Minor flooding forced the evacuation of some residents in Old South London over possible loss of electricity services

Heavy rains, record high temperatures and speedy snow-melt all conspired to push water levels on the Thames River in London to a peak and cause minor flooding of low-lying areas.

Two days of heavy rain and warm weather led to flooded waterways and, in some places, inundated basements.

?It?ll be the weekend before things are back down to normal,? said Eleanor Heagy, communications specialist with the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority.

We set records in precipitation ? ? 38.4 millimetres of rain, double the previous top tally ?? and in temperatures, with a balmy 14 C.

The previous record for Jan. 30 was 9.1 C, set in 1988. By contrast, Londoners in 1948 shivered their way through record low temps of minus-26.7 C.

Throughout Southwestern Ontario, conservation authorities warned of the potential for flooding on rivers and creeks.

In London, officials also imposed a boating ban on the Thames River.

In some places, roads had to be closed temporarily until the water drained.

The city advised some apartment dwellers in Old South London to leave their homes briefly, as a precaution against the possible loss of electrical services in the low-lying area.

Fanshawe Dam?s reservoir filled with water quickly to keep the flow under control, but the current down-river was still swift, with a flow of 230 cubic metres a second at one station in Byron in West London.

That?s the equivalent of about 500 bathtubs full of water surging past a given point every second.

Conservation officials warned people to stay away from riverbanks, which remain icy or muddy.

The warmth and rain also forced the cancellation Wednesday of horse racing at the Western Fair track.

debora.vanbrenk@sunmedia.ca

- - -

IN OUR AREA

Lower Thames River Conservation Authority (Delaware through Chatham to Lighthouse Cove): Localized flooding from run-off. Avoid ditches, rivers, streams and ponds.

St. Clair Conservation Authority (Strathroy to Wallaceburg to Lake St. Clair): Localized flooding may briefly wash over roads in St. Clair and Enniskillen townships. Avoid water courses.

Kettle Creek Conservation Authority (north of St. Thomas to Port Stanley): Fears of ice jams causing flooding at Port Stanley have abated, but all areas near water are soggy and dangerous.

Catfish Creek Conservation Authority (Brownsville to Aylmer to Port Bruce): Unsafe channel banks and parkland hazards. Residents should remove property from low-lying areas not already flooded.

Ausable-Bayfield Conservation Authority (areas of west Middlesex, south Huron and north Lambton leading to Lake Huron): Flood watch cancelled. Unstable, slippery riverbanks and cold water means people and animals should avoid waterways.

Source: http://www.lfpress.com/2013/01/30/minor-flooding-forced-the-evacuation-of-some-residents-in-old-south-london-over-possible-loss-of-electricity-services

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Green Blog: Market for Bear Bile Threatens Asian Population

European Pressphoto Agency Bears await food on a farm in Fujian Province in China that is run by the pharmaceuticals maker Guizhentang. The company legally makes tonics from bear bile.

The six bears that arrived this month at Animals Asia, an animal rescue center in China, had the grisly symptoms of inhumane ?bile milking.? Greenish bile dripped from open fistulas used to drain gall bladders; teeth were broken and rotted from gnawing on the bars of tiny cages.

Four of the bears have since had surgery to remove gall bladders damaged by years of unhygenic procedures to extract their bile, which is coveted for its purported medicinal properties. One bear?s swollen gall bladder was the size of a watermelon.

The latest batch of bears was rescued from an illegal farm by the Sichuan Forestry Department and joins 145 other bears at the center, near Chengdu in southwestern China.
Over all, 285 bears have been rescued since the center opened in 2000

With luck, the six bears will recover at the sanctuary. But thousands on farms, both legal and illegal, continue to suffer in wretched conditions, and countless others living in the wild across Asia are threatened by poaching and their illegal capture.

Bear bile contains a chemical called ursedeoxycholic acid, long used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat gallstones, liver problems and other ailments. There are an estimated 10,000 farmed bears in China, 3,000 in Vietnam, at least 1,000 in South Korea and others in Laos and Myanmar.

Tigers, rhinos and elephants are notoriously poached to satisfy high demand in Asia for their parts, which are falsely assumed to have medicinal properties. Experts warn that sun bears and Asiatic black bears, known colloquially as ?moon bears,? are on a similar route to endangerment, although their plight draws less media attention. ?No bears are extinct, but all Asian ones are threatened,? said Chris Shepherd, a conservation biologist and deputy regional director of the wildlife trade group Traffic who is based in Malaysia.

To address the threat, the demand for bear bile must be sharply reduced, Dr. Shepherd, a conservation biologist told hundreds of researchers at the International Conference on Bear Research and Management, an annual event held recently in New Delhi.

Reducing demand would require a multi-pronged effort, experts say. That would mean enforcing existing laws, arresting and prosecuting violators, promoting synthetic and herbal alternatives, and closing illegal farms.

Chinese celebrities like the actor Jackie Chan and the athlete Yao Ming have both spoken out against the bear bile industry to raise public awareness about poaching and the inhumane conditions typically found on farms. Bears often live for years in coffin-like cages in which they are unable to stand or turn around.

The bile is extracted through catheters inserted into the abdomen, with needles or by bringing the gall bladder to the skin?s surface, where it will leak bile if prodded.

Legal farming was conceived as a way of increasing the supply of bile to reduce the motivation for poaching wild bears, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. But there is no evidence that it has done so, it noted in a resolution passed last September, and there is concern among conservationists that it ?may be detrimental.?

The resolution also called on countries with legal bear farms to close down the illegal ones, to ensure that no wild bears are added to farms; to conduct research into bear bile substitutes (there are dozens of synthetic and herbal alternatives) and to conduct an independent peer-reviewed scientific analysis on whether farming protects wild bears.

Some groups argue that the increased supply of farmed bile has only exacerbated demand. ?Because a surplus of bear bile is being produced, bile is used in many non-medical products, like bear bile wine, shampoo, toothpaste and face masks,? Animals Asia says. Since bear farming began in China in the early 1980?s, bear bile has been aggressively promoted as a cure-all remedy for problems like hangovers, the group added.

In mainland China and Japan, domestic sales of bear bile are legal and theoretically under strict regulation as prescription products. But such sales are illegal in Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, and the international trade is illegal as well.

Yet a 2011 report from Traffic indicated that bear bile products were on sale in traditional medicine outlets in 12 Asian countries and territories.

Nonprescription bear bile products like shampoo or toothpaste are illegal in China yet are readily available for purchase, conservationists say. Tourists from South Korea, a country that has decimated its own wild bear population, are major buyers in China and Vietnam even though taking bear bile products across borders is illegal under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna.

?Farms have drawn in bile consumers by creating a huge market ? farmed bile is cheap,? said David Garshelis, a research scientist at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources who is co-chairman of the I.U.C.N.?s bear specialist group.

In Vietnam, a milliliter of bile might sell for $3 to $6; about 100 milliliters can be extracted from a bear each day, according to Annemarie Weegenaar, bear and director of the veterinarian team at Animals Asia?s Vietnam center.

In four years, the I.U.C.N. is to issue a report on whether bear farms threaten wild populations. Meanwhile, demand appears to be spreading further afield in Asia and is now growing in Indonesia, largely as a result of demand from the Chinese and Korean communities there, said Gabriella Fredriksson, a conservation biologist based in Sumatra. A low-level poacher can sell a gall bladder from a bear caught in a simple snare and then killed for about $10.

