Source: http://www.ivillage.com/witchs-lament/1-h-397845?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Awitchs-lament-397845
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Monday, October 31, 2011
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Green Machine: Recycled cans to make cheap fuel cells
Jesse Emspak, contributor
Hydrogen fuel cells for cars are still wildly expensive, mainly because they have to use costly noble metals such as platinum. Now researchers have demonstrated that aluminium can be treated to store and release hydrogen - making it far cheaper than existing methods.
There have been several attempts at a cheaper alternative, involving materials such as carbon nanotubes and organic crystals. Storing hydrogen and separating it from other substances for use presents other problems - hydrogen either has to be very cold (on the order of -250 ?C) or pressurised.
Irinder S. Chopra, a physics PhD student at the University of Texas, Dallas, led a team that tried depositing a tiny bit of titanium on pure aluminium, resulting in an arrangement of aluminium atoms broken up by the occasional titanium atom in a regular pattern.
When the doped aluminium is exposed to molecular hydrogen at 90 degrees kelvin (-183 ?C), the H2 breaks up and binds to the metal forming a hydride. When the metal is heated, the hydrogen is released and makes H2 again. Doped aluminium can store up to 10 per cent of its weight in hydrogen - much better than other options, says Yves Chabal, a professor of materials science and one of the co-authors.
There are still challenges. How much contamination the doped aluminium can be exposed to before it won't bind to the hydrogen anymore is one. How dense the hydrogen can be - the initial experiments were done in near vacuum conditions - is another. That said, a fuel cell using aluminium would use a widely available and recycled metal (and give one more reason to bring the cans back).
Journal reference: Nature Materials DOI: 10.1038/nmat3123
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Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Teaching Computers to Find Your Good Side [Video]
Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/WlsfZjVFaAY/teaching-computers-to-find-your-good-side
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Tuesday, October 25, 2011
NCAA grad rate hits all-time high at 82 percent
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) ? College athletes are outperforming other students in the classroom, and they're doing it at a record rate.
Eighty-two percent of freshman athletes who entered school in 2004-05 earned degrees within six years, according to the NCAA's newest Graduation Success Rate. The report, released Tuesday, also shows that the four-year graduation rate hit 80 percent for the first time.
Both numbers had been stuck at 79 percent.
Even the traditionally lower federal rate hit 65 percent, a record high for athletes, compared with 63 percent for all other college students The difference between the federal figures and the NCAA numbers is that the government doesn't account for transfer students, regardless of whether they graduate.
One possible reason for the increases is that the Ivy League schools were included in the NCAA calculations for the first time this year. They had not previously been included because the Ivy League does not award scholarships based on athletic performance.
The NCAA report contended that the Ivy League had a minimal impact on the across-the-board improvement.
Graduation rates for male athletes jumped five percentage points to 83 percent, while female athletes improved two percentage points to 92 percent. Among black athletes, the rate improved four percentage points to 68 percent. White athletes came in at 87 percent, a three-percentage point increase. And baseball, which has traditionally lagged among the lowest scoring sports, made a one-year jump from 69.6 percent to 77.4 percent.
What accounts for the improvement?
NCAA officials believe it's the result of stronger academic standards that took effect in 2003.
Among the academic reforms approved during Myles Brand's tenure as NCAA president were requirements that forced incoming freshmen to complete 16 core courses in high school to earn freshman eligibility, and toughened the annual requirement of making progress toward a degree to retain their eligibility after their freshmen season and the establishment of the Academic Progress Report.
The most dramatic impact was seen in the six-percentage point improvement made by black players in the Football Bowl Subdivision and the four-point increase among black players in men's basketball.
Nineteen of the 36 sports measured by the NCAA showed improvement in the four-year measurements, with 15 showing no change. The only sports showing a decrease were in women's gymnastics, which dropped from 93 to 92 percent, and in women's skiing, which dropped from 95 to 94 percent.
___
Online:
NCAA: http://bit.ly/tBfDXn
Associated Pressaj burnett aj burnett jason wu jason wu the fall the fall kellen winslow
Renteria, McCampbell have legal issues
published online: 10/23/2011
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Shane McCampbell was convicted more than a decade ago of second-offense drunken driving, has some small-claims actions against him related to medical issues and was arrested earlier this year for failing to show up for a truancy hearing involving his daughter.
The other is Eric Renteria, who, in addition to several small claims court judgments against him, sued the state for $11 million, claiming slander and tortious interference in connection with a child custody matter.
A check of Iowa court records for the other two candidates, Becky Anderson and Chuck Griffin, revealed nothing more serious than traffic tickets.
Divorce and a failed business
Renteria has said he is running to push for fiscal reform in government.
"It's about getting our fiscal house in order and re-establishing municipal control - instead of state and federal control - of issues that are significant to the people in this town," Renteria said.
He hopes voters will judge him on the merit of his ideas, not his past troubles.
In an interview, Renteria blamed his problems on a divorce and failed ice cream business, Renteria's Dairy Treats, which had locations in West Burlington and Mediapolis.
"I had a horrible divorce. My ex-wife emptied out my bank accounts. I lost six figures in cash. I lost my life savings. I lost my house. And I was given all the debt from the marriage, every single dime of it. And I pay every month on that," Renteria said. "Up until my divorce, I had never been in a courtroom, never been involved in any legal matter."
In Iowa, Renteria has four small claims judgments against him and one against Renteria's Dairy Treats, totaling more than $6,700, according to court documents. Outstanding judgments include: $425.55 to Brockway Co. of Burlington; $2,268.16 to Capital One Bank; $3,368.05 to American Food Service Equipment of Davenport; and $641.29 to Ertz Carpets of Mediapolis. Each comes with 4.05 percent interest and court costs.
He has paid off one judgment, $3,652.41 to Discover Bank.
Renteria said he is working to repay the others and writes about $1,000 in checks a month to his creditors.
"I am not scamming anybody out of any money," he said. "I've paid out thousands of dollars on these debts."
He also said he repaid Ertz Carpets.
But co-owner Denice Ertz called that a "bold-faced lie." He still owes the company the judgment amount, Ertz said.
Ertz said she tried to contact Renteria to set up a payment schedule, but he would not answer her phone calls. She also tried to have his checking account garnisheed, but he emptied the account before she was able.
Matt Brockway of Brockway Co. also said Renteria has made no effort to repay his debt.
"He didn't even show up for his small claims court date," Brockway said. "He has been completely unresponsive to any of our letters."
Renteria said he learned a lot. He said he's applied those lessons to his new business, Green Line Armor, a biocomposite pallet manufacturing company based in West Burlington.
'You can't sue the king'
Renteria's unsuccessful attempt to sue the state stemmed from a custody dispute with his ex-wife, Lori Wertish, who lives in Florida.
The couple had agreed their two daughters would stay one month with Renteria during the summer, which could be extended with 48 hours notice, he said.
In 2007, Renteria said he did that, but Wertish contacted local officials.
"When I was at work, the sheriff's department came to the Dairy Treat while my ex-wife, and I'm not sure who was all there from the sheriff's department, went to my house and took my daughter, who I believe at the time was 13," Renteria said. "They told me if I didn't cooperate, they were going to take me to jail."
His other daughter was at work with him and left with the deputy to be turned over to her mother.
Renteria blamed the situation for the failure of his Mediapolis business.
"During this time, I was a wreck. I did not want to work. I did not want to go to the Dairy Treat. Every time I went there, I saw my daughter being taken away from me," Renteria said. "The Dairy Treat suffered tremendously during that time, and it never recovered."
