maryland nathalie: 2013

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Police: Chris Brown charged with assault in DC

FILE - In this Feb. 10, 2013 file photo, Chris Brown arrives at the 55th annual Grammy Awards, in Los Angeles. Brown was arrested early Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013 in Washington after a fight broke out near the W Hotel near the White House. District of Columbia Police spokesman Officer Paul Metcalf says 24-year-old Brown was arrested and charged with felony assault. Metcalf says 35-year-old Chris Hollosy also was arrested on felony assault charges after the incident. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - In a Friday, Aug. 30, 2013 file photo, Chris Brown performs on NBC's "Today" show in New York. R&B singer Chris Brown was arrested early Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013 in Washington after a fight broke out near the W Hotel near the White House. District of Columbia Police spokesman Officer Paul Metcalf says 24-year-old Brown was arrested and charged with felony assault. Metcalf says 35-year-old Chris Hollosy also was arrested on felony assault charges after the incident. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Chris Brown was charged with assault after a fight broke out early Sunday near a Washington hotel, the latest problem for the Grammy Award-winning R&B singer with a snarled legal history.

Brown and another man were charged with felony assault in the altercation that started just before 4:30 a.m., D.C. police spokesman Paul Metcalf said.

The man who was attacked received treatment for his injuries at a local hospital and was released Sunday. Police wouldn't elaborate on his injuries but said the felony charge was based in part on the extent of the injuries. The victim's name wasn't released.

Christopher Hollosy, 35, was also charged with felony assault, police said. Police wouldn't say how Brown and Hollosy may have known each other.

Brown and Hollosy were being held pending a court hearing Monday, Metcalf said.

Neither Brown's publicists nor his attorney Mark Geragos responded to messages left Sunday.

Brown was in Washington to perform Saturday night at an event billed as a "Homecoming Weekend" party at a downtown club. Howard University was celebrating its homecoming, though a university spokeswoman said the party was not sponsored by or affiliated with the school.

Brown remains on probation for assaulting his on-again, off-again girlfriend Rihanna just before the Grammy Awards in 2009. The photos of Rihanna's bruised face caused outrage among many fans.

Brown pleaded guilty to one count of felony assault and received five years' probation.

His probation was briefly revoked earlier this year after a traffic accident. A hit-and-run charge was dropped against him, but the judge gave him 1,000 more hours of community service when he reinstated his probation.

Brown, who lives in Los Angeles and is originally from Virginia, has been involved in other altercations since 2009. Police have said a 2012 brawl at a New York nightclub began when members of the rapper Drake's entourage confronted Brown on the dance floor. Neither was charged in the fight that turned into a bottle-throwing free-for-all.

Brown also tussled with singer Frank Ocean and others during an argument about a parking space outside of a recording studio in Los Angeles, according to witness accounts given to deputies at the time. Ocean said he suffered an injured finger, but no charges were filed.

Brown's arrest could affect his probation in the Rihanna assault case. Brown is due back in court Nov. 20 in Los Angeles to update a judge on his probation. Prosecutors could seek a revocation of his probation or ask a judge to impose additional penalties.

Steve Cron, a Los Angeles criminal defense attorney, said prosecutors and a judge may wait to see how the Washington case plays out before taking any action against Brown.

"Just the fact that some guy says 'he hit me' doesn't mean he's in violation" of his probation, Cron said.

The potential penalties would depend on the exact wording of Brown's sentence, he said.

___

Associated Press writers Chris Talbott in Nashville, Tenn.; Anthony McCartney in Los Angeles; and Oscar Gabriel in Washington contributed to this report.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-10-27-Chris%20Brown%20Arrest/id-ba960876d8384f6ea7f28329c80bac6c
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Lou Reed, Beloved Contrarian, Dies

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American rock singer-songwriter Lou Reed performs at the Hammersmith Odeon in London in 1975. He is playing a transparent, plexiglass guitar. Reed died Sunday at the age of 71.

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Reed and Nico perform with Velvet Underground in 1972.

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Reed, Mick Jagger and David Bowie share a joke at a party at Cafe Royal thrown by Bowie in 1973.

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Reed performs at the Regent Theater in Melbourne, Australia, in 2000.

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Maureen Tucker, Martha Morrison (wife of Sterling Morrison), John Cale and Lou Reed pose for photographers shortly after The Velvet Underground was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Jan. 17, 1995.

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Reed performs his album Berlin at the CCH Congress Center in Hamburg in 2008.

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Reed presents his photography exhibition at the Matadero cultural center in Madrid on Nov. 16, 2012.

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Reed attends an event for the photography book Transformer, by Mick Rock, in New York City on Oct. 3.

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One of rock's most beloved and contrarian figures has died. Lou Reed epitomized New York City's artistic underbelly in the 1970s, with his songs about hookers and junkies. He was 71.

Reed died Sunday morning on Long Island of complications from a liver transplant earlier this year, his literary agent, Andrew Wylie, said.

The famous iconoclast actually got his start as a staff songwriter pumping out pop tunes in a wannabe hit factory called Pickwick Records. Reed recalled his days as a frothy pop lyricist in a 1989 NPR interview.

"When I first started out I really liked the spontaneity of it, cause you know I've got a B.A. in English — not that that means I should be good at it, but it gives me some kind of background in it," he said. "I thought I was pretty fast."

Lou Reed was fast. In more ways than one. He went from hit factory to Andy Warhol's Factory, the epicenter of trashy, avant-garde experimentation in '60s New York. Warhol mentored Reed and his band, The Velvet Underground. He urged them to keep things gritty. The band's Welsh co-founder, John Cale, told NPR in 2000 that the band was never easy listening.

"We were not user-friendly at all," he says. "Anyone listening to a bass guitar and regular guitar coming out of the same amp — it couldn't have been a really great listening experience."