So far the biggest threat to bears in Indonesia is loss of habitat from forest fires and the conversion of land to palm oil plantations. But in the last few years, poaching has increased, said Dr. Fredriksson, who has been there 15 years.

She cautioned that bears in Indonesia could also become highly threatened. ?Fifty years ago, bears were doing well in Cambodia and Laos,? she said. ?Now there?s hardly any left.?

Source: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/28/market-for-bear-bile-threatens-asian-population/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Family grateful for support | Peninsula Clarion

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Source: http://peninsulaclarion.com/opinion/letters/2013-01-29/family-grateful-for-support

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Climate change projected to alter Indiana bat maternity range

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Research by US Forest Service scientists forecasts profound changes over the next 50 years in the summer range of the endangered Indiana bat. In an article published in the journal Ecology and Evolution, Forest Service Southern Research Station researchers Susan Loeb and Eric Winters discuss the findings of one of the first studies designed to forecast the responses of a temperate zone bat species to climate change.

The researchers modeled the current maternity distribution of Indiana bats and then modeled future distributions based on four different climate change scenarios. "We found that due to projected changes in temperature, the most suitable summer range for Indiana bats would decline and become concentrated in the northeastern United States and the Appalachian Mountains," says SRS research ecologist Loeb. "The western part of the range (Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio)?currently considered the heart of Indiana bat maternity range?would become unsuitable under most climates that we modeled. This has important implications for managers in the Northeast and the Appalachian Mountains as these areas will most likely serve as climatic refuges for these animals when other parts of the range become too warm."

In general, bat species in temperate zones such as Indiana bats may be more sensitive than many other groups of mammals to climate change because their reproductive cycles, hibernation patterns, and migration are closely tied to temperature. Indiana bat populations were in decline for decades due to multiple factors, including the destruction of winter hibernation sites and loss of summer maternity habitat.

Due to conservation efforts, researchers saw an increase in Indiana bat populations in 2000 to 2005, but with the onset of white-nose syndrome populations are declining again, with the number of Indiana bats reported hibernating in the northeastern United States down by 72 percent in 2011. The study predicts even more declines due to temperature rises from climate change, with much of the western portion of the current range forecast to be unsuitable for maternity habitat by 2060.

"Our model suggests that once average summer (May through August) maximum temperatures reach 27.4?C (81.3?F), the climatic suitability of the area for Indiana bat maternity colonies declines," says Loeb. "Once they reach 29.9?C (85.8?F), the area is forecast to become completely unsuitable. Initially, Indiana bat maternity colonies may respond to warming temperatures by choosing roosts that have more shade than the roosts that they currently use. Eventually, it is likely that they will have to find more suitable climates."

The models the researchers produced provide resource managers guidance on areas that are likely to contain maternity colonies now and in the future, depending on the availability of suitable habitat in those areas. "Managers in the western parts of the range should be aware of the potential changes in summer distributions due to climate change and not assume that declines are due to habitat loss or degradation," says Loeb. "Management actions that foster high reproductive success and survival will be critical for the conservation and recovery of the species."

###

USDA Forest Service ? Southern Research Station: http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov

Thanks to USDA Forest Service ? Southern Research Station for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126514/Climate_change_projected_to_alter_Indiana_bat_maternity_range

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Michigan makes case for No. 1 with 74-60 win

Illinois' Tracy Abrams (13) drives around Michigan's Caris LeVert (23) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013, in Champaign, Ill. (AP Photo/John Dixon)

Illinois' Tracy Abrams (13) drives around Michigan's Caris LeVert (23) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013, in Champaign, Ill. (AP Photo/John Dixon)

Illinois' Sam McLaurin (0) shoots over Michigan's Mitch McGary (4) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013, in Champaign, Ill. (AP Photo/John Dixon)

Illinois' Tyler Griffey (42) grabs a loose ball and goes back to the basket as Michigan's Mitch McGary (4) tries to recover during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013, in Champaign, Ill. (AP Photo/John Dixon)

Michigan head coach John Beilein talks to Trey Burke (3) during the second half of their NCAA college basketball game against Illinois, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013, in Champaign, Ill. Michigan won 74-60. (AP Photo/John Dixon)

Illinois' Sam McLaurin (0) shoots over Michigan's Mitch McGary (4) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013, in Champaign, Ill. (AP Photo/John Dixon)

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) ? Possible No. 1 ranking? Yeah, that's nice, Michigan's Trey Burke said Sunday outside the locker room at Illinois' Assembly Hall.

But after the win that should give the No. 2 Wolverines their first top ranking since the 1992-93 season, the sophomore guard wanted to talk defense and what a team does when one of its big, defensive rocks goes down.

If you're Michigan (19-1, 6-1 Big Ten), you plug in a couple of other big guys. And you win ? in this case 74-60 over the Illini, most of it without 6-foot-8, 250-pound Jordan Morgan. The starting forward limped to the locker room less than two minutes into the game with a sprained right ankle and didn't come back.

"Coach (John Beilein) calls him the minister of defense," Burke said, crediting the Mitch McGary, John Horford and Max Bielfeldt, the three big men who picked up the slack.

"I say this every game," Burke added, "but it just starts with defense. I think that started in the first half."

And that No. 1 ranking, which will likely be Michigan's after Duke's lopsided loss to Miami earlier in the week opened the door when the AP poll comes out Monday, doesn't mean much yet, Beilein was quick to remind.

"You compete for a Big Ten championship, then you go on you compete for a national championship," he said. "That's the number one you want down the line."

Illinois (15-6, 2-5) and first-year coach John Groce, whose team has been doomed by cold shooting since mid-December and shot 37.1 percent Sunday, could do little but marvel at the Wolverines.

"I give Michigan a lot of credit," Groce said. "You make one mistake and they exploit it like that."

Burke scored 19 to lead Michigan. Nick Stauskas scored 14 points and Glenn Robinson III and Tim Hardaway Jr. added 12 each.

Brandon Paul led Illinois with 15 points but had five of the Illini's 15 costly turnovers.

Beilein said he didn't yet know the severity of Morgan's sprained right ankle but said he couldn't have returned to the game even if baldy needed.

The Wolverines hardly missed him ? they seemed to have an answer for everything Illinois offered.

The Illini fought back to within seven points with just over nine minutes to play when a Richardson steal set up Joseph Bertrand for a soft jump shot that floated into the bucket.

The wave of noise that rose from the crowd trying to will the Illini back into the game didn't last long.

First, with 8:40 to play, Mitch McGary pulled down the rebound off a miss by Burke and dropped the ball into the bucket.

Then Burke scooped the ball up off a Paul turnover at the other end and, with a dunk, put the Wolverines back up by 11 at 59-48. With 8:21 to play and shooting just 37.1 percent on the night, Illinois couldn't find a way back.

Morgan appeared to roll his right ankle as he came down under the Wolverine basket, but Michigan lost little if anything inside without the 6-foot-8, 250-pound forward.

McGary, Bielfeldt ? a redshirt freshman with strong ties to Illinois ? and Horford picked up most of Morgan's minutes, and his slack.

McGary, a 6-10, 250-pound forward, hasn't started a game this season but averages 16 minutes a night anyway. Bielfeldt, though, plays less than six minutes a night, and was all nerves in his first minutes on the court. The 6-7, 245-pound forward badly missed his first free throw, at least a foot right of the basket, and the crowd, well aware that the athletic administration building on the Illinois campus bears his big-donor family's name, let him have it.

So did his teammates, Beilein said.

"It was not a great initial debut with the air ball. That's one of the first things we made fun of," the coach said. "All his teammates were on him in the locker room."

