to Toronto in June, we felt compelled to show off our community. There are other amazing Canadian Travel bloggers that we could mention too, but then this post would go on forever. So for now, enjoy our Toronto based only recommendations for your reading pleasure.
My Life Unteathered?- Alicia Taggio not only puts together amazing travel videos, but she also splits her time between My Life Unteathered and being the Social Media Specialist at FlightCentre.ca. Alicia co-founded the Toronto Travel Massive with Mariellen or Breathe Dream Go and together they have transformed it from a small social gathering to a major industry event. Alicia is someone who gets you excited when you talk to her. She?s filled with ideas, has major connections and knows how social media works. We always say ?This girl gets things done!?
BreatheDreamGo?- Mariellen Ward has a passion for India. She?s been writing about it in both traditional media outlets around the world as well as at her successful travel blog. Recently she changed her niche to expand beyond India to a?meaningful adventure travel blog and has really hit her stride. An influencer and another leader in the industry who has won several awards in writing. And as mentioned above, Mariellen is the co-founder of Toronto Travel Massive with Alicia Taggio.
Travolution?- Before TBEX begins, we get to spend a week with Cristina in Italy as part of the BlogVille Campaign. A graduate of Journalism and Political Science, she turned down her dream job twice. A well rounded journalist she interviewed the likes of Justin Beiber, Tom Cruise and Raine Maida ?of Our Lady Peace?(like Cristina also, one of our favourite bands). She quit it all to become a travel blogger and if anyone can make it, she can. Cristina is also now a part of the people behind the Toronto Travel Massive with Alicia and Mariellen.
JourneyWoman - Evelyn Hannon runs the premiere online travel resource for women. She?s been featured everywhere from Time Magazine and Good Morning America to Reader?s Digest and Canada AM. We?ve known and admired Evelyn since we started travel blogging. Whenever we talk to friends or family oustide of the travel industry, they know of JourneyWoman. They may not know the rest of us, but she?s a household name with 65,000 people subscribing to her newsletter which was featured in People Magazine!
KickTheGrind - If you want to know about how to make travel videos, you want to follow Mike Corey. He has the best travel videos in the industry and it?s only a matter of time until he has his own travel show. His editing is awesome and we?re not the only ones who think so. He?s won several video competitions including the prestigious Cathay Pacific around the World in 80 Days video competition.
The Travel Society?- Our good friend Helen (And as some say, my sister, we look a lot a like) has started a new company The Travel Society. It?s a travel club for adventure travel around the world. That?s our kind of place! It?s so much so that we?re developing custom ThePlanetD tours with Helen for 2014. That will be coming soon, but in the meantime, check out everything there is to offer. We love her latest post?Misadventures in ?Antarctica, where she talks about being on a sinking ship in Antarctica. Yikes! The Travel Society is a boutique travel agency with a subscription based membership of 2000 people. Way to go Helen!
Red Hunt Travel?- Red has been everywhere. He is a travel consultant and social media consultant. He quit his job to travel the world long before it was trendy and has?become an avid travel photographer and has written more than 600 travel articles and newsletters. He?s a former journalist who now works in the world of travel marketing. All that and he still has time to share his spectacular travel stories on Red Hunt Travel.
Savoir Faire Abroad - You may know her from SpunkyGirlMonologues, but Pamela MacNaughten has rebranded and started off 2013 with some major travels through Central America.We first met her in Bangkok where she was helping refugees connect with their families. Pam has a huge heart and has made a living out of travel blogging for several years. She has been featured in Outpost, Travel and Escape and Up Magazines.
The Melly Boo Project ? Melissa is a fabulous gal who is as crazy as we are. From the gorge swing in Zambia to diving with Sharks, she?s another great Canadian Adventurer! I will admit, she?s much more adventurous than us when it comes to eating exotic food. Jellyfish? My oh my! She?s been travelling since 2010, been featured on Daytime TV and was nominated as the best newcomer blog in the Destinology 2012 Travel Blog Awards. We love a girl who is adventurous as we are and maybe one day we?ll get to jump out of something with her too!
Seattles Travel?- Featured on Mashable as one of the best people to follow on Instagram, Seattle Dredge has really made a name for herself. She?s been everywhere from Australia to Iceland and focuses on Adventure Travel. Her latest posts have been focusing on mountains and snow and ice and we?ve been loving following her journey. Our kind of gal indeed!
Have Baby Will Travel - Mom Bloggers have always been way ahead of travel bloggers and Corinne McDermett is definitely ahead of the game. I remember first talking to her a few years ago and was blown away with her ideas and vision. Besides her successful travel blog she?s been featured in traditional media and television such as Canada AM, Breakfast Television, Travel and Leisure and the Disney Channel. She has now started her own consulting company and ?is a family travel specialist for Thomas Cook.
Near Afar - Every time we see Natalie Taylor I just laugh and laugh. There?s something about her energy that makes me smile. A true Toronto Specialist, this is the blog to follow if you need information for the 2013 host city for TBEX ? Toronto. She?s been featured in the Sympatico Blog, Lucky Penny, National Geographic?s Intelligent Traveler and Trip Atlas just to name a few.