Beyond their sound, The Velvet Underground disturbed even hard-core scenesters with graphic songs about debauchery and doing drugs. In an interview on WHYY's Fresh Air, drummer Moe Tucker remembered performing the song "Heroin": "We got fired from the Cafe Bizarre," she said. "The woman came rushing up to us and said, 'If you play one more song like that you're fired.' "

They did, and they were, and the band's albums did not sell very well. Reed left and embarked on a spotty solo career that reflected his up and down life enthralled with New York's darker corners and the hustlers who hid there.

"Walk on the Wild Side" became Reed's only Top 40 hit, partly because a number of radio station programmers had no idea what it was really about. The album it came from, Transformer — co-produced by David Bowie — brought Reed critical acclaim and attention. Which Reed, in characteristic fashion, hated. That played out in interviews, including one in 1989 with NPR's Bob Edwards, who asked Reed about his choice of subjects.

"I mean, it might be harder to write about a chair," he said. "As a matter of fact, it would be harder to write about a chair. I mean, I could write a song about a chair: Who sat in this chair. Who built this chair. How long had this chair been here. You could do that."

And a few years later, while promoting his album The Raven, Reed vented to another NPR host, who wanted to know how other journalists had somehow mixed up Reed's original lyrics with the writings of Edgar Allan Poe.

"Well, if you're deaf, dumb and retarded, it's easy. I can't believe people interview me for this stuff and don't notice," he says. "I grade them and I put them on my website when they fail really badly, to warn other people, other musicians: 'Watch out for this interviewer.' It's like talking to a squirrel."

As ornery as Reed was with journalists, he was often supportive of other artists. He influenced REM, The Replacements and Talking Heads, and he collaborated with musicians ranging from Metallica to a young woman he met at a concert.

"I just said, 'Hey, hey Lou Reed. This is Emily Haines.' " Haines talked to NPR in 2012 about her band, Metric. She said Reed asked her if she would rather be in The Beatles or The Rolling Stones. She said The Velvet Underground. Then she asked if he would sing on her album. "I just asked him, and he said, 'Yes.' "

When Reed was not onstage or working with other artists, he was happiest in New York City, where he mellowed into a Lower Manhattan elder statesman, riding his bike, practicing tai chi and taking photos. He could get cranky about his own composition.

"I did not place that stupid bird there," he said in an interview he gave Weekend Edition in 2006, walking around his neighborhood with his camera. "The light comes and goes so quickly when it's perfect. You know that. There's a certain time in the morning, certain time around dusk, where the light is golden."

An ephemeral moment, like Warhol's Factory. Or a city sunset. "And I wanted to catch that," he said. Lou Reed caught it — on celluloid and vinyl.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2013/10/27/240819314/lou-reed-beloved-contrarian-has-died?ft=1&f=10001
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The White House Is Foundering

By Kathleen Parker, Washington Post - October 27, 2013

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Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2013/10/27/the_white_house_is_foundering_318672.html
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NYPD: Cousin admitted fatally stabbing mom, 4 kids

NEW YORK (AP) — A Chinese immigrant who neighbors said struggled to survive in America was arrested Sunday on five counts of murder in the stabbing deaths of his cousin's wife and her four children in their Brooklyn home — using a butcher knife.

The suspect, 25-year-old Mingdong Chen, implicated himself in the killings late Saturday in the Sunset Park neighborhood, police said.

"They were cut and butchered with a kitchen knife," said Chief of Department Philip Banks III.

Two girls, 9-year-old Linda Zhuo and 7-year-old Amy Zhuo, were pronounced dead at the scene, along with the youngest child, 1-year-old William Zhuo — all attacked in a back bedroom, police said. Their brother, 5-year-old Kevin Zhuo, and 37-year-old mother, Qiao Zhen Li, were taken to hospitals, where they were also pronounced dead.

Chen is a cousin of the children's father and had been staying at the home for the past week or so, Banks said.

Chen came to the United States from China in 2004, the chief said, but neighbors say he could never hold down a job.

"He made a very soft comment that since he came to this country, everybody seems to be doing better than him," the chief said. "We're not really sure what that means."

The chief said Chen still speaks only Mandarin Chinese despite being in the U.S. for almost a decade.

On Saturday night, Chen apparently had been acting in a "suspicious" way that concerned Li, Banks said. She tried to call her husband, who wasn't home, but couldn't reach him.

Banks said Li then called her mother-in-law in China, who also was unsuccessful in reaching her son. The mother-in-law reached out to her daughter in the same Brooklyn neighborhood, Banks said.

She and her husband came to the house and banged on the door. When it opened, they faced a grisly sight: a man they didn't know, covered with blood. The couple called 911, and officers investigating another matter nearby responded quickly, Banks said.

"It's a scene you'll never forget," he said. The victims had wounds in their necks and torsos.

Chen was in custody and not immediately available to comment; it was not clear whether he had a lawyer. Banks said he had at first resisted arrest and, while being processed, assaulted a police officer.

Bob Madden, who lives nearby, was out walking his dog Saturday night when he saw a man being escorted from the two-family brick house by police. He was barefoot, wearing jeans, and "he was staring, he was expressionless," Madden said.

Yuan Gao, a cousin of the mother, came by the house Sunday and stood on the street, along with the neighborhood's mostly Chinese residents.

Some said that at Chen's latest temporary home, days before the brutal killings, late-night arguments were loud enough to be heard outside.

Gao said Chen was emotionally unstable. "He's crazy," she said.

Gao also said Chen kept getting fired from various restaurant jobs after only a few weeks.

Fire department spokesman Jim Long said emergency workers responded just before 11 p.m. to a 911 call from a person stabbed at the residence in Sunset Park, a working-class neighborhood.

Neighbor May Chan told the Daily News it was "heartbreaking" to learn of the deaths of children she often saw running around and playing.

"They run around by my garage playing. They run up and down screaming," Chan said.