But with another chance at the line minutes later, Bielfeldt sank both shots, finishing with four points in six minutes.

Horford had seven points and five boards in 17 minutes while McGary had six points and eight rebounds.

"It gave three guys the opportunity to play that (don't) get as much as they like, Beilein said of Morgan's injury. "I'm really impressed with the big guys and how they stepped up there."

Illinois' big-man combination of Nanna Egwu, Sam McLaurin and Tyler Griffey wasn't much of a match for them. The Wolverines scored 42 points in the paint.

Groce said his big men weren't bad, just not as good they'd like to be, especially McLaurin, the 6-8 grad-student transfer he called his team's defensive Kevin Garnett

"I really have a high regard for Sam's intelligence and ability to execute our defense, and I think we'll look at the film and he wasn't on his Ps and Qs like normal," said Groce, who last faced Michigan as the coach at Ohio, leading the Bobcats to a second-round NCAA Tournament upset last spring.

Michigan took the lead for good with 15:21 to play in the first half when Burke hit a jump shot to go up 8-7. With a 9-0 run that ended only with a 3-pointer by Paul with 10:52 left in the half, the Wolverines were up 15-10.

___

Follow David Mercer on Twitter: www.twitter.com/davidmercerap

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-01-27-BKC-T25-Michigan-Illinois/id-be7e5ba627de464697e608139c36d106

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He hate me?

Getty Images

So you come home at the end of a long work day, put the keys on the counter, and check the answering machine.

After the reminder about your kid?s doctors appointment, and the neighbors asking you to clean up after your dog, imagine if this is the next message:

?Hi, this is Tom Brady calling, . . .?

If he could have followed it up with ?Can Gronk come out and play?? he might be otherwise occupied this week.

But according to Mike Reiss of ESPNBoston.com, the Patriots are using their star quarterback?s voice to send out a message of thanks to their season-ticket holders.

?On behalf of the entire Patriots organization, I want to thank you for the tremendous support you showed our team this past season,? the message continues. ?Your enthusiasm and passion in the stadium really motivated me and the team on game day. Thanks for being our 12th man on the field. As a season-ticket holder you help provide the foundation for our team?s success and we look forward to welcoming you back in 2013.?

It?s one thing to send a letter or a trinket, but the Patriots are giving their fans a chance to have Tom Brady in their voice mail.

If they really appreciated their fans, they?d get Bill Belichick to record the message next year.

?Thanks. . . . Bye.?

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/01/28/poll-61-percent-of-players-disapprove-of-goodells-performance/related/

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Social Security commissioner to leave in February

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Social Security Commissioner Michael J. Astrue says he will step down in February after completing his six-year term. Astrue's departure gives President Barack Obama the opportunity to name a new head to the federal government's largest program.

Astrue's term was marked by increasingly dire warnings about the long-term financial health of the massive retirement and disability program. Astrue also worked to reduce backlogs of people applying for disability claims.

The trustees who oversee Social Security project that the program's trust funds will run dry in 2033. At that point, Social Security will collect only enough in taxes to pay 75 percent of benefits. As commissioner, Astrue is also a trustee.

Astrue has urged Congress to shore up the program's finances but has not publicly endorsed any solutions.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-01-28-Social%20Security%20Commissioner/id-cf8a2827eb414cb499f5352a8b2b5010

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Obama On Football Head Injuries: The Sport 'Will Probably Change'

Count President Barack Obama among the football fans who believe the game may have to tone it down a notch.

In an interview with The New Republic, Obama opened up about the sport's dangers, suggesting that less action could mean more for both players and fans.

"Those of us who love the sport are going to have to wrestle with the fact that it will probably change gradually to try to reduce some of the violence," he said. "In some cases, that may make it a little bit less exciting, but it will be a whole lot better for the players, and those of us who are fans maybe won?t have to examine our consciences quite as much."

The president's comments come on the heels of a January lawsuit by former NFL player Junior Seau's family, charging that the violent contact he endured led to his brain disease. Seau, who died in May at age 43 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, was later diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

Obama also told The New Republic that his concerns are stronger for the NCAA than the NFL, as players lack a union or salary to protect against damage suffered in games.

"You read some of these stories about college players who undergo some of these same problems with concussions and so forth and then have nothing to fall back on," Obama said. "That?s something that I?d like to see the NCAA think about."

Among the more frightening college football incidents in recent memory was the Oct. 2010 game involving Rutgers football player Eric LeGrand. The defensive tackle fractured his C3/C4 vertebrae and damanged his spinal cord while attempting to make a head-first tackle against Army, resulting in paralysis below the shoulders.

LeGrand's college coach and current Tampa Bay Buccaneers Head Coach Greg Schiano delivered a symbolic 2012 NFL Draft gesture, signing his former player to a contract -- complete with a jersey and helmet.

"My goal is to walk. ... I don't know when it's going to happen, but I know down the road it is going to happen," LeGrand said last May.

For the full interview with Obama, head over to The New Republic.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/27/obama-football-head-injuries_n_2560176.html

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High school teacher accused of having sex with student

By Pat Battle, NBCNewYork.com

A New Jersey high school teacher has been arrested for allegedly having a sexual relationship with a student, authorities said.

Jennalin Garcia-Calle, a 28-year-old algebra teacher at Plainfield High School, was arrested Thursday in Davie, Fla., and charged with second-degree sexual assault and fourth-degree child abuse.

According to prosecutors, Garcia-Calle began the relationship with the 16-year-old boy in December. Prosecutors allege that at least three sexual encounters occurred in a classroom inside the school.

"The boy is not at a stage in his life where he's able to make that type of legal and quite frankly mature enough decision," said Union County Prosecutor Theodore Romankow.

Authorities became aware of the alleged relationship after the student told a family member what had happened. Students at the high school said the boy also bragged about the relationship to classmates.

"They both knew what they were doing, they both knew they were wrong," said senior Imani Campbell.

Prosecutors said Garcia-Calle realized her relationship with the boy had been discovered, prompting her to check into a rehabilitation center in Florida, as well as send the boy messages asking him to erase certain evidence. U.S. marshalls traced those messages and arrested Garcia-Calle.

For more visit NBCNewYork.com

She is being held without bond in Florida, awaiting extradition to New Jersey.

The Plainfield Board of Education has placed Garcia-Calle on an administrative suspension.

Information on an attorney for Garcia-Calle was not immediately available.

Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/26/16711719-nj-high-school-teacher-accused-of-having-sex-with-student?lite

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UN group OKs new video format to save bandwidth

GENEVA (AP) ? The U.N. telecommunications agency says its members have agreed upon a new compression format that could dramatically cut the amount of Internet bandwidth currently used by video files.

The International Telecommunication Union says the format, or codec, known as H.265 would require just half the amount of data needed by its predecessor, H.264.

The Geneva-based agency says videos encoded using the H.264 format ? which is favored by devices such as Apple's iPad ? currently account for two-fifths of web traffic.

ITU said in a statement late Friday the new H.265 codec could pave the way for "the next wave of innovation," such as faster movie downloads and higher-quality video streaming.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-01-26-UN-Video%20Compression/id-92db567a12da4b0fbdf9a9ad34fecb8c

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Weekly Ketchup: J.J. Abrams On Board For Star Wars

This week's Ketchup includes movie development news for directors like Paul Thomas Anderson and David Fincher, sequels for The Best Man and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and the latest about the seventh Star Wars movie.

