Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/193634058?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Haiti's Duvalier faces trial for corruption, not abuses (Reuters)
PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) ? Former Haitian dictator Jean Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier will face trial for corruption during his 15-year rule, but not for human rights abuses, the judge handling the case said on Monday.
A 20-page ruling on the charges was delivered to the government prosecutor's office on Monday, Carves Jean, the judge responsible for investigating the case, told Reuters.
It does not include charges for the murders, disappearances, torture and other rights abuses allegedly committed during Duvalier's rule, Jean said.
"I did not find enough legal grounds to keep human rights charges and crimes against humanity against him," he said. "Now my job is over. The case is no longer in my hands."
Duvalier would face up to five years in prison if convicted on the corruption charges. No trial date had yet been set.
Duvalier inherited power from his father, Francois 'Papa Doc' Duvalier in 1971 and ruled Haiti for 15 years until his overthrow in 1986. Under the father-and-son dictatorship, thousands of people were murdered, or were tortured in jails, such as the dreaded Fort Dimanche.
Duvalier, now 60, made a surprise return to his earthquake-stricken homeland in January last year after nearly 25 years exiled in France, opening himself up to possible prosecution.
While the ruling is a setback for human rights victims and advocates, it also marks a victory for those seeking punishment for Duvalier's alleged crimes who had feared that the judge would drop all charges. It would also appear to squash any hopes of a political comeback by the former dictator - at least for the time being - as his lawyers battle with the legal challenge.
One of his lawyers said Duvalier would appeal the decision to send him to trial.
Duvalier is alleged to have embezzled between $300 million and $800 million of assets during his presidency.
The Swiss government has sought to confiscate assets valued at 5.8 million Swiss francs ($6.7 million). It wants to return the funds to Haiti, which is the poorest country in the Americas and is struggling to recover from a devastating earthquake in 2010 which killed more than 200,000 people.
VICTIMS
Government officials could not be reached to comment on the ruling, but it is likely to be challenged by Duvalier's alleged victims, of whom at least 19 have filed complaints with the government prosecutor.
Last week, President Michel Martelly was quoted as favoring a pardon for Duvalier though he later retracted his remarks.
Victims of Duvalier's armed forces and the notorious National Security Volunteer Militia, better known as the Tonton Macoutes, sought to have their claims included in the official case against Duvalier. But the government prosecutor's office did not include them in its recommendations to the judge as the alleged abuses fell outside the statute of limitations stipulated in Haiti's constitution, according to a senior judicial official.
The government prosecutor also recommended dropping the corruption charges, the official said, but the judge decided to let them stand.
"Those other human rights charges were not part of the request I sent to the investigative judge," confirmed Felix Leger, a former prosecutor who prepared the recommendation that was sent to the judge. "We also received other complaints from other people ... but those complaints arrived too late."
Reynold Georges, a lawyer for Duvalier, said the former dictator would appeal any decision to put him on trial for financial crimes, arguing that the Supreme Court has already cleared him of such charges following a previous investigation.
U.N. officials and rights groups have urged Haiti to put Duvalier and senior officials on trial for atrocities committed under his rule, saying that under international law, the statute of limitations does not apply to crimes against humanity.
"The thousands of Haitians who suffered under this regime deserve justice." U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has said.
The judge's ruling will be challenged by lawyers for the victims, said Mario Joseph, who heads the Bureau of International Lawyers in Haiti. "The judge cannot decide only on the financial crimes committed by Duvalier. He should also be tried and sentenced for rapes, torture, disappearances, assassinations and crimes against humanity his regime has been responsible for," he said.
Reed Brody, a lawyer with Human Rights Watch who has worked with the victims in the case, said that if they exhaust their appeal options in the Haitian system, they could take the Haitian state to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
The body that refers cases to the Inter-American Court, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, has already issued a statement on the Duvalier case. In a ruling in May last year, it said Haiti must "investigate the serious violations of human rights that were committed in the period from 1971 to 1986, to prosecute and punish those responsible and to make reparations to the victims."
When Duvalier returned to Haiti on January 16 last year, he was met by a crowd of cheering supporters. He was briefly detained and charged with corruption, theft and abuses of power allegedly committed during his rule and was then freed on the condition he not leave the capital without authorization.
Since then, Duvalier dines frequently in some of the city's finest restaurants, accompanied by former members of his regime. He has also made unauthorized visits outside the capital.
In January, he even managed a handshake with an unsuspecting former U.S. President Bill Clinton at an event outside the capital to mark the second anniversary of the 2010 earthquake. That earned him a rebuke from the judge who warned him not to violate his court-ordered restriction of movement, or risk being jailed.
(Writing by David Adams; Editing by Kieran Murray)
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Monday, January 30, 2012
Australia reviews timetable for buying 12 F-35s (AP)
CANBERRA, Australia ? Australia is reviewing its timetable for buying 12 of the troubled F-35 Joint Strike Fighters between 2015 and 2017 after the Unites States announced a rethink of its own purchase schedule for the futuristic warplanes.
Australia is a funding partner in developing the JSF, which the U.S. Defense Department describes as the largest fighter aircraft program in history.
Australian Defense Minister Stephen Smith said Monday that Australia is only contractually obligated to take delivery of two of the warplanes. They will be based in the United States and be available from 2014 for training Australian pilots.
Smith says Australia is reconsidering its schedule of buying another 12 during the following three years.
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Exclusive: Celine Dion on Madonna Super Bowl Show (omg!)
Celine Dion is sharing her thoughts on fellow music superstar Madonna performing in next week's Super Bowl halftime show, and disclosed why she herself won't be up on that stage.
Celine tells The Trend on Zappos Couture, "I'm not going to be performing at the Super Bowl because I'm pretty booked, I'm in Las Vegas right now at Caesars Palace doing a lot of shows so I won't be at the Super Bowl."
"But I love Madonna and know her well," she continued. "I know she'll do just fine, she doesn't need any luck. She's going to do her thing, she's going to do what she does best, she's going to give us something for us to remember. She's going to be great, just fine."
Madonna's Super Bowl Special Guest: Cee Lo!
Celine also opened up about how she's balancing life with twin one-year-olds Eddie and Nelson, and her Las Vegas show. "My schedule is hard because I sing at night and I want to be with my babies during the day and I have twins and they are not sleeping good," the working mom shared.
"They are in my room and they wake up five-six times a night. Two babies, so that mean 10 to 12 times a night. I can't let them cry," she says, breaking into Bob Marley's No Woman, No Cry. "I can't let them cry so I wake up, and [say], 'It's okay.' [They] want to be with mommy and mommy wants to be with them, and then the next day, sometimes it's hard, for me too."