Other neighbors said they had heard loud arguments emanating from the home late on several nights before the murders.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nypd-cousin-admitted-fatally-stabbing-mom-4-kids-175319699.html
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Holocaust survivor makes symphony debut with Ma

BOSTON (AP) — A 90-year-old Holocaust survivor made his orchestral debut with renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma on Tuesday to benefit a foundation dedicated to preserving the work of artists and musicians killed by the Nazis.

Ma and George Horner received floral bouquets and a standing ovation from their audience of about 1,000 people in Boston's Symphony Hall. They appeared to enjoy their evening, chatting briefly between numbers and walking off the stage hand-in-hand after taking a bow together.

Before the performance, Ma and Horner met and embraced ahead of a brief rehearsal. Ma thanked Horner for helping the Terezin Music Foundation, named for the town of Terezin, site of an unusual Jewish ghetto in what was then German-occupied Czechoslovakia. Even amid death and hard labor, Nazi soldiers there allowed prisoners to stage performances.

They played music composed 70 years ago when Horner was incarcerated.

"It's an extraordinary link to the past," said concert organizer Mark Ludwig, who leads the foundation.

Horner played piano and accordion in the Terezin cabarets, including tunes written by fellow inmate Karel Svenk. On Tuesday, Horner played two of Svenk's works solo — a march and a lullaby — and then teamed up with Ma for a third piece called "How Come the Black Man Sits in the Back of the Bus?"

Svenk did not survive the genocide. But his musical legacy has, due in part to a chance meeting of Ludwig, a scholar of Terezin composers, and Horner, who never forgot the songs that were written and played in captivity.

Still, Ludwig found it hard to ask Horner to perform pieces laden with such difficult memories.

"To ask somebody who ... played this in the camps, that's asking a lot," said Ludwig.

Yet Horner, a retired doctor who lives near Philadelphia, readily agreed to what he described as a "noble" mission. It didn't hurt that he would be sharing the stage with Ma — even if he thought Ludwig was joking at first.

"I told him, 'Do you want me to swallow that one?'" Horner recalled with a laugh. "I couldn't believe it because it's a fantastic thing for me."

Ma said before the performance that he hoped it will inspire people to a better future.

"I grew up with the words, 'never again,'" said Ma, who was born 10 years after the end of World War II revealed the scope of the Holocaust. "It is kind of inconceivable that there are people who say the Holocaust didn't exist. George Horner is a living contradiction of what those people are saying."

He said Horner was able to survive "because he had music, because he had friends, because the power of music could fill in the empty spaces."

"To me George Horner is a huge hero, and is a huge inspiration," Ma said. "He is a witness to a window, and to a slice of history, that we never want to see again, and yet we keep seeing versions of that all over the world. I hope we are inspired by that and we keep that memory forever."

Horner was 21 when he was freed by Allied soldiers in 1945 after being imprisoned at Terezin, Auschwitz and Buchenwald. His parents and sister perished in the camps.

And though his back still bears the scars of a Nazi beating, he remains spry and seems much younger than his 90 years.

When Horner found out about the duet with Ma, Ludwig said, "He was so excited, to me he sounded like a teenager."

___

Associated Press writer Kathy Matheson contributed to this report from Newtown Square, Pa.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/holocaust-survivor-makes-symphony-debut-ma-002101100.html
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'Sockpuppets' Lurking On Wikipedia

People using online identities to deceive Wikipedia users, according to the Wikimedia Foundation. Several hundred user accounts have been suspended because of suspicions that these "sockpuppets" were using the site to promote clients and/or give misleading information. Host Rachel Martin talks to foundation executive director Sue Gardner.

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=241145305&ft=1&f=1019
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Inhabitat's Week in Green: Amazonian biosphere, 3D-printed coral reefs and an 11-acre portrait

Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green.

DNP Inhabitat's Week in Green Amazonian biosphere, 3Dprinted coral reefs and an 11acre portrait

Architects and designers are increasingly looking to nature for inspiration -- and the results are spectacular. Amazon just got the green light to bring an Amazonian rainforest to downtown Seattle -- and it will be contained within a sparkling set of biosphere greenhouses. Meanwhile scientists discovered particles of gold growing in Australian eucalyptus trees, and Reef Arabia used 3D printing technology to develop artificial reefs to restore coral ecosystems in the Persian Gulf. Artist Jorge Rodríguez Gerada turned a field in Belfast into an incredible 11-acre portrait that can be seen from space, and MIT students developed a thermoelectric bracelet that keeps your body warm or cool to reduce the need for air conditioning and heating.

Unfortunately, not all interactions between humans and the environment are positive -- and some are so infuriating they'll make you flip your lid. This week we learned that the world's most isolated tree in Nigeria was inexplicably knocked down by a drunk driver, and a Spanish winemaker announced plans to clear-cut a whopping 154 acres of California redwoods. In Utah, a group of Boy Scout leaders destroyed a 200-million-year-old rock formation by pushing it back and forth -- and then they posted a video of the act on Facebook.

Inhabitat also reported on the most exciting clean tech developments around the world. A team of NASA engineers developed a revolutionary new SolarVolt generator that uses lighthouse glass to capture the power of 20 suns, while Israel unveiled plans to build a massive 121-megawatt solar thermal plant in the Negev Desert. Not to be outshone, Ethiopia signed a $4 billion dollar check to build a 1,000-megawatt geothermal power plant, and German scientists found that simple straw could be used to power millions of homes. Smog from dirty energy sources paralyzed a Chinese city of 11 million people this week -- but air pollution woes could be a thing of the past if this smog-sucking electric vacuum cleaner gets built.

Space tourism is starting to take off -- but rocket-powered shuttles blast a whole lot of emissions into the atmosphere. World View has developed a gentler, low-impact way to lift travelers into space via soaring high-altitude helium balloons. In other green transportation news, this week California officially broke ground on the first high-speed railway in the United States, and UK-based company Pro-Teq unveiled a glow-in-the-dark paving material that can turn any road into a sparkling pathway of stars. Fuel cell vehicles were also a hot topic -- General Motors' hydrogen-powered Equinox logged a whopping 100,000 miles this week, while Hyundai unveiled the world's first aquaponics farm powered by a fuel cell car.