---

This Week's Top Story

J.J. ABRAMS' CONQUEST OF EVERY MAJOR FRANCHISE TO CONTINUE WITH STAR WARS EPISODE VII

If you saw monsters like this or this or this, and thought "hey, the director and/or producer of that movie should do Star Wars", you are probably a) alone in that sentiment and b) very happy with this week's news. J.J. Abrams has won some sort of crazy creative lottery by scoring not just the first two Star Trek reboot movies, but now, the distinction of directing Star Wars Episode VII as well. J.J. Abrams had been one of the many directors mentioned in various reports in the last few months, but most thought his Star Trek obligations would preclude him from doing Star Wars as well (and indeed, Abrams himself shot down the notion). The reaction that many probably had to the initial news earlier this week was that they were waiting for confirmation, so, well, here it is. As secretive as J.J. Abrams' work has been with his two Star Trek movies, he's expected to be even more guarded about Star Wars Episode VII. Which may even be part of why he got the job.

Fresh Developments This Week

#1 JOAQUIN PHOENIX TO REUNITE WITH THE MASTER DIRECTOR FOR INHERENT VICE

Besides The Master, the project that director Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, Magnolia) has been working on for a few years now is an adaptation of the drug-soaked late 1960s detective novel Inherent Vice (written in 2009 by Thomas Pynchon). For a while, Robert Downey, Jr. was loosely attached (or was at least "interested"), but this week, we learned that instead, Joaquin Phoenix is now in talks to play the detective. Inherent Vice is now the film project most considered likely to be PTA's next, which will make it a back-to-back reunion with the star of The Master. In addition to directing, Paul Thomas Anderson also adapted the screenplay from Thomas Pynchon's novel. Oracle heiress Megan Ellison is financing Inherent Vice through her Annapurna Pictures production company, which also recently gave us Lawless, Killing Them Softly, Zero Dark Thirty, as well as The Master.

#2 WARNER BROS CONTINUES ITS GIANT OBSESSION WITH ROBOTECH

It's very easy to see a thorough line among Warner Bros' releases for the next few years, with "giant" as a common theme. It starts with Jack the Giant Slayer, and then continues with the giant monsters and robots of Pacific Rim, and the reboot in 2014 of that original giant monster, Godzilla. This week, the studio hired commercials director Nic Mathieu to potentially make his feature film debut on an adaptation of the classic Japanese anime series Robotech. If Robotech is eventually released as soon as 2015, this could effectively create a back and forth alternation between giant monsters in even years and giant robots in odd years (presuming... a lot, obviously). Robotech (in its various forms) is one of the most famous examples of "mech" science fiction, which basically refers to giant robots controlled by humans. And then they fight.

#3 DAVID FINCHER MAY FIND REESE WITHERSPOON'S GONE GIRL

What often happens with extremely successful directors like David Fincher is that they will have these huge lists of ambitious projects on their slates, but none of them are necessarily ready to go, for various reasons. And then, along comes a completely different movie which does have everything in position, and said famous director signs on, makes that movie his next film instead, and two years later, the world is still waiting for all those other movies we kept hearing about. That scenario may end up being what happens with David Fincher this year, as he is considering directing an adaptation of the Gillian Flynn novel Gone Girl (and not, say, directing Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea anytime this year). Gone Girl, which was adapted for the big screen by Flynn as well, is a recent bestseller about a man who is suspected of murdering his wife following her disappearance on their fifth wedding anniversary. Reese Witherspoon is producing Gone Girl, and may (or may not) also end up starring as the aforementioned missing wife.

#4 THE 60TH MOST POPULAR MOVIE OF 1999 GETS THAT SEQUEL NO ONE THOUGHT OF ASKING FOR: THE BEST MAN 2

Among the top 10 most successful movies of 1999 were several that ended up getting sequels, so natrually it's easier to list the films that didn't (including The Sixth Sense, Tarzan, Big Daddy, and Runaway Bride). You have to keep scrolling down that list for a while until you get to the #60 most popular movie of 1999, which was the African American-centric ensemble comedy The Best Man. And yet, according to an announcement made by Universal Pictures this week, that's the movie that will indeed be getting a sequel, which will be in theaters on November 15, 2013. The Best Man scored a 71% on the RT Tomatometer, and featured a cast that included Taye Diggs, Terrence Howard, Sanaa Lathan, and Harold Perrineau, Jr. Part of the big news here is that the entire cast is returning for the as-yet-untitled sequel in a Christmas-themed reunion story. It all sounds a bit like an African American version of The Big Chill (sans one of them being dead, unless that's what it would have been if one of them had chosen not to sign on for it...?).

#5 CHLOE MORETZ SAYS I WILL STAY TO IF I STAY

What superhero movies were to the mid-2000s, and remakes were to the late 2000s, so, it seems, that girl-friendly YA novel adaptations might be to the mid-early 2010s (to paraphrase Hedwig and the Angry Inch). There's a lot of them coming in 2013, and this story involves one that will probably get released in 2014, if filming does actually start this year. The YA novel in question is If I Stay by Gayle Forman, which tells the story of a 17-year-old girl who has an out-of-body experience following a car accident. A few years ago, If I Stay had both Dakota Fanning and Catherine Hardwicke attached as star and director, but as the movie gets closer to production, there's now a completely different pair attached. Now, it's Chloe Moretz who's attached to star, and R.J. Cutler of ABC's Nashville is in talks to make his narrative feature film debut. Consider this a borderline Fresh/Rotten idea which is basically Fresh based mostly on the RT Tomatometer scores for Chloe Moretz's past films (especially if you just focus on 2008 to 2011).

Rotten Ideas of the Week

#4 THE LATEST JUSTICE LEAGUE RUMOR TELLS US THE LINEUP WE PROBABLY COULD HAVE GUESSED

If you take out the Star Wars news, this was actually a pretty slow week. Rarely would we devote an entire 1/10 of this column to a rumor about which characters may or may not be appearing in Justice League. Perhaps that little tidbit alone could be why this is a borderline Rotten Idea of a story. Anyway, the rumor (which is what this is until it's confirmed) is that the core team of the first Justice League movie will consist of five superheroes, who would be pretty easy to guess just based on the idea of asking the random fan who are the five most famous DC Comics superheroes. The answer would be Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and the Flash, which are the five heroes in question. Indeed, if you add Aquaman and Martian Manhunter to those five, you get the "Big Seven" lineup that Grant Morrison famously used when he rebooted JLA back in 1997. Aquaman and Martian Manhunter are also the two characters named as being strong contenders to have cameo appearances in Justice League, along with Hawkman. So, basically, Justice League is starting to look like a "sausage fest," which is a little sad considering how many great female members the JLA has had over the years (Black Canary, Hawkgirl, Zatanna, Oracle, Huntress, etc). That's the other half of why this is a (borderline) Rotten Idea... way too many superheroic Y chromosomes.

#3 SONY PICTURES THROWS THE GENRE KITCHEN SINK AT US AND CALLS IT... THE KITCHEN SINK

This movie could've actually ended up as a "Fresh Development" just on the title alone, until one actually thinks about the premise, and considers the likelihood that it probably won't be as clever as it probably thinks it will be. The Kitchen Sink is the name of a young-skewing genre movie from Sony Pictures which is about a human, a vampire, and a zombie who team up to fight off an alien invasion; it's basically a mashup. Mackenzie Davis, Nicholas Braun, and Josh Fadem are in talks for the lead roles, and you'll probably find the IMDb useful in figuring out if you actually know who those people are. This writer just thinks about movies for a living all week, and yeah... I've got nothing.