Celine Dion Relives the Song that Made her a Star
Celine was interviewed in Montego Bay, Jamaica, where she performed at the Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival with the support of the Jamaica Tourist Board.
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Sunday, January 29, 2012
CARPE DIEM: Modern Automotive Manufacturing
?Che is dead said...
Here's a video of another high tech auto assembly plant: Fords Camacari assembly plant in Brazil. This plant would have been built in the U.S. except for the objections from the UAW.
?Sprewell said...
Che's video is much better: that's a real factory, not the glorified showcase that VW built. What I'd like to see is a real cost breakdown of why Ford built that factory in Brazil, how much of it was due to labor costs vs regulatory costs, whether due to govt laws or union rules.
?sethstorm said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
?sethstorm said...
So basically it's a car factory for cars not meant for mere mortals to afford. Now if that was used for cars that regular people could afford, that would be a far better demonstration.
That, and I wonder if it adheres any bit to the rule of the workers being able to afford it - or if they have to settle for the typical I4 golfcart of Europe.
Here's a video of another high tech auto assembly plant: Fords Camacari assembly plant in Brazil.
So that's what passes for a golfcart down there.
I wonder if they have their own Ford Security to commit thuggery on behalf of the company should workers attempt to become more than just slaves.
That kind of supplier integration is a threat as well, for it makes it easier for Ford to treat workers worse by dividing them up.
?Che is dead said...
"I wonder if they have their own Ford Security to commit thuggery on behalf of the company ... That kind of supplier integration is a threat as well, for it makes it easier for Ford to treat workers worse by dividing them up." -- sethstorm
Not to worry, no UAW workers were harmed in the making of this film. Neither were any of the thousands of Brazilians who now have good jobs thanks to the UAWs greed and stupidity.
?sethstorm said...
Che is dead said...
My point is that they have somewhere where the Battle of the Overpass doesn't go in the worker's favor, but that the people & photographs get disappeared. Thus all you might see are happy people with trains all running on time, much like a Potemkin Village.
?Larry G said...
to be fair, two things that have been the initial focus of unions in the US - health care and retirement pensions are not major union issues in many other countries that have universal health care and their own version of social security - and both are entirely portable from one job to the next.
but I had a similar reaction when looking at the video.. I think even "assembly" work is not THAT "clean" but all those car parts that are part of the assembly process are done in steel mills and stamping plants... which are far different looking that the process shown in the videos.
?sethstorm said...
but I had a similar reaction when looking at the video.. I think even "assembly" work is not THAT "clean" but all those car parts that are part of the assembly process are done in steel mills and stamping plants... which are far different looking that the process shown in the videos.
It's for their Phaeton, one of the few models of VW's lineup that isn't a golfcart. Safe to say it costs a ton.
?Ron H. said...
"It's for their Phaeton, one of the few models of VW's lineup that isn't a golfcart. Safe to say it costs a ton."
They sell for around $100k. Whether or not that's "a ton" depends on who you are. I suspect it's out of your price range.
Do you see a problem with cars like these being manufactured for people eager to buy them?
?Ron H. said...
"to be fair, two things that have been the initial focus of unions in the US - health care and retirement pensions are not major union issues in many other countries that have universal health care and their own version of social security - and both are entirely portable from one job to the next."
So *all* the people in a country with universal healthcare are subsidizing my purchase of a car made there, as costs to the manufacturer are lower.
We should thank them for their generosity.
?Larry G said...
" So *all* the people in a country with universal healthcare are subsidizing my purchase of a car made there, as costs to the manufacturer are lower."
well..if you buy a car from them rather than a union car maker in the US... what does that mean?
Source: http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2012/01/modern-automotive-manufacturing.html
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Saturday, January 28, 2012
Security chief during Mexico's 'dirty war' dies (AP)
MEXICO CITY ? Miguel Nazar Haro, who led Mexico's domestic spy agency and was accused of being behind the disappearances of alleged leftist guerrillas in the 1970s, has died at age 87.
His son, Jose Luis Nassar Daw, confirmed on Friday that Nazar Haro died late Thursday but didn't release a cause of death.
Nazar Haro headed Mexico's now-dissolved Federal Security Directorate from 1978 to 1982 at the height of the government's "dirty war" against leftist insurgents.
He was arrested in 2004 and put under house arrest on charges stemming from the disappearances of six farmers who were alleged members of a group called the Brigada Campesina de los Lacandones, an armed group that the government linked to at least one kidnapping.
A judge dismissed all charges against Nazar Haro in 2006.
The ruling was a setback for special prosecutor Ignacio Carrillo, who had been named by then President Vicente Fox to shed light on wrongful imprisonment, torture, forced disappearances and slayings of hundreds of radical leftists and farm and union leaders during the 1960s, '70s and '80s.
The most brutal phase of the "dirty war" was President Luis Echeverria's administration from 1970 to 1976, when the government implemented a plan to get rid of guerrillas blamed for a series of kidnappings and attacks on soldiers.
During all the years of the conflict, Mexico's presidency was controlled by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which moved to crush small bands of guerrillas seeking its overthrow. The PRI held the presidency for 71 years without interruption before losing the 2000 election to Fox, the candidate of the conservative National Action Party.
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What is a 3D printer, anyway? (The Week)
New York ? Notorious peer-to-peer site The Pirate Bay says the next age of file-sharing will be 3D printing. But how, exactly, does that work?
Controversial file-sharing site The Pirate Bay usually plays host to music and movies. But now the site's creators are working on a new download section that will allow users to freely distribute files a 3D printer can translate into real-life objects, from?mugs to toothbrushes to toys. But how, exactly, does a 3D printer work? And is it really the next battleground for online copyright?
What does a 3D printer do?
It's a form of manufacturing that takes three-dimensional image files and "prints" them into physical objects using a variety of materials, typically plastic. The printers themselves are usually "a little larger than a hat box," says Reggie Ugwu at Complex, though they do come in larger sizes. Image files can be created from programs such as Google SketchUp, AutoCad, and Adobe Illustrator to be sent to a 3D printer through a USB connection ? just like you would a normal document.
SEE ALSO: Students panic over Wikipedia's blackout: The best jokes
?
How does it "print" an object?