Renteria complained to County Attorney Pat Jackson, who told Renteria his only recourse was through the Florida court system.
"The county attorney's office and the sheriff's department was now complicit in that kidnapping, because they came and did it without any authority to do so," Renteria said. "They came and they took my kids, and by definition in Iowa law, that is kidnapping."
A message left with Jackson's office for comment was not returned.
Renteria filed contempt charges against his ex-wife in Florida. Meanwhile, Jackson sought an independent review through the Attorney General's office, and Assistant Attorney General Robert Glaser, who was assigned to the case.
"(Glaser) called the state of Florida and told them I was an unfit parent," Renteria said.
The comments contributed to the contempt filing against Wertish being dismissed, he said.
Angered by what he saw as inappropriate interference, Renteria sued. The $11 million was arbitrarily chosen to get attention, he said.
Renteria acted as his own attorney, and his first attempt at the tort suit was dismissed due to filing errors.
A second suit also was dismissed. The judge ruled Glaser, who since has retired, was acting within the scope of his job. Also, the judge said Renteria failed to present his claim to the State Appeal Board or exhaust the administrative review process, which Iowa law requires before allowing district courts to hear tort claims against the state.
Renteria sees things differently.
"Judge (William) Dowell dismissed the case against the state because you can't sue the king, which is a bunch of crap," Renteria said.
He then pushed to have his case heard by a grand jury, but failed.
"At that point, I was done. I had lost everything," Renteria said.
Attorney General's Office spokesman Jeff Greenwood declined Friday to comment on the case.
"The judge dismissed the suit, and that speaks for itself," Greenwood said.
The West Burlington Dairy Treat failed about the same time.
To open the West Burlington store, Renteria made an agreement with Mary Dehner, who rented him space, provided $50,000 in capital and agreed to work as a manager.
But the ice cream shop made less money than expected, and no money was set aside to get it through the lean winter months, Renteria said.
"Selling ice cream in January in Burlington is tough," Renteria said.
After the West Burlington establishment closed in 2008, Renteria reached an agreement with Dehner. Dehner declined to talk on the record about the matter.
No secret
McCampbell, a pastor at Shinar Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Pleasant Grove and New Fellowship Christian Church in Burlington, has made no secret of his past legal troubles.
"Every misstep I have ever made, was made right here in this town. I've never gone anywhere, and I'm not leaving," he said. "I'm not perfect. But I have grown. I am a better person for what has happened.
"This might be new information for some, but everybody at my church knows about it. Because I remind them on a regular basis," he continued. "I'm not better than them. I'm not preaching at them. I'm preaching to me, and they get the benefit."
Most recently, McCampbell was arrested April 17 for failure to appear for a hearing related to his daughter's school absences. It is the only previous legal problem he said he would change if he could.
Students with more than six unexcused absences are considered truant, and their parents are required to go through a mediation process or face arrest.
McCampbell's daughter has diabetes, and he said the resulting health issues led to her absences.
During a March 17, 2010, mediation with the Des Moines County Attorney's office, McCampbell signed an agreement stating his daughter would have no more unexcused absences for the rest of the school year and into the ensuing school year. Yet by January, she had two more unexcused absences.
McCampbell was issued a summons to appear in court April 5, but he failed to show, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. He ended up being fined $65 plus $106.28 in costs and surcharges.
McCampbell said he was unaware the meeting represented a court appearance and missing it could lead to his arrest. He believes the matter was grossly mishandled by the school district, county attorney's office and truancy officer.
"She has always missed days," he said. "There is nothing new that has happened, except she went to a different school."
On July 1, 2000, McCampbell was arrested for second-offense drunken driving, having an open container and driving left of center. He pleaded guilty to the drunken driving and open container charges in exchange for the dismissal of driving left of center.
McCampbell accepts responsibility and the consequences. He does not make excuses for the incident, but explained the arrest came at a low point in his life.
He recently had recovered from spinal meningitis, the swelling of membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, which put him in the hospital for three weeks. His job selling tires had just been downsized. His marriage had fallen apart. His house burned down. And only a year earlier his youngest child fell seriously ill and had to be flown to University of Iowa Hospitals.
It is from those life experiences McCampbell draws his inspiration.
"God had to humble me to prepare me for the ministry," McCampbell said. "God allowed me to get bent, but not broken. I began to study even more so. And I was reminded, before Moses was the deliverer he was a murderer. God called David a man after his own heart, and he fornicated with a woman and had her husband killed in battle."
To explain his philosophy, McCampbell quoted 1 Peter 1:7.
"That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ," he said. "You have to be tried by fire to come out as pure gold. I kept coming back to that Scripture because I knew God didn't bring me to that point just for me to walk away from everything. I knew there was a reason."
McCampbell's first drunken driving conviction was 20 years ago when he was 21 and "young and stupid," he said.
McCampbell's other legal problems are money-related.
He has more than $5,000 in small claims judgments, most related to medical bills. McCampbell said he plans to pay off the debt, except for two: a $1,166.12 judgment awarded to Capital One Bank for an unpaid credit card, which McCampbell said he did not take out, and a medical bill for about $1,000 for what he called a botched spinal tap.
"That is poverty. Welcome to my world. When you have the opportunity to pay $25, and they say, 'No, we need $116.' And the kids still need clothes, and you have to eat. It really isn't an option for me. I'm paying my rent. I'm paying my utilities. I'm making sure my kids get the stuff they need," he said. "I don't plan on being poor forever, and when I'm not, they're going to get it. I guarantee you, they are going to get their money."
McCampbell said he earned about $10,000 last year as a minister. But his work isn't about money, it's about commitment and service, he said.
Commentary by News - City & RegionTwo candidates seeking election to the Burlington City Council are more familiar than they'd like with the inside of a courtroom.
Shane McCampbell was convicted more than a decade ago of second-offense drunken driving, has some small-claims actions against him related to medical issues and was arrested earlier this year for failing to show up for a truancy hearing involving his daughter.
The other is Eric Renteria, who, in addition to several small claims court judgments against him, sued the state for $11 million, claiming slander and tortious interference in connection with a child custody matter.
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Divorce and a failed business
Renteria has said he is running to push for fiscal reform in government.
"It's about getting our fiscal house in order and re-establishing municipal control - instead of state and federal control - of issues that are significant to the people in this town," Renteria said.
He hopes voters will judge him on the merit of his ideas, not his past troubles.
In an interview, Renteria blamed his problems on a divorce and failed ice cream business, Renteria's Dairy Treats, which had locations in West Burlington and Mediapolis.
"I had a horrible divorce. My ex-wife emptied out my bank accounts. I lost six figures in cash. I lost my life savings. I lost my house. And I was given all the debt from the marriage, every single dime of it. And I pay every month on that," Renteria said. "Up until my divorce, I had never been in a courtroom, never been involved in any legal matter."
In Iowa, Renteria has four small claims judgments against him and one against Renteria's Dairy Treats, totaling more than $6,700, according to court documents. Outstanding judgments include: $425.55 to Brockway Co. of Burlington; $2,268.16 to Capital One Bank; $3,368.05 to American Food Service Equipment of Davenport; and $641.29 to Ertz Carpets of Mediapolis. Each comes with 4.05 percent interest and court costs.
He has paid off one judgment, $3,652.41 to Discover Bank.
Renteria said he is working to repay the others and writes about $1,000 in checks a month to his creditors.
"I am not scamming anybody out of any money," he said. "I've paid out thousands of dollars on these debts."
He also said he repaid Ertz Carpets.
But co-owner Denice Ertz called that a "bold-faced lie." He still owes the company the judgment amount, Ertz said.