#2 DWAYNE JOHNSON MAY RETURN TO FAMILY MOVIES WITH TEDDY BEAR

It's great now in 2013 that Dwayne Johnson is back to doing more action movies that are his more obvious strong suit, but it wasn't that long ago (like 12 months ago!) that Johnson was mostly just starring in kids movies. Well, that era may be revisited soon enough, as he has come aboard as producer (and possibly star) on a New Line Cinema family fantasy project tentatively called Teddy Bear. The start of the movie came from a drawing called "Sweet Halloween Dreams" by Alex Panagopoulos which showed a teddy bear standing near a sleeping child, fending off a big monster. And from that, we get the potential impetus for an entire 90+ minute movie, complete with characters, and dialogue, and more than one scene. Ah, Hollywood.

#1 CROUCHING FREDDY, HIDDEN JASON

Considering how great Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was (especially within the context of when it was released), one would think that the long-talked-about sequel couldn't possibly be considered a "Rotten Idea." Well, that's until the hypothetical "one" hears that the director of the sequel will be Ronny Yu (Freddy Vs Jason, Bride of Chucky, Formula 51), and not, say, Ang Lee. Anyway, the sequel will be an adaptation of the fourth book in the Crane-Iron Pentalogy by Wang Du Lu known in English as Silver Vase, Iron Knight. The Weinstein Company will be distributing Silver Vase, Iron Knight in the USA (and producing the production in Asia when it starts filming this coming May). Silver Vase, Iron Knight continues the story of the character of Yu Shu Lien, played in the first film by Michelle Yeoh, although it is not yet known if she will be returning for the sequel.

For more Weekly Ketchup columns by Greg Dean Schmitz, check out the WK archive, and you can contact GDS via Facebook.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1926730/news/1926730/

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Erratic employee veering toward violence? - Business Management ...

Sometimes, it becomes clear to a supervisor that an employee is acting strangely. The employee may be cranky, argumentative and unpleasant to co-workers and supervisors. He may register repeated complaints about discrimination or other ill treatment. And he may make threatening comments.

If that happens, play it smart. Require the employee to undergo a fitness-for-duty medical examination based on those perceived threats.

One of three things could happen. He could submit to the examination and be declared fit for duty. Or he may be deemed unfit, opening up the possibility that he will request medical leave or perhaps some form of accommodation.

But it is also possible that he won?t cooperate at all. That?s grounds for termination?as long as that is how you normally treat all employees who refuse to take a fitness exam.

Recent case: Alvin, who is black, worked as a transportation planner for Cumberland County. He filed an 80-page internal complaint alleging that he had been denied opportunities on account of his race and that he had been assigned menial tasks like fetching coffee while co-workers got choice planning assignments. He filed the same complaint with the EEOC.

Before the EEOC resolved the matter, Alvin sent another much shorter letter to his supervisor. The letter demanded immediate action on Alvin?s complaints lest a ?tidal wave? wash over the employer. Alvin added that he would ?deal? with the matter himself. The supervisor became concerned that Alvin was growing so frustrated that he might erupt in an incident of workplace violence.

The county then asked Alvin to undergo a fitness-for-duty examination; otherwise, he faced termination. He initially agreed but then abruptly canceled the scheduled exam. His supervisor warned him that he would be fired if he didn?t comply immediately. Alvin ignored the request and refused to return phone calls. That?s when the county fired him.

Alvin sued, alleging retaliation for his complaints. He argued that his second letter wasn?t threatening.

The court said that didn?t ?matter. As long as the county honestly believed his second letter was threatening, it was free to order the examination and fire him for refusing to cooperate. (Bess v. County of Cum??ber??land, No. 5:10-CV-453, ED NC, 2012)

Final note: Alvin didn?t fare any better with his underlying discrimination claims. He had alleged that he was cut out of important planning activities. However, the county said that wasn?t entirely true. Instead, it explained that Alvin?s work often had to be rewritten by co-workers and was generally not the best produced by the staff, even if he did receive satisfactory performance reviews.

The county also argued that even if Alvin?s allegations were true, that wasn?t enough to support a discrimination lawsuit. Alvin never lost pay or benefits during the period when he was allegedly pushed aside.

The court concluded that temporarily losing out on projects or being told to perform tasks deemed be??neath an employee?s position isn?t usually an adverse employment action. That?s especially true when the employee wasn?t otherwise dis?advantaged by the assignments he didn?t get. Those are merely the un??fortunate sorts of things all employees sometimes ?experience.

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92% Skyfall

All Critics (283) | Top Critics (46) | Fresh (260) | Rotten (23)

It's been a long time since I enjoyed a Bond movie so much.

'Quantum of Solace,' was a dour, dire letdown. This picture's a substantial bounce back, and easily the best Craig Bond picture. Emotional depth and all.

Sam Mendes' 'Skyfall': sleek, slithery, sensual

The cool accomplishment of Skyfall, 23rd in the Broccoli franchise, is that it seems a necessary, rather than mandatory, addition to the year's popular culture.

Among the most ambitious imaginings of Bond to date: dark, supple, and punctuated with moments of unanticipated visual brilliance.

Mendes' approach to action is classical and elegant - no manic editing and blurry unintelligible images here - but what makes the movie special is the attention he pays his actors.

The film serves as a trip back to the beginning of the 50-year-old cinematic legend and the promise of a golden future with Craig in the role of 007.

What propels this grisly chapter is the characters' keen sense of agency.

Skyfall epitomizes what a Bond movie should be, and its director, for once, justifiably deserves much of the credit.

Skyfall isn't quite a throwback to the absurd thrills of the 007 films of old, but it does inject some fun back into the franchise.

As the saying goes, you've got to shake 22 Bond films, before the 23rd is stirred to perfection. Without a doubt, this is the best James Bond movie.

James Bond looks broken and weary, an embodiment of a traditional model of international spydom, the one premised on national borders, white-Western-wealthy entitlements, and excessive consumptions of alcohol, cars, and women.

I have no compulsion whatsoever in declaring Skyfall, in terms of cinematography, the best looking Bond film ever ... Action movies simply don't look like this - but ... this is no ordinary action movie.

Sentimental touches underscore the fun and frivolity of Bond's past while relishing the brutal landscape of the modern day super-spy.

This makes the list of truly great 007 films alongside the list of Goldfinger, Thunderball, Live And Let Die, Licence To Kill, Goldeneye and Casino Royale.

Worlds collide in this near-brilliant, meticulously refined 21st-century redefinition of James Bond.

Sam Mendes has done a magnificent job, creating both a relevant and timeless entry into the Bond canon, while deftly adding homages to the series' past.

...tough and grim but still spry ... feels like something of a rearguard action in the case of the British Empire.

Sometimes the old ways are the best. This is a theme and repeated line running throughout the new James Bond film Skyfall and never has it been more true.

Skyfall does what all of the best franchise entries do: it makes you want to see the next one immediately. Consider me (physically) shaken and (emotionally) stirred.

Not the best Bond movie ever but a very good one; a little darker but still unsettled as to what type overall it wants to be.

Too often this martini is sloppy, not smooth.

This is one of the 50-year-old series' most exciting and commandingly compelling entries. Yes, James Bond is back to being James Bond.

Seen against the ineffectual backdrop of 2008's Quantum of Solace, this is a return to form but it doesn't exceed Craig's impressive debut as Bond in 2006's Casino Royale.

Skyfall is not, of course, ''darker'' or more serious than previous Bond films, but it's more knowing about its own conventions.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/skyfall/

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???????, ?????? ? ????? ????? ? Cloud Hosting an Ideal Answer ...