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/27/amazonian-biosphere-3d-printed-coral-reef-11-acre-portrait/?ncid=rss_truncated
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Samsung UN46F5500AF

These days, you can get a great HDTV at a great price if you don't need top-end features including 3D. (And who really needs 3D these days?) Samsung's F5500 series is proof of that. There's no 3D support, and the set is decidedly mid level, but it offers an impressive array of connected features and very good picture quality to boot. It doesn't quite beat the 55-inch Vizio M551D-A2R on bang for your buck, but the 46-inch $749.99 (direct) UN46F5500 we tested is an excellent deal.

Design
Looking plain and unassuming without seeming cheap, the F5500 has a flat black bezel with only a Samsung logo on the bottom bezel. The screen sits on a silver plastic four-legged base that lets it pivot left and right. A four-way joystick on the back near the lower-right corner controls the HDTV and lets you navigate the menu system. On the back, two USB and two HDMI ports can be found next to the antenna connection facing the right side of the screen. The remaining HDMI port, Ethernet port (if you don't want to use the HDTV's built-in Wi-Fi), component and composite inputs, and optical audio, mini-jack audio, and infrared blaster outputs face back.

The remote is a simple rectangular wand filled with rectangular buttons, a somewhat frustrating aspect of Samsung remotes without touch pads. The navigation buttons are shaped nearly the same as the surrounding menu buttons, so it's easy to hit Return or Exit when you're navigating menus without looking directly at the remote. The volume and channel rockers are easy to find under your thumb, as is the hexagonal Smart Hub button that brings up the media navigation menu.

Features
While the F5500's physical design is plain, Samsung put a lot of work into its software design and features. The set uses Samsung's Smart Hub menu, which divides content into live TV, movies and TV shows, social features, apps, and local media. The Live TV menu has its own channel guide, and can control your cable or satellite box with the included IR blaster. The Movie and TV show menu offers a selection of on-demand titles you can purchase from Samsung, but you might prefer the apps menu's selection of more standard services like Netflix, Hulu Plus, YouTube, and HBO Go. The Apps menu also features a full Web browser, but navigating the Web and entering text on a standard TV remote is very awkward. The social tab tracks your Facebook and Twitter activity, and the local media tab can load content on connected USB drives, networked DLNA media servers, and media stored through the Samsung Link cloud service.

These content tabs use Samsung's S Recommend feature to refine suggestions for what to watch, keeping track of your viewing habits and adjusting the movies, shows, and channels it displays first to reflect them. If you want it to work with your television, you'll have to set it up to control your cable or satellite box.

Besides the features in the Smart Hub tabs, you can also mirror your smartphone or tablet screen with Miracast, found in the F5500's Network settings menu as Wireless Display. Samsung heavily pushes its AllShare features for sending media from a Samsung smartphone or tablet to the HDTV, and it worked flawlessly in my tests. I had no problem streaming a movie from my Google Nexus 7 tablet. Screen mirroring is more tricky; the screen showed up as a wireless display to the Nexus 7, but it couldn't make a connection. Samsung devices might communicate a little more smoothly through Samsung's AllShare software, but you should be able to use any DLNA-enabled device.

Performance
We test HDTVs with a Klein K10-A colorimeter, SpectraCal's CalMAN 5 diagnostic software, and DisplayMate test patterns with a basic dark room calibration for brightness and contrast. The F5500 gets satisfyingly bright at 316.360 cd/m², but it doesn't get too dark with a black level of 0.084 cd/m². The contrast ratio is a solid 3,754:1, but the Editors' Choice Vizio M551D-A2R edges it out with a black level of 0.031 cd/m² and a contrast ratio of almost double at 7,145:1 even with the Vizio's dimmer (221.492 cd/m² peak brightness) screen.

As shown in the chart above, colors fare very well out of the box. With the color temperature presets at the warmest setting but no other changes made the F5500 showed nearly spot-on white, blue, and green colors. Red was slightly oversaturated, but not enough to visibly tint the picture. For the most accurate colors, use the Movie mode with color temperature set to Warm2.

I watched Piranha and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance on the set, and they both looked very good. The murky underwater scenes and bright surface scenes of Piranha were colorful and crisp, and the darker scenes showed deep blacks and strong detail. The rampant fire of Ghost Rider's powers were warm and bright in otherwise very dark scenes, highlighting the screen's strong contrast.

Under typical viewing conditions, the UN46F5500AF consumes 106 watts with all power saving features disabled. At the Low Eco mode setting, the screen darkens the picture noticeably, but keeps it watchable while consuming 66 watts. The Medium Eco setting borders on too dark and requires 47 watts, and the High Eco setting darkens the screen too much to watch.

The Samsung F5500 series of LED HDTVs offers a very good picture and an impressive array of smart services and features. It isn't the darkest panel, and it doesn't offer 3D, but for the price, you get a lot of screen. If you want a bigger picture and similarly strong performance, the Editors' Choice Vizio M551D-A2R offers a solid bump in size for a slightly higher price (compared with the 46-inch model we reviewed), and if you're willing to pay a bit more than that, the 55-inch Panasonic TC-L55ET60 offers excellent performance along with a 3D picture and a more stylish design.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/Frq5hUJXANM/0,2817,2425259,00.asp
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How Director Brett Ratner Evolved From Party Boy to $450 Million Warner Bros. Mogul

This story first appeared in the Nov. 1 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

The last night of filming on Hercules: The Thracian Wars in Budapest, with just a few hours to go on this chilly October evening before the movie wraps at 6 a.m. Even after eight months of seven-day weeks, during which he often has worked 16 or 17 hours straight, director Brett Ratner bubbles with enthusiasm as he sits hunched before three monitors in a cavelike set at the Origo Studios, where a body double for Dwayne Johnson is chained to a wall, from which he soon will break free.