TheTraveller World Guide - I just love The Hogga, Aka Lindsay Hogg. Her writing is fresh and funny and this girl is busy. Not only is she the President extraordinaire at the Traveller World Guide where she has brought on two other people to work with the site, she is also?Captain Burrito?at?ChickenChunk?and?Monday Funnies Author?at?Travel and Escape. Funnies Author is a fitting title, whenever I read her stuff, I do it with a huge smile.
SoloTraveler?- Janice Waugh has taken the travel industry by storm, traveling the world speaking about how to make a business out of blogging. She started the Global Bloggers Network and founded The Traveler?s Handbook Series. Janice is always coming up with innovative ideas and is filled with wisdom when it comes to solo travel and the blogging industry. She?s a very giving and caring woman and a mentor to us all.
Professional Hobo ? ?Nora Dunn may have now settled in the Caribbean but she?s a Toronto gal. We actually have something in common, we both worked at YTV. Nora is one of the leading travel blogs on the net. She proved long before the rest of us joined the game that you can live a location independent lifestyle and make money doing it. She?s so financially savvy that she is the senior contributor for Wise Bread, a popular personal finance and frugal living website, she give regular round ups of how much money she made and how she does it and she?s just truly an inspiration.
Backpack with Brock - Brock is currently on an amazing journey through Asia with Viator as their video blogger. He came oh so close to winning $10,000 through Viator last year, but they loved him so much, they brought him back anyway! He?s now traveling Asia with them. Brock not only runs his travel blog, he is also an adventure consultant and entrepreneur who helps others plan their next world backpacking trip. Brock feels like the little brother we never had and is so much fun to be around. I hope he makes it back in time for TBEX so that he can share his adventures with everyone.
Bacon is Magic?- Ayngelina Brogan has slowed down work on her travel blog in recent years to return to her life in PR, but Bacon is Magic is still going strong and she has started working with the Navigate Media Group bringing travel bloggers together to collaborate on projects. Specializing in food, she writes engaging stories.
?A Nerd at Large - Stephanie has already made her living writing about the travel industry for over a decade. She?s now started a Nerd at Large and is a Travel and Escape featured blogger. I?ve been loving her photographs and she even was kind enough to post some right here on our website. Check out Los Angeles in Black and White. Right now Stephanie is in the process of pursuing her goal of trying 1000 new things. Now that makes for an exciting life.
Hopscotch The Globe - Kristen represented us on a press trip last year and ever since this girl has been on fire. We?ve been watching her travel the world working with various tourism boards. She won the VLogger award in Puerto Rico run by our good friends at Diamond PR and her youtube video ?How to Pee Standing Up has received nearly 150,000 views! This girl has an awesome youtube channel and she?s just dynamite!
Girls Getaway - Dian Emery is the managing editor of this popular website. It?s grown to become so big that there are six regular contributors and several guest writers. We?ve had the pleasure of going to Mexico with Dian and meeting her other half. She?s such a gracious and giving lady and it?s awesome to see so much success come her way!
Excellent Vacation Ideas - Melanie is another person who when we get together we just laugh and laugh. A savvy business woman, she has developed an amazing site with Excellent Vacation Ideas. I love talking blogging and website business with her (in between laughing). And value her opinion and advice. If you?re looking for vacation ideas for your next trip, this is the site for you. Her daily questions and inspiration always pop up in my facebook feed too!
KK Adventures ? Okay, Kieren and Karen may be from Britain, but they?ve made Toronto their home and are a huge part of our travel community. They?ve kept their full time jobs while running the blog on the side and have done a great job balancing both. And we?re happy to know that they love exploring their new home?Toronto! Karin has also become a part of the Toronto Travel Massive team joining Cristina in helping Alicia and Mariellen plan events around the city.
Oneika The Traveler - We met Oneika when we ran with the bulls last year while she was a part of the uber popular ?Girls Running with Bulls? Oneika was recently named one of the Top 7 Travel Bloggers to Watch on Twitter and has been featured on National Geographic?s Radar. She?s been to 60 countries on 6 continents and is one fabulous lady. While travel blogging isn?t her full time profession, she?s a high school English Literature and French teacher at international schools, she still manages to take 10 international trips a year and if she wanted to switch to be a full time blogger, she easily could.
Travel and Escape?- Well, you may have noticed that many of the people we?ve mentioned above have been featured on Travel and Escape. Did you know Travel and Escape is based in Toronto? They?ve been a great supporter of the Toronto Travel community and even though they are a Television network, they also keep a good travel blog up and running to. .
So there you have it. That?s our list of Toronto Tavel Bloggers. I?m going to die if I missed someone. If you know me and we missed you, please send us an email. I?ll add you in, somewhere in the middle so nobody will ever know that you weren?t put on in the first place! 
I hope you enjoyed these Toronto Travel bloggers, you won?t regret reading any of their blogs. Seriously, we?ve got a great world class community.