24 Jan 2013

Cloud Hosting was a most anticipated topic, before it made its debut in the webhosting world. Every webmaster impatiently waited till this services have established their magic in the web world. With each new day there are a lot of additions to cloud hosting that developed the traditional net hosting scenario forever.Cloud hosting machines are the real characters in hosting. This isn?t a single physical server designated to host the websites of a customer, instead it?s a number of servers tuned together to overcome the problems like, network imbalances, traffic excess, server crashes or any related activity that poses as a threat to the effectiveness of the websites published over any of the servers in the same cloud.With a Cloud Hosting server OS the customers get so much simplicity, to manage their websites. Attached, reliable and fully flexible website hosting companies are an absent with the Windows OS and you achieve better performance with your online enterprise with better security measures that are certainly a part of it.The best thing about cloud hosting could it be is more affordable and extremely effective. SMEs along with larger companies have the flexibility to apply Cloud solutions easily inside their organization, as there is number difficulty of creating infrastructure to aid the computers and be worried about the maintenance problems. Everything, starting from the computers to web hosting companies is maintained by the this hosting provider.These services are quickly used via a system related to net, from anywhere across the globe.Cloud Hosting is surely a blessing for a rookie who desires to make his business online but, does not have the funds to build it from damage. He can simply host his websites over an area that provides every thing in a nutshell inside a very affordable price.Cloud hosting servers are known to be the best in web hosting, not merely due to their charges, but in addition the flexibility they give to the websites located across them. When any of the servers within the cloud people down-time, crashes or inundated with traffic and have community concerns, the sites published across the servers never bear the brunt of it. Weight of a faulty host is handled within no minutes by the different servers put in the same cloud, without affecting the performance of the sites, as well as the programs running with them.Cloud hosting servers can be dedicated, shared or virtual private servers offering a whole lot of performance to the internet pros? organization sites, as per their need.This services are traded in the form of software, infrastructure or as an application to the worldwide clientele.

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Source: http://katalogas.link-bin.eu/cloud-hosting-an-ideal-answer-for-cost-effective-internet-hosting/

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India mulls raising taxes on the rich ? Chidambaram comments ...

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: India should consider the argument for higher taxes on the ?very rich?, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said in comments likely to fuel speculation about steps he may take in next month?s budget to boost tax flows and narrow a yawning fiscal gap.

In an offthe- record pre-budget meeting with Chidambaram and Finance Ministry officials on Jan. 7, some economists pressed for higher taxes on the rich to make sure they are paying their fair share, alarming business lobby groups that warn such a move would stifle growth.

The Indian finance minister?s comments come against the backdrop of a global debate, from the United States to France, about whether the very wealthy pay enough taxes. The growth rate of Asia?s third-largest economy is widely expected to slip to a decade-low in fiscal 2012/13 as the government grapples with ballooning budget and current account deficits and high inflation. Chidambaram wants to plug holes in the nation?s finances by cutting expenditure and increasing revenues through improved tax collection. ?I think we should have stability in tax rates but we should consider the argument that very rich should be asked to pay a little more on some occasions, but that is not the view I am expressing. That is simply the argument I have heard and I am repeating,? Chidambaram said in a TV interview aired yesterday.

Chidambaram offered no definition of the ?very rich?, but his comments are likely to please many in his centre-left Congress party who feel recent reforms to further liberalize the economy favor corporate India at the expense of the common man. The Congress party is facing a tough fight to hold on to power in a series of state elections this year and general elections due by May 2014. ?It is good electoral politics but economically doesn?t make sense,? said Venugopal Dhoot, who controls India?s diversified Videocon Group and ranks 38th in Forbes? India rich list with a net worth of $1.5 billion. It was not immediately clear if Chidambaram was referring to higher taxes on income, assets or capital gains in a regime that currently makes India a good place for the rich to live.

At present the top income tax rate is 30 percent, which applies to earnings above 1.0 million rupees ($18,500) a year. There are just 35 million taxpayers in a country of 1.2 billion people, and of them about 1.5 million declare annual earnings of more than 1.0 million rupees, according to the Finance Ministry. There is no inheritance tax, an issue Chidambaram raised as a concern after being appointed finance minister last August.

In 2009, his predecessor withdrew a 10 percent surcharge on the 30-percent rate paid on earnings above 1.0 million rupees. A government official with direct knowledge of the debate in the Finance Ministry said the focus is on plugging loopholes in the collection of income tax paid by individuals and companies. ?There are options of revisiting the inheritance tax and surcharge on income tax paid by the individuals,? the official said, declining to say if these were firm proposals on the table for the budget to be unveiled around the end of February. ?Even if they bring (back) the surcharge that will only add about 15-20 billion rupees, which is a drop in the ocean and will be lost in the decline of tax revenues that will arise due to lower compliance if tax rates are raised,? said Surjit Bhalla, chairman of advisory firm Oxus Investments.

India?s richest people tend to own businesses and other assets and thus have comparatively little exposure to salaries tax. Billionaire Mukesh Ambani, for example, was paid salary and perks of 150 million rupees ($2.8 million) in the last fiscal year by Reliance Industries, which he controls. According to Forbes, Ambani is worth $21 billion. Similarly, Azim Premji, founder of India?s No 3 software exporter, Wipro Ltd, and India?s third-richest person with a net worth of $1.2 billion, took home a salary and allowances of $84,696 in the last financial year, less than half of what the company?s chief financial officer was paid.

Premji said at a gathering of business leaders in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday that in principle he was not against higher taxes for the wealthy.? Reuters

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Source: http://news.kuwaittimes.net/2013/01/24/india-mulls-raising-taxes-on-the-rich-chidambaram-comments-ahead-of-budget/

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X and Z in favor as companies name new drugs

(Reuters) - They may be difficult to pronounce, but pharmaceutical companies eager to grab the attention of doctors and patients are returning to drug names starting with X and Z.

Recent X-branded names include prostate cancer treatment Xtandi, lung cancer drug Xalkori, and Xgeva for cancer that has spread to bone. The letter Z is also becoming popular for new drugs like Zaltrap for colon cancer, melanoma drug Zelboraf and prostate cancer treatment Zytiga.

"The X and Z trend was pretty hot and heavy eight or nine years ago - that's when we had names like Zoloft, Zyban and Zocor," said Vince Budd, senior vice president at brand consulting firm Addison Whitney's healthcare division, referring to popular drugs for depression and high cholesterol.

"It was seen as an opportunity to create something unique," said Budd. "I believe we have come full circle and we are back there again, especially in oncology."

Of the 15 drugs with "X" appellations approved by the Food and Drug Administration since 1995, seven were launched in the last two and half years.

Marketing and linguistics experts say the rarity of X and Z in most words make for memorable, unique names. They are also "fricative" letters that imply speed or fluidity.

"In terms of cognitive psychology ... they need a memorable, distinctive name that doesn't have negative associations," said Matthew Traxler, psychology and linguistics professor at the University of California, Davis. "They may be distinct in terms of sound, but also visually distinct."

ERROR-PROOFING REQUIREMENTS

There are more practical reasons for the names.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration as well as the European health regulator both have strict guidelines, not always overlapping, for what would be an acceptable name for a new medicine.

"You can't have a name look like or sound like another drug," said Scott Piergrossi, vice president, creative at Brand Institute Inc. "Someone could receive the wrong drug."

The concern extends to potential handwriting errors.