Essentially, it prints out the object "layer by layer," says Ugwu, "similar to the way a printer creates text and images line by line." It's an "additive process," says Tony Hoffman at PC Mag. Unlike sawing or sanding, which are subtractive processes, the 3D-printer?builds an object "from scratch." If you're printing a plastic figurine, for example, the "ink" would be melted plastic poured through an extruder and built up one thin cross-section at a time. It's time-consuming: The printing process can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours.
How much does a 3D printer typically cost?
They don't come cheap. The smallest commercial units available today cost upwards of $1,000, with the highest quality models fetching much more.
SEE ALSO: The massive federal crackdown on Megaupload: A guide
?
Who uses them?
Anyone, really. Architects often use them to produce scaled-down models of building units, and artists are known to use them to produce works of art. One enterprising orthopedic surgeon used a 3D printer recently to make replicas of a patient's bones in preparation for surgery ? saving his hospital thousands of dollars.
And you'll be able to download 3D image files from Pirate Bay?
Soon enough. "We believe that the next step in copying will be made from digital form into physical form. It will be physical objects. Or as we decided to call them: Physibles," the site's proprietors wrote in a blog post. Anyone can upload, share, and download designs for toys (or one day even shoes)?directly from the Pirate Bay website.
SEE ALSO: After the blackouts: What's next for SOPA?
?
Is this really the next frontier for copyright?
It might not be. With its entrance into the world of 3D printables, the website "might not actually break copyright laws," says Nick Bilton the The New York Times. According to old copyright rules, recreating an object considered "useful" is not a violation of the law, whereas recreating an object that's "purely aesthetic" ? like a piece of art ? is. Thus, a "useful object may be patentable," but copyright is a different area of the law altogether.
Sources: Complex, Extreme Tech,?NY Times, PC Mag, Singularity Hub
SEE ALSO: LG's 'impossibly thin' TV set: 4 talking points?
?
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Friday, January 27, 2012
Unsold goods weigh on future growth
By John W. Schoen, Senior Producer
?
The U.S. economy perked up late last year as hiring accelerated?and factories ramped up production.?Unfortunately, a lot of what those factories made is still sitting in warehouses and on store shelves.
That doesn?t bode well for growth in the coming months. ?
At first blush, the numbers posted by the Commerce Department for gross domestic product in the last three months of 2011 looked strong. Overall growth advanced by 2.8 percent on an annual basis, a little weaker than economists had expected based on a series of other positive economic reports. That was much better than the 1.8 percent pace in the third quarter and the best showing since the second quarter of 2010.
But much of the fourth quarter growth came from businesses restocking inventories, which swelled by $56.0 billion, adding nearly 2 percentage points to GDP growth. The so-called ?final sales? number, which tracks how much was actually sold, rose a meager 0.8 percent.
?The pickup in GDP growth doesn't look half as good when you realize that most of it was due to inventory accumulation," said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics. ?Despite the apparent improvement in some of the incoming economic data, it still looks like ... another disappointing year."
Ashworth is among a number of private economists who see the fourth quarter growth spurt easing this year. He expects to see U.S. GDP advance by just 1.5 percent in 2012.
Federal Reserve officials echoed that prediction this week, though they?re?a bit more optimistic. The central bank is looking for growth of 2.7 percent in 2012, but the latest forecast was trimmed by two-tenths of a percentage point. The Fed expects unemployment to drop as low as 8.2 percent by the end of the year.
Vote: Will the economy continue to accelerate?
The lowered growth forecast prompted central bankers to extend their pledge to keep interest rates at or near zero for another year; they now expect to hold rates at rock bottom until at least 2014 to try to encourage businesses and consumers to borrow and spend more money.
Business investment slowed sharply in the fourth quarter after heavy spending earlier last year.
Consumers continued to do their part; consumer spending grew at a 2 percent annual rate, up a bit from the third quarter. Car sales zoomed ahead as the average age of the cars and light trucks on the road hit record levels. The replacement of those worn-out vehicles helped boost car sales by 14.8 percent.
Consumers are feeling a bit better about the outlook for the economy. A separate report Friday showed the University of Michigan consumer sentiment index edging up for the fourth straight month. But the level of confidence remains weak.
?Despite the rise, this and other confidence measures remain in recession territory due to global sovereign debt fear, Congressional dysfunction, and high food and energy prices,? said economist Mike Englund at Action Economics
Consumers have also fallen back on car loans and credit cards to maintain their spending.?Consumer borrowing jumped by $20.4 billion in November, the Federal Reserve said Monday. That was the third straight increase and the largest monthly gain in a decade. Consumers have boosted borrowing in 13 of the past 14 months.
The gradual improvement in the job market may explain some of the rise in borrowing. But many households are also leaning harder on debt because their wages are rising as fast as the price of the goods and services they need to buy.
A breakdown of the fourth quarter GDP numbers, with Mark Olson, Treliant Risk Advisors co-chairman/former Fed governor; CNBC's Steve Liesman & Rick Santelli
Personal incomes rose at an 0.8 percent annual rate, according to Friday?s GDP report, after falling for the last two quarters. Consumer prices are climbing at an annual rate of 3 percent, according to the latest government data.
Much of that spending appears to represent people buying goods, not services. That's a sign that households are sticking to necessities, according to Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors.
?The clearest sign that households remain cautious was in services spending,? he said. ?This is the largest component of consumer demand and it fairly budged.? People are not yet comfortable buying the little luxuries in life.?
With consumers tapped out and cautious, the economy faces other headwinds in the coming year. The housing industry remains stuck in the worst recession since the 1930s. A separate report Friday showed that the pace of new home sales fell in December, making 2011 the worst sales year since the Commerce Department first began collecting the data in 1963. Sales in December fell to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 307,000 ? less than half the 700,000 that economists say represents a healthy pace.
Slack sales have forced builders to slash prices, which has kept many would-be buyers on the fence until they see signs that the market has bottomed. The median sales prices for new homes dropped in December by 2.5 percent to $210,300.
Though ultra-low mortgage rates have made home buying more affordable than it has been in decades, mortgage bankers remain very choosy about to whom they?ll lend. Some 12 million potential ?move-up? buyers are stuck with mortgages that are bigger than their homes are worth.
Growth in the fourth quarter was also held back by big cuts in government spending, which lopped 0.9 percent from fourth-quarter GDP.? That belt-tightening will likely continue.
What are your thoughts on the short term economic future? Share your thougts on Facebook.
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Errant email cripples German parliament
BERLIN?? The German parliament's email system was hampered for several hours for more than 4,000 staffers and deputies when hundreds of workers responded to an errant email sent by one staffer named "Babette" to all 4,032 co-workers.