Source: http://theplanetd.com/toronto-travel-bloggers-who-to-watch-for-at-tbex/
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Apple Passes 45B Total Unique App Downloads At A Rate Of 800 Per Second With Over $9B Paid To Devs
Apple took time to update investors on the status of its ecosystem on today's call, revealing that it has crossed the 45 billion total app download mark, just over four months after it crossed the 40 billion download mark back in January. Apps are being downloaded at a rate of 800 per second, from a total pool of 850,000 iOS apps in total, with 350,000 apps designed for iPad alone.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/GGte6oKr7Uc/
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Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Without calling a witness, defense rests in abortion doc's trial
(Editor's Note: This story contains graphic material that may upset some readers)
By Dave Warner
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Defense lawyers for a Philadelphia abortion doctor accused of killing babies in a clinic that mainly serves low-income women rested their case on Wednesday without calling any witnesses in the high-profile murder trial.
Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 72, is charged with killing four infants during botched abortions and a woman who underwent an abortion and died at a nearby hospital after the procedure at his Women's Medical Society clinic in urban West Philadelphia.
He could face the death penalty if convicted in the case in Common Pleas Court in Philadelphia.
Prosecutors said Gosnell ran a "house of horrors" in a West Philadelphia health clinic where women went for late-term abortions. The district attorney's office contends Gosnell delivered live babies during botched abortions and then deliberately severed their spinal cords, killing them.
Gosnell's defense lawyer, John McMahon, characterized the prosecution of his client, who is black, as "elitist, racist." He said there was no evidence that the babies were delivered alive, noting "the first rule of homicide is someone has to be alive."
The charges against Gosnell and nine of his employees have rekindled the debate in the United States about late-term abortions. Abortions are banned in Pennsylvania after 24 weeks of pregnancy.
Gosnell has been in jail since his January 2011 arrest. Eight other defendants have pleaded guilty to a variety of charges and are awaiting sentencing.
(Editing by Barbara Goldberg, Cynthia Johnston and Nick Zieminski)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/defense-rests-murder-trial-philadelphia-abortion-doctor-175544282.html
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US hospitals send hundreds of immigrants back home
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) ? Days after they were badly hurt in a car accident, Jacinto Cruz and Jose Rodriguez-Saldana lay unconscious in an Iowa hospital while the American health care system weighed what to do with the two immigrants from Mexico.
The men had health insurance from jobs at one of the nation's largest pork producers. But neither had legal permission to live in the U.S., nor was it clear whether their insurance would pay for the long-term rehabilitation they needed.
So Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines took matters into its own hands: After consulting with the patients' families, it quietly loaded the two comatose men onto a private jet that flew them back to Mexico, effectively deporting them without consulting any court or federal agency.
When the men awoke, they were more than 1,800 miles away in a hospital in Veracruz, on the Mexican Gulf Coast.
Hundreds of immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally have taken similar journeys through a little-known removal system run not by the federal government trying to enforce laws but by hospitals seeking to curb high costs. A recent report compiled by immigrant advocacy groups made a rare attempt to determine how many people are sent home, concluding that at least 600 immigrants were removed over a five-year period, though there were likely many more.
In interviews with immigrants, their families, attorneys and advocates, The Associated Press reviewed the obscure process known formally as "medical repatriation," which allows hospitals to put patients on chartered international flights, often while they are still unconscious. Hospitals typically pay for the flights.
"The problem is it's all taking place in this unregulated sort of a black hole ... and there is no tracking," said law professor Lori Nessel, director of the Center for Social Justice at Seton Hall Law School, which offers free legal representation to immigrants.
Now advocates for immigrants are concerned that hospitals could soon begin expanding the practice after full implementation of federal health care reform, which will make deep cuts to the payments hospitals receive for taking care of the uninsured.
Health care executives say they are caught between a requirement to accept all patients and a political battle over immigration.
"It really is a Catch-22 for us," said Dr. Mark Purtle, vice president of Medical Affairs for Iowa Health System, which includes Iowa Methodist Medical Center. "This is the area that the federal government, the state, everybody says we're not paying for the undocumented."
Hospitals are legally mandated to care for all patients who need emergency treatment, regardless of citizenship status or ability to pay. But once a patient is stabilized, that funding ceases, along with the requirement to provide care. Many immigrant workers without citizenship are ineligible for Medicaid, the government's insurance program for the poor and elderly.
That's why hospitals often try to send those patients to rehabilitation centers and nursing homes back in their home countries.
Civil rights groups say the practice violates U.S. and international laws and unfairly targets one of the nation's most defenseless populations.
"They don't have advocates, and they don't have people who will speak on their behalf," said Miami attorney John De Leon, who has been arguing such cases for a decade.
Estimating the number of cases is difficult since no government agency or organization keeps track.
The Center for Social Justice and New York Lawyers for the Public Interest have documented at least 600 immigrants who were involuntarily removed in the past five years for medical reasons. The figure is based on data from hospitals, humanitarian organizations, news reports and immigrant advocates who cited specific cases. But the actual number is believed to be significantly higher because many more cases almost certainly go unreported.
Some patients who were sent home subsequently died in hospitals that weren't equipped to meet their needs. Others suffered lingering medical problems because they never received adequate rehabilitation, the report said.
Gail Montenegro, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the agency "plays no role in a health care provider's private transfer of a patient to his or her country of origin."