Ertz said she tried to contact Renteria to set up a payment schedule, but he would not answer her phone calls. She also tried to have his checking account garnisheed, but he emptied the account before she was able.
Matt Brockway of Brockway Co. also said Renteria has made no effort to repay his debt.
"He didn't even show up for his small claims court date," Brockway said. "He has been completely unresponsive to any of our letters."
Renteria said he learned a lot. He said he's applied those lessons to his new business, Green Line Armor, a biocomposite pallet manufacturing company based in West Burlington.
'You can't sue the king'
Renteria's unsuccessful attempt to sue the state stemmed from a custody dispute with his ex-wife, Lori Wertish, who lives in Florida.
The couple had agreed their two daughters would stay one month with Renteria during the summer, which could be extended with 48 hours notice, he said.
In 2007, Renteria said he did that, but Wertish contacted local officials.
"When I was at work, the sheriff's department came to the Dairy Treat while my ex-wife, and I'm not sure who was all there from the sheriff's department, went to my house and took my daughter, who I believe at the time was 13," Renteria said. "They told me if I didn't cooperate, they were going to take me to jail."
His other daughter was at work with him and left with the deputy to be turned over to her mother.
Renteria blamed the situation for the failure of his Mediapolis business.
"During this time, I was a wreck. I did not want to work. I did not want to go to the Dairy Treat. Every time I went there, I saw my daughter being taken away from me," Renteria said. "The Dairy Treat suffered tremendously during that time, and it never recovered."
Renteria complained to County Attorney Pat Jackson, who told Renteria his only recourse was through the Florida court system.
"The county attorney's office and the sheriff's department was now complicit in that kidnapping, because they came and did it without any authority to do so," Renteria said. "They came and they took my kids, and by definition in Iowa law, that is kidnapping."
A message left with Jackson's office for comment was not returned.
Renteria filed contempt charges against his ex-wife in Florida. Meanwhile, Jackson sought an independent review through the Attorney General's office, and Assistant Attorney General Robert Glaser, who was assigned to the case.
"(Glaser) called the state of Florida and told them I was an unfit parent," Renteria said.
The comments contributed to the contempt filing against Wertish being dismissed, he said.
Angered by what he saw as inappropriate interference, Renteria sued. The $11 million was arbitrarily chosen to get attention, he said.
Renteria acted as his own attorney, and his first attempt at the tort suit was dismissed due to filing errors.
A second suit also was dismissed. The judge ruled Glaser, who since has retired, was acting within the scope of his job. Also, the judge said Renteria failed to present his claim to the State Appeal Board or exhaust the administrative review process, which Iowa law requires before allowing district courts to hear tort claims against the state.
Renteria sees things differently.
"Judge (William) Dowell dismissed the case against the state because you can't sue the king, which is a bunch of crap," Renteria said.
He then pushed to have his case heard by a grand jury, but failed.
"At that point, I was done. I had lost everything," Renteria said.
Attorney General's Office spokesman Jeff Greenwood declined Friday to comment on the case.
"The judge dismissed the suit, and that speaks for itself," Greenwood said.
The West Burlington Dairy Treat failed about the same time.
To open the West Burlington store, Renteria made an agreement with Mary Dehner, who rented him space, provided $50,000 in capital and agreed to work as a manager.
But the ice cream shop made less money than expected, and no money was set aside to get it through the lean winter months, Renteria said.
"Selling ice cream in January in Burlington is tough," Renteria said.
After the West Burlington establishment closed in 2008, Renteria reached an agreement with Dehner. Dehner declined to talk on the record about the matter.
No secret
McCampbell, a pastor at Shinar Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Pleasant Grove and New Fellowship Christian Church in Burlington, has made no secret of his past legal troubles.
"Every misstep I have ever made, was made right here in this town. I've never gone anywhere, and I'm not leaving," he said. "I'm not perfect. But I have grown. I am a better person for what has happened.
"This might be new information for some, but everybody at my church knows about it. Because I remind them on a regular basis," he continued. "I'm not better than them. I'm not preaching at them. I'm preaching to me, and they get the benefit."
Most recently, McCampbell was arrested April 17 for failure to appear for a hearing related to his daughter's school absences. It is the only previous legal problem he said he would change if he could.
Students with more than six unexcused absences are considered truant, and their parents are required to go through a mediation process or face arrest.
McCampbell's daughter has diabetes, and he said the resulting health issues led to her absences.
During a March 17, 2010, mediation with the Des Moines County Attorney's office, McCampbell signed an agreement stating his daughter would have no more unexcused absences for the rest of the school year and into the ensuing school year. Yet by January, she had two more unexcused absences.
McCampbell was issued a summons to appear in court April 5, but he failed to show, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. He ended up being fined $65 plus $106.28 in costs and surcharges.
McCampbell said he was unaware the meeting represented a court appearance and missing it could lead to his arrest. He believes the matter was grossly mishandled by the school district, county attorney's office and truancy officer.
"She has always missed days," he said. "There is nothing new that has happened, except she went to a different school."
On July 1, 2000, McCampbell was arrested for second-offense drunken driving, having an open container and driving left of center. He pleaded guilty to the drunken driving and open container charges in exchange for the dismissal of driving left of center.
McCampbell accepts responsibility and the consequences. He does not make excuses for the incident, but explained the arrest came at a low point in his life.
He recently had recovered from spinal meningitis, the swelling of membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, which put him in the hospital for three weeks. His job selling tires had just been downsized. His marriage had fallen apart. His house burned down. And only a year earlier his youngest child fell seriously ill and had to be flown to University of Iowa Hospitals.
It is from those life experiences McCampbell draws his inspiration.
"God had to humble me to prepare me for the ministry," McCampbell said. "God allowed me to get bent, but not broken. I began to study even more so. And I was reminded, before Moses was the deliverer he was a murderer. God called David a man after his own heart, and he fornicated with a woman and had her husband killed in battle."
To explain his philosophy, McCampbell quoted 1 Peter 1:7.
"That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ," he said. "You have to be tried by fire to come out as pure gold. I kept coming back to that Scripture because I knew God didn't bring me to that point just for me to walk away from everything. I knew there was a reason."
McCampbell's first drunken driving conviction was 20 years ago when he was 21 and "young and stupid," he said.
McCampbell's other legal problems are money-related.
He has more than $5,000 in small claims judgments, most related to medical bills. McCampbell said he plans to pay off the debt, except for two: a $1,166.12 judgment awarded to Capital One Bank for an unpaid credit card, which McCampbell said he did not take out, and a medical bill for about $1,000 for what he called a botched spinal tap.
"That is poverty. Welcome to my world. When you have the opportunity to pay $25, and they say, 'No, we need $116.' And the kids still need clothes, and you have to eat. It really isn't an option for me. I'm paying my rent. I'm paying my utilities. I'm making sure my kids get the stuff they need," he said. "I don't plan on being poor forever, and when I'm not, they're going to get it. I guarantee you, they are going to get their money."
McCampbell said he earned about $10,000 last year as a minister. But his work isn't about money, it's about commitment and service, he said.
Source: http://www.thehawkeye.com/story/Candidate-history-102111
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Monday, October 24, 2011
`Paranormal 3' scares up record $54 million debut (AP)
LOS ANGELES ? "Paranormal Activity 3" didn't just go bump in the night. It made a ton of noise at the box office with a record-setting, $54 million opening.