"Regulators want a lot of pen strokes up and down that provide a much more unique-looking name. It is more readable or interpretable if it has a lot of those letters," said Brannon Cashion, Addison Whitney's president.

Whether anyone can actually pronounce the name is of less concern.

"It's really about the novelty of the name," Piergrossi said. "Sometimes we get clients that can't pronounce names that start with X. Usually it creates a 'Z' sound."

Since patients rarely choose their drugs - at least those for serious diseases - drugmakers see the need to tailor names to a more narrow audience than general consumers.

"They are all going to be coined words," said Addison Whitney's Cashion. "Whoever creates the word basically defines how it is to be pronounced."

That is a much different strategy than you would see for a more consumer oriented drug product, such as Allergan Inc's eyelash-builder Latisse.

"Latisse is a more direct-to-consumer name. Patients will ask for it," Piergrossi said. "It is a coined form of Mattisse with "La" for lash. It is an image-driven, evocative name."

For a cancer drug, the main target audience is oncologists or medical professionals. "A pharma company may want to emphasize the drug's mechanism of action," Budd said.

Piergrossi said Xeljanz, a new Pfizer Inc drug for rheumatoid arthritis, is a great example of both innovative and practical naming forces at work.

"It includes both X and Z ... and the name is really key to the product profile," the Brand Institute executive said, explaining that the drug is designed to work by selectively blocking molecules known as Janus kinases. "For a doctor who is anticipating this product, when they see that JAN that might be the light bulb."

(Reporting By Deena Beasley in Los Angeles; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/x-z-favor-companies-name-drugs-120245578--finance.html

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S&P rises for seventh day but 1,500 too steep a climb

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The smallest of gains gave the Standard & Poor's 500 its seventh straight winning day on Thursday, but the index failed to hold above the 1,500 line, restrained by Apple's worst day in more than four years.

Apple Inc slid 12.4 percent to $450.50 a day after it posted revenue that missed Wall Street's forecast as iPhone sales were poorer than expected.

The sharp drop wiped out nearly $60 billion in Apple's market capitalization to less than $423 billion, leaving the company vulnerable to losing its status as the most valuable U.S. company to second-place ExxonMobil , at $416.5 billion.

The S&P 500, however, managed to hit its longest winning streak since October 2006.

"The market has sent the message it is no longer driven by the whims of Apple," said Ken Polcari, director of the NYSE floor division at O'Neil Securities in New York.

The S&P 500 briefly traded above 1,500 for the first time since December 12, 2007, but failed to hold above it, indicating that momentum is waning and a pullback is in the charts.

"If the market had a little bit more excitement to it, momentum players would have jumped after it broke through 1,500. Investors know the market is a little bit ahead of itself," Polcari said.

Economic data helped buoy equities as U.S. factory activity grew the most in nearly two years in January and new claims for jobless benefits dropped to a five-year low last week, giving surprisingly strong signals on the economy's pulse.

At the same time, Chinese manufacturing grew this month at the fastest pace in about two years, while data suggesting German growth picked up boosted hopes for a euro-zone recovery.

"PMI in Asia, Europe, and obviously, here in the United States, is moving in the right direction, and that's stuff people should be excited about," Polcari said.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> rose 46 points or 0.33 percent, to 13,825.33 at the close. The S&P 500 <.spx> inched up just 0.01 of a point, or 0 percent, to finish at 1,494.82. The Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> dropped 23.29 points or 0.74 percent, to end at 3,130.38, with most of that loss on Apple's slide.

The broader Russell 2000 index <.rut> also hit a milestone as it closed above 900 points for the first time.

Video streaming service Netflix Inc surprised Wall Street with a quarterly profit after it added nearly 4 million customers in the United States and abroad. Netflix shares surged 42.2 percent to $146.86, its biggest percentage jump ever.

Earnings have helped drive the stock market's recent rally. Thomson Reuters data through early Thursday showed that of the 133 S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings so far, 66.9 percent have exceeded expectations - above the 65 percent average over the past four quarters.

About 6.8 billion shares changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and NYSE MKT, below the daily average during January 2012 of about 6.93 billion shares.

Roughly five issues rose for every four that fell on both the NYSE and Nasdaq.

(Editing by Jan Paschal)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/p-rises-seventh-day-1-500-too-steep-003249283--sector.html

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Vanessa Lachey: How I Told Nick I Was Pregnant

"I wanted to feel his hug when he grabbed me with excitement. I wanted to take in the surroundings so that I would always remember the exact moment I told him he was going to be a father."

Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/XpnDMLs8PVs/

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Thai magazine editor gets 10 year sentence for royal insult | Asia ...

AP:

A prominent Thai activist and magazine editor was sentenced to a decade in prison Wednesday for defaming Thailand?s monarchy, a verdict rights groups condemned as the latest affront to freedom of expression in the Southeast Asian country.

Somyot Pruksakasemsuk was convicted of publishing two articles in an anti-establishment magazine that made negative references to the crown.

The verdict came despite repeated calls by rights groups to free Somyot, who has been jailed since 2011. It also underscored the harsh nature of Thailand?s lese majeste laws, which critics say have frequently been used by politicians to silence rivals.

The articles in question were published under a pseudonym in Somyot?s now-defunct Voice of Taksin magazine, which he launched in 2009 to compile political news and anti-establishment articles from writers and contributors.

Judges found both pieces contained content that defamed the royal family and argued that Somyot, as a veteran editor, knew that and chose to print them anyway. The court announced two five-year jail terms ? one for each story.

?(Somyot) should have better judgment than ordinary journalists. He must have understood that the articles contained lese majeste content, but chose to publish them anyway,? one of judges said in the sentence.

Somyot said he would appeal the verdict but would not seek a royal pardon [BP: Interesting he won't seek a pardon...].

?.

The European Union also weighed in on the verdict, saying it ?seriously undermines the right to freedom of expression and press freedom? and ?affects Thailand?s image as a free and democratic society.?

Human Rights Watch:

?The courts seem to have adopted the role of chief protector of the monarchy at the expense of free expression rights,? said?Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. ?The court?s ruling appears to be more about Somyot?s strong support for amending the?lese majeste?law than about any harm incurred by the monarchy.?

Somyot was first arrested during the street protests by the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) ?Red Shirts? against the government of then-prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. On April 26, 2010, the government?s Center for the Resolution of Emergency Situations (CRES) put Somyot and his magazine on a chart containing names of individuals and groups whom it accused of being ?anti-monarchy.? The CRES never offered any credible evidence to substantiate this allegation. On May 24, 2010, Somyot was arrested by the CRES, which detained him without charge for 19 days in an army camp under state of emergency rules then in effect. He was released on June 13, 2010. Somyot then changed the name of his magazine from?Voice of Taksin?to?Red Power. The Abhisit government forced the shutdown of?Red Power?in September 2010.

Police arrested Somyot again on April 30, 2011, and charged him under article 112 of Thailand?s penal code, which states that ?whoever defames, insults or threatens the King, the Queen, the Heir-apparent or the Regent, shall be punished with imprisonment of three to fifteen years.? The two articles for which Somyot was charged were written by Jit Pollachan, the pseudonym of Jakrapob Penkair, the exiled former spokesman of Thaksin. Jakrapob, now living in Cambodia, has never been charged with any crime for what he wrote.

Somyot was arrested five days after launching a campaign to collect 10,000?signatures?calling for the amendment of article 112. On May 29, 2012, the Camping Committee for the Amendment of Article 112 submitted a proposed amendment along with 30,383 signatures to the parliament. However, in November 2012, Parliament Speaker Somsak Kiatsuranond dismissed the proposed amendment, saying that the constitution prohibits any law reform related to the institution of the monarchy.