Such transfers "are not the result of federal authority or action," she said in an email, nor are they considered "removals, deportations or voluntary departures" as defined by the Immigration and Nationality Act.
The two Mexican workers in Iowa came to the U.S. in search of better jobs and found work at Iowa Select Farms, which provided them with medical insurance even though they had no visas or other immigration documents.
Cruz had been here for about six months, Rodriguez-Saldana for a little over a year. The men were returning home from a fishing trip in May 2008 when their car was struck by a semitrailer truck. Both were thrown from the vehicle and suffered serious head injuries.
Insurance paid more than $100,000 for the two men's emergency treatment. But it was unclear whether the policies would pay for long-term rehabilitation. Two rehabilitation centers refused to take them.
Eleven days after the car crash, the two men were still comatose as they were carried aboard a jet bound for Veracruz, where a hospital had agreed to take them.
Rodriguez-Saldana, now 39, said the Des Moines hospital told his family that he was unlikely to survive and should be sent home.
The hospital "doesn't really want Mexicans," he said in a telephone interview with the AP. "They wanted to disconnect me so I could die. They said I couldn't survive, that I wouldn't live."
Hospital officials said they could not discuss the case because of litigation. The men and their families filed a lawsuit in 2010 claiming they received minimal rehabilitative care in Veracruz.
A judge dismissed the lawsuit last year ruling that Iowa Methodist was not to blame for the inadequate care in Veracruz. The courts also found that even though the families of the men may not have consented to their transport to Mexico, they also failed to object to it. An appeals court upheld the dismissal.
Patients are frequently told family members want them to come home. In cases where the patient is unconscious or can't communicate, relatives are told their loved one wants to return, De Leon said.
Sometimes they're told the situation is dire, and the patient may die, prompting many grief-stricken relatives to agree to a transfer, he said.
Some hospitals "emotionally extort family members in their home country," De Leon said. "They make family members back home feel guilty so they can simply put them on a plane and drop them off at the airport."
In court documents, Iowa hospital officials said they had received permission from Saldana's parents and Cruz's long-term partner for the flight to Mexico. Family members deny they gave consent.
There's no way to know for sure whether the two men would have recovered faster or better in the United States. But the accident left both of them with life-altering disabilities.
Nearly five years later, the 49-year-old Cruz is paralyzed on his left side, the result of damage to his hip and spine. He has difficulty speaking and can't work.
"I can't even walk," he said in a telephone interview, breaking into tears several times. His long-term partner, Belem, said he's more emotional since the accident.
"He feels bad because he went over there and came back like this," she said. "Now he can't work at all. ... He cries a lot."
She works selling food and cleaning houses. Their oldest son, 22, sometimes contributes to the family income.
Rodriguez-Saldana said he has to pay for intensive therapy for his swollen feet and bad circulation. He also said he walks poorly and has difficulty working. He sells home supplies such as kitchen and bath towels and dishes, a business that requires a lot of walking and visiting houses. He often forgets where he lives, but people recognize him on the street and take him home because he's confused.
The American Hospital Association said it does not have a specific policy governing immigrant removals, and it does not track how many hospitals encounter the issue.
Nessel expects medical removals to increase with implementation of health care reform, which makes many more patients eligible for Medicaid. As a result, the government plans to cut payments to hospitals that care for the uninsured.
Some hospitals call immigration authorities when they receive patients without immigration documentation, but the government rarely responds, Nessel said. Taking custody of the patient would also require the government to assume financial responsibility for care.
Jan Stipe runs the Iowa Methodist department that finds hospitals in patients' native countries that are willing to take them. The hospital's goal, she said, is to "get patients back to where their support systems are, their loved ones who will provide the care and the concern that each patient needs."
The American Medical Association's Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs issued a strongly worded directive to doctors in 2009, urging them not to "allow hospital administrators to use their significant power and the current lack of regulations" to send patients to other countries.
Doctors cannot expect hospitals to provide costly uncompensated care to patients indefinitely, the statement said. "But neither should physicians allow hospitals to arbitrarily determine the fate of an uninsured noncitizen immigrant patient."
Arturo Morales, a Monterrey, Mexico, lawyer who helps Cruz and Rodriguez-Saldana with legal issues, is convinced the men would have been better off staying in Iowa.
"I have no doubt," he said. "You have a patient who doesn't have money to pay you. You can't let them die."
___
Associated Press Writer Barbara Rodriguez in Des Moines contributed to this report.
___
Follow David Pitt on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/davepitt .
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Mississippi man in ricin letter probe released on bond
By Robbie Ward
TUPELO, Mississippi (Reuters) - A Mississippi man charged with sending toxic letters to President Barack Obama and a U.S. senator was released from jail on Tuesday, the U.S. Marshals Service said.
Paul Kevin Curtis, 45, was released on bond, Jeff Woodfin, chief deputy with the U.S. Marshals Service in Oxford, Mississippi, told Reuters.
His release came as court documents showed that a judge indefinitely postponed a hearing on his detention scheduled for Tuesday, but the charges against Curtis had not been dropped.
The U.S. attorney handling the case, William Chadwick Lamar, declined to comment.