The flood of emails began when "Babette" accidentally replied to "all" on the Bundestag email list with a short answer to a colleague: "Please bring me a copy of the new directory."
Their exchange quickly multiplied when hundreds of colleagues responded with comments ranging from please "remove my name from your list" to "I'd like to take this opportunity to say hello to my mother."
It was a rare moment of light-hearted confusion in a country with a reputation for doing things with precision.
Many Germans working in the parliament remained uncharacteristically relaxed. One member of parliament for the Greens party, Volker Beck, said: "One mistaken click and the parliament's email system is turned into a new social network."
One anonymous staffer in the usually anonymous parliament building wrote: "I think this is great. We should do this once a month. It'll help us grow together."
A spokeswomen of the Bundestag confirmed that there had been a flood of emails in response to the errant email and that it was possible, as German media reported, that emails in the parliament were delayed by up to a half an hour due to the high volume.
Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46147346/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
New Vaccine Approach Gives Hope to Those Living with HIV (LiveScience.com)
Brian Brown has been taking antiretroviral drugs for five years. If he stops, the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, in his body will multiply and eventually, he'll get really sick. "You have to take them with food," Brown said. "Even if you aren't really hungry." A 39-year-old licensed practical nurse, Brown has to remember to take his drugs daily. It's a routine familiar to people with all kinds of chronic diseases, including HIV and diabetes.
Brown got a break, though. In 2010, he was part of a study of a new kind of vaccine for HIV, called Vacc-4x, from a company called Bionor. He was able to stop taking his two drugs for almost two years. The vaccine didn't cure him, but it cut down the number of HIV viral particles in his body to nearly undetectable levels, and his immune system's virus-fighting cells, called T-cells, went up.
Vacc-4x is just one HIV treatment that illustrates a new approach to HIV vaccines that has gained increasing currency in the last few years. Most people think of vaccines as a preventative measure, and early efforts to control HIV were focused on that strategy. The problem is that even though some are promising, preventing infection doesn?t do any good for the 34 million people worldwide who are already infected. To stop the spread, the key might be a post-infection vaccine like those given for rabies.
HIV, however, is a tough nut to crack. It attacks the very cells that detect and kill invading pathogens. Even when it isn't actively replicating, it can live in tissues in the nervous system or the gut for years. This is one reason HIV takes so long to manifest, and why the immune system has a tough time recognizing it and destroying infected cells. [7 Devastating Infectious Diseases]
Currently, the best way to treat HIV is with antiretroviral therapy ? drugs that aim at keeping the levels of virus in a person's blood low. These drugs have extended life spans, allowing for normal lives and reducing the chances of transmitting the virus. However, the side effects can negatively affect health, bringing liver problems and nausea.
There is also the problem of sticking to the drug regimen. "Adherence is a challenging thing," said Frank Oldham, chief executive officer of the National Association of People With AIDS.
Enter: new HIV vaccines
There are several therapeutic vaccines in development. Approaching HIV in slightly different ways, all are designed to allow the body's immune system to at least fight the virus to a standstill, and perhaps even keep it at undetectable levels. Common to all treatments is giving the immune system some way to recognize HIV. The vaccines differ in the markers (called antigens) they use to flag HIV particles, and in how they are delivered to the body.
Vacc-4x trains a person's immune system to recognize and fight a key protein that HIV relies on, called gp24. It also stimulates the production of white blood cells, which normally are killed by the virus. Early results show patients' viral loads coming down by a factor of three.
Genetic Immunity, a U.S.-Hungarian company, is testing a vaccine called DermaVir. Rather than focusing on a single protein, DermaVir uses a tiny bit of HIV DNA (called plasmid DNA) to generate a set of 15 chemical markers that the body's T-cells can recognize. The idea is to maximize the number of ways the immune cells can "see" the virus. The vaccine is administered by rubbing the skin enough to irritate it. Cells called dendritic cells will pick up a nanoparticle containing the DNA and deliver it to the lymph nodes, where the infection-fighting T-cells are generated.
The vaccine has been tested on about 70 patients so far and showed a 70 percent reduction in viral load, according to Genetic Immunity?s president, Dr. Julianna Lisziewicz. Another set of trials on patients is currently under way. [AIDS: A 'Winnable' Public Health Battle?]
Another approach is being taken by Gaithersburg, Md.-based company VIRxSYS, which uses a genetically altered HIV virus to deliver the vaccine. The body doesn't recognize HIV easily, and thus won't mount an immune response to the very vehicle delivering the medicine, said Franck Lemiale, senior director of immunobiology at the company.
To make sure that the T-cells will "see" many strains of HIV, the VIRxSYS vaccine uses proteins called Gag, Pol and Rev, which tend to be the same in all of variations of the HIV virus.
The company said in July 2011 that a version of its vaccine tested in monkeys, called VRX1273, had not only brought the viral loads down to undetectable levels in body fluids, but in tissues as well. If that result can be duplicated in humans, it might mean that the vaccine is helping the body to eliminate the virus entirely.
Vaccine vectors
Other groups are trying different delivery modes, or vectors. Dr. Chil-Yong Kang, a virologist at the University of Western Ontario, heads up a lab whose preventative vaccine, after receiving FDA approval in December, will go into trials designed to determine the safety of the vaccine. Kang hopes his vaccine, which would ride into the body on another virus, will also enable the body to attack infected cells in the tissues where HIV likes to hide.
Perhaps the most high-tech vaccine under development is from Argos Therapeutics, called AGS-004. Monocytes, a type of white blood cell, are taken from the patient, and artificially induced to become immature dendritic cells. Those cells are then exposed to the RNA (a molecule similar to DNA) of HIV particles taken from the patient until they produce antigens, red flags of sorts, to alert the immune system of the virus. Re-introduced to the patient, they can then bring the antigens to the T-cells, which then find and kill HIV.
Of the vaccines, Vacc-4x, Argos and Dermavir are closest to being approved for general use, with Vacc-4x having just finished phase 2 trials for efficacy in humans and Argos and Dermavir in phase 2b. That means all are seen as safe to use, have been tested in small groups, and will next be tested in large populations (phase 3). The others are either still being tested in animals or in the safety phases of testing.
"Clearly this field is young enough that we don't have a product that we can say is the greatest," said Dr. David M. Asmuth, co-director of the Clinical Research Center at the University of California, Davis, Medical Center, which administered the Vacc-4x to HIV patient Brown. While the trials have shown promise, he is still cautious.