An end-of-semester quality pervades the place. Several crewmembers pause to say their goodbyes, and Ratner himself will leave imminently for London. After that, he'll head home to Beverly Hills before moving on to Shanghai, where he'll take meetings with his RatPac Entertainment partner, billionaire James Packer ("We're gonna explore what we're gonna explore"). Later, the two will share a vacation at Packer's polo horse ranch in Argentina. "Feeling sentimental?" a producer yells out. "No way," says Ratner with a laugh.

PHOTOS: The Redemption of Brett Ratner: Photos of the 'Hercules' Helmer

Despite an easygoing manner, the 44-year-old director has his share of neuroses. His leg twitches a mile a minute, and his nails are bitten to the quick. He admits to being a "germophobe" ("I'm more of a hypochondriac -- I grew up in a house of doctors") and confesses to a fear of planes ("I'm scared of flying -- terrified"). Contrary to his party-boy reputation, he avoids so much as a hint of alcohol, let alone anything heavier, and says even in his school days, he was too focused on films to think of anything else: "I never tried a drink to this day. I've never had a sip of alcohol -- a sip of alcohol, ever. I've never had a drug. No interest."

In person, he appears more grounded than the larger-than-life frat boy many have encountered through the media, that permanent partier whose exaggerated portrait in an Entourage episode made even insiders believe he was just a glorified social butterfly.

PHOTOS: Brett Ratner Photographs Clients of L.A. Homeless Employment Nonprofit Chrysalis

He's warm, generous and surprisingly sweet, with a notable absence of malice -- and much more circumspect than the guy who quipped "rehearsal's for fags" during a Howard Stern interview (after which he apologized so profusely, he was given GLAAD's Ally Award) or the boorish fellow whose crude comments about performing oral sex on Lindsay Lohan contributed (along with the "fag" joke) to his forced resignation as Oscar producer in 2011, a move that made him a public pinata for months.

Sometimes it's hard to connect this rumpled, direct, self-proclaimed "fat guy" with the tabloid staple who has dated models and actresses and even tennis sensation Serena Williams. "People mistake the fact that I'm fun for somebody who's not serious," he says. "But I'm the opposite of what people think I am."

That became clear Sept. 30 when Hollywood let forth a collective gasp at the news that Ratner and Packer were two of the key players behind a $450 million slate deal with Warner Bros., a joint venture between RatPac and Dune Capital Partners that will cover 75 films, or nearly all of the storied studio's product over a four-year period. It's not just the first time in recent years that Warners has agreed to take a financial partner across its complete body of work; it's also the first time a director has been involved in any such undertaking.

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros. Closes $450 Million Financing Deal With Dune, Brett Ratner's RatPac

"Filmmakers have raised money for a movie before," notes Ratner, "but not for a slate of an entire studio's movies. And when the [profits start coming], this will pay for more than $1 billion of production."

How much actually ends up being invested will depend on the success of the individual films and the money that then is plowed back in through the RatPac-Dune Entertainment deal, but the slate's first release, Gravity, already has grossed $284 million worldwide (and counting).

"They're on board to finance the lion's share of our slate going forward," says Warners CEO Kevin Tsujihara, who had his first face-to-face meeting with Ratner and Packer regarding the deal Oct. 21 during a breakfast in the executive's Burbank offices. As for Ratner: "He is an innovative guy with a lot of experience in the film business. He has been around for a long time, he understands how films get put together, and while this is a passive deal, it's always great to have partners who understand our business."

STORY: Brett Ratner Donates $1 Million to Academy Museum

Ratner is a bundle of contradictions -- a "big kid" (in his words) who's involved in one of the most significant film-financing pacts in years; a refined student of movie history who chooses to make ultra-commercial popcorn pictures; a man who's dated some of the most beautiful women in the world and yet whose closest friends are "all over the age of 70."

Although his $100 million-plus MGM/Paramount feature Hercules seems unlikely ever to earn a best picture Oscar, Ratner also is the man who was tapped to rescue the Academy Awards until that went awry, a major regret for this passionate lover of all things film.

He hardly can contain his enthusiasm for cinema, and the giants who have stamped it, and seems thrilled to show this reporter an e-mail from Oliver Stone, in which Stone teasingly refers to Ratner's Budapest location shoot as his "Hungarian rhapsody." Days after we meet, he bombards me with pictures of himself alongside other "masters," from Amour's Michael Haneke to The French Connection's William Friedkin. He tells me three times, excitedly, that his production designer, Jean-Vincent Puzos, also worked on Amour.

He loves talking about his mentors, Hollywood legends Warren Beatty, Robert Towne and Robert Evans (he shows them early cuts of his films and even lived in Evans' house for two years). And he's equally intense about his collection of movie memorabilia, which includes 100-plus Polaroids that were taken during the 1970s as wardrobe continuity shots for the first two Godfather films, along with a pair of miniature silver boxing gloves that Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro presented their crew as wrap gifts on Raging Bull.

VIDEO: Brett Ratner Accepts GLAAD Award: 'I Learned a Valuable Lesson'

"You know what my dream movie-memorabilia is?" he asks. "The necklace from Rosemary's Baby."

Ratner has asked his friend Roman Polanski about that object, but "Roman doesn't have it," he sighs. Polanski is just one of his "besties"; the two hang out together in Paris, and Ratner will release Polanski's 1972 documentary about race-car driver Jackie Stewart, Weekend of a Champion, with a Nov. 7 premiere at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

His boundless joie de vivre spills over on other filmmakers he doesn't know so well (he produced an Emmy-nominated American Masters film on Woody Allen) as well as subjects that spark his considerable curiosity, from Erno Rubik, inventor of the eponymous Cube (about whom he's planning one of his many documentaries) to film books, several of which he has reprinted at considerable expense through his RatPac Press, including Lawrence Grobel's Conversations With Brando.