Curtis was arrested last Wednesday at his home in Corinth, Mississippi. He was charged with mailing letters to Obama, U.S. Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi and a state judge containing a substance that preliminarily tested positive for ricin, a highly lethal poison made from castor beans.
The letters were intercepted by authorities before they reached their destinations.
Over the weekend, investigators searched Curtis' home, his vehicle and his ex-wife's home, but failed to find any incriminating evidence, one of his defense lawyers, Christi McCoy, told the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal.
The poison scare put Washington on edge during the same week the Boston Marathon bombings occurred.
Curtis, known in Mississippi as an Elvis impersonator, was held in the Lafayette County Detention Center prior to his release. He was charged with threatening to harm Obama and using the mail to make other threats.
In a statement last week, his family said they had not been shown any evidence of the charges against him, but added that Curtis suffers from a long history of mental illness.
Type written on yellow paper, the three letters contained the same eight-line message, according to an affidavit from the FBI and the Secret Service filed in court.
"Maybe I have your attention now / Even if that means someone must die," the letters read in part, according to the affidavit. The letters ended: "I am KC and I approve this message."
The initials "KC" led law enforcement officials to ask Wicker's staff if they were aware of any constituents with those initials and the focus of the investigation then turned to Curtis, the affidavit said.
If convicted, Curtis could face maximum penalties of 15 years in prison and $500,000 in fines plus three years of supervised release.
Another of Curtis' attorneys, Philip Halbert Neilson, said that, although his client was released on bond it was not immediately clear if charges against him would be dropped.
"I think it would be premature for me to say at this time," Neilson said, when asked whether he anticipated the dropping of charges.
"We're certainly hoping so and we're certainly working toward that. We are absolutely certain our client is innocent of all charges."
Neilson said he and McCoy were planning to hold a news conference later Tuesday.
(Reporting by Kevin Gray, David Adams and Tom Brown; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Andre Grenon)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mississippi-man-ricin-letter-probe-released-jail-bond-180310607.html
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Hollywood yielding to China's growing film clout
FILE - In this April 6, 2013 file photo, a Chinese man uses a smartphone to take his own photo with an "Iron Man" poster together with a costumed figure, left, during a promotional event of the new movie "Iron Man 3" at the Imperial Ancestral Temple in Beijing's Forbidden City. From demanding changes in plot lines that denigrate the Chinese leadership, to dampening lurid depictions of sex and violence, Beijing is having increasing success in pressuring Hollywood into deleting movie content Beijing finds objectionable. It?s even getting American studios to sanction alternative versions of films specially tailored for Chinese audiences, like ?Iron Man 3,? which debuts in theaters around the world later this week. The Chinese version features local heartthrob Fan Bingbing - absent from the version showing abroad - and lengthy clips of Chinese scenery that local audiences love. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)
FILE - In this April 6, 2013 file photo, a Chinese man uses a smartphone to take his own photo with an "Iron Man" poster together with a costumed figure, left, during a promotional event of the new movie "Iron Man 3" at the Imperial Ancestral Temple in Beijing's Forbidden City. From demanding changes in plot lines that denigrate the Chinese leadership, to dampening lurid depictions of sex and violence, Beijing is having increasing success in pressuring Hollywood into deleting movie content Beijing finds objectionable. It?s even getting American studios to sanction alternative versions of films specially tailored for Chinese audiences, like ?Iron Man 3,? which debuts in theaters around the world later this week. The Chinese version features local heartthrob Fan Bingbing - absent from the version showing abroad - and lengthy clips of Chinese scenery that local audiences love. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)
FILE - In this Jan. 8, 2013 photo, U.S. director Quentin Tarantino arrives for the German premiere of the movie "Django Unchained" in Berlin, Germany. Chinese theaters pulled ?Django Unchained? at the last minute, despite widespread reports that Tarantino had bowed to censors? demands by dampening the film?s violence. China said only that the film?s screening had been halted for ?technical reasons? without elaborating what that meant. (AP Photo/Gero Breloe, File)
FILE -In this April 17, 2006 photo, "V for Vendetta" director James McTeigue, left, producer Joel Silver, center, and actor Hugo Weaving pose for photographers as they are greeted by Japanese fans, all wearing masks from the movie, upon their arrival at the Japan premiere of their latest film in Tokyo. From demanding changes in plot lines that denigrate the Chinese leadership, to dampening lurid depictions of sex and violence, Beijing is having increasing success in pressuring Hollywood into deleting movie content Beijing finds objectionable. However, last year?s showing on Chinese television of the 2005 political adventure ?V for Vendetta? was seen as a notable step forward - it remains beholding to sensitivities that makes its decisions sometimes hard to fathom. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi, File)
FILE - This undated publicity file image released by The Weinstein Company shows Leonardo DiCaprio as Calvin Candle in "Django Unchained," directed by Quentin Tarantino. Chinese theaters pulled ?Django Unchained? at the last minute, despite widespread reports that Tarantino had bowed to censors? demands by dampening the film?s violence. China said only that the film?s screening had been halted for ?technical reasons? without elaborating what that meant. (AP Photo/The Weinstein Company, Andrew Cooper, SMPSP, File)
Coming soon to a theater near you: China's Communist Party.