Asmuth notes the Vacc-4x trial Brown was in showed a reduction in viral load. But it is still unclear how long that would last once the patients were off ART.
He also noted that HIV-positive individuals have a "set point" ? a viral load that stabilizes after infection, and can remain stable for years. When people get sick, it is because the number of virus copies suddenly increases and the immune system is overwhelmed. The current crop of vaccines being tested may only change the set point to something lower. That is still a good thing, but it isn't a cure.
What would be ideal, Asmuth said, is a vaccine that reproduces what doctors see in people whose own bodies keep HIV under control for years, sometimes indefinitely. They are called "long-term non-progressors." Their viral loads should stay low and the CD4 count (a measure of immune health) should stay at 500-600, which is normal (a CD4 count less than 200 is often used as the diagnosis for AIDS). None of the vaccines being tested has shown they can do that ? yet.
Even so, Asmuth is optimistic. "Who would have guessed 30 years ago that we would have the degree of control over the virus that we have now?"
Oldham said the fact that such therapies are in trials at all is exciting. "This would be a monumental breakthrough," he said. "Antiretrovirals were the beginning. I think therapeutic vaccines would be the next step towards improving lives."
Brown meanwhile, said the Vacc-4x trial meant many of the small routines he built up over years won't be necessary anymore ? and small changes add up. "I didn't have to remember to take my pills," he said. "I could travel without having to think about bringing them."
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96% Tomboy
In "Tomboy," 10-year old Laure(Zoe Heran) moves to a new neighborhood with her parents(Sophie Cattani & Mathieu Demy) and younger sister Jeanne(Malonn Levana). While looking out from an apartment window one pleasant afternoon, Laure sees a group of boys playing out in the park. When she finally leaves her sister and sleeping, very, very pregnant mother behind in the apartment, the boys are gone, with only Lisa(Jeanne Disson), a girl of her age, left behind in their wake. Laure introduces herself as Mikael and they run after them together, so they can join in the fun. With that simple, elegant setup, writer-director Celine Sciamma tells an evocative and naturalistic genderblender with a very belieable sibling relationship. Sadly, the movie eventually runs straight into a narrative wall. Until then, Laure is not just being a tomboy; she is passing as a boy but not 24/7, so we'll keep to the feminine pronouns.(Actually, it is not until later that she is revealed not to be a boy.) She does this to enjoy the freedoms that boys enjoy but is too young to realize the minefield of gender that she has just walked into. That's where parents come in, as the movie smartly shows how parents help to shape their children's gender.
November 29, 2011Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/tomboy_2011/
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Scorsese's 'Hugo' leads Oscars with 11 nominations (AP)
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. ? Martin Scorsese's Paris adventure "Hugo" leads the Academy Awards with 11 nominations, among them best picture and the latest director honor for the Oscar-winning filmmaker.
Also nominated for best picture Tuesday: the silent film "The Artist"; the family drama "The Descendants"; the Sept. 11 tale "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close"; the Deep South drama "The Help"; the romantic fantasy "Midnight in Paris"; the sports tale "Moneyball"; the family chronicle "The Tree of Life"; and the World War I epic "War Horse."
The nominations set up a best-picture showdown between the top films at the Golden Globes: best musical or comedy recipient "The Artist" and best drama winner "The Descendants."
"The Artist" ran second with 10 nominations, among them writing and directing nominations for French filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius, a best-actor honor for Jean Dujardin and a supporting-actress nod for Berenice Bejo.
"I can't believe that a year ago I was learning how to tap dance and today I am nominated for an Academy Award," said Bejo, who is the romantic partner of Hazanavicius and in "The Artist" plays a rising big-screen star of the sound era.
The film could become the first silent movie to win best picture since year one at the Oscars, when "Wings" took top honors for 1927-28.
Because of a rule change requiring films to receive a certain number of first-place votes, the best-picture field has only nine nominees rather than the 10 that were in the running the last two years.
Scorsese, who won the directing prize at the Globes for "Hugo," picked up his seventh Oscar nomination in the category. After decades of being overlooked for Hollywood's top filmmaking award, Scorsese finally won the directing Oscar for 2006's "The Departed," which also was named best picture.
Among the nominations for "Hugo" are adapted screenplay, cinematography, musical score and visual effects.
Dujardin, the Globe winner for best actor in a musical or comedy as a silent-era star whose career goes kaput with the arrival of talking pictures, will be up against Globe dramatic actor recipient George Clooney for "The Descendants," in which the Oscar-winning superstar plays a dad trying to hold his Hawaiian family together after a boating accident puts his wife in a coma.
Other best-actor contenders are: Demian Bichir as an immigrant father in "A Better Life"; Gary Oldman as British spymaster George Smiley in "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy"; and Brad Pitt as Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane in "Moneyball."
Pitt was preparing breakfast for his and Oscar winner Angelina Jolie's six children when he learned of his latest nomination, his third. He decided to make pancakes ? and anything else the kids were craving.
"Whatever they want," Pitt said. "I don't care how sugared up they get for school."
Globe winners Meryl Streep (best dramatic actress as Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady") and Michelle Williams (best musical or comedy actress as Marilyn Monroe in "My Week with Marilyn") scored Oscar nominations for best actress.
Two-time Oscar winner Streep padded her record as the most-nominated actress, raising her total to 17 nominations, five more than Katharine Hepburn and Jack Nicholson, who are tied for second-place.
Streep went two-for-four on her first nominations, winning supporting actress for 1979's "Kramer vs. Kramer" and best actress for 1982's "Sophie's Choice." But she has lost her last 12 times, and the Globe win for her spot-on personification of Thatcher looks like her best chance yet to break that losing streak.
Along with Streep and Williams, best-actress nominees are: Glenn Close as a 19th century Irishwoman masquerading as a male butler in "Albert Nobbs"; Viola Davis as a black maid going public with tales of white Southern employers in "The Help"; and Rooney Mara as a traumatized, vengeful computer genius in "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo."
"I am honored to be in company with such beautiful artists, and touched deeply by my fellow actors for their generosity in giving me this acknowledgment," Streep said.
Octavia Spencer's win at the Globes as supporting-actress for "The Help," in which she plays a fiery maid whose mouth continually gets her in trouble, could give her front-runner status for the same prize at the Oscars. The same may hold true for supporting-actor nominee Christopher Plummer, who won a Globe for his role as an elderly dad coming out as gay in "Beginners."