Such positivity is almost irresistible; it affects this reporter, the crew and the vast line of human beings linked in an endless chain that ultimately leads to Ratner. But it also runs the risk of making the director seem more bubbly than brilliant. Too many people use the word "boyish" to describe him; too few speak of his work. And that gnaws at him, risks chipping away at what he calls his "pathological happiness."

"At the end of the day, whether I finance a slate of Warner Bros. movies [or pursue anything else], I'm still a director," he insists.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thr/news/~3/oyNd_1Ru0SI/how-director-brett-ratner-evolved-650017
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WORLD SERIES WATCH: Cards take 1-0 lead after 4

BOSTON (AP) — A look at Game 2 of the World Series at Fenway Park on Thursday night as the St. Louis Cardinals take on the Boston Red Sox:

___

TURNING TWO: Big double play turned by the Cardinals to help Michael Wacha in the fourth inning.

Pedroia leads off with a Wall ball that clangs loudly off the Green Monster scoreboard. Matt Holliday played it fairly well — perhaps a good sign for St. Louis fans worried about how Holliday, a shaky defender at times, would adjust to left field in Fenway Park.

Pedroia slides easily into second with a double anyway, and David Ortiz walks. But then, Wacha gets Mike Napoli to ground into a 6-4-3 double play started by Daniel Descalso, starting at shortstop tonight instead of Pete Kozma, who made two errors in the opener.

Jonny Gomes pops out to end the inning. Cardinals lead 1-0 after four.

___

ON THE BOARD: Cardinals take a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning.

Holliday led off with a triple to the triangle in deep right-center. His drive hit the low wall by the bullpens and caromed away from center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury, one of those odd angles and bounces at Fenway Park.

Matt Adams lined out to a diving Dustin Pedroia at second base, but Yadier Molina knocks in the run with a chopper over the mound. Pedroia looks home before throwing to first, making sure to get an out. Not an easy play.

___

BASE HIT: Ellsbury's broken-bat single with two outs in the third inning is Boston's first hit off Wacha. Ellsbury gets stranded when Shane Victorino flies out.

___

FORGOTTEN MAN: John Lackey has been overshadowed throughout this postseason. He faced David Price in the division series and then Justin Verlander in the ALCS.

Beat 'em both.

Tonight, it's rookie sensation Michael Wacha opposing Lackey on the mound. After flirting with a couple of no-hitters and going 3-0 with a 0.43 ERA in three playoff starts, Wacha has been receiving all sorts of fanfare. He recently walked into a restaurant in St. Louis and found a milkshake named after him on the menu.

Wacha has earned all the attention — but don't sleep on Lackey. He relishes a big-game challenge and has plenty of October success himself to draw on. After all, Lackey was a rookie in 2002 when he won Game 7 of the World Series for the Angels against Barry Bonds and the San Francisco Giants.

Now, it's Wacha who is the rising young star and Lackey the crafty veteran who came back from Tommy John surgery this year.

One generation faces the next. Definitely one of the things that makes baseball — all sports, really — so much fun.

Game 2 is scoreless after 2½ innings. Both pitchers appear to be on top of their game. Could be a tight duel all night at quiet Fenway.

___

BELTRAN BACK: Star outfielder Carlos Beltran felt good enough to start for the Cardinals, a day after he bruised his ribs while banging into the short bullpen wall to take away a grand slam from David Ortiz.

Beltran was batting second and back in right field. He singled in his first at-bat in front of a diving Jonny Gomes in left field.

Beltran waited his whole career to play in the World Series. He then struck out in the first inning Wednesday night, got hurt in the second and left in the third. Not quite the debut he hoped for.

He's one of the best postseason players ever, and hoped to help the Cardinals bounce back from an embarrassing 8-1 loss in the opener.

___

LOOKING AT LESTER: A day after a reversed call by umpires created commotion, there was another ruckus before Game 2. This one involved the glove of Red Sox ace Jon Lester, and developed into a did-he-or-didn't he deal.

A Cardinals minor league pitcher named Tyler Melling posted a screen shot on Twitter that showed a green substance in Lester's mitt. Melling added: "Jon Lester using a little Vaseline inside the glove tonight?"

Shades of allegations against Detroit pitcher Kenny Rogers in the 2006 Series, right?

Anyhow, Lester insisted before Game 2 that he only uses rosin — that he got no extra help in pitching 7 2-3 shutout innings in the opener.

Major League Baseball looked into the matter and said it couldn't draw any conclusions from the video it studied.

"There were no complaints from the Cardinals and the umpires never detected anything indicating a foreign substance throughout the game," MLB said in a statement.

___

MO-MENT: Mariano Rivera was honored — again — at Fenway Park — again — with the Commissioner's Historic Achievement Award before Game 2 of the World Series.

Baseball's career saves leader wore a suit and had his family with him on the field. Big Papi stood nearby clapping, and Rivera acknowledged the cheering crowd at Fenway.

Red Sox fans have been lauded several times for the class they've shown this year in saluting Rivera, who retired after the regular season. And that's been warranted. Wonder, though, whether they would feel so warm and fuzzy about him if not for Boston's big comeback in the 2004 AL championship series against Rivera and the rival New York Yankees.

Rivera's signature entrance song, Metallica's "Enter Sandman," played at Fenway when he was saluted on the field. A few minutes later, five-time Grammy Award winner James Taylor performed the national anthem.

The pregame pomp also included former Boston stars Pedro Martinez, Jason Varitek and others throwing out first pitches. David Ortiz presented the balls, then caught one of the pitches.

___

LINEUP CHANGE: Cardinals shortstop Pete Kozma's two errors in Game 1 earned him a spot on the St. Louis bench. Manager Mike Matheny tweaked his lineup, pulling Kozma and putting Daniel Descalso in his place.

Kozma has made several nifty pickups in the postseason and has developed a reputation for getting key hits. He's also been on the wrong end of some kooky plays.