The third film in Paramount Pictures' low-budget fright franchise, which was No. 1 at the box office, had the biggest debut ever for a horror movie, according to Sunday studio estimates. It broke the previous record part two set a year ago with $40.7 million. It's also the biggest opening ever for an October release, topping the $50.35 million Paramount's "Jackass 3D" made last year.
"Paranormal Activity 3" is actually a prequel, with the discovery of disturbing home-movie footage from 1988. Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, who made the creepy documentary "Catfish," took over directing duties this time.
Don Harris, Paramount's president of distribution, said the studio hoped part three would simply perform better than part two. The first "Paranormal Activity," with its reported $15,000 budget, became a phenomenon in 2009 through midnight screenings and word of mouth.
Harris believes this installment did so well because it's actually the best movie of the three. He noted that it appealed to an older crowd, with 47 percent over the age of 25 compared to 40 percent for "Paranormal Activity 2." Strong reviews also helped, he said, including a rave from Time magazine. And fundamentally, horror movies simply play better in a packed theater.
"Ultimately, it gets back to why there's still a theatrical business, why people still go to the movies," Harris said. "We want to laugh in a group, we want to be scared in a group, people like to cry in a group in the dark where nobody can see them crying. It's all the reason movie theaters exist and this genre has always been front and center."
Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com, said he was expecting "Paranormal Activity 3" to come in around $35 million for the weekend, simply because most newcomers have been underperforming this fall.
"This brand is as solid as the `Twilight' brand or the `Jackass' brand. There are certain brands that just transcend any kind of box-office rhyme or reason. They just resonate," Dergarabedian said. "These are shot in someone's house, they look like they're shot with a home video recorder, and people just relate to it."
Last week's No. 1 release, the futuristic boxing robot adventure "Real Steel," fell to second place. It made $11.3 million for a domestic total of $67.2 million. Worldwide, the Disney movie has grossed $153.3 million.
Among the other new releases this week, Summit Entertainment's 3-D version of "The Three Musketeers" came in fourth place with $8.8 million. And Universal's "Johnny English Reborn," a sequel to the 2003 spy parody starring Rowan Atkinson, opened at No. 8 with $3.8 million. But it's already a huge hit internationally, having made $104.5 million so far.
In limited release, the critically acclaimed psychological thriller "Martha Marcy May Marlene" made $137,541 on four screens in New York and Los Angeles. That's a hefty $34,385 per screen average, according to Fox Searchlight.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. "Paranormal Activity 3," $54 million. ($26 million international.)
2. "Real Steel," $11.3 million. ($18.5 million international.)
3. "Footloose," $10.85 million.
4. "The Three Musketeers," $8.8 million. ($17.1 million international.)
5. "The Ides of March," $4.9 million.
6. "Dolphin Tale," $4.2 million.
7. "Moneyball," $4.05 million.
8. "Johnny English Reborn," $3.8 million. ($13.5 million international.)
9. "The Thing," $3.1 million.
10. "50/50," $2.8 million.
___
Estimated weekend ticket sales at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada) for films distributed overseas by Hollywood studios, according to Rentrak:
1. "Paranormal Activity 3," $26 million.
2. "Real Steel," $18.5 million.
3. "Johnny English Reborn," $13.5 million.
4. "The Three Musketeers," $17.1 million.
5. "Contagion," $9.6 million.
6. "The Smurfs," $3.4 million.
7. "The Lion King," $3.3 million.
8. "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," $2.9 million.
9. "Friends With Benefits," $2.8 million.
10 "The Change-Up," $2.4 million.
___
Online:
http://www.hollywood.com
http://www.rentrak.com
___
Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by Rainbow Media Holdings, a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corp.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.
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Argentine president looking at landslide victory (AP)
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina ? Polls have opened in Argentina's presidential election, where President Cristina Fernandez is expected to win a landslide victory over six rivals.
If she does win, she'll be the first woman to be re-elected as president in Latin America. But it also will be a bittersweet victory for Fernandez. It is her first in a lifetime of politics without her husband and predecessor, Nestor Kirchner, who died of a heart attack last Oct. 27.
Fernandez can win with as little as 40 percent of the vote if none of her rivals comes within 10 percentage points of her, but the latest polls suggested she could capture between 52 percent and 57 percent of votes.
Also at stake is control of congress.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) ? President Cristina Fernandez could rest easy ahead of Sunday's elections in Argentina, with polls suggesting a landslide victory over six rivals.
Not that she did: An irrepressible multitasker, she campaigned so hard that blood pressure problems repeatedly forced her to cancel events.
If she does win, she'll be the first woman president re-elected in Latin America. But it also will be a bittersweet victory for Fernandez, her first in a lifetime of politics without her husband and predecessor, Nestor Kirchner, who died of a heart attack last Oct. 27.
Since his death, Fernandez has reversed her negative numbers and proved her ability to govern on her own, ensuring loyalty or respect from an unruly political elite.
Many Argentines in pre-election polls said they would vote for her because their own financial situations have improved as the country's economy continues its longest spell of economic growth in history. Voters also said they supported Fernandez because she's best able to govern, which in Argentina often requires keeping union, corporate and social movement leaders in line.
Fernandez can win with as little as 40 percent of the vote if none of her rivals comes within 10 percentage points of her, but the latest polls suggested she could capture between 52 percent and 57 percent of votes. The surveys had error margins of plus or minus three percentage points.
If those trends hold, Fernandez could receive a larger share of votes than any president since Argentina's democracy was restored in 1983, when Raul Alfonsin was elected with 52 percent. She could even approach the 60 percent of ballots that her populist hero, Juan Domingo Peron, won in his last two elections. Her Front for Victory coalition also hoped to regain enough seats in Congress to form new alliances and regain the control it lost in 2009.
Fernandez, 58, chose her youthful, guitar-playing, long-haired economy minister, Amado Boudou, as her running mate. Together, the pair championed Argentina's approach to the global financial crisis: Increase government spending rather than impose austerity measures, and force investors in foreign debt to suffer before ordinary citizens.
Argentina has been closed off from most international lending since declaring its world-record debt default in 2001, but has been able to sustain booming growth ever since.
The country faces tough challenges in 2012, however. Its commodities exports are vulnerable to a global recession, and economic growth is forecast to slow sharply in the coming year. Declining revenues will make it harder to raise incomes to keep up with inflation. Trade with the economic powerhouse of Brazil is all important, but with the Brazilian real rising and the Argentine peso falling, there will be more pressure on Argentina's central bank to spend reserves to maintain the currency.
If his ticket wins, Boudou could win attention as a potential successor to Fernandez, but navigating these storms will require much skill and good fortune.
The president's rivals are Hermes Binner, 68, a doctor and socialist governor of Santa Fe province; Ricardo Alfonsin, 59, a lawyer and congressional deputy with the traditional Radical Civic Union party and son of the former president; Alberto Rodriguez Saa, 52, an attorney and governor of San Luis province whose brother Adolfo was president for a week; Eduardo Duhalde, who preceded Kirchner as president; leftist former lawmaker Jorge Altamira, 69; and Elisa Carrio 54, a congresswoman who came in second behind Fernandez four years ago but trailed the field this time.
Also at stake in the election are 130 seats in the lower house of congress, 24 senate seats and nine governor's offices as well as hundreds of local races.
Voting is obligatory in Argentina, and nearly 29 million citizens among the 40 million population are registered.
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Floodwaters seep into outer Bangkok as canals open (AP)
BANGKOK ? Thailand's prime minister urged Bangkok residents to get ready to move their belongings to higher ground Friday as the country's worst floods in half a century began seeping into the capital's outer districts.
The government has opened several key floodgates in a risky move to let built-up water flow through the canals toward the sea, and it's not known how much the canals will overflow.