An esteemed film and stage actor, Plummer went most of his 60-year career unacknowledged at the Oscars until earning a supporting-actor nomination two years ago as Leo Tolstoy in "The Last Station." If he wins this time, the 82-year-old Plummer would become the oldest acting recipient ever; Jessica Tandy now holds that position for her best-actress win in "Driving Miss Daisy" at age 80.
Also in contention for supporting actor: Kenneth Branagh as Laurence Olivier in "My Week with Marilyn"; Jonah Hill as a statistics whiz in "Moneyball"; Nick Nolte as a derelict dad making amends in "Warrior"; and Max von Sydow as a mute mystery man in "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close."
Also up for supporting actress are "The Help" co-star Jessica Chastain as Spencer's lonely, needy boss; Melissa McCarthy as a crude but caring member of the wedding in "Bridesmaids"; and Janet McTeer as a woman posing as a male laborer in "Albert Nobbs."
McCarthy is a rare funny lady competing at the Oscars, which seldom honor performances in mainstream comedies such as "Bridesmaids."
The nomination for McCarthy was a small surprise next to some other startling turns among the nominations.
Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock's "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close," which got mixed reviews and has not been much of a factor at earlier Hollywood awards, was a very unexpected best-picture nominee. There were gasps and cheers of surprise from the crowd of publicists and Hollywood insiders at academy headquarters when the film's nomination was announced. Von Sydow's supporting-actor nomination also was a surprise.
Terrence Malick's "The Tree of Life" also had been considered a bit of a best-picture longshot. The movie, which won top honors at last May's Cannes Film Festival but was a love-it-or-hate-it drama among audiences, also picked up a directing nomination for Malick.
Oscar heavyweight Clint Eastwood's "J. Edgar" was shut out entirely, including for best actor, where Leonardo DiCaprio had been a strong prospect as FBI boss J. Edgar Hoover.
Other surprises included best-actor contender Bichir, who gave a terrific performance in "A Better Life," a film few people have seen.
Bichir beat out not only DiCaprio but also such actors as Ryan Gosling for two films, "Drive" and "The Ides of March," and Michael Fassbender for "Shame," who both had been high on Oscar forecasters' lists.
Also missing out on nominations were Tilda Swinton for "We Need to Talk About Kevin," Albert Brooks for "Drive" and Shailene Woodley for "The Descendants."
Along with Mara for best actress, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" had five other nominations but missed out on best picture and director for David Fincher, who had been among the favorites a year earlier with "The Social Network."
The best-director roster is loaded with past winners and nominees, including Scorsese for "Hugo," Malick for "The Tree of Life," Woody Allen for "Midnight in Paris" and Alexander Payne for "The Descendants."
"Midnight in Paris," Allen's biggest hit in decades, was the filmmaker's first best-picture nominee since 1986's "Hannah and Her Sisters" and first directing nomination since 1994's "Bullets Over Broadway." With his 15th honor for original screenplay, Allen also extended his lead as record-holder for most writing nominations (Billy Wilder is second with 12).
The lone newcomer is Hazanavicius for "The Artist," a critical darling that has stacked up an impressive list of honors and nominations at earlier awards since its debut last year at Cannes.
While Steven Spielberg's best-picture contender "War Horse" picked up six nominations, the Oscar-winning filmmaker missed out in the directing category, a prize he has won twice. His first cartoon feature, the Golden Globe-winning "The Adventures of Tintin," also did not make the list for best animated film.
Another animated snub was "Cars 2," the first feature-length cartoon from Disney's Pixar Animation that failed to earn a nomination since the category was added in 2001. Pixar films including "Toy Story 3," "Up" and "WALL-E" had won the last four animation Oscars.
This time, the animated nominees are "A Cat in Paris," "Chico & Rita," Kung Fu Panda 2," "Puss in Boots" and "Rango."
Winners at the 84th annual Oscars will be announced at a Feb. 26 ceremony aired live on ABC from Hollywood's Kodak Theatre, with Billy Crystal returning as host for the first time in eight years.
The most-beloved Oscar host of the last two decades, Crystal agreed to lead the show for the ninth time after Eddie Murphy bowed out in support of his pal, filmmaker Brett Ratner, who quit as Oscar producer amid the uproar over a gay slur he uttered in front of an audience at a screening of his and Murphy's comedy "Tower Heist."
Crystal's return could bump up the TV ratings for the show, which have been on a general decline over the last few decades.
What usually results in big TV ratings, though, is a blockbuster such as eventual Oscar champs "Titanic" or "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" in the thick of the best-picture contest. More fans tune in because they have a stake in the outcome.
There are no colossal films such as that in the mix this time. "The Help" is a solid hit, taking in $169 million domestically. So far, other best-picture nominees are well under that level, ranging from $75 million for "Moneyball" to $12 million for "The Artist."
___
Germain reported from Park City, Utah. AP Entertainment Writers Derrik J. Lang and Anthony McCartney contributed to this report.
___
Online:
http://www.oscars.org
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What puts Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt at odds?
LOS ANGELES?? They're arguably Hollywood's highest-profile couple, so it's only natural that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie would privately discuss the art and business of filmmaking. According to Pitt, they don't always agree.
Speaking with Reuters at Saturday's Producers Guild Awards in Beverly Hills, Pitt said that he and Jolie, who are each busy on both sides of the camera as well as raising six children together, will talk shop at the end of a long day.
Story: Jon Voight: Hollywood should fear Jolie-Pitt kids"Usually we argue shop every now and then," Pitt said, noting that they tend to differ in their approach. "She's much more decisive, she's much more quick. I've got to see everything. I've got to shop the entire eBay to know exactly what I want and what I need."
When he's stumped, Pitt said, "I'll always go to her and talk it out."
Story: Five biggest jaw-droppers of the GlobesJolie, who received the guild's Stanley Kramer Award for her directorial debut, "In the Land of Blood and Honey," said Pitt's role as a producer calls for different skills. He produced and starred in "Moneyball," one of the 10 films nominated for the Producers Guild's top prize.
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Will 'War Horse' trample 'The Artist'?
"I had to direct, I think it's different. I think he'd execute properly if he was the director," Jolie said. "But I do like to think of myself as decisive, so I'll take that."
Slideshow: Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt (on this page)Regarding her first work in the director's chair, a love story set amid the harrowing destruction of the Bosnian War, Jolie said her intention "wasn't to make a political statement against anybody. It was simply to say, 'We must talk about what happened, we must try to learn from what happened, we must try to see humanity on all sides,' and if we can, then we can start to move forward."
On the other hand, Jolie admitted that she was "fascinated" by a political matter somewhat closer to home: the Republican presidential race.