While Thailand?s Printing Act protects editors from being held accountable for the content of others, the Constitutional Court ruled on October 10, 2012, that the restrictions on freedom of expression and the criminal penalties for?lese majeste?offenses were constitutional, because breaches of?lese majeste?are considered threats to national security.

BP: There is a pattern of behavior of targeting Somyot?

Bloomberg:

?The articles accused the king of having power over all past governments and being behind most crackdowns against demonstrators,? Bangkok?s?Criminal Court?said in a statement. ?The information in those articles was incorrect. And as the editor of the publication, the defendant should take extreme caution in publishing.?

The editor, Somyot Pruksakasemsuk, is the third person convicted in the last month for insulting the royal family as calls grow within Thailand to change laws used to shield the monarchy from criticism. He was arrested in April 2011, five days after helping start a campaign to change the lese-majeste law.

Thomas Fuller in NYT:

Similar to a decision last week, where an anti-government protester was sentenced to two years in prison for insulting the king, the articles never mentioned the king?s name.

The first article is a jumbled tale about a family that plots to kill millions of people to maintain its power and quash democracy. The court ruled on Wednesday that the writer was describing the Chakri dynasty of Thailand?s current King, Bhumibol Adulyadej.

The second article is a fictional tale about a ghost who haunts Thailand and plots massacres. The court ruled that the author was comparing the ghost to King Bhumibol.

?There is no content identifying an individual,? the court said. ?But the writing conveyed connection to historical events.?

Reuters:

The articles criticized the role of a fictional character meant to represent the king, public prosecutors said in a July 2011 report. Discussions about the role of the monarchy are forbidden.

?The accused is a journalist who had a duty to check the facts in these articles before publishing them. He knew the content defamed the monarchy but allowed their publication anyway,? a judge said in passing sentence.
?

?The lese-majeste law works against the long-term interests of the Thai monarchy,? said David Streckfuss, a Thailand-based independent scholar and lese-majeste expert. ?To a society that is becoming ever more politically conscious, the holding and trying of defendants seems arbitrary, petty and a clear violation of human rights.?

WSJ:

Mr. Somyot has been refused bail 12 times and denies breaking any laws. His lawyer, Karom Polpornklang, said his client would again seek bail while he appeals Wednesday?s ruling. He was also sentenced to an additional year in prison on an unrelated defamation charge.

?.

Legal experts say lese majeste cases are highly charged-affairs in Thailand and few defendants are acquitted, largely because of the strong political overtones which frequently accompany prosecutions. Mr. Somyot?s arrest in 2011, for instance, came after a period of extreme turmoil in Thailand. The previous year, tens of thousands of ?red shirt? protesters besieged a large swath of central Bangkok in a bid to force the collapse of the then government and pave the way for the return of Mr. Thaksin, a populist leader whose election successes had challenged the power of this Southeast Asian nation?s traditional bureaucratic and military elites.

AFP:

Amnesty International, which considers Somyot to be a ?prisoner of conscience?, described the Bangkok Criminal Court ruling as ?a serious setback for freedom of expression in Thailand?.

?

At a press conference last year, Somyot?s wife Sukanya said the legislation was futile. ?You can physically put them in prison, but you cannot jail their thoughts,? she said.

Finally, VOA:

David Streckfuss is a Thailand-based academic and author who has written extensively on Lese Majeste.? He says most of the recent prosecutions are not surprising as they were initiated during the previous government of Abhisit Vejjajiva, a staunch monarchist.

?What is surprising is, as you say, the Pheu Thai government came in promising to at least to look into the law and to have academics and legal experts look at it.? Since that time, I think probably for what they perceive as their own political survival, they?ve retreated from doing anything with the law,? said Streckfuss.

Nonetheless, Streckfuss says, there do appear to be significantly fewer new cases of Lese Majeste, so Thailand could, in the future, see less prosecutions and convictions.

The Independent:

However, persistent fears that the army might try and stage another coup or that so-called Yellow Shirt opponents might take over the streets in mass protests, appears to have persuaded Ms Yingluck that reforming the law is not a priority for her. Last year, a government advisor told The Independent that they had decided to leave the issue alone.

?Unfortunately, the failure of this government to review the lese majeste law is entirely predictable,? said Duncan Duncan McCargo, an expert on South East Asian politics at Leeds University. ?Yingluck Shinawatra is performing a delicate balancing act to preserve the political deal which keeps her in office ? and doing so involves keeping the country?s conservative institutions, including the palace, the judiciary and the military onside.?

BP: Well, despite the fewer cases and last year being a relatively ?good? year in regards to the number of people receiving custodial sentences for lese majeste offences, this is the 3rd conviction in the last month (per Bloomberg). Lese majeste is back on the agenda for now (at least). This is a lese majeste conviction for an insult or defamatory statement and not a threat (contrast with Uncle SMS case).

There have been changing attitudes towards lese majeste over the past five years.?However, as seen with another delay to constitutional reform, the government is sidelining all issues that could lead to confrontation. The confrontation on lese majeste reform you ask? At the end of 2001, Panitan Wattanayagorn, former secretary-general to ex-premier Abhisit Vejjajiva,? stated ?The army chief [Prayuth Chan-ocha] has made things clear concerning lese majeste [that the army will fight to the end]?. Due to this fear of confrontation, as also noted by Streckfuss and McCargo above,?BP?sees little hope?of lese majeste reform for now ?(Thaksin has thrown the?reform ball?to the Privy Council).

However, as noted in March last year:

Fortunately, for the government, the NHRC later?said?they will need the rest of the year to review the issue so the government has some leeway. However, once the report comes out, BP is very skeptical there will be any reform although the pressure for reform would start building unless there is a major change in the enforcement of the law. BP doesn?t imagine street protests, but within a group of progressive voters (i.e Matichon readers), they will be upset. While we are talking about small numbers, they will matter during an election. They are unlikely to vote Democrat, but they may vote for someone else or not vote. This is a?problem for the future for?Puea Thai, but it will become a problem.

BP: So when will this NHRC report come out? (a Google search sheds no light). The government can?t sideline the lese majeste issue forever. We are still probably a few years away from where the ?do nothing? approach by the government on?lese majeste becomes a political problem (i.e. will cost it votes), but it will eventually become one. There are other things the government can do aside from amending lese majeste. As noted in May 2012:

Nevertheless, his death places the spotlight clearly on?lese majeste?law and what the government will do. The government can?t just release those convicted from jail tomorrow, but it can provide them with better treatment ? as of?last report?they hadn?t been moved to the new facility* ? and make more progress on limiting the number of prosecutions ? still no word on what the?committee?is doing. Economic concerns, particularly over the cost of living, is the most pressing issue facing the government, but can?t ignore other issues including?lese majeste.

BP: The committee seems have had some influence, as noted by Streckfuss on the drop in the number of prosecutions, but?what is the government doing to ensure better conditions for the lese majeste prisoners?

*Have searched and tried to find if the lese majeste prisoners have been moved to Laksi but can find nothing to suggest they?have been.

btw, if?time permits will also blog on Thai media stories on Somyot?s conviction?

*Made some slight changes to a few sentences within a few minutes of publishing to correct some errors and so sentences read more smoothly.

Source: http://asiancorrespondent.com/96063/thai-magazine-editor-get-10-year-sentence-for-royal-insult/

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