There's not much time to get things right in October. So while Kozma settles down, Descalso is in there, batting ninth.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/world-series-watch-cards-1-0-lead-4-013432367--spt.html
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Hailee Steinfeld: Sirius XM Cutie

Heading out for more promotional duties for her highly anticipated film "Ender's Game," Hailee Steinfeld stopped by Sirius XM studios in New York City on Wednesday (October 23).

The 16-year-old actress donned a leopard shirt with black leather pants as she enjoyed a cold beverage on the busy street.

Recently, Miss Steinfeld discussed how excited she was when she first heard about her role based on the bestseller by Orson Scott Card sci-fi flick.

"Reading the script, I thought, 'How much fun is this going to be to film?" Hailee stated. "When you go back through [the book], it has some really serious elements that really came into perspective when we were thrown into this boot camp. Thankfully, we were able to have some fun but it was intense."

Also discussing her co-star Harrison Ford, the "True Grit" star joked, "Lots of people will ask if I even known who Harrison Ford is. His work was definitely carried across my generation. Working with him was just the coolest experience."

In regards to her role as Petra, Miss Steinfeld said, "Somewhere in their story, every character I have played really comes through as a young woman, learns to stick up for themselves, creates their own voice and becomes comfortable in their own skin - I really love that."

Source: http://celebrity-gossip.net/hailee-steinfeld/hailee-steinfeld-sirius-xm-cutie-949094
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BBM for iPhone line ups over, fast access now for everyone

When BlackBerry Messenger for iPhone debuted there was a waiting list to gain access. That's always a good way to mitigate against massive server loads, but not a great way to satisfy everyone who wants on now, now, now. Well, looks like the waiting list is a thing of the past, and millions of downloads later, the gates are wide open for anyone and everyone who wants in.

If you haven't tried BBM for iPhone yet, now's your chance. If you have, let me know what you think.

Free - Download now

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/824dq8Lfmio/story01.htm
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No. 20 S Carolina rallies past No. 5 Mizzou in 2OT

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Hobbled by a sprained left knee, Connor Shaw asked Steve Spurrier if he could play Saturday night at Missouri.

The South Carolina coach obliged, calling on Shaw in the third quarter down with the Gamecocks down 17 and starter Dylan Thompson struggling.

Shaw threw for 201 yards and three touchdowns in relief, engineering three fourth-quarter drives and helping the Gamecocks score on their final five possessions to stun No. 5 Missouri 27-24 in two overtimes.

"Dylan played awfully well most of the time he's played," Spurrier said. "It was do or die. We had no chance in the division if we didn't win this one."

Elliott Fry's 40-yard field goal proved to be the game-winner after Missouri's Andrew Baggett clanked a 24-yard attempt off the left goal post.

"He's a competitor," coach Gary Pinkel said of his kicker. "You know, that's his job and it's his responsibility. Last week, he made five. . It's not one guy here. We all could have done something different to help win that football game."

Shaw extended the game in the first overtime with a 15-yard touchdown pass on fourth down in the Gamecocks' first overtime to match the Tigers' Marcus Murphy's 1-yard scamper.

Missouri (7-1, 3-1) could have all but locked up the SEC East with a victory, instead South Carolina (6-2, 4-2) moves to within one game of the Tigers for the division lead, with home games against Mississippi State and Florida remaining.

Shaw engineered fourth-quarter scoring drives of 65, 69 and 63 yards, and the Gamecocks knotted the score at 17 on a two-yard reception by Nick Jones with 42 seconds remaining. Ellington scored his first touchdown on a 6-yard catch with 12:13 remaining, and Elliott Fry added a 20-yard field goal with 5:03 left.

Thompson started his third career game for the Gamecocks, throwing for 222 yards. The Gamecocks outgained Missouri 498-404, but couldn't convert until Shaw entered.

Mike Davis caught three screen passes on South Carolina's final scoring drive in regulation, partly making up for two fumbles in the first half. The Gamecocks turned the ball over three consecutive times in the second quarter, helping Missouri take a 14-0 halftime lead.

Davis, who led the conference with 125.6 rushing yards per game entering the night, committed his first miscue at the Missouri 29-yard line with 12:30 remaining in the half, and his second halted a 71-yard drive at the Tigers' 2-yard line with 5:46 left. He finished the night with 51 rushing yards and 99 receiving yards while backup Shon Carson added 27 on the ground and 14 through the air.

Spurrier noted that despite the fumbles, Davis' key role down the stretch helped the Gamecocks come back.

"I didn't lose hope at all," Davis said. "Our guys, tonight we came together."

Davis' second fumble set the stage for a 96-yard touchdown pass from Maty Mauk to L'Damian Washington for Missouri. Two yards deep in his own end zone, Mauk found Washington streaking toward the middle of the field for an easy first down, and then the receiver eluded two tackles at his 45-yard line before being untouched the rest of the way. The pass was Missouri's longest since a 98-yarder from Pete Woods to Joe Stewart at Nebraska in 1976.

Mauk struggled out of the gate, throwing a pass dropped by defender Sharrod Golightly and then an interception to Kaiwan Lewis, a far cry from the 41-yard pass and 20-yard touchdown toss he threw in his opening attempts last week in a 36-17 win against Florida. But Mauk then completed three of his next four to set up Missouri's first touchdown, an 11-yard scamper by Murphy with 1:23 left in the first quarter.

Mauk finished with 249 yards and a touchdown in his second career start, while Murphy totaled 53 yards on the ground.

The Tigers added a 27-yard field goal by Baggett with 6:46 left in the third quarter before he missed a 46-yarder in the fourth quarter wide left.

"I told our football team," Pinkel said. "The loss will not define us. What will define this football team is how we deal with it. . It stings, you feel awful. You feel terrible, and that's OK. But we've got to get going. We have a real good football team."