Story: Jolie: Brad found me sobbing in the shower"There's that part of us that's wanting to learn about what's going on, and wanting to see who could possibly be the next president, and taking that very seriously, which it is. And then there's that other part of it that is this strange television ... these characters that we're watching. So you try to kind of separate that," Jolie said, adding that "it goes into the bizarre sometimes."
Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/46098304/ns/today-entertainment/
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012
This Week's Top Downloads [Download Roundup]
Jan 21, 2012 5:00 PM 17,306 
2
2 - Boxer is a Free DOS Game Emulator for your Mac (Mac) Computer games have come a long way since the days of Doom, Zork, Tie Fighter, and Castle Wolfenstein, but many of us who grew up with those games would like to replay them. Boxer is a free app that will let you play any DOS game on your Mac.
- iBoostUp Cleans Out Your Mac's System File Clutter in a Minute (Mac) iBoostUp cleans out the crap on your drive and fine-tunes your system for better performance. It's simple, it's quick, and it's free.
- AntiCrop "Uncrops" Your Photos by Extending the Picture's Background (iOS) If you've ever taken a hasty photo on your phone and didn't leave enough room on the outside, AntiCrop is the app can "uncrop" those photos by filling in the edges with just a few swipes.
- Untethered Jailbreak for iPhone 4S and iOS 5 Is Finally Here (iOS) iPhone-hacking group Chronic Dev Team just released the first untethered jailbreak for the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 running iOS 5.0.1. We've explained why a tethered jailbreak can be such a hassle, which is why we've been waiting to recommend jailbreaking your up-to-date iPhone. Luckily, that wait is over.
- Clean My Desktop Sorts Files Into Content Specific Folders (Mac) A desktop filled with hundreds of files in a variety of formats can be a headache to clean up, but Clean My Desktop makes it easy by sorting everything into content specific folders based on the file type.
- MindNode Is a Mind Mapping App that Makes Brainstorming Simple and Easy (Mac/iOS) Regardless of the type of work that you do, brainstorming is an important part of generating new ideas and new approaches to getting your work done more efficiently. Mind mapping is a brainstorming technique that helps you get all of your interconnected thoughts out in a diagram, and there are a number of complicated tools designed to help you do it. MindNode for Mac and iOS is pricey, but it's one of the best tools we've seen for the job.
- Pomodroido Is an Elegant Pomodoro Timer for Your Android Phone (Pomodroido) If you're a fan of the Pomodoro productivity technique, you know that part of the philosophy is to work in short, focused, timed bursts and then take periodic breaks to relax. To do this, you'll need a timer, and Pomodroido is a free app that turns your Android phone into one that follows you everywhere.
- Forismatic Is a Free App that Helps You Relax and Keeps You Inspired Every Day (Mac) Computers are supposed to make our work easier, but in reality they often just bring us more work and stress us out. Give your Mac the opportunity to help you relax for a change with Forismatic, a free app that sits in the menubar until you need a little inspiration to help you keep going, and will remind you to take a break now and again to relax.
- Breathing Zone Guides You Towards Slower Breathing to Help Reduce Stress and Anxiety (Mac/iOS) Breathing Zone is a simple app that helps slow your breathing rhythm to calm you down and make you feel more relaxed. If you're a bit stressed or anxious, it's a good way to help you alleviate those feelings in just a few minutes.
- WatchMe Is a Desktop Timer that Keeps Track of Multiple Alarms at Once (Windows) Unfortunately, few of us have the luxury of only keeping track of one thing at a time. There are plenty of great timers available to help you keep track of how long you've been working or when you need to take a break, but if you need to track multiple times or set more than one timer, you may be out of luck. WatchMe is a timer that allows you to set multiple alerts and multiple timers so you're alerted at different times for different things.
Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/94J0DABeIrw/this-weeks-top-downloads
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News Corp's Mundofox launch challenges Telemundo, Univision (Reuters)
NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) ? News Corp. and Columbian broadcaster RCN Television Group have partnered to launch MundoFox, a new Spanish-language broadcast network "catering to the U.S. Hispanic market."
A direct challenge to the two biggest networks in the field, Univision and Telemundo, MundoFox will launch in the fall with an expected reach of 75 percent of households.
"There is an increasing demand for quality Spanish-language content in the U.S. from both viewers and advertisers," Hernan Lopez, President and CEO of Fox International Channels said in a statement. As of the 2010 census, 16.3 percent of the country is of Latino or Hispanic origin.
Univision is the top Hispanic network currently available and the fifth biggest network when it comes to prime time ratings. Its shows often beat major network shows, particularly during the leaner summer months.
Meanwhile, Telemundo has a smaller audience but also has the corporate juggernaut of Comcast's NBCUniversal pushing it ahead. One wonders how long this deal has been in the works as back in October Fox bought the U.S. broadcast rights to the 2018 and 2022 World Cup while Telemundo claimed the Spanish-language rights.
MundoFox's programming will come from RCN, the top broadcaster in Colombia, Fox International, Fox Deportes (a Latino-focused cable sports channel), Shine Group, NTN 24 and others.
The companies said that the network "will aim to bring a similar sensibility as the Fox Network to Latino audiences, with exciting entertainment, best-in-class programming content and differentiation from the limited options currently available to viewers."
(Editing by Chris Michaud)
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tv/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120123/tv_nm/us_mundofox
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Monday, January 23, 2012
Michelle Parker Video Released By Police; Mother Went Missing After 'People's Court' Appearance (VIDEO)
Police have released video footage of mother Michelle Parker taken on the day she went missing.
The video shows Parker on Nov. 17 at a KFC restaurant in Casselberry, Fla., three hours before she dropped her kids off at the house of her ex-husband Dale Smith, a suspect in the disappearance.
Though police say the video has already been scrutinized for clues into Parker's possible whereabouts, they released the video on her 34th birthday to keep her name in the headlines as the search for the mother of three continues.
Last Friday, Parker's family celebrated her birthday in Orlando.
Brad Parker, Michelle's father, told WKMG he's hopeful his daughter will be found.
"I hope we find Michelle, it'd be a good birthday present," Parker told the station. "Every time the phone rings, I think she's coming home or they found her."
Parker was last seen by Smith on the day an episode of the "People's Court" aired in which Parker and Smith argued about an engagement ring she lost.
Orlando police, made Smith the only suspect in the case, saying he had been violent towards her in the past.