An Associated Press team Friday saw water entering homes in Bangkok's northern Lak Si district, along the capital's main Prapa canal. The water rose to knee-level in some places but damage so far was minor and not affecting Bangkok's main business district.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra told reporters the Prapa canal was a big concern.
"I would like to ask people in all districts of Bangkok to get ready to move their belongings to higher ground as a precaution," Yingluck said, while also urging people "not to panic."
Yingluck invoked her powers under the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Act giving her overriding authority over all other official bodies, including local governments, to fight the crisis.
The action should allow better coordination with the municipal authorities in Bangkok, who normally have legal authority to make their own decisions. It also helps project Yingluck as a take-charge leader, after weeks of seeming indecision and confusion.
Bangkok Gov. Sukhumbhand Paribatra said managing the Prapa canal was a "top priority" but vast pools of runoff draining through it from the north are expected to intensify.
the immense networks of sandbagged barriers could deteriorate under pressure from the water, since they were not designed as dams.
Excessive rains and storms have wasted a vast swath of Asia this year, killing 745 people ? a quarter of them children ? in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and the Philippines, according to the United Nations.
Thailand's government said Friday at least 342 deaths occurred here, mostly from drowning as floodwaters crept across this Southeast Asian nation since July. The floods have submerged land in about one-third of the country, leaving some towns under water more than six-feet-high (two-meters-high).
Economic analysts say the floods have cut Thailand's 2011 GDP projections by as much as 2 percentage points. The latest damage estimate of $6 billion could double if floods swamp Bangkok.
___
Associated Press writer Vee Intarakratug contributed to this report.
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Sunday, October 23, 2011
#scio11 - Science-Art
October 21, 2011?|
Science-Art from NASW on Vimeo.
This is a recording of a session from ScienceOnline2011, the fifth annual conference on Science and the Web. Join us for the sixth ? bigger and better edition ? next January at ScienceOnline2012.
About the Author: Bora Zivkovic is the Blog Editor at Scientific American, chronobiologist, biology teacher, organizer of ScienceOnline conferences and editor of Open Laboratory anthologies of best science writing on the Web. Follow on Twitter @boraz.More??
The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.
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Clinton seeks role for Afghanistan's neighbors
An Uzbek woman in national costumes greets U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, left, at the International airport in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, on Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011. Clinton is visiting Tajikistan and Uzbekistan this weekend as she wraps up a South and Central Asia tour focused on securing and stabilizing Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Anvar Ilyasov)
An Uzbek woman in national costumes greets U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, left, at the International airport in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, on Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011. Clinton is visiting Tajikistan and Uzbekistan this weekend as she wraps up a South and Central Asia tour focused on securing and stabilizing Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Anvar Ilyasov)
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks at a town hall discussion in Dushanbe, Tajikistan Saturday Oct 22, 2011. The United States will continue to support Iraq as it moves toward democracy, Clinton said Saturday as she wrapped up a weeklong overseas trip. Without mentioning Iran by name, Clinton warned Iraq's neighbors against meddling and said the U.S. and Iraq would remain close allies.( AP Photo/Kevin Lamarque, Pool)
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton smiles at a town hall discussion in Dushanbe, Tajikistan Saturday Oct 22, 2011. The United States will continue to support Iraq as it moves toward democracy, Clinton said Saturday as she wrapped up a weeklong overseas trip. Without mentioning Iran by name, Clinton warned Iraq's neighbors against meddling and said the U.S. and Iraq would remain close allies.( AP Photo/Kevin Lamarque, Pool)
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks at a town hall discussion in Dushanbe, Tajikistan Saturday Oct 22, 2011. The United States will continue to support Iraq as it moves toward democracy, Clinton said Saturday as she wrapped up a weeklong overseas trip. Without mentioning Iran by name, Clinton warned Iraq's neighbors against meddling and said the U.S. and Iraq would remain close allies.( AP Photo/Kevin Lamarque, Pool)
A woman wearing traditional dress awaits the departure of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, after she participated in a town hall discussion at the Ismaeli Center in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011. Clinton is visiting Tajikistan and Uzbekistan this weekend as she wraps up a South and Central Asia tour focused on securing and stabilizing Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Kevin Lamarque, Pool)
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan (AP) ? The U.S. secretary of state on Saturday urged Afghanistan's Central Asian neighbors to play a role in securing and rebuilding the country as American forces withdraw over the next three years.
Hillary Rodham Clinton also pressed authorities in the region about improving their record on human rights.
Clinton told an audience in Tajikistan that Afghanistan's reintegration into the regional economy would be critical to its recovery from war, as well as for better conditions in surrounding countries.
Afghanistan has been at "the crossroads for terrorism and insurgency and so much pain and suffering over 30 years," she said. "We want Afghanistan to be at the crossroads of economic opportunities going north and south and east and west, which is why it's so critical to more fully integrate the economies of the countries in this region in South and Central Asia."
Clinton was promoting the concept of a "new Silk Road" that would increase regional trade and commerce.
"We hope it will give rise to a network of thriving economic relationships around the region," she said. But, Clinton added, countries would have to remove or ease trade restrictions and reform commercial laws for the plan to succeed.
On human rights, Clinton told a town hall meeting in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, that she would raise the issue with the leaders of both Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
She said she spoke to Tajikistan's president, Emomali Rakhmon, about her concerns over restrictions on media and religious freedoms. In particular, she cited attempts to register certain faiths and efforts to discourage younger people from embracing the worship of their choice.
Tajikistan, a Muslim nation with a secular government, is keen to prevent its youth from adopting extremist Islamic views.
But this kind of strategy, Clinton warned, often backfires.
"It could push legitimate religious expression underground and that could build up a lot of unrest and discontent," she told reporters at a news conference with the Tajik foreign minister. "You have to look at the consequences. We don't want to do anything that breeds extremism."
U.S. officials said she brought a similar message to Uzbek President Islam Karimov, who they said has pledged during their 2?-hour meeting in Tashkent to put in place reforms.
Clinton defended her meeting with Karimov, whose government has been accused of serious rights abuses.
"If you have no contact, you have no influence," she said. "And other countries will fill that vacuum who do not care about human rights, who do not care about fundamental freedoms. So despite the challenge, I would rather be having meetings raising these uncomfortable issues, pressing for change, than to be totally outside and let others come in that only want commercial, political, and other advantages."
Human Rights Watch has called on her to link improvements to continued U.S. engagement.
Clinton was the highest-ranking American official to visit Tashkent since the U.S. last month lifted 7-year-old restrictions on assistance to the country. The restrictions were imposed because of rights abuses.
Clinton arrived in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe on Friday from stops in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where she demanded greater cooperating in dealing with militants and encouraging insurgents to talk peace.
Clinton is at the tail end of a weeklong, seven-nation overseas trip that has already taken her to Malta, Libya, Oman, Afghanistan and Pakistan. She planned to return to Washington on Sunday.
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The Void in GOP Debates: Foreign Policy
CNN GOP debate (Getty Images)
In his Washington Post column, Eugene Robinson doles out important advice to Republican presidential candidates about foreign policy: Pay attention. He especially calls out Herman Cain, who recently bragged about his lack of knowledge about international affairs.
... This advice is aimed most urgently at Herman Cain, who wears his ignorance of international affairs as a badge of honor. "When they ask me who is the president of Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan, I'm going to say, you know, I don't know," he boasted recently. "And then I'm going to say, 'How's that going to create one job?'?" For the record, Uzbekistan is a strategically important Central Asian nation whose president is Islam Karimov.