The Tigers still control the SEC East race, but should South Carolina win its final two conference games, they'll have to win their remaining four games starting next week at home against Tennessee to clinch a trip to Atlanta Dec. 7.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/no-20-carolina-rallies-past-no-5-mizzou-040832366--spt.html
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Saturday, October 26, 2013

T-Mobile HTC One Android 4.3 update now live

HTC One

Big update for HTC One owners on T-Mobile US

Right on schedule, the Android 4.3 update for the HTC One on T-Mobile US has begun rolling out, bringing T-Mo's version of HTC's flagship up to the latest platform version. The update also brings some extra features to HTC's Sense 5 UI, including new video highlight themes, Instagram support in BlinkFeed and greater control over the way "home" and "menu" button functionality works.

If you're rocking an HTC One on T-Mobile, hit the comments and let us know how you're getting on. Next up is Verizon's HTC One, which launched with Android 4.2 and already has many of the new Sense features. That device is due to get Android 4.3 around the end of the month.

Source: Android Central forums

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/4XWSEWs5cvA/story01.htm
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Protesters march in Washington against NSA spying

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Protesters marched on Capitol Hill in Washington on Saturday to protest the U.S. government's online surveillance programs, whose vast scope was revealed this year by former spy agency contractor Edward Snowden.

People carried signs reading: "Stop Mass Spying," "Thank you, Edward Snowden" and "Unplug Big Brother" as they gathered at the foot of the Capitol to demonstrate against the online surveillance by the National Security Agency.

Estimates varied on the size of the march, with organizers saying more than 2,000 attended. U.S. Capitol Police said they do not typically provide estimates on the size of demonstrations.

The march attracted protesters from both ends of the political spectrum as liberal privacy advocates walked alongside members of the conservative Tea Party movement in opposition to what they say is unlawful government spying on Americans.

"I consider myself a conservative and no conservative wants their government collecting information on them and storing it and using it," said Michael Greene, one of the protesters.

"Over the past several months, we have learned so much about the abuses (of privacy) that are going on and the complete lack of oversight and the mass surveillance into every detail of our lives. And we need to tell Congress that they have to act," said another protester, Jennifer Wynne.

The event was organized by a coalition known as "Stop Watching Us" that consists of some 100 public advocacy groups and companies, including the American Civil Liberties Union, privacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation, Occupy Wall Street NYC and the Libertarian Party.

The groups have been urging Congress to reform the legal framework supporting the NSA's secretive online data gathering since Snowden's disclosure of classified information about the programs that are designed to gather intelligence about potential foreign threats.

The Obama administration and many lawmakers have defended the NSA programs as crucial in protecting U.S. national security and helping thwart past militant plots. They have also said the programs are carefully overseen by Congress and the courts.

Snowden's disclosures have raised concerns that NSA surveillance may span not just foreign, but domestic online and phone communication.

"We are calling on Congress to take immediate action to halt this surveillance and provide a full public accounting of the NSA's and the FBI's data collection programs," Stop Watching Us said in a letter addressed to members of Congress posted online, calling for a reform of the law known as the Patriot Act.

That law marked its 12th anniversary on Saturday. It was passed in 2001 to improve anti-terrorism efforts and is now under scrutiny by privacy advocates who say it allows "dragnet" data gathering.

"Our representatives in Congress tell us this is not surveillance. They're wrong," Snowden said in a statement before Saturday's rally. Wanted in the United States on espionage charges, he is now in temporary asylum in Russia.

His latest disclosures showed that the United States may have tapped the phone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, adding to the growing outrage against U.S. data-gathering practices abroad and prompting a phone call between Merkel and President Barack Obama.

(Reporting by Alina Selyukh and Greg Savoy; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hundreds-march-washington-against-nsa-spying-205426813.html
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UFC Fight Night 30 results: Norman Parke has too much cardio for Jon Tuck

Matt Hughes once said about unbeaten mixed martial artists "Show me a fighter with a zero in the loss column, and I'll show you someone who hasn't fought anyone yet."

Jon Tuck seemed to live out this saying Saturday at UFC Fight Night 30. The Arena MMA fighter from Guam took an unbeaten record into his fight against TUF: Smashes lightweight champion Norman Parke, but quickly found he was no match for the Northern Ireland fighter.

Parke (19-2) dropped Tuck (7-1) from the ranks of the unbeaten with a unanimous decision victory Saturday in Manchester, England. The judges' scores were 29-28, 29-28, and 30-27.

Tuck had his strongest round in the first, a back-and-forth standup affair. But Parke turned up the pace late in the round and also scored a late takedown.

Parke really turned it on in round two, letting his hands go and scoring punches in bunches. He punctuated the round by ducking superman punch and cracking him with an uppercut.

Tuck visibily faded in round three, at one point losing his mouthpiece and stopping to pick it up, though Parke didn't quite let him. Parke continued with the volume and speed and cruised to victory.

"That was the game plan, I wanted to push the pace and force him to make bad decisions," said Parke. "He was a tough guy, I give him credit."

Source: http://www.mmafighting.com/2013/10/26/5032124/ufc-fight-night-30-results-norman-parke-has-too-much-cardio-for-jon
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Meet The Coders Of The Disrupt Europe Hackathon

The Disrupt Europe Hackathon is underway, but just because you can’t make it out to Berlin for the festivities, it doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the experience.

That said, we’re bringing you as close as possible to the sights, sounds, and (unfortunate) smells of the 24-hour coding competition with this video. We’re seeing starts from near and far, experienced and brand new to the scene compete.

More than $5,000 is on the line, as hackers will present their products on stage tomorrow at noon to a panel of amazing, expert judges. Plus, our incredible API sponsors like Weather Underground and Yammer are giving away some amazing prizes for the best use of their API.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/vkNdrnVB3sM/
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Nokia Lumia 2520 tablet hands-on: Windows RT wrapped in polycarbonate

The not-so-secret project that Nokia has been working on for over the last year and a half (if not longer), the company's Windows 8.1 RT tablet, is now official as the Lumia 2520. We had the opportunity to spend a few minutes with the slate at Nokia World in Abu Dhabi, and we came away rather ...