Michelle Parker
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Michelle Parker (WESH.com) More pictures from WESH.com.MORE SLIDESHOWS
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Sunday, January 22, 2012
How Tears Go 'Pac-Man' To Beat Bacteria
Enlarge iStockphoto.com Tears contain an enzyme that eats bacteria the way Pac-Man eats Power Pellets.
iStockphoto.comTears contain an enzyme that eats bacteria the way Pac-Man eats Power Pellets.
The mystical healing properties of tears are invoked in fairy tales and fantasies from Rapunzel to Harry Potter. So it may surprise you to hear that tears really are pretty powerful, on the microbial level at least.
In 1922, a few years before he won the Nobel Prize for his discovery of penicillin, bacteriologist Alexander Fleming discovered in human tears a germ-fighting enzyme which he named lysozyme. He collected and crystallized lysozyme from his own tears, then wowed contemporaries at Britain's Royal Society by demonstrating its miraculous power to dissolve bacteria before their very eyes.
"That's a seriously bodacious experiment," Gregory Weiss, professor of molecular biology at the University of California, Irvine, tells Shots. Weiss is co-author of a paper on a modern-day bodacious experiment that for the first time reveals details of how lysozyme works.
?"People had always wondered, did 100 molecules gang up and attack a bacterium?" says Philip Collins, a physics professor at Irvine who joined the interdisciplinary research team. "What we've shown is that just one molecule of enzyme is enough."
How is that possible? Well, each molecule is essentially a set of voracious jaws that latches on to microbial invaders, starts chewing and doesn't let go. "The enzyme opens and closes almost like a Pac-Man mouth as it chomps away," Collins says, which means it can chew through bacterial cell walls as easily as scissors slice through paper.
"This tells us that the enzyme opens huge, gaping holes in the bacteria, which cause the bacteria to explode," Weiss says.
Each tear you shed contains an army of these enzymatic Pac-Men, ready to chase down and gobble up germs before they infect the sensitive tissues around your eye. But in order to study their motion up close, the researchers had to keep one of the molecules still. And to do that, they relied on some very tiny technology: carbon nanotubes.
The team attached a lysozyme molecule to a nanotube, using an amino acid as a tether. Then they passed an electric current along the tube, essentially turning the molecule into a very tiny transistor. When the molecule sprang into action, each chomp of its jaws produced a blip of electrical activity, like the dit-dit-dit of a telegraph.
That signal was like "a microphone that allowed us to listen in on the enzyme's activity," Collins says.
The findings were just published in the journal Science.
The researchers plan to use this technique to study many other molecules. Down the road, everything from DNA, to pharmaceuticals, to cancer biomarkers could be incorporated into similar biological transistors.
"We're building circuits that are hybrids between biology and technology," Weiss says. "It's fun because we're building a new field. It's something that hasn't been done, and that's what makes it exciting."
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OrcaM sphere constructs detailed, digital 3D models of wares while you wait (video)
Ever wanted a 3D digital copy of all those Little League trophies? Well, the NEK has whipped up something to lend a hand that's a bit larger than another recent scanner. Enter the OrcaM, an Orbital Camera System capable of producing an accurate, digital 3D model of objects up to 80cm (about 31.5 inches) wide and weighing up to 100kg (around 220lbs). Making use of seven shooters simultaneously, the system photographs the object while projecting various light and shadow combinations in order to determine the ware's geometry. The OrcaM is able to reproduce high-quality digital reproductions with a geometric accuracy less than millimeter (nearly .04 inches). As if that wasn't enough, it produces complete color, texture and reflectivity maps so that every minute detail is accounted for. Once your to-be-copied object has been loaded, the OrcaM takes over and is automatic, churning out the completed rendering shortly after the requisite photos are taken. Hit the video up top for a look at the beast in action.
OrcaM sphere constructs detailed, digital 3D models of wares while you wait (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 22 Jan 2012 05:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Saturday, January 21, 2012
'Starship Troopers' Reboot Has Casper Van Dien's Full Support
Even if you apes don't want to live forever, any and all "Starship Troopers" fans have to agree that Johnny Rico is an icon that will never, ever die ? even if his likeness changes a bit in the coming years.
MTV News caught up with "Troopers" veteran Casper Van Dien at the Sundance Film Festival [...]
MTV News caught up with "Troopers" veteran Casper Van Dien at the Sundance Film Festival [...]
Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2012/01/21/starship-troopers-reboot-casper-van-dien/
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Report: PSU fired Paterno over lack of action
FILE - In this Oct. 15, 2011, file photo, Penn State head coach Joe Paterno watches warm ups before an NCAA college football game against Purdue in State College, Pa. In his first public comments since being fired two months ago, former Penn State coach Paterno told the Washington Post he "didn't know which way to go" after an assistant coach came to him in 2002 saying he had seen retired defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky sexually abusing a boy, the Post reported on Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
FILE - In this Oct. 15, 2011, file photo, Penn State head coach Joe Paterno watches warm ups before an NCAA college football game against Purdue in State College, Pa. In his first public comments since being fired two months ago, former Penn State coach Paterno told the Washington Post he "didn't know which way to go" after an assistant coach came to him in 2002 saying he had seen retired defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky sexually abusing a boy, the Post reported on Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Penn State's trustees agonized over the future of legendary football coach Joe Paterno but ultimately decided to fire the Hall of Famer in part over what they said was his failure to go to authorities with a report of alleged sexual assault of a child by an assistant coach nearly a decade ago, according to a report published Thursday in The New York Times.
Some of the 13 trustees interviewed by the Times (http://nyti.ms/AcHOxv ) said they were also troubled by Paterno greeting fans and supporters on his front lawn ? and leading them in school cheers ? just after the release of a scathing grand jury report detailing child sex abuse allegations against retired assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.
The trustees said they were also concerned about Paterno's ability to lead the team during the scandal that also resulted in the ouster of university President Graham Spanier, but most jarring was the feeling the coach had failed to do enough after learning of a 2002 incident involving Sandusky and a boy in an on-campus shower.
"Every adult has a responsibility for every other child in our community. ...We have a responsibility for ensuring that we can take every effort that's within our power not only to prevent further harm to that child, but to every other child," said trustee Kenneth Frazier.
The alleged 2002 shower assault ultimately resulted in charges against two university officials, athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz. They're charged with failing to report suspected child abuse and perjury related to their testimony before the grand jury.
Paterno's attorney defended the coach's actions in a statement, saying Paterno passed on a report about an alleged assault to his superiors at the university believing they would investigate and act appropriately.
Sandusky is charged with sexually assaulting 10 young boys he met through The Second Mile, a charity he founded in 1977. He denies the allegations.
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