In the umpteen debates held thus far, foreign policy hasn't even been elevated to the status of an afterthought. The only nations that reliably come up are China, which we somehow have to "beat," and Mexico, which all the candidates except Rick Perry and Ron Paul want to quarantine with an impregnable fence.
Cain said repeatedly that his proposed fence would be electrified. Then he said those remarks were in jest. Then he said the fence might be electrified after all. Sorry for the digression, but I?m just trying to keep up.
What's no joking matter is that, to the extent that the Republican candidates deal at all with international affairs, it tends to be in a way that's shockingly vapid and unsophisticated. It is likely that domestic issues, especially the parlous state of the economy, will dominate the election. But it's also likely that one or more foreign crises will arise between now and Election Day -- and that the contrast can only work in President Obama's favor.
Read Eugene Robinson's entire column at the Washington Post.
Like?The Root?on Facebook. Follow us on?Twitter. ?
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Smashing pumpkins: Show us your MMA carved pumpkins
Artist Ray Villafane created a pumpkin that reminds me of MMA's best punch-faces.
That is an impressive work of art, particularly the flying pumpkin teeth. Could you do any better?
Here's the challenge. Create an MMA-inspired pumpkin and post it on the Cagewriter Facebook page. It can be a fighter, a fight, a logo, whatever. It just needs to be obviously related to mixed martial arts and made from a pumpkin, and not obscene, vulgar or otherwise inappropriate. We will award the best ones DVDs, fight programs and whatever else we can pull from the Cagewriter prize closet.
Read on to see some inspiration from recent fights via photographer Tracy Lee, or look through a collection of Cagewriter's exclusive pictures.
Nam Phan and Leonard Garcia at UFC 136
Gray Maynard and Frankie Edgar at UFC 136
Chris Lytle and Dan Hardy at UFC on Versus 5.
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Saturday, October 22, 2011
Jobs questioned authority all his life, book says (AP)
SAN FRANCISCO ? A new biography portrays Steve Jobs as a skeptic all his life ? giving up religion because he was troubled by starving children, calling executives who took over Apple "corrupt" and delaying cancer surgery in favor of cleansings and herbal medicine.
"Steve Jobs" by Walter Isaacson, to be published Monday, also says Jobs came up with the company's name while he was on a diet of fruits and vegetables, and as a teenager perfected staring at people without blinking.
The Associated Press purchased a copy of the book Thursday.
The book delves into Jobs' decision to delay surgery for nine months after learning in October 2003 that he had a neuroendocrine tumor ? a relatively rare type of pancreatic cancer that normally grows more slowly and is therefore more treatable.
Instead, he tried a vegan diet, acupuncture, herbal remedies and other treatments he found online, and even consulted a psychic. He also was influenced by a doctor who ran a clinic that advised juice fasts, bowel cleansings and other unproven approaches, the book says, before finally having surgery in July 2004.
Isaacson, quoting Jobs, writes in the book: "`I really didn't want them to open up my body, so I tried to see if a few other things would work,' he told me years later with a hint of regret."
Jobs died Oct. 5, at age 56, after a battle with cancer.
The book also provides insight into the unraveling of Jobs' relationship with Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google and an Apple board member from 2006 to 2009. Schmidt had quit Apple's board as Google and Apple went head-to-head in smartphones, Apple with its iPhone and Google with its Android software.
Isaacson wrote that Jobs was livid in January 2010 when HTC introduced an Android phone that boasted many of the popular features of the iPhone. Apple sued, and Jobs told Isaacson in an expletive-laced rant that Google's actions amounted to "grand theft."
"I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong," Jobs said. "I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this."
Jobs used an expletive to describe Android and Google Docs, Google's Internet-based word processing program. In a subsequent meeting with Schmidt at a Palo Alto, Calif., cafe, Jobs told Schmidt that he wasn't interested in settling the lawsuit, the book says.
"I don't want your money. If you offer me $5 billion, I won't want it. I've got plenty of money. I want you to stop using our ideas in Android, that's all I want." The meeting, Isaacson wrote, resolved nothing.
The book is clearly designed to evoke the Apple style. Its cover features the title and author's name starkly printed in black and gray type against a white background, along with a black-and-white photo of Jobs, thumb and forefinger to his chin.
The biography, for which Jobs granted more than three dozen interviews, is also a look into the thoughts of a man who was famously secret, guarding details of his life as he did Apple's products, and generating plenty of psychoanalysis from a distance.
Jobs resigned as Apple's CEO on Aug. 24, six weeks before he died.
Doctors said Thursday that it was not clear whether the delayed treatment made a difference in Jobs' chances for survival.
"People live with these cancers for far longer than nine months before they're even diagnosed," so it's not known how quickly one can prove fatal, said Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society.
Dr. Michael Pishvaian, a pancreatic cancer expert at Georgetown University's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, said people often are in denial after a cancer diagnosis, and some take a long time to accept recommended treatments.
"We've had many patients who have had bad outcomes when they have delayed treatment. Nine months is certainly a significant period of time to delay," he said.
Fortune magazine reported in 2008 that Jobs tried alternative treatments because he was suspicious of mainstream medicine.
The book says Jobs gave up Christianity at age 13 when he saw starving children on the cover of Life magazine. He asked whether his Sunday school pastor knew what would happen to them.
Jobs never went back to church, though he did study Zen Buddhism later.
Jobs calls the crop of executives brought in to run Apple after his ouster in 1985 "corrupt people" with "corrupt values" who cared only about making money. Jobs himself is described as caring far more about product than profit.
He told Isaacson they cared only about making money "for themselves mainly, and also for Apple ? rather than making great products."
Jobs returned to the company in 1997. After that, he introduced the candy-colored iMac computer, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad, and turned Apple into the most valuable company in America by market value for a time.
The book says that, while some Apple board members were happy that Hewlett-Packard gave up trying to compete with Apple's iPad, Jobs did not think it was cause for celebration.
"Hewlett and Packard built a great company, and they thought they had left it in good hands," Jobs told Isaacson. "But now it's being dismembered and destroyed."
"I hope I've left a stronger legacy so that will never happen at Apple," he added.
Advance sales of the book have topped best-seller lists. Much of the biography adds to what was already known, or speculated, about Jobs. While Isaacson is not the first to tell Jobs' story, he had unprecedented access. Their last interview was weeks before Jobs died.
Jobs reveals in the book that he didn't want to go to college, and the only school he applied to was Reed, a costly private college in Portland, Ore. Once accepted, his parents tried to talk him out of attending Reed, but he told them he wouldn't go to college if they didn't let him go there. Jobs wound up attending but dropped out after less than a year and never went back.
Jobs told Isaacson that he tried various diets, including one of fruits and vegetables. On the naming of Apple, he said he was "on one of my fruitarian diets." He said he had just come back from an apple farm, and thought the name sounded "fun, spirited and not intimidating."
Jobs' eye for simple, clean design was evident early. The case of the Apple II computer had originally included a Plexiglas cover, metal straps and a roll-top door. Jobs, though, wanted something elegant that would make Apple stand out.
He told Isaacson he was struck by Cuisinart food processors while browsing at a department store and decided he wanted a case made of molded plastic.
He called Jonathan Ive, Apple's design chief, his "spiritual partner" at Apple. He told Isaacson that Ive had "more operation power" at Apple than anyone besides Jobs himself ? that there's no one at the company who can tell Ive what to do. That, says Jobs, is "the way I set it up."
Jobs was never a typical CEO. Apple's first president, Mike Scott, was hired mainly to manage Jobs, then 22. One of his first projects, according to the book, was getting Jobs to bathe more often. It didn't work.