From demanding changes in plot lines that denigrate the Chinese leadership, to dampening lurid depictions of sex and violence, Beijing is having increasing success in pressuring Hollywood into deleting movie content Beijing finds objectionable.
It's even getting American studios to sanction alternative versions of films specially tailored for Chinese audiences, like "Iron Man 3," which debuts in theaters around the world later this week. The Chinese version features local heartthrob Fan Bingbing ? absent from the version showing abroad ? and lengthy clips of Chinese scenery that local audiences love.
There's no secret to what's driving Hollywood's China policy, which has burst on the scene with meteor-like intensity in the past year. Already the second-biggest box office in the world, China seems set to surpass the U.S./Canada market by 2020 at the latest. And with traditional movie funding sources drying up, Hollywood studios increasingly see Beijing as a bankrolling destination of choice, with Chinese counterparts ponying up on glitzy co-productions, including "Iron Man 3" and next year's "Transformers 4," and films without a direct China connection as well.
"Movie attendance in the U.S. is down because of global piracy and audience indifference," said Los Angeles-based film historian Leonard Maltin. "So the explosion of the China market is a boon to the industry. I'm sure the studios are not excited about making the China-inspired changes but they're in the business to make a buck and they're finding it hard to resist."
Published reports have pinpointed at least a half dozen recent films where Hollywood has given in on demands from Chinese censors to alter content for political or other reasons, ranging from the James Bond feature "Skyfall" ? where unflattering references to the sex trade in the Chinese territory of Macau supposedly landed on the cutting room floor ? to "World War Z," starring Brad Pitt, in which the Chinese origin of a plague of apocalyptic zombies was said to have been excised.
And that doesn't take into account ostensible instances of self-censoring, like last year's remake of the 1984 film "Red Dawn," where producers changed the nationality of bloodthirsty soldiers invading the United States from Chinese to North Korean, apparently to cater to their perception of Chinese political sensitivities.
The American film industry is extremely reluctant to discuss the China concessions Hollywood is making, and the industry's main lobbying group, the Motion Picture Association of America, tries to portray the practice in the best possible light.
"The adjustment of some of our films for different world markets is a commercial reality, and we recognize China's right to determine what content enters their country," said MPAA spokesman Howard Gantman in an email. "Overall, our members make films for global audiences and audience's tastes and demands evolve and our members respond to those changes. But we also stand for maximum creative rights for artists."
Taiwanese film critic Tsai Kuo-rong said that artists themselves could help rein in Chinese censorship, by insisting that content not be altered to conform to Chinese political or aesthetic demands.
"You cannot expect regulators to relax restrictions on their own," he said. "But I would hope that artists might be bold enough to press the case for artistic integrity."
Frank Couvares, a professor of history and American Studies at Massachusetts' Amherst College, said that rather than something new, Hollywood's readiness to cater to Chinese demands on content reflects business practices the American film industry has had in place for more than seven decades.
"If back in the 1930s or '40s the French objected to portraying the Foreign Legion as being overly harsh on Africans, or the British were unhappy that they were being shown as too colonialistic, then Hollywood would make the edits it needed to market its product," he said.
Still, the scope of this latest iteration seems to dwarf that of its predecessors, not only because China's economic and political clout is so immense ? successive years of GDP growth rates around 8- 10 percent have made its economy the second largest in the world ? but also because the country's communist masters seem obsessed by the way Beijing is perceived abroad.
"There's no question that China is very sensitive to its image," said Stanley Rosen, an expert on the Chinese film industry, and director of the East Asian Studies Center at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. "And as it has become richer over the past several years it's been in a position to do something about it."
Rosen said the ultimate arbiter of what makes it onto the screen of China's 12,000 movie theaters is a board of 30 to 40 censors under Communist Party control, representing different constituencies in Chinese society ? women, for example, or the military. He said that while there were some indications the board was becoming slightly more liberal ? last year's showing on Chinese television of the 2005 political adventure "V for Vendetta" was seen as a notable step forward ? it remains beholding to sensitivities that makes its decisions sometimes hard to fathom.
That was underscored earlier this month when Chinese theaters pulled Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained" at the last minute, despite widespread reports that Tarantino had bowed to censors' demands by dampening the film's violence. China said only that the film's screening had been halted for "technical reasons" without elaborating what that meant.
Nitin Govil, a specialist in Asian cinema at USC's School of Cinematic Arts, said instances like the "Django Unchained" cancellation were especially unnerving to the American film industry, because they underscored the problems of dealing with the seeming caprices of China's censorship bureaucracy.
"Hollywood really doesn't have a problem with Chinese censorship," he said. "The problem it has is with Chinese unpredictability."
Still, said Stephen Tropiano, professor of screen studies at a Los Angeles-based program run by New York's Ithaca College, American film makers may find that they have little choice but to adapt to the new Chinese reality, particularly as the country's box office take ? $2.7 billion in 2012, 60 percent from foreign films ? climbs irrevocably past the current U.S./Canada figure of some $10 billion.