Jobs' dabbling in LSD and other aspects of 1960s counterculture has been well documented. In the book, Jobs says LSD "reinforced my sense of what was important ? creating great things instead of making money, putting things back into the stream of history and of human consciousness as much as I could."
He also revealed that the Beatles were one of his favorite bands, and one of his wishes was to get the band on iTunes, Apple's revolutionary online music store, before he died. The Beatles' music went on sale on iTunes in late 2010.
The book was originally called "iSteve" and scheduled to come out in March. The release date was moved up to November, then, after Jobs' death, to Monday. It is published by Simon & Schuster and will sell for $35.
Isaacson will appear Sunday on "60 Minutes." CBS News, which airs the program, released excerpts of the book Thursday.
___
Ortutay reported from New York. AP Technology Writer Peter Svensson in New York and AP Chief Medical Writer Marilynn Marchione in Milwaukee also contributed to this report.
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Thailand leader says floods may last 6 more weeks (AP)
BANGKOK ? Thailand's catastrophic floods may take up to six weeks to recede, the prime minister said Saturday, as the human toll from the crisis rose to 356 dead and more than 110,000 displaced.
Excessive monsoon rains have drowned a third of the Southeast Asian nation since late July, causing billions of dollars in damage and putting nearly 700,000 people temporarily out of work.
Colossal pools of runoff from the north have been bearing down on the capital for the last two weeks. In recent days, water has submerged districts just outside Bangkok's northern boundaries, while on Friday, floodwaters began spilling over canals within the city's outermost districts, causing damage to homes.
Some flooding on Bangkok's outskirts was expected after Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra ordered floodgates opened in a risky move to drain the dangerous runoff through urban canals and into the sea. So far, most of the metropolis of 9 million people has escaped unharmed, and its two airports are operating normally.
In a weekly radio address Saturday, Yingluck said that "during the next four to six weeks, the water will recede."
In the meantime, the government will step up aid to those whose lives have been disrupted, including 113,000 people Yingluck said were living in temporary shelters after being forced to abandon submerged homes.
The government said at least 356 people have died in the floods since July.
The floods are the worst to hit the country since 1942, and the crisis is proving a major test for Yingluck's nascent government, which took power in July after heated elections and is coming under fire for not acting quickly or decisively enough to prevent major towns north of the capital from being ravaged by floodwaters.
The Labor Ministry says the flooding has put nearly 700,000 people temporarily out of work, many of them from five major industrial estates north of Bangkok that were forced to suspend operations. Among those affected are Japanese carmakers Toyota and Honda, which have halted major assembly operations. The electronics industry has also suffered, including computer hard drive maker Western Digital, which has two major production facilities in the flooded zone.
In an interview published in the Bangkok Post, Science and Technology Minister Plodprasop Suraswadi said natural and manmade factors combined to create the crisis.
Seasonal monsoons came six weeks early and have lasted longer than usual, filling reservoirs, dams, and fields with 30 percent more rainfall than average. At the same time, the government kept too much water in dams over the summer in a bid to save water for rice cultivation, Plodprasop said.
Overall, about 700 billion cubic feet (20 billion cubic meters) of rainfall has drenched Thailand over the last several months, Plodprasop said.
About half of that has already drained into the sea, leaving about 350 billion cubic feet (10 billion cubic meters) of water threatening Bangkok, much of it spread across rice fields in Thailand's central plains.
Plodprasop said it will take about 20 more days to drain those floodwaters into the Gulf of Thailand, a task he said was complicated by the fact that the nation's irrigation system was designed to control water flows for farming and consumption ? not to prevent floods.
"We have never faced such a huge mass of floodwater in the fields," Plodprasop said.
He said he believed inner Bangkok "should be safe, as we have an extensive drainage system with water pumps to drain excess water out quickly." But some of the city's outskirts could flood up to 6 feet (2 meters) deep, he said.
While Bangkok has so far survived mostly unscathed, images of disaster just outside the city have spooked residents, who are girding for the worst after Yingluck urged all Bangkokians to move valuables to higher ground.
Thousands of cars are parked on elevated highways as drivers try to safeguard their vehicles. And some supply lines are being affected: one Thai company that delivers drinking water to city residents and businesses sent out an SMS to customers announcing its services had been halted because of the crisis.
"The flooding this time is a critical problem," Yingluck said. "We need cooperation and sacrifice from everyone."
To fight the crisis, Yingluck on Friday invoked her powers under a disaster law that gives her authority over all other official bodies, including local governments. The move should allow better coordination with the municipal authorities in Bangkok and help project Yingluck as a take-charge leader, after weeks of seeming indecision and confusion.
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Bombings in eastern Baghdad kill 3 (AP)
BAGHDAD ? Iraqi officials say a triple bombing in the capital has killed at least three people.
Police in the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City in eastern Baghdad say the first bomb exploded near a small restaurant Thursday evening.
Minutes later another bomb went off near a police patrol that had just arrived at the scene, shortly followed by a third blast in the same area near bystanders and police.
Police say 14 people were wounded in the attack. A hospital official in Sadr City confirmed the casualties.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they aren't authorized to brief the media.
Violence has dropped dramatically in Iraq since the height of the conflict but attacks still happen regularly.
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Friday, October 21, 2011
The Real Science behind Scientology
In the 1990s I had the opportunity to dine with the late musician Isaac Hayes, whose career fortunes had just made a stunning turnabout upward, which he attributed to Scientology. It was a glowing testimonial by a sincere follower of the Church, but is it evidence that Scientology works? Two recently published books argue that there is no science in Scientology, only quasireligious doctrines wrapped in New Age flapdoodle masquerading as science. The Church of Scientology, by Hugh B. Urban, professor of religious studies at Ohio State University, is the most scholarly treatment of the organization to date, and investigative journalist Janet Reitman?s Inside Scientology is an electrifying read that includes eye-popping and well-documented tales of billion-year con?tracts, aggressive recruitment programs and abuse of staffers.
The problem with testimonials is that they do not constitute evidence in science. As social psychologist Carol Tavris told me, ?Every therapy produces enthusiastic testimonials because of the justification-of-effort effect. Anyone who invests time and money and effort in a therapy will say it helped. Scientology might have helped Isaac Hayes, just as psychoanalysis and bungee jumping might have helped others, but that doesn?t mean the intervention was the reason. To know if there is anything special about Scientology, you need to do controlled studies?randomly assigning people to Scientology or a control group (or a different therapy) for the same problem.? To my knowledge, no such study has been conducted. The real science behind Scientology seems to be an understanding of the very human need, as social animals, to be part of a supportive group?and the willingness of people to pay handsomely for it.
If Scientology is not a science, is it even a religion? Well, it does have its own creation myth. Around 75 million years ago Xenu, the ruler of a Galactic Confederation of 76 planets, transported billions of his charges in spaceships similar to DC-8 jets to a planet called Teegeeack (Earth). There they were placed near volcanoes and killed by exploding hydrogen bombs, after which their ?thetans? (souls) remained to inhabit the bodies of future earthlings, causing humans today great spiritual harm and unhappiness that can be remedied through special techniques involving an Electropsychometer (E-meter) in a process called auditing.
Thanks to the Internet, this story?previously revealed only to those who paid many thousands of dollars in courses to reach Operating Thetan Level III (OT III) of Scientology?is now so widely known that it was even featured in a 2005 episode of the animated TV series South Park. In fact, according to numerous Web postings by ex-Scientologists, documents from court cases involving followers who reached OT III and abundant books and articles by ex-members who heard the story firsthand and corroborate the details, this is Scientology?s Genesis. So did its founder, writer L. Ron Hubbard, just make it all up?as legend has it?to create a religion that was more lucrative than producing science fiction?
Instead of printing the legend as fact, I recently interviewed the acclaimed science-fiction author Harlan Ellison, who told me he was at the birth of Scientology. At a meeting in New York City of a sci-fi writers? group called the Hydra Club, Hubbard was complaining to L. Sprague de Camp and the others about writing for a penny a word. ?Lester del Rey then said half-jokingly, ?What you really ought to do is create a religion because it will be tax-free,? and at that point everyone in the room started chiming in with ideas for this new religion. So the idea was a Gestalt that Ron caught on to and assimilated the details. He then wrote it up as ?Dianetics: A New Science of the Mind? and sold it to John W. Campbell, Jr., who published it in Astounding Science Fiction in 1950.?
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Jobs questioned authority all his life, book says (AP)
SAN FRANCISCO ? A new biography portrays Steve Jobs as a skeptic all his life ? giving up religion because he was troubled by starving children, calling executives who took over Apple "corrupt" and delaying cancer surgery in favor of cleansings and herbal medicine.
"Steve Jobs" by Walter Isaacson, to be published Monday, also says Jobs came up with the company's name while he was on a diet of fruits and vegetables, and as a teenager perfected staring at people without blinking.
The Associated Press purchased a copy of the book Thursday.
The book delves into Jobs' decision to delay surgery for nine months after learning in October 2003 that he had a neuroendocrine tumor ? a relatively rare type of pancreatic cancer that normally grows more slowly and is therefore more treatable.
Instead, he tried a vegan diet, acupuncture, herbal remedies and other treatments he found online, and even consulted a psychic. He went to a clinic that advised juice fasts, bowel cleansings and other unproved approaches before having surgery in 2004.
Isaacson, quoting Jobs, writes in the book: "'I really didn't want them to open up my body, so I tried to see if a few other things would work,' he told me years later with a hint of regret."
Jobs died Oct. 5, at age 56, after a battle with cancer.
The book also provides insight into the unraveling of Jobs' relationship with Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google and an Apple board member from 2006 to 2009. Schmidt had quit Apple's board as Google and Apple went head-to-head in smartphones, Apple with its iPhone and Google with its Android software.
Isaacson wrote that Jobs was livid in January 2010 when HTC introduced an Android phone that boasted many of the touch and other popular features of the iPhone. Apple sued, and Jobs told Isaacson in an expletive-laced rant that Google's actions amounted to "grand theft."
"I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong," Jobs said. "I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this."
Jobs used an expletive to describe Android and Google Docs, Google's Internet-based word processing program. In a subsequent meeting with Schmidt at a Palo Alto, Calif., cafe, Jobs told Schmidt that he wasn't interested in settling the lawsuit, the book says.
"I don't want your money. If you offer me $5 billion, I won't want it. I've got plenty of money. I want you to stop using our ideas in Android, that's all I want." The meeting, Isaacson wrote, resolved nothing.
The book is clearly designed to evoke the Apple style. Its cover features the title and author's name starkly printed in black and gray type against a white background, along with a black-and-white photo of Jobs, thumb and forefinger to his chin.
The biography, for which Jobs granted more than three dozen interviews, is also a look into the thoughts of a man who was famously secret, guarding details of his life as he did Apple's products, and generating plenty of psychoanalysis from a distance.
Jobs resigned as Apple's CEO on Aug. 24, six weeks before he died.
Doctors said Thursday that it was not clear whether the delayed treatment made a difference in Jobs' chances for survival.
"People live with these cancers for far longer than nine months before they're even diagnosed," so it's not known how quickly one can prove fatal, said Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society.
Dr. Michael Pishvaian, a pancreatic cancer expert at Georgetown University's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, said people often are in denial after a cancer diagnosis, and some take a long time to accept recommended treatments.
"We've had many patients who have had bad outcomes when they have delayed treatment. Nine months is certainly a significant period of time to delay," he said.
Fortune magazine reported in 2008 that Jobs tried alternative treatments because he was suspicious of mainstream medicine.
The book says Jobs gave up Christianity at age 13 when he saw starving children on the cover of Life magazine. He asked whether his Sunday school pastor knew what would happen to them.
Jobs never went back to church, though he did study Zen Buddhism later.
Jobs calls the crop of executives brought in to run Apple after his ouster in 1985 "corrupt people" with "corrupt values" who cared only about making money. Jobs himself is described as caring far more about product than profit.
He told Issacson they cared only about making money "for themselves mainly, and also for Apple _rather than making great products."
Jobs returned to the company in 1997. After that, he introduced the candy-colored iMac computer, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad, and turned Apple into the most valuable company in America by market value for a time.
The book says that, while some Apple board members were happy that Hewlett-Packard gave up trying to compete with Apple's iPad, Jobs did not think it was cause for celebration.
"Hewlett and Packard built a great company, and they thought they had left it in good hands," Jobs told Isaacson. "But now it's being dismembered and destroyed."
"I hope I've left a stronger legacy so that will never happen at Apple," he added.
Advance sales of the book have topped best-seller lists. Much of the biography adds to what was already known, or speculated, about Jobs. While Isaacson is not the first to tell Jobs' story, he had unprecedented access. Their last interview was weeks before Jobs died.
Jobs reveals in the book that he didn't want to go to college, and the only school he applied to was Reed, a costly private college in Portland, Ore. Once accepted, his parents tried to talk him out of attending Reed, but he told them he wouldn't go to college if they didn't let him go there. Jobs wound up attending but dropped out after less than a year and never went back.
Jobs told Isaacson that he tried various diets, including one of fruits and vegetables. On the naming of Apple, he said he was "on one of my fruitarian diets." He said he had just come back from an apple farm, and thought the name sounded "fun, spirited and not intimidating."
Jobs' eye for simple, clean design was evident early. The case of the Apple II computer had originally included a Plexiglas cover, metal straps and a roll-top door. Jobs, though, wanted something elegant that would make Apple stand out.
He told Isaacson he was struck by Cuisinart food processors while browsing at a department store and decided he wanted a case made of molded plastic.
He called Jonathan Ive, Apple's design chief, his "spiritual partner" at Apple. He told Isaacson that Ive had "more operation power" at Apple than anyone besides Jobs himself ? that there's no one at the company who can tell Ive what to do. That, says Jobs, is "the way I set it up."
Jobs was never a typical CEO. Apple's first president, Mike Scott, was hired mainly to manage Jobs, then 22. One of his first projects, according to the book, was getting Jobs to bathe more often. It didn't work.
Jobs' dabbling in LSD and other aspects of 1960s counterculture has been well documented. In the book, Jobs says LSD "reinforced my sense of what was important ? creating great things instead of making money, putting things back into the stream of history and of human consciousness as much as I could."
He also revealed that the Beatles were one of his favorite bands, and one of his wishes was to get the band on iTunes, Apple's revolutionary online music store, before he died. The Beatles' music went on sale on iTunes in late 2010.
The book was originally called "iSteve" and scheduled to come out in March. The release date was moved up to November, then, after Jobs' death, to Monday. It is published by Simon & Schuster and will sell for $35.
Isaacson will appear Sunday on "60 Minutes." CBS News, which airs the program, released excerpts of the book Thursday.
___
Ortutay reported from New York. AP Technology Writer Peter Svensson contributed to this story from New York. AP Chief Medical Writer Marilynn Marchione in Milwaukee also contributed to this report.
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