Tropiano said there was no doubt that as China's box-office clout increased in coming years, so too would its already substantial ability to influence Hollywood's decisions on film content.
"The bottom line for any studio is what its films do at the box office," he said. "None of them has ever succeeded in taking a moral stand on content. And the Chinese know to exploit this."
___
Associated Press writer Kelvin Chan in Hong Kong contributed to this story.
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Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Gone, but not forgotten
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Public release date: 22-Apr-2013[ | E-mail |
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University of California - San Diego
UC San Diego scientists recall EP, perhaps the world's second-most famous amnesiac
An international team of neuroscientists has described for the first time in exhaustive detail the underlying neurobiology of an amnesiac who suffered from profound memory loss after damage to key portions of his brain.
Writing in this week's Online Early Edition of PNAS, principal investigator Larry R. Squire, PhD, professor in the departments of Neurosciences, Psychiatry and Psychology at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Veteran Affairs San Diego Healthcare System (VASDHS) with colleagues at UC Davis and the University of Castilla-La Mancha in Spain recount the case of EP, a man who suffered radical memory loss and dysfunction following a bout of viral encephalitis.
EP's story is strikingly similar to the more famous case of HM, who also suffered permanent, dramatic memory loss after small portions of his medial temporal lobes were removed by doctors in 1953 to relieve severe epileptic seizures. The surgery was successful, but left HM unable to form new memories or recall people, places or events post-operation.
HM (later identified as Henry Gustav Molaison) was the subject of intense scientific scrutiny and study for the remainder of his life. When he died in 2008 at the age of 82, he was popularized as "the world's most famous amnesiac." His brain was removed and digitally preserved at The Brain Observatory, a UC San Diego-based lab headed by Jacopo Annese, PhD, an assistant adjunct professor in the Department of Radiology and a co-author of the PNAS paper.
Like Molaison, EP was also something of a scientific celebrity, albeit purposefully anonymous. In 1992, at the age of 70, he was diagnosed with viral encephalitis. He recovered, but the illness resulted in devastating neurological loss, both physiologically and psychologically.
Not only did he also lose the ability to form new memories, EP suffered a modest impairment in his semantic knowledge the knowledge of things like words and the names of objects. Between 1994, when he moved to San Diego County, and his death 14 years later, EP was a subject of continued study, which included hundreds of different assessments of cognitive function.
"The work was long-term," said Squire, a Career Research Scientist at the VASDHS. "We probably visited his house 200 times. We knew his family." In a 2000 paper, Squire and colleagues described EP as a 6-foot-2, 192-pound affable fellow with a fascination for the computers used in his testing. He was always agreeable and pleasant. "He had a sense of humor," said Squire.
After his death, EP's brain was also processed at The Brain Observatory. The last five years have been spent parsing the data and painting a full picture of what happened to EP and why. Squire said EP's viral encephalitis infection wreaked havoc upon his brain: Large, bilateral, symmetrical lesions were found in the medial temporal lobe, portions of the brain responsible for formation of long-term memory; and whole, crucial structures were eliminated the amygdala and hippocampus among them. Additionally, other brain regions had atrophied and white matter the support fibers that transmit signals between brain structures had become gliotic or scarred.
Though HM is generally considered the "gold standard" of amnesia patients "he was the first case and studied so elegantly," said Squire EP provides new and surprising twists in understanding how memory functions and fails.
For example, HM's declarative memory was almost nil half an hour after lunch, he would have forgotten what he ate or if he had eaten at all but in tests, HM showed some small capacity to learn new things. "His ability to learn was nowhere close to zero," Squire said, "so the thinking was that maybe there were other ways that information was getting in, that there was something special about the capacity for learning facts."
EP undermines that notion. Due to the total destruction of specific memory-linked brain structures, EP was utterly unable to learn anything new. "It really was absolutely zero," said Squire. "That suggests there isn't any special mechanism. HM simply retained some ability because he retained some residual tissue."
Squire noted that the massive scope of EP's brain damage also appeared to trigger secondary consequences. "If a lesion gets large enough, it results in other negative changes due to the loss of connectivity," he said. In EP's case, one result was his impaired semantic knowledge, which wouldn't have been harmed by damage to medial temporal lobes, but was the consequence of subsequent atrophy in adjacent tissues.
Finally, EP presents a continuing, confounding mystery. In most patients with retrograde amnesia, memory loss is limited. They can't remember things within a few months or years of the brain impairment. In EP's case, he suffered amnesia extending back 40 to 50 years, affecting memories that theoretically should have been well-established and consolidated, though he could recall his childhood on a central California farm.
Squire said the effect is likely the result of lateral temporal damage caused as a secondary consequence of the initial disease-related brain damage. For researchers and clinicians, he said, EP is a cautionary and troubling tale.
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Co-authors are Ricardo Insausti, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (MIND) Institute, UC Davis and Laboratory of Human Neuroanatomy, Department of Health Services and Regional Center for Biomedical Research, School of Medicine, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain and David G. Amaral, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (MIND) Institute.
Funding for this research came, in part, from the Medical Research Service, Department of Veterans Affairs, National Institute of Mental Health (grants 24600 and 84756), NEI grant 18359, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke grant 16980 and grants TSI-020110-2009-362, BFU 2009-0434 and PR 2010-0434.
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Public release date: 22-Apr-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Scott LaFee
slafee@ucsd.edu
619-543-6163
University of California - San Diego
UC San Diego scientists recall EP, perhaps the world's second-most famous amnesiac
An international team of neuroscientists has described for the first time in exhaustive detail the underlying neurobiology of an amnesiac who suffered from profound memory loss after damage to key portions of his brain.
Writing in this week's Online Early Edition of PNAS, principal investigator Larry R. Squire, PhD, professor in the departments of Neurosciences, Psychiatry and Psychology at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Veteran Affairs San Diego Healthcare System (VASDHS) with colleagues at UC Davis and the University of Castilla-La Mancha in Spain recount the case of EP, a man who suffered radical memory loss and dysfunction following a bout of viral encephalitis.
EP's story is strikingly similar to the more famous case of HM, who also suffered permanent, dramatic memory loss after small portions of his medial temporal lobes were removed by doctors in 1953 to relieve severe epileptic seizures. The surgery was successful, but left HM unable to form new memories or recall people, places or events post-operation.
HM (later identified as Henry Gustav Molaison) was the subject of intense scientific scrutiny and study for the remainder of his life. When he died in 2008 at the age of 82, he was popularized as "the world's most famous amnesiac." His brain was removed and digitally preserved at The Brain Observatory, a UC San Diego-based lab headed by Jacopo Annese, PhD, an assistant adjunct professor in the Department of Radiology and a co-author of the PNAS paper.
Like Molaison, EP was also something of a scientific celebrity, albeit purposefully anonymous. In 1992, at the age of 70, he was diagnosed with viral encephalitis. He recovered, but the illness resulted in devastating neurological loss, both physiologically and psychologically.
Not only did he also lose the ability to form new memories, EP suffered a modest impairment in his semantic knowledge the knowledge of things like words and the names of objects. Between 1994, when he moved to San Diego County, and his death 14 years later, EP was a subject of continued study, which included hundreds of different assessments of cognitive function.
"The work was long-term," said Squire, a Career Research Scientist at the VASDHS. "We probably visited his house 200 times. We knew his family." In a 2000 paper, Squire and colleagues described EP as a 6-foot-2, 192-pound affable fellow with a fascination for the computers used in his testing. He was always agreeable and pleasant. "He had a sense of humor," said Squire.
After his death, EP's brain was also processed at The Brain Observatory. The last five years have been spent parsing the data and painting a full picture of what happened to EP and why. Squire said EP's viral encephalitis infection wreaked havoc upon his brain: Large, bilateral, symmetrical lesions were found in the medial temporal lobe, portions of the brain responsible for formation of long-term memory; and whole, crucial structures were eliminated the amygdala and hippocampus among them. Additionally, other brain regions had atrophied and white matter the support fibers that transmit signals between brain structures had become gliotic or scarred.
Though HM is generally considered the "gold standard" of amnesia patients "he was the first case and studied so elegantly," said Squire EP provides new and surprising twists in understanding how memory functions and fails.
For example, HM's declarative memory was almost nil half an hour after lunch, he would have forgotten what he ate or if he had eaten at all but in tests, HM showed some small capacity to learn new things. "His ability to learn was nowhere close to zero," Squire said, "so the thinking was that maybe there were other ways that information was getting in, that there was something special about the capacity for learning facts."
EP undermines that notion. Due to the total destruction of specific memory-linked brain structures, EP was utterly unable to learn anything new. "It really was absolutely zero," said Squire. "That suggests there isn't any special mechanism. HM simply retained some ability because he retained some residual tissue."
Squire noted that the massive scope of EP's brain damage also appeared to trigger secondary consequences. "If a lesion gets large enough, it results in other negative changes due to the loss of connectivity," he said. In EP's case, one result was his impaired semantic knowledge, which wouldn't have been harmed by damage to medial temporal lobes, but was the consequence of subsequent atrophy in adjacent tissues.
Finally, EP presents a continuing, confounding mystery. In most patients with retrograde amnesia, memory loss is limited. They can't remember things within a few months or years of the brain impairment. In EP's case, he suffered amnesia extending back 40 to 50 years, affecting memories that theoretically should have been well-established and consolidated, though he could recall his childhood on a central California farm.
Squire said the effect is likely the result of lateral temporal damage caused as a secondary consequence of the initial disease-related brain damage. For researchers and clinicians, he said, EP is a cautionary and troubling tale.
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Co-authors are Ricardo Insausti, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (MIND) Institute, UC Davis and Laboratory of Human Neuroanatomy, Department of Health Services and Regional Center for Biomedical Research, School of Medicine, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain and David G. Amaral, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (MIND) Institute.
Funding for this research came, in part, from the Medical Research Service, Department of Veterans Affairs, National Institute of Mental Health (grants 24600 and 84756), NEI grant 18359, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke grant 16980 and grants TSI-020110-2009-362, BFU 2009-0434 and PR 2010-0434.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/uoc--gbn042213.php
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